Chicago

So Trump had to cancel his rally tonight there as protesters showed up in great numbers. Trump seems to have unleashed a major protest movement.

This is probably a healthy thing. Having been present at so many civil rights and anti-war demonstrations in the '60s, I know how many social changes occurred eventually as a result.

Does Trump know what he is doing? Who knows. I suppose we will find out a bit more in the coming days...

In any event, as far as I can tell, the protest was peaceful, with people exercising their free speech rights. Apparently there were no arrests or injuries. What other options does anyone have when a large group of people feel deeply insulted and threatened by a candidate's comments?

What kind of America do we live in?

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Taxes

I've mostly filled out all the forms for my accountant to file my tax forms for last year by now; I helped Connie with her's yesterday; handled Aidan's today; and talked with Dylan about his yesterday. Dylan is outraged by the tax bite taken out of his minimum wage paycheck and who can blame him?

He barely made any money last year ($3,000) yet has to pay a bunch of that in taxes. Watching billionaires like Trump grandstand about this and that reminds me of what a huge price poor people pay to prop this country up. Of course, Dylan isn't a poor person, as he is the first to tell you.

"I live with my parents, so I can save money even at the minimum wage" he says. And he is saving money at an impressive rate.

But if he were on his own he couldn't find a place to live in this city based on what he earns. And that is the issue facing the guys in the backrooms of the market where he works, all Latinos, all undocumented, and all struggling just to get by.

If Americans want an authoritarian leader, then this is Trump's time. But if what we need to better understand the poor among us, any other candidate would be far better.

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Test Time

Lunch with Julia after she took her first SAT for five hours this morning. One thing that bothers me is that the schools never seem to be able to estimate when the kids will be ready to be picked up, so I waited outside Gateway for almost 1.5 hours. But when she emerged, she seemed satisfied that she had done pretty well on this test that is so hyped up by teachers that kids get very nervous on the days they go to take it -- always weekend days.

She also told me she is teaching 8 middle school girls to climb rocks at Mission Cliffs, as part of her advisory board role at Girl Ventures.

It's cool that we had Caroline Paul, a local writer, on both Forum and Newsroom yesterday. She was the first woman firefighter in San Francisco and is an adventurer on many levels. Her latest book, Gutsy Girls, is about how too many of us parents do not encourage our girls to take risks that we easily encourage our sons to take.

I told Julia about it and will now try to get her a copy of that book.

***

Today is also the day I started preparing all of my tax information for my accountant. Tomorrow my plan is to work on Aidan's and Dylan's taxes.

It is raining here, finally, off and on all day. El Nino is back!

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Mid-Day Burritos

From Taqueria Cancun with Dylan today, catching up. Talked to Julia, who was working on her essay,  and by phone with Aidan about his classes, car, Zaira, and their cat, Mika.

Otherwise a quiet Sunday, watching more politics coverage and waiting to watch a Michigan basketball game.

Donald Trump is actually the biggest joke in American politics in a long time, maybe all time. I watch his speeches -- they are filled with provocations, baseless claims, and petty personal attacks. He is a sure loser, now I think about it, and will never be president.

Either the Republican Party will run someone against him or he will run as an independent. Either way, Hillary Clinton, assuming she is the Democratic nominee, will be the next president.

So what we are witnessing is the dissolution of the GOP as a serious political party. Don't be deceived by Trump's "big" crowds. Getting people to a rally to witness a spectacle is not the same as winning electoral votes.

Right now I rate the candidates' chances to win the White House in Novemebr as follows:

Clinton      60%
Sanders     20%
Rubio        10%
Cruz            5%
Carson         4%
Trump         1%

That is the Democrats at 80% and the Republicans at 20%.

I also predict a Clinton-Sanders ticket and a Rubio-Cruz ticket. But Super Tuesday primaries loom, after which, if is not staggering, Trump may have too many delegates to be stopped. In that case, it is probably a Trump-Christie ticket.

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Mailing in the Bills

Saturday mornings, for me, are the times I can catch up on errands like paying my bills. It turned out that my landlord was not playing a game with me over the supposedly missing rent check. In fact, neither she nor I were at fault. My January rent check was scanned incorrectly by her bank, resulting in a two-digit deposit as opposed to the four-digit check I sent her.

Meanwhile, I am watching the political coverage as Donald Trump marches on to what may well lead to him to be the next president. This reminds me of Ronald Reagan's rise to power. We can only hope that Trump, like Reagan, is all rhetoric and no action. Reagan did nothing to advance conservatism here in California or in the U.S.

He was instead a liberal in conservative clothing.

Unlike most people I know, I don't fear Trump. He's just another person, like Obama, who should he become president, will find out the limits of power.

But there is one threat he makes -- to remove the First Amendment protections that allows us to be journalists. For that, he will alienate all of us -- not politically, but as those who are the only fair and unbalanced check on power America has.


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Under the Lights

Yesterday I got a disturbing message from my landlord, claiming she had not received my February rent, which I distinctly remember mailing as of the 1st of the month. I even remember which mailbox I used -- the main one on my way to work, at Bryant and 18th Streets.

When I got home last night I checked my online bank account and sure enough she had cashed and deposited that very check on Feb. 9th. The bank conveniently supplies a photographic copy of both the front and back of the check.

I emailed her that information but heard nothing back.

Any decent human being would have acknowledged her error! I wonder what the hell she was trying to do. Does she think I am so old and senile that I don't know who I pay when?

***

Just before 5 p.m. yesterday, three colleagues and I went into Studio A, under the lights, and were videotaped having a fake story conference. Except it wasn't fake; we really are investigating a particular "Officer-Involved-Shooting" here in the Mission a year ago.

The TV-friendly episode, however, was what is known as a design-school-thinking approach to developing new types of programming. So we were essentially acting, even though our discussion was also "real."

Once the engineers flip the tape and I can get a copy I will post it here. It might interest my many, many readers to see how I work and also how I look in a suit coat! Not to mention my three very smart and articulate young colleagues.

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May the Beat Go On

Seeing my sisters this week reminded me how different my life as a child was from what it has been as an adult. I grew up in Royal Oak and Bay City, Michigan -- a suburb and a small town. In both places there were large open fields out back -- places to run around, get stung by bees, see snakes, shoot birds, and so on.

So I have always thought of myself as a country boy, even though I was never one, really. Especially not the racist kind. But I loved country music the first time I heard it, which was probably the old Hank Williams tunes. There was some radio station I found on the radio in Michigan and I listened to it a lot.

Then, by about age 8, rock had taken over. I heard Elvis.

Before college, the Beatles and Motown took over. I was taken by that too.

As an adult, here in San Francisco, I went to small joints to see the likes of Hoyt Axton, Jerry Garcia and others. Folk music, deadhead music, Part McCartney.

All of my life, I have listened to music, but these days I have stopped. My CD player is broken and must be thrown away.

But I can still listen on my computer.

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