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Begging—and Hyperventilating—for Dollars

There's one thing I won't be missing now that the election cycle is over: the oscillating emotional rhetoric of email fund-raising pitches.

On one side of the emotional spectrum, campaign fund-raisers verged on hysteria: "We're begging!" "We're devastated!" "It's Over!" "We're Crying!" "We're Wrecked!" "We're Panicking!"

On the other side, the alerts boomed with bravado: "Trump Terrified!" "Mitch McConnell Crushed!"

And, within minutes of each other, two pitches arrived from astronaut Mark Kelly's Arizona senatorial campaign. One read: "Mark Is Surging!" The other read: "Arizona Is Slipping! Mark Kelly Is Down!"

The pitches were still coming in well into the late afternoon of Election Day. One of these—an e-pitch from Jamie Harrison, who was contesting Lindsey Graham's critical Senate seat—took a refreshing approach. The subject line read: "Humbly Asking." 

The Visceral Fright of Election Night 

Apparently, the national networks decided that the US election was so important that there was no need to report any other news from the US or anywhere else on Earth during their regular news hours. 

Instead, viewers were left to watch early balloting results that were so early as to be inconsequential. Time and again, the network newshounds went sniffing after races where state polling stations were still open and no ballot counts had been declared. Despite the lack of news, they flashed images of Blue-lined Biden and Red-lined Trump next to numbers in the zero digits. As the dueling duo's results flashed "0 vs. 0" on the screen, the pundits repeatedly declared the race "Too early to count." 

After watching this recurring exercise in irrelevance, I found myself shouting at the screen: "If it's too bloody early to count, don't bother reporting it!" 

And who was the set designer who placed NBC's network commentators on an overblown, eye-poking stage that looked like the Neon-illuminated Bowels of Hell? 

Troubling Trends: Americans Arming in Unprecedented Numbers 

US Elections—A View from Abroad 

The US, by and large, thinks of itself as a democracy but the New York Times recently had the idea of interviewing nine foreigners to get an independent assessment of the voting process in the US. The NYT's assessment: "It didn't go well." 

The clip begins with a campaign video of Michelle Lujan Grisham, a candidate for Governor of New Mexico, proclaiming: "We need to bust through some walls to make changes." And then she does just that, plowing through a stage wall on her campaign set. 

The foreigners are uniformly incredulous. "Register? You need to register to vote? We don't register in my country. It's our right to vote!" "There's no voting on Sundays? You have to leave work or home to vote?" Shown maps of politically gerrymandered states the majority describe the blotted, meandering maps as "straight-up Jackson Pollack." It's embarrassing—but illuminating—to watch our failures revealed through the insights of others. Here's the video. 

Political Pundit Blind to Obvious Solution  

On November 4, the ABC-7 news team invited Chronicle Insider Phil Matier to weigh in on the question: "Should we get rid of the Electoral College?" 

Matier, who is prone to energetic, street-level bloviating that sounds well-reasoned but seldom goes beyond the self-evident, seemed aghast at the prospect. 

"But what would we replace it with?" he barked alarmingly. "Would we use computers? But what if they could be hacked?" 

In his "let's not be too hasty" mode, Matier completely ignored the Big Fact that the "solution" was staring him straight in the face—a long-standing, fully functioning election was already successfully underway with absentee, mail-in, and walk-in ballots arriving by the millions and being dutifully counted (despite legal challenges from Trump's lawyers). The electoral process is fine. It's the Electoral College that's the problem. 

How to Make the Electoral College Irrelevant 

The US is not a democracy, thanks to the Electoral College. 

FACT: 5 of 45 US Presidents Came into Office Without Winning the National Popular Vote. 

PROJECTION: A 3-Million Lead Would Only Give Biden a 46% Chance of Winning. 

THE GOOD NEWS: We don't have to amend the US Constitution to remove the bizarre racist artifact known as the Electoral College. Any state can "drop out of College" by simply signing onto the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. 

The NPVIC lets states bypass the Electoral College by agreeing to award their electors to the popular-vote-winner nationwide. During the recent election, Colorado voted to join 15 other states and the District of Columbia in mounting this growing revolt. According to Abolish the Electoral College, the addition of Colorado puts the campaign "more than 72% of the way to victory. And if all the states that have begun the process end up in the compact, we’ll have 94.8% of the electors needed to make it law!" For more information, check out the National Popular Vote website. 

A Bike-in at Berkeley's Chavez-Huerta Memorial 

On a recent Monday, I headed for the Berkeley Marina to do my monthly turn as a Steward for the Cesar Chavez-Dolores Huerta Solar Calendar. 

A steward's chore is simple: visit the site (atop a hillock on the northern end of the Marina) and check to see that the site is clean and everything is in order. Usually, it's a solitary job. This time, however, I arrived to find a large group of people already assembled at the site. And they all had bicycles. 

One of the program leaders was lecturing authoritatively—on the history of the site, the mechanics of astronomy, and the legacy of the United Farm Workers' movement—to a passel of kids in their teens. 

I had stumbled across an educational outing sponsored by Trips for Kids Marin (a San Rafael-based nonprofit providing "transformative cycling experiences to underserved youth in the Bay Area") with a group of youngsters from Latitude High School in West Oakland. (LHS specializes in "real world project-based learning, with strong arts, multimedia, and technology integration." It's motto: "Oakland is our home: The Bay Area is our extended classroom.") 

