This is great. Noam Chomsky on Democracy Now:
Well, I must say that politics in this country now is in a state that I think has no analogue in American history and maybe nowhere in any parliamentary system. It’s astonishing. I mean, I’m not a great enthusiast for Obama, as you know, from way back, but at least he’s somewhere in the real world. Perry, who’s very likely—very likely to get the—to win the primary and win the nomination, and maybe to win the election, he’s often in outer space. I mean, his views are unbelievable. Bachmann is the same. Romney is kind of more or less toward the center. These are—the positions that they are taking are utterly outlandish. I mean, as you mentioned before, I just came back from Europe, where people just can’t believe what they’re seeing here, what people are saying. I mean, take one of the really crucial issues for the human species: doing something about environmental catastrophe. Well, you know, every single one of the Republican candidates—maybe not Huntsman, but every major one—is a climate change denier. It’s kind of ironic in the case of Perry. He says there’s no global warming, while Texas is burning up with the highest temperatures on record, fire all over the place, and so on.
Being logical, knowledgeable, sensible, rational — none of these are required of American candidates. Getting elected is required. Getting money from fat-cat donors is a pre-requisite. Being willing to be blackmailed, to be corrupt in the sense of doing what fat-cats want you to do and PAY you to do — rather than doing what;’s by any measure good for your constituents — is the PRE-EMINENT PRE-REQUISITE.
Extreme spinal flexibility helps a lot. Vast stupidity helps, too. A person of any character or mind would have a hard time in American politics.
It is such a farce.
link to nybooks.com
Already in a condition of satire, the opening of the Tea Party-hosted GOP debate on Monday night in Tampa presented the eight Republican presidential candidates as good-looking characters—“The Diplomat” “The Newcomer” “The Firebrand”—who would have to battle one another off the electoral island. Music, brassy and tense, and a baritone voice-over let you know that this reality show was part of the ongoing Apocalypse Lite that has infused our television programming and made the networks almost unwatchable. There was little even Jon Stewart on his show the next evening could do to make fun of what was often comedically predigested—except to say that the red, white and blue stage looked like the inside of Betsy Rossʼs, well, sewing room. Iʼm paraphrasing.
There is always something if not a lot to learn by watching a circus—one is both amazed by and sorry for the animals.
Al Franken a while back wrote a book about “The Lying Liars, and the Lies they tell.” In it he says a good rule of thumb in regard to candidates is to look at the past performance, particularly governors from their respective states (he showed the “legacy” of Bush). When you look at Perry, what do you see?
POVERTY GROWS IN RICK PERRY’S TEXAS”
So what you can look forward to is accelerated poverty at a higher level. The condition in the state will just take on a national flavor
The high water point of Jewish money in the Beltway
link to haaretz.com
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman congratulated Obama’s UN speech, and praised him for not stating that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians should be based on 1967 borders.
“I congratulate President Obama, and I am ready to sign on this speech with both hands,” said Lieberman during a post-speech press conference
Guess which two words neither Goodman nor Chomsky could muster?
Ron Paul.
Im sure both of them disagree with Paul about much of his domestic agenda. But shouldnt they mention that when it comes to interventionism, the torture empire and so on, he is quite the opposite of the lunacy his GOP colleagues spout?
“Well, I must say that politics in this country now is in a state that I think has no analogue in American history and maybe nowhere in any parliamentary system…These are—the positions that they are taking are utterly outlandish. I mean, as you mentioned before, I just came back from Europe, where people just can’t believe what they’re seeing here, what people are saying.”
In my view, all of this is political theater and completely predictable. The fat-cats love Obama and want to see him re-elected. How is that possible when he is a neoliberal warmonger who is screwing his base beyond belief? Easy, scare the left to death with Republican candidates who are so far beyond the pale as to be caricatures of right-wing fanatics. That is why the drift to the right has turned into a stampede. Works every time. The public is rather easily manipulated by those who have the resources to do so.
What Ron Paul needs is for Progressives that have compromised themselves with Obama to oblivion to listen to the Ralph Nader/ Ron Paul presentations on you-tube. The only disagreement is on proper fiscal policies. No, to the Patriot act, no to TSA, no to the military/welfare state and no to the clash of civilizations, if we wo’nt to preserve one.
