Flexibility is key as state campuses balance vaccine mandates and delta variant concerns.

Uncertainty is the new reality tens of thousands of students face this fall as campuses repopulate residential halls, classrooms and other facilities while the coronavirus pandemic rages for yet another academic year. At any point, campuses could shift back to remote learning, if that's what public health authorities recommend or if a significant outbreak of Covid-19 spreads.

Some California State University campuses have already begun fall instruction, but many start Monday. Seven of the University of California's undergraduate campuses are on the quarter system and don't start classes until Sept. 23.

The CSU and UC systems require students to be fully vaccinated when they return to campus in person and are mandating that masks be worn indoors regardless of vaccination status. Campuses will also routinely test students and staff who are exempt from the vaccine mandate for religious or medical reasons. Some CSU and most UC campuses will also regularly test vaccinated students. 

In the UC system, campus leaders are optimistic that it won't be necessary to fully return to remote learning. 

"If we need to make adjustments, we will," said Sarah Latham, the vice chancellor of business administrative services at UC Santa Cruz. "However, we believe that the things we have in place will allow us to stick to our initial approach of in-person instruction and a highly residential experience." 

Even with vaccine mandates, UC campus leaders acknowledge that positive cases will occur. But they also anticipate that those cases won't be as disruptive to campus life. Last year, any student in close contact with someone with a positive Covid-19 case needed to be quarantined. This year, that won't necessarily be the case, largely because of vaccinations, but rules vary. 

At UC Berkeley, vaccinated and asymptomatic students won't need to be quarantined if they have been in close contact with an infected individual. They will only need to monitor their symptoms for two weeks and be tested for the virus following the exposure. The only people who have had close contacts who will need to quarantine are those who are unvaccinated or who show symptoms. A close contact is defined as anyone who is within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes. 

In-person classes across the UC system may also be allowed to continue even if the class has been exposed to a positive case. At UC Irvine, for example, if a student tests positive and has been attending in-person classes, the only students who may need to quarantine are those who came into close contact with the infected student, said David Souleles, the director of Irvine's Covid-19 response staff. 

"Just because the case was in the room, it doesn't mean everybody in the room automatically now has to quarantine or that the class has to be canceled," he said. He added that those protocols could change on a case-by-case basis. If the campus notices, for example, that there are multiple positive cases from one classroom, the campus will consult the public health department in Orange County to determine the next steps. 

But even before the start of classes, one campus was forced to make an adjustment to when it would return to in-person learning. Two weekends ago, Stanislaus State University announced it would delay the start of hybrid and in-person classes from Aug. 23 to Oct. 1 in response to a "notable increase in Covid-19 cases locally due to the Delta variant." Those classes started virtually instead. 

The delay gives students and faculty more time to become fully vaccinated. Fewer than half of Stanislaus County is fully vaccinated. When Stanislaus State President Ellen Junn started to see the number of positive Covid cases rise among returning campus staff, particularly vaccinated ones, she was alarmed. 

"When I wake up and look at those data from our county and get the data from our infectious disease coordinator on campus, my heart is always doing a little pitter-patter," Junn said. "I'm hoping that more people are not getting sick, but once we hit that range where I have to make a decision, I have to decide what's safest for our campus." 

In the Stanislaus State residential halls, the 400 students who will live on campus will occupy single rooms. And if they're not fully vaccinated by move-in, they'll be reimbursed for the time they're not living on campus until they are vaccinated. 

Like Humboldt State and CSU Channel Islands, other campuses will allow students to have roommates and -- like many universities -- have space set aside for infected students to quarantine. Students who don't live on campus, like staff and faculty who test positive, are asked to quarantine at home and not visit their colleges. The universities also want to be notified if they have come into contact with an infected person or think they have. 

The key to minimizing disruptions to classes and other parts of campus life, Souleles said, is to have a vaccination rate as high as possible. All nine of UC's undergraduate campuses expect at least 90 percent of their on-campus population to be vaccinated. 

At UC Berkeley, one of two UC campuses that is on the semester schedule and begins classes Aug. 23, 93 percent of undergraduate students have shown proof of vaccination. That has Zaid Umar, a fourth-year student at Berkeley, feeling comfortable with the university's plan to reopen. 

Umar, a double major in economics and history, plans to live off campus in Berkeley with a group of friends and is enrolled in two in-person classes this fall. He's also taking two lecture classes that are being held remotely. At Berkeley, classes with 200 or more students, which account for 5 percent of course offerings, are online only. 

Umar said he thinks it's "perfectly legitimate" for Berkeley to offer those large lecture classes online. But he's otherwise looking forward to getting back to a regular campus experience. 

"If Berkeley didn't have a vaccine mandate, I would have some reservations. But I do feel comfortable. Alameda County is also a generally liberal area and people in the community are going to be vaccinated, too," he added, referring to the county where Berkeley is located. 

At Chico State, the university will house 1,900 residents on campus, of which 29 have received approved exemptions so far, said Connie Huyck, executive director for university housing. Chico State is one of the nine CSU campuses that won't allow students to have guests in the dorm other than when they move in. 

But there are only so many precautions a campus can take. 

"Students can go to Home Depot and come back or Chipotle or the movie theater and contract the virus and bring it back," Huyck said. "Obviously, that can happen anywhere they are." 

The universities won't be completely closed off from their communities. And while campuses will be tracking and monitoring the vaccination status or Covid-19 test results of students, staff and faculty who physically are at the universities, there are still people who will visit daily. 

"What about the person who comes on campus one time and visits the library?" said Ellen Treanor, associate vice president of strategic communication at Cal State Fullerton. "We won't have their vaccination status at all. We're kind of like a small city, and we can't put up walls around our city and say you can't come in." 

Kiana Sabugo, a fourth-year student studying psychological and brain sciences at UC Santa Barbara, said she's not particularly concerned about her own health because she's vaccinated, but she's worried about the surrounding community near UC Santa Barbara's campus, which includes senior living communities. 

"If it turns out that 90 percent of the campus is vaccinated, I'll feel a little more at ease," she said. 

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: This story was originally published by EdSource. Please use the original link when sharing: https://edsource.org/2021/state-universities-reopen-in-person-will-delta-variant-push-students-back-to-zoom 

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A second lawsuit under the California Environmental Quality Action (CEQA) was filed on Friday to challenge the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR), prepared by the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) for its 2021 Long Range Development Plan (LRDP), effective until 2036-37, and for two construction projects located in different parts of Berkeley: Helen Diller Anchor House (Anchor), a mixed use 16-story high-rise, and the proposed People’s Park project, a group of buildings including a 17-story mixed use high-rise.. The plaintiff organization, Berkeley Citizens for a Better Plan, seeks an order setting aside the certification of the FEIR and all of the University of California Regents’ (Regents) approvals for the Project. 

The plaintiff alleges that “[t]he FEIR fails to comply with the informational requirements of CEQA, caused in great part by UCB’s decision to draft an EIR that is at once underinclusive – insofar as it fails to address the proposed population increase – and over-inclusive – insofar as it shoves two construction projects into the EIR for the LRDP instead of first preparing an EIR for the LRDP and then later “tiering off” that EIR for the Park and Anchor projects. The result is an unintelligible and legally inadequate EIR that fails to include necessary and legally required baseline data and substitutes unsupported summary conclusions for meaningful discussion. “ 

The whole complaint can be read here. 

Lawsuit Says UC Development Plans Will Add to Displacement and Homelessness, Destroy Historic Buildings and Neighborhood Character, and be a Drain on City Services, Fire and Police

Two Berkeley neighborhood groups today filed a lawsuit against UC-Berkeley and the UC Regents alleging expansion plans at the Berkeley campus violate state environmental laws and will lead to displacement of longtime residents, destruction of historic buildings and neighborhood character, and increased expenses for City of Berkeley taxpayers.

The community organizations Make UC A Good Neighbor and People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group filed suit today to address and mitigate excessive burdens faced by Berkeley residents from the recently approved UC-Berkeley Long Range Development Plan (LRDP), according to the lawsuit filed in Alameda County Superior Court.

“UC’s plans are a reflection of the university’s indifference to the impact its plans will have on all Berkeley residents for many years to come. UC’s corporate growth model monetizes public assets with little care given to its host community,” said Harvey Smith of People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group. 

The suit challenges the LRDP on grounds that the approval violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) certified by the Regents includes the overall LRDP, Housing Project #1 (Anchor House) and Project #2 (People’s Park). Each of these projects will entail destruction of historical and cultural resources, as well as having a number of destructive environmental consequences due to projected massive enrollment increases. 

UC-Berkeley’s expansion beyond previous enrollment limits has already resulted in student homelessness, skyrocketing student housing rents, and substantial displacement of long-term residents, along with a significant drain on city police, fire and emergency medical services resources, the lawsuit sponsors said. 

Make UC A Good Neighbor was formed to provide education and advocacy related to the impacts of UC Berkeley on the surrounding environment. People's Park Historic District Advocacy Group was formed to establish a People's Park Historic District to protect, preserve, and enhance public understanding of the significant architectural and cultural landmarks and historic events unique to the Southside campus area of Berkeley, through outreach, research, and educational and cultural community projects.

I could never express as well or as eloquently as did Rev. Al Sharpton in his speech before a group of demonstrators and mourners of tens of thousands, and millions of others through television coverage, in honor of George Floyd on June 4, 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, speaking of having a knee on our neck.

Even though I'm not capturing the full underlying issue that I think Rev. Sharpton was getting at, this piece concerns the brutal and sometimes deadly use of force that some police use when restraining uncooperative or even cooperative mentally ill people who need help and are in crisis. In this instance, I'm not speaking of someone being Black, I'm speaking of mentally ill people. 

Recently, a coroner in a Martinez courtroom ruled that the death of Angelo Quinto was an accident. The officer, once again, had a knee on Quinto's neck. Quinto was having a mental health crisis. 

Specifically, without bringing up the issue of racism or disablism, corrective measures can be enacted. That particular method of restraining a person could be strictly prohibited. Police could be given better training. Police could be made more accountable. 

Mentally ill people aren't going to change. Police must change and must treat mentally ill people as noncriminal. 

When we see these incidents in the news, it worsens the chances of a mentally ill person receiving the treatment we need. Concerned parents could be afraid to call the police for a 5150 because they have seen in the news how so many mentally ill people in crisis have been brutally killed, when they should have been helped. 

I'm fortunate that police treatment I've received when in crisis has not done me any permanent physical damage. I'm grateful to police for doing their job of keeping the public safe and keeping the peace. As someone who can come across as normal, me, the treatment I've received from police in the past two decades has been okay. Yet I fear for those who have gotten sick in more recent times, since society has changed to become a far unkinder place than it was twenty and thirty years ago.

Between council on recess and the usual August slowdown, my report on city meetings will be short. As for everything else, this week was boiling over. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) released AR6 (Sixth Assessment Report). The UN warns that global heating is at “code red” for humanity and the cause is unequivocal – it is us. July was the hottest month ever recorded. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/#FullReport 

As I reached for the IPCC Summary for Policymakers, there was a lot on my mind--the films Elysium and The Biggest Little Farm, the seminars forecasting perpetual drought for the western U.S. with occasional wet years, the articles on climate and the environment, the slowing of the gulf stream (the overturning circulation of the Atlantic Ocean) heading toward collapse, the wobbling of the jet stream, the loss of insects and wildlife, superstorms, floods and fires, an obscure mention on glacier melting and earthquakes and, of course, my reading, the books: The Sixth Extinction, Under a White Sky, Ishmael, The Uninhabitable Earth, The Nature of Oaks, Bringing Nature Home, Half-Earth Our Planet’s Fight for Life, We are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast and Midnight in Chernobyl.  

I’ve seen less in the news than I expected of the dire warnings coming from AR6. Instead, we’re wrapped in saving the economy of endless consumerism as the mantle to carry. We are the earth’s most destructive species, pilfering the earth’s resources for our immediate pleasure with little regard for our impact, our own future or that of our children. 

