
Orange County scores and player stats for Saturday, Jan. 27
- January 27, 2024
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Scores and stats from Orange County games on Saturday, Jan. 27
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SATURDAY’S SCORES
BOYS BASKETBALL
NIKE EXTRAVAGANZA XXIX
Aliso Niguel 58, St. Margaret’s 54
St. M: Danz 15 pts, Cyr 14 pts, Frye 13 pts.
AN: Fujii 16 pts, Keys 14 pts.
Campbell Hall 57, Canyon 44
Can: Garcia 10 pts. Loreto 9 pts. Josh Goodall 8 pts.
CH: Bellamy 20 pts. Johnson 14 pts.
GIRLS WATER POLO
NEWPORT INVITATIONAL
Laguna Beach 16, Bishop’s 11
Oaks Christian 12, Carlsbad 9
IRVINE SOCAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Orange Lutheran 17, JSerra 5
Long Beach Wilson 14, Los Alamitos 6
Edison 9, Santa Margarita 8
JSerra 7, Schurr 4
CENTRAL ORANGE COUNTY TOURNAMENT
Woodbridge 12, Esperanza 6
Webb 13, Santa Ana Valley 6
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Both parties are lying to you. Democrats don’t really care about democracy, and the GOP doesn’t care about deficits.
- January 27, 2024
The government’s services keep getting worse.
Even their lies.
The Bushies told us we had to invade Afghanistan to catch Osama bin Laden and then to go into Iraq because Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. As the Pentagon knew, bin Laden was already in Pakistan; as Hans Blix and Scott Ritter told us, there was no evidence Saddam had proscribed weapons.
Sure, they were lies. But they were plausible lies. Theoretically, bin Laden might have snuck into Afghanistan. Saddam might have acquired WMDs. Those things could have been true.
Now they’re giving us implausible lies. Not only are their lies, well, lies — they say things that are untrue and can’t possibly be true and that no one, no matter how stupid or uninformed, could believe.
Democrats go on and on about how nothing is more important than defeating Trump. Democracy itself hangs in the balance! After Trump redux, the re-deluge. Like Hitler, but worse.
But they don’t really believe that. If liberals really actually thought Trump was going to suspend the Constitution and send his enemies — them — to camps, their sense of survival would have prompted them to select the most charismatic, brilliant, popular, vigorous, 2024 Democratic presidential nominee possible. Instead, they gave us Biden.
You can’t think Trump is dangerous and go with Biden-Harris. For Democrats, protecting their party’s corporatist status quo matters more than Trump’s purported threat to democracy. That’s the truth. We all know.
Republicans won’t shut up about out-of-control deficit spending and the $34 trillion national debt which, according to them, will tank the economy because, like a family that has to live within its means except for credit cards and student loans and car loans and home mortgages, the government can’t keep spending cash it doesn’t have even though it owns the U.S. Mint and has gotten away with it for, like, a century.
We know that the fake deficit hawks don’t actually believe what they are saying in real time, as they’re saying it, because while they’re threatening to shut down the government every few months, they keep throwing even more billions of dollars at the Defense Department than the DOD even asks for, so much that the military sucks up more than everything else the government does combined, and that’s not including the wars they put “off the books” and the proxy wars and the wars they charge to the State Department, not to mention debt service on old wars.
These diametrically opposed lines of rhetoric represent a dramatic shift away from old-fashioned political hypocrisy. If the military is your biggest expense by far and you keep raising it, and you claim to worry about spending, you are lying. No amount of cognitive dissonance can convince us otherwise. You know we know it’s crap, yet you keep right on going.
“Normal” communication by political elites has become prima facie impossible to take seriously.
We used to be able to accept the announcement by a defeated primary candidate that they would endorse their rival and tour for him because primary campaigns involved incremental ideological variations and hadn’t yet devolved to bloodsport.
No more. Even after Trump implied that Ted Cruz’s father assassinated John F. Kennedy and had his surrogates impugn Ron DeSantis as a eunuch and a fey cuck, he collected both men’s endorsements. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden red-baited Bernie Sanders as an existential threat to the Democratic Party yet were rewarded with his fealty. This, we are supposed to think, is adults being adults, and maybe this is so, but more than that it’s proof positive that nothing any primary candidate claims to stand for or against should ever be trusted.
