Why won’t President Biden walk away from all this gracefully and let a younger person who would totally destroy Trump on election day step up? Instead, Biden with an arrogance and sense of entitlement is bringing down democracy in America as we know it.
Doing Nothing About Biden Is the Riskiest Plan of All
You don’t need another pundit telling you that Mr. Biden should quit the race, although I’m among those who emphatically think he should – Nate Silver in New York Times – 7.3.2024
Is this awful or what?
The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Trump’s criminal activities are immune from prosecution. Which means his Federal and State criminal prosecutions will stop dead in their tracks. Given Biden’s abysmal performance last Thursday night and, with many Democrats beseeching him to drop out of the presidential race, Trump will probably win the election.
Liz was quite right when she said a couple of months ago that America wants a guy like Trump. It’s the stupid American people that makes a guy like this possible. Much of the world is now turning hard right Fascist.
Joe Biden on inauguration day – January 20, 2021
A month ago the right wing did very well in the European parliament elections. This past weekend the far right in France did very well in parliamentary elections. And, in Russia you have a brutal thug like Putin. With few exceptions Trump is symptomatic of the global malaise.
Here, even in San Francisco, the Fascist vibe is becoming fashionable.
There’s nothing else to say when you realize the Supreme Court decision criminalizing homelessness came about in large part because of the Brief filed by San Francisco. Which is cited eight times in the Opinion. This is so fucked up.
Trump was in San Francisco a month ago and raised a lot of money.
I just do not understand how anyone can vote for Trump. He’s a racist through and through. Speaks ill of every immigrant and is threatening retribution on his opponents. And now the Supreme Court has handed the keys of the Imperial Presidency to Trump.
I just so much don’t want to be here on election day. The whole notion is too revolting and, yes, scary. I’m almost 77. Something that is almost impossible to decipher. I think about 81 year old Biden and I think of myself. I certainly don’t have the full on energy I used to possess. The presidency is a total 24/7 job without respite. Athletes know when it’s time exit. Biden needs to realize the game is over for him.
THE HILL: Initial Post Debate Polls Show Biden Losing Ground to Trump 7.2.2024
Last April 6th a crowd of anti-democratic rowdies disrupted the campaign kickoff for Mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin in Portsmouth Square in Chinatown. Leading the charge was Mark Farrell’s campaign manager Jade Tu. Her tool of harassment was a PYLE megaphone.
At the June 30th Pride Parade, Mark Farrell could be seen brandishing this very same PYLE megaphone used by his campaign enforcer to disrupt an opponent. (See photo above).
Mark Farrell should have fired or, at the very least, condemned his campaign manager Jade Tu’s antics.
Mark Farrell’s campaign manager brandishes her PYLE megaphone to disrupt Aaron Peskin’s campaign kickoff – April 6, 2024
Once and future San Francisco Mayor’s dubious ethics are further evident as evidenced by The SF Standard dive into his ethically dubious entertainment expenditures. No wonder Mark looks so physically robust. That’s why many of his campaign events have him parading with a loose fitting shirt hanging over his ample frame.
Exclusive: Mark Farrell lived large on campaign cash while mayor, supervisor
Mark Farrell’s last stint as a public official concluded with a victory lap fit for a king.
During his final year as a supervisor, Farrell spent thousands of dollars in campaign donors’ cash to frequent some of San Francisco’s swankiest bars and restaurants, treating money raised for an already-concluded Democratic Party race in a manner that ethics experts likened to a slush fund. Farrell also appears to have used a legal loophole while interim mayor to accept large chunks of money from special interest groups that would have been otherwise barred.
Mark Farrell in loose fitting garment followed by his enforcer Jade Tu
The SF Standard provides considerable elaboration in its July 1, 2024 investigative piece.
Several active members of the DCCC told The Standard that leftover campaign funds for a seat on the local party are generally used to help pay off debts to staff, fund travel for Democratic Party functions and pay for civic events and organizations.
In contrast, from late 2016 through March 2018, Farrell’s DCCC campaign picked up more than $7,400 in tabs for meals and drinks at Spruce, Swig, Bix, Novela, Balboa Cafe, The Beer Hall, Bob’s Steak & Chop House, Izzy’s Steak & Chop House, Fat Angel Food & Libation—the list goes on for more than three-dozen meetings with “DCCC constituents” whom Farrell has declined to identify.
