Columns

At Your Service: It's No Secret

Every president since Woodrow Wilson has been given a Secret Service code name. The best part of this practice is that the code names never remain secret. First ladies also get a Secret Identity. Here's a short list: JFK (Lancer), Jackie (Lace). LBJ (Volunteer), Lady Bird (Velvet). Nixon (Searchlight), Pat (Starlight). Ford (Passkey), Betty (Pinafore). Carter (Lockmaster or Deacon), Rosalynn (Lotus Petal or Dancer). Reagan (Rawhide), Nancy (Rainbow). GHWB (Timberwolf), Barbara (Snowbank). Clinton (Eagle), Hillary (Evergreen). GWB (Tumbler), Laura (Tempo). Obama (Renegade), Michelle (Renaissance). Trump (Mogul), Melania (Muse). Biden (Celtic), Jill (Capri).

Does it look like Trump may have insisted on choosing his own codeword? Had I been in charge of the Secret Service's secrets, I would have dubbed him "Agent Orange."

Does an Ex-Prince Still Earn Royalties?

Wondering about the status of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Harry and Megan are now residents of the US but, despite their breach with Britain's Royal Family, Harry is still referred to as "Prince Harry." (Protocol only requires that he forfeit being addressed as "Your Royal Highness.")

Harry's full name is His Royal Highness Henry Charles Albert David Duke of Sussex. Technically, he doesn't have an actual surname and "Harry" is a nickname. His given name is "Henry." During his childhood and his service in the British Army, he was known as "Harry Wales" (after his father, Charles, the Prince of Wales). He also could have used the names "Harry Montbatten-Windsor" or "Harry Sussex." Adding to the confusion, the couple's firstborn is named "Archie Harrison" (as in "Harry's son").

And here's another puzzle. When a prince becomes king, his wife becomes queen. But when Princess Elizabeth became Queen, her husband remained a Prince. Where's the equity? 

The Full Measure of Tomfoolery 

This just in: According to the Ministry of Arcane Measurements, it takes four nitwits to make a half-wit but it takes just two half-wits to make a total fool. 

QAnon: It's Worse than We Thought 

Chronic Inflation 

The San Francisco Chronicle recently sent out a notice that my subscription fee would be dropping from $154.70 to $103.20. Good news? Nope. 

When I took a closer look, I discovered the Chron's billing period has been reduced from 13 weeks to just 8 weeks. So that's a $1 increase for each billing period—or an extra $8 a year. The Chron's new billing statement also notes subscriptions can now "include up to eight premium editions per year," which will mean "an additional $6.00 in the billing period when the product publishes, and will result in shortening the length of your billing period." 

Furthermore, the Chron reveals it "is starting a separate transportation charge" for home delivery "in some cases, the transportation charges may exceed the advertised subscription price. In those cases, the transportation charges will be limited to the actual subscription cost." 

PG&E's Shoddy Power Pole Repair Draws Stares 

Last year, I filed a complaint with the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) pointing out that the power pole at the end of our block was leaning so badly that there was no slack left on some of the cables. The powerlines to one home were stretched so tight that it looked as if the powerlines were holding up the pole—instead of the other way around. 

The PUC agreed and ordered PG&E to replace the pole. 

On Tuesday, March 4, a repair crew arrived and chainsawed the old pole into several pieces for removal prior to installation of a new wooden pole. But instead of rewiring the mess of wires, cables and related gear from the old pole, the contractors simply saved the 8-foot-long section of the original pole with all the wiring attached and simply bolted the weathered leftover to the side of the new pole. 

What a time-saving move! It saved so much time that the work crew left shortly after 2PM instead of working from 9-5 as their posted street alerts read. 

So now we've got this unsightly remnant dangling overhead looking like a cross between a crucifixion and an electrocution. It's time for another letter to the PUC. 

Biden Proves He Really CARES 

Democrats in the House rightfully raised a happy chamber-rattling ruckus following passage of Joe Biden's massive economic relief package. It marked quite an accomplishment for the second month of the Biden-Harris Era. But the Workers World Party was in no mood for partying. 

