It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressedand the treachery of their leaders.
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President Trump famously called global warming a “Chinese hoax.” That was his excuse to substitute politics for science, denying the opinions of the vast majority of climatologists, and pulling America out of the Paris climate accords.
Many Trump followers, and Trump’s protector of our environment, EPA head Scott Pruitt, tell you human influenced climate change is not real.
Anyway, even if it is increasing, there is no warming.
Anyway, even if there is warming, it is due to natural causes.
Anyway, the impact of continued greenhouse gas emissions will be minor.
Anyway, even if humans are causing global warming, the changes will be beneficial
Anyway, even if the changes are harmful, humans are good at adapting to changes
Anyway, it’s too late or too expensive to do anything about it
Anyway, a technological fix is bound to come along when we really need it
Anyway, Donald Trump, the Republicans, the Koch brothers, and right-wing think tanks say the whole thing is a hoax — a Chinese hoax.
The first eight are false, with #9 being laughable were it not so infuriating.
We won’t go into the science discussions since they are widely available online. Instead, we’ll bring to your attention the latest hints about the “Chinese hoax,” what has arrived, and what is coming:
We all have read about this “1000-year-storm,” that probably will repeat soon:
The unrelenting storm unleashed its wrath on a wide swath east of Houston, leaving thousands stranded in flooded homes and forcing the evacuation of a nursing facility and even an emergency shelter where residents had sought refuge.
“Our whole city is underwater right now but we are coming!” Port Arthur Mayor Derrick Freeman posted Wednesday on Facebook. “If you called, we are coming. Please get to higher ground if you can, but please try (to) stay out of attics.”
Unusually heavy monsoon rains over the last several weeks have killed over 1,000 people across India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. In all, over 41 million people have suffered the direct impact of the rain.
Already deeply impoverished rural communities have been devastated as landslides and rising waters have taken away homes — as well as people.
The most recent city hit is Mumbai, India’s financial center, parts of which are under several feet of water. On Tuesday, traffic in parts of the city came to a near total halt, schools were closed, and the city’s largest hospital was partially flooded.
On both sides of the earth, we see unusually violent storms, and this promises to be only a taste of what is coming at us.
We can ignore it or we can begin to deal with it, as nearly every other nation on earth already has begun.
Our President wants to protect us from the “dangers” of Mexicans, Muslims, and transgenders. He wants to build a wall and to deport “criminal” children who have lived here peacefully for many years, all in the name of national security.
You protect your kids with seat belts; you tell them not to talk to strangers; you don’t let them play in a busy street or play outside when there is lightning, and you make sure they come home safely at night.
But, the real danger to all of our children, grandchildren, the real danger to our security and indeed to all of humanity, does not come from Mexicans, or Muslims, or lightning.
The real danger to you and all of us comes from global warming, and from the politicians who have been bribed to deny it.
Look around you. Windstorms, melting ice, “100-year” floods, droughts, famine, disease and the disappearance of speciesall have worsened and only will continue to worsen. But big business, and those who are bribed by big business, want us to ignore the obvious.
Politicians obey two things: Money and votes. If you have money, support politicians who will help fight global warming. And tell your political representatives your vote will go to those who wish to save your children and the world.
Day by day, inch by inch, the politicians endanger our children. To allow global warming is child abuse.
These are your children and grandchildren Trump is risking. Fight for them.
If all that is happening around you doesn’t make you angry, what will?
As the climate crisis intensifies, the latest evidence is some of the scariest to date.
Last year was the warmest on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday, breaking the previous record for warmth set in 2014.
With Earth’s average land temperature 2.39 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average, it was also “the largest margin by which the annual global temperature record has been broken,” NOAA said in a news release. Ten months had record-high temperatures for their respective months during the year.
Keep in mind, for climate deniers, including nearly every Republican presidential candidate and member of Congress, the argument has been that “global warming stopped in 1998,” and temperatures have been “paused” ever since.
The New York Times noted this morning, “Statistical analysis suggested all along that the claims were false, and that the slowdown was, at most, a minor blip in an inexorable trend.”
It’s against this backdrop that the Republican Party’s massive field of presidential candidates is filled with far-right voices who simply pretend climate change isn’t real.
Despite the machinations of “Senator Snowball” (Senator Jim Inhofe, Republican from Oklahoma, who brought a snowball into Congress to prove global warming is a hoax. Inhofe is chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, with jurisdiction over the allegedly non-existent climate problem), some right-wingers have begun to cave under the enormous weight of scientific evidence.
Now, the twist: I give you the comments of a dear friend, a right-winger to the core, who just yesterday told me that “Yes, the world really is getting warmer, but there is no proof that it is the result of human-generated CO2.” No, it is the result of some natural process, because there were times in the past when the world was even warmer.
“So, there is no need to do anything.”
Is my dear friend stupid? No, he is a well-educated, very successful businessman, who has been hypnotized by the right wing into believing that conservatives are for the rich and liberals are for the poor — and since he comes much closer to being rich than to being poor, he should believe conservatives.
Never mind that the entire planet is being affected negatively, and that this will hurt his children and his children’s children. What’s good for business today is what concerns him (as well as the rest of the Republican party).
Perhaps, in the political debates, much more should be made of the global warming crisis, for it may be the single, greatest threat to the future existence of the human species, and if that doesn’t get my dear friend’s attention, well then, perhaps he is stupid.
Denying science, while following the party of such scientific luminaries as Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorino and Ben Carson doesn’t prove someone is stupid, but it’s pretty good evidence.
=================================================================================== Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
THE RECESSION CLOCK
Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. There was a dip below zero in 2015. Recessions are cured by a rising red line.
Vertical gray bars mark recessions.
As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 