US Political Discussion: Biden/Harris Edition (Rules in OP)

[brector]

The climate is cyclical guys…

Still waiting for some of your "facts"...

 

[Drew]

Or you get a shining star like Candace Owens who just outright admits she’s never once read anything about climate change but denies it vehemently.

But, that makes it a lot easier to deny, doncha know!

 

[Mathemagician]

My favorite thing about people posting things like “climate is cyclical” and “it’s only one ice cap”, is that they are just betting it won’t affect them during their lifetime.

There’s plenty of research articles that show how a median 1* change in global temperate affects ocean currents, coasts, and climates and thus crop production globally. And the results are large changes in livable areas for humans, which of course leads to migrations, etc.

It’s not that anything I linked is wrong, it’s that the selfishness reduces to “I don’t WANT to worry, because I’ll probably be fine. Fuck everyone else in 30-50 years.”

My issue is the outright refusal to admit that. So that leads to the reliance on the above talking points to distract from the main issue, which is accelerating climate change caused by human behavior.

It’s like oil and gas companies hired consultants to come up with the thinnest way to spin the damage humans have caused to protect their revenue, and a good third of the population is ecstatic to have misleading data to point to. Because of course the goal isn’t to discover facts, it’s to “win the argument versus the other guys”.

Meanwhile the facts haven’t changed in decades.

You think rising gas and food costs suck now? Keep betting that things will just magically get better without a concerted effort by society.

 

[TedEH]

I'm not a science-ologist, so I can't speak to what causes what, but I can say definitively that there's a very visible and meaningful change in the weather over the last few years in the area I live. There's a floodplain nearby that's supposed to be a 1-in-100 years thing - but over the last decade or so, it's turned into an almost yearly occurrence in the spring, as the snow melts and rain is heavy. It floods out bike paths, trails, some people's basements, some whole streets under several feet of water sometimes, etc. The severity varies year-over-year, yes, but it's been consistently worse than it's "supposed to be".

Some have tried to place the blame on some kind of mismanagement of dams etc. - which, hey, sure, maybe there's some of that - but there wouldn't be a problem to be mismanaged in the first place if water levels were exactly as expected.

Some might say "well sure, the weather is going to change over time, that's just how it works, nothing we can do about it - it's normal and therefor not a problem", except that regardless of the cause, there are houses in those floodplains for whom it's a problem whether it's "natural" or not.

 

[Drew]

My favorite thing about people posting things like “climate is cyclical” and “it’s only one ice cap”, is that they are just betting it won’t affect them during their lifetime.

There’s plenty of research articles that show how a median 1* change in global temperate affects ocean currents, coasts, and climates and thus crop production globally. And the results are large changes in livable areas for humans, which of course leads to migrations, etc.

It’s not that anything I linked is wrong, it’s that the selfishness reduces to “I don’t WANT to worry, because I’ll probably be fine. Fuck everyone else in 30-50 years.”

My issue is the outright refusal to admit that. So that leads to the reliance on the above talking points to distract from the main issue, which is accelerating climate change caused by human behavior.

It’s like oil and gas companies hired consultants to come up with the thinnest way to spin the damage humans have caused to protect their revenue, and a good third of the population is ecstatic to have misleading data to point to. Because of course the goal isn’t to discover facts, it’s to “win the argument versus the other guys”.

Meanwhile the facts haven’t changed in decades.

You think rising gas and food costs suck now? Keep betting that things will just magically get better without a concerted effort by society.

I'll take it a step further - I think a lot of them aren't even consciously making that bet. It's as simple as people believing what is most comfortable for them to believe.

If the science on climate change is sound (and for the sake of discussion let's say you're not convinced), then there's the choice between either some moderately unpleasant short term consequences, or some VERY unpleasant long term ones. And if it's not sound, there's the choice between those same moderately unpleasant short term ones, and no negative long term ones, at all. So, naturally, the most appealing option is assuming climate change is bogus, and therefore you should bank on the no long term consequences outcome.

But, in practice...? 100%. You're betting the scientists are wrong, or that they're right and you won't be impacted.

 

[Drew]

So, Clarence Thomas...

Yesterday alone, we learned a wealthy donor had been paying his adoptive grand-newphew, I think, who Thomas had taken in to raise as his own child, had been paying this kid's private school tuition, with a likely total of $150,000, and Thomas had disclosed none of it, yet HAD disclosed a $5,000 gift for tuition from someone else... and then late last night, that a GOP activist had been directing consulting fees totaling roughly $80,000 to Thomas's consultancy, specifically requesting no mention of Ginni Thomas be made. The activist was an advisor for the Judicial Education Project, who later that year filed a brief as part of the landmark voting rights case that gutted parts of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

This is on top of the revelations that billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow had been heaping luxury gifts and travel/accomodations on him for the last 20 years, that also had somehow been overlooked in his annual disclosures.

