Open Letter to Easy Reader News Re: Attacks on Manhattan Beach Unified School Board

Dear Easy Reader News:

The article on "Critical Race Theory" and the attack on the school districts and school boards could not have been more biased ("Critical Race Theory fears lead to attack on Manhattan Beach School Board," October 21, 2021).

Parents in Manhattan Beach California, and throughout the United States, do not want lies being pushed on their kids, simple as that. Just because an official program called "Critical Race Theory" is not being trotted around in a district does not mean that those lies are not being taught in the classroom. Teaching children to view people as either "oppressors" or "oppressed" is all part of Critical Race Theory, and Christopher Rufo has rightly exposed that not only are these pernicious views invading the classrooms in California, but teachers' unions and educrats alike are changing the names so they can get away with it.

Parents in Manhattan Beach have a right and a duty to ensure that their underage children are not taught all kinds of sexual deviance and perversion under the guise of "diversity, equity, and inclusion," either. Since when does any adult think that it is appropriate to push sexual preferences as an identity, and furthermore to induce this confusion onto children, whether during the classroom or in extracurricular clubs like Gender-Sexuality Alliance, or Gay-Straight Alliance, or Gender-Sexuality Acceptance clubs?!

Frankly, parents like Fred Taylor should be commended for calling out the corrupt indoctrination that is happening in Manhattan Beach Unified School District. I personally have read the Marxist dog whistles pushed under the guise of "tolerance" by the previous Superintendent and other tteachers in the Manhattan Beach schools. Staff members in the district have been telling me about this indoctrination, but are afraid to speak up, for fear they will lose their jobs.

Furthermore, if school board members like Jen Fenton and union reps like Shawn Chen cannot stand criticism and outrage from parents, they should start listening to the parents and following their demands -- or quit. I am disgusted that a local newspaper spent more time pandering and propping up the "Powers that Be." Journalism used to be about holding elected officials accountable and giving voice to the concerns of the voters. Indeed, Easy Reader News' journalism has really fallen in quality and character. No one wonder fewer people are purchasing subscriptions.

Last of all, what I find truly appalling about the "Easy Reader News" article is that they went out of their way to defame the parents with so-called "alt right" groups, but neglected to mention that MB School Board member Jason Boxer is a member of a dangerous hate group called "the Democratic Socialists of America." Socialism is just one step behind Communism, as the violent Soviet Communist leader Vladmir Lenin asserted, and Communism is one of the most evil, hateful ideologies in the world. Sadly, Manhattan Beach Unified has a socialist on its school board now! Why did Easy Reader News leave that out?

Easy Reader Reporter Admits: We Are Going Bust

 Ryan McDonald of the Easy Reader News interviewed me for a story about the fate of the Republican Party in the South Bay section of Los Angeles County.

I recorded our interview:

Here's what he had to say about Easy Reader News:

"I used to cover Hermosa. With the pandemic, a lot of Easy Reader staff got laid off, so things have been pretty different. It' tough for everybody right now."

Indeed.

Ryan McDonald also shared toward the end of our interview that he thinks that the LA Times is a newspaper of high repute, and he also believes that the Southern Poverty Law Center is a noteworthy organization.

It's really disturbing to hear how cut off from reality so many of the journalists in our current press corps have become so biased, and so blinded to their bias.

In my interview with McDonald, I pressed him a number of times about the rancorous, unyielding bias of the media against President Donald Trump. I called out the fact that they routinely lied about him, claiming that he had said that Nazis and White Supremacists were good people, when he had never said that, and he repeatedly denied referring to them.

I guess I can give Ryan McDonald some credit, in that he did not mention anything about the hate group from Alabama in his Easy Reader story. 

Still, I must say that I was shocked and dismayed that McDonald thinks that the LA Times is a newspaper of good repute. He disputed the point that I made, that the newspaper is racist, even though the editorial board and the owner of the newspaper admitted that the LA Times had a racist past. They wrote two articles about it!

At any rate, in spite of the fact that the reporter called on some sordid elements in the South Bay to try to defame me, the article was all around pretty good.

I am also glad that I am able to expose that Easy Reader News is about to close down for good, since they have spent too much time pushing a left-wing agenda, especially considering the negative cartoons they print which attack President Donald Trump and conservatives.

"Sellout" Stacey Armato Went Dem For Political, Not Principled Reasons

 Stacey Armato, Hermosa Beach City Councilmember, gave the following story to the Easy Reader News about why she joined the Democratic Party:

When she first got involved in the battle over oil drilling in Hermosa Beach in 2012, Stacey Armato was a registered Republican, and had been all her life.

“At that point, I hadn’t thoughtfully dissected why I was a registered Republican. It was more that my parents were small business owners, and they were registered Republicans. My husband is the same story: small business owner parents, registered Republicans. There was just never a thought about it,” Armato said.

Armato, who is now a city councilmember in Hermosa, said that during the oil campaign she began to recognize her priorities on environmental issues were out of step with those of Republicans. But she didn’t plan on changing her registration. “I didn’t think it defined me, I didn’t think it defined other people,” she said.

Since when did the Measure O issue have anything to do with Republican or Democrat? Then Councilman Michael DiVirgilio, a Democrat, supported Measure O. There were registered Republicans in the city who opposed Measure O, did not want the drilling. It was not a cut and dried issue at all.

Eventually it became impossible for her to reconcile her values with those of the national party. Her son Massimo was born with cystic fibrosis and required multiple invasive surgeries before he was a year old. The 2010 Affordable Care Act, which for the first time guaranteed coverage for those with preexisting conditions, had been a lifesaver, and Republican attempts to repeal it in 2017 left her dumbfounded. She switched her registration to Democrat.

We are talking about five years later, Stacey Armato decided that she did not want to be a Republican anymore.

This had nothing to do with Obamacare. This had nothing to do with seeing the national party drift away from her. This had EVERTYHING to do with the growing Democratic machine contingent that has been taking over Hermosa Beach for the last five years. 

There was nothing principled about Stacey Armato's decision to leave the GOP. She did it for politics, pure and simple, or should I say "impure and simple".

“I quietly changed it. I didn’t think I needed to make a big deal of it, but I did, and my husband changed his. There are multiple layers to it, each significant in its own way, and I stand by it,” she said.

She thought that she did not have to make a big deal about it, and yet here she is, in an interview with the Easy Reader News, telling them that she is no longer a Republican.

What it really amounts to is a lack of principles. People want power, and some people are willing to give up whatever principles they have to get some of that power. Why is anyone surprised by this?

I do resent Armato's insisting that she jumped the GOP ship because of environmental or healthcare concerns. Give me a break!

Easy Reader FAIL! Redondo Beach Has to Revote CCA

I have long suspected that Easy Reader News was more left-leaning than The Beach Reporter or even the Daily Breeze.

Once, the magazine displayed an elderly gay couple on the cover.

A number of families were really offended by that.

Another article focused on the plight of a wounded veteran who lost his home because of mismanagement from Wells Fargo.

A third story looked into the troubled background of a few store thieves who had wreaked havoc on a convenience store. It's a very left-wing world view that puts the needs of the criminal ahead of the needs of the community.

When the Hermosa Beach residents rose up to protest the Carbon Neutrality programs, Easy Reader maligned them as "riotous."

No, they weren't! That's very offensive.

Now I feel that my concerns are justified with what just happened in their report on the Redondo Beach City Council meeting from March 21, 2017.

That meeting was Mayor Steve Aspel's last full meeting.

I am sad to see him go.

I am even more sad at the notion that creepy Big Greenie Meanie Joe Galliani was going to bully another city council into going Community Choice Aggregation (CCA).

But our team of conservatives was ready to step up and fight.

Big Green Fascist Joe Galliani

At the end of the meeting, the city council posited a number of meaningful questions to Galliani and the city staffers. The commonsense questions focused on issues like "How much time will this take from city staff?" and "How much is this going to cost?"

Then came the final vote on whether to continue exploration of CCA.

Laura Emdee: No
Steve Sammarco: Abstain
Bill Brand: Yes
Christian Horvath: Yes

Now, as I understand Robert's Rules of Order, that means two "No" votes, since an abstention means no.

The mayor signaled that he had no idea what happens next, since such a voter result had never happened before.

The city manager declared that the motion failed.

YES!

But now the City Attorney claims that such a vote means passage?

I contacted someone in the city to explain. She told me that the city council will revote the issue, since there is so much confusion.

The Beach Reporter got that right.

But not Easy Reader!

They jumped into the narrative head-first, convinced that the Green proposal won!

From Easy Reader:

When time came for a vote and direction, Councilman Christian Horvath, who has been leading the charge for a CCA in Redondo Beach, was joined by Councilman Bill Brand in voting to continue a study. Emdee voted against, while Sammarco quietly abstained.

As Councilwoman Martha Barbee left the meeting early with an illness, the vote initially seemed dead for want of a three-vote quorum.

However, according to Horvath, an assertion by City Manager Joe Hoefgen that the measure had died was found to be incorrect.

Sammarco did not respond to a request for comment.

Why does Christian Horvath have the final say on this? What about the city attorney? Or other city staffers?

This report went out in a very hasty fashion to say the least.

Check out the difference between the URL and the headline for the article:

Notice that the URL says "Split Vote Sinks" study:

But then the printed headline reads:

What is going on?

Easy Reader News is showing its left-leaning bias once again, pushing the Big Green agenda.

It's time to hold the local news as well as local elected officials accountable.

Until then, the Redondo Beach City Council must stage a re-vote on this contentious issue.

It's time for residents throughout the South Bay to recognize that the CCA nonsense is more government, less energy, and less accountability. President Donald Trump is already cutting the funding for these Joint Power Associations, which include Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and South Bay Council of Governments (SBCOG).

Do we need another one based on false premises and abortive opportunities in the South Bay? I say "NO!"

And Easy Reader News needs to print more objective reporting.