Raging Against the War Machine

There was a good deal of agitation, debate and disagreement surrounding the "Rage Against the War Machine" rally held in the nation's capital on February 19. The divisive issue was a question about whether groups like CODEPINK could share the stage with groups like the Libertarian Party. 

One of the best observations regarding the problem of political differences was uttered by someone who was not even at the event. It was Frederick Douglass who offered the sage advice: "“I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.” 

There were more than a dozen Rage rallies held across the US, including one in San Francisco that drew a crowd of several hundred. 

Some people arrived on canes. Some younger spectators arrived on electric scooters. Many held hand-crafted protest signs proclaiming "War Is A Racket" and "There Is No Military Solution!" One bearded gent sported a sign that read "Mend Your Fuelish Ways." A serious-looking couple brandished twin signs that read "Jungians Against Shadow Projection." Others carried a sign that read: "Not Anti-Ukraine. Not Anti-Russia. Pro-Peace." 

Rally Rouser and CODEPINK activist Cynthia Papermaster advised the crowd that there would be a march to the Financial District to rage against Pentagon profiteers—including James D. Taiclit, CEO of Lockheed Martin, and the CEOs of Chevron, the New York Times, and UC Berkeley's Livermore Lab—followed by a car caravan to the home of the former Democratic House Speaker where, Papermaster explained, "I want to let you all know that we are ‘pink-slipping’ Nancy Pelosi at the end of our skit 'More War Please.'" 

Speakers at the Justin Herman Plaza event included (among others) Shahid Buttar (activist/Congressional candidate), John Walsh (Vets for Peace), Eric Garris (Antiwar.com), Starchild (Libertarian Party), an electrifying Arieann "I Am Radioactive!" Harrison (Bayview Hunter's Point activist), and a furry contingent known as Dogs Against Nukes. 

The message (shared from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the Embarcadero Plaza) came in the form of a list of demands: 

1. Not One More Penny for War in Ukraine
2. Global Nuclear De-Escalation
3. Slash the Pentagon Budget
4. No War With Russia or China
5. Disband NATO
6. Restore Civil Liberties
7. Climate Justice
8. Free Julian Assange and All Political Prisoners
9. Community care, not War 

 

Fashion Plates 

Black GT: ZENNY19 (Did Zenny have a Zen moment in New York in 2019?) 

Blue Honda: DAFODYL (I love flowery language) 

Black Tesla: LINGNOI (Promoter of Thai Kickboxing?) 

Black BMW: AG DIGTL (Attorney General with a Smartphone? A hands-on agriculturist?) 

Bumper Snickers 

"Militant Agnostic. I Don't Know and You Don't Either." 

"Do Not Meddle in the Affairs of Dragons… For You Are Crunchy & Good with Ketchup." 

Big Business, Autocracy, and Jimmy Carter's Quotes 

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the infamous 2010 Supreme Court ruling, has allowed billionaires and Big Business to spend unlimited waves of cash to influence elections and sabotaging American democracy. 

In response to this sad state of affairs, Public Citizen recently compiled the following list of "Carterisms," a collection of President Jimmy Carter's complaints about Citizens United uttered over the years:
• Citizens United is an “erroneous ruling” and “the most stupid decision the Supreme Court ever made.” 

• Citizens United has turned America into an “oligarchy with unlimited political bribery.” 

• Citizens United “violates the essence” of our democracy and represents “the biggest change in America” since 1976. 

• Citizens United has left everyday Americans “cheated out of” the chance to make their lives better." 

• Citizens United has led to “a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors.” 

MoveOn Wants to Buy an Ad on Fox News 

The progressive juggernaut that is MoveOn is about to do something unprecedented: paying Fox News to place an ad on Trump's favorite broadcast network. 

The add would feature clips of Fox Faves Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity spouting Trump's conspiracies on air while secretly dismissing and demeaning Trump's Big Lie promoters off air. Here's a bit of MoveOn's alert: 

Immediately following Election Day in 2020, Fox News picked up the mantle of Trump's Big Lie, allowing members of his legal team, including Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, to appear repeatedly in prime time pushing baseless lies and conspiracy theories without any pushback from the hosts. 

But while Tucker Carlson sat back and allowed these lies to go unchallenged on air, this is what he was saying behind the scenes: 

"This software s*** is absurd … Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It's insane." 

