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Vaska Raeca

@vaskaraeca.bsky.social
172 followers 126 following 2.9K posts

He/Him Technical Writer Professional Doomscroller Fan Of A Certain Spectre Haunting Europe

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Unconscionable decision by the Northern Ireland High Court and Parade Commission. I hope everyone who approved this is haunted by the screams of the Quinn children for the rest of their lives.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Amazing long read of a small group of determined scientists and volunteers trying to maintain the bison population in Ukraine despite a desperate lack of funds and while also dodging Russian drones. #environment #ukraine
biographic.com
Saving Bison as Bombs Fall | bioGraphic
Amid the destruction of war, Ukrainian conservationists remain determined to help a European bison herd persevere.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I'm not found of the proliferation of drones but corporations don't deserve a right to privacy. Furthermore the language agribusiness is using to attack monitoring is the same they used in the 1990s when they accused animal welfare groups of being terrorist organizations. #environment
theintercept.com
FAA Investigates Drone Pilot Who Films Animal Abusers
The cattle ranch at the center of the case asked the FAA for strict drone regulations, saying legal flyovers threatened “food security.”
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
That federal, state, and local agencies were happily installing police-linked video cameras to spy on people while simultaneously dismantling sensors meant to ensure the air we breathe is safe is a dark illustration of where power and profit lie in this nation. #environment
floodlightnews.org
America’s air monitors are disappearing. So is your power to expose polluters.
Across several states, a quiet chemical industry campaign is making it harder to hold polluters accountable.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Clean water has to be a human right and there's a long, grim history of nations and empires that ignored that collapsing. I'm sure that if Kurt Engelhardt was forced to drink lead or PFAS contaminated water, he would quickly change his tune and maybe someone should look into that idk. #environment
motherjones.com
You don't have a right to safe drinking water, US court rules
A Trump-appointed judge also said Americans have no “constitutional right to truthful information” during a public health crisis.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"...a program called “PlastiVan” that travels from city to city teaching students about “the contribution plastics make to modern life." is something you expect in an Armando Iannucci movie, not something permitted in a functional nation suffering the poisonous effects of microplastics. #environment
grist.org
When plastic companies write the lesson plans
The plastics industry is offering schools curricula that cast plastics as safe, recyclable, and a source of good jobs.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
These regulations were one of the very few successes that got past the Republican controlled Senate which addressed the staggering mortality rate in Cancer Alley. Now even these modest protections are under threat of being undone at the behest of chemical companies. #environment
e360.yale.edu
A Hard-Won Rule to Cut Chemical Plant Pollution Is Being Unraveled
In 2024, the Biden administration enacted wide-ranging regulations to protect communities near petrochemical plants from air toxics. The Trump administration has since granted exemptions to scores of…
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
If you ever want to feel angry, look for testimonies by Palestinians who tried to help a relative or loved one across the Israeli wall and how the IDF allowed them to bleed out, or fatally sicken, and die in the ambulance. There are thousands of these incidents stretching back decades. #israel
newlinesmag.com
The Patients Israel Won't Let Leave Gaza
For many Palestinians in the territory, survival depends on a chain of administrative decisions over which they have no control
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
You might think Israeli politicians wouldn't target dissidents for harassment, lawsuits, and threats of having their citizenship removed they echo the lead-up to the 1935 Nuremberg Laws but hey time is a flat circle. #israel
theguardian.com
Israeli minister threatens to strip Israeli film-makers of citizenship over Gaza documentary NAZA
Miki Zohar accuses Oscar-winning directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor of ‘treason against the state’
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Climate change doesn't only manifest in the bleaching of coral reefs, it is a fundamental, verging on catastrophic change to where ocean species can survive and reproduce. While a few species will thrive, many risk devastating population loss and possible extinction. #environment
grist.org
Gray whales are starving as the Arctic warms. Will the US protect them?
The population on the West Coast has plunged by half, and environmental groups might sue the Trump administration for ignoring their plight.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Possibly the most succinct example of Christian Fascism (and how fascism is the endpoint of capitalism) where the environment and public health are sacrificed for corporate interests while the rights of women are stripped away and their lives monitored. #environment
motherjones.com
The EPA would rather monitor abortion pills in water than pollution
The agency is easing climate rules for power plants while testing water for mifepristone.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I see we've reached the holy relics stage of the failed war. #ukraine
theguardian.com
Orthodox church sends medieval prince’s remains to Russian troops in Ukraine
Part of Dmitry Donskoy’s right hand sent to ‘spiritually strengthen’ soldiers
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I'm bemused how Saudi Arabia's war of choice with Yemen of America's war of choice with Iran will both backfire spectacularly with their opposition consolidating political power and geographic control of Arabia's two vital water routes.
