Patterico's Pontifications

6/1/2017

President Trump And The Paris Climate Agreement Decision (Update Added)

Filed under: General — Dana @ 11:59 am



[guest post by Dana]

The New York Times is ramping up the urgency about President Trump’s upcoming decision later today on the Paris climate agreement, with it’s headline: World Awaits Trump Decision on U.S. Future in Paris Accord:

With the world watching nervously, the feuding among the president’s aides further exposed the fault lines of a chaotic decision-making process that has swirled around Mr. Trump since he took office.

Signs have been increasing for weeks that Mr. Trump was heading toward pulling out of the Paris agreement, apparently believing that a continued United States presence in the accord would harm the economy; hinder job creation in regions like Appalachia and the West, where his most ardent supporters live; and undermine his “America first” message.

At home, he faced urgent pleas from corporate leaders, including Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, who told Mr. Trump on Tuesday that pulling out was wrong for business, the economy and the environment. Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, threatened to resign from two White House advisory boards if the president withdrew from the Paris agreement.

On his recent trip to Europe, Mr. Trump waved aside a barrage of private lobbying by other heads of state to keep the United States in the agreement.

A frustrated Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, said he opposed “behaving as vassals of the Americans” and assailed Mr. Trump for failing to even understand the mechanics of a withdrawal, which he said could take three or four years to fulfill.

“This notion — ‘I am Trump. I am American. America first, so I’m going to get out of it.’ — that is not going to happen,” Mr. Juncker said. “We tried to make that clear to Mr. Trump in clear, German principal clauses in Taormina, but it would appear that he did not understand.”

He added, “Not everything in international agreements is fake news.”

Adding to the hysteria is influential billionaire hedge fund manager and staunch environmentalist, Tom Steyer, who has claimed it will be a “traitorous act of war” if President Trump pulls out of the agreement:

If Donald Trump pulls the United States out of the Paris agreement he ill be committing a traitorous act of war against the American people. The Paris Agreement is essential to leaving a healthy, safe and prosperous world to our children, but Trump is making it clear that he’s willing to sacrifice America’s best interests for the sake of special interest profits.

Generations of Americans will suffer the destructive effects of Trump’s greedy, selfish, and immoral decision.

Phil Kerpen provides a succinct and non-hysterical look at the the agreement and its realities, claiming that “the agreement has no discernible impact on the global average temperature,” as well as examining the high cost of the agreement to the United States.

As a reminder, President Obama used executive powers to ratify the Paris agreement as a way to avoid the Republican-controlled Congress. It will be interesting to see if President Trump pulls out of the agreement, especially given that then-candidate Trump said, that if elected, “We’re going to cancel the Paris Climate Agreement and stop all payments of US tax dollars to UN global warming programmes” as part of his “100 day action plan”.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

UPDATE: President Trump keeps his promise to pull out of the agreement:

“In order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord but being negotiations to reenter either the Paris accord or an entirely new transaction under terms that are fair to the United States,” Trump said from the White House Rose Garden.

“We’re getting out. And we will start to renegotiate and we’ll see if there’s a better deal. If we can, great. If we can’t, that’s fine,” he added.

199 Responses to “President Trump And The Paris Climate Agreement Decision (Update Added)”

  1. You can watch President Trump announce his decision here in real time.

    Dana (023079)

  2. Today is a good day.

    NJRob (0586eb)

  3. He should submit it to the Senate for ratification or rejection. That’s what the Constitution prescribes, and that’s what Obama deliberately failed to do. In his transmission message, he can — and I think he should — urge that it be rejected. But no POTUS — not Trump, not Obama — has the authority to commit the United States to international agreements unilaterally, or else the United States would have been a member of the League of Nations.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  4. BTW, that would not only be the constitutionally correct thing to do, it would be the politically astute thing to do.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  5. Beldar,

    By doing so and having it rejected, that would also immediately remove us from the accord instead of the fraudulent 2020 date.

    NJRob (0586eb)

  6. No this is a green eggs and ham situation.

    narciso (d1f714)

  7. Fake, unconstitutional treaties cannot supersede the Constitution.

    NJRob (0586eb)

  8. POTUS is so predictable

    Spartacvs (2db708)

  9. It’s a choke hold on any first world economy that adopts it

    narciso (d1f714)

  10. When America rapes the Earth The Climate has a way to shut that thing down.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  11. Or maybe China takes it to a Paris Accord Clinic.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  12. It’s the wrong choice as a matter of policy, in my view, BUT it’s also clearly legal, and the way that Obama implemented it makes it possible for this to happen. Thus, in my view, this is an own-goal by the people who supported it; rather than making our case and persuading the Senate, we relied on a mechanism that went around the Senate *even though we knew that meant a later President could do this*.

    It’s the wrong policy choice, but the people who supported the policy made it happen.

    aphrael (3f0569)

  13. Oh, so we join the happy ranks of Syria and Nicaragua, the only other countries who are not in the agreement. A lot of our respectable companies are against us pulling out of it too. How stupid and jackassery.

    http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/jun/01/debbie-wasserman-schultz/are-nicaragua-and-syria-only-countries-not-sign-pa/

    Tillman (a95660)

  14. All policy is now subject to Cleeks law…..

    Spartacvs (2db708)

  15. @2. Especially if you breathe the sweet clean air of Bayonne, New Jersey.

    @3. Yep. He’d know that ‘cept he skipped civics class at military school to jerk off to Miss November, 1964 in Playboy.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  16. Beldar (#3):

    I feel your pain on this. However, there a part of me that enjoys seeing prior Presidential decrees being easily reversed by Presidential decree. It teaches a lesson, not only to future Presidents, but also to other foreign leaders, that treaties that aren’t ratified by constitutional means are written in sand.

    Appalled (d07ae6)

  17. How is it legal, plus it soesnr bind China and india.

    narciso (d1f714)

  18. We’re out. I’ve updated the post:

    UPDATE: President Trump keeps his promise to pull out of the agreement:

    “In order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord but being negotiations to reenter either the Paris accord or an entirely new transaction under terms that are fair to the United States,” Trump said from the White House Rose Garden.

    “We’re getting out. And we will start to renegotiate and we’ll see if there’s a better deal. If we can, great. If we can’t, that’s fine,” he added.

