Vaya con Dios dear SF Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi. Dear Ross...

... I'm not saying good bye, far from it, I'm welcoming you back to the civilian world -- Which will happen on Friday, January 8 2016 at noon -- and wishing you the best in all of your present and future endeavors. Count me in.

As a community activist, I know that we'll be meeting each other in the same circles, for, how could it be otherwise? Yes, you were what I refer to as a community activist who chose to also run for elected office to represent and serve the people from there, indeed Ross, that's my impression of you.

You were always with the people, in the good times and in the not so desirable ones, no matter the day, or the time of day, you were always there, in those moments of much need of support when we welcome the presence of humans' humane company and solidarity, especially in tragic moments, you were there.

A community's concern translated by you meant the need to do something about it, which you did so many times and sucessfully I might add. Plastic shopping bags poluting our streets, flying around in the wind tunnels that regularly are what we call 'the streets of San Francisco', chocking water fowl and fish in the bay, plugging our sewage systems? Presente! In those concerns you saw the need to do something, you did and it's been working like a charm ever since. Good job Ross.

Displacement of tenants? You were there, and are. Women's rights? You were there, and are. Gay rights? Or closer to me, Transgender issues? You were there, and are. Human and civil rights for immigrants? You were there, and are. Law enforcement and criminal prison system? You were there, and are. I could go on, and on listing all the issues whose concerned advocates can look at you and say, thank you Ross for being there for us.

And there were a few of them who called in the radio program you were on today, Jan. 4, '16. They took the opportunity to say 'thank you' on a day you went on radio, Hecho en California at La Grande, KIQI 1010AM in SF, for the last time as SF Sheriff to say good bye and thank the audience who in large part supported you, as it turns out, callers were the ones who felt they had to recognize your contributions and thank you instead. You were there for us.

Clip of his radio appearance

There is so much to do and the need to do something about it as you pointed out on the air today as you do everytime you get the chance to speak up. I know that you will continue to work in helping fix our broken justice system, even so you will no longer be an elected official, at least for the time being... (Emphasis added) but I know it will be a blessing in disguise your being out of office, sometimes people are far more effective and hence, successful working form the outside. No doubt you'll help move forward the innovative programs your predecessor, Sheriff Michael Hennessy, and you put into effect in the San Francisco City And County jail system; it is not a jail problem, but an education and training matter in preparing inmates deal once released with the vagaries that life and society present us with on a daily basis.

I'm with you that the drug problem is not a criminal matter, or an enemy that you need to declare war on it, it is a health issue and shoul be treated as such, by the same token, I'm also with you in that undocumented immigration it is not a criminal issue too, but a labor and human rights matter and the violations to immigration laws, are at best administrative violations. I'm with you in those as well because you've been there for us in these too.

So, again, welcome to the civilian world and now that you are in between jobs, join us in working from the outside for the time being!

I will be in touch...

2015: The Year in Mass Shootings

2015: The Year in Mass Shootings

So far this year there have been 353 mass shootings in the United States. Here they are.
By Tessa Stuart December 3, 2015

Mass shootings have happened almost every day in America this year — often more than once a day. They happen in backyards and at block parties, in mansions and housing projects, in quiet neighborhoods and at rowdy bars, at schools, restaurants, churches, gas stations and grocery stores. They are random, and they are premeditated. They happen during dice games, family dinners, funerals and sweet sixteens.

So far this year there have been 353 mass shootings in the United States, according the Mass Shooting Tracker, a crowd-sourced database. (The tracker defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are killed or wounded; the FBI uses three dead or wounded as its criteria.)

Here they all are, including Wednesday's attack in San Bernardino — the deadliest shooting in the U.S. since Sandy Hook.

January 1, 2015: Five wounded when a shooter opened fire on a party bus in Memphis, Tennessee.

January 2, 2015: One dead, four injured in a domestic dispute in Savannah, Georgia.

January 4, 2015: Three dead, one wounded in the early morning, in southeast Dallas, Texas.

