The winners of our first Venice Beach Scumbag Awards.

by Eric Ahlberg, Jon Wolff, and Todd von Hoffman.

First, Todd von Hoffman’s excellent editorial.

A sad day for Venice but hopefully relief for a family. We’ve been friends of Mike Bonin since he worked with our other Councilman pal Bill Rosendahl. The recall was run by toxic do-nothings & the gross personal vitriol spewed by these jackasses is a microcosm of national degenerated discourse. A main contributing factor is the FB Venice “Community” site run by Helen Stotler McDonough where the likes of Nick Antonicello, Mark Ryavec, and Alan Parsons fester in the best Lonely Guys fashion. Oh, and

 Robin Murez showed up at our door with a Recall clipboard – no surprise from the equally happy gal who quit our Heritage Museum Board only to blindside causing endless delays to us with her frantic carousel project that could go in any available children’s park. Too much Spite Soda I’m thinking but a wild guess. While our family has spent so many years involved in fun creative events it continues to astound us that among so many bright & creative Venetians we are continually dogged by these embittered shameless gremlins who appear to have just stepped out of Frank Capra’s central casting for villains. Naturally that includes the Corrupt Clique of Commerce Confederacy of Douches who have dogged my family with slanderous personal attacks, Donna Lasman, David Moring, Alex Rosales, George Francisco, Carl Lambert, Jill Prestup of the historian-free Hysterical Society, and their cadre of the clueless. Life is simple & pretty great – it’s not complicated. But all negative behavior is created by the same cancer – Insecurity. I should feel bad for them but I don’t. I thank Mike Bonin though & we wish his family well.

Bonin out!-( Haters in?~}:‑<

by Eric Ahlberg 

Squeals of joy could be heard from the NIMBYS, after Mike Bonin dropped out of the race for his seat as LA City Councilman for Council District11 (CD11), after a vicious campaign of slander and innuendo against him. Local media stations KFI and KABC got on board the anti-Bonin campaign and gave airtime to Mark Ryavec to do his negative campaigning. KFI Drive time entertainers John and Ken, who often gave Mark Ryavec airtime to bash Bonin on KFI, gave themselves credit for forcing Bonin out of the race. They had orgy of Bonin hating after Bonin quit the race. John Phillips on KABC played Hallelujah Chorus when Mike Bonin’s name was mentioned.

The Venice NIMBYS had been quite let down when their recall of Bonin failed to qualify for the ballot, but elated when Bonin dropped out. They were quite proud of the number of signatures gathered, but after the city verified their signatures, there were not enough to qualify for the ballot. Still they touted their signatures which were certified as providing enough election votes to unseat Bonin. Getting signatures by lying to people in front of grocery stores, is much different than getting them out to the polls on the right day.

The haters on Venice (California) Community Facebook group were overjoyed, as were the haters on Nextdoor and Twitter, where they had been shit posting every post Mike Bonin would make, and though he withdrew, they can’t stop.

Mike Bonin felt he could win, but politics is getting very brutal. The repeated lying and slandering of him took a toll. He became depressed, and he wanted out. Better for him. Politics is so full of brave liars.

LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said, “Mike showed incredible courage and honesty in taking this action to put his mental health and family first, and I could not be prouder to call him a dear friend and an incredibly talented and valuable colleague, I’ve experienced some of the same obnoxious harassment Mike and his family has endured — bullhorns spewing hateful rhetoric, harassers violently banging on my door at all hours of the night, disturbing my neighbors and their frightened children with their unhinged conspiracy theories.”

Mike Bonin’s withdrawal is Mark Ryavec’s dream come true. He ran against Mike Bonin and was defeated(~15%). Mr. Ryavec was at Joe Buscaino’s press conference on Ocean Front Walk, when a homeless woman dropped a knife, nowhere near Buscaino, and then the allied media actors attending forged this into an attack by a homeless person on Buscaino. It became an international breaking news story, though it was an invention of the campaign operatives, who swore it was true in affidavits, but whose stories did not check out with video which was all over the event. No case was filed against the alleged attacker, Angel, and she was released OR.

Mr. Ryavec has for years campaigned against homeless camps and supportive housing projects, mostly by fear mongering and lies, the mudslinger’s goto. Crime is skyrocketing, dangerous criminals are among the homeless campers in your neighborhood, eying your school children, or eying them from the supportive housing that hasn’t been built. This is the easiest no-brainer boilerplate toxic campaign strategy, just accuse the incumbent of criminal corruption and incompetence, make stuff up, use all the negative opinion vocabulary that you can muscle. Slander in political speech is as old as speech. It is a tool of satire since it mocks the alleged high and mighty, it brings them down. Even apes do it. Facts, though useful, are unnecessary when words out of context can be mocked. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/10/world/europe/trump-truth-lies-power.html

What is up with all the hating?

Is it perhaps performative outrage?

“A marketing tactic where media actively looks for unintentional, out of context, or irrelevant things to be outraged over, usually through identity politics, to create a manufactured feeling of us vs them to keep the working class divided. Instead of fixing bigotry it exacerbates it. This tactic works on people who are bored, lack nuanced thinking, and are easily manipulated into tribalism.” “I’m sick of performative outrage. We all have more in common than we think! Now is the time for empathy and understanding, not division!” by woke af person January 25, 2019 – Urban Dictionary

“You’re not honoring his imagined lived experience.” – The Problem with John Stewart.