The best forecast for the future requires immediate action to bring GHG (Green House Gas) emissions to zero. So much is already baked in, that even with immediate action, the climate forecast is continued warming for the next 30 years with more intense superstorms, floods, drought, heat events and fires than we already see. If the world responds with immediate action, the IPCC forecast is climate change can after the next 30 years be expected to slow and stabilize. Without aggressive action, we are headed for the cliff of exponential heating reaching a level when much of the earth will be uninhabitable for our species and many others. 

We sit in various camps, sometimes shifting from one to another: denial, willful ignorance, technology can fix it, it won’t affect me, what I do won’t make any difference, China pollutes more than the U.S., it’s not my responsibility, the government needs to fix it, no government is going to tell me what to do, or maybe the “God will save us.” You might have your own list of why and how we continue on a path of destruction. 

I know the conscious changes I make in my own life won’t save the planet, but I feel better for doing them. If others joined me, it wouldn’t be everything we need to do, but we could make a difference and right there in personal actions is voting. You don’t even need postage for your recall mail-in ballot. 

Newsom is less than perfect, but failing to vote at all or failing to vote no on the recall could give us Larry Elder, a progun, anti-abortion, climate denier. At this moment, Elder, the right-wing talk-show host who is the leading contender, stands for “individual freedom” in opposition to mask and vaccine mandates. Elder, who is Black, denies systemic racism and blames disintegration of two parent families and the absence of Black fathers as the source of societal problems. 

The other action that should be on everyone’s mind is how the California Assembly will vote on SB 9 and SB 10. We need to do our part here too, call 916.319.2115 or 510.286.1400 and write Buffy wicks to vote NO on SB 9 and 10. https://a15.asmdc.org/email-assemblymember-wicks 

Please also write the CA Assembly Appropriation Committee https://apro.assembly.ca.gov/ 

SB 9 and SB 10 do not include even the tiniest shred of attention to climate and the environment. These bills ride under the banner of “greenwashing” (fake sustainability) and are about over-riding any local zoning, splitting single family home lots and covering the lots with up to 14 units eliminating space for trees and the cool sheltering of their canopies. This leaves us with hard surfaces like sidewalks, driveways and buildings that soak up and hold heat thereby changing the local climate. And, should rain ever arrive all these hard surfaces increase water runoff instead of recharging the ground. 

These bills do nothing for affordable housing. A curious mind would be picking up Sick City Disease, Race, Inequality and Urban Land by Patrick M. Condon, 2020 and The Whiteness of Wealth by Dorothy A. Brown, 2021. Home ownership is how families build wealth. It is why Southern California neighborhoods of color are fighting so hard to stop these bills. 

The week closed with the release of the Census Report. In between these bookends is the continuing acceleration of COVID-19 infections due to the Delta variant. It was COVID and bad behavior that filled the air waves. 

I hope you are managing to avoid catching the delta COVID. Remember that if you are vaccinated and catch COVID you are still contagious and being contagious may mean giving COVID to children younger than 12 who are not eligible to be vaccinated. And, while children usually do not get seriously ill, they can end up in an ICU on a ventilator. 

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-14/kids-covid-hospitalization-rates 

Cotton/homemade/cloth masks or bandanas and gators just don’t do the job we need for the very contagious delta variant. These facial coverings might be okay for a quick run into a grocery or picking up takeout, but real protection comes with N95 and KN95. The N95 and KN95 give hours upon hours protection, are widely available and can be used over and over until they get dirty. There are even KN95 masks for children. If you can’t find a comfortable N95 or KN95, the CDC has a whole section on how to improve the protection from the surgical/procedure masks our next best choice. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/mask-fit-and-filtration.html Johnston Medical stocks the surgical pleated style mask for children, but you can order KN95 for children online. https://www.johnstonmedicalsupply.com/ 

If you don’t care about yourself, don’t care about your family or neighbors, don’t care about children, just keep in mind if you have a pet at home, your cat or dog can catch COVID from you. 

On to city meetings 

Monday was a special meeting of the council Public Safety Committee with one item from Councilmember Terry Taplin prohibiting Ghost Guns. It was listed as a referral to the city manager, but Councilmember Wengraf quickly picked up that a fully completed ordinance should come to the committee for review and markup before going to the full council for a vote. A referral would just sit in the city manager’s spreadsheet of things to do. Councilmember Kesarwani on the other hand proposed a motion to move the item forward as a referral. It’s hard to know if Kesarwani isn’t paying attention or just doesn’t understand how council and council committees function. It’s a mystery. In the end, Taplin will bring back an ordinance. 

Tuesday evening was the Pier-Ferry workshop #2. Jim McGrath and I were called “heavy hitters” in the breakout meeting with our comments and questions. Despite what the Pier-Ferry team says, the decision has been made. It would be a complete shock for the momentum to stop at this point. There has never been a merging of the proposed pier-ferry designs and recreation. McGrath shared the mapping wind surfers have done by carrying GPS devices, which was the only way we could see it despite his statement that these have been sent to the team. McGrath also reminded the team of measure L which requires a public vote when recreation/park areas are impacted. 

Wednesday was the Parks Commission. The revision of the Ashby/I80 Interchange will be a vast improvement. Adopt-a-Spot received unanimous support and will move forward to council. 

The last meeting I attended I learned of at the last minute, a meet-up of the California Native Plant Society Yerba Buena Group with David Ackerly, professor in the departments of Integrative Biology and Environmental Science, Policy and Management and Dean of the Rausser College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley, speaking on Climate Change and Future of Biodiversity Conservation in California. 

His focus is trees. What was interesting were the pictures of the changing mix of oaks and pine. With warming the native oaks, which are more tolerant to heat and drought, increased in density while pines in the same area declined. It was the response of nature not human intervention. 

As always, a close with my latest reading. A friend called me a “reading machine.” I’ve been reading Douglas Tallamy’s books on restoring native habitat and watching his YouTube videos. Tallamy often quotes Edward O. Wilson, “Insects are the little things that run the world…” 

With that encouragement, I picked up Half-Earth Our Planet’s Fight for Life by Edward O. Wilson, 2016. As one who is doesn’t feel elderly but falls in that category, I love it when people continue to contribute and share a lifetime of knowledge. Wilson, who is still alive and active, wrote Half-Earth when he was 87 (born 6/10/1929). 

As I read Half-Earth, I thought of the game giant jenga that was played at the wedding party “groom’s dinner.” Tallamy poses the question, does an ecosystem depend on the health and presence of the “keystone” like the oak or is an ecosystem like jenga where blocks can be pulled one by one, until so many pieces are pulled the tower collapses? 

In this book Wilson gives weight to the organisms we don’t see and that leaving little plots of nature here and there can’t sustain ecosystems. 

On and in the earth and the seas, there is still so much to learn and discover. 

We can all agree there is a need for more housing, but SB 9 and 10, currently on track for final state approval, bring major problems instead of real solutions to our housing problems. SB 9 and 10 will build a future filled with market rate speculation achieved through a state-driven “one-size fits all” future policy direction applied to every city in California from tiny Angels Camp to gigantic Los Angeles. Neither addresses our real need, affordable housing.

SB 9 supporters say single-family zoning must be eliminated because opponents are “racists” who want to continue past “red lining” practices. We can’t change the awful things that have occurred in the past, but what we can do is to ensure that today discrimination issues are correctly being addressed and vigorously support such efforts in regard to both homeowners and renters. We also well understand that up-coming State mandated measures regarding Accessory Dwelling Units that allow one ADU and a Jr-ADU on each single-family parcel, will already eliminate single-family zoning as we know it. However, SB 9 goes much further by allowing lot splits in single-family zones even after full ADU development, so that together, each lot split could have 4 to 6 units where only one formerly existed. Worse yet, SB 9 provides that approvals for such development can be done “ministerially” by a city worker, without any notice to neighbors or public hearing.

SB 10 allows 10 - 14 units on each parcel with a single-family home, again through a “ministerial” process. It also allows bypassing California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review and local voter initiatives, such as our 1986 Measure L which calls for a vote of the people when public open space is to be developed for other than recreational purposes. 

Berkeley is only 8 - 9 square miles big and it’s already developed as one of the most dense cities in the Bay Area, Our eastern border is a Wildfire Urban Interface Zone and land along our western border has been found to be sinking and will be impacted by Sea Level Rise projections. We are bisected by the Alquist-Priolo (Hayward Fault) Earthquake Zone (said to be the most dangerous fault line in the U.S) with hillsides studded by USGS designated landslide areas. We have old, failing infrastructure – water, sewer, and power lines - that must be upgraded to support new development which under SB 9 and 10 will be at the expense of the taxpayers, not the developers. And we have 44 miles of streets, mostly in the hills, that are so narrow (26 feet wide or less) that cannot accommodate emergency vehicles and resident evacuation. 

SB 9 says there are exemptions to increased development if the parcel is located in a high-fire severity zone “unless the site has adopted fire hazard mitigation measures required by existing building standards,” but there are questions as what this means. Some analysts say it doesn’t mean anything because every building built anywhere has to meet building standards, and it says nothing about how residents can flee an approaching wildfire. CalFire maps show only Fire Zone 3 is a “high-fire risk” zone, yet narrow streets exist in Fire Zone 2 too. A recent UC Berkeley study, Urban Density Effect on Wildfire Evacuation, using 1991 firestorm conditions applied to the Berkeley Hills, indicated that residents have only two hours to evacuate. Our former Fire Chief said that under certain conditions Berkeley could burn down from ridge to shore in just one hour. Just days ago, we were officially advised that all hillside residents leave the city when there are weather conditions such as high winds, high temperatures and low humidity. That’s just the kind of weather we can anticipate in the next few months! What more proof is needed that increasing the number of people in these known dangerous areas defies common sense? Lives are at risk. 

Cities all over California and the League of California Cities are protesting SB 9 and 10. Thirty-six communities in Southern California, with majorities of Black and Latino residents, are proclaiming their opposition because they have worked hard and long to become neighbors, homeowners and renters together, in a single-family neighborhood. A newly released poll by Obama campaign pollster David Binder shows 71% opposed to SB 9 and 75% opposed to SB 10. A poll by Berkeley Neighborhoods Council of Berkeley residents gives similar results for SB 9 with 76.5% opposed citywide, and every single Council District indicating more than a 2.3s majority opposed. 

For those who dismiss such concerns in the belief that building more housing will result in affordability, please think again. The cost of building is tied to land and construction costs. The new units proposed under these bills will not pencil out so that less than market rate can occur. If you think that the number of new units (the old supply and demand theory) will drive down the price, take a look at New York City, the most dense of US cities where rents and ownership have never ever gone down. 

Our own City Council refused to oppose SB 9 as written We are now down to the wire and this is the time for us to join the statewide effort to defeat SB 9 and 10 The State Legislature is in recess until August 16. Please immediately write your representatives, State Senate and Assembly and the Governor and let them know of your opposition. Then, let’s all get together and work on getting some affordable housing in our cities. It’s all up to us now and we can do it, if we stand united and work to defeat SB 9 and 20! 

A long time resident of Berkeley, Dorothy passed into eternal rest on June 9, 2021. Dorothy was an administrative assistant at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, and an active member of the U.C. Berkeley Retirees' Board of Directors. She did radio broadcasting for the blind in San Francisco for many years and worked as a volunteer for Tele-Care, a Sutter-Alta Bates Foundation Outreach Program at Herrick Hospital. 

A lover of theatre, she was a playwright, author of three plays produced at Dominican University Festival of One-Act Plays in San Rafael, California. She wrote radio plays in New York in the 1950's and for many years was a frequent contributor of commentaries for the Berkeley Daily Planet. 

She was a volunteer at the Aurora Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre as well as theatres in San Francisco. An activist, she participated in many local anti-war rallies and peace groups.  

Dorothy loved traveling. She was a long-time Elderhostel/Road Scholar supporter and participant in dozens of programs in the U.S. and overseas. 

She was a member of Newman Hall-Holy Spirit Church in Berkeley. No funeral is planned, but a Memorial Mass will be scheduled at a later date. Relatives include Sally and Daniel Kennerk of Fremont, California. She is mourned by many dear friends and colleagues. 

