A Transparent Enviro Show

Greetings Earthlings. Longtime listeners already know we're not hiding much of anything on this show but we DO have a big problem with the lack of transparency on Beacon Hill (you know: "The place where legislation goes to die"?).  Matt Miller, Co-Founder of Act on Mass joins us to talk about "A serious lack of transparency on Beacon Hill means you usually don’t know how your representatives voted . It means you can go to a hearing to support legislation but then watch helplessly while the committee kills that bill without any reason given." and more. Act on Mass is a rapidly growing campaign that seeks to undo the seemingly endless lack of transparency in our state government, something we've been going on about here seemingly forever. As always, we will bring you along to visit this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and to witness His Malignancy The Mad King and his lunatic enablers as they rampage through government and the planet. We'll also remind anyone who has not been listening that "It's the Climate crisis, Stupid!" but first it's time for.......Revenge of the Critters! Be thankful you didn't suffer from a TURKEY ATTACK this year?

This week's Fool-on-the-Hill Tommy Tuberville, the incoming Repugnican senator from Alabama, didn’t seem to learn much about World War II while in school or from his father who actually was there. Intelligencer reports: Tuberville's father was "an American G.I. who landed on Normandy Beach in D-Day and drove a tank across western Europe, earning five bronze stars and a Purple Heart at the Battle of the Bulge during his deployment." Maybe Tommy was estranged from his dad and they seldom spoke?
Tuberville did not seem familiar with the politics of the European theater: In his speech, the new senator described how his father took part in “liberating Paris from socialism and communism.” [insert hysterical laughter here]

Speaking of fascists, His Malignancy The Mad King has appointed two white nationalists to government  since losing the election. HuffPo reports: "Darren J. Beattie, a former White House speechwriter fired in 2018 after it was revealed he’d spoken at a white nationalist conference, announced Wednesday that Trump had appointed him to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. [!] On Nov. 13, [His Malignancy] also appointed Jason Richwine — a policy analyst pushed out of a conservative think tank for writing that Mexican and other Latino immigrants have lower IQs than white people — to a senior position at the National Institute of Standards and Technology." Not to be outdone by small time racist nazis, The Mad King's U.S. Forest Service "in its waning days, has embarked on a rushed effort to transfer ownership of Arizona’s Oak Flat to a mining company with ties to the destruction of an Aboriginal site in Australia, the Guardian has learned." And, of course, this: "The Arctic is the latest victim of the outgoing president’s post-defeat tantrum, as the Trump administration takes steps to advance oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. [Last] Tuesday, the Bureau of Land Management’s Alaska office [was] set to publish request for nominations on the refuge’s coastal plain, letting fossil fuel companies suggest which pieces of the protected land should be auctioned off for extraction."  Presumably the winner of our recent election will reverse all this in spite of his friendliness with the fossil fools? Why not ask! Let's close with this obvious observation in the New York Times: "A succession of Trump policies reflected the administration’s spite and heartlessness." In others words: Classic Fascism.

Just in case you've been off planet for the last five or six decades it's time to point out "It's the Climate crisis, Stupid!" With that in mind, it looks like our old arch nemesis, Will Nukem is out there pimping for fake "climate action" in this locally produced video . We know about his tricks and so does Deb Katz one of our favorite nukebusters and sometime guest on this show. And this in case you missed it, this from Inside Climate News: "President-elect Joe Biden affirmed climate change as a top priority on Monday, selecting former Secretary of State John Kerry to serve as a special envoy for climate, and giving him a seat on the National Security Council. Kerry, who served 28 years in the U.S. Senate before becoming secretary of state under President Barack Obama, was in France five years ago helping negotiate  the landmark Paris climate accord. Now his task will be not only to bring the United States back into that deal but to lead a push for more ambitious commitments to cut carbon emissions worldwide, as Biden has said he hopes to do."  

After our conversation with Matt it's off to the Bus Stop Billboard: 

Tuesday Decemberb 15, 4 to 5:30pm.  Saying Yes to Wildlands & Woodlands.  How can New England best protect its forests as the region sits at the precipice of climate change, biodiversity loss, development, and forest fragmentation? The answer to this question often falls in one of two camps: either conserve forests as working lands that provide timber and other forest products, or protect them as wildlands without timber harvesting. In this critical and timely discussion, two region-wide conservation organizations who approach forest protection from seemingly opposite ends of the spectrum will show how the strategies of protecting wildlands (forests largely left in a natural and undisturbed condition) and woodlands (forests managed to provide wood products) are not in conflict, but can in fact be complementary. Zoom registration HERE. 

Wednesday December 9 10:00am–12:30pm. AG Healey's Virtual Teach-in on Energy Markets. Meant to help electricity users like you better understand the role of ISO New England, and how decisions are made about the markets today and in the future as we transition to affordable clean energy. To learn more, check out our new informational video, which includes a link to register for the event.  Registration is free and open to all. 

Wednesday, December 9, 7-8:45 pm. Pioneer Valley Citizen's Climate Lobby Monthly Meeting  
Where: By Zoom, click here for link.  Contact lorasandhusen@gmail.com, peterthunfors@hotmail.com; adonson@umass.edu, or markdhart56@gmail.com. 

Wednesday, December 16, 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm. “Protecting the Mystic River Watershed from Climate Change”.  Mystic River Watershed Association (MyWRA), facilitates outstanding research, citizen science, and regional collaboration to protect and restore the Mystic, mitigate climate change, and protect people and places in the watershed by Boston from the negative consequences of climate change. Register here!  

Monday December 28, 7 to 9pm. Monthly Climate Action Now! Gathering. We’ve been have wonderful virtual gatherings via ZOOM during the time of COVID closure. Look out for zoom registration details before the next meeting in our newsletter or on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/ClimateActionNowMA 

That is all.......for now. Please remember to listen to your Mother.