It must be enormously gratifying for a woke politician to find herself in the powerful position of being able to steal money from her political opponents and give it to her supporters.

Sixty-three percent. That’s the result of your recall election. Nearly two-thirds of voters voted to get rid of you. Remember that number next time you get high and fantasize about returning to your old job—or to any elected position. The people of Alameda County really, really don’t like you.

As a Jew, and a fairly liberal one, I’ve not taken a public position on the Israeli-Palestine war. Nor am I about to now, although I do welcome the cease-fire, if in fact there is one. But I have been struck by the enormous, world-wide reaction of progressive Jews against Israel, including in Israel itself. And I want to make a few observations that involve our own politics in Oakland, and particularly with respect to progressive Black politicians who identify with the Black Panthers. That would include Barbara Lee, Carroll Fife, Pamela Price and Cat Brooks, all of whom are of a certain age, and who came up in the racial struggles of the 1960s-1970s, or identify with it, and who support the Palestinians.

Our progressive politicians are so obsessed with providing housing for homeless people that they’ve ignored all the middle class working people who can’t afford to buy a house in the Bay Area.

Back in November, 2018, before the pandemic, Oakland voters compliantly approved Measure W, yet another parcel tax on beleaguered homeowners. The money was to be used for undefined “homeless programs.” The measure had been crafted by Rebecca Kaplan and Dan Kalb, both of them City Council members at the time—two leftwing blabbermouths who never saw a tax they didn’t love.