Posts by:Joseph Robertson

Americans divided on what is true & who can be trusted

A startling AP-NORC poll finds Americans struggle to identify true facts. Factors appear to include:

  • partisan division,
  • mutually exclusive prevailing media narratives,
  • absence of straight fact reporting from preferred sources,
  • social media distortions, including malicious bot-net manipulations,
  • a lack of trust in key institutions,
  • and the influence of money on elected officials.

The alarming findings point to a deeper, but very specific problem: American news and political culture is stripping Americans of the ability to think critically. The people’s right to know must supersede the privilege of power, if a society is to be free and democratic.

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Posted by Joseph Robertson

Joseph Robertson is Founder and Executive Director of Earth Civics (Earthcivics.org). He is chief strategist for the Climate Value Exchange, and a principal in the Good Food Finance Network, co-leading efforts to establish a new co-investment platform for food systems transformation. He previously served as Interim Director for the Food System Economics Commission, during its start-up phase, and as Senior Advisor, Sustainable Finance, for the EAT Foundation. He is the founder of Geoversiv (earthintel.org) and Liberate Systems (liberatesys.net).

Blinding of Protesters in Chile outnumbers All Prior Known Cases

The number of cases of civilians in Chile who have lost an eye, because they were shot in the head with a rubber bullet appears to outnumber all known previous cases worldwide, combined.

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Posted by Joseph Robertson

Joseph Robertson is Founder and Executive Director of Earth Civics (Earthcivics.org). He is chief strategist for the Climate Value Exchange, and a principal in the Good Food Finance Network, co-leading efforts to establish a new co-investment platform for food systems transformation. He previously served as Interim Director for the Food System Economics Commission, during its start-up phase, and as Senior Advisor, Sustainable Finance, for the EAT Foundation. He is the founder of Geoversiv (earthintel.org) and Liberate Systems (liberatesys.net).

Berlin Wall opened 30 years ago today

The Berlin Wall separated the city into West and East, and created tense conditions for conflict that lasted for decades. Because Berlin was surrounded by East Germany, the Wall was a kind of dual siege—cruelly isolating both West Berlin and East Germany. An estimated 200 people were killed trying to get across to the other side, to visit friends and family, or to escape from tyranny.

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Posted by Joseph Robertson

Joseph Robertson is Founder and Executive Director of Earth Civics (Earthcivics.org). He is chief strategist for the Climate Value Exchange, and a principal in the Good Food Finance Network, co-leading efforts to establish a new co-investment platform for food systems transformation. He previously served as Interim Director for the Food System Economics Commission, during its start-up phase, and as Senior Advisor, Sustainable Finance, for the EAT Foundation. He is the founder of Geoversiv (earthintel.org) and Liberate Systems (liberatesys.net).

Impeachment Depositions Made Public

After the White House demanded all testimony given in closed depositions before three committees in the House of Representatives be made public, House leadership agreed to release those transcripts, in preparation for open hearings in the House.

The releases made from Monday, November 4, to Friday, November 8, 2019, are linked below. Each “Committees Release” link includes links to the full transcripts. Key excerpts and files including new information are linked below.

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Posted by Joseph Robertson

Joseph Robertson is Founder and Executive Director of Earth Civics (Earthcivics.org). He is chief strategist for the Climate Value Exchange, and a principal in the Good Food Finance Network, co-leading efforts to establish a new co-investment platform for food systems transformation. He previously served as Interim Director for the Food System Economics Commission, during its start-up phase, and as Senior Advisor, Sustainable Finance, for the EAT Foundation. He is the founder of Geoversiv (earthintel.org) and Liberate Systems (liberatesys.net).

Federal Court orders release of Mueller Grand Jury materials

In a stunning, detailed, historically sourced, and overwhelming rebuke to the Trump administration’s arguments, Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell of the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., has ordered the Department of Justice to turn over grand jury materials from Robert Mueller’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

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Posted by Joseph Robertson

Joseph Robertson is Founder and Executive Director of Earth Civics (Earthcivics.org). He is chief strategist for the Climate Value Exchange, and a principal in the Good Food Finance Network, co-leading efforts to establish a new co-investment platform for food systems transformation. He previously served as Interim Director for the Food System Economics Commission, during its start-up phase, and as Senior Advisor, Sustainable Finance, for the EAT Foundation. He is the founder of Geoversiv (earthintel.org) and Liberate Systems (liberatesys.net).

