The residents of Ridgecrest, California are waking up to the fact that the City of Ridgecrest has been taken over by Desert Valleys Federal Credit Union and CEO-Mayor Eric Bruen. The CEO of the Desert Empire Fair, Chip Holloway, is also the Chairman of the Board of DVFCU, and it was recently disclosed that the Mayor’s credit union made a $400,000 loan to the fair, and not only that, an additional $75,000 was given to the fair by the City in the form of a budget authorization (not voted by the Council as a standalone spending item).

To add insult to injury, the Mayor has cancelled July 4^th Independence Day celebrations in order to funnel more revenue to the DEF by way of selling tickets to a “Freedom Day” event. Residents may recall that last year, an orchestrated controversy surrounding some illegal fireworks fired off in the Mayor’s neighborbood led to calls to ban fireworks in the City. Though no action has been taken by the Mayor and City to ban fireworks, the groundwork has been laid to do so, and if you try to celebrate the 4^th of July with fireworks on the 4^th of July, you’re out of luck. As Chip Holloway said at the time, “We have to change the mindset that everything is free” in Ridgecrest, so we’re going to charge you to come to our “Freedom Day” celebration at the Desert Empire Fair.

Why yes, he is. He couldn’t be bothered to post a “Happy July 4^th” announcement on his Facebook page, but was more than happy to virtue signal the City’s “Inclusivity and diversity” for a LBGTQXYZ Pride event at the City just 2 weeks ago. We hate to think what our woke Navy’s plans are for Pride celebrations after their disastrous recruitment program using a drag queen as an “Ambassador”.

Finally, notice that the Desert Valleys armored ATM machine is parked front and center at the “Freedom Day” event. Always self-serving, Mayor Bruen knows that the residents of Ridgecrest are stupid enough to pay money to see some fireworks at the fairgrounds while signing up for 25% interest rate charge cards.

We’ve run into Mayor Bruen and his armored ATM van before, during one of his predatory City-sponsored lending events called “Balsam Night Out”. What’s a better way than this to capture a few more millenial debt serfs:

As a final reminder, if you need one, surely you are aware that Big Brother Bruen’s GPS monitoring, geofencing surveillance service is watching over you while his police department has installed fancy new license plate readers all over town.

And so goes things in the Ridgecrest “Money Pit”, as publisher John Watkins of the Daily Independent calls the City. We advise you to get out while you still can.