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AMERICA’S PLAGUE–DDMBs: PART FOUR (END)

In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on February 9, 2024 at 12:31 am

The latest wrinkle in San Francisco’s “be kind to Untermenschen (the German word for “subhumans”) campaign is the creation of “Navigation Centers.”          

These are essentially holding pens for Untermenschen until they can be “navigated” to permanent housing. 

But housing is in short supply in San Francisco, and there is no telling how long many of these drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill and/or bums will stay in them. Or what harm they will wreak on the neighborhoods warehousing them.

Since 2015, eight Navigation Centers have been opened throughout San Francisco; six are in operation.

Among the “amenities” they provide:

  • Meals
  • Privacy
  • Space for pets
  • Space separate from sleeping areas
  • Laundry
  • Access to benefits
  • Wi-Fi

Hundreds—if not thousands—of their occupants are meth or heroin addicts. Such people commit virtually any crime to support their habit. And their crimes of choice are burglary and robbery. 

Little Falls Police Warning Public After Suspected Heroin Overdoses - YouTube

Thus, pouring large numbers of them into San Francisco neighborhoods via “Navigation Centers” guarantees that countless decent citizens will become targets for desperate criminals. 

At a public hearing in January, 2020, San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin touted the importance of Navigation Centers—including the one that would soon be established at Post and Hyde Streets. 

When a local resident asked, “Is one of these centers located where you live?” Peskin replied: “No.”

In short: The city’s elite make sure their homes are far removed from the plague they so easily inflict on San Francisco residents.

In fact, when they’re not swallowing alcohol or injecting, swallowing or sniffing drugs, many of San Francisco’s “homeless” spend a lot of their time ripping off retail stores.

Walgreens drug stores have proven a particular target for these DDMBs—Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums—the four groups that make up 90% of the “homeless” population.

“I feel sorry for the clerks, they are regularly being verbally assaulted,” a regular customer, Sebastian Luke, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

“The clerks say there is nothing they can do. They say Walgreens’ policy is to not get involved. They don’t want anyone getting injured or getting sued, so the guys just keep coming in and taking whatever they want.”

Walgreens 2020 primary logo.svg

“Retail theft across our San Francisco stores has continued to increase in the past few months to five times our chain average,” Walgreens spokesman Phil Caruso told the Chronicle in October, 2021. 

“During this time to help combat this issue, we increased our investments in security measures in stores across the city to 46 times our chain average in an effort to provide a safe environment.” 

As a result, Walgreens has closed at least 11 stores in San Francisco

One store in the San Francisco area reportedly lost $1,000 a day to theft. 

Many shoplifters then sell their stolen goods on the street—often near the store where they stole them.

Under California law, theft under $950 is considered a misdemeanor, but many prosecutors prefer to free those charged rather than holding them in jail.

The maximum sentence they could get: Six months. 

Shoplifting at Exchange costs military in many ways | Flickr

Low-income and disabled seniors who depend on these disappearing drug stores for prescriptions are especially at risk. 

The city budgeted $1.1 billion for fiscal year 2021-22 on DDMBs. Dividing that amount by about 7,754 DDMBs provides the figure of about $128,925 per DDMB per year.  

So what can San Francisco do to effectively combat the plague of DDMBs?

  • Launch a “Please Do Not Feed the Bums” publicity campaign—as it has against feeding pigeons. And those caught doing so should be heavily fined. 
  • Trash cans should be equipped with locked doors, to prevent bums from using them as food dispensers.
  • Those living on the street should be given two choices: (1) Go to a local shelter or face arrest and the immediate confiscation of their possessions;
  • (2) An “Untermenschen City” should be set up near the city dump. There they can live in their tents and/or sleeping bags while being unable to daily confront or assault others to obtain free money.
  • San Francisco’s rent control laws should be strengthened, to prevent future evictions owing to the unchecked greed of landlords. Tenants on fixed incomes should be given special protections against extortionate rent increases.
  • Bus drivers should be able to legally refuse passengers who stink of urine/feces, as they present a potential health-hazard to others.
  • The owners of restaurants, theaters and grocery stores should likewise be allowed to refuse service on the same basis.
  • Those applying for welfare benefits should be required to provide proof of residence. Too many people come to San Francisco because, upon arrival, they can immediately apply for such benefits.
  • Set up a special unit to remove “street people” and their possessions from city sidewalks. This could be a division of the Sanitation Department, since its personnel are used to removing filth and debris of all types.
  • Forcefully tell alcoholics and drug addicts: “Your anti-social behavior is not welcome here. Take your self-destructive lifestyles elsewhere. We won’t subsidize them.”
  • Take the mentally unstable off the street and place them in institutions where their needs can be met. 
  • Tell those who are just plain bums: “Don’t expect us to support you.”

Only then will San Francisco reclaim its place as America’s most beloved city..

AMERICA’S PLAGUE: DDMBs–PART THREE (OF FOUR)

In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on February 8, 2024 at 12:10 am

If you are a firefighter, police officer, paramedic or schoolteacher, and want to live in San Francisco, forget it.            

According to Rent Cafe, which provides apartment listings directly from top property managers: “The average [monthly] rent for an apartment in San Francisco is $2,879.” And “the average size for a San Francisco apartment is 739 square feet.”

Patent 523 Apartments for Rent in Seattle, WA | Essex

But there’s hope for you yet—if you’re a Druggie, Drunk, Mental or Bum (DDMBs). 

Why? 

Because the Mayor of San Francisco—currently London Breed—and Board of Supervisors have deliberately created an Untermenschen-friendly program that actually encourages such people to move to the city.

“Untermenschen,” in German, means “subhuman.”

The short version of this is “Unters.”

A major part of this lies in placing these “guests” in hotels throughout the city. These range from the relatively low-budget Motel 6 to the luxurious Mark Hopkins.

“Guests” receive personal grooming, sanitary and cleaning supplies, three delivered meals, and laundry service for clothes and linens. 

