Good community relations Reading Super Bowl Sunday’s Benicia Herald, I was stunned. Why? Mayor Patterson’s 2016 Year in Review comment about Valero. I thought it was a threat. She said, “I look forward to the promise of the good community relations–mentioned by Valero in its announcement– now that we can put this project (crude by […]
Matt Talbot: Godwin’s Law overturned on appeal
Godwin’s Law is, in the words of Wikipedia, “an Internet adage which asserts that ‘As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Hitler approaches 1’—that is, if an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Hitler. “…there […]
Letters: Two views on local/national politics
No place for street politics It is very evident to me that the Benicia voters were sold a false campaign issue. This last city election was all about crude by rail and anti-fossil fuel. That is over, and our good neighbor Valero did not sue the city. Now it is time to get down to […]
Matt Talbot: Polite congratulations, plus random thoughts
So, Donald Trump will take the oath of office today, and will be the 45th president of the United States. Out of good sportsmanship, respect for the office of the presidency and believing that Donald Trump legitimately won the election in November, I will hold my tongue this week and offer my sincere congratulations to […]
Matt Talbot: The verdicts of history
“Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from […]
Matt Talbot: A great album and a great era
I’ve mentioned before that I drive for one of the car sharing services. Depending on when I drive, I sometimes have considerable time between passengers, and I often pass the time by listening to music. I have lately been listening to the Miles Davis album “Kind of Blue,” recorded in March and April of […]
Karen Love: A rebuttal to those 12 words and phrases
By Karen Love Special to the Herald This has been a divisive year for the USA, though luckily, much of the national nastiness passed Benicia by. In that context, I cannot let Dennis Lund’s mean-spirited column of Dec. 27 go without a rebuttal. He chose 12 words and phrases to lose in 2017, and in doing […]
Matt Talbot: Concluding thoughts on the Democrats and 2016
This is part 4 of my series discussing the progressive electoral failure of the Democratic Party over the last six years. There’s other stuff I’d like to talk about, so I think I’ll wrap this discussion up (for the time being) in today’s column. I’ve said before in this space that the most defining characteristic […]
Dennis Lund: Twelve words and phrases to lose in 2017
During a performance at Yoshi’s in Oakland, legendary Texas wordsmith, the late Guy Clark, asked the question: Is there a synonym for ‘Thesaurus’? He added that he never found one, but the word ‘lexicon’ was about as close as he could find. The lexicon, the words and phrases used on a daily basis, evolves, as […]
Matt Talbot: Yet more about the 2016 election
In this series, I’m attempting to analyze the source of the decline of the Democratic Party — and not just Hillary Clinton’s defeat last month, but the broader and more comprehensive decline experienced by the Democratic Party that began in 2010 and that has gotten steadily worse since then – and lay out a roadmap […]