I watched a recent ceremony on T.V. for the Oakland Public Library’s completion of a big renovation project, its first upgrade since 1951. The main speakers were the Squad: Sheng Thao, Nikki Bas and Carroll Fife. They were in a good mood: Fife without her usual angry scowl, Bas trying (but not succeeding) to appear warm in front of the T.V. camera, and a forced-smiling Thao pretending she wasn’t just handed the humiliation of her life by being recalled.

Flojaune Cofer, who ran for mayor of Sacramento, has finally conceded defeat, a month after election day, leading many to wonder why the candidate who’d been favored to win, didn’t.

You know that newspaper, “Street Spirit,” that homeless people sell on the street? It’s actually a pretty decent read, although it does get tiresome from repeating the same old tired arguments we always hear from homeless advocates.

I agree with those Americans who regard Daniel Penny as a hero. The man he accidentally asphyxiated, Jordan Neely, was a multiple repeat criminal, a psychopath who terrorized innocent people on that New York subway car. Penny, an ex-Marine, was the only one courageous enough to stop Neely. The jury that found Penny innocent is to be commended.

Harry Truman, one of the great Presidents, was a student of Western history, going back to the Greeks and Romans. He gave a lot of thought to leadership, and why and how some people rise to it while others don’t. His view, with which I concur, gets to the essence of our American democracy, in which all men are created equal—but that doesn’t translate into all men having equal outcomes in their lives.