LOS ANGELES

PLANNING WATCH-Last week I explained why LA’s updated General Plan Housing Element (i.e., chapter) was a big bamboozle, a cavalier exercise to reverse engineer zone changes that further enrich real estate speculators already profiting from a housing boom. 

CORONA POLITICS-While most companies claim they put customer service ahead of everything, those of us who spend hours trying to resolve issues with our banks, our health insurers, our telephone companies, know that's not true. 

PERSPECTIVE--Maybe I hit my head on the tree limb harder than I thought, or did I get a glimpse of the Biden-McConnell Co-Presidency? 

EASTSIDER-Scratch the politics. Let’s talk about real life and death. 

THE DOCTOR IS IN! There's a lot of politics and bloviating right now, as there should be--but the downfall of Donald J. Trump and the rise of Joe Biden rested, and still does rest, on one thing ONLY: 

OTHER WORDS-In the interest of stemming the QAnon conspiracy theories about Satanist pedophile rings in Hollywood, I’d like to share my experience with actual Satanists in Hollywood.

HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT-With the recent unveiling of the COVID-19 relief package, the Biden Administration made a simple, yet extraordinary statement: housing is a right.

GUEST COMMENTARY-Despite Biden's high approval numbers and Trump's plummeting ones and nine of ten Americans slamming the Capitol riot,

GELFAND’S WORLD--Some of my colleagues and a lot of Trump supporters have been arguing something along these lines: OK, so he was tone deaf and did a few bad things, but what about the good things he did? 

@THE GUSS REPORT-Welcome to the Presidency of the United States, Joe Biden! This mess is now your mess. Like each of your predecessors, you must play the hand you are dealt. 

SOUTH OF THE 10-Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. has systematically removed the public’s right to air grievances on the city’s safety issues by disbanding the police oversight commission.

CAL BUZZ-For our farewell to 2020, Calbuzz was cleverly waiting for the results of the Georgia Senate races, in order to be able to more accurately discuss how 2021 would be shaping up – Democratic control of the U.S. Senate obviously would make things very different than divided government. 

MY TURN-Extremism in pursuit of power is treason.  Americans are very naive how politicos go about using extremism in pursuit of personal power. A significant segment of the right wing does not see Donald Trump as an extremist. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--Half of all the presidential impeachments in the history of the United States are owned by Donald J. Trump.

LEANING RIGHT--Sometimes I wonder if our nation really wants to get through this pandemic and put it in our collective rear-view mirror. Maybe some of us like the masks, the lockdowns, the social distancing, and the economic misery.

DEPLORABLES AND IMPEACHMENT-Anyone who thinks that the populist working class movement that Donald Trump nurtured is going to go away if he is impeached and found guilty does not understand the half of America who voted for him.

PLANNING WATCH-By State of California law and the City of Los Angeles Charter, Los Angeles must prepare, adopt, maintain, and monitor its General Plan, even though its chapters (i.e. elements) on infrastructure and public services are over 50 years old.

EASTSIDER-Readers may remember the mess back in 2019 over having the ADEM AD51 delegate elections over in Boyle Heights.

OTHER WORDS-Donald Trump won’t be around forever. But the political crises his attacks on democracy have caused will outlive his one-term presidency.

CLIMATE POLITICS-Early this new year, the Alliance of World Scientists (13,700 strong) delivered a biting report, not mincing words:

ONE MAN’S OPINION--As the House Dems and a few GOP move to impeach Donald Trump for his attempt to overthrow the US government,