Parking Problems in Paradise

San Francisco is a peninsula paradise of 49 square miles filled with hills and valleys creating stunning views. And while it is a very public transit first, progressive city with an excellent public transportation system including Muni and BART, there are 1.5 million daytime visitors and residents; some of them will drive and be in need of parking during the daytime hours.

Some of the city’s parking is metered and can cost as much as $6 an hour to park a car in busy commercial and tourist areas. Monthly rents for garage spaces can be at least $300 and are still hard to find. Residential areas have special residential parking permits that allow residents to park all day in non-metered spaces. Visitors to these neighborhoods are restricted to two-hour parking from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. 

Then there are the temporary, “No Stopping” signs that restrict parking either for construction or for residential moving. Those posted for construction projects are controlled by the Department of Public Works (DPW). Those posted for residential, usually apartment, moves are issued by the Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA). It is with these two agencies and their issuances that I have a big problem and have done everything I can think of to let their leaders know.

DPW issues these restricting permits to contractors who are either doing work for the city (DPW contracts out most of the work it used to do for our infrastructure as does Recreation and Parks) or for home owners and developers. The city issues the permits the contractors request for up to six months at a time. The permits usually restrict parking from 7 a.m. to 6 or 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The problem is that San Francisco contractors and their construction workers almost never work past 3:30 or 4 p.m. and very rarely work on Saturdays. But the many posted spaces are unavailable to anyone else during these covered periods. If the project ends sooner than the expiration date of the permit, the contractors have no motivation to take the signs down, meaning people will be unable to use the precious spaces for weeks while no one is using them for their restricted purpose.

I have recommended that these permits be issued to end at 4 p.m. and not include Saturdays unless the contractor is willing to pay a large premium and contracts to work Saturdays. If the rare case occurs and a crew actually works past 4 p.m., their vehicles will secure their space. If they leave at 3:30 or 4, as is usually the case, residents and visitors can make use of the parking.

I have a different issue with MTA permits issued. Their pricing structure was apparently designed to make it easy for accounts receivable. “No Stopping” signs for apartment moves cost $180 a day whether the signs restrict parking for 40 feet or 180. So if someone realizes he needs only 40 feet but must pay as much as he would if he needed more than four times as much has two possible alternate reactions: either that he should not get the signs and therefore will take his chances double parking for the two hours it takes to get his stuff into or out of the truck or he’ll go for the full bore - 180 feet, which is about six or seven parking spaces. And even though the mover knows it will take two to four hours and they will be between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., he can request that the parking restriction last 12 hours a day for the same price.

I recommend the obvious. Charge a higher rate for additional space so that getting 40 feet will cost less than a fourth as much as would 180 feet and that the latter should be discouraged without great justification such as that the move will use two large moving vans with loading ramps. Also the permits should end at 4 p.m. since they rarely go later and if they do, the trucks will occupy the space until the work is completed. If they leave at or before that time, others will be able to use these spaces.

It would also be nice if contractors and movers removed the “No Stopping” signs the minute they are no longer needed. I have been saddened to find that most don’t. A nice neighbor left their five signs up for six weeks after all the work on their home had been completed and refused requests by neighbors and DPW to take them down. They paid for them so they felt justified.

I recommended that DPW and MTA refund the prorated cost of the unused time.   

Being at ground zero for construction projects and apartment moves, I can see as many as 25 “No Stopping” signs in my one block area. We now have one construction project that has been going on for more than 16 years, another in its fifth year and one going into its second year. People in the area want to add a garage or redo the interior of their home. One project took only 18 months and involved tearing down a small building and building a four unit condo. The four units sold for more than $11 million, netting the contractor more than $8 million. A few blocks away workers are building condos using a former dental school building. The apartments will cost from $3000 to $4000 a square foot. So construction work is a big and lucrative business but it must also be responsible and it the city’s job to make sure they are.

So I have written to the heads of the MTA and DPW. So far I have seen few changes. Perhaps by making more people aware of the problem, some will join in the effort to have more parking available with fewer spaces going to waste.

