Tag: paris climate accord
#EndorseThis: John Oliver Rips Trump’s Climate Madness

#EndorseThis: John Oliver Rips Trump’s Climate Madness

As late-night television’s resident explainer-in-chief, John Oliver seizes the opportunity to emphasize why Donald Trump’s rejection of the Paris climate accord is insane. As Oliver deconstructs his arguments against the landmark agreement, with clips from the president’s Rose Garden speech and previous remarks about the climate threat, the fundamental shallowness and disorder of Trump’s mind is revealed (again).

Trump’s innate tendencies toward paranoia and prevarication were on full display in justifying this disastrous decision with “flamboyantly deceptive” arguments. He’s harming America’s standing in the world. He’s injuring American brands. And he’s hindering the renewable energy industries that will power the global future and employ armies of skilled workers — probably in China.

“He’s fulfilling his campaign promise to create millions of jobs,” rants the Last Week Tonight host. “He’s just doing it in the wrong fucking country!”

So grave is the threat to humanity that John Oliver exhorts his audience to be part of the solution, like so many governors, mayors, and local officials who have pledged to uphold the Paris accord in defiance of Trump. So look up your local officials, find out what they’re doing about climate — and if they’re on the wrong side, such as a few imbeciles he profiles, oust them. (As an American citizen you should also sign the Paris accord here.)

This is a bravura performance, trending #1 on Youtube today.

#EndorseThis: Donald Trump Flips Off The Entire Planet

#EndorseThis: Donald Trump Flips Off The Entire Planet

Watching the president deliver his Rose Garden announcement that the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord, a disastrous occasion that called for solemnity, Trevor Noah was not impressed: “I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that Donald Trump may have doomed the planet, or the fact that announced it like it’s an episode of The Bachelorette.”

As the Daily Show host noted, nowhere on earth is the climate accord controversial except in Trump’s White House and among kindred far-right wing-nuts. The hundreds of nations that have led this effort include China and Russia, the entire European Union, every country in South and Central America except Nicaragua, even North Korea (Kim Jong Un may be crazy, but not that crazy), Israel and Palestine (“It’s like when we agreed on pork!”). But for Trump the motives behind this historic pout are probably psychological as well as ideological, although otherwise not logical at all.

“We don’t want other countries laughing at us any more,” he whined. Of course, Noah tried to be reassuring. “They weren’t laughing at you, Donald — at least, not for this.”

We may be headed toward global doomsday but at least the orange super-villain is still good for a few laughs.