This Day In Snookland...Documents? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Documents!

AllThePaperTrails
ThatNeverExistedVille


When Bob Mackin posted up Ken Boessenkool's agenda obtained by FOIR for the period from just before 'incident' until just before the 'resignation', it was striking how little actually happened that involved Mr. B.

In fact, if he hadn't had 'tea' with Li Ka Shing while in Hong Kong on the Asian junket with his (then still) Boss, this despite the fact that the little get together occurred after the 'incident', one might conclude that Mr. B. had very little of substance whatsoever to do during his last days.

But here's the thing.

The VSun's J. Fowlie went further FOIR fishing  looking for the following:

All correspondences (emails, letters, BBMs and/or text messages) sent or received between the following:

• Ken Boessenkool to Premier Christy Clark
• Premier Christy Clark to Ken Boessenkool
• Ken Boessenkool to (Public Service Agency head) Lynda Tarras 
• Ken Boessenkool to (Deputy Chief of Staff) Kim Haakstad
• Kim Haakstad to Ken Boessenkool.

The time limit for the request was between September 7, 2012 and September 27, 2012.

And guess what Mr. Fowlie got back...

One single document.

Which was Mr. B.'s letter of resignation to his now former Boss.

Which means one of two things....

Nobody does much of anything, ever, in the Snook's office.

Or....

Every single one of them is following the Dobell Doctrine (no paper or electronic trails anywhere!) to the letter.

Although, come to think of it....

Those two things are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

OK?

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Sunday Chores (And A Story)

AllTheRakingThatFits
AndDecorativePilesVille

"...Unfortunately, the big cardboard cut-out Cadillac went down with our old house when the wrecking ball killed the entire neighbourhood for condos in the Spring of 2005.

There's a Crazy Janey-type tune in there somewhere, I think.

And I'm pretty sure Bigger E. will write it someday.

After all, it's not like she hasn't had the inspiration or anything..."

From: 'There Is No Darkness In This Town'

The Pacific Gazette, April 4th, 2008

So.

My dog Rosie and I had a job to do when the rain stopped for half-an-hour this afternoon.

Which was to get the metric ton or so of banana leaves up off the boulevard and the road in front of our current house before they turned to a soggy, leaden mess that would up everything for the rest of the winter if they weren't removed.

So we did that.

And then Rosie turned her attention to the red mini-maple leaves on the front lawn shown above.

So I kept on raking.

But the little red points were so beautiful that I couldn't bring myself to pick them up.

Which is how, maybe for the first time ever, I suddenly became an exterior decorator...

****

Now.

Here is something you may, or may not, know.

Which is that our other kid, littler e., named Rosie.

And she named her after 'that' Rosie.

You know the one from the old, old Springsteen song.

****

Last night the kids I work with, most of whom are not really kids anymore, and some of whom have tiny kids of their own now, had a party.

Well, actually, it was more of a baby shower for one of the techs who is getting ready to go on mat leave.

Weirdly, our littler e. was the oldest real kid there and she did a whole lot of very fine babysitting-type stuff all night long. 

And when the shower games and the dinner were done, one of the young Dads, who is clearly still a little bit pre-toddler sleep-deprived, asked me the E's and I were going to see Springsteen when he comes back to town in a few weeks.

And that's when things suddenly became very strange.

Because even more weirdly (which will become clear if you punch up the podcast below), I haven't really given it much thought.

After all, I've got other shows to go to before Christmas time comes.

Shows that include performances by the likes of 'Mother Mother', 'Hannah Georgas' and 'Lauren O'Connell' that my kids want to take me to rather than the other way around (the seeming bizarity of which will also become exceedingly clear if you really do punch up the podcast below).

Man.

This crazy, mixed-up life really does go by so fast...

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For My American Friends: Ask Yourselves This...

....What Is The One Thing Mitt Really Will Do?

I realize that, as it pertains to most matters, you really have no idea what Mr. Romney will actually do if he becomes your president.

Why?

Because he will not tell you.

What he will do, I mean.

But on one matter Mr. Romney has been abundantly clear.

And that is the matter of Supreme Court appointments.

Specifically, here is what is stated, right here and right now, two days before your election on Mr. Romney's website.

