Berkeley City Auditor Jenny Wong said in a statement Thursday that her office will audit the city's COVID-19 and disaster response and the police department budget in the next 12 months.
She said the office hasn't audited police staffing or the police budget for 11 years and she has "heard loud and clear community interest" in the effort.
In fact, activists across the country have called on their cities to reimagine policing and pare back police funding as the Black Lives Matter and racial justice movements have grown in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.
Many cities have started reallocating law enforcement funding and committed to rethinking how they approach policing, and many school districts have moved to abolish their police forces.
Berkeley's city council voted this week to cut police funding but not more than it cut funding for other city departments.
As one of the smallish number of surviving members of the pre-boomer generation, I was encouraged to memorize poetry in elementary school. This verse from Longfellow’s Psalm of Life stuck with me, even though almost everything about it went out of style in the many decades since I was in Grade 5:
Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time.
First, of course, it needs to be de-gendered: “Lives of great ones all remind us…”
Then, rhyming? Surely not. Another aspect of poetry that was not only abandoned but almost forbidden in my lifetime. Though, thanks to rap culture, rhyme is once more appreciated in some circles, so let it be.
Then there’s that moral. Poems seldom have morals anymore, especially not like this one:
Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.
In other words,it’s a thoroughly old-fashioned poem, expressing an obsolete optimism not often seen in this modern world of woe.
So why did it spring to mind when I got the text message telling me that Margy Wilkinson had died?
Because she exemplified everything that the rest of us can only aspire to. Wherever she was, whatever was happening around her, she was “up and doing”.
She and her husband were what might be called radical royalty, if that wasn’t such a contradiction in terms. The savage red-baiting their respective parents encountered in the pursuit of social justice in the 1940s and 1950s was memorialized in the obituaries Tony and Margy wrote for their mothers, both of whom died in Berkeley.
In her adult life, Margy responded time and again to situations where her remarkable focus and energy made a big difference. She was arrested with the Free Speech movement as an undergraduate. She participated in the varied manifestations of the reform movement originating in the Communist Party of the USA which began as the Committees of Correspondence. As a UC Berkeley employee, she was an organizer and official of her union. When the Pacifica Foundation’s boat threatened to sink, she jumped in and rowed like crazy.
When her Southwest Berkeley was threatened with predatory gentrification (a struggle that’s still going on) she was a founder of Friends of Adeline, and led the neighborhood support for the Here/There encampment on BART property.
She seldom missed a Berkeley City Council meeting, and when the Council was poised to do something dead stupid, she let them know the error of their ways in the nicest possible way. She liked the clean-up spot at the end of Public Comment, catching anything others might have missed.
And that’s just the big stuff, the heavy duty political action.
But also, she excelled at the small stuff, the things that add grace notes to life.
Of her various UCB jobs, she told me that the one she loved best was supporting the marching band.
For my birthday last January she gave me a mason jar of her Seville orange marmalade, with a note on the label telling me where she got the requisite sour oranges (from a neighbor’s tree.) I’ve been saving mason jars to give back to her, since making marmalade is an achievement to which I could never aspire.
And there are many more small stories, too many to tell here. Her many admirers have told them in all sorts of media already, and there will be more. (Send yours to news@berkeleydailyplanet.com if you want.)
Time again to reprise that moral:
Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.
That’s advice for the rest of us that Margy’s left behind.
I don’t know which is harder, the labor or the waiting.
It turns out that healing the world, to which she aspired with all her heart, will take more than one lifetime.
One of Margy’s last Facebook posts was a picture for Emma Goldman’s birthday, with this quote: “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be in your revolution.” Not only must we continuing pursuing justice in Margy’s honor, we must try to do it joyfully, a particular challenge in the 2020 turmoil.
So here’s a little music—sing along or dance to it, with clean hands at the proper distance from others of course. And then, let’s be up and doing, with hearts for any fate. Margy would have expected no less from us.
Zach Stewart, California Landscape Architect #1136
Friday July 03, 2020 - 03:55:00 PM
When Willard Park was cleared of buildings, the plan was to put a field house in the middle of the new open space. The neighbors killed that plan and interviewed ten or twelve landscape firms in the middle of summer in a very hot room. The candidate firms' slide shows were long and boring; pictures of gazebos, hardscape, playgrounds and other construction.
My partner and I were interviewed last and the ten person selection committee was half asleep. We brought only three color slides (greenswards, no construction), and talked about Francis Willard and Ho Chi Minh. We also mentioned the group of architects who ganged up on Frederick Law Olmsted and got the Park Commission’s approval to strangle New York's Central Park with a series of large monumental arches around its perimeter. Olmsted immediately resigned and left for Boston.
The arches were never built and the Parks Commission begged Olmsted to come back when the whole project fell apart. After our very short presentation my partner was asked what we planned to do with the park. He said, “nothing.” After a stunned silence someone said, “you mean no construction in the open space?" He said, “no construction in the open space.”
