Some LA/Venice/Santa Monica Views

We're at my mom's house in LA. The bike still gets me around and things are in decent shape. Here are a few photos.

Venice Beach at Rose.

Santa Monica is doubling the bike path along the beach so there will be separate space for pedestrians and bikes

Pelicans at Santa Monica Pier.


















When you bike, you get to see signs like this.  We're going to see if we can get in tomorrow.

This is at a Persian ice cream shop in Westwood.

Back at the beach, this is a view looking north toward Santa Monica from the Venice Pier.











Looking south now from the pier.

Just So You Know When You Hear Pam Bondi Defending Trump

NPR's Steve Innskeep interviewed Trump spokesperson Pam Bondi this morning.  While he pushed back strongly on some of her assertions, the piece didn't remind listeners of her shady past with Trump.  Like how she dropped out of the lawsuit against Trump University after she got a $25,000 illegal campaign contribution from the supposedly non-profit charitable Trump Foundation.

Bondi interview begins about 1:20 into the audio.

In her role as Attorney General of Florida, she had a decision to make whether Florida should join with many other states on the lawsuit against Trump University.  From her Wikipedia page:

"The Florida Attorney General's office received at least 22 fraud complaints about Trump University. In 2013 a spokesperson for Bondi announced that her office was considering joining a lawsuit initiated by New York's Attorney General against Trump regarding tax fraud.^[20][21] Four days later 'And Justice for All', a political action committee (PAC) established by Bondi to support her re-election campaign, received a $25,000 donation from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, after which Bondi declined to join the lawsuit against Trump University. When controversy over their actions first arose in 2013, both the Bondi PAC and Donald Trump defended the propriety of the nonprofit foundation's political donation.^[22][23]By contrast in March 2016, after Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service about the illegal donation, the Trump Foundation stated that the donation had been made in error. It said that the Foundation had intended for the donation to go not to Bondi's PAC but instead to an unrelated Kansas non-profit called Justice for All.^[24][25] However in June 2016, as Bondi was facing renewed criticism over the Trump donation and her decision not to join the lawsuit, her spokesman said that Bondi had solicited the donation directly from Trump several weeks before her office announced it was considering joining the lawsuit against him.^[21][26][27] Bondi and Trump did not reconcile their competing versions of events. On March 14, 2016, Bondi endorsed Trump in the Florida presidential primary, saying she has been friends with Trump "for many years."^[28][29] In June 2016, a spokesperson for Governor Rick Scott stated that the state's ethics commission is looking into the matter.^[30] Nothing further came from that investigation. In September 2016, the IRS determined that the donation to Bondi's PAC violated laws against political contributions from nonprofit organizations, and ordered Donald Trump to pay a fine for the illegal contribution. Trump also was required to reimburse the foundation for the sum that had been donated to Bondi.^[31] Neither Bondi nor her PAC were fined or criminally charged for soliciting and accepting an illegal donation. In November 2019, Trump was ordered by a New York state court to close down the foundation and pay $2 million in damages for misusing it, including the illegal payment to Bondi.^[32]Pam Bondi also pressured two attorneys to resign who were investigating the technology giant Black Knight, then LPS, following the robosigning scandal, as part of their work for Florida's Economic Crime Division, after she received large campaign contributions from LPS.^[33]"

Projection And Displacement- A Possible Reason That Republicans Are Venting So Hard Against Democrats

In the Intelligence Committee and then the Judiciary Committee we saw some very angry Republicans.  People like Doug Collins, Jim Jordan, Matthew Gaetz,  and Louie Gohmert.

I think it key to try to understand anger and the reasons people are angry.  It's usually for a valid reason, but it's often not the incident at hand.  It's often an anger that has been repressed because the real target of the anger is someone the angry people feel they cannot confront.  So they lash out at someone 'safer' to attack.

In this case, like the Democrats and the witnesses.

Projection and Displacement are two psychological terms used to describe this type.


From Good Therapy

Projection is a psychological defense mechanism in which individuals attribute characteristics they find unacceptable in themselves to another person. For example, a husband who has a hostile nature might attribute this hostility to his wife and say she has an anger management problem.

In some cases projection can result in false accusations. For example, someone with adulterous feelings might accuse their partner of infidelity.

TYPES OF PROJECTION

Like other defense mechanisms, projection is typically unconscious and can distort, transform, or somehow affect reality. A classic example of the defense mechanism is when an individual says “She hates me” instead of expressing what is actually felt, which is “I hate her.”

There are three generally accepted types of projection:

1. Neurotic projection is the most common variety of projection and most clearly meets the definition of defense mechanism. In this type of projection, people may attribute feelings, motives, or attitudes they find unacceptable in themselves to someone else. 
2. Complementary projection occurs when individuals assume others feel the same way they do. For example, a person with a particular political persuasion might take it for granted that friends and family members share those beliefs.
3. Complimentary projection is the assumption other people can do the same things as well as oneself. For example, an accomplished pianist might take it for granted that other piano students can play the piano equally well.

Closely related is Displacement.  Taking your anger at someone you are afraid to attack and instead attacking someone less powerful.  From VeryWellMind:

"Displaced aggression is one of the classic examples of this defense. When people feel angry but cannot direct that anger toward the source of their frustration, they transfer those feelings to someone or something else. A person who becomes angry at her professor, for example, may come home and take her anger out on her spouse. The spouse may, in turn, displace this anger towards their children, who then take out their frustrations on each other."

If we look at the key arguments being made by the Republicans, we can see that they really are things that Trump himself does or the Republican Members of Congress and the Senate do.  For example:

1. Republicans argue:  There is not one shred of evidence to impeach Trump
1. They're saying this in defense of their President who's made, according to the Washington Post 13,435 false or misleading claims, which are simply claims without a credible evidence
2. Republicans argue:  The proceedings are simply partisan attacks on the President
1. We can look at the US Senate where Majority Leader McConnell has blatantly blocked Democratic judges - most notoriously Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland.  President Trump's attacks are not as much partisan as personal attacks against anyone who doesn't do as he wants
3. Republicans argue: The Democrats have wanted to impeach Trump since day one
1. That merely echoes McConnell's vow that his number one priority was to deny Obama a second term
4. Republicans argue:  The President was legitimately looking at the corruption of Hunter Biden
1. Trump is unquestionably the most corrupt president we've had in modern times, and quite possibly ever.  He's only concerned about corruption that isn't working in his favor
2. Calling out Hunter Biden for taking advantage of his father's name and position is a rich claim when defending the father of Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Jr, and son-in-law Jerod Kushner, all of whom are taking advantage of their father's name and position to enrich themselves.
5. Republicans argue:  Impeachment is an illegal overturning of the will of the people in the 2016 election.  Democrats are just angry about losing
1. The 'will of the people' is best measured by what the majority wants.  In the 2016 election nearly 3 million more people voted for Hillary Clinton.  The electoral college's arcane rules could be said to have usurped the will of the people.
2. In the 2018 Congressional election, the people voted out of Congress, many Republicans who supported Trump and voted in Democrats, giving them a significant majority in the House, therefore one can argue easily that the will of the people was for the Democrats in the House to impeach the president
3. And we can say that the Republicans are just angry for having lost their majority in the House

All these angry attacks on the Democrats reflect things that Republicans themselves are guilty of.  But Republicans feel that their political careers are in danger if they oppose Trump.  Funds will be withheld from them when the run for reelection.  Their Republican opponents in the primaries will get those funds.  And the rabid - really, that's not an exaggeration for many Republicans - Trump supporters will defeat them in the primaries.

But they also know that many of them will be vulnerable in the general election.  And even if they don't lose in their gerrymandered districts, they won't win back the House Majority and may even lose the House and the Presidency.

And so, they are angry.  But they can't rant against the President.  So they rant against the Democrats.  Transference.  Displacement.

How To Use LAX's Taxi, Lyft, Uber Lot

LAX's new system for taxis, Uber, and Lyft began rather disastrously at the beginning of November this year.  We'd heard it was a little better, but weren't sure how we were going to negotiate it.  Turned out to be reasonably easy.  There are big light green signs all over telling you how to get to the new lot - via shuttles that stop on the inside lane by those same green signs.

We asked an employee about when to order the car.  J has Lyft and I have Uber (which I got last summer when we were in Argentina and there was no Lyft).  She said to do it before getting on the shuttle.

