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When I was 15 and 20, the Progressive Party ran Henry Wallace (in 1948) and Vincent Hallinan (in 1952) of the renowned local family for president of the United States on the Progressive Party ballot. It was strongly communist-influenced. Ive always thought of it as communist which is fine with me.

As you might know from my campaigns for school board, I devotedly subscribe to communism and socialism tending toward the anarchy described by Marx, the withering away of the state as we replace it with meaningful forms of control by us all.

Progressive is maybe getting redefined by people struggling to take control of our governmental mechanisms. But Ive long determined it to be a wishy-washy term for people trying to do the right thing but not being sure what that is or the way to do it.

The Berkeley mayors submission on July 10 indicated the depth and sincerity of the bodys efforts, much as previous government formations have done, not only here but in many places where candidates and elected officials would committedly like to find ways to carry out programs that are good for us all that weve asked for and demanded.

The problem is they cant be in capitalism which youve seen repeatedly. If we win something, we lose it; our owners steal it back.

An actually progressive government would make the effort to get us talking about the use of socialism and communism. Without us able to talk about it, we spin our wheels which I think you and our elected officials know. But, they keep their jobs, saying they will fix all that broken stuff of ours. Maybe they just need encouragement to agree to allow us all to educate ourselves about taking control of government, of work of labor for all our benefit.

Norma J.F. Harrison Berkeley

Excuse my language, but EBMUD raising water rates with one of the excuses being that they need to offset for loss of revenue from people like us who saved water in the drought is the most stupid thing.

The only people getting benefits from the rate increase are the executives. Yes, lets keep them in those manors, private jets and worldwide family vacations.

Juan Lores Richmond

Todays conservative pundits are an unreasonable mix of irrational arrogance and willfully blind navet.

Theyre convinced of widespread voter fraud despite the complete lack of proof yet believe global warming is a hoax despite the overwhelming scientific evidence.

Ed Chainey Richmond

Back in 1993, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors passed a rodeo ordinance banning horse tripping and steer tailing, the first such ordinance in the nation.

The ordinance needs amending to include other cruel and nonsanctioned events, e.g. wild cow milking (in which a cow was killed at the 2014 Rowell Ranch Rodeo in Castro Valley and another bloodied at last months Livermore Rodeo); the childrens mutton busting event (banned in New Zealand on the recommendation of that countrys veterinary association); and all animal scrambles (pigs, calves, chickens, et al.). None of these events are standard ranching practice, and they are dangerous for all concerned.

Concerned citizens, especially local veterinarians, are urged to contact the board and ask that this issue be agendized: Wilma Chan, President, Alameda County Board of Supervisors, 1221 Oak St., Oakland, CA 94612; 510-208-4949. Other Board members are Scott Haggerty, Richard Valle, Nate Miley and Keith Carson.

As Tennessee Williams famously wrote, Cruelty is the only unforgivable sin. It needs to stop.

Eric Mills coordinator, Action for Animals Oakland

Regarding recent press about having Daylight Saving Time all year: Setting the clocks ahead one hour moves an hour of morning light to the end of the day. Thats great between March 21 and Sept. 21, when there is more daylight than night. But for the winter-half of the year, we need more light in the morning when kids are going to school.

Kids all go to school at about the same time, which is the same time that commuters are starting their treks to work. Darkness, or early morning sun in the eyes, creates dangerous hazards. Later in the day, schools end before most commuters return home, so evening darkness is not as dangerous.

As it is, Daylight Saving Time ends in November, nearly two months past the Sept. 21 equinox. Shortening, not lengthening, the DST period would make mornings safer for our children and grandchildren.

Bruce Joffe Piedmont

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Berkeley, El Cerrito letters: A truly progressive state communist, which is fine - East Bay Times

The statue of Friedrich Engels pictured before it was taken to Manchester. Photograph: Nikiforov Yevgen/Courtesy: Shady Lane Productions

I first heard that Manchesters city centre had a new statue when pictures appeared on my Twitter timeline on Monday morning. The media coverage of the project had passed me by. For those of you who also missed it, Turner prize-nominated artist Phil Collins has moved a Soviet-era statue of Friedrich Engels from Ukraine and permanently installed it in Manchester as part of the Manchester International Festival. On Sunday, the festival closed and the statue was unveiled as part of a live film event called Ceremony.

