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Is Don Wagner the “Pro Life” candidate?

Posted by Brenda Higgins on February 28, 2019

I received a forwarded email yesterday from someone who called herself, Dr. Something-or-other, Ph.D.  I have known some people with Ph.D.’s and rarely do the credible ones have to mention it twice in their name, but I digress.  I don’t know the person who allegedly originated the email, but it urged a vote for Don Wagner for the vacant Third District Supervisorial seat in the upcoming special election.  It alleged that the reason for voting for Don Wagner, was because he is “Pro Life”.

Here is what the email doesn’t mention.

The entire Republican platform says that it is “Pro Life”.  In spite of this, the OCGOP endorsed THREE candidates for local office last election that were adamantly Pro Choice, NOT in any way Pro-Life.  I wrote about that here, and I spoke to two of the candidates.  Both of them nice women, who won those local elections, but decidedly contrary to anything the Republican party purports to stand for.  If this is your issue, at a minimum, the time has come to do a gut check level evaluation of what that really means, to you, to your party and to the candidates that we all vote in lock step with, because the party “endorsed” them, or because some Dr.-Ph.D. told us to.

And, while, we continue to stew in our outrage about the fact that 44 Democrats voted AGAINST Senator Ben Sase’s Bill to require medical aid be given to infants born alive after a botched abortion…..why don’t we ask our selves WHY it took until 2019, for such a bill to actually make it to the Senate floor.  Many botched abortions have occurred in the past 46 years, NOW we realize that?  Have we just learned this, or have the Republicans been asleep at the switch?  While Obama was president, several times the Republican controlled congress managed to get a bill to Defund Planned Parenthood to the President’s desk, only to have it vetoed.  The outrage was measured and predictable.  Doesn’t anyone find it odd that no such bill was forwarded to the desk of President Trump, who promised to sign it?

Don Wagner, is the GOP endorsed candidate for the Supervisorial seat vacated by Todd Spitzer.  Incumbent Irvine mayor, Don Wagner was just re-elected to that position on November 6, 2018.  He was easily endorsed by the OCGOP, at the February meeting of the GOP, even before he was qualified as a candidate for the Third District Supervisor seat.  No one seems concerned or bothered by the fact that he vacates the seat he just ran for, and will leave his city in a special election lurch,  a process that can cost a city hundreds of thousands of dollars, but yay for fiscal responsibility.

Prior to being elected Mayor, Don Wagner was in the State Assembly from 2010 to 2016.  While every Republican in Sacramento portends to be “Pro Life”, they have managed to return to their districts every year and with the same shrug of the shoulders, declare that it is really tough in Sacramento and they just can’t get anything done.  What we must ask ourselves then, is what good are they, and why do we even need them.  Taking up space and collecting salaries and benefits while they lament about their own ineffectiveness.

The actual votes of the Assemblymember, are irrelevant. Just as legislators do in Washington D.C., they can feign outrage and do nothing, as long as they are in the minority.   They pick their issues, and negotiate on them. They can choose which “hill they will die on”, so to speak.  The bottom line in Sacramento, is that all of the Republicans, (save one lone woman from middle of the state) are utterly unwilling to put their limited bargaining power on the line for the unborn.  If the unborn were constituents that Don Wagner and his colleagues had to face, it is easy to imagine they would make the curtailing of abortion in California a higher priority.  As it stands, it is a free for all for the abortion cartel in Sacramento, because there is no incentive for anyone to make a real stand for Life.

Here are some of the victories for the abortion cartel that occurred on Don Wagner’s watch while he was in Sacramento (2010 – 2016):

  • AB777 – Required Pro Life medical clinics and Pregnancy Resource centers to promote and provide referrals to Abortion providers.  (This legislation was so reprehensible that the Supreme Court struck it down last year, see the analysis of Nifla V. Becerra at Political Vanguard)
  • AB154 – Nurse Practitioners, Midwives and Physicians Assistants can perform abortions. The purpose of this is obvious, to employ more professionals who will perform abortions because, more and more doctors are unwilling to participate in the procedure.  This decline in the number of abortionists is making it difficult for the abortion cartel to expand their business, so they expand it in the way they always have, by endangering women and offering sub-par care.
  • AB980 – Cloaked as a building codes revision, this law makes it easier for buildings to be converted into surgical abortion facilities by reducing the standards for plumbing and patient treatment rooms.  Because abortion is a surgical procedure that produces medical waste (i.e. dead babies) and because it potentially involves a life threatening complications, there should be safety, health considerations and ability to transport a patient or for emergency personnel to obtain access to a patient.  These parameters however, can become expensive for a clinic to bring a facility up to those standards.  The way the California legislature responded the the Planned Parenthood sponsored bill, was the lower, rather than raise, those standards for abortion clinics.  Plumbing.  This bill was promoted and sponsored by Planned Parenthood as a plumbing standards legislation.  Ask yourself why they are concerned about plumbing.
  • SB128 Assisted Suicide – this appears to have survived it’s court battle.  It was passed in a “special session” in 2015 that was supposed to be dealing with budgetary issues only, this euthanasia law was pushed forward anyways. The stories that have come out about this, place the responsibility for pushing this at this inappropriate time,  upon Governor Brown.  It passed, was signed by the governor, and faced legal challenges shortly after.  The law designed to shorten the life of people with diagnosed illnesses, seems to have survived the court process, as of 2018.  Euthanasia.  California is working to become a leader in killing.

For Don Wagner or any Republican legislator to call themselves “Pro Life” while they served in a State Assembly that fast tracked abortion and other anti-Life legislation in California, is disingenuous at best.  The representation that he is the only “Pro Life” Third District candidate is not only untrue, because there are two other “Pro Life” Republicans in the race, but it is an unfair representation of his do nothing approach to life and abortion issues while he was in Sacramento.  Having had an opportunity to stand for Life, Don Wagner chose to have a seat and not make any difference at all.

Here is a list of Assemblyman Wagner’s accomplishments. The question that should be asked, is, what really, is the difference between Wagner and Loretta Sanchez?

Posted in 3rd Supervisorial District, Anaheim, Irvine, Villa Park | Tagged: | 7 Comments »

Ballot Harvesting

Posted by Brenda Higgins on December 3, 2018

Since the blue wave that swept Orange County in November 2018, there has been much discussion and outrage at the multiple victories of the Democrats.  I have looked in vain for a thoughtful analysis of the relatively new law known as “Ballot Harvesting”.  The reactions of conservatives and Republicans to the election results have been shock and outrage.   Those sentiments are fueled by party leadership’s failure to provide meaningful explanation of the law, and the lack of party strategy in addressing it during the 2018 cycle.  A productive discussion is needed, with truth about what the statute says and doesn’t say, and what party leadership did and did not do.  There may very well have been fraudulent activity, but it is impossible to discern that, unless and until we appreciate what was permissible under the law, and the utter lack of response to the possibilities.

