This week, we wrote about Secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration Robert Reich, who will appear at the Glaser Center on Feb. 25.

• Beyond Outrage by Robert Reich

Reading Reich's writings (say that three times quickly) is addictive. He's drops facts like Jay-Z drops luxury product names, recounts complex ideas in strikingly simple language and almost every other paragraph has that trade-mark journalist "Holy Crap" moment.

You can read more on his blog, here. He takes on fiscal cliff rhetoric here, writing:

"Here’s the truth: After the housing bubble burst, American consumers had to pull in their belts so tightly that consumption plummeted — which in turn fueled unemployment. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity in the U.S. No business can keep people employed without enough customers, and none will hire people back until consumers return."

This is an idea that he expounds on in his latest book, "Beyond Outrage," which you can read bits of here. This book views The Recession and its aftermath not simply as a by-product of government spending, but of what he calls "anemic recovery" because private spending power is so unequally distributed between increasingly polarized wealth stratas.

"Because so much income and wealth have gone to the top, America's vast middle class no longer has the purchasing power to keep the economy going—not, at least, without going deeper and deeper into debt," he writes.

Fun stuff.

Santa Rosa letter carrier Jeff Parr says there hasn't been enough study, in his opinion, on the potential loss of revenue from the Saturday stoppage plan. He says it sounds as if the Post Master General “has given up on the business.” Saturday service is the competitive advantage of the USPS, since others charge a premium or just don't offer it at all. “I see degrading of service.”

The plan refers only to stopping letter delivery and pick up; the post office will still deliver parcels on Saturdays. This is no surprise, as the parcel business went up 14 percent last year compared to the year before for the USPS. Rural service will suffer adversely, as will those who require medication delivery. The average letter carrier handles about 15 to 20 medications daily, and those don't count as parcels, says Anderson. In fact, anything under two pounds, or is smaller, roughly, than a shoebox, does not count as a parcel under current guidelines.

Senate Bill 316 and House Resolution 630 have been introduced to stop the 75-year prefunding requirement, which was introduced in 2006 and expires in 2016. But it might be too little, too late. “Congress put us in this mess and they can fix it,” says Anderson. “But [so far] we haven't been successful with that.”

• Wikipedia
• Artist's rendition of a giant asteroid about to smash into Earth.

A meteorite struck the Earth this week, injuring over 1,100 people near the Russian city of Chalyabinsk, which has a population over 1 million. It weighed 10 tons and lit up the sky, streaking through the atmosphere on its way to impact. It’s the worst recorded impact in history. And it went completely undetected. To quote San Francisco Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper, this is not good, folks.

The idea that the planet can be struck at any time by a space rock that could potentially wipe out a massive amount of the population is scary. Not to seem like Chicken Little, but the sky is always falling, it’s just usually burned up into bits before it hits us. When a large enough rock gets through, it means big trouble. This infographic from the Guardian UK sums it up quite nicely.

The lack of detection could have been due to lack of tracking resources, or it could have been due to the gigantic 2012 DA14 asteroid that narrowly missed the planet. It came so close, in fact, that it passed inside our communications satellites. Had it hit Earth, the impact would have had the power of more than 250 Hiroshima bombs exploding at once in the same place.

A recent discovery showed that within 33,000 years of a massive asteroid hitting the Earth, dinosaurs went extinct. The theory of what killed the dinosaurs can probably be pegged on a massive meteorite impact, at least for the most part. Humans, now the dominant species on the planet, could be next.

It’s not like the Bohemian didn’t see this coming. Or that astronaut Rusty Schweickart, co-founder of the B6-12 foundation, which is dedicated to tracking asteroids and preventing collisions with Earth, hasn’t been trying to explain the importance of this for years. But as he explains, most of the time it takes a tragedy to cement the importance of prevention in people’s minds. Maybe this will be it.

Sonoma West Times and News reports that (in)famous lobbyist Darius Anderson gave a keynote speech at a recent California Newspaper Publishers Association event in Sacramento.

• Press Democrat front page

"Anderson said he is not done buying newspapers yet," the articles reads. "'We’re coming to a town near you soon,' he told the room full of fellow newspaper owners. 'I plan to go to San Francisco and rape and pillage other publications and take their talent and bring it to Santa Rosa.'"

In November, Anderson was one of a team of local investors who bought the Press Democrat.

As we wrote then: "Darius Anderson has a long history as a high-powered lobbyist for companies like PG&E, Station Casinos, Pfizer, Microsoft and Catellus, and has worked for Clint Eastwood and been a fundraiser for Gray Davis. In 2010, Anderson was fined half a million dollars in a corruption probe. He currently wants to build a $30 million boutique hotel off the Sonoma plaza."

Anderson's words at the conference were, no doubt, offered in jest. But they have a sinister ring, considering the numerous conflicts-of-interest that could arise from his joint roles as lobbyist and newspaper owner. According to the Sonoma West article, Anderson both "called for a "bigger role" of the newspaper industry in statewide affairs" and "offered himself for a possible run at statewide office in the future." The piece does report that Anderson declared intentions to put the paper in a non-profit trust if he does run, to "avoid the appearance of any conflicts of interest."

See the full video of Anderson's speech here:

In other news, Anderson collects Cuban art.

The mob is a part of One Billion Rising, an international movement to end all violence. It was spurred by Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler and will include over 200 countries. “More than one out of every three women on this planet will experience violence during her lifetime,” says Ensler in a press release. “Dance joins us and pushes us to go further, and that is why it's at the center of One Billion Rising."

• Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI will step down at the end of the month due to his inability to perform duties because of failing “body and mind.” He is 85 years old and was elected Pope in 2005. The last time a Pope resigned was in 1415.

The announcement was a shock, to say the least. With all the secrecy of the Vatican, nobody can be truly sure the reason. At such an advanced age and this being such an unprecedented move, it must be something truly serious. It’s not implausible to suspect something like signs of Alzheimer’s or dementia triggered the resignation. Whether it was his own volition or the urging of those around him has not been stated.

What’s certain is his papacy was marred by several sexual abuse scandals and a push toward orthodoxy, including a campaign against condom prevention and any kind of birth control. Even nuns on a mission to serve the poor were chastised because of their outspoken attitude toward women’s rights. This, too, could be a contributing factor to his resignation, if we delve into the realm of conspiracy theories.

Something else that’s certain, this will trigger a spike in Dan Brown’s books and movies, and maybe even inspire a new novel by the
Davinci Code author. Working title: Forgotten Communion.

What, too soon?