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Environmental collapse is ‘abortion’ GOP style. ‘Climate’ may reset election priorities. Be ready. [1]

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Date: 2024-06-13  

Environmental collapse is ‘abortion’ GOP style.

El Niño may reset election priorities. Be ready.

Please note: I have been somewhat justifiably taken to task by several commenters, for my not remembering that El Niño is waning, to be replaced by La Niña. This has nothing to do with ignorance on my part, but is rather an oversight primarily based in the plethora of considerations that go into a diary such as this, and my personal limitations with being able to navigate that. I would hope that no one will dismiss my efforts out of hand, simply for this one error. My apologies to any who do. I’ve done my best to make corrections.





Recently Jamesleo posted a diary in which he asked a simple but highly perceptive question:

“Will the 2024 Heat Wave become a Game Changer Politically?” https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/28/2243210/-Will-the-2024-Heat-Wave-become-a-Game-Changer-Politically?utm_campaign=recent

It is a very short diary, which essentially just provides a graphic, which shows how severe the global heat wave will be and then poses his question. He does not make an attempt to describe the ways in which this can happen or how it can further complicate our upcoming faux-Gordianesque election.

That it can do this is unquestionable, as it is one aspect of a force that has begun to tear the world apart. Our appearance of being blasé while our heads are in this rogue tiger’s mouth isn’t a show of bravery, but simply that we can’t face down fear without at first recognizing that collapse is about to rip our heads off.

That it will do this becomes increasingly probable, as it is already ‘work in progress’.

That we move forward toward Election Day as if it won’t, is a testament to the sorcery of denial. Through the twin auspices of illusion and delusion, denial is the only force that can vanquish reality, by masking our perception of it. But the price of this is catastrophic, as reality moves ahead ostensibly unchallenged and will wipe clean the thin dark slate of our dreams.

Nearly a year ago, I posed a very similar question to Jamesleo’s, but in that case it was:

what effect could environmental collapse potentially have on the war in Ukraine? https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/22/2176903/-As-the-Ukrainian-Offensive-unfolds-El-Ni-o-may-prove-to-be-the-Wild-Card

At the risk of appearing O.C.D, in numerous diaries and comments I have made reference to the methods by which environmental collapse, through the agency of El Niño and El Nina, is altering societal and personal paradigms, challenging complacency and jumpstarting awareness, while redirecting every aspect of our lives in both direct and indirect ways. If we do not consciously recognize this, our subconscious does and without establishing a healthy dialogue between the two, paralysis sets in.

https://www.dw.com/en/are-extreme-floods-the-new-normal-for-germany/a-69255435

The ‘prod of urgency’ demands that we start calculating this into our plans and projections. This will serve to better prepare us for overcoming fear and shock when the time comes. By being forewarned and pre-adjusted, these obstacles will be more quickly overcome, clearing the focus necessary for galvanizing the collective will to act and face multifarious novel and rapidly evolving circumstances.

That we continue to make projections while disregarding this approaching disaster, is comparable to spreading our picnic out on the railroad tracks, while ignoring the vibrations and then the whistle of the oncoming train, as we discuss our plans for the afternoon.

The majority of us have yet to accept and embrace the unvarnished reality of this crisis, preferring to ‘default set’ to the buoyancy of ‘normal’, which we cling to like a scrap of waterlogged flotsam in high seas.

For the fact is, El Niño has been smacking this piñata of constipated response to proliferating havoc and it’s about to burst

Through my email, I receive a constant flow of environmental petitions to sign, and judging from those, the pressure on Washington to act is increasing.

While there is currently pro-environmental legislation in the works, it shorts the level of aggressive action that is called for in this emergency, as the GOP continues to hack away with agenda sharpened machetes, clearing the corporate garden of the ‘weeds’ of sustainability.

An August 9th, 2023 report from the Pew Research Center states:

“Overall, 37% of Americans say addressing climate change should be a top priority for the president and Congress in 2023, and another 34% say it’s an important but lower priority. This ranks climate change 17th out of 21 national issues included in a Center survey from January.”

