Okay, back from Bullhead finally. I will not be using Greyhound in the future as it takes waaaay too long to get from one place to the other, crappy customer service, and they're always late.
And while I'm complaining about things, I slept in yesterday morning all the way until eight o'clock, very late for me, but just in time to watch NBC's "Meet the Press," wanting to catch up on all of the important news stories that so directly affect each and every one of our American citizens.
So I got up and turned my television on to channel 4, L.A.s local NBC affiliate, to hear David Gregory proudly pronounce the morning's guests, embellisher Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and car thief and gun runner Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of San Diego (I'm loath to admit this guy comes my own state). I scratched my head and thought to myself "I must have turned on Fox so-called News by mistake to get this republican love fest," so I changed the channel to Fox... there was Issa again. Same with ABC's "This Week." Issa again.
One would almost think that all of these networks were owned by corporate conglomerates with deep ties to the Republican party.
So in frustration I turned to my reliable standby, good old MSNBC, and "The Melissa Harris-Perry," program. However, it being the second hour of her Sunday show, she had already moved on to matters of marginal concern or consequence to the majority of Americans and on to subjects such as black women's hair and the gay rights agenda ("I never knew black women's hair was such an issue until now," my dear sister said to me two weeks ago as we watched. "What about my freaking hair?!" "I never knew gays had an agenda!" I replied).
I turned to Brendan Fraser in "The Mummy Returns," on the TNT channel.
And what was Issa talking about that was so consequential? He's mad that the Attorney General, Eric Holder, won't give him every single document that he wants concerning, ironically I might add, a failed gun tracing program in Mexico, that cost the life of one of our federal agents. Holder has already turned over something like 70,000 documents, but that's not enough apparently. So Issa's oversight committee has voted to hold Holder in contempt. This means the Republican controlled House of Representatives will vote this week to hold the Attorney General of the United States in contempt of Congress for withholding these documents, even after President Obama has declared "Executive Privilege" (for the first time), concerning these documents, which effectively takes the responsibility to turn them over from Holder to the President himself. Issa voted anyway, as the House is expected to.
Why?
Because they really couldn't give a damn what innocuous documents the DOJ may, or may not have. They're just trying to stir up trouble for the President during an election year. They're trying to create another Watergate, another Clinton/Lewinsky like scandal just in front of the election.
The little scamps.
So what will happen after the House votes the Attorney General in contempt?
Nothing.
The vote will be referred back to the Attorney General's office for review. It seems unlikely Eric Holder will decide to act against himself.
So all of these Sunday shows are promoting Issa's BS political agenda, which has no real news value at all, and will most likely be forgotten by this time next week. Thank you NBC, ABC, and Fox. Or should I say Comcast, GE, Disney, and News Corp. Or should I say Brian L. Roberts, Jeffrey Immelt, Anne Sweeney, and Rupert (Rupert) "Freaking" Murdoch.
On to matters of consequence that actually have something to do with the first part of this post.
As I mentioned, global warming (a term I prefer to "climate change," as the climate changes everyday. Weather people make a living trying to tell folks how the climate will change during next week) is happening. It has been confirmed repeatedly by trained experts, some may even call them scientists, specifically meteorologists, who are trained to know about and study these things using the very scientific method, that very simple, almost fool proof method that I described in Part 1. These meteorologists talk to other, different scientists, like oceanographers and geologists, since climate, and it's history, affects the oceans and the Earth's surface, where most of us live, as well. All of these scientists get together, pool their resources and experimental or observational evidence, and have come to what is known as a consensus, or opinion, which in this case affects all living things on this planet. These scientists then publish their opinions, and the evidence supporting them in scientific journals, and thusly the rest of us human beings get to know about it. Our governments then become aware of this hard fought for knowledge, and if it is inconvenient or too detrimental to their traditional national economies and business interests, then they ignore those hard fought for opinions and knowledge, try to marginalize the very scientists who came up with these inconvenient ideas, and spend oodles of money attempting to discredit the ideas themselves.
Governments and religious institutions do this all of the time!
As a matter of fact the only scientists who disclaim the current global warming theory (why is it a theory and not a so-called "fact"? Because there are no facts in science, because scientific theories are always open to amendment, or change, which may or may not eventually disprove them. So why should we spend so much money trying to combat global warming trends? Because the available evidence supporting its existence is well founded and overwhelming compared to competing theories, and considering the consequences of doing nothing to stop it are so dire, responsible action is dictated. But it's just a theory, the deniers say. So is electron movement along conductors. I can't see electrons moving along copper wires, but I know the consequences of standing barefoot in a puddle of water and sticking my finger into an electrical socket are so dire, it is the responsible thing for me to do to take measures to make sure that doesn't happen. That's why I have so many pairs of rubber boots in my box) are those that are sponsored (which is a polite way of saying "paid for," or "bought,") by the governments and the industries that pollute the environment and for whom they work for. That's why we see so many Republicans in Congress, and presidential candidates like Mitt (Mitt) Romney, and the Republican Noise Machine, which includes the drug addled gas bag Rush Limbaugh, gigantor head Sean Hannity, and their kind, always proclaiming that global warming is the biggest hoax there ever was, it's all just "junk science' (whatever that means), it is largely disputed, on and on, spewing out these lies over and over again to their loyal audience members and constituents who need to be led rather than think for themselves. In the process they are doing themselves, the United States, and the world (or I should say, the people and other living organizisms living in and on the planet) a huge, irreversible disservice by their actions (and inactions).