We were hired on the spot. Willard park, like Ohlone Park and the Civic Center park are well used open spaces, as is People’s Park. People’s Park is a beautifully designed park----a masterpiece created by many brilliant volunteers, and while its native plant garden needs attention and some trees have been destroyed, it is a classic example of cooperative open space design awaiting the good maintenance and management enjoyed by Willard Park, Ohlone Park, Civic Center Park (now Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park), and dozens of other Berkeley parks.
Note: Zach Stewart is one of many endorsers of the People's Park Historic District's efforts to preserve People's Park and its surrounding landmarks, and the key landscape designer for both Willard Park and Shorebird Park in Berkeley, California. The People's Park Historic District Advocacy Group is promoting essays and outreach projects to highlight the importance of well maintained open spaces throughout Berkeley and the importance of the open space element in the Berkeley General Plan. For information about the People's Park Historic District's work contact us at: peoplesparkhxdist@gmail.com or People's Park Historic District Advocacy Group, PO Box 758, Berkeley, CA 94701.
Margy was a tremendous force for good all her life. I first met her in the 1960s, when she was instrumental in organizing the UC Clerical, Technical, and Professional Employees Union, which my husband and I joined and were active in. She was smart, principled, tough, compassionate, and highly effective. She never stopped fighting for changes that would really help working and poor people in a variety of contexts and organizations.
When KPFA and the Pacifica Foundation got into trouble and were at risk of going under, she stepped up to the plate as interim manager and turned this unwieldy ship around. She and Tony talked the talk, walked the walk, and lived the life consistently.
I saw her on June 6, as the BLM March went past her house, and we chatted briefly from a proper distance. I always enjoyed talking with her, getting her take on things, hearing what she thought might be a good way to bring about progress on an issue. She was so kindhearted as well as militant, and not everyone has both those qualities. I am so shocked and sad she’s gone—too soon—and will miss her a lot.
MAGA--Make America Great Again--has become a dog whistle, a kind of code that conveys special meaning to a certain segment of the population. I don’t think this was always the case. In the beginning, Republican marketing created a sense that it was about bringing well paying jobs back to the US. This was to be accomplished by encouraging a return of overseas manufacturing and by removing environmental controls that some thought drove manufacturing out. It was a cry to reverse the shrinking of the middle class and to create greater economic equality for everyone. Then they asked the question: “What have you got to lose?” It was very good marketing.
It is now clear that the current administration isn’t capable or isn’t willing to bring about the type of change many thought they promised. The President paid lip service but failed to create change for the better. Instead we saw increased costs because of tariffs, little new manufacturing, and lost markets for farm products and other goods. There was no real benefit to the vast majority of Americans and many are now worse off.
Some would go farther, saying the current administration is full of greedy elites who worked to rig government in their favor thereby reaping huge tax cuts and deregulation at the expense of the environment and everyone else. The rich have gotten richer and the poor poorer. Certainly the middle class is shrinking.
Donald Trump is closely identified with MAGA. Given his failure at lifting up the vast majority of Americans there is a disconnect between the symbol and their hope. This disconnect has left a void which is being filled by what many feel is the essence of the man associated with the symbol. The process began soon after Trump became president when he defended Charlottesville white-nationalist protesters saying there are “some very fine people on both sides.” His statement that “when the looting starts the shooting starts,” his support for not removing confederate statues, and his refusal to rename military bases identified with the confederacy are all example of his racist views. Trump’s announcing a new regime of “law and order to crush protests and then the immediate clearing of the peaceful BLM protesters to make way for the photo op in front of St. John’s Church is another example of his white supremacist way of thinking. “MAGA” is now associated with this mindset. It has become a dog whistle to white supremacists. It looks to a return of a mythical time when they are in total control.
This doesn’t mean that everyone who sports the MAGA symbol is a white supremacist. It may just mean they are still living in 2016 and not paying attention. What we have to lose? We all now know.b
In a major escalation to undermine US peace initiatives in Afghanistan, the world press has released bombshell reports that Moscow is offering bounties to Taliban fighters to kill Americans and their coalition partners. US intelligence alerted President Trump and Vice President Pence in late March of Russian meddling in Afghanistan but much like their lack of response to the Covid pandemic, they chose to remain silent. It is appalling that the President seems to place a higher premium on maintaining his dark friendship with the wily Putin than the safety of our troops. Former National Security Adviser John Bolton blasted President Trump’s lack of response. Every American should be outraged at Trump deafening silence. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed growing anxiety that the President has being severely compromised by Moscow. The sordid details of Putin and Trump’s alliance were first revealed by former British MI6 spy, Christopher Steel.
If our Intelligence Agencies confirm that the Trump-Pence were alerted of Russian interference and failed to take swift action the American people must DEMAND both President Trump and Vice President Pence MUST resign immediately for their appalling dereliction of duty to protect our troops.