In September 2016, Governor Brown signed AB-1921 , it was codified as Elections Code Section 3017.  In past elections, (i.e. prior to 2016) a “Vote by mail” voter, which most Republicans are, could mail their ballot, drop it off at the polling place, or have a relative or member of their household drop it off at the polling place.  It had to be received at the polling place before the polls closed, or received by the Registrar of Voters (if by mail) prior to the closing of the polls on election day.

It is easy to see that even with the Vote by Mail ballots, there are impediments for some people.  If you live alone, if you have no relatives, if you are unable to get to the polling place and can’t or just forgot to mail it on time, maybe you don’t have the $1.00 in postage (It does require two stamps that are $.050 now), or you can’t get to the post office to get stamps.  For elderly or disabled persons in particular, it is easy to see how these things could prevent a person from exercising their constitutional right to vote.

The new law provides that you can turn your ballot over to anyone you want to, and have them drop it off at the polling place.  The law provides that the person transporting the ballot can not be paid for doing so, not by a campaign or party or political action committee.  The Ballot “Harvester”, if you will, just has to be a well intentioned person who wants to help a voter out.  On its face, seems like a great idea, ask your neighbor or the nice lady you know from church to take your ballot to the polls for you.  The opportunity arises though, for a grassroots army, of well organized volunteers, who could be working the Get Out the Vote process in a way that visits voters at their home to make sure they get registered, offer some helpful advice and information on what the issues are and about the candidates, offer to pick up the ballot on election day and take it to the polls for you.  It all sounds like a wonderful program, a win-win situation.

There is a window of opportunity created by this new law.  The law itself is impartial, and not a terrible idea in that it increases the ability and likelihood that someone can exercise their constitutional right to vote.  The problem with any window of opportunity, is that if you don’t move to make it work for you, it becomes a liability.  That seems to be what happened to Orange County Republicans in the 2018 election.

Before the primary in June, the California Republican Party engaged in a pilot program to call on consistent Republican voters and volunteers would offer to pick up their ballot and take it to the polling place.  The problem was, many Republican voters who were contacted refused.   This is the same thing we have seen in recent past elections with polling.  The polls have tended to favor Democrats, never forget the “sure thing” of a Hillary presidency, because Republican voters are disinclined to share their opinions or information with strangers.  They were similarly disinclined to turn over their ballots.  The OCGOP therefore abandoned any effort to organize and/or leverage the new law in their favor in the November election. They stuck to the old tried and true phone banking and canvassing calling on the RWF to round up the woman power to Get Out The Vote.

Democrats maximized their leverage of the new law  by registering new Democrat voters, getting out the vote from low propensity voters (who haven’t often voted), increasing the voter contact and then, ‘harvesting’, offering for volunteers to pick up and deliver voters ballots to the polls.

The Registrar in Orange County has been quoted as saying that the numbers of ballots dropped off on election day in the November 2018 election was unprecedented.

On November 19, at the OCGOP monthly meeting, a very contrite Chairman Fred Whitaker, discussed Ballot Harvesting and indicated that he had significantly underestimated the impact it would have in the 2018 races.  By that date, it had become clear that the county had lost every congressional seat, as well as State Assembly and State Senate seats.   On election night, the early returns had Republicans in slim leads in the congressional and state legislature seats.  As the hundreds of thousands of “Harvested” ballots were tallied, those leads disappeared.  On that evening of November 19, it was clear that no congressional seats were saved and the words of Chairman Whitaker dismissing Democrat challengers earlier in the year “Let them die on the hill in Orange County”, had come back to haunt him in the worst way.  Similarly, Mimi Walters, when asked in March if she had any concerns about being re-elected, she exerted a confident “No”.   This arrogance did not serve the party well, and translated to losses even for those who took the threat of harvested ballots seriously.

Young Kim was talking about harvested ballots. Travis Allen was talking about the threat of harvested ballots.  It is of little benefit for single candidates to recognize an existential threat to their candidacy when the party has affirmatively decided to ignore it.

The ballots turned in through the harvesting of volunteers, are not per se, ‘fraudulent’ votes.  That is the distinction that so many who are outraged over this result are missing. The elucidation of the new law herein, is not to say there was no election fraud, but to point out, it is a different issue.  In the November 19 meeting, Chairman Whitaker and others told stories of many long hours spent at the County office of the Registrar, observing the ballots being counted to look for any anomalies.  Mark Meuser and others did the same in many other counties.  Fraud may very well have been at work in this election and affected the result.  Deborah Pauly, OCGOP Central Committee representative noted that this new procedure  “May further have denigrated election integrity”, as there have been myriad other concerns  raised about election integrity in this election where not just Ballot Harvesting, but Motor Voter law, and an incompetent and recalcitrant DMV, have created a brave new world of election fraud possibilities.

The new law permitting Ballot Harvesting in California, should also not be confused with the ban on such harvesting in Arizona.  The Arizona law prohibiting ballot harvesting was challenged in the 9th Circuit.  On an emergency basis, in a remarkably brief, two line ruling,  the court refused to stay the Arizona law.  So, as of the 2018 election, ballot harvesting was banned, by law in Arizona.  That legal matter is still pending with the 9th Circuit and scheduled for a full  hearing  in January.  That case may shed some light on the California law, but it is important to know that the law is opposite in the two states.

Many factors likely contributed to the blue sweep of this famously red county.   It is disappointing and the sheer magnitude of the defeat is breathtaking.  The party has emphasized this ballot harvesting as being the problem.  It is onerous sounding, “Ballot Harvesting” without an understanding of the law.  This fueling of outrage though, does work in keeping constituents upset, and in their outrage, they fail to analyze and appreciate all of the other malfeasance by party leadership.  Given the classic behavior of liberals and conservatives, everyone should have known that the harvesting would dramatically favor democrats.  Given the make up and rhetoric surrounding the House of Representatives on a national level, they knew the efforts of the Democratic National Convention would be focused, aggressively  here.  In the constant refrain of polling and strategy, party leaders knew that demographics were changing and the market share of the Grand Old Party was shrinking in this region.

What the party missed was a set of cohesive messaging and ideas, conservative philosophy, simply communicated to voters.  Conservative ideals, of smaller government and greater civil liberties, law and order and government that stays out of your way…this is the ideal that sells that has always been the heart of the Republican party.  But, in their effort to distance themselves from Trump, because a pollster told them to, they forget what they were about.   The party, again in this election, let the liberals set the tone and the agenda and stuck to statistical models and polls, instead of revisiting our foundation, of greater freedom through smaller government.

In the current environment, if a candidate can not make the case for conservatism, then that candidate is finished. That is the battle field.  It will no longer work to just make voting easier and pander to a demographic, with slick mailers and repetitive phone calls. Voters are more sophisticated than that and they want to have a sense of the party’s core beliefs and the candidate’s willingness to adhere to that.  The party also put up “recognizable” names, without any appreciation for the baggage and displeasure that may be associated with the names.  Polls can’t tell you that.  Only involvement with the non-political constituents can give a reading on that.

