LOS ANGELES

GUEST WORDS--California’s wine country fires delivered a vivid demonstration of the critical importance of governments being able to assemble armies of public safety workers when needed. Citizens expect their governments to provide public safety — but they also expect parks, animal shelters, transportation, road, sidewalk and tree maintenance, housing for the homeless, libraries and much more. 

VOICES-Hotel​ ​industry​ ​groups​ ​are​ ​misrepresenting​ ​the Airbnb​ ​community​ ​to​ ​protect​ ​profits. As ​a ​56 ​year-​old ​Production ​Designer ​who ​has ​called ​East ​Los ​Angeles ​home ​for ​the past ​13 ​years, ​I ​have ​increasingly ​experienced ​ageism ​and ​fewer ​job ​opportunities ​and have ​turned ​to ​home-sharing ​to ​help ​pay ​my ​bills. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-Now that the Dodgers have finally returned to the World Series for the first time since 1988, the next question for those of us who are confident of a 2017 championship is whether the boys in blue will clinch it here in Los Angeles. 

NEW GEOGRAPHY-The home-buying struggles of Americans, particularly millennials, have been well documented. Yet a recent study by Hunt.com found that the often-proposed “solution” of renting is not much of a panacea. Rents as a percentage of income, according to Zillow, are now at a historic high of 29.1%, compared with the 25.8% rate that prevailed from 1985 to 2000. 

BCK FILE--The weekend after the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault story broke in the New York Times, actress Alyssa Milano tweeted to encourage women to use social media to share their sexual assault stories, using the hashtag #MeToo to show the magnitude of this issue.

ANIMAL WATCH-Marijuana, the shredded leaves, flower buds and stems of the Cannabis sativa plant, has now been legalized for medical use by humans in 29 states, plus D.C. It is said to relieve pain and inflammation and manage side effects of cancer. Some animal experts, including the late Los Angeles veterinarian Dr. Doug Kramer, who lost his own battle with cancer in 2014 at age 36, believe that dogs and cats suffering from chronic pain, inflammation or other end-of-life issues should also be allowed the opportunity for the benefits of “pot therapy.” Others disagree and say, "pot isn't for pets." 

DEEGAN ON CALIFORNIA-Kevin de Leon (D-SD24) fascinates with his fast track rise to the top of state government, and his announcement a few days ago that he will challenge Senator Dianne Feinstein who just announced she would seek re-election to the U.S. Senate. Some may see the state Senate president pro tempore as a thundercloud about to burst over the head of Feinstein. There may be lightning bolts from the hard left adding to this brewing political storm. But, who’s he running against? Is he challenging the wrong opponent? 

CORRUPTION WATCH-The most compelling words in Ronan Farrow’s article about the predator Harvey Weinstein in the October 23, 2017 issue of The New Yorker magazine are its first three: Abuses of Power. The salacious aspect of the story may initially attract public attention, but the essence of the it revolves around power – the abuse of power. And that is where the focus should remain. A predatory abuse of power permeates our entire society – a society that has made a lying pussy-grabber its Predator-in-Chief. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--If preserving those things that merit protection is the core conservative idea, then surely that idea ought also to apply to preservation of the natural environment -- in a word, environmentalism as a conservative concept. Yet the current generation of American conservatives has rejected the idea of environmentalism. 

Just look at Donald Trump's appointees to major departments. If ever the word deplorable fits, it's here. What's curious is that the American conservative rejection of environmentalism is based on a line of reasoning that is illogical -- it is essentially an erroneous confession that some sort of radical left wing ideology is ultimately necessary for environmental preservation to succeed. In this, modern American conservatives are wrong -- if only they could see it. 

The best example of a critical environmental danger is of course global warming. The scientific arguments are well established, the observational data are compelling, and this year's hurricane season was the icing on the cake. 

Yet when asked to comment, members of the American conservative establishment evade and avoid with the de rigueur answer that it isn't the appropriate time to talk about the subject. 

Conservatives have used various excuses that probably don't ring true even to themselves -- global warming doesn't exist, or it isn't caused by human CO2 emissions, or it isn't susceptible to anything we humans can do. But when you read their comments to each other, they take a rather different tack. 

Their core argument is less based on atmospheric science and more based on socioeconomics. 

