Columns

Exit Exxon

After nearly a century basking in the top ranks of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, ExxonMobil has been told to leave the party. The Climate Activist community couldn't be happier, calling Exxon's exit "a historic moment marking the fall of Big Oil."

Exxon became particularly reviled when it was revealed that—despite its long denial of carbon-caused climate change—"Exxon knew about the climate crisis and lied" to protect its profits while the world burned.

"Make no mistake about the significance of this news," the 350.org Team writes. "Not only was Exxon the oldest member of the Dow Jones, but it was the world's largest oil company and, for many years, the world's largest company, period.

"The truth is that Big Oil is failing. A new day is on its way—one where we move to a resilient, regenerative, and just energy economy. Even the finance world is waking up."

Run, Kamala, Run!

It's great to see "Berkeley's own" Kamala Harris out on the campaign trail as Joe Biden’s running mate. Great attributes: child of immigrant parents from Jamaica and India, she is not only the first woman of color to be running on the Democratic Presidential campaign trail (Native American activist/author Winona LaDuke was Ralph Nader's VP choice for his Green Party runs in 1996 and 2000) but Harris has become the first candidate to campaign in sneakers. 

Harris sent shock waves through the shoe scene when she dared to shuck traditional "ladies wear" and proudly strutted forth in a pair of Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars. As she told the New York-based femme fashion mag, The Cut: “I run through airports in my Converse sneakers. I have a whole collection of Chuck Taylors: a black leather pair, a white pair, I have the kind that don’t lace, the kind that do lace, the kind I wear in the hot weather, the kind I wear in the cold weather, and the platform kind for when I’m wearing a pantsuit.” 

The impact is being felt off the campaign trail as well. As one fan of former First Lady Michelle Obama observed: "My Chucks-wearing daughter said it simply: 'Heels all day? We don’t have to do that anymore!'” 

Need a Good Trumpspeak Defense of a Major Villian? 

Comedian Greg Larsen has come up with a novel bit of shtick: he employs right-wing memes to defend any villain you can name. Literally. He invites people to send him the name of any of the world's worst miscreants, tyrants, and killers, and he will fashion a defense. Examples: 

Wile E. Coyote: Convenient that the footage starts on Wile E Coyote but we don't see what Roadrunner was doing beforehand. So this violent Antifa roadrunner could be speeding around, looking for trouble and violence and the footage starts right when the Coyote is defending himself. 

Leopold II of Belgium: Big fan of rubber, which is recyclable. Created jobs, industry, loved family values so much that he even let young children work alongside their parents. Sure, some people died but everyone dies eventually. but how many more would have died if crooked Hillary had been in charge? 

The Emperor (Star Wars): When a leftist opposes law and order, you have to wonder their motivations. Seems to me the Empire brought peace to the galaxy and it was radical leftist terrorists that were destroying that peace. Why? Because they were sad that the government wasn't giving them handouts? 

John Wilkes Booth: Is there any radical leftist more violent and thuggish than Lincoln? The man basically founded antifa. Sounds like Booth saw him as a legitimate threat and acted in self-defence to me. 

Scar in the "Lion King": Stood up for the silent majority (hyenas) and overthrew the inner city lefty elitists. 

What about Thanos, the supervillian in The Avengers?: "You mean the man who saved half the universe?" 

Beyond the Green New Deal 

The Creative Action Network (CAN) has just announced publication of a new book: "Posters For A Green New Deal: 50 Removable Posters To Inspire Change." Activist/author and 350.org founder Bill McKibben has praised the book noting that, as "these powerful posters make clear, [the Green New Deal] has grabbed the attention not just of policy wonks but of the artists who can translate these ideas into images that move us all!" 

CAN Co-Founder & CEO Max Slavkin sees this poster collection as following in the tradition of Franklin Roosevelt's original New Deal. "Like the artists of New Deal’s WPA (Works Progress Administration) before us, we at Creative Action Network rallied our creative community to join this fight and create artwork for the Green New Deal." 

