Music: Arve Henriksen — ‘Blue Silk’
The Biden administration’s landmark day in the fight for the climate
Bill McKibben writes: January 27th was the most remarkable day in the history of America’s official response to the climate crisis, at least since that June afternoon in 1988, when nasa’s James Hansen told a congressional committee that the planet had begun to heat. On Wednesday, in the course of a few hours, the Biden Administration took a series of coördinated actions that, considered together, may well mark the official beginning of the end of the fossil-fuel era. The Biden…
Inside the secret chat where far-right extremists devised their post-Capitol plans
ProPublica reports: When the FBI arrested Edward “Jake” Lang on Jan. 16 for his alleged role in the U.S. Capitol attack, court documents show agents had followed a seemingly straightforward trail from his public social media to collect evidence. “THIS IS ME,” Lang wrote over one video that showed an angry mob confronting police officers outside the Capitol. The same post showed him trashing a police riot shield. The government charged Lang with committing assault and other crimes, but the…
Merrick Garland wants former Facebook lawyer to top Justice antitrust division
The American Prospect and The Intercept report: As the fight over the direction of the Biden administration’s antitrust policy intensifies, a new figure has entered the fray, scrambling the calculus: Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland. The battle so far has largely been fought out between lobbyists for Big Tech and their allies on the one hand and skeptics of monopoly power on the other. But according to three sources familiar with the discussions, Garland is hoping to install as the…
GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene blamed wildfires on secret Jewish space laser
Jonathan Chait writes: Axios has a small squib about “The Mischief Makers,” a handful of idiosyncratic congressional backbenchers who make trouble for their respective party leadership. The leading Democratic mischief-maker is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who advocates some left-wing views I consider simplistic and impractical and, in some cases, poll badly. The top example of a conservative mischief-maker, presented in perfect symmetry, is Marjorie Taylor Greene. Greene’s views are just a bit more controversial. They include, but are no means limited to,…
Capitol forces plead for permanent barrier as Pelosi warns ‘the enemy is within’
Politico reports: The Capitol needs permanent fencing and backup forces continuously stationed nearby, the Capitol Police chief said Thursday, immediately sparking objections from lawmakers concerned about creating a fortress that distances the public from the Legislative Branch. In a lengthy statement, acting chief Yogananda Pittman pledged to work with lawmakers to permanently beef up security in and around the complex, where thousands of National Guard troops have been deployed since the Jan. 6 insurrection. “In light of recent events, I…
Why is Big Tech policing speech? Because the government isn’t
Emily Bazelon reports: In the months leading up to the November election, the social media platform Parler attracted millions of new users by promising something competitors, increasingly, did not: unfettered free speech. “If you can say it on the streets of New York,” promised the company’s chief executive, John Matze, in a June CNBC interview, “you can say it on Parler.” The giants of social media — Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram — had more stringent rules. And while they still…
N.Y. severely undercounted virus deaths in nursing homes, report says
The New York Times reports: For most of the past year, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has tried to brush away a persistent criticism that undermined his national image as the man who led New York through the pandemic: that his policies had allowed thousands of nursing home residents to die of the virus. But Mr. Cuomo was dealt a blow when the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, reported on Thursday morning that Mr. Cuomo’s administration had undercounted coronavirus-related…
Music: Arve Henriksen — ‘Shelter From The Storm’
Twitter troll arrested for election interference related to disinformation campaign
NBC News reports: The notorious Twitter troll and alt-right figure Douglass Mackey, known better by his alter ego, Ricky Vaughn, was arrested on Wednesday on federal charges of election interference stemming from an alleged voter disinformation campaign during the 2016 election. Mackey is charged with conspiring with others “to disseminate misinformation designed to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote,” according to the newly unsealed criminal complaint. The charges are a potentially tectonic shift in how the federal government…
Homeland Security bulletin warns Americans about violence by grievance-fueled domestic extremists
The Washington Post reports: The Department of Homeland Security issued a warning Wednesday to alert the public about a growing risk of attacks by “ideologically-motivated violent extremists” agitated about President Biden’s inauguration and “perceived grievances fueled by false narratives.” DHS periodically issues such advisories through its National Terrorism Advisory System, but the warnings have typically been generated by elevated concerns about attacks by foreign governments or radical groups, not domestic extremists. In a statement, the department said the purpose of…
The GOP’s answer to its post-Trump blues: More Trump
Politico reports: For a moment, it looked like Donald Trump might be losing his iron grip on the GOP. In the wake of the deadly Capitol riot, 10 House Republicans joined Democrats in their vote to impeach him. Several other Republicans openly suggested at least censuring the president. Not anymore. Local and state Republican parties are censuring Republicans for disloyalty in states across the country. The lawmakers who broke with him are weathering a storm of criticism from Trump-adoring constituents…
Climate crisis: World is at its hottest for at least 12,000 years, research finds
The Guardian reports: The planet is hotter now than it has been for at least 12,000 years, a period spanning the entire development of human civilisation, according to research. Analysis of ocean surface temperatures shows human-driven climate change has put the world in “uncharted territory”, the scientists say. The planet may even be at its warmest for 125,000 years, although data on that far back is less certain. The research, published in the journal Nature, reached these conclusions by solving…
Biden freezes U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia, UAE
The Wall Street Journal reports: The Biden administration has imposed a temporary freeze on U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as it reviews billions of dollars in weapons transactions approved by former President Donald Trump, according to U.S. officials. The review, the officials said, includes the sale of precision-guided munitions to Riyadh, as well as top-line F-35 fighters to Abu Dhabi, a deal that Washington approved as part of the Abraham Accords, in which the…
The man who wants to take down Bashar Al Assad
Nate Berg writes: Wolfgang Kaleck, a 60-year-old human rights lawyer with large blue eyes and a wave of sandy brown hair, smiles a lot for someone who has spent his life litigating some of the world’s worst atrocities. “The stories you hear you won’t forget,” he says, sitting at a long table in his office in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. “But at the same time you learn about these cruel facts of the world, you learn about the light side, which…
The unified cosmic vision of Alexander von Humboldt
Algis Valiunas writes: The presiding scientific genius of the Romantic age, when science had not yet been dispersed into specialties that rarely connect with one another, Alexander von Humboldt wanted to know everything, and came closer than any of his contemporaries to doing so. Except for Aristotle, no scientist before or since this German polymath can boast an intellect as universal in reach as his and as influential for the salient work of his time. His neglect today is unfortunate…