Having returned to L.A. after my voyage from Tahiti to Pitcairn Island aboard the cargo/cruiser Aranui, I’m happily back in the reviewer’s seat and was enraptured by LA Opera’s production of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, which premiered in Rome 122 years ago. Those in the TikTok generation and others who consider opera to be a stuffy, bourgeois art form should consider the plot of Tosca, which could be proverbially ripped from today’s headlines. Tosca centers around political prisoners, secret police, torture, executions and direct action against tyrants. I kid thee not, Dear Reader!

Part 1: ELECTION MADNESS IN GA AND ARIZONA, & THE SANITY OF SCANNED PAPER BALLOTS

On GREEGREE zoom #118 we begin with a “How To” session from ANDREA MILLER of the Center for Common Ground and RAY MCCLENDON of the Georgia NAACP.

Ray and Andrea explain how citizens from inside Georgia and around the US can plug into help turn out the vote in the upcoming December 6 US Senate runoff in Georgia.

This historic election will determine whether the US Senate will be 50-50 or 51-49, and will have enormous impacts on the fate of the nation.

JOHN BRAKEY of Audit USA then updates us on the “Lake Effect” in Arizona, in which a MAGA gubernatorial candidate is finally forced to concede defeat.

We also discuss major electoral studies confirming that the fairest and most reliable way to conduct a vote is with hand marked paper ballots that are then scanned.

The scanners provide the initial—very fast—results, which can then be checked with risk limiting audits and, if necessary, actual hand counting.

The election protection movement has fought for this outcome since Ohio 2004. 

I am a journeyman with IATSE Local 12, the local stagehands’ union. We’re freelance artisans and laborers who build the majority of theatrical productions in Central Ohio.

We’re also the primary builders (and uninstallers) of the dozens of trade shows that go through the Greater Columbus Convention Center near the Short North. Whereas the theaters tend to work longer and more irregular hours for us, the Convention Center gigs are predicable, 9-to-5 jobs that often last longer.

Being a dyed-in-the-wool theatre kid, I strongly prefer the magic of a theater to the cold concrete and fluorescent lights of the Convention Center. On the other hand, the regular crews at the Convention Center tend to be a little more blue-collar and have a more ribald (vulgar) sense of humor than most of the regular theater crews.

A dark cloud will threaten the future of Pacifica until it re-establishes good faith and trust with its listener-supporters, and with the public at large.

Along with the staff of KPFA, KPFK and KPFT, a strong majority—more than 6800 voters—approved a change of by-laws in July, 2021.

That clear majority voted in the well-founded belief that the previous by-laws had failed, and that the structure of Pacifica’s management needed to be reformed if the Network were to survive.

In denying that rightfully approved change of by-laws, and then denying the rightful election of a number of candidates to the KPFK board, Pacifica broke its good faith and trust with its listener-supporters, and with the public.

The results have been painfully obvious.

As Myla Reson has pointed out,  Pacifica INITIATED the lawsuit against New Day---and a number of individuals--- in direct opposition to the wishes of the majority of listener-supporters.

Money donated by those listener-supporters was somehow paid to the legal team to deny those very listener-supporters their own clearly stated mandate for new by-laws.

Here’s a video of John Oliver denouncing FIFA for putting the World Cup in Qatar, a place that uses slavery and abuses women and abuses LGBT people. It’s a video about how everyone else glosses over nasty truths. Oliver drags in Russia as a past World Cup host that abuses protesters, and even Saudi Arabia as a possible host in the distant future that commits all sorts of atrocities. My concern is not just that the U.S., as one of the planned hosts four years hence, gets a pass on its general behavior. My concern is that the U.S. has far outdone FIFA this year, and every year, in Qatar. The U.S. has put six things into that horrific little oil dictatorship, each of which is worse than the World Cup.