February 10, 2019

The Green New Deal — don't ask if it's practical, it's "aspirational," and people are looking for "dreamers."

That's the message Markos Moulitsas (founder of The Daily Kos) delievered — with an assist from WBUR news correspondent Kimberly Atkins — on “Meet the Press" today (transcript).

The moderator Chuck Todd got the conversation going by reading Trump's tweet:
"I think it is very important for the Democrats to press forward with their Green New Deal. It would be great for the so-called carbon footprint to permanently eliminate all planes, cars, cows, oil, gas, and the military even if no other country would do the same. Brilliant." 
... and asking Kos if this is "a healthy debate" from the point of view of Democrats.
MARKOS MOULITSAS: Yeah, I think this is aspirational. This is actually popular. And if Trump thinks that this is going to hurt us politically, he's absolutely not really paying attention to the pulse of the country. This is aspirational. Like, like you said, it's not a bill. The details would have to be worked out. And this is so ambitious that these details would have to be worked out over decades. This is a broad, aggressive, bold agenda. And it'll take time to implement. But at least it shows people where the Democratic Party is going on the issue of climate change.
A little while later Atkins sounded like she had absorbed the same talking points:
KIMBERLY ATKINS: It's something that people understand and connect to.... And I think that is an issue that moves. And I think the aspirational aspect of this, I actually think it was pretty brilliant to not put in a bunch of details that people can immediately start taking down...
Chuck Todd wondered if Democrats were worried about making themselves "less electable." And:
CHUCK TODD: So, Markos, this, today, I think is a great framing. You had Amy Klobuchar and yesterday, you had Elizabeth Warren. And we -- Elizabeth Warren -- very, I would call it a clarity of purpose. There was no ambiguity. Amy Klobuchar's going to talk about bragging about getting bills signed by President Trump. That’s two different -- I say this, that’s two different -- she's saying, "I'm a get-things-done person. You can dream all you want." How is that going to play out?

MARKOS MOULITSAS: I think we're looking for dreamers at this point. I mean, Trump is going to accuse us of being socialist no matter what. It doesn't matter what the agenda is. He's going to use the same playbook. It didn't work in 2018. It's not going to work in 2020. And so, I think it's important to really think aspirationally, to give people a sense of where the candidate wants to be. "Yes, we can," is actually a very positive messages as opposed to maybe Klobuchar or Sherrod Brown saying, "No, we can't."

129 comments:

Howard said...

gag me with a backhoe

chickelit said...

It's asspirational all right -- in an etymological sense.

rehajm said...

It's so cray cray the lefties themselves had to step in and walk it back (i.e. delete it from social media) and blame Trump for their fuck up.

Limited blogger said...

What is the left's obsession with getting me in a train?

Wince said...

"Hold my beer" is aspirational, if you think about it.

Paco Wové said...

"Trump is going to accuse us of being socialist no matter what"

Interesting how it's not opposition to the Republicans, just Trump. Trump, all by himself.

Of course, the Dems are going to accuse Republicans of being racist, no matter what, as per Althouse's previous blog post.

Socialists!

    Racists!!

Socialists!

    Racists!!

etc.

cubanbob said...

So the Left is for a change honest and they are dumbstruck that sane people are aghast so now one of their apologist-propagandist is trying to calm the rubes down by saying we really don't mean it.

Kevin said...

We already have Dreamers. The Dems don't seem interested in making their dreams happen.

Fool me once...

cubanbob said...

Blogger Limited blogger said...
What is the left's obsession with getting me in a train?"

Tell any Stalinist you are a kulack and ask that question.

Howard said...

asspirational: the sweat that drips down the butt crack

Kevin said...

Shorter Chuck Todd: Oh hell, President Gets Things Done is going to slaughter Candidate I Dream of Utopia With No Plan to Get There.

Lyle said...

Nazism was aspirational too. Democrats are trying to turn themselves into a cult of something or other.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Aspiration without perspiration.

Google says..

How do you treat aspiration?

Aspiration Pneumonitis and Pneumonia. Aspiration pneumonitis and pneumonia are caused by inhaling toxic substances, usually gastric contents, into the lungs. ... However, most episodes of aspiration cause minor symptoms or pneumonitis rather than infection or obstruction, and some patients aspirate with no sequelae.

