News bits: The one-way ratchet to dictatorship moves a notch; COP28 final global warming communique

The NYT reports about what looks to me to be another notch toward some form of an American radical right, kleptocratic autocracy-plutocracy-Christotheocracy dictatorship:

House Set to Approve Biden Impeachment Inquiry 

as It Hunts for an Offense

Republicans are pushing forward with a formal investigation even though their yearlong scrutiny of the president and his family has turned up no proof of high crimes or misdemeanors

G.O.P. leaders refrained for months from calling a vote to open an impeachment inquiry, given the reservations of mainstream Republicans, many of them from politically competitive districts, about moving forward without proof that Mr. Biden did anything wrong. But the political ground has shifted considerably, and most of them are now willing to do so, emphasizing that they are not yet ready to charge the president.

“Voting in favor of an impeachment inquiry does not equal impeachment,” Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the No. 3 House Republican, said at a news conference on Tuesday. “We will continue to follow the facts wherever they lead, and if they uncover evidence of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors, then and only then will the next steps towards impeachment proceedings be considered.”  

Using their subpoena power, Republicans have obtained more than 36,000 pages of bank records; 2,000 pages of suspicious activity reports from the Treasury Department; and dozens of hours of testimony from two of Hunter Biden’s business partners, a senior official from the National Archives and Records Administration, seven federal agents and three U.S. attorneys.

“Republicans’ yearlong fishing expedition has uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden,” said Representative Dan Goldman, Democrat of New York.

At present, the House seems to be set to vote on impeachment tonight. Note the incoherence of Emmer who claims voting to start a formal inquiry is just following the evidence. So far, the evidence says there is no reason for an impeachment. This is how people rationalize the irrational. To me, this exemplifies what I see as a one-way inching of American politics toward some form of deeply corrupt dictatorship.

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Good news! The COP28 meeting wound up with an actual modern day miracle. The final Communique included a modest call to phase out fossil fuels. The pro-pollution oil, coal and gas sectors had fought tooth, claw and poison dagger for decades to keep the phrase “fossil fuel(s)” out of the messaging. Apparently the urgency of the situation finally overwhelmed the polluter’s sophisticated, ruthless propaganda, lies, slanders, money, dirty tricks and threats. The WaPo reports:

Nearly 200 countries struck a breakthrough climate agreement Wednesday, calling for a transition away from fossil fuels in an unprecedented deal that targets the greatest contributors to the planet’s warming. The deal came swiftly — with no discussion or objection — in a packed room in Dubai following two weeks of negotiations and rising contention. It is the first time a global climate deal has specifically called to curb the use of fossil fuels.

Countries agreed to transition from fossil fuels “in a just, orderly and equitable manner” while “accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science.”

Sultan Al Jaber, the filthy rich rabidly pro-pollution chief executive of 

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., is the president of COP28

He tried, but couldn’t keep fossil fuels out of it