While that report does not appear to have been updated, I did find this:

An April 21, 2024 CBS News article states that 70% of Americans favor climate action and 52% want it done now. That number jumps to 69% among people who have experienced extreme weather in recent years.

For me these statistics infer two things: the first being that there appears to have been a notable increase in awareness of the realities of our environmental emergency among the general population from 2023 to 2024, and second, that direct experience of such catastrophic events substantially increases the collective sense of urgency.

Apparently the pecking order of election issues, when it comes to climate, may not be set in stone. In the same way that it took the shock reversal of Roe vs Wade, to push the abortion issue to the top spot, our priorities can shift again if America sustains severe environmental ‘shock therapy’.

The Biden administration doesn’t just have a clear pro-environmental record, but one that exceeds any previous administration — ever.

The ‘King of quid pro quo’ on the other hand, has recently reached out to the heads of the fossil fuel industry, offering them destruction-for-profit carte-blanche, if they will pony up $1 billion for his reelection.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/5/2244690/-Trump-s-jokes-about-climate-change-are-no-laughing-matter. Aldous J Pennyfarthing

With growing awareness that the ceiling is caving in, the ‘to whom it may concern’ are in no mind to join the profit sodden revelers ‘upstairs’ — and the ‘perma-felon’s’ apparently ‘bedded’ deal would appear to have struck already frayed nerves. Chairman Press | Chairman's Newsroom | Chairman | U.S. Senate Committee On The Budget

Not long ago, the ‘environmental emergency notice’ was still being torn down by many here, in a vain attempt to deny its deserved status, not just as an issue of importance, but as the most important issue of all times. In fact, until recently, just making such a statement on DK, was to flirt with self-immolation, preceded by shredding. That this knee-jerk response has lost its false-teeth, is fodder for hope. But just because they’re ‘not biting’, doesn’t mean the stream isn’t well stocked.

As such, it is not surprising that the election priorities espoused on D.K., place “abortion” as still the #1 issue, followed by the more abstract concept of “saving our democracy”. For the electorate it would appear that the order is something more or less like: abortion, economy, immigration, taxes,

and so forth, with the threat to our democracy growing rapidly in voter awareness, while the environment is lagging behind.

I fully understand that these are subject to political calculations based on demographics and that betting still favors them. But to the best of my knowledge, their lead is being threatened in the home stretch, by a ‘dark horse’ that gets more powerful with each lap — environmental collapse. In Voltaire’s world, it should’ve taken the lead straight out of the gate. That climate is still not even ‘neck and neck’, is only because denial favors the others to win.

While I was working on this diary B4xtc wrote another discussing the danger that the ‘Orangeaggedon’ presents to the environment should he be reelected and how that intersects with saving our democracy, but remains largely ignored as the pivotal reason for doing so.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/7/2245317/-Concerns-about-Losing-Democracy-Aside-Trump-Wants-to-Kill-the-Planet?utm_campaign=recent.

As we run the course of this next climate gauntlet, there is an increasing potential for adverse environmental events, not just globally but here as well. Depending on the severity, anxieties may mount exponentially and the average person, when ‘blanket denial’ is torn off, waking them from their consumer stupor, will go from desiring — to possibly demanding action.

I already know what Biden has to offer.

On the other hand, the ‘orangeministration’ environmental record isn’t just deplorable, it is the Mariana Trench of abysmal.

As for the GOP, spin and lies may no longer pass for emergency action and if these ‘parrots’ are not careful, they could become added to disaster related statistics.

The vast majority of GOP politicians have their own personal self-interest in mind, fueled by the avarice of their sociopathically bent sub-species . ‘Taking shade’ under this ‘leafless’ tree bearing pre-rotted fruit is ill-advised. Its stench has become so unbearable it can ward even the unwary away.

This festering husk of a party has become the bargain-basement version of organized crime. Even criminals of such low caliber as these, recognize chaos as opportunity and can rarely moderate their response. It is simply not in their best interest to help others or work to reestablish order. They are too busy looting the ‘convenience store’, to even consider other options.

Unfortunately, there are still those willing to provide them cover.

That the press can continue to get away with equivocating Biden with the ‘Orange afterthought’ is an illusion remarkable enough to make Houdini vanish in a puff of pique.

The abysmally short attention spans of consumer Americans have caused far too many to forget what we suffered through when the ‘grifting drifter’ nearly ran this country off a cliff.

Furthermore, the constant ‘shell game’ played by the press neutralizes electoral comprehension of how masterfully Biden salvaged the wreckage, with the result being a sort of feedback loop that instills the shortsighted with doubts about how bad it could really have been…because after all, the important thing is to move on so we can get focused on shopping again.

If the forgetful or non-attentive, and even some of the many that are hoping for a second go at destroying democracy, directly experience environmental collapse related catastrophes this summer, these may serve to refresh memories by catapulting the already high relief differences between Biden and the ‘Orange whatever’ to stratospheric levels.

As environmental collapse continues to shake the tree of complacency and more people go from apathetic to apoplectic, the Republicans are going to find that their abuse of the environment may turn and bite their asses — as well as that special one they’ve been kissing.

Now that the news cycle has spun away from its scanty coverage of the floods in Brazil and Pakistan, there appears to be a lull in climate generated disasters. This is a deception partially due to our minds having been ‘directed’ elsewhere by the high-octane trial drama of the ‘Orange Help! I’ve-fallen-and-can’t-get-up’.

But this does not mean that the nightmare of collapse has gone away, even though our cognitive dissonance assures us it has.

Climatologists, Oceanographers and many other environmental scientists are on red alert.

If America experiences a ‘wet bulb’ event, which can strike anywhere in the world, or gets hit with Brazilian sized flooding, or suffers our share of the ‘Canadian’ arboreal forest fires, or swallows a hurricane season that can’t be ‘digested’ — no amount of paper towels, and miracles wrought by ‘St.Sharpie’, will cause the electorate to turn its back on the genuine help and guidance that Biden will likely have to be providing before November.

After all, too many are still suffering from the PTSD brought on by ‘how well’ the “Clorox Doser” dealt with mass die offs.

As we now know only too well, environmental catastrophes wreak havoc on the world’s social structures and economies, with largely unpredictable outcomes that can wander far afield of precedent. For instance, erratic environmental events could, among infinite else, squash both of our current major global conflicts, serve to enhance the vulnerability of damaged and compromised countries to protect themselves from outside aggression and tax global resources. The latter, both from losses through destruction, as well as the demands made on international aid.

As we’ve seen quite recently with Biden’s struggles to continue to provide aid to Ukraine, global disasters may prove to be something of a political wildcard. With our current partisan power distribution, the necessity of providing aid to allies in such emergencies can be called into question at any time, especially if we are simultaneously coping with disasters at home. Biden will need to tread carefully, which is a skillset he has provided ample proof of having.

The ‘Hitlerian huckster’, on the other hand, is the ‘black hole’ of diplomatic finesse.

The skills displayed by ‘Willie of Orange’ on the international stage were ‘Vaudevillian’ both strategically and diplomatically, with the comic impact of a Jurassic caliber meteor strike. When combined with his climate inacumen, that statement ceases to be hyperbolic. Literally speaking, it becomes an armageddon scale cosmic ‘joke’ devoid of humor…”bada bing - bada boom”.

How much longer the GOP, in service to “Don-quixotic”, can chase the ‘windmills of futility’ in opposition to anything Biden tries to do, will become increasingly relative to his success in responding to such disasters while keeping the country running — and this does not bode well for them.

Collective or individual stress and anxiety can lead to irrational behavior due to emotional overload. Panic can create collateral damage, and reestablishing the order necessary for societal cohesiveness can be undermined if overreaction gets out of hand.

Our consumer-oriented society breeds narcissism to provide the fuel required for self-centered hyper-consumption and as a result, far too many people suffer from preposterous delusions of privilege.

They do not tolerate anything that interferes with the comforts of their ‘aristo-consumer’ lifestyles.