Shuttle came quick and wandered through a maze of curving roads.  (It was 8:30 pm on a Monday so we decided not to take the bus.)  I ordered the Uber on the bus and got a code number and instructions to go to 2A, 3A, or 4A.  When we got off the bus there were lots of people helping people figure out what to do and where to go.

Taxis were in one place, Lyft in another direction and there were long lines of cars waiting to pick people up.  Not that many people.

At the front of the line there was someone guiding people into cars.  We got into the next car and gave the driver our PIN.  With the canopy and lights, and all the staff directing people, it felt like going to some big event with crowd control.

So the difference here is that you aren't ordering a specific driver - just the next one in line, like in a taxi line.  And the driver said, from his perspective, he doesn't get to screen the customers.

Normally, Uber drivers, he said, anyone with a rating of less that 4.8 (out of 5)!  That's a pretty high standard I thought.  But here, he has to take whoever is next in line.  Of course, we don't get to pick drivers either.  I asked what got people a good rating.  Tips* and then whether you're decent people.  I suspect it's more about whether you're a jerk.  But still 4.8 out of 5 is a high bar.  If you've taken as few Ubers as we have, one 2 rating would make us untouchables.  If you had a hundred rides a few big negatives wouldn't matter, but I'm not sure how a jerk would get enough rides to render a 2 from someone not a big deal.

I asked what our rating was.  Turns out were a 5, but that's only out of three rides.  Ali, our driver, was a 4.95.  He said we could find our own rating, but I haven't figured out how.  But, of course, Google to the rescue.  Turns out you need 5 rides for your rating to show up on your profile.  We aren't there yet.

Anyway, it was easy, one-third cheaper than a cab (though I don't know if their price has gone down since Uber and Lyft are now here big time).  Though when the crowds get really bad next week, not sure how easy this will be.

And I'd note that the big red and white billboard in the back was for My UBER Lawyer, offering to help with accidents and other problems with Uber.

*I tend to tip cab (and Uber and Lyft) drivers generously since I drove a cab out of LAX long ago after graduating UCLA and before Peace Corps training resumed.  I needed to earn some money and this let me beach during the day and then work the 4pm to midnight shift.

Some Suggestions For Improving Don Young's Online Poll And Anchorage Impeach Rally

I got an email poll from Don Young today.

It would appear that he is looking for confirmation of his priorities.  If he really wanted to know what his constituents wanted, then when we marked other, it would ask for specifics.  Here's the poll:

priorities opt in

Heading into 2020, which legislative priority would you like to see Congress work on? Which legislative priority would you like to see Congress work on? Protecting the Tax Cuts Strengthening the Middle Class Energy and Resource Development Lowering the Cost of Prescription Drugs Rebuilding our Infrastructure Other Email Address*

I took it to the next step just to be sure it didn't ask for comments.  It didn't.  But it gave me the results so far.

If you want to participate you can here.

My interpretation is that Democratic priorities are on top, and Republican priorities are at the bottom. Does Don Young really want to know what we want?  Or is this just something to test whether his email list is up to date or to get his name before his constituents as we had for the 2020 election?

But just to clarify - Climate Change legislation - specifically a carbon fee and dividend bill  like the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act would be my top priority.  Impeachment is high on my list too.  Income equality through revision of the tax structure and strengthening environmental regulations and enforcement.  Immigration reform and, in the meantime, humane treatment of asylum seekers and others along the border - including letting doctors to give flu shots to inmates of ICE as well as other health care.


I also got this email today.

Nobody is Above the Law Impeachment Rally
WHEN:Tuesday, December 17 at NOON
HOST(S):Izzy F. Joni B.
WHEREU.S. District Court building
7th Ave and C Street (south east corner)
Anchorage, AK 99513

Unfortunately, I won't be able to go because I'm at the airport on my way to LA where we'll be joined in a few days by kids and grandkids.  (Unfortunately because I'll miss the rally - definitely want to be with the kids.)

AIFF2019: Award Winners - Live From Awards Ceremony [All Awards Up]

I'll update this regularly as awards are announced.  (They're done now.)

Group of avid AIFF pass holders at awards tonight.











