The Left better have its plans in place for “Day After.”
“Day After” is a blanket expression that refers to whenever the U.S. lets another
one fly. That other one is another outbreak of what the U.S. does best:
Make War. It’s the only thing the U,S. really does, (besides mass
incarceration) in the vain hope that it will “get it right,” despite defeat
after defeat.
Yet, like baseball and football, making
war is a super favorite among the voters, and determines whether people get
elected or not (although voters seem not to like domestic mass shootings all that much—especially in grammar and
high schools). We love our hawks and we like them carrying a big stick—or a big
whatever.
Case in point: the
Sixth fleet is steaming through the Mediterranean, to cow what we assume
are weaker governments, readying itself for another surgical strike wherever it
may be needed.
 |
| This battleship could pay for yearly teacher attrition twice over |
And Netanayu, Prime
Minister of Israel, seems to be the one originating our foreign policy these
days, calling for action against Iran on the pretext that Iran still has a
nuclear weapons programme, something the Iranian government mothballed ages ago
under the aegis of the UN inspection team.
Not to mention that poor little
put-upon Israel stores over 80 nuclear warheads at Dimona, its poor little put
upon nuclear site, a truth revealed by whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, according
to The
Guardian, who took a hard rap for his efforts. This included 18 years
incarceration, 11 of them in solitary, and prohibition from leaving Israel, or holding
interesting conversations, any of them planned ahead of time, and any of those not
to last in excess of 30 minutes.
It’s a curious relationship, that between the U.S. and Israel with its brand new and shining capital slated to be located in Jerusalem—such is the power of empires it moves capitals of other countries at will) as to which tail is wagging which dog, and what dirt which holds over which. Only time will tell exactly where that dirt is to be excavated and when, and meanwhile we have all the nice decimation of the Middle East to contemplate, not to leave out anti-Muslim turmoil, and the deaths of millions, from war, starvation and cholera, (but of course they will all be “worth it.” as Madeline Albright, ex-Jewish, ex-Secretary of State assured us). And of course, she had a point: in a fibrillating market, “Defense” is the only sector doing spectacularly.
Dwight Cocke Obituary
California lost one its most historically important anti-nuclear
activists on the night of of April 27th when Dwight Cocke passed away at
his long term residence in San Francisco. Dwight played the key role of
getting proposition 15 on the statewide ballot in 1976 that stopped all
further expansion of nuclear power in California. His role in bringing
the nuclear issue up for public debate was the first time in America if
not the world. In the 1960’s, California was held up as a world
leader in promoting nuclear energy with Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
(PG&E) calling for the construction of up to 60 reactors in its own
territory, but due to prop 15 ended up leading the world away from
nuclear and into renewable energy development.
Dwight was one of the two staff people with Californians for Nuclear Safeguards that coordinated the 1976 California statewide proposition 15 initiative. Thanks to Dwight’s coordination, the group setup a statewide network of thousands of volunteers that obtained the 500,000 signatures needed to put it on the statewide June ballot. The initiative campaign made national news when three General Electric engineers quit to form MHB Associates. PG&E and pronuclear advocates were so frightened by Prop 15 that the company agreed with alternative legislation that banned any future nuclear power development in California until there was a working solution for spent nuclear fuel.
The legislation’s ban led to General Electric’s San Jose nuclear headquarters being closed and the abandonment of nearly 30 nuclear stations being planned at that time in the state. The group then took on the giant $4.8 billion nuclear project that was fronted by PG&E for the L.A. Dept. of Water and Power located near Bakersfield in Kern County. Dwight coordinated the campaign against the 1978 Kern County nuclear permit advisory ballot initiative (it included a door to door county wide canvass) that voted down the proposed 4 units by a whopping 70%. In 1983, PG&E contested the legislation banning further nuclear development to the U.S. Supreme court but failed. Many other states would enact similar legislation that played a major role in limiting new reactor development.
Dwight would also become executive director for the first Fate of the Earth Conference held in 1982. Dwight also coordinated the Sept. 11th, 1986 satellite Spacebridge tel-conference between Moscow, San Francisco and the east coast with top scientists from the two countries for Esalen’s Russian exchange program. He was also a director of the Oakland based Russian-American joint medical exchange program called Heart-to-Heart.
To read more about Dwight’s history please see chapter Five and Six of Marc Evanoff’s unpublished book on the history of California’s anti-nuclear movement from 1981.
In later years, Dwight worked for the consumer watchdog organization called TURN (The Utility Reform Network) who gave him their Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 during their 35th anniversary celebration. TURN monitors the activities of the California Public Utilities Commission.
Dwight once told me that during the early 1970’s when he first started working against nuclear power he would routinely be called a communist by nuclear proponents in public. His fearless dedication and work that created the first public debate ever around the dangers of nuclear energy played a key role in it being phased out in California and for this he should be remembered as one of our most important activists.