    Dana (023079)

  19. President Obama’s runaround Congress just came back to bite him.

    Dana (023079)

  20. i love you Mr. Trump you’re the best president this country’s ever had

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  21. Pittsburgh ain’t Paris, Donald. Indeed. And the Carnegie Museum of Art ain’t the Louvre.

    BTW Captain, just because the football team is called ‘Steelers’ doean’t mean they make steel there anymore. Or mine coal.

    Top employers in Pittsburgh area:

    UPMC Health Systems 26,700
    U.S. Government 20,400
    Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 15,900
    West Penn Allegheny Health Systems 10,200
    University of Pittsburgh 10,100
    Mellon Financial Corp. 8,404
    PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. 6,959
    Allegheny County 6,695
    USX Corp. 6,300
    Giant Eagle, Inc. 5,700
    Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield 5,600
    Eat’n’ Park Hospitality Group 4,600
    Verizon Communications 4,400

    http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-Northeast/Pittsburgh-Economy.html#ixzz4imbjyMl3

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  22. @ Appalled (#16): Oh, I agree entirely that constitutionally, no POTUS can unilaterally bind any future POTUS. I just heard Cavuto misstate, perhaps innocently (but stupidly, and I expected better from him), that Trump couldn’t abrogate this executive agreement until 2020. That may be true under the terms of the agreement, but the agreement itself is one he or any future POTUS could toss in the wastebasket without notice or showing of cause. If there’s one thing Trump is surely a genuine master at, based on his past performance in the business world, it’s abrogating contracts, including ones he himself has signed (as opposed to agreements signed by a predecessor in interest).

    But he could, and should, have said that this is a matter of important public policy on which all constitutional niceties should be strictly observed. He could have submitted it to the Senate for ratification, indeed could have submitted it conditionally with a time-fuse (failing ratification within which, the proposed treaty would be automatically withdrawn).

    This is clearly a fight that will get the Left all wee-wee’d up, and that Trump wants to fight on. That’s why he’s in the Rose Garden announcing this, while simultaneously breaking his campaign promise about moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem via a White House news release and a recycling, word-for-word, of the statutory waiver signed every six months by all of his predecessors going back to Clinton.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  23. President Trump don’t listen to Mr. DCSCA he’s just being poopy

    you really stood up for America and for good old fashioned common sense today

    i couldn’t be more pleased

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  24. In other words, Trump is doing this to manipulate and deceive his base — successfully in the case of his #1 fan, hatefulfeet here.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  25. @ Tilman (#13), who wrote:

    Oh, so we join the happy ranks of Syria and Nicaragua, the only other countries who are not in the agreement.

    Every country that has signed up for this agreement is an economic competitor of the U.S. who would stand to benefit when the world’s most powerful economy handcuffs itself. Most of them have not even a theoretical obligation to do anything anytime soon under the treaty, and many of them are standing in line conditioning their supposed compliance on receiving foreign aid handouts from us.

    This is, in short, the worst possible argument in favor of staying in the deal. It’s childishly naive.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  26. > a recycling, word-for-word, of the statutory waiver signed every six months by all of his predecessors going back to Clinton.

    I wasn’t aware that this waiver is signed regularly. I think it’s a bad thing that it *is* signed regularly — what’s the point in ethics obligations if the people at the top are all immune to them? — but it certainly means that Trump isn’t violating any norms by doing it.

    At the same time, though, it irks me because his campaign was in large measure based on the premise that he was going to drain the swamp of Washington corruption, and I would have expected a politician who truly cared about government corruption to *not* sign such a waiver.

    aphrael (3f0569)

  27. Beldar – in a lot of ways Trump strikes me as being a conservative version of Gavin Newsom, except coming out of the business world rather than the political world.

    aphrael (3f0569)

  28. Beldar:

    1. I don’t think Trump has any obligation to present it to the Senate. Doing so, frankly, just allows that body to waste time considering it, rather than doing things like rewriting the healthcare bill, or moving forward on a budget. Trump does not have an obligation to correct his predecessor’s procedural errors. (If he treats NAFTA the same way, on the other hand, I will be…Appalled)

    2. It’s clear Trump wants this fight. Given the religious fervor that animates the left on this issue, I think this is a good fight for him. Polling on this issue strikes me as untrustworthy — nobody is going to say they want a treaty broken, if asked the question cold.

    Appalled (d07ae6)

  29. He says we’re out, but then says he wants to renegotiate or negotiate anew on more favorable terms to the US so we’re only sorta out, kinda like NAFTA.

    crazy (d3b449)

  30. The third rock from the sun has a nation on it run by an orange brick as dumb as a stone.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  31. Obama now: “The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created.”

    Dana (023079)

  32. @23 Happybleat, purveyor of fake news, should know the mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania disagrees.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  33. obama’s a silly piddle-head

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  34. This waz a fraud predicated on all tbe flotsam that tony watts has pointed out over ten years, why Mark Steyn has endured a trial by ordeal for five years, because he will not say ‘e por se move’

    narciso (d1f714)

  35. The lilliputians are unhappy for now but will soon realize the Uncle Sam is still tied down

    crazy (d3b449)

  36. Dana,

    That’s hilarious. With what money when you aren’t extorting it from the good ol’ USA? We are the only nation that’s remotely come close to Kyoto targets and we did it because of fracking which the left hates because it allows cheap energy and creates enterprise and freedom.

    Poor ASPCA that his girl couldn’t beat the orange man after she handpicked him. If only the left wasn’t completely insane and totalitarian.

    But that would be like saying if only water wasn’t wet. You are what you are.

    NJRob (0586eb)

  37. The President was correct in declining to present the Senate with a farcical treaty to reject at some political cost. He was also correct in declining to use the appropriate term ‘fraud’ and in appearing to be open to a ‘better deal’. I count the manner in which he kept his promise to be much more politically astute than usual.

    Good job, Trump.

    (better bookmark that one)

    Rick Ballard (4fdfcf)

  38. Greetings:

    Me, every time the Euro-Borg’s rulers start their Paris Climate Agreement whine, I hear echoes of my Mother teaching me about grunion, lemmings, and friends who jump off bridges.

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  39. This seems to be giving an opening for China to get closer to Europe and other places, from what I have seen mentioned in various places. Mind you a friendly China as a counterweight to Russia has merit from the point of view. Volodya, don’t get so busy on your western border that you miss what happens on your southern border.

