Full Text

Going,going, gone.  Poignant sight: worker removes the nameplate from the former Spenger's Restaurant.
Carol Denney
Going,going, gone. Poignant sight: worker removes the nameplate from the former Spenger's Restaurant.
 

News

Berkeley Bicylist Critically Injured in Collision with Truck

Dan McMenamin (BCN)
Wednesday May 01, 2019 - 07:41:00 PM

A bicyclist is in critical condition after a collision with a pickup truck in Berkeley Wednesday morning, a police spokesman said. 

The collision was reported shortly after 7:15 a.m. at Ninth and Cedar streets in northwest Berkeley, police spokesman Officer Byron White said. 

The truck was traveling east on Cedar Street when a bicyclist traveling south on Ninth Street struck it despite the truck driver's effort to swerve and avoid the collision, White said. 

The bicyclist, a 58-year-old Albany man, was taken to a hospital and was in critical condition as of midday, according to White. 

The 30-year-old Berkeley man driving the truck stopped at the scene and cooperated with investigators. 

The collision prompted the closure of the intersection for more than four hours. Police said it reopened as of shortly before 11:45 a.m.


Nevada Deputy Shot During Apprehension of Suspect in Berkeley People's Park Killing

Janis Mara/Sam Richards, BCN
Saturday April 27, 2019 - 05:41:00 PM

A Nevada sheriff's deputy suffered a gunshot wound Friday while helping apprehend the suspect in three fatal Friday Bay Area shootings, police said Saturday.

Stefon Jefferson, 43, is a suspect in a homicide at People's Park in Berkeley Friday, as well as a shooting Friday morning in Oakland and another Friday afternoon in San Francisco's Bayview District. A fourth shooting took place when Jefferson was arrested, wounding a deputy, San Francisco police said. 

Jefferson is being detained in Douglas County on suspicion of crimes including attempted murder of a police officer, according to police. 

The People's Park shooting took place around 2:40 p.m. Friday, University of California police said. 

Officers said the People's Park shooting victim was shot by a male suspect who left the scene in a car. The victim died at the hospital, police said. 

Jefferson was arrested Friday evening in connection with a shooting Friday morning in Oakland and another Friday afternoon in San Francisco's Bayview District. University police now say Jefferson is a suspect in the People's Park shooting, as well. 

University of California police Sgt. Sabrina Reich said late Saturday afternoon that all four law enforcement agencies involved in cases in which Jefferson is a suspect are working with one another on the investigation. When asked what Jefferson's connection could be with anyone at People's Park could be, Reich said she didn't want to comment on that while that investigation is ongoing. 

Jefferson was taken into custody near South Lake Tahoe Friday evening by members of the Douglas County Sheriff's Department in Nevada, according to the San Francisco Police Department. It wasn't certain why he was in the South Lake Tahoe area, police said. 

Jefferson was booked into the Douglas County Main Jail in Minden, Nev. on charges of Attempted murder, Assault with a deadly weapon, Ex-felon in possession of a firearm, Battery on an officer, Eluding a Peace Officer along with numerous additional traffic related offenses. 

Oakland police said Jefferson was wanted in connection with a shooting in the 4100 block of Market Street in Oakland. 

Officers responded to the scene at 10:14 a.m. and located a man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. The man died at the scene. 

At 1:27 p.m., officers with the San Francisco Police Department responded to the 1100 block of Donner Avenue in San Francisco on a report of a shooting and located a man suffering from a gunshot wound. 

The victim was transported to the hospital and later died. Investigators determined Jefferson was a suspect in that homicide as well. 

At a news conference Saturday in Minden, Douglas County District Attorney Mark Jackson said that county has first shot at Jefferson's prosecution as he is in custody there. Jackson also said he will confer with the victims' families and the district attorneys in Alameda County and San Francisco before any legal decisions are confirmed.


Opinion

Editorials

Manufacturing Consent, Part 2: San Pablo "Improvements"

Becky O'Malley
Friday April 26, 2019 - 04:06:00 PM

Anyone who’s ever been responsible for managing a 2 ½ year old knows the trick. Is the child resisting getting dressed? At that age they’re resistant to almost anything you suggest.

So you ask this way: “Would you like to wear the red shirt or the green one?” and with any luck the child will be distracted from the pink sequined tutu which was her prior choice, or at least from her first idea, which was to finish building her block tower before dressing for pre-school.

That’s the paradigm for the techniques beloved of professional planners for getting citizens to go along with what they ought to think is good for them. Or at least what the planners think they ought to think.

Yes, it’s another chapter in my ongoing discussion of Manufacturing Consent which began last week. 

My first encounter with this plan was at the Tuesday Berkeley Farmers’ Market on Adeline, which is hands down the best place to find out what’s going on with the deathless schemes to wrest control of the area around the Ashby Bart Station from the undeserving hands of the local citizenry. Some of the notorious Friends of Adeline, who have the temerity to think that they should be consulted just because they happen to live there, can usually be found expounding on the latest outrage inflicted by Berkeley’s Very Important People on long-suffering neighborhood residents. 

A couple of weeks ago there appeared a fancy pop-up canvas pavilion, nicer than the shade tents used by the farmer merchants, complete with a counter, three very large schematic graphic diagrams and several winsome youth. They carried clipboards, always a bad sign, and one even had an IPad. 

I watched with interest as several locals whom I recognized as Those Not To Be Trifled With engaged the staffers in heated conversation, and finally my curiosity got the better of me. I went over and asked the young folks why they were there. 

With great enthusiasm, they handed me some expensively printed materials and directed me to an included survey, which they wanted me to fill out on the spot with one of the pens they seemed to be giving away. Since I still needed to get my veggies, I demurred, but did agree to listen to a quick explanation of the big pictures. 

They turned out to represent three choices for possible ways to improve San Pablo Avenue, helpfully labelled Concept A, Concept B and Concept C, each copiously detailed. 

Because I am an experienced mother of three, grandmother of three, and frequent babysitter, I immediately recognized that they were using the “You Get to Choose! “ ploy. 

Because I’m a retired high tech manager, I immediately thought of one of the small number of useful slogans I acquired when dealing with software developers: If It’s Not Broke, Don’t Fix It. 

Let’s just start by asking what’s wrong with San Pablo Avenue. 

I recently had dinner with a European friend at the estimable LongBranch restaurant on San Pablo, in the same block which also houses the Ecology Center and Caffé Chiave (formerly Trieste) in charming vintage storefronts. As usually, the food was good, not too expensive, and parking was easy. 

(Here, a pause for the OMG moment with the bicycle enthusiasts. Why did I have a car? Well, I have a bum knee, I’m an old lady, and the dog was with me, okay? There are quite a few of us out there who have one or more of these issues which keep us off bikes. And don’t get me started on AC Transit.) 

My European friend, who lives in Oakland, said with a sigh that she thinks San Pablo is one of the most interesting streets in the East Bay because of the number and variety of the businesses it supports. 

I couldn’t agree more. For many years now my breakfast has been one and a half slices of super whole grain raisin toast from Vital Vittles, a distinctly funky bakery on San Pablo, to which I credit my generally vigorous health. I have purchased lots of replacement items to fix my elderly house from Omega Salvage and the Sink Factory. Discount Fabrics has supplied my family with upholstery materials and costumes galore. If I want to go out after a musical event, La Marcha Tapas Bar is one of the few places open until midnight in stodgy Berkeley. And all of these terrific operations are just on the west side of San Pablo between University and Ashby. Many more can be found east, north and south of this stretch. 

People live on San Pablo too, happily. For the perspective of one of them, see this piece from frequent Planet contributor Carol Denney, who also encountered the “improvement” proposal this week. 

So of course our public officials are planning to gentrify the life out of all that fun, right? 

I reluctantly agreed to let the polite young woman read me some survey questions from her I-pad, all from the “You Get to Choose One” play list. (Here I must admit that part of my motivation was the pile of key chains with useful small plastic whistles which they were giving away to participants.) 

But my patience only lasted through about four idiotic multiple choice questions, I’m sorry to report. None of them offered “Just Don’t Do It” as a choice, which is what I really wanted to tell them. I said I needed to move on to finish getting my veggies, and I did. 

They seemed to be contractual consultants from Baltimore hired by the Alameda County Traffic Commission, an organization I’d never heard of. The glossy handout had the sponsor’s website address: 

https://www.alamedactc.org/programs-projects/multimodal-arterial-roads/sanpabloave/ 

It linked to a Survey Monkey poll: 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SPACorridor 

Since I took their keychain, I made a cursory effort to finish the poll from home, but it was just too depressing to contemplate as I got further into the gory details of my three “choices”. 

