The Great Depression in San Francisco (Photos)

Homeless: The photo above shows two men sleeping on Howard Street
in San Francisco, California in February 1937.

A Distant Mirror

(London Daily Mail)  -  The Great Depression was one of America's darkest chapters in history to date, with millions of people suffering all over the country.

Thousands of lives were upended due to the 1929 stock market crash that caused bank investments to be cutoff. Many families who had stable lives became migrant workers as unemployment reached a peak of 25 percent.

Many workers were able to get jobs on projects with the federal Works Progress Administration or started farming with help from the Farm Security Administration (FSA). 

Between 1935 and 1944, the federal government sent some of the most influential photographers of the day across the country to document the success of their programs across the country.

Arthur Rothstein, Walker Evans, John Collier, Dorothea Lange and others captured thousands of haunting images portraying The Great Depression. 

In particular, Lange became well-known for her work documenting the effects of the Depression in San Francisco, California for the FSA.

The photos she took in the 1930s and 1940s provide a snapshot of how people were suffering during that time period, and also highlight how some conditions have not changed for some in San Francisco.

A Yale University project called Photogrammar has organized the collection of more than 170,000 photos that were curated by the Library of Congress.  

Read More . . . .

The image above shows a mass meeting of Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers parading up Market Street in San Francisco, California in February 1939.

The photo above shows thousands of people listening to speeches at a mass meeting of Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers protesting the congressional cut of relief appropriations in San Francisco, California in February 1939.

Demonstration: The photo above from February 1939 shows the Worker's Alliance and the Works Progress Administration holding simultaneous demonstrations in front of city hall in San Francisco, California.

Unemployed: The photo above shows people standing on Howard Street in San Francisco, California. At the time, it was known as 'Skid Row,' the district of the unemployed in February 1937.

The photo above captured by Dorothea Lange in April 1939 shows a trio playing instruments in the Salvation Army area of San Francisco, California.

Dance the night away: The photo above captured by John Collier in December 1941 shows people dancing at the United Service Organizations (USO) servicemen's club in the Civic Center in San Francisco, California.

The photo above shows Italian fishermen gathered on Fisherman's Wharf, on December 8, 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Hungry: The photo above captured by Dorothea Lange shows a man who bummed breakfast from a restaurant to give to his friend in the neighborhood where the Salvation Army operated in April 1939 in San Francisco, California.

Corrupt San Francisco - Cop "transferred" after questioning Sheriff

(San Francisco Chronicle)  -  A sergeant under San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi who oversaw the department’s shooting range was transferred after he questioned whether the sheriff could take a marksmanship test in light of his domestic violence case, The Chronicle has learned.

Mirkarimi then took the test and failed it, preventing him from carrying a gun, department employees said.

Sheriff’s Department officials strongly denied Thursday night that the sergeant had been transferred because he potentially stood in the way of Mirkarimi’s being granted permission to carry a gun. They described his transfer as a budgetary move and said Mirkarimi had nothing to do with it.

For much of his term as sheriff, Mirkarimi was on criminal probation after pleading guilty in 2012 to a misdemeanor charge of false imprisonment stemming from an incident in which he bruised his wife’s arm during an argument.

In April, Mirkarimi had the conviction expunged after he completed his probation. Left unresolved was whether he could carry a gun on duty.

State law bars someone convicted of a domestic-violence-related offense from possessing a gun, even if the conviction is expunged. Nonetheless, soon after his case was expunged, Mirkarimi asked the Sheriff’s Department shooting-range master to schedule a marksmanship test, said Capt. Lisette Adams, head of the department association that represents supervisors and managers.

The range master, Sgt. Matt Haskell, asked the internal affairs division to consult with the state Department of Justice on whether Mirkarimi could take the test, Adams said. Haskell, however, “could never get a direct answer from internal affairs about whether the sheriff is qualified,” Adams said.

In August, the 18-year veteran sergeant was transferred from the shooting range to a jailhouse post. Adams said Haskell was told that the shift was due to a shortage of supervisors in the jail. Haskell declined to comment for this story.

“It is interesting that Haskell was attempting to determine the sheriff’s legal authority to carry a weapon shortly before he was transferred,” said Adams, whose group has endorsed Mirkarimi’s opponent in the Nov. 3 sheriff’s election, former Chief Deputy Sheriff Vicki Hennessy.

