Tag Archives: San Francisco

Canada proposed Orwellian “pre-crime” hate speech bill, by Simon Black

Simon Black’s tally of this week’s absurdities. From Black at sovereignman.com:

Are you ready for this week’s absurdity? Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.

Canada plans to punish hate speech pre-crime

If passed, a bill in the Canadian legislature will punish online or in-person “hate speech” with a fine up to C$20,000 (about $16,000 USD) if it targets a specific person.

The law states that “hate speech means the content of a communication that expresses detestation or vilification of an individual or group of individuals on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination.”

Nice and vague, just the way they like it.

The law also allows the courts to intervene if a person fears they will be the target of a hatred motivated offense.

So basically it’s like pre-crime. If a potential victim feels that you might hate them, they can apply for what is essentially a restraining order. What’s more, the judge can demand that you surrender weapons, wear a GPS monitor, remain under house arrest, abstain from alcohol, and submit to drug tests.

This is all without being charged, let alone convicted, of any crime.

And anyone who does does not follow the orders faces a year in prison.

Click here to read the full bill.

California city says “add lemon juice” to dirty water

Because of the drought conditions in California, the water in Sacramento (the state’s capital) is tasting a little earthy.

The city says this is because there’s a higher concentration of geosmin is found in the water due to the drought-induced low water levels.

Geosmin tastes like dirt.

Continue reading→

Roid Rage: Gym Owners In San Fran Furious After Learning Government Gyms Have Been Open For Months, by Tyler Durden

Our rulers’ rules are for us, not them. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Shut down gym owners in San Francisco have developed serious “roid rage” after finding out this week that gyms inside of government buildings have been open for months while privately owned establishments have remained shut down, per the government’s orders.

Gyms for police officers, lawyers, bailiffs, paralegals and government employees have been open since July 1, according to a new report from the Washington Examiner.

Daniele Rabkin, of Crossfit Golden Gate stated: “It’s shocking, it’s infuriating. Even though they’re getting exposed, there are no repercussions, no ramifications? It’s shocking.”

Dave Karraker, owner of MX3 Fitness in the Castro, commented: “It just demonstrates that there seems to be some kind of a double standard between what city employees are allowed to do and what the residents of San Francisco are allowed to do. What the city has unwillingly done is created this great case study that says that working out indoors is actually safe.”

Continue reading→

Why San Francisco Is In Trouble – 19,000 Highly Compensated City Employees Earned $150,000+ In Pay & Perks, by Adam Andrzejewski

Most of the political subdivisions in the US that are in dire fiscal straits have all sorts of employees and retired employees drawing hefty salaries or pensions that are far greater than their economic value. From Adam Andrzejewski at forbes.com:

The San Francisco Bay Area is home to wonders of the modern world like the Golden Gate Bridge and Silicon Valley — as well as powerful progressive politicians like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Governor Gavin Newsom, and U.S. Senator (and vice-presidential hopeful) Kamala Harris.

But the city is in trouble. Whenever we open the books, San Francisco consistently ranks among the worst tax-and-spend offenders.

In fact, the city’s $1.5 billion budget deficit isn’t stopping 18,759 highly compensated employees from each bringing home pay packages worth $150,000 (or more) annually.

We found truck drivers loaded up with $262,898; city painters making $270,190; firefighters earning $316,306; and plumbing supervisors cleaning up $348,291 every year. One deputy sheriff earned $574,595 last year – including $315,896 in overtime.

On average, the city’s 44,526 employees received pay and perks costing taxpayers $131,335 apiece. Four out of ten – 18,749 city workers – received a compensation package exceeding $150,000 per year.

The pay package includes retirement, health, overtime, pension, and other benefits on top of base salary.

Mayor’s Office – San Francisco Mayor London Breed cost taxpayers $452,421 – the highest paid mayor in the country. Breed enjoys a $342,974 salary and an additional $109,447 in benefit perks. Incredibly, there are another thirty-one staffers in her office with total comp exceeding $200,000 annually.

Police and Sheriff departments– The combined 4,418 employees of the city’s law enforcement agencies cost taxpayers $831 million in compensation last year for an average cost of over $188,000 per person. The police are called “peace officers.”

Because San Francisco is both a city and a county, it has both a sheriff and police department. Sheriff deputies run the jails, enforce civil judgements, and provide security for court cases, while the police patrol the city.

Police Chief William Scott earned $434,613 ($338,482 salary and $96,131 benefits). Four assistant chiefs (police and management) received between $346,528 and $445,539. Then, there were 195 employees with pay and perks exceeding $300,000 each.

Continue reading→

Haunting Photos of San Francisco’s Desolate Financial District During Morning “Rush Hour”: Visual Effects of Work-from-Home, by Wolf Richter

There are worse things than rush-hour congestion and crowded city sidewalks. Anyone who has spent any time in San Francisco will be shocked by these photographs. From Wolf Richter at wolfstreet.com:

On Tuesday, August 8, during morning rush hour, I walked through and around the Financial District of San Francisco and took photos to document the spookiness of it all. Pedestrians used to rush to work on crowded sidewalks, balling up at red lights, then stream across the intersection, and disappear into the entries of office towers as they went, and cars used to be stuck in traffic, and thick throngs of people would pour out of the Montgomery BART and Muni Metro station.

I started taking photos at Columbus Street where it ends at Montgomery Street, and then turned south into Montgomery Street and walked through the Financial District to the Montgomery Station at Market Street. Then I zigzagged back through the Financial District.

What you will see are streets and sidewalks and entrances into office towers that were eerily deserted during what used to be “rush hour,” with just a sprinkling of pedestrians, a few cars, the occasional skateboarder, some guys working on construction projects, and curiosities where you might be tempted to think, “only in San Francisco.”

With hindsight, it was the last beautiful sunny morning before the thick acrid smoke from the wildfires moved into San Francisco.

Continue reading→

San Francisco spends almost $30 per flush for public toilets, by Simon Black

It’s time for Simon Black’s weekly tabulation of the absurd. From Black at sovereignman.com:

Are you ready for this week’s absurdity? Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, your finances, and your prosperity.

British school controls where children eat and shop after school

Imagine a man in a high visibility jacket comes into your take-out restaurant, and starts berating your customers, telling them to leave, and threatening them if they don’t.

That is what business owners in Bristol, England are dealing with. The man in the official looking high-viz reflective vest was a teacher, and the customers were students.

It is school policy to restrict what shops and restaurants students can patronize on their way home from school, by sending teachers out to patrol the streets.

Students who disobey the rule are punished with detention, even though this happens outside of school hours and off school property.

The business owner had to call the police to get the teacher to leave, and stop blocking the doorway to his shop (which prevented customers from entering).

He says it has cut down on his business significantly, including intimidating other customers besides the school children.

When the man spoke to the school Superintendent, he was treated to a lecture about how his food is unhealthy, and should not be available to students.

Click here to read the full story.

Continue reading

Schwab Abandons High-Tax San Francisco For New $100 Million Mega-HQ In Dallas, by Tyler Durden

Charles Schwab is leaving San Francisco for Dallas. It feels like the beginning of an exodus of corporations out of high-cost, high-hassle California. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Charles Schwab’s $26 billion deal to acquire TD Ameritrade will result in the relocation of its San Francisco-based headquarters to Dallas-Fort Worth, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Schwab gave no timeframe on the transition to Westlake, a suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. The region is considered one of the fastest-growing financial hubs in the country at the moment. The merger is expected to be completed in 2H20 and could take 12 to 36 months to integrate both firms completely.

Schwab’s new Dallas-Fort Worth campus will cost around $100 million, covers 70 acres with 500,000 square feet of office space.

Continue reading→

 

California’s Governor Blames Texas for California’s Policies That Caused the Homeless Crisis, by Mac Slavo

Yes, and the reason stupid kids get bad grades is because there are smart kids in the class. From Mac Slavo at shtfplan.com:

California’s authoritarian governor, Gavin Newsom, blamed the state of Texas for California’s homeless crisis. Rather than put the blame directly on the policies California has instituted that stifle free enterprise and punish heavily those who produce, Newsom said it’s the fault of Texas.

Newsom said many homeless people on the streets of San Francisco are from Texas. in an attempt to shift the blame from himself and the polices of socialists (who get rich peddling socialism to the masses as everyone else becomes impoverished.)

Former California assemblyman turned Texas resident Chuck DeVore reacted to Newsom pushing the blame onto others. The vice president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Chuck DeVore, said Wednesday that Gavin Newsom is “responsible for the policies that have created California’s homeless crisis,” in the wake of the governor blaming Texas for San Francisco’s homeless crisis. “What you’re seeing here are the words of a desperate man that we should almost feel sorry for,” DeVore, who served as a California assemblyman for six years, told “Fox & Friends.”

“Governor Gavin Newsom has been in office now for 22 straight years, starting at the San Francisco board of supervisors,” DeVore added. Homelessness has been rampant across the state of California in the past few years and merchants and homeowners have become increasingly vocal and incredibly irate at how things are going in the socialist dystopia.

Continue reading

‘A Total Failure’: Homeless Crisis In Progressive Cities Reaches Fever Pitch, by Tyler Durden

Fox News investigated homelessness in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. These once desirable West Coast cities are becoming increasingly less desirable. From Tyler Duren at zerohedge.com:

As ZH readers are no doubt aware, America’s most ‘progressive’ cities have become ground-zero for a what has become an all-out homelessness crisis, leaving these once-beautiful cities a bastion of human suffering which rival some third-world nations.

This summer, Fox News‘ Barnini Chakraborty embarked on an ambitious project to chronicle the crisis in four West Coast cities; Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon.

“In each city, we saw a lack of safety, sanitation and civility,” writes Chakraborty. “Residents, the homeless and advocates say they’ve lost faith in their elected officials’ ability to solve the issue. Most of the cities have thrown hundreds of millions of dollars at the problem only to watch it get worse.”

In May, new data revealed that homelessness in San Francisco had jumped 17% since 2017, and would have risen by 30% if the city had used past definitions.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition of homelessness includes people who are living on the streets, in cars or in shelters. San Francisco’s own definition widens the category to people without a permanent address who are in prison, rehab or hospitalized. If the city used the same measurement it had in years past, the numbers would show an increase from 7,400 to 9,784 — or 30 percent in 2019. –Fox News

On Monday and Tuesday, Chakraborti published her findings on Los Angeles, and San Francisco, which notably points out the disparity between progressives driving around in supercars while homeless residents – many of whom are addicted to drugs or have mental problems which prevent them from working, languish on shit-covered streets.

Continue reading→

 

California’s Homeless Crisis Has Reached “Epic Proportions”, by Mac Slavo

California has taken a bold step forward and banned plastic straws, but it can’t seem to do anything about the ever burgeoning ranks of its homeless. From Mac Slavo at shtfplan.com:

The homeless crisis in the Democrat stronghold of California has reached epic proportions. Even after throwing billions of dollars at the problem, the state is unable to solve the epidemic they created.

And California’s plan to throw billions of dollars more at the issue won’t do much either. The problem isn’t a lack of money.  The problem is the socialist policies in place that make homelessness inevitable. There are now nearly 60,000 homeless people living in Los Angeles County, a 12% increase from the previous year, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

According to National Interest, Los Angeles is not the only county suffering under the weight of freedom-trampling socialist regulations that make it difficult for the average person to even get by, let alone afford a roof over their head. Other localities in California also saw substantial increases compared with 2017, when they last conducted a count, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. In San Francisco, the number [of homeless people] rose 17% while Alameda County, which includes Oakland, saw a 43% increase. Homelessness grew 42% in San Jose over the past two years and 31% in Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley.

