Friday, June 2, 2017

On the Paris Climate Accord

Trump Steps on the Paris Agreement, Stands for Sovereignty  . . . The economic facts would have been enough to justify our withdrawal from the Agreement.  Nevertheless, the defining moment was when Trump said (my italics):
There are serious legal and constitutional issues as well.  Foreign leaders in Europe, Asia, and across the world, should not have more to say with respect to the U.S. economy than our own citizens and their elected representatives, thus, our withdrawal from the agreement represents a reassertion of America's sovereignty. Our constitution is unique among all nations of the world. And it is my highest obligation and greatest honor to protect it. And I will[.] ... It would once have been unthinkable that an international agreement could prevent the United States from conducting its own domestic economic affairs, but this is the new reality we face if we do not leave the agreement or if we do not negotiate a far better deal."
An avalanche of pullouts from the Paris Climate Agreement?   "The screeching brouhaha over President Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement could, at first glance, be called a global episode of Trump Derangement Syndrome. But with the intensity of the rage, it seems to be more than that. Former United Nations has-been and ex-President of Ireland Mary Robinson called the U.S. a 'rogue state.' France's President Emmanuel Macron offered 'refuge' to America's climate scientists, as if these people were actually in danger of losing tenure or maybe a grant, not to mention an imaginary knock on the door at midnight. Former Obama 'mind meld' Ben Rhodes calls it 'moral wreckage' adding: 'The rest of the world will watch in horror.' Billionaire greenie Tom Steyer calls Trump's act 'a traitorous act of war.'

"We know they've gone off the deep end." . . .


Paris: Trump Blocks First of Obama's 'Three Authoritarianisms' . . . "All three of these "authoritarianisms" were entirely ex-Constitutional.  The first two were in essence treaties on which Congress (and by extension the American people) never got to vote or, for that matter, discuss in any serious way.  The Paris accord probably would have failed. As for the Iran deal, we still don't know the full contents and therefore debating it is somewhat moot. We have, however, seen its consequences -- corpses littered all across Syria, not to mention untold millions of refugees.


"Admittedly, too, the third of "Three Authoritarianisms" is still, shall we say, occluded.  We don't know the extent of this surveillance and may never. But this too is typical authoritarian behavior."

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