Menu

Categories

The endorsement process of the Montgomery County Democratic Party

What does “endorsed democrat” mean? And why you should ignore it.

Posted on October 15, 2023 @ 8:56 pm by David Esrati

12 Comments | Print This Post

Apologies for not posting about this shitshow of a Dem Party meeting earlier. Reliving this via editing the video made me ill enough.

The meeting was Thursday, 28 Sept 2023- and the discussion was focused on who the party should endorse in the Trotwood election. If you live in Trotwood, you should be really ticked off that people who live EVERYWHERE other than Trotwood think they know more about what’s good for Trotwood than you do.

The video already has 161 views, which for a 2 hour political meeting, is a lot. I imagine the Dayton Daily news reporter who published a “story” about this had to watch it too, because she wasn’t there. She also failed to tell the whole story.

The epic undemocratic democratic party back room meeting.

If you’ve read “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, the line “all animals are equal, some animals are more equal than others” fits this local political group to a tee. They have no interest in actually electing democrats, just the ones on the “Friends and Family” program.

The way these “endorsements” are handed out is absolutely macabre, and should be grounds for the Ohio Democratic Party and the National Democratic Party to revoke their party affiliation. This is not a democratic process by any means.

First, let’s talk about who gets in this private club. I’m not welcome, despite being the properly chosen democratic candidate for Congress last year via a 4 way primary. They didn’t care what the voters said, they refused to “endorse” me- and cut me off from all party resources including access to discounted mailing that is granted to the parties. They effectively endorsed Republican Mike Turner for Congress. If that’s not grounds for removal- I’m not sure what is.

The “party” is made up of “precinct captains” – one per precinct and we have 380 precincts in Montgomery County. They’ve barely filled 2/3rds of the seats. Of the folks who are in those seats, a bunch of them are either elected to office, family of those elected to office, or the employees of those who are elected to office, making it not just the “Friends and Family Plan” but “The Monarchy of Montgomery County.” The precinct captains pick a chair- in this case, Mohamed Al-Hamdani, who then picks a “screening committee” which meets and interviews candidates. I’ve written about this before. They then present their “endorsements” for a vote to the random 75 or so people who show up at the meeting and on zoom.

Now, considering only elected precinct captains can even talk in these “party” meetings, we don’t even have 50% of the elected captains in attendance. Then they conduct votes without recording how each “captain” voted. Can you imagine any other elected body operating like this?

Then they proceed to trash one dem over another. Great job!

They rewrote their constitution last cycle, in 2022, to automatically endorse incumbents to protect themselves, but, it does have a work around, which is what they did here- to endorse Yvette Page and Rhonda Finley over Mary McDonald and Denise Moore. (Full disclosure- I’ve done work/printing for McDonald, Moore, Scearce in the Trotwood race).

If we look at voting records for Finley, she’s barely a Democrat. 3 republican votes since 2010

Voting History (up to county’s last 40 elections):
Voted:x – 08/08/2023 Special Election
Voted:x – 11/08/2022 General Election
Voted:d – 08/02/2022 Primary Election
Voted:R – 05/03/2022 Primary Election
Voted:x – 11/02/2021 General Election
Voted:x – 11/03/2020 General Election
Voted:r – 04/28/2020 Primary Election
Voted:x – 11/05/2019 General Election
Voted:x – 05/07/2019 Primary/Special Election
Voted:x – 11/06/2018 General Election
Voted:D – 05/08/2018 Primary Election
Voted:X – 11/07/2017 General Election
Voted:x – 11/08/2016 General Election
Voted:D – 03/15/2016 Primary Election
Voted:X – 11/03/2015 General Election
Voted:x – 11/04/2014 General Election
Voted:X – 11/05/2013 General Election
Voted:x – 11/06/2012 General Election
Voted:R – 03/06/2012 Primary Election
Voted:X – 11/08/2011 General Election
Voted:X – 05/03/2011 Primary/Special Election
Voted:x – 11/02/2010 General Election

Compare to Denise Moore:

