Photos of San Francisco
The Quarterly Report – May 2021
This SF Journal Quarterly Report for May 2021 is brought to you by Chile Lindo Empanadas. Located on 16th Street, Chile Lindo is a great place to get a taste of how the Mission District in San Francisco was before the tech invasion. Great empanadas, beer and wine and live music. See the San Francisco Live Music Calendar for times and dates.
News of Plundering
“There are two modes of invading private property; the first by which the poor plunder the rich… sudden and violent; the second, by which the rich plunder the poor, slow and legal.”
JOHN TAYLOR, An inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States (1814)
Weather
The last SF Journal Quarterly Report stated: “In San Francisco there has been a fair amount of rain in the last month. With over 200 inches of snowfall in many parts of the Sierra, for another year we can enjoy all that amazing, clean fresh water.”
We would like to update this weather report. While it is true that there was snow in the mountains, on further analysis it has been determined that we are in a drought. The big storms did not arrive and the snowpack is way down. This does not bode well for the upcoming fire season which evidently has started in May and will then run through to maybe November. All I can say is “good grief!” In a coming year we may see a drought were there is actually no rain at all. It is bound to happen.
It is May 15, 2021 and along the coast the fog is thick and the northwest winds howl. Welcome to summer in San Francisco.
COVID-19 Pandemic Update
Another inaccurate prediction from the last SF Journal Quarterly Report was “I predict once Kaiser starts a vaccination program, things will move quickly. ” If your idea of getting a vaccine means driving for an hour and a half across the state, that was the Kaiser model. Kaiser completely dropped the ball if you ask me. The pandemic has laid bare how a for-profit health care system and the lack of a public heath care system and made it so battling a pandemic virus is problematic. As usual just follow the money and you will see what is really going. I got my Moderna vaccines courtesy of the San Francisco Department of Public Heath in the small parking lot behind the El Chico Produce. Kaiser Permanente is not about public health. If it was they would have dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic differently.
The National Political Scene
Kudos to Liz Cheney for attempting to call a spade a spade and calling out the “big lie.” Of course it comes about five years too late. While her dad Dick Cheney was a master of disinformation and treachery it is best to take individuals on their own merit. You really have to wonder what was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. How for four years Liz Cheney played along with Donald Trumps lies. Perhaps the cover is that there are plenty of other Republicans, surely some who embraced the Lincoln Project, who are forming perhaps another party. Time will tell but it is fitting that it was a woman who was taken down for standing up to the wealthy white guys. For some women at least, there is no price tag for a clear conscience.
That is The Quarterly Report – February 2021. Be well. Wear a mask if you have not already got your vaccine. Drink plenty of water, get regular exercise and for the love of God stay away from “social media.” Read books.
Photo Gallery of SF
Why Going Solar is a Great Idea – A Break Down of the Savings
This post may read like an infomercial but so be it. It is for people wondering if they should “go solar.”
In 2014 we began a lease with the solar company Sungevity. At the time, installing solar panels came with many financial incentives both from the State of California and the Sierra Club. We have a flat roof that had been replace about 5 years before and was solid. The whole registration process was done by my amazing wife who said that it took a lot of paperwork and phone calls. In a meeting with Sungevity it seemed like a good idea at the time. Installing solar would be good for the environment and would save us money over time. How could anyone be against that?
Sungevity came in and put in the panels and installed a power inverter panel next to our electric service panel that made it so the whole solar thing worked. We would put energy into the grid and take it out when we needed it. In the end, our electric bill came down to the $80 a month which was the monthly payments for the 20 year lease for the panels and the $10 flat rate from PG&E for being hooked up to their grid (it was $5 at first but went to $10 at some point). The logic was that the cost of energy was always going to go up so if you lock in a fixed rate you will always come out ahead. Eventually Sungevity got bought out by SunRun. The lease transferred over without a hitch.
The thing about solar panels on your roof that few consider is that after they are are installed you never think about them. We have a few additional significant items that affect our power use: hot tub and a Fiat 500e electric car. Recently, I got curious about how the whole solar panel deal had worked out. Were we actually saving money?
It was not easy to figure out how much we had saved on our electric bill. After crunching the numbers this is what I figured out.
Monthly Costs
Sunrun Lease
$82.59
PG&E Electrical
$10
Total
$92.59
Without Solar: What We Would be Paying
PG&E kWh costs around 0.25. We use on average 50 kWh a day.
So every month we use 50 * 30 = 1500 kWh
Every month, without the solar panels we would pay: 1500 * 0.25 = $375!
Conclusion
As a ballpark figure, it is safe to say we are saving $175 each month, or $2100 per year. One extra charge is that at the end of the year you have a true-up charge. This year it was $51.98 as we have used a little more electrical than we put back into the grid. Not bad considering we are running that hot tub, charging up a car and all working at home running monitors, computers, guitar amps, coffee makers, lights and the like.
This is why it is never too late to go solar. My advice is to look for all the various rebates and incentives and the best time to install solar panels is after you replace your roof. Getting a lease is a great way to start saving money without any investment or upfront capital.
For more information, contact SunRun.
Catching up with Ralph Nader
You do not hear much about Ralph Nadar these days. Once a public figure, and a household name, Ralph Nadar is not a regular guest on FOX News, ABC, CBS or even NPR. So it was with great curiosity that I listened to an interview of Ralph Nadar by Robert Scheer on Scheer Intelligence, Robert’s podcast. It is a great conversation between two brilliant old sages. While listening I kept imagining these two octogenarians as the old guys up in the balcony in the Muppets, spouting off their wise observations. A very candid conversation.
Below are some quotes.
“One thing I’ve learned is that Democrats are on an infinite journey towards cowardliness,” responds Nader, “because now they’re getting credit for their $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, 100% financed on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren, without a single effort to [rescind] the Trump tax cuts that are at least $2 trillion over the ten years since they were passed in 2017.”
“What we’re seeing is an entrenched corporate state, where Wall Street controls government and turns it against its own people. And the awareness of the young generation, of what’s going on, in terms of the corporate supremacists’ controlling our political economy, strategically planning every conceivable nook and corner, their commercializing childhood, they’re strategically planning higher education, they’ve planned our tax system, they’re strategically planning our electoral and political system, our public budgets, our military foreign policy. They’re strategically planning the public lands and its disposition… daily… one third of America. They’ve strategically planned the epidemic of obesity that they knew full well was the result of their high fat, high sugar, high salt diet that they have seduced young people with billions of dollars of TV advertising over the last forty years.”
– Ralph Nader: Democrats Ushered in an Era of Corporate Fascism – March 19. 2021
And then Ralph takes the kids to task:
“And this young generation, that calls itself progressive, and “change agent(s)”, they just don’t have a clue! They don’t read! You don’t read, you don’t think. You don’t think, you don’t read. If you don’t do those things, you don’t set the stage for social justice movements. We all know this.”
– Ralph Nader: Democrats Ushered in an Era of Corporate Fascism – March 19. 2021
Nadar goes on to show the way and how to bring about change.
“Here’s the rub,” explains Nader. “It has never taken more than 1% active citizens scattered throughout the country representing [or building] the majority public opinion to change Congress on any number of agendas throughout history.”
Ralph Nadar. Someone, who in the year 2021 does not own a computer or a cellphone. Probably the reason we all have and wear seat belts in cars, can drink clean drinking water and have safer consumer products. Unfortunately, also why Al Gore lost the presidential election in 2000 and George Bush II came to power and got the United States entrenched in wars in the Middle East.
Ralph Nadar. Someone to listen to.
The Chicken Lady – Thanksgiving in Guatemala
11/23/2006 6:06:32 AM
I have always been extremely friendly to The Chicken Lady. She runs a very useful store a block away from where we live called Tienda La Selecta. It is like a mini supermarket and sells both fresh and packaged goods. The major reason people shop at The Chicken Lady, though, is to buy the fresh chickens and eggs. They are simply delicious. You walk in the small entrance and make your way to the back where there is always a line.
A few weeks back I inquired whether I could buy a turkey at The Chicken Lady. She said that she did not deal with turkeys and that I would have to go to San Pedro, the next town over, and find a turkey in the market. But I have learned not to take chances with my meat here. It was The Chicken Lady, some good friend’s turkey that had been fattened on his farm on grain and bugs, or we would be eating chickens for Thanksgiving. All in all, not a bad thing.
