Donald's Acting Cruelly Again

Vulgarmort is as it again, he sent his house-elf Jeff Sessions to announce that he's planning to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that President Barack Obama instituted to provide undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as minors protection from deportation, the ability to obtain drivers' licenses and work permits, and (it is hoped) a pathway to citizenship.

Barack Obama described DACA in terms of basic decency, something that Vulgarmort lacks:


"We shouldn't threaten the future of this group of young people who are here through no fault of their own, who pose no threat, who are not taking away anything from the rest of us."


The 'Dreamers' who have benefitted from DACA are English-speaking and American-schooled... they have been vetted, checked for any possible criminal backgrounds or threats to the Republic. These are not unscrutinized individuals, they are assets to their local and state communities and the broader national community, exactly the sort of persons we Americans should welcome into the fold.

As is typical, Vulgarmort's timing is bad- his proclamation comes on the heels of a dreamer dying while engaged in post-Harvey rescue efforts (a case of Mexico sending us her best) and prior to a Houston reconstruction effort that will most likely require immigrant labor. As an aside, a Democratic congressperson should propose an 'American Jobs Only for Houston Recovery' act in Congress just to show up Republican hypocrisy.

I am pro-immigrant, I have many immigrant friends, I value the contributions of immigrants to American culture. I feel that this rescinding of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is cowardly, bigoted, and cruel. I make it a point not to inquire the legal status of my immigrant friends and neighbors, so I don't know if any of my friends will be impacted by this action, but I would hate to think that people I care for would be deported just so some rich, incompetent ogre can claim some sort of victory.

Dark Lord Confirmed

I've been calling the Orange Ogre in the White House Vulgarmort for years, ever since a certain author said that he was worse than the arch-villain of her best-selling series of novels. Vulgarmort came across as a villain, albeit an incompetent one. This week, though, the Dark Lord vibe was readily apparent. I mean, get a load of Barad-Dumb:

The Washington Monument during the fireworks is pretty fuckin terrifying pic.twitter.com/FtyMW9rpLO

— Matthew Gaydos (@MatthewGaydos) July 5, 2019

As if that isn't enough to convince the skeptics, Vulgarmort left a taint of evil lingering in the air of Washington D.C.:

I’ve lived on U Street for seven years and I’ve never seen this: The smoke from the fireworks downtown has invaded our neighborhood; it reeks of sulfur. Very weird. pic.twitter.com/OycMKR9vCg

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) July 5, 2019

Ominous tower, pall of sulfur over the city? I'm convinced... just wait until he rolls out his 2020 campaign theme song.

Et Tu, Covfefe?

I've had my beef with Shakespeare, albeit a fake conflict which depended on a familiarity with the Bard's works and with the history which inspired them he distorted. Despite the fact that Slick Willie 1.0 did a hit job on Lady Macbeth and her husband, Good King Macbeth, I just can't stay mad at him. I have long suspected that my father (Happy Fathers' Day to all of the dads out there) was a frustrated actor- he was the sort of guy who would dart a glance at you at dinner and intone: "Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look." As a treat, he took the three eldest of us to see James Earl Jones as Othello and Christopher Plummer as Iago, with one proviso... if we wanted to see 'Darth Vader' live and in person, we had to read the play. For the record, he also took us to see Derek Jacobi as Cyrano de Bergerac with the same prerequisite. In the 7th grade, my English teacher, who was big on public speaking, made us memorize and recite Marc Antony's eulogy of Caesar. Like most educated persons in the anglophone world, I have a long relationship, and a pleasurable one, with the Bard of Avon.

They key word here is 'educated', as there has been a lot of outrage, poutrage, and fauxtrage over this year's Central Park 'Shakespeare in the Park' production of Julius Caesar , in which Caesar is portrayed with a blond combover like Vulgarmort's. I'm going to pause here to indicate that Julius Caesar, while being self-promoting, power-hungry and ruthless, was hypercompetent and a fine literary stylist... much unlike Vulgarmort. There's no real comparison between the two men. Also, as numerous pundits have pointed out, the play underscores the dangers of political assassination, and the chaos which results from using violence for political ends. The play is most definitely not a glorification or endorsement of political violence... but try telling that to the dumbasses.

