Yeah, everyone discourages them, even us. Just only use them for that one thing that only they can really do to save Ukrainian lives.
When a cluster munition bursts over a trench system, (or any other really rugged terrain for that matter) some of the smaller submunitions inevitably fall into the trench, significantly reducing its effectiveness as cover from the bombardment. This capability of sudden, wide-area impact cannot be easily replicated.
There aren’t many good “counters” for dug-in infantry. This is one of them, that’s all. It saves Ukrainian lives today. Though if any accidentally unexploded submunitions are not cleaned up with great care, it can come at the cost of innocent Ukrainian lives tomorrow. That’s the only issue.
Good. Stopping people from doing their jobs or inconveniencing the public aren’t how you should protest. You deserved to be locked up for doing that. If you don’t like something, you advertise and get the word around so you can eventually get it fixed going through the correct systems.
Ah yes, I remember the civil rights movement where black Americans just politely asked politicians to please give them rights. And the gay rights movement where nobody was arrested. And the protests in Hong Kong which were very peaceful. And the non-provocative Tiennaman Square protest. And the protests for women’s rights against the Taliban where no laws are being broken
Pretty common point of view unfortunately - like the people in the US who think they should be able to run over (liberal only of course) protestors if they block a street.
Amongst the little mice fighting for crumbs under the table were the fatcats divide the cake, a few, having grabbed slightly larger crumbs, proudly raise them above their heads and shout: “See?! The System works!!!”
There is no “eventually” regarding climate, the time for civility was decades ago and we’re out of time. Remember oil companies have their own research divisions and knew all of this before the public, it is a crime against humanity and the public has to hold them accountable somehow.
Actually, Mandela did protest apartheid using the system. After all, he was a lawyer. But after decades of that didn’t work, he and the ANC decided that violence was appropriate against an opponent that did not view them as fully human.
To be fair, a shocking number of people don’t actually know that he and the ANC did eventually adopt guerrila warfare/terrorism for a time to achieve their ends. I blame the kid-gloves treatment that most discussion of apartheid gets, usually to kids, and the fact that it usually never gets mentioned again to adults.
If you don’t inconvenience others in your protest, your protest is just masturbation, ie pointless.
People like you will be hilariously blaming the environmentalists and not the capitalists when water ceases to come out of your tap from the capitalist’s fine work.
With that logic, people like you deserve to be punished for being complacent with negligent homicide and property damage. My country is being wracked with extreme weather events and my countrymen are now inconvenienced with rising costs of and lack of water supply due to lowering water levels due to the extreme heat because of climate change, and guess what? Lots of people dying to heat stroke, because of the high humidity levels. There is a limit to the temperature people can survive with those humidity levels. People like you only care about convenience, even though hundreds of millions of people will suffer or even die from it because people like you DON’T CARE, and you only will when you complain about the incoming climate refugee crisis. Someday it will be so hot out that poor people won’t be able to protest outside, and the rich people ever more out of touch with reality because they’ll never get out of their air-conditioned houses.
It’s all for publicity. You should post the videos where the police are being all nice and chatting her up and taking selfies with her before carrying her away at the last protest. News outlets only posted the videos of her being carried away. Other outlets leaked the before images of her posing for pictures and smiles with the cops. It’s all bullshit.
Because it highlights it internationally and brings more attention than if they didn’t. Attacking/protesting the corporations which are most responsible for the situation we’re in has shifted public consciousness to understanding.
“We blocked the port in order to stop the use of fossil fuels that are killing innocent people,” she said. “The real crimes continue inside the gate of the port. We are not going to sit and wait while the fossil fuel industry takes our dreams away from us.” Asked if she’s worried about the consequences of the trial, she replied: “I personally am more worried about the horrible harm the fossil fuel industry is doing to the world.” “I’m not going to stop while they are threatening the planet.”
Much of the oil and gas industry says that continued production is necessary in order to meet global energy demands. Cutting oil and gas production would be “dangerous and irresponsible”, the head of energy company Shell told BBC News. The International Energy Agency has said that there can be no new investments in oil, gas and coal now if governments are serious about the climate crisis. UN chief António Guterres recently said investment in new oil and gas production was “economic and moral madness”. This week the world experienced its hottest day on record on Tuesday, topping 17C for the first time.
Our world burns and people suffer so that oil companies can turn a profit. The few are making decisions that will have disasterous effects on the many in the not too distant future.
As long as people are buying gas for their cars and flying planes around the world, oil companies will need to exist.
It’s so strange to me how people will protest oil companies, then go fill up their tank at the gas station. Or fly across the globe for their vacations.
For most Americans, there is no alternative for a car. The tram lines we used 60 years ago were bought and torn up by car manufacturers. We need grocery stores within walking distance, and transit lines to useful places before people will give up their cars.
One relatively recent and quite expensive alternative would be electric cars. But I don’t really see that as a real, permanent solution, for that you would need a good railway/tram system, which sadly isn’t all that common all around the world
I have grocery stores within walking distance, but even taking a dolly it’s a hell of a lot of work carrying back a bunch of groceries. Plus the way the roads are constructed I risk my life every time I cross the street. Young and fit people should walk to the store but it’s not practical for everyone.
That makes sense. I feel like probably NYC is constructed better in terms of walkability and public transportation. I live in semi-suburban Denver. There are 7-8 small grocery stores and 2 wholesale food warehouses about a mile from my house, primarily Asian and Central American markets, which is a lot, so it’s feasible for me to walk. 3-4 liquor stores, a couple weed shops and a few convenience stores. For many other areas of the city it wouldn’t be as reasonable to live without a car, though probably one could take the bus or light rail. The problem is just walking to a bus stop is about half a mile so it wouldn’t help that much. I could use an Uber or Lyft, but it would be expensive unless I just went to the store once every 2 weeks.
