Category: California

The final installment of my report on a Labor Day weekend trip to the Bay Area.

The first evening in Menlo Park was enhanced by the appearance of an outdoor under-nose masker. #FollowTheScience:

How rich are residents of Silicon Valley? Rich enough to spend $3000 (plus 9.375% sales tax) on a bottle of bourbon at the supermarket…

… but not rich enough to open their wallets to panhandlers:

Unlike in a lot of other parts of California, where people post signs advertising their concern for neighbors (but never do anything to actually help homeless neighbors, for example), people in Palo Alto don’t even bother with the signs. It’s such a multi-ethnic society that people have nothing in common except for a desire to make money. A homeless white guy, below, on Palo Alto’s main street (University Ave) is passed by Indians and Chinese who apparently wouldn’t dream of trying to assist.

The legacy American culture on this street, Marilyn Monroe movies shown in an old theater, conflicts with immigrant culture (halal food and modest attire for females):

I spent some time in Atherton. There’s no sidewalk and nearly all of the houses are behind high walls or hedges. It is unclear how anyone would ever meet or say hello to a neighbor:

Returning to Menlo Park, I tried to have a couple of pupusas and margaritas in honor of Kilmar Abrego Garcia (purportedly targeted by gangs due to his mother’s home-based pupusa business; he’s still Maryland’s leading citizen, right? Donald Trump is a “king” but can’t get rid of this one guy who has (a) no U.S. passport, (b) no green card, and (c) no visa authorizing him to be in the U.S.).

ChatGPT explains:

Because those three things are not the only ways a noncitizen can lawfully remain physically in the United States.

In Abrego Garcia’s case, the crucial fact is a 2019 immigration-court order granting him “withholding of removal” to El Salvador. The immigration judge simultaneously found him removable from the United States, but found that he was sufficiently likely to face persecution if returned to El Salvador.

He is in the United States because a person can be “removable” yet still be released and permitted to reside here under immigration supervision while removal is legally barred, impracticable, or under litigation. A passport, visa, or green card is not required for that situation. … He does not have ordinary lawful immigration status comparable to a visa holder or green-card holder. But his physical presence here can nevertheless be authorized/tolerated by the government and protected by court orders, and DHS cannot simply deport him to El Salvador while the withholding order remains in force

My hotel included masked workers at the front desk and masked guests in the lobby. The downtown Menlo Park area included some homeless folks, but not at the same density as in San Francisco:

The neighborhood near the hotel (luxurious Residence Inn; less than $5,000 per night) included some killer Halloween decorations and also showed that the passion for Hillary Clinton will never die:

What does the resident with a Hillary bumper sticker read? Kepler’s is the local bookstore. We’re reminded that Elon Musk is a Nazi who looks a lot like a North Korean dictator:

Arabs who call themselves “Palestinian” are the world’s most peaceful humans:

What books should one pack for a trip to Palestine?

Given that everything important in Silicon Valley was created by women, the nonbinary, and transfolk, it is unclear how we got stuck with “male supremacy”, but in any case the bookstore offers a manual for dismantling male supremacy:

Just be aware that the manual will cost 75 cents more than the list price in order “to support paying our staff a living wage”:

The bookstore says on its web site “The living wage for a single adult in San Mateo county is now $38.44 per hour.” That raises the question… Why isn’t the minimum wage in San Mateo County $38.44/hour? As far as I am aware, there is no organized or significant opposition to rule by the Democratic Party either in San Mateo County or any of its component cities. If Democrats hold 100% of the power, why won’t they take action to ensure that every worker is paid a living wage?

