Blood on Their Hands

Posted on by under Election 2024, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

“I’m the only candidate on stage who isn’t bought and paid for, so I can say this — the climate change agenda is a hoax … And so the reality is more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change … This isn’t that complicated guys, unlock American energy, drill, frack, burn coal, embrace nuclear ”  Vivek Ramaswamy, GOP debate, 23 August 2023  Translation:  Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

I wasn’t pleased with any of the candidates’ answers regarding climate change on Wednesday night, but Ramaswamy’s comments blew my mind.  If ever I wanted to smack somebody upside the head …

But folks, if ANY Republican gets into the White House in 2025, the environment will be doomed, for there is an overall Republican plan by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that directs most GOP policy, to destroy the environment.  Why?  Oh come on … you don’t need me to tell you why.  One simple answer:

The Heritage Foundation has ties to fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch.  Need I say more?

The document by the Heritage Foundation is called Project 2025 and is a scary literal blueprint for every aspect of governing in the first 180 days when/if a Republican takes control of the White House in 2025.  The 920-page document outlines everything including economics, limited government, free markets and free trade, tax cuts, reduced government spending, privatization, and the reduction of government run welfare programs in favor of private-sector nonprofits.  I plan to cover more about Project 2025 in the coming months, but for now I’m only talking about how the plan would deal with climate change and the future of life on the planet.

According to an article last month in The Guardian …

The guide’s chapter on the US Department of Energy proposes eliminating three agency offices that are crucial for the energy transition, and also calls to slash funding to the agency’s grid deployment office in an effort to stymie renewable energy deployment, E&E News reported this week.

The plan, which would hugely expand gas infrastructure, was authored by Bernard McNamee, a former official at the agency. McNamee was also a Trump appointee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He previously led the far-right Texas Public Policy Foundation, which fights environmental regulation, and served as a senior adviser to the Republican senator Ted Cruz.

Another chapter focuses on gutting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and moving it away from its focus on the climate crisis. It proposes cutting the agency’s environmental justice and public engagement functions, while shrinking it as a whole by terminating new hires in “low-value programs”, E&E News reported. The proposal was written Mandy Gunasekara, who was the former chief of staff at the EPA under Trump.

The guide also features a chapter on the Department of the Interior written by William Perry Pendley, who controversially led the Bureau of Land Management under President Trump and worked to eliminate drilling regulations.

None of the candidates at the debate earlier this week would commit to following through on climate regulations to attempt to get greenhouse gas emissions under control or to any other major climate regulations.  I suspect that each of the eight have read the Heritage document and signed on to it wholeheartedly.  And we already know what the elephant who wasn’t in the room thinks.  Our lives, the lives of our children and grandchildren, of the future of the world, matter not one whit to these arseholes … the only thing that matters is that almighty dollar/pound/yen/euro.

This isn’t only about the U.S., people … every single person on Planet Earth has a stake in how the U.S. handles environmental issues, for what any one country does affects EVERY person in EVERY country.  Republicans are still living back in the day when we thought we were autonomous, and they still reject globalism, but to do so is utterly ignorant.  Step outside about 2:00 p.m. and tell me that climate change isn’t real, that it isn’t killing us!  Tell it to the people living in Maui, or Southern California.

Anyone who votes for a Republican next year will have the blood of our future generations on their hands, in my book.

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44 thoughts on “Blood on Their Hands”

  4. I’m very glad you went into detail about “Project 2025,” Jill. Though the Heritage Foundation is more open about their sinister plans than the Federalist Society, both hugely funded organizations are doing the bidding of billionaires who want to undo all the progress we’ve made since the 1960s. Knowing they’re out of step with the vast majority of Americans on all major issues, they want to ensure minority rule by ending democracy. The irony is that the Republicans—from top to bottom—claim the Democrats are “elitists” and snooker voters who believe the lies.

    Fortunately, there are grass roots efforts to counter them—even in red states. An aroused citizenry is needed more than ever!

    Liked by 1 person

    • What a crazy world our politics has become!!! Yes, I would love to see both the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society dismantled and not allowed to influence political parties. But then, I’d also like to see Citizen’s United v FEC overturned, but that’s not likely either. The majority must … MUST stand strong, must participate in the democratic processes, else this nation will no longer be a democracy by the end of this decade, probably sooner. I don’t think enough people are taking the threat seriously, and when I say things like the above, I’m accused of being hyperbolic, but … I calls ’em like I sees ’em.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. It’s such a circle of denial, isn’t it?

    GOP supporters such as MAGATs deeply bury their heads about climate change, accepting that it’s an elite liberal hoax for scurrilous reasons. Meanwhile, wealthy people who don’t care about anything except making more money and gaining more power dismiss climate change and endorse politicians who then parrot their thinking and feed the base’s fears and doubts that climate change is real, or that anything can be done about it.

    The GOP is an efficient messaging machine. They rarely waver from the idea that climate change is a hoax, denying and ignoring all evidence to the contrary. A 2022 PEW study showed that while Democrats are concerned and growing more concerned about climate change, only 29% of Republican voters are concerned — the same percentage found in the PEW poll ten years ago.

