A small group of conservative activists gathered on the steps of Sproul Hall at the University of California at Berkeley today at noon, outnumbered by counter-demonstrators and vastly outnumbered by police. 

Initially, there were less than a half-dozen people shouting at each other, although the gathering slowly grew. Eventually there were dozens of demonstrators and counter-demonstrators at the scene, although in many cases it was not clear which side many individuals were on.  

Patriot Prayer organizer Joey Gibson was present, as was Kyle Chapman, better known in the alt-right movement as "Based Stickman." 

A small group of conservatives wearing "Make America Great Again" hats chanted, "We will overcome." 

Counter-protesters chanted "no Trump, no KKK, no fascist U.S.A." 

An activist from the organization By Any Means Necessary accused the police of cooperating with the conservative activist, saying "they have not arrested the fascists... they have selectively targeted the people standing up against fascists." 

The event was largely peaceful, although a report of a suspicious package prompted a bomb squad to respond to the scene around 12:45 p.m.  

Police evacuated part of Sproul Plaza, but investigators eventually determined that the package posed no threat to the public and the bomb squad left the scene around 1:30 p.m. 

Unrelated to the protest, the Nigerian Student Association was holding a planned event nearby with amplified music. When the conservative protest began to disperse, Chapman and a number of his supporters attempted to join them but their path was blocked by students saying it was a private event and they were not welcome to attend. 

Chapman and others attempted to film the gathering of primarily black students, but the people standing in their ways blocked their cameras using flyers that read, "This is Indian territory." 

A brief standoff ensued with alt-right activists on one side and the Nigerian Student Association and their allies on the other. Eventually police moved in to form a perimeter in between the two groups.  

One man was detained and searched, but later released. 

There were no arrests on campus related to the demonstration, UC Berkeley police Sgt. Nicolas Hernandez said. 

The students dispersed around 1:55 p.m.

On Saturday, September 23, San Francisco Opera opened its 2017 production of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata by presenting three international singers who were all making their local debut. Violetta was sung by Romanian soprano Aurelia Florian; Alfredo was sung by Brazilian tenor Atalla Ayan; and Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s father, was sung by Polish baritone Artur Rucinski. To put it succinctly, they were sensational! Rarely, if ever, until now, can I recall hearing for the first time three singers in principal roles in an opera and finding myself astounded by the top-level caliber of their singing! This was opera at its best! 

Based on the play La dame aux camélias by Alexander Dumas fils, La Traviata tells the story of Violetta Valéry, a beautiful but tubercular Parisian courtesan who unexpectedly finds true love in the person of young Alfredo Germont, gives up her frivolous pursuits of pleasure for Alfredo’s love, then sacrifices herself and her love for Alfredo at the insistence of Alfredo’s father, only to be reconciled with both father and son on her tragic deathbed at the close of the opera. In composing La Traviata, Verdi broke new ground in several important ways. Musically, La Traviata does not proceed according to conventional demarcations between arias and recitatives. Indeed, in La Traviata it is difficult to say where a recitative ends and an aria begins. Here there is an innovative, ongoing flow of music. Dramatically, Verdi gave this tragic opera a near-contemporary setting, thereby breaking with the convention that only comic operas could be set in contemporary times. Writing La Traviata in 1853, Verdi insisted on setting the opera in Paris of the recent 1840s.  

For this 2017 production of La Traviata, San Francisco Opera revived yet again John Copley’s somewhat stodgy but workable staging, which at least has the merit of offering sets by John Conklin and costumes by David Walker firmly rooted in the Parisian styles of the 1840s. Director Shawna Lucey oversaw the revived John Copely staging. (Thank goodness San Francisco Opera never reprised Marta Domingo’s embarrassing 2009 production of La Traviata, which, among other flaws, ludicrously staged Violetta’s deathbed scene on a circular bed on a bare stage where snow fell on the tubercular Violetta throughout the entire final Act!) 

As in 2014, La Traviata was conducted by Music Director Nicola Luisotti, who deepened his sensitive interpretation of this opera’s excellent score. Of particular note was Luisotti’s attention to changes of tempo, rhythm, and dynamics. In La Traviata’s orchestral Prelude, the opening notes of divided violins were played slowly and quietly, almost but not quite to the point of losing a sense of propulsion. Once the curtain rose, however, Luisotti’s orchestra markedly increased both volume and tempo, as the opera got underway. 

Act I opens on a festive party scene at Violetta’s lavish Parisian townhouse, a ‘gift’ of her male “protectors,” among whom is Baron Douphol. Young Alfredo Germont enters and is introduced to Violetta by his friend Gastone, sympathetically sung here by tenor Amitai Pati. Alfredo launches into a toast, the famous Brindisi. As sung here by tenor Atalla Ayan, this Brindisi was robust but gave few hints of the gorgeous singing yet to come from Atalla Ayan. Then, when Violetta has a brief fainting spell, Alfredo stays with her while the other partygoers traipse off to have dinner. Here Alfredo declares that a year ago he saw Violetta and has loved her ever since, often inquiring about her health to his friend Gastone. At first, Violetta treats this declaration of love with mocking irony. Little by little, however, she begins to wonder. Alfredo ardently insists on the sincerity of his love, Ayan’s voice now ringing with conviction and passion. 

When Alfredo leaves, Violetta sings the famous double-aria that begins “Ah, fors’ è lui” (“Perhaps he’s the one”). As Violetta, soprano Aurelia Florian sang with sumptuous tone, impeccable diction, and ravishing vocal color as she pondered for a moment the possibility of true love. Then, with the outburst, “Folie!” (“Madness!”), Violetta repudiates her momentary lapse into sincerity and redons her habitual social mask of a pleasure-seeking courtesan in the cabaletta, “Sempre libera.” Vowing to remain free to go with any man wealthy enough to bankroll her lavish lifestyle, Violetta launches a little too feverishly to be altogether convincing her dismissal of the possibility of finding true love. In Sempre libera,” Aurelia Florian sang with fierce resolve, flawed only by a slight shrillness on one high note, an excusable lapse in an evening’s performance that was otherwise sensational. (Even this momentary shrillness could be heard as indicative of the internal conflict roiling in Violetta as she precipitously rejects the idea of love presented by Alfredo.) 

Act II opens in a country house where Violetta, having fallen in love, lives happily with Alfredo. Three months have passed in their happy life together. Alfredo sings of his ecstatic love for Violetta, and here Atalla Ayan’s voice took on buoyant ardor and rich color. However, Violetta’s maid and confidante, Annina, sympathetically sung here by soprano Amina Edris, reveals to Alfredo that Violetta has been selling off her valuables to pay for their romantic idyll in the country. Mortified, Alfredo rushes off to Paris to raise the money to reimburse Violetta. Meanwhile, Violetta receives an unexpected visit from Alfredo’s father, Giorgio Germont. Sung by Polish baritone Artur Rucinski, Germont père begins a wheedling plea that Violetta must give up Alfredo so that Alfredo’s sister can marry her beloved fiancé, who will call off their engagement if Alfredo’s dishonorable liaison with the Parisian courtesan is not ended. As Giorgio Germont, Artur Rucinski sang with robust tone as he mustered one argument after another, all of dubious but apparently heartfelt logic, insisting that the noble thing for Violetta to do is to break off her liaison with Alfredo. Crushed but resolute, Violetta agrees to give up Alfredo. In this scene and in the next scene with his son Alfredo, Artur Rucinski gave as impressive and credible an interpretation of Giorgio Germont’s character as I have seen and heard in the nearly twenty performances I’ve attended of La Traviata.  

Act II, Scene 2 takes place at a party in Paris thrown by Violetta’s friend Flora, capably sung here by mezzo-soprano Renée Rapier. Alfredo arrives hoping to find Violetta, who has abandoned him, and either persuade her to return to him or, if not, to humiliate her to avenge his wounded pride. At the gaming tables, Alfredo gambles and wins. When Violetta arrives on the arm of Baron Douphol, ably sung here by veteran bass Philip Skinner, Alfredo angrily throws the cash of his winnings in the face of Violetta. Giorgio Germont, fearing that his son will act rashly, arrives just in time to witness this shameful action by Alfredo; and he bitterly rebukes his son for insulting Violetta. Baron Douphol challenges Alfredo to a duel as the scene ends. 

