Ed. Note: As families celebrate the holidays, farmworkers across the country who help harvest the food they will prepare continue to struggle under bitter working and living conditions. Jose Lopez comes from the Mixteco town of Jicayan de Tovar in Guerrero. He's worked in the fields for 10 years, but makes so little that he has to borrow money to pay his bills, and has almost none left over to send to his family in Mexico. He told his story to NAM associate editor David Bacon, as part of a cooperative project with Farmworker Justice (www.farmworkerjustice.org). -more-

Don’t Steal our Postal Services Rally
Saturday, December 21st,
1 – 4 PM
In front of the Staples store, 2352 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, corner of Durant

The Berkeley Post Office and post offices all over the US are under threat of being fraudulently sold! In a new attack, US postal services have been snuck into 84 Staples stores all over the country - including Berkeley. Postal services are being provided by low-wage Staples employees, not living-wage Postal professionals. -more-

A diverse coalition of Berkeley residents including neighborhood leaders, progressives and students will kick off a month-long signature drive this Saturday to stop the City Council’s controversial redistricting ordinance from going forward. -more-

A male and female victim were held up in an armed robbery in Berkeley, south of the University of California at Berkeley campus early Saturday morning, UC police said.

Around 12:30 a.m. the pair was walking near Derby Street and Hillegass Avenue when two men approached them from behind, police said. -more-

Shoppers coming to the Berkeley Bowl on weekday afternoons are treated to a unique shopping experience. It's the Art Cart, a gayly decorated chest on wheels carrying a variety of unusual items for sale. There are tote bags, mugs, candles, t-shirts and more, each with a unique decoration. It is a project of Youth Spirit Artworks (YSA) centered in their new studio at 1740 Alcatraz. Founder Sally Hindman explains, “it an art jobs training program that empowers and transforms the lives of homeless and low income, extremely resilient, strong, creative, powerful youth that need a forum for making their voices heard creatively. We work with youth that are couch surfing, former foster youth, youth that are in shelters, transitional housing.” Aged from 16 to 25, the youth may be referred by various agencies or come on their own, having heard about it from a friends.

Founded in 2007 YSA grew out of Hindman's experience with Chaplaincy for the Homeless and her interest in art for social change.. “What we found was that there was a whole lot of money that had been put into services for the quote runaway youth that were hanging out on the street because they were visible but the youth of color who were couch surfing and struggling, aging out of foster care and so forth, those youth were getting nothing. … They're falling through the cracks.” She explains they “need attention and community that supports and loves them. This is serving those kids. Mostly youth of color, but of any color too.” -more-

"He knows when you are sleeping; he know when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good ... "

Really, who is this "Santa Claus?" Here's a hint: take the middle letter in Santa's name and put it at the beginning.

The NSA's program for collecting all telecommunication information about all Americans was originally named Total Awareness, before it was rebranded with a different name. NSATA.

And who does NSATA actually represent? Here's a hint: take the first letter and put it at the end.

Sweet Dreams, Little Darlins! -more-

For the second time in just a few years, I am opposing a transit "improvement" project proposed by AC Transit. As was the case with the previous Bus Rapid Transit project, this Line 51 project doesn't appear to provide any significant benefits. Instead it appears to be the result of misguided AC Transit bureaucracy, useless changes just for the sake of changing things and getting government grant money. The Line 51 project is full of destructive changes for Berkeley. I put together a photo interpretation showing each of the 139 trees and more than 161 parking spaces it would seem to permanently remove. The PDF file is online at www.properaction.org/line51berkeley.pdf -more-

More and more Israeli politicians are criticizing the linkage of releasing Palestinian prisoners and the establishment of new settlements. Critics warned that such a policy was aimed at keeping the embers of the sham peace process alive and attempting to pacify the extreme right-wing members of Netanyahu’s fractured coalition. Eitan Haber, a veteran Israeli commentator, reflected on the policy by invoking a Hebrew idiom about a bridegroom cannot dance at two weddings, stating that Netanyahu “is attempting to please all sides”. -more-

Roosevelt's words on what working people deserve captures our serious concern about the need to achieve a living wage for all workers. Roosevelt declared "No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country" Instead, the business community continues to pay as little as it can get away with, which is why the federal government and most states have enacted minimum wage laws. However, the tragedy is that minimum wage jobs pay only a poverty wage. As the New York Times reported, in the late 1960s a full time job at the federal minimum wage could almost lift a family of four above the official poverty level. Currently, the same family of four that depends on a minimum wage workers would be about 40 percent below the poverty line. -more-

