This post is a collection of links to political articles and social media posts, with quoted passages from them, that I encountered over the past month and found to be particularly significant. Hope that you, too, find something meaningful in them.
I just hope that you get to practice some dirty and direct democracy with people in your neighborhood, or town, or city, or workplace, or wherever you find yourself gathering with people and working for change. It’ll be uncomfortable, and there will be conflict, but right on the other side of the tension and difficulty lie stronger relationships, tested by turmoil, and stronger communities that have the skills and practices to do real self-governance and self-sustaining work. On the other side is a culture and a world freer from oppression and domination because we’re each armed with the knowledge and ability to be active agents in the struggle for a better world.
“We’re probably locked into the year 2050 with warming because the methane and carbon dioxide will have a lifetime in the atmosphere,” Hobday said. “So even if you turned off the tap today, they’re still going to have an effect before the ocean can draw down that carbon dioxide or before the methane breaks down.”
A lot of you saw Anne Applebaum's recent article in The Atlantic, "Is Congress Really Going to Abandon Ukraine Now?"
John Stoehr wrote up an excellent piece pointing out the real subtext of the issue. Pasting the main points here as a thread.
John's piece is called: "The Republicans represent a 'sovereign nation' inside America," and he takes issue with her characterization of it being due to her blaming "the sudden collapse of American support for Ukraine’s war against Russia on ‘political incompetence.’”
“Like I said, I get it.
“But the Republicans and their presumptive leader represent more than a ‘radical, pro-Russian faction.’ They represent a confederacy of the mind and spirit, an imaginary nation inside a real nation that is, to them, sovereign in all but name. It is a place where the ‘laws of God’ supersede the laws of men, and efforts to actualize the broader ideals of America, such as universal liberty, are seen as perversions of the will of God that are deserving of any reaction, up to and including treason.
“[…] So the Republicans are not ‘incompetent.’ They know what they want, and they know how to get it, no matter how destructive it may be to everyone, including to themselves. Linking Ukraine to the border bill wasn’t a ‘strange idea.’ It was rational for an ongoing insurgency bent on sabotaging the United States from the inside out in order to establish a new world order according to God's law. They are not just a pro-Russia faction. They are pro-white confederacy. If America is a degenerate, dying power, that's because of the parasite within it.”
Oh look, just an elected official casually calling for an extrajudicial killing styled after a foreign authoritarian regime’s terror campaign.
And, of course, that is not at all something that will get him in trouble in today’s Republican Party. [Rep. Mike Collins Pinochet “helicopter ride” reference]
Visualizing the accumulation of human-made mass on Earth
A 2023 study by researchers using a high-altitude NASA aircraft found that 10% of aerosols in the stratosphere contain aluminum and other metals from disintegrating satellites and rocket stages. These particles are drifting down from "the ablation zone" 70 to 80 km above Earth's surface where meteors and satellites burn up.
[…] "It's a textbook undergraduate physics problem," she explains. "Suppose you put a conductive shell (satellite debris) around a spherical magnet (Earth). Outside the shell, the magnetic field goes to zero due to shielding effects. This is a highly simplified comparison, of course, but we might actually be doing this to our planet."
This was an utterly outrageous thing for a leading Democrat to say about people who oppose Israel’s murderous ethnic cleansing of Gazans:
Pelosi did not provide any evidence of potential ties between protestors and Russia, but said their messaging benefits Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Who benefits for (President) Joe Biden to be taking a beating from these crowds that he’s only supported all along? […] (Former President Donald Trump) and his friend Vladimir Putin,” Pelosi said.
[…] Pelosi addressed concerns about younger and more progressive voters turning on Biden because of his support for what they call Israel’s genocide in Gaza by saying the alternative — another Trump presidency — would be worse.
Trump said he plans to declare martial law. Here’s what that would look like
About Boeing being run by financial hacks for the past 25 years:
He tells Tkacik about a Wall Street analyst telling him: "'Look, I get it. What you’re telling me is that your business is different. That you’re special. Well, listen: Everybody thinks his business is different, because everybody is the same. Nobody. Is. Different."
[…] But there is a threat only barely latent in it, too. It's an inversion of the way in which ideas like "everybody is the same" have traditionally been used in the culture; where that has typically been deployed, always rhetorically and usually insincerely, as a politician's shorthand for the belief that every life has value and every person's dignity is meaningful, it is here an assertion that every life—that every line of work and every person working in it, and every concern that those people have—is equally valueless and equally insignificant.
Boeing was seeking an engineering exemption from the FAA for the anti-ice system on its Max 7, but withdrew it Monday, Reuters reported.
[…] “These same issues that were there in 2018 and 2019 [at Boeing] that were the precursors to the accidents are still there,” Pierson said. “This is a culture where money is everything. They measure success by how many airplanes are delivered, instead of how many quality airplanes are delivered. […] When you factor all of this together, it’s just a disaster waiting to happen.”
