To Participate on Thurstonblog

email yyyyyyyyyy58@gmail.com, provide profile information and we'll email your electronic membership


Friday, May 27, 2016

"Trump has now clarified beyond any doubt just how much ... we all have to lose from a Trump presidency."

...................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS:
*  Sanders has said over and over again that Trump is not an option and that he'll be campaigning for the nomination until the convention. Sanders' campaign of late doesn't reflect the best approach (in my opinion), but given what he says, he will see Clinton nominated and begin using his considerable political campaign resources to oppose Trump.
*  The Right To Pollute is one of the most sacred of conservative/libertarian values. Trump is openly pandering to the kingpins of the resource extraction industries (read: Koch Brothers) in hopes of bringing them in on his grift.
*  If Donald would go on "Are you smarter than a fifth grader" and actually correctly answer the questions, I might see him differently. But alas we know he's not smarter than a fifth grader.
*  This morning, CNN had on a number of Trump surrogates scattered across the hour or so I was watching. I was struck how they sound like a North Korean spokesperson talking about the "Dear Leader." Spooky.
*  Donald Trump proudly reminds us that he is hopelessly ignorant and wants to remain that way. Why do any voters want this fool in office?
   *  Because a surprising number of old white men admire swaggering, rather than knowledge, education or intelligence.
*  This old white man is neither wealthy or all that smart. But I do know enough to understand that we have to stop killing this planet. The Trump chumps are not old white guys with money or education. They are just plain old stupid. This excuse of a so called "leader" is telling the stupid people exactly what they want to hear. America is becoming a laughing stock of the rest of the world because its citizens are showing them that our educational system is broken. Rump is dangerous. He will not "make America great again." He will destroy the economy with his brain dead policies. I am not a man of faith but I certainly hope karma runs over this idiot.
...................................................................................................................................................................
Donald Trump just made an extremely important promise. It’s one of his worst yet.
By Greg Sargent, May 27, 2016

THE MORNING PLUM:

Believe it or not, Donald Trump has now made a very important policy statement. Introducing what he billed as an “energy plan,” Trump promised to “cancel the Paris Climate Plan.” Unlike so much of what comes from Trump on policy, this is a genuinely clarifying moment, with potentially enormous long-term implications.

The near-term political consequences of this will — or should — be that there is now no chance whatsoever that Bernie Sanders will do anything at all on his way out that could imperil party unity in a way that makes a Trump victory more likely. I don’t believe Sanders has any intention to do that, by the way, but this should theoretically render it an impossibility in his mind, because it dramatically increases the stakes for a relatively smooth resolution of the Democratic primaries. Indeed, I believe it’s likely Sanders will see it this way, too.

To get all the details on Trump’s full energy plan, read Brad Plumer’s piece. Trump would pursue a mostly standard-issue GOP agenda of “fewer regulations and more fossil fuel production.” More important, with some reporters wondering what Trump’s actual views are on global climate change, he clarified them: He is utterly indifferent to its existence and would roll back the main things we’re currently putting in place to deal with it.

Trump said that the current environmental challenges that the Obama administration is trying to tackle are “phony.” He added that he would “rescind” the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which would curb carbon dioxide emissions from existing coal-fired power plants, and is key to the U.S.’s ability to meet its commitments as part of the global climate deal. He would withdraw the U.S. from participation in that global accord.

As I’ve reported before, there are complexities that could make it harder than expected for a Republican president — even one as masterfully competent and strong as Trump — to roll back the Clean Power Plan and/or withdraw from the Paris climate deal. But it’s possible that Trump could accomplish one or both of these, which would be a tremendous setback.

This deepens the contrast between Trump and Hillary Clinton. While Clinton would not be as ambitious as Sanders in tackling the climate challenge, the unalterable fact of the matter is that Clinton would preserve and implement the Clean Power Plan and the global climate accord, and Trump would seek to reverse them both.

Sanders has repeatedly described the climate challenge as the single greatest long-term threat we face:
 Bernie Sanders ✔  @BernieSanders
Climate change is the single greatest threat facing our planet.
11:02 AM - 7 Apr 2016
And:
 Bernie Sanders ✔  @BernieSanders
As a father of four and a grandfather of seven, I care about leaving a healthy, livable planet for all of our kids and grandchildren.
1:27 PM - 7 Apr 2016
It’s true that Sanders has criticized the global climate deal as insufficient. But Sanders surely knows that continuing to implement it — and the Clean Power Plan — are infinitely preferable to rolling them back, which could lay the groundwork for catastrophe. Sanders knows that the Paris accord may end up being our best near term hope for building an international effort to tackle the climate problem. Implementing it could allow us to get to the point where dramatic innovations in energy technology begin to make solving the problem a realistic possibility. What’s more, even if the Paris accord is currently not enough, it can be built upon later. The accord is not guaranteed to succeed, but trying to implement and build upon it makes success more likely. Obviously, if our participation in it is canceled, building upon it is no longer possible.

It is often said that Sanders may not help to unify the party because he has “nothing to lose” from a Democratic loss. I think that is wrong — I believe Sanders when he says a Trump presidency is unthinkable. And at any rate, the incentives, if anything, favor Sanders helping to unify the party, in order to maximize his and his movement’s influence going forward. Trump has now clarified beyond any doubt just how much, by Sanders’ own lights, we all have to lose from a Trump presidency. My bet is Sanders will seize on this to make the case to his supporters that the stakes in this election require a full commitment to Trump’s defeat, even if that means supporting a flawed alternative.
...................................................................................................................................................................

No comments: