Corrupt Bangladesh and Wal-Mart

Ok, let me get this straight. All the big clothing retailers are getting together to help the poor textile workers in Bangladesh improve their lot in life. No wait, that's not what the "agreement" says. What they WILL do is pay to improve the buildings that the workers are forced to work in, even paying the owners to keep the buildings from collapsing and killing workers, bad for the image...  But, of course, the price of the crap the cheapskate american public buys will remain the same and the workers won't make a cent more. Wal-Mart has today even refused to pay to fix the buildings. And the american public buys this ??? Are we truly that stupid and complacent. And of course the american middle-class disappears in the process. God help us.

Bullets instead of Stun Guns

Ah yes, and one final DARWIN from the 4/11 Chron to the activists of SF, who would rather see the mentally ill blown away with bullets instead of a stun gun. Let’s see, while some screaming nutcase is charging the cop with a machete, they want the cop (him or her) to figure out whether they are mentally ill or intoxicated, or elderly (what’s the cutoff to prevent a lawsuit), or wet, or too thin, or near traffic. I shake my head in bewilderment.

The North Korean baby and the US Senate and the Pres.

And simply a whole host of DARWINS (from 4/11) to first the fat freak in Pyongyang. Why not just cut off his caviar and champagne and bon-bons. He’d crumple REAL quick.   

Then of course there is the Senate of the United States, the most horrific pathetic bunch of freaks that has ever populated Washington DC. Don’t even want to require background checks for all the crazy lunatic white boys with clueless parents who want fully automatics with 50 shot magazines to blow away other white kids. Lets see what will happen when some of the white kids of old white men in Washington got blown away by more crazy white boys. Having thousands of black and Hispanic kids blown away of course has NO affect on the old white men in DC. TRULY PATHETIC. 

AND WE CONTINUE TO REELECT THE OLD WHITE MEN (and women).  

And might as well throw in a DARWIN to the Pres AND the Senate, who haven’t the collective guts to actually pare down the bloated government and, instead, furlough Air Controllers. I believer one paper called it the “White House's Operation Wreak Havoc response to the sequester spending cuts.” I’m ashamed of Barak, and I voted for him twice.  

The breaking bolts on the bay bridge

Another Moron from the Chron 4/11 treasure trove: 

To the pathetic CALTRANS engineers, another bunch of bureaucrats who never met an Outside Engineer Consultant at which they didn’t want to throw money (full disclosure, I am a retired mechanical engineer). When I worked for the gummint, we NEVER hired outside engineers, did EVERYTHING IN HOUSE.

Oh right, and they’re a F***ing bunch of cowards because when the bolt people whimpered “we don’t wanna test the bolts again,” the engineers chickened out and said, “well, ok..”  

God what a bunch of losers, now we have a bridge with a completely weakened quake protection structure which will NEVER EVER be as strong as originally designed. And, of course, the media immediately jumped on the Chinese when the fault lay in our good ol’ USA.

Why not just FIRE ALL THE ENGINEERS AND FILL ALL THE CALTRANS OFFICES WITH POLITICIANS AND PR PEOPLE.

A Moron to the whole TAXI industry

A Darwin (or Moron) Award to one of several from the Chron 4/11 paper:

How about anyone involved in the Taxi industry, especially the SFMTA, which spent $400,000 on a consultant who said “the city needs more cabs.” Everything the MTA touches, from parking to parking meters to Muni, gets totally screwed up, and poor Ed R, the prime winner of the Darwin, hasn’t a clue, or if he does, he hasn’t the guts to fix it. The agency is overwhelmed with clueless bureaucrats whose sole goal in life is never face anything that they can’t spend money to hire a consultant. Why not fire all the staff and just have people manage consultants?

The taxi union, which refuses to admit that the drivers stalk downtown, because it’s easier to get fares, leaving the burbs empty of cabs. Then they complain because the smart people use the mobile phone based services.

The companies, which refuse to coordinate the dispatching service because of “turf” wars, and refuse to set up a reasonable system of “gates,” so the drivers get totally scr***d.  

So they totally f*** the whole system, and wonder why everything is so screwed up. Every person with a brain knows that to find a cab at 6:30, you go to the uptown street because every cab is racing up to 72^nd or 96^th to cruise downtown and pick up a fare (oh wait, wrong city)…

I SO TOTALLY DETEST THE SFMTA.

