The Best Way to Deal with Climate Change Deniers: RIDICULE!

Ridicule — it worked against the GOP’s War on Women.  There’s a reason that there’s no such person as “Senator Todd Aiken” or “Senator Richard Mourdock.”  Clueless mean-spirited comments about rape victims derailed the Senate campaigns of both of those morons.  And they were both way ahead in the polls before they uttered their bone-stupid comments.

According to this column by Joel Connelly, ridicule would be equally effective against the Koch Brothers’ useful idiots.  Turn them into national and global laughingstocks.

You’re familiar with the fossil fuel industry’s talking points.  “It snowed last night.  What’s this ‘global warming’ you’re talking about?”  “Climate change is a hoax perpetrated by scientists so they can keep getting funding from [the Trilateral Commission, the Illuminati, whoever].”  “The science is unclear; the results aren’t conclusive.”  Etc.  Shine the spotlight on these dickwads.  Make ‘em squirm.

Senator Brian Schatz (D—Hawaii) said:

“The power of ridicule should be deployed here.  You have to get to the point where a major candidate for public office is disqualified when he or she denies climate science.”

Jon Carson, head of Organizing for Action, said:

“When a Republican or a Democrat says something crazy on climate, we should be ready to hold them accountable as progressives did on human biology.”

As the linked article says:

“By contrast, Republican presidential candidates in 2012 made all manner of unsubstantiated, often off-the-wall statements about climate.  The national media greeted such hot talk with glacial indifference, and has treated alarming climate news in the same fashion.”

This needs to change.  Some high-profile teabaggers have made statements denying climate change that are every bit as absurd as Todd Aiken’s and Richard Mourdock’s rape comments.  While the state of Texas burns and evaporates, Rick Perry describes climate change as “a contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight,” and says scientists have “manipulated data so that they will have money rolling into their projects.”

Want Michele Bachmann’s take on climate change?  Come on, you know you do:

“Nancy Pelosi is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said she’s just trying to save the planet.  We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago.  The Lord saved the planet — We didn’t need Nancy Pelosi to do that.”

Alaska’s permafrost is melting and the Arctic icepack has receded to a record low.  In response, Alaska Rep. Don Young says: “I think this is the biggest scam since Teapot Dome.”

The political climate needs to shift to where anyone who makes a statement similar to the above three examples will not have a prayer of getting elected to ANY public office.

Joel Connelly concludes with:

“Progressives have seen several of their movements ‘go viral’ in the past year, same-sex marriage and the need for immigration reform as prime examples.  It hasn’t happened — yet — with climate . . . despite global heat waves, ‘superstorms,’ melting glaciers and shrinking snow packs, the shrinking Arctic ice pack, dying forests, and ‘drunken trees.’”

Tim Eyman: Astroturf “Grass Roots” Front for Rightwing Millionaires

About forty-eight years ago, Howard Jarvis fucked Grover Norquist and they named their hideous love child Tim Eyman.  If you don’t live in or near Washington State, you probably haven’t heard of this guy.  But every state probably has its own anti-tax folk hero — somebody to give a populist voice to the joy and pain of being a plutocrat:

“I’m mad as hell at the unwashed masses and I’m not going to take it any more!”

Since the late 1990s Tim Eyman has been determined to bankrupt the State of Washington with one anti-tax initiative after another.  Some of his initiatives have been passed by voters; some have been defeated.  And some of the ones that passed were later overturned by the courts.

Tim Eyman’s newest initiative — not on the ballot yet — would require all new tax increases to automatically expire after one year.  And it would require all state voter pamphlets to list each legislator’s voting record on all tax measures.  (I personally would be more interested in who contributed to each candidate’s re-election campaign; but that’s just me.)

Joel Connelly of the Seattle PI has Tim Eyman dialed.  Nailed.  He articulates exactly how and why Tim Eyman is such a phony bloodsucking piece of shit.  And he does it without any cursing or name-calling.  (I wish I could do that.)

From Joel Connelly’s column:

“He has turned into the favorite populist of local plutocrats and corporations wary of having loopholes closed or taxes raised.  The state’s major oil refiners put in $350,000 to fuel  Eyman’s 2011 super-majority measure onto the state ballot.  The Legislature in 2010 came close to passing a small per-barrel cleanup fee.  The Beer Institute topped that with $400,000.

“Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman Jr. put more than $1 million into an Eyman initiative that sought to block Sound Transit from crossing Lake Washington with a rail line extending to Bellevue and Redmond.  Financier Michael Dunmire has underwritten campaigns on issues ranging from taxes to traffic cameras.”

Ah, the voice of the people.

Andrew Villeneuve, of the Northwest Progressive Institute, also has some kind words for Tim Eyman:

“Eyman wants to clog up our ballots with nonbinding advisory votes that amount to nothing more than useless opinion research conducted at taxpayer expense.  If Eyman’s wealthy benefactors want to pay for one-sided poll questions intended to reinforce their talking points, that’s fine.  But the rest of us shouldn’t be forced to.”

As one of the commenters at the end of the linked article said:

“If Eyman had some 'nads, he would run for office and try to get things passed the way things were intended.”