City Comforts, the blog

Is Google's Larry Page serious?

Hard to argue with Larry Page on a lot of techno issues but I just don't get this one and would like to hear more of his logic.

Google's Larry Page shares his radical view of tomorrow.

Collapsing house prices could be another part of this equation. Even more than technology, he puts this down to policy changes needed to make land more readily available for construction. Rather than exceeding$1m, there's no reason why the median home in Palo Alto, in the heart of Silicon Valley, shouldn't cost $50,000, he says.

Where is the Zappos Factory Store in Downtown LV?

Amazon to make first physical footprint in Manhattan Ho-hum. It's been speculated for years.

But when I visited Downtown Project - Revitalizing Downtown Las Vegas (last week and too briefly, I didn't even get to see the new Zappo's HQ, the old City Hall!) my obvious question was "So, where is the Zappos Factory Store in Downtown LV?"

No joke.

 

Las vegas appears to be among the convention capitals of the world and a physical showcase for Zappos myriad brands (i.e. the manufacturers who sell via Zappo's) and a permament year-round showroom (but small — like the tiny shops at Container Park) it might be logical. Think of a mini Merchandise Mart in Chicago. Locate it in Downtown Las Vegas, of course.

"School Zone" signs must be visible to be effective

To Scott Kubly, Director of Seattle's Department of Transportation

Many months ago I received a ticket for speeding in a school zone. (I was 26 MPH and still under the limit for non-school zones, if that's any mitigation.) But it's expensive and I don't want to do it again.

My other "excuse" — I didn't recognize the school zone boundary. I gather that the flashing sign is the exact line but I don't think it is clear enough.

 I suggest that SDOT stripe the street surface so that drivers can see exactly where the school zone starts....something like "School Zone Starts Here":

If you have any doubt that better signing leads to better public compliance, then do an experiment: place enhanced signing at only 1 or 2 school zones and see the results after six months.  

Of course some cynics think that the City is happy for drivers to flout the law: the danger is actually very low and the City makes a huge amount of money from tickets.

 

"Low Impact Development" is important

Taking course tomorrow morning on Low Impact Development.

It's an important subject; we need to do more development and better development. You've probably seen some of the cost-effective and charming manifestation of LID at various otherwise ordinary spots:

Needed: Soccer 101 live commentary — for dummies

Here's my constructive crit to the Seattle Sounders Football (i.e. soccer) Club:

I suggest:

Help people learn the rules and tactics of soccer. We beginning fans need Soccer 101. I saw my first live soccer game a few days ago and it was great though I wish I understood its rules and subtleties. I suspect that many Americans who did not grow up with soccer (i.e. anyone over 40?) would watch more if we understood even just the very super-simple basics which most Europeans, Latins, Middle Easterners etc etc know from when they were 10 years old.

To be specific:

All MLS teams etc etc including World Cup should provide two streams of commentary on TV or by ultra-local radio inside-the-stadium.

1. For people who understand the game and its subtleties such as former players of any age and people who grew up with soccer such as in the rest of the world beyond the USA.

2. For most Americans who have little idea and who, for example, do not understand what the goalie can do and NOT do whether inside the boxes or outside. We lack some of the most basic info — (especially the importance of “Off-Side”!)

More educated fans will watch more and be generally engaged and committed. And that is good for the Sounders!

 

(Seattle) Northgate Pedestrian Bike Bridge

I offer comments other places so might as well reference them here.

------

I became interested in the Bridge when I put together two (assumed) facts
1. the Northgate Bridge "alignment" will be at least 1600 feet long; 
2. many individuals in one spot create "surrendipitous surveillance" and thus safety.

You can see the problem since the Bridge will be long and at many many hours of the day, week and month will have few people actually using it. 

I offered comments to relevant decison-makers on the bridge. My concern has been that the bridge will be used by may not work and the Seattle Department of Transportation and its designers must attack the problem at both ends of the bridge and in the middle. So far I am assured that everything will be fine and I await the specifics.

Documents might best be read in order

N'gate Ped-Bike Bridge

Housing above north parking lot

Ped/Bike Police sub-station

Letter to Sec. Foxx

"Solution" to affordable housing crisis is dramatically improve public transportation

It's great that the Seattle City Council Considers Ditching "Incentive Zoning" Program. Or it could double-down on the program. Or we could argue about rent control for the next few years here in Seattle and then argue with the State legislature about whether Seattle is allowed to have rent control.

A far more effective and immediate approach would be to dramatically increase public transportation, specifically buses, so that renters can get to lower cost housing.

 

Suburban apartment rents -- Tukwila, Lynnwood, Shoreline, Kent et al -- are much lower than Seattle. Make it easier for people to get from job or entertainment in Seattle to less-expensive apartment in the suburbs . 

 

The only problem? Increasing the number of buses in service would actually cost Seattle tax-payers real dollars. Much easier politically to have task-forces to study affordable housing or to argue about rent control which at worst would transfer costs to someone else.  

 

Counter-intuitive as it may be, the fastest, best way to help people who can't afford higher rents is to massively increase public buses so that they can get to lower-cost housing in suburban cities. 

 

Stop focussing on how to ration limited amount of housing in trendy Capital Hill, Queen Anne, Green Lake etc.

 

Make it easy for people to live in suburbs.

Northgate Pedestrian/Bike Bridge - safety & personal security

Will the Northgate Ped/Bike be a "Bridge of Dreams"?
We can build a ped/bike bridge. But will people use it?
That depends on safety — both real and perceived.
Figure out how to make it safe. Now. Before the City commits to a particular design.
I wrote to SDOT to ask how designers planned to consider personal safety. 
The answer? SDOT will look at it later when it finishes design:

Issues of personal safety will be addressed thoroughly in future stages of design development; at this point the team’s focus is understandably focused on the alignment and the type of bridge structure.

I hope they can do so but the issues are substantial. Consider the distances.

  

Crossing I-5, First Avenue NE to W side I-5 — about 550 feet.
Crossing Bartonwood Sanctuary, west side of I-5to College Way N — about 1050 feet. Total about 1600 feet. That’s about 7 city blocks, a good walk.
There is limited or no natural surveillance.
You ask about “Surveillance”? 
Yes, go back to Jane Jacobs “eyes on the street”. 
Natural, informal observation is the core irreducible essential for public safety.  Ask SPD.SDOT's own Pedestrian Toolbox states

Despite the fact that pedestrian overpasses or underpasses can help meet some of the Plan’s goals, careful consideration should be given to potential negative impacts on the pedestrian environment, including:
personal security risks if pedestrian bridges or underpasses lack adequate lighting or surveillance;

How do we create surveillance with the Ped Bridge?
It is an isolated facility which starts at one isolated spot to another isolated spot. There are no observers parallel to the Ped Bridge 20 feet up in the air above I-5 or sitting in middle of natural open space.

