SAR #15336

“What if climate changes turns out to be a hoax, and all we wind up with is a fairer, more just society?” Naomi Klein.

Words Is Words: The world's leaders are meeting in Paris to map out a non-binding agreement on saving the world. It can't be an enforceable treaty for two reasons: the US Senate would never approve one, and few if any countries have any intention of keeping the vague and unenforceable promises they are making. Even so, Obama wants periodic public reviews of each country's progress every five years. Big whoop.

Home Front: While Obama is in Paris pretending to save the world, Republicans on Capitol Hill are working to save coal companies' profits by repealing EPA regulations that would limit the emission of climate-warming carbon dioxide by power plants. Which is all you need to know about the Republicans, the import of the Paris meeting and the fate of the world.

Trojan Ted: Ted Cruz wants women in America to quit complaining about the Republican assault on Planned Parenthood because they can get a condom in any gas station in the country. Except Texas, where they are sold for prevention of disease only. “There is no doubt”, he says, that Planned Parenthood was “selling baby parts” and that “the overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats.” Relax, he's not talking to you, he's pandering to the evangelical Christians who presumably believe this crap.

Beauty Pay Gent: The Donald says CNN will have to pay him $5 million to get him to appear at the next GOP debate. “Believing Trump will inevitably fail is just wishful thinking.” “Trump is a monster without a conscience, a politician with a toxic set of policies. He is the product of a long legacy of racism and violence in which conscience is put to sleep, democracy withers, and public values are extinguished. This is truly a time of monsters.”

The Word: Marco Rubio, trying to poach some of Cruz's Christians, says the 9/11 attacks were “part of God's broader plan for the universe.” Rubio also claims that “people of faith” should ignore laws that violate their beliefs. This presumably applies only to right-wing fundamentalist Christians and not to Muslims, Jews or Episcopalians. He believes that that no law is "settled" just because the Supreme Court has ruled on the issue, because “God’s rules always win.”

The Future Is Now: In El Salvador a woman can be (19 have been, so far) sentenced to 30 years in prison for having a miscarriage. Abortion for any reason was outlawed there in 1998; no exceptions, even if the woman is raped, her health or life is at risk, or if the fetus is seriously deformed. It is exactly what many Republican politicians want to impose on your wife and daughter.

Reruns: The NSA, which previously denied collecting our phone data and then said it had stopped collecting our phone data, has announced that the law under which it collected all our phone data had expired. They also said they had ended the collection of all our phone data. Really. They didn't mention that they require phone service providers to collect all our phone data on their behalf.