Columns

Inflation Hits My Cereal Bowl

Over the past month, the cost of our weekly shopping trips to Trader Joe's has doubled. This means cutting back on purchases. And this means starting to run out of meals and munchies around mid-week. And this means trying to fill my breakfast bowl and dinner plates with whatever leftovers I can manage to scrape together.

The scramble for scraps has led to some interesting ad hoc combos. A few nights ago, I experienced my first helping of "pizza soup." For breakfast, I had a bowl of granola and peanuts. When I ran out of nonfat milk, I grabbed the last remnants in a carton of chocolate milk and had my first steaming cup of choco-chai. I drew the line when I ran out of jam and was forced to consider making a peanut-butter and jellybean sandwich.

Trump Throws Tantrums—and Dinner Plates

Cassidy Hutchinson's mesmerizing June 28 testimony before the January 6 investigating committee revealed some tantalizing news about the Ocher Ogre. 

When told that some of the hoi polloi and riff-raff Trump invited to DC had arrived armed with AR-15s, knives, bear spray, and other tools of minor-to-mass destruction, he actually sprang into action. Yep, he ordered the removal of metal detectors lest they decrease the size of his adoring mob. 

Hutchinson recalled several Oval Office incidents where Trump expressed his anger by ripping the cloth off a White House dinner table, spilling food, dishes, drinks and utensils to the floor. On other occasions, a fuming Trump flung his food plates in anger, leaving broken shards on the floor and "catsup stains" on the wall. 

These reports would appear to confirm one of the ex-reality-show-host's glitchy personality traits. The catsupy evidence is in: Trump's favorite cuisine continues to be burgers and fries. 

Stamp Out Savings 

In late May, a packet from the USPS arrived in my PO box. It was a pitch to "instantly print official USPS-approved postage for any amount or mail class" by simply logging on to www.stamps.com and creating stamps on a home or office printer. The envelope included a page of nine pre-printed stamps ready to peel off and apply—pending a quick run through a printer to add user authentication codes. This gift of "starter stamps" would be worth $5.22 in postage. 

The offer expired on June 30 but I lost interest when I read some small type on a separate sheet that revealed how activating the 9 stamps required signing up for "all the services of the Post Office for just $17.99 a month." That comes to $215.88 a year, meaning each of those 9 "free" stamps would cost a postal customer about $24 each. 

A Tax on Home Solar Energy = Attacks on Home Solar 

Covering rooftops with solar panels is an effective way to address the growing stress of climate chaos. As global temperatures continue to rise, there's some hope to be had in knowing that you can use the sun's heat to run your home's air conditioners. But Big Oil and Big Energy interests aren't pleased about the growing transition towards energy independence. California has been a leader in the move to a Green Energy Future. So, naturally, California is now being targeted by the Pollution Profiteers who have launched a campaign to demonize self-reliant, solar-powered homeowners as "grid defectors" and demand that they be subjected to punitive taxation. 

According to the Alliance for Democracy, the country's big-time energy empires are "proposing a tax designed to raise the cost of installation and discourage homeowners and builders alike from making the switch to solar." For more details on this power-plot, you can check out the discussion between Dave Rosenfeld, the Executive Director of the Solar Rights Alliance, and Loretta Lynch, the former president of California's Public Utility Commission (available for listening or downloading at this link.) 

Pentagon Panics as Recruitment Plummets 

Every branch of the US military is struggling to meet recruitment goals. The Army has only met 40% of its recruitment goals this year and a recent Pentagon survey found only 9% of eligible Americans had any interest in enlisting. 

In a desperate bid to expand enrollment, the Pentagon dropped its ban on recruits sporting visible tattoos and halted its requirement that recruits had to produce a high school diploma or a GED certificate. (Pentagon brass recently reversed the plan to raise recruitment by lowering academic skills.) 

Meanwhile, Congress is doing its part to fill the Pentagon's ranks by pushing legislation to require young women to register for compulsory military service—in the name of "equal rights." 

Bad idea, say the activists at World BEYOND War. If Congress wants to promote gender equality, let's end the draft for both young men and young women. It's bad enough that the Supreme Court has overruled a woman's "right to chose." We don't need the Pentagon to start drafting teenage girls. But, at this moment in history, we're living in a country where the following rules are struggling to dominate:
SCOTUS to Women: Bear Children!
Pentagon to Women: Bear Arms! 

#NoWar2022: Opting Out of Militarism 

Service for Shelter 

In a cost-cutting move, San Francisco recently began ending funds for inner-city health and safety programs. At the same time, critics are complaining of the cost of programs to house the homeless in empty hotel rooms. Here's a thought: how about offering part-time volunteer employment to participants entering the City's various shelter programs. Any willing, city-sheltered individual who is physically and mentally capable could be offered training in street maintenance, sanitation work, and health support activities that are currently being eliminated. A few days of work each week in exchange for access to free/subsidized housing might be a win-win proposition. 

