Now our NE Cambs MP Stephen Barclay is charged with the ridiculous task of removing the egg of Britain from the omelette that is Europe. This is my favourite metaphor, and an apt one, as our destinies are inextricably bound together; geographically, historically, culturally and economically swirled into combination as we move from the last war-torn nationalistic century into our interconnected globalised modern times.
This reality is now evident to all. We all also know how we have to reach accommodations and arrangements with our neighbours, always, even if we fall out they are still next door. If we trade together and share enterprises like climate agreements and car industries and want to keep our jobs and living standards then compromises are inevitable and vital.
‘Leave’ leaders sold us a false and over simple prospectus. Too many of us bought into a romantic dream of sovereignty trailing clouds of past imperial glory.
Mr Barclay, now newly installed in his office must negotiate, not dictate; and no ‘deal’ is agreeable to the other 27 that is better than the ‘deal’ we already have. The task of converting a dream into a reality is as impossible for him as his predecessors, so let us constituents wish him good luck with magical thinking.
Oh can we believe, oh lordy is finally Trump (and his past) coiling around and catching up with himself? Reports are of crisis, and events coming to a head.
The evidence is mostly one of tone rather than new facts, but the desperate escalated repetitive and unhinged tone of Trump himself is a major revelatory factor. It is assumed his new acting attorney general is providing him with a back channel from inside the Dept of Justice and carrying him back information on the Mueller inquiry investigations, plural. That is the big picture of them, their scope and extent, which is enough to rattle POTUS into hysteria this post-election week according to some.
The pursuit of a corrupt president is now being seen as working through the indictment and convictions of others. Julian Assange is now under indictment, and more senior administration officials fear indictment (being charged with offences in our Brit legalese) and are panicking. Trump’s own family are in the firing line, which he cares about.
POTUS and his personal legal team seem unable to respond to questions submitted by Mueller put forward as a substitute for personal interview.
And look out for the extremely dodgy Roger Stone to get his collar felt.
Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, speaking at a Rising Up conference. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
A new group of “concerned citizens” is planning a campaign of mass civil disobedience starting next month and promises it has hundreds of people – from teenagers to pensioners – ready to get arrested in an effort to draw attention to the unfolding climate emergency.
The group, called Extinction Rebellion, is today backed by almost 100 senior academics from across the UK, including the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.
In a letter published in the Guardian they say the failure of politicians to tackle climate breakdown and the growing extinction crisis means “the ‘social contract’ has been broken … [and] it is therefore not only our right, but our moral duty to bypass the government’s inaction and flagrant dereliction of duty, and to rebel to defend life itself.”
Those behind Extinction Rebellion say almost 500 people have signed up to be arrested and that they plan to bring large sections of London to a standstill next month in a campaign of peaceful mass civil disobedience – culminating with a sit-in protest in Parliament Square on 17 November.
Roger Hallam, one of the founders of the campaign, said it was calling on the government to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2025 and establish a “citizens assembly” to devise an emergency plan of action similar to that seen during the second world war.
On top of the specific demands, Hallam said he hoped the campaign of “respectful disruption” would change the debate around climate breakdown and signal to those in power that the present course of action will lead to disaster.
“The planet is in ecological crisis – we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction event this planet has experienced,” he said. “Children alive today in the UK will face the terrible consequences of inaction, from floods to wildfires, extreme weather to crop failures and the inevitable breakdown of society. We have a duty to act.”
Extinction Rebellion is part of the Rising Up activist group, and organisers have spent the past few months holding public meetings in towns and cities across the country.
An Extinction Rebellion talk in London this week. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
Hundreds of people have gathered in libraries and meeting halls, cafes and universities, pubs and churches to hear dire warnings about the consequences of the unfolding climate emergency – and what they can do about it.
“It feels like we are tapping into something very powerful in terms of the frustration and urgency many people are feeling as the evidence mounts of the scale of the climate emergency we are facing,” said Hallam, an academic at King’s College who specialises in social change and protest. He said the group was now getting 20 requests a week from people across the UK wanting to be given the talk.
“To put it simply,” he said, “we’re fucked. From the melting ice in the Arctic to the release of methane from the permafrost, the evidence is overwhelming and people are starting to realise that. What we need now is to start working out what we are going to do about it.”
Almost 100 academics – half of them professors – on Friday backed the call for rebellion.
In a letter to the Guardian they state: “While our academic perspectives and expertise may differ, we are united on this one point: we will not tolerate the failure of this or any other government to take robust and emergency action in respect of the worsening ecological crisis. The science is clear, the facts are incontrovertible, and it is unconscionable to us that our children and grandchildren should have to bear the terrifying brunt of an unprecedented disaster of our own making.”
Last week the US politician Bernie Sanders posted a link to an articlesupporting Extinction Rebellion, civil disobedience and the wider anti-fracking campaign to his 7.5 million followers. Hallam said the group was in talks with campaigners in the US about organising similar Extinction Rebellion events in Washington DC next month.
Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP, is also supporting the plan and will be among the speakers at the launch in parliament next week.
As part of their attempt to mobilise the wider environmental movement, activists from Extinction Rebellion, armed with flowers and letters, occupied Greenpeace headquarters last week. Describing the move as a “tap on the shoulder of a friend”, they wanted the environmental organisation to email its members highlighting the rebellion plan – and ideally calling on them to take part.
After two hours of “friendly discussions” the group left. Greenpeace subsequently said that although it supports any attempt to raise awareness of the climate emergency it does not know enough about those behind Extinction Rebellion to ask its members to take part.
But Hallam remains undeterred. The planned rebellion will begin with a declaration of demands being pinned to parliament next week and reach its peak with a peaceful sit-down protest in Parliament Square on 17 November. “After that, who knows,” he added.
At the end of another organising meeting in a cafe on a west London estate this week, Hallam acknowledged it is impossible to say exactly what will happen. How many of those who have signed up will actually turn up on the day? Will those who say they are prepared to get arrested and go to prison buckle when faced with police telling them to move? Will hundreds more supporters turn up unannounced?
Looking around the bustling cafe, where about half of the 30 people in attendance are signing up to take part, Hallam said: “In the end we have to realise that we will all be alone on our deathbed and asking ourselves whether we lived a worthwhile life – and for this generation the climate crisis is the overriding existential challenge. There are no guarantees but doing nothing, not trying, is not an option.”
Gail Bradbrook, scientist and veteran of tax justice campaigns and the Occupy movement
“For years I have engaged with this ecological crisis on an intellectual level, the mounting evidence, the science … but now I have engaged with the potential destruction of this world on an emotional level and there is a fundamental difference. There is huge feeling of grief, of loss. I found myself bursting into tears, of feeling distant with longstanding friends … but as with other forms of grief, as the poets say, you start to come through that initial shock and feeling of loss and there is a renewed appreciation of the beauty of the world, a renewed realisation that we are connected.
Once you face and feel the shock of what we are facing, if you are willing to face the grief and can process those feelings, there is tremendous energy and a will to do what it takes. So that is what we have been asking people, to be willing to look at the truth of our predicament and grieve.
And something is starting to change. There is a still a disconnect between how bad things are and the action that needs to happen. But that gap is narrowing. There are more significant people starting to break ranks, both breaking from their institutions and breaking from their individual lives.
For me it goes beyond the idea of protecting my life as a privileged individual, or even the idea of protecting my children’s future to a deeper need to have been a good ancestor to future generations, to know that I did my best when the big challenge came.”
Alison Green, pro vice-chancellor of Arden University and UK director of the Scientists Warning public engagement campaign (speaking in a personal capacity)
“I have no formal background in environmental issues and am fairly senior in my organisation. But unlike some academics I have taken the time to look properly at the evidence and have come to the clear conclusion that we are facing an imminent and potentially catastrophic climate emergency.
It has led me to re-evaluate what I am doing and why I am doing it. I am a career academic but in the face of what is likely about to happen to us I have to reconsider my priorities. I have children and I feel incredibly conflicted continuing in a ‘business as usual’ national setting, getting up and going to work when just around the corner there is a future for my children that is not the kind of future they believe they are working towards. If I am honest, it really breaks my heart. I have to ask myself, can I continue to do with integrity what I am doing when I know what is about to happen?
I am therefore asking myself, am I prepared to protest? Am I prepared to go to jail? And these are questions I am hoping many more people start to engage with. There will not be an opportunity for a ‘lessons learned’ scenario if we don’t act or if we get this wrong – there will not be an opportunity to repent at leisure.
If you understand the science, and I would put myself in that category, then I think there is an obligation to act – we are entitled to rebel because our interests are not being met. My levels of optimism are not high and this may not work but we must have the courage to try.”
Jessica Townsend. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian
Jessica Townsend, writer
“I’m writing a novel set in 2030 and as I started the research on climate change, I became more and more alarmed at the disconnect between what I was reading in popular science books and what is in the mainstream media.
Much of it made me feel traumatised and upset. I don’t understand how we have allowed living animals to be part of a factory process or to treat the Earth as if it was just raw materials for our industries.
Technology has made the world so complicated that regular people don’t have time to keep abreast of everything that’s happening. But the ecological disaster quietly unfolding around us is just too important to ignore: we have to wake up.
The last campaign I was involved in was Stop the War and I was so gutted when Tony Blair invaded Iraq that I swore I’d never do this again. But I’m a grandmother. If we do nothing we are heading for 3-4C of global warming. That will mean a superheated world, with perhaps a billion migrants, and societal breakdown. My grandson, everyone’s grandchildren, deserve a better future than that.”
