Columns

Why Is KCBS Trumpeting Trumpism?

On August 24, KCBS news radio aired a disturbing new commercial. Just before the station's "news on the half hour" the announcement rang out loud and clear: We should all tune in to Newsmax, the recorded voice urged. Why? Because "President Donald Trump says: 'They're really great!'"

While the ad avoided naming any of the network's ultra-conservative content providers, it's a matter of record that Newsmax hosts a biggly number of ex-Trump staffers. Former One America News (OAN) conspiracy-pusher Jenn Pellegrino now shares a Newsmax mic with Steve Cortes, formerly a senior advisor with Trump's failed election campaign. And, whenever Trump misses his old pal and former press-hating press secretary Sean Spicer, all he needs do is flip his dial to "Spicer & Co" on Newsmax.

Newsmax ranks to the right of its nearest competitor, Fox News, and has hired a number of on-air talents from the Fox News stable. Newsmax's Christopher Ruddy, the company's Owner and Editor, is a conservative with an estimated net worth of $100 million. Back in his days at the New York Post, Ruddy promoted the conspiracy tale that White House counsel Vincent Foster was murdered by the Clintons. A profile in the New York Times called Ruddy "the most audacious media entrepreneur of the Trump election fantasy" and characterized Newsmax as "a pure vehicle for Trumpism" and "the home of alternate reality."

Initial attempts to reach KCBS for comment were fruitless. Requests for comment were forwarded to unnamed individuals who never answered. In one case, a recorded message announced: "4113 does not subscribe to this service. Please, try again later. Goodbye." 

I finally sent KCBS an email message and spoke with a colleague at the station who offered to look into the quandary. As of press time, I've failed to receive any response.  

But (good news), the ad is no longer being broadcast. 

Happy Birthday! Prepare to Die! 

There was a birthday card in my mail. The cover depicted a jolly image of colorful balloons floating in a clean blue sky. It was from my doctor who wanted to celebrate the "milestone" and make sure I was staying active "for just 30 minutes 5 days a week" and might even be "walking, gardening, stretching, or dancing. Anything that gets you moving is great!" 

Also recommended for maintaining "emotional well-being": "breathing exercises and meditation" and "finding ways to stay connected with loved ones, friends, and neighbors." 

There was one other suggestion, however, that was tailor-suited to my age group: "Complete an Advance Health Care Directive." The AHCD is part of a Life Care Planning program that establishes a "durable power of attorney" that can be put to use "if there's a time in the future when you can't speak." 

No matter how practical and well-intentioned, that particular birthday greeting left me speechless. 

Karmic Strips 

It's rare that a comic strip triggers a sudden, unexpected reordering of the known universe but that was the case with the August 28 episode of Sherman's Lagoon, J. P. Toomey's commentary on social relations as seen through the eyes of a dim-witted shark and his crabby aquatic friends. 

In the Tuesday strip, Sherman shares a news-bite with a dolphin: "Fillmore tells me you dolphins have personality traits similar to humans." The dolphin's response left me plop-dazed: "Well," the sea-mammal replies, "We were here first, so THEY would be similar to US." 

If dolphins pre-date the Dawn of Man, might they bear some responsibility for socially disruptive human character traits? Are some dolphins compassionate and selfless while others are greedy and self-serving? Can a dolphin be a narcissistic blowhard? (I'm trying to image Trump with fins.) 

War and God: Cast from the Same Mold? 

David Swanson, the Executive Director of World BEYOND War, recently wrote an essay titled: "War: Ever More Present and Absent" in which he mused:
"in the United States, war and militarism—or some weird shadow of them—are everywhere: endless thank yous ["for your service"], special parking places and airplane boarding, endless recruitment ads and weapons ads, countless movies and television shows. War is relentlessly normalized. And, oddly, the ubiquity of war celebration has made war so unquestionable that there are few objections when war is not mentioned—even on occasions when it should be." 