On the corrupt Trump-era DoJ-Boeing deal after the 737 MAX crashes:
Epstein, in exchange for his plea, wrangled immunity from future prosecution not only for himself but “any potential co-conspirators”; while Boeing’s DPA theoretically allows the agency to prosecute individuals for the 737 MAX frauds, it also explicitly stated that “misconduct was neither pervasive across the organization, nor undertaken by a large number of employees, nor facilitated by senior management,” essentially giving the finger to anyone who had cooperated in the investigation because they knew otherwise.
[…] But Coffee was not optimistic about the possibility of exploiting the collective outrage over the incident to force genuine reform at Boeing. “Anyone who advocates for [going tougher] on Boeing will be accused of working to the benefit of Airbus in Europe,” Coffee said in a recent interview. “That’s the kind of way Washington talks about this.”
True to form, while Republicans hijacked a Tuesday air safety hearing widely expected to focus on Boeing to discuss apocryphal reports of “illegal foreign nationals” camping out in airports and Taylor Swift’s “supersonic jet,” the aviation subcommittee’s ranking Democrat Rick Larsen (D-WA) dumped cold water on the notion of so much as scheduling a Boeing-specific hearing to address the manufacturer’s continued descent into dysfunction. “It’s going to end up a circus, and that’s not what we need”
When we tell you "German liberals and centrists appeased the fascists, merc'd the left and then were surprised when they ultimately lost to the Nazis" this is what we mean.
"As the world turns, it makes no sense for contemporary society to pledge allegiance to the founding era's culture, realities, laws, and understanding of the Constitution," the 53-page ruling says before citing the hit HBO show [The Wire.]
This statement is from a court document submitted by Apple's lawyers regarding the App Store data privacy class action lawsuit:
"Given Apple’s extensive privacy disclosures, no reasonable user would expect that their actions in Apple’s apps would be private from Apple."
Special counsel details threats against witnesses in Mar-a-Lago case in effort to protect their identities
Collapse Will Look Nothing Like in the Movies
As the story unfolds, we are informed that civilizational collapse is to be blamed on the wrong doings of a small group of humans, a virus or a natural disaster, and never-ever on billions of us living unsustainably for hundreds of years.
[…] Needless to say, the role of this mythical place is to create the illusion that experts have everything under control, and no matter what happens, our current way of life can continue indefinitely.
Once they set out to complete their mission, the hero(s) learn that they cannot really trust anyone they meet along their journey, and that they have to be very-very suspicious of strangers.
This is why libraries are under attack. They are the physical incarnation of an approach to life and politics and humanity that would, if it was expanded upon, let us live, and live well. And therefore they’re threatening. Libraries are a little window into a world where we aren’t scrambling to survive, where profit doesn’t dominate our every decision, where we’re freer to explore because our needs are met.
Whenever you are weighing in on politics, society, and culture, ask yourself: Would you feel comfortable making this argument directly to the face of the people whose lives, rights, and dignity are most immediately affected by the issue in question?
It’s The Impunity, Stupid [on Tesla pollution]
”It’s bewildering to see new fossil fuel extraction projects still getting the go-ahead here in Australia.” –Prof Matthew England, scientia professor, Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS), University of New South Wales
But the presiding US district judge Aileen Cannon ordered the exhibit that prosecutors in the office of special counsel, Jack Smith, had submitted “ex parte” – or without showing it to the defense – to be transmitted to Trump’s lawyers after reviewing its contents and deciding it did not warrant that protection.
Atrocious, illegitimate decision:
In his decision, Carney granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss, agreeing that Rundo and Boman were being selectively prosecuted, while “far-left extremist groups, such as Antifa” were not.
“Prosecuting only members of the far right and ignoring members of the far left leads to the troubling conclusion that the government believes it is permissible to physically assault and injure Trump supporters to silence speech,” Carney wrote in his order.
“There seems to be little doubt that Defendants, or at least some members of RAM, engaged in criminal violence. But they cannot be selected for prosecution because of their repugnant speech and beliefs over those who committed the same violence with the goal of disrupting political events.”
[…] The federal indictment against Rundo alleged he and other defendants recruited new members to the organization, coordinated training in hand-to-hand combat, and traveled to political rallies to attack protesters at events across the state.
Rundo was accused not just of organizing the violent confrontations, but also of attacking protesters and police officers. After Rundo was ordered by police to stop attacking a “defenseless person” during an April 15, 2017, protest in Berkeley, he allegedly punched an officer twice in the head, according to an arrest warrant.
Half of migratory species face extinction due to human activities
The American political system is full of not only explicitly counter-democratic institutions—the senate, the electoral college, etc—but countless veto points, like Baucus’ single senate vote and his ability as chair to kill progress on legislation.