The hotels were pressured into accepting the Unters, but they also wanted to recover monies lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city is paying $200 per night per room, totaling $6,000 a monthnearly double the cost of a private one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco

But there is a big catch for the hotels: When the “homeless” are placed in subsidized housing, their mental illness, irresponsible addiction to drugs and/or alcohol and/or generally sloth-like habits usually trash those premises.

San Francisco is secretly placing DDMBs—Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bumsamong the tourists who check into these hotels. It does so by designating them as “emergency front-line workers.”

For most people, this means doctors, nurses and similar professionals.

It doesn’t mean DDMBs, if not outright criminals

The city has invoked emergency-disaster law to keep this information secret. Officials refuse to notify the public about the dangers within their midst. The list of hotels is withheld from the press and reporters are forbidden to enter the properties. 

City and hotel workers are required to sign nondisclosure agreements that forbid them to reveal the dangers they and their legitimate guests are exposed to. Doing so is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, imprisonment for up to one year, or both.

Despite this, the truth has been leaking out. Security guards stand outside hotel entrances, alerting anyone who sees them that all is not well. Crime, vagrancy and drug usage/dealing have also increased around the hotels.

In one hotel, Unters receive needle kits and are advised to call the front desk before shooting up. Drug-related deaths have occurred. Containers for safely disposing of needles are placed on every floor. Even so, used syringes are often left where non-addicts can be infected by them.

“There are parties, drug overdoses, deaths, assaults on people, sexual harassment. It’s pandemonium,” City Journal writer Erica Sandberg reported. “This is very bad and it needs to be stopped.

“What they [hotel employees] told about the situation inside goes beyond any scope. They are not just terrified, they are traumatized by what they see. According to their stories, in hotels they found mattresses with feces, blood, hospital bandages on the floor. What people see is so terrible that they go out and say, ‘I don’t want to go back there.'”

City officials provide far more than free room and board to DDMBs

The Department of Public Health (DPH) runs the COVID-19 Alternative Housing Program. And it works in two stages:

Stage 1: Move the “homeless” into the city’s hotels—at city expense.

Stage 2: Provide them with not only free food and shelter but free alcohol, cannabis, and cigarettes. 

According to a May 11, 2020 story in City Journal.org:

“The program’s primary purpose is to keep homeless people, the majority of whom are addicts, out of harm’s way during the pandemic. By getting their substance of choice delivered, the thinking goes, the guests may be more apt to remain in their government-funded rooms.

“Another purpose of the program is to protect the public against the spread of coronavirus. The city doesn’t want homeless people who should be staying in their rooms roaming the neighborhood in search of the substances, potentially infecting others.”   

But the agency doesn’t require that its addict “guests” remain quarantined. It merely asks that they do so.San Francisco Department of Public Health - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding

After news about these deliveries leaked on social media, DPH claimed that “rumors that guests of San Francisco’s alternative housing program are receiving taxpayer-funded deliveries of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco are false.”

Except that the reports weren’t false.

The program is funded by private philanthropists.  Nevertheless:

  • DPH administers and oversees the program.
  • It’s staffed by city workers, including doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers and security personnel.
  • The department manages, stores and distributes the substances.
  • Employee time is involved.

Thus, the program is financed by taxpayers, even if an outside group provides some of the funding. 

The latest wrinkle in San Francisco’s “be kind to Untermenschen campaign is the creation of “Navigation Centers.” These are essentially holding pens for Untersuntil they can be “navigated” to permanent housing. 

AMERICA’S PLAGUE–DDMBs: PART TWO (OF FOUR)

In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on February 7, 2024 at 12:10 am

On November 3, 2021, National Public Radio’s website carried the following headline: “San Francisco’s new rapid response teams race to save lives as ODs dramatically rise.”       

From the story:   

“‘Fentanyl is a game-changer,’ Dr. Hillary Kunins, the city’s director of behavioral and mental health services, says of the opioid that’s 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine. ‘It requires a new way of thinking and resourcing.’ It also, she says, ‘requires people to learn to work across disciplines and sometimes across organizations.'”

And what is the ultimate result of repeatedly saving drug-abusers from their own self-destructive behavior?  

In his 2021 bestseller, San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities, author Michael Shellenberger provides the answer. 

San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities: Shellenberger, Michael: 9780063093621: Amazon.com: Books

According to its dust jacket:

“Progressives claimed they knew how to solve homelessness, inequality, and crime. But in cities they control, progressives made those problems worse.

“Michael Shellenberger has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for thirty years. During that time, he advocated for the decriminalization of drugs, affordable housing, and alternatives to jail and prison.

“But as homeless encampments spread, and overdose deaths skyrocketed, Shellenberger decided to take a closer look at the problem. What he discovered shocked him. The problems had grown worse not despite but because of progressive policies.”

In a June 1, 2022 interview with The Spectator World, Shellenberger blamed liberal ideology for this epidemic:

“The first thing is that they don’t enforce laws. They don’t enforce laws against people that they consider victims, which includes addicts and the mentally ill. And if you don’t enforce laws it turns out people don’t follow them and you don’t have functioning civilization.

Michael Shellenberger.jpg

Michael Shellenberger

Michael Shellenberger, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

“The second is that they have pursued a radical de-incarceration, de-policing and decriminalization agenda, which has removed penalties for many laws, including shoplifting $950 worth of goods, or possessing three grams of fentanyl and meth, enough to produce paranoid psychosis. And they’ve pursued a so-called housing first anti-shelter policy.

“So they’ve defunded the shelters. The governor himself has established that housing should be a right. That anybody who comes to San Francisco or Los Angeles should have their own apartment unit in those cities. That is the state policy. It is so ridiculous. It is shocking to even say that that is what the policy is, but that is what it is.

“What we need is pretty straightforward. We need to enforce laws. We need a shelter-first housing-earned policy and you need statewide psychiatric and addiction care like they have in every civilized country.

“We’re reviving people from overdose six, nine, twelve times and then sending them right back onto the streets to smoke more fentanyl. It’s bonkers.

“Fifty percent to 75 percent of all fires put out by the San Francisco and Los Angeles fire departments are in homeless encampments. My own research, and the research of others, shows that most of these are arson fires, people just getting back at each other.”