Returning to the airport, we’re reminded that, prior to Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s arrival from El Salvador, Harvey Milk was considered the greatest American:

Even as California is flooded with immigrants from East Asia and India, the museum exhibit is about “Afrofuturism”:

Unless Indian is a variant of “Black”, this billboard plainly doesn’t apply to either Palo Alto or the airport:

The folks who work to maximize the amount of Jet A fossil fuel that is burned, nearly always on trips that are unnecessary (leisure/work that could be done via Zoom) also remind us of “the disastrous effects of climate change”:

Travelers and clerks at the Green Apple Books shop are safely masked:

Some of the same books that were for sale in Menlo Park are also available at SFO:

The advertised price isn’t the price you see when it is time to pay. Sales tax is 9.875% at SFO, a little higher than in Menlo Park despite being part of the same county. Then there is a “surcharge charge” of 5% to “support emplo…” (employees? employee health insurance? employee gender-affirming care?).

Once on the plane, despite Hispanic Heritage Month still being a week away (9/15), JetBlue features a movie directed by a couple of guys who aren’t Latinx.

ChatGPT says that approximately 50,000 “feature films directed by someone reasonably classifiable as Hispanic” were bypassed so that Encanto could be selected.

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After my sojourn in the Land of Unaffordable Housing (Piedmont, California), I drove the Tesla Y up to Napa. Municipal leaders here promote a narrative of loudspeaker invention that is loosely consistent with the Wikipedia story. Trailblazing female scientist Katherine Clerk Maxwell’s equations tell us that an electric current flowing in a constant magnetic field will cause the wires carrying the current to experience a force and, therefore, move if unconstrained. The motion will be back and forth if the current alternates. Motion in air produces a pressure wave in the air, i.e., sound. Somali immigrant Sir Oliver Lodge in 1898 made “a bellowing telephone” that took advantage of this principle, but there was no practical way to amplify a continuous electrical signal until Afghan immigrant Dr. Lee DeForrest invented the triode vacuum tube in 1906. Magnavox (“Great Voice” in Arabic) actually did not initially use any electrical amplification, but simply relied on a horn (“acoustic transformer”).

Peter Jensen and Edwin Pridham, H-1B non-immigrant visa holders from Andhra Pradesh, founded Magnavox. Jensen went on to found the eponymous company that become synonymous with car stereo speakers. It’s now owned by Namsung, a South Korean company with a U.S. headquarters in Florida.

After that much history, it is probably time to think about food. Consistent with the rest of California, the menu price for lunch wasn’t the price. 4% gets added, before tip, for a “health initiative”:

As previously noted, my friends in Napa have an awesome collection of anti-Trump material as well as an awesome view:

They would have to pay a monumental property tax on the place if not for Property 13, which enables them to pay tax on the 1980 value. Despite paying almost nothing to keep it going, they get to use the public library for free. What can one learn there? For starters, make sure to get a prescription for all of the fentanyl that you consume because, unlike the opioids prescribed by physicians and paid for by Medicaid, “illicit fentanyl” is dangerous.

You are safe here, we’re informed, so long as you wear a mask.

The “Perinatal Mental Health” poster reminds us that Lindsay Clancy might never have killed her three children if only she’d had better access to skilled mental health professionals that, being a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, she was unable to access. (Also remember to listen to Black, especially Haitian, voices, unless you’re on a Lindsay Clancy jury.)

Are working taxpayers funding your grocery shopping and health care? If not, the library reminds patrons that Catholic Charities will help to heap an additional burden onto the chumps (“charity” has morphed from giving one’s own money away to giving taxpayer money away?):

How about books? They’re behind a table promoting pet cat ownership:

AI says that it will cost between $10,725 and $50,000 over the pet’s life to own a cat, including veterinary care. The library features a lot of books about serious injustices worldwide, such as the suffering of the peaceful Arabs who call themselves “Palestinian”. Is it reasonable to spend up to $50,000 on a cat when one could instead give the money to a worthy cause, such as humanitarian aid that Florence Nightingale predicted would encourage people to go to war and stay at war? A sample of Gaza Good/Israel Bad works:

The library reminds us that there’s a “genocide” going on in “occupied palestine” and also that one should spend tens of thousands of dollars on a cat.