But there's more work to be done. While there are artful posters with messages like "Eat Less Meat," "Plant a Tree," "Go Solar," and "Bike More, Drive Less," this new collection of GND posters notably fails to address war, militarism, or the Pentagon. This is a critical void that needs to be filled by a new corps of anti-war/pro-peace poster artists. 

So here's hoping there's a sequel to this collection that addresses these essential obstacles to lasting, greener change. 

Responding to this, CAN's Max Slavkin writes: "Great point. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to do another book and include more topics!" 

Trump's Tricks: Call Reality Fake & Call Fakes Real  

Donald Trump is so shameless he allowed himself to confess—on tape and to Bob Woodward, no less!—that he intentionally lied to the public and the press about the true threat of the coronavirus infection sweeping the globe. Trump has now confirmed that he knowingly lied when he claimed that the virus wasn't as bad as the flu and that no one needed to wear a mask or physically distance because Covid-19 would miraculously "disappear." 

Trump said he lied so as not to create a panic. On January 28, shortly after Trump had told the nation, "It's one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It's going to be just fine. We've already handled it pretty well," Trump's national security advisor warned him: "This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency." 

In his new book, Rage, Woodward reveals that Trump clearly understood the disease could be spread "through air," without physical contact and could be spread by individuals showing no signs of infection. 

Trump admitted to Woodward that Covid-19 was "also more deadly than even your strenuous flues . . . maybe five times more deadly." Even as the death count soared, Trump continued to insist: "I think it's going to work out good, we only have 11 cases and they're all getting better." 

Now Trump has changed his tune. As he told Woodward: "I always wanted to play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic." 

(That leaves the question: Why did Woodward sit on this information for eight months while Americans continued to die by the thousands?) 

"I Don't Want to Create a Panic" 

Remind me never to go camping in the Sierras with Donald Trump. 

If Trump were to see an angry black bear creeping up on his fellow campers, we now know that he wouldn't screech in alarm. He would just jig-jog in the opposite direction while assuring us that "Everything is tremendous. Excuse me while I disappear…. Miraculously!" 

Could this mean that Trump has also accepted—lo, these many years—that Climate Change is also a threat to human existence? Could it be that he has insisted on calling it a "hoax" simply because he didn't want to "create a panic"? 

Trump says this no-panic strategy goes along with his role as "Cheerleader-in-Chief." 

But creating a false sense of security is a poor response when the situation calls for immediate and consequential action—which is a long way of saying "leadership." 

This is Trump's reaction to situations beyond his control—to deny that any real threat exists. 

Instead, Trump devotes his energy to hyping fake threats—dangerous pacifists are threatening to steal your AK-47s, poor people of color are planning to move in next-door, Antifa-Democrat-socialist terrorists are threatening our cities. 

Note: the Department of Homeland Security warns real threats are more likely to come from Trump-friendly White Supremacists. According to the DHS, of the 48 people killed by terrorist acts between 2018-2019, 39 were killed by white supremacists. 

Cheerleader-in-Chief? No way. Trump's proper title should be "Fear-leader-in-Chief." 

Disemploy DeJoy 

In what has become a familiar pattern, another one of Donald Trump's personal government appointees has run afoul of the law. Embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy now stands accused of running a straw donor scheme designed to violate federal campaign finance laws. 

According to the Washington Post, DeJoy laundered his personal donations to the Republican party's election coffers by "strongly urging" employees to write personal checks to Republican candidates—with the understanding that they would be reimbursed with "bonuses" from DeJoy's business. North Carolina's attorney general has called for a criminal investigation. 

Oh yes, it also appears that DeJoy lied under oath to Congress. When he denied running the scam. 

DeJoy remains under fire for his efforts to disrupt the work of the Postal Service in the run-up to a pandemic-compromised election that will rely heavily on mail-in ballots. 

