If you watched the Super Bowl, or even if you didn’t, you might well have seen the General Motors ad that features Will Ferrell pitching GM’s electric vehicles. It opens with Ferrell explaining that “Norway sells way more electric cars per capita than the U.S.” He then declares, “Well, I won’t stand for it,” before punching a globe and claiming that, with GM’s new electric battery, “we’re going to crush those lugers. CRUSH THEM! Let’s go, America.”
Ferrell, aka America’s loveable oaf, goes on to recruit Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson and actress/comedian/celebrity Awkwafina to meet him in Norway, with him driving an electric Cadillac and them an electric Hummer to somehow get there. He actually ends up in Sweden and his two pals in Finland. But that’s beside the point.
Because the point’s been made: America will lead the world in EV use.
The Good
The ad doubles down on GM’s recent commitment to stop manufacturing gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2035. As this Atlantic article explains, that’s quite the about-face for the car company, given how it advocated for two regressive Trump administration positions: a rollback of anti-pollution rules and an attempt to block California’s regulation of vehicle emissions. Indeed, GM has been quite the laggard in this regard, as Ford and other automobile manufacturers opposed the administration on both issues.
Given how two-faced GM has been, we can’t be certain it will deliver on its promise until it’s further down the line. Still, the change itself couples with the company’s very public declaration of the move – you can’t get more public than a Super Bowl commercial – to reflect a decisive shift in the right direction for GM and the automotive industry more generally.
And it makes so much sense, even above and beyond environmental repercussions. According to the Atlantic piece:
In the future, Americans’ mass adoption of electric vehicles will seem inevitable. After all, EVs cost less to run than gas-powered cars (because electricity is cheaper than gas); they require cheaper maintenance; they break less; they are quieter. For many types of drivers—daily commuters, for instance, or errands-around-towners—they are already preferable to gas-powered cars.
The Bad
GM’s good news comes with a message that should curb our enthusiasm: Note that the vehicles it uses in the Super Bowl commercial are a Caddy and a Hummer. As environmental/energy expert Philip Warburg notes, “GM’s soon-to-be released electric vehicle flagship, the three-ton, 1,000-horsepower all-electric Hummer, stands as a warning that American auto manufacturers will not be abandoning their energy-wasteful giants, even as they move from internal combustion engines to electric power.”
Warburg goes on to caution that, even as the Biden Administration thankfully steers the United States toward an EV future, it must still focus on exhaust emissions from fossil fuel vehicles and on restraining vehicle size:
First, while the prospect of an all-electric vehicle fleet is alluring, we are decades away from achieving that goal. We therefore can’t afford to shrug our shoulders while most of our cars and trucks continue to rely on gasoline and diesel fuel.
Second, an electrified U.S. fleet dominated by oversized SUVs and pickups will consume substantially more energy than a leaner line of electric vehicles, making it much harder for clean electricity sources to edge out the gas and coal plants that still supply most of our electricity.
However affable a face Ferrell puts on GM’s shift, then, the government and public still need to force and pressure car companies to head in the right direction.
The Ugly
Though this ad will never win any awards for subtlety, it nevertheless plays up the unwittingly Ugly American in a creative and positive way. Ferrell’s taking umbrage at the idea that Norway (!!!) is beating America in EV usage is really a knock at the notion of any country besting us in this regard.
What’s significant here is that GM is making EV progress a matter of pride and patriotism. The commercial plays a bit on our national ignorance by bringing together the mindless “We’re Number One!” notion with Ferrell’s globe-piercing display and his little group arriving not in Norway but neighboring nations.
But hey, if a good-natured but cluelessly competitive American stereotype serves a good cause by highlighting how we must catch up with other countries, I’m all for it. At least in this instance, the Ugly American is a beautiful thing to behold.
(CNN) The debate over when and how and whether to put American kids back in school is taking on a predictably partisan tinge in Washington, with Republicans targeting teachers’ unions and Democrats over perceived resistance to reopening.
But it’s more complicated than that. The fight over schools slices through red and blue America.
