Denial Isn't Just a River

I'm going to start with a quote, as we lurch into 2025 like a punch drunk fighter who doesn't know when to quit. It is in reference to this famous photo. The "Pale Blue Dot" picture of planet Earth was acquired by the Voyager 1 probe from a distance of about 6 billion km (4 billion miles) miles.

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

— Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

That much used comment is from Sagan's book of the same name. We talked about that comment when I interviewed him back in 1994. It reflected his public turn from pure science to the philosophical implications it was revealing

By the time of the book's publication, and his visit to Houston in 1995, we knew so much about our effects on the climate that we had our first actual climate legislation, the Global Climate Protection Act of 1986. The act directed the President to establish a task force to research, develop, and implement a national strategy on global climate.

Hold on, let me check the politics of that year...oh, yes, it was during the Reagan administration.

And here is a brief timeline of our discoveries and actions on climate...

• 1938: British engineer Guy Callendar shows that global temperatures and carbon dioxide concentrations have increased over the previous century. 
• 1958: Charles David Keeling begins measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide levels at Mauna Loa in Hawaii and in Antarctica. 
• 1967: The first model of Earth's changing climate is created. 
• 1968: A scientist predicts that ice caps will melt. 
• 1969: Satellites are first used to measure Earth's temperature. 
• 1985: The ozone hole is discovered. 
• 1988: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) begins a new era of climate research. 
• 1994: The first climate change legislation is enacted. 
• 2003: Scientists link extreme weather to climate change. 
• 2007: The Arctic warms twice as fast as the rest of the planet. 
• 2015: The Paris agreement is reached to cut carbon. 
• 2019: The UK becomes the first country to pass a net zero emissions law. 
• 2023: The COP28 climate change conference in Dubai approves a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels. 

And the net accomplishments or all this seeming activity is, drum roll please...most of the warming occurred in the past 40 years, with the seven most recent years being the warmest.

And as we embark on what a friend termed "Trump Mk. II," we see the same old climate Kabuki has opened to rave reviews in the oil patch. Now, I'm not going to re-hash the usual stuff about climate because I did a more exhaustive examination this time two years ago.

But I will say that it does seem that the folks who stand to make money and gain political contributions from it, are relentless. And the desire to believe them and simply do nothing is seductive. We listen to any Pied Piper who tells us everything is just fine and we don't have to get up off the couch. And this is, I guess, my semi-annual observation that nothing much has changed.

I am a big fan of the latest entry in the Taylor Sheridan canon that includes both great films like "Hell or High Water," "Wind River" and "Sicario" along with ranch soap operas like "Yellowstone" and all it's spinoffs.

Now he has another hit with "Landman" starring the always watchable Billy Bob Thornton along with an incredible supporting cast, and I'm hooked on every episode.

Set in the oil fields of West Texas, it does, though, regularly contain some sort of sermon/editorial about the futility of green energy every week. One such lecture occurred as two horny teenagers were swimming in a pond, for crying out loud. It is no doubt the writer's sincere political belief, but the show's sponsorship by a big oil trade group might also play a part.

Again, it's all about the Benjamins.

"The Green New Scam" was a witless phrase used by the President-elect to dismiss anything resembling climate action. An equally half-baked slogan used this year dates back to that deliberative and thoughtful political philosopher, Sarah Palin. "Drill, Baby, Drill" was the mantra revived for this election year, despite the fact that we've been drilling, baby, non-stop for years. In fact, we produced, baby, more oil and gas than ever these last couple of years, and certainly more than anyone else on this fragile planet.

But, in fact, science denial is back in vogue.

All you have to do is visit any post on Facebook about space, Apollo, the planets, Hubble and Webb photos, vaccines, doctors, researchers or anyone with a PhD to realize that a degree from Google University trumps (pun intended) them all.

But now, it goes beyond science and medicine. Objective reality be damned, I have a narrative to sell.

