So America Decided

[Guest David Edwards]

A bonus for who? Communists, Pinkos or Muslims?

Presumably not a bonus for you Mr Johnstone.  

[TRVMP]

Genuinely surprised that you would think like that Nacho, unless it was tongue-in-cheek of course. You might not be around in 100 years to reap the consequences of Trump's denial of global warming and his policies that will inevitably accelerate it, but your descendants and those of your loved ones will be. Can't believe you'd really take such a myopic and self-centred view on something as fundamental as that.

 

Virtually nobody actually lives their climate convictions. Like, comfortably under 5% of the world's population. Those who are doing most to preserve the planet are doing so simply because they don't have a choice.

[Cet Homme Charmant]

Virtually nobody actually lives their climate convictions. Like, comfortably under 5% of the world's population. Those who are doing most to preserve the planet are doing so simply because they don't have a choice.

 

A combination of rising sea levels and changes in ecosystems will have far reaching consequences which will undoubtedly effect almost every human on the planet to some degree.

 

From the US Environmental Protections Agency's own website...

 

Temperature, sea level and precipitation... https://www.epa.gov/climate-change-science/future-climate-change

Ecosystem... https://www.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-ecosystems

Human health... https://www.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-human-health

 

It's true that on an individual level there very little anyone can do to reduce the rate of global warming, the action has to come at government level. That's why it should be worrying for everyone on the planet that the new leader of one of the major contributors to CO2 emissions is a climate change denier. 

[TRVMP]

I agree. But the only way it will change is through electoral pressure. Unfortunately in this country, in swing states, the pressure largely goes the other way.

[Guest David Edwards]

I agree. But the only way it will change is through electoral pressure. Unfortunately in this country, in swing states, the pressure largely goes the other way.

Unfortunately indeed. But especially unfortunate for the citizens (counted in so many millions) of some of the poorest nations in the world at critical risk. One can only hope that your President Elect will see and understand f*****g sense for once.

[TRVMP]

Unfortunately indeed. But especially unfortunate for the citizens (counted in so many millions) of some of the poorest nations in the world at critical risk. One can only hope that your President Elect will see and understand f*****g sense for once.

 

He won't, I'm 95% certain we'll see plenty of environmental deregulation in his first term.

[Cet Homme Charmant]

He won't, I'm 95% certain we'll see plenty of environmental deregulation in his first term.

Yeah, from what little I've seen and read he seems very convinced that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.

 

Quite how the Chinese have managed to brainwash pretty much the whole scientific community across the world remains to be seen.

[TRVMP]

Yeah, from what little I've seen and read he seems very convinced that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.

 

Quite how the Chinese have managed to brainwash pretty much the whole scientific community across the world remains to be seen.

That was a tweet in 2012, whether he believed/believes it or was just trolling is anyone's guess, but it won't change the fact that he's a huge champion of coal either way.

 

This week, too, 20bn barrels of shale were announced in West Texas. Drill, baby, drill!

[Guest David Edwards]

I see that the 'God Emperor' continues to fill his cabinet with proto-fascists. Not content with a white supremacist and anti-Semite as his chief strategist, he's gone on to appoint another trio of extreme right wing nut jobs. First a Good Ole Boy racist from Alabama as Attorney General, then a pair of virulent anti-muslim, pro-torture psychos, respectively as heads of the CIA and Security Services. 

 

Civil liberties and fundamental human rights could well be under threat here. May the US constitution prevail and protect.

[TRVMP]

Sen. Sessions would have been my pick as well - a hard-liner in immigration and a tireless legal mind. More appointments like his and we're in great shape. I don't know a huge amount about Steve Bannon but it's promising, so far, that he's upsetting the right people in the media. I'll need to read up on him but so far I've read excerpts from a speech he gave to some think-tank a couple of years back, and he has similar thoughts to my own on the folly of growth (economic, population) as the sole metric of success. Exciting times.

[TRVMP]

Also, just to be explicit on this, running a liberal democracy for the benefit of Muslim states and Muslim immigration is absolute madness, and even if Europe hasn't figured it out yet, America has. Of course I hope for and will continue to support the safety of American Muslims, but if these appointments slow the influx of Muslim immigration, I'm not going to pretend to care.

 

But let's be real - they won't. Muslims of varying backgrounds, in fact almost all visible minorities here, have it infinitely better here than in their countries of origin, and that will continue to be the case even as the historic American nation asserts itself. In other words you can put away the smelling salts, your precious underdogs are going to be fine.

 

Edit: I exclude African-Americans from the above paragraph. These people have been here in many cases longer than supposedly established white American families and the historic debt and dignity they are owed is considerable. Most other groups with a grievance, however, can shove it. My empathy has been completely worn out by ingrates who made conscious, adult decisions to move here, and do nothing but complain.

[Guest David Edwards]

Sen. Sessions would have been my pick as well - a hard-liner in immigration and a tireless legal mind. More appointments like his and we're in great shape. I don't know a huge amount about Steve Bannon but it's promising, so far, that he's upsetting the right people in the media. I'll need to read up on him but so far I've read excerpts from a speech he gave to some think-tank a couple of years back, and he has similar thoughts to my own on the folly of growth (economic, population) as the sole metric of success. Exciting times.

Senator Sessions is a racist who has spent a lifetime opposing civil rights and equality under the law for minorities. I say exacting, not exciting times ahead.

[TRVMP]

Senator Sessions is a racist who has spent a lifetime opposing civil rights and equality under the law for minorities. I say exacting, not exciting times ahead.

We're all racists now. I don't agree with all of his policies but I think he's 100% right on immigration. The policy, as TRVMP decreed, for the next four years is having a country again. Sessions is the guy to do it.

[Guest David Edwards]

We're all racists now.

No we are not, but speak for yourself as you please.

[Cet Homme Charmant]

Senator Sessions is a racist who has spent a lifetime opposing civil rights and equality under the law for minorities. I say exacting, not exciting times ahead.

Personally, I couldn't care less about Trump's domestic appointees and polices. Won't effect me or my family in any way, and it's their business.

 

My sole concerns are the fact the he's a thin-skinned egoist in charge of the nuclear button, and a climate change denier.

[TRVMP]

No we are not, but speak for yourself as you please.

Racist post imo.

[TRVMP]

Personally, I couldn't care less about Trump's domestic appointees and polices. Won't effect me or my family in any way, and it's their business.

 

My sole concerns are the fact the he's a thin-skinned egoist in charge of the nuclear button, and a climate change denier.

He won't be the first thin-skinned egoist to have nuclear weapons. He isn't even the only one right now. I think you'll be alright.

[Cet Homme Charmant]

He won't be the first thin-skinned egoist to have nuclear weapons. He isn't even the only one right now. I think you'll be alright.

On climate change as well?

[Guest David Edwards]

Racist post imo.

?

[TRVMP]

On climate change as well?

I'm quite ignorant of most of the science here but I assume he will contribute to what the consensus seems to indicate is an upcoming disaster. Again, though, he won't be the only one. That doesn't make it alright, of course, but it is a bit rich that we go through this every time America dares to have an election. The same concern is seldom raised about China (I hope this is what Trump was getting at with his tweet, but I admit that's optimistic - he probably just meant what he said), India, or the exponential population growth of SSA coupled with its growing industrialization.

 

It's a bit of a Mexican stand-off* really - some countries are, to their immense credit, taking unilateral action, but ultimately without global action (or at least action among major industrial powers) will it make more than a few months of difference? Not based on what I've seen, but I could be wrong.

 

The dream scenario would be for some kind of actually-binding climate deals arbitrated by a supranational membership body, something like the EU (not the UN) for climate alone. It won't happen under Trump's watch though.

 

*not racist