Tag: environment

NO, NO, AND 1000 TIMES NO, JOE

Do NOT play wimp to the Bully Republicans

Joe, a Washington Post headline this morning shouts that you are ready to deal with the Republicans. You are ready to “compromise,” which means you are ready to make a half-assed effort at progress on both the environment and the economy. You’re ready to GIVE IN to bully McConnell, who has been acting as the real decision maker in this country for over two decades.

DON’T DO IT, JOE.

If the Republicans wish to let America’s infrastructure collapse because of their allegiance to the most greedy, LET IT.

And shout it from every podium, rooftop, and news source in the world, that you tried to help America, and save the environment, but the Republicans blocked you and put the very rich above the good of the country. Again.

You will lose much of my, and America’s, respect if you “deal” on this. This is very possibly our ONLY chance to get this country on the right track, both environmentally and economically, and if you give in to make deals like this, YOU ARE BLOWING IT.

The Republican party has made it clear that it is the party of white supremacy, and of allegiance to the richest Americans and the greediest corporations. They can no longer even begin to try making a case that they give the slightest damn about the average American.

LAY INTO THEM, JOE.

Stand strong. Make sure Nancy Pelosi does, too. Pass a REAL infrastructure and environment-saving plan, any way you have to do it. You can do this, and you can do it by leveraging your strength and communicating clearly with the very Americans whom the Republicans routinely sell out while claiming to care about them. Make absolutely and deafeningly clear to them that Democrats are trying to help them, while Republicans sell them down the river.

Moscow Mitch has repeatedly said he will block all Democratic legislation, just like he did with Obama. SHOW HIM THIS WORKS BOTH WAYS. Make him know that every single piece of legislation coming from Republicans is dead on arrival.

There is no middle ground on this Joe. There is only the right side, and the wrong side. When I and millions of Americans voted for you, we thought you were the right side. Now is not the time to equivocate, to give in, to surrender.

You can be Roosevelt, Churchill, Johnson. You cannot be a middle of the road, bad deal maker. You can’t be Charlie Brown. Start to compromise, and McConnell will walk all over you, all over America’s democracy, all over the environment, just like he’s been doing.

No, Joe. Don’t do it. The Republicans have been proving for years that good guys can’t win. Don’t let them keep doing it. If you want to be a nice guy, you have to be like the nice guys that took down Hitler.

Don’t wimp out, Joe. Don’t shrug, and give in. Raise hell, Joe. The Republicans want to keep controlling America in the name of the greediest and the white supremacists. They want a fight.

Make them wish they hadn’t asked for it.

Republicans want to force you to compromise for one reason: so that they can maintain the status quo, and Joe, we all know what that looks like.

Down and dirty, Joe. Trench warfare. Scorched earth. It’s the only way to win this. There is no participation trophy.

When the dust settles, when average Americans can breathe better, drink cleaner water, earn the income they deserve, afford a nice home, put their kids through school, and plan for a comfortable retirement, regardless of the color of their skin or their gender, then and only then can America prove the lie of today’s corrupt Republican party; only then can we drive a wooden stake through the heart of the vampire known as Trumpism. Only then can we start to truly dismantle white supremacy.

130 Days in- Are We Having Fun Yet?

130 days into the Biden Administration, and where are we? Biden announces a sweeping, environmentally strong, infrastructure plan….Mitch McConnell and Joe Manchin say nope, not going to do that…. Democrats say, uh, ok, uh, what will you let us do? Is it okay if we do , maybe, a little bit? While they are doing nothing, which has become a virtual trademark, the Biden administration says sure, go ahead, to Donald Trump’s environmentally disastrous and insane sale of the Alaska to big oil. Biden and the Democrats say we need a bipartisan investigation of the January 6 insurrection….Mitch McConnell says nope, not going to do that…. Democrats say, oh, gee, shucky darn, we’re sorry, Mitch, please don’t hurt us. Biden says he’ll tax the rich…Mitch McConnell says nope, not going to happen…. Biden says, well, gee, maybe, if we could, just a teensy bit, please, Mitch? Can we? Huh? I mean,…OW that hurts, Mitch. Please stop hitting me. Trump and his crazies, which are at this point THE Republican party, continue to push the BIG LIE, which is actually a collection of big lies. A handful of Republicans object to this with their mouth, while continue to follow along meekly with their vote…. The Democrats? Crickets. Democrats take what I guess is the much advertised ‘high road,’ and don’t bother to aggressively engage. They take Nixon’s “If I close my eyes they can’t see me,” approach. As a matter of fact, the Democrats continue to take the Nixon approach to governing, The Democrats are Bert Lahr’s lion, the circus clown with a rubber mallet. They continue to play Coyote to Mitch McConnell’s roadrunner. They are Danny Kaye’s Walter Mitty, only with less courage and no happy ending in sight. They are the Marx brothers without a funny script. All Mitch McConnell needs is a leather suit and a whip. 130 days in. Somebody tell me, please, how much things have changed?