Atemu Aton, beloved Bay Area jazz musician and educator, passed away on March 25, 2020 after a battle with cancer.

Born on February 26, 1958, Atemu grew up with his family on the South Side of Chicago during the turbulent and restless 1960’s and ’70’s. As a young man Atemu changed his name to reflect the truth, beauty, and strength of his African ancestry. He continued infusing his life with grace and light through his creativity and love of Music, Truth, and Justice.

After graduating from Chicago State University with a BA in Music, Atemu moved to Boston to further his musical studies at Berklee College of Music, and went on to pursue a MA in Music Composition at New England Conservatory of Music.

Atemu dedicated his life to Music. He was a prolific jazz composer and bassist, playing gigs across Europe, Africa, and throughout the States with bands such as Boston Art Quartet,

Modern Times Quintet. Either/Orchestra, Sheer, The Aton Project, Light Henry Huff, and Against the Grain, among others. He performed throughout the Bay Area. His music is featured on CD’s recorded by artists he worked with as well as on those he released of his own original music. 

Atemu served the community as a lifelong teacher of Music to youth in our public schools. His teaching career began in Chicago and took him to St. Lucia V.I., Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, Tennessee, and the San Francisco Bay Area, where he was a founding faculty member and chairman of the Instrumental Music Department at Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) for over a decade. Atemu brought innovation and creativity to his leadership, implementing new programs such as OSA Combo and Drum Core (African drumming). He brought in renowned musicians to teach workshops and jam with the students, such as local percussionist John Santos, Grammy Award-winning bassist Victor Wooten, and legendary percussionist Pete Escovedo. Atemu also lent his hand to the school’s Musical Theater and Dance productions, directing the music for many shows over the years. Atemu resigned from OSA in 2014 to pursue other avenues of creative expression through Music. 

Atemu met his future wife of thirty years, Nora (Handel), in Boston, and after 10 years together they moved to Martha’s Vineyard, where they married and had their daughter, Kyla. It was their longing to be in a hub with an activist culture that drew them to the San Francisco Bay Area, where the family settled and has lived for the past 18 years. Their daughter from Atemu’s 

previous marriage, Nakhitut, resides in Atlanta with her husband and their four children. 

Atemu also leaves behind his mother, Louise, siblings Walter Jr., Fatimah, and Carolyn, and four grandchildren, Trey, Giovanni, Camia, and Kyrie, along with a host of loving nieces, nephews, cousins, in-laws, and many friends. Atemu was predeceased by his father, Walter Sr., and his brother Thoth. 

A Memorial Celebration was held virtually in December, 2020. The family requests that any 

donations be made to the Bay Area’s Fly Me to the Foon Scholarship Fund, named in honor of Neel Foon, a former Music student at Oakland School for the Arts. Donations will further the Musical education of our youth at OSA. For further info: www.ebcf.org/donate/flymetothefoon. 

Rest in peace and power, Atemu. You remain deeply loved and missed.

It is with a breaking heart that we inform you that Michael Morgan, Music Director and Conductor of Oakland Symphony since 1991, died peacefully today, August 20, 2021 at Oakland Kaiser where he had been admitted last week for an infection. He was 63.

In May of this year, Michael Morgan underwent successful kidney transplant surgery at UCSF. He resumed conducting last month for the San Francisco Symphony and Bear Valley Music Festival.

Micahel was born in Washington, D.C., where he attended public schools and began conducting at the age of 12. While a student at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, he spent a summer at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, studying with Gunther Schuller and Seiji Ozawa. He first worked with Leonard Bernstein during that same summer. His operatic debut was in 1982 at the Vienna State Opera, conducting Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio. In 1986, Sir Georg Solti chose him to become the Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a position he held for seven years under both Solti and Daniel Barenboim. In 1986, he was invited by Leonard Bernstein to make his debut with the New York Philharmonic. As guest conductor, Morgan has appeared with most of America’s major orchestras, as well as the New York City Opera, St. Louis Opera Theater, and Washington National Opera. 

In addition to his duties with the Oakland Symphony, Maestro Morgan served as Artistic Director of Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, Music Director at Bear Valley Music Festival, and Music Director of Gateways Music Festival. He was Music Director Emeritus of the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera and was on the boards of Oaktown Jazz Workshops and the Purple Silk Music Education Foundation. 

In 2020, he began an association with the San Francisco Symphony as the first curator of their Currents online series, and he recently led the Orchestra on July 23 at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco in what the San Francisco Chronicle’s Joshua Kosman said, “Some conductors use a guest appearance with a major orchestra as an opportunity to show what they can do. Michael Morgan uses it to show what the orchestra can do. I like his way better.” 

His programming engaged new audiences and many returned for subsequent concerts. Notable personalities like W. Kamau Bell and Dolores Huerta were invited to share the “Playlist” of music that shaped their lives and values. Michael’s “Notes From…” concerts explored the music and musicians of such specific communities as Vietnam, Korea, Native American and LGBTQ+. “Lost Romantics” gave deserving, neglected works of the late 19th century a new hearing. And “American Masterworks” presented performances of such seminal stage works as “West Side Story,” “Candide,” “Street Scene,” “Porgy and Bess,” and “Show Boat.” The San Francisco Chronicle proclaimed, "In his 30 years as music director of the Oakland Symphony, Morgan has made that orchestra a vibrant hotbed for innovative programming.” 

"Our entire organization is grieving a profound loss,” Jim Hasler, the Symphony’s Board Chair said. “Michael’s impact on our community and the national orchestra field cannot be overstated - and he has left us too soon. We have been blessed over the past 30 years, as Michael built the foundations of an Oakland Symphony dedicated to diversity, education, artistic collaboration and a celebration of music across genres and cultures. His vision of orchestras as service organizations was a beacon locally and nationally. This vision is his legacy, and the Oakland Symphony, Chorus and Youth Orchestra will renew his commitment for years to come.”  

“This is a terribly sad moment for everyone in the Oakland Symphony family. We have lost our guiding father,” said Executive Director Mieko Hatano. “Michael’s plans and ambitions were set for several seasons to come. He made his Orchestra socially authentic, demanded equality, and he made his Orchestra our orchestra. He fashioned a unique, informed artistic profile that attracted one of the most diverse audiences in the nation. His music reflected his beliefs: reverence for the past, attuned to the future, rooted in his adopted home of Oakland. His spirit will always guide the enduring future of the Oakland Symphony.”  

Michael Morgan is survived by his mother Mabel Morgan, and sister Jacquelyn Morgan. A memorial service will be announced in the near future.

From University of California Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ’s “Campus Update”, August 24, 2021:

“Dear Cal alumni and friends:

“The beginning of the school year has always been a magical time for me — a blank sheet of paper, the first page of a novel….

Well, no, it’s not. The beginning of this school year, like those before it, is not a tabula rasa. Like every other milestone, it has the weight of history on top of it.

Mrs. Christ, described on the UC website as a “celebrated scholar of Victorian literature” seems to have forgotten some of the popular aphorisms in the liberal arts tradition, and she’s accumulated the lawsuits to prove it.

First, from Shakespeare’s Tempest: “Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come, on yours and my discharge.”

The history weighing on Christ’s cheeky plan to obliterate a City of Berkeley historic landmark, People’s Park, must be prologue to what the University will choose to do in the future. The university/industrial complex (aka public-private partnership) has had its eye on that space ever since UC condemned by eminent domain and demolished most of a residential block on the densely populated Southside. The past history Christ’s ignoring is the passionate defense of this iconic public open space, which cost one life and ensuing years of turmoil accompanied by purposeful neglect.

Something similar could happen again, but a lawsuit filed this week by The People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group and a neighborhood group, Make UC a Good Neighbor, is intended to prevent that. 

The same two groups are also trying to stop the city of Berkeley’s precipitous capitulation to UC’s expansion plans. Students of the Book of Genesis might describe that deal as “selling our birthright for a mess of pottage”, a meal defined by Wikipedia as “something immediately attractive but of little value taken foolishly and carelessly in exchange for something more distant and perhaps less tangible but immensely more valuable.’ 

The city’s pottage adds up to a total of about $83 million over 20 years in compensation for city services, about $4 million a year, for city services which are estimated to have fair market value of something like $20 million per annum. The suit against the city of Berkeley alleges that because the deal with UC was done in secret it was a Brown Act violation and therefore void. 

Then there’s another variously attributed warning about learning from history. From a Virginia Tech website: 

“Irish statesman Edmund Burke is often misquoted as having said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” Spanish philosopher George Santayana is credited with the aphorism, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” while British statesman Winston Churchill wrote, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” 

It's an apt analysis, whoever said it first, and the UCB chancellor should have heard of the concept. The multiple lawsuits challenging the environmental impact reports filed by UC for the variety of planned projects the school wants to build all over the city of Berkeley provide ample illustration of the principle. 

Environmental impact reports, as specified by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), are supposed to provide current and historic data to form the basis for predicting future effects, but one of the plaintiffs who filed last week , Berkeley Citizens for a Better Plan, (BC4BP) charges that UC offers “an unintelligible and legally inadequate EIR [which] fails to include necessary and legally required baseline data and substitutes unsupported summary conclusions for meaningful discussion.” 

Chancellor Christ displayed an incomplete acquaintance with another more modern aphorism in her Convocation message to graduating students: 

“It wasn’t long after I graduated from college that the wonderful Canadian musician Joni Mitchell sang about how ‘you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.’ “ 

Uh-huh. Yes indeed, Joni did say that. Many of us, especially if we write about historic preservation, have used that quote all too often in the past half century. 

I used it myself in the first piece I wrote for paid publication, right after I moved back to the Bay in 1973, about plans to tear down the Fox Theater in Oakland. They didn’t tear it down in the end, but I’ve had all too many chances to employ that quote. 

Mrs. Christ, deliberately or ignorantly, left out the rest of Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi. The other money quote: “they paved Paradise and put up a parking lot, With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot.” 

That would be a summary of the way the BC4BP complaint describes one of UCB’s planned projects, Anchor House, which is a tasteless combination of luxury dorm and shopping mall funded by a big, big donor with questionable politics. Here’s the description: 

“The structure will be massive: 16-stories complete with paid, under-ground public parking and floors of large income-producing commercial, retail, event spaces, and offices with exclusive student residential units above. The residences, which will be exclusively available to about 700 transfer students (for a housing fee), all feature single bedrooms with small suites each of which have kitchens, in-suite laundry, and lavish living areas, as well as separate student-only fitness and yoga facilities and recreational spaces. The project will require eviction of long-term, nonstudent tenants and demolition of their rent-controlled apartment building (1921 Walnut Street) and of the Walter Ratcliff designed landmark UC Garage. The height of the structure is well above that previously agreed to by UCB or contemplated in the Downtown design plan that it collaborated in creating."  

Demographic note: “Transfer” students are often wealthy foreign students who enter with a year of credit through international baccalaureate programs. 

Or how about People’s Park? 

“The Park Project will consist of two buildings to be built on People’s Park: one large L-shaped building formed by the intersection of a 17-story mixed-use tower on the Northside and a somewhat lower tower along the Westside of the parcel; and one stand-alone lower-rise building with office space on the Southside. The low-rise building may include some supported public housing to be run by an unknown community organization. The larger tower will contain a large retail area; little is disclosed about the remaining spaces although some descriptions state they include residential, academic, and leisure areas.” 

Another big commercial space. Harvey Smith, the organizer of the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy group, characterizes UCB’s generic long-term plan as “the monetization of everything.” 

From the BC4BP complaint: 

“Instead of adding square footage for educational, research, or much needed student housing, the LRDP proposes construction of hundreds of thousands of square feet of new income-producing commercial, retail, event, and office space in these locations with incidental amounts of academic and student housing elements. 

“It intends that by 2036-37, it will have demolished over 40 landmarked and/or historic structures and landscapes on the UCB campus and around Berkeley’s predominantly Southside to make room for its planned addition of greatly increased population, student housing, educational, retail, conference, and commercial space.” 

