Public Comment

Weird Is the Word

On a recent visit to Urban Ore—the sprawling recover-and-reuse complex at the intersection of Seventh and Murray in West Berkeley—I discovered a stack of wooden doors on display in the outer yard. One door stood out. It was decorated with a multi-colored jumble of words and art. Herewith is a transcription of the door's odd and rambling message (Note: Each line was rendered in a separate color):

Hence, the Moose! What the CRAP, Paul?
Merry Cheetah Day! Give me that BOY.
I'm so fly I soar, so sore it HURTS.
I'm the werewolf of lust. HOWLWILING for your LOVE.
Poland? Broken jar of Emma on the dirt Sandy floor.
You're just a load of BANNANAS! Stay off me ties!

Wombology—the Study of WOMBO. Oh, that's DEVASTATING.
White Devil. Young L. WOAH! Said the Cow.
Trippy's what I do When I fall down the Stairs.

What kind of bonds are THESE?? And guess what?
I [heart sign] Pa/nCakes!

Borderline Insanity

The headline in the London Guardian paid a proper salute to Donald Trump's Loser Legacy. It read: "Trump's Border Wall Breached by Smugglers Over 3,000 Times." Echoing similar revelations in the Washington Post, the article noted that "smugglers" on both sides of the US-Mexico border had chopped their way through Trump's Big-ass Barricade "at least 3,272 times, mostly with common power tools found at hardware stores." 

Erecting 458 miles of Trump's new border wall cost taxpayers a whopping $11 billion but it was apparent as early as 2019 that armies of smugglers were defeating Trump's Billion-dollar Bulwarks armed with nothing more than "$100 power tools." 

And it wasn't just buzzsaws that beset the beleaguered barrier. Other sections have been toppled by high winds and damaged by monsoons. 

On one occasion, an entire SUV packed with 23 "illegal immigrants" drove straight through a breached section of Trump's "virtually impenetrable" border wall. As of 2021, repairs to the Indefensible Fence had consumed $2.6 million in taxpayer loot. 

Barbara Lee's Crowning Act 

Rep. Barbara Lee recently posed this question: "Did you know Black women are 1.5 times more likely to be sent home from work because of their hair? 

"For too long," Lee continued, "Black women have been told their natural hair is 'unprofessional.'" Barbara Lee does not agree: "Black hair is beautiful — and it’s time to end hair discrimination now." 

Rep. Lee's solution (backed by fellow Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Bonnie Watson Coleman, and Gwen Moore) is called The CROWN Act. According to Lee, this bill would move us "one step closer toward ending hair discrimination and shifting the conversation about natural hair."  

Predictably, the bill was blocked by a bunch of silver-haired white guys otherwise known as "House Republicans." 

Undeterred, Lee has vowed to "continue to fight for the hair love revolution." So, if you're up for ending "hair discrimination," our Rep. has a petition you can sign. 

A Chronic Condition? 

I can remember when the SF Chronicle used to arrive in four distinct sections—World News, Bay Area News, Sports, and Entertainment. But that was before the Bay Area and Entertainment sections were merged. Last week, however, I noticed what could be another "frightening tightening" of the editorial/news belt: the first section of the paper contained only eight pages of newsprint instead of the expected ten. And what was missing? On two days out of the week, the editorial page failed to appear. Also missing: Letters to the Editor. 

When I checked my laptop to see if the missing content had been archived online, I could only find three posted letters from all of 2022. The next-most-recent letter was dated July 27, 2021. 

Ordinarily, I'd send the Chron a Letter to the Editor but, since I can't be sure it would appear, I'm posting it in The Planet. 

CyberWarfare: Coming to a Computer Screen Near You 

It looks like the threatened Superpower Cyber Showdown has already begun. I recently clicked on an article about the history of NATO, sanctions, and wars. The article was posted by RT News (previously known as Russia Today). Instead of the article, I was presented with the following alert:
"502 – Bad Gatway. That's an error.
Looks like we have got an invalid response from the upstream server. That's all we know." 