Two dead, four wounded in Roanoke, Virginia.

January 6, 2015: One killed, three wounded in a drive-by shooting in Miami, Florida.

January 7, 2015: One dead, three wounded, including a one-year-old, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

January 8, 2015: One dead, three wounded when a gunman opened fire on a car in Boston, Massachusetts.

January 9, 2015: Four dead in a San Francisco California's Hayes Valley neighborhood.

January 10, 2015: Three dead, one wounded after a shooting spree in Moscow, Idaho.

January 11, 2015: Five wounded during a party hosted by R&B singer Chris Brown in San Jose, California.                                      

Two dead, five wounded at a party in Hope Mills, North Carolina.

One dead, three wounded during a botched home invasion in Lakeland, Florida.

Five wounded at an off-campus party near Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama.

January 12, 2015: Two dead, two wounded in a fight outside a bar in Wichita, Kansas.

January 13, 2015: Five wounded in a shooting inside a bar in Portsmouth, Virginia. 

January 14, 2015: Two dead, three wounded at a house party in Rockford, Illinois.

January 19, 2015: Two dead, five wounded in a 100-person brawl at a car wash in San Antonio, Texas.

January 20, 2015: One dead, three wounded at an apartment complex in Clarksville, Tennessee.

January 23, 2015: Six wounded at a party in Boston, Massachusetts's Jamaica Plain neighborhood.

January 24, 2015: Three dead, five wounded at a party in Omaha, Nebraska.

Four dead, one wounded — three generations of women in one family — in Queens, New York.

January 26, 2015: One dead, three wounded, including a pair of cousins, in Stockton, California.

January 28, 2015: One dead, three wounded inside a home in DeKalb, Georgia. 

Donald Trump believes he was born to be king

Donald Trump believes he was born to be king



 



Op-Ed Donald Trump believes he was born to be king, By Michael D'Antonio

For months the political press has been grappling with the greased-pig problem that is Donald Trump, trying to pin down the Republican front-runner as he defies establishment expectations and rejects basic standards of decorum. Much of the time I devoted to my Trump biography was consumed with the same activity: I spent countless hours fact-checking the torrent of slippery claims he made during our interviews. Even more difficult was divining the source of his sense of entitlement.

Some who try to understand why Trump would do such things might wonder if he's a deeply wounded, insecure soul compensating with narcissistic bluster. This diagnosis doesn't fit the Trump who answered my questions for many hours, nor does it match the conclusion reached by his second wife, Marla Maples. “He's a king,” said Maples when I interviewed her. “I mean truly. He is. He's a king. He really is a ruler of the world, as he sees it.”

Maples suspects that Trump was a royal figure in some past life. More likely he acquired his reverse noblesse oblige by training from his father who, according to Trump biographer Harry Hurt III, raised young Donald to become “a killer” and told him “you are king.” His mother was so enchanted by royalty that Trump keenly remembers the hours she spent watching the TV broadcast of Queen Elizabeth's coronation.

Donald Trump attacks “low IQ” conservative Washington Post blogger for being “a real dummy”

Donald Trump attacks “low IQ” conservative Washington Post blogger for being “a real dummy”



 Donald Trump attacks “low IQ” conservative Washington Post blogger for being “a real dummy” by Scott Eric Kaufman Dec 2, 15

Jennifer Rubin criticized Trump's plan to have CNN pay him $5 million for next GOP debate, so he unloaded on her

Donald Trump attacked Washington Post “Right Turn” blogger Jennifer Rubin on Tuesday, calling her a “dummy” with a “low IQ” on Twitter after she criticized his idea that CNN pay him $5 million to appear in the next Republican presidential debate.

“In the latest bit of political insanity, Donald Trump has threatened not to show up at the next debate unless CNN agrees to give $5 million to charity,” Rubin wrote. “Why is he scared of debating his competitors?”