Rockport Conservative said...

A couple of weeks ago I aspirated a pill with water and had to go the ER. Aspirational was not my goal.

rhhardin said...

Asperational is breathing, not pulse.

Birkel said...

The canned talking points have been opened.
The can never closes properly again.

The Democrats will need Ziploc bags.

Rob said...

What a neat trick--get people to enact future limits on fossil fuels, then surprise them later with the gory details of what it will do to their way of life. Are voters dumb enough to go along with that kind of jiggery-pokery? They might be.

Al Gore tried a similar sleight of hand in the original "An Inconvenient Truth." He made a pitch for why we need to sharply reduce greenhouse gases, then at the end there was a crawl on the screen of things people could do, like turn off lights in rooms they're not in. Well yeah, turning off unnecessary lights is all very nice, but even Gore was smart enough to know that wouldn't make even a tiny dent in the problem. What he was arguing for would have required massive changes in people's lives. He didn't want to tell them that.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

should be Aspiration without Expiration then.

Jeff Brokaw said...

These people are beyond stupid. No sane person wants to do any of that crap on the scale proposed.

Kevin said...

Trump had a dream.

He dreamed of fair trade agreements that didn't make it profitable to ship jobs offshore.

He dreamed of all people being able to find jobs, not just the college educated and heavily in debt.

He dreamed of a North Korea that was nuclear-free and economically prosperous.

He dreamed of killing ISIS and bringing the troops home.

He dreamed or a strong military and a NATO that paid its own way.

He dreamed of a strong Southern border and a permanent fix for the Dreamers.

The difference was nothing in Trump's dream required a wholesale realignment of American society or violated the laws of physics.

Birkel said...

The perfectability of mankind is the Leftist Collectivist dream.
It is a bad dream because it does not align with reality.

Democrats pretend no reality exists.
They must believe one to believe the other.

They're evil or useless idiots.
Maybe a bit of both.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

No, Democrats aren’t looking for “dreamers”, he should STFU. We’re looking for those with vision, with realism, with strength and with principles and the bravery to stick by them.

Gk1 said...

Well when the democrats go to person is that dumbfuck KOS retard, you know they are in trouble. Markos couldn't think himself out of a paper bag. I hope they make sure to emphasize this in vaunted "blue wall" of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

gilbar said...

Howard said... gag me with a backhoe

Pulmonary aspiration is when you inhale food, stomach acid, or saliva into your lungs. You can also aspirate food that travels back up from your stomach to your esophagus.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

They are completely high off sniffing their own farts.

Unknown said...

"I think we're looking for dreamers at this point."

Yeah, who know else were big dreamers? The Khmer Rouge... boy, they sure reduced Cambodia's carbon footprint, didn't they.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

“The choice facing the nation is between two totally different ways of life. And what a prize we have to fight for: no less than the chance to banish from our land the dark, divisive clouds of Marxist socialism and bring together men and women from all walks of life who share a belief in freedom.” "Without economic liberty there is no liberty" Thatcher

William said...

With the proper application of genetic splicing, there's no reason we can't sprout gossamer wings and thus solve all our traffic congestion and pollution problems. Dream big or go home.

Two-eyed Jack said...

People tell me that perpetual motion is impossible. I say it is aspirational!

Two-eyed Jack said...

When Stalin was young, getting rid of the wreckers seemed like an impossible dream. We need dreamers!

traditionalguy said...

The hoaxers are being honest here. The Great Neverending War on Terror is losing steam, so they are replacing that hoax with a Great Neverending War on energy that causes deadly CARBON. Like the Bush eternal war on terror we can’t risk death by CARBON so the cost is not a concern.

I blame Trump.

Wince said...

"Only trouble is, gee whiz, I'm dreamin' my life away."

Diogenes of Sinope said...

Leftists solution for all problems, more government.

rcocean said...

