Berkeley, Calif., has removed more than 75 tons of garbage, human waste, and drug paraphernalia from homeless camps since September, according to the city's latest budget proposal.
The 2023-2024 budget describes the work of Berkeley's Homeless Response Team, which it says "performed at least weekly garbage collection and debris removal from encampments across the City, removing over 151,000 pounds of trash between September 2021 and March 2022."
The scale of Berkeley's encampment cleanup efforts is indicative of the homelessness crisis facing many California cities, which worsened amid state and local government-imposed lockdowns during the pandemic. Sixty-four percent of Californians say homelessness is a "big problem" in their part of the state, and 63 percent say the number of homeless people in their community has grown.
With an estimated 535 homeless people living in tents or on the street in Berkeley, the city's cleanup efforts amount to nearly 500 pounds of garbage removed per homeless person per year. A spokesman for the city confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that human waste and drug paraphernalia factored into the weight of the trash removed from camps.
Berkeley resident Michael Shellenberger, who this month placed third in California's nonpartisan gubernatorial primary as an independent candidate, faults progressive policies for California's homelessness crisis. He said the tons of waste Berkeley collects from camps serve as proof of the city's rashness in allowing the homeless to shelter outside.
"The data showing that Berkeley's homeless population is producing 500 pounds of garbage per person is yet more evidence that it is unsafe and unsanitary to allow homeless people to sleep outside," Shellenberger told the Free Beacon . "The evidence comes just a few weeks after the release of data showing that homeless people in Los Angeles are three times more likely to die than homeless people in New York because most of the homeless in L.A. are unsheltered. How many more must die before California governor Gavin Newsom and the Democratic mayors of California's cities act?"
Berkeley's Homeless Response Team launched in September after a year and a half in which the city did not clean up encampments because of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, a period in which the "encampment situation … got much worse," according to the city spokesman. The city established the team with the objective of reducing "the impact of encampments on the city … while avoiding citation and arrest."
The Homeless Response Team "performed 16 closures of large and dangerous encampments," according to the budget, "resolving conditions that included raw sewage and human waste, loose and scattered syringes and drug paraphernalia, rodents and other vector hazards, rotting food, and obstruction of sidewalks and vehicular lanes of traffic."
The city boasted in the report that it issued zero criminal citations and made "only one arrest" in the process of clearing dangerous encampments of hazardous waste.
Richie Greenberg, one of the leaders of this month's successful campaign to recall far-left San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin, criticized Berkeley for tolerating open-air encampments, saying the money spent on clearing garbage and human waste should go toward "a permanent solution for the homeless problem."
As part of its efforts to clean up the streets, Berkeley offered shelter to "well over" 200 homeless people, the budget said. Sixty-one percent of those offered housing by the city refused. When asked by the Free Beacon about the low acceptance rate, Berkeley's spokesman said the city is "striving … to eliminate barriers to utilizing our shelters, to make them welcoming and comfortable, and to ensure that they create meaningful pathways to housing."
Berkeley is famous for its far-left policies—it was the first in the country to establish "sanctuary city" laws. Since the pandemic, however, the liberal city has bowed to increasing pressure from residents to take more aggressive action against homelessness. The city has moved to evict homeless RV-dwellers and began clearing out some larger encampments. The spokesman for Berkeley pointed to the city's roughly 5 percent decline in homelessness since 2019, telling the Free Beacon that Berkeley's efforts to fight homelessness are "paying off, even though we have so much more to do."
Shellenberger was less confident that Democrats are committed to removing dangerous homeless camps from California's cities.
"How much more garbage must accumulate before we require people to sleep indoors?" Shellenberger said. "Newsom and Democratic mayors appear intent to use the homeless population to destroy California's once-beautiful cities because they are in the grip of an anti-civilization ideology."
