Sunday, April 28, 2019

NO MORE BUSINESS AS USUAL: How To Not-Play

In 2013, a programmer named Tom Murphy VII designed an AI that could teach itself to play Nintendo Entertainment System games. Determined not to lose at Tetris, the AI simply pressed pause—and kept the game frozen. “Truly, the only winning move is not to play,” observed Murphy.

La Défense, 2019
Not playing has begun in at least two cities of the world: London and Paris, and although in Paris that bilious yellow color means insurgency, in London it means cops, who made over 1,000 arrests this week:

London cops arrest 1,000 rebels
Organizers know that until there is serious disruption as there is now in London, and in Paris when 14 enviro agencies joined the Gilet Jaunes at La Défense for 8 hours, blockading, Total and Societe General, nothing serious can happen, and although Extinction Rebellion made circulating in London impossible all week, with strategic blockades stalling traffic from five key points, only a handful of insurgents turned up here on Market Street in San Francisco where Extinction Rebellion-U.S. held its artful debut on April 19.  And while four protesters glued themselves to buildings in Los Angeles, and in Portland, 11 activists were arrested for building a garden across train tracks to protest expansion of an oil terminal, these efforts, like pilot ants announcing a full bore invasion, are puny still, compared to the scope of what is urgently needed.
Only 11% U.S. energy comes from renewables
London and Paris are located on the western tip of a tiny peninsula that puffed up people like to call Europe, but which isn‘t even a continent, and of those four serious ones remaining, with the possible exception of Australia, three have been dragging their climate feet. Worldwide, there are 66 cities projected to have over 10 million inhabitants by 2030, and there are 467 cities of under 5 million; and 598 under one million, in other words a total of 1131 cities worldwide.

With 2 down, and 1129 cities to go, not playing has begun in major cities in a tiny portion of the Earth. That’s a start. But if in less than one year, the radical new cultural behavior we need to see to stop climate collapse, let alone reverse it, doesn’t catch fire in at least half these cities, the human race is toast and quite literally most of the planet’s other living things are, too (‘Coming Mass Extinction Caused by Human Destruction Could Wipe Out 1 Million Species Warns UN Draft Report).

Radical new cultural behavior is the goal. What does it look like?

Nearly 50% of Germany's energy comes from renewables
Where do you think Ford Bikes got their idea? David Rovic’s e-mail this week tells a simple story: while he lived in the Long  Island suburbs as a teen ager, he rode a bike everywhere he wanted to go, but no sooner had he passed his driving test, he traded his good habits for a car. Oslo is now a car-free city, and guess what? Pedestrians window shop. Business has gone up.


The U. S. has been at war now for a straight 17 years. One of its favorite motivators is what it likes to call regime change (synonym for oil grab). In history's first, activists are now occupying the Venezuelan embassy to prevent the U.S. from illegally seizing a building that belongs to the oil-rich country of Venezuela, whose duly elected government it is trying to overthrow.

Recognize some of your favorite people here?
As a consumer of fossil fuels, the U.S. is the Earth’s chief polluter, responsible for 17% of the world’s carbon footprint. 93% of that carbon foot print comes from military use.  One year of peace would allow the U.S. to drop its use of fossil fuel to not quite 20% of what it uses today.

That is why war, and the war industry must be disrupted if the U.S. ever hopes to have a chance of surviving the ravages of climate change such as floods, fires, drought, disease, human migrations, and devastating storms. The Pentagon and all military bases world-wide—one thousand of them—must be occupied and shut down if humanity is to have so much as a prayer of surviving.


Not playing is the tactic, and who can argue with a tactic sanctioned even by the Buddha. But even beyond a Not Playing Campaign, the scope of any effective effort to combat climate change would have far to exceed even the U.S. World War II national effort, including cultivating victory gardens to entirely reconfigure how food is grown and distributed, rationing (now it would be called downsizing, or powering down), and drafting workers to install solar panels on every single building, and the infrastructure to maintain it, to cite just a few essential nation-wide mitigations.


Sign the petition demanding that climate change questions must be in cluded in the upcoming presidential debates.

Tell determined-to-be-fossils at the Democratic National Committee to add climate to the national discussion at:

Demand Congress protect vital environmental programs at https://www.paction.us/epa-budget-cuts/foe-action

Tell the U.S. State Department’s Office of Foreign Missions that opposition leader Juan Guaidó has no legal right to take over the Venezuelan Embassy in D.C. at

Donate to protect the Venezuelan Embassy at


Environment

Greta Thunberg advocates General Strike!!! to escalate fight against world’s ‘Existential Crisis.’

In speech to parliament, Thunberg calls out UK for claiming it lowered emissions while omitting from calculations major sources of carbon pollution.

UN draft report warns ‘coming mass extinction’ caused by human destruction capable of wiping out 1 million species.

New Zealand aims to be first with UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples Plan.

Federal Judge Brian Morris issues latest rebuke to #45 attack on public lands by stating that Interior Department broke federal law when it lifted Obama moratorium on coal mining on public lands.