What’s ironic is that since all these grandiose schemes were first concocted, things at UCB have materially changed. In the time of COVID, UC’s system of huge in-person lectures by famous figures is more and more dubious, as is dense congregate housing for students. The immediate future might instead be digital at home—this fall semester is a giant experiment. Monetization of the University of California might be easier online with a global audience. 

And the lawsuits keep coming. Another EIR suit challenge has just been filed by The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, which represents UC employees. Yesterday’s decision by Judge Brad Seligman in favor of another group, Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods, which halts student enrollment increases until adequate EIRs are completed to the court’s satisfaction, is the capstone of the whole endeavor. UCB expansion is likely to be delayed for at least two years. 

This victory will benefit all the other CEQA suits as well—except, of course, the one which the City of Berkeley bailed on. 

Too bad, Berkeley citizens—how do you like your pottage now? 

Readers might wonder why the organization of the Planet’s front page has been looking different somehow lately. The answer is that I’ve decided to try to free myself from the tyranny of the deadline. As you might or might not know, I’m working with legacy software which is now more than two decades old, designed for a publication that was originally in print but never actually daily. The name is cute, really cuter than my own taste, but we own the URL, and we have something like a thousand subscribers, the grandiose name for people who like to get emails with a list of links instead of looking at the front page, so we’ll keep it for now. That’s the editorial “we” by the way, since everything you see has been donated by the authors. I handle the editorial duties and Mike O’Malley provides tech consultation and processes the graphics. We have almost all opinion, not “news” in the traditional impartial fact-checked sense, though if something seems dubious to me I just don’t post it. We welcome submissions as Word documents which are best for conversion to our format. These days if you look at the front page you’ll see “Editorial”, “Columns”, “Arts and Events”, “Extra” and “Obituaries” as categories. Articles will be posted as they come in, and these letters to subscribers will be sent from time to time, approximately randomly until further notice.

Why Is KCBS Trumpeting Trumpism?

On August 24, KCBS news radio aired a disturbing new commercial. Just before the station's "news on the half hour" the announcement rang out loud and clear: We should all tune in to Newsmax, the recorded voice urged. Why? Because "President Donald Trump says: 'They're really great!'"

While the ad avoided naming any of the network's ultra-conservative content providers, it's a matter of record that Newsmax hosts a biggly number of ex-Trump staffers. Former One America News (OAN) conspiracy-pusher Jenn Pellegrino now shares a Newsmax mic with Steve Cortes, formerly a senior advisor with Trump's failed election campaign. And, whenever Trump misses his old pal and former press-hating press secretary Sean Spicer, all he needs do is flip his dial to "Spicer & Co" on Newsmax.

Newsmax ranks to the right of its nearest competitor, Fox News, and has hired a number of on-air talents from the Fox News stable. Newsmax's Christopher Ruddy, the company's Owner and Editor, is a conservative with an estimated net worth of $100 million. Back in his days at the New York Post, Ruddy promoted the conspiracy tale that White House counsel Vincent Foster was murdered by the Clintons. A profile in the New York Times called Ruddy "the most audacious media entrepreneur of the Trump election fantasy" and characterized Newsmax as "a pure vehicle for Trumpism" and "the home of alternate reality."

Initial attempts to reach KCBS for comment were fruitless. Requests for comment were forwarded to unnamed individuals who never answered. In one case, a recorded message announced: "4113 does not subscribe to this service. Please, try again later. Goodbye." 

I finally sent KCBS an email message and spoke with a colleague at the station who offered to look into the quandary. As of press time, I've failed to receive any response.  

But (good news), the ad is no longer being broadcast. 

Happy Birthday! Prepare to Die! 

There was a birthday card in my mail. The cover depicted a jolly image of colorful balloons floating in a clean blue sky. It was from my doctor who wanted to celebrate the "milestone" and make sure I was staying active "for just 30 minutes 5 days a week" and might even be "walking, gardening, stretching, or dancing. Anything that gets you moving is great!" 

Also recommended for maintaining "emotional well-being": "breathing exercises and meditation" and "finding ways to stay connected with loved ones, friends, and neighbors." 

There was one other suggestion, however, that was tailor-suited to my age group: "Complete an Advance Health Care Directive." The AHCD is part of a Life Care Planning program that establishes a "durable power of attorney" that can be put to use "if there's a time in the future when you can't speak." 

No matter how practical and well-intentioned, that particular birthday greeting left me speechless. 

Karmic Strips 

It's rare that a comic strip triggers a sudden, unexpected reordering of the known universe but that was the case with the August 28 episode of Sherman's Lagoon, J. P. Toomey's commentary on social relations as seen through the eyes of a dim-witted shark and his crabby aquatic friends. 

In the Tuesday strip, Sherman shares a news-bite with a dolphin: "Fillmore tells me you dolphins have personality traits similar to humans." The dolphin's response left me plop-dazed: "Well," the sea-mammal replies, "We were here first, so THEY would be similar to US." 

If dolphins pre-date the Dawn of Man, might they bear some responsibility for socially disruptive human character traits? Are some dolphins compassionate and selfless while others are greedy and self-serving? Can a dolphin be a narcissistic blowhard? (I'm trying to image Trump with fins.) 

War and God: Cast from the Same Mold? 

David Swanson, the Executive Director of World BEYOND War, recently wrote an essay titled: "War: Ever More Present and Absent" in which he mused:
"in the United States, war and militarism—or some weird shadow of them—are everywhere: endless thank yous ["for your service"], special parking places and airplane boarding, endless recruitment ads and weapons ads, countless movies and television shows. War is relentlessly normalized. And, oddly, the ubiquity of war celebration has made war so unquestionable that there are few objections when war is not mentioned—even on occasions when it should be." 

These observations on the normalization of war prompted the following thoughts:
War is like God: omnipresent but invisible; to be worshipped without question or doubt; viewed as sacred and everlasting; deserving of obedience and sacrifice; promising privilege for those who serve; offering the figment of "life everlasting" for those who commit murder in the here-and-now; a force with a record of planet-wide destruction that includes eradication by Flood and the ultimate threat of a nuclear "Fire Next Time." 

Trump Faces De-parkification 

New Yorkers have proposed a new form of rebuke to rebuff the Orange Orangutan. "He stomped all over our Constitution, incited an insurrection, and made our country the laughing stock of the world," the Democratic Leadership team argues, so why should there be a state park that bears his name? 

The Trump-Thumpers have proposed that the DJT State Park in New York State be renamed "in honor of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg." The rationale is simple: "Trump tried to erase her legacy as soon as she passed by rushing to replace her" and renaming the site after Ginsburg would not only "honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s amazing legacy" but it also would "make Trump furious!"  

Two Years of Accomplishments in Two Minutes  

At the end of 2020, New York's irrepressible Democratic Congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, decided to go online and list her accomplishments for the previous year. Her stated goal was to wrap up the recap in two minutes of YouTube time. But this turned out to be one of those rare tasks that AOC couldn't accomplish—instead of a two-minute recap, it took more than four minutes to list most of her major initiatives, campaigns, and victories. 

AOC may be on to something here. Perhaps Washington would be more productive if every Congressmember and Senator had to sit in front of a camera at year's end and recite a list of their most impressive achievements. 

We Had WATERGATE: Now It's Time for the WARGATE Hearings 

The current events in Afghanistan prove, once again, that US military intervention does not secure peace. 

Proposal: Call for Congressional Hearings into the Afghanistan Debacle—and Pentagon's History of Waste and Failure. 

Don't scapegoat Biden for the Afghanistan debacle. Look beyond the last few weeks of the US occupation. Identify the forces that are really responsible for decades of death, destruction, and deceit—the Pentagon and the apparatus of the American Empire. 

This latest failed war should raise the question: 

If War doesn't WORK, why do we keep EMPLOYING it? 

The answer: Powerful corporate interests profit off war. 

Pentagon strategies are designed to maintain a global empire—while millions of American families struggle with poverty. 

The evidence is clear: "Military intelligence" is a contradiction in terms. 

It's time to stop firing rifles and missiles and start firing admirals and generals. 

How about inviting all US peace/progressive/social justice/environmental/humanitarian groups/movements/think-tanks to issue a joint statement demanding a Congressional investigation into the real history of the US military's record of war crimes and mission failures? 

A WARGATE Commission could expose what America's wars have cost the US and the world. And document how the country has been repeatedly "lied into war." 

We need to challenge the Military-Industrial-Complex (MIC), which is on track to promote new clashes with China, Russia, and North Korea. 

We could call for the military to be down-funded and repurposed "to protect the US homeland" from the devastating impacts of climate change. Our soldiers could swap their rifles for shovels and howitzers for hoes to promote restoration instead of devastation. China's soldiers have planted 66 billion trees and China has begun building ingenious "sponge cities" to withstand floods and drought. 

Desperately needed: A foreign policy model that is based on global Cooperation, not imperial Competition. 

The final key question: How many members of the current Congress would support such a Truth Commission? 

CBS Mocks the MIC 

One of the country's major TV networks has dared to record a "send-up/take-down" of Washington's all-powerful-and-seldom-mentioned Military-Industrial-Complex. In the following cartoon lampoon of mainstream news feeds (part of an ongoing series titled "Tooning Out the News" hosted by Stephen Colbert's Late Show), a Pentagon fighter jet speaks up to make the case for maintaining Afghanistan's status as a "forever war." 

As Climate Changes, Will Our Language Change Along With It? 

The global eco-group World’s Youth for Climate Justice recently issued a major report titled: "Human Rights in the Face of the Climate Crisis: A Youth-led Initiative to Bring Climate Justice to the International Court of Justice."  

"The human rights of people living in communities on the frontline of the climate crisis are already being impacted, and violated today," the report observes. "Despite these efforts, global society continues to implement sustainable solutions at no more than a glacial pace." 

A "glacial pace"? The relevance of that time-honored phrase has evaporated thanks to rising temperatures. With Greenland's glaciers melting into the sea as snowflakes turn into rain (for the first time in recorded history), the phrase "glacial pace" no longer applies as a description of slow, imperceptible progress. 

Climate change has become so erratic that we may need to start rebuilding our language. How many other weather-related phrases might be at risk? Michael Bublé may no longer be singing "Kiss me on this cold December night" and there would be no more concerns about Hell freezing over. 

The Seaspiracy Conspiracy 

On my Sunday morning run through Live Oak Park, I discovered a message repeatedly stenciled on the park's asphalt path. It read: "Seaspiracy. Netflix." After my jog, I grabbed my laptop to investigate. 

Seaspiracy turns out to be a documentary featuring a dramatic compilation of bad news about the exploitation of the planet's polluted, dying oceans. Here's the trailer: 

Seaspiracy examines the global fishing industry, challenging notions of sustainable fishing and showing how human actions cause widespread environmental destruction. 

Watching the trailer, I was stunned when an unidentified speaker complained: "Where are all the big environmental groups? They are deliberately not engaging with the most important issue of all." 

This is a manifestly false accusation. How can anyone ignore the decades of global confrontations staged by Greenpeace campaigners, Sea Shepherd activists, or the foundational efforts of Berkeley-based Earth Island Institute, whose International Marine Mammal Project shocked and galvanized the world by covertly filming the deaths of dolphins in commercial fishing nets. 

The filmmakers apparently hold a hyper-vegan view that, quite rightly, sees consumption of fish, fowl, and livestock is an unsustainable practice. By that measure, however, green groups that try to create "sustainable" fishing or farming practices are to be targeted as sell-outs or, worse, complicit. 

In an extensive on-line rebuttal, Earth Island debunks the documentary's false statements and accuses the filmmakers of manipulating quotes and taking statements out of context. Similar complaints have been lodged by other environmental activists who were interviewed for the documentary. 

China Takes Delight in Outperforming the US 

China's government-directed Dongsheng News is eagerly dishing out weekly reminders that China is taking the lead in global productivity, financial growth, and geopolitical influence. 