Ranting about fraud or ballot harvesting, and encouraging others to rant about it,  is just a failure to accept full responsibility for an abject failure to see and plan for what was to come.  There is so much more the party needs to be doing to come into being a force to be reckoned with in the new political environment.  One thing is for sure, what we have always done, and ignoring and discounting what has occurred nationally, is not the right plan forward.  Other than attempting to gloss over the massacre of 2018, by congratulating the local officials who were endorsed and won races, the party has not communicated what the plan forward is.  There’s been no indication of leadership change, little acknowledgment of fault or malfeasance, no indication of what if anything will be done to address real irregularities that came up and were reported during the election season.  It will behoove and be incumbent upon leadership to forge and communicate a new path forward, and it would seem to be prudent to do that sooner rather than later.

There is an election in 23 months. Orange County, has no Republican incumbents in Congress.  Rebuilding, if it is going to be attempted, needs to be happening now.

 

Posted in 34th Senate District, 39th Congressional District, 45th Congressional District, 48th Congressional District, 49th Congressional District, 4th Supervisorial District, 74th Assembly District, California, Orange County, Republican Central Committee, U.S. Politics | Tagged: | 4 Comments »

New President Wen

Posted by Brenda Higgins on September 12, 2018

 

The hippocratic oath originally included a pledge not to administer any abortifacient treatments to pregnant women.  How times have changed.

Today, abortion giant Planned Parenthood named physician, Leana Wen to be their new leader.  Her initial statements following the announcement today, signal that the abortion provider intends to step up their rhetoric that they provide ‘health care’ for women.

Planned Parenthood provides over 300,000 abortions each year, making them the single largest abortion provider in the United States.  Also interesting in the initial statement by and about Dr. Wen, is the substantial deviation from their traditonal approach and messaging. 

Cecil Richards, the former president of Planned Parenthood was political royalty, the daughter of popular Texas Governor Ann Richards, and well connected to all the deep pockets and the most elite of Washington DC and elsewhere.  Cecile, in her role as the face of the Pro-Choice movement was on every Sunday morning or other political pundit show, and used her platform to laud the importance of a woman’s right to chose.  At this time however, the environment has changed and a more sophisticated electorate as well as more shrewd and aggressive Pro-Life organizations, is prompting Planned Parenthood to modify their approach.

They chose a minority woman to be their new face, who is also a medical doctor, which helps them bolster claims of being a “health care” provider.  It is not clear if they will begin by actually providing screening for breast cancer, if they will provide STI testing at free or no cost or if they will  provide free pregnancy tests, obstetric care,  or ultra sounds for pregnant women.  These services now are either not offered at Planned Parenthood, or they are conditioned upon contracting for an abortion, or are only available at a significant cost.  There are no mammograms happening at Planned Parenthood, that has been established. 

It wil be interesting to see if they are working to make good on their promise of “health care” for women, or if they will continue being primarily a for profit business whose business is abortion.

Dr. Wen will officially join Planned Parenthood in November.  Up until this hiring she has been the Health Direcor of the city of Baltimore.  During the time the Dr. Wen has headed the Baltimore Health Department, she presided over the “B’more for Healthy Babies”, a concerted effort by the Baltimore Department of Health to reduce drastically high statistics of Infant Mortality in the city. 

Dr. Wen was successful in Baltimore, by cutting the infant mortality rate by 38% over five years by using data to assess at the risk women in the city.

Sad and strange.

After years of working hard to save the lives of babies of at risk in minority and poor women, Dr. Wen will now be spearheading the organization that has targeted that at-risk and monority popultion, an organiztion whose founder (Margaret Sanger) embraced eugenics through abortion as a form of population control in minority communties.  

Similarly sad and strange, Dr. Wen, a chinese immigrant, was brought to the U.S. by her parents when she was 8 years old.  China’s forced abortion, one-child policy has resulted in the extermination of nearly a half million Chinese, most of them women.  Fortunately for Dr. Wen, in the U.S. she actually does have a choice, unlike Chinese women and their female babies.

Already, Dr Wen, has couched her view of the work of Planned Parenthood as one of compassion toward women.  Truly compassionate care toward women would address the needs of the whole woman, of her baby, of her ongoing health.  As they continue to distribute abortion pills without follow up or medical supervision, as they begin the process of distributing abortion pills on college campuses without doctors or medical follow up, it is disingenuous and illogical to portray the organization as being concerned about the well being of women.  

It is a new day, of amped up rhetoric and increased deception.  Planned Parenthood is an abortion business, it is not clear yet if the hiring of Dr. Wen is to increase the health care posturing, or if they really will begin offering services consistent with their claims.  There are many, and the numbers are growing every day,  women’s health care clinics that actually do provide health care for women. If Dr. Wen was concerned about women’s health, and serving minority and poor women who are at-risk, she would be partnering with those life affirming pregnancy medical centers.  The most at-risk and under-represented women in America, are the ones who are still residing in their mothers wombs. 

Posted in Orange, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

OCGOP endorses Pro Choice Candidates

Posted by Brenda Higgins on September 6, 2018

The Central Committee has endorsed three Pro-Choice Candidates for the November election.  

Laura Ferguson – City Council of San Clemente

Jaimey Federico – City Council of Dana Pointe

Barabara Delegleize – (Incumbent) City Council of Huntington Beach

When Laura Ferguson’s request for endorsement was before the endorsement committee, LeRoy Mills indicated that his conscience would not allow him to support her, given her Pro-Choice stance.  Her request for endorsement was sent to the full committee with the Endorsement Committee voting 4-1.  The full committee voted to endorse her.  Laura Ferguson responded to this bloggers request for confirmation, indicating that she was open and honest about her stance and noted that LeRoy Mills did in fact vote to endorse one candidate who was also Pro-Choice in spite of expressing concern about Ferguson. 

Jamey Federico is a retired Marine, Lieutenant Collonel. Jennifer Beal and Gene Hernandez expressed their support for Federico at the Endorsement Committee meeting. Linda Davies expressed concern that liberals were gaining ground in coastal areas.  Federico stated his belief that Cheif Justice Roberts and Judge Kavanagh have made statement indicating that Roe v. Wade is “settled law”.  No one questioned his articulation of the law or what he had atributed to the justices.  He also stated that he has spoken to voters who have not voted Republican because of this one issue.  LeRoy Mills questioned Federico on his Pro-Choice stance, but Federico was unanimously, 5-0, reccommended to be sent to the full committee for endorsement.   It is not clear what made the difference to LeRoy Mills between these two Pro-Choice candidates.  Federico was then later, endorsed by the full Central Committee. 

