30-Second Spot: Celebrate The Holidays on Merry Main Street

This is it for 'a teaser' ???     NOT even close!
Surely city-owned Mesa Channel 11 can do a better job than this meager short feature to promote and market and publicize Merry Main Street 2019. Try again...
Looks like RINKY-DINK is back for another year and all those tired SELFIE-STATIONS and the plastic 40-ft high plastic tree imported from China that has been the official tree sponsored by the Mesa Chamber of Commerce?  
Tell me how much you can get excited and thrilled watching this?
How about "Jack Frost's Food Truck Forest" - on Fridays or Saturdays . . does that jack-up your thrill level when they don't know whether it is either Friday or Saturday??
The site selection is Pioneer Park where there will be no Christmas Light Display at the Temple across Main Street this year.
_________________________________________________________________________

NOTE: The Mesa Chamber of Commerce is looking for Vendors
For: Friday November 29th Opening Night Tree Lighting Ceremony

For: Mesa's Christmas Market Click or Tap Here

About This Event
BLOGGER NOTE: Although some of the declarative statements reproduced here may be questionable in many respects, the following copy is provided direct from the source

The Mesa Christmas Market is the premier Christmas Market in the East Valley.

It shares a location with the Merry Main St Christmas Tree which has over 6,000 visitors at its Christmas Tree lighting ceremony and down the street from the Merry Main Skating Rink.
The quality of a traditional Christmas market depends on maintaining a high standard of the vendor products it offers.
_____________________________________
OK . . . Are you now ready for this???
". . an experience filled with European charm and elegance"
_________________________________________________________
SAY WHAT? Now that's a stretch of imagination! Historic Downtown is a remnant of days-gone-by - there are more than 10 near empty or vacant 'historic properties' on the market right now, marked available for something CBRE calls creative retail.
_________________________________________________________________________

The Mesa Christmas Market (MCM) is committed in immersing our visitors into a world of folklore and craftsmanship as well as traditional, seasonal specialties to provide them an experience filled with European elegance and charm.

The Mesa Christmas Market will be held on the following day and times:

• November 29-30th, 3-9pm
• December 6th, 3-9pm
• December 13-14th, 3-9pm
• December 20-21st, 3-9pm

The Mesa Christmas Market is specifically looking for the following:

• Decorative Christmas and holiday articles (wreaths, ornaments, etc.)
• One-of-a-kind handmade items
• Holiday themed children's gifts
• Unique holiday gifts, i.e. clothing, food

If you feel you have a product that represents any of the above categories, we would be happy to have you apply to be part of the 2019 market.
 

ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA:

"Vendor space is limited and subject to Event Manager approval. Your application package will be juried for the quality and uniqueness of your product. You will be notified within 2 weeks of receiving your application as to whether it has been accepted through an email through Event Hub.

• Payment info is due at application to confirm your entry into the market and will be charged upon approval.
• Please make sure you have your City of Mesa Tax License and necessary health department licenses (food vendors).
• Only 10x10 white tents will be accepted into the market.

Demographics

Families with young kids, couples, retirees and visitors from out of town

Past or Current Sponsors and Vendors

Previous Year Total Exhibitors, Vendors and Sponsors: 15

 

Special Notes

All vendors MUST have a white tent

_________________________________________________________________________________

Published on Oct 10, 2019

Views today: 1

http://merrymainst.com/

Lehi Sees a Vision of the Tree of Life | 1 Nephi 8 | Book of Mormon

The latest episode from the Latter-Day Saints is a re-creation tale of similar events in The New Testament that happen to appear in The Book of Mormon.
The voice-over says it's an 'actual event' as recorded in The Book of Mormon - that text did not appear until the 19th Century. For many people outside of what they call The Church who doubt where that book came from or any claim that the chapters are really actual events in the Middle East almost 2,100 years ago, it's a leap of faith into un-belief for other Christians where Latter-Day Saints have simply appropriated the symbols of religion from more established believers

Published on Oct 11, 2019

Views: 4,220+

In the wilderness, Lehi has a vision filled with symbolism that includes the tree of life. In his vision he struggles for some time in the dark before finally making his way to the tree. He eats or partakes of its fruit and desires his family to do likewise. He sees a rod of iron, a strait and narrow path, and the mists of darkness that enshroud men. Sariah, Nephi, and Sam eat the fruit, but Laman and Lemuel refuse.

How American CEOs got so rich

BUY-BACKS: 65%
Here's an easy-to-uunderstand explanation for those who want to know

Published on Oct 11, 2019

Views: 10,700+

For a long time, it was off-limits for a corporation to buy back its own stock. Not anymore

Today's Mixed-Message From BBC World Service Radio "The Inquiry" > Don't Panic + Don't Be Reassured Either!

Your MesaZona blogger woke up completely-in-the-dark today just listening to the radio for 23 minutes

Are we heading for a global recession?

The Inquiry

The world’s two biggest economies are fighting a trade war, European growth is slowing and global manufacturing data looks grim.

How likely is it?

QUITE LIKELY. We - and economists and 4 experts - just don't know when but it is coming . . . 

Nice to wake up to that, huh?

 

IT'S AVAILABLE NOW FOR BROADCAST > https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csytgm 

Please take the time to listen.

It's very informative in straight-forward language we can all understand.

It's all NOT A MYSTERY

Central Banks and Governments don't have "all the tools" to use when there are clashing forces that upset the normal prognosis to predict a recession.

Global Wars and Trade Wars have messed-up that time-honored analysis and economists have rarely been right predicting recessions ahead of time

 

 

Go Big or Go Homer: The Latter-Day "Simpson's" + A New Open-Ended Episode for Let's Play Ball + Bang Some Clangers!

Believe it (or not) one thing your MesaZona blogger likes to do in rare spare times is to watch FOXTV - catching Season 31 Episode 2 of The Simpson's 3 days ago. It can drag on for a while, but in the end it is an episode that actually has some otherwise decent storytelling instincts along the way to end with A FOOD TRUCK. It's a successful business model - for selling pizza-by-the-slice, sports betting and buying weed.
_________________________________________________________________________
Hmmm.... talking about sports makes your MesaZona blogger think about this HOMER of sorts all about Sloan Park [taking its name from a plumber] - it started out as Wrigley Field in The Riverview Area where the Larry Miller Car Dealer Empire occupies more ground than the $200M taxpayer-financed 'field-of-schemes' built by using public debt obligation bond borrowing to build a Spring-Training ballpark for the billionaire-rich conservative Ricketts Family from Chicago who own-and-control the $4B-Chicago Cubs sports franchise.

City Manager Chris Brady and then Mayor Scott Smith had plans in 2010 to sell-the-pitch to the public by eventually getting a pay-off someday by selling water-rights to more than 11,400 acres of land - that ultimate deal was done with SAINTS HOLDINGS.
Saints Holdings LLC is the latter-day holding company from the previous Pinal Lands from the city-owned portfolio named The Mesa Water Farm.
Here's a streaming video - purportedly bragging about  that debt GETTING PAID-OFF or partially paid-off: This is the story city officials want you to hear in 52 seconds

City of Mesa, Arizona on Twitter: "Have you heard?
The debt ... [click or tap on the image to start the streaming video]

https://twitter.com › CITYOFMESA › status

▶

Aug 22, 2019

The debt on Mesa's #springtraining facilities are being paid off years ahead ... Dennis Kavanaugh · Mayor ...

________________________________________________________________________________

"So many latter-day Simpsons are both overstuffed with subplots and undercooked when it comes to resolving those plots or—even rarer—tying them together in the end, so focusing on Homer’s crisis of faith in himself and his battle against his own one-man band of toxic fandom is an interesting concept. . .
The catch phrase non-apology “I’m just bustin’ your clangers, kid” is a laugh riot
"Homer finds a fan and ends up mentoring a real jerk"
( Reference: https://tv.avclub.com/-1838831032 )
Please note: all the words in Italic typeface are lifted from what Dennis Perkins wrote . . .

"Fair enough—Homer is dangerously, farcically unqualified, but there’s no reason for these “millenniums” (as Homer terms them) to call him “denser than Osmium 188.” I mean, that’s just low. I think. Not a science guy. . . So it’s a mentor-mentee story to add to the long history of power plant employees (Karl, Mindy) who find Homer irresistible, for reasons known only to them.". . .
continuing with a few jumps 

"The thing is, those other characters’ motivations, while cloudy, could be chalked up to the vagaries of the human heart. Mike’s just an idiot who couldn’t read numerous newspaper articles properly and who latched onto Homer as just another object of hero worship he can defend against those who think Homer (and he) is an insignificant nothing. And while Homer—for all his faults, and all the ways The Simpsons’ has let him drift into jerkass territory at times—isn’t an insignificant nothing.

He’s dumb, prone to irrationality and snap pre-judgements, and occasionally the worst husband [father, employee, citizen, human] around, but he’s not, at heart, a dick.

There’s as essential decency lurking deep, deep down in Homer J. Simpson that eventually pulls him back from the brink of whatever lunatic whim has sent him spiraling toward moral, financial, or actual physical disaster, a core of optimistic satire that the prototypical white (or, okay, yellow) American male will, when put to the test, ultimately, if begrudgingly, find his heart. . .
_________________________________________________________________________________
FAST FORWARD SPOILER-ALERT:
In the end, it isn’t even Homer who really rejects Mike out of the story, but Fat Tony and his goons, who—having usuriously loaned Mike the cash for his one-slice-at-a-time pizza truck idea—show up to collect just as gambling junkie Mike’s all-or-nothing bet on Patriot League basketball goes down in predictable flames.
(Sorry, Lehigh Mountain Hawks.)
There’s a genuinely funny gag where the rapidly changing outcome of the game’s broadcast sees Tony ordering his guys to put their guns down, then up, then down, then up again. (I’m a sucker for a Simpsons joke that takes it’s time.) But ultimately, it’s Tony’s realization that Mike’s slice idea is actually quite tasty (if time-consuming) in practice that lures Mike out of Homer’s orbit.
(Mike naturally incorporates his new partners’ illegal betting and weed concessions into his suddenly successful business model.)

 

It Happened Here In Mesa: Maricopa County Assessor Indicted!

< Here's Mesa native Paul Petersen in a typical squeaky-clean image used by elected leaders here in 'family-values oriented" Mesa and Maricopa County - almost the perfect image of "The Family Guy" except for one thing. What you see is a charade appearing on-the-surface at the same time looming behind it all a massive fraud scheme to enrich himself at the same time holding public office. However there is a surprising difference in the usual political play-book that all too frequently goes un-noticed or over-looked or simply ignored: He's taken that to the next level - and he's gotten caught! It was splashed all over the evening news last night, coming like a shock and surprise to many, but scandals in Arizona and Maricopa County are long overdue: his job was in the County Assessors Office.

_________________________________________________________________________

Petersen's apprehension and indictment was not only local news-it went national real fast!  Here's the headline and image from The Washington Post:

Adoption lawyer smuggled pregnant women into the U.S. and paid them to give up their babies, authorities say

By Lateshia Beachum  October 9 at 6:30 PM

"One of Arizona’s county assessors was indicted Tuesday night in his alleged role in an adoption fraud scheme.

Paul Petersen, assessor for Maricopa County, was arrested Tuesday night on charges of running an adoption fraud scheme in Arizona, according to an indictment obtained by the Arizona Republic.

Petersen, an adoption lawyer licensed in Arizona and Utah, is facing similar charges in Utah, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

The 32-count indictment filed in the Superior Court of Arizona alleges Petersen committed conspiracy, fraud and forgery. . . Subpoenaed bank records show that Petersen pocketed more than $2.7 million between December 2016 and Sept. 28, 2019, . .

