Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won 93.3% of the vote in Berkeley, or 93.7% if write-ins are not included. Donald Trump and his running mate received 4.0%, up from 3.2% in the 2016 election. -more-

Health officers in five Bay Area counties announced Friday that they will implement a new stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, requiring most nonessential businesses to close all indoor and outdoor operations. -more-

State and local public health officials have encouraged Bay Area residents to exercise outdoors during the region's stay-at-home order, but doing so with people from other households is fully prohibited in most cases.

Health officers in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties and the city of Berkeley issued the stay-at-home order Friday to prevent coronavirus hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions from reaching critically high levels.

The order shut down both outdoor and indoor operations for most non-essential businesses like restaurants, hair salons and barbershops, cardrooms and family entertainment centers.

Indoor activities at gyms and fitness centers were also curtailed under the order, allowing only outdoor fitness and dance classes in which participants are at least 8 feet from each other, wearing face coverings and not sharing equipment.

"You should not meet in-person with anyone you do not live with even in a small group and even outdoors with precautions," Berkeley Public Health Officer Dr. Lisa Hernandez said Friday during a briefing to announce the order.

"If you have a social bubble, it is now popped," she said. -more-

So, the dust from the national election has settled a bit, though we still don’t know exactly where we are. Much hinges on Georgia’s Senate seats, not to be decided until next year, and meanwhile the pandemic is even worse than it was in the first place. It’s a good time to stay home and pray for vaccine. There’s a lot of talk about how to force vaccination on QAnon science deniers and their ilk, but why do that? It’s a problem to address after everyone who wants the vaccine gets it, which won’t be for quite a while.

Meanwhile, wear masks and holler at those who don’t. No more nice guy.

All this time at home does provide ample opportunity to contemplate the future of democracy and/or Democrats. The bizarre Trump/Giuliani axis is trying hard to destroy the small-d version by pretending fair elections are fake, but perhaps the recent emergence of backbones in a few of Georgia’s Republican electeds will thwart that plan.

What’s to become of the big-D Democrats? As long at the barbarians are at the gates, they’re sticking together, barring an occasional spat or snide tweet. (Tell me one more time: Exactly what’s wrong with Neera Tanden?) But if things ever calm down, we can resume microanalyzing the Democratic Party.

Let’s start with California. In fact, let’s stick with our home state for today.

We have become a Democratic super-majority state. No one who runs for office in a super-majority of state legislative districts would dare to claim to be anything but a Democrat.

There’s been a bit of nattering in the daily press about how many kinda-sorta liberalish propositions went down to defeat just as the Dems continued to win offices, but that’s over-simplified. It’s well-known that if voters don’t understand ballot measures they vote no, and that explains much of this year’s results. Ideology has nothing to do with it.

In districts like ours in Berkeley, we’re all Democrats all the time. The real decisions are made in the primaries, where lots of people never vote, especially with the top-two rule that can end up with two “Democrats” opposed in the general elections. If we agree that voters are confused by ballot propositions, we can be sure that they’re also confused by candidates these days. -more-

During this interregnum period, we can hope for a more positive and progressive political future. Summing up the massive ethical lapses of the past federal administration is critical to never forgetting how our democracy was nearly shredded.

If Trumpism proves anything, it shows what happens when you take the individualism and greed inherent in neoliberal public policy to its logical and inevitable conclusion. Yes, Trump has been an aberration, but at the same time you can follow a thread back to the Powell Memo to see Trump represents, in brutally cartoonish form, the enforced austerity of predatory corporate ideology that has guided Republican and Democratic administrations since the entrance of Ronald Reagan into the political arena.

How does this affect the City of Berkeley and its major public institution, the University of California? The impact of austerity and now the COVID cuts have reduced the state’s contribution to UC’s budget, which has in turn led to increased student fees and tuition and to a groveling for cash from individuals and the private sector. While UC actively pursues public-private partnerships and the monetization of public resources, it remains a public institution in name but is increasingly becoming a private institution in behavior.

What's needed is a significant state tax on large corporations and wealthy individuals, the proceeds of which would specifically go to support the university. This way UC would get the money it needs from the rich without having to sell its soul. If the university was being funded primarily by public money, it might be a lot more influenced by public interest and a lot more dedicated to the public good. -more-

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) , which is the official source of data on employment, the economy is improving. According to the BLS the number of unemployed continues to fall. In fact, according to the agency it was the 6th consecutive month of improvement. The official unemployment rate last month fell from 7.9 percent to 6.9 percent. A drop in the rate by a full one percent is considerable. -more-

It is a Monday in late November, 2020, and I catch Amy Goodman (“Democracy Now”) looking back on the weekend. A couple of months have passed since the massive demonstrations against police brutality, people shaking governments by the collar demanding that the pointless wanton arbitrary killing of black people stop. Organizations had formed and the movement had grown, hoping for a voice loud enough to be taken seriously. There is no democracy or justice when there are voices calling for justice that are not heard. -more-

Following his monumental failure to protect the American people from the deadly Coronavirus, DJT has turned his attention to America’s most vulnerable population, people on death row who now face a firing squad, poison gas, or the electric chair to end their lives. It is baffling why a firing squad is needed is still needed to kill a single person. -more-

Editor's Note: The latest issue of the Pepper Spray Times is now available.

