Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@qoto.org

Pathetic timidity from the most powerful journalism organization in the nation: The NY Times says the illegal, outrageous police raid and seizure of everything electronic at a Kansas newspaper merely "raises questions" about freedom of the press.

I will NEVER understand how people will twist themselves inside out to find the worst and most ludicrous conspiracy theories instead of simply admitting the most obvious things such as the terrible Maui fires: Abandoned pineapple farms which had previously destroyed native habitat and abandoned cattle farms both which had invasive non-native grasses take over, grow to huge heights and create micro-climates, then completely dry out. Temperatures on the island up to 6 degrees hotter in recent years due to greenhouse effect. Prolonged storm seasons with fiercer winds, stronger sundowner and downhill winds, unrelenting drought even on the "dry side". All of this is "climate change", some on a planetary scale, some on a localized scale. Add in a tiny fire department, no aerial fighting equipment and none that could do anything in 60 to 80 mph winds anyway. Power lines and poles. Wooden structures. Ember storm. All created a perfect storm for fire. This unimaginable horror is made worse by the fools making shit up, and ultimately making worse the denial and ignorance that will prolong the refusal to change human ways to zero fossil fuel use and less energy use.

#ClimateDisaster #ClimateChange #ExtremeWeatherEvents #GetPrepared

"Lost boys"

No. These are adult men who are making a conscious choice not only to engage in genocidal rhetoric, but to insert themselves into electoral politics to make that genocide a reality.

Stop infantilizing white men to excuse their violence.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/opinion/masculinity-right-young-men.html

Amid the devastating Maui fires, I see many arguing, "it's weather, arson--anything but climate change." Let's set the record straight: climate change doesn't usually start wildfires; rather, it intensifies them, increasing the area they burn, and makes them much more dangerous.

Here's the easiest way to understand it. Imagine someone tosses a match into a pile of relatively green, wet wood. What happens? Not much.

Then, imagine they toss that same match into a pile of bone-dry kindling. What happens? It sets off a conflagration.

What determines the condition of the metaphorical* wood pile? Increasingly, it's climate change.

* I say metaphorical, because in reality we are talking about grasslands, forests, and other ecosystems here: not literal piles of wood.

For more on how climate change affects wildfires and how no, these fires are not being caused by climate change activists trying to "fake" the risks it poses to us nor by developers trying to clear land for wind turbines or lithium mining, I have a Twitter thread on popular myths here (one day when I have time I'll migrate my threads here but for now you'll have to bear with me!) https://twitter.com/KHayhoe/status/1660473965981188096

For a good background on what the science says about the connection between wildfire and climate, see: https://www.noaa.gov/noaa-wildfire/wildfire-climate-connection

If you want to know how you can help people affected by the wildfires, click here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-to-help-maui-wildfire-victims-donations/

And finally, for additional context on the specific weather and vegetation conditions that made the Maui fires so devastating and destructive, read: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/08/10/maui-wildfires-why-weather-climate/

#Conservative Case Emerges to #DisqualifyTrump for Role on #Jan6

Two law professors active in the #FederalistSociety wrote that the original meaning of the #14thAmendment makes #Trump #ineligible to hold #government office.

#law #president #Constitution #originalism #insurrection #legal
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/us/trump-jan-6-insurrection-conservatives.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Horseshoe Crabs Saved from Extinction?
Thanks to Connecticut Gov. Lamont for signing into law yesterday a bill we drafted to end the hand capture and killing of horseshoe crabs by the bait industry that’s decimated them. May this measure prevent their extinction. Next we introduce the bill in NY .

Between Aug. 4 and Aug. 7, security guards for a palm oil company allegedly shot and wounded five Tembé Indigenous people, in the latest flareup linked to a long-running land dispute.

The incidents occurred in a part of the Amazonian state of Pará that’s been dubbed the “palm oil war” region, where Mongabay has over the past year documented the escalating tensions.

by Karla Mendes
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/indigenous-activists-demand-justice-after-5-shot-in-amazonian-palm-oil-war/

#News #Conservation #Environment #Brazil #Amazon #IndigenousRights #Indigenous

An affront to actual history. https://www.comicsands.com/prager-university-cartoon-justifies-slavery-2663089717.html?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=infeed&utm_campaign=linkprogram

Hilarious:
Trump Seeks to Review Classified Evidence at His Own Secure Facility https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/09/us/politics/trump-classified-evidence.html?smid=tw-share

Disgusting. Infuriating.

“During his three decades on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has enjoyed steady access to a lifestyle most Americans can only imagine. A cadre of industry titans and ultrawealthy executives have treated him to far-flung vacations aboard their yachts, ushered him into the premium suites at sporting events and sent their private jets to fetch him — including, on more than one occasion, an entire 737.“

https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-other-billionaires-sokol-huizenga-novelly-supreme-court

The Case for Keeping Masks Mandatory in Health Care

#covid @whn

https://whn.global/scientific/the-case-for-keeping-masks-mandatory-in-health-care/

I'm quoted here by TechCrunch on Zoom's EU law problems in justifying their claim that they can use personal data gathered from users of their service to train AI models.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/08/zoom-data-mining-for-ai-terms-gdpr-eprivacy/

“Even after ProPublica has published multiple stories on repatriation over the past eight months, it is still unsettling to ponder the sheer scale at which museums stored away the bodies of so many Indigenous ancestors. Six thousand at Harvard University. Nine thousand at the University of California, Berkeley. “
Mary Hudetz on her experience reporting on @ProPublica’s Repatriation Project.
https://www.propublica.org/article/what-its-like-to-report-on-repatriation

‘My Blood Ran Cold’: Ex-Trump Official Horrified By ‘Criminal Plot’ to Have Military ‘Turn Their Guns on Civilians to Facilitate a Losing Candidate’ https://www.mediaite.com/news/my-blood-ran-cold-ex-trump-official-horrified-by-criminal-plot-to-have-military-turn-their-guns-on-civilians-to-facilitate-a-losing-candidate/?utm_source=mediaite_smartnews_redirect #uspol #coup#tfg #fascism

If you know anyone in Ohio, make sure they know that today is the special election for Issue 1, and urge them to vote No. If it passes, it will raise the threshold for passing ballot issues from 50% to 60%, allowing a 40% minority to veto ballot issues.

The GOP spent a ton of donor and taxpayer money to set up a special election, just for this one issue, hoping it will pass with low turnout, because it would remove one of the few remaining checks on a heavily gerrymandered statehouse.

Polls will be open from 6:30am until 7:30pm.

https://votenoinaugust.org/facts/

#Ohio #OhioIssue1 #OhioIssueOne #Issue1 #OhioPolitics #USPolitics #StatePolitics #Politics #GOP

I made a page so I can explain to clients why I'm not using #Zoom.

https://the.webm.ink/not-using-zoom

416 active #BCwildfires in British Columbia burning today, as of 'B.C. Day' (Aug 7, 2023). That's a decrease by 62 from two weeks ago.

BUT, many fires have shifted to southeast from central area of province.

Red dots: Out of control = 226 (54%)
New wildfires in last 24 hours: 47

Icon w/ flame in red & white: "highly visible or poses a potential threat to public safety"

Many evacuations in #KamloopsBC area

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #fossilfuels #wildfiresinBC

Ohio! If you haven’t voted yet, tomorrow is the big day. The GOP is trying to rig the system with Issue 1. Vote it down.

This Thur 8/10 at 7pm
"Knowledge is Power: Drinking in the Knowledge prevents Flushing and Forgetting" by Ted Brodeur, Supervising Engineer with LA County Sanitation Districts
We had such a rollicking & educational meeting with him in June that he never got to present the second half of his talk. So we scheduled him to come back this Thursday to teach us how the LA County Sanitation Districts turns wastewater into clean water.
Register for zoom link:https://lwvbeachcities.org/natural-resources.html

Greenbrier legislator's wife targets Little Free Libraries' content
Censors are coming for Faulkner County's Little Free Libraries.

https://arktimes.com/news/2023/08/07/greenbrier-legislators-wife-targets-little-free-libraries-content