Thread: Woman Travels Miles w Petitions - Cruz Gives Her 1 Second of time - video captured

Cruz is backed by big gas & oil to our detriment - he can't give our citizens the time of day on this issue alone.

Meet The Texas Flood Survivor Who Flew To New Hampshire To Confront Ted Cruz About Climate Change

by Natasha Geiling Feb 9, 2016 10:14 am

Renee Boschert, whose home was severely damaged by record floods that swept through Texas last spring, describes the night of Memorial Day 2015 as “the most horrific thing” that she’s ever experienced. She remembers looking out the window of her home that night to see the nearby river — which, due to a prolonged drought, had been just a trickle hours before — rising by 30 or 40 feet. She remembers watching a woman be swept down the river, and hearing her cries for help. Unable to be rescued in the raging river, the woman later drowned.

All told, more than two dozen people across Texas and Oklahoma lost their lives during the floods, when record rainfall dumped at least 35 trillion gallons of water across the region. Nearly 300 homes in Boschert’s hometown of Wimberley, Texas, were destroyed.

“Three hundred-year-old cypress trees broke like toothpicks,” Boschert told ThinkProgress. “The devastation is going to be there for generations to come.”

Scientists have since linked the record-breaking floods to climate change. But Texas Senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz (R) denies any link between climate change and the recent floods in Texas — at a press conference after the floods, he told reporters that “at a time of tragedy … it’s wrong to try to politicize a natural disaster.”

For Boschert, a 63-year-old teacher whose home flooded with five feet of water, that answer falls short of acceptable.

“I saw him in an interview saying climate change is a political football,” Boschert said. “To me, it’s not a political football. It’s a personal nightmare.”

So Boschert decided to do something about Cruz’s refusal to broach the subject, traveling to New Hampshire to approach Cruz at a campaign event. With support from the activist group ClimateTruth.org, Boschert followed Cruz as he campaigned around New Hampshire, gaining an audience with the senator on Wednesday.

On Friday, Boschert again spoke with Cruz after a campaign event. After reintroducing herself as a flood survivor, she delivered a petition with 15,000 signatures asking Cruz to meet with survivors affected by the flood to discuss climate change. Cruz handed the petition to a nearby staffer, but did not agree to a meeting. ThinkProgress reached out to Cruz’s campaign asking if the senator had decided to agree to a meeting, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.



“He was very sympathetic about the house loss, but clearly dismisses climate change as a reality,” Boschert said. “It makes me very angry. I do not see it as a political issue. It’s a personal tragedy.”

Boschert’s New Hampshire meeting wasn’t her first attempt at convincing Cruz to sit down with Texas flood survivors to discuss climate change. Immediately after the floods, a group of flood survivors traveled to his office to present signatures from thousands of people around the country asking that Cruz meet with constituents to discuss climate change. Boschert, who was a part of that group, never received a response from Cruz’s office.

“What scares me the most is he probably blew us off as constituents of Texas,” she said. “We clearly weren’t a big enough group of voters to care about. If he did become president, how many people would it take for him to acknowledge this?”

The oil and gas industry has been one of the largest financial supporters of Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign, contributing nearly $1 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. And Cruz’s personal wealth is also inherently tied to the fossil fuel industry, with nearly a quarter of his total assets coming from investments in oil and gas. According to Christian R. Grose, an associate professor of political science at the University of Southern California, a politician’s personal investments tend to impact their decision making.

What scares me the most is he probably blew us off as constituents of Texas. We clearly weren’t a big enough group of voters to care about

“His own personal financial well-being rests on how well the energy sector is doing,” Grose told ThinkProgress in August. “So any regulation that could hurt that sector would be detrimental to his bottom line.”

Cruz is also the chairman of the Senate’s Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness, a position that has afforded him the opportunity to hold several hearings on the issue of climate change. Most recently, Cruz held a hearing during the U.N. climate conference in Paris to debate the reality of human-caused climate change. During the hearing, Cruz leaned on a variety of unscientific anecdotes to prove his point that climate change is merely a political conjuring. Notably, Cruz also leaned on his oft-cited claim that satellite data over the last 18 years shows no significant warming — a statement that completely ignores long-term trends in satellite data, ground-based weather station data, and sea-based buoy data, all of which show a steady warming trend over the long term.

“It’s terrifying,” Boschert told ThinkProgress of Cruz’s climate denial. “More and more often you hear the worst rainfall ever recorded. Miami is flooding. I feel like it’s happening all around us, and the idea that [someone who could be] the most powerful man in the free world doesn’t acknowledge it exists…the human casualty and financial burden [could be] catastrophic.”

Boschert admits that having a conversation with Cruz about climate change is all but impossible unless he is first willing to admit that climate change is a real, human-driven problem. But for Boschert, who has experienced first-hand the consequences of climate change, quitting is not an option.

“I see it as the number one problem facing the human population,” she said. “I have a son that is 25. It terrifies me thinking about what the future lools lile.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/201...limate-change/

He didn't even look at the petitions. I guess security will dump them in File 13. His job right now that he's being paid to do is represent these people in Texas and his feigned looks and rapid dismissal of their problem with his hand off of the petitions so he could return to holding her hand with both of his like he's some preacher for the photo-op instead of looking at the petitions as a member of the US Senate doing his job ... is very telling.

I wish we still had our barf bucket and tomato splatt icons that Brian found for us. Anyone remember those? I loved them. Where is Brian? I never see him post any more.

Republican candidates SHOULD be addressing new US manufacturing opportunities. I went to a UN held meeting in 2000---State of the World Forum---and all of these things were discussed, including the beginnings of Agenda 21. In fact I met more than once with a high up UN official who was in on the earlier Habitat Conferences and probably instrumental in Agenda 21, too.

Nobody seems to know what they are talking about, conservatives or liberals. Agenda 21 is largely to help developing countries avoid the environmental disasters as the industrialized world has. One sub-conference was "Population, Housing and Sustainable Development." They also talked a lot about poorer countries SURPASSING the west through early adoption of IT. And we are actually seeing a growing middle class in developing countries who are in fact sharp business people, using smartphones and computers, etc.

Now the UN has a bi-annual World Urban Forum conference via UNHabitat. One of the problematic items, is that even when countries build ideal communities for their poorer citizens, the people often move back to a slum in the city, for more excitement than the country offers.

The US should seize upon the alternative energy market, before China has a monopoly on it. Most of the world simply wants electrical power and consumer products, not war with the US.

BTW, I regularly had to walk past Trump Tower each day of the week long Forum. I think it was; it sure was tall. The Forum was at the NYC Hilton.

With support from the activist group ClimateTruth.org, Boschert followed Cruz as he campaigned around New Hampshire

Wow, an activist setup such as this doesn't get any more obvious. Leave it to a liberally progressive organization like thinkprogess.com to construct such a huge hit piece out of nothing. They have absolutely no idea what Cruz's schedule was, but I'm betting running a national campaign for President of the United States means it is very compressed. Cruz shook the ladies hand and passed the petition on to his staff member for later consideration. Did she really expect him to drop everything to sit down and dedicate 20 minutes to her? Of course not, it was all a setup from the beginning. Why else would an activist group put the petition in the ladies hand and give her an all-expense paid trip to New Hampshire knowing Cruz is headed to Texas soon.

She took the time to make a very important point and it was DISREGARDED! That is what we would see from this candidate. He does not stand a chance nationwide anyway.

Originally Posted by artist

She took the time to make a very important point and it was DISREGARDED! That is what we would see from this candidate. He does not stand a chance nationwide anyway.

Yes he does stand a chance and no she wasn't disregarded. She was the mouthpiece for an activist group trying to draw media attention to their cause. Setups like this happen all the time.

Then he should have looked at the petitions and at least pretended he gave a damn.

Originally Posted by Judy

Then he should have looked at the petitions and at least pretended he gave a damn.

What??? Was he supposed to recognize the names on it or something? He gave it to a staffer for a later look. No matter what you think of Cruz, he's no idiot. The man knows when he is being setup by an activist group. That lady was a plant, just like the following DREAMER activist was:

<span style="color: rgb(187, 187, 187); font-family: Roboto, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14.3000001907349px; background-color: rgba(28, 28, 28, 0.;">

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016...candid-answer/

He looks like an idiot in that video. He would have been better off gettin' caught picking his nose and looking at it.

Originally Posted by MW

What??? Was he supposed to recognize the names on it or something? He gave it to a staffer for a later look. No matter what you think of Cruz, he's no idiot. The man knows when he is being setup by an activist group. That lady was a plant, just like the following DREAMER activist was:

<span style="color: rgb(187, 187, 187); font-family: Roboto, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14.3000001907349px; background-color: rgba(28, 28, 28, 0.;">

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016...candid-answer/

I certainly appreciate your advocacy for Cruz. I don't think it would be as interesting if you only liked Trump. Happens to Trump too and he has someone take their info...where it goes IDK and IDC.