As I wrote in a previous column titled “Private and Public Ownership,” residents need to take responsibility for their public spaces as well as those they privately own. The streets and sidewalks are our public property. If you see “No Stopping” signs left up after they are no longer needed, you can call the contractors listed on the signs and ask them if their work is done. If it is, the signs should come down. You can also call 311 in San Francisco and ask that the signs be removed.  

Let’s work to end or at least reduce our parking problems in paradise.

Protesting Madness

There are two meanings of the word “mad.” It could mean crazy or it could mean angry. It seems that we are going through both variations.

We can understand why people are mad in the Middle East and North Africa. We have seen the people in Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Gaza and Egypt again rise up and riot in the streets. People screaming, cursing, shouting - mad. These people have been oppressed by their rulers for decades and have finally had enough. The problem in most of these cases is that there are so many rival factions and they are all mad. A cartoon picture that offends them will cause riots with many injured and killed. If a holy book is damaged this too will cause vicious riots. These people are mad. The region has groups like Al Qaeda, Taliban, Houthi, Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS (or ISIL or IS or soon ISN’T) terrorizing the people and wanting a world where women are completely subjugated, treated worse than dogs which they are not allowed to have because the dogs are deemed too unclean.

In sub Sahara Africa, populations are terrorized by groups like Boko Harem and Al-Shabaab, groups that no doubt look up to their fellow monsters to the north. The people are faced with poverty, violence, corruption and disease. It’s enough to drive a people mad.

We see it in the former communist countries where corruption is rampant and freedom is limited. We can understand what would drive these people mad as they are in the Ukraine and soon will be elsewhere in Eastern Europe as the former/ future Evil Empire tries to gain a foothold in the world. Some experts on the region that was, for a terrible while, known as the USSR, say that the only thing that keeps these people unified at all is the massive corruption. No wonder the people are mad and are going mad as well.

We see the tremendous poverty, corruption and violence in Latin America from Mexico to Haiti to Colombia and Argentina. We can understand why many of their people are mad. This region suffers a 29% poverty rate with 165 million people living on less than $1,000 a year. The people suffer at the hands of violent drug dealers and corrupt police officers. Non-whites, though in the majority, and women are treated like second or third class citizens.

But why are Americans mad? We see the signs everywhere.

After a playoff football game, the defensive player who was able to block a pass that could have won the game, was interviewed. He had been able to go to one of the best colleges in the country on a football scholarship. He was earning millions of dollars a year, and had just saved his team’s victory. He was furious. He was yelling and cursing and looking like a very angry and crazy man. Why was he so mad?

A young high school dropout and a hero wannabe, got a federal job under false premises, broke contractual agreements and vows of confidentiality to expose a government program that he felt might be wrong. His leaks had the potential of damaging national security. But instead of being universally vilified as a narcissistic traitor, some took up his cause claiming that their privacy had been somehow violated. Some were mad at the government that was trying to protect them from terrorist threats and took the traitor’s side. Are they crazy or just mad?

A young high school football player is asked about his presence in a gated and secured housing complex. He reacts violently and tries to kill the community volunteer asking the question. The volunteer kills his violent assailant in self defense. We want justice for the dead assailant. Even after a jury including six mothers found the shooter innocent and after the U.S. Attorney General reviewed every aspect of the case hoping for a federal conviction also ruled the killing self defense, we want the volunteer to suffer, forever. We are mad as hell. Are we mad?

An old, senile, rich and jealous man is taped in the privacy of his home saying bad things about a group of his girlfriend’s friends. We are offended, not that his privacy actually was violated, but that he could have said anything bad about any group of people. We wanted him banned from the team that he owned and forced him to sell it. He got us mad.

This madness has spread to show solidarity for an oppressed people and all oppressed people. Protect the underdog against the mean top dogs of the world symbolized by the police. Riot and display disobedience and lawlessness to show compassion for the underprivileged.

But now we have a left wing politician with presidential hopes coming out against the mean top 1%. He is upset that people in the top 1% have a lot more money and assets than do other 99% of the population. He believes that if one person owns five homes and 10 cars while another rents an apartment and takes public transportation, that the latter is a victim of the former and should be entitled to have almost as much capital.

What he fails to see is that capital does not make people happy in proportion to its size. A billionaire is not any more likely to be happy than is a person who make $80,000 a year and owns no capital asset like a home or business enterprise. Has he gone mad or is just mad that he does not own more?