Folks, have you been on Van Ness in San Francisco lately? Regardless of the predicted merits of the proposed redecoration of this major artery, any of the remodeling processes described would surely kill off a large percentage of the successful small time operators now doing business on San Pablo, just as the Van Ness reconfiguring has bombed the businesses there.  

There is still just a little time if you’d like to get involved. From the website: 

“The project is currently at the conceptual design stage, exploring what improvements can fit within the existing roadway. We have developed different concepts for how the space on San Pablo Avenue could be used differently in the future and want to hear from you. “Please complete this quick SURVEY to provide your input on trade-offs between different types of improvements for San Pablo Avenue. The survey will close May 5, 2019. 

“Public Workshops [remaining]

“Tuesday, May 14, 2019, 7:00-8:15 p.m.
Environmental Quality Committee Meeting
El Cerrito City Hall
10890 San Pablo Avenue
El Cerrito, CA 94530  

“Thursday, May 23, 2019, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Francis Albrier Community Center (at San Pablo Park)
2800 Park Street
Berkeley, CA 94702 “ 

 

Good luck if you choose to take them on. Write if you get word. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Public Comment

Online Survey Blues

Carol Denney
Friday April 26, 2019 - 04:02:00 PM

Not everybody has a computer. I know, half of you think that that's just no longer the case. And I bet you don't live on or near San Pablo Avenue. I tried to take the computer online survey being passed around regarding transit on San Pablo Avenue since I live on San Pablo Avenue. I found myself forced to choose between untenable options and finally realized the whole survey would be used against my neighborhood's best qualities in a wholesale sacrifice to people who want to skip the freeway. We're not just an end-run for drivers; we're an enviable mix of residential and commercial neighborhoods with the most historic roots in Berkeley besides the shellmounds. I left a lot of questions blank not knowing what else to do.

There's an option for stripping all the parking to create protected bike lanes on San Pablo Avenue. I love protected bike lanes. But if there's one thing left the authorities can do to us after allowing rents, commercial and otherwise, to skyrocket so far that local businesses can't function without prices we can't pay, it's to remove the last little bits of parking we compete for as residents, workers, and shoppers. Here it comes. There's only so many of us who can walk ten blocks to the grocery store and carry the produce home. Our bike lanes are currently just off San Pablo Avenue on side roads with lower speeds where a protected lane wouldn't require stripping out our lovely, winding medians of historic trees, trees which in this plan get no discussion. 

It certainly saves time and trouble to avoid more traditional democratic fora, especially if for some reason you're trying to avoid meeting your neighbors. But the allegiance to online surveys here in Berkeley and in this transit county study is silly; Berkeley's multi-unit housing smoking regulation survey, for instance, included a solid quarter of respondents who had no idea what the law was but merrily participated anyway. People in single family homes participated. And as Daily Planet Editor Becky O'Malley deftly demonstrated, those motivated to skew the results can sign up and complete the survey over and over again. 

Developer-driven surveys only offer limited, pre-chosen, non-grassroots options-- and none of our historic trees, in the case of San Pablo Avenue's transit survey. Right now on San Pablo Avenue we're a mix of buses, bikes, and local traffic. The slower we travel the safer we are sharing our shady, historic road. Our oldest trees are somehow absent in every single survey option, trees rhapsodized about in the earliest remembrances of this area. And trees are remarkably unwilling to fill out online surveys. 


Life in Pre-Brexit England

Jagjit Singh
Friday April 26, 2019 - 11:37:00 AM

There is lots of angst among the Brits these days as they agonize over the terms of their messy divorce with the European Union. Prime Minister, Teresa May, managed to gain a postponement until the end of October which she hopes will give her time to negotiate better terms. Much like the tribal warfare in the US between pro and anti-Trumpeters, England is beset between the Leavers and Remainders. Meanwhile there is a side show in Ireland where they have to decide on how to separate Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland with what the French call “le Backstop”. The Brits have got themselves in a pickle with their divide and rule strategy separating the small island between Protestant North and Catholic south. Both sides support a soft backstop rather a separating wall which could reignite the paramilitary war over the status of Northern Ireland. It’s a major stumbling block on the path to a smooth and orderly Brexit.

These squabbles bring back memories of my early life in pre-Brexit England.

I grew up in Birmingham, England amidst the horrors of World War II. Birmingham was the center of what is commonly known as the “black country” a group of cities in the “Midlands” notorious for their smoke stack industries, a favorite target for German war planes during the Second World War. 

I was 5 years old when Britain declared war on Germany. What followed were unrelenting bombing raids with German bombers dropping their payloads on terrified Brits on a daily basis. Birmingham and other major manufacturing cities were especially targeted. The bombs were preceded by flares lighting up the night sky to expose heavily camouflaged factory buildings. Air raid wardens patrolled neighborhoods to ensure complete blackouts. Double summer time was enacted to save electricity. Gas mask drills were enforced in all schools to protect us from possible German gas attacks. 

Throughout those terrible years British radio comedians kept us entertained with much needed form of escapism and maintained our morale against terrible circumstances. Fuel and food were strictly rationed which was especially challenging during Britain’s bleak winters. To add to our woes we were targeted for adhering to the symbols of our faith as Sikhs, most prominently the turban. My father had a very difficult time establishing a medical practice in a blue color neighborhood of Birmingham. We had to endure racial slurs which often morphed into fist fights. I was the youngest of 3 husky brothers who often came to my rescue during nasty physical altercations with local bullies. Jobs, hotel accommodations for non-whites Brits were scarce. All non-Brits were identified as “colored” a derogatory term that has since been banned in England. Overt racism was rampant. 

Following college graduation I visited India, the country of my heritage, where I witnessed abject poverty, offering me a wider perspective on life and its many challenges. Fast forward to 1967 when I arrived with my wife and two children to the US to seek a better life. It was an idyllic time. All the basic necessities of life were affordable from gas prices at 29 cents per gallon and home prices in the range $35,000-$50,000. How times have changed.


UC Regents Song

Carol Denney
Friday April 26, 2019 - 11:49:00 AM

Tune: Chiquita banana song with la la la chorus. UC regents: hats and ties, suits/suit coats if you want, a little crazy works. Continually and gratuitously shake each others' hands in a macho, insider kind of way.
You're an official UC regent if you sing it with me on the 50th Anniversary of People's Park on April 28.


(I'm a) UC regent and I'm here to say
(we're) monetizing public lands in every way
(we spent) so much money on de football stuff
(no ) matter what the students pay it's not enough
la lala lala, la lala lala, la lala lala, lala lala la! (x2)

(we pay) ten million dollars to de football coach
(but in de) student housing you live with a roach
(you get) special admission if you've lots of dough
(and if you) cheated to get in well, we don't want to know
la lala lala, la lala lala, la lala lala, lala lala la! (x2)

(de) People's Park well she's a way too old
(and de) free speech stuff she really leaves me cold
(the People's) Park's a landmark but we don't care
once it's gone you won't remember it was there
la lala lala, la lala lala, la lala lala, lala lala la! (x2)

(Bridge:) 11,000 students more? let them sleep on someone's floor!
we've no place for them to go - they can commute from Fresno! Modesto!
la lala lala, la lala lala, la lala lala, lala lala la! (x2)

(it's been) fifty years and that's-a way too long
(the People's) Park should end-a just-a like our song
I'm a UC regent and I guarantee
(that if) somebody gets killed oh well it won't be me

la lala lala, la lala lala, la lala lala, lala lala la! (x2)


What's Next with Trump?

Ron Lowe
Friday April 26, 2019 - 11:46:00 AM

It seems like America went through a long dark night of the soul with Donald Trump for the last three years. The Trump presidency has, from the first represented a threat to truth, democracy, and the rule of law. Donald Trump's contempt for basic governance is accompanied by a lack of decency, empathy, and psychological stability. Trump has the psyche of an emotionally damaged toddler. You hear this not only from his ideological opponents but from countless departing confidants, lawyers, and advisers. He is devoted not to public service but to feeding the demands of his ego and his appetites. 

It is impossible to imagine Trump changing his behavior. Trump's affinity for autocratic types suggests that he might even refuse to give up power thus undermining the legitimacy of the American political system.


How Organic is Organic Food?

Harry Brill
Saturday April 27, 2019 - 01:58:00 PM

The public is generally aware that many foods are unsafe to consume. But it is surprising to learn that even many delicious foods are permeated with dangerous pesticides. The Environmental Working Group (EWG), which studied this issue, released its grim findings on contaminated fruits and vegetables. Just one strawberry contained 13 different pesticides. Each grape tested contained 15 pesticides. EWG found 13 different pesticides on each cherry tomato. Among the fruits, apples are the most contaminated. Very disappointing, the pesticides have remained in the foods even after the fruits and vegetable were washed or peeled. 

