Trump Cancels Green Energy Projects In Mostly Blue States To "Punish" Democrats For Disobeying His Lordship.

Trump canceled nearly $8 billion in clean energy projects,
and many observers think this to punish states
that lean Democratic. 

Democrats are "the enemy" in Donald Trump's world. 

So why not make the best of a government shutdown to punish those Democrats?

Per the Washington Post:

"The Energy Department on Wednesday canceled $7.56 billion in funding for 223 projects aimed at research and deployment of clean energy and other climate-friendly technology mainly in Democratic-led states."

People in the Trump administration could barely keep a straight face when they said that this wasn't a punishment against Democrat-led states. No! It was just about rooting out waste of taxpayer dollars. 

 More WaPo

"An Energy Department press release late Wednesday said the projects 'did not adequately advance the nations energy needs, were not economically viable, and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.' 

But of course the Trump people just can't help themselves.  The money that was shitcanned was "Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left's climate agenda," said Office of Management and Budget Director in a post on X.

So much for high government officials showing any semblance of dignity. 

 Of the affected states, 17 are led by Democrats, and seven are led by Republicans. But one of those Republican-led states is Vermont. The governor, Phil Scott is a moderate, non-MAGA type, and as everybody knows, Vermont is politically as blue as blue can get.

The cuts include:

$1.2 billion for a public/private partnership to kick start the hydrogen industry in California.

$1.1 billion in energy grants for Washington State, including the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub. 

$400 million to add 28 gigawatts of new energy generation the Minnesota power grid, mostly from wind and solar.

$90 million to build Pennsylvania's biggest solar array on the site of an old coal mine. 

$30 million for battery storage at a California children's hospital. 

Under the Trump administration, the job market is getting shaky. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the hydrogen project would have created 200,000 jobs.

But screaming that climate change is a hoax is more important than creating jobs, I guess. 

The cuts we're talking about here. came on the same day the Trumpsters froze $18 billion in funding for two big infrastructure projects in New York City.  The city is represented in Congress by some of the nation's most prominent and popular representatives. 

One of those New York Democratic congress people is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who said, "Instead of playing politics with the shutdown, President Trump should be working on bipartisan solutions to lower Americans' costs and create jobs."

Good luck with that. Trump spent the weekend playing golf. To be fair, the weather was awfully nice. 

As CNBC reported, some of the projects involve manufacturing, which Trump allegedly wants to promote. For example, $500 million was earmarked for a project that produces carbon-neutral cement. Another canceled project in Massachusetts was aimed at manufacturing low carbon cement.  

But the Trump and his minions don't care. It's all about revenge and whining instead of governance with these folks. 

Deep Dive Into Canadian Fires/Smoke: Canada Nightmare, Dangerous Smoke, Climate Change and Politics

Wildfire smoke from Canada turns the evening sun into
just a red dot over Georgia, Vermont on 
August 3, 2025. 

 It's been a smoky summer here in Vermont and much of the rest of the United States because, as you've already heard. Canada is burning again. 

It's the third year in a row that Canada has experienced unprecedented fires. So far, as of earlier this week, 16 million acres have burned, and the fires rage on. Last year, about 13 million Canadian acres burned. 

In 2023, the big, bad year for Canadian fires, nearly 40 million acres went up in smoke. That year, and now this year, are several times worse than each of the other Canadian fire years on record. 

Down here in Vermont, we'd seen smoky days before. Usually from Canadian fires. But in 2023 we entered a whole new world, thanks to Canada's fiery new reality.  Two years ago, many of the big fires north of the border were close by,  in Quebec. 

Since the smoke didn't have far to go to bother us, so it was pretty thick by the time it crossed the border into Vermont. 

This year, Quebec isn't causing the problem. In July, that province had the lowest number of fires in the past 10 years, CBC News reported.

As of Tuesday, just five small fires were burning in Quebec. CBC continues: "The province has seen around 170 fires so far this year, which is more than 200 fewer than the 10-year average,,,,,,In 2023, over 4.5 million hectares of forest burned in  Quebec, compared to 3,000 hectares so far this year."

Much of Quebec just had a super dry heat wave, and prospects for a lot more rain up there are fairly slim.  Quebec forests might be on the verge of bursting into flames.

Some of the fires are burning in unexpected areas. Newfoundland has been oddly hit hard, as you wouldn't expect that stormy, chilly corner of the world to catch on fire all that much.

As of last week, three out of control fires burned near St. John's and in central Newfoundland St. John's is Newfoundland's biggest city with a population of about 110,000. Another fire recently started near  the south coast. 

The series of fires in Newfoundland have prompted evacuations for the past several weeks. More people might well need to flee this week.  Several homes have already been lost to the Newfoundland flames. 

As of August 6, this year was already Canada's
second worst wildfire year on record. 

More people are awaiting possible evacuation alerts as three out-of-control wildfires continue to burn throughout Conception Bay and central Newfoundland, and a fourth fire has ignited in Red Harbour on the Burin Peninsula.  

Oddly hot, dry weather has hit Newfoundland over the past week or two.  One town in Newfoundland hit 98 degrees last week, the province's hottest temperature on record.  

 HEALTH EFFECTS 

As of August 6, Montreal had been under air quality alerts five times so far this year, They got through last year with no such alerts, In 2023, Montreal was under air quality alerts on 19 days. 

Air quality alerts have been piling up in the United States, of course. You alway see tips on how to keep yourself safe from the smoke,  But there's really no escape from it. 

Wildfire smoke is obviously not good for us to breathe.    On days when the air quality index is around 100 to 200, it's similar to smoking a quarter to a half pack of cigarettes a day, May-Lin Wilgus, a pulmonologist and professor at UCLA told NPR.  

That's bad enough for healthy people.  Emergency room visits skyrocket during smoky periods. During the Canadian wildfires two years ago, emergency room visits for asthma in the U.S increased by almost 20 percent.

Wildfire smoke can exacerbate cardiovascular illnesses. Evidence is also growing the smoke can cause a higher risk of developing dementia.

Prospects for smoke clearing anytime soon are dim. The smoke from Canada has thinned, at least for now. But now, much of the western United States is bursting into flames, and that smoke will no doubt make cross country trips through the Midwest and East.  

The smoke probably won't entirely clear until the snow flies.      

POLITICIANS PLAY WITH FIRE

 True to form, U.S. politicians are sticking their noses into the Canadian wildfires, because they smell political MAGA talking points along with the smoke. So we get sad, silly moments like the following:  

Per CBC:

"In a Wednesday news release, Wisconsin state Rep. Calvin Callahan joined other Republican state lawmakers from Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota in filing a formal complaint against Canada to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and the International Joint Commission."

New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik also weighed in, sending letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney telling him, "The scale and severity of these fires continues to raise concerns about Canada's fires management and lack of effective deterrence of human caused fires."

I guess these Republicans are maybe suggesting Canada simply rake its forests like Donald Trump said California should do. Because cleaning and removing leaves, fallen trees, dead trees and more from  the nearly million square miles of forests in Canada is as simple as raking your front lawn in October right?

Forest management is of course a serious topic. It's just that Canada's vast, remote forests can't effectively be managed like many in the United States. Those Canadian forests are just not accessible enough for tree thinning and that sort of thing 

These Republicans are also kissing Trump's ass, trying to pretend to be in agreement that the U.S. should take over Canada as our 51st state so we can "do it right."

Never mind that climate change has increased the chances that Canada's forests will burn every summer.

"We're seeing the effects of prolonged drought, of a lot less snow in the wintertime, leading to drier soils, drier conditions and the early onset of the fire season in the spring," University of Vermont Professor of Forest, Ecology and Forestry recently told WCAX.

By the way, Stefanik, Trump and many other MAGA Republicans support greater use of fossil fuel and cuts to EPA rules that aim to tamp down climate change

If Republicans were honest, we'd keep our own house in order U.S. currently has a growing list of its own wildfires, many of which continue to expand and worsen as I write this. 

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said U.S. Republicans were throwing a "timber tantrum," with their whining about the Canadian wildfire smoke. 

"These are attention-seekers who can't come up with a good idea on health care or on making life more affordable... so they're playing games with something that's very serious."

I also noticed the MAGA politicians have shut their traps in recent days as Canadian smoke waned and western United States wildfires rapidly gained ground. 

Maybe we should send Callahan, Stephanik to manage our western forest, or as their god would say, rake those forests. 

Deliberate Wildfire Lies Just One Part Of MAGA Plan To Punish Blue States For Not Being MAGA Enough

It's going to cost billions to fix California after this 
month's devastating wildfires. Many of the GOP 
want to withhold aid until blue state California
becomes sufficiently MAGA-like. 

You've got to hand it to the more big mendacious wing of the GOP: They certainly know how to set up a scheme to get what they want. 

They provided a master class on how they operate with the past week's tragic California wildfires. This whole post will sound like a wildly conspiratorial rant, but hear me out. 

First, much of the GOP have bombarded us with truckloads of lies and misinformation and red herrings. Their voices of deception are so loud and big that they drown out the facts and the truth. 

Leading a sizable portion of the population believing them. Propaganda works.  

They're good at packaging up in neat little soundbites. Fox host Jeanne Pirro is especially adept at this, offering a fire hose of lies, exaggerations and fiction Monday evening:

 "To have empty fire hydrants and empty reservoir, no water pressure and you know, it's just, it is just a disaster. And,  you know how to lose billions for the homeless, and all kids of money for illegals, but can't manage forestry and you can't take care - take something that's predictable. And the question now is whether Americans in other states should be paying the bill for their policy, which really ignored the fundamental prevention efforts."

See what she did there? She's got the gullible thinking that California taxes residents to death to lavish wealth on the homeless and illegal migrants, as if that's a thing. 

And now, she concluded, we should withhold aid to desperate, distraught fire victims until, I don't know, California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he has brown people and The Gays and tells billionaires they no longer should pay taxes or something?

IN FOR THE KILL

Next step: Go in for the kill:  With the backing of gullible millions of minions across the nation, they go to work trying to change the "enemy" into an image of themselves.

That enemy to them is California. The giant state is not kind enough to billionaires, not cruel enough to the disadvantaged. California's leaders think climate change is a problem, which of course annoys the GOP's fossil fuel company donors. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom is fighting back
against GOP efforts to withhold aid to California
after this month's wildfires. 

So, departing from the way things have always been done, the GOP wants to attach strings to any disaster aid. 

For now, the proposed "strings" are described in, I guess, code words?  MAGA wants better forest management, whatever that entails.  The Los Angeles fires have burned through brush land and of course neighborhoods, and not forests.

 I saw a clip of Sen. Roger Marshall R-Kansas on Fox giving up the jig and suggesting that some of the strings attached to California aid be that the state abandon its climate initiatives.

That led the Tennessee Holler on sarcastically comment on X: "Republicans want to condition aid unless California takes measures to make sure this DEFINITELY happens again"

In any event, it looks most of the GOP Trump fanboys and fangirls are on firmly on board.

Per the Washington Post: 

"House Speaker Mike Johnson, (R-Louisiana) said Monday that 'there should probably be conditions on that aid,' and pointed to disagreements about California's 'resource management' and 'forest management mistakes,'

(There's that like about forests in Los Angeles again!) 

WaPo continues: 

"Sen. John Barrasso (Wyoming), the No. 2 Republican in the upper chamber, also blames the fires' devastating outcome on 'policies of the liberal administration out there' during a Sunday interview on CBS's Face the Nation." 

Barrasso wants strings attached to California aid, too.  Apparently, liberals should have gotten their act together and somehow blocked the 80 mph winds that fanned the flames somehow. 

WIDER AUDIENCE

California isn't the only audience for this GOP stunt.  It's a warning to everyone who might otherwise go their own way to fall in line with what the Trumpers want. It is very mafia. Nice state you got there. Hate to see anything ruin it. 

Some GOP Congress creatures are completely blunt about this plan. Per Washington Post:

"Rep. Zach Nuns (R-Iowa) said California and other Democratic-controlled states would need to atone for 'bad behavior' if they wanted federal assistance.

'We will certainly help those thousands of homes and families who've been devastated, but we also expect you to change bad behavior,' June said Monday on Fox Business. 'We should look at the same for these blue states who have run away with a broken tax policy. We want to help our colleagues in New York, California and New Jersey, but those governors need to change their tune now."

In other words, become MAGA or die. 

 If we're going to play that game, should we withhold hurricane recovery aid for Republican counties in Florida where wrecked buildings were built in areas prone to storm surges?  Or should we punish red counties in western North Carolina because Republican local leaders allowed construction in flood plains? Maybe we can blame Republicans in Florida and North Carolina for not doing enough to get people out of harm's way?

Sane people wouldn't do that. Disaster victims, no matter their political stripes, need help now if not sooner. So just get it to them and shut up about politics already.

