Probably the single most productive thing our military is doing in the world today is systematically debunking every Republican talking point about climate change. I wonder if this would continue under a Republican administration. In the past, I would have said ‘yes,’ but I have completely lost confidence in the Republican Party not to compromise our national security for political purposes. Actually, I’ve lost confidence that there remain enough Republicans in positions of responsibility who still know how to distinguish between the b.s. they serve up in the media on a daily basis and reality to allow the party to continue to play this game without destroying the country.
It’s like the folks who think burning more fuel than is necessary is patriotic are actually winning the argument.
The military has to deal with reality. Politicians, not so much. The handwriting has been on the wall since the Arab Oil Embargo. No president, no Congress has been willing to take the necessary steps to achieve energy independence – much less deal with global climate change.
Not really. If it wasn’t the military that insisted on the surge in Afghanistan, I don’t know who it was. That was pure faith-based generalship. Other examples come to mind. Vietnam.
It was the generals and the pols who insisted on the surge. Ask a noncom and he or she would tell you that unassing the AO was the best idea.
I served in Vietnam. I know exactly how badly we can screw up. I spent a year in the Mekong Delta reading newspaper clippings that insisted that we were winning and that my outfit and I weren’t there. Bullshit is the province of generals and politicians, it isn’t usually the province of those at the sharp end of the spear.
What does unassing the AO mean? (I understand about the unassing; I just don’t get the “AO” part.)
AO is the Area of Operations. The expression was current when I was in the service a few decades ago.
thank you
As of late the higher ups in the military have no desire to want to have to deal with a GOP ran Government. The demands that the GOP put upon the military are unrealistic and unattainable. In the current volunteer only military our forces are overwhelmed. They also see how the GOP only supports the troops with their mouths and not with needed funds or legislation.
I wonder if a GOP run Government would be the catalyst needed for the military to act upon their oath to protect the Constitution and the country.Either that or make a mass exodus out of the service as numerous officers and enlisted men are doing now. Kinda hard to keep people in the military when while overseas. The troops are getting messages from at home families that are in crisis do to massive cuts to Food stamps. Worrying about family troubles at home and current VA issues caused by GOP members not wanting to properly fund the VA makes the mood of the military less then endearing for the GOP.
O/T
I think a politician could make quite a name for him/herself by having a platform of “I will break Comcast”. Just that, “I will break Comcast in half like Bo Jackson snapping a bat”. That’s the whole message of the campaign. She might elaborate: I will end Comcast as we know it. I’m in a fantasy world here but honestly, how is that not a message with massive bi-partisan support? Who feels good about Comcast? I think, unlike the other members of the highly exclusive club of corporate super-people who jointly rule/extract wealth from our nation (JP Morgan, Boeing, Exxon, Wal-Mart, Koch, etc.), everybody knows exactly who Comcast is, feels very strongly about what they do, and absolutely hates them. Comcast is the devil and represents just about everything that is wrong with America. And EVERYONE knows it. Obviously it’s not “serious”, but god could our political culture (and our culture in general) get any deader and emptier? I’ll say this for the Tea Party people: at least they take chances. At least they speak from the gut sometimes, even if their gut is a festering pot of moronic and racist swill.
This is an excellent point, and the answer is no, it wouldn’t continue under a Republican, because all the Republican hopefuls are partly or fully owned by the Kochs, who are trying to fight off climate reality the way the cigarette companies tried to fight off the reality of smoking health risks (they, at least, failed). Does any prominent Republican acknowledge that climate change is a serious human – caused problem?
The fat cats reversed climate progress in Australia by means of the right-wing party. The same thing would happen here.
I am unaware of any such Repub.
Indeed, Prez wannabe Rubio has changed his prior position on global warming, b/c he can’t be a viable Repub candidate without being denialist.
The white male yahoo is the principal obstacle to reform in this country.
As this asinine “rolling coal” shit makes crystal clear, they are openly motivated by spite and hatred, and gleefully revel in it. Like the little rat that learns to press the lever for the treat, it’s all their brains process. They are delighted to pay large amounts of their (supposedly) hard earned money solely to satisfy their (learned) addiction to spite.
And these yahoos vote in lockstep for a party that enables, encourages, develops, celebrates and protects their spiteful and vicious behavior. This will certainly end well….
The Obama administration just opened the East Coast to oil searching.
And Hurricane Alley is the most productive wind generation area. Shoals 15-70 miles offshore are not much different than the massive wind farms in the North Sea. And current wind technology can take strong hurricane winds and if the wind farms are large enough exert some drag on the hurricane similar to the friction over land.
But Republicans in North Carolina would rather see oil on their beaches.