It's been five weeks since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The conflict threatens to stretch out for months; a resolution is murky. Nonetheless, we have learned several important lessons:

1.Putin is a thug. Out here on the Left Coast we never had high expectations for Vladimir Putin. We knew that he came out of the Soviet KGB and heard rumors that he was a "kleptocrat," reportedly the richest man in Europe ( https://fortune.com/2022/03/02/vladimir-putin-net-worth-2022/). We didn't trust Vlad. We believed that he contrived to get Donald Trump elected in 2016.

We thought Putin was immoral but smart. When it looked like he was going to invade Ukraine, we worried, "Poor Ukraine. Russia will roll over them in a few days."

We forgot that thugs often start out wily but then get overconfident -- inflated with hubris. Thugs surround themselves with sycophants. They start believing their own B.S.

Putin got cocky. He thought Ukraine and NATO would roll over if he acted tough. He confused brutality with guile. As a result, Putin got Russia into a war it cannot win. Now he is scrambling to find a way out that "saves face." It's not clear what that is. -more-

War equals senseless violence, murder, destruction, and idiocy, falsely construed to be in the name of country. War is atrocity with no reason behind it. When a country initiates war, it puts life and death decisions in the hands of bullshitters and con artists. War cannot find justification.

When countries have initiated war on the U.S., in our past, we've had to collectively defend ourselves; the other choice was to cease to exist. This is not to imply that the U.S. is immune to initiating war for no good reason. And it is not to imply that the U.S. always has a moral "high ground." When the U.S. has initiated war, and when we didn't have a good reason for it, this is the same stupidity as many other countries. The wars in which I would consider U.S. involvement justifiable include the American Civil War, WWI, WWII, and the Cold War. Other countries won't disappear, and neither would the threat of them if the U.S. decided to become pacifistic.

Some pacifists would argue that no war involvement whatsoever is better, that declining to "defend ourselves" is a better option, because it is a nonviolent choice. And this is despite the threat or even the certainty that we would be killed. In that vein, a person keeps one's soul alive but loses his or her body. Many people have a different take on war than that of conventional thought. I, personally, would never have made it as a soldier, and if drafted, would likely have drawn a "Bad Conduct Discharge," before even putting on a pair of Army boots. Such a discharge from the military could block future opportunities.

The Cold War of the nineteen fifties, sixties, seventies, and nineteen eighties, and the second Cold War of today, seem as though they are a competition of which country can most efficiently wipe out all life on Earth. -more-

A timely note from the Economic Policy Institute:

"In honor of April Fools’ Day, we give you three charts that should be April Fools’ jokes—but unfortunately are all too real.

"CEOs make 351 times as much as typical workers
"From 1978 to 2020, CEO compensation grew by 1,322%, far outstripping S&P stock market growth (817%) and top 0.1% earnings growth (which was 341% between 1978 and 2019, the latest data available). In contrast, compensation of the typical worker grew by just 18.0% from 1978 to 2020.

"The minimum wage is worth 21% less than in 2009
"While pay for top executives is skyrocketing, low-wage workers are losing ground. A worker paid the federal minimum of $7.25 today effectively earns 21% less than what their counterpart earned 12 years ago, after adjusting for inflation.

"Worker productivity has risen significantly—their pay, not so much
"American workers are producing much more than they were 40 years ago, but the financial gains are not being shared equitably. Productivity and the typical worker’s hourly pay rose in tandem from 1948 until the early 1970s. Then, because of policy changes that began in the late 1970s, accelerated through the 1980s, and largely remain with us today, productivity and pay began to sharply diverge. -more-

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

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

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

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

Eighty percent of life is just showing up, Woody Allen once said, or perhaps he said it’s 99%. Sometimes the quote is “success” instead of “life”, but for Christopher Boutelle, reliably showing up for everyone else was 100% of his successful and well lived life. All his life, Chris could be counted on to show up whenever anyone needed him, helping out with kindness and generosity.

In his family, he was first and foremost the loving uncle every family appreciates. His biological nieces and nephews were the offspring of his late brother Jonathan Boutelle (Annie, Phil, and Tommy) and of his brother Dr. William Boutelle (Jonathan, Laura and Xander). in the next generation, he was great-uncle to Phil’s kids Desmond, Elliette and Addie, as well as to nephew Jonathan’s sons Rohan and Vikram and Laura’s daughter Iona. He also was like an uncle to the daughters of his first cousin Michael O’Malley (Sara, Rachel and Eliza O’Malley) and their daughters Sophia and Isabel O’Malley-Krohn and Nora Hylton.

Beyond genetic ties, Chris was the glue that kept everyone in his extended family together. He remained good friends with Kim Tyler, his brother Jonathan’s former wife. His longstanding Thanksgiving tradition was to drive up from Los Angeles where he lived for a midday dinner with Kim and his nieces and nephews in Santa Cruz and then jump in his car, sometimes with brother Jonathan, and make it up to Berkeley in time for dessert with the families of his brother Will Boutelle and cousin Mike O’Malley and his old friend Neale McGoldrick. At the time of his death in an auto accident on November 22, he was setting out from LA on his way to northern California for the family Thanksgivings as usual. -more-

Aarón Yaschine, who received his MPH at UC Berkeley in 1983, passed away at his home in Mexico City on February 19, 2022. He was 83 years old.

Yaschine was known for his determination in providing for those who were left behind by mainstream dentistry. His unpretentious social activism was based in real world conditions that took him out of the halls of academia to serve those most in need. Yaschine was also known for his artistic sensitivity and his biting humor.

