#trump's war on climate science

[tomorrowusa]

Put Trump back in the White House and we'll see an all out war on the planet led by Republicans and the fossil fuel industry.

In the same interview with Sean Hannity when Trump said he'd be a dictator, he also promised that he would "drill, drill, drill".

His lust for fossil fuels only continues to grow.

Former President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, staffed his environmental agencies with fossil fuel lobbyists and claimed — against all scientific evidence — that the Earth’s rising temperatures will “ start getting cooler.” Expect a second Trump presidency to show less restraint. Trump’s campaign utterances, and the policy proposals being drafted by hundreds of his supporters, point to the likelihood that his return to the White House would bring an all-out war on climate science and policies — eclipsing even his first-term efforts that brought U.S. climate action to a virtual standstill. Those could include steps that aides shrank back from taking last time, such as meddling in the findings of federal climate reports. [ ... ] But as the GOP front-runner, he’s gone back to alleging that human-caused global warming is fake, is baselessly blaming whale deaths on wind turbines and said last month that if elected he would be a “ dictator for one day” — in part so he could “drill, drill, drill.” Meanwhile, many of his former staffers are building out a comprehensive plan to decimate both climate policy and regulations on fossil fuels. And Trump allies expect that the former president would fill his next administration with officials who are even more hostile to efforts to address global warming.

The people on the fringe who claim that both parties are alike seem like even bigger idiots with each passing day. Putzing around with third parties is like playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded revolver.

The only way to avert a disaster for democracy and a planetary catastrophe is to vote and Vote Democratic.

It's always easier to prevent a dictatorship than it is to end it once it's in power.

#climate change #donald trump #dictator #drill drill drill #republicans are enemies of the climate #a second trump administration #fossil fuel fascism #climate deniers #trump's war on climate science #save the planet #vote blue no matter who #election 2024

[reading-writing-revolution]

Trump’s campaign utterances, and the policy proposals being drafted by hundreds of his supporters, point to the likelihood that his return to the White House would bring an all-out war on climate science and policies — eclipsing even his first-term efforts that brought U.S. climate action to a virtual standstill. Those could include steps that aides shrank back from taking last time, such as meddling in the findings of federal climate reports. “The approach is to go back to all-out fossil fuel production and sit on the EPA,” said Steve Milloy, a former Trump transition team adviser who is well known for his industry-backed attacks on climate science.

Trump supporters expect a ‘battle’ against climate science in 2nd term - POLITICO

#politics #climate #climate crisis #climate change

[fairfieldthinkspace]

“The future belonged to the showy and the promiscuous”: Why the 21st Century Loves Edith Wharton

Emily J. Orlando

E. Gerald Corrigan Chair in the Humanities & Social Sciences and Professor of English

Fairfield University

Photo: John Singer Sargent, Sybil Frances Grey, later Lady Eden 1905.

If ever there were a good time to read the American writer Edith Wharton (1862-1937), who published over forty books across four decades, it’s now. Since the Wharton revival of the late 20th century, when directors were adapting (the Pulitzer-Prize winning) The Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, The Buccaneers, and The House of Mirth, her star has continued to rise. As I yesterday prepared to teach The Custom of the Country, which many have called Wharton’s greatest novel, a friend texted me Sofia Coppola’s article on the surprising appeal of its social-climbing heroine. Coppola is developing Undine Spragg’s story for Apple TV. A kind of Gilded Age Material Girl, Undine has been ready for her close-up for years.

Coppola joins an impressive roster of contemporary admirers of Wharton that includes Roxane Gay, Laura Bush, Lisa Lucas, Peggy Noonan, Jennifer Egan, Stephin Merritt, Claire Messud, Meg Wolitzer, Mindy Kaling, Doug Hughes, Brandon Taylor, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ali Benjamin, Vendela Vida, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Kristin Hannah. At a time when publishing houses are compelled to scale back, new editions of Wharton’s books are appearing in print with introductions by Coppola, Egan, and Taylor.

Photo: Sofia Coppola.

Those who think they don’t know Wharton might be surprised to learn they do. A reverence for Wharton’s writings informs Sex and the City (whose pilot welcomes us to “the Age of Un-Innocence”), Gossip Girl, Downtown Abbey (whose “Lady Edith” suggests a nod to Wharton), and HBO’s The Gilded Age which, like Downton, is created by the Wharton-appreciating Julian Fellowes. His Bertha and George, after all, are named for the power couple from The House of Mirth.  

But why Wharton? Why now? Perhaps it’s because for all its new technologies, conveniences, and modes of travel and communication, our own “Gilded Age” is a lot like hers. For the post-war and post-flu-epidemic climate that engendered The Age of Innocence is not far removed from our post-COVID-19 reality. In both historical moments, citizens of the world have witnessed a retreat into conservativism and a rise of white supremacy. Fringe groups like the “Proud Boys” and “QAnon” and deniers of everything from the coronavirus to climate change and Sandy Hook are invited to the table in the name of free speech, and here Wharton’s distrust of false narratives resonates particularly well. Post-9/11 calls for patriotism and the alignment of the American flag with one political party harken back to Wharton’s poignant questioning, in a 1919 letter, of the compulsion to profess national allegiance:

how much longer are we going to think it necessary to be “American” before (or in contradistinction to) being cultivated, being enlightened, being humane, & having the same intellectual discipline as other civilized countries?[i]

Her cosmopolitan critique of nationalist fervor remains instructive to us today.

Edith Wharton seems to have foreseen the excesses, obsessions, and spectacles of our current moment. The scandals documented in Wharton’s narratives serve as harbingers of the sensations that flash across our hand-held screens. Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking touches on the same nerve as the sexual exploitation of minors in Wharton’s Summer (1917) and The Children (1928). The quid pro quo run-in between Wharton’s Lily Bart and Gus Trenor looks uncomfortably forward to Harvey Weinstein and #MeToo. The rise to power of Donald Trump would not surprise Edith Wharton.

Photo: “Vanity,” by Auguste Toulmouche, circa 1870.

Wharton’s tenacious Undine Spragg—as horrifying to progressive era readers as she is admired by Generation Z—can be conceived of as the original social media influencer conscious of her brand. For Undine and her creator know that “the future belonged to the showy and the promiscuous”[ii] and that the turn-of-the-century “world where conspicuousness passed for distinction”[iii] foreshadows our own. Wharton would describe Undine in terms we might use for a “Real Housewife of Park Avenue”: “If only everyone would do as she wished she would never be unreasonable” (162). Undine’s world encourages her to aspire to the rank of trophy wife and the sexual double standard dictating that “genius is of small use to a woman who does not know how to do her hair”[iv] would apply to Wharton herself who, on the 150th anniversary of her birth, would be assessed by a male novelist in terms of how she sizes up to Grace Kelly or Jackie Kennedy.[v]  The writer who would declare, in her wildly popular interior design manual The Decoration of Houses, privacy “one of the first requisites of civilized life”[vi] would be appalled by what is broadcast across social media. Wharton also would’ve anticipated the racism directed at Meghan Markle and why granting Oprah an interview would not help relations with her spouse’s family. Children forcibly separated from families due to morally dubious immigration policies echo the plight of war refugees for whose welfare Edith Wharton labored, while the distrust of the cultural other echoes the writer’s own complicated nationalist allegiances.[vii]  

Ten years ago, Lev Raphael took the temperature of Wharton studies declaring in the Huffington Post: “Edith Wharton is hot.” She is now positively on fire. I offer below a short excerpt from the introduction to The Bloomsbury Handbook to Edith Wharton, which appears in print today.

                                                           *********************

The image gracing the cover of The Bloomsbury Handbook to Edith Wharton, capturing a scene on the terrace of Edith Wharton’s French home, reflects the cultural work that this book takes as its task. The writer is in her element: she cradles in her lap her beloved dogs, she sits outdoors at a well-appointed property she lovingly transformed, she surrounds herself with fashionably dressed cosmopolitans, and she smiles. The moment validates an idea expressed in The Age of Innocence: that “the air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.” As host, Wharton, by this point an internationally acclaimed artist, has brought together representatives of an admiring generation from diverse backgrounds that would outlive and perhaps learn from her. That sunlit terrace is doing something we hope this book will do: provide a foundation for future conversations with Edith Wharton at the center.

Photo: Edith Wharton publicity shot.

Around the time this photograph was taken, Wharton would reflect in A Backward Glance that “[t]he world is a welter and has always been one; but though all the cranks and the theorists cannot master the old floundering monster, . . . here and there a saint or a genius suddenly sends a little ray through the fog, and helps humanity to stumble on, and perhaps up” (379). Wharton’s writings arguably send a ray and help humanity stumble on and up in our own Gilded Age. It is the aim of this collection of essays, produced by leaders in the field at a time of global crisis, to make a meaningful contribution to the scholarship on and dialogue about the work of Edith Wharton and to open up new possibilities for understanding and embracing a writer whose corpus is as enormous as it is resonant. To borrow from Wharton’s preface to her anthology The Book of the Homeless (1916), in which she conceives of her volume, as she so often does, as a house: “You will see from the names of the builders what a gallant piece of architecture it is. . . . So I efface myself from the threshold and ask you to walk in.”[viii]

Emily J. Orlando is the E. Gerald Corrigan Chair in the Humanities & Social Sciences and Professor of English at Fairfield University. She is the author of Edith Wharton and the Visual Arts and editor of The Bloomsbury Handbook to Edith Wharton. She is currently preparing for publication a new edition of Edith Wharton’s first book, The Decoration of Houses.

[i]Lewis, Letters, 424.

[ii]Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country, New York, Penguin, 2006, 117.

[iii]Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, ed. Elizabeth Ammons, 2nd Norton Critical ed. (New York: Norton, 2018), 186.

[iv]Edith Wharton, The Touchstone, in Wharton, Edith, Collected Stories, 1891-1910, ed. Maureen Howard (New York: Library of America, 2001), 170.

[v]Jonathan Franzen, “A rooting interest: Edith Wharton and the problem of sympathy,” The New Yorker, February 5, 2012.

[vi] Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman, Jr., The Decoration of Houses (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1897), 22.

[vii]See Melanie Dawson, “The Limits of Cosmopolitan Experience in Wharton’s The Buccaneers.” Legacy 31.2 (2014): 258-80. Print.

[viii]Edith Wharton, Preface to The Book of the Homeless (Le Livre des Sans-foyer) (New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1916), xxiv-xxv.

#Emily J. Orlando #Fairfield University #Edith Wharton #Gossip Girl #The Custom of the Country #Sofia Coppola #The Age of Innocence #Undine Spragg #Summer #The Book of the Homeless

[therealtruthalways]

Best Awakening Documentaries: Uncensored, Recommended - White Rabbit Index (Part 1/1–Created APR 2023)

