… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Author: dizzy

  • Climate activists fill golf course holes with cement in France

    Spread the love

    https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/climate-activist-france-water-ban-b2144729.html

    French climate activists have filled golf course holes with cement in protest against a water ban exemption on greens across the country during a severe drought.

    The group, part of the Extinction Rebellion organisation, targeted courses near the city of Toulouse, calling golf the “leisure of the most privileged.”

    …

    In a petition, the local activists said the exemption showed that “economic madness takes precedence over ecological reason”.

    “At a time when the greatest drought ever observed in France since the beginning of meteorological readings is raging, while the drying up of rivers is accelerating in our regions, at a time when 93 departments out of 96 are placed under water use restrictions, resulting in total bans on irrigation for certain market gardeners and for agriculture; a sector concerning a tiny fraction of the population seems to enjoy a privilege worthy of another world in these times of crisis; golf,” the group said in its online petition.

    …

  • Jeremy Corbyn criticises West for ‘pouring arms into Ukraine and prolonging war’

    Spread the love
    Image of Jeremy Corbyn, Wikimedia Image, Author Sophie Brown. Sophie Brown, CC BY-SA 4.0
    Jeremy Corbyn. Author Sophie Brown, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/jeremy-corbyn-ukraine-russia-invasion-b2137091.html

    The former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has criticised the west for arming Ukraine, arguing that its military support will prolong the war.

    Countries including the UK and the US have sent Kyiv billions of pounds of weapons to help it fight off Vladimir Putin’s troops.

    “Pouring arms in isn’t going to bring about a solution. It is only going to prolong and exaggerate this war,” Corbyn said, echoing the line taken by Moscow on western military aid to Ukraine.

    Although the North Islington MP said he “disagrees” with the Russian invasion, he accused world leaders of using “the language of more war and more bellicose war” instead of pursuing peace.

    “This war is disastrous for the people of Ukraine, for the people of Russia and for the safety and security of the whole world, and therefore there has to be more, much more effort, put into peace,” he said.

    …

    ‘This is a war of propaganda’ John Pilger on Ukraine and Assange Talking Post with Yonden Lhatoo

    20 min long unfortunately …

    10 August 2022. This post disappears from the blog repeatedly, I don’t know why.

    11 August 2022. [Technical] I’m very pleased with my current host while the last one was good when I joined but bought out and then turned useless. It’s cheap, fast and has excellent tech support. I should have flushed the NGINX cache after changing the theme to get this post displaying properly. Not sure about this theme despite it being very popular e.g. quoted text not reactive, [12/8/22 now working, think that my secret secretary should be thanked for that. I don’t know who my secret secretary is – it’s a secret ;)] could be simpler to use (how can I change the background colour in the header? why is it a different colour anyway? I want this sort of stuff to just work straight out of the box).

  • Even the sycophancy of an amoral Tory press couldn’t save Boris Johnson

    Spread the love

    https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/even-the-sycophancy-of-an-amoral-tory-press-couldnt-save-boris-johnson

    …

    Historians will be baffled by the readiness of Britain’s largest media organisations to lick Johnson’s boots for so long, and will surely look for an explanation. Part of the reason is ideology. Murdoch and the Barclay brothers personally supported the Brexit movement which propelled Johnson to power. 

    Another is that Johnson cleverly ensured the major newspaper groups had a vested interest in maintaining him in office. Though lazy and incompetent, Johnson understands the press exceptionally well, and as prime minister managed it skilfully, giving the newspapers everything they wanted in exchange for their support.

    This meant allowing media barons to set his agenda. The BBC has long been a target of the press—Murdoch in particular—because it occupies public space which corporate media craves for itself. Johnson’s attacks on the licence fee—and the briefing by allies of his culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, that on her watch “it’s over for the BBC” as we know it—look like gifts to his media backers. So was the appointment of an unqualified Tory donor, former banker Richard Sharp, as chairman of the national broadcaster. The same applies to the proposed Channel 4 sell-off.

    …

    Sunday Times Rich List: Frederick Barclay still wealthiest on Channel Islands

    Who are the Barclay brothers?

  • UK’s record-breaking heatwave ‘basically impossible’ without climate change

    Spread the love

  • Rethink

    Spread the love

    The post about rethinking how to campaign effectively. These are suggestions and you are welcome to disagree.

    The problem is that climate campaigning has reduced severely and not recovered since pre-lockdown levels. The problem is that climate campaigning is not effective since pro-climate actions are not taken while actions damaging to the climate are. Participation has reduced, but that’s not the issue. The issue is that governments are not taking any meaningful or any action and that deterioration of the climate continues unabated.

    Why is climate campaigning not effective? The oil industry is deluged with money, traditional media is generally opposed to climate action and governments are owned by the oil industry, high finance and the media barons, all having power without responsibility. I have reached the conclusion that governments and politicians are so dependent and subservient to big oil, high finance and the media barons that they are inseparable from them. I may be wrong on this point but can’t see any other explanation.

    For example, traditional media has decided who the UK’s next prime minister will be. You may have been told that it is Conservative members’ decision but their preferred candidate has already actually been excluded. I know who the next prime minister will be so it’s pointless wasting time watching it. That’s the power that Murdoch has over government and politicians and he will no doubt have his usual back-door key to 10 Downing Street.

    In UK we have recently witnessed unaccountable corrupt politicians alien to the concept of truth engaging in profiteering cronyism, showing a total disregard for laws and decency and contempt for the electorate. I suggest campaigning that seeks to hold politicians, big oil or the lying media to account may be effective.