Winning Battles and Losing the War: Populist Politics and The War on Science | EV & N 235 – CCTV

http://ecoethics.net/2014-ENVRE120/20170122-EV&N-235-Link.html

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Populist politicians around the world have won elections by waging a war against science. Unfortunately, all of humanity becomes the victim of these skirmishes. Eventually, of course, populist politicians lose these wars because nature “bats last” and physics does not negotiate.  Tragically, however, humanity is caught in the cross-fire, and the devastation of Earth’s ecosystem remains as the enduring legacy of these ill-conceived political attacks on science.

Properly understood, science should instruct and assist humanity in learning to live justly and sustainably on our finite planet.  Science in the service of xenophbia, hyper-nationalism and unrestrained economic expansion is a perversion. 

Unless and until global citizens and scientists learn effectively to oppose and displace the extractivist and exploitative corporate-state systems that dominate the contemporary world, there appears to be little hope for the long-term survival of the expanding human family on our finite planet.

Bernie Sanders GRILLS Rick Perry on Climate Change, WMD’s…

LIVE SATELLITE NEWS

Published on Jan 19, 2017

Senator Bernie Sanders Questions Governor Rick Perry during Confirmation Hearing in Washington.

EPA Head’s Confirmation Hearing Becomes Climate Change Revival For The Democrats

wwwMOXNEWScom

Published on Jan 18, 2017

January 18, 2017 C-SPAN News http://MOXNews.com
Scott Pruitt testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on his nomination to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Trump administration.

Round #2 Confirmation Hearing For Head Of EPA

wwwMOXNEWScom

Published on Jan 18, 2017

January 18, 2017 C-SPAN News http://MOXNews.com
Scott Pruitt testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on his nomination to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Trump administration.

Bernie Sanders Grills Scott Pruitt on Climate Change at Confirmation Hearing 1/18/17

Claudia HQ

Published on Jan 18, 2017

Bernie Sanders Questions EPA Nominee Scott Pruitt
Full Hearing: https://youtu.be/WIpJVNpLuZc

Senator Cory Booker DESTROYS Scott Pruitt at Confirmation Hearing

Logic Stream News

Published on Jan 19, 2017

Senator Cory Booker wasn’t having none of Scott Pruitt’s malarkey at his confirmation hearing to become the director of the EPA

Senator Markey Asks Scott Pruitt to Recuse Himself from Lawsuits He Brought Against EPA – 1/18/17

Senator Markey

Published on Jan 18, 2017

America’s President Will Try to Rule Like a Roman Emperor | Alternet

Donald Trump appears destined to follow in the tyrannical footsteps of Augustus before him.

By Jim Sleeper / Open Democracy  January 21, 2017

As Donald Trump rampaged through the Republican primaries last March, I argue here and on the New York National Public Radio station’s Brian Lehrer Show that neoliberal Democrats as well as free-marketerring Republicans were leaving it to Trump to do what his Inaugural Address has given him no choice but to do: become the dictator of the nationalist, plutocratic regime that he is installing under the banner of what he called “a historic movement the likes of which the world has never seen before.”

He vowed to vindicate forgotten Americans and, through them, American greatness: “January 20th, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer…I will never, ever let you down. America will start winning again, winning like never before.”

Never? Ever? Like never before? As Trump puts his forgotten Americans to work while rolling back their overtime pay, benefits, and union-organizing rights and while protecting those who have already enriched themsleves at their expense, he’ll try to channel the resentment against only certain neoliberal elites who were complicit in the theft. The word “dictator” will be no euphemism. We’ll be left breathless by swift, forceful moves (or lurches) toward an authoritarian, Constitution-warping presidentialism.

Trump’s inaugural denunciations of “politicians who prospered as jobs left and factories closed” — coupled with his vow that “American carnage” caused by hiring and buying of non-American people and products and deepened by crime, gangs, and drugs, “stops right here, stops right now” — leave him no choice but to humble or destroy “politicians” who resist him.

…(read more).

Nigel Farage: Trump told me Brexit won him presidency – BBC News

ttp://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-38685460

Congratulations, America! You’ve Elected an Actual Fascist President | Alternet

It finally happened here—but there’s still time to save the best of our country.

By Chauncey DeVega / Salon  January 21, 2017

America’s increasingly abnormal politics have now surrendered to dystopia.

Donald Trump, a serial liar, narcissist, failed businessman, political con artist, adulterer, professed grabber of women’s genitals without their permission, man who does not read, ignoramus, admirer and fan of despots and dictators, encourager of vigilante violence against innocent people, actor in a porn video, person who does not pay his employees, member of the Vladimir Putin fan club, racist landlord, preferred candidate of neo-Nazis and other fringe racists, professional wrestling villain, and candidate who incites violence against his political opponents, is now the 45th president of the United States of America.

Donald Trump is also a fascist authoritarian in the American mold and leader of the world’s most powerful and influential “democracy.”

Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, the American news media desperately avoided using such language to describe Donald Trump. They did this because of material self-interest and advertising revenues, as well as an inability to accept how Trump had gamed obsolete journalistic norms of “fairness,” “balance” and “objectivity.”

In doing so, the American news media facilitated Trump’s rise to power. They labeled Trump as a “populist” who was “unconventional.” The American news media kept suggesting that Trump would “pivot” for the general election in order to win more “mainstream” and “centrist” voters. There were some bold voices who said that Trump had “authoritarian tendencies.” But very few commentators had the courage to plainly state that Donald Trump was a fascist — even though the evidence was growing then and is now insurmountable.

Consider the following.

• Donald Trump does not believe in freedom of the press.
• Donald Trump threatens his political enemies with violence and/or prison.
• Donald Trump uses ethnocentrism, bigotry, nativism and racism to mobilize his voters.
• Donald Trump does not believe in standing norms of democratic governance or tradition.
• Donald Trump is a misogynist.
• Donald Trump is obsessed with “strength” and his own “virility.”
• Donald Trump promises “law and order.”
• Donald Trump is a militant nationalist.
• Donald Trump traffics in conspiracy theories and lies.
• Donald Trump admires authoritarians and political strongmen.
• Donald Trump’s most recent press conference was modeled on the way Vladimir Putin manipulates Russia’s news media.
• Donald Trump has surrounded himself with a cabal that consists of family members and self-interested Cabinet appointees, who — like him — stand to enrich themselves through the agencies they are supposed to administer in the public interest.

…(read more).

Down on the Seed: Enabling the Business of Agriculture Enables Corporate Takeover | The Oakland Institute

Only six multinationals currently control over two-thirds of the industrial seed sales, and pending agro-industry mergers stand to further consolidate this oligopoly. Further market expansion for these corporations depends on the shrinking of farmer-managed seed systems, which currently provide 80 to 90 percent of the seed supply in developing countries through on-farm seed saving and farmer-to-farmer seed exchange.

Enabling the Business of Agriculture: Reinforcing Stranglehold of Agrochemical Companies

Down On the Seed, the World Bank Enables Corporate Takeover of Seeds, exposes that while the World Bank claims to promote “smart and balanced policies,” its Enabling the Business of Agriculture index blatantly ignores farmer-managed seed systems. Instead, it reinforces the stranglehold of agrochemical companies and Western nations by pushing for intellectual property rights in agriculture, so that private breeders profiteer from the use of their seeds by farmers.

…(read more).

Food-matters