{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Ep. 112 Politics just makes me upset but that never stops me; The End of An Informed Democracy","description":"Half cocked, half informed, full moron. Seriously, the things we talk about and the half-cocked opinions we spout are really so misinformed that I would like to ask you a favor.  My favor is that you half listen but don\u2019t really pay attention.  Is that possible?  Listen for one of us to mispronounce something or to say something completely off base but I don\u2019t want you to really pay attention.  If you could\u2026 picture us both sitting on a front porch in a couple of rocking chairs.  That\u2019s the best setting for this conversation.  Can you do that?   This is also not the cheeriest episode.  We try to stay away from politics and that lasts for about\u2026 10 seconds?  I\u2019ve cut some stuff from this episode but left in other stuff for entertainment purposes.  For example: We talk about the huge bill that Senator Joe Manchin helped pass but the Senator  mispronounces his name.  I\u2019m not going to tell you what our Senator thinks his name is but I know it\u2019s wrong and then I get it wrong.  So much moron in this episode folks. Next up, Nancy Pelosi goes to Taiwan, which the Senator is in favor of and I am not.  However the Senator\u2019s take is that China should not have any say in where any of our citizens travel and Taiwan does not belong to China.  That part I agree with.  I just don\u2019t understand the trip specifically for her as the Speaker of the House.  Was she sent over there on a diplomatic mission?  Or is she just over there on a personal publicity trip.  If it\u2019s the latter, I am against it.  This does not seem like the job of the Speaker of the House.  Maybe, however\u2026 \u201cunofficially\u201d she was sent there as a representative of the US to thumb our noses at China.  And if that is the reason, okay\u2026 I guess.  This is just a pissing contest.  While Pelosi was there the Chinese military conducted \u201clive ammunition\u201d drills and invading airspace, blah, blah, blah look how big my wiener is exercises close to Taiwan. However there is a tiny upside to this\u2026 the last time this high a ranking official visited Taiwan was in 1997 when then House Speaker Newt Gingrich visited.  The Senator is incapable of saying Gingrich\u2019s name\u2026 Then the conversation takes an unexpected turn and it gets rather sad.  The Senator wants the President to do something about the economy and says \u201cwe have enough oil to last us another 300 years.\u201d  And I\u2019m taken aback..  I don\u2019t quite know what to say.  I think you can hear the confusion in my voice.  Has he been paying attention to what\u2019s been happening to this planet?  Am I just another tree hugger?   The Senator thinks we should be drilling for more oil to fix the economy.  Seriously.  And he\u2019s not alone\u2026 We\u2019ve got weather systems creating temperatures that are breaking records set by previous years, and I don\u2019t mean decades ago or centuries ago, I mean last year.  Personally, I don\u2019t think electric cars are a long term solution either.  Does anyone know what the byproduct of mining for Lithium is?  Me either, but if you sift out a bunch of some element from the earth, there\u2019s gonna be stuff left over.  What is it and how will it effect the environment long term?  As in for your granddaughter.  YOUR granddaughter.  You know who I\u2019m talking to.  I\u2019m talking to you, that old fart that loves their granddaughter more than anything.  What are we leaving her?   He thinks that SOME\u2026mmm \u201csome\u201d of the climate change we are seeing around the world is from the way we\u2019ve treated the planet in the use of fossil fuels but we should still be drilling to get the economy back on track.  That, to him and many others, is more important than what is happening to this planet, because we really don\u2019t know how much is caused by us\u2026 we don\u2019t know!   I thought we have decided as a nation to make a switch to renewable energy and to phase out fossil fuel.  Mega droughts, Mega Heat waves, Mega floods\u2026the horse has left the barn on our environment and we\u2019re still chasing our tails trying to improve the economy and the mighty dollar.  The laws of nature and the laws of physics don\u2019t care about what laws congress passes or vetos.  You may continue to say it\u2019s overreacting, so I\u2019m going to let a couple of those guys that wear the white coats talk later, what are they called?  Scientists, I think is the name. We\u2019ll hear from one dummy named Carl Sagan, remember him?  