Farrell’s DCCC campaign picked up more than $7,400 in tabs for meals and drinks at Spruce, Swig, Bix, Novela, Balboa Cafe, The Beer Hall, Bob’s Steak & Chop House, Izzy’s Steak & Chop House, Fat Angel Food & Libation
Often, encampments are found in a city’s “poorest and most vulnerable neighborhoods.” Brief for City and County of San Francisco et al. as Amici Curiae on Pet. for Cert. 5 (San Francisco Cert. Brief ); see also 2020 HUD Report 9. With encampments dotting neighborhood sidewalks, adults and children in these communities are sometimes forced to navigate around used needles, human waste, and other hazards to make their way to school, the grocery store, or work. San Francisco Cert. Brief 5; States Brief 8; California Governor Brief 11–12. Those with physical disabilities report this can pose a special challenge for them, as they may lack the mobility to maneuver safely around the encampments. San Francisco Cert. Brief 5; see also Brief for Tiana Tozer et al. as Amici Curiae 1–6 (Tozer Brief ). – Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch
(The case is Grants Pass v. Johnson, No. 23-175)
“With this opportunity, we’ll be able to do more to clean and clear our streets — especially for those who are refusing shelter and services,” Mayor London Breed said at a City Hall news conference. “This is very helpful to us as a city.”
City Attorney David Chiu said the court’s action “will give cities more flexibility to provide services to unhoused people while keeping our streets healthy and safe. It will help us address our most challenging encampments, where services are often refused and re-encampment is common.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom said the ruling “provides state and local officials the definitive authority to implement and enforce policies to clear unsafe encampments from our streets. This decision removes the legal ambiguities that have tied the hands of local officials for years and limited their ability to deliver on common-sense measures to protect the safety and well-being of our communities.”
–June 28, 2024. Official San Francisco reaction to Supreme Court decision to legalize the criminalization of the homeless.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins defended encampment evictions last December by arguing that homeless people “have to be made uncomfortable.”
Homeless in San Francisco. Nowhere to go. Now at the mercy of law enforcement and political opportunists
San Francisco, the City of St. Francis which prides itself on progressivism and compassion has completely shredded this reputation.
It was Trump appointed associate Justice Neil Gorsuch who penned the 6-3 decision. In it he relied on the Brief San Francisco filed with the Supreme Court in its effort to disenfranchise and criminalize the homeless.
It was Mayor London Breed and her minions who led a MAGA style rally in front of the Ninth Circuit courthouse last summer imploring the court to overturn an injunction. Which placed limits to what degree San Francisco could abuse and mistreat its homeless population of several thousand.Now those limits have been eviscerated.
The mayor said she was comfortable siding with the six conservative justices on the matter of encampments, which have bedeviled officials in San Francisco.
“That’s how you get things done,” Breed said about agreeing with the conservative jurists. “I don’t shut anybody out.”
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 6.28.2024
Since December 2022, a federal magistrate has barred San Francisco from enforcing certain anti-camping laws, though the city has actually been able to increase encampment sweeps over the past two years by relying on other laws to clear tents
The Supreme Court overturned that ruling Friday in an appeal by Grants Pass that was supported by San Francisco officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom. The 6-3 majority, led by Justice Neil Gorsuch, said the ban on “cruel and unusual punishment” in the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment does not prohibit cities from removing people from encampments or from imposing fines and other criminal penalties on those who refuse to leave.
Iqtidar Khan, 60, sits with his sleeping bag and belongings on Golden Gate Avenue near Taylor Street. Kevin Fagan/The Chronicle
In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the city of Grants Pass, Ore., which is where the case originated, was punishing people for their status of homelessness.
Police officer Tim Artoff checks on a homeless woman in Morrison Park in Grants Pass, Ore., in April. The Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling Friday that grants cities extensive authority to address encampments. Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle
“Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime,” wrote Sotomayor, joined by the other two liberal justices, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. “For some people, sleeping outside is their only option. The City of Grants Pass jails and fines those people for sleeping anywhere in public at any time, including in their cars, if they use as little as a blanket to keep warm or a rolled-up shirt as a pillow. For people with no access to shelter, that punishes them for being homeless. That is unconscionable and unconstitutional.”
Now that the Supreme Court has given a green light to cities’ sweeps of homeless encampments, San Francisco officialsintend to use the broader authority granted by the court to more aggressively respond to the hundreds of tents spread across city streets.
Homeless on the streets of San Francisco
Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, which filed the lawsuit that led to Judge Donna Ryu’s injunction, was critical of Mayor London Breed after the Supreme Court ruling came out.
“The Supreme Court, and I guess the mayor of San Francisco, is aligning with right-wing justice (Samuel) Alito in saying that it’s OK to put unhoused people in a cage when they have no other choice but to sleep outside,” Friedenbach said.
To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race – New York Times editorial 6.28.2024
I am so shocked and depressed after watching Biden crash and burn on global television tonight.
All’s I can do is look for some solacein the backyard.
Our back porch bird feeder fits the bill.
I can’t sweep up the crumbs of President Biden’s disastrous presidential career ending meal. So, I will let the crows, birds and, yes, the neighbor’s cat Bendi clean up the mess.
At least our backyard neighbors don’t have to think about what comes next for America.
The crow chows down
Bendi at the bird feeder
The bird selectively munches on sunflower seeds
Not in my Backyard
Our late dog Jack hanging out with the animal kingdom symbols of the Republicans and Democrats
As election day grows closer and the reality sinks in that Trump could be President, again, the movie Civil War takes on more pertinence and timeliness.
This re blogged edition has a couple of additions. The End Credits and, more alarmingly, the entire scene in which the insurrectionist asks a group of Americans “What Kind of American Are You?” With the catastrophic result for those who don’t fit the criterion.
Mark Farrell the local guy, Venture Capital millionaire, former Supervisor, former temporary Mayor and violator of campaign laws in San Francisco can add another title to his sketchy political resume.
Bully.
This is the same Mark Farrell, whose campaign manager Jade Tu bullied and harassed the campaign kickoff of Supervisor Aaron Peskin’s mayoral campaign. Which took place before a huge throng at historic Portsmouth Square in San Francisco’s Chinatown on April 6, 2024.
Mark Farrell campaign manager Jade Tu, with bullhorn in tow disrupts Aaron Peskin campaign kickoff – April 6, 2024
Mark Farrell displayed his genuine political character. He should have immediately fired Jade Tu for this anti-democratic attack on free speech. He did not. The goal of Farrell’s campaign manager was to disrupt and harass a political opponent. The fact Mark Farrell did nothing is indicative of the bullying and abusive manner he conducts his political operation.
Bully, campaign finance violator and dissembler. This is the true character of the candidate presenting himself as the once and future Mayor of San Francisco.
In June 2016, Farrell was ordered to repay $191,000[18] in unlawful campaign funding after the City ethics panel voted, 5-0, to uphold the original 2014 decision of the San Francisco Ethics Commission that he should have to forfeit back to the City the amount raised from just two donors and used late in the 2010 election by Common Sense Voters,[19][20][21] an independent expenditure committee, with improper communications from a campaign consultant. Farrell was exonerated by the California Fair Political Practices Commission, although the campaign consultant Chris Lee and Common Sense Voters were found to be in violation of federal campaign finance laws, but a further complaint was filed with the City commission by Janet Reilly, who lost to Farrell by 256 votes. City law, stricter than state law, holds candidates personally responsible for staff as well as themselves, whether they knew about the illegal communication or not. In an unusual move, Farrell responded with a lawsuit against the City in May to prevent further collection efforts from the Treasurer’s office, and settled with the City for $25,000 in October 2016.[18][21][22][23][24]
Mayoral hopeful Mark Farrell and his campaign manager Jade Tu parade before San Francisco City Hall
This is the same Mark Farrell who now describes himself as a Small Business Owner. A misleading job title he wants included in the November voters handbook.
Farrell practiced law as a corporate and securities attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Silicon Valley, then joined Thomas Weisel Partners as an investment banker. He subsequently co-founded Quest Hospitality Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm focused on the hospitality and travel sector.[7] Prior to his election to office, he served as a mid-level director of Quest Hospitality Ventures,[8] now Thayer Ventures[9] a venture capital firm.[3][7]
Excerpted from Wikipedia
Top photo – Jade Tu with bullhorn and symbolic fly swatter disrupts Aaron Peskin’s rally in Portsmouth Square – April 6, 2024 – photos of Jade Tu by Lee Heidhues
The media, by accident or design, has already found Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao Guilty. Of what????
The mainstream media loves a feeding frenzy. The local news hounds are in full throated tabloid mode. Following the early Thursday FBI no knock raid on the home of Oakland Mayor Thao.
