On pause — back soon
Due to a family emergency, I won’t be able to update Attention to the Unseen for the next few days. Back soon. PW
As humanity isolates, wild animals start coming out of exile
The coronavirus pandemic has rightly been compared to wartime. At the same time, it is reminiscent of the First World War armistice as gunfire gave way to birdsong, and offers glimpses of what might happen if we were to end our war against this planet and impose our presence here less harshly, by allowing wild habitats to grow, by reducing how much we foul up the air, land, water, and oceans, and by simply learning how to become a…
Bernie Sanders outranks other Democrats – and Trump – on values and empathy
USA Today reports: Is Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders likable enough to win the White House? A new USA TODAY/Ipsos poll released Friday suggests a lot of voters think so. Asked for their views on the personal characteristics of several Democratic presidential contenders and of President Donald Trump, voters consistently gave Sanders the highest marks for his values and empathy. Trump and his allies have long said they believe the president could easily defeat Sanders if he faces off against…
How Bernie Sanders can become the next president
Michael Warren writes: It might sound strange, but Bernie Sanders right now has a lot in common with Donald Trump from 2016. Like Trump, after coming in a close second in Iowa and winning New Hampshire, Sanders is now his party’s front-runner for the presidential nomination. Like Trump, Sanders carries big momentum into a third contest in Nevada that already sets up well for him. His rallies are packed. His coffers are stuffed with cash. And yet, like Trump, there…
Above the law: The Trump Doctrine
The New York Times reports: President Trump on Thursday reversed a decision by the Navy seeking to oust a Navy SEAL, Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, from the elite commando force. Chief Gallagher has been at the center of a high-profile war crimes case and was granted clemency by the president last Friday. He was notified on Wednesday that the Navy planned to start the process of revoking his status as a SEAL and taking away the Trident pin that…
Weak and defenseless, Trump bows down in the face of ‘Crazed and Irrational Hostility’
Like most other angry old trolls, it’s easy to tell when Donald Trump gets really mad: a twitchy shift-key lets loose with a rapid fire of upper-case letters. ….Therefore, based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility, we will no longer consider Trump National Doral, Miami, as the Host Site for the G-7 in 2020. We will begin the search for another site, including the possibility of Camp David, immediately. Thank you! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October…
The end of life on Earth?
Apocalyptic statements always sound crazy and talking about the end of life on Earth at this juncture in its history will, for many people, seem like an overly pessimistic assessment of the perils we face. Temperatures rise, extreme weather events become more frequent, species dwindle or disappear, forests burn, glaciers melt — no doubt the situation is dire, but surely not so bad that we are witnessing the destruction of life itself. For that to happen, wouldn’t Earth have to…
Recent events on and around the Arabian Peninsula
June 23, Meet the Press: WATCH: Trump tells Chuck Todd that he wants to talk with Iran with “no pre-conditions.” #MTP #IfItsSunday pic.twitter.com/kie0I91ZbA — Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 23, 2019 August 28, Mareike Transfeld wrote: Last month, the UAE said it would withdraw its troops from the northern port of Hodeidah. In reassuring the international community that it had coordinated this with Saudi Arabia, it explained it was just trying to follow terms set down by a United Nations…
‘I’m not sure that I’ve ever even heard of the Category 5,’ says Trump as Dorian becomes the 35th such hurricane
President Trump: "I'm not sure that I've ever even heard of the Category 5. I knew it existed, and I've seen some category 4s — you don't even see them that much but the category 5 is something that I don't know that I've ever even heard the term other than I know it's there." pic.twitter.com/44rpbxv90D — The Hill (@thehill) September 1, 2019 The Category 5 hurricanes Trump never heard of: Michael (2018), Maria (2017), Irma (2017), Matthew (2016), Felix…
What have the Romans ever done for us?
For the entertainment of many, this video has been making the rounds recently: For those who don’t follow British politics closely or know much about the history of the British Isles, a little background is in order. The voice here comes from John Cleese in Monty Python’s Life of Brian where he plays a rebel leader conspiring against Roman rule in historic Palestine. Since the Romans also ruled Britania (for about 400 years), the joker who crafted this…
Living in space
By Paul Woodward To see things clearly, we often need to break the patterns of habit. The Earth, physically and metaphorically — the ground of human experience — is the stationary foundation that forms the background of movement: our movement across its surface; the terra firma against which the oceans wash and above which birds fly; the horizon that the Sun rises above and then falls beneath. Intellectually, as basic science, most people understand that it is the Earth…
Hollywood is undermining climate action
Cara Buckley writes: Humans ruined everything. They bred too much and choked the life out of the land, air and sea. And so they must be vaporized by half, or attacked by towering monsters, or vanquished by irate dwellers from the oceans’ polluted depths. Barring that, they face hardscrabble, desperate lives on a once verdant Earth now consumed by ice or drought. That is how many recent superhero and sci-fi movies — among them the latest Avengers and Godzilla pictures…
America’s white nationalist disease won’t be remedied by counter-terrorism and condemnations
In an editorial, the New York Times says: While its modern roots predate the Trump administration by many decades, white nationalism has attained a new mainstream legitimacy during Mr. Trump’s time in office. Discussions of Americans being “replaced” by immigrants, for instance, are a recurring feature on some programs on Fox News. Fox hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, for example, return to these themes frequently. Democrats, Ms. Ingraham told viewers last year, “want to replace you, the American voters,…
Bashar al-Assad’s useful idiot
Josh Rogin writes: Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) talks often about her January 2017 trip to Syria, when she met Bashar al-Assad, toured Aleppo after it had been reduced to rubble (by the Assad regime), and interviewed Syrian civilians and the regime-approved “opposition,” who unanimously told her Assad was a better option for Syria than the “terrorists.” But Gabbard never talks about her other trip — to the Turkish-Syrian border with a group of lawmakers in June 2015, when she met…
What deserves the attention of every inattentive American
Cass R. Sunstein writes: Mueller made it clear that his largest concern is with Russia’s extraordinary effort to disrupt U.S. democratic processes. As he put it, “The Russian government interfered in our election in sweeping and systematic fashion.” On one of the rare occasions when he went beyond his role as a lawyer and showed flashes of emotion, he said this: Over the course of my career, I have seen a number of challenges to our democracy. The Russian government’s…
Donald ‘love it or leave it’ Trump: ‘The American dream is dead’
Trump says if you don’t love America, leave it. He’s been bashing the US for years. pic.twitter.com/b7humVud7W — Scott Dworkin (@funder) July 21, 2019 If Trump’s electioneering mantra, “we’re like a Third World country,” ever sounded like a hyperbolic economic assessment of America, have no doubt it was simply and crudely a dog whistle to those of his white supporters who believe non-whites don’t belong here and should “go back” where they come from. Make America Great Again has always…