...Mitt believes in the rule of law, and he understands that the next president will make nominations that will shape the Supreme Court and the whole of the judiciary for decades to come. He will therefore appoint wise, experienced, and restrained judges who will take seriously their oath to discharge their duties impartially in accordance with the Constitution and laws — not their own personal policy preferences.

As president, Mitt will nominate judges in the mold of Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito. These justices hold dear what the great Chief Justice John Marshall called “the basis on which the whole American fabric has been erected”: a written Constitution, with real and determinate meaning. The judges that Mitt nominates will exhibit a genuine appreciation for the text, structure, and history of our Constitution and interpret the Constitution and the laws as they are written. And his nominees will possess a demonstrated record of adherence to these core principles...


Now.

Nevermind your harder-left's Purity Brigades.

Just read those names again...

Roberts....Scalia...Thomas...Alito

And realize that if Mitt doubles those up, even increases them by half, they WILL take you back to this:

"...And so much for all that. I have to go upstairs and call the hospital. Sandy is in there again with another miscarriage - a real nightmare version, this time, since it puts me head on with the abortion laws. She's only two months pregnant, but the pain is so bad she can't stand up....and the pigs say they can't do a therapeutic abortion. All they do is keep her drugged up on codein and wait for God to work His Will. The D&C operation is as simple as pulling a tooth, but they won't do it.....and this is Colorado, which recently passed a "liberalized" abortion law. Man, I'm coming to really hate that word 'liberal'"...

Hunter S. Thompson, Letter to Oscar Z. Acosta (his 'Samoan' Attorney), March 1970
Reprinted in: The Gonzo Letters Vol II, Simon and Schuster, 2000, pp 286-7.

The screed above was written in the darkest of dark ages, just a scant three years before Nixon's (yes, Nixon's!) court ruled on Roe v. Wade.

But I digress, because the real matter at hand, right now, is that Mr. Romney's court WILL take you back to that time.

Which means that this is no longer about Rovian red meat for the base, or dog whistles, or even wedge-issues.

Instead, it is about back-alley butchers and women's lives.

OK?


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This Day In Snookland...The 'Jobs Plan' Denial Factory.

ShootAllTheMessengers
EspeciallyThoseWithBadNewsVille


Well, well, well.....

When confronted with 'bad' news (ie. a StatsCan report that says British Columbia shed 16,000 fulltime jobs last month) what does Christy Clark's Minister for Jobs Ads do?

Why, what else, Minister Pat Bell craps on StatsCan.

Andrew Duffy had the story in the Victoria Times-Colonist late yesterday:

....In a conference call with reporters, Bell noted that B.C. has added 46,500 jobs since the government’s Jobs Plan came into effect 14 months ago, and questioned Statistics Canada’s numbers for October.

“When we dip into the numbers, we see the largest drop is in manufacturing,” he said, noting Statistics Canada’s figures show that sector dropping 8,300 positions in October from September. “I’m not sure there isn’t an anomaly — that appears large.”

Bell said he hasn’t heard of any manufacturers closing facilities or curtailing production since September. He noted Statistics Canada calls about 6,000 households in B.C. to gauge employment and extrapolates for the entire labour force of 2.5 million when it does the survey each month.

“We need to look further into those job losses,” he said...


Potemkin.

It's a village just off Government St. on the edge of James Bay.

And, oddly, nobody seems to go there anymore.

Especially not she who flies by Helijet.

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Boessenkool Investigation (ctd)...Actual Written Evidence Of Something.

AllTheFOI'sThatFit
FasterThanTheVSunVille



Bob Mackin who was scooped on the original Boessenkool Investigation FOI due to a parallel one obtained simultaneously by the VSun, has more....

This time, again by FOI, Mackin has obtained the agenda of Mr. Boessenkool that covers the period when the 'all-verbal' investigation allegedly took place (ie. between the time of the 'incident' and the 'resignation').

And I'm telling you, based on the actual, you know, 'written' evidence available so far it does not look good for the so-called 'investigators'*.

Not to mention the so-called 'premier'.

Here is Mr. Mackin's lede, from BiV (please go and read it all):

Christy Clark's chief of staff Ken Boessenkool had no meetings with the head of B.C.'s Public Service Agency, Lynda Tarras, in the days prior to his resignation over an alleged misconduct – despite Clark saying the investigation was being handle(d) by Tarras.

