Columns

Striking a Political Pose 

Elizabeth Warren's feisty stage persona is in line with mainstream American politicking. In the USA, the accepted wisdom holds that it's not enough to have great policies and progressive goals to pursue a seat in the Oval Office. If you want to raise campaign bucks, you've got to raise a fist, raise your voice, raise the stakes, and raise a ruckus. 

Hence, Warren's two-fisted campaign slogan: "Dream Big, Fight Hard, Win." 

This is a slogan that sounds like it could have been lifted straight off a Pentagon recruiting poster. 

At least "Dream Big, Fight Hard, Win" is better than Donald Trump's slogan: "Hallucinate, Punch Dirty, Gloat." 

WHO's Missing 

The Whole Foods outlet on Gilman Street recently suffered a partial electrical failure. The outage changed the glowing signage on the front of the story to read: "LE FOODS," which sounds like a perfect name for a place where you might spend your chèque de paie entier. 

When US Missiles Shot Down an Iranian Passenger Jet 

Iran has been thrown into turmoil last after the discovery that government missiles shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing all 176 passengers on board. But this was not the first time a military mistake cost civilian lives in the sky over Iran. 

On July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes, sailing in waters off Iran, mistook an Iranian passenger plane for an enemy fighter jet and shot the Airbus A300 out of the sky, killing all 290 civilians (including 66 children). Iran raised an international protest, pointing out that the plane was inside Iran airspace at the time. The US ultimately paid millions of dollars in compensation to the families of the victims but the US never apologized. Instead, the Pentagon awarded medals to the captain and crew of the Vincennes "for exceptionally meritorious conduct." 

Trump's Pattern of Projection 

"Psychological projection" is a term for a "subconscious defense mechanism" that involves individuals projecting their own "undesirable feelings or emotions onto someone else." 

Donald Trump provides such a classic case that Psychology Today has labeled his "The Projector-in-Chief." Trump complains endlessly about hoaxes and fake news while giving lip to more than 15,000 certified lies since setting foot (and mouth) in the Oval Office. 

As Psychology Today gives some examples: 

The cut-throat businessman who believes that everyone is trying to cheat him is found guilty of illegal business practices. A religious leader becomes famous preaching about the immorality of homosexuality, only to be found cavorting with male prostitutes. A prosecutor builds a career convincing juries to send sexual abusers to jail—until we discover that he is sexually abusive himself. 

And this is why the following video clip is so disturbing: 

Only One Presidential Candidate Voted Against the Pentagon's Billion-dollar Budget 

Bernie Sanders claims he is "the only candidate in the Democratic primary to have voted against all of Trump's defense budgets" but, as Politifact pointed out shortly after the critical December ballot on Trump's $738 billion gift to the Pentagon, Sanders actually "missed this week’s vote." Democratic presidential hopefuls Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) all also missed the critical vote—electing to campaign instead. (While Warren voted against last year’s military budget, she actually supported Trump’s first national defense authorization request.) 

Only eight senators—evenly split between four Democrats and four Republicans—voted against Trump's 2020 Pentagon budget. These heroes included Mike Braun (R-IN), Michael B. Enzi (R-WY), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mike Lee (R-UT), Edward Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). 

The only Democratic presidential candidate who has voted against all three of Trump’s defense authorization bills is Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI). 

Gabbard—a military combat vet who suspended her campaign for two weeks to serve overseas with the Army National Guard—was one of 48 House members to vote against the current massive spending proposal. Gabbard also cast no votes on Trump’s previous military budgets in 2018 and 2017. Demonstrating remarkable consistency, Gabbard also voted against President Obama’s 2016 defense budget. 

When it comes to opposing the Pentagon's massive confiscation of taxpayer dollars, the House showed more courage than the Senate. In the House, 41 Democrats, 6 Republicans, and 1 Independent voted no on Trump's multi-billion-dollar military budget. 

A Decadent Start to Our New Decade Dance 

The Earthweek website got the decade off to a less-than-jolly start with a bucket-full of bad environmental alerts, including the following: 

• Oceanic heat waves have tripled in recent years and are disrupting the marine ecosystems that support life in the oceans and on land. 

• A 5,500-mile-long patch of Sargassum seaweed now crosses the entire Atlantic from Africa to the Yucutan Peninsula. 

• More that 11,000 world scientists warn of "untold human suffering" without dramatic reductions in greenhouse gases as climate collapse increases faster than previously predicted. What's needed? Immediately cutting carbon emissions by 7.6% each year until 2030. 

• More than a billion animals died in Australia's unprecedented wildfires. With the Amazon forests also going up in flames, the spreading global devastation has giving rise to a new term for this flamboyant era: The Pyrocene. 

• Magnetic north is shifting position and is reportedly "racing toward Siberia from the Canadian Arctic." 

• The Trump administration continues taking steps to exclude the impacts of climate change from federal planning and is taking additional steps to increase mining, drilling, and the construction of oil pipelines. 

• Meanwhile, the backlog toxic Superfund sites continues to grow as Trump cuts funds for cleanups. 

Is there any positive news to report as we embark on 2020? The best Earthweek could come up with was the following: 

• A company called Eco Plastico Ambiental has plans to remove plastic wastes from the world's oceans and to use the long-lasting trash "to make homes from plastic garbage." 

Mad Ad: Rogue Scientists Target US Cities with 5G 

What was T-Mobile thinking when it approved the script for its new video ad promoting 5G wireless? 

The result borders on self-parody. Worse, it borders on madness. 

The scene takes place inside what resembles an underground missile silo. Two white-coated technicians (who appear to be totally unsupervised rogue actors) play with glowing control panels before engaging in a launch protocol that involves simultaneously turning two keys in separate locks (just like the Pentagon's nuclear missile operators are trained to do). 

They are transfixed by the sight of the console's largest button, sitting smack center and all aglow. It's labeled "T-Mobile 5G." 

They begin an ominous countdown—"T minus three, two, one"—and push the button, unleashing a hellish tide of red beams that fan out over the dark countryside and head straight for an unsuspecting city in the distance. Before you know it, the entire city is glowing as brightly as a barrel of charcoal briquettes. 

The two cyber-nerds celebrate this unannounced assault with high-fives. "And we're just getting started" one whoops while the other replies ominously: "Wait until they see what's next." (It's clear that "they" haven't been consulted about any of this. Instead, there's an unquestioned presumption that the newly irradiated guinea pigs will be delighted by whatever these two T-Mobilizers throw at them.) 

The ad appears to end but it turns out there's a closing coda. One with a very high "creep factor." 

In the darkness you can hear the faint footsteps of someone sneaking back into the command center. One of the twisted techies pads up to the main console, hovers over the glowing 5G Button, places his hand over it lovingly and strokes it while whispering cryptically: "Soon, my friend. Very soon." 

I'm sure T-Mobile will say the whole episode was intended as an innocent spoof but what it reveals is a heedless sense of entitlement with no respect for others and no sense of moral responsibility. 

See what you think: 

First a Sermon, Then a March 

On Sunday, I had the pleasure of delivering my first sermon, thanks to the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists. "The topic: The Internet of Things and the 5G Zapocalypse." 

The event involved weeks of preparation, collaborating with a talented crew of BFUU volunteers who worked on and the music, the sermon, and supporting commentary. The service included a long, amusing poem about electromagnetic radiation and a song performed on a theremin — an electronic device that is "played" by waving your hands above it! 

After a 30-minute Q&A (including comments by several EMF-sensitive members of the audience), we "took the show on the road," picking up a dozen protest signs and marching through the neighborhood where evidence of the approaching 5G "roll-out" were already apparent. 

There was a 5G installation warning sign on a power pole adjacent to the BFUU building on Center Street. There was another cluster of signs across the street, describing plans to install transmitters on the roof of the Lawrence Moore Manor, a four-floor housing complex. 

As we walked down Sacramento Street, a woman saw our signs and bolted into her front yard to greet us. It turned out that she and her neighbor (who also showed up and chatted/strategized for 15 minutes) had successfully defeated plans to install a massive wi-fi system atop a large multi-floor apartment complex on the block. (The proposed antenna would have overlooked a children's playground on the BFUU's property). 

The residents told us that the proposed installation would have included a 6,000-pound antenna array and a "backup generator" in case of a power failure. The back-up generator—also on the roof—would have been powered by kerosene! It took the local residents months of meetings to block the project. Praise be! 

Celebrating Iran's First Lady of Math 

A Bay Area filmmaker George Paul Csicsery has released a remarkable new documentary. Secrets of the Surface: The Mathematical Vision of Maryam Mirzakhani examines the life and trail-blazing mathematical accomplishments of Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian immigrant to the United States who became a superstar in her field. In 2014 Mirzakhani became the first woman—and the first Iranian—to be awarded a math-master's highest prize, the Fields Medal.
Secrets of the Surface had its world premiere on January 17, in Colorado, at an event sponsored by the Joint Mathematics Meetings and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI). The screening was followed by a panel discussion with a half-dozen of Mirzakhani's friends and colleagues who spoke fondly of the precocious number-cruncher, who died in 2017 at the age of thirty. 

In this 59-minute Zala Films/MSRI tribute, Mirzakhani’s contributions are explored by leading academics and illustrated by animated sequences. Her colleagues from around the world, as well as former teachers, classmates—and students in Iran today—praise the lasting impact of her achievements. Her success on Iran’s Math Olympiad team and her brilliant career overall, make Mirzakhani an ideal role model for girls considering careers in science and mathematics. 

Filmed in Canada, Iran, and the US, the DVD of Csicsery's latest film is now available at www.secretsofthesurface.com. Here's a trailer. 

A Different Look at the "Housing Crisis" 

KCBS radio provides a useful factoid for understanding the Bay Area's "housing crisis." 

On January 6, a report by Matt Bigler noted that, while there are "just over 4,000" homeless people in Oakland, the city also lays claim to "just under 6,000 vacant homes." 

The Mercury News provides another metric: There are estimated to be around 23,000 homeless people living in Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, Sonoma, and Contra Costa counties. At the same time, "as many as 46,000 homes in five Bay Area counties are empty." 

Call it What It Is 

KCBS recently broadcast the worrisome news that "natural disasters" (in the form of unprecedented wildfires, hurricanes, tornados, and drought) have increased by "more than 160 percent" over recent years. And what accounts for these apocalyptic events? 

According to the KCBS report, the culprit was "our changing seasons." 

And what accounts for our seasonal changes, pray tell? Can't we just say "climate change"? (Or, to be more Eco-PC: "Climate Catastrophe.") 

Unsporting Behavior 

The sporting world was rocked recently by the crackdown on the Houston Astros who were accused of stealing signals and alerting its batters to upcoming pitches by banging out codes on a trashcan. This remarkably innovative strategy netted the Astros two top-tier firings and a $5 million fine. 

But is there another scandal waiting to roil the sport of football? The SF 49ers recently managed to advance to a NRC playoff by defeating the Minnesota Vikings in a 27-10 hometown win. But was the win rigged? 

Local sportscasters ran clips of the Viking quarterback clamping his hands over his ears to drown out the noise from the Niners' cheering fans. Did the hometown crowd realize that, if they made enough noise, the Vikings wouldn't be able to hear the quarterback's calls to snap the ball? 

The question that arises: How do you fine, shame, or penalize 65,000 rabid sports fans?