In San Francisco, for instance, despite a waning but still serious outbreak, the city, led by Mayor London Breed, has sued the school district for not having a fully developed plan to get kids back in the classroom. The city attorney said San Francisco kids are being turned into “Zoom-bies.” Breed, who was among the first US mayors to impose strict Covid lockdowns in 2020, wants to know when the kids will be back in schools. She said the nearly full year out of school is hurting communities of color and driving inequality.
In Chicago, the mayor and school board are locked in a standoff with the teachers’ union. “We need our kids back in school. We need our parents to have that option,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday. “It cannot be so that a public school system denies parents that right.”
Unions representing teachers who have avoided physically returning to school buildings want vaccines and more safety measures. Parents are getting louder, organizing on social media and running grassroots campaigns to open school doors in the portions of the country where they remain shut. School districts, which are mostly controlled at the local level, keep delaying and punting.
Democrats, without Republican help so far, are pushing a massive Covid relief package that would give new money to schools and Biden has made opening the majority of schools a key benchmark of his aggressive 100-day plan.
Republican governors in Ohio and Maryland are ramping up teacher vaccinations and setting early spring deadlines to get teachers and staff vaccinated in anticipation of reopening schools. In West Virginia, Republican Gov. Jim Justice said all teachers and staff who wanted a first dose have gotten it.
About half of states are prioritizing teachers, according to The New York Times. But it’s notable that some of the states with the worst outbreaks, like Texas, have both ordered schools to open and not prioritized teachers to get vaccines.
The tension between present danger and future risk
For the teacher side of things, read this CNN report about the hundreds of American educators who have been among the hundreds of thousands of American Covid deaths. For the student side of things, look at the recent studies suggesting schools that comply with safety guidance are not the cause of Covid spread.
Schools aren’t just not opening, they’re still closing. In Montgomery, Alabama, the school district closed this week until school staff can all get vaccinated after a string of teacher deaths from Covid.
But new US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday vaccines might not be necessary to safely reopen. “There is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely reopen and that safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated in order to reopen safely,” she told reporters. “Vaccination of teachers is not a prerequisite for the safe reopening of schools.”
That’s not official guidance, cautioned White House press secretary Jen Psaki. When asked about the comments, Psaki said she’d like to see that officially put out by CDC. “Certainly ensuring teachers are vaccinated, prioritizing teachers, is important to the President,” she said.
Re-opening schools won’t immediately fix the problems caused by a year out of them. In Chicago, where the city’s liberal mayor is at war with the city’s teachers’ union, data released by district about who will actually come back when schools open suggests it’s the White kids who will return, while the Black and Brown kids stay home.
Read this from the Chicago Tribune:
> When CPS offered the choice to return to schools to families in the first two waves, 67% of white students opted in, followed by 55% of multiracial students, 34% of Black students, 33% of Asian students and 31% of Latino students. Students with special education plans opted in at a lower-than-average rate, 36%, as did economically disadvantaged students, 32%.
The New York Times points out more White kids have returned to school in New York than Black kids and tries to explain mistrust of the system in communities that have already been frustrated by institutional racism in school facilities, funding and curriculum.
Mistrust of schools and mistrust of vaccines
There’s a frustrating similarity that should be explored in that the same Black and Brown communities that have been slow to adopt the Covid vaccine have been slow to return to school when given the opportunity.
Everyone’s doing things differently. In Virginia, the state Department of Education tracks what each district is doing, and the state map is a color-coded patchwork of open, virtual and hybrid.
Biden’s nominee for education secretary, Miguel Cardona — who was recently in charge of Connecticut’s education system — was asked at his confirmation hearing Wednesday if kids should be tested in this weird year, and whether the federal government will still give districts who don’t test students the federal money that is normally tied to it.
Sen. Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, asked the question in a simple way, according to the Washington Post: “Do you feel like the states should incorporate standardized testing this year given the circumstances of the pandemic?”
Cardona gave a very complicated answer. “I feel they should have an opportunity to weigh in on how they plan on implementing it and [on] the accountability issues, and whether or not they should be tied into any accountability measures as well,” he said.