foreignpolicy.com
The Bab el-Mandeb Problem
Houthi control of a Red Sea port brings Tehran closer to claiming another critical waterway.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
There is absolutely no need to listen to claims from people who are working at the brain cooking factory.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
It's amazing how much CSAM has been essentially normalized as something the public must accept as part of being online rather than something that would have the company dismantled and the executives in prison for decades long stretches.
arstechnica.com
“This is the AI men actually use”: Meta ads pushed apps nudifying real teens
Meta dragged its feet removing ads that nudify young girls' Instagram pics.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
These influencers need to be slapped in prison for a decade to stop this dangerous, exploitative behavior. This entire class needs to start experiencing harsh consequences for trying to turn our lives into content.
theguardian.com
‘This is colonialism for clicks’: the influencers attempting to meet and film the world’s most isolated tribes
A new breed of adventurer is chasing internet fame by targeting uncontacted peoples. Critics say they are risking the wellbeing of these remote communities – and their own lives
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
When this administration is finally overthrown there needs to be not just a full reversal of every vile piece of discriminatory ruling, law, and regulation, but punishment meted out against every religious organization that sought to remove rights from queer people. #LGBTQ
theintercept.com
Christian Employers Can Now Discriminate Against Trans People
A settlement with the Christian Employers Alliance blocks the EEOC from ever investigating the group’s members for gender identity discrimination.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Considering that Bluesky admins have a documented history of punishing transgender accounts for speaking out against bigotry on this site, this reeks of a new method deleting those accounts entirely.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
It's refreshing to see a news outlet take a principled stand on this issue, especially when many of the larger organizations like the NYT, WaPo, and Atlantic are publishing virulent transphobia.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
To their credit MapQuest also didn't change 'Gulf of Mexico' which has made it, along with Here Wego and OpenStreetMap, as an excellent alternative to the big three which have enabled Trump's Caligulian-phase.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Ben-Gvir, the defense minister, out there making sure Israel isn't beating the Nazi comparisons. And no, don't come at me about it being out of context, when someone says, "They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people." that's the same things the Nazis said and wrote down. #israel
apnews.com
Israel's Ben-Gvir advocates killing '30 to 40' people in Gaza nightly while speaking to ex-hostage
An extremist official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet has advocated for killing “30 to 40” people in Gaza each night.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Israel has claimed that these incidents are either unintended or meant to deny cover for resistance fighters. The reality is that this is an arson campaign designed to make southern Lebanon unlivable, burning away forest and agriculture so the area can be made a free fire zone. #israel
theguardian.com
Israel deliberately starting wildfires in southern Lebanon, firefighters say
Emergency services, residents and environmental groups say military dropping flares to destroy forests and crops
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Amazingly researched article that examines Israeli's missile strikes in Lebanon are done without any concern for civilian deaths and often seem to be done to effect maximum physical damage. Also telling is how Christian deaths get apologies from Israeli spokesmen while Arabs are ignored. #israel
newlinesmag.com
Israel Called Its Beirut Strikes Precise. We Reconstructed Five of Them
New Lines investigates attacks in and around Lebanon’s capital, from a single destroyed room to flattened residential buildings, testing Israeli claims about distinguishing targets from civilians
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Lobbyists for Weyerhaeuser and IKEA bribed the Greenhouse Gas Protocol to submit new standards that claim that cutting down trees helps the climate, something in complete contradiction to every scientific paper published. #environment
source-material.org
Lobbyists push for declaration that felling trees helps the climate
The timber industry’s influence over forest carbon accounting rules risks derailing global carbon calculations, scientists warn.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
The industry lobbyists whispering in Trump's ear want to go back to devastating clear-cutting and destroy the already delicate eco-system at a time when global warming is making huge fires more common and deadly. #environment
reuters.com
Trump administration moves to rescind rule that protects millions of forest acres
The Trump administration took a step ‌toward rescinding a decades-old rule that protects undeveloped forests on Tuesday in a move it says will help manage wildfire risk, but which environmental groups...
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
The USS Benfold was launched in 1993 and was retired from the Indo-Pacific, after a decade of service, last year but shoved back out because the corrupt procurement process has meant a Navy with decaying ships and systems that will fail the first time their is blue water combat.
cnn.com
US Navy destroyer spent four days without power last month in South China Sea | CNN
A US Navy guided-missile destroyer spent four days last month without working toilets, galley services and air conditioning in the blistering heat of the South China Sea after the warship lost power.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
For some inexplicable reason I've found myself humming the theme to the old movie "Condorman" the last few days.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
This idea that AI* can do research because it can handle data is a recycled from 2012-2013 when tech companies claimed their software solutions could crunch information to a degree that it negated the need for researchers in numerous scientific fields.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
An excellent snapshot of the different ways Trump's illegal war on Iran has negatively affected people across the globe, pushing many into the margins and those already in trouble into poverty without an exit.
