Columns

Damn You, Autocorrect!

I noticed the SF Chronicle has posted an online list of holiday special events. One of the options garnered special attention owing to a Chron typo. A "Holiday Cookie Demo" featuring Charlie Farriér of Crumble & Whisk is set to screen at 5:30 PM on December 15. But the addition of a single letter makes the event sound a bit friskier than intended. The Invite line reads: "Join Crumble & Whisky."

Why You Can't Be a Christian and a Capitalist

A note, in passing, to the bottom-line prophets of the Prosperity Gospel: “No one can serve two masters. . . . You cannot serve both God and money." — Matthew 6:24-28.

When the World Is in Tatters, Look to the Heavens

NBC has come up with some good news for our wretched, cloistered times.

If you're looking for "a bright spot in a dark year," just circle December 21 on your calendar and prepare to lift your gaze to the sky. On this Solstice Night—the first day of winter and the longest night of the year—the planets Jupiter and Saturn will appear to merge into a single, brilliant "Christmas Star"—a sight not seen in 800 years.

The last time this planetary conjunction was visible in the night sky was in 1226—a year that marked the deaths of Louis VIII (the Lion King) and St. Francis of Assisi. 

The Pandemic Panorama 

Meanwhile, the careening coronavirus calamity continues to escalate. On December 9, the US racked up a record 3,000 Covid-19 deaths in a single day. That's more that the number of Americans killed during the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor; more than the number of Americans killed during the September 11 attacks that targeted the Trade Towers and the Pentagon. But, while the pandemic is raging in the heartland, paralysis reigns in Washington as the end of the year approaches without action to address imminent economic chaos. 

Specifically, Washington's failure to pass a significant new relief package would mean a sudden end to unemployment benefits for 12 million displaced workers while millions of American renters would face eviction from their apartments and homes. 

So why was Mitch McConnell so dead-set on striking a people-centric deal with the Dems? Like Pelosi, Schumer and Dr. Fauci, Mitch was concerned about "immunity"—just not the kind of immunity that protects millions of ordinary Americans. 

McConnell wanted to trade billions in federal relief spending only on the condition that the Democrats gifted the GOP with a promise of "corporate immunity" a scheme to save big business billions by ignoring the safety and suffering of workers, customers, and clients. Instead of requiring business to take steps to protect the health and welfare if its employees, the McConnell plan would let Corporate America continue to put the lives of its workers at risk without having to face any legal or financial constraints. The McConnell plan would also ignore state and local funding to support teachers and first-responders. McConnell has repeatedly rejected a new round of relief checks support to individuals and families. 

All this political perfidy begs a question: "Is there any chance Pfizer could come up with a vaccine that could inoculate people like McConnell and make them immune to greed and profiteering?" 

How Trump Profited from the Pandemic 

Why did Trump so flippantly dismiss the threat of the coronavirus, even as the deadly reach of the virus became increasingly evident? Did Trump perceive an opportunity to personally profit from the spreading contagion? An investigation of Small Business Administration loans has disclosed that the major beneficiaries of government aid were not small businesses but large businesses. The SBA's taxpayer-funded bailout included $3.65 million in Payback Protection Program funds sent to properties owned by Donald Trump and Jared Kushner. 

According to an NBC investigation (which required a federal lawsuit to compel the government to comply with the Freedom of Information Act), we now know that the SBA mislead the public when it claimed that 87% of its loans went to small businesses. In fact, NBC revealed, more than half of the $522 billion in SBA relief checks were written to 600 large businesses and corporations, including "more than 25 PPP loans [that] were given to . . . businesses owned either by the Trump Organization or Kushner Companies." 

One $2.14 million loan was handed over to the Trump International Hotel in New York. Two unidentified Trump Tower tenants each received a $100,000 SBA check while four tenants of a Kushner-owned Manhattan property were awarded checks totaling $816,000. The checks were meant to save jobs for scores of small business employees. So how many jobs were saved by this $1 million-plus Trump/Kushner bailout? Nine. Nine jobs. 

Also benefitting from the spread of Covid-19-driven checks: White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany's parents, whose Florida roofing firm received a $2 million check from the SBA. 

Trump's Threat to Torpedo the Pentagon 

The Daily Kos recently ran a story with this great lead sentence: "Impeached two-time popular vote sore loser Donald Trump apparently can't get enough of the losing." 

The article went on to note how Trump—despite seeing his legal team strike out on 53 different court cases contending that the presidential election was "rigged"—seems determined to fully sully his reputation by threatening to veto the National Defense Authorization Act — the holiest piece of legislation in the chapel of the Military Industrial Complex. 

So why is our Commander-in-Chief threatening to starve the "brave troops" who supposedly "protect America from attacks" (presumably by repeatedly attacking dozens of other nations on an ongoing basis)? 

The answer: Because Twitter is being mean to him. 

Yep. Trump's gripe is with the section of the Communications Decency Act that allows Twitter to post warnings on his White House Tweets whenever they contain falsehoods, fantasies, fictions, and random fascist follies. Trump is the kind of leader who would put the entire nation's security at risk in order to maintain the personal security of his petty, petulant tweet-storms. 

As the Kos put it: "calling a lie a lie is a bridge too far for a man whose primary mode of communication is lying." 

Trump Is Out to Kill. Literally 

Public Citizen notes that, over the past half-century, the federal government has only executed only three people. That ended in July 2020, when Trump's personal lawyer, US Attorney General William Barr, unilaterally quashed a 17-year ban on federal executions. 

Trump appears ready and willing to revive the federal death penalty. In the past few months since, Trump has signed off on the state-imposed murder of eight people. 

According to Public Citizen, the most recent execution, in mid-November, marked "the first execution carried out by a lame-duck administration in over 100 years." 

Trump and Barr have also endorsed the return of firing squads, electrocutions, and gas chambers. 

And "most sickeningly of all," Public Citizen notes, "Trump and Barr are trying to rush through five more executions before Trump leaves office. Four of the five people Donald Trump wants to execute while he still can are Black." 

As the BBC observes, Trump's killing spree will mark him as "the most prolific execution president in modern history." 

Public Citizen has posted the following plea: "We have to stop Donald Trump and William Barr from carrying out their vile, racist intentions to rush through more executions before Trump leaves office. Add your name now." 

This Just Might Be "The Ultimate Compassion Test" 

CODEPINK and Women for Peace & Justice are circulating a petition designed to spare Lisa Montgomery—a lifelong victim of cruelty and violence—from Trump's execution orders. 

According to the petition, Lisa Montgomery suffered through a childhood of "cruelty from mother, father, friends, strangers, via physical and sexual abuse, repeated rape by father and husband and gang rape and sex trafficking by her mother" and became “profoundly mentally ill” as a result. 

Montgomery's plight has been featured on Democracy Now! and even inspired a musical tribute called "Lisa's Song." 

Lisa Montgomery was set to be executed in December but her date of execution was postponed to January 12. 

Her supporters are asking people to undertake a simple act. "Write to Lisa!" 

Lisa's lawyer, Sandra Babcock, explains: "We are hoping that Lisa receives hundreds of messages for the holidays. The other great thing is that the prison copies all of her correspondence, so they will have to copy hundreds of well-wishes for Lisa. The prison will then likely send them to the Government, so the Government will see how many supporters she has.” 

Another benefit: "Lisa will finally receive, via the letters, overwhelming love and nurturing by many. This can only give her a bit of healing and comforting that she has been deprived of for too long." 

No cards, postcards, drawings allowed: Only words. Letters can be mailed to: 

Lisa Montgomery, #11072 - 031 

Federal Medical Center - Carswell 

Ft. Worth, Texas 76127  

Now for the compassion test: Why is Lisa on death row? Because, in her mentally damaged state, she strangled and murdered a pregnant woman and then used a knife in an attempt to steal the unborn child. 

That's your choice. You can take action or not. It's a personal decision. If your compassion permits, here's the petition to stop Lisa's execution. 

What To Do about Uncle Sam 

Matt Wuerker, one of our favorite progressive political cartoonists, has taken on a revolutionary challenge—revising (or replacing) the character known as Uncle Sam. 

Wuerker recently found himself wondering if "a tall, skinny, old white guy" is the best image to characterize 21^st Century America. 

For generations, Uncle Sam has been associated with overseas military adventures and empire-building—and look at how that played out. Wuerler believes it's long past time to ditch the guy with the top-hat, stripped pants, and 18^th century goat's beard. 

So Wuerker has joined forces with Politico to undertake a "reimagining" of a 19^th century icon who has grown long-in-the-tooth. Politico has begun producing a limited-run “Punchlines” series to explore different ideas on how to renovate—or retire—Star Spangled Sam. You can watch the teaser video for the series here. Politico promises to have the resulting episodes ready for broadcast during inauguration week. 

Here's one suggestion: Replace Uncle Sam with Aunt Em—that's "em" as in Mother, Matriarch, Miracle-worker. A Rosie the Riveter for the modern era—a visionary, a caretaker, a first-responder, and a doer-of-good. She can wear a dress, a smock, or dungarees as the situation warrants and I'm fine with the tradition of a costume that's distinguished with red-and-white stripes and five-pointed stars on a field of blue. 

We could call the result our "Star-spangled Aunt Em." 

Barbara Lee Wins the First Annual Quincy Award 

On December 4, the first ever Quincy Institute Award for Responsible Statecraft was presented to U.S. Representative Barbara Lee "for her advancement of ideas that move U.S. foreign policy away from endless war and toward vigorous diplomacy in the pursuit of international peace." 

Outside the Bay Area, Rep. Lee is best known for her solitary vote against the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) that was supposedly aimed at targeting the terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks. Instead, the AUMF was used to commence a "Global War on Terrorism" that has, to date, initiated US-backed "Forever Wars" in at least 19 countries around the world. 

The award was presented in a virtual ceremony that featured a conversation between Rep. Lee and Quincy Institute President Andrew Bacevich—with comments from Lee's colleagues and allies in the struggle "to end endless wars." Here is the video of the event. 

Nuclear Bombs Become Illegal in 2021 

On January 22, the world will celebrate the activation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). 

