Once again there is a lot to cover as I pull the last two weeks on the local scene together. To ease the posting and reading here is Part I. Part 2 will follow on what is coming to us in more proposed zoning changes (housing).

The Tuesday 4 pm City Council Special Meeting on Legislative Systems Redesign was enough to make even attentive eyes glaze over. The mayor and Councilmember Hahn made the point at the meeting that Hahn’s proposal started on page 43 of the 138-page packet.

The meeting was nine minutes shy of two hours, started 42 minutes late and no action was taken. Most glaring in all this foolishness comes on page 95 of the 138-page packet, with the header “state or federal model” which appeared to be the basis for the layers of process.

It evidently did not occur to the team engrossed in the systems redesign (several of whom have left employment with the city of Berkeley) that the state legislative system has 40 state senators and 80 assembly members, and covers around 39,000,000 residents or that the federal system has 100 senators, 435 house members and covers 332,000,000 residents.

Berkeley has a mayor and eight councilmembers for the 123,562 of us living on the 10.5 square miles we call Berkeley. Without UC Berkeley students who now number over 40,000, Berkeley’s population would be well under 100,000.

It is not that what the city manager, city employees and city council do is unimportant, since it can be said that council actions can have a big impact on our daily life. Nor is it that committees aren’t useful, as there are occasions when committees are extremely useful in refining legislation. Nor is it that I am steadfastly opposed to committees in total. But I attend City Council Policy Committee meetings and watch the mayor and councilmembers in action. I have come to the conclusion that to create a complicated system for the few of the nine who actually submit major legislation seems a bit over the top.  

I have not spoken with Councilmember Harrison, but I do wonder what all of this process would have done to the natural gas ban that Mayor Arreguin uses to declare himself an environmental leader, when it was Harrison who initiated the natural gas ban and did all the work. I have never seen any other piece of legislation or any other member of council including the mayor to put together so skillfully and powerfully legislation with scientists, industry leaders and dozens of members of the public all in support. 

We can expect the mayor, the councilmembers and the city manager to come out in strong defense of all the layers of review and process in the redesign. But the more I watch the city, the more I think we were better off before the councilmembers began dismantling the commissions and expanding themselves into committees.  

Looking through the documents one last time, the standardized form for submitting legislation is good, but I am not convinced that all this process and committee meetings will be anything more than a detour on getting things done. 

The City Council regular meeting followed the systems redesign. Members of the Chess Club were present, again asking the City to drop the fines to the property owner at the corner of Telegraph and Haste (originally the famous Cody’s books). Speakers pointed out a large number of the players were Black and there were chess players who are unhoused. The obvious implication was that the City action of fines to end the Chess Club smacked of classism and racism. 

Councilmember Robinson with co-sponsor Mark Humbert added an urgent action item to the agenda to open the Dwight Triangle for the Chess Club. This is the tiny spot currently surrounded by fencing at the intersection of Telegraph and Dwight, bounded by steady traffic on all sides.  

The Chess Club responded the Dwight Triangle is a heavy vehicle traffic site, is not a solution and certainly not suitable for children who also play chess with the club.  

What the members of the Chess Club have been saying about why they loved the club appears to define exactly why the City piled on fines to close it. Playing chess on the large private plaza in public view brought an unlikely diverse group of people together whose paths would never cross without this experience. And the presence of such a diverse group in public view conflicted with a vision for upscaling the area. 

Dee Williams-Ridley, City Manager, reported to council 52 homeless encampments were closed, there were 26 deep cleanings and 11 RV encampments were closed.  

As reported in the October 7 Activist’s Diary Part 2, Peter Radu, Assistant to the City Manager, stated at the Homeless Services Panel of Experts (HSPE) meeting in his introduction to the Development of Good Neighbor Guidelines and Encampment Policy, “unsheltered homelessness is our new normal.”  

, 

Sabyl Landrum, an attorney at the East Bay Community Law Center, shared at the follow-up HSPE subcommittee meeting on that policy, that temporary housing amounts to fourteen days. Landrum added that one client recently was able to extend the temporary housing for another fourteen days, but then it will end.  

