The tea party would rather burn than submit to Washington

[n2doc]

by RICHARD COHEN

A friend of mine worked for a small-town newspaper years ago and had to write the weather report. The county fair was approaching, but the prediction was for rain. So the editors, fearing the wrath of local merchants, ordered my friend to change “rainy” to “sunny.” That was the newspaper’s policy. It has since been adopted by much of the Republican Party.

It is a stunning thing, when you think about it: GOP conservatives adopting a position of studied ignorance or, to put it more humorously, a version of what Chico Marx said in “Duck Soup”: “Well, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”

My own eyes show rising ocean levels. They show the Arctic ice cap shrinking. They show massive beach erosion, homes toppling into the sea and meteorological records indicating steadily increasing temperatures. The Earth, our dear little planet, just had the hottest May on record.

My eyes read projections that are even more dire — drought, stifling heat, massive and more frequent storms, parts of coastal cities underwater and, in the American Southeast, an additional 11,000 to 36,000 people dying per year from the extreme heat. These and other ghoulish statistics are taken from a report on global warming funded by former treasury secretary Hank Paulson, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) and hedge fund manager Tom Steyer.

more

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/richard-cohen-on-climate-the-tea-party-would-rather-burn-than-submit-to-washington/2014/06/30/35166398-007d-11e4-b8ff-89afd3fad6bd_story.html

[onehandle]

1. Voting GOP is 'submitting to Washington.'

Go third party and make a real difference.

[randome]

2. Okay by me.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]

[DetlefK]

3. The second-to-last sentence: What will GOP do once the symptoms are undeniable?

20, 50 years from now. When droughts, heat-waves and hurricanes are the new normal.
When Virginia and Florida are disappearing into the sea.
California is running out of drinking-water, forcing a massive relocation of US-agriculture.
Corn needs a lot of groundwater. Once Mexico runs out of corn, there will be food-shortages, leading to price-increases, leading to riots, leading to a further increase of violence in Mexico.

What will the GOP say?

"So typically for you liberals to lay blame and look at the past. We should focus on the future!"
"You can't blame us for mistakes of our predecessors."
"We would have done something but we weren't able to trust Obama because Benghazi."
"Only one thing can save us now: tax-cuts."
"Climate-change is here. Now we might as well pollute the environment like there's no tomorrow."
"The end-times are upon us. Only heathens and heretics would try to keep God's will from becoming reality."
"The hurricanes are a sign of God's wrath for ..."
"We need to wage war on the rest of the world for their dwindling resources."

[n2doc]

4. No matter what, it will all be the dirty hippies' fault n/t

[rock]

5. I support 'em 100%

At least for this.