I’m among those who have fond memories of Mario and thought at the time he should be President, or at least a Supreme Court Justice. His son has led me to question my judgement.
Andrew Cuomo has, almost single handedly, kept the New York State Republican Party alive because he doesn’t believe in liberal ideas and finds it easier to have a convenient excuse to disguise his naked conservatism. He has, without fail, sabotaged the campaigns of State legislators of his own nominal party in order to promote the “deal makers” and “compromisers” to stifle any truly populist initiatives, especially any that might offend the delicate sensibilities of the Bankster “Master of the Universe” Thieves and Con Men.
Content to coast on the store of goodwill built up by his father, he basks in the the rumors that he’s on the short list of Presidendial prospectives. If he ever got close to the nomination it would be a shame and a travesty.
First of all he’s an incompetent finger pointing weasel-
Gov. Andrew Cuomo shamefully blames lack of preparation for Buffalo snow on the National Weather Service
Joanna Rothkopf, Salon
Monday, Nov 24, 2014 09:20 AM EST
On Saturday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo felt he had to comment on the massive lake effect snowstorm that buried Western New York and Buffalo under up to 7 feet of snow last week. People were surely wondering: Why had there been so many deaths? Why was the region seemingly unprepared to deal with such extreme conditions?
Cuomo, in an attempt to appease the state’s residents, blamed it on the National Weather Service. “No one had an idea that it was gonna be that much snow that fast,” he said in a press conference on Saturday. “Snow coming down at the rate of about five inches an hour. No one had an idea. The weather service was off. By the way, I said this in my State of the State last year, we’re putting in our own weather detection system.”
In fact, the National Weather Service had warned of the possibility of an extreme storm.
…
One of the most dangerous impulses of politicians is their willingness to dive head-first into scientific issues, professing authority in areas where they quite simply have none. For the most part, politicians and pundits look to science only when it is a suitable scapegoat on which to place blame for failed policy, rather than as the most accurate barometer we have of what is to come.
Don Paul, chief meteorologist at the CBS affiliate in Buffalo-
Governor Cuomo’s attempt to scapegoat the National Weather Service for an inaccurate forecast in advance is not only completely in error–the NWS did an outstanding job–but is a disservice to the public and to the hard-working staff of this federal agency. No forecast of such an historical disaster is going to be absolutely perfect, but no one who lives here can say this event was not well forecast in advance, or that the warning headlines of its impact to come were not well explained in advance…his statement is disinformation, purposeful or ill-informed.
Secondly, he revels in his science denialism as thoroughly as any card carrying tea-bagger-
New York Governor Cuomo: ‘I Don’t Want To Get Into A Political Debate’ About Climate Change
by Emily Atkin, Think Progress
Posted on November 25, 2014 at 9:34 am
According to a Capital New York report, the politically savvy governor has historically refused to talk about the scientific link between extreme weather events and climate change, citing a desire to avoid contentious debate. He most recently did this on Sunday, when asked about the climate connection to Buffalo’s massive lake-effect snowstorm, and the worry of flooding because of rising temperatures.
“I don’t want to get into a political debate at this time about climate change causes, et cetera,” Cuomo reportedly said. “Forget the causes. Is it global warming? Is it reliance on fossil fuels? Forget the causes. What is inarguable is the result.”
The issue with these comments – and arguably all modern political rhetoric about climate change – is that the debate over extreme weather and global warming is not inherently political. It is scientific. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the international body that provides comprehensive updates on climate science, says that man-made warming increases the severity of heat waves, wildfires, and heavy precipitation events. Some scientists have even tied Buffalo’s massive snowstorm to climate change, citing the increased moisture held in the atmosphere as a result of warming temperatures.
Instead of acknowledging this, however, Cuomo’s position is that it doesn’t matter whether climate change is causing extreme events. And it’s not the first time he’s made the claim. In a 2012 op-ed for the Daily News, where he pledged increase storm preparation measures in the face of Superstorm Sandy.
“Debating why does not lead to solutions – it leads to gridlock,” Cuomo said at the time. “The denial and deliberation from extremists on both sides about the causes of climate change are distracting us from addressing its inarguable effects.”
The issue with that stance, however, is that it focuses solely on adaptation to extreme weather events, and does not acknowledge the need to reduce carbon emissions to reduce the likelihood of those extreme events happening in the first place. That’s bad, considering the latest IPCC report says the effects of climate change – including extreme weather – could be irreversible if decisive actions aren’t taken to reduce carbon in the atmosphere. And those impacts will only get worse as future carbon emissions rise.
Evil or an Idiot?
I must say I’m coming more and more to the conclusion that when a politician or a media personality acts in ways that are contrary to the expressed wishes of their constituents or audience, they’re not idiots.
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