In a word, they manage to terrify each other with the claim that environmental activists are using global warming to take over the world economy through taking over its governments in some sort of international cabal. Basically, the claim of global warming is treated as some sort of hard-left socialist plot. They don't always use this terminology, but the common thread is apparent. If they give in to the notion of global warming, it follows (they think) that Americans will lose their sovereignty to world government. 

In a way, it's possible to imagine a little of what they are thinking. A lot of modern environmentalism (going back to bills signed by Richard Nixon) involves the use of a command economy. Coal fired power plants have been limited in terms of their ability to pollute the air with sulfur dioxide. One way to do this is to pass laws that set absolute limits on the mass of sulfur dioxide that is emitted. Another way is to put absolute limits on the amount of sulfur that coal can contain. Now expand this approach to thousands of other issues ranging from water quality to agricultural pesticides and you have the modern critique of environmental protection. 

Each such rule involves the creation of a new bureaucracy (mainly in the federal government), new taxes (call them fees), and new schedules of fines and penalties. The new bureaucracy will demand specific devices be installed in power plants in order to monitor the amount of pollutants that are emitted and will demand shelves full of reports. 

 And then there is conservative fear over the preservation of natural wonders. In order to preserve some of the more delicate aspects of our western deserts, it is necessary to limit the amount of cattle grazing. In order to preserve scenery in national parks, it is necessary to prohibit mining. 

All of these attempts at preservation are viewed by some people as impositions. Of course it is mainly those who have a financial stake in grazing cattle on fragile habitat or opening new oil fields in Alaska. 

Over the years, the right wing has built a collection of arguments that don't exactly defend the desecration of the natural environment, but do manage an end-run by calling environmentalists names. Any attempt to limit the use of national lands is treated as left wing socialism or worse. George H.W. Bush famously referred to environmental activists as "the spotted owl crowd." 

It's when the subject gets around to global warming that the argument gets really paranoid. The right wing understands deep down that fixing global warming will require a substantial effort, and that this effort requires the commitment of most of the world's countries. Somehow we have to figure out how to reduce net emissions of carbon dioxide and methane. Equally to the point, we don't have forever. I suspect that a lot of industrialists (Exxon for example) understand the basics. On the other hand, they don't want to commit corporate suicide by going out of the oil or coal business, at least until they have substituted some other income stream. 

The cynical, dishonest side of the conservative wing have made use of the anti-government phobia of a lot of Americans. They have tried to sell the argument that global warming is just a ploy to allow the lefties to take over the country and ultimately the world. It's a bit ironic, but the right wing noise machine has been raising the specter of a dictatorship that would arise if we as a people (and as a world) were to take global warming seriously. 

In a way, they are confessing that they lack the ability to imagine any other way to do things on an international level than imposing a socialist dictatorship. They seem to be missing the point that western nations managed to join military alliances without giving up their national sovereignty. And at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union (were there ever two more different governments?) managed to find mutual benefit in reducing our numbers of nuclear warheads. 

Yet American conservatives are caught up in the paranoid notion that even to admit the existence of global warming is to consign the world to some sort of malign world government, most likely taken out of the pages of nineteenth century Marxism. 

What's absurd about this argument is that we don't necessarily have to agree on any particular economic approach to global warming. We merely have to agree that it exists and that humans burning fossil fuels are the prime cause. In short, Americans should agree that there is a real problem that has been identified by careful (and robust) science, and that this problem exists independently of our various economies and governments. 

That, you would think, is a simple enough requirement. Americans don't have to join the revolutionary socialist brotherhood or the moderate wing of the Republican Party. They just have to understand that global warming is real and is hugely dangerous to our children and grandchildren. 

Once we gain that level of understanding, it is then possible to carry on a rational discussion of what we are to do about it. Conservatives like to talk about market based solutions. I say go for it. Let's hear what you can come up with. 

But let's be real about the danger and let's consider possible remedies with a critical eye. Your grandchildren's lives and health may depend on it. What could be more conservative than doing something about the problem? 

The eight hundred pound gorilla (or is it the elephant? -- I never can keep these metaphors straight) is our growing human population. We humans have taken over the majority of the planet's surface in order to develop our own life style, in spite of the fact that we are responsible for an ongoing extinction event that rivals previous extinctions. We should think about controlling our numbers in order to preserve the world that humans developed in. And what could be more conservative than that? 

