Week in Review: 'Unhinged and Undemocratic' GOP Doing What Now?

 

Saturday, September 7, 2024 ■ The Week in Review 'Unhinged and Undemocratic': Florida Cops Question Abortion Petition Signers "This is what state-authorized election interference looks like," said the ACLU of Florida. By Jessica Corbett • Sep 6, 2024 ISRAEL MURDERED AYDENUR EYGI FOR PROTESTING ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS IN THE WEST BANK! Israeli Forces Reportedly Kill US Human Rights Activist With 'Deliberate Shot to the Head' "A soldier fired directly at the protestors, hitting the American activist in the head from behind," said one eyewitness. excerpt:  One journalist said that "devastating levels of impunity" were on display in the West Bank on Friday as Israeli forces reportedly shot a 26-year-old American human rights advocate, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, in the head, killing her as she protested the expansion of illegal settlements. By Julia Conley • Sep 6, 2024 After 100 Days of 100°F, Sanders Says 'Climate Emergency Demands a Massive-Scale Mobilization' "This is a moral imperative," said the senator as historic heat continued in Phoenix, Arizona. By Jessica Corbett • Sep 5, 2024 Maine's Largest City Becomes First on US East Coast to Back Israel Divestment "We urge everyone to join this effort in their own communities," said the Maine Coalition for Palestine. "Our tax money should not be spent killing women and children in Palestine." By Jake Johnson • Sep 5, 2024 'Baffling Capitulation to Wall Street': Harris Breaks With Biden on Capital Gains Tax "Harris seems to be making a policy choice based on the disproven, failed ideology of trickle-down economics, and giving petulant billionaires a gift in the process," said one progressive advocacy group. By Jake Johnson • Sep 5, 2024 MUST READ!  'Poster Child for...Corporate Greed': Sanders Slams Health Industry CEO's Subpoena Refusal "It is time for Dr. de la Torre to get off of his $40 million yacht and explain to the American people how much he has gained financially while bankrupting the hospitals he manages." By Brett Wilkins • Sep 4, 2024 'A Great Day': Workers at Second Southern Auto Industry Plant Join UAW "Battery workers are seizing their power!" said the United Auto Workers. By Julia Conley • Sep 4, 2024 Texas GOP Invents Corporate Courts Ready to Do Industry's Bidding "Why bother judge-shopping when you can just invent a new court?" asked one watchdog. By Jake Johnson • Sep 4, 2024 House GOP Budgets Paired With Project 2025 Would Create 'Harsher' Nation for Working Class "Behind these eye-popping budget numbers are millions of real people who will see health coverage, food assistance, and other forms of support taken away," said the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. By Jake Johnson • Sep 3, 2024 Dems Want to Know If Trump DOJ Covered Up Alleged $10 Million Egyptian Bribe "Surely you would agree that the American people deserve to know whether a former president—and a current candidate for president—took an illegal campaign contribution from a brutal foreign dictator." By Jessica Corbett • Sep 3, 2024 VIEW ALL NEWS JOIN THE MOVEMENT As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. JOIN WITH US TODAY ■ Opinion Knowledge Is Power. Gaza War Supporters Don’t Want Students to Have Either Silence is complicity, and that’s the way Israel’s allies like it. By Norman Solomon • Sep 5, 2024 If She Truly Holds the Rule of Law ‘Sacred,’ Harris Must Back an Arms Embargo on Israel No other policy step would have as much of an impact in generating a permanent cease-fire and advancing Palestinian freedom. By Josh Ruebner • Sep 5, 2024 Trump Has Delivered Unto Us a Nation of Fascist Bullies If we don’t take on bullies — particularly fascist bullies — they keep going further and further until either they win or you fight back and defeat them. So that's what we must do. By Thom Hartmann • Sep 4, 2024 Popular Israeli Podcasters Crave Button to Press That Would 'Erase Every Single Living Being in Gaza' “Forgive us if we don’t give a shit if everybody there dies. It’s just the way we feel. It’s just the way Israelis feel," said Two Nice Jewish Boys co-host Eytan Weinstein. By Katherine Hearst • Sep 4, 2024 Trump’s Visit to Howell, MI Turned a Dog Whistle Into a Bullhorn The former president spoke of sending outside police to Detroit to Intimidate voters in a place with a troubling history of white supremacist and far-right activity. By Hank Kennedy • Sep 4, 2024 We Should Listen to Rev Barber on White Poverty and Multracial Organizing The latest book by the Poor People's Campaign co-chair shows how racial division keeps both Black and white communities poor—and lays out a real vision to defeat it. By Lewis M. Steel • Sep 3, 2024 VIEW ALL OPINION Call 207.775.0488 to donate by phone or mail a check to: Common Dreams · PO Box 443 · Portland, ME 04112-0443 · USA Common Dreams is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your contribution is tax-deductible. EIN: 20-3368194

 

Climate Emergency Causes Extreme Wildfires to Double in Frequency: Study

"Climate change is not something off in the future," said one scientist. "It's happening before our very eyes."

New findings about the rising frequency of extreme wildfires have "the fingerprints of climate change" all over them, according to an Australian scientist who led a study published on Monday.

Calum Cunningham, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tasmania in Australia, told The Washington Post that he was driven to examine current trends in the frequency of wildfires after climate deniers suggested that because the global area being burned in blazes is declining, the idea of a growing wildfire crisis is being overblown by concerned scientists.

While the area destroyed by wildfires is indeed on the decline, analyses that include all fires—the majority of which are small and cause relatively little damage—obscured how the most extreme and destructive wildfires are rapidly growing more frequent.

Cunningham and his team analyzed data from National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellites, collecting four images of wildfires around the world per day over 21 years. They used the images to identify the 0.01% most extreme wildfires—those that release the most smoke and greenhouse gas emissions due to their size and uncontrollable nature.

Out of 30 million fires across the world over two decades, the researchers identified the 2,913 most extreme fire events and found that the frequency and intensity of such wildfires has more than doubled since 2003.

"Climate change is making fire weather more extreme and more frequent in a lot of the world."

The problem is rapidly getting worse, the team found: The six years with the most extreme wildfires had all occurred since 2017.

Trends were particularly troubling in particular regions, like temperate conifer forests in the western United States and the Mediterranean, where the number of extreme fires rose by more than 10 times in 20 years.

In boreal forests in places like northern Europe and Canada, the frequency of the most intense and hard-to-control blazes increased by seven times.

"It's absolutely in keeping with what climate change is doing to fire weather around the world," Cunningham told the Post. "Climate change is making fire weather more extreme and more frequent in a lot of the world."

The "fire weather" that's driven the increase includes hotter and drier conditions, with temperatures staying high even overnight when they ordinarily would have have dropped in previous decades, giving firefighters a chance to make headway in putting out blazes.

"Rarely did we have 100,000-acre fires 20 years ago," veteran firefighter Bobbie Scopa told the Post. "But now, it's not uncommon."

The researchers pointed to a "scary" feedback loop created as extreme wildfires create carbon emissions—leading to more planetary heating and even more fires.

"Climate change is not something off in the future," Cunningham told the Post. "It's happening before our very eyes. This is the manifestation of the reshaping of the climate we are doing."

The study was published in Nature Ecology & Evolution days after wildfires scorched more than 14,000 acres in Southern California and more than 24,000 acres in New Mexico, where two people were killed. Last year, climate scientists were stunned by an unprecedented wildfire season in relatively damp Eastern Canada, where wildfires were made twice as likely by the climate emergency according to the World Weather Attribution.

Climate scientist and author Bill McGuire called the findings "terrifying, of course, but just not a surprise," considering governments in the countries that produce the most fossil fuels are continuing to support and subsidize energy sources that heat the planet.

"This is certifiably insane," McGuire said.

A firefighter walks toward flames as the Highland Fire burns in Aguana, California, on October 31, 2023. 

(Photo: David Swanson/AFP via Getty Images)

COMMOPN DREAMS

 

CLIMATE CRISIS

Climate Emergency strikes Islam’s Holy Ritual, with nearly 600 dead of Heat stroke at 124.24° F. in Mecca

JUAN COLE06/19/2024

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – As the temperature in Mecca reached 125.24° F. (51.8° C.) on Tuesday, word leaked out that nearly 600 pilgrims had died of heat stroke and 2,000 have been hospitalized for treatment. A virtual clinic treated more thousands remotely. Some 324 of the dead were Egyptians,, while dozens were from Jordan. The season of the annual Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca, the birthplace of Islam, just ended. Some 1.8 million pilgrims participated.

Eyewitnesses said that not all the dead were elderly, that young persons died, as well.

Pilgrims carry out a series of rituals during the pilgrimage, beginning with preparing themselves and establishing their pious intention. Many of the steps involve being outside and being active. They dress in white robes. They circumambulate the cube-shaped Kaaba shrine. They run between the nearby hillocks of Safa and Marwa seven times, in commemoration of the search of Abraham’s wife Hajar for water for her son with the patriarch, Ishmael. They walk or are taken in buses to Mina and spend some nights of the pilgrimage there. There, they throw stones at satan.

H/t Saudi Ministry of Hajj

AFP explains that some pilgrims try to avoid paying the hefty visa fees by just showing up unregistered. They however, then lack access to air conditioned facilities and are at special risk of heat stroke.

The number of heat stroke deaths seems to have doubled since last year. Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s major oil producers, and burning petroleum to power vehicles puts the deadly heat-trapping gas, carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere, heating up the planet.

The G20 Climate Risk Atlas writes, “The science shows that Saudi Arabia will experience devastating climate impacts if it follows a high-emissions pathway. Without urgent action, Saudi Arabia will see an 88% increase in the frequency of agricultural drought by 2050. Heatwaves will last more than 4,242% longer and the combination of sea level rise, coastal erosion and fiercer weather will cause chaos for Saudi Arabia’s economy, which stands to lose around 12.2% of GDP by 2050.”

A 12.2% loss of gross domestic product for Saudi Arabia today would amount to a loss of $135 billion annually. That loss alone is more than the entire yearly GDP of Kenya or Ecuador.

Flooding on the kingdom’s coasts as the sea level rises threatens 210,000 of the 22 million citizens. Long droughts endanger fisheries, forests and agriculture, which make up 2.6% of the country’s gross domestic product. Longer heat waves will reduce the quality of life and menace livelihoods and health.

I have to tell you, I have lived in the Arabian Peninsula. I remember one June evening my wife and I were ready to take a short walk over to a restaurant when it was 114° F., and we went out and were met with a blast furnace. We went back in and ordered an air conditioned car for the two-minute drive. We just couldn’t bear to walk five minutes in it.

The Saudi government sees hosting the annual Hajj or pilgrimage as a form of soft power that adds to its legitimacy throughout the Muslim world, comprising some 2 billion persons. If its oil-intensive policies increasingly contribute to disabilities for pilgrims on Hajj, in turn, that development can only harm the monarchy’s reputation, since it styled itself “Servant of the two holy shrines.”

AFP Video: “Hajj pilgrimage ends amid deadly Saudi heat spike | AFP

Saudi Arabia warned of a temperature spike in Mecca as Muslim pilgrims wrapped up the hajj in searing conditions. Authorities recorded more than 2,700 cases of "heat exhaustion" on June 16 alone.

INFORMED COMMENT

Informed Comment daily updates (06/14/2024)

 

Israel joins ISIL, Taliban, Sudan on UN Blacklist of Violators of Children, Killing or Maiming 20,000 last Year Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The United Nations has added Israel to its blacklist of nations that commit harms against children. It joins Russia, DR Congo, South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and Myanmar. Non-state actors in this category include ISIL, the Taliban, and the Lord’s Resistance Army. Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have […]

Gaza war: with both Sides playing Politics, don’t expect a Ceasefire any time Soon By Paul Rogers, University of Bradford | – (The Conversation) – When the UN security council voted in favour of a resolution backing the latest ceasefire deal for Gaza on June 10, the only member state to abstain was Russia. It did so, it said, because of insufficient assurances that Israel would abide by the […]

Losing our Cool: Climate Emergency’s Heat Waves Threaten America ( Tomdispatch.com ) – The odds are that the entire continental United States will swelter through a hotter-than-normal summer this year. And no surprise there. It seems as if that’s been the forecast every spring for years now. But this summer promises to eclipse even the summer of 2023, which, in the Northern Hemisphere, was […]

Old posts you may have missed

UN Commission of Inquiry: Israel guilty of Crimes against Humanity, Hamas Guilty of War Crimes Will the New, more Specific UN Ceasefire Resolution for Gaza Succeed? This Time, from Climate to Palestine to Trump 2.0, we must listen to our wise Cassandras As Israel Rejects UN Ceasefire, 3,000 Palestinian Children in S. Gaza in Danger of Starving before their Parents’ Eyes As Oceans Heat up, American Coastal Economies find themselves in Hot Water The Lasting Legacy of Truth-Teller Daniel Ellsberg How a Faster Move to Clean Energy will Save everyone Money on Power Bills

Informed Comment daily updates (05/31/2024)

 

Trump’s attempt at Planeticide was Worse than Hush Money Sex Pay-Off Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It is great good news, of course, that Trump was finally held accountable for his hush money pay off to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about their hook-up so as to win the 2016 presidential election. Had she gone public in October, 2016 in the wake of […]

Climate Emergency: India’s Massive Heat Wave Signals extreme Danger for an Aging Global Population By Deborah Carr, Boston University; Enrica De Cian, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice; Giacomo Falchetta, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and Ian Sue Wing, Boston University | – (The Conversation) – A deadly heat wave gripped large regions of Asia for weeks in spring 2024, sending temperatures in India’s capital region over 120 degrees Fahrenheit […]

Israel’s Onslaught of Revenge ( Tomdispatch.com ) – As Amal Nassar lay in pain on a bed at the Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp in northern Gaza, the echoes of explosions and artillery fire could be heard all around her. It was mid-January and she had made her way to the embattled hospital to give birth to […]

Old posts you may have missed

Israel’s Stalking Operation against the ICC is Mirrored in its Canary Mission attack on US Universities Innocence is under Siege, with a psychological Toll on Gaza’s Children Turning Universities into Homeland Security Classes, 101 Ireland Recognizes Palestine, Broaches sanctions on Israel for “Barbaric” Airstrikes, Settler Violence How America’s 25 Gigs of New Solar will help keep Power on during our Coming Scorching Summer The intersectionality of Hate helps us understand the Ideology of Donald Trump and the Far Right Burning the Indigenous Population up in their Tents is an old Colonial Technique of Genocide

Informed Comment daily updates (05/16/2024)

 

From Campus Climate to Middle East Climate Emergency Juan Cole: Israel, Gaza and Campus Protests, Part II on Sea Change Radio with Alex Wise. Transcript below. Or listen here: This week on Sea Change Radio, the second half of our discussion with Middle East expert Juan Cole of the University of Michigan. In this episode, we talk about some of the problems presented […]

The Race to End Fossil Fuel Production ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. This quip by the American essayist Charles Dudley Warner applies to fossil fuels as well. Everyone talks about ending fossil fuel production, but almost no one is doing anything about it. Take the example of the Biden […]

Israel’s Assault on Rafah risks making Victory against Hamas more Elusive By Ben Soodavar, King’s College London and Rhiannon Emm, King’s College London | – (The Conversation) – The prospect of a ceasefire agreement, which Hamas claimed it had been offered earlier this month, was a source of optimism for Gazans seeking respite from the war. That sense of jubilation was short-lived. According to mediators in […]

Old posts you may have missed

Gaslit to Death: Giving Cover to Israel’s Rafah Atrocity with Phony Gaza Numbers Game The Arsenal of Genocide: the U.S. Weapons That Are Destroying Gaza Democracy Versus Autocracy on America’s Campuses Trump’s Dangerous ‘State of Exception’: SCOTUS must not Allow Presidential Immunity Gaza War is Bolstering Iran’s Standing in the Muslim World as Anti-Americanism Surges Makes me feel Sad for the Rest: Why Palestinian Journalists in Gaza are the Real Journalists Lindsey “Dr. Strangelove” Graham, Critic of Putin’s Atrocities, Urges Nuking of Gaza’s Civilians

COMMON DREAMS: Week in Review: US Veto, Spy Draft, and Democracy

 

After Israel bombed a clearly marked World Central Kitchen convoy and killed seven aid workers, President Biden proclaimed himself "outraged and heartbroken." Then he went right ahead with plans to ship Israel a massive new cache of 2,000-pound bombs and F-15 fighter jets that will be used to kill even more Palestinian civilians and aid workers. And yet, rather than calling out the shameless contradiction between President Biden's words and actions, corporate news outlets like The New York Times are actively helping the White House push the false narrative that, despite being Israel's primary weapons dealer, the U.S. is somehow powerless to do anything to stop the bloodletting. More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including 13,800 children. Another 8,000 are missing, likely dead and buried in the rubble. Famine has broken out in northern Gaza, and 1.8 million people — 80 percent of the population — are homeless. It is journalism's fundamental responsibility to explain what and why this nightmare is happening. As a reader-supported, independent news outlet committed to the progressive values of peace and human rights, Common Dreams is one of the few news outlets based in the U.S. willing and able to tell the truth about the ongoing slaughter in Gaza.   However, to continue our daily reporting on Israel's war on the people of Gaza, we need to raise $100,000 by May 1. Please donate $5, $10, $27, or whatever you can afford right now to help meet this critical goal.

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Imagine a world in which independent media is gone... And the only news sources are controlled by a handful of giant corporations and oligarchs. It’s not some far-away dystopia. It’s happening now. Don't let it. Support our critical Spring Campaign now. DONATE Saturday, April 20, 2024 ■ The Week in Review US College Students Demonstrate in Solidarity With Palestinians, Columbia Protesters "Columbia University made a huge mistake calling the cops on student protesters," said one educator. "It has transformed the activism of hundreds of students into a student movement of thousands." By Julia Conley • Apr 19, 2024 Ahead of Plastics Treaty Summit, Studies Make Case for Stopping Pollution at the Source "Whether the treaty includes plastic production cuts is not just a policy debate," said one expert. "It's a matter of survival." By Julia Conley • Apr 19, 2024 Privacy Defenders Decry 'Spy Draft' in Section 702 Renewal Advanced by Senate "It's not about who RISAA allows the government to spy on, it's about who RISAA allows the government to force to spy," explained one critic. By Brett Wilkins • Apr 18, 2024 'The Opposite of Leadership': US Vetoes Palestine's UN Membership Palestine's permanent observer at the United Nations said the resolution's failure "will not break our will, and it will not defeat our determination." By Jessica Corbett • Apr 18, 2024 'The Pressure Is Working': Biden Weighs Climate Emergency Declaration Campaigners urged the president to "keep listening to the millions of young, people of color, and working-class voters who are demanding climate policy that meets the moment." By Jessica Corbett • Apr 18, 2024 Database Exposes 'Illicit Network Undermining Democracy Around the World' Yanis Varoufakis hailed the effort as "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite." By Brett Wilkins • Apr 17, 2024 Israeli Settlers, Soldiers 'Wiping Palestinian Communities Off the Map' in the West Bank "While the attention of the world is focused on Gaza, abuses in the West Bank, fueled by decades of impunity and complacency among Israel's allies, are soaring." By Jake Johnson • Apr 17, 2024 Democracy Defenders Stress NY Trump Trial 'Is About Voter Deception' "Trump engaged in criminal acts to cover up the truth just days before the 2016 election, and now he will finally face a jury of everyday Americans." By Jessica Corbett • Apr 15, 2024 20 Years Later, Abu Ghraib Torture Victims Get Their Day in Court "Meanwhile, the U.S. government STILL hasn't provided compensation or other redress to people tortured by U.S. troops in Iraq," said one observer. "These three men are the lucky few." By Brett Wilkins • Apr 15, 2024 VIEW ALL NEWS JOIN THE MOVEMENT As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. JOIN WITH US TODAY ■ Opinion Portraying Trump as the Fascist He Is Could Save US Democracy It comes down to Democratic framing, a truth-telling media, and the independent judiciary to convince the electorate that Trump is actually the biggest threat ever to the story of America. By Mark Green • Apr 18, 2024 If the US and UK Have Any Shame, They Will Welcome Palestine as a UN Member State It’s high time for the two powers that have done the most to wreck the Middle East to support the true path to peace. By Jeffrey D. Sachs,Sybil Fares • Apr 17, 2024 Raging Against White Rural Rage In their new book, Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman write as if economic class no longer exists or matters. By Les Leopold • Apr 17, 2024 A Brief History of Kill Lists, From Langley to Lavender The Lavender AI system is a new weapon developed by Israel, but the kind of kill lists that it generates have a long pedigree in U.S. wars, occupations, and CIA regime change operations. By Medea Benjamin,Nicolas J.S. Davies • Apr 16, 2024 The Case for Teaching at the End of the World When we embrace the work of teaching and learning alongside students, we begin to build the future we want, together. By Izzi Geller • Apr 16, 2024 The Neoliberal Bullies Have Controlled the World Long Enough We should seek to build societies in which aggression and dominance are not rewarded. By George Monbiot • Apr 14, 2024 VIEW ALL OPINION Call 207.775.0488 to donate by phone or mail a check to: Common Dreams · PO Box 443 · Portland, ME 04112-0443 · USA Common Dreams is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your contribution is tax-deductible. EIN: 20-3368194