Dongsheng recently cited a ChinAfrica report boasting that "museum culture thrives in China." To say the least! According to the dispatch, in the five years from 2016 to 2020, "an average of one museum was opened every two days (totaling 5,788); despite the pandemic, last year's 29,000 exhibitions and 225,000 educational activities received 540 million visitors." Stick that in your Guggenheim and smoke it, America!
And, when it comes to addressing climate change, China's got a Green Thumb program that puts the US Bureau of Land Management to shame. According to Dongsheng: "China plans to plant 33.33 million hectares of forest and grassland by 2025 to achieve carbon neutrality goals. Having created the world's largest planted forests that increased coverage from 12% to 23% (1980s- 2020), China plans to further increase forests to 24.1%—including national parks (18% of land area)—and grasslands to 57% by 2025." 

Give It Away, Uncle Sam
Check out this protest song from Down Under journalist-and-rabble-rouser Caitlin Johnstone. Here is her introduction: 

I made this song for my dear darling Dad as a present for this coming Father's Day, which is held on the first Sunday in September in Australia. The words are his. They come from an impassioned poem he wrote from the depths of his guts when he heard the news that the pointless tragedy that was the US mission in Afghanistan had finally stuttered to an ignominious end. So this one is for all the boomer rebels who not only lit the spark, they maintain the rage to this day. 

Give It Away, Uncle Sam
Words by Graeme Johnstone
Video footage Wikipedia Creative Commons 

I had planned that this writing of the Activist’s Diary for August 22 would be published while I was away (you’ll see those comments in the next edition), but something happened with the email. I thought I had sent my Activist’s Diary as I rushed out the door in the middle of the night to catch a 6:30 am flight, but it didn’t arrive in the Planet email box as intended. It is floating or shall I say disappeared somewhere in the internet ether. Here it goes:  

I have been watching the bungled exit from Afghanistan and wondering who is going to take the fall. The finger pointing has started and the scene is rapidly changing. Anything I can write will have changed by the time you read this. 

The question is, How could the exit strategy have been so wrong when there were pleas and warnings everywhere? It is much the same as how could the warnings of January 6^th been missed when the plans were there for anyone who looked. 

Once again, climate has taken a back seat even with one catastrophe after another and smoke filling the upper sky with one noted very welcome exception. U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason threw out key permits for the ConocoPhillips’s Willow project on the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. 

The Dixie Fire continues to grow and one has to wonder if the burning of California will only stop after everything is gone. The absence of water is the other looming threat. The Colorado supplies water for 40 million people and the water level is so low its condition is called a code red. What if rain doesn’t come this winter? Have we thought about that? It is a possibility. 

None of this has stopped the re-emergence of students. They are everywhere, moving in and filling the streets. I’m sure the businesses that managed to survive during the heat of the pandemic are thrilled with the glut of returning customers. I do miss the quiet streets that emerged along with the songbirds and nature when we were all sent home to shelter in place. 

There are few meetings this week and they will take place too late for me to capture them in this Diary. The Wildfire Evacuation Workshop is definitely worth your time. The last offering is Thursday, August 26^th. Before diving in to what is most on my mind I wish to mention, it would be appropriate for the police person driving the vehicle with the license 1610317 around noon on August 18, not to block the handicapped space on Stuart next to Johnston Medical. There were plenty of open spaces on the street and it shouldn’t be that difficult for the police person to take a few extra steps before diving into Sconehenge Bakery & Cafe. I have a picture of the vehicle in case the chief happens to read this and needs documentation. 

What is most on my mind is the book I just finished Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez, published May 2020. I got the audiobook from the San Francisco Library and sent a text to my best friend, another avid reader, after listening to the first couple of chapters. Jesus and John Wayne has a 5/5 rating, which may explain how my friend started it Sunday and finished Monday. It took me until Tuesday morning. The book is described as an intersection of gender, religion and politics. 

Much of the focus was on militaristic masculinity, but the chapter on CWA (Concerned Women of America), the evangelical women’s organization with a mission to carry forward the pro-family, anti-feminist cause, was far more organized than I realized. While Planned Parenthood has used each erosion of women’s reproductive rights as a fund raiser with never a call to action in the street, members of CWA were reported as 98% having voted, 93% had signed a petition, 77% had boycotted a product or company, 74% had contacted a public official and nearly half had written a letter to the editor. 

No wonder women have been losing our reproductive rights. Sure, there have been some wins in the court, but we have been outflanked by activism in the evangelical ranks. We need to turn this around. 

I highly recommend reading Jesus and John Wayne. Here are a few of the texts my friend and I exchanged on the book: 

J: “Fascinating. Learning Lots. Did not know how militaristic these evangelicals are. Frightening how they infiltrated the Air Force Academy. Learned how Tom Delay was ousted through the influence of Dobson who installed John Thune. They are very influential in our government... 

Me: Finished yes me too was marginally aware but no idea of the depth and promotion of the militaristic masculinity. I never really tied the two together. Will no longer be able to separate the evangelicals from toxic masculinity. Toxic masculinity invades fundamental religions no matter which denomination and denomination seems better described as domination. 

J: As I listened to this book it made me think about the book [Under the Banner of Heaven] we read years ago about that fringe Mormon group. The attitude of the evangelicals is not that far removed from the attitude of the Taliban…” 

And that brings us back to Afghanistan. What will happen? Will women actually have a place other than under a burqa? 

In Mississippi one person was hospitalized for ingesting ivermectin — a horse dewormer — to prevent or treat the coronavirus. Reportedly, the state’s poison control center has received an increasing number of calls from individuals with potential ivermectin exposure taken to treat or prevent the virus. Mississippi State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs warned that there is no scientific evidence that ivermectin is effective at preventing or treating covid-19 and is dangerous if ingested by humans. 

Between March and this month, Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham promoted the use of ivermectin as an alternative Covid-19 treatment to millions of viewers on their prime-time shows. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) was suspended from YouTube in June for posting a video touting ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as treatments for covid-19.  

It seems Ivermectin is the new hydroxychloroquine Studies show hydroxychloroquine does not have clinical benefits in treating Covid-19. Yet Trump still touts it as an effective treatment for Covid-19. And remember when Trump was criticized by the medical community after suggesting research into whether coronavirus might be treated by injecting disinfectant into the body. He also proposed irradiating patients' bodies with UV light. 

Mississippi is at a severe Covid-19 risk level and has one of the lowest vaccine rate. Why would anyone be foolish to buy a horse dewormer at a feed store when vaccines proven to be effective are readily available and free?  

Unless the person advocating a cure for COVID-19 is a medical expert, I suggest you be wary as the “cure" may be dangerous or even fatal. Those getting their news from Trump or Fox News should be especially on guard. 

Short-term Slang

Thanks, in part, to the vexation of trying to thumb-type on Smartphones, the English language has been evolving—with longer words mutating into shorter variations that are quicker to spell. Vacations have become "vacays." A vaccination has become a "vax." Merchandise has become "merch." Credibility is now "cred." Recreation long ago became "rec" and celebrities are now "celebs." So how about fashion becoming "fash." A purchase becoming a "purch." Collaboration becoming "collab." Testimony becoming "test." And brotherhood becoming "brohood." 

Fashion Plates 

There's a marvelous old 1940s-era GMC in the North Berkeley neighborhood that sports a license plate that reads: "BOPP." There's a vehicle with the plate BS4OL79 that may be owned by a cantankerous gent who's about to become an octagenarian (That's the best guess I can make—"B-S- for old 79"?). And there's a Tesla about town that gets a round of applause for a plate that reads: PAS VERT (French for "Go Green.") But we'll have to deduct a couple of points for the clashing color choice: the PAS VERT car is red. 

A question: What do you call someone who's eco-green on the outside but self-promoting red on the inside—a watermelon? In that case, let's call it a watermELON. 

Voicemails I'm Glad I Missed 

My phone recently rang to announce a missed message. The recorded robo-voice announced: "Sorry. An application error has occurred. Goodbye." 

Anyone Who's Not God-fearing, Should Be Beaten to a Pulpit 

A friend recently alerted me to a new satirical voice in the evangeliberal chorus. In the tradition of Stephen Colbert, a pol-com talent who began his syndicated TV career masquerading as a right-wing pundit, we now have Deven Green's impersonation of a bright-eyed lady pastor from the "Landover Baptist Church: Celebrating 214 Years of Soulwinning, Rebuking, Christianizing, And Waiting Around for Jesus!" As their homepage states: these "Civilized Women of God" are "Proud To Be God's Authority on Earth!" 

I was surprised to discover that Pastor Bowers has been pontificating for at least the last 12 years. A longer stint that Colbert's and maybe longer than fellow member-of-the-cloth, The Rev. Billy Talen. Here's a sampler of Betty Bowers preening and preaching her redneck view of the Gospels. 

"An American Sunday School Lesson" with Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian 

Ballistic Delirium 

What do you call it when a gun owner compiles a stockpile of pistols and buckets of bullets far beyond any reasonable definition of the need for self-defense? Could we call the condition "ammophilia"? 

Or we could just stick with "certifiably paranoid." 

This is why background checks make sense. If a gun-store shopper has racked up a purchase record that includes more than a half-dozen weapons and thousands of bullets, that should be a red flag for a peace-centric police intervention. 

Without Background Checks, US Continues to Arm 41 World Dictators 

Too bad "background checks" aren't enforced on the global level. 

The US is the world's leading arms purveyor and it's not about to let anything as reasonable as background checks get in the way of profits. 

According to a government-financed study, the US is currently providing deadly weapons to 82% of the world's 50 "most oppressive governments." But let's be honest and call them what they are—dictatorships. 

Here is Washington's own list of the 41 "customers" who couldn't pass a background check: 

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa), Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Ethiopia, Gabon, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen. 

For some reason, the list failed to include the Pentagon's top recipient of US military aid—Israel, which is seen by many as a serial human rights violator for its occupation of Palestine. 

Here's a solution. Urge your reps to sign the "Stop Arming Human Rights Abusers Act" (H.R.4718), which would prevent US weapons sales to countries that violate international human rights or humanitarian laws. 

It's a Nuclear Bomb: Grab Your Ponchos! 

Buzz Davis, a disabled activist with Veterans for Peace, is waving the flag for a new piece of legislation co-authored by California Congressmember Ro Khanna. Recalling how the Pentagon prepared him to deal with a nuclear attack, Buzz writes: 

"As a former military officer trained as an infantry officer, the only thing I could do to save my men in nuclear war was tell them to hide under their ponchos to protect themselves from being killed by flash burns. 

"If they live thru that, then we get to die by radiation sickness. It is all insane.  

"I strongly urge you to co-sponsor the bill introduced by Senator Ed Markey and Representative Ro Khanna titled the Investing in Cures Before Missiles (ICBM) Act.” (I'm not sure if "ICBM" is an acronym or an inacronym.) 

A Compelling Commentator from Colombo 

I've recently discovered a new website that may be worth a look and a listen.— Indi.ca is the handiwork of Indi Samarajiva, a Net-blogger living in Colombo, Sri Lanka. 

Indi is an extremely prolific writer (covering a range of nearly 100 topic areas ranging from cultural, to political, to personal) who also finds time to produce gripping video commentaries brimming with insight, reflection, discontent and passion. 

Here are two samples. (Caution: Indi gets a bit heated in his discussion of White Privilege and his analysis is peppered with some heart-felt obscenities.) 

We Need To Overthrow The West

What White Privilege Steals From Us

Congratulations! You’ve successfully treated your psychiatric problems and you have attained psychological wellness!

It is bitterly ironic that many psychiatric illnesses go into remission when we are older, and we become able to think more clearly and function better and with more ease; yet, by then, our bodies are decimated, and we don't have much time left. People who live with chronic psychiatric illness typically have substantially shortened lifespans, for numerous reasons.

(In my case, the thinking is far better, but I am not as able to drive long distance, to travel, and/or to work at a job. Things that require a high level of mental energy--and physical energy--are much harder, and I get tired more easily. Yet, I am a lot wiser and cleverer. But wise and clever don't do much for you if you can't leave the house.) 

When a mentally ill patient sees a medical doctor (a psychiatrist is also a medical doctor but specializes in mental illness) and when we present to a "medical doctor" that we are sick or have a medical problem that needs attention, often our lives are not considered valuable, and our nonpsychiatric illnesses and the treatment of them are more readily sidelined. 

