April 1, 2019: Climate Change for Kids and Fox News Viewers

 

April 1, 2019: April Fools’ Day, America! President Trump announced with confidence last week: “I understand health care now, especially very well. A lot of people don’t understand it.” 

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Make American Uninsured Again

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“We’re going to be the party of great health care,” he promised. “The Democrats let you down…And you will see this soon. Obamacare is a disaster.” Trump’s Justice Department had a lawsuit going and would soon “terminate” Obamacare and Make American Uninsured Again. 

“Everybody agrees that ObamaCare doesn’t work,” the president tweeted Monday night. Don’t worry, though.  Republicans were “developing a really great HealthCare Plan with far lower premiums (cost) & deductibles than ObamaCare.” 

He and Mitch McConnell would roll that great plan right out, sometime after Election Day in 2020.

 

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IN AN OPINION PIECE on Fox News, Joe Bastardi, a meteorologist, weighs in on what he calls climate change “hysteria.” He blasts Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her emotional defense of a Green New Deal, and adds, “scientists like myself” believe in facts and evidence, etc. 

The meteorologist then offers up impressive charts that prove almost nothing – except that you can fool Fox News viewers with charts if you try a little. For example, one chart shows that life expectancy has risen around the world, even in an era of rising temperatures. So, climate change can’t be bad! 

And you thought antibiotics, improvements in treatments for cancer and heart disease and reductions in smoking had something to do with the matter! 

It would be easy to shoot enough holes in Bastardi’s argument to make it look like a sieve. Yet, according to the meteorologist the science of climate change is “not settled.” 

So. You could believe the meteorologist – basically, a weatherman. Or you could go to the NASA website, where leading scientists from multiple fields warn about…climate change. 

If you’re the type who believes everything you see on Fox News, you should start out at NASA Kids’ Club, and get up to speed.