Dueling Climate Narratives

Eli,

From Reuters via the NY Times:

Climate Change's Fingerprints Are on U.S. Midwest Floods: Scientists.

Also from the NY Times.

California Drought Is Made Worse by Global Warming, Scientists Say

Curious if it's the same group of scientists.

Bill

Looks Like Elizabeth Warren Was Right After All (At Least About This)

Bill,


The latest data on the relation between  bankruptcy and healthcare costs for uninsured patients,


Eli

Hope

Eli,
You are quoting Margaret Thatcher. There's hope for you yet.

Bill

250 counties, 28 new members of Congress

Bill,


That's number of counties who voted twice for Barack Obama and then for Donald Trump, and the number of newly elected members of Congress from districts that Trump carried. The reality here is as plain as the smile Ronna McDaniel Romney's face at the prospect of branding Democrats as a bunch of raving socialists; Medicare for all! Free College tuition! Get rid of the billionaires! I may favor a lot more government involvement in public life than you, but I think Margaret Thatcher had one thing right when she said, "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."


Mrs Butcher and I had a serious conversation over whether we could really bring ourselves to vote for Bernie or Warren. Most likely yes but only with deep sadness and foreboding. We are a center-left/right country. The Democratic party is a diverse and fractious coalition. Moderates make up a majority of the electorate. Democratic primary voters ignore that reality at their peril. 


Eli

We Are Complicit

Bill,


We are complicit if we do not speak out. Bigotry and hate should be opposed whatever the source and whatever the target. The  argument that "both sides do it" is the false moral equivalence that the President has engaged in so effectively to normalize such behavior.


Frankly, I don't expect any better from the Republicans. I do expect better from my party. That is why I reached out, and will continue to do so. Sooner or later I expect my congresswoman to address these issues directly, or she will hear from me again, in a manner less diplomatic.


I hope Rep Omar faces a primary challenge next year. Those who defend her are blind fools, like the German Jews who didn't think the Nazis meant exactly what they said.


Eli

House Resolution 183

Eli,

Your letter to your congress-women was moving and it is tragic anyone ever has to write this kind of letter to any congress person.

Maybe I'm looking at the wrong resolution they finally voted on. This is what I found: H.RES 183

Here's the first sentence:

Condemning anti-Semitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values and aspirations that define the people of the United States and condemning anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against minorities as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contrary to the values and aspirations of the United States.

It goes on to condemn bigotry of all sorts, including the Dreyfus Affair, so we can check that one off of the atrocities we are against.

It just strikes me as odd that no where does it condemn the multiple specific anti-semitic statements from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Mn). And she's still on the Foreign Affairs Committee. (And Ralph Northam is still governor of VA and Keith Ellison is still AG of Minnesota).

We've had this argument before: Both parties have their cretins they are at times unwilling to evict because of power considerations. I guess that makes all of us, in your word, complicit.

Bill

My Email to My Congresswoman

Bill


Dear Congresswoman Hayes,


I am a lifelong Democrat. I voted for you and contributed to your campaign, and I wish you success in the days ahead.


I am also an American Jew, whose father fought in the great war in Europe, Dday+17, and who passed on hard learned lessons about anti-semitism and the enduring need to  call it out at every turn.


Congresswoman Omar's tactics are classic anti-semitic maneuvers-dual loyalty, love of money, sinister control are all part  of the playbook. She doesn't just want justice for the Palestinians, (as do I, in the form of their own state). She wants the Israelis to disappear. If you want to get a sense of where she's going, just look across the Atlantic at Jeremy Corbin.


I hope you will come to see this with time and disavow her and those who enable her.  


Sincerely,


Eli

Lies and More Lies

Eli,

I think Trump lies often. I think Obama lied often. I think Bush lied often. I think politicians lie. Often. Yet somehow the lie detection chyrons on CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc are deployed for Trump but I don't recall the same level of devotion to truth patrol for anyone other than Trump.

Ahhh, but Trump lies much more than a normal politician. Maybe, probably. So it's OK to lie a certain amount but once you cross the lying Maginot line the guardians of veracity have to take action. Got it. Good to know. Ummm, please tell me how much is  the lying tipping point.

I don't trust the guardians of truth. I think they lie, or are stupid, or both. The easiest example for me is a small lie, but repeated often. Maggie Haberman at the NY Times claimed the Intelligence Community was unanimous in concluding the Russians interfered with the election. This is absurd. There are 17 members of the Intelligence Community, including US Coast Guard Intelligence. Sure, the Coast Guard evaluated the Russian interference claim and agreed the Russians interfered. This lie was repeated over and over again by media and Congressman and the NY Times and ALL of them did or should have known better. There are many many many many many many more examples of lies perpetuated or enabled or ignored (if proposed by the right side) by the guardians of truth. I pick on the NY Times but I think ALMOST ALL of them are bad, including Fox, Breitbart and their ilk.

I think the Russian investigation is a lie. It is based on a lie, perpetuated by lies and is now falling apart so more lies are being proposed to replace the discredited lie. Good job everyone.

I've become agitated about this recently because of the relentlessness of the lies and the impact it is having. I think it's bad for the country to believe and spread these lies and justify it with "Orange Man Bad."

A young man I cherish was speaking with his mother recently bemoaning the state of the job market today compared to the job market when she entered the workforce. [Double head shake- What the what!!] He claimed the job market today is much worse than the late 1980's. I've heard you say, accurately, this is just about the best job market ever. And yet this intelligent, educated young man has the belief the job market is poor. How can this be. Ignorance of youth, impatience to move along, maybe dis-satisfaction with the job he got shortly after graduating. And maybe a large dose of news reports and statements from Republicans and Democrats about how awful things are or are going to be. When Obama was President the GOP complained about slow growth and the Dems/Obama talked about the longevity of the recovery. When Trump became President the positions change. They are all lying and and the lies are repeated by their useful idiots, their media vassals. On both sides.

The relentlessness of the lies is one of the reasons I am highly skeptical of climate change predictions. The predictions are based on assumption of population growth, economic growth, energy intensity and fuel sources. The most dire predictions, the ones constantly repeated by the press and politicians is based on RCP 8.5. The Atlantic had something to say about RCP 8.5 in this article.  And the lies and ignorance leads to stupid predictions like this: "U.N. Predicts Disaster if Global Warming Not Checked. UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000." Yes, the prediction is from June 29, 1989. Fortunately, according to the silly little girl from Brooklyn we have another 12 years to fix everything before global disaster. I guess I'm a denier because I deny believing they know the difference between their elbow and a hole in the ground.

I'm sure a certain Nobel-prize winning NY Times columnist who predicted the world would end with the election of Trump will suddenly discover the strength of the economy when a Republican isn't in the White House. And God forbid we would give credit to Trump, corporate tax cuts and de-regulation which were predicted to accelerate growth. No instead we have lies, or ignorance, I'll go with lies, from dopes like Kamala Harris and Chris Murphy, claiming the reason people are getting lower tax rebates this year is because the tax cuts went to the millionaires and billionaires and the greedy corporations. Probably has nothing to do with the IRS adjusting withholding tables to withhold less taxes meaning people have been benefiting from the tax cut for a full year.

So yea, I'm cheesed off. Not just at the Dems for lying about Obamcare. Not just at the Republicans for lying about whatever they are lying about and not just the media for being incompetent. I'm cheesed off at all of them. And I think ALL of them are hurting the country.

I'm not going to defend the character of President Trump. I didn't vote for him, I don't like him. I'll probably vote for him in 2020 [and please don't accuse then of being complicit. Complicit? As in being in on a crime? Sigh]. This assume he runs against one of the lunatics the Dems are contemplating and I believe they will nominate a lunatic. I still won't like him and I'll still believe he's a flawed person. The Republican Bill Clinton if Bill Clinton weren't already a Republican.

Bill

Democarats Are Liars. Republicans Always Tell The Truth

Bill,


I read with interest but not surprise your "J'accuse"  against the Democrats for the claims made about the ACA that proved to be incorrect. In this hyper partisan age, I imagine  it's too much for either side to accept honest intentions from the other. It isn't possible that President Obama actually believed what he said when he asserted that "you can keep your health care if you like it" (that was in fact the reality for 99.2% of Americans). No, every thought or action must be proof the venality of the other side.


To return to our favorite New York  Times columnist, I'm curious to hear your thoughts about Brooks' reaction to Michael Cohen's testimony, and what he thinks it tells us about the leader of our country and his vociferous supporters. As usual, I can't improve upon his sentiments.    


"Normal people have moral sentiments. Normal people are repulsed when the president of their own nation lies, cheats, practices bigotry, allegedly pays off porn star mistresses.

Were Republican House members enthusiastic or morose as they decided to turn off their own moral circuits, when they decided to be monumentally unconcerned by the fact that their leader may be a moral cretin?

Do they think that having anesthetized their moral sense in this case they will simply turn it on again down the road? Having turned off their soul at work, do they think they will be able to turn it on again when they go home to the spouse and kids?"

Time will tell, I suppose. When he finally falls, no doubt they will all say they didn't know. How could they? He is their creation, after all.

Eli

Bill,


Thanks for the heads up over David Brooks' post in Mondays New York Times. I read him  religiously, yet somehow I missed this one. Even if I were a better writer, I couldn't have improved upon his argument. MFA (Medicare For All) is simply a terrible idea on multiple fronts. What Brooks leaves out is the fact that aside from every other argument, the politics for Democrats of taking away  employer-based health care from the 180 million Americans who like it is suicidal. I predict the idea will quietly dissipate by the general election,. Unless of course, the Democratic nominee is, god forbid, Bernie, or Liz.


Though you may hate those as well, there are much easier solutions that accomplish the same goal of providing universal access.


1) Allow anyone over 55 to buy into Medicare-lets call that Medicare for most.
2) Support and strengthen Medicaid access under the ACA.
3) Provide a public option on the exchanges-the policy option that Sen Lieberman destroyed back in 2009.
4) Allow Medicare to bargain for drug and device prices.


These maneuvers, which could easily pass a Democratic Congress and be readily signed by President Hickenlooper in 2021, would continue the kind of incremental change that our healthcare system so desperately needs.


Eli








  

Brooks on Medicare for All, Part 2

Eli,

I was thinking of how the proponents of Medicare for All would overcome the obstacles Brooks articulates.

It finally dawned on me it will be easy. They'll do the same thing they did with ObamaCare: Lie about it from start to finish. One big fat lie after another. Problem solved.

Bill

Brooks on Medicare for All

Eli,

I'm sure you read David Brooks' Medicare for All piece from yesterday. I usually agree with about 50% of anything Brooks says, but this time I am in 100% agreement.

I read the first few comments and re-discovered how remarkably ingnorant and uninformed NY Times commenters are.

Bill