It is not a very satisfactory picture, if temporary housing means that a homeless person must give up their tent and what little security they might grasp by being in an encampment with others to get a short reprieve of two weeks before being pushed back out on the street again.  

What I am waiting to hear from the City of Berkeley is how long people are housed before they are back on the street. How many homeless people are still housed one month after an encampment is closed, and how many who are offered “permanent” housing are still housed one and two years later, even six months later? How much of what happens in closing encampments results in churning the same people over and over? These are the unanswered questions. 

The last time I recall a report given to City Council and the public with dollar amounts on placement of unhoused persons in permanent housing, council was still meeting in the Maudelle Shirek Building (old city hall). What was so striking in that old report was the average income of the homeless person was around $900/month. The permanent housing started with subsidies which were reduced on a step-down schedule until all subsidies were withdrawn under the assumption, that somehow the former homeless person would be able to come up with the difference.  

There have been reports since those days with numbers of encampments closed and point in time homeless counts, but that doesn’t get to what is the actual success of the programs. The cheapest studio apartment in Berkeley I could find on the internet was $1300/month. The average price for a studio apartment in Berkeley is around $2400. 

For many of us our association with the homeless is to be afraid and repulsed. That is how Cathy A. Small felt when she first saw the homeless man with his dog in the dog park. Then one day there was a dogfight and she needed help. It was the homeless man who came to rescue her. The book The Man in the Dog Park: Coming Up Close to Homelessness by Cathy A. Small with Jason Kordosky and Ross Moore is the story. Small is an anthropologist, Kordosky is a researcher and Ross Moore was the homeless man with whom she wrote the book. 

The book is only 152 pages with a lot packed in on the day to day challenges. Moore’s statement, “the high cost of being poor” in the last chapter is so apropos to the plight of the poor. There is only one copy (print edition) at the Berkeley library and no editions at any of the other five area libraries I use. It is worth buying, reading and passing on to a friend.  

The next Homeless Services Panel of Experts Subcommittee on the Development of Good Neighbor Guidelines and Encampment Policy is scheduled for Monday, October 30 at 7 pm at the Media Center. It will be offered as a hybrid meeting. Since the last subcommittee meeting was word of mouth and not posted on the City website, I will try to pick it up in the Activist’s Calendar. 

Not much else happened at the council meeting. The only action item was the status report on the city’s financial condition which centered on setting aside a portion of city funds as an emergency reserve. This was in follow-up to the City Auditor’s recommendations. 

The Rhinos Kayak Polo team who won the September 2023 USA Nationals Youth Division opened the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission meeting on Wednesday. They took up the non-agenda comment with their request for a place to store their equipment at the waterfront so their equipment didn’t have to be hauled back and forth for each practice. It would mean less dependence on parents with vehicles to haul the equipment. More kids could participate.  

Searching through old Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission Agendas, there was a communication from the Bay Area Kayak Polo Club requesting a berth fee waiver in April 2023; however, this does not appear to be the same group. There was no action on the communication.  

Commissions can’t act on non-agenda items other than to thank the public and put an item on a future agenda. In this case the commission doesn’t have control over storage areas. That would go to Scott Ferris, Director of Parks, Recreation and Waterfront. He was present and hopefully listened.  

The Ohlone Greenway Improvement Project appeared on the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission agenda for the very first time on October 11, 2023. Ferris, who initiated the agenda item, informed the commission that the plan was to widen the bicycle/pedestrian path to fourteen feet and remove five mature trees. There were no diagrams of the project or photos of the trees to be removed. The Parks Commission after discussion with Ferris settled on opposing the removal of mature trees.  

According to the webpage on the City website the Ohlone Greenway Improvement Project has been in process since August 2022 and is listed on the City website as a transportation project. The public comment period ended August 25, 2023. The project never appeared on the Transportation and Infrastructure Commission agenda. The project never appeared on the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission agenda until October,when apparently everything has been finalized. I never saw an announcement of in-person meetings in February. It is a mystery who attended.  