Last Friday, two alt-right idiots briefly disrupted the performance of Julius Caesar- a demonstration of, well, a demonstration of their ignorance, or more likely, a rube-fleecing, as these hack-tivists launched a fundraising site for the stage-stormer's legal defense... hours before the 'protest'. The crowning glory of this stunt was Posobiec'e goober garbling Goebbels response to the tresspasser's removal from the stage. By the way, nice job, jackass, for making 'the girl' take the risks. The whole sad affair was followed up by the saddest protest in the world.

The real tragedy here is the fact that the people who claim to be the defenders of Western Civilization are people who are totally unfamiliar with it. These people are proud ignoramuses, the sort of people who believe that the Western Canon refers to Fort Apache. Growing up in the Northeast, I grew up thinking that the American ideal was a population in which even the working class was educated, a nation of literate farmers, longshoremen, and factory workers. I believed in a nation which values free productions of Shakespearean plays, which sees itself as a continuation of a classical tradition which Shakespeare, a true Renaissance man, referenced in certain of his plays.

The two alt-right knuckleheads, or grifters as the case may well be, who engineered this stunt should be sentenced to actually reading Julius Caesar, and perhaps writing essays on the themes presented in the play. It really would be a shame if a bunch of idiots could truly declare "Show's over Shakespeare."





Maybe somebody could come up with a 'King Lear' themed monster truck show, maybe a 'Tempest' themed WWE storyline...

ADDENDUM: Or perhaps better called an 'addendumb'- these idiots aren't even familiar with 20th Century American literature or 17th Century colonial history.

ADDENDUM SECUNDUM: This might be my favorite right-wing tweet ever- some guy who is completely ignorant of Roman history and English literature thinks he's going to save Western Civilization.

Bloated Blowhard's Blighty Blunders

Ugh, what an embarrassment... Vulgarmort landed in the UK, greeted by hundreds of thousands of protestors, and proceeded to lie to and about the media, and managed to look like a dumbass, spawning some very funny, often obscene, responses. My favorite comment was a reaction to the US Embassy warning Americans abroad to keep a low profile:


Nah we love Americans it's just the haunted fluorescent ham mannequin and his keyboard MAGA arseflutes that need to shit off into a heap.


Now, THAT is how you cuss somebody out... this guy has been on a roll!

Being the sort who can't keep his mind on work, Vulgarmort scarpered off the Scotland, where he has long been unpopular. If anything, the protest signs were even more hilarious than the English ones. Yeah, the prevailing attitude in the UK is that Trump is a numpty, indeed a bawbag.

First NATO, now the US/UK alliance... what is the next relationship he's going to fuck up?

A Day for Brightness

Diwali, the festival of lights which originally commemorated Rama and Sita's return to the city of Ayodhya, started yesterday. It's a holiday symbolizing the triumph of light over darkness, good over evil. I decided to hit a local Indian restaurant for lunch... their lunch buffet is one of the best meal values in the area, with impeccable service and a wide variety of dishes (today, a dish attributed to the divine hero Bhima was one of the featured selections). After a weekend of quick meals wolfed down before work, a lavish meal with a variety of vegetable dishes was just what the gastroenterologist ordered.

