New York's New State Motto: "I Love New York's New, Sky-high Taxes"

I Love New York: Do Taxpayers Still Love New York States are the laboratories of democracy. Justice Louis Brandeis in New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann wrote “A single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” I Love New York. My wife is a New Yorker. I will spend money in New York on the rare visits to New York. New York is playing with fire. Rising unemployment – 8.9%, the second highest in the nation. Rising crime, especially shootings and homicides. A tourist was just shot a few blocks from Times Square. No cash bail; quick release, even for attacking police officers. No prosecutions for “victimless crimes.” Shrinking police force. Rising homeless population. Riots, looting, and arson, even on Fifth Avenue. Property values are dropping in New York City. Office buildings empty during Covid. The hospitality, restaurant, and cultural attractions are shut down, with many not reopening. The small business sector is in intensive care. Restauranteurs that could reopened in Florida. Moody’s in downgrading New York City municipal bonds. New York is testing the never yet proven theory that raising taxes leads to prosperity. New York is acting as a laboratory of democracy. Census Bureau data shows New York leads the nation in population loss from July 2019 to July 2020. The Post Office reports over 300,000 change of address forms from high income families from March to October 2020. It’s new income tax rates: 10.9% for income above $25 million; 10.3% for income $5-$25 million The New York State rates have to be combined with New York City’s income tax rate of 3.88%. Thus taxpayers in the City could pay up to 18.8%, greater than even California’s 13.3, which is also seeing an exodus. New York is in a race with California for the highest state income tax rates – a race to the economic bottom! New York: a $212 billion state budget, over twice the size of Florida ‘s $ 96.9 Billion, Florida whose 2019 population of 21.48 million is larger than New York’s 19.45 million. California, which is no slouch in spending money will have a budget of $217 billion with a population of 39.51 million, twice New York’s Size. It’s for the “services,” such as $2.2 billion compensation, retroactive for those unqualified under federal law, mostly for undocumented immigrants and recently released prisoners – up to $300 weekly and $15,600 for the year – an open invitation for fraud. Also for renewables, art and cultural centers. Small businesses, put out of business by the state during the Covid shutdown, will be allotted $1 billion, showing the priorities of the progressives, mainly newly elected, in the New York Legislature. Rebecca Bailin, campaign manager for the Invest in Our New York Coalition, thanked “thousands of New Yorkers who took to the streets and the ballot box, tireless advocates and grass-root organizers, and the new Democratic legislative power in Albany. She added “[W]e are beginning to transform New York from a state which protects the wealthy to a state that delivers for the many.” Note the word ”invest” in the organization’s title. “Invest’ and “Investment” are often euphemisms for tax increases. Those who pay little or no taxes always demand more from taxpayers in the name of paying their “fair share” without ever defining “fair share.” The top 2% of New York’s taxpayers pay about half the state’s income tax revenues. The top 165,000 families pay ½ of New York City’s income tax. How much is too much? Supporters of the tax increases resorted to standard practices of the left: rallying in front of the Governor’s house, shutting down bridges, camping out, and engaging in a hunger strike. They flooded the streets while tax paying New Yorkers head for the U-Hauls. Frank Sinatra once sang “New York, New York”: ”Start spreading the news I’m leaving today I want to be part of it New York, New York.” Tammy Wynette had a major hit with “Stand By Your Man.” Her later song “DIVORCE” is becoming the new motto for the city, replacing “I Love New York.”

