Reality Check

This is what reality looks like. The sea isn't blue or green or gray anymore. It looks like this for thousands of miles.

They're now admitting that roughly 2.5 million gallons of oil a day are spewing into the Gulf. Chances are that's still a lowball estimate and it's probably been that big from day one. There is no known fix or you can be sure that they would have used it.

People forget how anti-science the Bush administration was. They didn't just refuse to fund research unfavorable to corporate exploitation, they actively punished scientists whose conclusions conflicted with their agenda. They drove out the honest researchers and installed hacks who didn't have qualms about fudging the statistics.

Nobody can plug the gusher, because there isn't any technology to do so. They're inventing it as they go and it takes time. Expecting Obama to talk tough to BP and make them fix it is a fool's hope. It's like criticizing Bell for not inventing the iPhone a week after his invention made its first call. Like expecting the delivery of iPods even ten years after the invention of the phonograph.

People need to wrap their heads around the reality. This isn't a political ploy, it's a crisis of unimaginable magnitude and almost unspeakable consequences. The Gulf is screwed. The residents are screwed. We're all screwed by extension and it's going to last a very long time. We're all going to have to calm down and find a way to deal with that inescapable fact. [enlarged photo]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

What Obama actually said last night

I just read Obama's speech and just about everything that people were saying last night on twitter that he didn't say, he actually did say. The only accurate criticism was that he failed to use the words "global warming" or "climate change." It strikes me if he had, he would have lost the fully half of the country that doesn't believe those things exist and the narrative today would have been he used the speech to push that tree-huggers agenda.

He did explain what measures he's taken to direct the efforts. He did put forward whatever plan exists right now, and it's constantly evolving as the reality becomes known. And he did issue a call for action.

For decades, we have known the days of cheap and easily accessible oil were numbered. For decades, we’ve talked and talked about the need to end America’s century-long addiction to fossil fuels. And for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires. Time and again, the path forward has been blocked -- not only by oil industry lobbyists, but also by a lack of political courage and candor.

Not getting the criticism that he should have used more direct or outraged language. Do they mean like Jimmy Carter did? He was absolutely right, and nobody listened. He called for actions that required sacrifice and nobody wanted to make them. He's still being pilloried today for those gas lines.

I'm thinking people from whom I would expect a more reasonable reponse are just scared and it's making them hysterical. Mostly younger people who grew up receiving, and now expecting instant gratification. But sometimes there just isn't an easy or fast solution to a problem. And this is a complicated set of problems where the solution to one aspect exacerbates another.

That being said, I did uncover a few level headed responses to the speech worth reading. The NY Daily News and of all people, Anne Applebaum made sense. As did Steve Benen who quotes Chris Hayes tweet noting the White House doesn't have a message problem, it has a fact problem. As Steve wisely added, "The speech wasn't going to plug the well or change votes on cap-and-trade; it was going to keep the ball moving forward." That unfortunately is the best case, and only possible, scenario at the moment.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

My reaction to the reaction to Obama's speech

I had to go out so I missed the speech. After reading the reactions on twitter, I wished I had skipped those too. Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky, but I'm getting impatient with demands for a quick fix where none exists. I'm sick and tired of insta-reactions where people engage their mouths before their brains. I've had it with claims that it's one's duty to criticize when it's done purely for sake of criticism, without offering a realistic alternative. And I really hate when the left starts adopting right wing blathering about failure of leadership and demanding better optics. How is that going to solve anything?

John Cole pretty much summed up my reaction and since he's better at swearing, I'll just quote him.

Of course, if anything positive was going to happen, Obama would have to stand up there and say “Those penguins pelicans coated with oil and shrimp that taste like wd-40? You stupid motherfuckers can expect more of that until you stop voting for assholes who oppose alternative energy sources and any move away from fossil fuels. Until then, I hear dental floss works ok removing tarballs from your teeth, you dumbasses. Also, this response IS big government, you teabagging shitheels.”

That would probably be deemed partisan, though. Just shoot me.

Read the rest at the link. A prettier, or angrier, or more inspiring speech that makes the left or the apolitical feel better, or vindicates ignored warnings, isn't going to plug the gusher. It just won't. And isn't that what's really important?

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]