Here's how I figure out my day

I show up where I'm needed. Not where someone else is needed, but where I'm needed. I take the parts of me that are most valuable in today's situation, and I contribute them to work that matters. As much as possible, I do so directly and actively, as that feels honest.

I don't show up where I'll waste my own time, set myself back, or exhaust myself to no good purpose.

I believe that the answers are out there. Someone created them. Someone remembers them. I find them, engage them, tweak them, and keep them working for us today.

If I don't know the answer, I find someone who does, and I listen to them or observe their work. If I don't understand what they're saying or doing, I learn their "why." I try to perceive the conditions that enable their choices or restrict them from choosing something else.

I don't let my auto-pilot run too long. I pause to check in — with myself or with others — to verify that I'm walking the right path. I don't have to stick to my routine. Sometimes, I want and need to change. Often, others want and need me to change.

Climate change damage compensation in Australia

Fossil fuel companies created an environmental disaster, and the Aus and WA governments are paying them to clean it up with taxpayer money. Almost HALF the royalties collected from Barrow Island will be paid back to clean up the environmental degradation it’s created, at least $500 million! #auspol

[image or embed]

— The Australia Institute (@australiainstitute.org.au) July 22, 2025 at 9:10 PM

Great write up from Peter Milne: www.boilingcold.com.au/governments-...

[image or embed]

— The Australia Institute (@australiainstitute.org.au) July 22, 2025 at 9:10 PM

“Chevron has transformed Barrow Island from a pristine Class A nature reserve to a contamination site. They are trashing Australia’s environment, and taxpayers are footing the bill.” - Mark Ogge Read our media release: australiainstitute.org.au/post/oil-and...

[image or embed]

— The Australia Institute (@australiainstitute.org.au) July 22, 2025 at 9:10 PM

A climate damage compensation levy on fossil fuel (coal and gas) exports from Australia could raise billions of dollars every year to pay the costs of climate change, without raising prices in Australia. ✍️ Add your name to the call: nb.australiainstitute.org.au/climatedisas...

[image or embed]

— The Australia Institute (@australiainstitute.org.au) July 22, 2025 at 9:10 PM

Israel using AI in Gaza (sources for more info)

Yesterday, July 20, MPower sent out an email: "Tell Bill Gates. Tell Microsoft: No AI for War. No AI for Genocide"

The email provided the following sources:

🔒“How Israel built an ‘AI factory’ for war, use in Gaza,” The Washington Post, Dec. 29, 2024.
“Microsoft says it provided AI to Israeli military for war but denies use to harm people in Gaza,” AP, May 16, 2025.
🔒"Israel's War in Gaza Has Killed Over 17,000 Children. These Are the Stories of 28 of Them," Haaretz, June 26, 2025.
“UN report lists companies complicit in Israel’s ‘genocide’: Who are they?,” Al Jazeera, July 1, 2025.
“U.S. Companies Honed Their Surveillance Tech in Israel. Now It’s Coming Home,” The Intercept, April 30, 2025.
"Microsoft Statement on the Issues Relating to Technology Services in Israel and Gaza," Microsoft, May 15, 2025.
“Microsoft investors prod company over work with Israeli military,” The Seattle Times, July 11, 2025.
“U.S. deportation tracker: Counting arrests, deportations,” NBC News, April 15, 2025.

POTUS intends to disappear U.S. citizens

Trump calls for deporting US citizens: "We also have a lot of bad people that have been here for a long time ... many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here too, if you want to know the truth. So maybe that'll be the next job."

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 1, 2025 at 11:32 AM

Trump on Tuesday threatened to strip U.S. citizens of their nationality and then deport them if they commit certain crimes ― including some who were born in the United States.

“They’re not new to our country. They’re old to our country. Many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here, too, if you want to know the truth,” he said during a visit to a new migrant detention facility. “So maybe that will be the next job that we’ll work on together.”

The comments echo what Trump said in April when speaking of deportations to El Salvador.

“The homegrowns are next,” Trump said during a meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

— Authoritarianism Expert Reveals 'Chilling' Phrase Trump Used During New Threat: Ruth Ben-Ghiat called out the president for threatening to deport U.S. citizens. Ed Mazza, HuffPost, Jul 1, 2025

BREAKING: Documents filed in court today assert that officials from El Salvador told the United Nations that it "facilitated the use of the Salvadoran prison infrastructure" by the U.S. but that "the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the" U.S.

[image or embed]

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 2:54 PM

Normal has been given too wide a berth, one I try to narrow when I discuss history or current events. Normal is often a cover story for wrong. Slavery was normal. Genocide was normal. “White-collar crime”, “collateral damage”, “ethnic cleansing”: normal. Euphemized, euthanized, eulogized.

The concentration camp the Trump administration built in Florida is being marketed as normal. It has a cheeky name and merchandise. Right now, it disgusts many Americans. As concentration camps become more common, they will offend fewer people — and they will be called normal. When this happens, you must remember that normal is not the same as right, no more than law is the same as justice.

— Sarah Kendzior, Guns or Fireworks: America is not its government and normal does not mean right. Jul 07, 2025

Florida is committing "enforced disappearance," a very serious violation of international human rights law. www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i... www.ohchr.org/en/special-p...

[image or embed]

— Adam Isacson (@adamisacson.com) July 13, 2025 at 10:45 AM

Karen Bass: 'They need to leave right now. This is UNACCEPTABLE.'

