The Official Name is the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building

2007: I didn't care for the appearance of the Federal Building then,
but at least it didn't have today's open-air drug dealing outside.

When the Federal Building opened in 2007, it was hailed as a model of "green" architecture. Through a process still mysterious to this observer, the building would reduce power consumption in the summer by an airflow design that didn't require air conditioning. To encourage exercise most elevators stopped every third floor and forced employees to use stairs. I didn't like the look or the nudge, but going green isn't always pretty.

Wikipedia: [bold added]

In 2010 the GSA commissioned a survey of employees in 22 federal buildings nationwide, to determine employee satisfaction with their workplaces....the lowest ranked building for employee satisfaction was the San Francisco Federal Building, with a rating of just 13 percent; the next-lowest was considered twice as satisfactory, at 26 percent.

Headline, August 11, 2023: Crime is so bad near S.F. Federal building employees are told to work from home, officials said

Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advised hundreds of employees in San Francisco to work remotely for the foreseeable future due to public safety concerns outside the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building on Seventh Street...

Dozens of dealers routinely plant themselves on, next to or across the street from the property, operating in shifts as users smoke, snort or shoot up their recent purchases. The property’s concrete benches are an especially popular site for users to get high, socialize or pass out.

The locale is dangerous, the employees are miserable inside, the building is ugly, and the green design doesn't even work. Forget about statues, if San Francisco wants to tear down monuments this would be a good place to start, and I'll bet even Nancy Pelosi wouldn't mind.

This October Surprise Wasn't Planned But It Is Extremely Revealing

The Pelosis in 2019 (Chron photo)

When Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, was seriously injured by an assailant in their Pacific Heights home on Friday morning, the local news was all over the story. Nancy Pelosi's Democratic colleagues said unequivocally that the attack was politically motivated, brought on by the climate of violence fostered by Republicans.

According to the initial reports the attacker, David DePape, repeatedly shouted "Where's Nancy?" (she was in DC) and had posted QAnon conspiracy theories on a website. David DePape was arrested, and the news stories tried to make him fit the template of the Trumpist true believer who was triggered by hateful rhetoric. In case the viewers didn't make the connection the TV news ran footage of the January 6 riots.

Even then your humble blogger noticed that the facts didn't fit the usual narrative. A conservative extremist would likely have carried a gun (isn't that what MAGA Republicans do?) if he intended to harm Speaker Pelosi; instead he fractured Paul Pelosi's skull with a hammer? (Did DePape bring it with him or was it a weapon of opportunity?) And how could a guy like that get through security, which the extremely wealthy Pelosis must have had?

No, the wisest course was not to prejudge the actions of all the parties but to wait for more facts to come out. However, in the hothouse political and media atmosphere the weekend [correction: week] before Election Day there's a lot of prejudging going on, and not a lot of investigative work.

Cracks are already appearing in the dominant narrative.

Michael Shellenberger:

DePape lived with a notorious local nudist in a Berkeley home, complete with a Black Lives Matter sign in the window and an LGBT rainbow flag, emblazoned with a marijuana symbol, hanging from a tree. A closer look reveals the characteristics of a homeless encampment, or what Europeans call “an open drug scene.” In the driveway, there is a broken-down camper van. On the street is a yellow school bus, which neighbors said DePape occasionally stayed in. Both are filled with garbage typical of such structures in homeless encampments. People come and go from the house and the vehicles, neighbors say, in part to partake in the use of a potent psychedelic drug, ibogaine.

Neighbors described DePape as a homeless addict with politics that was, until recently, left-wing, but of secondary importance to his psychotic and paranoid behavior.

“What I know about the family is that they’re very radical activists,” said one of DePape’s neighbors, a woman who only gave her first name, Trish. “They seem very left. They are all about the Black Lives Matter movement. Gay pride. But they’re very detached from reality. They have called the cops on several of the neighbors, including us, claiming that we are plotting against them. It’s really weird to see that they are willing to be so aggressive toward somebody else who is also a lefty.”

