Jim Herd: In the prog bubble

San Francisco Citizen's Jim Herd on the above ad:

This one’s new. I’m seeing it all over town. It makes me think of transparent dangling carrots, I’m srsly. It gives me an earworm is what I’m saying.

Oh what’s that, SFMTA---you don’t really want to weigh in on the Mideast, but the money’s just too good to say no?

Imagine a future SFMTA with 10,000 employees, which will happen soon enough. Maybe at that point it will start issuing foreign policy papers. But until then, this ad program will just have to do…

Rob's comment:

As of 2015, the MTA had 6,263 employees. It will take a few more years to reach 10,000. I don't know what the "dangling carrots" reference is about, but Herd seems mystified by the ad and mistakenly thinks Muni does it for the money. 

As I've pointed out for several years, Muni hates having to post the ads, because doing so violates its sappy, delusional multicultural ethos. Only that darn First Amendment loophole on free speech makes it accept the ads.

This post provides a short primer on the issue.

Muni's "foreign policy" is all about "love": See Muni's Fatuous Peace Campaign, which was the city's response to Pamela Geller's first ad campaign. (Click on Muni Jihad Ads below for more on the issue.)

The ad pictured above is from Christians United for Israel, a right-wing group. The ad below is by Pamela Geller's group:

Are Propositions J and K legal?

From Howard Wong at Save Muni:

Propositions J & K may be illegal---and at minimum, they are cynical and deceptive. 

· California State Law specifically prohibits more than one subject to be included in a single ballot measure. Yet the Prop J budget set-aside includes four distinct subjects (homelessness, transportation, planning, street paving) in four distinct city departments. 

· State Law requires tax measures to pass by a two-third vote. Yet Prop K requires only a 50% plus one vote by dedicating the new sales tax to general fund use---not to distinct uses. 

Both laws provide important and reasonable safeguards, and both are being violated by Props J & K. Cynically and deceptively, Prop J & K are portrayed as independent measures to circumvent the two-thirds vote requirement. But in reality Prop J & K are joint measures.

. The proponent’s political campaign advocates for Prop J & K as joint measures.

· Three city department heads are speaking for Prop J & K as joint measures.

· Legislatively, Prop J & K are joined together in the voter ballot, as described by the Department of Elections: “When the Board of Supervisors voted to place the General Sales Tax ordinance on the ballot, the legislation included a requirement that the ordinance be assigned the letter successive to the letter assigned to the Funding for Homelessness and Transportation Charter amendment.” 

For transparency and honesty, Prop J & K could have been combined as a single ballot measure that requires a two-thirds vote. But as cynical and deceptive measures, Prop J & K deserve to be rejected by voters.

PROPOSITION J:

Budget Set-Aside that takes funds from other needs. Only 12.6% goes to improving Muni service.

Legal Text  Legislative Digest  Controller’s Analysis 

PROPOSITION K:

Regressive Sales Tax that disproportionately hurts low-income families. Cuts sales at local businesses in amounts that exceed new revenue. 

Legal Text  Legislative Digest  Controller’s Analysis  Economic Impact Report

The economy: Advantage Hillary

From Kevin Drum on Mother Jones:

No politician—not even most Democrats—wants to say publicly that the economy is in pretty good shape. Why? Because they don't want to appear to be out of touch. After all, even in a good economy, there are still plenty of people who are hurting. But practically every bit of evidence suggests not only that the economy is humming along pretty well, but that voters know it. Donald Trump is doing his best to convince everyone that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, but if the September consumer confidence numbers are anything to go by, most of the American public isn't buying it.