Even the talk of adding strings to wildfire aid is costing money and wasting resources that the GOP is claiming they're so keen on saving. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom had to go out of his way to create an entire web page devoted to debunking GOP and MAGA falsehoods regarding the disaster. 

Newsom also worked out a deal to create a $50 million war chest to legally defend the state against Trump administration overreach. That's $50 million that could be spent on better things, but this is the world we live in now. 

On X, formerly Twitter, Johnson slammed Newsom for daring to clap back at the misinformation campaign.   

Newsom's response was: "Mr. Speaker, when Louisiana's need help with hurricanes it's Californians -- many of whom were impacted by these fires -- who foot the bill to help your constituents. And they do it without playing partisan games. 

Millions of your supporters are out here and they need your help, empathy, care, and whatever compassion you are willing to express."

At this point, I'm not holding out any hope for compassion or care from the GOP. Newsom probably was wasting his time trying to make that appeal. But I guess he's gotta try. 

 If Republicans open this can of worms, and Democrats eventually seize power again, are we going to force Oklahoma and Texas to adopt strict climate change measures before providing recovery money in a tornado aftermath? Force Alabama to embrace gay and trans people before we help out after hurricane. 

HOW TO INFLUENCE

Besides, there is a way for Congress to influence what happens in California that's fair to everyone, including the victims and the taxpayers they so fervently claim they're siding with. 

After every disaster, there's an assessment. What went right, what went wrong, what can we do better when there's a next time.

Things did go wrong in California, despite the heroic efforts of thousands of people. 

The firestorm was so explosive, and everybody was using so much water, that the water pressure in hydrants fell to almost nothing, so there was nothing to fight the fire with. There was plenty of water in the reservoirs, but it was being used too fast for the hydrants to keep up. Should there be some sort of redesign of that system?

Should rebuilt houses be required to use fire resistant material, with no vegetation or flammable stuff anywhere near these new buildings?  And what about forest management in parts of California and elsewhere. How can we improve that? 

Did the Los Angeles Fire Department have enough resources? Was their initial response adequate? What could have been done better? 

There's a lot of thing to look at to make the response better next time. And there will be a next time. I know California will do such an assessment, but Congress can mandate that, too, without tying it to aid to disaster victims. 

BACKFIRE?

Republicans might already think they have "won" against those silly DEI liberals in California. But they might well have caused headaches for themselves. After all, not all the fire victims are liberal. Surely some of the people who lost their homes in California  voted for Trump. So you're going to punish them for not convincing their neighbors to vote for Trump, too?

This could backfire big time in other ways, too. California is a "donor" state, pumping more revenue into the federal government than it takes in. Most red states are the opposite, taking in more federal dollars than they contribute.

I'd wonder if California could somehow retaliate against Washington if disaster aid is withheld?

After every big disaster, the community comes together in solidarity, helping each other, defending each other. That's happening in California. 

Will the MAGA types in Congress alienate the Republicans in California who might not like their neighbors' politics, but will still help in a time of need. Will they resent the lack of help from Washington?

Even if Congress doesn't go through with attaching strings to wildfire relief aid, they've already slowed down the process. They'll debate the issue of attaching strings, and that will postpone relief for weeks or months. 

Didn't MAGA bitterly criticize outgoing President Biden for supposedly going too slow with aid to flood victims in North Carolina? (Actually, Biden acted pretty fast, but as we already noted, the truth doesn't matter to much of the GOP). 

MAGA has already sown plenty of mistrust in the government, and government aid. It's all contributing to the seething undercurrent of rage against all the major institutions of American society. 

That anger can't stay contained forever,  Hate to say it, but it's going to blow up in somebody's face. Probably the GOP, when too many people decide the Powers That Be aren't on their side after all. 

This won't end well. 

VIDEO:

The person who explain things much better than I can is somebody known as Politics Girl.  She's all over social media, and I highly recommend subscribing to her YouTube channel and/or wherever else you can find her. 

In this video, she goes over the disinformation regarding California's fires and she puts it into excellent context. Video is more than seven minutes long and worth every second. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that:

 

 

 

Tasteless Trump MAGA Types Jump On California Fire Tragedy To Distract From Real Issues

Aerial view from KTLA of thousands of homes leveled
by this week's firestorm around Los Angeles. The actual
fire was followed by a blaze of gaslighting by
politicians and pundits with a bad agenda.

This was so predictable, yet so infuriating and sad.  

Yes, I'm talking about the Los Angeles firestorm. But also the gaslighting that grew out of it. 

As always, Trump and his legions of fanboys and fangirls have jumped on the horrific California wildfire cataclysm to pick on their usual suspects.

The fire tragedy was apparently caused not be strong winds, dry conditions or even climate change. It was all supposedly the fault of liberals, by DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity hires)  and the gays.

Yes, the gays did it. They always do.  

Here's what's really going on.  America is seething with justifiable anger right now.  Health insurance companies mentally torture and sometimes literally murder medical patients who have become too expensive to maintain their record profits. 

Billionaires take and take and take, while throwing crumbs in the form of inadequate wages and poor working conditions to their workers. Corporations hide behind a cloak of abysmal customer service to maintain their profits.  

Homeowners insurance companies will screw over at least some of the Californians who lost their homes. Some of us are getting wise to the way climate change is creating or worsening these disasters, and making life harder, or at least sadder for so many of us. 

And politicians don't do anything about all this because they're in on it. They get their take. 

The solution? Distract us with bogus bogeymen and ridiculous "villains" who don't always have the means to fight back.  Trump, MAGA and their enablers are terribly good at this sort of thing. And it seems to work. At least for now. 

We're told that the fact a fire chief is a lesbian, the governor of the state is politically liberal, and migrants and gays exist as the supposed reasons Los Angeles burned down. 

So let's take a dive into these distractions and scapegoats and, just for laughs, throw in a little fact checking.    

MAGICAL WATER

Before we go further, I have to - sigh -  get the whataboutisms out of the way. Yes, some on the left have been known to pick on disaster victims in red states. Sometimes even cruelly. But the mean girls and boys on the left have nothing on the lies and and insane accusations coming from MAGA.

Trump, as always, led the way, by essentially saying that California Gov. Gavin Newsom let Los Angeles burn because he was focused on protecting some strange little smelt or something.   

 Said our fearless leader Trump:  

"Governor Gavin Newscum (sic) refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a  virtually apocalyptic way."

Trump went on to say that water that could have been used to fight the wildfires was diverted to "protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt" 

The wildfires are "all his fault!!!!" Trump wrote on a social media screed.