Unfortunately, the poisonous pesticides do not only attack their target. They cause many health problems in humans, from respiratory diseases to cancer. They even damage the mental capacity of children. For example, exposure of a women to pesticides during pregnancy increases the risk that their children will suffer from autism and other serious developmental problems by 60 percent. 

Undoubtedly, consuming organic food is a safer bet. But it is not risk free. Many producers of organic food are unable to avoid the drift of sprayed pesticides from conventional to organic farms. The drifts can travel long distances where they can be very destructive to the crops. It could make it impossible to sell the assaulted produce. Most often these neighboring organic farms still sell their products, imperfect as they may be. 

The phrase "pesticide drift" can be misleading because it implies that the drift is always unintentional, that is, its force and direction are determined by nature only. However, most conventional farmers have not taken the steps to control the flight. Although, for example, although pesticides should not be sprayed during windy days, these farmers continue to do so. 

Of course, economic considerations play a role. But also the conventional farm grower is not interested in protecting the agriculture of organic farmers. In fact, they view organic farming as a threat to their interests. Their propaganda has publicly accused the organic industry of using deceptive marketing practices and even using pesticides that are more toxic then what conventional farmers use. But although some organic farmers have engaged in successful law suits against agribusiness to curtail their assaults, the so called pesticide drift problem continues to haunt organic farmers. 

Also, the non-organic producers have developed an effective strategy to market their food by convincing consumers that their non-organic food is actually organic. On this issue they have benefited from the cooperation of the federal Food and Drug administration (FDA). The trick has been to mislabel many of their products as "natural", "All natural", or "100 percent natural". According to one poll, 86 percent of consumers believe that the term "natural" indicates that the food does not contain any artificial ingredients. Unlike the organic label, which is required to sell food as organic, there are no legal prohibitions to deceiving the public. Except for some regulations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that apply to chicken and meat, producers of food products can be labeled as natural no matter what ingredients they contain. Despite pressure from knowledgeable food experts, the Food and Drug administration has been unwilling to impose any requirements. 

Longevity in the United States for many reasons has been stagnating and even declining. Whatever the tendency, this is not among the issues that the corporate food industry is concerned about. 


Columns

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDGE: Turkey: Rocks & Hard Places

Conn Hallinan
Friday April 26, 2019 - 11:28:00 AM

After 18 years of unchallenged power and success, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suddenly finds himself in the middle of several domestic and foreign crises with no obvious way out. It is unfamiliar ground for a master politician who has moved nimbly from the margins of power to the undisputed leader of the largest economy in the Middle East. 

His problems are largely of his own making: an economy built on a deeply corrupt construction industry, a disastrous intervention in Syria and a declaration of war on Turkey’s Kurdish population. All of these initiatives have backfired badly. In the Mar. 31 local elections, Erdogan’s conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost control of all of Turkey’s major cities, including the country’s political center, Ankara, and the nation’s economic engine, Istanbul. The latter contributes more than 30 percent of Turkey’s GNP. 

That is not to say that the man is down and out. The AKP is demanding a re-run of the Istanbul election and is preventing the progressive mayors of several Kurdish cities in Turkey’s southeast from assuming office. Erdogan is not a man who shies from using brute force and intimidation to get his way. Close to 10,000 of his political opponents are in prison, hundreds of thousands of others have been dismissed from their jobs, and opposition media is largely crushed. The final outcome of the election is by no means settled. 

But force will only exacerbate Erdogan’s problems. 

The Kurds are a case in point. When the leftist Kurdish-based People’s Democratic Party (HDP) made a major electoral breakthrough in 2015—winning 81 seats in the Parliament and denying the AKP a majority—Erdogan responded by ending peace talks with the Kurds and occupying Kurdish towns and cities. 

Rather than cowing the Kurds, however, it sowed the wind, and the AKP reaped the hurricane in the March election. An analysis of the Istanbul mayor’s race shows that the AKP and its rightwing National Movement Party alliance won about the same percentage of votes it had in last year’s presidential election. The same was true for the AKP’s opposition—the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP) and its ally, the right-wing Good Party. 

The difference was that the HDP did not field a candidate, and its imprisoned leader, Selahattin Demiratas, urged the Kurds and their supporters to vote against Erdogan’s candidate. They did so in droves and tipped the balance to the CHP’s candidate. That pattern pretty much held for the rest of the country and accounts for the AKP’s loss of other cities, like Izmar, Antalya, Mersin and Adana. 

When the Turkish state waged a war against the Kurds in the 1980s and ‘90s, many fled rural areas to take up life in the cities. Istanbul is now about 11 percent Kurdish. Indeed, it is the largest grouping of urban Kurds in the world. So if there is a phrase that sums up the election, it might be “revenge of the Kurds.” 

But the AKP’s loss of the major urban centers is more than a political setback. Cities are the motors for the Turkish economy and for the past 18 years Erdogan has doled out huge construction projects to AKP-friendly firms, which, in turn, kick money back to the Party. The President has delivered growth over the years, but it was growth built on the three “Cs”: credit, corruption and cronyism. 

Those chickens have finally come home to roost. Foreign currency reserves are low, Turkey’s lira has plummeted in value, debts are out of hand, and unemployment—particularly among the young and well educated—is rising. In a rare case of political tone deafness, Erdogan focused the recent campaign around the issues of terrorism and the Kurds, ignoring polls that showed most Turks were far more worried about high prices and joblessness. 

Where Erdogan goes from here is not clear. 

Turkey is holding talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about a possible bailout, but the President knows that means increased taxes and austerity, not exactly the kind of program that delivers votes. There will be no elections until the 2023 presidential contest, so there is time to try to turn things around, but how? Foreign investors are wary of Turkey’s political volatility, and the Europeans and Americans are unhappy with Erdogan’s erratic foreign policy. 

The latest dustup is fallout from Turkey’s disastrous 2011 decision to support the overthrow of President Bashar Assad of Syria. Assad has survived—largely because of Russian and Iranian support—and now Turkey is hosting millions of refugees and bleeding out billions of dollars occupying parts of northern Syria. 

Turkey initially tryed to get NATO to challenge Moscow in Syria—even shooting down a Russian warplane—but NATO wanted no part of it. So Erdogan shifted and cut a deal with Moscow, part of which involved buying the Russians new S-400 anti-missile and aircraft system for $2.5 billion. 

Backing the extremists trying to overthrow Assad was never a good hand, but Erdogan has played it rather badly. 

The S-400 deal made NATO inhappy, which doesn’t want high-tech Russian military technology potentially eavesdropping on a NATO member country, particularly on American warplanes based in Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base. 

The US Congress is threatening to block Turkey’s purchase of the F-35 fifth generation fighter plane, even though Turkey is an investor in the project. The Trump administration has also warned Ankara that it will apply the 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act if Turkey buys Russian military equipment, sanctions that could damage Ankara’s already troubled economy. Turkey is officially in a recession. 

The Americans are so upset about this S-400 business, that the Senate recently proposed lifting an arms embargo on Cyprus and signing energy agreements with Greece and Egypt—two of Turkey’s major regional rivals. 

Although not being able to purchase the F-35 may end up being a plus for Ankara. The plane is an over-priced lemon. Some of Erdogan’s advisors argue that Ankara could always turn to Russia for a fifth generation warplane (and one that might actually work). 

There is some talk about throwing Turkey out of NATO, but that is mostly bluff. The simple fact is that NATO needs Turkey more than Turkey needs NATO. Ankara controls access to the Black Sea, where NATO has deployed several missile-firing surface ships. Russia’s largest naval base is on the Crimean Peninsula and relations between Moscow and NATO are tense. 

A strategic turn toward Moscow seems unlikely. The Russians oppose Turkey’s hostility toward the Kurds in Syria, don’t share Erdogan’s antagonism toward Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia, and have differences with Ankara over Cyprus and the Caucasus. And for all the talk about increasing trade between the two countries, the Russian economy is not all that much larger than Turkey’s and is currently straining under NATO-applied sanctions. 

On the one hand, Ankara is angry with Washington for its refusal to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim leader that Erdogan claims was behind the failed 2016 coup. On the other hand, the Turkish President also knows that the US pretty much controls the IMF and he will need American support if he goes for a bailout. 

How Erdogan will handle his domestic problems and foreign entanglements is anyone’s guess. Erdogan the politician made peace with the Kurds, established a good neighbor policy regionally and lifted tens of millions of Turks out of poverty. 

