Time magazine named teen climate activist Greta Thunberg its 2019 Person of the Year yesterday, making her, at 16, the youngest person to ever receive the title (and no, all those fresh off the shelf computers in 1983 don't count). The cover article noted that she'd started her climate protests alone in August 2018, skipping school to stand in front of the Parliament building in Stockholm with a sign reading "Skolstrejk för klimatet: 'School Strike for Climate.'" The idea caught on, and now Greta is the face of what finally seems to be a global surge in people demanding their governments address a civilizational crisis.

Somehow, a memo must have gone around Greater Wingnuttia, because all of a sudden yesterday rightwingers were OUTRAGED that Time hadn't given the honor to the pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. Sure thing! Remember how concern for the protesters in Hong Kong has been one of the great causes of the American Right all year? Nope, us either.

Donald Trump Jr. set the tone, and just look at the sick burn he tossed at Time, with Greta's own words, wow, such burn, many libs triggered.

Thanks to the wonders of Twitter's advance search tool, we can summarize the extent of Don Jr's intense focus on the activists in Hong Kong: A whopping two tweets in October, from a guy who spends more time on Twitter than a blogger with ADD facing a deadline. One ripped NBA star LeBron James for supposedly siding with China over the protests (and no, that's not quite what James even said). The other -- linked to Breitbart, natch -- pointed out that a state-owned Chinese newspaper had used the phrase "basket of deplorables" to describe the pro-democracy protesters, proving that Hillary Clinton is definitely a Maoist tyrant.

Hey, remember a week ago when even a very mild pun on Barron Trump's name was anunspeakable attack on an innocent child? Then again, Greta, by being a young woman saying things in public, was asking for it, we guess.

This morning, Donny's Daddy Dearest got on the Twitter machine himself to yell at a 16-year-girl, because that's what world leaders do. With perfect Trumpy cluelessness, he retweeted actor and TV producer Roma Downey, who was congratulating Greta on the honor.

Don't worry about Greta. She knows how to handle jerks who emit dangerous levels of methane. She simply changed her Twitter profile:

She's done that before, though this may be the best of the bunch. Back in September, when wingnuts were freaking out over her her UN speech and calling her an unhinged crazy person who's "mentally ill" (she's been diagnosed with Asperger's, so clearly she has nothing useful to say), Trump sarcastically tweeted this, because look at all the insane stuff she was saying!

Greta immediately updated her profile from "16 year old climate activist with Asperger's" to this:

Similarly, earlier this week, Thunberg did a really silly girl thing: She decried the murders of indigenous rainforest activists, what a ridiculous little girl!

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro reacted with all the sobriety you'd expect from a serious world leader, dismissing Greta as a "piralha" -- Portuguese for "brat" -- and saying it's "amazing" the press would give any attention to her, the foolish kid. Pfft, murder, that's none of your business.

Greta was on it:

One of these days, these old death cult greedhead dipshits may know better than to go against a smart kid who knows how to use social media to good effect.

In the meantime, Greta Thunberg had far more important fish to fry (in a solar oven). Yesterday, she spoke at a UN climate conference in Madrid, and excoriated countries which were more interested in talking a good game on climate than actually taking action:

Greta Thunberg’s speech at UN climate change conferencewww.youtube.com

Congratulations, Greta!

[Time / Guardian / CNN]

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