    My own preference would be to remain in the Accord, and weaken it from within by paying lip service but not actually implementing it.

    kishnevi (d7d2b1)

  40. I don’t see what good it would do to enforce an unethical compact that benefits the global technocrats and requires china and india to pay lip service

    it’s like pretending that comey wrote that contemporaneous memo, that the dhs one that was used as cover for the 9th circuit decision was valid,

    narciso (d1f714)

  41. Another promised kept.

    Another great day for conservatives.

    Another great day for America.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  42. Useful charts for arguing with people who believe CO2 is everything:

    Showing that Coal produces twice as much CO2 than Natural gas (from fracking)

    Showing just how much forecasts have sucked over the years.

    Showing that the US has historically reduced its CO2 production (and energy use) per unit of GDP, and that both CO2 and energy production maxed out in the Bush-Obama years and are now decreasing.

    Compare any of these to China or India.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  43. Narciso @40
    If the Son of Heaven and the Grand Mughal can pay lip service so could we.

    kishnevi (d7d2b1)

  44. @ Mr. Ballard (#37): So I gather you approve of the precedent set by Obama — making broad international agreements of multi-trillion dollar consequence on behalf of the United States without consultation with or approval from the Senate in its treaty-ratification role — and now reaffirmed by Trump?

    I’m sorry, we’re going to have to respectfully disagree about this. I’ll stick with the Constitution. Yes, what he did was within his powers, insofar as it was merely undoing an overreach by his predecessor. But he didn’t say that or offer that as a justification for his action today. Instead, because this is a fight he wants to pick, he continued to make everything all about Donald J. Trump.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  45. When it rains, it pours. Here’s some more good news that President Trump deserves credit for:

    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/06/01/dakota-access-pipeline-now-delivering-oil/

    ThOR (c9324e)

  46. The US production of CO2 per unit of GNP (CO2/GDP) is now less than a third what it was in 1950 and has declined every year, as has our energy use. Contracting societies, like Russia or Europe like to talk in absolute amounts. Growing, entrepreneurial countries that crate wealth and attract people who want to crate wealth like to express it as a function of GDP. As they should.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  47. *create twice.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  48. He was making a reelection speech for 2020 in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, for pete’s sake! That is politics, maybe canny politics — but it’s not good governance.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  49. Beldar, someone with half an ounce of political wit would have submitted the Paris Accords to the Senate for ratification. Why take crap from people who would vote NAY?

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  50. Without good politics there would never be conservative governance.

    Trump and Reagan share both qualities.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  51. Maybe because President Trump thinks the buck stops with him. I do understand why the confusion: it is a rarely seen quality in a pol. You won’t see Trump’s grassroots supporters faulting him for doing the stand-up thing. That’s why they voted for him.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  52. “I was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris.”

    Reaganesque. Magnificently Reaganesque.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  53. But ThOR, so were the senators from Pennsylvania.

    It’s not all about him. In fact, the Constitution makes it otherwise.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  54. The only way Trump could have done it better would have been for him to add:

    “Don’t forget to thank a fracker!”

    harkin (cdb06f)

  55. Beldar, Trump is thumbing his nose at the world, and you stand there with him. Now that’s nothing but short-sighted, selfish and childish. Trump is a flat-Earther who doesn’t even admit that global warming is real. Stupid.

    You don’t even have to believe science if your memory works. Where I grew up, it was amazing when temperatures rose above 100 for a few consecutive days. Now it does that on an almost weekly basis every summer. Go figure.

    Tillman (a95660)

  56. Tillman,

    I’m sure as a kid you read about the dinosaurs. What was the average temperature during the Jurassic and Triassic eras? Inquiring minds want to know.

    NJRob (0586eb)

  57. Beldar,

    Obama’s action on the Paris Accord, like Clinton’s with the Kyoto Protocol falls into a very grey area wrt the Constitution. The UN knows full well that using the correct terminology, treaty, rather than their chosen obfuscations places any agreement subject to Senate approval. Why in the world should Trump undertake a process which lily-livered Democrat overreachers avoided like the plague in order to satisfy a much less than convincing argument regarding appropriate Constitutional process concerning the point at which a protocol or accord agreed upon by the Executive becomes subject to Article I review? Trump’s decision to decline to participate in the UN scam falls, in my opinion, in the same bin as his decision to withdraw from the TPP rather than submit it to the Senate for ratification.

    It’s not as if his decision to withdraw is a surprise wrt either agreement.

    Rick Ballard (4fdfcf)

  58. “It is welcome news that President Trump will pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement. The pact promises to damage the economy while surrendering American sovereignty over climate policy to yet another international, largely anti-American enterprise.

    It is unwelcome news, nevertheless, that so much was riding on the president’s decision to withdraw the assent of his predecessor, Barack Obama — America’s first post-American president.

    In reality, Trump’s decision is monumental only because America, in the Obama mold, has become post-constitutional.

    The Paris climate agreement is a treaty. We are not talking here about a bob-and-weave farce like the Iran nuclear deal. That arrangement, the “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,” was shrewdly packaged as an “unsigned understanding” — concurrently spun, depending on its apologists’ need of the moment, as a non-treaty (in order to evade the Constitution’s requirements), or as a binding international commitment (in order to intimidate the new American administration into retaining it).

    The climate agreement, to the contrary, is a formal international agreement. Indeed, backers claim this “Convention” entered into force — i.e., became internationally binding — upon the adoption of “instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession” by a mere 55 of the 197 parties.

    For all these global governance pretensions, though, why should we care? Why should the Paris agreement affect Americans?

    Yes, President Obama gave his assent to the agreement in his characteristically cagey manner: He waited until late 2016 to “adopt” the convention — when there would be no practical opportunity to seek Senate approval before he left office. But Senate consent is still required, by a two-thirds’ supermajority, before a treaty is binding on the United States.

    At least that’s what the Constitution says.

    But it is not what post-American, transnational progressives say.

    They note that in 1970, President Richard M. Nixon signed a monstrosity known as the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Think of it as “the treaty on treaties” — even though you probably thought we already had an American law of treaties.”

    — Andy McCarthy

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  59. You won’t see Trump’s grassroots supporters faulting him for doing the stand-up thing.

    I fear his grassroots will be the death of us.

    Spartacvs (2db708)

  60. What I particularly like about Trump’s unilateral action is that, in so doing, he is saying to Obama and subsequent Oval Office-holders, as well, that two can play the game of government by fiat. It is precisely this tit-for-tat quality and its symbolism that I like.

