We are not far removed from the Tatiana Ibrahim Brahimi hellscape

Be warned, Orange County. Be warned ...

So I’m from a small town in rural New York, situated roughly an hour north of New York City. It’s called Mahopac, and its neighboring hood—a tad bigger, but not by much—is Carmel.

And Carmel is a lovely place, with beautiful reservoirs and fantastic parks and trees that, come fall, overwhelm the senses with a buffet of colors.

Carmel, however, is also home to the devil.

She goes by Tatiana Ibrahim Brahimi—although, truth be told, that’s not her actual name. And not all that long ago, Tatiana was a mere fringe nut job; the pathetic three-legged dog howling about ridiculousness at the various local school board meetings. You can read all about her here, from a post I wrote at my old website. Truly, she was an outcast. A fool. An incurious dunce. The person who made others sigh, under their breaths, “Oh, crap—that weirdo is speaking.”

With the rise, then return, of Donald Trump, however, Tatiana has had a revival. I learned this the other day, when a local parent reached out and begged me to look into her recent social media posts. Which (glub) are this type of poison—and increasingly popular …

And because I now live 3,000 miles from my old turf, it should be easy to look away. But as I chronicle local school boards here in the OC (in particular, Capo Unified), I’m starting to feel like we’re one or two steps removed from our own Tatiana Ibrahim Brahimi-esque madness. Hell, if we’re being honest, we already experienced it earlier this year, when Lisa Davis and her MAGA pom-pom jamboree plotted with the Gays Against Groomers dude to hijack a meeting, and/or when Judy Bullocks dropped the n-word, then refused to apologize. Is Sonja Shaw (she who mocked and ridiculed a trans athlete, and their mother, at a track meet) all that different from Tatiana? Is Jennifer Adnams, who believes God led her to the school board?

With the decline/demise of traditional news outlets, and the rise of fringe conspiracy theorists and bullshit spreaders, the Tatianas of Orange County are on the march. Gaining strength. Gathering oomph.

So, as 2025 turns 2026 and elections begin to approach, we need to ask ourselves: Do we want to become another Carmel, N.Y.? Do we want to allow the haters and losers and fools to overtake our systems of government?

Or do we want to resist?

Do we want to fight the devils that bring forth West Coast Tatianas?