A sampling of the diverse literary delights in Berlin
Our fraught German excursion whose hi-lights were being laid low by a vicious virus and Liz suffering an ankle fracture riding the dangerous Deutsche Bahn is now officially over.
This rainy morning our faithful USPS postal carrier delivered two parcels totaling 44 pounds. Containing a number of gifts and mementos from what may be our last German experience.
It certainly has been good to return to our quiet San Francisco neighborhood. Drink the quality Hetch Hetchy water. Have our own home brewed coffee and read the newspapers each morning.
We couldn’t resist the thermometers in Berlin. The celsius thermometer on the left was purchased at a quality hardware store. The thermometer on the right “Some Like it Hot” we found at the book emporium Dussman on the Friedrichstrasse in Berlin.The Berlin hardware store complete with bird houses.The fateful Deutsche Bahn Inter City Express train where Liz suffered her fractured ankle putting the brakes on our trip when we reached Frankfurt.
One of the most onerous California ballot measures, passed unwittingly by the voters in 2020 as Proposition 19, may be headed for a second vote next November.
In order to place the measure on the November 2024 ballot, 1.2 million signatures are needed by the deadline on January 16, 2024.
That ballot measure struck down the ability of parents and grand parents to pass on their homes to their offspring and not suffer a huge property tax hit. Prior to passage in 2020 children and grand children could inherit these homes without incurring a potentially huge increase in property taxes.
Under CURRENT law when a property passes onto the children it is reassessed at current market value. For example a family which purchased their home in the mid-1980’s, raised their family and still live in the same property, currently pay approximately $3000.00 in yearly property taxes.
Under CURRENT law the property is reassessed to market value. The revised property tax could increase to at least $12,000 yearly based on current market value. A burden which has forced children and grand children inheriting family property to sell.
Excerpted from The Wind 12.17.2023
(SAN FRANCISCO) In November 2020, Proposition 19 which changed the rules of tax assessment transfers was passed by 51% California voters to become law. Three years later today, people are trying to repeal the law by gathering 1.2M signatures by January 16, 2024 for a petition to put the state measure back on the ballot in the November 2024 election.
Prop. 19 eliminated the parent-to-child and grandparent-to-grandchild exemption in cases where the child or grandchild does not use the inherited property as their principal residence, such as using a property as a rental house or a second home.
Prop. 19 is also called the Death Tax on Property. Its full name is the Property Tax Transfers, Exemptions, and Revenue for Wildfire Agencies and Counties Amendment.
The property tax transfers in Prop. 19 affect properties being handed down by parents or grandparents to their children and grandchildren. This amendment has angered a large number of homeowners and parents including members of the large Chinese community.
Prior to Prop. 19, parents or grandparents could transfer primary residential properties to their children or grandchildren without the property’s tax assessment resetting to market value.
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association started the petition to repeal Prop. 19 by collecting signatures statewide for a new ballot measure at the November election in 2024.
“As more and more Californians find out what has happened, anger is growing,” Jon Coupal, President of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, wrote on the petition website. “Parents should be able to transfer property to their children without triggering reassessment to current market value and a huge tax increase. For more than 30 years, they could. It was a right enshrined in the California constitution. But now, it’s gone.”
“Under Prop. 19, property transferred from parents to children is reassessed to current market value, with only limited exceptions. Grieving families find out about it in a letter from the assessor’s office that arrives in the mail along with the sympathy cards,” said Coupal.
Pouty and petulant Brooke Jenkins at San Francisco State DA candidates night in 2022 being confronted by protesters. She didn’t like the view and was escorted out by her security posse.
Never mind that the political animal San Francisco District AttorneyBrooke Jenkins conned and lied her way into office on the back of her one time boss. Progressive DA Chesa Boudin.
Turning her back on the man who promoted her career. Quitting in October 2021. Calling herself a “volunteer” as she campaigned to recall Chesa Boudin. All the while being paid over 150K for her political “volunteer” gig. Then being rewarded handsomely by Mayor London Breed for doing the Mayor’s political chores. Being handed the DA job after Chesa was politically lynched on June 7, 2022.
A shameful action backed with nearly 9M in right wing moneyand supported by Mayor Breed.
A DA who has torn to shreds everything put in place by her predecessor. Including dropping charges and refusing to prosecute dirty cops who were under Chesa’s microscopeof treating all law breakers equally.
Has the crime situation improved on her watch during the past 18 months? Not in the least. Though DA Jenkins brandishes her few successful prosecutions as evidence of her stalwart performance.
