TIDBITS from The Left Coast
A quick scan of some of the news you may have missed.
Will the Israeli government fall?
Speculation continues that the Netanyahu government is about to fall. The issue is whether ultra-Orthodox Jews should be required to fight in Gaza. But according to the media source, Israel Hayom, Prime Minister Netanyahu may have something up his sleeve to save his position. If the Knesset (parliament) is dissolved, a snap election would likely be held in July. If Netanyahu has to go before the voters, the likelihood of him winning is in doubt. Such a scenario could slow down the carnage being inflicted on the Palestinians in Gaza.
California’s Bullet Train in jeopardy
President Trump’s hostility for the California Bullet Train has turned to action this week. He cited a four-month study that found no way forward to completion of what would be America’s first true bullet train. His decision will result in an immediate funding cut of $4 billion dollars. At least $14 billion has already been sunk into the project, whose estimated budget stands at more than a $100 billion. This writer has urged that the Bullet Train Authority contract with a Chinese construction firm to finish the project in a timely and economical procedure. Without such expertise, this project could go on well into the 22nd Century. Even with the delays, a recent poll of 1,000 Californians declared by 67 percent that they favored completion of the train.
Is AMTRAK also in jeopardy?
I recently had the “opportunity” to ride Amtrak’s Coast Starliight to the Bay Area. It’s the slow train that plies up and down the Left Coast. The overnight journey was an ordeal. I opted out of a bed, which was renting for more than $500. Since the mostly comfortable and quiet Business Class had been eliminated, coach was my only alternative. After a sleepless night trying to get comfortable, I was wishing I had driven my car. The only good thing about the trip was the staff, which was uniformly friendly and helpful. One last comment: If you are considering going upstate (or downstate on the Left Coast), don’t take an overnight train. But please support saving the climate by not using your car, or an airplane. Demand action to finish the California Bullet Train, and bullet trains across the country.
The Clash of Egos: Trump and Elon at odds
The argument initially involved Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” to fund the upcoming year. Musk thinks it is too big, and in fact, it would increase budget deficits by $2.7 trillion through 2034, while Trump thinks it is just right. The 1,000 page bill squeaked through the House and is now in the hands of the geriatric members of the Senate. The bill would make cuts in Medicaid, which would hurt the poorest among us. Meanwhile, Musk called the President ungrateful after he (Musk) got Trump elected by pouring hundreds of millions into the election campaign. Trump responded that Elon was mad because the solar subsidy is being cut. However, there will be no cut on oil and gas subsidies.
While the U.S. turns Right, Mexico goes Left
Mexico may soon be grappling with too many immigrants from the U.S. and Canada. The more the Trump Administration cuts vital government services and ramdomly deports undocumented immigrants and American citizens, the more Americans and Canadians cast their eyes on Mexico as a refuge for snowbirds and longer term residents.
Mexico is enjoying its second sane president in a row, something the U.S. would be hard-pressed to remember. It began when AMLO (Andrés Manuel López Obrador) won a six-year term in 2018, after the old guard cheated him out of victory in two previous elections. He created the MORENA Party which has been intensely popular ever since. He raised the minimum wage and social security, built a bullet train (the Tren Maya), with Chinese help, called for popular election of all judges, and supported his protégé, Claudia Sheinbaum, a former scientist, to take his place.
Just this week, Sheinbaum accomplished AMLO’s proposal that all judges be elected, instead of being hand-picked by the old guard politicans and oligarchs. The new Chief Justice is Hugo Aguilar, a lawyer and the first justice to be of indigenous origin.
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New Book from us – Get your copy from your favorite bookstore or Amazon
Author James R Smith, a former union activist/organizer for 25 years, brings his studies in geopolitics, political economy, sociology, and journalism, to bear in his wily assessment of our current global quagmire. The book’s subtitle, The Wild and Scary 2020s, acknowledges the unpredictable crash course we are on - as we face the two most vital issues for our species, the Environment and War.
The Future Starts Here opens with a rousing foreword by the late Conn (Ringo) Hallinan, a fellow writer and academician from the well-known, activist, Bay-area, Hallinan family. Hallinan values Smith’s solid, in-depth research and experience as a writer and union organizer. He compares Smith’s savvy as a political analyst to the intelligent reportage/gonzo-style prose of the late Hunter S. Thompson. High praise, indeed!
After a summarizing introduction, Smith begins the book’s 10 sections with the 2024 presidential election, before jumping back to the early 2020’s, with chapters on the Covid Pandemic, followed by the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests, the largest demonstrations in American history. He includes the killings in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the rise of fascist groups, such as the Proud Boys, and others, affiliated with police departments. Smith rues the police state - its overfunding and military weapons upgrades, and its racist behavior which continues to unfairly and indiscriminately target, kill, and imprison, Black and Latino people in the U.S.
