Dom Pates

very funny AND very frustrating

Trump 2.0 seems to = equal many of the worst bits of US history rolled into one.

‘What if we could combine Jim Crow, McCarthyism AND the Japanese-American internment camps, and throw in a little imperial warfarin fo good measure?’

Finished off writing the lyrics to a song today that I first started writing back in 2008.

Some things just don’t come out until they’re ready to do so.

Real talk: if the environment is anything close to what yesterday’s special election implies in November, there need to be people working very hard on a serious agenda for a substantial Democratic majority in both houses of Congress, focused on voting rights, democracy, and court reform.

Solar and Batteries Are Squeezing Out Natural Gas in California The state's power emissions fell 8% last year, even as they rose almost everywhere else.

California seems to be building a massive amount of renewable energy and storage while not building a massive volume of new data centres.

That seems to be having the effect of actual drops in greenhouse gas emissions, particularly as batteries cut deep into gas

Absolutely. The modus operandi for Big Tech in this age does seem to tend towards monopoly, and clearly things like the App Store put them solidly in this camp (mind you, AT&T etc). Interesting to see if the EU legislation against this is going to bend the curve on that.

Apple might be one of the harder ones to wean off than the others. Selling expensive hardware that’s highly functional and looks good is a business model that makes it a bit easier to hold on to ‘Don’t Be Evil’ (even if not their motto) than the adtech stack…

Yikes, the risks of digital fascism levelling up to even worse places…

Very nice!

Well, that song’s gotten under *someone’s* very thin skin!

The changing assets of capitalism that get repurposed for nefarious reasons when things take a fascist turn. Thinking too of the use of IBM punch cards for ‘processing’ during WWII as well…

Warehouse repurposed as concentration camp. Horrific…

Well, my goodness - just about to crash out for the day and I learned a new thing before I did. Excellent!

Surely it would be a tentacle race? 😂

Did (briefly) wonder

Can’t believe they released the Epstein files to cover up for the Melania movie.

This song by Springsteen is the very incarnation of what Lennon was trying to do with ‘Instant Karma’ - make songs like newspapers. Only Lennon didn’t have the Internet in 1970.

Those are presumably the appropriate ends of a spectrum of responses that must be deployed when this is all finally over (given that all things must pass), rather than ‘the bad people are not in power any more, so we don’t need to hold them accountable’.

It’s pretty remarkable when the *actual* economics of BAU vs the transition are laid out as they are that the transition doesn’t happen faster. But then you counter that fact with the immutable force of vested interests, and here we are.

Kinda simple, when you put it like that.

Kinda misses that fact that trillions (which presumably come from tax revenue) is actually spent on subsidising fossil fuels anyway. Like, literally burning massive piles of cash!

The new govt of The Netherlands presented its coalition agreement with some ambitious tech policies. Here are some of the highlights 📡

🌍 Strong focus on building digital sovereignty
🎚️Map and stresstest dependence on foreign tech, and transition to European alternatives; share of best practices

The Climate Dreams Project: dreams of a global crisis

I dreamed of a tsunami. Close up.

First one in a few years.

If you have dreams of climate crisis etc you can add them here (site by @whatashrinkthinks.com)

climatedreams.com

He just degenerates in full public view with every single utterance. Frankly I’m baffled why anyone lets him anywhere near a microphone.

It’s the same thing as all the WH toadies, right? Petrified of saying no to the king…

Tomorrow is the first lecture of the second iteration of our interdisciplinary module on sustainability and climate change. So, here we go again.

This year, we have students from 4 schools, meaning a 40% growth in the cohort. Super excited to be doing it again and hoping that it all works out!

Lol, absolutely yes to all that. It’s very easy to see this one boiling down to ‘the Zack vs Nigel show’, which - if we’ve collectively written off a 2029 victory for the incumbents - seems how things are likely to play out over the next couple of years anyway.

Given the fairly recent Plaid successes in Wales that were all puffed up as going Reform too, this by-election will be another interesting test case of the extent to which an anti-Reform vote is likely to coalesce.

It's ecological breakdown that should put us on a war-footing: official Admissions of extreme, eco-caused national security threats foreground importance of climate adaptation to bring much needed urgency and agency.

NEW: "This is a report which, unlike predecessors, can’t be waved away as ‘overstatement’ from ‘usual suspects’..."

I co-wrote this with @carolinelucas.bsky.social to help you understand the implications of the Government’s suppressed security assessment:

www.resilience.org/stories/2026...

UK PEOPLE: this is REALLY IMPORTANT. If the government bans under-16s from using VPNs, then logically they must intend to REQUIRE AGE VERIFICATION FOR ALL VPN USE. Which will affect adults too!

*Your* right to anonymous web browsing is at risk!

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/754408