Today I’m going to meander off into politics. It’s election day after all.
Here in Europe, that dreaded day has unfortunately arrived. This one is as welcome as a root canal treatment. Now that it’s here, for the European Establishment, it’s: let’s get it over with and hope the pain will be bearable.
In Germany the newsrooms and media are having a difficult time coming to terms with the inevitable results. The insults and nervous breakdowns are everywhere. The dreams of socialism, world goverment and climate theocracy are crumbling before their eyes.
Now, instead of being inspiring slogans, “Yes we can” and “Hope and Change” have become a big joke.
It’s that damn Tea Party, which is made up of unsophisticated, rather ignorant, white, racist, narrow minded, religious, ultra-conservative, angry gun-wielding Americans who are too stupid to know what’s good for them, all led by extremists like Sarah Palin – so laments much of the established media here. The Tea Partiers are so disinformed, e.g. many don’t even believe in the hard science of manmade global warming and believe the planet was created 6000 years ago. If only Americans weren’t so stupid and ignorant.
Two years ago the German and European media made Obama their darling, portraying him as the savior that had delivered America and the world from the clutches of the evil Bush regime. A year later he was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for doing so. But that has since turned out to be a certificate of failure (think Gore, Arafat and a host of others).
Now, as Europe views it, the Tea Party express places the whole grand global plan of a world nanny state rescuing the planet from climate catastrophe and capitalism in jeopardy. Nothing gets more villified in the European press than the Tea Party (except climate deniers, that is).
Many media outlets have complained that climate initiatives will soon be blocked by these new denier Republicans. Here are some excerpts of how the German print media feels about the upcoming Congressional overhaul and the reasons behind it.
The USA increasingly appears to be a giant that is paralyzed by polarity. On one side you have the political middle who are attempting to implement solutions for the big challenges that the nation faces. On the other side, there’s the Tea Party, TV network Fox News and the “no”-faction who say no to government, no to taxes, no to change, no to environmental protection. In this camp there are many who believe that climate change is a big conspiracy by intellectuals or by the Chinese.
In the meantime, reality has caught up to the Obama government. The promised hope and change has stalled time and again in committees and meetings, failing because of resistantance from the political opposition.
Many Americans are disappointed by the economic policy of the government, even though the financial and economic crisis began on Obama’s predecesssor George W. Bush’s watch. The right-wing populist Tea Party movement, which supported many candidiates, profited the most from the frustration.
In the House, Obama has had a majority of 39 seats. They will lose 70 or even 80 seats to the Republicans. Soon the conservatives will have a majority and will appoint the Speaker of the House. In the Senate the Democrats have had a majority of 59 of the 100 seats. There are surely going to be losses there too. But most likely they will hang on to a slim majority with 51 or 52 seats.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
It is mainly the conservative grassroots Tea Party that has provided the Republicans, who took it on the chin 2 years earlier, with a Renaissance. It’s likely that the Tea Party movement will also be a major factor in 2012 with its economically motivated demands for debt reduction, spending discipline, tax cuts and smaller governments.
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The Europeans hoped that the US would go green, and adopt all those wonderful sustainable social programs that people love so much in Europe. Like this one for example:
Sorry, all the money is spent! Get your teeth fixed elsewhere. Recommended reading here:
http://www.drroyspencer.com/2010/11/global-warming-elitism-tomorrows-election-and-the-future/
In other news, Jerry Brown likely to win gubernatorial race in Cal. That’ll console the poor German journos somewhat.
We’ll sell all that green tech to California. MUAHAHAHAA…
You are right, it is a shocker and more is underway.
In December the climate war will descent upon Berlin when a Climate Summit parallel to the Cancun Summit is organized with almost all famous climate skeptics of the world.
Let’s tell the EU where they can stick their smart grid, their Cap & Trade scheme and all their other green dreams.
http://www.eike-klima-energie.eu/uploads/media/3rd_International_Energy_and_Climate_Conference__December_3rd-4th_2010__Berlin_Germany.pdf
Climate Control? Better get the long undies. Sun still not willing to wake up:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/
(last graph update Nov 2, today)
Today one of my bosses asked me whether i’d go to the anti nuclear demo in Gorleben on Saturday. You gotta know, i’m a long-haired computer guy so people tend to think i’m a hippy. I forgive them. So i told him, no i won’t. Somehow the talk turned from nuclear power to renewables and global warming, and i told him it’s all nothing to worry about.
Guess what he came up with to convince me? Mann’s hockey stick. I think it was the Son Of Hockey Stick; the re-incarnation. Anyhow, i pointed out where they spliced modern temperature data onto the paleo reconstruction and told him about the MWP and the warm periods before that…
So it’s 2010 and Mann’s work still makes the rounds. Good thing is, it’s so easy to shoot down. I think i didn’t really convince him but maybe he’ll read up on the Holocene climate optimum or something himself… let’s see.
In regard of the dentist link:
My wife is a dentist near Rosenheim. She works 5 days the week from 8:00 am to at least 8:00 pm. She has 6 helpers (Zahnarzthelferinnen) and three rooms to treat the patients. Because of the AOK ran out of money she only gets 1/3 of payments through the AOK until 31.12.2010. You know who is pissed off? Yep, she is. Its not about making a fortune of money, its about paying her employees, the rent, the insurance, the debt and so on….
It starts with teeth, then, energy, then food…let the rationing begin!
Tea Party and GOP did not manage to ‘kill the beast’.
With Barbara Boxter and Harry Reid still in the seat, a Democratic Senate Majority still in tact and all Czars still in place and Proposition 23 intact this will be seen as an encouragement to push though some kind of National Climate Legislation, even Cap & Trade during one of the infamous Lame Duck Sessions. They simply won’t give up.
The US will absorb the loss of California as a productive hub as most of the industrial activities will be taken over by other US States.
An exodus of jobs and citizens will make it doubtful if California will be able to perform the planned investments.
The introduction of National Climate policies however will be extremely harmful.
Extreme vigilance is required.
I expect an extremely bumpy ride for the upcoming two years and it will be a make or break test for the GOP and the Tea Party. They will have to ‘deliver’ from day one.
An almost impossible task within the current power settings.
Hi Rde! In the lame duck session Democrats still can’t push legislation for 2 reasons… 1) Republicans can (and will) fillibuster anything Dems try to push through, thus delaying untill the new session anything they don’t fully support. 2) Democrats who kept their seats will now try and distance themselves from those who lost theirs. They will be unwilling to stick their political necks out for those defeated and soon to be forgotten encumbents.
In short, the Lame Duck session is not as worrisome as it sounds.
All the best…. Jeff
Two points:
In the last two years California lost a million jobs and Texas gained a million. Guess which parties control which states.
In the next two years the Democrats will be the “party of no”. Obamas veto pen will run out of ink in November of 2012.
Voting Democrat is pretty much voting for poverty.
“The USA increasingly appears to be a giant that is paralyzed by polarity. On one side you have the political middle ….”
Is this new German math??? The opposite to a pole is ‘the middle’??? Would the North Polar Opposite now be the equator??? What would German geography say?? I’m Canadian but even I know climate change isn’t a Chinese conspiracy…. it’s Estonian!!
All the best…. Jeff
Good but not great results for the election here in the USA. Just a word though, on the Tea-Party movement for European journalists who may be reading. Disclaimer: I am not in the Tea Party member but a moderate and firmly conservative member of the Republican party.
The Tea Party movement is not necessarily made up of simple, ignorant people as claimed by certain media. One person I know in the Tea Party here locally has advanced degrees in engineering and finance and holds a technical executive position in an alternate energy company. Another I know is deeply Christian religious; but holds an advanced degree in mathematics and he too is a technical executive in a large corporation.
It seems the unifying and overriding topic that unites the movement is recognition that the US Government is spending money they don’t have on highly questionable programs. It’s that simple. These people are not monsters or idiots and they make some good points; they are mostly urban professionals. Calling them ignorant is well, ignorant.