📢 The EU Parliament will not be moving forward with chat control! The indiscriminate mass surveillance measures have been removed and secure end-to-end encryption will not be compromised! 🥳
1: "Well, you have to give your social security number, a picture of the weakest part of your skull, and your home address to Hammers The Clown. You also have to download COVID 19 into your eyeball once per month."
2:"What that sounds terrible what does that have to do with--"
1:"Wow. Ok. HEY EVERYONE THIS GUY HATES CHILDREN!!!!!!!"
So, I don't know how many people know this, but several Republican organizations, including the Heritage Foundation, Turning Point USA, the Family Policy Alliance, the American Conservative, and others are working with former Trump administration officials to develop a comprehensive plan to remake the entire federal government into Trump's image if he wins the election.
They published a playbook titled "Project 2025" this year in which they spell out how they're going to take on the "deep state" by stocking ever agency - FDA, State Department, DHS, USAID, EPA, NIH, etc. - with MAGA loyalists to cut every DEI program, end all support for LGBTQ+ people, eliminate food stamps, cut humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and so on.
All Republicans are at least as bad as Trump, if not worse.
If you care about the planet, please make sure you sit down before you start reading this post about ExxonMobil.
So.
The CEO of ExxonMobil just said this in an interview: "We’ve waited too long to open the aperture on the solution sets in terms of what we need, as a society, to start reducing emissions."
Who's the most influential voice on climate change? Who's to blame for inaction on climate change?
According to the CEO of ExxonMobil, it's environmental activists.
No, really:
"Frankly, society, and the activist—the dominant voice in this discussion—has tried to exclude the industry that has the most capacity and the highest potential for helping with some of the technologies."
Oh, and the CEO of ExxonMobil also apparently thinks consumers are to blame for climate inaction:
"Today we have opportunities to make fuels with lower carbon, but people aren’t willing to spend the money to do that."
Gets better.
He thinks unnamed 'people who generate emissions' should pay for it. (Rather than, say, major transnational oil companies.)
"People who are generating the emissions need to be aware of [it] and pay the price. That’s ultimately how you solve the problem."
So, remind me again. Who knew about climate change before most of the public?
"Exxon was aware of climate change, as early as 1977, 11 years before it became a public issue... This knowledge did not prevent the company (now ExxonMobil and the world’s largest oil and gas company) from spending decades refusing to publicly acknowledge climate change and even promoting climate misinformation."
And just who, exactly, stood in the way reducing emissions all these years?
"ExxonMobil executives privately sought to undermine climate science even after the oil and gas giant publicly acknowledged the link between fossil fuel emissions and climate change, according to previously unreported documents...
"The new revelations are based on previously unreported documents subpoenaed by New York’s attorney general as part of an investigation into the company announced in 2015. They add to a slew of documents that record a decades-long misinformation campaign waged by Exxon, which are cited in a growing number of state and municipal lawsuits against big oil."
Homeless people are people. Just give them homes. It's been proven to save public money. Just give them homes. It's been proven to reduce drug dependency and mental crises. Just give them homes. It literally ends homelessness. Just give them homes. NOT KILL THEM.
A group of 18 European Parliament Members have issued a statement officially calling for #Degrowth.
Here is part of what they wrote...
We believe that the current economic model, based on endless growth, has reached its limits.
Firstly, continuous economic growth, especially based on the consumption of fossil fuels, is leading to catastrophic global warming.
Secondly, the infinite pursuit of growth relies on the depletion of natural resources, the destruction of biodiversity, and the accumulation of waste and pollution. This also poses risks to our health, our economies, and our societies writ large.
Thirdly, the current economic model is contributing to social inequality and exclusion. The emphasis on economic growth has not translated into equal distribution of wealth or opportunities. Instead, it has resulted in a concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few leaving many behind.
Fourthly, the current economic model is inherently unstable and prone to crises, as seen, for example, during the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The pursuit of growth at all costs has created a global economic system that is fragile and vulnerable to shocks.