Just Wondering: Questions, Mysteries, and Incongruities in 2021 America

The border is open; schools are closed. You need a Covid test to fly into the United States, but not to illegally cross the border. Why are teachers volunteering to teach migrant children, but not their regular students in their classroom. San Diego teachers are offered a choice of teaching their regular students or the migrant children housed at the San Diego Convention Center. Will the migrants teachers teach the migrant children that America is a racist country? You need a driver’s license to board an airplane, but not to vote. Progressives want 17 year-olds to be tried as juveniles, but to let 16 year-olds vote. Several elite universities express solidarity with Asian Americans after the Atlanta shootings, but discriminate them in admissions. The Covid-19 virus emerged from Wuhan, China, quite likely from the Wuhan Institute, but WHO is clueless How can a cop killer decades later end up on a police reform panel in Ithaca? How is it that Felicia Friedman could survive the Nazis, Auschwitz and the Holocaust only to fall victim in a Long Island nursing home because of Governor Cuomo? Can one utter vicious anti-Asian racist statements and not be racist? Soon to be ex-San Francisco Board of Education member Ali Collins is finding out.. How many council members and supervisors who have voted to defund the police also have personal security at taxpayer expense? What ever happened to MLK’s preaching of forgiveness and judging people by their character rather than their race? Does DEI, diversity, equity, inclusion include intellectual diversity? Can President Biden spend trillions of dollars without igniting inflation? How much less will President Biden’s tax increases raise than forecast? Which has a lower percent of the advertised purpose of the bill: Covid relief in the $1.9 trillion Covid relief Bill or infrastructure in the $2 trillion Biden Infrastructure Bill? How many jobs have Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and the Squad created? Lester Holt in accepting the Edward R. Morrow Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award said: “I think it’s become clearer that fairness is overrated. … Our duty is to be fair to the truth,” this from the evening news anchor of a network that played fast and loose with the truth during the Trump Presidency and suppressed negative news – the truth – about Joe and Hunter Biden. How about Secretary of Transportation riding a bike to resident Biden’s first cabinet meeting Thursday? April Fool’s. It was a publicity stunt. He arrived at the White House in an SUV with a staffer unloading the boke from the SUV. Why do the climate zealots Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Kerry fly private jets? Does Major League Baseball deal with China, but not Atlanta? Covid hypocrites include: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi Senator Diane Feinstein Governors Gavin Newsom (Cal.) J.B. Pritzker (Ill.) Gretchen Whitmer (Mich.) Tim Walz (Minn.) Andrew Cuomo (N.Y.) Tom Wolf (Pa.) Mayors Steve Adler (Austin) Lori Lightfoot (Chicago) Muriel Bowser (D.C.) Eric Garcetti (L.A.)) Bill De Blagio (N.Y.) Jim Kenney (Philadelphia) Berkeley Federation of Teachers President Matt Meyer Chris Cuomo

Will San Francisco School Board Vice President Alison Collins Resign or Wait to be Recalled?

America is now understanding it’s history of anti-Asian racism after the Atlanta shootings. Alison Collins is the Vice President of the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education. The African American is a strong opponent of racism. She identifies with her brothers and sisters who are the victims of White Privilege. She opposes meritocracy as the enemy of social justice. Alison Collins is an anti-Asian bigot who could not control her tweets. She was a leader of the San Francisco’s School Board’s decisions to culturally cancel 44 memorable Americans, such as Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Feinstein, often