Bicyclists are not the only users of the Ohlone Greenway. There were walkers and runners out there today in the rain as my walk partner and I tried to figure out from my soggy printout which trees were targeted to be cut done. Here is the link for your own investigation. https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/our-work/capital-projects/ohlone-greenway-safety-improvements-project  

Commissioner Wozniak brought up for discussion a possible ballot measure for a parks tax increase. There were questions about the financing of the parks and what happens to the TOT (Transient Occupancy Tax – the add-on on your hotel/motel bill) and service taxes. Why do they go into the general fund with only a portion being reallocated to supporting the Marina? One advantage of not being a commissioner is not having to tiptoe around the truth. I could say Wozniak put forth a valiant argument for financing the Marina at the Budget Committee and the City Manager nixed it (Wozniak confirmed my comment). Nothing was voted on or finalized. This is something to watch for now.  

The Commission did finalize their Waterfront Specific Plan. The Commission is supposed to have a seat at the table at the November 2 City Council meeting on the Waterfront Specific Plan. It is rumored that the City staff/consultant version for the waterfront is undergoing yet another revision. Keep your eyes peeled. Thursday, November 2 is the planned meeting date.  

The very public Waterfront Specific Plan open house on September 23, 2023, where we could walk around the Nature Center at Shorebird Park and put our sticky notes with comments on the poster boards, hasn’t made it onto the City’s Waterfront Specific Plan website. I always feel uncomfortable with sticky notes wondering how many of those unwanted comments will fall off the boards. At least the cookies were good. https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/our-work/capital-projects/waterfront-specific-plan  

I took a rare day off from city meetings on Thursday October 12. I didn’t make it to the Budget and Finance Committee, but I did listen to the recording. Councilmember Harrison was unable to attend and was replaced by Hahn. Only one agenda item was discussed, the AAO (Annual Appropriations Ordinance) which is a fancy way of saying the mid-year budget adjustment. There are two yearly budget adjustments, one in the fall and one in the spring.  

This is when the Budget Committee finds out what didn’t get done, what budgeted money wasn’t spent, whether revenue was over or under projections and how much is available for councilmember budget requests.  

Since this was Hahn’s first time on the Budget Committee, she asked lots of questions including where the councilmember budget requests were. Not including the council budget requests in the first round is the usual dance. All the requests and priorities from the City Manager are posted in the first round. Council requests don’t appear until later. No action was taken and it will be up again on October 26th.  

Only one of the fixed cameras approved by council has been installed.  

The three meetings on housing that bookended the week were far more interesting and coming in Part 2.  

Being in denial could mean not acknowledging something difficult, and/or, it could mean unrealistic thoughts of getting something, (any impracticable thing you're after). This is not unique to people with psychiatric issues. I know several non-neurodivergent people who are in unhealthy denial about their life situations. And if they could face a few bleak facts, they might be able to take necessary steps to get their situations resolved.  

Believing you will have the winning ticket makes the California Lottery a big moneymaker for the state. (While it can be fun to play lotto if you have the extra money, there is no realism to it. So long as you don't spend your food or housing money on it, you're fine.) But when wishful thinking takes over, it can lead to spiraling downward. I once knew a man who wanted to get a real estate license. Yet he didn't come across as someone with whom you would trust the massive cost of a house or other property. And I presume that for the real estate business as with many other pursuits, how you come across to people is vital. Impressions matter. Because of that, and for other reasons, his idea wasn't realistic.  

There can be a fine line between having a pipe dream versus being able to do something the naysayers are naysaying. Part of the question is of whether you can do the work involved. I don't want to rain on people's parades. However, if we want to be successful at something, it might be a good idea to temper dreams with a bit of skepticism, applied to ourselves. You must realistically assess what is needed to accomplish something.  

When I was a sixteen-year-old youth, I believed I could get a bottom rung job in Silicon Valley and work my way to the top and become a millionaire by thirty. The reality: no one would hire me.  

When I did get a job, it was the worst possible job you could imagine, and it was something that an uneducated person could get and do. The big ambitions were replaced with making six hundred dollars a month and enjoying the earnings. It was the beginning of the end.  

