The Revolution Continues blog is news, views, opinion and other expressions of hope from a leftist point-of-view. (We are not affiliated with any candidate, political party or organization. All are welcome.)
I'll give you all I've got to give If you say you love me too I may not have a lot to give But what I've got I'll give to you I don't care too much for money Money can't buy me love –Paul McCartney & John Lennon
The
Beatles are more than the greatest pop group in history. They are the
proletariat’s philosophers. Their catchy song lyrics often express deep
truths that aren’t easily ignored. Their 1964 hit Can’t Buy Me Love is still a favorite of many.
Wonder
why? Could it be because it’s true? Sure, money can buy all the
accouterments of love, but it can’t buy the real deal. One has to earn another person’s love and respect or else… It’s not really love, now is it?
The same could be said for buying votes.
Kamala Harris spent upwards of $1 billion dollars
on her ill-fated “Joy” campaign. She still owes some $20 million to her
campaign workers and some of the celebrities she bribed to endorse her.
Beyonce’s asking price was $10 million—and that didn’t even include her
giving a concert, which was a huge disappointment to the many fans who
came to a Harris event just to see Beyonce perform. Oprah Winfrey’s
production company had an asking price of a cool $1 million. That’s a
lot of incentive to “love” a candidate, isn’t it?
Did
giving tons of money to these celebrities truly earn their love and
respect for Harris? The Beatles had it right, don’t you think?
So, what did Harris get for her record-breaking spending spree on the campaign trail? Well, it didn’t get her the White House...
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The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (Is No Democracy At All)
by C.A. Matthews
I believe most Americans understand that the United States is not a democracy or even qualifies as a representative democracy. The US is, in fact, an oligarchy, whichmeans politicians work for their big money donors and not for the people.
The Princeton Study proved that no matter how hard average voters try to influence their elected representatives—try to make them vote for or sponsor a bill that would benefit ordinary people and not billionaires—the result will be the same. Whatever corporations and the super rich folks who own them want, they’ll get. To put it plainly, “Screw the needs of ordinary Americans!”
I came across an example this week that illustrates the American oligarchy in action. I will make a few suggestions on how we can fight back against their tactics, but feel free to come up with some actions of your own. Please write them in the comments below because sharing knowledge is power. Thank you.
From a recent Jill Stein for President campaign email:
On Thursday June 27th, the FEC [Federal Elections Commission] informed us that our campaign had qualified for primary matching funds. Then minutes later, FEC told us the Treasury department will withhold our payments to give priority to general election funding–just in case the Democratic and Republican candidates decide they want it.
Let me explain why that’s so outrageous...
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About once a year, I feel compelled to write a post about the dangers and pitfalls of lesser evil voting in the US. So here it is, for better or worse.
If you add a letter “d” to the front of the word “evil”, you’ll get the personification of evil, that is, the “devil.” However lesser evil voting is being discussed, the end result is the same: The voter is being asked to make a deal with the devil or evil.
What is often left out of this old saying are what consequences you incur when you make a deal with the devil. Here’s the complete saying: “When you make a deal with the devil, be careful you don’t get burned.”
Dealing with the devil can get you burned. Lesser evil voting burns voters. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a closer look.
The Devil is in the Details
First, a definition of lesser evil voting is needed. In the lesser evil voting scenario, voters are informed that there are only two candidates running for each office. We’ll call them candidates “A” and “B”. Voters are told they have no other options, and they have been convinced of this fact. They feel compelled to vote for either A or B or stay home and not vote. That’s it.
But what if voters don’t care for either candidate A or B? What if they strongly detest and/or despise both A and B? Can they vote for candidate C, D, E, or F instead? In most states in the United States there are other candidates’ names printed on their ballots for each office. However, many voters have been programmed (brainwashed) into thinking those options simply do not exist for them, so they’re stuck with choosing between A and B or not voting at all.
But what happens when a voter decides to vote for C, D, E, or F, and their treachery to vote outside the box is discovered? Woe to that voter! The voter will be vote shamed and pressured to change their mind. The most common vote shaming method is to tell renegade voters that they have cast a wasted vote because they refused to vote for either A or B. They are informed by supporters of A and B that all voters who dare to vote for C, D, E, or F are stupid and foolish.
Other forms of coercion exercised by supporters for A and B can include ostracizing these rebel voters socially in-person and/or online, threatening the rebel voters’ careers or job positions, and sometimes even threatening or committing physical violence against the rebel voters or their property.