There are no opportunities for natural surveillance.
Cars driving by at 55-60 MPH on I-5 may helps on portion of alignment  But what can they see?
Then, moving west, once a walker or biker is past the west edge of I-5 there are no observers at all. Bartonwood Sanctuary is an open space.
So SDOT needs to answer how to create security during off-peak hours.(Off-peak is after 9 PM, weekends, when school not in session. I assume that there will be enough traffic during school hours but even there we should ask.

Obviously great lighting and camera and panic buttons are a start.
Are they enough? I don’t know.

It’s obvious that
1. Great lighting is no help if no one can observe;
2. Cameras can (and will be) vandalized;
3. Panic buttons tell the police that a crime has already happened.

Best to ask the experts: cops and designers expert in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, or CPTED (pronounced sep-ted). Ask now.

Ask them now before City has created a high-crime bridge on which only the foolhardy will pass.

Sullivan on Clinton's Weakness

Clinton's Achilles Heels

Andrew Sullivan asks

"But more importantly ...What have been Hillary Clinton’s major, signature accomplishments in her long career in public life? What did she achieve in her eight years as First Lady exactly? What stamp did she put on national policy in her time as Senator from New York? What were her defining and singular achievements as secretary-of-state?"

Sullivan is mis-construing her problem, which to me is that she has never said anything of any interest. She doesn't elevate, she doesn't educate, she doesn't inform. She is famous and was married to a famous man. Is she smart? No doubt. But is she wise? Sage? Astute? I have no idea. She never says anything. 

Am I wrong? That's my recollection of her, anyway. I suspect I will have a chance to see if I am wrong.

More shoes to drop on Seattle Tunnel

Tunnel-contract papers noted the pipe Bertha later hit | Local News | The Seattle Times.

Peterson, the transportation secretary, said in a letter to STP's Dixon on Monday: "As to the cause of the current tunneling stoppage, we have all agreed that it is highly unlikely that the well casing is the only issue facing the machine." 

If her argument is true, the team confronts deeper troubles than unraveling some mangled steel.

I love the way Lindblom (the reporter) leaves those "there-will-be-another-shoe-to-drop" at the end of many of his stories. 

Like this one:

If her argument is true, the team confronts deeper troubles than unraveling some mangled steel.

Maybe a McDonald's in Queens is, in fact, a Third Place

Fighting a McDonald's in Queens for the Right to Sit. And Sit. And Sit

"It's a McDonald," said Martha Anderson, the general manager, "not a senior center."

Uh...maybe a McDonalds is indeed a third place and can/does act as a senior center. And it should be and McDonald's might want acknowledge it and figure out how to integrate the third place into its business model.

See Ray Oldenburg's The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. It is on Brent Toderian's  The 100 "Best" Books on City-Making Ever Written? (but not high enough on the list, IMHO. Olderburg's concepts are one of the most original and core obervations in all of urban planning. The "third place" is and should be at the center of all walkable urbanism.)

"We need to talk about TED" — I guess

I've never been to a TED and listened to only a very few. So my initial impression had been favorable to Bratton's critique — We need to talk about TED —  as in "I love Chinese food but I am always hungry an hour later."

But then Bratton said, disparagingly, "We invest our energy in futuristic information technologies, including our cars, but drive them home to kitsch architecture copied from the 18th century."

Well, since I think I know the kind of houses he disparages — "McMansions" — and I happen to think that a well-done McMansion (and there in fact well-done McMansions, whether people like to admit it, and I suspect that they really haven't seen very many) can be a great place to live. Very comfortable. Very homey. To me, it seems awfully middle-brow to critique comfort.

 

So I get really suspicious when someone knocks "architecture copied from the 18th century." Is Bratton talking just about domestic architecture? Large single-family houses? Or is he against, more broadly, urban form as shown (ideally) in New Urbanism?

 

I am curious to know what's wrong with "architecture copied from the 18th century". (I discount the word "kitch" because by definition "kitch" is bad so "kitch 21st cool design" would also be bad.)

 

UPDATE: After some private conversation with Bratton, trying to find out what he is really trying to say, it seems that in fact what he is saying boils down to exactly what he first wrote:

We invest our energy in futuristic information technologies, including our cars, but drive them home to kitsch architecture copied from the 18th century. The future on offer is one in which everything changes, so long as everything stays the same. We'll have Google Glass, but still also business casual. (emphasis added)

That's good rhetoric for a TED talk but no so smart for thinking about the world.

 

Put aside the non-existent statement that "The future on offer is one in which everything changes, so long as everything stays the same." No one actually says such a stupidity except obvious retrograde Republicans (and we don't pay much attention to them anyway.) 

 

But consider: we use iPads. (21st Century). So why should should not simultaneously read Swift on iPad? Or enjoy 18th Century landscape design? Or enjoy living in a townhouse inspired by 18th Centur design? Why not pick and choose? Discard the old that we dislike and keep those thins we value? What is wrong with that?

 

It seems to me that only middle-brow intellectual "consistency" suggests that if we use an iPhone we have to be wholly modern in every aspect of our lives and must reject any non-modern elements of life. Such a perspective is not only silly but also destructive.

Banning the private driverless car...

...which means ALL cars. Very stimulating blog post on The Biggest Public Policy Opportunity of Our Lifetimes

Bravo to Steve Tiell for thinking about the driverless car (what I agree) as a totally disruptive technology, as big or bigger than the first automobile revolution a hundred years ago.

But, as the author suggests, I don't think that widespread "banning private ownership" of cars (whether driverless or human-controlled) is either good politics or, really, necessary. 

The logic of the driverless car will tend, I believe, to shared systems (such as Cars-to-Go) and that many people will give up their own personal vehicle simply because it is cheaper and more convenient. 

Others may desire to own a "personal vehicle" simply because they want a more personal interior, fittings etc for, say. longer trips and yet they will also use a "shared driverless car" (like a taxi!) for many trips within an urban region.

Moreover, I think that the driverless car is going to meet a lot of resistance based on a range of issues from fear of losing sense of personal autonomy to fear of increased governmental surveillance.

If you want to amp up the driverless car discussion by banning private car ownership, I'd hope that you didn't. :) It seems to me somewhat un-needed and yet unproductively contentious and emotional.

Supplementary power source for bicycle

Here is an intriguing new device: Superpedestrian - The Copenhagen Wheel.

 

The red device on the rear wheel is a power supply.

My personal question is "How much does it help me in trying to go up a hill?" e.g. the hill to my house...from say NE 65th Street (Whole Foods) to Cloud City Coffee in Maple Leaf i.e. going up Roosevelt. Hardly a huge hill but enough to notice.

The trip has an elevation gain of about 250' and  road distance about 1.4 miles.

I am sure that a technologist would be able to figure out the "foot pounds" (or whatever) needed to cycle up a slope on my own effort and then how much supplementary power needed (and supplied, one hopes) by the Copenhagen Wheel to make me feel as if I was riding level. And that will be the measure in the real world of consumers:  "perceived effort" with "riding level" the ideal.

Of course I, personally, have NO IDEA how one would calculate all that. I assume that the Copenhagen Wheel people are easily so able. Perhaps they could develop a web app where the potential buyer can plug in the figures? Assuming the numbers are persuasive.

 

If I could just toodle along up a hill riding back home, then I would buy one in a heartbeat.

"City Comforts" on the list!

The 100 "Best" Books on City-Making Ever Written? | Planetizen

Gratifying. Flattering. Thx.

Call Airbus

The Seattle Times states:

The Boeing Everett factory makes the 747, 767, 777 and 787. If Boeing builds the 777X elsewhere, 777 work would end soon after 777X starts up in 2020, and by then the 747 jumbo jet would also likely be gone. That would leave most of the massive assembly plant, the largest building by volume in the world, an empty shell. (emphasis added)

Update on my gripe about how to update old Apps

Short answer: Happy update.

 

Recap:

 

I have an iPad First Generation -- iPad One which does NOT work on latest "Kindle for iPad" and "iBooks" apps.

 

I had trouble (i.e.I couldn't) re-loading Apps from my earlier iPad to the latest versions. What to do? Do I have an expensive paperweight?

 

See Sidenote on my Netflix post: Not so good with Apple & Amazon

 

Well somehow someone from Amazon called me to see if he could help. Whether exactly from email to Jeff Bezos, )one of tens of thousands per days he receives, so I kinda doubt it) or from scouring the web to listen to what people are saying about Amazon a la Google Alerts,  of course I have no idea. But this guy from Amazon calls me and after a matter of arranging telephone calls after Thanksgiving, we chat and I explain the problem.

 

In a moment it's clear that my problem had been that I had been trying to download the apps via iTunes on my DESKTOP iMac. 

 

But if I went to the App Store on my iPad One, NO PROBLEM. I try to download the App. It says something like "Sorry. Your old iPad cannot handle the newest App but we can give you the older one. Is that OK?" Well of course I say OK and problem solved in a heartbeat.

 

A couple interesting points:

 

1. No one contacted me from Apple. In fact I spoke with two Genius Bar people and told me that my iPad One would NOT work with iBooks any more at all and if I hadn't saved the APP to reinstall it, then too bad for you and just go buy a new iPad.

 

2. The Amazon guy was curious to know how iBooks would work (I guess it is part of their job to understand what is going on) and tested it on one of their iPad One's in their office. The AMAZON GUY told me that, not to worry, just go to App Store ON YOUR IPAD ONE and try to download iBooks. As we chatted on the phone, I did and lo and behold -- the same message from the Apple App Store:. "Sorry. We cannot dowload latest iBooks but we have an older version for your iPad. Would you like it?"

 

3. So, what to conclude? 

* Better customer service at Amazon than Apple.

4. And a suggestion.

The Amazon guy and I fell to chatting and he warned me that eventually Amazon would stop supporting my iPad One. And I guess that in 10-15 years, sure, maybe. I demurred.

My iPad One is still a fine little tool (as are the early KIndles.) So maybe rather than just making orphans, Amazon (and Apple and I guess Android-based builders too) should keep supporting the older models to give to poorer communities and regions. 

Why not establish a trade-in program? I want to buy an iPad Mini with Retina (sorry Jeff, you get plenty of my money anyway!) and Apple should take my old iPad, give me a credit on a new model and then give the old iPad to some poor school district, third world etc etc

 

How to increase use of Gogo Inflight Internet? Allow Google maps to be used by passengers.

I just got off a Delta flight and I really don't like flying economy, which is too bad since that is what I can afford. It was a really painfully uncomfortable experience. Ugh. I will avoid long distance travel unless I really need to or someone invites me and send me a Business Class ticket..

How to pass the hours? Cruising the web and easing the pain by using Gogo Inflight Internet is possible but expensive and not worth it for just doodling.

 

But what would be worth paying Gogo's high fees — and eventually the airlines will be forced to provide free or cheaper internet access as Starbucks was forced to — is to be able to see out the window and use Google Maps or Bing or Apple Maps. Be able to see where one is, what is happening, etc etc. Being able to see a moving map at 500 MPH would change the entire flight experience.

I tried to do use Google Maps on my recentr Delta flight and coudn't. I e-chatted with a rep at Gogo and she said that it is supposed to work but apparently many other customers can't.

So do specific airlines block passengers from using Google Maps in air? Or what? I couldn't get a clear answer -- whether there was a glitch on one flight? or the airlines can block it? or what?

I believe that many people would use inflight internet if they could use Google/Apple Maps in their seat on a plane. I know I would. And I hate to tell Gogo and Delta but I'd probably pay more.

Nalli, R.I.P.

Blackroyal's Famous Filemon aka "Nalli"

He was a Belgian Shepherd (Laekenois)

Nalli means "detonator" in Finnish

 

September 29, 1997 - Pyhäranta, Finland

November  18, 2013 - Seattle, Wshington USA

 

 The NalliMobile:

  

 

He would herd bikers, run up and down mountains and was an avid reader.

 

I loved him dearly. It was an honor to have spent time with him; I was proud to be in his pack.

 

The name Filemeon means "only friend" in Ancient Greek and it was perfectly fitting; he was mine, I was his. I am a much better person because Nalli and I were together.

