Echinocentric @Echinocentric@qoto.org

I keep wondering at what point Big Journalism will awaken to the threat(s) posed by DeSantis, who is a Trump-like power-monger but with more brains.

As Nieman Lab reports, his anti-journalism agenda is deeper and more dangerous, too.

But you can count on the NY Times et al to focus on everything but the danger he poses to democracy. Business as usual political "coverage" prevail for the most part.

So much as stake, and so little media awareness...

https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/02/ron-desantis-is-weaponizing-partisan-media-and-weakening-independent-sources-of-news/

In 1979, Jimmy Carter wanted to set as a goal for 20% of US energy to come from solar by 2000. We're still at 3%. Imagine where we would be if he hadn't been treated with derision for his calls for moving to renewable energy.

So, let's call this what it is, tired of just making money from ads and selling your data, Elon and Mark are turning to CONVERSION EXTORTION.

In software as a service (SaaS) marketing speak, CONVERSION is when a free user transitions to a paid customer. Getting your credit card number is their holy grail.

EXTORTION is the practice of obtaining something through force or threats.

When your online security is threatened unless you pay up, they are extorting your conversion.

#twittermigration

In 1979 Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House roof. In the 80s' Ronald Reagan removed them.
Carter wanted renewables to generate 20% of U.S. energy needs by 2000. When Reagan was elected he scrapped the policy, eliminating tax breaks for renewable technologies in favour of oil and gas. Today the US produces just 7% of its energy from renewables, the majority from hydroelectric schemes.
A massive wasted opportunity which we and future generations will pay for.
#climatechange

Trump is set to visit East Palestine, Ohio after the horrific derailment

Finally. They called in an expert on train wrecks.

Today is the Day of Remembrance for the Japanese American community. 81 years ago today, when I was just a boy of four, FDR signed Executive Order 9066, setting in motion the evacuation of people of Japanese descent from the West Coast and our long years of internment inside ten barbed wire prison camps.

We must never let such a thing happen again in America, and and we must strive everywhere to prevent the forced relocation and mass incarceration of innocent people. #NeverForget #NeverAgain

"If she says they're good, then I am ready to go."

Before his 1962 orbital flight, John Glenn was wary of trusting his life to a machine's trajectory calculations and asked that Katherine Johnson check them. #BHM

More on mathematician Katherine Johnson: https://go.nasa.gov/3Ef1sbX
#NASAhistory

Remember the time jimmy Carter helped prevent a nuclear meltdown?

#jimmycarter

https://www.military.com/history/how-jimmy-carter-saved-canadian-nuclear-reactor-after-meltdown.html

Sometimes the necropolitics of fascism is subtle.

Sometimes it's really, really not.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-death-penalty-firing-squad-executions-1234679447/

“You cannot wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.”

Navajo Proverb
#Quotes #EmotionalIntelligence

Robert Reich: American capitalism returns to the Gilded Age https://robertreich.substack.com/p/american-capitalism-returns-to-the?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=auto_share&r=df9r

Why hasn’t Governor Mike DeWine declared a state of emergency so that FEMA can start giving aid to residents of East Palestine, Ohio?

Idaho lawmakers just introduced legislation to criminalize anyone who administers a COVID vaccine

Ok Cletus, listen up

You want to live in the 1600s? You want to deny science, attack our LGBTQ youth, take bodily autonomy from women?

Give up your car, your iPhone, all safe travel, the vaccines you were given when you were born, in any modern convenience
🚗 📱 ✈️💉🥪

Go live with Goody Christwife and perish from Water Elf Disease.

Chatbot search is a terrible idea, especially in an era in which the web is likely to fill up with vast mountains of AI bullshit, the frozen gabble of stochastic parrots…

And yet, Google is going all-in on chatbots, with the company CEO ordering an all-hands scramble to cram chatbots into every part of the googleverse. Why on earth is the company racing Microsoft to see who can be first to leap off the peak of inflated expectations?

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/16/tweedledumber/

#AIsearch #GoogleFail

"Yes, DeSantis is playing to the MAGA base in his craven quest for the presidency. He is trying to out-Trump Trump, to refine his cruelty to be more effective & less felonious.

Yes, he appeals to an oppression envy among white conservatives, in which they want the protected status and “perks” of victimhood without the devastation of being actual victims.

Theirs is a form of civic gluttony & narcissism in which the market of privilege must be cornered"
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/15/opinion/ron-desantis-black-history.html?smid=tw-share

#GOP #USPolitics

When you hear
the pandemic referred to
as a once in a century catastrophe
please bear in mind
that such a description
is a catchy turn of phrase
and not a definitive guarantee.

Eff you, Ron DeSantis. And Phil Murphy is underrated.

NJ expands AP African American Studies in response to Florida-
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/education/2023/02/14/nj-ap-african-american-classes-ron-desantis-florida-phil-murphy/69903483007/

“Americans can’t agree on anything.”

What about 3 in 4 Americans supporting legislation to tackle junk fees?

These hidden up-charges are egregious, and they allow corporations to siphon money from working people.

It’s time for Congress to act.

This ancient goat willow is half-tree, half-octopus!

It may have been broken by a Cumbrian storm, but is still very much alive - and supporting lots of other life too. One of my favourite trees 💚

#ThickTrunkTuesday #nature #woodland #environment #Mosstodon #Cumbria #LakeDistrict