Everywhere we look, politicians are deploying lies whose obviousness is evident out of the gate. Elites will never be believed, they know it, and they don’t care.
Israel’s war cabinet tells its traumatized citizens that Oct. 7 came as a surprise at the same time countless specific warnings and the Israel Defense Force’s eight-hour response time (!) prove that cannot possibly have been the case. As people shout “bring them home,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he’s trying to do just that. But that’s a lie, and it has to be a lie because you don’t bomb a place where hostages you care about are being held lest you kill them and anger their captors.
Families of the doomed hostages cannot believe him and do not believe him, yet they do not demand that the bombs stop falling or that those who drop them be removed from power.
Ukraine, they say, is a fellow democracy even though it has canceled all elections forever and its press is censored and opposition parties are banned, and as a democracy it must be defended by us, who are not really much of a democracy either as Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson and others who have been denied access to ballots can attest. The idea that this famously corrupt post-Soviet republic could have posed as a democracy was cute on its face, of course — shut up and fly your blue-and-yellow flag.
Taiwan, Biden says, is a country that must be defended from a Chinese invasion. At the same time, Biden also says, Taiwan is not a country at all nor should it become one; China is the One China and Taiwan is part of it, so China can no more invade Taiwan than the U.S. can invade Ohio, but still, we’ll defend Taiwan, but really we won’t. “Realists” call this “strategic ambiguity,” but really, it’s just one of those lies you see coming.
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Gender identity, woke elites insist, is not merely psychological but physically real as well: A transwoman is a woman, period. This cannot be true; a transwoman swimmer is not generically the same as her cisgender woman competitors, but they tell us that we should tell cisgender woman athletes to chill. It’s not an issue when clearly it’s an issue, but the authorities don’t want us to take their ridiculous word for it, just as it is with diversity, equity and inclusion and its clumsy flip-replacement of one form of systemic discrimination with another. They just want us to shut up.
The era of the “lie you know from the start” may be over soon.
Next up: Insane truths without the thinnest varnish of deception.
Though not a renowned rhetorician, our president surely deserves historical credit as the first American leader to say, at the start of a war, that we will lose. Days after the U.S. military began what it plans to be a prolonged bombing campaign against Yemen, an effort to stop the Houthis from attacking ships in the Red Sea, Biden announced that future strikes would not succeed. “Are they [U.S. airstrikes] stopping the Houthis? No,” Biden told reporters. “Will they continue? Yes.”
They’re not even trying anymore.
Ted Rall (Twitter: @tedrall), the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, co-hosts the left-vs-right DMZ America podcast with fellow cartoonist Scott Stantis. You can support Ted’s hard-hitting political cartoons and columns and see his work first by sponsoring his work on Patreon.
Orange County Register
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Get ready for fun with lovable Saint Bernard Paisley
- January 27, 2024
Breed: Saint Bernard
Age: 10 months
Sex: Spayed
Size: 95 pounds
Paisley’s story: Paisley came from a shelter bearing the characteristics that make people fall in love with Saint Bernards: She’s goofy, loving and full of fun. And she thinks she’s a lap dog! She adores everyone and everything she meets and could bowl you over with her enthusiast hugs. Some obedience training will be in order, as it is for all giant breeds. Paisley obviously knew love and care during her puppyhood, given how loving and affectionate she is.
Adoption cost: $495
Adoption procedure: Contact Great Pyrenees Association of Southern California Rescue Inc. at 909-887-8201 or [email protected]. Fill out an application on the group’s website.
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Embrace a joyful journey with Lab mix Lady Jane
- January 27, 2024
Breed: Labrador retriever mix
Age: 4 years
Sex: Spayed female
Lady Jane’s story: This resilient canine enchantress survived a high-kill Southern California shelter and has blossomed into a joyful, gentle creature who embraces every moment with infectious enthusiasm. Whether cuddling on the couch, going on an exciting car ride or strolling through the neighborhood, she’s on top of it, loving every minute. She is crate- and house-trained and meticulous about her potty habits. She learns quickly and has already picked up numerous cues. She promises to fill your days with warmth, love and serenity.
Adoption cost: $300, includes up-to-date vaccines and microchip
Adoption procedure: For more information or to submit and application, go to go to Labradors and Friends Dog Rescue’s website or email [email protected].
Orange County Register
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‘Always a Good Time’ theme chosen for 2024 OC Fair
- January 27, 2024
In just 172 days, the OC Fair will return with the hustle and bustle of crowds looking for their next thrill or deep fried treat.
This year’s theme was announced this week, “Always a Good Time,” picked to reflect the yearly return of family-friendly fun, the fair’s organizers said.
The OC Fair will return July 19, and so will its competitions, exhibits and shopping. It will run through Aug. 18 at the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.
“The annual OC Fair is ‘always a good time’ and this year will be no exception,” Nick Kovacevich, chair of the OC Fair Board Chair, said in a statement. “Our staff is hard at work planning to once again welcome back the community for 23 days of fun and entertainment.”
Admission tickets will go on sale online next month. For the fourth year in a row, the fair will use a limited-capacity model, a system first introduced after the pandemic.
Tickets have to be purchased online and days are expected to sell out.
The 2023 OC Fair drew in more than 1 million people, with 12 days selling out.
Admission prices will remain the same as last year. General admission on weekdays will cost $13 and will be $15 for Fridays through Sundays. Tickets are $9 everyday for seniors ages 60 and older and kids ages 6 through 13. Once again, online admission ticket transaction fees will be waved, organizers said.
The OC Fair Every Day Passports returned last year and will be offered again for $60, allowing guests to visit the fair any day without restrictions.
Fair hours will be 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays; 11 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays. Parking will cost $15.
Tickets are already on sale for the first shows announced for the Pacific Amphitheatre and The Hangar. ABBA LA and Bee Gees Gold will perform on July 20, Chris Young and Conner Smith will be in the Pacific Amphitheatre July 19 and Los Tucanes de Tijuana and Voz de Mando will be on stage July 14. More performances are to be announced.
Tickets to performances in Pacific Amphitheatre, The Hangar and the Action Sports Arena during the OC Fair also include same-day fair admission.
Those looking to sign up for competitions, vending or community entertainment can find out how to participate at ocfair.com/oc-fair/be-a-part-of-the-fair. More information about performances and ticket sales can be found at ocfair.com.
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Orange County restaurants shut down by health inspectors (Jan. 18-25)
- January 27, 2024
Restaurants and other food vendors ordered to close and allowed to reopen by Orange County health inspectors from Jan. 18 to Jan. 25.
Board & Brew, 979 Avenida Pico, Unit C, San Clemente
Closed: Jan. 24
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: Jan. 24
Bangkok Thai Cuisine, 26612 Towne Centre Drive, Suite H, Foothill Ranch
Closed: Jan. 24
Reason: Sewage overflow
Khoi Restaurant, 13916 Brookhurst St., Suite D, Garden Grove
Closed: Jan. 24
Reason: Rodent infestation and insufficient hot water
BBQ Chicken, 2750 Alton Parkway, Suite 111, Irvine
Closed: Jan. 24
Reason: Cockroach infestation
Reopened: Jan. 25
Cafe Hermosa, 979 Avenida Pico, Unit D, San Clemente
Closed: Jan. 23
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: Jan. 24
Cafe De Thuong, 14044 Magnolia St., Suite 123, Westminster
Closed: Jan. 23
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: Jan. 24
Diamond Seafood Palace 3 Restaurant, 6731 Westminster Blvd., Suite 122, Westminster
Closed: Jan. 23
Reason: Sewage overflow
Reopened: Jan. 24
Panera Bread, 2415 E. Chapman Ave., Fullerton
Closed: Jan. 22
Reason: None provided
Subway, 371 E. Whittier Blvd., La Habra
Closed: Jan. 19
Reason: Insufficient hot water
Reopened: Jan. 22
La Jaiva, 1724 N. Tustin St., Orange
Closed: Jan. 18
Reason: Cockroach infestation and sewage overflow
Reopened: Jan. 19
Updates since last week’s list:
Tiptop Sandwiches at 14094 Brookhurst St., Garden Grove, which was ordered closed Jan. 16 because of a rodent infestation and a sewage overflow, was allowed to reopen Jan. 23.
Cantina Del Sur at Casa California in Knotts Berry Farm, 8039 Beach Blvd., Buena Park, which was ordered closed Jan. 16 for an unspecified reason, was allowed to reopen Jan. 19.
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After 27 years, Salt Creek Grille in Dana Point to close its doors
This list is published weekly with closures since the previous week’s list. Status updates are published in the following week’s list. Source: OC Health Care Agency database.
Orange County Register
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What you should know about winter citrus fruit in Southern California
- January 27, 2024
One of the greatest blessings of California living is winter’s crop of citrus fruit. Just when vitamin C is most needed, we have a ready supply of it on hand. Now is the time that navel oranges and their varieties — Robertson and Cara Cara prominent among them — begin to ripen and will do so over the next four months.
Indeed, residents of Southern California reach the conclusion, sooner or later, that the most desirable fruit trees to grow are citrus – oranges, mandarins (tangerines), grapefruits, lemons, limes and kumquats. This is not to say that apricots, plums, nectarines, figs and apples won’t produce. In fact, certain varieties of these trees may yield so much fruit all at once that you end up giving most of it away.
But this is part of the problem with deciduous fruit trees; the fruit ripens during a period of a few weeks. With evergreen fruit trees – citrus, avocado and guava – harvesting takes place over a period of several months. Where citrus harvest is concerned, there is a bonus to being lazy: the longer the fruit stays on the tree, the sweeter it gets.
If you had one Valencia orange tree (for spring-fall eating) and one navel orange tree (for winter-early spring consumption) in your backyard, you would have fresh oranges to eat practically every day of the year. There are also varieties of lemon (Eureka and Lisbon) and lime (Bearss) that produce year-round. Finally, certain kumquats and their hybrids fruit nonstop and are used for ornamental purposes either individually or in hedges. Kumquats are the hardiest of all citrus.
Once a citrus tree is established, it should not require much maintenance. Many homeowners with 20- or 30-year-old Valencias proudly testify to their complete neglect of these trees. Yet there they stand – botanical marvels of greenest green foliage and orangest orange fruit. They have lived through a multitude of California droughts and earthquakes, implacable as the original Valencias that once grew upon the rugged Spanish plain. The oldest orange tree in California today is a Valencia in Valley Center (north San Diego County), planted in 1869. It still produces a respectable crop, while the oldest navel orange, also still producing, is located in Riverside and was planted in 1873.
Pruning of citrus is only necessary for removal of dead or diseased wood or to keep the tree in bounds. Lemons require the most pruning, primarily of vertical growing water sprouts that show great vigor but no fruit production. Lemons and limes are more sensitive to cold than other citrus. Now that the coldest part of winter is gone, you will want to apply fertilizer. It will soak into the ground with our seasonal rainfall, which is typically most abundant in February.
Citrus in containers may defoliate during the winter. When this happens, replace the soil in the container, prune, and fertilize lightly. As the weather warms, foliage will return. Containerized plants may require fertilization several times during the year; an occasional liquid feeding with fish emulsion or seaweed, combined with application of slow-release Osmocote granules should keep your potted citrus happy.
A common complaint concerns homegrown grapefruit that lacks sweetness. If you try to grow the red-fleshed grapefruits – such as Ruby – that are produced commercially in Arizona and Texas, you will be disappointed. The grapefruit variety most suited to our area is Oro Blanco, which you can also grow as a hedge.
An excellent choice for a small ornamental tree with year-round interest is the kumquat or one of its relatives. The kumquat is to the orange what the crab apple is to the apple – a small, tart version of the larger fruit. The limequat – a cross between a kumquat and a lime – has the taste of a lime and the cold tolerance of a kumquat. It is laden with soft-skinned yellow fruit during the winter. The calamondin – a cross between a kumquat and a mandarin – is also cold hardy, and when mature, is adorned with hundreds of fruit at all times. Any of these kumquats can be used as a 4- to 6-foot evergreen hedge.