All of these forms of lesser evil voting coercion tactics have been documented widely (and some of them experienced by yours truly). These are only but a few of the ways voters can get burned when making a deal with the devil called lesser evil voting. I’m sure there are supporters/past-supporters of A and B out there whose ears are burning about right now as I expose their crimes. But I’ve found that lesser evil aficionados often are proud of their vote shaming tactics. They rarely get caught or charged with any criminal activity since fellow A or B supporters will cover for them, so I doubt they’ll ever stop the dirty tricks.
With that sort of pressure placed upon voters to consider voting for only A or B, what do you think happens to candidates C, D, E, and F? Do you think they receive as much attention in the mainstream media as A and B do? Lesser evil voting supporters for A or B cannot afford to allow voters to learn about other candidates and their platforms, so mainstream media spokespersons are generally kept in line and told to exclude all mention of other candidates as much as possible.
Can you see how this practical censorship would prevent C, D, E, and F from effectively advertising or fundraising? Without sufficient funds to campaign, what would you say are the chances of these alternative candidates being able to compete against the well-funded and well-promoted campaigns of A and B? Did you say zero to none?
It should be obvious by now that lesser evil voting isn’t really a strategy to help American voters choose a candidate who represents their values, needs, wants, or desires. Lesser evil voting is simply a method to get rid of A’s and B’s competition.
Think about it: It’s much cheaper and easier for corporate lobbyists, wealthy individuals, and political action committees (PACs/Super PACs) to bribe two candidates to do as they command than a multitude of candidates who may or may not be open to taking corporate lobbyist cash. This legal bribery of politicians in the US is allowed under the 2010 Citizens United ruling. Money talks, and it talks much louder than average voters' voices, obviously.
How fair is lesser evil voting? Not fair at all unless you absolutely adore A and/or B. But it’s completely legal and acceptable by the parties of A and B who rather you didn't know you have more choices. Here’s an example of how it’s manifesting itself in this year’s presidential election.
The Devil You Know...
Americans worship stability and sameness. Life just seems safer that way. Even if their present lives are miserable or downright unbearable, Americans’ philosophy of life can be summed up thusly: “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”
Note once again how the letter “d” can be subtracted from “devil” leaving the word that describes the devil’s best known quality of “evil”. Americans rather put up with a known evil than radically change their lives by making a different choice, possibly for the better, because what if their choice proves worse than the one they’ve been told to make by supporters of A or B? Many American voters seem paralyzed by indecision. They seek guidance and are looking for someone else to make the decision for them.
If only Americans believed they needn’t be cornered into corner A or B! Think of all the possibilities for a brighter future voters might have by choosing C, D, E, or F. How can we break through such a lack of imagination and encourage American voters to invite change and consider non-duopoly (non-A or -B) candidates?
Let’s say you’re an American voter who wants the genocide in Gaza to end as soon as possible and all the war criminals punished. You’re sick and tired of the bloated US military budget and long for more funding for programs such as Medicare For All, free university tuition, student loan debt forgiveness, and programs to tackle the climate crisis. What are your choices for president who speak to your conscience?
Here in a nutshell are the options of the upcoming presidential election:
A – a current known evil who supports the genocide in Gaza and takes money from AIPAC and many corporations/PACs
B – a past known evil who supports the genocide in Gaza and takes money from AIPAC and many corporations/PACs
C – another candidate (with a famous last name) who accepts corporate cash and loudly supports the genocide in Gaza and takes money from AIPAC/PACs
D – a candidate who doesn’t accept corporate/PAC cash and doesn’t support the genocide in Gaza, supports Medicare For All and climate crisis actions, and will probably be on all 50 state ballots and the District of Columbia
E – a candidate who doesn’t accept corporate/PAC cash and doesn’t support the genocide in Gaza but probably won’t be on very many state ballots
F- a candidate who doesn’t accept corporate/PAC cash and doesn’t support the genocide in Gaza but probably won’t be on very many state ballots
(G, H, I candidates – some accept corporate/PAC cash, some don’t support the genocide or war, but most probably won’t be on very many state ballots)
Looking at the above chart, you’ll see that your personal choices do not include the A or B candidates that lesser evil voting strategists are going try to shame you into voting for. Your best bet to change the leadership the White House to a person who represents you is to vote for candidate D or possibly E or F or one of the other lesser known candidates if they're on your ballot. By voting for a candidate like D, you’ll feel proud of yourself that you aren’t perpetuating the genocide in Gaza and are helping to make the US a better place for all its people.
Sounds like a sound voting choice that reflects your values and speaks to your conscience, right? If only it was that easy in the USA!