✅ Share Our Channel: http://t.me/FollowsTheWhiteRabbit

1. Beyond The Great Reset (24-min animated showing Great Reset Vision) (2023)🔥

2. Satanic Hollywood’s Open Secret (1.5-hour)🔥

3. Out of Shadows (2020) (Documentary on Creepy, MK Ultra Hollywood)🔥

4. JFK to 911: Everything is a Rich Man’s Trick (US History of Corruption)🔥

5. Monopoly: Who Owns The World? (Guess Who all the Money Leads To) (2021)🔥

6. Jesuit & Freemason Infiltration of the World (3-hr)🔥

7. American Moon (A compelling, full 3.5-hr doc debunking Moon Landings) (2017)🔥

8. NASA: Why do they Lie to Us? (20-mins of NASA Lies) (2020)🔥

9. Masonic Riddles in Stone (Freemasonry in US Architecture)🔥

10. HAARP Weather Manipulation Report causing extreme Weather (2-mins)🔥

11. George Soros’ Formula for Killing America (16-mins)🔥

12. The Flat Earth Scientific Proof: The Convex Earth (1.5-hour) (+ Firmament Dome Earth Theory Hub) (2018)🔥

13. Dark Agendas: How To Brainwash & Control The Masses (1-min)🔥

14. mRNA now being injected into Food (5-min report)🔥

15. 911 False Flag: Predictive Programming (2-Ep) (Mr.Truthbomb) (2022)🔥

16. Died Suddenly (Experimental Covid Clot Shots Doc) (1-hr) (2022)🔥

17. Plandemic: InDoctorNation (2020) (Covid-Corruption Exposed Doc) (75-min)🔥

18. Fall of the Cabal (Corruption of Society doc) (2022)🔥

19. 11 Corporations Own 90% of Companies (1.5-min)🔥

20. Pentagon spent $540 Million on Fake Terrorist Videos (1-min Report)🔥

21. Pedos Who want to Convert Your Children (2-mins)🔥

22. Free Energy: Stanley Meyer’s Water Powered Buggy🔥

23. These Little Ones: 1-hr Child Trafficking Report, Proof, & Doc (2022) 🔥

24. Unmasked 2030 (2-hr doc, banking system to covid-vaxxes, Audio-only works great (2021)🔥

25. Government/CIA TV brainwashing Proof. MK Ultra, Operation Mockingbird. Creep-central (6-mins)🔥

26. Elite Human Trafficking (by Mouthy Buddha) (All Volumes 1-6)🔥

27. They Live: The Truth About MK-ULTRA & MK-NAOMI to Present Day Covid (1.5-hr doc) (2021)🔥

28. US Government Contracting Slaves: The Empire of the 3 City States (Strawman Prez) (1-hr 15min) (2020)🔥

29. The Secret Empire (Corruption of Power Documentary)🔥

30. Science For Hire (Corrupted, Politicized Science Doc) (2022)🔥

31. State of Control (NWO Digital ID progress & risks doc) (2022)🔥

32. Safe & Effective: A 2nd Opinion (Experimental Covid Vaxx Injuries Doc) (2022)🔥

33. Uninformed Consent: Covid Plandemic Corruption Exposed (Full 2-hr Doc) (2022)🔥

34. Terrain: The Film Parts 1&2 (Covid-fakery Debates & Corruption exposed) (2022)🔥

35. The 1%: Why You Must Hate Donald Trump (7-mins) (2022)🔥

36. 2000 Mules by Dinesh D’Souza (Brand New 2020 Election Fraud Doc) (2022)🔥

37. Trump @ War (full doc, plus Hub for Trump & J6 docs) (2022)🔥

38. The Lost History of Earth (New) (fills-in missing gaps in Earth’s History, Pyramids, Architect, etc.) (5-hr) (2021)🔥

39. NASA: Going Nowhere Since 1958 (1-hr doc) (2019)🔥

40. Century of Enslavement: The Fraudulent History of the Federal Reserve (1.5-hr Corbett Report) 🔥

41. The Real Anthony Fauci (by Robert F. Kennedy) (3-hrs) (2022)🔥

42. The Plan: WHO Agenda for 10 years of Plandemics (30-min doc) (2022)🔥

43. FLUVID-19 (Hijacked Flu Data > Covid Deaths Psyop doc) (1-hr) (Hibbeler) (2022)🔥

44. Dr. Emoto’s Water Experiment - Positive Energy & Negative Energy are real-Practice it. (6-mins)🔥

45. The Truth About January 6th “Insurrection” & Trump Doc Hub (2022)🔥

46. What is the World Economic Forum (WEF)? (26-min Investigative Report) (2022)🔥

47. The Big Reset: World Economic Forum (2-hr Doc on The Great Reset) (2022)🔥

48. New World Order: Communism by the Back Door (5.5-hr Doc) (2014)🔥

49. Who is Stealing America? (2022) (2020 Election Fraud Doc) (Epoch Times)🔥

50. The Great Electric Vehicle “Climate Change” Hoax Explained (1-min) (2022)🔥

51. Bill Gates Conspiracy Hub (2022)🔥

52. Truth on W.H.O. Corruption -- mini-doc (3-mins) (2020)🔥

[arcticdementor]

For The Atlantic’s January/February 2024 issue, 24 contributors consider what Donald Trump could do if he were to return to the White House.

Just the summary page is a hilarious parade of catastrophizing. First, the editor's note:

• A WARNING, By Jeffrey Goldberg

America survived the first Trump term, though not without sustaining serious damage. A second term, if there is one, will be much worse.

Then the rest:

• THE DANGER AHEAD, By David Frum

If Donald Trump returns to the White House, he’d bring a better understanding of the system’s vulnerabilities, more willing enablers, and a more focused agenda of retaliation against his adversaries.

• TRUMP WILL ABANDON NATO, By Anne Applebaum

If reelected, he would end our commitment to the European alliance, reshaping the international order and hobbling American influence in the world.

• LOYALISTS, LAPDOGS, AND CRONIES, By McKay Coppins

In a second Trump term, there would be no adults in the room.

• THE SPECTER OF FAMILY SEPARATION, By Caitlin Dickerson

Donald Trump and his allies have promised to restore their draconian zero-tolerance immigration policy.

• HOW TRUMP GETS AWAY WITH IT, By Barton Gellman

If reelected, he could use the powers of the presidency to evade justice and punish his enemies.

• FOUR MORE YEARS OF UNCHECKED MISOGYNY, By Sophie Gilbert

In a second Trump term, women would once again be targets.

• THE CLIMATE CAN’T AFFORD ANOTHER TRUMP PRESIDENCY, By Zoë Schlanger

His approach to the environment: ignore it.

• IS JOURNALISM READY?, By George Packer

[Which rule is it that says that if a headline is a question, the answer is probably "no"?]

The press has repeatedly fallen into Donald Trump’s traps. A second term could render it irrelevant.

• TRUMP’S POLARIZATION OF SCIENCE IS BAD FOR EVERYONE, By Sarah Zhang

A re­elected Donald Trump would continue to attack studies that stand in the way of his agenda—and to make support for scientific inquiry a tribal belief.

• CORRUPTION UNBOUND, By Franklin Foer

Donald Trump and his cronies left his first administration with a playbook for self-enrichment in a second term.

• WHY XI WANTS TRUMP TO WIN, By Michael Schuman

A second Trump term would allow China to cement its grip on the developing world.

• A MAGA JUDICIARY, By Adam Serwer

In a second term, Donald Trump would appoint more judges who don’t care about the law.

• THE PROUD BOYS LOVE A WINNER, By Juliette Kayyem

A second Trump term would validate the violent ideologies of far-right extremists—and allow them to escape legal jeopardy.

• A PLAN TO OUTLAW ABORTION EVERYWHERE, By Elaine Godfrey

Activists hope a Trump Justice Department would criminalize the procedure, with or without a federal ban.

• THE TRUTH WON’T MATTER, By Megan Garber

If reelected, Donald Trump will once again churn out absurdity and outrage with factory efficiency.

• DONALD TRUMP VS. AMERICAN HISTORY, By Clint Smith

He has promised to impose his harmful, erroneous claims on school curricula in a second term.

• A WAR ON BLUE AMERICA, By Ronald Brownstein

In a second term, Trump would punish the cities and states that don’t support him.

• TRUMP ISN’T BLUFFING, By David A. Graham

We’ve become inured to his rhetoric, but his message has grown darker.

• CIVIL RIGHTS UNDONE, By Vann R. Newkirk II

How Trump could unwind generations of progress

• TRUMP’S PLAN TO POLICE GENDER, By Spencer Kornhaber

His campaign is promising a more repressive and dangerous America.

• A MILITARY LOYAL TO TRUMP, By Tom Nichols

In 2020, the armed forces were a bulwark against Donald Trump’s antidemocratic designs. Changing that would be a high priority in a second term.

• THE LEFT CAN’T AFFORD TO GO MAD, By Helen Lewis

[This one looks like the closest to an even-handed approach, and stands out in comparison to the rest]

A second Trump term would require an opposition that focuses on his abuses of power—and seeks converts rather than hunting heretics.

• WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE AMERICAN PSYCHE IF TRUMP IS REELECTED?, By Jennifer Senior

Our bodies are not designed to handle chronic stress.

• TRUMP VOTERS ARE AMERICA TOO, By Mark Leibovich

(Note: even this one is totally negative)

If he wins a second term, perhaps we’ll finally dispense with the myth that “this is not who we are.”

#the atlantic #trump derangement syndrome #lol #lmao even #parade of horribles #stop making republicans sound based

[hoursofreading]

The GOP's only policy position is that of 'what will hurt people most?' There is no reason why Republicans even have a chance of taking back the majority. In 2022 alone, Biden and Dems have done the following:

passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest investment in fighting climate change in history

passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the largest investment in infrastructure since Eisenhower

passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, breaking a 30-year streak of federal inaction on gun violence legislation

signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law

took out the leader of al Qaeda

ended America's longest war

reauthorized and strengthened the Violence Against Women Act

signed the PACT Act, a bill to address veteran burn pit exposure

signed the NATO accession protocols for Sweden and Finland

issued executive order to protect reproductive rights

canceled $10,000 of student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 and canceled $20,000 in debt for Pell Grant recipients

canceled billions in student loan debt for borrowers who were defrauded

nominated now-Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace Justice Breyer

brought COVID under control in the U.S. (e.g., COVID deaths down 90% and over 220 million vaccinated)

formed Monkeypox response team to reach communities at highest risk of contracting the virus

unemployment at a 50-year low

on track to cut deficit by $1.3 trillion, largest one-year reduction in U.S. history

limited the release of mercury from coal-burning power plants

$5 billion for electric vehicle chargers- $119 billion budget surplus in January 2022, first in over two years

united world against Russia’s war in Ukraine

ended forced arbitration in workplace sexual assault cases

reinstated California authority to set pollution standards for cars

ended asylum restrictions for children traveling alone

signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, the first federal ban on lynching after 200 failed attempts

Initiated “use it or lose it" policy for drilling on public lands to force oil companies to increase production

released 1 million barrels of oil a day for 6 months from strategic reserves to ease gas prices

rescinded Trump-era policy allowing rapid expulsion of migrants

expunged student loan defaults

overhauled USPS finances to allow the agency to modernize its service

required federal dollars spent on infrastructure to use materials made in America

restored environmental reviews for major infrastructure projects

Launched $6 billion effort to save distressed nuclear plants

provided $385 million to help families and individuals with home energy costs through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. (This is in addition to $4.5 billion provided in the American Rescue Plan.)

national registry of police officers who are fired for misconduct

tightened restrictions on chokeholds, no-knock warrants, and transfer of military equipment to police departments

required all federal law enforcement officers to wear body cameras

$265 million for South Florida reservoir, key component of Everglades restoration

major wind farm project off West coast to provide electricity for 1.5 million homes

continued Obama administration's practice of posting log records of visitors to White House

devoted $2.1 billion to strengthen US food supply chain

invoked Defense Production Act to rapidly expand domestic production of critical clean energy technologies

enacted two-year pause of anti-circumvention tariffs on solar

allocated funds to federal agencies to counter 300-plus anti-LGBTQ laws by state lawmakers in 2022

relaunched cancer 'moonshot' initiative to help cut death rate

expanded access to emergency contraception and long-acting reversible contraception

prevented states from banning Mifepristone, a medication used to end early pregnancy that has FDA approval

21 executive actions to reduce gun violence

Climate Smart Buildings Initiative: Creates public-private partnerships to modernize Federal buildings to meet agencies’ missions, create good-paying jobs, and cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

Paying for today’s needed renovations with tomorrow’s energy savings without requiring upfront taxpayer funding

ended Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy

Operation Fly-Formula, bringing needed baby formula (19 missions to date)

executive order protecting travel for abortion

invested more in crime control and prevention than any president in history

provided death, disability, and education benefits to public safety officers and survivors who are killed or injured in the line of duty

Reunited 500 migrant families separated under Trump

$1.66 billion in grants to transit agencies, territories, and states to invest in 150 bus fleets and facilities

brokered joint US/Mexico infrastructure project; Mexico to pay $1.5 billion for US border security

blocked 4 hospital mergers that would've driven up prices and is poised to thwart more anti-competition consolidation attempts

10 million jobs—more than ever created before at this point of a presidency

record small business creation

banned paywalls on taxpayer-funded research

best economic growth record since Clinton

struck deal between major U.S. railroads and unions representing tens of thousands of workers after about 20 hours of talks, averting rail strike

eliminated civil statute of limitations for child abuse victims

announced $156 million for America's first-of-its-kind critical minerals refinery, demonstrating the commercial viability of turning mine waste into clean energy technology.

started process of reclassifying Marijuana away from being a Schedule 1 substance and pardoning all federal prisoners with possession offenses

Note: This list only reflects 2022 accomplishments. Click here for 2021 accomplishments.

#quote

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

‘Tropical Trump’ takes Brazil’s democracy to the brink

For half a decade, we have drawn comparisons between Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and former president Donald Trump. In many ways, the two right-wing ultranationalists are birds of a feather: They both surged to power on a tide of anti-establishment anger; they counted on the enduring support of evangelical voters and certain business elites; they gained politically by the spread of misinformation on social media; they stymied collective global action on climate change; they raged at the strictures imposed by (and the science behind) pandemic-era lockdowns; they waged a relentless culture war against supposed enemies in media, state institutions and schools.

Throughout, Bolsonaro and Trump have referred to each other as allies and fellow travelers, locked in the same battles against the Western liberal establishment. Earlier this month, in his typically self-regarding style, Trump offered Bolsonaro an endorsement ahead of upcoming national elections: “‘Tropical Trump’ as he is affectionately called, has done a GREAT job for the wonderful people of Brazil,” Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social. “When I was President of the U.S., there was no other country leader who called me more than Jair.”

As Brazilians head to the polls Sunday, the putative “Tropical Trump” is reading directly from the Trump playbook. For more than a year, Bolsonaro has derided Brazil’s election processes and called into question the integrity of the imminent vote. He insists that the country’s electronic voting system is compromised, contrary to the preponderance of evidence and the rulings of independent experts and state authorities. Sound familiar?

Continue reading.

#brazil #politics #democracy #brazilian politics #brazilian elections #brazilian elections 2022 #jair bolsonaro #museum of modern art #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt

[mariacallous]

Eric Allen Been

You write that some “dumbed-down corollaries” of postmodernism have seeped into the thinking of the populist right.

