Rational Americans have been spending every day since January 20th freaking out as report after report details new assaults on the Constitution, the rule of law, science, poor people, minorities and women…basically, on the fabric of modern society. As justifiable as those reactions are, however, there is one assault that is easily the worst–because it poses an existential threat to all of humanity. As damaging–indeed, as terrifying– as all the other assaults are, history teaches us that they will eventually be overcome. (Granted, not necessarily in our lifetimes, and not without a lot of pain.)
But that return to sanity faces an unprecedented challenge. Overcoming social and political dysfunction requires residence on a habitable planet.
The single most dangerous and damaging aspect of the MAGA movement is its refusal to occupy reality–a reality that requires co-ordinated efforts to combat climate change.
As Cass Sunstein has recently written,
With the deluge of executive orders in the initial weeks of the second Trump administration, an important directive flew under the radar. It requires the federal government to consider abandoning “the social cost of carbon,” potentially undercutting all climate policymaking.
That is a technical way of signaling something simple and false: Climate change is not real. If the social cost of carbon is treated as zero, then greenhouse gas emissions inflict no damage. Regulations that reduce those emissions have no benefits, which suggests that those regulations should be eliminated.
The social cost of carbon has often been described as the most important number you’ve never heard of. The metric is meant to capture the harm caused by a ton of carbon emissions, making it a foundation of national climate change policy. A lower value would justify weaker regulations, while a higher one would warrant more aggressive policies.
The MAGA movement is hell bent on rejecting science, evidence and reality. Whether MAGA Neanderthals believe that their God will protect them, or cling to the belief that fossil fuel companies’ bottom lines are more important than the lives of their grandchildren, or share the fanciful beliefs of the world’s Musks and Trumps that they are demigods safe from the possibility that ignorance and viciousness won’t bring us all down, the consequences will be the same.
And those consequences are inevitable.
Trump and Musk attack every structural barrier they encounter in exactly the same way: they declare that it has been “politicised” and “weaponized.” So the Department of Justice has to be turned into an agency directed by Trump against his perceived enemies, the press must be cowed into a “balance” favoring euphemistic coverage of Trump’s lawbreaking, efforts to overcome systemic discrimination must be characterized as departures from competence (a particularly ludicrous accusation considering the incredible ignorance and lack of relevant skill of Trump nominees) –and the science of climate change must be demonized and dismissed as some sort of liberal myth.
As Sunstein concludes after his rather technical explanation of the social cost of carbon, “climate change is real. No president, and no federal agency, has the authority to pretend otherwise.”
Americans are currently under the thumb of madmen so arrogant they believe they can defeat reality by the simple act of denial.
Rational people, of course, recognize that belief as insanity. It is one thing to fall short of compliance with global efforts to counter–or at least slow–global warming; it is another thing entirely to reject science and simply refuse to accept the undeniable and mounting evidence that is now all around us.
The average global temperature has increased by about 2°F (1.1°C) since 1850. The rate of warming has increased in recent decades. Glaciers are shrinking, and the amount of Arctic sea ice is decreasing. Sea levels are rising at an increasing rate. Rainfall events are becoming more intense. Snow is melting earlier, and spring is coming earlier; plants are leafing out and spring migrant birds arrive earlier each year. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing. More land areas are experiencing more hot days and heat waves. Wildfires are starting more easily and spreading more rapidly (as Californians can attest). Etc. Etc.
Trump’s insistence that none of this is connected is undoubtedly motivated in part by his close relationship with fossil fuel magnates, but the motivation is irrelevant. As he and Musk continue their slow-rolling coup, they are destroying more than the Constitution and rule of law. They aren’t just waging war on the legal and philosophical framework of the Founders; they are virtually guaranteeing that much of the Earth will be inhospitable to human life–and sooner, rather than later.
Musk thinks Mars will be a viable substitute. This Earthling begs to differ.
If the Covid era showed us anything, it is that climate change will correct itself after people are pretty much gone and the wealthy have no say in how the world runs any more. And, yes, I’m being facetious as the wealthy are toward the rest of us.
The personal creation of DOGE and the appointment of his highest single donor Musk as Secretary of DOGE was never submitted before Congress as required by the Constitution which has NOT YET been repealed. This same lack of required Constitutional Rule of Law applies to his deluge of Executive Orders. Only THREE WEEKS in office and the nation and our place in global politics is systematically been destroyed by Trump’s childish temper tantrum onslaught of Executive Orders which are…again covered and limited by the Constitution.
He already qualifies for bringing an impeachment for not performing the duties and responsibilities of the of any president; again due to our protection under the Constitution. I admit my knowledge is limited but; the majority of the Legislature is guilty of the same crimes of not performing their duties and responsibilities of their offices as required by the Constitution and their Oaths of Office promising to do so. Do we begin by removing them from office?
How do we break the suction of their lips on Trump’s butt to begin? Where do we begin; with Speaker Johnson maybe? We need a starting point, a first step to begin in the midst of this chaos which has us on the verge of another Civil War and encouraging other nations to declare war on one another due to Trump’s weakening of our position globally in addition to the current wars we are on some level involved in. The few courts who have come forward with ACLU, to pause if not stop, the insanity of that insane White Nationalist are probably in line for another Executive Order to deny their authority to act.
People who believe that you can change reality by lying about it provide support for the argument that the rest of Earth’s life forms would be better off without us.
No worries, Sharon. When the orange fecal pile finds a war he can start and “obliterate” the enemy, you/we might get our wish. IF humanity survives Trump, we will spend decades un-f***ing everything he touched.
So the question arises: Why do the American people – or any rational human on the earth – want this creature to continue … Fill in the blanks.
I applaud Sheila’s reasoned argument this morning to inspire civil discourse otherwise discouraged by the current regime in The White House.
And soon he will be selling off our public lands and national treasures to the highest bidders, “for cheap”.
And yesterday’s sling of presidential vomit was to eliminate the department of education immediately. He wants everyone to be a ignorant as he is. Disgusting.
This sums up MAGA (Make America (gasp, grieve, gone) again) brought to us by the greatest threat to our existence, MTV, specialists in wealth redistribution up and in towards themselves.
Why? That’s simple, too. They have no use for the former United States except as a source of personal wealth. They know the price of ignoring reality as it is known to scientists who measure it. They know the price of putting people who know nothing about government or any of the specialties they lord over in MTV’s cabinet. They know the price of elevating red states above blue states and dividing this country against themselves.
I imagine they have stashed their wealth in foreign currencies like RMB and maybe Bitcoin to protect it from what they are doing here. When they are done, $ will be worthless.
When they are done, they will be universally hated here. They don’t care. The good news is that they will reunite the parties, people, and states again. But with a trashed economy, which of them cares?
They will protect themselves while SpaceX builds their lifeboat off of this planet equipped with a bevy of babes to spread their X and Y chromosomes into space.
I know I care about this land, and I suspect everyone else here does, too.
We good citizens are now caught in a trap of the worst kind. If we politely argue with MAGA and rely on the rule of law (when they go low we go high) we will lose to a totally corrupt regime whose values are not ours and never have been. If, on the other hand, we rebel using civil disobedience, boycott or force we give Trump the excuse to declare martial law and suspend the Constitution all together. For that indeed is what he wants to happen. Then the question is “What then are we to do?”
The only thing that will protect us from the climate change deniers is the limited supply of fossil fuels. The first step is take away the oil depletion allowance from the oil companies. Right now we’re paying them to keep on drilling. Move all of the tax breaks to clean power production.
Both Orange Jesus (OJ) and the Muskrat are dedicated to the bottom line. This proposal would definitely help Muskrat’s bottom line and he’s so rich OJ would be more than happy to kiss his rosy red behind.
I’m glad Cass is still writing for the WaPo. However, I’m sure his days will be numbered once the investigation into his wife’s dealings as the head of USAID gets underway. A group is investigating how Samantha Powers’s (Cass’s spouse) net worth increased dramatically in such a short time compared to the salary she made at USAID. I hope Cass has a bunch of book royalties to explain the dramatic rise.
Trump openly bribed Big Oil because he’s both ignorant and doesn’t care. In case you haven’t noticed, he’s invincible for some reason. He just ordered AP wire services to abandon the White House because they wouldn’t follow orders. He doesn’t know that AP and Reuters are wire services, not entertainment-owned media outlets. His MAGATs don’t know either.
Cuts in FEMA, USAID, and DoE will negatively impact the states dependent on the federal government, including Indiana and most red states. Who or what will pick up the slack?
Scrubbing all the government websites of words that Trumpolini and DOGE don’t like means nothing. Well, except for the government employees tasked with eliminating the words. Does eliminating the word racism mean we are no longer racist? LOL His loyal followers may think so, but I’ll use the word more often.
What’s ironic to me is listening to these mental midgets talk. They can’t complete a thought without referring to psychological projection. At least, that is what I read from Musk’s posts on X. It is the same with most of Trumpolini’s nominations. Musk accused all these government employees of being leeches on the government. Yet, it was discovered yesterday that he was awarded another $400 million contract to build bulletproof Teslas for the federal government. LOL
As I mentioned recently, we are at the end stages of capitalism. It failed to produce positive results for the masses. However, it was fantastic for making the rich richer. Marx and Einstein predicted its demise because of the nature of man. Once it has reached the final stages, there are two paths it can go down: fascism, which is the oligarchy using the government to protect itself, or socialism, where the people rise against the Robber Barons. Globally, or at least in the Western Empires, we are going down the fascism route. The masses are the perceived enemy. The free press becomes obedient to the government and is used to manipulate the masses. This will be very oppressive, which this group of posters recognizes.
