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Kobe Bryant and Antonio Villaraigosa |
The term-limited outgoing mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, is said to be searching desperately for a job to pay the bills when he leaves his $232,000 annual salary office in a few weeks. An
L.A. Weekly analysis of his tax and financial statements says that the 60-year-old mayor, a regular in the
front row at Lakers games, doesn't have any financial assets other than a small rental property in the exurban Moreno Valley. He doesn't own a house in Los Angeles or a car. In an
interview with the local CBS station, Villaraigosa didn't exactly deny that he needs money pronto.
Barack Obama's financial situation was similarly fallow up until 2004 (doing a cash-out refi on the condo kept him afloat a couple of times). But, then, Obama's WASPy tastes run toward browsing at bookstores and playing mediocre golf courses, while Villaraigosa is more of a party in Cabo with
Charlie Sheen kind of guy.
As you may recall, as part of the Democrats' Hispandering, Villaraigosa was chosen to preside as chairman of the 2012 Democratic convention, while a younger Mexican-American "mayor," Julian Castro, was chosen to give the keynote address. Castro isn't a real mayor -- he gets paid only about $3,000 per year for his ceremonial position because San Antonio has a city manager form of government, with a city manager who gets paid $355,000. But it's easier for Democratic power brokers to launder money to support Castro because he is a real lawyer. (A big Democratic contributor / trial lawyer gave the politically promising Castro identical twins a huge sum of money as a fee for referring an accident victim to him.)
In contrast, mayor of Los Angeles is a real job. It's not as powerful of a position as mayor of Chicago or New York, and Villaraigosa has mostly treated it as one long photo op, but L.A. doesn't have a city manager.
Villaraigosa, however, is not a real lawyer -- he gave up trying to become a lawyer after failing the difficult California bar exam
four times -- so he can't go to work for a Democratic-connected downtown law firm like a typical ex-mayor might. (For example,
Jim Hahn, the respectable Democratic dynast mayor whom Villaraigosa defeated in 2005, went to work for a big real estate developer to provide "
legal advice and business development." Now, the ex-mayor is a judge. But, then, Hahn passed the bar exam back in the 1970s, so he can be a judge.)
Besides, Villaraigosa gives off sleazeball fumes -- local reporters in L.A. seem to despise Villaraigosa -- that have repeatedly undermined the
national media's attempts to portray him as the smiling face of the inevitability of the Hispanic Electoral Tidal Wave.
But that doesn't mean Villaraigosa won't someday get elected governor of California:
On Sept. 20, 2012, the mayor dined with Democratic strategist Garry South at Celestino Drago's downtown Drago Centro, across from the landmark Central Library, where South suggested Villaraigosa would be an excellent candidate for governor. "We're going to have a Latino governor sooner rather than later," South tells the Weekly. "It's inevitable. It's just a matter of who it's going to be."
Amusingly (but unamusingly for Villaraigosa), it now appears that Gov. Jerry Brown wants a fourth term, which would make him an 80 year old governor after he had been a 36 year old governor. But why not? He's Jerry Brown and career weirdness is just normal for him. So, Villaraigosa would be blocked until he's 65 in 2018.
The problem for the Democrats is that the Latino Talent Deficit leaves the California Democratic party seemingly stuck with Villaraigosa because it's clearly going to be the Latinos' Turn by 2018, but who else is there?
So, until 2018, Villaraigosa needs a job. I can't imagine that the Democrats won't eventually conjure one up for him. But, the fact that they've left him publicly hanging this late in the game, with nobody yet stepping forward to take on the inevitable duty of subsidizing Slick Villy's lifestyle for the next half decade, is evidence of how little respect Democratic insiders have for him.
Lots of people in L.A. remember Tony Villar as a lowrider with a Born to Raise Hell tattoo, then as a far left Chicano radical at UCLA, they remember the girl he knocked up and didn't marry, and the various domestic abuse incidents.
In pictures of Tony Villar from his days as a Mecha leader at UCLA in 1974, he looks pretty standard Chicano of the day (think Santana album covers). He's part of what's left of the receding Chicano wave that crested about 1972 that I talk about a lot.
