Re: Princeton

Political appeasement.   

"We, the leaders of the movement to protect Thacker Pass, support the movement to pressure universities, pension funds, charitable foundations, and government bodies to divest from the fossil fuel industry. As people who live and work in Nevada, the driest state in the country, we see the impacts of global warming every day."

Above is first paragraph in a letter sent to Princeton by the folks at "Stop Thacker Pass"

Another exerpt from the same letter to Princeton:

"Thacker Pass is a sacred site that has been occupied by Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone people since time immemorial. The mine threatens a massacre site where at least 31 Paiute men, women, children, and elders were killed by the U.S. Army in a surprise attack on Sept. 12, 1865. Native activists have said destroying this place is like “like putting a lithium mine on Arlington cemetery” and have been fighting to protect the site with public comments, protests, lawsuits, and more.

This is just the beginning. There are more than 15,000 lithium mining claims in Nevada. Our region is set to become a sacrifice zone for wealthy people to be able to drive cars “guilt-free.” But there is no such thing as “guilt-free” cars. A consumeristic society cannot save the planet, no matter what is under the hood of its cars."

An open letter from Indigenous leaders on Princeton’s holdings in lithium mining - The Princetonian (dailyprincetonian.com)

I would call the reader's attention to my previous comment about the "American labor leader" who was the source of the "New Evidence" presented by the plaintiff attorneys in the case now before Judge Du. 

The source of that "New Evidence" was the 1929 autobiography of "Big Bill" Haywood.  Familiarize yourself with the life and times of Mr. Haywood and you will see why I question the veracity of Mr. Haywood about anything that he wrote in his 1929 autobiography.

The short version:  Bill Haywood | American labour leader | Britannica

The long version: Bill Haywood - Wikipedia

Hawood was sentenced to prison for 20 years in 2018, but in 2021 he fled to Russia and left a millionaire supporter of him holding the bag for his bond.  He never returned to the U.S.

If Mr. Haywood's association with IWW doesn't ring a bell with you then perhaps you might refresh your memory about the activities of the IWW:

Industrial Workers of the World - Wikipedia

The "Wobblies" Motto was: "An injury to one is an injury to all" and they helped cause their fair share of injuries.

" In particular, the IWW was organized because of the belief among many unionists, socialists, anarchists, Marxists, and radicals that the AFL not only had failed to effectively organize the U.S. working class, but it was causing separation rather than unity within groups of workers by organizing according to narrow craft principles."

Haywood wrote in “The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood” that the “story of the massacre of the Piute (sic) Indians at Thacker Pass” was first told to him by Jim Sackett, “one of the volunteers who took part in the killing” and Ox Sam, “a Piute (sic) who made his escape, one of the only three survivors.”

The source of the paragraph preceding this one an article linked below:

Tribes: New evidence proves massacre was at Nevada mine site | News | cherokeephoenix.org

Will Falk, one of the attorney's in the litigation before Judge Du, has some interesting views about the car culture:

"And, if you don’t care about the land, about greater sage grouse, vaquita porpoises, or golden eagles, then know this: human children are forced to work and die in the mines necessary for the cars “we” need.

No, this is not an attempt to make you feel guilty about driving a car. If you’re not a corporation or government, it’s not your fault corporations and the government worked so hard for the last 100 years to create human populations dependent on car travel. You don’t need to feel guilty about that. But you do have a responsibility to work to dismantle car culture, to protect the rest of the natural world who are your better friends than the people who insist we need cars despite the destruction they cause everyone else. Don’t feel guilty for driving a car; act to build a world where the destruction cars, mines, and the automobile manufacturing industry cause is no longer possible."

Who is “we”? | Protect Thacker Pass

And what is Max Wilbert's view about the car culture:

"In practice, renewable energy technologies seem to be largely serving as a profitable investment for the wealthy, a way to funnel public money into private hands, and a distraction from the scale of the ecological problems we face (of which global warming is far from the worst) and the scale of solutions which are needed"

"In our book *Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It*, my co-authors and I call this “solving for the wrong variable.” We write: “Our way of life [industrial modernity] doesn’t need to be saved. The planet needs to be saved from our way of life.."

"If collapse is coming regardless of what we want, it’s our moral and ecological responsibility to make the best of the situation by assisting and accelerating the positive aspects of collapse (for example, by working to reduce consumption and dismantle oil infrastructure) and help prevent or mitigate the negative aspects (for example, by working to reduce population growth and build localized sustainable food systems)."

"There is a fundamental contradiction between industrial civilization and ecology, and the organic tensions created by this contradiction are rising. These are dire and revolutionary times, and it is our responsibility to navigate them."

Wilbert's quotes come from: A Debate on Collapse: Noam Chomsky, Max Wilbert, and Miguel Fuentes (dgrnewsservice.org)

One article that gets to the core of Wilbert's radicalization has a quote in it that should not be forgotten by anyone coming in contact with one of Mr. Wilbert's initiatives:

"True solutions undermine the ability of industrial civilization to continue its destruction. A longtime military maxim has been that victory requires removing the ability or will of the enemy to continue their fight. This is a situation of planetary self-defense. All options are on the table, from revolutionary law-making to strategic non-violence to coordinated sabotage of industrial infrastructure."

Coordinated sabotage of industrial infrastructure?   Does that no rip back the veneer of "environmental activism" in a way that opens your eyes to what maybe next, regardless of what Judge Du decides... or maybe because of what Judge Du will decide?

These two fellows, Falk and Wilbert, are not your everyday average crack pots.  They have gone way, way beyond the crack pot stage.

See if the article linked below doesn't awken you from your stupor and destroy any feeling you might have that these are just a couple of misguided fellows that really don't mean any harm to anyone:

The Everyday Violence of Modern Culture (filmsforaction.org)

Princeton folded to pressure. 

Just sayin'...

Okiedo