Wealthy Elitists Freak Out As Hordes Of Homeless People Take Over Their Neighborhoods All Over The West Coast

“Even in the good old days, there was a Skid Row. Now the beggars, drug addicts, and lost souls are all over the city,” wrote San Francisco Chronicle columnist Carl Nolte.

The city is out of control. Traffic is a mess, but it’s rare to see a traffic control officer. Trucks are double-parked everywhere. The city is dirty—a friend just back from Mexico City was astounded to find the streets there far cleaner than the ones in her native city. There is so much human waste on the streets of San Francisco the city formed a ‘poop patrol’ where workers are paid $71,000 a year, about the same as the average school teacher. -Carl Nolte, San Francisco Chronicle

Nolte even nails the direct cause of the problem and it’s California’s government and the people who elect them.

To cope with these problems, the citizens have continued to elect weak city governments, all built on compromise and deals with competing pressure groups. At City Hall, everybody is responsible for everything and nobody is responsible for anything.

To make a complex problem worse, the city has so many rules and regulations that it has become nearly impossible to build anything. And the city desperately needs new housing. San Francisco has the highest building costs in the country. Architects and builders say it costs an average of $650,000 to build an ordinary San Francisco home these days. Even affordable housing is not affordable. Carl Nolte, San Francisco Chronicle

To those who continue to warn of the destruction of socialist policies, this is obvious. To those who want everything handed to them after it’s first stolen from someone else, it looks like a utopia.  But that’s because it’s easier to vote for politicians to “steal from the rich” than it is to beat the politicians own rules and become rich. Humans have lost their sense of individuality and their freedom in the process of taking the easy road.

California’s government also seems to have more pressing matters to attend to anyway, like banning plastic straws, plastic bags, and paper receipts. They’ve also begun providing free health care coverage to illegal immigrants while their homeless population burgeons.  California maintains a generous welfare regime, and it’s temperate and generally pleasant weather make it a natural haven for homeless people.

But the best way for the state to help the people is by doing the one thing the state won’t do: get the hell out of their way.

 

Wealthy Elitists Freak Out As Hordes Of Homeless People Take Over Their Neighborhoods All Over The West Coast, by Michael Snyder

It’s so much easier to be a “humanitarian” with somebody else’s time, money, and property. From Michael Snyder at theeconomicollapseblog.com:

The elite are very “tolerant” of the homeless until they start showing up in their own neighborhoods.  Even though the mainstream media keeps telling us that the U.S. economy is “booming”, the number of Americans living on the streets continues to grow very rapidly, and this is particularly true in our major west coast cities.  More than half a million Americans will sleep on the streets of our cities tonight, and they need help, care and shelter.  Sadly, as economic conditions deteriorate that number is likely to double or even triple.  Of course many among the elite are all in favor of doing something for the homeless, as long as they don’t have to be anywhere around them.

For example, let’s talk about what is going on in Los Angeles.  No city on the west coast has a bigger problem with homelessness than L.A. does, and many in the homeless population enjoy camping out on the beautiful beaches in the L.A. area at night.

But of course many of the elite that paid millions of dollars for beachfront property are not too thrilled about this.  Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten was a key symbol of anti-establishment rebellion in the 1970s, but now he is freaking out because homeless people are making life very difficult for him and his wife in Venice Beach, and what he recently told Newsweek’s Paula Froelich is making headlines all over the nation

He told her the homeless situation in his swanky LA neighborhood is so bad that thieves are tearing the bars from the windows of his multimillion-dollar home, lobbing bricks, setting up unsightly tent cities and littering the beach with syringes.

“A couple of weeks ago I had a problem,” the former punk prince opined. “They came over the gate and put their tent inside, right in front of the front door. It’s like . . . the audacity. And if you complain, what are you? Oh, one of the establishment elite? No, I’m a bloke that’s worked hard for his money and I expect to be able to use my own front door.”

Continue reading