When you are asked, Where were you when America’s lights went out?

If you are a Trump supporter, I fervently hope you will read this post.
I am a retired teacher, 40 years worth. I always promised my students that one thing I would never do is lie to them. and I never did. I’m telling you the same thing. I beg of you, see this creature for what and who he really is.


Every word that comes out of your hero’s mouth about election fraud, and Democrats rigging the election, IS A LIE.
This is not surprising because he lies about everything. 20,000 so far and counting since the 2016 election.

Please read this paragraph. “I spent 38 years as a Republican lawyer going into precincts looking for evidence of fraud. There are, to be sure, isolated cases, but nothing like the widespread fraud that would somehow invalidate an election or cause anyone to doubt the peaceful transfer of power,” Ben Ginsberg, who helped litigate the 2000 election on George W. Bush’s behalf, told CNN’s John King on Thursday. “So what’s different about this is a president of the United States going right at one of the pillars of the democracy without the evidence that you have got to have to make that case.”


I know you probably hate progressives, liberals. But much of your hate is based on lies that you have repeatedly been told by Trump and his allies.
Donald Trump has been lying to you, gaslighting you (look up the term if you don’t know it.), and he does it for one reason and one reason only. His own benefit. Why do you think SO MANY lifelong notable Republicans have left the party and trying to make you see this charlatan and tyrant for what he really is?


Donald Trump is laughing at you and manipulating you. He tells you what he thinks you want to hear in public, and considers you suckers and losers in private. He is depending on you being ignorant, staying uninformed, and not really thinking, just soaking up whatever lies he chooses to tell you.

There is still time for you to see him as he is, to save our republic, our environment, our children and grandchildren, from this truly evil man, this dictator in waiting. Please. Start thinking for yourself. MAKE HIM give you actual evidence. “Believe me,” is not evidence. “Trust me,” is not evidence. “Everyone knows,” is one of the most classic fact-free lies told by snake oil salesmen and dictators for thousands of years.


He is a lying, cheating, fraud in the same mold as was Hitler. and he is destroying our democracy, our economy, our very environment, while telling you one lie after another to the contrary.

He is using you. And he has but one goal, to be America’s first dictator. Please, start fact checking him (elsewhere but Fox News). You owe it to yourself, and you owe it to your country and your fellow citizens to free yourself from his lies and his cult of himself.
Please. Stop reacting to his lies just as he expects you to, and start reading, watching, and listening to the real facts.

Please, and again, please. Don’t let him mesmerize you any more. Don’t be a clone of his personality and a robotic follower of his charisma. Please be the independent critical thinker I’m sure you consider yourself to be. Ask yourself, does this vile person really reflect who you are?

For the sake of all of us, for the sake of the planet, and our children and their children, you have a responsibility to do that.

And you might want to start by reading this.

