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California politics is currently being shaken up thanks to a drive, led by the Service Employees International Union, to enact a one-time wealth tax on the state’s billionaires to offset federal cuts to healthcare and support public education and food assistance programs. Campaigning for the measure, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders told an enthusiastic crowd that “never before have so few people had so much wealth and so much power.” In a democratic society, he thundered, “the billionaire class cannot have it all.”

It’s a message that’s particularly relevant in today’s world.

EPA rescinds 2009 Greenhouse Gas finding

The US Environmental Protection Agency on February 12 announced that it has repealed the 2009 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Endangerment Finding, a landmark ruling that was the foundation of the US government's efforts to curb greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and slow the pace of climate change.

If the action survives court challenges, it would invalidate existing GHG reduction mandates for the US energy sector and oil producers. It would also make it harder for future administrations to regulate climate-warming emissions. The EPA also said it is rescinding all GHG reduction mandates for vehicles — the largest US source of climate-warming emissions.

The 2009 endangerment finding determined that carbon dioxide and five other GHGs threaten public health and safety. The agency made its finding after the US Supreme Court determined that these emissions are pollutants under the Clean Air Act. The EPA's current position is that now regulating GHGs exceeds its authority unless Congress passes specific legislation stating it should do so.

Thirty-two years ago, on February 25, 1994, Brooklyn-born Zionist settler Baruch Goldstein carried out the Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre in Al-Khalil (Hebron) in the occupied West Bank, murdering 29 Palestinians in cold blood and wounding over one hundred and fifty more as they prayed. Seven of the martyrs were children. Source: Wikipedia.

The massacre started during "Fajr prayer" on Friday, February 25, 1994, corresponding to the 15th of Ramadan, 1415 AH. The settler Baruch Goldstein stood behind one of the mosque's pillars and waited until the worshipers prostrated themselves in prayer. He then opened fire on them with his machine gun while they were in prostration.  

At the same time, others assisted him in reloading his weapon with explosive "dum-dum" bullets. Shrapnel from the bullets and grenades pierced the heads, necks, and backs of the worshipers.

The Ibrahimi Mosque massacre resulted in the martyrdom of 29 worshippers and the injury of 15 others before worshipers overpowered Goldstein and killed him.

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The United States has amassed a huge military presence around Iran, including an aircraft carrier group, fighter jets, and drones indicating that war is imminent.

The United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) is calling for popular resistance to these criminal and illegal U.S. threats to take place throughout the country.

If there is a U.S. attack on Iran, we call for unified and immediate EMERGENCY RESPONSE ACTIONS across the United States and beyond.

In an attempt to build internal opposition, the U.S. has used escalating sanctions and economic destabilization plans against Iran for decades.

The efforts to establish a compliant regime have included military attacks, economic sabotage, and assassinations of Iran’s leaders by the United States and Israel. The U.S. has now brought one of the largest concentrations of military power the world has seen to surround Iran, a country of 90 million people.

There can’t be much doubt that the New York Times is not President Trump’s favorite newspaper. Weeks ago, they included in the Sunday paper a special section that sought to survey the changes that Trump had wrought in his first year. Stripping out any opinion, and looking at “just the fact, ma’am,” it wasn’t hard to make a pretty unvarnished list of changes big and small, narrow and wide across the country, so here goes.

We’re boycotting these corporations who are profiting off of Trump’s racist immigration and deportation agenda and telling their CEOs why we’re fed up.

Send a Letter to These Millionaire CEOs

ICE, Border Patrol, and their umbrella institution—the Department of Homeland Security—have been terrorizing, abusing, and murdering people for months now. We’ve already called on you to demand that the Senate defund these institutions, and now it’s time to boycott companies that make money off of them.

I opened Arthur Baker’s Autobiography Looking For the Perfect Beat knowing I would receive an immersive music lesson. Arthur Baker is a pioneer of both Hip Hop and electronic music. Baker produced Afrika Bambaataa’s Planet Rock. 

I haven’t listened to Planet Rock for awhile because I don’t like Afrika Bambaataa’’s pedophilia.

Baker doesn’t discuss Bambaataa’s pedophilia process. Later Arthur Baker shops ideas in Harvey Weinstein’s office with Trainspotting’s  Irvine Welsh. Baker doesn’t imply Weinstein sexually assaulted him or Irvine.

I still watch Weinstein produced movies like Fahrenheit 911.  I realized I could read about Afrika Bambaataa. 

Arthur Baker explains production in important Hip Hop. Planet Rock, and SugarHill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight popularized Hip Hop beyond NYC gyspy cabs. 

Arthur Baker isn’t Black but Baker does detail an immersion in Black cultures.

Looking For the Perfect Beat story starts with a child whose heroes were Beatles, Malcolm X, MLK JR, Dylan, and JFK. Yippie.

US Rep. Randy Fine is a Jewish lawmaker from Florida 6th District wants to make it a hate crime and put you in prison for 5 years if you criticize Israel. Later he posted on X, "If they force us to choose the choice between dogs and Muslims, the choice is not a difficult one." In other words, he would rather insult 2 billion Muslims than insult a single dog.

Imagine if a Muslim lawmaker like Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib would have said this about Jews or any other group. The headlines would be screaming for weeks. The double standards are deafening. No outrage expressed by mainstream media, no call for censure, and no call for an apology to Muslims for comparing them to dogs. X would have suspended Omar and Tlaib permanently faster than you can say sticks and bricks.