Voting History (up to county’s last 40 elections):
Voted:x – 08/08/2023 Special Election
Voted:x – 11/08/2022 General Election
Voted:D – 08/02/2022 Primary Election
Voted:X – 11/02/2021 General Election
Voted:x – 11/03/2020 General Election
Voted:d – 04/28/2020 Primary Election
Voted:X – 11/05/2019 General Election
Voted:x – 11/06/2018 General Election
Voted:d – 05/08/2018 Primary Election
Voted:x – 11/07/2017 General Election
Voted:x – 11/08/2016 General Election
Voted:D – 03/15/2016 Primary Election
Voted:X – 11/03/2015 General Election
Voted:X – 11/04/2014 General Election
Voted:X – 11/05/2013 General Election
Voted:x – 11/06/2012 General Election
Voted:X – 11/08/2011 General Election
Voted:X – 05/03/2011 Primary/Special Election
Voted:X – 11/02/2010 General Election

Yet the party endorsed Finley.

We’re not trying to elect Democrats- we’re electing our friends.

Mike Bock, a precinct captain from Kettering got up and said “who are we to choose who should be the Mayor or Council in Trotwood?” And that’s the point- shouldn’t it be up to the people of Trotwood who they want to represent them?

All the charges against Mary McDonald, who has moved Trotwood forward after years of corruption (her predecessor, Joyce Cameron was one of the people charged by the FBI and DOJ in the “Culture of Corruption” investigation) is being dinged because she has to work with Republicans who control the statehouse and congress to get what her community needs. Mary is a force of nature, and drive down Main street in Trotwood and see the new Courts building, the new library building and the new Goodwill Center and know that Mary was a big part of it.

No matter how these two elections turn out- which are both non-partisan by the way (meaning party affiliation does not appear on the ballot) Democrats win. So why is the party even getting involved? Why aren’t they working hard to make sure they have candidates to run against every Republican in the statehouse- and making sure that those folks win? How much support do they provide? Almost nothing, just ask Addison Caruso who almost beat Andrea White in the 41st district despite limited experience and being vastly outspent. If the party spent as much energy working and organizing to get Democrats elected other than just the friends and family- maybe we’d have had a choice for Sheriff- and maybe Laronda Jackson could have beat Phil “the torturer” Plummer in his State house race.

So, November 7th, when you see “Endorsed Democrat” on the mailings- just know, it doesn’t mean a thing, other than someone kissed the ring of the local friends and family party. They won’t work for you, they’ll work for the preservation of their monarchy.

Buy Veteran Logo

Veteran Owned Business group starting up (again)

Posted on October 14, 2023 @ 8:49 pm by David Esrati

No Comments | Print This Post

Back in 2005, 3 paratroopers met in a program that was free for Veteran Owned Business owners- called Fasttrac, sponsored by the Kaufman Foundation. For completing the course, each would get a $600 gift certificate to the Gateway store (they used to sell computers and hardware for those who are too young to remember). Our class had about 12 business owners in it, and was taught by WSU professor Dr. Herb Brown (RIP) who was also a former paratrooper (although I never knew it when he taught management to me in the early eighties).

We heard about government contracting opportunities and set-asides for Service Disabled Veteran Owned businesses and decided to start a networking group to see if we could crack the code on government contracting in the backyard of WPAFB. We named the organization VOB 108- as in Veteran Owned Businesses and 108 for the house bill that we believed granted the set asides for SDVOB’s (it turned out to be 104 or 106, but by then it was too late).

For 7 years, we met monthly at lunch time to hear a speaker on a variety of business topics, but often about government contracting. We charged $5 a head for pizza that was almost always either donated or heavily discounted by Dayton’s Original Pizza Factory. Some meetings had 10 people and some had 40.

One of our original classmates became the Small Business Development Center director at Wright State and next thing you know, we were running our own free “Vetrepreneur” course, taught by veterans for veterans. One graduate was the bedbug sniffing dog company, Milliterriers.

After 7 years, the three paratroopers got weary of being the leads and we passed the baton to a recent member, an Annapolis grad, who had big plans. He switched the meetings to evenings, at bars, and it became more of a social group. He changed the name from VOB 108 to VOB Ohio despite us having participants from Indiana and even Michigan. The group disintegrated.