On this historic day, the International Peace Bureau is inviting friends and all peace lovers to "celebrate this historical step and deliver this great news with noise and fun in your countries all across the globe, as the road to a world free of nuclear weapons is now wide open!" 

The IPB is planning a virtual Zoom party to celebrate the "generations of activists that have tirelessly raised awareness about the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945." 

"You can look forward to drinking one (or many) of our delicious signature TPNW cocktails in the company of fellow supporters of peace and disarmament. We have a couple of surprise virtual guests and activities prepared." 

You can attend by signing up to the event here: https://bit.ly/ipbprt 

The January 22 party will start at 1 PM Central European Time and runs until 3 PM CET. (You might want to exchange those cocktails for a strong cup of coffee since the event will be taking place from 4-6 AM local time.) 

Go Big, Joe 

In a recent article that appeared in The Hill, MoveOn Political Action organizer Rahna Epting urged our President-elect to "Go Big Joe!"
Epting's message was clear: "President-elect Biden needs a bold, ambitious agenda to meet the deep challenges of our time, and he'll need a strong, progressive, grassroots movement at his back to get it done. That's where we come in." 

Epting noted that "Solutions to the pandemic, expanded access to health care, clean-energy jobs, criminal justice reform, and other progressive approaches to governance don’t just help people, they’re also wildly popular. They are what the voters are demanding. . . . 

"[W]e can't go back to the pre-Trump status quo. America has never worked for all of us, so this is our chance to rebuild by building power for the people instead of corporations and the wealthy." 

To promote the message, MoveOn is running the following TV ad in the District: 

78 Peace Heroes Who Voted Against the Pentagon 

On December 8, Congress voted on H.R. 6395, the House version of National Defense Authorization Act. Typically, a vote on funding the Pentagon passes with near-unanimity. Not so this year. 

According to House Roll Call 238, 78 Representatives cast a "Nay" vote for passing the Pentagon's $740 billion budget. The bill was supported by 140 Republicans and 195 Democrats. More Republicans (40) voted against the massive spending bill than Democrats (37) 

Only seven California Reps (highlighted in bold) had the courage to vote against the Military's Billions. The dissidents included Bay Area Congresswoman Barbara Lee. 

Here Is the List of House War Resisters 

Justin Amash [I] Michigan 

Brian Babin [R] Texas 

Nanette Diaz Barragán [D] California 

Andy Biggs [R] Arizona 

Dan Bishop [R] North Carolina 

Earl Blumenauer [D] Oregon 

Suzanne Bonamici [D] Oregon 

Brendan Boyle [D] Pennsylvania 

Ken Buck [R] Colorado 

Ted Budd [R] North Carolina 

Tim Burchett [R] Tennessee 

Judy Chu [D] California 

Yvette Clark [D] New York 

Michael Cloud [R] Texas 

Warren Davisdon [R] Ohio 

Diana DeGette [D] Colorado 

Mark DeSaulnier [D] California 

Michael F. Doyle [D] Pennsylvania 

Jeff Duncan [R] South Carolina 

Adriano Espaillat [D] New York 

Russ Fulcher [R] Idaho 

Tulsi Gabbard [D] Hawaii 

Jesus Garcia [D] Illinois 

Louis Gohmert [D] Texas 

Lance Gooden [R] Texas 

Paul Gosar [R] Arizona 

Morgan Griffith [R] Virginia 

Andy Harris [R] Maryland 

Jody Hice [R] Georgia 

Clay Higgins [R] Louisiana 

Jared Huffman [D] California 

Pramila Jayapal [D] Washington 

Jim Jordan [R] Ohio 

Joe Kennedy [D] Massachusetts 

Ro Khanna [D] California 

Dan Kildee [D] Michigan 

Barbara Lee [D] California 

Andy Levin [D] Michigan 

Billy Long [R] Missouri 

Carolyn B. Maloney [D] New York 

Massie [R] Kentucky 

Brian Mast [R] Florida 

Tom McClintock [R] California 

Jim McGovern [D] Massachusetts 

Grace Meng [D] New York 

Alex Mooney [R] West Virginia 

Gwen Moore [D] Wisconsin 

Jerry Nadler [D] New York 

Joe Neguse [D] Colorado 

Norman [R] South Carolina 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [D] New York 

Ilhan Oman [D] Minnesota 

Greg Pence [R] Indiana 

Scott Perry [R] Pennsylvania 

Mark Pocan [D] Wisconsin 

Bill Posey [R] Florida 

Jamie Raskin [D] Maryland 

Tom Rice [R] South Carolina 

David Rouzer [R] North Carolina 

Chip Roy [R] Texas 

Steve Scalise [R] Louisiana 

Jan Schakowsky [D] Illinois 

David Schweikert [R] Arizona 

José Serrano [D] New York 

Jason Smith [R] Missouri 

Adrian Smith [R] Nebraska 

Tom Tiffany [R] Wisconsin 

Rashida Tlaib [D] Michigan 

Nydia Velázquez [D] New York 

Watson Coleman [D] New Jersey 

Peter Welch [D] Vermont 

Ted Yoho [R] Florida 

"Senate Seats" by The Founders' Sing 

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