John Nichols at The Nation writes—Reactionaries Call the Green New Deal ‘Radical,’ Like That’s a Bad Thing:
Thanks to all the reactionary Republicans and docile Democrats who are doing their best to portray the Green New Deal as “radical.” Please, please keep it up.
Climate change represents a stark threat to the planet and the people who inhabit it. When [Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Mark] Pocan says “we can’t afford to wait any longer and need to take action on climate change,” he’s right. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that dramatic action will be required over the next 12 years to avert environmental and economic disaster.
“The climate crisis is a problem of epic proportions that requires a level of ambition just as big,” explains League of Conservation Voters president Gene Karpinski. “This is an all hands-on-deck moment, and now is the time to challenge ourselves as never before.”
Denial won’t cut it anymore. Nor will the half-steps of those who acknowledge the crisis but refuse to respond in sufficient measure. “Even the solutions that we have considered big and bold are nowhere near the scale of the actual problem that climate change presents to us, to our country, to the world,” explains Ocasio-Cortez.
So a radical solution is called for. No one should make apologies for recognizing this necessity. Radical change goes to the root of the problem and addresses it. [...]
FDR’s New Deal proposals to address the economic crisis that extended from the Great Depression were attacked as radical too—even before he and his brain trust had developed specific programs. Why? Because entrenched special interests are always frightened by the prospect that government might get focused on addressing serious problems with serious proposals. [...]
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QUOTATION
“This island of Earth of ours is finite in resources, including wilderness- particularly wilderness. The dwindling worldwide reservoir of wild lands must be the concern of everyone, but especially of those of us who have been privileged to experience wildness, and thus learn its value to the individual human soul and to the spirit of mankind.”
~~David Brower, Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run: A Call to Those Who Would Save the Earth (2000)
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BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2013—Kochsman Marco Rubio likely to offer same old, same old energy ideas in State of the Union response:
Rebecca Leber at Think Progress points out that Sen. Marco Rubio may perhaps include something about the need for more dirty energy in the official Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address tonight.
It certainly would be no surprise given that Rubio is one of the five senators who, for his votes, received an A+ last year from Americans for Prosperity, the advocacy group founded and funded by the brothers Koch—David and Charles—to ensure, among other things, that nothing substantive on climate change or green energy manages to emerge from the Senate or the House.
Rubio himself got a career total of $32,200 from Koch Industries, $353,891 from the Koch-connected Club for Growth and $252,134 from the oil and gas industries.
While he isn't as aggressive a climate-change denier as, say, Sen. James "It's a hoax" Inhofe, Rubio does still deny in his smarmy way as can seen in this exchange hosted by Buzzfeed just a week ago:
Ben Smith: Do you see global warming as a threat to Florida?
Rubio: The climate is always changing, that’s not the question. The question is if man-made activity is what’s contributing the most to it. I know people said there’s a significant scientific consensus on that issue, but I’ve actually seen reasonable debate on that principle.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Greg Dworkin rounds up campaign launches, wall-slash-shutdown scenarios, and various Gop freakouts. Paula Writer shares thoughts on "centrism." Bezos news. Counterpoint on filibuster reform. The RNC is still paying Trump bodyguard Schiller a ton.