Columns

Your Under-COVID Reporter

I got my second COVID jab last week and, unlike the uneventful first poke, this one knocked me out for two days with a fever, headache, sore muscles, fatigue, and vomiting. While I was in bed, drinking hot tea, I found myself remembering the long wait in line for the inoculation and reading all the small print on a sign-in sheet that included—among other details—a complete list of all the ingredients in the Moderna vaccine.

Most of the more-that-a-dozen ingredients involved were long, complex, and unfamiliar chemical names—e.g., 1,2-dimyristoyl-rac-glycero3-methoxypolyethylene glycol-2000. There were, however, some ingredients that I did recognize. How many other Moderna recipients noticed that their injections included (1) acetic acid (think "vinegar"), (2) sodium chloride (think "salt"), and (3) cholesterol (think "clogged arteries")? 

Once a Pun a Dream 

I recently had a dream where I was in a church and a unmasked pastor pointed to the image of a woman wearing a facemask in public and advised the congregation that: "Thy shalt not COVID thy neighbor's wife." 

That pun was so bad, it work me up. 

But it left me with a Ten Commandments question that had never occurred to me before. To wit: Why is it just "your neighbor's wife"? Why not your brother's wife, your boss's wife, your golfing partner's wife? Or simply, anyone's wife? And would it be OK to engage in coveting if you took care to exercise your philandering ways in someone else's neighborhood? 

Biden's Burden: He's Dropped His First Bomb 

Joe Biden just broke peacetime record: He bombed another country on just his 36th day in office. Instead of relying on diplomacy (as he repeatedly promised during his presidential campaign), Biden resorted to ballistics. 

By striking out against Iranian personnel inside Syria (two foreign nations that have not invaded, occupied, or bombed the US Homeland), Biden struck out on his promise to oversee an overseas foreign policy premised on dialogue, not diatribe. 

Biden's message came in the form of seven 500-pound bombs. From the initial videos available online (one including a targeted high-rise that prominently bore the name "Mercedes-Benz"), some of the bombs appeared to target a Syrian commercial district with civilian traffic and pedestrians visible on the streets during the nighttime strikes. Washington claimed the attack employed targetable "smart" bombs. (Note: While the Military Industrial Complex has gifted us with the phrase "smart bombs," the Mainstream Journalistic Complex has yet to introduce phrases like "mean bombs," "killer bombs," "body-blasters," or "child burners.") 

These attacks were conducted without consultation with Congress, raising the question: Is it too early to be reviving the debate over investigating impeachable acts? 

Meanwhile, the president has taken a lot of heat from the peace community (see the following two news items). 

• Biden Promises Diplomacy But Delivers Bombs (Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies at CODEPINK) 

• Biden Said ‘Diplomacy Is Back!’ Then He Started Dropping Bombs (Trita Parsi at The Guardian) 

The Whether Report 

Trying to determine whether the day will be sunny or cloudy can be a chancy matter, especially when the daily weather reports employ dicey language like "partly cloudy," "partly sunny," and "mixed sun and clouds." But what do you make of a forecast that predicts "breaking clouds"? 

When a cloud "breaks" wouldn't that be called a "cloudburst"? 

SNL: Socially Negligent Lampooning? 

In April 2020, Saturday Night Live broadcast an historic COVID-safe episode called "SNL at Home." The show was hosted by COVID-19 survivor Tom Hanks and all of the cast members appeared live but zooming in from safe, separate, remote locations. 

My, how times have changed. 

The latest February 27, 2021 edition of SNL began with a "cold open" that featured an impersonation of Dr. Anthony Fauci and ended with the entire cast and crew assembled onstage for a fully masked closing hug-fest. But, in between, viewers were treated to a series of sketches that involved cast members in up-close, face-to-face exchanges. 

Fauci and other members of the cautionary COVID community must have come close to fainting when a half-dozen of SNL's male cast members appeared in a "Bachelor Party," a pre-filmed sketch that featured extended and unmasked displays of full-throated male bonding worthy of a pre-pandemic Broadway musical. 

I can only hope Lorne Michaels is personally administering COVID testing. 

Twitter Jitters as CODEPINKer Suspended  

CODEPINK is seeing red after staff activist Ariel Gold's Twitter account was suspended. 

"Last week, on February 24, I woke up to find that Twitter had suspended my account," Gold writes. "Why? I have no idea, as Twitter has not provided me with any information despite my multiple appeals for an explanation and time frame for when my account will be reinstated/unsuspended. 

"For the past month, Twitter has been flagging my tweets and CODEPINK’s tweets for violating their rules. But what rules we have violated is mystifying. See all the details and flagged tweets here. 

"It’s not just CODEPINK: On February 23, 373 Twitter accounts associated with Armenia, Russia, and Iran were suspended. According to Twitter, a number of these suspensions were for “undermining faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.”  

ACTION: Sign a petition telling Twitter to reinstate Gold's account and stop targeting CODEPINK.  

Clashing Headlines 

The recently deposed Trump Dynasty liked to push the fake news that Black Lives protesters and left-wing Antifa rowdies posed the major threat of urban violence. But the Department of Homeland Security (and Trump's own FBI) warned that it was, in fact, white supremacist extremists who posed the "deadliest domestic terror threat to the United States." It turns out that flag-waving, pro-Trump extremists have killed more Americans than any other homegrown "terrorist threat." 

Fortunately, we have ranks of well-trained, sworn officers of the peace to protect our lives and defend human civility in the Homeland, right? 

Whoops! Slight problem. On March 3, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on a "website leak" that revealed how American Patriots Three Percent (a major anti-government militia) includes a significant number of members who happen to be "current and former military members, police and border patrol agents." 

So the ranks of the forces sworn to "protect and defend" America are populated by "sovereign citizens," Proud Boys, and Oathtakers who, as police officers, now enjoy improved access to the latest in weapons and training. 

Speaking of Terrorism 

More proof that the solution to violence is not more violence. Since Washington's declaration of the "Global War on Terror," acts of terrorism have only increased. In 2001, before the debut of the GWOT, there were 1,880 terror attacks worldwide. By 2015, the Cato Institute reports, the number of terror attacks topped 14,800. Fatalities worldwide also rose to unprecedented levels. In 2015, 38,422 people were killed by terrorism—a staggering 397 percent increase since the start of Washington's "War on Terror." 

During Barack Obama's two terms, Washington racked up a record number of foreign murders (including the controversial killing of several Americans—Anwar Nasser al-Awlaki, his 16-year-old son, and 8-year-old daughter. All killed in separate attacks). It used to be that the CIA would kill foreign targets secretly. During Obama's time in office, he became the first president to publicly order assassinations—and to take credit for it. As Obama reportedly told aides during the 2012 campaign: "Turns out I'm really good at killing people." 

In 2016, the White House released an "internal assessment" of the number of civilians murdered by the US in countries that were not US-designated "war zones." 

The Intercept reports: "According to the data, US drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya killed between 64 and 116 civilians during the two terms of the Obama administration—a fraction of even the most conservative estimates on drone-related killings catalogued by reporters and researchers over the same period." The true number of civilians murdered in these acts of state-sponsored terrorism remains unknown. 

What is known: Over the past 20 years, the GWOT has cost taxpayers "$6.4 trillion, killed 7,000 US soldiers, cost the lives of 335,000 innocent civilians, and turned 37 million people into refugees. Meanwhile the US Empire has built more than 800 military bases inside other countries and, in just the past three years, conducted military "counter-terrorism" activities in 85 foreign countries. 

Only Six Months of Prime Lobbying Time Remains 

Interesting note on lobbying from the Friends Committee on National Legislation's Washington Newsletter: According to the FCNL, there are only six more months of effective lobbying time left in 2021. Here's why: 

"The first eight months of 2020 will be critical to the success of any legislation that can pass in the 117^th Congress. By the end of this year, members of Congress will already be running for reelection. Substantive legislative change becomes much more difficult as partisan political posturing takes hold." 

Vote for the Vote: The For the People Act 

This week, the House voted to pass H.R.1, "the most sweeping, transformative democracy reform in generations." The For the People Act would:  

• Uphold the ideal of “one person, one vote.”
• Make it easier to vote. 

• Limit secret political spending (a.k.a. “dark money”).
• Tackle partisan and racist gerrymandering.
• Give everyday Americans a fighting chance to run for office thanks to a public financing system funded by penalties on corporate wrongdoers.
• Improve election security.
• Prevent foreign interference in elections.
• Confront the corrupting influence of billionaire money in politics. 

Green Party Targets a "Poison Pill" in H.R.1 

The Green Party has faulted a provision in H.R.1 that would raise the bar for third parties hoping to qualify for federal matching funds. H.R.1 would quintuple the qualifying threshold for presidential campaign matching funds from $5,000 raised in each of 20 states to $25,000 per state in 20 states. 

Green Party National Co-Chair Tony Ndege called the provision “a ‘poison pill’ for democracy and opposition parties like the Green Party. How can they call this bill ‘For The People’ when they are silencing alternative parties at a time when more people than ever are demanding more political choice?” As Green Party National Co-Chair Gloria Mattera points out: “In recent presidential elections, Greens have been the only candidates to participate in the primary matching funds program.” 

The Green Party complained that other problematic provisions in HR-1 would: 

• Abolish the general election campaign block grants parties may access by winning at least 5% of the vote in the previous presidential election
• Replace general election block grants for campaign expenses—a step backwards for public campaign finance reform. New qualifying rules appear designed to squeeze out alternative parties and independent candidates
• Eliminate limits on donations and expenditures candidates can receive and make
• Inflate the amount of money national party committees can give to candidates from $5000 to $100 million—an astonishing increase of 1999900% (that's nearly two-millionth percent)

• A Fair Representation Act to establish multi-seat, proportional representation for Congress by Ranked-choice Voting (RCV)
• State adoptions of RCV for presidential general elections
• Fully-public campaign finance for every federal, state and local office through the Clean Money/Clean Elections mode.

Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Brendan Boyle have introduced new legislation that would impose a wealth tax on households with a net worth of more than $50 million. The increased revenue would be used to fund priorities like childcare, health care, and jobs in our communities. 

Warren pointed out that: "Since the start of the COVID crisis, billionaire wealth has increased by 40 percent. Jeff Bezos alone has gotten $70 billion richer according to the Washington Post. But ten million Americans remain out of work and millions of families are struggling to keep a roof over their head and food on the table." 

Warren continues: "The tax system is so full of loopholes and special breaks that families in the top 0.1% pay about 3.2% of their wealth in taxes while the bottom 99% pay about 7.2% in taxes. The gap between the wealthiest and poorest Americans is wider than ever. And it's bigger when you factor in race: the 400 richest Americans own more wealth than all Black households plus a quarter of Latino households combined." 

And the economic crisis has only been exacerbated by the COVID crisis. Billionaire wealth now tops $4.2 trillion—40 percent higher than before the pandemic began—while growing numbers of American families have lost jobs and now face hunger and eviction.  

"We need to address the growing power of billionaires, corporations, and their lobbyists as they rig the system and rules in their favor," Warren says. "It's time for a wealth tax to make ultra-millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share." 

Warren has a petition that you can sign here: I support the proposed 2% wealth tax on the net worth of households between $50 million and $1 billion—3% for billionaire households—to help our nation Build Back Better. 

Spring Haiku from Bill Berkowitz 

Political pundit Bill Berkowitz is best known for his brisk and blistering political critiques but California's early burst of springtime weather has brought forth a sunny change in BB's truculent nature. Herewith, three haiku from Berkowitz's overflowing notebook:
Crocus Haiku 

They come once a year 

Even the cow is gobsmacked 

Welcome home Crocus 

A Ted Cruz Haiku
We are Cancun bound
Damn the frozen Texas folks
We prefer the warmth 

Limbaugh Gone
Bombastic hateful
Repulsive pompous toxic
Vile R. Limbaugh gone 

(OK. Only one haiku is certifiably sunny. But Cruz and Limbaugh both deserve the literary equivalent of a poetic "high coup.")