@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

GhostOnTheHalfShell

@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai

opinionated lurker of the intarwebs.

Used to write code, still do. c/c++, java, php, js, c#, gdscript, gnawed on sql, sparql, unix/windows etc etc billions of years ago.

tech, graphics, anything STEM
anything anthropology, history, linguistics
anything blender, gimp (although i scream using it), audacity
prefers not to be run over by cars

I drink Philz.

I do a (non-monetized) video or so a week on yt.

Tyranny and poverty are everywhere a mainstream economics phenomenon.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

GottaLaff , (edited ) to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

🔥 #BREAKING #Trump 1/...

#WOMPWOMP #WOMPAGE

via Pagliery!

Breaking news, first
@thedailybeast

Donald Trump has been hit with a massive one-two punch in his bank fraud case.

He owes $372 million for lying—and he can't borrow money from any New York bank, frustrating his ability to appeal the judgment.

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@GottaLaff Just watch him sell it as an NFT.. 🤪

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

😂 Good. Now kindly F off.

Sen. Joe #Manchin has decided not to launch a run for president after all, HuffPost has learned

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@GottaLaff

I’m not sure if I can handle all this good news.

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

☹️Inevitable

#RIP Jailed Russian opposition leader and outspoken Kremlin critic Alexey #Navalny, who made global headlines when he was poisoned with a nerve agent in 2020, has died aged 47, the #Russia prison service said.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/16/europe/alexey-navalny-dead-russia-prison-intl?cid=ios_app

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@GottaLaff The funny thing is if he wins the argument, SCOTUS can pack its bags.

Biden could dismiss all of them, call off the election or change the Constitution at will, or all of it.

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

STARTING A NEW THREAD HERE. 1/...

#FaniWillis #Georgia #legal

Live feed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDcexi-W8rQ

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@GottaLaff

42? Yup, that’s the answer!

lowqualityfacts , to random
@lowqualityfacts@mstdn.social avatar

I am finally the proud owner of a Tesla Cybertruck. It's incredible. Drove over a puddle this morning and only three of the doors have begun to rust. One door impressively remains rust-free. A butterfly flew into the windshield, which created severe cracks but it did NOT break. Little guy flew off like it was nothing. Men respect my vehicle and women want to sleep with it. Downloaded a sweet software patch that keeps the A/C running full blast 24/7. Well worth the $100k.

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@lowqualityfacts ooo, i can feel alpha male dripping off you. :ablobgrin:

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Mary Trump on #JonStewart:

https://marytrump.substack.com/p/jon-stewarts-danger-to-democracy

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@GottaLaff My first reaction to this is I think Stewart (sought to) neutralized the age issue, a distraction affecting Biden negatively.

Age has only made Trump overtly absurd as a figurehead to despotism, and I hope Stewart presents “it’s the despotism stupid” in short order.

I’m going to reserve judgment for a little while yet.

parismarx , to random
@parismarx@mastodon.online avatar

Uber says it finally made an annual profit after 15 years, but who paid the price to get it there?

The company fired 6,700 workers, hiked fares for customers, and squeezed drivers even harder. Now the stock is up and investors will get a $7 billion share buyback. It turns your stomach.

https://disconnect.blog/the-high-cost-of-ubers-small-profit/

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@parismarx but can they sustain this?

breadandcircuses , to random
@breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social avatar

No matter what we do now, human industry and commerce, driven by insatiably greedy capitalists, has thrown Earth's ecosystem so far out of balance that it will take a least a thousand years — if not a million years — for any semblance of what once was to be restored.

But that doesn't mean we should give up! It does not mean we should stop trying to make a better world for our children and our grandchildren. Every tenth of a degree matters and is worth fighting for. Every species we can save from extinction is precious.

Still, it's plain to see, if your eyes are open, that we are well beyond any hope of "getting back to normal."

New research in Antarctica reveals how far the Earth system has tipped toward chaos...

Researchers at Stanford have shown that the Wilkes Subglacial Basin in East Antarctica, which holds enough ice to raise global sea levels by more than 10 feet, could be closer to runaway melting than anyone realized.

FULL STORY -- https://phys.org/news/2024-02-stable-east-antarctica-closer.html

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@breadandcircuses

yay 😑

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️Via Kyle Griffin:

Breaking: House essentially kills the Senate's national security supplemental.

Johnson says he won't bring the bill up for a vote. Instead, the will work on its own legislation.

That means no aid to , , , and for now.

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@GottaLaff

So the GOP are pissing off just about every possible business constituency foreign and domestic.

They always said gov doesn’t work, which they eagerly prove each time they are in office.

aniltj , to random
@aniltj@infosec.exchange avatar

⟨ " Our economy is dominated by five aging tech giants – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft. In the last twenty years, no company has commercialized a new technology in a way that threatens them. Why?

We argue that the tech giants have learned how to coopt disruption.

They identify potentially disruptive technologies, use their money to influence the startups developing them, strategically dole out access to the resources the startups need to grow, and seek regulation that makes it harder for the startups to compete. When a threat emerges, they buy it off. And after they acquire a startup, they redirect its people and assets to their own innovation needs.

These seemingly unrelated behaviors work together to enable the tech giants to maintain their dominance in the face of disruptive innovations. " ⟩

In addition to the tactics noted in the paper, the manner in which incumbents use standards development organizations and industry consortia to slow-roll anything that disrupts their existing product lines, and try to re-direct anything disruptive to something that they can (barely) incrementally implement is something that is not appreciated enough!

H/T to @pluralistic for his essay which provided the pointer to this paper. Link to essay @ https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/08/permanent-overlords/

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4713845

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@aniltj @pluralistic

@blair_fix been doing leg work here

https://mastodon.online/@blair_fix/111461435244611427

tzimmer_history , to random
@tzimmer_history@mastodon.social avatar

A deliberate campaign to create a permission structure to support rightwing extremism for people who don’t want to think of themselves as supporting rightwing extremism - combined with the eternal mainstream media quest to demonstrate “neutrality” and “balance.”

The result is a bizarre monstrosity.

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@tzimmer_history

I wonder how much of this world view is being shaped by their immersion in X and the illusion of free expression of the platform.

Any platform that selects, an inherently editorial act, antagonists and throws them into collision is not one of free expression but a gladiatorial pageant, a for profit event.

world_beauty Bot , to random
@world_beauty@universeodon.com avatar

Venus and the Triply Ultraviolet Sun
Credits: , SDO, Peter L. Dove

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@world_beauty :ablobcatheart: :awwwblob:

wdlindsy , to random
@wdlindsy@toad.social avatar

"A team of super-genius math professors from Stanford University has made a startling discovery that could seriously affect the outcome of the 2024 presidential election: President Joe Biden is not the only senior in the race. Republican candidate Donald Trump is an old man, too!"

~ Lewis Grossberger

(Satire alert.)

#Trump #Biden #age
/1

https://grossbergerbulletin.substack.com/p/mathematicians-find-trump-is-also

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@wdlindsy this might go over heads.

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Via Keith Olbermann:

BREAKING: Dementia J. Trump again says the name of the current president is Obama.

(Within five hours he will insist this is a...palindrome🤷🏼‍♂️)

Confused Trump forgets who’s President: "I hear that they like Obama better. They should like Obama better. You know why? Got bad under under this guy. So he now wants to send them $60 billion..."

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@GottaLaff

The institutional ossification that characterizes the political system is serving us quite badly. The way to change it though means starting at ground level (local office).

Koch and his buddies did and do just that by pushing people to enter local office. The current crop of progressives are kind of that, but everyone not in the GOP is not encouraged to aggressively participate. It’s a systemic failing.

oatmeal , to palestine group
@oatmeal@kolektiva.social avatar

#Biden / In Private Remarks to Arab Americans, Biden Aide Expresses Regrets on Gaza

In a private meeting with Arab American leaders on Thursday, Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer acknowledged that the Biden administration made mistakes in its response to the Gaza war that has killed over 27,000 Palestinians since October 2022.

“We have left a very damaging impression based on what has been a wholly inadequate public accounting for how much the president, the administration and the country values the lives of Palestinians. And that began, frankly, pretty early in the conflict.”