with little to no historical basic. I called the Board members ignoramuses on January 30, 2021 because of their studied indifference and ignorance of historical facts. They then proceeded to destroy, their soon to be renamed, Lowell High School, San Francisco’s magnet school of education for 7 decades. Alison Collins called Lowell’s admission policy “racist.” Lowell’s student body is 51% Asian American. She said at a public meeting on October 13, 2020: “When we talk about merit, meritocracy and especially meritocracy based on standardized testing … those are racist systems … You can’t talk about social justice, and then say you want to have a selective school that keeps certain kids out from the neighborhoods you think are dangerous.” They’ve also heeded the teachers union in keeping the children home this school year. The reaction to their collective incompetence has been a recall campaign For Board President Gabriela Lopez, Alison Collins, and Faauga Moliga. Then came the rediscovery of Alison Collins’ racist, anti-Asian tweets from 2016. She tweeted on December 4 “I grew up in mostly Asian Am schools and know this experience all to well. Many Asian Am believe they benefit from the ‘model minority’ BS. In fact many Asian American [teachers, students, and parents] promote these myths. They use white supremacist thinking to assimilate and ‘get ahead.’” That’s damning, but she couldn’t stop there. Nope, she continued: “Where are the vocal Asians speaking up against Trump? Don’t Asian Americans know they are on his list as well? Do they think they won’t be deported? Profiled? Beaten? Being a house [N word] is still being a [N word]. You’re still considered the ‘help’” Alison Collins is full of hatred. She has apologized to the Asian American community, blaming everything on Trump. She continued in her contrition “But whether my tweets are being taken out of context or not, only one thing matters right now. And that is the pain our Asian American brothers and sisters and siblings are experiencing. Words have meaning and impact.” Yes, they do. She says her tweets were “taken out of context.” The legal phrase “Res Ipsa Loquiter,” the thing speaks for itself, applies. Her tweet speak for themselves. She said it “Words have meaning and impact.” Mayor London Breed, 10 of 11 city supervisors, and two of her fellow Board of Education members have called for her resignation. The top 19 administrators in the central office of the San Francisco Unified School District condemned her statements. Mayor Breed twitted: “Our students and our API community deserve better.” She has become a political embarrassment and could drag many of her fellow radicals down in the next election. Worse of all for her electoral prospects, the head of the teachers union wants her out. She retains some support. Gabriela Lopez, the Board’s President, stands by her soulmate Alison Collins. President Lopez said: “I appreciate that Vice President Collins has apologized for he remarks.” She added “The City and County of San Francisco prides itself on restorative justice, and so does SFUSD. We will stand by each other and commit ourselves to work through the process of hurt and pain. We must fight against white supremacy and misogyny, not each other.” This message, posted on social media, said Alison Collins was “one of the few consistent anti-racist voices amongst politicians in this city.” Yes, the anti-Asian bigot in consistently anti-racist, except when she’s not. Note to all: Racism is Racism! We also learn that the purpose of the San Francisco Unified School District is restorative justice – rather than education. Demographics are against the school board members. San Francisco’s population is 45.4% Caucasian and 34% Asian American. 40% of the public school children in San Francisco are Asian American. The Chinese believe in education. That’s why Lowell’s student body is 51% Asian American. They will vote. (By way of full disclosure, I am a graduate of Lowell High School)