But Erdogan the autocrat pulled his country into a senseless war with the Kurds and Syria, distorted the economy to build an election juggernaut, jailed political opponents and turned Turkish democracy into one-man rule. 

If the local elections were a sobering lesson for Erdogan, they should also be a wakeup call for the mainstream Turkish opposition. The only reason the CHP now runs Turkey’s major cities is because the Kurdish HDP took a deep breath and voted for the Party’s candidates. That must not have been easy. The CHP was largely silent when Erdogan launched his war on the Kurds in 2015 and voted with the AKP to remove parliamentary immunity for HDP members. That allowed the Turkish President to imprison 16 HDP parliamentarians, remove HDP mayors, and smash up Kurdish cities. 

The Kurds demonstrated enormous political sophistication in the recent Turkish balloting, but they will not be patient forever. Erdogan can be challenged, but—as the election demonstrated—only by a united front of center-left and left parties. That will require the CHP alliance to find a political solution to the demands of the Kurds for rights and autonomy. 

 


Conn Hallinan can be read at dispatchesfromtheedgeblog.wordpress.com and middleempireseries.wordpress.com 

 

 

 

 

 

 


THE PUBLIC EYE: Five Takeaways from the Mueller Report

Bob Burnett
Friday April 26, 2019 - 11:30:00 AM

After waiting almost two years, the report of the Special Counsel charged with investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election -- the "Mueller Report" -- was made made available on April 17th. Although this 448-page report was edited -- "redacted" -- by pro-Trump Attorney General William Barr, enough was uncensored that we can draw general conclusions.

1.We're at war with Russia and they are winning. The most disturbing conclusion from the Mueller Report is that Russia made a concerted effort to alter the results of the 2016 election. "The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion." Vladimir Putin and his cronies wanted Trump to win and engaged in a variety of technical efforts to help him. It's not clear what the overall impact was. Russians operatives were active in key swing states -- such as Michigan,Ohio, and Pennsylvania -- but it's not provable that the Russian efforts resulted in Trump's 78,000 vote margin. What is clear is that the Russians helped the Trump campaign by concerted social-media campaigns and hacking Clinton-campaign emails.

There's no evidence that Russian interference has abated. Indeed, if one looks at the Putin's objectives, there's no reason for the Russians to stop because they are succeeding. Russian efforts have weakened U.S. morale and diminished our role as leader of the "free" world. (They have also weakened the European Union and brought the United Kingdom to the brink of chaos.) 

2. Donald Trump refuses to acknowledge Russian subterfuge. Despite abundant evidence, Trump refuses to acknowledge the seriousness of the Russian intrusion into domestic politics. The United States is under attack and Trump won't do anything about it. 

This grim reality has many implications. First, it's very likely that the Russians will interfere in the 2020 election. It's possible that Russian actions will, once again, tilt the scales in Trump's favor. 

Second, Trump's recalcitrance has further divided the American public. Trump is promoting an alternative reality that most of his supporters have bought into. Thus, at a time when America is under attack, and should be unified in the face of the Russian onslaught, the electorate is polarized. 

3. Donald Trump interfered in the Mueller investigation and continues to interfere in Democratic efforts to understand Russian actions. A possible explanation for Trump's behavior is that he is naive; that he has an unrealistic image of America's relationship with Russia and cannot bring himself to acknowledge that Vladimir Putin has malign intent. If this were to be the case, then Trump -- disregarding the opinion of the National Security establishment -- might be following a path that is sincere but misguided. 

Sadly, that explanation does not explain Trump's numerous efforts to interfere with the Mueller investigation. While the Mueller report did not find compelling evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, it did find evidence of obstruction. (The report notes numerous examples of lying and at least 10 instances where Trump (it would appear) committed obstruction of justice.) For a variety of reasons, the Mueller team did not indict Trump for obstruction but it did conclude: "If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment." (This section of the Mueller Report appears to be a "blueprint" for impeachment.) 

Since the Mueller report was made public, Donald Trump has blocked most of the Democratic efforts to elaborate key Mueller findings. 

To summarize: Russia is waging war on the United States. We need to mobilize to fend off the attack and Donald Trump is obstructing this mobilization. This is treason. 

4. The Republican Party will not restrain Trump. The official Republican response to the Mueller Report has been diversion: "Mueller didn't find collaboration between the Trump Campaign and the Russians, therefore we should move on." In other words, Republican leaders ignore evidence of Russian interference and want to change the subject. (This approach is typified by the April 23rd remarks of Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner: “If you look at what Russia did, you know, buying some Facebook ads to try to sow dissent, it’s a terrible thing. But I think the [Mueller] investigations and the speculation that’s happened for the last two years has had a much harsher impact on our democracy than a couple of Facebook ads.”) 

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, said he would ask Attorney General William Barr, "To appoint a special counsel to determine whether the Obama administration’s Department of Justice unlawfully obtained a warrant to spy on a Trump associate as a way to help bolster [Hillary] Clinton." 

Other Republicans offered a more nuanced response: "Perhaps the Russians did interfere in the 2016 election but so did China and North Korea..." (A variation on this response is "The U.S. interferes in foreign elections so why shouldn't the Russians interfere with ours?" 

Utah Senator Mitt Romney has been the only dissenting GOP opinion: "I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President. I am also appalled that, among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia." 

The bottom line: Donald Trump is committing treason and the Republican Party won't do anything about it. 

5. It's up to Democrats to save the country. No pressure Dems, but it's up to you to save democracy. 

Between now and the November 3, 2020, election, Trump will continue to be Trump and Republicans will continue to appease him. Therefore, it's up to Democrats to provide a voice of sanity. 

Until the Democrats chose a presidential candidate, in July of 2020, the leader of the Democratic party will be Nancy Pelosi. Fortunately. 

Given what we've learned from Mueller report the Democrats should do three things: First, they ought to continue to publicize instances where the Russian government interferes in the U.S. political process. Dems need to constantly remind us that we are under attack. 

Second, Democrats must take steps to protect the 2020 electoral process. A key objective in 2020 will be for Dems to take back the Senate. The Russians could thwart this by interfering in swing-state elections. Someone -- Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez (?) -- needs to lead the Democratic effort to protect the vote. 

Third, Democrats should illuminate Donald Trump's obstruction. Pelosi needs to lead House investigations that systematically expose Trump's behavior and and convince a compelling majority of American's that Donald Trump is a traitor and should be impeached. 


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


ON MENTAL ILLNESS: Detecting and Debunking Delusions and other Errors

Jack Bragen
Friday April 26, 2019 - 11:31:00 AM

Simplistic thought is not useful if you are trying to understand the world. Simplistic thought is prevalent among the Earth's people. Many people's thinking is guided by others who are self-appointed authorities, or who have education and authoritative jobs and who are therefore deemed wise.

Most people are afraid to think for themselves. My father encouraged independent thinking in my early upbringing, and this trait didn't always help me. But it made me the person I am today. I am not afraid to think and to draw my own conclusions. I've discovered that when I'm not psychotic, much of my thinking turns out to be conventional, and parallel to that of many others.

It helps people with psychotic tendencies if we can improve our ability to listen. At the same time, it helps if we have a system that can allow us to learn to think more clearly. Such a system doesn't necessarily have to be created by ourselves, it can be something we've studied--so long as the system works. And remember that any system you or other people develop will have limits--it won't apply to all things. 

Perhaps the first step to liberating oneself from a delusion is to become aware that a thought might seem unusual. And we should remember that when a delusion takes hold, it may seem very real to us at the time. Conspiracy theories should be at the top of our list for systems of thought likely to be delusional. Another type of thought we should question is that of comparing ourselves to Jesus or some other religious figure. Conspiracy theories should be nullified in the thinking. Delusions of grandeur should also be negated. 

Notice I've not said, "eliminated." The human mind doesn't normally delete thoughts, I believe. Thoughts become deleted through memory loss, something that usually doesn't help people. In the absence of memory loss, we can create new thoughts that supersede the previous ones. It is akin to putting new paint on top of old paint. (In the case of paint, you could scrape off or sandblast the old paint if you wanted. But the human mind doesn't really delete thoughts, as I've said.) 

The way to pinpoint a delusion and weaken its influence can vary. Medication is certainly helpful. But medication by itself may not be enough. We can sometimes do a scan on our minds to discover delusions. This is like a virus scan on a computer. To do this, we need some criteria for comparison.  

The criteria could be written in a paper notebook. It isn't advisable to write anything private on a computer. An example of one criterion: "Is this the kind of thinking that most people have?" If the answer is "no," it suggests that the thought could be a delusion. Another criterion: "Does this thought make me special or unusual?" If the answer is "yes," then the thought could be a delusion. 