You should read about Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in your spare time. We’ll be hearing much more about it since Trumpolini’s Treasury pick is a crypto and digital currency fan.
https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/digital-money-and-fintech/central-bank-digital-currency/virtual-handbook
JoAnn , I think you are onto something with your idea of choosing a starting point. Chris Hayes, in his new book, “The Siren’s Call”, says “Focus is power.”
How do we choose, and when do we start?
Theresa Bowers; I so agree with you. Was it Barney Fife who stated, “No more Mr. Nice Guy” when fed up with being unable to right a wrong? But, we are following and supporting democracy, Rule of Law and the Constitution and it isn’t working; we cannot and must not lower ourselves to their level but as Butch Cassidy warned Sundance; “Never bring a knife to a gunfight.” The impossibility of our situation is that we NEED the Republicans to cease and resist the sedition and treasonous Executive Orders and they have crawled under their rocks. It is now being reported that Republicans are finding in their homes states that their constituents are balking at their inaction or open support, but constituents can only protest in the streets and decide their vote is needed to bring an end to this chaos. They/we are currently unarmed with the election behind us and the nominee who legally should never been allowed to be a candidate for any office sits in the Oval Office AGAIN. I know I am preaching to the choir with you; these things came to mind on my coffee break; sorry dear friend.
Those of us who have family members, friends, neighbors and others who continue to argue that White Nationalism is the foundation of this nation are refusing to see facts; it didn’t work in our past and it doesn’t work now and will not work in the future…if we have a future. We have shared these truths before and followed the rules which brought all of us to Fascism with red states working as Trump’s personal Gestapo agents. We aren’t like those “good Germans” who wore blinders and swore they didn’t see, didn’t know; but being right isn’t getting us anywhere…or maybe slowly taking action…but certainly not working. But THREE WEEKS; in God’s name only THREE WEEKS, and we are being trodden into the ground and forced into our past by Executive Orders from an insane convicted felon and rapist.
Stephen Hawking said that humanity would not outlive this century, but I doubt that he expected a Trumpian idiot to lead the way.
Clear and present danger was noted before we have gotten to this point. Of course, that horse has left the barn! When an arsonist is running through the forest with a can of gasoline and a box of matches, what area do you start fighting the fire? About the only thing one could do, is litigate. Just fight fire with fire, just like fireman fighting these huge brush fires, you set backfires! The template for insanity has been produced already, someone needs to copy that template and use it to start those litigation backfires. Then, you can only hope those that jumped on the malfeasance bandwagon, will have some sort of epiphany and snap out of that fantasyland and come back to a realistic view of reality.
I will say, that if one keeps pushing on the military, the military might push back. After all, a clear and present danger and or national emergency should be in their wheelhouse!
Unfortunately, there is an eventuality that The point of no return has been reached. And what else could the band do but play until the ship slipped below the The icy water. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of blood, and recovery might not be an option. Without a doubt, there has been an absolutely systemic failure, and folks are still twiddling their thumbs and ringing there hands! No broadsides fired, not even an attempt! It’s almost like listening to a couple of mice arguing, but all you hear is an imperceptible squeak.
JoAnn,
There’s a lot of ideas out there, but the main thing I see as being a fairly rational person, scriptural prophecy nailed this like a bullseye on a dart board.
Whatever’s coming down the pike, good or bad, right or wrong, evil or righteous, will probably be the last possibility for humanity. If you’ve driven that bus off the cliff, that’s kind of like the point of no return. You can’t just hit the brakes or turn around as you’re sailing to the bottom of that precipice. Opportunities have abounded, and yet, for whatever reason, they ignored the bridge outside, they’ve ignored the gigantic gaping gash in the side of the Titanic. Words never fix, actions do! And, don’t confuse intent with action, because it really is more procrastination than anything else. Instigator and procrastinator produce a “fatale accomplie” too bad.
JoAnn,
There’s a lot of ideas out there, but the main thing I see as being a fairly rational person, scriptural prophecy nailed this like a bullseye on a dart board.
Whatever’s coming down the pike, good or bad, right or wrong, evil or righteous, will probably be the last possibility for humanity. If you’ve driven that bus off the cliff, that’s kind of like the point of no return. You can’t just hit the brakes or turn around as you’re sailing to the bottom of that precipice. Opportunities have abounded, and yet, for whatever reason, they ignored the bridge’out sign, they’ve ignored the gigantic gaping gash in the side of the Titanic. Words never fix, actions do! And, don’t confuse intent with action, because it really is more procrastination than anything else. Instigator and procrastinator produce a “fatale accomplie” too bad.