But what can you say? These people are sick. They're like little kids, gimme, gimme, gimme, or they're going to cry and hold their breath, or whatever, until they get what they want, no matter how much it may hurt them and others (everybody in this instance).
Actually they are more like addicts than children. Or rather addicted children is more like it. Alcoholics and addicts will continue drinking and using until they've consumed the very last drop of booze, swallowed the last pill, snorted the last snort, smoked the last hit, despite the damage they do to themselves, their families, and their communities. They're sick people, just as the majority of Republicans are sociopaths... sick. They need rehab. They can't help what they do because they just don't know any better. And they all cling to each other in a great big orgy of reassurance to substantiate their addictions (take a look at "Fox and Friends," sometime... if you can stomach it).
An absurd example of this are the latest actions of developers, their lobbyists, and state representatives in North Carolina, which Mr. Colbert reports on the clip above, and which is depicted in the following American Scientific story:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2012/05/30/nc-makes-sea-level-rise-illegal/
Rising sea levels are predicted by scientists caused by global warming. Rising sea levels will adversely affect business interests along said coast. So their course of action is to lobby state administrators to make the measurement of future sea levels coincide to what is convenient for these business interests, rather than what nature and reality will eventually deliver, whether the political establishment in North Carolina, and these associated business interests, like it or not. In other words they're making it illegal to admit to the truth.
This is the height of hypocrisy, stupidity, and irresponsibility. This is the act of children... addicted children.
The corporate masters of the Republicans (and the Democrats to a lesser extent), and the super rich who control them, the 1 to 10 percent at the top of the economic chain, are similarly addicted to power and money. The Koch bros, and people like this casino operator, Sheldon Adelson, each worth about 25 billion, give or take a couple of hundred million or so. Each are spending millions, and conniving to end the Obama presidency. For what? Mostly, so the Republicans will regain the White House, retain power in Congress, allowing the resumption of Bush policies like deregulation of business, which allows the bros and Adelson to make even more freaking money! It's positively extraordinary, and to me personally, revolting.
These captains of industry, the ones the Republicans kowtow to, the ones who actually control the world, are simply little kids who don't know any better. Who cry and complain like little babies when they don't get their way. Selfish little babies.
They are of an adult age of course, in these three instances, markedly so, which makes their money and power addictions a disease. They are sick. They need help. Garfunkel and Oates know this and want to reach out to them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_M8fOwHnwg0
Unfortunately for these people real reality always steps in screws up their little worlds. As the alcoholic who will always run out of booze, the drug addict who runs out of money to buy more drugs, the planet Earth will at one point run out of fossil fuels.
This is true. At some point in the future if we continue using them in the vast quantities that we are today, and poisoning the environment in the process, the planet will inevitably be sucked dry of oil and natural gas, the shale sludge will be gone, everything will all be used up.
Everyone knows this. Every sane person that is. It could be hundreds of years from now, or 30. We already know it's getting harder and harder to drill for oil which indicates we've already used up the easy to get to reserves.
Well, considering what we know about how the consumption of oil affects the environment (adversely), coupled with the knowledge that the oil supply is finite, what should be society's responsible course of action?
I'll give you a hint: look for and develop alternative sources of energy that doesn't contribute to environmental destruction. In other words, green energy sources, green industries, and green economies.
I mean... this isn't rocket science! If I can figure this out than anyone can.
The development of green energy is the responsible... adult, course of action we should be pursuing right now! Not ten, twenty, or fifty years in the future. Right now.
Are we? Of course we're not! Development of green energy sources and industry, well that's like a dirty phrase in the halls of Congress. Why? Because of Republican algebra, that's why. The childlike addiction to immediate profits (i.e., cash flow; i.e. the next bottle, the next pill, the next hit) at the expense of our future, and the futures of our children and their children (not to mention all of the other plants and creatures that live with us).
Addicts typically can't stop their destructive behavior until they reach bottom, or they're forced to.
I'm afraid these power and money addicts will never reach a bottom. At some point they will be forced to stop, or alter their current activities. Reality decrees that this will sometime come to pass.
Unless we the voting public force them now. We still retain that power even though they are desperately trying to take even that away from us.
If we don't do it now I'm afraid their irresponsible addictions will cost us all to much in the future.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/06/25-0
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