When a native-born Texan and army veteran of ten years service, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, saw his life turned to merde and became radicalized online by Islamic fundamentalists, and then plowed a rented truck into innocent tourists celebrating New Year's Eve in New Orleans, the lying commenced. First, not surprisingly, from Fox "News," who found that the truck in question had indeed been spotted in Eagle Pass, Texas, of course, on the border. They reported the crossing happened two days before the New Orleans tragedy. The clear implication being, Jabbar was an illegal immigrant who came here to create mayhem.

I know, being in the news business for decades, that we all grasp for information early on in an event, but the smart ones make sure of our information before spewing it onto the airwaves. The old mantra of, "If your mama says she loves you, get a second source" applies here. To be honest, it does seem that in the rush for a scoop, just about everyone has forgotten that rule.

And even though the Fox folks themselves corrected the information and reported that the crossing was actually two months earlier, and Jabbar was not the driver then, and the truck was rented in Houston, and Jabbar was not illegal but American, it didn't matter. The future leader of the free world liked the earlier version...

“When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!”

Here's what is actually accurate in that statement. It was pure evil. He even got the actual crime rate wrong, as always, since it is half the rate of the early 1990's.

When informed that the statement was not just misleading but wrong, a spokesman corrected the incoming President.

No, that was a joke. Here is what he actually said...

 “President Trump rightfully highlighted that criminals crossing the border have committed some of the most heinous crimes this country has witnessed in its history. That is a factual statement, and it is a big reason why Americans overwhelmingly voted for him and gave him a massive mandate. It is also true that radical Islamic terrorism and its warped ideology have crossed into our country and infected those looking to spread hate and violence.”

Mike Johnson, the newly re-elected Speaker of the House, echoed the misleading connection to the border, as did the quaintly wacky Congresswoman from Georgia in a fit of equine high dudgeon...

"Terrorist attack in NOLA similar to the one in the German Christmas market," Marjorie Taylor Greene said on X, formerly Twitter. "What did we expect would happen with wide open borders and millions of gotaways? The problem is no one trust [sic] the FBI under the current leadership, so everyone is questioning every detail they can find in their own."

Even after the details about Jabbar became known, Senator Lindsay Graham (R-Tara) could only rouse himself from his fainting couch to rail at the press for not making a bigger deal of the Islamic part of the story.

Now, the problem isn't just people who should know better going of half-cocked, it's the refusal to correct themselves, or even face reality when it is shown to them. You will find that characteristic a hallmark of most discussions online. Whether it's science, politics or even obvious facts about current events, the knee-jerk instinct toward denial is now almost overwhelming.

Likewise, when another much decorated, active-duty soldier rented a Tesla Cybertruck and decided to end his troubled life with a bullet, and an explosion in front of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, the different reaction is telling.

Master Sgt. Matthew Alan Livelsberger was obviously an equally troubled man. Like Jabbar, his wife was divorcing him, and in Livelsberger's case, his PTSD was seemingly obvious to all around him. Despite his meritorious service, his life also was a mess. He left two notes, though outlining his concerns about the country.

In one letter, containing more than 400 words, Livelsberger wrote that he needed to “cleanse” his mind of the “brothers I’ve lost” and relieve himself of “the burden of the lives I took.” He said the US was “terminally ill and headed towards collapse.” He also expressed support for Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In a second, shorter letter that investigators released Friday, the writer called for action to remove Democrats from both the federal government and the military. That letter, which investigators believe also was written by Livelsberger and had fewer than 125 words, included the possibility of occupying roads and federal buildings, not ruling out the use of force.

The response to this incident is decidedly lower key.

So, as we prepare for another inauguration, let's hope for the best. Oh, sure, Trump is complaining about flags still being at half-staff in mourning for President Carter, even though it happened before in 1973. Perhaps someone should have done the research and told him before the tweet.

But that would be cheating. The standard today is fire off a comment when the iron is hot and your anger is boiling. And of course, if wrong, never back down.

It's actually, despite the Duke's comment, not a sign of weakness but of character. When you're wrong, you're wrong and should own up to it. To stick with an untruth for fear of embarrassment is actually the sign of weakness Wayne should have pointed out.

So, here we go. The Congress is set. The swearing-in is coming up. And the press is as sniveling as ever these days. I have only one bright, shining hope.

Pitchers and catchers report on February 12th.