Public Comment

Headlines and Headaches

I'm not much of a sports fan so I am sometimes baffled by the Chronicle Sporting Green's shorthand chatter and in-house sporting lingo. A headline that is immediately clear to any well-informed game-jock can bounce off my brain like an under-inflated basketball. Case in point: "Adding rotation help may be next on agenda for offseason." And, then there was a December 5 story by Scott Ostler that ran under the daunting headline: "Bonkers Golden At-Bat Might Work." 

Pole Posters: "Ben You Are So Loved" 

A loving "memorial to Ben" has appeared on the four metal poles on each corner of the intersection of Rose and Josephine. The poles have been decorated with scores of photos and printed statements of loss. Flowers and trinkets have been refreshed on a regular basis. The homage is worth a pause if you're out for a stroll. 

Here are two snippets from the tribute, beginning with a hand-written letter from a young neighborhood resident: 

"Dear Ben, you were very fun because your [sic] would come to all of ours [sic] games and events. It was fun when you came to my first soccer game. You would come to all of our birthday parts [sic] ever since we were very littel [sic]." 

And this note from a local parent: 

"We will miss you SO much, Ben.
"You have been in the kids' life the entire time. Dinners, parties, you name it.
"I will always remember the sound your bracelets made and the deep tone of your voice when you said: 'mm-hmm!' 

"You were larger than life and am so sad that you left us this way, But I am very thankful for your presence in our lives. The universe is yours to explore now. I love you." 

Pedestal Painters & Piano Jazz  

A message painted on a cement block near the intersection of Ashby and San Pablo recently caught my eye. It read: GOOGLE CHOPPA KITTY. I did, and here's what I got: 

"Choppa Kitty is a jazz pianist who grew up in the San Francisco Bay area surrounded by musicians and artists. Not only within her immediate family, but also within everyday interactions from surrounding influential places, and people.
After Choppa's uncle renowned jazz drummer Gaylord Birch passed away Choppa would put down the sheet music and go on to focusing on the Business side of music. Choppa opened "Ocean Beach Studios" in the sunset district of San Francisco at age 24. She reached out to high-school musician friends to help run the studio, later, and eventually, sold her part to the remaining two friends still invested in the studio.
After a few other business endeavors, and traveling the country, Choppa Kitty would finally pick up music once again. She composed, wrote and recorded her first own classical piece on the piano after a 17-year hiatus. She started a blues jazz band with high school friend Brian Whipp (lead singer and guitarist from Bear with a Car on Top). She did all this while learning to mix and record beat tracks living in her car during Covid 19. Now Choppa Kitty focuses on infusing her background of jazz piano into hip-hop, trap, and lofi beats." Choppa Kitty can be heard on SoundCloud. 

Fashion Plates
AUMMM
SUM NERV
BER BLU
EMILURS
WASEME2 

PE4CE 

PREZA1
PAISA11
RAKEET
LA FORTAIN 

Bumper Snickers
Shop Small
Trees Are Good
CanMore Brewing
Good Ol' Knotted Root
Trickle Down Doesn't
I Made You a Mix Tape
Detent Yes Da Bomb No
It Takes a Village to Elect an Idiot
MAGA Morons Are Governing America
No Pain No Jane [with image of a reefer] 

Why the Working Class Is Struggling to Survive 

The Economic Policy Institute recently posted a cartoon showing how the US economy has evolved into an oligarchy. In 1970, the EPI notes, the average CEO made as much money as 20 employees. By 2020 the average CEO was tucking away as much money as 350 workers. 

And USA Facts adds: "the top 1 percent of [US] households hold 30.3 percent of the total wealth, according to the Federal Reserve. But just the top 0.1 percent own 13.5 percent of the total wealth, giving them a stunning average of more than $158 million per household." 

To which Senator Bernie Sanders adds: ""This is what Oligarchy looks like. Today, while 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, three multi-billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of American society," compounded by a "greater concentration of ownership than we have seen since the Gilded Age… fewer and fewer giant corporations control what is produced and the prices we pay." 

That last line raises a troubling possibility: Could it be that the super-rich and the country's mega-corporations intentionally inflated the cost of food and other necessities during the critical months leading up to the US presidential election? 

If so, they intentionally profited as a result of their plot to promote profiteering. 

Trumpeting the End Times 

During one of the fraught days of the presidential election, an Internet presence posting under the name "Tennessee Brando" assembled a short list of Candidate Trump's misstatements—gathered over the course of a single day of political pontificating. It read:
"In the last 24 hours, Trump wished the Virgin Mary Happy Birthday, pitched Hulk Hogan's beer, talked about Hannibal Lecter, said he will imprison people he thinks are cheating, called Musk 'Leon,' forgot Burgum's name, called Brian 'Briar,' Keystone 'Keystown,' & Tampon 'Tampom,' said if he loses Israel will cease to exist, nuclear war will begin, this will be our last election, and the Colorado gov. will flee the state, posted an ad for his digital NFTs, ranted about Kamala standing on a box at the debate and wrapped it up by continuing to say schools are performing gender affirming surgeries on students despite his own team admitting there's zero evidence to support his claims." 

All of which raises the question: why doesn't the country require fair and independent medical and mental evaluations for all would-be presidential candidates? 

Doonesbury Mocks (and Marks) the CIA 

In a recent string of daily Doonesbury cartoons, "Havoc" (a CIA field agent undercover in Afghanistan) encounters "Akbar," a former Afghan rebel-turned-politician. The conversation between the two political schemers began on Dec 11 with this sally by Akbar:
"So why all the fuss about Karzai's all-warlord cabinet, Havoc? This was clearly the will of the Loya Jirga." 

Havoc replies: "Bullfeathers, Akbar. The delegates wanted representative, reform government Instead, they got the same bunch of thugs who trashed the country ten years ago!" 

Akbar: "What's this? So now the CIA only supports representative, reform governments? Dear, dear — had we only known."" 

December 12; "Havoc, why pretend you care about democratic processes in Afghanistan? The CIA's not in the freedom business — building up or undermining regimes depending on whose side they're on. That's why you've gotten into bed with so many monsters in the past. Well, one more isn't going to kill you! 

The US Plan to Attack “Seven Countries in Five Years” 

In 2003, General Wesley Clark shared some startling news that was not meant to be shared. Clark recalled how he was rattled to learn of the Pentagon’s Global Hit List—part of a post-9/11 White House plan to "take-out" seven Muslim nations in the course of five years: “Starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” 

In retrospect, it appears that the Global War on Terror was really intended to be a Global Imperial War on Territory.