SQUID FRY 02.16.17: My Name is Kiiiiiiiiid!

MY NAME IS KIIIIIIIIID!… Squid recently came across Squid’s California Rodeo Salinas gear – a lariat and assless chaps. Squid loves the rodeo in all its pageantry – the horses, the drunk ag industry execs at the sponsor tent, and, of course, the annual concert that launches Big Week in Salinas.

Squid was excited to hear this year’s act is Kid Rock, he of the great anthem “Bawitdaba,” in which the refrain “Bawitdaba da bang a dang diggy diggy diggy said the boogy said up jump the boogy” repeats dozens of times. Squid’s not sure what it means, but it sets the old tentacles waving every time.

Less enthusiastic, though, are some commenters on KSBW’s Facebook page, who pointed out the avowedly pro-Trump Kid sells a T-shirt emblazoned with a map of the U.S. on which California and other blue states have been renamed “Dumbfuckistan.” And they were merciless. “Was Nickelback too busy cleaning their cars that weekend?” one asked. “#WhiteRapperTurnedRockinCrackerTalent LackerTrumpBacker,” wrote another. The best question of all: Are they gonna’ get Trump adviserSteve Bannon to do a stand-up routine before the concert?

POWER SWITCH… Squid has been shaking Squid’s head since President Donald Trump (that will never sound right) co-opted the term “fake news,” and started using it to describe real news outlets that run stories containing facts he doesn’t like.

Ever since, Squid has been waiting to see what term conservatives co-opt next in this increasingly strange post-truth America. The wait was not long.

Squid’s colleague got an email from a Carmel-based group – or maybe just one guy, libertarian Lawrence Samuels, who once ran for the would-be Carmel Valley City Council with the purpose of undoing the failed city-incorporation effort – calling itself Committee Against Fascist Economics. The group offers a diatribe against the tri-county initiative Monterey Bay Community Power, which aims to give local governments the option of investing in and using renewable electricity instead ofPG&E.

Pro tip: If you compare alternative energy to fascism, nobody’s going to take you seriously.

DROP MIC… Speaking of taking former political candidates seriously, Squid was puzzled to see former Salinas mayoral candidate Margaret Serna-Bonetti making a scene at a Feb. 12 town hall at Hartnell College about immigration (see story, p. 17). It got weird when the two-hour meeting was coming to an end, and Serna-Bonetti was waiting to in line ask a question. The mic got shut off, but she persisted in shouting about her rights to ask a question – which made Squid cringe, considering hundreds of people in the room had questions about rights far more fundamental.