SFFD Overtime or P*ss Poor Management ??

Matier & Ross (Chron 4/24) point out the abysmal record of the SF Fire Department in controlling overtime costs. To me, the solution is simple, but, of course, politically incorrect for today's pathetically cowardly politicians. I have several elderly sick neighbors, and every one of the six ambulance visits in the last couple years has been accompanied by a fully staffed fire engine. Is there an explanation for this which does not involve union political power ???

Chron shilling for PG&E, ignores serious facts

The following was written to the Chron and various members:

The article in Saturday’s Chron (3/30/13) was, as usual, a one-sided fluff piece pushing for PG&E’s attempts to gut California’s emphasis for solar power, and the second in less than a year. The Chron’s David Baker totally ignored the almost $5 per month MINIMUM that EVERY RESIDENTIAL SOLAR CUSTOMER must pay to be hooked into the power grid, whether to use electricity at night or to provide power to the grid. Or to slant it more, $60 per year. For the “… - about 80,000 - …” PGE customers, that amounts to $4.8 million per year in revenue. Now I agree it’s not the $213 million that PG&E claims that solar power costs them. But that sounds like total corporate BS, which Mr Baker is convinced need not be addressed. I’m guessing this is the “retail” loss which is BS, because PG&E pays for power from solar at a very discounted wholesale price.

My first draft had words like “apologist” and “shill.”  But it is one sided articles like this that make me think the Chron is somewhere on the level of the Examiner. It certainly further decimates my trust in the “news,” business and otherwise. I pay for the Chron for unbiased news, not corporate fluff.

I’m not submitting this to the Letters, because you’d never publish it.

A new MORON award to SFSU

I strongly believe in the Moron Awards for brilliance in managers from government and the private sector. 

The current moron award goes to the Chair of the Psychology Dept of SF State University, Ms. Julia Lewis, who by the way, refused to respond to a Chron Reporter. She believes that the free graduation is inadequate and that every struggling student should pay $85 FOR EACH FAMILY MEMBER TO ATTEND the "elite" graduation. She cites some small sample poll and the inability to fix the problem in the two months remaining until grad. Her brain should have told her this is stupid.

WHERE DO THEY FIND THESE GENIUSES ???  If you feel this needs rethinking, call the Psychology Dept at 415-338-2167. Also call the President's office at 415-338-1381

 

Canadian View (and facts) of Tar Sands oil

The following op-ed in the NYT explains succinctly why i am afraid of tar sands energy. I also think that anybody who thinks FRACKING is safe is smoking something strong. They are both ill conceived ways to feed our over active need of energy:

<<Canadians don’t universally support construction of the pipeline. A poll by Nanos Research in February 2012 found that nearly 42 percent of Canadians were opposed. Many of us, in fact, want to see the tar sands industry wound down and eventually stopped, even though it pumps tens of billions of dollars annually into our economy. 

The most obvious reason is that tar sands production is one of the world’s most environmentally damaging activities. It wrecks vast areas of boreal forest through surface mining and subsurface production. It sucks up huge quantities of water from local rivers, turns it into toxic waste and dumps the contaminated water into tailing ponds that now cover nearly 70 square miles. 

Also, bitumen is junk energy. A joule, or unit of energy, invested in extracting and processing bitumen returns only four to six joules in the form of crude oil. In contrast, conventional oil production in North America returns about 15 joules.>>

Traffic congestion, thanks to the SFMTA

As is evident below, the dreaded SFMTA has now decided that they don't have to study the effect of projects on automobile and street congestion. BUT, they can collect fees. 

if you people don't stop the SFMTA, you will be left with a Manila or Beijing or Rome. I don't care, i won't be here.


