Dizzying pace of Biden’s climate action sounds death knell for era of denialism

Date: 31‑01‑2021

Source: The Guardian

For a landmark moment in the global effort to stave off catastrophic climate change, Joe Biden’s “climate day” at the White House was rather low‑key. The US president bumped elbows with his newly appointed climate tsar, John Kerry, who he called his “best buddy”, then gave a short speech before perfunctorily signing a small stack of executive orders, donning his mask and striding out without taking any questions.

The vision laid out in the actions signed by Biden on Wednesday, however, was transformative. A pathway for oil and gas drilling to be banned from public lands. A third of America’s land and ocean protected. The government ditching the combustion engine from its entire vehicle fleet, offering up a future where battery‑powered trucks deliver America’s mail and electric tanks are operated by the US military.

Can Digital Disinformation Be Disarmed?

Date: 31‑01‑2021

Source: Project Syndicate by Kelly Born

Kelly Born is Executive Director of Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center.

 With its growing impact on real‑world events, online disinformation is not a problem that any society can afford to ignore. But because the problem touches on such a wide range of policy issues, economic sectors, and fundamental democratic principles, it will not be solved with just one policy or approach.

STANFORD – The storming of the US Capitol on January 6 imbued longstanding concerns about digital disinformation with a new sense of urgency, because it showed just how easily online engagement can lead to offline action. It didn’t take long to reach this point. Digital disinformation first entered public consciousness with the Brexit campaign in the United Kingdom and Donald Trump’s election as US president. And yet, as the Capitol insurrection showed, the overall disinformation landscape of the last few years differs notably from that in 2016.

While foreign adversaries, bots, and fake accounts have dominated the dialogue about disinformation since 2016, over the last year, domestic influencers – real people with authenticated identities – have taken over. The narratives that were promoted also differed, with the coronavirus pandemic taking center stage. As a result, the scope of disinformation went global.

The Antipope of Mar-a-Lago

Politico, 29/1

What a medieval religious schism can teach us about Donald Trump’s unprecedented and radically antagonistic approach to the ex-presidency.

Illustration by Jason Seiler

By MICHAEL KRUSE

01/29/2021 04:30 AM EST

Michael Kruse is a senior staff writer at POLITICO and POLITICO Magazine.

he ousted leader refused to relent to reality.

Set against a backdrop of avarice and inequality and persistent sickness, distrust and misrule, the leader exploited and exacerbated societal unrest to seize and flaunt vast power—doing anything and everything he could to try to keep it in his grip. He resisted pleas for unity and calm. He tested the loyalty of even his most ardent and important establishment supporters. He was censured and then toppled. Still, though, he declined to consider even the smallest acquiescence. Besieged and increasingly isolated, he faded as he aged—but he never yielded. Some people believed he had no less than the blessing of God.

Read the article: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/29/trump-antipope-president-mar-a-lago-463238