Finer admitted the U.S. failed to properly convey the value it places on Palestinian lives. He expressed regret over the White House statement on the 100-day mark of the conflict that did not mention Palestinian casualties. Finer also said the administration should have faster condemned dehumanizing rhetoric by Israeli officials comparing Gazans to "animals."

#NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/us/politics/biden-aide-israel-regret.html or https://archive.is/4QOIG
@israel
@palestine
#IsraelUSAHamasWar
#Gaza

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@oatmeal @israel @palestine

Right. In private. That isn’t the place Joe.

I know they’ve been working behind the scenes at the very least because the conduct of the war is widely recognized to have seeded another cycle of violence. One cycle runs approximately 50 years. Palestinians deserve their homeland, the self-determination the UK promised them before WWII and betrayed. Now they face the very real possibility of being scrapped from it altogether.

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Guess what. I'm in a very shitty, blocky mood today.

Come into my feed and tell me we need a new candidate? Bye.

Start kvetching and playing into their hands by indulging in the "He's too old" crap. See ya.

Whine about our 2 party system when right now we need to be fighting our asses off for democracy and supporting our candidates? .

This is NOT the day to test my patience.

Don't believe me? Wanna provoke? I will block, no matter who you are.

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@GottaLaff Lord and yesterday you seemed in much brighter spirits!

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@GottaLaff Wait is the mood due to the feeding frenzy at the recent news conference where they jumped all over him, and he shot back in response with patience visibly tested?

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@GottaLaff

I think my point stands… 😂 Today you came dressed appropriately (that is to kill).

Miro_Collas , to palestine group
@Miro_Collas@masto.ai avatar

Saudis Contradict Blinken: Want Actual Palestinian State now, not Vague 'Peace Process'
https://www.juancole.com/2024/02/contradict-blinken-palestinian.html

"The Kingdom has communicated its firm position to the U.S. administration that there will be no diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognised on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital..."


@palestine

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@Miro_Collas @palestine

With 800k Settlers in the West Bank, Jerusalem being methodically purged and a public policy of Greater Israel spanning all of Mandatory Palestine (Jerusalem, West Bank, Golan Heights), good luck with that. Trying to separate the facts on the ground the settler movement has created means pulling them out.

Israel is absolutely the worst disaster for US interests now and we let them make it that way.

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@Miro_Collas @palestine

In the end, though, and as impossible as it seems, I agree with Avi Shlaim, there is only one state. The ethno supremacy needs to go and all people granted citizenship and right of return. This is not a small task.

The problem with the two state solution is those settlers and even then, Israel will always plot to make Palestine a vassal state or to destabilize it. The two state solution has always been a delaying manouver.

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@Miro_Collas @palestine

Considering the social and political fissures inside Israel? The settler faction and right wing inside the nation is not exactly stabilizing either. After everything happening, an exodus from Israel of less right wing population segments might be a thing. That means an increasing ply radical and racist nation seething in anger. Reminds me of European history.

Just how well does a ethno supremacist nation sit in the region?

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@Miro_Collas @palestine

Also another 6-8 million Palestinians live as refugees in surrounding nations, who will be expecting a right of return and I suspect UNRWA will be shut down.

All of them are supposed to pack into the West Bank and Gaza. Gaza is not habitable and won’t be for years.

Some how keeping this separate without issues doesn’t seem less probable than ending apartheid and using South Africa’s peace and reconciliation process.

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@Miro_Collas @palestine

Yeh, it really is, but as you say regional leaders and the US are motivated. But it’s daunting.

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@nicholas_saunders @Miro_Collas @palestine

Yes, they are playing the long game. Israeli right wing’s goals are to annex all of Jerusalem, West Bank and methodically pursuing it with settlers. It’s do or die for them.

Hamas got exactly what they were seeking. Popularity, breaking Israel’s image of invulnerability (regionally, and especially in Israel), disrupting normalization, and they’ve put Palestinian plight on the table again.

Israel’s own reaction has done most of the heavy lifting.

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

President #Biden on the special counsel's report: "There's even a reference that I don't remember when my son died. How in the hell dare he raise that."

"I don't need anyone to remind me when he passed away."

