Random Politics & Religion #00

Rick Scott may have found a way of making climate denial state policy, but the Florida governor is going to have a hard time ignoring this. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) just updated its guidelines for state disaster preparedness plans, and under the new policy, plans will only be approved — and federal funds appropriated — if they address the threats of climate change.

“The challenges posed by climate change, such as more intense storms, frequent heavy precipitation, heat waves, drought, extreme flooding, and higher sea levels, could significantly alter the types and magnitudes of hazards impacting states in the future,” the guidelines explain. They direct states to”*** vulnerability, identify a strategy to guide decisions and investments, and implement actions that will reduce risk, including impacts from a changing climate.”

InsideClimateNews argues that the FEMA, intentionally are a not, has delivered a trump card for climate advocates frustrated with politicians’ refusal to acknowledge the reality of climate change. FEMA allocates an average of $1 billion per year to disaster preparedness programs, reporter Katherine Bagley explains — funds that states won’t be privy to if they refuse to comply with the guidelines.

“If a state has a climate denier governor that doesn’t want to accept a plan, that would risk mitigation work not getting done because of politics,” Becky Hammer, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s water program, told Bagley. “The governor would be increasing the risk to citizens in that state” — thus raising the stakes of denying the science considerably.

Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon poised to seek the Republican presidential nomination, appeared not to realize Wednesday that the Baltic states are members of the NATO alliance. He also claimed that the rage being expressed by radical Islamist groups dates back to Old Testament days.

Those were among several odd answers from the first-time candidate as he defended his lack of foreign policy chops during a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt, the conservative commentator who will moderate a GOP presidential debate later this year.

Like several other Republican presidential prospects, including a few of the governors in the field, Carson showed the limits of his knowledge about the world, even as national security has come to dominate a larger share of the debate.

Hewitt asked if NATO should be willing to go to war if Russian leader Vladimir Putin attempts to do in the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania) what he’s already done in Ukraine.

“I think they would be willing to go to war if they knew that they were backed up by us,” Carson said. “We need to convince them to get involved in NATO and strengthen NATO.”

“Well, the Baltics, they are in NATO,” Hewitt responded. [In fact, they’ve been member states since 2004.]

After a commercial break, Carson explained that he was confused. “Well, when you were saying Baltic state, I thought you were continuing our conversation about the former components of the Soviet Union,” he said.
Dr. Ben Carson addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Feb. 26, 2015 at Gaylord National Harbor in National Harbor, MD. (M. Scott Mahaskey/Politico)

Much of the interview focused on the current turmoil in the Middle East. Carson said he’s been reading a lot about Al Qaeda and “the radical Islamic movement in general.”

The 63-year-old argued that “the origin of their rage” dates all the way back to the book of Genesis in the Old Testament and that the groups are mainly focused on claiming land.

“First of all, you have to recognize they go back thousands and thousands of years, really back to the battle between Jacob and Esau,” Carson said.

Hewitt interjected that Islam’s Prophet Muhammad was not born until nearly 600 years after the death of Jesus, and that Islam is really only a 1,400-year-old religion: “How do you go back to Jacob and Esau, which are B.C?”

All I see is gay babies with guns ! Hollywood make it happen !

Having looked into Brazil's voting process when you previously mentioned it, they have said mandatory voting. Despite my snark regarding them as a non-extradition country, their current voting system is interesting, and their machines involve biometric measures of identification that would help further minimize whatever minimal fraude may be going on.

Pastor Creflo Dollar has spoken to God, and God wants him to buy a $65 million private jet. His congregation, thus far, has obliged his every whim.

Pastor Creflo Dollar has spoken to God, and God wants him to buy a $65 million private jet. His congregation, thus far, has obliged his every whim.

Jesus wants me to have my own island.

Do you really want people who can't recognize who the VP is in favor of easily recognizing the Kardashians voting?

Lets leave voting to the grown ups.