That was the early nineteen eighties. And since then, it has been an unintentional exploration to discover the basic truth about life, and meanwhile, making a ton of mistakes and paying for it with a lot of pain. But I'm not an eighteen-year-old anymore. And I'm trying to figure out what happened to my life.  

I'm not in denial anymore. Yet I have discovered that the life of a mentally ill person often sucks eggs. And that's a simple truth that you don't need to dissect. It provides a lot of subject matter for my essays.  

Even practicing meditation is sometimes contorted into escapism and denial. There is a woman who practices Zen, and she is in the middle of being abused by her offspring. When I tried to tell her that meditation would not work to deflect the abuse, her face took on a lecturing appearance, and she adopted a superior air.  

This is not to dispute the proven value of mindfulness. Yet meditation like anything else, can become like a drug addiction. Other people busy themselves in work, and they might dread how they will be treated when they get home.  

Delusions can start out as a denial system, yet the brain takes the ball and runs with it, and the state of denial launches delusional material as well as a disorganized state. The condition takes on a life of its own, and that, in a best-case scenario, ultimately leads to diagnosis and treatment.  

I'm not saying that psychosis is denial. It is a symptom of a biologically unwell brain. Yet denial can make things worse. In my past, acceptance of an unhappy truth was one of the things that allowed me to get better.  

When I taught myself to let go of "attachments" (the term is derived from Buddhism) delusions continued, and they continue to exist in my thinking, but they have a smaller amount of power over me--but still a lot.  

When a person is not afraid to face hard truths, it is a bit easier to navigate among the choppy waters of the inside of a psychotic mind. When you are not clinging to very much, you don't have much emotional attachment to the delusional beliefs. And that makes it more possible for people to talk to you.  

Delusions are interwoven with strong emotions. When you can resolve the emotional element, it takes a lot of the power away from the psychotic syndrome.  

But some parts of life are good. It matters that we do not give in to cynicism and pessimism. To the reader: Don't give up hope. The little bits of joy can be found here and there, and they could be anything. Just having a cup of tea with a friend, or alone if need be, is worth it. This week I advise doing something you like. 

There was a Zen poet who wrote about seeing beauty when looking down at the contents of an outhouse. If you can see beauty within the supposed ugliness, it is a definite form of power--internal power, but genuine power. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Jack Bragen writes and lives in Martinez.

We should all be concerned about the humanitarian consequences of Israel’s constant bombing and siege of Gaza, and its military evacuation order for over a million people in northern Gaza and Gaza City and then the bombing of these fleeing evacuees. If Israeli does invade Gaza, expect many more casualties.

In Gaza, more than 4,000 people have already been killed and another 13,000 injured, and countless have lost their homes. At least 1,400 people have died and 3,400 others have been injured in Israel, mostly on the Oct. 7 initial attack.

While this bloodshed in Gaza is occurring, President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, Secretary of Defense Austin and other White House officials keep repeating the same old mantra — "The United States has Israel’s back.” Their words are supported by two U.S. aircraft carriers with supporting ships standing by off Israel’s coast. 

Their seemingly unqualified support for the bloodshed and dispossession Gaza civilians must end. Clearly, the Hamas attack on Israel is and was reprehensible but no righteous cause justifies the continued bloodshed and dispossession of innocent civilians on either side. Israel has a right to defend itself but Israel’s response has now gone way beyond defense; it is now vengeance, and the U.S. is complicit by simply standing by. 

Hamas never recognized Israel’s right to exist and committed itself to uncompromising armed struggle. Hamas’s political aim seems be to destroy any chance for peace and normalization while Israel is determined to eliminate Hamas altogether. These goals haven't changed. Thus, a cease fire between Hamas and Israel seems unlikely, at least in the near future. The war is already escalating. antitank missiles were fired from Lebanon into three areas in Israel; Israeli forces responded with tank and artillery fire and struck a Hezbollah observation post. And the Pentagon reported several drone attacks on U.S. military positions in Iraq and Syria. The longer the conflict continues, the more likely the conflict will widen even further.