It is fine to be unconventional and unique--I'm not arguing with that. However, even among those who are special and unique, there are norms. We are all human beings, none of us can defy the laws of physics or of nature. Essentially, we are all the same--made of the same stuff. There is no shortage of those who believe themselves to be the most brilliant or greatest in some way. Yet, if you're going to believe that about yourself, it must be substantiated. And it is okay, and good, to be essentially the same as most people. 

There are more criteria that you can use to evaluate thoughts. I don't have the space here to make a long list. However, experience is a good guide. You could ask yourself: "Is this the kind of thinking I had a year ago when I was stabilized?" or, "Is this the same kind of thinking I had when I was headed for the hospital on the previous round of psychosis?" 

Once you get some of the delusions corrected in your thinking, it can lead to becoming more grounded, and your mind will begin to sync more with "normal" thought.  

Being connected to other human beings, hopefully people who are not also delusional, is essential. Some churches or other spiritual groups promulgate collective delusional thought. In this case, you're syncing your mind to a collective delusional system. Being in connection and communication with a variety of people with varied perspectives helps. Some psychiatrists may completely disbelieve in all religion. Yet they are grounded in the five physical senses, and this kind of perspective can help, even if you do not fully agree with it. 

What is sanity? If you ask a billion people that question, you might get a billion different answers. However, you need to have the ability to function among people, and this entails sharing most commonly held beliefs. 

 


ECLECTIC RANT: Netanyahu Wins, Palestinians Lose

Ralph E. Stone
Saturday April 27, 2019 - 08:41:00 AM

Despite three pending corruption charges, Benjamin Netanyahu won a fifth term as Israel’s prime minister. During the campaign, he said he would annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank — land captured in 1967. This would firm up Israel's hold on them and will probably preclude any Palestinian state. Presently, there are more than 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and severely blockades 2 million more in Gaza. 

Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967, In 1981, Israel annexed the Golan Heights. In March 2019, Trump officially recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights. Netanyahu has announced plans to name a neighborhood in Golan Heights after President Trump in appreciation for his decision last month to “recognize Israeli sovereignty over the region.“ 

Under the United Nation's Charter there can lawfully be no territorial gains from war, even by a state acting in self-defense. Therefore, even if Israel’s action were to be considered defensive, its retention of the West Bank and the Golan Heights is unlawful.  

Netanyahu’s threat to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank were foreshadowed by events at the creation of Israel in 1947 when the United Nations partitioned the land, allotting the Jews 55 percent of Palestine. The Arabs did not agree to this partition. The action of the UN conflicted with the basic principles for which the world organization was established, namely, to uphold the right of all peoples to self-determination. By denying the Palestine Arabs, who formed the two-thirds majority of the country, the right to decide for themselves, the UN had violated its own charter.”  

Most of the Zionists accepted the partition resolution because they were convinced that the crucial issue at that time was to establish a firm foundation for Jewish sovereignty. In closed meetings, the Zionists, including David Ben-Gurion, never concealed their intention to expand at the first opportunity the territory given to the Jews. That is why the Declaration of Independence did not define the state's borders and Israel has not defined its borders to this day. 

Consider as early as 1938, Ben-Gurion stated, "After we become a strong force, as a result of the creation of a state, we shall abolish partition and expand into the whole of Palestine." In 1948, Menachem Begin declared, "The partition of the Homeland is illegal. It will never be recognized. The signature of institutions and individuals of the partition agreement is invalid. It will not bind the Jewish people. Jerusalem was and will forever be our capital. Eretz Israel (the land of Israel) will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And forever.” (Noam Chomsky, “The Fateful Triangle.”) 

In the war of 1967, Egypt did not attack Israel. Rather, Israel conducted a pre-emptive strike against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. After the war, the remaining Palestinian territory was captured by Israel. Out of this captured land, Israel created the West Bank and the Gaza Strip by chopping up the land into isolated enclaves surrounded by Jewish settlements and Israeli occupation forces. The Palestinians lost 78 percent of their land to Israel and are left with 22 percent. 

Israel has erected a wall or fence, which cuts deep into Palestinian territory, joining large Jewish settlement blocks to Israel, further confining the Palestinians to isolated enclaves. And Israel continues to establish new settlements (called outposts), demolishing homes and uprooting plantations in the process. 

President Trump has aided and abetted Netanyahu’s squeezing of the land the Palestinians claim for an independent state . Trump hardline pro-Israel stance that fits easily with the Republican Party and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. David Friedman, his ambassador to Israel, is a pro-Israel advocate who once wrote that the two-state solution is “a suicidal ‘peace’ with hateful radical Islamists hell bent on Israel’s destruction.” 

 

Trump moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump has abandoned efforts to curb illegal settlement activity in the West Bank. 

The Trump administration has stopped all aid to the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, including all support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.  

Israel has withheld millions of dollars of tax transfers to punish the Palestinians for their “martyr fund,” a program that provides stipends to the families of Palestinians imprisoned or killed as a result of fighting with Israel. 

Meanwhile, Israel was the largest annual recipient of direct economic and military assistance since 1976, According to President Trump’s fiscal year budget request, Israel is expected to receive $3.3 billion in annual funding in 2019.  

The Trump administration’s long promised peace plan, supposedly being drafted by son-in-law Jared Kushner, is reportedly tilted toward Israel’s view of the conflict. The peace plan is unlikely to include an independent Palestinian state.  

Meanwhile, Israel with the approval of the Trump administration is incrementally absorbing what is left of land claimed by the Palestinians. 


SMITHEREENS: Reflections on Bits & Pieces

Gar Smith
Saturday April 27, 2019 - 08:49:00 AM

Stop the Presses: The GOP Calls for Impeachment

Listen to the voices or our Republican leaders:

"I am completely and utterly perplexed by those who argue that perjury and obstruction of justice are not high crimes and misdemeanors."

— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

"We're a nation of laws, and that's what this case has always been about to me … He turned the judicial system upside down, every way but loose. He sent his friends to lie for him. He lied for himself."

— Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

"Isn't it true that [the federal law on witness tampering] criminalizes anyone who corruptly persuades or engages in misleading conduct with the intent to influence the testimony of any person in an official proceeding?"

— Senator James Inhofe (R-OK)

"I do not believe we can ignore the facts or disregard the Constitution so that the president can be placed above the law."

— Senator Richard Burr (R-NC)

Are these quotes legit? Yes, and they all come from 1999, when the GOP was howling for the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

MoveOn wants to put these quotes in an ad and pay Fox News to run it. The ad will cost $150,000. Donations accepted.

 

 

Bolton Threatens to Violate International Law to Bust US Activists 

The Trump administration continues to threaten to stage an illegal takeover of the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC. Such an act would constitute an unprecedented breach of diplomatic protocol and international law. On April 26, Popular Resistance activist Kevin Zeese sent this message from inside the embattled Embassy building: 

"Yesterday was crucial. People-power was a critical factor in stopping a US intrusion into the embassy. John Bolton claimed we have been asked to leave and should be arrested. This is false. We have not been asked to leave and are violating no laws. 

"Last night, in a video message, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister thanked us for being here and standing in solidarity with the Venezulan people. He said we were in the embassy with the full legal protection of Venezuela. He was proud of us and thankful for our stand. He urged us to stay safe. 

"From various sources and information we believe the government is recalibrating and this weekend is critical. Our presence has turned a triumphant takeover by the coup plotters into a difficult situation. They now realize they are in a lose-lose situation. If they leave us they lose and if they forcibly remove us, the narrative of doing so is also a loss. If they prosecute us, the legitimacy of the coup fraud government will be on trial. The US government and coup plotters will be committing crimes of unlawful entry, trespass, violation of the Vienna Convention and unlawful eviction. We won't be seen as criminals, they will. 

"The short-term key is this weekend. We need to escalate people power. We need people from Saturday afternoon through Sunday. If people can spend the night, that is needed. If people prefer to be outside mthat is needed. 

We will have more on this on PopularResistance.org. We appreciate your support and solidarity." 

 

Now Trump is Taxing War Orphans 

Under Donald Trump's revised 2018 tax reforms, 60 of the country's biggest, richest corporations paid $0 in taxes—twice as many corporate freeloaders as there were in the previous tax year. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the big winners included: Amazon, Chevron, Eli Lilly, General Motors, IBM, and Goodyear. Chevron enjoyed a federal tax rate of minus 181 percent. IBM's effective tax rate was reduced to a negative 68 percent! 

The amount of corporate earnings protected from taxation in 2018 hit $79 billion as Trump slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Meanwhile, tax loopholes, credits, and rebates allowed the country's biggest businesses to cut their tax liability to zero. The meant $16.4 billion in lost tax revenues. But it gets worse. 

Under Trump Taxes, many companies not only paid nothing but they dinged the Treasury for million-dollar rebates. John Deere's $2.14 billion in potential taxable income was not only erased but the company wound up receiving a check from the IRS for $268 million. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates Trump's Slack Tax with result in $1.35 trillion in lost revenues over the next decade. Trump promised to erase the $19.9 trillion national debt. Instead, the debt rose a whopping 41.8 percent in the first four months of the current fiscal year. The debt is now so monumental that simply paying the interest on the debt is costing taxpayers $896 million per day

Meanwhile thousands of military Gold Star Families who lost loved ones in war are paying thousands of dollars in new taxes. In order to assure maximum benefits, surviving spouses of deceased soldiers have been signing over benefits to their children who's "earnings" were taxed at 12% to 15%. No longer. Under Trump, the "kiddie tax" is now 37%—nearly tripling the IRS grab-back on the children's benefits. 

War orphans are now taxed at a higher rate than billion-dollar corporations. As one Gold Star mother complained: "My kids are owing the government back money that the government gave them because their dad died, and my kids have to pay it back." 

Xavier Bacerra: Suing and Sowing  

Thanks to our feisty Attorney General Xavier Bacerra, Bloomberg recently identified California as the state that has lodged the greatest number of federal lawsuits against Donald Trump. Bacerra's record shows more than 30 wins against the Trump’s illegal transgressions targeting healthcare, climate change, civil rights, immigrant rights, and more 

In a recent email, Team Bacerra touted the AG's agenda: "When the Administration threatens our people, values, and resources, we’re ready . . . . Whether we’re fighting to save the Affordable Care Act or to protect the air we breathe or water we drink, the health and well-being of Americans nationwide are on the line." 

All well-and-good. But then the email gets to the "ask." 

"Xavier needs you with him in the battles ahead," the note says. It then proceeds to suggest a number of on-line donation options. 

While Bacerra's work is admirable, it seems a bit odd for a state employee to be involved in an independent fund-raising campaign (presumably conducted on state hours from a state office). Are other state employees turning to the public to raise alms to raise alarms? 

On the other hand, this could be a real-world manifestation of the phrase: "working for the public," with the public writing checks to the AG as a way of saying "AOK." At least, in Bacerra's case, we seem to be getting a good return on the investment. 

Supreme Court Judges Courting Summer Jobs? 

And speaking of moonlighting, what's with Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh looking for outside work as a visiting professor at George Mason University? The announcement that Kavanaugh would be hired for a three-year co-teaching gig, beginning on June 5, caused an uproar among GMU students—especially among student survivors of sexual assault. 

Kavanaugh, the infamous beer-barfing barrister, earns about $255,000 as a Supreme Court justice. Under the agreement, Kavanaugh would wind up co-teaching summer classes in Runnymede, England as part of the Antonin Scalia Law School's "summer abroad" program. (His "co-teaching" colleague, Jennifer Mascott, previously served as Kavanaugh's law clerk when he was US Court of Appeals judge.) 

And it's not just Kavanaugh. According to CNN, fellow Trump-appointed SCOTUS conservative Neil Gorsuch will also be off to Italy to co-teach a Scalia Law School summer course that will examine the “historical roots and the modern application of the separation of powers in the national security context.” 

And it's not just conservative justices, either. In 2018, Ruth Bader Ginsberg accepted an invite from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law to participate in its Study Law Abroad program at the University’s John Felice Rome Center in Italy. 

Newsom and the Nukes 

"It's crunch time at the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant," says anti-nuclear activist Harvey "Sluggo" Wasserman. California's last remaining reactor is currently off-line for repairs. Diablo Canyon's aging Unit One reactor—showing signs of cracking from radiation-caused embrittlement, suffering from years of deferred maintenance, and located near an active seismic fault—is recognized as one of the world's most dangerous plants. 

Nuclear watchdogs argue that Diablo should not be allowed to restart, noting that it's not just the reactor that's broken down. 

The reactor is owned and operated by PG&E, a bankrupt company convicted of numerous felonies that have resulted in more than 160 deaths and widespread property damage from pipeline explosions and wildfires. (Not the kind of resume you want for a company in charge of preventing a nuclear meltdown.) 

MoveOn.org is pushing a petition asking Governor Gavin Newsom to order the shutdown of the reactor or, at the very least, to conduct critical structural tests to determine whether it would be safe to reopen the crumbling nuke. The governor can be reached by phone [(916) 445-2841], by fax [(916) 558-3160], or mail (Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814]. 

Joe's Choice Is Cause to Rejoice 

Good news for our plastic-choked oceans: Trader Joe's has agreed to reduce its contribution to the scourge of unwanted waste by eliminating 1 million pounds of plastic trash each year—mainly by abandoning pre-packaged fruits and styrofoam trays. This follows a Greenpeace campaign that generated 100,000 letters to the company. Now SumOfUs has launched a petition asking Whole Foods to follow suit by banning all single-use plastics. 

An Open and Shut Case 

It was a shock to hear the unexpected news that San Francisco's long-running Beach Blanket Babylon was closing. No more "big hats, big laughs, big fun"? No singing and flinging stinging zingers over a three-octave range? 

Then came another shock: news that Berkeley's Monkey House was going dark. 

The message came from the Chief Monkey, singer-songwriter (and occasional SF Mime Troup lyricist) Ian Marlowe who announced that the famous "hidden cabaret" on University Avenue was pulling the plug. The secret "walk-in" mini-theater would be selling the stage, the lights, the sound equipment, the whole shebang. 

For years, the Monkey House has been a remarkable, unadvertised venue for some of the finest live music in town. It's one of Berkeley's best-kept secrets. In order to attend, you need to know its secret location—and it helps to bring bottles of beer to share. 

This sad story has a happy ending. A follow-up message from Marlowe came alongside the image of a grinning ape. It read: April Fool! 

The Monkey House lives! 


Arts & Events

East Bay Media Center's 50th Anniversary Screening of Godard's 'Sympathy for the Devil' in High Definition, today at 7:30

Ken Bullock
Friday April 26, 2019 - 11:10:00 AM

The 50th anniversary of Jean-Luc Gordard's post-May '68 docu-agit prop (and satiric) film 'Sympathy for the Devil,' featuring the Rolling Stones--including a run-down Brian Jones--recording their samba-flavored masterpiece at London's Olympia Studios, intercut with Black Panthers reciting Amiri Baraka poems and clips of the Vietnam War, will be celebrated with a screening in a newly remastered High Definition 50th anniversary edition print at the East Bay Media Center ( 510-849-3699; eastbaymediacenter.com ) Friday at 7:30 pm. 1939 Addison, between Milvia & MLK Way. Tickets $12 at the door or through Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sympathy-for-the-devil-tickets-60666209265

Trailer for the new edition: 

 

 


Héiène Grimaud Returns to San Francisco in Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Saturday April 27, 2019 - 01:56:00 PM

Like a good French wine that gets better with age, French-born pianist Héiène Grimaud seems to get better and better as time passes. Now approaching age fifty, Héiène Grimaud has outgrown her early reputation as a strong-willed, sometimes quirky interpreter of the standard piano repertoire. These days, she is simply hailed as an outstanding pianist, much loved by audiences here and around the world. Over the weekend of April 25-27, Ms. Grimaud joined the San Francisco Symphony in performances of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58. The orchestra was led by conductor James Gaffigan, who is familiar to local audiences from his tenure as associate conductor of the San Francisco Symphony from 2006 to 2009.  

To open the concert, Gaffigan led the orchestra in a performance of Richard Wagner’s Good Friday Spell from Parsifal. As an opener, this was a real snoozer! Both the music and the religious sentiments behind Parsifal have always seemed to me saccharine, and never more so than in Friday evening’s soporific rendition of the Good Friday Spell. Far from opening the concert with a wake-up call, this music almost put the audience to sleep! Oh well, Wagner can do many different things to audiences, and one thing he can do, and often does, is put them to sleep. So much for the Good Friday Spell from Parsifal. 

The real wake-up call came in the first moments of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, where the composer flouted tradition and opened not as is customary with the orchestra but instead with the solo piano. Here Héiène Grimaud gave a softly voiced opening chord, and followed it with a tender rendition of the brief 3-note upbeat phrase that is immediately taken up by the orchestra. There is throughout this movement, and indeed throughout this entire concerto, a sense of inner repose. Here Beethoven eschews the turbulence that marked his early breakthrough works such as the Eroica Symphony, and a new lyricism comes to the fore. Commentators have noted here an almost mystic joy and exultation.  