<<
The new ATG (ed: Auto Trips Generated) system will almost never require an EIR, because the TSF money collected by the Transportation Authority is considered to be a traffic mitigation charge.  How clever:  The Transportation Authority is abandoning environmental impacts on car congestion and delays, so they can charge developers for transportation money.
The Transportation Authority now believes that any reasonable measurement of transit sustainability will satisfy CEQA requirements.
If ATG replaces LOS, the Transportation Authority has the right to do whatever it wants with San Francisco’s streets.  There is no person or agency in City government fighting for the rights of automobile drivers and their passengers.  Slower car speeds, delays, and congestion will not be as important as wider bus lanes, bicycle lanes, sidewalks, and limited parking. >>

The Supreme Court and the SameSex marriage cases

A very interesting take on the question of who wanted to take the case, makes a lot of sense.

most likely we'll (us queers) win the DOMA case and get a very limited ruling in calif on the prop 8 case. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/us/supreme-courts-glimpse-at-thinking-on-same-sex-marriage.html?nl=us&emc=edit_cn_20130329

The dems and repubs responses to the sequester

Written to Diane, Barbara and Nancy:

This is exactly why i detest democrats and republicans equally. Maybe the republicans actually are proposing smarter things. Closing airports, stopping white house tours, closing parks, what stupidity and total disregard for our intelligence.

You certainly aren't listening to me or any other intelligent democrat. Maybe we should give the republicans a chance, Barak certainly is screwing things up.

• March 25, 2013, 7:05 p.m. ET

The Senate After Dark

Harry Reid blocks a vote to prevent airport delays and closures..

(a whole bunch of really reasonable republican proposals in response to the White House's Operation Wreak Havoc response to the sequester spending cuts )

 Check out the full article:

A version of this article appeared March 26, 2013, on page A12 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The Senate After Dark. 

Pedestrian Safety (or inattentiveness)

Written to Scott Weiner today:

Scott

    you know i like your work the great majority of the time. And you're doing good work on the pedestrian safety problem.

    in case you've forgotten, i think the city ignores the third leg of the pedestrian safety problem​, which is the A Triple Eye problem.

    Arrogant, Ignorant, Inattentive, and Inconsiderate

    If an "A Triple Eye" driver meets an "A Triple Eye" pedestrian, the the pedestrian loses, and the driver gets blamed because it's politically correct, but, come on, when a pedestrian walks into the SIDE of a streetcar, how is that all the driver's fault.

     Unless the city starts scaring pedestrians who walk with their head down or buried in their texts, progress cannot be made.

Letting bars close at 4 AM - What ARE you thinking?

Senator Leno (about changing bar closing to 4 am)
   Mark, i think this is A VERY BAD IDEA. 2 am is fine, the crime / fun situation will NOT get better with later openings. I'm not sure where you got the idea, but it "ain't a good'n."
  there was a another shooting last night, and of the 3 people NONE were from san francisco. Many bars in the east bay will not stay open later, and the trouble makers will just migrate to sf.
  now club cocomo wants outdoor loudspeakers, and it's only five blocks away from me, further than at&t, which i can hear a few times a year LATE.
   Please, PLEASE don't push this..
(who the hell is looking at this, 24 views yesterday??) 

SFPD Felon arrests

The following sent to the Bayview Police Station, DA, and several supervisors. 

Capt O'Sullivan
   We on the hill GREATLY appreciate your neighborhood involvement and your informative e-newsletters.
   But i'm curious, and maybe just naive, but how does a violent parolee end up with TWO felony no-bail warrants and out on the street ??? Is this the DA's office, the Judges, seems more likely than the SFPD ????  And since he's out, he demolishes two tax-paid vehicles and endangers countless hundreds of civilians.
___________

Edward

Potrero Hill

San Francisco

<<Aggravated Assault on Officers, Stolen Auto Arrest:
On February 19th at 2:45 pm, plainclothes officers were notified by a marked unit that there was a stolen vehicle parked in the lot of a shopping center on the 300 block of Bayshore. The plainclothes officers responded to the location, found the stolen car, and set up surveillance. Several minutes later a subject walked out of the auto parts store and entered the vehicle. The officers pulled their unmarked car directly behind the stolen vehicle and got out to make the arrest. As the officers ordered the suspect out of the stolen car, he revved the engine and reversed, crashing into the unmarked police car, and lifting it off the ground. The suspect then accelerated forward over a concrete center island and took off at a high rate of speed toward the parking lot exit. The suspect then crashed into another vehicle followed by yet another collision into an SFPD van that had been driven to the scene for back up. After a brief physical struggle, the suspect was taken into custody. He was a parolee at large with two felony no bail warrants, one of which was for aggravated assault. He was booked County Jail on aggravated assault of an officer, auto theft, and his warrants. (SFPD Case No. 130145596)>>

Selling food from the Food Bank

SENT TO Leah Garchik, the "society editor" of the Chronicle:
 
   Your mention of my buddy in 2/18 Chron caught my eye, leading me to your comment about "...reselling (food bank) food ..seems immoral."
   Might i point out that this action is not only immoral, but prevents food from getting into the hands of the truly needy. If nobody else needs it, then why not shut down the food bank and put the tax money to other good uses, like fighting wars or fixing potholes. Or maybe even reducing our taxes, horrors.

