Holes

This year has been a weird tapestry of non-sense perpetrated by the Just Us Brothers.
We are halfway thru 2015; two fronts still haunt their departure from CRA. First is the membership records and the other is the money.

Membership Records
After several email threads and lawyer letters, former Membership Secretary, George Park, finally sent a paper copy of a list to his replacement, Carl Brickey. The file was printed on security paper so it could not be scanned. Later three zipped files with the same information were sent to Brickey. The records that Park sent were heavily edited and frankly worthless.

Here are some examples of their dubious nature:

• Park claimed that his beloved Placer County Republican Assembly had four members. This list is a far cry from the 105 members he and his brother had been claiming earlier this year. He lost 101 members from his own club?

• Sacramento RA was showing 54 members on Park’s list even though they had reported something closer to 20 prior to the convention. All the bogus Igor Birman members were still on Park’s list for SRA. He should know which ones were inactive since he was the one that added them in the first place.

• Several active chapters were missing in their entirety. Most of these seemed to be in one of two categories. Either they were groups like Yuba-Sutter that were assumed would follow the Parks into CIR or groups that George didn’t like so he just unilaterally purged them from the CRA rolls.

No chapter bylaws, territorial maps, or historic data were given to Brickey. Park claimed this data loss was due to computer troubles in March. I guess this is why Park then deleted all the records stored online in April and then closed the Hightail account. Park also had originals of these documents—mostly in paper form. Termites maybe?

Don’t forget that a month after this supposed loss of records that George was able to provide his brother with membership lists, membership applications, and of course cancelled checks just so Aaron could publish the information on the Internet.

Misappropriated Money
Then there is the money that they have misappropriated. Just in the first six months of 2015, the Park Brothers have (by my count) taken over $34,000 from CRA and its chapters. The bulk of this is from the Placer Republican Assembly. In addition there is the CRA Business Round Table, CRA Convention and Placer RA PAC. They also had access to the funds of the Statewide CRA under John Briscoe for about two years. The seed money for their new organization—CIR—could very well have come from CRA funds. Fruit of the poisoned tree anyone?

As more information has come to light, we are slowly learning of some unreported Park campaign activities that may be of interest the FPPC.

Many want to light-up the Just Us Brothers like Roman Candles but Tom Hudson has been reluctant to do so. In the end, I think to protect the CRA that Hudson will have to bless some sort of legal action.

Other outside parties may jump into the litigation arena in their own good time. The Just Us Brothers present such a target rich environment that somebody will go after them eventually. They have calculated that the cost/benefit ratio of their malfeasance is not enough to pursue. They have risked much; including their insurance broker license.

There are times when men should “mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor” but to make such a pledge when you have no honor is pathologically stupid.

These guys are way over the cliff and those of us with signs reading, “GRAVITY” are just being laughed at…for now.

Just Us Brothers Unveil CIR

The Just Us Brothers have quietly rolled-out their long delayed Impact Republicans website. The website is weak on content and substance. In four months one would think they could have put something better together.

The home page proclaims, “Your Vote Counts! Join Us!” which is ironic because a member organization—such as their group claims to be—has no membership application or way to join on the website. You can only sign up for email updates. Also no Bylaws are available for viewing.

Several statements on the website are ironic when given the previous conduct of the founding members of this group.

Now
“The CIR is committed to recruiting Conservative Republican candidates for local office, training and equipping leaders, fundraising, and endorsing candidates for public office based on a different metric than other Republican groups have used in the past.”

Then
“Maybe what we are doing … will be ground-breaking. If you advertise here – it means an endorsement.” Previous statement by Aaron Park.

Current website
“Our senior officers are elected through a unique process, ensuring that the CIR remains in the hands of the activists.”

In their Bylaws, CIR has the following restrictions:
• In order to serve as President of the CIR, the candidate for this office must have been a member of the CIR for a minimum of 3 years.
• The Administrative Vice President must have been a member of the CIR for 2 years before becoming a candidate for this office.
• County Commissioners and Senate Directors must have been a member of CIR for 1 year before becoming a candidate for this office.

OK, so how does this square with this claim from the website? “Every CIR member will have a voice by being eligible to be a delegate to the CIR yearly convention.”

“you may not realize it – but once we get expelled, it is going to set off a mass exodus.” Aaron Park May 20, 2015

The reality is that CRA has added about ten chapters since the departure of the Just Us Brothers. No chapters have voted to leave CRA and follow the Boys to the Promised Land “free of the drama and the debating society”.

Also on their website, “The CIR will be presenting its credentials for consideration of a charter at the California Republican Party Convention in Anaheim in September.”

Chartering by CRP will require that CIR has chapters in ten counties with ten members each and an overall membership of at least 200. With no mass exodus from CRA and the limits imposed on being an officer, how do they get thru the review process of the California Republican Party. Per their Bylaws, CIR will need a year before new folks can lead at the bottom rungs for their Board. Lastly, why seek chartering by CRP at the same convention that they will vote to gut the social issues from the Party Platform? CIR is a little late to the dance.

Clearly CIR’s idea of leadership involves a chasm between the sheep and the shepherds that cannot be easily bridged.

Perot Museum

Ross Perot, T. Boone Pickens, and others from Texas have crafted a nice museum in downtown Dallas. The Perot Museum is five floors of exhibits plus the ground floor and a basement. Each floor has its own themes and it touches on history, geology, geography, animals, and electronics. The whole family spent a day there recently.
Perot Museum website

Attached are a few photos. My favorite were the dinosaur skeletons. My only gripe was the constant pushing of everything being millions of years ago.
Yeah, right.

Fossil on display

 

Triceratops skulls

 

 

Mammoth skeleton

 

 

Prescott AZ

Our first stop was in Prescott, Arizona to see some old friends. We went to All Saints Church that Sunday. I thought of the song by Larry Norman

“Country church, country people
With their eyes upon the Lord
Built a church with a steeple
As a place to hear His word”

Travel Fun

In June, our family went on a two week trek across the southwest. I plan to blog more about the trip later but there were three goofy things that I felt deserved mention on the blog.

Life is peculiar enough that you don’t need to make stuff up. Here’s a little proof of that.

Road Sign
On Interstate 40, just before you enter Kingman Arizona, is an exit that probably has a great backstory; I don’t know what it really is but you can’t help but speculate when you see the exit to Shinarump Road.

 

 

For those not so good with syllables it breaks down as “shine-a-rump road”.
I thought San Francisco was the leader in social decay but to see this sign welcoming you to John McCain’s backyard is weird. I guess what happens in Kingman stays in Kingman.

Window Sign
From New Mexico is this peculiar juxtaposition at the UFO Museum in Roswell.

 

The sign in the right-hand window is the last thing I expected to see in a place where “Aliens are among us” was regarded as true.

 

OK, I don’t know what Primitive Baptist is either but it does make you wonder.

McDonald’s Sign
This entry from rural Texas really grated on the nerves of my school teacher wife.

Decimals are placeholders or values or something important like that. Anyway, somebody missed the lesson.