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Now is our chance to defend -- not lose -- the Earth.(Photo: Christopher Michel/Flickr/cc)
No, it's not too late to address climate change. No, families with minivans aren't equally to blame for failing to address the climate crisis as are oil executives who have stopped at nothing to protect their profits. And with respect, no, the only meaningful attempts to address climate change haven't stemmed primarily from a couple of white men in the US three decades ago -- however valiantly they've fought.
No, families with minivans aren't equally to blame for failing to address the climate crisis as are oil executives who have stopped at nothing to protect their profits.
Now is our chance to defend -- not lose -- the Earth. But after reading The New York Times Magazine's "Losing Earth" by the magazine's writer-at-large Nathaniel Rich, you'd hardly be alone if you're feeling hopeless about humanity's ability to curb the climate crisis. Remember: Declaring the future as "history already written," as the piece suggests, isn't how the future works. According to the article's incomplete and inaccurate version of history, action to address climate change seems futile. So why should we even bother?
For starters, even a tenth of a degree Celsius means the difference between life and death for millions of people, especially in the Global South and communities least responsible for this crisis. Despite what the piece may suggest, people are not content to shrug their shoulders and allow big polluters to continue to thwart strong climate policy. In fact, from city halls to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), environmental advocates are demanding urgent action now.
We cannot let the fossil fuel industry off the hook as "Losing Earth" does. Fossil fuel executives were not powerless minions, forced to pollute unabated (in return for enormous profits), at the behest of government officials. There is evidence that, as early as the 1980s, big polluters poured hundreds of millions of dollars in a multi-faceted campaign of deception, greenwashing and manipulation.
Fossil fuel executives' top priority is to protect their shareholders and increase profits; they were never serious about taking action that would endanger their wealth. Big polluters like Exxon knew as early as the 1960s of the catastrophic consequences of burning fossil fuels and did nothing to sound the alarm. Instead, Exxon cut funding for its internal climate research program in the early 1980s and eliminated the program by decade's end. The corporation then deliberately sowed doubt about the science its own researchers had confirmed, undermining political will and life-saving policy.
When the world came together to adopt the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the industry attempted to subvert the process. Big polluters intensified their interference when the advocacy of ordinary people grew too strong to ignore. And only when policymakers were prepared to act did its deceitful campaign peak.
All told, the fossil fuel industry's campaigns that threaten the survival of humanity suggest concerted obstruction and misinformation, not "good-faith efforts."
Although the work of James Hansen and Rafe Pomerance--climate experts who were among the first, in the 1980s, to bring attention to the dangers of climate change--is important and admirable, The New York Times Magazine article's focus on only a few white, male, US-based climate advocates during a particular time decades ago is simplistic. It's disrespectful to the thousands of others who have made this fight their life's work, and implies that these men were our best (and last) shot at saving humanity.
We must acknowledge and join forces with Indigenous leaders, communities of color, women, and young people in the US and throughout the world who have led the climate justice movement for decades.
We must acknowledge and join forces with Indigenous leaders, communities of color, women, and young people in the US and throughout the world who have led the climate justice movement for decades. To erase this diverse coalition's extraordinary contributions is also to erase the enormous victories they have achieved time and again against big polluters. These successes draw hope from our past, and propel us in our present to help write a more just, viable future.
"Losing Earth" is oddly fatalistic; a 2-degree Celsius rise in global temperature is not a foregone conclusion as it implies. The article argues we have come to this climate change precipice because our human nature makes us incapable of realizing long-term gain because it requires short-term sacrifice. Therefore, the article argues we are incapable of the required action in the present to head off a catastrophic 2-degree Celsius global temperature increase in the future. But it's not true.
Time and time again, big polluters are guilty of obstructing and manipulating real climate change policies -- not people. Just this week, it was revealed that a top Trump administration official with deep ties to the fossil fuel industry is at the center of the rewrite of the Clean Power Plan. The proposal, announced Tuesday, will severely weaken air pollution rules and drastically roll back regulations on coal-fired power plants, increasing carbon emissions and leading to as many as 1,400 premature deaths per year.
