They even take an oath to uphold the common good in the sense that the U.S. Constitution was established and ordained for the common good, for the public good (ibid).
If there has to be class conflict injected into the notion of the common good, then it must be pointed out that the 99% are the people whom the common good was designed to protect and enhance (not the 1% elite of the U.S. Plutocracy).
Nevertheless, Dredd Blog will once again point out that the federal and state governments are increasingly working for the 1% plutocrats, not the 99% whom they took an oath to uphold.
Moving past the Senate vote-down of background checks, let's talk about the weather as it relates to the common good, the public good.
While doing so let's include some talk about the weather brought to us by Oil-Qaeda, that is, the weather produced by a Global Climate System that is damaged, dysfunctional, and very dangerous:
America’s top military officer in charge of monitoring hostile actions by North Korea, escalating tensions between China and Japan, and a spike in computer attacks traced to China provides an unexpected answer when asked what is the biggest long-term security threat in the Pacific region: climate change.(Oil-Qaeda: The Indictment - 2). But what do the servants of Oil-Qaeda in the federal and state governments want to do to help you stay alert during the upcoming hurricane season?
Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, in an interview at a Cambridge hotel Friday after he met with scholars at Harvard and Tufts universities, said significant upheaval related to the warming planet “is probably the most likely thing that is going to happen ... that will cripple the security environment, probably more likely than the other scenarios we all often talk about.’’
“People are surprised sometimes,” he added, describing the reaction to his assessment. “You have the real potential here in the not-too-distant future of nations displaced by rising sea level. Certainly weather patterns are more severe than they have been in the past. We are on super typhoon 27 or 28 this year in the Western Pacific. The average is about 17.”
At a time when the damage from Hurricane Sandy has not even come close to being repaired?
It appears that the federal and state governments do not care much about the common good.
Notice that they send hundreds of millions to rebels and goons in foreign lands who are all about killing:
The U.S. readied a package Saturday of up to $130 million in nonlethal military [a non-sequitur?] aid to Syrian opposition forces while European countries consider easing an arms embargo, moves that could further pressure the Assad government.(USA Today, emphasis added). Yet, they are cutting those people's jobs who work to warn us about weather dangers, those who are involved in the public good, the common good:
The nation's cash-strapped weather-forecasting system, though partly spared from federal budget cuts known as sequestration, is about to get pinched on the verge of a hurricane season expected to be busier than normal.(Sequester of Weather Observers, emphasis added). There is a popular theory that governments can become sick and stay that way until they receive treatment (The Germ Theory - of Government - 5).
Federal officials say they have the resources to warn storm-prone areas about weather emergencies, but a federal union representative warns that a hiring freeze plus furloughs threaten public safety.
Aircraft known as Hurricane Hunters will keep flying into storms to measure wind speed and air pressure, though their flight crews will have to take turns being furloughed. Weather satellites will remain on track, though the offices that monitor them will get squeezed.
Officials say they can maintain adequate staffing at the National Hurricane Center near Miami, though its forecasters will be forced to take off four unpaid days by Sept. 30. Staff at the National Weather Service already is depleted because of a hiring freeze.
"This could have a detrimental effect on everybody's public safety," said Bob Ebaugh, the steward in Miami for the National Weather Service Employees Organization. "Once you start limiting staffing, you start raising the potential for disaster."
The previous post in this series is here.
Dr. James Hansen, formerly of NASA, explains (at about 8:00 in the video below), that the Earth is heating up due to CO2 increases in the atmosphere from civilization's use of Oil-Qaeda's fossil fuels.
It is heating up in the amount equal to exploding 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs EACH DAY, 365 days a year: