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61 Mayors Commit To Adopt, Honor and Uphold Paris Climate Accord After US Pulls Out (curbed.com)

After President Trump announced his intent to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord, 61 mayors across the country have pledged to adopt the historic agreement themselves. The group of mayors, who represent 36 million Americans and some of the largest U.S. cities, outlined a plan to align with the other 194 nations that adopted the accord. From a statement provided by the climate mayors: We will continue to lead. We are increasing investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency. We will buy and create more demand for electric cars and trucks. We will increase our efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, create a clean energy economy, and stand for environmental justice. And if the President wants to break the promises made to our allies enshrined in the historic Paris Agreement, we'll build and strengthen relationships around the world to protect the planet from devastating climate risks. The world cannot wait -- and neither will we.

247 comments

  1. Thank god by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm in Alabama and we follow the RULE OF LAW.

    1. Re:Thank god by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  2. Cool beans by Yurka · · Score: 1

    Now how are you guys going to go about that money transfers that the former persident agreed to? $100B a year, if I remember correctly. The world is waiting.

    --
    I can assure you, the best way to get rid of dragons is to have one of your own.
    1. Re:Cool beans by Ryanrule · · Score: 2

      Stop paying for welfare in red states. Bam, several trillion dollars.

    2. Re:Cool beans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stop paying for welfare in red states. Bam, several trillion dollars.

      Several trillion huh???

    3. Re:Cool beans by HornWumpus · · Score: 0

      He's on a roll...

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    4. Re:Cool beans by Tailhook · · Score: 1

      Now how are you guys going to go about that money transfers

      I checked the list for the usual suspects. Sure enough: Mayor Rahm Emanuel, City of Chicago, IL. Meanwhile, we learn today that S&P and Moody's have downgraded Illinois to "Near Junk, Lowest Ever for a U.S. State," because these people have been spending themselves into an epic hole for decades.

      --
      Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
    5. Re:Cool beans by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 2

      Climate change disproportionately affects liberals. If you're a corn farmer in fly-over country you have the luxury of being a climate skeptic. Condo owners in Miami on the other hand are shitting their pants right now.

    6. Re:Cool beans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The $100 billion annually was the planned target funding for 2020. That $100 billion is the total contribution from all parties in the Paris Agreement. There are 147 countries that have ratified that agreement so far, so it's less than $700 million each. The US had only pledged $3 billion total, to be spread over those several years to that Green Climate fund. For comparison, the US subsidizes the petroleum industry with $3.2 billion dollars annually.

    7. Re:Cool beans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Condo owners in Miami on the other hand are shitting their pants right now.

      Stick around kid. After you've seen enough you will start to understand that if condo owners in Miami didn't have this to shit their pants about they'd find something else to shit their pants about. That's pretty much how they are.

    8. Re:Cool beans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Maybe those corn farmers should research the Dust Bowl before being so blasé about changing weather patterns.

    9. Re:Cool beans by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 1

      I'd like to remind you who droughts affect first.

    10. Re:Cool beans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now how are you guys going to go about that money transfers

      I checked the list for the usual suspects. Sure enough: Mayor Rahm Emanuel, City of Chicago, IL. Meanwhile, we learn today that S&P and Moody's have downgraded Illinois to "Near Junk, Lowest Ever for a U.S. State," because these people have been spending themselves into an epic hole for decades.

      You are conflating Chicago's leadership which is democratic for the city with the state level which is republican which is has become such a republican trope I am surprised that it is not pointed out more regularly. Bruce Rouner s the Republican Governor of Illinois. You should really check your facts a little better before you make sweeping judgements like that crap about these people spending themselves into an epic hole for decades and trying to blame it on Rahm Emanuel. Nice try but your partisan crap made you look like a Tea Party retard. Good Job!

    11. Re:Cool beans by Darkling-MHCN · · Score: 1

      Drought and flood are often connected to El Nino / La Nina events. Scientists don't fully understand the cycle and are even less sure of how climate change could affect it. However two could interact to produce weather patterns that are both unpredictable and unprecedented. Farmers rely on predictable weather patterns to run a profitable enterprise. So yes, farmers should be concerned.

    12. Re:Cool beans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The US had only pledged $3 billion total

      Cool. So Elon should be able to cover that, right after he gets done whining on twitter.

    13. Re: Cool beans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry but i would say that climate sceptism is largely dead. Even Trump is on record as believing in it at least to a degree. What has happened is that we've come full circle to a time before climate sceptics held any sway and it's back to good old selfishness and self interest.

    14. Re:Cool beans by Barsteward · · Score: 3, Informative

      i think you'll find the $100B is the total for ALL the countries involved

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    15. Re:Cool beans by gtall · · Score: 0

      Yeah, well grain farmers in Nebraska enjoyed a several years drought that only now just ended. All it takes is one really good long drought in fly-over country to get them to see G-d. They'll be praying and holding services and imploring the G-d to deliver rain. However, G-d is more interested in the eternal verities of life, not whether they get rain or not. And he's taking a rest from burying all those dinosaur bones. It was hard work, they have to be aged properly and stuck in just about every continent. And the proto humans, just figuring out what parts to bury and what parts to hold back so the record is obscure isn't easy, ya'know.

    16. Re:Cool beans by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 0

      You would be making sense if it were the Red States planning to go rogue and throw in with the Paris Accords peeps, but look at that list again...

    17. Re: Cool beans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Beach erosion and not anchoring to bedrock will to that to you. Miami was losing ground, literally, before climate change was touted.

    18. Re:Cool beans by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 1

      If Miami condo owners are shitting themselves over a 1-2 degree temperature change by the year 2100 -- which is likely beyond their lifespan -- then they've got some really bizarre priorities. I'd wager the average Miami condo owner doesn't give a shit about this at all. There are plenty of other items that loom much larger than something that won't happen until well after you're dead and buried.

      --
      In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    19. Re:Cool beans by WrongMonkey · · Score: 1

      Climate change policy disproportionately affects conservatives. If you live in matchbox apartment and take public transportation, then your carbon footprint is already at the targeted levels; you have nothing to lose. If you have a large house in a rural area, a boat, and a truck to tow the boat, then climate change policy is a direct attack on your quality of life.

    20. Re:Cool beans by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      If you have a large house in a rural area, a boat, and a truck to tow the boat, then climate change policy is a direct attack on your quality of life.
      Unlikely. You don't lose quality if you have a better engine in the boat and truck, or go both electric or in case of the boat hybrid.

      You just prefer to eat more cheap food and get fatter instead of saving some money and upgrade your hardware.

      I'm sailing, my boat engine runs less then 20 minutes a day. 10 to get out of the harbor and 10 to get back in. Well, if the sails are tricky to get up, then perhaps a bit longer.

      But I understand that people "sailing" on rivers or in the everglades need a motor propelled boat ... no one is going to take that away, but probably more bio diesel will be available in future or ethanol.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    21. Re:Cool beans by bongey · · Score: 1

      So a bunch of liberals on the east and west coast get swallowed by giant flood.For some reason that brings a smile to my face.

    22. Re:Cool beans by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      Not American farmers. They rely on Federally subsidized insurances and land-use subsidies to run a profitable enterprise.

      Which is exactly why they're concerned. About welfare dollars other than theirs. They understand full well that the pie has a finite size.

    23. Re:Cool beans by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      If Miami condo owners are shitting themselves over a 1-2 degree temperature change by the year 2100

      Christ, that is so fucking ignorant.
      If cylinder #2 in my car jumps up 300 degrees for 12 seconds, that cylinder is done.
      In that time, the average temperature of my engine raised 1 degree. Get it?
      Go back to fucking school.

    24. Re:Cool beans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can't get welfare when you work. Try the blue states where the mega rich or dirt poor hang out.

    25. Re:Cool beans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So a bunch of liberals on the east and west coast get swallowed by giant flood.For some reason that brings a smile to my face.

      This is the most astoundingly anti-American statement I believe I've heard in a while.

      Why do you find pleasure in the discomfort, perhaps even death, of your fellow Americans?

    26. Re: Cool beans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Federally subsidized insurance is a bad thing? Think FEMA and emergency declarations every time there is a catastrophic event. Your private insurance would flop. Hurricanes, earthquakes, wind, flood, massive hail damage and others fall into that category. If farmers lose out due to drought, an act of God, wouldnt those in California also argue an earthquake is an act of God that should be covered? Glass houses my friend. Federal funds cover a whole lot more than you realize.

    27. Re:Cool beans by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

      Way to change the topic asshole. Go collect your welfare check.

    28. Re: Cool beans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Up until the last election the Democrats had a veto-proof majority in both houses of the Illinois legislature. Any failure up until then rests squarely on them. But they have no interest in solving any problems... they just want to play the blame game.

    29. Re: Cool beans by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      Glass houses my friend. Federal funds cover a whole lot more than you realize.

      That was actually precisely my point- we're not disagreeing.
      I was remarking on the hypocrisy of that particular group in not realizing they're in a glass house. I'm in no way against the federal programs to keep their enterprise solvent.

  3. I don't like this trend by freeze128 · · Score: 1

    I have seen this more and more since Trump took office. Trump dismantles EPA's public protections. Local governments agree to pick up the slack. If this is going to be Trump's trend, then why should we be paying as much FEDERAL tax, when it's the STATE or CITY that is giving us all these services.

    1. Re:I don't like this trend by sit1963nz · · Score: 1

      You need to pay MORE federal taxes because he is going to cut his business taxes in half along with the taxes of all those wealthy people.

      Money don't grow on trees son, it gotta come from somewhere and the best place to get it from is the poor, because hell they got nothing to loose anyways.

      With the rich paying less taxes, they will be able to afford a much bigger yacht and 4 sports cars instead of 2.

    2. Re: I don't like this trend by ArylAkamov · · Score: 1

      Pretty much how I'm looking at it. We're a teenager who is getting the credit card taken away due to blatant irresponsibility. It's good to see local government is doing something about it instead of relying on the feds as well.

    3. Re:I don't like this trend by markdavis · · Score: 3, Informative

      >"I have seen this more and more since Trump took office. Trump dismantles EPA's public protections. Local governments agree to pick up the slack."

      Actually, this is generally the way the country is supposed to be run. By the design of the country and explained in the Constitution, most of the power and running of the country is SUPPOSED to be at the state and local levels. In this manner, it keeps the Fed under control, gives localities more freedom to meet the specific needs of their citizens, and creates competition/exploration/choice. Of course, that doesn't work with everything, but that is why there are a few SPECIFIC powers granted to the Federal government- they are listed right in the Constitution (coining money, common defense, post office etc). Those rights NOT listed that the Fed has commandeered are numerous- things like healthcare, education, welfare, are good examples.

      We are the United States of America, not the Federal State of America.

    4. Re:I don't like this trend by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Actually, this is generally the way the country is supposed to be run. By the design of the country and explained in the Constitution, most of the power and running of the country is SUPPOSED to be at the state and local levels.

      There is actually zero mention of local levels anywhere in the US Constitution. States, Federal, and Indian Tribes are it. You are a little too over ambitious with your beliefs.

      We could have a Constitution that does that, but we don't. And some states (like Alabama) outright cripple their local government.

      In this manner, it keeps the Fed under control, gives localities more freedom to meet the specific needs of their citizens, and creates competition/exploration/choice.

      In reality, no such thing happened. They have always been moribund and unresponsive.

      The Federal government has ducked its responsibility to ensure a republican form of government, defend civil rights, and otherwise keep states in line.

      Of course, that doesn't work with everything, but that is why there are a few SPECIFIC powers granted to the Federal government- they are listed right in the Constitution (coining money, common defense, post office etc).

      Making treaties. Over an interstate and international issue. Hmm. I think this fits.

      Even states are suing each other over polluting, but where must they go?

      Those rights NOT listed that the Fed has commandeered are numerous- things like healthcare, education, welfare, are good examples.

      Go check again, the Federal government actually has minimal oversight over schools, healthcare or welfare. And schools are failing in many states anyway. Meanwhile, we get state governments pursuing drug testing of welfare applicants, pointless abortion regulation, and authoritarian crackdowns on their own cities over bathroom usage.

      The failure isn't entirely in DC. Try your state capitol and the local school board.

      We are the United States of America, not the Federal State of America.

      You may want to recheck your understanding of the word Federal.

    5. Re: I don't like this trend by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty much how I'm looking at it. We're a teenager who is getting the credit card taken away due to blatant irresponsibility. It's good to see local government is doing something about it instead of relying on the feds as well.

      Well pretty hard not to see it like that when we have a president that only has to pay his bills when he wants to or can basically refer to anything in the media he does not like as "fake news". Trump has been caught in so many lies publicly where we had video of him saying precisely what he said he was not saying on so many occasions, basically anyone who is trying to say anything like "Obama bad, Trump Good!" needs to be hit in the head with a 2X4 so they can get the medical attention they so severely need immediately!

    6. Re:I don't like this trend by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 1

      I like the idea of experimentation, but how often do states find that things work and the rest of the country does them? Usually, idiot states like Alabama wallow in poverty watching other states do smart things. The conservative Romney Care worked. So all states should do that right? But if you give states choice they'll reject the same thing by another name like it's going to kill them.

    7. Re: I don't like this trend by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obama didn't. The President doesn't control spending. And may I also remind you about the steaming crater of the financial meltdown that occurred on W's watch that Obama had to fix.
      But keep your head in the sand. Just like you're doing now wrt Twitler.

    8. Re:I don't like this trend by gtall · · Score: 1

      Now, now. Remember that el Presidente Tweetie is only a baby Christian. The word in Christian circles is that if G-d wanted the poor to be rich, he'd have given them money. They are clearly just losers who won't work in jobs that don't exist.

      More specifically, giving the rich more dough means they get to invest more. However, that only affects the supply, not demand. Companies won't produce more if the market isn't there and there are not enough rich people to make much of a market for most things. And if you are el Presidente Tweetie with the attention span of a gnat, then you stopped after the first sentence of this paragraph. He's got nothing upstairs but smashed potatoes.

    9. Re: I don't like this trend by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Oh I'm sorry, was Obama in charge of the entire Congress? Because the last time I checked the motherfucking Constitution, Congress, and not the President, is responsible for spending and taxation.

      The reason the debt problem will never be solved is because people who need a serious crash course in civics keep blaming the wrong branch of the bloody government! Hold Congress responsible for their fucking job and make them pass surplus budgets until the debt is cleared. That is the only way, besides becoming a failed state, to get rid of our debt.

      So please, for our country's sake, read the Constitution or shut the fuck up.

      --
      Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
    10. Re: I don't like this trend by DirkDaring · · Score: 1

      It's amazing how fast the left can switch blame.

    11. Re:I don't like this trend by sqorbit · · Score: 1

      Welcome to the Libertarian party

      --
      Sent from my TARDIS
    12. Re:I don't like this trend by blindseer · · Score: 1

      Obama enacted a lot of his campaign promises through executive orders, which is a very weak foundation to build policy. What one POTUS can create another can destroy. If Obama wanted to create a lasting legacy then he should have got Congress on board and made it law. That way his legacy would have required an act of Congress to bring down.

      Where the Democrats really screwed up was to weaken the filibuster, the "nuclear option" they enacted to get the bills they wanted into law. The filibuster is to slow down the legislative process, to make sure that what becomes law has had proper debate and is supported by a true majority. Without the filibuster, and Republicans in charge, we can expect to see even those policies that Obama signed as law, not just an executive order, to fall as well.

      Not only has the federal government been usurping powers over time the rate at which that power has been concentrated in POTUS has increased greatly during Obama's time in office. I guess the Democrats thought they'd stay in power for all time. Now that the Republicans are in charge they can use policies, processes, and traditions developed through the previous decade to tear down what the Democrats have built.

      Good job Democrats, you quite possibly orchestrated your own demise.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    13. Re: I don't like this trend by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Almost as fast as the right can.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    14. Re: I don't like this trend by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's amazing Bill Clinton, a Democrat, is the only president in our collective lifetimes to actually have a balanced budget, but you keep lying to yourself.

    15. Re: I don't like this trend by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 1

      So what you're saying is that you believe the debt is not going to grow under Trump, even though Congress continues to pass deficit budgets?

      Maybe your problem isn't civics, but arithmetic.

      --
      Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
    16. Re:I don't like this trend by Qwertie · · Score: 1

      The reason that your federal taxes won't go down is that Trump's cuts are balanced out by his increases in spending on the military, even though that spending is already larger than military spending by China, Russia, UK, Japan, France, Saudia Arabia, India and Germany combined.

      So state governments cannot pick up the slack without raising taxes. Thanks Trump!

      Of course, when it comes to climate change, local action isn't really good enough. The US emits more CO2 than any other country except China, and these cities pledging their support for Paris represent not much more than 10% of the U.S. population.

  4. Hints of Future History by Jzanu · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Here is the real story and the eventual history that will be Trump's: Destruction of the US global power and influence, and fanning the flames of the sub-national groups that will replace nations as a whole. The fall of the US leadership will coincide with the fall of the US as a functioning nation, but rather than subsuming into a failed state like Somalia and Yemen, its best cities will rise into global roles. Consider this Greek history in reverse, with city-states becoming the real holders of power.

    1. Re:Hints of Future History by misexistentialist · · Score: 2, Insightful

      most of those cities are going bankrupt, their delirium is a symptom of the last stages of illness, Trump was sent by God to burn the corpses and begin the healing

    2. Re: Hints of Future History by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Praise Kek!

    3. Re:Hints of Future History by Jzanu · · Score: 0

      Here is the real story and the eventual history that will be Trump's: Destruction of the US global power and influence, and fanning the flames of the sub-national groups that will replace nations as a whole. The fall of the US leadership will coincide with the fall of the US as a functioning nation, but rather than subsuming into a failed state like Somalia and Yemen, its best cities will rise into global roles. Consider this Greek history in reverse, with city-states becoming the real holders of power.

      You idiots can't hide this idea, so give it up. Research cities in economic geography and there is ample evidence of this trend.

    4. Re:Hints of Future History by Jzanu · · Score: 0

      Here is the real story and the eventual history that will be Trump's: Destruction of the US global power and influence, and fanning the flames of the sub-national groups that will replace nations as a whole. The fall of the US leadership will coincide with the fall of the US as a functioning nation, but rather than subsuming into a failed state like Somalia and Yemen, its best cities will rise into global roles. Consider this Greek history in reverse, with city-states becoming the real holders of power.

      Seriously, all you motherfuckers are wrong and must face reality. Don't hide something just because you dislike it, make your government better if you want it to last.

    5. Re: Hints of Future History by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who said we want it to last? America is rotten and needs to be ripped out by the roots. Only then will she be reborn.

    6. Re: Hints of Future History by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Textbook example of spamming, you spamming motherfucker.

    7. Re: Hints of Future History by Jzanu · · Score: 1

      No you fucking idiot, this was all to correct the attacks by idiots. Slashdot has almost been destroyed by the influx but burner accounts have nothing on one with more than a decade of active use and excellent karma despite their impudent modding. They will face punishment in the meta-modding as well, but this action was required to prevent their abuse of the forums for destruction of an idea.

    8. Re:Hints of Future History by meta-monkey · · Score: 2

      Destruction of the US global power and influence

      I don't want to be a global power. I don't want the US policing the world.

      Do you like imperialist American hegemony? How about America just takes care of America, and the rest of the world can deal with their own problems, in their own way, without being bossed around by America?

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    9. Re: Hints of Future History by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We kinda live in a global society now. So what America does will have an impact on places around the world. And vice versa.

    10. Re:Hints of Future History by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Sounds like Greg Bears excellent novel "Queen of Angels". He is not explicitly describe the decline of the state and the rice of the cities but it gets clear from the context.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    11. Re:Hints of Future History by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Cutting down on our military power (which is not what the Republicans and Trump apparently want to do) has its advantages.. Throwing away US leadership in other areas really doesn't.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    12. Re:Hints of Future History by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Here is the real story and the eventual history that will be Trump's: Destruction of the US global power and influence

      Ok, I'll reply. This destruction was well under way under Obama and the left, who hold as a plan for the future for the US to fall into wimpydom as China dominates the world. They view it as inevitable, so might as well turn to taxing and borrowing the hell out of ourselves to help our decline along while garnering votes.

      I didn't mod this down, but I expect those upset that you were modded down will, with no feeling of irony, mod this down.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    13. Re:Hints of Future History by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      No, He'll probably end up going down as being really smart and Obama being really stupid, which he's not. What he did was very intentional. We'd have to pay India for basically forever, also China to come up with green technologies to sell us. It was a big corporate welfare boondoggle. Those cities, are they going to take over those payments? Those mayors won't be mayors for very long if they do.

      Not a fan of Trump, however that deal that was never ratified was a really bad deal for the US.

  5. My mayor isn't one of the select few by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Or we'd hold a special election and remove his 4ss from office if he'd do something against the people like that.
    THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP for giving the USA a fair shot at being exceptional again!!

    1. Re:My mayor isn't one of the select few by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because the liberals(?) in Seattle think this is a reason to impose an income tax, which is not within the bounds of the Washington State constitution.

      But then, just sneeze and they want to tax it.

    2. Re:My mayor isn't one of the select few by unixisc · · Score: 1

      As someone posted yesterday, you need 50% of the house to impeach, and 67% of the senate to remove. Not likely to happen, even if the Dems win both houses in 2016

  6. Win for trumps legacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Look how he unites the American people.
    What a hero.

    1. Re:Win for trumps legacy by Anubis+IV · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I never thought I'd find myself thinking about that overused The Dark Knight quote about "the hero we deserve" in relation to Trump, but here you've gone and made me think it.

      You don't suppose he's actually making himself the villain in order to unite us? That's a scary thought.

    2. Re: Win for trumps legacy by PoopJuggler · · Score: 2

      You spelled zero wrong.

    3. Re:Win for trumps legacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep in mind that all of this is a bit less on Trump as you'd like.

      In this case you have something ordered by the previous president without congressional approval. It was rejected by the current president without congressional approval, with a concession that it could be renegotiated. It would not have taken effect until 2020 either way.

      I don't like Trump. Still, it does not surprise me that a current president with a different political affiliation would try to renegotiation a mandate from another political party.

    4. Re:Win for trumps legacy by AmiMoJo · · Score: 0

      The politics of the far right and far left are always divisive. Near the centre there is bias towards the left, i.e. a little left of centre is where the most people come together.

      Because even the Democrats are significantly right of centre there has always been deep division in the US, but it has definitely got worse in the last couple of years. For a while it looked like it might be a global trend, with the UK being irreconcilably divided by Brexit with similar far right politics in play. But now Europe is rallying to the centre and the left again, as people reject demagogues and hate-mongers.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    5. Re:Win for trumps legacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Given Trump's history spanning decades of idiocy, incompetence, narcissism, and sociopathic tendencies there is no way he's clever enough to have such an underlying goal.

      Of course his supporters think he's a living god because he got elected. But getting elected doesn't mean jack. The criteria for presidency is 35 and natural citizenship. You could be a drooling moron and still be elected if you somehow appealed more to the population (or convinced enough of them not to vote).

    6. Re:Win for trumps legacy by randomlygeneratename · · Score: 1

      I've wondered this too... how else could he have come up with his cabinet? It's practically the Legion of Doom, or Guild of Calamitous Intent...

  7. Cities over states by Ryanrule · · Score: 0

    Major cities need electoral votes. Fuck rural assholes who fuck shit up. Fuck subsidizing their tiny ignorant towns with my money. Ide rather give welfare to a black crackhead downtown than a racist methhead in bumfuckistan. Signed, white guy born in Green Bay.

    1. Re:Cities over states by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I see you did not pass civics class you really need to read the Constitution and about how the electoral college works. Rural towns and cities rarely see any Federal or State money. Usually big cities get the most money to fund the infrastructures in them. I am not sure by what you mean fuck shit up. I guess you mean farmers spread shit on the crops so it grows better? I'd rather not give any welfare to drug addicts myself so I would support drug tests for people on welfare assistance.

    2. Re:Cities over states by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah! Fuck those guys and supplying the cities with food and water and all the things that are actually necessary to live! Those fucking assholes! /sarcasm

      Seriously, do you think before you talk?

    3. Re:Cities over states by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah! Fuck those guys and supplying the cities with food and water and all the things that are actually necessary to live! Those fucking assholes! /sarcasm

      Seriously, do you think before you talk?

      I didn't realize that rural America grew, farmed, or mined water. Last I checked, they were soaking up copious amounts of it to grow corn so we can convert it to ethanol to burn (and destroy) petroleum engines. All with generous subsidies from the rest of the country.

    4. Re:Cities over states by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you?

      The farmers in my state are already begging for a bail-out since their crops aren't doing so well this year. They also don't want to deal with their own illegal drug problems, but keep acting as if all city folk are criminals.

      Believe it or not, farmers can be assholes too. They can dump poop in the rivers, they can fail to check for diseases in livestock, they can run up debts.

    5. Re:Cities over states by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You and the GP are exactly the same.

    6. Re: Cities over states by PoopJuggler · · Score: 1

      Yeah big cities get huge farming subsidies.

    7. Re:Cities over states by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Major Cities HAVE electoral votes. We just have this weird east-coast thing where Vermont has 2 senators just like Texas or California.

      HOW is this a thing. Does Vermont have more population or GDP or density or strategic borders or coastline or magic ponies? How does Vermont have the same number of senators as Texas or California?

    8. Re:Cities over states by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 1

      If you are really confused about this, you could try reading the history of the US Constitution. Specifically focus on the "Great Compromise". Without it we wouldn't have a country at all.

      --
      Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
    9. Re: Cities over states by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The people in them sure do like to eat though....

    10. Re:Cities over states by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      I know how the Electoral College works. I've considered it a bad idea for quite a few decades now.

      Rural areas receive lots of Federal and State money. Roads aren't cheap. Neither is running electricity and phone lines all over the place. They tend to be poorer than the urban areas, so Federal and State money for education tends to matter more to them. Overall, urban areas tend to support the rural ones financially.

      Drug tests on welfare recipients show that very few of them do illegal drugs, and so the drug tests are largely a waste of money.

      People in rural areas tend not to understand the challenges of urban areas (and vice versa), and a lot of the cultural differences are because of different circumstances. From my point of view, people in rural areas like to stick their noses into other people's business. It's not their business what other people's religion is. Unless they're thinking of having sex with someone, that person's gender and sexual orientation are not their business.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    11. Re:Cities over states by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Drug addicts need help, not punishment. Cutting them off from welfare payments will make the even more likely to commit crimes to fund their addiction, which will be more expensive.

  8. My city solves less than 50% of the murders... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    but we're going to figure-out a way to pay the billions the accord requires? Or, do something about China that already produces twice the CO2 as the US and Europe combined, but isn't bound by limits in the accord until 2030? Sad waste of effort.
       

    1. Re:My city solves less than 50% of the murders... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yet they canceled 103 coal burning plants this year alone

      https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/world/asia/china-coal-power-plants-pollution.html

    2. Re:My city solves less than 50% of the murders... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yet they canceled 103 coal burning plants this year alone

      https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/world/asia/china-coal-power-plants-pollution.html

      Don't you bother reading the articles you supply? 103 yet to be built plants were canceled and none of these were canceled because of a useless treaty...

    3. Re: My city solves less than 50% of the murders... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Per capita US is by far the biggest emitter of CO2, when China has 4x the population the levels are bigger overall. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics

    4. Re:My city solves less than 50% of the murders... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      It's hard to cancel coal plants once they're already built. Their priorities are changing. Nor do I care whether they're moving from coal to non-fossil-fuel plants because of the treaty or because they didn't want the pollution or whatever. Diminishing the role of coal in producing electricity is good for a large number of reasons.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  9. Re:Article 2? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    want to fight about it in the Supreme Court?

    What part of this do you think violates Article II? They're not talking about joining into a treaty, only abiding by it.

    It's funny, but when the Right wants to limit black voters or take away some woman's rights to birth control, it's all about the 10th Amendment and "states' rights", but when states want to do something that Donald Trump doesn't like, they forget everything about federalism and insist on a strong centralized government.

    I don't mind hypocrites, as long as they're honest about it.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  10. Re:Oh look by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0

    Another reason to leave (D) run cities.

    C ya.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  11. 11 stupidest reactions to Trump's move by mi · · Score: 0, Troll

    The Left world-wide are calling Trump a "murderer" over this. Even ACLU chimed in with a bizarre accusation, that the decision is somehow racist...

    The melt-down of these guys continues to be as entertaining as it was on November 9th last year...

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:11 stupidest reactions to Trump's move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      1200 people died when Katrina struck NOLA. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese lost their homes in the Wuhan floods of 2016. Government inaction has consequences. Sitting back in an easy chair watching Fox News and being a dumbass has consequences.

    2. Re:11 stupidest reactions to Trump's move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And if the feds an rolled in without the invite, "State Rights" would have been screamed to high heavens. But then you(?) want a strong central gov't? There are _too_ many no-win situations in politics. Besides, why do people keep bring up Katrina? It was found that the money that was given the state to maintain the dikes wasn't spent that way, so which gov't inaction was to blame?

      Oh, sorry didn't mean to confuse you with facts.

    3. Re:11 stupidest reactions to Trump's move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1200 people died in NOLA because they REFUSED to leave their homes when the call for evacuation came

      The levee failure was primarily caused because the Mayor of NOLA diverted money assigned for maintenance and improvements to a private marina where rich people parked their yacht. Guess what political party he is from? A hint: it does not start with an R.

      The Wuhan floods of 2016 has nothing to do with global warming and everything to do with the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, which increase the level of the water upstream by ~500 ft over the natural level of the river.

    4. Re: 11 stupidest reactions to Trump's move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Consequences: popcorn consumption goes up.

    5. Re:11 stupidest reactions to Trump's move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1200 people died in NOLA because theyREFUSED to leave their homes when the call for evacuation came. The levee failure was primarily caused because the Mayor of NOLA diverted money assigned for maintenance and improvements to a private marina where rich people parked their yacht.>

      Really? All the reports indicate design failure by the Corps of Engineers.

      Mysteriously, you seem to be the only one to know about this marina. Then again, you don't seem to know that many people died of things besides the floodings.

    6. Re:11 stupidest reactions to Trump's move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tack onto that, the feds *did* offer to come in and LA refused. Specifically the Gov and NA mayor.

    7. Re:11 stupidest reactions to Trump's move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because the local stupid n i g g e r running the shit hole wouldn't let the busses run to evacuate.

      NOLA was a prime example of why n i g g e r s can't be given any sort of repsonsibility

    8. Re:11 stupidest reactions to Trump's move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and the RAIN FORESTS still continue to be chopped down for the sake of technology.

       

  12. Re:Oh look by HornWumpus · · Score: 0

    Long gone.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  13. Re:Article 2? by Loki_1929 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And when the left wants to smoke weed, they suddenly remember states' rights and the 10th Amendment, but when they don't like what the local board of education is doing or don't like that people are allowed to own and carry firearms, that memory fades into a cloud of pipe smoke.

    Both sides do plenty of picking and choosing about when and where they respect the rights of states. Conservatives tend to more frequently side with states' rights over the Federal government because that fits with their fundamental principles, but obviously isn't applied in all cases. Let's be honest about the fact that nobody is 100% consistent with their principles in all cases, though that doesn't mean we shouldn't point out hypocrisy. Just don't get too holier-than-thou about it.

    --
    -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
  14. Climate change belongs to the states by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trump doesn't care and neither do Ryan nor McConnell. We own the issue on the local level. Let's get to work crafting the laws and negotiating with other countries.

    1. Re: Climate change belongs to the states by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Article 2 says you can't.

  15. Re: Article 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How does the right want to block black voters? You mean the same ID cards the left wants you to have for everything else?

