Ep. 112 Politics just makes me upset but that never stops me; The End of An Informed Democracy

Half cocked, half informed, full moron.

Seriously, the things we talk about and the half-cocked opinions we spout are really so misinformed that I would like to ask you a favor.  My favor is that you half listen but don’t really pay attention.  Is that possible?  Listen for one of us to mispronounce something or to say something completely off base but I don’t want you to really pay attention.  If you could… picture us both sitting on a front porch in a couple of rocking chairs.  That’s the best setting for this conversation.  Can you do that?  

This is also not the cheeriest episode.  We try to stay away from politics and that lasts for about… 10 seconds?  I’ve cut some stuff from this episode but left in other stuff for entertainment purposes.  For example:

We talk about the huge bill that Senator Joe Manchin helped pass but the Senator  mispronounces his name.  I’m not going to tell you what our Senator thinks his name is but I know it’s wrong and then I get it wrong.  So much moron in this episode folks.

Next up, Nancy Pelosi goes to Taiwan, which the Senator is in favor of and I am not.  However the Senator’s take is that China should not have any say in where any of our citizens travel and Taiwan does not belong to China.  That part I agree with.  I just don’t understand the trip specifically for her as the Speaker of the House.  Was she sent over there on a diplomatic mission?  Or is she just over there on a personal publicity trip.  If it’s the latter, I am against it.  This does not seem like the job of the Speaker of the House.  Maybe, however… “unofficially” she was sent there as a representative of the US to thumb our noses at China.  And if that is the reason, okay… I guess.  This is just a pissing contest.  While Pelosi was there the Chinese military conducted “live ammunition” drills and invading airspace, blah, blah, blah look how big my wiener is exercises close to Taiwan.

However there is a tiny upside to this… the last time this high a ranking official visited Taiwan was in 1997 when then House Speaker Newt Gingrich visited.  The Senator is incapable of saying Gingrich’s name…

Then the conversation takes an unexpected turn and it gets rather sad.  The Senator wants the President to do something about the economy and says “we have enough oil to last us another 300 years.”  And I’m taken aback..  I don’t quite know what to say.  I think you can hear the confusion in my voice.  Has he been paying attention to what’s been happening to this planet?  Am I just another tree hugger?  

The Senator thinks we should be drilling for more oil to fix the economy.  Seriously.  And he’s not alone… We’ve got weather systems creating temperatures that are breaking records set by previous years, and I don’t mean decades ago or centuries ago, I mean last year.  Personally, I don’t think electric cars are a long term solution either.  Does anyone know what the byproduct of mining for Lithium is?  Me either, but if you sift out a bunch of some element from the earth, there’s gonna be stuff left over.  What is it and how will it effect the environment long term?  As in for your granddaughter.  YOUR granddaughter.  You know who I’m talking to.  I’m talking to you, that old fart that loves their granddaughter more than anything.  What are we leaving her?  

He thinks that SOME…mmm “some” of the climate change we are seeing around the world is from the way we’ve treated the planet in the use of fossil fuels but we should still be drilling to get the economy back on track.  That, to him and many others, is more important than what is happening to this planet, because we really don’t know how much is caused by us… we don’t know!  

I thought we have decided as a nation to make a switch to renewable energy and to phase out fossil fuel.  Mega droughts, Mega Heat waves, Mega floods…the horse has left the barn on our environment and we’re still chasing our tails trying to improve the economy and the mighty dollar.  The laws of nature and the laws of physics don’t care about what laws congress passes or vetos. 

You may continue to say it’s overreacting, so I’m going to let a couple of those guys that wear the white coats talk later, what are they called?  Scientists, I think is the name.

We’ll hear from one dummy named Carl Sagan, remember him?  I have something for you from him back in 1980.  And another, more recent dummy you may have heard of named Neil deGrass Tyson about that subject instead of us two morons.

So, why do I leave some of this Moron mayhem in?  Three reasons: 1) The Senator was recently in France when there was a heatwave going on and it was when the UK had declared a heat warning.  For the first time.  Ever.  Ever, ever.  Maybe the Norse God Odin declared one once when it got over 25 degrees once.  I texted the Senator an article about it asking if he still thought global warming was a hoax.  You will find out his response.

2) He then says he’s depressed and wants to talk about sports after he brought up politics in the first place.  

3) when I bring up France, he wants give a blow by blow account of his trip to a wedding in fancy France and how he talked to some dignitary and I’m not having any of it because I’m pretty sure you don’t care.  I know I don’t care and I put the kybosh on that and shut him down.  I guess I’m hoping you will find that entertaining.  You can just hear it in his voice that he’s all bent out of shape because I’m not the least bit interested in his intellectual conversation about politics with some French dignitary.

After I interrupt the show, the Senator has one final topic he’d like to bring up that he says is a sports topic more than a political topic and that is Britney Griner who has been sentenced to 10 years in a Russian Prison for possession of a cannabis product, I think it was hash but it doesn’t matter at this point.  Let’s just say it’s not a good idea to take Marijuana or any drug to a communist country and saying, “I didn’t know it was there” is not the best defense.  Also, this is not a sports story.  It is definitely a political story.  Why do I leave it in?  Because the Senator… and maybe he’s doing this on purpose and I’m a naive Moron, but he says her name is… you know what, I’m going to let you find out.  I hope you think it’s worth it and thank you for listening to the Modern Moron…

Okay, enough from us Morons about the planet.  Here is Carl Sagan, and I’m assuming you know and remember if but if not, he was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator.  He spent the majority of his career at Cornell University where he was the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books.  He also argued the hypothesis, that has since been accepted, that the high surface temperatures of Venus can be attributed to, and calculated using, the greenhouse effect.  Here he is from the original series Cosmos on PBS in 1980, over 40 years ago…

Now, here is Neil deGras Tyson.  If you’ve not heard of him I’m very surprised, but he is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. He studied at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia University. From 1991 to 1994, he was a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University.  His resume goes on and on with published papers and books, from 2006 to 2011 he was the host of the television series NOVA.  In 2014 he hosted the television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which he called a “continuation” of astronomer Carl Sagan’s popular series Cosmos from 1980. 