I have something for you from him back in 1980.  And another, more recent dummy you may have heard of named Neil deGrass Tyson about that subject instead of us two morons. So, why do I leave some of this Moron mayhem in?  Three reasons: 1) The Senator was recently in France when there was a heatwave going on and it was when the UK had declared a heat warning.  For the first time.  Ever.  Ever, ever.  Maybe the Norse God Odin declared one once when it got over 25 degrees once.  I texted the Senator an article about it asking if he still thought global warming was a hoax.  You will find out his response. 2) He then says he\u2019s depressed and wants to talk about sports after he brought up politics in the first place.   3) when I bring up France, he wants give a blow by blow account of his trip to a wedding in fancy France and how he talked to some dignitary and I\u2019m not having any of it because I\u2019m pretty sure you don\u2019t care.  I know I don\u2019t care and I put the kybosh on that and shut him down.  I guess I\u2019m hoping you will find that entertaining.  You can just hear it in his voice that he\u2019s all bent out of shape because I\u2019m not the least bit interested in his intellectual conversation about politics with some French dignitary. After I interrupt the show, the Senator has one final topic he\u2019d like to bring up that he says is a sports topic more than a political topic and that is Britney Griner who has been sentenced to 10 years in a Russian Prison for possession of a cannabis product, I think it was hash but it doesn\u2019t matter at this point.  Let\u2019s just say it\u2019s not a good idea to take Marijuana or any drug to a communist country and saying, \u201cI didn\u2019t know it was there\u201d is not the best defense.  Also, this is not a sports story.  It is definitely a political story.  Why do I leave it in?  Because the Senator\u2026 and maybe he\u2019s doing this on purpose and I\u2019m a naive Moron, but he says her name is\u2026 you know what, I\u2019m going to let you find out.  I hope you think it\u2019s worth it and thank you for listening to the Modern Moron\u2026 Okay, enough from us Morons about the planet.  Here is Carl Sagan, and I\u2019m assuming you know and remember if but if not, he was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator.  He spent the majority of his career at Cornell University where he was the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books.  He also argued the hypothesis, that has since been accepted, that the high surface temperatures of Venus can be attributed to, and calculated using, the greenhouse effect.  Here he is from the original series Cosmos on PBS in 1980, over 40 years ago\u2026 Now, here is Neil deGras Tyson.  If you\u2019ve not heard of him I\u2019m very surprised, but he is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. He studied at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia University. From 1991 to 1994, he was a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University.  His resume goes on and on with published papers and books, from 2006 to 2011 he was the host of the television series NOVA.  In 2014 he hosted the television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which he called a \u201ccontinuation\u201d of astronomer Carl Sagan\u2019s popular series Cosmos from 1980.  Here he is talking about Carbon Dioxide in our atmosphere.  If there wasn\u2019t any, the earth would freeze, but if there is too much, it warms the planet\u2026the background music from the program may make it a little difficult to hear\u2026  Next he talks about the amount of carbon thrust into our atmosphere from volcanoes and compares that to the carbon from fossil fuels\u2026 Not even 2% of the carbon spewed into the atmosphere from volcanoes is contributing to the 30 billion tons civilization cranks out every year for decades.  And we wonder why this problem is accelerating? Finally here is Mr. Tyson in an interview with Larry King from 2015 on politics and science\u2026 \u201cThe end of an informed democracy.\u201d   The all mighty dollar-slash-strong-economy is more important than the air we breath.  I can\u2019t help thinking about the 10 Commandments movie when Moses comes back down from the mountain and what does he see?  He\u2019s like, \u201cwhat the hell\u2019s going on down here?\u201d It\u2019s just a bunch of goddamn dopamine addicts!  Worshiping false gods in the form of cars and McMansions and private jets and swipe right on your electronic devices that need to be replaced every black Friday.  Only instead of a golden calf, it\u2019s a bunch of rectangular pieces of paper with pictures of dead presidents on them.  