Columns

After the first five minutes of the Presidential Debate Debacle, I switched off the telly and went out for a bracing three-mile walk. CNN Anchor Jake Tapper later nailed it with this description: "That was a hot mess. Inside a dumpster fire. Inside a train-wreck. That was the worst debate I have ever seen. It wasn't even a debate. It was a disgrace. And it's primarily because of President Trump."

There was an obvious solution to turning down the rhetorical heat in future Biden-Trump rumpty-dumps: Turn down the volume of the vitriol—i.e., whenever a candidate insists on speaking out of turn, mute his mike.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (aka boldprogressives.org) immediately posted a petition to do just that and the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) quickly announced plans to mute interruptions during future debates.

Here's another suggestion: Along the bottom of the screen, post a running count of how many fibs and falsehoods each candidate tries to fob off on the viewing audience. Detailed reports on each mistruth would be available online. In the first debate, fact-checkers at the New York Times found Trump uttered 16 falsehoods, lies, and misleading statements while Biden made just one false claim.

There's one last suggestion I'd offer to the CPD: install a large monitor visible to both candidates that clearly displays the number of lies being racked up during the debate. It would drive Trump crazy. Instead of being able to lie with impunity, he would finally be held to account, watching helplessly in real time as the numbers mount. 

Turkey Trot Brings City to a Stop 

Rolling down San Pablo Avenue a few hours ago, I had to suddenly tap the brakes. Traffic in all four lanes of the highly trafficked Marin Avenue intersection had been brought to a total halt. Not by a fender-bender or a bike-strike, fortunately. The culprit in this case was a single wild turkey. 

The bird was spotted walking eastbound in the pedestrian walkway, moving slowly and purposefully against the light. On all four sides, drivers, truckers, bikers and pedestrians clenched their steering wheels and handlebars and simply gawked. 

The large bird continued to stride, majestically and unperturbed, across the roadway and no one moved, yelled, or honked. It was a rare, healing moment. 

Climatastrophe!  

The weather keeps getting weirder with every passing day, storm, heatwave, hurricane, and flood. The illustrated world map accompanying the September 25 edition of Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet barely had room to show all the extreme weather events of the week. 

The map was dotted with eight Atlantic and Pacific hurricanes (Dolphin, Lowell, Paulette, Rene, Teddy, Vicky, Alpha, Beta) and a rare cyclone in the Mediterranean off Greece. The world was also rocked by six major earthquakes in Southern California, Turkey, India, The Philippines, New Zealand, and England. 

But the real shocker was a report from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center that warned rising temperatures would soon eliminate the entire polar ice cap during the summer months. If the world's nations manage limit temperatures to only a 2-degree rise above preindustrial levels (as required by the Paris Agreement—which Trump has abandoned), the melting of the Arctic and Antarctic will cause the world's oceans to rise by an average 8.5 feet. 

That's the good news. According to an article in Nature magazine, a rise of 3 degrees Celsius would cause the oceans to rise by 21 feet worldwide. Were that to happen, "a day at the beach" would take place in the foothills. 

Tips from a Greek for Surviving Hot Weather 

Here's a timely how-to-keep-cool tip from a seasoned Berkeley activist: 

Take a large t-shirt and soak it in cold water, wring it out pretty well, put it on next to your skin. Then you can put more clothes on top of it, if you desire. 

This will cool you down pretty well, for some time. Then repeat. 

Hosing yourself down all over, getting your hair wet, too, (step in the shower with appropriate clothes on) also helps. Drastic situations call for desperate measures 

That is my best tip. You know the rest, drink lots of water. 

How to "Green" Your Protests 

Here's another tip from a committed local activist: "Please bring nontoxic markers instead of Sharpies" to demos. "There's a great deal of overlap of people with electrosensitivity and chemical sensitivity. Sharpies are horribly toxic! A friend who worked at Chevron told me that he and his colleagues once measured the air quality in their office with an uncapped Sharpie and it was worse than on a good day at the refinery. Seriously nasty stuff!" 

Outlaw A-bombs; Make Friends Not War 

September 26 marked the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, with peace and anti-nuclear activists gathering to call for the abolition of atomic weapons in a "global civil society event" hosted by #WeThePeoples2020. 

An online presentation featured messages from eight distinguished abolition campaigners from around the world, including: Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN High Representative for Disarmament; Ela Gandhi, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi; Karipbek Kuyukov, a resident of Kazakhstan who became a well-known artist despite being born with a body distorted by mutations caused by exposure to nuclear test-zone radiation; and Pink Floyd singer/guitarist Roger Waters (see his musical presentation here). 

