Public Comment

Biden the All-Powerful
Much has been made (and rightly) of Joe Biden's shuffling walk and bumbling speech but he could now be seen as one of the most powerful leaders on Earth. All thanks to the Supreme Court.

Much has been made (and far-rightly) of the Court majority's lack of concern for women's reproductive rights but the court's political appointees (appointed for life) may have transformed an enfeebled Biden into an unprecedented SuperPrez endowed with quasi-dictatorial super powers.

When did this happen, you ask? The fulcrum of justice hit the floor when the Supreme majority of Trump-appointed/Trump-friendly jurists ruled that the Former President and Multiple Felony Perpetrator was immune from prosecution for any executive acts committed during his tenure as a serving president. In short: A President is Above the Law.'

But hold your ponies, jurists. Trump is not president at the moment: Biden is. So the court's ruling confers these extraordinary powers on Joe Biden. In his closing days in the Oval Office, Joe could, if if he wished, rule that Trump's criminal convictions justify the Former President's immediate incarceration. Trump has claimed that, if he were re-elected, he would become a dictator "on day one."

It looks like Trump's appointees on the High Court have empowered Joe Biden with dictatorial powers for the remainder of his term in office. Thinking bigly, Biden could even order the removal of the Trumpist jurors on the court and call for their seats to be filled by members of The Squad. 

Helene on Earth
Apocalypse has a new name and it's Helene. The worst mega-storm to hammer the US since Katrina, the (so far) worst of a half dozen Atlantic hurricanes that have slammed, punched, and drenched Central America, the Caribbean, and much of the US over the past months, wiping away roads, bridges, powerlines, and—in the case of Asheville, NC—entire towns. And this wasn't just a local inconvenience. Similar epic super-storms have also erased the landscape of human settlements in China, Japan, and Bangladesh. 

Joe Biden responded by dispatching VP Kamala Harris to visit the flood zone and offer the injured, hungry and homeless survivors a meager gesture of Federal support—single checks for $780 that were expected to clear "in eight to ten weeks." Dolly Parton appeared more generous than Uncle Sam, doling out a million Dolly dollars to aid in the recovery. 

But more—vastly more—assistance is needed. The Biden White House continues to allocate billion-dollar aid packages to help Israel and Ukraine destroy buildings in Palestine and Russia. Meanwhile, the real remedy to sweeping regional restoration of the ravaged US homeland remains ignored. 

The righteous remedy can be spelled out in just three words: 'Sue Big Oil." Governors of each state devastated by climate chaos should file lawsuits against Exxon, Mobil, Chevron et al., for what a Senate investigating committee has characterized as decades of "denial, disinformation, and doublespeak" that goes back to 1959 when Edward Teller warned the America Petroleum Institute that the industry's carbon dioxide emissions could melt the polar ice and sink coastal cities under rising waves. Exxon's own research in 1979 confirmed that the industry's pollution was on track to cause "dramatic world climate changes within the next 75 years." Instead of hitting the brakes, Big Oil spent critical dollars pushing the lie that climate change was a hoax. 

The Oil Giants made a big show about its vow (under the Paris Climate Agreement) to attain "zero net emissions by 2050" but (as British Petroleum admitted in a private internal document): "no one is committed to anything other than staying in the game." Without an ounce of shame, BP has announced plans to increase oil and gas production from 2024 to 2027. As the Natural Resources Defense Committee puts it: "It's past time for the industry to be held accountable for its role in destroying communities, ecosystems, and our climate." 

The scandal has been revealed. The consequences remain scattered across the storm-raped terrain of Mother Earth. The truth is: "Exxon knew." The evidence is overwhelming. The survivors of Asheville (and every other community obliterated by Big Oil's ecocidal by-product) should demand that Big Oil be held financially responsible for rebuilding their city, there communities, and their broken lives. 

Fashion Plates
Personalized license plates spotted about town: 

MGSIL
D11TANK
BARMISO
N12345R
ITALNLV (Italian Love?)
TAXMUSK (not on a Tesla!)
GHEEVAN (Indian Food Van!)
MOREANZ (More Australia and New Zealand?) 

