Comments@THE GUSS REPORT-However things turn out on Election Day we will soon calibrate life over the next four years with a President named Trump, Biden. . .or Harris.
In the meanwhile, here are some final thoughts on Los Angeles by-the-numbers on Election Eve.
ZERO
America will be a better place when celebrity opinions get the consideration they deserve, which is zero.
The latest grotesque example is white comedian Chelsea Handler taking it upon herself to publicly remind rapper 50 Cent that he is Black, which is something he undoubtedly discovered long ago. Handler asserted this authority after Mr. Cent decided he was fed up with taxes and “doesn’t want to become 20 Cent,” as it were, and supports the re-election of President Donald Trump.
Handler’s plantation mentality, which echoes Joe Biden telling radio host Charlamagne tha God’s audience “if you don’t vote for me, you ain’t black,” should be condemned, especially by the broadcasters which pay her bills with Madison Avenue money, a lot of which comes from Black and Brown people, who have heard ignorance like this their entire lives.
Mr. Cent’s choice to support Trump, Biden or a Martian for president is inherently his decision. Freedom of thought scares Hollywood especially when practiced by influential people of color like him, Kanye West, football great Herschel Walker, commentators Diamond and Silk, rapper Lil Wayne, actor Isaiah Washington, UFC champion Jorge Masvidal, MMA icon Tito Ortiz, New York Yankee Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera and others.
28,500
Incumbents rarely lose their race for re-election. Locally, two that stand out are Antonio Villaraigosa beating then-LA Mayor James Hahn and LA City Attorney Mike Feuer beating his predecessor Carmen Trutanich, all four of whom are (or were) awful representatives of the city.
The number 28,500 makes me think it might happen again on Tuesday in the LA City Council runoff race to represent District 4 between incumbent David Ryu and upstart challenger Nithya Raman. She has 28,500 Twitter followers versus just 7,745 for Ryu; pretty remarkable if those are mostly locals who vote in the District. But there’s another number at-play here, as well.
These candidates are in a runoff because Ryu won only a plurality of primary votes with 44.75% while Raman garnered 41.09%. Third place finisher Sarah Kate Levy got 14.17% and endorsed Raman. If Levy and Raman swing enough of her voters to the challenger, Ryu will join the rare club of City Hall insiders who blew it.
TWICE
For all of its proclamations about supporting women, the LA City Council has once again proven it is full of horseshit.
At a Council meeting at the beginning of the Trump administration, these buffoons issued one of their trademark “look at me” declarations in denouncing every member of the new presidential Cabinet, only to immediately throw their clown car in reverse when this column took a single minute to publicly remind them of the historic achievements of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, aka Mrs. Mitch McConnell.
Before returning to my perch, the local lawmakers scrambled to revise the Council’s ill-conceived declaration and remove Chao’s name from it. Fast-forward to last week when the Council’s current incarnation similarly attacked newly minted United States Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who has led an exemplary life marked by achievement and generosity, including mentoring a law student who became the first visually impaired SCOTUS clerk.
Its intolerance of accomplished women who carve their own path in life is just like Chelsea Handler’s intolerance of Black men who do the same. Perhaps Handler will run for City Council one day. . .
$1.5 million
A City Council committee last week threw the brakes on a $1.5 million contract that was going to raid the coffers of LA Animal Services, Mayor Eric Garcetti’s deadly animal pound system, so severely hit by the economic downturn that it is shutting down another one of its kill centers but wants to blow another bundle of cash from its corrupt Animal Welfare Trust Fund to – wait for it – build a new website!
Bad as that is, the story behind the story is even worse.
There is no legitimate case for rebuilding the website which, by the way, should cost only a few thousand dollars, not millions, to revitalize. And even if there was a legitimate reason, those funds should not come from a fund that misleads the public into thinking its donations and bequeathments go to heal, nourish, and comfort LA’s homeless animals.
And yet that’s still not the worst part of the story.
The vendor recommended by LA Animal Services to handle the job, The Glue, has zero experience in the biggest things it promises to deliver. Zero experience in fundraising, public relations, or humane affairs.
And this is the best vendor LAAS could find? Good grief!
In fact, The Glue has fewer employees (or years in business) than most people have fingers. It is unclear how many of them are full-timers or whether the company even has a legitimate business location. A tip of the cap goes to Councilmember Paul Koretz for at least temporarily slamming the brakes on this rip-off. But he gets it only for as long as he ensures that this money goes directly to bring comfort to the animals for whom it was intended.
Note: This columnist has an immense background in winning government proposals at the highest levels of corporate America. What the Garcetti appointees missed here are the steps that would have stopped this project at the outset and, if that failed, eliminated vendors with virtually no qualifications for the contract.
99 Cents
That’s the amount that the LA Times wants for a basic digital subscription for what is supposed to be fair, unbiased news. But ask yourself this. Why did it take until November 1 for its website to show the name Tony Bobulinski, the former business partner of Joe Biden’s troubled son, Hunter Biden?
Probably the same reason that the paper refuses to report on Trump’s four Nobel Peace Prize nominations, while for weeks the Times’ app promoted a story on Mexican luchadores or wrestlers.
It is one thing for the Times to opine on Trump, which it should and regularly does. That’s why it has Opinions and Editorials. But it’s another thing for the Times to prevent the public from seeing important news stories and let us decide for ourselves.
And finally. . .
1/25/21
Prison-bound former LA City Councilmember Mitch Englander has again asked the federal court to postpone his sentencing, this time to January 25, 2021.
The reason for the stipulation between Englander’s attorney Janet Levine and federal prosecutor Mack Jenkins is an alleged respiratory problem Englander has, but will not disclose. If it isn’t COVID perhaps it is a complication from Englander’s alleged chain-smoking. If it is an effort to find a way to reduce his prison sentence or serve it at home, it’ll never work in federal court.
Whatever Englander’s malady, it hasn’t prevented him from making a slew of curious business filings in recent months. Eventually, he will serve his time and have to pay the bills on his multi-million dollar spread blocks away from the ocean in Santa Monica.
Isn’t it great how a public servant can live so luxuriously on a humble public salary?
See you all on the other side of Election Day.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary and has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and the Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment sections and Sunday Magazine, among other publishers. Follow him on Twitter @TheGussReport. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Image by Henry Reich. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