Also, mentally ill people like me do not have much tolerance for things like surgery, and could be fearful of this, and may postpone or altogether refuse necessary procedures and surgeries. You can force us to be psychiatrically compliant, but you generally can't force us to be medically compliant. 

The COVID vaccines approved on an emergency basis by the FDA, in my view, represent medical science at its best. These three vaccines rival in the importance of the Polio and Rabies Vaccines. The beauty of a vaccine is it usually come in a shot, and usually stops a disease before it starts. Other categories of medicine are far messier, and some of them cause a lot of suffering and/or unintended consequences. 

Mental illnesses do not have vaccines, but in the distant future, they could. This is only in the circumstance that a viral infection of the nervous system is found to cause some types of mental illness. (Some theorists have put forward that idea.) This, admittedly, is a longshot. 

Mental health treatment, however, is much better than it was before the discovery of Thorazine in 1950, and it is better still following the discovery of Clozaril. Yet, the reader should realize that psychiatric conditions are medical conditions, even though most usage of the English language doesn't reflect this. Medication to treat mental illness, as it is used today, may seem barbaric in the future. In the future, much better medications will be discovered. Or perhaps future doctors will be able to do procedures in which faulty neural routes in the brain are changed. 

(A note concerning patients' rights: The Mental Health Consumer Movement is responsible for legally forcing those in the treating professions to treat us with some level of gentleness and respect. We must not only look at means of treatment, but also at how this is carried out. The past treatment of mental health consumers is shameful, but I don't have space here to discuss that topic.) 

Here's a fact of life for you: People get sick. And when we get older, people get sick more often and with worse things. I know lots of people who have incorporated doctor visits into their normal routine. They might average one or two doctor visits per week. When you get older, your body begins to fall apart. There are different responses you could have to this. You could be medically noncompliant and decide you're not seeing a doctor, or you could cooperate with doctors' advice and see them more often. Neither of these is ideal. 

I don't like doctors and I don't like seeing them. I want to live my life. I am forced to be compliant with psychiatric treatment by life circumstances and by the illness. No one can force me to do more. On the other hand, I do see medical doctors for some problems--I do not completely evade medical doctors. 

Pandemic? Immunizations? Of course, you must do that. Other doctor visits? Many of them make a lot of sense. But it is always good to ask questions. 

I knew a woman, an acquaintance, who was multitalented, who passed the California BAR, and who did high level administrative work. She was happy to at least live into her mid-sixties because she had a history of taking lithium for bipolar. Lithium is a mineral, and it is the old treatment that was used before the new mood stabilizers came about. Lithium, as a rule, damages the kidneys. She had kidney issues, and for specific reasons could not tolerate dialysis or a transplant. Before her death, she said she was getting her affairs in order. She'd wanted to be a published author, and it was something that had evaded her all her life. I recall telling her that it is all done electronically, and she didn't seem to warm up to this very much. Her lifetime accomplishments dwarfed mine in all other areas. 

What does it take to give mentally ill people long lives and maybe even happy ones? If I knew I'd tell you. The psych medications, that we are mandated to take, have side effects, some of which include harm to the body's systems. I don't know any chronically mentally ill people who've made it to their eighties or nineties. And in recent years, I've bumped into an attitude of those who run the mental health treatment system, expressed through inaction and other unspoken means, that I am expected to go defunct. (More about this in a later column.) 

When we get older, we face a predicament. I wish I could tell you otherwise. If you can treat a medical problem, and if doing that doesn't ruin your quality of life, you should go for it. 

National telethons used to be an annual event. (The longest running was the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon; which closed in 2012.) If telethons reappear, I'm going to host the Bob Burnett Telethon to cure short attention span. I'll highlight the protracted failure of Americans to pay attention to the tragedy of Afghanistan.

On August 16th, President Joe Biden appeared on national TV and let the Afghanistan "buck" stop with him: "I will not repeat the mistakes we’ve made in the past — the mistake of staying and fighting indefinitely in a conflict that is not in the national interest of the United States, of doubling down on a civil war in a foreign country, of attempting to remake a country through the endless military deployments of U.S. forces." God bless you, Joe Biden! Thanks for being a real leader! 

The US involvement in Afghanistan began twenty years ago, next month. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States was traumatized. Congress wanted to do something and therefore passed the "Joint Resolution to authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the recent attacks launched against the United States" -- an authorization that led to the US military operation in Afghanistan. On September 14, 2001, when Congress considered the joint authorization of military force, only Representative Barbara Lee opposed it: "I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States. This is a very complex and complicated matter... However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint. Our country is in a state of mourning. Some of us must say, ’let’s step back for a moment. Let’s just pause, just for a minute and think through the implications of our actions today, so that this does not spiral out of control.’" [Emphasis added] [For years after making this speech, Congresswoman Lee was subject to death threats and harassing phone calls.] God bless you, Barbara Lee! Thanks for being a real leader! 

Over the past 20 years, i have written dozens of times about the tragedy of Afghanistan. My most prophetic article was written July 30, 2010, Afghanistan: America's Failed Project. 

Writing in Rolling Stone Michael Hastings concludes: “There is a reason that President Obama studiously avoids using the word ‘victory’ when he talks about Afghanistan. Winning, it would seem, is not really possible.” Reading this sobering article I was reminded of the advice proffered by a seasoned Silicon Valley software developer: “good projects may go bad, but bad projects almost never get better..." no matter how many billions the US spends, the situation in Afghanistan isn’t going to improve... The US effort in Afghanistan has become a failed project. We may follow Obama’s plan and tough it out for another 11 months, but there’s no reason to expect the situation to improve. We should cut our losses now; go to plan B. Unfortunately, the US doesn’t have a plan B. 

1.Failed Presidential Leadership: Over the past twenty years, there have been four American presidents: George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden. Earlier in the year, historians ranked the 44 presidents before Biden. George W. Bush was ranked 29, Obama 10, and Trump 41. For twelve of those twenty years, we had terrible leadership. 

George W. Bush is the president most responsible for the Afghanistan tragedy. In case you've forgotten, it was Dubya's failure to heed intelligence reports that opened the door to the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Then he bungled the intervention in Afghanistan: Late in November 2001, bin Laden and many Al Qaeda fighters were cornered in the remote Tora Bora region of Afghanistan. Bush made the decision to capture bin Laden by relying upon Afghani mercenaries, who were not up to the job. By the time regular American forces arrived, bin Laden and most of his companions had slipped across the border into northwest Pakistan. In March 2002, Dubya abruptly changed his focus: “I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.” Bush had a short attention span; his focus shifted from bin Laden in Afghanistan-Pakistan to Saddam Hussein in Iraq. 

Trump made the Afghanistan situation much worse. To score political points, in February of 2020, Trump brokered a "deal" that called for US troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan. Under the fourteen-month timeline, approximately 5,000 Taliban prisoners were also set to be released, including major Taliban leaders. This legitimized the Taliban. 

2. Failed Congressional Oversight: Although the blame for the Afghanistan tragedy primarily rests with the four Presidents, Congress has a major share. Under the Constitution, Congress has the responsibility to declare war. Congress skirted this with the September 14, 2001, "Authorization for Use of Military Force," which in effect gave the President carte blanche to send troops wherever he thought there were terrorists. Afghanistan was occupied for twenty years because Congress stubbornly held onto the attitude that Afghanistan might become a staging area for further terrorist attacks on the U.S. 

Let's be clear. Since late in 2001, when Osama bin Laden and many al Qaeda fighters departed Afghanistan, there has been no justification for a U.S. presence in the country. No President has defended the occupation on the grounds of "nation building." Congress failed to do its job because it was very difficult for most members of Congress to stand up to U.S. military leaders, who were all too ready to argue: "Just give us a few thousand more troops and we will complete the mission in Afghanistan." 

3. Failed Military Leadership. In twenty years, the U.S. has spent more than $2 trillion in Afghanistan (https://www.forbes.com/sites/hanktucker/2021/08/16/the-war-in-afghanistan-cost-america-300-million-per-day-for-20-years-with-big-bills-yet-to-come/? ). Take a moment to consider that. $2 trillion. 

With $2 trillion we could have ended U.S. poverty. We could have built 10 million affordable homes. We could have taken steps that directly benefited the American people. 

The U.S. spent $2 trillion because the military lied to us. First they said they could defeat the Taliban and pacify Afghanistan. When that didn't work, they created the myth of creating a reliable non-Taliban fighting force that we could trust to do the work when our troops left. Biden called out this myth, noting that in the last couple of weeks the Afghanistan military collapsed. "American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves." 

Americans want to trust our military leaders. Nonetheless, these military leaders misled us in Vietnam and Afghanistan. 

4. Failed American Public Awareness: It's a familiar maxim: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Since the end of World War II, the citizens of the United States have twice been lied to by the military. Shame on us for believing them about Afghanistan. 

Americans believed the lies we were told about Afghanistan, because we are lazy and arrogant. We are lazy, because too many of us didn't take the time to uncover the truth. We are arrogant, because we believed that we could buy our way out of this mess. 

Summary: The best words to describe this tragedy were written by Bob Dylan in "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll:" 

Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace
and criticize all fears
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now's the time for your tears. 

On March 31st, President Joe Biden introduced his infrastructure plan, "The American Jobs Plan" (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/ ). After four months of negotiation, on August 10th the Senate passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan plan. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/08/10/senate-infrastructure-bill-what-is-in-it/) 

I was very surprised at the beginning of the year that our government was handing out sizable amounts of money to almost everyone. It made me wonder, could the government afford to do this all along--and was just holding out on us?

After all, the U.S. Government spends an astronomical amount of money on weapons designated for use against the human beings of other countries. The defense budget in 2019 was over 700 billion. Some of the fighter and/or bomber planes cost up to a hundred million per unit. The government spends approximately a third of a trillion on law enforcement every year. Why then, with all this spending that doesn't go to regular poor people, can't the government shell out a little more to us, people with disabilities, now and then?  

With the government handing out a trillion dollars or more to 'regular people' and to the poor, one would guess it would affect the economy. Inflation has risen. If the government puts too much money into circulation, I wonder if this could risk the stability of the government and the entire economy. If the money was first obtained through taxes on the rich, I think it would be less of a risk compared to borrowing it or just printing up more. Money has to come from somewhere, even if it comes from a print machine. 

By reading the above, you can guess that I'm not an economics expert. My reasoning is based only on common sense. 

However, for people at the bottom of the economic structure, those who are accustomed to living on tiny amounts, the money was very convenient and good when we had it. It allowed me to live temporarily under better conditions. Some of the purchases continue to help my living conditions, ongoing. 

Now that the stimulus money is used up, we poor people must readjust to being miserably poor, and this is difficult. We can no longer enjoy many of the necessities and conveniences that middle class people and rich people take for granted. And if we fail to revert to the restricted pre-stimulus household budget rapidly enough, we are at risk. 

There are those who could not pay rent. They were not evicted because of emergency government measures. They have to get on the ball as soon as possible and get the money that the government has made available to pay off their unpaid rent. If they didn't pay rent and they could readily have done so, and if they instead enjoyed a free ride, it is a misuse of something that was put in place to help desperate people. Either way, many will owe back rent, and this must be produced. The net effect is the likelihood of a massive surge in unhoused populations. The impact of this on society could be devastating. We could end up with a severe economic depression, resembling the Great Depression, or worse. 

The above text contains merely my thoughts on the subject and some quick research. I do not have any exclusive sources of information. However, it seems to me that we ought to make the multibillionaires pay some taxes and give some of that to the poor and/or disabled people who are struggling, some of whom could die due to lack of their basic needs being met. 

For me, not having the stimulus money means that I need to have a very strict budget and must watch every dollar. Once again, I cannot buy things that I was glad to be able to get when the money was available. An example: I can't get laundry quarters unless I first get my wife to give me some cash. And she also isn't getting stimulus money anymore. 

Of course, it will be nice if I can sell some fiction to magazines, or sell a lot of copies of my books, but I can't count on that. The amount the government gives to Social Security recipients (if you are careful never to become overdrawn with the associated devastating fees) is enough to pay rent if you live in a subsidized unit. Beyond that, you can't pay for housing in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

You might think I'm grumbling. However, it is not as though I can just get a job and earn as much as I want. That doesn't work for people on Social Security, unless, through someone's magic wand, you instantly become able to handle full-time professional employment. 