The President is also undermining NATO and has ordered 10,000 Americans troops to leave Germany. Trump also plans to invite Putin to a G8 meeting in Washington. Putin must be thrilled. It is time Americans contact their elected representatives and DEMAND our Intelligence Agencies investigate the sinister PUTIN-TRUMP relationship before Taliban fighters slaughter more of our troops.
According to Wikipedia, George Berkeley (12 March 1685 – 14 January 1753), for whom your city and University are named after, was a slave owner at his Whitehall Plantation in Middletown, Rhode Island. In 1728, “He purchased several slaves to work the plantation.” I demand that you remove his name and any statues from your city and from the university.
Saturday is America's favorite summer holiday, Independence Day. In normal times, we celebrate the fourth of July with backyard barbecues or ballpark outings or beach parties. This year, because of the pandemic, most of us will "celebrate" by sheltering in place. Fortunately, on the third of July, Donald Trump will inaugurate a new national holiday, "Lemming Day."
Today, Friday, Trump will host a political event at the Mount Rushmore national memorial in Keystone, South Dakota. There will be fireworks and a flyover by the Blue Angels Naval aerobatic team. According to the Republican South Dakota Governor, Kristi Noem, social distancing will not be enforced and masks will be optional. (https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/30/politics/trump-mt-rushmore-fourth-of-july-coronavirus/index.html) On July 3rd, Trump supporters will have another opportunity to infect each other with COVID-19. Like the mythic lemmings, Trump supporters will be encouraged to huddle together and, in effect, commit mass suicide.
You may ask, "What was Trump thinking when he scheduled the Mount Rushmore event?" Most likely, Donald was thinking, "This event will generate great TV ratings." The United States is in the middle of an existential catastrophe, the worst crisis that most of us have experienced, and what's foremost in Trump's mind are his TV ratings.
How did we get in this insane situation?
Although there were many explanations for Donald Trump's unexpected 2016 presidential victory, three seem particularly relevant today: 1. In 2016, many voters did not trust Washington politicians, "the elite;" 2. Millions of Americans felt they had lost their chance at the American dream; and 3. A significant number of Americans were angry with Barack Obama, because of the color of his skin, and wanted a "whiter" President.
1.In 2016, most Trump supporters saw Donald as an outsider, someone not part of the American elite. By virtue of his free-wheeling manner, his penchant for Tweets, and his rambling politically incorrect speeches, Trump has exemplified the "outlaw" outsider. Unfortunately, Trump disparages science and reasoned discourse. This defect produced his destructive response to the pandemic -- a catastrophe that has sickened more than 2.8 million Americans and killed at least 131,000. Nonetheless, today, millions of Trump supporters trust Donald more than the mainstream media or Washington "experts." They are part of the Trump cult -- similar to the Jim Jones, "Peoples Temple," cult that ended in the Jonestown massacre.
2. Many Americans voted for Trump because they felt eight years of the Obama administration had not helped their life chances. They came to believe that Obama, and the Democratic establishment including Hillary Clinton, cared more for millionaires and billionaires than they did working families. Donald Trump talked like a populist and they believed him -- because he was more "relatable" than Hillary Clinton. Many of these voters are no longer part of the Trump lemming cult. At the moment, they are adrift.
3. Finally, in 2016, there were many Trump supporters who harbored racial animosity. They identified with Donald's "white supremacist" tendencies and felt a visceral connection with him. Today, they are still with him. Trump's racist supporters may not agree with everything he says and does, but, for them, he's the only game in town.
Today, Trump supporters -- from groups 1 and 3 -- will gather at Mount Rushmore and celebrate their guy. United by resentment.
After the rally, the Trump devotees will return to their hometowns and infect thousands with the coronavirus. Many will get sick and some will die. Rather than "make America great" they will accelerate its destruction.
Happy Lemming Day.
Bob Burnett is a Bay Area writer and activist. He can be reached at bburnett@sonic.net
The mental health treatment system, composed of the people being treated for a psychiatric condition and those treating us, could be seen as a sub-society; it would be a small segment of society that can be distinguished from the mainstream of those who work at professional and/or union jobs, as well as the affluent, as well as undocumented workers.
Within this sub-society of mentally ill people and their practitioners, the often-unspoken rules of behavior and the expectations are substantially different from the rules and expectations in other areas of life.
Mentally ill people are taught helplessness. Psychotherapists have a great deal of verbal agility, and they use it to steer the thinking of the consumer toward beliefs of generalized impotence. Medication plays a role in this. Psych meds do a lot to make clients' minds malleable. Many mentally ill people do not have the same level of psychological defenses as the average person. The therapists know how to take advantage of gaps in our defenses, whether they are produced by being medicated, or whether they arise from other causes.
When we are taught helplessness, we become easier to supervise, easier to keep corralled, and less a potential source of problems for the greater society. Most of us are not potentially a threat to people. Yet people do not want us showing up at Starbuck's during the morning busy hours and dancing shirtless. (This scenario is not intended to ostracize mentally ill people. I have heard of a man who got into trouble for doing just that, at a business.)