Ellis Act Evictions

Automatic and semi automatic weapons are for ONE purpose and one only, to KILL people. Ellis Act Evictions are for ONE and one purpose only; to EVICT tenants to increase rents or TIC or condo a building. Politicians seem to be total cowards when it comes to trying to corral these problems. Let's only vote for candidates who are willing to address these issues in the face of very powerful lobbyists in the gun lobby and the developer lobby.

They voted "against" the nudity ban ?? Pathetic

The following was written to stupidvisors Jane.Kim, David.Campos, John.Avalos, Eric.L.Mar, Christina.Olague, copies to the other supervisors. The first five voted AGAINST the Nudity Ban proposed by Supervisor Wiener,  "... Campos argued that police resources could better be spent fighting violent crime, instead  of tracking down naked men roaming the streets. Other supervisors argued the ban seemed to infringe on people’s right to express themselves and was merely a problem in a Castro that didn’t need a citywide ban."

Supervisors:
     "Merely a problem in the Castro." ??? 
     What arrogance !!!
     What narrow minded politics !!!

"Tracking them down." !!!    good god, what stupidity.

As i said in a previous email, how about if i parade a bunch of ugly female prostitutes in their 70's in front of your wife, children, and neighbors. See if it's just their problem. You won't even allow nudity in the chambers. Pathetic. Infuriating.

Thank god one of you is already gone. The rest of you will be gone in a few years, and Scott will be mayor. Hopefully somebody can reverse the accelerating downward spiral in the city's "livability."

VOTE  FOR  THE  BAN

Car Share Parking

Bicycle lanes, Carpool lanes, Bus lanes: :  ALL great ideas
Commuter streets like Market: i can live with it.
More parking spaces for car sharing, Scott Wiener's idea:  FANTASTIC, need many more.

BUT SEVERELY LIMITING PARKING in new buildings to force people out of their cars: stupid stupid stupid. 100% of the building residents hate it, 80% of the rest of the city thinks it's dumb. It simply creates havoc for resident street parking, causing residents to hate city politicians and the wholly detested SFMTA who try to milk the situation for money.

Why not compromise and allow building developers who designate more parking for car-sharing to provide a higher parking per unit ratio ???  If they provide SECURE bike parking (too many stolen already) give them an even higher ratio.  

I realize the progressives haven't the guts to admit low ratio parking is an abject failure, maybe this will give them an "honorable" out.

Scared Democrats

You know who scares the hell out of Democrats, it's Democrats who don't vote. If the Republican's win, it's because they vote and Democrats sometimes don't, for whatever reason. In my travels to Pennsylvania in April, i ran across an article about the Dayspring Christian Academy in Lancaster PA, and it's Remember America Speaker Series. The featured speaker was Glenn Beck, but the really scary part was that he was preceded by a FIFTH GRADER, a ten year old kid who gave a speech about "The Importance of Voting." That kid is 10 years old and they stress voting.  

(Nov 16)  Wow, i was wrong. The Pres has such a sophisticated database that the numbnuts got shoved into voting. Good for them. 

Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi

Mary Hayashi was featured in Chip Johnson's Chron September 28 column. He stated that she needs to "regain the trust of voters."  What voter with ANY bit of intelligence would vote for someone convicted of shoplifting ??   Is this area and this country so totally devoid of good candidates that anyone would even consider voting for this idiot. Chip is off target on this one, he should be ranting about voters that Hayashi is even CONSIDERED a viable candidate.

The Domestic Pres debate oct 3.

 Received the following from aarp and what i did is below the << ...  >>:

<<I almost can't believe it. The topics for the first presidential debate have been announced – and Medicare and Social Security are not included!

I was wrong, and aarp was misleading. It was covered, so my rant is worthless. Sorry bout that.

