Public Comment

How to Play ‘War Lies Bingo’ on February 7

Back in 1928, a leftwing British peace activist named Arthur Ponsonby published a book called Falsehood in War-Time. Ponsonby's book included a 10-point list of falsehoods that had been used by Britain (and every other participant in World War I) to justify the slaughter.

No matter which side of the battlefield you looked at, Ponsonby found national leaders invoking the same ten lies. They were: 

• We do not want war.  

• The enemy alone is to be blamed for the war.  

• The enemy is inherently evil, resembling the devil.  

• We defend a noble cause, not our own interest.  

• The enemy commits atrocities on purpose; our mishaps are involuntary.  

• The enemy uses illegal weapons.  

• We suffer small losses, those of the enemy are enormous.  

• Artists and intellectuals back our cause.  

• Our cause is holy, it has a sacred character.  

• Whoever doubts our propaganda, is a traitor. 

After nearly a century of unjustifiable wars, journalist and publisher (Just World Books) Helena Cobban is inviting America to play a game of “War Lies Bingo" on February 7, when Pres. Biden delivers his State of the Union Address.  

How many of these "war lies" will the US president invoke? To find out, just download the pre-designed bingo sheets from this 50K PDF and read the rules for "War Lies Bingo" at: https://justworldnews.org/2023/01/17/how-to-play-war-lies-bingo/ 

Fashion Plates 

Personalized license plates spotted around town. 

• Blue Toyota: BG BEARS (on a blue-and-gold plate, no less) 

• Red Tesla: 8YXK808 (Isn't that the name of one of Elon's kids?) 

• Red Chevy: KLASY K (Lookin' good, Katrina!) 

• White Subaru Forester: SUM NERV (Keep your distance, tailgaters!) 

• Yellow Sahara Jeep Wrangler: LORIBEN (A chew toy for aggressive dogs?) 

• Silver Toyota: RIDHWAN (The Diamond Approach. Right here in Berkeley.) 

Bumper Snickers 

• "When the Power of Love Overcomes the Love of Power the World Will Know Peace"—Jimi Hendrix 

• Let's Talk About the Elephant in the Womb 

• Only You Can Prevent Narcissism 

• Where Are We Going and Why I'm I in this Handbasket? 

• All on one Gray Subaru: Whitman College; Johns Hopkins University; Montclair 4-H, Oakland, CA; Barnard – The Liberal Arts College for Women in New York City. 

Bettina Aptheker on "Commies in the Closet" 

A pleased announcement from the Free Speech Movement-Archives: "Here's the video recording of our illustrious Bettina talking about her latest book. Her research was fascinating, like an archeological dig into private closets, letters and diaries. The stories are compelling. 

"Bettina adds: 'I was recently told there will be an audiobook put out by Routledge and I am thrilled about that!!'" 

In this 90-minute California Historical Society video, Bettina Aptheker discusses her new book, "Communists in Closets: Queering the History 1930s–1990s." The book explores the history of gay, lesbian, and non-heterosexual people in the Communist Party (despite its sixty-year ban on LGBT members). Queer communists contributed to the political and theoretical foundations for lesbian and gay liberation and women’s liberation; they also helped advance peace, social justice, civil rights, and Black and Latinx liberation movements. Focusing on queer communists in California, Aptheker is in conversation with Estelle Freedman, author and Professor Emerita at Stanford University. 

The GOP Wants to Replace the IRS as Oligarchs Cheer 

Economic battles are brewing on The Hill. The GOP wants to "January Six" the IRS and replace taxes on wealth with a 30% national tax on basic needs like food, clothing and medicine. 

The extreme mega-MAGA GOPsters would shift the tax burden from millionaires and powerful corporations onto the backs of the American workers and those Americans who can't find work. 

If this radical act of class warfare has got you riled, The Daily Kos has a petition you can punch. It lets these Congressional transgressors know that a national sales tax would trigger a wave of national no-sales attacks that could topple the economy. Oligarchs beware! 

I signed off on the noxious notion by adding the following historical note to my petition: 

We should be taxing extreme wealth not food, medicine, and everyday living expenses. 

Someone should remind the GOP of Eisenhower's proposal that the richest 1% of the country should be taxed at 90%. I LIKE THE IKE HIKE! 

Three Solutions to the National Debt Crisis 

The GOP also wants to put an end to raising the federal debt—an anti-Biden bomblet that could trigger a global economic explosion. Well, once again, the Daily Kos rushes in with a remedy—three of them: 

Several solutions have been discussed that are worthy of consideration. A few senators have introduced the Protect Our CREDIT Act of 2023, which would enable the President to raise the debt limit, subject to a two-thirds vote of disapproval by Congress. Another proposal would be to eliminate the debt limit altogether, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen supports. Lastly, President Biden could take executive action to mint a trillion-dollar coin. 

Wait a minute! Isn't that what Sam Banker-Fried was caught doing? 

And how did the Kos crew miss the bipartisan Elephant in the Room—the Pentagon's indefensible $1.2 trillion "defense" fund? 

A Cold Dose of Cruel Reality 

As Michael Leahan recently noted in an online email conversation: 

Call me cynical but it seems all these petitions we sign, protests, demonstrations and letters to our representatives have little to no effect (unless you’re a multi-millionaire).  