I’m reasonably fit, in my 40s, but things like “I’ll carry back 4 12 packs of Diet Pepsi from the store for my girlfriend” leaves me feeling pretty worn out. Taking a dolly or cart helps but I’m the only person around here I ever see doing that… not that I mind. I suppose I could do grocery delivery.
Grocery delivery is a good stop gap, but you’d need all the various grocery stores to be on board. Municipal and state governments could literally subsidize the costs of maintenance and fueling delivery vehicles to incentivize this method, and even offer rebates for customers who participate, but nah that’s all too hard and will eat at the bottom line so let the world burn I guess.
Asked if she’s worried about the consequences of the trial, she replied: “I personally am more worried about the horrible harm the fossil fuel industry is doing to the world.” “I’m not going to stop while they are threatening the planet.”
This. This is activism. I’m not brave enough to face a justice system hostile to my existence like she does, so I’m glad she’s there to do it.
Right? Really, tho. I sincerely hope she was coached by somebody and not left in the dark to figure out how to be a figurehead of a movement and lightning rod for abuse all on her own. That’d be kinda fucked up.
She’s been literally protesting for eco solutions since she was like 12 or something. While some kids were busy jerking off to Harry Potter, she found her outlet in becoming an activist and leading one of the largest movements in climate change protests, becoming an inspiration millions of children just like her. I’ve seen the Friday walk-out protests in Europe, and the attendance was always huge and the people involved were very passionate about the cause.
I know people have a hard time understanding that, but that’s why they jerk off to Harry Potter instead. It’s all they got.
I feel like you guys don’t understand how the laws work in sweden, you can’t just pick and choose who you charge (I expect that it’s like that in any non-corrupt country)
Even in relatively corruption-free countries, there are often shadow mechanisms the governments uses to decide who they charge with a crime.
Prosecutors can just say they don’t have a case, or they can fumble the case purposefully in the initial stages to give credence to the “no case” idea.
We don’t have to look any further than how police charge themselves to see how the laws don’t fairly apply to everyone. And a simple google search will reveal that Sweden is not immune to police corruption, which shouldn’t surprise anyone.
“Disobeying police orders”, which is what Thunberg was charged with, is one of those catch-all laws that are purposefully vague in a way that allows police total discretion over how to enforce it.
I guarantee in this case that calls were made all the way up the top of the Swedish government before police decided what to do here.
Basically, my point is that there are so many strings to pull, even in developed countries, that it’s often possible to suss out the motivations of the administration just by examining how charges proceed.
What this says about Thunberg getting charged for her actions? Probably nothing significant. Sweden cannot allow activists to freely disrupt their economic infrastructure, especially those involving energy. So they charge her as “normal” regardless of her celebrity status. Though they will be very careful to do everything by the book with so many eyes on the case.
You talking about the same government that allowed two different people to burn the Quran, one Infront of the Turkish embassy, while being blocked by turkey to join Nato? I don’t think you guys understand, sure there is corruption in Swedish politics, but if any of them tried to influence the rule of law? They’d be unbelievably fucked
I wish you were right. Look at Bulgaria. A year of peaceful protest, and the ones who were supposed to save us from the corrupt government made a coalition with them and thus rehabilitated the mafia government. I hope that I get proven wrong, and Kennedy is correct, but only time will tell.
Though I wish this were true it is not. Romanian authorities, specifically Ramona Bolla of DIICOT confirmed that the tweet had nothing to do with locating him.
I don’t think that is necessarily relevant. Romania didn’t seem to be in a hurry to arrest him until she made the post. I think the more relevant thing she did was to embarrass Romania into action.
You suggesting that Romanian authorities rely on tweets of some social media celebrity to arrest another one is not that different from Top scumbag himself suggesting he can bribe his way to stay away from prison in Romania. Both are pretty insulting to Romania.
Granted, yours isn’t as bad, yet you should still reconsider your position.
Oh no! The horror! These Fossil Fuel companies are out there making fuel out of the goodness of their hearts, and these people come in and just sit there blocking them?
She’s charged basically for not leaving a the premises when told by police, she’ll likely receive a fine.
She’ll be alright and will get a chance to argue in court, a new platform one might even argue. I don’t think this is anything to get rallied up or worried about, civil disobedience works sometimes
And this isn’t the first time. A lot of climate activists (and I assume Greta included) love these non-compliance fines, since it’s basically advertising for them
Human activity and wealth flows like water: through the path of least resistance. You can’t affect change unless and until it is easier not to use oil than it is to use it.
The purpose and function of the police and the courts is the protection of capital from the people. Some cases illustrate this more clearly than others. This is one of them.
Laws are threats made by the dominant socioeconomic-ethnic group in a given nation. It’s just the promise of violence that’s enacted and the police are basically an occupying army. You know what I mean?
Turns out that in their demands on Sweden to change the way they apply the law when it comes to PKK demonstations, what Turkey is doing wrong is making it a quid pro quo for approving NATO membership rather than just helping the Swedish upper classes get richer.
Clearly freedom of speech CAN be traded in Sweden, as long as its for cold hard cash.
I could demonstrate to you That every single bank robbery That in every single case practically The cost of the police was more than The actual money that the robbers took from the bank Does that mean, 'Oh, you see There’s really no economic interest involved, then They’re not protecting the banks The police are just doing this ‘cause they’re on a A power trip or they’re macho, or they’re control freaks That’s why they do it’ No, of course, it’s an economic… Of course, they’re defending the banks Of course, because if they didn’t stop that bank robbery Regardless of the cost, this could jeopardize The entire banking system You see, there are people who believe That the function of the police Is to fight crime, and that’s not true The function of the police is social control And protection of property…
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