According to the WWP, working families are bummed that the promised $15 minimum wage goal was knocked to the ground and extended unemployment benefits were whittled back from $400 to $300. The WWP justly groused that two-thirds of US workers are barely making ends meet while a handful of sticky-fingered billionaires have thrived during the COVID pandemic. In fact, the WWP grumbles, US billionaire wealth has increased by $1.3 trillion since the start of the pandemic while "the super rich increased their wealth by over 40%." 

This reminds me of the old platitude: "Trickle-down Economics will never work as long as there are a bunch of sponges at the top." 

Raise the Wage or Rise the Rage 

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) recently wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post that debunked the argument that wage hikes depress economic growth. Here's an excerpt: 

"Three years ago, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and I introduced the Stop Bezos Act, which would have forced large companies such as Amazon to repay the federal government for subsidizing their inadequate wages. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Establishment fearmongers insisted that if these companies paid a higher wage, they’d have to eliminate thousands of jobs. Instead, when Amazon raised its minimum wage to $15 in response to our legislation, competitors raised their wages as well, while Amazon saw record job growth, doubled its number of employees and pushed their market cap past $1 trillion." 

Banknote Footnote: In October 2020, the residents in Geneva, Switzerland, voted to raise the local minimum wage to $25 an hour. 

Introducing the Ultra-Wealth Tax 

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-PA) and Congresswomen Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) have introduced a bicameral share-the-wealth plan that's got the oligarchs trembling in their Gucci Horsebit Suede Loafers. 

Jayapal explains: "During this devastating pandemic, the rich have only gotten richer and the wealthy have watched their profits skyrocket. 46 new people have even become billionaires during COVID-19. It’s unacceptable to have a country where the ultra-wealthy are raking in millions while working people are suffering. But right now, the richest 1% own 35% of America’s wealth." 

The solution? The Jayapal-Warren Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act. 

"While this new tax would only impact the top 0.05% of households (if your net worth is below $50 million, you won’t pay a cent!), it would bring in $3 trillion over 10 years. That’s COVID relief, health care, infrastructure, education, transitioning to renewable energy, affordable housing, and so much more." 

The new law would narrow the racial wealth gap, help level the economic playing field, and ensure that the wealthiest finally begin to pay their fair share. For more information, click here. 

What Would Ike Do? Look What Ike Did!  

If you think the Jayapal-Warren Ultra-Wealth Tax is too rad, consider what the top tax bracket was during the Dwight Eisenhower presidency in the 1950s. Under Republican "Ike" Eisenhower, the tax rate on the top one percent of wealthiest Americans was a whopping 90 percent. (A historical fact that has given rise to a campaign button that reads: "I Like the IKE Hike. 90% for the Top 1%.") 

27 Progressive Dems Tempted by the Lure of War Bucks 

It's no secret that mounds of money work dark deeds in the halls of Congress. But imagine the shock of discovering that more than half of the 58-member-strong Democratic Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) had been caught taking campaign cash from the country's biggest weapons manufacturers. 

According to an investigation by the Security Policy Reform Institute, 27 card-carrying members of the CPC have been pocketing thousands of dollars while casting votes to ensure massive Pentagon spending on—among other things—weapons and death. 

A leading Big War company like Lockheed depends on renewal of Pentagon contracts for 70% of its yearly income. That explains, in part, how 17 Congressmembers were found to have accepted $20,000 or more from War Industry lobbyists between 2017-20. While seven of the solons soaked up six-figure sums, the list of Progressive Reps who danced with the Demon was topped by Adam Smith (D-WA), who racked up an eye-popping $749,985 in Big War gratuities. 

Naturally, the peace watchdoves at CODEPINK were aghast and quickly went to work calling out the pro-war regressives in the CPC who had supposedly sworn to "rein in bloated Pentagon spending." If you promise to fight Pentagon waste and then accept a campaign check from Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, and/or General Dynamics, you've got a "conflict of interest because you have an interest in conflict." And, sure enough, a study of voting records revealed that one-third of the Reps who were on Big War's payola wagon never cast a vote opposing Pentagon funding. On the other (cleaner) hand, CODEPINK saluted the nine CPC members who voted against Trump's National Defense Authorization Acts 100% of the time. These peace heroes are: Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Oman (D-MN), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). 

