As we sleep, we dream of the long-awaited (and redacted) Anaheim Corruption Report, which assistant city attorney Pelletier said at the last meeting (if we heard her right) should be released “at the end of the month” – which is next week!
And then when we wake up, we – or I should say *I* – notice that, at 7:30 in the morning, there are already hundreds of new hits on a story of mine from two years ago, “Jordan Brandman’s Vicious Texts!”
Turns out, the former Councilman REACHED OUT on his own – NOT to me of course! – to Adam Elmahrek who now writes for the Times and used to be the star writer for the Voice of OC, where he was always stonewalled by Jordan along with all his cabal/kleptocrat allies. Jordan told Adam his reaching out was part of some Jewish “ritual of atonement” and so he proceeded to “rip his own tits off” in front of Adam, to use his and his mom’s expression.
Is it a coincidence that Jordan does this a week before the report’s release – during the 4th week of Advent so to speak? Well, here in the “cheap seats” we often just have to make educated guesses.
These two articles (which you can read HERE and HERE without paywall hassle) really fill in a lot of the sad story of this disturbed young man, which we’ll try to make chronological sense of down below, but first THERE ARE A FEW BURNING QUESTIONS the two articles leave us asking:
The BIA’s Man on Council
In the first story we learn that while Jordan was on Council from 2018 to 2020, he was making $27k for Council, $30k as an OC Water District member (where he mainly shilled for Poseidon), and a whopping $118K consulting for the Building Industry Association. Maybe this much is legal (though I don’t like having a representative who makes the vast majority of his money from a special interest who will always have business in front of Council, do you?)
But… do you ever remember him RECUSING himself on ANYTHING? I sure don’t.
This is a good place for me to correct something I got wrong in my “Vicious Texts” story – I had tried watching the meeting the night before he wrote such angry words about his colleague Denise Barnes, and I guessed wrong what had set him off. Turns out it was a building project in the Hills – on Serrano, FAR from Jordan’s district – lobbied for by Jeff Flint. John Saunders (mostly famed for rent-gouging at Senior Mobile Home Parks) wanted to tear down a popular shopping center and build “affordable housing.”
Sidhu and Trevor O’Neil, representing the Hills, got “hall passes” to vote against it so as not to piss off their neighbors. But the cabal figured they’d at least have Jose Moreno and Denise voting yes, as “OF COURSE they’ll support ‘affordable housing,’ they’re Democrats DUH.” But those two Democrats looked at the project and beheld that it was shitty. Denise was actually the deciding vote dooming that project. And in the morning the BIA Councilman wanted to “rip off her tits.”
APD Cover-up of Brandman’s Terrorist Threat
What we learn in the second story is that, a month or two before his troubling texts, Jordan “had flown into a rage about city employees, telling another aide while yelling and sobbing that ‘he wanted to walk into City Hall and ‘blow people’s heads off’ because they were not complying with his directives.’” This, rightly, was very concerning to City Manager Vanderpool, who immediately contacted APD Chief Jorge Cisneros, who apparently took his time but eventually did some sort of welfare check on Jordan at home. The upshot was, Jordan was forced to take a couple weeks off Council – which nobody noticed at the time, but Sidhu did mention the following year when his texts came to light – and seek psychiatric “help.”
But nobody in the public ever heard about this terrorist threat, this police visit, this psychiatric help, as the APD covered it up. Chief Cisneros finally explained to the Times this week that “When we get very influential individuals, we put those under wraps.” Really. Very influential individuals. Like Council members?
Not so much “Council members,” I would submit. Can you imagine if it were Jose Moreno or Tom Tait or Denise Barnes who had lost their temper and talked about “wanting to shoot the place up,” what woulda happened to them? We would have seen them on TV being perp-walked out of their homes that day. It is VALUED members of the cabal “family” that get such things covered up.
In the long two months between our release of the “Vicious Texts” and Jordan’s forced August resignation, I was in touch with some trusted people inside the County Democratic Party (DPOC) – which had stubbornly supported Jordan throughout a slew of bad political actions despite all the complaints of us local Democrats. For several months we’d been trying to recall the guy – the biggest reason being his support for the crooked Stadium Giveaway. “Are you guys gonna still back him, even after these texts?” I asked plaintively. I was assured that they were doing everything they could behind the scenes to get him to resign. “Really, Vern,” my source confided, “these texts are just the tip of the iceberg – I can’t talk about it right now but he’s done a lot of bad things you don’t know about yet.” Now we have a little more of an idea what she was talking about.
The DPOC eventually put out a little resolution, not even mentioning his name, but just saying, duh, that the DPOC doesn’t like misogynistic talk and writing. For all the support the Party had given the politician throughout his career, there was nothing they could do to make him resign even assuming they wanted to. It took an INTERVENTION of all his handlers, from Priest and Flint to the ubiquitous Melahat, it had to be framed as something that’d be good for his “career” and “health,” and he had to be assured that he could keep his BIA job.
It seems like Party leadership is still mad at me for helping force Jordan out in 2021, and forcing us to endure 16 months of Republican Gloria Ma’ae. (They thought they would just somehow replace him with some better Democrat in ’22.) Well, we did the right thing, and Gloria wasn’t any worse than Jordan, and now we have Carlos Leon. So I, at least, can hold my head high.
Too much even for Danny Fierro
Danny Fierro, whom I STILL haven’t gotten around to writing a big feature about, has done some wild and messed-up things (ask Sharon Quirk-Silva, ask Jose Moreno) to get his clients elected. He was Jordan’s campaign manager – you might remember Jordan BRIEFLY getting Danny’s dad in as City Attorney which lasted a few weeks. Danny now runs “Presidio Communications” which works for Disney and is running the campaign against Measure A; in his bio he boasts:
“Danny is most proud of … being the chief strategist for the first openly gay elected official in Orange County. In another instance, he ran the campaign that propelled the nation’s first openly gay Muslim elected official to public office in the City of Fullerton.”
