It’s 1942. I am ten
years old, living in New York. The Vichy government has ordered the French Navy
to scuttle its ships so they won’t fall into German hands. I’m old enough to know my French godmother
feels devastated by the news. She goes out to buy the most stylish hat she can
find. She was a quand meme kind of
dame. Which roughly translated means “So what?” It’s a toughster’s way of
expressing grief.
When I read that Bernie had conceded, I ought to have gone
out to buy a fancy hat last week except I was “sheltering in place” and wearing
a mask and gloves when I went out because I don’t want to overwhelm or to help
overwhelm the Bay Area health system (that’s an oxymoron, we have a pay-to-play
system, like all good capitalists). But
even so, nurses, and even doctors are dedicated people serving on the front
lines. They deserve the best treatment our prudence can offer.
The irony is that in 2016 a well wisher advised Bernie to
run on an Independent ticket. No, said
Bernie, (an odd fish, someone who’s so backward he actually loves his country)
no, I don’t want to ‘Ralph Nader’ the election. He imagined the DNC and all its toads and lizards and bottom
feeders, including the New York Times, would countenance a Bernie
candidacy. What the hell was he smoking?
The powers that will always be, the two branches of the one-party
slavery upholding system, the duopoly of the business party, stopped representing
ordinary mortals long ago. It hues to the pantheon of its immortally stupid and
greedy gods, the lying media out for profit, the people who hustle in the
august halls of government. Those folks have a mansion to upkeep in Pacific
Heights, a third yacht to buy, they’re not interested in you or me. They’re not
interested (not like the mushy gushy Iranians) in releasing prisoners crammed
into their factory-jails body to body, why should they: they’re mostly black
and making “product,” or the ICE
detention centers, why should they, they’re mostly brown, all folks who’ll vote
Democratic (when there was the vote) or the ghetto-dwellers, or the homeless, or
the working stiffs who deliver your food in boxes and bushels, or the home
caregivers, or the Mexicans and other browns who get chained to truck beds at
night in Florida, or who get to sleep, some of
them in ditches, who stoop over the baking furrows by day growing food
to keep the system churning.
In 2005 Katrina changed my life. I had no way of knowing at the time I helped
the terrified and traumatized people of New Orleans I found sheltering on
Oakland’s streets that I’d entered a new level of making America grate. I still
remember the story one of them told me about the folks trying to leave
Jefferson Parish across the city connection, how the national guard had their
guns drawn. “They wouldn’t let nobody through. And then a convoy of white folks
actually came speeding at 90 mph down that causeway, waving at all of us niggers
camped out there, ‘So long suckers.’ They just left us there to die.”
All the establishment is speeding down that causeway now,
doing us, our future and our planet incalculable harm the faster they go. And
that’s why we have no other choice: We are our own best hope for the things we
deeply care about: Medicare for all, reducing the wealth divide, student debt
forgiveness, free education, abolish ICE, a guaranteed living wage for all (and
that’s lots more than $15 bucks an hour), a sane foreign policy, and a Green
New Deal with teeth. These are our banners now.
We’ve gotta wave them as we come.
Because we’re gonna come marchin’ now, make no mistake. Because We Are All
Bernie Sanders now.
Too many actions this week to provide URLs for each. Here are the actions. Take
your pick:
Who knew: UN ceasefire defines war as a non-essential
activity.
RIP: Bolsonaro is out, replaced by General Netto.
Five million Nigerians oppose Monsanto plan to introduce GMO
crops.
Prioritizing health & welfare of citizens, E. Nigeria
researching 5G safety before deployment.
Cambodian garment workers strike over unpaid wages during
pandemic.
Navajo (Diné) and Hopi families fund builds movement in
response to C-19.
Australian MPs call for Assange release to home detention as
C-19 spreads in UK prisons (where Boris Johnson must have sneezed.).
Cuban medical aid in Italy shows positive results.
As reported April 6, ordinary New Mexicans flatten curve
with collaboration and solidarity.
With public health and democracy at stake (remember that?)
Wisc. governor postpones in-person primary voting until June, but…
Democracy in “gravest danger” warns fired intel IG Michael
Atkinson.
In demand for better treatment during outbreak, Target
delivery workers walk off job.
Amazon workers walk off job to demand safer conditions
during pandemic.
In California, fast foods workers at 30 restaurants go on
strike.
Striking McDonald’s workers say their lives are more
essential than fast food.
As strikes proliferate, the wave moves to general strike.
Rock star Bon Jovi and wife Dorothea, of the Jon Bon Jovi
Soul Foundation wash dishes to feed the hungry.
In effort to reform California’s property tax, activists
file new ballot measure.
California Democrats pass resolution supporting local
control over 5G and wireless facilities deployment.
California governor Newsom toys with idea state might assist
undocumented residents shut out of C-19 relief.
Leading Democrats in both Houses craft bill ensuring
immigrant communities are no loner shut out of critical C-19 relief.
Jeopardized LA renters form rolling protest for rent
forgiveness.
Wave of rent strikes originally started by Rent Strike 2020,
sweeps across country from Crown Heights to Chicago following 10 million new
unemployment claims.
Residents at Alexandria VA, prepare to rent strike.
San Francisco leases 945 rooms in eight hotels to receive
people quarantined or isolated or those moved from within the shelter
population or moved from the street.
City of Berkeley opens test site for vulnerable community
members at LifeLong Medical Care, 510 981-4100.
US Customs to seize mask and glove exports amid C-19
pandemic.
Epidemiologists praise aggressive stay-at-home orders in
CA, OR, and Washington States for
helping limit spread of C-19.
Sanders and Jayapal advance bill providing no-cost health
care for all during pandemic.
Federal Judge Chesney orders ICE to release four immigrants
at risk of C—19.
While S.F. Mayor London Breed Disease prepares Moscone
megashelter housing homeless in close proximity, Oakland’s mayor Libby Schaaf
announces slow streets, designating 74 miles of
neighborhood streets for walking, running and cycling.
 |
| California overpass |
 |
Climate activists took to the streets in San Francisco again today, shutting down several adjoining blocks in the Financial District and blocking access to the offices of major banks. Beginning at ...
|
No comments:
Post a Comment