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I totally agree, Dane... It's the truth...
#berniesanders
When will Hillary UNDERSTAND that we true Democratic's do NOT LIKE HER taking information out of context to FIX her needs to make her opponent look like a liar!
When will she LEARN, its why she lost to Obama, by taking Rev. Wrights Sermon out of context? It's sad, because I believe she should have been President and Obama her VP!
Now, she's doing it all over again. I feel sad for Hillary, because she should NOT be as DESEPERATE as she is being. She is just NOT our first woman President, despite ALL her EXPERIENCE!
They didn't have grid-lock in Lincoln and Roosevelt's times like we do now. That's thanks to the internet.
Anyone (on the left) notice the price of a barrel of oil lately?
I walked in to a Wal-Mart bathroom one day and heard someone getting sick in one of the stalls. A minute later, out walked an elderly Wal-Mart employee. I got the feeling he wasn't headed home. It's a sick world we live in. No compassion. Get sick on your own time. Governor Snyder from Flint Michigan can explain how these things work in the real world. Good old boys watch out for each other. I sense that Bernie Sanders is not a good old boy, and that he's the only one running for President that actually wants to make meaningful changes that benefit working people and doesn't just give lip service. Fingers are crossed!!!
Healthcare costs will continue to rise along with the use of toxins in our food supply and the rest of our environment. It won't matter what healthcare plan we have. Do your homework just on the toxic foods. Monsanto has close friends on the Supreme Court namely Clarence Thomas and Scalia.
As long as we have corrupt individuals in government positions we'll be beating our heads against the wall.
Bernie is correct We the People need to stand up and vote with our wallets.
I worked at a company (for a short time) that not only did not pay for sick days off, but required a Doctors note if you called in sick. This was required even if the employee could not afford to see a Doctor. If you did not have a note you were subject to being fired. CEO made about $25 million per year.
Really too bad, but nobody cares --this is more of the 1993 onward slide-- NAFTA, tattoos the whole thing. And we're stuck on stupid -- with the gall to scratch our noggins re: mass shootings.
Yup. If someone is taking shots at you, you have to return the fire. People understand this and don't condemn it. Stand your ground.
Bernie has a lot of integrity and takes the high road which is admirable...but he must put the spotlight on her high donor contributors such as Goldman Sachs (she will not reinstate Glass Steagall), her not wanting to work on single payer because the ACA is good for now (the pharma and insurance industries have donated huge sums to her super pac). These are just a few examples that Bernie must highlight aggressively to show there are real differences where their priorities are if elected. It is fair game. This isn't a contest.....this is for the POTUS.
I agree.
It may be possible to construct a nuclear plant in 5 years, but that does not include the time for planning and licensing.
I think the whole system wants a re-boot, everything in the US today is geared to the bottom line, there are no people anymore ,they have become commodities ,there for the good of the Corporatocracy and nothing else . Time to polish the Guillotine Blade.
Kend, other business owners I've heard speak on it don't seem to agree. Perhaps we need to dash any hopes of policy change like before Reagan. Business owners don't deserve so much influence on policy in a democratic society, working people deserve more.
He has called her out for several things, that is not an attack.
Gee what a novel idea!
The takeawy is clear.
Do whatever possible at the state level as the US congress is a gridlocked mess.
ct
We see the two extremes viewed here, extreme pessimism of Roland & telliottmbamsc malthusian end-of-the-world types and over-optimism of SueN. I take the middle path, it's not an extinction event - not even close. But it should be minimized through major effort - which is entirely feasible and economical technologically. It is strictly a case of political corruption preventing the main solutions to proceed.
The last ice age lasted for 100,000 yrs up to 12,000 yrs ago. Now that was an eco-disaster. Nothing humans have done or we likely will do remotely compares to that. Much of North America, Europe and large sections of Asia buried under two miles of ice. Those are the biggest continental land masses on the planet. A major disaster for life.
We humans have warmed the climate sufficiently to prevent further ice age disasters, but on the other extreme we don't want to precipitate runaway global warming either. Life on this Earth would handle that not so bad, and would recover from it, but it is still stupid and sensless destruction, which will severely impair the quality of life for billions of humans. The sole reason for that idiotic destruction is our politicians, our ENGO's like Greenpeace, our bureaucracies like the NRC and of course the MSM have been totally corrupted by big money Fossil Fuel & Banking interests.
So the disease is not humanity. the disease is our political systems that allow corrupt, elite parasites to buy our government & institutions. Put the blame where it rightfully belongs.
SueN,
It WON'T happen because it CAN'T happen---as I argue here: https://www.academia.edu/19303496/The_End_is_Near
ACT I
even if we take dramatic action in the coming year to cut green house gase emissions, the consequences of those Green House Gases that we have emitted so far will continue to roll out with nothing short of geometric growth in its inertia. Anybody who tells you we can go about patching up the damage we have done to the environment might want to review the history of life on earth. The flora and fauna we are destroying literally took 100's of millions of years to come about, and that is only AFTER the foundations for life in the form of a conductive atmosphere and planetary hydrologic system took a few BILLIONS of years to set up. We are delivering our death blow to precisely those elements that take the longest to get right.
In reality, you can pose a bigger no-brainer than "I wonder if the world will start to reassert life in the coming year." The answer is one big collasal NO FRIGG'N WAY!
[there are people who think that after what we have already done, left to it's own devices the earth could never replicate the abundance we've experienced before our Sun turned into a red giant and obliterates the earth a couple billion years from now]
Last night I got into this twitter discussion and I am shocked at how it went. I cannot believe this back and forth.
John Fugelsang Retweeted Dr. Rand Paul
as opposed to the fascists.