Note that Danny pointedly did not mention the names of Brandman or Ahmad Zahra there. It wouldn’t-a been accurate anyway – my openly gay friend Joe Shaw was elected HB Councilman back when Jordan was still a school board member and telling everyone he was straight. But I digress. The thing is, we learned today that Fierro refused to work for Jordan any more because of his violent threats AND what Danny described as Jordan’s “racist and misogynistic comments,” including blaming an employee’s COVID-19 diagnosis on her “family’s ethnic heritage.”
This LAST bit really pushes a button with me. My source for Jordan’s vicious texts was Kathy Chance, who was prepared to go to her grave with them until she heard Jordan throwing an exaggerated hissy fit, calling commissioner Larry Larsen all kinds of “RACIST” for his use of the word “China-Virus” which Chance found very hypocritical. Sounds like Jordan’s jihad against Larry was even more hypocritical than Chance thought at the time! Projection even, Projection to the Trumpth Degree.
Crying…
Jordan sure cries a lot for a grown-ass man. Two months after his resignation, a friend of mine driving rideshare overheard him literally WAILING to someone over the phone about how “Todd and Jeff let me down.” (Now we’re thinking Todd was Todd Priest, rather than Ament.) And then nearly two years after that, Adam describes his “sobbing interview” in which he bemoaned the betrayal of his good, good, close, lobbyist friends.
These lobbyists, especially Nocella and Priest, sure took advantage of this damaged guy and his bottomless need for love and affirmation, showering him with affection like close family members or lovers until they had to cut bait. It’s kind of sad, and almost enough to make you feel sorry for Jordan. But then you remember a few things:
- How ruthless and cruel he was with Mayor Tait for four years, even calling a special “emergency” morning meeting in 2013 just in order to silence Tait’s criticisms of the $1 a year Angel Stadium deal.
- How in late ’15 / early ’16 he did his best to postpone district elections for another two years just so he wouldn’t have to face Dr. Moreno (Jordan did this singlehandedly – knowing he had the backing of Kring and Murray who didn’t pretend to want districts at all!)
- How in his final years under Mayor Sidhu, he didn’t even bother justifying his bad and thoughtless votes except to say “I’m going to support the Mayor because he was elected at large and I wasn’t” – both depriving his own district 2 of a thinking representative and reminding us all how he always defied Tait (who won by 60%, while Sidhu only won by 34%.)
So all things considered, fuck that crybaby.
****************
There’s really a whole lot in these two stories which you need to read if you haven’t – STORY 1 and copy sans paywall, STORY 2 and copy sans paywall. And Adam’s introductory epistle which has stuff that’s in neither story. But I’m just going to make a couple more observations before I sign off…
Throughout the interview, schizophrenically, Jordan denies having done anything wrong, blames all his wrongdoing on others or his physical or mental health, claims that most of what he did was good for Anaheim. And at one point he seems to throw up his hands when he admits,
“It’s a Gilded Age-type of arrangement, where the robber barons come and the senators just say yes.”
Well, I’m not sure I coulda put that better myself! But does Jordan see anything wrong with that? And if so, when did that begin to seem wrong to him? He sure seemed happy and proud in that arrangement until he was forced out.
One vote he claims to regret is the one to fire City Manager Chris Zapata, for offering an opinion the cabal didn’t like (that $6.5 million of federal Covid money should not be steered to the tourist agency Visit Anaheim at the height of the pandemic, that if anything it should be a lot less, and have a lotta strings attached.) Jordan claims that he liked and wanted to keep Zapata, but the Cabal masters ordered him to show his loyalty by making it a 5-2 vote against Zapata. Maybe that’s true.
He believes it reflects well on him that the FBI caught Flint and Ament musing, in late 2020, “Can we trust Brandman?” I would cherish that quote too if I were Jordan. At that point they were unsure if they could trust Jordan OR Avelino. But it’s easy to see how their trust had been shaken by his recent erratic behavior (and possibly his reluctance to fire Zapata.) 19 times out of 20, Jordan was a pliant order-taker to the cabal, a “senator” happily taking his orders from the “robber barons.”
And now we shall pause, contemplate, and maybe the next time we speak the report will be out.
Jeez, he looks like an axe murderer.
How can he be looking for redemption? He basically admits to being a spineless puppet of Jeff Flint and Ament.
And also those votes he made for his pal Mitchell give off the scent of bribes. I wonder if this Mitchell creep can explain a return of over 300% in a short time. The fact that the payout was so small suggests a little easy pocket money from the lobbyist. I wonder if THIS made the corruption report. We may need to start adding amendments.
This story puts me in mind of one bit of advice I’ve often given Jordan Brandman over the years — and one thing I’ve said I’d like to do to him. (It doesn’t involve “ripping.”)
My advice to him has been to “turn state’s evidence.”
And what I’ve said I want to do to him was: to save his political soul.
(You can see me mention the latter three times at this link this linked story about that old “CSL Report,” and Chumley’s particularly stupid, even by his own standards, defense of both it and Jordan.)
