SQUIDFRY: 09.29.17: Cast of Characters…

CAST OF CHARACTERS… Squid regularly oozes down Del Monte Avenue in Monterey, and has grown accustomed to a cardboard cutout in the window of the Monterey County Republican Party office. It’s a grinning President Donald Trump, wearing his signature over-sized blue suit and ridiculously long red tie. (Overcompensate much?) Sometimes Squid sees a cutout of Trump and first lady Melania, both dressed in evening wear. On a recent day, Squid instead saw two past Republican presidents – Abraham Lincoln andRonald Reagan.

That was three days after Trump’s Chinese food dinner date at the White House with “Chuck and Nancy,” formerly known as Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. They left smiling, and saying they’d struck a deal with Trump for increased border security – with no provisions for Trump’s border wall – in exchange for quick passage of a bipartisan Dream Act. (The White House later denied that version.)

Republicans were reportedly furious after the dinner. Trump supporters posted videos showing themselves burning their Make America Great Again hats in protest.

Squid wondered if that might’ve been why Trump was replaced by his forebears, and checked in with Monterey County GOP spokesperson Paul Bruno to inquire. No, he says: “We’re still 100-percent behind our president.” He speculates a member had borrowed the cutouts for tabling or a party decoration. Squid wonders if they also served Chinese food at said party.

BEAN COUNTER… Squid cozied up with a giant bowl of shrimp-flavored popcorn on Sept. 21, streaming the Seaside City Council meeting into the lair. The topic du jour: short-term rentals, which are currently prohibited in the city.

It was a wide-ranging discussion, but the leading concern among two councilmembers – Jason Campbell and Kayla Jones – was the negative impact short-term rentals could have on affordable housing. Jones was especially passionate, worried Seaside is becoming a community where those who grow up in the city can no longer afford to rent a place, much less buy a home.

Mayor Ralph Rubio, however, wasn’t buying it, and talked about his own struggles to find housing after he graduated from college: He lived with his mom for six months, had a job making $5 an hour, and managed to scrape enough together to make a down payment on a house. “It was a stretch and I ate beans for three years, but I did it,” he said. “And my wife and my son didn’t like beans all that much.” He then added: “That’s the beauty of this country: If you go out and work, you’re going to get it.” When Rubio adjourned the meeting, Jones chimed in that she would be happy to “discuss the ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ kind of ideology that I heard here.”

Squid, meanwhile, started Googling bean recipes.