About 1987 he retooled his image to become a yuppie leader supposedly representing the rising tide of immigrant Latinos. That's served his career well, but he's apparently still kind of an aging juvenile delinquent on the inside, which is why journalists in L.A. roll their eyes when the national media bandies rumors that Obama is about to appoint him Secretary of Transportation or Secretary of Commerce. They assume that the Mayor is the source of the rumors, and hope Obama doesn't believe the hype enough to put Villaraigosa in charge of national highway maintenance.
Villaraigosa's career is further evidence of the Latino Talent Deficit. Here's this state with a colossal Hispanic population, yet Villaraigosa is the best they've come up with? But that's the kind of dog-that-didn't-bark-data that is hard to notice even when you aren't in danger of getting Richwined for noticing it.
45 comments:
The very definition of 'style over substance'. And not exactly my kind of 'style', either. Yet somehow entirely appropriate for LA.
Pathetic wretch.
Is he jewish? Villaraigosa strikes me as at least half-jewish looking.
So I googled and found this this:
... 55-year-old politician, who enjoys an unusually strong connection to Jews and Jewish life. He speaks often about growing up in the once-Jewish neighborhood of Boyle Heights, has elevated a number of Jewish staffers to highly-placed positions and — most quirkily — has even made a habit of dropping by synagogue services. Indeed, according to some local Jewish leaders, Villaraigosa has become something of an honorary member of the tribe.
“He’s basically treated as if he’s a Sephardic Jew,”
Maybe he is treated like a sephardic because he is one? Or is he just pandering?
He was born "Antonio Ramón Villar, Jr.", so he changed his name to Villaraigosa. But he called himself Tony Villar at UCLA in the 70ies.
Wikipedia has almost nothing on this guy or his background: "His father immigrated to America and became a successful businessman, but lost his wealth during the Great Depression."
Must be one of these latino enterpreneurs, we keep hearing about. Was Villar his biological father, the enterpreneur, or did his mother remarry? Which continent did his father immigrate from? Where did his mother come from? What was her name? Wikipedia doesn't say.
Don't know much of Villaraigosa. I left LA in 90. Tom Bradley was mayor for the entire decline of Los Angeles, from my earliest memory until I graduated college, from forced busing to gangsta rap/crack and the LA riots. The weird thing is, if I remember correctly, the general sentiment seemed to have been that he was a decent mayor. Do I remember it as such because I was a kid and that's the way I was indoctrinated? Steve, what are your recollections?
Villaraigosa is of Mexican descent on both sides of his family according to this biography. He doesn't look remotely Jewish, and I've seen a lot of Jews as an MOT. He could certainly have a remote Sephardic ancestor, but it's unlikely to be anything more than that. Visiting synagogues is just political pandering.
Wikipedia has almost nothing on this guy or his background
Regarding his father, who has the same first and last name, if you do a search for "Antonio Villar" on the Megan's law web site, you'll find one such named person, about the right age, listed as having been convicted of sexual penetration with foreign a object by force.
There is much gossip online about the outgoing mayor's affairs going back to his complicated family history, but a quick search doesn't show gossip about him not being Mexican. But it would be pretty funny if he turned out to be from the Manila Villars or something like that.
That's pretty funny.
Googling "Villar," it appears to be some kind of Spanish name that pops up the most in the Philippines.
Okay, here's more on the mayor's family background:
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2012/09/la_mayor_antonio_villaraigosa_story_abusive_alcoholic_father.php
Did he get his JD from Hollywood Upstairs Law School?
In pictures of Tony Villar from his days as a Mecha radical leader at UCLA in 1974, he looks pretty standard Chicano of the day (think Santana album covers). He's part of what's left of the receding Chicano wave that crested about 1972 that I talk about a lot.
Lots of people in L.A. seem to remember Tony Villar as a low rider with a Born to Raise Hell tattoo, then as a far left radical, they remember the girl he knocked up and didn't marry, the various domestic abuse incidents.
About 1987 he retooled his image to become a yuppie leader of the rising tide of Latinos. That's served his career well, but he's still kind of an overgrown juvenile delinquent on the inside, apparently, which is why journalists in L.A. roll their eyes when the national media bandies rumors that Obama is about to appoint him Secretary of Transportation or Secretary of Commerce. They assume that the Mayor is the source of the rumors, and hope Obama doesn't believe the hype enough to put Villaraigosa in charge of national highway maintenance.
