President Biden delivers remarks on the economy Wednesday at the Old Post Office in Chicago. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

President Biden launched a new push Wednesday to sell his economic agenda and convince skeptical voters that the economy is thriving under his oversight, sending a message White House officials see as crucial to his 2024 election prospects.

Speaking in the huge lobby of the Old Post Office in downtown Chicago, the President laid out his vision for “bidenomics,” a catch-all for his strategy to invest in empowering the middle class and encourage competition to lower the cost of… reducing working families.

He tried to compare his plan to the trickle-down economics of his predecessor and potential Republican opponent for 2024, former President Trump. The trickle-down theory, popularized by former President Reagan, focuses on tax cuts and relaxation of regulations.

“This vision is a fundamental break with the economic theory that has failed America’s middle class for decades. … called trickle-down economics,” he said in a major speech announced by the White House. “It has failed America, it has pushed up the deficit and increased inequality. It has weakened our infrastructure.”

His comments were part of a broader effort by the White House to portray Biden as the architect of an economy that has defied expectations of a recession and continues to boast a resilient job market.

The latest economic numbers give the White House plenty to brag about. Unemployment remains at 3.7%, while inflation has fallen to 4% from a peak of 9.1% in June last year. But fears of a looming recession linger as prices slow their decline from previous highs.

READ ALSO: Biden Visits California To Speak On Climate And Raise Funds

Last week, the Federal Reserve paused its rate hike streak for the first time in its 18-month campaign to contain inflation.

But on Wednesday Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell warned that the aggressive campaign would continue due to a strong job market.

“More restrictions are coming,” he told a monetary policy forum in Sintra, Portugal.

Government officials complain that the economic recovery under his leadership is not attributed to the president. Biden’s handling of the economy has been a persistent thorn in his side since inflation hit a 40-year high last summer.

The story goes on

Just 34% of US adults approve of his handling of the economy, according to a poll by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released Wednesday. Similarly, the CBS News poll released this month found that just 36% approve of Biden’s handling of the economy.

The president blames the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine for soaring food and gas prices, but Republicans argue it’s his government spending that has fueled the record-high inflation Americans have been feeling over the past two years stuck for years.

“I’m not here to proclaim victory for business. I’m here to say we have a plan that will turn things around incredibly quickly,” Biden said in his speech Wednesday. “We still have more work to do.”

On Monday, senior White House advisers Anita Dunn and Mike Donilon released a four-page memo outlining the president’s approach to building an economy “from the bottom up and from the middle out.” They declared Biden’s quest to end the era of the trickle-down economy as the “defining project of the Biden presidency.”

During his Chicago speech, Biden attempted to explain his economic vision, saying it was rooted in “investing in Americans, because when we invest in our people, we strengthen the middle class.” We see the economy growing. That benefits all Americans.”

Read more: In San Francisco, Biden says AI holds ‘enormous promise’ but comes with risks

Biden’s speech followed a White House event Monday that highlighted the more than $42 billion made available to states through the bipartisan infrastructure bill he advocates for high-speed internet projects. California received nearly $1.9 billion under the program.

The White House is deploying its top officials across the country to promote bidenomics and take advantage of the sweeping economic laws enacted since Biden took office

These include the $1 trillion Infrastructure Act, the $52.7 billion to boost domestic semiconductor production, and the President-signed Climate and Drug Pricing Act to boost clean energy projects.

Although Biden’s speech was more of an official event than a campaign appearance, it was difficult to ignore the politics. Following his speech, the President attended a campaign fundraiser hosted by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker at the JW Marriott Hotel. The minimum donation was $3,300 and a photo with the President was priced at $25,000.

“Guys, I’m actually looking forward to this campaign,” Biden told donors. “And you know why? Because we actually have a story to tell.”

According to Doug Sosnik, a longtime senior adviser to President Clinton, the fate of a presidential re-election typically depends on economic conditions, leaving Biden with no choice but to run on his behalf.

Biden’s recognition of his economic record signals the White House is confident Americans will soon see the impact of his efforts.

“There is enough time for the public to feel the impact of his performances,” said Sosnik. “He just has to stick with a sharp and repetitive message.”

Get the best of Los Angeles Times political coverage with the Essential Politics newsletter.

This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

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President Biden delivers remarks on the economy Wednesday at the Old Post Office in Chicago (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

President Biden launched a new push Wednesday to sell his economic agenda and convince skeptical voters that the economy is thriving under his oversight, sending a message White House officials see as crucial to his 2024 election prospects.

Speaking in the cavernous lobby of the Old Post Office in downtown Chicago, the President laid out his vision for “bidenomics,” a catch-all term for his strategy to strengthen the middle class through federal investment and encourage competition to drive down costs working families.