These observations on the normalization of war prompted the following thoughts:
War is like God: omnipresent but invisible; to be worshipped without question or doubt; viewed as sacred and everlasting; deserving of obedience and sacrifice; promising privilege for those who serve; offering the figment of "life everlasting" for those who commit murder in the here-and-now; a force with a record of planet-wide destruction that includes eradication by Flood and the ultimate threat of a nuclear "Fire Next Time." 

Trump Faces De-parkification 

New Yorkers have proposed a new form of rebuke to rebuff the Orange Orangutan. "He stomped all over our Constitution, incited an insurrection, and made our country the laughing stock of the world," the Democratic Leadership team argues, so why should there be a state park that bears his name? 

The Trump-Thumpers have proposed that the DJT State Park in New York State be renamed "in honor of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg." The rationale is simple: "Trump tried to erase her legacy as soon as she passed by rushing to replace her" and renaming the site after Ginsburg would not only "honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s amazing legacy" but it also would "make Trump furious!"  

Two Years of Accomplishments in Two Minutes  

At the end of 2020, New York's irrepressible Democratic Congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, decided to go online and list her accomplishments for the previous year. Her stated goal was to wrap up the recap in two minutes of YouTube time. But this turned out to be one of those rare tasks that AOC couldn't accomplish—instead of a two-minute recap, it took more than four minutes to list most of her major initiatives, campaigns, and victories. 

AOC may be on to something here. Perhaps Washington would be more productive if every Congressmember and Senator had to sit in front of a camera at year's end and recite a list of their most impressive achievements. 

We Had WATERGATE: Now It's Time for the WARGATE Hearings 

The current events in Afghanistan prove, once again, that US military intervention does not secure peace. 

Proposal: Call for Congressional Hearings into the Afghanistan Debacle—and Pentagon's History of Waste and Failure. 

Don't scapegoat Biden for the Afghanistan debacle. Look beyond the last few weeks of the US occupation. Identify the forces that are really responsible for decades of death, destruction, and deceit—the Pentagon and the apparatus of the American Empire. 

This latest failed war should raise the question: 

If War doesn't WORK, why do we keep EMPLOYING it? 

The answer: Powerful corporate interests profit off war. 

Pentagon strategies are designed to maintain a global empire—while millions of American families struggle with poverty. 

The evidence is clear: "Military intelligence" is a contradiction in terms. 

It's time to stop firing rifles and missiles and start firing admirals and generals. 

How about inviting all US peace/progressive/social justice/environmental/humanitarian groups/movements/think-tanks to issue a joint statement demanding a Congressional investigation into the real history of the US military's record of war crimes and mission failures? 

A WARGATE Commission could expose what America's wars have cost the US and the world. And document how the country has been repeatedly "lied into war." 

We need to challenge the Military-Industrial-Complex (MIC), which is on track to promote new clashes with China, Russia, and North Korea. 

We could call for the military to be down-funded and repurposed "to protect the US homeland" from the devastating impacts of climate change. Our soldiers could swap their rifles for shovels and howitzers for hoes to promote restoration instead of devastation. China's soldiers have planted 66 billion trees and China has begun building ingenious "sponge cities" to withstand floods and drought. 

Desperately needed: A foreign policy model that is based on global Cooperation, not imperial Competition. 

The final key question: How many members of the current Congress would support such a Truth Commission? 

CBS Mocks the MIC 

One of the country's major TV networks has dared to record a "send-up/take-down" of Washington's all-powerful-and-seldom-mentioned Military-Industrial-Complex. In the following cartoon lampoon of mainstream news feeds (part of an ongoing series titled "Tooning Out the News" hosted by Stephen Colbert's Late Show), a Pentagon fighter jet speaks up to make the case for maintaining Afghanistan's status as a "forever war." 

As Climate Changes, Will Our Language Change Along With It? 