Drunk guy passed out on the sidewalk - YouTube

And how did the city’s mayor, London Breed, respond to the closing of Whole Foods Market?  With a public statement that was pure boilerplate: 

“Public safety is Mayor Breed’s top priority and vital to the City’s work around restoring our economy and making our residents and workers feel safe. 

“Over the last several months, the San Francisco Police Department and the Mayor’s Office have been working collaboratively with Whole Foods’ leadership to address public safety issues at their 8th and Market location.

“We will continue to engage with them about the future use of the site. The Police will continue aggressively enforcing against open-air drug dealing, maximizing police response to urgent calls for assistance, partnering with retailers to address theft in their stores, and enforcing new street vending regulations to disrupt the sale of stolen goods.”

In short: Blah-blah-blah.

Nowhere in that statement is there any mention that from 2020 to July, 2022, San Francisco had a District Attorney—Chesa Boudin—who saw criminals as victims and sought any reason to excuse them for their crimes. 

Nor is there any mention that the current D.A.—Brooke Jenkins—remains stymied by the realities that, under California law: 

  • Theft under $950 is considered a misdemeanor.
  • As a result, many prosecutors prefer to free those charged rather than holding them in jail.
  • The maximum sentence offenders can get is six months.
  • This has led to massive shoplifting sprees at drugstores and merchandise discount stores like Target.

Also left unsaid:

  • Firefighters, police officers and schoolteachers are unable to afford the extortionate rents charged by San Francisco landlords.
  • But city officials have thrown out the welcome mat for DDMBs—Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums
  • Many DDMBs refuse to enter the city’s available shelters. Some claim these places are dangerous—understandably so, since they’re peopled with drug addicts, alcoholics, psychotics and outright bums. 
  • Another reason why many of these shelters go unused: They don’t allow their “guests” to drink up or drug up.

The latest wrinkle in San Francisco’s “be kind to Untermenschen campaign is the creation of “Navigation Centers.” These are essentially holding pens for DDMBsuntil they can be “navigated” to permanent housing.

This is a triumph of misleading language over reality, since there is little available housing in San Francisco to “navigate” them to.

AMERICA’S PLAGUE: DDMBs–PART ONE (OF FOUR)

In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on February 6, 2024 at 12:10 am

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit forced San Francisco’s Mayor and Board of Supervisors to do what, for years, they had refused to do: Clear the city’s streets of DDMBsDruggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums. 

APEC was established in 1989 to promote trade between the United States and Asian-Pacific nations.

From November 11-17, 2023, world and economic leaders were expected to descend on San Francisco. Among those expected to attend: President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“APEC will be a major moment that will live in our City’s rich history. We will show the world San Francisco’s unique ability to create a world-class experience where people continue to want to live, work, and visit,” said San Francisco Mayor London Breed in a news release.

And that meant San Francisco had to counter the “Doom Loop” image it has acquired since the onset of COVID-19 in 2020.

This meant removing homeless camps that had become major health hazards, driving away tourists and infuriating local businesses. These, in turn, had spawned widespread drug abuse, public defecation, filth and rampant theft in the surrounding areas. 

During the week before the summit, the city cleared many camps from seven intersections around the Tenderloin, the most affected part of San Francisco. Key intersections near the APEC site—the Moscone Center in the South of Market area—became tent-free for the first time in months.

A typical street scene

The city also established a “security zone” area around the Moscone Center that only admitted APEC attendees and people who lived in the area.

This, of course, led many tax-paying San Francisco residents to demand: “Why does it take the appearance of self-important big-shots to persuade city leaders to make San Francisco a safe and desirable place to live and work?”

A massive casualty of the irresponsibility of “city leaders” had come on April 10, 2023: One of the largest supermarkets in downtown San Francisco—the Whole Foods Market at Eighth and Market streets—announced it would shut down at the close of business that day. 

The store, operated by Amazon, had been operating slightly more than a year. It had become the repeated victim of wholesale thefts courtesy of the city’s DDMBs.

Whole Foods Market 201x logo.svg

The Politically Correct name for these people is “unhoused.” The accurate name for them is summed up in a German word: “Untermenschen”“subhumans.”

Given the Politically Correct climate of San Francisco, the closing of the Whole Foods store was almost guaranteed to happen.

At its opening, on March 10, 2022, the store operated from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. By October, it opened at 9 a.m. and closed at 7 p.m.

“It’s to better serve our customers, and it’s more or less because of the area and security issues,” said the store’s manager. “There’s just high theft and people being hostile.”

In November, the store enforced new rules for customers after syringes and crack pipes were found in the restroom. The bathroom was now open only to customers who showed security guards a receipt. Customers were then given a QR code for entry.

It was no coincidence that the bathrooms were often used by drug-abusers—the store was close to the Tenderloin Center, a safe drug-use site. 

Crack cocaine 

Argv0, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikipedia Commons 

Another reason for the change in bathroom policy: Thieves would fill up suitcases with merchandise before going into the restroom.

And who is ultimately responsible for such outrages? 

San Francisco’s topmost officials—the Mayor, Board of Supervisors, District Attorney and chief of the San Francisco Police Department. Together, they have formed an “Untermenschen”-friendly alliance.

The start of the COVID-19 pandemic inflicted a massive loss in foot traffic in downtown San Francisco as employees fled high rises to work remotely from home. Many small businesses—especially restaurants—shuttered.

Compounding this disaster has been an increasing influx of hardcore alcoholics, hardcore drug addicts, psychotically mentally ill and parasitical bums. Sidewalks are littered with huge tents, used hypodermic syringes and needles, empty beer cans and wine bottles, human feces and pools of urine.

The local and national press have predicted a “Doom Loop” facing San Francisco, as the city’s tourism rate sharply declines and City Hall officials currently project a nearly $800 million deficit in San Francisco’s budget. 

Tech giants such as Meta and IBM have abandoned San Francisco for events in cities such as Denver and Orlando, Florida.