If more mentally ill people believed in our potential empowerment, we might do something crazy such as registering a fictitious business name statement and starting a company. People in the mainstream don't want to deal with that.
It is not so much that we normally can't handle the responsibilities. It is more like, if we went off medication while running a company, it could cause a lot of social and legal fallout. Those who would need to clean up the mess created would not enjoy doing that. People become concerned when a mentally ill person approaches a position of power.
Mentally ill people are taught to be open about our feelings. This is not done in society at large. In the mainstream, we are expected to lie about our feelings, conceal them, or otherwise hide them. People are not normally expected to tell the truth about their feelings. Among other things, it leaves them more vulnerable to an attack from an unscrupulous person--and many people are unscrupulous.
We are taught that someone will be there to take care of us when we cannot take care of ourselves. We are taught to have meagre expectations of our future. We are pacified with pizza and cupcakes.
When mentally ill people within one's local group, die before their time, and this happens all too often, it seems as though we are expected to shrug it off or otherwise trivialize it.
Counselors and other mental health professionals impart to us that we should have extremely limited expectations of our lives. This can end up becoming a core belief. We should strive to dispel the stinking thinking promulgated by treatment professionals.
Most mentally ill people have most of the same abilities as most other people. When the treatment system tells us that we are limited, it is yet another barrier to having a fulfilling life.
It takes a lot of effort to maintain an internal belief that mental health professionals are wrong about us, yet to still cooperate with most of the treatment--the treatment being a thing we are essentially forced to do. Circumstances force us to cooperate with treatment, and so does a mental illness. We must cooperate or get extremely sick. However, we don't have to buy the whole produce stand about us being incapable of doing anything.
Blast off into orbit with "Revised Short Science Fiction Collection of Jack Bragen." If you have difficulty finding a copy, click here.
In April 2020, The Harvard Kennedy School published a research article, The Relation between Media Consumption and Misinformation at the Outset of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in the US. The Article shows that Americans who relied on right-wing sources like Fox News, Breitbart News, One, America News, The Drudge Report or Rush Limbaugh, received misinformation about the pandemic, entertained conspiracy theories and discouraged them from taking concrete steps to protect themselves and others from the virus.
Fox News provides Trump and the GOP with a television channel to distribute their “alternative facts” to entertain their loyal followers. To further this symbiosis, Trump looks to Fox News personnel for his staff and advice. For example, former National Security Adviser John Bolton was a former Fox News talking head; former state department member Heather Nauert was a former Fox News anchor; former communications adviser Mercedes Schlapp, a former Fox commentator, served as White House Director of Strategic Communications in the Trump administration and now works on the Trump 2020 re-election campaign; and Treasury Department spokesman Tony Sayegh, another former Fox commentator served as White House Senior Advisor for Strategy; and, of course, on-air personalities Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham are favorites of the president, who also speaks to them privately. And this month the former Fox News executive Bill Shine, who was pushed out over his handling of sexual harassment scandals at the network, was the White House deputy chief of staff for communications until he resigned to advise President Trump's 2020 presidential campaign.
Fox News on-air personalities Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham are favorites of the president, who also speaks to them privately. To put it charitably, Trump’s response to the pandemic has been inept; he has constantly downplayed its seriousness and undermined efforts to control the virus. In short, Trump abandoned his post.
Steve Bannon, former executive chairman of Breitbart News, served as White House Chief Strategist during the first seven months of Trump's term.
In February, Trump awarded Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Limbaugh has been a staunch ally of the President's for years, and dined with him at his Palm Beach golf club over the holidays.
Trump refuses to wear a mask and discourages others from wearing them thereby undermining efforts to reduce the spread of the virus. For example, he has held indoor rallies in Tulsa and Phoenix and Vice President Pence hosted one in Dallas where masks and social distancing were not evident.
The right-wing media and Trump combined have encouraged COVID denialists, COVID conspiracy theorists, and right-wing fringe groups claiming government overreach. Recently, these right-wing fringe groups are harassing California county health officials who dare to impose mandates to stop the rapid spread of the coronavirus. Trump no longer mentions the pandemic as if it was no longer a national concern.
Last month hundreds — some with weapons — protested against the Michigan state stay-at-home order. They were backed by wealthy conservative groups and promoted by Trump. The Michigan Freedom Fund, co-host of the Michigan rally, was funded by the family of Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, regular donors to rightwing groups. The other co-host, the Michigan Conservative Coalition, was founded by Matt Maddock, now a Republican member of the state house of representatives. The MCC also operates under the name Michigan Trump Republicans, and in January held an event featuring several members of the Trump campaign.
Is it any wonder that the U.S. has 2.6+ million reported COVID-19 cases and 127,219 deaths with 40,000+ new cases daily? Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned that if the pandemic continues unabated, we can expect up to 100,000 new cases per day.