We are now seeing madness on our college campuses. Students are protesting and demanding that professors and administrators be fired for not doing more to protect the delicate sensibilities of their minority students. Did some students wear the wrong Halloween costumes? Did a professor write an email that did not show enough empathy for the offended underdogs? Did the former president of the university and past liberal President of the United States have the wrong idea about a certain group of people more than 100 years ago? His name should be removed from wherever it is on campus. Did an invited speaker say anything that could offend any interest group? He should be booed if he is allowed to speak at all. Have our college campuses become centers for mob madness instead of havens for higher learning?

And what should we do about all this madness?

As the Jefferson Airplane advised Alice in “White Rabbit,” “keep your head!” and use it.   

The Revolt of the American Underdogs - The Working Class and Poor

The twin political surprises of the year have been the success of businessman and entertainer, Donald Trump against 16 professional politicians and of Bernie Sanders, a socialist Independent against the person already chosen to represent her party and our country. How could these two people seemingly on opposite ends of the political spectrum, be doing so well against impossible odds? What could they possibly have in common?

The revolt of the American underdogs - working class and the poor.

The working class is also known as the blue collar or the lower-middle class. They, along with the poor or lower class, make up the bottom half of U.S. household income earners. Most do not earn enough to pay any federal income tax with tens of millions of them getting federal transfer benefits like the Earned Income Credit, food stamps and Medicaid. Most have no more than a high school diploma.

These two presidential hopefuls have several things in common that appeal to both of these groups of Americans.

Both Bernie and Trump seem genuine. They seem to be saying what they think and showing how they feel. Most professional politicians are too well conditioned to say what they really feel or think for fear of alienating part of their constituency. It seems that Bernie and Donald talk like working class people do. They are not inhibited by attempts at being politically correct, something that regular folk can’t stand already. But that means that they might say something that might offend some defensive group.

Neither has  been using a super-PAC or depending on corporate donations. (Trump might begin having a super PAC.)

Both are against illegal immigration while only Trump has promised to try to end it. Bernie, like past farm labor leader Cesar Chavez, believes that illegal immigration hurts the working class and the poor, while Americans with college education and good paying careers have no problem with illegal immigration. Undocumented workers provide services that the middle class needs and enjoys including housecleaning, child care, gardening, food service, construction, farming, and furniture moving at very reasonable rates. Those here uninvited will not be competition for any white collar job. They will not be competing to be partners in a law firm or for residency in a hospital. They will not be teachers or politicians, nurses or social workers. So what is their problem with people coming to our country to seek a better life for themselves and their loved ones?

But if you are a person without a college education, you might be competing with people here illegally who would be willing to work for less.

Both Bernie and the Donald are against many of our foreign trade treaties like NAFTA and the current one, the Trans Pacific Trade Pact. Both are against outsourcing American manufacturing jobs to Mexico and Far East countries like China and Vietnam. People in the working class are directly affected by these job losses while those in the middle and upper classes enjoy lower costs and a greater variety of offerings from this globalization.

But the irony is that minority voters who are most likely to be in the bottom two socio-economic classes (lower and lower middle) and are therefore most impacted by these two major policy issues, prefer Hillary to both candidates.

Blacks and Latino Americans are disproportionately less educated and more in need of entry level jobs from which they can promote. Hillary claims to be for open borders; has promised people living here illegally that she would let them stay so as not to break up families and that she would expedite their path to citizenship. These moves would only bring more people here without invitation making the lives of those in our lowest two socio-economic classes even worse.

While we suffered high unemployment rates during our recent recession, the groups impacted most severely were those without college educations and especially those who did not complete high school. While the U.S. population as a whole reached a high of 10% unemployment, black and Latino youth were seeing rates as high as 30%. It is these groups who must compete with foreign workers abroad as well as illegal immigrants at home.

If Bernie and the Donald can make this point clear, they could win over more minority voters and defeat Hillary who would offer more transfer payments instead of jobs for these impacted American workers and needy poor.

Both Mr. Sanders and Mr. Trump were against our invasion of Iraq and our involvement in the overthrow of several Middle East dictators. Both are against our nation’s past efforts at nation building. The two also agree that we are spending too much defending our allies, especially in NATO. Trump says that we are being taken advantage of in NATO with the U.S.paying the lion’s share. The NATO defenders say that America is paying in proportion to its GNP and so pays more than any other country or 22% of all related costs. The problem is we are paying to defend our allies, not the U.S. Both candidates seem to feel that the host countries should pay for their own defense. Hillary seems content to let us have more than 700 military bases on foreign lands protecting only the host countries and their friendly neighbors.

This also affects people in the working and poor classes. They are most likely to be the ones fighting for our country to protect another. They were in Iraq protecting Iraqis from Iraqis. They were in Afghanistan protecting Afghans from the Taliban. They are now in Syria, Iraq and Libya protecting the innocent from the violent terrorist groups that seem to be metastasizing across the region.  

Both candidates have said that the hundreds of billions we are squandering abroad being the world’s 911 could be better spent on our infrastructure - physical and intellectual. We could be fixing our highways, bridges, schools, and healthcare centers. Most Americans won’t be involved in armed conflicts, mainly just people who have few other opportunities. As Shakespeare’s Falstaff said, “the poor die as well as the rich.”

Some Democrats are saying that Bernie Sanders is not really a Democrat. He isn’t. He’s an Independent and a socialist. But Democratic and Independent voters, especially the young and the socio-economic underdogs, love him.

Some GOP leaders say the Trump is not a real conservative or even a real Republican. That is probably also true. But maybe the voters are tired of the traditional political alternatives  They want someone different.

I think that we are in for a very interesting six months. Keep your eyes on the underdogs - the working class and poor in revolt.

Tragic Suits

America is known for being a country of laws. Founded on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the Congress writes laws, the executive branch executes them and the courts decide their legality, if the laws are challenged on Constitutional grounds.

Lawsuits are an important part of the way we change individual and group behavior to conform with existing law or sometimes by causing a change in law. Lawsuits can claim for all actual damages and can request that punitive damages be paid for pain and suffering which is often based on a multiple of the actual damages - usually three to four times that amount.

This system has worked pretty well over the years, but something has changed.

Lawsuits have become a way for survivors and relatives of victims of tragic events to sue for astronomical amounts, going after anyone or group with deep pockets.

The examples abound.

A family sued when their relative died of lung cancer about 10 years ago. He had smoked for 20 years even though the health risks were well known from the start. He tried but could not quit. Their claim was against the tobacco company for not only producing a product that injured the user’s health but for adding chemicals to the product to make it even harder to resist. The fact that millions of others had been able to quit this dangerous habit over that 20-year period was apparently not an issue. The fact was that this smoker couldn’t.

A jury of their peers, apparently outraged that the company had added ingredients to make their product more irresistible, awarded the family almost $24 billion (that’s with a “b”). That would have made the survivors billionaires and some of the richest people in America - all because their loved one couldn’t quit smoking. The award was immediately thrown out on appeal and there was a confidential settlement. Perhaps it was like the one Kramer settled for from Starbuck’s on a Seinfeld episode. Kramer had spilled coffee on himself and wanted money. He settled for free coffee for life.

Recently, a former professional athlete was mistaken for a wanted criminal who happened to look very much like him. The officer tackled the victim hurting the athlete’s leg. The officer could have found a less invasive mode of arrest. The officer owes his victim an apology as does his department. The city should pay all related medical and rehabilitation costs if any. But that is not what this man is asking for and he has found a lawyer unashamed to sue for $150 million.

A group of about 100 mothers wanted to sue the makers of a birth control product. The company had noticed an error in their product’s 30 day row of pills. They warned customers at the time and issued a recall. Only one package was returned. Most of the users could clearly see the problem and simply turned the product around so the first row became the last row. Now, years later these 100 mothers sued the company saying that because of the error, they gave birth to children they hadn’t planned on and didn’t want to have to support. They wanted the company to pay all of the unwanted children’s expenses through college. Besides the fact that the problem was known and correctable from the start, there is no way to prove that these litigants used the product back then or that they used it according to instructions. In addition, while 90% of all U.S. women of childbearing age use contraception, 50% of all pregnancies are accidental. So apparently they don’t always work even when used properly.

A few years ago, a crazed young man attacked students at an elementary school and killed 20 children and seven adults using an assault rifle. The families have filed suit against the gun manufacturer for producing a weapon of such destructive force for non-military use. While not one of the many reports about this suit has mentioned the amount, it could be for hundreds of millions of dollars. The gun sale was legal, but the parents want the company to no longer be able to produce weapons that could kill innocent people, especially children.

A man with dual citizenship, returned from western Africa after contracting Ebola, a deadly virus. Upon his return to the States, he felt ill and went to the hospital for treatment. When asked where he had been, he failed to tell hospital staff that he had been in a country with a large Ebola contamination problem. The staff did not recognize his illness immediately and by the time they did, it was too late. He died after the staff risked their lives to save him. One of his nurses contracted the virus but was cured. The dead man’s family and the nurse who treated him sued. He should not have died from a cause he failed to reveal the source of and the nurse should have been protected from a disease that the staff was unaware of.

A very large, overweight woman described as having serious cognitive issues living here as an undocumented immigrant, tried to cross a busy highway. An officer rushed to save her from what could have been a fatal accident. The woman resisted his attempts and fought him. He subdued her but then began hitting back. This was caught on video. The officer was immediately fired. The woman was awarded millions of dollars and told that she would be exempt from future deportation.

A 6’5”, morbidly obese Staten Island man with a serious case of heart failure, diabetes and kidney insufficiency related to his massive size, resisted his third arrest after ignoring multiple warnings to cease his illegal street activity. He told officers that he had had enough of these arrests and would not cooperate. They tried to take him into custody. They grabbed him around the only part of his body they could get their arms around - his neck. He resisted and was last heard  saying “I can’t breathe.” He died of a heart attack, a symptom of which is not being able to get air to the heart - one feels breathless.

The arresting officers were found not guilty in his death. The city’s mayor lamented the jury decision and sided with the deceased. He had the city pay the family $6.5 million for this predictable death.

A woman with a long history of alcoholism was at the county hospital for treatment of the effects of this condition. She left on her own, as she was entitled to do, and died while in the hospital’s emergency stairway. It was unclear why she went there and what she was doing in this restricted area. Her dead body was not found for a few days because the security guard did not include it in his rounds. The family sued saying that she should have not been able to get into this emergency stairway and the security officer should have found her dead body earlier. The city gave her foreign family $3.5 million.

It seems clear to me that suits have gone much too far. Attorneys, judges and juries have to say no to these egregious cases of tragic suits motivated more by greed than a need for justice. Perhaps, punitive damages should go into a victim fund instead, not to the litigants who should only get reimbursed for actual damages in order to be made whole.


   
     

Trumping the GOP et al

The GOP establishment, the mainstream media, the Democrats and high tech executives fear a Trump candidacy and are together conspiring to stop Trump from winning the GOP nomination and, possibly, the presidency.

The mainstream media, already not known for integrity or objectivity, has been blatant in its attempts to derail this candidacy. Huffington Post adds a footnote to every article about Trump saying that he is a liar, sexist, racist, etc. Even Fox, the GOP network, has been openly against him from the start.   

Why?

Some will say that he is a sexist because he said some insulting things about one woman: Rosie O’Donnell. Some say he is racist because he said that illegal immigrants are bringing illegal drugs and crime to our land. He is said to be anti-Muslim because he wanted to pause immigrating Muslims, especially from radicalized countries, until we can better evaluate who they are and what they want. Being labeled as racist, sexist, homophobic or anti Muslim make the accused the subject of discrediting ridicule and permissible intolerance.

Some say that Trump is too vulgar, outspoken, narcissistic and dishonest. He is definitely not politically correct.

Few are saying much about his terrible income tax reform ideas or his empty thoughts about replacing the Affordable Care Act or his plans to defeat radical Islam.

But what is it they really don’t like about Mr. Trump? What is Trump advocating?