Descending into chaos

Sharing the front page of the Chronicle today (saturday 9/22/12) were the story of the flyover of the shuttle Endeavor, which didn't land here, and the story of the ever filthy downtown sprawl of homeless and anarchists. The city then cleans up after them every day, like obedient dog walkers (you can decide how to interpret the adjective). 

Then in the Bay Area section is more protest and vandalism, in which restaurants, businesses, and the police station are trashed while the cops stand around protecting who ??. 

What prompted today's rant was my attempt to have a relaxing visit to a store on Market near Sanchez, which was jarringly interrupted by the appearance of two ugly naked men, one an emaciated youth and his elderly obese companion. Next we'll allow naked prostitutes to wander through City Hall. 

Are the cops, prosecutors and city administration so helplessly Politically Correct that they are letting the city descend into chaos ??? The aggressive panhandlers throughout the city don't even make the paper any more. 

It is getting to the point that if the city had fewer good restaurants, a couple less pretty bridges, and worse weather (which is already happening), it wouldn't be worth dealing with the inept government and the use of parking meters to camouflage the absurd failure at intelligent budgeting. 

pathetic. 

"Clean" energy

Help me understand this new "clean" energy thangy. 

The SF Board of Supervisors want me to stop giving money to one corrupt corporation and instead give a larger amount of money to another corrupt corporation, which in addition, happens not to be an American corporation. 

You want to make the poorest people, who happen to have the least clue as to how to get around this nonsense, more susceptible to sticking with this "idea."  Oh right, and if not enough clueless people stick with this idea, you want me, and the rest of SF's residents, to pay umpteen millions to this foreign corrupt corporation in addition to the the money that is already squeezed out of us in high sales taxes, overgenerous city employee benefits and pensions, absurd parking fees, and fees for every other imaginable thing city politicians get away with sticking to us. 

Why not dump this till you get it right…

By the way, I already send more power to PG&E than i take, and my Prius is one of the most fuel efficient. 

Parking in SF

Bicycle lanes, Carpool lanes, Bus lanes: :  ALL great ideas

Commuter streets like Market: i can live with it. 

More parking spaces for car sharing, Scott Wiener's idea:  FANTASTIC, need many more. 

BUT SEVERELY LIMITING PARKING in new buildings to force people out of their cars: stupid stupid stupid. 100% of the building residents hate it, 80% of the rest of the city thinks it's dumb. It simply creates havoc for resident street parking, causing residents to hate city politicians and the wholly detested SFMTA who try to milk the situation for money. 

Why not compromise and allow building developers who designate more parking for car-sharing to provide a higher parking per unit ratio ???  If they provide SECURE bike parking give them an even higher ratio.  

I realize the greenies haven't the guts to admit low ratio parking is an abject failure, maybe this will give them an "honorable" out.  

The gay Eagle Tavern

A letter to Supervisor Scott Weiner:

As an over 60, gay, SF resident 39 yrs, partnered 20 yrs, I have been to the eagle maybe a dozen times in my life. 

I absolutely agree with you on the Eagle not to landmark the old Eagle Bar building at 12th and Harrison in SOMA. A plaque is perfect, not another landmark building. Maybe someday we should landmark the twin peaks, but not the eagle or the hole in the wall or the powerhouse or the endup or the alta plastic or the lion. Besides, i think most gays of the younger generation don't go to bars the way us old folks used to. 

Is anybody under 60 fighting for the Eagle ?????

More corrupt politics

A few days ago, i spoke of over-the-hill politicians. Today is about the other extreme. The Teachers Union of San Francisco wants you to vote in November AGAINST three knowledgeable incumbents on the Board of Education whose CRIME, YES, CRIME, was to try to keep teachers who are better because they are better, not because they've been around the longest. Yes, UNION SENIORITY RULES OVER GOOD TEACHERS. 

If you believe in GOOD TEACHERS, vote for Rachel Norton, Jill Wynns and Sandra Fewer. 

If you disagree with naive amateurs under the control of the SF United Educators, VOTE AGAINST Haney, Popek, Rodriguez and Walton. 

Again, listening to RoboCalls, Paid Slate Cards and Corrupt Politicians will get you MORE CORRUPTION. 

Over-the-hill Politicians

In discussions with friends about over-the-hill, continually re-elected lunatics in congress, i wrote the following, which i believe i have touched on before. 

