Political Climate Change

November 1, 2012


(Illustration found here).

In the horror images of Hurricane Sandy, one frozen moment might be the nexus of this year’s presidential race — President Obama and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie emoting with victims/survivors of the storm.
Despite all the bullshit spewed from the GOP political cesspool this election cycle, one photo blows the whole facade into the swirling, high-gravity scream of ‘Mitt, who?’

John Cole at Balloon Juice on Tuesday clanged the bell-change rightly: We all bemoan the fact that the majority of the Republican party is fucking insane, and they are. But we should be also willing to (grudgingly) admit “Hey- here’s a guy I don’t agree with much on issues, but I know where he stands and I can work with him when I need to.”
Of course, it’s all politics at the core — Christie’s now wide open for 2016 with the noodle-nut list of GOP fruitcakes hopefully gone and with a new, and easier face on the party of the bat-shit crazy.

And Romney, after receiving a wide-spread public soaking off his hypocritical, grandstand, dumb-ass ploy of mixing politics and charity (never the twain shall meet), also had to swim back his nefarious comments on semi-dismantling FEMA, and, this came only after much badgering by reporters on Tuesday.
An embarrassing sequence during that above-mentioned charity op:

“Governor, are you going to see some storm damage?” one reporter asked.
Several others again asked Romney whether he would eliminate FEMA.
“Governor, you’ve been asked 14 times. Why are you refusing to answer the question?” one asked.
Romney ignored the reporters’ queries and continued loading up the truck.
Earlier, during the event, he ignored similar queries.

Anyone who casts a vote next Tuesday for Romney is either way-down on the paying-attention scale, or a racist asshole.

And the gulf of undecided voters might have been narrowed on the Jersey shore.
Via the New York Times this morning:

Mr. Christie had been scheduled to campaign for Mitt Romney, but he embraced the moment.
When President Obama praised the governor after they finished their tour — “I want to let you know your governor is working overtime” — the two were soon swapping compliments.
“It’s been a great working relationship,” Mr. Christie said.
“I cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern and compassion for our state,” he added during a brief news conference.
He said it was “my honor” to turn the podium over to the president and then stood just behind him, occasionally nodding and smiling at his jokes.

Funny tales aside, hopefully now in the wake of a climate-change disaster, and at least for a short while, a reaching across political divides to counter these on-coming catastrophic weather events, maybe could spell the end to the nasty, so-called ‘climate change silence.’
The way-big difference nowadays –unless you’re a before-mentioned brain dead Republican — is the environment in a way-short period of time has grown from paper to reality, from scientific reports, bar graphs,’hockey stick‘ charts and the like to flooded New York City subways.
Humanity is now on the other side — Skeptical Science has a most excellent post up this morning delving into reality with the connection between Hurricane Sandy and climate change.
The real bottom line now way-grounded in physical reality: Debating the extent to which Frankenstorm Sandy was put on steroids by climate change is a distraction.
In putting forth some heavy-duty action.

Even the usual staid Bloomberg popped up with a piece this morning, most-aptly titled, ‘It’s Global Warming, Stupid,’ and the future is right now, or right gone.
Money quote:

Yet even he (writer David Owen) would surely agree that the only responsible first step is to put climate change back on the table for discussion.
The issue was MIA during the presidential debates and, regardless of who wins on Nov. 6, is unlikely to appear on the near-term congressional calendar.
After Sandy, that seems insane.

Just a week ago, we’d all been considered insane ourselves to have predicted Chris Christie and President Obama would be loving on one another — blame it on the weather.

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