Federal immigration officers, some on horseback and in armored vehicles, descended on MacArthur Park in Los Angeles this morning as part of what ICE called a “large–scale federal immigration enforcement operation” in a statement to CBS News. ICE also said that CBP led the operation.

[image or embed]

— WIRED (@wired.com) July 7, 2025 at 3:25 PM

This is footage from today in MacArthur Park. Minutes before, there were more than 20 kids playing — then, the MILITARY comes through. The SECOND I heard about this, I went to the park to speak to the person in charge to tell them it needed to end NOW. Absolutely outrageous.

[image or embed]

— Mayor Karen Bass (@mayor.lacity.gov) July 7, 2025 at 4:10 PM

Border patrol walking McArthur park here in LA

[image or embed]

— Mel Buer (@melbuer.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 12:49 PM

MAYOR BASS: “They need to leave right now. This is UNACCEPTABLE.” The mayor showed up as Trump’s Gestapo/ICE marched through MacArthur Park like an invading army. Ridiculous. They left. (h/t FOX LA)

[image or embed]

— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 3:06 PM

REALLY AMERICAN BREAKING: The military and ICE just RAIDED LA's MacArthur Park, with over a hundred soldiers marching through.😳 Mayor Karen Bass immediately showed up, and demanded they leave. They did. No arrests were documented. 👏👏

— Mariah 🇺🇸🦋🇺🇸🦋🇺🇸🦋 (@mariahbrown.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 3:29 PM

This is Macarthur Park in Los Angeles. Republicans have turned the United States in a military police state. I could not even imagine what Fox and Republicans would be saying if Biden or Obama sent the US military to terrorize communities in Texas.

[image or embed]

— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 3:09 PM

NEW: Federal agents rolling into MacArthur Park in LA like they are trying to take Kabul. Absolute madness. As the reporter says here, it’s an unmarked, heavily armored vehicle with armed ‘soldiers’. No-one knows if it’s ICE or National Guard.

[image or embed]

— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 3:21 PM

After Bass spoke with what I assume is a DHS rep, they packed shit up and headed out. The whole neighborhood turned out to chase them out of the park. Some fruit was thrown, alot of yelling

[image or embed]

— Mel Buer (@melbuer.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 1:29 PM

Our taxpayer dollars are going towards paying for white supremacists to cosplay as soldiers in Los Angeles for photo ops that are designed as propaganda for the Trump regime so they can convince their Fox News followers of a lie that the United States is under “invasion” and ICE is their savior.

— 50501 New York (@50501newyork.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 3:42 PM

At least 132 dead in Texas flood. They fired the weather forecasters

Hannah Cloke, a professor of hydrology at the University of Reading in the UK, said the downpour “seems to have been well forecasted by multiple forecasters around the world, several hours in advance” Texas flash flood claims at least 27 lives - on.ft.com/4ewCfKO via @FT

[image or embed]

— Alex (@dralexm.bsky.social) July 5, 2025 at 2:38 PM

Here's a timelapse video showing 30 minutes of flooding (sped up to a few seconds)

Update: 132 dead, at least 160 missing — HuffPost, July 14

Wikipedia: July 2025 Central Texas floods

Rep. Joaquin Castro on Texas floods: "I don't think it's helpful to have missing key personnel from the National Weather Service not in place to help prevent these tragedies."

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 6, 2025 at 8:14 AM

Report Shows How Deadly Texas Floods Were Driven by Human-Induced Climate Crisis "Very exceptional meteorological conditions" preceded the Texas floods, climate scientists have found. Brad Reed, Common Dreams, July 7, 2025

'These Deaths Are on Trump's Hands': Texas Flooding Spotlights Assault on Climate Science "The Trump regime is gutting scientific research into climate and atmospheric science for political reasons, at the very time we need a much better understanding of it," said one environmentalist. "This is so reckless and dangerous." Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, July 7, 2025

Seven Things You Need to Know About the Texas Flash Flood Tragedy, Rachel Cleetus, The Equation, Union of Concerned Scientists, July 7, 2025

Related: Climate data taken down

Climate science involves longer-term data. Climate drives weather. We aren't allowed to have climate science either:

Websites hosting major US climate reports taken down, Seth Borenstein, AP, July 2, 2025

Someone has archived that data here, though: sciop.net

Kristi Noem on Texas floods: "I'm extremely grateful for God's hand in that whole situation, because hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people were saved."

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 8, 2025 at 10:58 AM

The United States government is no longer able to protect us from real hazards, such as flash floods, because it’s shifting funds to fake hazards, such as a non-existent immigrant crime wave. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/05/u...

[image or embed]

— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) July 6, 2025 at 9:23 AM

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/c...

[image or embed]

— Lizzie O'Leary (@lizzieohreally.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 6:58 PM

Trump calls a journalist "evil" for asking about the rescue efforts.

The Trump regime is getting rid of EPA staff

At the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:

Illegal, vindictive & abusive thuggery: EPA puts 139 employees on leave who criticized administration. The staff were put on administrative leave after signing a “declaration of dissent.” subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene... ($) 1/

[image or embed]

— John Walke (@johndwalke.bsky.social) July 3, 2025 at 1:18 PM

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/c... 🧪🐀🐭🐶🐒🦧

[image or embed]

— AlbertaPitbull 🇨🇦 (@albertapitbull.bsky.social) July 3, 2025 at 8:19 PM