Tuesday, February 18, 2014

What's Climate Change got to do with it? Climate Change Denial is a Conservative Psychosis

"I’m tired, I’m really tired of this attack on drilling. Because my little mom and pop drillers, all they want to do is if they don’t hit the well, they want to record that as an expense. That’s all this tax break for big oil is. If they don’t hit, they don’t count it as an expense. You can write it off as a business expense if you drill and you don’t hit the oil. That’s all it is. 
Now multiply that to a multinational corporation and it’s the same thing. If they go deepwater drilling and they don’t hit, should they not write that off as a business expense? Sure they should. Just like my mom and pop should do it locally." (from 2012) Republican Representative John Shimkus of Illinois believes American Gothic was painted with oil dug up by the farmer and his wife.
As Chicagoland digs itself out from yet another massive snowfall the 2013-2014 winter stands as the 5th heaviest snowfall since 1885 with a total accumulation of 66.8 inches thus far.
These blizzards have been preceded or followed by The Polar Vortex which has sent temperatures deep down into negatives nearly 50 degrees below freezing.
By, far this is the harshest winter in Chicago in my memory and the snowfall and deep freezes back me up. But, this is America and in the United States evidence and observation are trumped by Conservative Outrage.
First, it should be noted, snow plowing is Socialist. I'm sick and tired of conservatives stealing my tax dollars to plow roads for them to use. Instead of mooching off of me, why aren't conservatives buying winter radial tires and snowshoes and getting to work by themselves up out of the snow by their own bootstraps?
But, leaving aside right-wing hypocrisy, the reason Conservatives deny the evidence of Climate Change Nationwide and Worldwide is two-fold. One) Conservatives idolize the Rich, Adulation of the Plutocrats is a core component of conservative dogma, and; Two) conservatives would rather win an "argument" than help people. Seeing people suffer or be harmed is the favorite activity for right-wingers.
From 2001-2010 climate change denalism rose in the US. This coincides with the Bush/Cheney "victories" in 2000 and 2004 and the ascension of the Angry White Conservative Male.
Since then the Republican Party has engaged in full scale war against the American People, destroying protections for the poor, underfunding agencies designed to stop rapacious businesses, stealing Trillions of Dollars and channeling it to off shore and Swiss bank accounts and sending Americans to far away lands to die for the Egos of a group of Chicken Hawk Cowards.
But, while theft, rape and murder are always the end results of the election of Republicans it is not their end goal. Because the Modern Republican Party was created for the aggrandizement, protection and defense of the upper 1% who control the government and oppress the American people.
Thus, the real driving force behind Climate Change Denial is Massive Profits for the Big Pollution Industry.
Corporations, like BP, Patriot Coal, Freedom Industries, Tesoro Logistics, Duke Energy, the Koch Brothers, Massey Energy and others have been enjoying massive government welfare and non-existent regulation, while they literally gouge the World and kill people for profit.
Their profits come from destroying the Nation and the Planet while also passing on any incurred costs of their pollution to the rest of us. Besides the massive criminal negligence we've seen with the Koch Brothers petcoke in South side Chicago and Detroit, BP massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico and from their Whiting Indiana plant into Lake Michigan, and the massive toxic spills into rivers in West Virginia and North Carolina the amount of oil spilled in the U.S. in 2013 surpassed the last four decades combined;
Altogether, 800,000 gallons spilled from US railroads in the years from 1975 to 2010. That data, which comes from the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration, does not include records of Canadian spills, some of which are thought to surpass one million gallons spilled on their own. 
In part because of major derailments in Alabama and North Dakota, over 1.15 million gallons of crude oil seeped from train cars.
Corporations are people but, personal responsibility ends when Corporate-hood begins... 

There's big money being made by the Pollution Industry and that money might end if Climate Change and anti-pollution regulation is adopted or enforced. So they've paid off the Republican Party and Pro-Business Democrats to protect them and rhetorically poisoned the already sick minds of conservatives to defend the Rich as they literally poison and destroy the planet.

