Julia Conley at Common Dreams writes—As 'Green New Deal' Demand Grows, Democrats Have Choice: Confront and Defeat Fossil Fuel Industry or Take Credit for 'Doomed' Planet:
Weeks after the UN released its report on the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions in order to avoid "potentially irreversible" effects of the climate crisis, critics say Democrats have the opportunity to stand firmly on the side of progressives who are advocating for a Green New Deal in order to help save the planet—instead of continuing to rely on incremental measures aimed simply at "exploring" the climate crisis.
The Green New Deal is comprised of an ambitious set of proposals aimed at transitioning the U.S. to 100% renewable energy and employing millions of Americans to aid that transition.
In The Guardian, journalist David Sirota noted that in order to take meaningful action to help stop the climate crisis, Democrats must fundamentally change their outlook on the oil and gas industries which poured $100 million into midterm campaigns.
The fossil fuel sector, Sirota wrote, helped fund the fight against Proposition 112, aimed at keeping new oil and gas drilling operations away from schools, hospitals, and water sources in Colorado; an anti-carbon emissions measure in Washington; and a pro-solar energy proposal in Arizona.
The same industries were able to donate to Democratic candidates after a brief ban on such contributions was lifted by the Democratic National Committee was lifted after just two months—donating more than $4 million to party members in 2018.
The campaign to defeat new climate policies, wrote Sirota, "was a shock-and-awe spectacle designed to intimidate any prospective campaigns, organizations and movements that want to challenge the political supremacy of oil and gas—and some prominent Democrats in Washington seem to be cowering in fear."
"Always nervous about the donor class and about electoral blowback from Republicans, some congressional Democrats now seem intent on avoiding any direct confrontation over climate change policy," he added. [...]
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QUOTATION
"I am not fit for this office and never should have been here."
~~Warren G. Harding, 29th president of the USA
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2002—Army fires gay Arab linguists:
How can the US make any credible claims that it is fighting the terrorist threat with all available means when this sort of crap happens?
Nine Army linguists, including six trained to speak Arabic, have been dismissed from the military because they are gay.
The soldiers' dismissals come at a time when the military is facing a critical shortage of translators and interpreters for the war on terrorism.
[...]
The government has aggressively recruited Arabic speakers since the Sept. 11 attacks.
"We face a drastic shortage of linguists, and the direct impact of Arabic speakers is a particular problem," said Donald R. Hamilton, who documented the need for more linguists in a report to Congress as part of the National Commission on Terrorism.
Crazy...
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Facebook! Yikes! Trump! Yikes! OK, that's all bad. But it's the House leadership fight that occupies our time today. There’s lots going on and lots to say, about the "contestants," the media coverage, and ourselves. It’s complex. It’s contradictory. Because Dems.
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