Several weeks ago, I was invited to participate in my first podcast—an event hosted by World BEYOND War. WBW is a global organization devoted to promoting peaceful alternatives to local and geopolitical conflicts. WBW's concerns have been voiced by none other than Martin Sheen, who appears in a number of WBW videos. Here's one example: -more-

While many poor innocent African Americans (see GEORGIA INNOCENT PROJECT) languish in America’s dark dungeons while others serve long jail sentences for minor infractions of the law, the former (the word sounds delicious) President Trump has granted pardons to rich felons, are another example of the shameless influence-peddling on his watch. Predictably, Trump bypassed the vetting and approval process of the Justice Department. This monumental abuse of power screams for Congressional action.

Trump’s swamp was overflowing with notable felons Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, , ,but with a stroke of the pen he freed them from the clutches of the law, free to continue their sordid activities. One of the most egregious miscreants was former Trump strategist, Steve Bannon, indicted for fraud as part of crowdfunding campaign to build the border wall. But much to the dismay of his gullible donors Bannon used the stolen money to purchase a million-dollar yacht. Who said crime doesn’t pay?

What do the pardon beneficiaries have in common, - intimate knowledge of Trump’s political and business activities which could exacerbate Trump’s legal problems.

Selling indulgences (forgiving sins for donations) used to be common practice in the Roman Catholic Church. Modern day preachers in megachurches whip up emotions of guilt and redemption to exact donations from their congregations.

Monetizing pardons is nothing new. In Chaucer's "Pardoner’s Tale" the pardoner has hair “yellow as wax” as well as false credentials, and derives great pleasure in swindling his victims. -more-

The university fenced off part of People's Park this week to "test the soil", or so they say, for their proposed sixteen stories of concrete. It's hard not to wonder what lab they will use that can tell them that the soil is Ohlone land. That it's full of the blood of those who fought for it and the tears of those who mourned them. That the patch of asphalt in the west end was left there deliberately to highlight its surrounding transformation into a garden worked by generations of hearts and hands.

What lab will tell them that the soil is laden with the ashes of many for whom the park was always home with a hearth full of welcome, and thus a perfect resting place. The soil is leavened with the petals of flowers that fell away from wreaths tangled in the long hair of dancing men and women and massaged with fifty years of native drums, African house music, and rock and roll. The soil is littered with the finest poetry charging like lions from the lips of hearts on fire.

What lab will tell them that the soil is dense with the powerful prayers of thanks as strangers bent to lend hands to strangers and cooks reached to offer hot plates of steaming food. That the soil is full of the alchemy of musicians who invented joy out of thin air and artists who wove sunlit moments into mass, accidental epiphanies.

The lab will surely find the seeds of the next rebellion, and the next, and the next, and the next. And see the necessity most of us hope never to mourn that the park remain magical, irreplaceable open space, a crucible of the historic forces that stopped a war and built a garden. -more-

What good is a constitution if you can’t use it? What good is it if it tells you how to govern and you say: “we can’t govern that way.” What good is it if it proclaims democracy and you use it to dominate people? When the cops enact their brutality toward black people, are they making themselves a “role model”? Is that the source of their constitutionality? -more-

In the seventies, I was working in Silicon Valley when email became ubiquitous on business' campuses. Although email simplified office communication, I noticed two negative aspects: email discouraged face-to-face interaction and it facilitated uncivility. On January 8th, Twitter—email's progeny—suspended Donald Trump's account. This was a welcome, although belated, defense of civility. -more-

Antipsychotic medications and their potential to help people with schizophrenia get well, and remain well, present an enormous hope that humanity once did not have. Before antipsychotics, mentally ill people may have been the "town crazy" or the "town drunk." Before these drugs came about, (Thorazine was the first, and it was discovered in 1950), there was no effective treatment for people with schizophrenia. Sometimes people were given frontal lobotomies, which may have allowed some to become minimally functional, or it may have done no good whatsoever. People died horribly in primitive mental hospitals or on the street. -more-

Happy Blue Year!

What a difference a day makes—as long as it's an Inauguration Day.

What a healing ceremony. A parade of presidential couples. A physically distanced and face-masked crowd of congregants. A powerful pint-sized poet. Garth Brooks hobnobbing and hugging, J-Lo blazing through the octaves and issuing a platform-shaking shout for justice in Spanish, and Gaga turning her back on the audience to lift her hand toward the banner waving high atop the Capitol building as she sang "our flag was still there!"

Instead of a sea of red caps and MAGA shirts, we had the President-elect and First Lady alongside the VP-elect and the Second Gentleman, solemnly observing 400,000 lanterns lining the Reflection Pool at the Lincoln Memorial and reflecting on lives lost and the challenges ahead. -more-

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) defines hate groups as organizations who "vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity – prejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines.” The FBI uses a similar definition of a hate crime. -more-

There was a stack of Berkeley city meetings this last week, but it was hard to hold my attention on anything until after Wednesday. I think it was an absolute first that Tuesday evening City Council moved the entire regular meeting agenda to consent and ended at 9 pm. We did hear at the earlier 4 pm Council meeting, on the adoption of ballots passed by the voters, that the application process for the Police Accountability Board will be starting soon, at least by February, and an executive search firm will be used for the Director of Police Accountability. -more-

Worth Noting:

The coming week feels quieter despite 19 counted meetings including two community group meetings. City Council meetings fill Tuesday with the special meeting at 4 pm on amending (Berkeley Municipal Code) BMC 14 & 23 modifying off-street parking minimums and establishing maximums and regular Council meeting at 6 pm.

Thursday at 10 am the Council Budget and Finance Committee will take up the Tax Equity Measure. This measure is about property taxes and relates to properties in the formerly redlined areas being over charged, i.e, counting crawl spaces and other uninhabitable space as livable and properties in north Berkeley being undercharged by improperly under counting the sq footage of livable space.

There are two community meetings, one Wednesday at 6:30 pm and one Saturday at 10 am to present turning the former Santa Fe Right-of-Way from Ward to Blake into a park.

The first community workshop for the Berkeley Marina Specific Plan is Thursday at 6:30 pm

Sunday, January 24, 2021

No City meetings or events found

Monday, January 25, 2021 -more-