My first reaction was anger. Why have we put up a piece of Soviet propaganda in the centre of Manchester? I then wondered what the communities in Manchester who have been affected by communism would think.

My wife is third-generation British Ukrainian. Her grandparents were captured by the Germans and worked in forced labour in Germany during the second world war. After the war, they were sent to a displaced persons camp in England and they eventually settled in Cheetham Hill, north Manchester. The city has one of the largest Ukrainian communities in Britain. It has a social club, church, school, youth organisations, dance groups, choirs and museum. The members of this community epitomise everything that is great about Manchester intelligent, hardworking, cynical, creative and good-humoured.

An anti-Soviet voice would have added an important perspective to the work

Communism was a very real thing for British Ukrainians from the 1950s to 1990s. Many had relatives on the wrong side of the iron curtain. Others had lost family in the Holodomor. Millions of Ukrainians lost their lives to the Soviet regime. Anti-Soviet protests in Manchester or London were a common part of diaspora life. You could argue they are also part of the Manchester radical narrative. The aftermath of the Soviet era still affects Ukraine and its diaspora today.

I have grown to love the Manchester Ukrainian community. We were married in the Ukrainian church and our daughter was baptised there. I have visited Ukraine on two occasions. I respect the traditions and culture of the Manchester diaspora. Like any community, they are not always perfect, but they are proudly Mancunian and deserve to be listened to.

I understand that art should be challenging, but for me the statue and Ceremony glorify communism. I feel uncomfortable that the statue was part of the Soviet propaganda machine even if it originates from the softer Brezhnev regime (the statue was created in 1970). The placards promoting communism that have been placed around the statue do not help.

Im not the only one uneasy about the project. Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan has asked where the outrage is, comparing it to erecting a statue honouring Hitler. But these comparisons by Hannan and other rightwingers are crude. Engels was a philosopher, not a mass murderer. A better analogy would be asking whether we would tolerate the presence of Nazi propaganda in Manchester.

When I saw the statue in person I was drawn to the faded blue-and-yellow paint of the Ukrainian flag on the legs. I assume that it was painted by Ukrainians following the fall of the Soviet regime in 1991. A part of me longed to repaint the statue in the Ukrainian colours.

Do I have a problem with a statue of Engels in Manchester? No. There is already a sculpture of his beard in Salford. He is an important figure in Manchesters history. But I do have a problem with a statue created specifically to promote Soviet propaganda being placed in Manchester if, as a result, it romanticises communism and totalitarianism.

The Manchester International Festival is brilliant for the region, but it is a shame neither the festival nor the artist engaged properly with the citys Ukrainian community beforehand. I understand that members of the community were approached about providing a choir for Ceremony, but they turned it down when they discovered the context. This was the first they knew about the project. The communitys anti-Soviet voice would have added value and an important perspective to the work.

Perhaps it is not too late to involve the Ukrainian community and other anti-Soviet voices. Sarah Perks, artistic director at Manchesters Home arts centre, told the Financial Times that discussion points would be created around the statues base to encourage viewers to participate. If the statue is to remain in Manchester, let us at least make sure all voices are heard in this participation and it is properly interpreted.

Look, this is a personal opinion. I dont represent the views of the Manchester Ukrainian community some may react differently. But at least involve them properly in the process.

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Manchester has a Soviet statue of Engels. Shame no one asked the city's Ukrainians - The Guardian

When the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had a parliamentary majority, he pushed through dramatic changes to the Fundamental Law of Hungary in 2011. In Poland, Orbans autocratic counterpart, Jarosaw Kaczyski, does not have the same majority to change the constitution. However, this does not stop him from remodeling the political system according to his wishes.