But it was an American, Kelly Slater, the 11-times world surfing champion, who came up with one of the best observations. Reflecting on Washington's plan to spend $1 trillion to "modernize" America's arsenal of nuclear weapons over the next decade, Slater noted: "One trillion dollars could be used for so much good. If you took only 1 billion dollars and spent it on your enemy, they'd probably love you. . . . If nations that don't get along with each other well, spent the amount of money they spent on war, on their enemies, they'd probably be best friends." 

Gov. Gav "Hits the Gas" but OKs More Drilling 

Gavin Newsom generated game-changing headlines this week after vowing to ban the sale of gas-burning vehicles in the state by 2035. Newsom defended this sweeping, industry-shifting revolution by pointing in the direction of California's flaming forests. Newsom attributed the increasing numbers of wildfires to the rising temperatures driven by climate change, which, in turn, was being driven by driving millions of oil-powered-and-CO₂-spewing cars, vans, busses and trucks. 

The cheers from the environmental community were muted, however, owing to a signature flaw in the Governor's history. At the same time Newsom promised to put the brakes on gasoline-powered cars, he was busy accelerating the extraction of the oil used to make the gasoline. 

When Newsom ran for office, he vowed to "fight … the oil and gas industry." Since taking office in January 2019, Newsom has authorized 7,474 new oil-drilling permits. In the first half of 2020, Newsom signed off on nearly double the amount of oil and gas drilling permits he authorized during his first year in office. Before the year is done, the state is expected to OK 3,100 new permits for drilling and fracking. The Center for Biological Diversity has threatened a lawsuit, with CBD attorney Kassie Siegel objecting that "You can't claim climate leadership while handing out permits to oil companies to drill and frack." 

Here's a link to a petition to the governor. 

Even Trump's Golden Coins Are Bogus 

The non-governmental/for-profit American Mint is promoting the sale of its "Gold-layered Donald Trump 'Make America Great Again' Coins." Sadly, after nearly four years of Trump, America is clearly is worse shape than ever before, so it's not surprising that the coin's message is less than celebratory. The new coins contain an alleged Trump quote: "Sometimes by losing the battle you find a way to win the war." (This quote comes from Trump's ghostwritten autobiography, The Art of the Deal, so it may actually have been coined by the book's actual author, Tony Schwatrz.) 

The American Mint's ads promote this MAGA medallion as "the first coin celebrating president Donald Trump." Fittingly (for a company celebrating Trump) this statement is false. The Mint lists as many as 22 different Trump coins in its catalog. (President Barack Obama only rates eight American Mint coins.) 

One earlier version included another Trump quote: "Perhaps it's time America was run like a business." Following Trump's business model, the US is now broke, deeply indebt, and running on fumes. Maybe that's why American Mint's coin-artists have slashed the purchase price from $79.95 to a mere $19.95. (Prices for other Gold Trump coins have been slashed even more—down to a rock-bottom $9.95.) 

Another bit of fakery involved in the Trump coins actually echoes Donald's habit of overstating his accomplishments and value. The clue is in the phrase "gold-layered." It turns out these MAGAnificent tokens are mostly copper (yes, as in pennies), not gold. Like Trump's actual face, the golden appearance of these coins is barely skin-deep. 

Trump's Slack, Lax Tax Impacts 

After the New York Times revealed that Donald Trump had avoided/evaded (still to be determined) paying any federal taxes for 10 years, late night host Jimmy Kimmel came up with the perfect nickname for Trump: "Uncle Scam." 

Upon learning that Trump only paid $750 in taxes for the years 2016 and 2017, the staffers at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's "Team AOC" came up with a neat reproof of "Uncle Sham," the faux-billionaire. They wrote: "In 2016, AOC paid more in income taxes as a bartender than Donald Trump did as a billionaire. The undocumented immigrants who he has dedicated unprecedented vitriol towards have contributed billions of dollars in support for our communities, while Trump sees nothing wrong with his $750.  

"We’ll say it plainly: Trump is a walking scam. Despite his words, he has never cared about anything more than himself—let alone this nation. His sole purpose is coming out ahead, and to him, it doesn’t matter how many people have to suffer along the way." 

Who Controls Trump's Debts? Do They Control Trump? 

Trump is believed to owe around $400 million in outstanding debts—debts that are coming due over the next four years. The Dems are warning that the strings attached to these "strategic loans" could pose "national security risks." The critical question is: who does Trump own money to? 

There are plenty of clues in his public statements. It could explain why he's soft on Russia. It might even explain why he won't condemn White Supremacists—not even during the recent debased debate. Could it be that there's a David Duke Charitable Foundation that makes grants to politicians? That might explain Trump's inability to call out bands of armed fascists. 