Act III is set in Violetta’s bedroom in her house in Paris. Her illness has taken a severe toll on her, and Doctor Grenvil, sympathetically sung here by bass Anthony Reed, tries to give Violetta hope while also confiding to Aninna that Violetta has little time left to live. When Aninna and the doctor leave the house, Violetta reads aloud to herself a letter from Giorgio Germont informing her that Alfredo has gone abroad after wounding Baron Douphol in the duel. Germont père has told his son of the sacrifice Violetta made at his insistence, and he reports that soon Alfredo will return to beg Violetta’s forgiveness, accompanied by his father, who will also beg Violetta’s forgiveness. In her weakened state, Violetta laments that she waits and waits, but still they don’t arrive.  

When Alfredo suddenly bursts in, announced excitedly by Aninna, Violetta is momentarily overjoyed. The reunited couple exclaims their undying love. Then Alfredo launches into an effusive plan, which begins with the words, “Parigi, o cara,” in which he ardently sings that together they’ll leave Paris and go to the country where nature will help cure Violetta of her illness. Here Conductor Luisotti takes Alfredo’s opening lines at a quick tempo and allows Alfredo a full-voiced elaboration of his plan. However, when Violetta takes up the same words and music, Luisotti retards the tempo by a half-beat and he alters the rhythm by emphasizing each syllable. Whereas Alfredo opened with ringing enthusiasm hoping to perk up Violetta, she, however, takes up the melody more softly and hesitantly, as if both realizing how ill she is and at the same time wistfully reflecting on the remote possibility that Alfredo’s plan could restore her to health and happiness. It’s a brilliant bit of conducting by Luisotti, one I’ve never encountered from any other conductor. Moreover, elsewhere in this closing scene of La Traviata Luisotti pays sensitive attention to dynamics. Contrary to the convention in which a frail and dying Violetta sings at full-voice throughout her deathbed scene, Luisotti has his Violetta sing much of the time in a soft, piano voice, allowing her to ring forth in full-voice only in occasional moments of exuberance and desperate hope. To her immense credit, Aurelia Florian sang the most utterly convincing and moving deathbed scene in La Traviata I have ever experienced. 

There are nine more performances of La Traviata throughout September and mid-October. If you see only one of the remaining operas scheduled this Fall at San Francisco Opera, you couldn’t go wrong in choosing to attend this sensational La Traviata. 

 

 

At least one person has been taken into custody this afternoon at a rally and march by the conservative group Patriot Prayer at the University of California at Berkeley campus. 

The group began to gather at Sproul Plaza around 2 p.m. and the person was taken into custody on Shattuck Avenue after a scuffle with counter-protesters. 

Rally organizer Joey Gibson said in a video posted to Facebook on Monday that the group planned to march from Sproul Plaza to an unidentified location where participants will give speeches. 

Berkeley police said about 100 people were marching south on Telegraph Avenue and then were heading east on Channing Way as of about 2:30 p.m. The group then went to People's Park near Dwight Way and Hillegass Avenue. 

Counter-protesters, members of the media and others with cameras appear to outnumber the group from Patriot Prayer and there is a heavy police presence with officers working to keep the two groups mostly separate.

Residents of the Oakland hills north of Interstate Highway 580 and Edwards Drive are being evacuated this afternoon because of a four-alarm grass fire, police and fire officials said. 

As of shortly after 1 p.m., police said they were evacuating the streets of Bayview Drive, Skyview Drive, Ridgemont Drive and Viewcrest Drive and houses in the 13650 block of Campus Drive. 

Police are asking people to avoid the area. 

About 50 homes are threatened by the fire, Cal Fire officials said. 

The officials said as of about 1 p.m. that the fire has burned 20 acres. It was spreading at a moderate rate. 

The fire was first reported at 12:13 p.m. near Mountain Boulevard and Edwards Avenue. 

When fire officials reported the fire on Twitter, they said it was spreading rapidly on a steep hill. 

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning today through Wednesday afternoon for the East Bay hills because of dry weather conditions that pose a high risk of wildfires.

About 50 homes are threatened this afternoon by a four-alarm fire burning in the Oakland hills, Cal Fire and Oakland fire officials said. 

Cal Fire officials said as of about 1 p.m. that the fire has burned 20 acres. It was spreading at a moderate rate. 

The fire was first reported at 12:13 p.m. near Mountain Boulevard and Edwards Avenue. 

Fire officials said evacuations are underway. When fire officials reported the fire on Twitter, they said it was spreading rapidly on a steep hill. 

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning today through Wednesday afternoon for the East Bay hills because of dry weather conditions that pose a high risk of wildfires.

Police responding to a report of a domestic disturbance at a home in Berkeley on Saturday night discovered more than $1 million worth of psychedelic mushrooms, police said. 

At about 10 p.m., Berkeley police received a call about a domestic disturbance between a boyfriend and girlfriend in the 1700 block of Alcatraz Avenue. 

When officers arrived at the scene, the occupants refused to open the door. A short time later, the man and woman exited the house and were detained, police said. 

Officers entered the home to look for additional victims, suspects or occupants. Inside, they discovered a large-scale psychedelic mushroom processing operation, police said. 

Police said that in plain view were psilocybin mushrooms in various stages of cultivation, as well as storage and distribution materials. Officers secured the scene and a search warrant for the home, police said. 

According to police, both occupants, a 35-year-old man and a 37-year-old woman, were arrested and booked into Alameda County Jail on suspicion of narcotics-related offenses. Their names have not been released. 

Police seized 677 pounds of mushrooms with an estimated street value of more than $1 million from the home. They also seized more than $3,000 in cash and additional evidence indicating a large-scale operation.

The group Patriot Prayer is scheduled to hold a rally today at the University of California at Berkeley campus, according to a group organizer. 

In a video posted to the group's Facebook page on Monday, organizer Joey Gibson said they will gather at Sproul Plaza at 2 p.m. today. 

Gibson said the group will march to an undisclosed location where participants will give speeches. 

The rally comes just days after the group Berkeley Patriot, a conservative student organization at UC Berkeley, canceled "Free Speech Week," a series of events on campus featuring several conservative speakers. 

Despite the cancellation, some political actions and gathering have taken place this week. 

On Sunday, conservative writer Milo Yiannopoulos, who had planned to speak during "Free Speech Week" before it was canceled, appeared at Sproul Plaza around noon for about 30 minutes. 

Some demonstrations took place during his appearance. Although 11 people were arrested, the demonstrations were mostly peaceful, according to university police. 

On Monday, the group United Against Right Wing Violence held a protest on the campus in response to "Free Speech Week." The event resulted in the arrest of one person. 

Gibson and the Patriot Prayer group had planned a large rally at San Francisco's Crissy Field last month but canceled it a day beforehand. 

A subsequent news conference planned in Alamo Square was then also canceled, but the right-wing actions prompted large counter-protests throughout San Francisco.

The Berkeley Police Department and law enforcement partners arrested 11 people as part of efforts to manage demonstrations at and near the UC Berkeley Campus.

There were no reported injuries due to violence and no reports of any property damage.

Previous violence at demonstrations prompted the City to enact regulations prohibiting various weapons on certain City streets and sidewalks as well as three City parks. Violations of those regulations were charged under Berkeley Municipal Code BMC 13.45.020.
Those arrested and their charges are below: 

Sherman, Keith, 30, Oakland, BMC 13.45.020, PC 185
McCoy, Kyle, 28, Oakland, BMC 13.45.020, PC 148, PC 185
Coxburnett, Drean, 23, Berkeley, BMC 13.45.040
Cho, Jonathan, 27, Oakland, BMC 13.45.020
Starling, Imalda, 32, Berkeley, BMC 6.32.30
Johnson, David, 24, Oakland, BMC 13.45.020
Stark-Buhl, Rane, 27, Oakland, BMC 13.45.020, PC 148, PC 405(a)
Orr, William, 29, Oakland, BMC 13.45.040
James, Kelsey, 24, Reno, BMC 13.45.020
Reddy, Gautam, 22, San Ramon, BMC, 6.32.030, PC 21310
Feil, Syth, 30, Redwood Valley, BMC 13.45.020

The Berkeley Police Department’s will continue to investigate potential crimes that occurred during today’s demonstration. We are asking members of the public to send us photos or videos of Sunday’s events, using any web-enabled device by visiting http://bit.ly/berkvideo.

The Berkeley Police Department is grateful of the support provided to our community by law enforcement agencies throughout the state, including, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, UC Berkeley Police, California Highway Patrol, Oakland Police, Solano County Agencies, Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, California State University Police Agencies, Taft Police, Corcoran Police, Citrus Heights Police, Emeryville Police, San Leandro Police, Kings County Sheriff’s Office and Stanford University Police.

 

For full details, view this message on the web.l

I was looking over your December 2014 article, Helicopters: How Police Tactics Fuel Confrontation, and was startled by how closely it resembles the current situation:

It's stunning to me that the problem just gets worse, especially if you are living near the center of town anywhere. I hope that someone can follow up and understand why nobody can take responsibility for this noise. It has an affect on our health.

If you want to pursue this topic, the best I can do is offer my FAA and Berkeley Health Division's rejection letters and understand the system is not working at the moment, for this issue. 

Here are my response letters. Apologies for the wall of text. 

1. 

The speeches and demonstrations at the University of California at Berkeley's Sproul Plaza today were mostly peaceful, with no injuries and only two arrests, campus police said. 

Groups attending the event have dwindled and the roadways in the area south of campus are now open, Berkeley police said. 

"We did have increased security measures in place," said UC Berkeley police spokeswoman Sgt. Sabrina Reich. "We had to make sure the individuals on both sides who were coming to our community would be safe." 

She said that only a couple of minor scuffles broke out during the event, in which Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right self-described "troll" - widely defined as someone who deliberately sows discord online - spoke at Sproul Plaza around noon for about a half-hour. 

"Even though the student group canceled the event, he (Yiannopoulos) was able to speak," Reich said. 

She was referring to the fact that the Berkeley Patriot student organization Saturday morning told university officials that all the events scheduled for the so-called "Free Speech Week" planned for this week were canceled. 

Groups opposing the far right appeared at Sproul Hall today to counter-demonstrate. 

Reich said there were only two arrests. 

"One was for unauthorized amplified sound in violation of university code. The individual was cited and released," Reich said. 

"The second was a stay-away order violation. The individual was taken into custody and booked into the City of Berkeley jail," Reich said. 

Campus police set up barriers to the approach to Sproul Plaza and screened attendees for prohibited items such as sticks or weapons, Reich said.

Well, whiny little Milo came to Sproul Plaza, kvetched to a couple of hundred people, not all of whom were his fans, and now he's gone.

The heavens did not open. Zeus with his thunderbolts did not strike Milo down. The sky did not fall, Chicken Little, sorry to disappoint you.

Outside the campus, an eager assemblage of those who came looking for a fight seem not to have found one, at least as of this writing.

The main crowd of protestors Milo suckered into showing up, as reported by Berkeleyside.com, seem to have been the Bob Avakian puppies currently sailing under the flag of RefuseFaschism.com, whose principal prop, a REALLY LOUD sound system, was reported to have been confiscated by the police under the noise ordinance.

By Any Means Necessary, the longtime bane of the existence of several African-American friends of mine who have kids at UC, did show up, and they have loud voices without amplification. They didn't get struck down either.

I didn't go. I'll be trying to skip all of these faux-right provocations from now on. My media colleagues at berkeleyside.com nobly live-blogged what seems to have been a non-event, and our partners at Bay City News have produced the kind of sober, factual report which I appreciate. I'm happy to have missed it.

At this writing it's only about 2 pm, so there's still time for someone to start a riot, but don't let it distract you from actually useful political action, like, say, phone-banking to Maine to defeat Graham-Kennedy. I think it's highly possible that the sky will go on not falling.

Once again, Berkeley has survived free speech. Can we learn anything from that, or is it more fun to be scared? Me, I'd rather not.

The scheduled speeches at the University of California at Berkeley's Sproul Plaza are over and the scheduled speakers have left the area, Berkeley police said. 

Participants have begun leaving, and the road closures are still in effect at this time, police said. 

The road closures are as follows: Bancroft Way is closed between Bowditch and Dana streets, and northbound Telegraph Avenue is closed between Durant Avenue and Bancroft, police said. 

While the so-called "Free Speech Week" planned at the University of Florida this week was canceled, the scheduled far-right speakers appeared at Sproul Plaza around noon today. 

Scheduled speakers were Milo Yiannopoulos, a self-described "troll" - widely defined as someone who deliberately sows discord online - and two other far-right media personalities, Mike Cernovich and Pamela Geller. 

The university's police department put measures in place to ensure the safety of the campus community, university officials said. 

Libraries and other buildings that serve students, specifically Eshelman and Martin Luther King Jr. Student Center, are open today. Anyone planning to be on campus should carry their Cal ID in order to gain access to buildings, according to university officials. 

With regard to the counter-protests, "We encourage you to think critically about your actions and not react to the provocations of others," campus officials said in a statement. 

"If the actions around you are not consistent with your own values and goals, please remove yourself from the situation. If you choose to remain in an area where violence is occurring, you may be subject to arrest or removal," campus officials said. 

When Yiannopoulos last was scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley in February, protests caused more than $100,000 in damage to the campus, and more than a dozen businesses were vandalized in the city's downtown area, according to university officials. 

Campus police are urging people who see violence occurring to separate themselves from the violence and report the violence by dialing 911 or (510) 642-3333.

The scheduled Sproul Plaza speeches have concluded and the scheduled speakers have left the area. Participants have begun leaving. The road closures are still in effect.

Protests are taking place near Telegraph Avenue and Bancroft Way in Berkeley, causing traffic congestion, and people are advised to avoid the area if possible, police said this morning. 

While the so-called "Free Speech Week" planned at the University of Florida this week has been canceled, far-right speakers have said they plan to hold forth at Sproul Plaza at noon today. 

Counter-protests are taking place in response. "Expect delays for several hours in the area," University of California police said in a bulletin. 

Milo Yiannopoulos, a self-described "troll" - widely defined as someone who deliberately sows discord online - has said he and two other far-right personalities, Mike Cernovich and Pamela Geller, would speak today. 

The university's police department has put measures in place to ensure the safety of the campus community, university officials said. 

Libraries and other buildings that serve students, specifically Eshelman and Martin Luther King Jr. Student Center, are open today. Anyone planning to be on campus should carry their Cal ID in order to gain access to buildings, according to university officials. 

With regard to the counter-protests, "We encourage you to think critically about your actions and not react to the provocations of others," campus officials said in a statement. 

"If the actions around you are not consistent with your own values and goals, please remove yourself from the situation. If you choose to remain in an area where violence is occurring, you may be subject to arrest or removal," campus officials said. 

When Yiannopoulos last was scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley in February, protests caused more than $100,000 in damage to the campus, and more than a dozen businesses were vandalized in the city's downtown area, according to university officials. 

Campus police are urging people who see violence occurring to separate themselves from the violence and report the violence by dialing 911 or (510) 642-3333.

While the so-called "Free Speech Week" at the University of California at Berkeley has been canceled by its student organizers, far-right speakers said they would hold forth at Sproul Plaza tomorrow. 

The Berkeley Patriot student organization this morning told university officials that all the events scheduled for the following week are canceled, Dan Mogulof, a university spokesman, said in a statement. 

However, a far-right media personality who was to have spoken at "Free Speech Week" said in a live-streamed presentation on Facebook today that he and two others would speak at Sproul Plaza Sunday at noon. 

Milo Yiannopoulos, a self-described "troll" - widely defined as someone who deliberately sows discord online - said he and two other far-right personalities, Mike Cernovich and Pamela Geller, would speak Sunday. 

Geller also appeared in the livestream, promoting a book she wrote that was published by Yiannopoulos. Cernovich also spoke briefly. 

In response to the cancellation of "Free Speech Week," Mogulof said, "It is extremely unfortunate that this announcement was made at the last minute, even as the university was in the process of spending significant sums of money and preparing for substantial disruption of campus life in order to provide the needed security for these events." 

The university was in the process of spending more than $1 million to make the proposed events safe, the spokesman said. 