We stand a shot at avoiding the world the fossil fuel industry is lobbying for by keeping fossil fuels in the ground and committing to a just transition to 100 percent renewable energy. To accept a 2-degree Celsius increase as inevitable writes off millions of people's lives, the extinction of countless species and profound changes in our planet's ecosystems. We cannot and will not accept this. We cannot and will not idly stand by while big polluters continue to drive us to catastrophe and subvert progress.
We stand a shot at avoiding the world the fossil fuel industry is lobbying for by keeping fossil fuels in the ground and committing to a just transition to 100 percent renewable energy.
The more that big polluters' conflicts of interest are enshrined in and continue to shape policy, the more lives are lost. To chart our way forward, we must protect against these conflicts of interest, and, as the world considers climate solutions in December at the UNFCCC's 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24), ensure that we pave the way for real solutions put forward by the people, not dangerous distractions designed to pad profits.
Over the next few months, policymakers, climate activists and concerned citizens have critical opportunities to kick big polluters out of climate policy. In September, hundreds of communities around the world will demand real climate leadership and just solutions, from movements and grassroots actions like Rise for Climate and Solidarity to Solutions. We have the chance to pass measures that mitigate the worst effects of climate change. And one of the primary tasks of COP24, according to the UN, is to "work out and adopt a package of decisions ensuring the full implementation of the Paris Agreement." At the conference, countries must champion true solutions and map out the steps necessary to contain global temperature rise to as close to 1.5 degree Celsius as possible, which could help prevent the worst impact of climate change.
Rewriting our past so that we abandon our own agency in writing a better future for us all is a mistake we cannot and must not make. As "Losing Earth" points out, our lives, our children's lives and our children's children's lives depend on it.
This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute, and originally published by Truthout. Reprinted with permission
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
No, it's not too late to address climate change. No, families with minivans aren't equally to blame for failing to address the climate crisis as are oil executives who have stopped at nothing to protect their profits. And with respect, no, the only meaningful attempts to address climate change haven't stemmed primarily from a couple of white men in the US three decades ago -- however valiantly they've fought.
No, families with minivans aren't equally to blame for failing to address the climate crisis as are oil executives who have stopped at nothing to protect their profits.
Now is our chance to defend -- not lose -- the Earth. But after reading The New York Times Magazine's "Losing Earth" by the magazine's writer-at-large Nathaniel Rich, you'd hardly be alone if you're feeling hopeless about humanity's ability to curb the climate crisis. Remember: Declaring the future as "history already written," as the piece suggests, isn't how the future works. According to the article's incomplete and inaccurate version of history, action to address climate change seems futile. So why should we even bother?
For starters, even a tenth of a degree Celsius means the difference between life and death for millions of people, especially in the Global South and communities least responsible for this crisis. Despite what the piece may suggest, people are not content to shrug their shoulders and allow big polluters to continue to thwart strong climate policy. In fact, from city halls to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), environmental advocates are demanding urgent action now.
We cannot let the fossil fuel industry off the hook as "Losing Earth" does. Fossil fuel executives were not powerless minions, forced to pollute unabated (in return for enormous profits), at the behest of government officials. There is evidence that, as early as the 1980s, big polluters poured hundreds of millions of dollars in a multi-faceted campaign of deception, greenwashing and manipulation.
Fossil fuel executives' top priority is to protect their shareholders and increase profits; they were never serious about taking action that would endanger their wealth. Big polluters like Exxon knew as early as the 1960s of the catastrophic consequences of burning fossil fuels and did nothing to sound the alarm. Instead, Exxon cut funding for its internal climate research program in the early 1980s and eliminated the program by decade's end. The corporation then deliberately sowed doubt about the science its own researchers had confirmed, undermining political will and life-saving policy.
When the world came together to adopt the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the industry attempted to subvert the process. Big polluters intensified their interference when the advocacy of ordinary people grew too strong to ignore. And only when policymakers were prepared to act did its deceitful campaign peak.
All told, the fossil fuel industry's campaigns that threaten the survival of humanity suggest concerted obstruction and misinformation, not "good-faith efforts."