Also, the loathsome Jesse Watters on his Fox News show said Newsom was tearing down dams so, quote "Indians" can fish. Supposedly the fictitious water behind the fictitious now-removed dams could have been used to put out the fires. Or something like that. 

OK, so I know fact checking is passé these days but I'm going to do it anyway, just to get it on the record. 

There is no "water restoration declaration." There is also no magical spigot that Newsom could have turned out to flood the burn zone with neighborhood-saving water. 

As always, Trump's words are based on the most microscopic grains of truth. 

First the smelt issue: Trump holds grudges and he's still probably fuming that Newsom fought a Trump plan to send more water to farmers in the Sacramento/San Joaquin area of northern California in part to protect an endangered smelt.

So yeah, some northern California farmers might have been peeved at Newsom and we can debate whether the governor should have tried so hard to protect the smelt, but this had nothing to do with water in southern California.

There were water problems in the fire zone, which prevented firefighters from having enough to battle the blazes in Pacific Palisades. But its wasn't a water supply problem. Despite the drought, there's still more than adequate water supplies in southern California.

It was a water transport and local supply problem.  

As I noted in a Thursday morning post, big tanks were filled with water in anticipation of the fires.  But the fires were so big, and the firefighters used so much water that the tanks quickly emptied, and couldn't be refilled fast enough. 

That is definitely something that has to be looked at and improve upon to prevent another mega-tragedy like the one this week. 

DEI

In MAGA world, only white men can handle most jobs. 

The accusations are pretty wild. Apparently, the so-called DEI hires, supposedly because all of them are evil, just want to let the fires burn as much as possible, with no efforts to put them out, said Fox contributor Leo Terrell.

The now ever-present Elon Musk informed us that the Los Angeles Fire Department "prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes."   

Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley. If you believe
the Fox News types, the L.A. fires were her fault 
because fire chiefs should be white males. Or
something like that. 

As if the LAFD spent this week holding hiring ceremonies for non-white people instead of heroically fighting the wildfires, which is obviously what they were doing

One thing Donald Trump Jr. does even better than his father is finding ways to be more despicable than anybody else. Junior had this to say on his buddy Elon's X:  

"Can we rename DEI to DIE since that's what seems to happen to people downstream of those who place woke virtue signaling far above competency."

If Junior is holding himself up as one of the white guys who allegedly can do better than any of the black, Hispanic or female firefighters battling the wildfires, God help us all.

Fact check: LAFD is still overwhelming white and male, but the city has been trying to encourage others to join the ranks. With the obvious condition that they be actually qualified to be firefighters. 

 THE GAYS

In addition to the MAGAs bringing up DEI, and the notion that only white men can handle pretty much any job, we have gay people.   

Which, as we all know, are so all-powerful that they cause every disaster known to man. 

Which explains the attacks on Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, who does happen to be a lesbian. 

The ever-entertaining Charlie Kirk, fresh from his vacation with Don Jr to Greenland, had this to say:

"When California, in a couple weeks, comes crawling back for federal assistance, Trump should say, listen, I'm not gonna give you a dime unless you fire the lesbian Kristens (sic)."

The far-right Newsmax also weighed in on Crowley's orientation, with the implication that somehow made her incompetent

"Well isn't that just wonderful," Newsmax host Rob Finnerty said, his voice dripping with contempt. "The first LGBTQ fire chief, something we can all hope to have in our towns one day. The mayor even had her marching in the LA Pride parade in front of the fire engines."

Because, as we all know, marching in a Pride parade automatically disqualifies you from any job, apparently. 

 The reality: It's too soon to say who might have been the hero, and who were the incompetents or villains in this big fire episode.

But there's already evidence that Crowly at least tried to be a hero back in early December, way before Pacific Palisades caught fire.   We have this from NBC4 in Los Angeles:

"The LA Fire Chief warned in the weeks before the devastating Palisades fire that the decision to cut the department''s budget by nearly $18 million would diminish its ability to prepare for and respond to large scale emergencies.

"The reduction... has severely limited the department's capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires,' Chief Kristin Crowley wrote in a memo Dec. 4 2024."

She said the cutbacks would harm federally mandated pilot training and helicopter coordination, and staffing for wildfire suppression. Mayor Karen Bass on Wednesday disagreed with Crowley's assessment, but this should be looked into, for sure. 

By the way, it's not just gays.  Migrants are supposedly doing everything possible to harm the U.S.  Remember how they were eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio?  That false hysteria faded as soon as it was no longer politically useful,

But those damn migrants are a great addition to the MAGA tool case.  Just on Thursday, Maria Bartiromo suggested migrants started the devastating fires.

For the record, we don't know what started most of the fires yet.  Though it appears an arsonist started one of them around Calabasas. Los Angeles fire officials have been a bit too busy actually fighting the fires to spend much time probing their causes.  

THE GAME 

 It was so easy for me to find the actual facts going on with California's fires. So it should have been easy or MAGA to do the same. 

But they've never been interested in what's really going on. It's always been and always will be about brainwashing the base and gaslighting the rest of us. 

 Presidents, no matter what their political stripes, have always stepped up and sent resources to disasters and calamities without politics involved.  Until Trump, any president would send FEMA aid to tornado victims in deep red Oklahoma, or flood victims in deep blue Vermont. 

Which as it should be.

Now, it's different. Trump and MAGA say they are on the side of the average, working American. The diversions and lies have worked for now. And might continue to work indefinitely, who knows?  But if their base and fans eventually realize it has all been a grift, it's going to be a mess.

In any event, while we're distracted by all this, cities will continue to burn, wash away, blow away or melt in extreme heat in this age of climate change. 

And nothing will be done about it. 

Because we're told it's entirely the fault of the liberals, DEI and the gays.  

 

 

UPDATE: Among Many Potential Casualties Of Musk/Trump Shutdown Effort Is Critical Disaster Aid

House Speaker Mike Johnson worked out a deal to prevent
the government from shutting down, but it appears his 
overlords Elon Musk and Donald Trump don't approve.
Which means the government has a high chance of 
shutting down, and badly needed FEMA disaster
relief won't go to victims who have 
already been waiting a long time for help. 

 So, President Musk, I mean, President-elect Trump don't like the budget deal that would prevent a government shutdown, so these kings of chaos want to make a mess.  

They're doing a good job of it. 

Sure, the negotiated deal between Republican and Democratic house members is a bit o a cumbersome mess.

