Facts from the Front – October 2015

Facts From the Front is a new monthly column by copy editor Moe White in which America’s Constitutional democracy is defended against ongoing assaults by those who prefer less palatable alternatives: oligarchy, autocracy, theocracy, feudalism, fascism, and other nondemocratic methods of government. Among the qualifications for White’s interest are hypocrisy, dishonesty, corruption, unbridled greed, flat-out lies, and sheer idiocy on the part of public figures.

Hypocrisy

Senators Lindsay Graham and Tim Scott, both South Carolina Republicans, voted against disaster aid for New York and New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Both have now asked the Obama administration for federal disaster aid for South Carolina in the aftermath of the state’s worst flooding in history.

They’re following in the footsteps of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who ridiculed spending “$140 million for something called ‘volcano monitoring.’ Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, DC.” (That money comes to 45 cents/person, or just under four cents a month.)

But when it comes to Louisiana hurricanes like Katrina, Jindal was the first with his hand out begging for—and arranging, as a then-Congressman—$62.3 billion in financial help from Washington.

The help-me-but-not-you voting record is shared by other members of the South Carolina delegation, including Congressman Trey Gowdy, who also opposed Sandy relief.

Partisanship

Gowdy (R-SC) leads the Special Committee on Benghazi, which he and other Republicans have insisted was set up solely to investigate the deaths of four Americans in our consulate in Benghazi, Libya four years ago. Democrats have asserted the committee has a purely partisan, political purpose: to hurt Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Gowdy’s boss, House Majority Whip Keven McCarthy (R-CA), accidentally admitted the truth in an interview on Fox Sept 29: “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi Special Committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.”

Gaffe: when a politician accidentally tells the truth.

Stupidity

Dr. Ben Carson, neurosurgeon extraordinaire and savior of uncounted lives in the O.R., says on his Facebook page, “As a doctor, I spent many a night pulling bullets out of bodies. There is no doubt that this senseless violence is breathtaking – but I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away.” [italics added] He also noted that calling for stricter gun control in the aftermath of the latest mass shooting in Oregon would be “politicizing” the tragedy. No wonder some people call surgeons “not scientists, just highly trained mechanics.”

Head-in-the-sand stupidity

A 1,000-year event is a cataclysm that has a .1% chance (one in a thousand) of happening in any particular place in any given year. Six 1,000-year floods have happened in the United States—in six years. Over the past 20+ years, climate scientists have predicted that as the global climate warms, severe floods and related catastrophes will occur with greater frequency and greater intensity.

Why? Because as Earth warms, the oceans absorb more of the added heat than land; as the oceans warm, more water evaporates from them; as the atmosphere warms, it can hold more of that moisture; so when conditions for a storm come together, there’s more moisture in the clouds to fall and devastate the land below. And the warmer Earth gets, the more often that will happen. So, now, six 1,000-year floods in six years. Pretty frequent, right?

But don’t worry, there’s no global climate change. It’s just coincidence, says the GOP. Coincidence that 10 of the warmest years on record have occurred since 1988; and that 2014 was the warmest year recorded since records were first kept in 1880; and that 2015 is on track to break 2014’s record. But don’t worry. Just coincidence.

Hey, look over there! Mexicans! Gay marriage! Kim Davis! Food stamps! Free stuff!

On the other end of the spectrum, there are some politicians who are …

Supporting equal treatment for men

Nina Turner, a leading Democrat in the Ohio State Senate, has introduced a bill that would require men seeking a prescription for erectile dysfunction drugs to see a sex therapist, receive a cardiac stress test, and “get a notarized affidavit signed by a sexual partner affirming impotency.” Her proposal would also require sex therapists to offer the option of “celibacy as a viable lifestyle choice.”

“The men in our lives, including members of the General Assembly, generously devote time to fundamental female reproductive issues—the least we can do is return the favor,” Senator Turner said. “It is crucial that we take the appropriate steps to shelter vulnerable men from the potential side effects of these drugs.”

Turning the arguments of anti-choice men on their heads, she added, “When a man makes a crucial decision about his health and his body, he should be fully aware of the alternative options and the lifetime repercussions of that decision.”