Just a Thought 

Most of my daily mail consists of solicitations from nonprofits. Most of these solicitations include "free gifts" (a redundancy) that typically include personalized address stickers and the occasional pocket-sized notepad. 

But a Native American college has come up with a different—and more Earth-friendly—gift: A packet of seeds. The seed packets weigh less than a cover letter and take up less space than a poker card. We planted the contents of our seed packet and already have a nice row of basil plants flourishing in the backyard garden. So this is my message to the nonprofit community: Nix the stickers and opt for crops. 

Supreme Irresponsibility: Abort the Court 

The US Supreme Court appears to have morphed into a stand-alone enforcer of a stridently right-wing/corporate social/gender/industrial dictatorship. Women are under judicial assault and, if Clarence Thomas has anything to say about it, the LGBTQ community may soon face court-ordered restrictions. Educators will be told what history can-or-can't be shared with students. And the environment will continue to be pillaged for profit as the planet's ecosystems collapse and crumble. 

In a demoralizing ruling on June 30 (West Virginia v. EPA), SCOTUS struck down the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. 

According to May Boeve, Executive Director of 350.org: "The Supreme Court sided with the fossil fuel industry to strip the EPA of the power to do its job: protecting the environment and our communities from a growing climate crisis. 

By limiting the EPA’s authority to regulate pollution from the energy sector, which accounts for a quarter of the US emissions that are contributing to climate change, the Supreme Court is putting our environment, our climate, and our health in danger." 

So what can we do when faced with "an anti-regulatory Supreme Court that is in the pockets of industry"? Fortunately, there's hope, and 350.org argues it lies in President Biden’s ability to honor his climate-protection promises through executive action "by declaring a climate emergency, stopping the federal approval of all new fossil fuel projects that are harming our communities and fueling climate chaos, and accelerating a just, clean, and renewable energy transition." 

As Boeve notes: "Biden followed through on our movement's demand to use the Defense Production Act to boost renewable energy manufacturing under the guidance of workers, environmental justice communities, and other impacted people. The time for executive action on climate is now — we have no more time to waste." 

Roe v. Wade, Corporate Democrats, and the Filibuster 

Our Revolution writes: "Democrats had decades to codify abortion rights, and now we see the consequences of their failure. As Bernie Sanders says, they can still save abortion rights by ending the filibuster and passing legislation. 

Here’s what the media won’t tell you: this will NOT happen because corporate Democrats have been told to protect the filibuster as a useful tool for corporations to crush any pro-worker legislation that would threaten their profits." 

The White House invokes God to Support War 

An anti-war colleague recently shared the contents of a letter she received from the Oval Office. It came with her comment: "This is the disgusting response I got from the White House when I wrote to them to cool things with Ukraine!!" 

Biden's statement read, in part: 

"The prayers of the world are with the brave and proud people of Ukraine…. Throughout our history, we’ve learned this lesson: when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos." 

[Note: The letter contained no mention of Washington's own (and much longer) history of aggressions—most recently in Vietnam, Laos, Panama, Serbia, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan….] 

The letter continued: "With extraordinary unity and resolve, the world is clearly choosing the side of peace and security." Choosing "peace" by sending billions of dollars to keep the war machine belching across Eastern Ukraine? By announcing a 650% increase in the size of NATO's armed forces? By risking nuclear war with Russia? By provoking China with RIMPAC, the South Pacific's largest naval exercise in history? 

The letter concluded with the following: 

"May God bless the people of a free and democratic Ukraine, and may God protect our troops." (What? Do we have troops on the ground in Ukraine?) 

Comments from other peace activists quickly followed. One leading US-based peace activist countered: "If he's got God blessing Ukrainians and Our Troops why doesn't he just ask God to smite Putin?" 

And this, from a Ukrainian peace activist in Kyiv:
"Let's think (theo)logically. I can't understand Joe Biden unless he thinks that President Vladimir Putin doesn't belong to our worldly world. And if Putin is some sort of god or devil, he is probably immortal and couldn't be smited by God. I don't know if it makes any sense, but it seems like a genuine theology of war, i.e. bullshit." 

Prepping for Berkeley's Ballot Boxing Match 

The first day for Berkeleyans to file papers to run for public office is July 18. Nominations close on Friday, August 12. According to the City's online scoreboard, the seats that are up for grabs this year include the City Auditor, Rent Board Commissioners, School Board Directors, and City Council Districts 1, 4, 7 and 8. 

All four districts are ablaze with civic angst with plans for yet more high-rise apartment towers metastasizing from District 4 and spreading to the BART parking lot at the North Berkeley station in District 1 as well as the Ashby BART lot in District 8. Meanwhile, the University continues to push its unpopular plan to impose additional high-rise development on the sacred soil of Peoples' Park. 

There are plenty of political battles to be contested in the months ahead. This is the time for progressive reformers to consider running for office.