The Master of Distraction 

Trump is not known for his mastery of mathematics but he can still claim to be Number One when it comes to multiplying division. At the same time he divides the United States on ethnic, political, and racial lines, he has managed to forge an improbable coalition of backers that would have made Adolf Hitler blanch. 

Consider: On one hand, Trump praises the crowd of neo-nazis that paraded through Charlottesville chanting "Jews will not displace us" as a cohort that contained "many fine people." 

On the other hand, Trump relies heavily on the support of the Republican Jewish Coalition, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Vegas casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, and embattled Israeli Prime Minister and Likud Party chief Bibi Netanyahu. 

One way Trump manages to keep these contentious forces from abandoning him is by focusing on a new "shared evil." In this case, Trump offers new targets for invented rage: people of color, refugees, immigrants, Palestinians, Muslims. 

But this is not a sure-fire strategy, as the Times of Israel recently reported. The paper was alarmed to note that Trump had "tweeted support for congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene, a supporter of the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory who’s been criticized for racist and anti-Semitic comments." 

Defend the Homeland (295) 

As of September 29, 7,982 California wildfires had burned 3,627,010 acres and damaged or destroyed 7,630 homes and buildings. Meanwhile, six "life-threatening" hurricanes flooded scores of coastal cities and caused more than a half-million people to leave their homes and flee inland. 

Hurricane Laura caused $10.8 billion worth of damages across millions of acres of the Midwest and at least 125 people lost their lives to the raging wind and rising waters. 

Across the South and Midwest, tornadoes demolished or destroyed hundreds of houses, leaving scores dead. 

In Oregon, wildfires kicked up by rampaging winds reduced entire towns to smoking rubble in a matter of hours. Aerial photos of the remains of Phoenix, Oregon, show entire blocks leveled flat, as if by a powerful weapon of war. 

Some of Oregon's towns could have been saved if the state's fleet of fire-fighting National Guard helicopters (four Black Hawks and six Chinooks) had been available to fight the flames. Unfortunately, four of Oregon's Chinooks are currently overseas—in Afghanistan, propping up Washington's illegal 12-years-and-counting occupation of that country. 

Back in the US, first responders and firefighters are exhausted from working 24-72-hour shifts, on duty for up to 14 days, cutting brush and dousing flames in extreme weather conditions. They could use some help. 

So how about if the Pentagon were asked to close just ten percent of the America's bases it currently supports in more than 150 foreign countries and ordered to recall 16,500 of the Pentagon's 165,000 active-duty personnel stationed overseas. Returning 16,500 soldiers to the US to help weary fire-fighters beat back near-apocalyptic firestorms and assist over-taxed first responders valiantly trying to rescue civilians from flooded homes would give the Pentagon a rare opportunity to actually fulfill it's sworn duty to "defend the Homeland." 

Trump Secretly Bragged that He Saved bin Salman's Saudi Ass 

It's been nearly two years since Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally killed and dismembered in Saudi Arabia's Turkish Embassy. And we have just learned that Donald Trump privately bragged about protecting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from charges that he ordered Khashoggi’s assassination. 

Trump reportedly boasted: "I saved his a**. I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop." 

Trump can't protect the American People from Covid-19, climate change, or gun violence, but he's ready to brag about protecting a Saudi despot accused of murdering a US reporter? To use one of Trump's favorite go-to phrases: "It's a disgrace." 

In the Mood for a New Car Model? 

We've been looking for a "pre-owned" car to replace our 2005 Nissan. A plug-in hybrid electric, preferably. Here's one lesson to be learned from the process of car-searching: There are sure some odd words affixed to the backsides of the world's autos. Here are a few of these odd-omobile names 

Leaf, Ioniq, Niro, Clarity, Volt, Bolt, Beetle, Viper, Spider, Hornet, Cobra, Gremlin, Diablo, Mirai, Wildcat, Tang, Cruze, Impala, Opala, Monza, Vega, Talon, Pacer, Dino, Testarossa, Panda, Punto, Karma, Beat, Fit. (And that's just for models from Audi to Honda—not even halfway through the automotive alphabet!) 

What if there were branding contests to allow the public to chose the names that would adorn the cars of the future? How about a Lamborghini Spaghetti? A Subaru Kanga? A Lincoln Emancipator? A Tesla Muskrat? Maybe a model to honor Vagina Monologues author and activist Eve Ensler: the Volvo Vulva? And what if Versa produced a model called the "Vice"? (If you don't like a Versa Vice, how about Vice Versa?)