In these dark days, one finds flashes of brightness where one can... and I have to admit to an almost unseemly glee at Vulgarmort getting booed while attending last night's World Series game. It was nice to see him learn how he is regarded outside of his self-imposed bubble, in front of a crowd not composed of hand-picked sycophants. My favorite part of this imposition of reality is the change of expressions on the faces of Vulgarmort and the First Concubine as realization sets in:

Watch how Trump’s face changes when he realizes an entire stadium is booing him & chanting, "Lock him up!" Priceless moment. #ImpeachmentTaskForce #TrumpBooed pic.twitter.com/iO3XG7F2xk

— Big Boss (@escapedmatrix) October 28, 2019

I have to confess that I have listened to a variety of videos taken of the event, and basking in the delightful Schadenfreude has certainly brightened my day. I hope this presages a victory of light over darkness, of good over evil.

Goodbye, Normal Society?

Tomorrow, Vulgarmort ascends to the position of Commander-in-Chief... that's a pretty bizarre notion in and of itself. I'm an unabashed liberal, I believe that a good, competent government that provides checks on corporate power and ruthless individual behavior is to be desired... I also firmly believe that a society is to be judged by how its least fortunate residents fare- there are plenty of failed states in which there are very rich individuals and families. Tomorrow, though, a thin-skinned oligarch who is completely amoral and has a tenuous grasp on reality, will become the most powerful individual on the planet, and he is surrounding himself with other oligarchs, both related and non-related. In disquieting fashion, he even stated that he is going to stage Soviet-and/or-North Korean style military parades- he's not even hiding his desire to be a tinpot despot anymore.

The really bizarre thing is that my day-to-day existence really won't change at all, even though the United States of America has been kidnapped by kleptocrats and replaced with some sort of Changeling America. The Days of Dubya were surreal enough, but the coming administration is going to be some sort of grotesque farce. Still, though, tomorrow I will head off to work as usual, on Saturday, I'll get up early and take the subway to Manhattan to teach. I doubt the mood on the train will be as bad as it was post-election, and our conversation between classes will probably be similar to the conversations we've had for the past three months. Still, something has fundamentally changed. We will have a president who picks fights with actors on a social media app, a president who blithely talks about disbanding treaties that have held for over half-a-century. Everything has changed, but the routine for me will be the same, with some unsettling exceptions... occasionally, I will have to have conversations with immigrant, Muslim, and LGBTQ friends that I've never had to have before, even in the worst days of Bush 2.0. I've had those conversations in the past three months, but now the challenge is to back up reassurances with actions if need be. Tomorrow, everything changes, I know it intellectually, but it will take a while before reality sinks in on a 'gut' level.

Weaponization of the DOJ Against Leftist Activists?

Perhaps I'm being a bit paranoid, but I found this tweet from Vulgarmort very disturbing:

Consideration is being given to declaring ANTIFA, the gutless Radical Left Wack Jobs who go around hitting (only non-fighters) people over the heads with baseball bats, a major Organization of Terror (along with MS-13 & others). Would make it easier for police to do their job!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2019

The characterization of antifascist activists as terrorists follows upon a similar proclamation by Ted Cruz. It is particularly sinister in light of the proposed end of the moratorium on the federal death penalty. It is not inconceivable that the Trump Maladministration would label political opponents 'terrorists', with the threat of a potential death sentence hanging over their heads.

In three weeks, a coterie of far-right figures from around the country plans on staging an armed rally in Portland. They have threatened violence, but in the current media climate, the gutless commentators will probably cling to the narrative that the Portland natives who protest this invasion are the villains.

The current regime is exhibiting the fourteen characteristics of fascism, and this current push to label their opponents on the left as terrorists may signal that their policies might take a turn for the worse.

Great, Another Name on the Clinton Death List

Talk about a bummer of a week, first we have Vulgarmort winning the presidential election, now we have the death of Leonard Cohen- poet, novelist, songwriter, and chanteur. My personal favorite by Mr Cohen is First We Take Manhattan:





First we take Manhattan actually sounds like a good strategy for the resistance, though the forces of repression will certainly be emboldened by Trump's ascent.

Meanwhile, some d-bag at WND or Breitbart or the Blaze is adding Leonard Cohen's name to the Clinton Death List... why? Because QUESTIONS REMAIN!