 

Nalli died just short of Thanksgiving, 2013. (Which was Noveber 28 for my non-USA friends.)  And if there is one thing I will be thankful for on that holiday is that I was able to spend any time at all with Nalli. My only regret is that there wasn't more. I guess that there is never enough time.

 

---

 

There is so much more to say about Nalli. 

 

For example, about his herding. Off-leash, Nalli would run up ahead 8-10 feet then circle back behind. He weas herding me, keeping me in line and probably warning off others. Nicole, who also had the pleasure of living with Nalli the longest told me that he would herd her while she was biking! Up and behind her, round and round (though more like an oval), while she was on a mountain bike! 

 

Michele told me about the time she and Nalli were hiking Tiger Mountain. Unfortunately she broke her ankle. As people approached her to help, Nalli was barking frantically and threateningly; he must have thought that she was on the ground and needed his protection. Michele had to put a leash on him and reassure him that it was ok before people could get near to her and help her.

 

He pretty-much ignored other dogs. One time at the dog park there were literally hundresd of dogs (it was a nice day and the Magnuson Park Dog Park is fairly large). I strolled along, Nalli herding me, and we swept through the doggy deluge like Moses parting the waters.   Nalli  ignored every other dog, his job was in moving me forward, not to stop and socialize.  His mission took precedence . Even when I stopped, and other dogs would come up and sniff him, he ignored them, not even deigning to return an exploratory sniff.  Dogs did not attract his curiosity. Only friend indeed!

 

He took care of me. Even in, literally, his last minutes of life, and as I paced the room at the veterinarian's knowing that he was ebbing away, his gaze swept back and forth at me, always watchful and even tried to lift himself up to go with me before collapsing into the big sleep.

 

Quel dog! Quel Nalli! 

 

Some photos (click on photo should you want a larger version):

 

 

Hanging out with Macaroni, a Katrina survivor.

 

One of my many many many pictures:

 

Nalli's characteristic (his and of his breed, I think) debonair stance:

Photo Nicole Zalewski

 

He'd been swimming & fetching for at least an hour and he wanted more:

 

People do a double-take: Why is there a sheep in the road?

 

Photo Nicole Zalewski

 

Nalli, the hippie dog:

 Photo Michele Coad

 

About 6 months ago at the park:
 

 

As it became difficult for him to walk we spent a lot of time together just hanging out:

 

At home, when he could no longer walked and I carried him everywhere:

 

In the back of the staion wagon, a few weeks ago, getting ready for the big sleep:


His ashes. It's a lovely box. It's 6" by 4" by 4" and sits on my desk so Nalli is with me all the time.

Sidenote on my Netflix post: Not so good with Apple & Amazon

While the problem with Netflix (see link) was in fact a non-problem, there is indeed an issue with older Apps for the iPad One.

As I was configuring the iPad One i discovered that the latest App for iBooks and Kindle for iPad do not work with it. I spoke extensively with Apple and Amazon staff. (Amazon does have an amazing telephone customer response capability and I spoke with 3 people though without positive result.)

I'll go back over the issue. If you delete an account on an iPad One -- in order to say to give it or sell it -- to establish a new one, the new user should get the Apps from the iTunes Store since the App is linked to a particular account, even if it is free software.

But the Apps for iBooks and Kindle for iPad which will work for an iPad One are not available. Period. You can find work-arounds if you have the old Apps on your desktop system or from a friend, but if you cannot, tough luck. That is what I experienced and confirmed by Apple and Amazon staff. 

 

That means that (in my particular case), I cannot read books which I purchased at iBookstore and Amazon.

I will continue to check with Apple and Amazon, and again to the chief execs. If anyone can offer any assistance to help solve the problem, please contact me.

Otherwise, unless I learn some new information, both Amazon and Apple have denied me the ability to read books which I already bought, it sounds like a class action for some enterprising lawyer wanting to make money..

 

And btw, who knows what other Apps from other companies are no longer possible to be sued on my iPad One.

You want extraordinary customer service? Try Netflix.

One of those heartwarming thanksgiving stories.

I configured an old iPad (Model One) for a friend and her daughter. In particular they wanted Netflix the App for movies when traveling.

But when I came to installing the App, I couldn't. The message said (sorta) "Your software is too old to run Netflix.Tough luck." I checked with the Apple Store genius bar guy and yes it appeared that my older iPad would not run the newest App. Sorry. I called Netflix and one rep said it would and one said it wouldn't and it looked as if the second one was correct.

 

I must have tried at least a half dozen times to re-install the Netflix App both directly from the App Store and via iTunes on my desktop. But didn't work. Same message: "You need to update to the latest iPad system software" which of course I couldn't since the iPad is too old.

 

Since streaming Netflix is one of the most fun things to do on an iPad, I was vexed. While sitting in my favorite expresso, I was feeling whimsical and decided to write to Tim Cook (Apple CEO) and Reed Hasting (Netflix CEO) to complain. "Hey I want my old Netflix App back!" And I explained the situation. Of course I never expected an answer.

 

That email went out at 7:43 AM. (Of course I don't know either man and don't know there email addresses but the web gave me some hints.)

 

At 8:37 AM I see a phone call coming in from a California area code. My cousin? One of my nephews? No. A guy from Netflix. Seriously. Tells me that Reed is really busy this morning! but maybe he could help. Unbelievable. And in fact he did walk me through the process and for some reason (honest I did the exact same thing on my own) it worked and the Netflix app is up and running nicely.

 

Unbelievable customer support. Thanks Netflix. You have some people on a Thanksgiving trip much happier because they can now watch movies on an iPad.

 

Sounds like a heartwarming and corny ad put together by Don Draper? Probably so but it's true.

 

UPDATE: See how Apple and Amazon are treating the same issue. Not so good with Apple & Amazon

KING 5's Linda Brill Interviews Kshama Sawant | Slog

KING 5's Linda Brill Interviews Kshama Sawant

I wonder why KING put the entire interview on line. It doesn't reflect well on KING.

The interview was so poorly-done that I wonder if the real target of the attack was actually Linda Brill.

Maybe some of her colleagues at KING wanted to undermine her? by releasing an interview which was shabby, whether you like Sawant's ideas or not?

Who knows? But stranger things have happened in bureaucratic infighting.

Sawant comes across well even if you don't agree with her ideas. She has a very likeable side. So I don't think that KING made Sawant look bad at all. In fact most people cringe at the interviewer's questions. Worth listening to the whole thing if you follow Seattle politics.

What's a doable socialist agenda at the City Council level? Health insurance?