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a news conference that Petersen cost Arizona taxpayers more than $800,000 by committing fraud in its Medicaid system.

Petersen is also facing adoption fraud charges in Arkansas, Brnovich said. . .

> Petersen was first elected to the Maricopa County Assessor’s Office in 2014 and was reelected in 2016.
 

He was the assessor’s representative at the Arizona Legislature and the public information officer before taking on his role, according to his website.

> Maricopa County is the nation’s fourth-most-populous county.

> Its 4.4 million residents make up more than half of Arizona’s population.

> The father of four has been working with families seeking to adopt for almost 15 years.

> The fifth-generation Arizonan is also an active member of the Maricopa County Republican Party and the Arizona Republican Party. 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com 

_________________________________________________________________________

WHOA! There's way more to this story and plenty to meet-the-eye:

The pregnant women lived in a housing complex here in Mesa

Just like an earlier case in Colorado City, Arizona where the FBI and Department of Justice moved in to crack-down welfare fraud in a Fundamental LDS-controlled town.

An alarm was first raised by a woman from Utah

Just go ahead > Google "Maricopa County Assessor"

Add to list

 

On my list

__________________________________________________________________________________ 

Let's go there first to the job where Petersen gained the public trust to get elected here in Maricopa County and the City of Mesa - both are now "the fastest-growing in the country,"  with real estate and personal property valuations sky-rocketing to a cash value of more than $508 Billion in 2018. There could be a whole lot of temptation right there . . .

__________________________________________________________________________

Along the way Petersen picked up some awards and got some glowing write-ups. For example, this Executive Profile  published in The Phoenix Business Journal  2013 : Executive Inc: Paul Petersen takes the court as Maricopa County Assessor where it starts off "When opportunity knocks, Paul Petersen believes in swinging the door wide open — which is exactly what he did this past summer.

Here's in a different court now

 

New Feature From Time-To-Time: The Dubious Distinction Award

This first-time new feature goes to . . .
Hizzoner Mesa Mayor John Giles
THE THOUGHT LEADER OF THE YEAR 2018
Can't tell from the opening image what the inside joke is all about, or the subject that made two guys smile, but three days ago Mesa Mayor John Giles was presented with the Dwight Patterson Lifetime Achievement Award by Denny Barney at the East Valley Partnership's 2018 Thought Leadership Forum on 06 December. Believe-it-or-not

Only in Mesa, Kids, only in Mesa !!
_______________________________________________________________

Hard-to-believe that Giles is
THE THOUGHT LEADER OF THE YEAR 2018
OK. Hmmm...John Giles A Thought Leader?

The Dwight Patterson
Lifetime Achievement Award?

 Who can list all of his thought-leading accomplishments to date?

John Giles, who served on the Mesa City Council for four years 1996-2000, and then 14 years later somehow 'got a calling' to fill in the seat of the highest elected in the city (mayor) left empty when ex-mayor Scott Smith vacated his elected office for higher ambitions - a gambit he lost in 2014 to Governor Doug Ducey.

(BLOGGER NOTE: Scott Smith has been elevated to President/CEO of Valley Metro.)

John Giles, with a gap of 14 years, was the chosen successor in that Good Ole' Boys Political Machine, served for about four months as the incumbent, got challenged by Danny Ray in his run-on-his-own-dime for his first term, then ran unopposed for his second term.
All the while he's been earning a taxpayer-paid salary + a generous benefits package as the only full-time member of the Mesa City Council, he's operated a private law practice as a personal injury/accident law attorney.  

"I am the luckiest guy that any of you guys know,” Giles said.
“I get to work for Mesa, Arizona, which is such a wonderful opportunity.
It’s a group of talented, motivated, dedicated people that make me look really, really good and as of a result of that I get to come and pick up awards.
So, I can’t thank them enough for making this possible.”

“He is truly one of a kind,” Barney said of Giles.