"Pulling out" of the Paris Accord was symbolic and will mean nothing.

[Hamlette]

The Paris Accord allowed each country to set goals but there were no sanctions for not meeting those goals. Trump could have easily just done nothing. Stayed in the Accord and ignored it since nothing would happen if he did.

So pulling out of the Paris Accord is all for his base. Red meat. And freaking out over it feeds Trumps base allowing them to say we are hysterical because climate change is not real. Actually, the Paris Accord was not "real" (except in a symbolic way).

Spending our time bitching about it, and spending days making fun of a typo (covfefe) is a waste. It blunts our voice when we complain about real problems.

[Tripper11]

1. I would agree.

Katy Tur ripped Joe Walsh on that very point.

Joe Walsh appeared on MSNBC to defend Donald Trump quitting the Paris Climate Agreement. Host Katy Tur refuted him at every turn.

Katy Tur said it was a strawman argument to say that the Paris Agreement was bad for the United States and he wants to renegotiate it. She pointed out that given that the treaty was nonbinding, there was no reason for the U.S. to pull out. She asked Joe if the move was solely political.

"I thought yesterday was the best day he had as president," Joe Walsh said. "He was an American president. He stood up for American jobs, the American economy. Katy, this is why he ran."

Katy then challenged him.

"What jobs is he saving on this," Tur asked.

video at link

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/msnbcs-katy-tur-takes-deadbeat-dad-joe-walsh-to-the-cleaners-for-defending-trumps-paris-agreement-fiasco/

[Hamlette]

17. thanks, I didn't see this. Tur is right. n/t

[Roy Rolling]

2. It's a distraction

Typical. Pulling out has little real meaning, except to make America diminished as a leader in the free world. There it does real damage. He has backed out of a contract, others will now question America's word when signing an agreement.

So faced with the FBI closing in, what does he choose to do? Throw America under the bus to buy time in the Russian probe. To save his own skin, he sacrifices America's world standing and reputation. The accidental anarchist.

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. +1000000!

[democratisphere]

3. The EPA is being dismantled by the current illegitimate administration.

The Paris Accords are just one segment of a BIG FU to the environment and the wild animals that live in those environments. We need to be bitching​ from the mountain tops about the horrid unconscionable behavior of this careless drumpf dynasty. The environment is a real problem, even the undermining Russians can see that. Even our Chinese keepers understand our environments are decaying rapidly. President Bannon's puppet and rubber stamper needs to be unemployed.

[Bengus81]

4. Except he can now put that 2 billion toward than POS wall claiming it cost nothing to start....

Because that's money that would have been spent on the Paris climate agreement.

[TexasProgresive]

5. I agree it is a symbolic act but not that it "will mean nothing."

It is sending a powerful message to the rest of the world as well as to his mostly ignorant base. It also is an effort to be a squirrel to distract the dogs on the scent of real malfeasance.

[Demsrule86]

7. That is not true. There are millions of green jobs coming but not for us and we could also face

sanctions if other countries agree.

[Hamlette]

16. it is a balance of power thing

no group of countries can sanction us without risking retaliation and if Trump was mad enough about a hand shake to dump the Paris Accord, you gotta think he'll retaliate.

We are big foot. While I can barely name the heads of state of the big countries, college students in foreign countries, plus their fellow citizens, can name every cabinet member and Supreme Court Justice in the US and know everything about each of them. It is uncanny how closely they follow the US, especially politics, until you realize they depend on US for the defense of their countries and for their jobs since the balance of trade is in their favor. We pull any of that? It's curtains.

[Vinca]

8. Climate-wise it might mean nothing, but I doubt world leaders will be interested in working

with the United States on much of anything until the reign of King Donald is over.

[mtngirl47]

9. The success of the right wing media

against Democrats and President Obama was because they repeated misstatements and out of context statements over and over. And they still do it.

i.e. Nancy Pelosi---"you have to read the bill after it's passed"
i.e. President Obama---"if you like your health care you can keep your health care"

We need to repeat what these people say and do over and over so that nobody forgets it on election day.

[oberliner]

10. That's definitely not true

Without the US, they will not be able to reach their financial goals of providing financial assistance to developing countries to take action on climate change.

[Progressive dog]

11. The Paris agreement is a symbol of the world's commitment

to slowing catastrophic atmospheric warming of the planet. The Paris agreement is a first step, and Donald Trump has signaled his intent to not even head in that direction.
I don't think time spent "bitching" about the withdrawal of my country from the only climate change agreement we've ever had, to be time wasted as you seem to. I also will not restrict my contempt for Trump's policies to only a few.

[C_U_L8R]

12. And a monument to Trump stupidity.

Republicans are gonna be hammered with this from now until forever.

[hatrack]

13. It matters greatly: who will believe what we say? Who will want to work worth us?

America is "led" by a gesticulating, spray-painted baboon who loudly and proudly just took a shit on the very idea of international cooperation in front of a hand-picked audience of sycophants, 'cuz his fee-fees got hurt across the pond.

"Real problems"? They don't come any more "real" than a destabilized, rapidly warming climate.

Paris wasn't enough, not by a damn sight, but it's the only game in town, and we just whined and walked away. You'll have to forgive me I spend my time "bitching about it." I'm going to be spending lots of time doing just that.

[smirkymonkey]

15. Hear, hear!

Completely agree with everything you said.

[ryan_cats]

14. Symbolic?

So pulling out of the Paris Accord is all for his base.

Then why get into it in the first place? Using your logic, who was President Obama pandering to?