The global eco-group World’s Youth for Climate Justice recently issued a major report titled: "Human Rights in the Face of the Climate Crisis: A Youth-led Initiative to Bring Climate Justice to the International Court of Justice."  

"The human rights of people living in communities on the frontline of the climate crisis are already being impacted, and violated today," the report observes. "Despite these efforts, global society continues to implement sustainable solutions at no more than a glacial pace." 

A "glacial pace"? The relevance of that time-honored phrase has evaporated thanks to rising temperatures. With Greenland's glaciers melting into the sea as snowflakes turn into rain (for the first time in recorded history), the phrase "glacial pace" no longer applies as a description of slow, imperceptible progress. 

Climate change has become so erratic that we may need to start rebuilding our language. How many other weather-related phrases might be at risk? Michael Bublé may no longer be singing "Kiss me on this cold December night" and there would be no more concerns about Hell freezing over. 

The Seaspiracy Conspiracy 

On my Sunday morning run through Live Oak Park, I discovered a message repeatedly stenciled on the park's asphalt path. It read: "Seaspiracy. Netflix." After my jog, I grabbed my laptop to investigate. 

Seaspiracy turns out to be a documentary featuring a dramatic compilation of bad news about the exploitation of the planet's polluted, dying oceans. Here's the trailer: 

Seaspiracy examines the global fishing industry, challenging notions of sustainable fishing and showing how human actions cause widespread environmental destruction. 

Watching the trailer, I was stunned when an unidentified speaker complained: "Where are all the big environmental groups? They are deliberately not engaging with the most important issue of all." 

This is a manifestly false accusation. How can anyone ignore the decades of global confrontations staged by Greenpeace campaigners, Sea Shepherd activists, or the foundational efforts of Berkeley-based Earth Island Institute, whose International Marine Mammal Project shocked and galvanized the world by covertly filming the deaths of dolphins in commercial fishing nets. 

The filmmakers apparently hold a hyper-vegan view that, quite rightly, sees consumption of fish, fowl, and livestock is an unsustainable practice. By that measure, however, green groups that try to create "sustainable" fishing or farming practices are to be targeted as sell-outs or, worse, complicit. 

In an extensive on-line rebuttal, Earth Island debunks the documentary's false statements and accuses the filmmakers of manipulating quotes and taking statements out of context. Similar complaints have been lodged by other environmental activists who were interviewed for the documentary. 

China Takes Delight in Outperforming the US 

China's government-directed Dongsheng News is eagerly dishing out weekly reminders that China is taking the lead in global productivity, financial growth, and geopolitical influence. 

Dongsheng recently cited a ChinAfrica report boasting that "museum culture thrives in China." To say the least! According to the dispatch, in the five years from 2016 to 2020, "an average of one museum was opened every two days (totaling 5,788); despite the pandemic, last year's 29,000 exhibitions and 225,000 educational activities received 540 million visitors." Stick that in your Guggenheim and smoke it, America!
And, when it comes to addressing climate change, China's got a Green Thumb program that puts the US Bureau of Land Management to shame. According to Dongsheng: "China plans to plant 33.33 million hectares of forest and grassland by 2025 to achieve carbon neutrality goals. Having created the world's largest planted forests that increased coverage from 12% to 23% (1980s- 2020), China plans to further increase forests to 24.1%—including national parks (18% of land area)—and grasslands to 57% by 2025." 

Give It Away, Uncle Sam
Check out this protest song from Down Under journalist-and-rabble-rouser Caitlin Johnstone. Here is her introduction: 

I made this song for my dear darling Dad as a present for this coming Father's Day, which is held on the first Sunday in September in Australia. The words are his. They come from an impassioned poem he wrote from the depths of his guts when he heard the news that the pointless tragedy that was the US mission in Afghanistan had finally stuttered to an ignominious end. So this one is for all the boomer rebels who not only lit the spark, they maintain the rage to this day. 

Give It Away, Uncle Sam
Words by Graeme Johnstone
Video footage Wikipedia Creative Commons