Yeah, we've seen this Liberal/Democrat game before:

1996: Gay Marriage Haha - only kooks think that.
2008: Don't tag Democrats with supporting Gay Marriage - Obama's Against it.
2010: Woo-hoo gay marriage is a Constitutional Right.
2015: Bake me a Gay Cake - Bitch or I'll sue!
2020: Saying you oppose Gay Marriage is hate speech.

rcocean said...

In 1964 Humbert Humphrey Claimed the Civil Rights bill would NEVER result in Affirmative Action.

In 1965 - Ted Kennedy stated the Immigration bill would NEVER change the USA Demographics.

In 1986 Ted Kennedy and John McCain claimed the Amnesty would NEVER result in more Illegal immigration because of increased border security and checks on Employers.

In 1994: Everyone stated NAFTA would NEVER result in jobs moving to Mexico.

mccullough said...

There are no more Democrats. There are just Socialists.

rhhardin said...

You can do away with internal combustion engines with Stirling engines. They can run on the heat from a cup of coffee. Go from McDonalds to McDonalds.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

I actually think it was pretty brilliant to not put in a bunch of details that people can immediately start taking down...

Too late. I love how the left is pretending the details weren't released and then pulled back in embarrassment.

But the "farting cows" and paying people "unwilling to work" has already become a meme.

I'm sure Trump will use it effectively.

buwaya said...

Environmental regulation is a wonderful way to acquire control over the entire economy without needing further justification or oversight. There is no need to prove a benefit, it all depends on emotional appeals, and the “science” will simply be subsumed into the bureaucratic establishment, as we have already seen. No benefit need be demonstrated, no economic pain is valid as a corrective. It is almost a religious basis for social organization.

The “aspiration” is completely totalitarian.

buwaya said...

This is not the “left” of old. Their justification for power is no longer the welfare of the working class. That can be measured, and the argument can be disproven, which is what ultimately doomed communism, as it became obvious that what they were struggling for was worthless, as their ideological enemies had outdone them. Their own metrics refuted them.

This however is an iron-clad justification designed for a perpetual bureaucratic-corporatist model. There is no disproving it.

FIDO said...

I am guessing there are more fliers than dreamers.

narciso said...

dyson sphere's are more accessible:


https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2019/02/10/barf-snl-promotes-liberal-democrat-women-heroic-crime-fighters

AustinRoth said...

“The dreamer, the unwoken fool,
In dreams, no pain will kiss the brow.
The love of ages fills the head.
The days that linger there in prey of emptiness,
Of burned out dreams.
The minutes calling through the years.
The universal dreamer rises up above his earthly burden.
Journey to the dead of night.
High on a hill in Eldorado.“

Roy Lofquist said...

A famous aspirational proposal:

"A Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of Poor People From being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Publick,[1] commonly referred to as A Modest Proposal, is a Juvenalian satirical essay written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729. The essay suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies."

JaimeRoberto said...

Unicorns are popular too.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Most Americans have never traveled to nations that actually have extreme environmental degradation. No sewage systems, trash goes into the rivers and into the oceans.

Th New Green Deal is just another way the leftwing to use FORCE to demand your money for their own wealth creation. See Al Gore.

btw- Markos Moitsas? Radial Leftist fascist. Geez - media.

Derek Kite said...

I would use another word. It is masturbation. If i touch myself like this it feels really good. Utterly useless in solving the problem.

Big Mike said...

Yes, the people of the United States aspire to a world without hamburgers, ice cream, steak, or milk (besides goat milk and breast milk). They aspire to a world without the ability to travel coast to coast in just a few hours. Surely we all aspire to a world where each house has its own windmill and solar panels and where we freeze in the dark when the sun isn't shining and the wind is calm.

Yup.

Big Mike said...

No, Democrats aren’t looking for “dreamers”, he should STFU. We’re looking for those with vision, with realism, with strength and with principles and the bravery to stick by them.

@Inky, there are lots of people like that. They're called Republicans (once we purge the rest of the Never-Trumpers).

Tank said...

That’s some stinky ass desperation there.

Friendo said...

What a bunch of mealy-mouthed cocksuckers.

Tommy Duncan said...

Trump should issue a challenge to the left: Build a demonstration project. Take a liberal city like Milwaukee or Madison and transform it according to the Green New Deal. Since a city is a small microcosm of the country, 10 years won't be needed. You should be able to transform Madison in less than 3 to 5 years.