Although the work of James Hansen and Rafe Pomerance--climate experts who were among the first, in the 1980s, to bring attention to the dangers of climate change--is important and admirable, The New York Times Magazine article's focus on only a few white, male, US-based climate advocates during a particular time decades ago is simplistic. It's disrespectful to the thousands of others who have made this fight their life's work, and implies that these men were our best (and last) shot at saving humanity.
We must acknowledge and join forces with Indigenous leaders, communities of color, women, and young people in the US and throughout the world who have led the climate justice movement for decades.
We must acknowledge and join forces with Indigenous leaders, communities of color, women, and young people in the US and throughout the world who have led the climate justice movement for decades. To erase this diverse coalition's extraordinary contributions is also to erase the enormous victories they have achieved time and again against big polluters. These successes draw hope from our past, and propel us in our present to help write a more just, viable future.
"Losing Earth" is oddly fatalistic; a 2-degree Celsius rise in global temperature is not a foregone conclusion as it implies. The article argues we have come to this climate change precipice because our human nature makes us incapable of realizing long-term gain because it requires short-term sacrifice. Therefore, the article argues we are incapable of the required action in the present to head off a catastrophic 2-degree Celsius global temperature increase in the future. But it's not true.
Time and time again, big polluters are guilty of obstructing and manipulating real climate change policies -- not people. Just this week, it was revealed that a top Trump administration official with deep ties to the fossil fuel industry is at the center of the rewrite of the Clean Power Plan. The proposal, announced Tuesday, will severely weaken air pollution rules and drastically roll back regulations on coal-fired power plants, increasing carbon emissions and leading to as many as 1,400 premature deaths per year.
We stand a shot at avoiding the world the fossil fuel industry is lobbying for by keeping fossil fuels in the ground and committing to a just transition to 100 percent renewable energy. To accept a 2-degree Celsius increase as inevitable writes off millions of people's lives, the extinction of countless species and profound changes in our planet's ecosystems. We cannot and will not accept this. We cannot and will not idly stand by while big polluters continue to drive us to catastrophe and subvert progress.
We stand a shot at avoiding the world the fossil fuel industry is lobbying for by keeping fossil fuels in the ground and committing to a just transition to 100 percent renewable energy.
The more that big polluters' conflicts of interest are enshrined in and continue to shape policy, the more lives are lost. To chart our way forward, we must protect against these conflicts of interest, and, as the world considers climate solutions in December at the UNFCCC's 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24), ensure that we pave the way for real solutions put forward by the people, not dangerous distractions designed to pad profits.
Over the next few months, policymakers, climate activists and concerned citizens have critical opportunities to kick big polluters out of climate policy. In September, hundreds of communities around the world will demand real climate leadership and just solutions, from movements and grassroots actions like Rise for Climate and Solidarity to Solutions. We have the chance to pass measures that mitigate the worst effects of climate change. And one of the primary tasks of COP24, according to the UN, is to "work out and adopt a package of decisions ensuring the full implementation of the Paris Agreement." At the conference, countries must champion true solutions and map out the steps necessary to contain global temperature rise to as close to 1.5 degree Celsius as possible, which could help prevent the worst impact of climate change.
Rewriting our past so that we abandon our own agency in writing a better future for us all is a mistake we cannot and must not make. As "Losing Earth" points out, our lives, our children's lives and our children's children's lives depend on it.
This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute, and originally published by Truthout. Reprinted with permission
No, it's not too late to address climate change. No, families with minivans aren't equally to blame for failing to address the climate crisis as are oil executives who have stopped at nothing to protect their profits. And with respect, no, the only meaningful attempts to address climate change haven't stemmed primarily from a couple of white men in the US three decades ago -- however valiantly they've fought.
No, families with minivans aren't equally to blame for failing to address the climate crisis as are oil executives who have stopped at nothing to protect their profits.
Now is our chance to defend -- not lose -- the Earth. But after reading The New York Times Magazine's "Losing Earth" by the magazine's writer-at-large Nathaniel Rich, you'd hardly be alone if you're feeling hopeless about humanity's ability to curb the climate crisis. Remember: Declaring the future as "history already written," as the piece suggests, isn't how the future works. According to the article's incomplete and inaccurate version of history, action to address climate change seems futile. So why should we even bother?