"News of the voluntary cancellation of 'Free Speech Week' represents no setback for free speech," said Suzanne Nossel, executive director of PEN American Center, an organization founded in 1922 to defend free expression and advance literature. 

"From the start, the groups behind this planned conclave made clear their intent to showcase only a particular set of views, aimed to provoke outrage and bait those who might call for their expression to be shut down," Nossel said. 

"In a climate where confrontations and violence had previously broken out, Berkeley officials were dogged in making plans and taking precautions to enable the events to go forward," Nossel said. 

When Yiannopoulos last was scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley in February, protests caused more than $100,000 in damage to the campus, and more than a dozen businesses were vandalized in the city's downtown area, according to university officials. 

"Repeated changes to the program and lack of confirmation of events called the organizers' seriousness into question," Nossel said. 

The student organization made preliminary reservations for a number of venues, but missed three deadlines to complete contracts and confirm reservations, Mogulof said. The Berkeley Patriot group did have a confirmed reservation for Anna Head Hall, but canceled that reservation Tuesday, he said. 

On Friday, a spokeswoman for Yiannopoulos said "Free Speech Week" would still take place despite media reports that it had been canceled. 

This morning, student organizers told UC Berkeley officials that the event was canceled. 

Similar on-off announcements occurred with regard to a Patriot Prayer right-wing event that had been scheduled for San Francisco's Crissy Field Aug. 26. Organizers abruptly cancelled the rally the day before it was to happen, instead scheduling an unpermitted event in Alamo Square Park. That event was also cancelled at the last minute. 

"Ben Shapiro's recent appearance at Berkeley was hopeful evidence that reasoned dialogue between sharply opposing views is possible, but it demands that the parties involve in good faith, with the intent of exchanging ideas rather than barbs in the media or physical blows," Nossel said. 

Shapiro spoke Sept. 14 at Zellerbach Playhouse in an event titled "Say No to Campus Thuggery." The event was being put on by the Berkeley College Republicans and Young America's Foundation. 

Nine people were arrested for offenses including public intoxication. 

There were no reports of injuries or property damage connected with the event, according to police.  

Calls and email to representatives of Berkeley Patriot were not returned. 

JanisMara0311p09/23/17 

CONTACT: Dan Mogulof, Asst. Vice Chancellor, Office of Communications and Public Affairs, dmogulof@berkeley.edu 

 

Copyright � 2017 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. 

/www/bcn/general/09/newsclip.17.09.23.15.12.01.1.txt

The so-called "Free Speech Week" at the University of California at Berkeley has been called off by the Berkeley Patriot organization, university officials said this morning.

The Berkeley Patriot student organization is the student group sponsoring the event. Right-wing media personality Milo Yiannopoulos was to appear at the event.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for Yiannopoulos said that the event would still take place despite media reports that it had been canceled. However, in a press conference today, Yiannopoulos confirmed the cancellation, but promised to hold a noon rally on the steps of Sproul Hall, now called the Mario Savio steps, tomorrow.

Representatives of the student organization this morning told university officials that all of the events scheduled for the following week have been canceled, Dan Mogulof, a university spokesman, said in a statement. 

Phone calls and emails to various representatives of the student group requesting comment were not returned. 

"It is extremely unfortunate that this announcement was made at the last minute, even as the university was in the process of spending significant sums of money and preparing for substantial disruption of campus life in order to provide the needed security for these events," Mogulof said. 

The spokesman said the university had been in the process of spending more than $1 million to make the proposed events safe. 

The student organization made preliminary reservations for a number of venues, but missed three deadlines to complete contracts and confirm reservations, Mogulof said. The Berkeley Patriot group did have a confirmed reservation for Anna Head Hall, but canceled that reservation Tuesday, he said. 

The spokesman added, "Claims that this is somehow the outcome desired by the campus are without basis in fact." Mogulof said the university was prepared to do "whatever was necessary to support the First Amendment rights of the student organization." 

 

Chanel Korby, a spokeswoman for Milo Inc., a group started by Yiannopoulos, said in an email message Friday, "At present the event is set to continue no matter what and UC Berkeley has been paid $65,000 so far in security deposits." 

However, this morning the university announced that the Berkeley Patriot organization had called the event off. 

Attempts to contact representatives of Yiannopoulos requesting comment were unsuccessful. 

Similar on-off announcements occurred with regard to a Patriot Prayer right-wing event that had been scheduled for San Francisco's Crissy Field Aug. 26. Organizers abruptly cancelled the rally the day before it was to happen, instead scheduling an unpermitted event in Alamo Square Park. That event was also cancelled at the last minute. 

Mogulof said the campus administration and the University as a whole "are deeply committed to freedom of speech. We want to send the strongest possible message that we will continue to work constructively with campus organizations to host their speakers on our campus."

A small group of conservative activists gathered on the steps of Sproul Hall at the University of California at Berkeley today at noon, outnumbered by counter-demonstrators and vastly outnumbered by police. 

Initially, there were less than a half-dozen people shouting at each other, although the gathering slowly grew. Eventually there were dozens of demonstrators and counter-demonstrators at the scene, although in many cases it was not clear which side many individuals were on.  

Patriot Prayer organizer Joey Gibson was present, as was Kyle Chapman, better known in the alt-right movement as "Based Stickman." 

A small group of conservatives wearing "Make America Great Again" hats chanted, "We will overcome." 

Counter-protesters chanted "no Trump, no KKK, no fascist U.S.A." 

An activist from the organization By Any Means Necessary accused the police of cooperating with the conservative activist, saying "they have not arrested the fascists... they have selectively targeted the people standing up against fascists." 

The event was largely peaceful, although a report of a suspicious package prompted a bomb squad to respond to the scene around 12:45 p.m.  

Police evacuated part of Sproul Plaza, but investigators eventually determined that the package posed no threat to the public and the bomb squad left the scene around 1:30 p.m. 

Unrelated to the protest, the Nigerian Student Association was holding a planned event nearby with amplified music. When the conservative protest began to disperse, Chapman and a number of his supporters attempted to join them but their path was blocked by students saying it was a private event and they were not welcome to attend. 

Chapman and others attempted to film the gathering of primarily black students, but the people standing in their ways blocked their cameras using flyers that read, "This is Indian territory." 

A brief standoff ensued with alt-right activists on one side and the Nigerian Student Association and their allies on the other. Eventually police moved in to form a perimeter in between the two groups.  

One man was detained and searched, but later released. 

There were no arrests on campus related to the demonstration, UC Berkeley police Sgt. Nicolas Hernandez said. 

The students dispersed around 1:55 p.m.

A small group of conservative activists gathered on the steps of Sproul Hall at the University of California at Berkeley today at noon, outnumbered by counter-demonstrators and vastly outnumbered by police. 

Initially, there were less than a half-dozen people shouting at each other, although the gathering slowly grew. Eventually there were dozens of demonstrators and counter-demonstrators at the scene, although in many cases it was not clear which side many individuals were on.  

Patriot Prayer organizer Joey Gibson was present, as was Kyle Chapman, better known in the alt-right movement as "Based Stickman." 

A small group of conservatives wearing "Make America Great Again" hats chanted, "We will overcome." 

Counter-protesters chanted "no Trump, no KKK, no fascist U.S.A." 

An activist from the organization By Any Means Necessary accused the police of cooperating with the conservative activist, saying "they have not arrested the fascists... they have selectively targeted the people standing up against fascists." 

The event was largely peaceful, although a report of a suspicious package prompted a bomb squad to respond to the scene around 12:45 p.m.  

Police evacuated part of Sproul Plaza, but investigators eventually determined that the package posed no threat to the public and the bomb squad left the scene around 1:30 p.m. 

Unrelated to the protest, the Nigerian Student Association was holding a planned event nearby with amplified music. When the conservative protest began to disperse, Chapman and a number of his supporters attempted to join them but their path was blocked by students saying it was a private event and they were not welcome to attend. 

Chapman and others attempted to film the gathering of primarily black students, but the people standing in their ways blocked their cameras using flyers that read, "This is Indian territory." 

A brief standoff ensued with alt-right activists on one side and the Nigerian Student Association and their allies on the other. Eventually police moved in to form a perimeter in between the two groups.  

