Bob Lord

How quickly things change when decision making is a purely political exercise.

Just two days ago I quoted Bill Curry of Salon (This is a climate-change nightmare: Droughts rage and fires burn, while evil ALEC and hapless Democrats dither), thusly:

In 2010 Hillary Clinton, nominal front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, said she was “inclined” to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. In July she told a man at a New Hampshire town hall meeting he’d get her final answer when she became president. As Bill McKibben noted in an open letter to her, she spent her years as secretary of state flying around the world telling developing nations to get into the fracking business.

Did that posture reflect a feeling the nomination was in the bag? Could be. Seems the pressure of a real fight for the nomination has changed the thinking of the Hillary camp. From Common Dreams today:

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A bit of a brouhaha erupted in the comment section of AZ BlueMeanie’s recent post, Paul Gosar embarrasses Arizona (again) with an insult to the Pope. On account of his climate denialism, Gosar will be boycotting the Pope when he visits Washington. Our conservative commenters, Dang and Steve, both rose to Gosar’s defense. And Thucky, using the pseudonym John Huppenthal, even came out of retirement to help the cause.

I’m not arguing that Gosar isn’t a first-class douche. Of course he is. But, when it comes to climate change, doesn’t he serve as a foil for some of the Dems my colleagues have supported on these pages?

After all, haven’t the Democrats been grossly negligent on this front, especially those who are Ready for Ms. “I’m keeping my position on Keystone a secret”?

Check out Bill Curry in This is a climate-change nightmare: Droughts rage and fires burn, while evil ALEC and hapless Democrats dither. 

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I know, I know, it could be an imposter seeking to punk us.

Nonetheless, I’m positively brimming with excitement.

You see, a commenter going by “John Huppenthal” posted a comment to one of the BlueMeanie’s posts yesterday. BlueMeanie’s response was as you would expect: flat-out mean. There’s a reason for that monicker, you know.

But I sure hope he hasn’t chased our old friend away.

I actually had wanted to reach out to the Thuckster during his lame duck days in the Supe’s office.

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I’ve reached the point with David Brooks’ NY Times columns that I read them for humor only.

And his post-Debate column from Friday, The Marco Rubio-Carly Fiorina Option, is quite a laugher, at least to me. Essentially, Brooks’ approach channeled our Supreme Court justices. Essentially, they’re political operatives. They decide the result they want, then decide on the legal reasoning to support it. This is most vividly seen in decisions, such as Bush vs. Gore, where conservatives invoke liberal doctrine, and vice-versa.

So, my buddy Brooks wants to see a Rubio-Fiorina ticket. Why?

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I’ve opined repeatedly in my posts that Chris Hedges is the clearest thinking writer around. His weekly column at Truthdig is high on my Monday morning agenda. When he releases a book, I read it.

Hedges believes our elections are a farce, designed by corporate America to create the false impression that we choose our leaders. Here’s a small part of his reasoning, from his recent post, Where is Our Jeremy Corbin?:

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