Goldy (blogger at The Stranger) attacks Matthew Yglesias (blogger at Slate) for supposedly Congratulating Himself for Not Being as Socialist as Kshama Sawant

Goldy can be extremely interesting. Yglesias almost always is and to boot has a good sensibility and knowledge about city planning.

But my point: a commenter made the following remark directed to yet another commenter. Tracking?

@23 

"You should be promoting an actual doable agenda and holding her to that, rather than taking up crucial bandwidth defending her idiotic fantasies about implementing world socialism from a Seattle council seat."

My response:

Yup. Well said. 

So what is a "doable agenda"? I'd like to hear about what -- if anything -- the City can do in the area of health care for ALL citizens of Seattle. 

Can the City of Seattle, through its buying power, can help lower the cost of group health insurance?

It already has 10,000 or so employees covered by health insurance and so it has staff who know the health care delivery systems and how to purchase it etc etc

What could the City do in using its expertise and buying power in the area of health care?

I will be the first to say that I know nothing about health insurance except that I have it and I like it.  But there has to be some way that the City of Seattle, as a robust institution, can do something. If it could be then health insurance for all Seattleites would be a useful element in -- if you want to call it that -- a "socialist agenda."

 

If Boeing can move a production line to SC why can't Airbus bring one to WA?

Machinists Reject Boeing Suicide Pact Contract

If Boeing leaves it will also leave a skilled workforce. 

I wonder if there are any other aircraft manufacturers which might be willing to locate a production line here? Airbus, for example. Why not? As well as skilled workers it also leaves physical infrastructure such as airfields, ancillary support businesses.

I mean if Boeing can move to SC why can't Airbus (as one example) come here to WA? 

 

What's good for the goose...

 

Would Kshama Sawant have allowed Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to make computers?

Would Kshama Sawant have allowed Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to make and sell computers for a profit? That's an obvious question if you read Sawant's Why Socialism? pages on her campaign pages.

She starts with this claim:

...governments that merely regulate the excesses of capitalism are incapable of escaping the system's inherent flaws and grotesque inequalities.

I can't figure out why we can't regulate rather than having to own. But it's an interesting point for discussion. She expands a bit but then it's just more assertion:

But as long as corporations are privately owned, no matter how regulated they are, they will be locked into a system of cut-throat competition and our entire society will be structured around one fundamental purpose – maximizing short-term corporate profits, not the needs of humanity or the environment.

Mere assertion. BS, really. "[N]o matter how regulated they are" is a long time. Surely there must be many potential regulatory mechanisms to control the behavior of a corporation. Ok, another good point of discussion.

But then she gets specific and proposes "taking the top 500 corporations that dominate our economy (the Wal-Marts, Exxon-Mobils, United Health Groups, Halliburtons, Microsofts, etc.) into public ownership." So if you start thinking about it she is including Costco, Microsoft, Nordstrom, Amazon (of course!) and of course Apple.

So I wonder if she would have allowed Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to even start their company to make and sell computers, and actually hoping to make a profit. Their profit to use or share as they liked.

Or would she have said something like "Sure go ahead and make computers but if your company gets to sell $X million per year then The People will 'take' your company." 

The idea is chilling not only because of its stupidity, its counterproductivity, at so many many levels but specifically we'd miss out on the joy of using an iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad etc etc since it's inconceivable that a committee of The People would ever create such great works of technology. 

I hope that Sawant can find a convincing to explain it all away though I kinda doubt she can. And I hope that I am being unfair. But Sawant specifically raised the issue of "taking" large companies of Apple's scale. So it's fair to ask if there ever would have been Apple? Would there be a dampening effect on the certain knowledge that enormous success would be "taken"? It would be intertesting to hear Sawant discuss societal prosperity. Seattle has had quite a few entrepenurial successes. Would Sawant be seriously saying that if you succeed we will take you? Not that we will regulate you, which I think is fair and appropriate and necessary. But that we will take your company -- whether for just compensation or not. Sounds screwy but that appears to be what she is saying.

Driverless cars coming to a U.K. town in 2017

Driverless cars coming to a U.K. town in 2017

For the first time, driverless cars will soon be making their way through the streets of the U.K. Slowly. The electric powered "pods" can carry 2 people, and will operate on designated pathways in the town of Milton Keynes, north of London.

That is a huge development. An experiment to be sure. But huge in implications, as big or bigger than the evolution of the horseless carriage around 1900.

More intelligence, less information

David Ignatius: More chatter than needed - The Washington Post.

Good predictions don't necessarily correlate with access to secret data, in other words. Indeed, said Philip Tetlock, a University of Pennsylvania professor who heads the project, too much information can sometimes overwhelm analysts and decrease their forecasting accuracy. This problem of separating the essential "signal" from the chatter of "noise" has been well known to scholars for decades. But it seems to have been forgotten by modern-day intelligence agencies in their push to collect. 

The NSA obviously operates on the theory that more data are better.

Some of my comments

Go Read Kshama Sawant's Reddit

@13
"... the inventory of rental property in Seattle is increasing at a high rate, and all rental prices are going up."

Then build and build and build.

But Sawant backs rent control and at the same time limits supply of new housing.

The obvious answer should be to build more for god's sake. Build more and more until prices are stable or move with general rate of inflation. There is a huge amount of land available. There is huge amount of capital. Why is there not new housing being built on every block? Because TOO MUCH SINGLE FAMILY ZONING.

Why do I think Sawant backs rent control and at the same time limits supply of new housing?

Not sure why she takes that stance but I assume two things:
1. NO ONE I KNOW (all SF homeowners) would vote for massive up-zone of Seattle. So no politician can get into office on that basis.
2. Rent control (like anti-abortion for right wing know-nothings) is a good political talking point. 

A socialist running for Seattle City Council

100 Rallies for Kshama Sawant!

A commenter suggest that Sawant could get 40% of the vote. That sounds plausible to me; people are angry at the Republicans; and Richard Conlin -- while not even remotely right-wing -- is an established figure. If she gets 40%, she would have run a very credible race indeed.

So she'll be encouraged to run again.

But then, people will start to take hers seriously and ask "What is a socialist plan at the CITY level? Things Seattle can actually do?"

She'll either 

1. have real, good ideas;

2. move to the middle by making it "Socialism with a Smiley Face";

3. talk nonsense and lose support.

In any case, it is fascinating. I voted for her in the primary but I heard her speak and she just didn't make a lot of sense. Which is too bad as the Council does need some fresh blood.

Satire? I assume so.

MONU

Could geography, by which we mean the physical geography and in particular the natural geographical features such as landforms, terrain types, or bodies of water that are largely defined by their surface form and location in the landscape, be the last hope of the planet's ever expanding, continuously transforming, and increasingly identical and indefinable urban territories to remain distinguishable and to gain a particular identity in the future? Do hills, cliffs, valleys, rivers, oceans, seas, lakes, streams, canals, or any other kind of geographical feature have the power, in an ever more globalized world in which progressively cities and their architecture look the same, to provide meaning and significance to places, their inhabitants, and users or will all such elements only contribute to an identity that is merely like a mantra as Rem Koolhaas predicted once in "The Generic City"?

A minimum wage but maybe different people filling those minimum wage jobs?

I am not against the $15/hr wage.

But I hope that people will realize that the people who are now making $9.19 an hour (in Washington State) are not necessarily going to be making $15/hr. Some of those people will but as jobs turn over, who would you hire: 
    • Someone you were paying $9.19/hr? 
    • Or someone who just entered the labor market and willing (all you artists and writers) to work minimum when (and if) it is $15/hr?

There may be some surprises.

Yes there may be a new and substantially higher minimum wage but that different people may be filling those minimum wage jobs.

Some thoughts on the $15/hour minimum wage

This blog post is really just a rant and not worth reading except that it did make me think about the subject of the $15/hour minimum wage which is a good thing. 

Thoughts as follows:

My guess is that if we had $15/hr in Seattle:

1. Employers will have an enormously wider choice of employees. The pool of people who are willing to work for $15 hour will expand and employers will get some very talented people who otherwise wouldn't work for current minimum wage i.e. people will join the labor pool.

2. There will be an influx of people moving to Seattle to get one of those $15/hr jobs so the unemployment rate will go up. Not because employers will lay off but simply because more people looking.

3, There will be higher unemployment among people who now get $9 hour. They will not be able to compete when there is a larger pool.

4. The economy will grow since labor productivity will increase due to higher-skilled workers.

5. People will be surprised at the results.

Where are the facts?

The author, Mr. Rory Stewart, MP, in THE OPIUM IS OUR CHILDREN, says that  

"People who might once have been public figures, deeply invested in their work, are instead busy serving their children."

Is there any factual basis for such a statement? It's an interesting assertion but only that -- an assertion with no facts behind.

And since the assertion is the core of his argument, I am a bit perplexed. 

Moreover, THE most pressing global questions -- raising up the poor while we create sustainable economies -- seems to be unanswered. So while Mr. Stewart says we are paying too much attention to our heirs we don't seem to be doing a very good job at it. And that is the most important issue.

Why 'black box'? Ari Shavit offers pure assertion with no analysis.

Probably everyone has a bad habit. Some people eat at McDonalds. Some like to stop at traffic accidents, the gorier the better. Mine is to read Mondoweiss, a truly weird blog, mostly written by Jews, and with the aim to destroy Israel. (Yeah, I sum it up that way.)

This Mondoweiss post Nakba in The New Yorker, BDS in Variety links to Ari Shavit: Lydda, Zionism, and the Middle East Today, which article supposedly explains why it was so important that the Palestinians of Lydda had leave. Look for the key sentences: "If Zionism was to exist, Lydda could not exist. If Lydda was to exist, Zionism could not exist." Can you explain why? I do not understand the logic. There are plenty of Palestinian Israeilis and it must have been obvious that Ben Gurion and company in that era would have understood it. So why the importance of Lydda? Is it a matter of literal geogoraphy? Of location? I don't track.

Shavit writes (and anyone who writes "The truth is..." arouses immediate suspicion.)

Lydda is the black box of Zionism. The truth is that Zionism could not bear the Arab city of Lydda. From the very beginning, there was a substantial contradiction between Zionism and Lydda. If Zionism was to exist, Lydda could not exist. If Lydda was to exist, Zionism could not exist. In retrospect, it’s all too clear. When Siegfried Lehmann arrived in the Lydda Valley, in 1927, he should have seen that if a Jewish state was to exist in Palestine an Arab Lydda could not exist at its center. He should have known that Lydda was an obstacle blocking the road to a Jewish state, and that one day Zionism would have to remove it. But Dr. Lehmann did not see, and Zionism chose not to know. For decades, Jews succeeded in hiding from themselves the contradiction between their national movement and Lydda. For forty-five years, Zionism pretended to be the Atid factory and the olive groves and the Ben Shemen youth village living in peace with Lydda. Then, in three days in the cataclysmic summer of 1948, Lydda was no more.

Mondoweiss Flips Out

Quote from Philip Weiss: "Journalists should tell their readers if they're Zionists"

And wear a yellow star, too.

Had the author said “All reporters should disclose their education, interests, biases etc” I might say “Well, interesting idea. How do you do it? What’s the process? Won't it be gamed no matter what you do?"

Of course one could further ask "Why just journalists? Why not commenters on blogs and people who write letters to the editor? Maybe no one should be allowed to speak unless they have a resume posted? In fact maybe anonymity should be banned entirely so we can see what people 'are really up to?' ”

So yes I am especially interested in the subject of anonymous commenting. I usually don't like it; it's a good rein on loose words.

But yes, too, one should examine the ideas in an article, on their merits and without reference to the personality. Then again, doesn't the author of an article influence the wieght? With good reason? Consider Brent Scowcroft advocating against Iraq War 2. Certainly influenced me. So yes, the background of the speaker is certainly something we like to know. 

But phrased as an inquiry into "Zionist" belief, as Weiss does,  is not writing in good faith to elevate all public discourse on all issues. It only concerns Israel. It's like asking Zionists to wear a yellow star.  In parallel, shouldn't we find out about the background in detail about anti-Israel speakers? Weiss himself, for example? What is his real motivation? Where does he get his money?

Weiss post is despicable.

I don't get the math on such high cost to grow legal weed

Why would it cost so much more — by a huge factor — to produce marijuana than it does oregano or sage or some other domestic herb? That's a real assumption in some key reports. Jacob Sullum asks if  High Marijuana Taxes Could Derail Legalization Plans.  (via Andrew Sullivan's The Premium On Legal Weed).

Sullum says that per Washington State Consultant Report,  it will cost $2 gram to produce marijuana, in a legal facility. That is just real practical cost of farming the goods. 