Since the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) swept into power during the Polish general and presidential elections of 2015, it has gained considerable means to change the country according to the illiberal vision of Jarosaw Kaczyski, the party chairman. Mr. Kaczyski, officially only an MP, is in fact the most influential person in Poland and effectively orders both PM Beata Szydo and President Andrzej Duda, whom he anointed for their respective positions.

Mr. Kaczyski controls the legislative and the executive, but he has feared that the strong, independent judicial branch especially the Constitutional Tribunal would once again oppose his planned reforms as it did during PiSs previous short term governing from 2005 to 2007. For that reason, the offensive against the rule of law started with a total political overhaul of the Constitutional Tribunal, which is now helmed by justice appointed by his party. This move, unprecedented in the history of democratic Poland after 1989, was heavily criticized by academic and professional legal communities and has sparked large civic protests in the streets. It was also the reason for the European Commission to trigger the rule of law procedure against Poland.

After taking over the Constitutional Tribunal, it appears to be now time for increasing political control over the rest of the judiciary. The three new laws include:

1) already adopted amendments to law on the National Council of the Judiciary of Poland, an institution that appoints judges. According to the new bill all sitting members of the Council are dismissed and new ones will be appointed by the parliament,

2) already adopted changes to law on judges, giving the Minster of Justice powers to personally replace and fine the chief judges of common courts,

3) currently discussed law on the Supreme Court.

According to a draft law on the Supreme Court currently discussed in the Polish Parliament, the term of sitting SC judges would be ended and those who remain would be personally selected by the Minister of Justice who is also Persecutor General. In this new system, the separation and balance of power is greatly diminished. The highest court becomes dependent on one politician with extremely wide catalogue of competences. As of today, this person is Mr. Zbigniew Ziobro, a trusted ally to Mr. Kaczyski. What sparks public fears and a wave of street protests is not only this extraordinary concentration of powers, but also the fact that Supreme Court validates election results. The next general election takes place in 2019.

Mr. Kaczyskis own sympathies and deep-rooted convictions are part of official justification for recent and planned highly controversial changes in the system of appointment of judges and in personal makeup of the Supreme Court. The Law and Justice chairman claims that after Polands transition to democracy, the judiciary was never properly vetted and that judicial elites of the Third Polish Republic are the same people or progenies (!) of judges who worked for and benefitted from the oppressive regime before 1989. Irrespective of facts, Kaczyski seems to have a twisted morality where children should bear the responsibility for the actions of their parents. Interestingly, Kaczyskis anti-communist sentiment is highly selective and does not apply to such figures as Law and Justices MP Stanisaw Piotrowicz, an infamous communist-era persecutor.

Speaking of facts, not opinions, all judges of the Supreme Court were vetted after 1989 following the lustration law introduced in 1996, which was amended in 2006 for all sitting judges and judicial candidates of common courts wherein they are screened to ascertain whether they worked for or collaborated with the communist services. With an inevitable passage of time, lustration laws no longer apply to younger public servants, who entered professional life after 1989 and during democratic Poland. A prime example of this generational change in Polish public life is President Andrzej Duda, PhD in law, himself 45 years old.

However, according to Kaczyskis logic, most of the judiciary is irreversibly tainted and by default compromised and should be replaced by new elites, chosen not on merit, but on political allegiance to Kaczyskis vision. Law and Justice won 2015 elections, among others, on fueling this anti-elitist populist and ant-communist sentiment. The latter is strong in Poland almost 28 years after the regime change, especially among the generation of people born after 1989, thanks to a decade of historical propaganda efforts of Law and Justice.

In addition, Mr. Kaczyskis party skillfully took advantage of the widespread dissatisfaction with the judiciary among Poles. While scholars of law and democracy have been proud of many achievements of the Polish judicial branch during the last quarter century, the average Poles experiences with judiciary are often negative. Lengthy proceedings, corruption scandals and perceived arrogance of the judiciary made it an easy target. Nevertheless, the value of rule of law and the appreciation for liberal democracy has not been forgotten in Poland overnight. The most recent wave of bottom-up protests in many Polish cities, organized by civil society groups, is a reminder to that.

