It really takes a specially unhinged person to sound more ridiculous and absurd these days than Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, but Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has managed to surpass him in making statements that are at best outrageous, and at worse dangerous, considering they’re coming from an elected official. Greene has already previously done such things as openly embrace white supremacist rhetoric and organizations, but her comments have gotten so ludicrous lately even her own party members are denouncing them.
Last week Greene claimed online that Democrats are “controlling the weather.” Her bizarre statements came in the wake of the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene not only in Georgia, but across the South and nation. More than two dozen people were killed in Georgia, and more than 230 in total, while millions lost power and were isolated for days. Greene said initially Democrats are “controlling the weather.” Later she attempted to clarify her ridiculous claims, saying that governmental organizations were what she meant.
Carlos Gimenez, a Republican who represents a Hurricane-prone district in South Florida, replied to one of Greene’s posts writing, “NEW FLASH —> Humans cannot create or control hurricanes. Anyone who thinks they can, needs to have their head examined.” Chuck Edwards, another Republican representative from North Carolina, whose district was in the path of Helene, sent out a press release entitled, “Debunking Helene Response Myths.” The release did not mention Greene by name, but firmly stated that “nobody can control the weather.” Greene’s supposed evidence is this: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is required to report hurricane sightings and other weather information to the Secretary of Commerce due to the Weather Modification Act of 1972. In the loony tunes world populated by people like Greene, this somehow means they can “control the weather” because they are reporting actual data and statistics. This is, of course, idiotic, but it hasn’t stopped Greene and other conspiracy nut types. Still another Republican, Mike Lawler, from New York, said that Greene’s rhetoric “doesn’t dignify a response – other than to say, of course no one can control the weather.”
Greene attempted to counter the criticism by saying, “Well some of them are listed on NOAA, as well as most of the ways weather can be modified,” she wrote. “If your home or business or property is damaged, or a loved one is killed by their weather modifications, shouldn’t you be eligible for compensation?” She also attached screenshots of what she termed “weather modification project reports” from the NOAA website. But what she was displaying includes such projects as cloud seeding, a practice that has existed for nearly a century. Through cloud seeding, experts can improve a cloud’s ability to produce rain or snow, according to the Desert Research Institute. They can do this by introducing “ice nuclei” to certain types of clouds using planes or ground-based generators. However, cloud seeding cannot be used to create or modify hurricanes, NOAA explained. Furthermore, there is no weather modification technique that would allow the government to create a hurricane.
President Joe Biden, who visited areas of Florida affected by Milton last Sunday, previously spoke for most rational Americans of any party when he said the idea that the federal government controlled the weather was “beyond ridiculous.” But this is just the latest in a series of moronic comments made by Greene since her election to Congress in 2020. You could paper a wall with them. Here are only a few:
(1) Former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced on the Supreme Court by a “body double” before her death.
(2) Members of the District of Columbia police department, under direct orders from Nancy Pelosi were spying on members of Congress. She called them “Gazpacho police,” but obviously didn’t know that gazpacho is actually a cold soup. She later claimed she meant Gestapo.
(3) Another of her astute weather comments was the claim global warming is good for humanity. “We have already warmed one degree Celsius,” Greene claimed. “And do you know what has happened since then? We have had more food grown since then, which feeds people.” (A claim unverified by any agricultural evidence).
(4) She also asked “if Monkeypox is a sexually transmitted disease, why are kids getting it.” The Center for Disease Control says Monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease. It’s spread by skin-to-skin contact with an infected person, meaning it can be caught during many activities, including sex.
(5) Then there’s this enlightened statement on gun control made after two July mass shootings in 2022, “Two shootings on July 4: One in a rich white neighborhood and the other at a fireworks display. It almost sounds like it’s designed to persuade Republicans to go along with more gun control.” There was such a backlash to this idiocy that Greene was later forced to acknowledge that it sounded like a “conspiracy theory.”
You can find plenty more rhetorical garbage from Marjorie Taylor Greene, but the even more problematic issue is the fact she has lots of influence within the Republican Party. Her extremist views and unhinged conspiracy theories will help shape national policy in a second Trump administration. She’s already had far too much influence in the House of Representatives. Even sadder is the fact Greene is far from an outlier in terms of the current GOP. Indeed, some of her comments on racial equality, gun violence and voting rights align with those of other hardcore reactionaries.
It’s no stretch to proclaim her the craziest woman currently in either body of the national legislature. If she were just someone posting online, adding her nonsense to the waves of cyberspace garbage circulated every day, it could be dismissed as merely more fringe lunatic noise. But she’s an elected representative and a member of Donald Trump’s inner circle. That anyone takes her seriously indicates not only how far off the rails the Republican Party has gotten, but just how backward the nation may move if Trump, Greene, and company win the election.
