Yesterday I worked on recovering from a fall, both with and without George. Other than a mat-skinned knee, I was no worse for the wear, but I did learn that, when it happens in real life, I will have an easier time, if I remove George before trying to recover. Today, I think I’ll be working on how to instruct a bystander to help me, if I have been pitched out of a wheelchair.
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: We often get upset at Fox News viewers for the alternate state of reality they generally live in. We shouldn’t be. It is our civic duty to first understand how it is possible for them to see the world so differently than those who accept information from various sources.
The video below is a classic example of how Fox News encourages one to allow themselves to be willfully ignorant. This is not restricted to conservative right-wing people, but to us all. To be clear, many Americans do very little reading of consequence and get most of their information from the mainstream broadcast media or the right-wing broadcast media like Fox News.
Barf Bag Alert!!
This is how Fox News create ignorant viewers by ewillies
We already know that people, who get their infoganda from the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, are more poorly informed than people , who have no media access.
From The New Yorker: Now that the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference is under way in Paris, two main issues arise: Will an agreement to reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere be reached? And, if so, will it do any good? The answer to the first question is: almost certainly. The answer to the second question is: some, but not enough.
The good news is that, after more than twenty years of trying, the nations of the world are finally closing in on a deal that has the backing of all the major polluters. This much was clear from Monday’s opening ceremony, which attracted a host of global leaders. If politicians like President Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn’t think a positive outcome was likely, they wouldn’t have made the trip.
Of course, it is always possible that the negotiations, which are scheduled to last for nearly two weeks, will break down, as they did in 2009, when a similar meeting was held in Copenhagen. For at least two reasons, though, that seems unlikely.
Click through for an extensive explanation. I hope that the agreement is something upon which we can build, before it is too late.
From NY Times: Hours after President Obama pledged Tuesday in Paris that the United States would be in the vanguard of nations seeking a global response to climate change, Congress approved two measures aimed at undercutting him.
In a provocative message to more than 100 leaders that the American president does not have the full support of his government on climate policy, the House passed resolutions, already approved by the Senate, to scuttle Environmental Protection Agency rules that would significantly cut heat-trapping carbon emissions from existing and future coal-fired power plants.
The House votes — by 242 to 180 and 235 to 188, mostly along party lines — expanded to a global level the already profound gulf between Mr. Obama and the Republican-controlled Congress on domestic issues, demonstrating that the United States was hardly unified on the issue of climate change even as the president and other leaders sought to project solidarity.
The measures will be sent to the White House, where Mr. Obama has said he will veto them.
Republicans, by trying to sabotage Obama’s rightful authority, are committing sedition, not just against the US, but against the entire world.
Cartoon:
Compared to today’s Republicans, McCarthy was almost liberal.
9 Responses to “On the Edge–12/2/2015”
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Sounds like you are getting a great education there. And you are smart, so I'll bet you are a great student.
DKos – Egberto is very sound, and this is an unusually sound article even for him. It's not that often Geralso hets it right in the first place, and knowing so well how one can come out of an argument with a GOP true believer (partly from having been on that side a lot), you can hardly blame him for not taking the bait. That way lies madness.
New Yorker – the short answers to the two questions are pretty much how I, as a non-expert, see the situation too. I wish the outlook were better. A recent article gave a list of over a hundred cities, I forget exactly how many, For which it is already too late – they will be at least 50% underwater by 2100 no matter what we do. Many are in Florida. One is the town I grew up in, one is where the HQ of Care2 is (that site from which we get a lot of readers here, including me). Both of those are in the San Francisco Bay area; the "Foothills" between them and the Pacific will not protect them apparently the water will go around the hills and hit them from the bay side. I am pretty sure Portland is another; my (now deceased) mother grew up there. You really can't go home again.
NY Times – Well, of course – what else? Put together climate denial and Obama-bashing and you have a foolproof attraction.
Cartoon – Ted Cruz does sort of resemble him physically, doesn't he? I had done a pretty good job of selectively forgetting his face, but this does bring it all back.