Bumpersnickers
Trump 1984
Gimme Coffee
Don't F- with My Serenity
Obey Gravity. It's the Law
Climate Change Is Terra-Frying
Prosecutor or Felon? Choose Wisely
Voting Is Like Driving. To Go Forward Chose "D." To Go Backward Chose "R" 

A Sandwich Board with a Punch
There's a signboard for the Eureka! café on the 2000 block of Center Street with a message that's sure to stop traffic: (It would even stop traffic if it weren't plopped smack in the middle of the sidewalk.) The board reads: "I wouldn't do anything for a Klondike Bar but I'd do some sketchy stuff for a whiskey." 

The Free Speech Movement at 60
With many university administrations planning to roll out new restrictions on speech and protest gatherings on the country's campuses, today's generation of Berkeley students will soon have a unique opportunity to revisit the history of the Free Speech Movement and the galvanizing mass-arrests following the nonviolent Sproul Hall sit-in of 1964—with exhibits, receptions, and a late-afternoon panel discussion with FSM vets and historian Robert Cohen. 

"60 Years of the FSM," hosted by the Berkeley Forum, is the first of several commemorative events set for October 15. Here is the schedule: 

10am - 12pm: Bancroft Library FSM-60 Exhibition
• Open house in the Stone Reading Room, located inside Bancroft Library
• View records, artifacts, and memorabilia from the movement
• RSVP form: https://tinyurl.com/Bancroft-FSM60 

12pm - 2pm: Lunch Reception
• Complimentary luncheon at Tilden, located inside the MLK Student Union Building
• Chat with FSM veterans, faculty and students
• RSVP form: https://tinyurl.com/FSM60LUNCH 

5:30pm - 7:30pm: FSM-60 Panel
• FSM veteran panel at West Pauley Ballroom, located inside the MLK Student Union Building
• Featuring Bettina Aptheker, Lynne Hollander, Jack Radey & Robert Cohen
• Free ticket link: https://tinyurl.com/FSM-60-Panel
The evening panel will be live-streamed on the Berkeley Forum's YouTube page. Details to follow. 

The FSM Vet Who Helped Pioneer the Computer Era
Free Speech Movement veteran Lee Felsenstein is about to release a long-awaited autobiography—about a Free Speech activist who went on to pioneer some of the first personal computers (remember the "portable" Osborne, weighing in at 25 pounds?) and wound up creating a community-based computer network that presaged the arrival of the Internet. Fortuitously, the book's release happens to coincide with the arrival of a documentary recounting Felsenstein's role in the early days of electronic connectivity. 

In an email to fellow FSM vets, Lee writes:
"I wanted to be sure you all had a way to view the 19-minute introductory video that just happened to be made in time for the book. It opens with a segment on the FSM but upon reviewing it I can see that I don’t maintain that connection in the narration, so it would probably not be suitable for showing in connection with the commemoration. Nonetheless, I wanted to be sure you could view it." 

October 1: Happy Birthday, China!
On October 1, an online influencer named JingJing invited online visitors to join in celebrating the Peoples Republic of China's 75^th birthday. 75 years ago the PRC was "a war-torn underdeveloped country with a broken economy and insufficient food. It was trying to create a new country that could stand on its own feet. Can you believe China is now, in 2024, a country that is a leader in space technology and renewable energy with the world's second-largest economy, and a country with sufficient food to feed its 1.4 billion population?" 

JingJing notes that the Chinese people have a lot to be proud of. What other country has managed to "lift 770 million rural people out of poverty." By 2023, China had built 5.4 million kilometers of roads—sufficient to reach every village in China and long enough to circle the Earth multiple times! 

JingJing ends with a positive message: "If China can develop to this level from a war-torn backward country, then your country can do it too. Let's all join hands and build a Global Community with a shared Future For All Mankind!" 

The Project 2025 Song 

This plan is no way to build a Future for All Mankind.