21 comments:

the yellow fringe said...

I am adding Republican Representative John Shimkus of Illinois to the list of environmental criminals who by willful actions enabled global warming.
Actually his explanation is so simplistic as to be worthless. But there are lots of give aways available only to fossil fuel. Accelerated depletion credit (if I have the term right) is just one of the tax breaks oil get that no one else does. To put it in equally simplistic terms, it says, because this resource might run out one day, I get an extra break on my taxes. So lets see, I tore up the earth and polluted to find oil and I'm stinking rich, but because there's a chance it's not permanent, this is a hardship and I need an upfront just in case what if tax break now for those lean years if I live that long.
Well, I too will "run out one day" my body will weaken, so where's my tax break. What about the NFL star, give him a "depletion" credit, or the lady making beds at the hotel, what about her back, isn't that a resource that might falter?

Jerry Critter said...

The monied interests always fight to maintain their current source of income instead of investing in new sources.

Nan said...

The good news, such as it is, is that the paradigm may finally be shifting. Granted, it took the nastiest winter in recent memory to get the conversation among the chattering classes to start changing direction, but there does seem to be more of an acceptance that climate change is real. I may be overly optimistic (I usually am), but perhaps the stranglehold of Big Oil and Big Coal on the media is finally loosening a bit.

Nope. More likely I'm delusional and engaging in wishful thinking.

Grung_e_Gene said...

The Climate Change Denial is just a part of the Republican Whole, That Whole is that Government should be Run by and for Corporations.

As such every law, every political speech, every Republican Candidate should be viewed under the paradigm of ensuring the Government is controlled for Corporations , responds to their needs and wants and ruthlessly uses the Awesome Power of Government to crush individuals by whatever means necessary if they threaten Corporate Dominance.

Dervish Sanders said...

Jerry: The monied interests always fight to maintain their current source of income instead of investing in new sources.

Not only that, but they lie to us regarding their investment in renewables. A 6/25/2013 Rolling Stone article says BP, the criminally negligent comany that fouled the gulf BP and killed several of it's workers, used to be "British Petroleum" but has taken to calling itself "Beyond Petroleum". But "beyond petroleum" is just a facade, as BP has recently divested itself of most of it's investment in wind and solar energy. As a percentage of total 2011 expenditures BP spent "6 percent on renewals, right before it started selling off its solar operations. Chevron and Shell run a distant second with highs of 2.5 percent; none of the others have ever even cracked 1 percent".

In an ad campaign Chevron said "It's time oil companies get behind the development of renewable energy", but, as with BP, it's a lie designed to clean up their image as a dirty energy company. Big Oil is lying to the public so the gullible masses will think "energy companies are working on this", and won't feel like they have any obligation to pressure Congress to do anything.

Jerry Critter said...

So true, Dervish. They would rather spend money on ad campaigns to lie to us, instead of spending the money on actually doing something useful.

Grung_e_Gene said...

Dervish,

BP "married" Amoco in 1998 to become a naturalized citizen and start sucking on all that free welfare conservatives are always complaining foreigners are coming here to get.

But, BP's antics in the US pale to their activites around the world propping up dictators funding near-coups and fouling the lives of thousands in order to get the sweet, sweet crude.

And Chevron offered a free pizza and 2 liter as an apology for their hyrdaulic fracking explosion which burned for 4 days.

Andrew Acista said...

So many of you on the left like to talk about climate change and what you can make others do to make things right.

Have any of you quit using fossil fuels? Why not?! If you're still using hydrocarbons you're still a part of the problem.

Grung_e_Gene said...

@ All,

Andrew attempts one of the classic Right-Wing redirects, which I've called the "Perfect Hippie Fallacy".

It's a variation on the 'You can't be against the Iraq War if you drive a car' and stems from the Fallacy that in order to combat indecency you have to be a paragon of Righteousness.

One need not live the austere lives of aesthetic monks (or Paladins) in order to decry inhumane working conditions, rampant pollution, violations of law or union busting behavior or the Rampant Rapacious Crimes of the Wall Street Thieves and their Republican Goons and the Trillions of Dollars they've stolen.

So in response to Andrew, too bad. You do not get to set up the straw-man conditions and proclaim any one who does live according your whims is a hypocrite.

ChickenHammer said...

Your Perfect Hippie Fallacy is bullshit. One does not have to be perfect in order to not be a hypocrite. If you're using conventional power you have little standing to cry about global warming or climate change or whatever they decide to call it next; you are contributing to it.

Grung_e_Gene said...

So my "pollution" is exactly the same as BP? This is why conservatism has absolutely nothing to offer America.

ChickenHammer said...

Pound for pound there is absolutely no difference between your pollution and the pollution released by BP.

Grung_e_Gene said...

Thank you for posting Chickenhammer. It's beneficial to see the inner workings of the right-wing mind.

One of the scary things from conservatives is their obsequious deference to Corporations and the Rich coupled with an absolute inability to differentiate between scope.

ChickenHammer said...

One of the scary things from conservatives is their obsequious deference to Corporations and the Rich coupled with an absolute inability to differentiate between scope.

LOL! I do understand the concept of scope. What I hear you saying is that it's okay if you're harming the environment because others are doing worse damage. I've heard it before and it's still a worthless excuse.

Grung_e_Gene said...

Oh no my good man,

"there is absolutely no difference between your pollution and the pollution released by BP."

Freedom Industries posions an entire river same as me driving a car.

I know this false equivalency, lies by omission and the out-of-sight/out-of-mind and pretending that looking askew at Massive Corporate Crimes and Negligence is your MO, so no dice on the lopsided equation BS.

ChickenHammer said...

What I said was "Pound for pound there is absolutely no difference between your pollution and the pollution released by BP."

When you realized how true my comment was you couldn't stop yourself from selectively editing it and and responding to your edit. It doesn't get any more pathetic and dishonest than that.

I had thought better than that of you Gene but it's painfully obvious you're a fraud and will never discuss a subject honestly.

ChickenHammer said...

Hey Gene, since you got called out on it what is the difference between a pound of your emissions and a pound of emissions put out by BP or Chevron, or GE, or whoever?

How is one pound of your pollution any less hazardous than one pound of pollution from anyone else?

Please feel free to explain how your pollution is different from anyone else's pollution. Go ahead Gene, go ahead.

Andrew Acista said...

Give it up CH. Liberals will never debate honestly. They lie as easily as you or I breathe.

Grung_e_Gene said...

Chickenhammer,

Oh bullshit. First don't start with the 'why haven't you responded crap'. I never do that to you because I know you have other things to do and/or can't. I'm not on your timetable and doing that type of "retort" shows very poorly on you.

So in response to your total 100% false equivalency. I have never produced a pound of petcoke.

Therefore you lose, end of story, comments closed, sell your BS to the Right-Wing blogs which eat up the lies and misunderstanding you traffic in.

Andrew Acista said...

If you've ever used electrical power from the grid or filled your vehicle from a gas pump you have contributed to the production of petcoke and all the other nasty side products of energy production out there. You're lying to yourself if you believe otherwise.

Do your research dumbass and you will be amazed at how much you contribute to the problems you rail against.

Grung_e_Gene said...

@ Andrew,

Your charge of me "lying to myself" would be laughable if it didn't demonstrate the right-wing penchant towards blind evil.

Until this month you'd probably never heard of Freedom Industries or, and this is much worse, you didn't care what regulations they ignored or what toxins they inadequately stored even after it posioned an entire waterway system.

No, what you are more interested in is trolling to find some liberal you can level a charge of hypocrisy and demand they do their "research" while you blissfully ignore what Duke Energy or BP is doing.

Which is because like all despicable conservatives you revel in being a poop-flinging dance monkey of the rich, you wallow in your adulation of the Plutocracy and can't wait until they pat you on the head for defending their interests with the lives and well-being of other Americans.