The Santa Monica Observer (to be fair, the Chronicle says it's a rag that promulgates anti-LGBTQ conspiracy theory):

It's been a rumor for years in SF that Paul Pelosi is gay. David Depape is said to be a Castro Nudist. "The lunatic who allegedly assaulted Paul Pelosi is a Berkeley resident and a 'Former Castro Nudist Protester' and hemp 'jewelry maker' ...sounds totally MAGA Republican to me. 🤣🤣" this from Twitter.

Ok, so here's the theory, as related to me by a source: "Castro Nudists are a group of really radical gay male prostitutes that parade around naked with c--k rings. First of all, the Police did not come in response to an alarm. They come in response to a "wellness check". So someone called them to check on Pelosi."

"When he didn't answer the phone, the cops broke the sliding glass door to get in. Pelosi was struggling with the suspect, who was in his underwear.

Pelosi owned the hammer. Not Depape. Or, the male prostitute was doing something Pelosi didn't like."

I don't know what to believe, but this I can state with certainty: the relevant facts won't be revealed in the Chronicle or other mainstream media until after Election Day.

Meanwhile, lest we lose sight of what's important, let's pray for the health and well-being of Paul Pelosi and his family.

Peggy Noonan: What Democrats Ought to Do

(WSJ graphic)

WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan starts with the pandemic, segues to economics, and finishes (where else?) with politics. She imagines what an idealized Democratic politician would say (in other columns she role-plays Republicans):

in what really would have been the most consequential political statement of 2021—did anybody stand up and say,

“My friends, big ambition is admirable but we don’t have the margins. We don’t have FDR’s House and Senate, our control is razor thin. The path for us is easy does it, day by day, smaller bills and plenty of outreach to Republicans, whose increasingly populist base doesn’t mind spending as long as it doesn’t seem insane.

The progressives won’t like it, the Squad will hate it, but we can use them as a foil, as a useful illustration of what we’re not. We’ll use their criticism to underscore our centrism. We don’t need them. All we need to be popular is

a) not to be Donald Trump,

b) to provide steady leadership that delivers modest but regular improvements, and

c) to do this in a way that leaves people saying, ‘My God, someone made Washington work again.’ That’s the path.”

Did anyone inside say that?

Is there still time to change tack?

Peggy Noonan is asking if President Biden, Speaker Pelosi, or any grey eminences of the Democratic Party will admit their mistakes, moderate their rhetoric and policies, and possibly avoid losses in the mid-term elections. Such an admission would require strength of character, and based on what we have seen so far, I would not bet on a 2022 outcome different from what the prognosticators have stated.

Character is destiny.

It's His Métier, Stupid

With Joe Biden's lead in the polls rising to double digits, President Trump tweeted yesterday that there would be no stimulus package until after the November 3rd election. The move seemed politically suicidal to Republicans and even Democrats. [bold added]

Nancy Pelosi is asking for $2.4 Trillion Dollars to bailout poorly run, high crime, Democrat States, money that is in no way related to COVID-19. We made a very generous offer of $1.6 Trillion Dollars and, as usual, she is not negotiating in good faith. I am rejecting their...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2020

...request, and looking to the future of our Country. I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business. I have asked...

Mitch McConnell not to delay, but to instead focus full time on approving my outstanding nominee to the United States Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett. Our Economy is doing very well. The Stock Market is at record levels, JOBS and unemployment...

also coming back in record numbers. We are leading the World in Economic Recovery, and THE BEST IS YET TO COME!

Your humble blogger cannot believe that, after watching Donald Trump in politics for four years, observers would think that would be the last word--on second thought, maybe I do believe it--on the stimulus negotiations. We are back to his métier, deal-making.

Speaker Pelosi tried to push through a stimulus bill that included state-and-local government aid primarily to Blue States and used the imminent election to panic the President and the Senate to make a deal on her terms.