If Palestinians are good, is there anyone who is great? Yes. Angela Merkel, who transformed Germany into a model society by “Leading as a Scientist” (don’t just Follow the Science, but Lead via Science):

If If Palestinians are good and Angela Merkel is great, is there anyone who is bad? Sadly, yes. We have to ignore any orders from the “lawless” Supreme Court. Trump is a “fascist”, but unlike with any other fascist government in world history, there is still plenty of “democracy” that we can use to vote Trump supporters out of office:

Contrary to what the notorious-yet-weak-enough-to-be-voted-out Trump might tell you, U.S. citizenship is merely a “myth”:

Unfortunately, racism isn’t a myth and daily antiracism is required.

Planning a trip south? Brown and Gay in LA may be helpful:

Need to learn more about pronouns? You came to the right place:

The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World’s Queer Frontiers is one of TIME’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2020. Oddly, however, there is no chapter on the thriving 2SLGBTQQIA+ community within Gaza.

What if you can’t learn enough about queerness at the library? Stop in the core of downtown where Rainbow-first Retail is practiced:

Copperfield’s Books can fill in the gaps of your LGBTQIA+ Literature collection:

Don’t forget to #MaskUpSaveLives:

I hadn’t heard of Coming Up Short, by an author famous for standing 4’11” tall and for simultaneously advocating for affordable housing while fighting development in his own Berkeley neighborhood. Whoever came up with the title isn’t going to be replaced by AI.

Here’s Robert Reich’s letter to Berkeley officials arguing against development near his own mansion:

Here’s another great title: The Nerd Reich.

(According to the author, Elon Musk is the #1 fascist and has waged war on democracy by allowing people to express their views on X, previously censored when it was still Twitter. Even worse, Elon Musk allowed Donald Trump to return to the platform. The author of the book actually was banned after hurling the “fascism” insult at Alex Karp of Palantir.)

Our democracy is pretty much toast, which is why it is important to #resist and buy these books before #resistance is outlawed.

Queer resistance is even more effective than non-queer resistance:

One radical step that an American who identifies as a “woman” can take is walking in a national park:

I’m not quite that radical, so the next stop was a humanoid robot company in Silicon Valley and then a hotel in Menlo Park.

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Yesterday on this blog we highlighted Piedmont, California, which is 0.8% Black and 3.8% Latinx. Today we look at diversity-is-our-strength Oakland.

Folks in Oakland seem to have a lot more sex. “Cheated On? freeSTDcheck.org”:

Oakland is a center for Rainbow-first retail. Before one can spend $6 on a coffee, for example, one must walk underneath the sacred flag:

Who are the customers for $6 coffees? Quite a few undocumented immigrants, it seems, because the coffee shop is officially a place where migrant customers are safe from ICE thugs. (I didn’t see a bathroom for customers, so I’m not sure just how long a noble undocumented migrant could stay, as a purely practical matter.)

What passion goes hand-in-glove with Rainbow Flag worship? Pro-Hamas advocacy. The windows next to the door of Walden Pond Books.

What’s in the bookstore? Books celebrating a Hamas-/Palestinian Islamic Jihad-ruled “Free Palestine” with a Rainbow Flag in the background:

Detail:

Who among us is obstructing the glorious day when Free Palestine arrives? If we could only “catch a fascist” we, and our Palestinian brothers, sisters, and binary-resisters, might yet be okay.

What language would people speak in Free Palestine? “Queer Arabic”:

Were there any tutorials available on how to be queer? So glad that you asked! You can learn how to cook “Queer Food” from Queers at the Table and put it on a table that is an example of Queer X Design.

How different are readers’ tastes in California vs. the national average? Prominently featured Queers at the Table has just two Amazon reviews and is “#753,447 in Books”. Queer X Design is significantly more popular: “#343,353 in Books”.