Here he is talking about Carbon Dioxide in our atmosphere.  If there wasn’t any, the earth would freeze, but if there is too much, it warms the planet…the background music from the program may make it a little difficult to hear…

 Next he talks about the amount of carbon thrust into our atmosphere from volcanoes and compares that to the carbon from fossil fuels…

Not even 2% of the carbon spewed into the atmosphere from volcanoes is contributing to the 30 billion tons civilization cranks out every year for decades.  And we wonder why this problem is accelerating?

Finally here is Mr. Tyson in an interview with Larry King from 2015 on politics and science…

“The end of an informed democracy.”  

The all mighty dollar-slash-strong-economy is more important than the air we breath.  I can’t help thinking about the 10 Commandments movie when Moses comes back down from the mountain and what does he see?  He’s like, “what the hell’s going on down here?”

It’s just a bunch of goddamn dopamine addicts!  Worshiping false gods in the form of cars and McMansions and private jets and swipe right on your electronic devices that need to be replaced every black Friday.  Only instead of a golden calf, it’s a bunch of rectangular pieces of paper with pictures of dead presidents on them.  Speaking of that golden calf, who loves gold more than anyone and wants you to know it?

And here’s another irony for you: most of those right wing, gun toting whiteys who are afraid of losing our privileged status in this country are also bible thumpers.  Apparently we aren’t reading the bible we’re thumping.

You really should watch this old movie next Passover-slash-Easter.  This was a film of our generation and during the orgie scene there is a tug of war with two guys who each have a woman’s arm and they’re pulling her in different directions so they can rape her.  And what has she been directed to do by Cecil B. Demille?  She’s laughing!... “Oh, you two are incorrigible!”  This was a time when you were told, “When they say no?  They really mean yes.”  And that’s how this scene is played… there’s another big brute who literally has a woman under each arm and he’s carrying them both off and they’re laughing and just having a ball.  Rape is fun!  Or it sure seemed so back the good old Biblical times of Moses 6,000 short years ago.  

And one of the great period actors of the time, Edgar G. Robinson comes in to challenge Moses… yeah see, you wrote them commandment yourself see, right behind the water cooler see?  I saw ya do it see?

Wow, what a rabbit  hole!  What the hell was I talking about?... Science!  Scientists, that’s right!  How did I got into the Bible when I’m supposed to be talking a bout Science and the Scientific book of Revelations we are experiencing!  (Yay)  

CLOSE -  Wow… I had every intention of getting back to my conversation with the Senator but me and those rabbit holes I go down.  I think I mentioned in the opening that we talked about the Britney Griner situation and how the United States is trading a murderous arms dealer for a basketball player who “forgot” that she had pot in her suitcase.  There’s obviously more to it than that, but when the senator brings it up he can’t remember her name and refers to Britney Griner as Gloria Gaynor… the singer.   Maybe I’ll go back and find that for ya.  

Also, I don’t want to leave you with total gloom, doom and despair.  This is our old friend Al Gore, who the Senator said was right when he was in France, on our ability to change…

Let’s hope he’s right.  Another story about conserving water is in South Africa.  I think I’ve mentioned it but the drought there in 2018 was so serious they were looking at a “day zero”- the moment when some four million inhabitants would be left without water.  It’s almost four years since it edged dangerously towards that day.  

"We underestimate the ability of citizens to adapt to a crisis," said Dr Kevin Winter, an environmental expert at the University of Cape Town.

He points out that the city's water consumption nearly halved in the space of just three weeks in early 2018, from roughly 780 megalitres per day to under 550, before sinking even lower. An extraordinary display of public unity.

That’s something we don’t see too often or at least we don’t see it broadcast, published or tweeted, but we Americans are going to need some extraordinary displays of public unity.  I wonder what it’s going to take?

I also wonder if I could make another podcast episode that is more preachy and self righteous as this one.  I think I may have out done myself.  Or out Moron’d myself.

Here’s something I rarely do, I’m going to promote my upcoming episode.  If you thought this episode was a downer, you should find the next episode uplifting.  In stead of science we’re going with divine intervention as my guest is a real live seminarian from the Catholic Church!  Yeah, that one!  The original OG.  Old Gangsta or Old God?  We have a pretty spirited conversation, pun intended, and if nothing else I think you’ll love his enthusiasm, he’s not jaded yet by papal politics.  I think I ask him if he plans to run for Pope, but I don’t remember now.  I think you’ll find it interesting and I hope you will tune in or download the next episode with a Father to be… not that kind.  Thank you for listening to The MM… 

Trump Tower’s New Bar Sells $45 Presidential-Themed Cocktails -  Forbes.com 

Carl Sagan - Wikipedia  

Neil deGrasse Tyson - Wikipedia 

Cape Town's Day Zero: 'We are axing trees to save water' - BBC News