apnews.com
Across the world, the Iran war is reshaping everyday life
People share stories of spiking gas prices, goodbyes filled with fear, livelihoods pushed closer to the edge — and days that no longer looked the way they once did.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Bolsonaro's four years brought devastation to the already precarious ecosystem of the rainforest that will take decades of determined fighting and enforcement to repair. The soldiers on the front lines deserve all the support they need as well as recognition for their bravery. #environment
theguardian.com
‘It’s total devastation’: inside the Amazonian war against illegal gold mining
The Guardian goes on the ground with Brazilian forces fighting to eradicate mining that has destroyed protected areas of Indigenous land
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Although this will be likely overturned after another expensive court battle with activists, the companies that push for the exploit the land need to be seized, dismantled, and destroyed. No nation can long survive when corporations are so easily able to corruptly purchase public land. #environment
insideclimatenews.org
Trump Again Shrinks Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, This Time by Much More - Inside Climate News
Two executive orders signed Monday afternoon slashed the size of the Utah national monuments revered by tribes and public lands advocates. Grazing, mining and drilling interests wanted them opened to…
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
After spending decades becoming addicted the cheap Russian gas, Europeans are adopting wood pellets with disastrous consequences for the people in communities surrounding the processing plants, and for the land as clear-cutting is being brought back into widespread use. #environment
veritenews.org
Europe gets ‘green energy’. These Southern towns get dirty air.
In Louisiana and Mississippi, people living near wood-pellet mills say they’re getting sick because of air pollution.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Survivors will someday marvel at the willfully blind self-destruction of the United States; where an LNG terminal is being built in a state already suffering from the rising sea level, so it can emit, and export, even more greenhouse gases, accelerating its own demise. #environment
grist.org
The most polluting LNG project in the US is being built in Louisiana
The sprawling facility near Lake Charles is expected to produce more emissions than any other LNG export terminal in the country.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Even the most right-wing communities are facing-up to the fact that wind and solar projects are less expensive and take less time to install than it does to stand-up a gas-powdered plant. Combine that with the squeeze from datacenters and its become a crisis that cannot be wished away. #environment
insideclimatenews.org
Trump Administration Abandons Fight Against Wind Energy as Clean Energy Output Surges - Inside Climate News
The clean energy sector is showing resilience despite challenges thrown at it by a hostile White House, a recent report found. A string of legal victories has further dampened the Trump…
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Always glad to see Trump lose in court but it would be nice if these judges would, for once, order reinstatement of these programs and set a timeline since failing to do so allows the administration to drag its feet for months, if not years, until the program is effectively dead anyway. #environment
motherjones.com
Judge says EPA illegally canceled a $2.8 billion environmental justice program
But he didn't order the agency to reinstate it.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
It's depressing that it took the immense loss of life of the 2004 Tsunami to make communities and governments understand the vital importance of mangrove forests to not only absorbing storm surge but also stabilizing coastal lines and making them resistant to erosion. #environment
bbc.com
Mangrove forests are healing after decades of human destruction
Swampy mangrove forests are staging a surprise comeback - which is good news for coastal communities and the climate.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Even as pork producers are shifting away from cruel crate raising, major meat producers want to roll back safety and health protections and ban other states from instituting them. Glenn William Thompson (PA) is trying to shove agribusiness rules on behalf of his donors. #environment
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
The determination of the Florida Republican party to halt building renewable energy systems or resilient infrastructure, even as the state faces rising seas and increasingly violent hurricanes due to climate change, is civilization suicide for the benefit of the one-percent. #environment
insideclimatenews.org
New Florida Law Bans Local Net-Zero Emissions Policies - Inside Climate News
Gov. Ron DeSantis characterized the clean energy goals the law bans as “radical climate policies,” although experts say the law will not necessarily upend the plans.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
The Mexican federal government has effectively abandoned people living outside the major cities, allowing cartels to capture businesses and territory. This reaches into everything, including the destruction of sensitive forests to grow more avocados to feed the American market. #environment
newlinesmag.com
The Butterfly Effect of Mexico’s Cartel Violence
Monarch butterflies are adored by locals in Michoacan, but pressure from drug gangs is putting the delicate insects in the crosshairs of illegal logging and avocado farming
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
The Bureau of Land Management already sells out public land to ranchers for pennies, allowing them to degrade the environment out taxpayer expense. Facing push back, the Trump administration wants to completely close off public input so it can accelerate selling leases. #environment
propublica.org
The First Major Overhaul of Public Lands Grazing Regulations in a Generation Looks to Cut Out Public Involvement
For the first time since 1995, the Bureau of Land Management is rewriting its grazing regulations. The new rule, which governs ranching across 155 million acres of public lands in the West, would…
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Climate activists have been fighting in ExxonMobil in court to force them to reveal how much they knew about climate change and when. In response the company hired a public relations firm, DCI Group, which hired hackers to attack the activists and gather information for blackmail. #environment
grist.org
They wanted to hold Exxon accountable. Then they got hacked.