Speaking of that golden calf, who loves gold more than anyone and wants you to know it? And here\u2019s another irony for you: most of those right wing, gun toting whiteys who are afraid of losing our privileged status in this country are also bible thumpers.  Apparently we aren\u2019t reading the bible we\u2019re thumping. You really should watch this old movie next Passover-slash-Easter.  This was a film of our generation and during the orgie scene there is a tug of war with two guys who each have a woman\u2019s arm and they\u2019re pulling her in different directions so they can rape her.  And what has she been directed to do by Cecil B. Demille?  She\u2019s laughing!... \u201cOh, you two are incorrigible!\u201d  This was a time when you were told, \u201cWhen they say no?  They really mean yes.\u201d  And that\u2019s how this scene is played\u2026 there\u2019s another big brute who literally has a woman under each arm and he\u2019s carrying them both off and they\u2019re laughing and just having a ball.  Rape is fun!  Or it sure seemed so back the good old Biblical times of Moses 6,000 short years ago.   And one of the great period actors of the time, Edgar G. Robinson comes in to challenge Moses\u2026 yeah see, you wrote them commandment yourself see, right behind the water cooler see?  I saw ya do it see? Wow, what a rabbit  hole!  What the hell was I talking about?... Science!  Scientists, that\u2019s right!  How did I got into the Bible when I\u2019m supposed to be talking a bout Science and the Scientific book of Revelations we are experiencing!  (Yay)   CLOSE -  Wow\u2026 I had every intention of getting back to my conversation with the Senator but me and those rabbit holes I go down.  I think I mentioned in the opening that we talked about the Britney Griner situation and how the United States is trading a murderous arms dealer for a basketball player who \u201cforgot\u201d that she had pot in her suitcase.  There\u2019s obviously more to it than that, but when the senator brings it up he can\u2019t remember her name and refers to Britney Griner as Gloria Gaynor\u2026 the singer.   Maybe I\u2019ll go back and find that for ya.   Also, I don\u2019t want to leave you with total gloom, doom and despair.  This is our old friend Al Gore, who the Senator said was right when he was in France, on our ability to change\u2026 Let\u2019s hope he\u2019s right.  Another story about conserving water is in South Africa.  I think I\u2019ve mentioned it but the drought there in 2018 was so serious they were looking at a \u201cday zero\u201d- the moment when some four million inhabitants would be left without water.  It\u2019s almost four years since it edged dangerously towards that day.   "We underestimate the ability of citizens to adapt to a crisis," said Dr Kevin Winter, an environmental expert at the University of Cape Town. He points out that the city's water consumption nearly halved in the space of just three weeks in early 2018, from roughly 780 megalitres per day to under 550, before sinking even lower. An extraordinary display of public unity. That\u2019s something we don\u2019t see too often or at least we don\u2019t see it broadcast, published or tweeted, but we Americans are going to need some extraordinary displays of public unity.  I wonder what it\u2019s going to take? I also wonder if I could make another podcast episode that is more preachy and self righteous as this one.  I think I may have out done myself.  Or out Moron\u2019d myself. Here\u2019s something I rarely do, I\u2019m going to promote my upcoming episode.  If you thought this episode was a downer, you should find the next episode uplifting.  In stead of science we\u2019re going with divine intervention as my guest is a real live seminarian from the Catholic Church!  Yeah, that one!  The original OG.  Old Gangsta or Old God?  We have a pretty spirited conversation, pun intended, and if nothing else I think you\u2019ll love his enthusiasm, he\u2019s not jaded yet by papal politics.  I think I ask him if he plans to run for Pope, but I don\u2019t remember now.  I think you\u2019ll find it interesting and I hope you will tune in or download the next episode with a Father to be\u2026 not that kind.  Thank you for listening to The MM\u2026  Trump Tower\u2019s New Bar Sells $45 Presidential-Themed Cocktails -  Forbes.com  Carl Sagan - Wikipedia   Neil deGrasse Tyson - Wikipedia  Cape Town's Day Zero: 'We are axing trees to save water' - BBC News ","author_name":"TheModernMoron podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/themodernmoron.libsyn.com\/website","html":"