It’s all speculation at this point. The Justice Department is being closed lipped about why the hours long search occurred. The FBI has said nothing.
Nonetheless the media with its saturation coverage is playing nicely into the political hands of the Mayor’s opponents. Who, by the way, have just handed in sufficient signatures to have a Recall election this November.
The Mayor’s opponents have just been handed a political gift by the media. With their coverage and giving air time to Mayor Thao’s political opponents.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 6.21.2024
FBI agents load up items taken from Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home – 6.20.2024
More than a day after the FBI raided and searched her home, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao had not been seen or heard from as of midday Friday, and spokespeople provided no information on her schedule or whereabouts.
Excerpted from SF Chronicle – 6.21.2024
Thao had not commented on the federal law enforcement operation that unfolded early Thursday morning, when FBI and IRS agents and postal inspectors raided four properties, including three linked to a family that runs Cal Waste Solutions, the city’s curbside recycling provider.
Her staff only referred questions to the FBI, which would not say why its public corruption unit was interested in the mayor.
On Friday, City Administrator Jestin Johnson was, as usual, directing day-to-day operations in Oakland City Hall, spokesperson Sean Maher said in a statement.
“The show has to go on — we have to continue to have a functioning government,” Oakland City Councilmember Kevin Jenkins said in a phone interview Friday. Jenkins was at home with COVID and had not been in touch with Thao.
FBI agent glares at media from porch of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home – 6.20.2024
The mayor’s absence baffled many residents and leaders in a city already plunged into crisis: Thursday’s raids followed both the verification Tuesday of enough signatures to qualify a November ballot measure to recall the mayor, and a rash of shootings Wednesday during a Juneteenth celebration at Lake Merritt.
Thao had not responded to multiple calls or text messages from the Chronicle, and her phone went straight to voicemail on Friday.
I was truly fortunate to watch Willie Mays play many times. Originally at Seals Stadium, the Giants home in 1958 and 1959. Then at Candlestick Park for many seasons. Even seeing Willie Mays play the Cubs twice at Wrigley Field in Chicago during the summer of 1963.
At the time I didn’t think much about it. Willie Mays was the best and the leader of the team.
Now that Willie is no longer with us I can reflect on how lucky I was to watch this baseball icon in action.
In 1962 The Giants won the National League pennant. Having to beat the LA Dodgers in a three game playoff to seal the deal. That season was memorialized in a 38 minute LP with announcers Russ Hodge and Lon Simmons providing the hi-lites.
THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT – AUDIO HI-LITES OF THE 1962 SEASON
Perhaps the ultimate 1962 hi-lite is the brawl between the Giants and New York Mets in May 1962. It’s here on the hi-lite tape. I was at Candlestick Park that day and witnessed the fight.
BEST BASEBALL BRAWL EVER SEEN ON THE RADIO
Willie Mays, with the reputation for being such a low key diplomatic player, was right there in the midst of the “fracas.” A word Giants announcer Russ Hodges used to describe the brawl.
WILLIE MAYS TOSSES NEW YORK METS SECOND BASEMAN ELIO CHACON TO THE GROUND IN THE MIDST OF BIG CANDLESTICK PARK BRAWL – MAY 1962
Top photo: President Barack Obama awards Willie Mays the Presidential Medal of Freedom – 2015
The announcement yesterday that San Francisco voters will decide to create a 24/7 Oasis by the Pacific Ocean is a potentially momentous event. Momentous when the voters JUST DO IT!! on November 5, 2024.
Keep Upper Great Highway Kid Safe – Vote YES on The November 5, 2024 ballot measure
Creation of this urban park will complete the San Francisco Triple Play.
First was the demolition of the horrid Embarcadero Freeway following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. This concrete eyesore was a blight on the San Francisco Bay for decades.
Embarcadero Freeway circa 1960’s
Embarcadero today
JFK Drive pre Promenade
The second item in the San Francisco Triple Play is JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Parkwhich was approved by the voters in November 2022 with a resounding 63 percent YES vote
Pedestrian and cyclist friendlyJFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park
On November 5 The People of San Francisco will have the opportunity to complete the environmental Triple Play and ensure The City of St. Francis is an international environmental oasis.
Pre Great Walkway along the Pacific
The People celebrate The Great Walkway
Top photo: The People enjoy the Great Walkway along the San Francisco Pacific Coast shoreline.
Lee's Perspective 