One man was detained and searched, but later released. 

There were no arrests on campus related to the demonstration, UC Berkeley police Sgt. Nicolas Hernandez said. 

The students dispersed around 1:55 p.m.

A small group of conservative activists gathered on the steps of Sproul Hall at the University of California at Berkeley today at noon, outnumbered by counter-demonstrators and vastly outnumbered by police. 

Initially, there were less than a half-dozen people shouting at each other, although the gathering slowly grew. Eventually there were dozens of demonstrators and counter-demonstrators at the scene, although in many cases it was not clear which side many individuals were on.  

Patriot Prayer organizer Joey Gibson was present, as was Kyle Chapman, better known in the alt-right movement as "Based Stickman." 

A small group of conservatives wearing "Make America Great Again" hats chanted, "We will overcome." 

Counter-protesters chanted "no Trump, no KKK, no fascist U.S.A." 

An activist from the organization By Any Means Necessary accused the police of cooperating with the conservative activist, saying "they have not arrested the fascists... they have selectively targeted the people standing up against fascists." 

The event was largely peaceful, although a report of a suspicious package prompted a bomb squad to respond to the scene around 12:45 p.m.  

Police evacuated part of Sproul Plaza, but investigators eventually determined that the package posed no threat to the public and the bomb squad left the scene around 1:30 p.m. 

Unrelated to the protest, the Nigerian Student Association was holding a planned event nearby with amplified music. When the conservative protest began to disperse, Chapman and a number of his supporters attempted to join them but their path was blocked by students saying it was a private event and they were not welcome to attend. 

Chapman and others attempted to film the gathering of primarily black students, but the people standing in their ways blocked their cameras using flyers that read, "This is Indian territory." 

A brief standoff ensued with alt-right activists on one side and the Nigerian Student Association and their allies on the other. Eventually police moved in to form a perimeter in between the two groups.  

One man was detained and searched, but later released. 

There were no arrests on campus related to the demonstration, UC Berkeley police Sgt. Nicolas Hernandez said. 

The students dispersed around 1:55 p.m.

A spokeswoman for right-wing media personality Milo Yiannopoulos said today that the so-called "Free Speech Week" at the University of California at Berkeley will still take place despite media reports on KQED radio, the San Francisco Chronicle's sfgate.com and berkeleyside.com that it might (or might not) have been canceled. 

Chanel Korby, a spokeswoman for Milo Inc., a group started by Yiannopoulos, said in an email message "At present the event is set to continue no matter what and UC Berkeley has been paid $65,000 so far in security deposits." 

Korby said Yiannopoulos will hold a press briefing about the free speech week, which has been scheduled to begin on Sunday and run through Wednesday, at 2 p.m. on Saturday at an undisclosed location "in the Bay Area." She said the location will be released to confirmed members of the news media. 

Korby said Yiannopoulos "will use his eve of battle conference to lay out his plan for the Berkeley Free Speech Week event, which is scheduled to begin on Sunday on the UC Berkeley campus." 

Korby said, "He will be accompanied by members of the Berkeley Patriot, the student group sponsoring the event, and by scheduled speakers, including Pamela Geller and Mike Cernovich." 

She said Yiannopoulos "is expected to speak based on prepared remarks as well as answer questions, and other Free Speech Week speakers will participate as well as they prepare to head for Berkeley the next day (Sunday)." 

UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said in an email that, "The university is aware of numerous media reports that the Berkeley Patriot student organization has cancelled events scheduled for next week." 

But Mogulof said, "The campus has not heard directly from the students and must, for the time being, proceed with plans to provide for the safety and security of the campus community and any speakers who may still be planning to come to Berkeley." 

Mogulof said, "Our police department, working in concert with an unprecedented number of allied law enforcement agencies, will continue with preparations to provide needed security for these events." 

He said, "There is only one reason the university is in the process of spending close to a million dollars on these security arrangements: if these events take place we want them to safe and peaceful." 

Mogulof said, "These actions by the university speak louder than words when it comes to our commitment to the First Amendment and Free Speech." Bryce Kasamoto, a spokesman for the Berkeley Patriot, hasn't responded to multiple requests for comment on whether the event will still be held. John Sarsfield, a colleague of the group's lawyer, Marguerite Melo, said the event "is still on." 

Sarsfield wrote, "A rumor got started this morning that it was off, but that is not correct. We don't know who started the rumor or why." 

It's been reported that Steve Bannon, President Trump's former chief strategist, and right-wing activist Ann Coulter are among those expected to speak at the "Free Speech Week" event but event organizers haven't responded to requests for a list of confirmed speakers. 

Mogulof said in an email that Yiannopoulos is scheduled to speak on the Mario Savio Steps at Upper Sproul Plaza from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday. 

 

 

 

Copyright � 2017 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. 

/www/bcn/general/09/newsclip.17.09.22.18.33.01.1.txt

• Rules imposed for select city parks, streets Sept. 24-27 (9/22/2017)
• As protests continue, how should Berkeleyans respond? (9/21/2017)
• Police Warn Public of Potential Threat to Children (9/18/2017)
• Police make arrests to ensure safe demonstrations (9/15/2017)
• Family Music Concert at Grove Park: LatinFest (9/13/2017)
• Coastal Cleanup Day in Berkeley (9/13/2017)
• Stay safe at protests – separate yourself from violence (9/13/2017)
• Rules Imposed for Select City Parks, Streets on Sept. 14 (9/13/2017)
• Job Openings with the City of Berkeley (9/7/2017)
• Electric Vehicle Fair at the Farmers’ Market (9/5/2017)
• Give Input on Shattuck-Adeline Greenway Visioning Project (9/1/2017)
• New Regulations for Short-Term Rentals (9/1/2017)
• Use September to improve your household’s preparedness (9/1/2017)

Okay, folks. It’s time to start ignoring all of those nutcases, both right and yes, left too.

I know I’m not the right person to use sports analogies, but I did play softball occasionally in school. I do know that what really counts is keeping your eye on the ball.

Say, for example, you’re at bat: pitcher in front of you, catcher behind. Suddenly up in the bleachers a big guy in a clown suit with a neon pink wig and a bunch of balloons jumps up and starts hollering. Then maybe another guy wearing the same outfit but with a yellow wig jumps him from behind, and now they’re both hollering and rolling down the steps.

And here comes the pitch! You swing—and miss. If this happens three times, you’re out. Do it enough, and you lose the game.

While the good people of Berkeley and environs are busy watching the Altered Right and the Hard-Assed Left duke it out on the sidelines, the game is happening on the field, and our side is losing. 

Berkeley—Berkeley!—is all atwitter because a few mouthy self-identified conservatives have announced that they plan to make speeches on the UC campus next week. They’ll be outside (pray for rain) on public plazas in the daytime. Just exactly what harm will they do? 

It matters not one whit that Milo Whatsis plans to come to Berkeley next week and yammer away. It’s so unimportant that I can’t even be bothered to look up how to spell his (adopted) name one more time. 

Don’t even get me started on the irrelevance of Ann Coulter, just another babe wannabe. But she’s probably a no-show anyhow. 

And David Horowitz! The guy’s on his fourth or fifth iteration of slavish devotion to various authoritarian anti-democratic ideologies from left to right with a side excursion into fundamentalist religion. I’ve known him off and on since he was an irritating red diaper baby, still on the left at first. Despite all the changes of heart he’s had since we were young, he’s remained in a Hobbesian state of nature: nasty, brutish and short. 

Some people in Berkeley who really should know better are still seeing fascists under every bed. They don’t seem to understand that words have meaning, and not every armed bully qualifies as an actual no-kidding political big-F Fascist. While all too many of us are busy looking under the bed, the really dangerous villains are breaking down the front door.  

It isn’t even Donald T. we’re talking about here, bad though he certainly is. It’s the other members of that criminal gang he’s joined: yes, the Republicans. Even if DT were impeached tomorrow, we’d still be at risk with the clearly vicious bunch who have managed to seize control of the U.S. Congress without benefit of side-arms or weighted sticks.  