For starters, even a tenth of a degree Celsius means the difference between life and death for millions of people, especially in the Global South and communities least responsible for this crisis. Despite what the piece may suggest, people are not content to shrug their shoulders and allow big polluters to continue to thwart strong climate policy. In fact, from city halls to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), environmental advocates are demanding urgent action now.
We cannot let the fossil fuel industry off the hook as "Losing Earth" does. Fossil fuel executives were not powerless minions, forced to pollute unabated (in return for enormous profits), at the behest of government officials. There is evidence that, as early as the 1980s, big polluters poured hundreds of millions of dollars in a multi-faceted campaign of deception, greenwashing and manipulation.
Fossil fuel executives' top priority is to protect their shareholders and increase profits; they were never serious about taking action that would endanger their wealth. Big polluters like Exxon knew as early as the 1960s of the catastrophic consequences of burning fossil fuels and did nothing to sound the alarm. Instead, Exxon cut funding for its internal climate research program in the early 1980s and eliminated the program by decade's end. The corporation then deliberately sowed doubt about the science its own researchers had confirmed, undermining political will and life-saving policy.
When the world came together to adopt the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the industry attempted to subvert the process. Big polluters intensified their interference when the advocacy of ordinary people grew too strong to ignore. And only when policymakers were prepared to act did its deceitful campaign peak.
All told, the fossil fuel industry's campaigns that threaten the survival of humanity suggest concerted obstruction and misinformation, not "good-faith efforts."
Although the work of James Hansen and Rafe Pomerance--climate experts who were among the first, in the 1980s, to bring attention to the dangers of climate change--is important and admirable, The New York Times Magazine article's focus on only a few white, male, US-based climate advocates during a particular time decades ago is simplistic. It's disrespectful to the thousands of others who have made this fight their life's work, and implies that these men were our best (and last) shot at saving humanity.
We must acknowledge and join forces with Indigenous leaders, communities of color, women, and young people in the US and throughout the world who have led the climate justice movement for decades.
We must acknowledge and join forces with Indigenous leaders, communities of color, women, and young people in the US and throughout the world who have led the climate justice movement for decades. To erase this diverse coalition's extraordinary contributions is also to erase the enormous victories they have achieved time and again against big polluters. These successes draw hope from our past, and propel us in our present to help write a more just, viable future.
"Losing Earth" is oddly fatalistic; a 2-degree Celsius rise in global temperature is not a foregone conclusion as it implies. The article argues we have come to this climate change precipice because our human nature makes us incapable of realizing long-term gain because it requires short-term sacrifice. Therefore, the article argues we are incapable of the required action in the present to head off a catastrophic 2-degree Celsius global temperature increase in the future. But it's not true.
Time and time again, big polluters are guilty of obstructing and manipulating real climate change policies -- not people. Just this week, it was revealed that a top Trump administration official with deep ties to the fossil fuel industry is at the center of the rewrite of the Clean Power Plan. The proposal, announced Tuesday, will severely weaken air pollution rules and drastically roll back regulations on coal-fired power plants, increasing carbon emissions and leading to as many as 1,400 premature deaths per year.
We stand a shot at avoiding the world the fossil fuel industry is lobbying for by keeping fossil fuels in the ground and committing to a just transition to 100 percent renewable energy. To accept a 2-degree Celsius increase as inevitable writes off millions of people's lives, the extinction of countless species and profound changes in our planet's ecosystems. We cannot and will not accept this. We cannot and will not idly stand by while big polluters continue to drive us to catastrophe and subvert progress.
We stand a shot at avoiding the world the fossil fuel industry is lobbying for by keeping fossil fuels in the ground and committing to a just transition to 100 percent renewable energy.
The more that big polluters' conflicts of interest are enshrined in and continue to shape policy, the more lives are lost. To chart our way forward, we must protect against these conflicts of interest, and, as the world considers climate solutions in December at the UNFCCC's 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24), ensure that we pave the way for real solutions put forward by the people, not dangerous distractions designed to pad profits.
