Recently, I visited what some might call a “concentration camp.” Conditions in the facility shocked me: residents were crowded in and the smell of dirty diapers and soiled clothing/bedding and urine from shared restrooms permeated the air. Language barriers between staff and residents created other issues. Many residents appeared listless, surrounded by institutional-beige walls, bedding and floors. Was I at a border facility housing illegal immigrants? No, I was at one of Marin’s skilled nursing facilities that’s home to hundreds of elderly and disabled poor.
Mill Valley
Good Times
Now that we’ve elected our first openly Fascist president, a socialist (Bernie), an upstart (Harris), a Stanford man (Booker), a gay mayor (Buttigieg), and an old school hack (Biden) don’t look half bad. Heck, I’d even take a religious reprobate (Pence) over Donito Trumppolini. I read that Pence might follow the rule of law on occasion. Give democracy a chance. Bring on 2020!
San Rafael
Speaking of Trees
Trees sequester carbon dioxide. Trees release oxygen into the air. Trees are a part of the solution to global warming. We must plant trees, prune trees and, of course, avoid killing trees. They are here to help us. Honor them. By doing so we avoid the intense fires that are part of global warming.
Graton
Critiquing
the Critic
You must be able to find a film critic who can go to at least one decent movie a week and write a review. In the July 3–9 issue of your otherwise excellent paper you carried yet another “review” of one of the endlessly redundant, puerile and mindless superhero movies that seem to be the only thing pulling the Millennial and Gen X generations into their local, virtually empty cineplexes. At the same time our excellent local arthouses Summerfield Cinemas and Rialto Cinemas carried: Midsommar; Yesterday; Pavarotti; The Last Black Man in San Francisco; Echo in the Canyon; Rocketman; The Serengeti Rules; The Biggest Little Farm and The Framing Of John Delorean, all excellent and interesting films that deserved some notice in your “local” journal. If you truly want to support local business, how about supporting our local theatres with some articulate reviews and leaving the pablum films to the hacks who think a comparison of Rodan, Godzilla and Spiderman is somehow intellectually engaging. I doubt very much that the people who go to these movies read your periodical anyway.
Santa Rosa
Editor’s Note: Check out this week’s review of The Last Black Man in
San Francisco, p18.
AI Not OK
The recent “Seeing Is Believing” article (July 3, 2019) is a timely counterpoint to the rah, rah, rah about the supposed widespread benefits that artificial intelligence will bring to us all. For more on problematic aspects of AI I alert Bohemian readers to an upcoming talk on Tuesday July 16, 7pm. in Sophia Hall, at the Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm in Santa Rosa) by Nicanor Perlas. Perlas recently published his views in Humanity’s Last Stand: The Challenge of Artificial Intelligence: A Spiritual Scientific Response.
Via Bohemian.com
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