“No longer a secret”???
Jane, you ignorant Knut, 
You are more than 10 years late. You only needed to check PBS’s Climate of doubt (in 2008 it was more clear) to see what guys like the Kochs were doing in the open (They and the fossil fuel money are harder to pin down, but people that check the issue know that the money still supports the ignorant politicians that are almost exclusively from the Republican party). And it was not only Koch but clearly a lot of the rich people in the fossil fuel industry that were not shy of helping to get the ignorants to be elected into office.
Has anyone noticed that the Kochs have basically bought out PBS? I swear, they sponsor about half the programs on there.
And I believe they did it so this documentary, which was presumably made to be shown on PBS, would not air. IDK what they’re so upset about, because I’ve seen it, and honestly, it’s not very interesting.
Don’t have a link handy, but I recently saw a Twitter post which included an excerpt from a book about them which stated that as toddlers, the two oldest boys had a German nanny who, in addition to being a Nazi sympathizer, had a very draconian potty-training regimen which, as the Twitter post said, involved “forcing them to take a shit on demand” and she would give them castor oil or enemas if they couldn’t.
:eek:
The top two items on the Koch agenda have been withdrawing from the Paris Accord and repealing the ACA.
IMHO they have not bought PBS, not jet :dubious:.
They are a sponsor of groups like NOVA, and here I have to remember a poster that ignorantly claimed in a past discussion that since NOVA had not talked about the issue of global warming then it was not an important one. :rolleyes:
In the previous discussion I searched and found that NOVA did talk about the issue, but back in the 80’s (!) but the show was almost impossible to find in the open (only clips). But more recently 1990s and 2009 there was a big reference to the issue in the Extreme Ice documentary.
What I think is going on is that a lot of powerful interests have pressured groups like NOVA into not talking much about the issue, but they do on a less direct way. Did you notice how the recent documentary titles do not give a lot of information on the cause of the loss of cap ice? I mean, one could casually think that it was about extreme sports.
Back then in the thread I did notice how either: 1) The sponsors pressured to change titles and the focus of the documentary changed from humans causing it to “seems like” 2) The makers of the documentary did not want to give it a title or a direct implication of the cause that would make the sponsors to become upset.
In any case, it was no wonder that many viewers would end up not thinking about the causes or thinking that outfits like NOVA are not talking about it.
In other settings James Balog and Richard Alley makes it more clear: the acceleration of the cap ice melting will almost certainly mean that the projections of ocean rise due to global warming will be on the high end (about more than 2 meters before the end of the century and sooner than expected) and it will be faster than was thought.
My main complaints about the linked piece:
- The “oh hey who’s this now” tone of the piece, as mentioned by GIGObuster.
- The fact that the author got in a plug for her book, which seems to make the whole article just an attempt at shilling.
- There are no facts presented at all, so this really is just shilling for a book.
- The way the author plays fast and loose with language; for instance:
(bolding mine)
What the fuck?
“NOW that they have been flushed from the shadows…” “…as he put it in an interview with Fortune LAST YEAR”…???
TL;DR: IMO the linked article is just content-free self-righteous advertising, and it’s not very well-written.
No it is not the Koch brothers. Trump made an election promise of withdrawing from the Paris accord–and he fulfilled his promise. If in fact there were a majority of American in every state opposed to withdrawing where were they when the election was held? Remember Trump even promised to shut down the EPA.
For some reason supporters of democracy always flinch from the last.
It’s not the Kochs, it’s not the Trumps, it’s not the corruptors.
If representatives are bribed or intimidated, it still comes down to the People who elect those broken men either willingly or through willing ignorance of the issues. And if money buys elections — as it must through the laws of physics — why are voters swayed by the adverts that money buys ?
As despicable as the Koch Brothers are, I think Trump withdrew because he wanted to poke Obama in the eye and stick it to those Europeans he detests. I think he was humiliated by Macron and Merkel and he still hasn’t gotten over Obama and the White House Correspondent Dinner.
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IMHO there is no reason to think that both reasons are exclusive from each other: the support of the Kochs, and that they also knew how the ignorance of the politicians they helped elect would benefit them anyhow.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/donald-trump-david-bill-koch-brothers-237059
I know that officially they were not supporters of Trump early, but their political front at Americans for Prosperity did end up falling in line behind Trump big time and they helped Trump decisively in the close election.
I wouldn’t have thought Macron had had time to annoy El Trumpo. Still ordering new curtains for his palais…
That’s the beauty of untold millions. If Hillary had won, as was expected, they could cozy up on the grounds of having said nice things about her; if Trump won they could cozy up by letting their money do the talking.
So how is democracy doing in the USA?
Uh, I think you need a cite for the Kochs saying nice things about Hillary during the campaign.
Of course regarding Trump they claimed then that they were not supporting Trump, but notice how that possibility was not a reason to scream that such idea was bloody libelous, no siree… As AFP showed in the end, they knew who was more likely to bring the goods. Either by ignorance, malice or both reasons coming from Trump.
I think I forgot one bit from the past discussion, one reason why the poster missed that NOVA had not talked about the issue is that in 2000 NOVA did join FRONTLINE for a special about Global Warming, called “What’s Up With The Weather?”
Again if one was searching for the titles one can miss it in a search. While NOVA was involved it was shown originally AFAIK in the FRONTLINE time slot.
We’re an Oligarchy
… and sliding into a kleptocracy.
Given everything else that’s been going on, and the fact that Russia is heavily reliant on carbon energy exports, one has to at least wonder if and how Russia is supporting the science deniers.
I’ve never come across any serious expression in this regard, but everything is changing.
It’s actually David Koch who is the big donor. He does it primarily because of the tax write-off.
You get a tax write-off for destroying democracy?
Only if you oil the right palms.