Public Comment

In the Footsteps of Sonny Barger

The recent news of the death of Hell's Angels founder Sonny Barger triggered a distant memory.

When I stood trial for the Free Speech Movement occupation of Sproul Hall in 1964, I was among those who refused probation—because it would have required that we not engage in political protests for a set period of time.

That precondition was clearly a denial of First Amendment rights, so myself and others opted to do time at Alameda County's Santa Rita prison. In my case, that meant I'd spend 25 days in jail but would emerge with the freedom to continue to demonstrate and agitate.

During my stretch at Santa Rita, I was assigned to work on an agricultural chain-gang—hoeing a field of sugar beets under a blazing, ear-burning sun and under the watchful glare of several deputies armed with shotguns.

We usually were trucked to the field in a small bus but sometimes, I'd find myself bouncing down a road in the back of a pick-up truck. On one of these jaunts, I decided to stand up in the open bed of the vehicle while leaning forward on the roof of the cab to steady myself.

That's when I happened to look down and notice a number of messages scratched on the vehicle's roof over the years. The most prominent message read: "Sonny Barger was here."

Where Do the Warmongers Frolic?

David Swanson, Executive Director of World BEOND War, recently authored a timely article titled: "The Hard Work of Creating a Last Resort War on Iran." It began with the following riddle:

"Where do all the Lockheed Martin executives vacation?"

The answer: "At the Last Resort!"

I couldn't resist replying with a related riddle.

Q: "How do you get to the Last Resort"?

A: "You make a hard right on the Lost Causeway." 

Manchin Fumes While the Earth Burns 

Joe Manchin is not just a senator from West Virginia. He also profits from a family-owned fossil fuel company that has made him a millionaire. For 18 months, Manchin has used his position as a key Democrat swing vote to whittle Joe Biden's keynote Build Back Better agenda down to a pitiful cup of toothpicks. 

Public Citizen has a message for Manchin and it comes in the form of a petition that reads: "Your decision — right now — will literally affect all humanity for generations to come. We urge you to reconsider your abandonment of what was left of Build Back Better’s climate and energy proposals (which had already been scaled back multiple times to satisfy YOU). We are begging you. Humanity is begging you. Do you hear?" 

Abby Martin Riffs on Abolishing the Supreme Court 

Whistleblower Edward Snowden writes: "Every time I hear her, I am reminded @AbbyMartin has things to say that will never be spoken on the corpo media nightlies—the very definition of a 'dangerous voice'." 

Robert Reich on SCOTUS' and Regulatory Anarchy 

Nose News 

We've all heard of duplicitous folk who "speak through both sides of their mouth" but how about people who blow through both sides of their nose? 

I was recently surprised to realize that I had a previously unrecognized power: the ability to clear my nostrils (not only in a single prolonged twin blow but) one nostril at a time. 

Turns out there's a medically recommended way to blow one's nose and here it is: 

Credit Where Discredit Is Due 

The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have been getting a lot of ink lately owing to their militaristic posing and belligerent provocations but, when it comes to a terrorist organization with a proven track record, it's hard to compete with the anti-abortion extremists in The Army of God. 

As the National Abortion Federation points out, over the past four decades (from 1977 to 2021) the Army of God's anti-abortion paramilitary have managed to bomb 42 clinics, set fire to 196 medical stations, and kill 11 doctors and staff. Good things never seem to happen when you put the words "God" and "Army" in close proximity. Thus, the contradictory modus operandi of packing weapons and planting explosives to commit mayhem and murder in order to protect "the sanctity of life." Think how much worse it could be if members of God's Army didn't hold life sacred. 

Pentagon-Crazy: Printing Money by Monetizing Printers 

Rep. Barbara Lee and other Democrats made a valiant try to reverse a bid to tack another $37 billion onto the Pentagon's beyond-bloated-budget. Despite 101 votes in favor of blocking the bucks, the War Machine got its extra gift of fiscal fuel. 

For weeks, weapons-industry lobbyists have been swarming the halls of Congress like termites at a wood-chip factory. When all is sad and done [Note: not a typo], next year’s Pentagon budget could be a whopping $840 billion.  

Rep. Lee's amendment would have cut Big War's ballooning budget back to the initial still-prodigious hike that President Biden had requested. 

Embarrassing Fact: The Department of Defense has never passed an audit. The Pentagon is notorious for over-spending and under-performing—from $435 hammers, to $650 toilet seats, and $9,341 leather chairs. 

The Pentagon’s Inspector General recently revealed how the Army had billed taxpayers $90.2 million for 82 office printers—in effect, charging a whopping $1.1 million for each $412 printer.  

On July 14, Lee's amendment went down to defeat with 39 Democrats and 62 Republicans calling for the cutback. Eight California Democrats joined to support Lee's amendment. The complete roll call is available on the Congressional website. 