  16. Take out the trash! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, time to vote them out then!

  17. Re:Article 2? by HornWumpus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Don't give the left legal weed, they never supported it, still don't.

    Legal weed is a libertarian success. Simple as that.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  18. Hahahahahahaha by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hahahahahahaha!

  19. Re:Article 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yak yak yak. Cities are chartered by there respective state constitutions and must abide by the laws of the State.

  20. Like Hannity has warned us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These liberals are out to get us and they won't stop until we are on the cross.

    Can I get an AMEN brothers!

    1. Re: Like Hannity has warned us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Amen Hallelujah! my brother!

  21. Good luck with that... by drew_92123 · · Score: 1

    A mayor has no more power to enforce emissions than does the average citizen... about the most they can do is refuse to give out permits to companies which want to open new factories or the likes... and they'll just go someplace else.

    1. Re:Good luck with that... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they'll just go someplace else.

      And take the jobs with them.

    2. Re:Good luck with that... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The jobs already left. Y'all keep buying cheap crap at Walmart made in China so that's where the jobs are. You want a job, you have to compete with $1/hour that a Chinese worker gets.

    3. Re:Good luck with that... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A mayor has no more power to enforce emissions than does the average citizen... about the most they can do is refuse to give out permits to companies which want to open new factories or the likes... and they'll just go someplace else.

      To some extent that is true.
      That is why you have to accept the same living conditions the Chinese have if you want manufacturing jobs to come back to the US.
      But it is not like all factories move. Some find it too expensive to train a new work force and some doesn't have an issue with following the regulation.

    4. Re:Good luck with that... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Or you have to develop the skills needed for modern manufacturing, which is usually not a case of being at a machine and doing something repetitive. (Actually, we do have some manufacturing jobs like that where I work, but most require skill with modern computer-controlled machinery.)

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  22. Re:Oh look by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    *Collapses*

  23. And when the jobs flee the towns where..... by lkroll4565 · · Score: 0

    .....these mayors rule, they too will be without a job. The Paris accord is a farce for a global agenda and would end our sovereignty. This accord would do little to help the climate. Good that President Trump nixed this farce. :)

    1. Re: And when the jobs flee the towns where..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Care to provide any evidence for the Paris climate accords killing more jobs than it creates? Or was that an intentional blanket statement?

    2. Re:And when the jobs flee the towns where..... by hazardPPP · · Score: 1

      .....these mayors rule, they too will be without a job. The Paris accord is a farce for a global agenda and would end our sovereignty. This accord would do little to help the climate. Good that President Trump nixed this farce. :)

      You mean all those urbanite hipster coal miners and oil rig workers? Right, they'll move to a city where they can still go down the local coal mine after doing some shopping at the Whole Foods across the street.

    3. Re: And when the jobs flee the towns where..... by lkroll4565 · · Score: 1

      How can you provide actual evidence when the accord's not passed Anon? Can only provide the opinions of several studies and the validity of their expertise since I'm not an economist. Plenty of anecdotal stories out their if you weren't a complete moron to not have already looked that information up for yourself. I'll provide just one link for you though (just in case you are a moron). :) http://www.uspa24.com/bericht-...

    4. Re: And when the jobs flee the towns where..... by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      I treat people with UIDs above ~2000000 as suspiciously as ACs. Above 2 or 3 mil, it's mostly shills and sheltered, intellectually useless children from 4chan.

  24. Re:Article 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If "rights to birth control" means all tax payers need to pay for it then yeah fuck that.

    If "limit black voters" means asking for a photo ID at voting time, like they do in 90% of the countries on earth including the poorest ones, then yeah I guess fuck 'em.

    The left is just dishonest and thinks everyone is stupid. Call your shit what it is. If it's "tax payer subsidized birth control" then just say that. Stop with your "access" bullshit.

    Funny how voter ID is not racist in places like Mexico where I lived for 20 years btw.

  25. Labeling Donald Trump and the GOP "mediocrities" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is like calling the people running Dice Holdings, mediocrities.

    That's accurate, but somehow it doesn't seem sufficiently emphatic to describe the situation.

  26. The US did not ratify the Paris Agrreement by PackMan97 · · Score: 0

    Congress never ratified the Paris Agreement. In fact, Obama never sent it to Congress for ratification. there is nothing to "withdraw" from...we were never in it.

    1. Re:The US did not ratify the Paris Agrreement by markdavis · · Score: 1

      >"Congress never ratified the Paris Agreement. In fact, Obama never sent it to Congress for ratification. there is nothing to "withdraw" from...we were never in it."

      Don't try to use logic or reason here with any topic in which the word "Trump" is injected. It apparently doesn't work...

      But Trump did do exactly what he promised the voters in his election campaign promises. Had he not, then the same people would be complaining that he was a liar or didn't do what he said he would do.

      I don't like Trump, nor some of what he does, but the alternative was not any better (just in different ways). I think South Park put it the best- we had a choice between a turd sandwich or a giant douche.

    2. Re:The US did not ratify the Paris Agrreement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which one is the turd sandwich?

    3. Re:The US did not ratify the Paris Agrreement by rahvin112 · · Score: 1

      The president doesn't have to send treaties to the senate for ratification if he already has the statutory authority to execute them. Status of forces agreements are the very definition of a treaty, when was the last time Congress ratified one of those? I'm not aware they've EVER ratified one. The president already has the authority to make these treaties as he's commander in chief and it's within his authority to enforce the treaty.

      Here's a history lesson for you, Since WWII the Senate ratifies less than 5% of treaties signed by our government and it's perfectly legal and constitutional. I know facts get in they way of a good hyperbolic argument without factual basis. I'm sorry, maybe you can find something else completely wrong to get mad about, I'm sure it won't be hard given your lack of education.

    4. Re: The US did not ratify the Paris Agrreement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      However, "treaties" that are never submitted for approval are just pieces of paper. The next administration can simply tear them up.

      Obama was a big-time paper tiger. Many of his accomplishments will blow away in the wind.

    5. Re:The US did not ratify the Paris Agrreement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Republican. The Republican is always the turd sandwich, to the Democrats giant douche.

    6. Re:The US did not ratify the Paris Agrreement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The president already has the authority to make these treaties as he's commander in chief and it's within his authority to enforce the treaty.

      The President also has the authority to unmake the treaties you're speaking of, making the entire kerfuffle over this moot.

    7. Re:The US did not ratify the Paris Agrreement by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 2

      >"Congress never ratified the Paris Agreement. In fact, Obama never sent it to Congress for ratification. there is nothing to "withdraw" from...we were never in it."

      Don't try to use logic or reason here with any topic in which the word "Trump" is injected. It apparently doesn't work...

      Agreed.

      But Trump did do exactly what he promised the voters in his election campaign promises.

      Disagree. Almost everything he promised on day one hasn't even been done yet - 100+ days out.

      Had he not, then the same people would be complaining that he was a liar or didn't do what he said he would do.

      If you actually look at the previous link or probably find any other metric, compare by numbers with Hillary or *any* other president (potential or not), you find the difference astounding. The man is, by all unbiased metrics, the biggest liar we've ever seen at this level, by (very) far.

      I don't like Trump, nor some of what he does, but the alternative was not any better (just in different ways). I think South Park put it the best- we had a choice between a turd sandwich or a giant douche.

      Hillary was attacked by the right for decades, Russia added a ton more propaganda to make the country believe in crazy conspiracy theories. Pizzagate is not a thing. The FBI said her crimes were piddly and would be laughed out of court. You can't compare running her own email server to the possibility of perjury, espionage, and treason that the current Administration is under investigation for. The current topic of Paris agreement is an economic no-brainer. Those are oil & gas companies saying we should go forward with it because there is money to be made in leading the world in technology. If you believe the scientists, this is a huge moral issue with millions of lives at stake. Secretary of Defense James Mattis sees climate change as a national security threat. This choice is a ridonculous one, and you can't compare this Administration to the boringness of what Clinton's would have been.

    8. Re:The US did not ratify the Paris Agrreement by dwillden · · Score: 1

      The Treaty obligates US to spend Taxpayer funds on foreign nations. That requires not only Senate ratification but Congressional action as well. Yes the President can make Executive Agreements with foreign nations as part of his duties and they make many such agreements, but this far exceeded his authority to agree to and not submit it for Senate Ratification.

      And try to learn how to make a logical, fact based argument without resorting to ad-hominem attacks. Only a fool assumes that someone has less of an education just because he disagrees with them.

      President Obama did not submit it, so it had no legal bearing within the US. Which would have shortly resulted in the world whining that we were not meeting our 'obligation' to give them free money. But without Senate Ratification and congress to actually fund the monies, not a cent would be spent.

      --
      I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
    9. Re: The US did not ratify the Paris Agrreement by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 1

      Well if Trump ever accomplishes anything then at least we'll have something to compare to.

      --
      Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
    10. Re:The US did not ratify the Paris Agrreement by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      We don't have to have ratification to appropriate money.

      A treaty that is ratified by the Senate is part of the law of the land, and we still aren't all that great at complying with them. Congress and the President can pass laws that conform to a treaty without ratification.

      Of course, Congress had no part of this, so Trump is legally justified in reversing what Obama did. Whether it's a good idea is another question.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    11. Re:The US did not ratify the Paris Agrreement by bongey · · Score: 1

      Did you just cite Media Matters? Please go away left wing nut job.

  27. Nothing's Being Broken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And if the President wants to break the promises made to our allies enshrined in the historic Paris Agreement

    Trump never made the promises, and Obama didn't have the authority to make them on behalf of everyone all on his own.

  28. Was never a treaty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Folks keep overlooking the fact that the Paris accord was never ratified as a treaty. There was a handshake between the executive branch and other countries that they would follow the accord. The reality is that the US was never legally committed to the agreement as the Senate never ratified the accord.

  29. And also... by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Now how are you guys going to go about that money transfers that the former persident agreed to? $100B a year, if I remember correctly. The world is waiting.

    Some questions:

    .) Does pulling out of the Paris agreement prevent us from making as good or better climate decisions?
    .) Is our participation important enough that the other countries are willing to renegotiate?
    .) Does the treaty lay out any penalty for non-compliance, or is it merely a feel-good PR stunt?
    .) Is the Paris agreement actually about climate, or redistribution of wealth?
    .) Did congress ratify our participation, or did the previous president cheat that democratic process?

    That last one - making an end run around the democratic process, taking away the peoples' voice - seems especially troubling.

    1. Re:And also... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now how are you guys going to go about that money transfers that the former persident agreed to? $100B a year, if I remember correctly. The world is waiting.

      Some questions:

      .) Does pulling out of the Paris agreement prevent us from making as good or better climate decisions? .) Is our participation important enough that the other countries are willing to renegotiate? .) Does the treaty lay out any penalty for non-compliance, or is it merely a feel-good PR stunt? .) Is the Paris agreement actually about climate, or redistribution of wealth? .) Did congress ratify our participation, or did the previous president cheat that democratic process?

      That last one - making an end run around the democratic process, taking away the peoples' voice - seems especially troubling.

      For the moment Trump has America by the pussy, until the revolution comes that is.

    2. Re:And also... by grcumb · · Score: 5, Informative

      Some questions:
      .) Does pulling out of the Paris agreement prevent us from making as good or better climate decisions?

      Yes it does, because it diminishes the ability of nations to coordinate their actions. It leaves US-based corporations (a large constituency among polluters) free to continue flouting established science and driving their aging, archaic business models along, dragging the American economy with it. This is bad for voters.

      .) Is our participation important enough that the other countries are willing to renegotiate?

      No. China and the EU see a strategic opportunity here to use technological advances to do the the USA in the 21st Century what the USA did to Britain in the 19th Century—use newer industrial technology to out-compete the established corporate interests.

      There is a global cost to this, but China especially is willing to suffer in order to win. Its more interventionist economic policies have already given it a strategic advantage in terms of alternative energy tech (especially solar), and if it has to accept a 1-2% mid-term drop in GDP in order to sideline the USA, it will happily pay that price.

      .) Does the treaty lay out any penalty for non-compliance, or is it merely a feel-good PR stunt?

      Fuck your straw man.

      Just because you can't see the wisdom of a largely voluntary commitment process, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. The Obama administration managed a near-miracle in the way this was structured, so that the bulk of the commitments came into the non-binding schedule 2 portion of the agreement. This meant that countries would not be straitjacketed into onerous commitments that they had no hope in honouring. By allowing signatories the right to choose how far they want to go, and when they'll get there, they made it possible for everybody to sign the same document. And the genius of that is because it allows recalcitrant countries to be singled out and cajoled into coming along for the ride without having to deal with corrupt, backward, reactionary legislatures like the American Senate, just to take a random example out of the air. But more on that in a moment....

      .) Is the Paris agreement actually about climate, or redistribution of wealth?

      Redistribution of the ability to survive. Because countries don't survive climate change, species do.

      ... or don't.

      .) Did congress ratify our participation, or did the previous president cheat that democratic process?

      You know what cheating is? Cheating is when simply fucking lying about climate change because you're fat and rich today and "fuck you that's why" becomes your ruling mantra. That is pretty much what the Republican party had done. Nowhere else in the world is the question of climate change a partisan platform issue.

      The only other nations who didn't ratify the Accords are Nicaragua and Syria. Syria didn't attend COP21, because they were kind of distracted. Nicaragua refused to sign on because they didn't think the Accords went far enough. The USA is literally alone in this folly.

      The Senate majority's willingness to put party before country (or species, for that matter) is the cheat. President Obama acted in the national and global interest, doing everything within his legal power to ensure that American came along, even if the Republican party didn't want to.

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
    3. Re:And also... by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Yankee treaties, always one way and are only binding as long as it suits the Yankees, for everyone else, Yankees demand they are bound by Yankee treaties under threat of economic and or military attack, Yankee treaties are law as long as Yankees say they are, they second Yankees say they are not, they are not.

      Paris climate accord, yet another glaring globally public demonstration of exactly who the US government really is, two faced liars, deceivers and exploiters and if ever there was a country everyone wished would be on another world, far, far away in another galaxy, it would be the US, the world would be happier and the US would be happier for a short time, until they turned that entire world into a pile of shite.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    4. Re:And also... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      until the revolution comes that is.

      Well the rare few with the balls to take #Resistance farther than bitching on facebook or assaulting garbage cans in Berkeley have been outed by 4chan and arrested in pretty short order, so I think that plan needs some rethinking.

      And last I checked, Timothy McVeigh didn't do a thing to prevent Clinton's reelection.

    5. Re:And also... by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 1

      .) Does pulling out of the Paris agreement prevent us from making as good or better climate decisions?

      No but the left is so invested in the idea of "my way is the only way and if you don't agree then you must be against solving the problem at all" they refuse to even consider this concept. There is no such thing as intelligent, rational, civil debate anymore. Don't like the Paris Accords? YOU HATE THE EARTH AND WANT DIRTY WATER AND DIRTY AIR AND POISON AND YOU LITTER AND YOU NEED TO DIE. They don't even allow you to state the obvious: nobody wants any of that. Those of us who don't like the Paris Accords merely think the same things can be accomplished -- perhaps even improved upon -- with other ideas that may cost less, impact our lives less, have better outcomes, or all three.

      .) Is the Paris agreement actually about climate, or redistribution of wealth?

      Well let's see. Non-western "developing" nations are given all sorts of caveats and loopholes to emit and pollute. Meanwhile developed Western nations (which actually means "America" in practice) are penalized and asked to do the bulk of the sacrifice with the rationale being "hey, those rich Americans have the money so they should make the biggest sacrifices." This has the funny side effect of hobbling America's economy while allowing others to take advantage of such hobbling to expand their economies and political/military influence. Total emissions -- which is the stated goal of the Accords -- may go down but not nearly as much as they would if everyone was equally penalized.

      So, to sum up, if the Accords are about climate and not wealth re-alignment/redistribution they sure do a crappy job of the former but a damn good job at the latter. The conclusion is obvious.

      .) Did congress ratify our participation, or did the previous president cheat that democratic process?

      Only Congress can ratify treaties which is why Obama cleverly decided to call this the "Paris Climate Accords" instead of the "Paris Climate Treaty" like everyone else. He never even tried putting it before Congress, probably because the political fallout would have cost him too much and it would never be ratified without Republican support. So yeah, he cheated the Constitutional process. The good news is because he cheated we can get out of it.

      --
      In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    6. Re:And also... by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      No. China and the EU see a strategic opportunity here to use technological advances to do the the USA in the 21st Century what the USA did to Britain in the 19th Century—use newer industrial technology to out-compete the established corporate interests.

      How exactly does that work? I mean, if the new technological advances make businesses more profitable, wouldn't they adopt them on their own without needing global government agreements to force them to?

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    7. Re:And also... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're 100% free to go carbon-free in your personal life and send your income to third world countries so they work on green energy.

      Time to put your money where your mouth is, internet tough guy.

    8. Re:And also... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      wouldn't they adopt them on their own without ...
      Obviously not, just look at internet speeds and technology and prices in USA.
      Or the quality of typical throw away american products.
      People by either cheap and throw away, or a brand and pay premium.
      Rational "we shift with the cheaper stuff" and "long term _investments_" into high quality goods etc. is not really the strength of the US capitalism.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    9. Re:And also... by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      The claim was that European or Chinese businesses would out compete the US with the advanced green technologies. That's not the same thing as the quality of the product.

      Is the US economy going to be better off without the Paris accord, or worse off?

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    10. Re:And also... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Is the US economy going to be better off without the Paris accord, or worse off?
      Who knows.
      As far as I can see the US economy does not follow the rhythm of the world.
      However every time the US economy has a crash or swing down everyone is fearing it would affect the world economy. Usually it does not. E.g. look at the Dow Jones. Why people believe falling prices for stocks influence the world economy is beyond me. Steel mills have to run ... etc. That is completely unrelated to most stock prices, perhaps related to coal and iron mines ...
      Anyway: when stock prices drop my wage stays the same, so do the prices for the goods I consume. Total amount of food etc. is a fixed setting for a society. That might differ for luxury goods. Rents do not magically rise etc. p.p.
      Perhaps all this is different in USA :D

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    11. Re:And also... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if the US is alone in this folly, then we have nothing to worry about. as the rest of the world will save us.

      sure will be glad when your earth death cult is no more. you guys have been spouting ignorant predictions my entire life and not one of them has ever come to pass.

    12. Re:And also... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ?

    13. Re:And also... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      -- Yes it does, because it diminishes the ability of nations to coordinate their actions. It leaves US-based corporations (a large constituency among polluters) free to continue flouting established science and driving their aging, archaic business models along, dragging the American economy with it. This is bad for voters.

      No it doesn't. You can coordinate anything with/without any kind of treaty in place.
      Speaking of "aging, archaic business models", how about that carbon tax? Nothing archaic about taxing people into the poor house using fear tactics, is there?
      Good job giving Obama a pass on being the worst president ever at cheating the Constitution. The same Constitution that gives you the right to voice your opinions in defiance of Trump, something you are not allowed to do in other countries such as Germany.

  30. Re:Article 2? by rahvin112 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The same could be said of the right, states rights aren't important when it comes to sanctuary cities, abortion or anything else. States rights is false flag by the republican party, they believe in it less than the democrats do they just lie about it. Unfortunately their own voters are stupid enough to believe them while they try to take states rights away and dramatically expand federal power.

  31. Let me see if I understand you by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 1

    Go check again, the Federal government actually has minimal oversight over schools, healthcare or welfare.

    So you're saying that:

    "No child left behind" is optional,
    "Common core" is just a recommendation,
    I don't have to have health insurance if I don't want it, and
    the government doesn't set my SSA retirement benefits?

    Is that what you're saying?

    1. Re:Let me see if I understand you by mentil · · Score: 1

      Complying with NCLB gets a school additional federal funding. So yes, it is optional. Noone goes to jail or gets fired/shut down if they say 'fuck NCLB'. Although considering how poorly managed most schools are, they probably rely on that federal funding.
      And yes, if you don't mind paying the additional fine/tax, you can go without health insurance if you want to boycott the industry.

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  32. Re:Article 2? by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 0

    Don't give the left legal weed, they never supported it, still don't.

    Legal weed is a libertarian success. Simple as that.

    Me and everyone I know on the left is pro-weed. Maybe it's anecdotal, but I don't see any empirical numbers you're putting up.

  33. But its the hot trend by swb · · Score: 1

    All the hard-core liberal mayors are into this alternative Federal policy stuff, where the Feds do (or don't do) X and the mayors and city councils decide to do contrary policy Y. I think the whole sanctuary city movement started a lot of it and Trump's election has certainly accelerated it.

    Some of the time it's sensible, regional policy making the Feds shouldn't have been doing anyway or that cities or states should be doing.

    But an awful lot of it seems like empty grandstanding on areas like diplomacy, foreign relations (including immigration) and economic policies that are just way out of scale, especially for a municipal government. I remember in the 1980s when cities would declare themselves a nuclear free zone, as if deciding to be a nuclear power was a municipal public safety question or maybe that they had local autonomy from the military.

    It's mostly preposterous and the economic stuff especially seems like it is toothless if you can cross into a suburb and avoid the requirements. California and maybe Texas have the unique combinations of geography and size to dictate some of these things and make it work, Minneapolis, not so much.