He wants to seal our southern border, immediately repatriate those still caught sneaking in, and force businesses to EVerify all of their employees to ensure that they are authorized to work. He also wants to get many of those here illegally motivated to return to their homeland and has questioned whether children born to undocumented immigrants should be automatic U.S. citizens. Only one other developed country allows for this, Canada. (Ted Cruz was given birthright citizenship in Canada as a natural born citizen. One can’t be a natural born citizen of more than one country.)

Does that make Trump racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Latino or just against illegal immigration?

Should we continue to have a broken border allowing hundreds of thousands of people to enter our country illegally? Does a country have a right to decide who comes through its borders or to use its available funds to help its own citizens before it takes on the world’s poor? But the Democrats want open borders and eventual citizenship for all interlopers out of compassion and the desire to expand their base. The Republicans want open borders to provide cheap labor while keeping other labor costs down as well. Lower labor costs means more profit,which means more money, which means more power, which means greater freedom and access to luxury.

Looking at the experience of our European allies with refugees pouring in from the Middle East and Africa, should the U.S. let the same thing happen here before setting up a system to fully vet all applicants and develop priorities for admission to our shores? Is our country responsible for taking in refugees from more than 7,000 miles away when their regional neighbors who share their religion, culture, language, values and beliefs refuse to help?

Is it anti-Muslim to want to ensure that our people are safe from the terrorism that has spread cancer-like through the Middle East and Africa? Do we have an obligation to take in more people needing our aid when we have tens of millions of Americans that need our attention and our tax dollars?

Mr. Trump has had the temerity to say that the emperor has no clothes to his fellow Republicans. He has the nerve to say that Bush’s invasion of Iraq and sloppy coverage in Afghanistan have led to the spread of jihadist brutality throughout that region. Republicans have amnesia regarding George II’s eight years. They just remember how nice he seemed and how Republican he was. They forget that he almost destroyed our economy and got us into two unnecessary wars that cost us trillions of dollars and thousands of young American lives.  

Mr. Trump is against American interventions in different parts of the world. He would close many of our 700+ foreign military bases and make the host countries that want us to remain pay the entire cost of our presence. The GOP wants to expand our military and intervene in more struggles around the world. The GOP hawks want more war not less. Mr. Trump would threaten their bloodlust.

Mr. Trump is for free trade but against many of our free trade pacts that have cost Americans millions of factory jobs and its own self sufficiency.We now depend on foreign countries to provide for our needs with electronics, appliances, clothing, and even children’s games. He says that we are being taken advantage of by the Chinese and Mexico. Is he wrong? We are running huge trading deficits with each country.

The GOP establishment cannot forgive him these trespasses from party doctrine. But there are a few of his views that they might dislike even more.

The GOP establishment fear that Trump is not really against abortion no matter what he says. Pro-life is one of the pillars of the modern GOP. The GOP refuses to realize that this issue is a fait accomplis. They believe that Trump is not against gay marriage. This again is a moral issue for Republicans and also is a done deal that will not be reversed. 

The GOP appears to be Trumped. Could the Democrats be next?

What Me Worry? What Should We Fear?

Each day, I watch several network news shows and read several of our country’s major newspapers telling us about the many terrible things that are happening to us. The media provide us with some of the details of each event, make it as frightening as possible and then tell us that we are afraid.

What must we fear and how can we know not to worry?

A few years ago, we learned of an Ebola virus in western Africa that was killing thousands of people in three countries there. We were told that Americans were going over there to save the area from total devastation. Then came the news that one person with dual citizenship returned to the states from one of the affected countries felt sick and went to the hospital but  failed to tell them from whence he came. He died. When it was diagnosed as Ebola, we were told that it could have spread throughout the hospital and into the community. We were told how frightening this prospect was.  An American doctor who worked over there returned with full blown Ebola. He was treated and recovered. A nurse might have contracted it but she was also cured. She and the family of the deceased man both filed lawsuits.

The media told us how frightened we all were. I hadn’t realized that I was afraid. I reasoned that since only one American has died of this terrible plague, it probably was no cause for concern. It wasn’t.

In the past year or so, we have been hearing about unarmed black people who resisted arrest being killed by police. A New York City mayor whose son is biracial told us that he always warns his son about steering clear of the police for fear of what they might do to him. This was after a morbidly obese repeat offender died of a heart attack while resisting his third arrest. The victim was 6’5 weighed over 300 pounds, had severe heart, kidney and diabetes issues. His family successfully sued the city.