The Chronicle's biggest story of the week (if not the Millennium) was buried at the bottom of the Sporting Green.
The lead item in the June 28 edition of the Earthweek column read: "The International Energy Agency in Paris has warned that world leaders have only six months to take measures to control carbon emissions before a post-shutdown recovery brings a surge in greenhouse gasses that may be impossible to curb."
With wildfires (fed by 100-plus-degree temperatures) devouring Siberia, we're running out of time. Al Gore once asked: "Can't you hear what Mother Nature is screaming at you?" Well, today, Mother Nature isn't just screaming, she's shrieking in terror. We need a Green New Deal to replace the Grim Old Deal and its unsustainable addictions to carbon combustion, resource consumption, poisonous pollution, and endless war.
A 'Green Stimulus' Bill: Pelosi to the Rescue
According to a Pew Research Center poll, two-thirds of Americans want the government to do more to address the climate catastrophe. A Data for Progress poll in May found that 58% of Americans want to abandon coal, gas, and oil for 100% clean energy. (The breakdown is 76% of Democrats, 59% of Independents, and $38% of Republicans.)
The Democrats are listening—and it's no longer just the Green New Deal Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has unveiled a 500-page proposal that has been called the "most detailed climate plan in US political history." A letter signed by 59 House Democrats is calling for a host of Green Deal provisions in a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill and Pelosi has committed to eliminating all planet-cooking emissions by 2050.
City Scofflaws Unmasked
On a recent morning run around the MLK Jr. Middle School track, I noticed three City workers preparing to spread a truckload of fertilizer across the fenced-off field. None of them were wearing facemasks.
One stood on the track near an open section of the fence awaiting the truck and, as joggers and walkers moved past, he was openly coughing.
Making haste to leave the track, I continued my run up to the Berkeley Rose Garden. When I arrived, I noticed a work crew busily dismantling large planks from a wooden structure adjacent to the tennis courts on the north side of the garden. There was the usual amount of yelling and heavy-breathing going on but no one was wearing a facemask.
Meanwhile, a supervisor with a clipboard had taken up a perch on one of the entryway benches that provide a scenic overview of the garden. He was busy marking notes while several runners assembled nearby, pausing to catch their breath after an uphill run.
I couldn't help but notice: he was sitting next to one of the City's "Do Your Part" signs but he was not wearing a facemask.
Suggestion: Could the City require that its workers and contractors wear facemasks on the job—especially when they are away from the worksite and sharing air with local residents? (One of the trucks loaded with the remains of weathered planks belonged to Ghilotte Contractors.)
AC Transit's Coronavirus-Commuter Survey = A Month of Free Travel
In a rich example of poor timing, AC Transits has posted a "Dear Community Stakeholder" letter based on the expectation that Bay Area residents are about to "relax their shelter-in-place orders and reopen more of their economies." (If only!)
"AC Transit is sensitive to people’s concerns during the current pandemic," the agency writes. That's why AC Transit has prepared "a survey that will help us assess the priorities of riders as they begin to get back on the service. While we are still not charging to ride, all riders who complete the survey can enter to win an AC Transit 31-day pass (great for when fare collection resumes)." Caveat: "enter to win" may mean there's only one winner.
A New Video: Noam Chomsky and other Authorities on Authoritarianism
One highlight of the past week was participating in a live mid-day, online Zoomchat with Noam Chomsky, Van Gosse, and Ty dePass for a discussion on authoritarianism and dictatorship (code words for "Trump"). The three-person "Authoritarianism or Democracy" roundtable was hosted by Massachusetts Peace Action and can be seen here.
Chomsky is hardly recognizable these days. Like many of us guys, he hasn't had a haircut (or a shave) since the pandemic kicked in and he's starting to look like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings—or a really weathered lawn gnome.
I'm thinking of dubbing him, "Gnome Chomsky."
An Utterly Strange Internet Oddity
On June 27, while doing a Yahoo Image Search to illustrate a report on Trump's expressed desire to resume nuclear testing, I discovered that a host of familiar images had been removed from the site. Specifically, no more images of Trump scowling in the foreground with a mushroom cloud exploding in the background.
Also, a page that previously showed scores of images of nuclear explosions—real and fabricated—now showed only one. Instead, the search page included four adjacent frames on the top row that were completely empty—just rectangular blue placeholders suggesting that the images had been recently and hastily removed and had not yet been replaced.
Also missing: the usual gallery of hundreds of photos of Trump looking menacing or making goofy expressions. Now, Yahoo provided nothing but mellow, empty, emotionless images of DJT.
Yahoo's top search page for "Donald trump angry" displayed only one photo of Trump—along with six cartoons and Trump as a poop emoji. The first two images in the search weren't even Trump. One was a photo of Don Junior; the second was a portrait of Mitt Romney.
On the other hand: A Google image search showed no change: All the old, familiar Trump grimaces were still on display, along with many images of Trump presiding over nuclear blasts.