Then a few days back I was back talking to The Chicken Lady. I asked her if she was going to be open Thanksgiving Day, for I just had to buy some chickens and did not want to be left high and dry, and have to buy a chicken from some stranger. She informed me that it was her daughter’s birthday but that she would be open in the morning. I then explained that Thanksgiving was an important day in the US and that it was about bringing family and friends together and having a big meal and celebrating the harvest and giving thanks to God for all the good things in our lives. She looked at me with her usual know-it-all look and said, “Why must you have one day for giving thanks? In my family we give thanks to God everyday.” The Chicken Lady – chickens with attitude! Maybe I will bring her a slice of pumpkin pie.
From a Collection of Essays
Ray Barretto in 1973
In 1973, Barretto recorded the album Indestructible, in which he played “La familia”, a song written by José Curbelo in 1953 and recorded by the sonero Carlos Argentino with the Cuban band Sonora Matancera; Tito Allen joined as new vocalist. Allen left the band after “Indestructible”. This series of departures left Barretto depressed and disappointed with salsa; he then redirected his efforts to jazz, while remaining as musical director of the Fania All Stars. In 1975 he released Barretto, also referred to as the Guararé album, with new vocalists Ruben Blades and Tito Gomez.
-Wikipedia
How we learn new stuff every day. Incredible.
And people close to me often wonder why I refuse to give my white pants and long-sleeve red shirts to Goodwill.
Aquatic Park Pier – Is Now Closed Due to Safety Concerns
UPDATE: PARK CLOSURES
Municipal Pier at Aquatic Park is closed due to safety concerns.
Date Posted: 12/1/2022
Alert 1, Severity closure, Municipal Pier at Aquatic Park is closed due to safety concerns.
Municipal Pier is closed permanently. After a safety review with the U.S. Public Health Service, it was determined that the deterioration of Municipal Pier in Aquatic Park Cove is unsafe for public use.
https://www.nps.gov/safr/learn/historyculture/aquatic-park-pier.htm
Your San Francisco cheap thrill this week is the Fishing Pier at Aquatic Park. This is a public fishing pier at the end of Van Ness Street. In the winter people fish for crabs. At certain times of year large flounders have been caught. Surely strippers and salmon but I have not even attempted such sport. To me The Aquatic Park Pier is simply a really cool place for a short walk to take in views of the bay. Great views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Sauselito, Alcatraz and Angel Island. You also have a good view of the East Bay Hills. Then by the time you get to the end of the pier, when you look south, you are treated with stunning views of the city – Aquatic Park. Ghirardelli Square, Coit Tower, Nob Hill and North Beach.
The Aquatic Park Pier is almost a hundred years old and in quite the disrepair; it is basically crumbling into the bay. Just watch your step and avoid the yellow tape and you will be fine. The pier is a cool place to just chill and get away from world, maybe sing some Otis Redding.
Admission: Free
Hours: Open dawn to dusk, year-round
The Quarterly Report – February 2021
This SF Journal Quarterly Report once again is brought to you by Gentilly and Taqueria Guadalajara, both excellent options for take out dining in the Excelsior District of San Francisco. Taqueria Guadalajara on Mission Street and Onondaga (4798 Mission St San Francisco) makes the best burrito in San Francisco with the added benefit that one carnitas super will feed a family of four.
Apologies to the many readers who have written in complaining about the tardiness of this Quarterly Report. There were so many distractions: the pandemic, the unruly mob, incited by Donald Trump, storming the capital, the inaugurations of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the amazing run-off election in Georgia. One thing is certain with all the craziness on the national political scene is that it has made for a lot of new words into the public discourse, my favorite of which is sedition. Sedition is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority.” Evidently, with the acquittal of Donald Trump on February 13, 2021, forty-three Republican United States Senators seem to not understand the meaning of sedition.
Weather
In San Francisco there has been a fair amount of rain in the last month. With over 200 inches of snowfall in many parts of the Sierra, for another year we can enjoy all that amazing, clean fresh water.
COVID-19 Pandemic Update
In San Francisco they are rolling out COVID-19 vaccines to many front-line workers and people over sixty-five. Places like the City College parking lot and the Moscone Center are being used for the vaccine roll out. I predict once Kaiser starts a vaccination program, things will move quickly. The pandemic has laid bare how a for-profit health care system and the lack of a public heath care system and made it so battling a pandemic virus is problematic. As usual just follow the money and you will see what is really going.