Think That's Bad? This Is Worse 

Three months ago, CODEPINK raised another cry after a report from the investigative website, Sludge, revealed that progressive Representative Ro Khanna's wife Ritu was heavily invested in the Pentagon's murder machine. Sludge revealed Mrs. Khanna "owns approximately $376,000 in stocks in Boeing, Honeywell, Huntington Ingalls, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and United Technologies." Despite his wife's pro-war portfolio. Rep. Khanna has consistently refused to support funding military action against Iran. 

The military currently consumes half of the nation's discretionary spending. The Pentagon's FY2021 appropriation nearly topped $700 billion. (The Center for International Policy has estimated that the actual total cost of all military-related spending in 2019 approached $1.254 trillion.) 

In an expose published on January 13, 2020, Sludge released the names of 51 members of Congress "and their spouses" whose investments in the War Industry's top 30 corporations ranged between $2.5 and $5.8 million. According to Sludge:" Eighteen members of Congress, combined, own as much as $760,000 worth of stock in Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defense contractor." 

According to Sludge, nearly a third of the members of the Senate Defense Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee "own stocks in top defense contractors." Members of the committee include Sen. Dianne Feinstein (whose millionaire spouse had $650,000 invested in Boeing) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (with $348,998 invested in Honeywell, Boeing, Raytheon, and United Technologies). Feinstein's office issued a response claiming that the senator "has no involvement in her husband's financial and business decisions." 

Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) have a solution: their Ban Conflicted Trading Act would forbid Congressmembers from buying, owning, or selling weapons industry stock and would ban them from serving on corporate boards. 

Sounds of Silence: The Fraught Future of Radio 

Is broadcast radio fated to go the way of print-journalism? Across the country, daily newspapers and weeklies have been resorting to major lay-offs to keep the lights on while television and Internet-based news providers siphon up the majority of the economy's advertising dollars. 

Now things are starting to look bleak for the future of radio. 

Who's to blame? Well, let's start with Tech Mogul and Social Disruptor Elon Musk. Back in 2017, rumors began circulating that Musk had plans to remove radio receivers from his Tesla EVs and offer a $2500 "infotainment upgrade" that would replace AM/FM and Sirius XM broadcasts with video streaming and Musk-approved content provided exclusively by something called the "Tesla Arcade." 

In a grim elegy titled "Technology, Tyranny and the End of Radio," Roger Lanctot, the associate director of Strategy Analytics Global Automotive, lamented: "Once again, Silicon Valley is asking us to surrender one thing in exchange for another. Yesterday it was our privacy. Today it is the radio. Tomorrow it will be our freedom." 

And so, on the 80^th anniversary of the FCC's licensing of KALW as the first FM station west of the Mississippi, Car and Driver confirms that the Tesla Model 3 no longer offers AM reception. (BMW removed AM radios from its 13 EV models in 2014.) 

The National Association of Broadcasters is alarmed by the growing possibility of a "radio-less future." 

Nevada Invites Corporations to Create Their Own Governments 

Disaster Strikes Northern Cal Media Building 

Last year, the founder of Reader Supported News wrote subscribers with the news that he had been twice forced to flee his home in the urban-wilderness-interface owing to a contagion of extreme wildfires. Ironically, the nearly scorched journalist's name happens to be … Marc Ash. 

This week, another note arrived from Ash, explaining that he was once again a climate-chaos refugee: 

[M]y home/office is in Northern California in a still-redwood-forested area. It’s beautiful, but it’s also risky. In addition to the now yearly wildfires that threaten the area, the forest itself can make living there hazardous. Last Friday night at around 10 pm, just after I had gone to bed, the top 1/3 of a large redwood tree snapped off in the wind and sent thousands of pounds of trunk and branches crashing down onto the roof of my house. Luckily, no chickens or humans were damaged when the tree fell. 

This memo was posted by RSN two days before a massive rainstorm pelted the region, compounding Ash's misery—as this follow-up message noted: 

The RSN HQ is being torn apart to save it due to extensive water damage. All the furniture was moved out and now the walls are being torn down. A demolition crew is on its way. According to an update from RSN: Managing Editor Angela Watters is going to be taking over the fundraising duties. Please give her your support. She’ll need all she can get." (As will Marc. Both can be reached at Reader Supported News, PO Box 2043, Citrus Heights, CA 95611.)