How to Die of Dumb

[WilliamPitt]

Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), right, listens to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) speak at
a news conference in Washington about their opposition to the climate change bill on Wednesday,
June 4, 2008. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski / The New York Times)

How to Die of Dumb
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Sunday 08 March 2015

Sen. James Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma since 1994, took to the floor of the Senate the other day with a snowball in a bag. Because it was cold in Washington DC, he said, because there was snow on the ground, that proves climate change is a hoax. "In case we had forgotten," he said, pulling the snowball from the sack, "because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I ask the chair, do you know what this is? It's a snowball, just from outside here. It's very, very cold out." He went on to denounce what he called the "hysteria on global warming," and then threw the snowball at the presiding officer.

James Inhofe - who believes snow in DC disproves climate change - is the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, because of course he is. He won with 57 percent of the vote in his last re-election campaign, because of course he did.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky since 1984, has been urging state officials all across the US to refuse to comply with the new EPA rule on carbon emissions that was championed by the Obama administration. The rule requires existing power plants to cut their carbon emissions by 30 percent, based on the 2005 requirements, by the year 2030. Senator McConnell is having none of it. "Think twice," he said, "before submitting a state plan, which could lock you in to federal enforcement and expose you to lawsuits, when the administration is standing on shaky legal ground and when, without your support, it won't be able to demonstrate the capacity to carry out such political extremism."

Mitch McConnell, as Senate Majority Leader, has the power to keep any bills he dislikes from coming to a vote. Until January of 2017 at least, that means any legislation seeking to address the issue of climate change will never see the light of day, because McConnell thinks giving attention to the threat of carbon emissions - what is eventually going to kill us all - amounts to "political extremism." Because of course he does.

(snip)

I don't have an easy answer for how to deal with this. How to explain people like Inhofe and McConnell, how to explain people who have voluntarily returned them to Congress for a combined total of 52 years, would require a political, economic and sociological treatise that I have neither the space nor the time to compile at this juncture. The short version, however, is that our cannibalistic economic model, indifferent news media, sagging voter turnout, general cynicism, religious derangement and fundamental addiction to a cognitive dissonance that motivates so very many to slap aside stone-carved facts staring them in the face, is going to put this whole human experiment into a shallow, unmarked grave.

People talk about "Destroying the planet," which is a hoot. The planet isn't going anywhere. Even the environment may recover in one form or another. The equation we are busily erasing from the blackboard - for profit while encased in a suffocating bag of ignorance - is ourselves.

This is how you die of Dumb.

The rest: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/29508-how-to-die-of-dumb

[Oilwellian]

1. They do seem to have a death wish

K&R

[guillaumeb]

2. one possible expanation

If one accepts that the United States is guided and uniquely favored by God, and many GOP voters and leaders do accept and believe this, it follows that all actions taken by the US must be God-approved. The obvious corollary to this is that anyone who opposes the US is not God-approved.

The 1% have one concern, to maximize their own wealth. All other considerations are externalities to them. As long as there is no direct immediate cost to them, people like the Koch brothers will continue to pollute the earth even to the point of catastrophe.

This will sound cruel and crude, but look at pictures of the Koch brothers and the picture above. These are very old people who will not be around to see the climate chaos that will result from their greed and inaction.

For ourselves and our children we must work to ensure that these sociopaths do not control government after 2016.

[erronis]

3. Probably more what they are actually thinking (NOT)

The rules of nature don't apply to them. Actually the rules of the country and world that they live in are so far beneath them that they can't hear the voices of the masses.

After you've lived in a gated, country-club world for most of your life (or in the cases for many of them, since their grandparents first started raping the planet), you don't have a sense of true give-and-take, input-output, truth-vs-speeches, facts-vs-bites.

Sure, they say "The sea levels will rise and flood anything within 10'." That's OK, since I also have my vacation homes in the mountains.

They say that poverty will run rampant and the destitute will be clamoring for housing, sustenance. That's OK since we have the police force and the army to protect our interests.

What do they say to these protecting forces when they are no longer interesting in serving the Lords? What do they say as final words as the blade descends?

[guillaumeb]

22. a bit harsh but understandable

The last paragraph that is.

Agreed that there are two countries, one for the 1% and the rest for the rest. Add in private planes, chauffeured limousines, private dining clubs and the knowledge that politicians from both parties will listen to them.

[Duval]

4. Thanks, Will.

NC has some crazies in charge and are taking us back, not forward. We're hoping enough people will take elections more seriously here, and vote them OUT.

[ms liberty]

27. Amen to that! n/t

[calimary]

34. Indeed. Beware those who whine - "I Want MY America Back!!!!" What they want, whether they realize

it or not, is their America - BACKWARDS. They want to go backwards. And yes, their ignorance and pigheadedness and politicization of this urgent issue will be the doom of ALL of us. And they'll probably find that Jesus did NOT come back, and they'll blame liberals and Dems and Obama. When it was their own idiot obstruction that dragged us all down into oblivion.

And yes. VOTER TURNOUT had a LOT to do with it.

And that's for all the Dems who plan to sit out 2016 and not vote because they'd rather make a statement (or pout) about not getting the candidate they wanted. And therefore they WILL get a Supreme Court that NONE of us wanted - including themselves.

[Agony]

5. "cannibalistic economic model"

that right there, speaks volumes. feeds into poorly educated citizens and lots of dumb...

[jtuck004]

6. I have this mental picture of the whole planet being burned to a cinder, with a refrigerator

standing in the ruins. Idiot, I mean Inhoffe, walks up, opens the freezer, pulls out a snowball, and says "See, things are just fine".

Oklahoma would be OK without that maroon.

[Archae]

7. It isn't just on the Right.

There are people on the left who are religiously anti-vaccination, and anti-GMO foods.

They can die of dumb as well.

[world wide wally]

8. I think that even these dip shits know they're lying, but it's how they get their money

That, of course, is priority number one.

[Roy Rolling]

9. Irony of ironies

Maybe they would both be hit by an avalanche.

[spanone]

10. amen. k&r...

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. Only in the GOP

Is ignorance considered a virtue.

[stupidicus]

12. it is the biggest failure in leadership this country has or will ever experience

made possible by a toothless and/or cowed lapdog/"liberal" media.

We shoulda had our collective "network moment" on the matter at least a decade ago.

[Major Hogwash]

13. "Until January of 2017 at least . . ."

Yup.

And yet, we manage to delude ourselves every 4 years into believing that all the damage done by the Republican party for the last 75 years can somehow be undone by the Democrats later.

[maindawg]

14. Shame on them

Shameless carpetbaggers. Hustlers. History will remember these a holes for what they are.
There will come a day, we know this because the science is real, that we will have to deal with the consequences of this irresponsible criminal behavior.

[The Jungle 1]

15. epic response

Senator Whitehouse gave a truly epic response boob Inhofe.
The best part of the response is that he points out that it is not just scientist who believe in climate change.
NASA, The Navy, Religious groups, the Pope, many in corporate America, every major scientific society is on record.
Now it is time to call out the right and force them to explain how all these serious folks are wrong and they are right.
Senator Whitehouse has shown us the way now we must follow his lead

[daleanime]

26. +1

[LongTomH]

16. I hope they end up in an appropriately warm Circle of Hell

Possibly the Eighth Circle reserved for frauds, including corrupt politicians. They end up in a lake of boiling pitch.

Actually, I don't believe in Hell; but, there are people who make me want to believe in a Hell!

[Ghost in the Machine]

17. I thought this was going to be different. I'm from the South, and most people who die of dumb...

... around here, their last words are "hold my beer and watch this shit!"



Peace,

Ghost

[AverageJoe90]

18. Some good points, but *way* too much hyperbole.

The doomers can say what they will, but humanity, for better or worse, isn't going to go extinct because of climate change. Even Toba didn't wipe our ancestors out entirely(at least 50-100k individuals survived, though it was a close call).

With that said, we *need* to get guys like Inhofe out of office ASAP. GOTV!

[tiptonic]

19. I suspect

I suspect, that one idiot coming from oklahoma (oil), the other from kentucky (coal), might have a personal agenda, in encouraging mass stupidity.

[Demeter]

20. Yes, but they DON'T die

They got the best health care our money can buy.

[First Speaker]

21. How do we deal with this? Probably, in the long run, a revolution or military coup...

...and no, I'm not being hyperbolic. If--*if*--climate change is really as serious as some say it is, then it *must* be dealt with seriously. If our political system is so locked in cement that this becomes impossible, then the system will be overthrown. This seems to me to be a fairly obvious equation. Ultimately, the Constitution can be restored. Our climate--and civilization--cannot be, if it collapses. I don't want this. But if we really are facing a science-fiction apocalypse, I'm not sure I don't want it, either.

[Kablooie]

23. You're right. We aren't destroying the environment.

We are changing the environment.
We are destroying ourselves.

[SheilaT]

24. Every time I read stuff like this,

the climate change denial, the refusal to accept the idea that reducing carbon emissions might be a good idea, I think about Easter Island. It was once covered by trees, and over time the Islanders pretty much cut them all down. The loss of the trees meant the loss of soil through erosion, the loss of many birds, including entire species. Things were very bad. All because they cut down the trees.

Easter Island is a small, isolated place, and so what the humans did to the landscape was very noticeable very quickly.

Our entire planet, while reasonably large, is a finite place. The damage we've been doing over the centuries is becoming more and more noticeable, and yet, like the Easter Islanders, those in charge choose to ignore the consequences as they continue to cut down the trees.

[magical thyme]

25. In the meantime "Warm winter forces Iditarod dog sled race to move north"

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/warm-winter-drought-forces-iditarod-dog-sled-race-to-change-course/

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Much of the start of the world's most famous sled dog race is covered in barren gravel, forcing Iditarod organizers to move the start farther north where there is snow and ice.

A weather pattern that buried the eastern U.S. in snow has left Alaska fairly warm and relatively snow-free this winter.

"If I have one more person say to me to move the Iditarod to Boston, I'm going to shake my head," said race director Mark Nordman.

The nearly 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race starts Saturday with a ceremonial run through Anchorage. But the official start two days later has been moved 225 miles north, over the Alaska Range, to Fairbanks to avoid the area that left many mushers bruised and bloodied last year. Iditarod officials said the conditions are worse this year.

[Thespian2]

28. Homo Sapiens

The Latin name for human beings. Sapiens is usually translated as "wise." The RWNJ destruction of education, culture, science, political systems, etc. has removed "sapiens" from the definition of human beings. How completely ignorant humanoids can become is yet to be determined, but as long as the uninformed keep electing politicians whose policies are diametrically opposed to the continuation of the human race, homo sapiens has no chance of survival.

[onecent]

29. WOW...Well said.....!!!

[11 Bravo]

30. THAT is a thing of beauty! At the risk of sounding like a fanboy ...

I have to say that I occasionally fancy myself somewhat of a wordsmith; but then I read one of your pieces and am reminded yet again that there is a big difference between "glib" and "erudite".
Well done, Will!

[alterfurz]

31. "The earth is an organism, and that organism has a skin...

...and that skin has diseases; one of these diseases is Mankind." -- Nietzsche

[Blue Owl]

32. Couple of first class idjits right there

n/t

[the_sly_pig]

33. Stupid is as stupid does.....

And you can't fix stupid. When the majority of the people of these States that elect stupid people are themselves stupid, it takes a couple generations to fix. By then, at least for the planets sake, our reign will be over and the universe will forget us.