A decade after climate activists' emails were breached, a court case is shedding new light on who allegedly orchestrated the hacking.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Microsoft does one good thing for the year in making the comic chat application open source which was special for Jim Woodring's artwork. If you're old enough to remember this, and Jerkcity, make sure take your calcium tonight.
opensource.microsoft.com
Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source | Microsoft Open Source Blog
Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source. Explore the IRC client that turned conversations into comics and helped introduce Comic Sans to the world.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
"...publishers did not retreat from print. Instead they leaned into what the digital world couldn’t replicate: the tactile pleasure of a beautiful object, a cohesive world of recipes and stories, and the trust that comes from careful testing and editing."
tastecooking.com
Why the Cookbook Endures
Not too long ago, the physical cookbook seemed to be heading toward the same fate as the compact disc. What happened was just the opposite.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Really love niche books like these, and kudos to the cover designer who fought to get a translucent paper cover for the book so the hardcover image looks like a mirage.
Photograph of a book with the title, "The Waterless Sea: A Curious History of Mirages" written by Christopher Pinney. The protective book cover is a semi-translucent material that makes the illustrated cover of people riding on camels in a desert resemble a mirage.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
The Supreme Court made its ruling against the defendants today based on the EPA's finding while deliberately ignoring how the agency was fully compromised by Monsanto; insane corruption at all levels. #environment
motherjones.com
The EPA relied on an influential glyphosate study even after learning Monsanto was a “ghost writer”
A newly revealed government memo identifies yet another compromised paper used to justify Roundup’s safety.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Well, I still have a terrible time sleeping but at least I'm now culturally educated on my insomnia!
Photograph of a book with the title, "Insomnia: A Cultural History" written by Eluned Summers-Bremner. The cover shows the side of a house, at night, with lights on inside.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Yes, I know that Jacobin publishes at least one phenomenally stupid article each month in its magazine but its still worth a subscription. And the "Class War" game it put out a year ago, besides being a treat to play, has the good sense to poke fun at itself.
Photograph of the board game, "Class War: The Jacobin Board Game" which shows various anthropomorphic animals shading pink on one side, representing the working class, and other animals shaded in blue representing the bourgeois.Photograph of two cards from the Jacobin board game, "Class War". One card shows anthropomorphic animals in a sitting room filled with books labeled "Political Education Group" with flavor text, "This is what working-class struggle is all about, reading Jacobin with strangers twice a month" The other card is labeled "Canvass" with flavor text, "If we can't organize slam poets, podcasters, and MSNBC pundits, we can't organize America!"Photograph of cards from the Jacobin board game, "Class War" with labels for Anti-Corruption, Jobs Program, Wealth Tax, Nationalization, and Free Health Care which are opposed by cards with labels for Stop Voter Fraud, Welfare Reform, Deregulation, Tax Breaks, and Outlaw Strikes.Photographs of cards from the Jacobin "Class War" board game. One is labeled 'Steve Amphibannon' (Get it?) with flavor text, 'I had just hopped out of the pool when it hit me: Let's reboot 'blood and soil', but for a new generation.' The other card is labeled 'Manager' with flavor text, 'Health Insurance? no we won't be offering that. But employee wellness seminars are mandatory.'
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Similar to Paolo Fanciulli's project of sinking statues off the Italian coast, the Marine Conservation Cambodia and the Cambodian government have started a project of depositing thousands of concrete pillars on the seafloor to stop trawling and which have already shown results. #environment
oceanographicmagazine.com
Concrete towers on the seabed scupper Cambodia's illegal trawling - Oceanographic
Marine Conservation Cambodia has deployed 1,250 structures across southern Cambodia's coastal waters, deterring illegal bottom trawling.
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Although False Killer Whales are common, the distinct group around Hawaii has been suffering a population collapse that might be a warning for the entire species. Coral bleaching due to climate warming is reducing fish populations while commercial fishing is decimating what's left. #environment
nautil.us
Hawaii’s False Killer Whales Are Wasting Away
Hawaii’s False Killer Whales Are Wasting Away: Nutritional stress depresses an already threatened population
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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
The oil industry has left tens of thousands of unplugged or poorly plugged wells across the south which continue to pollute groundwater while also contributing to global warming. Legislatures in these states have often allowed companies to declare bankruptcy to avoid responsibility. #environment
insideclimatenews.org
Low-Producing Oil Wells in Texas Cause Headaches for Landowners - Inside Climate News
Jackie Chesnutt, who lives outside San Angelo, is tired of pollution from wells she says should have been plugged years ago. Experts say Texas rules allow companies to defer plugging wells for far…
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