If everyone knows Tony too well in LA, maybe he can move to NYC for a bit and get himself booked as a talking head on Fox News, MSNBC, etc. Or maybe he can finagle a diversity corporate board seat somewhere -- the pay for that part time gig at the biggest corporations would be more than he made as mayor.
BTW, your lieutenant governor has been on Bloomberg TV a few times, talking about CA muni bonds, Silicon Valley, etc. I imagine he won't be too happy about Brown going for another term either. What do you think he'll do?
It's so much easier to be corrupt in modern America when you have a high IQ.
Bradley didn't do much good either for La exploding Mexican and Central American population. LA went from 10 percent Hispanic in 1970 to about 28 percent in 1980 to 38 percent in 1990 to 47 percent in 2000 to about 49 percent now. The biggest growth was the earlier period but the white population had not left as much before 1990, so it looked as the hispaniczation was more recent but it goes back into the late 1970's and one book I read is that at least 800,000 to a million illegal immigrants in la were legalized by Reagan's amnesty because of the extensions. There is still another 900,000 to a million left that were not.
Well, the recent census shows La outpacing its suburbs including big suburb Long Beach. Some of the most Mexicans suburbs even having a lot of babies are so bad like Huntington Park that Mexicans have left them. Well, Demographicers thought having more Mexicans means bigger population grwoth because they have more babies but in the long run it slows the growth since Mexican places are not that great. In fact Hispanic youth have dropped to the black level of having kids out of wedlock before they were much higher. I predict that Mexican birth rates will also go down to 2.0 as well.
Well, the Sanchez's sisters in Congress come over more yuppie than Tony they grew up in Anaheim where a Mexican kid probably could get a better education than now since the schools still had enough whites.
I just watched Goodfellas for about the 40th time. It intrigues me how ingenious Italians were at stealing. They never seemed to work the same wheeze twice. You hardly see this kind of ingenuity on the part of Mexicans in CA who just case a joint while doing some pickup day labor job, then later break in and steal lame stuff like laptops and bicycles. The other thing Italians were good at was laundering illegal profits through restaurants. Now there is business Villarigosa could try, but he would need to open a high end restaurant so he can charge his gay Hollywood patrons excessively for drinks made from caramel coloring and rubbing alchohol.
Why doesn't Tony Villar make money stealing copper wire and plumbing from public parks and construction sites? That seems to be a happening job for motivated Latinos.
"Well, the Sanchez's sisters in Congress come over more yuppie than Tony..."
Really? At least Villaraigosa has the whole Vegas lounge emcee/Cesar Romero/Rico Suave thing going for him. Fox really should consider putting him on American Idol. The Sanchez sisters look like a couple of borderline obese middle age Latinas who you might see waddling down the Safeway bakery aisle. One of them had a baby out of wedlock while serving in Congress. I'm sorry -- that's not Yuppie. Yuppie is freezing your eggs until Mr Right marries you and buys you a town house in a good school district.
"I predict that Mexican birth rates will also go down to 2.0 as well."
That will occur when CA and the Federal Govt stop subsidizing underclass reproduction, which won't happen any time soon. Until then, Mexicans will continue to penetrate deeper into the US. Hell, they are 5% of the population of Idaho which has a reputation for being the whitest of white states and a hot bed of white nationalism.
I'm content to have Brown run for reelection. Mild Alzheimers appears to have deactivated some of his loopier brain circuits, and he has been speaking common sense to lunacy in recent months. If only he would kill the high speed train. On the other hand, I'd rather have a fast way to get to Disneyland than pay retired public school teachers and UC professors -- let them sell Street Spirit for their grocery money.
San Antonio. Mexicans in La or somewhere else are leaving to go to San Antonio, for a Mexican town San Antonio stats are not as bad on poverty, the city is about 19.8 and income not the highest but it cheaper than La, this is why I think Julian Castro has more of an appeal than Tony V even if San Antonio is a small city. In fact, San Antonio is growing second to Austin for big cities in Texas. Austin is probably more white and others like Asians and some Mexicans while San Antonio outside of the burbs is probably mainly Mexican.
I'm stunned to learn that your former mayor is poor.