What are the DA’s priorities? Unctuously announcing that she is going to throw the full weight of her office. Prosecuting 80 people who engaged in civil disobedience protesting the Israeli military assault against Gaza during the November APEC conference in San Francisco.
Several weeks earlier Brooke Jenkins, following an uproar in the Arab American community, deleted a tweet in which she characterized a rally in support of Palestinians as a “pro-Hamas” event, saying she only meant to condemn a piece of anti semitic graffiti that appeared downtown.
Some courageous crime fighter is our political DA.
Protesting Israeli military action in Gaza. Gets you indicted in San Francisco
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 12.15.2023
“While we must protect avenues for free speech, the exercise of free speech can not compromise public safety. The demonstration on the Bay Bridge that snarled traffic for hours had a tremendous impact on those who were stuck on the bridge for hours and required tremendous public resources to resolve,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement. “I would like to commend the California Highway Patrol and San Francisco Sheriff’s Department for their work to peacefully resolve this incident.”
Eighty people will be charged with unlawful public assembly, among other misdemeanors, for a November protest that shut down traffic across the Bay Bridge for hours, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office announced Friday.
On the morning of Nov. 16, protesters shut down the westbound lanes of the Bay Bridge, calling for a cease fire in Gaza while world leaders met in San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Now, 80 individuals will face five misdemeanor charges each, according to the district attorney’s office.
Civil disobedience protesters calling out Israel military mission in Gaza. Now being hauled into Court by DA Brooke Jenkins.
Just before 8 a.m., dozens of protesters stopped their cars and began demonstrating in the middle of the bridge, holding up banners and chanting slogans over bullhorns. Many of them chained their arms together inside of tubes to make removing them more difficult. It took law enforcement four hours to arrest the protesters and remove their cars so traffic could resume. In total, 82 people were arrested, according to a spokesperson for California Highway Patrol.
With each passing day Israel continues to lose credibility in the forum of world public opinion.
The ongoing carnage Israel is inflicting on the people of Gaza has no limits.
Israel is not satisfied with slaughtering nearly 20,000 men, women and children in retribution for the vicious Hamas terror attack of October 7inside Israel which resulted in the brutal deaths of 1200 people.
The retaliation by Israel, now over two months, has far exceeded the normal boundaries of a measured response. With the tacit approval of, and weapons provided by, the American government the Israeli military is operating with no restraints.
Now, according to the New York Times, a staunch supporter of the Jewish state, the Israeli military has taken to destroying Gazan holy places. The resting place for the dead.
A hideous action which is considered a potential war crime.
Excerpted from The New York Times 12.14.2023
Israeli ground forces have damaged or destroyed at least six cemeteries during their advance into the northern Gaza Strip, most of them in recent weeks, according to an analysis of new satellite imagery and video footage by The New York Times.
Cemeteries in Gaza. Under attack by Israeli military
The laws of armed conflict consider the intentional destruction of religious sites without military necessity a possible war crime.
In Gaza City’s Shajaiye neighborhood, where heavy combat raged in recent days, Israeli forces razed part of the Tunisian cemetery to set up a temporary military position. A satellite image from Sunday shows armored vehicles and earthen fortifications on what were intact graves days earlier.
The Israeli military did not respond to questions by The Times about its reason for razing the cemetery and whether it has taken any precautions to protect religious sites in Gaza.
Much of the damage was inflicted this month, as Israeli forces advanced toward what Israeli officials believe are remaining Hamas strongholds in densely built-up areas of Gaza City. Israel appears to be using at least one cemetery as a temporary base for military vehicles.
Israeli military vehicles destroyed dozens of graves at a smaller cemetery in early December, next to an existing Israeli position half a mile to the northwest of the Tunisian cemetery. A video published by the Israeli military on Sunday shows soldiers apparently engaged in combat in the area.
Last resting place for the dead in Gaza. Attacked by the Israeli military.
On the same day, in the Jabaliya neighborhood of Gaza City, satellite imagery showed new tracks and possible military vehicles at Al-Faluja cemetery. Later video footage shows damage to gravesites but no established military positions.
After nearly a month in Berlin and Frankfurt, where discordant street life is not part of the mosaic, the reality of San Francisco hits home immediately.