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@GottaLaff

He may be old and not the same as 20 years ago but the obsession over Biden is absurd. Too many newspeople get their world view shaped by X.

For somebody who’s supposedly lost it, he dealt with reporters in the moment.

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Via Anna Bower:

After #Trump moved to extend pre-trial deadlines in the classified #documents case, #JackSmith files a scathing response.

The defendants “will stop at nothing to stall the adjudication of the charges against them by a fair and impartial jury of citizens,” the special counsel writes. #legal #TrumpIndictment

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@GottaLaff

It’s funny how this stuff makes Perry Mason lines apt.

Incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial!

tzimmer_history , to random
@tzimmer_history@mastodon.social avatar

The Right Is Not Actually Seeking “Divorce” – But Domination

The fantasizing about secession and civil war – long tradition on the extreme Right – has been fully mainstreamed among conservatives. Because they will not, under any circumstance, accept pluralism.

New piece:

🧵1/

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/domination-or-dissolution-rule-or

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@tzimmer_history

A civil war would necessitate killing off blue, that is, urban areas. But imagine it, cities emptied out of large chunk of people, many professionals as well as the working class.

Red states gonna have to figure out their budgets. Abut they aren’t a coherent group, as much as a coalition of negatives with billionaires intent on setting themselves up like the Roman patrician class. Even here, they’ve only been unified by a common goal of wrecking the republic.

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

I'm done with this day.

If news breaks (and I hope it doesn't... and if it does, it better be good news), I'll post it. 👋🏼

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@GottaLaff

night. I will work on my revenge. ;)

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Go @MichaelEMann !

“Michael Mann, a prominent climate scientist, won his long-standing legal battle against two right-wing bloggers who claimed that he manipulated data in his research and compared him to convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky, a major victory for the outspoken researcher.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/02/08/michael-mann-bloggers-defamation-trial/

GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@GottaLaff @MichaelEMann

Is it wrong to do a church lady dance?

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Via Inner City Press... wow.

From: Engoron To: [Trump's lawyers] RE: People v. Trump When | sent my straightfwd, narrow request for info about poss perjury by Allen Weisselberg in the subject case, | was not seeking to initiate a wide-ranging debate with counsel. However, your misleading response grossly mischaracterizes the letter that | wrote, and | feel compelled to respond. .. | have not taken, do not plan to take, and did not suggest or hint that | would take the Times article into consideration...However, if, tomorrow, Weisselberg publicly confesses to having committed perjury about a significant matter in the case before me, or if he pleads guilty to such perjury at any time before | issue my final decision, | will research and consider what the law allows...Indeed, Rule 3.3(a)(3) provides that “If a ...lawyer’s client...offered material evidence and the lawyer comes to know of its falsity, the lawyer shall take reasonable remedial measures, including, if necessary, disclosure to the tribunal.”..You and your co-counsel have been questioning my impartiality since the early days of this case, presumably because | sometimes rule against your clients. That whole approach is getting old. Your invocation of Cohen’s testimony and veracity is completely out of bounds. You have already submitted your post-trial briefs and made your final arguments. | am not reopening the case, but if someone pleads guilty to committing perjury in a case over which | am presiding, | want to know about it. Justice Engoron
ALT
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    • + zachvat
    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @GottaLaff Don’t they understand pissing off the judge is not sound practice?

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @GottaLaff I guess I am showing ignorance.. It’s not signed by a judge?

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @GottaLaff

    Oik.. with no bearing on the trial… they live in a different world.

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @GottaLaff @Janika somehow that sounds like a form of pastry.

    (i’ll go to lunch now)

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @GottaLaff @Janika no no, I want to slip out before I think about it overly much.

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @GottaLaff @Janika

    I’ll get you for that Lance Link!

    wdlindsy , to random
    @wdlindsy@toad.social avatar

    In case we need reminding that a huge source of opposition to attempts to reform the Catholic church, especially under the current pope, is right-wing Catholic megadollars in the US.

    Loup Besmond de Senneville reports on a secret meeting of Catholic bishops and cardinals that took place at a posh hotel in Prague in September, ostensibly to organize against the bogus threat of "gender ideology."

    #Catholic #gender #RightWing #PopeFrancis
    /1

    https://international.la-croix.com/news/religion/cardinals-meet-secretly-in-prague-to-discuss-gender-ideology/19144

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @wdlindsy The Catholic Church will pay a high price becoming the pet of neo plutocracy. Their situation will be much worse than centuries past when they were mixed into the fate of various monarchs.

    They will have to rip Jesus out do the Bible and preach Samuel 15-3 daily instead.

    GottaLaff , to random
    @GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

    suspends the entire country's mobile phone service on election day - Bloomberg

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @GottaLaff

    Welp I guess we find out a couple days after WTHeck happened.

    GottaLaff , to random
    @GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

    Republicans are unfit. Period.

    Via Jon Favreau:

    I won't vote for foreign aid without border security legislation but I voted against border security because we don't need border security legislation but I won't vote for foreign aid without border security legislation but...

    Acyn:

    After Republicans tanked the border security bill, Tim Scott says he voted against a stand-alone bill for Israel/Ukraine aid because: We should first secure our southern border.

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @GottaLaff

    Um.. I’ll be needing some aspirin.

    GottaLaff , to random
    @GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

    Via Emptywheel:

    Prince Bonesaw says he'll start jailing executives if they give American voters details about the terms of GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump's employment with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
    Quote

    Jordan Fabian:

    Saudi Arabia has threatened to imprison the bankers and consultants it works with if they cooperate with a probe by US lawmakers into the planned merger of the PGA Tour with LIV Golf

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @GottaLaff totally no authoritarianism there.

    Jesus Christ, this is what happens to even “capitalists” that feed at the trough of despotism. Maybe one or two need a Kashoggi treatment, so they can understand.

    😑

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @GottaLaff

    I know, I’m just being terrible. However, I don’t place much confidence in bankers to understand until one of their number experiences it.

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @msbellows @GottaLaff

    Lord, ouch. Not from necessity but from dumbness,

    StillIRise1963 , to random
    @StillIRise1963@mastodon.world avatar

    "And now, Republicans are saying that if they retake the White House they will change the Medicare rules so that people newly turning 65 will enroll by default into Medicare Advantage rather than real, traditional Medicare, further enhancing the profits of these massive, billion-dollar insurance giants while rapidly killing off real, traditional Medicare."

    https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/medicare-advantage-2667187728/

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @philip_cardella @StillIRise1963

    But this is the unique super power of the right. Having no respect for meaning, they are expert at co-opting words and their meaning.

    See 1984.

    GottaLaff , to random
    @GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

    “ has proposed a ceasefire plan that would quiet the guns in for four-and-a-half months leading to an end to the war, in response to a proposal sent last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators and backed by the United States and .”
    https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-seeks-prisoner-hostage-exchange-withdrawal-israeli-forces-ceasefire-2024-02-07/

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @GottaLaff

    The problem with any exchange of prisoners is that Israel has a long track record of re-imprisoning the people they release. Women and children are put back into gulags to be tortured every day.

    The effect of total siege has brought Gaza to the brink of 40% face starvation and deadly disease. This effect is 100% expected.

    Even if combat ceased today, many tens of thousands will continue to die. Every day this number is amplified. A month from now “peace” will be moot.

    breadandcircuses , to random
    @breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social avatar

    What human industry has done since 1990, pumping nearly a trillion tons of CO2 into the air, has no precedent. Never before in Earth’s history has so much carbon dioxide been added to the atmosphere over such a short period of time.

    Now our planet is heating up very fast, thanks to all these greenhouse gases in the air. That extra heat is not good for people, and it turns out it's ALSO not good for trees...

    Trees are struggling to sequester heat-trapping carbon dioxide in warmer, drier climates, meaning that they may no longer serve as a solution for offsetting humanity's carbon footprint as the planet continues to warm, according to a new study.

    "We found that trees in warmer, drier climates are essentially coughing instead of breathing," said Max Lloyd, assistant research professor of geosciences at Penn State. "They are sending CO2 right back into the atmosphere far more than trees in cooler, wetter conditions."