    This is just one more reversal of an Obama administration overstep, of which there have now been quite a few. The message these reversals send is that the President is not a king and must submit to the legislative branch.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  61. “I fear his grassroots will be the death of us.”

    – Spartacvs

    A sentiment that is undoubtedly reciprocated.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  62. Yes, I thumb my nose at people who think there is a climate change crisis. I believe in global warming and in global cooling, because there is very good evidence of both. I believe we’re probably in a warming trend, although that’s less clear. I believe we are decades, at a minimum, away from being able to understand the causes and effects of climate change, and that the number of variables involved are staggering, and that many of the people who are claiming to be doing science on this subject are, at present, operating under obvious biases with impaired judgment.

    However, I can also assume arguendo that we really are looking at a man-made acceleration of global warming, and assume arguendo that we really will have a fractional percent of one degree Celsius of average temperatures at the end of the century — and still make a compelling case that this particular treaty, with these terms, is stupid and a bad deal.

    That speechwriters for Trump included in their text for him some of these same arguments does not make me abandon them.

    Now if you want to be insulting, you’re going to have to find better company than the United Nations General Assembly before whom you wish to shame me.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  63. 62… it’s astroturf in the case of teh Left, Thor. As phony and paid stoogerific as the day is long.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  64. Just more evidence of President Trump’s cajónes de latón.

    DISCO, are you reading this?

    ThOR (c9324e)

  65. @ ThOR (#61), who wrote:

    The message these reversals send is that the President is not a king and must submit to the legislative branch.

    No, the message Trump sent today is “Obama thought he was a king, but I’ll show him that I’m the king.” Neither of them gave a damn about the Constitution, which requires that the Senate ratify treaties before they bind the United States.

    The rest of the world, by the way, is rather obviously on constructive notice of that fact from Woodrow Wilson’s failure to secure Senate ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, as a consequence of which the U.S. didn’t join the League of Nations and, indeed, didn’t formally conclude a peace arrangement with Germany until 1921.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  66. NJJob If you are talking about huge time frames like that, sure the temperature will change. But we’re not talking hundreds of thousands of years here, we’re talking less than 50 years! See the difference?

    Tillman (a95660)

  67. 66… ASPCA is busy ruining the April ’65 Playboy centerfold while sitting in his mother’s basement, Thor.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  68. @53. Nyet.

    Homer Simpson. Gloriously Homer Simpson, dummy.

    “All the networks dumped us. One of them said we made going to the moon about as exciting as taking a trip to Pittsburgh.” – NASA PAO Henry Hurt [Xander Berkeley] ‘Apollo 13’ 1995

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  69. The mayor of Pittsburgh is pissed.
    Angry, too.

    ‘Pour it on; pour on that Iron City Beer….’ Local beer ad,1970s, KDKA, Pittsburgh

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  70. @51- Congrats! Didn’t think it was possible to smear Dead Ronald Reagan with fresh dung– but you’ve managed it.

    “Keep it up.” – Arthur Jensen [Ned Beatty] ‘Network’ 1976

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  71. 73… Said the fellow with the chocolate mustache… hey, that’s not chocolate!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  72. very astute argument,

    https://twitter.com/FoxNewsInsider/status/870363198981115905

    it’s like a continuous parade of the absurd coronello,

    narciso (d1f714)

  73. For those who say Beldar is wrong …

    Based on what Trump did today, and especially the way he did it, what would stop him from changing his mind next year and deciding to join the Paris climate accord?

    Nothing.

    DRJ (15874d)

  74. Greetings:

    On this evening’s PBS NewsHour broadcast, Senator Mike Lee of Utah was given the opportunity to defend President Trump’s decision by the inestimable Judy Woodruff. Unfortunately and mostly for Judy, Judy, Judy, Senator Lee failed to maintain the subdued, overly polite demeanor that Republicans have wrapped themselves for far too long.

    I have added this interview to my list of favorites along with those of Kellyanne Conway, Sean Spicer, and that Dr. Gorka all of whom inflicted some degree of physical distress on dear Judy and none of whom have been invited back for a second bite at her apple.

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  75. The glass is always half empty for some. I say Super Ted would not allow the EvilTrump to do that.

    Colonel Haiku (a3227e)

  76. @66. I was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris. – Donald J. Trump

    Are you reading this, dummy?

    “Fact: Hillary Clinton rec’d 80% of the vote in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh stands with the world & will follow Paris Agreement.”– Bill Peduto, Mayor, City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  77. Yeah. Reagan was a good man — a good-hearted man — and it showed. Even his enemies conceded it. The honest ones, anyway. Trump is nothing like that. He can’t get by on likability, he has to deliver the goodies he promised to his base.

    nk (dbc370)

  78. That’s the difference between the two, ASPCA. One of them realizes he was elected to represent and serve ALL of America.

    Thus endeth the lesson.

    Colonel Haiku (a3227e)

  79. @74. Haiku! Gesundheit.

    Your game is off. Talk to Tiger.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  80. A victory for the silent majority.

    mg (31009b)

  81. I was under the impression, DCSCA, that Trump won Pennsylvania’s electoral votes, and that his coattails even swept incumbent Pat Toomey (R-PA) into an improbable reelection to the U.S. Senate, in this past election.

    How did it turn out in the universe that you inhabit? Did Hillary win there? And in that universe, is it considered persuasive to cite Democratic politicians as if they were omniscient and omnipotent?

    Beldar (fa637a)

  82. DRJ, check your email.

    Dana (023079)

  83. Another beating for the loudmouth minority.

    mg (31009b)

  84. Excuse me, local Democrat politicians, I meant to say.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  85. @84… Well said, Beldar. The fellow is often horribly wrong, but never in doubt.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  86. elon musk the government welfare slut’s gonna take his solar powered frisbee and go home he doesn’t wanna play with you anymore

    dorkwad

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  87. Having been in Pittsburgh recently I can attest to the remarkable job ole’ Mayor Peduto has done. He has created a Pennsylvania wonderland even worse than my hometown of Philly and just a skosh better than Detroit. The fact they were Stinky voters is obvious by their ability to live in sewage and call it virtue.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  88. @ Thor,

    What I particularly like about Trump’s unilateral action is that, in so doing, he is saying to Obama and subsequent Oval Office-holders, as well, that two can play the game of government by fiat. It is precisely this tit-for-tat quality and its symbolism that I like.

