What the Only Four Book Ban Requests in San Francisco Reveal About the City
You won’t get this inside story anywhere else
The San Francisco Standard reported on the only four book ban requests formerly processed by San Francisco Public Library.
1.) The Bible
2.) The Return: Trump’s Big 2024 Comeback by Dick Morris
3.) Death of a Nation by Dinesh D’Souza
4.) The Contagion Myth: Why Viruses Are Not the Cause of Disease by Dr. Tom Cowan and Sally Fallon Morrell
The Bible
The Bible triggers demonic people everywhere. The idea that someone in San Francisco would try to ban it is predictable. It was not successfully banned. In fact, none of the books on this list were, but the existence of the books and an effort to ban them remain telling indicators of San Francisco and the country. Below I will speak more about my front row seat to the significance of that.
Trump & Morris
Donald Trump, mentioned above, is not only an American President, but also a former Democrat and former Clinton donor. His very existence is a testament to a failed system of broken promises to the American people.
Dick Morris, the author of the book mentioned above is a former Democrat and former Clinton insider, his very existence is also a testament to a failed system of broken promises to the American people.
Dinesh D’Souza
Dinesh D’Souza on the other hand has no such history that I know of — he was a spicy conservative from the womb as far as I know, long calling out toxic leftism for the disease that it is. In Death of a Nation he accurately compares the portions of the United States under Democrat rule to plantations of the past. San Francisco is a particularly harsh example of that. It is the city that more Americans refer to as “that used to be my favorite city” than any other city of the 50 states. It also beats every other city in the world at that. (Source: author’s private correspondences). Can it be any surprise that someone triggered by the truth would want to silence it?
Cowan & Fallon Morrell
And finally, Dr. Thomas Cowan MD mentioned above is a man who has left an outsized hole in the center of San Francisco. As an alternative health practitioner with 39 years of experience and an MD, Cowan was especially threatening to the medical establishment. He was willing to operate in San Francisco, in the belly of the beast, and to speak truthfully on topics ranging from vaccines, to pharmaceuticals, to diet, exercise, and nutrition. Not only did he have a national following, but as a board member of the Weston A Price Foundation he had the backing of an institution, albeit an institution that operated very much outside of the mainstream. Cowan was a credentialed, respected, vocal speaker of truth with a loyal following who had converted thousands to see the world differently. Because of his success and because he could not be silenced, he could not be ignored. The California medical establishment realized it could not beat Cowan in an open debate on the ideas, for this reason ended up with a target on his back with the medical establishment moving to silence him. The idea of Cowan being censored in California, far from being shocking, is part and parcel of his existence as a truth teller.
Sally Fallon Morrell, his co-author went unmentioned in the San Francisco Standard article. Fallon Morrell is herself something of a celebrity in some San Francisco circles, despite living on the other side of the country. Her cult-classic Nourishing Traditions can be found far and wide in San Francisco. As her own biography righty points out — Sally Fallon Morell is a leading spokesperson for a return to nutrient-dense diets including raw milk, animal fats, organ meats, bone broths and lacto-fermented foods.
She is the founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation (www.westonaprice.org) — if you consume bone broth or fermented vegetables, she probably had an influence on either you or the maker of that food somewhere along the way. She is a founder of A Campaign for Real Milk (realmilk.com) — if you consume raw milk, she probably had an influence on you or that process somewhere along the way.
Fallon Morrell is also president of New Trends Publishing, which publishes books on diet and health, including books in the visually distinctive Nourishing Traditions series. The widespread impact of Morrell on alternative and traditional views of health and nutrition is so extensive that I can confidently say she is one of the most impactful people that the mainstream of American society has never heard of. She is someone who influences your favorite influencers.
A Front Row Seat
I write all this with a front row seat from downtown San Francisco and a front row seat to the efforts of activists, politicians, and public health officials statewide. In 2020, 2021, 2022, and now in 2023, I have helped organize groups of health freedom activists throughout California and around the country. One group stands out to me as the group that had the most unutilized potential of any group in the state.
From San Francisco and the Bay Area, the heavy handed responses of 2020 spread far and wide — lockdowns, mask mandates, testing mandates, social distancing — you name it San Francisco played an early role as test case with local officials advocating for their widespread rollout. The San Francisco Public Health Department is regarded internationally as being willing to experiment on the local population and to become an instructive test case and model for others — making it a particularly influential location.
Through this, the local San Francisco Weston Price Foundation chapter played a fascinating role in 2020. Though it was the best positioned local organization to have taken on the role of leading the charge against the health mandates of 2020, it had been captured by radical leftists.
Chef Dave Horn
Local chef David Horn, the group’s de facto leader, once seen as an affable fellow showed his true colors when his role suddenly became consequential. He led the ideological charge in banning virtually all conversations on face masks and vaccines. Members were shouted down on group platforms for bringing up the topic. I made it my job to stop that censorship (albeit unsuccessfully). A private group was setup exclusive to anyone speaking about health mandates. If one has ever had a look at the decades long history of the national group’s science-based and emotionally charged literature on vaccines dangers, it is obvious how out of place it is to silence debate on a topic like masks and vaccines.
What could Chef Dave Horn have been thinking, by silencing such a well-educated and well-positioned group at such a critical moment? Well, group members trying to understand the heavy handed censorship identified the following:
During the days before the lockdowns, FEC records show David Horn, a San Francisco Chef working for a company identified as 37.7 degrees as donating to Act Blue, a leftist political organization, on March 8, 2020 and again on March 12, 2020. Digging further, we see a more pronounced trend. An unemployed California man named Dave Horn is also listed in FEC records as giving at least 47 times to Act Blue as well as 23 times to a group called “Stop Republicans” and 49 times to a group called “Progressive Turnout Project.” This level of repeated giving to a political cause shows a particularly emotion-driven response. The censoring of the San Francisco group was likely a similarly emotion-driven event.
It is unclear if this is the same Dave Horn. Though his Linked In page reflects that he worked for a company named Miss Mirum’s as head chef of their cannabis infused edibles operation at this time and head chef of Nosh, a catering company, it is possible that there may have been a lapse in employment reported to the FEC at the time. Alternatively, “unemployed” is an option that some choose when attempting to hide their identity from federally mandated campaign finance reports.
Though at the national level, warriors like Cowan and Fallon Morrell were the norm, at the local level, the Weston Price group was paralyzed into being little more than a sour dough bread recipe swapping group, with serious discussion censored. If you know the Weston Price Foundation, you know how its group members have a way of evangelizing about what they learn and spreading it far and wide to others. My life was changed for the better by group members who took a special interest in me 15 years ago as I was running for office. The San Francisco Weston Price group is an educational group that was tailor-made to combat evils in the world such as the horrors of 2020 and it was prevented from doing that.
I would not be the only person who has wondered how many lives were lost because Dave Horn and a small number of others stopped a group like that from doing what it does best — identifying the truth and then sharing the truth.
Thankfully, there were people like Cowan and Fallon Morrell who refused to be silenced. The only thing is that they were not local to San Francisco, where so much of the mandates of 2020 and beyond sprung from.
Congratulations To Horn
Congratulations to Horn. Though I can’t think of a more anti-social behavior to have taken in his position of influence in 2020, he can be proud to have ostensibly served his leftist values well. His censorship helped make the mask mandates a reality and helped make the unsafe and ineffective vaccine mandates a reality in more people’s lives. He helped leave more people scared, alone, and in the dark. He silenced truth tellers. He is a walking testament to why a person with such values should never be allowed a position of authority in society.
I was once a good leftist and a supporter of leftist causes like Trump and Morris listed above. People like Horn helped to open my eyes. I came to realize the ill of those ideas when taken to their logical conclusion. I can now say that Leftism is a disease. Its adherents do real harm in the world around us. To this I had a front row seat in 2020.
Thank You To The Heroes
Despite that censorship, some important parts of my own awakening on the topic of the health mandates and my own activism came from interaction with the few group members who refused to be silenced.
My own experience of 2020 and beyond has been mirrored in this list of books above that others would like to see censored, books containing truth that refuses to go away.
Thank you to those who refused to be silenced — both those in print and those local truth tellers in my own life.
Posterity owes you a considerable debt, as do I.
Your courage is contagious and the truth will prevail.
Thank you brave warriors.
Allan Stevo
If you’ve enjoyed this, and if you like the idea of a challenge in the year ahead, I have a neat one for you and a neat community of people rising to quite a challenge together. We are reading the first banned book mentioned above, together from cover to cover. Join us at 55hours.org.
For those in San Francisco who feel abandoned and isolated, there are active WAPF chapters in Marin, the East Bay, Contra Costa/Tri-Valley, Sonoma County, and on the Peninsula. Contact information is available through the WAPF website https://www.westonaprice.org/
What does the local SF Weston Price group do? Do they have regular meetings where people discuss stuff? How can people voice their opposition to "leaders" like Dave Horn censoring conversation on certain topics, if that is occurring?