Brunswick Beacon, 10.17.24
“Planet of the Apes” ends as Charlton Heston finds a half-buried Statue of Liberty and realizes that the nightmare-world he’s trapped on is future Earth. “You maniacs,” he screams, “you blew it all up! Damn you all to hell!”
Half-buried Asheville is our Charlton Heston moment. Maniacal climate-change deniers blocked action for decades despite scientists’ dire warnings. Trump adds insult to injury, inciting panic with lies about Biden playing politics with relief because Trump did that as president!
Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) praised federal responders’ “extraordinary work” and begged people to stop spreading “conspiracy theory junk,” which hinders the relief effort. Trump ignored them, like he ignored pleas to stop spreading dangerous lies about immigrants eating pets.
Instead of acknowledging problems and fixing them, MAGA-Republicans block progress by denying problems with their firehose of falsehoods.
National security adviser Robert O’Brien told Trump in January 2020 that COVID would be “the biggest national security threat” of his presidency. Trump told Bob Woodward he knew COVID was “deadly stuff” but “I wanted to always play it down.” Because Trump discouraged lockdowns, mask-wearing and vaccinations, 43% more Republicans died than Democrats. The Covid Crisis Group estimates that 500,000 Americans died needlessly.
MAGA-Republicans, like the disgraced Mark Robinson, mock school-shooting victims as “media prosti-tots” and block common-sense gun safety laws most Americans support. Easy access to guns is the greatest cause of death for American children. We have just 5% of the world’s population but 46% of its civilian guns, and, by far, the highest gun-death rate among high-income countries.
Trump stripped women of their right to choose, then lied that they asked for it! In fact, 72% of Americans support choice, including Melania. Trump’s irony-free response? “I’m not going to tell [Melania] what to do.” Other American women aren’t so lucky. Trump’s actions caused maternal mortality to spike nationally, including a 56% jump in Texas.
Elect Harris and Walz. MAGA’s lies are killing us.
Mike Maisel
Sunset Beach
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