Rebuild the buildings, insulate and improve private homes and eliminate gas and oil heating. Ban internal combustion engines. Close the power plants and switch exclusively to wind and solar energy. Close the airport. Provide jobs for all who want them and pay the folks who don't want a job. Mandate healthy food in appropriate portions and provide government housing for anyone who wants it.

Make the left show it can be done economically and in a way acceptable to the residents.

Tommy Duncan said...

Let me add to my previous post: Make the Badgers take a train to Piscatway for games. Ban night lighting at Camp Randall stadium. Convert the university steam plant to solar and wind power only. Make the athletes eat the same food as everyone else and in the same portions. Mandate train-only travel for the faculty.

Unknown said...

We are all whistling past the graveyard

Lefties have creamed us in culture war

Look at Page dissing Pratt for going to church

The point is to move the window of what is unacceptable

They can't pass anything now anyway

Why not roll class warrior Supreme donkey chompers out there

To make the radical presidential dems look moderate

Never underestimate the enemy

And dems are the enemy of whatwe all are

Gk1 said...

How hard will it be for democrats to climb down from this perch? Its not like the media will ever call them out from retreating. This is simply boob bate for bubbas. The fact Pelosi has front loaded her environmental committee with folks that get major campaign contributions from energy producers, tells you all you need to know about how seriously she's taking this. If anything it gives some democrats a much needed "Sister Soljah" moment to call out this nonsense on stilts.

Tommy Duncan said...

BTW, the only power the Greens really care about is political. The Green New Deal will require forced initiatives. The only difference from Stalinist Russia will be that the NGD uses 10 year plans while the Soviets used 5 year plans.

Yancey Ward said...

The FAQ of the Green New Deal was probably the single most ridiculous political document I have ever read. Really, had I been trying to parody such a document, I couldn't do it. All you need to know about it is that No-Cortex took it down at the insistence of her own party.

Sebastian said...

Aspirational is good for progs: the kind of thing that makes women feel warm and fuzzy about themselves.

Bonus: it tempts a lot of men to mansplain the absurdity of it, which will make GND even more appealing to women.

Except women like Althouse, who, though averse to mansplaining, like to think of themselves as rational and who look for "serious," "non-hack," "competent" politicians, like "pragmatic" Barry.

Yancey Ward said...

Tommy,

They would take up your offer, but only if the rest of the country paid for it.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Moulitsas is a socialist. Sorry dude- shame or not, it's who you are.

sinz52 said...

This is a long-range program to damage the United States as much as the Left believes necessary to save the planet. IOW, they see the problem of climate change as the need to defend the planet from America.

I can't see any reason for any American who is even a little proud of his own country to want to sign onto this. It's a program based on guilt and shame.

Tommy Duncan said...

Blogger Inga...Allie Oop said...

"We’re looking for those with vision, with realism, with strength and with principles and the bravery to stick by them."

Your hero disagrees:

"To rely upon conviction, devotion, and other excellent spiritual qualities; that is not to be taken seriously in politics." -- Vladimir Lenin

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Shorter New Green Deal:

It's inspirational to want to screw over ordinary Americans to help make democratic insider cronies in the green energy field, wealthy. Also, please ignore the rest of the world's terrible environment.

Here's an idea, oh glorious self-righteous leftist greenies - go fix the rest of the world first.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

btw- I'm all for green energy in balance, as long as it's viable, and can compete without subsidies. (as often it cannot -that's where the tax payer comes in handy. yay for tax rape!)

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

"vision, realism, strength" - welcome to the tired bromide and cliche' department.

+ If Trump said those words, that would be racist and he should go to jail.

Unknown said...

Connect the dots

Commies release cradle to grave welfare for those unwilling to work

Simultaneously with eliminating ICE and declaring Latinos to have right to occupy

Open borders and promise of socialist care

To all the peasants in Latin America

Who already vote for socialists in Central America

We trust Trump to save us

But what would Harris Warren or Booker implement wit Dim house and senate?

They already signed on and NY wit CA would applaud

Unknown said...