KAMALA HARRIS AND BLACK SUPREMACY... you didn't know she's black or when she became black??? Kamala Harris tweeted out a link to a group raising bail money for Minnesota rioters. Biden campaign workers contributed themselves. Biden described Antifa as “an idea.” Try to imagine Churchill calling the brown shirts “an idea.” Senate Democrats like Kamala Harris and Cory Booker worked to prevent the FBI from even having a Black Supremacist category before two terrorist attacks that murdered four people.
t he best-case scenario is that she’s a progressive who repeatedly violated her own principles so that she could promote her career. In the worst-case scenario, she’s just another corrupt, rotten, regressive prosecutor. JESSER HOROWITZ
Joe Biden, the corrupt, unaccomplished 47-year career politician, with a reputation of having been a proud segregationist , an unabashed plagiarist and liar , a resolute tale-teller , and a serial flip-flopper , is pretending to head up a radical social-democratic ticket for President of the United States that includes as his running mate the ambitious, disagreeable junior senator from California: Kamala Harris.
Duplicity aside, perhaps the only details of Harris’s speech more cringeworthy than her insincerity was her inability to tell the truth about virtually anything. DAVID KELTZ
Kamala Saves The Day...... well maybe not!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_VX7in8_tc '
VIDEOS
The voices inside his Earpiece
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuxAmLM5Bxw
Back To The Basement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmlQP8QS9VI
OBAMA-STYLE DIVISIONIST KAMALA HARRIS: RACIST
Kamala Harris is clearly in 'over her head': Concha https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gguu3DN08Yo
Kamala Harris struggles to overcome wave of blunders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQJQmyPRcIQ
US Vice President Kamala Harris 'is such a hoax'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRg6KxiOr3Q
How Kamala Harris Made Her Millions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIipQxGdjYs
The Shady Side Of Kamala Harris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flz5k8RPQGk
The United States is 'literally leaderless'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJf-XRgzcjs
Newt Gingrich calls Joe Biden a 'sickness'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVlPJcgRCj8
Clyburn: If Biden Chooses Not to Run in 2024, VP Harris ‘First on My List’ 1:49
Monday on CNN’s “New Day,” House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) reacted to a Wall Street Journal report that Democrats were expecting President Joe Biden to run again in 2024 but were not sure if he should.
Host John Berman asked Clyburn to expound on his remarks in the report that he supported Biden first and then Vice President Kamala Harris if not.
The South Carolina Democrat said there was “no question” Biden was “doing exactly what needs to be done” for the United States. He added that if the president didn’t run, the next on his list would be Harris.
“[Y]ou know, there’s no question in my mind that Joe Biden is doing exactly what needs to be done for this great country of ours,” Clyburn replied. “We all know that our democracy is teetering on edge. We need a Joe Biden to get us through this rough patch, and I think he’s doing great with that. We know that his forecast includes Vice President Harris. I support her. And I’m just saying that if he chooses not to run again, first on my list after him would be Kamala Harris.”
Clyburn was asked what should determine whether or not Biden runs in 2024.
“I think a lot depends upon what the issues are after the midterm elections, what kind of impact his policies will have on the outcome of that election, and I think that he will make a decision based upon that,” he explained. “And I think that Democratic voters will be doing that as well. And so, everybody knows that none of us are getting any younger. And we all tend to adjust our activities based upon what time it is at any given juncture. And he’ll do the same.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
Kamala Harris's verbal gaffe during a Juneteenth history lesson
It was an elementary assignment for Vice President Kamala Harris during yesterday’s Juneteenth holiday.
Her mission was to address elementary school children at the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington about the significance of the day. Following her address, she was to exchange pleasantries with the children as well as school and museum staff and pose for photos.
A high school student could accomplish this task effortlessly.
But this is the Biden administration where unchartered territories of colossal ineptitude are breached every day. Harris has been the flagbearer of this incompetence. Just when you thought she touched the abyss, she surprised everybody by going down deeper.