A Stalinist once explained to me how a decent Socialist society can only be built on the back of a strong “truly Capitalist economy”. This Libertarian now knows a good investment when he sees it. Hej!
It is just high-end stupidty to link these two
“there’s no global warming, while Texas is burning up with the highest temperatures on record, fire all over the place” is more Hansen-style chicken Little and the sky is falling hyperbole. The global lower atmosphere temperature (actual recorded) this year is nowhere near the high of 1998.
• The Texas Forest Service and fire officials are blaming power line sparks for two of the major fires. link to forbes.com
• We have a La Nina this year (El Nino last year): link to physorg.com
• And the 2011 drought has nothing on the drought of the 1950s (nor the record 1980 or 1988 droughts), when the CO2 count was much lower than 2011, as shown in a NOAA animation here: link to stevengoddard.files.wordpress.com
Sounds like the Catholic Church and Ptolemy (sun revolves around the earth). The Democrats shouldn’t be giving that to the Republicans.
The east coast (US) and parts of the midwest experienced record temps this summer. The west did not. A slight shift, even a 1/10th of a degree shift, of the earth’s axis (which happened with the Aceh and Japan earthquakes) can possibly explain why the eastern part of the US got the western heat signature.
Be that as it may, I am not here to argue global warming nor climate change. The stupidity of assigning a temperature anomaly in a sub-climate of the country to a global issue, which is far more complex than the activity of a single variable or two [OMIGOD, IT'S 110 DEGREES], and turning that into a political bellweather is as idiotic as listening to Republican congressmen and senators presume to discuss meteorology and climate science. Everyone needs to put their clothes back on.
You’re climate is going to change dramatically if Likud is not restrained?
MRW,
read what Chomsky said more carefully. He said that TEXAS had the highest temperatures ever recorded IN TEXAS. Chomsky didn’t say the global temperatures were highest in 2011.
The high temperatures in Texas are connected with the terrible drought in Texas, and also with the wildfires. Last time I checked, Texas had experiences 50,000 wildfires. I know Texas ia a big state, but 50,000 is still a helluva lotta wildfires (nearly 1000 a week).
And this weather pattern is what you expect to find more and more, with global warming.
And along comes Rick Perry, saying “global warming isn’t happening”.
Chomsky believes in the rational powers of the human mind. Chomsky can’t relate to Rick Perry.
Nevada Ned,
Chomsky can’t relate to Rick Perry.
Neither can I.
I stand corrected, NN, Chomsky did specify Texas. Thanks.
But I still think it’s a stupid idea to make it a political issue. I subscribe to Richard Feynman statement, “No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated.” Full quote here: link to goodreads.com
And this weather pattern is what you expect to find more and more, with global warming.
Check out August 2011 nationally from the NCDC at NOAA (great link, BTW): link to ncdc.noaa.gov
Broiling, but it’s a specific sub-climate/eco-system. It’s weather, not climate. Climate models with warming would have predicted more rain, not less. This year the Texas sub-climate was affected by a La Nina which is is a cooling climate pattern (from one of the links in former post).
Now check out June 2011 for comparison. Texas is Hot. The West is cool. (Nevada is below normal.)
But the interesting temps in Texas in August are the August 1988 and 1980, the last big droughts in the area. Take a look. 1988 is normal, 1980 just slightly warmer.
As a Professor from UBC complained in an interview last year—he was called the Global Warming Chair or some such—he was getting fed up with people blaming the huge number of forest fires in British Columbia on global warming. He called it simplistic. You can hear him say it here starting at around 37/38 minutes, and explain why:
link to tvo.org
BTW, listen to the same guy say that the CO2 count under a forest canopy is 600 PPM right now, starting at 23 minutes. (The whole debate is fascinating.)
No one doubts the 50,000 fires but they swept across land that was full of pines, of various types. Pines explode and shoot their embers up to 1/2 mile, starting more fires. The sap boils in the trunk at a low boiling point (something like 60C, but don’t hold me to it) and they burst apart. The federal park rangers finally nailed this down during the massive forest fire that swept from Wyoming to CA in the late 90s, early 00s. Millions upon millions of acres lost. It was the pine. Changed forest management policy in the parks forever.