Hurricane Lies Reach 'Don't Make Me Agree With Christina Pushaw' Level
That's really bad!
A few hours before Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida last night, President Joe Biden spoke from the White House about the federal disaster preparations, and he also had a few select words for those spreading lies and rumors about the federal government’s disaster response. They were not kind words.
Biden called out Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene for their numerous lies about the disaster response, saying Trump “has led the onslaught of lies.”
“Assertions have been made that property is being confiscated. That's simply not true. They're saying people impacted by these storms will receive $750 in cash and no more. That's simply not true. They're saying the money needed for this crisis is being diverted to migrants. What a ridiculous thing to say, it's not true.
“Now the claims are getting even more bizarre. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, the congresswoman of Georgia, is now saying the federal government is literally controlling the weather. We're controlling the weather. It's beyond ridiculous.”
Earlier in the day, Biden also told reporters that Trump’s lies about the hurricane were “un-American” and said, “It's so stupid. It's got to stop!” Asked if he’d considered calling Trump to ask him to knock it off, Biden, a realist, simply replied, “Oh, come on.”
Fuck Elon Musk, Too
The world’s richest sociopath, Elon Musk, has been a prime source of conspiracy theories and disinformation related to Helene, and will probably not behave any better following Milton. Musk personally helped spread the lie that FEMA had “actively blocked” donations from getting to storm victims, and also lied that the agency is “seizing goods […] and locking them away to state they are their own.”
What’s more, he amped up false rumors that North Carolina state authorities had “taken control to stop people helping” storm survivors, because apparently they’re just evil or something. And like every other rightwing liar from Trump to MAGAgalBunchanumbers, Musk also spread the racist lie that FEMA was out of disaster funds because all its money went to helping illegal immigrants. No … but Trump did! (Except Trump didn’t use the FEMA money for “helping” immigrants, but rather for “detaining” them. So you can see why that would be fine then.)
Some of the bullshit Musk shoveled also involved stories about local law enforcement who had closed roads or waved off helicopters bringing free equipment for Musk’s Starlink satellite system to places digging out from Helene; in the retelling on Twitter, the stories often got reframed as orders from FEMA or the Federal Aviation Administration, neither of which has cops on the ground anyway.
In addition, as The Register reports, Musk’s much-touted offer to let Helene victims have “free” internet access through Starlink turns out to have a major catch: Yes, people can get 30 days of free service, but to use it they still need to buy the home receiver hardware, which with tax and delivery comes to around $400 — and after the 30 days are over, they’ll be rolled over into a standard $120 per month subscription. They also have to have working electricity, of course, which is lacking in many affected areas. And by the time the kit is delivered, local cell and internet service may be restored anyway. Still, it could be useful for some people farther away from towns, and most important, Musk will get a lot of new customers! Read the whole infuriating thing.
Republicans Keep Having To Be Truthful And It’s Haaard
The maelstrom of misinformation coming from Trump and others has been so bad that even a number of Republicans have had no recourse but to debunk his lies, although for the most part they’ve done so without naming Trump as the source. Even as Trump spun up his lie machine following Helene, responsible outlets like Wonkette and others noted that Republican governors of the hard-hit states were all thanking Biden and FEMA for their fast response (as did Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, but he’s a Democrat so maybe he was fibbing).
One of the first and most forceful denunciations of the lie campaign came from Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who advised constituents in a letter Sunday, “The last thing that the victims of Helene need right now is political posturing, finger-pointing, or conspiracy theories that only hurt the response effort.”
Tillis also went on “Face the Nation” that morning, where he was asked about Trump’s lie that Biden and FEMA gave too much help to migrants, so “they don’t have the money” to help hurricane victims. While he didn’t specifically criticize Trump (this was a big theme in many of the debunkings), Tillis said that “we have the resources we need” and clarified that no, aid to migrants wasn’t “affecting the flow of resources to western North Carolina.”
Tillis wasn’t entirely a beacon of sunshine and reconciliation, however; after the Kamala HQ campaign account tweeted out Tillis’s quote about “the last thing the victims of Helene need,” Tillis turned right around and attacked Harris, quoting the tweet with some political posturing, finger-pointing and a conspiracy theory, too:
The “staged photo” thing? Maybe Harris wasn’t actually signing papers and listening to a briefing, as wingnuts complained. Not really a big deal, but we did all make fun of Trump in 2020 when he sat at a baby desk and pretended to work. And we made fun of him before he was even inaugurated, when he was “working on” his inauguration address.
Harris wins, since she didn’t look like she was pooping.
As for Tillis, it’s true that a lot of people on Twitter were calling him a RINO and a traitor for his criticism of conspiracy theories.
Funny thing about nasty politics: Taking a break from it is hard.
Even so, we do hope to encourage better behavior when we see it, so we must also acknowledge that DeSantis comms person Christina Pushaw also did the right thing ahead of Milton’s arrival yesterday. That was a bit of an achievement for the culture warrior who gained national notoriety for her 2022 lie that only “groomers” could possibly object to Florida’s “don’t say gay law.”
But we’re being positive, mostly. Yesterday some Twitter rando was pushing an outrageous lie that if people evacuated prior to the hurricane, FEMA would prevent them — “at gunpoint if required” — from returning home, so it could seize their homes. None of it was remotely true, but some Twitter Chuds were vigorously agreeing that FEMA sought to kill Trump supporters or at least keep them from the state so they couldn’t vote. (The tweet did get a “community note” and lots of skeptical replies at least.)
Pushaw angrily denounced the lie, tweeting,
Spreading LIES like this could have serious consequences. If people in an evacuation zone see this and decide NOT to evacuate, despite warnings from state & local emergency management, they are unnecessarily putting their own lives (& lives of first responders) at grave risk
So good for her! Pushaw also posted screenshots of stupid lies so she could condemn the misinformation, albeit framed in her usual weird MAGA-tinged paranoia for credibility with Chuds.
She followed that with a very practical warning:
Likewise, you shouldn't believe every tiktok video of someone crying in their car. Anyone can post anything for engagement; there's no way to verify if they're telling the truth. Natural disasters like hurricanes are prime topics for online engagement-farming because people are paying attention to it.
Now, if only she could apply the lesson to everything else she’s lied about, especially trans people, the end.
PREVIOUSLY!
[ABC News / Axios / Politico / The Register / WaPo (gift link)]
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OT:
Henlo, fine citizens!
Yr birb came through this storm... okay!
The power stayed on!
The dock behind the house was a little messed up, but that was it.
Everything else in brib's life is... BACK TO NORMAL!!
Yay!
FLapflapflapflapflap
A thamnks to all of uue who showed such great concern for thees beeb and her fambly. We all came out of it okay. Mom and Dad are still here.
I am many hugs
Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️
@tribelaw
“The fact that Marjorie Taylor Greene is not frequently struck by lightning is proof that the Democrats do not control the weather.”
😎 — Robert E. McGraw
9:20 AM · Oct 10, 2024