Theresa,
Outright civil wars are started from such situations in which we find ourselves.
A couple days ago I saw an article on how plastic is accumulating in our bodies and the implications are that it will make us sick if not outright kill us. We have trashed this planet and we will pay the consequences for our irresponsibility. It’s already happening!
Suzanne,
That is why Musk wants to inhabit Mars. Although some people claim he is an alien who wants to return home, his “saner idea” is blasting more than a dozen nuclear weapons into Mars. His theory is that the explosion will create growth in its aftermath, like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Real scientists think he is insane, but that won’t deter The Great Elon from reaching his goal.
Maybe he is an alien. 😉
And today the spineless Republicans allowed an 18th century idiot to be HHS secretary. Kiss your health goodbye, plastic or no plastic. Children are about to die from preventable diseases. Adults are about to die from preventable diseases.
Woo hoo! Ain’t we got fun. Let’s all go to Mars with the muskrat from hell.
Elon, PLEASE go to Mars – on your own dime – to show us the way.
Vernon,
Why do you insist on interfering with the Laws of Natural Selection?
We have to thin out the herd some way. At least we got some volunteers to step forward. 😉
I have cancer. He has halted all cancer research in the NIH, CDC, research grants of any kind, that despite temporary court orders. Am I scared? Yes. Am I angry? Yes. I don’t know what the future of my disease treatment will be. Do I hope no one has to go through cancer treatment in the chaos that has begun to take over the medical research fields? Yes.
Do any of these clearly unqualified appointees, private henchmen who bought this country care about any one like me? No.
The millionaires/Billionaires of this world got their power and wealth mostly by being without empathy or compassion. They can buy the best medical care they want. But even they cannot stop fatal diseases with no cure from killing themselves or their families (if they care) or those they own physically or mentally.
A man who advocates for letting fatal disease with proven cures by vaccination deciding health policy means death and suffering for millions.
If all of this only affected dump’s supporters, it would still be tragic, but it impacts us all. Why are we not in the streets protesting? Too scared, too selfish, too willfully ignorant or all of the above?
Thanks for the reminder, Todd. Thing is the Darwin Award winners have children who will suffer and die unnecessarily. It’s not just genetics. It’s what parents do to their children also. I agree that the dumbshits need to not be allowed to reproduce. That will at least avoid the probability of them being lousy parents too.
You make just one error today, Sheila. It’s not a “slow-rolling coup.” It’s a galloping coup. Just not as visible as a storming of the gates.
JD: Sorry to hear about your prognosis. It is the same as my ladies. Last night I came up wit the following:
TRUMP is KILLING my lady by keeping the NIH from supporting the search for a cancer cure.
Of course, he had already said that he could get away with murder, so I don’t expect him to care a rat’s ass about you, my lady, or any others who become collateral damage as he Makes America Look Like Gaza.
Senior Senator Todd Young of Indiana must be Transgender!
That is the logical conclusion from his behavior by voting to confirm all of Trumps “dangerously unqualified nominations.” When called upon to uphold his oath of office he demonstrated that he has no cojones.
JD; I’m so sorry to learn of your cancer situation directly effected by Trump’s mental derangement and his choice to lead our health care system with a worm-eaten brain. My oldest son Tony died of brain cancer September 18, 2011, sixteen months later my second son Mark died of cancer January 14, 2013, my daughter Robin had three surgeries for dysplasia which is a pre-cancerous condition. She died December 13, 2014 with a number of terminal illnesses but probably had cancer which was masked by her illnesses. My youngest son Scott was diagnosed mid-October 2024 with pancreatic and spleen cancers and is currently going through chemo treatments. They grew up in Johnson County, IN, where the childhood cancer cluster “What If It Were Your Child?” is still being ignored by county, state government and the federal Legislature the two mothers of cancer ridden children spoke before a few years ago seeking help for their organization. It is on Erin Brockovich’s watch list but no action being taken. We have been lied to for years about progress in cancer research and treatment but we are surrounded by cancer victims and losing too many of them.
I hope and pray you are getting decent care and all victims can at least continue being treated by reputable medical care and not being beggared by your out-of-pocket charges. But; how many people in this country alone are just now finding possible symptoms of cancer and need to find life-saving tests and care?
WHY DO WE NOT READ ABOUT PEOPLE LIKE THE CURRENT REPUBLICANS RUNNING THIS GOVERNMENT SUFFERING AND DYING WITH CANCER? I have wondered that about criminals for years but now the people in charge of providing cancer research and treatment are the ones who have virtually ended it.
It’s time to muse over the story of King Canute ordering the tide not to come in. It’s more subtle than you may think. I suggest reading the Wikipedia article, King Canute and the tide.