    I want streets without holes, garbage pickup, potable water and public safety. Master those, and maybe I'll be receptive to more grandiose policy ambitions. But usually the more grandiose the policy, the more likely they're failing at the basic tasks.

  34. Re: Article 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This does violate article 2. Trump pulled the US out of the treaty and these frauds are subverting the president by putting us back in it.

  35. Re:Article 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If "rights to birth control" means all tax payers need to pay for it then yeah fuck that.

    Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor weren't suing over Medicaid or Medicare.
    It was all about private insurers.

    That said, you are paying more f the babies born because you don't want birth control covered.

    If "limit black voters" means asking for a photo ID at voting time, like they do in 90% of the countries on earth including the poorest ones, then yeah I guess fuck 'em.

    I hope 90% ff hose countries didn't have their majoity party invesigate which ID that minorty races tendto lack access to, or shut down dmv offices, or the like.

  36. Re: Article 2? by PoopJuggler · · Score: 0

    Which ID cards does the left want you to have that prevent you from voting?

  37. As long as it's "THEIR" money... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...that these virtue-signaling-MORONIC mayors are giving away. They can send all of their money to China and India to help them pollute the planet even faster. They better not touch my tax-money. The deal Obama fucked us all over with would have transferred our money to China, India, and others while crippling our economy. So FUCK him for that stupid deal. I regret voting for his globalist-appeasement-ass. He was nothing more than a sock-puppet for the unelected-EU-fascists. I'm so glad Trump got elected instead of that criminal-globalist-CUNT and killed this deal. At least he can renegotiate it so that it doesn't fuck the US in the long run.

    -A Concerned Ethinic-Non-binary-Individual ( so what I say matters more for anyone that stupidly practice being a SJW. )

    1. Re:As long as it's "THEIR" money... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, the low education level and general delusional nature of the dumb fuck Trumpflake, I wouldnt call you a cunt, cunts are useful.

  38. "devistating climate risk" by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 0

    So, what else is new, things change period. There is not a zero % chance that human influenced global warming is good thing... hot weather and rising oceans are more survivable than 2 miles of ice over your head. On the other hand, if technological humans can survive the next ice age, the reduction in population might be a good thing.

    Of course a reduction in population due to it being too hot could be good in the long run too.

    To hedge your bets, make sure the data-center that hosts your singularity server is not too far north, not too close to sea-level, and not too close to large masses of people likely to loot in times of crisis.

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  39. Re:Article 2? by mentil · · Score: 2

    Sufficiently advanced pragmatism is indistinguishable from hypocrisy.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  40. How About The Mayors... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...solve potholed roads, uncollected garbage, blown budgets and local crime before they progress to saving the world?

    I'm sure they're all super-heroes and all, but their constituencies didn't elect them for their climate change policies.

  41. Re: Let me see if I understand youm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Man, you need to update yourâ talking points, NCLB was repealed and replaced in 2015. And Commonâ Core is an initiative by state governments, so it shows the lack of Federal involvement. And ESSA, actually does forbid the Department of Education from considering adoption of Common Core, so yeah, minimal oversight.

    Same go

  42. Too late, already lost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With Jefferson "Ban the Demon Weed" in the AG's chair, all the fauxbitarians knuckled under, and joined with their paleo brethren in supporting the return of law and order run by a white man as God Intended.

    Seriously, blaming Democrats for your vote to confirm a guy you claim you didn't want in office? No, Rand, you were always going to vote for Sessions, because you were never going to choose otherwise, and you need to be responsible for your own decisions.

    He won't be. Fauxbitarians never take responsibility for their own decisions. Couldn't even man up to admit that Elizabeth Warren was knowingly and deliberately attacking the Represensible Senator from Alabama on his motives and character, that that was the whole point. Oh, but lil'Rand didn't think it was true, so nope, no reading something already part of the Senate Record for her.

    And that's why it'll now become even more strongly a left-wing issue. Ol'Jeff can't wait to start be "Mr. Tough on Crime" and you can be sure the fauxbitarians will deny seeing a thing. They've been playing blind, deaf, and mute for the past few months already.

    Another three years, and the roosters will come home, the bed will be lied in, and the whirlwind will be sowed.

  43. Paris Accord is Not Enforceable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Treaties require Senate ratification.

    1. Re:Paris Accord is Not Enforceable by PPH · · Score: 1

      Right. But Trump's move takes it off the table should a change in majority occur in the next election cycle.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  44. And yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Despit all of this covfefe.

  45. Re: Article 2? by someone1234 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you don't live in any of those cities, then it is not your business. The city spends its own citizen's taxes on the city.
    If you live in one of those cities, you should be happy they try to poison you less by decreasing smog emitted by the city.
    I have absolutely no idea, why would you have any problem with this. If you are a jobless coal miner go and enter a chinese reeducation programme (in case you want to work) for building solar panels/wind turbines OR vote for basic income (in case you don't want to work).

    --
    Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
  46. Those cities want to bankrupt themselves? by sethstorm · · Score: 1

    The agreement is just a cash grab for the Third World, as it does not obligate them to do anything but receive from developed nations.

    --
    Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
    1. Re:Those cities want to bankrupt themselves? by PPH · · Score: 1

      This.

      We'll pay some Amazonian tribe $X per tree that they promise to save. But we get nothing if ADM develops a fast growing tree and we plant a bunch of those.

      And those tribes are nomadic. In a couple of years, we'll have to pay the next one that moves in all over again for the privilege.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  47. Re:Article 2? by sound+vision · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Only it's not quite so simple. This particular issue cuts widely across party, ideological, religious, and other divides. What we have seen in the marijuana legalization movement is a true bottom-up, single-issue, grassroots, non-affiliated reform movement. It's a result of people analyzing the facts available to them and seeing that the laws don't match up. And there was no party or ideology guiding all these disparate individuals, over half the population now, to the same conclusion. Having followed this particular issue very closely, from without and within (knowing personally activists involved with NORML and MPP), I feel qualified to make this statement. You can either take my word for it, or look at the polls, or really any other hard data you can find. None of it contradicts what I am saying.

    Doubtlessly, there will be political groups trying to claim the mantle of marijuana law reform. I have even heard, in the wild, things like "Trump is relaxing marijuana laws" when he is totally disinterested in the issue, and his appointees (Jeff Sessions) are taking direct action in the opposite direction. It should be noted that what Sessions is undoing is the Obama-era, states-rights policy of not enforcing federal marijuana laws in states that have voted to bypass them.

    I'm sure you can cite examples of libertarians calling for marijuana law reform, because I've heard it too. But to say that it can be claimed as a "libertarian success" - how is that? Do most reform advocates identify as libertarian? Have libertarians campaigned anywhere in the same league as non-affiliated groups like NORML and MPP? Have elected libertarians swung the marijuana vote in any state legislature? Hell, do they even have any representatives in the legislatures in question?

  48. Re:Oh look by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

  49. Re:Article 2? by quantaman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Don't give the left legal weed, they never supported it, still don't.

    Legal weed is a libertarian success. Simple as that.

    Uhhh... what?

    Libertarians generally support legalization true... but they're fairly anemic as a political force in the US. They generally just make a bit of noise during the GOP Primaries when some form of libertarian pops up and takes a chunk of the base with them for a few months.

    Liberals also generally support legalization, and they're a much stronger political force.

    Legal weed without Liberal support is just another fringe idea.

    Legal weed without Libertarian support is still a plausible outcome.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  50. Gotta lower my expectations some more, eh? by shanen · · Score: 1

    No funny comments, except maybe a couple of the ones modded insightful. Not even a joke about destroying the planet as a possibly impeachable offense.

    Winners: Russia, Saudi Arabia, and China. Losers: Rest of the world unless China saves the day.

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
  51. Re:Article 2? by dwillden · · Score: 1

    Why does this involve Article 2? If the cities want to follow the accord guidelines, that's their choice. What pulling out of the Accord does is pull out of an obligation by the US Gov to fork over Trillions of US tax payer dollars to other countries.

    If cities want to try to be cleaner that's fine, it's not a Constitutional battle at all. The real battle would be had The Prior administration tried to actually enforce any of the accord requirements as it was never sent to the Senate to be ratified. And as it involved the commitment of Tax funds that takes it outside the scope of what an Executive Agreement can include.

    --
    I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
  52. Re:Article 2? by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In Colorado the left and the right supported legal weed. That is how it passed. The best arguments though for legal weed where from some of the groups on the right. The argument boiled down to locking up pot heads is a waste of money. None of them hurt anyone else, the vast majority held stable jobs and the cost of locking them up was bankrupting the state so even if the state made no money from tax revenue it would still be a huge net win. The state does actually get quite a lot in tax revenue from weed at this point.

    Part of the reason I voted for legalization of weed was the conservative arguments. I have never used it in my life, I have no real intention to use it but I don't rule it out but spending money to lock up pot heads that mainly threaten bag of chips and pizzas while playing video games or considering how deep a flower is wastes a lot of money. All the money spent to arrest them, charge them, convict them, lock them up etc for someone that is not a threat to society is a gigantic waste. If we are going to spend that much money it needs to be worth it.

    --
    Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
  53. Re: Article 2? by oobayly · · Score: 2

    No it doesn't. It just means they're going to hold themselves to higher standards than the federal government requires. If the population don't agree they can elect different mayors.

    It's like how the UK didn't sign up to the EU working time directive, but the Ordnance Survey - a semi state body - opted into it, which was good for employees.

  54. Re: Article 2? by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 2

    I'll agree to voter ID the second you make it 100% free and make elections a national holiday. But you won't because it's about disenfranchising people you don't want voting. If your concern was truly voter fraud you would agree with the 2 conditions I set without hesitation.

    --
    Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
  55. 61 Mayors by reboot246 · · Score: 0

    Sixty-one mayors who need to be challenged in their next election and removed from office.
    Sixty-one mayors whose cities will be left behind when the growing economy passes them by.
    Sixty-one mayors who probably never read the Paris Accords and don't understand what would happen to the US.
    Sixty-one anti-American idiots. Green Day ought to write about them.

  56. Re:Article 2? by ivano · · Score: 2
    From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... last paragraph.

    In 2013, the state House passed a bill that requires voters to show a photo ID issued by North Carolina, a passport, or a military identification card to begin in 2016. Out-of-state drivers licenses were to be accepted only if the voter registered within 90 days of the election, and university photo identification was not acceptable.[59] In July 2016, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a trial court decision in a number of consolidated actions and struck down the law's photo ID requirement, finding that the new voting provisions targeted African Americans "with almost surgical precision," and that the legislators had acted with clear "discriminatory intent" in enacting strict election rules, shaping the rules based on data they received about African-American registration and voting patterns.[60][61] On May 15, 2017, the law officially died when the US Supreme Court rejected efforts to review the Appeals Court ruling.[62].

