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Marchers for Democracy reach Fresno
The 12-member group marching for democracy from Los Angeles to Sacramento arrived in front of Fresno City Hall on Friday evening, June 6. On the 21st day of the 37-day march they had walked 22 miles in...
View ArticleGood news re California Disclose Act
A recent email from the California Clean Money Campaign had this welcome news:GREAT NEWS! It was "Do-or-die time for campaign funding disclosure bill", as the San Francisco Chronicle said. And SB 52...
View ArticleCalifornia bans plastic grocery bags
Yesterday, the Governor of California signed into law Senate Bill 270, which will prohibit grocery stores, drugstores, and convenience stores from providing single-use plastic bags for their customers....
View ArticleLeague of Women Voters letter to FEC
Yesterday an email from the League of Women Voters asked me to tell the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) to "Restore Transparency and Enforce Disclosure" of election spending that Citizens United has...
View ArticleAccurate climate change predictions in 1981
Yesterday, in honor of Earth Day, Glenn Beck regaled his conservative radio audience with faulty predictions made years ago, for example, that in 1970 we were entering an ice age.“Because Earth Day...
View ArticleD-Day Through French Eyes
On the 70th anniversary of D-Day last year, an excerpt in Harpers Magazine introduced me to D-Day Through French Eyes (2014) by Mary Louise Roberts, which my local library eventually obtained. With its...
View ArticleCitizens Climate Lobby tells Congress to fight climate change
Nine hundred members of the Citizens Climate Lobby will go to Capitol Hill on June 23 to meet their elected officials and lobby for legislation to fight climate change by pricing greenhouse gas...
View ArticleJune 22: Congressional Climate Message Day - fighting climate change
The Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) has designated Monday, June 22, as Congressional Climate Message Day, when people concerned about climate change are invited to call their senators and representatives...
View ArticleCA climate bills
The California legislature has passed several of the twelve bills in its "climate package" and others will be voted on this week. http://focus.senate.ca.gov/... These bills continue California's...
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The World Is Watching
The Guardian wrote in an email today:As the clocks count down until the doors of the landmark UN climate talks open in Paris, politicians, diplomats, civil society and even celebrities are starting to...
View ArticleMethane cloud is a wake-up call
“A billowing wake-up call from LA on greenhouse gas,” a Fresno Bee editorial 12/31, tells of methane leaking since October from an underground natural gas reservoir in the San Fernando Valley. The...
View ArticleRobert Reich's petition for more debates
Robert Reich’s petition for more Democratic debates says:Saturday night’s [December 19] Democratic presidential primary debate was striking. It was all about substance and logic—in sharp contrast to...
View ArticleFunding a clean transportation system
To fund a 21st Century Clean Transportation System, the Obama administration is proposing a $10 per barrel fee on oil, gradually phased in over five years, which would bring in $32 billion annually....
View Article"the Democratic party candidate you've never heard of"
The Guardian today tells of Dr. Willie Wilson, who will be running in the South Carolina primary tomorrow. An African-American, Wilson says he’s spent $1 million of his own money for the campaign...
View ArticleThe candidates and climate change
As Coasts Flood, why isn’t the Corporate Press asking Candidates about Climate Change? In this post at “Informed Comment” on March 3, Professor Juan Cole charges the corporate press with letting the...
View Article"A brief history of climate change"
In 2013 the BBC offered A brief history of climate change beginning with the eighteenth century invention of the steam engine and the start of the Industrial Revolution:1712 - British ironmonger Thomas...
View ArticleCitizens Climate Lobby asks you to call Congress tomorrow
Please call your members of Congress tomorrow, June 20th, to tell them to take action on climate change. Climate change affects national security and global stability, and you can tell both your...
View ArticleFresno BEE supports Clinton - "so much hangs in the balance"
Today an editorial in the Fresno BEE in Central California strongly supports Hillary Clinton for President and excoriates Trump. As polls tighten, all votes count emphatically states “so much hangs in...
View Article15 Questions for Clinton and Trump. You Choose.
In 15 Questions for Clinton and Trump. You Choose, the editorial board of the New York Times asks readers to choose three questions it should ask both Clinton and Trump. As it says, “In a campaign...
View ArticleVoting for/against the 17 California ballot measures
While studying my vote-by-mail California ballot recently, I tried to understand the 17 measures confronting the voters this year. In addition to the material sent by the state, I sought advice from...
View ArticleIn 2009 Trump backed urgent action on climate change
Seven years ago Donald Trump signed an advertisement in the New York Times urging action on climate legislation, but today he wants the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords. A June 2016...
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How to make a RESIST tag
Inspired by the banner hoisted near the White House by Greenpeace on January 17, a friend made RESIST tags for twenty of us to wear at a health care rally last week in Bakersfield, CA. The tag drew a...
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A town hall minus Congressman Nunes
Today in front of Devin Nunes’ district office in Clovis, CA, approximately 250 frustrated constituents of the chair of the House Intelligence Committee held a mock town hall to share their concerns...
View Article"Nunes is in way over his head"
Devin Nunes (R-CA), the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has often been in the news because of his opposition to investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Readers not...
View ArticleFresno BEE: "Nunes is to blame"
The Fresno BEE editorial today (3/26) is titled: Russia-Trump probe is in chaos, and Nunes is to blame. It begins:By our yardstick, Rep. Devin Nunes had a terrible week fulfilling his duties as...
View ArticleCatching and prosecuting Russian hackers
U.S. sweeping up Russian hackers in a broad global dragnet, a McClatchy article by Tim Johnson, is dated March 31 and was featured in the Fresno Bee on Sunday, April 2. It begins:The arrests caught the...