Translate $2/gram and

at 28 grams to the ounce

28 x $2/gram is $56/ounce of marijuana.

That is production cost, supposedly.

I can buy McCormick's McCormick Oregano Leaves at AmazonFresh for $5.61 per ounce ($7.69 jar) and that rings a bell at what dried culinary herbs sell for when I browse the local supermarkets.

The $5.61/oz includes costs for farmer, packaging, wholesaler, retailer etc etc. Let's assume that most of the cost of the retail price is production. (I don't believe it but it's late at night and no one to call.) Let's play with the idea that it costs $5.60/ounce to produce oregano. (The numbers are pure serendipity. Honest.)

So 

$5.60 per ounce to produce oregano

$56.00 per ounce to produce marijuana

Make sense to you? Am I doing the math wrong? 

Why should there be such a huge factor (ten times as much) between producing oregano and producing marijuana? Not saying there isn't; the consultant is a reputable one. But commonsense says otherwise that weed is so expensive to grow when you strip out all the illegal aspects.

I don't get it.

Stop Complaining!

The Obamacare Website Might Finally Be Getting Better and Social Security works fine.

I am a man of a certain age where one gets interested in social security especially since I have been paying in for years.

So on the first day after the shutdown, I call the SSA toll-free number. It answers on the first or second ring with a "We are very busy. It's about a 40 minute wait. You can stay on hold or we can call you back."

Obviously I ask to be called back. Well within 40 minutes I get a return call.

I tell the person that I don't have social security and whether I am eligible and for what etc etc.

She asks me the obvious questions: name, SS #, date and place of birth, mother's maiden name etc etc.

In about 60 seconds -- I guess she doesn't have to run to the filing cabinet -- she tells me that the estimated $$ amounts will be ABC and XYZ. If I want to sign up I should go to the Welcome to the Social Security Benefit Application, Benefit Application, Social Security web site -- she had already asked me if I have web access -- and sign up for the fine details etc etc.

Whole conversation? Maybe 4-5 minutes. Quick. Efficient. Courteous. etc etc In fact I have checked out the SSAsite and it seems to work fine...just not sure whether to sign up or not. You know, rugged individualist and all that.

If the Republicans hadn't insisted on the cobbled-together goofy Obamacare system, we'd have something much simpler....some sort of public option...maybe along the lines of Medicare which so far as I can tell also works very smoothly.

So if you have any complaints about Obamacare, talk to John Boehner and company.

Isn't every FISA Court Judge concerned about "civil liberties"? Maybe not.

I've been starting to follow surveillance issues (e.g. NSA, etc) and ran across a post at a blog I have started to read: The Kris Paper, and the Problematic FISC Opinion.

I may get into the substance *later on but I'll mention one revealing use of language. In ON THE BULK COLLECTION OF TANGIBLE THINGS establishmentarian David Kris writes

The June 2013 disclosures gave rise to public discussions concerning the FISC, and in particular concerning (1) the selection method for its judges; and (2) the possibility of something approaching inter partes litigation on at least certain matters before the court. Although there is no real evidence of problems in the current process for selecting FISA Court judges, under which the Chief Justice makes the appointments, the vast majority of the Members of the FISC were appointed by Republican Presidents, and it would be relatively easy to change the selection process if desired. The possibility of a civil liberties advocate in the FISC is a more significant and difficult issue. (italics added) (page 35 of the PDF)

That last line just jumped out at me: did Kris realize what he ws writing? Doesn't "The possibility of a civil liberties advocate in the FISC is a more significant and difficult issue" stricke you as an odd and troubling statement? One would have thought that every member of the FISC would be a civil libertarian. Along with a host of other things. But one would have hoped that every judge on FISC would have a deep, sincere commitment to the freedoms on which our Constitution is based. Yet an extremely accomplished observer of the FISC. Kris, suggest that such commitment to civil liberties (as opposed to Federal Security State Supremacy?) would be problematic.

Then again, what is the opposite of a "civil libertarian"? I don't really know but maybe opposite of  "civil libertarian" is "authoritarian" in which case Kris statement makes sense.

 * My initial take is that many establishment experts in this field are so bamboozled by the layers of law and procedure relating to privacy, along with some legitimately knotty problems, that there is not a lot of fresh thinking. 

 

And who is going to jail for these leaks?

C.I.A. Warning on Snowden Said to Slip Through the Cracks

Spokesmen for the C.I.A., N.S.A. and F.B.I. all declined to comment on the precise nature of the warning and why it was not forwarded, citing the investigation into Mr. Snowden's activities. 

Half a dozen law enforcement, intelligence and Congressional officials with direct knowledge of the supervisor's report were contacted for this article. All of the officials agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing criminal investigation. (emphasis added)

Can you believe it? Six officials leaked and will get away scot-free. Totally sicko.

If you want to know what Obama will do about the shutdown

G.O.P. Senators See Outline for Debt Deal After Obama Meeting

but what would Reagan do?

If you want insight into how Obama will be handling the Republican fiasco, think what Reagan would do should he do in such a situation.

My guess is that he would hold tight to his blissful self-confidence and make the opposition crawl. 

Tea Party Republicans, I'd be worried in your shoes.

Terror and Urban Design, from The New Yorker

At Westgate, a New Model of Terror for the Shabaab in Nairobi?

The first implication of the attack is on Nairobi's urban development. Will the city choose to become more open or more closed? With its population set to double to eight million in the next decade or so, design choices are powerfully relevant. The poor are already excluded from prosperous life by security arrangements. The temptation will be for more reinforcement. But if walls get higher, and those who drive cars between fortified points are further separated from those who go on foot and live in crowded places, the result will be a metropolis that is uncompetitive and unsafe.

Are we crazy?

Bush Appointee Jack Goldsmith:

Every U.S. soldier is taught the importance of complying with law, including international law, in every task he or she undertakes. They are also taught that dishonor or worse follows from violating this law. Many of the soldiers and all of the lawyers involved in the Syria planning will surely feel at least a little uneasy about a military action that the President acknowledges does not pass the test of international legality.

Plus the whole Syria effort is likely to be ineffective or even counterproductive. Did we learn anything from Iraq? I am totally sympathetic to Obama's stance — we need to help — but I do not understand how we can do that. 

That's the real bitter irony. Compromising the law to an effective end is one thing; but then to be unable to help ordinary Syrians and then to damage the USA in so many ways (both aspects, simultaneously) makes it all the sadder. 