The President today tweeted his support for a "clean" bill with little for Democratic constituencies.

If I am sent a Stand Alone Bill for Stimulus Checks ($1,200), they will go out to our great people IMMEDIATELY. I am ready to sign right now. Are you listening Nancy? @MarkMeadows @senatemajldr @kevinomccarthy @SpeakerPelosi @SenSchumer

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020

How the stimulus negotiations will play out in the weeks ahead is anyone's guess, but I suspect the perceptions in the rest of the country are not as one-sided against the President as the commentators thought yesterday.

The 24/7 Outrage Machine

(WSJ graphic)

WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan is always a worthwhile read--not because I agree with her, which I often don't--but because I think she has a moral sensibility akin to mine. She's slow to condemn moral failings and tries to see the perspectives from all sides.

In her first column of 2020 she's very critical of President Trump ("He can’t be proved more guilty") while at the same time dismissive of the attempt to remove him ("It will be the impeachment that didn’t move the needle, that history barely remembers").

She also is not complimentary toward the Democratic Presidential field or Nancy Pelosi. But she saves her harshest words for the wokescolds: [bold added]

The past decade saw the rise of the woke progressives who dictate what words can be said and ideas held, thus poisoning and paralyzing American humor, drama, entertainment, culture and journalism. In the coming 10 years someone will effectively stand up to them. They are the most hated people in America, and their entire program is accusation: you are racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic; you are a bigot, a villain, a white male, a patriarchal misogynist, your day is over. They never have a second move. Bow to them, as most do, and they’ll accuse you even more of newly imagined sins. They claim to be vulnerable victims, and moral. Actually they’re not. They’re mean and seek to kill, and like all bullies are cowards.

Everyone with an honest mind hates them. Someone will finally move effectively against them. Who? How? That will be a story of the ’20s, and a good one.

It's hard to de-escalate, though, with so many likes.

Tolerance is an ethic that is an important part of being an adult. As more Americans live in denser communities tolerance has become even more crucial. There are ways to express disagreement without being disagreeable.

The 24/7 outrage machine has made life unpleasant for all. When tolerant people like Peggy Noonan have had enough, then the reckoning is coming.

Archetypes

WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan muses about two Democratic Party septuagenarians.

Joe Biden is Caesar:

(Nate Beeler cartoon)

The political class of Rome wanted Caesar gone and successfully dispatched him with 23 wounds. But the conspirators themselves came to unhappy ends—Caesar’s base hated them and chased them out of town! Nobody loves an assassin. The only political survivors were Caesar’s designated heir and the leaders who didn’t join the conspiracy.

That is the predicament of the 23 contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination who are not named Joe Biden. They want the front-runner gone. But they don’t really want to be the one who does him in. Pete Buttigieg doesn’t want you saying he has a lean and hungry look! Amy Klobuchar doesn’t want it said she really is mean. The safe course for them is to let someone else do it, then mourn, with poignant words, the end of an epic 20th-century career.

Nancy Pelosi is Big Mama:

grandma has been observing them [the "Squad"--the four progressive House Democrats Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.) and sees what others see. She doesn’t mind that they’re hot, aggressive and ideological, but they don’t confine their fire to outside the tent. They attack moderates as sellouts, racists, child abusers...

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has been destructive to her party’s chances in 2020. She is a one woman Committee to Re-Elect the President. The way I read it now, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has been dunked on by a pro and schooled by Big Mama...

in private, Mrs. Pelosi couldn’t be clearer. To her caucus’s progressives at the closed-door meeting Wednesday morning: “Some of you are here to make a beautiful pâté, but we’re making sausage.” “You got a complaint? You come and talk to me about it. But do not tweet about our members and expect us to think that that is just OK.” On attacks on moderates: “Think twice. Actually, don’t think twice. Think once.”