The Ukraine Invasion and the Suppression of the Media 

Radio Free Europe has posted YouTube videos accusing the Russian government of suppressing criticism of Putin's assault on Ukraine and posting sanitized reports on how Russian troops are not killing civilians. Here's an example posted on March 10: 

Now, it turns out, the latest act of State Censorship regarding the Russia/Ukraine conflict has occurred here in the USA. 

YouTube has apparently removed Oliver Stone's documentary, "Ukraine on Fire," from online viewing. Stone's film details Washington's role in the 2014 coup that toppled a democratically elected (but pro-Russia) president and documents how the US collaborated with Ukraine's neo-Nazi activists to install a new US-friendly regime. 

In the cause of free speech, the international No to War—No to NATO network has recently posted a new link to Stone's banned doc. You can now watch the entire video for free by clicking here: https://rumble.com/vwxxi8-ukraine-on-fire.html 

Oh the Joy, Annoy DeJoy 

Some rare good news from the Dem side. Sen. Chuck Schumer writes: "On March 8, the Senate passed a massive $107 billion Postal Service Reform Act!" This is huge, as Schumer explains, since "the USPS had been under attack by Trump and his cronies for years." 

"Thanks to our Democratic majority, we were able to save the USPS billions of dollars, reform restrictive rules, and guarantee mail delivery six days a week," Schumer writes. 

Soon after Donald Trumper-Tantrum appointed Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General in summer 2020, DeJoy ordered the removal of 671 mail sorting machines (ahead of the 2020 election), dramatically slowed mail deliveries, conspired in dicey financial deals with a sitting USPS board member, and allegedly reimbursed employees for political cash donations made to GOP campaigns." 

As one of the few holdovers from the Previous Misadministration, DeJoy recently proclaimed his intent to ignore President Biden's plan to replace the USPS's aging road fleet with a new generation of electric vehicles. Instead, DeJoy insisted that 90% of the new vehicles would be gas-burning, tailpipe polluters. 

The DeJoyification Campaign has found a strong ally in The Daily Kos, which echoes Schumer's goals: "The Postal Service Reform Act was the first major postal reform legislation passed in 15 years! … but [w]e still need to protect vote by mail, establish postal banking, and force DeJoy to buy electric mail vehicles instead of the dangerous gas-guzzlers he's demanding." 

The Kos vows to "continue to support and campaign for the USPS until its sustainability is ensured" but notes that "will not happen so long as Postmaster General Louis DeJoy stays in power." And that, The Kos proposes, can best be achieved by petitioning POTUS to get off the pot and Call for DeJoy’s Resignation. 

Camel Wrestling? 

The Care2 Petitions Team has come up with an unexpected campaign: putting an end to the ancient "sport" of camel wrestling. 

Every year, western Turkey has hosted an International Camel Wrestling Festival that draws huge crowds to watch as hundreds of camels (all male) engage in bitter battles for dominance. The animals get the injuries while their "owners" vie for trophies. 

As Care2 explains: "Thousands of eager spectators crowd together to watch the tournament, setting up barbecues and roaring as the camels dominate each other. Vendors even sell camel meat snacks and street food to viewers who munch on the cousins of the very animals they're watching. Ultimately, these animals will be made to tussle with each other until humans decide one of them is the victor — usually because one of them topples over, screams out, or retreats in fear." 

This year, 152 camels were trucked to the event but this time, "Turkish animal lovers spoke out in the camels' defense to raise public awareness about cruelty and exploitation." Naturally, there's a petition. "Dressing animals up and forcing them to brawl with each other just for our amusement is exploitation," the campaign complains: "Sign the petition to demand protections for camels and an end to this exploitative contest forcing camels to wrestle each other!" You can sign the petition here.  

Karmic Strips 

On the MLKing National Holiday, the Chronicle's comics pages included a single-panel strip by Patrick "Mutts" McDonnell that consisted of an array of animals—a chicken, a chimpanzee, a pig, a tiger, a cow, and an elephant—alongside a quote from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It read: "One day, the absurdity of the almost universal human belief in the slavery of other animals will be palpable. We shall then have discovered our souls and become worthier of sharing this planet with them." 