The second movement, an Andante con moto, offers a very concise dialogue between solo piano and orchestra. Though the orchestra offers brusque, staccato phrases, the piano counters with gentle melodies that are plaintive in mood. Each time the orchestra tries to reassert its strident theme, Héiène Grimaud’s piano gracefully calms the orchestra down, until, finally, even the orchestra acquiesces in the piano’s heart-rending assertion of a mood of sorrowful lamentation. Here Héiène Grimaud was at her best, gracefully yet insistently bringing the orchestra around till it ends up joining the piano in what must be understood as acceptance of a cruel fate. (Was Beethoven here struggling, in composing and premiering this concerto between 1805 and 1808, with his own onset of deafness? Scholars believe this is so.) 

The third and final movement is a rondo. The first theme is stated in the orchestra, while the second theme, a pastoral idea, appears in the solo piano. With its strongly marked syncopations, and its lively contrasts, this rondo has its roots in Hungarian folk music, especially rich in Gypsy rhythms. Together, conductor James Gaffigan and soloist Héiène Grimaud brought this Fourth Piano Concerto of Beethoven’s to a lively, almost lush finish. 

After intermission, James Gaffigan returned to the podium to conduct Mozart’s Symphony No. 31 in D Major, K. 297(300a), known as the “Paris:” Symphony. Written during Mozart’s stay in Paris in 1778, this symphony bears the imprint of his prior sojourn in Mannheio. Indeed, the whole first movement of Mozart’s 31st Symphony begins, explores and ends with a musical structure known as the “Mannheimer Rocket,” an arpeggiated ascent, that was introduced and popularized by the famed Mannheim Orchestra, one of Europe’s foremost orchestras during Mozart’s time. Here, in this opening movement, Mozart makes frequent use of the Mannheimer Rocket, but he does so in ways that are often harmonically surprising. (Incidentally, Sergei Prokofiev, in his first, “Classical,” Symphony, paid tribute both to Mozart and the 18th century Mannheim Orchestra by prominently featuring a Mannheimer Rocket.) 

Mozart’s second movement, a slow Andantino, has become over the years a source of controversy. When Mozart gave this symphony a performance at Paris’s leading concert series, the famed Concert Spirituel, he reportedly acquiesced to Jean LeGros, director of the Concert Spirituel, and penned a second Andante to replace the original one. Less than a month later, when this symphony was given another hearing in Paris, it was with the second Andante. Though it was long thought that the 6/8 time Andante we heard here in Friday’s performance with the San Francisco Symphony was the original one, recent scholarship maintains, quite persuasively, that this is the replacement version, while the original, still available in manuscript, is in ¾ time. In any case, as Mozart himself said, in a letter to his father, both Andantes are good. They just proceed by different means. As for the final movement, here Mozart shows off his superb mastery of counterpoint while also exploring new harmonic patterns. In this endeavor, conductor James Gaffigan proved himself a most capable interpreter Mozart’s musical magic. 

The final work on the program was Samuel Barber’s Symphony No. 1 (in One Movement), Opus 9. I had never heard this work before, and though I found it chock full of interesting effects, I can’t say that I found it altogether enjoyable. There were moments, to be sure, especially towards the end of this single movement symphony, when cellos and basses combined for a lovely passage of melodic lyricism. But the frequent outbursts of brass (trumpets, trombones, and a tuba), plus frequent interventions of two bassoons and a contrabassoon, plus two clarinets and a bass clarinet, often created a shrieking cacophony that was not altogether pleasant. Nonetheless, James Gaffigan led as persuasive an account of this Barber Symphony No. 1 as we are likely to hear. I’m just not sure how ready I am to hear this work again anytime soon. 


The Berkeley Activist's Calendar, April 28 - May 5

Kelly Hammargren, Sustainable Berkeley Coalition
Saturday April 27, 2019 - 08:45:00 AM

Worth Noting: 

The meeting list looks daunting with several meetings with heavy agendas, however, there are meetings worth attending. 

Monday – 7:00 pm - The first meeting on oversight of the Berkeley Housing Bond Measure O includes the presentation on Affordable Housing Financing. 

Tuesday – City Council starts at 4:30 and will be voting on the 1000 Person Plan which is the City long term proposal for addressing homelessness. 

Wednesday and Friday - 9:30 am – 4:00 pm are the Budget Presentations at the Budget Committee 

Thursday - 2 pm – City Council Facilities Committee will be reviewing the ordinance to prohibit natural gas in new construction 

Saturday – 11 am - Kate Harrison and Ben Bartlett will explain how EBCE – East Bay Community Energy works and answer questions 

 

Sunday, April 28, 2019 - Easter 

Peoples Park 50th Anniversary, 1-5 pm 

Monday, April 29, 2019 

Berkeley City Council – Agenda & Rule Committee, 2:30 pm, at 2180 Milvia, 6th Floor Redwood Conf Room, Agenda Planning for May 14 City Council meeting: Consent: 3. Annual Appropriations ordinance, 5.& 6. Public Health services Grant Agreements with (5) Alameda Co. (6) State of CA, 7. Grant Application Essential Access Health, 8. Purchase Order Data Center Upgrade, 9. WiFi Installation 10. Hosted Cloud Storage, 11. Video Streaming, 12. Internet Redundancy, 13. Summer Food Service Program for Berkeley youth, 14. Harrison Park-Gabe Catalfo Fields Renovation, 15. Marina Berth fees. 16. Measure M. Woolsey Street, 17. Parking Enforcement Vehicles, 18. Street Lighting Assessments, 19. On-call Construction Services, 20. & 21. Gilman Railroad Crossing Safety Project, 22. Purchase 11 Ford Police Interceptor Utility, 23. Reappoint Dian Davenport to Board of Library trustees, 24. Declare every 3rd Sunday in May to be Postpartum Justice Day, 25. Recommendation to Install Outdoor Public Warning System (Sirens), 26. From Auditor – Understaffing 911 Dispatchers, 27. Support AB 539 – Fair Credit Act, 29. Support Charter School Reform Assembly Bills, 30. Refer to Budget – Rebuilding Together, 31. Light Acton and University, 33. Support AB 38 Fire Safety, Action: Charges/Fees/Increases (34-39) 34. Mental Health, 35. Public Health Clinic, 36. Ambulance, 37. Camp Program, 38. Marina, 39. Land Use Planning Permits, 40. Hearing #1 Proposed Budget FY 2020-2021, 41. One-Way Car Share, 42. Residential Parking Football Game Days, 43. ZAB Appeal – 1444 Fifth Street, 45. Independent Equal Pay Audit, 46 a.& b. Fossil Free Berkeley, 47. Mr. Leonard Powell a.staff, b.Peace and Justice Commission & c. City Manager, 

48. Socially Responsible Investment, 49. a.&b. Grant Allocation – Sugar Sweetened Beverages, 50. Performance Evaluation Process City Manager, 51. Extend Winter Shelter April 15 – June 30, 2019, 52. Budget Referral, 53. Opposition Revision Title IX, 54. Support Buy Clean CA Act, 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/Agenda_Committee__2019_Index.aspx 

Berkeley City Council – Closed Session, 4 pm, at 2180 Milvia, 6th Floor Redwood Conf Room, Agenda: Conference with Legal Counsel 1. anticipated litigation one case, significant exposure Code Section 54956.9(d)(2):, 2. Initiation of litigation one case Code section 54956.9(d)(4): 

Measure O Oversight Committee, 7 pm, at 2180 Milvia, 1st Floor Cypress Room, Agenda: (first meeting), 6. Overview 7. Presentation – Affordable Housing Financing in Berkeley and Measure O Bond, 8. Measure O Priorities 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Measure_O_Bond_Oversight_Committee.aspx 

Town Hall for a Green New Deal, 7 – 9 pm at Moffitt Library Room 101 UC Berkeley, Hosted by Sunrise Movement 

Tax the Rich Rally, with music by Occupella, 5 – 6 pm at the Top of Solano in front of the Closed Oaks Theater, Rain Cancels 

Tuesday, April 30, 2019 

Berkeley City Council, Tuesday, 1231 Addison Street, BUSD Board Room 

4:30 pm, Special Meeting: Agenda: Action 1. 1000 Person Plan to Address Homelessness 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/2019/04_Apr/City_Council__04-30-2019_Special_Meeting_Agenda.aspx 