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2013/11/dan-cs-cherry-picking-goes-awry-but-at-least-we-all-agree-that-anaheims-economic-impact-study-sucks/
For a long time, during my DPOC days, I had a soft spot for Jordan, because he was (1) obviously gay, (2) deeply closeted, possibly even to himself), and (3) deeply messed up emotionally, as that combination tends to do. (This is a big reason why anti-gay politics are horrible; closeted gays are much scarier than “out” ones.) He was also power hungry, susceptible to flattery, and so on. But I felt that there was some real good at him, hence my trying to steer him away from the people who would use and abuse him towards those who may or may not fawn over him but would respect his good work.
I’m not surprised that his so-called “friends” dropped him like a hot potato after this blog — pardon me, this “a local blog” published the story Vern notes about the awful things he said about Denise Barnes, trusting that everyone in the conversation was as nasty, and willing to keep others’ foul secrets, as he was.
I am surprised that he was willing to come forward and speak to Adam. (I’m sorry if, I expect, he did not do the same for the JL Group. And it’s not to late to contact the FBI.)
I’ve been hard, deservedly hard, on Jordan over the years. But he’s been far too focused on who had the lucrative jobs he wanted and paths to the status he yearned for.
From someone who’s been Jewish a lot longer than he has, the “Jewish ritual” he’s likely thinking of is the nine days starting with the Jewish New Year of Rosh Ha’Shanah, that end just before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when one atones to God having settled accounts with the people one has injured. This year that starts at sundown on September 15. But I’m glad her started early.
His interview with Adam E. is just stepping a toe into the water, though. If he really wants the let the truth set him free (taking a cue from his non-Jewish side), he’s going to have to tell a whole lot more about the people and organizations that have been using him as their pawn — or, more fairly given his stature, their rook.
He’s on a dead-end course right now, having burned his bridges as of today. But there is a way out — a righteous path, in fact! — and I hope that he finds it and takes it.
I don’t understand why anyone would call you losers, you’ve obsessing over this for ten years now. Aost as long as Yogi took his ride south to join Fitzgerald and Mike in HELL.
Glad to see Greg, Vern, Paul, and Dave have grown up and got jobs.
PS- Donna- None of this BULLSHIT is going to bring back your Son.
PPS- THE “CRACK” KITHEN TABLE LAWYER SHOULD BONE UP ON FAIR USE
DISNEY BE A COMMIN’
(Donna asked for this one to be printed, Greg, typical of what we get every day. You really think this could be Jordie himself, Dave? -V.)
To clarify: I’m not on crack — I’ll bet you wish that you could say the same — and I don’t work at either my “kithen” or kitchen table.
I’d really, really, really look forward to getting a takedown demand from Disney for that gif. But I’m hurt that you didn’t seem to notice what jerseys the Mickey clones were wearing!
I know who Fitzgerald is, but which Mike are you talking about, in your blasphemous pretense of knowing the ways of God? Were you trying to say “Mickey,” as in Mouse? Dude, it’s just a gif!
Imagine — our “obsessing” over corruption in OC’s largest city for over ten years! Why, one might think that we were journalists or something! (And yes, we take some measure of pride in the prospect of the castle crumbling. I mean Pringle’s castle, not Sleeping Beauty’s.)
Kinslow of course. They have long memories of people we care about who died.
Wow, that’s a deep cut — and a gratuitous one, given that as I recall Mike was never involved in producing this blog.
Mike was a great guy who was pursuing a righteous career in the law, suing churches over sexual molestations. (As opposed to another blogger whose choice was to out such victims names.)
So the contention that Mike is in Hell (not if there is a just God he isn’t) comes from someone who just wants to make us feel grief because they think it hurts us? You would think that by now they would know that that doesn’t work. Well, at least we know that they have a welcoming home or two elsewhere in OC’s political blogosphere.
The comments about Donna’s son are pointless cruelty as well, but you and Donna handle them well. I do believe that at some future moment Joey may be in Hell, on a visitor’s pass, coming by to stick a pitchfork or two into our brave anonymous sadists. (Poor chuckleheads must be pretty sad and scared this week.)
I don’t think this is Brandman, whom I have never met who probably doesn’t know who I am.
Even to trolls who haven’t met you, you are a vital part of the OJ Blog / Anaheim anklebiter PANTHEON; they all know a few little things about you. They talk about you almost as much as they talk about me, Greg, and Donna.
To be fair, Ryan is as well, and likely always will be.
I wasn’t trying to be comprehensive – they also obsess over Mark Daniels, Paul Lucas, the Robbinses and others. But that’s enough commentary on one troll poop.
Could be that degenerate Mardahl guy.
Ok Larry Craig.
Vern, you’re welcome to do as you will the gif I added at the bottom. I won’t reveal my source for it, of course.
Wow. Just wow. I read this news this afternoon. To THINK that the City of Anaheim, along with its own Chief of Police covered this up while subjecting the Public who attend these city council meetings to potential harm, including death!!
I honestly have no words as I write this.
I, for one, was happy with the bag checks and metal detectors while entering council chambers, but I would have never guessed THIS was the reason why!
I am THRILLED Cisneros got his retirement package and got the hell out! I never ANY respect for the man who smiled in our faces and DID NOTHING THE WHOLE ENTIRE TIME HE WAS OUR CHIEF. Good ridence!
Just SICK about this!
Jodie…any comments???
Hopefully Diaz and his lack of respect for D-1 will be right behind him! Dude NEVER had anything to say at council meetings except, “I ate a an ew immigrant restaurant this week in District 1!” Yeah, probably giving him free food by the looks of him.
The council members and city staff side step the metal detectors and all security. We pointed that out to the city council after some employee shot everyone elsewhere. And has happened numerous times.
“So all things considered, fuck that crybaby.” Hahaha! Vern with the best sign off yet!