On Sept. 18, Mirkarimi went to the shooting range at San Francisco International Airport, took the marksmanship test and fell short of the 80 percent score needed to qualify to carry a gun, Adams said.

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Napolitano: Democrats give illegal aliens the vote

"Corruptus in Extremis"

• In the name of "reform" the Democrat Party once again sells out the citizens of the United States. . . . and the Sheeple voters bleat "We will obey you."

(Daily Caller)  -  Judge Andrew Napolitano says that “if you are an illegal alien in California, get a driver’s license, register to vote, you can vote in local, state, and federal elections in California and those votes count.”

On “Fox & Friends” Tuesday, host Steve Doocy explained, “The state of California has passed legislation that will automatically register eligible voters when they obtain or renew a driver’s license. Governor Jerry Brown says it’s a way to increase voter turnout, but critics warn the measure could add millions of illegal people to the rolls because the state allows undocumented aliens to get driver’s licenses.”

Judge Andrew Napolitano

Napolitano explained that in California, when one signs up for a driver’s license, one does not have to prove that they are in America legally. Napolitano explained that “other states… permit registration [to vote] at the time you get a driver’s license, have you go through another procedure in which you have to demonstrate citizenship.”

The new law in California would make the process “one procedure” according to Napolitano. “You may not even know that when you get your driver’s license you’re also being registered to vote. And there’s no requirement of proof of citizenship.” Napolitano argued, “All 50 states limit voting to citizens except when the state allows you to sort-of sneak in without proving your citizenship by getting a driver’s license instead.”

Napolitano explained that the argument about whether or not voting is a “fundamental right” comes down to whether or not voting “comes from our humanity like thought and speech and association and worship and self-defense? Or is it a privilege given by the government?”

Napolitano believes “the Supreme Court has wrongly said it’s a fundamental right. And once it said that, states like California decided to allow people to vote who aren’t qualified by law to vote because of the fundamental aspect.”

Napolitano argued that while it would be against the law for an illegal immigrant to vote in a federal election, “there’s really no way to monitor it. So if you are an illegal alien in California, get a driver’s license, register to vote, you can vote in local, state, and federal elections in California and those votes count.”

Napolitano emphasized, “It’s almost impossible to monitor this if the state is going to provide shelter for illegals to vote.”

Read More . . . .

(Hope n change cartoons)

Democrats May Allow Inmate Firefighters With Violent Pasts

Liberalism is a Mental Disorder

(NBC News)  -  California officials are considering allowing inmates with violent backgrounds to work outside prison walls fighting wildfires, and the idea is generating concerns about public safety.

The state has the nation's largest and oldest inmate firefighting unit, with about 3,800 members who provide critical assistance to professional firefighters. That's down from about 4,400 in previous years, however, and so prison officials are looking for ways to add inmates.

Now, only minimum-security inmates with no history of violent crimes can participate. Starting next year, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is proposing adding inmates convicted of violent offenses such as assaults and robberies, if their security classification level has been reduced after years of good behavior.

The changes are pending final approval within the Corrections Department.

The proposal comes at a time when the overall prison population is smaller and drought has created the potential for explosive wildfires like the ones that recently roared through the Sierra foothills and communities north of Napa, in northern California.

Mike Lopez, president of the union representing state firefighters who oversee inmates at fire scenes, supports a robust inmate program but worries about what the proposed changes could bring.

"Any acceptance of criminals with a violent background calls into question the security of our membership," he said, adding, "at what risk is CalFire willing to go to get those inmates?"

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Calif. exit exam abolished, diplomas to be awarded

Preparing students to take phony exit "exams" is a
monster multi-billion dollar industry.

Phony "Exit" Exams Attacked

• From 1850 on somehow California students managed to graduate high school without Big Brother "exit" exams and went on to live normal lives. 
• Democrats do Something Right  -  Giving diplomas to those unfairly fucked over the this corrupt Big Government system is a start. But all exit exams should be abolished.
• GOP is fucked up as usual  -  It is interesting that the so-called "small government" GOP naturally opposes any cracks in this increasingly federalized education system.