Talleyrand visited Alexander Hamilton and was amazed that a finance minister would have to ever work again. He assumed like I did that office holders always stole enough to be fixed for life.
In the Roman Republic there were property qualifications for membership in the Senate and thus for the higher offices on the cursus honorum. One of the tasks of the censors was to root out those who had financial reversals and no longer met the property requirements.
So a poverty stricken ex-mayor is a historical oddity. But I must disagree with you in one regard. Kicking him sideways into the job for maintaining the national highways might be the least bad of several possibilities.
Far worse would be some kind of 'czar' for high speed rail. Or a position of leadership in 'alternate energy'. Brown might want a darker face to help sell these boondoggles.
Albertosaurus
Actually, that "Villar" needs a paying job says one good thing about him:
He didn't use his position as Mayor to go on a looting spree.
To be honest, that puts him in the top 1% of clean politicians.
Villaraigosa reminds me of another affirmative-action parasite I know. This other guy began life as a typical sullen Hispanic gang style kid. He managed to rise to middle management in our company when it was decided "it was time" to have a Hispanic among the top leaders.
Sitting in meetings it was almost impossible to tell what he was talking about exactly. Most of what he said sounded like "management seminar" bullet points he had memorized. Finally when it came time for him to sum up he would suddenly come out with something like, "And if anybody has a problem with that then &*&^*&*^&%$^#%$%##$%##@$#$#$#@$#!!"
Then he'd look around as if to say, "Yeah. I said that."
Everybody either hated him or feared him except for a couple of Hispanic underlings. One of the most irritating things about this guy was that he had a really loud, insincere-sounding "Mexican movie bandit" laugh. Very embarrassing.
Finally this guy was eased out because of the sheer number of enemies he had made, but the last straw was that he was adamant that the company didn't need a significant presence on the internet. His attitude seemed to be that is was a fad and only homosexual geeks cared about it.
So finally he was gone. But of course he is now a tenured professor at a major university teaching other affirmative-action parasites how to game the system.
I always thought Gavin Newsom was the Gubernatorial heir apparent.
Another thing in spite of Brookings study of poverty increasing in the suburbs, most of the large cities have about double the povery rate and the Brookings study was a little dishonest, it had Anahiem which is about 350,000 as a suburb. It should have had all the four largest cities, La, Long Beach, Anaheim and Santa Ana as urban areas and therefore poverty in the LA-Orange would have been less in the suburbs since Anahiem west is high in poverty. In facr inspite of genfrication, LA itself still has higher pvoerty rates than over 50 percent Hispanic Anaheim and 80 percent Hispanic Santa Ana which is closed to La poverty.
mediocre golf courses
Who says?
http://pinterest.com/amfuturefund/golf-courses-of-the-obama-administration/
In some respects, moreover, the wealthy suburbs of the San Francisco Bay Area are not as liberal as they seem from Latterman’s map or from the underlying data. This should perhaps come as no surprise; these same areas were reliably Republican voting as recently as the 1970s, and they contain many members of “the one percent.” Rich places historically incline to the right, as they still do in many parts of the United States. But because the general cultural tenor of the Bay Area is so strongly liberal, conservative viewpoints often remain hidden. Frequently they are not even recognized as such, in something of a mass case of political blindness. The people of Palo Alto and environs, the heart of Silicon Valley, view themselves as strongly environmentalist, deeply concerned about inequalities of wealth, and committed to the national triumph of the Democratic Party; in actuality, the policies pursued by their local governments are deeply anti-environmental, serve to exacerbate the gap between the rich and the poor, and help push the United States as a whole in a more conservative direction.
Substantiating these controversial if not outrageous claims will take up the next few posts, the final ones in the current series on northern California.
This is what cosnervatives don't get how the Silcon Valley votes Dem but does well, probably the regulatoins and taxes are work around at the local level. And sthere is a lot of talk that sounds moe anti-business than it is.
