If the last decade has taught us anything politically, it’s that the most incompetent Democrat politicians in the Golden State have an incredible propensity for failing upward. Konstantine Anthony, mayor of Burbank, is no exception. The low-rent Gavin Newsom has been a progressive plant in that once-conservative and family-friendly bastion in the San Fernando Valley. I first got wind of Anthony during my advocacy against California’s AB 5 and for Prop 22. Anthony claimed (he has lots of them) he was an Uber driver and a founding member of the astroturf group Mobile Workers Alliance, championing AB5 and opposing Prop 22. A socialist gadfly, Anthony managed to wedge his way into the Burbank City Council in 2020, was appointed as the city’s mayor in 2022, and a scant few months later announced his candidacy for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 2024. This is the typical pathway of the progressive Left: make enough noise, get enough attention, and rub shoulders with the right people to get to higher office without actually accomplishing anything.
Anthony’s bio on the City of Burbank website tells the tale of a customized progressive; his story reads like former Long Beach Mayor and current Rep. Robert Garcia, who embedded himself into a formerly sane and quiet municipality in order to turn it into a Leftist looney bin and has now ascended nationally in order to do the same damage.
Konstantine Anthony grew up in the small suburban town of Castro Valley, just outside of Oakland, CA. He spent his middle school years in rural Iowa and studied film at San Francisco State University with a diverse group of students from all over the world. In 2004, he moved to Burbank and became a union actor in film and television.
With 20 years of experience in improv comedy, Konstantine has appeared in numerous television shows and movies. That experience, and a passion for social justice, made running for office in the Media Capital a natural next step. On his second run for Burbank City Council, he won a seat with a record-setting 17,529 votes. In doing so, he also became the first openly autistic elected official west of the Mississippi.
He’s a regular Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a bespoke business suit instead of sweatpants. For a supposedly working-class individual and man of the people, he likes to dress above his station. As the expression goes, dress for the job you want, rather than the one you have. In that regard, Anthony doesn’t miss a beat.
Konstantine has been a SAG-AFTRA member since 2006 and a member of SEIU 2015 since 2019. He has served with the Burbank Advisory Council on Disabilities since 2018, as executive board of Burbank PFLAG since 2019, and with the Burbank Transportation Commission from 2017-2020, resigning from his position as Chair to take his City Council seat. It is through these networks of advocacy that he takes on the issues facing our fair city.
It even talks about him driving around Burbank in his blue Prius. Who mentions that in a bio? Who cares?
Like his governor, Anthony never met a camera he didn’t like, and never misses an opportunity to grandstand. In 2019, he appeared with prisoners to advocate against SB 1045, which sought to make it easier to get the mentally off the street and into treatment.
Even though his current gig is not backed by SAG/AFTRA, here’s Anthony playing at solidarity, picketing with the WGA-SAG/AFTRA employees and speaking out on behalf of not only the entertainment workers, but workers across the nation fighting for equity. <insert *eyeroll* emoji>
Now that Anthony is looking to unseat incumbent Kathryn Barger for L.A. County Board of Supervisors, he is showing his face and running his yap to anyone who will have him. Thank the good Lord for the Armenian fathers of the WiseNuts podcast.
Earlier this week, an episode of the locally well-known podcast WiseNuts hosted by two Armenian fathers in Glendale, CA, featured the mayor of Burbank, Konstantine Anthony. The episode lasted a whopping 4.5 hours, and, if there is any justice in the world, could have effectively ended Anthony’s political career.
Ma tha Siobhan*. The WiseNuts discussed with Anthony the June 6 Parent protest in Glendale at length, and the parent’s role in in their children’s education, particularly in terms of sex education and pornographic books like Gender Queer being made available to them.
In a video clip from the episode making the rounds on Twitter, Anthony is seen speaking with an extremely well-informed mother who called into the show. He condescendingly asks the woman what she means by her objection to sexualized content in schools. “When you say ‘sexualized gender ideology,’ do you mean it’s simply a book that has a gay person in it?” he asked dismissively.
The mother pushes back clarifying her statements and includes the example of the book “Gender Queer: A Memoir.” This particular book is a graphic novel and has been the subject of discussion around the country as it has been found in many public school libraries. There are parts of the book that not only discuss sexually explicit scenes involving minors, but there are also animations of young boys engaging in oral sex.
WATCH:
Anthony doubles down on his insistence that the pornographic images are acceptable for children in middle school because those are the children who are first beginning to learn about sex education in schools. To make an equivalence of learning about basic biology and how the reproductive system works to drawings of minors engaging in homosexual fellatio blasts right past absurdity and into flat out obscenity. No parent should accept someone with this level of amorality to be in any position of power, much less in one with sway over the education system.
Along with his many bona fides, Anthony also touts his status as a single dad to a young son. So, you would think he would be less dismissive of this mother, who is a well-informed parent advocate. Instead, he comes off as a condescending jackhole dealing with a confused dullard. At one point, he accuses the mom, Oni, of hunting for reasons to be outraged. Oni was anything but confused, and in the full conversation cogently laid out why any parent should be concerned about the indoctrination of their children without parental knowledge and consent, no matter what the personal ideology.
Any way you slice it, Anthony is following the progressive playbook in order to gain power to keep pushing the agendas he supports: pro-Labor, defund the police, or whatever is being served up on the socialist menu this week. He should not even be in public office, let alone running for a powerful county position.
The WiseNuts and Oni rightly challenged him on his politically-engineered talking points and doublespeak, used his own past comments against him, and poked holes in his arguments and comments. Oni even asked him to apologize for maligning the parents of Glendale Unified School District, a district that is not even under his auspices. Anthony was there for political purposes and took valuable speaking time away from the actual Glendale parents who had concerns to express.
WATCH:
Anthony doubles down on his stupidity and refuses to apologize.
Suffice to say, it did not go well.
The entire podcast is over four hours, but the exchange between Oni and the WiseNuts back and forth with Anthony that ends the podcast is worth the watch, especially if you are an L.A. County resident who is even considering voting for this clown.
The exchange is the last hour or so.
WATCH:
*If God is Merciful.