Willie Brown Retires from the Chronicle
One of the interesting op-ed writers for the last decade in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle was from the former California Speaker of the House and former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown. Love him or hate him, Willie seemed to always have the inside scoop on what was going down in the world of politics. He always seemed to be someone who could figure out a way to either solve a problem of get out of a sticky spot. Willie Brown retired from his post at the Chronicle in January 2021. We will miss his man-on-the-street, reporting the sage advice of cab drivers and homeless people on his many daily excursions. How will we ever know what is going on?
Sporting News
For the citizens of San Francisco there are many street closures to facilitate places to be outside and exercise. People are out and about, running, biking and skating. I predict that there are more kids that have learned how to ride a bike in the last nine months than in the last five years as you see them out on the Great Highway enjoying the 4 mile stretch of flat, open road with stunning views of the Pacific Ocean.
In January there was an epic run of huge swell that made it so Mavericks in Half Moon Bay was breaking for weeks. To get a sense of what this means you only have to watch a few videos of Peter Mel taking off on these massive waves.
That is The Quarterly Report – February 2021. Be well. Wear a mask. Drink plenty of water, get regular exercise and for the love of God stay away from “social media.” Read books.
“Stamped from the Beginning: A Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America” – The Definitive Review
While “Stamped from the Beginning: A Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America” is a welcome addition to the scholarship of U.S. history the title is a bit misleading. It is not a “definitive history” as that is impossible. Rather it is a long rant on who is in what bucket: racists, assimilationist or anti-racist. Kendi’s thesis is that assimilation in the end is simply just a facet of racism as it does nothing for justice and systemic racism in society. He pleads for an anti-racist world from all segments of society. Fair enough.
One thing I take issue with in the book is the naive notion of racism having no historical context. That David Hume, the philosopher of the Enlightenment is taken to task about his polygenisist beliefs is silly. Most white people at the time, including scientific organizations, thought humans were many species. (This is probably, though rarely mentioned, the root of modern racism) Throwing Hume under the bus makes it so people do not actually read Hume and dismiss his many brilliant ideas because it is so unfashionable to read the works of a “racist.” Kids these days have not a clue what the Enlightenment was and is. The same can be said for pretty much everyone in the 19th century. John Muir, of course the racist, who just happened to be a naturalist and wanted to “save the planet’ before it was fashionable, and who talked on some mountain top to another racist, Theodore Roosevelt. The list is long.
The other issue I have is that Fred Hampton, the Black Panther murdered by the FBI, who’s politics were far beyond the identity politics of race and terrified the FBI as he spoke of economic injustice beyond the systemic racism is not even mentioned. Harry Belafonte, who was a major figure in the Civil Rights era of the 1960’s is left out as well.
This is but a brief review. Read the book.
Definitive. I think not.
Overture, MIDI, GM Instruments, Audacity
Overture 5.2.1, Fast Track Pro, MIDI, GM Instruments, Audacity 2.42, TASCAM DR-1 (to record the final Audacity production, any digital recorder will do or even another computer)
BEWARE: THIS IS INSTRUCTIONAL:
That is how you can take an Overture 5.2.1 score and create an MP3 file. Make sure you have the latest version of Audacity or you may not be able to play MIDI files.
STEP 1:
I am on a Windows 7 machine. The first thing to do is buy and download the stuff above. Audacity is Free.
STEP 2:
Write an amazing and complicated piece of simple song with Overture. Make note of the tempo of the song. Mine was 170 beats per minute.
STEP 3:
Export what you did in Overture as a MIDI file. The key for me was to just use GM Instruments and not the sound card from my Roland Keyboard.
STEP 4:
Import MIDI you exported out of Overture into Audacity.
STEP 5:
In Audacity create a new track by going to Generate > Rhythm Track.
STEP 6:
Do an offset so that the tempo in the rhythm track gives you a count off for recording other tracks. For some reason my MIDI was a little off. Zoom in and get it at the correct spot.
STEP 7:
When you are finished, plug in the TASCAM DR-1 into the headphone jack on you computer. Set the mode on the DR-1 to “Line In” and play your Audacity file while recording it on you DR-1.
STEP 8:
Plug your TASCAM DR-1 into your computer and retrieve you masterpiece.
A little more complicated than baking a cake. This is here so that in 6 months when I want to do the same thing… I got the notes.
Be careful out there everyone!