:
In some respects, moreover, the wealthy suburbs of the San Francisco Bay Area are not as liberal as they seem from Latterman’s map or from the underlying data. This should perhaps come as no surprise; these same areas were reliably Republican voting as recently as the 1970s, and they contain many members of “the one percent.” Rich places historically incline to the right, as they still do in many parts of the United States. But because the general cultural tenor of the Bay Area is so strongly liberal, conservative viewpoints often remain hidden. Frequently they are not even recognized as such, in something of a mass case of political blindness. The people of Palo Alto and environs, the heart of Silicon Valley, view themselves as strongly environmentalist, deeply concerned about inequalities of wealth, and committed to the national triumph of the Democratic Party; in actuality, the policies pursued by their local governments are deeply anti-environmental, serve to exacerbate the gap between the rich and the poor, and help push the United States as a whole in a more conservative direction.
In reality, policies in the Bay area in econmics are no different from San Diego.
didn't he build a large gaudy house in some suburb of LA a couple years ago, or am i imagining that? i remember reading something about him building walls around it.
"Talleyrand visited Alexander Hamilton and was amazed that a finance minister would have to ever work again. He assumed like I did that office holders always stole enough to be fixed for life."
After he was Treasury Secretary, Hamilton went back into the Army. Major General Hamilton became Senior Officer (the gig later renamed General in Chief) in 1799 after Lt. General Washington died-- oh yeah he'd gone back in the service too.
https://armyhistory.org/09/major-general-alexander-hamilton/
James Fallows has a Jerry Brown profile in The Atlantic. He's an unusual guy but he comes across as a superior human being to the general run of politicians.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/06/the-fixer/309324/
Brown now has a wife on duty to keep him from sounding too weird, he might have made it to the White House if he'd married younger.
As I've suggested before, but for his dad Pat being governor, he would've ended up as a cool history teacher at a Catholic high school.
In the United States, state governments do the bulk of insurance regulation, breaking up the country into 50 separate markets that do not allow for easy comparison of policies and economies of scale. I suspect one of the real reasons behind this is so state and local politicians who are not lawyers can always get jobs in the insurance industry.
Pat referred to the cursus honorum. We have gotten away from that idea and only want politicians who are outsiders. The new Atlantic has an article about Jerry Brown by James Fallows about how the veteran governor can run circles around the naive term limited legislators. Villaraigosa as speaker in the California Assembly is a result of such term limit policies.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/06/the-fixer/309324/
Actually, that "Villar" needs a paying job says one good thing about him:
He didn't use his position as Mayor to go on a looting spree.
To be honest, that puts him in the top 1% of clean politicians.
Precisely. This is one article where Steve failed to figure out the truly remarkable element of the story. The mayor of even a podunk town in Mexico would be set for life. Villaraigosa is many things, but he's no Marion Barry. And that is cause for hope as Mexicans become a much bigger part of the political establishment, thanks to sheer demographic expansion.
Adam Carolla is wonderfully scathing when he vents his spleen all over "Villaretardo."
It's hard to steal money as mayor of Los Angeles. Hiran Johnson's Progressive reforms of 1910 make it kind of unrewarding compared to Chicago. (And the Daleys generally avoided getting too greedy and instead acted as honest brokers distributing the graft fairly to lesser political figures).
When Tom Bradley was in power for 18 years or so, there was a financial scandal involving him, but it wasn't clear that he had pocketed much. You heard a lot that he owned 3 houses! But one was the house he owned before moving into the mayor's mansion, and the other two were small houses in Watts that he had picked up cheap as investments, and in which he had stashed some relatives.
"So finally he was gone. But of course he is now a tenured professor at a major university teaching other affirmative-action parasites how to game the system."
Do provide link to his profile!
Also, a link to a youtube clip which resemebles well to 'mexican bandit laugh' would be hilarious and much appreciated :D
Finally, a note on those clows. The thing is, guys like him can only get to middle manegement where they usually stall and/or crash and burn. He was obviously savvy enough to land himself a spot in Academia where he can denounce American society while greedily taking the tax dollars funding his hate.
But guess what. Government employment stands for about 7% of total employment. You can add academia in the mix for basically being on a similar level, but you still won't get above 9%.
In the end, the private sector will sort guys like that out.
The best start-ups/small businesses are either white-owned or owned by East Asians and/or immigrants from Asia and the Middle East. They either hire their own or tend to hire the most competent.
Also, people who want in on the government-funded gravy train are in for a rude surprise. I've looked at the budget numbers and Obama's budget slashes non-discretionary spending to it's lowest levels in over 50 years.
