Informed Comment daily updates (09/30/2023)

 

ISIL Extremists Bomb Mosques in Pakistan, in Bid to outlaw Celebrating the Birth of the Prophet Muhammad (Yes) Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Muhammad Shahid at The National (Dubai) reports that there were two attacks on mosques in northern Pakistan on Friday. The bigger explosion targeted worshipers in Mastung, Baluchistan, near the provincial capital of Quetta. This bombing appears to have been aimed at Muslims who were staging a public procession to commemorate […]

Germany Covers 52 percent of Electricity Consumption with Renewables so Far this Year By Sören Amelang | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – Renewables covered more than half of Germany’s electricity consumption so far this year, according to calculations by utility association BDEW and the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Wuerttemberg (ZSW). Between January and September, the amount of renewables in the electricity mix rose to […]

Despite the Welcome Surge of Green Energy, the World is not on Track to keep Heating below 1.5C; We must do More By Pep Canadell, CSIRO | – It was a rare bit of good news on climate. The International Energy Agency this week released its latest net zero roadmap, showing it was still just possible to hold global heating to 1.5℃. In the last two years, we’ve seen major global investment in clean energy, spurred on […]

Old posts you may have missed

Macron Pledges to end Coal by 2027, to get to 60% Renewables by 2030, and to Ramp up French EV Production; Is it Enough? Portuguese youths sue 33 European Governments at EU Court in largest Climate Case Ever At the Brink? Contemplating the Unimaginable Costs of a Nuclear War Sister Cities in Climate Crisis: New Orleans, Basra, Alexandria face Saltwater Intrusion, Fresh Water Shortage Facebook’s News Retreat: A Death Knell for Independent Mideast Local News What is an Abaya − and why does it cause such Controversy in France? A scholar of European Studies Explains Taliban in Tel Aviv: Israel Joins Middle East in Clashing over Gender Segregation, Women’s rights in Public Sphere

We're likely to avert a shutdown, but the clown show continues Democrats are playing the adults, coming to the aid of Republican juvenile delinquients ROBERT REICH SEP 30 Make no mistake: The force propelling a shutdown has been Donald Trump. Why? Because Trump calculates that a shutdown would play to his advantage. Because he’s no longer president, he wouldn’t be blamed — whereas Biden is viewed by the public to be in charge of government, and if the government falls into chaos, Biden will take the hit . Which is why Trump has done everything he could to shut the government down. He pushed his faction of radical MAGA Republicans to vote against any compromise. He signaled to his puppet, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, that his speakership would depend on satisfying the MAGAs. He signaled to House Republicans that the GOP was still his. But this afternoon — just hours before the government ran out of funds — House Democrats came to the aid of House Republicans and reached a deal to keep the government going for another 45 days (including funds for disaster, an extension of a federal flood insurance program, and FAA reauthorization). But in a bow to MAGA Republicans (and Trump), the deal does not include aid for Ukraine. It’s a huge symbolic victory for Putin. At this moment, it’s not clear that the Senate will go along. A procedural vote on the stopgap measure has yet to be called. (I’ll update this letter as I learn more, and try to give you background to make sense of what’s going on.) But for now, my betting is that a shutdown will be averted, mainly because House Democrats genuinely want to avoid it — not just because they understand it will hurt Biden but because most are concerned about what it will do to the economy and to vulnerable Americans. And I think the adults in the Senate will agree, despite the failure of the agreement to include aid for Ukraine. But of course this just kicks the can down the road for the next 45 days. It also elevates the issue of American support for Ukraine into a major point of contention between MAGA Republicans and the rest of the U.S. government (as well as most of the American population, if polls are to be believed). Kevin McCarthy is safe for now. No obvious replacement could attract a majority of House votes. Yet the House GOP looks awful, at least to those of us who are paying attention. Its absurd effort to impeach Biden on the basis of zero evidence of wrongdoing, its eleventh hour desperate outreach to House Democrats to keep the government running, its abject failure to do the public’s business — all of this must be remembered when it comes time to elect a new Congress next year. More to come. RR

TOP NEWS: Progressives Say GOP Shutdown Chaos Is About Imposing 'Extreme, Cruel' Agenda

 

September 29, 2023 Top News Progressives Say GOP Shutdown Chaos Is About Imposing 'Extreme, Cruel' Agenda "It's the same thing they did with the debt ceiling: Weaponize the tools of the House majority to force a false choice. Their agenda or a national crisis," said the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Brett Wilkins 'Gross Denial of Reality': Biden Infuriates With Approval of More Offshore Drilling "End Fossil Fuels is pretty clear," said one advocate. "Not 'hold slightly fewer lease sales,' not 'talk about climate action'—End. Fossil. Fuels." Julia Conley 'The Next Climate Litmus Test': Sen. Merkley Joins Fight Against CP2 LNG Terminal CP2, which the Biden administration is expected to either approve or reject in the coming months, would emit 20 times the climate pollution expected from the controversial Willow oil drilling project in Alaska. Olivia Rosane Citing 14th Amendment, Michigan Voters File Suit to Bar Trump From 2024 Ballot "Trump violated his oath of office and incited a violent insurrection that attacked the U.S. Capitol, threatened the assassination of the vice president and congressional leaders, and disrupted the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in our nation's history." Brett Wilkins Climate Emergency in Action: NYC 'Essentially Shut Down' by Flash Flooding "One week ago, 75,000 people inundated New York City streets to demand the president end fossil fuels," said one campaigner. "Now, climate-fueled rains are submerging those same streets." Julia Conley Warren Grills Biden Medicare Trustee Pick Over 'Shocking' Ties to Medicare Advantage Firm "Not a single other trustee has ever received compensation from an insurance company while acting as a Medicare trustee," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Jake Johnson

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Microplastics in Clouds Could Be 'Contaminating Nearly Everything We Eat and Drink': Study 'We Will Win': 7,000 More Autoworkers Walk Out as UAW Expands Strike Again Latin American Women Take to the Streets on International Safe Abortion Day Shell Employees Urged to Revolt as Oil Giant Faces Internal Backlash for Ditching Renewables Sen. Dianne Feinstein Dies at 90 VIEW ALL NEWS MAKE A GIFT TO COMMON DREAMS. Independent news is more important than ever. DONATE TODAY

Opinion We Won't Survive Trump's Next War Against the United States of America The only reason that Trump in a second term might not end up waging war on another country is because he’ll be too focused on destroying his own. John Feffer US Lawmakers Should Learn from Faith-Based Leaders Demanding Elimination of Nuclear Weapons It’s up to us to demand politicians demonstrate the courage and vision to speak the inconvenient truth to power that nuclear deterrence, rather than protect us, puts us at ever increasing risk of eventual nuclear use. Danny Hall I Want My Grandchildren to Have a Livable Planet It is past time for our country to acknowledge the fear and the anger that comes with the prediction of 99% of climate scientists that we need to make radical changes in order to allow our young people to survive in the future. Nancy Braus

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Informed Comment daily updates (09/29/2023)

 

Macron Pledges to end Coal by 2027, to get to 60% Renewables by 2030, and to Ramp up French EV Production; Is it Enough? Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Kim Willsher reported this week at the Guardian on French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement of a “French environmental plan” (l’écologie à la Française). Its centerpieces involved phasing out coal by 2027 and reducing fossil fuels in France’s energy mix from 60% today to 40% in 2030. France doesn’t use much […]

Portuguese youths sue 33 European Governments at EU Court in largest Climate Case Ever By Marta Torre-Schaub, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne | – (The Conversation) – A little over three years ago, a group of Portuguese youths filed a legal action against 33 European governments to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over what they say is a failure to adequately tackle global heating. Now, the Strasbourg court […]

At the Brink? Contemplating the Unimaginable Costs of a Nuclear War ( Tomdispatch.com) – Here’s something strange about our all-too-nuclearized planet: in my youth during the 1950s and early 1960s, the possibility of an obliterating nuclear war played a significant role in our everyday nightmares. We schoolkids then regularly engaged in “duck and cover” drills, diving under our desks to protect ourselves from a possible nuclear […]

Old posts you may have missed

Sister Cities in Climate Crisis: New Orleans, Basra, Alexandria face Saltwater Intrusion, Fresh Water Shortage Facebook’s News Retreat: A Death Knell for Independent Mideast Local News What is an Abaya − and why does it cause such Controversy in France? A scholar of European Studies Explains Taliban in Tel Aviv: Israel Joins Middle East in Clashing over Gender Segregation, Women’s rights in Public Sphere Iraqis Tortured by US at Abu Ghraib have Never Received Justice or Compensation Our Move to Renewables is only the Latest of Many Energy Transitions; We can do it Again From Education to Incarceration