I checked back on June 30 and discovered that the missing images had all been restored to Yahoo's Image Search site. There were even some new images of a grimacing Trump that hadn't appeared before.
Anyone in the reading audience have any clues/explanations for Yahoo's brief disinfection of its Trump/Nukes image bin?
Trump's View of Term Two: Days of Whine and Neurosis
On June 25, Fox News' Sean Hannity invited our incumbent leader to answer one of those ultimate "softball" questions: "What are your top priority items for a second term?"
This, alas, was Trump's response.
"Well, one of the things that will be really great, you know, the word experience is still good. I always say talent is more important than experience. I’ve always said that. But the word experience is a very important word. It’s a very important meaning.
I never did this before—I never slept over in Washington. I was in Washington I think 17 times, all of the sudden, I’m the president of the United States.
You know the story, I’m riding down Pennsylvania Avenue with our first lady and I say, ‘This is great.’ But I didn’t know very many people in Washington, it wasn’t my thing. I was from Manhattan, from New York. Now I know everybody. And I have great people in the administration. You make some mistakes, like you know an idiot like Bolton, all he wanted to do was drop bombs on everybody. You don’t have to kill people."
Even Hannity could be seen rolling his eyes in disbelief.
Hannity, Sanity and Covid Insanity
Speaking of Sean Hannity, new evidence (from the National Bureau of Economic Research, the University of Chicago, and others) has found a strong correlation between areas inhabited by Hannity's fan base and infections and deaths from COVID-19. How so? Well, a leading cause behind the spread of coronavirus in the US has been media misinformation that masked or dismissed the dangers. As The Washington Post notes, when it comes to spreading false information about the virus, one of the worst offenders is Fox News and Sean Hannity.
As The Daily Kos laments: "This is, sadly, the inevitable and disastrous consequence of Fox News and misinformation-spreading social media coming to dominate our national news consumption. When people receive bad information in dangerous situations, they will make bad decisions."
According to Kos, over the past 18 months, "a combination of Big Tech eating up the online ad market and the economic crash caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the loss of over 40,000 full-time [media] jobs, and tens of thousands of freelance jobs, at news media outlets. Meanwhile, the information gap created by this 'media extinction event' is filled by Fox News, which is experiencing record ratings . . . and Facebook.
"The ever-increasing dominance of Big Tech over the online advertising market caused the loss of 7,800 jobs in news media companies in 2019. The coronavirus pandemic resulted in the loss of at least 36,000 media jobs—at Buzzfeed, HuffPost, Vice, and Vox. In late 2019, long-time progressive powerhouse Think Progress closed up shop entirely."
Yahoo Uncovers a 9/11 Cover-up
While the Mainstream Media obsess over a leaked (and disputed) story that Russian agents handed out "firing bonuses" to encourage Taliban fighters to target US soldiers in Afghanistan, another story of even greater significance (national security-wise) passed almost unnoticed.
Yahoo's Chief Investigative Correspondent, Michael Isikoff (a former Washington Post, Newsweek and NBC News reporter) happened to catch a rare FBI slip-up in a disclosure related to a lawsuit by survivors of the 9/11 attacks. An unredacted document accidently revealed the hidden identity of a key figure in the terrorist conspiracy to attack targets in New York and Washington, DC. According to Yahoo's exclusive, the disclosure "represents a major breakthrough in the long-running case, providing for the first time an apparent confirmation that FBI agents investigating the attacks believed they had uncovered a link between the hijackers and the Saudi Embassy in Washington."
According to Yahoo's news report, the FBI flub "shines a light on the extraordinary efforts by top Trump administration officials in recent months to prevent internal documents about the issue from ever becoming public." Trump's Personal Attorney General, William Barr, acted quickly to declare the information naming the Saudi diplomat a "state secret" that would "harm national security" were it ever to be disclosed.
And kudos to Fox News (yes, you read that right) for airing a follow-up to Yahoo's scoop. [Note: I can't share the video. Sometime in the past 24 hours, it has been removed from the Internet.]
In another video, Isikoff discusses the ramifications of the discovery and names the Saudi official who, according to the FBI's court statement, "tasked al-Thumairy and al-Bagoumi with assisting the hijackers."
I have the diplomat's name but, since Bill Barr might have me arrested if I printed it, just check out Isikoff's video below and listen closely.
Teachers Vie for Zuck's Bucks
Thanks to California's teachers unions, there will be a special measure on the November ballot. The Schools and Communities First Act (better known among activists as 'the billionaires tax') would assure that California's public schools and institutions of higher education (community colleges, CSUs and UCs) will receive an infusion of revenue (estimated at $12 billion per year) to reverse a history of budget reductions and related tuition increases. The measure would also "close commercial property tax loopholes that corporations and wealthy investors use to avoid paying their fair share of property taxes."
Clicking the online link for details reveals that one of the hundreds of education, health, environmental, and business organizations listed as campaign supporters is The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative. So, if the measure is successful, Mark Zuckerberg will have to pay between 1%-1.5% of his billions in taxes to benefit public education. What are the chances San Francisco's Francis Scott Key Elementary might someday be renamed Chan-Zuckerberg Elementary?
UN Call for a 'Global Ceasefire' Displeases D. Trump
On July 1, the UN Security Council finally agreed to back UN chief Antonio Guterres' March 23 call for a Global Ceasefire that would halt all wars and redirect military and economic resources to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. The resolution—drafted by France and Tunisia—calls for "all parties to armed conflicts to engage immediately in a durable humanitarian pause for at least 90 consecutive days" to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Adopting a ceasefire resolution came only after months of talks, largely focused on securing a compromise between two world powers—the United States and China.
The US wanted language blaming China for the coronavirus outbreak. The "exceptionalists" in the Trump administration and also insisted on language clarifying that the 90-day global ceasefire didn’t apply to US wars. That bid for "special treatment" flew in the face of the UN's goal and was soundly rejected, leaving the Trump administration to settle for a "signing statement" in which Trump was allowed to complain about the unfair way the US was treated by the world community.
It's Not Easy Being a Public Citizen These Days
Public Citizen, the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization founded by Ralph Nader, has been targeted by a sudden and disturbing barrage of emailed animosity. "We get a lot of hate mail at Public Citizen," PC president Robert Weissman admits but the recent rash of irrational bile has been off-the-charts. Weissman provided "a sampler of recent tirades "(with the expletives edited out)." • “You are killers and criminals. F*** you.” • “I can’t wait to see you crying in November after Trump is reelected. F*** off and die!” • “TRY TO F*** WITH OUR FREEDOMS & THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.......and ALL HELL WILL BREAK LOOSE!!! WE, THE PEOPLE have been preparing for this for YEARS!!!! BRING IT ON MOTHERF***ERS!!!!! FKN GLOBALIST PIGS!!!! You DELUSIONAL PSYCHOPATHS!!!!! THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION will SOON commence!!”
Trump Should Be Mulling a Mulligan
In 2014, Donald Trump, as a phone-in guest on Fox News, spoke disapprovingly about then-president Barack Obama for playing golf during an Ebola outbreak. But, at the time, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski points out, there were only two Ebola cases in the entire US.
Trump assured Fox News things would be different if he were running things:
“When you’re president, you sorta say, ‘I’m gonna give [golf] up for a couple of years and really focus on the job. It sends the wrong signal.'”
In 2016, then-candidate Trump again pledged: “I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to go play golf.”
According to The Guardian, Trump has hit the links "more than 200 times" since becoming president and he continues to slice, hook, and shank his way across the green, even with 130,000 Americans dead from Covid-19.
GOP & Trump v. Apple, People and Privacy
Republicans have introduced a new bill called the EARN IT Act that will give the Trump Administration the authority to breach essential computer and phone encryption services, increasing the risk of government surveillance and censorship. Under the bill, the Justice Department would be able to force Apple, Facebook and other companies to collaborate in subjecting customers to state surveillance. The GOP bill would also permit government agents to silence dissent by changing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to empower the Executive Branch to dictate the content that would be allowed on websites.
US law enforcement and intelligence agencies already use their surveillance powers to spy on journalists and political activists. Encrypting personal communications to protect privacy will no longer be possible if the EARN IT Act becomes law. Meanwhile, critics charge, the bill would be "leaving hackers and predators free to develop their own encrypted communications."
If Nuclear Warheads Were BBs
We hardly think about how many nuclear weapons now exist on our planet. It's just too hard (and unsettling) to envision. So Ben Cohen (the Ben of "Ben and Jerry") thought he'd address this inconceivable threat by using a jar of pellet-gun BBs.
Here's Ben's True Majority Nuclear Demo. Bare in mind: this only shows how many nuclear weapons the US has. It doesn't depict Russia's equally large nuclear arsenal. Nor does it answer the question: "How many BBs does Bibi have?"
There are eleven City meetings - key meetings are highlighted here
Monday – The City Council Public Safety Committee 10:30 am will be reviewing ordinances and proposals related to policing. Given the content of the Police Review Commission meetings on Police Use of Force this is worth your attention.
Tuesday – The City Council 4 pm meeting is on the telecom ordinance and the 6 pm meeting includes the appeal of the ZAB decision to deny telecom equipment at the Berryman Reservoir.
Wednesday – The Police Review Commission, 7 pm will be discussing and taking action on the Use of Force Policy and making recommendations on the proposals on policing for the July 14 City Council meeting.
Berkeley Police - On July 14, the City Council will be taking up the proposals on policing. All the initiatives are listed under item 18 in the July 14 agenda. The proposed agenda and link for the meeting follows the daily calendar for the coming week.