While Chris Pearson (a Latitude High basketball coach and educator) was holding forth on astronomy and the meaning of the boulders that marked the monument's Four Corners, his teaching partner, Adam Smith (Trips for Kids ride program manager) was focused on tutoring the young bikers on the best way to use their gears and brakes while heading downhill. 

I had shown up at a perfect moment. The sun was high in the sky and the shadow cast by the sundial's waist-tall gnomon was about to align with the design engraved in the stonework of the memorial. 

Latitude 37.8 - A New Charter School for Oakland from Latitude 37.8 High School on Vimeo. 

Sparks for Parks 

The new 16-page Activity Guide from the East Bay Regional Park District is packed with scads of enlightening news, suggested nature jaunts, and delightful puzzles. Here's a short list: Greet the New Shoreline Park (which is actually a bridge); Meet Rue Mapp, the founder of Outdoor Afro; Master the art of biking safely on nature trails; Greet the monarch butterflies returning to the historic Ardenwood Farm; Celebrate the arrival of the Marsh Creek salmon; Discover the secrets of the Ohlone Peoples' soaproot plant; Learn about the lore of Ladybugs at Crab Cove; Watch the seasonal showers revive Rain Beetles and other estivating critters; Build a DIY weather barometer; Write a "nature haiku"; Add the "frog pose" to the downward dog in your morning yoga routine; Discover the Dusky-footed Woodrat (and assemble an edible Woodrat Nest out of pretzels, peanut butter, and chocolate chips). Where to find it? Look for the Guide tucked into the middle of the East Bay Express. 

PG&E Wants a PCIATP 

PG&E once again wins top prize in the competition for Outstanding Corporate Obfuscation. 

A notice in this week's mail alerts homeowners that PG&E has requested to change its rates. In PG&E lingo, whenever you see the word "change," you can usually substitute the word "increase." In this case, the issue at stake is a "Power Charge Indifference Adjustment Trigger Applications" (aka "[A.20-09-014]" if you're looking for further clarification). 

PG&E's brochure explains that it wants permission to "collect $250 million in rates from customers who receive electric generating service from a third party." That would include former PG&E customers who have installed solar panels. And what would PG&E do with the quarter-billion bucks? It would "refund" the money to homeowners and businesses that still get their electrons directly from PG&E! 

There's a chart showing how much monthly bills could decrease for customers who still receive "bundled service" (i.e., electricity generated, transmitted, and distributed) from PG&E. There were no charts showing how much other homeowner's power bills would increase, but the small print reveals: "Direct Access and Community Choice Aggregation customers . . . would see an increase of 4%." 

Fragments of Memory on LinkedIn 

Trying to track down a story source on LinkedIn, I found myself scanning scores of forgotten messages from old friends and acquaintances from near and far. 

• There was this note to Paul Krassner from 2013: 

When a cardinal wins the Vatican's Pope Vote, he's got about one hour to choose a Papal name before he has to appear on the balcony. That suggests that each of the Cardinals in the line-up has probably already picked out the name he would chose if selected! 

Can we guess the names? I'd guess Irish Cardinal O'Malley might want to become Pope Patrick.  

I'd still have preferred a puff of pink smoke to signal the elevation of a Sister Superior directly chosen by God Herself -- The winner would then be called Nun of the Above. 

• And this short note from Waltraud, a young activist I met in Germany while working on an international campaign to stop whaling and save penguins. We traveled around town in a van loaded with inflatable penguins and, at once point, donned over-sized penguin outfits. I dubbed her "Penguin" and we later met up during a related demonstration in New York City. She went on to become a Veterinary Officer at the European Commission. Back in 2012, she wrote: 

Any chance your traveling takes you near Brussels? Let me know and we'll have a penguin veteran gathering. All the best! Waltraud 

I replied: 

Thanks for giving me another reason to dream of visiting Belgium. (I have made it to Prague, Budapest, Istanbul, and Barcelona in the past few years.) A penguin veteran gathering would be an Epic Event! Penguin hugs, Gar  

To which she replied: 

Just back from Niger and Ghana—keep in touch!  

Penguin hugs (How are they? Cold and wet?),  

• And then I found this June 3, 2011 exchange with UC Berkeley journalism professor Ken Light: 

Hi Ken, My son, a USC Film School grad is working on a project about '60s culture and I was looking for a copy of Stephen Lighthill's documentary, "Sons and Daughters." I had a "walk-on" role in the film—I walked onto some railroad tracks in Berkeley and tried to stop a troop train. I was the last one off the tracks before the train barreled through. I only saw the film once, at a special "red carpet" screening in San Francisco.  

Ken Light : I wasn't the person to shoot that event . . . sorry . . . have you checked out Pacific Film Archive. They might have the Lighthill film . . . also Film Arts Foundation might be able to put you in touch with him. Good luck, Ken  

Gar Smith : Thanks, Ken. It turned out Lighthill was not at the East Coast office. My son tracked him in LA and simply drove over, borrowed a copy of "Sons and Daughters," and burned a dupe.  

And there was this strangely wonderful moment when he called from LA and said:  

"Dad, I've got that film on my screen but I can't find the troop train demo. Was it in the first third of the film or.... Wait! Oh, here it is. My God! There you are! You're holding the banner! You're right under the 'P'!" (I was holding a paper banner that read: "Stop the War Machine.") 

So here I am in Berkeley, listening to my son (who is today about the age I was then) describing a moving image from my life that I haven't seen in more than 40 years. Cinema is magic. 

Let's Hope This Is Trump's Swan Song