After Ida, It’s Still Business As Usual In Trenton
No wakeup calls. No lessons learned. No real reforms.
The Worship of Mammon
After Ida – just like after Sandy – it’s business as usual in Trenton (see:
No wakeup calls. No lessons learned. No real reforms.
I wrote a letter to Legislators I have worked with for years recommending real reforms, and they are so deep in denial that they don’t even give me the dignity of a response.
But lots of self serving press releases; “bold” tweets; empty platitudes paraded around in “serious” Op-Ed’s; window dressing gestures; and cheerleading by the usual Neoliberal sycophants.
Lots of diversionary press stories and apologetics (hey – one should never “cast aspersions”!) – with no focus on the root causes and real science based solutions.
Lots of human interest stories about heroic resilience, “NJ Strong”, and bold political leadership – voluntary private local efforts displace government responsibility.
Lots of scientists and “experts” downplaying problems and dancing gently around “policy issues” as they effectively unwittingly manufacture paralyzing uncertainty in their cowardly equivocations.
The land grant public universities abandon their independent, public interest, and critical role and instead promote toothless and knowingly failed voluntary local “solutions” that present absolutely no threat to the political status quo, corporate power, or development and financial interests.
Lots of government abdication.
(And we warned you: (NJ Spotlight)
Bill Wolfe, a retired DEP policy analyst and the current author of an environmental blog, said the comments “reflect an astonishing abdication of DEP’s regulatory responsibilities,” particularly coming from an administration that claims to be a leader in battling climate change.
“DEP must regulate to achieve deep emissions reductions and reduce risks as clearly reflected by an overwhelming scientific consensus,” Wolfe said. “Delay only makes matters worse.”
Lots of well fed Foundation and corporate funded faux “environmental leaders” and boutique activists providing political cover and lying to the public.
Lots of corporate spin and business community concerns about the costs of reforms and impacts on the economy.
And lots of NJ Spotlight stenography of those corporate lies.
Lots of opportunist media mouthpieces, who desperately seek their names in the paper at all costs, not matter what drivel they are spouting.
Lots of empty virtue signaling and identity politics, which intentionally divert from the substance to give politicians false praise and DEP a pass.
Lots of denial and flat out lies and propaganda.
We’re doomed and we really deserve it.
Diogenes