Progressive utopia is not even unlikely anymore

sinz52 said...

Dickin'Bimbos said: "I'm all for green energy in balance, as long as it's viable, and can compete without subsidies."

AFAIK, no form of energy currently available competes without subsidies. Look how many direct and indirect subsidies the nuclear power industry gets.

Seeing Red said...

Being locked on a continent is inspirational?

Them first.

How did Nancy get to the Grammys?

chickelit said...

“Simultaneously with eliminating ICE and declaring Latinos to have right to occupy”

That was pure unadulterated AOC espousing the essence of La Raza racism. We’ve been warned.

alanc709 said...

Progressives aspire to turn the US into the USSR. Is that a positive or a negative thing?

Humperdink said...

Our beloved Inga said: "No, Democrats aren’t looking for “dreamers”, he should STFU. We’re looking for those with vision, with realism ....."

Yep realism alright, with stopping cow farts leading the agenda. Do they teach that in bartender school?

Gahrie said...

They're looking for the easily manipulated, ignorant and corrupt..just like they usually do.

Gahrie said...

How did Nancy get to the Grammys?

Practice, practice, practice.

ccscientist said...

"Aspirational" is MAGA. It is not "eliminate all fossil fuels, cars, and planes in 10 years, free stuff for everyone even salary for those who don't want to work"--that is crazy town.

ALP said...

I find going off the grid an attractive aspirational idea, but more in the vein of "fuck you corporate power companies" rather than saving Gaia.

Henry said...

Markos is right, but there is a tipping point between when a thing is aspirational and when it just utter nonsense.

There is an element of the absurd in all politics and all politicians. It IS always ridiculous to shout for systematic change. Yet if you don't you're just a Bush or a Clinton, either blinking in confusion at the world collapsing around you, or winning at merry-go-round. What should worry spinmeisters like Markos is when your aspirational people are utterly unfunnily unaware of their own nonsense.

chuck said...

Gosh, I remember the hippies aspiration to live an agricultural life. By and large, they managed to replicate the Fruitlands (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruitlands_(transcendental_center)) experiment. Modern agriculture is a wonder, but even that is a lot of hard work. Few who aren't born to it can handle it.

ddh said...

Derision is the only proper response for elected politicians who put forth their aspirations for us.

Fernandinande said...

Ooh, ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high

And the aspirations that you aspire to
Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly

And the aspirations that you aspire to
Aspirations really do come true

buwaya said...

They aren't trying to turn the US into the USSR.

Not in the economic sense. The USSR operated from defective principles, but within those principles, most of the time, it behaved rationally. Of course it was inefficient and corrupt, besides being fundamentally in error. They actually did sincerely teach and learn math and engineering. The real world existed. They tried to centrally plan with whatever facts they could collect, with specific measurable goals. They weren't "scientific" materialists for nothing.

The modern American liberal vision is not like that. It is a purely religious vision without a grounding in the material world at all. It is entirely concerned with numinous factors. This is a shifting landscape defined by pure rhetoric and reactions to rhetoric, in a constant swirl. There is no room in it for anything else, and, indeed, anyone educated in this mess is unfit to operate in material reality. Or rather, such a person is trained only to deal in power-plays with others of the same ilk, as long as there is a separate subculture of an entirely different sort keeping the lights on.

madAsHell said...

What is the left's obsession with getting me in a train?

They're pandering to Lucky Pierre?

chuck said...

> anyone educated in this mess is unfit to operate in material reality.

And pushing bits around is not a good substitute for reality.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

UNDERPANTS GNOMES

gnome sane?

narciso said...


That's not an accident:

http://invisibleserfscollar.com

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"What is the left's obsession with getting me in a train?

They're pandering to Lucky Pierre?"


No-- Snidley Whiplash

bagoh20 said...

We should all aspire to the examples of Venezuela, Cuba, and the Soviet Union. Germany is way ahead of us on this green aspiration, and they are turning around now and wondering how we do it, becuase although they have made great investment in green aspirations, they have not been able to match the U.S. in actual reduction of greenhouse gases, even with sacrificing their energy independence and cost structure.

Let's say you won the lottery and suddenly had millions to invest and manage. Would you ask a 20 something bar tender to manage it? Hey, they might have some aspirational advice. What else you gonna do, listen to some self-made billionaire?

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

'aspirational', as in "dont hold your breath"

MayBee said...

I guess we are going to zip right past the aspirational dreaminess of Obamacare. Why are we not happy with it, again?

On NPR I kept hearing callers saying we need to "go big" and we can work out the details later. This is not, apparently, something that can be done with something like a wall on our southern border, however. That is not doable. We can rebuild every building in 10 years and get a high speed rail over the Rockies, but we can't build a southern border wall.

Michael K said...

McGovern II on the way. Great work leftists.

Scientific Socialist said...

"There's a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right.' - AOC, 2019

Thank goodness physicians, civil engineers, pilots and other skilled professionals place a premium on being precisely, factually and semantically correct. Socialists being delusional on the taxpayer's dime, not so much.

MayBee said...

Geeze, I hope the non- Green New Deal Democrats dare to start speaking up pretty soon.

Drago said...

"There's a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right.' - AOC, 2019

LLR Chuck could not have said it better.

Big Mike said...

What is the left's obsession with getting me in a train?

@Limited blogger, I am just speculating here, but if the train passes through a gate that says “Arbeit Macht Frei,” I would get off as quickly as possible.

Enlighten-NewJersey said...

AOC and company should make Puerto Rico the test case for the Green New Deal. They can show us how their programs can take a country that was a financial basket case even before being devastated by hurricane Maria and turn it into a green, socialist utopia.

John henry said...

Like, like you said, it's not a bill. Kos

Oh my word. Is he ignorant or lying? I'm going to go with lying. It most certainly IS a bill.

"H.Res.109 - Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal."

Summary:

This resolution calls for the creation of a Green New Deal with the goals of

achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions;

establishing millions of high-wage jobs and ensuring economic security for all;
investing in infrastructure and industry;

securing clean air and water, climate and community resiliency, healthy food, access to nature, and a sustainable environment for all; and

promoting justice and equality.

The resolution calls for accomplishment of these goals through a 10-year national mobilization effort. The resolution also enumerates the goals and projects of the mobilization effort, including

building smart power grids (i.e., power grids that enable customers to reduce their power use during peak demand periods);

upgrading all existing buildings and constructing new buildings to achieve maximum energy and water efficiency;

removing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation and agricultural sectors;

cleaning up existing hazardous waste and abandoned sites;

ensuring businesspersons are free from unfair competition; and

providing higher education, high-quality health care, and affordable, safe, and adequate housing to all.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/109?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22green+new+deal%22%5D%7D&s=1&r=1

John Henry

Tommy Duncan said...

Blogger alanc709 said...

"Progressives aspire to turn the US into the USSR. Is that a positive or a negative thing?"

I'm pretty sure it's negative if you are one of the 23 million who die from starvation, expire in a Gulag or take a bullet in the head.

Seeing Red said...

How come no solar panels on Congress?

Them first.

M Jordan said...

Transcript shows Todd to be a fragmented thinker/speaker and Marcos to be almost paragraph perfect. In sum, Todd is dumber than Markus by a great deal.

DeepRunner said...

Dreamers, huh? Wonder if they got a heavy dose of "Imagine" by John Lennon prior to the show.

Gahrie said...

They can show us how their programs can take a country that was a financial basket case even before being devastated by hurricane Maria and turn it into a green, socialist utopia.

Oh that's easy..they just get the rest of us to pay for it. That's actually been the plan all along.

John henry said...

The full text of the bill is here and you all should read it:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/109/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22green+new+deal%22%5D%7D&r=1&s=1

The text of the bill sounds pretty benign compared to the FAQ that everyone is talking about. Benign only in comparison, it is batshit nutso all on its own. There is nothing in it contrary to anything in the FAQ.

Build trains across the ocean? Sure, the bill encourages that provided that it is "technologically feasible" Not a "good idea", not economically feasible, not stupid as Hell. Nope, if it is "technologically feasible" the bill encourages it.

I've seen proposals over the years for building a bridge across the Bering Strait. If that is technologically possible, I suspect that a bridge across the Atlantic would be too if money and other factors were no object. That doesn't make it anything better than a really, really, stupid idea.

Here's a section of the bill:



(C) meeting 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources, including—

(i) by dramatically expanding and upgrading renewable power sources; and

(ii) by deploying new capacity;

(D) building or upgrading to energy-efficient, distributed, and “smart” power grids, and ensuring affordable access to electricity;

(E) upgrading all existing buildings in the United States and building new buildings to achieve maximum energy efficiency, water efficiency, safety, affordability, comfort, and durability, including through electrification;

(F) spurring massive growth in clean manufacturing in the United States and removing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing and industry as much as is technologically feasible, including by expanding renewable energy manufacturing and investing in existing manufacturing and industry;

(G) working collaboratively with farmers and ranchers in the United States to remove pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector as much as is technologically feasible, including—


Section G would be the section about removing cow farts. It is certainly technologically feasible. Just forbid the production of beef and kill all cattle herds. Not a great idea, though.

Read the whole thing.

I like the idea of forcing it out of committee and to a floor vote. Not a voice vote either. A vote where we can see who was aye and who was nay. Let people stand up and be counted.

The list of sponsors is long and interesting. Ocasio-Cortez is the primary sponsor. I wonder who wrote the bill for her? She didn't come up with this on her own.

John Henry

John henry said...


Blogger Inga...Allie Oop said...

No, Democrats aren’t looking for “dreamers”, he should STFU. We’re looking for those with vision, with realism, with strength and with principles and the bravery to stick by them.


So President Trump?

He can count on your support in 2020?

Good to know. I've given you a hard time in the past but I am happy that you have seen the light. You once were lost but now are found. Were blind but now you see.

John Henry

John henry said...


Blogger traditionalguy said...

causes deadly CARBON. Like the Bush eternal war on terror we can’t risk death by CARBON so the cost is not a concern.

Stop with the propaganda, Trad guy. You know better than this.

Carbon is not even an alleged problem. Carbon is a solid, it is not even alleged to cause any climate problems. Most people think of carbon as coal, graphite, soot and dirty. (Maybe we need to start a campaign raising awareness that diamonds are pure carbon)

Carbon DIOXIDE is alleged to be a problem causing climate whatsit. But people are around CO2 daily in donuts, soft-drinks, beer, fire extinguishers. We have a benign or even positive view of it.

Hence the PROPAGANDA that it is that dirty nasty carbon, not the nice friendly carbon dioxide that is causing the problem.

You know better. When you talk like this you are a propagandist. Just stop it.

John Henry

walter said...

MARKOS MOULITSAS: I think we're looking for dreamers at this point. I mean, Trump is going to accuse us of being socialist no matter what. It doesn't matter what the agenda is. He's going to use the same playbook.
--
No..it's a truism because YOUR playbook is so limited and predictable.

Scott said...

The Nobel Peace Prize committee called Obama's prize "aspirational" as well. And look what happened.

Phil 314 said...

Reading this I could here John Lennon singing in the background


You could say that I'm a dreamer,
but I'm not the only one


But then again a "Big, Beautiful Wall" was aspirational too.

Unknown said...

> (C) meeting 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources, including—

Didn't we already do that with corn?

How did that work out?

Martin said...

How can it be aspirational "to be worked out over decades" when AOC prefaces it by saying we only have 12 years left?

Aspirational? No, either insane or diabolical.

Big Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Big Mike said...

AOC prefaces it by saying we only have 12 years left?

The day of reckoning always keeps moving to the right. When my grandkids are eligible to vote they'll be hearing a ringing cry that we only have fifty years left (up from twelve), and my grandkids haven't been born yet.

Gahrie said...

Carbon DIOXIDE is alleged to be a problem causing climate whatsit. But people are around CO2 daily in donuts, soft-drinks, beer, fire extinguishers. We have a benign or even positive view of it.

Carbon dioxide is plant food. Agricultural yields are up, and the Earth is getting greener.

chickelit said...