He tried to compare his plan to the trickle-down economics of his predecessor and potential 2024 adversary, former President Trump. The trickle-down theory, popularized by former President Reagan, focused on tax cuts and relaxation of regulations.

“This vision is a fundamental break with the economic theory that has failed America’s middle class for decades. It’s called trickle-down economics,” he said in a major speech announced by the White House. “It has failed America, it has pushed up the deficit and increased inequality. It has weakened our infrastructure.”

The comments were part of a broader effort by the White House to portray Biden as the architect of an economy that has defied expectations of a recession and continues to boast a resilient labor market. The latest economic numbers give the White House plenty to brag about. Unemployment remains at 3.7%, while inflation has fallen to 4% from a peak of 9.1% in June last year. But fears of a looming recession linger as prices have slowed their decline from previous highs.

READ ALSO: Biden Visits California To Speak On Climate And Raise Funds

Last week, the Federal Reserve paused its rate hike streak for the first time in its 18-month campaign to contain inflation. But on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that the aggressive campaign would continue due to a strong job market.

“More restrictions are coming,” Powell said during a monetary policy forum in Sintra, Portugal.

The story goes on

White House officials complain that the economic recovery under his leadership is not credited to the president. Biden’s handling of the economy has been a persistent thorn in his side since inflation hit a 40-year high last summer.

Just 34% of US adults agree with his handling of the economy, according to a poll by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released Wednesday. Similarly, a CBS News poll released in June found that just 36% approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, while 64% disagree.

The president has repeatedly blamed soaring food and gas prices on the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, but Republicans argue that Biden’s government spending has fueled the record-high inflation that has bogged Americans down for the past two years .

“I’m not here to proclaim victory for business. I’m here to say we have a plan that will turn things around incredibly quickly,” Biden said in his speech Wednesday. “We still have more work to do.”

On Monday, senior White House advisers Anita Dunn and Mike Donilon released a four-page memo outlining the president’s economic approach to building a “bottom-up, middle-out” economy. They declared Biden’s quest to end the trickle-down era as “the crucial project of the Biden presidency.”

During his Chicago speech, Biden attempted to explain his economic vision, arguing that it was rooted in “investing in Americans, because when we invest in our people, we strengthen the middle class. We see the economy growing. That benefits all Americans.”

Read more: In San Francisco, Biden says AI holds ‘enormous promise’ but comes with risks

Biden’s speech followed a White House event Monday where he highlighted the more than $42 billion made available to states through the bipartisan infrastructure bill he advocates for high-speed internet projects. California received nearly $1.9 billion under the program.

The White House is deploying its top officials across the country to promote bidenomics and take advantage of the sweeping economic laws enacted since Biden took office, including the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, $52.7 billion to promote the domestic semiconductor production and the President-signed Climate Protection Act Drug Pricing Act to promote clean energy projects.

Although Biden’s speech was an official event, it was difficult to ignore politics. Following the speech, Biden attended a campaign fundraiser hosted by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker at the JW Marriott Hotel. The minimum donation was $3,300, while a picture featuring the President was priced at $25,000.

“Guys, I’m actually looking forward to this campaign,” Biden said of donors. “And do you know why? Because we actually have a story to tell.”

According to Doug Sosnik, former longtime senior adviser to President Clinton, the fate of a presidential re-election typically depends on economic conditions, leaving Biden with no choice but to run as usual.

Biden’s vigorous acknowledgment of his economic record signals the White House is confident Americans will soon see the impact of his efforts.

“There is enough time for the public to feel the impact of his performances,” said Sosnik. “He just has to stick with a sharp and repetitive message.”

This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

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Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem continues to send a powerful message long after it was first performed in 1961. The modernist masterpiece presents enormous challenges of scale, challenges embraced and conveyed by the San Francisco Symphony with guest conductor Philippe Jordan, the Silicon Valley-based Ragazzi Boys Chorus, soprano Jennifer Holloway, tenor Ian Bostridge and baritone Brian Mulligan, a Last minute replacement for Iain Paterson who was kept away due to visa issues.

The Requiem was commissioned to mark the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral in England, which was destroyed along with the rest of the city in a bombing raid in 1940. Britten’s music, performed in the new cathedral next to the ruins of the old church, was then as now a bitter cry about what the text calls “the pity of war” – the terrible effects of aggression on human lives.