The whole effort by Musk to shut everything down, though, seems designed solely to throw a monkey wrench into the workings of government by any means necessary, and this is just the opening salvo of the chaos that we will endure for the next four years. 

This being a weather and climate blog, I'll ignore for now most of the zillions of things that will go wrong if there is a government shutdown.

But part of the deal that Musk and Trump and the MAGA crowd don't like is the more than $100 million in badly needed FEMA relief money from the weather and climate disasters we've had in the past year. Those included Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and the some of the flood disasters here in Vermont.

Per CBS News:

The now-threatened funding "included $110.4 billion in disaster aid:  $29 billion for FEMA's disaster relief fund; $8 billion for federal highways and roads, $12 billion for the Community Development Block grants and disaster relief; and $3.2 for Tribal Assistance grants. It also replenishes the Small Business Administration's disaster loan program with $2.2 billion. The program was exhausted in the aftermath of Hurricanes Milton and Helene earlier this year."

Vermont's Congressional delegation say they are ready to vote for the continuing resolution if it includes  the disaster aid. "I will not abandon Vermonts. I will not abandon those around the country impacted by flooding, wildfires, hurricanes and other extreme weather. I will not vote for a continuing resolution without comprehensive disaster aid," Sen. Peter Welch, D-VT said via a posting on Threads. 

Bottom line: Those of you who need help from the federal government after enduring climate and weather disasters are on their own, at least if shadow president Elon Musk, Trump and his minions have their way. Which seems a near certainty.

We'll see whether a deal is reached by Friday, but I'm not holding my breath.  

Campaign And Troll Falsehoods Sow More Fear, Confusion In Southeast Disaster Zone

One thing victims of the extreme Hurricanes Helene and Milton disasters  don't need are more fear and confusion that they already have. 

MAGA lies about FEMA's response to Hurricanes
Helene and Milton are dangerous for many reasons,
but apparently victimizing victims is fine if 
it somehow helps Trump get elected. 

Unlike water, electricity, shelter open roads and cell service, fear and confusion are in plentiful supply, as one would expect in such an extreme calamity. 

It is now the campaign strategy of Donald Trump and his supporters to promote wild stories about the federal response to the twin disasters.  

I guess firing up the "base" to win the White House is more important than the lives of the people coping with these calamities. 

People dealing with hurricanes Helene and Milton have the added misfortune of experiencing these catastrophes in the final weeks of a a nail biter presidential election. 

 FEMA DIVERTING FUNDS TO MIGRANTS?

The Washington Post a week ago delved into one of the the gems in North Carolina's disaster zone that seems to have gotten a lot of traction on social media;

"Former president Donald Trump doubled down on  misinformation about Hurricane Helene in an appearance in this storm-ravaged state Friday, repeating the falsehood that the White House used disaster funds for migrants."

Of course, that's not true. 

White House Spokesman Andrew Bates said flatly. "No disaster relief funding at all was used to support migrants housing and services. None. At. All."

 Republican governors of South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Florida, along with the Democratic governor of North Carolina all say that they have been happy with FEMA's disaster response so far.

Of course, Trump and his followers are having none of that. They'll believe what they want to believe, as to them, the truth is besides the point. How dare those Republican governors contradict Dear Leader! 

ORIGINS OF LIES

Like every wild, false story, it all begins with a grain of truth. FEMA has enough money and personnel to swoop into disaster zones to provide immediate aid in the aftermath of these terrible disasters.  

However, the agency is in fact having trouble funding long term aid for disaster areas, such as reimbursing municipalities and states for road and infrastructure repairs they've done. 

Hurricane Helene destruction in North Carolina. Trump's
lies about the FEMA response could be making things
even worse for these disaster victims. 

Congress has to appropriate more money for that piece of the FEMA pie. A stopgap spending bill that prevented a partial government shutdown omitted additional funding for FEMA. Congress is in a recess now during the campaign season.

However, there have been calls for Congress to reconvene in the coming days to pass a supplemental FEMA money bill.  House Speaker Mike Johnson is against that idea. 

I am certain that there's been FEMA missteps already in North Carolina and in other Helene disaster zones. You get that in an emergency. FEMA aid was probably slow to reach some victims, given how many were stranded in inaccessible mountains and hollows. 

And there's probably bureaucracy frustrating people who intensely needed help last week, never mind right now. 

It's also no secret that FEMA can be an annoying bureaucracy. Vermont Sen. Peter Welch has called for a federal audit of FEMA,  citing administrative bloat and bureaucratic inefficiency.

But as far as FEMA ignoring desperate flood victims in North Carolina to coddle migrants, that's all stupid campaign lies. Most FEMA employees really want to help disaster victims, and are really good at their jobs. 

CONSEQUENCE OF LIES

FEMA is not capping aid to victims at $750.00.  They didn't block helicopters in North Carolina from searching for survivors. They're not diverting disaster aid to migrants. They didn't confiscate all the private aid that went to North Carolina. And the federal government is not withholding aid to areas where a majority of voters support Trump. 

There are also even crazier notions that a surprisingly large segment of the population believe. These include the idea that the government is somehow controlling the strength and path of hurricanes and other disasters. I'm planning an upcoming, separate post on that whackadoodle aspect of all this lies circulating around. 

 Meanwhile, these FEMA lies could have real life consequences. It's not just campaign chatter.   

The White House, its staff and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris keep clapping back hard at the misinformation around the Helene response. They are all warning that they falsehoods could keep hurricane victims from seeking the assistance they critically need.

I also worry about FEMA workers. That kind of MAGA lies about FEMA can encourage the real wackos among them to consider violence and attacks against these workers. They're already reportedly receiving death threats. 

TikTok and X posts, along with other social media, is sadly rife with threats against federal workers just trying to provide some aid to disaster victims. 

Also, talk about wasting resources!  FEMA had to launch a web page to combat false rumors about its activities.  I agree that they had to do it to attempt to make sure accurate information gets out there. But it's a waste of time and resources, when if Trump and his minions hadn't resorted to all these lies, that FEMA rumor-quashing page would not have been necessary. 

Oh, by the way, there has been a case in which a president has diverted funds away from FEMA and steered the money toward his pet project. It wasn't the Biden administration. 

It was none other than Donald Trump, who's now falsely whining about FEMA money being diverted.

As Politico reported, Trump in 2018 initially wanted to refuse disaster aid to California after some destructive wildfires

And talk about a bald faced transactional, corrupt mindset, an aide to Trump talked him into providing the aid by pointing out fire-damaged Orange County, California had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa. 

President Biden responded to this news by saying, "You can't only help those in need if they voted for you."

Which makes me glad Biden was president when deep blue Vermont suffered a series of flood disasters in 2023 and 2024.

WHY WE KNOW LIES AREN'T TRUE 

Anybody can go on social media and make up anything. The more provocative and outrageous, the more clicks and revenue some idiots can make. Truth is besides the point.

Say what you want about journalists - and there's a lot to say - but if FEMA was doing anything like what Trump and MAGA are accusing them of, it would be all over the news.

I was in journalism for decades. I know how they tend to think. Journalists love to get the scoop, of course, and they would shout from the rooftops if FEMA really was blocking aid. Or giving the aid to migrants instead of hurricane victims. 

There's two reasons for that.

One, like anybody else, journalists really want to advance their careers.  If a journalist broke a big story like that, there's potential for advancement, more income,  heck maybe even a Pulitzer Prize.

Also, many journalists have a "comfort the afflicted, afflicted the comfortable" ethos. Many - not all -journalists love to stand up for powerless victims of the powerful. So if FEMA really were victimizing hurricane victims who have lost everything, they would be all over it.

Come to think of it, I guess that's why  you've heard so often on the news Trump's accusations against FEMA described as lies, which they are. It's been all over the news. Because this is a case in many journalists are trying to comfort the hurricane victims being afflicted by Trump's falsehoods.   

Florida's DeSantis signs "Don't Say Climate Change" Bill. We'll See How That Works Out. Meteorologists Rebel

We can always rely on Florida for easy but stupid answers.

s

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed "don't say climate
change" legislation that scrubs reference to it from
state statutes. I guess if you pretend it doesn't
exist, then it doesn't exist?

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a "Don't Say Climate Change" bill into law that eliminates that supposedly awful phrase from state documents and regulations.  

As the Associated Press reports:

"Opponents of the bill DeSantis signed say it removes the word 'climate' in nine different places, moves the state's energy goals away from efficiency and the reduction of greenhouse gases blamed for a warming planet."

References to climate change will disappear from state statutes. I guess DeSantis doesn't want Floridians to say much.  After all, under DeSantis, Florida is the home to "don't say gay" laws. 

By the logic of DeSantis and his Republican-led legislature, if you pretend climate change doesn't exist, it goes away, I guess. Never mind the record spring heat wave that's been hitting parts of Florida. Or the increasing rate of sea level rise that keeps causing nuisance flooding in Miami. Or the enhanced hurricane risk later this summer and autumn. 

The bill DeSantis signed into law earlier this month also bans wind turbines offshore or near the state's huge coastline. 

Additionally, as NPR reports:

"(The law) would also boost expansion of natural gas, reduce regulation on gas pipelines in the state and increase protections against bans on gas appliances such as stoves, according to a news release from the governor's office."

DeSantis claims that the law is "restoring sanity" on energy issues and "rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots."

This comes at a time when Florida is really under assault from climate change and its side effects. A record heat wave this month sent heat indexes up to the 110-115 range, much higher than ever observed in May. 

Due to sea level rise, Miami has seen so far in 2024 water above mean high tide more often than in 1996, 1997 and 1998, said Brian McNoldy, a meteorologist specializing in sea level, climatology and hurricanes. 

Speaking of hurricanes, we know Florida is prone to hurricanes. Climate change tends to make those storms bigger and more powerful.  Due to unprecedented warmth in the parts of the Atlantic Ocean that brew hurricanes, forecasters say this could be a record season.  Florida could be in the crosshairs again. 

Insurance rates are going up because of this threat. Want to retire to Florida? If you do, remember that these higher insurance rates are forcing many Florida senior living centers to close.

Meteorologists are among those starting to rebel against DeSantis and his climate nonsense. 

Steve MacLaughlin, a meteorologist at a NBC affiliate in Miami, tore into DeSantis on social media and a video posted on his stations web site. "As Florida is on fire, underwater and unaffordable, our state government is rolling back climate change legislation and language, " he said on X, formerly Twitter.

On the video, MacLaughlin says, "The world is looking to Florida to lead in climate change, and our government is saying that climate change is no longer the priority it once was."

Other Florida meteorologists are starting to follow MacLaughlin's lead. John Morales, a longtime South Florida meteorologist, urged colleagues in broadcast media to do the same as MacLaughlin.

On X, formerly Twitter, Morales linked to MacLaughlin's video and said, "this is the time like no other to be courageous. Here's how."

MacLaughlin emphasized he was not telling people how to vote or who to vote for, but rather was emphasizing the science and the risks. 

Pointing out the obvious dangers of climate change can affect a television meteorologist's career. Last year, Chris Gloninger, a meteorologist at KCCI in Des Moines, resigned from his position after he got tons of hate mail and threats from MAGA types because he dared to note how climate change was endangering Iowa. 

Gloninger is now a Senior Scientist at Woods Hole Group.  

I'm not sure why so many far right politicians think that not mentioning things they don't want to deal with makes them go away. For better or worse, Americans tend not to want to shut up.  

I have a feeling that DeSantis and his minions will find this "Don't Say Climate Change" nonsense will eventually backfire on them. 

Climate change is powerful enough to eventually overrule any type of right-wing legislation.  Talk about backfiring! 

Dude's Congressional Climate Change Testimony Runs Up Against Stupid Congress Creatures

Olympic skier Gus Schumacher earlier this year gave
Congressional testimony on how climate change affects the
winter sports industry.  Troll, oops, I mean esteemed
Sen. John Kennedy, R-LA had other ideas. 

Earlier this spring,  Gus Schumacher a young dude (23) who is an Olympic cross-country skier, recently took up an invitation recently to testify before a U.S. House committee about how climate change is affecting the outdoor recreation industry. 

Two other outdoorsy types testified as well.

But the hearing went off the rails quickly. As Congressional hearings usually do, it was all about politicians' grandstanding and trolling.  This ended up having little to do with climate change or the outdoor recreation industry. 

Because social media trolling during supposed serious congressional work is now good politics, apparently.

Enter Sen John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana. As the Alaska Beacon reported:

"Kennedy did not ask Schumacher substantive questions about climate change's impacts on cross-country skiing, nor did he ask about the challenges posed to Alaska's oil-dependent economy by reducing the use of fossil fuels. Instead, he presented the Olympian with a deep excavation of his social media accounts, and a pop quiz on climate economics and science."

Now, granted, Schumacher is not the world's foremost authority on climate change and its impacts on winter recreation. I suppose he was there because his Olympic star power means something to some people. He was there representing a group call Save Our Winters. 