Government is getting leaner and leaner and furloughs and pay-freezes or even pay-cuts are the new normal.
This is all in the law. Net debt has stabilized at about 77%, but gross debt is over 100%. The best the U.S. can do is essentially retain this status quo. The next recession, probably not far off, will increase the debt again. And then past 2020 you have the brutal demographics which will disproportionally hit old, poor white folks dependent upon social security / medicare.
This won't be a right/left issue. The majority of the most influential wonks on the left today are going to be between 55 and 75 then and do you think they'll want to slash their own spending, or that of their less well-off friends? The GOP will continue to talk tough but balk at butchering their own base.
This means cuts have to come from somewhere else and you can guess where.
Military and minorities.
Hiram Johnson's Progressive reforms? Yet another example of the man keeping a brother down. From beyond the grave!
(Steve, are you, by any chance, a fan of "Big Trouble in Little China"?)
To be fair, tribal leaders are rarely found in the top 10% of talent.
Actually, that "Villar" needs a paying job says one good thing about him:
He didn't use his position as Mayor to go on a looting spree.
To be honest, that puts him in the top 1% of clean politicians.
Not in the US, it doesn't. Direct graft by Villaraigoso as mayor probably would have been detected. Much safer to wait for ex post factor payoffs.
From beyond the grave!
(Steve, are you, by any chance, a fan of "Big Trouble in Little China"?)
"Indeed!"
Easily Carpenter's best film.
"San Antonio outside of the burbs is probably mainly Mexican."
Uhh... Immediately north of San Antonio is the Texas Hill country. Lots of Germans, Poles, and other eastern europeans there. Towns like New Braunfels, Fredericksburg, and Boerne. The Hill Country was (and to some extent still is) heavily Scotch-Irish and southern.
San Antonio is a large military town, Fort Sam is the big army base originally established pretty much to keep Mexico in check. San Antonio became the home of the Air Force as the Army started flying Wright airplanes at Fort Sam in 1910. The Army choose Fort Sam because the flying weather in Texas was good. Not that many decades ago San Antonio was ringed with Air Force bases. Air Force basic training is still at Lackland and flight training at Randolph. Kelly was a very large base. Brooks was home of the Air Force's medical school (flight nurses, etc.).
Because of all this there are a lot of retired military around San Antonio, especially to the north.
In recent decades San Antonio seems to have become a magnet for wealthy people from all parts south of the border.
In recent decades San Antonio seems to have become a magnet for wealthy people from all parts south of the border That's what I read about Wealthy Mexicans coming to San Antonio.
5/26/13, 8:37 PM
I think Albertsarus in Oakland, had the best idea. Image automation or robots that could do yardwork about 50 percent of day labors would lose jobs. Also, developing robots with more manual dexrity to do maid work or janiroal work. Also, reducing the labot force by a half. Robots would killed about the need for at least 25 percent of the illegal population. The problem then is the Mexican government would askd us to take its people as regular welfare cases.
This position requires the following skills and attributes:
•Ability to read and interpret blueprints/drawings, to use measuring instruments commonly used to perform QC Activities and to use a computer efficiently to generate and read computer reports.
•Must demonstrate good math skills in all units of measure using whole numbers, common fractions and decimals.
•Ability to provide technical input to teams and personnel which requires thought, logic and rational to support the quality and compliance of Applied Medical’s products and systems.
•Ability to prioritize projects and multi-task in a fast paced environment.
•Minimum of 2 years in working with quality management systems such as ISO 9001, ISO134865 or 21CFR part 820.
•Prior experience using word processing spreadsheet SPC and presentation software.
The following skills and attributes are preferred:
•An Associate degree in Quality Assurance Technology or a related field and two years experience in a related setting preferred. A combination of education and experience may be substituted for education or experience.
•Formal training in statistical process control (SPC) concepts/techniques and can effectively implement these skills in a manufacturing environment.
This is off topic but a lot of manufactoring jobs are now requring clerical skills, notice word processing, excel and so forth. So you you get laidoff in one field you can go to another field., more related. Think of this have a kid that wants to be a machinsts also study clerical skills and bookeeping in high school or JC.
Mayor V can come to Mexico City and sweep sidewalks. They do a lot of that here. Shouldn't be too hard for him.
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