I mean, Anita Hill should have been enough, but... This is almost shockingly flagrant.

 

[brector]

I mean, Anita Hill should have been enough, but... This is almost shockingly flagrant.

And it blows my mind that when he was confronted about a "small" amount he should have disclosed earlier this year, his excuse was he didn't know he had to disclose it. Imagine if someone claimed ignorance of the law as a defense in front of him

 

[Drew]

And it blows my mind that when he was confronted about a "small" amount he should have disclosed earlier this year, his excuse was he didn't know he had to disclose it. Imagine if someone claimed ignorance of the law as a defense in front of him

No, no, no. The law is what applies to OTHER people.

 

[RevDrucifer]

I'm not a science-ologist, so I can't speak to what causes what, but I can say definitively that there's a very visible and meaningful change in the weather over the last few years in the area I live. There's a floodplain nearby that's supposed to be a 1-in-100 years thing - but over the last decade or so, it's turned into an almost yearly occurrence in the spring, as the snow melts and rain is heavy. It floods out bike paths, trails, some people's basements, some whole streets under several feet of water sometimes, etc. The severity varies year-over-year, yes, but it's been consistently worse than it's "supposed to be".

Some have tried to place the blame on some kind of mismanagement of dams etc. - which, hey, sure, maybe there's some of that - but there wouldn't be a problem to be mismanaged in the first place if water levels were exactly as expected.

Some might say "well sure, the weather is going to change over time, that's just how it works, nothing we can do about it - it's normal and therefor not a problem", except that regardless of the cause, there are houses in those floodplains for whom it's a problem whether it's "natural" or not.

Yeah, I’ve been in South Florida for 20 years, never saw shit like this until recent times.



This took less than 12 hours to occur. That morning started off drizzling, by noon it was just regular rain, not even the hard rain we tend to get. At 2pm the wind had picked up considerably and when I left work for something I called back to the office and told everyone to go home because it was going to get bad. No one listened to me and then took a chance at driving through 10” of water on the way home.

And we normally get tornado warnings during hurricanes, but these are just small tornadoes that generally pick up about 15 feet off the ground, move a few feet and dissipate, usually in the streets where I‘m assuming the buildings allow for the tunnels to form. This legit tornado in Palm Beach a few weeks ago was fucking crazy for this area.



I heard DeSantis tried to stop the tornado with an American flag and a flamethrower but the flamethrower wouldn’t ignite so he just got pissed at Disney for allowing the gay community to make tornadoes.

 

[TedEH]

We've had some tornadoes here too, which is unusual. Took the roof off the building my brother was staying in at the time.

 

[CTID]

god damn i'm glad i got out of the southeast. now my roulette wheel of destruction is "is a gender reveal party going to burn down my entire city"

just don't miss when i used to do autoglass in Savannah and i wouldn't be allowed to leave the city with my wife if we were due to get fucked by a hurricane, because the company wanted to make sure we could hop in and start churning out tons of replacements in the aftermath

 

[Drew]

god damn i'm glad i got out of the southeast. now my roulette wheel of destruction is "is a gender reveal party going to burn down my entire city"

just don't miss when i used to do autoglass in Savannah and i wouldn't be allowed to leave the city with my wife if we were due to get fucked by a hurricane, because the company wanted to make sure we could hop in and start churning out tons of replacements in the aftermath

If the mushroom cloud is tinted blue, it's a boy.

 

[Metalman X]

If the mushroom cloud is tinted blue, it's a boy.

hopefully they don't confuse cobalt for baby blue

 

[Drew]

hopefully they don't confuse cobalt for baby blue

I mean, in a nuclear holocaust, I'm actually a little less concerned about this than I might otherwise be.

 

[Randy]

Shameful for CNN to get back into giving this guy a free platform to spread his hate and misinformation with a larger audience.

 

[eaeolian]

Shameful for CNN to get back into giving this guy a free platform to spread his hate and misinformation with a larger audience.

Also entirely predicable. CNN needs something to be on fire to make money. It doesn't matter if they're the ones that set it.

 

[thebeesknees22]

CNN got bought out buy a trump supporter a year ago or so, and they've been slowly drifting to the far right. That's why a bunch of hosts and whatnot got fired last year, or quit.

They'll be fox news 2.0 before you know it.

edit: John Malone is the guy's name

 

[RevDrucifer]

Who wants to take bets on when the Trumpers will start claiming CNN is the only real news?

 

[DarkstarII]

I thought it was a great town hall! He’s running for prez… they gotta cover it — now do Haley and Vivek!

 

[Mathemagician]

Shameful for CNN to get back into giving this guy a free platform to spread his hate and misinformation with a larger audience.

It’s low-effort ratings.