That’s a definite maybe on the testing question, which is better than the “I don’t know” a lot of parents hear from local districts who won’t set timelines to return.
Open Vallejo, by Scott Morris, February 4, 2021
Members of the III% militia wait for instructions while training in Jackson, Ga. on Oct. 29, 2016.
daniel “Cully” Pratt of the Solano County Sheriff’s Office has a side business making decorative wood carvings. Some feature characters from movies starring his brother Chris Pratt, like “Jurassic World” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
Others are more political, like the rifle display he made for Sgt. Roy Stockton, a Sheriff’s Office colleague and recently-elected member of the Vacaville City Council.
The piece resembles a California flag, but instead of a bear, it features hooks for Stockton’s AR-15 rifle above the words, “WILL NOT COMPLY.” Thirteen shotgun shells, arranged like the stars of the Betsy Ross flag, form a circle around the Roman numeral III. Cully Pratt grins from behind his creation in a 2018 Instagram post, which he labeled with the hashtag, “#3percenter.”
Solano County Sheriff’s Sgt. Cully Pratt poses with a rifle display rack he made for fellow sheriff’s Sgt. Roy Stockton. The handmade wood display features symbolism associated with the far-right Three Percenter movement, which has been linked to several terrorist plots around the country. Screenshot / Open Vallejo
Three Percenters are a loose-knit collection of far-right extremists characterized by anti-government, pro-gun views, and a willingness to violently defy the federal government. At least one person with Three Percenter ties has been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., where five people died, including a police officer. Others have been connected to bombings and kidnapping plots.
Three Percenters are a loose-knit collection of far-right extremists characterized by anti-government, pro-gun views, and a willingness to violently defy the federal government. At least one person with Three Percenter ties has been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., where five people died, including a police officer. Others have been connected to bombings and kidnapping plots.
The group appears to have ideological support within the Solano County Sheriff’s Office. Pratt, Stockton and at least one other current sheriff’s deputy have posted Three Percenter imagery on their public social media pages for years, an Open Vallejo investigation has found. Their friends and followers include staff at the sheriff’s office. While not all interacted with the deputies’ Three Percenter posts, their identity and stated views were clear. Rather than face repercussions for their support of a group linked to violence, the deputies have risen in the ranks of the sheriff’s office and have been trusted with high-profile public assignments.
Since the attack on the Capitol, long-simmering concerns about right wing violence have grown more pronounced, both locally and nationwide. The Department of Homeland Security warned last Wednesday of a heightened threat from anti-government extremists following President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Last week, federal prosecutors charged American Canyon resident Ian Rogers with possessing five pipe bombs following his arrest in nearby Napa on Jan. 15. Investigators seized 49 guns and noted that Rogers had a Three Percenter emblem on his vehicle, court records show.
Supporters of President Trump clash with police at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A Three Percenter flag is visible in the lower left foreground of the frame. David Butow / Redux
Open Vallejo contacted each of the deputies who posted extremist content, most of whom did not respond. Solano County spokesperson Matthew Davis declined to comment on whether county officials are active members of any anti-government militia.
‘We are everywhere’
Unidentified members of III% affiliated groups take part in a close-quarters battle drill during a multi-state training exercise near Denver, Colo., on July 25, 2015. Alex Flynn / Redux
Three Percenters do not have a central organization but instead are largely autonomous groups with sympathetic ideology. Formed in 2008 following the election of President Barack Obama, the group derives its name from the erroneous belief that only 3 percent of American colonists fought in the revolution against Great Britain. But instead of fighting an overseas oppressor, Three Percenters view the United States government as a tyrannical threat, especially in the context of gun control.