(San Jose Mercury News)  -  Upending a hallmark of California school reform, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed a bill that will award diplomas to thousands of young people who failed the California High School Exit Exam in the past decade.

The new law, which takes effect in January, will allow former high school students who failed the test as far back as 2004 to now graduate, as long as they passed all of their required high school classes. The new law effectively undoes the decade-old requirement, imposed after a hard and bitter fight, that students pass a standardized exam in order to earn a high school diploma in California.

SB 172 by Sen. Carol Liu, D-La Cañada Flintridge, also suspends the exam as a graduation requirement for current freshmen, sophomores and juniors. It passed the Legislature on a partisan vote, with Republicans objecting.

Follow the Money
Test taking is all about getting more government tax dollars, not education.
A school district can scream "our scores are 3.6% below the average,
We need more cash."
But it is a phony bullshit system. By the very nature of statistics 49% of
those taking any test will always fall below the "average".

The exam "never had the coherence we need in a state accountability system," said Chris Funk, superintendent of the East Side Union High School District in San Jose. "I'm happy that it was dropped."

But the bill was divisive.

"I'm very sorry and disappointed to hear the governor signed it," said Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-San Ramon. "Removing the exit exam not only impairs our ability to ensure we have taught our kids, but impairs our ability to hold our education system accountable for that responsibility."

But some of those who pushed hard for establishing a statewide exit exam weren't sorry to see it go. "It may make sense," said Ryan Smith, executive of the Oakland-based Education Trust-West, which backed the legislation embedding the exit exam as a graduation requirement. He noted that students who've failed the exam can't retake it now, because it doesn't exist. The state Department of Education ceased offering the exit exam last spring.

It is uncertain exactly how many young people the bill will make eligible for a high school diploma. The California Department of Education does not keep records of those passing the exit exam after they finish high school -- students may keep trying to pass while in community college or adult school. But from the Class of 2006 through the Class of 2014, the CDE records show, 32,000 failed to pass the exam while in high school. Some of those passed later.

For the rest, school districts now will be required to award a diploma to those who completed 12th grade in 2004 or later, and who met all other graduation requirements.

Even years after leaving high school, a diploma matters. It's required to attend four-year universities, receive financial aid, enlist in the military or join apprenticeship programs.

Read More . . . .

GOP Big Government Socialism
The so-called "Conservative" George Bush Administration, backed by a "Conservative" GOP Congress, worked to unconstitutionally Federalize local education and violate the 10th Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
.
Since taking control of Congress in 1995 the GOP controlled Congress has consistently voted to grow the size and scope of the Federal government with no thought at all about the Constitution. 

POLICE STATE - Homeland Security seized Stockton Mayor's electronics at airport

Airport security in America

4th Amendment Be Damned

• In violation of the Bill of Rights the Feds seized the electronics of the Mayor of Stockton, California without a warrant. 

(Infowars News)  -  Anthony Silva, the mayor of Stockton, California, recently went to China for a mayor’s conference. On his return to San Francisco airport he was detained by Homeland Security, and then had his two laptops and his mobile phone confiscated. 

They refused to show him any sort of warrant (of course) and then refused to let him leave until he agreed to hand over his password:

“A few minutes later, DHS agents confiscated all my electronic devices including my personal cell phone. Unfortunately, they were not willing or able to produce a search warrant or any court documents suggesting they had a legal right to take my property. In addition, they were persistent about requiring my passwords for all devices,” Silva said.

Silva was not allowed to leave the airport until he gave his passwords to the agents, which the mayor’s personal attorney, Mark Reichel, claimed is illegal.

The mayor said the agents told him confiscating property from travelers at the airport was “in fact routine and not unusual,” and promised to return the items within a few days.

To some extent what the DHS told him is true. It’s not that unusual, but it’s not that common either. But forcing him to turn over the passwords is unusual, and not standard practice. Besides, courts have been growing increasingly less impressed with Homeland Security’s willingness to ignore the Constitution at the border.

The feds, of course, refuse to say anything, saying they cannot confirm or deny anything. Silva first claimed that he’s “happy to cooperate and comply with these inspection procedures if they are in fact routine and legal,” but pretty quickly notes how ridiculous all of this is:

“I think the American people should be extremely concerned about their personal rights and privacy,” he said. “As I was being searched at the airport, there was a Latino couple to my left, and an Asian couple to my right also being aggressively searched. I briefly had to remind myself that this was not North Korea or Nazi Germany. This is the land of the Free.”