What does the reform of the Supreme Court hold for the future of Polish democracy?

The Supreme Court examines electoral complaints, validates general and presidential elections as well as national and constitutional referenda. Moreover, it considers complaints of political parties who were refused public subsidies. The First President of the Supreme Court is by default the head of the Tribunal of State, an institution, which holds public officials accountable for breaching the Constitution.

While the Constitutional Tribunal is a guardian to our values and rights enshrined in the constitution, the Supreme Court assures that liberal democratic checks-and-balances work properly and that there is room for political pluralism and party competition. A political overhaul of two key oversight institutions enormously imbalances the Polish system.

Anna Wjcik is assistant editor at Visegrad Insight and researcher at the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Twitter: @annawojcik

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Populist anti-communism in Poland - Visegrad Insight

Vietnam.

The name carries with it a revulsion because of the calamity that struck the people who lived there, and the 58,000 American soldiers who died there.

Now, a book has been created by DK Publishing in association with the Smithsonian that provides timelines with a pictorial and text overview of Vietnams tortured existence from colonial days to its final fall into communism.

The elaborate, coffee table-size book titled, The Vietnam War: the Definitive Illustrated History, recently became available at Barnes and Noble Book Sellers.

It deals in a general way with American soldiers, though without individual names, such as Jim Allison of Lubbock who died fighting for what once was the possible liberty of South Vietnam.

And with men like Robert Bernero of Lubbock, who survived while serving faithfully in the military, but came home to no parades.

The United States had been in Vietnam in an attempt to keep communism from engulfing the world in the 1960s and 1970s. The ideology already had Russia and China firmly in its grip. Communism found propaganda more effective than nuclear weapons with which to defeat liberty.

Vietnam conquered

France had conquered Vietnam in the 19th century and continued its colonial rule until World War II, when Japan occupied the country.

Then, at the end of World War II, France became active in the country again, while communists became intent on seizing it. When Vietnam was divided into north and south by the Geneva Accords of 1954, war and suffering ensued for a quarter of a century.

The South had been proclaimed to be the Republic of Vietnam in 1955, and the last French soldier left a year later.

Vietnamese people who were Catholics and living in North Vietnam began fleeing communism by moving in massive numbers into South Vietnam, where they were housed in huge tent cities.

According to The Vietnam War, Catholics in the tent cities survived on emergency aid from the United States.

And the stage was set:

American military advisers began providing assistance and training for the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam.

The Vietnam War includes a quote by Ho Chi Minh, the communist leader of North Vietnam, that must be one of the most ironic statements of all time: Nothing is more precious than independence and liberty.

Conventional weapons

North Vietnam also used conventional weapons, those suggested by Chinas Mao Zedong in his Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun philosophy, and began working through guerrillas inside South Vietnam.

The first American soldier was killed near Saigon on July 8, 1959, by guerrillas.

Nine years later, 495,000 American troops were in-country, and in a single year nearly 17,000 had been killed.

Although enemy forces lost 45,000 men in its Tet offensive in 1968, it was considered a military defeat. At the time, national media coverage in the United States was keeping up a barrage of opposition to the war.

The Vietnam War, in a section on the media and the war, noted that Vietnam was the first war covered extensively on television: The conversion of (Walter) Cronkite and other media gatekeepers from ambivalent onlookers to antiwar advocates was a major blow to the American effort in Vietnam, the book states.

Eventually, a buildup of American troops over the years was reversed in the wake of changed public opinion, and by March 1973, the last combat troops had been removed. By April 30, 1975, the communists tanks rolled into the center of Saigon, and the war was lost.

Suffering continued

Suffering didnt end, though. Vietnam was formally united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam under hard-line communist rule.

Hundreds of thousands of Boat People left their country over the following two years, with an estimated 50 to 70 percent dying at sea.

According to The Vietnam War, more than two million South Vietnamese that included former military officers, civil servants, capitalists, priests, teachers, intellectuals and others identified with the former regime were sent to re-education or thought reform camps:

An estimated 165,000 people died in the camps from starvation, disease, exhaustion, suicide, and by execution.

