So true. Actual science studies are nothing but gobbledy-gook to Republicans. Sorta kinda like their Bibles seem like gobbled-gook to many of us.
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You have to remember Lamar Smith is a scientist.
A Christian Scientist.
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The U.S. and European countries like Germany have strong science foundations that China has not caught up to yet. In China, research is still under political control despite some loosening in recent years. So what Smith wants is what the Chinese are doing, which is about as stupid as a government can get. (For the record, the Chinese are very good at reverse engineering but it will be awhile before they lead in science if tight political control continues. Putin, incidentally, has been playing political games with Russian science, and also cutting funding for political reasons.)
Smith and his friends are helping wealthy oligarchs who want to maintain monopolistic privileges and behavior. Smith’s behavior has nothing to do with maintaining high quality science in the United States.
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I got that line from Kelly Bundy on Married With Children years ago and use it a lot, in fact I don’t even think about it when I say it!
Random thoughts:
My brother’s Hungarian father in law was forced to try to grow cotton on cold hill-sides. The plants had been made cold hardy by soaking the seeds in ice water.
A movie should be made of the life of Lysenko’s main target, Nikolai Vavilov, because he was the goddamn Indiana Jones of crop genetics. Countless Russians would have been saved from starvation if Stalin had listened to Vavilov instead.
Vavilov died in the gulag, of starvation.
During the siege of Leningrad, Vavilov’s students went out under enemy fire to plant potatoes from his institute’s collection to keep them viable. Some starved to death surrounded by food because they would not eat the specimens from the seed bank.
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The war on science proceeds.
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To the extent that they are capable of understanding the issue, the media’s self-interest would be free access to confidential communications between scientists because it means more cost-free gossipy “content”. I think that’s also why the media seem to cheer on people who steal secret military and diplomatic information.
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Wow. I just got a chill. Thank you for sharing this.
“wannabe”…?
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Sea surface temps off the West Coast are breaking all records. This is likely to make the 1998-99 El Nino look like small stuff.
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So, Waterworld was a documentary…?
I better start growing gills…
It bobbles the whole head.
“Are you now, or have you ever been, a Climate Scientist?”
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All I want to know…what’s up with Lamar Smith’s hair?
Lamar Smith (R-Baggerville) being a dick over climate change? That’s already a given.
It’s been obvious for some time that global warming is no longer ignorable, though right-wing Republicans are doing their best.
Last month, worldwide, was the hottest October on record. The old October high temperature record was passed by a considerable margin. That almost certainly means 2015 will hold the record for the hottest year. The Washington Post isn’t the greatest paper when dealing with the science of global warming, but even they had to take notice:
When I want the latest news on global warming, I often go to about a dozen different sites, including Climate Central:
The last big El Nino was in 1997-1998. Many temperature records were broken in both years. Last year was an almost El Nino year but technically it didn’t pass the threshold. 2014 still set a global high temperature record. This year, the El Nino is obvious. If the current El Nino lasts through most of 2016, it is possible more annual records will be broken. The non-El Nino years that follow probably won’t set records but no one in their right mind should be ignoring the reality of global warming, particularly since we have real steps that we can take that can stabilize the climate. But it will require definite changes in our energy policies. If Republicans maintain control of the House and Senate — as well as their current attitude, it will be difficult to get things done no matter who is elected next year.
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The study was released. He just wants to search through discussions leading up to the conclusions for something that he can take out of context and misrepresent.
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And this El Nino will be the mother of all El Ninos I just read with temperature increases along the equator never seen before.
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Lamar sweeps the truth under his rug.
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“Smith is actually trying to do something very dangerous: impose political control on scientific research.”
Smith and his GOP ilk have likewise succeeded in doing the NRA’s bidding to block all research that may wind up supporting gun control. So this effectively blocks all research because CDC scientists have gotten the message that if they want to keep their jobs they best focus on non gun related causes of deaths like brain tumors and injuries. So the causes of tens of thousands deaths each year to gun violence and suicides goes unstudied while the causes of a few hundred deaths due to brain injuries goes fully examined by the CDC.
Sent from my iPad
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