Too many years ago I frequently visited and thoroughly enjoyed San Francisco. I was a dedicated patron of the legendary jazz club Keystone Corner, and I always included on my itinerary short drives to Oakland and its jazz shrine, Yoshi's Japanese restaurant and performance venue.
Both cities exuded the music's essence of daring, refinement, and the embrace of tradition as the sine qua non foundation for innovation.
In a word, it was all so beautiful.
And now, it is all so heartbreaking.
The creation of a rescue committee is long overdue, and I can think of no more appropriate candidate for the roles of strategist, tactician, and spiritual guide than you, David.
From the ashes of the beaten must rise a new generation of the Beats.
You bear witness to the best minds of our generation and those of the next destroyed by greed, hubris, and the rapacious worship of gilded deities by addicted legions torching the earth in search of an angry fix.
Yet your howl is not one of despair, but of hope.
History rhymes. You put me in mind of the brilliant, eloquent summation addressed to us all by Russell Means.
"If Bobby Kennedy Jr. can tap into Oakland’s new energy when he introduces his running mate on Tuesday, their presidential campaign will also get a big lift."
It sounds like a big stretch when you have to explain all the back story too.
Are the sentiments expressed in this article are supposed to generate support for Kennedy’s campaign? Amazon has a vast presence in the US and not many places are anywhere near to being the kind of dystopian hellhole that is Oakland. And if any billionaires are responsible for its plight, perhaps the first glance should be in the direction of George Soros. Good grief.
14 years ago I arrived to Oakland and had to go to a store in downtown a bed bath and beyond I believe- to get an air mattress until my furniture arrived. It was dusk and an officer pulled me over and asked what I was doing downtown and I told him he said it wasn’t safe and gave me a police escort to store and introduced me to security guard told me to get my air mattress and hurry i did and he then told me to get in my car and escorted me to the freeway again told me not to come downtown after dark again. The next day my house was robbed in broad daylight when I called 911 i was told that unless I was injured there were not enough police to come see if the robber was still in my home and to wait at a neighbors and if I had a problem with it to call Governor Brown who had defunded the police …that was 14 years ago. I moved the next day from Oakland.
Bobby Kennedy Jr.’s campaign managers must be deluded if they think there is any well of new energy in Oakland. I have lived in Oakland, Berkeley, and adjacent since the 1980s. Other family have been here since the 1930s. Oakland has been failing for generations. The city is literally falling apart and is not rising from the ashes. If I had a dollar for every starry-eyed liberal East Coast transplant who bought a house in a “developing” Oakland neighborhood over the past 40 years and then moved away after they realized things were never getting better ….
David Talbot, what totally legally substance are you and your friends smoking? Online retail and Amazon are not responsible for the rampant shoplifting in Oakland. The latest Oakland dumpster fire has more to do with non-local interests pouring millions of dollars into local races to get progressive candidates such as Pamela Price elected (not what I would call real local democracy). The resulting progressive policies have been an obvious failure. Reduce penalties for shoplifting less than $1,000, zero bail, defund the police, restorative justice: What did you think would happen? That people would suddenly stop committing crimes if they were given another chance to do better? I refuse to ride this quixotic train to nowhere.
I lived in the Bay Area for a total of 8 years, including Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco. It's a heartbreak what has happened -- and the Bay Area is not alone in these travesties. The vast majority of people no longer can afford housing there, which is a huge part of the problem, and was pre-covid.
Just one note on your piece: You blame Oakland's problems on "liberals". I believe you mean "neo-liberals". That is the brand of 'liberalism' that has come to dominate, together with a misogynistic brand of libertarianism that rules Silicon Valley.
Just read that it’s Nicole Shanahan. Another liberal elite who has no clue what’s going on in this country. Sorry RFK Jr. you just shot yourself in the foot with this pick. So many good people to pick from on the Republican side if you truly wanted to you would have reached out to us but you failed too.
After returning home from what came to be known as his Poverty Tour, Bobby Kennedy sat at the dinner table with Ethel and his many children and told of how he saw deep poverty both black and white - three families living in a one room shack, families living in their cars, countless others in unspeakably impoverished conditions. He saw this all over the deep South. It broke his heart and made him weep.
And a young Bobby Kennedy Jr. remembers his father saying,
" Children, when you grow up, I want you to help these people. These are Kennedy people. The rich people don't need us. THESE are our people.."
Bobby Kennedy Jr is not a politician and he cannot be bought at any price. Bobby never forgot his father's words and the compassion toward the poor he demonstrated again and again ~ and in particular how he won the trust of the Black people in this country.
Bobby Kennedy Jr is a healer and a man with a compassionate conscience. He has been a a protector of goodness all his life. As a boy he repaired the broken wings of birds nursing them back to health and releasing them when they were well. In the same way, Bobby will heal, repair and fix our broken parts in this country and help to improve the quality of people's lives on many levels; restoring integrity to the public agencies that are supposed to be protecting us hijacked long go by the Corporate regime that now runs this country which has been pandering to profiteers while the health and quality of life of We the People continues to plummet, with little to no investment in the neighborhoods and communities of the people who really need help.
