Worth Noting:

City Council is on spring recess through April 14, 2025

Check City website for meetings posted on short notice https://berkeleyca.govonday, March 31, 2025 -more-

The Trump Administration has been unrelentingly awful. Each day brings a fresh batch of Trump bad news. It would be easy to get discouraged and imagine that Trump is winning, but that is not true. The Trump juggernaut is slowing down. Trump initiatives are stalling because a) many of them are unpopular; b) a great number are being challenged in court; and c) they are being managed by Trump loyalists who are incompetent. -more-

A Castle Made of Books -more-

In recent months I moved out of downtown Martinez. -more-

In a troubling escalation of state repression, Tufts University Ph.D. student Rumeysa Ozturk was detained by plainclothes ICE agents on March 25, 2025, in Somerville, Massachusetts. Ozturk, a Turkish national, was approached by six masked agents while walking with friends, just before breaking her Ramadan fast. Surveillance footage of the incident has sparked outrage, especially since the university was unaware of her arrest. Authorities later claimed her student visa had been revoked, although her lawyer filed an emergency petition to block her removal. -more-

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On March 25, 2025, Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal was brutally assaulted by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank village of Susya, in the Masafer Yatta region. Ballal, known for co-directing the documentary No Other Land, which highlights the struggles of Palestinians against home demolitions and settler violence, was attacked shortly after breaking the Ramadan fast. His co-director Basel Adra and Jewish American peace activist Anna Lippman were eyewitnesses to the assault, which involved masked settlers and Israeli soldiers. Adra confirmed that while Ballal was being beaten, soldiers stood by, pointing guns and firing warning shots to prevent villagers from intervening. -more-

Afther two months of Trump 2.0, the 47^th President has fallen into a predictable pattern. Each day there’s a dominant news item. This morning it was Ukraine peace talks. Yesterday it was eliminating the department of Education. Trump has managed to tightly control the daily news cycle. -more-

It’s hard to know what District 2 Councilmember Taplin had in mind for the Council Facilities, Infrastructure, Transportation, Environment and Sustainability Committee (FITES) for the 2 pm meeting on Wednesday March 19, 2025 with the agenda item 2. Discussion Item: Waterfront Specific Plan Update: Cesar Chavez Park Next Steps. There were no matching documents and Taplin who is a member of the committee didn’t attend the meeting, but passed on a request that the item be placed on the next agenda. -more-

Israel has broken the two-month ceasefire with Hamas, launching a devastating wave of airstrikes on Gaza that has killed at least 400 people, with more than 560 others injured. Many of the victims are children, and the death toll is expected to rise as rescue efforts continue. These attacks, which came without warning, are a harsh reminder of the human cost of the ongoing conflict. -more-

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Chronic Culls

On Sunday, in the midst of my six-mile run to the Berkeley Rose Garden, I paused to pick up the Sunday edition of the Chron at the Rose and Shattuck CVS. While waiting in line for a clerk to beckon me to step forward I heard a chuckle from the young shopper behind me. "Are you buying a newspaper?" he asked with an amused smile before offering his follow-up statement: "I've never seen anyone buy a newspaper." His girlfriend giggled in shared amusement.

Just another sign, I sighed, that the print journalism continues to struggle in hard times.

The Chronicle used to supply readers with four distinct, stand-alone sections but now the slimmed-down Chron combines sports and the arts (films, stage, music) in a single volume. The world news section is now confined to a single page. -more-

Donald Trump’s March 4^th speech to the joint session of Congress marked the first six weeks of his second term in office. It also marked the end of phase 1 – a period where Trump was, for the most part, unchecked; a period where Trump pushed the limits of his executive power. Now we have entered phase 2, where Trump will encounter opposition from Congress and the judiciary. -more-

The recent detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University, raises serious concerns about the suppression of political speech in America. Khalil, an Algerian citizen with Palestinian roots and a green card holder, was arrested by ICE agents in a seemingly arbitrary move to revoke his green card. This action, which occurred as the Trump administration sought to penalize Columbia University, has been widely criticized for its lack of legal clarity and its broader implications for freedom of expression. -more-

Worth Noting: -more-

The Two Little Words that Waste Tons of Food

Last Fall, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) convinced California legislators to remove the "sell by" date on packaged food and beverages. But wait! Isn't that going to trigger a nationwide outbreak of food poisoning? -more-

The word on the street is “watch what they do, not what they say”. Except when it’s “believe them when they tell you what they’re going to do”. Or try Dorothy Parker’s phone greeting: “what fresh hell is this?”

Well, when you’re trying to figure out what the hell the new regime in Washington is up to, there’s some visual evidence from the Inauguration ceremony to be considered. I refer, of course, to the hats worn by the first consort and the lady in waiting.

Melania’s peculiar chapeau (are we still allowed to use French?) was clearly inspired by the hat-like decorations worn by ladies of the British royal family to weddings and coronations, often called fascinators. Ivanka’s headpiece was an echt fascinator, perched on the side of her head. Both of them, clearly, are announcing that the Trumps, emulating the Windsors, are a new royal family.

Then there are the DOGEs. Someone who chose that acronym for the administration’s dictators-in -chief must have been thinking of the Italian doges. They were heads of state in the former republics of Venice and Genoa, autocrats, oligarchs, the whole nine yards. Elon Musk is angling for the job it seems. -more-