Over the next few months, policymakers, climate activists and concerned citizens have critical opportunities to kick big polluters out of climate policy. In September, hundreds of communities around the world will demand real climate leadership and just solutions, from movements and grassroots actions like Rise for Climate and Solidarity to Solutions. We have the chance to pass measures that mitigate the worst effects of climate change. And one of the primary tasks of COP24, according to the UN, is to "work out and adopt a package of decisions ensuring the full implementation of the Paris Agreement." At the conference, countries must champion true solutions and map out the steps necessary to contain global temperature rise to as close to 1.5 degree Celsius as possible, which could help prevent the worst impact of climate change.
Rewriting our past so that we abandon our own agency in writing a better future for us all is a mistake we cannot and must not make. As "Losing Earth" points out, our lives, our children's lives and our children's children's lives depend on it.
This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute, and originally published by Truthout. Reprinted with permission
One critic wrote that an email from Harvard University's president about the Trump administration's funding review capitulated to the "bogus premise that this is about 'protecting' students against antisemitism."
This week, Harvard University learned that Trump administration is reviewing nearly $9 billion in federal grants awarded to the school and Princeton University has had multiple research grants suspended by multiple federal agencies—making the two institutions the latest in series of elite colleges to have their funding threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump.
In the case of Harvard, the scrutiny from the Trump administration is explicitly tied to Trump's pledge to crackdown on what he sees as rampant antisemitism on college campuses.
In the name of opposing antisemitism, Trump has vowed to target foreign-born students who have engaged in pro-Palestine protests, activities that the president has described as "pro-jihadist." Several students who have taken part in pro-Palestine activism have already been targeted for deportation.
According to a Monday statement from the U.S. Department of Education, multiple federal agencies are launching a comprehensive review of federal contracts and grants at Harvard as part of the ongoing efforts of the Trump administration's Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism.
The task force will review over $255.6 million in contracts between Harvard, its affiliates, and the federal government, as well as $8.7 billion in multiyear grant commitments to the university and its affiliates to ensure "the university is in compliance with federal regulations, including its civil rights responsibilities."
"Harvard's failure to protect students on campus from antisemitic discrimination—all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry—has put its reputation in serious jeopardy. Harvard can right these wrongs and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus," said Education Secretary Linda McMahon in a statement on Monday.
In a message that was denounced by multiple observers, Harvard's president Alan Garber wrote in a Monday message to the Harvard community that the school has devoted "considerable effort" to addressing antisemitism on its campus over the past 15 months, including by "enhancing training and education on antisemitism."
"We still have much work to do," wrote Garber. "We will engage with members of the federal government's task force to combat antisemitism to ensure that they have a full account of the work we have done and the actions we will take going forward to combat antisemitism."
"If this funding is stopped, it will halt lifesaving research and imperil important scientific research and innovation," he also wrote.
Researcher Hannah Gais, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, wrote on Monday that Garber's message "completely caves to the administration and its bogus premise that this is about 'protecting' students against antisemitism."
"What a disgraceful letter from Harvard president Alan Garber, surrendering entirely to Trump and the pernicious nonsense that America's universities, some of the greatest and most Jewish institutions in American life, are rife with antisemitism," wrote historian and editor Sam Haselby on X.
Meanwhile, the president of Princeton told the university community on Tuesday that several research grants to the university have been suspended by the federal government.
"The full rationale for this action is not yet clear, but I want to be clear about the principles that will guide our response," wrote Princeton president Christopher L. Eisgruber on Tuesday, according to The New York Times. "Princeton University will comply with the law. We are committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination, and we will cooperate with the government in combating antisemitism."
In February, the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced that it would be investigating 10 universities, including Harvard and Columbia University—which recently had $400 million in federal grants revoked by the Trump administration. That list did not include Princeton, though Princeton was one of 60 colleges that received letters last month from the U.S. Department of Education that warned of potential actions against schools if the government found they had not done enough to protect Jewish students.
After the Trump administration stripped Columbia of the $400 million, the administration announced later in March that it was freezing $175 million in federal funds for the University of Pennsylvania, citing the university's policies on transgender athletes.
In March, Columbia announced a number of changes to the school that aligned with the wishes of the Trump administration as part of negotiations over the rescinded $400 million in federal grants—prompting a wave of criticism of the university.