More than 60 arrested in NYC near City Hall and Brooklyn Bridge in solidarity with the London civil disobedience protests.

State of Washington passes 100% clean electricity.

Woman stages 17-day-long hunger strike to save southern resident orcas from starvation.

Sanders vows to ban fracking, and all new fossil fuel projects.

Maine’s Green New Deal bill first in nation to be backed by AFL-CIO.

Beyond Nuclear rings panic bell against bailouts for dangerously old, embrittled Ohio nuclear reactors.

Majority of people in cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam get around either by bike or mass transit, highlighting U.S. need for better, safer infrastructure like real bike lanes, especially in tunnels and on bridges.

At Extinction Rebellion’s huge People’s Assembly, UK rebels discuss next moves.

Goldman Sachs European headquarters targeted by climate-collapse activists.

N.Y.C. becomes first to cap climate emissions from high rises and other large buildings. If one of world’s largest cities can address fossil pollution in 2019, so can every other city in U.S. and world.

Following Hawaii decision, California, Oregon, N.Y. and Connecticut  weigh banning chlorpyrifos (such as autism causing Dursban and Lorsban) even though the EPA won’t.

Bayer shareholders vote against board over Monsanto Merger.


Peace

Veteran sails for world peace while fighting cancer.

Sanders demands vote to override Trump veto on Yemen.

Going on three weeks, and with thanks from Venezuelan government, activists occupy DC Venezuelan Embassy to protect it from U.S.-supported coup, and illegal eviction.

Russia issues stern warning to U.S. over intent to invade Venezuela.

Adam Smith, Armed Services chair, plots move to kill #45 plan for low-yield nuke.


500,000 people to form human chain along Korean DMZ.

Iran’s parliament approves bill labeling U.S. Army as ‘terrorist organization.’

Majority of Dem presidential candidates announce support for re-entering Iran nuclear agreement.

Palestinians end prison hunger strike after Israeli concessions.

Thousands of Moroccans call for release of jailed activists.

UN to launch global campaign against criminalization of indigenous people.

In switcheroo, Pompeo tells truth: CIA lied, stole and cheated. Duh!

Nordic Countries, listed among the happiest, already have green new deal, and revel in it.

U.S. movement to build national support for Green New Deal starts in Boston, ‘city of revolutions’.

In a non-fictionalizing of Powers' Overstory, human rights outlaws defend ancient California King Range Mattole forest. 

Immigration

FBI arrests leader of armed group stopping migrants at gunpoint in New Mexico.

N.Y. becomes first state to block ICE from making courthouse arrests without judicial warrants.

All 29 families accompanied to border to reunite with their children by Families Belong Together released from Customs and Border Patrol detention.

Colorado mulls expanding driver licenses for undocumented immigrant residents.
 
In rebuke to #45, 50th U.S. community, a Massachusetts high school,  affirms ‘refugees welcome here’ with new resolution.

Labor

Yellow Vests demonstrate in Paris as Notre Dame donations highlight wealth inequality.

Macron offers tax cut to French workers to quell their rage.

Deal to raise wages reached between Stop & Shop and 31,000 striking workers.
  
Domestic

Bowing to grassroots pressure, Warren proposal would wipe out student debt, provide free college for all.

Washington State Senate passes missing and murdered indigenous peoples bill.

Policymakers in California and Washington vie to form nation’s second state-owned bank modeled on Bank of North Dakota.

Vote for Feasibility Study for a public bank of Oakland wins.

Johns Hopkins students in second week of three protesting ICE contracts and policing.

Deutsche Bank begins document turnover for N.Y. probe into #45 business financing.

Sanders trumps #45 Wisconsin rally with “#45 lied to Wisconsin Workers ad. 

New census data shows elector less ‘white’ in 2018 midterm compared to 2016! (no wonder we need to get rid of all those brown immigrants!)

Federal court rules Michigan GOP illegally rigged state and congressional district maps to suppress Democratic votes, ordering lines redrawn for 2020 elections.

Amid fears of federal attack on Roe vs. Wade, conservative state Kansas Supreme Court guarantees abortion rights.

Federal judges in Washington and California block #45 title X abortion rule.

In California, federal court bocks #45 implementation of gag rule.

Philadelphia reformist prosecutor Larry Krasner finally supports letting Mumia Abu-Jamal appeal go forward.

In case brought by Muslim school pathologist, Texas federal court becomes third to strike down pro-Israel oath as unconstitutional. Duh!

Last year, after the #45 administration announced 2020 census would ask all households to record which family members are U.S. citizens, within hours a lawsuit was filed. Eighteen states, 10 cities, four counties, and the U.S. conference of Mayors are suing the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Commerce over the proposed question.

Information about the misconduct record of 85,000 cops nationwide is now available.

In  landmark victory for 1st Amendment, court strikes down Texas anti-BDS law.

Free Press

Australia to hold election rally and meetings in defense of Assange.

NSA recommends ending spying on mass phone call data collection program.

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