Michiko Kakutani

With its suspicion of grand, overarching narratives, postmodernism emphasized the role that perspective plays in shaping our readings of texts and events. Such ideas resulted in innovative, groundbreaking art — think of the work of David Foster Wallace, Quentin Tarantino, Frank Gehry, to name but a few — and it opened the once-narrow gates of history to heretofore marginalized points of view.

But as such, ideas seeped into popular culture and merged with the narcissism of the “Me Decade” [and] also led to a more reductive form of relativism that allowed people to insist that their opinions were just as valid as objective truths verified by scientific evidence or serious investigative reporting. Climate change deniers demanded equal time, creationists argued that intelligent design should be taught alongside “science-based” evolution, and Fox News insisted it was “fair and balanced.” All this proved fertile ground in which lies spread by Donald Trump, alt-right trolls, and Russian propagandists could take root.

Eric Allen Been

As you track in the book, Trump did not spring out of nowhere. What writers from the past can help us better understand this notion that those in power often try to define what the truth is?

Michiko Kakutani

Books by Hannah Arendt, such as The Origins of Totalitarianism and Crises of the Republic, examine the role that the despoiling of truth played in the rise of Nazism and Stalinism. Her work not only provides a look at how two of the most monstrous regimes in history came to power in the 20th century, but a more universal sort of anatomy of what Margaret Atwood has called the “danger flags” that make people susceptible to demagoguery and propaganda, and nations easy prey for would-be autocrats.

The Austrian writer Stefan Zweig’s 1942 memoir The World of Yesterday gives readers a haunting account of how Europe tore itself apart in World War I, then lurched only decades later into the calamities of World War II, charting how easily reason and science can be dethroned by emotional appeals to fear and hatred.

Books by Richard Hofstadter — The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Anti-Intellectualism in American Life chronicle the episodic waves of a dark strain of thinking in American history animated by grievance, dispossession, and conspiratorial thinking. Earlier eruptions include the popularity of the anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant Know Nothing Party in the mid-1850s and the spread of McCarthyism in the 1950s.

[drapeau-rouge]

Statement of the Anti-Fascist Front before the CPAC congress, expression of contemporary fascism

On November 18th and 19th, 2022, the Political Conference of Conservative Action (CPAC, in Spanish) will take place in Mexico City, under the slogan of "defending freedom and democracy in the Americas." The CPAC was created by the American Conservative Union in the 1970s and today represents a highly intolerant and violent instrument of oligarchic and imperialist interference.

The event in Mexico City, apparently organized by an openly conservative, "pro-life" and anti-feminist character, has the sponsorship and collaboration of the most recalcitrant and rancid sectors of the Mexican right wing and is set to bring together representatives of the world’s extreme right like the Argentinian Javier Milei; former Chilean Pinochetist presidential candidate José Antonio Kast; the former president of Poland Lech Walesa; Donald Trump's strategist, accused of fraud, Steve Bannon; US Senator Ted Cruz; Luis Fernando Camacho, governor of Santa Cruz, in Bolivia, who supported the coup against Evo Morales; Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei; federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of Jair Bolsonaro; Jay Aeba, president of the Japanese Conservative Union; Gergely Gulyás, Minister of Government of Hungary and Valerie Huber, President of the Institute for Women's Health, among many others. All of them are figures who respond to the immediate economic interests of the high bourgeoisie and imperialist designs, who explicitly reject human rights and fight all progress towards social equality and environmental conservation in the Americas and the world.

Some of these characters have encouraged the overthrow of democratic governments such as Brazil (in 2016) and Bolivia (in 2019), installing in their place unelected governments that caused irreparable damage to their societies. They promote media wars in the global media and social networks through fake news in order to generate confusion, hopelessness, hatred, and social polarization. They incite lawfare to eliminate leaders of the progressive democratic left from electoral contests and, from the neoliberal media, they promote narratives so that presidents emanating from democratic processes through the universal, free, direct, and secret vote are unknown and excluded, calling them dictators, as It has happened in the case of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. His rhetoric has even led to dangerous attacks such as the one recently suffered by the Vice President of Argentina, Cristina Fernández.

Their obscurantism, their contempt for science and their hatred for public health caused countries like the United States and Brazil, which are the two largest economies on the continent, to lead the world’s list of deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic. Their program, which subordinates the most fundamental human needs to private interests, also dismisses the climate crisis, promoting the dispossession of indigenous territories and the depredation of the environment throughout the continent. In the same way, despite their "pro-freedom" rhetoric, they are opposed to any advancement of women's rights, such as abortion and reproductive autonomy, as well as the right to sexual diversity and equal marriage. They are also opposed to public policies to reduce inequalities through increasing social investment.

It is alarming that this conclave of global neo-fascism is taking place in Mexico, a country that has embarked on a course of economic, social, cultural, and political transformation in favor of the vast majority, and that arouses the fury and active opposition of powerful, illicitly enriched local elites based on government favoritism, illegitimate privatizations and outright corruption.

Given the openly anti-democratic, anti-popular, racist and destabilizing nature of this summit, the Anti-Fascist Front has decided to exercise its right to peacefully express its collective rejection of this event and the ideological program it represents. We do not promote hatred: we fight for equality, solidarity, unity and kindness among our Latin American people.

It is of interest to the majority of workers from Latin America and from the world, to express the firmest rejection of this summit and its reactionary ideas. If they do not meet with organized opposition, they will only grow and become more dangerous.

THEY SHALL NOT PASS! NO TO THE EXTREME RIGHT! DOWN WITH FASCISM!

#Mexico City #ciudad de méxico #no pasaran #antifascism #antifascista #mexico

[reddancer1]

from Bernie

Pauline -

If you believe in democracy, if you believe in science, if you believe in justice and workers' rights, let me be very clear: The next several months will be the most important in modern American history.

Unfortunately, we are confronting a very difficult and complicated political situation.

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal released a poll showing Trump leading in almost every swing state. He leads by 5 in Arizona, 3 in Michigan, 4 in Nevada, 3 in Pennsylvania, and is tied in Wisconsin.

If Trump wins even two of those states, it's game over.

And I think sometimes we slouch off the idea that Trump can win. It's hard to imagine that someone who was such a menace to the working class of this country could be popular enough with them to win a second term -- especially after we all lived through his first. I also believe sometimes we don't think enough about just how bad it will be policy-wise if he is re-elected.

Take one issue for example: Climate change.

Trump does not believe in climate change.

So what does that mean?

It means that not only all of the work we have done in trying to transform our energy systems away from fossil fuel will be undone, but every other country in the world is going to say “Hey if the second largest emitter in the world is giving up, than we're not going to do it either.”

And that really means dooming our kids and future generations to a very, very unhealthy, perhaps uninhabitable world.

So you don't need to know anything more than that to understand how dangerous Trump is.

But obviously the danger is much greater than just climate change.

Take another issue for example: American democracy.

Trump does not believe in, or care about, the future of American democracy.

So what does that mean?

It means that if he wins, you can expect more extreme gerrymandering, more laws and regulations making it easier for billionaires to buy elections, more efforts to keep people of color and young people from the ballot box, more election workers being harassed and threatened, more refusing to accept the outcome of election results, more political violence and, as a result of his policies and lies, more and more people increasingly believing democracy itself does not work for them.

I happen to believe that what this really means is that if Trump wins, the almost 250-year experiment of American democracy is all but over.

But obviously the danger is much greater than just that.

Trump has already tried to take away health care from tens of millions of people. He’ll try again in a second term.

Trump signed tax cuts where almost all the benefits went to the top 1 percent. He’ll try to make them permanent in a second term.

Trump brags about appointing 3 justices to the Supreme Court who helped repeal Roe v. Wade. He and his supporters have escalated their attacks on women’s’ rights across the country. In a second term he’ll try for a national abortion ban.

Other issues like education, gun control, criminal justice reform, income and wealth inequality, the cost of prescription drugs, workers rights, LGBTQ rights and more will all move backward.

Bottom line: We have to appreciate how unbelievably severe this current moment is.

Many of us believe that while the Biden administration can lay claim to some significant accomplishments, they are simply not enough given the very serious crises facing the working families of our country. Further, millions of us strongly disagree with the President’s position on the war in Gaza.

So what are we as progressives to do in this election?

First, we must all acknowledge that sitting out this election or even voting for Trump is definitely not the answer. That leads to catastrophe.

So then what?

In this unprecedented moment in American history we must make clear to the Democratic leadership and everyone else that we cannot return to the same old, same old establishment politics.

We must make it clear that if Democrats are given another chance after this election we cannot continue to ignore the needs of tens of millions of working families. We cannot continue to accept a political system where billionaires buy elections and an economy which has more income and wealth inequality than at any time since the 1920s. We cannot accept a government where the very rich get much richer while a majority of Americans live in economic desperation. We must go further on climate change. And we must restore faith in American democracy.

We must make it clear that we will fight for a strong, progressive agenda that represents the needs of working people, and not just the billionaire class, lobbyists and wealthy campaign contributors.

How do we do that?

It means supporting not just Joe Biden, but progressives who will fight for that agenda in Congress. It means donating, volunteering, posting on social media about your desire not just to beat Trump, but that your expectation for what a second term would look like for a Biden administration.

[tomorrowusa]

Having a president who isn’t exciting is underrated. The president is the chief executive of the United States; essentially that’s like a federal CEO. A dull Tim Cook has done far more for Apple than an exciting Elon Musk has done for Twitter.

Gerald Ford, though younger, was probably the closest GOP equivalent of Joe Biden. Like Biden, he spent decades on Capitol Hill before becoming VP and then president. Ford was the last truly moderate Republican president. Except for his pardon of Richard Nixon, his record doesn’t look terrible.

Ford appointed one of the best SCOTUS justices of the late 20th century – John Paul Stevens.

The inflation rate the year he took office (1974) was 11.03%. In 1976, Ford’s last full year in office, it was down to 5.75%.

Under Ford, the US negotiated and signed the Helsinki Accords which recognized the integrity of international boundaries in Europe. This treaty was the basis for peace between countries* in Europe for 47 years – until it was violated by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Like Ford, Biden restored calm and decorum to the presidency after succeeding an impeached wacko president. 

Joe Biden may personally be even less flashy than Gerald Ford. But he has brought the country back into scientific normalcy on climate change and has put the federal government firmly on the side of LGBTQ rights and reproductive freedom. And even before Russia’s illegal invasion, he placed the United States on the side of supporting the independence and freedom of pro-democracy Ukraine.

Dull but competent trumps exciting but catastrophic.

This is from a piece by Dylan Matthews published at Vox in March prior to Biden’s announcement.

Joe Biden is pretty good at being president. He should run again.

Biden deserves a lot of credit for that state of affairs — more than the credit or blame that presidents usually deserve for the state of the economy.

Learning from the overly tepid fiscal stimulus enacted by the Obama administration in response to the 2007-2009 recession, at the start of his term Biden ushered through a massive $1.9 trillion package, the American Rescue Plan, that kept progress on jobs and wages from stalling out as Trump-era measures faded.

The package overshot significantly; he made the opposite mistake that Obama made in 2009. But his was the better direction in which to err: the inflation that resulted, while painful, was less painful than the many years of excess unemployment and depressed demand that resulted after 2009. In the meantime, the measure plunged child poverty to a record low by expanding the child tax credit.

Much has been made of the ways in which moderate Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) frustrated Biden’s grander ambitions. It’s certainly true that Sinema blocked his plans to tax high earners more heavily, and Manchin kept the child tax credit improvements from being made permanent.

But looking at what actually did pass during Biden’s first two years, one gets a different picture. Biden signed the largest investment in R&D and deployment of clean energy in US history into law; the head of the International Energy Agency termed it the world’s most important climate action since the Paris accords.

Separately, Biden signed into law hundreds of billions in new science funding, passed on a bipartisan basis as part of an effort to strengthen semiconductor manufacturing. After the Trump administration’s famous failure to pass an infrastructure bill, Biden did it.

Looking abroad, the administration’s handling of the Ukraine war has been outstanding. Choosing to release intelligence showing Russia’s invasion plans in the weeks leading up to the attack was a masterstroke, denying Russian President Vladimir Putin any ability to claim that Ukraine provoked him. Biden has kept his G7 counterparts aligned in imposing sanctions on Russia, denying it oil revenue, and supplying weapons to Ukraine.

The result is a war that is already vastly more costly than Putin bargained for, without US or NATO troops being dragged into the conflict, and backdoor progress on something US presidents had been fruitlessly pursuing for years: increased European military spending.

[ ... ]

Taking the good with the bad, Biden looks like a fairly successful president, overseeing an unusually good economy without US troops in danger. That’s not normally someone you want stepping aside.

As for age, I don’t care if Biden is 80 or 180. His mind is working fine and he has successfully coped with a stutter since childhood. Having thrived despite a disability is a sign of strength rather than weakness.

There have been a number of leaders who have done just fine in old age.

Konrad Adenauer became chancellor of (then) West Germany at age 73 and remained in that position until age 87. Adenauer was one of the founders of the EU. Dr. Mahathir Mohamad stepped down as prime minister of Malaysia in 2003 at age 78; BUT he later came out of retirement and served again as prime minister from 2018 to 2020 when he left office at age 94. Queen Elizabeth II was carrying out her constitutional duties to the very end. Just two days before her death at age 96 she met with Liz Truss to formally appoint her as prime minister.

People in their 80s and 90s may be a bit slower, but that makes them less impulsive too. Does being a sprightly 45 years old automatically make Ron DeSantis somebody we’d trust with his finger on the nuclear button?

________________________________ * The Balkan Wars of the 1990s were primarily internal.

#joe biden #biden administration #re-elect biden #unexciting is a virtue #lgbtq rights #reproductive freedom #gerald ford #konrad adenauer #mahathir mohamad #elizabeth ii #ageism #election 2024 #steve greenberg

[gwydionmisha]

#Abortion Bans #Censorship #Climate Denial #Weaponization of the Military #Donald Trump #Police State #Autocracy #Election 2024 #News

[trmpt]

[staneclectic]

Beyond shock and awe: Inside Trump's potential second-term agenda - POLITICO

[palmerowyoung]

24 Predictions for 2024 and How to Save the Future

The past decade has been transformative. From the rise of smart phones and social media to the maturation of the Internet and the worsening of climate change and the outbreak of a global pandemic 

We will forever remember 2023 as the year AI came out of the closet and into the hands of the public, stoking fears of a Terminatoresque future and massive job losses. What the future will look like with the advent of AI has led to more questions than answers. In the capricious world that we are currently living in, the rapid acceleration of the pace of change seems to be the only certainty. But AI wasn’t the only story. We will also remember 2023 as the year inflation got worse, healthcare improved with fewer deaths from COVID and advancements in new technology, temperatures set a new global record and another war broke out in the Middle East.  

So, what will the next year hold? Here are 24 predictions for 2024.

Artificial Intelligence

When will look back in 20 years, I believe 2024 will be seen as a pivotal year as the rise of AI tugs at the threads of the fabric of society. If we are not careful, it could lead to its unraveling. But it's not all bad, as AI will also lead to improvements in healthcare, education, and science. The question is, if society descends into chaos, who will benefit from these improvements?   

1. Truth becomes harder to distinguish from fiction. Even credible sources will become questionable as AI is used for creating realistic fake news, complete with photos, videos and citations from scientific studies and credible sources like BBC and the New York Times. 

2. Content creation explodes. The rise of AI as a Service (AIaaS) platforms will enable more people to create content, including books, articles, digital artwork, music, movies, and video games. Some of it will be good, some will be horrible, but there will be an awful lot of it. This will have profound effects on the economics of the entertainment industry as it competes with user created content for the public’s attention. 

3. Social Media has contributed to the polarization and the de-democratization of the world, with even the most liberal democracies becoming weaker over the past decade. This trend will continue, amplified by artificial intelligence, making the world a more dangerous place.  

4. AI becomes a daily part of our lives and this year will see the spread of AI personal assistants that help plan your day, gives you a weather forecast, picks out your outfits, manages your house and helps you to stick to your diet. 

We will integrate AI into home appliances including the TV, refrigerator and, yes, even your toilet, which can monitor your urine and stool for disease or potential health problems. 

AI will also play an increasingly large role in healthcare, education, retail, transportation, entertainment, food, telecommunications, and engineering, tailoring more personalized choices for the individual. 

Politics- Overall, it will be a tumultuous year in politics as the US Presidential Election enters its final phase and tensions in the Middle East, Europe and Asia intensify. 

5. The United States, once considered the world’s strongest democracy, will falter and inch closer to civil war as this year’s election exacerbates existing tensions and leads to greater polarization. However, tensions will not be confined to the US and even the most liberal countries will see deterioration in political and race relations.   

6. Trump will win his party’s nomination but fails to win the presidency, weighed down by his legal troubles. Biden wins a second term but Trump’s platform and followers continue to grow as the country becomes more polarized 

7. More conflicts breakout in the Middle East and possibly Eastern Europe and East Asia as tensions between countries spreads and defense budgets grow.

8. Far right extremist white supremacy groups continue to grow stronger and calls for a race war by groups like the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters Proud Boys, and the Neo Nazis grow louder. In response, left-wing groups grow more militant and public clashes at demonstrations between groups are likely.  

9. In 2023, there were 604 mass shootings in the United States that killed 754 people and injuring 2,443. In 2019, an incident in El Paso, Texas, killed 23 people after a 21-year-old male opened-fire on mostly Latino victims. These types of hate crimes will continue, not just in the US but in other parts of the world as calls for a race war by white supremacists grow louder, amplified by social media and AI. 

Environment 

We will focus more on sustainable practices across industries as the public demand for governments and businesses to adopt environmentally friendly to mitigate the effects of climate change grows and the plastic problem. This will lead to more eco-conscious products and services and will create new opportunities for green technologies, renewable energy sources, and innovative solutions that address sustainability issues. 10. Climate change worsens, and the temperature hits 1.5C and 2024 is likely to break more global records as El Nino exacerbates the already dry weather. 

11. But it’s not all bad news. We add solar and wind energy at record levels and signs that fossil fuel usage is waning are on the horizon. Third generation wind and solar technologies which offer greater efficiency hasten the demise of oil. 

12. We deploy new technology that gathers wave energy in Australia and parts of Europe and new types of water and sodium lithium batteries enter the market for EVs making them cheaper and safer.  

13. We will learn to better listen to plants and animals. We can already tap into mycelial networks, get spinach leaves to send emails about whether they need water, and understand the moods and body language of our pets. This year we will use AI to listen to plants and animals about environmental conditions. This could prove invaluable in understanding how to conserve biodiversity and prevent species extinction. 

Transportation 

A desire to live a more sustainable life will lead some to eschew cars in favor of public transportation and local governments will redesign their cities to make them less auto-centric. New technology will also give us new ways to get over the gridlock. 

14. Trackless trams, roundabouts, and walking/biking cities increase as people tire of being slaves to their cars. EVTOLs take off, hybrids and EVs increase in popularity as battery technology improves, prices drop and range increases. 

Health Care

COVID-19 and the opioid crisis has strained our healthcare system. While this trend will continue as seasonal breakouts of COVID occur and fentanyl finds its way into communities, AI and Ozempic will offer some relief.

12. Aided by advances in apps, smart devices and AI, telehealth will become commonplace, giving people more control over their own health and easing the need to visit a doctor in person. Combining this with a better understanding of our microbiome and our genes will lead to more personalized medicine, diets and exercise plans.  

13. The drug Ozempic begins making some meaningful strides against obesity. The drug is also increasingly used to treat addictions such as smoking, drug abuse, and even gambling and porn-addictions. This will give us some hope against the opioid epidemic. 

Economics

Even though we aren’t in a recession and according to a recent survey, most Americans feel good about their financial status, that doesn’t mean there won’t be things to be stressed about economically. AI will lead to job losses and climate change, shows us we need to make some fundamental changes to our economic system if we want to live sustainably.  

13. Calls for a Global Wealth Tax will grow louder, from poor countries, the public and even from the wealthy themselves. This will be crucial for solving climate change, reducing economic inequality, and improving healthcare, and education. 

14. More countries and companies will move toward as four-day work week as studies show that it reduces pollution and gridlock and actually improves worker productivity. 

15. Calls for a Universal Basic Income will grow louder as more jobs become threatened by the emergence of AI and global experiments continue to show us the potential mental health benefits, and that it reduces poverty and economic inequality. Although the implementation of a UBI in a major country is still years a way, This year the movement will grow substantially as the threats to jobs become more apparent. 

15.Crypto scams will continue even as the price of Bitcoin goes up and Blockchain spreads throughout supply chains. Blockchain will also impact sectors such as healthcare, energy, and even education. 

Education

One of the major shifts we can expect is a greater emphasis on personalized and adaptive learning. This personalized approach will not only enhance engagement but also improve learning.

18, AI assistants in education will lead to personalized lessons tailored to each student's pace and style. This will help teachers to prevent slower students from getting too far behind. IOT, VR and AR will also change the face of how we learn by providing students with immersive experiences. For example, instead of just looking at 2 dimensional pictures of the heart, students will actually be able to see a 3 dimensional heart beating. They could pick it up and even walk through an aorta. Rather than just reading about ancient Rome, students will actually be able to walk through a virtual render of the city just like a video game. 

Food 

Soil degradation from over farming, the use of petrochemicals as fertilizers and pesticides, and biodiversity loss to expand the cattle industry, combined with changes in weather patterns from climate change, are all threatening to destroy our food system. However, changes are occurring. The question is, will they happen quickly enough?  

20. -Veganism will continue to grow. Existing vegan brands will take market share and new vegan players will enter the market as the world moves to a more plant-based diet for health and sustainability. The changes in consumer demand will create unique opportunities for entrepreneurs to become wealthy as diets shift. 

Although 100% vegans will remain relatively small, the number of people choosing a flexitarian diet will increase substantially, spurred on by the many documentaries and scientific studies touting the many benefits of a whole foods plant-based lifestyle. 

21. Droughts related to climate change and El Nino will make water scarce. Out of necessity, farmers will adapt more efficient methods, like regenerative farming and drip irrigation. More farmers will use robotic systems and IOT sensors to cut down on costs, use less fuel and water. 

Technology 

AR/VR and Holographs change the face of entertainment and communication. As these technologies spread, they will offer us immersive experiences for concerts, travel, board meetings, real estate tours, movies and video games. This will make business travel less of a requirement and hurt the airline industry. 

23. As deep fakes and fake news spreads, the calls for regulation on AI and Social Media will grow louder. This will lead to more lawsuits against AI companies and social media from newspapers and magazines who don’t want their content used. It will also lead to more congressional hearings and eventually legislation, although this may not happen this year.  

24. AI related scams and cybersecurity issues will explode as criminals use deep faked videos, photos, and audio for identity theft and to dupe people into fake investments. 

How to Save the Future

The world is at a crucial turning point and political, social, economic, technological and environmental upheaval have become the norm. If we cannot solve these issues, the fabric of society could unravel, leading to chaos and eventually breakdown. So, what are the solutions? I propose 3 things-

The first is to regulate deep fakes. This was proposed by AI researcher Connor Leahy in an opinion piece for Time Magazine as a first step toward getting control of artificial intelligence. But we shouldn’t stop there. There needs to be legislation put forward to label any content created by AI including articles, videos, and photos as such. Although many criminals would ignore this, at least there would be a line in the sand delineating what is acceptable usage and what is not. Just as there are laws against kiddie porn, there needs to be laws against AI deep fakes and AI generated content. 

The second thing we need to do is rein in Social Media companies. These companies fuel our collective outrage while polarizing society and profiting from it. At the same time they are destroying local newspapers and established media companies and the poorly moderated content is undermining our sense of reality. If this continues, AI won’t have to destroy humanity because we will have done a good enough job, all on our own. 

We need to hold these companies accountable for the hate speech and conspiracy theories and false news that is posted, just like we would hold any other media company responsible for publishing fake news. 

There has already been a lot of legislation being discussed. In 2022 the United Kingdom passed the online safety bill which imposes a duty of care on social media companies to protect users from harmful content. Something similar will likely be passed in the United States in the next year or two. 

In her book How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them, Professor of Political Science at UC San Diego, Barbara Walter says that there are six stages before a civil war begins: classifcation, symbolization, discrimination, dehumanization, organization and polarization. According to Walter the United States is someplace between stage 5, where groups organize into militias, and stage 6 polarization where a group escalates propaganda and demonizes and separates the target group. In her book Walters notes that it is not generally poor people who start civil wars, but rather a disenfranchised group that once held power. She also notes that after the 2021 insurrection that we were closer to civil war than anytime since the Civil War. 

The rise of the right extremist hate groups has coincided with the rise AI and social media, the loss of manufacturing jobs and the gutting of the middle class. If we want to solve the problem then we need to get to the root of it. The hate that the extreme right feels is misguided anger projected on to people of color who they believe have stolen their jobs and taken their country. Social Media has given them a platform for voicing their discontent and share their beliefs while AI is used to support their fictitious narrative. 

But the anger these groups feel is misguided because their jobs weren’t taken by immigrants in most cases, but rather by technological automation and the country was never theirs to begin with. 

One solution to ease the economic pain that members of these groups are feeling is to finally implement a Universal Basic Income. Although this won’t solve everything, studies show that a UBI would reduce economic inequality, and ease money related stress, while improving mental and physical health. This could go a long way toward easing tensions and at the very least it is a step toward a more stable and civil society. 

Conclusion

2024 will be a turning point for humanity. The proliferation of artificial intelligence will impact all industries and every single life on the planet, both human and non-human. Climate change will worsen and we’ll see increasing temperatures and natural disasters, but we will make progress in reducing our fossil fuel use spurred on by new technologies. 

The choices we make over the next year will be more critical than ever. Artificial Intelligence is just a tool that could be our savior or our ruin. If the past is any guide, humans have proven time and time again that we have the intelligence to create technology, but lack the vision to use it wisely and for the benefit of all. 

Because we are emotional creatures, driven by fear and greed, we will need to overcome our basic natures if we are going to save the future.      

[obtener2]

"#Trump’s campaign utterances, and the policy proposals being drafted by hundreds of his supporters, point to the likelihood that his return to the White House would bring an all-out war on climate science and policies" Reported by Politico

#climate crisis #trump #climate deniers