Daily Clips: November 9th, 2015
The war against Exxon Mobil: A truly awful piece from Robert Samuelson. A champion of the big-guy, Samuelson defends Exxon, saying that environmentalists are wasting their time going after the big oil company for misleading the public on climate change. How should we address this situation instead, you ask? Samuelson doesn’t bother to give us any alternatives:
The larger problem is the inherent difficulty of doing something significant about global warming. Fossil fuels supply four-fifths of primary global energy. To stabilize atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, fossil fuel emissions need to go to about zero. How is that going to happen?
He then goes onto say that environmental advocates who say that Exxon knew about the harmful effects of climate change “are essentially proposing that the company be punished for expressing its opinions.” How ridiculous. What is it with right-wingers and falling back on the whole “corporations are people” dogma? This isn’t an issue relating to freedom of expression. It’s an issue of lying systematically to the American people. They have every right to lie to us, but they also have every right to be held accountable.
Rubio and his immigration retreat: The Washington Post’s editorial board has some harsh words for Senator Marco Rubio and his “craven flip-flop” when it comes to immigration polices. They ask “is he so politically pliable and ideologically biddable that he will say anything, and take any stance, to shield himself from the ugly nativism Donald Trump has tapped among Republican primary voters?”
Tomorrow’s GOP debate moderators: After the Republican presidential candidates moaned about the liberal-ness of the CNBC debate, expect Maria Bartiromo, Neil Cavuto, and Gerard Baker to lob softball questions for the entire night. Vox provides individual breakdowns of these moderators.
Here’s a scary video for you:
