Well, fuck, hopefully it wasn't the late 70s when his views calcified. If that was the case, he would think we were headed for another ice age.
Certainly. It's not like the first respected climate model was published in 1967 and predicted 2C of warming if CO2 concentrations doubled, which has borne out to be almost dead on with what we've observed (a 1C increase as a result of a 50% increase in concentration).
I replied to Trump’s idiotic tweet questioning our intelligence community with “You should just run the entire country by yourself” and people are actually liking it. I can’t tell if they’re picking up on the sarcasm or think I’m being sincere.
I know a college professor who had to be called up by the university and reminded to cash his old paychecks, because legally they could not cancel an employment check and they wanted to get their books balanced. The idea that scientists are in it for money is utterly laughable.
Both of my parents were bioengineers and were reminded on the daily that being in their position “was the perk” by Monsanto. Modern day factory workers with slightly better pay.
When Peter Higgs, discoverer Of The Higgs Boson, Higgs Field and Symmetry Breaking was given his Nobel prize for fifty years of society-changing research, his acceptance speech entirely consisted of: “Thank you. I hope this will help give recognition to Blue-Sky research.” .....THAT’S IT. No parade, no bitchin’ house party, no TV special announcing you chose to play for the Miami Heat. You would think something as mind-blowing as completing (and proving) the Standard Model Of Physics might swell his head, yes? This humble old man went right back to working with CERN. Why? Because the greater good of the human race was what’s important to him. No god complex whatsoever. He was given almost one million euros with his Nobel prize and he immedietly donated it to research. ....these are the people who blubbering simps like Trump and James Inhoff claim they don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, and are just out to scam us.
People tend to think scientists have creative control and spend their days concocting crazy new theories. This couldn’t be further from the truth. More like quotas for samples, ensuring the goal is high enough that they rarely have the time to use the bathroom. One month my dad’s team beat quotas so management said they’d have something special for him.....fun size snickers bars for the team. That’s it. Oh yeah, and higher quotas next month.
Apparently Hillary finally announced that she isn't running. I still think she's a complete moron, but she at least had the sense to see the writing on the wall. The fact that it took her that long to accept that she couldn't bullshit her way to another nomination speaks volumes. Harris really looks worse and worse every time I read about her from a source that isn't a 24 news network (who fucking love her for no apparent reason). I'm sure parts of the criticism are exagerrated, but apparently she tried to keep an innocent person locked up for 2 fucking years because they filed some paperwork late. That's really awful. There's also a scandal where some crime lab was tampering with evidence and falsifying things to get convictions and she apparently just completely blew it off. Black voters generally don't have a whole lot of patience for bullshit when it comes to the justice system. I think she's fucked with pretty much every demographic once people become aware of this stuff. Right now they're more angry about Gabbard not being gay friendly enough when she was 20 because they're fucking stupid.
The purity test that goes back to when candidates were newborns is always going to be the worst aspect of the dems style of politics. Did Gabbard have some questionable beliefs a long time ago under the influence of her family? Probably. Would she be a piece of shit today about it? Probably not. But you’re fucked forever with some people. If she holds the correct views on those issues, it shouldn’t be an problem. But nah. Harris did some shit professionally that won’t sit well with a lot of people. I don’t think she will be well received by the black community either. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to hold her accountable for that stuff.
Ain’t that the truth. She was a lousy D.A. who worked double time to cover up or deflect serious and widespread police misconduct, which ultimately gets laid at her feet. To say a large portion of the black community doesn’t like/trust her is an understatement. And rightfully so. It is almost indescribable how better Gabbard is as a candidate. Harris is a blathering jack-in-the-box who pushes buzzword buttons and her prospects are pitiful when you compare the two.
Plus her attempts to appeal to Progressives are poorly received by them and just about everyone else. The Progs dont believe her and the moderates see through the blatant pandering. Ending private insurance plans was a moronic idea that she backed off within 24 hours. She has no values that can be used to build a concrete platform, just a mish-mash of different things that she hopes will be the right combo to the nomination lock. At least with Bernie Sanders and Warren, I buy that they believe in their ideas however misguided they might be.
The thing that will hurt Gabbard the most, and the thing that most greatly symbolizes how stupid modern politics are, is that she is willing to work with Republicans. Not on the really stupid shit, but in general. The fact that she met with Trump when he took office will be unforgiveable to a lot of democrats. It is one of the many reasons I want her to win. I so badly do not want another fuckhead who talks about nothing other than how evil the other party is. It absolutely blows my mind when people complain about how the other side hates their side. It's like they forgot the 8 million crazy things they said about the 'wrong team'. I really like too that she isn't anti-Israel. Not that I love Israel or anything, but the whole siding with legitimate terrorist organizations might be the stupidest left platform ever. I think the idea is that if you're someone like Hamas and you want to kill everyone, but you're too incompetent to be effective that's therefore a virtue. Or just because they're less white. Or because they're poorer. Or something. It's hard to keep track. I've also not once seen anyone explain how Israel is an "apartheid state". Probably because it isn't, but they just like saying it.
Gabbard’s undoing in my opinion will come once everyone realizes she’s a devoted Hindu. Any religion that ends in a vowel is going to make a widespread audience in America assume the worst about her, the fact she’s not Christian will earn a tirade Of hate from the Right if she wins the primary.
Cory Booker has thrown his hat into the presidential ring. Thank goodness. Warren is so out of touch she’d be Hillary 2.0
I don't know. Not being a Christian is the main reason Bernie struggled with minorities. Being a Christian is still pretty important for black and latino voters. The republicans will dislike whoever wins, but they would probably prefer Gabbard out of anyone else running. Maybe Ojeda would have been despised less, but he already dropped out. After that it would be Schultz. They fucking hate everyone else. The left seems more bothered by her being Hindu (for now). It gives her ties to "far right Hindu nationalists" in India. Something about Modi? Blah blah blah far right Hindus oppress our precious, precious Muslims. It doesn't really make a lot of sense and I haven't seen anyone explain it. Warren is annoying and has some bad ideas, but and it is a big but, you can actually trust her to at least do what she thinks is best for the voters. That will never happen with Booker. He's for wall street and pharma all the way. He's also the absolute worst in terms of inventing racism anywhere and everywhere if he thinks it will score him political points. He's arguably the biggest piece of shit running. The progressive wing of the party really, really hates him, and for good reason.
Anybody competing against Booker bet hope a scandal ruins him before the first debates, because it will be scorched earth to whoever goes up against him in a battle of words. That guy has an articulate silver tongue like nobody else in politics. He and Gabbard are easily my top two picks to be President.
I’m waiting for Klobuchar to throw her name in. She’s smart and noncontroversial and is well liked in the rust belt where support is needed. She’s not the loudest person in the senate but she seems to have little baggage.