California, the land of Disneyland and Hollywood, has long been the origin of creative worlds of fantasy, including excelling at the art of performative politics (is there any other kind?). After all, B-actors such as Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger performed the role of “Governor of the Golden State” splendidly, with impeccable panache, exuding charisma and star power unrivaled by any of their more boring peers elsewhere. In a cinematic era that yielded such gems as

First, a local history of May Day, from 2006 to 2026. It is well known that going back to its earliest history, Bakersfield, California, had a well-earned reputation of being a bastion of conservatism and Big Agriculture/Big Oil power, where mass protests simply never happened. Such protests, such as did appear in the Southern San Joaquin Valley going back to the 1900s, 1920s &30s, 1940s & 50s, and especially in the 1960s, were mostly carried out by striking migrant farmworke

Colage: CC mural removed from downtown Bakersfield on 4/3; new DH mural by Robert Vargas, unveiled in L.A. on 4/12 It 's only been three weeks (March 18) since the NY Times published its explosive investigative report on César Chávez's (CC) sexual crimes. There were revelations of him having groomed and abused young girls for years in the 1970s. Dolores Huerta (DH) - CC's longtime associate -herself revealed having been assaulted by Chávez twice in the 1960s, resulting in pre