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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"The U.S. is perilously close to becoming a failed state."
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/07/21/idiocracy-america-corporate-control-over-public-functions. . .
Hundreds of people have already died this summer due to severe weather events linked to climate change. The heatwaves in the Western states and parts of Canada have been relentless, not to mention deadly. The hurricane season arrived a month early in the Caribbean. Extreme flooding in western Europe killed at least 185 people.
Yet even as these disasters unfold, the US political system continues to defend fossil fuels. And in the current round, it is West Virginia's two senators, Republican Shelley Moore Capito and Democrat Joe Manchin, who are the mouthpieces of the fossil fuel industry. Each has received more than $2 million during their careers in campaign contributions from the energy and natural resource sectors. And each stands shoulder to shoulder with the fossil-fuel industry.
Earlier this month, an ExxonMobil lobbyist called Manchin the "kingmaker," and said he is in contact with the senator's office once a week. (As I described in a recent column, ExxonMobil and the lobbyist himself subsequently denied, walked back, and apologized for what the lobbyist said on the covertly recorded tape, so we can rest easy, fellow citizens of our idiocracy!)
After President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats on the Budget Committee announced an early agreement on a budget reconciliation package that includes, among other things, provisions to tackle climate change, Manchin predictably raised objections. He said that he was "very, very disturbed" by the provisions he believes would phase out fossil fuels.
"I know they have the climate portion in here, and I'm concerned about that," Manchin declared. He continued, "Because if they're eliminating fossils, and I'm finding out there's a lot of language in places they're eliminating fossils, which is very, very disturbing, because if you're sticking your head in the sand, and saying that fossil (fuel) has to be eliminated in America, and they want to get rid of it, and thinking that's going to clean up the global climate, it won't clean it up all. If anything, it would be worse."
This is blather. Climate safety requires that the US and the rest of the world decarbonize the energy system. Towards that end, Biden successfully brought together China, Europe, and other countries in April to commit to decarbonizing their economies. Manchin is simply aiming to derail that effort.
. . .
The American people, and the people of the world, deserve better than an American idiocracy. The US is perilously close to becoming a failed state. Yet the positive message of the film "Idiocracy," should also be clear. Our problems are solvable, if and when an average Joeeven a Joe Manchindefends the common good against corporate interests.
Hundreds of people have already died this summer due to severe weather events linked to climate change. The heatwaves in the Western states and parts of Canada have been relentless, not to mention deadly. The hurricane season arrived a month early in the Caribbean. Extreme flooding in western Europe killed at least 185 people.
Yet even as these disasters unfold, the US political system continues to defend fossil fuels. And in the current round, it is West Virginia's two senators, Republican Shelley Moore Capito and Democrat Joe Manchin, who are the mouthpieces of the fossil fuel industry. Each has received more than $2 million during their careers in campaign contributions from the energy and natural resource sectors. And each stands shoulder to shoulder with the fossil-fuel industry.
Earlier this month, an ExxonMobil lobbyist called Manchin the "kingmaker," and said he is in contact with the senator's office once a week. (As I described in a recent column, ExxonMobil and the lobbyist himself subsequently denied, walked back, and apologized for what the lobbyist said on the covertly recorded tape, so we can rest easy, fellow citizens of our idiocracy!)
After President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats on the Budget Committee announced an early agreement on a budget reconciliation package that includes, among other things, provisions to tackle climate change, Manchin predictably raised objections. He said that he was "very, very disturbed" by the provisions he believes would phase out fossil fuels.
"I know they have the climate portion in here, and I'm concerned about that," Manchin declared. He continued, "Because if they're eliminating fossils, and I'm finding out there's a lot of language in places they're eliminating fossils, which is very, very disturbing, because if you're sticking your head in the sand, and saying that fossil (fuel) has to be eliminated in America, and they want to get rid of it, and thinking that's going to clean up the global climate, it won't clean it up all. If anything, it would be worse."
This is blather. Climate safety requires that the US and the rest of the world decarbonize the energy system. Towards that end, Biden successfully brought together China, Europe, and other countries in April to commit to decarbonizing their economies. Manchin is simply aiming to derail that effort.
. . .
The American people, and the people of the world, deserve better than an American idiocracy. The US is perilously close to becoming a failed state. Yet the positive message of the film "Idiocracy," should also be clear. Our problems are solvable, if and when an average Joeeven a Joe Manchindefends the common good against corporate interests.
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"The U.S. is perilously close to becoming a failed state." (Original Post)
CousinIT
Jul 2021
OP
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)1. Eliminate fossils. Including fossil fools in the Senate.
Time to buy Manchin off and get him to stop hurting America, at least long enough to win more Senate seats and take his T-bird away.
Mrs. Claw
(74 posts)2. The rest of the world
cries because we don't do our part to save it. And it depends on us to.
lpbk2713
(42,696 posts)3. Not near as much as it was six months ago.
Trump would have killed us all without remorse.
Jilly_in_VA
(9,852 posts)4. True that
He pulled us close to being the exact kind of "shithole country" that he railed about. And made us into something near to a Second World oligarchic state too.