Ever notice that some things are not quite what they appear to be? This is the root of all magic. Deception is the primary objective. What you see and what you think you see is the intent of the magician. Deception is performed with skill.
Even simple tricks can be fascinating and the better the illusion, the more fascinated we are. Then, on occasion, the performer reveals their secret of how the illusion is performed. However, serious magicians protect their “secrets” as if they were gold.
At the root of the magician’s sleight of hand is distraction. Draw the attention away from the actual trick to create the illusion. It takes patience, timing and practice.
While you might think that magicians are relegated to the stage, performing for an audience, there are magicians in all walks of life including industry, entertainment and even politics.
Pulling back the curtain of Santa Clara politics, you would have to acknowledge that Mayor Lisa Gillmor is a magician at what she does and has done. Gillmor has served on Santa Clara council for nearly 30 years, making it through elections and appointments that are unequaled by any local office holder.
While her early years were centered on community objectives like building the soccer park, they have expanded to include an agreement with the Related Companies which ties up Santa Clara’s golf course. Along the way in this process, Gillmor and her council majority applied eminent domain against David’s Restaurant, a twenty-year tenant. The first use of this magical power ever applied to a private facility in Santa Clara.
Related Companies is one of the mystical mysteries in town. Gillmor’s council magic allowed Related to tie up nearly 200 acres of Santa Clara property without a deposit, no payments, and after a decade, it remains untouched and undeveloped.
Gillmor has proven she is a political magician. It is most likely she influenced the selection of the Grand Jury, the focus of their report targeting the Santa Clara council majority which in turn was critical of their numerous meetings with the SF 49ers.
As the Wizard of Oz once said, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”
In the case of Santa Clara, the woman behind the curtain may be deceiving you into believing she is much more than the average person doing everything she can to hold on to her power.
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Miles,
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When one pulls back the curtain of the Silicon Valley Voice one finds a publisher who is seems uninterested in the vital role of local journalism speaking truth to power. One who prefers to cheerlead for multibillion dollar corporate special interests and wallow in the mud pit of petty personal politics with loose insinuations and suggested conspiracy theories.
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The many opinion pieces that the SV Voice prints in the guise of reportage is an embarrassment to the straight reportage it prints.
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Your opinion pieces are an embarrassment even to the opinion articles masquerading as reportage.
Dear Miles I have read your articles over the years, and as you get older you appear to get wiser. You have opened your eyes it appears.
Perhaps the blogger who is clearly in the pockets of "The Family" should read your articles vs helping distribute Rumors and April Fool taunts.
Don't forget "the family" hired 'council cohorts' to work for them, with the belief they could be a "winner winner" at a chicken dinner, prizes included TVs Cars and Trips. And when your 'service' was no longer required mysteriously moved away. The "Queen of Hearts" appears to love you but if you look carefully you see glimpses of anger and petulance. The curtain needs to be drawn on this "Family". Not all Santa Clara residents care for the "Regime". 30 years is more like a "Dictatorship".
The curtain was pulled back and we found the SVV, and Carolyn Schuk was ghost writing for Anthony Becker, things he claimed to write himself. Political and journalistic corruption.
"Gillmor has served on Santa Clara council for nearly 30 years, making it through elections and appointments that are unequaled by any local office holder."
If that is a felony and a very serious crime, Gillmore should be on death row.....!
Or, in many objective views, the mangled letters from A to Z constituting this "opinion" is just a bunch of horse puckey. The latter is true, and most Santa Clara knows it. The Silicon Valley Voice is now a muck raking rag just like in the good ol' days of crime and Tamany Hall of NYC of old. Always keeping its citizens disinformed....
-----to be clear, the SVV, for most Santa Clara citizens, is perpetuating pro-Tamany Hall-like politics and not fighting against evil and for the benefit for it's its citizens.