Showing posts with label #debates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #debates. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

The Founders Would Be Proud

 

The Founders Would Be Proud

by C.A. Matthews

It’s not every day that I say something like this, so please take note.

The Founders (a.k.a. "The Founding Fathers of the United States of America") had a good idea when it came to making a permanent separation between church and state. It may have been one of only a handful of good ideas they ever had, being handicapped with their white, wealthy, Eurocentric, males-only, slavery-is-good-for-business worldview. But it is impressive that they foresaw a day when the need to be a strictly secular state (government) would be to their—and consequently our—benefit. So, for this insight I heartily thank them.

I do believe there were “Founding Mothers and Others-of-the-Non-White-Male Variety” as well, but in this case, we're sticking with the "Fathers" who wrote our founding documents. I was reminded of their wisdom concerning church/state separation when Dr. Jill Stein gave one of the most brilliant rebuttals of all time at the recent Free and Equal Debate.

The Constitution Party candidate, Randall Terry, had just given the most sick and twisted rant imaginable. I don’t know much about the Constitution Party, but if this is their pick for president, I really don’t want to know anything more about them. Terry’s diatribe went along the lines that Americans should believe as he does (seemingly he’s an ultra-conservative, Zionist “Christian”) and that those of the Muslim faith are dangerous terrorists and deserve to be killed in Gaza (and elsewhere). He actually sounded like he would start another Crusade if he ever got into the White House. His verbal vomit of sheer naked bigotry sent shivers down my spine.

Dr. Stein’s reply to Terry’s steaming pile of Islamophobia was eloquent and to the point. Watch a clip on X/Twitter or on You Tube:

https://twitter.com/peopleforstein/status/1849264793011818948 or

https://twitter.com/TeamJillStein/status/1849906420340408804

https://www.youtube.com/live/HLCplaowzy8?si=AKHM8u9vnCWE1v5U

Randall Terry’s rant and Jill Stein’s rebuttal starts at approx. 1:20 and goes to about 1:24.

To find out what else would make the Founders proud...

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Tuesday, July 2, 2024

Celebrate The Win

 


Celebrate The Win

by C.A. Matthews

Julian Assange’s release from Belmarsh Prison was all anyone could talk about online for days this past week. It was definitely good news worth sharing, no doubt about it. Seeing the video of him hugging his father and his wife at the airport after his plane at long last landed in Australia brought tears to my eyes. An evil and corrupt system had keep Julian and his family unnecessarily apart for years. They deserved to be happily reunited.

But then the complaints on various social media platforms started flooding in.

“Why did Assange accept this ass-backwards plea deal? Why didn’t he insist on a full pardon? He should have gone to trial and fought the bastards and demanded reparations for time and income lost while they unlawfully locked him up. He didn’t do anything wrong, and they tortured him by placing him in solitary confinement. He was simply practicing journalism.”

My answer to those complaints are, “Yes, Assange didn’t do anything wrong, and he deserves recompense. So does his family. But the bastards who did this—and still do this to many others unlawfully detained—weren’t about to let him go and say, “We’re sorry. Here’s a few million bucks to make up for all the torture and smearing of your good name.”

Remember these bastards are in possession of nuclear weapons and professional hit men called CIA agents. They waterboarded people and locked them up without trial (and still do) at Guantanamo Bay. They regularly overturn elected leaders in countries worldwide. (They probably attempted—and failed—to overturn the leadership of Bolivia this past week.) What makes you think they wouldn’t squash an individual, no matter how famous or iconic as Julian Assange, like an ant to get what they want out of him or in order to cast a chilling shadow upon journalism and freedom of the press?

 

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Tuesday, May 2, 2023

We Know What They're Afraid Of

 



We Know What They're Afraid Of

by C. A. Matthews

Have you ever heard the old expression, When your enemy is making mistakes, don’t stop and correct him? I believe working class Americans are currently in this situation. And it gives me optimism we may just make it after all.

What makes me feel so positive? First off, The Revolution Continues blog was censored by Google (Blogger) for the second time in a week. Now, censorship is not usually something that makes me happy, but the probable reason behind what triggered the censorship reinforces my optimism. It's a sign that things are about to get very interesting, and they could work out well for the majority of us if we hang in there.