Audience Award  Made in Alaska Narrative Short:

2nd Runner Up:  Dasher, by James Kendall
1st Runner Up:   How to Say Goodbye
Winner:  The Naughty List


Audience Made in Alaska:  Short Docs
2nd Runner Up:  Trampoline Alaskas
1st Runner Up:  Eskimo Ink - Max Bering
Winner:  Games of Survival - A Culture Preserved in Ice

George Attla's daughter accepting award for Attla

Audience Choice Made in Alaska:  Feature
Winner: Attla

Short Animated 
2nd Runner Up: Gum and Sauce Go to School
1st Runner Up: Earthquake
Winner: Mountain Valley:  The Earthquake

Audience Award:  Short Doc
2nd Runner Up:Man of the Trees
1st Runner Up: Knocking Down the Fences
Winner: Class Act:  Dance Hall Divas

Audience Award:  Narrative Short
2nd Runner Up:  Just Me and You
1st Runner Up:  [t]here
Winner:  Madame

Board members Rich Curtner and George Pollack

Audience Award Best Narrative Feature
2nd Runner Up:  Those Who Remain
1st Runner Up: Team Marco
Winner:  Laugh or Die

Trang Tran of The American War - Winner of Audience Award

Audience Award Documentary Feature
2nd Runner Up:  Condor and the Eagle
1st Runner Up:  Nae Pasaran
Winner:  The American War

Screenwriting Award
Winner: Those Who Don't Belong


The Rest Are JURY AWARDS

Made in Alaska Narrative shorts
2nd Runner Up:12:34
1st Runner Up:  Dasher
Winner:  How To Say Goodbye

Made in Alaska Doc Shorts
2nd Runner Up:  Trampoline on Flattop

Josh Albeza Branstetter - Kevin, Dear

1st Runner Up:  Welcome to Gwichyaa Zhee
Winner:  Let the Blonde Sing

Made in Alaska Feature
Winner:  Attla

Animated Short:
2nd Runner Up: Nothing To Say
1st Runner Up:  Monsters in the Dark
Winner:  The Phantom 52

Documentary Feature
2nd Runner Up:  Northern Travelogues
1st Runner Up:  Nae Pasaran
Winner:  Kifaru


Narrative Feature
2nd Runner Up:  Laugh or Die
1st Runner Up:   Straight Up
Winner:  Those Who Remained

Short Documentary
2nd Runner Up:  Love Birds
1st Runner Up:  Wandering in the White
Winner:  Tungrus

Short Narrative
2nd Runner Up:  Sin Cielo        

Kelly Miller and Arthur Halpern - Touchscreen

1st Runner Up:  Showan
Winner:  Touchscreen

AIFF2019: Saturday Starts At 10am with Team Marco - And My Favorites of What I've Seen

10:00 am Museum

Team Marco is about a kid addicted to his iPad.  Dad's not happy.  Grandpa introduces him to bocce.  Supposed to be a great film for kids.

Noon - Loussac Library

Immigrant Outpost - A look at Alaska's Filipino-American community

Noon - Museum

The Condor and the Eagle - Indigenous Canadians look at how Canadian oil and other mineral extractors are threatening their culture and lives.  Then go to South American and visit their indigenous brothers and sisters facing the same kind of threats.  This is one I've been looking forward to.

2pm - Museum

Shorts:  Love and Pain - The shorts programs this year have been of mixed quality.  But the narrative shorts have been better.  This is a program has both.

4pm  Museum

Attla - George Attla's dogsledding career.  Need I say more?  I'm guessing the museum auditorium will be packed.  Get there early.

9pm  Charlou (formally the Taproot - Spenard and 33rd)

Awards Ceremony - Music, food, and the winners of the jurors' awards AND the audience awards.  This is the first year that AIFF has had audience awards for individual short films, with a cleverly designed ballot at each short event.
Doors should open at 8pm.  I've been live posting the last several awards ceremonies.  I've done a low energy coverage of the festival so far this year.  Been battling a cold and need sleep, so staying up to 2 and 3am to post has been out of the question.  I'll take my lap top tomorrow and see what I can to.