@JohnHenry: Don’t be so hardon tradguy. He was being facetious or ironic or whatever. I got his rhetoric.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Genius: "1 Percent Inspiration and 99 Percent Perspiration"

Liberalism: 99 percent aspiration and 1 percent perspiration(ie flopsweat)

Fen said...

"And this is so ambitious that these details would have to be worked out over decades"

I thought we had to act NOW to prevent Climapocalypse IV? By the time you guys pick chairs for the Paris pre-selection meeting to draft an agenda for tbe Brussels steering committee to plan the... where was I... Anyways, my point is that in "decades" we'll have teleporters or transporters.

This is just to give the Vitrue Democrats a Questing Beast so they can pretend to be knightly.

BTW, if you've read your T.H. White, you already know the Questing Beast is not to be caught becsuse .. then what? Go get a Rigbteous Cause? Where else will you find one that doesn't fight back?

Bob Loblaw said...

We already have way too many dreamers and are a little light in the practical department.

Chris N said...

Ocasio-Cortez becoming a bartender again might be best for everybody, including the planet (whatever this means exactly).

Matt Sablan said...

Ever notice how the further a political plan is to the left, the less it needs to be a plan and implementable, but is fine being aspirational or a working document, while the closer to the right/Republican side, the more every i needs to be dotted and t crossed otherwise it is just a "pie in the sky fantasy?"

Rusty said...

Whenever the left speaks 'asperationally' there is always a faint whiff of genocide.

Nichevo said...


Howard said...
gag me with a backhoe

2/10/19, 3:46 PM


Quit whining snowflake, this is your people trying to put the economy into a blender. Embrace the cuck! Own it!

Craig said...

I like that Althouse has hardly blogged at all about the Green New Deal. Other folks I follow had their hair on fire from the drop.

My fellow Americans, if we all ignore AOC, she has no power.

MayBee said...

Matthew Sablan said...
Ever notice how the further a political plan is to the left, the less it needs to be a plan and implementable, but is fine being aspirational or a working document


Yes!!!
I think it's because the goal is so noble, the arc of it is obviously going to bend toward success.

Carter Wood said...

You can't make an aspirational omelet without breaking a few aspirational eggs.

JAORE said...

Many full time dreamers sleep on sidewalks and accost people for spare change.

Others wear bright red lipstick.

Image counts.

Caligula said...

"This is aspirational" as the Jacobins were "aspirational." They aspired to destroy everything so they could then build everything anew, fresch, something from nothing.

Yet it was only the destruction that was so spectacularly successful. For when it came time to build, there was nothing left to build with.

The response to this will inevitably be, "Look at Venezuela, and realize that this "aspirational" process will be equally and inevitably corrupt, and if ever implemented can lead only to the same despair, destruction and ruin from which it is difficult to obtain even the bare minimum of human necessities.

But what do these "aspirationals" know of Venezuela? Is Venezuela on YouTube? It's barely covered in the New York Times!

So, yes, let's aspire to just tear it all down so we can build anew, free from the dead hand of the past. It's Year Zero, Bring the Jubilee!

At least in the 1960s these "aspirationals" just departed to form their own utopian communities. Which all too often (after the trust-fund money and inheritances were spent) left behind little but memories of poverty, privation, filth and disease. Which was unfortunate, but, at least the rest of us were not compelled to join them.


gerry said...

Aspirational - the peanut butter that gets stuck in the trachea that lead to death.

chuck said...

1945 Germany was way ahead of the curve. No plane travel, fossil fuel industry shut down, 80% of the housing gutted and ready for renovation, and locally grown veggies. Heck, even Berliners had their own vegetable gardens in the parks. It was hard work to get there and only possible because of the great aspirations of the German people.

Bill Peschel said...

"My fellow Americans, if we all ignore AOC, she has no power."

She has power. She's in Congress.

Remember, the one thing evil can't stand is mockery. That's why the Democrats have turned against free speech.

Unknown said...

Ms. A, I think you missed something. This seems to be the kind of language tic you usually notice.

as·pi·ra·tion·al
Dictionary result for aspirational
/ˌaspəˈrāSHənl,ˌaspəˈrāSHnəl/
adjective
having or characterized by aspirations to achieve social prestige and material success.