In the Trump era, it's hard to think of a piece of advice more out-of-fashion than Robert Browning's celebrated epigram on behalf of modesty and humility:
"Never brag, never bluster, never blush," the 19th Century English poet famously counseled.
It's a bit of guidance that protagonists in Santa Barbara's top news stories of the week might well have heeded, after being forced to back down from ultimatums previously flung forth with bombast and bravado.
At the SB Unified School District, leaders of the teacher's union suddenly climbed down from their demand for a two-year, 23 percent pay increase, a hardline bargaining stance sustained by a school year's worth of high-emotion, high-energy public demonstrations and an overwhelming strike vote by their rank-and-file.
At UCSB, a group of masked militants from the "Liberated Zone," a protest encampment where demonstrators have inveighed against Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza in response to a terrorist massacre, fled in the face of a mass show of force by local law enforcement, after invading and taking over control of an academic building.
At City Hall, council member Alejandra Gutierrez retreated from her earlier, solitary opposition to putting a new half-cent sales tax increase proposal before voters, in the face of tricky political calculus, as she faces two challengers in her bid for a second term representing District 1.
On this week's edition of Newsmakers TV, the Independent's Jack Margargee reprises his on-the-scene reporting on the seizure -- and surrender -- of Girvetz Hall, and discusses what it may mean for the protests going forward, as Josh Molina and Callie Fausey break down the impact and implications of the union's retreat after a marathon session with a mediator.
Spoiler alert: the words "fatigue" and "anti-climax" get some heavy use in the panel's conversation.
All this and more, right here, right now on Newsmakers TV.
JR
Check out the new episode via YouTube below, or by clicking through this link. The podcast version is here. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the program every weeknight at 8 p.m., and at 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. KCSB, 91.9, broadcasts the show at 5:30 on Monday.
Comments