The Copenhagen climate summit was pretty much summed up in the high-level segment yesterday when Penny Wong’s (the Australian environment minister) speech was interrupted by whistles and chanting and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez got a standing ovation.
[…]
President Chavez brought the house down.When he said the process in Copenhagen was “not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really and imperial dictatorship…down with imperial dictatorships” he got a rousing round of applause.
When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening.
But then he wound up to his grand conclusion – 20 minutes after his 5 minute speaking time was supposed to have ended and after quoting everyone from Karl Marx to Jesus Christ – “our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell….let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.” He won a standing ovation
…and what of Chavez’s own ‘road to hell’?
This is all it was about in the first place. Money, money, money.
Rich countries using “cap and trade” to buy poor countries. (Since we gave you all those billions of dollars, you don’t mind if we exploit your natural resources, do you? You do? Well, maybe our cap and trade will go elsewhere…)
And of course poor countries falling for it hook, line, and sinker. They don’t care. The guys in charge will put half the money in their pockets.
And Goldman Sacks (Al Gore and company) skimming a bit off the top.
Oliver Stone is smiling.
No shocking surprise. The whole global warming issue was hijacked by the left may years, if not decades ago.
Maybe the rest of the herd of sheep start understanding what this is all about now… maybe?
I finally get it. Some people are masochists who need a bleep to kick their bleeps and boss them around or they just aren’t happy.
Call it a god made flesh/bad father figure sort of thing.
I suppose some people are just born to be slaves and they aren’t going to be happy until they get a master to run their lives for them. Sounds loony to me but so help me it does fit the facts as presented.
When Chavez gives all his money to his people maybe then I’ll listen to him.
Chaves is of course correct !!! On the First “Earth Day” the slogan was “Pollution is somebody’s PROFITS!!!” NOTHING HAS CHANGED !!! Capitalism will just BURN THROUGH ALL THE RESOURCES ON THE PLANET, AND THEN TRY TO LEAP INTO SPACE AND SPREAD IT’S CONTAGION TO THE STARS !!!
To his credit, GWB would have downed trousers on stage and shat on the lectern.
Chavez is confused. What does capitalism have to do with International Omnicorp, which have bought and puppetized most governments…?
When you have purchased the police and the regulators, the distinction between capitalism and communism is a smokescreen fiction.
Political extremism, as always, only makes things worse. Blaming capitalism isn’t warranted either. Capitalism is the social representation of that human quality known as ambition. Ambition is a quality which in excess produces a complete disregard for other considerations, such as social responsibility. Chavez may be a clown but at least he had balls enough to stand up to the rich foreigners who were controlling his country’s natural resources.
IF global warming were man made, it would undoubtedly be caused by capitalism. Humans love capitalism because it improves their lives. Chavez sees himself as a feudal king with all his peasants tilling the fields and paying taxes to him. Capitalism dilutes the peasants’ fealty. Capitalism utilizes resources Chavez would rather see in his portfolio. Oh, and yes. Unrestrained, capitalism is a source of pollution.
Green is the new red.
‘Somebody’ is correct.
That is pretty succinct!
“…and what of Chavez’s own ‘road to hell’?”
kid.
capitalism is maligned
consumers are the driving force behind capitalism. When gasoline goes up in price and demand goes down the price eventually drops, $100/bbl oil can only exist with consumer demand.
The problem is what does the consumer truly want which versus what the consumer is willing to pay. I.E. if green energy is 25cents per kilowatt are you the consumer willing to pay over twice your current rate to “save the plant”?
Is the american consumer willing to pay more for domestic goods to preserve american jobs?
If the consumer puts his money where his mouth is the capitalist will oblige.
Capitalism is a democracy where we vote with our wallets everyday and the capitalist listens, as oppose to government where we get lip service every election cycle.
I thought the argument that ‘global warming is a communist conspiracy’ was a ridiculous argument?
So how many of the scientists were cheering?
#6 ¡No Pasarán!
http://yfrog.com/1akbhdec09j
View of Copenhagen this morning, where everyone is talking about global warming. And the local media have talked about how rare it snows nowadays. When they were children, there was snow every winter!
#23,
You are correct, but nobody will admit that situations are complex and simplistic answers do not work.
Yeah, right, Chavez. You’re different…
“A truly democratic society has never existed and so far as we can see, never will exist. Society is of its nature oligarchical, and the power of the oligarchy always rests upon force and fraud. James Burnham does not deny that ‘good’ motives may operate in private life, but he maintains that politics consists of the struggle for power, and nothing else. All historical changes finally boil down to the replacement of one ruling class by another. All talk about democracy, liberty, equality, fraternity, all revolutionary movements, all visions of Utopia, or ‘the classless society’, or ‘the Kingdom of Heaven on earth’, are humbug (not necessarily conscious humbug) covering the ambitions of some new class which is elbowing its way into power. The English Puritans, the Jacobins, the Bolsheviks, were in each case simply power seekers using the hopes of the masses in order to win a privileged position for themselves. Power can sometimes be won or maintained without violence, but never without fraud, because it is necessary to make use of the masses, and the masses would not co-operate if they knew that they were simply serving the purposes of a minority. In each great revolutionary struggle the masses are led on by vague dreams of human brotherhood, and then, when the new ruling class is well established in power, they are thrust back into servitude. This is practically the whole of political history, as Burnham sees it.”
Capitalism IS the culprit of all evil, especially when it comes to our one and only planet of residence. It implies that there are infinite resources, to make infinite capital. It creates those who have resources, and those who do not. Instead of sharing what limited resources exist, Capitalist greed just uses them up, and sells them to the highest bidder.
It’s a system doomed to failure in the long run, if ever there was one.
Nothing wrong with true Capitalism. In fact I’m a big fan!!
The problem is that the GOP has perverted it. The subprime fiasco is just one example.
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_helyar&sid=aJfydrQqNyas
“…and what of Chavez’s own ‘road to hell’?”
If you mean when is the US going to kill him, I don’t think they can, he is on to the U$A and I think he’s right.
As one of many sitting home with nothing to do but ask questions of how we got into this bad place, it’s the greedy shitheads and their GOD Capitalism. I love how the Capitalisms try and get us to vote to starve our self’s by not getting a real choice.
And they are trying it again, CAP and GIVE’me your money, I love how when it means that we need protect where we live its all a lie or empty your pockets to fix it, again NO CHOICE? see how they work.
Lets see: . . . . . . . . . .
Doodypants and Loser crowing as so aptly captured by #23 freddy and absolutely refusing to put any sheen of subtlety on their delusional posts.
Even #30 qb’s kind and insightful posts can’t move Doodypants and Loser off their race to the bottom to match Chavez stupidity for stupidity.
Pigs in the mud.
#35 Your comment doesn’t surprise me at all!
As a true conservative you can only see black or white, my or your way, right or wrong.
A true open mind will try to comprehend why the views of more than half the world’s population are what they are.
You might categorize public mentality as Open minded, Closed minded and Don’t care.
#40 LibertyLover
Oh I don’t know, off the top of my head. Roads. Defense. Parks. Libraries. Basic health care for everyone. Stuff like that.
You know basic stuff. The stuff that we know works well in every other modern democracy.
Nothing special.
#30 qb
very well put
Not bad Chavez but I wonder do you do what u say?
#45 No, I didn’t leave them out, I was being nice by using the term “don’t care” instead of “sheeple” .
I don’t see you as ordinary sheeple. You are more of like a sheepherder’s helper. You herd of course, but you also encourage fellow sheep that “everything is OK, just do what the sheepherder says”.
By the way, I’ve lost track who the current GOP sheepherder is? Is it still Jabba the Rush?
#30, qb,
A very well written post and sums up my thoughts exactly.
May I invite to visit one of my favorite blogs. I think you would fit very well into its laid back, intelligent atmosphere.
#50, What you are arguing about is something the Founding Fathers argued about as well — how does the government do what it should do without giving them the ability to tax?
The answer was simple — apportionment and duties.
That is the answer — those who consume more pay more.
But you are still confusing something that is specified in the Constitution to what you want. HC is not in the Constitution. Defense and Post Roads are.
And it doesn’t matter whether I can see the benefit or not. It is irrelevant. If we let “just a little” get by because it is good, where does it stop? It doesn’t. Multi-Trillion Dollars TARPs are what happens when people start to expect someone else to take care of them.
#58 LibertyLover
Hmm. You’ve carefully avoided the crux of my argument.
And I don’t have to worry about ‘Red October’ etc. Because that’s how all modern democracies work to my knowledge. So it’s not some far out idea – that’s the way it is.
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need”
That’s a distortion – it implies taking without limit from ‘those with ability’ (I’d not that being wealthy doesn’t require any ability, but still) and without bounds giving to an arbitrary and unbounded ‘need’.
No I’m saying for some situations taking some for the greater good is a good idea. Like roads, police, defense, education, health etc.
Your fixated on ‘everybody paying the same’. Which means someone living in a box under a bridge should pay the same as a billionaire. And we both know that is bollocks. It doesn’t take into account ability to pay, the benefit of said systems to billionaire (say not paying health insurance for workers, or roads to transit goods etc) or a more fair apportionment should be on ‘effort’ not some fixed money (which has to be ridiculously low – otherwise poor people couldn’t pay it).