In another case, a woman committed suicide while in jail for attacking a police officer. Her family did not put up the $500 bail for her and would not return her calls. The department was sued for allowing her to die.

So should we now fear the police?

In the past year or so, the media have reported that record numbers of migrants have crossed our southern border seeking refuge in our rich country. We are told that many were children and that we could not turn them back immediately because they all fear for their lives. Some Americans are telling us that we should fear this invasion; that it will mean great costs for our taxpayers, lower wages and fewer job opportunities especially for young minority American job seekers who lack a college education. Should we be concerned about the effect of this migration will have on our schools and social welfare programs? Should those of us in the minority community be afraid that our American children will not find entry level jobs?

Now we are learning from news reports that Islamic terrorists, influenced by ISIS and Al Qaeda, are attacking us here in our homeland. There were several failed attempts but two young terrorists planted bombs during the Boston marathon killing several people and wounding many more a few years ago. We learned that the residents were Boston strong and somehow found a way to go on after this tragedy. Then, recently, two young terrorists attacked people at a nursing home and killed 14 people. Some of the victims are suing saying that this not have happened.

Now after these two tragedies we are told that we are at war and under attack. Some recommend that we let no believers in Islam, a religion of peace, to enter our country until the problem is understood and eliminated. Should we fear an-all out invasion by Islamic terrorists?

After years of hearing reports of rising oil prices and fears that with a growing demand by India and China and a diminishing world supply of the liquid gold will cause the price per gallon to rise to $5-$6 and more, we feared that this increased cost would wreak havoc on our economy. Now we are told that there is a glut of oil and we are using less, driving the price per barrel of crude oil to below $30. We still remember the experts from the now-defunct oil newsletter warning us that we will never see $50 a barrel prices which were at the time over $100. We were told to worry then. Now we are told to worry about low oil prices which are saving American drivers more than $1,000 a year per car. The stock market, our nation’s fear index, is way down for the year by more than 2,000 points from the recent high. Investors are frightened by the good news gas prices.

Should we fear low gas prices and a recession?

Recent media reports tell us of a new fear - campus unrest. We are told that groups of students at several universities have protested some lack of political correctness on campus and want the administrators fired for not doing enough to limit acts that might possibly offend some students. The targeted educators are promptly resigning, seeming to be happy to get away from that environment as quickly as possible. Comedians and pundits are threatening to stop visiting campuses because of the spread of protests against free speech that the group disagrees with. It happened at the home of the free speech movement, Berkeley, where some students objected to a liberal hero’s views on religion. He had the temerity to suggest that all religions are not equal even though he is against all of them.  Should we fear the cancer of political correctness?  

The mainstream media seem more concerned with helping us feel than with helping us think with reporting tailored to getting us to react to conditions about which we have insufficient information to minimize pause for reflection. 

So when telling us about a medical crises that could affect us, like Ebola or Mad Cow disease or swine flu, we should be reminded how remote the chances are of us being affected by it especially when following some simple advice.

When reporting about a person being arrested or shot by police, we need to know the background and have the numbers put in perspective. If an unarmed man is killed after attacking a police officer, we need to know what had happened immediately prior and what was this person’s history. 

If there is a problem with illegal immigration, we need to know the current magnitude of the problem, the real reason for the increase, the flaws in our system that allow it to continue and the several remedies to end the problem. We should also be given the actual cost of activity and the costs of the possible remedies.

When reporting on a terrorist threat, it would be helpful to put it in perspective.  How does the untimely death of 95* Americans in the last 14+ years since September 11 caused by terrorists compare with the number of Americans who die of other causes during the same period?

I have found what my greatest fear is. It is the spread of incomplete, sensational, superficial and subjective information leading to knee jerk reactions by the misinformed who have been conditioned to feel rather than to think. It is the overdose of resultant political correctness which in turn stifles free speech in order to avoid any chance of the cognitive dissonance that leads to thought and change.

What me worry? Yes, I do.