    I despised it when Obama played this game, and despise it that Trump is following suit. This is not draining th swamp, this is continuing to maintain its rank stench of unaccounted power and self-serving governance. I thought Trump was supposed to be better than the status quo.

    Dana (023079)

  89. NJJob If you are talking about huge time frames like that, sure the temperature will change. But we’re not talking hundreds of thousands of years here, we’re talking less than 50 years! See the difference?

    Tillman (a95660) — 6/1/2017 @ 3:21 pm

    Says who?

    You know nothing. Your ignorance beclowns itself. Interglacials and new ice age happen rapidly. Not over hundreds of thousands of years.

    NJRob (0586eb)

  90. the sleazy corrupt republican senate trash can pass a resolution supporting this gay-assed Paris non-treaty if that’s what the voices in cowardly torture victim John McCain’s head tell him to do

    it would be super-cute to see them pass anything really

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  91. nk,

    The grudging praise for Reagan came only after he was safely out of office. It is an oft-repeated pattern from the Left – disparage current Republican leaders by making denigrating comparisons to previous Republican presidents/pols.

    During his presidency, it was non-stop nastiness from the Left.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  92. @76. Beldar’s right on this. As are you. This is just this week’s shiny object to divert media from Russia. Cities and states will do to Trump on this what his ex-wives do– just ignore him and press on.

    But the take away for a busy world moving on is the nation that once upon a time placed men on the moon now sides with the bomb-cratered land of Syria and the drug-infested jungles of Nicaragua. Britain’s Empire died in Victoria’s shadow entering the early 20th century. The American century is dying under an orange cloud early in the 21st.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  93. @84- In FACT, in the real Universe, She won the City of Pittsburgh, Belljar– which is what we’re discussing. Do try to keep up.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  94. @88. Look, stupid, stop trying to out stupid Beljar. Trump lost Pgh. So do yourself a favor and stop trying to insist 1+1=11 when it adds up to 2.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  95. I was thinking of this encomion by Sam Donaldson (21 seconds). But you’re right, it looks like it was after Reagan was gone. I remembered what Donaldson said, but not when he said it.

    nk (dbc370)

  96. There’s lots of people and companies, big companies, who profit monetarily in a big way from the global warming fraud. Some obviously, such as Mann and Gore, and some not so obviously such as Tom Steyer and his ships full of Indonesian heavy crude. And they have the ear of politicians, by way of both stuffed envelopes and the yammering of the gullible who vote.

    nk (dbc370)

  97. You’re in rare form today, DISCO.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  98. @88. Will cut you some slack, Haiku, as you’re off your game of late. You and especially Beljar, know little about Alleghny County, the City o Pittsburgh and its quaint suburbs. So do yourself a favor and accept that Trump made yet another word fart for alliteration purposes. But his analogy was just stupid. As usual. And Mayor Peduto will elaborate.
    ______

    @90. Stuff a Philly cheese steak up you poop chute, Hoagie. You don’t know squat about Pgh.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  99. ASPCA has a special sad today.

    Colonel Haiku (a3227e)

  100. I am all for the idiots who believe in their religion of glowball warming putting all their own money they desire in a big pot. Call it Global Warming, Inc. I am not for allowing them to steal OPM to do it. If something is a good idea you really don’t need to force people to do it.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  101. nk @99

    Absolutely. Elon Musk is an excellent example. The man sells global warming virtue signals. Of course he’s going to quit the President’s advisory council. To stay would undermine his global business interests.

    The global warming hoax and the Paris Accord are all about redistributing wealth and enriching favored clients. You and I are not favored clients. We’ll be paying the freight.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  102. 100- Seriously, ThOR, point is, Pittsburgh is definitely not Trump Country. The city transformed itself from an old manufacturing base to a modern progessive city and it took damned near three decades to do it. It was a stupid analogy. It’s a safe bet he doesn’t even realize the Steel City has not been making steel there in decades.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  103. But he won Pennsylvania, I’m not sure if the nbc link is fake news,

    narciso (d1f714)

  104. too wit, making the point clear,

    https://twitter.com/EricLadny/status/870421761430630400

    narciso (d1f714)

  105. @102, On the contrary, Haiku. A big happy– as every time Trump steps in it Hillary gets on stage and reminds us why we voted for him over her. She’s at it again tonight in Manhattan.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  106. @106- But he lost Pittsburgh.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  107. @90. Stuff a Philly cheese steak up you poop chute, Hoagie. You don’t know squat about Pgh.
    DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/1/2017 @ 4:36 pm

    That’s not nice, even for you DCSCA. I guess the need to go all Kathy Griffin on anybody who disagrees is spreading. First off you have no idea what I do or do not know about Pgh. I am often there since my foster son and his family live there. You may disagree with my opinion of Pgh. but you needn’t get nasty about it. You took a comment about a stinkin’ city and made it personal. Why are leftists that way?

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  108. @110. It’s perfectly nice, Hoagie– especially to someone from Philly. I’m from Pittsburgh. 😉

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  109. If he could post photos here, he would go all Kathy Griffin. Same pathology — desperate need for affirmation, associated with self-loathing which he validates by coming here to comment.

    He thinks he’s made a point by — gasp — catching Trump in a metaphor. I regret having broken my usual practice of ignoring him.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  110. Funny thing is my foster son and his family have lived there about ten years now and they love it. He is probably one of about five black Republicans in the entire city but he gets along with everybody. He does miss a “real” hoagie every once in a while.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  111. if red queen had won any of these states, the question would be academic,

    narciso (d1f714)

  112. @112- You should. You were wrong. But I don’t regret agreeing with you at #95 which speaks better of me than you.

    @113– Where the Allegheny meets the Ohio… it’s a great and proud city that showed the rest of the nation how to transform itself.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  113. All I know about Pittsburgh is from “The Odd Couple” TV show. Maury the cop tells a judge that he was away on vacation with his wife. The judge asks, “Where did you go?” Maury says, “Pittsburgh”. The judge asks, “Why Pittsburgh?” Maury says, “We went to Cleveland last year”.

    nk (dbc370)

  114. @76. You know, DRJ, don’t put it past Trump to have made this ‘decision’ in a sort of fit of pique, as a chastisement toward young Jarred, who favored staying w/t PA (along w/Ivanka,)for the expanding hassles caused by the Russia mess. A wrap on his knuckles at the expense of the planet. He’s a petty man. But wow– what a show.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  115. @116. Then learn. Start in your fridge with the Heinz ketchup.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  116. @112. =yawn= Self-projection; ideological conservatism rooted in old Texas ways is desperate for relevance as the world moves happily on from it.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  117. it would’ve been cool if he’d literally ripped up the agreement captain food stamped signed

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  118. in effect, that is what he did, this in part is why Obama is going to lingering like Jacob marley, as he permanently roots himself in kalorama, for the price of two speeches in Milan,

    narciso (d1f714)

  119. what’s good for the goose:

    https://twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/870418592361136128

    narciso (d1f714)

  120. 58. Rick Ballard (4fdfcf) — 6/1/2017 @ 3:08 pm

    Trump’s decision to decline to participate in the UN scam

    He’s not calling it a scam. He’s talking about renegotiating it. That’s a little cowardly.