Let’s defer to the master here, Paul Krugman, whose words which I read in the Times at breakfast say what I was planning to say myself better than I could have: 

“Graham-Cassidy, the health bill the Senate may vote on next week, is stunningly cruel. It’s also incompetently drafted: The bill’s sponsors clearly had no idea what they were doing when they put it together. Furthermore, their efforts to sell the bill involve obvious, blatant lies. 

“Nonetheless, the bill could pass. And that says a lot about today’s Republican Party, none of it good.” 

However, luckily, as of the noon news, John McCain seems to have saved the game again—this time. But all the bad things that the very introduction of this meshugenah bill says about today’s Republican Party are still true, and you can be sure that the Repugs have more mischief in their playbook. 

There’s even an argument that if Trump goes down, indicted or impeached, Pence might be worse because he’s better behaved or better looking or at least has a better haircut, any of which might make him a better candidate than Donny T. in 2020. 

So what can we here in Berkeley do about all this? Republicans are thin on the ground in all of Alameda County and in fact in most of the Bay Area. But there are many national efforts to change the party mix in the Congress, and working with any of these is time much better spent than picking fights at alt-right events around here. 

It’s past time to ignore antics of the clowns in the bleachers, notablythe arrogantly entitled Free Speech Week which is being promoted by a pathetic group of White-Boy-Wannabes, some of whom appear to have been admitted to U.C. Berkeley. 

When all of this commotion started, I criticized Mayor Arreguin for suggesting that Berkeleyans should just stay home and ignore the pro-Trumpers who were descending on Berkeley to rally in a city park sans permits after the original Milo riot. I still think it was important at first blush to represent, to stand up for, yes, corny as it may seem to some, “Berkeley values”. 

But we’ve been there and done that now. This week I have to agree with anyone who suggests that residents and UC faculty, employees and students should just stay away from the campus and deny the obnoxious speakers the attention they crave. 

Some of the academic boycott advocates, however, are right for the wrong reasons. 

A math professor whose Wikipedia entry indicates that she’s a German national was featured in the NYT today as a leader of the boycott crusade among the UC Berkeley faculty. She seems to have Issues with the U.S. Constitution: 

“In Germany today, Professor Wehrheim said, “you will get jailed for certain speech — and I think that is absolutely the right thing.” 

Well, no. It’s certainly the wrong thing, sorry. Germany has been wrong before, and that’s wrong. Keeping dangerous ideas in back alleys, shielded from the challenge of the playing field, is still a mistake. 

One of my great-grandfathers came to this country to dodge the German draft. His family, who lived near Hamburg, where Professor Wehrheim went to school, opposed the Prussian army. They had five boys and five girls, and all the boys emigrated to avoid being drafted. Yet when I made the acquaintance in Hamburg of a second or third cousin who was descended from one of the sisters who stayed home, he showed me, in horror, that one of his suburban neighbors flew the swastika flag.  

Will Germans never learn? Have they learned yet? Evidently they have a real neo-Faschist party which is expected to take some seats in Parliament in the next election.  

Our First Amendment tradition here in the United States is not only about freedom to speak, but also about the rights of the rest of us to hear what others are thinking, no matter how horrendous it might be. (This is sometimes called the Meiklejohn theory. See Wikipedia for a full discussion.) 

If there are dangerous ideas being explored in dark corners, I want to find out about them before they’re acted upon by some violent conspirator. Professor Wehrheim and her colleagues do not have the right to deny me that knowledge. The University of California as an arm of the state is and should be obligated to allow free speech without regard to content. 

Still, I’m choosing to skip all of the fun on campus this week, I think. A certain journalistic sense of obligation urges me to exercise my right to hear what the jerks are up to, but I also have the right to ignore them. I’ve been to three of these travesties now, and really they’re much more about the outfits the players are sporting than their ideas, on both sides. Just say no to the whole show, I say. 

I really really really hope that the black-clad antifa boys and girls, the Berlin-in-the-thirties re-enactors, will have enough sense to stay home or at least to dress in mufti to avoid creating photo-ops for the people they claim to dislike. Anyone who shows up in costume will be immediately suspected, at least by me, of being an agent provocateur for the wrong team. 

Which brings us back to the ball field. What’s going on now, right now, what is a genuine threat to our democracy, is the concerted neo-Republican effort to destroy every achievement not only of Barack Obama, but yes, of the Clinton administration, the Johnson administration, and even (never did I think I’d say this) of Nixon and Bushes I and II. 

Polically active people need to keep their eyes on the ball on the field and ignore the distractions created by Milo and the gang.  

It can’t get much worse, you say? Yes, it could. Wait for it, watch for it, and ignore the clowns. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: We're fortunate today to get a letter from Gene Bernardi which she also sent to our mutual colleague Carol Denney and Carol's response, which is posted below. This kind of dialogue is very valuable, and we appreciate being able to publish both points of view in the same issue.

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Emphasis by Chancellor Carol Christ of U.C. Berkeley must be on the threat to Civil Rights espoused by white supremacist groups and speakers. These groups and their representatives want to do away with what remains of the achievements of the '50s and '60s: integrated schools, housing, workforce, recreational facilities and voting rights. The local Civil Rights Movement of the '60s at U.C. Berkeley needed Free Speech, e.g. the right to distribute flyers and hold rallies on campus, mainly Sproul Plaza, in order to recruit students and others to take part in sit-ins at Bay Area hotels, Cadillac row and other businesses that refused to hire blacks. We also were working to pass a Fair Housing Ordinance in Berkeley. The Real Estate industry adhered to restrictive covenants that barred blacks from living above Berkeley's Sacramento Street. 

Chancellor Christ's Free Speech Week is ill advised. We need a Civil Rights Week, Year and Century! Free speech and assembly are tools for working on the achievement of particular goals through the expression of opinions, and strategies, such as rallies and marches. The least Chancellor Christ must do during her Free Speech Week is invite and schedule speakers who believe in Civil Rights, equality and justice. She must also allow unbarricaded public University land to be open to counterprotesters to the white supremacist speakers.

Gene Bernardi's letter has some common misconceptions: Chancellor Christ is not the person inviting the alt-right speakers to the UC Berkeley campus any more than the mayors of Berkeley and San Francisco are inviting the white supremacists groups. But all of them are obligated by law to allow the speakers to speak.

The invitations are coming from, in UC's case, the Berkeley College Republicans, and a second group called Berkeley Patriot. Both groups have connections to right-wing political efforts who want to use Berkeley as a speakers' setting because of the likelihood that liberal/left groups will violently overreact and prove their point; that there is censorship of right-wing speech.

Public forums, even "limited public forums" are obligated under the law to accommodate any speakers chosen by the student groups without any content-based restrictions. The restrictions have to be security-based or safety decisions because of campus' equally serious legal obligation to keep the campus safe and protect people's right to teach, attend classes, etc., as well as hear the speakers chosen by the clubs. 

Colleges, city parks, etc., are public forums, and cannot restrict speech based on content, so emphatically yes, Spencer, Coulter, Bannon, etc. (Spencer vs. Auburn University) have the right to speak on campuses if they are invited. But they are "limited public forums" according to the courts, and have the right to create rules and restrictions as long as those rules and restrictions have nothing to do with the content of the speech (Supreme Court 1983). 

One last thing; speaking and writing generally about "white supremacist groups and speakers" is a little broad, and it sounds dumb applied to someone like Ben Shapiro. He's Jewish, for one thing. I wouldn't waste my time stopping him from speaking. I just wouldn't buy a ticket or attend the rally. 

Let's work toward a community-wide forum so some of this information can be shared better. And there is nothing Chancellor Christ would like more than a Civil Rights week with speakers; any campus club could put it together with your help. 

In August 2004, we got the phone call every parent dreads. Our 17-year-old daughter had been in a car accident, but, to our relief, was apparently not badly injured. When we saw the accident, though, our fear soared. Her compact car was in the middle of the four-lane highway, its driver’s side crushed.

We jumped out of our car just as the EMS personnel were strapping her onto the stretcher, her neck immobilized in a white brace, a two-inch triangular shard of glass sticking out of her left shoulder. I bent down to say something like, “We’re here. You’re going to be all right.” I touched her shoulder gently. The police officer pulled me aside to get the details of car ownership and other information. My wife got into the ambulance with my daughter. Just as the ambulance was pulling away the clouds burst, and we were hit with a torrential downpour. 

I prayed all 30 miles for my daughter’s safety, my eyes glued to the tail lights of the ambulance, which blinked and blurred in the rain streaming down my windshield. After a long wait at the hospital, we learned that she was, indeed, okay. Even though the seat on the driver’s seat had been reduced to a narrow strip of six inches, and window glass had given my daughter cuts and a permanent scar on her shoulder, she had no serious injuries. We breathed a sigh of relief.  

Our relief that our daughter had been spared ended abruptly when the attending doctor came in the next morning and stunned us by announcing that she had a more lasting trauma: type 1 diabetes. 

We and she began a series of counseling sessions with a specialist and a nutritionist. These sessions focused on the seriousness of the disease and the importance of a careful lifestyle and monitoring of the illness. In all of these sessions, in all of the television ads for products, in all of the brochures handed to us again and again, and in all of our research, we did not hear or read anything about health insurance. Naively, I thought that because her condition was under excellent control and because I knew she would continue to take care of herself, she could get health insurance on her own when the time came. 

When my daughter graduated from college and could no longer be covered under my employee health policy, we learned a terrifying truth: individuals with type 1 diabetes were considered virtually uninsurable for health care and for life insurance. The only coverage they could get was group health insurance through an employer, and if they ever let their health insurance lapse, or experienced a break in their continuous coverage for longer than 60 days, they might have to endure a long waiting period before they could receive benefits even under group health insurance, which would come, of course, with higher premiums. The good thing was that they could not be refused health coverage under a group health plan. If, however, they did not get a job with group benefits, then they would have to live without health insurance.  

Even in good economic times, recent college graduates and especially young people without college educations are prone to live life without a full-time professional job and without health insurance. After all, they are young and healthy, and dealing with an occasional cold does not seem a big deal. But having an illness like diabetes changes everything. My daughter faced this danger in a recession, which was full-blown at the very moments I was dealing with her health insurance. I signed her up for COBRA, to which she was entitled because she had to be dropped from my health plan, and began paying the whopping $400 a month, more than she could pay even with a full-time hourly job. 

When Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, we were relieved. The act allowed my daughter to be covered under my health insurance while she searched for employment with a benefits package, which she eventually found over a year later. The act also prohibited insurance companies from denying private health insurance to individuals with pre-existing conditions or charging high premiums. I became a believer in the Affordable Care Act. 

Now the Affordable Care Act, pejoratively called Obamacare, is on the brink of destruction by Congress. My daughter could again be uninsurable. That prospect frightens me. I retire next May. The CDC estimates that health care for people with diabetes costs $7,900 a year. My fixed income will limit my ability to help my daughter should she need it. I am dismayed that the leaders of our country have so little concern for the struggles of Americans who are not blessed with good health or wealth. I am more than dismayed. I am angry. Almost a century ago, in a poem, “Once by the Pacific,” Robert Frost seemed to foresee this moment: “It looked as if a night of dark intent / Was coming, and not only a night, an age. / Someone had better be prepared for rage.” 

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Bill Claxon is on the English faculty at University of South Carolina Aiken. 

I keep hearing the rumor that the proposed project called 2211 Harold Way may have found a new buyer. The current owner, HSR Berkeley Investments LLC, successfully sought permits to build 18 stories and 302 apartments sprouting from the back of the iconic Shattuck Hotel. Several people warned that the applicant was a flipper, not a builder. Sure enough, as soon as a legal challenge concluded, HSR put the property on the market as a fully-entitled development site. 

But exactly what does this "development site" consist of? When HSR bought the property in 2012, it did not purchase a separate piece of land — it purchased two out of three interconnected commercial condominiums comprising an existing five-story building that contains the Shattuck Hotel, Landmark Shattuck Cinemas and other commercial ventures. 

The condominium conversion of this historic building took place in 1996, when the building was partitioned in a truly bizarre manner. According to the condo conversion documents filed at the Alameda County Recorder's Office, the Shattuck Hotel is one condominium, consisting of the hotel lobby and restaurant on the first floor of the building and all the hotel rooms on the second to fifth floors. The remaining two parcels owned by HSR comprise the rest of the building, including the storefronts on Shattuck Avenue, which were built in 1910 and 1913, as well as most of the basements under them. 

Thus the Hotel and the "development site" are under separate ownership, but are connected in an exquisitely complicated fashion. 

Because a liquefaction hazard zone runs beneath the oldest portions of the building, owning the basements and foundations under the Shattuck Avenue storefronts, and therefore under many of the hotel rooms, might lead to liability problems in the event of an earthquake, particularly if massive and protracted construction happens next to and under the Hotel for an 18-story tower and four floors of underground parking. 

If the rumor is true and a deal is in the works, we should soon learn about HSR's successful attempt to flip this site. Then we shall see if this improbable project actually ever gets built. 

A major new investigation by Amnesty International reveals a US bomb killed 16 civilians and seriously wounded 17 more in Yemen last month. 

Among the survivors was a 5-year-old girl Buthaina, whose photograph went viral in the Arab media, social media even the mainstream media following the US strike. Buthaina lost her whole family. Bomb fragments matched US made components used in laser-guided bombs. Photographs of the bomb victims also went viral intensifying hostility towards Saudi Arabia and it major military supplier, the US. It’s hard to imagine any incident could intensify more anger more than witnessing a whole family blown to pieces. How can we possibly make the false claim we are a force for good? We continue to supply billions of weapons to the Gulf States totally unconcerned of the devastating loss of civilian life our weapons can cause. Many Arab countries are calling Saudi Arabia, Israel and the US as the new the axis of evil. 

Please tweet, POTUS Halt all weapons sales to the Gulf States immediately these are being used to slaughter large number of civilians which is a war crime

President Trump's decision to terminate the DACA program, which protects almost 800,000 immigrants from being arbitrarily deported, has triggered a massive outcry. These immigrants came here when they were very young. They can attend school and take jobs without fear of being arbitrarily deported. Among Trump's ardent critics has been the business community. The CEO of Microsoft boasted "We will always stand for diversity and economic opportunity for everyone." In fact, hundreds of corporate leaders, including Amazon and Apple, co-signed a letter expressing similar high minded sentiments. "Immigrants often risk their lives for a chance at freedom and opportunity. And our country remains the world's beacon of freedom and opportunity". 

Among the staunches advocates of immigration is Hillary Clinton who in a lecture to executives of Goldman Sachs complained that "Americans who want to limit immigration are fundamentally Un-American". She recommended doubling the annual admission of foreign workers and to also dispense 33 million green cards to foreign nationals within one decade. The green card allows the holder to live permanently in the United States and to work here. 

Many business executives and public officials seem proud of their presumably idealistic perspective. But their expressions of sympathy for foreign workers is just lip service. What they really yearn for is a workforce who they can pay the lowest wages they are able to get away with. Business works hard at attempting to undermine the interests of working people and their families even if it involves being deceptive and cruel. Take for example the federal H-1B program ,which according to federal guidelines, allows businesses to hire foreign workers provided that they cannot find qualified American workers. But the evidence is overwhelming that there is no shortage of educated and trained workers. In fact, American high tech workers are often required to train their replacements, which can take several months before they are laid off.  

Although this is hard evidence that the lack of qualified employees is not the motive for hiring foreign workers, the Department of Labor, whose Wage and Hour Division oversees the H-1B program, looks the other way. The soon to be laid off American employees agree to train their replacement despite the humiliation because they need the money and a recommendation when they apply for other jobs.  

According to testimony in Congress many companies save from 25 percent to 49 percent in wages. Yet lower wages is not the only advantage to hiring aliens. Also, because foreign workers can be easily dismissed, they are at the mercy of their employers. Moreover, they don't have the negotiating power of a U.S. citizen. Since American workers seem to lack the same "advantages" of alien labor, the CEO's are not expressing similar affection and commitment even though many of them have been working for these firms for a long while.  

Despite the propaganda of the corporate community and its allies, among the problems these laid off workers confront is there are not enough good paying jobs to accommodate unemployed workers. Incredibly, a leading California economist, Robert Kleinhenz claims that "The Bay Area and California are now at full employment". But that's preposterous. According to the California state labor officials, who tend to underestimate the extent of unemployment, the Bay Area last month shed 4,700 jobs and California lost 8,200 jobs. Indeed, the job situation is becoming more worrisome for displaced and laid off workers. 