Fast forward to this coming Wednesday, Oct 18, 2023, at 0730, William Bowers is trying to reboot an organization for Veterans in business. The meeting is free, at a Veteran Owned Business, the RFGG Marketplace on the first floor of the old CitFed/ 5/3rd/Premier Health building at the corner of 2nd and N. Main downtown. the address is 110 N Main St, Dayton, OH 45402 but the restaurant entrance is on 2nd St across from the Stratacache/kettering tower.

We’ve met with the new Ohio Veterans Chamber of Commerce which is just getting off the ground, but we’re not sure exactly what kind of organization we want to build. According to stats delivered to us by the Montgomery County Veterans Service Commission, our area has one of the highest percentage of veterans populations in the state. If you own a business, and are a veteran, show up, or leave a comment on this post with your name and company so we can get in touch with you.

Hope to see you there.

The best way to clean house

Posted on October 9, 2023 @ 11:26 pm by David Esrati

12 Comments | Print This Post

You probably think this post is about how to fix the House of Representatives after Matt Gaetz screwed the pooch on Kevin McCarthy. It’s actually really simple and should have taken place on Jan 7, 2021 after a whole bunch of Republican’s in the House, who were elected in the same election that Joe Biden was, decided to vote against accepting the results. All of them, should have been removed from office, tried for treason, and their opponents sworn in.

But, this post isn’t about that. It’s about how to deal with what AirBnB guests can do to your home to stink it up. It’s what I’ve been dealing with for the last 3 weeks- after I had a 75 day stay by an Airman and her wife- and their 3 dogs and 3 cats.

Whatever the dogs and cats did, it was nothing close to what they did to cover it up. There were nasty smelling “plugins” in two places, a Glade spray stink can in the laundry room, and an empty can (probably one of many) of Renuzit sitting it. The house stank of chemical “air freshners.” This was in a house where I use fragrance free everything because I’m allergic to it- and many guests are.

I started out by vacuuming the place. I’ve used a lot of different vacuums from a Kirby, to a Panasonic to a Rainbow, but I still love my corded Dyson Animal. The ergonomics of this vacuum from the way it handles the cord to how you can quickly get a wand, or the attachments for edges, to how you can take it apart without tools makes it amazing. I vacuumed the place twice, I cleaned the two internal filters. Unfortunately it still wasn’t stink free. Here’s an Amazon link for a Dyson Animal- thank me later. Prime day has the price at $399

Next step was to clean the carpet. I had a Hoover carpet cleaning machine, I used it twice, and the smell was still there. I’d tried using OdorBan in it, still smelled. I was lamenting it’s horrible design, wishing Dyson made a carpet cleaner. The next day, the NY Times Wirecutter section had a review of carpet cleaning machines and they recommended the TINECO CARPET ONE Smart Carpet Cleaner. Use this link for 15% off Best $225 I ever spent. And then navigate to the product page Tineco Carpet one smart carpet cleaner

TINECO CARPET ONE Smart Carpet Cleaner

It isn’t as perfect as the Dyson- but it cleans the carpet, where the Hoover didn’t. It’s tanks are smaller, the voice warnings to fill and empty tanks are annoying, the cord is too short, but it worked wonders.

I’d also tried my favorite Odor killing solution: OdorXit. It’s done wonders everywhere in the past.

But, the smell was still an issue. I asked my professional carpet cleaner company to come, and he said, you probably need an Ozone machine. I looked on Amazon and found this Tesiplz Ozone Negative Ion Generator for about the same as I could rent one locally.

Plug it in, turn it on- and leave. A few hours later, wow. Much better. But, the next guests, 3 weeks later, still noticed a smell, especially when the furnace came on. Now, you’re probably thinking, he didn’t change the furnace filter, but, nope, I’d actually done it twice. I’ve also now wiped down every surface in the place, and aired the place out for multiple days.

We’re now waiting for quotes and dates for doing a complete duct cleaning service. I’m at a point, where it’s this, or replace the 1 year old carpet. I reached into the cold air return as far as I could and pulled out a ton of pet hair, so, I’m hoping this is the solution. BTW- I had a tenant in the same house for 7 years with a cat, and it never smelled.

AirBnB’s aircover is a farce. they’ve wasted more of my time and jerked me around way too much, trying to make out like I somehow couldn’t prove the place smelled. How exactly am I supposed to email proof of a stink? The last 3 guests mentioning it after 2.5 years of flawless reviews should be a good indicator.