Check out last week’s blog, Weaponizing Free Speech, for the details of the first round of censorship the blog experienced and how it was circumvented. This second censored posting came from the same time period—about seven years ago—when the blog was still The Bernie Blog, and guess what? It also contained a short article about the Dems rigging the 2016 primaries against Bernie Sanders. This piece was actually a call for Berners to sign a petition for open DNC primaries. (The first censored blog had a piece about primary wins that were outright “stolen” from Bernie.) It seems somebody in authority has commanded Google to shut down any blog posts on the topic of trying to steal or manipulate the outcomes of Democratic Party primary elections.

Now, why would the Dems all of a sudden get twitchy about people reading an article about how their primaries have been “stolen” in the past? Could it have something to do with the recent announcement that both the Democratic Party primaries and the candidate debates are being canceled in 2024 so that Joe Biden can be crowned the party’s nominee with no need for him to undergo the hard work of campaigning? This announcement was made after both Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Junior announced they’re planning to run as Democrats.

Don’t believe me that the DNC is paranoid about Biden having to fight off competitors in a primary? Independent journalist Matt Orfalea reports on how faithful Dems are being banned and kicked off the the national Democratic Party r/democrat Reddit forum simply for stating they support either Williamson or RFK Jr.  Between the censoring of anything to do with Democratic Party primaries (even seven year old ones) and the banning of any talk of Williamson and Kennedy online in the subreddit for Dems, I've got a strong gut feeling that the big bosses of the DNC are very worried. 

I believe the Dem bosses are very concerned there will be a lot of upset blue voters demanding primaries and debates. Perhaps the bosses worry they'll be some very vocal and visual protests against Biden’s automatically assuming the throne without at least debating Marianne and RFK Jr.

These duopolists are afraid—and I mean very afraid—of We the People not wanting a clearly confused, elderly career politician in the likes of Joe Biden rammed down our throats. Recently, Biden was seen holding very detailed note cards at a press conference; the notes contained the questions that so-called “press members” were going to ask him and how he should answer these predetermined questions in front of the cameras. 

That's pretty clear evidence of why the Dem bosses don’t want Biden to be in a debate situation or have him go on the road, campaigning for the primaries. He’s not capable of answering questions that aren’t written out—and answered for him—when he’s out in public. There is something else they're deathly afraid of: They're terrified that We the People won’t stand for having a cognitively incapacitated president in office for another four years.

To pretend that President Biden is focused on trying to reach the American people by different means, and not avoiding the give-and-take of a news conference open to all, as a White House aide told the New York Times, is just horseshit.  --Seymour Hersh,  Confessions Of A Political Flack

This non-choice of DNC candidates is particularly obnoxious when you realize that Donald Trump is the likely Republican Party nominee. Here is where the duopolists’ hubris might get the better of them. They think every American has been brainwashed enough to never consider not voting in protest or instead voting for an alternative party or independent candidate. But intelligent folks know that this couldn’t be further from the truth. A recent Gallup poll shows over 49% of Americans don't identify as either “Democrat” or “Republican” but as “Independent.”

Unlike Biden, We the People can think for ourselves. We understand how the same billionaires have bought off both the Ds and the Rs. We realize they're working for the billionaires and not us, and do as they're told. An intelligent electorate is scary indeed for the oligarchy. 

Joe Biden's approval rating is at a record low according to Gallup: only 37% approve while 59% disapprove of the job he is doing. Of special note is that he's only at 31% with independents. The economy is the number one reason. No wonder the DNC won't allow debates.  --Professor Anthony Zenkus on Twitter

See what I mean about not correcting your enemy’s mistakes? The donkeys and elephants of the duopoly have felt confident for almost one hundred-seventy years that their man (literally a male, and a white, wealthy male at that) will be the winner of the presidential election. There’s been zero exceptions, although there have been some close calls. Could the 2024 presidential election be the upset of the millennium? Could Americans actually see a libertarian, socialist, eco-socialist, or even a professed communist assume the presidency? Could we witness some real change?

