If you've paid attention to local elections in the past, you know that local politics is some of the dirtiest there is.
The Walnut - Diamond Bar area is famous for a list of routine dirty tricks that are always pulled out whenever the puppeteers behind the scenes feel threatened by regular people. Here's what you can expect.
- Some anonymous person will claim that campaign signs were stolen from their lawn.
- The local sheriff will take a complaint and then do nothing to investigate. (They know what the game is.)
- Local publishing and public relations magnate, Mr. PR, will write a story about the stolen signs saying that the bad guys (that's us) are responsible.
- Mr. PR will lie that the bad guys had not responded by press time. (He never made contact.)
- Mr. PR will print 30,000 extra copies of his weekly litter. (The name changes on a regular basis to confuse his clueless advertisers and the litter police.)
- Mr. PR will have the 30,000 extra copies of the weekly litter delivered to people's gutters where it will mostly sit and weather in the sun or deteriorate as sprinkler water washes over it, finally being swept up by the street sweeper on its next sweeping day.
- Some anonymous person will claim that some nondescript person stole Mr. PR's weekly litter out of the gutter.
- The local sheriff will take a complaint and then do nothing to investigate.
- Mr. PR will write a story about his stolen weekly litter saying that the bad guys are responsible.
- Mr. PR will state that the bad guys had not responded by press time.
- Mr. PR will print 30,000 extra copies of his weekly litter.
- Mr. PR will have the 30,000 extra copies of the weekly litter delivered to people's gutters where it will mostly sit and weather in the sun or deteriorate as sprinkler water washes over it, finally being swept up by the street sweeper on its next sweeping day.
- Some city council member will speak out about freedom of the press at the next council meeting and offer a reward for tips leading to prosecution.
- Mr. PR will write a story about the city council meeting and the reward.
- Mr. PR will print 30,000 extra copies of his weekly litter.
- Mr. PR will have the 30,000 extra copies of the weekly litter delivered to people's gutters where it will mostly sit and weather in the sun or deteriorate as sprinkler water washes over it, finally being swept up by the street sweeper on its next sweeping day.
- Mr. PR will magically find some new material that he just happened to find in his mail box from a local hit-piece campaign committee (the good guys).
- Mr. PR will publish it verbatim in his weekly litter without attribution of the source.
- Mr. PR will print 30,000 extra copies of his weekly litter.
- Mr. PR will have the 30,000 extra copies of the weekly litter delivered to people's gutters where it will mostly sit and weather in the sun or deteriorate as sprinkler water washes over it, finally being swept up by the street sweeper on its next sweeping day.
- By now, it's election day. The weekly litter on the streets will still be around for several more weeks, but there won't be any new weekly litter, because it doesn't pay to litter when no one's footing the bill.
In the sleepy little Walnut Valley, this is what amounts to high drama.
Anyone who's aware of the this character (Mr. PR) should know that he's been either on the payroll of or a hired gun of the Walnut Valley Unified School District in the past. He may still be, but for this election the Board went with the high-priced guys in San Francisco.
I have some personal insight into this character as well. You might remember that Nadine Brown published a monthly magazine that was delivered by mail to everyone in Walnut and many in Diamond Bar. It was called the Walnut Times. Nadine didn't have a domain name for her magazine back then. Mr. PR was starting his weekly litter company in the late 1990's. He bought the domain name walnuttimes.com and had it pointed to his Walnut Weekly News (the name at the time). So anyone that might be searching the Internet for Nadine's magazine might end up on Mr. PR's web site. When the complaint was sent to ICANN (the judges of Internet disputes), Mr. PR didn't defend his actions and eventually lost the domain. That's just the kind of guy he is.
Copyright © 2015, Richard Michael. All Rights Reserved.