Along w/ Biden climate news, some thoughts on solar geoengineering (SG) research under Biden Admin. SG closer to Biden/Democratic politics than Trump/Conservative: science-based, multilateral “green” capitalism. Recent moves indicate SG steadily moving into climate policy: THREAD

US is the world leader in SG research, with most funding from private sources – largely billionaires, wealthy individuals, and their boutique foundations – with ties to Silicon Valley tech firms, venture capital, and Wall Street hedge funds (also major donor bases for Dem Party)

Some philanthropists funding SG research include Bill Gates, Rachel Pritzker (billionaire heir of Pritzker family; Chair of Board at Breakthrough Institute), Chris Sacca/Lower Carbon Capital (billionaire VC, deep ties to Silicon Valley). All representatives of “green” capitalism

Leading centrist think tanks and environmental orgs like EDF and Resources for the Future (RFF), both of which take corporate funding (with RFF taking money from fossil fuel industry, e.g. Aramco, Chevron, Shell) support SG research and promote its inclusion in US climate policy

RFF recently published an SG policy paper by Harvard economists Joseph Aldy (fmr. Special Advisor to Obama for Energy and Environment) and Richard Zeckhauser that advocates SG as merely one prong of “prudent” climate policy:

We made a thread of Biden's first executive actions.

Categories include:
• Coronavirus
• Financial Relief
• Environment
• Human rights
• Immigration
• Regulation
• Ethics

😷Coronavirus:
- Start of his "100 Days Masking Challenge" with Dr. Fauci
- Restructuring the federal government coordination to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Rejoining the WHO

💰Financial Relief:
- Extend eviction and foreclosure moratoriums
- Continue "pause" on student loan payments until September 30

🌳Environment:
- Rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement
- End Keystone XL pipeline and revoke oil and gas development at national wildlife monuments

☮ Human rights:
- Undoing Trump's efforts for a "Patriotic Education"
- Count non-citizens in U.S. Census again
- Strengthen workplace discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity

My prediction: the Biden era will be the inverse of Obama era. Obama was seen as a progressive in the last phase of the Reagan-Clinton era. Biden is a moderate in the beginning of a post-neoliberal era.

He will represent a transition between neoliberal hegemony and new ideas.

1/13
I have watched every presidential inauguration that I can remember, since I was a little boy, and long before I ever imagined I would live in America. But I had never watched one the way I watched the inauguration of Joe Biden. #velshi

2/13
I’d never considered the details leading up to an inauguration. I watched this one like a nervous parent, making sure everything went as planned. #velshi

3/13
Thanks to the last four years, everything is different, now. Our demons are on full display, our Union is certifiably imperfect. Our nation is divided. #velshi

4/13
After a year that takes first place in our history for death, destruction, fear and injustice, normalcy is struggling to regain its place. One thing with which we will struggle in this new day for America is the death of shame. #velshi

5/13
In addition to the other norms the former president destroyed, he turned lying - deliberate, casual and often with the force of law - into an art form and, with that, contributed to the death of shame. #velshi

Did the Biden inauguration really have to start with "This Land Is Your Land," an ode to land theft, settler colonialism and Indigenous genocide? (No matter how well-intentioned Woody Guthrie may have been.) YOU ARE ON NATIVE LAND!

Every presidential inauguration has in effect been a celebration of Indigenous land theft & genocide, whether directly stated or not. Settlers exerting the power of their settler government and "ownership" over Indigenous lands.

At John F. Kennedy's 1961 inauguration, poet Robert Frost began: “The land was ours before we were the land’s…Such as we were we gave ourselves outright (The deed of gift was many deeds of war)." That settler white "We," justifying and erasing genocide, slavery, history.

At Teddy Roosevelt's 1905 inauguration, he had 6 famous
chiefs on horseback to give the people "a good show." The chiefs came hoping to appeal for justice, but instead were displayed to represent what TR & others viewed as the complete subjugation of Indigenous peoples & lands.

The chiefs included Quanah Parker of the Comanche, Buckskin Charlie from the Ute, Hollow Horn Bear and American Horse of the Sioux, Little Plume from the Blackfeet and the imprisoned Apache warrior Geronimo, who pleaded in vain with Teddy Roosevelt for the release of his people.

Joseph R. Biden has just taken the oath of office as the 46th president of the United States.

"This is America's day. This is democracy's day," proclaims @POTUS @JoeBiden in inaugural speech. "At this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed."

"I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real," says @POTUS.

#Twitter hasn't quite figured out this transition of power thing.

Meanwhile, over on @Facebook...

Anyone who thinks I'm hounding Biden on government ethics because I want him to fail or want to play "gotcha" with him is wrong. Let me tell you what you can expect from me and what you *should* expect from him for the next 4 or (hopefully) 8 years. /1

I put my money where my mouth is. I stood up to Trump and, in doing so, destroyed my govt career. In Sept., I quit my job to help Biden unseat Trump and prepare to lead a strong ethical administration. I'm not permitted to tell you what I did, but I went 5 months without pay. /2

Someone asked me once how much I donated, I told them I couldn't tell them how much I gave because I wasn't allowed to say. But I gave up five months of pay and had to pay COBRA, so I'd say that's more than most people gave. I am committed to his success. /3

But he was swept into office on an anticorruption platform, and strong government ethics is the ONLY way he will succeed. So, I -- and, I hope, you -- will hold him accountable for delivering strong government ethics. This is what he owes America. /4

We spent four years demanding that Trump's allies put country over party. They failed to do that. Now it's our turn to live up to our own demands. We must in all things put country over party. And that means demanding strong government ethics -- from the start! /5

Ammo Rant: Things aren’t going to get better. Biden won and the Dems hold all power and that would have sent people flying to the store to get ammo in and of itself. But you have so many more factors than the usual historical shift of power to an anti-gun rights party.