The people of Oakland, the middle class, the poor and disenfranchised of this country are Kennedy people. RFK Jr. is devoted to helping them. "People over profits".
The fact that RFK Jr is announcing his VP in the city of Oakland today is significant. And that is why Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. will be one of the greatest presidents this country has ever seen.
I used to live in Rockridge, it's a beautiful upscale neighborhood with lots of lovely restaurants. But I wouldn't be able to afford to live there anymore if i wanted to. The problem isn't with those neighborhoods, it's with the downtown and lower income areas of many cities, including my new home town of Tucson AZ. It would help if the cities wouldn't let people get away with shoplifting and other vagrant acts.
Lived in Santa Rosa decades ago.. and still love that Bay Area.. SF was absolutely my favorite city, period.. off and on enjoying time in Santa Cruz and Berkeley.. with daughters in school there.. those days are gone.. the end of the American Democratic Experiment..? Not unless we give up...
In this colossal mess called America today.. where Societal extremes are more Extreme than ever.. and Big Brother is breathing down our necks.. a New Day is Dawning... Our nation has an opportunity at bona fide change for the better... the actuality in every respect of a much Brighter Day..
It starts with RFK Jr. in the White House.. he's not a savior.. but having followed his career...I Know he will make one of our Great Presidents...
Let's Unite and Do Our Part.. to clean up this mess.. RFK Jr All the Way...
You illuminate the key points; that politicians are bought and paid for and don't care about poor Black people. Like his father before him Bobby Kennedy Jr DOES.
After decades of gradual deterioration politicians and billionaires unwilling to take responsibility for investing in the poorer communities and helping the residents of Oakland, are all too willing to jump on the bandwagon and play the blame game with new mayor. Corporate billionaire opportunists rub their hands with glee at the thought of buying up blocks of burned out rubble and turning huge profits while expanding the scope of their inhumane greed machine that serves nobody but themselves. and that's how the rich get richer. And that's how the poor get poorer. Crime is a trauma response.
Whereas, Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. places people over profits. RFK Jr is a populist. Bobby cares about WE THE PEOPLE. Like his father, Bobby is particularly sensitive to the plight of the ever dwindling middle class and our nation's poor; black, white , Latino whoever you are… Bobby cares about you. So it's no coincidence that he will be announcing his VP today in the city of Oakland and I celebrate that choice.
Too many years ago I frequently visited and thoroughly enjoyed San Francisco. I was a dedicated patron of the legendary jazz club Keystone Corner, and I always included on my itinerary short drives to Oakland and its jazz shrine, Yoshi's Japanese restaurant and performance venue.
Both cities exuded the music's essence of daring, refinement, and the embrace of tradition as the sine qua non foundation for innovation.
In a word, it was all so beautiful.
And now, it is all so heartbreaking.
The creation of a rescue committee is long overdue, and I can think of no more appropriate candidate for the roles of strategist, tactician, and spiritual guide than you, David.
From the ashes of the beaten must rise a new generation of the Beats.
You bear witness to the best minds of our generation and those of the next destroyed by greed, hubris, and the rapacious worship of gilded deities by addicted legions torching the earth in search of an angry fix.
Yet your howl is not one of despair, but of hope.
History rhymes. You put me in mind of the brilliant, eloquent summation addressed to us all by Russell Means.
"You all live on the reservation now."
Hoka hey, baby!
perfect backdrop?
"If Bobby Kennedy Jr. can tap into Oakland’s new energy when he introduces his running mate on Tuesday, their presidential campaign will also get a big lift."
It sounds like a big stretch when you have to explain all the back story too.
Are the sentiments expressed in this article are supposed to generate support for Kennedy’s campaign? Amazon has a vast presence in the US and not many places are anywhere near to being the kind of dystopian hellhole that is Oakland. And if any billionaires are responsible for its plight, perhaps the first glance should be in the direction of George Soros. Good grief.
14 years ago I arrived to Oakland and had to go to a store in downtown a bed bath and beyond I believe- to get an air mattress until my furniture arrived. It was dusk and an officer pulled me over and asked what I was doing downtown and I told him he said it wasn’t safe and gave me a police escort to store and introduced me to security guard told me to get my air mattress and hurry i did and he then told me to get in my car and escorted me to the freeway again told me not to come downtown after dark again. The next day my house was robbed in broad daylight when I called 911 i was told that unless I was injured there were not enough police to come see if the robber was still in my home and to wait at a neighbors and if I had a problem with it to call Governor Brown who had defunded the police …that was 14 years ago. I moved the next day from Oakland.
Bobby Kennedy Jr.’s campaign managers must be deluded if they think there is any well of new energy in Oakland. I have lived in Oakland, Berkeley, and adjacent since the 1980s. Other family have been here since the 1930s. Oakland has been failing for generations. The city is literally falling apart and is not rising from the ashes. If I had a dollar for every starry-eyed liberal East Coast transplant who bought a house in a “developing” Oakland neighborhood over the past 40 years and then moved away after they realized things were never getting better ….