YouTube screengrab (cropped)
During her Juneteenth talk before the school children, Kamala Harris seemed uncomfortable from the very beginning. There were excessive hand gestures, there was hesitation, repetition, long pauses, ill-timed outbursts of laugher, and the occasional inappropriate colloquialism. Her eyes darted across the room listlessly as if she was desperately looking for approval.
VIDEO
This occurs when a speaker is unprepared and has no command of the subject.
A key excerpt from her speech is as follows:
I think that we all know today is a day to celebrate the principle of freedom. And think about it in terms of the context of history, knowing that black people in America were not free for 400 years of slavery.
Let this be a day that is a day to celebrate the principle of freedom, but to speak about it honestly and accurately, both in the context of history and current application
Any student of elementary history knows that the first African slaves in the American colonies arrived in 1619 in Virginia. They also know slavery was abolished in 1865 when the 13th Amendment was ratified.
1865 – 1619 = 246.
Yet Kamala Harris said it was 400 years of slavery.
Is she poor at math or poor at history or both?
The fact is it has been 157 years since slavery ended in America.
We can rule out the possibility that she purposefully overstated the duration of slavery to push any Democrat narrative. It requires adroitness in addition to malice to invent during an impromptu speech. Kamala struggles to even string a coherent sentence, hence purposeful fabrications seem far-fetched.
We, therefore, have to conclude that she really may be ignorant about the history of slavery in the country where she is the second-highest officer holder.
This is the most recent in a series of ignominious verbal mishaps.
Last month she was at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit when she talked about the importance of working together as a team.
Also last month, Harris committed a catastrophic verbal mess during a meeting with the Jamaican Prime Minister.
In March, at the Munich Security Conference, Harris seemed to be at loss for words as she attempted to explain the crisis in Ukraine.
Also in March, during a joint presser in Warsaw alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda, Harris erupted into laughter when asked about the US’s plans to accept Ukrainian refugees.
VIDEO
Back in January, during an interview on NBC News, when asked Harris about Biden’s failing strategy against Covid-19, Harris rambled incoherently.
Last October, Harris botched an appearance in a pre-recorded NASA video aimed at promoting science among young children.
Last June during a TV interview, Harris struggled to answer why she hasn’t visited the US-Mexico border despite being tasked to ‘resolve the border crisis’
What explains these frequent gaffes?
Harris obviously must have access to the best subject matter experts and speech coaches who would gladly help her prior to her public appearances. She is educated and has decades of experience in politics.
In addition to lacking in talent, Harris appears to be lacking in effort. She also appears apathetic toward her job, her legacy, and her country. This is a disastrous combination in any field, especially for high political office.
Why then did Biden’s handlers choose Kamala Harris as his running mate?
It was for the same reason that Obama chose Biden as his running mate.
Biden’s handlers didn’t want any threat to his Presidency from the Vice President. Somebody among Biden’s handlers knew of the astounding incompetence and inarticulateness of Kamala Harris long before it became common knowledge.
The fact that she is female and has pigment under her skin makes her the perfect ‘diversity’ hire that delights liberals. But beyond the superficial attributes, there is a total hollowness within.
Matters have deteriorated to such an extent that she commits elementary mistakes even while addressing elementary school children. Even Biden’s handlers who choose her for her inability must be surprised as to how fast she collapsed.
Biden's handlers have accomplished what they intended to, the inarticulate and ineffectual Kamala has made senile and bungling Biden unimpeachable.
This may be astute political skullduggery but a vile affront to the United States of America.
Kamala's Threat to American Democracy Who, exactly, is a vice-president supposed to be?
Barry Nussbaum
The arrival of Joe Biden’s decision on a running mate is a true turning point in the history of American politics.
There has never before been a presidential candidate who, prior to entering the White House, has shown such undeniable signs of age-related neurological decay. All political disagreements disregarded, the sight of an elderly person succumbing to the demons of those dreaded cognitive ailments -- which all too often rob us of the older people we love -- is truly excruciating to behold.