In September, 2023, Silicon Valley tech giant Alphabet announced that it would move its high-profile Google Cloud Next conference to Las Vegas in 2024.

But this has not prevented city officials from calling for increased efforts to comfort those very parasites who threaten not only their own lives but those of law-abiding San Franciscans and the city’s tourism industry. 

On November 3, 2021, National Public Radio’s website carried the following headline: “San Francisco’s new rapid response teams race to save lives as ODs dramatically rise.”

From the story:

“Faced with a stunning rise in drug overdose deaths the last few years, the vast majority tied to fentanyl, San Francisco has launched mobile teams made up of paramedics and nurses.

“The new Street Overdose Response Teams (SORT), a collaboration between the city’s health and fire departments, aim to deliver a broad range of support and care directly following an overdose.”

“ALL REVOLUTIONS DEVOUR THEIR OWN CHILDREN”: PART TWO (END)

In Bureaucracy, History, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on October 10, 2023 at 12:12 am

“All revolutions,” said Ernst Rohm, leader of Adolf Hitler’s brown-shirted thugs, the S.A., “devour their own children.”

Fittingly, he said this as he sat inside a prison cell awaiting his own execution.   

Ernst Rohm

On June 30, 1934, Hitler had ordered a massive purge of his private army, the S.A., or Stormtroopers. The purge was carried out by Hitler’s elite army-within-an-army, the Schutzstaffel, or Protective Squads, better known as the SS.

The S.A. Brownshirts had been instrumental in securing Hitler’s rise to Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. They had intimidated political opponents and organized mass rallies for the Nazi Party.

But after Hitler reached the pinnacle of power, they became a liability.

Ernst Rohm, their commander, urged Hitler to disband the regular German army, the Reichswehr, and replace it with his own legions as the nation’s defense force.

Frightened by Rohm’s ambitions, the generals of the Reichswehr gave Hitler an ultimatum: Get rid of Rohm—or they would get rid of him.

So Rohm died in a hail of SS bullets—as did several hundred of his longtime S.A. cronies.

SS firing squad

Eighty-nine years later, even the most Right-wing Republicans learned that you can’t be too Fascistic if you want to remain in power. 

Case in point: Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-FL) the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

In January, McCarthy—desperate to become Speaker—agreed to let even a single lawmaker force a vote on his removal. It was a concession to about 20 holdouts, who were blocking his election. 

On October 3, eight Right-wingers led by Gaetz, forced that vote.

His “crime”: He had reached a deal with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling to stave off a government shutdown for 45 days. 

The federal government’s fiscal year ends every September 30. Before this deadline, Congress must write and pass the budget for the next fiscal year. If a budget agreement is not reached in time, funding for federal agencies lapses and the government shuts down. 

Driving the push for McCarthy’s ouster was his longtime antagonist, Rep. Matt Gaetz.

Said Gaetz: “A vote for a continuing resolution [to fund the government] is a vote to continue the Green New Deal, a vote to continue inflationary spending, and the most troubling of fashions, a vote for a continuing resolution is a vote to continue the election interference of [Special Counsel] Jack Smith.” 

Gaetz’  rant was a model of hypocrisy and obstruction of justice.

Hypocrisy: On August 2, 2019, President Donald Trump signed into law a two-year budget deal that raised spending by $320 billion over existing spending caps set in a 2011 law—and boosted military and domestic spending.

The bill threatened to push the budget deficit to more than $1 trillion in 2019 for only the second time since the Great Recession of 2007-2008 and add $1.7 trillion to the federal debt over a decade. 

“Fiscally conservative” Republicans—including Gaetz—praised Trump’s massive contribution to the national debt.

Of course, now that a Democrat is President, Republicans have become “fiscal conservatives” again.

Obstruction of justice: Gaetz is seeking to cut off funding for the prosecution of Trump for inciting a deadly riot against Congress on January 6, 2021. Trump’s goal: To stop the counting of Electoral College votes that would certify Joe Biden as the legitimate winner of the 2020 Presidential election.

Had this occurred, Trump would have obtained his objective of becoming “President-for-Life.”

In the past, Republicans billed themselves as the party of law-and-order. But when the foremost Republican becomes the target for inciting treason, the party closes ranks around him.

But, for Republicans, McCarthy’s Ultimate Sin was working with Democrats.

“Some of those who wanted him out think that Kevin McCarthy should not have tried to work with Democrats to keep government open,” said PBS Newshour Congressional Correspondent Lisa Desjardins.

“That’s a factor in our government beyond Kevin McCarthy, and he’s being punished for it right now.

“President Trump, who himself did call for a government shutdown, he has been someone who has really injected into the Republican Party the idea that not only is disruption safe, but it is good. He has encouraged conservatives like this to try and challenge institutions, including the head of the institution of the House of Representatives itself.”

Yet another reason for House turmoil: In the past, Republicans prided themselves on their anti-Communism. But since Russian dictator Vladimir Putin began paying bribes—euphemistically called “campaign contributions”—to Republican Senators and Representatives, many of them have taken a decidedly pro-Russian turn.

As a result, it’s Republicans who want to end funding for the defense of Ukraine against Russian aggression. And it’s Democrats—long branded as “Communists”—who are trying to ensure further aid to Ukraine.

Anyone in Nazi Germany could be accused of disloyalty to Adolf Hitler or the Nazi party. Now any Republican can be accused of disloyalty to Donald Trump or the Republican party.

“Fanatics can justify practically any atrocity to themselves,” wrote the author Mercedes Lackey. “The more untenable their position becomes, the harder they hold to it, and the worse the things they are willing to do to support it.”

“ALL REVOLUTIONS DEVOUR THEIR OWN CHILDREN”: PART ONE (OF TWO)

In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Politics, Social commentary on October 9, 2023 at 12:12 am

Right-wingers love to attack those they hate as “snowflakes,” and boast about how easy it is to “trigger” them into anger. 

Yet it is Right-wingers whose sensitive feelings can be “triggered” by something as innocuous as a word: DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion).