Stung

A friend who spends time on a boat docked at the Berkeley Marina recently emailed a photo of her badly swollen arm, the result of an insect bite. "I look like Popeye," she lamented.

She had been bitten by a yellow-jacket and theorized the attack was triggered by groundskeepers at the Marina who had been hacking away at the same flowering plants that attract bees and other insects. The looming question seemed to be: were the local wasps driven by hunger or sheer vengeance?

For an answer to that question, I turned to the experts at www.alamedabees.com. ACBA's Ronni Brega responded as follows:

"At this time of year yellow-jackets are foraging for protein, specifically meat of any kind to feed new brood. They are not foraging on plants for nectar or pollen much right now. Wasps and yellow-jackets are omnivores, bees and butterflies are vegetarian. YJ's nest in the ground, typically around plants, it could be that the gardeners (or you) disturbed a nest. They have no barbs on their stingers, so they can sting multiple times, and will. Honeybees do have a barb, and die after stinging." 

Alert Alerts! Part 1 

This has been the month for Emergency Alerts. The first week of October featured a Presidential test-firing of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. What made this especially troubling was the discovery that Russia had conducted its first-ever "nationwide nuclear attack exercise" on October 3, the day before the US alert. This news made headlines all over the globe—except in the US. The Russian exercise was conducted over concerns about a US "first-strike" that could destroy 70% of Russian homes and lead to Moscow's declaration of martial law. 

The "good news" (if you are Russian): The former Soviet Union has built more that 16,000 nuclear fallout shelters—each capable of saving many hundreds of lives. The "bad news" (should you happen to be a Yankee): The US only has one nuclear bunker for its 332 million citizens (unless you happen to be in the military or in government). This special bunker is located "in the Seattle area" and it was built to shelter "about 200 people." Given those stats, you might think the US would be the last country to contemplate a "nuclear exchange." But that would assume that the folk in Washington and the Pentagon care more about their fellow citizens than being able to claim "full-spectrum dominance." 

If you happened to be among the millions of Americans startled by the racket on your phones, TVs and radios, you may have wondered how this exercise served to "maintain and improve alert and warning capabilities at the federal, state, local, tribal and territorial levels and to evaluate the nation's public alert and warning capabilities." Especially since the national alert ended with the comforting announcement: "No action is required by the public." 

What was missing was any federal guidance or information regarding a public response to an emergency. The exercise only established one fact: The federal government now has the power to simultaneously seize control of everyone's Smartphone, radio, and TV screen. 

Alert Alerts! Part 2 

October's Second Sonic Shocker came on the 18th when Bay Area communication devices all chimed in to announce the imminent impact of a real-life earthquake. The performance was less than stellar, info-wise. The USGS ShakeAlert lit up millions of screens with announcements in three key categories—Severity, Urgency, and Certainty. These were followed by three incident-specific warnings—Severe, Immediate, and Observed. While the last item (Certainty Observed) was somewhat obscure, what followed was even more of a challenge for mono-lingual Americans. At the 9:37-minute mark, the Emergency Alert service was advising those at risk that "Terremoto detectado!" and they should immediately "Agachese, cubrase, sujetese." By 9:41 AM, that critical info had been reposted as "Earthquake Detected! Drop, Cover, Hold On. Protect Yourself." 

Not the best debut for a seismic alert. Meanwhile, Apple's MyShake app predicted a 5.7-magnitude floor-rattler near Sacramento, only to have the warning downgraded to a 4.2 quake near Isleton. But overall, a surreal-world introduction to the challenge of predicting The Big One. 

The "Un-Gun": A Boon or a Boondoggle? 

The gun-totters at the NRA may have a new cause for concern—the "Un-Gun," a new non-lethal pistol that is redefining the big-bucks business of "self-defense." The Byrna SD (Self Defense) pistol doesn't use gunpowder to fire bullets. Instead, the Byrna-blaster employs cartridges of compressed CO2 to launch "68-caliber round kinetic and/or chemical irritant projectiles that can disable a threat from up to 60-feet away." While the un-gun's "un-bullets" travel at an average speed of 300-feet-per-second they don't pose a deadly threat to innocent bystanders or hapless victims in nearby homes. The un-gun could be a change-maker since it answers the law's "self-defense" role without involving "deadly force." It is doubtful that the up-armed advocates of the Second Amendment would be happy with a gun that only provides self-protection but lacks the allure of a bloody execution. (Really, wouldn't the world be a better place without any weapons—including "un-guns.") 