You can view it absolutely free of charge by clicking here . You can print it out to give to your friends.

Grace Underpressure has been producing it for many years now, even before the Berkeley Daily Planet started distributing it, most of the time without being paid, and now we'd like you to show your appreciation by using the button below to send her money.

This is a Very Good Deal. Go for it! -more-

Although I take large dosages of antipsychotics and have done this since the mid nineteen eighties, I continue to have some level of "breakthrough symptoms." Despite treatment I can get delusional thoughts, and it is not safe to assume that medication will solve this. I cannot raise dosages of meds every time I get symptoms, because I am already on exceedingly high amounts, and raising the dosages could make things worse, not better. -more-

How to Handle a Deranged Tenant

It's not an uncommon event: a tenant, facing eviction, refuses to vacate the premises and, in a parting gesture of defiance, trashes the property, leaving the landlord to deal with the wreckage.

You guessed it: I'm thinking about Donald Trump.

TV host Jimmy Kimmel recently coined a term for Trump's refusal to accept the fact that his first term in office has been electorally terminated. Kimmel's word for Trump's Oval Office recalcitrance: "Squattergate."

Faced with the spectacle of Trump doing everything he can to make the new tenant's arrival difficult, unpleasant, and challenging, Kimmel wondered aloud why we provide loosing leaders in contentious elections the ripe opportunity to hang around for two months, mucking up the governing process until Inauguration Day rolls around.

In response, Kimmel has proposed a Constitutional solution. He called it the Airbnb Rule: "Lose an election and the next day you're out at 11 AM."

Trumplandia: Martial Law and Public Executions?

In Tenant Trump's case, he's not just writing dirty words on the White House walls, he's threatening to burn down the whole neighborhood—from sea to shining sea.

While Trump may have lost the unquestioned fealty of his Chief Toady—the frog-like Attorney General William Barr, who recently proclaimed the 2020 election legit—Trump can still count on a mob of lesser firebrands who have been turning up the heat with a chorus of horrific harangues. -more-

So much seems to change in a week when it comes to the pandemic, and yet it is just what we’ve been told for months. Michael Osterholm, epidemiologist from the University of Minnesota( https://www.cidrap.umn.edu) said in his podcast last August, about public health measures to slow the pandemic, “we can pay now or we can pay later.”

So here we are in the “pay later” after weeks of lulling ourselves into thinking we could manage with halfway measures, “bubbles” and taking off facial coverings in restaurants and other gatherings as if eating in groups didn’t count. Though this has already been months, and despite vaccines on the horizon, we need to prepare ourselves for a longer haul before it’s over. There is still a lot to be learned, including how long the first vaccine shots last before another one is needed.

As for the week we just finished, it is hard to believe that the last day of November was Monday. The Monday afternoon Council Agenda and Rules Committee turned out to be more interesting than expected. The Use of Force Policy is back on the proposed December 15 Council agenda. As I have said previously, the Police Review Commission (PRC) is very deliberative in their actions and policy review. Through their process they determined to remove the words “strive to” from the Use of Force Policy #300. The PRC voted with near unanimity (one abstained) that the inclusion of “strive to” would make use of force accountability impossible. -more-

Worth Noting:

City Council Winter Recess is almost here beginning December 16, 2020 thru January 18, 2021.



What Did and Didn’t Happen

December 1 was Cheryl Davila’s last City Council meeting. Recognition of Cheryl’s work started 40 minutes into the 6 pm meeting and continued for nearly 1 ½ hours culminating with Cheryl’s comments starting at 2:14. https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/City_Council__Agenda_Index.aspx

The Council meeting ended before 11 pm with the item on Zoning Ordinance amendments to parking minimums and maximums postponed to December 15.



What’s Ahead

Tuesday - There are two special back to back City Council meetings. The 4 pm is on tenant protections during the COVID-19 Emergency and 6 pm is on the Adeline Corridor Plan.

Wednesday – The Fair and Impartial Policing Working Group meets at 4 pm. 600 Addison is on the Parks and Waterfront Commission agenda.

Thursday – The last Budget & Finance Policy Committee meeting before the Annual Appropriations vote on December 15. The Community for Cultural Civic Center meeting starts at noon.



The City Council Agenda for December 15 is available for comment and follows the calendar of meetings.



Sunday, December 6, 2020 -more-