'Breaking Bad' and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

Here' (Overdosing on 'Breaking Bad') is the first allusion — and it is just that, but nice — I've read to connecting Walter White/Heisenberg to the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle

The storyline also offers a bit of caviar to tease those who fancy themselves gourmets of high culture. White, as drug dealer, is known on the local meth scene by the moniker "Heisenberg", a cute play on the idea of "indeterminacy" (just who is White is tantalisingly elusive; and trope that is literalised when a lookalike is actually hired to confuse the police).

Court to Hear Appeal on Sodo Arena Deal Challenge | Slog

Court to Hear Appeal on Sodo Arena Deal Challenge | Slog.

A state appeals court will hear arguments on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 19 suit to invalidate the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to build a new Sonics arena in Sodo

I have no dog in this fight but I can see the larger point — had the SEPA process (prior to the MOU) revealed truly horrendous terrible environmental impacts, the City could say "No Mr. Hansen, no can do at that site. Please find another." And Hansen (and the City) would have had less investment, both financial and psychological.

Yes realistically, the politics does indeed become more difficult with every step made by both parties. Theoretically the City can reject the site. But. Politics. Momentum. "I thought we had a deal." Makes City look bad -- won't go forward just because there are a few little tree-hugger problems. 

How can an Appeals Court put its arm around the idea (reality, really) that environmental factors can in fact be nullified by actions which are so serious that no one in practice will actually examine environmental factors? There is no question that it happens all the time. I have no idea what a Court will say but it is an interesting question. And certainly does kill time. And in general 'Time is the enemy of the deal."

When the Ruins Were New by Colin Thubron | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books.

Yet in his studies of architectural splendors, the contemporary inhabitants — peasants, caretakers, laborers —provide merely a sense of proportion and a touch of oriental romance. The torpor of the declining Ottoman empire is palpable in his rare group photographs—unreliable Ottoman mercenaries or ragged Albanian water-carriers—as it is in the empty-looking villages of Hebron or Bethany. Even the streets of Cairo appear deserted. And there are no Jews.

"...Even the streets of Cairo appear deserted. And there are no Jews."

With a throw-away, out-of-the-blue line like that 

— hear the drum roll: "And there are no Jews." —
you have to tell us more: 

• Who says/said "No Jews"? Your conclusion? Does he state it? Explicitly? 
• How did he know there were no Jews? No costumes?

• Throughout the region? Or merely Cairo?

You obviously yearn to tell us, to reveal some great significant truth. So go ahead. You have our attention.

Why bury the punch line when no one will read it?

Why Bush Violated the Fourth Amendment, and Obama Has Not - The Daily Beast.

But even if Miller and Smith are correct in terms of the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, the mere fact that government can constitutionally exercise its authority in this manner does not mean that it should do so. That something is constitutionally permissible does not make it sound public policy. (italics added)

Very odd article in terms of structure. I was taught to put the important thought at the head of the writing. 

The really critical sentence  —"That something is constitutionally permissible does not make it sound public policy." — is at least as important as the foregoing paragraphs which emphasize that what NSA is doing under Obama is "constitutional." 

Last usually suggests least. Yet Professor Stone's thought is obviously the punch line and many people will miss it.

Which country is exerting the pressure on whom?

Bolivian president's plane redirected due to fear Snowden was aboard

A jet carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales was diverted after leaving Moscow on Tuesday when France and Portugal abruptly revoked permission for the president's plane to travel through the nations' airspace due to rumors that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was on board the plane.

One theory is that the USA pressured France and Portugal. Certainly possible.

Another theory is that France and Portugal did it voluntarily to get on the good side of the USA.

Yet another theory is that France and Portugal did it voluntarily to make the USA look bad, the big bully after one young man. It makes Obama in particular as an individual look bad since just a fewdays ago the USA wouldn't do any "wheelin' and dealin' '" on Snowden, whatever he meant. But whatever he did mean, the USA has (?) been pressuring ancient US allies which is part of "wheelin' and dealin' '" in any negotiation.

I certainly don't know; I do walkable urbanism,  not a John LeCarre plot-within-a-plot.

The omnipresence of Facebook

Egypt's army delivers an ominous warning - CBS News.

Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi spoke a week ahead of mass protests planned by opponents of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. There are fears the demonstrations calling for Morsi's ouster will descend into violence after some of the president's hard-line supporters vowed to "smash" them. 

Others declared protesters were infidels who deserve to be killed. El-Sissi's comments were his first in public on the planned June 30 protests. Made to officers during a seminar, they reflected the military's frustration with the rule of Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president who completes one year in office on June 30. 

His comments, posted on the military's Facebook page...

Isn't that interesting? The Egyptian Army's most important military leader is breaking news on Facebook, a medium founded by an American Jew. No big take-away beyond that the world is more intertwined than we can possibly grasp and that Facebook is of global importance.

Such a tempting allusion

Seventh Annual Electric Aircraft Symposium Unveils New Technology.

The Symposium included not only technology, but seriously looked at how neighborhoods and society in general can integrate these new technologies in a more responsible way than the current helter-skelter world which pulls us away from family and community. What point is there in having magical things and messy lives?

I've got a message into the Symposium folks to find out more.

J Street Recommends...

The Gatekeepers and I took its advice and watched it at a local J Street Seattle showing and discussion last weekend.

I thought that the movie shot itself in the foot -- it was more Hollywood than C-Span. That was very unfortunate. The movie got caught up in issues of morality and cinema-graphic honesty (I think the movie was dishonest to show re-enactments of past historical events and ineffective to boot.)

The big takeaway from the movie is that five (or six) experienced, top Israeli security officials — all of whom are Israeli patriots of the highest order, all past directors of Shin Bet  — are saying that Israeli governmental policy is misguided and not going down the right path. Current policies are not working. Forget about any other issue; forget about morality, the Jewish way etc etc — whatever. Past top Israeli security officials say it is not working.

And that was the huge lesson I took away --- five Israeli patriots, who understand the facts better than almost anyone, are saying that Israel needs to change policies.

No American Jew who watches that can dismiss J Street and Peace Now opinions as anti-Israel propoganda. One can still disagree with the officials in the movie but the issue of criticism of Israeli policy as anti-Israel has to be dismissed.

Too bad the movie got diverted into Hollywood re-eneactments and kvetching about "morality."

I urge the movie-makers to re-edit the film to make it more C-Span and less Hollywood.