But Kennedy and other GOPers saw an opportunity for a weird ambush and took it. And it did get weird. 

Kennedy started by asking Schumacher about carbon dioxide. He didn't claim to be an expert. 

"I'm not a professional to talk about carbon dioxide so much."

Kennedy: "But you want to abolish it, right?"

Schumacher: "No. There's always going to be carbon dioxide."

From there, Kennedy surely congratulated himself by gotcha-ing Schumacher for saying incorrectly that carbon dioxide is a major component of the atmosphere, when it's actually just a small part of it. 

Kennedy: "You was to abolish fossil fuel?"

Schumacher: "I never said that."

Then a little back and forth, then Kennedy, referring to a past tweet Schumacher either wrote or re-tweeted about holding police involved in misconduct accountable, asked,  "Do you think we ought to abolish the police?" 

 Schumaker tried to point out past tweets unrelated to the topic of the Congressional hearing were "not the topic of this conversation."

Kennedy then asked, "Should we do that before or after we get rid of fossil fuels?"

Sigh. 

The standards of political success now seem to be if you act like a patronizing, ignorant twit, you are politically victorious. Or something like that. 

This was all planned to shut Schumacher up, and anyone else who dares to speak out on climate change. 

The playbook is familiar:  Get some Republican Congress creature to do some performance art by asking irrelevant questions and try to make the witness look like a fool. Then post it on your social media, tag right wing "news" sites, and let the MAGA minions go on the attack against the target, in this case Schumacher. 

The point is to make a political opponent's life so miserable that they'll shut up, and scare any like minded person into keeping their mouth shut. 

Worried about climate change? Want to speak up about it?  Then prepare for the death threats against you and your family. 

This Instagram message Schumacher got was typical. "One easy way to minimize CO2 on Earth is of you to STOP BREATHING! Will you do that for us?"

Yep, that commenter wanted Schumacher to commit suicide for the high crime of being concerned about climate change. 

I wonder if Kennedy agrees that advocating suicide of your political opponents is a good idea. But I'm sure he won't answer that. Because ultimately, the bullies are wimps.

Of course, MAGA's attempts to shut up opponents, be it in climate issues or anything else, doesn't always work. Sometimes it backfires.  "They're not going to get to me," (Schumacher) said. "I'm happy to be able to talk about what I see at home and abroad. And I'm definitely motivated to continue it," he told the Alaska Beacon. 

 Schumacher gets what happened. "'In hindsight, the point was just to derail this hearing,' Schumacher said in a phone interview....'I was kind of thrown off, obviously, which was his goal.'"

As for Kennedy, he's part of the federal government as a congressman.  The government suppressing free speech is a First Amendment problem. I'm not sure whether he's legally culpable. I'm not a lawyer. But he's certainly violating the spirit of the First Amendment. 

 Kennedy is being  paid handsomely for his "work"  by the way.  Alaska Beacon reported that Kennedy collected $343,000 in oil and gas-industry-aligned contributions in the two years before his re-election in 2022. 

Meteorologist Forced Out Of Job By Moron Right Wing Bullies. Sound Familiar?

Meteorologist Chris Gloninger is quitting his job as 
meteorologist at television station KCCI in Des Moines
because some in the MAGA cult bullied him for 
accurately reporting climate change issues. 

A television meteorologist is calling it quits because of threats and harassments he has received. Apparently, some people freak out because this meteorologist has the gall to accurately report on climate change. 

Sigh 

Chris Gloninger, chief meteorologist at television station KCCI in Des Moines, is leaving the position because the MAGA types apparently are displeased that he sometimes uses his platform to (Gasp!) accurately report on climate change issues. 

I'm not talking about people grumbling that they're uninterested in the topic, or believe Gloninger has his facts wrong. 

Nope, it's all about Gloninger contradicting their MAGA club. And you know what that means! Threats, whines, tantrums. You know the toddler behavior we've all come to expect from the extreme right wing, QAnon,  and Trump cultists.  Snowflakes, in other words. Or just flakes. 

One missive could easily be ignored. But they just kept piling on. As the Washington Post reports:

"The emails arrived relentlessly in Gloninger's inbox for another month, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported. The sender accused the award-winning meteorologist, who spoke frequently about the effects of climate change, of being a conspiracy theorist and a 'worthless Biden puppet.' Another told Gloninger to 'go was and drown from the ice cap melting.'"

The messages are threatening and stupid. "Getting sick and tired of your liberal conspiracy on the weather."

 If this sounds familiar, it should.  The MAGA types have fully embraced bullying, be it on line or in purpose to get what they want. Like most bullies, they don't have the facts behind them, so they resort to staged anger, force, and occasionally, violence. 

We have seen election workers bullied into quitting by the MAGAs insisting the 2020 election was stolen, against all evidence to the contrary. MAGA and right wing politicians are stoking attacks on the LGBTQ community and stoking hysteria over drag queens.    And the so-called law and order right wing also attacks the FBI and other law enforcement agencies for, well, enforcing laws against Trump and their allies. This includes harassment of prosecutors in the Trump classified documents case.

One of the most persistent and obnoxious people harassing Gloinger was Daniel H. Hancock, 63, of Lenox, Iowa.  As the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported, Hancock was charged with harassment, but got off pretty much with no consequences. He only had to pay a $150 fine. That's it. 

I'm sure Hancock is gloating with this and is ready to try and bully others, given the very light slap on the wrist he received. More of these MAGA harassers need to suffer bigger consequences, or they'll just keep doing what they're doing. 

Meanwhile, Gloninger, who did absolutely nothing wrong, finds his life upended. True, the threats and vitriol weren't as bad as some other people who incurred the wrath of MAGA, but it still has an effect.

As the Washington Post reports:

"The episode ultimately led the meteorologist to a career-altering decision. Gloninger is departing KCCI and his career in TV news in July.....citing family health issues and post-traumatic stress he suffered after receiving the threats."

'I'm trying to put it behind me,' Gloninger told The Washington Post. 'But at the same point, I think it brings awareness to what journalists face day to day bringing the news."

Climate scientists and advocates know all too well how wearing the rabble rousers can be. Michael Mann, a prominent climatologist known for his ground breaking 1998 "hockey stick" graph and studies in 1998, has been harassed ever since.  

It's gotten worse, at least on Twitter, now that Elon Musk has firmly taken over. 

According to AFP:

"Michael Mann, a prominent climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania and a regular target for abuse by deniers of climate change, said he believed the rise in misinformation was 'organized and orchestrated' by opponents of climate reform.

