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News

New: East Bay Parks Are Removing Big Berkeley Dirt Pile from McLaughlin Park

Keith Burbank (BCN)
Wednesday February 24, 2016 - 02:02:00 PM

Workers today are beginning to renovate McLaughlin Eastshore State Park in Berkeley by moving around a 53-foot high dirt pile at the park, East Bay Regional Park District officials said. 

A section of the park called Brickyard Cove will be closed for several months, according to the park district, which manages the park on behalf of the state. 

The work is expected to be completed by late summer. 

The pile of dirt has been at the park for about 10 years and consists of excavated dirt from various construction projects such as California Memorial Stadium at the University of California at Berkeley and sports fields at El Cerrito High School, park district officials said. 

A small portion of the pile contains arsenic and will be taken to a toxic waste center. Part of the remaining pile will be used to create several hills to buffer the park from Interstate Highway 580 and the rest will be left where it is, according to the park district. 

Workers will create a picnic area and views for enjoying the scenery and bird-watching. The rest of the work consists of fixing trails on the hill, removing invasive plants, planting native species and restoring the shoreline, park district spokeswoman Carolyn Jones said. 

Besides moving the dirt, workers will be removing chunks of concrete at the park. 

"It's an old garbage dump," Jones said. 

Wildlife biologists concluded last week that the pile of dirt contains no nesting birds or burrowing owls, park district officials said. 

The park is named after Berkeley resident Sylvia McLaughlin, who died last month at the age of 99. McLaughlin was a founder of Save the Bay, an environmental group whose aim was to save the shore of San Francisco Bay from being filled in. 

 

Copyright © 2016 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. 

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Berkeley Police Release Video of Suspect in 3 Sexual Assaults

Keith Burbank (BCN)
Friday February 19, 2016 - 11:04:00 AM

Police are asking for help identifying a suspect in three sexual assaults that took place in Berkeley in less than a week and have a released a video of the person they want to identify.  

A suspect assaulted a woman at 9:10 p.m. Feb. 11 in the 2500 block of Haste Street, adjacent to People's Park, police said.  

Another woman was assaulted at 11 p.m. on Tuesday near the intersection of Durant Avenue and Ellsworth Street. Twenty minutes later a woman was assaulted in the 2500 block of Benvenue Street, less than a block from People's Park.  

In that assault, the suspect allegedly chased the victim through the University of California at Berkeley's Unit 2 parking lot. The suspect was last seen running west on Haste Street, according to police.  

One of the victims was a student at the University of California at Berkeley, which is near People's Park. Two of the victims were allegedly grabbed from behind when they were assaulted, according to police.  

The suspect appears to be targeting Asian woman.  

The suspect is being described as a black or east Indian man in his early 20s, 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet tall, with curly dark hair or dreadlocks that were pulled back. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and dark-colored pants and a dark-colored jacket, police said.  

The Berkeley Police have posted this video on YouTube: 

 


Opinion

Public Comment

There Is No Regional Housing Shortage: Truth and Consequences

Thomas Lord
Friday February 19, 2016 - 05:30:00 PM

The power to shape social truth is a field of war.

How so? Well: The power of the state and social truth are two sides of the same coin. To influence what is socially regarded as true is to influence the power of the state. For example, does the King's divinity grant him the power of life and death? or is the truth of guilt the realm of a jury of peers? Social truth and state power are co-determinate.

I mention this because in spite of what you might have heard there is no regional housing shortage.

The alleged existence of a Bay Area housing shortage is all rumor and innuendo, part of an enormous and coordinated effort to grab power and real estate. 

First, what are the stakes? What if there IS a regional housing shortage? Then a number of familiar conclusions follow: 

If there is a housing shortage then the state must move to give advantage to developers, to expend public resources to lower the cost of new housing production. 

If there is a housing shortage then the state must move to dedicate publicly controlled land to the use of private developers to swiftly build out. 

If there is a housing shortage sacrifices must be made to further help developers, whether it is lines of sight, blue sky, peaceful enjoyment, local businesses, or tenant protections. 

In summary, if there IS a regional housing shortage a handful of very rich people stand to become a good deal richer taking over public assets for private profit, and disrupting the authority of municipalities to govern themselves. 

As I said, though: there is no regional housing shortage. 

Nearly anyone who has shopped for an apartment or house in these parts, lately, is apt to disagree with me, rather strongly. Still, give me a chance to explain: 

It's true that, today, in this region, we're seeing a form of sprawl grounded in sharply increasing economic segregation. 

People who live at or below the area median incomes are being forced to the periphery of the region, and forced to adopt long commutes. People well above the median income, taking advantage of a growing income gap, are newly segregating traditionally desirable cities. Here and there, a few small pockets of designated affordable housing allow a fraction of the median-and-below households to remain in the urban core. 

The resulting community disruption and degrading of the built environment is not a shortage of supply, but a distortion in how housing is allocated in the region. 

It is also more or less exactly what the regional housing plan produced by ABAG calls for. The plan would call for slightly more, but not much more housing for the non-rich in places like Berkeley. 

Why is this segregation occurring? Largely because the tech and financial industries enjoy enormously high rates of profit compared to the number and wages of their employees. To retain certain employees, those industries pay extraordinarily high wages compared to the regional median. As a consequence, those employees bid up the housing in the traditionally most culturally rich parts of the region. Further, in the case of the tech companies that run private buses throughout the urban core, even their mid-range employees get a considerable subsidy (free transportation, free food, and so forth). Paradoxically, as we know now from not one but two bubbles, this wage disparity causes displacement and crushes the very cultural vibrancy those employees try to buy into. Regional segregation of the highest wage workers from the average wage and low wage households is the inevitable result. 

That is not a housing shortage, that's an income gap. 

Mistakenly treating the income gap as a housing shortage has profound consequences for public policy. 

Proposals such as mitigation fees, inclusionary units, and so on all have in common that they propose to worsen even further the ratio of affordable to exclusively priced units. Worse, these proposals are generally structured with the primary aim of using public money to ensure strong profits for private builders, landlords, etc. 

The economic crisis that is causing this wage gap is not going to go away (short of a complete collapse). It is going to get worse. 

For that reason, if we are serious about housing affordability and a sustainable city, we need to work aggressively on very different policy directions -- such as a huge expansion in the stock of social housing *at all price levels*. 

If the problem is not truly a shortage but rather lies in how housing is allocated along the spectrum of incomes, then social housing, housing owned by the public and allocated by public policy, is the solution. 

At Tuesday's special meeting the Berkeley City Council saw a number of presentations and proposals for housing policy directions. Developer interests presented, as well as a representative of ABAG. They heard from local affordable housing advocates, and even some academic theorists. In the official order of things, the views they offered are taken to be a wide range of opinion, a broad examination of all the issues and possibilities. 

Nothing could be farther from the truth. 

It is at present the official policy of the City of Berkeley to worsen housing affordability in Berkeley through development incentives, incentives to landlords, and backwards-bending tolerance of conditions such as over-crowding of low-income students. Even the most optimistic projections of what can be done with tools like mitigation fees, the HTF, and inclusionary units – even those projects forecast a steady worsening of affordability in Berkeley, for everyone but those above the area median income. 

Worse, every presentation addressed affordable housing needs as a need for subsidy – as a need for taxpayers to ensure high profits to developers, landlords, and lenders on behalf of an ever-smaller number of lucky middle-class subsidized-housing lottery winners. Because all of their reasoning takes profit on the back of residents as the sine qua non of housing policy, all nine council members put forward fundamentally regressive, extractive policy proposals. Instead of building social wealth, all nine members of council aim to hand off social wealth to Big Capital. 