In an opinion piece for Common Dreams published on Tuesday, Steve Striffler, the director of the Labor Resource Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston, argued that it is not wholly accurate to say that Columbia's changes were a "capitulation" to the Trump administration.
Instead, "it seems quite likely that Columbia's leaders accepted Trump's demands not so much because they were forced to (capitulate), or because they saw fighting as either futile or potentially disastrous, but because they welcomed the opportunity and political cover that Trump's order provided," he wrote.
"More of this energy from every Democrat please," said one progressive commentator as the New Jersey lawmaker continued to hold the floor of the U.S. Senate with a speech that has lasted more than 20 hours—and counting.
This is a developing news story... Please check back for possible updates.
Answering the voting public's growing call for the Democratic Party to actually stand up to Republicans' sweeping assault on the federal government, led by U.S. President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, Sen. Cory Booker took to the Senate floor at 7:00 pm Eastern Time on Monday and was still speaking as of Tuesday afternoon.
Early in his remarks, Booker (D-N.J.) cited the example of late Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights icon who famously declared in 2020, "Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America."
Booker, who ran for president in 2020, explained Monday that he asked himself, "If he's my hero, how am I living up to his words?"
"What's happened in the past 71 days in a patent demonstration of a time where John Lewis' call to everyone has, I think, become more urgent and more pressing," Booker said. "So, tonight, I rise tonight with the intention of getting in some good trouble. I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able."
"I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis—and I believe that not in a partisan sense, because so many of the people that have been reaching out to my office in pain, in fear, having their lives upended, so many of them identify themselves as Republicans," the senator continued.
Booker stressed that "bedrock commitments are being broken, unnecessary hardships are being borne by Americans of all backgrounds, and institutions which are special in America, which are precious, which are unique in our country, are being recklessly and I would say even unconstitutionally affected, attacked, and even shattered."
"In just 71 days, the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans' safety, financial stability, the core foundations of our democracy, and even our aspirations as a people for, from our highest offices, a sense of common decency. These are not normal times in America, and they should not be treated as such," he argued. "I can't allow this body to continue without doing something different, speaking out. The threats to American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more—we all must do more against them."
Booker accused the president of "betraying" America and causing "chaos, instability, and harm" by working to gut a wide range of programs—an effort spearheaded by Trump's Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency—while seeking tax cuts for wealthy people and corporations, which Republicans are trying to push through Congress.
Over several hours, the senator addressed topics such as GOP attacks on healthcare, including efforts to cut Medicaid; attempts to dismantle the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Department of Education; a mass deportation agenda that has swept up immigrants like Kilmar Abrego Garcia; and the administration's "national security policies that are leaving our allies abandoned, our adversaries emboldened, and Americans less safe."
Throughout Booker's many hours standing at the podium—he reportedly had the chair removed to avoid the temptation to sit down—he sporadically yielded for a question from a Democratic colleague while retaining the floor, which gave him opportunities to rest his voice and transition from topic to topic.
As The Associated Press reported: "Democratic aides watched from the chamber's gallery, and Sen. Chris Murphy accompanied Booker throughout his speech. Murphy was returning the comradeship that Booker had given to him in 2016 when the Connecticut Democrat held the floor for almost 15 hours to argue for gun control legislation."
Other Democrats who asked questions of Booker included Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Sens. Angela Alsobrooks (Md.), Michael Bennet (Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Chris Coons (Del.), Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Ben Ray Luján (N.M.), Ed Markey (Mass.), Patty Murray (Wash.), Alex Padilla (Calif.), Jack Reed (R.I.), Adam Schiff (Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Raphael Warnock (Ga.), Mark Warner (Va.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Peter Welch (Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), and Ron Wyden (Ore.). Independent Sen. Angus King (Maine), who caucuses with Democrats, also joined in.
Many of them praised Booker's stunt—as did Trump critics across social media, including Democrats in the lower chamber such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), who declared that "this is the kind of relentless resistance our democracy demands."
As of press time, Booker had been speaking for over 20 hours. Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said: "Proud of Cory Booker! It would be poetic justice if he beats Strom Thurmond's record of speaking 24 hours and 18 minutes to block the 1957 Civil Rights Act. Yes, the longest filibuster in our nation's history was to block civil rights."