The Requiem sets the Latin text of the Catholic funeral mass to music, using a large orchestra with a correspondingly large choir and a soprano soloist. Far from the stage, a children’s choir echoes from the Latin Mass (in this case, from the corridor behind the second floor of Davies Hall). In Britten’s hands, the liturgy offers some moments of comfort, such as at a funeral, but moments of peace are often drowned out in horrifying apocalyptic scenarios.

Benjamin Britten rehearses his War Requiem in the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral

Britten’s masterpiece in crafting a requiem for the war-torn 20th century was to contrast the liturgical with a more personal, secular perspective. He drew on the poems of Wilfred Owen, who died in World War I just a week before the armistice. Britten, a master at setting English poetry to music, brings out the painful range of emotions of a soldier in the trenches – fear, sadness, longing and tenderness. Owen’s lyrics are performed by a smaller chamber orchestra playing in intimate counterpoint with the tenor and baritone soloists.

The Requiem was the only piece on the program that was performed without an intermission. Jordan directed these many forces with alert precision and control, keeping steady beat where needed, as in the wild fugue Britten wrote for the Latin text “Quam olim Abrahae promisti” (Which thou [God] once promised to Abraham). The orchestra was full of lively percussion – bells, drums and all sorts of clacks and gongs. The brass made a tremendous contribution with bugle calls and ominous trumpets. As the choir sang Judgment Day, the orchestra murmured and swayed in powerful counterpoint to the terrified voices. The chorus skillfully handled Britten’s extraordinarily wide dynamic range – from the softest whisper to the loudest screech. Guest choir director Joshua Habermann prepared the symphony choir.

Britten counterpoints God’s promise of protection at the hour of death and on the day of judgment with Owen’s poem about Abraham and Isaac, sung by the baritone and tenor soloists. Abraham is commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac, and he dutifully prepares. In the biblical account, the command is revoked by an angel who offers a ram in place of the boy. In a tender duet, the two soloists expressed the angel’s intervention in a moving way. But Owen writes: “The old man would not do that, but killed his son. . .” and the music follows with a relentless reiteration of the gruesome consequences: “. . . and half the seed of Europe, one at a time.”

Ian Bostridge | Photo credit: Kalpesh Lathigra

Brian Mulligan’s confident, full baritone accentuated Owen’s tone of hopelessness and regret, particularly in the work’s moving final episode, in which a dead German soldier meets his English enemy and greets him as ‘my friend’. By contrast, Ian Bostridge tended to emphasize the irony of war, his notes devoid of sentimentality and seeming suffused with pain, swaying up and down the scale with manic glissandi. I will not soon forget Bostridge’s powerful rendition of ‘Move him into the sun’, Owen’s Pietà for a Dead Friend. The chamber orchestra contributed lively soundscapes of trench warfare – the howling of shells and the anxious drama of life in the trenches.

The powerful clarity of soprano Jennifer Mulligan brought a soulful tension to the Latin liturgy – there is no superficial religiosity here! Her proclamation of Sanctus – “Holy” – pierced the din of drums and bells like a beam of light across a dark battlefield.

The guys from the Ragazzi Chorus were excellently prepared by their artistic director Kent Jue and sang beautifully, spatially and musically far removed from the dark imaginations and struggles of the people in the war.

On opening night, when I heard the Requiem, there were a few glitches in the early sections – the orchestra was not as rhythmically tight as it could have been, the choir trembled at the Kyrie’s very difficult intonations. It took some time for Mulligan to find his consonants and for Bostridge to stop singing into his score. But as soon as the play really got going, the insecurities of the first evening disappeared.

The rest was magnificent, a complex and deeply human indictment of aggression and military force that is still—or perhaps increasingly—needed in these times.

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As Elon Musk’s “hardcore” ultimatum spurred a mass exodus of Twitter’s remaining workers on Thursday night, “someone across the street” from the company’s San Francisco headquarters took it upon themselves to troll the mogul with a number of projected messages, according to NBC Bay Area. The news ticker-style taunts called Musk, among other things, a “bankruptcy baby,” “supreme parasite,” “petulant pimple,” “apartheid profiteer,” “space Karen,” and “mediocre manchild,” according to footage of the projections. Gia Vang, an NBC Bay Area reporter, attributed the messages to an individual calling themself “a projection activist.” It was not immediately clear who or what was behind the messages, but they resembled similar insults thrown up in the same place on the building’s exterior by projection artist Alan Marling on Nov. 7. In an email, Marling told SFGate at the time that “ as humans we have a moral duty to defend our neighbors against hate speech and white supremacy,” both of which he accused Musk of amplifying through Twitter. Just after 11 pm Eastern time on Thursday, Musk tweeted, “And… we just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage lol,” adding, in reference to an earlier meme, “Let that sink in…”

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With Aaron Judge traveling to San Francisco to hear the best pitch possible from the San Francisco Giants in their pursuit of the coveted free agent slugger, Giants outfielder Joc Pederson took to social media to give his best pitch to Judge as well.