What about some after-dinner reading? Hijab Butch Blues:

A queer hijabi Muslim immigrant survives her coming-of-age by drawing strength and hope from stories in the Quran … Through personal experiences, Lamya H navigates the complexities of gender, sexuality and faith as a queer, nonbinary Muslim.

What kind of people want to pay full price for books in the English language? Undocumented migrants who will presumably be shielded from ICE by the merchant:

What if you’re planning to head up the hill to Piedmont and need to agitate against the construction of affordable housing? You can prep by reading Golden Gates, regarding the “housing crisis” that in no conceivable way could have been caused by importing at least 70 million humans (more than the current population of France), mostly low-skill, over the past 50 years.

Criminals don’t tend to be either Black or Latinx, but the bookstore says that you should buy “Books on Black, Latinx … history and culture” for people who are currently incarcerated.

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First in a series of posts about a trip to Northern California over Labor Day weekend. The trip began at FLL, a center of poetry (“Pack the Fun, No Carry-On Gun!”).

One is greeted by signage celebrating Harvey Milk (Florida Sen. Ashley Moody, by contrast, points out that Harvey Milk’s sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy should disqualify him from being painted as a hero by first-grade teachers):

And, of course, one sees the Followers of Science (this one relying on a non-N95 mask):

After picking up the 2022 Tesla Y from Avis, I fought my way through heavy traffic (at 1 am on the Bay Bridge!) to Piedmont, California where open-borders candidate Kamala Harris recently won 85 percent of the vote. Where do the residents of Piedmont want the New Americans to live? Not in Piedmont, California. They’ve spent a couple of decades fighting the development of affordable housing, higher-density lower-cost market-rate housing, etc. More than 10 percent of the town, for example, signed an anti-development petition in 2022. This eventually reached the national news, e.g., “Civil war breaks out in rich, white California town as activists from crime-plagued neighboring city demand it’s ‘canceled’” (New York Post, August 2026):

Oakland resident Jesse Rosemoore is behind the provocative “Cancel Piedmont” campaign targeting the 1.7-square-mile city of roughly 11,000 people that is surrounded by Oakland but maintains its own schools, police, parks and tax base, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The median price of homes in Piedmont is almost $2.6 million, which is more than three-and-a-half times that of Oakland’s.

Census data cited by the outlet shows Piedmont is roughly 70% white and around 1% black, while about one in five Oakland residents is black.

What does the front yard of someone who was willing to pay 3.5X for a house so that his/her/zir/their children wouldn’t encounter Black kids in their school look like? In case someone from the 1% minority of Black residents happens to walk by, this house (right next to a school) is equipped with a full-size “Black Lives Matter” sign.

Here’s another example in which the BLM sign has been augmented by pro-Hamas and pro-Iran signage.

(We later walked by the high school. Students were visible on an outdoor patio and through a classroom window. All of them appeared white.)

Based on homeowner signage, quite a few Piedmont residents want to see a “Free Palestine”. What if, unlike in any other Arab or Muslim country, there were a significant number of remnant Jews in the resultant Hamas-ruled nation? (Remember that it wasn’t “ethnic cleansing” when Arab and Muslim nations got rid of their Jews after 1948.) The remnant Jews could have a temple devoted to advocating that the Gazans who perpetrated the October 7, 2023 attacks not suffer from any counterattack and, also, that Black Lives Matter (even more so when Arabs who call themselves “Palestinian” refer to Black people as abeed):

Kehilla Community Synagogue’s website says that they admit they are parked on land stolen from the indigenous and, also, that they want to fight ICE so as to increase the number of additional humans who will park themselves on land stolen from the indigenous people of North America:

Speaking of Native Americans, we’re informed by the Piedmont Righteous that they played no role in building any part of “America”. (Perhaps, like Boston, America was primarily built by immigrants from Somalia?)