And what would the Supreme Court say? Well, we may never know because, unlike firearms that are designed to kill, current laws do not apply to this new non-lethal weapon. As the following video notes, buying a Byrna is a simple matter because acquiring un-guns is "completely legal"—no background checks required. 

Fashion Plates 

Personalized license plates spotted around town: 

PAPAFINK 

TEEOFF (Golf Lover) 

THE WOOF (Dog Lover) 

L(heart) IS (Love Is) 

CRLYLOX (Curley Locks) 

AIR H2O (Air and Water) 

GRNBEAM (Green Beam?) 

KGHIDRA (Cagey Hydra?) 

CROQODL (Crocodile) 

OBEFREE (Oh Be Free) 

SMALLR (on a Mini Cooper) 

TAX MUSK (not on a Tesla) 

MSTFMBL (Misty Fumble?) 

Bumper Snickers 

"I Brake for Unusual Cloud Patterns" 

"Jesus Loves You. But I'm His Favorite" 

"I've got KIDS. Get Too Close And I'll Ding Your Sh-t" 

"Life's like a movie. Write your own ending. Keep believing Keep pretending" 

"I'd Rather Be in the 100 Acre Wood" 

Feinstein Was Relentless 

Count me among the millions of Americans who were shocked to learn of Senator Dianne Feinstein's death. Feinstein had worked right up until the end, posing with a friend in her DC apartment after a typical long day's work. The smiles on their faces gave no hint that Sen. Feinstein would not live to see another workday. 

So I was startled the next morning when I opened my email and found a letter from Sen. Feinstein thanking me for writing "regarding environmental justice programs." 

"Throughout my time in the Senate," Feinstein wrote, "I have fought to defend bedrock environmental laws and protect American communities from dangerous pollutants…. Please know I appreciate hearing your support for environmental justice." 

The letter, written on her last day in office, ended with a "Best regards," a "Sincerely yours," and Feinstein's signature. 

Biden Produces an All-Time Great Presidential Statement 

An email from David Swanson, Executive Director of World BEYOND War, offers this selection of memorable presidential quotes: 

"I Am Not A Crook" (Nixon) 

"Mistakes Were Made" (Ronald Reagan) 

"Mission Accomplished" (George W. Bush) 

"We Tortured Some Folks" (Barack Obama) 

"It appears as though it was done by the other team." (Joe Biden referring to the bombing of a hospital in Gaza.) 

"Biden has joined the greats," Swanson wrote. "We are awed. And shocked." 

A (Pre-Gaza) Note to Joe Biden 

(Sept 20, 2023) Thank you, Mr. President, for announcing the formation of the American Climate Corps. Extreme weather events have devastated our homes, disrupted our lives, and caused billions of dollars in damage to our cities, coastlines, and forests. 

Climate Change and the Sixth Extinction are the real existential battles we must confront. 

Please abandon Washington's attempts to maintain a global empire. Stop wasting billions on military arms, hundreds of foreign bases, and long-running occupations that end in defeat and withdrawal. 

End the war in Ukraine before more lives are lost. Russia was wrong to cross Ukraine's border but the US routinely invades other countries that are nowhere near our borders — Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya. Consider Syria where the US has invaded another country, seized its oil, and (at last count) has built no less than 14 US military bases inside Syria. 

War Pollutes 

According to a report on the environmental impacts of the Ukraine war, the German newspaper Deutsche Welle noted: "Emissions generated over the first twelve months of the war totaled 120 million tons of carbon-dioxide…. This is slightly less than the annual emissions of Belgium, whose per capita emissions in 2019 were the seventh highest in the European Union." 

Meanwhile, Pravda, the Russian daily, notes that supplying weapons for the Ukraine war has drained the Pentagon's stockpiles of TNT. 

Pravda writes: "the replenishment of the American arsenal will require a search for basic materials for the production of weapons, and this problem is complicated by a global shortage of chemicals and explosives. The United States no longer produces TNT and has switched to a substitute called IMX, but a sharp increase in shell production has prompted the United States to look for new global suppliers of TNT." 

The "Lungs of the Planet" Facing Its Last Gasp? 

How bad has the long-running deforestation of the Amazon rainforest been? According to The Guardian, in the 35 years since 1988, this once-vast rainforest has suffered the loss of 10,000 acres—PER DAY! The total loss encompasses an area larger than the entire state of California. 

Hey Tesla! Make Room for the Hydro-Honda! 

What has been hailed as the first commercial prototype of a hydrogen-powered car may soon come to market. It's a Honda that fully charges in 5 minutes and boasts a 559-mile range. The engine is designed to pull climate-cooking carbon out of the air. The amount of air processed by the vehicle's engine is said to be equal to 33 people breathing for a whole day. The only emission? Water. 

These H-powered cars will initially be available in California, where fleets of hydrogen-fuel-cell buses have been reliably serving transit needs for many years. While California's H-powered busses are costly to buy, they've proven to be inexpensive to operate. 

A close look at a photograph of a Hydro-Honda zipping down a road shows its tailpipes emitting (sure enough) nothing but water! Questions arise. Is the liquid pouring from the tail-pipes potable? Can it be stored onboard and recycled to water vegetable gardens? 

And what happens to the carbon pollution that's pulled out of the air? Does in accumulate in filters inside the car? How often does it need to be removed and how can the captured carbon be sequestered? 

Paul Simon's Sermon for Trump 

An anthem by Ken Johnson 

“Hello MAGAs, my old friends,
l've come to beg for cash again.
Because indictments softly creeping,
Left subpoenas while I was sleeping.
And conspiracies, that were planted in my brain,
Still remain
Within the sound of silence. 

In endless courts I walked alone.
Speaking in a whiny tone.
'Neath the halo of a judge's lamp 

My orange makeup was thick, cold and damp. 

When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a mugshot light,
That made for quite the sight
And touched the sound of silence.  

And in the naked light I saw,
Ten supporters, not one more.
People talking without speaking.
People hearing without listening.
People saying lies with evidence never shared,
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence.  

Fools on Fox, you do not know,
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear Jack's words that he might teach you,
Read the charges that Smith might reach you.
But his words. like silent raindrops fell
and echoed in the wells of silence. 

And the people bowed and prayed,
To the pompous god they made
And J6 flashed out its warning
To the insurrection that DJT was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the Capitol walls
And Courthouse halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence." 

I swear I could hear Simon and Garfunkle singing along as I read this parody. 

Meanwhile, Trump's merch now includes renditions of his glowering booking photo—an arresting image, to be sure. The scowling scoundrel's face now adorns posters, T-shirts, and coffee cups. Bingo! Trump has become the first felon to have his mug-shot on an actual mug. 

Wrapping Up with a Few Furry Hugs

Animals Reunited With Owners After Years!

I am still experiencing profound grief in the face of the brutal terror attack by Hamas and the immense and ongoing loss of life and trauma of bombings in Gaza. Last weekend, I attended a wedding back east of a dear friend from International House with a guest list that included Muslims and Jews from around the world. As a unified international community, we must condemn both the terror attack and hostage taking by Hamas against Israelis and the unrelenting bombardment, siege, and blockade against civilians in Gaza. Tragically, thousands of humans are dead and traumatized, and there is now unconscionable talk about a broader regional, or even global war. 

I am also deeply concerned by and condemn the Antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents occurring in the United States as a result of this conflict, including the murder of a Palestinian-American boy in Chicago and threats This is the effect of terror. This is the effect of eye-for-eye thinking which, as Mahatma Gandhi reminds us, leaves everyone blind. I am calling for all of the bombings to stop, now. I am profoundly grateful that our Congresswoman Barbara Lee has put forward a statement with other members of the House calling for an immediate ceasefire. 

In these times of crisis, I have faith that the Berkeley community can come together to call for peace, an end to bloodshed, the release of hostages, and justice for all. The Superintendent of Berkeley Schools offered the following resources to help in your communication with children regarding the current state of events: 

* How to Talk to Kids About Violence, Crime, and War (Common Sense Media). 

* Resilience in a time of war: Tips for parents and teachers of elementary school children: (American Psychological Association). 

* Talking to Children About War (National Child Traumatic Stress Network). 

Please reach out to my office if you have concerns about the impacts of this conflict on our community or need assistance in any way. We are here to help each other. 

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I read your October 19th email about the Hamas attack on October 7th with a heavy heart. Being one of your Jewish constituents I would have liked to have read a note of consolation, not twelve days after the Hamas attack on Israel and not a high-handed statement that tries to equate a calculated and savage attack with the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza. Your colleagues, particularly Susan and Mark, responded much more quickly and with an authenticity that I find lacking in your email. 

Your district contains most of the Berkeley Eruv — did you know that? It’s a central district for Jewish residents of Berkeley, many of whom have family and friends in Israel. Had you swiftly and simply acknowledged the pain your constituents are feeling, that would have been helpful. 

The NYTimes Daily Podcast just broadcast an interview with a mother whose son had his arm blown off and who was then taken hostage. They immigrated to Israel from Berkeley.  

The son is my daughter’s age and he was dancing at a music festival. He and friends hid in a bomb shelter. A Muslim Bedouin man tried to tell the terrorists that there were only Muslims there. The Hamas fighters killed him and then started shooting and throwing hand grenades into the shelter. One man threw many of the grenades back, but not enough. That’s how the boy from Berkeley lost his arm before being dragged off… to die? To be held for 5 years like Gilad Shalit?  

Hamas is now using their captives’ phones to access their social media accounts and torment family members. 

This is categorically different from a military campaign aimed at military targets. Of course it’s terrible that Hamas plants those targets in civilian areas and the harm done to innocents is awful. But they are not the same and yet your note suggests that they are of a piece, combining them into the same sentences.  

If/when Israeli soldiers go into Gaza, they aren’t going to rape anyone. They aren’t going to behead babies. If any soldier did do that, they’d be court martialed like the soldiers of our own military would be.  

In sum, I think your message arrived too late and rested on an equivalency that simply isn’t there. At a time when your Jewish constituents needed to hear words of comfort, your note had quite the opposite effect.

An investigation by The Los Angeles Times exposed the massive lies - Palestinians raping women and Palestinians killing themselves in their hospital, intended to inflame passions to deflect the massive bombings in Gaza, war crimes perpetrated against a civilian population. As the saying goes, "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." 

Israel committed a terrible airstrike on the Baptist Hospital, run by the Anglican Church, killing no fewer than 500 Palestinians, mainly children and women, and injuring more than 300 others. Why? For what? It was all about the Israeli ultimatum that had already, according to WHO, bombed no fewer than 27 hospitals, including Shifa Hospital, to evict and evacuate, allowing Israel to conduct its ethnic cleansing of significant parts of Gaza at the moment, with a plan to ethnically cleanse all of the Gaza Strip. 

The United States should support an immediate ceasefire. The meeting that should have taken place with the Jordanian king, the Egyptian president, and the Palestinian president did not occur because all three realized that Mr. Biden does not want to support an immediate ceasefire. They concluded that he supports the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt, something Egypt, Jordan, and all Arab countries have refused. 

It is shameful that President Biden echoed the talking points of the ultra-far-right apartheid Israeli government, repeating over and over that "our support is iron-clad." Time and again, he was caught glancing at the Israeli teleprompter to ensure he did not deviate from Israel's talking points - all to enhance his re-election prospects. 

Mr. Biden, I recently received an email from your office claiming that "human rights" are "front and center of all your policies." Nothing could be further from the truth. You have dragged our great nation into the "mother of all genocides," a massive ethnic cleansing of an entire population. You have brought great shame to our nation. If you are unwilling to demand an immediate ceasefire, I respectfully suggest you resign.