How Strange Politics Is

I want to make sure I understand correctly. Jerry Brown is running for Governor. That much I know. He came to Los Angeles to raise money and announce his commercials were coming out. Okay. The party was attended by Public Union Leaders and John Perez. Mr. Perez is the speaker of the State Assembly and the cousin of the Mayor.

Jerry Brown filed a civil law suit against Mr. Alfred Villalobos and a former CalPers Board member named Fred Buenrostro for fraud. Now that was odd because you usually file criminal suits for bribery. It is also claimed that Mr. Villalobos gave a $300,000 condo to Mr Buenrostro when he left CalPers.

Mr. Villalobos claims that Mr. Brown knows he did nothing wrong and that he is being prevented from calling certain CalPers personnel to testify. Sounded sort of like a threat to me when I read it originally. These things often get interesting as they play out. This one is.

Mr. Villalobos then filed bankruptcy. The judge in the bankruptcy case said he would block the suit against Mr. Villalobos for bribery and fraud. How fortunate for Mr. Villalobos. The judge could not have done it if Mr. Brown had filed a CRIMINAL case against Mr. Villalobos. Why didn't good old Jerry file a criminal case? Don't you want to know?

Now another ex-Calpers member decided to invoke the fifth amendment 126 times when asked if he had received any gifts from Mr. Villalobos. In short, that means he refused to answer the questions on the grounds that it might incriminate him.

Mr. Perez is interesting, he rented an apartment from CIM Group in their Gas Company lofts, a project he voted on to subsidize. Our friends at CIM had paid Mr. Villalobos $16 million dollars for being a placement agent for CalPers.

It seems like everybody is friends. Politicians, Union Leaders and CalPers officials. The people who have lost their retirement are the union members and the people being asked to pay more into the system are the taxpayers. Maybe they should be asking why Mr. Brown did not charge Mr. Villalobos with a criminal suit. Well, in his run for governor it looks like at least he will have union leadership support, he shall not have mine.