LOS ANGELES

EASTSIDER-I think the headline says it all. Recently, there are signs the LA City Council may be headed in the right direction, but it’s on a small scale and the question is whether the developers who own the Council can allow a good thing to thrive. 

COMMENTARY-As former president Donald Trump’s cruel and inhumane policies towards immigrants are rapidly dismantled by new humanitarian leadership in the White House, one of the most high-profile law firms in our county has become a refuge for Trump administration castaways. 

THE DOCTOR IS IN--Most people reading this are not medical professionals...but they have heard about this little thing we call the COVID-19 coronavirus.

PLAYTIME POLITICS-Echo Park is no stranger to me. As a boy in the early 1960s, my family would go there, a favorite of my dad who worked downtown and knew the park.

VIEW FROM HERE--When discussing the Monetization of Hate, we must include its sidekick Fear. 

CLIMATE POLITICS-Grandiose plans to cool Earth, saving the planet from overheating by utilizing low-tech balloon flights sprinkling particles into the atmosphere to reflect solar radiation back into outer space have been delayed, nobody knows for sure when, or if, it’ll proceed. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--Major League Baseball just announced that it is moving this year's All Star game away from Atlanta, Georgia due to the new law that changes election rules.

THE CITY--Norman Mailer famously said, "If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist."  

@THE GUSS REPORT-William Stoughton was a son-of-a-bitch, albeit an accomplished one if context and the era in which he lived can be considered. 

MEMO TO: City Council, City of Los Angeles (CD 1: Gil Cedillo, CD 2: Paul Krekorian, CD 3: Bob Blumenfield, CD 4: Nithya Raman, CD 5: Paul Koretz, CD 6: Nury Martinez, CD 7: Monica Rodriguez, CD 8: Marqueece Harris-Dawson, CD 9: Curren D. Price Jr., CD 10: Mark Ridley-Thomas, CD 11: Mike Bonin, CD 12: John Lee, CD 13: Mitch O’Farrell, CD 14: Kevin de León, CD 15: Joe Buscaino)

DEAR MITCH-I stand in firm solidarity with protesters fighting for our unhoused siblings.

NEW GEOGRAPHY--Over the past few years California’s plight has taken on mythic proportions — a cautionary tale of progressive woe among conservatives, but a beacon for a future enlightened capitalism among its woke supporters.

VIEW FROM HERE--America will not become the first empire to die.  Most recently, the Soviet Union went from 286,730,819 people in 1989 to Russia with 145,934,462 in 2020. 

 LEANING RIGHT--A funny thing just happened...except it was not, and is not, so funny.

GELFAND’S WORLD--One day a year, the nearly 2000 neighborhood council activists in LA have a chance to come together under the same roof and share their war stories.

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--California has a huge problem that it can’t remove with a recall election.

PLANNING WATCH-To be clear, the drive to maximize profits is not based on an alleged personality trait called greed, as put forth by Gordon Gekko in the 1987 film Wall Street. It comes from our economic system’s DNA, regardless of our personality types.  

THE CITY--Spring is in the air, and though the Antelope Valley Poppies were a disappointment this year, the local finger pointers are certainly popping in Los Angeles! 

EASTSIDER-Under President Trump there was a very partisan fight over the tax cut plan for the already richest Americans. Four years later there was an equally partisan food fight in Congress over the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, with virtually no Republican support.  

OTHER WORDS-The Idaho legislature just cracked down on colleges teaching “social justice ideology.”

RANTZ & RAVEZ-I have known Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell for a number of years. I first met him when he was a deputy for then-Councilmember Eric Garcetti.