This blog has reported repeatedly on the Kansas Experiment. With the backing of the Koch brothers (whose headquarters is in Topeka), governor Sam Brownback, and a legislature so far right that after they got rid of most of the Democrats, they also got rid of most of the moderate Republicans, Kansas became a wet dream for trickle down economics. They slashed taxes and got rid of all those pesky regulations. And then their economy collapsed, while all the surrounding states were doing much better. You can’t have a more obvious failure.
When the Kansas Experiment started, Brownback asked his Council of Economic Advisors to prepare a report quarterly on how the experiment was doing. He specifically asked the council to hold him accountable through rigorous performance metrics.
Well, apparently Brownback didn’t like that the reports were holding him accountable for what was turning out to be a massive failure. So he just cancelled the reports. The best part is that a spokeswoman for Brownback said the report was cancelled because “a lot of people were confused by the report”.
But according to major newspapers in Kansas, the abandonment of the reports is evidence not only of policy failure, but as an attempt to hide that fact from the public.”
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This is the sophisticated GOP version of putting fingers in ears and chanting, “La, la, la, la, la… I can’t hear you!”
And still, Brownback was re-elected (albeit by a thin margin) even after the writing was already on the wall from his first term.
The flip side of fingers in ears can be found in Florida, where there is an unwritten policy prohibiting employees in Rick Scott’s administration from even mentioning “climate change” or related terms in written or spoken communications. Ignorance is bliss and tribe beats facts nearly every time in today’s hyperpartisan politics. Or as it’s been said about Congress, “Yesterday’s chicken shit is tomorrow’s chicken salad.” And vice versa. Ergo Cruz, Ryan, McCain and others condemn Trump one day and endorse him the next.
>> DEP officials have been ordered not to use the term “climate change” or “global warming” in any official communications, emails, or reports, according to former DEP employees, consultants, volunteers and records obtained by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.
The policy goes beyond semantics and has affected reports, educational efforts and public policy in a department with about 3,200 employees and $1.4 billion budget.
“We were told not to use the terms ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming’ or ‘sustainability,’” said Christopher Byrd, an attorney with the DEP’s Office of General Counsel in Tallahassee from 2008 to 2013. “That message was communicated to me and my colleagues by our superiors in the Office of General Counsel.”
Kristina Trotta, another former DEP employee who worked in Miami, said her supervisor told her not to use the terms “climate change” and “global warming” in a 2014 staff meeting. “We were told that we were not allowed to discuss anything that was not a true fact,” she said.
This unwritten policy went into effect after Gov. Rick Scott took office in 2011 and appointed Herschel Vinyard Jr. as the DEP’s director, according to former DEP employees. Gov. Scott, who won a second term in November, has repeatedly said he is not convinced that climate change is caused by human activity, despite scientific evidence to the contrary. <<
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article12983720.html#storylink=cpy