Extra

Doncha love it? Our Guv is such a master of the Art of the Deal that he outmaneuvered Darn Ol' Trump on that troops-on-the-border business! 

Trump tweeted that Brown's disinterest in deploying National Guard troops on the border would fan the state's "high" crime rates. So Trump had no defense when Jerry accepted the Federal funds and announced that the money would be used exclusively to fight gun-running and drug-smuggling -- real crimes, not immigrant harassment. 

Checkmated, Trump was not pleased. 

My favorite summation of Trump's reaction came from KCBS reporter Doug Sovern who offered this characterization of Trump's angry DC-to-Sacto tweet: "Donald Trump just blew a Twitter gasket!" 

Earth Day: Something to Chaat About 

The day before Earth Day, I found myself driving behind a van with a license plate that read "ECOFUEL." It turns out, the driver was an employee at Vik's Chaat, a certified Green Business in West Berkeley. ("Biodegradable utensils." "Waterless urinals.") The truck was emblazoned with the words "Powered by Vik's Chaat" so it's fair to assume the vehicle runs on biodiesel derived from the food store's recycled cooking oil. So Vik's environmental practices are like its dahl pakori and pani puri—well done. 

[Photo: StopWithFlowersBDP.jpg] 

Stop and Smell the Roses 

For several weeks now, some anonymous urban angel has been brightening up a North Berkeley intersection. Since at least March, one of the stop signs at Oxford and Eunice has been festooned with an array of colorful flowers carefully poked into the holes in its metal pole. They aren't plastic. These flowers are the real deal. 

Trumper Tantrums 

Trump must be worried: he's even losing the ability to lie. Two examples, drawn from recent tweets: 

1. When Stormy Daniels produced a sketch of a man she alleged threatened her to keep quiet about her fling with Trump, The Donald replied by calling it "a total con job" about a "nonexistent man" but then shot himself in the foot by adding that the drawing was created "years later." That's like saying: "What she says never happened. And besides, it happened years ago."
2. With investigators closing in on his personal lawyer, Trump tweeted his belief that Michael Cohen would never "flip" on him. That's like saying: "There was no collusion and, anyway, the people who know what really happened would never turn 'states' evidence' on me."

Fans of Dogtown Redemption, the powerful documentary that profiled the tribulations and triumphs of Oakland's feisty street recyclers, will be excited to learn about a new film that is coming to Bay Area movie screens. According to Amir Soltani, one of Dogtown's directors, Erika Cohn's The Judge will begin a one-week run at SF's Roxie and Berkeley's Elmwood theaters on April 27. According to Soltani's note, The Judge offers a portrait of Kholoud Al-Faqih, the first woman appointed as a judge in a Shari'a court. Cohn's film offers "rare insight into both Islamic law and gendered justice" while revealing "some of the conflicts in the domestic life of Palestine—custody of children, divorce, abuse." Director Cohn will be present at the opening night for a Q&A session following the screening. Here is a trailer for the film: 

War of Words 

Former Congressmember Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly recently sent out companion cover letters to raise funds for their gun-control PAC. Giffords wrote: "This year, 34,000 people will die from gun violence. And this year, Congress and the President . . . will try to make it easier to buy guns." 

But Kelly's background as a Desert Storm combat vet seemed strangely out-of-sync with his call for a less-violent world. Kelly repeatedly (seven times) used the phrase "fighting back," as he urged readers to "refuse to tolerate" the gun industry, insisting that fellow citizens should "stand with us" to engage the Gun Lobby in "legislative battles" that would "put them on notice that you are watching them." 

"[W]e sent an unmistakable signal," Kelly wrote: "We are here to fight . . . . Politicians defy us at their peril . . . . [A]nd the gun lobby will find us waiting." Kelly called on readers to continue to exercise "force" in "the fight against gun violence" until "we beat them." 

Yelling 'Fire' in a Crowded Library 

The film "Elephant's Dream" offers an entertaining portrait of several employees in three state-owned institutions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The interwoven stories include a female clerk in the dilapidated Central Post Office, two bored security guards at a rural railway station, and a group of firefighters in the only fire station in the capital of Kinshasa, Africa's third largest city. 