In referring to Pelosi, i wrote:
"She has no earthly idea who i am, i don't give her money. And the absolutely dumbest thing i ever heard a corrupt politician say was when senile Diane tried to explain her pressuring the agriculture department for some rich farmer in the central valley, "I didn't do anything that i wouldn't do for any constituent." 

Pathetic...

Minority Youth Violence in the bay area.

Many serious journalists have finally hinted that the problem of youth violence in the minority communities is mostly their own problem, not just the problem of politicians. 

C. W. Nevius (8/2/12):  …..“Somebody has to say, 'There's something better than this.' "….It must be miserable to watch your neighborhood dissolve into lawless gunfire. And worse to know who's doing it and have to sit and watch and hope someone can put an end to it…..  That's the problem. It won't be one person. It will have to be everyone.”

Chip Johnson (8/3/12):  “In the widespread absence of appropriate “parental controls….” Concerning the idea of a youth curfew.

What I think they are skirting around is that parents and family have to teach these kids to respect themselves enough that the idea of shooting another human being is abhorrent to them. There will always be thugs and criminals and crazies who shoot people, but the majority of youth should learn it’s not kewl to kill. Also there will always be crazy boys, invariably white, who shoot up theatres, temples, and schools, but they are a very small number. 

Diabetes, diets and obesity

Americans are obese, at least most of us. Like the infamous "women of walmart." Lot of talk about diets, but the secret is simple, like i wrote to one of my yahoo groups today:...

<<  I think our diet is why...   Generally TWO meals a day, small breakfast, normal sized to small early evening meal. Big meals late at night keep me awake. Like thai or szechuan or sugar will do it too. In between, a couple carrots, or A COOKIE, but no more than 10 cookies a month. 

  Banana splits are allowed once a quarter, cake is allowed twice a month, ice cream twice a month, soda twice a week. our joy in life is restaurants, so we're allowed two a week.  We're careful about carbohydrates as well as fat content. Like look out for commercial yogurt, has almost as much sugar as a pepsi.  Generally we do meat no more than twice a week. As well as the meds, we do multi vitamin, omegas, vit D, and zinc (the last to cut our colds per year by 80%)  Lots of water and as much walking as possible. 

  THE SECRET IS     M O D E R A T I O N.     >>

California Govt

As Michael Boskin, Prof of Economics, Stanford, and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute, said to the Commonwealth Club earlier this year:

"California has gotten into a big ditch. With 12 % of the country's population, California has ONE THIRD of the welfare recipients, and 25 % of the Medicaid spending. If you look at the structure of what the govt spends on, it's been forced - because of the collapse in revenue - to mitigate the spending, but it still spends in very ineffective ways." 

Voters and Candidates

Oh right, and a final post today to congratulate us, the voters.


Only in the history of humans could a candidate convicted of shoplifting be a "strong" candidate for a position in the Alameda Board of Supervisors, and the voters just might elect her.


and the perennial politician Lockyer is vying for Chancellor of California's community college system, and his buddy politicians are probably going to appoint him.


What a totally f***ed up country we live in. Isn't there a single voter with a brain out there??  Are we complicit in this kerfunkle we call elections.

Guns

Another Moron award to the National Rifle Association, of which i was a member when i learned to shoot .22's and .303's as a kid plunking oil cans in a quarry and my step father's WW2 .45 on the farm.


How in God's name can ANYONE  POSSIBLY justify the ownership of automatic and semi-automatic weapons and high capacity magazines ???    Some true nutcase refers to them as "modern sport weapons."


Only a true moron would TRY to justify the ownership of such weapons. Again, lunacy.


Craig Whitney, in the 24 July NY Times, wrote the only smart compromise that i have ever read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/opinion/a-way-out-of-the-gun-madness.html

Isn't there a single politician in this country with guts.....


no, of course not, we the voters haven't elected one in decades...

Health Care in this 3rd World Country

Lets do a few more darwin moron awards before the end of the month. The newest is Healthcare in this country, which Mitt and the moron tea party would like to set back even further into the stone age in which we already reside.


I had a colonoscopy in January (i know, charming subject). The "factory," or center set up to make the procedure more efficient, billed Medicare $6480. Medicare, in it's infinite wisdom, allowed $735 and paid $588 and my gummint insurance paid $147. My only thought is how in the f*** did they come up with these amounts ?????