So they keep telling us.

Read More . . . .

Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva

Santa Monica - The Drunkest City in California

Santa Monica Ranks #1 for Drunkenness 

(From Road Snacks)  -  Is there anything wrong with being called the drunkest city in your state?

Especially in California, which is right in the middle in the nation in terms of the amount of beer and spirits every year. So someone has to pick up the slack, right? And boy do these cities below.

How do you decide how much a place drinks? By the number of available places to buy booze, and by how often people are talking about drinking, that’s how.

Plus, we thought why not add in a stereotype? Studies have indicated that when one or both partners in a marriage are alcoholics, that couple is three times more likely to divorce.

So, hold our beers and watch this. After analyzing all cities with a decent amount of people in them, we came up with this list as The Drunkest Cities in California:

1. Santa Monica
2. Santa Barbara
3. Napa
4. Pasadena
5. Sacramento
6. Newport Beach
7. Oakland
8. Livermore
9. San Mateo
10. El Cajon

To Alcohol! The cause of... and solution to... all of life's problems.

What drunken criteria did we use?

• Number of bars and pubs per capita
• Number of wineries per capita
• Number of liquor stores per capita
• Each city’s drunk related tweets within the last week
• Each city’s divorce rate

For geo-located tweets, we measured the following raw number of tweets that came from within a city’s general area: #Drunk, #Party, #Beer, #Wine and #Cocktails

Note: For the sake of getting reliable numbers, we counted places within a city’s border, as well as within a short driving distance.

Population: 90,008
Divorce rate: 12.6%
Bars per capita: 1st in CA
Liquor stores per capita: 4th

Wow, Santa Monica, you are tore up from the floor up! Based on the data and number of raw tweets coming from your location, per capita, it sounds like the people there are all having a really, really good time.

There are more bars per capita in Santa Monica than anywhere else in the state. And the divorce rate is the 7th highest in California, too. That’s a sign that lots and lots of people here are drinking quite often.

And, there are tons of liquor stores in the area, too. If you’ve ever spent some time at the Santa Monica pier, you’d know that there are lots of drunk, homeless people everywhere. So it’s not just the ‘residents’ of Santa Monica who are drinking lots and lots every night.

It wasn’t even close. It was Santa Monica by a landslide and then everyone else below.

Read More . . . .

Calif. Indian Tribe Backs School's ‘Redskins’ Mascot

More Phony, Made-up, "Racism"

• The Leftist Democrats in the legislature will never rest until all the joy is sucked out of life and students are forced to memorize politically correct slogans.

(Breitbart News)  -  An Indian tribe in California supports a local school’s use of the “Redskins” mascot that California legislators want to ban.

The Tule River Tribal Council, located in the heart of California’s Central Valley, wrote a letter to California Gov. Jerry Brown urging him to allow Tulare Union High School to continue using the “Redskins” mascot.

Brown is considering signing a new bill, AB 30, the California Racial Mascots Act, which was recently passed by the state legislature in the wake of media debate surrounding the name of the Washington Redskins NFL football team.

The tribe’s letter to the governor argues that while “the history surrounding the name ‘Redskin’ is negative…it is time to mend these feelings and move on.” The tribal council supports the school’s use of the mascot to express “tremendous pride and honor” felt by “students and alumni.” The letter adds: “Although we will never forget what has happened to us in the past, we do not wish to dwell on it either.” 

The school district has also written to the governor to oppose the bill. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill in 2004.

Read More . . . .

Student Connie Prado, the 2015 Tulare Union Indian princess,
wears mascot regalia on game day.(Fresno Bee) 

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education/article37157016.html#storylink=cpy

Pansy Liberals and "Racism"
To frighten mouth-breather voters that everyone is a "racist" and out to get
them, liberals have to created phony issues that do not exist.
.
Sports teams naturally choose strong names for the players:  Rams,
Mustangs, Vikings or Redskins.  The names are a form of praise
and honor, not racism.