Most of our citrus tree species trace their origin to China from where they migrated to the Middle East and, eventually, to Europe. The oldest European citrus trees — citrons or sweet lemons — on record were planted in Pompeii, as evidenced by seeds found there, buried in the hardened lava that quickly inundated the city after the volcanic eruption from Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
When I first moved to Los Angeles, I thought there must be a neighbor who didn’t like me. Each morning, I would find large orange peels in my backyard. “Someone is eating oranges and throwing the peels over the fence,” I thought.
After several weeks of peel collecting, I discovered the source of this nefarious littering. Orange peels were indeed falling out of the sky, but not through human agency. Running along telephone wires above my yard were squirrels — whose deterrence has been the subject of a recent column. These squirrels often carried oranges and, stopping to suck out the sweet pulp, let the peels fall where they may.
John Lingle, who gardens in Long Beach, has found a solution to squirrels that run along block walls, from where they leap onto adjacent fruit trees. He utilizes plastic spikes that are advertised for deterrence of birds, raccoons, and cats as well. Lingle affixed the spikes to his block wall with double-sided Gorilla tape. To protect strawberries and blueberries from squirrel predations, he covers the plants in green chicken wire, a material from which he also makes tall circular barriers around his fruit trees.
Janice Liebee, from La Palma, recommends a product called Repels-All, which she found at a home improvement center. “It’s safe for animals,” she writes. “It causes a mild irritation to their nasal passages and they don’t come back. I use it in my front yard and it works great for raccoons” — so I imagine it would be effective with squirrels, too.
Gary Dailey, in Riverside County, has learned to keep rabbits out of his vegetable garden by growing crops that rabbits won’t eat, including zucchini, watermelon, and potatoes. “Rabbits will eat the leaves of sweet potatoes,” he adds, “but usually the plants grow faster than rabbits can eat them so it’s not a problem.”
Due to citrus greening disease and the citrus quarantine established throughout large areas of Southern California, there are a limited number of nurseries selling citrus trees at the present time. I learned from Lingle that Armstrong Nursery in Long Beach is one such nursery. If you know of other nurseries that currently sell citrus trees, please advise. If you do purchase a citrus tree and live in a quarantined area, you should not take fruit you grow outside your property, consume it solely at home, and dispose of any fruit you don’t eat in the trash.
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California native of the week: If you are looking for a living fence that, once established, does not need water, is cold hardy to 17 degrees, and has seeds that provide a precious cosmetic, consider jojoba. Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) develops into a large shrub or small tree, up to eight feet tall and eight feet wide, or even larger, and lives for a century or two. A California native xerophyte found in the Sonoran Desert, jojoba (hoh-HOH-bah) can thrive in sand and is being used around the world as a crop for marginal land and as a species that can halt desertification.
This unique plant produces fruits that contain one to three seeds from which jojoba oil, which makes up around 50% of the seeds’ weight, is extracted. Jojoba is dioecious, meaning there are male and female plants and that you will need at least one of each to produce a crop. In the manner of dioecious plants generally — from pistachio trees to date palms — jojoba is wind-pollinated. Although jojoba can survive on little to zero irrigation, it is best to soak it once a week during hot weather during its first few years in the ground. This is done to establish a strong root system so that it can reach its maximum growth rate of around 12 inches per year. Evergreen jojoba has attractive, waxy gray-green foliage and demands a full sun exposure and fast-draining soil.
Please send questions or comments to [email protected].
Orange County Register
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Susan Shelley: The seen and the unseen of California’s Senate debate
- January 27, 2024
If there was a Museum of Horrifying Political Mistakes, California’s top-two primary would have its own wing. Possibly its own building.
The top-two primary was created by an initiative, Proposition 14, approved by voters in 2010. The idea was to eliminate political party primaries, have all the candidates on the same primary ballot, allow voters to choose any candidate from any party regardless of their own party registration, and send the top two vote-getters to the November ballot.
So that’s what we’ve got, except for presidential races, which are still party primaries.
The oddities of the top-two primary were on display in last Monday’s debate between four of the 29 candidates who are seeking the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Three of the candidates who stepped onto the debate stage at USC are Democratic members of Congress, all of them abandoning their House seats to run for a six-year term in the Senate. At the end of this election cycle, if not sooner, at least two of them will be looking for work.
