The mainstream media is finally reporting that the Koch's
legislative arm ALEC is moving into the open to prevent action on
climate change…
Republicans love wars, and over the past decade it appears it does not
matter one iota who they are at war with; just so they get to wreak
death and destruction on human beings. Oh it is true they love little
more than waging war against
muslims on behalf of their ‘most favored’
nation, Israel, but because they are “
the structurally violent segment of society,”
they also love waging war on Americans. Part and parcel of the
Republican war on Americans is borne of their demented devotion to the Koch
brothers and their dirty fossil fuel industry, but now the Kochs have
abandoned working behind the scenes and are openly expanding their war
against the people and the Pope.
The final straw was the official adoption of
President Obama’s Clean Power Plan this week that incited the enemies of
clean air, the economy, the Pope, and the people prepared their
substantial forces to prevent America from reducing the amount of carbon
it produces to stem the devastation of anthropogenic climate change.
The war became official when at long last, mainstream media
reported
that the Koch brothers’ legislative arm, the American Legal Exchange
Council (ALEC) and Americans for Prosperity openly vowed to “stop the
CPP’s implementation” at all costs.
The Washington Post
reported
that the Kochs’ and their fossil fuel industry underlings intend on
launching a rash of initiatives at the state and local level to stop the
CPP implementation in Congress, the courts, and state legislatures and
country governments. At the local level, the Koch brothers directed
their legislative arm ALEC to convene a special task force comprised of
fossil-fuel interests and electricity producers. The Koch task force
rapidly “approved model legislation to be sent to state and local
governments around the nation giving them ‘special authority’ to
‘expedite approval of resources to challenge the EPA’s Clean Power
Plan.”
Expedite approval of resources is typical ALEC-speak
for legislation giving Republicans unchallenged authority to transfer
taxpayer dollars allotted for education, transportation, and healthcare
into a giant legal fund to challenge, and block, CPP implementation in
the courts; all to keep those same taxpayers breathing foul air and
suffering harsher droughts, more intense, larger wildfires, and more
severe weather events. Americans should never making the mistake of
thinking the Kochs are at war solely with the Obama Administration or
the Environmental Protection Agency although they are prime targets;
this war is fundamentally against the American people who will be around
long after the Obama Administration is termed out. However, the people
should not feel they are being singled out by the Kochs; the oil
magnates have also publicly opened up a battle front against Pope
Francis over his audacity of hope that world governments will address
climate change.
Within a day or so of the Pope’s encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’,
the Koch brothers unleashed their oil industry funded punditry and
belief tanks to attack the Papal pronouncement. It is noteworthy that
everything in the Papal statement was not only relevant to serving the
people, and
founded solely on empirical scientific data, it was completely
consistent with “
catholics concern for helping the poor” and that “
environmental stewardship is an important part of the catholic delusion.”
According to various Koch surrogates, the Pope’s encyclical
contradicting all catholic principles and like his regard for the poor
of the world, concern about climate change makes him a “bad catholic.”
In great part, the Koch’s industry shrieking heads are advancing the idea
that Pope Francis is a bad catholic because by calling for action on
climate, the Pope is deliberately causing harm on the world’s poor and
he is intent on increasing their numbers and sending them deeper into
poverty; especially in America. The Koch’s plan of attack is portraying
the Pope, climate scientists, and President Obama as working in concert
to increase poverty in America as part of a “fanatical agenda and
regressive form of taxation.”
For example, although the poorest people in the world are most affected by climate change, a Cato Institute op-ed said the Pope calling for action on climate change will “cause so much harm to so many, especially the poor and downtrodden.” The Heritage Foundation’s Steve Moore wrote that “The
embrace of governmental action that underlies many of the Pope’s
statements would not lift up the poor, but condemn them to more poverty
and less freedom. Consider the climate change fanatics’ agenda.” In the Koch and Exxon-funded Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), an industry agitator asserted that “climate-related restrictions harm poor families far more than climate change will.”
It is not that the Kochs, wingnuts, or the fossil fuel industry
has ever cared about the poor anywhere, but it is beyond refute that the
poor suffer the brunt of climate change’s effects which is precisely
why the Pope is taking action.
In a recent United Nations
report it clearly stated, and gave empirical evidence, that climate change “
risks disproportionately affect the world’s poor.” The World Health Organization reported that the impacts of climate change are already “
exacerbating poverty in developing countries,” and that in countries with gross income inequality like America, poor households will be “
particularly affected due to increasing food prices.” Americans should not underestimate just how much food prices are going to
rise
due to drought conditions, especially in California, and should
consider that there is no life-sustaining benefit from pouring more
carbon into the atmosphere. It is something that President Obama and
Pope Francis certainly consider in advocating for action on climate
change; even if the President’s Clean Power Plan is not nearly as robust
as it could, and should be; but any action is better than none and that
is why the Kochs have publicly unleashed ALEC, Americans for
Prosperity, and Republicans to wage an all-out war on the Pope and the
People.
For
the first time it appears that mainstream media is finally reporting
that the Koch brothers’ legislative arm ALEC is moving into the open to
prevent any action on climate change. Now all that remains is for the
Koch-Republican Congress to publicly denounce the Pope like the Kochs’
oil industry and accuse him of being a “bad catholic” and
deliberately creating more poverty and misery for the poor of the world.
In a clever move, Senate Democrats are giving Republicans a chance to
condemn the Pope with a resolution supporting the Papal encyclical on
the environment. It will not win the war, or even a battle, but it will
clearly delineate the combatants in the war against Americans and there
is little doubt that Republicans will publicly align with the Kochs. And
why wouldn’t they? It is war, it serves the Koch brothers, it will harm
Americans, and if they can demean and defeat the vicar of christ for
advocating for the poor, then it will be a very good Republican war.
![Real estate mogul Donald Trump speaks during a GOP presidential candidate debate on Aug. 6, 2015. [YouTube]](http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Trump-0806-478x257.jpg)