Bribery is Cause for Removal from Office – US Constitution

We learned last week that President Trump asked Ukraine’s president—during a call on July 25, 2019—for a personal political favor intended to smear a potential rival in the 2020 election. He apparently did this while actively blocking military aid to Ukraine, which was at the time and is now under ongoing military attack by Russian forces.

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Posted by Joseph Robertson

Joseph Robertson is Founder and Executive Director of Earth Civics (Earthcivics.org). He is chief strategist for the Climate Value Exchange, and a principal in the Good Food Finance Network, co-leading efforts to establish a new co-investment platform for food systems transformation. He previously served as Interim Director for the Food System Economics Commission, during its start-up phase, and as Senior Advisor, Sustainable Finance, for the EAT Foundation. He is the founder of Geoversiv (earthintel.org) and Liberate Systems (liberatesys.net).

Respect the dignity & worth of every human being

Asked by Brian Williams what he says to colleagues who are being subjected to racist attacks by a lawless President, civil rights hero Congressman John Lewis, of Georgia, said:

I tell them to keep the faith, to keep their eyes on the prize, and to never ever give up, ’cause Dr. King taught us never to hate, never become bitter, because hate is too heavy a burden to bear, to believe in peace, and the way of love, to believe in the philosophy of nonviolence, and over and over again, I say we must respect the dignity and the worth of every human being. A young Republican came up to me today and said ’John, what must we do?’ I said ’Just continue to love; it is the best way; it is the only way.’

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Posted by Joseph Robertson

Joseph Robertson is Founder and Executive Director of Earth Civics (Earthcivics.org). He is chief strategist for the Climate Value Exchange, and a principal in the Good Food Finance Network, co-leading efforts to establish a new co-investment platform for food systems transformation. He previously served as Interim Director for the Food System Economics Commission, during its start-up phase, and as Senior Advisor, Sustainable Finance, for the EAT Foundation. He is the founder of Geoversiv (earthintel.org) and Liberate Systems (liberatesys.net).

Bigots are Enemies of Democracy

When Donald Trump used the racist trope of recommending his critics leave the country, insinuating that four Democratic members of the House of Representatives are not Americans due to their race and ethnic origin, he declared his fundamental hatred for democracy. He sent a signal that he aligns with hate-based terror groups that have waged war against the United States since the 1830s.

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Posted by Joseph Robertson

Joseph Robertson is Founder and Executive Director of Earth Civics (Earthcivics.org). He is chief strategist for the Climate Value Exchange, and a principal in the Good Food Finance Network, co-leading efforts to establish a new co-investment platform for food systems transformation. He previously served as Interim Director for the Food System Economics Commission, during its start-up phase, and as Senior Advisor, Sustainable Finance, for the EAT Foundation. He is the founder of Geoversiv (earthintel.org) and Liberate Systems (liberatesys.net).

Warehousing People is Incompatible with Democracy

July 4 is not just a national holiday. It is not just a day to celebrate national pride or history. It is a day to honor the incredible hard work that is shaping, improving, and maintaining a democracy—a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, as Lincoln put it.

As we mark the 243rd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, thousands of people are being held in makeshift prisons, having committed no crime except to ask the United States to protect them from tyranny.

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Posted by Joseph Robertson

Joseph Robertson is Founder and Executive Director of Earth Civics (Earthcivics.org). He is chief strategist for the Climate Value Exchange, and a principal in the Good Food Finance Network, co-leading efforts to establish a new co-investment platform for food systems transformation. He previously served as Interim Director for the Food System Economics Commission, during its start-up phase, and as Senior Advisor, Sustainable Finance, for the EAT Foundation. He is the founder of Geoversiv (earthintel.org) and Liberate Systems (liberatesys.net).

It is illegal to dehumanize any person

It is a daily tragedy in the United States that our political culture is becoming accustomed to the obsessive dehumanizing tendencies of the Trump administration. There has been virtually no legal penalty so far for the rampant and deliberate abuse of children and vulnerable people seeking asylum from evil.

Children are dying in extrajudicial detention camps, and the President still has allies, who behave as if recognizing the fundamental inhumanity of these abuses would undermine their partisan or factional interests.

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Posted by Joseph Robertson

Joseph Robertson is Founder and Executive Director of Earth Civics (Earthcivics.org). He is chief strategist for the Climate Value Exchange, and a principal in the Good Food Finance Network, co-leading efforts to establish a new co-investment platform for food systems transformation. He previously served as Interim Director for the Food System Economics Commission, during its start-up phase, and as Senior Advisor, Sustainable Finance, for the EAT Foundation. He is the founder of Geoversiv (earthintel.org) and Liberate Systems (liberatesys.net).
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