Climate Trumpzs! - Global Warming science alarm

https://www.timesrecord.com/articles/opinion/dick-polman-the-trump-regime-wants-to-believe-the-earth-is-flat/

Trumpzi anti science regime!

Donald Trump's (IMO illegal!) regime has trafficked in self-parody since its inception, so perhaps we’re already numb to the news that it intends to challenge the scientific consensus that climate change is a dire international emergency. 

You heard that right. Even though the federal government’s National Climate Assessment officially warned in November that the planet is truly imperiled, and even though a U.N. report in October compared the climate change crisis to “a deafening, piercing smoke alarm going off in the kitchen,” and even though Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats warned in January that climate change poses a significant national security risk, Donald Trump is nevertheless hiring some flat Earth believers who will likely ratify his belief that climate change is a “hoax” that poses no threat to our national security.

This ad hoc coterie of deniers reportedly will be spearheaded by a National Security Council adviser named William Happer, a guy with no formal training as a climate scientist. Happer, who has taken money from the fossil fuel industry, says the carbon emissions that precipitate climate change are “not a pollutant at all,” that they’re “actually a benefit to the Earth.” Happer has stated in the past that “the demonization” of carbon emissions “is just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler,” which is apparently his way of comparing climate scientists to Nazis.

How did we wind up with quacks who are so blind to reality?

One credentialed climate expert – retired Navy Rear Adm. David Titley, former chief operating officer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – expressed his disgust: “I never thought I would live to see the day in the United States where our own White House is attacking the very science agencies that can help the president understand and manage the climate risks to security of today and tomorrow. Such attacks are un-American.”

Unfortunately, this day was guaranteed when 46 percent of the electorate chose as its president a flat-Earth crank who tweeted in 2014 that “GLOBAL WARMING bulls- has got to stop!” and has never masked his hostility to science. A pivotal 77,000 swing voters in three Rust Belt states decided that it didn’t matter.

Trump aides told the press that he’s looking for a “mixture of opinions” on whether climate change is a threat to the United States because he “wants people to be able to decide for themselves.” In truth, the American people – echoing the scientific consensus – have already decided for themselves. According to the latest NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey, 66 percent say climate change is a “serious problem” that requires action, while only 30 percent say otherwise.

At a time when “we are adding planet-warming carbon dioxide to the atmosphere at a rate faster than at any point in human history since the beginning of industrialization” (in the words of David Wallace-Wells, author of the forthcoming book “The Uninhabitable Earth”), we can ill afford a “leader” who mimics the attitude of the 17th-century church when it was confronted with Galileo’s conclusion that the Earth circles the sun. We’re saddled with someone who disses the expertise of the Pentagon – which warned way back in 2003, during the Bush administration, that climate change “should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a U.S. national security concern.”

When Trump was asked last November whether climate change poses a major threat to America, he replied: “I don’t see it.” Hence his desire for a “mixture of opinions” that would ratify what he doesn’t want to see – even though the Pentagon has repeatedly seen it. In 2008, the Pentagon weighed in on a report that outlined “the National Security Implications of Global Climate Change.” In 2010, it again detailed its concerns in a “defense review.” In 2014, it did so again, writing that “he pressures caused by climate change will influence resource competition while placing additional burdens on economies, societies, and governance institutions around the world.”

That Pentagon report was five years ago. Since then, the severity of the crisis has only worsened. If Trump were to stop playing tin soldier on our Mexican border, perhaps he’d be capable of confronting our true national emergency. But that’s a futile hope.

Only a regime change in 2020 would reorient us toward science – if it’s not too late.

Dick Polman is the national political columnist at WHYY in Philadelphia and a “Writer in Residence” at the University of Pennsylvania. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com.

Simple words Donald Trump can practice about hurricane Harvey

Just doing my patriotic duty to offer compassionate word assistance to Donald Trump.

Flood threat rises as Harvey dumps torrential rains on Texas-Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders alert!  Please feel free to call on me if I can be of further communications assistance. 

 Thank you to NOAA!

Obviously, Donald Trump is word challenged.  He is awkward when tryingto tread fromn teleprompters, but when forced to do so, he looks like a cardboard replica of himself with a ventroloquist speaking on his behalf. (Moreover, Donald Trump's inability to master an adult level vocabulary impedes his reading proficiency.)

Neverhtless, it's very important for Americans to hear form Donald Trump on those occasions when then nation is facing tragedies and disasters. In the Gulf Coast, the entire region is now a ring of disaster due to the heavy rainfall anticipated to flood all the flat and below sea level communities.

Therefore, to help out and do my part as a sympathetic American who cares about supporting the wel being of those in harm's way of Hurricane Harvey, I decided to make this list of simple sentances using as few multi-sylable words as possible, for the purpose of ext4ending concern for all who are involved in this weather disaster. Here are my suggestions for Donald Trump and his advisers who are trying to teach him how to appropriately respond during emergencies.

1. (Simple!)- Thank you to all who are helping people in Texas and the Gulf Coast during hurricane Harvey.

2. (Simple) My thoughts and prayers are with the people who are in the path of hurricaine Harvey.

3 (Medium complex) I am grateful (two sylables here) for the dedicated work of our federal agencies like NOAA and FEMA for their good word during hurricane Harvey.

4. ( Medium complex) Both Melania and I, and our family, extend our heartfelt concern for the well being of the people who have been affected by the dangerous hurricane Harvey.

5. (Complicated) Our dedicated first responders who have been involved in supporting the safetyof all who are affected by hurricane Harvey are in my thoughts as you continue your good work on behalf of others.

6. (Complex) To Texas Governor Greg Abbott, I have offered all the assistance and resources within my executive power to support recovery efforts in Texas during and after hurricane Harvey.

7. (Complex) Congratulations to the scientists at NOAA who accutately predicted the path and trajectory of hurricane Harvey and in so doing likely helped to save untold numbers of lives.

The above list should help Donald Trump to respond appropriately during this challenging weather disaster and to circumvent problems he has with memorization of complex responses.

This challenging time, when people are looking for compassionate leadership, should be an opportunity for Donald Trump to practice his empathy skills and to improve his vocabulary.