He worked as a dentist in Mexico City until he joined the faculty at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) Xochimilco. While at Berkeley he developed the concepts that would lead him to create Programa Comunitario de Capacitación, Atención y Autogestión Odontológica (PROCAO) in the mid-1980s. PROCAO was developed to fill gaps in rural dental care in Mexico due to either the lack of dentists in remote areas or the lack of funds for campesinos (rural farmers) to pay for dental work. The program operated in the states of Veracruz, Chiapas and Oaxaca and in poor areas of Mexico City.

PROCAO trained promotores de salud (community health workers) in these areas who would go to remote villages to do prevention education and basic dental care. Because manufactured dental instruments were costly or unavailable in remote areas, the project developed appropriate technology for making dental tools. Yaschine contributed to the original 1983 edition of the Berkeley-based Hesperian Foundation book Where There Is No Dentist. PROCAO offered training in the same topics as covered in the book: examining patients, diagnosing common dental problems, making and using dental equipment, using local anesthetics, placing fillings and pulling teeth. -more-

I’ve pulled out the bucket to catch water in the shower while my neighbor is watering his roses. It is April 2^nd. The snowpack is 38% of normal for this time of year and the drought map is already showing the entire state of California in drought with large swaths in severe drought (orange) and extreme drought (red). https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ In fact, looking at the drought map, half the country looks to be in trouble and the dry season for the west has just started.

Denial seems to be the skill that most of us do best.

As much as I prefer the convenience of walking over to my computer instead of hauling off to a meeting in person, connecting with others is lost, as is knowing who is in the zoom room audience at city meetings. If the special Design Review Committee (DRC) this week had been in person, there are a lot of questions I would have asked the neighbors who will be backed up to 1201 – 1205 San Pablo at Harrison. The neighbors did not object to construction on the empty corner lot, they welcomed it, but it is the height and size of the project in preliminary design review that left them asking for relief. The little 800 square foot house next door will be dwarfed by the new 6-story building sitting just a few feet from its small yard.

I would have liked to ask whether they knew about the City’s plans to fill the San Pablo corridor with mid-size mixed-use (the description of apartments atop a ground floor of commercial space like restaurants, coffee shops and retail stores) apartment buildings? Did they know when they asked if any of the mature trees on San Pablo would be removed by the project that the city foresters favor: planting smaller non-native imported trees. The same non-native trees that don’t support the insects birds need to feed their hatching young? -more-

Worth Noting:

City Council is on recess until April 12^th leaving Tuesday free, but the rest of the week is packed. The April 12^th city council agenda is available for comment and posted after the list of city meetings.

Monday evening at the 7 pm Personnel Board meeting the Police Chief is scheduled to update the board on Berkeley Police Department (BPD) staffing. This might be interesting in light of the City Audit of the BPD and needs for improvement that will be presented to council on April 12^th.

Wednesday the big meeting for the evening will be the hearing at the Planning Commission on the BART Station Housing project zoning amendments and statement of overriding considerations.

VISION 2050 City Directors and staff are making the rounds with community meetings to present the big overview of infrastructure needs and financing in advance of the council ballot initiative for financing the various projects. It might be good to ask how much of the Vision 2050 bond/tax ballot plan will be allocated to cover the City of Berkeley’s share of the $121,000,000 pier ferry capital costs and how firm are other allocations to the various infrastructure and affordable housing projects.

The Homeless Services Panel of Experts will be reviewing Measure P allocations.

Thursday afternoon WETA will receive the Berkeley Ferry Business Plan. If you don’t attend take a cruise thru pages 36 – 103 of the packet. The business plan projects that by the 10^th year of service, fares will cover only 54% of the operating costs. “Local efforts to evaluate the benefits of ferry service and to develop sources of local funding including inclusion in cities’ own capital improvement programs and creation of special funding sources…” As for the $112,000,000 of capital costs “…The two parties [WETA and City of Berkeley] are currently in discussion concerning how capital costs will be split…”

Looking at the LPC demolition referrals, the next mixed-use housing projects will be the the sites of the Dollar Store and Virginia Cleaners on Shattuck.

Saturday April 9^th the Berkeley Neighborhoods Council at 10 am will take up Berkeley issues, the agenda is not yet posted.

Shattuck will be closed from Allston to Center for the Celebrate the Arts Festival at the Downtown BART Station Plaza.

-more-

On Sunday, March 27, world renowned pianist Mitsuko Uchida came to Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall to preform two Mozart Piano Concertos with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra led by concertmaster Mark Steinberg. In actuality, most of the leading was done by Mitsuko Uchida, who conducted from the piano in the Mozart Piano Concertos. Also included in the program were Selected Fantasias by Henry Purcell, ably led by Concertmaster Mark Steinberg. These works by Purcell, which were performed just before intermission, included lovely writing for the violas. -more-

Under the auspices of Cal Performances, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton joined with pianist-composer Jake Heggie in a recital on Sunday afternoon, April 3, at Hertz Hall. Jamie Barton, fresh off a dazzling performance at the Metropolitan Opera as Princess Eboli in the original French version of Verdi’s Don Carlos, here showed a lighter side. At least this was so in the songs she performed composed by her accompanist, Jake Heggie. I am not a huge fan of Jake Heggie’s. I admired his early operas Dead Man Walking and Moby Dick, but I passed on attending his 2016 opera It’s A Wonderful Life due to my intense dislike of the trite and maudlin Frank Capra film on which it is based. Recently, I was hugely disappointed by Heggie’s 2019 opera If I Were You, which I found woefully trite. As for Jake Heggie’s art songs, they are angular and often arch but devoid of melodies. You’ll never leave a concert hall humming lovely melodies heard in Jake Heggie’s songs. They may be whimsical, they may be arch, they may be stilted; but they are almost never melodic. -more-