The Supreme Court majority: Bigots and phonies

See also The McConnell Court Now in the Driver's Seat.

This decision is contemptible. It shows what phonies Republicans are when they try to clothe their nasty politics in legal language. 

This decision shames our country like the decision by the Supreme Court during World War 2 upholding FDR's executive order putting Japanese Americans in concentration camps.

The only way they could make this and other recent right-wing decisions is by stealing a Supreme Court nomination from the Democrats and putting Neil Gorsuch on the court.

See also Sotomayor and Ginsburg Issue Scathing Dissent of SCOTUS Travel Ban Decision.

"Excitement" about dumb Treasure Island plan

San Francisco Chronicle

From the SF Examiner:

“I think I need a little more understanding in terms of tolls,” Supervisor Norman Yee asked [SFCTA's Eric]Cordoba. Yee is vice chair of the TIMMA committee. Imagine, he asked, if San Francisco tolled drivers entering other neighborhoods? SFCTA Executive Director Tilly Chang told Yee the tolls were approved in 2011 along with Treasure Island’s new development. “It’s a unique situation,” Chang said. “And the legislature recognized it as a pilot approach.”

I laughed when I read this, since obviously Tilly Chang could easily "imagine" charging motorists a toll when they drive anywhere in the city. She's spent a good part of her career pushing congestion pricing on a reluctant San Francisco. Like other so-called pilot/trial projects in the city, this too will be permanent.

More from the Examiner:

New development on Treasure Island will bring roughly 20,000 new residents to that tiny speck on the Bay in the next decades. To help those new residents — and the existing ones — get around, The City will offer new ferry service directly between Treasure Island and San Francisco starting 2021, a move officials announced Tuesday. That’s a leap ahead of the expected launch of 2025. 

But to fund those ferries, and other transportation improvements, a toll will be imposed on autos entering and leaving the island. While those tolls are slated to begin in 2021, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority has yet to set an amount...

The problem with all public transportation: covering the cost to operate the ferry project. Muni fares in the city itself now only cover 25% of the cost to operate the system. 

And if you're stupid enough to allow 20,000 residents on an island next to an already-congested Bay Bridge and downtown San Francisco, you better try something to mitigate the resulting traffic gridlock.

How much can the city charge people to leave their own neighborhood? Supervisor Kim---Treasure Island is in her district---apparently isn't worried about it:

The ferries are “very exciting,” said Supervisor Jane Kim, who represents Treasure Island. “Currently the only way to get on and off the island is by vehicle, like cars and Muni buses. Being able to take advantage of a new mode of transportation is huge for residents.”

Sorry to see Kim revert to the birdbrain mode she had when she first took office, but this begs the question: how "huge" will be the toll on people in that neighborhood?

More:

“I’m really excited because we’ve been in a bit of a holding pattern,” Cordoba told the board. “This is the start of us moving forward with final planning, engineering and implementation.” Transportation authority staff expect to bring recommendations for toll levels and hours to the TIMMA Board this fall, Miller said. One early report pegged the tolls at $5 during peak times, and officials are considering charging them only during the hours when the ferries operate.

Cordoba had better like the project, since Tilly "Congestion Pricing" Chang is his boss.

Alas, there's more:

Becky Hogue, a Treasure Island resident who leads and is a member of several community groups, said “we’re not so thrilled by having to pay to get on and off the island.” But, Hogue said, the transportation authority has demonstrated a willingness to listen to the community’s needs, including a potential discount on tolls for people with low incomes. 

Also, she said, the ferries will be “immensely wonderful. You’ll be able to go places without having to drive your car,” she said. “On a day when the bridge might be crowded, the ferry will get you to The City in no time flat.”

The assumption by everyone involved seems to be that residents will be going to San Francisco, but of course they'll be charged every time they drive anywhere off the island.

"People with low incomes"? There won't be many left to worry about, since we learned months ago that the city is already evicting them to get Treasure Island ready for gentrification. 

One wonders how well Hogue represents the Treasure Island "community." There are surely some who don't see the project "as immensely wonderful." 

Sounds like she too was excited. That must have been a thrilling committee meeting.

An earlier Congestion Pricing proposal

See also Tilly Chang's quest for Congestion Pricing.

How Oakland got its name

Names on the Land

From George Stewart's book:

Across the bay from San Francisco was a stretch of flat land scattered with magnificent California live oaks. In Mexican times it had been known as Encinal del Temescal, ‘oak-grove of the sweat-house.’ The Americans who planned a town there may not have known Spanish, but they could see the trees. In simple description they called it Oakland.

Rob's comment:

Interesting to note that the review by Colm Toibin of Tommy Orange's book in the hard copy of The New York Times Book Review had "Way Off the Reservation" as the hed, while the online version was changed to Yes, Tommy Orange’s New Novel Really Is That Good.

We have a right to suspect that the change was made because an editor realized that a consideration of the historical context of the phrase "off the reservation" made it problematic and perhaps demeaning to Native Americans. 

Femininity: An "exhausted phantom"

Deborah Levy

Deborah Levy:

It was possible that femininity, as I had been taught it, had come to an end. Femininity, as a cultural personality, was no longer expressive for me. It was obvious that femininity, as written by men and performed by women, was the exhausted phantom that still haunted the early 21st century.