LiveNation. OCPA. Melahat. Gaza. District Carpetbagging. Not-so-Great Park. Farrah. FivePoint. Agran Cultists. Agran Haters. Lost Veterans Cemetery. Strader. While Irvine Republicans run the gamut from Corporate Whores who boast of terrorizing Indians with bloody cows’ heads to Corporate Whores who DON’T boast so much of terrorizing Indians with bloody cows’ heads, are there any Irvine Democrat politicians who are not Train Wrecks in one or several ways?

If there’s anything that gives us moral clarity in this Bosch painting once known as The City of Beige, it’s the outrageous packet of lies the LiveNation/Republican clique demanded Tammy Kim sign off on, in return for dropping their residency suit against her (which was flailing anyway already but she could no longer afford to fight, financially or emotionally.)

And we have copies, screenshots of all of that, for those of you who think Tammy may be exaggerating and you’re too lazy to go to her website. Behold, the shameless attempts of a multinational corporation, LiveNation, to shut up a critic and force her to lie and sing their praises:

1. Tammy Must Lie about Irvine’s ’23 rejection of LiveNation.

(Proposed) Affidavit of Tammy Kim:

1. In the Winter, Spring, and Summer of 2023, as an Irvine City Councilwoman, I was a member of two-person ad hoc Committee to negotiate the terms of an Agreement with Live Nation for a permanent amphitheater in Irvine, California at the Great Park.
2. As a Councilwoman and a Committee member, my duty was to the City of Irvine and to faithfully negotiate in good faith under the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with Live Nation.
3. While negotiating, I was aware that Oliver Chi, City Manager, was trying to create a permanent amphitheater which could be run by the City of Irvine (similar to the Greek Theater in LA).
4. I met with and solicited information from AEG, a competitor to LiveNation, and I am also aware that Mr. Chi and other staff members did the same.
5. I am also aware that while the negotiations were supposed to be conducted with two members of the City Council, Mike Carroll and me, Mr. Chi was leaking details to other Councilmembers, Larry Agran and Kathleen Treseder, which constitutes a violation of the Brown Act by constituting a “serial meeting.”
6. I personally had conversations with Councilmember Kathleen Treseder outside of the two-member subcommittee about the amphitheater negotiation and due to the Brown Act one of us should not have participated in that hearing.
7. I am also aware that Mr. Chi and/or staff at his direction assisted Kathleen Treseder with drafting a motion to eliminate LiveNation from consideration for the permanent amp and that Mr. Chi coordinated to have Councilmember Agran and myself join in Treseder’s motion to violate the terms of the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement and to take away years of good faith work that been conducted in the joint design and planning for a permanent music venue at the Great Park.
8. The vote which occurred on July 25, 2023 was a violation of the terms of the ENA which had been coordinated by Oliver Chi for the benefit of him and his staff to take over control of the amphitheater and design and construction.
9. Irvine Meadows Amphitheater and FivePoint Amphitheater were fantastic live music venues in Irvine.
10. The Irvine City Council voted multiple times to exclusively negotiate with LiveNation for a permanent concert venue at the Great Park.
11. LiveNation, Starpointe Ventures, and Patrick Strader were not treated fairly by the Irvine City Manager, Kathleen Treseder, and the overall process and was deprived of the opportunity to have a good faith hearing on the proposal.

Wah, they were “not treated fairly” in ’23. SO unfair, SO unfair. Sounds just like Trump. In any case this revisionist history is what they tried to make Tammy sign off on – complete with false accusations of Brown Act violations by Kathleen Treseder and malicious lies about city staff – all in an apparent effort to pave the way for LiveNation’s re-entry into Irvine under the new Council. Good for Tammy not signing this bullshit. She, Treseder and AGRAN had plenty of good reasons to vote against LiveNation in ’23.

My colleague Greg points out,

“If Kim is telling the truth that the assertions against Treseder are false, and if we presume that they person making the demand (or their client) knew that they were false, then this would constitute suborning perjury from her in any future testimony she might be called upon to provide (in, say, a hypothetical defamation action by Treseder.) Were this material to the settlement, her telling the truth could have led to the reinstatement of criminal charges against her!“

2. Tammy Must Say What a Great Guy Anthony Kuo is!

While she’s at it, Tammy must say all this about her opponent, the somewhat strange Kuo, who happens to be a dependable LiveNation supporter:

• “Anthony Kuo is an upstanding citizen of the highest moral standing.”
• “I served on the Irvine City Council with him from 2018-2022.”
• “I witnessed firsthand as he represented Irvine as a City Councilmember with the highest level of aptitude and conduct.”

“An upstanding citizen of the highest moral standing.” LOL. Did Anthony write that part himself? [Greg says: “A political endorsement as a condition of settlement. The mind reels.”]

3. Tammy Must NEVER say anything MEAN about:

And THIS is priceless: At the risk of $100k a violation, Tammy must not only pretend this whole agreement doesn’t exist, but also agree to never say ANYTHING CRITICAL about any of these fine people, no wait, let me get the exact words:

“…at all times following the execution of this Agreement, Kim shall not make or cause to be made any statements, whether oral, written, electronic, or otherwise, that could reasonably be construed as derogatory, defamatory, or critical of the following parties:

• Ron Scolesdang
• Mike Carroll
• Anthony Kuo
• Patrick Strader
• Brian Probolsky
• Adam Probolsky
• James Mai
• LiveNation
• Dave Ellis.

“This prohibition applies to all forms of communication, including but not limited to social media, emails, text messages, publications, interviews, or verbal statements to third parties.”

Was that an EXHAUSTIVE list of the creeps and swindlers operative in Tammy’s neck of the woods? It’s pretty close. Hard to see how ANYBODY, let alone a Councilwoman trying to do her job, could keep silent about the bumbling kleptocracy of the Probolsky brothers, the insidious grasping menace of Strader, or the gleeful race-baiting of Mai. And how could you possibly do your job without saying anything “critical” about LiveNation itself? Finally… Dave Ellis? What’s Dave Ellis doing in Irvine now?

THIS Dave Ellis?

4. And by the way, LiveNation has NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!

Meanwhile Strader sent Tammy this threatening nasty-gram.

Tammy still questions, if not LiveNation, who else coulda spent what appears to be $200k getting her off the ballot, and why? If actual LiveNation brass have deniability of this operation, it’s still being done for their benefit, by a gaggle of parasites who hope to profit from it.

And it’s abundantly clear that…

None of this had ANYTHING to do with Tammy’s residence.

She wouldn’t sign on to any of their lies, but she did drop out of the race, so the District 5 seat will go to Kuo, the LiveNation Republican. (The next-most-viable, Democrat Betty Martinez Franco, is an old associate of both Jeff Flint and Melahat, who told folks she got in the race just to take votes from Tammy.)

Now that I see how badly the big money wanted to shut up Tammy Kim, I wish we’d-a supported her more. If not for Mayor, then at least for District 5, despite her residency issues, her affinity for Instagram & identity politics, and her refusal to criticize Israel’s genocide or back a ceasefire resolution.

I wish I could say something good about the DPOC supporting her, but I think that’s less about her standing up to special interests and more about their hatred of Larry Agran, the Jew who dares to criticize Israel – I know how quick the insider Democrats, especially in that area, are to cry “anti-Semitism” at the drop of a hat.

And I think I will have to follow this with a piece on Larry, since he will be not only Mayor but the SWING VOTE between 3 moderate Democrats and 3 LiveNation Republicans. The world, or the city anyway, will once again revolve around Larry Agran. Stay tuned for “Agran’s Game.”

What could Kuo and Agran be hobnobbing about?