The entire point of the American political system is to make it nearly impossible to change the political and economic status quo.
[…] They drafted up the constitution, a document self-consciously modeled on the political institutions of the Roman Republic, another state dominated by rich slavers, with institutions that nominally allowed for political participation and ritualized voting without any substance of democratic participation by the public.
The Fraud of Plastic Recycling [PDF]
Reactionaries love fear and violence. They love being terrified that they could die at any moment, and they love the idea of watching other people die.
It flows from their psychotic religious drive and fatalist outlook.
Charlie Kirk and his podcast guests recently provided a perfect example of the mentality as they fantasized at length about televised executions which they would force children to watch. (This is how lynchings were done btw)
What Digby Said still going strong:
The Kewl Kids Are Bored [about press coverage of Biden vs. Trump]
Alongside the short-term bluffs stabilization project, we are studying potential options for a long-term solution. The ultimate goal is to move the rail line off the bluffs in the City of Del Mar. [About improvements re-routing rail lines away from the coast]
The study comes from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice and examines crime clearance rates — a key indicator of how well police are doing their jobs — for California between 1990 and 2022. During the past three decades, the percentage of reported violent and property crimes solved by police through an arrest dropped a whopping 41%. During the same three decades, the amount California taxpayers spend to fund law enforcement has risen by a staggering 52%.
[…] The report’s author and senior researcher at CJCJ, Mike Males, told me that over the last 30 years, the number of reported crimes to police has plunged about 50%, so it’s not like police are underperforming because they’re getting swamped in crime reports. Yet, in San Francisco and Alameda County, home to some of the state’s loudest calls for more cops and more police funding, police clearance rates are abysmal. San Francisco’s 6.7% clearance rate, and Alameda County’s 5.8% — which includes the Oakland Police Department’s 1.5% clearance rate — make them some of the worst-performing jurisdictions in California, according to the study.
Japan to launch world’s first wooden satellite to combat space pollution [about biodegradable satellite structures]
That's some platform, GOP Fascist Party: "NO SEX FOR PLEASURE!" Should garner a whole lotta votes.
1/ […] Via Adam Jentleson:
Highly influential heritage foundation, which would help staff & direct a future Trump admin, literally said that a key conserv policy goal is “ending recreational sex.” they said it, not me. IMO we should take them both seriously & literally
2/ Heritage Foundation:
"It seems to me that a good place to start would be a feminist movement against the pill, & for... returning the consequentiality to sex."
Conservatives have to lead the way in restoring sex to its true purpose, & ending recreational sex & senseless use of birth control pills
Schiff edges higher, Garvey continues to climb in new California Senate poll [about the spoiler effect in “top 2” elections]
Funny enough, in The Road to Serfdom, uber-libertarian Friedrich Hayek cited air pollution as his one example of something that would require governmental regulation:
Supreme Court to hear cross-state pollution case
States argue EPA plan is too costly and will lead to electric grid outages
New Law Requires SNAP Recipients To Balance Food On Nose Until Receiving Command To Eat It, The Onion
An ideological process works something like "I believe this, so it follows that I believe that" and so forth. The root is what you believe. Fascism doesn't work that way, it's "I want this to happen, so I will contort my rhetoric until it's justified." That's why fascist leaders can change the meta-story of a fascist movement, at the drop of a hat. It's also why I say they believe in nothing but power.
a fascist's base doesn't *think* about issues, it *emotes* about issues. All the manipulation is to create the emotional rush of the in-group overcoming the out-group.
About USAF serviceman Aaron Bushnell’s self-immolation protest of the Gaza invasion, done in front of the Israeli embassy, during which a Secret Service agent pointed a gun at him:
He was fully engulfed in flames and this cops first instinct was to shoot him. Incredible and horrifying summation of how the police operate.
These companies tried a 4-day workweek. More than a year in, they still love it
As Roosevelt noted in 1936: “A number of my friends who belong in the very high upper brackets have suggested to me on several occasions of late, that if I am reelected president, they will have to move to some other nation because of high taxes here.
“Now, I will miss them very much...” (audience breaks into laughter)
Some CEOs earn 1,000 times more than their workers. Here’s how to stop that
Unofficially, we should stop giving every Supreme Court thought bubble the force and effect of law by dutifully enforcing whatever the justices come up with. I know that sounds radical. But I also know that an unjust law deserves no respect. If you want a benign, “nonpartisan” way to distinguish between legitimate Supreme Court rulings and ones that should be ignored, I have one: Rulings must be affirmed by at least one justice from both parties, or we should ignore it. It’s that simple. Both sides or GTFO. If the Supreme Court cannot come to some basically bipartisan agreement, then the ruling of the lower court stands (and if the lower courts did not come to some bipartisan agreement, then the ruling of the single-judge district court stands).
Read More