The Daily Kos writes: "With millions of Americans relying on the U.S. Postal Service to cast their ballots this fall, we cannot have the agency run by someone with a record of politically abusing his position. The latest explosive allegations only further prove that DeJoy is unfit to serve in this role." And the Daily Kos follows up with this petition: Congress must impeach USPS Postmaster General DeJoy. 

Write On? Right On! 

Former Associate White House Counsel Ian Bassin recently explained what to expect from Donald Trump on-and-beyond November 3, 2020: "The President is not trying to win re-election, he is trying to stay in power. There is a huge difference between the two." 

Here's The Daily Kos again: "Trump is an authoritarian. He has never tried to hide it. We need to not just beat him in November—we need to crush him and all of his Vichy Republican supporters in Congress so badly that there he is completely discredited. That's why we've built the biggest Get Out The Vote campaign in Daily Kos history." 

The Kos is collaborating with Vote Forward to increase civic participation by sending personalized, action-galvanizing letters to voters. "We've already recruited more than 45,000 volunteers and plugged them into innovative, statistically-proven-to-be-effective campaigns turning out Democratic swing-state voters." 

For more information, click here. 

The Birds & The Bees 

A Pro-Trump Congressman Threatens to Shoot Black Activists  

A member of Congress just suggested he is prepared to execute Black activists in cold blood. Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins — a Trump loyalist — posted a Facebook photo of armed Black demonstrators in Kentucky (three states away!) protesting the police killing of Breonna Taylor. Alongside the photo, Higgins posted a threat directed at any Black activists caught bearing arms in his state (Note: Louisiana happens to be an NRA-sanctioned, "open-carry" state): “I’d drop any 10 of you where you stand. … [Y]ou won’t walk away.” 

Higgins, a former police officer, likes to flaunt a gun when he's out shopping, hobnobbing, or bar-hopping. 

Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen, notes some mixed messaging In Higgins' hate-post: "Apparently, his support of the 2nd Amendment and his adherence to laws against threatening to kill people do not extend to African Americans." 

Fortunately, Public Citizen reports, Congressman Higgins' post "was so blatantly racist and violent that Facebook deleted it." 

Undeterred, Higgins shot back with a new Facebook post that warned: “I’ll advise when it’s time [to] gear up, mount up, and roll out.” 

Weissman reflects: "This all follows Donald Trump — the President of the United States — praising the teenage vigilante charged with murdering two protesters last week in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Let’s be clear: Trump, Higgins, and others in the Republican Party are fomenting violence by white people against people of color and dangerously nudging the country toward a race war. Individuals have a right to say what they want, but elected officials should be held to account." 

Public Citizen is so concerned, it has created an online petition calling on members of the Congress to censure Handgun Higgens. Add your name if you agree.
Pro-Trump Wannabe Congresswoman Targets "The Squad" 

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Trump devotee from Georgia (aka "The QAnon Candidate), recently won a primary race for a GOP congressional seat, prompting Donald Trump to tweet-kiss Greene as a "future Republican star" in the GOP universe. 

Despite Trump's recent admission that he secretly knew Covid-19 posed a real and deadly threat, Green recently tweeted that "children should not wear masks." Greene went on to claim that masks are "unhealthy for their psychological, emotional, and educational growth" and "forcing boys to wear masks is emasculating. Masculinity isn't toxic nor dangerous, Dem Socialism and shut downs are." 

But it was one of Greene's recent Facebook postings that sent nervous chills through the US body politic. A campaign poster for Green's upcoming congressional race features a photo of the candidate in dark glasses and fiercely clenching a large automatic weapon pointed in the direction of three current progressive Democratic Congresswomen—Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib. 

Greene's open-carry campaign poster is accompanied by a disturbing message: 

Hate America leftists want to take this country down…. 

Politicians have failed this country. I'm tired of seeking weak, Establishment Republicans play defense. 

Our country is on the line. America needs fighters who speak the truth. 

We need strong conservative Chrisians to go on the offense against these socialists who want to rip our country apart. 

Americans must take our country back. 

SAVE AMERICA. STOP SOCIALISM. DEFEAT THE DEMOCRATS 

A troubling development.