I’m not a believer in equal outcomes. The only outcome that all of us is guaranteed is death. (It used to be taxes, too, until MAGA took over, and now the rich are pretty much exempted from paying taxes.)

So I’m walking home yesterday from Jack London Square—glorious day, warm and sunny—down Clay Street, just past the Nimitz, when I see a sketchy guy ahead of me, hanging out in the street, with a big Pit bull on a chain. I halt for a moment to check it out. I don’t much trust pit bulls, to be honest. Just saying, especially when they’re owned by people who appear to be homeless. While I’m standing there, another guy comes up from behind me. I glance at him: he’s just a harmless jogger. As he passes me and gets near the guy with the pit bull, the dog owner says something to his animal—I don’t know what—and the dog snarls, leaps in the air and lunges at the jogger, until his chain snaps him back. The frightened jogger does an instinctive leap in the air and jumps over the stretched chain, to get away from the dog, and continues on.

I think readers know me enough to know that I never lie to you. I tell truths that are uncomfortable for others, especially the race-obsessed political scoundrels, all too common in Oakland, who drain the public coffers while lining their own pockets. People like the sainted Barbara Lee, our union-manufactured Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, and, from back East, Ayanna Pressley, the representative from Massachusetts who has gotten notorious as a member of “The Squad,” alongside Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

There aren’t a lot of public opinion polls in Oakland concerning quality of life issues, but new one from shows some encouraging results: An overwhelming majority of Oaklanders (70%) want more cops, support surveillance technology like Flock cameras (64%), believe the Oakland Unified School District is an abysmal failure when it comes to management (78%), can barely tolerate Barbara Lee’s mayoralty (37% job approval, lower even than Donald Trump’s), believe “the taxes they pay aren’t worth the services they receive,” and “want encampments cleared—now” (79%).

I’m usually working on three books at a time. My bathroom book currently is “Becoming,” by Michelle Obama. My bedroom book is Gavin Newson’s “Young Man in a Hurry.” My kitchen table book is “John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs,” by Ian Leslie.