This is the last official day of the festival.  Sunday from noon to 5pm the award winners will be shown again - FREE.
Some I'm hoping people will be able to see:
Documentary Features - Nae Pasaran
I didn't see, but was told it was very good:  Northern Travelogues
Won't know until I see it tomorrow:  The Condor and the Eagle

Narrative Features  - Laugh or Die and  Those Who Remained 
Also very strong films:
The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open
Gutterbug -  this film was compromised, in my opinion, by adding a very unlikely happily ever after 'one year later' addendum that was totally at odds with the rest of the film.  

Short Documentary - I wasn't impressed with most as films.  Lots of compelling issues though.  My favorite so far has to be The Man of the Trees.

Short Features - Without a doubt -  Mr. Sam.   I didn't see the Late Night Chills program and was told it was very good, so there might be some in there.  I also like Just You And Me

Animated Shorts - I didn't see most of the animated shorts but I really liked two:  Museum and The Phantom 52.  I also enjoyed Maintain Yourself.

AIFF2019: Friday - Fun Starts At 4pm at Museum and AK Experience

Hard to choose.

4pm

Museum
AlaskaTeen Media Institute After School Special - show case of shorts by local students

AK Experience
Shorts:  Power to the People

From the Vine - Narrative Feature - CEO goes back to Old Country to grow grapes



6pm

Museum
Power of Yoik - Bringing back spiritual chanting of Sami people of Lapland

Museum
7:30pm

Shorts - Our World, Our Home

AIFF2019: Thursday - Shorts, Homelessness, Holocaust Survivors in Hungary - Bear Tooth, Then Museum

Note: Today's venues are:  Bear Tooth in the afternoon, then the Museum.  

2PM   MARTINI MATINEE - Bear Tooth - a shorts program that, I'm told, includes some great ones.  We'll see.  

6:00  FERAL  - Anchorage Museum -  another narrative feature about a homeless person.  Last night's 'homeless narrative feature' - Gutterbug - was a very powerful film that gave me chills at the end.  Well, where it should have ended - with the mom at the hospital.  I would have chopped off the rest that gave it a happily ever after Hollywood ending that seemed at odds with the rest of the film.  

But all that's to say that a film about homelessness can be very worth watching.  

7:45  Those Who Remained  -Anchorage Museum - This is the one I'm looking forward to seeing.  It's a Hungarian film about Holocaust survivors in Hungary.  There was another film on this theme last year as well - 1945.  This has personal meaning for me because my step-mother was a Hungarian speaking holocaust survivor who returned to her home to find all the neighbors had appropriated all their belongings including their house.  

Green Grass In December, Parasite, Broken Glass

This is not what our front yard normally looks like in December.  And it was covered with snow a few days ago.  But then it got into the 40s.

OK, we've often had bits of warm weather once or twice in winter, but we've had record warm months just about every month this year.

Trump calls Climate Change a hoax.  Note that he also calls the impeachment a hoax.


I also managed to fix a faucet that had been causing a drip.

And last night we skipped the film festival to see the movie Parasite.  They'd been showing the trailer at the Bear Tooth during the festival and people were saying it was really good.  It was playing here just for three nights and I decided this was the best night to miss the festival films.  

Director Bong Joon-ho's Parasite won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year.  Bong's Snowpiercer was one of the early Netflix films we saw that convinced us to stick with Netflix.  All I'll say is that Parasite is a dark movie about rich and poor in Korea.  And the preview that we saw several times waiting for film festival movies, was always worth watching and didn't really give anything away. That's all I'll say for now because I think people should see it for themselves.  

And in line with the theme of economic inequality, when we got out to the car, J found the passenger side window had been smashed in.    911 told me to call 311 and they told me to report online.  

I went back into the Bear Tooth to tell them and they said they'd check the security cameras.  Meanwhile outside J saw another woman who's window had also been smashed.  

Here's what it looked like when we got it home after a chilly ride.  From what we can tell, nothing was actually taken.  J had a cloth shopping back on the seat, but nothing was in it.  The quarters for parking meters weren't touched.  The garage door opener was there.  The timer light plug and the book I'd just bought were all there.   I think they probably couldn't figure out how to unlock the door on that old Subaru.

State Farm and Speedy Glass were quick and efficient and J's waiting for the new window already.  But whether this is a homeless issue or a drug issue or just petty theft, it's a symptom of our economic inequalities and our lack of good, effective schooling and and physical and mental health care.

Back to the film festival tonight.