We're gonna need a bigger stage

[¿spoom]

SEATTLE (AP) Declaring climate change the nation's most pressing issue, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee launched his 2020 Democratic presidential bid on Friday with a promise to refocus American government and society.

"It is time for our nation to set a new priority," Inslee told supporters gathered at a solar panel business in Seattle. "This is truly our moment. It is our moment to solve America's most daunting challenge and make it the first, foremost and paramount duty of the United States ... to defeat climate change."

The 68-year-old former congressman becomes the first governor to enter a race dominated by senators. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper also are eyeing presidential campaigns.

It won't be easy for Inslee to garner attention with prominent senators already running: Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Former Vice President Joe Biden and former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke also are expected to make highly anticipated 2020 announcements in the coming weeks.

But Inslee says his emphasis on combating climate change sets him apart from his competitors and from Republican President Donald Trump.

"We are all angry and outraged by this president. I am, too," he said, adding that rather than get drawn into Trump's vortex, he would "unite Americans in this moment to solve our most urgent problem."

Inslee frames climate action as an economic opportunity, not just a moral imperative. He didn't talk specifically Friday about the costs of his vision, other than to criticize considerable tax subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. But he argued that public and private investments in clean energy are a net boon for working Americans that would create "millions of jobs" doing such work as building "electric cars in Michigan" and installing solar panels on homes in every state.

Inslee argues that no presidential candidate has hinged a campaign as heavily on climate and environmental policy as he will. He unveiled a blue and green campaign logo with an arc of the Earth, eschewing the typical red, white and blue. His Twitter feed Friday was replete with the hashtag #OurClimateMoment.

He plans his first trip as a candidate to Iowa next week, with events geared to climate issues. Trips to Nevada and California will follow.

Inslee may have a larger opening on climate since billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer has passed on a national campaign, opting instead to continue his advocacy for impeaching and removing Trump from office. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who has spent millions of dollars on climate issues, may run.

Steyer tweeted Friday: "It's good to know that a climate champion like @GovInslee will be in the race, pushing the country to recognize what is at stake."

Inslee hasn't specifically endorsed the Green New Deal introduced by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, and he didn't during his speech Friday. But he said last month that he was "thrilled that this ... resolution has been brought forward" to push for action.

He has argued separately for an issue-by-issue approach that adds up to sweeping change. He announced his intention Friday to "power our economy with 100 percent clean energy," but he set no target date for the U.S. to become carbon neutral. The Green New Deal sets a target of 2030.

Despite his emphasis on climate policy, Inslee says he's not a one-issue candidate. He pitches his breadth of personal and political experiences as ideal to bridge political and cultural divides among the Democratic base and the broader electorate.

Inslee has governed Washington state as an unabashed liberal, promoting clean energy, gay rights, abortion rights, environmental preservation, tighter gun restrictions and more spending for education and job training. In Congress, he voted against the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and for a ban on certain military-style guns.

Most recently, he's called for a state-based public option health insurance plan in Washington that he says is a "step toward universal health care."

The state GOP recently has derided his "extreme environmental agenda" and pointed to its price tag.

Inslee started his legal and political career in small-town central Washington, winning a state legislative post and, for one term, a congressional seat before being knocked out in the GOP sweep of 1994. He returned to Congress representing a metro-Seattle district for 12 years before resigning to run for governor in 2012.

Inslee raised his profile serving as the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association in 2018; Democrats picked up seven governor's offices, and Inslee became a familiar guest to cable news audiences, using the opportunity to lambaste Trump on such issues as immigration and ethics.

"Unlike the man in the White House, I believe in all the people who make up America," he said Friday.

Recent polling suggests at least some wisdom for trying to become the climate change candidate.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll from December found that self-identified liberal Democrats see the environment as a critical issue: 49 percent named it among their top priorities, compared with 29 percent of conservative and moderate Democrats. Sixteen percent of liberal and moderate Republicans and just 3 percent of conservative Republicans mentioned the environment as a major problem.

In an open-ended question, 24 percent of all adults queried named environmental issues and climate change among the top five government priorities this year; 18 percent mentioned the issue as a priority for 2018.