Why Facebook is Not Like the Bulletin Board at the Laundromat
UPDATE: January 13, 2025
It comes to no surprise that Mark Zuckerberg so easily began licking the boots of Donald Trump. The character of both men are very similar. Both do not take responsibility for their actions. Both care little about the truth. Both could care less about the mental health of your kids. Both know nothing of virtue but only their own egos, power and wealth. The essay below from four years ago is a rant into how the laws of the late twentieth century set the stage for our current crisis’s. The laws let the genie out of the bottle. The essay does not propose a solution but hopefully illuminates how metaphors from the analog world are dangerous when used in the new digital era. Even though the rich and powerful try to get around them, laws matter.
This essay explores different perspectives concerning Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Movies such as The Social Network have finally made obvious to the broader public some of the toxicity of social media and this essay is to point out that Facebook and other social media companies are not like cork message boards at the laundromat but rather a modern, innovative and complicated form of publishing. For some background, read the New York Times article Tech Companies Shift Their Posture on a Legal Shield, Wary of Being Left Behind where in the comments a gentleman from New York commented the following:
– Kenneth, ny
Section 230 is the wrong tool for regulating tech giants; it’s how people can say something on the internet without bringing down the hosting service. Let’s remove it; we’d lose these comment boards because now the Times is liable for its contents. Twitter gets nuked completely (possibly a good outcome in your estimation!) but so too does every place users can place comments. The analogy that impressed me in law school was the idea of a cork message board — if someone comes along and staples a defamatory statement, you go after the person who posted it. You don’t sue the owner of the corkboard. And if the corkboard owner removes the defamatory statement, then the original speaker doesn’t get to sue them in turn. That’s the point and purpose of section 230. If the corkboard owner owns all the corkboards, then okay, that’s why we have antitrust laws. But unless you want to start scrutinizing all online speech via legislation, we should use other means to attack the power of the internet giants.
ACT 1: The Metaphor Trap
Trying to make sense of the new digital world, people conjure up metaphors from the physical world. For many years it was called the Information Superhighway and the internet was something that you surfed. Lately, servers are called the cloud. These are convenient ways we, or probably more accurately, marketing departments, try to give people a reference for this fast moving world. But in actuality you do not surf the internet and it is not a cloud. It seems skepticism is sometimes in short supply these days. The notion that interacting with social media and “posting,” is at its essence, the same voluntary action as posting a notice about your lost cat on the local laundromat cork message board is simply naïve. Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated.
ACT 2: Horses and cars
Comparing Facebook with cork bulletin boards is perhaps like comparing horses with cars. Both horses and cars are a means of transportation. Indeed, when the automobile became ubiquitous the motor’s strength was horsepower. This must have been a certain horse in a good mood, and it surely was just an average and not very accurate. Because horses were not cars there were all kinds of regulations about how fast they could go, and how you had to drive with lights on at night and wear seat belts, and eventually it got so bad, you had to have a drivers licence. Cars, as long as they had gas could go for hours on end. Horses need rest. While horses and cars are tools for humans to get from one place to another, they are apples and oranges. Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated.
ACT 3: Geography
A cork board in the laundromat always stays in one place . In reality the only reason the owner of the laundromat put up the freakin’ cork board in the first place was because people kept taping room rentals and lost pet posters on the wall and she was getting tired of cleaning off all the sticky tape. People who see Facebook stuff have it on their phone, on their computer at home, in an internet cafe (they still have those) – basically everywhere they are they can get news and messages from people they do not really even know. They see the social media stuff everywhere. The message board at the laundromat hangs out in the laundromat all night in the dark with the florescent lights off waiting for the morning for the door to be unlocked and someone to poke it with a thumbtack in the morning the next day.
Furthermore, your laundromat bulletin board is not a two way mirror where some creepy white guy in a hoody is behind the glass spying on your every move, changing what you see on the bulletin board by gauging your mood and even where your eyes focus. It does not track whether you were in the laundromat last week, or how many loads you did, or whether you just came from the grocery store. Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated.
ACT 4: Classified Ads
In reality a cork board in a laundromat is perhaps more like a free classified service like craigslist but the cork board in a laundromat is physical.. However, unlike craigslist and for that matter Facebook, when someone posts a notice on the cork board they do not have to give the owner of the cork board their birth date, email, or any other personal information. On the cork board people post their “stuff” and often write their phone number many times on the notice so that people can tear off the phone numbers and easily call them . People are usually pretty anonymous and everyone sees the same stuff. The woman who owns the laundromat (or craigslist for that matter) does not customize the cork board for different laundromat users based on their politics, gender orientation or sport teams affiliation. Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated.
