RIGHEIMER'S VOTE LEAD CONTINUES TO GROW
The first count after all precincts reported in on 11/3 showed that the highest vote getter in the Costa Mesa City Council election, Jim Righeimer, led 2nd place finisher Wendy Leece by 983 votes.
The latest count from 11/14 shows he now has 1,403 votes more than Leece. The Registrar will continue counting, but is close to finishing counting all votes and should have them all counted today or tomorrow.
Righeimer has never once trailed Leece in all of the daily counts.
Clearly, citizens of Costa Mesa have rejected all the negative campaigning put on by the unions and have said that they trust Jim Righeimer more than they trust Wendy Leece.
Remember, Leece came into this race not only as the incumbent, but also with the title Mayor Pro Tem which should have given her the vote advantage. Remember also that those trying to defeat Righeimer spent at least three times as much as Righeimer spent.
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COSTA MESA TO CREATE A TASK FORCE ON HOMELESSNESS?
At it's regularly scheduled Nov. 17 meeting, the Parks and Recreation Commission will vote on asking the City Council to establish a task force to study homelessness in Costa Mesa. LINK to agenda report.
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INDIANS (feathered) HAVE POW WOW TO DISCUSS PROBLEMS
The first count after all precincts reported in on 11/3 showed that the highest vote getter in the Costa Mesa City Council election, Jim Righeimer, led 2nd place finisher Wendy Leece by 983 votes.
The latest count from 11/14 shows he now has 1,403 votes more than Leece. The Registrar will continue counting, but is close to finishing counting all votes and should have them all counted today or tomorrow.
Righeimer has never once trailed Leece in all of the daily counts.
Clearly, citizens of Costa Mesa have rejected all the negative campaigning put on by the unions and have said that they trust Jim Righeimer more than they trust Wendy Leece.
Remember, Leece came into this race not only as the incumbent, but also with the title Mayor Pro Tem which should have given her the vote advantage. Remember also that those trying to defeat Righeimer spent at least three times as much as Righeimer spent.
# # #
COSTA MESA TO CREATE A TASK FORCE ON HOMELESSNESS?
At it's regularly scheduled Nov. 17 meeting, the Parks and Recreation Commission will vote on asking the City Council to establish a task force to study homelessness in Costa Mesa. LINK to agenda report.
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INDIANS (feathered) HAVE POW WOW TO DISCUSS PROBLEMS
You have to read down to the seventh paragraph in the above linked column to find this sentence that is the real nub of the problem faced by the Indians and all other distinct peoples. The writer of the column just put this in as a throw away line:
"The National Congress of American Indians was founded in 1944 in response to assimilation policies being imposed on tribes by the federal government."
"Assimilation," when you're talking about a genetically distinct people, is just another word for genocide. You can also use the words "extinction" and "disappearance."
If you take the time to read the above linked article you'll see other subtle signs of the effects of assimilation and how it is even inadvertently countenanced by some Indian leaders themselves.
For example, Jefferson Keel is identified as the President of the National Congress of American Indians and as the lieutenant governor of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma.
Now, before Europeans came to America, do you think Indians called their leaders "Presidents," and do you think they had "lieutenant governors"? Of course they didn't. Those who use these terms have assimilated into European culture to some degree. That is, they have adopted the terms used by European-Americans for various leaders in government.
When a distinct people loses its language, it's on the path to its own extinction.
You see that word Pow Wow, in the above title of this column? According to Wikipedia it's a variation of the original powwaw used by the Narragansett Indians. Also according to Wikipedia it is now considered "disrespectful of Native culture," when used to refer to a meeting of powerful people. Now, why should that be the case? Why should an English word for such a meeting be more acceptable and not disrespectful?
But, examples of assimilation needn't be as stark as what we see happening to the Indians. They are everywhere.
The English have been trying to "assimilate" their almost genetically identical cousins, the Irish, for centuries, and one of the ways they first tried to do this was to punish Irish people who spoke Gaelic instead of English. See a parallel with the Indians?
But, instead of completely giving in to English, the Irish are trying to revive their own language. Today, the head of the Irish government is called: Taoiseach (pronounced tee-ShoKH) which is Gaelic for leader.
In Eastern Europe, the Gypsies have also been targets of assimilation for centuries.
Today, the Han Chinese are trying to assimilate the Tibetans.
Many Jewish leaders today worry that Jews are being assimilated through intermarriage with non-Jews.
Now, the truth of the matter is that the various threads of assimilation we see among humans is what we also see throughout nature in the eternal struggle for existence and dominance in various environmental niches, as evolution--mainly via natural selection--continues on like a perpetual motion machine.
The difference between humans and other organisms is that we can study and understand the automatic ways of nature--including assimilation of distinct peoples--and we can act to change the course of history if we so desire.
Some Indians apparently understand these things and they are rejecting assimilation.
The Cherokee Nation, for example, says that there is no such thing as a Black or White Indian (HERE) and has voted to deny tribal citizenship to the descendants of freed slaves who have been living among the Cherokees since before the Civil War.
The reality of nature is that genes are us. Lose your genes and you are no longer you.
Will the American Indians continue to exist as a distinct people, or will they be assimilated away? Time will tell.
The changes we see that constitute evolution, are nature's default settings. Humans have the ability to change some of those settings.
The changes we see that constitute evolution, are nature's default settings. Humans have the ability to change some of those settings.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
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