6 – 11 pm, Regular Meeting Agenda: Consent 2. No cost spay, neuter to eligible pet owners, 3. Public Art Guidelines, 4. Berkeley Food and Housing Project, 5. – 8. Software maintenance/support contracts, 9. $1,101,000 contract for Berkeley Marina Area Specific Plan (BMASP) w/Hargreaves Assoc 10. Charter Bus Services Echo Lake Camp, 11. Proposed Road Projects to utilize CA Transportation funding. 17. Arreguin as alternate to Budget Committee, 3x3, 18. $150,000 preplanning BUSD Employee Housing, 19. Max Levine Berkeley Housing Authority Board, 22. Referral to Planning Development of Policies to Prevent Displacement and Gentrification, 23. Good Food Purchasing resolution, 24. Referral Pedestrian Corridors – Street to Plaza, Action: 25. FlixBus – Long distance bus service to the public, 26. New Marina Fee So Cove Parking Lots, 27. Appeal ZAB 2700 Pardee Parking, 1050 Parker Medical Office Building, 28. Zoning Ordinance Inclusionary Housing Regulation to Contiguous Lots under Common Control or Ownership, 29. Feedback to Berkeley Police regarding stop data f/u Policing Equity Report Recommendations, 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/Agenda_Committee__2019_Index.aspx 

Wednesday, May 1, 2019 

City Council Budget & Finance Committee, 9:30 am – 4 pm, at 2180 Milvia, 6th Floor Redwood Conf Room, Agenda: 1. a. Citywide Overview, b. Planning & Development, c. Public Works, d. Parks & Waterfront, 2. Capital Improvement, 3. e. Police, f. IT, 4. Closing Comments 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Home/Policy_Committee__Budget___Finance.aspx 

Board of Library Trustees, 6:30 pm at 1901 Russell St, Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch Library, Agenda: Contract amendments B. Bibliotheca, C. Sevaa Group, D. Innovative Interface, Inc., 

https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/about/board-library-trustees 

Library Calendar https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org 

Commission on Disability, 6:30 – 9 pm at 1326 Allston Way, Willow Room, Public Works Corporation Yard, Agenda: 2. Navigable Cities, 4. Homeless and wheelchair electric charging, 5. RV Parking, 6. PG&E medical baseline program, 7. Collaboration with Zero Waste Commission, 8. San Pablo Ave. Plan, https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Commission_on_Disability_Homepage.aspx 

Planning Commission, 7 – 10 pm at 2939 Ellis, South Berkeley Senior Center, Agenda: 9. Zoning Ordinance Revision Project, 10. Parking discussion 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Planning_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Thursday, May 2, 2019 

City Council Land Use, Housing & Economic Development Committee, 10:30 am, 2180 Milvia, 6th Floor Redwood Room, Agenda: 2. Measure O, 3. Berkeley Qualified Opportunity Fund 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Home/Policy_Committee__Land_Use,_Housing___Economic_Development.aspx 

City Council Facilities, Infrastructure, Transportation, Environment & Sustainability Committee, 2 pm, at 2180 Milvia, 1st Floor Cypress Room, Agenda: 2. Prohibit Natural Gas in New Buildings, 3. a.&b. Green Stormwater Infrastructure, 4. Multi-year Bidding for Street Paving, 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Home/Policy_Committee__Facilities,_Infrastructure,_Transportation,_Environment,___Sustainability.aspx 

Cannabis Commission, 2 – 4 pm, 2180 Milvia St, 6th Floor, Agenda: D. Equity Program recommendations 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/MedicalCannabis/ 

Community Health Commission, 6:30 – 9 pm at 2939 Ellis St. South Berkeley Senior Center, Agenda: Presentations – 1. Public Health Division, 2. African American Holistic Resource Center, Discussion 2. Cannabis Ordinance amendments 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Community_Health_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Housing Advisory Commission, 7 – 9 pm at 2939 Ellis St, South Berkeley Senior Center, Agenda: Presentations 5. Rental Housing Safety, 6. MTC Committee to House Bay Area (CASA) Planning Initiative, 7. 1281 University, 8. Bi-Annual Housing Policy Report, 10. Smoke-Free Multi-Unit Housing Ordinance 

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/Housing_Advisory_Commission/ 

Landmarks Preservation Commission, 7 – 11:30 pm at 1947 Center St, Multipurpose Room, Basement, Agenda: 5. A. 2140 Shattuck Ave, Wells Fargo Building – Structural Alteration (exterior) B. 1915 Fourth Street, Spenger’s Fish Grotto – Structural Alteration (exterior) 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/landmarkspreservationcommission/ 

Public Works Commission, 7 – 10 pm at 1326 Allston Way, Willow Room, City of Berkeley Corporation Yard, no agenda posted, check before going 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Public_Works_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

North Berkeley Senior Center Groundbreaking Ceremony, 1:30 -2 pm, 1901 Hearst, North Berkeley Senior Center, 

Friday, May 3, 2019 

City Council Budget & Finance Committee, 9:30 am – 4 pm, at 2180 Milvia, 6th Floor Redwood Conf Room, Agenda: 1. a. Health, Housing & Community services, b. City Attorney, c. Human Resources, d. City Auditor, e. City Clerk, f. Office of Economic Development, g. Finance, h. City Manager’s Office, 2. Closing Comments 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Home/Policy_Committee__Budget___Finance.aspx 

Cinco De Mayo, 4 am - 5 pm at 2800 Park, Frances Albrier Community Center 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CalendarEventMain.aspx?calendarEventID=16105 

Saturday, May 4, 2019 

East Bay Community Energy Community Meeting with Kate Harrison and Ben Bartlett, 11 am – 12 pm at 2939 Ellis St, South Berkeley Senior Center, Agenda: Learn about new community energy agency, how to opt up to 100% renewable, how to electrify your home and how lower income residents can get help paying for electricity, refreshments provided, 

http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/east-bay-community-energy-community-meeting-may-4/ 

Skateboard Contest, 10 am - 3 pm at Skatepark 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CalendarEventMain.aspx?calendarEventID=16106 

Sunday, May 5, 2019 

No City Meetings Found 

____________________ 

 

*Agenda Committee Unfinished business for scheduling – 1. a.&b. U1 Funds for Property Acquisition at 1001, 1007, 1011 University, 1925 Ninth Street, 2. Revisions to Ordinance 7,521 BMC. To increase compliance with short-term rental ordinance, 3. Disposition City-owned Former Redevelopment Agency Properties at 1631 & 1654 Fifth St, 4. Economic Dashboards, 5. Referral to City Manager and budget for creation of “vehicle dweller program” 

 

______________________ 

 

NORTH BERKELY BART DEVELOPMENT 

City Council Special Meeting, 6 pm, May 9, at Longfellow Middle School – watch calendar for updates 

 

_____________________ 

 

LAND USE 

Public Hearings Scheduled – Land Use Appeals 

2700 Tenth – Pardee Parking Lot - 4-30-2017 

1444 Fifth St – 4 single family dwellings - 5-14-2019 

Notice of Decision (NOD) With End of Appeal Period 

none 

Remanded to ZAB or LPC With 90-Day Deadline 

1155-73 Hearst (develop 2 parcels) – ZAB 5-19-2019 

2701 Shattuck (construct 5-story mixed-use building) – ZAB 6-30-2019 

 

 

WORKSHOPS 

May 7 – Proposed FY 2020-FY 2021 Budget, Bond Disclosure Training 

June 18 –Green Stormwater Infrastructure, Arts and Culture Plan 

Sept 17 –UC Berkeley Student Housing Plan, Zero Waste Rate Review, Adeline Corridor Plan 

Oct 22 – Berkeley’s 2020 Vision Update, Census 2020 Update, Short term Rentals 

Nov 5 - Transfer Station Feasibility Study, Vision Zero Action Plan, 

Unscheduled – Cannabis Health Considerations 

 

Unscheduled PRESENTATIONS 

May 1 and 3 @ Budget Committee – Parks, Recreation, and Waterfront CIP Update, Public Works CIP Update 

May 28 – tentative EBMUD presentation 

________________________ 

 

To Check For Regional Meetings with Berkeley Council Appointees go to 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/City_Council__Committee_and_Regional_Body_Appointees.aspx 

 

To check for Berkeley Unified School District Board Meetings go to 

https://www.berkeleyschools.net/schoolboard/board-meeting-information/ 

 

_____________________ 

 

This meeting list is also posted on the Sustainable Berkeley Coalition website. 

http://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html and in the Berkeley Daily Planet under activist’s calendar http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com 

 

When notices of meetings are found that are posted after Friday 5:00 pm they are added to the website schedule https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html and preceded by LATE ENTRY