Graig Graziosi
Fri, October 4, 2024
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the controversial Republican Congresswoman, was mentioned by JD Vance as he toured the damage left by Hurricane Helene (Associated Press)
Senator JD Vance had kind words for Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene — just hours after she suggested that a mysterious “they” can control the weather and inflicted Hurricane Helene on Republican voters in Georgia and North Carolina.
Greene is well known for repeating nonsense conspiracy theories. She’s voiced her belief in “Jewish space lasers”and has been cozy with QAnon ideas both before and during her time in office.
She made her latest bizarre claim on X, this time concerning the weather.
“Yes, they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done,” Greene wrote.
Before making the claim that the weather can be controlled, she shared an image of the areas most affected by Hurricane Helene overlayed with an electoral map.
She wasn’t clear who “they” were but the map’s implication is that Democrats were somehow responsible for a hurricane to hurt Republican voters.
Those affected by Hurricane Helene are still recovering from the deadly storm.
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and his wife Usha Vance, center front, visits areas impacted by Hurricane Helene in Damascus, Va., Thursday Oct. 3, 2024 (AP)
Despite her absurd claim, Vance heaped praise on Greene during a recent campaign rally in Greene’s district.
“We have got another great, strong, woman leader in Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene,” he said. “Now you may not know this, but one of the very first endorsements … I got when I was running in the Republican Senate primary in Ohio a few years ago was from Marjorie Taylor Greene, so she’s been a great friend of mine.”
He went on call Greene a “loyal person” and a “hell of a Congresswoman.”
Democrats were quick to condemn Vance for praising Greene. In a statement sent on Friday, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd called Greene a “wildly out-of-touch conspiracy theorist and election-denying extremist who is as toxic to voters as the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda.”
“JD Vance took time in Georgia today to shout out his ‘great friend’ right after she finished spreading fresh conspiracy theories about how ‘they’ can control the weather while Georgia is still recovering from Hurricane Helene,” he wrote. “And that’s just another reason why we’re sure that Vance will have plenty more free time to spend with his ‘great friend’ after this November.”
Opinion
Marjore Taylor Greene Pushes Dumbest Hurricane Helene Conspiracy Yet
Edith Olmsted
Fri, October 4, 2024
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene pushed a preposterous conspiracy theory Thursday that someone at the very top created Hurricane Helene.
While many Republicans, like Donald Trump, have been quick to criticize the federal response to Hurricane Helene, Greene has started pointing fingers as to who could possibly be behind the weather event, which most normal people would understand to be caused by hot air and cold air.
“Yes they can control the weather,” Greene wrote in a post on X. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”
Many online were disturbed by Greene’s vague use of “they,” because outlandish accusations about controlling the climate are typically antisemitic conspiracy theories—to which Greene is no stranger.
Earlier that evening, Greene posted a photograph in an attempt to further push conspiracy theories about the area impacted by the deadly Category 4 storm.
“This is a map of hurricane affected areas with an overlay of electoral map by political party shows how hurricane devastation could affect the election,” she wrote.
Twitter screenshot Marjorie Taylor Greene ���� @mtgreenee: This is a map of hurricane affected areas with an overlay of electoral map by political party shows how hurricane devastation could affect the election. (with map highlighting blue and red portions of the southeast)
It seems that Greene believes that Democrats somehow created the storm to try and harm Republican voters. This is a significant, and grotesque escalation from Trump’s already wild theory that the Biden administration purposefully neglected Republican areas in its federal response to the storm.
Of course, the only person who had ever done something like that is Trump himself, who reportedly withheld aid to California after the deadly wildfires in 2018, until his team could provide polling that people there had in fact voted for him.
MTG Implies Dems Created Hurricane Helene: ‘They Can Control the Weather’
Nikki McCann Ramirez
Fri, October 4, 2024
Some things in this world that are inevitable: death, sunrise, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) responding to tragedies with pure insanity.
At least 215 people have been killed by Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm that tore through Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia last weekend. Thousands remain without power and access to critical necessities as the federal government works to provide relief in the aftermath of the deadliest storm in the mainland United States since Hurricane Katrina. But in the wastelands of social media, some are attempting to use the tragedy as fodder for political conspiracy theories.
“Yes they can control the weather,” Greene wrote on X Thursday night. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”
It’s unclear who the “they” are that Greene is referring to in this scenario. If one of her posts earlier on Thursday is any indication, she’s talking about Democrats. Greene shared a map of the states affected by Helene with an overlay of their political leanings by county. “This is a map of hurricane affected areas with an overlay of electoral map by political party shows how hurricane devastation could affect the election,” she wrote.
In case you missed middle school science class, hurricanes are large, powerful storms formed over warm tropical waters when evaporation rises into the atmosphere — condensing into storm systems — and creating a low-pressure zone that wind rushes into. As water continues to evaporate from the ocean surface, the cycle can create a large spinning vortex of powerful rains and strong winds known as a tropical cyclone. If this phenomenon forms in the Atlantic (and becomes powerful enough) it is referred to as a hurricane.
Hurricanes can be incredibly devastating, but they are not a man-made phenomenon, or something that can be plausibly controlled through human intervention. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which conducted research on various ways to divert or dispel tropical cyclones in the 1960s, potential methods “fall short of the mark because they fail to appreciate the size and power of tropical cyclones.”
In the wake of Hurricane Helene’s destruction, there has been a large-scale federal and state-level mobilization to provide aid to communities affected by the storm. The effort has been bipartisan and widely lauded by the governors of affected states. MAGA land, however, has rushed to politicize the tragedy in service of former President Donald Trump’s campaign.
Earlier this week, Trump baselessly claimed that “the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of [North Carolina are] going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas,” ahead of a visit to a disaster zone in Valdosta, Georgia.
Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones — who has claimed the government has “weather weapons” that can engineer floods, tornados, and hurricanes — falsely asserted on Thursday that “Biden has ordered a stand-down of over a thousand military helicopter crews in the south.”
“The hurricane conveniently destroyed the reddest areas in four southern states so that votes cannot be cast by Trump voters in the upcoming election! Now the Democrats don’t want the rural areas of the state brought back on line to ensure the blue city’s can steal it again,” Jones wrote.
Other conspiracy theories have circulated on TikTok, with some users claiming that the hurricane was intentionally engineered to level out the area in order to bolster lithium mining operations. “Let’s be clear, Hurricane Helene was a weather modified storm to displace the residents of western N. Carolina so a land grab can take place,” one video with over 100,000 views claims.
Natural disasters are traumatic events that often force mankind to reckon with how — despite centuries of technological advance and societal development — we are often powerless in the face of nature. They are the perfect breeding ground for conspiracies that attempt to ascribe a human cause to an inhuman tragedy, and Helene is by no means the first instance.
Greene, ever the shit-stirrer, has been a prolific voice in spreading such conspiracies. Who among us can forget when she blamed Jewish space lasers for the deadly 2018 California Camp wildfire?
Rolling Stone
People Truly Can't Believe Marjorie Taylor Greene's Latest Conspiracy Theory, And They Are Absolutely Roasting Her Over It
Matt Stopera
Fri, October 4, 2024
As you all know, Hurricane Helene devastated parts of the south last week.
Melissa Sue Gerrits / Getty Images
Marjorie Taylor Greene shared a map showing an overlay of an electoral map by political party compared to hurricane-affected areas.
Melissa Sue Gerrits / Getty Images
Marjorie Taylor Greene shared a map showing an overlay of an electoral map by political party compared to hurricane-affected areas.
Kent Nishimura / Getty ImagesThe member of Congress shared this tweet about people controlling the weather:
To reiterate, it appears MTG is implying that someone can and is controlling the weather...
Chip Somodevilla / Getty ImagesAs this person said, "This cannot be real."
People are calling out the ridiculousness of it all.
"We now have a congresswoman saying there’s a magical weather making machine controlled by people," this person said.
"Ma'am I can barely control the thermostat in my living room," another person joked.
And this person shared this Mean Girls meme, "So you agree? You think human activities impact the climate?"
Warner Bros/ Twitter: @LCVoters
I also went down a rabbit hole about the Paw Patrol movie because, apparently, this is the plot of it!
In the Paw Patrol movie, Mayor Humdinger uses a device known as the Cloud Catcher to control the weather.
John Keeble / Getty ImagesAnyway, the reaction has been sadly funny over this whole weird thing, so here are the best tweets about it:
Getty Images/ Twitter: @urlifeurmixtape
I only control the good weather, actually. https://t.co/tB5xLXUaY7
— Ben Beddoes (@BenWKYT) October 4, 2024
And lastly:
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