Before you laugh and say something along the lines of “That’s not possible,” I'll remind you of just how many damning duopolist-driven government lies and obscenities have been exposed lately. Who thought these embarrassing truths would ever come to light? Who knows how these revelations might persuade voters to vote for other than the duopoly?

This past week it was revealed the CIA recruited some of the 9/11 attackers from Saudi Arabia, covering up for them after the Twin Towers fell. Whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and independent journalists like Julian Assange have revealed how Americans have been spied upon and outright lied to, only to be exiled or jailed without trial. The Russiagate conspiracy has been totally debunked, and the Hamilton 68 dashboard was revealed as a government-funded troll farm to perpetuate these myths.

The US is perpetually at war for other countries' resources, making the military industrial complex CEOs ever richer and turning our children/grandchildren into casualty figures fighting the billionaires' wars for oil. Many Americans express horror at a possible nuclear war between the US and Russia and/or China. They know nuclear winter is not survivable.

In an attempt to bring an end to this war, China has taken the lead in advocating peace talks. Brazil's President Lula da Silva has backed Beijing's efforts. The West, on the other hand, has vociferously opposed all attempts at diplomatic negotiations and instead pushed to escalate the NATO proxy war on Russia, sending fighter jets and tanks to Kiev. Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, are treating their country as a for-profit company, frequently traveling to the United States in search of lucrative business opportunities.  --From US Corporations Cash In On Ukraine’s Oil And Gas

Ordinary working Americans watch in horror as the billionaires who own the duopoly grow richer while the workers' food prices and rents skyrocket.

...It is profit-gouging, not wage hikes, that is the primary driver of inflation... the Times reported how giant food conglomerates have sharply raised prices and reaped higher profits. PepsiCo raised prices 16 percent and saw an 18 percent increase in profits last quarter. NestlĂ© raised prices 9.8 percent, growing its revenue 5.6 percent to $26.48 billion. Coca-Cola also raised prices, boosting its profits to $3.1 billion, a 12 percent rise. Beyond the food industry, one major corporation after another released earnings reports this week beating analysts’ estimates, including ExxonMobil and Chevron, Amazon and Caterpillar. --From US jobs massacre accelerates, as ruling class confronts growing upsurge of class struggle

The workers' “enemy” has made a lot of “mistakes,” and many of them have been revealed. Why should We the People trust the duopolists currently in power? They unquestioningly do the bidding of their billionaire masters. Why should we allow the billionaires and their puppets to prosper at the workers’ expense?

We’re already seeing the scales fall from the eyes of the French and the Peruvian workers. They have been marching and protesting in the streets for months now, livid at the evils of their respective governments. Even in the US this year  we’re seeing a record number of protests, strikes, and new unions forming. Apparently, a good number of We the People aren’t afraid to take our disputes public and shout down our oppressors any longer.

Then there are deaths of despair–-in its massiveness a nearly unique American phenomenon. These seemingly ubiquitous encounters with the Grim Reaper from suicide, drug overdose or cirrhosis of the liver predominately afflict middle-aged whites–-for obvious reasons, namely, this demographic has suffered a stupendous decline in its living standards in recent decades due to Wall Street-enforced deindustrialization. Good jobs just don’t exist in their old numbers anymore, and many people cannot “adjust” to this. As a result, according to Health System Tracker, “the U.S. has the lowest life expectancy among large, wealthy countries, while it far outspends its peers on health care. --From As American Life Expectancy Plunges, Political Bigwigs Stay Busy Not Noticing

As more and more Americans lose their COVID-related Medicaid health care and other tax breaks, I predict there will be even more protests and strikes. As the climate catastrophe worsens and more Americans find themselves dealing with floods, forest fires, and super-storms, I see more activism and demands for the billionaires to clean up their messes at their expense, not ours. 

As the “copbots” and "robo-dogs" shoot at protesters, I hope we’ll see even more protesting and demonstrating directed toward the useless duopolists who have militarized the police in their fear of us. They think we’re not courageous enough to take them on. But hunger, homelessness, desperation, and anger all can motivate a person, so perhaps we are.