The political outcome of Biden's mental state is, if possible, even more unsettling. The role of the president is meant to be powerful. All constitutional checks and balances considered, the sheer power of the chief executive, in that one single person invested with authority to counter-balance the power of the legislative and judicial branches, is truly awesome.
In our situation today, we see a man who is clearly not in full command of his mental faculties, who is allowing himself to be considered for that office of chief executive; an office which, unlike a prime minister in a parliamentary system, is intended to be stable and not prone to regular changes in leadership.
The expectation of a normal four-year presidential tenure on Biden’s part if he is elected must, at the very least, be subjected to serious doubt. If pronouncing basic words -- let alone quoting the most famous phrase of our Declaration of Independence -- is such a confusing ordeal for him, then it is our urgent duty to question whether this individual is fit to be the man who must accept the ultimate responsibility for this country’s national security and well-being.
These facts squarely cast the Democrat side of the current election as not a presidential election at all, but a vice-presidential election .
Should Biden win, the chances are very probable that his vice president will become the 47th president to finish out his first four-year term. As the vice president automatically succeeds to the Oval Office if the president dies or is rendered permanently incapacitated, the profoundly anti-democratic repercussions of this situation is worsened by whom Biden has actually chosen.
The traditional custom for presidential hopefuls is to either choose the second-highest-polling candidate in a primary race, as Ronald Reagan did with George H. W. Bush in 1980, or to choose a highly capable politician who is well-respected by most of the party, as Donald Trump did with Governor Mike Pence in 2016. In both of those cases, the aforementioned running mates reflected the Republican Party and its voters quite respectably while promoting unity.
It is highly questionable, meanwhile, whether Kamala Harris -- aside from all of the establishment media’s expected giddy cheerleading -- really represents her party all that well. She was polling at 2% nationally by the time she ended her own presidential bid on December 3, 2019. Her more radical positions, such as support for the Obama administration’s Iran deal, prosecuting a journalist who exposed Planned Parenthood’s collection and sale of aborted babies’ body parts (while receiving campaign donations from them), and defending Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitism, may indeed sit well with a great many leftists, but her actions as Attorney General of California may not. While in that position, Harris jailed hundreds on marijuana charges and authorized anti-prostitution sting operations which, according to SF Weekly , disproportionately targeted Latino men (a crucial Democrat demographic). In addition to this -- though she later admitted it was a mistake -- she prosecuted and jailed the parents of truant teens. She even refused to release the names of Catholic priests accused of sexually molesting children, abnegating law enforcement’s most basic and humane duty -- regardless of anyone’s opinion of the Catholic Church.
it is highly debatable if these are positions that a high number of progressives who voted for the Democrat primary runner-up, Bernie Sanders, would approve of. Especially today, being tough on minority and drug crime -- to the exclusion of “white patriarchal” clergy sex abuse -- is not en vogue among the Democratic Party’s truly energized base, which is largely college-educated millennials taught to have contempt for not only aggressive inner city policing, but inner city policing overall.
It also remains a question as to how many black American voters Kamala really represents. Without doubt, she completely failed to gain these voters' support during the primary. Many black Americans responded to Barack and Michelle Obama due to their image as people who empathized authentically with the black experience of living in inner city America. Harris’s flip-flopping on criminal justice issues has clearly deprived her of the Obama touch.
What should highly concern all Americans of whatever political persuasion is the fact that, given Joe Biden’s medical condition, a Democrat victory in 2020 could very likely result in a person for whom only 2% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning Independents supported to become president.
The reasons for Biden’s choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate are as yet not entirely clear. What is very clear, however, is that a new president of the United States in the near future could be a person whom a weak and faltering man chose by fiat, and not someone whom the majority of the country elected by the ballot. That's a problem.
It's a problem for America -- and it's a serious and profound problem for American democracy. Barry Nussbaum is an exceptional American businessman and real estate mogul, whose distinguished career extends more than 38 years. He is an experienced news commentator on international affairs, who has been featured on major television networks, web-based and in print media. Visit his site: AmericanTruthProject.org .
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