As we oh-so-slowly wake up to the reality of climate murder-suicide
I've no doubt written a few diaries on climate change, and they probably weren't my most popular diaries -- but this ought to be a bit of fun. The day before yesterday there appeared a piece "the big problem with climate 'realism,'" with a fun picture of Nancy Pelosi on the front. This is from "The Week." At any rate, the piece argues:
If we consider climate policy realistically, then that would clearly involve considering how big the problem is, reasoning from there how fast emissions need to come down, and then what policies could get us there.
Of course, climate change constitutes a major opportunity to catch the worthless hacks now in office behaving like deer in the headlights. Or, as the author (and Brad Stephens, whom he quotes), suggests: ""isn't Pelosi's incrementalist approach to climate absurdly inadequate?" Why, yes it is.
Or here's another take on this: The Climate Change Paper So Depressing It's Sending People To Therapy. So while people who dare to look at the actual facts about climate change are having nervous breakdowns, the Republicrat/ Demopublican dinosaurs are pissing away the hours, both ours and theirs. Anyone who wonders why, who wonders about the CAUSES of government inaction, should look at this In These Times piece on Dianne Feinstein. The answer should be clear: They're senile and they don't want to do anything about their rotten-to-the-core financial portfolios. Just look at that photo of Feinstein!
The public needs to be taught to avoid bothering with what the dinosaurs say. Look at what they own and who they're taking money from! They're all playing the same game: "he/ she who dies with the most toys wins."
Comments
The fact that the media took that moment with
the kids and portrayed it as "generational conflict" kinda turns my stomach, mainly because I'm pretty sure I know how the corporate media portrays "generational conflict."
Obviously, the conflict has a generational aspect; a conscienceless, heartless bastard is less likely to want to take action on climate change if she or he is likely to be dead before any serious damage occurs. But the media is both cutesy and poisonous about "generational conflict" as if it's some kind of a game with teams, yet at the same time is a referendum on how "divisive" American society is; at the same time as that, the media uses "generational conflict" the same way it uses race, gender, sexual orientation and everything else: to set Americans at each others' throats.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Think of it as a --
"captor confronts her hostages" moment.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
People can be old and senile without being aged.
So happens, Feinstein is all three.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Absurd assumption
that Diane Feinstein represents the Baby Boom generation. She's an elite pig, like all of the elite pigs who preceded her. The socio-political disaster here is the modern Democrat Party who has managed to claim to be progressive by talking about identity issues meanwhile being the same elite, wealthy pigs that they have always been. It really started with Truman and progressed through JFK, and especially Clinton and Obama. They were all "players" with the financial elites. Even Nixon was to the left of the Clintons. The EPA was signed into law by Nixon.
Now I see generational cooperation. There are many of us Baby Boomers who have been aware of the Climate Crisis since 1970. We are cooperating with the Milleniums and especially the youth. We will be out there protesting with them.
The fundamental problem with the US is that it is the worst of Capitalism. Not only does greed and status rule, but we are incapable of solving big problems. Some capitalists will hire lawyers or politicians to block any progress. I'm talking Republicans and Democrats. Look at how Teddy Kennedy blocked Cape Wind. The only big projects that the US is capable of executing are related to war, examples - Nuclear energy, Interstate road system, Integrated Circuits, Space exploration, airplanes, etc. etc. The Lunar Landing project happened because JFK decided that we needed to leapfrog the Soviets.
The MSM won't help because they are also "players". The fact that Americans believe that Climate Change is controversial science can be laid at the feet of the MSM. They are dishonest to the core. Everything is political and they play ball.
I think that Chomsky is right, the only tactic that will work is protest, and that has to be massive. We are at a point where the establishment and the MSM have become masters at ignoring protest, unless it fits a narrative. It has to be large, and continous to the point that it can't be ignored. But we have to start somewhere.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
I believe she belongs to the "Silent Generation"
Apparently, they forgot to tell her.
She is old.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
The Silent Generation
was aptly named. They're so "silent", no one even knows the generation exists. Most folks seem to skip directly from the Greatests to the Boomers.
When I was younger, most of my good friends were Silents. (I was born in the '50s.) None of them identified with the Boomer generation, and I don't think they would take it as a compliment to be lumped together with them. The Silents were born during the Great Depression and WWII, so their formative experience was vastly different from that of the Boomers.
I know I've said it before, but the term "Boomer" is becoming meaningless. People are using it as a catch-all word for "anyone over the age of 50".
DiFi is not a Boomer. Bernie Sanders is not a Boomer. Neither are Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell, the list goes on ...
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
However, both the Clintons, George W. Bush, Barack Obama,
Chuck Schumer, Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke, Scooter Libby, John Bolton, Donald Trump, Karl Rove,John Brennan, Keith Alexander, John Boehner, Jeb Bush, Condoleeza Rice and Jay Bybee are. Also, on the private sector side, Bill Gates, Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, and Jeff Bezos.
Bottom line: the wrecking of our country (and a lot of subsequent destruction for the world at large) happened between the Powell memo in the early 70s, which laid out the plan for the elites to destroy the country, and the Obama administrations (2008-2016) which nailed the coffin shut to prevent any possible recovery from the damage. Given the time frame of the enterprise, it makes sense that the wrecking ball project was a joint effort of the Greatest Generation, the Silent Generation, and the Boomers; it also makes sense that the Greatest Generation was most involved in the first half of the project (1970s-mid-90s) and that their involvement has waned somewhat as they've gotten older, leaving mostly Silent Generation and Boomers in charge.
Paul Ryan and John Yoo belong to my generation, as does Rachel Maddow, so it's not like moral perfidy is limited to one generation, nor even to a small group of generations. But this isn't a moral competition; it's a memory of what has actually happened and who has done what. It's a historical fact that the Reagan Revolution and its concomitant movements, like Thatcherism, arose when nobody who is currently under 55 was in power; it's also a historical fact that, in this country, political and economic power has remained concentrated in the hands of three generations, all of whom are (at this point) over 55 years of age. Doesn't mean there are no powerful, wealthy elites under 55; doesn't mean there are no fascists under 55; doesn't mean there are no bad people under 55. But this country, the English-speaking nations, and to some extent, the world, have been wrecked by the rise of a multinational right-wing corporatist counterrevolution which was already entrenched by the time I reached voting age. I'm not saying there's nothing the oldest Gen Xers could do, but it was hard to figure out what to do at the time, and we had a mighty small window to accomplish a successful pushback; by 1994 it was all over bar the shouting.
Nobody under 40 has any responsibility for the way things have turned out at all, though if I were going to pick one person under 40 who does, it would undoubtedly be Zuckerberg. But even he entered into a political and economic world that was based on right-wing counterrevolutionary principles, fixed in place like a cement sculpture. God only knows what Zuck would have become if not for three decades of Saruman and Wormtongue.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Well put C stop
There is plenty of blame to go around regardless of the generation or age of the perps. The point is to remember the bandits and their methods. Try to prevent repeat performances (think VZ). It is tough on all of us fighting the empire. The control has to be pried from their cold dead fingers before they finish us off, imo.
question everything
Thanks, QMS,
I think it's important for us to maintain historical accuracy, because there's so few people doing it.
But it's a matter of history, not inherent morality or immorality, where one generation is good and another bad.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I think we should be able to
acknowledge history at the same time that we refuse to play along with the divisive politics the elites desire for us.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Yes, she's a Silent.
Like Kerry.
They usually caucus with the Boomers, because there's so few of them.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I agree that the MSM is complicit. In the 1990s I comforted
myself by thinking that Vice President Al Gore cared about climate change and would finally get things rolling once he attained the White House.
Needless to say, I was dismayed to see (yech) George “Dubya” Bush portrayed in the media as a sleeves-rolled-up, hard-working, man-of-the-people kinda guy. Meanwhile, Gore was portrayed even, or should I say especially, in the “liberal” media as “wooden” and ridiculous since he wanted to put Social Security funds in a “lock box.” Remember how howlingly funny lock box was portrayed by the media?
I don’t recall Gore mentioning climate change or anyone else mentioning it during the campaign. Perhaps he was warned that it was a political third rail. Still climate change was widely known to be a cause celebre of Gore’s.
During the vote counting kerfuffle, the media continued to slant the coverage in favor of Bush to the actual winner’s detriment had a complete recount been allowed. Instead the media sold us an astroturfed Brooks Brothers revolution as the will of the people. The Supreme Court upheld ending the recount and now one of those Brooks Brothers revolutionaries is a member of that very same body. Ain’t life grand?
It’s all a well oiled machine, “oil” being the operant word here. Petrochemical companies, the media and the rest of the power elite all have a vested in maintaining the status quo for as long as possible. They continue to plan their own survival, I believe, which they probably believe is the survival of mankind. Mankind just doesn’t happen to include everybody. I can’t verify the last two sentence. It’s just a feeling I have.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Front end of the baby boomer generation here
And one of the reasons I participated in my local Occupy group was that I believe in stewardship for future generations despite not having any children or grandchildren of my own. The millennials in our Occupy group were gravely concerned about climate change.
IMO, this not just a generational conflict, but is more representative of an affluency gap.
To this quote below, I say I will definitely be there too.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Like the Yellow Vests in France: keep going until Macron is out…
and The People finally get a direct say in government with RIC.
Protests? Are you sure?
No Chomsky is WRONG. Protests are a waste of time and energy when the subject is climate change. Climate change is caused by too many fires fueled by very old carbon stores. We have a world designed to run on fire. Fire is humanity's favorite invention—by FAR. Many cultures have fire gods. In order to eliminate the fires that keep us alive, give us warmth, power our sanitation, and provide the motion that we have come to depend on will have to be powered by something that isn't fire. And we have a decade left to do it. Those civilizations we built to run on fire took about 20,000 years to construct.
Anyone who believes that political protest will solve such a problem are just flat wrong. I am not sure it's crazier than my mother who when faced with a problem she didn't understand would call for a prayer meeting. Let's call it a toss-up
That article by Zing Tsjeng about the academic paper was
very troubling. The bright spot I took from it:
At least the 1% eventually will suffer the same fate they brought upon us.
O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.
Too bad their vast wealth won’t allow them to see that
they are in the same boat as the rest of us when it comes to climate change. Economically their yachts were raised while the same economic tide left our leaky rowboats behind, but this was engineered by TPTB. Can they truly engineer a survival system that will allow them to outlive 99% of us? They are betting on it, unable to accept their own powerlessness in the face of a world they perpetuated.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
And is life really worth living without butterflies, plants
and honey bees?
O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.
They’re probably counting on cyber butterflies and honeybees
and hydroponics for plants. ‘Cause they’re Masters of the Universe and not at all delusional.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Cue Black Mirror
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
“I was elected by almost a million vote plurality,”
I wonder if those children know she loaned herself the money to get herself elected. I did not even know it was a legal option, but what isn't Mrs. Blum?
Here's the FEC Receipts page I bookmarked five million in the primary, six million in the general.
Then to rub salt in my wounds, I'm pretty sure what happens afterward is the campaign and not herself repays the loans with interest, so she makes a profit. PU
This is especially interesting and Feinsteinlike
since her "opponent" didn't actually try to run a campaign. What did she spend on? Whatever it was I didn't see it.
On to Biden since 1973
He didn't run a campaign?
That's a diary in and of itself. How do we know this? My curiosity is piqued.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
After getting the Dem Party endorsement
I never saw a single ad - tv, radio, print - nothing. (from either)
There are lots of possible explanations: He could have used the same campaign manager as Cathleen Brown, (an infamous case, look it up, she was up over Pete Wilson by something like 15 points and proceeded to run no ads and actively avoid all press under the assumption that as long as she took no stands on anything no one would think they had any reason to vote against her. She lost, because everyone who hated Pete Wilson thought he was running unopposed) he could have used up all of his money in the primary, (while Feinstein gave all her money to her husband to invest) Feinstein could have gotten massive support from CA Republicans,(100% would have almost done it. Throw in 55 - 45 with independents...) She could have decided she had SF sewed up and spent everything in LA (actually a possibility) She could have appointed the person who reported the vote total. (actually almost a certainty)
Disclaimer: I have personally run (small ballot proposition) campaigns against Feinstein. (always winning) every time her "independent commissioners" overruled the election results and I and my people lost thousands of dollars. I am arguably not a fair judge.
On to Biden since 1973
An argument based on the age of a person is creates a shelf life
beyond where your opinions and thoughts no longer matter. If one is not to trust anyone over 30 most if not all of us are untrustworthy. At what point do we become "old" an no longer credible.
My favorite example of a mixed message was the 85 year old doing jumping jacks in front of my pharmacy counter. He was showing how fit was and explained how he and his wife went to the nursing homes to help with the old people. Became quiet then spoke "I should not say that, most of them are younger than we are."
Generational groupings shift overtime at the discretion of different authors. Primarily used to create tribes or teams to play off each other. As a young child I was very upset both myself and my mother were considered baby boomers.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
It's all relative, I guess
When I turned 30, I had an "over the hill" birthday party. I felt so old!
Nowadays, people in their 30s seem so young to me.
My dad lived to the age of 95 and was active, mentally sharp, and vitally interested in life right up to the end. When he was in his 80s, he often rode his bicycle 10 or 20 miles a day. When we'd talk, he would refer to people my age as "kids". I was in my late 50s and early 60s at the time.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
Good essay Cass
We are never too old to change.
question everything
OK mea culpa
I took the word "old" out of my essay.
Apologies to all those offended.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.