It’s hard to put into words the difference between San Francisco and Berlin when it comes to daily life. In Berlin the people seem to be enjoying themselves. In the cafes, the shopping districts and the museums. The edgy tension which is pervasive in San Francisco. Crime. Violence. The unhoused. It is something generally missing in Berlin.
The following photos were taken in the days after our return to America.
These are not the type scenes we witnessed in Germany.
Bowed and bending overAn SFMTA minder in conversation with a riderA San Francisco street person examines one of his possessions.Sitting in the sun on a winter morningA street person lays prone on the street as a citizen stands over himA couple, their family dog and possessionsNowhere to goWaiting disconsolately in a medical clinicA busted out storefront after a vehicle smashed the entryway to steal an ATM machineOne peaceful scene. A Muni rider and her dog
Top photo: One of San Francisco’s thousands of unhoused finds shelter wherever he can.
The San Francisco Chronicle finally published an opinion piece on the insidious Citizen’s Arrest.A legal tool often used by citizen’s wishing to settle disputes by utilizing the police as their enforcer and legal executioner.
I know all too well the malevolent manner in which the citizen’s arrest can be abused. Right here in allegedly “progressive” San Francisco.
My decades long wife a respected educator, parent, grandparent and San Francisco native was two times, at the age of 68 and 70, the subject of citizen’s arrests. Acting as “custodian” (that’s the legal term) the SFPD took my wife into custody.
Why? vindictive neighbors twice in less than two years completed and signed a Citizen’s Arrest. The SFPD witnessed neither offense. Both citizen’s arrests were woven out of whole cloth with no legal basis or evidentiary basis whatsoever.
SFPD in our neighborhood
I had twice to post $20,000 cash bail to have my wife released from San Francisco County Jail. The Superior Court made quick work of both False Citizen’s Arrests. Dismissing one “In the Interest of Justice (PC 1385) and discharging the other.
We sued the neighbors in San Francisco Superior Court for both False Citizen’s Arrests. The neighbors who consummated both False Citizen’s Arrests moved to have the false arrest allegations quashed. The Court denied the Motion. The neighbors agreed to a settlement shortly thereafter and eventually signed the Agreement in our favor.
Still, the psychological and financial damage was done. It is long lasting and will stay with us, particularly my wife, forever.
The American ‘veto’ at the United Nations Security Council calling for a ceasefire in Palestine is reprehensible. The scorn being heaped on America for this ‘veto’ it totally justified.
Palestinian men, women and children continue to be slaughtered from the air by the Israeli military. Whose scorched earth campaign against the Palestinian people continues with the political blessing and weapons provided by the Biden Administration.
The reaction of the Israeli government in response to the horrific terror attack by Hamas on October 7 has now gone far beyond the point of a measured response.
It is now obvious that the military carnage unleashed on the people of Palestine has only one goal. Destroy Palestine as a viable territory fit for human habitation.
One day Israel will pay a price for the murder and mayhem it continues to inflict on Palestine.
Deutsche Welle 12.9.2023
The Israel slaughter of the Palestinian people continues with full support of the American government
Netanyahu: Israel will continue our ‘just war’ against Hamas
The Israeli military said there were signs Hamas was “falling apart” in Gaza, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue the war.
“I very much appreciate the correct stance the US took at the United Nations Security Council,” Netanyahu said. “Therefore, Israel will continue our just war to eliminate Hamas and achieve the rest of the war’s goals.”
Israel launched its current military operation against Hamas in Gaza after the militant-Islamist group carried out terror attacks on Israel on October 7.
A dove flies over the debris of houses destroyed in Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 11. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Netanyahu said “other countries must also understand that they cannot support the elimination of Hamas on one side, and on the other to call for the end of the war, which will prevent the elimination of Hamas.”
I cannot believe how Kaiser has dropped the ball in treating Liz’ ankle injury.
Liz will not be seen by a Kaiser specialist in treating injuries until later today, December 8. Ten days after she was injured.
Liz injured her ankle in Frankfurt, Germany on November 28. She was examined by a doctor in Frankfurt. He told her to see her doctor immediately upon her return to San Francisco. While still in Germany Liz contacted Kaiser immediately.
Following a painful 17 hour journey from Frankfurt to San Francisco we arrived home late Sunday.
Liz checks her assortment of braces and wraps as she tries to lessen the pain of her injury.
Liz saw her general practitioner late Monday afternoon. X-rays were taken. The prognosis is that Liz has a fractured ankle. Since then Kaiser has done nothing except talk.