Booker's move came amid calls for Schumer to step down as minority leader after caving to Republicans during the latest government shutdown crisis, and as polling shows that a large majority of registered Democrats and Independent voters who lean Democratic are frustrated with the party for not effectively fighting Trump and supporting working poeple.
Sharing the livestream on social media Tuesday, the American Federation of Teachers said: "Sen. Booker has been standing on the Senate floor since last night, speaking powerfully on behalf of families and our nation. Thank you for your unwavering leadership, Sen. Booker."
Matt Royer of Young Democrats of America asserted that what Booker "is doing is heroic and courageous and exactly what we're looking for from Washington during this time. If you are not following along with this and why he is doing it, you absolutely should."
Podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen similarly pleaded, "More of this energy from every Democrat please."
"There is no way this makes Americans healthier."
HIV prevention. Anti-tobacco advocacy. The safety of mining workers.
All are among the health priorities that evidently have no place in U.S. President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's vision to "Make America Healthy Again," following the mass firing of 10,000 people at the nation's top health agencies on Tuesday.
The layoffs hit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with some staffers informed of their dismissal after they arrived at work—only to be told to return home.
Kayla Tausche at CNN reported that laid off employees at the HHS building in Rockville, Maryland were forced to do a "walk of shame" past dozens of their former colleagues who were lined up outside the building, waiting to learn their own fate.
The employees who were laid off Monday evening into Tuesday are the latest of more than 100,000 federal workers who have lost their jobs since Trump took office and placed billionaire tech mogul and megadonor Elon Musk at the help of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Last week, Kennedy said the federal health agency workforce would be reduced from about 82,000 to 62,000 people, with the restructuring making room for what he called "the Administration for a Healthy America" at HHS.
"We're going to do more with less," said the secretary, who has expressed skepticism about the scientifically proven benefits of vaccinations and claimed without evidence that the rate of chronic disease rose over the four years that former President Joe Biden was in the White House.
Kennedy said last week that communications for the health agencies would be brought under his control in the "restructuring," and many of the layoffs impacted people responsible for relaying information to the public.
Twenty people who handle public communications for one National Institutes of Health (NIH) program analyzing the genes of volunteers for health research were among those placed on administrative leave Tuesday—a precursor to being laid off, one official told USA Today.
The FDA's Office of Media Affairs was also disbanded, as well as most of the 50-person communications team for the agency's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, which manages information on drug approvals, shortages, and potential risks.
"The general public likely won't feel the results of these HHS layoffs immediately," said Larry Levitt, executive vice president of KFF. "But eventually, these layoffs will affect the health information available to people, access to care and prevention, and oversight of health and social services."
Other impacted employees include those in internal agencies focused on the health of senior citizens, people with disabilities, and minority communities, and workers studying asthma, lead poisoning, radiation damage, and the health effects of extreme heat and wildfires.
The administration appeared to see HIV prevention as a key target, placing the director of the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention on administrative leave and dismantling teams that do HIV research and surveillance.
Despite his claims last week about wanting to fight chronic disease, Kennedy did not outline plans to better equip the federal government to fight heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. At the CDC, The New York Times reported Tuesday, "entire departments studying chronic diseases and environmental problems were cut."
In a post on LinkedIn on Tuesday, former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, who served under Biden and former President Barack Obama, said the agency "as we've known it is finished" and warned the federal government was losing critical institutional knowledge by firing thousands of people.
"I believe that history will see this [as] a huge mistake," said Califf. "I will be glad if I'm proven wrong, but even then there is no good reason to treat people this way. It will be interesting to hear from the new leadership how they plan to put 'Humpty Dumpty' back together again."
Journalist Sam Stein of The Bulwark called the mass firings "an absolute bloodbath" with a "generation of scientists, healthcare officials being wiped out."
Brown University professor Dr. Craig Spencer said the country "will regret this."
"These are the people who make sure the medications you and your children take are safe. These are the people who perform and oversee research on cancer, infant health, and so, so, so much more. These are the people who make sure new devices that physicians and patients use are effective," said Spencer. "And now, thousands of them are gone. There is no way this makes Americans healthier."