Michael Bloomberg at the AGU: Was gonna write a hit piece on him but...
Front and center at a recent Michael Bloomberg event in San Francisco?
Seated within mere feet from an actual billionaire? Hey, that's me!
Somehow I managed to score the absolutely best seat in a room that held
3,000 people. Is karma my bitch or what! Maybe I should play the
lottery too, I'm feeling that lucky. We were all waiting to hear Jerry Brown and Michael Bloomberg talk about the current climate crisis.
Then Brown and Bloomberg walked onstage. Damn it, I forgot my camera.
They were only 12 feet away. But there's still the old-school option
of pen and ink, right? So I'm sitting here in the front row, totally
ready to write a hit-piece on Bloomberg, the billionaire who has
suddenly switched from being a neo-con Repub to being a
climate-protecting Man of the People. Humph.
"No one in the Midwest has even heard of Michael Bloomberg," said the
man seated to my right. And does Bloomberg have a facelift? I wish I
look that good at his age.
But then Bloomberg speaks. Oh, crap. He's really actually into this
climate crisis stuff, has been since the 1990s, puts his money where his
mouth is. There goes my dream of an actual hit piece.
"This is the most important time to be working in science," he tells
the 3,000 science nerds who are avidly listening. "And we desperately
need politicians who are not purveyors of 'alternative facts' at this
crucial time."
Yeah, we do need them. Desperately. Sometimes we Americans get so
thoroughly involved in our own current soap operas that we forget the
very real dangers of the Big Picture when we pull the levers of our
(highly tampered with) voting machines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIBEcIFyFSk&feature=youtu.be&t=2505
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIBEcIFyFSk&feature=youtu.be&t=2505
"Ending the climate crisis is not a scientific problem. We can do
this. It is a political problem." Oh. That's probably why he is
running for prez -- not for fame and glory? Hmmm. "Climate-change
deniers have gone from saying 'It doesn't exist' to 'It's a commie plot'
to 'It may exist -- but it wasn't caused by me!' Climate capture is
our only viable solution. And we need educated people to save the
world."
Tell that to the current administration. America is currently # 22 in
science education. There are currently twenty-one other countries who
are both smarter than us and have more science nerds in the pipeline.
That's just scary.
"But this is a world-wide problem and it needs a world-wide solution.
We need China and India onboard with this too." This is no time to go
picking a trade-war with China. "We need China to join us in this
fight. The trade war isn't helping here."
Altogether Bloomberg gave a very impressive speech. However, like the
guy next to me just commented, "If he really wanted to get his message
across, he should just spend all this money on simply buying Fox News."
But still and all, I was impressed with the new "Mike" Bloomberg.
Why? Because the climate crisis is really a big deal for me. I gots
grandchildren. I would like to see them survive the next twenty years.
And Bloomberg is still far better than what we are stuck with in
Washington now.
PS:
Neither Bloomberg nor Brown mentioned the greatest polluter of all --
war-mongering. Imperialism. "Humanitarian intervention".
Afghanistan. Libya. Iraq. Yemen. Korea. Palestine. Bolivia.
Chile. Bosnia. Vietnam. Honduras. Guatemala. Ukraine. Syria.
Bombs that go bump in the night -- and calculated slaughter of women and
children by the millions. Imperial "wars" that are murdering our
climate too. And us as well. https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/new-attack-on-syrian-oil-fields-was-too-sophisticated-for-terrorist-groups-source/
Let's face it, guys. We Americans aren't never gonna give up our
cars. We're like those lung-cancer patients who smoke til it kills us.
But.... I think that Americans may finally be willing to give up on
"war".
Bloody imperialism since 9-11 has been a really bad
seven-trillion-dollar consumer decision. We coulda bought
solar-powered cars instead. And perhaps in the future we Americans may
finally wake up and chose American values and Jesus' teachings (and
sustainable energy) here at home -- instead of the wholesale murder of
babies abroad.
__________________________________________
Stop Wall Street and War Street from destroying our world. And while you're at it, please buy my books. https://www.amazon.com/Jane-Stillwater/e/B00IW6O1RM