Kaiser has turned what should be a basic treatment, if that can be said about a fractured ankle, into what could become a full blown crisis. This should have been treated three days ago. Instead, Kaiser negligently dawdles. Liz, an athletic runner and cyclist for over 50 years, is forced to suffer unnecessary painful and unconscionable suffering.
The worst part of this failure to provide immediate service is the fact the Kaiser practitioner assigned to handle Liz injury has done nothing. Not even a phone call to discuss with Liz the extent of her injury and recommend treatment.
The posterior tibial tendon
When I phoned Thursday afternoon I was told this Doctor, who was to have called Liz on Wednesday, was not in the office.
We called the Kaiser injury clinic. We called the office of Liz’s general practitioner. Thursday night we both got on the phone with Kaiser and filed a formal complaint.
We don’t know what else to do. Liz’s knee is swelling up and she is suffering ongoing pain and discomfit. This is an unconscionable medical professional failure.
Liz and I just returned from our well documented weeks long trip to Berlin and Frankfurt. We were both felled by a brutal virus sweeping Germany.
We saw few people wearing protective face masks.
Germans were coughing everywhere we went. The manager of the Freddy Lecks Waschsalon told us “60 percent” of the business were out with the flu virus.
Maskless in Berlin
The manager at our hotel in Berlin chided us when we talked about being current on our Covid boosters. “Some people collect stamps. Other people collect Covid boosters.”
Now Deutsche Welle is reporting the cautionary words from the German health ministry.
Lauterbach, himself a trained epidemiologist, said the takeup rate of newly adapted boosted shots designed to fight current COVID-19 variants was so far disappointing.
Not a mask in site at the Berlinische Galerie
With three weeks to go until Christmas Day, Lauterbach said it was “the optimal time” for people identified as vulnerable to have the COVID-19 shot.
This would allow the vaccine to take full effect before the large social gatherings and travel that often take place at Christmas, he said.
Germany’s Standing Commission on Vaccination recommends an annual booster vaccination for people with an increased risk of a serious course of the disease.
The minister stressed that an infection was not a simple cold and that the virus remained a real threat to people with chronic health issues.
“At the moment the danger posed by COVID is actually being underestimated,” he said.
Lauterbach was speaking after a meeting about the long-term health effects of coronavirus with healthcare, medicine and science representatives.
“The problem of Long COVID has not yet been solved,” said Lauterbach.
Maskless outside the Frankfurt Opera House
There had been an estimated 1,700 new infections per 100,000 people in seven days, Lauterbach revealed.
The updated coronavirus vaccine is specially adapted to the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant.
We are finally on our way to San Francisco after a generally disastrous trip to Berlin and Frankfurt.
An overstuffed United flight 59
An event of kindness salvaged the final hours in 🇩🇪 Germany when we finally boarded United flight 59. When we reached our seats a kind young Italian woman offered Liz her seat in the upscale Premier Plus section. Giving her more space to rest her injured Achilles tendon.
This fortuitous event was something we needed.
Liz looks towards San Francisco
Our now concluded Germany experience was made incredibly difficult by the Achilles tendon injury Liz suffered on the Deutsche Bahn. Liz heavy luggage and the lack of proper egress was the proximate cause.
Coming atop the virus we both contracted in Berlin, Liz injury was the brutal punctuation mark.
Leaving Frankfurt on cold 🌞 25° Sunday morning
The bad situation was made only worse during our trip to the Frankfurt airport earlier today.
An unconscionable lack of service by our taxi driver. He dropped us off at the wrong terminal. Over a mile from the United terminal. Liz was forced to walk and take a shuttle. Further exacerbating her injury.
We finally reached the United Airlines check in desk. And were assisted by a very kind agent. Who told us her own story of tearing her Achilles tendon while hiking in Switzerland.
Looking out the window from the emergency exit row at 35,000 feet
We finally reached our gate after going through German Customs, airport security and taking a long walk. Liz in pain every step of the way.
Regrettably, our problems and Liz suffering continued. The actual boarding of our flight was an absurdity. Rather than walk directly into the plane Liz was forced to walk down a steep flight of stairs. Assisted by a kind Mexican national who told us his own travel horror stories.
There’s even room for a dog 🐕 on United flight ✈️ 59
We were then packed into yet another shuttle and driven to our plane. There was a huge crowd. Fortunately a German cop took notice of Liz’ plight. He cleared the stairway and walked Liz into the plane.
And her fortuitous encounter with the kind Italian.
Lee's Perspective 