The net effect is that even the voting minority on council is participating in accelerating a process of regional economic segregation, driven by the profit-making opportunities that arise from a widening income gap. Landlords and developers and banks want a taste of the surplus capital accumulating to tech and finance industries. Our Berkeley City Council is fixing to make sure they get it, even on the backs Berkeley's middle class and lower income households. Our council is even embracing the public health disaster that is over-crowding, enshrining it in law and using it as an opportunity to regulate resident behavior rather than to restrain rapacious capital. 

In the coming months I hope to join others in sharing with the council, and with all Berkeleyans, a more serious look at the nature of the housing crisis than that which they heard at Tuesday's meeting. We will see how there is not a supply problem but a discrimination problem. We will see how subsidies aren't needed and how housing windfalls can and should be socialized. We will put the lie to the assertions of ABAG and expose the faulty foundations your academic experts have chosen. 

For now, I ask council members to at least step back and start to admit to themselves, and to the public, that none of the policy options any of them are considering will turn around the affordability crisis in Berkeley.


When It Comes to the Holy Bible,
Both Trump and the Pope Are 'Off the Wall"

Gar Smith
Friday February 19, 2016 - 10:15:00 AM

Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and Pope Francis have recently exchanged barbed comments about what it means to be a "Christian"—especially when it comes to the matter of walls. 

Trump famously promised to protect the US by building a wall on the southern border to keep out unwanted Mexican "drug runners, criminals and rapists." 

Pope Francis, fresh from visiting that border—and lending succor to desperate refugees fleeing poverty and death squads in their own countries— spoke of the Christian duty to "build bridges," not barriers. 

Here are the salient quotes. 

The Pope: "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel. . . . I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that. We must see if he said things in that way and I will give him the benefit of the doubt." 

The Dope: "For a religious leader to question a person's faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian and, as President, I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President . . . . No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man's religion or faith." 

Also from The Dope: "I've never seen anybody that lied as much as Ted Cruz. And he goes around saying he's a Christian. I don't know. You're going to have to really study that." 

If Mr. Trump is claiming that he has been called out for his "religious beliefs," he needs to cite scripture. Just because one claims to be a Christian doesn't mean that everything one spouts is inherently the gospel truth. It needs to be rooted in longstanding religious practice and "biblical truth." 

So what does the Holy Bible actually say about "walls"? 

The most famous wall in the Bible is the one surrounding Jericho—the one that God Almighty helped Joshua destroy. 

Here is the relevant "chapter and verse": 

Joshua 6 

2—Then the Lord said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.  

3—March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days.  

4—Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets.  

5—When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in." 

Postscript: God then went on to direct Joshua to kill every man, woman, child, donkey, cow, and goat in the city and burn Jericho to the ground—but not before grabbing all the gold, silver, iron and bronze. God instructed that all these earthly treasures should be promptly delivered "into the treasury of the Lord's house" (Joshua 6:24). The only residents of Jericho who were spared were Rahab the Prostitute and her family—owing to the fact that Rahab had sheltered two of Joshua's spies. 

Is there a message for Trump's critics in the book of Joshua? 

If so, when planning future acts of public protest, Trump's critics might draw some inspiration from the Biblical story of Jericho and its walls. 

Perhaps, someday soon, we may see critics of the billionaire developer showing up at Trump rallies brandishing trumpets instead of protest signs. 

Maybe if Trump's enemies circled his rallies seven times while blowing on trumpets and then called out to the Lord, they might witness the collapse of Trump's entire presidential campaign! 

(A more likely scenario: Trump's supporters would seize the metal horns and use them to smite the skulls of the protesters.) 

And how does Pope Francis fare when it comes to citing Biblical truth in the defense of bridges over walls? 

Well, the Holy Bible has little-to-nothing to say about bridges, one way of the other. It appears that Pope Francis wasn't quoting the Bible: He was just riffing. 

And it turns out that The Donald (if he actually were to read the family Bible that he totes around as a stage prop) could actually trump the Pope by citing Scripture in defense of his Wall-that-he-would-make-Mexico-pay-for. 

It's right there in the King James Version of the Holy Bible—Zechariah 2:5: 

For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her [Jerusalem] a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. 

This is a verse that's custom-made for The Donald's outsized brand of triumphalism. He could claim that building a wall of fire around America is a God-sent promise and that He, Donald J. Trump, is destined to rule America and "be the glory in the midst of her." 


Affordable Housing Platform
Berkeley Progressive Alliance

Rob Wrenn and Kate Harrison
Thursday February 18, 2016 - 10:34:00 AM

Background

Since 2011, rents for vacant rent controlled apartments have soared by an average of 47% and are unaffordable to many of the people who live and work here. Housing costs impact our city’s vitality and diversity by contributing to the decline of the African American population and fewer lower-income residents and creative people. Berkeley has fallen short of building the new housing called for under regional housing goals and falls woefully short of housing affordable by moderate and low income households. This problem is not unique to Berkeley: Oakland, San Francisco and most of the Bay Area face a housing affordability crisis. We need a comprehensive approach in Berkeley. 

 

Build More Affordable Housing 

 

More housing is needed for people at all income levels with the greatest need for housing affordable to low and moderate income households: 

 

  1. Prioritize affordable housing by streamlining permitting process for projects with at least 50% affordable units.
  2. Increase pre-development funding and provide on request rather than waiting for the city to issue a request for proposal.
  3. Use some Housing Trust Fund money to purchase existing rental housing to keep it affordable and develop ownership opportunities through limited equity coops.
  4. Evaluate publicly owned sites for suitability for housing. Develop the Berkeley Way parking lot and North Berkeley BART air rights for affordable housing.
  5. Build more housing for students at locations close to the UC campus as called for in the Southside Plan. Work with the Berkeley Student Cooperative to expand relatively affordable co-op housing.
 

Increase Funding  

 

Every dollar in the Trust Fund can leverage about $3 in federal or other public funds to build affordable housing. There are four actions the City Council should take to generate more funds for the City’s Housing Trust Fund to pay for additional affordable housing: 

 

  1. Ask voters to increase the business license tax on large landlords in Berkeley; each 1% increase in the tax would bring in $2 to $3 million annually, a small proportion of the estimated $66 million that rents have increased in Berkeley since 2011.
  2. Increase Housing Impact fees to at least $34,000 as recommended by a City-commissioned study and make funds available earlier by requiring developers to pay the fee when the first construction document is issued. If a developer chooses to build housing on site instead of paying the fee, require it to provide 20% affordable units (5 affordable units for every 20 market rate units).
  3. Tax short term rentals like AirBnB and place the money in the Housing Trust Fund.
  4. Allocate 25% of excess Property Transfer Tax Funds to the Housing Trust Fund.
 

Together, these actions could generate $10 million or more and fund creation of around 100 or more affordable units each year through both new construction and acquisition of existing housing. Some of these funds could also be used to create affordable home ownership via limited equity coops and other resident-controlled cooperative housing. 

 

Maintain the Supply of Existing Rental Housing 

 

We also need to insure that currently affordable housing is not taken off market. Ask the Council to: 

 

  1. Strengthen our Demolition Ordinance. Require that each rent controlled unit be replaced one for one with housing permanently affordable to low wage people.
  2. Prohibit conversion of rent controlled units to short term rentals.
  3. Create a City-maintained waiting list for affordable housing units and work to give priority for these units to those who currently live or work in Berkeley.
  4. Continue to limit conversion of rental units to condominiums and increase the conversion fee.
  5. Continue Support for Rent and Eviction Controls.
  6. Lobby for changes to state law to allow rent control for new housing beginning ten years after it’s built.
  7. Monitor Ellis Act evictions after they happen to insure evictions were legal and increase relocation fees for owner move-in evictions.
  8. Regularly monitor habitability of affordable and rent controlled units to insure they are retained in the housing stock, with inspections paid for by the owners.
 

