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Wed, Dec

ICYMI: #AddShitholeToMovieTitles

@THE GUSS REPORT-As President Donald Trump confounds supporters, detractors and the detached alike with his latest daily dose of foot-in-mouth syndrome (late last week he allegedly inarticulately pondered why the U.S. has immigrants from “shithole” countries), some brilliant someone came up with a hash tag that offers some agreeable and much-needed comedic relief:  #AddShitholeToMovieTitles, which quickly went viral. 

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Cops On Trial: Woman with Erb’s Palsy Punched in Face Repeatedly by LAPD Officers Takes Them to Court

JUSTICE--Opening statements are scheduled to take place in Los Angeles this week in the civil trial (Case No. BC621315) of a disabled woman who alleges that in 2015 a Los Angeles police officer repeatedly punched her, including in the face, and pinned her non-functioning arm underneath her body.  (Photo: As they beat the mother of four, LAPD officers repeatedly yelled at her to give them her arm and to “stop resisting” but due to her disability she was unable to unpin her arm voluntarily.)

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A Nuts and Bolts Plan for Reforming LA City Government You Can Believe In

GELFAND’S WORLD--We used to talk about ethical and structural reform within the city of Los Angeles. We've been distracted for the past year, but someday we will get back to thinking about fixing what ails us at the local level. Hey, we could even take up local reform while we're waiting for the mess in DC to pass. How could reform actually be made to happen at the citywide level? 

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Why Mass Transit Will Financially Destroy Los Angeles

CORRUPTION WATCH-Subways and their above-ground siblings, trolleys and light-rail trains, are Weapons of Mass Financial Destruction (WMFDs). Like subprime mortgages and nuclear power, their lethality arises from the way they are used and not from any inherent characteristic. Angelenos need to understand the serious financial threats that fixed-rail mass transit poses for the area’s financial viability. 

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When the City Hall Ghosts Haunt You ... Who Ya Gonna Call?

ALPERN AT LARGE--This may be one of my most unpleasant columns to write, because I don't like the way this City, County, and State are shredding the rights, quality of life, and even health of their constituents.  But it does become clear that we have to think differently, as our middle class becomes ever-more attacked, and ever-more stripped of its rights. 

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The Rich Are Not Like Us

BELL VIEW--F. Scott Fitzgerald said about the very rich: “They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand.” Whether or not Donald Trump is a true billionaire, he clearly has “possessed and enjoyed early” a way of living that most of his supporters can barely comprehend. 

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2018 Mid-Term Election is Critical … Who Do You Think Russia Will Elect this Year?

VIEW FROM HERE--Remember the good old days when elections were stolen by political bosses? They followed the time-honored tradition of stuffing ballot boxes with the votes of cemeteries full of people whose political influence extended beyond the grave. In some cases, machine loyalists voted multiplied times. At the end of election day, counting ballots offered opportunities for padding the totals. 

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The Sounds of Silence on the Sunset Strip

DEEGAN ON LA-The iconic Sunset Strip is irrevocably associated with Los Angeles, even though located in, and stewarded by, the City of West Hollywood. Big (Los Angeles) or small (West Hollywood), our cities share the same growth dilemmas: what gets sacrificed in the name of progress and who are the winners? Is it residents of our communities or the politicos in the city halls who authorize the changes? Join the conversation and take the pop poll at the end of this article. 

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