Rupert Read, academic at the University of East Anglia and Green partypolitician
“I’ve taken part in civil disobedience before but not for the last 15 years. I’ve been prompted to again by the dire stakes of the climate breakdown we are now in the early throes of, and by the dire failure of our government (or any government, for that matter) to take these stakes seriously.
The way that climate chaos has manifested in the last three years, with our weather systems perhaps beginning to spiral out of control, and especially the overheating of the Arctic, has been a big factor for me. The situation in the Arctic is now genuinely terrifying, because of the risk of huge-scale methane release.
This is an emergency, an unprecedented emergency. It dwarfs any other emergency we’ve known, including even World War II. And we will be judged by our children by how we respond in this emergency. Not by what are, in comparison, just distractions: such as Brexit. To future generations I would say that we are trying. Those of us who are joining this rebellion, and the many who support us, are really trying. If we fail you, it wasn’t for lack of effort.”
Trump’s message is clear, and it is not working, at least according to the amalgamated polls. Surveys show for most voters it is paying for healthcare which tops their priorities, not immigration.
Since the Kavanaugh debacle I have been retired hurt, feeling as with Brexit that my hopes are dying in the face of opposition successes. But hey, it just could be morning in America again, Trump is whining, making excuses in advance for losing.
He has reasons for alarm, he is a named co-conspirator in court documents and the Mueller investigation will get lead in its pencil if the House of Representatives gets that democratic majority. It will be on the attack, and there are plenty of battle fronts. At the very least his legislative programme will come to a full stop next Tuesday, nothing will get enacted for the next two years.
How long do we have to put up with this farce? Now Trump blames mainstream media for inciting division and violence, is there no limit to his capacity for reversing things? When will his lies and distortions catch up with him?
What must it feel like to be a decent American with him representing your country?
Have I nothing better to do than be angered and sympathetic and ask rhetorical questions?
The heart of the American system is voting, democracy is dependent on it. Now there are restrictions, impediments, intimidation, threats and all manner of despicable shenanigans going on, it is widespread wherever the polls are close. More so it happens where black people might outvote white people, or even where democrats might outvote republicans.
It is inexcusable, often undertaken by state authorities by more or less subtle stratagems. One is simply restricting the number of polling booths in black neighbourhoods causing enormous waiting times, huge queues. Then there are requirements imposed on proving your identity, residence qualifications etc and right to vote. In Georgia, S Dakota, Pennsylvania and all over this is ongoing right now.
“Henry became incensed when he heard of this outburst and is said to have uttered the fateful words “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest!” Four of Henry’s knights, probably not the brightest of men, took this as a summons to action, and left for Canterbury immediately.”
Well the line should have a question mark at the end. It is not a direct order to murder, but that is what happened, vile stabbing assassination in the centre of the church.
Henry II failed to arrest the knights, advising them to flee to Scotland. It is likely special adviser for POTUS in the middle east, son in law Jared Kushner is right now promoting this as a solution to weasel the crown prince out of this jam.
The context here is the approaching end of the white majority in the US, if we have not done so already, the backlash heats up, particularly after black president Obama.
The Kavanaugh nomination battle may be over, though mutterings about his impeachment persist, the resulting ‘wash’ has not receded but is spreading.
Fingers are now pointed at Chief of Staff John Kelly who grew up like Trump in a racist sexist environment and is now revealed in emails as persisting in such ingrained attitudes with a tin ear for how to talk about assertive women. Namely he slagged off possible 2020 presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren. Polling figures indicate large swings to the democrats among women in particular, which will play heavily in the mid-term elections.
So the brave Dr Christine Ford assault allegations and the nomination battle was not in vain.
How depressing it is, a whitewash non-investigation, circumscribed by the WH, and Kavanaugh is in. The FBI, unbelievably, did not even interview Dr Ford his primary accuser of attempted rape. But stuff snakes around and bites back.
Life-long republican Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, now retired and 98 years old, has publicly switched from supporting the nominee to regarding him as damaging to the Court. Such disapproval from such an eminent source is unprecedented; will any republican senators truly listen, and act?
On one of the other fronts it is a pleasure to see the NY Times on the attack with well researched details of past duplicitous dealing, tax frauds, Donald’s inheritance lies,(He got $430 million, not 1 million) and his complicit sister in the doo doo too.
Oh this old cliché, one of many I grew up hearing and had impressed upon me as proverbial wisdom. It seems appropriate if authorities are insisting on “What smoke? We see/smell no smoke, we interview no smoke,” and thus do not dig for proper evidence of fire.
What she says happened is so terrible it amounts to hellfire.
There are lies, untruths, economy with the actualite, misstatements, inconsistencies, and faulty memories. Expect all these nuances in abundance in coming days because if Kavanaugh LIED in his nomination proceedings his goose is cooked.
Credibility is where we are going. Essential for the Supreme Court itself and all its members. Pants on fire?
OldFenBoy 