Dwight William (Jr.) was born in 1937 to Dwight and Florence Ziegelasch in Washington DC.
A memorial is planned for July.
Dwight was one of the two staff people with Californians for Nuclear Safeguards that coordinated the 1976 California statewide proposition 15 initiative. Thanks to Dwight’s coordination, the group setup a statewide network of thousands of volunteers that obtained the 500,000 signatures needed to put it on the statewide June ballot. The initiative campaign made national news when three General Electric engineers quit to form MHB Associates. PG&E and pronuclear advocates were so frightened by Prop 15 that the company agreed with alternative legislation that banned any future nuclear power development in California until there was a working solution for spent nuclear fuel.
The legislation’s ban led to General Electric’s San Jose nuclear headquarters being closed and the abandonment of nearly 30 nuclear stations being planned at that time in the state. The group then took on the giant $4.8 billion nuclear project that was fronted by PG&E for the L.A. Dept. of Water and Power located near Bakersfield in Kern County. Dwight coordinated the campaign against the 1978 Kern County nuclear permit advisory ballot initiative (it included a door to door county wide canvass) that voted down the proposed 4 units by a whopping 70%. In 1983, PG&E contested the legislation banning further nuclear development to the U.S. Supreme court but failed. Many other states would enact similar legislation that played a major role in limiting new reactor development.
Dwight would also become executive director for the first Fate of the Earth Conference held in 1982. Dwight also coordinated the Sept. 11th, 1986 satellite Spacebridge tel-conference between Moscow, San Francisco and the east coast with top scientists from the two countries for Esalen’s Russian exchange program. He was also a director of the Oakland based Russian-American joint medical exchange program called Heart-to-Heart.
To read more about Dwight’s history please see chapter Five and Six of Marc Evanoff’s unpublished book on the history of California’s anti-nuclear movement from 1981.
In later years, Dwight worked for the consumer watchdog organization called TURN (The Utility Reform Network) who gave him their Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 during their 35th anniversary celebration. TURN monitors the activities of the California Public Utilities Commission.
Dwight once told me that during the early 1970’s when he first started working against nuclear power he would routinely be called a communist by nuclear proponents in public. His fearless dedication and work that created the first public debate ever around the dangers of nuclear energy played a key role in it being phased out in California and for this he should be remembered as one of our most important activists.
Dwight William (Jr.) was born in 1937 to Dwight and Florence Ziegelasch in Washington DC.
A memorial is planned for July.
Call
Congress to demand they stop the ICE
practice of family separation. The Department of Homeland Security cannot
account for the whereabouts of 1400 such children. Sign
also.
Stop
raids on agricultural workers unless you want to pay a hella lot more for
food.
A bill repealing the death penalty has passed both chambers
of the New Hampshire state legislature. Sign the petition
demanding Gov. Sununu not veto it.
Planet
EU bans bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides. (Common
Dreams)
Scientists create plastic-eating enzyme. But we do not yet know what the planetary
consequences may be. (Daily Kos.)
Come
November, City of Berkeley will be almost entirely green powered under a
program of community choice energy.
Puerto Rico made history by briefly becoming the largest
U.S. territory to be renewable energy powered.
(Solartopia.)
SCOTUS could give native American tribes new legal traction
to flight for environmental protections. (Daily Kos.)
A state appeals court rules that valve turners can proceed
with necessity defense. (Common Dreams.)
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
announces termination of Levy County Units 1 and 2, acknowledging that a
cypress swamp may not be such a good place to build two nuclear reactors.
Peace
Both North and South Korea embrace at Panmunjom and agree to
bring official end to the Korean war after 55 years and fully de-nuclearize the
peninsula. (Common Dreams.)
Veterans
Professionals for Sanity urged the president to get evidence first, strike
Syria afterwards.
De-militarization
Waffle House hero James Shaw gets real. (Daily Kos.)
Labor
Nearly 5,000 JetBlue flight attendants voted to unionize:
(Sara lahm in these times.)
Maryland Senator starts paying interns. (Daily Kos.)
Arizona
teachers stage first statewide walkout as teacher revolt grows. They join
w. Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Colorado.
Immigrants
The Courts & Mass
Incarceration
Because of Philadelphia’s new DA, Meek Mill has been
released. (Color of Change.)
Seattle moves to vacate more than 120 years of
marijuana-related convictions. (Daily Kos.)
Connecticut becomes
the 12th state to pass the National Popular Vote bill guaranteeing
that the U.S. presidency will go to the candidate reeiving the most popular
votes in all 50 states and D.C.
Miscellany
More than 75% Americans back campaign finance reform. (Common Dreams.)
More than 100 U.S. mayors sign pledge to defend the open
internet at the local level. (Common Dreams.)
Democrat Steve Stern wins a seat in New York 10th
Assembly District.
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