Barbara Delegleize was endorsed by the full Central Committee on August 20.  She received the requisite signatures to bypass the Endorsements Committee.  Delegleize is an incumbent, running her third race for Huntington Beach City council.  She did not reeive the OCGOP endorsement the first time she ran, she beleives that was because she was candidly Pro-Choice.  She indicates she has not changed that position.  She stated did not seek the endorsment of the OCGOP when she ran for the term she is currently serving, believing that her Pro-choice stance would again prevent her from obtaining the endorsement. However, now, with no indication of what has or might have chnged in the interim, other than her being a Republican incumbent, she received the endorsement with no significant resistance. She indicated she was not present at the meeting wherein she received the party approval.  This blogger inquired of Delegleize if she was aware of the terms of the party platform related to abortion.  Delegleize indicated there were many issues in which the party deviated from what it’s stated position is. 

As is shown from the reporting that appears throughout this blog, there was no lack of discussion in the endorsements process. Members of the Endorsement and Central Committee asked detail, relevant and pointed questions.  It is not clear why then, there was this aquiescnence to candidates who balatantly veered off the platform.  The party platform states:

THE RIGHT TO LIFE

The California Republican Party is the party that protects innocent life because we believe life begins at conception and ends at natural death.

We support laws that protect unborn children from partial birth, sex selection, and tax-payer funded abortions, and abortions performed as a form of birth control or on minor girls without their parents’ notification and consent.

We believe that the question of abortion is a matter that should be left to the people through their elected representatives, not usurped by the United States Supreme Court. Accordingly, we encourage the reversal of the Roe v. Wade decision.

We support adoption as an alternative to abortion and call on lawmakers to reduce the bureaucratic burden placed on adoptive couples.

As a part of respecting the sanctity of life for disabled persons, we oppose efforts to legalize assisted suicide or euthanasia.

We support a comprehensive ban on all human cloning.

The California Republican Party supports ethical stem cell research that focuses on cures and does not destroy innocent human life. 

The platform is not only clear, it is fully contrary and incongruent with the opinion statement of Candidate Federico, and easily something that both Delegleize and Ferguson were aware of.  

Peggy Huang, Endorsement Committe Member and Central Committee officer,  reportedly commented, that in City Council elections, these issues rarely come up and are not particularly relevant. (She has not been reached to confirm)  Delegleize, in discussing it with this blogger, affirmed that as being her view as well, stating that aborition is an issue of federal law and national policy not likely to come before the city council.

This unfortunate and short sighted view, ignores the fact that higher offices are filled by candidates, who began their political career in lower offices. Former Chairman Baugh more than once reminded the Central Committee in endorsement meetings that Governor Jerry Brown was once a Community Collge Board member.  This “What difference does it make” attitude also ignores the fact the the issue of Life, is one that is personal, and local, and by defintion in the case law that defines it, the responsibilty of the state to set the law and policy. It is a state issue.  It is by definition in the consitution and subsequent case law, a state issue. To dismiss abortion as a non-issue at the ‘city council’ level displays an abject ignorance of the law, and in particular of the deceptive and guerrilla tactics of abortion giant, Planned Parenthood.  

The comment by Linda Davies, that liberals are gaining traction and territory in coastal cities, presumably meaning, Hunitngton Beach, San Clemente, and Dana Point, is telling.  It is consistent with the years long trend of the OCGOP to lament about losing ground, while at the same time declaring it is necessary to give up some more.  

Why is this the approach?  Why is the strategy to compromise and relinquish and negate what the party itself alleges to stand for?

At a time when the national Republican party is seeing unprecendented growth, in donations and membership, the once conservative leader, Orange County, survives by constant measured acquiescence.  There was some discussion in these meetings of mentoring new candidates, but the myopic attention to details of what pledge each candidate had signed and whom they may have supported in past elections, overcame any discussions of party ideals and foundational concepts.  The forest of minutea has overtaken the gloriousness of the trees which are, our core beleifs.  

Every time government grows, Liberty dies a little, and every “right” that has to be exercised at the expense of another, is not freedom, but oppression.  


This, is conservativism in a nutshell.

Conservativism, is in every way, a better idea than the constant outrage being peddled by the Left. It does not require killing to implement, but we have to understand and be capable of articulating it.  A gay hardresser from New York has managed to do it, to articulate conservative ideals in a way that is meanignful and attractive.  But, leaders in the OCGOP are working off an older and different script. One that assumes and starts from a place where our ideals are too lofty and we must torque it down, and whittle off some corners somewhere.   #WalkAway gets it, and they are growing the party by a movement that sees the benefits in the tenets of conservativism, and recognizes the illusive falsehood of freedom gained through the oppression of another class of people.  We have no need to apologize or compromise in order to deceive some people to come over to our side.  We have better ideas, and one of them, is Life. 

When it came to slaves, and women and civil rights, Republicans have managed to be on the right side of history, consistently standing for the oppressed.  Why would we seek to join the Left now and give up on our stated agenda to end the genocide of the unborn?

OCGOP has missed the  mark, and missed the movement.  These endorsements make it apparent that they either don’t believe in conservative ideals, or lack any understanding and ability to communicate them.  

These leaders are right about the fact that we are losing ground, but they miss the fact that we are losing ground, because they are giving it away.  

If candidates don’t adhere to the platform, then don’t endorse.  If that is problematic, then at least bring some integrity and truth into the process and declare that the platform is abandonned, and set parameters that are real.  Based upon this and prior election endorsements, perhaps the parameters should be…..we will endorse you as long as you did not cause any trouble for our friends; we will endose you as long as you have enough money in the bank; we will endorse you if you are a war hero; we will endorse you if you gave money to other people we like; we will endorse you if you belong to the right clubs, or if you have participated in winning elections; we might even endorse you if you fit a demographic.  

It sounds silly, but if you are watching this process over the past few election seasons,  there’s some scary truth right there.

We have better ideas.  We have a better platform.  The rest of the nation is catching this, why can’t OCGOP get it?  We don’t have to pander, and we should not.  We could sustain high standards and succeed.  Selling out our core values inherently weakens our message, in all races, and conspires in a fraud on the voter.  A voter sees the platform, sees the endorsement, and thinks they are the same. In these three instnaces, they are dramtically ideologically, different. 

We stand for something or we don’t.  At this point, with these endorsements, we stand, with the Democrats, on the graves of 60 million aborted Americans.  Is that where we want to be?

Posted in Dana Point, Huntington Beach, San Clemente | Tagged: | 2 Comments »

Nifla v. Becerra, It’s not an abortion case

Posted by Brenda Higgins on July 9, 2018

The Reproductive FACT act was a boldly unconstitutional law that was signed by Governor Brown in October 2015. 

The Bill, AB 775 (Later codified as H&S 123470) was entitled the Reproductive FACT Act (Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care, and Accountability)  The bill provided that Pro-Life Pregnancy centers, who exist because of their objection to abortion, would be required to provide information about abortion to their clients, in their office, on their internal forms and in all advertising.  The onerous law also mandated exact language, required large font type and required in some counties that the notices would have to be provided in 13 languages.  

The case (NIFLA v. Becerra) decided by the Supreme Court was an appeal brought by NIFLA (National Institute for Life and Family Advocates) after the Ninth Circuit ruled the law to be constitutional and not in violation of the First Amendment.  There was another case brought in Riverside County Superior court, Sharpen v. Harris, challenging the constitutionality of the law.   Judge Gloria Trask  ruled in favor of the pregnancy center, finding that the FACT Act violated Article 1, section 2 of the California Constitution.
The  Riverside Superior court, relied upon U.S. Supreme Court precedent related to the U.S. constitution’s First Amendment. The court stated, “Compelled speech is that which forces a speaker to say that which he or she may or may not believe.  Compelled speech is undoubtedly necessary in many circumstances.  But compelled speech of a political or cultural nature, is not the tool of a free government.”  

The Riverside court applied Strict Scrutiny, the highest level of constitutional scrutiny, and said  that the political speech related to abortion, can not be neutral in nature.  The court found that the state of California failed to show any compelling state interest advanced by the regulation.

The FACT Act mandated two different notices.  One notice was for ‘licensed’ facilities, and another notice for ‘unlicensed’ facilities.  A ‘licensed’ facility was defined by the statute as a clinic whose ‘primary purpose is providing family planning or pregnancy related services’.  The ‘unlicensed’ facility was defined as one ‘whose primary purpose is pregnancy related services’ but who did not have a medical director on staff.

The Ninth Circuit, said that the pregnancy centers “were unable to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits of their First Amendment claims.”  The Ninth Circuit court went on to state that  Strict Scrutiny was not warranted and that the “Act is a neutral law of general applicability, which survived rational basis (The lowest level of constitutional scrutiny) review.” As to the notice for licensed facilities, the Ninth Circuit found that it was entitled to only Intermediate scrutiny (Heightened, but not strict) and that the FACT Act survived Intermediate Scrutiny.  The Ninth Circuit  found that the unlicensed notice survived ANY level of scrutiny.  

The Ninth Circuit opinion spent much effort discussing “professional speech”.   One of the first things noted by The Supreme Court in its ruling overturning the Ninth Circuit, is that the Supreme Court has never recognized “professional speech” as a special category of speech giving it some lower “Intermediate” threshold of consideration.  Justice Thomas writing for the majority said, “This Court has been reluctant to mark off new categories of speech for diminished constitutional protection.”

Justice Thomas, also noted,  “The licensed notice at issue here is not an informed consent requirement or any other regulation of professional conduct. The notice does not facilitate informed consent to a medical procedure. In fact, it is not tied to a procedure at all. It applies to all interactions between a covered facility and its clients, regardless of whether a medical procedure is ever sought, offered, or performed.”  Justice Thomas pointed out the gaping exceptions in the FACT Act, exempting state and federal managed and funded providers.  This regulation, was targeted toward those clinics and resource centers that are largely non-profit, pro-life and Christian.

 

The Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit both called the FACT Act, “Content Based”.  Content based regulation generally triggers the high level strict scrutiny review for constitutionality.  The Ninth Circuit veered around this standard with its created category of “professional speech”  The Supreme Court rejected that effort to find justification for the FACT Act.

Justice Kennedy’s concurring opinion was clear and direct. 

“The history of the Act’s passage and its underinclusive application suggest a real 

possibility that these individuals were targeted because of their beliefs. ……”

  “It is forward thinking to begin by reading the First Amendment as ratified in 1791; to understand the history of authoritarian government as the Founders then knew it; to confirm that history since then shows how relentless authoritarian regimes are in their attempts to stifle free speech; and to carry those lessons onward as we seek to preserve and teach the necessity of freedom of speech for the generations to come.”

“Governments must not be allowed to force persons to express a message contrary to their deepest convictions. Freedom of speech secures freedom of thought and belief. This law imperils those liberties.”

Breyer’s dissent laments that the court should only look to the “reasonableness of the Legislature’s belief in the existence of evils and in the effectiveness of the remedy provided.” With one fell swoop, ignoring the whole body of First Amendment freedoms of speech and religion and dismissing the viewpoint encroachment of the state of California. 

No part of  Breyer’s dissent or the now discredited Ninth Circuit opinion, addressed the obvious and underlying philosophy of California that there is a ‘state interest’, in making sure women know about state funded abortion services. 

Breyer relies heavily upon Planned Parenthood v. Casey (Casey).  Interesting, in that the Ninth Circuit cites Casey as well, but in support of an opposite argument.   Breyer, criticizing Thomas and Kennedy’s majority opinion states, “one might take the majority’s decision to mean that speech about abortion is special”.  The Ninth Circuit, also relying on Casey, said that the high court had not announced a “rule regarding the level of scrutiny to apply in abortion-related disclosure cases”, implying throughout their ruling that abortion-related disclosure is in fact entitled to some yet undefined special scrutiny.  

The problem with the reliance upon Casey by both Breyer and the Ninth Circuit, is that Casey,  reaffirms Roe, which held that the Woman, not the state, has a right of Privacy and thus, a right to an abortion of an unviable fetus.  The state, as held in both of those seminal cases, has a interest in the life of the child, at the point of viability.  

The backwards application of Casey, by both the Ninth Circuit and Breyer, is not insignificant.  In the mental gymnastics they engage in to attempt to find support for this constitutionally offensive law, they attempt to create a new and unrecognized exception, and imagine a state interest in providing abortion.  

The majority and concurring opinions written by Thomas and Kennedy, do not even get to the lack of congruency in those positions of support for the law, because the FACT Act was so blatantly offensive to the First Amendment under proper scrutiny.  Judge Trask in Riverside similarly recognized the inherent flaw in the Act in that in infringed speech in a way it compelled clinics to “speak words with which it profoundly disagrees”.

The case should be an example, and a wake up call.  The fact that such a overtly biased and constitutionally offensive law made its way through the legislature and governors office, only to be defended by not one, but two Attorneys general, should tell us something about either the energy or the arrogance with which the left will go in the current environment, to silence those that it disagrees with.  

Justice Thomas put it like this:

Throughout history, governments have “manipulat[ed] the content of doctor-patient discourse” to increase state power and suppress minorities: 

“For example, during the Cultural Revolution, Chinese physicians were dispatched to the countryside to convince peasants to use contraception. In the 1930s, the Soviet government expedited completion of a construction project on the Siberian railroad by ordering doctors to both reject requests for medical leave from work and conceal this government order from their patients. In Nazi Germany, the Third Reich systematically violated the separation between state ideology and medical discourse. German physicians were taught that they owed a higher duty to the ‘health of the Volk’ than to the health of individual patients. Recently, Nicolae Ceausescu’s strategy to increase the Romanian birth rate included prohibitions against giving advice to patients about the use of birth control devices and disseminating information about the use of condoms as a means of preventing the transmission of AIDS.” Berg, Toward a First Amendment Theory of Doctor-Patient Discourse and the Right To Receive Unbiased Medical Advice, 74 B. U. L. Rev. 201, 201– 202 (1994) (footnotes omitted). 