Like other seasoned pundits and politicians, Peggy Noonan uses logic and math to discount the power of the young lionesses of the Democratic Party.

However, given that few understand the political forces at work in the current environment, much less can use them to make predictions, anything is possible. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez could be Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, or Alexandria the Great, who conquered an empire before the age of 30. I think the former is more likely than the latter, but who knows?

It's a New World, Willie

Democratic Party elder Willie Brown has a practical take on the influence of the Squad (the four progressive House Democrats Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.):

Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley (NY Post)

All the talk about dissension among House Democrats is a bit overblown.

There are 235 Democrats in the House. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has only four really rebellious members, “the squad” led by hero-of-the-left Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

When I was Assembly speaker I had five rebels on my hands, and they actually organized to try to get rid of me. They didn’t succeed, because when you come right down to it, five people out of 50 ain’t a majority.

I’m sure Pelosi’s four rebels will find that out soon enough.

I'm not confident that Willie's right about the Squad's power. Non-stop media coverage can change perceptions of influence, and more influence translates into more power in the new world of social media.

The Fakery Around Us

One of the latest tempests-in-a-Washington-teapot is about whether President Trump retweeted a doctored video of Nancy Pelosi slurring her words. Complicating the matter is that there are several Pelosi videos circulating the web, some "more fake" than others. Also, there is little consensus about where the line is crossed, for example, whether it includes editing out context or slowing the speed.

IMHO, this Trump-Pelosi contretemps is tiresome and will blow over soon.

The far greater issue is the advancement of "deep-fake" video technology.

Deepfakes first entered the public eye late 2017, when an anonymous Redditor under the name “deepfakes” began uploading videos of celebrities like Scarlett Johansson stitched onto the bodies of pornographic actors...

Celebrities are the easiest targets, with ample public imagery that can be used to train deepfake algorithms; it’s relatively easy to make a high-fidelity video of Donald Trump, for example, who appears on TV day and night and at all angles....

The concern is that a cleverly crafted deepfake of a public figure, perhaps imitating a grainy cell phone video so that it’s imperfections are overlooked, and timed for the right moment, could shape a lot of opinions.

You and I, dear reader, may take comfort in that we are not public figures; there are relatively few pictures and videos of us that can be used for nefarious purposes. But are we deluding ourselves?

Samsung's "deep fake" algorithms can create a video talking head from a single photograph. Below is a demonstration using a well-known portrait.

(Gif from sciencealert.com )

One silver lining is that the subjects of embarrassing revelations can plausibly claim that the "evidence" is made up. If some of it is untrustworthy--and we don't know which part--then all of it is. And maybe, just maybe, this will lead the viewing public to do more thinking for themselves.

Open Question

April 18: Current Mayor London Breed and former
Mayor Willie Brown at the ceremony remembering
the 1906 earthquake and fire. (MSN)

Democratic éminence grise Willie Brown: Impeachment would be suicide for Democrats.

Impeachment is a suicide mission that also puts the party on the defensive for supposedly doing an end run around the electoral process.

To be sure, ex-Assembly Speaker and former SF Mayor Brown, 85, is no fan of President Trump:

I say, plow on. Call for hearings. Go over every page, line by line, if for no other reason than to make everyone aware of every questionable act committed by President Trump and his entourage....

I’m betting Trump could still win re-election if the economy holds up, but I’m also betting Nancy Pelosi’s Democrats will hold the House and maybe, just maybe, the Democrats can flip the Senate.

Then, and only then, would Democrats be in position to take corrective action against Trump’s threat to our democracy.

Speaking of Nancy Pelosi, 79, she also urges House Democrats to go slow on impeachment:

Pelosi told Democrats on the conference call that it is important for the House to gather more facts before launching any impeachment effort. She also noted that at least a third of House Democrats are on committees that will be investigating the president.

Whether the young lions and lionesses of the Party will follow the advice of their elders is an open question.