THE CITY-Vladimir Putin met Joe Biden nearby an 18th century mansion by a lake in Geneva this week.
GELFAND'S WORLD-This doesn't take long to say. There is a good reason to have freedom of the press, and the obvious corollary is that it has to be accompanied by free and fair elections.
CAPITAL & MAIN-A powerful tidal wave is building, feeding off the primal desire to reclaim a lost sense of normalcy.
CAL MATTERS-If Billy McCasland had gotten his $1,200 stimulus check, he would have moved his family out of the Modesto house the pediatrician says is responsible for his 7-year-old’s lead poisoning.
ALPERN AT LARGE-A funny thing happened en route to a Neighborhood Council takeover of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) during last week's elections: the "woke" who have been screwing up Mar Vista and the Westside for years got their heads handed to them. . .for the second time in four years.
PLANNING WATCH-PT Barnum said there is a sucker born every minute. Famous newspaper man, H.L. Mencken wrote something similar, “No one nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”
RIGHTS RULING-The Supreme Court today decided unanimously that religion supersedes the law, at least when it comes to LGBTQ rights.
BIG TECH TALK - “Today’s big tech companies have too much power — too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) during her failed presidential run in 2019.
EASTSIDER-Freaked out by a few honest Board members, I hear the new secret Oath of Office for the full CalPERS Board is the old proverb, “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil.”
RANTZ & RAVEZ-The message from the Mayor’s Valley Representative, Mr. Khorsand, that appeared in a recent edition of the Valley News Group publication, delivered Mayor Garcetti’s message to Valley residents.
NEW GEOGRAPHY-The coronavirus pandemic has altered the future of American business.
COMMON DREAMS-The atmospheric scientist that led a major year-long Arctic research expedition said Tuesday that the world may have already hit one of the so-called climate “tipping points."
ANIMAL WATCH-Dog fighting operations and seizure of Pit Bulls is reported all over the U.S. by major news sources, ignored or diminished by the major humane organizations--
OTHER WORDS-McDonald’s workers in 15 U.S. cities recently staged a weeklong strike demanding a $15 hourly wage for every McDonald’s worker. McDonald’s resisted, pledging only to raise average wages to $13 an hour.
THE CITY-The Homelessness and Poverty committee called a hurry up huddle for June 10, 2021, at 1 p.m. to be held right after their regularly scheduled 10 a.m. regular meeting, but cancelled the Special at the last minute, kicking the matter over to Paul Krekorian's Budget and Finance Committee.
LA WATCHDOG-One of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Back to Basic Priorities was for the City to “Live Within Its Financial Means.”
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Wake the Children Sleeping: James Baldwin's White Fragility Meets Critical Race Theory and Freaks Right Out
- Details
- Written by Abby Zimet
SAY WHAT? - Fast running out of boogeymen and deranged conspiracies - Dr. Seuss, Mr./Ms. Potato Head, trans girls playing sports, Karl Marx and his evil spawn antifa, Italy and/or dead Hugo Chavez flipping elections, cancel culture warriors of any flavor - and bereft of principles or policies, a flailing GOP has feverishly glommed onto Critical Race Theory as the latest Scary Threat to American democracy, in the process miraculously failing to realize it's actually them. A 40-year-old, once-obscure academic concept developed at Harvard, CRT acknowledges the fundamental role of racism, and its accompanying inequality, in every aspect of American society, from legal systems and social structures to economics and education; common examples are the ways racism led to housing redlining in the 1930s, and still informs today's college admissions, income inequity and incarceration rates. But confronting the systems behind white supremacy, the narratives white people tell themselves to justify it, the way power and privilege work to support it can create fear - economic, social, cultural, racial - in those threatened by any change in the status quo, especially when they're busy trying to suppress the votes of those who would benefit. It's a lot - complex, nuanced, potentially hazardous - for a party of morons like Marjorie Taylor Greene who conflates Democrats with Nazis 'cause, see, they both have "Socialist" in their names, sort of. Thus flattened by idiotic branding, some say the end game is "to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think 'critical race theory.'" In those wee little brains, little wonder CRT becomes "any conversation about race I don't like," "hostile to white people," and "teaching kids to hate each other and our country" - which is the greatest, even though for centuries it did buy, sell, own, rape, abuse, exterminate and otherwise oppress hundreds of thousands of people who, according to a social construct, had the "wrong" color skin.
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NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS-While earthquakes and wildfires may provide more dramatic images for television coverage, our world has been dominated by an emergency of a different kind for the past year.
NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS-In a year when there has been a lot of uproar over State Legislative overreach into local planning, planning and land use corruption scandals to the very top echelon of Los Angeles City Officials,
POT REGULATION-I’ve worked in marijuana policy reform for nearly 30 years. Throughout my career, opponents of legalization have alleged that “today’s” pot is far more potent — and therefore more dangerous — than the cannabis of prior generations.
420 FILE—As President Joe Biden takes the reins of the federal government, the transition is impacting pending rules and policies from the former Trump administration—including those concerning hemp and CBD.
420 FILE-Over the holiday season, I had a chance to reconnect with an old friend and reflect on all the stuff I learned in high school and college regarding weed.
GREEN ENERGY-Reuters reports that President Biden intends to slash tax subsidies for fossil fuels like coal and petroleum and to use taxes instead to encourage renewable energy.
CLIMATE POLITICS--Is it possible that the country is truly rebuilding itself . . . from the soul up?
THE FUTURE OF GREEN-At the moment, signs point to a green economic recovery from COVID.
HAPPY HOURS-An evening routine that works for your schedule and your personal needs is vital for getting the recommended amount of sleep every night.
WELLNESS--How can I tell the difference between the flu and COVID-19?
WELLNESS-A teacher spends their day working with special needs students. They go home to find out their partner has had a bad day and unloads on them.