John Fugelsang added,
Dr. Rand Paul @RandPaulI hope they're going to wear name tags during the #DemDebate tonight so I can tell who the Socialist is...115 retweets261 likesReply Retweet 115 Like 261 More
@JohnFugelsang @RandPaul I hope you Republicans start wearing NASCAR patches of all the corporations who who own YOU.
3 retweets10 likesReply Retweet 3 Like 10 View Tweet activity More
@kurtmcc And Dems should wear corp patches along with patches for unions, trial lawyers and every victim group that asks them for favors
0 retweets0 likesReply Retweet Like More
@KTilson88 Those are all groups that represent the workers, the victims and the downtrodden. Way to try to equate them with greedy rich.
1 retweet3 likesReply Retweet 1 Like 3 View Tweet activity More
@kurtmcc Rich who are rich like the Koch's have done more for the world than the top 100 philanthropists in world history combined
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Like Thom says, despair is not an option. And like I said, it may take a while for us to see any improvement.
China may well reduce emissions because of the terrible pollution it is experiencing, and because of reduced demand for its goods, even if not for COP21.
It is the dreamers who invent new ways to do things, bringing improvements to our lives.
Nuclear power plants take too long to build, and use a lot of fossil fuel in their early years. And we haven't solved the problem with nuclear waste - a terrible legacy for our descendants. It may be that better kinds of nuclear power come along, but not in time to solve our current crisis.
While there's life there's hope, and the more we do to reverse the damage, the better it will be for us and the planet.
There is no reason for optimism; the extinction of humanity may already be assured. And that is if we stop burning hydrocarbons today. Since the burning of hydrocarbons is likely for at least the next twenty years, the extinction of humanity is certain. The Earth will recover just fine, just without the disease if humanity.
Roland
A lot of information you posted there. But way, way optimistic. In reality the numbers do not justify ANY optimism. Easy for politicians to make GHG reduction promises for their successors to inact, sounds wonderful. For instance, like the Repugs will respect Obama's promises for them to reduce emissions. Really?
Just more disinformation created in big highly promoted forums made up for the gullible public & crony media. Whereas the real energy decisions are made behind closed doors by Banksters, Energy executives, Oil Exporting Plutocrats and bought-and-paid for Politician Lackeys.
It may be there is a little blip of supposed CO2 emissions reductions in 2015, most likely a statistical artifact or fluke. There is really no hint of a trend from rapidly increasing world CO2 emissions. And let us not forget methane emissions due to the rapidly expanding NG production, which are mostly either not reported in those way optimistic numbers or are severely under-reported.
Coal alone, we know China seriously under-reports Coal consumption.
Take a hard look at the Real World Data:
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/index.html
See any sign of CO2 levels stabilizing? Not even close. Instead we are seeing a Record Growth rate of CO2 levels at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, a 3.2% increase in 2015:
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/gr.html
And that doesn't include the more rapidly increasing methane emissions.
Real world projections of the growth in CO2 emissions:
https://edmhdotme.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/screen-shot-2015-03-05-at-...
Per capita emissions rising rapidly in most of the world:
https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.ra...
And population at least doubling before 2100, 83% of population in Developing Nations, all with rapid per capita emissions increases along with population growth.
Do we really expect poverty stricken citizens of the Third World will content themselves with living an extreme low-energy lifestyle? Ain't gonnna happen.
In fact the COP21, climate agreement has rightfully been called "Putting Lipstick on a Pig".
James Hansen, father of climate change awareness, calls Paris talks 'a fraud':
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/12/james-hansen-climate-...
Grand promises of Paris climate deal undermined by squalid retrenchments, George Monbiot:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2015/dec/12/paris-c...
About all that happened in 2015 is there are increased efforts to replace older, inefficient Coal power plants with newer more efficient ones. Something Japan uses its "Climate Change budget" to finance. All that does is lock in high CO2 emissions for 30 yrs or more, even if at a lower rate than before. And the replacement of Coal with NG is very dubious, since usually increased Methane emissions are ignored or under-reported and large inefficiencies will be inevitable with a switch to LNG.
And they may claim the world economy grew in 2015, but that is just on paper - the paper economy grew, while the real economy didn't. The paper economy doesn't produce significant emissions, and only serves to increase the proportional wealth of the rich.
Blocking the Keystone pipeline, will increase emissions, not reduce them. Cheap oil will also facilitate increased emissions.
I got a big problem with statements like this:
"... Leo DiCaprio said, "unlocking nature's secrets will help us solve the climate crisis. Working alongside nature will create a civilization that will be infinitely sustainable. The time has come to build this world now."
Hyping pipe dreams is a guaranteed way to preserve the status quo. Big Carbon loves to fund and promote those who sell wild greenie fantasies, because they know very well that will ensure they will continue to dominate the energy marketplace.
DiCaprio, give me a break, we can't even stop fossil from buying almost every politician and his close relatives. The entire Republican candidate list is all entirely hostile to fossil fuel reductions. They also like scams & pipe dreams however. Like George Bush & Dick Cheney promoting the Hydrogen economy scam & pipe dream. And Corn Ethanol. And most politicians and Oil funded ENGO's, like Greenpeace, remain rabidly hostile to Nuclear Power, the only realistic replacement for fossil fuels.
If DiCaprio, really wanted to do something to save the enviroment he should promote Nuclear Power and take some of his huge wealth and try building an eco-paradise, populated with Real, Middle Class citizens, living in harmony with nature. Put his money where his mouth is. I'm all for those kind of experiments. Not like the phony environmentalist, Ted Turner, who buys big chunks of wilderness and kicks all people off the land, like that will create a viable, sustainable future world.