Ultimately, the majority of the Supreme Court saw this power grab for the constitutional overreach that it was, and ruled accordingly.  

Posted in California | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

The perpetual race for second place

Posted by Brenda Higgins on June 2, 2018

Polls are not hard to understand.  The science of polling, even with the basic college level understanding of how the math behind it works, is also easily understood to be not just subjective, but fully within the manipulation of the pollster.

It doesn’t take a scientific poll to see and comprehend what has happened in elections in the U.S. and around the world in the past three U.S election cycles.  People with a real power to vote, have done so. And, they have done so in outright rebellion to those in power who have told them what to do and how to vote.  In spite of the effort of this ruling class of politicians and pollsters and pundits, people have rejected their group-think advisements to vote as they are being told to vote, and they are voting, with a level of enthusiasm and fervor, that we have not seen in our lifetime.

People have, in massive numbers, rejected what they have been told, and voted for candidates that experts said could not win.  My opinion is based upon my own very unscientific polling. I knocked on people’s doors and talked to them about things like health insurance and abortion. I called them on the phone and talked to them about Unions and school bonds.  I knocked on their doors to remind them to vote or show up to their caucus. I have done this many thousands of times in the past few election cycles.

They want to talk about things that aren’t in the polls.  In 2014 in Arkansas, people expressed angry reflexive passion to  vote for any candidate with a “R” by their name. In 2015 there was fury over more special elections and efforts to create more special taxes to fix things they thought were already paying taxes for.  In Nevada in 2016 they only wanted to talk about Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders and had no interest in hearing anything else.  In 2018, as I talk to people on phones and at their front door, about the down-ticket, they want to talk about Travis Allen.

The politicians and pollsters and pundits, have told people in the past three election cycles that whatever they are feeling or thinking as an individual, sitting in their living room in front of their TV or behind their computer screen, the way that they should think because a lot of people think that way, and this is who you should vote for because all the other people are going to vote that way.  The American public has rejected that instruction out of hand, and have become inherently distrustful of the media and of ‘establishment’ politicians.  Funny thing it, the media is now telling them that this has happened because of Donald Trump.  The media misses it again.  The rebellion is not ‘because’ of Donald Trump,  Donald Trump is because of the rebellion.

So it is in 2018, California.

Here’s a poll.  How many Democrat governors have we had in California since 1959?  That is more than a half century.  Think about that, because in the past three election cycles, Democrats, Republicans, pollsters and media pundits, continue to tell Californians that they can only have a Democrat governor.

In the past 59 years, we have had three Democrat Governors.  Brown, Brown, Davis, and Brown again.  Three. And one, Grey Davis, was kicked out of office by the rulers of California, the California people.  In the same time period, we have had four Republicans, Schwarzenegger, Wilson, Deukmejian, and Reagan.

Reagan’s two terms were after the two terms of Edmund G. Brown. and before two terms of his son, Jerry Brown.  Jerry Brown had ANOTHER two terms, after Schwartzenegger ousted Grey Davis. The last time we had a one term Governor was Culbert Olson in 1938. He was a Democrat. Before Culbert Olson, sequential Republicans held the office for nearly 50 years. You have to look back to 1894 to find another Democrat Governor.  My point is, there is not a long or strong history of support for Democrat Governors in this state, and in the last three election cycles, voters in every other state have rejected Democrat governors by wide margins.  Republicans are Governors in 33 states.  In 32 states, Republicans control BOTH houses of the legislature.  In 2010, Republicans controlled ONLY FOURTEEN STATES.  14, in 2010.

The tide has changed and California citizens are missing the benefit of conservative ideals.

In the past three election cycles, the pollsters and pundits and party leaders (in both parties actually)  are telling the voting public to sit down and be quiet, that there may never be a republican Governor in California again.  In keeping with their pearl clutching and hand wringing, over their polls, and research and infinite wisdom, they have given us, Meg Whitman and Neel Kashkari in the past two races for Governor.  There was a bizarre victory lap when Neal Kashkari lost by less than expected in 2014.  These two were barely Republicans, they were wealthy people who spent their own money and the party rejoiced in that.  Kashkari, who had never held public office and supported Obama in 2008,  was outspent by something like 10 to 1, so he got more votes per dollar than Meg Whitman.  The party leaders bizarrely counted in a victory and called on Tim Donnelly to step down because (by default)  Kashkari was the party ‘standard bearer’.

Now we have another non-Californian, rich guy, and they are asking the voters to do the same.  Take one for the team, vote this way because we are telling you that everyone else is going to vote this way, and we need to have a candidate at the “top of the ticket”.

Gone is any language about reclaiming the Governors mansion at any time in the future, the strategy is simply to get someone bland enough, lack luster enough in policies, and rich enough to pay for some TV commercials, but not to win.

There is no strategy to re-take the governors mansion or find and promote a conservative candidate for governor in California.

Donald Trump did not have a path to 270.  There is a scientific poll.  The historic fact however, is that he far exceeded that necessary 270.

In 59 years, a member of the Brown family has held the Governors office for 24 years, 6 terms.  There are no more members of the Brown dynasty, but the professionals are telling us that it is time for the Newsom/Pelosi dynasty to be coronated.  There is nothing you can do about it, we have given you this proper second place finisher, please just sit down and let us tell you how to vote.  Ruling, establishment, elitism, but in their tone deafness, they miss, that THIS is precisely what the rebellion has been aimed at.

Remember, this is what they told us about Hillary.  It was her turn.  She had the money, the experience, she was the most “qualified” and that Donald Trump was a joke. The coronation of the next ruling member of the Clinton dynasty had arrived.  Sit down Peasants.   The pollsters always leave out one thing.

The ruling class are not rulers, and the people are still in charge, and their not buying this.

Cox is a big government advocate still. No matter what he tries to do to distance himself from his own ideas. His only voting record, is his vote for Pro-Choice, Open Borders, Libertarian, Gary Johnson.  Cox has never won a race.  That makes him a perfect choice for the second place strategy.

Travis Allen has never lost a race, and was never expected to be in office.  The pollsters, pundits and ruling class have counted him out, and told him to sit down and wait his turn for the entirety of his political career.

Historically, it is time for the Governor’s Mansion to be turned back to the Republicans.  Someone needs to tell the leadership of the Republican party, they dont know it yet.   There is no justification for rolling over and paying dead with a second place candidate.   Californians, just like Americans across the country in the past three elections, have risen up to remind you, who is in charge, and they seem to be pretty tired of Second Place.

