News bits: Climate change update; Israel's toxic version of America's toxic Federalist Society

The WaPo reports on another update from climate experts:

Human activities have transformed the planet at a pace and scale unmatched in recorded history, causing irreversible damage to communities and ecosystems, according to one of the most definitive reports ever published about climate change. Leading scientists warned that the world’s plans to combat these changes are inadequate and that more aggressive actions must be taken to avert catastrophic warming.

The report released Monday from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found the world is likely to miss its most ambitious climate target — limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial temperatures — within a decade. Beyond that threshold, scientists have found, climate disasters will become so extreme people cannot adapt. Basic components of the Earth system will be fundamentally, irrevocably altered. Heat waves, famines and infectious diseases could claim millions of additional lives by century’s end.  

Decades of delay have denied the world any hope of an easy and gradual transition to a more sustainable economy, the panel says. Now, only “deep, rapid and … immediate” efforts across all aspects of society — combined with still-unproven technologies to pull carbon from the atmosphere — will be able to stave off catastrophe.

At this point, it's reasonable to think that the human species probably cannot proact effectively. In the US, the radical right Republican Party remains firmly opposed to doing anything and firmly committed to fighting coordinated federal and commercial efforts to even try. In that case, we will react only after disasters hit, or we won't react much and just let species go extinct and people die or live disrupted lives.

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Israel's democracy is on the verge of falling to some form of a a corrupt authoritarian theocratic fascism. Democracy there could fall within months. The NYT writes about Kohelet, a powerful secretive society that, like America's Federalist Society, quietly operates to replace democracy with corrupt, bigoted, racist fascist theocracy/autocracy/plutocracy:

Who’s Behind the Judicial Overhaul Now Dividing Israel? Two New Yorkers

Kohelet, the once-obscure think tank that conceived and now champions a revamped court system, is an American import

As part of a recent “national day of resistance,” a group of army reservists wearing masks converged at the Jerusalem office of a think tank and blocked its front door with sandbags and coils of barbed wire. Outside, protesters led a noisy rally on the street, waving dozens of placards and sharing a microphone for a series of furious speeches.

“The Kohelet Policy Forum has been hiding in the shadows,” shouted one speaker, standing atop a car. “But we are onto them and we will not let them win!”

For years, Kohelet quietly churned out position papers, trying to nudge government policy in a more libertarian direction. Then, starting in January, it became more widely known as one of the principal architects of the judicial overhaul proposal that has plunged Israel into a crisis over the future of its democracy. 

If the plan succeeds, it would be a stunning victory not only for the think tank, but also for the people behind it: two guys from Queens.

Like America's radical anti-democracy, authoritarian Federalist Society, Kohelet works to hide as much about itself as possible, at least regarding money. The NYT points out that Kohelet is not required to disclose the names of individual donors. For years the group "has artfully deflected questions about funding." One source of money is New Yorker Arthur Dantchik, a 65-year-old multibillionaire. 

Not surprisingly, Dantchik refused to comment for the NYT article. All modern authoritarians working to overthrow democracy and install dictatorship and/or radical authoritarian theocracy, like the Federalist Society and Kohelet are expert at the KYMS tactic in the face of inconvenient questions. The anti-democracy forces of the world are watching each other. Under the right circumstances, they adopt tactics that might work to overcome local pro-democracy, pro-secular and anti-bigotry/racist opposition, while avoiding the ones that probably would not work under local circumstances.

KYMS = keep your mouth shut

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Lunacy on cable TV: Yesterday on her weekly MSNBC program, Rachael Maddow discussed the impending Georgia law that gives power to state legislators to simply remove prosecutors from investigations that they don't like. Short of establishing a full-blown American dictatorship-theocracy, that is about as anti-democracy and anti-rule of law as the political situation in America can get.

The Georgia law has passed the legislature and the governor has said he supports it. So, this authoritarian (fascist IMO) law will be in effect soon. The point of radical right Republicans in passing this law is to protect Trump from prosecution for his illegal attempts to commit mass election fraud in Georgia after the 2020 election. The lead prosecutor there is Fulton County district attorney Fanni Willis, a black woman.

Oddly and inexplicably, one of Maddow's guest commentators, a Georgia prosecutor characterized the pending law not as authoritarian or fascist, but as racist because Willis is a black woman. Maybe I'm way off base here, but that allegation of racism instead of fascism struck me as shockingly stupid and about as counterproductive as possible. I understand that racism very likely is involved in what the radical right in Georgia is trying to do to the rule of law in Georgia. But by citing racism as his basis for opposing the law, Rachael's idiot guest hands the radical right an excuse to accuse him of racism. That fool gave the radical right a perfect foil to deflect from the fact that the fascist Republican Party in Georgia is going to gut the rule of law in that state.  

Given how idiotic and damaging the guest's racism comments were, is reasonable to believe that Maddow's guest intended to sabotage the story while appearing to be on the side of democracy.

Raw Story commented on the Maddow broadcast:

Currently, Georgia lawmakers are working to fast-track legislation that would remove any prosecutors that they don't like. It's a target on Fulton County Fani Willis, who is close to indicting Donald Trump for his attempt to overthrow the Georgia election. Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) has pledged to sign it. At the same time that Trump is facing charges, the Georgia lieutenant governor is facing potential charges in the same investigation, Maddow said.

"So Republicans will have the power to remove prosecutors in the middle of their investigations and in the middle of prosecuting any particular case Republicans might not like for any reason," explained Maddow. "And to be clear, this has now passed the Georgia legislature as of tonight. A version of the bill passed the state Senate, and the House just passed it tonight. And the Republican governor there says he will sign it. He's a strong supporter of this. So, they're doing it. ...."

Maddow said about Trump being indicted or withdrawing, "Maybe he will, maybe he won't. None of us know. But in the one place where he is under criminal investigation, and his party is in full control of the state government, they've just decided for the first time in the state's history, that it is within their own power to remove prosecutors in the middle of their duties on their own say so. And, yes, this is a story about Georgia, and yes, this is a story about Trump and the potential charges he's facing. But this is a whole new step for us as a country."

If that isn't some form of fascism,** maybe neo-fascism or maybe American fascism or Christofascism, what is it? Girl Scouts singing kumbaya around the camp fire?

** For several months, I've refrained from calling what the radical right is doing fascism because it is soooo naughty and pejorative that the label is counterproductive. Maybe so, but what the dictator-plutocrat-Christian theocrat radical right is doing in Georgia is clearly some form of fascism. In my firm opinion, democracy has fallen in Georgia. It is now a single party state ruled by radical elites, not the rule of law. I am just calling what is obviously and undeniably a spade, a spade.