Economic sanctions have been largely unsuccessful and have generally resulted in heaping misery onto the voiceless and impoverished members of society. Most notable examples are Cuba (no regime change in over 5o years) and Iraq where 500,000 men, women and children died as a result of crippling economic sanctions. One notable exception is the successful economic sanctions directed at apartheid South Africa which resulted in the eventual release of Nelson Mandela and the end of the apartheid regime. According to numerous historians, the US, Britain, Israel and other Western nations propped this abhorrent regime for many decades. -more-

We're taking a long break here, both for holiday cheer and to take care of family business. I hope to post, eventually, whatever comes in from our faithful columnists, and I'll be checking Bay City News for breaking Berkeley stories. but otherwise we'll be Out of Service, as they say at AC Transit, for the duration of the holidays. Happy Holidays! Whichever ones you celebrate, enjoy them. -more-

Highrise Hotel Proposed in Heart of Berkeley -more-

With the exception of Senator Elizabeth Warren, American politicians had a terrible year. President Obama’s approval ratings plummeted along with those of Congress. Indeed, the most popular “politician” in the United States was a non-American, the new head of the Catholic Church, 77-year-old Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now known as Pope Francis. -more-

Depression seems to be very common to older and middle aged men and is a cause of grouchy behavior. Apparently, many men who have become depressed when older refuse to seek or accept help for their condition. Also, many persons who are not seniors and who have some type of disorder, but who are nominally functional in life, do not always know whether or not to seek treatment for their problems. -more-

The U.S. should cut off aid to Uganda over its anti-gay crackdown. -more-

Every year Dispatches From The edge gives awards to news stories and newsmakers that fall under the category of “Are you serious?” Here are the awards for 2013: -more-

While the rest of the world debates America’s role in the Middle East or its use of drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the U.S. Congress is debating just how drastically it should cut food assistance to the 47 million Americans - one out of seven people - who suffer from “food insecurity,” the popular euphemism for those who go hungry.

The U.S. Government began giving food stamps to the poor during the Great Depression. Even when I was a student in the 1960’s, I received food stamps while unemployed during the summers. That concern for the hungry, however, has evaporated. The Republicans - dominated by Tea Party policies - are transforming the United States into a far less compassionate and more mean-spirited society.

The need is great. Since the Great Recession of 2008, the food stamp programme - now called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), has doubled from $38 billion in 2008 to $78 billion in the last year. During 2012, 65 million Americans used SNAP for at least one a month, which means that one out of every five Americans became part of the swelling rolls of “needy families,” most of whom are women and children. -more-

The media report elder abuse across the nation. California Bay Area newspapers headline “Pastor convicted of murdering elderly rancher;” “Dementia patients mistreated, suit says: Elder abuse, fraud alleged at rest home near Lake Merritt;” “Murder, elder abuse charges for 2 in death of their client;” “Oakland man to stand trial for beating elderly people;” “Early involvement critical to curbing elder scams;” “Elder Protection Court crucial to halting abuse;” “Elder abuse a hidden national epidemic;” “$500,000 bail remains for Foster City man accused of hitting father in head;” “Not guilty plea in attack on Holocaust survivor;” “Real estate broker pleads no contest to cheating seniors;” “Senior-abuse agencies short on funds;” “Elder facility accused of abuse.” And on and on. -more-

Since 2010, the United States has been negotiating a secret trade deal, the Trans Pacific Partnership. If approved by Congress, this pact between the U.S. and 11 or 12 of America’s Pacific Rim trade-partners would govern 40 percent of US imports and exports. So far, the negotiations are being conducted under tight security; for good reason, as there are big problems with TPP. -more-

When someone has a psychotic or manic episode, which usually includes behavior that seems "abnormal," others sometimes attach a negative moral judgment. Behavior of persons with mental illness doesn't always fit the social or business norm, and it causes people to be condemned as "inappropriate." And being on the receiving end of this perception can hurt. Being labeled as "antisocial" or as a "nuisance person" has a lot of shame attached--and this shame, as well as the negative perception, ought not to be so. -more-

A CD pre-release party. His CD called Outages and Interludes will be released by Innova and is a compilation of all of his political pieces from the last ten years or so. He will read some of his political writings, play some tunes from the CD, and maybe play some piano.... and maybe talk with a friend about politics. -more-