He Can’t Even Play Dictator Correctly

From the Department of Schadenfreude, it’s looking like Vulgarmort’s Grand Spectacle is shaping up to be a debacle. Who could have guessed that the guy who was made to look like a success through the magic of TV editing would muff up yet another endeavor? There seems to be a lack of planning, a flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants quality to this tawdry affair. The fact that the heat index will be in the triple digits, and there’s a possibility of scattered thunderstorms only add to the general air of haplessness.

When Trump delegates his evil to factora such as CBP and ICE, alarming things happen, the sort of things that have people quoting Niemöller, but when he is in charge, he fails in spectacular fashion. He’s as clownish as Kim Jong Un, but he’s nowhere near as effective, and we should all be glad for that.

Channeling Blofeld

Like most of us who follow the news, I'm scratching my bald pate at the firing of Reince Priebus from his position as Trump's Chief of Staff. Priebus was a representative of the Republican Establishment, having chaired the Republican National Committee for years. He was a wonk's wonk, somebody who went about the party business with little fanfare. It's sort of bizarre to see him ousted so quickly after Scaramouche went on the attack on him, but I'd chalk that up to Trump viewing Scaramucci as a sort of mini-me, a fast-talking Noo Yawk bullshit artist/legitimate business man. I would feel sorry for Reince, but for the fact that he's a scumbag, albeit a calmer one than Trump or Scaramucci, he really shouldn't have expected loyalty from Vulgarmort.

Trump now seems to be in full-on Blofeld mode, being willing to fire a chief of staff of six months' duration seemingly at the behest of a new hireling. I expect to see more of these firings, similar to Blofeld's downsizing of his Japanese Regional Manager:





Given the fact that Trump is surrounded by frickin' idiots, I expect that other firings will follow as his stated agenda, the real agenda being lining his pockets, continues to stall:





If I had to make a prediction, I'd guess that Southern barbecue is next on the menu.

No Faith in the Faithless

It happened, like I pretty much knew it would, even the 'faithless' electors couldn't forestall the installation of Vulgarmort, so the United States will now have a kakocracy as it's form of government... or for the cartoon crowd, a kekocracy. They won't be laughing when the Trump maladministration decides to take South Carolina's internet porn fee national in order to prop up the nation's finances once the inevitable new round of GOP tax cuts take effect. Hey, similar consumption taxes were imposed in Kansas as part of Brownback's shifting of the tax burden onto poor people.

Anyway, at this point, I suspect that Lin-Manuel Miranda is going to be working on a new musical about how much Hamilton sucked.

Bombing, Not Even Three Months In

Back in December, when asked by my friend Frenchie, who (naturally) is Italian, if I thought that Trump would launch a nuke, I replied that I didn't think he would, but that he would attack Iran, a long-held Republican fantasy. While this hasn't come to pass, Trump's Tomahawk missile barrage on a Syrian airfield occurred not even three months into his presiduncey. This new policy on Syria contradicts Trump's old attitude toward President Obama's potential courses of action in Syria... I guess that the Kenyan Usurper's use of America's penis substitutes was beyond the Pale for Vulgarmort.

The idea that Trump was motivated by concern for the 'beautiful babies' is belied by his refusal to succor refugee children. Why actually rescue children when you can bomb the hell out of an airfield?

This attack on Assad's regime is a puzzler- the area is such a quagmire, is the U.S. really going to fight against two sides in a multi-pronged civil war? Is ISIS the number one enemy or is Assad's regime? This is a repeat of the muddled U.S. policy in Yemen, in which our military is fighting both the extremist Sunni group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the Shiite Houthi rebel group. Fighting against both sides in an armed struggle only makes sense if one is playing the two sides against each other for personal gain... and in a creepy sidenote, Raytheon is making a fistful of dollars since the Tomahawk strike, Syrian civilians and American taxpayers be damned.