'I've see a huge rise in trolls and bots. Many large tweets of mine for the attack,' he said. 

Mann's 2021 book 'The New Climate War' documented actions by oil producers to sow climate denialism on social media. 'The professional trolls manipulate the online environment with strategic posts that generate conflict and division, leading to a feeding frenzy,' he told AFP."

True to form, Mann is not keeping his mouth shut about Twitter under Musk. 

On April 21, he tweeted, "If you're a prominent climate account on Twitter, there are organized teams funded by fossil fuel groups, dark money organizations & petrostates who will not target your tweets with trollbot attacks. Elon Musk -- who bought Twitter w/help from the Saudis & Russia - enabled this."

Mann suggested blocking and muting these denial tweets because it hurts their rating with Twitter's algorithms. Reporting the account for misinformation might also help. 

Dealing with the right wing online bullies is an annoying task of whack-a-mole Given the political climate, I don't see signs of any real civility anytime soon. 

By the way, I have absolutely no objection to questioning what you see and hear from reporters.  If it sounds off after you've thought about it critically, it's OK to call them on it. If you do it in a professional, level headed manner.  Hey, free speech and all, so go for it.

I just object to terrorism and bullying, which is the problem here. 

I also don't mean to lump all Trump supporters into the loser whiner category. Just the ones who are in fact whiners, losers and bullies. 

As for Gloninger, he's landing on his feet. He and his wife are moving to Massachusetts where he has been hired by Woods Hole Group, which is an environmental science and consulting group. 

 

MAGA GOP Seeing Resistants To "Woke" Banks Worried About Climate Change

Extremist GOP politicians don't want banks to consider
climate change and other like issues in their 
investment decision, but saner minds in the 
GOP are resisting this impulse. 

UPDATE, MARCH 13: 

After I wrote this piece, the far right wing began, predictably, to blame the failure of Silicon Valley Bank in California to their supposed "woke" policies. 

They don't explain  how the "woke" policies, whatever they are, made SVB collapse.

It appears the bank failed for a set of complicated reasons, and I'm absolutely sure bad internal decisions played a major role. 

But the problem had to do with securities, not woke policies. And when depositors started asking for their money back, the instability in SVB became apparent. 

There was a bank run, and that was that. 

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

Warning, this is a political post, but sometimes, stuff needs to be said.

The large MAGA wing of the Republican Party think anything that's not 1950s-era thought is verboten. As the Washington Post indicates, so called "woke" policies to combat climate change, even when conservatives banks are the ones getting concerned about the climate crisis.  

Here's how the Washington Post frames it:

"Conservatives have long held that the government should avoid interfering with private business decisions But over the last two years Republican state treasurers and attorneys general in Texas, Florida and other states have sought to blacklist banks that factor climate risks and social concerns into their investment decisions."

That's all a lot of talk among the MAGAs, but cooler heads seem to be prevailing. 

Republican state officials win Texas, Florida and other states have been trying to blacklist banks that factor in climate risks and social concerns when making investment decisions.  

However, Republican legislators in many states are defeating such proposals to blacklist banks. The argument against the blacklist is traditional conservatism, not MAGA stuff. Traditional conservatism holds that businesses should be free to make investment and growth decisions without interference from the government. 

The Washington Post offers the example of North Dakota, in which two proposed laws to sanction banks for factoring in climate change were roundly defeated by the state legislature by a 90-3 margin.  

WaPo quotes this North Dakota banker. 

"'Our biggest concern is the idea of somebody telling our banks who to do business with or who not to do business with,' Rick Clayburgh, chief executive of the North Dakota Bankers Association, said after beating back those proposals. 'We believe our banks should be allowed to do business with customers they know, the people they know and to make those decisions.'"

The right wingers want to use public pension plans and bond offerings to keep out so-called "woke" institutes.

Of course, American banks and other financial institutions aren't exactly cabals of wild-eyed liberal and socialist activists. As all but the worst nutcases understand, U.S. financial institutions are card carrying capitalists to the extreme. They are  there to make money for themselves and their shareholders. 

Climate change and other societal concerns are simply factors that need to go into business decisions. It's all about risks and rewards.  

Pension fund managers don't want to limit bank activities because that would lead to fewer financial institutions, leading to less competition. Less competition means higher costs. Capitalism at work here, too. 

Still, some governors, attorneys general and others insist on shooting themselves in the foot. Texas in 2021 banned state and local government agencies from doing business with financial companies that they accuse of boycotting gun and fossil fuel industries 

Top lenders left Texas as a result, and this cost the state's taxpayers between $300 and $500 million because of extra interest fees, NPR reported.  

Proposals to freeze out banks who take into consideration climate change and other factors are more often than not inspired or guided by an outfit called the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. 

Even ALEC is withdrawing its prototype bill that would have required states to stop doing business with banks and other companies that are 'boycotting loans or investments in fossil fuels and the firearms industry, says WaPo.  ALEC says it wants to tweak its proposed legislation.

Still, MAGA types and extreme right wingers are soldiering on with their efforts to block financial institutions from considering environmental, social and governance policies, known as ESG's.  

As is the case with public discourse these days, especially in parts of the GOP, the rhetoric against ESGs is pretty over the top. 

North Dakota Republican Rep. Bill Tveit says he's going to re-introduce an amended version of the original bill that failed so miserably.  Sustainable governance like considering climate change is part a "worldwide human satanic organized effort. A man-made sabotage of God," Tveit hyperventilated.

No, I don't know what he means by that, either. 

Tveit also said ESG proponents "want to control every inch of our lives while enhancing their fantasy green world."  He did not explain exactly how banking institutions would "control every inch of our lives" via their internal financial decisions.   This dude just really needs to calm down.  

Mr. Anti-Woke himself, Florida Gov. Rhonda Santis Ron DeSantis is tilting at this windmill, too. In February, he proposed legislation to stop "these elites" who he alleged are trying to "inject political ideology into investment decisions, corporate governance, and really just the every day economy."

This being Florida, you'd think you'd want financial institutions to at least consider climate change, since the Sunshine State seems particularly vulnerable to sea level rise.  But maybe DeSantis is so afraid of drag queens and childrens' books that feature two male penguins is such a threat that he has to make sure the banks don't invest in that kind of thing?

I dunno. 

Personally, I don't love every single aspect of American capitalism as it currently operates. But I'd rather have that than ignorant ideologues messing with business for really stupid reasons. I hope that the Washington Post is correct that anti-ESG measures are flailing.