When I said that the US government doesn't listen to public opinion, I point to a Princeton study done several years back that looked at more than 20 years of data to answer a pretty simple question: Does the government represent the people?
Basically, they found that our government doesn’t listen to us. They listen to the wealthy and corporate donors. Surprised? Here’s a quote from the Princeton study that pretty much sums it up:
“The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."
Here’s a link to the Princeton study and a short video that explains it:
 

Bernie Wants to Stick It to Moderna 

Moderna is a modern-day Monster — a needle-wielding, arm-piercing, price-gouger. 

Seems like their only corporate regret is they were not able to charge three-figure sums for their vaccine shots while 1.1 million Americans were dying from Covid-19 infections. 

That could now be changing. As Bernie Sanders pointed out: "Moderna is considering more than quadrupling the price of its people-funded COVID vaccine from $26.36 per dose to an outrageous $130 per dose, especially when it’s been estimated that the cost of producing the vaccine is now as low as $2.85 per dose—2.2% of what Moderna has suggested charging to the public." 

Bernie has posted a curative MoveOn petition here. 

Tiring of Abiding Biden's Unkept Promises? 

RootsAction posts: "While cheerleaders for Joe Biden in corporate media often portray him as the second coming of Franklin Roosevelt, here at RootsAction we keep remembering his many unkept promises—especially in light of the deepening crises of democracy, inequality, climate and corporate greed that our country faces. 

Here’s a partial list of promises from Biden's 2020 campaign website and the 2020 Democratic Party platform that Biden campaigned on:  

• Reduce military spending (dramatically increased instead),

• End drilling on federal lands (expanded instead),
• Stop separating immigrant families and instead compensate them (not done),

• Remove the cap on Social Security taxes exempting incomes over $160,000 (not done),
• Make community college free for two years (not done),
• Create the healthcare “public option” and lower the age for Medicare (instead Medicare keeps being privatized),
• Provide paid sick and family leave (not done, even for railway workers whose threatened strike was outlawed),
• Provide high-quality, universal pre-kindergarten for all three- and four-year-olds (not done),
• Provide Section 8 housing vouchers to every eligible family so that no one has to pay more than 30% of their income for rental housing (not done),
• Make a $2 trillion investment in clean energy (way beyond what’s included in the “Inflation Reduction Act”),
• Provide every city with 100,000 or more residents with high-quality, zero-emissions public transportation (not even mentioned),
• Introduce a constitutional amendment to entirely eliminate private dollars from our federal elections. . . . Enact legislation to provide voluntary matching public funds for federal candidates receiving small dollar donations. . . . Restrict SuperPACs. . . . End dark money groups. . . . Ban corporate PAC contributions to candidates, and prohibit lobbyist contributions to those who they lobby (unheard of since the campaign; these are words from the 2020 campaign website),
• Create automatic voter registration, same-day voter registration, early voting, universal vote-from-home and vote-by-mail options, and an election day holiday (only feebly attempted),
• Heavily tax billionaires and corporations (attempted in minor ways, but the pretense that it's been done hurts efforts to do it going forward).
• End U.S. participation in the brutal Saudi war on Yemen (not done),
• Treat Saudi Arabia as a pariah state (instead, the president famously fist-bumped the Crown Prince).

On January 31, Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen, launched an email broadside that began: "This morning, Exxon Mobil revealed that it made $56 billion in profits in 2022—its most profitable year ever. A few days ago, Chevron announced that it made $35.5 billion in profits last year—more than doubling its profits from 2021."
And remember, Weissman emphasized, "we’re talking about sheer profits." He went on to make these other points: 

• That’s billions and billions and billions—from our pockets to their already overflowing corporate coffers—*beyond* what these companies spent on things like offshore rigs, drilling equipment, pipelines, tankers, salaries, CEO bonuses, and junk science sowing unfounded doubt about their own complicity in climate change.

• Not to mention government bribes slash campaign contributions (the exact phrase depending on the country and, perhaps, one’s tolerance for semantic distinctions).

• And of course it’s not just the cost of filling your car’s gas tank or heating your home.

• The price of oil is one of the main drivers of the runaway inflation—i.e. further corporate price gouging—that has distorted the economy here in America and around the world.

• Meanwhile, by keeping us addicted to their dirty energy products, companies like these are literally melting the planet we live on.

Re-ban Assault Rifles for God's Sake! 

According to an Action Network petition sponsored by Daily Kos: "Banning assault weapons saves lives. The 1994 federal assault weapons ban, which lasted until 2004, reduced the risk of a person in the U.S. dying from a mass shooting by 70%. Both the number of deaths and the number of annual incidents decreased significantly.  

"Time and time again, assault weapons are used in the deadliest mass shootings in America. Between 2009 and 2018, assault weapons accounted for 25% of death and 76% of nonfatal injuries in mass shootings. They are uniquely lethal, allowing the most murders in the shortest amount of time. They are weapons of war and have no place on our streets." 

They aren't called "Defense" tools, they are called "Assault" weapons and the Action Network has a petition to re-ban them. Here's the link. 

America's Economic Pay Scam impoverishes Workers 

According to RootsAction.org, only three states (Washington, California, and Massachusetts—plus Washington DC) have minimum wages of $15 or more. "The federal minimum wage—which is all that many states have, and to which some other states' minimum wages are tied—has now gone the longest period of time without correction since it was created in 1938, and is worth less than it has been since 1956.  

"The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour would be $12.12 if the law had built-in adjustment for inflation in 1968. If the federal minimum wage had kept pace with productivity, it would now be over $26 per hour. If it had been tied to a percentage of a maximum wage and increased in line with the increase in top incomes, it would be way higher than $26." 

Depressed? Here's a Dose of Randy Rainbow