year of hate 50 years after summer of love

I just saw Amber Cummngs, who presents as a transgendered woman but who also carefully hides her identity. I was sitting in the Amazon store to charge my scooter, which was out of power. I could not enter any other building to charge it. Capitalism won't allow even the great UC Berkeley to close a conservative business like Amazon. And, yes, Amazon is conservative because it rushes to the bottom of pay scales, pressures employees to do more work than they can reasonably do in the time Amazon insists they do their work. Fuck Amazon, eh?

Sitting in the refrigerated Amazon store on campus, Amber rushed in, rushed to the door that usually lets folks go from the Amazon floor into the student union. Today, no one could enter the student union if they did not have student ID. She was smiling broadly as she ran through the Amazon store, seeming to believe she had found a way 'in' to the student union. And when she saw she could not get into the union, she ran out just as quickly. She ran like a guy, ya know? Amber saw the 'no exit' sign and ran out again. She might have needed to use a toilet, which were on the otherside of that no-exit/no-entry door. Just steps away from that door lies toilets and, which I was coveting, one of those new fangled (not all that new!) water fountains with a spigot to fill water bottles. I was out of water and wanted water badly. It's hot out there, eh?

I watched the show on Upper Sproul from inside the refrigerated Amazon store. I didn't get a full charge. A full charge takes at least a couple hours, but I got enough juice to get home.

No loud talks. A small group of conservatives.

Anyone else notice that there have been virtually no helicopters for the last couple days, when Milo fizzled, and the "No Hate in the Bay rally" but then the nazis show up and so do the helicopters.

The nazis marched from Lower Sproul to Upper Sproul chanting "Who's Streets?  Our Streets?"  I laughed, because they were not on any street.  Maybe they had sung that when they marched earlier.

When I thought I had enough power to get home, I rolled outside to hear the speeches. With no sound amplification, the only thing I could hear was a very attractive young black man who was using a particularly attention-getting voice, wheedling, shrieking, "No hate. No Nazis. No racism. Go hoe you fucking Nazis."  I liked that last bit the bit:  go home you fucking Nazis.

I saw outside to listen just a bit, machine turned off to save my power. No speeches, not even shouting without amps. So I broke down and rolled over. Still no speeches. But a bunch of dweeby jerks in MAGA hates or Trump t-shirts trying to be jerks to what seemed like mostly black people.  Like this: a black woman, not a young student but she could be a student, was filming the scene pretty close to the gaggle of Nazis at the foot of Upper Sproul. Geez, if they wanted to speak, even without amplication, surely they would get on the steps to shout over the assembled onlookers. This one jerk goes up to the black woman filming and he gets as close to her smartphone as he can and then he waves and says "Hi Mom". He was baiting her. She was indignant but the twerp moved on quickly, seeming to know he would have pissed her off but not seeming willing to deal with the consequences of his obnoxious behavior.  He was demeaning others, mocking them, but, imho, he was being a pathetic jerk.

So I rolled a little closer. And right in the center of all the Nazis:  a young black men who seemed to be with the Nazis. And the Nazis had security, similar to the security anti-hate rallies used on Sat, Sun and Mon:  people who support the Nazis assigned to mill about and patrol/protect/provide security. A couple of these white nazis who seemed to be running security started doing heavy, hard handshakes to followers, saying "Thanks for showig up man, it means a lot".

There were not as many as fifty Nazis there.

I got up close to Amber, I could have reached out and touched her. As usual, she wore the only outfit she seems to own. I am convinced she is a he. And I wish it was considered a mask to mill about in a disguise. Male or female, she wears a wig, sunglasses and tries hard to hide her identity. If masks are banned, why is Amber (a fake name, I am sure) able to mask her/him/humself.

What goes into the thinking of folks like Amber and that black man hanging with the
Nazis at Upper Sproul? If Amber actually is a transgendered woman, wTF is wrong with her? Has she read about Trumps efforst to persecute transgendered military? and transgendered humans in general? Does s/he know, and she must know, that Trump and Pence are rabidly homophobic, anti-female, anti-transgender?  What kind of world does she imagine her support of white supremacy will give her? Does she think onces its all us whities that Amrika will suddenly like gays and transgendered male-to-female humans?  Amber:  do your homework. The Third Reich sent as many homosexuals as they could to the death camps and Nazis are not likely to change stripes and find a place for transgendered anyone.

What is her deal?

I was right next to that white chick 'news' person, the conservative nutter. Like inches away. I heard her assessing the situation, discussing with either her camera guy or a producer to decide what to try and get on camera.  I wanted to turn to her and say "Nazi go home" but I was in the middle of lots of people, many of them Nazis.

Too bad Yvette Fellarca got arrested again. I don't support her tactics and I think the cops are biased against her.

It seems to me that BPD, UCPD, UC Berkeley and, most of all, the news media, are biased in favor of white supremacists and Nazis. No helicopters for the 'no hate in the bay' but lots of helicopters for, at most, 25 or so Nazis.

UCPD has little platoons of cops all over the campus, patrolling. Yes, patrolling like in wartime.

I am reminded of a novel I read in Spanish in college, so by a highly regarded Spanish novelist. It as about the Spanish Civil War.  I did it in an independent study with my favorite Spanish professor and we'd meet in cafes to talk about it. I was kinda his star student. Was the writer Garcia Lorca?  I don't remember when Garcia Lorca wrote, but it was definitely about the Spanish Civil War. The Vietnam has just barely ended when I read that book. What stands out from that book, read forty+ years ago, is the way troops patrolled forests at night, following almsot the same paths each night, always out on patrol in the dark. They did not follow the exact same path daily for they did not want to wear a path in the brush. Up and down. Meeting with professor Alfieri to discuss the chapters about those nighttime military platoons on patrol, I said, in Spanish, that the writing was somewhat poetic, that the author wrote as if those patrols were a delicate dance. And they were, for they were life and death. One wrong step and death could come or death could be meted out. An elaborate dance, I suggested, Alfieri gushed over what I said, even wiggled in his chair a bit. I had nailed that interpretation and he was proud of me. And impressed. I wanted to say, but did not, "Come on, you know I am brilliant. Of course I got the dance."  I did not share with him that I had thought about the patrols I had heard and read about in Vietnam, another dance of death.