Now, the question is, will they reimburse the duct cleaning? Stay tuned.

And, most of these links, are affiliate links- and will get me a small kickback on sales. Considering this blog isn’t monetized with ads, if you’ve liked it, please consider clicking through.

I really can’t stress how much each of these products has made my life easier- and helped me keep my AirBnB’s awesome. I absolutely love the Tineco and my Dyson. Treat yourself. There’s nothing like having a really clean house- for rent, for yourself, or in Congress.

Insurrectionist withdraws from Dayton School board race

Posted on September 29, 2023 @ 12:28 pm by David Esrati

15 Comments | Print This Post

And then there were four candidates for the 3 seats this fall.

On September 12th, 2023, Rennes Bowers, retired Dayton Firefighter, former Mayoral Candidate and Jan 6 protestor withdrew from the Dayton School board race according to the letter I got this morning through a public records request from the Montgomery County Board of Elections.

Would have been nice if the voters knew about it- the Dayton Daily didn’t have the story, the TV news didn’t have the story, and even informed people on FB were still listing him as a candidate.

Well now you know.

I’ll write more about the four other candidates at a later time.

It’s candidate night season

Posted on September 26, 2023 @ 9:18 pm by David Esrati

4 Comments | Print This Post

Last night, I went to the Dayton Unit NAACP candidates forum and filmed, so you didn’t have to go. They had all 4 candidates for Dayton City Commission (Shaw and Joseph bailed on one held last week) and half the candidates for Trotwood City Council (the incumbent Mayor and 2 challengers), and the two candidates for Jefferson Township Fiscal Officer.

Full disclosure- I’ve done printing or design work for all 3 Trotwood candidates in attendance, Mayor Mary McDonald, commission challengers Denise Moore and Norman Scearce, and for Valerie Duncan.

Here’s the video:

Candidates Night

First thing to make sure of if you’re running a candidates forum is, have at least 2 working microphones. #FAIL Or, make it easier for anyone filming- and just have one mic at a podium and make candidates all go to the same spot to talk (hopefully- you’re really smart and have a pop-up banner behind them to share your organizational message- and that the spot is well lit).

Next up, if you are going to have someone filtering the questions, at least pick good ones. Seriously, this whole “forum” format- where candidates never engage each other makes for boring theater- and never really lets people know what kind of leadership we can expect if elected. These questions weren’t softballs- they were nerf balls. Asking where your kids went to school isn’t as important as what are your qualifications and education (and criminal record).

This needs to be said, Jefferson township needs to go away. Force a merger, or let’s get unigov working. If these two are the best you can field, don’t even bother. Sorry ladies. Unimpressed at half the price. If you are curious about unigov, go to www.reconstructingdayton.org to learn about my 501(c)(4) non-profit that’s working toward getting rid of all these banana republics with their small minded, unnecessary leadership. This is about real cutting of government overhead, not what these two women were blathering about. Your “choices” are Charlene E. Chattams challenger and Tracey M. Edwards incumbent.

As to the Dayton candidates, after watching this, and knowing the track records and backstories (2 have criminal backgrounds- see Journalism 101 on investigating candidates and politicians) it will be hard to vote for any of these candidates. And since Dayton doesn’t allow write-ins, and we’ve had caught felons working as Federal snitches foisted on us before as legitimate candidates, maybe if we all sit this one out- it might serve as a referendum on city hall.

As to Trotwood, 3 candidates didn’t accidentally not show up as proffered by Mr. Foward. It was intentional that they all weren’t there. They aren’t worthy of a mention- yes, you get credit for participation.

There were only 2 surprises last night – when asked about if they support a women’s right to choose/Issue 1, all the candidates except one said yes. The reason there were two surprises is that Matt Joseph is very Catholic and sends his kids to Catholic schools and people have told me that he was against it, and Norman Scearce was the lone no.

Next Tuesday, Oct 3rd, 6pm, the NAACP will host another forum, at Grace United Methodist Church at the corner of Harvard and Salem, for school board candidates. Let’s hope more candidates show up, the questions are a little tougher and the microphone problem is solved.

Newer Posts
Older Posts