Yeah, Jordan has been a righteous scumbag for many years. So fuck that guy and his crocodile tears. He can peddle his faux tale of redemption someplace else. The 300% return on an “investment” is suspect as fuck – could that be the reference to financial impropriety the judge overseeing the corruption report spoke of? Let’s hope if it IS in the final report it hasn’t been redacted away.
I chuckle when it mentions him being in the closet and what not and how his coming out was like some sort of triumph. First off, I cant think of a single human being who was not immediately aware that Jordan was weapons grade gay upon meeting him the first time. And I was disgusted at how the fat piece of trash in Irvine posted some kind of blog with Jordans coming out like it was scoop in the tone of an obituary for his non existent heterosexuality.
But yeah this so called series of interviews he gives Adam as some sort of religious cleansing is nothing short of pure attempted white washing of his sins is a pathetic attempt at public relations groundwork for a new launch of his politic al career in the near future reminiscent of Jimmy Swaggart climbing up on the cross after he got diddling a prostitute but was ineffective the second time he got caught didling a prostitute,
For fucks sake Anaheim don’t let Jordan Brandman diddle you again for the love of god and prostitutes.
Oh and when the fuck did Jordan start flaunting his Jewishness? Oh yeah when he started getting noticed for his fucking blatantly clear corruption by Disney and the rest of the cabal. That’s when he started hiding behind his Yarmulke. Probably on the advice of that fat piece of shit in Irvine as well as the other fat piece of shit facing prison time in the best women’s federal penitentiary her money can get her attorney to buy?
”Effeminate” is not the same as “gay,” Paul. Having certain mannerisms does not mean having sexual relationships. I don’t recall Dan’s story, and of course he doesn’t archive his blog like we do, so without screenshots it’s always deniable.
I do not think that Jordan has a political career left after this. Calling up Adam was his crossing the Rubicon.
Jordan started wearing his yalmekah way late in his tenure on council. As I said in the story I linked, I suspect that it may have involved hair loss. I don’t think that it did him much good in any respect.
I thought you were joking about the hair loss.
No, I was serious. I’ve seen men do this before.
In his latest photo shoot no yarm – he’s come to terms with his hair loss?
Nah, with this guy Occam’s Razor – he was looking for one more protected “identity” to hide behind.
https://theliberaloc.com/2015/10/15/about-jordan-brandman/
HEY! What a great opportunity to revisit my Triumph of Paul Lucas series!
1. The Triumph of Paul Lucas over Dirty Cops and Draconian Drug Warriors, pt 1
(This one actually includes a lot on Paul’s break with the local Dem establishment over Janet Nguyen, whom the Lib OC / labor crowd was soft-supporting)
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2014/02/the-triumph-of-paul-lucas-pt-1/
2. Bad Buena Park Cops and Feckless Druggies!
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2014/02/the-triumph-of-paul-lucas-pt-2-bad-buena-park-cops-and-feckless-druggies/
3. Keystone Kops and Steele Smith! (co-incidentally a good friend of Jordan Brandman!)
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2014/03/the-triumph-of-paul-lucas-pt-3/
Oh! That’s the photo where I photoshopped Jordan into a weasel! Damn, I miss having my own copy of Photoshop.
Shitbird punk can’t put your name on it.
Oh yeah and fuck that crybaby
Interesting development. Real shame the actual abusers of this sad story aren’t targets of the FBI’s investigation. Both of the articles in the LA Times yesterday portray out-of-control corporate interests with either recklessly zero supervision from Burbank or worse– directed manipulation of elected officials.
Just goes to prove the Anaheim City Council is EXACTLY what Tom Tait always said it was.
Hope better times are ahead for OC’s largest city. I trust everyone at OJ is doing well.
You mean the gadflies or the anklebiters?
Goddamn right anklebiters.
That scumbag got off unscathed as well. Pretty sure that was the guy getting paid that Mallihat was so pissed about.
You refer to Cunningham. But you reminded me – I still have to do my annotated version of THAT FBI document. A lot of it is hilarious – Flint & Ament plotting to rip Melahat off, while she knows she’s taping them for the Feds, but you can tell she’s still furious at their gall as she curses like a sailor.
A friend or two are disappointed with me that I barely mentioned the ‘Hat in this piece. It’s true I left out so much I could have written. I believe I could write a book about Jordan at this point, without much research.
Incredible. Jordan is irredeemable. Carrie Nocella and Pete Mitchell are scumbags. Just horrible people. Mayor Aitken counts Carrie as her closest friend. The more things change ….
What? “Mayor Aitken counts Carrie as her closest friend?” Can’t recall ever hearing that before. Hard to believe, coming from some one-named rando who’s never posted before. Is this from Chef Yevgeny’s troll farm?
“Closest friend” is doubtless an exaggeration. But this guy’s last comment was a good one about Jessie Lopez. (See IP, e-mail.)
Yeah, I don’t usually check IPs when on my phone.
This is a pretty serious accusation against Ashleigh though, given its context, and if it’s more than supposition then he should offer it. I don’t want our blog cited as the source for this allegation, which is why I challenged it forcefully.
I think Vern is right in that this is an attempt by Brandman to pre-emptively stake out a good-guy claim before shit might hit the fan. The only reason to do this is because he thinks he has some vestige of a political-parasite career worth saving.
He doesn’t.
One wonders what this termite did for the BIA that could be worth even a small fraction of what they paid him. Probably on par with what he did as an assistant to Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly, or any of the other enablers who perceived some value in keeping Howdy hanging around: in other words, nothing.
The especially creepy photo-shoot in front of City Hall suggests to me that Brandman hasn’t exorcised his demons and that, come to think of it HE is one of the vulgar blog nitwits that are fixated on OJB and its commenters.