    Sammy Finkelman (9fe80b)

  121. You know, DRJ, don’t put it past Trump to have made this ‘decision’ in a sort of fit of pique, as a chastisement toward young Jarred, who favored staying w/t PA (along w/Ivanka,)for the expanding hassles caused by the Russia mess. A wrap on his knuckles at the expense of the planet. He’s a petty man. But wow– what a show.

    I think it more likely he was pissed at the grownups in Europe who disrespected him and he wanted a ‘win’. Purile, but that’s Trump to the core.

    Spartacvs (2db708)

  122. 22. Beldar (fa637a) — 6/1/2017 @ 1:13 pm

    That’s why he’s in the Rose Garden announcing this, while simultaneously breaking his campaign promise about moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem via a White House news release and a recycling, word-for-word, of the statutory waiver signed every six months by all of his predecessors going back to Clinton.

    26.
    aphrael (3f0569) — 6/1/2017 @ 1:20 pm

    I wasn’t aware that this waiver is signed regularly. I think it’s a bad thing that it *is* signed regularly — what’s the point in ethics obligations if the people at the top are all immune to them? — but it certainly means that Trump isn’t violating any norms by doing it.

    That doesn’t have anything to do with ethics, except maybe for the idea of signing things like that.

    In 1995 Congress passed a law saying the U.S. Embassy in Israel should be moved to Jerusalem (and that measn west Jerusalem) unles sthe president signed a waiver saying some important foreign policy considerations or something like that made it – whatever it says – and that waiver is good only for six months and must be signed again to be continued.

    Sammy Finkelman (9fe80b)

  123. it can’t be renegotiated, those who signed on, have put a chokehold on their economies,

    narciso (d1f714)

  124. Not a rap on his kids’ knuckle, nor the Europeans’ either. He knows who voted for him and whose support he needs to keep. It won’t do him any good to sell out to the climate change crowd — it can replace him with any two-bit community organizer from Chicago’s South Side.

    nk (dbc370)

  125. Beldar, Trump is thumbing his nose at the world

    The world needs a good nose-thumbing. Crap it pulls…

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  126. steyer, is perhaps the most astute, and then it turns into world war z

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/06/01/the-craziest-reactions-to-trump-pulling-out-of-the-parisagreement/

    narciso (d1f714)

  127. @128. Could be both; WH leak in WaPo tonight says our Captain was ‘bewildered’ at being ‘covfefed’ by France’s Macron.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  128. He’s not used to anyone standing up to him and countering his bullshit performance art. Certainly not getting any worthwhile pushback from the people around him or congressional republicans.

    Spartacvs (2db708)

  129. Beldar is right that the accord ought to go to the Senate as a treaty. The world needs to be on notice that ONLY the Senate can bind the USA to an agreement. We need to rub their noses in it, apparently.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  130. Steyer is running for President 2020

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  131. no, let it be staked, it’s too much of a temptation for some senators to try to revive it, because ‘global test’ or some such idiocy,

    narciso (d1f714)

  132. BTW, is there any law enforcing Article I, Section 10, Clause 3 about states making compacts with other states or with foreign powers without the consent of Congress? Can a governor who does this be clapped in the slammer?

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  133. On the bright side, for Trump and Russia, poo-pooing clean energy is just what Russia needs. Them Russians are hurting because their oil isn’t so precious anymore. Prices are down! So sure, let’s help the Russians. /sarc

    Tillman (a95660)

  134. You might be right about Jared but I hope Trump is trying to keep a campaign promise, DCSCA.

    DRJ (d35869)

  135. Saudi Arabia signed that thing, too. Talk about hypocrisy.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  136. Speaking of western PA (not Pitttsburgh proper per se), http://www.yahoo.com/news/police-arrest-heavily-armed-man-193800666.html

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  137. remember the Kyoto protocol, did it matter that the senate voted it down almost unanimously, not to the drones who cited it breathlessly for a decade,

    narciso (d1f714)

  138. @141. It was shortsighted, DRJ– which likely fits the profile. Beldar did have a point. He should have just sent it to the Senate and let then take the chill or heat over it.

    He’s as dumb as a rock; ask our Captain which gets his steam up, bituminous or anthacite, and he’ll likely answer ‘blonds.’

    _____

    @143. Edinboro is near eadville, about 40 miles south of Erie. Rural. Farming. Small industries. Edinboro is remember for giving us Miss rawford County aka Sharon Stone; Meadville hammered out Channel Lock Tools. If memory serves, Crawford County went for Trump.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  139. @143- That’s Meadville & Crawford County. Both small college towns as well.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  140. It doesn’t matter they had the gnashing under w, they thought the rio rigamorole a decade before had worked.

    narciso (d1f714)

  141. We had some duffusd at the Orlando pull a hoax that delayed flights for hours, turns out he had a dishonorable discharge guess what they did.

    narciso (d1f714)

  142. US official: ‘A laugh went up’ after Trump preemptively called Manila shooting incident a ‘terrorist attack’

    http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-manila-shooting-philippines-not-a-terrorist-attack-2017-6

    He’s gotta get his act to Vegas.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  143. If there is one thing President Trump has undoubtedly learned, it is that the Republican congressional caucus is not to be trusted with matters of conservative principle (we used to know that). They have none. Better to do it alone.

    With all the money that is generated by the hoax, there is every reason to think the Republicans would be bought off by the likes of Musk, et al, and that the Paris Accord would be affirmed. All that wonderful whining we are hearing from billionaires whose earnings may be affected should tell you something. They don’t like it when the rubes mess with their gravy train.