And pity the poor sonofabitch without insurance who has to "pay" the whole thing.


Lunacy, nothing works right in this country

Another Genius at the SFMTA

The poor "meter maids" of the corrupt bloated bankrupt government of San Francisco are SOOOO DESPERATE to make quota:

Condo Conversions

Hey, the following got published in the Chron, saturday:

I was flabbergasted at how Ted Gullicksen is so out of touch with San Francisco’s current demographics (CW Nevius, June 14). He suggests this young middle class family move out of the best family neighborhoods in the city even if they can afford to avoid the problems with crime and public transportation and education. The tenant “activists” would rather the family move out of San Francisco than be helped to ownership. Instead of sitting down with all concerned and figuring out how to protect good tenants from greedy landlords and developers, he wants to throw out the “baby with the bath water” and forbid legitimate TIC’s from becoming owners or obtain better financing. Even New York figured out how to finance co-ops. In the meantime, he ignores the tens of thousands of units (eight on my block alone, average vacancy four years) kept vacant because the long term owners can’t deal with rent control. 

Police shoot boy 14 in SSF

It's almost 10 am, and just got the "breaking news" which happened 12 hours ago...

It's always very very sad when a 14 yr old dies, but that happens a lot in some communities these days. Why did the 14 yr old pull a gun on the police ??? Where were the parents, where are the peer groups to support and respect each other to be more respectful of authority. I was about to rant about some of the appalling comments on the SFGate website, but realize that my questions above sound somewhat like them, almost cheerful that "a punk got what he deserved." That's pathetic.

What YOU CAN DO

I know i rant and rave, and very few people read these, but, PLEASE PLEASE PEOPLE. THINK THINK THINK, read what candidates have to say, IGNORE robo calls and paid "slate" mailers. Call and email your politicians, tell them to FIX THE DAMN SYSTEM. Write letters, i think they do more than emails and i KNOW they do more than signing online petitions.
     Please people, do something.
     If you don't vote, you have NO RIGHT to open your mouth, just shut up.

On that last note, more people in Wisconsin signed the recall petition than voted for Walker's opponent in the original election. DON'T YOU SEE  the idiocy of these numbers. PATHETIC.  His recall election is going to fascinating.

City of Cleveland

One last Darwin award to the City of Cleveland, which has solved the vacant house problem. Do they give the houses to foreclosed homeowners in Cleveland or others in the country ?????   NOOOOOO, they TEAR THEM DOWN. Totally pathetic and stupid. Doesn't anybody there have a brain ????  I'm sure some politician is being corrupted by the banks (what's new?). They'll say,  "Oh, we're too stupid to get around the legal stuff." JUST F***ING DO IT. Figure out the details later. I'm gettin too hot under the collar at stupidity to post many more.

SFMTA (again) & Parking meters

If you're not fighting the SFMTA, you don't care about your neighborhood. Since they have been trying to force more meters into neighborhoods to make more money for the bloated bureaucracy (see other posts), they have stopped ticketing non-residents without the parking district stickers. I KNOW this because i now park in front of my clients' houses and NEVER get a ticket, unless it's a meter, and then only when the meter is a high priced meter. Cheap meters aren't checked either. I KNOW this because i've stopped feeding cheap meters and NEVER get a ticket any more. The number of meters has gone up a huge percentage compared to the increase in meter creeps. And now they want to pay them overtime to give tickets at night and on sundays. PATHETIC, PATHETIC, PATHETIC.
   WAKE UP PEOPLE. Your SFMTA is a total disaster screwing the city.

Occupy, Banks, and the Mortgage Crisis

I wrote this to my Big Bank President in January. If you agree, make me president, or at least mayor. BUT THINK ABOUT IT:

Only your computers noticed that my checking account balance has dropped by 90%. Your computers also noticed that I have stopped using your debit card at local merchants, depriving you of the service charge. I have moved much of my banking to a non-profit bank / credit union. 

I will not improve your cash flow until you fix the mortgage crisis. It makes absolutely no sense to foreclose on problem mortgages and then enrich a small number of “flippers.”