Laura Ingraham, who also had Sidney Powell on her show multiple times and went so far as to call on the attorney general to take action to overturn the election, responded to Carlson: "Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy." 

Sean Hannity was even more blunt, calling Giuliani, Powell, and Trump's cast of conspiratorial lawyers: "F***ing lunatics." 

Even Rupert Murdoch himself agreed that these lies were dangerous, texting another Fox executive that allowing Powell and others to continue spewing these lies on air was "Terrible stuff damaging everybody, I fear." 

Only one problem with MoveOn's plan: What makes them think Fox would ever air such an ad? 

 

Is Solar Power The Future Of Electric Vehicles?

The Biden Administration has laid out a plan to reduce global warming by encouraging the transition to electric automobiles. The Biden plan calls for spending billions of dollars on a nationwide network of charging stations. The proposal would create new opportunities for Corporate America to profit off the owners of millions of plug-in vehicles that would be critically dependent on industry-controlled recharging stations. 

 

Exxon could become Elexxon. Mobil could become VoltMobil. Texaco could become Elexaco. Same players: same consolidated gameplan. 

But what if automobiles were no longer dependent on gas stations—or gauss stations (a "gauss" is an electrical measurement equal to "one ten-thousandth of a tesla")." 

What if, instead of remaining dependent on finding a corporate-owned recharging station—and hoping it's not already occupied—there was an already existing recharging option that is not only available but is not tied to the capitalist economy and, therefore, free? 

Introducing Sono Motors, a German firm that is building vehicles that run on pure sunshine—no hook-ups required. The secret? The exteriors of these tankless cars incorporate solar panels built into the body of the auto that soak up and store energy every minute the sun is shinning. 

 

Relying on these solar-powerplants-on-wheels would obviate the tremendous cost of a nationwide charging infrastructure. This would also free car-owners from the control and manipulation of large, profiteering industries. 

While it would be tempting to call these carbon-neutral cars "revolutionary," that would do a major disservice to solar engineering history. Read on! 

The Future of Electric Cars Overlooks the History of Electric Cars 

There is a long, sad history of revolutionary inventions that have been blocked and hidden because they posed a threat to existing corporate interests. This history includes the SunRaycer, a solar-power car that publicized its prowess by winning a race across a California desert decades ago in 1987. Chevy bought the company to block its development. 

The documentary "Who Killed The Electric Car?" recounts the short, zappy life of the General Motors electric-powered Impact, a forerunner of the EV1. The owners of this pioneering electric vehicle (including actor Mel Gibson) fell in love with these cars. As the film documents, they were distraught when GM eventually knocked on their doors, seized the cars, trucked them off to junkyards and had them destroyed. They just posed too big a threat to powerful oil companies—the climate be damned. 

 

An Oklahoma inventor named Troy Reid invented—and patented—a "magnetic motor" that consumed no fuel, emitted no fumes, and powered a car without the need of a battery. (According to the online rumor mill, Reid was killed to prevent the commercialization of his invention.) 

 

The invention of electric automobiles dates back to the world of Nicola Tesla, who is credited with creating the first "magnetic carriage" in 1897, as recounted in this video: 

 

Jay Leno reminds us that the first automobiles in America were electric. Here he is with his 1916 Owen Electric. 

 

In the beginning, the world's automobiles were all clean, electric vehicles. That all changed when Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller—in pursuit of profits—joined forces to steer the industry to abandon electric autos in favor of oil and gasoline-powered cars, as recounted in this video: 

 

Stop the Banks' Billion-dollar Late Fee Scam! 

Barks used to be the target of robbers. Now, it turns out, US banks have become the robbers. 

US banks are quietly making billions by charging credit card late fees that can reach $41 per transaction. Rohit Chopra, director of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has revealed that a reasonable late fee—one that covers the actual collection costs—should be no more than $8. No wonder Bank of America, Chase, Discover, and American Express are raking in $12 billion-a-year from these phony, felonious fees. Last year, Discover booked more than $400 million in late fees while Capital One netted $1.4 billion. 

It's expected that limiting late fees to the "cost of collection" would save US families $9 billion. Americans for Financial Reform and More Perfect Union Media want to "make sure that Wall Street doesn’t kill this vital reform with an astroturf campaign of paid commenters and automated bots." 

The ActionNetwork has posted a petition calling for abolition of the Late Fee Scam here. This video explains it all: