There's battle lines being drawn.
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.
Young people speaking their minds
getting so much resistance from behind

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Linkee-poo weekender

Star Wars Episode IX trailer.

You know that argument against trying to mitigate climate change because it's too expensive. Hold my beer… "The $14 billion network of levees and floodwalls that was built to protect greater New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was a seemingly invincible bulwark against flooding… But now, 11 months after the Army Corps of Engineers completed one of the largest public works projects in world history, the agency says the system will stop providing adequate protection in as little as four years because of rising sea levels and shrinking levees." (Grokked from Laura J Mixon)

When I've discussed the "immigration crisis" (ie. mass human migration occurring world-wide) I often mention not only the pernicious effect of deliberate underdevelopment of colonialism, but the effects of global climate change driving people from tropical zones into temperate zones. Until now I would get a lot of blank stares, or a "nah, that's can't be happening." Whelp, it ain't just me anymore. "How Climate Change Is Fuelling the U.S. Border Crisis… In the western highlands of Guatemala, the question is no longer whether someone will leave but when." The New Yorker. Right now it's the effects of climate change, stronger storms, wetter atmosphere, crop failures, etc that are driving factors. What until it becomes biome collapse. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)

"More than 30,000 grocery store employees in the northeastern US are refusing to return to work for the second day in a row… Cashiers and deli workers at Stop & Shop supermarkets walked off the job Thursday afternoon at 240 stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, saying the supermarket chain is trying to slash their pay by hiking health insurance premiums and lowering pension benefits for new employees." You know, I don't remember as much labor action since I was a little kid. It's kinda startling. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)

"A strong majority of people in wealthy countries want to tax the rich more and there is broad support for building up the welfare state in most countries, a survey conducted for the OECD showed on Tuesday."

"During the sentencing deliberations, the jury sent a note to the judge questioning whether Mr. Rhines would be allowed to marry or have conjugal visits; or be allowed to create a group of followers or admirers; or have a cellmate, should he be sentenced to life in prison. Less than eight hours later, the jury voted to impose the death penalty. Later it became known that some of the jurors who sentenced Mr. Rhines to death 'knew that he was a homosexual and thought he shouldn’t be able to spend his life with men in prison' and thought that 'if he’s gay, we’d be sending him where he wants to go if we voted for [life in prison].' These comments and the note to the judge raise serious doubts regarding the fairness and impartiality of the jury’s decision." (Grokked from John)

"A new policy proposal by the Trump administration calls for the surveillance of disabled people’s social media profiles to determine the necessity of their disability benefits. The proposal, which reportedly aims to cut down on the number of fraudulent disability claims would, monitor the profiles of disabled people and flag content that shows them doing physical activities. When it comes down to it, the policy dictates that disabled people shouldn’t be seen living their lives for fear of losing vital financial aid and, possibly, medical care." So many thoughts about this, but one of the major ones (besides welcome to the surveillance state) is that fact that the Final Solution actually began with killing the disabled. (Grokked from Michele)

"Thousands of dollars in donations flowed to an undisclosed source at a Trump inaugural ball with links to China and dubious donors… But there’s no trace of the money raised that night, as required by law, The Palm Beach Post has found." (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)

"But fast-forward 27 months and the Trumps are no longer even pretending that there’s a meaningful separation between business and politics." This is my shocked face.

No comments: