Milton v.s. MAGA – Milton Wins

Milton unveils the generosity of Americans…contrary to MAGA’s cult

More than three million people in Florida without power this morning might not find any humor in Trump’s mocking of the danger of the climate crises:  "They say the ocean will rise one-eighth of an inch over the next 200 to 300 years…It will give us all a bit more oceanfront property.”

In fact it will take only a few decades before the water will rise higher than his own height.  A NOAA report forecast a sea-level rise of more than Trump’s height before his son Barron graduates from university. It will rise 13 feet by the time Barron has children of his own.

This is what it will do to Mar-a-Lago, which is only six feet above the high tide level:

There have been more tornado warnings in Florida in one day than at any other time in history.

Of course, as one online contributor suggested, we could always just drop Trump bibles into the eye of the hurricane. 

But those bibles are made in China for $3.00 each – Trump sells them for $50 -  so they might not have the required power.  I am sure Trump already has the concept of a plan to drop bibles.

Trump could also just fix it just by drawing another path on the map with his sharpie.

Three-quarters of Florida’s population live in coastal areas.  The state sits on porous rock so that any amount of sea-level rise can push salt water into their freshwater supplies and building foundations.

Within Barron’s lifetime, seawater will be spilling over Mar-a-Lago’s lawns.  Already, Trump has confessed that an earlier hurricane - Frances in 2004 – had caused flooding in the basements.   One report found that by 2045, “storm surge from even a category two storm would bring waters crashing over the main swimming pool and up to the main building” of Mar-a-Lago.

Sadly from the viewpoint of natural justice, Trump’s place has walls a meter thick and is unlikely to sustain wind damage (yet).

Hurricane Helene hit just a day after 100 Republican senators and representatives voted against increased disaster relief funding.  Neither Trump nor his VP pick Vance were in Florida at the time.  Vance has dismissed climate change as “weird science”.  He alleges that it is being used to help Democrats divert money to China to buy electric vehicles. 

Instead of bibles.

He and Trump are deliberately sacrificing American lives for political opportunism.  They both have the morals of wolverines.

These morals mean that they have no fixed world-view; no philosophy to sustain them.

Ten Floridian Republicans, for example, joined their party in voting against more aid to Florida. Rep. Anna Luna was one who voted against disaster relief and as Milton approached she started frantically tweeting “"Cut the c***. We need FEMA DOLLARS FREE'D UP. ALL ASSETS.”  She was able to add later that “I just spoke with @WhiteHouse officials, and they are taking all necessary actions to ensure that @GovRonDeSantis and the State of Florida have the resources required…”

From a hard-line anti-environmentalist, DeSantis acknowledged that “there will be fatalities”.  He has not yet come around to the view that climate change is real.  Some people take time; Republicans are slow learners or no learners.

If they were so concerned about costs, they should be outraged that Trump sent expensive COVID tests to Putin.  These were not the cardboard kits; he sent state-of-the-art molecular testing kits  -  each about the size of a toaster – to his dictator buddy.  This was at a time when Americans were dying and hospitals were desperate for these machines.

In the overall picture, MAGA should be criminally charged with the damage its policies are doing to American lives.  We can start with COVID deaths.  But I digress…

Debris from Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago also turned into deadly airborne projectiles as Milton churns through the state. Comedian Ron White put it best: “It’s not *that* the wind is blowing, it’s *what* the wind is blowing.  If you got hit by a Volvo…”

The MAGA philosophy shows up in the people aligned with Trump; they are not doing much to help their fellow humans. 

Millionaire evangelist Joel Osteen has contributed nothing to the hurricane survivors – or to anyone else, come to that.  “If Jesus wanted me to share my wealth, he wouldn’t have let me accumulate $40 million!” he explained.

Yet Taylor Swift, who Trump “hates”, has donated $5-million in hurricane relief. Dolly Parton and her various foundations have also contributed millions. “These are my people and this is my home,” she said. Other non-MAGA high-profile Americans have also contributed: Metallica, Morgan Wallen, Ryan Renolds and Blake Lively have stepped forward.  Country singers Keith Urban, Luke Combs, and Eric Church are holding a benefit concert. Corporations like Walmart are putting in some funds.

The hurricane has split the Republican party.  Hard-core MAGA types like Alex Jones are sticking to Trump’s script; others – people and companies – are making donations, like his own daughter Ivanka, Walmart and even Fox News. Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards from North Carolina said “Hurricane Helene was NOT geoengineered by the government; nobody can control the weather.”

A cluster of relief agencies has jumped forward; the Red Cross alone is hosting 83,000 refugees.

Even Canadian repair trucks came from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario to help.  It’s on my mind now because we’ve got a wicked wind coming and it looks like our own power will be threatened…but the South has a greater need.

Trump has started a Go-Fund-Me campaign.  It doesn’t cost him anything.

What makes me furious about this MAGA selfishness, is that Americans are very generous people.  Trump and MAGA are porcupines among aid kits.

Scoff at this, but as an outsider, I’ve had this experience: standing on a corner in New York, opening a map…and in less than a minute two people came over to see if they could help.  New York – which takes a lot of ribbing – is actually a very friendly place.

I have not been to every state in the US, but I’ve travelled along both coasts and through much of the centre, and have had universally good experiences with Americans.  Some of you out there are going to object:  “You haven’t met my uncle Phil; man’s an ass…”  but from what I’ve seen, it’s all good.

And I am not alone!  An Axios study said that America was the world's most generous country this past decade, according to the Charities Aid Foundation's World Giving Index, which surveyed 1.3 million people in 125 countries.

Charitable giving is at a record high, and is seven times bigger than it was 60 years ago.

Not only do Americans – except evangelists - give money, but 72% of Americans help strangers and 42% volunteer.

It’s downright creepy.

Americans even found an online, neighborly way to give money to families in need in Ukraine.

They book Airbnb’s in Kiev and elsewhere.  Not to stay, just to send money.  Genius.  Innovative giving!  Good on ya, America!

Fact is, Americans are aware that life is not a zero-sum game.  What they give, they get back.  It does not have to be a personal reward, but they understand that someone, somewhere, is better off because you existed and thought about them.

Hurricanes Helene and Milton require unity.

They don’t care about your politics.  And people who donate to help, are not concerned whether they are helping MAGA republicans or Harris democrats. 

But MAGA republicans do not care about other people; their defining trait is their care for the Leader!  Authoritarianism is the single feature they share the most.  They want to return to a lost world of White male domination. 

The good news is that only one-quarter of Americans voted for Trump.

(The not-so-good news is that one-third of Americans did not vote at all in the 2022 election… but it was still the best turn-out in decades.  When Harris glared at Trump and said “you were fired by 81 million people, she had a good point.)

MAGA has done its utmost to exhibit the behaviour that is dangerous in a hurricane emergency.  They have tried to split the population instead of tapping into America’s wealth of generosity.  MAGA has:

-            Said that government aid is going to people in Democratic areas;

-            Claimed that President Biden was not in touch with the Governors (he was and they said so);

-            Said the government was controlling the weather (Marjorie space-laser Greene)

-            Called for militias to defend against FEMA staff members (?); and

-            Lied that Harris had spent the FEMA money on illegal immigrants.

BTW, the only person who dipped into emergency funding was DeSantis, who deliberately spent $12-million in COVID funds to fly immigrants to liberal areas. “We wanted to make sure that we exhaust all those funds.”

Man should be in jail.

“I cannot think of another acute disaster where there has been this much misinformation,” said Samantha Montano, an MIT assistant professor of emergency management.  The incessant lies from Trump and MAGA have forced relief agencies and local officials to devote precious time to debunking nonsense.  A North Carolina sheriff added that  “I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m sick and tired of this crap.”

Trump’s disunity is amplified by his opportunistic minions like Elon Musk.

The irony is that the hurricanes are not displacing rich people from Florida  -  they are chasing out the poorer people who can no longer afford to live in the state.  Natural disasters limit the housing supply, leading to increased demand and higher prices for both buyers and renters. Economic instability produces waves of evictions, as landlords replace long-standing tenants with higher-income newcomers. The costs of recovery, whether in the form of emergency reconstruction, higher insurance premiums, or stricter building codes, are easier for higher-income households to bear.

Temporary housing scarcity turns into permanent displacement.  The higher the survivors’ incomes, the more likely they were to have remained nearby.

This gets even worse with the higher costs of insurance. Florida does not require sellers to disclose previous flooding events, so recent buyers may be caught off guard.

The bottom-line is that hurricanes crush MAGA people first – they are lower on the income level and unable to acquire the skills to move up.

They don’t even know this is happening to them.

And they will pay even more in years to come.

Climate-powered hurricanes are no longer outliers. Carbon emissions have jacked up all the weather flow to critical levels.  We need to get together to solve the underlying problem as well as handle the immediate emergencies. MAGA is not the party to do that.

Helene and Milton were terrible events; worse is coming.

If we don’t vote the right way in November, worse will always be with us.

And Donald Trump will be denying it even as the water closes over Mar-a-Lago; even as the gales tear up whatever remains of MAGALAND Florida.

To the end, he will whine that he is a victim.  A poor lad who had to make due with a $400-million inheritance from his father. 

We’ve all been there.

And when he’s gone, the hurricanes will still be there.  As they have been for centuries. 

Much as I would like to take a glass-bottom boat tour of Trump’s grave at Mar-a-Lago, I would rather we just vote right and avoid the climate damage, so we will be better prepared when the decreasingly-severe hurricanes touch down.

America The Generous – let it be so!