In one odd turn of events, the alt-right Trump base has gone ballistic because of the strike, though, as a leftist, I would dispute their assertion that the attack appeals to 'leftists'. Chuck Schumer is a centrist, despite his support of fillibustering Gorsuch.

My primary concern at this point, being an observer of current events and a cynical bastard, is that Trump, citing Iran's support for Assad's regime, will pivot and launch an attack on Iran. I predicted such a move back in December, and I sure hope that I am wrong.

Botpocalypse

I've had robots on my mind all week, and not even sexy robots. On Monday, I attended a lecture about robots, on Tuesday I wrote a post about the lecture about robots, and on Wednesday I woke to the news that Twitter purged a whole lot of bots, causing a meltdown among the Deplorable set. Even Vulgarmort himself seems to have lost beaucoup followers in the botpocalypse (but not the kind of robot apocalypse you're thinking of), merely a housecleaning.

The meltdown really shows a great deal of immaturity on the part of the emo-boy Nazi crowd. My beloved Joan Jett had the best advice concerning fake friends:





Well, nothing to lose but the sense that yours is a mass movement, but Boston was all the proof needed for that.

A Most Symbolic March

I missed the marches against family separation today- we've been short staffed at work, so I had to work both graveyard and afternoon shifts today. The march in New York City was particularly well-routed, the thousands of marchers began at Foley Square in Manhattan, the civic heart of Manhattan, went over the Brooklyn Bridge, which affords spectacular views of New York harbor, through which countless immigrants, including my great-grandparents and my mom's dad, who was born at sea between Buenos Aires and New York. The march ended with a rally in Cadman Plaza, in the civic heart of Brooklyn. I like the significance of linking both borough government centers, a nice show of rejection for federal policies which don't comport with our prevailing values. While I didn't have an opportunity to march, I am pleased that more people attended the major marches than attended Vulgarmort's inauguration.

In morning, before I left work, I was participating in a discussion of various slogans to put on signs at the march. My contribution was: "You can't be the party of family values if you don't value families." Another possible slogan for me would have been: "Juntos somos poderosos, juntos podemos cambiar el mundo." Alas, a particularly rough weekend at work sidelined me.

MLB More Sensitive, Racists Rage

The big culture war story today is the coming name change of the Cleveland Indians to the non-racist Cleveland Guardians.  If anyone has any doubt that 'Cleveland Indians' was a racist moniker, one look at their logo should disabuse them of this notion.  As an added bonus, the new non-racist name is a callback to locally famous statues, giving it an actual cultural resonance.  The only more significant name I can think if would have been the Cleveland Ubu Rois.

Naturally, Native American groups support this change.  Not everybody is thrilled, though, as certain high ranking right-wingers are upset.  A whacko Arizona senator has weighed in in spectacularly stupid fashion, with added bonus stupidity about Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson NOT being traitors.  Not to be outdone, Vulgarmort registered his outrage at the change from a racist name:

Former President Trump slams the Cleveland Indians' name change.

"Can anybody believe that the Cleveland Indians, a storied and cherished baseball franchise since taking the name in 1915, are changing their name to the Guardians? Such a disgrace.."

More: https://t.co/4hSGalNICQ pic.twitter.com/i6Ju5VxfNt

— KUSI News (@KUSINews) July 23, 2021

 

It's here where I note that Trump has long hated Native Americans, attacking Northeastern nations as criminals when they were gaining approval for opening casinos.  His vile attacks were insufficient to save his own casino business.

It's a good thing that the name was changed, and that racists are upset.  Society changes slowly, the reactionaries are losing, with this change forming a one-two punch with last year's name change for the Washington Football Team... in that case, I would have been okay the team keeping the name but changing their logo.