Target, Bud Light and Disney have all faced backlash for their support of the queer community, which is officially known as LGBTQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer).  

Other companies that have found themselves targets for Right-wing ire have been:

  • Keurig (for dropping advertising on Sean Hannity’s show on the Right-wing Fox Network)
  • The NFL (for its players sitting or kneeling during the National Anthem
  • Amazon (for supporting Washington State in a federal lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order barring people from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States) 
  • Starbucks (for its CEO opposing the same executive order)
  • Nordstrom (for cutting ties with Ivanka Trump’s brand of clothing)
  • Kellogg (for dropping advertising on the Right-wing Breitbart website)  

Now comes Chick-fil-A as the latest business to enrage the self-appointed holy warriors of the Right. Its crime: Hiring a vice president of DEI.

And even worse for the Right: He’s black.

Chick-fil-A Logo.svg

Erick McReynolds has been a longtime employee of Chick-fil-A. According to the company’s official statement: 

“Erick McReynolds joined Chick-fil-A in February 2007 as a Business Consultant. Since then, he has been promoted to various positions like Team Captain, Director – Service Team, Executive Director (Midwest Region), and Executive Director (DEI).” 

In 1988 he had earned an MBA from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University  He then worked as a Sales Representative at International Paper till June 2001. He served as a Senior Business Analyst at Sprint for five years till January 2007.

Fall 2022 Commencement Speaker Erick McReynolds - Clayton State University

Erick McReynolds

Chick-fil-A has long championed Right-wing causes. By 2012, it had donated over $5 million to anti-LGTBQ groups. When the company faced backlash for this, Republicans like Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee led counter-protesting efforts such as “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.”

Its owner, Dan Cathy, publicly denounced same-sex marriage, citing the “biblical definition of the family unit.” This enraged liberals but ignited support among Republicans. 

The company promised in 2019 to stop donating to anti-LGBTQ groups. It would instead focus its philanthropic efforts on hunger, education and homelessness.

Although McReynolds has served as VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion since November, 2021, the Right was unaware of his appointment until May 30, 2023. That was when Right-wing strategist Joey Mannarino tweeted:

“We have a problem. Chick-Fil-A just hired a VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. This is bad. I don’t want to have to boycott. Are we going to have to boycott?

“It’s only a matter of time until they start putting tranny semen in the frosted lemonade at this point.”

Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) / Twitter

Joey Mannarino

Adding to Mannarino’s resentment was McReynolds’ public statement:

“Chick-fil-A restaurants have long been recognized as a place where people know they will be treated well. Modeling care for others starts in the restaurant, and we are committed to ensuring mutual respect, understanding and dignity everywhere we do business. These tenets are good business practice and crucial to fulfilling our Corporate Purpose.” 

Other Right-wing eruptions on Twitter included:

Director of Citizens for Renewing America Wade Miller: “Everything good must come to an end. Here @ChickfilA is stating it’s commitment to systemic racism, sexism, and discrimination. I cannot support such a thing.” 

@BrandonStraka: As a liberal I boycotted Chick-fil-A. As a conservative I’ll be boycotting them again. I will not support any company that pushes the disingenuously named diversity, equity, inclusion agenda.”

@amuse: “Sadly, Chick-fil-A is embracing DEI and ESG [Environmental Social and Corporate Governance] after being co-opted by race & trans activists who have made it impossible for the organization to reflect the Christian values of its founder. Marxists won’t allow belief in Jesus Christ.” 

The Right generally and Republicans in particular have long been fixated on issues involving sexuality. This is especially true for those where children are supposedly victimized.

Thus, fetuses become “babies” even when they’re no bigger than a microdot. This allows Rightists to claim they’re “pro-life”—while they champion the “right” of criminals, terrorists and the insane to own military-style firepower

And even though 90% of child molesters are heterosexual family or friends, the Right continues to charge all homosexuals with pedophilia.

Anyone who dares to challenge its agenda is charged with being a “groomer”—someone who builds an emotional connection with children or young people to sexually exploit them.

Totally ignored by Republicans are supposed Right-wing moral paragons who turn out to be “groomers” like Josh Duggar (of the “19 Kids and Counting” series) who was sentenced in 2022 to 12 years’ imprisonment for possession of child pornography;

A useful rule of thumb: Be wary of those who loudly preach their own virtue—such as Charles Sutherland, an elementary school librarian who spray painted “groomer” around the D.C. area during the 2022 Pride week. When police arrested him for possessing child pornography, they found a child-sized doll in his bed.

Meanwhile, Right-wing politicians—most notably Florida Governor and Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis—continue to exploit the fears and hatred of their equally Fascistic constituents. 

With the 2024 Presidential campaign now underway, expect more of the same to come.

A FOOL FOR HIS CLIENT

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on June 29, 2023 at 12:18 am

“A lawyer who pleads his own case has a fool for his client.”  

It’s a long-known legal maxim—and a time-tested one.

When you’re facing a major life stress—such as a criminal indictment—you can’t be objective on your own behalf. 

That’s why even brilliant lawyers hire other lawyers to represent them when they’re facing civil or criminal charges. 

Of course, if you’re Donald Trump, all bets are off.

On June 13, he became the first ex-President to be formally booked by the Justice Department on federal charges.

United States Department of Justice - Wikiwand

Seal of the Department of Justice

He’s now facing 37 felony charges based on his retaining and hiding classified government documents from authorities.

 These charges include: 

  • Willfully retaining national defense information: Storing 31 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
  • Conspiring to obstruct justice: Conspiring to keep those documents from the grand jury.
  • Withholding a document or a record: Misleading one of his attorneys by moving boxes of classified documents so the attorney could not find or introduce them to the grand jury.
  • Concealing a document in a federal investigation: Hiding Trump’s possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago from the FBI and causing a false certificate to be submitted to the FBI.
  • Scheme to conceal: Trump hid his continued possession of documents from the FBI and the grand jury.
  • False statements and representations: Trump caused another of his attorneys to make false statements to the FBI and grand jury about the search at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump has long bragged that he is an expert on virtually everything. 

Asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” who he consulted about foreign policy, Trump replied; “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.” 

Related image

Donald Trump

Among the professions Trump has claimed to be an expert on 

TV ratings: “I know more about people who get ratings than anyone.”

ISIS: “I know more about ISIS than the generals do.”

Social media: “I understand social media. I understand the power of Twitter. I understand the power of Facebook maybe better than almost anybody, based on my results, right?”

Courts: “I know more about courts than any human being on Earth.”

Lawsuits: “[W]ho knows more about lawsuits than I do? I’m the king.”

Politicians: “I understand politicians better than anybody.”

Trade: “Nobody knows more about trade than me.” 

Nor is that by any means the end of his claimed expertise. If you believe him, he’s also an expert on:

  • Drones
  • Technology
  • The economy
  • Construction
  • Democrats
  • Infrastructure
  • Debt
  • Money
  • Taxes.

So it’s inevitable that, when you believe you’re the smartest person on earth, you aren’t going to pay attention to a mere criminal attorney—even when you’re facing the most serious crisis of your life.

Not only did he reject the advice of one attorney—he rejected the advice of several.

According to The Washington Post, Trump was extremely stubborn about negotiating with government officials. When one of his attorneys, Christopher Kise, suggested meeting with the Justice Department to negotiate a settlement that could avoid charges, Trump rejected that plan.

Instead, he listened to the advice of Tom Fitton, the president of the Right-wing group Judicial Watch. Fitton, who is not an attorney, told him he could keep the documents and that he should fight the Justice Department.

Tom Fitton

Tom Fitton 

Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

Trump regularly cited Fitton to his advisers as he continued to fight the Justice Department. Several of those advisers blame Fitton for convincing Trump he had the right to keep the classified files.

Fitton told the Post he didn’t understand “any” of the indictment, saying he believed the charges levelled against the former president were a “trap.” 

This, of course, did not persuade Trump that he should listen to attorneys who did understand the legal dangers he was facing.

Fitton blamed Trump’s lawyers for not being more aggressive in fighting the subpoenas issued by the government.

“They had no business asking for the records….and they’ve manufactured an obstruction charge out of that,” Fitton told the Post. “There are core constitutional issues that the indictment avoids, and the obstruction charge seems weak to me.”

But it won’t be Fitton who discovers whether the Justice Department has a weak case. It will be Trump. 

Trump has had serious difficulties in finding attorneys to represent him in this case—and in the ones almost certain to arise before the year is out.

Free Scales Of Justice Clipart, Download Free Scales Of Justice Clipart png images, Free ClipArts on Clipart Library

According to a June 14 story in Forbes: Trump was represented by two of his existing attorneys at his arraignment. They were not, however, specialists in national security and lacked a security clearance.

This last is a mandatory requirement, owing to the Espionage Act charges that involve classified national defense information.

Many attorneys have refused to represent Trump—including David O. Markus, who recently defended former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum against corruption charges. Another, Howard Srebnick, was not allowed to represent Trump after talking to his legal partners.

Among the reasons lawyers don’t want to work for Trump:

  • His difficult reputation;
  • Using attorneys as attack dogs or political aides;
  • Refusing to heed legal advice and
  • Not paying his legal bills.

Donald Trump faces two major enemies: The Justice Department—and the private legal community. 

“ALL REVOLUTIONS DEVOUR THEIR OWN CHILDREN”: PART TWO (END)

In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Politics, Social commentary on June 6, 2023 at 12:10 am

Right-wingers love to attack those they hate as “snowflakes,” and boast about how easy it is to “trigger” them into anger. 

Yet it is Right-wingers whose sensitive feelings can be “triggered” by something as innocuous as a word: DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion).

Target, Bud Light and Disney have all faced backlash for their support of the queer community, which is officially known as LGBTQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer).  

Other companies that have found themselves targets for Right-wing ire have been:

  • Keurig (for dropping advertising on Sean Hannity’s show on the Right-wing Fox Network)
  • The NFL (for its players sitting or kneeling during the National Anthem
  • Amazon (for supporting Washington State in a federal lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order barring people from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States) 
  • Starbucks (for its CEO opposing the same executive order)
  • Nordstrom (for cutting ties with Ivanka Trump’s brand of clothing)
  • Kellogg (for dropping advertising on the Right-wing Breitbart website)  

Now comes Chick-fil-A as the latest business to enrage the self-appointed holy warriors of the Right. Its crime: Hiring a vice president of DEI.

And even worse for the Right: He’s black.

Chick-fil-A Logo.svg

Erick McReynolds has been a longtime employee of Chick-fil-A. According to the company’s official statement: 

“Erick McReynolds joined Chick-fil-A in February 2007 as a Business Consultant. Since then, he has been promoted to various positions like Team Captain, Director – Service Team, Executive Director (Midwest Region), and Executive Director (DEI).” 

In 1988 he had earned an MBA from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University  He then worked as a Sales Representative at International Paper till June 2001. He served as a Senior Business Analyst at Sprint for five years till January 2007.

Fall 2022 Commencement Speaker Erick McReynolds - Clayton State University

Erick McReynolds

Chick-fil-A has long championed Right-wing causes. By 2012, it had donated over $5 million to anti-LGTBQ groups. When the company faced backlash for this, Republicans like Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee led counter-protesting efforts such as “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.”

Its owner, Dan Cathy, publicly denounced same-sex marriage, citing the “biblical definition of the family unit.” This enraged liberals but ignited support among Republicans. 

The company promised in 2019 to stop donating to anti-LGBTQ groups. It would instead focus its philanthropic efforts on hunger, education and homelessness.

Although McReynolds has served as VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion since November, 2021, the Right was unaware of his appointment until May 30, 2023. That was when Right-wing strategist Joey Mannarino tweeted:

“We have a problem. Chick-Fil-A just hired a VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. This is bad. I don’t want to have to boycott. Are we going to have to boycott?

“It’s only a matter of time until they start putting tranny semen in the frosted lemonade at this point.”

Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) / Twitter

Joey Mannarino

Adding to Mannarino’s resentment was McReynolds’ public statement:

“Chick-fil-A restaurants have long been recognized as a place where people know they will be treated well. Modeling care for others starts in the restaurant, and we are committed to ensuring mutual respect, understanding and dignity everywhere we do business. These tenets are good business practice and crucial to fulfilling our Corporate Purpose.” 

Other Right-wing eruptions on Twitter included:

Director of Citizens for Renewing America Wade Miller: “Everything good must come to an end. Here @ChickfilA is stating it’s commitment to systemic racism, sexism, and discrimination. I cannot support such a thing.” 

@BrandonStraka: As a liberal I boycotted Chick-fil-A. As a conservative I’ll be boycotting them again. I will not support any company that pushes the disingenuously named diversity, equity, inclusion agenda.”

@amuse: “Sadly, Chick-fil-A is embracing DEI and ESG [Environmental Social and Corporate Governance] after being co-opted by race & trans activists who have made it impossible for the organization to reflect the Christian values of its founder. Marxists won’t allow belief in Jesus Christ.” 

The Right generally and Republicans in particular have long been fixated on issues involving sexuality. This is especially true for those where children are supposedly victimized.

Thus, fetuses become “babies” even when they’re no bigger than a microdot. This allows Rightists to claim they’re “pro-life”—while they champion the “right” of criminals, terrorists and the insane to own military-style firepower

And even though 90% of child molesters are heterosexual family or friends, the Right continues to charge all homosexuals with pedophilia.

Anyone who dares to challenge its agenda is charged with being a “groomer”—someone who builds an emotional connection with children or young people to sexually exploit them.

Totally ignored by Republicans are supposed Right-wing moral paragons who turn out to be “groomers” like Josh Duggar (of the “19 Kids and Counting” series) who was sentenced in 2022 to 12 years’ imprisonment for possession of child pornography;

A useful rule of thumb: Be wary of those who loudly preach their own virtue—such as Charles Sutherland, an elementary school librarian who spray painted “groomer” around the D.C. area during the 2022 Pride week. When police arrested him for possessing child pornography, they found a child-sized doll in his bed.

Meanwhile, Right-wing politicians—most notably Florida Governor and Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis—continue to exploit the fears and hatred of their equally Fascistic constituents. 

With the 2024 Presidential campaign now underway, expect more of the same to come.

“ALL REVOLUTIONS DEVOUR THEIR OWN CHILDREN”: PART ONE (OF TWO)

In Bureaucracy, History, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on June 5, 2023 at 12:10 am

“All revolutions,” said Ernst Rohm, leader of Adolf Hitler’s brown-shirted thugs, the S.A., “devour their own children.”

Fittingly, he said this as he sat inside a prison cell awaiting his own execution.  

Ernst Rohm

On June 30, 1934, Hitler had ordered a massive purge of his private army, the S.A., or Stormtroopers. The purge was carried out by Hitler’s elite army-within-an-army, the Schutzstaffel, or Protective Squads, better known as the SS.

The S.A. Brownshirts had been instrumental in securing Hitler’s rise to Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. They had intimidated political opponents and organized mass rallies for the Nazi Party.

But after Hitler reached the pinnacle of power, they became a liability.

Ernst Rohm, their commander, urged Hitler to disband the regular German army, the Reichswehr, and replace it with his own legions as the nation’s defense force.

Frightened by Rohm’s ambitions, the generals of the Reichswehr gave Hitler an ultimatum: Get rid of Rohm—or they would get rid of him.

So Rohm died in a hail of SS bullets—as did several hundred of his longtime S.A. cronies.

SS firing squad

Eighty-six years later, even the most Right-wing Republicans learned there’s a price to pay for disagreeing with The Leader.

Case in point: Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) the House Republican Conference Chair—and the only female member of the House GOP leadership. 

On July 21, 2020, she became the target of members of her own party. 

Liz Cheney

Her GOP Freedom Caucus attackers included

  • Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)
  • Matt Gaetz (R-Florida)
  • Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky)
  • Chip Roy (R-Texas)
  • Andy Biggs (R-Arizona)
  • Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania) and
  • Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina).

Jordan, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, praised Cheney for defending President Donald Trump during the impeachment trial in February. But he attacked her for publicly disagreeing with Trump’s intention to remove troops from Germany and Afghanistan. 

He also assailed Cheney for her recent rebukes of Trump—for his mishandling of the Coronavirus and his Twitter rants.

Cheney remembered that Jordan’s Right-wing Freedom Caucus had caused problems for the GOP’s leadership when the party held the majority in the House. 

“I look forward to hearing your comments about being a team player when we’re back in the majority,” replied Cheney. 

Representative Roy (Texas) assailed Cheney for supporting Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, and complained that his Democratic opponent had retweeted some of Cheney’s tweets. 

Cheney defended Fauci, who had served under Republican and Democratic Presidents as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. 

“At this moment when we’re trying to find every way we can to defeat the virus, when we’re trying to find therapeutics and vaccines, we need all hands on deck, and I can’t imagine anybody better than Dr. Fauci to continue to play that role,” Cheney told reporters after the meeting. 

Trump was jealous of Fauci’s popularity for speaking the hard truth about Coronavirus—and the Federal Government’s failure to combat it.

Green Bay Packers: While Dr. Anthony Fauci expresses concerns, NFL ...

Anthony Fauci

Trump also resented that his own popularity was steadily falling as COVID cases and deaths rose—and he offered only rosy predictions that “one day it will be gone.”

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, the head of the Freedom Caucus, said that if someone had a problem with Trump, they should keep it to themselves. He said Cheney undermined the GOP’s ability to win back the House, which Democrats won in November, 2018.

Matt Gaetz, who once split with Trump over a war powers resolution, later tweeted: “Liz Cheney has worked behind the scenes (and now in public) against @realDonaldTrump and his agenda. House Republicans deserve better as our Conference Chair.”

Gaetz’ tweet was quickly backed by such major Republicans as Senator Rand Paul (Kentucky) and Trump’s son, Donald, Jr. 