  57. Re:Article 2? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

    The argument boiled down to locking up pot heads is a waste of money. None of them hurt anyone else, the vast majority held stable jobs and the cost of locking them up was bankrupting the state so even if the state made no money from tax revenue it would still be a huge net win.

    Note that the authoritarian counter argument to that would be that you could make it revenue positive by fining them rather than incarcerating them. Give everyone caught for possession a choice of an on-the-spot $50 fine or a federal prosecution and money will flow into the state coffers. Plus, you can withdraw the offer of the fine from anyone who seems inconvenient to the state.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  58. Re:Article 2? by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 2

    Taxing them brings even more revenue because you waste no time on enforcement at all and you have far fewer points of contact you have to deal with.

    --
    Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
  59. Re: Article 2? by Chas · · Score: 0

    Oh bullshit, bullshit and I say thee thrice BULLSHIT.

    You have to have ID to do fucking EVERYTHING in this country. Banking, driving,, buying stuff with a credit card. buying alcohol and cigarettes, claiming state/federal benefits, etc.

    And with the Homeland Security Theater RealID initiative in full swing, most state drivers' licenses and state ID cards (for those who don't/can't drive) are now RealID compliant. So they're defacto federal ID.

    Also, you generally need ID to vote ANYHOW. As you go into your polling place, they check your ID before handing you, what should, ostensibly be, YOUR ballot.
    And, failing to find your ballot, they use that ID to register your use of the polling location BEFORE registering a blank ballot for you.

    So stop with the bullcrap about about disenfranchisement.

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  60. Re: Article 2? by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 0

    I find that I needed to use my ID extremely rarely. Only a few times per year.

    No ID needed to use a debit card
    No ID needed to use an ATM
    I don't buy alcohol or cigarettes since neither interest me
    I HATE cars. I won't buy a car until they drive themselves.

    I much prefer to live in a nice area that I can walk and ride a bike around.

    If you register to vote by mail you also don't need to use ID. The voter fraud rate is so close to zero it is not worth worrying about. I have not seen a single study that shows otherwise so far. Voter disenfranchisement though is a major which is confirmed by many studies and the far more serious issue to address.

    Election day should be a national holiday for people that want to vote in person.

    --
    Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
  61. YES! This is as it should be by fygment · · Score: 1

    Make the responsibility local and hence much more accountable.

    --
    "Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
  62. Re: Article 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Exactly, there is no penalty for a state or municipality to go above and beyond federal regs. In fact, its usually expected.

  63. Hmmmmm by JWW · · Score: 1

    Where are they going to find the billions of dollars to pay to foreign governments, and will their constituents be ok with that?

    After all, I'm not worrying about the agreements mandates on limiting emissions, since the US didn't join the Kyoto protocols, yet is still meeting the standards due to the switch from coal to natural gas for a large amount of power generation, in addition to adding wind and solar generation too.

    Soooo, the only thing these Mayors really have to do is come up with case to hand to tin pot dictators in the third world so they can feel better about themselves....

    1. Re:Hmmmmm by PPH · · Score: 1

      Where are they going to find the billions of dollars to pay to foreign governments

      Simple. They can't count. The number of mayors goes from 61 to 68 and then 83 depending on how far you drill down through the related articles.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  64. Re:Article 2? by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

    It's a libertarian success because it calls to limit government power. One owns one's own body. To the extent that government power is limited it shows a libertarian influence (not necessarily Libertarian Party).

    Abortion and gay rights have nothing to do with the left. Che and other socialists killed gay men as being part of the decadent bourgeoisie.

    --
    If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
    Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
  65. Re: Article 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "a true bottom-up, single-issue, grassroots, non-affiliated reform movement."

    Even if it started that way, it's now big business capitalism in a slightly different form.

  66. Re:Article 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    but when they don't like what the local board of education is doing or don't like that people are allowed to own and carry firearms, that memory fades into a cloud of pipe smoke.

    Could you please elaborate "what the local board of education is doing"? That should clear up why should they don't like it.

    Also, own and carry firearms are 2 different issues. To own firearms is one issue. To carry in public is another issue. Firearms are tools that should never be in irresponsible people's hands. It is a lot more touchy subject which involves both left and right, NOT PURE LEFT.

  67. just wow by holophrastic · · Score: 1

    so there's a president that presides over nothing I guess. What's the point?! Too many chiefs? Not enough indians? Pick a leader to lead, and fire the leader that doesn't. This is just stupid.

    1. Re:just wow by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Come on! Don't be depressive. There are good things about Trump, too!
      I get dozens of Trump jokes and funny comedian movies about Trump every day on FB and other media, e.g. the latest press release from the white house: "Trump states he was disappointed about his meeting with the Pope. He was only met by Gods proxy".

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  68. Re:YES! This is as it should be by PPH · · Score: 1

    Seattle is already over it's annual carbon limit with the fire started by the hobos under the West Seattle freeway bridge.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  69. Re: Article 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All the weed legalization was from the ground up, with plenty of libertarian involvement. Liberal polititians were opposed to cannabis probibition ending, amd were given no choice.

    It is fair to point out that liberals are way friendlier to pot than conservatives, certainly.

  70. More money for cronies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, those mayors get to expand their local governments and enrich plenty of cronies.

    Everyone knows that enriching cronies saves the world! It is the only solution!

    Oh, and Mr. And Ms Homeowner, pay up in more taxes, those cronies won't fund themselves.

  71. how? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so how are these cities going to still "stay in" the Paris Treaty? Are they going to cut checks for billions to third world countries? Because there were no emissions targets in Paris - it was all about redistribution of wealth.

  72. Will they send "loss and damage" money overseas? by w3woody · · Score: 2

    The Paris Agreement provided for more than voluntary reductions, but also for developed nations to send $100 billion in aid to developing nations for climate change mitigation--mitigation which is measured against self-established goals. Part of the agreement also provides for additional funds to be sent to address "loss and damage" suffered by various island states and developing nations for environmental damage caused by global warming.

    Is it the intent of these mayors to spend city funds on helping foreign nations negatively impacted by global warming to help address the damage there?

  73. It might be hard for EU and Liberals to understand by argStyopa · · Score: 2

    ...but abandoning the Paris accord doesn't prohibit any US individual, company, or state from pursuing greener policies. Not one.

    The US federal government doesn't control its citizens behavior, to a large degree. In fact, what it does often is a negative driver of public action.

    After all, the US is "officially" metric as well since the 1970s, see how much that official change made a difference?

    --
    -Styopa
  74. I checked which cities by strikethree · · Score: 1

    I checked which cities are part of this.

    The first thing these cities need to understand is that they are committing to distributing a MINIMUM of $100 billion dollars EVERY year to countries like North Korea, Pakistan, Iran, etc. Many of those cities do not even have a $100 billion budget, so I am wondering where they will get the money from. You could rob Bill Gates and pay for part of one year, but there is no sunset clause and there are only so many Bill Gates' that you can steal from.

    Do not get me wrong, I am 100% for everyone at all levels to reduce or eliminate pollution. The Paris deal was not really going to make that happen as there were not comprehensive controls placed on how the receiving countries would spend the money. It will be like lottery proceeds going to schools. Sure, the schools are getting money from the lottery, but then, the money that was budgeted for the schools now goes somewhere else so there is not even a net win there.

    I am weary of the insanity here folks. Most of you are not acting in good faith which really will cause pollution to get worse. If you are truly worried about climate change, start acting in good faith!

    --
    "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
    1. Re:I checked which cities by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The first thing these cities need to understand is that they are committing to distributing a MINIMUM of $100 billion dollars EVERY year to countries like North Korea, Pakistan, Iran, etc.

      No they are not.

      You are flat out LYING.

  75. Will they send money? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will these 61 Mayors be sending any money to third world countries out of their city budgets or **gasp** out of their own pockets? Or by 'support' did you only mean moral support not actual financial support?

    1. Re:Will they send money? by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      Of course not. I'm sure they know nothing about the really bad agreement.

  76. Fine, let them starve! by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    You think any large business will put up with that? Oh, what will happen, is the government will "make allowances" (subsidies) to keep the businesses from relocating, and the burden will shift to the taxpayers of each city/state.

  77. Re:Article 2? by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

    I'm going to steal that. I like that.

    --
    We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
  78. Re:Article 2? by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 0

    Don't give the left legal weed, they never supported it, still don't.

    Legal weed is a libertarian success. Simple as that.

    Me and everyone I know on the left is pro-weed. Maybe it's anecdotal, but I don't see any empirical numbers you're putting up.

    Your POV is anecdotal. From what I've seen, most lefties I know are pro-medical marijuana, not pro-recreational. A true pro-weed position has historically been a libertarian one. And that's the thing, we keep using simple minded labels to categorize issues that are just too fucking complex to pigeonhole like that.

  79. You clearly havent even read it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is no such thing as intelligent, rational, civil debate anymore. Don't like the Paris Accords? YOU HATE THE EARTH AND WANT DIRTY WATER AND DIRTY AIR AND POISON AND YOU LITTER AND YOU NEED TO DIE. They don't even allow you to state the obvious: nobody wants any of that

    Spot the irony in the strawman above.

    If climate change lacks intelligent, rational debate, is that because of the scientists and their evidence, or the deniers and their partisan hysteria?

    1. Re:You clearly havent even read it by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 1

      If climate change lacks intelligent, rational debate, is that because of the scientists and their evidence, or the deniers and their partisan hysteria?

      You clearly don't understand what a strawman is. Either that or you've never been on the receiving end of a frothing, vituperating, gesticulating climate-change believer. Perhaps both. Although you're unlikely to believe it, anyone daring to question whether the proposed climate "solution" is really the best and only answer is a fantastic way to bring out every left-leaning wacko, kook, nutcase, and social justice warrior, all eager to scream, condescend, insult, belittle, and in general be obnoxious asses to the nth degree. They don't reason. They don't seek to convince or inform. The very act of not taking their every word and whim as absolutist gospel is apostasy in their eyes.

      Whether you wish to acknowledge it or not, there are large numbers of people who do not take this "settled science" argument to heart simply because all the scientists in the room nod up and down at the same time. Science isn't infallible and there have been numerous instances where its prophetic predictions have not only been wrong but absurdly wrong. True scientists welcome debate, welcome questioning, and eagerly seek out discussion on the subject. Yet today's climate warriors abhor all of that. We're told to not question the orthodoxy, that if you don't take their word for it simply because a bunch of them are saying the same thing then you're an idiot, and that their solution is the only solution and anyone suggesting otherwise needs to be shouted down, protested, vilified, threatened...whatever it takes short of engaging in actual, logical, reasoned debate.