* updated as of 7/7/16

Good News

It seems that every time we turn on or read the news, it is bad news. We learn about more violence and suffering in the Middle East; we hear that there was an attack at a school or hospital or workplace by a deranged assailant here in our country. We have daily weather reports of dangerous conditions in different parts of our land and are reminded of the threat from global warming. We are being made aware of more groups of underdogs who are in need of relief - refugees, illegal immigrants, minorities, the aged, the disabled, union members, the middle class, LGBTQ members, the bottom 99% and, most recently, the non billionaires.

All this news can be quite depressing.

Here is some good news.

Recent studies have found that the world poverty is declining with fewer people in the world living in the most extreme levels of poverty. Economic situations are improving in Asia and Africa and even in a few parts of Latin America.

In America more than 16 million people have health coverage for the first time thanks to the Affordable Care Act. The stock market which gauges the worth of American corporations has almost tripled since its low in the start of 2009 of 6,000. Large American banks have submitted to and passed stringent tests of their viability making a repeat of the 2008 recession due to bank failure, less likely. Home values have bounced back across most of the country boosted by low mortgage rates and a recovering economy. The American car business is doing better than ever a far cry from where they were seven years ago, with G.M. and Chrysler facing bankruptcy. Middle class wage earners saw a 2.5% increase in wages this year with inflation pegged at almost 0% led by gas prices that are down by more than half.

The income disparity, called by some the inequality, is less than originally declared by economists. The disparity was magnified by using pre-tax dollars and not considering in-kind benefits. The high income earners have to pay federal, state, local, sales, and property taxes, usually make large charitable contributions and pay huge interest payments. Their net income is much less than their gross and should not include future stock options as it usually is.

Those on the low end of the economic ladder get in-kind benefits from free breakfast and lunch programs for their children in public school, rent subsides, food stamps, free medical coverage (Medicare or Medicaid), utilities subsidies and Earned Income Tax Credits. These benefits could add significantly to a low income’s net. Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour within the next few years would help narrow the income gap as would a simple federal tax code that eliminates all itemized deductions and counts all income sources equally taxable.

And those in the middle have all kinds of untaxed and uncounted fringe benefits from work. People working in large private or public organizations can get half of the FICA payment taken care of by the employer as are the health coverage costs, and the contributions toward a pension or 401k plan. For large city workers like those in San Francisco, the employee fringe benefits could be 33% of the gross income but would not be taxed nor would they be counted as income by these economists.

But still the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor.

The number of homeless is also decreasing with efforts underway to eliminate the problem in the very near future. It has been our nation’s great disgrace that in a land of such plenty there could be people living outside in parks and on sidewalks.

More is being done to train police officers to be more like guardians than warriors, teaching them methods to de-escalate difficult situations. Police departments are equipping officers with body cameras to document arrests. The cameras will also help make police and suspects more attentive to their responses. Improved education and economic conditions should make minority communities feel more a part of rather than apart from the general population thus reducing the drive for violence.

With cities and states are increasing their minimum wages with some going as high as $15 an hour, twice the national minimum, the increased income will make individuals and families more able to enjoy the fruits of their labor while contributing more in taxes and FICA payments which feed our entitlement programs for the aged and disabled.

The nation’s abortion rate is at a longtime low as are the number of teenage pregnancies which are down by 60% from their peak.

More than 190 nations have just signed an accord to fight global warming by reducing harmful emissions from fossil fuels. Climate scientists believe that if the promises are kept, the planet could be saved from going over the brink making life unbearable.

 On the local level, global warming or climate change, as it is also known, has brought great weather to San Francisco for the past four years or so. The downside to this great run of sunny days with little wind or fog or rain has been the worst drought in California history. The good news is that the water shortage that affected most of the state will soon be over thanks to El Nino which will bring much rain for the next three months, if predictions hold. Some people will be reluctant to admit that once again in a few months a longtime drought will really be over.

So there is much good news and reason to be grateful. It should inspire us to continue the trend and fix the problems that still exist. The rich are too rich and the poor is still too poor. We must improve our public education system from K-14, including junior college. We must learn to be much less violent, less narcissistic and less wasteful. We need to bring manufacturing jobs back to our land so that we can be self sufficient and self reliant. We need more integrity, less sensationalism and a greater sense of unity in our vast diversity.