https://www.nationalsecurityleaders4biden.com/

How Moderates are Killing America

. . .and the world

First, I spent most of my life as a moderate. That said, this country can no longer afford moderates, any more than it can conservatives. The problem with moderates—and again, I was one—is that they vacillate. They are incapable of forceful, decisive action, because they are always too ready to “see the other guy’s side.” We find ourselves in a world dying first from those who hate, covet, and destroy, and second from the strength afforded them by moderates who just want to see every side without making anybody uncomfortable. Moderation is fine if we’re talking about ice cream. I like chocolate, you like strawberry, no problem. Your teams are the Braves and the Rams, mine are the Cardinals and the Chiefs, we’re cool. But when we get to things like discriminating against people, denying their basic human and civil rights because “your” religion says it’s okay, we have a problem. Moderation is unacceptable. If “your” philosophy is based on “your” supremacy because of the color of your skin, moderation is out of the question. When 1%, or 3% of the country skates along on obscene wealth created for them by 97% of the country doing the real work while being denied a living wage in return, Moderation becomes obscene. The problem with ‘moderates’ is that they want to keep everybody happy and avoid conflict, and in the process tacitly approve and accept the worst abuses of the society, including the destruction of the very air we breathe, water we drink, land that supports us, and animal life we drive to extinction, through their unwillingness to address the issues in any meaningful way. They embolden the worst humans among us, their abuses and destructiveness, by simply keeping their mouth closed. “Unity” is a myth, unless the stakeholders—as in all of the people—are served, protected, and respected. “Unity” is the cry of the abusers, far too often and too consistently heralded by moderates, who mistakenly see “peace” and “unity” as the same thing. We now find ourselves in a near apocalyptic state environmentally, socially, and economically, largely because of decades of moderates siding with the destroyers and greedy by preaching “unity,” when what they really mean is “let’s just not have any trouble, ok?” Moderates will not serve or save the environment. Moderates will not stop the rise of white supremacy neo-Nazism. Moderates will not ensure the rights of all Americans in the face of “religious” bigotry and racism. Moderates will achieve none of these things because they do not have the strength. They don’t have the stomach for the fights we absolutely must now win. They are unable to face the reality of the fight that must be made, and so they preach peace, let’s not have any trouble here. And to them, that is unity. Their unity is acquiescence to the likes of Trump, McConnell, the 1%, the KKK and neo-Nazis, the insanity of the evangelical church, the greedy polluters who count their money while the world strangles. Moderates are the Neville Chamberlains of today. They see themselves as deal makers, the crafters of reasonable compromise. Check your history. “Reasonable compromise” has always been a sliding step into retreat. We can’t afford them. I’ll vote for Joe Biden, simply because absolutely anybody would be better than Trump. Biden at least doesn’t want to be King. But Joe’s “moderateness” is in reality more angled toward the right wing. He is not a centrist. He ideologically incapable of taking sufficient steps to save us from any of the nation-destroying forces we’re facing, and in terms of an environmental apocalypse, he is a disaster.

Time for Bernie and Liz to come together

I’m going to keep this one short and very much to the point.

It’s time for a dual ticket.
It is time, I believe, for two Democratic candidates to come together and campaign as a president/Vice-President combination. Those candidates are Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Liz and Bernie would need to reach an agreement with Bernie at the top of the ticket, I think, with Elizabeth primed to succeed him. I base this strictly on Bernie’s age.
Yeah, I know campaigning as a pre-set ticket ‘just isn’t done,’ but it’s time to change that. A fully-formed ticket would remove the Bernie vs Liz dilemma going into into primaries.  I think that if they came together like this, a Sanders/Warren duo would set up a powerful vision of continuity for America. It would could unite the supporters of each, and the entire progressive movement. I don’t think Trump and his corrupt Republican party could stand against it.

Could it backfire?  Possible. But here’s the thing. We have reached the point, in terms of a crumbling environment and insane level of wealth distribution  that the only way we can save both the planet and our society is with aggressive, unified action. Any move toward centrism is doomed to be too little, to slow and too late.

 

Twiddling Politics While Time Runs Out

THIS ELECTION MUST BE ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT OR NOTHING ELSE MATTERS
I watched Tuesday night’s debate in real time. Good stuff. Came away thinking Warren-Buttigieg.
I didn’t watch Wednesday night’s debate until last night. Absolutely disaster.
Came away thinking Biden is past his time. His checkered past doesn’t help. His stuttering a couple of times didn’t bother me. His mind was sending information to his mouth faster than his mouth could organize it and spit it out. It happens with a lot of people. Trust me on this. It’s sort of an area of expertise.
Harris didn’t help herself at all. Gabbard was impressive, as was Gillibrand. But as a group they primarily did a good job of showing Trump how to go after any one of them. Pool of little sharks in a frenzy, showing the megashark how to eat them. He might not even need the Russians.

Now I’m thinking Warren-Inslee. Or Sanders-Inslee. Jay Inslee was the ONLY candidate out of the twenty who passionately maintained that the environment MUST BE the no. 1 priority. Otherwise nothing else counts. He came back to it at every opportunity, and he is absolutely right. A Vice-President is seldom used well. Jay Inslee as VP could be the sledge-hammer Warren will need to beat climate-positive change into heads around the world.

Yang’s $1000 a month isn’t well-thought-out. As an entrepreneur, he ought to know that the first result of that will be corporations jumping at the opportunity to lower their pay scales “…because people already have this $1000 monthly coming in.” That, as Baretta would say, is ‘da name a ‘dat tune.
NEVER expect a corporation to do the right thing.

I loved DeBlasio preaching to tax the hell out of the wealthy. I imagine the wealthy are already figuring it would be worth a couple of billion dollars to buy away enough of his voters to make it academic.

