Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
Oaklandside just laid out what Measure EE actually does, and it is worse than the slogan.
On November 3, a simple majority can rewrite Oakland’s charter and make the mayor the city’s CEO. That means a veto over laws and a line-item veto over the budget. One person can zero out a park, a street, or a neighborhood project. It takes six of eight council votes to undo it. The City Auditor says the package costs $2 million to $2.6 million a year, mostly because the Public Ethics Commission would reset elected pay, with council raises estimated at $36,000 to $108,000 each.
Barbara Lee is the one selling this. She convened the working group, she and Council President Kevin Jenkins wrote the plan, and she broke a 4-4 council tie to put it on the ballot for the office she holds and is running to keep.
The official argument against it, signed by Loren Taylor, Budget Advisory Commission member Ben Gould, Pam Drake, and Naomi Schiff, calls it a power grab. Their words, not mine: it makes government less transparent, increases the risk of corruption, and drives gridlock. A future mayor could appoint unqualified friends to department jobs. A veto lets one office block what a council majority already passed. And it hands councilmembers massive pay raises while asking them to do less.
Nate Miley, Nancy Nadel, former Ethics Commission chair Ralph Kanz, James Vann, and Sharon Rose are on the no side too. The yes side is Lee, Libby Schaaf, and the people who already run City Hall.
This is not reform. It is a permanent charter veto, a pay reset, and a tie-breaking vote cast by the person who benefits.
Vote NO on Measure EE by November 3. – at Oakland, CA
Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
This is why, when Republicans use the word socialism to tag Democrats, it has no relationship with the actual definition of the word.
Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
Oaklanders don't think this will happen here, THEY KEEP VOTING FOR BARBARA LEE AND OTHERS NOT FROM OAKLAND. Vote for Brenda Grisham.
In Tennessee, sleeping in your own car can land you in prison for six years.
Not a fine. Not a warning. A felony.
Cities across the US keep passing ordinances that ban sleeping in vehicles, and the people getting caught are the ones with nowhere else to go. You lose the apartment, you keep the car, and the car becomes the last thing standing between you and the sidewalk. Then the law shows up and makes that a crime too.
The logic folds in on itself. Punish someone for being homeless by handing them a record that makes housing and work even harder to get.
A blanket in a back seat. Six years.
Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
Xavier Becerra put the Steve Hilton contradiction right on the debate stage: enforce Trump’s federal immigration laws, but ignore California’s own protections?
Then he dropped the hammer:
“You seem to welcome immigrants who look like you, but deport immigrants who look like me.”
Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
Zach Goldman is a witness in the Sheng Thao federal corruption trial.
The Political Director of SEIU 1021 previously served as Chief of Policy and Legislative Affairs inside the Thao administration. Prosecutors say he will testify about his work for Thao and his interactions with Andre Jones, David Duong, Andy Duong, California Waste Solutions, and Evolutionary Homes.
This is the revolving door in action. SEIU 1021 spent heavily to elect Thao, flooded the streets for her, and then dumped another $50,000 into fighting her recall even after the FBI had already raided her home. Their political operative walked straight into her administration at the highest policy level while the alleged pay-to-play scheme was underway, then returned to the union after the voters threw her out.
Nearly 1 in 4 Oakland SEIU members have already stopped paying dues. Rank-and-file workers have revolted, accusing the union of abandoning workplace representation to chase political power and protect its favored politicians. The same union that helped install the Thao machine is now watching its own political director answer questions under oath about what happened inside City Hall.
Barbara Lee, another SEIU-endorsed mayor, then appointed Goldman to her Charter Reform Working Group. The same network that powered Thao is now trying to give Lee VETO POWER in Oakland under the banner of “charter reform.” Don’t fall for it.
The trial starts October 19. – at Oakland, CA
These 13 American History Facts Are Dark — Really, Really Dark — And They Were Deliberately Left Out Of The Curriculum - BuzzFeed apple.news/AcSQ3OaErSXu-I7lP…
Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
The Bank of Oakland: City to loan $60 million to developer Ray Bobbitt’s company.
Oakland city council reviews plans to front the money for purchase of the Oakland Coliseum Complex. The County is also considering giving a loan. 👇
oaklandreport.org/p/the-bank…
Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
Payday loans.
After all the lies that AASEG would not need public money to purchase the Oakland Arena, guess what?
After two years of broken promises and missed payments —they need public money.
And the broke ass city of Oakland is giving it to them.
We are essentially selling our house to pay down our credit card bill.
Either they are idiots or corrupt, or both. Either way, they all gotta go.
Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
Replying to @SenecaSpeaks21
Case in point: @BarbaraLee_CA asking Oakland to *not* recall Sheng Thao even after the FBI raid.
Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
It was a multi agency federal task force that raided Thao, that included FBI, IRS field agents, and US postal investigators.
And it's embarrassing how many folks still supported her after that search warrant was served.
Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
Oakland is out of control. A woman was pistol-whipped & kidnapped in the Laurel District—it’s something new every day. The Mayor needs to stop playing and step up police patrols NOW! ⚠️🚨🚔 cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/new…
Ken Houston is this your district??!! If so what is your plan for cleaning up this mess and allowing Oaklanders to live in dignity? This is shameful!
Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
2 years ago we woke up to the FBI, IRS and US Postal Inspectors raiding recalled Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao house.