      Deniers? No. Simply people who want to be convinced before committing to huge lifestyle alterations. But you guys don't want to do any convincing. You say "we did all the research, wrote the reports, reviewed ourselves, judged ourselves, published ourselves, policed ourselves, and patted ourselves on the back so you need to trust us and not question a thing we say or you're a 'denier'." Sorry but it doesn't work that way. We're not flat-earthers. We simply believe in the scientific method where incredible claims require incredible evidence from non-partisan, non-political sources who have nothing to gain or lose based on the outcome of the research. The CPP is so overtly political as to be untrustable, yet its data are constantly used to prove every assertion you try shoving down our throats. Is it any wonder there is resistance to it?

      --
      In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  80. Re:Article 2? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    Typically, liberals complain about local school boards who want their specific religion to have a special place in the schools, from what I've seen. This is either official prayer or displays or replacing science with religious nonsense.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  81. Re:It might be hard for EU and Liberals to underst by randomlygeneratename · · Score: 1

    On the flip side, conservatives need to understand economics better. There's little incentive to go green without more government intervention. Green policies have effects which are (a) global and (b) long term. Anything else which benefits local (self) or short term, is incredibly favorable from a business standpoint, and will be quite hard to resist. The solution is to sit down and all agree to do something -- no cheaters or free riders. Which we kind of just tried...

  82. "idiocy, incompetence, narcissism, sociopathic" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "... Trump's history spanning decades of idiocy, incompetence, narcissism, and sociopathic tendencies..."

    Don't you just hate it when people are overly positive about Trump? What about the other faults? Don't forget his lying, ignorance, and inability to communicate well.

  83. Re: Article 2? by deathguppie · · Score: 1

    Honestly there are places I can't use my passport and places I can't use my drivers license. Really the whole thing is redundant and stupid.

    --
    once more into the breach
  84. Re:Article 2? by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 0

    want to fight about it in the Supreme Court?

    What part of this do you think violates Article II? They're not talking about joining into a treaty, only abiding by it.

    They might get away with it as long as they aren't binding themselves. However, if Congress specifically considered and declined to adopt the treaty, then that negative aspect could rule the land as Congress' treaty power supersedes states' general lawmaking.

    I don't know how it would turn out if they choose to bind themselves, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  85. Re:Article 2? by HornWumpus · · Score: 0

    Bullshit. The last Democrat national politician to support legalization was Carter. He dropped it in his first year. Since then, nothing.

    If anything, it's generational. Young republicans are as likely to support legalization as young democrats.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  86. Re:Article 2? by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    The feds simply can't afford to enforce pot laws. And they can't find jurors willing to convict in 99% of cases.

    In CA, asshole DAs have been forced (by the voters) to get honest jobs after trying bullshit like you describe.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  87. Re:Article 2? by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    I keep hearing they're anemic, but much power on the Republican side was wielded by people who were libertarian-oriented in many of their viewpoints.

    Many of the big columnists, Alan Greenspan, even Ronald Reagan (economically, though not on social issues) were such.

    How? Insofar as many started as conservatives, conservatism is against the use of government power to reach into new areas without careful consideration.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  88. Re:Article 2? by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    Yes, but soon police are tackling and killing people who sell single cigarettes, not because it's a huge crime, but because it cuts into revenue of government-as-highway-robber.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  89. King Obama promise, violation of the Constitution by bongey · · Score: 1

    Obama acted like a child king and just thought he could sign up the US for a treaty without getting a sign off from the Senate.

    Basically Obama was trying to use an international treaty to write law in the US without consulting Congress at all. For some reason Obama and his legal scholars thought they could sign up the US for treaties as long as they didn't call it a "treaty" they didn't need to have the Senate's approval.

    Many on the right including me are only objection to the Paris accords was that Obama was trying to skirt the Constitution and use a not-a-treaty-but-really-a-treaty to allow the executive branch to enforce it , all the while skipping past congress.
    Glad it is gone.

  90. Re:Article 2? by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 1
    Again, no numbers, so your POV is anecdotal as well. So here's some actual numbers:
    • Republican 41%
    • Democrat 66%

    Liberal Democrats even go up to 78%, which is the highest among any group.

    Unfortunately, these don't compare directly liberals to libertarians. While I agree libertarian number should be higher, you can't say liberals aren't pro-weed, or "they never supported it, still don't".

  91. Re:Article 2? by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 1

    Bullshit. The last Democrat national politician to support legalization was Carter. He dropped it in his first year. Since then, nothing.

    And the last libertarian national politician to win office was the spaghetti monster. Sorry for the reality, but Dems are the only ones who will effectively fight your fight. It'd be in your interest to support your libertarian candidate until you find they don't have a chance to win, and at that point switch to the Dem. The last two Democratic Presidents famously smoked. The last Rep one? Never happened. The last Libertarian? Same.

  92. Re:Article 2? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    They might get away with it as long as they aren't binding themselves. However, if Congress specifically considered and declined to adopt the treaty, then that negative aspect could rule the land as Congress' treaty power supersedes states' general lawmaking.

    You don't have to be a signatory to that type of agreement in order to abide by it. Let's say, for example, that the Paris accord includes a certain target for vehicle emissions. There's nothing in Article II that would prohibit a state from setting those same standards.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  93. Re:Article 2? by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

    Here in Seattle, it wasn't the "libertarians" that brought the country's first full legalization of recreational Marijuana to life, it was our lefties.
    Really, left is just a stupid moniker. It could mean something else in any particular demographic.

  94. Re:Article 2? by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

    Abortion and gay rights have nothing to do with the left. Che and other socialists killed gay men as being part of the decadent bourgeoisie.

    Certainly you're aware that the label of "left" as applied to members of the Democratic party isn't the "left" you're using there.
    Libertarians didn't get weed legalized. Lots of Democrats under Democratic legislatures did. Sure legalization of weed is definitely a libertarian ideal- but you'll find many Democratic ideals are.

    Disclaimer: I'm in Seattle. I helped legalize weed for recreational purposes here. You'll notice that Seattle has something in common with other states with very liberal weed laws. The color blue.

    How is the weed legalization fight going in the states that vote for Libertarian candidates in large numbers? New Mexico, North Dakota, Alaska, Oklahoma?

    Perhaps there simply is No True Libertarian. Perhaps there simply is No True Democrat.

  95. Re:Article 2? by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

    How does the national platform matter? Let's rattle off some states-
    Washington, California, Oregon.
    Some more...
    New Mexico, North Dakota, Alaska

    Do I need to explain the significance of these to you? I'll give you a hint, when it comes right down to it, it was the Liberals that legalized weed. Not the Libertarians. But then we could argue all day about whether or not self-styled libertarians are anything but ashamed republicans.

  96. Re:Article 2? by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

    conservatism is against the use of government power to reach into new areas without careful consideration.

    LOL. You don't really believe that. Conservatism is against the use of government power in the same way that Liberalism is. They want to use it when it benefits them, and don't want it used when it annoys them.
    No matter how you swing it, reaching into a woman's womb is a new area, and I've seen their careful consideration. Panels of men testifying to panels of men.

    Sorry dude, you're speaking about a definition of a word that has no actual use in American politics.

  97. Re:Article 2? by DamnOregonian · · Score: 2

    County support for Colorado Amendment 64:
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/w...
    2012 Election results by County for Colorado (I didn't do 2016... Because I'm not really sure that election was a liberal/conservative thing):
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/w...

    Sure some people on "the right" supported it. But they were the minority in their party, and in the end, voted pretty much along standard liberal/conservative elective county lines to reject legalization.

  98. Re:Article 2? by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

    If "rights to birth control" means all tax payers need to pay for it then yeah fuck that.

    Why not? We're all paying for your insulin shots and limp-dick pills. Women are 51% of the population, after all. You shitbags are a minority.

  99. Re:Article 2? by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

    Generally speaking, a State is free to be stricter than the Federal Government, except in cases where Federal law prohibits it.
    California's emissions standards, as an example.
    Every states employment law as another.

    That being said, I could see the fuckhead-in-chief threatening to go after (somehow) those states that decide to hold themselves to the higher set of standards.

  100. Sorry, dudes...Obama ruined this for you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    During the Obama years, there were Republican-run cities and states that tried to enforce ACTUAL FEDERAL LAWS in trade and immigration - and progressives cheered as Obama took them into court and set all sorts of legal precedents that cities and states could not be inconflict with the whims of a sitting president on international matters.

    Guess what?

    Those precedents are in place now. Should Trump decide to slap them down, he is free to do it. These cities and states have no right to make their own international agreements, and to the extent they try to implement them in ways that conflict with neighboring states these become violations of the interstate commerce clause of the Constitiution. To the extent they get away with this crap, these local politicians are doing so at the mercy of the Trumpster.

    Suck on it progressives: You were warned back when you were cheering as Obama did all that stuff... now you get to cry.

    Our founders gave us SMALL, LIMITED government for many good reasons, just one of which is that it's not likely to be weaponized and used by one side of a philosophical arrgument to hammer the other side. Limited government would not have enabled Obama to hammer the right, but it would also have prevented Trump from hammering the left. Remember that when the Trump hammer falls on your sacred cows and maybe gradually you will realize we were all better off with limited government.

  101. Re:Article 2? by quantaman · · Score: 1

    And when the left wants to smoke weed, they suddenly remember states' rights and the 10th Amendment, but when they don't like what the local board of education is doing or don't like that people are allowed to own and carry firearms, that memory fades into a cloud of pipe smoke.

    Both sides do plenty of picking and choosing about when and where they respect the rights of states. Conservatives tend to more frequently side with states' rights over the Federal government because that fits with their fundamental principles, but obviously isn't applied in all cases. Let's be honest about the fact that nobody is 100% consistent with their principles in all cases, though that doesn't mean we shouldn't point out hypocrisy. Just don't get too holier-than-thou about it.

    They vacillate on states' rights because no one really cares about states' rights, giving priority to one government level over another is hardly a fundamental political belief.

    The US Federal Government's most common conflicts with the states come up when the Federal Government want's to introduce a new program or protect an ethnic or sexual minority, both things the right tends to oppose.

    Therefore, the right tends to side with state's rights more often.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  102. Alternative headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "61 Mayors Vow Support for International Bureaucracy"

  103. Re:Article 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "marijuana [...] is a true [...] grassroots [...] movement"

    LOL! Not sure I'm ever going to get tired of the pot puns.

  104. Re:Article 2? by toddestan · · Score: 1

    Keep in mind that espousing libertarian viewpoints nowadays will often get you called a leftie.

  105. Re:Article 2? by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 1

    I think you're right. In the US at least, the right has moved so far over, libertarians are closer to the left than they are to the right. Being on the left in America feels centrist everywhere else.