    It is important to note that, among his many righteous qualities, Trump is immune to the graft that is endemic in Washington.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  144. These are the same people who voted 70+ times to repeal ObamaCare, and you think we should entrust repeal of the Paris Accord to them? Really?

    ThOR (c9324e)

  145. Thor, that’s a really scary, but good point.

    NJRob (520017)

  146. If there is one thing President Trump has undoubtedly learned

    “IF” is a huge word in that sentence.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  147. The REAL problem with this administration, and why it’s more a sequence of events than a plan: Of 559 senior positions in the executive branch, 442 have no nominee. Things like Secretary of the Navy, Ambassador to Canada, heads of the DoJ civil, civil rights, criminal and tax divisions, directors of the FBI, DEA, Comptroller, and a raft of Deputy Secretaries and Inspector Generals.

    Not part of these 559 are any US Attorneys to replace all the ones who got fired, and a pile of judges for seats that were frozen for the last year.

    Instead the government is being run by holdovers and caretakers and the Deep State embeds itself deeper.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  148. Link for current status of all Trump appointees. (WaPo paywall)

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  149. you think we should entrust repeal of the Paris Accord to them? Really?

    They would need 19 GOP votes.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  150. ThOR, it takes an affirmative ratification vote by two thirds of the Senate to pass a treaty. Obama never submitted this to the Senate because even with him supporting it, and even with the Democrats in control of the Senate, there was absolutely zero chance that it could get an affirmative two-thirds vote. As I wrote above, I think Trump could, and should, have sent a recommendation to the Senate that it reject the Paris Agreement. So the chances that the Senate might have reached a different result if Trump had submitted it to the Senate are essentially nil.

    But getting the Senate’s concurrence in this decision, in the exercise of a constitutional function expressly committed to them by the Article II, Section 2, Clause 2, would have added vastly to the political legitimacy of the decision in the eyes of the rest of the world.

    Moreover, since I agree with Trump that politically, this is indeed a winning issue for him and the GOP right now, it would have been an excellent way to build party unity and give GOP senators — not many of whom are up in 2018, and even fewer of whom are in close states — another excellent issue to run on.

    I’ll never be talked me into trusting any individual — and certainly not Donald J. Trump — over the checks and balances written into the Constitution. Again, what you’re proposing is that Trump act as imperiously as Obama did, just for different purposes. I respectfully but emphatically dissent.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  151. (There’s no “nuclear option” for treaties.)

    Beldar (fa637a)

  152. I stopped a sentence too short in #157 above; it ought have finished, “… would have added vastly to the political legitimacy of the decision in the eyes of the rest of the world and much more importantly, in the eyes of the American voting public (including me).”

    Beldar (fa637a)

  153. Regular Americans are fine with President Trump and his pulling out of this insane scam. Keep congress the hell away. They stink worse than a load of chicken 2hit.

    mg (31009b)

  154. Weathermen and scientists can’t predict weather accurately a week in advance, let alone 100 years. My common sense trumps diplomatized nitwits.

    mg (31009b)

  155. Beldar.

    The conversation around climate change has, at this juncture, become completely irrational. Nothing other than contined submission to the Paris treaty will be considered legitimate by “the rest of the world” (which usually, to our elites, means the EU). Russia doesn’t care. China and India, bedeviled by really filthy air, need for their own purposes to be seen by their people as “doing something”.

    Appalled (d07ae6)

  156. Its like banning ddt because of rachel carsons how many millions died of malaria zika yellow fever dengue

    narciso (d1f714)

  157. It’s this pantomime horse why they threw out Abbott and but in trumbull, the fellow drowning in Iranian refugees

    narciso (d1f714)

  158. When you get sold a lemon you don’t look for garnish

    https://fee.org/articles/the-amazing-
    arrogance-of-the-paris-climate-agreement/

    narciso (d1f714)

  159. there’s nothing stopping cowardly senate trash like John McCain from doing votes in support of the lovely Paris treaty

    vote little senators vote like your votings had meaning and purpose and commanded respect lol

    the whole world is watching

    hey sleazy torture victim John McCain

    if this paris treaty’s so beautiful lovely with a scratch n sniff strawberry sticker on it

    why did oil open better than 2% down today

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  160. hmmm another crappy failmerican jobs report while pervy mitt romney’s greased-up sex toy paul ryan ponders his next month-long vacation

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  161. Pikachu I will not begrudge mavericks service it’s just like day, Denton Stockdale his follow through is dissapointing. He was for keeping a smaller pen for skydragons

    narciso (d1f714)

  162. i can begrudge enough for two Mr. narciso

    my shoulders are broad

    my back is strong

    and i abjure this filthy coward

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  163. You hate everybody, or at least your David spade persona.

    narciso (d1f714)

  164. It’s a landmark agreement. Historic and unprecedented, too.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/climate/trump-paris-climate-agreement.html?_r=0

    And Trump’s withdrawal is meaningless if he sticks to the four-year withdrawal timetable that Obama agreed to. It will be like he did nothing. Empty words. The NYT says he will stick to the timetable but I hope they’re lying.

    nk (dbc370)

  165. 142. Kevin M (25bbee) — 6/1/2017 @ 8:56 pm

    Saudi Arabia signed that thing, too. Talk about hypocrisy.

    If you did want to do something like that, it wouild make much more sense, and would be easier to verify and simpler to implement, to place limits on poduction rather than consumption.

    Sammy Finkelman (7509c5)

  166. First you need to cut the tentacles than Pruitt brings the roundup.

    narciso (d1f714)

  167. In yesterday’s New York Times

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/climate/trump-quits-paris-climate-accord.html

    Michael Oppenheimer, described as a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton, and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is quoted as saying:

    “it is now far more likely that we will breach the danger limit of 3.6 degrees”

    which the article then described as:

    “the average atmospheric temperature increase above which a future of extreme conditions is considered irrevocable.”

    I do not believe there is slightest basis in fact for describing 3.6 degrees as any kind of a tipping point, and chaos theory should tell you that there is no tipping point, but it is needed to justofy this treaty, because, even according to their own projections it only makes a difference of about 1/6 of a degree Celsius by the year 2100. It is a completely arbitrary figure.

    But the article is technically true because it uses the word “considered” Notice even then Michael Oppenheimer only talks about affectibng the probability of crossing this magic threshhold.

    “We will see more extreme heat, damaging storms, coastal flooding and risks to food security,” Professor Oppenheimer said. “And that’s not the kind of world we want to live in.”