    So, yeah, there’s blood on the hands of the GOP leadership, politicians, and supporters, along with those deep pockets funding it all. It’s not a surprise; this is the same ‘pro-life’ gang that won’t do anything about escalating gun murders; who believe in cutting the social safety net after insisting that women be forced to give birth, regardless of circumstances. This is the same ‘small-government’ party who are inserting themselves into every aspect of education and personal choice out there, a party of hypocrisy, denial, and ignorance, a party that won’t learn and won’t change until it has all crashed. They keep proving this; they can’t learn. They WON’T learn. Worse, they resent anyone who does learn.

    Hugs ‘n cheers

    Liked by 1 person

    • You are so right on all counts, Michael. For the Republican Party, it’s all about money and greed. They figure they’ll live it up today, and know that they will likely be long gone before the Earth becomes uninhabitable for humans. Apparently, they don’t love their children and grandchildren the way we do, else they wouldn’t like thinking of them gasping for air, dying of thirst & starvation. And those who vote for them are so easily misled, so easily conned. Sigh. In the debate the other night, there were a few of the eight candidates who acknowledged that climate change was real, but rather than put forth a platform of solutions for the U.S., they pointed the fingers at India and China and basically said the U.S. is blameless! In truth, the U.S. is second only to China in carbon dioxide emissions, and with less than one-fourth the population of China. Per capita, the U.S. is THE WORST emitter! Sigh. But, let’s not inconvenience anybody or cause the fossil fuel billionaires any grief, right?

      Hugs ‘n cheers, dear Michael!

      Liked by 1 person

  6. American elitism has reached a new height with his climate change denial statement. The rest of the world can go to pot as long as (Republican) Americans can swim in pools filled with gas and oil. Ramaswamy needs to get his head out of his ass and smell the smoke of the wildfires ravaging Canada. Maybe he thinks we are just having a giant BBQ up here! If so, I have some well done skunk meat to feed him. It is not just trees that are burning, but all the creatures of the forests are also losing their lives. What does he think happened in Maui? Aĺl over the world people are dying from temperatures in the plus hundred degree Fahrenheit range and polar icecaps are melting!
    And Ramaswarmy is so busy fiddling around he thinks these things are normal! What planet is this guy from? Venus?

    Liked by 5 people

    • Yep, you’ve hit the nail on the head! We and our grandchildren are naught to them as long as they can live their meaningless little lives exactly as they wish. Ramaswamy has been living the life of the wealthy (net worth over $1 BILLION) for so long that he no longer sees the rest of the world …

      Liked by 1 person

  10. Pingback: Blood on Their Hands | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  12. Anyone that votes republican already has blood on their hands; the blood of hundreds of school children and teachers killed in their schools by violent gun holders. They have flatly refused to entertain even the most modest gun reform and has steadfastly supported and protected the gun sellers and the manufacturing industry. You can’t even sue a gun company in this country. Ramaswamy basically just declared himself ineligible for the office with his moronic “hoax” comment on climate change. You really don’t have to be a meteorologist to figure this one out, the signs are all around us.

    Liked by 5 people

    • You make an excellent point, RaPaR! Were it not for Republican’s mis-interpretation of the 2nd Amendment and their umbilical ties to the gun industry/lobby, we would not have anywhere near the violence and gun deaths we have in this country. And yes … Ramaswamy’s views on climate change should be disqualifying … all I have to do is step outside my door to know that we should have been listening to the scientists all along and that we damn well better start addressing the issue, not denying it!

      Liked by 2 people

  13. Thank you for sharing!!.. Once again it is about the people.. He is a Republican running for office and trying to reach out to a element of society to gather their votes… it is a desperate element of society who has found their comfort zone (financially and socially) and in denial of any ideology that may oppose their way of thinking or they see as a threat to their way of life… “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past and present are certain to miss the future.” (John F. Kennedy)…. They primarily think only of themselves… I suspect there are those in that element of society that may more open minded and thoughtful but will stay in the shadows out of fear of repercussions in some form…… 🙂

    Hope all is well in your part of the universe and until we meet again….

    May your troubles be less
    Your blessings be more
    And nothing but happiness
    Come through your door
    May the dreams you hold dearest
    Be those which come true
    May the kindness you spread
    Keep returning to you
    (Irish Saying)

    Liked by 3 people

    • Thank YOU, Dutch! You always brighten my day with your comments and your Irish Sayings! Yes, as always it is about the people, but more than that. The majority of the people DO have the right ideas and values, but with voting restrictions, gerrymandering, etc., the voice of the majority often takes a backseat to the minority. Voting rights is the next thing we really need to address, to ensure that EVERY person has the opportunity to cast a vote without undue hardship. Thank you so much for the Irish saying and for just dropping by!

      Like

  14. Jill, there are many reasons not to support the Republicans candidates. But, a very simple one is we should not vote for any candidate who is still touting this climate change is a hoax BS. That train has left the station. There is a Republican advocate who just wrote a piece on that the GOP must address climate change. Keith

    Liked by 5 people

  15. The debate wasn’t shown here (fortunately, as I could not have stomached it)) but I have since read about the crass stupidity of those involved. It is so obvious that they are working in the interests of big corporations, I’m sure the debate must have seemed more like a comedic parody on SNL than a serious political discussion about the long-term future of America.
    Best wishes, Pete.

    Liked by 4 people

    • Yes, the entire Republican Party sold its soul to big money interests long ago, much to the detriment of this country. I hadn’t thought about the comparison to SNL, but you’re right! Especially the parts where they were talking over one another and spouting nonsense (which was most of the event, now that I think of it.)

      Liked by 2 people

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