The NIMBYS feel that Mike Bonin, and the city generally, have not done enough to get homeless poor off of their streets. True enough, but has anyone in the US been successful in housing and rehabbing the indigent poor?. The NIMBYS also oppose temporary shelters and permanent supportive housing in Venice. They have spread fear of crimes committed by homeless persons, mostly by promoting the crime reports attributable to homeless persons, and fear mongering that children must be protected from exposure to homeless persons. They blame Bonin’s policies wherever they could, which is social media everywhere.

The NIMBY CD11 candidates sound just like Republicans. “We will clean up our cities and stop pretending that crime is OK,” they say, promising to fight back against “many prosecutors in big cities [who] are allowing criminals to go free with no justice, and they are doing it on purpose.” – Rick Scott, National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The recall effort was supported by three Republican Operatives, as part of several recall campaigns against elected Democrats, which failed. The Venice NIMBYS said that they could not get any help to do this from the Democratic Party so they were forced to ally with Republicans, those lovers of democracy who attempted to overthrow the US Election.

The Democratic Party (DP) has platformed the humanitarian messaging, and seeks to build temporary and permanent housing. Supportive and affordable housing should be built everywhere, says the National and State Democratic Party Platforms. But the DP has a problem with its constituents, the housed want their sidewalks back. Would Republicans like to exploit this schism in the Democrats ranks?

Bonin was attacked for alleged increases in crime, but I don’t trust the LAPD to produce accurate statistics, and the District Attorney is the other half of that story anyway. Police have incidence reports, the DA must evaluate evidence and policy before bringing charges. People are angry on both sides of the police/DA crackdown/imprisonment issue. When has that not been true?
The longevity of the housing and affordability and employment crises provide a feast of societal problems to use in mudslinging. All of the wrongs caused by greed and lobbyist corruption are attributed to the incumbent, by insinuation, without substantiation, often referencing government documents which don’t support what they are saying.

Homelessness is a national, even global problem. The only countries in the world who have “solved” the problem have better social services. Social services in the US have been gutted since the Reagan years. Means testing, drug testing, restrictions on guests, locked front doors hours, and shitty housing situations cause many homeless persons to leave the DHSS housing. Democratic Party efforts to address the problems of poverty with legislation, but they are hamstrung by Democrats who ally with Republicans.

Mike Bonin’s Office helped coordinate the “cleanup” of Venice Beach Homeless campers. He gets no credit for this, and if any tents land on the sand now, they immediately blame Bonin.

“Whoever succeeds Bonin is going to find that the fractured, multi-agency homeless services bureaucracy is an incorrigible beast. Then there’s the housing crisis, abject poverty, mental health service failures and other forces beyond direct control of a council member. In many instances, helping someone can be complicated.” – Steve Lopez, LA Times

So who are the players in this NIMBY DINO Republican Alliance to screw tenants and improve their pocketbooks.

The Westside Current is clearly a propaganda organ for nimbyness. It was founded by Jamie Paige, and has featured fake news attributing crimes to homeless people, even when the police say they don’t know who did it. Angela MacGregor and Nick Antonicello often contribute. Summary: Crime and homeless are the fault of politicians who fail to enforce the law, and have failed to house the homeless.

Nick Antonicello – He is a promoter and publisher of Luxury Property Magazines. He’s a more clever writer than some, but always remember what he represents.

Mark Ryavec – Venice Stakeholders Association, Their platform: Crime and homeless are the fault of politicians who fail to enforce the law, and have failed to house the homeless. Obstructionist to Supportive Housing.

Christian Wrede – Fight Back Venice (Monster on Median) opposes all supportive housing in VENICE.

Alan Parsons – promotes crime stories some of which were fake news, Street Crime Troll, Bonin shitposter.

Robin Murez – sister of Jim Murez, dittohead on the Recall Bonin promoters.

James Murez. may we remind you that he spoke in favor of the Penske’s buying of the FBCV.

George Francisco & Carl Lambert – Total scofflaws about their Ellis act violating evictions.

“The trickiest part of solving homelessness is making sure your compassion and generosity do not incentivize homelessness and make the homeless complacent.” – Venice Homeless Committee Passes Motion To Regulate Street Donations – Westside Current Jan 26, 2022…? ….You mean our front page?

So how will these CD11 candidates structure their campaign rhetoric? Will they run against Supportive Housing, against supportive services, and in favor of harsher treatment of the indigent poor?  Are they going to magically make housing for the poor cheaper?  Will they try to cancel supportive housing projects in our neighborhood?

Mike Newhouse – whose bitch is he anyway?

Traci Park – she is favored by Mark Ryavec. She still has anti-Bonin rhetoric on her campaign website. She has raised the most money. The DINO candidate.

James Murez – casual talk has Jim as a small fry in a big pond.

Greg Good – we hear good things.

Erin Darling – we hear really good things.

POLITICS, n.
A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. – Ambrose Bierce