A Short History of Anti-Asian-Animus in the United States (Published version at 2020 Diversity & Social Justice Forum 46)

San Francisco, California and the West With Anti-Asian Animus The current academic and economic success of Asian Americans masks the fact that they still face discrimination. Not until 1952 could Asian American immigrants become United States citizens. Even as late as the 1980’s, U.C. Berkeley and UCLA discriminated against Asian Americans in admission decisions, analogous to the quotas imposed on Jewish students by elite Eastern institutions earlier in the twentieth century. The history of voluntary immigration to the United States is a history of discrimination after the original British and Scottish immigrants as if immigrants had to prove themselves upon entry into the United States, starting with the Irish Catholics. As late as 1900 the following sign was in Boston windows: “NINA,” meaning “No Irish Need Apply.” The Chinese, Japanese, Italians, Poles and Jews faced tremendous discrimination, as do Hispanics today. The elite Ivies and other private universities discriminated against Jewish students when we graduated from high school, just as they discriminate against Asian American applicants today, using the same arguments they raised against the Jewish students, often referred to as “public high school” students. The Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine came to America on ships often called “coffin ships” because of their high mortality rates. These same vessels earlier transported slaves to the United States, but usually with a lower mortality rate. The slaves had economic value in the United States. The English simply wanted the Irish out of Ireland. Even today many 4th and 5th generation Irish Americans loathe the British just as generations of Armenian Americans hate the Turks. Some of us took a California history course in high school. I’m not sure the text book covered the history of racial discrimination against Asians, but I read a lot of history on the outside and became familiar with the awful story. Asian Americans faced discrimination in education, employment, immigration, law enforcement, housing, marriage, property rights, and voting. Racism started early in the West. The California legislature enacted in 1852 a “Foreign Miner’s License Tax” of $3 per month to discourage Chinese miners. San Francisco, beginning in 1850, prohibited Chinese from attending the public schools, and then followed the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision of “separate but equal” schools. A California school law of 1860 excluded “Negroes, Mongolians and Indians” from the public schools. The California Supreme Court held in 1854 that a Chinese could not testify against a Caucasian. California’s 1879 Constitution explicitly denied the vote to idiots, insane persons and “natives of China.” San Francisco banned “Chinese” laundries, but allowed “French” laundries. A famous photograph of the meeting of the Central Pacific railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad in Promontory Point Utah has been widely published. The photo omits the Chinese laborers who did most of the construction of the Central Pacific. Race riots and murder plagued Chinese populations throughout the 1800s. Scores of Chinese were killed in two notable instances. On October 24, 1871, 18 Chinese men and boys were killed in riots by 500 Anglos in Los Angeles. Rock Springs, Wyoming, witnessed the Chinese Massacre of 1885, in which Caucasian miners killed 28 Chinese, wounded 15, and chased hundreds out of the town. Individual lynchings were widespread. Very few Caucasians were ever successfully prosecuted for murdering Chinese immigrants. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act initially suspended Chinese immigration for ten years and further held Chinese immigrants were ineligible to become naturalized citizens. It was renewed several times. The Japanese faced the same racism when they started immigrating to the mainland of the West Coast a century ago. Indeed, the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act (Japanese Exclusion Act of 1924) restricted all Asians from entering the United States. Conversely, Congress extended “naturalization” to African-Americans in 1870. California professional licensing measures excluded Asian non-citizens from several professions and occupations, including attorneys, physicians, teachers, pharmacists, veterinarians, hairdressers, cosmetologists, barbers, funeral directors, peddlers, and hunters. California also led the way for several western states in 1913 and 1920 by enacting Asian Land Exclusion Laws designed to prelude land ownership by “aliens ineligible for citizenship,” which under federal law meant Asian-Americans. The penalty for violating the statutes would be forfeiture of the land to the State. (Sidebar, scores of Chinese Americans were able to claim citizenship because the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 destroyed City Hall and the birth records. Who was to say they emigrated rather than being born in the U.S.?) The culmination of the animus was the internment of Japanese American citizens in concentration camps in World War II pursuant to President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. The two major agitators for the internment were Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt of the Western Defense Command and California Attorney General Earl Warren – Yes, that Earl Warren. He never apologized for the internments. (Incidentally the large Japanese population in the Hawaiian Islands were not interned because they were the workforce on the islands). The Japanese concentration camps were my first introduction to racism. I was 4 or 5 getting allergy shots at the Stanford Medical Center on Webster Street in the Fillmore. (It subsequently moved to the Stanford campus). My mom pointed out a Japanese American nurse in the far side of the large room. My mom said she was in a concentration camp in World War II. The way she said it made it clear the nurse had done nothing wrong but the country had. I believe that if we adopt “cancel culture,” then Earl Warren’s name should be erased from the Berkeley campus. San Francisco’s witnessed race riots led by the fire brand Denis Kearney and the Workingmen’s Party of California. They were upset that the Chinese workers would work harder for less pay. He ended every speech with “And whatever else, the Chinese must go.” July 23-23, 1877 was a pogrom against the Chinese. The riots killed 4 and caused over $100 million in damages. 30 smaller communities in California had riots and often forced the Chinese out. Oregon and Washington weren’t much better. San Francisco’s ban on Chinese laundries was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1886 in the famous case of Yick Woo v. Hopkins on equal protection grounds. Then came the Bubonic Plague of 1900-1904. The city saw the need to quarantine Chinatown, the center of the impacted area. The line was not drawn in a circle, square, rectangle, or parallelogram, but in a carefully drawn irregular line encompassing just the Chinese residents, but not any adjoining or neighboring non-Chinese residences or businesses. That too was struck down on equal protection grounds. The Asian immigrants and their progeny were also subject to the miscegenation laws and restrictive covenants in deeds prohibiting the sale of the property to Asians. Both restrictions were subsequently struck down by the Supreme Court. An additional form of discrimination was the widespread use of racist slurs The history of Asian immigration to the United States, starting with the Chinese in the California Gold Rush, is an example of an ethnic minority persevering over a century of discrimination to reach equality in America.