It turns out that King, unlike Mohandas Gandhi, preferred soul food over a vegetarian diet while Coretta Scott King and Dexter Scott King became vegetarians. (Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks, and Susan B. Anthony also practiced vegetarianism.) 

PG&Egad! 

The watchdogs at The Utility Reform Network (TURN) have mass-mailed an alert warning that PG&E wants to increase the price of providing gas and electricity by 20%! As TURN rightly huffs: "Nobody gets a wage or benefits increase of 20% in a single year!" If any utility is to win a rate increase, TURN argues, the hike should be tied to the same Cost of Living Allowance that applies to retired Americans living on Social Security. 

If the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) agrees to the 20% rate hike, PG&E has already filed a request for another 30% rate increase in 2023! 

If the CPUC grants this $18.3 billion reward, the average energy user would be paying an additional $425 a year to remain a PG&E customer. And there's no guarantee the money would be spent on improved services—including wildfire prevention—instead of executive bonuses. And remember, TURN writes, under the CPUC's watch, "California utilities cut off power to over 2 million children and adults because they fell behind in their bills." 

The CPUC already has hosted two public hearings on the rate hike with the third-and-last set for March 22 (2-6PM). Call (800) 857-1917 to participate (Passcodes: 6032788# for English; 3799627# for Spanish). For more information see TURN.org or call (415) 929-8876, ext. 368. 

Volodymyr Versus Vladimir 

There's a new Change.org petition that's getting a lot of clicks. It calls for the Nobel Foundation to award the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky whose "leadership is inspiring millions." The petition also asks TIME Magazine to declare the Ukrainian leader its 2022 Person of the Year "to help recognize his bravery in the face of war … [while] leading his country in fighting to save his county and Europe from the aggression of war from the tyrant Vladimir Putin." 

But wait! It's called the "Peace Prize." This sound more like an argument for awarding Zelensky a "War Prize" for defeating The Villain of the Year. 

Surely, Zelensky has shown himself to be incredibly brave while inspiring his fellow citizens to resist Russia aggression by erecting barricades and arming themselves with Molotov cocktails. Bur arming civilians with government-issued assault rifles isn't exactly an exercise that honors peace. 

The Peace Prize really belongs to the nameless individuals who have jumped in front of armored convoys rumbling down highways and stopped the advance of tanks by kneeling down before the hulking machines. 

When news of the petition reached a global peace organization that I work with, it engendered a lot of online criticism, including the following email responses: 

• Just when I thought bad ideas about the war couldn't get worse.  

• Our reality has morphed into the stuff of nightmares! 

• Well, it should be a collective award in company with Biden and Putin, and the citation should be "for achieving peace on Earth via turning it into a post-apocalyptic graveyard, R.I.P. mother planet," with the award ceremony in hell pending after the extinction of humankind. [Note: The author is a Ukrainian nonviolent activist currently living in Kyiv.] 

• Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky would be joining quite a few warmongers as recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize including: Henry Kissinger, US (1973); Menachem Begin, Israel, and Anwar el-Sadat, Egypt (1978); 1994 Yasser Arafat, Palestine, and Shimon Peres Israel and Yitzhak Rabin, Israel (1994); Barack Obama, US (2009); Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia (2019). In 1973, Le Duc Tho [North Vietnam] declined to accept his award of the Nobel Peace prize, demonstrating his integrity in such matters.  

Personally, I'd prefer to see the recognition go to (1) the diplomats who successfully negotiate a peaceful conclusion to the conflict or (2) to all those who rejected the call to establish a "no-fly-zone" over Ukraine. 

"No-fly Zone" sounds as innocent and antiseptic as bug-spray but it would involve direct engagement between Russian and US fighter jets in the skies over Ukraine. And that could quickly "go nuclear." If that happened, it would immediately turn the northern half of the planet into a "We're-all-gonna- die-zone." Stand down. And abolish nuclear weapons.