Friday, June 02, 2017

We'll Always Have Paris


If there is something called history that survives this era, it will record that human civilization developed to a point that in Paris in 2015, the representatives of all the people on the planet (with two small countries excepted) came together and agreed that the climate crisis by its nature and its danger was a challenge to civilization's very existence that had to be met by global action.  The world had never taken such a step together on any matter before.

Whether history will also record that this was a first step, or the high point before collapse, is as yet unknown.  It will probably be awhile before that verdict is known, but on the other hand, our global civilization is so interconnected and possibly so fragile that it might look a lot different even in a decade.

On Thursday the US dictator apprentice presented a big Fuck You to the world (which he doesn't seem to know includes the US) by announcing the US would be the first and only country to withdraw from the Paris agreement.

In return he got a big Fuck You, Fuckhead right back from the world: from cities, states, politicians, scientists, corporate leaders, even oil and coal companies, and countries from China to France. The rest of the world remains committed to the Paris agreement and to addressing the climate crisis.  Giving the finger to the future is popular only among his demented followers. America reaps only scorn, and a future of buying solar panels from China instead of selling them to the world.

As for the US, consider where we are at this apex moment.  With problems like income inequality, racism and xenophobia tearing at the fabric and foundations, we are still highly prosperous and stable.  The unemployment rate is so low that it arguably can't go any lower.  More American families have healthcare than any time in this century, probably ever.  Much of this prosperity as well as the falling CO2 emissions are due to the rapid growth in clean energy and clean energy industries.

Most of this is because of the policies, actions and advocacy of President Obama, beginning with clean energy jumpstarts in the Recovery Act and culminating in American leadership in the Paris agreement.

 So when the present Obama Derangement Syndrome regime is predicated on a single principle of reversing everything Obama did, it is destroying the foundations of current prosperity and stability.  (While of course not even admitting the problems of income inequality and racism.)  Not to mention condemning the global future.

As virtually all interested parties in both the healthcare and the Paris agreement conversations with the regime pointed out, the huge corporate machinery involved in healthcare and energy need clear guidelines and rules that apply to all competitors, and they need to know what they are to plan for the future. Under Obamacare and the EPA as well as the Paris principles, they know what to expect. But the Fuck You regime prefers chaos.

The response to the asshole in chief was swift.  As Kathleen Parker noted in the Washington Post: "A curious thing happened on President Trump’s way out of the Paris climate accord. American mayors, governors, corporate leaders and others immediately committed to meeting the agreement’s terms anyway."

Among the 85 mayors (and counting) was Bill Peduto, whose city of Pittsburgh was insufferably maligned by being included as an excuse to ditch the deal. (The city, which is a center for clean energy research, voted for Clinton by a 75 point margin, and she won the surrounding Allegheny County as well.)  But perhaps the most stunning rebuke came before the announcement, from the investors in perhaps the largest traditional fossil fuel villain on the planet, Exxon Mobil.  A stockholders resolution to hold the company's feet to the fire on climate change began several years ago as a bit of minority quackery.  Reintroduced last year, it got its highest number--around 30%.  But this year, as Reuters reported:

A number of large institutional fund firms including BlackRock Inc, the world's largest asset manager, supported a shareholder resolution calling on Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) to share more information about how new technologies and climate change regulations could impact the business of the world's largest publicly traded oil company. The proposal won the support of 62.3 percent of votes cast.

The victory, on such a wide margin, was hailed by climate activists as a turning point in their decades-long campaign to get oil and gas companies to communicate how they would adapt to a low-carbon economy."

The regime's action on the Paris accord--made even worse and more cynical by the contrived drama preceding it-- is at least symbolically the culmination so far of an unremitting campaign of destruction and self-destruction, an unbroken record of evil attempted and committed.  After several Fuck Yous to the most vulnerable Americans, as well as all but the top .005% of Americans by income, last week brought additional Fuck Yous to the most vulnerable everywhere else and the principle of human rights itself, as well as Fuck You to our European allies--the ones with democratic governments.

With this action on Paris, the regime said Fuck You to the world and a big Fuck You to the planet and the future of civilization.

The newspapers did their usual dance of noting contradictions and falsities, which clearly now misses the point.  This regime lies routinely and without remorse, and is unashamed by its ignorance.  All that is irrelevant now.  This is Fuck You on a scale that approaches the Biblical.  Our Hitler wannabe is as close to Moloch or Mephistopheles as it is possible for a supposed human to be.  He is the focus and the conduit of the rampaging and remorseless political Shadow, providing the energy of evil.

The whole Chump family, who look like vampires, may be as close to the vampire paradigm as is possible.  When they leave the White House the Oval Office will need intense fumigation, and the Rose Garden will need a serious exorcist.  I said last November that because of this regime, the presidency will never be the same, and that's never been clearer.

Just as today's prosperity and stability are consequences of decisions that President Obama made in 2009 to 2016,  the trembling you feel is the future as it falls apart.  Whether it does so to a greater or lesser extent is unknowable now.  How much resiliency there is, how long this demonic assault goes on, are among the factors that play into that, but we won't escape unscathed.  At some point in the future when things are worse than they need to be, will anyone realize that it's because of what's happening now?

But at least for awhile, and for at least some of us, there remain good memories and good things to hold onto, besides families, friends, principles and the remaining trees.  For instance...

We'll always have The West Wing and Northern Exposure, the Lone Ranger and Star Trek.  We'll always have Bleak House, Sergeant Pepper and Casablanca. And with the memory of at least one moment in 2015 that humanity came close to its potential, we'll always have Paris.
  

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