The political parties of A and B will do all that they can to block your preferred candidate’s name from being on as many states' ballots as they possibly can. With huge war chests of campaign donations from military-industrial complex corporations and money from PACs such as AIPAC, these parties will use every legal and extra-legal trick in the book they can to prevent any competition from challenging them. Supporters of A and B who own the mainstream media outlets will block all mention of the other candidates and pass along the propaganda that teams A and B dream up to slander/libel their competition.
Many American voters, never knowing there are actually candidates who closely represent their own values because of the practical censorship, might choose to stay home and not vote. Voter apathy in the US is sky high, and with such a screwed up system, is it any wonder?
This is lesser evil voting strategy at its worse. These devils you’ve known for years are anti-democratic and bullies. And you will be forced to put your conscience to sleep and vote for A or B because you’re told these are your only options.
You’ll be told that C, D, E, or F have no chance of winning, not realizing that in poll after poll the largest percentage of American voters consider themselves as independent. These voters don’t support the parties of either A or B and stay home more often than not if they don't have another option. If that large percentage of voters followed their conscience and voted for other than A or B, another candidate might actually win. The math speaks for itself.
Vote shaming can be intense, but it can be dealt with rationally as the above meme demonstrates. A candidate must earn your vote and stand for your values. Follow a litmus test like I do to pick your candidate, and you'll never suffer from a guilty conscience. You won't be tempted to sell your soul to the devils and their corporate masters. You'll help others to avoid getting burned as well.
The great Eugene Debs gave us this sage advice that voters should always follow:
"I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than to vote for something I don't want and get it."
Don’t be tempted to make a deal with the devil (d-evil). Don’t get burned. Stay away from lesser evil voting. Always vote your conscience, and encourage others to do the same. And may the best candidate win.
If you say this is a genocide and then you support the people who are
backing this genocide, it means either (A) you’re fine with genocide or
(B) you only called it a genocide to score progressive political points
and don’t actually believe what you said.
* * *
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More nominees for "The Aarons"
Here are a few more names that were nominated for A Human With A Conscience Award (read about it here) this past week. These folks and organizations can post the above meme on their social media sites if they choose. Keep your nominations coming!
Banksy (Best Graffiti Artist with a Conscience)
Laura K from Normal Island News (Best Satirist with a Conscience)
Randy Credico (Best Podcaster/Indie journalist with a Conscience)
Neil Oliver (Best Podcaster/Journalist with a Conscience)
Toledo Area Activists with a Conscience: Jomana Al, Walaa Kanan, Mike Ferner, Jasmin Nada Hummos, Yousef Baddar, Susan Kuehn, Terry Lodge, Omar Aysha, and Ahmed Amrou.
Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald): Make sure to say “kids in cages” as many times as you can for the next few weeks because starting on January 20, 2021, that phrase is going to disappear from the lexicon so fast it’s going to make your head spin, even though there will still be plenty of kids in cages. (Twitter response to news that Cecilia Muñoz, a defender of family separations under Obama, will join Biden's transition team.)
If you ever grew up with siblings/cousins/friends close by, I'm sure you
heard these three little words from time to time. You probably grew to hate
them and the attitude that came along with them as much as I did.
"Ha-ha!
Told you so!"
Sometimes, however,
there's just no other way to get a message across to people than to simply tell them that you've given them all the information they needed previously but that
they keep stubbornly refusing to accept it. This is when those three
little irritating words can come in handy:
Told you so.
This week the
"told you so" information is so obvious, so clear and undeniable that
even a blind bat wearing dark glasses on a moonless night wouldn't be able to
miss it. But I'm certain they'll be more than a few American neoliberals who'll
fail to understand how much they've been used by the corrupt system and will
cry out, "Uh-uh!" like any kid would upon being told these irritating
three little words.
So, I won't
continue to hammer you with that phrase if you promise to watch, read, listen
and comprehend the information available from the links below. Promise? Good.
You deserve to be informed, and you need to know that you (and others like you) were
duped on purpose so you would help install yet another corrupt
politician-puppet to serve the needs of the oligarchs and plutarchs.
It's not that
you're a "bad person" or stupid or anything like that. You have been
tricked, used and manipulated by greedy people and their well-oiled political machine. The ball is now in your court. It's
time for you to wake up to that fact and live your life in freedom and in
truth. Continuing to play their game will only lead you to future heartache and
the possible end of our planet.
Nothing will
get better in this country or this world if we continue to lie to ourselves and
allow others to manipulate us for their own selfish ends. This applies to
politician-puppets who take large sums of cash from the fossil fuel industry and the military industrial complex double-fold.
Break free of
their propaganda and start questioning everything you hear, have ever heard, or
will ever hear from the next occupant of the White House. Your mind is too beautiful of a thing to waste on believing the talking points of conniving con artists for the
corporations.