The additional and irresponsible admission of thousands of more foreign workers, then, to compete for the increasingly scarce number of jobs, particularly good paying jobs, is economically devastating to almost all workers. It is accelerating the race to the bottom. In fact, the middle class has already become a working minority. 

How should we, then, respond to the immigration issue? Most of all, we need to ask the right questions. Of course, unjustly and arbitrarily deporting undocumented workers should be abolished. But the most relevant question is about those who aren't here but are being encouraged in one way or another to cross the border by our government and the business community. There are over 11 million unauthorized individuals in the United States. There is no way that such a substantial influx would be possible unless public officials and those who are protecting our borders are looking the other way and even encouraging illegal migration.  

About the undocumented workforce, many are subject to very severe exploitation. Court documents revealed that several months ago at least 140 foreign construction workers on questionable visas worked on the expansion of a Tesla factory for as little as $5 an hour! Also, several major automakers, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Volkswagen illegally employed at very low wages foreign construction workers to build their U.S. factories. The companies were involved in creating false documents to secure illegal visas. Significantly, neither prosecutors nor the federal government have attempted so far to stop this practice and prosecute those who were engaging in what was clearly criminal conduct. 

In the long run, both foreign and American workers suffer economically by being compelled to compete with each other for scarce, unstable, low paying jobs. Moreover, this competition tends to exert downward pressure on wages. As a result, to paraphrase Henry Thoreau, a growing number of working people and their families are "living lives of quiet desperation". Moreover, since about 70 percent of domestic spending depends on consumers, who are mainly working people, the risk of a major economic collapse due to declining income is becoming more likely. 

It is imperative that working people carry on their labor struggles in the country where they reside. And to the extent that it is possible, workers in other nations must help each other by engaging in boycotts, organizing marches and rallies, publicizing their concerns, making financial contributions and doing whatever else that would advance their mutual interests. Rather than encouraging interracial and ethnic animosity, which fierce and desperate job competition promotes, working people must build international solidarity. That's certainly not an easy task. But keep in mind that there is also the precious joy of growing our community and building together. 

Kudos to Sen. Sanders for unveiling a Medicare-for All (MFA) Bill with 15 patriotic co-sponsors. 

It is unconscionable that the pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, hospital corporations, medical device manufacturers and, behind them all, Wall Street—are profiting from human suffering 

If we can send people to the moon and create technical wizardly surely we can craft an equitable health care system. Let our lawmakers study the successful systems in countries like Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Canada and Australia and cheery pick the best features of each system. 

The MFA would eliminate 20-25% overhead of the insurance companies and their obscene profits and salaries. Doctors and nursing associations welcome a MFA system which would eliminate the cumbersome billing system and would substantially lower drug prices. The system could easily be funded by eliminating Pentagon waste and Wall Street excesses. 

Following Sanders clarion call, millions of Americans tweeted their support. Hundreds of people flooded town halls across the country to voice their support. The people have spoken. It is time for Congress to act and reflect the will of the people. 

Let’s us not squander this pivotal moment in US history. The time for Medicare-for All is NOW.

"The First White President," an Atlantic essay by Ta-Nehisi Coates, is a must read for progressives. Coates argues that Donald Trump was elected for one reason: his unapologetic whiteness. "It is often said that Trump has no real ideology, which is not true—his ideology is white supremacy, in all its truculent and sanctimonious power." 

Coates contends that excuses for Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton should be set aside: Trump didn't win because the Russians hacked the election or because Democrats forgot how to talk to working-class white voters or because Hillary was more hated than Donald. Coates believes Trump won because he championed whiteness. "To Trump, whiteness is neither notional nor symbolic but is the very core of his power. In this, Trump is not singular. But whereas his forebears carried whiteness like an ancestral talisman, Trump cracked the glowing amulet open, releasing its [supernatural] energies." 

Ta-Nehisi Coates makes three arguments to support his contention. The first is statistical: "Trump’s dominance among whites across class lines is of a piece with his larger dominance across nearly every white demographic. Trump won white women (+9) and white men (+31). He won white people with college degrees (+3) and white people without them (+37). He won whites ages 18–29 (+4), 30–44 (+17), 45–64 (+28), and 65 and older (+19).... From the beer track to the wine track, from soccer moms to nascar dads, Trump’s performance among whites was dominant." 

Coates' second point is that political observers have chosen to ignore the central role of race and instead have focused on Trump's appeal to working-class whites. "There is a kind of theater at work in which Trump’s presidency is pawned off as a product of the white working class as opposed to a product of an entire whiteness that includes the very authors doing the pawning. The motive is clear: escapism. To accept that the bloody heirloom remains potent even now, some five decades after Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down on a Memphis balcony—even after a black president; indeed, strengthened by the fact of that black president—is to accept that racism remains, as it has since 1776, at the heart of this country’s political life." 

Finally, Coates argues the emphasis on working-class-white malaise was a tactic formulated by white progressives: "The left would much rather have a discussion about class struggles, which might entice the white working masses, instead of about the racist struggles that those same masses have historically been the agents and beneficiaries of... This notion—raceless antiracism—marks the modern left, from the New Democrat Bill Clinton to the socialist Bernie Sanders." 

Ta-Nehisi Coates is correct. "Raceless antiracism" does distinguish the modern left. A failed attempt by progressives to deemphasize racism, to keep it in the shadows, where -- because of political correctness -- it won't be discussed. And Coats is correct asserting that Donald Trump harnessed racist energy to capture the presidency. As a consequence: "Democrats [are no longer] the party of white people—working or otherwise. White workers are not divided by the fact of labor from other white demographics; they are divided from all other laborers by the fact of their whiteness." 

Nonetheless, Coates conflates "racism," "white supremacy," and "whiteness." That muddies already troubled waters. 

Trump was elected because of his white supremacist perspective, not just his racism. Many of us know Trump voters who pulled the lever for Donald because they hated Hillary Clinton. Sexism was an important aspect of Trump's appeal. 

However, not every white person who voted for Trump is a racist or white supremacist. Many of us know Trump voters who held their noses and voted for Donald. They had poor judgement. That's a consequence of their whiteness. They are tacit supporters of white supremacy. 

"Racism" is a subset of "white supremacy", which is full-service bigotry. In contrast, "whiteness" is synonymous with "supporting the system of white male privilege;" a larger and less distinct concept that incorporates racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, anti-semitism and dominionism. In essence, white male privilege is the notion that straight white Anglo-Saxon men should dominate the social order because that is the "natural" hierarchy. 

Full disclosure: I am a privileged white male. 

Ta-Nehisi Coates recognizes that Donald Trump garnered the presidency because of his brazen white supremacy. During the election, the Trump base was more energized than the Clinton base because Trump voters saw Donald defending the "natural order." That's the power behind "Make America great again;" it's a call to restore white male privilege. 

America faces four challenges in this era of renewed white supremacy. First, the President is an unbalanced bigot. Trump has peppered his Administration with other white supremacists, such as Jeff Sessions and Scott Pruitt. Progressives need to fight off multiple assaults on democracy. 

Second, white supremacists don't have the numbers to hold power long term. Hillary Clinton won the 2016 popular vote by 2.9 million. Furthermore, by 2040 whites will be a minority in the United States where 52 percent of the population will be asian, black, or hispanic. White supremacists are running out of time and that fuels their desperation. 

Third, white supremacy is detrimental to the economy. Societal stability depends upon the health of the middle class; bigotry damages it. Inevitably the economy will crash. 

Finally, the United States is a Christian nation and white supremacy is inconsistent with Christian values. Trump, and many Republicans, do not practice Christianity but instead an offshoot of Calvinism -- with its emphasis on worldly success as a measure of goodliness. Real Christians follow the teachings of Jesus, whose second commandment was “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Trump's white supremacy is leading America into a moral abyss. 

Ta-Nehisi Coates' "The First White President" should be considered by all progressives. It's an accurate assessment of the state of American society and an indication of what it will take to restore democracy. 

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Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer and activist. He can be reached at bburnett@sonic.net or @BobWBurnett