Irma won't "wake up" climate change-denying Republicans. Their whole ideology is on the line.

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: September 11, 2017 at 4:28:07 PM EDT
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Irma won't "wake up" climate change-denying Republicans. Their whole ideology is on the line.
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> Irma won’t “wake up” climate change-denying Republicans. Their whole ideology is on the line.
> By Naomi Klein
> Sep 11 2017
> <https://theintercept.com/2017/09/11/irma-donald-trump-tax-cuts-climate-change-republican-ideology-capitalism/>
>
> As one of the most powerful storms ever recorded bore down on the continental United States, with much of Florida 
> under evacuation order, President Donald Trump was focused on a matter of grave urgency.
>
> He gathered his cabinet at Camp David and said there was no time to waste. With Hurricane Irma set to potentially 
> devastate huge swaths of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, now was the time, he said, to rush 
> through massive … tax cuts.
>
> Yes, that’s right. He wasn’t focused on getting massive aid to those most affected. He wasn’t focused on massive 
> change to our energy and transit systems to lower greenhouse gas emissions so that Irma-like storms do not become a 
> thrice-annual occurrence. His mind was on massive changes to the tax code — which, despite Trump’s claims that he is 
> driven by a desire to give the middle class relief, would in fact hand corporations the biggest tax cut in decades 
> and the very wealthy a sizable break as well.
>
> Some have speculated that seeing the reality of climate change hit so close to homethis summer — Houston underwater, 
> Los Angeles licked by flames, and now southern states getting battered by Irma — might be some kind of wake-up call 
> for climate change-denying Republicans.
>
> As Trump’s address to his cabinet makes clear, however, Irma only makes him want to double down on his reckless 
> economic agenda. Flanked by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, he explained that 
> they were going to discuss “dramatic tax cuts and tax reform. And I think now with what’s happened with the 
> hurricane, I’m gonna ask for a speed up.”
> Some have pointed out that this is a classic example of what I have called the “shock doctrine” — using disasters as 
> cover to push through radical, pro-corporate policies. And it is a textbook case to be sure, especially because when 
> Trump made his remarks, Irma was at the very height of its potential threat.
>
> But Trump’s timing is even more revealing for what it shows about what’s really driving climate change denial on the 
> right. It’s not a rejection of the science, but a rejection of the consequences of the science. Put simply, if the 
> science is true, then the whole economic project that has dominated American power structures since Ronald Reagan was 
> president is out the window, and the deniers know it.
>
> Because if climate change is driving the kinds of catastrophes we are seeing right now — and it is — then it doesn’t 
> just mean Trump has to apologize and admit he was wrong when he called it a Chinese hoax. It means that he also needs 
> to junk his whole tax plan, because we’re going to need that tax money (and more) to pay for a rapid transition away 
> from fossil fuels. And it also means he’s going to have to junk his deregulatory plan, because if we are going to 
> change how we power our lives, we’re going to need all kinds of regulations to manage and enforce it. And, of course, 
> this is not just about Trump — it’s about all the climate-denying Republican governors whose states are currently 
> being pounded. All of them would have to junk an entire twisted worldview holding that the market is always right, 
> regulation is always wrong, private is good and public is bad, and taxes that support public services are the worst 
> of all.
>
> Here is what we need to understand in a hurry: Climate change, especially at this late date, can only be dealt with 
> through collective action that sharply curtails the behavior of corporations, such as Exxon Mobil and Goldman Sachs 
> (both so lavishly represented at Trump’s cabinet meeting). Climate action demands investments in the public sphere — 
> in new energy grids, public transit and light rail, and energy efficiency — on a scale not seen since World War II. 
> And that can only happen by raising taxes on the wealthy and on corporations, the very people Trump is determined to 
> shower with the most generous tax cuts, loopholes, and regulatory breaks.
>
> [snip]
>
> Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp



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