A Three Percenter decal was found on American Canyon resident Ian Rogers’ vehicle when he was arrested in Napa earlier this month. Investigators seized five pipe bombs and dozens of guns, court records show. Federal Bureau of Investigation
Nationwide, Three Percenters have been accused by federal authorities of plotting violence in a number of recent incidents. Adam Fox, one of the men accused of plotting to kidnap the governor of Michigan last year, was the leader of a Three Percenter group, according to investigators. A man in Ohio inspired by the Three Percenter movement was arrested last May after he allegedly tried to recruit others to help kidnap or kill police officers. A former sheriff’s deputy who led an Illinois Three Percenter group was convicted in December of bombing a mosque. A man who told undercover FBI agents he had “III% ideology” was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the attempted bombing of a bank in Oklahoma City in 2017.
Presenting themselves as modern-day patriots, Three Percenters make frequent reference to symbols of the American Revolution. The militia’s logo consists of 13 stars, as in the Betsy Ross flag, arranged around the Roman numeral III. The group’s other visual references include the year 1776 and the Gadsden flag, which features a coiled rattlesnake above the words, “Don’t Tread on Me.”
In plain sight
Solano County Sheriff’s Sgt. Roy Stockton, right, at a fundraiser for Solano Family First Responders, the charity he runs with Pratt. Stockton was sworn in as a member of the Vacaville City Council earlier this month. Solano County Public Works employee Galen “Jamie” Estes, who has a large Three Percenter tattoo, is seen second from left. Solano Family First Responders
For years, Solano County Sheriff’s officials have done little to hide their affinity for Three Percenter iconography.
Like Pratt, Stockton also sells items referencing far-right imagery. He sold leather under the name High Brass Leather and metal under the name Live Free EDC. Products with the coiled snake of the Gadsden flag and the Three Percenters logo could be observed throughout his stores and their corresponding social media accounts, which have since been set to private.
Stockton also reposted numerous photos with Three Percenter iconography. Just prior to the 2016 election, he shared a photo of several guns with the caption, “getting ready for the election tomorrow.”
Stockton disavowed political violence when reached for comment.
“I strongly condemn the violent and racist views of these extreme right, militia, and anti-government groups,” Stockton said in an email. “I believe that law enforcement officers and other public officials cannot keep their oaths to uphold the Constitution if they are associated with any extremist or anti-government groups.”
In 2016, Stockton reposted this image from his company’s Instagram account. The caption reads, in part, “Getting ready for the election tomorrow.” Now a Vacaville city councilmember, Stockton says he “condemns” violence. Screenshot / Open Vallejo
Stockton did not respond to questions about why he displayed and sold Three Percenter paraphernalia, nor why Cully Pratt made him a Three Percenter display to hang his rifle. Stockton tagged the sheriff’s official Instagram page from his leatherworking page. Both of his pages included the sheriff’s office emblem.
Deputy Dale Matsuoka, the sheriff’s office homeless outreach coordinator, has also posted Three Percenter symbols on his public Facebook page under the name “Matt Daley”and other aliases. On July 16, Matsuoka changed his Facebook profile picture to the Three Percenter logo. It was accompanied by the slogan, “When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.”
Other current and former law enforcement officers showed frequent support for Matsuoka’s posts. One person who frequently “loved” Matsuoka’s Three Percenter posts is Jeremie Patzer, a former Vallejo police officer who shot a man outside a bar while off duty in 2005 and killed a 21-year-old man with a Taser the following year. Despite Matsuoka’s open support for extremist views, like Pratt and Stockton, the Solano County Sheriff’s Office has highlighted him publicly for his work.
Recent images from Deputy Dale Matsuoka’s Facebook page. Screenshot / Open Vallejo
Others who express affinity with the Three Percenter movement have close ties with sheriff’s deputies. Pratt and Stockton run a nonprofit, Solano Family First Responders, for which they threw a fundraiser in October of 2019. Numerous law enforcement officials and local politicians attended, including Sheriff Tom Ferrara and Solano County Supervisors Erin Hannigan and Mitch Mashburn. A sheriff’s lieutenant and Vacaville City Councilmember at the time, Mashburn endorsed Stockton to take his seat on the city council.
During the barbeque, Stockton took a selfie with three men. They include Galen “Jamie” Estes, an employee with the county public works department, who wore a black hooded sweatshirt with a white Spartan helmet situated between two rifles over the Greek phrase, “molṑn labé.” The phrase, which means, “come and take them,” is a rallying cry of anti-gun control hardliners.
