Don't Look Up: A Close Encounter

On January 26, a small near-Earth asteroid, called 2023 BU, zipped over the southern tip of South America about 2,200 miles above Earth's surface. While concerned scientists noted this distance was well within the high-Earth-orbit of many global satellites, NASA offered the reassuring news that there was no risk of the asteroid striking Earth. Still, it was a close call. I just checked my wall map and found the distance between 2023 BU and Earth's surface was less than the miles covered by a flight from San Francisco to Honolulu (2,394.72 miles).

General Mills "Loves" Nature

It's no secret that the processed snack conglomerate known as General Mills doses its treats with unhealthy amounts of sugar (typically the second-most-listed ingredient). But these days the processed-food giant wants to be seen as a "Green-ish" business. Hence, the improbable note on its "crunchy bars" that proclaims the snack bars' flimsy wraps are "recyclable" at various "store drop-off" locations.

Click on their "Recycle4Nature.com" website and Mills proclaims recycling its snack wrappers is "our first step toward making all of our packaging fully recyclable by 2025."

Mills' goes on to state: "Believe it or not, recycling polyethylene film is more than a sustainable, eco-friendly way to minimize our environmental footprint. That same material can also be turned into some pretty amazing things. Your contributions to store drop-off recycling can be turned into playground sets, decking, fencing, and furniture." (Note: Most city-run recycling operations don't accept plastic bags, film or wraps.)

The website's list of participating chains includes Safeway, Lucky, Sprouts, and Trader Joe's. According to the Recycle4Nature.com website, the closest drop-off-eco-depot is more than a mile's drive from our front porch; most drop-off destinations require driving 6-13 miles. The Safeway in the 1400 block of Shattuck is touted as having a "green bin in front by entrance" but a quick drive-by reveals there is no bin at this location. A Safeway in Lafayette invites participants to drop off "Product wrap on cases of water/soda bottles, paper towels, napkins, disposable cups, bathroom tissue, diapers, and female sanitary products" and follows up with a "Do Not Drop" list that specifically excludes "candy bar wrappers."

In the end, Gen. Mills' "4Nature" claim is undermined by a single statement at the bottom of the snack-wrapper that reads: "Contains Bioengineered Food Ingredients." 

Fashion Plates 

Personalized license plates spotted around town: 

Red Toyota: GLP1RAG (Gulp One Rag?) 

White Subaru Outback: MOMS7ER (Momster?) 

Blue Lexus: N8FURY7 (Nate Fury's Evan?) 

AI Is Taking Over and It's Got the Robots Dancing

ChatGPT can churn out original jokes and college-level essays in an instant. Say goodbye to journalists, poets, and novelists? DALL-E 2, WOMBO, and Craylon can generate mind-bendingly original graphics within seconds. Goodbye to painters, cartoonists, and photographers? 

It looks like the Dawn of a New Error. Humans are not only being laid off from manufacturers' inhuman assembly lines but living-breathing "creatives" now face a future that no longer needs them. At least this troubling news has got the robots dancing. 

Here's a video that had me tapping my toes — and scratching my head…. 

Watch as two Boston Dynamics’ research robots celebrate the Decline of Humanity by doing the Twist while joined by a robo-dog and a wheeled robot built to replace Amazon workers. 

Hard Rocker Roger Waters' Addresses the UNgg

On February 8, legendary Pink Floyd rock star Roger Waters took a lead position on a new stage. Decked out in suit-and-tie, Waters delivered a live-broadcast address before the United Nations and issued this moving plea for global peace. 

 

Here's a vision: Imagine if Roger Waters were to join forces with CODEPINK's Medea Benjamin and both announced a world tour of an anti-war rock opera. Naturally, they would appear as a new musical band performing under the name: CODEPINK Floyd. 

Renewal Creep 

Have you noticed how a good number of membership and subscription renewal requests that come in the mail seem to arrive earlier every year? It's called "renewal creep." The beginning of a new year is a good time to check on those nagging reminders to re-up your remittance to charities, nonprofits, educational enterprises, activist organizations, and a slew of newsletters and (monthly or quarterly) magazines that invite attention. 

Having recently compared a pile of renewal notices with a year's worth of personal checks, I've noted a number of worthy groups that are leading the creepy pack. The current winners are: MoveOn.org (whose renewal request arrived in January 2023 while the last renewal check mailed October 12, 2022), Sierra Club (New Member Activation Form sent in January 2023: Last membership check mailed May 12, 2022), Friends of the Earth (renewal note for 2023: Last renewal check mailed April 8, 2022), Friends of the Smithsonian (January renewal reminder: last renewal check mailed April 18, 2022). The Friends of the Smithsonian solicited a renewal check for their fine magazine for $15. At the same time, another Smithsonian department was sending out a separate offer to begin a new subscription for just $10. 

Slavery? It's Still Legal in California 

Yep, according to the 13^th Amendment to the US Constitution slavery remains legal—so long as it's applied as punishment for a crime. This makes it possible for Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas to force prisoners to work for no pay while many states profit off barely-paid (90 cents to $4 a day) prison labor. 

California remains one of 18 states whose constitutions still condone the use of slave labor. Among the corporations profiting off the labor of prisoners: McDonalds, Wendy's, Walmart, Starbucks, Sprint, Verizon, American Airlines, and Victoria's Secret. 

RootsAction has created a page that contains an email link to demand elected representatives finally put an end to legal slavery in "the Land of the Free." To send a strong message to Sacramento, click here. 

¡Presente! Victor Navasky  

In January, when journalist/editor Victor Navasky died at the age of 90, the magazine he headed for more than four decades saluted him as "The Man Who Saved The Nation" and a rabble-rouser who "Tried to Save the World."gg 

Among the many offering tributes, was Pacifica radio's Larry Bensky who penned a memoire titled "Victor Navasky, R.I.P." 

I also have a Navasky memory to share. When I was embedded at Friends of the Earth, working on David Brower's eco-magazine, I wrote an investigative article about the environmental impacts of US weapons used in El Salvador—including napalm bombs. (Some of my info came from a delegation of US activists that included former Berkeley mayor Gus Newport who, at one point came under fire when visiting a local village targeted for an aerial bombardment.) 

To my surprise, I received a letter from Navasky praising the disclosures in my article. I was amazed to discover that the editor of The Nation even knew about—let alone had time to read—something published in a small magazine based in San Francisco.g 

 

Workers Can't Vote If Election Day Is on a Work Day. Coincidence? 

VoteAmerica raises a good question: Why Must Americans Vote on Tuesdays—a work day? "Imagine if you didn’t have to wake up extra early on a Tuesday morning in November and wait in line at a polling place before you head to work." Why not follow the lead of countries like France and Germany and hold elections on weekends? Or, even better, declare Election Day a National Holiday.  

Click here if you think the US should move Election Day to the weekend. 

America's Waiters Have Been Waiting 32 Years for a Raise 

Bernie Sanders' Our Revolution political action group recently slammed the National Restaurant Association (aka "the other NRA") after the New York Times revealed that the ONRA had expropriated $25 million of their workers’ potential earnings to lobby against addressing ONRA's poverty-level wages!  

As Ro Khanna and other progressives have complained, the ‘Other NRA’ has wielded its lobbying power to freeze the federal minimum wage at $7.25/hr since 2009 and has kept the "federal tipped wage" locked down at $2.13/hr since 1991!  

Defend the IRS or Defund the IRS? 

Republicans are trying to cut $80 billion in recent Inflation Reduction Act investments designed to strengthen the IRS and its ability to crack down on millionaire, billionaire, and corporate tax cheats. In other words: As per usual, the GOPsters want to increase handouts to their wealthy sponsors while leaving struggling working families in the lurch. According to MoveOn.org: "In 2019 alone, the richest 1% of households evaded $163 billion of the total of unpaid or underpaid taxes that year." MoveOn has posted a petition to keep the IRS on the lookout for billion-dollar tax cheats and scofflaw corporations. 

Ro Khanna and Rashida Tlaib Speak for Me 

A recent email from Hon. Ro Khanna note that last year, "Congress increased Pentagon spending by 8 percent—more than $40 billion above President Biden’s request. This brings the Pentagon's total budget to a staggering $858 billion. 

"A bloated Pentagon budget won't bolster our safety and well-being. But access to life-saving healthcare, tuition-free community college, and paid family leave will. If we cut Pentagon spending, we can provide better opportunities for everyday Americans to not only survive but succeed…. 

"We need to push Congress to cut waste from the Pentagon budget that rewards legacy defense contractors and start investing in programs that benefit the American people. 

Sign the Petition: Tell Congress to prioritize the needs of its constituents by curbing Pentagon spending. 

When JFK Tried to Put the Cold War on Ice 

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy announced plans for a dramatic policy shift toward world peace as part of an attempt to put an end to the Cold War. In a 27-minute speech at American University on June 10, 1963—Kennedy pledged to pursue a foreign policy that placed peace before military might and took the occasion to announce plans to sign a pact with Russia to end the nuclear arms race and begin the abolition of nuclear stockpiles. Kennedy was assassinated four months later. 

Here is a short clip from the speech: 

 

Jamie Raskin Raps the MAGAnauts