Learn more from following videos, articles and blog links.
Francesca Fiorentini contemplates if Biden will be able to overcome his centrist (i.e., Republican-lite) leanings to stop fascism.
"Biden World" Blames Progressives for Their Losses! (Republican ex-governor of Ohio John Kasich, who spoke at the convention, tells Democrats that progressives are the party's problem.) https://youtu.be/7-uY7AxHpEg
It’s been less than a week since the presidential results were
confirmed, but already the fossil fuel lobby in Canada is devising a
plan to pressure Joe Biden into completing the Keystone XL tar sands
pipeline.
The worst part is, they’re feeling optimistic.
Not only are tar sands companies banking on Keystone XL, they’re also
hard at work trying to push through another tar sands pipeline: the
Line 3 pipeline in northern Minnesota.
Our movement is up against massive fossil fuel corporations with
unlimited sums of money to lobby the United States and Canadian
governments. We need to send a strong message to Joe Biden right away that stopping these pipelines is non-negotiable:
As a Dakota elder who has been fighting Keystone XL for 12 years, I
know that while TC Energy and Big Oil may have the money to push policy
and politicians in favor of their profits – people power is capable of
defeating even the most entrenched special interests.
With your help we can make sure that Joe Biden honors his campaign
promises and the Indigenous communities who made his victory possible.
Every signature puts a name to the outrage Biden can expect if he
chooses to put fossil fuel profits before Indigenous communities, our
water, and the climate.
It’s a testament to our movement that despite Trump’s best efforts,
we were able to hold off this pipeline for the last four years. But time is running out.
TC Energy began preliminary construction in March without all the
required permits, and every day that goes by makes our work even harder.
C.A., our work doesn’t stop with Keystone XL. We must make sure that Biden not only blocks this pipeline, but every single one after that.
Over 50,000 people have signed the Promise to Protect and are ready
and committed to take creative resistance on the ground against Keystone
XL or any other pipeline that threatens our climate and communities.
But since we cannot gather in person, adding your name to this
petition today is one of the best ways to show our collective strength.
So thank you for signing the petition.
Together I know we can win.
Wopida,
Faith Spotted Eagle Brave Heart Society
***
From Food and Water Watch:
Over
the past four years, the Trump administration has shamelessly fueled
the climate crisis by unleashing a fracking free-for-all on public
lands.
At a time when the climate crisis demands that we move away
from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy, it is outrageous and
irresponsible to expand fracking and drilling on public lands. It’s time
to put an end to this recklessness.
Together, we can move forward, towards the climate future we all deserve, but we
need President-elect Biden to take bold, immediate climate action by
banning fracking and stopping new fossil fuel extraction on public lands.
With the new administration, we have a renewed opportunity, and we
demand a new era in the climate fight. It’s time to take on the fossil
fuel industry directly.
Fracking
is a dangerous method of extracting oil and gas that escalates climate
change and pollution. Drilling and fracking bring water contamination,
air pollution, earthquakes and massive amounts of methane leakage.
Fracking hurts people and communities.
Yet Big Oil & Gas has been allowed — and even encouraged by Trump
and his cronies — to decimate public lands, despite these places being
set aside by past generations for protection and the enjoyment of future
generations.
Enough is enough. The inherent danger of fracking
means that no set of regulations can ever make it safe for public health
or our environment. Banning fracking on public lands is a no-brainer;
we need President-elect Biden to act immediately when he takes office on
January 20.
Food
& Water Action helped achieve the introduction of the first federal
bill to ban fracking in 2014. And as more and more people demand real
action against fracking, we're ramping up our national campaign to ban
it now to protect our families and our communities from reckless,
dangerous drilling.
President-elect Biden has a huge opportunity to stand on the right side of history by banning fracking on public lands. In doing so, he would protect our national resources and heritage, and help avert climate chaos.
The
fight for our climate doesn’t end now that the election is over. It’s
time for the new administration to take real action to protect our
environment, and that starts with all of us demanding change and holding
the president-elect accountable!
Wenonah Hauter Founder and Executive Director Food & Water Action and Food & Water Watch
***
Are You Willing To Stand Up For Your Values? (Or will you fall for just about anything the corrupticians throw at you?)
If
you agree that we can't just sit back, fall asleep, and let the
neolibs/neocons destroy our country, our lives, and the planet, then
please consider making a donation to keep The Revolution Continues going. Donate at the Paypal.me link below.
THE AMAZON RAINFOREST IS BURNING… We Must Refocus Our Priorities Toward Protecting Our Planet
by The Independent Reformist
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
***
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 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.
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.
