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This Too Shall Pass

As I write, we have 31 days left until the general election—November 5, 2024. Fun ride so far, huh?

If you haven’t wanted to pay attention to the news, it manages to find its way to you anyway through advertising, social media, and word of mouth. I’m going to pull back from my typical habit of almost compulsively linking sources and just share what’s on my mind. If you’re more than ready to rip the Band-Aid off and see this upcoming election come and go, you’re not alone.

To be clear, I don’t blame people for not wanting to become outspoken on their political views. Depending upon your circumstances, this can cause a lot of problems. But if the reason you’re not speaking up is because you’re feeling intimidated by MAGA behaviors, keep in mind that a ton of what you’ve seen and heard is just bluster.

That flashy “Red, White and Blueprint” documentary pledged to take down three county supervisors and deliver 10 episodes of star-spangled confederate fantasies, but their production only lasted until Episode 8 (not counting a dirty-deleted episode) and only managed to recall one of the three supervisors they were targeting.

Even their 8/10ths of a docu-sneeze was heavily padded with filler scenes and rambling, so the self-proclaimed fiscal conservatives probably wasted a fair bit of money bringing you what could have been a Red, White, and Commercial Break instead. If you really want to have fun, ask any of the folks who forced Leonard Moty out of office what they think of his replacement, Tim Garman.

Local MAGA people have claimed to know where you live, that they know your dog’s name, that ropes are reusable, and have threatened and harassed their way through life for years now. In reality, even most of the loudmouths around here have real things holding them back from making good on any of their little threats: a mortgage, a family, a job, a desire not to hang out in a jail cell, etc. The ones who with nothing to lose are pretty easy to spot. You’ll quickly notice they can’t see that their sad lives are not actually the result of elections. They’re useful idiots. The MAGA folks engage in this psychotic nonsense because they still think they are the “silent majority.” Both terms are rather debatable at this point, and there is strength in numbers, so don’t fear them—stand up to them as a united front, if you can.

They insist that the 2020 election was “stolen” despite every court case that has investigated and found no evidence. Trump’s former administration is full of defectors who are now strongly opposed to him serving a second term. For a group of people so delusionally convinced of its ability to fix the country, the “concept of a plan” is starting to look like a compliment.

Just look at what Laura Hobbs has been doing in the wake of her failed run for District 2 Supervisor. She sued the same county she wanted to supervise along with the Supervisor Elect that beat her. She lost. She expensed her attorney costs in her campaign disclosures, so there’s a non-zero chance that if you donated to her campaign, she turned around and used that generous donation to try to waste more tax dollars. She’s appealing now because losing twice isn’t enough of a message. News flash: she recently lost her appeal.

Laura Hobbs. Photo by Mike Chapman for A News Cafe.

Laura Hobbs.

If you recognize her face from her “satanic license plate” meltdown incident at the Board of Supervisors, you will notice her hovering behind random public commenters as they read statements that sound nearly ignorant enough to have been written by her hand, parroting all her talking points. She’s also been involved in disseminating contact information where she specifically asks for your party preference while claiming she’s interested in making sure you’re registered to vote. I would recommend against trusting any of your information with people running around town acting like they belong inside a butterfly net.

The ”Moms for Liberty” crowd has been trying to push for more extremists to infiltrate the Shasta County Office of Education. If you still need a real-life motivation to care about politics, know that your child’s education is on the line. If you talk to or listen to their candidates for about five minutes you will know that education has left the building.

Tessa Roberts has a history of acting like a high school girl at the Board of Supervisors meetings and her campaign page is full of grammatical errors and disrespect for potential voters.

The person hoping to push Moms For Liberty agendas on your children has her mean girl face on between Mountain Top “Media” extremist Leslie Sawyer and perennial self-proclaimed victim of everything Kimberly Moore. Photo by Doni Chamberlain

Richard Gallardo is a quick Google search away from losing your vote if you value children whatsoever. He’s made spectacle after spectacle of himself over the past few years. Among stunning examples of demented behavior, he was featured in an episode about Fish and Game enforcement where you can watch him badly lie to the officer who dug matching pellets out of a squirrel and cited Gallardo.

Before I hear about it in the comments, it was the off-season for squirrel hunting, and one of the squirrels was just a baby. The fact that someone even found this video that first aired in 2021 speaks volumes to how much Gallardo has antagonized members of this community.

Is it time to citizen’s arrest people yet?