Nobody else made a big impression on me, one way or the other. But you can take Jay Inslee’s passion about the climate change issue to Baretta’s bank. The clock is ticking on that one, and we only have, maybe, ten years before it is simply too late. I forget whether it was Yang or Castro said we’re already ten years too late and implied that therefore it’s all over. If we think that way, we might as well all light up our bbq’s, sit in our gas guzzlers with the motor running while we eat, and wait to die. That is pointless.
And that’s the reason we all probably WILL just do the above. Because America MUST take the lead on this, but our system is geared against that kind of unity on the part of our politicians and our populace. We had to almost lose WWII before we even got our asses in gear to fight it.

Americans will continue to play political games while hoping that Trump is right about there being no environmental crises. That is a malaise that stretches across both party lines, and it is virtually a death warrant for our children and their children, as well as most life on the planet. It is what it is. But those of us who see it, have to do our damndest to wake people up. For the sake of my children and grandchildren, your children and grandchildren; For the sake of every living thing on this planet that we’re killing, I will keep harping, keep sending out the message. 

Warren/Inslee for me. 

Joe Biden? I don’t think so

Dems and progressive Americans need to move on from Biden. With him, they are trying to beat Trump with a man who is, at best, a C+ centrist. He promises too much “business as usual,” minus only the worst of Trump. He is weak on environment. He will fail to take/support the serious steps needed to forestall an environmental Armageddon. He is either tolerant of white supremacists, or a coatroom supporter. He is either uninclined or afraid to ruffle the feathers of the wealthy oligarchs. The more we hear from him, the more we learn about him, the stronger grows my belief that while he is not a ‘bad’ guy, he is certainly no beacon of progress. Underlining perhaps all of the above, the more we see of Joe, the more we realize he is no intellectual, no great thinker. He is the kind of man who may be qualified to follow the lead established by such a person, but not qualified to be such a one.

Joe Biden is in no way fit to lead America down the path it must follow post-Trump. With Joe Biden as President, America will spend four or eight years failing to gather any momentum on environmental salvation (if that is even possible at this point), equal rights, the destruction of the middle class, or beating back the surge of racists and extreme religious cultists empowered by Trump. He was effective as Barack Obama’s Sancho. He is, himself, no Don Quixote.

Joe Biden offers America neither a Kennedy nor a Johnson, an FDR nor an Obama. He represents a centrist compromise that tends to teeter toward the right. His history is too shady with too many questionable comments and stances, and “…no longer that person” goes only so far. He is in no way the strong progressive leader our country needs at this point in history.

Our World’s Environment is in Peril!

Here’s the biggest thing we can do, along with recycling, to help save it.
The time for transitioning to electric vehicles is upon us.
DID YOU KNOW???
That if you buy an all-electric vehicle (EV), you will be eligible for a Federal tax credit of up to $7,500, plus a California credit of up to $2,500????
That’s $10,000 off the top of your new EV’s price tag.
Now, these credits/rebates will start phasing out for each manufacturer, after that manufacturer has sold 200,000 EV’s. So far, Toyota is the only manufacturer even close to that.
Now we all know:
1- our vehicles are the worst enemies of the environment.
2- We only have one environment, and our children, grandchildren and forward depend on it.
3- Yes, there are two issues about EV’s. A- range (think mileage), and B- availability of charging stations.
4- BUT BUT BUT…these are rapidly improving, and newer model EV’s are approaching & exceeding 200 miles in range at the same time that charging stations are expanding rapidly!
5- AND EV’s are cheaper to run.
I thought I was going to drive my beautiful little 2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse the rest of my life. But the environment, which we all (and those children of ours) depend on for our very lives, is seriously at risk.
So I am now looking for an EV.  I URGE YOU SERIOUSLY TO CONSIDER IT TOO. NO ONE IS GOING TO SAVE THE WORLD FOR OUR CHILDREN IF IT’S NOT US.  RIGHT?  RIGHT!
Look at it this way. Our grandfathers saved the world from Nazism. It’s our generation’s turn to save it from our own pollution. Let’s do it!
I’m continuing to research, and will share all that I find, as soon as I find it.

The Diseased Ignorance of Trump’s Base

The fact that Donald Trump’s core supporters—and maybe some mainstream ones as well—actually believe this, is a sickening and alarming statement about the level of intelligence and the prevalence of psychosis across a third of America. It may also be our swan song, the trumpet forlornly playing TAPS to our Republic.
 
Think about it. CNN, NBC, CBS, Reuters, Al Jezeera, the NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, MSNBC, the BBC, PBS, the British, Canadian, German, French, and virtually every other news source in the world, are ALL liars.  ONLY TRUMP is honest. ONLY TRUMP knows what he’s talking about.
 
EVERY PERSON who has sued Trump for illegal practices, EVERY WOMAN he has sexually assaulted, EVERY LIE of his that has been recorded on paper, tape and video, ALL FAKE NEWS. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Intelligence Agency, the National Intelligence Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, British Intelligence, ALL LIARS.
 
97% of the world’s scientists, ALL DUMB, because ONLY TRUMP has an instinct for science and global warming. ONLY TRUMP knows what’s right for the environment. ONLY TRUMP knows what kind of air our grandchildren should breathe, what kind of water they must drink.
 
ONLY TRUMP has any brains, despite the overwhelming evidence to the exact contrary. ONLY TRUMP is telling the truth about Russian interference in our country’s election process. Everyone else is out to get him.
 
POOR TRUMP!   TRUMP THE CHOSEN ONE!   TRUMP THE EMPEROR!  TRUMP THE CHAMPION OF NATIONALISM!  TRUMP THE CHAMPION OF WHITE SUPREMACY!   TRUMP THE MESSIAH! TRUMP ALMIGHTY!  ALL KNEEL TO TRUMP…or his supporters will punch you, knock the hell out of you, shoot you dead, blow you up for daring not to kiss his robes.
 
THIS is the disease which infects a full third of America. THIS will destroy us. THIS ridiculous, unreasoning, unimaginable worship of a documented cheat, double dealer, serial liar and sexual assaulter, this man who wears his ignorance as comfortably and proudly as his bigotry and white supremacist nationalism, this man who knows one, and only one, loyalty. ONLY TRUMP! PRAISE BE TO TRUMP. ALL KNEEL TO TRUMP.
America has always had this undercurrent, this third that thrives on racism and bigotry, this third that denies the very core values written into the Constitution by our forefathers. This is the third that now runs rampant with the approval and encouragement of Donald Trump. This is the third that would as soon kick you in the teeth as listen to criticisms of white supremacy and racism. This is the third that is so fervent in its anger over perceived mistreatment, it is blind to where the enemies of middle America truly lie. This is the third for whom violence is first or second option, not the last resort.  This is the third for whom patriotism is wrapped in a Confederate flag and festooned with swastikas. This is the third for whom reason doesn’t mean to think and analyze, but is an excuse for punching your lights out.
 
This disease has already destroyed what was left of a once honorable Republican party. It has turned them into sniveling courtiers and court buffoons, eager to have their particular desires met at any cost no matter how egregious, frightened to their core of displeasing the Emperor. In unison they throw their hands in the air, deny every obvious truth, and proclaim in chorus ONLY TRUMP. They praise the Emperor’s fine new clothes.
 
America may well not survive the ONLY TRUMP insanity. The epitaph on the gravestone of American Democracy will be aptly phrased in two words. HAIL TRUMP.
 
Pardon me now, while I go pour a stiff drink. If ONLY TRUMP cannot be defeated, it may soon be one of the last free actions left to us.

We Are Killing Our Planet, Wildlife, and Ourselves With Plastic

SO WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT!

We ALL need to join the fight against single use plastics of all types, especially bags and bottles.
Starting today, I will endeavor to include a frightening fact about plastic, and a cautionary photo, in every post I make. I hope you will, too.
In my daily routine, most of the time I’ll just include a one or two sentence fact along with my regular post. And of course a picture.
But to kick things off, the entirety of this post is to open your eyes to the unthinkable damage our plastic is doing to our waters, our fish, our animals, our birds, and ourselves.
Here are the salient facts. You think the “Alien” movies are scary? The following is fact, not fiction, and the only heroes available to save the day are you and me.
Please join the anti plastic campaign, and recruit others to join, for the sake of…..everything and everyone that lives on this planet.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is located in the North Pacific Gyre off the coast of California and is the largest ocean garbage site in the world. This floating mass of plastic is twice the size of Texas, with plastic pieces outnumbering sea life six to one.
Plastic constitutes approximately 90 percent of all trash floating on the ocean’s surface, with 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile.

One million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed annually from plastic in our oceans.

44 percent of all seabird species, 22 percent of cetaceans, all sea turtle species and a growing list of fish species have been documented with plastic in or around their bodies.

In samples collected in Lake Erie, 85 percent of the plastic particles were smaller than two-tenths of an inch, and much of that was microscopic. Researchers found 1,500 and 1.7 million of these particles per square mile.

Virtually every piece of plastic that was ever made still exists in some shape or form (with the exception of the small amount that has been incinerated).

Plastic chemicals can be absorbed by the body—93 percent of Americans age six or older test positive for BPA (a plastic chemical).

Some of these compounds found in plastic have been found to alter hormones or have other potential human health effects.

The enemy is ourselves. Only we can save the day.  Are you in?