She would later be charged with corruption and pay for play, and is currently facing life in prison with her trial set to begin in October.
Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
Sign the petition to RECALL CARROLL FIFE: RecallFife.com
Follow if you’re done watching politicians use nonprofits as personal ATMs the second they win power. Repost this. – at Oakland, CA
Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
Carroll Fife got caught trying to steer ANOTHER big city contract to her husband’s network.
In early 2024, she pushed lucrative “Trash Capture Projects” (including Mandela Parkway and Cary Avenue) through the Rules & Legislation Committee in a way that looked designed to bypass normal competitive bidding. The contracts were approved by the full Council just weeks later.
A formal complaint filed with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission (PEC Case #24-03) alleged she was steering these taxpayer-funded deals to benefit her domestic partner, Tur-Ha Ak.
The same complaint accused her of interfering with city staff on encampment issues and having private security tied to her involved in a violent altercation at a public event.
This is the exact same pattern as the $2,100,000 Peralta scandal.
Back then, her husband’s group got a massive security contract pushed through while she was still listed as President of the nonprofit. It collapsed after they got caught with no license.
Now she’s accused of doing the same thing again — using her position on the Rules Committee to fast-track contracts for people connected to her.
The PEC eventually dismissed the complaint on technical grounds. That’s not the same as clearing her. It just shows how hard it is to hold politicians accountable when they operate in these gray areas.
Fife has a documented habit of using City Hall to direct public money toward her inner circle. First it was security contracts. Then it was trash capture projects. The names change. The pattern doesn’t. – at Oakland, CA
Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
Pamela Price spent decades building a career and a political brand as a civil rights attorney who fought hostile work environments, retaliation, and the abuse of power.
She sued employers for creating toxic workplaces. She represented victims of wrongful termination. She took a landmark case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that patterns of harassment and discrimination should be taken seriously — even when individual acts fell outside the normal filing window.
She also made her personal story central to her political identity. She repeatedly told voters she was a survivor of domestic violence and the juvenile justice system. She used that narrative to position herself as someone who uniquely understood both the accused and victims of abuse.
Then she became District Attorney.
And she did the exact opposite of everything she once claimed to stand for.
Under Price, multiple senior staff members filed lawsuits alleging they were subjected to retaliation, a hostile work environment, and wrongful termination inside her own office. The same woman who once made a living holding powerful institutions accountable for creating toxic workplaces was now the defendant in lawsuits accusing her of doing the same thing.
Even more damning was what happened to actual victims of domestic violence.
During her 2022 campaign, domestic violence advocates protested outside courthouses because they feared she would stop prosecuting misdemeanor domestic violence cases. They were right to be worried.
Her administration allowed the statute of limitations to expire on over 1,000 misdemeanor cases, including domestic violence cases. Not because of some deliberate policy to reduce incarceration. Because her office was so dysfunctional and mismanaged that cases simply died. Victims who came forward were ultimately told — through inaction — that their cases no longer mattered.
The woman who weaponized her own story as a domestic violence survivor to win power then presided over a system that systematically denied justice to hundreds of other domestic violence victims.
This is not a story of good intentions that fell short. This is the story of someone who built an entire public persona around fighting exactly the kind of abuses she later enabled and participated in.
She didn’t fail to live up to her own standards.
She actively became the thing she once claimed to fight against. – at Oakland, CA
Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
Oakland is headed toward bankruptcy on Barbara Lee’s watch.
In her own May 2026 budget, she admitted the city is “chronically financially distressed” with costs growing faster than revenues and service levels “unacceptable.” She then pushed Measure E — a $34 million-a-year tax — as her big solution. Voters rejected it 54% to 46%, the first Oakland tax defeat in 15 years.
Instead of delivering real reforms on spending, pensions, or growing the tax base, she cast the tie-breaking vote to put a “strong mayor” power grab on the November ballot — expanding her control while the structural deficit keeps climbing toward $115–130 million per year.
This is who is leading Oakland toward bankruptcy. – at Oakland, CA
Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte (Ret.) retweeted
The Jasper Wu case alone should have ended Pamela Price’s political career forever.
A TODDLER was KILLED by a stray bullet while sleeping in his car seat during a rolling GANG shootout on an Oakland freeway. The previous District Attorney had charged the two suspects with special circumstances, which carried the possibility of life without parole.
Pamela Price removed those enhancements.
An internal email later leaked showing that Price was exploring “non-carceral forms of accountability” for the men who murdered the child — meaning she was actively looking for ways they could avoid prison time entirely.
When the Wu family and the broader Asian-American community demanded to meet with her, she refused. Her office issued a cold, defensive statement claiming it was impossible for the District Attorney to meet with every victim.
This wasn’t a tough call on a complicated case. This was a prosecutor who looked at the murder of a toddler and decided the killers deserved more consideration than the grieving family.
This case became the emotional core of the recall effort against her. It wasn’t right-wing operatives or billionaires who turned on Price over this — it was parents, victims’ families, and entire communities who watched her repeatedly side with violent offenders while showing zero empathy for the people they destroyed.
And yet she still received over 91,000 votes in her 2026 comeback attempt.
That’s how dangerous it is when her record isn’t constantly and aggressively exposed. People either don’t know, or they’ve already started to forget what she actually did in office.
This account exists so that never happens. – at Oakland, CA



