According to Boessenkool's agenda for September, obtained by Business in Vancouver via Freedom of Information, he had a five-minute phone call with Premier Clark on September 19 followed by an hour-long meeting with Deputy Minister John Dyble. Boessenkool tendered his resignation September 23 and Clark announced BC Hydro chairman Dan Doyle as the replacement on September 24.

Though Boessenkool's agenda shows the meeting with Dyble, it does not mention any meeting with Tarras. The Premier has not mentioned that Dyble was involved in this investigation. Neither Tarras nor Dyble responded to a BIV interview requests....


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*Please note: the pluralization was purposeful...Because that too is a new wrinkle here...

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The Job Creator Myth Is Dead...Long Live The JC Myth!

MakingTheirOwnReality
AllOverAgainVille


Remember that US Republican talking point that has wormed its way up the hard-con gullet to Canada where it has taken hold deep in, and is hollowing out the guts of, the British Columbia that Gordon Campbell's public asset-sucking parasites have ravaged?

You know, the myth that says that if you cut taxes to the well-off (and, conversely, jack the crap out of consumption taxes and user-fees that hit the not-so-well-off the hardest) you will spur economic activity and create jobs.

Well, guess what.....

As Ian Reid said yesterday about Christy Clark's Job's Plan, the 'job creator myth' is nothing but lies and bullshit.

And a non-partisan study from 'Congressional Research Service' in the United States says as much.

But.

Guess what else...

Senate Republicans in the States appear to have forced the 'withdrawl' of the report in a concerted effort to keep the myth alive.

Johnathan Weisman had the story in yesterday's NYTimes. Here is his lede, which is a thing of beauty, what with its extremely broad base on top and super-pointy tip on bottom:

WASHINGTON — The Congressional Research Service has withdrawn an economic report that found no correlation between top tax rates and economic growth, a central tenet of conservative economic theory, after Senate Republicans raised concerns about the paper’s findings and wording...


Imagine that.

For the record, here is the kicker of the 'withdrawn' report:

...Throughout the late-1940s and 1950s, the top marginal tax rate was typically above 90%; today it is 35%. Additionally, the top capital gains tax rate was 25% in the 1950s and 1960s, 35% in the 1970s; today it is 15%. The real GDP growth rate averaged 4.2% and real per capita GDP increased annually by 2.4% in the 1950s. In the 2000s, the average real GDP growth rate was1.7% and real per capita GDP increased annually by less than 1%. There is not conclusive evidence, however, to substantiate a clear relationship between the 65-year steady reduction in the top tax rates and economic growth. Analysis of such data suggests the reduction in the top tax rates have had little association with saving, investment, or productivity growth. However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution. The share of income accruing to the top 0.1% of U.S. families increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% by 2007 before falling to 9.2% due to the 2007-2009 recession. The evidence does not suggest necessarily a relationship between tax policy with regard to the top tax rates and the size of the economic pie, but there may be a relationship to how the economic pie is sliced...


And you know what boggles-my-mind about all of this...

Not with respect to the intentions and desires of the parasitic super-rich who fund the hard-cons.

After all, those intentions and desires, which are currently in the fullest of full-bloom, are self-evident.

And I am not even that surprised by the attitudes of the comfortably well-off*.

But, I am surprised by the attitudes of those in the rapidly deteriorating middle who have been bamboozled into buying into the Big Con of the hard-cons precisely because they have been convinced that we have to get back to the 1950's.


__________
*Although, I must confess that I am baffled by the uber-connish attitudes of the ladder puller-uppers, some of whom are my colleagues...
And, on another topic....Ron Obvious catches up and does a pretty good job of summarizing just about every post we wrote in the last week, here.
Well, just about everything, because, as is to be expected, many pro-pundits have blinders over, and/or flies buzzing around, their eyes when it comes to massive elephants sitting in the vestibules of the insider access-appointed rooms...Elephants, which to his great credit Vaughn Palmer noticed this week, like....This.

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A Total Eclipse Of The Clouds...

TheWholeOfTheMoon

EverywhereVille

The photo above is actually from a morning ride a few weeks ago before the clouds and the rain and the Tenenbauming arrived.

But no matter.

Because absolutely nothing can can get in the way of this moon...

_____

And then there is......This (skip the first two minutes).
Story on this coming...

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This Day In Snookland (ctd)...A New Name For Ms. Clark's 'Job Plan'

AllTheMonickersThatFit
TruthInAdvertisingVille


And it comes to us from Ian Reid:

...According to the latest Stats Canada report, BC was about sixth best in the country, behind Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and just about the same as Ontario (on a per capita basis).

On the bright side we are doing better than PEI.

Year over year job growth in BC was 1.3% or about 30,000 jobs. It’s a mediocre record in a mediocre year in Canada for job creation.

When it comes to creating full time jobs, BC falls even further behind other provinces.

So all the advertising? Pretty much lies and bullshit. Come to think about it wouldn’t that be a fantastically apt BC Liberal campaign slogan?

The Lies and Bullshit Tour featuring Christy Clark, coming to a chamber of commerce near you.

Now.

Based on the facts at hand, including those previously unearthed by Mr. David Akin when the Lotuslandian proMedia failed to do so, it's pretty darned hard to argue with him.

And, speaking of facts, it would appear that the Scrub.....errrrr...Minister responsible is still obfuscating after the latest from StatsCan indicates that BC lost the most fulltime jobs, by far, last month.

And the designated Scrub-watcher, David Schreck (not Shrek!), calls the Minister on it almost immediately, here:

@patbellbc Wrong again Pat. Oct 2012/Oct 2011 puts BC 6th in job growth. #bcpoli #NoTrust #NoCredibility 4 #bcjobsplan
— David Schreck (@StrategicThghts) November 2, 2012

The pushback....

It burns.


________
Thanks to reader GWest for the heads-up on Mr. Bell's continuing obfustacatory ways...
And as for that pushback...It's great to see something that was non-existent in 2005, and barely even there in 2009, really starting to build...


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This Day In Snookland...How Much Did We Pay To Lose 11,000 Jobs Last Month?

AllTheCodswallopThatFits
BoughtWithOurMoneyVille


That was then (Feb 2012):

VICTORIA — Taxpayers are spending $15 million to advertise Premier Christy Clark’s jobs plan.

Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation Pat Bell said on Wednesday the government will spend $10 million running advertisements in foreign markets in hopes of attracting both jobs and investment to the province.

A domestic component of the jobs plan advertising campaign, which began across B.C. late last year, will continue in earnest in the months to come and will cost taxpayers a total of $5million, he added...


This was thenner (Oct, 2012):

On Saturday, BC Premier Christy Clark spoke to her party’s convention in Whistler, B.C. During the speech, she mentioned several times that B.C. was leading the country when it came to job creation.

For example, as the Vancouver Sun‘s Jonathan Fowlie reported, Clark said, “I’m going to run on (being) number one in job creation.” The Globe‘s Gary Mason, reporting on the speech,wrote, “As expected, there was lots of talk about recent job-creation numbers that ranked B.C. first in the country.” Dirk Meissner of the Canadian Press wrote: “She [Clark] said B.C. has created 57,000 jobs over the last year, more than any other province in Canada.”

That last claim is demonstrably false and the others are pretty wobbly too.Statistics Canada, said right here on October 5, the most recent and up-to-date snapshot of the country’s job creation numbers, that “over the last year” in B.C., there are 44,700 more full-time jobs, 15,100 fewer part-time jobs for a net gain of 29,500 more jobs. Where on earth does Clark get 57,000 new jobs created?

And, frankly, I’m a little surprised that all of these reporters just took Clark’s boast on its face rather than look it up and challenge her on the claim that that B.C is “number one in job creation.” ...


And this is now (Nov, 2012):

OTTAWA - B.C. suffered the biggest setback in job loss, while little changed in other provinces in October, according to Statistics Canada...

{snippety doo-dah}

...Regionally, there were as many provinces reporting increases in employment as decreases. The biggest gain was in Quebec, which saw 20,100 jobs added, while the biggest loss came in British Columbia, which reported 10,900 fewer jobs...

Gosh.

Didn't know that advertisements on the TeeVee = Policy and/or, you know, actual legislation.

I wonder if there will be a Friday afternoon faux-presser/big speech to the pom-pom waving faithful to announce this 'triumph'?

Backed with, of course, carefully planted PR fluff-puffery pieces that extoll us to believe that our (not) Premier is a 'fighter' and a 'change agent' who whose scrubs.....errrrr....'team' is really, really on to something.

Sheesh.


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Apres Nous, Les Ledgie Boys...Whose Cultish Now?

AllThePalingAroundThatFits
WithBloggersVille


On the matter of the Boessenkool investigation that may or may not have actually taken place (i.e. we can't tell without actual, you know, evidence), it is interesting in the extreme to compare the recent Twitter feeds for the members from Bill Good's Friday morning 'Cutting Edge of The Ledge' panel:

Not that there is, as Mr. Palmer once put it about citizens who are concerned about RailGate, anything wrong with being in a 'cult'.



______
And we'll leave it to GrantG to report back on this morning's show....Because, like our good friend, and fellow RailGate cult member West End Bob, we will not be listening....

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Michael Sona vs The CPC (ctd)...The Challenges Begin

GetThemAllOnTheRecord
ImmediatelyVille


There was an interesting tidbit at the bottom the Laura Payton's follow-up to Michael Sona's interview with Evan Solomon over at MoCo Central.

It starts like this:

...Sona said that Nick Kouvalis, a strategist with the firm Campaign Research, which does polling and brand management for Conservative politicians, was in the office (of Marty Burke's CPC Guelph Campaign) between eight to 12 times during the campaign. Records show the firm billed Burke's campaign for $6,215 for voter identification services and for a robocall to recruit volunteers...

And to Ms. Payton's credit she got Mr. Kouvalis to respond:

...Kouvalis, however, disputed Sona's assertion, saying on Twitter that he was in the riding one night during the writ period for debate preparation, then once more three nights later to watch the debate.

"That's it," Kouvalis tweeted...


Interesting, that apparent difference, no?


______
Meanwhile, the McMaherTwins continue to pushback against Brian Lilley and the fine folks at Sun(notquitereally)News, first with a Tweet. and then with an O'Cit BlogPost.....

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This Day In Snookland, ctd...Did The (Not) Premier Just Throw The Head Of The PSA Under The Bus?

WhatMeWorry?
TheRulesVille


Just heard Ms. Christy Clark on CBC Radio One's 5:30pm newscast...

And in an illogically loopy defense of the Boessenkool investigation debacle she said she wanted to assure British Columbians that everything was done 'according to the rules' because, according to her (ie. the [not] Premier), the head of the Public Service Agency who carried out the paper-free investigation would never do anything wrong.

So....

It would now appear that Ms. Clark is making the case that:

1) It wasn't my idea!

2) The buck stops with somebody else!

Gosh.

That sure doesn't sound like someone who is, as public relations man Bruce Anderson claimed in The Globe this morning,  a 'fighter' with a 'keen instinct'.

Hmmm....

Come to think of it, maybe Mr. Anderson was correct in a weird sort of way.

Because, more and more everyday, Ms. Clark is demonstating that she does have a 'keen instinct' indeed, especially when it comes to fighting for her own self-preservation.

______
And...Hey!...Guess what...Ms. Clark's claims  that she will be 'on' the Global News Hour this evening is also pure cash-bought bunkem as well...

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The Boessenkool 'Investigation', ctd...Was A 'Deliberate Decision' Made?

AllTheVerbiageThatFits
SansRecordsVille


The Victoria Times-Colonist has weighed in with an Op-Ed on the lack of any written records of the Boessenkool investigation that Christy Clark offered up as an excuse for her two week delay in calling for his resignation at her press conference on September 24th.

Essentially, they summarize the ground that has already been tilled here and elswewhere based on the results of FOI requests by Bob Mackin and Jonathan Fowlie.

And then the folks at the VT-C go much farther than Vaughn Palmer's conclusion that this thing is 'amateurish and sneaky'.

To wit:

...It’s hard to believe no notes were taken, no messages sent, no written information exchanged in a two-week investigation, unless there was a deliberate and conscious decision not to put anything in writing. It’s human nature that civil servants would be leery of freedom-of-information requests, but the public’s business should be conducted transparently. 

The wise course of action would be to exercise discretion in keeping notes, not to refrain completely from writing anything down.

Certainly, the identity of the person who was allegedly the target of Boessenkool’s unwanted attentions is not something to be made public, and there may be other sensitive information properly kept confidential. Ken Boessenkool’s conduct, whatever it was, is almost irrelevant now. It was a minor scandal, a mere blip in history. 

Of deeper concern is the apparent disregard for proper procedures and lack of prudence in how the incident was handled...


Now, this could all be explained by the FOI minimization policy that we have dubbed the 'Dobell Doctrine'.

