Sunday, May 31, 2020
bellingcat - The Boogaloo Movement Is Not What You Think - bellingcat
bellingcat - The Boogaloo Movement Is Not What You Think - bellingcat: On May 26th, crowds gathered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to protest the death of 46-year-old George Floyd at the hands of the city’s police department. Floyd was black. Many of the protesters were people of color. The department fired four policemen that same day, after footage emerged appearing to show Floyd being strangled by a white...
Salt in the Wound – Spectre Journal
Salt in the Wound – Spectre Journal: What sorts of crises are emerging from Covid-19, and how should we understand them in relation to prior crises?
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
U.S. climate responsibility
U.S. citizens, though only 4% of the world's population, bear the greatest responsibility because they have over 20% of the total cases and their 'way of life' is at the root of ecological devastation. Yet even America’s particular failure to address climate change and its ongoing malignant narcissism isn’t a failure of all of humanity. The United States produces only 15 percent of global emissions, so it’s not accurate to blame global warming solely on the Republican Party or American fossil fuel companies.
Trump's foreign policy
“In the planned incompetence of the Trump transition, nobody with foreign policy stature and an international network had been put in place – even the new secretary of state designate, Rex Tillerson, had no real experience in foreign policy.” Wolff, Fire and Fury, p. 226. Initially, Trump's foreign policy amounted to little more than selling even more arms to the Saudis, aiding their bullying of Qatar, and stroking the Egyptian strongman, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. When the Crown Prince of the House of Saud offered himself to Kushner as his guy in the Saudi kingdom, that was “like meeting someone nice at your first day of boarding school,” said Kushner's friend.
The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists last January was set at two minutes to midnight. That’s the closest it’s been to terminal disaster since 1947.
The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists last January was set at two minutes to midnight. That’s the closest it’s been to terminal disaster since 1947.
Nuclear Weapons: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
If you're paying attention to the bigger threat than Trump poses than his ongoing pandemic fiasco then you'll know why this is worth reposting: Nuclear Weapons: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) https://youtu.be/1Y1ya-yF35g via
Democracy undergoing 'alarming' decline around the world, study finds | The Independent
Democracy undergoing 'alarming' decline around the world, study finds | The Independent: Democracy is undergoing an “alarming” decline across the world as a growing number of countries move towards authoritarian rule, according to the Freedom House think tank. The US organisation’s annual “Freedom in the World” report found 2018 was the 13th consecutive year of deteriorating freedoms around the globe.
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
One million species at risk of extinction, UN report warns
One million species at risk of extinction, UN report warns: THE BONDS THAT hold nature together may be at risk of unraveling from deforestation, overfishing, development, and other human activities, a landmark United Nations report warns. Thanks to human pressures, one million species may be pushed to extinction in the next few years, with serious consequences for human beings as well as the rest of life on Earth.
“The evidence is crystal clear: Nature is in trouble. Therefore we are in trouble,” said Sandra DÃaz, one of the co-chairs of the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. A 40-page “Summary for Policy Makers” of the forthcoming full report (expected to exceed 1,500 pages) was released May 6 in Paris.
“The evidence is crystal clear: Nature is in trouble. Therefore we are in trouble,” said Sandra DÃaz, one of the co-chairs of the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. A 40-page “Summary for Policy Makers” of the forthcoming full report (expected to exceed 1,500 pages) was released May 6 in Paris.
the new objective presents ‘EVERYONE IS BORED’ [mix] | a closer listen
the new objective presents ‘EVERYONE IS BORED’ [mix] | a closer listen: I’m currently stuck in my apartment in Montreal, the course I’m teaching this semester transitioned online for the foreseeable future. Since so many of us will be socially isolated, I t…
Pandemic thoughts....
The pandemic has certainly put things in perspective. I mean, can we really afford to go back to back to a world of wage slavery, ecological doom, globalization, competitive exams, Wall Street, air traffic, blood sports, swimsuit issues, Disneyland, health insurance tied to employment, ATM fees, factory farms, Jared Kushner, dams, wet markets, megachurches, billionaires, the IMF, NATO, the arms industry, the Masked Singer, Big Pharma, the Electoral College, etc? Not being paid oneself, what would be more natural than to stop paying one’s rent? Why would a person unable to work go on depositing their mortgage payments at the bank?
A political virus - America’s far right is energised by covid-19 lockdowns | United States | The Economist
A political virus - America’s far right is energised by covid-19 lockdowns | United States | The Economist: Extremists see the pandemic as the prelude to the apocalyptic “boogaloo”
David Quammen: The Spillover of Animal Infections to Humans - Scientific American
David Quammen: The Spillover of Animal Infections to Humans - Scientific American: A single spillover that led to the pandemic, led to the pandemic strain of HIV, was from one chimp into one human in the southeastern corner of Cameroon back as far as 1908.
Steve: That's David Quammen. The New York Times correctly called Quammen "not just among our best science writers but among our best writers, [period]." I and many other Quammen fans first met him through his Natural Acts columns in Outside magazine, which are available in a couple of anthologies. He went on to write the epic Song of [the] Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction. He also wrote Monster of God about the few animals left that are predators of us. His latest book is titled Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic. He was in New York City recently and we met early in the morning at his hotel near the World Trade Center site, so you might hear some construction sounds in the background. Please forgive my hoarse voice, as I was getting over a respiratory infection of my own. Also, the last few minutes of our conversation featured some profanity because the book does.