I note that in those photos he has dropped the yarmulke.
One can do things for hair loss when it goes beyond a bald spot.
What I notice is that he’s posing with the pride flag and that his arm is incredibly thin.
I agree with Zenger that he has no political career waiting for him. What I think he’s trying to do is to make sure that he doesn’t go to jail — or prison. And BIAA ties could conceivably be a part of that.
If so, then he has to understand that giving this interview is not enough. He needs to talk to someone who can cut him a plea deal, like Melahat did. And he can’t be tricky and evasive, as she’s been rumored to be.
He’s right to be worried — but I’m this case confession is good not only for his soul, but for his freedom. His so-called friends have given him up — now it’s time for him to return the favor.
I’ll note one other thing, which Vern noted early in this piece: the timing of this is weird. I had not expected the BIAA stuff to be in the JL Report — but maybe it was. Many more people may have read it by now; it’s possible that someone has divulged something to him. As someone who expects *never* to see the unredacted report, I’d sure like to know who!
Paul’s notion that we’re better off with Jordan in jail rather than spilling his guts to a prosecutor is … well, the nice term is “very short-sighted.” He can earn his freedom in a way that helps the city greatly. And he should know that he’s in a race with many other false friends. But he’s taken a head start!
I didn’t mention jail or prosecutors or plea deal. But I’d be happy with a reduced sentence fir him ratting out the entire cabal to include melahat so her plea deal gets tossed and she gets the y reduced sentence she deserves.
He was obviously nothing more than their rubber stamp in the Dias. And for that they paid 100k + annually.
They got what they wanted from Jordan by promising him 2 things he desperately craved – power and friendship. Not that he was the victim in this (as he is trying to portray himself now). Jordan repeatedly chose these special interests over his constituents for their perceived personal benefits.
You’re right, Curmudgeon. But now he’s well-positioned to do some serious penance. And if he doesn’t — well, that would have its own sense of justice, mostly poetic.
He suffers from a real malady: validation through obsequiousness to political power. His authority is purely vicarious – which is a tough thing to have to admit – but it comes with the sort of friends you can take home to mom (Masters of the Universe). To a certain extent almost all pols are like this, but Brandman’s aroma of desperation was/is palpable.
You’ll never see people like this fight for the underdog. A Business Democrat.
What really pisses me off is that even Jordan admits that Anaheim is a Tammany square type bought and paid for scheme by Disney and not one charge of bribery of a public official is being levied on anyone at Disney or on the Dias . Wtf is that all about?
That is certainly a righteous pissedness. My guess is that Disney has been careful to stay on what case law says is the right side of committing actual quid pro quo bribery. Is just giving decisive amounts of money to groups that will electing officials whom they know will do exactly what they want in violation (which of course would need to be proven) of their fiduciary duty to the city’s present and future residents? This is the point where the property line between “should be illegal” and “is illegal” is hard to assess. Cynthia and I, as well as Chuchua, did our best to go after this with CATER, but someone with a hell of a lot more resources — city, county, state, or federal — than we had would have to go after them with the intent of not taking prisoners.
Jordan has to finish flipping first. Then Nocella. Then … well, before it gets to Pringle, it would probably have to go through Kring and Murray. (Is Murray still in the country?)
I’d like to think that no witness tampering will occur. But I’d like to believe a lot of things.
FBI is not done yet…
CATER never filed their documents They are a bullshit organiysi you could bill $200k
I’m enjoying printing more troll comments than I usually do. It’s nice to know they are shitting their pants right now, although their illiteracy and typos are not necessarily a symptom of their panic – that illiteracy is permanent, abiding.
Their obsession with CATER began to resurface a couple months ago. I’d almost forgotten that project of Greg & Cynthia from nearly a decade ago!
We didn’t? I think we did!
If you had any proof of anything wrong — and you don’t, because there was nothing — you’d be having it published by Creep and Creepier and perhaps even claiming credit under your own name.
But you do have me wondering what an “organiysi” is and how I could bill it $200k. Back to your mediocrity now — if you’ve even achieved that!
It’s always fun to see a political prostitute come clean(no pun intended) and finally air out in public what everyone knew what was happening behind the scenes.
I’m still in awe that Curt Pringle challenged me to name specifics when I called him corrupt to his face at Christina Shea’s event a few years ago. Fun times.
Dammit, Allan, that’s when you use your lifeline to call a friend!
Oh I didn’t need that. I promptly responded to him the ARTIC debacle which he gravy trained millions of tax dollars from. He said that was “all above board”. I laughed at him dismissively and the conversation was over.
You do know, I presume, that the architect of the ARTIC debacle now sits on the Anaheim City Council — right?
I’ve kinda stopped caring about local politics the last few years but it doesn’t surprise me to hear people with any nexus to all the corruption going on in Anaheim and other cities are still in positions of power and influence. The older I get, the more I realize how brilliant George Carlin’s political observations were.
Dan wrote his take on all this; it’s kind of not what I expected
https://theliberaloc.com/2023/07/27/jordan-brandmans-revenge-story-hits/
Dan claims the last time he contacted (texted) Jordan, over a year ago, Jordan expected some kind of apology from him, and he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to apologize for. That’s for sure, Dan was his most loyal and tireless apologist, through everything, to the point of embarrassment. (Could THAT be worth an apology?)
One thing Dan writes…
“His behavior was erratic and his friends were concerned about his mental health. It would not have surprised me to wake up one morning then to learn he had taken his own life. And to be honest, I would not surprise me if it happens in the present. [sic]”
… is probably not very constructive.