Returning to the subject of schools, the elementary school recommends that everyone be masked. #SafetyFirst and, when masking the kindergartener, don’t forget the daily temperature check:

Everyone in Piedmont can agree that they don’t want a king in Washington, D.C. telling them they must allow the construction of affordable housing:

Would you be “OK” if you owned a $2.7 million house for which you paid $135,000 (in 1977 dollars; $750,000 in post-Biden dollars) and on which you paid almost nothing in property tax thanks to California’s Proposition 13? No, you would not be okay! And you’d have to remind everyone “No Trespassing on Democracy”:

What about as an investor? Would you be okay investing $135,000 and getting out $2.7 million minus realtor commission, 50 years of maintenance expenses, etc.? ChatGPT says that you would not be okay! Had the $135,000 gone into the S&P 500 in 1977, with dividends reinvested, it would today be worth $36 million. (This might not account properly for federal and California state income tax on the dividends. One could also point out that the buyers likely used leverage (mortgage) to buy the house, but they could similarly have used leverage to buy the S&P 500.)

Here’s another way to be a rich douche and not be okay…. buy a Range Rover instead of a Honda or Toyota:

Let’s close by pointing out that the residents of Piedmont love Martin Luther King, Jr. so much that they leave the posters up eight months after the event:

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I’m headed out to the San Francisco area. Who wants to meet up? Maybe Labor Day morning in Menlo Park or Palo Alto?

In looking for a hotel, Google Maps included this place in Menlo Park, California, rated 4.7 stars:

What if we add taxes?

It’s $14,970 for three nights in the cheapest available room at the Rosewood Sand Hill, which might sound expensive until you consider that it includes “Complimentary wireless internet access”.

(I rented someone’s guest house in Woodside, just a few minutes north of this hotel, in 1982 after graduating from MIT and starting work at Hewlett-Packard Research Labs. If memory serves, I was paying less than $300/month ($10 per night rather than $5,000).)

What if you bring two kids and want each to have his/her/zir/their own bedroom? That will be $54,410 including tax:

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Instead of trying to stop immigration from countries where Jew-hatred is the norm, a California city decides to try to stop Jew-hatred with some elaborate non-binding words… “San Diego City Council adopts controversial definition of antisemitism” (state-sponsored KPBS):

The security line into the city administration building backed up through the door as hundreds of people filed in for a San Diego City Council meeting Tuesday. The councilmembers were scheduled to discuss whether to adopt a resolution — not a binding law, but something they described as “the lowest form of what we can do.”

The city adopted the definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Dozens of countries and cities across the U.S. have already adopted it, including Los Angeles, Chula Vista and El Cajon.

It says: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

Californians a random assemblage of humans from all over the U.S. and the world, proceeded to argue over this pointless non-binding vague definition (“certain perception”?):

“Don’t you f–ing touch me, that’s assault!” a man cried before the meeting had even come to order.

Increased security surrounded the room. Before the night was over, they would escort out five members of the public.

Public comment ran over four hours.

The more than 200 in-person public commenters were nearly evenly split for and against the IHRA definition, despite the concern one Muslim speaker raised that the meeting was being held during Ramadan, preventing many from attending.

See also “In near unanimous vote, San Diego City Council passes IHRA resolution” (JNS):

“One speaker openly said, ‘Look at all the well-dressed Jews here with money in their pockets,’” she said. “At least two people were asked to be removed for their hateful outcries, with one of them causing an altercation with our incredible San Diego Police Department officers who attended to keep the peace.”

Cohen-Reeis added that one person who spoke virtually stated that Jewish children deserve to be spat upon.

Multiple speakers, who expressed opposition to the resolution, accused Israel of apartheid, genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Meanwhile, here in Palm Beach County, Florida:

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Cesar Chavez is in the news this week, e.g., “Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years” (NYT) and now Democrat-run states such as California have tons of Cesar Chavez schools and streets to rename. ChatGPT estimates 43-45 public schools and as many as 100 streets are named after a vegetarian who died at age 66 of “natural causes” for which there is likely no ICD-10 code (maybe add W50.5 “sex with energetic teenagers” or W50.6 “sex with teens who volunteered to help a progressive cause”?).