The fourth candidate on the stage was Southern California baseball legend Steve Garvey, the 10-time All-Star first baseman who famously played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres.
He may not be popular with Giants fans, but San Francisco would never vote for a Republican anyway.
Yes, Garvey says he’s a Republican, though he seems a little unsure about it. When debate moderator Elex Michaelson asked him, “Is there anything that you disagree with your party on in the Senate?” Garvey answered, “Just about everything.”
“Just about everything?” Michaelson asked.
“No,” Garvey said.
Artfully done. That answer deserves its own display case in the top-two primary wing of the museum.
You see, there are not nearly enough registered Republican voters in the state of California to elect a Republican to a statewide office. Therefore, a Republican candidate has to win some support from non-Republican voters. Garvey rushed to distance himself from the Republican party and then backed off quickly as if he was only joking, before Republican voters had time to be insulted. Speed is everything.
Now let’s move on to the next exhibit. In this display case, we see the three Democratic candidates for Senate sniping at each other like jealous middle-school students while being careful not to lay a glove on Garvey. He’s barely grazed by a few gentle zingers, nothing like the knockout punch to the face that professional fighters in this weight class can deliver.
What’s that about?
That’s about Steve Garvey’s endorsement.
Even though there are not enough registered Republican voters in California to elect a candidate to statewide office, there’s a pretty reliable 35% who would vote for a pickled herring if it had an R next to its name. A majority of California voters would vote for a pickled herring with a D next to its name, but what happens if they have to choose between two Democrats who finish first and second in the primary? The endorsement of the third- and fourth-place finishers might determine which fish becomes the next U.S. senator from California.
“You were a hell of a ballplayer,” front-running Democrat Adam Schiff told Garvey during the debate, the first truthful thing he has said in eight years. We may need another display case.
If not for the museum-quality, horrifying political mistake of the top-two primary, we would still have party primaries for Senate, Congress, state Senate and Assembly. Democrats would run against Democrats and Republicans would run against Republicans. One candidate would emerge from each party primary and move on to November along with any candidates nominated by other political parties.
Instead, we have a nauseating level of Machiavellian intrigue. A candidate, or allies of the candidate, can buy advertising to promote the candidacy of a very weak rival in the hope of knocking a stronger one out of the top two. Then as soon as the primary is over, the advertising stops. Voters who fell for it are left wondering why their sinking candidate isn’t running any TV ads during the general election campaign.
The next exhibit in the museum shows media polls during their transformation into self-fulfilling prophecies. Please stand back, stay behind the ropes. If you’re within the margin of error, no one knows what might happen.
With 29 candidates in the U.S. Senate race, it’s obviously necessary for editors, reporters and debate organizers to make decisions about which candidates will get coverage, air time and invitations. Then publicity drives up poll numbers.
“The following candidates have received the most media attention,” wrote Ballotpedia’s election analysts, citing CalMatters and the Los Angeles Times, “Barbara Lee, Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Steve Garvey.” Those are the four that were invited to Monday’s debate, after a poll.
Missing the cut and not happy about it were Republican Eric Early and self-described “Independent Democrat” Christina Pascucci.
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Barbara Lee is right. It’s time to normalize relations with Cuba and lift the embargo.
“If I were on the debate stage, I would not have stood by as Schiff lied about Russian collusion and how packing the Supreme Court will protect democracy, as Katie Porter blathered the same canards about not being controlled by big money, as Barbara Lee bragged about policies which have turned her home of Oakland into a war zone, and as the Joe Biden Republican Steve Garvey, well, Steve Garvey will let you know,” Early wrote in an op-ed published in these pages.
He’s right.
“That was so frustrating to watch,” Pascucci said in a statement, “You have the three Democratic establishment candidates who are pointing the finger at Washington — they ARE Washington.”
She’s right, too.
The top-two primary richly deserves its place of honor in the Museum of Horrifying Political Mistakes.
Be sure to visit the gift shop on your way out. They’re having a sale on Iraq War merchandise.
Write [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @Susan_Shelley
Orange County Register
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