Someone's Having a Bad Christmas

Today is Boxing Day, a day traditionally occupied by giving small presents to the neighbors and public servants (such as letter carriers), after the big family celebration on Christmas Day is over.  I made sure I gave out presents to the neighbors on Christmas Eve, preparatory to submerging into a weekend of work.  It's also the Feast of St Stephen, the first Christian martyr, which in my neighborhood, with its many Irish immigrants, is a big pub day.  I have to be at work at midnight, but in a normal year, I wouldn't pass up an opportunity to meet with friends for a hot toddy before having to get ready to go in.  This year, that's just not an option... maybe tomorrow would be a good whisky day.  I do plan, though, on making some 'virgin' eggnog tonight on the job to see what the fuss is about (I can spike the leftovers tomorrow when I get home).

It's been a 'blah' Christmas, pretty much spent hunkered and bunkered at home or at work, but I've heard from family and friends, so I can't complain.  Via Tengrain, though, we learn that Vulgarmort has spent this festive season complaining about being a loser.  Even with his large family and his vaunted, flaunted wealth, the guy is miserable.  He has a teenage son and a passel of grandkids, one would think he'd put down his goddamn phone and live for once.  I'm glad he's in a blue funk, though, because through his incompetence and venality, millions of Americans have had their Christmases (and Hanukkahs, and Diwalis, and Thanksgivings, and... you get the picture) ruined.  He's even worst than Scrooge, old Ebeneezer only immiserated a handful of people, and had a redemption arc at the end.

I sure hope he spends the rest of the year simmering... like a pot of water made fragrant with the addition of cinnamon and clove, ready to be added to a small glass of whisky with lemon and honey.  I hope his digestion is off all week, maybe from a bit of underdone potato.  I don't foresee a redemption narrative for the guy, no Scrooge or Grinch he, so his running chronicle of angst all week has been balm for me... since Weihnachtsfreude is in short supply this year, I'll settle for Schadenfreude.

Mars Needs Women Sanity

Wow, there are a couple of 'cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs' stories regarding the Red Planet lately- the first is that the main purveyor of lunatic fringe right wing buffoonery has featured a guest who claims that there is a pedophile ring on Mars, claims the resulted in a response from NASA to the contrary. For the record, the purveyors of this lunacy received White House press credentials from Vulgarmort. I know I've posted the Dead Milkmen song Stuart on numerous occasions, but this 1988 release perfectly encapsulates the lunatic-right worldview:





It's appalling to see how 'normalized' this sort of idiocy has become... far from a small operation based from a P.O. Box in Pueblo, Colorado, this shit is now big business.

The other whacko story is the President stating that he wants to land a human on Mars within his first term, probably using a coal-powered spacecraft. This stated goal doesn't mesh with Trump's general attitude toward science and education.

If Trump does decide to land humans on Mars, I suggest that he starts by sending a corps of right-wing conspiracy theorists to investigate the Martian pedophile ring- these people did such a bang-up job at Comet Ping Pong.

The post-title riffs off of this piece of glorious Sci-Fi cheese, which starred the dear, departed Yvonne Craig:





The movie inspired a gloriously cheesy 1980s song of the same title by Peter Wolf:





The movie also inspired the Hoodoo Gurus' song Mars Needs Guitars, a personal Bastard favorite:





Anyway, I wouldn't mind seeing Trump sending an 'Ark B' to Mars... it's not like anybody needs a telephone sanitizer anymore.

How About Promoting an Arsonist to Fire Chief?

Ah... Sunday morning, the time of week when nothing goes on, a good morning to sleep in after a long, late night. Hey, let me check the t00bz while I hit the commode... WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!?!?


Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded..


I realize that the current occupant of the White House is a dumbass and a nutbar, but this is beyond the pale! If President Obama had so much as hinted that he wanted a joint cyber-security unit with even our closest allies, such as Canada or the UK, it would have caused a meltdown in Congress and the media. The very idea that Vulgarmort would even consider a joint cyber defense pact with the unfriendly (to the US and the EU) regime which hacked the US electoral system and, even more alarmingly, US nuclear power plants is enough to give a thinking person the creeping horrors.