Build Green, Sustainable Buildings 

 

Reduce the generation of greenhouse gases and water use by residential buildings in Berkeley: 

 

  1. Require new multi-family housing in Berkeley to meet a Zero Net Energy standard by 2020. Solar electric and solar thermal systems should become commonplace.
  2. Require best-practice water conservation measures in new buildings.
  3. Require all developers including in the downtown to pay open space impact fees to create and maintain parks, plazas, community gardens, etc.
  4. Require developers to pay transportation service fees to support pedestrian, bicycle and transit improvements and incentives.
  5. Encourage developers to seek GreenTRIP certification from Transform through car-sharing, transit passes for residents, and ample bicycle parking and storage.
  6. Give incentives to homeowners and owners of existing multi-family housing to make energy efficiency and water conservation improvements.

The Facts 

 

In 2010, Berkeley had about 27,183 rental housing units, an increase from 24,512 units in 1990. Of these, about 19,000 are rent-controlled housing units. State law in 1995 replaced Berkeley’s system of strong rent control with vacancy decontrol, which means that landlords can raise their rent to market rate whenever a unit becomes vacant. 

 

Rents are soaring 

 

In the last few years, rents for new tenancies in rent controlled units have risen sharply: 

 

New tenancies 2011 2015 Jan-Sept change 

Studio $ 970 $1,450 + 49.5% 

One bedroom $1,250 $1,800 + 44.0% 

Two-bedroom $1,700 $2,600 + 52.9% 

 

Source: Data in Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, December 14, 2015 Memorandum, Market Medians: January 1999 through September 2015 http:// www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/uploadedFiles/ Rent_Stabilization_Board/Level_3_-_General/3q2015_Market_Medians.pdf 

 

Average rents in new apartment are now much higher than rents in older rent controlled housing. Average rents in new apartment buildings in Berkeley as of 2014 were: 

One-bedroom: $2,537 

Two-bedrooms: $3,434 

 

Source: bae urban economics, City of Berkeley Affordable Housing Nexus Study, March 25, 2015, p. 4. 

 

What is affordable? 

 

Federal guidelines set 30% of household income spent on housing as the limit for determining whether housing is affordable. If more than 30% goes for housing and utilities, then it’s not affordable. 

 

Many tenant households in Berkeley have modest incomes. 82% of renter households have income below $100,000 a year, making area rents for even a studio unaffordable: 

 

Median household income, renters: $ 38,539 Affordable monthly rent: $963 

 

Median income of renters is even lower in South and West Berkeley. In South Berkeley, median tenant household incomes are under $38,000 a year. 

 

Source: 2010-2014 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, S2503, Financial Characteristics, data by Census tracts and for the city as a whole. South Berkeley defined as Census tracts 4233, 4234, and 4240. 

 

What kind of housing is currently being built in Berkeley? 

 

Berkeley’s General Plan calls for the City to create 6,400 permanently affordable units for low- and very-low-income households. Between 2007 and 2014, only 22 units were produced for people with moderate incomes, achieving only 4% of Regional Fair Share Goal. Only 87 low income units and 76 very low income units were built in Berkeley, achieving only 21% and 23% respectively of Berkeley’s regional fair share goal. 

 

More than 1,000, or 84%, of housing units produced in Berkeley were affordable only to people with above moderate incomes (income greater than 120% of the area median income, or income in excess of $112,200 in 2015 in Alameda County). 

 

Source: City of Berkeley 2015-2023 Housing Element. For area median income: California Department of Housing and Community Development Division of Housing Policy Development, “State Income Limits for 2015”, April 15, 2015. 

 

Many families pay more rent than they can afford 

 

Only a fraction of low income families in Berkeley receive Section 8 housing vouchers or live in permanently affordable housing. Of Berkeley’s nearly 50,000 housing units, only about 2,000 are subsidized or inclusionary units. Up to 2,000 people in Berkeley have Section 8 or Shelter Plus Care vouchers. 

 

Now, 53.5% of Berkeley’s renters are currently paying 30% or more or their income in rent. A City’s Rent Board survey of tenants in rent-controlled housing in 2009 found that 26% of non-student tenants were paying more than 50% of their income in rent, up from 20% in 1998. About 3,400 Berkeley households are considered “extremely rent burdened”. Rents have soared since 2009; those paying over 50% of income in rent have also increased. 

 

Students, who make up about one-third of the City’s tenant population also face a difficult situation. Even with a big jump in UC fees, many students’ housing costs are still higher than their fees. This contributes to their debt when they leave school. Even though many students double up, they still pay high rent even when they share rooms. 

 

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010-2014 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates; Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, Rent Stabilization and the Berkeley Rental Housing Market 15 Years after Vacancy Decontrol, January 28,2013; Stephen Barton, Ph.D., and former City of Berkeley Housing director, “Berkeley’s Affordable Housing Crisis and What We Can Do About It”, PowerPoint presentation for November 22 teach-in]. 

 

What is the City Council doing to address the housing affordability crisis? 

 

At the moment, not much. 

 

The Council Rejected a Modest Budget Request 

 

In April, 2015, the City Council rejected a proposal from Councilmembers Anderson, Arreguin and Worthington to add $1 million to the Housing Trust Fund as part of the current budget. Funds are available: the City collected close to $164 million in discretionary revenue in 2015, up from $140 million five years earlier. 

 

… and Discounted the Housing Fee to Benefit a Big Developer 

In April 2015, the City Council continued discounting the housing impact fee to $20,000, down from the $28,000 approved in 2012. They took this action just as the largest housing project ever proposed in Berkeley was being considered and despite clear evidence that rents, and developer revenues, are soaring. Councilmembers Anderson, Arreguin and Worthington dissented. The City Council still has not acted to update the fee based on a March 2015 study recommending a $34,000 per unit fee and noting that construction of 100 market rate units creates demand for 25 additional low and moderate income units. 

 

Source (revenue) City of Berkeley Adopted Biennial Budget, Fiscal Years 2016 & 2017, p. 40; for HTF budget referral: April 7 City Council Agenda, item 33, “Budget Referral: Housing Trust Fund”; for Council vote on impact fees: http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_27918486/berkeley-council-extends-discount-affordable-housing-impact-fee http:// www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ Clerk/City_Council/2015/04_Apr/City_Council__04-07-2015_-_Regular_Meeting_Annotated_Agenda.aspx; sources: http://www.fundaffordablehousing.org [site under construction]; bae urban economics, City of Berkeley Affordable Housing Nexus Study, March 25, 2015 

 

Housing Trust Fund: Running Near Empty 

 

The amount needed to complete projects already identified by affordable housing developers by 2018 is as much as $ 36.8 million. As a result of the Council’s failure to act, the City has relatively little money available in the Housing Trust Fund. As of November 5, 2015, the Trust Fund had a balance of only $3,067,578. 

 

Source: “Below Market Rate Housing and Housing Trust Fund Program Status” prepared by city staff for City Council Work Session, December 1, 2015 (item 03). Funding Strategies: http://www.fundaffordablehousing.org 

 

Building it Green 

 

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) adopted the California Long Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan, calling for all new residential construction in California to be Zero Net Energy (ZNE) by 2020. A ZNE building produces as much energy as it consumes during a year through energy efficiency and clean, on-site renewable power generation, typically solar photovoltaics. 

 

The CPUC and at the California Energy Commission staff’s New Residential Zero Net Energy Action Plan 2015-2020 makes the state’s 2020 ZNE goal possible. Berkeley requires new buildings downtown to be LEED gold, but this can be achieved without any on-site energy generation and does not necessarily lead to much reduction in the building’s carbon footprint. Very few new Berkeley buildings have any significant solar energy component (Oxford Plaza downtown and Helios Corner on University are notable exceptions). 

 

New development can also help achieve the City’s Climate Action Plan goals if buildings are located near transit and residents received encouragement and incentives to take transit, walk and bike; Transform’s Green Trip certification can help with that. 

 

Sources: http://www.californiaznehomes.com http://www.sahahomes.org/properties/helios-corner 

http://www.rcdev.org/documents/OxfordProjectFactSheetApril2009Final.pdf 

http://www.transformca.org/landing-page/greentrip 

 

Drafted for the BPA by Rob Wrenn and Kate Harrison 

 

Berkeley Progressive Alliance Join us on Facebook http://berkeleyprogressivealliance.org/ 

Address: PO Box 2961, Berkeley, CA 94702 Email: berkeleyprogressivealliance@gmail.com


Obama to Supreme Court???

Armin Wright
Friday February 19, 2016 - 10:17:00 AM

I almost always find your editorials enlightening. However, I am aghast at your suggestion that Obama would be a superb Supreme Court justice and should maneuver himself into the position.

Not only would it be laughable for Obama to manipulate the nomination process by resigning in time to allow Biden to nominate him (Obama) to the court, as you suggested in your editorial of 2/12/16, but there is little likelihood that he would be confirmed unless the Democrats had taken control of the Senate in the prior election. Given the wholesale voter disenfranchisement and suppression that has taken place over the last decade by many Republican Secretaries of State (to little notice by Obama), that is an unlikely outcome of the 2016 election. I, as a lifelong Democrat, would be ashamed of the party for supporting such a maneuver. (I'm already ashamed of many of the actions of the Democratic Party - no need to add to my misery.) 

Moreover, having not gone to battle to get a really good nominee confirmed by the Senate in the intervening eleven months, Obama would have tossed yet another hunk of raw meat to the opposition wolves. Not that I expect Obama to use his bully pulpit to battle hard for a good nominee. That doesn't seem to be part of his game plan. Of course, any good nominee (or, for that matter, any Obama nominee) will be vehemently opposed by the current Senate, so might as well put up a nominee with really high qualifications and let the opposition try to defeat him/her on the merits. 

I CAN imagine a better choice. I strongly agree with Alan Grayson's viral petition recommending Elizabeth Warren as an excellent nominee to the court and think that her credentials for the position are superior to Obama's. She operates on strong principles (unlike Obama, in my opinion). She has a law degree, taught law for many years and has received many honors. She came out of a working class family and clearly understands the social and economic schisms in our country and has worked diligently to reduce them. She has a proven track record as a writer. She is a persuasive speaker. And, as you say, she is, "Everybody's favorite senator," (with the exception, of course, of Wall Street denizens and those who work diligently to maintain and expand the schisms).


Policy-Makers Need to Relax

Romila Khanna
Friday February 19, 2016 - 05:32:00 PM

All of us need time to relax by playing. I think even our politicians need to play to think clearly about national problems. We know that playing has a positive effect on our immune system. It is anti-stress medicine for free.  

Playing cards, or engaging in other indoor or outdoor sports, we will benefit ourselves physically and psychologically. We will feel more relaxed. Play is a mental stimulant. It stimulates our memory cells and our way of thinking. When we play, we use our imagination. We become more creative and are able to solve problems which previously defeated us. 

Play changes our style of interacting with others. Playing with others fosters social skills, teaches us the value of cooperation, and shows us how to share scarce resources. We learn how to learn from disappointment and loss. 

I see young children playing everyday. I notice them happily solving problems, creating new games, and making new rules for their game. I thought our three branches of government can address issues with more thoughtfulness if all of them became like children and learned to resolve and compromise over pressing problems with clear minds. 

All policy makers should get a break from their daily routine. The breaks will deepen their empathy for all those who lack the basic amenities of food, clothing, and shelter. I think all people should have healthy food, secure abode and free education. 

If we take care of our human wealth, we will solve other problems better. Let us think about keeping our government relaxed to understand public policies properly. Let the low income and lower middle classes also move forward and keep America advancing in every area.


Columns

SENIOR POWER: Women’s History

Helen Rippier Wheeler, pen136@dslextreme.com
Friday February 19, 2016 - 10:21:00 AM

My editor says ninety is the new seventy. American author, abolitionist and social critic Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) wondered why somebody doesn’t wake up to the beauty of old women.  

March is Women’s History Month. What! – Yet another month! And, what’s that got to do with senior citizens? If you have to ask, you are indeed power-less. Most seniors are women. Most low-income seniors are women, the number of unrepresented nursing home residents is growing exponentially as the population ages, and women veterans report lower levels of self-perceived health, life satisfaction, social support, physical function and quality of life. Working to Form a More Perfect Union: Honoring Women in Public Service and Government is the 2016 Women’s History Month theme. Names of California Bay Area women making current history in public service and government readily come to mind.  

Not so everywhere. International Women's Day is March 8. Its theme this year is Pledge for Parity. Yet another euphemism for equality and gender equity, but at least it’s expressed in the present tense. The 2015 World Economic Forum in its Global Gender Gap Report estimated it would take 117 years to achieve global gender parity in the workplace. One hundred and seventeen years until companies and governments are equally led by men and women.  

xxx 

Sophie Hahn has announced that she will run for Berkeley’s 5th District City Council seat. 

Beginning in June 2012, an invitation was included in each Senior Power column: All candidates for election were welcome to share statements of their accomplishments and plans vis a vis senior citizens and elders. And I sent individual invitations to candidates for Berkeley Mayor and City Councilmembers representing districts 2, 3, 5 and 6 in the November 6, 2012 General Municipal Election. I received one statement. From Sophie Hahn, candidate for City Council, District 5, who was running against incumbent Laurie Capitelli.  

None of the other, thirteen mayoral and councilor candidates provided statements although computerized acknowledgments of receipt of Senior Power’s invitation came from the offices of candidates Bates, Capitelli, Wengraf, and Worthington. 

Sophie Hahn wrote (in 2012): 

“The diversity among Berkeley’s seniors reflects the diversity of our entire population. There is a wide variety of backgrounds and life experiences, of family and economic status. Berkeley needs to ensure that all seniors have adequate housing to meet their changing needs, and services to support them.  

Much of the housing built in the last few years in Berkeley has targeted our student population. I will work for more housing diversity, with developments appropriate for seniors and for families, close to public transportation and other amenities. Funding for affordable housing has been severely restricted at the State and Federal levels, so it’s up to local communities to find ways to support affordable housing. Council recently rejected an approach to obtaining funding for such housing – without even studying the proposal.  

As a result of ongoing budget deficits and less funding for AC Transit, fares have gone up and services have been cut. This has a disproportionate impact on seniors who often rely on public transit. I will advocate for increased funding for transit and against cuts that have a negative impact on seniors.  

Our parks, libraries, pools and other public amenities are important for all, and seniors in particular. I support the refurbishment of Berkeley’s pools, including the warm pool, and believe that with good management they can become profit centers for the City. As a member of the Public Library Foundation Board and Chair of the North Berkeley Committee for the Branch Libraries Campaign, I am actively involved in the refurbishment and expansion of our libraries. I believe a community must provide safe and well maintained parks, recreation facilities and other amenities to support the health – and happiness – of all residents, including seniors.  

Cuts to senior programs in Berkeley, including the closing of the West Berkeley Senior Center, are troubling. Cuts in critical safety net programs at the State Level – in-home supportive services and services that help the disabled – compound the problems seniors face. With tight budgets at the local level as well, the need for good government practices, pro-active, fact-based fiscal management and strategic resource allocation becomes even more important.  

Seniors value good government and good financial management, and want to know that tax dollars are wisely spent. But we cannot balance our budget on the backs of seniors and other vulnerable populations. We need to increase transparency around the city’s financial predicament, clarify our priorities and pull the community together to address our common future.” 

xxx 

Health outcomes differ between veteran and non-veteran women as they age. Women veterans may have been more likely to engage in such health behaviors as smoking, alcohol use, and poor diet, and this, combined with exposure to hazardous environments and mental and physical stress, may have limited their ability to adapt to repeated stresses over a lifetime. 

The Gerontologist is a peer-reviewed publication of the Gerontological Society of America, the nation's oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. A new supplemental issue contains 13 articles by Veterans Affairs researchers and colleagues looking at differences in aging and mortality between veteran and non-veteran women. The findings are derived from the Women's Health Initiative, a long-term study funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and begun in 1991. The study included more than 3,700 women veterans among nearly 162,000 postmenopausal women from 40 U.S. centers. ["Journal shares discoveries on women veterans' long-term health outcomes" (American Assn. for the Advancement of Science, Jan. 19, 2016).]  

Women veterans in the Women’s Health Initiative reveal women who face special challenges as they grow older. With women choosing to serve our country in greater numbers and expanded roles including combat, it is essential to learn about their healthcare needs after leaving service.  

Declines in cognitive function over time were greater in the veteran group. Women veterans experienced higher hip-fracture rates than non-veterans. They smoked more and were exposed to more passive smoke, resulting in greater lung cancer risk. And they experienced more cancer, relative to non-veterans, whereas those serving during or after Vietnam had more traumas from motor vehicle accidents or other causes. 

The researchers said the findings, on the whole, suggest that many women veterans could benefit from programs promoting physical activity, social connections, healthy weight, and smoking cessation. They also stressed the importance of evaluation for depression.  

Read more about senior women making today’s history: 

"Over 50, Female and Jobless Even as Others Return to Work," by Patricia Cohen (New York Times, Jan. 2, 2016). 

"Erica Jong: 'Women are not allowed to have passion at 60'," an extract of Fear of Dying, by Erica Jong (Irish Times [Dublin, Leinster], Jan. 11, 2016). 

"Women over 50? Help not wanted," by Paul Solman (US Public Broadcasting Service_Newshour, Jan. 14, 2016).  

"The Gender Pay Gap Haunts Women in Retirement Too," by Mark Miller (Reuters via Money [New York, New York], Feb. 4, 2016). 

"How (actress) Carrie Fisher is leading the Pro-Ageing Revolutionaries," by Katy Young (Daily Telegraph [London, UK], Jan. 1, 2016).  

"Having more children slows down aging process -- study," (American Association for the Advancement of Science, Jan.7, 2016). 

"Regular Mammograms Worthwhile for Elderly Women," (HealthDay, Jan. 7, 2016).  

"Europeans urge employers to ease menopause for women," by Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health, Jan. 12, 2016).  

"Having More Kids May Slow Mom's Aging, Study Says," (HealthDay, Jan.13, 2016). 

"Pelvic Exams Common Among Healthy Older Women" (HealthDay News, Feb. 2, 2016). 

Finally, take a look at "'Granny pods' offer nursing home amenities at home," by Deborah Linz (WKEF Channel 22 [Dayton, Ohio] TV News, Feb. 10, 2016). Offensive? Commendable? Depends on several things… 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


THE PUBLIC EYE:Hillary’s 5 Problems

Bob Burnett
Friday February 19, 2016 - 10:12:00 AM

Since April, when Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy, I’ve expected her to be the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. Only recently, given the strong showing of Bernie Sanders, have I doubted she might prevail. Meanwhile, the fierce competition for the Democratic nomination has revealed five problems with Hillary’s campaign. 

1. There’s not a compelling narrative. I assume that Secretary Clinton is superbly qualified to be President and believe it would be a good thing for a woman to be elected to the oval office. Nonetheless, I’ve been disappointed in her campaign, particularly in the absence of a compelling narrative explaining why she should be elected. At the conclusion of the January 17th debate, Clinton offered, “I want to be a president who takes care of the big problems and the problems that are affecting the people of our country everyday.” 

This marshmallow statement contrasts with Sanders solid stance: “This campaign is about is creating a process for a political revolution… bringing tens of millions of people together to demand that we have a government that represents all of us.” 

It’s a contrast in “elevator speeches.” Bernie Sanders gets on board an elevator, introduces himself to a voter, and says, “I’m running for president to fix a broken system; to give power back to the people.” Sanders leaves and Hillary Clinton gets on board, introduces herself, and says, what? “Vote for me because I’ m the most qualified candidate.” “I’d be for the first women president.” ??? 

As was the case in 2008, Clinton doesn’t have a compelling elevator speech. 

If Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, she’s going to have to convince independent voters. (She has no chance to convert Republicans.) She’ll have to develop a compelling narrative. 

2. Voters are angry and Hillary doesn’t seem to get it. If everything in America was terrific, if everyone was happy, then Hillary Clinton would be the odds-on favorite to win the presidency (if she wins the Democratic nomination). But that’s not the case. 

64 percent of voters feel that America is on the wrong track. There’s no agreement on whose fault this is: 84 percent of Democrats approve of the job Obama is doing, 86 percent of Republicans disapprove, and Independents aren’t sure – 42 percent approve of Obama and 44 percent disapprove. 

Therefore, while Hillary Clinton may win the Democratic nomination by wrapping herself in the Obama administration this strategy won’t work in the general election. In fact, most voters prefer an outsider candidate: Sander, Trump, or Cruz. 

3. Voters don’t find Hillary authentic. One of the reasons that Bernie Sanders did better than expected in Iowa and won New Hampshire is that those voters found him to be more compelling than Hillary Clinton in small gatherings. He appeared to be more authentic

For the record, I’ve met Clinton and she seemed a smart, energetic, nice person. However, The New York Times reported that among New Hampshire voters who cared about honesty and trustworthiness, “91 percent chose Sanders and only 5 percent chose Hillary Clinton.” 

4. Voters believe that Hillary Clinton got money from Wall Street to defend the interests of the one percent. Clinton has admitted that she received $675,000 from Wall Street speaking engagements. Given that most voters view Wall Street unfavorably and coupled with the fact that Clinton is seen as untrustworthy, this is a problem for Independent voters. 

5. Secretary Clinton has a unique set of characteristics that Donald Trump can take advantage of. If Trump is the Republican nominee, he will no doubt wage a campaign against Clinton that’s similar to the campaigns he’s used to bring down his Republican opponents (Bush, Cruz, and Rubio). He will be negative and dramatically inaccurate. 

Trump will accuse Clinton of being part of the Washington establishment. He will say that she is beholden to special interests, particularly Wall Street, and relied upon lobbyist and Super PAC money to get where she is. Trump will claim he is the only outsider in the race and, therefore, he is the “change” candidate, 

Trump will claim President Obama’s Administration has been a disaster. He will say Obama has divided Americans, made the military weaker, and burdened us with an inefficient healthcare system. Trump will claim that Hillary Clinton is running as Obama’s third term and America cannot afford that. He will repeat his main claim, “America is losing, I can make it great again.” 

While Trump will claim that America is losing to China, he will focus on the situation in the Middle East. Trump will note that Hillary Clinton voted to go to war in Iraq and claim this vote led to the present disaster in the Middle East. He will say she supported the treaty with Iran, which he sees as a disaster. He will claim Clinton made us less safe, which he will do something about by building his infamous wall. 

Trump will wage an unrelenting, unapologetic negative war on Hillary Clinton. 

The question is whether Hillary, who over the years has demonstrated her toughness, is tough enough to bring down Trump. 


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


DISPATCHES FROM THE EDGE: Irish Voters to Grade Austerity

Conn Hallinan
Friday February 19, 2016 - 10:01:00 AM

What looked like a smooth path to electoral victory for the Irish government has suddenly turned rocky, and the Fine Gael-Labour coalition is scrambling to keep its majority in the 166-seat Dail. A series of missteps by Fine Gael’s Taoiseach [prime minister] Enda Kenney, and a sharply critical report of the 2008 Irish “bailout,” has introduced an element of volatility into the Feb. 26 vote that may end in a victory by an interesting, if fragile, coalition of leftists and independents. 

The center-right Fine Gael and center-left Labour Party currently hold 99 seats, but few observers see them maintaining their majority. Fine Gael has dropped from 30 percent several months ago to 26 percent today, and Labour is only polling at 9 percent. That will not translate into enough seats to control the Dail, and putting together a ruling coalition will be tricky, particularly when polls indicate that the independent bloc that has picked up 3 percent and is now the number one vote getter. In general, the independents are left or left-leaning. 

The country is in the middle of an economic “boom,” but that is a relative term. Ireland is still reeling from years of European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) imposed austerity that doubled the rate of childhood poverty and saddled working people with onerous taxes, painful rate hikes and high unemployment. Wages have fallen 15 percent. Since 2008, almost 500,000 Irish—the majority of them young and educated—have emigrated from the country in search of jobs. 

The government’s trouble began in December, when torrential rains swamped parts of the country and Kenny slow response to the disaster angered rural voters. Flood victims blamed the government for failing to invest in flood control, an infrastructure improvement that fell victim to the austerity regime. 

Then the Fine Gael-Labour coalition was hit with a double whammy: a report by in-house auditors for the European Union and an Irish parliamentary study of the collapse of Irish banks from 2008 to 2010. The EU study found that the European Central Bank (ECB) had pressured the Irish government not to impose losses on “senior bondholders” and, instead, put the burden on taxpayers. According to the parliamentary study, the ECB threatened to withdraw emergency support for Irish banks—thus crashing the economy—if wealthy bondholders were forced to take losses. All of this came as news to most of the Irish. 

The center-right Fianna Fail Party was in power when the great crash came in 2008, a crash that had nothing to do with government spending or debt, but was instead, the result of real estate speculation by banks and financial institutions. Irish land values jumped 800 percent, which should have warned the banks that a bubble was inflating. But the bondholders, speculators and banks did nothing because they were making enormous amounts of money. When the bubble popped, Irish taxpayers were forced to pick up the $67 billion tab. 

Fianna Fail was crushed in the 2011 election, losing two-thirds of their deputies, and Fine Gael-Labour took over. 

Part of the government’s problem is that for the past five years it has been saying that it had no choice but to enforce the savage austerity regime of the ECB, but it is now trying to take credit for the recent improvement of the economy. 

The coalition’s mantra has been “stay the course”, good times are ahead. The term the government is using is “fiscal space,” or the estimated amount of money that will be available for investment if Ireland continued its economic recovery. According to Fine Gael that figure would be $12 billion between 2017 and 2021. 

First, no one understood “fiscal space,” a term used by the IMF. Even Deputy Prime Minister Joan Burton, a Labour Party leader, called it “a new kind of ‘F’ word” and said voters hadn’t a clue what it meant. Asked to define it, Kenny said the Irish voters wouldn’t understand it, a statement that managed to insult everyone. The government subsequently knocked the figure down to $10 billion, and the opposition said it was more like $8 billion. 

And while Fine Gael is taking credit for the economy, critics are pointing out that it wasn’t austerity, but a fall in world oil prices and a decline in the value of the euro that favors Ireland’s export industry, that got the economy going. 

Finally Kenny muffed a question about whether Fine Gael might consider a coalition with Fianna Fail because the Labour Party was dropping in the polls and might not hold its 33 seats. This enraged Labour, and Kenny had to mend fences and pledge that Fine Gael would never go into a government with Fianna Fail. 

In short, the government is looking inept, and it is taking fire for its shift from “we had no choice in applying the austerity” to “we take all the credit for the current situation.” Fintan O’Toole, the sharp-tongued columnist for the Irish Times and author of “Ship Of Fools,” chronicling the financial greed that led to the 2008 meltdown, wrote of the government, “If you had no power, you can claim no credit; if you did have power, you have to account for how unjustly you used it.” 

Behind the cover of “It’s not our fault,” the government cut funds for caregivers, threw people off of National Health, cut support for the disabled, support for education, and did nothing about rising homelessness. As O’Toole points out, the improvements in the economy were because of oil prices, low interest rates and the falling euro, all “entirely outside the control of the Irish government.” 

In any case, the country is still deeply in debt and, while the jobless rate is no longer 15 percent, it is still just below 10 percent. 

The Dail is a motley affair, with a host of small parties and a bloc of independents. Currently Fine Gael has 66 seats and Labour 33. The center-right Fianna Fail (that inched up slightly in recent polls) has 21, and the leftist Sinn Fein has 14. The latter dropped three points in the poll from 20 percent to 17 percent. Other left parties include the Social Democrats, the Anti-Austerity Party, and there is a mix of mainly leftists in the independent bloc. The centrist Greens are showing some growth, as is the small rightist Renva Party. 

Right now various stripes of the left hold 41 seats, a figure that is likely to go up in the coming elections. To control the Dail requires 80 seats, but if the independents do well, Sinn Fein holds its own, and Labour jumps ship, an anti-austerity coalition is possible. 

In the end it may be a hung parliament, with no bloc of parties able to cobble together an effective government. Kenny may double cross Labour and join with Fianna Fail. But whoever takes over, the policies of austerity have been deeply discredited during this election and anyone who tries to “stay the course” is in for stormy weather. 

 


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

 


ON MENTAL ILLNESS: The Devastating Effects of a Relapse of Psychosis

Jack Bragen
Friday February 19, 2016 - 10:25:00 AM

A relapse of psychosis can be precipitated by a traumatic or overwhelming event or series of events, can occur simply due to the nature of the illness, or can occur because of stopping medication either against medical advice or with the blessing of a well-intentioned but mistaken psychiatrist.  

Once the symptoms are up and running, it is likely that the relapsing individual, if they haven't already stopped medication, will. If medication taken for a number of years is stopped, there is a backlash in which it seems as if the brain has been inundated with a bad reaction of tsunami-like force. Symptoms and other stimuli flood the brain, and the individual is in for a very, very rough ride. 

Stopping psych medications is not the same thing as a heroin or alcohol detox, because you don't find sobriety on the other side. Instead, you find that the illness progresses unchecked; it worsens to the point where you might never fully get back your faculties, including when medication is reinstated.  

It is important to prevent relapses of psychosis. I have had three relapses, and after each, it took longer than the previous relapse to get back to square one--in which I felt like things were fairly normal. It takes literally years to regain basic functioning of the mind. If the mind isn't working right, nothing is working.  

The mind defines your basic experience of life. If you have a brain that malfunctions in its ability to be aware of the environment, in its ability to be self-aware, and in its ability to communicate with itself, this means the basic experience of life is shattered.  

Mental illnesses are often very profound disorders in the brain. The tools we currently have to view the brain of a psychotic person are thermal imaging and Magnetic Resonance Imaging. This does not tell us, in a living person, what is happening on a cellular or a synaptic level. For that, scientists need a deceased person. Information from a deceased person's brain may not tell us enough. We have limited understanding of what happens dynamically in the brain of a psychotic person.  

We know that something goes wrong--the individual is unable to adapt to the basic necessities of life, the mind has split off from what we consider reality, and the individual could be gravely disabled, violent, or both.  

My observation of my own mind is that I see a misrouting of information flow. Data that should remain in the subconscious has risen to the level of the conscious mind. Additionally, wiring that shouldn't be there bypasses and short-circuits necessary processing.  

Flawed assumptions are instantly accepted and incorporated, and the erroneous products of these assumptions, delusions, become the new assumptions. Once delusions become assumptions, the brain creates even more distorted delusions in consciousness, and these in turn become assumptions.  

This faulty information flow damages the brain. This happens because certain areas of the brain are overdriven and do not have a chance to recuperate, while other areas of the brain go unused.  

Antipsychotic medications make the synapses more inhibited. This often alleviates the bad information flow, but it also affects other aspects of mental processing, making it difficult to do things that most people probably take for granted.  

Over the years, I have adapted to being medicated. I have put a great deal of effort into life, and this has had a good effect on my brain condition. For many, it seems hard to make an effort while taking psychiatric medication. However, it can begin with making an effort to make an effort. 

Taking medication doesn't change who you are. People exist on multiple levels, and we are not consciously aware of many of these levels. People exist on a deeper level than what can be found in the brain. You are not your brain; you are the individual who uses your brain. If one's brain has problems, it is not a reflection on character.  

The brain is our portal to physical existence. If the brain isn't working, we have limited ability to be who we truly are.  

If you have had one or more relapses, do not be discouraged. Instead, make a commitment that you will try to prevent it from happening again; usually this is achieved through cooperation with treatment. Eventually, the brain's condition can improve. But don't wait for that to happen before you begin doing things that bring you enjoyment.


Arts & Events

A War: Truth from an Oscar-nominated Film: War Is a Bore—and It Can Be a Trial

Gar Smith
Friday February 19, 2016 - 05:34:00 PM

Opens February 19 at San Francisco's Embarcadero Cinema and February 26 at Berkeley's Landmark Shattuck

Director/writer Tobias Lindholm's Academy-Award-Nominated Best Foreign Language Film, A War, captures both the rigors of war and the mundane, crippling consequences for war's survivors. Filmed in the outlands of Turkey, Lindholm serves up scenes that duplicate the Afghanistan we have glimpsed in nightly news reports. But the film goes beyond the battlefield to show a war's impacts—both domestic and political—back home. Like A Few Good Men and The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, Lindholm's tale starts in a soldier's dirty world and ends in a sterile courtroom.

This may be the slowest-moving war film in the history of cinema. Which is a good thing. Most war films focus on the frantic scramble of combat when a good part of a soldier's experience involves downtime—sitting, waiting, pondering, fearing, regretting. Lindholm's pacing provides viewers with sufficient time for inward reflection and evaluation about a soldier's life—line of work that is often little more than a demanding form of drudgery, but one that carries the risk of sudden, life-changing injury or violent, bloody death.

 

 

 

Director Lindholm reportedly cast actual Danish soldiers and real Afghan civilians (both villagers and refugees), as well as Taliban fighters, in his film. In a video interview with the New York Times, Lindholm describes how he aimed for authenticity by inviting professional snipers to join him in the post-production. He even allowed them to "edit" a scene involving a long-distance "kill." 

It's an important scene, since it depicts the legal "niceties" of modern, nuanced war. In this case, a Taliban fighter recovers a buried IED but the snipers cannot open fire while he is merely digging up the bomb. They need to wait until he's holding it in his hands. At this point, the target is judged to be acting with "hostile intent" and can be gunned down—by hidden gunmen hiding behind a pile of rocks a quarter-mile away. 

A "Show of Force" Slowly Falters 

A War details how the daily work of this forlorn band of brothers requires them to "show their presence" by roving through Afghanistan's isolated, tree-less, dry-dirt provinces dressed in sweltering battle gear, hauling backpacks and vests weighed down with ammo and water jugs—and always cradling high-powered rifles. 

These men are perfect targets for any Taliban fighters that want to hunker in the landscape and fire off a few potshots. Easier still for the local fighters to simply sit back and wait for a foreign soldier to stumble across a buried bomb—a weapon that is virtually guaranteed to leave a human body in three pieces. 

A War provides one clear sign that US presence in Afghanistan has had a lasting influence: The Danish soldiers have all adopted the phrase, "Fuck, man!" 

Early in the film, "Denmark's finest" vent their frustrations and challenge the value of these seemingly futile—and dangerous—"displays of strength" that require them to creep around villages where, as the locals tell them: "The Taliban run away whenever you show up. But they always come back at the night." 

When a team muscles its way into the home of a poor Afghan family with rifles drawn and their nerves on edge, all they find is a desperate father whose young daughter is lying in a bed, whimpering from the pain of a burned and infected arm. And all the team's medic can do is offer to "rinse the wound with water" and rewrap it in military-grade gauze. 

Company commander Claus Pederson (Pilou Asbaek) is a powerful presence on the battlefront, alternately leading and comforting "his boys." Asbaek brings a brooding profile to the role, thanks, in part, to a muscular, furrowed brow that suggests he starts every morning with 100 eyebrow push-ups. (While Clark Gable had a cleft chin, Asbaek has a cleft forehead.) 

But, when it comes to his role as a long-distance father, the daily cross-continental phone calls to Denmark don't give his struggling family much comfort or support. 

Abandoned at home, Claus' wife Maria (Tuva Novotny) has to deal with three children—one adorable, one sullen and one deeply troubled. The oldest boy has a penchant for starting fights, ignoring orders, challenging his mother and biting other kids. 

The film captures the insanity of imposed wars. Civilians are confronted and threatened by nervous soldiers who grow angry when their commands are not instantly obeyed. (Remember, they are shouting commands in Danish!) 

"At the end of the day, our job is to get our men back all in one piece," Claus insists. The primary goal is to "protect your brothers," not to protect civilians. 

From Afghan Trails to Danish Trials 

The defining conflict comes one day when Pederson and his team find themselves trapped inside a small village compound, under fire, with a fellow soldier bleeding to death. Desperate to protect his men and secure an opening for a medevac chopper, Claus calls in an airstrike. 

There's an explosion that covers the soldiers in sand and pebbles as they hover protectively over the body of their injured comrade. He is evacuated to a hospital. No Danish lives are lost. 

Claus explains his situation with a phrase that has been recited, used, and misused by soldiers in every century that has seen war: "I had to do something." 

Claus has acted bravely and responsibly. Or so it seems. 

Tragically, it turns out that the airstrike killed a number of civilians, including children. Pederson discovers the mistake when he enters a demolished room and finds the bodies of dead children covered with dust and blood. Pederson is stunned by the sight of the two bare feet of one dead child. 

Some days later, army investigators interrogate Claus and inform him that he will be heading home to rejoin his family—and to stand trial for war crimes. 

The besieged soldiers assumed the targeted building was filled with Taliban. But assumptions are not enough. Under the laws of war, a commander needs to have "PID"—positive identification of the enemy—before calling in a lethal strike. 

This can be a difficult choice in a situation where bullets are flying at you and cutting through the bodies of your men. 

The film returns to Denmark. Claus is reunited with his family but he has to spend each day in a courtroom facing a panel of grim-faced judges—and the prospect of a multi-year prison sentence. 

The courtroom proceedings inevitably seep into the Pederson's shaky home life. One night, as Claus is helping Maria put his children to bed, his daughter asks a question that no father should ever have to answer. 

The final image in the film is especially haunting. After Claus has tucked in his oldest son, he turns back and freezes. He finds himself starring at the boy's small feet, barefoot and sticking out from beneath his blanket. 

The Issue of Combat-Cams 

There is one element of Lindholm's story that is especially notable. The key evidence used against Pederson comes from a videotape that captured his commands during the heat of battle. It turns out that Danish soldiers are required to wear cameras in the battlefield. The evidence gathered by these "troop-cams" can be used in court. 

The utility of issuing "body cameras" to police officers has now been clearly established in the US. What are the chances that US soldiers might be equipped with cameras to record their interactions with foreigners in distant combat zones? 

Apparently there are a few cases where the Pentagon has allowed video cameras in combat situations but there is a basic resistance to their use. As Major Ryan Kenny explains in an article for AFCEA International, the Pentagon has blocked any plans for the use of battlefield body-cams out of a fear of "tactical video footage failing into enemy hands or being exploited for anti-US military proprganda." The Pentagon has even opposed soldiers using personal Go-Pro helmet-cams while on duty. (That ban, apparently, is widely ignored, given the assortment of hand-made in-combat videos now widely available on YouTube.) 

An Interview with Director Tobias Lindholm 

HuffPost Live 

 


Julia Morgan Imagined in Play on February 28

Friday February 19, 2016 - 11:10:00 AM

The Berkeley City Club Conservancy, with the generous support of the Ross Valley Players, will present playwright Mary Spletter's "Arches, Balance, and Light," Sunday, February 28. Spletter imagines famed architect Julia Morgan as an older woman examining her life and choices and whose regrets, triumphs and accomplishments that may surprise you. 

There will be a 1:00 pm pre-play wine and cheese reception and talk by the playwright, followed by the performance at 2:00 pm at the Barn Theater at Marin Art & Garden Center, Sir Francis Drake Blvd. at Lagunitas. Ross, CA. 

Tickets are $25 via eventbrite.com.


Cypress Quartet Plus Guests Play Brahms’s String Sextets

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Friday February 19, 2016 - 10:27:00 AM

When I heard the Cypress String Quartet play Beethoven’s Op. 130 Quartet last October in the Maybeck Studio (formerly the Maybeck Recital Hall), I experienced one of the finest chamber music concerts I’ve ever attended. I was impressed not only by the tightly integrated musicianship of the Cypress Quartet but also by the acoustic and sightline intimacy of the Maybeck Studio. In fact, I declared the Maybeck Studio the perfect venue for chamber music, outranking even the nearby Hillside Club. Well, perhaps I was too hasty in this judgment. Last night, Friday, February 12, 2016, I again heard the Cypress Quartet at Maybeck Studio, only this time the group was augmented by two more instrumentalists – Zuill Bailey on cello and Barry Shiffman on viola. The program consisted of two String Sextets by Johannes Brahms -- the Op. 18 in B-flat Major and the Op. 36 in G Major.  

What I now discovered is that while the Maybeck Studio may be perfect for string quartets and works for 1,2, and 3 instrumentalists, but when you add on more than four you reach or even surpass the upward limits of this intimate acoustic space. The Maybeck Studio, with its wood Interior and Gothic-style windows with leaded glass, presents a rather hard acoustic environment. There is nothing here, except for the presence of thirty or so audience members, to soften the acoustics. Consequently, the sound produced by six instrumentalists all playing fortissimo, as they frequently do in the Brahms String Sextets, viscerally assaults the listener. To my ear, and to the ear of others with whom I discussed this issue during inter-mission, the music came across as way too loud and quite overbearing. 

This is a pity. The Cypress Quartet players clearly love these String Sextets, and they perform them with their customary aplomb. But the loudness of the music simply numbs the listener. For his part, Brahms doesn’t make things any easier. This is aggressive music! Even the Andante of the String Sextet No. 1, Op. 18, ostensibly a slow movement with variations, contains many fiercely aggressive passages throughout. One might have expected that this movement, at least, which Brahms later transcribed as a solo piano piece for Clara Schumann, would offer some languorous respite from the boisterous assault of this work’s other three movements. But no! There is no respite here, and the music assails the listener unrelentingly. 

These String Sextets by Brahms are not exactly my cup of tea. Whereas the Brahms Violin Concerto sets me dreaming, and his 4th Symphony inspires me to do some hefty living-room conducting, his String Sextets leave me cold. Mozart’s string quartets and quintets enchant me; Beethoven’s string quartets I find endlessly fascinating; Schubert’s string quartets and quintets sing to me. But Brahms’s String Sextets simply numb me. I find them turgid, rhetorical, overblown. Brahms was 27 years old when he wrote the B-flat Major String Sextet. He sent the score to his friend, violinist Joseph Joachim, with a note saying, “I have been quite a long time over it and I do not suppose that this will have raised your expectations… But with God’s help, nothing is impossible.” Joachim liked the score but suggested changing the opening melodic material from the first violin to the first cello, a switch Brahms 

promptly implemented. As played by the Cypress Quartet’s cellist Jennifer Kloetzel, this opening material gets the work off to a nice, mellow start. When the first violin breaks in, things get a bit more agitated. Cecily Ward handles her instrument impeccably, but the music definitely becomes aggressive, as it does throughout this first movement. The second movement, an Andante, as mentioned above, leads one to expect a languorous, perhaps lyrical movement. But Brahms offers us a surprisingly fierce, aggressive bit of music here. Toward the end of this movement there are passages for two violins and two violas playing together. There follows an energetic scherzo, which is lively and brief. The finale features a slow, gracious opening, which quickly becomes agitated, however. Near the very end of this work, the first viola, here played by Ethan Filner, takes the lead in stating the final phrase, which is echoed in the two cellos. 

After intermission, the Cypress String Quartet and their guests returned to play the Brahms String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36. This work, written four years after the String Sextet No.1, bears a subtitle, “Agathe,” for it is a work in which Brahms more or less exorcised a failed romance with a woman named Agathe von Siebold. Her name, in fact, is hidden in the music (the notes A-G-A-H-E, with the H being a B-natural in German notation.) A forceful opening theme is sounded by the second cello, played here by guest cellist Zuill Bailey. This movement, an Allegro ma non troppo, plays itself out aggressively. The second movement begins with a light and airy scherzo, which becomes agitated later on. Likewise, the final movement starts out graciously but it too turns agitated later on, until the music eventually simply fades away.  

The Cypress String Quartet is comprised of Cecily Ward on first violin, Tom Stone on second violin, Ethan Filner on viola, and Jennifer Kloetzel on cello. They have been performing as a group for 20 years and will be disbanding at the end of 2016. In the meantime, they intend to celebrate their 20 years together with many more concerts of wonderful music-making, including a Salon Series III concert in May when they will perform some of their favorite works, including, as Tom Stone announced on Friday, the Ravel String Quartet.