"Racism" - Garden Grove settles lawsuit, will move to district elections

Garden Grove Mayor Bao Nguyen
Hispanic Leftists say the "wrong" race won office.

Phony Cries of "Racism"

• Racist Hispanic leftist groups take cities to court because the voters dared to elected councilmen of the wrong race to office.
• The same nonsense happened in Palmdale where the "evil" racist voters dared to elect an African American Councilman instead of a Hispanic.

GARDEN GROVE (Orange County Register)  –  The City Council upended how residents will select its members Friday night, doing away with an independently elected mayor and opting to create five voting districts.

The changes will go into effect in November 2016.

The City Council approved district elections as part of a settlement agreement with Rick Montoya, a former council candidate who argued the at-large system – where the entire city votes for each council seat – violates the California Voting Rights Act and essentially disenfranchises Latino voters.

The city also has to pay $290,000 to Montoya for lawyer’s fees and other litigation costs.

District elections, which are becoming increasingly common throughout California, are viewed by many as a way to give Latinos a more prominent – and, some say, fairer – role in local government.

Garden Grove, which became an incorporated city in 1956, is about one-third white, Latino and Asian, but there is no record of a Latino ever being elected to the council. The current council is a majority Vietnamese-American.

“I believe by-district elections will lead to better representation in our government,” said Montoya, who sued the city in July about a month after several Latino-rights organizations threatened to do the same. “And it will lead to more voices being heard.”

Councilman Chris Phan, however, said he is no fan of district elections and it is still too early to know whether district elections will help Latinos get on the City Council.

Councilman Chris Phan
Hispanic Leftists complain because voters
elected the "wrong" race.

“This basically lowers the bar for council candidates,” he said. “No amount of districting can cure an apathetic voting bloc.”

In past elections, residents voted mayors to two-year terms and council members to four-year terms.

Under the settlement, the city will have five districts with each geographic area voting for one council seat. All five seats will have four-year terms.

The City Council will vote among itself to decide who will be mayor.

In 2016, the seats of Mayor Bao Nguyen, Phan and termed-out Councilman Steve Jones will be open.

But first, the city must undertake a months-long process of hiring a demographer to analyze the city’s ethnic, financial, age and geographic fault lines to create the five districts.

Garden Grove will have a series of community meetings before the council votes on the new maps, said City Attorney Omar Sandoval.

“The electoral record of Latinos has been abysmal in Garden Grove,” said Zeke Hernandez, the president of the Santa Ana chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, which also threatened to sue. “I applaud the City Council for taking this momentous step. I think the city will be better for it.”

Read More . . . .

Calif. gives 500,000 illegals driver's licenses

Go ahead, break the laws

• The leftist Sanctuary State of the People's Republic encourages the breaking of immigration and other laws.
• But the real fools are the mouth-breathing voters who keep paying the taxes and re-electing the open borders Democrats and Republicans.

(Associated Press)  -  California has issued more than half a million driver's licenses to immigrants in the country illegally under a program that began nine months ago.

Armando Botello, a spokesman for the state's Department of Motor Vehicles, said Friday that the milestone was reached last week.

"For us, the DMV, it is a source of great pride to have reached half a million this soon. We thought we would issue half a million applications per year and we did it in 9 months. This means the DMV work is paying off and that all drivers will be safer now," said Botello.

The state started providing special permits in January, when a law took effect allowing unauthorized immigrants to obtain it with an identification document, proof of residence, and after passing a written and a driving exam.

Because the agency does not ask about race or ethnicity, it is not known how many of the five hundred thousand applicants are Latino. However, Botello said most are Hispanic.

The record number of licenses issued came as a surprise to the agency, which expected to reach the half a million mark by the end of the year, said Botello. According to DMV estimates, there is a total of 1.4 million potential applicants in the state of California.

"We thought we would issue half a million in one year and we did it in nine months. I think it will be difficult that we reach one million in the next nine months because there are fewer people coming to the office," the spokesman said.

The new licenses initially generated huge interest, with long lines at DMV offices in January and February.

Read More . . . .

Fucking American Citizens
If you are a law abiding American citizen of any ethnic background you are being fucked over by both open borders political parties.  Countless billions of tax dollars are sucked down to give benefits to the citizens of foreign nations.