Chalkupy came to Berkeley this week to take
a stand in the sit-lie debate .
Early in the week, a popular medical pot dispensary closed in San Francisco and caused a flare-up of the baffled pundit syndrome. Skeptics are asking if President Obama is overlooking a link to the young voters who helped him win in 2008 and perplexed commentators are left scratching their heads. Why would he do something that seems to spurn the attitude of a large portion of his political base? Could the well paid experts be overlooking an obvious answer in much the same way folks couldn't find the purloined letter? Is there a hypothetical explanation for Obama's curious failure to let pot dispensaries function without harassment?
Do you want to consider a possible explanation? Let's assume that businesses in the
pharmaceutical industry make large contributions to both the Republican and
Democratic Presidential candidates' campaign funds. Then let's assume that those very same firms
resent the potential of medicinal pot which is not part of their assortment of
products. Would they hold off on asking
the resident in the White House for a bit of payback out of consideration of
the therapeutic value that the pot provides for the afflicted or would they
remind the President about paybacks and then ask him to pull strings to make
life miserable for the interlopers?
On Thursday, a large popular medical marijuana dispensary with outlets in Oakland and San Jose announced they must either find new locations or close.
In Berkeley
CA, this week, the city council
heard public input on the topic of the sit-lie law which will be on the
November ballot. The measure will, if
adopted, prohibit sitting or laying down on sidewalks from early morning until
late evening. If Berkeley gets rid of the hippies, what will
be next? Will anti-Vietnam War
demonstrations at Venice
Beach be outlawed?
Chalkupy, an activist organization which provides art work for liberal causes, placed a large chalk drawing in downtown Berkeley on Tuesday which showed a seated Buddha and said "arresting people for sitting is unenlightened."
Chalkupy is brought to the public by Fresh Juice Party (www.freshjuiceparty.com). According to a flyer handed out to folks who saw the chalk work of art being created, FJP is a politically prejudiced media group. They also assert "WE have the power to squeeze out the truth." (Well if the free press in the US isn't going to do their job, it would be nice if some other group takes up the slack.)
If the measure is passed it will go into effect in July of
2013. Wouldn't it be ironic if the
measure removed all the hippie panhandlers at the very same time that someone else
started an effort to increase business in Berkeley
by holding some events which would commemorate the 50th anniversary
of Mario Savio's speech from on top of a police car in December of 1964?
San Bernardino (AKA San Berdoo) wasn't the only city making news this week by having financial hardships. One report on KCBS news radio indicated that part of San Bernardino's troubles stemmed from the fact that the city contains a large number of foreclosed homes which produce no property tax revenue.
We noticed that Scranton Pa. was also making news by cutting pay for various groups of city employees. If some Occupy activists came to Scranton and waged an effort to win the restoration of the full pay rate for police and firemen, who have been reduced to the minimum wage rate; how aggressive would the police be about thwarting such amicus est tanquam alter idem type help?
Why do you suppose it is that the well paid Liberal pundits
are failing to point out that American cities are going broke at a time when
the United States
is still unquestioning about continued funding for the Bush Wars? Would the old Berkeley Barb let this example
of an inconsistent economic philosophy pass unnoticed?
[Is it true that one episode of Star Trek portrayed a visit to earth that revealed that at the end of the 20th century large global wars on earth had ceased and been replaced by smaller regional wars called Bush Wars?]
The Republicans seem to have a platform of: austerity measures, tax cuts for the rich,
and more war and the poles show a virtual tie between Mitt and President
Obama. How can this incongruity be
explained?
Wasn't there a scifi movie, some time back, which predicted that people would eventually become anesthetized by various distractions and not pay any attention to the important issues? The people became I-pod people and just did not give a damn about anything. If there was impending political disaster: "Oh? That's interesting, what else is happening?" Journalism has become sports, weather, celebrity gossip, and innocuous feature stories and the people in America are becoming increasingly enthusiastic about austerity measures, tax cuts for the wealthy, and the chance to send American troops to Syria.
Chill out, dude!
What's the worst that can happen?
If the Republicans use the Edward Gough Whitlam clause in the Party's
by-laws to disqualify Mitt from getting the nomination, and if they then select
a Presidential Candidate who delivers an early Christmas present to the folks
who made long odds bets on him, well then maybe some Americans will realize
that they better get used to stringent austerity measures and forget about
looking for a job. We'll write a column
that uses the headline: "Austerity
measures will continue until prosperity returns."
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