Republicans, tweeted Trump, Jr., “already have one Mitt Romney, we don’t need another.”

Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress during the February, 2020 impeachment effort.

“Donald Trump Jr. Is not a member of the House Republican Conference,” Cheney dismissed the attack later.

During the conference meeting, Gaetz and Massie complained that Cheney was supporting a primary challenge to Massie.

Cheney told Gaetz that she looked forward to seeing an upcoming HBO documentary, “The Swamp,” about him, Massie and a third Republican congressman, Ken Buck of Colorado.

Cheney told Massie that his issue was with Trump, not her. Trump had called Massie “a third rate grandstander” and said he wanted Massie ousted from the Republican party. Despite this, Massie had beaten Todd McMurtry, a primary challenger.

Cheney had donated to McMurtry, but later asked that the money be returned after his past racist social media posts  became public.

Anyone in Nazi Germany could be accused of disloyalty to Adolf Hitler. Now anyone in the Republican party could be accused of disloyalty to Donald Trump.

“Fanatics can justify practically any atrocity to themselves,” wrote the author Mercedes Lackey. “The more untenable their position becomes, the harder they hold to it, and the worse the things they are willing to do to support it.”

VERMIN IN PARADISE: PART FOUR (END)

In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary, Uncategorized on May 18, 2023 at 12:11 am

The latest wrinkle in San Francisco’s “be kind to Untermenschen (the German word for “subhumans”) campaign is the creation of “Navigation Centers.”         

These are essentially holding pens for Unters—short for Untemschen”until they can be “navigated” to permanent housing. 

But housing is in short supply in San Francisco, and there is no telling how long many of these drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill and/or bums will stay in them. Or what harm they will wreak on the neighborhoods warehousing them.

Since 2015, eight Navigation Centers have been opened throughout San Francisco; six are in operation.

Among the “amenities” they provide:

  • Meals
  • Privacy
  • Space for pets
  • Space separate from sleeping areas
  • Laundry
  • Access to benefits
  • Wi-Fi

Hundreds—if not thousands—of their occupants are meth or heroin addicts. Such people will commit virtually any crime to support their habit. And their crimes of choice are burglary and robbery. 

Little Falls Police Warning Public After Suspected Heroin Overdoses - YouTube

Thus, pouring large numbers of them into San Francisco neighborhoods via “Navigation Centers” guarantees that countless decent citizens will become targets for desperate criminals.

In fact, when they’re not swallowing alcohol or injecting, swallowing or sniffing drugs, many of San Francisco’s “homeless” spend a lot of their time ripping off retail stores.

Walgreens drug stores have proven a particular target for these DDMBs—Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bumsthe four groups that make up 90% of the “homeless” population.

“I feel sorry for the clerks, they are regularly being verbally assaulted,” a regular customer, Sebastian Luke, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

“The clerks say there is nothing they can do. They say Walgreens’ policy is to not get involved. They don’t want anyone getting injured or getting sued, so the guys just keep coming in and taking whatever they want.”

Walgreens 2020 primary logo.svg

“Retail theft across our San Francisco stores has continued to increase in the past few months to five times our chain average,” Walgreens spokesman Phil Caruso told the Chronicle in October, 2021. 

“During this time to help combat this issue, we increased our investments in security measures in stores across the city to 46 times our chain average in an effort to provide a safe environment.” 

“Why are the shelves empty?” a customer asked a clerk at a Walgreens store.

“Go ask the people in the alleys, they have it all,” replied the clerk.

As a result, Walgreens has closed 11 stores in San Francisco

One store in the San Francisco area reportedly lost $1,000 a day to theft. 

CVS Pharmacy has instructed its employees to not intervene because the thieves so often attack them.

Many shoplifters then sell their stolen goods on the street—often near the store where they stole them.

Under California law, theft under $950 is considered a misdemeanor, but many prosecutors prefer to free those charged rather than holding them in jail.

The maximum sentence they could get: Six months. 

Shoplifting at Exchange costs military in many ways | Flickr

Low-income and disabled seniors who depend on these disappearing drug stores for prescriptions are especially at risk. 

“Navigation Centers” boast that they ban drug-abuse or drug-dealing on their own premises. But they allow DDMBs to come and go at will. Which means they are free to engage in drug-abuse and/or drug-dealing in the neighborhoods where these centers exist. 

At a public hearing in January, 2020, San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin touted the importance of Navigation Centers—including the one that would soon be established at Post and Hyde Streets.

When a local resident asked, “Is one of these centers located where you live?” Peskin replied: “No.”

In short: The city’s elite make sure their homes are far removed from the plague they so easily inflict on San Francisco residents.

Huge areas of the city are covered in feces, urine, trash and used hypodermic needles. Hospitals overflow with patients that have fallen ill due to the contamination.

The city budgeted $1.1 billion for fiscal year 2021-22 on DDMBs. Dividing that amount by about 7,754 DDMBs provides the figure of about $128,925 per DDMB per year.  

And what is the legacy of allowing San Francisco to become a Roach Motel for undesirables? 

  • Sidewalks are littered with tents, sleeping bags, human feces and urine, used hypodermic needles and empty cans or bottles of alcoholic beverages.
  • Elevators in the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system are often unusable because “homeless” people urinate and/or defecate in them.
  • Restaurants have been forced to close because they’ve become havens for DDMBs. A Burger King at Civic Center Plaza recently suffered this fate. So did a McDonald’s in the Haight Ashbury district. 
  • Tourists—and residents—are daily forced to sit next to filth-encrusted men and women who reek of urine and/or feces in restaurants and movie theaters, as well as on buses.
  • The city has lost several major conventions through its reputation for coddling Untermenschen at the expense of tourists.
  • Oracle has moved its annual OpenWorld conference to Las Vegas for at least three years.
  • And cloud-computing VMware canceled its contract with the Moscone Center for its 2023 conference.
  • As a result tourism is down about 16% from 2019, when a record 26.2 million people visited the city.
  • When tourism dollars disappear, so will San Francisco as a vital city.

It is a recipe for guaranteed disaster.