Originally published at: A California county tax assessor makes excuses for sending out 544 pieces of official mail marked "Let's Go Brandon" | Boing Boing
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Another reminder that, although California regularly votes Dem for President and its Senators, it has some deeply right-wing areas outside the major cities. More Californians voted for Biff in 2016 than those who did so in several other states combined.
Also, it’s again important to note that the death cultists are making a concerted effort to take over local offices that are supposed to be non-partisan that the Dem establishment has long ignored.
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I know it’s just “a string of characters” so it shouldn’t annoy me so much, but this kind of non-pology rankles me to no end.
They’re not sorry for the “mistake,” but just that it offended taxpayers. It’s like the guy who says something offensive, then if people get offended says, “I was only joking.” But only if people get offended. 
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Even so (and maybe because I’m old) in “recent” history, CA solidly voted R Nixon through Bush.
We did a road trip in 2020 through CA starting from home, driving north to Yosemite, then out to a friend’s place on the coast who let us use it, then back down the coast. It’s a different world in the central valley and Sierra Foothills.
Recently I also was in Placer County visiting friends. There are LOTS of Trump signs still. And Let’s Go Brandon Flags. The most confounding thing I saw was on a big truck - a Trump 2024 sticker under an IBEW sticker…
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This is exactly saying: “I’m sorry if my support of an incompetent fascist is offensive to you, you thin-skinned fuckwads.”
Now, if there were actual penalties being meted out for having sent the original message, this kind of nonpology would be further evidence that they were malicious and deliberate, and that the offender has not changed their behavior, and therefore the penalties should be increased. But here in the real world, we know nothing will happen.
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I remind people of this who insist on keeping the electoral college. And think about how many people don’t vote because they know they don’t have the numbers to switch the state - but their numbers would eclipse other states.
And a good reminder red/blue states are a mis-characterizations. There are significant populations of opposite party members and independents.
It is a cult. I have seen so many local/state political ads where the person running is swearing loyalty to Trump. I’ve never seen another movement in the US (at least in my life time) where who is the bigger supporter of a failed president is a platform to run on. 
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Also Stanislaus County: (I lived there for a time, and there are some lovely people there)
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In the “the parties are NOT the same” category, I just can’t imagine any official mail being plastered with something like “Trump sucks,” even though it’s my firm belief that’s actually a sane policy position.
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And more Republicans live in California than any other single state, including Texas.
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Yep, I just moved out of Stanislaw a few weeks ago. It is like a whole other state there. One like Georgia, except getting more red not more blue over time.
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Locally, in Maryland, the GOP has nominated a Trumper for governor. It’s a blue state that has nonetheless elected Republican Larry Hogan as governor, in part because the Democratic nominees was fairly uninspiring, and then re-elected him because his moderate, middle of the road policies have proved popular. It’s still a blue state, though, so the chance that a raving, conspiracy peddling MAGA could get elected to statewide office is minimal.
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You don’t even have to go that far out into the “country”. Napa and Sonoma counties are under an hour from SF and both have a significant Trump-y population if the yard signage - some of it still up - is any indication. This isn’t really a surprise when you consider that vineyards are in fact farming businesses.
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I’m IBEW, and it amazes me how many of my fellow union members are pro-Drumpf. The guy is completely anti-union.
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But not zero.
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I mean, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised.
I was in the UFCW for most of the 80’s and all of the 90’s. I knew a handful folks that were hard core republicans. Most of them because they were gun nuts… Which brings me to my paternal grandfather. He was a lifelong IBEW member and was also very republican. Mostly around guns. But also he hated “hippies” with the heat of 1000 suns.
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Now that you mention it, the Drumpf lovers are pretty much big truck, gun loving, “but my freeedumbs!!!” types.
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“Our office is completely nonpartisan,” said County Assessor Don Gaekle. But, he continued, “We didn’t have anything to do with it.”
Gaekle says there was no political agenda behind the message. He says ABS Direct, a contractor, printed the envelopes in error and has since apologized.
Uh, at least one of these statements isn’t true. If it truly was a “printer error” (I’m sorry, how does that work?), i.e. a deliberate political statement by the printer, it’s still a political statement, albeit not one being made by the assessor’s office. In which case the assessor should be pretty outraged, but instead he’s downplaying it, which suggests he was in on it.
The fact that the reporter didn’t even bother talking to the printer to get to the bottom of what actually happened is pretty pathetic of them, too. They just accepted the assessor’s nonsensical statements and left it at that.
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That seems to be the way of things these days: do a bad thing, then double down by “apologizing” in a way that’s an obvious lie that insults the intelligence of those offended. With never any consequences whatsoever, of course.
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As someone who worked in direct marketing for two companies in nearly 18 years, I can tell you that they do not print anything the customer did not ask for.
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