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John F. Kennedy once said “Victory has a thousand fathers. Meet one of them — long-time lawyer David Griffith Eisenstein. To counterattack the ”dark money” 501(c)(4)s of Karl Rove and his ilk, and the conservative Super Pacs of billionaires Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Brothers, Eisenstein created Monstah PAC motivated by the unleveled playing field created by the Supreme Court in the Citizens United case which opened the flood gates of dark money by ruling that individuals, corporations and unions could give unlimited amounts of money to Super Pacs. Monstah PAC has many goals: they are determined to be a leading voice against nuclear power, big pharma and big banking, and in favor of remanufacturing heavy equipment including tractors and cars. Also on the Monstah PAC agenda: putting body cams on every police officer, requiring safety locks for firearms, and last but certainly not least, dealing with climate change and preparing for its future ramifications . Eisenstein’s mission is to alert the citizenry about the dangers of nuclear power plants and to spread the word that we are killing our own as long as these power plants exist. With Monstah PAC help. the left won’t be left out again. And unlike the right wing super PACS, Monstah PAC intends to be totally transparent,
A fearless fighter, David is prepared to take on this doomsday Congress whose defining characteristic is dirty, scorched-earth partisanship at any price. David distinguished himself early on by plunging in where other men feared to tread, daring to swim against the sharks of the status quo. He is a man with many accomplishments including his pioneering campaign on behalf of the family of a slain young Hispanic to first, obtain criminal prosecution and then, to file and win a civil suit for compensatory and punitive damages against an abusive killer cop. He also successfully lobbied for legislation to make preventative health care an essential part of Arizona health care. David achieved these accomplishments long before they became front page headlines.
Eisenstein is also ready to take on again the Bernie Madoff of congressional politics – Darrel Issa – for his titanic greed and for his singular willful indifference to the existential threat posed to millions by the nuclear waste dump at San Onofre. It’s David vs Godzilla as Issa is purportedly the richest man in congress, making most of his money after becoming a Congressman. Issa is also one of Congress’ most ignorant, a bona-fide citizen of the flat earth society and along with fellow menagerie dweller James Inhofe, a fierce denier of climate change.
With Wall Street neutron-bombed by its own hubris and the American economy crawling along the curb, jitters have broken out regarding the United States’ insatiable appetite for energy resources that has led them to all the wrong places. Add to this the pervasive hostility toward science from our current members of Congress and we get a clear picture of the Enlightenment being steadily rolled back. What is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the solution, but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and the education of the billions who are its potential victims.
Politicians and media, caked with cynicism are convinced that our energy problems must and will end with major investments in nuclear power. The only antidote to these lies is the truth. And the truth is that nuclear sites make us sitting ducks for terrorists, earthquakes and tsunamis.
Presently, Southern California Edison plans to store the nuclear waste which was created at the recently shut down San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (SONGS), which is right on the Coast two miles from San Clemente and within a 50 mile radius of 20 million people, in 5/8” thick ( really thin by European standards which by contrast are 20” thick) barrels beneath the nuclear facility. At any time, an earthquake or a tsunami caused by an earthquake could unleash a toxic nuclear furor. Additionally, there is little to stop a deranged terrorist on a suicide mission from infiltrating any one of our 89 nationwide nuclear plants and release the equivalent of a nuclear bomb that could devastate an American city, killing millions of people. A second dangerous possibility is that an earthquake, tsunami, or a terrorist attack could cause deadly wildfire plutonium fires, costing millions of cancer deaths and leaving thousands of square miles uninhabitable. Even the tiniest breach in a containment area could result in hazardous poisoning of the surrounding air, water and soil.
Within ten days after blanketing all of Europe the radiation from Chernobyl rolled across the northern interior of the United States. This is one of the killer aspects of radiation emissions from nuclear plants — they are not containable.
The incompetence and duplicity displayed by Southern California Edison which operated SONGS and is now responsible for the nuclear waste dump created by that facility, and other utilities such as PG & E is shattering. If the corporations that run reactors cannot afford a post-Fukushima type fix they should shut down their plants, secure the deadly radioactive wastes and ensure that the site is cleaned up.
NRC Commissioners are supposed to regulate nuclear power and protect the public health and safety. Instead, they have done their best to hamstring efforts of their own staff who are working to ensure that Fukushima never happens here. Rather than treating their staff with the respect they deserve, NRC middle management does their best to shoot the messenger. It is due to this reality that informed citizens took the fate of San Onofre into their own hands and shut it down and all of America is safer for it.
Technically accessible renewable energy sources are capable of producing six times more energy and far better monetary return on the dollar.
David’s Super PAC also takes Big Box stores to task for their lack of foresight in not having accessible automated external defibrillators (AEDs). With recent advances in technology, these are now widely available, safe, effective, portable, and easy to use. They provide critical treatment for sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) caused by ventricular fibrillation, the uncoordinated beating of the heart leading to collapse and death. The use of an AED within 3-4 minutes after sudden cardiac arrest can result in a 60% survival rate. CPR is of value because it supports the circulation and ventilation of the victim until an electric shock delivered by an AED can restore the fibrillating heart to normal.
All worksites are potential candidates for AED programs because of the possibility of SCA and the need for timely defibrillation. Each workplace should assess its own requirements for an AED program as part of its first-aid response.
An important case in point was brought by David in 2010 on behalf of Mary Ann Verdugo, a developmentally disabled 49 year-old who died in 2008 from sudden cardiac arrest while shopping in a Pico Rivera Target Superstore with her mother and brother because Target had a policy of not providing AEDs in its stores for its customers and employees. David litigated it through the California Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for California’s Central District Court (Los Angeles), the Ninth Circuit, and in a few days, with a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court.
One reasonable person, a highly respected Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit —Judge Pregerson — has looked at the available information in the case of Verdugo v. Target Corp. and determined that Sudden Cardiac Arrest at a Target big box store is foreseeable:
Big box stores in particular should be required to equip their stores with AEDs. The sheer size of these stores increases the time for paramedics to reach a sudden cardiac arrest victim, making quick access to an AED of paramount importance. Mary Ann Verdugo died in a Pico Rivera Target store in part because the paramedics could not get to her inside the store in time to administer an AED. It is obvious why paramedics would have a hard time getting to the Target location and navigating inside the store within the five minute time window – the average size of a Target store is 135,000 square feet.
Thus, when a customer, such as Mary Ann–and a Walmart shopper in Pittsburgh did recently– suffers sudden cardiac arrest in a big box store like Target, the probability of their survival falls significantly if there is no access to a defibrillator in the store. And, the ultimate irony is that Target Stores promoted and sold AEDs on-line for $1,000.00 when Mary Ann died and history has repeated itself in Pittsburgh as Walmart also promotes and sells AEDs on-line but also, like Target refused to have one available, resulting in the preventable death at the Pittsburgh store.
David Eisenstein has taught courses in political science and U.S. and international business law for the Keller Graduate School of Management and the University of Phoenix. He is the co-author of Sprint to the Finish, and has authored many legal articles over his 38 years of practice.
Working side-by-side with David and Monstah PAC is Alexandra Esteve.
Alexandra is a young professional from Paris, France. She has always wanted to have an experience in politics and is very interested and particularly sensitive to nuclear and climate change issues. Working in a Super PAC like Monstah PAC is a good fit for her first experience abroad. She is coordinating MP’s communications and events, an activity she enjoys since she started working in this area 3 years ago in her native France.