Joe Lauria on Mike Gravel running for US president in 2008:

But here was a former United States senator questioning the most fundamental and seemingly unshakeable myths that underpin a brutal status-quo. The central myth, affecting foreign and domestic policy, is that U.S. behavior abroad is driven by an altruistic need to spread democracy and that its vast military machine is defensive in nature. If Americans would be convinced that the opposite is true, the edifice of lies that supports an imperial house of cards could crumble.

Here was someone from the heart of the system vowing to undermine it by declaring–eventually on a debate stage with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden–that Americans’ motives abroad are avaricious and aggressive, its military offensive, and its consequence death and destruction, not democracy.

It is suicidal for a politician to tell American voters that America’s motives are impure, that they are not the “good guys” in the world, and that money that should be spent on them at home is wasted destroying innocent lives abroad.

But that is what Gravel was prepared to do. He told me of his plan to run for president. He knew he had no chance, but was convinced by others to use the run to promote direct democracy and to tear down the deceptions.

…

I soon found myself on the campaign trail with Mike, trudging up the steps of the state capitol in Des Moines, driving through a blizzard at Lake Tahoe after covering the first joint event with the other Democratic candidates and then sitting right behind Michelle Obama and to the right of Sen. Christopher Dodd’s sister at the first Democratic presidential debate in  Orangeburg, South Carolina on April 26, 2007.

Gravel was probably the most talked about candidate after that debate for the things he dared say, such as the war in Iraq “was lost the day George Bush invaded on a fraudulent basis.”

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Bei ihrer Vorstellung bezeichnete sie die Klimakrise als „Ergebnis kapitalistischer Misswirtschaft und Ausbeutung“ und als größte Gerechtigkeitskrise der Welt.

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Rackete: Ich bin grundsätzlich für mehr Demokratie und nicht gegen den Parlamentarismus – im Gegenteil. Ich glaube allerdings, dass unser System an vielen Stellen verbessert werden muss. Der Einfluss von Lobbyismus ist zu stark. Eine normale Person kann nicht so viel erreichen wie etwa ein Porsche-Manager, der beim Finanzminister persönlich anruft. Das ist nicht demokratisch. Ich halte es auch für falsch, dass viele Menschen, die schon lange in Deutschland leben, kein Wahlrecht haben.

SPIEGEL: Die Linke kämpft derzeit um ihr Überleben. Warum hängen Sie sich als Parteilose ausgerechnet an diese Partei?

Rackete: Mir ist es sehr wichtig, dass die Linke die soziale Gerechtigkeit nach vorne stellt. Das gilt auch für das Thema Umwelt. Die Klimakrise ist nicht vom Himmel gefallen, sondern das Resultat von ungleichen Machtverhältnissen. Auch ist es eine essenzielle soziale Frage, wer für klimagerechte Politik zahlt. Es müssen klar die Verursacher der Krise sein, etwa die Konzerne mit fossilen Produkten. Eine starke linke Partei mit einer antikapitalistischen Perspektive ist deswegen unglaublich wichtig. Die SPD könnte diese Rolle übernehmen, doch sie scheitert daran immer wieder.

Guardian:

„We“

„current“ unsettled atmosphere. Because the atmosphere will at some point in the future be settled? 🤔

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U.S. climate envoy John Kerry ruled out paying into a global fund to help poorer nations stricken by the devastating impacts of the climate emergency, saying that “under no circumstances” would the White House consider delivering on reparations.

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) speaks during a hearing before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs at the U.S. Capitol on July 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong | Getty Images News | Getty Images

“Very good, I’m glad to hear you say that,” Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., chairman of the committee, said in response.

Sitting alongside a large placard entitled “What are you committing the United States to?,” Mast then placed a “no” sign next to the corresponding box on climate reparations. “I do have a ‘no,’ I’ll put it up there,” he said.

Kerry, appearing to reaffirm his view on loss and damage payments, added, “Why don’t you create an exclamation point beside it too … ?”

Mast obliged, saying he was glad they both had agreement on the issue. “There you go, there’s your exclamation point,” he said.

San Francisco Chronicle:

Take a recent sampling of coverage of the heat wave in the Southwest. Two reports in the New York Times didn’t mention climate change. (Another did so in passing as one possible line of inquiry). Reports from ABC News and NBC News conspicuously ignored climate change altogether, as did articles in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

One can forgive the average media consumer for being confused by this disconnect between how the media discusses — correctly — the existential nature of the climate crisis in theory, compared to how they discuss this crisis when it manifests as extreme weather. Each day they open a paper or turn on a TV and see increasingly extreme weather conditions that, more often than not, are presented as entirely random or an act of God — divorced from or incidental to the human political and economic decisions that are actually causing them.