[..]

Let's get ready to R U M B L E!

[Serk]

Stage? Don't you mean clown car?

[¿spoom]

And later, when Trump's emergency bites him in the butt like a pen and a phone;


Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says he wouldn't declare a national emergency over climate change at this point if he is elected president.

Inslee announced his Democratic bid for the White House on Friday in Seattle and said he'd make climate change his signature issue.

Speaking to reporters afterward, he said he believed President Donald Trump's national emergency declaration over funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall was unconstitutional.

Inslee says, "If the rules change, of course everything will be on the table to figure out how we solve this problem. But, he says, "I would not commit to declaring a national emergency today."

He says, "The best way to do this is to work with Congress to develop a national consensus about how to build a clean-energy economy."

[Alberta Patriot]

Trump's wall maxes out at about 25B. A national climate emergency...$???,????,???,???.....?

[Moonshot_1]

So the goal that the Democrats wish to achieve is environmental stagnation? Has anyone looked into the effects of a stagnate environment?

[Bighead]

When will the IDIOTS realize that climate change has been happening for hundreds of thousands of years? God is the only one that can do anything about it. But what the Hell Al Gore got rich off of it

[Farside]

When will the IDIOTS realize that climate change has been happening for hundreds of thousands of years? God is the only one that can do anything about it. But what the Hell Al Gore got rich off of it

BINGO.....   

[Jess from VA]

Besides the faulty and biased science (nee advocacy), what every one of these green plans has in common (after peeling down the onion) is a giant revenue earner that is Robin Hoodesque....  in that it steals/expropriates billions from the current energy companies, and the common man (and kills tens of thousands of good jobs, making a wasteland of large swaths of middle America territory)..... and puts it in the socialism pocket; where it can then be pissed away on other foolishness (and vote buying), so taxes still have to be raised again, and again.  

Show me a single green plan that doesn't.

And how much did the G piss away to alternative energy development during the last administration that had the same effect as burning it (or filling a plane with it for Iran)?

On the other hand, burning socialists to power giant old fashioned steam engines would do so much more good for the nation (and the planet).  After a few years of this, then we could back to coal. 

 

[Moonshot_1]

Besides the faulty and biased science (nee advocacy), what every one of these green plans has in common (after peeling down the onion) is a giant revenue earner that is Robin Hoodesque....  in that it steals/expropriates billions from the current energy companies, and the common man (and kills tens of thousands of good jobs, making a wasteland of large swaths of middle America territory)..... and puts it in the socialism pocket; where it can then be pissed away on other foolishness (and vote buying), so taxes still have to be raised again, and again.  

Show me a single green plan that doesn't.

And how much did the G piss away to alternative energy development during the last administration that had the same effect as burning it (or filling a plane with it for Iran)?

On the other hand, burning socialists to power giant old fashioned steam engines would do so much more good for the nation (and the planet).  After a few years of this, then we could back to coal. 

 

I would dispute the "Robin Hoodesque" analogy. I'd go with the  "Don Corleonesque" analogy.  Robin Hood actually gave to the poor. 

[Jess from VA]

Agreed Mike.  I was just using the socialist's own spin (in an attempt at irony).   

[Alberta Patriot]

The Carbon Tax Grab is just the first line introduction to the George Orwell Dystopian Socialist Equalization Program...everybody gets to be equally broke and miserable...unless you are the piggys that happen to be more equal. You don't see anybody trying to break their way into Venezuela.

[Serk]

[The emperor has no clothes]

When will the IDIOTS realize that climate change has been happening for hundreds of thousands of years? God is the only one that can do anything about it. But what the Hell Al Gore got rich off of it

"And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination."

[Serk]

When will the IDIOTS realize that climate change has been happening for hundreds of thousands of years? God is the only one that can do anything about it. But what the Hell Al Gore got rich off of it

"And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination."

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

[Bighead]

So you think anything that the idiots that are proposing all this crap can actually stop what mother nature is doing?    Nope wont happen. Look at history. It has happened many times and if the world continues to exist it will happen many more.

[Alberta Patriot]

So you think anything that the idiots that are proposing all this crap can actually stop what mother nature is doing?    Nope wont happen. Look at history. It has happened many times and if the world continues to exist it will happen many more.

The people promoting this global warming agenda are not idiots.

They push this warming garbage as well as mass third world migration to destabilize Western Democratic Societies to bring about some form of One World Government, NOT by Democracy, But By The Same Model as ONE THAT ALREADY EXISTS...the EUROPEAN UNION!!!, where Unelected and Unaccountable Representatives are Appointed, Not Elected.

Countries like Hungary and Poland and now, recently, Italy have the right idea...Reject the Corrupt EU Migration Agenda.
The EU threatens these countries with economic sanctions, but as Viktor Orban, Hungary's Prime Minister has stated..."it is better to accept the economic sanctions than the migrants". Europeans are beginning to wake up to what is going on.
The United States Dodged a big bullet by NOT electing Hillary Clinton...so by all means...Build The Damn Wall!!! Your present form of democracy depends on Citizens, not Illegal Migrants selecting your next government.

I fear for the long term security of my grandchildren if the people of Canada DO NOT reject the Ideology pushed by the 'Village Idiot Prime Minister' who, I truly believe, does not understand the implications of what his globalist handlers like Gerald Butts are steering him to do. The next election here AND in the United States AND in many Western Democracies will determine Global Direction for untold decades to come!!!

Justin Trudeau recently signed Canada onto the United Nations Migration Compact...without asking the people of Canada. What else is he going Sign Us Onto If He Is ReElected???
The United Nations and the European Union have the same agenda, and it starts with the "small" things like changing restroom door labels...etc, etc, ad infinitum!

If you think I am a conspiracy theorist, pay close attention to what is happening in Europe...especially what is happening in France right now!... and, I predict will also happen in The UK...if Brexit is rejected by powers that be in Britain.

[The emperor has no clothes]

On the other hand, burning socialists to power giant old fashioned steam engines would do so much more good for the nation (and the planet).  After a few years of this, then we could back to coal. 

 

Burning right wingers would be much more efficient. Higher fecal matter = higher BTU output 

[Alberta Patriot]

On the other hand, burning socialists to power giant old fashioned steam engines would do so much more good for the nation (and the planet).  After a few years of this, then we could back to coal.  

 

Burning right wingers would be much more efficient. Higher fecal matter = higher BTU output  

Sorry...A very short term gain by both of the comments. How about we leave the burning of humans back in 40's era Nazi Germany. Ya I know just kidding...right.

[Willow]

On the other hand, burning socialists to power giant old fashioned steam engines would do so much more good for the nation (and the planet).  After a few years of this, then we could back to coal. 

Burning right wingers would be much more efficient. Higher fecal matter = higher BTU output 

I should have removed the first but since I didn't and you replied, do you have research to support your claim to nigher BTU based upon sh!t content?  I find that impossible to believe.   

[Gryphon Rider]

On the other hand, burning socialists to power giant old fashioned steam engines would do so much more good for the nation (and the planet).  After a few years of this, then we could back to coal. 

Burning right wingers would be much more efficient. Higher fecal matter = higher BTU output 

I should have removed the first but since I didn't and you replied, do you have research to support your claim to nigher BTU based upon sh!t content?  I find that impossible to believe.   

Well, we do have an indication that Serk might produce more than the average amount of energy when he's burned, but not because of the contents of his colon:

I'm trying to figure out how to have the medical examiner that does my autopsy pack my carcass full of fireworks before sending me off for cremation...

I always wanted to go out with a bang!

[The emperor has no clothes]

On the other hand, burning socialists to power giant old fashioned steam engines would do so much more good for the nation (and the planet).  After a few years of this, then we could back to coal. 

Burning right wingers would be much more efficient. Higher fecal matter = higher BTU output 

I should have removed the first but since I didn't and you replied, do you have research to support your claim to nigher BTU based upon sh!t content?  I find that impossible to believe.   

Nigh, it’s just intuition