Ten minutes into a recent screening of the documentary in Doe Library on the UC Campus, the event was interrupted by a fire alarm—complete with flashing ceiling lights and a disembodied voice repeating: "A possible fire has been reported in the building. Please evacuate immediately." 

Everyone rushed for the exits and gathered outside as sirens began to approach—a police van and two fire trucks (one a hook-and-ladder) soon arrived. 

The crowd waited about 15 minutes before the building was declared safe to re-enter. During the disruption, I consoled the documentary's creator—an affable young Belgian filmmaker named Kristof Bilsen—who had been in the middle of an introductory talk when the alarm sounded. 

I suggested that he could tell his colleagues that the film received a "wam reception" in Berkeley. And, waving my hand around at the chatting crowd of would-be viewers, I suggested that he also could boast that the event was "standing room only."  

Bilsen laughed and handed me his smartphone so I could snap a picture of him smiling alongside the flashing lights of a BFD fire-truck. 

All We Are Saying Is Give Peace a Change 

Poet, pontificator and cultural provocateur Arnie Passman has long been a promoter of the Peace Symbol. It was 60 years ago, that England's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament introduced the now-familiar circle bisected by a vertical line with two shorter lines down either side. The symbol was inspired by the old-time British semaphore-flag signals for N (nuclear) and D (disarmament). 

Over the years, the Peace Symbol has been called the "Cross of Despair" and "The Droopy Cross" and some pacifists have protested that the symbol resembles a ground-mounted missile, waiting to be launched.  

Passman posits that now might the time to consider flipping the Peace Symbol—turning its downward lines upwards. Instead of two arms drooped in despair, two arms rising upwards for good. 

But the proposal raises a semaphoric quandary. 

Instead of "ND," the new, upended lines would flag the semaphore letters "DU". Since Depleted Uranium is not a pleasant association in the peace community, what else could DU stand for? 

"Disarmament, Universal"? "Demilitarized Unification"? Suggestions welcomed. 

Dam the Dems Who Voted to Doom Social Security 

The Social Security trust fund currently contains $2.9 trillion and, as Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works notes, it "does not add even a penny to the [federal] deficit." But on April 12, "in the guise of a so-called balanced budget amendment," 233 members of Congress essentially voted to expropriate the worker-donated funds that Al Gore once famously promised to protect inside "a locked box." 

The vote was 97% of Republicans in favor of stealing the funds while 96% of Democrats voted to safeguard these benefits.  

Sad to say, seven Democrats voted with the GOP majority to pillage the Social Security trust. Checking the list of the 233 Soc. Sec. Trust Busters reveals the name of one California Democrat. Stand and be counted, Rep. Jim Costa (District 16). 

According to GovTrack, Fresno's Costa is one of seven Dems most likely to vote with the Republican majority. Other useful information from GovTrack: Costa gets a 100% approval rating from Planned Parenthood, a 48% rating from the League of Conservation Voters, and he's up for re-election in 2018. 

As luck would have it, the vote fell short of the two-thirds majority required to advance the bill, so our Social Security funds are still secure—for now. 

CODEPINK Targets BofA for War Profiteering 

CODEPINK Bay Area will be deploying its pink-tinted activists to mass outside the Bank of America's annual shareholders meeting in San Francisco (4PM at 1525 Market Street) on April 25. CODEPINK wants the BofA to divest from the military-industrial complex. CODEPINK excoriates BofA for its role as "the fifth-largest institutional investor in the merchant of death, Lockheed Martin, holding 8.8 million shares worth over $2.8 billion as of March 2018." 

BofA is one of the small band of powerful banks entrusted to invest San Francisco's taxpayer revenue. In addition to investing in the weapons that power the Pentagon's foreign wars, BofA also invests in fossil fuels, the Dakota Access Pipeline, gun manufacturers, predatory mortgage loans, and the prison-industrial complex. 

To its credit, CODEPINK comes to the table with a solution: "Wall Street's time is up. City officials need to divest from the war machine and act quickly to create a People's Bank."