New York Governor Has Four Strikes Against Him: New York Will Soon Have a New Governor

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Has Four Strikes Against Him: 1) 15,000 Nursing Home Victims; 2) #MeToo; He’s Now expendable, and 4) Andrew Cuomo Albany is getting very hot for Governor Cuomo in the dead of winter. Sometimes the pressure is a slow drip; It’s burning rocks for the New York Governor. First he ordered nursing homes to accept Covid diseased patients to relieve the burden on the hospitals. The facilities were ill-equipped and poorly staffed to handle scores of Covid cases and quarantine them. The residents and staff, especially the residents, were unable to fight off the disease. The Governor said he was simply following the federal guidelines. That was a falsehood. He bragged about how well he handled the situation. Only 10,000 died in the homes. He published a laudatory book, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the Covid-19 Pandemic. Someone ghost wrote it for him, but he took credit patting himself on the back Scratch that. It was more like 15,000 deaths. He lied about the number of fatalities. Even worse his administration concealed, falsified the numbers in reports to the state and federal government. Whoever involved in the falsification of the federal report has committed a felony. Let’s see where the buck stops on this one. He might have survived the nursing home tragedy, but then the #MeToo Movement became the et tu Cuomo Movement. Day after day, more women are complaining of sexual harassment by the Governor, six to date, with evidence to back up the claims. Minnesota Senator Al Franken was run out of the Senate on less facts. Many of the strongest attackers against Justice Kavanaugh have tried to mute themselves on Governor Cuomo, but it’s not possible. Too many accusers have come forward. They are not to be ignored. Third, Governor Cuomo was idolized by the media, perhaps even presidential material. He won an Emmy for his handling of Covid. The third term governor’s head was swelling with adoration. Andrew Cuomo was the anti-Trump. President Trump is out of office with no twitter feed. The media doesn’t need to prop up Governor Cuomo today. He’s expendable. Fourth Andrew Cuomo is Andrew Cuomo’s greatest opponent. The governor is a bully. In many ways he’s a New York streetfighter such as President Trump. Governor Cuomo violated a maxim of life – “Be kind to those you pass on the way up; you may see them again on the way down.” He has no good will in the bank with scores of New York politicians. They are sharpening their knives for Governor Cuomo. New York Mayor Bill de Blagio, usually treated with contempt by Governor Cuomo, is demanding the governor resign. The good news for Governor Cuomo is that hardly anyone cares what the otherwise incompetent Mayor de Blasio says or thinks. The Governor’s cornered, but in a state of denial. He’s pleading due process and let the legislative process continue. He’s daring the New York Assembly to impeach and the New York Senate to remove him from office. Every new accuser shortens the Governor’s time in office. I believe in due process and the presumption of innocence. Senator Al Franken was not accorded due process. Representative Katie Hill did not receive due process. Governor Cuomo has new found recognition of his constitutional rights, the same rights he wished to deny Judge Bret Kavanaugh. He called the unverified Christine Blasey Ford accusations against Judge Kavanaugh “very compelling.” He demanded the judge take a polygraph test: “If he does not take a polygraph, it is the ultimate.” He called the confirmation vote “a sad day for the country.” Therein lies the problem. Not giving due process, he doesn’t deserve due process. Governor Cuomo will join former Governor Eliot Spitzer, former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, and former Represetative Anthony Weiner in the New York Political Hall of Shame.

Quick Reflections on Meghan Markle

Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, is estranged from her father. Meghan Markle is estranged from her father-in-law. Meghan Markle is estranged from her half-sister. Meghan Markle is estranged from her brother in law and sister in law. Meghan Markle is estranged from the Royal Family. What’s the commonality? Meghan Markle is all about Meghan Markle. Meghan Markle married Prince Charming. Meghan Markle married into the British Royal Family, but doesn’t want to be part of it. Meghan Markle wants her privacy. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry gave a two hour interview to Oprah Winfrey, hardly the path to privacy. Meghan Markle dislikes the British paparazzi, but she thrusts herself into the news. The Duke and Duchess are upset they have to pay for their security having turned their back on the UK. Princess Di with all her issues continued to do public service and even preached against land mines. Meghan Markle fled to Canada and the United states and whines. Meagan Markle is an actress, perhaps a star on one TV show, an American divorcee who was never going to be the public face of the Royal Family.

Cancel Culture Reaches a New Low With the Ignoramuses of the San Francisco Board of Education

Cancel Culture Reaches a New Low With the Ignoramuses on the San Francisco School Board De-fund the police. De-name the schools. The San Francisco Board of Education voted 6:1 to remove, replace, de-name, the names of 44 schools recommended by the School renaming Advisory Committee. Two of the three public schools I attended in San Francisco are on the list: Francis Scott Key Elementary School and Lowell High School are on the list. Somehow, Amedeo Peter Giannini Junior High/Middle School survived. A. P. Giannini was the founder of the bank of America. The School board in a one hour meeting ratified the recommendation of a renaming “blue ribbon” committee created in 2018 to study the names of the district’s schools. The School Board’s Resolution said the 44 schools are named for historical figures who “significantly diminished the opportunities of those amongst us to the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” That statement, of course, is inapplicable to any of the current school board or committee members, who were born long after most the maligned names had passed on. The Board’s resolution also said some of the figures “engaged in the subjugation and enslavement of human beings, or who oppressed women, inhibiting societal progress; or whose actions led to genocide.” That’s a broad statement which sounds good, but is too vague without more precise definitions. The Committee used these guiding principles: Anyone directly involved in the colonization of people; Slave owners or participants in enslavement; Perpetrators of genocide or slavery; Those who exploit workers/people; Those who directly oppressed or abused women, children, queer, or transgender people; Those connected to any human rights or environmental abuses; Those who are known racists and/or white supremacists and/or espoused racist beliefs. A reasonable interpretation of the Commission’s guidelines would include all settlers who moved onto traditional Native American lands; to wit the North American continent. The test for the committee’s recommendation was “Just One Thing.” No balancing allowed. Committee Chair Jeremiah Jeffries is a first grade teacher and activist who grew up poor in Philadelphia. One committee member said the process “seems pretty loosey-goosey.” The Chair was asked if an historian would be brought in to discuss the decisions with the committee. He responded: “Definitely not. What would be the point? History is written and documented pretty well across the board. And so, we don’t need to belabor history in that regard. We’re not debating that. There’s no point in debating history in that regard. Either it happened or it didn’t, as historians have referenced in their own histories. So, I don’t think there’s a discussion about that. And so, based on our criteria, it’s a very straightforward conversation. And so, no need to bring historians forward to say – they either pontificate and list a bunch of reasons why, or (say) they had great qualities. Neither are necessary in this discussion.” Ignorance – Ignoramuses. His statement said it all” “We are unapologetically going after white supremacy, white supremacist symbols, and making these changes people have been demanding for years.” Committee member Mary Travis Allen posited “The names of all the schools in this city should reflect people to be admired.” That is an impossible standard because we are all fallible humans. Background research usually consisted of one board member doing a quick Google search, citing to Wikipedia. A Committee member admitted the research process was “pretty quick with some really casual Google searches.” Defund the police. De-name the schools. Slave owners had to go. So too did colonizers, explorers, and missionaries, whether Spanish or American, and buildings associated with these periods, such as Mission Delores, El Dorado, and Presidio. So much for Alvarado, Balboa, Ortega, Sanchez, Ulloa, and Noriega (Why Noriega? Don’t know). FR. Junipero Serra was clearly de-named. The Alamo can remain in Texas. These are the de-named slave owning Presidents: Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe. Lincoln, who freed many slaves through the Emancipation Proclamation, was hostile to the Native Americans, as was McKinley. President Lincoln approved the Long Walk of the Navajos as they were deported from their lands in Arizona. President Lincoln also signed the Homestead Act and the Transcontinental Railroad Act, both of which resulted in the Native Americans losing their lands. Thus, he had to go. Roosevelt (not sure which one). School Board member Mark Sanchez didn’t know which one, but called the vote a “moral message.” He said “It’s a message to our families, our students and our community. It’s not just symbolic.” Ignorant. Francis Scott Key may have written the national Anthem, but he was a slave owner. Paul Revere may or may not, the Committee wasn’t sure, have led a campaign against the Penobscot Indians. In any event he was a colonizer, and so had to go. Mayor Adolph Sutro build the Sutro Baths. Admission