“The easiest explanation is that Trump has run out of one-liners,” she continued. “He cannot talk extemporaneously at length (at least not rationally) about policy issues, especially foreign policy, where he has blundered in the past[.]”

While Trump is frequently compared to “Biff Tannen” from the “Back to the Future” franchise — screenwriter Don Gale even admitted that the wealthy real estate tycoon version of “Biff” in the future featured in the second film was based on Trump — but apparently he has a little “Marty McFly” in him as well, as his ire with Rubin seems to be based on the fact that the headline of her post was “Is Donald Trump too chicken to debate?”

 

Deported for selling tamales? In California? PETITION: Governor Brown, Sign the TRUST Act

For anyone who may be insterested in continuing to be aware of these injustices or maybe get more involved, at least an opportunity to be aware that these tragedies continue unabated throughout the country and wishing that more than a few would sign the petition. Our long range hope is that in spite of the Latin-American community bitter cynicism and hurt (It can be perceived in Ruben Navarrete's piece), President Obama and progressive legislators who still have a soul, are reelected. There is much hope and fear that absent that, i.e. Romney and regressive legislators are reelected, we are left with not much else than prayers to alliviate the suffering.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. piece on this incident which goes into many details on these issue.

Don't deport the 'tamale lady'

San Diego, California (CNN) -- Juana Reyes didn't think that selling chicken, pork and chili cheese tamales would buy her a one-way ticket out of the country. But it just might.

Reyes is a Sacramento, California, woman who the media is calling "the tamale lady." A 46-year-old single mother of two and illegal immigrant, Reyes faces deportation by the Obama administration.

So what's the problem? Aren't illegal immigrants supposed to be deported?

Sure. But there are rules to the game, and the administration keeps breaking them. This case undermines the claim that the immigration crackdown is targeting hardened criminals.

Reyes' trouble started on June 28 when she was arrested outside a Walmart by Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies and charged with trespassing and interfering with a business.

What exactly was the interference? Reyes is unemployed. She was selling tamales so she could buy food and clothes for her two children -- 10-year-old Cesar and 7-year-old Montserrat, both of whom were born in the United States.

Think about it. This woman wasn't holding a handmade sign that read: "Will work for food." She was working by making food and selling it.

PETITION: Governor Brown, Sign the TRUST ActDeported for selling tamales?

Juana Reyes was arrested last month for selling tamales without a permit in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Now she’s facing deportation back to Mexico, even though she’ 

s been in the country for 20 years and she’s the sole provider for her two US citizen kids.

Sounds like something that would happen in Sheriff Joe’s Arizona, right? Wrong! This happened right in California’s capital, Sacramento.

Juana was held in jail for 13 days, and her two kids, both US citizens, were put in foster care. Who knows what will happen to them if she’s deported?

California may not have a tough anti-immigrant law like Arizona or Alabama -- but for Juana and her family, we might as well.

Last year, in California alone, 75,000 immigrants like Juana were deported after being arrested for traffic offenses, selling food without permits or other trivial violations, through a federal immigration program called “Secure Communities.”

You and I both know that California is better than this. We should not be rounding up immigrants in traffic stops or for the “crime” of trying to make a better life for their kids. That’s why we’re working to pass the TRUST Act, which would keep the so-called “Secure Communities” program in California from putting hardworking moms and dads on the fast-track to deportation.

While extremists in Arizona have passed laws that make a suspect out of anyone who looks “foreign,” California is poised to take a different approach. If the TRUST Act becomes law, California would set a new bar as a state where immigrants stopped for a broken taillight or for selling tamales on the street won’t automatically be put into deportation.

The TRUST Act would maintain immigration holds for those convicted of a serious felony, but mothers and fathers who get picked up for minor reasons wouldn’t have to worry about ending up in immigration detention or deportation. Think of all those families who won’t have to live in constant fear of the police!

The TRUST Act has already passed the California legislature. Now, all eyes are on Gov. Jerry Brown.

Ask Governor Brown to sign the TRUST Act today.