County public works employee Galen “Jamie” Estes has the Three Percenter logo tattooed on his arm. Estes is connected with several Solano County sheriff’s deputies, including members of the command staff. Screenshot / Open Vallejo
Estes also has a Three Percenter tattoo on his left arm, which appeared fresh when he showed it off in a 2017 Instagram post. He is friends with Stockton, Pratt and at least six other current members of the sheriff’s office on Facebook, where he shared numerous Three Percenter symbols.
Estes’ other Facebook friends include Sheriff’s Lt. Jonathan Mazer and his ex-wife Sgt. Toni Mazer, who recently changed her name to Taylor after she remarried. Taylor “loved” a Three Percenter logo posted to Estes’ Facebook page on Jan. 15. She did not respond to emailed questions about whether and to what extent she supports violent extremism.
As public information officer for the sheriff’s office, Pratt was tasked with promoting the agency on Facebook and other social media. His famous brother often helped him get a boost of publicity, such as when he attended Super Bowl LII wearing a Solano County Sheriff’s Office hat, which the agency noted on Facebook.
Stockton posted about Chris Pratt’s appearance at a 2018 sheriff’s fundraiser. Pratt has helped draw attention to his brother Cully Pratt’s wood carving business, has featured far-right iconography. Screenshot / Open Vallejo
Chris Pratt has also promoted Cully Pratt’s wood carving business to his own 30 million Instagram followers. He sees his brother frequently and has been photographed with Stockton as well. And Chris Pratt’s fondness for patriotic imagery has at times shown a reverence for the Revolutionary War. In 2017, Cully Pratt took a selfie with his brother flashing one of Stockton’s coiled snakes. Chris Pratt appeared at a sheriff’s fundraiser screening of “Jurassic World” in 2018 wearing a hat with the 13 stars of the Betsy Ross flag. Last year, he drew scrutiny when he was photographed wearing a “Don’t Tread on Me” shirt.
‘Strategic infiltration’
In this still image from a video posted to Reddit last June, an Orange County sheriff’s deputy is seen wearing a Three Percenter logo and other far-right imagery — but not his nametag — at a protest in Costa Mesa, Calif. He kept his job, according to news reports. Screenshot / Open Vallejo
Carolyn Gallaher, an American University professor who has studied far right movements, said she was not surprised that law enforcement officers support the Three Percenter movement. “Far right movements have tried to infiltrate the military and policing and police have not done a very good job of making sure these people don’t wear the badge,” she said.
Indeed, at least 31 police officers in 12 states are being investigated for their role in the riot at the Capitol, according to the Associated Press. The FBI has investigated far-right extremists’ strategic infiltration of local law enforcement for over a decade. Officers responding to police brutality protests over the summer displayed insignia of the Three Percenters and Oath Keepers, another extremist group. A 2019 investigation by Reveal found hundreds of law enforcement officials in extremist Facebook groups.
The true depth of law enforcement support for extremism is difficult to ascertain. Many of the law enforcement officials’ social media accounts reviewed by Open Vallejo used pseudonyms. One former California parole officer acknowledged using Parler, a social media company favored by far-right extremists that was shut down by its web hosting service because of its role in organizing the attack on the Capitol. The Oakland Police Department recently launched an internal investigation into an Instagram account spreading racist and sexist posts, but has been unable to identify the officer or officers who ran it.
There is also evidence Bay Area law enforcement support for violent extremism goes beyond Solano County. A former Oakland police officer who attended the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol had his social media posts “liked” by several current and former officers. A Pleasanton police officer is reportedly under investigation for his social media posts during the riot. In 2017, the Oath Keepers had a booth at Urban Shield, a police training convention hosted by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
The official CHP Oakland account “liked” this Three Percenter patch on Instagram. A spokesperson insisted it was a mistake. Screenshot / Open Vallejo
The official Instagram account of the Oakland-area California Highway Patrol “liked” a post with a Three Percenter logo last year. CHP officials said that they have been unable to determine which employee “liked” the post or when but do not believe it is part of a pattern or suspect any officers of misconduct. Agency spokesperson Officer Sean Layton said that while officers should never take any political stance while acting as police, when they were off-duty they had the right to their own political opinion. He said the “like” was a mistake and took it down.