Assuming, of course, that there actually was an actual investigation.

Allegedly.

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This Day In Snookland....Whose Horse Is This Anyway?

SpinSpinEverywhere
PublicReleationsVille


Bruce Anderson, writing in the Globe and Mail today, thinks Christy Clark hit on something really, really big and super game-changing important when she gave a speech to the waving Pom-Poms up the Condo-King highway last weekend.

Honest she did.

Mr. Anderson also makes the claim, right at the top of his piece, that he has no skin in the game:

I don’t have a horse in the B.C. provincial race, or any other race for that matter. But I love good competition among leaders at the top of their games. That’s why the speech by Christy Clark to her BC Liberal Party convention last weekend got my attention...

{snippety doo-dah}

...Over the weekend, the Premier staked out an approach that has a chance of narrowing the polls. She spent relatively little time attacking her opponents, or defending the long term Liberal record.

Instead, she went hunting for optimists. She painted a vivid picture of B.C.’s future, one that might not suit everyone’s tastes, but will appeal to a pretty wide cross section of voters...

{snippety doodle-dandy}

...What’s most interesting about this weekend’s speech is that it showcases Ms. Clark as a fighter, a change agent, an optimist, and someone with a keen instinct for the ground on which the soft left and the near right might be able to unite. How far it can take her is anyone’s guess, but this race may not be a foregone conclusion, if she continues down this road.


Now.

I would posit that, especially for any non-pom-pom waving British Columbian who has been paying attention, every single one of Mr. Anderson's assertions about Ms. Clark ('top of her game'! [do speeches in front of the hand-picked faithful = lesislation that actually matters?]...'not attacking opponents'! [has Mr. Anderson seen the smear sites?].... 'vivid picture of BC's future'! [did Mr. Anderson not see David Akin's piece destroying yet another of Ms. Clark's ridiculous exaggerations made in said speech?]...'appeal to a pretty wide cross section of voters'! [has Mr. Anderson not seen Ms. Clark's gender splits?].

As for the rest of it, you know all that 'fighter', 'change agent', 'keen instinct' codswallop...

Well.

We who have been paying attention also know that Ms. Clark has also always been a Filipina at heart  as well.

Sheesh.

****

But here's the real thing about this little piece of puff-fluffery designed to kick-start the recalibration of public opinion based on, essentially, nothing....

As noted, Mr. Anderson also claimed that he has 'no horse in the B.C. provincial race'.

But what about his employer?

And I'm not talking about BellGlobeCTVTSNEverythingElseMedia that published is puff-fluffery.

Instead, I'm talking about a little company called 'National Public Relations' that Mr. Anderson works for.

Which also just happens to be a company that has given big money to the BC Liberal Party, has had its employees act as lobbyists for companies that were involved in the great dismantling of the public sector by the Campbell-Clark BC Liberal government and (get this!) also did a whole lot of smooth-over work for BC Rail.

But heckfire, that's just what PR forms do right.

Well, that and get their totally unbiased 'no horse in the race-type' stuff into the pages of national newspapers.

Or some such thing.

Double sheesh.


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Meanwhile, Ms. Clark actually went to Victoria today and demonstrated that she is a 'change agent' and a 'fighter' by.....Hiding.

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My Morning Ride....The Tenenbauming

AllTheDownedLeavesThatFit
UnderSoakingWetSkiesVille


I ride across a good swath of Vancouver everyday, from the near Eastern townships in the 30's to the far Western edge of Pt Grey.

And back.

Last night, because I left a little early to go home during rush hour in the rain, I stayed off the mainstreets and, Bing Thom's trick-or-treat map to the contrary, I didn't see one kid in a costume with a candy bag until I had crossed the Shaughnessy hump on Nanton (although, to be fair, it was coming down pretty hard then)...After that there was a steady trickle that built to a torrent when I turned left off Ontario in front of the rubble that was once Riley Park Community Ctr....And by the time I got to the stretch of the 31st ave. bike route that runs beside Mountain View Dead People's Park it was a raging river of gaggling goblins.  Was really striking actually.

And this morning on the way back across town?

Well.

I'm telling you...The whole city looked like a windswept grey, washed-out golden-brown, jittery-eyed red-poked, and yet slightly hopeful, set of a Wes Anderson movie.

Or some such thing.

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