Steve: Your last book was about big animals that kill people and eat them and this to me is almo
Steve: That's David Quammen. The New York Times correctly called Quammen "not just among our best science writers but among our best writers, [period]." I and many other Quammen fans first met him through his Natural Acts columns in Outside magazine, which are available in a couple of anthologies. He went on to write the epic Song of [the] Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction. He also wrote Monster of God about the few animals left that are predators of us. His latest book is titled Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic. He was in New York City recently and we met early in the morning at his hotel near the World Trade Center site, so you might hear some construction sounds in the background. Please forgive my hoarse voice, as I was getting over a respiratory infection of my own. Also, the last few minutes of our conversation featured some profanity because the book does.
Steve: Your last book was about big animals that kill people and eat them and this to me is almo
10 Things You Should Know About Socialism | Yes! Magazine
10 Things You Should Know About Socialism | Yes! Magazine: What do we mean when we talk about “socialism”? Here are ten things about its theory, practice, and potential that you need to know.
The Virus Shocks
The virus shocks precisely because shows that the whole is always implied in the part, that “everything is, in certain sense, in everything” and that in nature there are no autonomous regions that constitute an exception. In addition to the walls the rich build to keep out the poor, new borders are created – with the usual destruction they cause – against all neighbours, i.e. 'anyone”. Today it is responsible for the sociable to avoid society, but that will change tomorrow.
Part of Trump's nuclear disaster
The old nuclear bomb manufacturing site in Hanford, Washington is 600 square miles where plutonium was pumped out to make bombs. When it gets in the Columbia River, it poisons the Pacific Northwest. In February, the Trump administration proposed cutting the site's clean-up budget by around 50%, and in June of 2019 introduced controversial deregulatory rule-changes to the site’s oversight.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington estimated that there will be nearly 135,000 deaths in the United States through the beginning of August — more than double what it forecast on April 17, when it estimated 60,308 deaths by Aug. 4. The institute wrote that the revisions reflected “rising mobility in most U.S. states as well as the easing of social distancing measures expected in 31 states by May 11, indicating that growing contacts among people will promote transmission of the coronavirus.”
Trunp Lied... People are dying
The Trump regime privately projected a steady rise in the number of coronavirus cases and deaths immediately following reopening. The daily death toll will reach over 3,000 on June 1, according to government modeling pulled together by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a 70 percent increase. The projections forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000 cases a day currently.
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Good read on Trump
https://link.esquire.com/view/5bda03a47e555430683e8dbdc3pe6.62h/8e443a6d: As a political creature, the president exists in that mold and rot, feeds on it, and tells his voters that it’s all fine dining.
Recently, in trying to get a grip on what the context of the upcoming national election might be, I came upon a psychological phenomenon called “derealization,” a dissociative disorder the symptoms of which include:
• Distorted perception of time, space, and size of things around you.
• Feeling of unreality from the world around you, as if in a dream or trance.
• Feeling as if everything is foggy, fuzzy, or warped.
• Sense of being disconnected from those around you as if you’re trapped in a bubble.
• Thoughts of going crazy or being very ill.
And it struck me that not only did that describe my own general feeling during this time of plague and quarantine, but also it fairly describes the political condition within which the president has succeeded politically, because it also fairly describes the world that he has created around himself his entire life. He creates derealized situations, milks them for every dime, mines them for every possible advantage, and then moves along to his next one, leaving his victims stuck in the fog of d
Recently, in trying to get a grip on what the context of the upcoming national election might be, I came upon a psychological phenomenon called “derealization,” a dissociative disorder the symptoms of which include:
• Distorted perception of time, space, and size of things around you.
• Feeling of unreality from the world around you, as if in a dream or trance.
• Feeling as if everything is foggy, fuzzy, or warped.
• Sense of being disconnected from those around you as if you’re trapped in a bubble.
• Thoughts of going crazy or being very ill.
And it struck me that not only did that describe my own general feeling during this time of plague and quarantine, but also it fairly describes the political condition within which the president has succeeded politically, because it also fairly describes the world that he has created around himself his entire life. He creates derealized situations, milks them for every dime, mines them for every possible advantage, and then moves along to his next one, leaving his victims stuck in the fog of d
Friday, May 15, 2020
Monday, May 11, 2020
Saluting the Heroes of the Coronavirus Pandumbic | The Daily Show
A regime of denialism, as pursued in Tehran, results in minimal testing, lying about the number of cases, and only belated counter-measures: with thousands of unnecessary deaths – as well as greater state repression. Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that the virus wasn’t much worse than “flu”. He told state governors that the Federal government would not help them find respirators for the sick.
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Trump’s 100 Days of Deadly Coronavirus Denial – Mother Jones
Trump’s 100 Days of Deadly Coronavirus Denial – Mother Jones: 14 weeks of failure, self-congratulation, and golf
Trump's refusal to use existing laws to federalize the manufacture of masks and ventilators is a war crime.
Trump's refusal to use existing laws to federalize the manufacture of masks and ventilators is a war crime.
Saturday, May 9, 2020
Frequently asked questions: The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on The Employment Situation for April 2020
Since this mis-classification started already for the March report when its impact was much less significant, we could ask if this was a political decision in March so as to significantly under-report the monthly unemployment rate, even apart from other problems that we have known for a long time.
Frequently asked questions: The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on The Employment Situation for April 2020
Frequently asked questions: The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on The Employment Situation for April 2020
Friday, May 8, 2020
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Closing Cincinnati's Racial Business Gap | Capital & Main
Closing Cincinnati's Racial Business Gap | Capital & Main: The Queen City is enjoying a commercial rebirth but staggering disparities separate black workers and businesses from their white counterparts.Co-published by Fast Company
Sunday, May 3, 2020
CURMUDGUCATION: Trump Teams Up With Catholic Church For School Vou...
CURMUDGUCATION: Trump Teams Up With Catholic Church For School Vou...: The Tablet is a magazine of Catholic news and opinion; they got their hands on a recording of the April 26 conference call phone meeting b...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)