Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Concentrations Hit New Record Levels
Common Drems – April 6, 2024 – Brett Wilkins
https://www.commondreams.org/news/greenhouse-gas-emissions-2667710709

NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] said the three most important human-caused greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide—”continued their steady climb during 2023.” While the levels of these heat-trapping gases did not rise “quite as high as the record jumps observed in recent years,” the figures “were in line with the steep increases observed during the past decade.” … “Fossil fuel pollution is warming natural systems like wetlands and permafrost,” Jackson added. “Those ecosystems are releasing even more greenhouse gases as they heat up. We’re caught between a rock and a charred place.”

Just 57 companies linked to 80% of greenhouse gas emissions since 2016
The Guardian – April 3, 2024 – Jonathan Watts
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/04/just-57-companies-linked-to-80-of-greenhouse-gas-emissions-since-2016

A mere 57 oil, gas, coal and cement producers are directly linked to 80% of the world’s global fossil CO2 emissions since the 2016 Paris climate agreement, a study has shown. This powerful cohort of state-controlled corporations and shareholder-owned multinationals are the leading drivers of the climate crisis, according to the Carbon Majors Database, which is compiled by world-renowned researchers. Although governments pledged in Paris to cut greenhouse gases, the analysis reveals that most mega-producers increased their output of fossil fuels and related emissions in the seven years after that climate agreement, compared with the seven years before.

Earth Matters: Kim Stanley Robinson & Michael Mann on doom; 33 green transition myths zapped
The Daily Kos – April 7, 2024
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/4/7/2233204/-Earth-Matters-Kim-Stanley-Robinson-amp-Michael-Mann-on-doom-33-green-transition-myths-zapped

Over the past four decades, in an example with seriously malign consequences, some rich and powerful agents of disinformation have brought us to the precipice on climate with ominous potential for our species and millions of others, all for profit. And now that the cruder denial elements of that scheme have collided with climate reality on the ground, there’s been a shift from outright denial to an aggressive fight against the transition to a greener, decarbonized future. Disinformation now rife will soon be made worse by robot propagandists, one of AI’s inconveniences. Some of the lies are old, some new, but all are designed to delay the day when fossil fuels are actually left in the ground where scientists say they must remain if we’re to have any chance of keeping at least parts of the planet humanly habitable. To help combat anti-green disinformation, Jacob Elkin, Matthew Eisenson and other researchers at the Climate Law blog of Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center have put together a helpful aid for when you’re arguing with somebody who’s been stuffed with what President Joe Biden might charitably call “malarkey.” It’s a data-rich report Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles.

In Gaza and Beyond, War Itself Is the Problem
Common Dreams – April 6, 2024 – Robert C. Koehler
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/war-problem-in-gaza

The implication here is that there are decent, moral ways to conduct a war, to “defend yourself” from an impoverished, occupied population. Wage war if you must, but don’t commit war crimes! When I hear such words, I feel my soul start spinning wildly. War itself is the problem. It cannot be reduced to a just and strategic video game—yeah, soldiers will be killed, but not civilians! No dead children, please (especially under age six). The logic void here is that war begins with dehumanization. Those people are evil and we have to defend ourselves against them, which means killing them. And this attitude never stays neat and tidy—especially not on this insanely militarized planet, which (with America in the lead) regards nothing as more important than keeping humanity on the brink of nuclear and eco-suicide… Think of Mahatma Gandhi. Think of Martin Luther King, Jr. Think of Nelson Mandela or Susan B. Antony or Frederick Douglass or a million others. Real change is possible, and it’s rarely—perhaps never—violent, but creating it involves the loving wholeness of who we are. The future is a vast unknown, but no one owns it. We have to create it together.

Israel’s ‘Iron Wall’: A brief history of the ideology guiding Benjamin Netanyahu
The Conversation – March 26, 2024 – Eran Kaplan
https://theconversation.com/israels-iron-wall-a-brief-history-of-the-ideology-guiding-benjamin-netanyahu-225936

A reflection of an ideology, known as the “Iron Wall,” that has been part of Israeli political history since before the state’s founding in 1948. The Iron Wall has driven Netanyahu in his career leading Israel for two decades, culminating in the current deadly war that began with a massacre of Israelis and then turned into a humanitarian catastrophe for Gaza’s Palestinians. Here is the history of that ideology… The massive and wantonly destructive war that Netanyahu has led against Hamas and Gaza… is the Iron Wall in its most elemental manifestation: unleashing overwhelming force as a signal that no territorial compromise with the Arabs over historical Palestine is possible. Or, as Netanyahu has repeatedly said in recent weeks, there will be no ceasefire until there’s a complete Israeli victory.

What to know about U.S. military aid to Israel
The Washington Post – April 2, 2024 – Adam Taylor
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/02/us-military-aid-israel-gaza-biden/

Israel has received more U.S. military aid — and more U.S. aid of any type — than any other country since World War II. That assistance has long been a matter of ironclad, bipartisan near-consensus. But in recent months, it has come under mounting scrutiny, including from some Democratic legislators, amid the emergence of rifts between the United States and Israel over Israel’s conduct in its war in Gaza — in which U.S.-provided weapons are in widespread use… Here is what to know about U.S. military aid to Israel.

‘Unprecedented In Modern History’: U.S. Aid Experts Warn Gaza Likely Already Experiencing Famine
Huffpost – April 2, 2024 – Akbar Shahid Ahmed
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gaza-collapse-famine_n_660c96aae4b0328a72be47f5

The document “affirms what we and other humanitarian groups have been saying: A famine is occurring on Biden’s watch, and there is no realistic way to contain it without ending the war,” said Konyndyk, now the president of the nonprofit Refugees International. “This is the field team doing their job – reporting ground truth up the chain.”

Let People Eat
Reader Supported News – The New York Times – April 3, 2024 – Chef José Andrés
https://www.rsn.org/001/let-people-eat.html

In the worst conditions you can imagine — after hurricanes, earthquakes, bombs and gunfire — the best of humanity shows up. Not once or twice but always. The seven people killed on a World Central Kitchen mission in Gaza on Monday were the best of humanity… Their work was based on the simple belief that food is a universal human right. It is not conditional on being good or bad, rich or poor, left or right. We do not ask what religion you belong to. We just ask how many meals you need… In the worst conditions, after the worst terrorist attack in its history, it’s time for the best of Israel to show up. You cannot save the hostages by bombing every building in Gaza. You cannot win this war by starving an entire population… It is not a sign of weakness to feed strangers; it is a sign of strength. The people of Israel need to remember, at this darkest hour, what strength truly looks like.

One year ago, Pope Francis disavowed the ‘Doctrine of Discovery’
The Conversation – March 28, 2024 – Eben Levey
https://theconversation.com/one-year-ago-pope-francis-disavowed-the-doctrine-of-discovery-but-indigenous-catholics-work-for-respect-and-recognition-goes-back-decades-223266

It has been more than 500 years since Vatican decrees gave European colonizers permission to carve up the “New World” – and just one since Pope Francis disavowed them. On March 30, 2023, Francis repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery”: a set of ideas the Spanish and Portuguese, in particular, used to justify seizing land they had “discovered” and colonizing Indigenous people in the land they came to call the Americas. The Vatican’s statement not only rejected the doctrine, but also apologized for historical atrocities carried out by Christians and affirmed the rights and cultural values of Indigenous peoples. The repudiation can hardly undo centuries of oppressing Indigenous people and stealing their lands. Yet the statement is monumental in ways that signal cultural and political shifts within the Catholic Church. It recognized decades of work by Indigenous Catholics to demand that their very own church respect their history, culture and faith.

The Anti-Abortion Endgame That Erin Hawley Admitted to the Supreme Court
Slate – March 27, 2024 – Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/03/abortion-ban-erin-hawley-supreme-court.html

Somewhat lost in the debate around abortion pills and oral arguments that took place at the Supreme Court in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine on Tuesday was one deeply uncomfortable truth: The very notion of what it means to practice emergency medicine is in dispute, with anti-abortion doctors insisting upon a right to refuse treatment for any patient who doesn’t meet their test of moral purity. Indeed, the right asserted is that in the absence of certainty about which patients are morally pure, the doctors want to deny medication to all patients, nationwide… This is the ballgame: weaponize subjective religious beliefs against secular society to degrade the quality of care for everyone. If you can’t persuade Americans to adopt hardcore evangelical views, exploit the legal system to coerce them into it anyway.

The Giant Threat Lurking Behind Florida’s November Abortion Vote
Slate – April 2, 2024 – Mark Joseph Stern
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/04/florida-november-abortion-vote-desantis.html

The Florida Supreme Court seemed to offer a compromise Monday when it greenlit the state’s six-week abortion ban while simultaneously approving a ballot initiative that would, if enacted, create a constitutional right to reproductive freedom… An ominous current lurked beneath the rulings: Six of the court’s seven justices appeared to endorse fetal personhood under the state constitution as it stands now, expressing support for—as one justice put it—“the unborn’s competing right to life” over the patient’s right to bodily autonomy. The majority’s rhetoric indicates that if the pro-choice amendment fails this fall, the Florida Supreme Court remains ready to grant fetuses and embryos a constitutional right to life that prohibits the Legislature from legalizing abortion in the future… The justices are not exactly hiding the ball. Florida voters are on notice: This amendment may be their last, best chance to thwart the court’s push for fetal personhood, their final opportunity to elevate the real-world rights of actual people over the theoretical interests of fetuses.

The Fight to Restore Abortion Rights in Texas
The New Yorker – April 4, 2024 – Stephania Taladrid
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/the-fight-to-restore-abortion-rights-in-texas

With a statewide ban in effect, an unlikely political coalition works to insure that women can get lifesaving care.

Alabama Republicans Try to ‘Criminalize Librarians Simply for Doing Their Jobs’
Common Dreams – April 3, 2024 – Jessica Corbett
https://www.commondreams.org/news/alabama-library

“Stripping public and school libraries is a brazen attempt to chill free speech and deprive tax-paying American citizens like me of my right to choose reading material for my children, and academic freedom and privacy for minors, who enjoy a measure of First Amendment rights,” the message argues. “It also gives the most extremist parents, politicians, and school administrators undue power to restrict my access to information.” “Not only is this wrong, it’s also unconstitutional,” the message adds. “You are not protecting children; you are protecting extremists who are trying to dismantle the very foundations of my country.”

Republican Billionaires No Longer Upset About Insurrection The absurd rationalizations of Trump’s oligarchs.
New York Magazine – March 30, 2024 – Jonathan Chait
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/republican-billionaires-trump-insurrection-j6-tax-cuts.html

Republicans who denounced Trump after the insurrection are flocking to him en masse. The Washington Post recently noted that many of these prodigal sons are returning for the prospect of a large bag of loot… Joe Biden is running on a plan to increase taxes on the very wealthy, while Trump is promising to cut those taxes. In 2025, most of the Trump tax cuts will expire, as will Obamacare subsidies extended by the Inflation Reduction Act. The 2024 elections will therefore determine whether hundreds of billions of dollars remain in the pockets of wealthy people or instead fund things like health insurance for the middle class.

5 Lessons From Hungary: How To Fight Authoritarians
Portside – March 30, 2024 – Gordon Whitman
https://portside.org/2024-03-30/5-lessons-hungary-how-fight-authoritarians

Lessons from a convening between pro-democracy organizers from the U.S. and Hungary. Gordon Whitman explains how grassroots organizations can adapt as authoritarians change the rules of the game, and how neoliberalism paves the path for dictators… The best way to defend and deepen democracy is to make government accountable to poor and working people. Opposition to authoritarian politics must go beyond fair procedures and good government. Extreme norm-breaking policies and rhetoric by White Nationalists are meant to not only show strength to base supporters but to disgust and alienate less-engaged voters. Efforts to increase voter participation among people open to pro-democracy ideas need to be tied to substantive policy demands grounded in listening to the concerns and common sense of voters. Organizers can play a crucial role in reconnecting ideas about democracy to policies that address the pressures people face in their daily lives.

Dan Rather Explains His Opposition to Trump in Scorching Post
The Daily Beast – April 4, 2024 – Amanda Yen
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dan-rather-explains-his-opposition-to-trump-in-scorching-post

Veteran newsman Dan Rather flamed Donald Trump as a charlatan and a threat to democracy in a brief explainer Wednesday of his opposition to the former president on X. “Let me make this perfectly clear. It’s not about politics,” the 92-year-old commentator began, adding that he’s voted for both Democrats and Republicans in the past. “It’s about me, as a patriot, rejecting a cheating, lying, racist, treasonous, fascist, and vile man who attacks the free press, and wants to lead the country I love.” … “His attacks on the press were widespread, unrelenting, and unlike previous presidents, he didn’t just attack individual journalists or individual journalist institutions, it was a blanket indictment of the press,” the former CBS Evening News anchor said.

Rebecca Solnit Wants a Joyous, Inviting Left — Not an Angry, Puritanical One
Portside – April 5, 2024 – Anand Giridharadas
https://portside.org/2024-04-05/rebecca-solnit-wants-joyous-inviting-left-not-angry-puritanical-one

You can look at the Inflation Reduction Act as something handed down by the Senate, but there’s a wonderful documentary film called To the End that traces the birth of the Sunrise Movement, their launching of the Green New Deal, its introduction in Congress by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in particular, the way the Green New Deal really shapes Biden’s climate platform, which becomes Build Back Better, which becomes the Inflation Reduction Act, in its sadly whittled-down version thanks to Joe Manchin. The short-term version of the story is the Senate gives us something. The long-term version is young people organizing, achieving something remarkable over a four-year period of time. And I think that a lot of American hopelessness, despair, cynicism, and defeatism is so tied to the inability to trace the arc of change… People come into the left because they care about justice, they care about the environment, they care about human rights, and a lot of what happens to them is that they learn to model their behavior on the behavior of people who are already there.

The UAW’s 2028 National Strike Should Center Medicare for All
Jacobin – March 31, 2024 – Jonathan Michels and Will Cox
https://jacobin.com/2024/03/uaw-general-strike-medicare-for-all

United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain has called on unions to come together for a national strike in 2028. This is a radical idea — and elevating Medicare for All as a central demand would give workers across sectors a reason to join in… The struggle for single-payer health care is part of a larger conflict between the working class and the billionaire class. Incremental reforms have gotten the single-payer movement nowhere, while legislative lobbying has proved insufficient. Nothing short of a nationwide campaign of rank-and-file workers — union and nonunion alike — willing to confront capital will be strong enough to secure transformative health reform. In order to win, single-payer activists must embrace this once-in-a-generation opportunity and join in solidarity with workers in ways many never have before.