It is understandable why in Propaganda 1 Nazi obfuscation master in residence Joseph Goebbels stressed repetition.

The idea is you keep repeating the same basic points you want to cement into the minds of the controllable, in this case the Limbaugh-Palin-Tea Bag-Fox News solidly committed zealots.

Go back a few years ago and you saw the same argument being raised regarding nuclear power that has been shifted now to global warming. Rush Limbaugh, who is screaming “Fraud!” repeatedly on global warming used the same vocal energy in the area of nuclear power.

Talk of meltdowns and any harm that might be visited upon us involved nothing more than fraudulent propaganda.

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As Rush Limbaugh continues sallying forth and the ardent Tea Baggers make noise, the key to the whole approach, in the manner of propagandists, as evidenced by the Joseph Goebbels technique, is that there is no accountability.

Toss accountability out of the mix and you have a propagandist’s dream. Say anything you want and when demands are made to verify you either switch to another topic or just yell a little louder and make your accusations more vehemently.

Limbaugh, with or without a fix of Oxycontin, generally uses the latter approach. He persists with his fervent accusations and name calling, never bothering to respond to those challenging him.

Notice what happened when he dared attempt a studio audience approach. One of the hottest You Tube selections was of Limbaugh being shouted down by Act Up members who ultimately called him a liar.

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(Cross-posted from The Paragraph.) Since U.S. states abandoned their old laws that curb corporate power, many corporations have become dinosaurs — huge beasts that have outlived their time, but that keep on stomping through the world.¹ One type of dinosaur is the big oil company, whose products feed disastrous global warming climate change. Such companies should cut back production as the world limits greenhouse gases. Instead, the largest of them, ExxonMobil, has spent many millions to cast doubt on the scientific facts of climate change.²+³ Another type of dinosaur is the for-profit medical insurance company, whose kind controls the gates to health care, shutting out many millions, and canceling the policies of many who need a costly treatment.⁴+⁵ Such companies should bow out of the basic medical insurance business, and let Congress improve and extend Medicare to all. Instead, they have hired former government officials to lobby for keeping control, while getting millions of new, healthy customers at taxpayer expense.⁶

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The latest running debate between Al Gore and Sarah Palin reveals once more the absurdity behind today’s Republican Party, which looms increasingly as a far right pressure group rather than a viable political entity.

The Republicans indicated the direction where they were heading when Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele dared to speak of right wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh as an “entertainer,” which was construed to mean that he was undermining his stature as a serious political analyst.

A furious Limbaugh demanded an apology. The blustery talk show host had declared himself to be the titular head of the Republican Party. Generally that title is conferred on the party’s last presidential nominee, in this case Senator John McCain of Arizona.

It was soon learned how much clout Limbaugh wields on the Republican Party as a penitent Steele issued an apology. This prompted Limbaugh to reiterate his claim as titular party head.

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(Cross-posted from The Paragraph.)Today’s global warming is unique among the Earth’s warm periods. The rise in average world-wide temperature (0.7°C over the past 100 years) is much faster-paced than the warming after an ice age (4 – 7°C over 5000 years).⁹⁰ And the rise of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere (80 parts per million (ppm) — up 27% — over the past 100 years) is much, much faster-paced than the rise of CO2 after an ice age (about 80 ppm in 5000 years). Since CO2 is the main greenhouse gas, and since there has not been much rise in solar radiation over the past 100 years, we are left with the greenhouse effect as the only explanation for today’s warming.⁹¹⁹² Scientific models show that the greenhouse effect has indeed caused today’s warming.⁹³⁹⁴ And data shows that the burning of fossil fuel has mainly caused the rise in CO2, giving another unique feature to today’s warm period: it is caused by the activity of an animal species — the human.⁹⁵

For comparison, here is a look back at other warm periods:⁹⁶

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Time-lapse proof of extreme ice loss: James Balog on TED.com

"Ninety five percent of the glaciers in the world are retreating or shrinking... there is no scientific dispute about that"


Photographer James Balog shares new image sequences from the Extreme Ice Survey, a network of time-lapse cameras recording glaciers receding at an alarming rate, some of the most vivid evidence yet of climate change. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2009, July 2009 in Oxford, England. Duration: 19:22)

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...a Zombie nightmare rides again.

[ cross-posted at Docudharma ]

Photo: Jonathan Lee. Me, Bob Del Tredici, Steve Wing and my hubby casing the FedEx Global Education Center lecture hall at UNC-CH, where all buildings and all departments are now owned by Big Business and Corporate sponsors, much to the dismay of the research faculty.

There are a great many important issues on our plates these days. Health Care (or merely insurance) Reform, two wars of invasion and occupation that show no signs of ending any time soon, an overstretched and vastly underappreciated military, a serious economic collapse and ever-lengthening Great Recession, home foreclosures, unemployment, torture as government policy, war crimes of the last administration stubbornly ignored, and the never-ending assault on the Constitution our erstwhile leaders swore to protect and defend. We who like to think of ourselves as Progressives and are keeping up with issues and actions via the 'net and blogosphere do what we can on all of the issues, even if not all of them are The Most Important Issue we are personally engaging in our real life spheres. I am adding one more, which probably won't be at the top of the list for most, but which has been around long enough that it does deserve a place in the lineup of things progressives should keep track of.

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Senator Inhofe commonly makes claims about the science of global warming. When Chris Mooney asked about Inhofe's disdain for the scientific mainstream, a member of his committee staff responded

How do you define 'mainstream'? Scientists who accept the so-called 'consensus' about global warming? Galileo was not mainstream.

Galileo's spirit looked on, more than a little irritated. But it wasn't provoked to return until Inhofe said:

...God’s still up there. We’re going through these cycles...The [AGW] science really isn’t there.

That very night in Inhofe's office, a spectre rose up from the floor in a great, billowing cloud.

JI: My God! What is that?!?

GG: I was once Galileo Galilei, philosopher of Florence.

JI: Wha...What do you want with me?

GG: I was sent to speak with you, Senator Inhofe.

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Living in lush green neighborhoods has provided the rich with a life-saving advantage over the poor who suffer from sweltering heat in concrete jungles. Transforming green open lands into a maze of buildings and roads of cities provided benefits to all of society, but it also creates urban heat islands that cause illness, death and misery that is disproportionately imposed on poor communities.

Urban heat islands were first described over 200 years ago. Concrete structures create both surface and air urban heat islands of double-digit temperature differentials between cities and rural areas.

For years, the rich bought their escape. A new study reveals it only costs $10,000 to decrease outside temperature by ½ degree Fahrenheit.

One inadvertent "benefit" of climate change is the growing awareness of this phenomenon of "cooking by day and night." Fortunately, some are working to reduce the devastating impacts of urban heat islands.

Urban Heat Islands

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Real News CEO Paul Jay talks with Executive Director Jessy Tolkan of Energy Action Coalition, a coalition of 50 leading youth organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada, at the Momentum '09 Conference of the Tides Foundation in San Francisco.


Real News Network - September 12, 2009
Van Jones resignation "shakes youth to the core"
Jessy Tolkan: Van Jones was seen as young environmentalists' voice in the White House

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