Our worst nightmares have come true. These monsters are real.
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At a dinner for Big Oil executives last year, Donald Trump promised to give the fossil fuel industry anything it wanted in exchange for $1 billion toward his re-election effort. The dinner was organized by Harold Hamm.
The fossil fuel industry went on to donate $96 million directly to Trump’s campaign; spend $80 million on political advertising; and pour God-knows-how-much cash into dark money groups that don’t have to reveal their donors. Most of the fundraisers were organized by Harold Hamm.
After the election, Trump quickly nominated North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to lead the Department of Interior, which oversees fossil fuel development on federal lands and waters. Burgum is close personal friends with Harold Hamm.
Trump went on to nominate fracking executive and climate denier Chris Wright to lead the Department of Energy, which oversees energy policy and research. Wright was hand-selected for the position by Harold Hamm.
While most na
... Show more...Our worst nightmares have come true. These monsters are real.
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At a dinner for Big Oil executives last year, Donald Trump promised to give the fossil fuel industry anything it wanted in exchange for $1 billion toward his re-election effort. The dinner was organized by Harold Hamm.
The fossil fuel industry went on to donate $96 million directly to Trump’s campaign; spend $80 million on political advertising; and pour God-knows-how-much cash into dark money groups that don’t have to reveal their donors. Most of the fundraisers were organized by Harold Hamm.
After the election, Trump quickly nominated North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to lead the Department of Interior, which oversees fossil fuel development on federal lands and waters. Burgum is close personal friends with Harold Hamm.
Trump went on to nominate fracking executive and climate denier Chris Wright to lead the Department of Energy, which oversees energy policy and research. Wright was hand-selected for the position by Harold Hamm.
While most national media has understandably fixated on Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal bureaucracy, another billionaire’s influence on the Trump administration has slid by largely unnoticed. Hamm, the founder and executive chairman of fracking company Continental Resources, has been instrumental in driving Trump’s full-speed campaign to deregulate the fossil fuel industry.
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FULL ARTICLE -- heated.world/p/you-already-kno…
#USA #USpol #Politics #Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange
The billionaire oil tycoon's fingerprints are all over Trump's high-speed push to crush environmental regulation and renewables.
Emily Atkin (HEATED)
myrmepropagandist
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Sensitive content
This is why people jumping the turn styles in the subway gets so much press ... and no one asks "why are there people so broke they feel the need to do that?" and "why isn't pubic transportation (free per use) for everyone?"
I guess it's just easier to resent those who are similar to ourselves than the people who live with wealth that isn't easy to even comprehend.
Photo Ewen 📷 reshared this.
Lew Perin
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Sensitive content
Sure, it would be great if public transport were gratis.
But if you think the vast majority of people who enter the subway without paying are poor, come to the High St station and take a look. Even rich European tourists have gotten the message that only suckers pay.
myrmepropagandist
Unknown parent • • •Sensitive content
@0x5021
Given the way things are going it could be either SS around here jeeeeez.
I am so sick of these clowns and every person lacking the will to tell them "no" when they overstep their bounds.
I really hope I don't have to leave this country. I like it here generally.
Peter Kisner ≈
Unknown parent • • •Sensitive content
@garbados
I also heard this suggested.
The whole thing is dismaying on many levels. But two technical aspects keep bothering me:
1) When people "move fast and break things" without understanding why things are the way they currently are. Even ridiculous sounding line items cited as waste, even if they are accurate, was there originally a valid rationale for them?
2) When institutional knowledge is lost, it's going to be a long time recovering.
Charlie Stross
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Sensitive content
The "people 150 years old" meme is bullshit.
Social Security in the US runs on mainframes using code written in COBOL going back to the late 1950s. It predates the idea of undefined data in a database! So they picked an arbitrary date in the past—1875—to mean "undefined" (nobody that old was then claiming SS).
Dilbert Stark's teenage minions may know how to program in Rust or Javascript but are just plain ignorant about anything older than their parents.
chris@strafpla.net
in reply to Charlie Stross • • •Sensitive content
This mistake shows that these people are deep in Dunning Kruger territory and that Musk is a con without any idea of information technology.
Rince reshared this.
myrmepropagandist
in reply to chris@strafpla.net • • •Sensitive content
@chris @cstross
He might well know it's and error and keep repeating it anyway. Anything to stoke resentment for social security as they would love to liquidate the entire program. In theory this should be a "political third rail" but this isn't a philosophy that asks permission or assumes anything is off limits.
I really hope they don't manage to gut the state teacher pensions. I'll be PISSED if they do. I just got mine corrected and it was very annoying.
Photo Ewen 📷
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •The great appeal of deciding that anyone else receiving welfare must be undeserving is to convince one self that our own success is based on merit alone.
We hate to admit that we were born lucky, let alone that we live in a society that helped us become successful.
myrmepropagandist
Unknown parent • • •@ShiitakeToast
It's easy and tempting for all of us to believe what we WANT to be true is true when someone tell us the thing that we always suspected.
I try to remember this and not do it when I can but it's frustrating when there are so many people who just don't really like the other people who are basically in the same boat as all of us.
chris@strafpla.net
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Sensitive content
> Why are some people so foolish to hate an (imaginary) ordinary person for having a little?
Maybe it’s a try at a counterspell?