Chronic Culls 

The SF Chronicle has undergone some downsizing of late. A daily that use to arrive in four distinct sections (World, Bay Area, Arts, and Sports) now sometimes arrives with all four topics squeezed into just two supplements. The reporting is still top-notch (with a growing interest in New Yorker-style long-form journalism) and a fearless readiness to confront the feckless (as when criticism from Chron columnist Joe Garofoli forced Senator Dianne Feinstein to finally declare her support for ending the filibuster.) 

Meanwhile, there's been another change in reporting from the Chron and its agencies (Associated Press, The New York Times, etc.)—an increase in editorial slip-ups. Here's a short collection of recent flubs. 

July 8: In a report from Haiti, two Associated Press reporters noted that local gang killings had soared "ever since [former President Jovenel Moise] was shot to death shot last July 7." (Emphasis added. It was true, in fact, that Moise was shot multiple times.) 

July 10: An Associated Press report on the jailing of a war protester in Russia described Alexei Gorinov appearing in court "behind inside a glass-walled defendant's dock." 

July 10: A Chronicle News Services report on a conversation between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, described the event as "their first-to-face meeting since October." (Most likely, that was supposed to have read "their first face-to-face meeting.") 

July 10: In Joe Garofoli's Sunday column citing criticisms of the Democrats for failing to take bolder political stands, California Labor Federation leader Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher suggested Biden could declare "a public health emergency emergency." (Granted, that's a demand that bears repeating.) 

Her Name Should Be in Lights 

Here's some interesting feedback triggered by the release of the stunning multi-galactic images captured by NASA's Webb Space Telescope. The success of the program prompted feminist historians to call attention to an unsung heroine of US astronomy. 

For centuries, early astronomers believed there was only one galaxy in the Great Beyond. The astronomer who first proposed the existence of multiple galaxies in the universe was a Harvard scientist named Henrietta Leavitt (July 4, 1868 – December 12, 1921). Leavitt was nominated for a Nobel Prize by Prof. Edwin Hubble (after whom NASA's Hubble Telescope was named) but she died before the prize could be awarded. 

Feminist scholars allege that Leavitt and other female researchers were denied full access to Harvard's space telescope facilities "because they were women." Lauren Gunderson, America's "most-produced playwright" (for two years in a row, with 30 staged plays to her credit in 2021) has written a play about Leavitt called Silent Sky. Gunderson reflects on Leavitt's legacy in the following video: 

On This Date in Peace History 

Did you know that it was on a July 9th that Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell warned of the need to choose between war and human survival, that it was on July 10th that France bombed and sank the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, that July 11th is World Population Day, that this July 12th was Henry Thoreau's 205th birthday, and July 13th was the day the first wartime draft (and the resulting riots) began in the US? 

You would know a lot more than that if you had a copy of World BEYOND War's Peace Almanac. You'd know what peace holidays to celebrate. You'd know historic anniversaries relevant to events you're planning. You'd know a great deal of history that few know—and few governments want you to know. 

The print edition sells for $15.68 and a PDF version is available of $3. 

(Full disclosure: I'm a WBW boardmember.) 

Big Pharma's Fantasy Advertising 

In most of the world, pharmaceutical companies are banned from promoting their drugs on radio or TV. The two exceptions: New Zealand and the United States. 

As a result, American TV viewers are routinely overdosed with intentionally distracting ads for drugs claiming to relieve scores of scourges. In 2007, the Food and Drug Administration ruled that these broadcast ads had to reveal a drug’s major risks in a "clear and fair manner." The result? The pill-pushers created of a new form of "distraction commercial" that buries verbal warnings of a pill's downsides beneath eye-catching visuals of lively social situations where smiling people prance through life with friends and pets, stroll along beaches, fly by on zip-lines, and enjoy backyard barbecues and family dinners. 

In 2010, the FDA responded to these obfuscations with a call to ban all ads containing “distracting representations” intended to draw attention away from verbal background warnings about a drug’s adverse effects—including "death." (One popular visual trope in many of today's ads involves ending a commercial with the camera slowly panning upwards into a cloudless, blue sky. An intimation of heavenly protection, perhaps?) 

But here we are, 12 years on, and the FDA still hasn’t "finalized" its rule! According to Michael Carome, the director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group: “The FDA has flouted the will of Congress by failing to finalize a rule requiring that direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads provide clear and balanced descriptions of the medicines’ major risks.”  

What We Can Do: Tell Congress to pass the Banning Misleading Drug Ads Act of 2022 by adding your name here. 

TJ's Corny Cooking Contest 

Trader Joe's in Berkeley has announced a Corn Recipe Contest where the top prize is a $200 TJs gift certificate. The rules are simple: use "5 or fewer" TJ food products; whip up your own recipe; submit same; include an Instagram photo of the competing dish. (As TJs PR punsters put it: "Aw, shucks. This oughtta be a-maizing!") 

I'm thinking of a recipe for Popcorn Cobbler. I can't wait to hear the results. (Or, as the TJ PR team might put it: "I'm all ears.") 

Sedition Edition on the Way to Perdition