Also, the research found, Religious people, especially Christians, were persecuted, as were ethnic minorities, including the significant Chinese population. Many of the Montagnards, the mountain people who resisted the communists, were slaughtered.

Peace now reigns in Vietnam, but not liberty. President Bill Clinton reached out to the new Vietnam for a normalization of relations.

Lubbock soldiers

Jim Allison wasnt able to visit the new Vietnam:

At age five, he would wear a cowboy hat and strap on a holstered toy six-gun. He was a replica of a genuine West Texas cowboy. As an adult, he graduated from Monterey High School and attended Texas Tech before entering the Army as an infantry soldier.

According to a report in the Avalanche-Journal on Sunday, Nov. 3, 1968, he had been killed at age 21, on Oct. 31, 1968, in Vietnam. Genealogical research shows he was the son of Douglas and Marie Allison. Army records indicate he died by small arms fire while serving as a private first class.

He was a member of a Church of Christ congregation.

It was a lifetime that might have been. Still, he did his part in his moment to keep liberty alive in the United States and for the world.

Bob Bernero, who came to Lubbock in 1984 to work at Texas Tech and get a degree in social studies by attending classes at night, calls himself what the 17- and 18-year-olds in Vietnam called him when he was an old man of 22:

A lifer. It referred to his intention to make the Air Force a career.

He has shared his experiences in Vietnam and a bit of measured success with the protesters for next weeks A-J Remembers.

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AJ Remembers: Vietnam was a war too far - LubbockOnline.com

IsPope Francis a Catholic? Or is the Pontiff a communist?

Jacksonville City CouncilmanBill Gullifordhas a take.

I am a Catholic and he is a Communist, Gulliford said of Pope Francis on Facebook Thursday, reacting toan online publication (M2 Voice) that said the Pope asserted that world government must rule the United States for their own good.

Notable: the quote was not in the original interview the website claimed to cite, which was conducted in Italian and translated by Agence France Presse before the M2 Voice aggregation.

Gullifords comments drew sharp criticism online Thursday, and on Friday, we reached out to him for further clarification and many of his comments came back to schisms in the Church between the conservative American Catholic wing and the liberation theology school from which Pope Francis hails.

Liberation theology, said Gulliford, is a form of Christian communism, and one that Francis narratives and pronouncements still echo.

All he talks about is social justice, Gulliford added.

If he is the head of the Catholic Church, he should put salvation over social justice, Gulliford continued, adding that any friend of the United Nations is no friend of mine.

Gulliford also believes that, even if the quote he reacted to was not in the interview, there is plenty of evidence of Francis anti-American animus, reflected in his comments against the United States, which reflect a definite anti-American bent.

Gulliford alsonoted that Pope Benedict XVI condemned liberation theology as being in conflict with Catholic doctrine.

Meanwhile, several Catholics with a different take weighed in Friday also.

When right-wing politicians and conservative media pundits dont want to hear what Pope Francis has to say about inequality or the failure of trickle-down economics, they hurl the communist epithet at him, said John Gehring, Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life, and author of The Francis Effect.

But the popes economic message is rooted in traditional Catholic teaching. The catechism of the church talks about inequality as sinful. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI strongly challenged free-market fundamentalism. Conservative Catholics have a history of conveniently wishing that part of their own church tradition away.

A local Priest offered a similar sentiment.

Pope Francis stands solidly in line with his predecessors. William F. Buckley, Jr. rejected Pope John XXIIIs Mater et Magistra, and admirers of Pope John Paul II cherry picked from his teaching on communism and capitalism, passing over his critiques of the latter while trumpeting his critiques of the former, said Jacksonville local Pastor Tim Lozier of Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church.

I absolutely agree that Pope Francis is simply preaching the Gospel and we all are often more aligned with the worldly values of success and prosperity than we are with the values Jesus taught and lived.

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Jacksonville Councilman doubles down on describing Pope Francis as a 'communist' - Florida Politics (blog)