Public Comment

One of the Great Radio Bloopers

On February 12, 2023, a KCBS reporter's weather update went awry causing her to dissolve into a pot of on-air giggles. "Sorry," she said. "I meant to say we can expect good weather for hiking and cycling. Did I really say 'Good weather for hikeling and psyching'?" Yes, she did!

Nation-wide Anti-war Protests on Sunday, February 19

Upset by the huge bite the Military-Industrial-Political Complex takes out of the national budget? Alarmed by the risk of a world-ending nuclear conflict? Concerned about the persistent problems of child hunger, unmet housing needs, inadequate medical care and underfunded education in the US?

If you want to take steps to improve the future for the citizens of our Divided States of Warmerica, why not put on your walking shoes and head off for San Francisco this Sunday for one of more than a dozen Rage Against the War Machine demos happening across the country—from the main event in Washington, DC, to "sister rallies" inSan Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor and elsewhere. 

Rage Against the War Machine 

Sharing (with permission) an email note from tireless peace activist Cynthia Papermaster's emotionally wrenching personal note to volunteers preparing for the big Sunday February 19 "Rage Against the War Machine" march and demo in SF: 

Thank you for showing up, meeting, making props, volunteering for tasks, being supportive.  

I can barely handle the fear that keeps breaking through my consciousness. Are these moments our last? I don't know what to feel. Are we going to have a future? That must be why everything looks so beautiful to me now, why I feel so much love, and at the same time why I feel as if I'm inside Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower. People are being philosophical about the end of the world, some saying we deserve it, that there's nothing to be done except hope not to survive so as not to experience the devastation. This is what it's like for all the people and places in the world that the war machine is sacrificing for profits. There's nowhere to go. It's monstrous, beyond belief. 

Open the Gaetz! 

I never expected to see this kind of initiative coming from the MAGA-righters in Congress but I'll be urging my representative to sign on to the Ukraine Fatigue Resolution.  

The resolution calls for major cuts to the Pentagon and ending the Ukraine conflict with diplomacy and a peace agreement. It's signed by 11 members of Congress, including (take a deep breath) Matt Gaetz, Lauren Bobert, Paul Gosar, and Marjorie Taylor Greene! 

This link to "GOP Calls for End to US Military Support for Ukraine" includes the complete text of the Ukraine Fatigue Resolution and contains a list (with price-tags) of hundreds of varied weapons the Pentagon has promised to supply to Ukraine to prolong the war. The extensive and detailed inventory of funds and weaponry intended to prolong this dangerously escalating war is appalling. 

How Left and Right Could Hedge Their Bets

In a recent essay titled,"There Are No Permanent Allies, Only Permanent Power," Chris Hedges calls for a left-right alliance as the only strategy to effect radical political change in the US: "If we do not build left-right coalitions on issues such as militarism, health care, a living wage and union organizing," Hedges warns, "we will be impotent in the face of corporate power and the war machine." 

In response to this galvanizing strategy I wrote the following comment: 

"So how do we align with the only 11 congressmembers who have called for ending shipments of US arms to Ukraine, a cease-fire, and negotiations?
I'm pondering a tattoo of Matt Gaetz on my right arm, a tattoo of Ralph Nader on my left, and a tattoo of Marjorie Taylor Greene (on the bottom of my foot)." 

The next time I checked my email, I was rewarded by a response from Medea Benjamin, who sent three "love-it" heart emojis. 

Just in time for Valentine's Day! 

Fashion Plates 

Personalized license plates spotted around town. 

Honda: JAZZTIN (Beat those cymbals, jazz-man) 

Honda: I AM OK 2 (Nice to get some good news) 

Tesla: FAB FIVE (A happy couple with three kids?) 

Family van: N 2 84 (A clue in the plate frame reads: "Niner Gang") 

Bumper Snickers 

I Brake for Worms 

Dirt-hugging Tree-Worshipper 

Please Forgive Me I Was Raised by Wolves 

Balloon Baloney 

Could it be that the political kerfuffle surrounding the shoot-down of the alleged "Chinese Spy Balloon" was concocted to draw attention away from a much larger and troubling news report—i.e., Sy Hersh's exposé about the US role in the attack on Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines. 

While it remains to be seen (while awaiting the remains of the "Spy Balloon" to be recovered and seen) if China's wayward aircraft was on an actual spy mission, the Pentagon has busied itself shooting down a host of smaller unidentified aircraft. In one case, at an estimated cost of $2 million. In retrospect, President Biden confessed, nearly all of the odd floaters appeared to be "benign"—aircraft release by researchers or hobbyists. 

So the Pentagon's warplanes operate under the same rules as America's "rogue cops": Even if a suspect (human or mechanical) is unarmed and poses no threat, they can be shot in the back while "in flight." 

In the Classroom with Bettina Aptheker 

Berkeley grad and FSM ringleader Bettina Aptheker once made local news in the 1960's when she revealed her membership in the US Communist Party. The next day's edition of the Hearst-owned Examiner carried a headline that read: "Aptheker Admits She's a Red!" 

Aptheker, now a Distinguished Professor at UC Santa Cruz, returned to the UCB campus on February 15, at the invitation of Brooke Lorber who teaches in Gender and Women’s Studies. Aptheker is the author of a scintillating new book titled "Communists in the Closet: Queering the History 1930s-1990s"—a history of US activists who were banned from the party for decades owing to their "non-conforming" sexual identities. 

"The instructor is doing a class on interpreting queer history and so invited me to give a talk," Aptheker texted friends, "and she opened it up to anyone who wants to come." 

The invitation was well received: Room 126 in the Social Sciences building was packed with 70-75 people listening and applauding Aptheker's colorful observations. 

At one point, Aptheker mentioned discovering that her politics had gifted her with "my own personal FBI agent." The agent was named Don Jones and he spent a good part of his time shadowing and harassing Aptheker. 

On one occasion, when she was addressing a crowd of students in front of Sproul Hall, a fellow activist spotted Jones in the back of the crowd and whispered the news to Aptheker who interrupted her speech to announce: "We have a special guest in the audience. I'd like to introduce my own personal FBI agent, Don Jones." The fellow activist (who had by now taken up a position next to Jones) raised his hand and pointed to the flummoxed Fed, who left in a huff and a hurry.