This really should be the beginning of the end for dumb Donald, but the feckless GOPers are the types to criticize, then do nothing... for instance, Marco Rubio criticized Trump, but can't be relied on to stop the insanity- he's all hat tiny bottle no cattle water.

The really crazy thing is that Trump is still rambling on about this issue hours after his initial tweet:


The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn't mean I think it can happen. It can't-but a ceasefire can,& did!


This is not normal, and whether he's trolling or he's actual nuts makes no real difference. Either way, he is doing irreparable harm to our security apparatus. The real tragedy is that the GOP Congress can't be relied on to 25 45.

The Resistance Kicks Off, Big League!

Saturdays are pretty much a lost cause for me, my typical schedule is to return from work around 5AM, sleep for two-and-a-half hours, then go to Manhattan to coach children's judo classes from 9:20AM to 11:45AM, returning home by about 1:30PM and napping for an hour and a half before getting ready to work at 5PM. This morning, though, I was sick as a dog- it might be a bad cold, but I'm feeling kinda beat up, so it could be the flu. I sent a blanket text message to the other coaches, telling everybody that I wasn't in a sharing mood. I blasted my sinuses a couple of times with my neti pot, set my alarm for 11AM, and spent the better part of the day sandwiched between the covers, listening to the radio. I may have been a non-starter today, but I listened to the coverage of the multiple marches for women's rights while I lay still, continuously blowing my nose.

WOW, is all I have to say, this global movement, the day after Vulgarmort's lackluster inauguration, has the potential to be a true game-changer if its momentum is maintained. Women are tragically unrepresented in congress- about twenty-percent of Congresscritters are women, while women represent about fifty-one percent of the population. As much as I had mocked the 'Tea Party' movement on the right, those fuckers got out and voted, and they supported candidates from the local level to the federal level. I sure hope that the marches, which were impressive, will lead to workshops, which will lead to networking in order to increase the percentage of women in the government. Liberals and progressives tend to have a bad track record when it comes to voting in midterm elections... this is a mistake that must not be repeated. The women of the United States demonstrated their potential power, now they have to grab it- the Orange Ogre shouldn't be the only one grabbing what he wants. Pussy Power is one thing, but Poll Power has to be the long-term goal.

We'll Always Have Paris?

Being both interested in science and an outdoorsy person, I write about climate change quite a bit. Put succinctly, I am convinced that it is real, it is anthropogenic, and it is dangerous. With Vulgarmort expected to pull out of the Paris climate accord, I am pig-biting mad. Even most large U.S. corporations currently support the Paris accord.

Worldwide, the prices of renewable energy resources are lowering- in India, the price of solar generation is now undercutting the price of fossil-fuel generation. The prospect of lowering humanity's carbon footprint is becoming more and more likely with technological innovations. Meanwhile, Tweety Amin has made the renewal of the coal industry in the US a plank in his platform, even though that will never happen given the low price of natural gas (which, while better than coal, should be phased out as well).

Now is not the time to double down on propping up the fossil fuel industry- we need a 21st Century energy policy, not a 19th Century one... By pulling out of the Paris accord, the United States will cede political, technological, economic, and even moral power to other powers, be they the European Union or China. The only beneficiaries of such a policy change would be the fossil fuel oligarchs and their pet politicians.

In Switzerland, the first commercial atmospheric carbon capture plant just opened. There is an entire family of industries that can be developed to mitigate the climate change conundrum- it just requires political will and proper funding priorities to make it happen... and I don't think that the United States will be at the forefront of this revolution. The plane won't leave the ground, because we won't always have Paris:





The irony here is that even the oligarchs would benefit in the long-term by dropping their short-sightedness and reactionary politics.

UPDATE: Tengrain's take is that Trump wants to pull out of the Paris climate agreement in order to help Russia's petrochemical industry- I guess Moscow grifting Trump's Paris activism.