Obama as Unreliable Narrator on Climate Action: from SOTU to NSA spying at Copenhagen

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2014/01/unreliable-narrator-copenhagen.html

Obama as Unreliable Narrator on Climate Action: from SOTU to NSA spying at Copenhagen
By Juan Cole | Jan. 30, 2014

When President Obama looked us in the eye and said that the US is not engaged in electronic surveillance for economic reasons, but only for the sake of security and anti-terrorism, he was lying through his teeth. He should be careful. His approval ratings have tanked in some large part because he has lost those who care about the 4th amendment and personal privacy. Reagan also became unpopular with Iran-Contra, when it became clear that he was lying to us what weapons he sold to Iran and what he did with the black money.

Lying is not fatal to a political career, but for the public to come to realize that you are systematically lying to them about something they care about– that is deadly.

Laura Poitras broke the story in a Danish newspaper and The Huffington Post also reported it, late Wednesday. The United States National Security Agency spied on delegates to the 2009 Climate Summit and used the knowledge they gained to game the negotiations in favor of the US (one of the world’s two major carbon polluters).

In the end, armed with knowledge of the summit leaders’ proposals, Obama sidestepped the UN process and essentially made a separate peace with a handful of other countries calling for holding global warming to a 3.4 degrees F. increase (2 degrees C.), but declining to put it into law or specify any specific steps to achieve that goal. It now appears clear that the US and the world will miss this goal by a large margin, and we are likely going to an average surface temperature increase of 9 degrees F., which could so destabilize the earth’s climate over time as to endanger human life.

[Demeter]

1. Why not call it what it is?

Lying like a rug.

[Nihil]

2. Everything he does is for "economic reasons" ...

Why be surprised that he lies for economic reasons too?

:shrug;