If you’re going to San Francisco, put some flowers in your hair and head over to the de Young Museum for their “Summer of Love” exhibition.
The Summer of Love began on sunny January 14, 1967 in San Francisco. Thirty thousand, mostly young, people gathered in Golden Gate Park for the first “Human Be-In.” With a far-off war raging and anti-Vietnam War protests escalating, the baby boomer generation was going to show the rest of the nation the way to peace and love: sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service provided the music. LSD was handed out and Hell’s Angels provided security. (The wisdom of hiring a motorcycle gang for security was demonstrated thirty months and sixty miles later at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival when they beat to death an over-exuberant fan in front of the stage where the Rolling Stones were performing.)
The Haight-Ashbury neighborhood became the perceived center of the groovy lifestyle. Thousands of young people flocked there for a summer of love. The Monterey Pop Festival, brainchild of record company executives and producers, with private security and trained volunteers, in the minds of many somehow epitomized this new way of living.
Fifty years later, hipsters have replaced the hippies; young people line the sidewalks, playing with smartphones while waiting for free buses to their high-tech jobs in Silicon Valley. Airbnb will help you find a place to stay in Haight-Ashbury.
“Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. The time has arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and that protection.”
“I usually find that those who are loudest in protesting against medical help by the federal government are those who do not need help.”
“I have had some bitter disappointments as president, but the one that has troubled me most, in a personal way, has been the failure to defeat opposition to a national compulsory health insurance program.”
“We must seize the moment of freedom’s triumph abroad to make America not just a rich society but a good society. The richest country in the world cannot tolerate the fact that we have the highest per capita health care costs in the world and yet 38 million of our people are unable to get adequate medical care because they cannot afford it.”
President Richard M. Nixon
“People can go to the state that they want to live in. States have all kinds of different policies and there are disparities among states for many things: driving restrictions, alcohol, whatever. We’re putting choices back in the hands of the states. That’s what Jeffersonian democracy provides for.”
Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC)
“We are giving people actual freedom.”
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)
“The only people who have to worry about rising costs under Republicans’ health bill are the very tiny segment of the country that waits until they’re sick to buy insurance.”
Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR)
“You can’t compare the rest of the world to us. They do not have the big diverse populations that we have. They do not have the inner-city populations that we have.”
Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL)
“My understanding is that it will allow insurance companies to require people who have higher health care costs to contribute more to the insurance pool that helps offset all these costs, thereby reducing the cost to those people who lead good lives, they’re healthy, you know, they are doing the things to keep their bodies healthy.”
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL)
(Refused to comment on his yes vote.)
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)
“Nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care.”
Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID)
“A friend of mine was in Scotland recently. He got very, very sick. They took him by ambulance and he was there four days. He was really in trouble, and when they released him and he said, ‘Where do I pay?’ And they said, ‘There’s no charge.’ Not only that, he said it was like great doctors, great care. I mean we could have a great system like that in this country.”
“We’re going to have insurance for everyone.”
“There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us. People can expect to have great health care.”
President Donald J. Trump
“Am I doing OK? I’m President! Hey, I’m President! Can you believe it, right?”
And in other Republican news…
Minnesota’s state Republican chair apologized Monday to Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) for a post on the 7th Congressional District Republican Party’s Facebook page calling the congressman “Minnesota’s Head Muslim Goat Humper.”
If you need to witness “The Most Exciting Two Minutes In Sports,” the rapacious Ticketmaster “Verified Resale” offers tickets for a seat at next week’s Kentucky Derby starting at $348 and topping out well under $3,000. General admission, no seats, just access to the infield area where you can watch the race on giant-screen TV are only $75 up to day of the event. Relaxing and sipping a mint julep is difficult there. The Derby’s web site provides guidance to women for what to wear and whether to choose the dress or the hat first. (Sartorial advice for men is one short paragraph.)
Scott Pruitt, newly-appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency, made a career out of suing the EPA. When not working to ban abortion and same-sex marriage, Pruitt, as Attorney General of Oklahoma, filed thirteen lawsuits against the EPA. It’s only fitting that our current president put the climate-change denier in charge.
With so many headlines, the proposed change to the Energy Star program has not received much attention. “Proposed change” meaning elimination.
You are probably familiar with the Energy Guide label that tells what it will cost to run your new refrigerator. The program costs about $50 million per year. The EPA estimates that it has saved Americans $362 billion in energy costs since its inception in 1992. The Energy Star programalso rates hotels, condominiums and office buildings on energy efficiency, information of interest to prospective buyers and lessees. In 2014 alone, building owners saved $7.6 billion on energy costs.
The Energy Star ratings are on a scale, from bad to good, of 1 to 100. In case you are curious about how Trump-branded properties rate, CNN has put together a handy chart.
610 Park Avenue (formerly the Mayfair Hotel)
1
Trump Park Avenue
7
Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago
9
Trump International Hotel & Tower New York
12
Trump Place, 160 Riverside
14
Trump SoHo New York
16
Trump Palace
19
Trump Place, 140 Riverside
22
Trump World Tower
31
Trump Parc
42
Trump Tower
48
Trump Parc East
52
555 California Street (formerly Bank of America Tower)
“Human Be-In.” With a far-off war raging and anti-Vietnam War protests escalating, the baby boomer generation was going to show the rest of the nation the way to peace and love: sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service provided the music. LSD was handed out and Hell’s Angels provided security. (The wisdom of hiring a motorcycle gang for security was demonstrated thirty months and sixty miles later at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival when they beat to death an over-exuberant fan in front of the stage where the Rolling Stones were performing.)
The Haight-Ashbury neighborhood became the perceived center of the groovy lifestyle. Thousands of young people flocked there for a summer of love. The Monterey Pop Festival, brainchild of record company executives and producers, with private security and trained volunteers, in the minds of many somehow epitomized this new way of living.
Fifty years later, hipsters have replaced the hippies; young people line the sidewalks, playing with smartphones while waiting for free buses to their high-tech jobs in Silicon Valley. Airbnb will help you find a place to stay in Haight-Ashbury.