Gallaher called the idea that officers could affiliate with extremist groups like the Three Percenters in their spare time “nonsense.”
“If you are a policing agency … you do not want extremists working for you, you shouldn’t want that,” she said. “It suggests that the police are supporting these groups and an agenda that is not to protect and serve all.”
SUPPORT OPEN VALLEJO
We depend on your support. A generous gift in any amount helps us continue to bring you this service.
Community Members Advocating for Racial Justice and Systemic Change
Benicia Magazine, by Gethsemane Moss Ed.D, February 1, 2021
Gethsemane Moss, Ed.D.
“You are growing into consciousness, and my wish for you is that you feel no need to constrict yourself to make other people comfortable.”
― Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
The creation of the Benicia Black Lives Matter (BBLM) community organization was formed after the death of George Floyd, an incident witnessed by millions of people across the United States and world. Floyd’s passing was a tipping point that stirred up past and present negative emotions for many. For some people of color, it was a harsh reminder of a different reality of navigating systems met with dimensions of positionality dealing with race, gender, and socio-economic disparities within communities and the linkage of policy, education, economic opportunities, and access.
The founder of BBLM, Nimat Shakoor-Grantham acted and sparked a community conversation to shed light on her experience as a Black woman in Benicia and to raise awareness about the experiences of other Black community members as well. “We aim to raise the awareness for the citizens of Benicia about the biases that happen in town and how it impacts the Black residents of Benicia,” says Shakoor-Grantham. Shakoor-Grantham goes on to share, “The main objective is to bring Benicia closer together in an authentic way; not by saying I don’t see color and everything is good. Benicia is a beautiful place but has an ugly underside that needs to be addressed.”
The BBLM community organization has core teams: City Government Action Team, Education Action Team, Cultural Arts Action Team, Awareness Team, and the New Member Committee. BBLM members include a diverse group of residents who are parents, retirees, business owners, lawyers, doctors, specialized licensed professionals, and recent Benicia High School graduates now attending college. All are dedicated to working with local Benicia leaders in shaping systems and policies that present every Black person and other marginalized groups, the social, economic, creative, and political power to thrive.
Education Action Team member and Benicia High School graduate, La Paula Parker shared, “Being a Black young woman in Benicia is very difficult and exhaustive at times. BBLM is significant because it requires Benicia to wake up and actually acknowledge the reality of our community and the larger world.” Parker goes on to say “education is one of the best ways for us to grow as a community. Education at its core allows us to understand one another, empathize, and love each other. I hope to better incorporate ethnic studies curriculum into the Benicia school system.”
Benicia High School graduate, Branden Ducharme, was one of the BBLM team members who made a presentation at the Benicia City Council, resulting in the passing of Resolution 20. Ducharme states, “BBLM is responsible, with the help of Benicia’s city council, for the passing of Resolution 20, which included many great things, the most notable being the creation of an Equity and Diversity Manager position within the city. When asked about the connection to the National Black Lives Matter Organization Ducharme shared, “I can assure you that whatever negative assumptions you may have about us or our agenda are probably far from the reality of our work. BBLM is tailored to Benicia in two main ways. The first is that it is a grassroots organization with currently no official affiliation with other BLM organizations, though we do value many of the same principles. The second being that every single member as of right now is either a current Benicia resident or has been one in the past.”
BBLM is providing Professional Development that started in January 2021 and extends through March. The workshop series, Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ), takes participants on a journey to examine the history of white supremacy and resistance movements. The workshop aims to help build the attendee’s ability to effectively act and advocate on behalf of social justice. This free training series was open to members of the Benicia community. BBLM also partnered with the Benicia Library and has established a Black Lives Matter Collection curated reading list.
You can reach out to Benicia Black Lives Matter social media or email them at the following:
You must be logged in to post a comment.