It's the Climate, Stupid! (Oh Yeah, and Avoiding Nuclear War)

Today's political waters are roiled and muddied -- primarily by Republican climate-change deniers. Not long ago, Trump, armed with his delusional set of "alternative facts" said that climate change was a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. Unbelievable. Ridiculous. Embarrassing.

At the behest of billionaire dark-money puppeteers behind much of the so-called conservative-political movement, Republicans are denying climate change, and dismantling as much possible and as quickly as possible the Environmental Protection Agency's powers and mandates. Reactionary dark money is also driving as much as possible a libertarian agenda, which serves mainly the moneyed class, and certainly not the mass of Americans. (Bear in mind that I'm not a flaming liberal. I must confess that I was a conservative Republican-type voter for many years until the early 1990s, when I believe the Republican party's trolley completely jumped the tracks. It has only gotten worse as time has gone by. At this point that trolley is atomized, completely unrecognizable. Today I am comfortable suggesting that the Republican party is no longer the party of Lincoln, or of conservatism, for that matter -- which by definition would not be so comfortable destroying the environment or rattling sabers in response to the childish threats of an unbalanced Korean autocrat. This is a time for cool heads and judicious tactics: think JFK and the Cuban Missle Crisis.)

The Trump administration has largely become a science-free zone, and what was once a debate based on rational evidence has now become politicized and ridiculously subjective -- turning a deaf ear to the mass of respected scientists, who continue to sound the climate alarm.

What is disturbing is that even if today we got to a point of climate-neutral carbon and methane emissions, the climate-change trends would continue for some time. Also disturbing is that by the time that Miami, much of the remainder of southern Florida and other coastal areas are under water, the climate-change deniers of today will have likely passed on and won't have to answer for their short-sighted foolishness that sped us down a path of destruction.

A dark money wet dream?

At the time of the 2016 presidential campaign, of the two final main candidates, there was only one who understood the climate hazards ahead. (By the way, that candidate was not Trump.) That alone should have scared the beejeebers out of any voter tempted to vote for the Republican candidate. Even if one hated the Democratic presidential candidate, there was only one responsible choice (again, not Trump). There were so many other reasons that the Republican candidate was a poor choice -- completely unqualified for the office (which, if you've been paying attention, has been proven week in and week out since he took office).

The real question, though, is how far are we going to let the Trump administration speed us toward climate disaster -- that is, if he doesn't first blow up a significant number of humans by starting a war with North Korea (which is something that he seems foolishly, childishly, recklessly determined to do).

If humanity survives intact the Trump administration (and I'm serious about that concern), it is important for Americans to take their voting privileges more seriously and not vote out of ill-informed anger and frustration, happy to "blow up the system" by electing, without regard to the potential consequences, other ill-informed, psychologically-defective candidates.

I humbly implore you to take action where ever you can: contact elected officials, donate to worthy causes, protest peaceably as appropriate, and act for responsible environmental action and diplomacy rather than short-sighted hostility. (The fact that Trump has control of the U.S.'s nuclear arsenal, and in this matter there's no one who can act as a check or balance against his oft-demonstrated irrational, petulant nature -- well, that should certainly disturb one's nightly sleep.)

Trump's fantasy over N. Korea?

Trump made lots of promises on the campaign trail that his actual policies have countered. He also made many assertions and recommendations that were directly opposite to the spirit of the constitution and our basic principles such as the rule of law.

He and his administration are best voted out of office (or perhaps prosecuted to the full extent of the law for any crimes that we find they have committed), removed safely far away from the halls of power.

Make America great again -- dump Trump (and Pence and Pruitt et al).