A clueless president who can’t answer questions on the spot and speak to the people’s concerns doesn’t deserve our respect or support. A greedy ex-president who would rob us all blind doesn’t deserve a second chance. And neither of them deserve our vote.

We know what they’re afraid of—they’re afraid of us, the American workers, We the People. We're not all brainwashed. We see through their lies. We're determined to be rid of those who persecute and prosecute us for simply trying to live our lives. 

Let’s use their fear of us to our advantage. Let's put them on the spot. Let’s keep them guessing what we’ll do next. Let’s keep doing whatever it takes until they break and we get what we deserve.

Get off your sofas and out of your basements, Doomers and Gloomers! Take to the streets! Demand change! You have nothing to lose but your misery.


Related Links:

Biden Begins Reelection Bid at Low Point in His Presidency
https://news.gallup.com/poll/505202/biden-begins-reelection-bid-low-point-presidency.aspx

Democrats Censoring Democrats On Reddit https://censorednews.substack.com/p/democrats-censoring-democrats-on

Oops! DNC Says There Will Be No Debates--Because... Democracy! (video) https://rumble.com/v2l7q3s-oops-dnc-says-there-will-be-no-debates-because...-democracy.html

Confessions Of A Political Flack https://popularresistance.org/confessions-of-a-political-flack/

America is Doomed: Biden & Trump Announce Re-election Runs https://youtu.be/8n43PGH58io

As American Life Expectancy Plunges, Political Bigwigs Stay Busy Not Noticing   https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/28/as-american-life-expectancy-plunges-political-bigwigs-stay-busy-not-noticing/

Facebook censors journalist Seymour Hersh's report on Nord Stream pipeline attack https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/facebook-censors-seymour-hersh-nord-stream

Your Messaging Service Should Not Be a DEA Informant
https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/27/your-messaging-service-should-not-be-a-dea-informant/

An Insider’s Guide to “Anti-Disinformation” https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/26/an-insiders-guide-to-anti-disinformation/

Biden cheat sheet shows he had advance knowledge of journalist’s question  https://nypost.com/2023/04/26/biden-cheat-sheet-shows-he-had-advance-knowledge-of-journalists-question/

Bombshell Filing: 9/11 Hijackers Were CIA Recruits
https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/27/bombshell-filing-9-11-hijackers-were-cia-recruits/

US Propaganda Backfires--Hard (video) https://youtu.be/VQ6EkK2WGfc

Federal agents barge into wrong Boston hotel room during training, handcuff pilot https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/revere-hotel-boston-fbi-botched-training-cheryl-fiandaca-wbz/

US Corporations Cash In On Ukraine’s Oil And Gas https://popularresistance.org/us-corporations-cash-in-on-ukraines-oil-and-gas/

Biden to Send Nukes to South Korea https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/27/biden-to-send-nukes-to-south-korea/

Joe Lauria: State Dept. & Senate Leaders Troll Assange
https://scheerpost.com/2023/04/27/joe-lauria-state-dept-senate-leaders-troll-assange/

How the Press Misled the Public on Russiagate https://therealnews.com/how-the-press-misled-the-public-on-russiagate

Oceans Have Reached Warmest Levels in Modern History. Scientists Are Worried. https://truthout.org/articles/oceans-have-reached-warmest-levels-in-modern-history-scientists-are-worried/

An Urgent Need To Fund Water Infrastructure
https://www.thebrockovichreport.com/p/an-urgent-need-to-fund-water-infrastructure

US jobs massacre accelerates, as ruling class confronts growing upsurge of class struggle https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/04/29/jobs-a29.html

Experts Cite the Health Impacts of Incarceration as US Life Expectancy Falls  https://truthout.org/articles/experts-cite-the-health-impacts-of-incarceration-as-us-life-expectancy-falls/

Warren Report Reveals Vast Pentagon-to-Defense Contractor Lobbying Pipeline https://truthout.org/articles/warren-report-reveals-vast-pentagon-to-defense-contractor-lobbying-pipeline/

From Military to Policing, Say No to a Federal Budget That Prioritizes Violence  https://truthout.org/articles/from-military-to-policing-say-no-to-a-federal-budget-that-prioritizes-violence/

Weaponizing Free Speech https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/04/weaponizing-free-speech.html 

 

 

 

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

The Amazon Rainforest Is Burning


The Amazon Rainforest fire is just one of several recent crises that highlight the need for real swft and bold action against climate change.

Yes, people--this is really happening. The largest rain forest in the world is on fire. Yet the lead on the news is about stock markets and politics. It is a telling sign of just how disconnected we have become with the planet we live on.

For years, scientists have been warning us that we need to drastically reduce our carbon emissions to even try to preserve a habitable planet for future generations to live on. Yet it seems we have political parties around the world who basically scoff at the notion of doing anything about it. Some cling to their religious beliefs their deity won’t let it happen. Others dismiss scientific finding out of hand when it suits their agenda.

“I’m not a scientist. I am interested in protecting Kentucky’s economy. I’m interested in having low cost electricity.” — Mitch McConnell

Here in the United States, that party is the Republican Party. Here are a few gems from some of their politicians:
Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky
Senate majority leader, said he was “distressed” by the US-China deal to cut emissions announced this week. He was likely also surprised, as he spent his recent reelection campaign saying he would not consider emissions caps because “nobody else is going to do that,” as he told the Louisville Courier-Journal.
“I’m not a scientist. I am interested in protecting Kentucky’s economy, I’m interested in having low cost electricity,” he said.
Translation: I don’t want to do anything because no one else is. I’d rather lower electrical bills than make sure my grand kids will be able to live on this planet.
Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, has taken different routes to denial, from saying he’s not a scientist to second-guessing the data. “I don’t agree with the notion that some are putting out there, including scientists, that somehow there are actions we can take today that would actually have an impact on what’s happening in our climate,” he said in a May interview on ABC News. Here's the full statement:
"Our climate is always changing. And what they have chosen to do is take a handful of decades of research and say that this is now evidence of a longer-term trend that’s directly and almost solely attributable to man-made activity. I do not agree with that.
I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it. That’s what I do not — and I do not believe that the laws that they propose we pass will do anything about it. Except it will destroy our economy."
Translation: Thought I trust and rely on science for everything else to include travel, technology and oil exploration, but in this one instance I will chose to completely ignore what scientists are telling me since it doesn’t suit my agenda.
The Republican Party often call itself the party of “Fiscal Responsibility.” Yet under Donald Trump...
President Donald Trump has blasted bipartisan politicians for failing to address the federal debt and repeatedly vowed to eliminate it within eight years. On his watch, it has exploded to more than $22 trillion.
The country was already headed for a $1 trillion deficit this year. Yet, the president has made clear his support for the federal budget deal reached Monday, which would increase spending by billions against a backdrop of lower tax receipts.
“House Republicans should support the TWO YEAR BUDGET AGREEMENT which greatly helps our Military and our Vets,” the president said Thursday of the bill, which would lift the debt ceiling until July 2021 and permanently end a series of automatic spending cuts. “I am totally with you!”
Crafted by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the deal would give both Republicans and Democrats bigger budgets for fiscal priorities. It would increase spending by about approximately $320 billion, with equal amounts going to defense and domestic agencies.
That could amount to $1.7 trillion in projected debt levels over the next decade, according to estimates by the Committee for a Responsible Budget.
It’s funny how when it’s something Republicans want, we always seem to find more money to spend. Yet when it comes to trying to ensure that our planet can sustain our children and grandchildren money suddenly becomes an issue.
Climate change is real. This isn’t a bunch of crazy people on social media saying this. This is NASA, the American Meteorology Society, The Australian Academy of Sciences, and hundreds more scientific societies and agencies from around the world. Here’s a list:

If you want to do a deep dive in to why these organizations agree that Climate Change is driven by human activity, NASA has a website dedicated to that purpose.

