By Geoff Page
I saw two headlines Monday that were a wonderful balm for the eyes and the mind. That is saying something considering what we are all seeing in the headlines, and have been seeing for months.
The first headline was “Joe Biden is confirmed as president-elect.” Now, this was not wonderful because I love Joe Biden, nor do I dislike him, it was because of the contrast between this moment and one four years ago.
I was in a hotel room in Colorado on business the night of the election four years ago. I had an uneasy feeling and as the night wore on it did not dissipate. I had to get to bed because I was going to be teaching the whole next day. When I got up the next morning, I made some coffee but I dreaded turning on the TV.
When I finally did hear the news, I stood gaping at the TV in shock and what first ran through my mind the most was the judicial system. I’m old enough to know the effect of an election on the judicial system and later watched horrified as this orange-haired puppet was able to get three people on the Supreme Court, not to mention what happened to the lower courts. I was flabbergasted that enough people in this country liked this miserable blowhard so much he managed to become president. It was profoundly depressing.
But, yesterday’s headline was, if not profoundly one, still a beautiful sight because this meant the person who has single-handedly divided this country as no other was finally dethroned. It meant we would no longer have to look at those pouty lips. It meant I could finally stop diving to turn off my car radio every time the news began to play a clip of him speaking. The only occasion when I actually watched the man for any amount of time was his campaign speech in San Diego. It was so ridiculous, I was confident he’d fail.
How anyone could like this racist, misogynist, fascist, baby boy born with a gold spoon in his mouth and enough cranium space left over for two more brains is beyond my comprehension. Not being happy with politics is understandable but how could turning over the keys to a narcissistic maniac a solution that made any sense?.
I came of age in the 1960s, so politics have always been of interest to me. I thought living through Nixon would be the worst that ever I would see. But, along came George Bush who bankrupted this country and left a legacy of war and war wounded for 20 years. Nixon inherited his war and a lot of people died because of him too, but George started his for no reason other than that he could.
But, then we got the LOSER. While his casualties due to warfare with weapons of war do not compare to Nixon’s or Bush’s, the LOSER’s casualties are everywhere. The COVID deaths. Deaths due to gutting the clean air and clean water regulations. Immigrant deaths due to his inhuman treatment of that poor, defenseless population. People starving for lack of government help in a very rough time. Killings by nutcases for political reasons. And, the non-fatal casualties of turning people against each other including families against each other.
Although the mental midget will be gone, the legacy of turning people against each other will not fade away. Unfortunately, he showed all of the lesser idiots out there that the politics of hate and lies can be successful, you can say whatever you want to make up with impunity.
After listening to the verbal dysentery coming out of the LOSER’s mouth for the past four years, it is clear that the bounds of decency of any kind are shredded. We can only hope this will be like the lingering couth from a bad cold that you just realize one day is gone.
The second headline contained several words but the ones that I enjoyed most were these, “Former Mayor Kevin Faulconer…” The years of looking at this vapid, inarticulate do-nothing, Caspar Milquetoast of a politician are over, at least here in San Diego. The word is that he may run for governor. My hope is that his attempt will be as successful as Susan Golding’s reach for the stars and wonderful crash and burn.
This guy has made a career of being a tool of the San Diego power establishment. He failed at his first council election but when Zucchet had to resign, they got behind Faulconer as he ran for the vacancy. They’ve been behind him ever since and never more than during the Bob Filner assassination.
As the councilmember for District 2, he did nothing. I personally watched him do an about face on a serious community safety concern when he realized he was on the wrong side of a lot of well to do Point Lomans. This was quintessential Faulconer.
Some years ago, a company proposed to capture gas that is a by-product of the sewage treatment plant at the end of Point Loma. The plan was to truck the gas through Point Loma in the middle of the night in long, high pressure tanker trucks. When this came before the city council, Faulconer enthusiastically endorsed it despite very vocal protest in the community. Because he was the council member for the district where this would happen, all the others voted for it. I watched this session personally.
But, in this case, the community was not finished. There was an alternate proposal to simply capture the gas and export it in the already existing San Diego Gas and Electric pipeline at the plant. This was clearly a far safer method than running high pressure tanker trucks through a sleeping Point Loma neighborhood. Eventually, activists gathered a very large number of signatures against the trucking plan. These signatures came from people in upper Point Loma, including the wooded area. This got Faulconer’s attention.
Fast forward to the Peninsula Community Planning Board meeting where Faulconer “announced” a change in plan and that “he” had been successful in getting SDG&E to take the gas into their pipelines. Faulconer actually stood before the crowd and said there was no way he was ever going to allow anyone to endanger Point Loma by trucking gas through the neighborhood. By god! It was like watching Mel Brooks as the governor in Blazing Saddles. Harrumph, harrumph! Faluconer had to have practiced that the little speech at home so he could deliver it with a straight face and not break up laughing.
Had Faulconer stood up and said something like, “I was in favor of the original proposal because I honestly thought that recycling the gas was an ecological winner and that it would be safe. But, the people of this community caused me to look at this alternate idea much more closely and after doing so, I changed my mind. It is the better idea. The pipeline idea removes the danger factor, so thank you Point Loma.” But, instead, the dumb shit took credit for the change.
Hell, I would have had more respect for him if he had just stuck to his original guns. But, he floated with the wind like gossamer. Hopefully now, he will blow away completely and go off to collect his actual rewards from the benefactors he benefited.
The only concern I have is what seems to be a groundswell of opposition to the completely Democratically controlled California government. And, perhaps rightfully so. No government should be controlled by one party. But, this could usher in a wave of conservatives and they will be after the top job.
A see-through candidate like Faucloner might be attractive to some. I mean, look what they did with Reagan. The problem is, Faulconer is a bore, he won’t sell. I hope. If he runs, the citizens of San Diego owe it to the rest of the state to speak up and let everyone know there is no there, there.
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