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SoCal Gas spent millions on astroturf ops to fight climate rules
ALTToday (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks
It's a breathtaking fraud: SoCal Gas, the largest gas company in America, spent millions secretly paying people to oppose California environmental regulations, then illegally stuck its customers with the bill. We Californians were forced to pay to lobby against our own survival:
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article277266828.html
The criminal scheme is spelled out in eye-watering detail in a superb investigative report by Joe Rubin and Ari Plachta for the Sacramento Bee, which names the law firms and individual lawyers involved in the scam.
Here's the situation: SoCal Gas is California's private, regulated gas monopoly. They are allowed to lobby, but are legally required to charge their lobbying activities to their shareholders, and are prohibited from raising customer rates to pay for lobbying.
The company spent years secretly violating this rule, in the sleaziest way possible: working with corporate cartels like the California Restaurant Association and BizFed, the monopoly paid BigLaw white-shoe firms to procure people who posed as concerned citizens in order to oppose climate regulations that are essential to the state's very survival.
Why Hawaii needs a break from tourism — perspective from local resident palanichang on tiktok
@kaelynn_vp Tiktok Caption: The key to good communication with autistic people is to be direct. You'll always get a better response from us when we actually know what you want.
Ok but this video is less than a minute long & yet it perfectly explains how to communicate with "mysterious, confusing, unknowable" autistic people lol. We ofc have different body language as well, & body language is super important in communication, but this video explains verbal communication so well 💖
Video description: a tiktok video by kaelynn_vp, a white blonde person with bangs and long hair. she draws three simple diagrams on a whiteboard to illustrate direct communication, which she describes verbally as follows:
“How to communicate with autistic people: a step by step guide to being direct.
Step one: Think of the message you want to communicate and then verbalize it. Here's an example. Melissa is exiting the door, she sees that Jay is standing in the way. She thinks of the message she needs to say, she verbalizes it: "Excuse me!" But Jay doesn't move.
After I verbalized my message and it didn't work, I go to step two: ask yourself, what do I really want to say? So she says, "Watch out, I'm trying to come through!"
Alright, step three: after two unsuccessful attempts, ask yourself, what does the person need to do with this information? So back to our example, Melissa finally asks herself, what do I want Jay to do with the information that I am giving him right now? So she says, "Take a few steps back, please." Jay, understanding what she wants him to do, takes a few steps back, allowing her to get through the door.
Direct communication tells someone exactly what they should do with the information that you're giving them. This eliminates the guesswork, hidden intentions, and implications. end description.
“tumblr became bad because of porn ban” “tumblr is bad because of bots” “tumblr is bad because there’s hateful people who post freely” THE AUDIO POST HAS A COPYRIGHT DETECTOR NOW. DOESNT ANYONE REMEMVER WHEN YOU COULD PUT ANY SONG ON HERE AND LISTEN AND SCROLL AND LOVE????????????? STOP SENDING ME TO SPOTIFY APP
even a second spoils the counter that 99% detectors use
There is a tension stewing right now, not simply between differing tactics but with the outright acceptance of the position we are currently in, that of a social war. The third day-long descent on the Atlanta City Council has again hammered home that legalistic attacks and appeals to the political machine are going to keep failing. Despite that being so overwhelmingly evident, the more progressive-inclined elements of the struggle continue to insist upon a peaceful endurance, one that refuses escalation and actual conflict for their safe, faux-radical abolitionism. We have been locked in this social war since the rebellion and the terrain needs to be read as such.
It’s a war that has to be fought on multiple fronts, but this current front, this specific front against the world of police, is in danger of becoming reserved and immobilizing itself, terrified of even approaching lines let alone crossing them. To be clear: We are in a war against the police. They are more than just a political entity with weaponry we can’t imagine, they are a cruel element as deeply embedded in daily life as capital itself. Now with the effort to converge popular momentum toward the voting booth in November, there must be a concentrated antagonism within the movement against political bargaining as an option.
There’s no negotiating with what kills you, there’s only the fight for your life, and the abolitionists are still trying to negotiate. Invoking the riot but afraid to set it off. Toeing the line between caution and cowardice while dressed up in revolutionary’s clothes. None of that was ever going to be sufficient and now it’s time to legitimately ponder the brick.
Considering black reaction to the death of Rayshard Brooks and the George Floyd Rebellion in general being the springboard for the facility’s construction, it should be imperative that, through this struggle, we make possible (and facilitate the assurance of) another black revolt.
This is the point where we must name our stakes and accept their grim reality. To truly stop cop city, that is to say, to truly destroy the ever-expansive world of police, we must confront our own capacity for violence and its implementation. We have to face down fear, talk of cowardice caution, and the outward denial of ceaseless conflict. The world has to come to a halt and we have to refuse all calls for normalcy, lest we resign ourselves to small victories and the inevitable further entrenchment of the police into daily life. That is the war in front of us. The words rang out through city hall and they must not be rendered hollow threats.
So can we recalibrate the struggle against not just Cop City but against the world of police as one where black struggle sits irreducibly at its core, refusing dilution and eventual omission? Is it possible for us to embrace the negativity of the task at hand? To fully contend with death, not as a punishment meted out by the state and its lapdogs, but as the starting point of our struggle against the police and their false social peace? For what is the potential threat of death if not the same carrot we’ve been strung along by during “peace time” especially? Is this really living? Are we not already at death’s door?