At the same time the Democratic Party, which at least accepts that climate change is a real issue, won’t have a debate for it’s 2020 presidential candidates that will focus solely on this issue.

 https://youtu.be/2eoALS8HJxQ

This is not just a national issue--it’s a global issue. Climate change will affect the future of all of humanity. Why would they do this? According to Vice News:
Democratic National Committee officials voted down the resolution that would’ve called for an official climate debate by a margin of 17 to 8 at a party meeting in San Francisco Thursday. If the DNC doesn’t host a climate debate, the candidates could opt to participate in a non-DNC sanctioned debate. But by participating, they could be sanctioned by the DNC, which means being potentially barred from any further DNC-sponsored debates.
The article continues:
DNC chief Tom Perez opposed the climate debate and doesn’t think it benefits the Democrats to hold any single-issue debates.
Joe Biden’s press secretary, Symone Sanders also doesn’t support a climate debate — even though the former vice president and presidential candidate has said that he supports one .
It is critical to emphasize this point. Not only has the DNC voted down a debate with a sole focus on climate change… but because of the DNC rules any candidates who participates in any non-DNC sanctioned debate will be banned from future DNC sanctioned debates. This is ridiculous. Clearly this issue isn’t being taken seriously enough… by either party.

A debate is about more than just putting candidates ideas against each other. It is an opportunity to truly articulate the severity of climate change to the public. It’s an opportunity to inform the citizenry and potentially change the minds of those who opt to bury their heads in the sand about this issue. Instead, it seems as though the DNC is content with putting the fate of all of humanity on par with every other issue.

Even as important as they are, the economy and health care won’t matter one bit if we continue on this course. According to the United Nations, we have 11 years to have done enough to prevent irreversible climate change. That was as of March 2019--before the fire in the Amazon Rainforest.

Also, this week Iceland had a “funeral” for the Okjökull glacier. It is the first glacier that has been lost to climate change. This event follows “The hottest July on record”. In 30 days, we have seen at least three major events that are signalling that half measures and incrementalism is not sufficient to turning things around.

During the ceremony in Iceland, they placed a plaque where the glacier once stood which said the following:
Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as glacier,
In the next 200 years all our main glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done.
Only you know if we did it.
It’s not just about fossil fuels either. In June 2019, reports were surfacing about toxic algae in Florida’s waterways. It has gotten so bad that it has started to affect the tourism industry.
Florida’s waterways are screaming for “help.” A catastrophic combination of red tide and blue-green algae blooms on the west coast, and blue-green algae blooms on the east coast are hurting Florida. These headline-making events are causing significant public health concerns, tarnishing Florida’s reputation for world-class beaches, and mucking up our clear blue waters. But how does this happen?
Red tide originates naturally in the Gulf of Mexico’s salty waters while blue-green algae occurs in freshwater bodies like Lake Okeechobee. These two outbreaks are independent of one another, but together wreak compounding havoc. Both deplete water of vital oxygen- suffocating fish, mammals, and plants. More research is needed to get a full picture of what’s going on, but what is clear is that both of these chaotic scenarios are exacerbated by a warming climate and excess nutrients in our waterways. The sources of nutrient pollution aren’t new: agricultural runoff, manure from cattle, septic tanks, treated sewage used for watering lawns, sewage sludge spread on fields, and local storm water runoff. All of this ends up entering waterways and exacerbates red tide and blue-green algae. When combined with the decades-old phosphorus in Lake Okeechobee during the hot summer months, excess nutrients result in the harmful blue-green algae blooms in the lake and estuaries on Florida’s east and west coasts.
How much worse do things have to get before our leaders get serious about this? We can already see the effects . Many of the more seasoned power brokers in D.C. will not be alive when the effects of climate change are at their worst. If now isn’t the time to have a serious and substantive debate on how to tackle climate change, when is the right time?

Carl Sagan asked NASA to turn the Voyager space craft towards Earth and take a snapshot of our world when it was heading towards the outer edge of our Solar System. This was the image it took:


Planet Earth viewed from the Voyager space craft from the far reaches of our solar system.

That is our world. It’s the only one we have. We rely on it for everything from growing food to breathing. It is our one, and only safe refuge in a universe that is not hospitable to human life.

Dr. Sagan talked about the above image in his book Pale Blue Dot — A Vision of the Human Future in Space. Here is a very famous quote from that book:
“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
Carl Sagan understood the importance of protecting our planet in the 1990's… but our politicians and so called leaders still are not taking this as seriously as they should in the 21st century. This is not just our planet. This is our children's planet. It belongs to our descendants who will be here after we are gone to dust. If we do nothing… if we keep kicking this can down the road, we imperil their existence and the very existence of humanity.