ACT 5: Selling Your Self to the Devil
Unlike Facebook, I would wager that a cork message board in my local laundromat is pretty harmless. It is not a platform associated with radical white extremists that are conspiring to kidnap the governor, or entire governments intent on marginalizing and murdering certain members of society as what happen in Myanmar.
The cork board is probably not a place where strange inaccurate and totally false conspiracy theories propagate. Perhaps Facebook is more often like a toxic dump site, that is oozing falsehoods and devious schemes all night. but appears benign. Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated.
ACT 6: What if I post stuff that is copyrighted?
A few years after Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 was the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) which ushered in the 21st century that often marginalized tradition creators of music, art and publishing. The DMCA made it completely legal for hosting companies and most often large monopolies to make money off of the music of the last 100 years and be free of any legal consequences for copyright infringement as the material was posted by users. Sort of like taping your 100 gig drive of all your CDs as MP3’s on that laundromat cork board and telling everyone to just come and make free copies while the laundromat got financial kickbacks.
I have been writing about how the DMCA is unconstitutional for years.
Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated.
ACT 7: Facebook is actually a Publisher with Unpaid Content Providers and is Edited by Algorithms
Imagine if your Facebook feed came to you once a day in print delivered to your doorstep. It is a “book” by the way. Your print version of Facebook would contain the news from some traditional news source, the warm and fuzzy stories and op-eds from your crazy uncle. It even has comics. It is published in billions of editions and every user gets their own custom versions. This siloing of content is one of the reasons why our democracies are breaking into the tribalism of identity politics. Everyone lives in their custom realities and subjective idealism with their own version of truth. (The customization of various editions is not unlike the New York Times that has a “west coast” version. ) On Facebook and the New York Times are ads and classifieds and Facebook makes billions off the advertising in their publishing business. Facebook is not just a platform, it is a modern, complicated form of publishing with vast editorial power. Indeed, if I posted this essay on Facebook it would soon end up at the bottom of everyone’s feed and eventually the trash. How do I know this? It has happened before when I posted on Facebook such critiques. Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated.
ACT 8: Anti-trust and Toxic Waste Dumps
The quote above that started this ramble speaks of anti-trust and breaking up the likes of Facebook as Teddy Roosevelt helped do with the railroads a hundred years ago. Anti-trust laws will surely be the legal path, but I still maintain: Facebook is not a cork board. It is far more complicated. The legal world needs to realize that the internet is not one huge cork message board at the laundromat where no one is accountable.
Kamala Harris Quotes
“I know predators, and we have a predator living in the White House, and let me tell you, there’s a little secret about predators. Donald Trump has predatory nature and predatory instincts. The things about predators you should know, they prey on the vulnerable. They prey on those who they do not believe are strong. The thing you must importantly know, predators are cowards. I have a background where successfully, I have prosecuted the big banks who preyed on homeowners, prosecuted pharmaceutical companies who preyed on seniors, prosecuted transnational criminal organizations that preyed on women and children, and I will tell you we have a predator living in the White House.”
Kamala Harris, U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate – July 3, 2019
“Women who fought and sacrificed so much for equality and liberty and justice for all, including the black women who are often too often overlooked, but so often prove they are the backbone of our democracy.”
Kamala Harris, U.S. Senator and Vice Presidential Elect
“Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body?”
Kamala Harris, U.S. Senator Questioning Brett Kavanaugh – September 2018
Brett Kavanaugh had no answer and looked dazed and confused. And isn’t it peculiar that like Jeff Sessions who said “you scare me” to Senator Harris when she was questioning him on the floor, Kavanaugh seemed a bit terrified. January 20th will be a great day for woman. For little girls it will be a day where being smart, tough and thinking critically is now part of the accepted performance.
For people in the Bay Area there are three camps. People who hold a grudge for Kamala Harris over the simple fact that she was District Attorney of San Francisco and made some mistakes along the way. Those who are simply glad that you have someone who is intelligent, qualified and decent. And, the few Republicans who think she is soft on petty crime and social issues.
There was an op-ed in the New York Times recently that took the point of view that Kamala Harris should be given a more substantial job than Vice President.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/15/opinion/kamala-harris-rural-america.html
All I can say is: there’s still time.
Kamala Harris – For the People, here we go.