A bridge along Interstate 26 is destroyed in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
FLOOD LIBEL
MAGA Republicans are showing us how they’ll respond to the damage wrought by global warming. And it ain’t pretty.
- The GOP is packed with climate change deniers determined to stand in the way of attempts to fix the problem by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But lately, as rising temperatures prompt more powerful storms, we’re witnessing an unfortunate new phase: MAGA politicians spinning climate disasters for political advantage.
- Case in point: Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). As first responders race to aid victims of Hurricane Helene, the right-wing conspiracy theorist tweeted: “They can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” Of course, the idea that “they” control the weather is an anti-Semitic trope on par with Greene’s past conspiracies about Jewish space lasers. Greene didn’t elaborate on who “they” might be, but she presumably wanted her followers to cast blame on Democrats, deep-state operatives, the left, Jews, or some murky combo of all these groups for the catastrophic storm that has killed more than 200 people across the Southeastern U.S. over the past week. It’s another depressing example of MAGA loonies spreading QAnon-style dark suspicions to villainize others and sow division.
- Scientists believe that climate change is leading to increasingly frequent and powerful natural disasters, while coastlines recede and the sea creeps up on American cities. (“Ocean City, New Jersey, will become more ocean and less town during the next three decades,” one local outlet reviewing the latest scientific forecasts noted.) Hurricane Helene is another reminder that the United States is in desperate need of a more competent and compassionate government response to weather-related crises — not to mention, a simple reckoning with reality. As President Joe Biden put it after surveying the damage near Asheville, North Carolina, any politician still denying the impact of the climate crisis “must be brain dead.”
Which brings us to former President Donald Trump, who has dismissed climate change as a “scam.”
- As president, Trump hesitated to greenlight aid for states affected by natural disasters or gave special treatment to MAGA-friendly states on at least three occasions, according to a new report from E&E News. “We went as far as looking up how many votes he got in those impacted areas … to show him these are people who voted for you,” said Mark Harvey, a former top Trump official, speaking about giving aid to areas in California affected by wildfires in 2018. Biden criticized Trump after the report came out. “You can’t only help those in need if they voted for you,” he tweeted.
- GOP officials love calling climate change a “hoax” or “weird science” — and it appeals to their base. Only 12 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaners think climate change should be a top priority for the government, ranking last when asked how much they care about 20 issues in a recent survey. Just 23 percent see it as a major threat to the United States. Meanwhile, the GOP pushes policies — like criminalizing homelessness — that make people more vulnerable to natural disasters. “The Republican approach to climate change has been much like an ostrich with its head in the sand,” Dan Crawford, director of governmental relations at a nonprofit group focused on environmental policy in North Carolina, told the Jacobin. Reminder: It’s not too late to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
It’s Orwellian to blame others for controlling the weather or to withhold aid from people who didn’t vote for you. Imagine supporting the guy whose solution is to nuke hurricanes.
GOP YAS MAN
We regret to inform you that AI-enhanced MAGAworld fanfiction visuals are taking off. The GOP is yassifying (i.e., glamming up) Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) using artificial intelligence and it’s both very creepy and undeniably funny.
Direct blame can be placed on Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), who tweeted out an altered picture of GOP veep nominee Vance looking slimmer and more masculine, with a jaw so pointy and strong it could poke a hole in the hood of a Pontiac Firebird. Gender-affirming changes, you might even call them. In one of those beautiful moments when the internet collectively dunks on a lawmaker, an X user wrote: “If my friends publicly yassified me to look less doughy as a form of praise, I’d cry so hard that I’d fracture a rib.” Republicans from Georgia are on a weird one.
As The New Republic outlet points out, a simple Google search will turn up countless AI images of a buff, oiled-up Donald Trump, showing that the far-right fetishizes hypermasculinity to the point of making art… if you can call it that. Can we please make this illegal? My eyeballs are burning.
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-Donald Trump back in 2019, proposing America fight hurricanes with nuclear weapons.
NEWS NEWS NEWS
Several Iranian missiles hit Israeli military sites in the rocket barrage earlier this week, suggesting that the attack was more successful than Iran’s previous attack in April. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s prime minister said that Israel’s offensive into Lebanon has displaced 1.2 million people — almost a quarter of the country’s population.
Former President Barack Obama will start campaigning in battleground states next week for Kamala Harris. On the flip side: Billionaire conspiracist Elon Musk said he’ll be “there to support” Donald Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. We can feel the cover-your-drink energy already.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who’s facing federal corruption charges, shouldn’t resign because he “is entitled to the presumption of innocence.” Uh yeah, sure, man. That’s true for someone who hasn’t been caught with dozens of Here-Is-Where-I-Did-the-
Trump said he told Melania Trump to “write what you believe,” before the former first lady released excerpts of her upcoming memoir in which she claims to have always been an ardent pro-choice supporter. Trump talked to his wife? This is news!
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