Michelle Tyson has been an extremist-MAGA groupie for a long time, and she tends to stay on the sidelines, but a quick look at her qualifications and typos will have you seriously questioning whether this is the right kind of person to be on an education board. She’s on the board of the local Moms for Liberty chapter.

Michelle Tyson.

Take a quick look into the absolute misfire that is Authur Gorman (he’s listed as the Moms for Liberty secretary) and ask yourself if you want more people like that—if the answer is no, vote against the Moms For Liberty mercenaries.

Authur Gorman speaks at an August 2021 Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting.

And then there’s the much-anticipated race for District 3 Supervisor. On the one hand, you have Mary Rickert, the incumbent with significant experience, a long history of public service and a successful hard-earned ranching business, and a clear desire to get back to business and serve her constituents.

District 3 Supervisor Mary Rickert.

On the other hand, you have Corkey Harmon, who is running against her because although she won the majority of votes, he squeaked by with enough to go on to a runoff race. At his debate with Ms. Rickert, it seemed the proverbial dog ate Mr. Harmon’s homework.

District 3 Supervisor candidate Corkey Harmon

He scrambled to assert that he would catch up quickly and learn on the job, but other than a failed prior political campaign, hosting an oh-so-reputable Red, White, and Blueprint event back in 2021, and sitting back while Kevin Crye and Patrick Jones make disgustingly contrived attacks against Ms. Rickert from the dais, Mr. Harmon doesn’t have much on the resume to suggest a strong tenure is in the offing.

Corkey Harmon at work.

In fact, Mr. Harmon may have to adjust a bit on the fly because some of his county contracts with his business might be unethical if he’s drawing on county tax dollars from a supervisor position—a detail he was still unable to articulate in a recent interview with Shasta Scout, even though he’s been in the race for like a year now.

One of these candidates is a public servant. The other deserves participation trophy and a complimentary supply of Narcan, just in case history repeats itself.

Just to make a few more things abundantly clear: there are no post-birth abortions. Your child is not getting gender reassignment surgery in a high school, and if the teachers aren’t outing your child to you, it might be because you’ve either had or are a hair away from having a mandated reporter file and a call to CPS. If you’re an understanding and involved parent who is not going to disown your child if they ask you about sex and gender issues, you’ll probably be the first to know, and if you’re not, maybe go look in the mirror before you’re out championing hate projects.

Also, there’s also no evidence that a Haitian person (from Haitia, if you ask the GOP VP nominee) has eaten anyone’s pet in Springfield, Ohio. That entire mishap came from one incident where “Miss Sassy” was just hanging out in a basement, and another incident where someone talked on social media first and asked actual questions second, only to find out she was mistaken because she listened to rumors and she now wishes she hadn’t said anything because of the wave of threats and hatred that started running through Springfield, OH immediately after Trump decided to parrot misinformation.

A few more fun facts: the earth is a spheroid, gravity is probably the reason we just don’t float off toward the mountains, birds are real, there is no Shasta/Mexico border, and you probably shouldn’t trust the people who believe in conspiracy theories and still wave around their QAnon flags in 2024. Those of you who think these things are so obvious that I maybe sounded a bit condescending (sorry!): you’re my people. If you’re rushing to argue about chemtrails or pizza plots or how 9/11 was an inside job, do us all a favor and put the “silent” in silent majority.

And for those of you who are feeling a bit disempowered, a key takeaway from Sasha Abramsky’s recently released book Chaos Comes Calling is this: the difference between Shasta County and Sequim County’s outcomes has been a strong commitment to organized rational resistance. There have been similar efforts in Shasta County, but they haven’t hit critical mass.

Whatever side of the aisle you’re on, you probably want the local government to keep tax spending down, for local initiatives to be efficient and effective, to attract and retain qualified employees at the county jobs, to strive to be fair and reward the ethical and hardworking, not the liars and self-servers. Think on that, and maybe tell your friends that you’re tired of hearing about board meetings that routinely spin out of control because a few malignant narcissists were gifted outlandish advertising budgets and managed to slither into power.

31 more days. We will survive. Remember to take care of yourselves and your loved ones, and remember to vote. Consider sanity on the ballot. Things are intense now, but this too shall pass. I have to hope that those of us who still possess reason and compassion will be okay.

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Silence Do Good

Silence DoGood is an anonymous guest writer who would like to help stop the insanity in Shasta County. Motivated by the strong desire to go back to doing the dishes instead of worrying about a potential civil war, DoGood seeks to bring humor, sarcasm, and insight to the sane folks who have resisted the very reasonable urge to move somewhere that isn’t currently determined to eat itself.

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