The Pause That Distresses

A Word From Our Sponsor

March 23, 2017

Paying Attention's benefactor - the guy who pays the bills, our salaries, and all kinda dues - Stevie G has ended his lengthy hiatus and, with newly inspired invective, lobbed the first of what we hope is a fusillade of op-ed pieces at his local paper. Apparently desperate for material, they have agreed to publish the following. I believe this is his first such piece since launching this blog. We hope you enjoy this brief pause in the disaster. We expect this will be just the first installment of Coming Soon to the Delaware County Daily Times.

Ed Venture
Editor, Paying Attention

To The Editor: 

Donald Trump has given us Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.  It may not be common knowledge that Pruitt sued the EPA 13 times to stop them from protecting the environment. As attorney general of Oklahoma, Pruitt also oversaw – or more accurately overlooked – a mind-blowing and literally Earth-shattering uptick of earthquakes in his home state. Oklahoma experienced 1,900 in 2016, up from 2-3 in 2008 before fracking, which Pruitt vigorously endorsed.

Ninety-seven percent of the world’s climate scientists continue to agree that global climate change is not only very real, but that human activity leading to excessive carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is indisputably implicated in driving the crisis. Recently, Pruitt shamelessly opined that carbon dioxide is not a serious contributor to climate change. At this point it is clear that Pruitt is either an unabashed liar or too ignorant of the issues involved in his new post to be qualified for the job.

It is now widely known that Exxon’s own research in the late seventies showed that climate change had already begun and that the fossil fuel industry was very much to blame for heating up the planet. Yet ExxonMobil continues to reap massive tax incentives, despite being the most profitable corporation in history, and despite the fact that they have been lying to us for close to thirty years about their complicity in damaging our planet. Now their CEO, friend and business associate of Vladimir Putin, is Secretary of State. How does anyone believe there is nothing wrong with this picture?

Meanwhile, the Trump administration says we need to save money by cutting Meals on Wheels, meals for needy school children, public broadcasting and science, among others. Apparently we need this money to keep providing welfare for Exxon (and others), more imprudent tax cuts for the wealthy, and to enable Trump to go to Florida almost every weekend (because being president is surely no more than a five-day-a-week job) at a cost of $3M a pop. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said he cannot in good conscience ask Americans to pay for Meals on Wheels because it does not work. What? Does it bring meals to those who have no other way to get them? Yes it does. Therefore it works. And his conscience has no problem (not even) asking us if we want to pay for Trump’s constant vacations? What am I missing here?

Bernie Sanders was ridiculed by Trump and others when he said that Global climate change is the single gravest threat to the security of the United States and the world. Too little and too late, the military-intelligence complex tried to remind everyone that they have been saying this very thing for almost a decade.

Regardless, it boggles the mind that anyone in the 21^st Century can seriously think that our technology comes without a price. We now know beyond a reasonable doubt that we are causing great harm to our planet. We can do better.

Sincerely,

Stevie G
March 20, 2017