David Talbot, what totally legally substance are you and your friends smoking? Online retail and Amazon are not responsible for the rampant shoplifting in Oakland. The latest Oakland dumpster fire has more to do with non-local interests pouring millions of dollars into local races to get progressive candidates such as Pamela Price elected (not what I would call real local democracy). The resulting progressive policies have been an obvious failure. Reduce penalties for shoplifting less than $1,000, zero bail, defund the police, restorative justice: What did you think would happen? That people would suddenly stop committing crimes if they were given another chance to do better? I refuse to ride this quixotic train to nowhere.
I lived in the Bay Area for a total of 8 years, including Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco. It's a heartbreak what has happened -- and the Bay Area is not alone in these travesties. The vast majority of people no longer can afford housing there, which is a huge part of the problem, and was pre-covid.
Just one note on your piece: You blame Oakland's problems on "liberals". I believe you mean "neo-liberals". That is the brand of 'liberalism' that has come to dominate, together with a misogynistic brand of libertarianism that rules Silicon Valley.
Just read that it’s Nicole Shanahan. Another liberal elite who has no clue what’s going on in this country. Sorry RFK Jr. you just shot yourself in the foot with this pick. So many good people to pick from on the Republican side if you truly wanted to you would have reached out to us but you failed too.
After returning home from what came to be known as his Poverty Tour, Bobby Kennedy sat at the dinner table with Ethel and his many children and told of how he saw deep poverty both black and white - three families living in a one room shack, families living in their cars, countless others in unspeakably impoverished conditions. He saw this all over the deep South. It broke his heart and made him weep.
And a young Bobby Kennedy Jr. remembers his father saying,
" Children, when you grow up, I want you to help these people. These are Kennedy people. The rich people don't need us. THESE are our people.."
Bobby Kennedy Jr is not a politician and he cannot be bought at any price. Bobby never forgot his father's words and the compassion toward the poor he demonstrated again and again ~ and in particular how he won the trust of the Black people in this country.
Bobby Kennedy Jr is a healer and a man with a compassionate conscience. He has been a a protector of goodness all his life. As a boy he repaired the broken wings of birds nursing them back to health and releasing them when they were well. In the same way, Bobby will heal, repair and fix our broken parts in this country and help to improve the quality of people's lives on many levels; restoring integrity to the public agencies that are supposed to be protecting us hijacked long go by the Corporate regime that now runs this country which has been pandering to profiteers while the health and quality of life of We the People continues to plummet, with little to no investment in the neighborhoods and communities of the people who really need help.
The people of Oakland, the middle class, the poor and disenfranchised of this country are Kennedy people. RFK Jr. is devoted to helping them. "People over profits".
The fact that RFK Jr is announcing his VP in the city of Oakland today is significant. And that is why Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. will be one of the greatest presidents this country has ever seen.
I used to live in Rockridge, it's a beautiful upscale neighborhood with lots of lovely restaurants. But I wouldn't be able to afford to live there anymore if i wanted to. The problem isn't with those neighborhoods, it's with the downtown and lower income areas of many cities, including my new home town of Tucson AZ. It would help if the cities wouldn't let people get away with shoplifting and other vagrant acts.
American Geopolitical Institute https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/category/agi/
Please see Dr. Lewis Coleman's refutation of claims by Dr. Mike Yeadon that "there was no pandemic."
https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/2024/03/dr-lewis-coleman-and-serious-covid-crimes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dr-lewis-coleman-and-serious-covid-crimes
Lived in Santa Rosa decades ago.. and still love that Bay Area.. SF was absolutely my favorite city, period.. off and on enjoying time in Santa Cruz and Berkeley.. with daughters in school there.. those days are gone.. the end of the American Democratic Experiment..? Not unless we give up...
In this colossal mess called America today.. where Societal extremes are more Extreme than ever.. and Big Brother is breathing down our necks.. a New Day is Dawning... Our nation has an opportunity at bona fide change for the better... the actuality in every respect of a much Brighter Day..
It starts with RFK Jr. in the White House.. he's not a savior.. but having followed his career...I Know he will make one of our Great Presidents...
Let's Unite and Do Our Part.. to clean up this mess.. RFK Jr All the Way...
Great article, Mr Talbot.
You illuminate the key points; that politicians are bought and paid for and don't care about poor Black people. Like his father before him Bobby Kennedy Jr DOES.
After decades of gradual deterioration politicians and billionaires unwilling to take responsibility for investing in the poorer communities and helping the residents of Oakland, are all too willing to jump on the bandwagon and play the blame game with new mayor. Corporate billionaire opportunists rub their hands with glee at the thought of buying up blocks of burned out rubble and turning huge profits while expanding the scope of their inhumane greed machine that serves nobody but themselves. and that's how the rich get richer. And that's how the poor get poorer. Crime is a trauma response.
Whereas, Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. places people over profits. RFK Jr is a populist. Bobby cares about WE THE PEOPLE. Like his father, Bobby is particularly sensitive to the plight of the ever dwindling middle class and our nation's poor; black, white , Latino whoever you are… Bobby cares about you. So it's no coincidence that he will be announcing his VP today in the city of Oakland and I celebrate that choice.