Squidfry 04.14.22: Drunk History

DRUNK HISTORY… In one of Squid’s favorite shows, “The Office,” there’s an episode where Michael Scott goes to improv class. In every improv scenario Scott immediately pulls out a (hand) gun to everyone’s frustration. End scene. Squid thinks it’s that way with people in the public discourse who pull out the Hitler card. It kills any reasonable discussion.

It turns out the chair of the Monterey Libertarian Party, Lawrence Samuels, is going full Hitler over the issue of rent control, including anything he considers control-adjacent, like a rental registry as proposed in Monterey. On April 11 he announced in a press release the establishment of the Committee Against Fascist Rent Control. Samuels said the reason he was using the “F” word was because “Adolf Hitler imposed nationwide rent control on Germany in 1933.” Samuels fashions himself a historian, having self-published an e-book titled in part, “Killing History.”

Professor Squid gives Samuels an “F” for his thesis about Hitler and rent control. Rent control was imposed in Germany in the early 1920s, long before Hitler. The dictator and mass murderer couldn’t have cared less about improving the country’s deplorable housing situation – he was too busy rearming the military.

Samuels touts the book in the press release but conveniently revises his own history by omission: He fails to share he’s a real estate agent. End scene.

PHONE TAG… Another of Squid’s favorite shows is “Parks and Recreation,” a satire of local government beloved by ink-scribblers like Squid. The world in that show is almost exactly how Squid imagines former Seaside city manager Craig Malin’s life to be right now as the village administrator in Poynette, Wisconsin (pop. 2,600), where he says he plans to retire.

A few weeks ago, Squid’s colleague caught up with Malin, seeking to answer a simple question: Has anyone been calling you about Seaside’s open city manager position? Malin’s answer: Yes, indeed.

The reason Squid’s colleague asked is because on March 25, the Seaside City Council, in closed session, extended the filing deadline for city manager applications until April 26. That’s after Malin, before he left last August, put a request for proposals for a firm to recruit his replacement on a council agenda – but it was removed (the council hired a firm three months later). It was removed because in March 2021, the council made a baffling decision: In a 3-2 vote, it gave the mayor – currently Ian Oglesby – the power to remove any item from the agenda at their discretion. Essentially, the mayor becomes king or queen.

Malin didn’t have to tell Squid’s colleague what he said to the candidates, because having a mayor as king is all he had to say.