We need an economic system that prioritises human well-being and ecological sustainability over GDP growth, one that recognises that infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible.
We also believe we need to find new ways of organising our economies without relying on the continuous exploitation of resources and the constant increase in production and consumption.
We call for more pluralism in economic thinking within EU institutions and for its alignment with the scientific evidence of climate, ecological, and social sciences.
We call for economic models and other decision-support tools to be more diverse, more comprehensive, and more readable for citizens.
We call for decision-making processes to be aligned with our common policy objectives rather than on the basis of the variation of GDP figures.
Names of those who signed on as co-authors: Philippe Lamberts (BE), Bas Eickhout (NL), Ville Niinisto (FI), Manuela Ripa (DE), Marie Toussaint (FR), Ernest Urtasun (ES), Kim Van Sparrentak (NL) — Greens/EFA; Manon Aubry (FR), Petros Kokkalis (EL), Marisa Matias (PT), Helmut Scholz (DE) — The Left (GUE/NGL); Pascal Durand (FR), Aurore Lalucq (FR), Pierre Larrouturou (FR) — Socialists & Democrats (S&D); Sirpa Pietikainen (FI), Maria Walsh (IE) — European People’s Party (EPP); Katalin CSEH (HU) — Renew Europe (RE); and Dino GIARRUSSO (IT) — Non-attached (NI).
So, the former president of the United States is calling on states to take up arms to support Texas in its standoff against the federal government. That’s about as close to calling for civil war as you’re going to get without actually saying the words.
This is a situation that could spiral out of control in a heartbeat. I would not assume it’s just bluster. #politics#texas#trump#immigration
Silicon Valley billionaires are drawing a line: you’re either a techno-optimist who won’t question them or an enemy they’re ready to fight.
In his new manifesto, Marc Andreessen embraces faith and fascism to distract from the harms the tech industry has caused and justify the power and wealth of the tech elite. It shows why a renewed Luddite movement is absolutely necessary.
Hi Fedi Family,
In 2008 Californians voted for Prop8 that defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman in the California constitution. While this was defeated in courts this draconian Prop8 language is still in the California constitution. Justice tHomas and the right wing SCOTUS is openly hinting at destroying precedent and trampling rights. If they overturned Obergefell - the Prop8 language in the California Constitution will act as a “trigger law”, raining havoc on queer families like mine across California.
Please spread the word to vote “YES” to repeal Prop8 (2008) from the California constitution in Nov 2024. Talk to your friends, family and colleagues about it.
I don't mean to be all political, but I do not think killing over 3,000 children, including premature babies, is the best way to show that you condemn terrorist violence.
Pay attention to what's happening in this case: the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals just essentially ruled that it's fully legal to jail journalists for reporting leaked information, or any information they obtain from government officials without going through "proper channels."
Because older generations tend to be more conservative than younger generations, it looks like people get more conservative with age.
This is, thankfully, untrue.
People get more progressive with age.
It's just that previous generations get a little left behind. The jump between generations is bigger than the progress that happens within people, giving the illusion that older people become more conservative.
The GOP’s Secret to Protecting Gerrymandered Electoral Maps? Claim Privilege.
Through new and expansive assertions of privilege, #Republican legislatures around the country are shielding their work on allegedly discriminatory #voting maps to prevent the public from finding out how and why they made their decisions.
It’s incredibly dangerous how the richest man in the world — deluded by paranoia, narcissism, and far-right conspiracies — can get arms of the state to go after his perceived enemies instead of holding him to account as they should be doing.
(1) a Presidential coup that has not (yet) succeeded, but had a flashpoint with the insurrection of January 6, 2021.
(2) a Judicial coup in which Mitch McConnell denied President Obama a Supreme Court appointment. then rushed Justice Barrett onto the bench. That coup succeeded.
Don't give up. We need to show the same courage the abolitionists, suffragettes, and civil rights activists had then, to save our democracy now.