Conservative Environmentalists 

Let's recognize that there are conservatives who are also environmentalists. They have written numerous books including Peter Huber's Hard Green.  One recent essay by Paul Foote was published in The Guardian.  I'd like to close by quoting a short excerpt from Foote's essay: 

"Whilst recognizing the need for political and policy leadership, policy-making must reject statist penalties and punishments which will not bring about the changes we need and will only put people off. We must go with the grain of human nature. 

"Preserving our natural heritage, the beauty of the landscape, the farmed environment; promoting social justice by beautifying urban spaces and greening energy supply; enhancing public health, national security, economic competitiveness – these are all challenges that require action both in the UK and the US. 

"But until they can be put into the natural language of conservatives, progress on these issues will suffer. And if the Tea Party were willing to think about the environment from a true conservative perspective, who knows, it just might suit them." 

Foote has included conservative terms such as statist in his remarks, but the overall idea that conservatives can and should become environmentalists has merit.

(Bob Gelfand writes on science, culture, and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected])  

-cw

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--The deaths and damage of this year’s Wine Country wildfires are a historic disaster. They are also the product of an epic California success.

@THE GUSS REPORT-What is the coolest Dodger thing you own? Long before Pawn Stars and Antiques Roadshow made hit television viewing of gems people find, buy or inherit, I stumbled upon a Dodger treasure while shopping one day in the 1970s on an outing with my mom and grandmother. 

CALBUZZ--Kevin de Leon, the Democratic state Senate leader who wants to be a United States senator has a problem: Before he can make a compelling case for himself, he’s got to convince voters that after 24 years, they should fire U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

#ME TOO AT THE CAPITOL BUILDING-A letter signed by more than 140 women who work in the California Capitol, including six lawmakers, reveals that many women in the legislature have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. The letter has shed light this week on the widespread nature of sexual harassment in many kinds of workplaces, in the wake of mounting allegations of sexual misconduct in the film industry and the #MeToo demonstration that garnered attention on social media this week. 

CIVIL LIBERTIES--President Donald Trump's revised travel ban was halted in the 11th hour by a federal judge just before it was expected to go into effect Wednesday. But almost since Trump's election, Californians—those both directly and indirectly affected—have been busy scrambling to fight not just the ban but also broader White House policies seen by many as targeting Muslims at home and abroad. Finally, they're seeing some legislative results. 

CAL MATTERS--Last year, California’s Legislature and voters enacted a veritable blizzard of legislation making private gun ownership more difficult and expensive, including new restrictions on magazine capacity and ammunition sales.

VOICES-The California Supreme Court has decided to hear the appeal requested by Sheriff Jim McDonnell (center, photo above) regarding the well-reasoned Appellate Court decision which found the department's proposed release of its self-created Brady list to be illegal. 

420 FILE--It’s no secret that Jeff Sessions has vowed to take American drug policy back 30 years with his desire to bring back the War on Drugs. The disastrous policy of the 80s and 90s has been called the New Jim Crow, as it oversaw a disproportionate amount of minorities incarcerated on inflated drug charges. This resulted in the US becoming the world’s leading jailer, with about 5 percent of the world’s population but over a quarter of the world’s prisoners. Moreover, there is hardly any evidence that it reduced crime or drug use in the US.

BELL VIEW--My dad died a couple years ago. Something about the South Side of Chicago – where he grew up and spent his entire life – breeds a certain toughness into you. He had stamina. I’ll give him that. On Wednesday of the week he died, he was out mowing the lawn; on Thursday, he collapsed in the bathroom; on Friday, he died from stage four cancer of the lungs, liver, pancreas, and bones. The only complaint he ever had was a little back pain. 

CORRUPTION WATCH-I’ve got a cracker jack idea – let’s freshen up our children’s classrooms with lead paint. Better yet, let’s protect the children from fire by using a lot of asbestos. 

Dear Senator de León-We are writing to you to express our deep disappointment regarding comments you made recently on ​News Conference hosted by Conan Nolan. In talking about the California ​L​egislature’s recent attempts to deal with the housing crisis, Nolan made the claim that Neighborhood Councils (NCs) are somehow obstructing the construction of affordable housing. Allow us to quote your response … 

ALPERN AT LARGE--No need to mince words here--it's been tough being a transportation advocate.  Political agendas, feel-good laws, ridiculous policies that send the wrong messages, and divisive paradigms have really distracted all of us from a unified approach to the planning, consensus and funding (and building) of a modern, 21st-Century LA City/County system.