Hurricanes

Climate Change Policy Under Ronald Reagan And George H. W. Bush Now Dismissed By Republican Party And Its Presidential Candidates

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Both President Ronald Reagan and President George H. W. Bush, when President 22-35 years ago,  were well aware of the growing dangers of climate change, and spoke up on the issue and called for changes in policy.

But since the elder Bush left the White House in 1993, the Republican Party has turned against science and reality, and the party is strongly and vehemently against any action on the growing environmental crisis, undermining any efforts to deal with the growing evidence that the globe is threatened in the next 25-50 years and beyond.  Republican Presidential candidates have refused to address the issue, and Congressional leaders ignore it completely.

Lack of action will lead to an ever growing wave of revolution, terror, and bloodshed as those who are already poor and deprived rise up in reaction to the reality that climate change will affect them more directly and sooner, without the ability to escape the horrors of flooding, drought, and the effects of growing temperatures affecting hurricanes, tornadoes, and other weather phenomenon.

It is clear that action must be taken to prevent the energy industries—oil, coal, natural gas—from focusing only on profits, and ignoring the long range effects of their industries on climate and weather changes.  The promotion of wind, solar energy and safe nuclear energy, and the newest technologies to prevent massive damage from the energy industries, must be pursued!

This is one of the top challenges facing the next President, and it is evident that only if a Democratic President is in the White House in 2017. will anything be done on this crucial matter!

New Scientist Report Shows Massive Climate Changes Going On, Time For Action!

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The battle over climate change continues, and a new report by 300 scientists makes clear for everyone and anyone who cares about the future national security of the United States, that dramatic action is needed!

To ignore the obvious evidence of devastating climate change already affecting the globe and the nation is to be an ostrich with its head in the sand.

The worsening reality of hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, sinkholes, droughts, forest fires, avalanches, landslides, and glacier meltings at a very rapid rate is a warning sign of what is happening, and much more rapidly than was predicted.

The sad truth, however, is that Republicans and conservatives and those in the energy industries, are vehemently opposed to any action, claiming there is no climate change going on, just normal changes that happen over time but are not extreme in the long run of mankind’s time on earth.

So the battle of the Obama Administration on this issue will face the same stalemate, gridlock, and conspiracy theories that has been visited on everything the President engages in, while trying to promote necessary change!

Political Failures: Gun Control And Climate Change

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Our country is hungering for real political leadership, and instead, we go from one crisis to another,without any cooperation to bring about solutions.

Someday in the distant future, or maybe not so distant, we will have Americans look back and wonder why the country went into such rapid decline, with such a poor reaction by our political leaders.

We are a nation being torn apart by gun violence, with about 10,000 murders per year by gun, plus thousands more victims of guns by other methods than murder.

When we get a massacre such as the one in Aurora, Colorado, two days ago, we focus on it for a few days or weeks, and then seem to just go back to our old ways of neglecting the issue, and doing nothing about it.

We have corporations, and the political leaders who benefit from favoring them, who do whatever they can to maximize profits, and have no concern about climate change, even when we now see an emerging drought that threatens food supplies and is causing a spike in prices that will harm the middle class and the poor. Sure, the wealthy might have to pay more also, but they have unlimited supplies of money to meet any emergency, just as they had during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Both gun violence in Aurora, Colorado, and the drought now emerging, on top of floods, tornadoes, forest fires, and hurricanes, threaten our very existence as a nation, and somehow, we must demand from our leaders that they stop promoting themselves, and start dealing with the reality of life in America in the 21st century, or face the danger of chaos and anarchy!

Natural Disasters, Government, And Eric Cantor And His Tea Party Friends: The Battle For Fairness!

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Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has declared that any disaster recovery relief funds for the earthquake this week in his state and the Northeast, and now the upcoming Hurricane Irene, will have to be funded by cuts in spending elsewhere!

Isn’t this pretty? The intervention of Nature, which has become so prevalent this calendar year, should lead to punishment of the less fortunate, who are more likely anyway to be victims of the natural disasters! So add insult to injury is the way Cantor sees it, and that deserves the outrage of the American people! How mean, nasty and hard hearted can a politician be? But realize Cantor represents the viewpoint of many conservative and Tea Party Republicans who care not a bit about human beings, unless they happen to be rich!

When one looks at the total cost of natural disasters this year, it is absolutely astounding, and will grow dramatically due to the recent earthquake and Hurricane Irene. Trying to imagine the total cost, in the midst of the Great Recession, is mind boggling!

These natural disasters include:

The Great Blizzard in the center and eastern part off the nation in late January and early February, cost about $2 billion

Five periods of massive tornado activity in the Midwest and Southeast,, four sets of dates in April and one in late May, with the first three costing $6 billion and 47 deaths total, and the last two costing $16 billion and the unbelievable total of 504 deaths, so a total of $22 billion and 551 deaths overall

The Southern Plains-Southwest Drought, heat waves, and wildfires, costing so far a total of $5 billion

Mississippi River and Upper Midwest flooding, costing a total of $6 billion

So the amount in total BEFORE the earthquake and the upcoming Hurricane Irene, and other likely landfall hurricanes later on this fall, is an unbelievable $35 billion!

With the fear that Hurricane Irene could cost as much as earlier devastating hurricanes, including Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the likelihood of more earthquake activity or volcanic activity, as well as other hurricanes, one has to wonder how America will survive the onslaught of nature if we are being told there will be no raising of taxes to deal with what God has wrought!

This is an ultimate test of what government is all about, and whether we all have to be in this together, and to pay more taxes to promote economic recovery, not just the middle class, but also the wealthy! This will be a battle worth fighting when Congress comes back after Labor Day!

Florida Recall Of Miami Dade Mayor A Warning To Governor Rick Scott!

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The shocking, overwhelming vote for recall of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez should be a warning sign to Governor Rick Scott and others in the state legislature, as well as in Wisconsin and other states, where the elected office holders are acting more like dictators, than servants of the people!

One cannot recall any election or recall where 88 percent of the people voted in unison, an unbelievable landslide of astronomical proportions!

Governor Rick Scott has angered many people with his reckless behavior and disregard for anyone but the Tea Party Movement crowd, that elected him on an agenda of making Florida a “third world nation” in public services!

Already one of the worst states in social services, particularly education and health care, Scott has cut taxes on corporations and property owners while calling for the cutting of education and health care by billions of dollars, and has made it clear that if you don’t agree with him, don’t bother him as he has no interest in listening, and will not answer to the media either!

This man is trying to privatize the state on a massive basis, and he is declaring war on teachers and other public servants, similar to Scott Walker in Wisconsin.

The damage that is being done will make Florida a less desirable place for people to live in and migrate to, and meanwhile, his demand for all public servants to undergo quarterly drug testing will invade privacy rights, and cost large scale financial investments the state cannot afford. One wonders if he has connections with those who would make profits from such testing, and would receive kickbacks, considering his felonious conduct in Medicare scams in the 1990s, for which he only paid major fines, rather than ending up in federal prison, where he should have been today, instead of being Governor of Florida!

If a public worker is shown by performance or behavior to have a problem with drugs or alcohol, then it is proper to test him and hold him or her accountable. But to require all workers to have such a test on a regular basis is bound to be declared unconstitutional, and is an invasion of privacy!

It is amazing how Scott wants to privatize everything, to make government smaller, except when it comes to interference in the private lives of people! Unless there is a problem demonstrating itself at work, it is no one’s business what one does in his or her private time away from work!

Recall of the Governor is essential if Florida is to survive intact for the long term future! Otherwise, the Sunshine State is facing “stormy weather”, which brings to mind, what is the likelihood of Governor Scott reacting appropriately to provide aid were Florida to face a new threat of hurricanes as it dealt with quite well under Governor Jeb Bush in 2004-2005, when the state was hit by eight hurricanes.

The thought that Scott would leave it to private groups, rather than government, in such an emergency, is enough to make one fear any such eventuality. Hopefully, Florida will not be tested by such an emergency!