Today I participated in the Oakland’s Women’s March. The sun
was out, people were festively dressed (including the Sisters of Perpetual
Indulgence and the Ruth Bader Ginsburg clones) and they jived and drummed and
floated balloons in the streets. Speakers talked about voting, elections, reforming
the system, and of course, violence towards women and girls, and educational
rights of girls (as of 2017 nearly 58% graduates from college are girls,
although the pay gap is still steep).
It was an event that matched the Kennedy years—the happy
dippy 60s where anything goes (went). And that’s the problem. Anything went. Yesterday's event in no way reflects the political reality of where we as a species stand
(or lie flat and refuse to get up) today.
The only movements that seem to be taking the present into account are to
be found in India where recently 5.5 million women held hands over 620
kilometers to assert their rights, and where 200 million trade unionists
recently demonstrated, bringing India to a standstill against the Modi
government because “it is not just for workers, and it is not just for people,”
and France, where the Gilets Jaunes movement reflects the massive discontent of
working class Frenchmen and women about economic conditions under the austerity
of banker darling, Macron.
Item: Even the U.S. Department of Housing lists some 554,000
people nationwide as homeless on any given night (the figure’s got to be much
higher). Of those, 23% are children; and 11% are veterans (people we called “our
brave young men and women” before they came home from the wars).
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| Code Pink demonstrates at Creech AFB |
Item: The bully of the world is at war (officially, not
counting the “minor skirmishes,” covert actions, and economic sanctions) in
seven countries, including Niger, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and
Somalia, and going for regime change in Iran and Venezuela.. It has nearly 1000
bases worldwide; and is the single largest burner of fossil fuels and polluter in
the world.
Item: The recent wave of caravan migration fleeing violence
in Honduras, and crop failures throughout Latin American numbers about
7,000 souls. In the same period, 1 in 18 migrants died crossing the
Mediterranean as the death rate soars.
These are people whose economic condition is sufficiently desperate, they
are willing to take that risk.
Item: Domestically, U.S. infrastructure (roads bridges,
railroads etc.) is crumbling because there is no money to repair them
(although there’s plenty of money for war profiteering). A wave of teacher strikes continues
to sweep across the country (the latest being in LA’s vast school system) by
teachers who are deeply dissatisfied with the state of their students’
education (aside from their own abysmal salaries). The housing crisis has
caused tents to proliferate at many city intersections; whole encampments exist
along railroad sidings nationwide and in 2017 40 million Americans, including
12 million children were “food insecure” (went to bed hungry—if they had a bed
to go to).
Item: The recent
California Woolsey fire spread radioactivity throughout the U.S. all the way
to the East Coast because Boeing and the U.S. which own the Sta.
Susana 10-reactor site in Southern California never got around to cleaning up
their near-melt down (although their promises spanned more than ten years). The
Holtec thin-walled canister nuclear waste storage tanks are already showing
signs of failure at California’s San Onofre. A catastrophic accident there
would contaminate the entire United States, yet their CEO sleeps soundly at
night.
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| San Onofre Nuclear Waste Storage |
Item: And the Green New Deal is anything but. See Naomi Wolf at https://dailyclout.io/greennewdeal-astonishes-vast-for-vcs-new-banks-fed-reserve-natl-smart-grid-no-oversight/
I admit to computer surfing recently. A sidebar on one of
National Geographic’s sites promised a virtually unending loop of Serengeti
predations. I learned that the shifting
eyes of cheetahs, always angling for an opportunity, resemble those of neo-Nazi
toughs itching for encounters; and that lions have amazing chest muscles to
drag their kills, whose body mass often equals their own, for miles, or until
another predator steals it from them, or munches on the other end (the hyena
which goes for the anus). But best of all, I watch a migration of water buffalo
as it fords an alligator-infested stream. One lucky alligator grabs a water
buffalo by the tail. The frame freezes: the water buffalo strains forward; the
muddy river bottom offers only a slippery purchase; the alligator holds on.
What are the water buffalo’s options? Two obvious maneuvers suggest themselves
(but not in a family newspaper).
But neither the alligator, nor the water buffalo are
particularly intelligent species; and there is no surgical knife in sight to
liberate the water buffalo; They remain locked in their tug of war until one or
the other tires. Which one is Congress? And which is #45 and his minions? and which is the
people of the United States?
And why are they celebrating the 60s, when it’s nearly 2020—but
with no vision in sight?
Pay attention
Sustainability
A plastic-eating fungus has been discovered.
El Paso Electric Company reveals winning 2017 bids,
including a total of 200MW of utility-scale solar and l00MW of battery storage.
More than 75% of marine mammals and sea turtles protected by Endangered Species Act are recovering according to Center for Biological
Diversity.
Largest solar and battery plant unveiled in Hawaii.
French court cancels Monsanto weedkiller permit on safety
grounds.
Hitachi freezes UK nuclear project.
Working
on behalf of indigenous Puno communities, DHUMA wins two significant legal
battles helping native people resisting expansion of mining in their region.
The Courts
Judge Wendy Beetlestone blocks regime’s rollback of the
ACA’s birth control mandate, issuing a nationwide injunction.
Federal court in PA blocks the regime’s policy allowing
virtually any employer (including universities) to block reproductive coverage
for religious or moral reasons.
Supreme Court rejects Virginia’s efforts to block a fairer
House map.
Addressing New York’s Freedom of information Law, Manhattan
Supreme Court justice rules the city’s police department must release information
to protesters about whether it used technology to monitor or interrupt their
cellphones during protests.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issues first
appellate decision regarding actions taken by government officials in social
media, ruling that a Facebook page constitutes a public forum.
Federal judge strikes down citizenship question in rebuke to
the regime’s efforts against immigrant communities
Resistance
Earth Strike protests build toward Spt. 27 general strike on
climate change.
Over 12,000 Brussels students strike demanding bold climate
action.
PM Theresa May’s Brexit deal gets crushed in biggest defeat
for a sitting British PM in history.
Two hoaxes liven this weeks news: fake WaPo carries
headlines claiming #45 resigns. and the Yes Men are behind news that CEO of
huge investment firm shifts company’s priorities out of fossil fuels and
pressures their portfolio companies to align with Paris Climate Agreement.
The Peoples Platform in Albany puts demands for fair taxes,
codifying reproductive rights, and mass incarceration on the table.
LA teachers walk out advocating tor greater investment in
public education.
Reunited asylum seekers celebrate first Christmas in New
York.
Dozens
of demonstrators supporting the Wet’suwet’en anti-pipeline camps
briefly held up traffic at Halifax’ roundabout.
The Legislatures
El Cerrito tenants pressure council to enact a Just Cause
for Eviction Notice, and strengthen a Relation Ordnance for vulnerable
populations.
N.Y. Democrats pass sweeping package of bills to protect and
expand voting rights.
N.Y. State passes transgender anti-discrimination law.
New Haven Aldermen pass ordinance creating independent
Civilian Review Board to investigate cop misconduct.
Rachael Rollins becomes Suffolk County’s first-ever black
woman District Attorney.
Maxine Waters heads House Financial Services Committee and
prepares to pressure Wall Street.
Congress joins Sanders to introduce a nationwide $15 minimum
wage bill, guaranteeing a $2400 per month full time wage before taxes.
Congress
reintroduces the Disability Integration act ensuring people with disabilities
rights to live at home and receive
needed services.
Immigration
Last
child leaves Tornillo prison camp for children, but Florida facility nearly
doubles in size.
Temper Tantrum
Celebrity
“Chef for Feds” feeds unpaid U.S. government slaves.
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