And he’s still defiantly illustrating his rip-off-her-tits-boy story with his photo of the great feminist Senator Gillibrand. Now there’s some typical Dan.
[caption id="attachment_146183" align="alignright" width="252"]
Weasel-Boy with an unsuspecting
Senator Gillibrand in Costa Mesa.
Pic by Dan “Chemical Lewinsky” Chmielewski.[/caption]
I liked this better when I saw it in Godfather Part 2:
So if Dan thinks that he’s Tom Hagen talking to Frankie Pentangeli about “the Roman Way,” who in this scenario is Michael Corleone?
Of course, Dan legitimately may not know how this sounds. Could just be instinct.
Melahat Whatshername.
That would raise all sorts of other interesting scenarios.
I’ve always thought that Dan was recompensed in the coin of access to and esteem from the powerful. But this sort of speculation that a potential star witness against the Cabal may end up dead soon by his own hands suggests that maybe he’s been more wired into the network than he’s let on. Maybe some incriminating documents exist, by which I mean beyond what he publishes regularly.
I won’t suggest that Dan try to turn state’s evidence, though. Not a credible witness.
Whatever ChemLew scribbles is meant to improve his main chance, whatever that may be. He’s so fucking stupid that it’s hard to tell the angle.
In this case he’s probably thinking that making Brandname look bad and still unbalanced will help that FBI busted woman in Irvine who had her snout in Anaheim (among lotsa other places). Still it’s amazing to describe Flint and Nocella Priest as “friends.”
Nice artistic revision of an original “intellectual” property. If the word intellectual doesn’t seem to be completely comical.
Also, it would be great to get Jerbal Wordsmith’s attempted spin on this disaster. But we won’t.
Tessio was always smarter than Clemenza.
Yeah, Dan’s jealously guarded property. Greg’s Photoshop.
By the way, Dan’s “owning” it doesn’t mean that he took the photo. It could have been, say, Melahat — who sold him the copyright for valuable promotional consideration. Or something like that.
It must be awkward for Dan right now, who has never thought Jordan did ANYTHING wrong on Council, who dependably printed Jordan’s justifications for everything including his attempted sabotage of district elections in 15-16.
Dan even excused Jordan’s vicious, violent texts about Denise Barnes, with the justification that Denise hadn’t been a Democrat all that long and still had some “conservative” positions. Remember that?
But anyway back to the trolls’ new worry about CATER – CATER hasn’t done anything in 7 or 8 years, no? There must be something you guys were fighting against, or fighting to expose, that is expected to resurface in the Corruption Report, don’t you think?
CATER disbanded long ago.
CATER left a legacy that the FBI seems to have appreciated and perhaps the JL Group will turn out to have appreciated too. It’s all public record, here or in court filings and decisions, as well as Anaheim City Council records.
In court, were fighting against the Angels Stadium giveaway and the expansion of the Convention Center without a vote of the City. The continuing relevance of the former is obvious, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the latter — in which the City Council created a Joint Powers Authority with the Anaheim Redevelopment Authority, which was literally the City Council itself wearing different hats, but they argued exempted them from normal requirements of public oversight — could easily show up as a sterling example of the city’s bad governance, legal or not.
I may have some of the group names wrong in the above, but I’m not looking it up.
So once again Greg Diamond takes the pussy route and hides behind technicalities. But is still too much of a chickenshit to tell us the TRUTH!
Was Tom Tait a member?
Jose Moreno?
Paul Kott?
How many members/donors did NOT live in Anaheim, like YOU and Ryan Catnor?
Slippery slope counselor
You see where a lot of this Is heading…not just Anna Drive baby.
Who absolutely gives a Flying Fuck?
Anonymous coward calls me a “pussy.” As Betty White (among others) said, pussies are actually quite strong and durable; they can take a pounding. You, though, are like a nutsack.
Respecting a pledge made to people that their names would not be revealed is not a “technicality,” nutsack. It’s a promise that I’m keeping.
If you want to file a lawsuit against me to force me to provide that information, go ahead. I’d love to find out the name of a nutsack, and it would be profitable besides.
I do see where this is heading, nutsack. Nowheresville, “baby.” So suck on your pacifier and drift off to dreams of your not being a clueless, cowardly, nutsack who has backed the wrong side.
This idiot just got their ass handed to them on the LibOC of all places, by someone who also says we’re schmucks – apart from the schmuck thing it was a righteous ass-handing.
https://theliberaloc.com/2023/07/27/jordan-brandmans-revenge-story-hits/comment-page-1/#comments
What the hell, let’s import the whole exchange, since it got so vile:
[1]
[2]
[3]
So that’s the sort of thing that Chumley is happy to publish.
I’ll note in reply to all that:
(1) This is not a matter of political transparency at all. This is a permitted category of non-profit that protects the confidentiality of its members. Yes, it is also used by SuperPACs to shield their donors, but in our case we were not making political donations but merely protecting our members from the kinds of abuse that one sees here.
(2) We are not “schmucks.” At worst, one could call us “shmos” or “shmendricks,” but I’d call us “people whose over a decade of criticism of Anaheim has just been borne out.
(3) Nobody IS part of this righteous group because (as I remember) it chose to give up its status years ago by not paying a renewal fee and was thus disincorporated.
Chumley also says:
What I said was that his claim of copyright ownership did not necessarily mean that he took the photo, because the copyright could have been transferred him. That’s — um, what’s the word? — TRUE. But I accept Chumley’s contention that he did take the picture. That’s doesn’t mean that I believe it — it is Chumley, after all! — but I accept it as something not worth disputing.
Now if you want to see someone deny something that can be proven to be true, behold!
