We’re a few days late on this, but its worth it. If you didn’t catch this in our laugh-out-loud Green News Report on Thursday (or even if you did), here’s the full high-larious video of Brian Koon, Director of Florida’s Div. of Emergency Management, trying and trying not to say the words “climate change” as he faces questioning from state Sen. Jeff Clemens (D)…and is roundly laughed at and mocked by pretty much everybody present…
The hilarity above comes after four former FL Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) employees claimed that the state banned the official use of words like “climate change,” “global warming,” “sea level rise,” etc., after Gov. Rick Scott (R) first came to office in 2009. State officials have denied it, but it appears it was a spoken policy rather than a written one.
Since then, a current DEP employee has claimed that he was put on leave and required to undergo a mental exam after sharing his views on climate change in one of the states likely to be most affected by it. (Been nice knowin’ ya, Miami!) And then comes the testimony seen in the video above, wherein Koon, the Florida state official in charge of emergency management, ties himself into knots trying not to utter the phrase “climate change” out loud, in his official capacity, for some odd reason.
While the video testimony is hysterical on its own, for extra credit, here’s the full segment from last night’s The Daily Show, as Jon Stewart takes it all apart…
While hilarious, this exchange is chilling because it exposes the Orwellian nature of climate science denying, self-proclaimed libertarians, like the Koch brothers, whose political contributions were vital to Rick Scott’s re-election.
Theirs is a philosophy that seeks to destroy the very “liberties” (here freedom of speech) they profess to protect.
Self-described “libertarians” like Scott, the Kochs, et. al. are, in reality, what former VP Henry Wallace once defined as “American Fascists.”
They claim to be superpatriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjugation.
While Koon’s linguistic gyrations were good for a barrel of laughs, there truly is nothing funny about a governor who has sought to eliminate the inconvenient truth about global climate change from public discourse.
What Ernie said.
It is “gallows humor.”
In recent decades, has actual free-enterprsise conservatism been tried in the United States? Nowadays, self-described “conservatives” are free-speech-hating, anti-democcracy, science-denying corporate-welfare-Socialists.
Your intent is better expressed by “oral”, or “spoken”.
“Verbal” means “in words” vs. “in symbols” or “in gestures”.
Raven –
I think you’re right. I’ve changed that to “spoken” rather than “verbal”. Gracias!