Today's Cartoons - Trump Pulls U.S. Out Of Paris Accord

As we've noted, the shitgibbon officially pulled the plug on U.S. participation in the Paris climate accord. F*ck the fool.

(click on images to enlarge)


(Jeff Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)


(Matt Davies, Newsday)

Climate Change and The Trump Con

As sociopath and environment despoiler Donald "Rump" Trump nears the announcement that the U.S. is backing out of the Paris Climate Accord -- joining Syria and Nicaragua as environmental pariahs -- the question of motive remains. Saving jobs? The fading coal industry only employs 53,000, while the solar/renewable energy sector employs 374,000, more than the oil, natural gas and coal industries combined. With utilities and industrial plants having converted to other energy sources, coal won't be coming back as a major energy source. Also, major corporations have also lined up in support of the U.S. remaining in the accord. Fossil energy pressure? Yes, that's a big part of it, especially from the coal interests, but a number of major fossil energy companies (Exxon, BP, and Chevron) have voiced support of the Paris agreement. Our view: Rump's delusional and reactionary "nationalist" view that  America does best when it acts alone and looks to the past, coupled with his perverse desire to destroy the legacy of the first African-American President who will always overshadow him, are likely the motivations.

As Natasha Geiling notes at Think Progress, Rump's decision should also put to rest any remaining questions about first lady daughter Ivanka "Complicit" Trump's interest in climate change or her influence with her father. We hear "sources close to Ivanka" saying she's an advocate for protecting the climate from man-made carbon emissions, but have never heard her speak publicly about it. Either she's ineffective in persuading her father (despite having the world community, corporations, and overwhelming public opinion at her back), or her advocacy was a pretense geared toward preserving her "brand" with the majority of Americans who believe the climate science that we must reduce carbon emissions or doom the planet. We're going with the pretense option.

Trump To Pull U.S. Out Of Paris Climate Accord

White (Supremacy) House sources are telling news organizations that twitter twit and Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump has decided to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, making the United States one of only three countries (Syria and Nicaragua being the others) not party to the landmark agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The debate now is over whether to utilize the 3- year withdrawal process in the accord or abrogate the underlying United Nations treaty (which would speed up the process).

Perhaps spurred more by animus toward President Obama and Democrats who helped negotiate the accord -- bypassing the nihilist Republican Senate -- than even by advisors such as climate change denier and Polluters' Man of the Century EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, the increasingly erratic Rump ignored the counsel of other advisors, the Pope, our European allies and even many in the business community who welcomed U.S. leadership and having set targets for emissions:

Mr Trump has ignored the advice of a string of senior advisers, including his own daughter Ivanka Trump, Defence Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who all advocated keeping 'a seat at the table'. 

Mr Mattis and others in the Department of Defence have noted that the Pentagon does a substantial amount of work addressing rising sea levels, changing sea routes for battleships due to melting glaciers, and the affects of drought and floods on US national security interests.  

It could be a sign that he plans to ditch environmental regulations and attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a much greater degree than he has so far. [snip]

Germany, France and other leading nations have expressed frustration with Mr Trump's stance on climate change. Even Pope Francis tried to persuade the US President during his recent visit to the Vatican by presenting him with a papal letter, or encyclical, the Pontiff wrote in 2015 regarding the need to address the multi-faceted issue of climate change. 

Beyond the sheer, catastrophic stupidity of withdrawing from the accord and the potentially serious effects it might have (the U.S. is, after all, one of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide in the world), Rump's move essentially cedes global leadership and the moral high ground on the issue to China, which is making significant strides toward reducing its own greenhouse emissions and is investing heavily in clean energy technologies for domestic and foreign markets. Meanwhile, Russia is quite happy to see their troll in the White (Supremacist) House drive more wedges between the U.S. and the rest of the world.

BONUS: Some are saying this decision marks the end of the American Century.

BONUS II:  Greg Sargent on the lies that would underpin Rump's rationales.