Dousing the Dumpster Fire

The real mobilization must begin.

Author

Brad Johnson
November 06, 2024

PRESENTED BY TEN TRILLION THINGS

There are important briefings later today on what to do next, listed at the bottom of this email. Make sure to also RSVP for Hill Heat’s election debrief, CLIMATE CONSEQUENCES, on Friday.

Thirty years ago, the United States welcomed an illegal immigrant from apartheid South Africa; with the support of public institutions, federal subsidies, government contracts, and a free society, that man became the richest human in the world.1

At that pinnacle of worldly success, he unmasked himself as a neo-Nazi white supremacist dedicated to dismantling liberal democracy in favor of lifeboat ethics, fueling bigotry, conspiracy theories, and xenophobia as the answer to public dissatisfaction with the system which created oligarchs like himself at the expense of the habitability of the planet. Now Elon Musk’s bet on Donald Trump’s re-election has come off, and the United States is about enter an era of ecofascist rule.

The man who bought the presidency

“And yes, it turns out that conservative billionaires owning basically all mass media and social media is a big problem,” Dave Karpf comments. “Wish we could have a redo on that one.”

Rebecca Solnit shares these important words on keeping the faith:

They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving.  You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is.

You can be heartbroken or furious or both at once; you can scream in your car or on a cliff; you can also get up tomorrow and water the flowerpots and call someone who's upset and check your equipment for going onward. A lot of us are going to come under direct attack, and a lot of us are going to resist by building solidarity and sanctuary. Gather up your resources, the metaphysical ones that are heart and soul and care, as well as the practical ones.

People kept the faith in the dictatorships of South America in the 1970s and 1980s, in the East Bloc countries and the USSR, women are protesting right now in Iran and people there are writing poetry. There is no alternative to persevering, and that does not require you to feel good. You can keep walking whether it's sunny or raining. Take care of yourself and remember that taking care of something else is an important part of taking care of yourself, because you are interwoven with the ten trillion things in this single garment of destiny that has been stained and torn, but is still being woven and mended and washed.

“This will get very bad for a great many people, and many of the effects will be locked in for decades,” Karpf concludes. “But it won’t last forever. There will come a time when we can rebuild.”

Needed a longer walk in the woods today. Beautiful autumn colours and buzzing with birds. This chaffinch was kind enough to sit still.

Although Trumpist Republicans are storming back to power in the White House and Senate, voters also strongly backed worker protections like minimum wage increases and sick leave and restoration of abortion rights. Many climate initiatives succeeded as well—tune in to Climate Cabinet’s debrief today and Hill Heat’s debrief on Friday for more.

Meanwhile, the world the fossil-fueled American empire created continues apace: At least five people died in flash floods across Missouri. A married couple, on their way to volunteer as poll workers, were among those drowned. Hurricane Rafael is rapidly intensifying as it closes in on Cuba as a Category 3 monster. Every state except Alaska and Kentucky is facing drought. Santa Ana winds raging in Southern California are hitting hurricane speeds, prompting weather officials to describe the fire danger as “EXTREME.”

And please, remember the first rule of fighting fascism: Be kind to yourself and to each other.

Climate Action Today:

Climate Action Thursday:

Climate Action Friday:

Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word. If you’ve got job listings, event listings, or other hot news, I want to hear it. Connect with me—@[email protected], @climatebrad on Threads, and @climatebrad.hillheat.com on BlueSky.

say what you want about the corrosive effects of social media, we live in a golden age of doomscrolling. any time in history before 20 years ago that you wanted an alternative way to express your dark thoughts, you were stuck writing it in a diary or scrawling a lewd joke on the side of the taverna

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1  He was only able to accumulate that much wealth and power because of the neoliberal dismantling by both parties over the last 45 years of the checks on oligarchy established after the collapse of the robber baron era, which ended in a global depression, world wars, and holocaust.

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