 

Posted in California, Campaign Finance | Tagged: | 2 Comments »

The Reality of the Record

Posted by Brenda Higgins on June 2, 2018

Both Travis Allen and John Cox are running for California Governor, as Republicans, and on a Pro- life platform.  Pro Life Voters who support John Cox have declared that Travis Allen is “Not so” Pro-Life.  They have cited legislation in which Travis Allen took no position, as being dispositive of their content that he is not “Pro-Life”, but provide no real analysis of the legislation at issue.

I provided a detailed analysis of SB743, here.  I analyzed that one bill, because the California Pro Life Council, cited it exclusively, and repeatedly on their facebook page.  There are multiple other bills that are cited as being dispositive of the position that Travis Allen is “Not so” pro-life, and they are as follows.

Notworthy at the outset of this analysis, is that 41 votes are needed to pass legislations out of the Assembly.  Travis Allen abstained, meaning, did not vote, on ANY of these Pro-Abortion bills.

AB154 Allows Nurses to perform Surgical abortions.  49 votes in favor.

SB743 Allows Medical Patients to choose their care provider. 55 votes in favor. (Discussed at length in my prior article)

AB569 Code of Conduct for Employment may not include prohibiting abortion. 55 votes in favor.

AB569 Building Codes for Abortion Clinics. 50 Votes in favor.

The Anti-Travis Allen people have also cited these bills, in which he also had NO vote.

AB105 Gender Neutral words in codes, changing the words from Husband/ Wife, to Spouse.  63 votes in favor.

In 2016, Travis Allen received an approval rating from Planned Parenthood, of 67%.  In that year, Travis Allen voted with 62 other State Assembly members, to end the California tax on Feminine Products, Tampons and Maxi Pads.  The governor vetoed that bill when it got to him.

Travis Allen has been in the Legislature since 2013, and has not voted for Planned Parenthood to receive funding, has not voted in favor of abortion, has not voted in favor of any law expanding abortion or funding of abortion.

John Cox has never held public office, in spite of running a half dozen times.  He has admitted that he voted for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate for President in 2016.  This is Gary Johnson’s position on Abortion.

Both men have stated that they are “Pro-Life”, yet John Cox’ representation has been accepted out of hand, and the real record of Travis Allen has been rejected.   The Pro-Life Lobby is just one segment, but the lack of clarity or rational justification for these endorsements deserves some scrutiny and attention.

I am a pro-life activist, and I will be voting for Travis Allen.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

I’m a Pro Life Activist and I’m voting for Travis Allen

Posted by Brenda Higgins on May 22, 2018

 As I have researched the alleged issues, I realize that there has been not only disinformation, but combined with short sightedness and lack of thorough analysis, the reactionary ‘endorsements’ of Cox have been sorely misplaced.  John Cox has simply stated that he is Pro-Life, which is inconsistent with his vote for Pro-choice Libertarian  Gary Johnson for president.  Yet, the ‘movement’ seems disinclined to exact any consequences upon him for that.  The primarily cited reason for rejection Travis Allen’s representation that he is Pro-Life is the number of time he abstained on legislation that was of interest to the Pro-Life lobby.  The most oft cited of those is dealt with here, but the analysis of the other pieces of legislation that Travis Allen is faulted for, are similarly innocuous when looked at in the detail of impact his vote may have had.

Labels are funny things.  They have become a knee jerk reactive prompt, that we respond to like Pavlov’s dog.  We have to, above all, bring humanity back into policy and politics, or we truly have accomplished nothing, in particular, when we call ourselves advocates for “life”.  We should be more careful with words like “choice” and “family planning” and realize that they are just words.  We should also be up to speed on what is happening in Pro-Life non-profits, charities and life affirming medical clinics.  Organizations that not only affirm life, but provide….choices, AND, Family Planning.  Just because we use words that are used by bad guys, does not mean, we are bad guys.

 SB 743, was entitled, The Protection of Choice for Family Planning Providers. It was presented to the Assembly on 9/13/17.  The problem that many “Pro Life” leaders are having on this particular bill is that Travis Allen did NOT vote on it, he abstained.  In discussion this with those conservatives who oppose Travis Allen as a governor candidate, no one could tell me exactly what difference his vote would have made.  The answer lies in the 55-21 split, in favor of passage.  Travis Allen’s vote, yes, no, or abstain, was in fact, irrelevant.  It would have passed no matter what Travis Allen did.  

Travis Allen is further faulted by these “Pro Life” advocates, for abstaining on other “Pro Life” bills.  Anyone who has ever been in Sacramento and conversed with conservative legislators there in the past three decades, knows, that you must pick your battles.  In the interests of what you can get done, you might have to ignore and let go of what you can not get done.  A few years ago, a California Senator told me that Jerry Brown was the best ally we conservatives had in Sacramento. It puzzled me at first, but I realized it was because the Governor, with his veto power, was holding a fiscally conservative line periodically, which provided the conservatives some maneuvering ability, not much, but some.  During the 6 years that Travis Allen has been in the State Assembly in Sacramento, the Democrats have had a majority, (more than half) and for all but two years it was a Super-majority (More than two thirds).  The minority in such a hostile environment, must have some shrewd strategy and survival skills. 

The passage of SB 743, is not in any way the apolcalyptic defeat of the Pro Life Movement that they are making it out to be.  In reviewing the listed advocates and opponents of this legislation, I am (again) puzzled as to whether anyone taking a side,  actually read it.  Of course, a variety of Planned Parenthood organizations supported it.  Particularly puzzling though, is the Catholic opposition to it.   Catholic charities strongly support many pro-life pregnancy centers that will benefit greatly from this legislation.
The legislation, SB 743, does not specifically, or exclusively, fund abortion.

It provides that if a woman is receiving funding for her medical care through a government subsidized health plan, she should be able to CHOOSE her provider.  What is unreasonable about that?  She may choose abortion with that blank check of benefits given her, but she can ALSO choose life affirming medical care for herself and her unborn child.  These medi-cal and medicaid benefits are a tremendous help to those life affirming medical centers, and those centers offer so much more to mothers than Planned Parenthood does. 

“Medi-Cal managed care plan shall not restrict the choice of the qualified provider from whom a beneficiary enrolled in the managed care plan may receive family planning services covered by the Medi-Cal program”  SB743 (

Maybe their issue is that women might choose Planned Parenthood.  She may, however, choose a life affirming medical clinic for her ‘family planning services’.   Choice, it is not a bad thing, and it is not a bad word. The question the Pro Life Lobby should be asking itself, is are WE doing ENOUGH to support these kinds of centers and divert these women to them?  Are we making these known?  Are they as easily recognized, branded and exposed and familiar to the public as Planned Parenthood.  Women, and men, go to Planned Parenthood because they are shocked, surprised, overwhelmed, unsure and immensely afraid.  They go to what they know.  Why cant we change what they know?  There are other OPTIONS.  They have real CHOICES.

With the woman having a real choice, she can choose a life affirming center.  It is up to the Pro Life movement to step up the game to reach these women.  With President Trump signaling that he will be enforcing Title X limitations on funding to abortion providers, this opportunity is truly wide open for life affirming medical centers to expand their reach and their market share.  While we myopically focus on old battle fields, opposing anything and everything that might benefit Planned Parenthood, an entirely new opportunity is springing up to simply put them out of business.  We will miss it if we keep splitting hairs over whom is Pro-Life enough for us.

Planned Parenthood performs over 300,000 abortions each year. They offer no prenatal care, no parenting support and refer only 2,500 adoptions.  That is not any range of CHOICE.  Pro Life Pregnancy clinics offer real support, and, real choice.  Choice is not a bad word, we just surrendered it and let them have it.  We should take it back.  Choices, when they are real and meaningful, are good things.  

It does not seem that any of Travis Allen’s opponents thought of this.  Again, though, Travis Allen did not vote on this, did not sponsor this, and was not a deciding factor in its passage.  It remains however a deciding factor in Pro Life organizations and activists rejecting him as a candidate.

The failure to fully consider the scope of this and other legislation, the full impact of life affirming ministries and organizations is incredibly short sighted of “Pro-Life” activists, but to compound their error of improperly analyzing the impact of this law, by saddling an illusive negative impact, upon a legislator and now governor candidate who had NOTHING to do with its passage, is just simple incompetence, and utter unfairness.

Travis Allen, is by far the best candidate we have seen for Governor of California in many years.  I just hope it is not too late to undo the misinformation damage that has occurred from these improper analyses.

I am a Pro Life Activist, I work in Life Affirming ministry, and I will be voting for Travis Allen.  

Posted in California, Orange County, U.S. Politics | Tagged: | 3 Comments »

Unholy Aliances: Body Parts trafficking in the Land of Gracious Living

Posted by Brenda Higgins on March 28, 2018

 

DaVinci Biosciences and related company, DVB, became part of the national exposure of Planned Parenthood and its distribution and sale of fetal body parts. David Daleidin and The Center for Medical Progress exposed these Planned Parenthood practices and a congressional investigation followed. The report that came from that investigation recommended prosecution and further investigation, into more than a dozen entities. Orange County District Attorney followed thorough with prosecution of the body parts traffickers found here, but many authorities and jurisdictions have not. New Mexico, whose university and interconnectedness with Planned Parenthood were some of the largest offenders, has elected to take no action.

DaVinci and DVB were formed in 2007 and 2009 respectively. Both for-profit corporations, both located at the same physical location in Savi Ranch area of Yorba Linda. OCDA stated that the companies were nearly indistinguishable, sharing employees and the same location, and both companies are owned and operated by several members of the Isaias family from Ecuador.

The Isias family migrated from Ecuador amid much controversy. In 2012, the Isaias’s were convicted in Ecuador, in absensia, for bank fraud. The conviction alleged that they falsified records of their bank, Filanbanco, in order to obtain more than $600 million in their government’s bailout funds. Presumably, the funds they bilked from the Ecuadorian government provided the foundation for the DaVinci companies, as well as their ‘media” venture in Florida, Fyre TV, an on-demand porn platform. The Isaiases are also rumored to have extensive real estate holdings, and have been reported to have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to political cadidates, like Marco Rubio, Barrack Obama, the DNC, and Senator Robert Menendez. In 2016, they gave $300,000 to the DNC.

Several members of the Isaias family encountered immigration difficulties after being caught smuggling ‘maids’ into the US. Both Senator Robert Menendez, and the Clinton State Department intervened on their behalf. The Obama administration refused to cooperate with Ecuador in extradition of the Isaiases. Linda Jewell, the American ambassador in Ecuador, indicated that the intervention of Senator Menendez and apparent favorable treatment by the State Department was “substantially beyond the usual level of interest.”

A direct link to the U.S. government favoring Ecuadorian convicts, and the Ecuadorian embassy in London harboring Julia Assange, has not been established. However, it is not a stretch to see retribution and discord in the actions of both nations. The Obama administration relationship with Ecuador was strained at best.

When the House Select Panel began its investigation in 2016, DaVinci was slow to produce the records of its donations to Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties (PPOSBC). The report form the Select Panel ultimately concluded though, that the DaVinci group was brazen in its effort to market and profit from the fetal tissue it was procuring from PPOSB. The report showed that DaVinci had a sales force and extensive marketing plan, product brochures, a website and bulk discounts for their best customers. They also offered financing on approved credit, holiday discounts and free samples.

Stem Express and Advanced Biosciences are other California based fetal body parts traffickers who were investigated by the House Select Panel. Stem Express paid Planned Parenthood a per-shipment fee, while Advanced Biosciences paid a monthly procurement fee. DaVinci Made some tax deductible donations totalling nearly $4,000.00 between 2008 and 2011, but nothing in the investigation showed that they were paying a procurement fee. DaVinci provided the containers and picked up the specimens. Planned Parenthood obtained the consent, procured and collected the tissue, transferred them to the containers provided and notified DaVinci when they were ready for pick up.

The OCDA found that the DaVInci profits on each vial of tissue, after incurring nominal preparation costs, were ranging form $100 – $300 per vial. The profit on the sale of fetal or cadaveric tissue is prohibited by California state as well as Federal law.

The DaVinci Companies were ultimately closed down in 2017, pursuant to a settlement agreement with the OCDA. That agreement, in addition to closing them down, provided for DaVinci to pay fines and pentacles of about $7million, and to donate to an educational institution, all of their remaining inventory and equipment.

Posted in Orange County District Attorney's Office, Yorba Linda | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Recall Certified

Posted by Brenda Higgins on January 5, 2018

Secretary of State Alex Padilla today, certified enough signatures such that the recall of Senator Josh Newman may proceed.

Josh Newman was elected in a nail biter of a race against Ling Ling Chang in the 29th State Senate district in November 2016. Josh Newman voted with his party, the Democrat super majority, in pushing forward a new gas and vehicle licensing tax that has prompted voter outrage.

Republican activist Carl DeMaio form San Diego, rallied that anger into a move to recall the Freshman senator from Orange County. The recall of Senator Newman will not make any affirmative change to the gas tax, and that has been a large part of the Newman opposition messaging. People who signed the recall petitions have said that they were not aware it was for the recall of the Senator but believed that the petition they were signing would in fact repeal the gas tax. In spite of some disgruntled signers of those petitions, still, today, according to the California Secretary of State, there are enough valid signatures for it to proceed.
The governor will need to schedule a Special Election to determine 1) if Josh Newman will be recalled and 2) If recalled, whom will replace him. Thus far, Newman has had his campaign in motion for many months to combat the recall and fight for re-election. So far, Fullerton Mayor, Bruce Whitaker and Newman’s former opponent, Ling Ling Chang, are the prominent Republicans poised to challenge him. The election could proceed as early as March, but will likely be consolidated with the primary in June.

 

Posted in 29th Senate District, Fullerton, La Habra, Orange County, Placentia, State Senate, Yorba Linda | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

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