Yes, and the late lamented Paul “PeeWee Herman” Reubens also died after that happened, so … nice way to narrow down a time period.
Yes, we were officially incorporated as a non-profit. This is something that, unlike an unregistered photo copyright, one can look up. (In fact, I remember that we also incorporated a 501(c) non-profit towards the end, when we were interested in doing public education, but that had no part in our legal cases.) I don’t recall whether we ever had to pay taxes — I was not paid by CATER, but would only be paid by the city if we had won, so we didn’t have to raise much money — but if we did then I’m confident we paid them. Am I similarly confident that Chumley pays all of his taxes? Well, no — but I’m in no position to say.
My demand to the city at a time when, as I recall, the outcome of our case was still in doubt, and we were considering settling. Here’s how the real world works: one makes a demand of a defendant, they may make a counteroffer, and then one negotiates an agreement. We would have seriously considered a counteroffer equivalent to what I suspect Chumley’s net business income — his own, not his wife’s — in an average two year period. I vaguely remember that Chumley would know how this process works based on his losing a anti-SLAPP motion to Mark Newgent.
Which, speaking of unexplained mysteries, I wrote about here:
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2021/10/dan-chmielewski-dinged-18k-in-anti-slapp-suit/
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2021/10/who-funded-dan-chmielewskis-case-against-mark-newgent/
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2021/10/more-on-dan-chmielewskis-payoff-scandal/
I sure hope that Chumley would accept comments similar to the above on his blog about his own actual mystery. You know, just to be consistent. Happy reading, everyone!
This idiot thinks maybe I’m a member along with the Taits and Paul Kott?
Aw, shit. I admit it: I am Spartacus.
Well, at the time, Cynthia and Chuchua were Republicans (I’m not sure whether Brian still is), so you’re an obvious suspect.
So one of your former colleagues in your Anaheim Activism sent me this
I have since moved to NorCal….
But, it is curious that nearly TEN years later, we don’t know who was in that shadowy group other than Cynthia Ward and Brian Chachua and paid attorney, Greg Diamond.
NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON IS WILLING TO COME FORWARD!!!
This is a sketchy as anything in the Times article?
Was Jose Moreno a member? Why would he NOT stand up and proudly proclaim he was.
What about Ryan? Oh yeah he doesn’t live in Amaheim.
The FACT is CATERS unwillingness to identify its members makes it suspect.
So, while this comment will NEVER see the light of day it speaks to Greg’s cowardice, Hypocrisy and duplicity.
This is SO damn irrelevant. But I love that you guys are so worried about CATER seven years later. It’s a thing of beauty.
CATER was a 10(c)(4) non-profit; we chose that form, at the expense of our members getting tax-deductible donations, to protect then from retaliation from malevolent anonymous cowards like yourself.
We were thus never under any obligation to divulge our general membership to anyone; we did, as required, disclose our officers.
While I was technically “paid” something well below minimum wage, with the possibility of earning attorney fees if we had won, the self-serving ones were the ones we were trying to hold accountable.
This has two implications: (1) You can go piss off, and (2) if you actually consider a penurious 401(c)(4) being “suspect” for following the law, you are as stupid as you are cowardly.
Every time people get a taste of what you Cabal and regressive Democrat types are, it actually helps the public distinguish the good guys from the likes of you. So thanks for that.
In closing: please refer to implication (1) above — and aim for your own face.
I for one believe Jordan will be named in the JL group report as one of the criminal act participants and is trying to use this interview withAdam to plead his case in the court of public opinion
And again, if so, the lesser (but more pertinent to the moment) story would be: who leaked that portion of the still-confidential report to him?
Jordan would presumably know the answer to that one. Someone should ask him, if it turns out to be true.
Why would it have to be leaked to him? JL group said they found evidence of criminal conduct over the last 20 years. Jordan knows what he’s done. He would surely know who told JL group about his culpability . But it wouldn’t be necessary to leak to him that he’s naked in it. That’s just silly .
Tell you what: you are now in charge of arguing with Tardif about this.
He’s convinced that there’s no crime; you’re convinced that it’s so obvious that Jordan is already in “hopeless mode” without any inside knowledge. (I would think, based on your analysis, that he’d have so near the beginning, when he’d already been discarded by his friends and could help to shape the report in ways favorable to him, but whatevs.) Have fun with skallywag!
Junior vs. Paul – that’ll be a blast from the bloggy past!
Leaked to him? He was undoubtedly interviewed by them. He possibly preemptively blurted out the part about the Pete Mitchell “investment” just in case they already knew about it – right along with his do-nothing “job” at the BIA.
I’m sure they wanted to know how Howdy made a living.
Corruption Report is out! 353 pages! What do we see? I haven’t even looked yet, just wanted to share with y’all…. https://www.anaheim.net/DocumentCenter/View/50673/Anaheim-redacted-independent-investigation-report-7-31-23
Folks really didn’t want Ashleigh to win as Mayor.
Weed breeds greed. In the words of Commissioner Thomas Schulte at a hearing on child custody and visitation, “are we talking about a little weed here?”
Former federal prosecutor issue a statement about the report.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CvY0EljrQUp/?hl=en
ANAHEIM MAYOR ASHLEIGH AITKEN RELEASES STATEMENT ON FINDINGS OF ADMINISTRATIVE INVESTIGATION
Anaheim, CA – Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken issued the following statement in response to the release of the City of Anaheim’s Administrative Investigation into corruption at City Hall:
“The report released today is further confirmation that the actions of former Mayor Harry Sidhu and those who enabled him were not reflective of incompetence, but instead conscious acts of fraud, greed, and deception. As a former Federal Prosecutor and a political target of Sidhu, I understand all too well the negative impact his tenure as Mayor had on Anaheim.