Cruz & McCarthy … separated at birht?
http://homebrewedtheology.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/mccarthy-cruz-cropped-proto-custom_28.jpg
You probably hope you never have to recover from a fall or instruct someone to help you, TomCat, but chances are you will have to and it's good they're giving you a lot of training. It must be very tiring, I'm sure, so have a catnap whenever you fancy one.
Daily Kos: I don't agree on this one, but that may be due to a language barrier of sorts. There is in my opinion a huge difference between being uninformed and misinformed, as there is between ignorance and being lied to. In essence there's nothing wrong with keeping yourself informed by following mainstream broadcast media IF these media give their viewers a broad range of news, opinions and above all TELL the TRUTH. I could only see about half of this video, but in that short space of time I counted 4 lies/false insinuations: 1. the global temperature is decreasing, which turned into: global warming is significantly leveling off, 2. insinuating that the current climate change is not man-made, 3. suggesting with a poll that only 3% of people (Americans?) give climate change the highest priority, 4. Britain is coming off climate change. Faux News watchers are not ignorant after hearing this, they have picked up some new information; the problem is that they have been misinformed and lied to.
I can't vouch for every country in Europe, but I know that by following the INDEPENDENT Dutch national news on radio or TV, or that of Germany or Britain I'm well and truthfully informed on most important issues, both local and global. Here it isn't a problem when people get most of their information from the national broadcasting media, as more than 80% of the people do at least once a day.
The New Yorker: I'm sure they will come to some form of agreement, because rumor has it that all leaders will stay on after two weeks if there is n't one by then. But I'm afraid it won't be enough, for it is what comes after what counts. They'll make all kinds of promises and put them to paper, but that is all politics. Who is going to make them do what they promised? I'm afraid we are, but then the burden will also be on us. If I take my own PM as an example, who held his little speech just like all others, and said "the time is now" and "we have to act immediately", but who also has taken the verdict of the Dutch court ordering him to make speed with reducing CO2 emissions as promised earlier to a higher court, ignoring it in the meantime, then I've little hope politicians are the ones who are going to save the world. We'll have to do that by ourselves.
NY Times: What can I add to what I've said above? I won't thank those bastards for making my point, though. Perhaps this is the moment the world will show what it's capable off without America. China's President Xi Jinping has already indicated he wants to take the lead on this. Perhaps we're better of with China.
New York Times: I am blown away by the stubborn refusal of congress to move beyond their drive to undermine our first black president, no matter the cost! In Charlie Rose's interview with hillary, shown last night, one of the things she said about the Republicans in congress referredto the Tea party folks, in particular. She saod there is not intention to engage in compromise, as they come into congress certain that they know all the truth there is.
Faux News is part of the bigger problemsin this country, now, feeding the fools fodder for reinforcing their freakish stupidity!
I'm glad the initial training went so well.
Sure wish the US had rules like Canada on what standards must be to call it news.
Too little, too late is the expectation all too sadly…
Sedition and perhaps condemning their own grandchildren to a life they wouldn't choose to live.
Do all fanatics with a taste of publicity and/or power begin to wear a certain look that makes them appear alike each other?
Interesting question, Judi. Of course the Donald does notlook lke the rest of them, except for the marvellously twisted contortions his face, nd theirs are capable of. Now, that I've "said" that, it occurs to me that maye he's the "alien" bout whom he screams so loudly, tyou know, as in "Methinks she doth protest too much."
Maybe he is from Mars, or Alph Centouri, and needs vetting as a human. Anyone know if he's had a blood test, has a birth certificate signed in human?
Joe ("Have you no decency?") McCarthy was the original POS. The closest thing we have, now, in terms of spreading hate and misinformation, is The Donald.
DK: Geraldo got it right, and the others were clueless. BB3 for this one.
NY Times: How unfortunate that these ID's can't even come together on climate change. The GOP reminds me of the playground bullies, undermining the President like that.
Glad that your lesson went well with George. Hope that you have a good evening, and Thanks, Tom.
Thanks all! Hugs!!