Jolly good, there is going to be a division. Somebody was very enthusiastically saying NO! to ensure we'd get one (possibly Nick Fletcher of Don Valley, who is a very strange man).
Days of desperation: the diary of a woman forced to flee Texas for an abortion
Lauren Miller’s fetus had no skull. Her pregnancy threatened her life, and that of her twin boy. Now, she is one of 15 women suing the state #News#GOP#Politics#USA
"Republicans in the Texas legislature recently passed two bills that will affect how elections will be run in the state’s largest county, Harris County — a Houston-centered Democratic stronghold. The first bill gets rid of Harris County’s elections administrator entirely, and the second allows the state’s Republican secretary of state to directly oversee elections in the county. These moves have been referred to as a Republican 'power grab' by Democrats in the state."
A U.S. judge in Florida on Monday ordered defense lawyers for former President Donald Trump not to release evidence in the classified documents case to the media or the public, according to a court filing.
In these days of worry and uncertainty, it's nice to know there are still a few things we can count on. Yes, it's good ol' Business As Usual.
Governments continue subsidizing fossil fuels, emissions keep going up, and nobody will consider doing anything about it...
Seeing as the future of humanity happens to depend on preventing a climate disaster, why on earth hasn’t a carbon tax been implemented? In fact, why is the idea of a carbon tax barely uttered as a viable solution to the climate crisis?
Well, the thing about a carbon tax is that it would set a price on greenhouse gas emissions. The problem (for vested interests) is that baking the price of emissions into products and services would reveal their true cost.
The IMF estimates that fossil fuel subsidies amounted to $5.9 trillion in 2020, and they’re expected to rise further over the coming years. Governments are enabling the fossil fuel industry by keeping prices artificially low. As the lifeblood of the economy, the price of oil has a knock-on effect on everything else, so a cheap oil price is vital for price stability.
Governments continue papering over systemic failures by subsidizing industries that are undermining efforts to achieve net zero by 2050. There is a malaise in efforts to transform the energy sector, underpinned by a fear from governments that change would hinder economic growth. These fears are buttressed by resistance from self-serving oil companies who have everything to lose if the age of fossil fuels comes to an end.
The result? We remain entrenched on the path of “Business As Usual” and continue to hurtle toward a climate disaster that will bring unimaginable pain and suffering.
House GOP leaders return to Washington this week struggling to quell the conservative angst that’s threatening to derail their legislative agenda heading into the summer’s major policy fights with President Biden. #News#GOP#Politics#USA#Trump#MAGA#Republicans#BREAKING#BreakingNews
Has the Republican shrill din of "witch hunt" started to fade a bit now that Trump's indictment has happened and the Republicans actually read the 37 federal charges filed against Trump 🤔🤔 #News#GOP#Politics#USA#Trump#MAGA#Republicans#TrumpCrimeFamily
The federal government has suffered its first major defeat in the Senate, with the Greens and Coalition uniting to reject Labor's centrepiece housing policy.
China's Xi Jinping hailed "progress" in talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing on Monday, the final engagement of a rare trip aimed at ensuring disputes between the superpowers do not spiral into conflict. #News#Politics#USA#Breaking#BreakingNews#Biden#China
US officials hope Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China will lower tensions with Beijing.
In what was seen as a special gesture, announced at the last minute, the top US diplomat met China's head of state Xi at an unplanned meeting. #News#Politics#USA#Breaking#BreakingNews#Biden
I had a very interesting conversation with @jero on our way to do some grocery shopping. Jero has some political views, I do have some of my own political views. We might agree or disagree on the small print but they are basically similar.
We were discussing effective contribution since I was defending preaching to the choir or creating ourselves anxiety with future problems in case the far-right wins (seems to be where Spain is heading to) in my very strong opinion is a waste of our time and energies. It doesn't only never help, it hinders the issue, it makes you want to think about whatever else, it destroys your attention, the subject becomes too loaded and you just want to dismiss it.
So, heading to the effective contribution subejct, he talked about France, the jillet-jeunes (pardon my French) or yellow vest protest and I focused on the "effective" part of the contribution. It's not just about protesting is about being smart enough to do it in ways that brings everybody onto your cause, and not against it. e.g.: climate change protests in London, creating chaos on the M25 are basically putting everybody and their mother against the Extinction Rebelion. While the French seem to be more effective with their chaos. They do it in ways that put PEOPLE against Macron.
I wonder what do you guys in the #fediverse think are ways to making active contribution to make the world a better place that are efective.
Voting is the basis, effectivism in my current context can be measure on how your way makes the far-right lose at a general election.
I don't want to name parties and give them free publicity, because that doesn't help, but one of them wants to destroy the healthcare system in Spain and publicly has said they want to stop giving us HIV people the pills that keep us alive. Spain, like any country with access to for-profit social media, has become a fracture country where divisions are in opposites extremes. Facebook did that, Twitter did that. They realised negative emotions create long-term engagement with the ads of their platform, so they tinkered their algorithm to push hateful and angering content and polarised people.
Anxiety aside that this personal subject (retrovirals not been freE) could cause me, I think objectively that won't and can't happen so I'm not worried.
BUT I do want to actively and more than anything effectively do my VERY BEST to ensure they never get anywhere near power. How can I effectively manage to drive votes on the Idiocracy we live (people don't vote with their brains, ACCEPT it) to vote anything but the far-right?
Let's focus on the word I've highlighted to exhaustion: effective
Political issues need time and efficience. To make the time you need to know effective mean of doing the most with that time.
Now off to do some house chores. This is becoming Monday's routine: first groceries, then house cleaning. Move away cat, I'm hovering! #askfedi#politics#EFFECTIVEActivism
EDIT: The fediverse is not much different, it just feels healthier because we seem all united in our hatred of bigotry.
‘Globalization, the argument goes, may have enriched certain elites, but it hurt many other people… There is much that is true about such narratives—if you look only at each country on its own. Zoom out beyond the level of the nation-state to the entire globe, and the picture looks different. At that scale, the story of inequality in the 21st century is the reverse: the world is growing more equal than it has been for over 100 years.’ Branko Milanovic https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/great-convergence-equality-branko-milanovic#equality#politics
Federal government a step closer to early election trigger as Senate rejects housing bill (www.abc.net.au)
The federal government has suffered its first major defeat in the Senate, with the Greens and Coalition uniting to reject Labor's centrepiece housing policy.