To sum it up, if you have any kind of disability and must live on SSDI and/or SSI, you could be feeling the crunch by now of the stimulus money being used up. 

Jack Bragen's books, such as "Schizophrenia: My 35-Year Battle…" are currently available in the U.S. on LULU.COM, and in the U.K. and other countries through various outlets.

Recalibrating the Cal Recall

The County of Alameda's instruction guide for requesting and filing ballots for the September 19 Gubernatorial Recall Election scores some improvements over past pre-election documents but it also contains some head-scratchers.

Things get off to a good start with a fake demo ballot for the position of "Director of Entertainment" on page 2. The trick here is to find names of dead celebrities that everyone will recognize are not actually in the running. In the past, the names on these dummy-demo lists dated from the 1940s with names like Fred Astaire, Ethel Merman, and Louis Armstrong.

The latest list of late entertainers is a bit more recognizable—Aretha Franklin, Bruce Lee, Bea Arthur, Sidney Poitier, Selena, and Freddie Mercury.

But then the ballot guide proclaims: "Remember, you can vote for fewer Candidates than allowed" but your ballot will be tossed if you "vote for MORE Candidates than allowed." But it's arithmetically impossible to vote for "fewer than one candidate."

It's No Longer "Right On" to "Write-in"

The ballot guide's instructions grant you the option of voting for a write-in candidate. But here's where the ballot-mongers throw a curve. Instead of being able to write-in anyone you want—be it a respected Green Party activist or the ever-popular write-in favorite, "Mickey Mouse"—in this election you can only vote for write-in candidates that are "allowed." But which write-in candidates have been pre-approved and why were some of these wannabe write-in candidates excluded?

The voters guide states a list of pre-approved write-in candidate can be found online at ACVote.org. Unfortunately, this online link leads to a list of unrelated postings from prior elections, none more recent than 2016. (The second-place document in the search sports the subject title: "1318 5 Trim Trim Perf Perf Trim Perf Perf...")

As of August 13, Alameda County's most recent related posting only addresses the June 7, 2016 Presidential Primary Election. In that contest there were five certified-and-acceptable Democratic presidential write-ins and ten GOP hopefuls. While Ballortpedia is up to date regarding official candidates for the 2021 election, it doesn't provide a list of the "qualified write-ins." Reached by phone, a staffer at the county Registrar of Voters was unable to locate the list of "qualified" write-ins. I was given an email number to contact (candidates@acgov.org) but it turned out to be inactive.

Totaled Recall

Of the 55 gubernatorial recall attempts since 1911, the only one to succeed was in 2003, when 135 candidates vied to replace Gov. Gray Davis and the winner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, won with 48.6% of the votes.

With 46 candidates on the September ballot (and none matching the star power of Schwarzenegger), it's possible that a new governor could be elected with only 10% of the total votes. Hardly a majority. Hardly a mandate.

Although it would be more costly, it would be more democratic if future recalls were conducted separately. An election to chose a replacement governor would only be held if a recall was successful.  

PCH Closes In 

When it comes to "customer relations," Publishers Clearing House takes special (some might say, creepy) care to establish a "connection" with its contestant/customers. Each mailing typically includes a half dozen coupons/letters personally addressed to each participant. These mini-notes invariably contain flattering notes ("You are one of our most special people") and frequently include hand-drawn "hearts" along with scrawled signatures of PCH officials. On one occasion, a PCH mailer included a map of Berkeley including the neighborhood in which I reside. More recently, PCH included a Directions Guide that the Prize Patrol would presumably follow to deliver a mega-mass of moolah to my doorstep. The (oddly round-about) instructions read: (1) Depart in easterly direction (2) Turn left to enter Telegraph Ave, (3) Turn left to enter Bancroft Way, (4) Turn right to enter Shattuck Ave, (5) Turn left to enter Allston Way. 

With the August 31 Grand Prize date fast approaching, I'll have to alert the folks at Berkeley's Main Post Office to call me if the PCH Prize Patrol shows up in a few weeks to deliver one of those oversized checks. 

Berkeley Fire Photos 

During a visit to the Berkeley Historical Society, one of the dedicated volunteers noticed I was looking at a large black-and-white photo depicting a fire-ravaged neighborhood with nothing left standing but a few brick walls. 

"A lot of people come in and see that photo and ask if that's a photo from the fire that destroyed Paradise. I have to tell them, 'No. That photo was taken in Berkeley in 1923.'" 

Waving his hand over the fire-flattened field of devastation, he pointed a finger toward the center-right and announced: "This is the intersection of Virginia and Acton streets." 

The Rename Game 

Berkeley Gadabout Emeritus Arnie Passman checks in with some suggestions for rebranding America's sports franchises. Instead of the "Cleveland Indians," how about the Cleveland Engines? Also offered: the Detroit Riots and the St. Louis Armstrongs. 

Let the fun begin! How about the Los Angeles Draft Dodgers, the Atlanta Raves, the Atlanta Doves, the Denver Nougats, the Edmonton Spoilers, the Houston Rockhats, the Kansas City Neckerchiefs, and the Las Vegas Traitors (that's what you get for forsaking Oakland!). 

Re Name Games 

#1—A few weeks back, I was passively watching an engaging Zoom event and listening to the likes of Dan Ellsberg when the moderator suddenly announced: "And now we'll have a few words from Gar." 

I was thrown into a panic. I was on mute! I hadn't prepared any remarks! I scrambled to grab-pen-and paper and muster some talking points. 

As it turned out, the moderator was merely introducing another member of the prestigious panel—Gar Alperovitz. 

#2—Yesterday, I called Kaiser Permanente's cardiology center to schedule a treadmill test. When the friendly voice on the other end of the phone asked for my name, I replied, "Well, the last name is 'Smith,' but my full first name is an odd one. It's 'Garwood.'" 

Her response stunned me: "No problem," she said. "We've got our own Garwood." Sure enough, I checked the KP website and discovered that one of the heart docs in residence is Garwood Gee, a "long-time East Bay resident" and a Cal alumnus. 

#3—While introducing myself during a recent visit the Berkeley Historical Society, one of the staffers overheard my name and declared: "I know that name! There's a guy I met in Southern California. He works for Lockheed and his name in Gar Smith." 

I told him I already knew about this corporate doppelganger (although we've never met). Adding to the confusion, there's also a Hollywood screenwriter named Gar Smith, a television actor named Gar Smith—credits include Naked City (1958) and For the People (1965)—and a Canadian artist and comedian named Gar Smith. 

Could You Spell that Again? 

Speaking of names—and Kaiser Permanente: Last week I was on the phone to schedule an exam at KP's Oakland office. The physician on the line seemed pleasant and helpful. Until he gave me his name and I asked him to repeat it. 

With my cheap flip-phone in hand, I still couldn't make out his surname. And, so, I asked if he could spell it. There was a silence and then he said: "Eff you!" 

I was stunned. I didn't mean to give offense. What had I done? 

After a pause, I asked if he could give me his name again. This time, he added: "Two letters: FU." 

Happy ending: The next day, I met Dr. Fu while having an EKG and X-ray appointment. He turned out to be a very pleasant young fellow. 

Trump Boasts "The Greatest Memory in the World"…
Until He Has to Sit for a Legal Deposition on Camera 

For a full Mother Jones analysis on the Trump University deposition, click here. 

Bonus video: For a full Trump “hot-mic” tape with commentary, click here. 

Visual Clichés 

A new spate of computer-animated movies is being released on the world and I realized I can no longer abide the visual cliché sometimes called "Pixar Eyes"—over-sized orbs the size of salad bowls, glaring and staring at the world like ceramic baseballs. It was Luca (the latest serving from the Disney/Pixar cartoon kitchen) that finally pushed me over the edge. So it's good-bye to Nemo, Dory, Elsa, Anna, Olaf, the incredible Jack-Jack Parr and that one-eyed monster Mike Wazowski. 

Superman Smashes the Klan — Again 

Among the current titles on display in the storefront window of Mr. Mopp's toy store is a graphic comic titled "Superman Smashes the Klan." In the book (by comic-book writer and MacArthur Genius recipient Gene Luen Yang), Clark Kent's alter-ego saves a young Chinese-American boy who is "kidnapped by hooded white supremacists." 

In an interview in Inverse, Yang offers this description of the Man of Steel: "He’s basically a golem. It comes out of Jewish tradition, the golem righting wrongs and beating up corrupt politicians, always fighting for the common man. You can’t escape that.” 

It's surprising to learn that Superman's battle with the Klan first began in 1946 when the DC comics hero appeared in a 16-episode radio drama titled "Clan of the Fiery Cross." According to Inverse: "From June to July 1946, Superman exposed Ku Klux Klan codewords, rituals, and its bigotry — all based on intel collected by activist Stetson Kennedy — before a national audience. The show damaged the group’s reputation and led to a steep decline in membership from which the KKK never recovered." 

Karmic Strips 

In last Sunday's Chronicle comics, Lemont Brown—the beleaguered journalist who inhabits the fictitious municipality of Candorville—is asked about an article on "Karen-calling" that he has written for The New Yorker. Lemont's primary reporting gig has been with the local Candorville Chronicle. Curious about Lamont's career path, I checked online to see if Darren Bell, the strip's creator, had started contributing essays to the New Yorker. 

Apparently not. (Although he has had at least one of his cartoons published in The New Yorker.) 

In the course of checking, I discovered that this prize-winning editorial cartoonist has a local connection. During his days as a political science major at UC Berkeley, Bell became the editorial-artist-in-residence at The Daily Californian. Bell went on to win the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Cartooning "for beautiful and daring editorial cartoons that took on issues affecting disenfranchised communities, calling out lies, hypocrisy and fraud in the political turmoil surrounding the Trump administration." So where's the Candorville artist actually living these days? Sacramento. 

PS: On August 5, Bell tweeted a short message: "Anyone have the sinking feeling that #January6th was a dry run?" 

The Glass v. Plastic Bottle Battle  

An item in a previous column (about glass Coke bottles and the pollution problem cause by plastic containers) prompted an informative response from phil allen who writes: 

As a former (17+ years) 'bottler' at the Pepsi plant in Emeryville (now part of the Pixar campus), I feel I'm in a position to comment on the glass v. plastic bottle controversy. The new superplant (nee '96) in Hayward filled cans and plastic bottles only. 

Yes, glass is a better recycling option. For those working with such containers however, particularly route delivery and truck loaders (me), there were two huge issues—weight and lethal danger…. 

Glass also breaks. The occasional soda big-rig tipover these days results in a lot of nuisance rolling containers…. [T]he glass shards would require a very careful clean-up…. One evening, I lost my footing on a pallet, broke some bottles, and juuust avoided being pierced through the heart.  

And phil concluded with a stunning observation about an overlooked environmental threat:  

I'd x both [glass, plastic] and have folks make it up themselves. Irony: It requires infusion of carbon dioxide, our major greenhouse gas. Oy.... 

Ye Gads! Soda pop threatens the end of the world! It's right there in the product label: "Carbonated beverage"! With each slurp of cola, another puff of GHG heads skyward!  

Phil's note included this bonus East Bay factoid: "the area out back at the E'ville plant was where Ray Carlisle of the Oakland Oaks on July 4, 1929 hit the longest measured home run: 618 feet." 

Founders Sing Is Back to Rap It Up! 

Worth Noting:

Nearly every commission is on holiday during August and City Council is on recess until mid- September. There may be a few meetings that will pop up at the last minute, but for now, I am preparing this calendar early so I can enjoy some free uncommitted time too.

The last published Wildfire Evacuation Workshop is offered Thursday evening by the Berkeley Fire Department’s Office of Emergency Services. This is worth your time:

Do you know your evacuation zone? https://community.zonehaven.com/

Have you signed up for AC Alerts? https://member.everbridge.net/453003085612570/new

Do you know what kind of mask to wear to evacuate? Answer in the videos

Register in advance for one of the online workshops below

August 26, 6pm-730pm, Online via zoom

Prior to the Wildfire Evacuation Workshop visit the City of Berkeley Wildfire Readiness website: https://www.cityofberkeley.info/wildfire/, watch the five videos (total time 1 hour 20 minutes) and download and fill out your step-by-step fire plan (tool 9 pages).



Sunday, August 22, 2021 & Monday, August 23, 2021 & Tuesday, August 24, 2021

No City meetings or events found



Wednesday, August 25, 2021 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board Landlord 101 Webinar at 10 am 

Register in advance 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/rent/ 

Police Accountability Board at 7 pm 

use link to check zoom link and agenda 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=162752 

Thursday, August 26, 2021 

Zoning Adjustment Board at 7 pm 

Videoconference: 

Teleconference: Meeting ID: 

AGENDA: 2. 2808 Ninth Street – new public hearing – demolish existing 876 sq ft 1-story single family dwelling and construct 1651 sq ft 1-story single family dwelling with max height 16 ft 10 inches, staff recommend approve, 

840 Page – new public hearing – demolish the east stair and landing and add 63 sq ft on the east side to expand 2^nd floor kitchen, add stair and landing to rear 2^nd floor and add 54 sq ft to rear of ground floor laundry room, no bedroom or density increase, staff recommend approve, 

1725 Berkeley Way – new public hearing – demolish existing 1874 sq ft 1-story duplex and accessory structure, construct new 4,092 sq ft, 3-story duplex with average height of 28 ft on 3894 sq ft lot, staff recommend approve. 

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/zoningadjustmentsboard/ 

Wildfire Evacuation Workshop at 6 - 7:30 pm 

Register in advance: August 26, 6pm-730pm, Online via zoom 

Watch the videos, read and complete your fire plan 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/wildfire/ 

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CABERKE/bulletins/2ec05da 

Friday, August 27, 2021 & Saturday, August 29, 2021 & Sunday, August 29, 2021 

No City meetings or events foun8 

_____________________ 

Public Hearings Scheduled – Land Use Appeals 

2943 Pine (construct a 2^nd story) 9/28/2021 

1205 Peralta (conversion of garage) 10/12/2021 

Notice of Decision (NOD) and Use Permits with End of Appeal Period 

2804 Acton 9-6-2021 

2010 Addison 8-16-21 

1630 Derby 8-17-21 

1556 Sacramento 9-6-2021 

1427-29 Tenth 8-17-21 

34 Tunnel 8-17-2021 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Planning_and_Development/Land_Use_Division/Current_Zoning_Applications_in_Appeal_Period.aspx 

LINK to Current Zoning Applications https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Planning_and_Development/Land_Use_Division/Current_Zoning_Applications.aspx 

___________________ 

WORKSESSIONS 

September 21 – 1. Housing Element (RHNA) 

October 19 – 1. Update Zero Waste Rates and Priorities, 2. Berkeley Police Department Hiring Practices (referred by Public Safety Committee), 3. Crime Report 

December 7 – 1. Review and Update on City’s COVID-19 Response, 2. WETA/Ferry Service at the Marina, 3. Presentation by Bay Restoration Authority 

Unscheduled Workshops/Presentations 

Cannabis Health Considerations 

Civic Arts Grantmaking Process & Capital Grant Program 

If you have a meeting you would like included in the summary of meetings, please send a notice to kellyhammargren@gmail.com by noon on the Friday of the preceding week. 

This meeting list is also posted on the Sustainable Berkeley Coalition website. 

http://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html and in the Berkeley Daily Planet under activist’s calendar http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com 

If you or someone you know wishes to receive the weekly summary as soon as it is completed, email kellyhammargren@gmail.com to be added to the early email list. If you wish to stop receiving the Weekly Summary of City Meetings please forward the weekly summary you received to kellyhammargren@gmail.com

Worth Noting:

Council is on recess and most of the commissions do not meet in August.

Sunday is a free hazardous waste drop-off. Appointments required. It looks like this is filling up fast.

The BART Berkeley – El Cerrito Access Plan has meetings/hours on Monday 2 pm, Tuesday 7 pm, and Wednesday 5 pm. Parking lots are going away with planned construction of housing.

The Berkeley Independent Redistricting Commission meets Wednesday at 6 pm.

The Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force meets Wednesday at 5:30 pm with a speaker on Mountain Valley Pipeline and Friday at 9 am is the summit on Clean and Just Transportation.

EBMUD speaker series on Wednesday at 6 pm is on fire prevention.

Only one project is before the Design Review Committee on Thursday at 7 pm.

Friday evening at 8 pm is the free city sponsored movie Lady and the Tramp at Ohlone Park.

The Wildfire Evacuation Workshop is offered three times by the Berkeley Fire Department’s Office of Emergency Services. The 2^nd offering is August 18 at 7:30 pm:

Do you know your evacuation zone? https://community.zonehaven.com/

Have you signed up for AC Alerts? https://member.everbridge.net/453003085612570/new

Do you know what kind of mask to wear to evacuate? Answer in the videos

Register in advance for one of the online workshops below

August 18, 6pm-730pm, Online via zoom

August 26, 6pm-730pm, Online via zoom

Prior to the Wildfire Evacuation Workshop visit the City of Berkeley Wildfire Readiness website: https://www.cityofberkeley.info/wildfire/, watch the five videos (total time 1 hour 20 minutes) and download and fill out your step-by-step fire plan (tool 9 pages).

Cal student move-ins can get messy. Avoid illegal dumping fines. Check out resources for disposal of unopened food, furniture and household goods, textiles (clothing, bedding, backpacks), cardboard boxes, mattresses. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CABERKE/bulletins/2ec7aae

Sunday, August 15, 2021  

Free Hazardous Waste Drop-off in Oakland at 9 am – 1 pm 

Appointment required 

Accepted items: Pest & Garden Products, Batteries, Light Bulb, Paints and Paint related products, electronics & small appliances, propane tanks, old medications and prescriptions including controlled substances, oil, gasoline, auto fluids, cleaners, fire extinguishers, sharps containers. 

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CABERKE/bulletins/2eca490 

Monday, August 16, 2021 

BART Berkeley – El Cerrito Corridor Access Plan at 2 - 3 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85038531645 

Teleconference: 1-602-333-2017 or 1-888-204-5987 Meeting ID: 850 3853 1645 

AGENDA: Ashby & Downtown Berkeley office hour 

https://www.bart.gov/about/planning/station-access/berkeley-elcerrito-corridor-plan/ 

Tuesday, August 17, 2021 

BART Berkeley – El Cerrito Corridor Access Plan at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://zoom.us/j/97341195745?pwd=QVIxSkhSQTgweCtEVmg0aGxrT3BjZz09 

Teleconference: 1-408-638-0968 Meeting ID: 973 4119 5745 Passcode: 873597 

AGENDA: El Cerrito Plaza Development, El Cerrito City Council Planning Commission 

https://www.bart.gov/about/planning/station-access/berkeley-elcerrito-corridor-plan/ 

Wednesday, August 18, 2021 

Independent Redistricting Commission at 6 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82160109803 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 821 6010 9803 

AGENDA: 2. Review of paper map for public submissions, 3. Discussion of relationship and limitations for commission subcommittees, Subcommittee Reports: 4. Outreach, 5. Public Submission Process. 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/redistricting/ 

BART Berkeley – El Cerrito Corridor Access Plan at 5 – 6 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83067683054 

Teleconference: 1-602-333-2017 or 1-888-204-5987 Meeting ID: 830 6768 3054 

AGENDA: Ashby & Downtown Berkeley office hour 

https://www.bart.gov/about/planning/station-access/berkeley-elcerrito-corridor-plan/ 

Wildfire Evacuation Workshop at 6 - 7:30 pm 

Register in advance: August 18, 6pm-730pm, Online via zoom 

Watch the videos, read and complete your fire plan 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/wildfire/ 

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CABERKE/bulletins/2ec05da 

Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force (CEMTF) at 5:30 pm – 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85207073371?pwd=M2gvc3dYazRZNnI0VEc0d1ZEMUs0dz09 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 852 0707 3371 Passcode: 982158 

AGENDA: Sarah Diefendorf on Mountain Valley Pipeline & Discussion Yale Survey 

EBMUD’s Water Wednesday: Monthly Speaker Series 

“The other F-word: Fire Prevention in our Watershed” at 6 pm 

Register: https://www.ebmud.com/about-us/events/drought-where-were-and-what-were-doing/ 

Videoconference: https://ebmud.zoom.us/j/81350685482 

Teleconference: no number given Meeting ID: 813 5068 5482 

Thursday, August 19, 2021 

Design Review Committee at 7 – 10 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87147076719 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 871 4707 6719 

AGENDA: 1. 1951 Shattuck @ Berkeley Way – Final Design Review – demolition of two existing commercial buildings and construction of 120 ft, 12 story mixed use building with approximately 5,178 sq ft of commercial space on ground floor, 163 residential units, 100-space subterranean parking garage. 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/designreview/ 

Willard Clubhouse Community Meeting at 6:30 – 8 pm 

Videoconference: https://zoom.us/j/92888454641 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 Meeting ID: 928 8845 4641 Passcode: 120995 

AGENDA: Gather Feedback and discuss the conceptual design of the future new Willard Clubhouse. 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CalendarEventMain.aspx?calendarEventID=17455 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board – meeting cancelled 

Friday, August 20, 2021 

CEMTF Summit Series - Clean and Just Transportation at 9 am – 12 pm 

Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/clean-just-transportation-tickets-157305195073 

AGENDA: Keynote speeches: How do we accelerate the phase out of gasoline cars and the adoption of electric vehicles? Speakers: Assemblymember Phil Ting, Dan Sperling, Director Transportation Studies at UC Davis and California Air Resources Board 

https://www.cemtf.org/ 

Outdoor movie at Ohlone Park Baseball Field: Lady and the Tramp at 8 – 9:30 pm 

Location: Ohlone Park Baseball Field Hearst @ Grant / McGee 

Free, please arrive 30 minutes before movie begins, bring blankets, sleeping bagas and/or low-back beach chairs. 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CalendarEventMain.aspx?calendarEventID=17438 

Saturday, August 21, 2021 & Sunday, August 22, 2021 

No City meetings or events found 

_____________________ 

Public Hearings Scheduled – Land Use Appeals 

2943 Pine (construct a 2^nd story) 9/28/2021 

1205 Peralta (conversion of garage) 10/12/2021 

Notice of Decision (NOD) and Use Permits with End of Appeal Period 

2804 Acton 9-6-2021 

2010 Addison 8-16-21 

1630 Derby 8-17-21 

1556 Sacramento 9-6-2021 

1427-29 Tenth 8-17-21 

34 Tunnel 8-17-2021 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Planning_and_Development/Land_Use_Division/Current_Zoning_Applications_in_Appeal_Period.aspx 

LINK to Current Zoning Applications https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Planning_and_Development/Land_Use_Division/Current_Zoning_Applications.aspx 

___________________ 

WORKSESSIONS 

September 21 – 1. Housing Element (RHNA) 

October 19 – 1. Update Zero Waste Rates and Priorities, 2. Berkeley Police Department Hiring Practices (referred by Public Safety Committee), 3. Crime Report 

December 7 – 1. Review and Update on City’s COVID-19 Response, 2. WETA/Ferry Service at the Marina, 3. Presentation by Bay Restoration Authority 

Unscheduled Workshops/Presentations 

Cannabis Health Considerations 

Civic Arts Grantmaking Process & Capital Grant Program 

If you have a meeting you would like included in the summary of meetings, please send a notice to kellyhammargren@gmail.com by noon on the Friday of the preceding week. 

This meeting list is also posted on the Sustainable Berkeley Coalition website. 

http://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html and in the Berkeley Daily Planet under activist’s calendar http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com 

If you or someone you know wishes to receive the weekly summary as soon as it is completed, email kellyhammargren@gmail.com to be added to the early email list. If you wish to stop receiving the Weekly Summary of City Meetings please forward the weekly summary you received to kellyhammargren@gmail.com