View Article"‘We’re scared’: Sea-level rise prompts Senate hearing in West Palm Beach"
On April 10 in West Palm Beach, the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, Bill Nelson, chaired a hearing on sea level rise and extreme weather. More than 200 people attended the...
View Article"Frost fairs, sunspots and the Little Ice Age"
Climate change deniers often say the climate is always changing and there’s nothing we can do about it. To support their view, they point to the so-called Little Ice Age, a generally cooler period...
View ArticleFresno Bee: "Undisciplined Trump is a danger"
In the Central Valley of California, the Fresno BEE has had enough. Undisciplined Trump is a danger to America, allies, today’s editorial, says Trump’s “amateurish forays into foreign policy and...
View Article"Rep. Devin Nunes stricken by political amnesia. Here's proof."
“Rep. Devin Nunes stricken by political amnesia. Here’s proof.”heads the Fresno BEE’s front page today. The editor, Bill McEwen, begins:I wonder if the secret health-care bill Mitch McConnell is...
View Article"Who funded this ad?"
Twitter will clearly label political ads and require campaigns and organizations to disclose who bought the ad and how much they spent.A new "transparency center" will have a database of all ads...
View ArticleWho should pay to protect against climate change?
xClimate change is real and it poses a grave threat to our nation and our planet. ItâÂÂs abundantly clear this Adminstration wonâÂÂt tackle climate change head on, so state and local governments...
View Article"How Kern County women united to march in deep red Trump country"
Last year, there was no women’s march in Bakersfield, CA (pop: 376,000) in the south Central Valley, and activists went to Los Angeles and San Francisco to protest. This year was different because of a...
View ArticleDenied again: U.S. govt claim against climate liability lawsuit
In 2015, twenty-one children and youths began their suit against the U.S. government for encouraging the production of fossil fuels, which are damaging the climate they will inherit. The suit survived...
View ArticleLincoln's notes to self
Throughout his life as a lawyer, legislator and president, Abraham Lincoln wrote down his thoughts about the issues of the day, not in a notebook or diary but on small pieces of paper or the backs of...
View ArticleAnti-Nunes letters in the Fresno BEE today
Four anti-Nunes letters were published in the Fresno BEE today. I suspect the BEE will not endorse Nunes in November, contrary to past endorsements. The editorial board called him “Trump’s stooge” in...
View Article"Eighth boy rescued as divers re-enter Thai cave"
According to the Guardian, divers entered Tham Luang Nang Non cave at about 11am local time.the conditions that had triggered Sunday’s operation – declining water levels in the cave, the readiness of...
View Article"California will fight this stupidity in every conceivable way possible."
The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a 6-year freeze on mileage targets for cars and trucks beginning in 2020. If the freeze takes effect, the current goal of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025...
View ArticleDrought and Devin Nunes
Mark Arax, a resident of Fresno, has written books and articles about water issues in California’s Central Valley. In his article published August 5 in the Fresno BEE, ‘Deep State’ isn’t Nunes’ first...
View ArticleDevin Nunes and climate change
For years, I’ve written to Devin Nunes about his denial of human caused climate change, but his repeated response has been merely that reasonable people can disagree. At a meeting, when my friend asked...
View ArticleWhat attracts the core supporters?
According to Lt. Col Ralph Peters, Trump maintains his hold on his core supporters by assuring them that "Nothing is your fault. I can save you." Speaking on MSNBC with Ari Melber on Friday, August 17,...
View ArticleFresno BEE recommends Andrew Janz for CA-22
Today, in a hard-hitting editorial on-line For the good of the 22nd District and the nation, the choice is clear: Andrew Janz, the Fresno Bee did something it hasn’t done since before 2002 — it is...
View ArticleMore demonstrations for the climate today: 500,000 in Montreal alone.
Last Friday, the students pictured above were among the millions worldwide striking for the climate. This Friday, Twitter had news of demonstrations in New Zealand, Africa, Italy, Bangladesh, South...
View ArticleThe Ode to Joy
You may want to see this over and over:xThe Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra delivers Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' with 19 musicians playing their parts from their homes pic.twitter.com/YVLrXN9yh6âÂÂ...
View ArticleThe Empire State Building has a message tonight.
xThe @EmpireStateBldg reminding us that the city is in the middle of an emergency. pic.twitter.com/50TjEjOogNâ Rita J. King (@RitaJKing) March 31, 2020
View ArticleNot surrendering to COVID-19
This letter by a local doctor was published in the Fresno BEE on July 17. He says: “the war, the game, is just beginning….the level of loss is a choice, not an inevitability….hand washing, sanitizers,...
View ArticleContact Emily Murphy about the transition
If you want to send an email to Emily Murphy about signing a document recognizing Joe Biden as the apparent winner of the election so that he can receive transition funds, office space, and all...
View ArticlePreventable, by Andy Slavitt: the pandemic in 2020
“We are always four to six weeks from being able to do what countries around the world have done,” wrote Andy Slavitt in a July 2020 article in which he described how a strict lockdown of the U.S....
View ArticleAfghanistan: "The Ides of August," by Sarah Chayes
Sarah Chayes has published a valuable article (8/15/21) about Afghanistan -- The Ides of August. The author of two books, The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban(2007) and...
View ArticlePhotos from the 1918 flu pandemic
In Photos of the 1918 Flu Pandemic from the Atlantic, you’ll see pictures of classes and courts being held outside, masked women in groups making masks, soldiers and police with masks, overcrowded...
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