    Through the process of photosynthesis, trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere to produce new growth. Yet, under stressful conditions, trees release CO2 back to the atmosphere, a process called photorespiration. With an analysis of a global dataset of tree tissue, the research team demonstrated that the rate of photorespiration is up to two times higher in warmer climates, especially when water is limited.

    They found the threshold for this response in subtropical climates begins to be crossed when average daytime temperatures exceed roughly 68 degrees Fahrenheit [20.3C] and worsens as temperatures rise further.

    The results complicate a widespread belief about the role of plants in helping to draw down carbon from the atmosphere, providing new insight into how plants could adapt to climate change. Importantly, the researchers noted that as the climate warms, their findings demonstrate that plants could be less able to draw CO2 out of the atmosphere and assimilate the carbon necessary to help the planet cool down.

    "We have knocked this essential cycle off balance," Lloyd said. "Plants and climate are inextricably linked. The biggest draw-down of CO2 from our atmosphere is photosynthesizing organisms. It's a big knob on the composition of the atmosphere, so that means small changes have a large impact."

    Plants currently absorb an estimated 25% of the CO2 emitted by human activities each year, but this percentage is likely to decrease in the future as the climate warms, Lloyd explained, especially if water is scarcer.

    So, that's very bad. We used to think extra CO2 might make trees grow faster and absorb more CO2, but it turns that notion is wrong. It doesn't work that way.

    And guess what — it also turns out that pumping a trillion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in only a few decades was a terrible idea.

    FULL STORY -- https://phys.org/news/2024-01-trees-struggle-climate.html

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @breadandcircuses

    Megaphylls (the “big leafy”) plants, just about every last plant we know, could only evolve when the heat index is low enough, which means when co2 is low enough.

    High heat index is deadly to people but also to plants and animals in generate. It’ death by steam cooking.

    pluralistic , to random
    @pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

    Republicans want to defund the (corporate) police

    "The Antitrust Division has fewer people enforcing anti-monopoly laws in a $24 trillion economy than the Smithsonian Museum has security guards."

    -Matt Stoller

    https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/congressional-republicans-to-defund

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @pluralistic

    For capitalism to “be” itself, a number of elements need to be in place. Oligopolies destroy choice, competition, markets and our agency. They are cancer. Anti trust is the cure for them.

    property
    self-interest(agency)
    competition
    markets
    choice
    government (law & order)

    https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/Series/Back-to-Basics/Capitalism

    Republicans are violent anti-capitalists by being the enemy of the economic liberties that create market economies, which profit driven capitalism is one very unstable variant of.

    randahl , to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    A US businessman with 171 million social media followers is trying to convince the American public, that the law which contains the aid to Ukraine will allow foreigners to vote in US elections.

    X is the misinformation medium.

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @otownKim @randahl

    Not really. Billionaires are all allies of sorts. Rich fucks like Musk and his social/business circle include Peter Thiel. They are anarcho capitalists. The much older coup machine, the Koch network is reworking the US into fascism.

    They are aligned with Putin’s desire to see the US unravel.

    A consortium of negatives.

    pluralistic , to random
    @pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

    I wuz robbed.

    More specifically, I was tricked by a phone-phisher pretending to be from my bank, and he convinced me to hand over my credit-card number, then did $8,000+ worth of fraud with it before I figured out what happened. And then he tried to do it again, a week later!

    --

    If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

    https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/05/cyber-dunning-kruger/#swiss-cheese-security

    1/

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @pluralistic never ever ever EVER accept a cold call.

    Contact a bank from a number supplied, having gone to its site (or on your cards).

    wdlindsy , to random
    @wdlindsy@toad.social avatar

    The Guardian's assessment of the effects of the disastrous Brexit decision on the UK — "perhaps the most dishonest political movement this country has ever seen":

    "The overall impact of Brexit on the economy has been to make us much poorer."

    Lies piled on lies and gussied up with racism and xenophobia got the British people to choose to go there, and there is no place good.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/03/observer-view-list-of-brexit-wins-is-in-short-and-feeble

    GhostOnTheHalfShell ,
    @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

    @wdlindsy All brought to you by Tories and the lying billionaire media.

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