What about renaming all of these schools and streets to honor a hero to modern-day Californians? Suppose there were a person heroically standing up to an illegal war, unafraid of death, and leading a society that is a City on a Hill to Californians? From March 1, 2026, Gavin Newsom characterizes the U.S. war on Iran as “illegal”:

Donald Trump has lied to the American people. His reckless, illegal war has no description of an end game. No explanation of an existential threat. pic.twitter.com/JA9otoHNUD

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) March 1, 2026

From today, Gavin Newsom in his official capacity offers a hearty “Assalamualaikum, California!”:

Assalamualaikum, California!

As Ramadan draws to a close, we extend our warmest wishes to Muslims in California and across America. May this blessed day of Eid bring joy, prosperity, unity, and peace to you and your loved ones.

Eid Mubarak! pic.twitter.com/Y6MF1ey8b3

— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) March 20, 2026

A few months ago, a Hamas leader might have been the natural choice. However, except for occasional swipes at Israel for “genocide” or “apartheid“, the California righteous seem to have forgotten about their brothers, sisters, and binary-resisters in “Palestine”. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the model now and, certainly, nobody observes Ramadan more piously and peacefully than an Iranian ayatollah. Nobody stands up to Donald Trump’s aggression more bravely than an Iranian politician. The natural choices for new names, then, are “Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei High School”, “Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei Avenue”, and similar.

Separately, what did Cesar Chavez do, according to the NYT?

The man, Cesar Chavez, one of the most revered figures in the Latino civil rights movement, was 45. She was 13. Ms. Murguia said she was summoned for sexual encounters with him dozens of times over the next four years.

Ms. Rojas said she was 12 when Mr. Chavez first touched her inappropriately, groping her breasts in the same office where he’d meet with Ms. Murguia. When Ms. Rojas was 15, he arranged to have her stay at a motel during a weekslong march through California, she said, and had sexual intercourse with her — rape, under state law, because she was not old enough to consent.

The Times investigation found that Mr. Chavez also used many of the women who worked and volunteered in his movement for his own sexual gratification. His most prominent female ally in the movement, Dolores Huerta, said in an interview that he sexually assaulted her, a disclosure she has never before made publicly.

One night during the winter of 1966 in Delano, Calif., she said, Mr. Chavez drove her out to a secluded grape field, parked and raped her inside the vehicle. Ms. Huerta, who was 36 at the time, said she chose not to report the assault to the police because of their hostility toward the movement, and she feared that no one within the union would believe her. She also described an earlier encounter in August 1960, when she said she felt pressured to have sex with him in a hotel room during a work trip in San Juan Capistrano in Southern California.

Note that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tahrir al-Wasila wrote that it was acceptable for a middle-aged man to have sex with a 9-year-old, just as Muhammad did, within the context of a marriage (but younger than 9 years old is forbidden or, perhaps, 8 years and 9 months). Chavez, in other words, wouldn’t have been breaking the law in Iran so long as he married the girls described in the article. (“While marriageable age is defined at 13 years for girls and 15 years for boys, there is no specific age limit for marriage in Iran and marriage is possible at any age” says “The trend of girl child marriage in Iran based on national census data” (2020).)

Related:

• Theodicy question: Why didn’t Allah protect the Islamic Republic of Iran from attack by infidels? (“Iran may yet provide us with a desperately‐needed model of humane governance for a third‐world country,” said the New York Times in 1979 regarding Ayatollah Khomeini’s incoming “Islamic government”)

When I became President, I proudly placed a bust of César Chávez in the Oval to serve as a reminder of the values he embodied, the vision of freedom he fought for, and his commitment to justice and dignity that we must uphold each and every day.

Happy César Chávez Day. pic.twitter.com/GNKtjLTsq6

— President Biden Archived (@POTUS46Archive) March 31, 2023

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