Once humanity is gone, it no longer matters about your power or status. No one will be here to remember you. No one will care that you were an important CEO or congressman or resident. No one will remember the great things humanity has accomplished. Outside of our structures that survive, it will be as though we were never here.

Is this really the future you want?
“We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” -- David Brower
The world stands at a critical moment right now. We have a responsibility to future generations to try to sustain our world. The fate of humanity is in our hands. Either we take this threat seriously and do what is necessary to try to mitigate what is coming or we do little to nothing as we allow humanity to go extinct. We can’t wait until later. We need to take serious action right now!

Sources:

Amazon Rainforest Burning image from space: Wikimedia Commons
List of Worldwide Scientific Organizations that hold the position that Climate Change has been caused by human action: State of California Governors Office of Planning and Research
If you want to do a deep dive NASA has a website dedicated to that purpose.
Scientific Consensus: Earth’s Climate is Warming: NASA Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet
The DNC rejects call for Climate Change Debate: The Real News Network Published on Aug 22, 2019
“Pale Blue Dot” Video: CarSaganDotCom
David Brower Quote: “We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

BIO:  The Independent Reformist says this about his writing: "Independent political perspective from a working class American. No B.S." He currently blogs on Medium and at his Wordpress site.





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 From Rainforest Action Network:

The fires in the Amazon rainforest are devastating. The Amazon rainforest is called the lungs of the planet, because it accounts for 20% of the world’s oxygen. With the climate crisis worsening, we can’t afford to lose these ancient trees who filter out and store the world’s carbon.
These fires affect every single living creature on earth. Read that again, every single creature on earth is and will be impacted by the loss of these forests. We need your help to protect them.
Many of you have asked, how can we help? 
The fires aren’t a random occurrence. With new leadership, Brazil has declared the Amazon open for business. Massive companies and investment firms like BlackRock, have rushed to the Amazon to develop this formerly protected land. The fires are being used to clear villages, trees, and wildlife for illegal cattle ranching, soya, and other products. They are literally stealing land from Indigenous Peoples and destroying the Amazon rainforest to turn a profit.
There’s no time to lose, we must act NOW. Please, take action and help us raise awareness for the Amazon and all of the world’s remaining rainforests.
Ginger Cassady
Program Director
Rainforest Action Network

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There are a record number of fires in the Amazon. We need Brazil to stop encouraging people to destroy the rainforest for profit.

 

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The Amazon Rainforest is called the lungs of the earth. It's critical for biodiversity and fighting climate change. It has been burning for more than three weeks, but chances are you didn't hear about it until last week. In the time between when the fires surged out of control and when the media picked up the story, nearly 40,000 individual fires had started in the rainforest — many of them set intentionally.
There are a lot of reasons the Amazon is burning at a record rate. Burning cultivate nutrient-rich farm land is a long-held practice. For decades, farmers, ranchers and loggers have hacked into the rainforest to get access to timber and land, which they use for profit. But now, climate change and deforestation magnify the risks if and when fires get out of control.
Much of this was true last year and the years before What's different in 2019 is that Brazil's new right-wing government doesn't care. President Bolsonaro has dramatically scaled back on enforcement against illegal logging and mining in the Amazon. In fact, he's called for more of it. People have responded by setting records numbers of fires to clear the forest.
As of August, more than 1,300 square miles of forest have been lost in 2019 alone. Now that people around the world have realized just how catastrophic this could be, everyone from the right-wing Prime Minister of the UK to Colombian pop star Shakira are calling on the Brazilian government to act.
We agree. Perhaps most alarming that Brazil's dry season has just begun — meaning things could actually still get worse. We need to mobilize massive action now to get these fires under control, find people who've started these fires and, most importantly, stop the setting of new ones.
Thank you,
Emily V.
The Care2 Petitions Team


 


P.S. With dry season just beginning, we need Brazil's government to stop more human-caused fires in the Amazon (and put out the ones already raging out of control). Sign the petition.