You should work directly with organizations such as Waypoint Homes. You could absorb 1/3 of the loss on the mortgage, which you are already doing by selling at auction to flippers. It is lunacy for a bank in Stockton to foreclose on a house which was purchased for $370k and sell it to a flipper for $116k, leaving the family homeless (Chron 3/4).

Wall Street should absorb 1/3 of the loss due to their contribution to the crash of the absurd financial instruments they invented. They are already on the hook for much of this or will soon be in civil courts.

The final 1/3 of the loss will be absorbed by the loss of equity by the unfortunate homeowners.  With Waypoint, they will remain in their homes and rebuild equity, most through Lease-Purchase options. 

Any other method makes no sense, or requires massive government subsidies. 

Finding Lost Cell Phones

I wrote this last December, but can't find it now, maybe i wrote to the Chron, but forgot to blog. Ask the poor demented Berkeley Police Chief, this would have saved him a lot of grief:

"As usual, C.W. Nevius in Saturday’s Chron  hits the nail on the head about wireless phone companies not wanting to make it impossible to steal phones (“An easy way to curb smart-phone thieves”).

For the same reason that printer companies make ink cartridges run out faster than they ever before; that oil companies export gasoline rather than lower prices (Baker, pg 1 same Chron); and that big banks try to squeeze in another fee and along with credit cards charge business owners and consumers large fees.

Because they can. They don’t care about the middle class, the consumer, or the country’s economy (Reich, Insight, Sunday 12/4 & Sunday 11/20). The ratio of corporate profits to wages paid out is higher than just before the Great Depression. They know we’ll rarely vote for real protection for the middle class, that they can own most politicians through the existing political process (Supreme Court in Citizen’s United). They know Occupy USA’ers will rarely vote and that the activists will continue to let the anarchists and homeless take over the media message, and that most Americans won’t take the trouble to change banks, drive less, pay more for better printers, or buy fewer products made overseas. They know most Americans will swallow the lame statements from “an industry spokesperson.” As Nevius puts it gently “..excuses seem flimsy”.

Sad. Look what happened in Egypt. Only 62% of the eligible voters turned out, while the radical Islamists turned out in very high numbers, and the Mubarak regime may be replaced by a radical theocracy. Sounds to me like politics in the US. 

Pres Obama and the Marijuana Raids

I wrote this last year to the President. Putting people in prison for this trafficing makes absolutely ZERO f***ing sense:

I am an independent. I voted for you, and I will vote for you again. I admire your actions on DADT and DOMA.

The crackdown on medical marijuana MAKES NO, REPEAT, NO, SENSE.

I don’t know who in the Department of Justice or wherever is pulling the strings, but it just makes no sense. The tea party isn’t gunning for it, California supports taxing it and making it legal, and the cities are dealing with it. The federal crackdown, especially against landlords, just simply is beyond my 68 year old comprehension.

PLEASE STOP IT, it’s going to hurt you, now and in the future. Please don’t say you can’t do anything, I wouldn’t believe it. 

the Bloated SF Budget

Since more people are sneaking in and reading this garbage rants, I'll try to post more (i think i said that before). I wrote this about a year ago to Mayor Lee, and it's one of the few letters that i didn't post at the time. Talking about the budget for last year (and this year, and every year, they never listen).  If you ever go to a "community meeting" and you should, but not if you have high blood pressure, YELL at the administrators to pay attention to problems:

"I think the SFMTA is a fantastic opportunity for savings. Besides an appalling 5000 employees, the organization has:  WAY TOO MANY consultants, analysts, and  Power Points, WAY TOO MANY worthless community meetings / workshops /  “Community Action Groups,” with an excess of worthless handouts, and WAY TOO MANY studies that could be figured out by 4 people around a table and too many esoteric studies about things that will never happen. You could cut the number of consultants, analysts and their budget by 20% tomorrow.

I was also astounded at the plethora of programs around human services, the “full employment program for activists”. Why does the city have separate departments for Children, Youth, and Families, Child Support, Aging and Adult Services, Human Services, Homeless services, along with the Homeless board, the Youth Commission, etc. ???  Did someone actually say at the April meeting that DCYF has 650 programs, and that all 300 “CBO’s” should be funded.???  

In this economic climate, these should all be coordinated in ONE agency. SF has one of the highest ratio of civil servants to residents, and the “city and county” argument is largely BS."