The refusal to wear masks and the panic buying of toilet paper with the onset of the pandemic, provide excellent examples of the pervasive ‘me first’ auto-imperative of too many when faced with a crisis.

Conversely, there are those who rally and work together to help others.

The triggers for either kind of behavior are set deeply into our subconscious, making it difficult to determine exactly how each individual will react in an emergency — unless pre-screened by trial. Most often we can surprise ourselves when we rally — and when we do not, ‘rationalization’ neutralizes any sense of failure or shame.

Strong leadership is essential as peer-pressurized cooperation can grow from well conceived and implemented directives - delivered with confidence and assurance.

This acts as a counterforce to the self-centered behavior which ‘midwives’ panic, causing a breakdown of societal order in the wake of catastrophe.

Personally, I have such faith in the high level of intelligence that so many of the Democrats in Washington have displayed over the last seven years that I strongly suspect the effect environmental collapse on our upcoming election is being considered, and quite possibly even plans are being laid. Because our liberal politicians are so skilled and value the advantage of stealth, they ‘breast their cards’, while ‘Trumped’ and most of the GOP, seem to think it’s the patterned side that should be hidden.

We the electorate suffer from this, as it leaves the public in the dark and the dark is scary. This is a necessary ‘bad’, for if the Dems are to have any chance of winning they must play the game with stealth deliberation.

However, even if environmental collapse is not escaping the notice of our Democratic leadership, the down side is that the general population suffers from a failure to connect climate influence to the election and full mobilization still lags behind.

One of the first things most humans do after experiencing ‘hurt’ on any level is to seek comforting, reassurance, and care. I call this the ‘booboo rebound’.

People are shaken to their core in a disaster, experiencing a sense of helplessness brought on by shock. In the immediate aftermath, the value of empathy skyrockets and the last thing anyone wants is the clumsy counterfeit ‘caring’ of a sociopath.

Time and again we’ve witnessed many of these ‘MA!-WAAA! shape-shifters’ come with their sudden preference for ‘huge’ hands, as better for accepting the largesse of the ‘Lib-reviled’ when they are brought down by fear and driven like drought stricken wildebeests to join lions at the watering hole.

Once they’ve recovered, they go back to quenching their anger, through the auspices of the ‘witch doctors’ they’ve chosen to trust, who offer salve for the wounds to their impotent vanity.

While greedily gobbling up this ‘brew of toxic info-trash’, they remain oblivious to the fact that it contains irritants that keep them ‘festering’.

Despite the fact that man may be arguably the dumbest of all animals, with enough exposure, even the most learning recalcitrant will begin to respond to patterns that lead to better results. Climate related disasters may end up providing them with the unbroken repetition needed to hammer some sense of non-self-verifying reality into their ‘Orange-NFT’ noggins and in this way, the fringes of the hard-core ‘devote-tainees’ can slowly erode, leaving the ‘Orange-Hesperous’ electorally ‘underwater’.

While it certainly remains possible that America may slip past the worst of the summer climate ‘Smorgasbord’, it will inevitably amount to ‘dodging a bullet to be hit by a howitzer’.

As such it gives zero justification for not being prepared for environmental ‘interference’.

After all, it’s always wise to patch the roof before the monsoons arrive.

Sorting out this mess we’ve made through our negligence, is a bit like pulling a ‘pearl necklace’ out of a basket of snakes. For what little that may pawn for, as my illustration shows, I lean heavily toward the net sum of environmental election ‘gerrymandering’ favoring Biden.

However, in these ‘interesting times’, when the dice are rolled, the table may collapse.

For until we add the environment to our calculations it remains three-legged.

—————————

If we lose Biden, our democracy will end and our remaining chance of stopping global annihilation will vanish.

As usual, Bernie totally gets this: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4gb77sri-3/?igsh=MXdxNzY3ODZyOHY4Nw==

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/13/2246442/-Environmental-collapse-is-abortion-GOP-style-El-Ni-o-may-reset-election-priorities-Be-ready?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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