US elites decided, like a school of fish, that climate concern is old, boring, "woke," square, not hip & popular any more. As usual, it was based almost entirely on internal elite dynamics. It had nothing to do with the actual public, which is more concerned than ever.
If I'm not mistaken, the evidence behind the claim that the planet is getting cooler is the decrease in polar icecap mass. Those decreases are a result of ice being furloughed, which makes sense since, if the planet is already colder, do we need more ice?
And there are too many centrist asshole democrats (eg. Joe Manchin) who engage in the same refugee seeking behaviors and they are held above reproach. Their nutzy, corrupt self serving, party betrayal, behaviors are considered 'principled'. Bipartisan even.
They should know shame.
Who agree with the criticism and jump in front to distance themselves from the stances of other democrats and their voters because they want the middle vote - the republican lite vote?
@jayrosen.bsky.social when describing journalists who did this kind of garbage called it refuge-seeking behavior.
It's bad when the media environment dog piles on democrats for the slightly controversial as mainstream republicans jump on the bandwagon of Alex Jones to croon about frogs turning gay or whatever issue has provoked Alex's supplement inspired rage this week.
But these Dems who backstab?
And these middle road between fascism and neoliberal democracy centrists - who go soft when begged to stand up for trans people, immigrants, and climate action - feel the need to sound the war drums on the guy @amywestervelt.bsky.social's @drilledmedia.bsky.social reported on in October last year:
And meanwhile an old, entirely insufficient, asks "what about the price of eggs" in response to fascism, democrat can get up on an AIPAC stage and use the Old Testament Torah as a property document to legitimize ethnic cleansing behavior - at best.
bsky.app/profile/paul...
Senator Charles E. Schumer, D-Israel
"Is that demand destruction?" Duh-Doi!
bsky.app/profile/gasp...
Holy balls, we're still talking about this?
Oh well.
Here's a @doctorow.pluralistic.net thread which sounds a lot like what I've been quoting from @isabellamweber.bsky.social.
bsky.app/profile/doct...
I'll just throw it on the pile.
"Austerity begets fascism" is one of those things that makes a lot of intuitive sense, but it turns out that there's a good empirical basis for believing it.
17/
Millions of Americans lost their homes to foreclosure as banks, flush with public cash, threw them out of their homes and then flipped them to investment banks who became the country's worst slumlords:
pluralistic.net/2022/02/08/w...
14/
His treasury secretary Tim Geithner told him the banks were headed for a catastrophic crash and could only be saved if he "foamed the runways" with everyday Americans' mortgages.
13/
The swindlers who'd sold them those mortgages took the position that wanting to live somewhere automatically made you an expert in forex risk, so caveat fuckin' emptor, baby.
Back in America, Obama decided to bail out the banks and not the people.
12/
I've been having a shit time with bsky all morning, Thought it was just me. Busted out all my pending software updates, rebooted once or twice, reexamined my post history to see if I had penned something that turned my social media site anti-social...
But this is affecting everyone, I guess. 🙃
I dunno where Bluesky moved their servers, but it seems to be the same place people refer to when they tell posters to "fuck off, then keep fucking off, then take a left, fuck off some more, keep fucking off until the third right, then don't stop fucking off till you can't fuck off anymore."
Climate news stories across the globe have dropped nearly 40% since 2021, notes @maxboykoff.bsky.social, director of UC Boulder’s Media and Climate Change Observatory. www.loe.org/shows/segmen...
Goddamn.. When @audacityofdespair.bsky.social goes on a literary jihad, he doesn't play.
(Wait. By not using the word crusade, did I fuck this up? So many rules to this shit.)
The first step in solving a problem is understanding what the problem is.
When it comes to climate change, it basically boils down to phasing out greenhouse gas emissions.
But what gases, exactly? And where do they come from?
Here's the latest data.
“Extreme heat is already creating ‘nonsurvivable’ conditions for humans in heatwaves that have killed thousands and likely many more, according to new research that warns people are more susceptible to rising temperatures than first thought.” Via @motherjones.com #ClimateCrisis #UrbanHeat
#NZ Scientists left 'homeless' after government's job cuts, advocates say
CW: Brief non-specific mention of suicidal thoughts
www.rnz.co.nz/news/science...
There are those who want to use war as a last resort and apply the concepts of Just War to the conduct of war.
And there are those who want to use Just War as a default. It's a permission 'to stand one's ground'. A way for them to declare "our only option is 'just war'".
I think when aggressive people often bring up the concept of Just War, they're doing so not to apply Just War standards to their desires, but to make their desires seem just.
@radiofreetom.bsky.social used 'Just War' concepts to legitimize the Iraq invasion:
www.carnegiecouncil.org/media/journa...
I think we can focus on the subjective natures of the actors in this war. The 1000 year tradition yadda yadda is a red herring to distract from the true nature of this 'military conflict' and the merited condemnation by the appointed head of one of the world's major faiths.
...into some sort of Augustine discussion about the 1000 year traditions of war in general.
Leaving out the bombing of the girl's school in an action that was illegal by US standards:
youtube.com/shorts/h73_W...
never mind the Catholic Church, of course.
JD Vance is especially good at wiggling. Look at how he's turned a discussion about those who have a "delusion of omnipotence," we fear, "is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive"
www.ncronline.org/vatican/pope...
People always find room to wiggle. We're worms with an internal calcium structure.
But that's a discussion that should be had before bombing the girl's school. There is no Christian justification for reckless war on the whims of nationalist psychotics who have no real regard for the aims of their conflict nor well being of those affected by their war.
They just want a flex.
Should we have standards that police a global society? Should we have ways to arrest behaviors of aggressive nations, provide relief to populations within abusive nations, stop the pursuit of dangerous technologies by reckless nations?
It's worth a discussion.