    You’ll either see it or you won’t see it anyway. But this treaty will not make the difference. It will make a difference, maybe, in the standard of living and pushes people away from possible true solutions, like adjusting to the climate change; or spewing sulfer dioxide over the Arctic or fertilizing the oceans with iron, both of which have been previously outlawed by the way, and should be re–legalized, or other forms of geo-engineering other than this doomed-to-failure attempt at geo-engineering.

    And hurricanes can also be prevented by covering the pats of the ocean where hurricanes form.

    And what we’re really seeing is arise in the sdtandard deviation, not really a rise in temperature, and that’s caused by more water vapor in he atmosphere. We’re adding that too.

    The science can completely turn around before anything much happens. Not aht thsi committed the U.S. to anything.

    And all this does not take account of the effect on the climate of an explosion of a few nuclear bombs in the atmosphere, which while it is more likely it will not happen than it will, is still not impossible.

    Sammy Finkelman (7509c5)

  168. Conservative Never Trumper Jennifer Rubin nailed on her Paris Accord hypocrisy:

    http://thefederalist.com/2017/06/01/washington-posts-fake-conservative-blogger-hated-the-paris-deal-until-trump-opposed-it/

    harkin (299d24)

  169. she must be deeply ashamed to be exposed in this way

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  170. Doubt 99% of the WaPo readers will ever be aware of it.

    harkin (cdb06f)

  171. amazon turdlord jeff bezos has done more to shred the credibility of failmerican propaganda sluts than any single person ever

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  172. 163. Appalled (d07ae6) — 6/2/2017 @ 5:18 am

    . China and India, bedeviled by really filthy air, need for their own purposes to be seen by their people as “doing something”.

    China doesn’t care about its people, and may or may believe any of this about carbonn dioxide emissions affecting the climate badly, but they have an extremely serious air pollution, which harms even the elite, bnot to mention could cause trouble and affects their foreign relations too – they really didn’t like the U.S. embassy in Beijing publishing (for the use of Americans at least and their own staff) the particulate figures there – so China is cutting down on coal and taking credit for it.

    They are also building coal plants in other countries in the world probably in some way connected with Chinese factories also moving outside of China to places in Africa and so on. If Chinese coal is burnt in Angola, it counts against Angola’s quota, not China’s.

    Trump complained about India being allowed to double its CO2 emissions but that’s an unreasonable complaint since India is not so industrialized. Of course the efefct is to “move” factories to India, if the carbon limitations meant anything.

    Trump did not dispute any of the climate alarmismm – just complained that the U.S. was not treated well enough.

    A bog climate was this climate fund which is supposed to hhelp less deeloped countries use renewables instead of coal and gas. A lot of this money though doesn’t really exist – it’s just aid that was scheduled anyway, by various countres, and is relabeled.

    Oil companies actually like this because it promotes natural gas at the expense of coal and they are invvolved with natural gas, not coal.

    Sammy Finkelman (d1a369)

  173. Perhaps artists, intellectuals, stylish aristocrats, obsequious dynastic insiders, flatterers and lawyers should be kept far from the halls of power?

    “From what we can tell, the more Rome prospered under Claudius, the more the imperial court grew to despise him—as if his odd mannerisms and the even odder way he came to power could not be squared with the able administration of a far-flung empire over the 13 years of his reign.

    In the end, Claudius was likely murdered by dynastic rivals and relatives who thought that a young, glib, handsome, intellectual, and artistic Nero would be a pleasant relief from the awkwardness, bluntness, and weirdness of Claudius. What followed was the triumph of artists, intellectuals, stylish aristocrats, obsequious dynastic insiders, and flatterers—many of them eventually to be consumed by the reign of terror they so eagerly helped to usher in.”

    http://www.hoover.org/research/trump-our-claudius

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  174. You love being ruled, don’t you?

    DRJ (15874d)

  175. not by no stupid climate change treaty!

    President Trump has struck a mighty blow for freedom

    i love him more than maple syrup

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  176. i love him *as much as* maple syrup i mean

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  177. No, but I do enjoy intelligent analysis and abhor obsessive-compulsive poor-mouthing and sh*t disturbing.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  178. Heh. That’s hilarious, Haiku.

    DRJ (15874d)

  179. DCSCA,

    The Week speculates it was about getting even with Macron because of the handshake, not Jared. I

    DRJ (15874d)

  180. Even I don’t think Trump is that sad but I could be wrong.

    Here’s the link if you want to waste some time.

    DRJ (15874d)

  181. Beldar@158

    I do understand your perspective.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  182. That’s why I call it the weak.

    narciso (d1f714)

  183. @187- Heh, anything referenced to anything ‘hoover’ can be depressingly humorous.

    @188- LOL Trouble in Texas, DRJ: the Mayor of Austin was on the teevee siding w/t mayor of Pittsburgh indicating staying w/t Paris Accords. Look for Belljar to slip into his dress greys, wrap himself in the stars and bars then fal on his sword.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  184. Thor,

    Is still put the treaty up for ratification… after I make sure I’ve done a full court press for a month explaining how damaging it will be to our nation, how it doesn’t hold anyone else to any standards and how it allows those that are receiving our outsourced jobs to continue polluting to our hearts content.

    Then, any Republican that votes for it should be fired by his constituents.

    NJRob (911d83)

  185. Continue polluting to their hearts content*

    NJRob (911d83)

  186. Ain’t it the truth… https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/266480/

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  187. There’s no shortage of liberal weenies, ASPCA… especially in Austin.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  188. Now proceed to your own, personal fainting couch…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  189. — Frau Bundeskanzelrin Merkel, I have some bad news and I have some good news.
    — What is the bad news Herr Juncker?
    — Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement.
    — And what is the good news?
    — The Mayors of Pittsburgh and Austin want to stay.

    nk (dbc370)

  190. More evidence that Russia’a laughing at us:

    Steven Pifer, a Brookings Institution scholar and former State Department official, said a weakened U.S. serves only empowers Russia, which has long looked to diminish U.S. influence around the world.

    “My guess is, in the Kremlin, they are absolutely delighted,” Pifer, a former ambassador to Ukraine, said.

    “To the extent that withdrawing from the Paris accord looks like the United States stepping back from an area where the U.S. has been leader, that’s simply music to [Vladimir] Putin’s ears.”

    http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/336176-globe-heaps-scorn-on-trump-for-paris-exit

    Tillman (a95660)


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