was refused an African American. The discrimination though was by his son, Adolph did not manage the baths. Sutro was Sutro as far as the Committee was concerned. Senator Diane Feinstein The Diane Feinstein Elementary School celebrating the esteemed Senator is headed for the de-naming scrap heap. The Senator has two strikes against her. First was the forcible eviction of the Filipino and Chinese residents in the International Hotel in 1977. The land was scheduled for development. Supervisor Feinstein did not become Mayor of San Francisco until the year after the hotel was demolished, but the facts of history do not matter to the Board. They don’t care about history and facts. Ignorance. The second strike involves the flying of a Confederate Flag. The city had a circle for 14 years of 18 flags in the Pavilion of America Flags. The Confederate Flag was torn apart. She ordered it replaced to complete the display. It was taken down again. Mayor Feinstein this time ordered that it stay down. Lowell High School Lowell High School is in a different situation. It was founded in 1856 as Union Grammar School, becoming a high school by 1860. It was named Boys High in 1864, the first high school west of the Mississippi River. It merged a couple of decades later with Girls High. The Board renamed it Lowell High School in 1894 in honor of James Russell Lowell. The School Board in 1952 designated Lowell as an academic magnet school in todays’ terminology. Competition exists for admissions to Lowell. The admissions process include a standardized test, grades, and an essay. The demographics of Lowell in 2018 were 61%, 18% white, 11% Hispanic and 2% African American. Commissioner Allison Collins with a masters in education said “There is no scientific justification for using standardized tests as a matrix for performance.” She wants to end “racial isolation” at Lowell. Commissioner Mark Sanchez says Lowell’s admissions process perpetuates “systemic racism.” He thinks it violates state law, but it doesn’t. He apparently either did not read or ignores that the statutory qualification that preserves these admissions practices. He mused: “I’m at the point now where I think that we should not have any kind of special requirements” for admission to Lowell. This battle over Lowell reflects a national attempt to eliminate academic public high schools. For example, New York Mayor de Blasio unsuccessfully attempted to change the admissions at eight high schools including the Bronx High School of Science, Stuyvesant, and Brooklyn Technical High School. The “Just One Thing” for Lowell, a prominent abolitionist, was one line, unsupported by any reference in Wikipedia: “Therefore, he did not want Black people to vote.” That was it – ignorance – ignoramuses. Martin Duberman’s biography of James Russell Lowell says “Making the freedman a landholder would not be enough to protect him. He had to be made a voter as well. At a time when even Thaddeus Stevens was hesitant, Lowell unequivocally advocated giving the ballot to the recently freed slaves.” Let’s look at the seven Board members, or commissioners as they call themselves. The Board members , backed by the teachers union, won election in small turnout elections. They are woke social justice warriors. Several were community organizers and activists. The Board is highly diversified with only one white member. Several grew up poor, but rather than appreciating the America which made their success possible, they damn America. They are a board of identity politics. These are the same wokes on the Minneapolis, Portland, and Seattle City Councils. Defund; de-name. Let us note the Committee and Board are not consistent. They refused to apply the “Just one Thing” standard to Malcolm X and Cesar Chavez. Malcolm X was a pimp in his younger days, “directly oppressing or abusing women.” His life story and later actions and life story overcame the “Just One Thing.” They viewed his later acts as “restorative justice.” Cesar Chavez was the charismatic co-founder of the United Farmworkers. I worked on a short project for them in 1990 and think the world of him. He and his co-founder Delores Huerta, deserve all the honors they deserve. The third generation American opposed in his early years illegal Mexican immigration of Mexicans because they would serve as strikebreakers. He later changed his mind, but “Just One Thing” would axe him. The San Francisco Unified School District Board and the School Renaming Advisory Board did not care about historical facts. That would interfere with their narrative. They preferred ignorance. They are zealots. If the citizens of San Francisco want spreading filth and decadence from the homeless, criminals getting out on the street by a feckless District Attorney, and school board members denying America, they deserve it. The San Francisco voters will determine their future. Excising and erasing history does not change history. It just makes us more ignorant. Tearing down statues and monuments, renaming buildings, and gutting successful progams in the name of equality does not make us better or equal; it lowers the quality of life for everyone.