Joc Pederson sends a message to Aaron Judge about joining San Francisco Giants

Pederson, who just rejoined the San Francisco Giants by accepting a qualifying offer, took to Instagram to send his hopes to Judge, a native of northern California, that he will make the move from the Yankees to the Giants.

The Giants’ Joc Pederson (@yungjoc650) posted this on his Instagram: pic.twitter.com/jIXD89ifZg

— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) November 23, 2022

San Francisco and New York are rumored to be two of the most likely destinations for Judge, who set the American League record with 62 home runs this season. It could be a battle between coasts for his services, with the Giants looking to make a major step toward reclaiming the National League West title they won over the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2021.

Judge, however, has only played for the Yankees during his seven-year MLB career, lending plenty of reasoning to why he might choose to stay in the Bronx.

Whichever team lands Judge will pay a hefty price for his services. Judge rejected a seven-year, $213.5 million contract extension from the Yankees in spring training and is expected to land a contract this offseason north of $300 million.

Pederson will be in his second year with the Giants after slashing .274/.353/.521 with 23 home runs and 70 RBI on his way to earning an All-Star Game bid last season. Pederson played in the outfield 114 games last season, with the vast majority of that time spent in left field. If Judge lands with the Giants, it’s expected he would play center or right field, boosting San Francisco’s outfield in a big way.

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A phone call would have been nice. An email, a postcard, a brochure slipped under the door like a takeaway menu – all of that would have been good. But none of that happened.

Three years after the city and longtime renegade builder settled Mel Murphy for his rampant, unauthorized building violations, tenants in his property say no one turned to them. Nobody has informed them that there are unresolved approval and inspection issues in their buildings – and thus unanswered questions about safety.

“We pay so much rent in San Francisco,” said one renter. “It would be nice to know if my building is safe.”

It would. It would be nice to know what the city considers “safe” and what specific steps the city has taken over the past three years to ensure safety. But my questions to the planning office, the fire brigade and the building inspectorate elicited the following answer: “We are continuing to work closely with the public prosecutor to drive these two locations towards full compliance.”

This is an impressively vague sentence. It is reminiscent of a Monty Python sketch in which a police officer said to a judge, “I saw clearly how the defendant did in the act what he was accused of doing. When he was kicked, he said, ‘It’s a fair cop, I’ve done everything.’ “

It is never good for the government to invade the Pythonese realm. In real life, it’s certainly less fun. And tenants at 1025 Hampshire St. and 1346 Alabama St. are not enjoying it at all.

We wrote a little about the strange and terrible saga of Mel Murphy and its amazing design flaws. In 2013 he was caught for building a five-story building on 26th Street from the foundation to the roof without a permit or inspection – illegal construction – and was told: “Don’t take any action now”.

O’Riordan is now the interim head of the department. He rejects the allegations made against him with the semantic trick that there was no “written report” in this edition. But that was never the claim – and DBI sources tell us that writing such a complaint would mark a retaliatory inspector. One says, “What sane co-worker would write down the illegal activities that their boss told them to ignore?”

Months after Murphy’s 26th Street building was seen construction in January 2013, a house he built on Crown Terrace in December 2013 collapsed and collapsed from the Twin Peaks side.

In a nutshell from San Francisco, Murphy served on the Board of Supervisors of the Department of Building Inspection from 2006 to 2012, and was even its former president.

After his house walked down the hill, the city attorney filed a lawsuit and eventually expanded the indictment to include the Mission District projects in the streets of Hampshire and Alabama. At both locations, Murphy submitted plans to build a two-unit building. But in the building on Hampshire Street he added one more unauthorized unit, and on Alabama Street he added two. None of these properties received the required building, plumbing or electrical permits and were not properly inspected.

You can read about the prosecution’s case here. It is a meticulous and damning document. So it’s no wonder Murphy agreed to a deal in 2018. What is a little surprising is the amount of money Murphy had to give up in a case where the city attorney had six options by Sunday: $ 225,000.

Well, that’s a lot of money, especially when put in a wheelbarrow. But not for a long-term networked developer and not for a long-term networked developer who has been collecting rent for the illegal units in question for years. And not for all of the above cases where the prosecutor had the goods.

The City Attorney’s lawsuit states that illegal units were added to Alabama Street by 2005. It’s not certain when the building on Hampshire Street was remodeled – but through the magic of Google Street View, you can clearly see three gas meters there by 2009.

Her humble narrator spoke to tenants in the buildings in Hampshire and Alabama. All of them paid rent, which they categorized as “market price”. If we take the (rather low) guest income of $ 2,000 a month and apply it to the three illegal units, and then calculate, say, ten years of rent collection – that’s $ 720,000.

When I asked prosecutors if $ 225,000 was enough to stop rogue builders from just doing what they wanted and then paying the fine as a business expense, they replied, “The prosecution works diligently to keep villains and law breakers accountable to pull. Mr. Murphy was no exception. We are proud of the work our office has done to obtain an injunction against Mr. Murphy and ensure his property is brought up to code. We will continue to work with the city departments on the redevelopment process required by the injunction.

A quicker answer would be “no”.

This Google Street View image from July 2009 shows three gas meters in the allegedly two-part building at 1025 Hampshire St. The city would fail to discover this and would take legal action for another half a decade.

As for the 2018 injunction, you can read it here. Indeed, Murphy requires “diligent” resolution of “committed violations.”

When we got to Murphy, he said his architect had submitted plans to the city to bring the plots into line. That’s great: but it’s November 2021, and that case was settled in November 2018.

Say what you want about Murphy, but he’s coped with his misdeeds. At this point, it’s up to the city to move things forward, or rely on Murphy to move things forward. It’s hard to tell that’s happening. You kind of wonder what the hell the city has been doing since that case went off the headlines.

The building inspectorate has not issued any “breach reports” to document the rampant unauthorized construction work documented by the prosecutor. Since the plans are still awaiting approval, no permits have been withdrawn, let alone approved work. It remains unclear how much time and thought the city has put into this topic over the past three years.

That’s a shame because there is a lot to be repaired here. Separately and independently of the problems that exist with individual unauthorized units, there are problems with the entire buildings. Because when a building changes from two units to three or more units, this triggers far stricter security requirements. Underneath is an obligatory second way out in an emergency. Neither of these buildings have one, and adding a fire retardant hallway isn’t easy afterwards.

We pay so much rent in San Francisco, ”said one renter. “It would be nice to know if my building is safe.”

“We pay so much rent in San Francisco. It would be nice to know if my building is safe. “

Worryingly, there is a lack of recorded inspections at both sites; At none of the locations are controls with regard to the foundation, the reinforcement or the slab rock, which is a fire protection element, documented. Finally, there are no registered special inspections at 1025 Hampshire St.

This is not a trivial matter. Special tests are the mandatory external monitoring of components, which is prescribed by an engineer. Hypothetically, an engineer could mandate that 18-inch screws be inserted into a concrete foundation. Contractors describe a situation where they are watched like a hawk by an engineer who performs special inspections to confirm that the bolts going into the concrete are actually 18 inches long.

“An engineer will look at the length of your drill. He will watch you drill the holes. He’ll watch you take a blower and blow the dust out of those holes and watch you inject the epoxy into the holes and insert the 18 ”screw, walking you through the whole job,” recalls the contractor . “This is how the special test procedure works.”

After a bolt is embedded in concrete, no one can tell whether it is 18 inches or 6 inches; For this reason there are special controls. And while this bolt example is hypothetical, the records don’t include any special inspections here either. In contrast, the eight special inspections required for 1346 Alabama St. were added to the system in 2001.

Seven special tests were required at 1025 Hampshire St., including “Studs in Concrete”, “Reinforcing Steel” and “Welding”. None is registered as having taken place.

And that doesn’t reassure you.

The records show a lack of inspections at 1025 Hampshire St. – and no special inspections recorded.

Far from the city, which is issuing a fatwa on Murphy doing business here, he continues to acquire land and seek to develop it. And for what it’s worth, Murphy’s tenants describe him as a satisfactory landlord. However, as this process takes a long time, there are fewer tenants than there could be: In 1346 Alabama, the five mailboxes are marked with “A”, “B”, “C”, “D” and “vacant”. Neighbors to 1025 Hampshire say there is an empty apartment here too – but that it is regularly occupied by short-term renters.

Well that seems like the worst of all worlds. The unapproved units haven’t been coded yet, San Francisco residents can’t live in them, the city doesn’t seem to have done much in three years to address building-wide, ongoing security concerns, and at least one unit appears to be an Airbnb be.

Following inquiries from Mission Local, the Department of Building Inspection said on November 5 that it would file complaints about both properties and “contact the owner to conduct site inspections.”

Well, better late than never.

Thanks to an aggressive and knowledgeable prosecutor, when this villain was kicked, he said, ‘It’s a fair cop, I’ve done everything.’

But in three years it seems the city hasn’t done a hell of a lot to write the punch line. What a joke.

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