The Cathedral of the World

Even though I’m not a Democrat, it was fun to watch how much Bernie Sanders’ message appealed to the audience in his Fox News Town Hall appearance. He kicked ass, actually. Though I’m not fully on the Bernie train, he says all the right things. But I’ve been clear in my personal pledge to be a climate voter in 2020. I won’t vote even for Bernie, unless he brings the ecological emergency to the front of his priorities. I’m still pretty sure the Jay Inslee ride is a better all around route for the Democrats. At this point, I’d vote for Inslee. But that’s not my choice anymore, unless the Democrats pay attention to him.

Speaking of being a Climate Voter in 2020, I can’t make anything up that doesn’t already exist. I’ve been using the phrase Climate Voter in 2020 for a month now, and just thought of typing it into Google. Of course, I found the website “Be A Climate Voter”. Sounds cool to me, but the website doesn’t make it easy to find out what they mean by that phrase. For me, being a climate voter means voting only for candidates who put the ecological crisis at the forefront of their priorities. Check them out!

https://beaclimatevoter.org/

More news of the day, viewed from the side:

Extinction Rebellion tries to bring London to a halt. This is the third day of ongoing protests in London. It’s not reported much in the US, but Fox had a headline on their website.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/climate-change-protest-london-glue-dlr-train

But from the side, it looks like we care more about the past burning down than we do about the future. The millions pour in to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral, which is fine with me. I would have liked to have seen it. I’m glad the art was saved. But we seem to care more about an old church burning down than we do about the burning living world we all exist in. From the side, that bothers me a little. Perhaps Apple Incorporated could promise to help rebuild the world cathedral that surrounds us all.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/17/tech/apple-notre-dame-donation/index.html

Maybe this is why the Catholic church needs donations to rebuild Notre Dame.

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-archdiocese-sex-abuse-settlement-20190416-story.html

From the side, it seems odd to not tax churches the same as all other organizations. Why are churches tax-free when the rest of us have to pay? This is an established tradition that really should be re-examined. I don’t think the phrase “freedom of religion” means that all religious organizations should get off scot free. (Looking up this phrase on a whim I find this: “’Skat’ is a Scandinavian word for tax or payment and the word migrated to Britain and mutated into ‘scot’ as the name of a redistributive taxation, levied as early the 10th century as a form of municipal poor relief.
‘Scot’ as a term for tax has been used since then in various forms – Church scot, Rome scot, Soul scot and so on. Whatever the tax, the phrase ‘getting off scot free’ simply refers to not paying one’s taxes.” )

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/scot-free.html

Fact Checking Jay Inslee. I wouldn’t want to let him off scot free, either.

I’ve been supporting Inslee because he is the only candidate to put environmental concerns first and foremost in his campaign. This is a reminder, I hope, to him and to all of us writing and talking about the environmental crisis to speak carefully and accurately. This seems a simple and not egregious misstatement on Inslee’s part. A sign of an honest politician is when they correct themselves. It will be interesting to see if Inslee continues to misstate this particular fact, or corrects himself. He’s still the only American politician to put climate first.

This is what passes for climate crisis news in the USA. My god! This is the attitude about world-wide ecological breakdown as conveyed by New York Times. As if we could run away from climate disaster by moving to Duluth. As if the millions of people in Bangladesh who will be displaced by sea level rise can move to a nice new city. In fact, the mass migrations that are already being triggered by climate change (link) are a growing humanitarian crisis, not a subject for amusing speculation about how rich folks can stay comfortable. Displacements will grow far worse if business continues as usual. This is beyond irresponsible journalism. This kind of media coverage is part of the reason people in America don’t take the climate crisis seriously. It minimizes the reality, while our planet is being destroyed around us. Click the link to see how seriously NYT takes climate.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/climate/climate-migration-duluth.html

Last and probably least for today, it’s good to see a challenge to the Trump machine from the right. Bill Weld, who once ran as a Libertarian candidate for vice-president and was governor of Massachusetts, announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination. He’s the first to announce a run against Trump in the Republican primary. Among the issues that Weld attacks Trump on, CNN reports, “Weld also slammed Trump’s attitude toward climate change .”

When conservatives (whatever their party label) begin to see that the environmental crisis is real, America will have a chance to change. Kudos to Weld for raising this issue, and for being sensible enough to see that the climate science is no hoax, and that the coming climate crisis will harm us all, Republicans, Democrats, and those of us in the independent majority alike.

From the side, though, it doesn’t look like any fire fighters, from the Republicans or the Democrats, are likely to come along in time to put out the fire that is burning down the cathedral of the world.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/15/politics/bill-weld-2020-trump/index.html