Covid-19 – In a news report that most Californians probably missed, the Guardian published the Covid-19 healthcare worker death toll: 735. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/17/covid-19-coronavirus-healthcare-workers-deaths The Guardian and Kaiser Health News have joined in a project to identify every US medical worker who dies helping patients during the pandemic. In less than 6 months 735 healthcare workers have lost their lives trying to save the lives of people sick with Covid-19. It is a stark contrast to people complaining about wearing a mask/facial covering when out in public or frolicking on the beach or crowding together inside.
The report doesn’t include the healthcare workers who survive Covid-19 and are left with lingering and life changing complications. There are ferocious complications that can strike: damage to the lungs, kidneys, heart, and neurologic disorders of depression, delirium, decline in cognition to name a few and those don’t just land on the elderly. There is much left to learn about this virus. No one should stride around with an attitude of “I’ll just get Covid-19 and be done with it.” It is not even known if those who have been infected with Covid-19 and are lucky enough to have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic will have lasting immunity https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/06/chinese-study-antibodies-covid-19-patients-fade-quickly
The number of new Covid-19 infections is surging. This is no time to get careless.
Agenda: 2. Ordinance: Public Right to Identify Officers, 3. Resolution: No Police Revolving Door, 4. Safety for All: George Floyd Community Safety Act – Development of a Progressive Police Academy,
Teleconference: 669-900-9128 Meeting ID: 876 6051 2181 (for both meetings)
4 pm Special Council Meeting
Agenda: A. Urgency Ordinance Allowing Temporary Outdoor Uses on Private Property (allow outdoor dining and commerce) 1. Ordinance BMC Chapter 16.10 Installation of Video and Telecommunications Systems (packet 171 pages)
Agenda: 8. Lexipol Policies, 9. Use of Force Policy 10. Discussion of items 18 a.b.c.d.on the July 14 City Council Agenda regarding budget, redistribution of resources, operations and policing of the Berkeley Police Dept for details of the proposals go to council July 14 agenda https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/City_Council__Agenda_Index.aspx
3000 San Pablo – demolish 2-story commercial building, construct 6-story, mixed-use building with 78 dwelling units (including 7 very low income), 52 bicycle space, 43 vehicle, 2320 usable open space, 1248 commercial space, on consent
2511 Channing – establish 4481 sq ft commercial building on 4500 sq ft parcel as mixed-use, convert existing 335 sq ft office on mezzanine and existing 3rd floor 1525 sq ft office to a dwelling unit, on consent
3116 Ellis, Unit C – construct 535 sq ft, 2nd story addition to existing single-family dwelling with existing non-conforming rear yard, on lot that has existing non-conforming lot coverage and density, increasing total number of bedrooms from 5 to 7, on consent,
1367 University – construct 9273 sq ft 4-story 40-unit Group Living Accommodation (GLA) operating as single room occupancy (SRO) residential hotel on vacant parcel
CONSENT: 1-4 2nd reading of ordinances, 5. Contract with Wells Fargo thru 5/31/2023 Resolution authorizing CM to continue unbundling banking services with Wells Fargo, 6. Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) nutrition programs for seniors, 7. Contract add $946,419 and extend thru 6/30/2020 total $1,907,293 with Berkeley Food & Housing Project for Administrative Services for Berkeley Mental Health, 8. Contract add $34,736 thru 6/30/2021total $103,178 with Bay Area Hearing Voices Network for Hearing voices support groups, 9. Local Housing Trust Fund Application, 10. Contract $552,862 includes 15% contingency with Sandstone Environmental Engineering, Inc. for Aquatic Park Central Tide Tubes, 11. Contract add $280,000 total $1,471,342 with Redwood Engineering Construction for James Kenney Park, Picnic and Play Area Renovation, 12. Ordinance declaration of easements between 2009 and 2015 Addison (sublease Berkeley Repertory Theater), 13. Contract $116,635.39 with Shaw Industries for Civic Center Building Carpet Replacement, 14. Contract add $50,000 and extend to 6/30/2023 total $190,000, ACTION: 15. Permanent Local Housing Application $7,761,504 to support local affordable housing and homeless services, 16. Resolution for issuance of bonds by CALPFA for 1717 University rental housing development, 17. ZAB Appeal 1533 Beverly Place, 18. a. Safety for All: George Floyd Act Budget request to Perform Police Call and Response Analysis and to Direct the CM to implement initiatives and reforms that reduce the footprint of the police department (Bartlett), b. Support Redistribution of City Resources and Operations from the Berkeley Police Dept (Davila), c. Referral to City Manager to Re-imagine Policing Approaches to Public Safety Using a Process of Robust Community Engagement (Wengraf), d. Transform Community Safety and Initiate Robust Community Engagement Process (Arreguin Hahn, Bartlett, Harrison), e. BerkDOT Reimagining Transportation for a Racially Just Future, pursue Berkeley Department of Transportation to ensure a racial justice lens in traffic enforcement (Robinson, Droste, Bartlett, Arreguin), 19. Animal Services Contract with the City of Piedmont,
