Public Comment

Cryptocurrency Truancy

Could the collapse of FTX, the cryptocurrency giant, have been prevented? I have no idea but I do feel the collapse could have been predicted.

In a case of what seems like a public predestination of failure, the news accounts reveal that a major "responsible party" was FTX's controller—whose name happens to be Sam Banker-Fried. That now seems like an obvious sign of trouble. Who would trust their retirement income to a fellow named "Banker-Fried"?

Once thing's for sure: In the aftermath of the disaster that brought down FTX, this is one banker who's certainly been fried.  

The Scam They Am  

The red flags in the emailed scamgram that recently came my way were too numerous to note, but the real payoff is at the end. Here's the pitch:  

Sir,
Your tax refund is updated to $178,414,99 to help you eliminate debt and reduce bills but it's obvious your response is slow to update address where you can pick the visa-card attached for cash withdrawal and avoid being hijacked.
Verify where to send the package development for your reference to prevent hackers from stopping your success this time. Download WhatsApp app on your mobile phone and confirm where to label the parcel shipment, Nearest Airport... /Receiver Name... and Phone No
I'm certainly not happy with your late reply.
Mathew Emmanuel, Lawyer
The email claims to be from an account named "foreign settlements" but the return address for "Office Management" turns out to be the address for an entity creepily called "ambushanto." (Can't say we weren't warned.)  

Fashion Plates  

Subaru Outback: TKNODAD ("TecknoDad")  

Black BMW: SPAZL (Someone who really loves German dumplings made with eggs)  

Blue Toyota: OSLP2BK ("Oh Slip to Book"? Possible clue: the plate's frame reads: "Cartelligent")  

Toyota van: ENTWIFE (Could be a married Ear Nose and Throat specialist but I prefer "ent," as in the creatures in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy who closely resemble trees.)  

Bumper Snickers  

"EVERYONE Does Better When EVERYONE Does Better."  

"If You Can't Afford to Take Care of Veterans, Don't Go to War."  

"If You Hate Socialism, Get Off My Public Road."  

"They Tried to Bury Us. They Did Not Know We Were Seeds."  

"All We Want Is the Same Health Care Plan as Congress."  

"If We Don't Sin, Jesus Died for Nothing." 

Reich On!  

In the wake of Nancy Pelosi's departure from the House Speaker's podium, UC Prof and former Clinton White House Labor Secretary Robert Reich has a good proposal: If the House ever builds a fourth office building (as it has talked about since 1975), the building should be named after Madame Speaker Pelosi. (The three extant House buildings commemorate former GOP Speakers Joseph Gurney Cannon and Nicolas Longwith and fomer Democatic Speaker Sam Rayburn.) I kinda like the sound of the "Pelosi House Office Building (aka the PHOB). 

And that's not all. Reich has also posted "What Happens Now?"—the title and topic of a new video featuring Reich in conversation with California Contressmember Ro Khanna. Have a look and a listen: 

The US Is a Randy Empire 

In 2019—long before Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine but well after the US-backed 2014 coup that toppled Ukraine's democratically elected (but pro-Russian) leader—the Rand Corporation published a blueprint for how the US could further destabilize Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin. The study was titled "Overextending and Unbalancing Russia: Assessing the Impact of Cost imposing Options" and it contained an explicit game-plan that stated: 

"Providing lethal aid to Ukraine would exploit Russia’s greatest point of external vulnerability. But any increase in US military arms and advice to Ukraine would need to be carefully calibrated to increase the costs to Russia of sustaining its existing commitment without provoking a much wider conflict in which Russia, by reason of proximity, would have significant advantages." 

No One's Above the Law: Except for Kings and Killers 

There's a phrase we've been hearing a lot lately and it's this one: "Nobody is above the law." It's usually applied to powerbrokers and politicians, especially the twice-impeached former occupant of the White House who lost the 2016 popular vote by neatly 3 million votes and went on to lose the 2020 popular vote by a whopping 7 million. 

But the Biden administration is now hell-bent on granting an exception from prosecution to a fellow who's suspected of ordering the murder of a Washington Post reporter and chopping him up with a chainsaw. The suspect in this case is Mohammed bin Salman, the strongman/Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. 

During his election run, Biden promised to avenge Jamal Khashoggi's death at the hands of the Saudi's "pariah" state. Now, with the Saudis cutting back on oil shipments and cozying up to Russia, Team Biden has opted to offer MBS some breathing room by granting a claim of "sovereign immunity." 

As the Associate Press notes, there's another reason for Washington to support the idea that crown princes, kings, dictators, and autocrats are uniquely immune from the laws that supposedly apply to everyone in a free-and-equal, democratic society. As the AP put it: "Upholding the concept helps ensure that American leaders in turn don't have to worry about being hauled into foreign courts" for a grizzly host of global crimes committed over the past 50 years. 

The Truth of Herschel Walker’s Violent Past

Commies In The Closet 

The Free Speech Movement Archives (www.fsm-a.org) is pleased-pink to share the news that former Berkeley student and Free Speech firebrand, Betinna Aptheker has published a new book titled: Communists in Closets: Queering the History 1930s–1990s. 

"Communists in Closets" delivers a first-hand hidden history of gays, lesbians, and non-heterosexuals who joined the Communist Party despite its ban against "gender-non-performing" revolutionaries—a ban that lasted sixty-years. According to this tell-all insider's history, "Queer communists contributed to the political and theoretical foundations for lesbian and gay liberation and women’s liberation; they also helped advance peace, social justice, civil rights, and Black and Latinx liberation movements." 

According to Mary Helen Washington, Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland and author of The Other Blacklist: The African American Literary and Cultural Left of the 1950s: "This book is at once a deeply personal portrait of Bettina Aptheker and her struggles as a gay woman in the Communist movement, but also a generous, appreciative and carefully historicized portrait of the many others who were gay, feminist, and Communist. The chapter on Lorraine Hansberry is especially enriched by Aptheker’s triple vision." 

The book is available from Taylor & Francis under its Routledge imprint. (A 20% discount may apply: Try entering the code FLE22 at checkout.) 

In related news, on January 24, 2023 (5:30PM live via Zoom), the California Historical Society will be hosting a free "Communists in California" discussion between Bettina and Estelle Freedman, author and Professor Emerita at Stanford University. More Info and Register. 

Taking Stock of Politicians Taking Stock 

Representatives elected by the people should not be entwined with corporations that deal with the government to increase profits. 

What is the worst form of a "conflict of interest"? When elected leaders accept money from powerful arms lobbies. That constitutes having an "interest in conflicts." 

We need less war and more healing on this wounded planet. 

The cure would be an immediate vote on and passage of HR6678 and S3631 which would ban stock-owning and trading by Senators, Congress Members, and their spouses. It's good to see someone's paying attention to what we're being forced to pay. But where's the media? Every week, thousands of words are devoted to recounting foot/basket/baseball games; squat for political spending games. 

In the meantime, RootsAction has created an online petition to demand that our elected leaders should no longer be allowed to own investments that may benefit from the very individuals who hold the government's purse-strings and authorize federal spending. 

Joe Manchin (R-WV), are you listening? 

Meet the World's Smallest Woman 

The world's shortest person appears to be Jyoti Amge and she lives in Nagpur, India. She's only two-feet tall. Owing to an inherited a mutation called "primordial dwarfism," her body stopped growing at the age of 3. She is now in her late twenties. With a child's voice and a wide smile, she's very animated—like a miniature Disney princess come to life. 

And, in the interest of gender equality, here's a link to a profile of Sultan Kosen, The World's Tallest Man