He then settles into the longest piece in the book, the root of all evil, the perpetual wars and genocides which the U.S. has fostered at home and abroad for centuries. Chapters include adept analyses on the machinations of the hawkish Neocon mindset, and the devastating consequences their wars have produced, in Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and, most timely, the Middle East, as Gazan civilians are ethnically cleansed by Israel before our eyes.
I guarantee you’ll learn the wars backstories you’ve never dreamed of, as Smith exposes the media-fueled, propaganda-fed, narratives First World countries like the U.S. utilize to justify their profit-driven assaults on the people of victimized countries, and, ultimately, upon the Earth.
After disseminating foreign policy, Smith break downs domestic affairs, in past presidencies, and especially, in both the Biden and Trump administrations. He explains why the formation and rise of BRICS (if you don’t know BRICS, read the book!) is a harbinger of the end of U.S. hegemony, from the uni-polar world the U.S. has attempted to dominate since WWII (in its frenzy for power and greed for oil and land, not democracy!) to a hopefully fairer, multi-polar-led world.
In the section entitled, The Quest for a Universal Basic Income, Smith questions whether our prophesied New Age of AI and tech-based innovations will bring about Freedom or Tyranny (Smith opts for the former.) To avoid economic fall-outs for the working class and middle class, and a potential Class War, he strongly argues for the immediate implementation of the Universal Basic Income (UBI), which he sees as a realistic and reasonable solution to guide future economies, ensure stability, and free humans from wage slavery.
Section 7, Ecotopia Rising, offers wondrous examples of a visionary Utopia. Smith has lived on The Left Coast (California, Oregon, Washington) for most of his life (as have I!) and he’s certain “we are on to something” - in terms of progressive thought and the creation of beneficial, long-lasting, social and environmental programs. He acknowledges it will take establishing a concerted halt to incessant, rapacious, overdevelopment, and the necessity to take a moment to listen to the Earth, as well as to unite with and implement the wisdom of indigenous communities.
Smith reminds us we face a crux of No Return - as fires, floods, and droughts rage throughout The Left Coast, the rest of the country and the world. He offers practical solutions in response to our changing environment and the climate crisis, brought upon by fossil-fuel dependence and short-sighted, vulture capitalism.
Next follows a scathing but humorous, in-house account of a 2022 scandal in Los Angeles’ political landscape, to dramatize the inherent corruption and racism built-in local and national governing councils. It’s a veritable call to informed citizens to become involved in politics at their local level, in effect, reestablishing democracy in their own backyards. (Smith ran for a U.S. House of Representatives seat as the candidate of the Peace and Freedom Party in 2006.)
Section 9 is a “read it and weep” litany of “Broken Promises” - reminding us that, above all, the oligarchy’s gotta go. Smith’s list of personal recollections of the JFK assassination, broken treaties with Native Americans, the Supreme Court’s refusal to ban assault rifles, and the recent proliferation of billionaires hoarding all profits for the top one percent, paints a bleak future indeed.
Yet, there’s still hope, as Smith contends - he wrote this book to allay peoples’ fears of the future, to give folks a greater understanding of how we got here and how the world works, and to assure us that better days are ahead: “Don’t panic, even though we’re 89 seconds away from worldwide thermonuclear war on the Doomsday Clock!”
“We are on the edge of abundance (and Healthcare for All!), yet people who won’t give up ideas of nationalism, individualism, and becoming super-rich, are preventing access to the wealth generated by and for the People to be shared by All.”
For Smith, it’s the hard work of unsung, everyday people who have contributed the most to social change. “The media has done their best to belittle this fact. The true heroes are the people standing up to champion civil rights in factories, school boards, and city councils, alongside those who have taken on the role of engaged citizens in protests and marches, the Peacemakers decrying this country’s disastrous war policies, whom our government ironically labels “domestic terrorists.”
The Future Starts Here concludes with perhaps its most powerful section, The Future, gifting us with an inkling of what we might expect after Trump, if millions of us come together to bring it about. What’s “it” you ask? - a healthy form of sharing, often called socialism - a brainstorming of new ideas and visionary ways of living in which capitalism is no longer the predominant force driving our economy and political Will.
This educational, vital, and revelatory tome of 327 pages includes eight original poems by Smith and plenty of black n’ white illustrations. The last poem, The Edge of Destiny, ends with this stanza:
We will beg forgiveness of all the species we have abused.
We will share our bounty equally and the billionaires be damned.
This book, which I consider an excellent guide for people of all ages, has the potential to expand our worldview and to inspire us to participate in the creation of a harmonious and sustainable future for all beings on Earth! Won’t that be a hoot of a game-changer?!!!
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The Future Starts Here
Review by Erica Snowlake
President, Venice West Publishing
The Future Starts Here is available for a bargain price from Amazon.com or at your local bookstore.