“We must ensure that this scandal and the contents of the report lead to meaningful reforms so that corruption never again takes root at City Hall. I am in the process of creating a Mayor’s Advisory Committee – made up of government, community, business, and legal leaders – to thoroughly review the report and bring concrete reforms forward for discussion with the City Council. This will be a public-facing process, and I look forward to discussing it with the residents of our city in the weeks and months ahead. Together, we will rebuild public trust and work to make sure Anaheim’s city government lives up to its obligations to our residents.”
Greg, you are a schmegeggy!!
Ada Briceno must think the public is stupid or not paying attention or powerless. Is this contrition? Cuz a now-fallen local democratic powerbroker/leader is further eviscerated in the report – dirty dealing with the cabal and campaigning for local democratic candidates.
“It’s the story we’ve been telling for a long period of time,” said Unite Here, Local 11, co-President Ada Briceno, who currently has hotel workers on strike lines across OC and So Cal. “It’s very hard to see that groups of powerful employers and developers get all these things. It’s just gross, it’s disgusting to see.”
Briceño, who also heads the OC Democratic Party, added that the city needed to continue investigating.
“It is crucial for investigations to continue and to make sure every penny is allocated where it should be.”
https://voiceofoc.org/2023/07/anaheims-own-look-at-city-hall-finds-disneyland-resort-businesses-improperly-steer-policymaking/
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0FzwoVGYkGXUr4jaUTizSsQvZfU8JUoVLMK545f1QZmoLDNezhQwdxjDb5kebxmf5l&id=324112524308183
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0318cvVKisA8YpookCeHantgdKSf7x9vdMk4yvQ32oRSZZNd7nWVaHwvswc2nRVpqvl&id=215318905960
I can think of something else that’s gross and disgusting: taking credit for fixing something that you had actually made worse.
Remembering DPOC’s refusal to endorse Denise Barnes — among other terrible calls.
In her capacity as head of DPOC, Ada answered “no comment.”
OC Republicans have missed a great opportunity to exploit Rafiei’s fall from grace and all the folks and organizations she compromised on the way down including Briceno, a slew of local Democratic candidates and office holders and, of course, the party. Rafiei may help to turn the county back to blue.
And, if you see Gabriel San Roman, tell him his little buddy Gus Arellano is a putz.
https://www.altaonline.com/dispatches/a40982129/orange-county-ada-briceno-democratic-party-gustavo-arellano/
That’s odd, I don’t recall DUI Dave making a statement about Rafiei, Sidhu, the “report” or the Irvine cannabis bribery scam.
https://twitter.com/DaveMinCA/status/1686895103280082944 (Notice this tweet was about just more than an hour after I stated Republicans missed an opportunity, DUI Dave takes Baugh to task for staying silent over Trump)
It’s odd that the report omitted the money and resources UNITE HERE 11 pours into Anaheim politics. I guess Ada’s too busy writing copy for the Voice Of OC.
Oh yes, look at all those years we’ve had Mayors and Council majorities and policies backed and funded by Unite HERE.
Oh wait. NOT. Back in the trash bin with your idiocy…
Shut up, Jerb.
I can only chuckle watching Chumley twist himself into a pretzel bashing his “friend” Brandman. The LibOC cesspool was Jordan’s number one place for cheerleading and support over the years. Now that Jordan has self destructed and fallen from grace, Danny Boy has turned on him. Jordan and Chumley are both “high character” fellas.
I think we can safely conclude that Brandname and ChemicaLewinski deserved each other. But now ChemLew seems to perceive his mission to be to protect that Melahat creature – the one who tried to bribe Irvine councilmembers.
Speaking of which, none of us have been able to track down Jeff Lalloway since that came out, leading to the suspicion that unlike Melissa Fox he was open to the bribe.
And I used to kinda like the guy! We used to text each other when he was on the OCTA dais – he was good against 405 toll lanes AND the Disney Streetcar.
Just remembered – Lalloway used to come out onto the Irvine City Hall lawn to have improvised debates with Occupy Irvine. How can you not like that?
Speaking of the Disney streetcar, I bet that was deal one after the bonds got paid off.
Brandman has been Melahat’s #1 client (her description) since I met her around 15 years ago. There has never been a divergence between those two interests before now — but it’s not surprising that Chumley went for the one with access to money.
I forget whether I’ve said this before, but the problem I have with calling him a name making fun of Monica Lewinsky is that she has turned out to be an intelligent, witty, and humane adult who does not deserve to have the primary weight of a long-ago Presidential affair on her shoulders. In fact, if I ever become more active in Democratic Politics again, I plan to ask for her blessing to start the “Monica Lewinsky Democratic Club,” which whenever published anywhere would be like kicking in the shin people who deserve it. No names mentioned here, of course.
Danny is forgetting (or ignoring) Bob Gentry and Libby Cowan, gay pioneers in Laguna Beach and Costa Mesa, decades before Brandman.
We know the Answer “what killed” Jordan Brandman…. The question now is who killed Jordan Brandman…
He was a loose Cannon and they had to shut him up.
I wrote a piece on this at the time. It could have been an overdose administered by someone else, but reportedly there was no physical evidence of that apparent and neither the DA or Sheriff/Coroner showed any interest — and of course Jordan was quickly cremated (if I recall correctly) so no further investigation was possible.
I tend to think it was an accidental overdose, but it could have been a suicide brought on by despair after Dan C and others abandoned him — which was itself enough to “shut him up.” I doubt that we’ll ever really know the details.