The big changes underway in this country are not political, despite the headlines.
Divided government: What a shock! Never would've seen that one coming.
A much bigger change has taken place in the nature of our economy, and in the nature of our atmosphere, and these are changes the Tea Party can't face, and thus deny even exists. (And profits from).
As Steve Bennett, a Ventura County supervisor, said in a board meeting yesterday:
Income distribution in this country has changed dramatically since the l960's. One percent of the people received eight percent of the wealth in the l960's. In 2007, one percent of the people received twenty-three percent of the wealth. That's a dramatic change in income distribution.
Combine that with the recent Supreme Court decision, the Citizens United case, (And by the way, the way the Citizens United decision was written, only 10% of the money that is being spent on campaigns is identified. Ninety percent of the time, we don't know where the money is coming from.)
We have to be concerned that those people at the top can use those resources in an unlimited way and have a significant influence over these elections. I think someday this Citizens United case will be viewed like the Dred Scott decision of l857, when the court ruled that African-American slaves were not human beings, they were property.
Then of course we have the climate change already underway in this country and around the world which has been excruciatingly well-documented, despite the deniers.
To wit, from the US Global Climate Research Program:
Climate changes are underway in the United States and are projected to grow. Climate-related changes are already observed in the United States and its coastal waters. These include increases in heavy downpours, rising temperature and sea level, rapidly retreating glaciers, thawing permafrost, lengthening growing seasons, lengthening ice-free seasons in the ocean and on lakes and rivers, earlier snowmelt, and alterations in river flows. These changes are projected to grow.
Crop and livestock production will be increasingly challenged. Agriculture is considered one of the sectors most adaptable to changes in climate. However, increased heat, pests, water stress, diseases, and weather extremes will pose adaptation challenges for crop and livestock production.
Threats to human health will increase. Health impacts of climate change are related to heat stress, waterborne diseases, poor air quality, extreme weather events, and diseases transmitted by insects and rodents.
But I like the way Tom Toles put it, with his usual blend of anger and wit:
It appears the chances of addressing [climate change] have been set back even further than they were, due to a staggeringly successful campaign of Machiavellian lies. The votes are in, but unfortunately the climate doesn't work by poll, or even election. What we are doing is I think the gravest folly of my lifetime, and possibly in all of human history.
Makes me thankful for the sanity in California. Yes, sanity. A 60% win for AB 32.
Kit Stolz 