The new scourge of self-taught MAGA meteorologists
MTG and an aspiring sidekick from Georgia think there's a conspiracy behind Texas flooding
By Sam Bellamy
Did MAGA adherents not look at the sky until Donald Trump came along?
That appears to be the case given their growing fascination with “chemtrails” they believe are responsible for an increase in catastrophic weather events. (Couldn’t be climate change, of course.)
What they’re talking about are contrails – condensation formed when the hot exhaust from jets hits colder temperatures, a phenomenon that we’ve all witnessed since early childhood, assuming we possess an ordinary level of curiosity about the world around us.
But to Trumpers like Marjorie Taylor Greene and fellow Georgian and congressional candidate Kandiss Taylor, who apparently just looked up, those trails are a new thing and d-a-a-a-a-ngerous.
Greene, in response to flash flooding caused at least 79 deaths in central Texas, announced this in a post Saturday on X:
“I am introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity. It will be a felony offense. I have been researching weather modification and working with the legislative counsel for months writing this bill. It will be similar to Florida’s Senate Bill 56. We must end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering.”
In a later post, she added, “No person, company, entity, or government should ever be allowed to modify our weather by any means possible!!”
The Florida bill she’s referring was signed by Trump’s mini-me, Gov. Ron DeSantis, last month. The law “makes unapproved cloud seeding and other similar activities a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison or significantly raised fines of up to $100,000,” Newsweek reports.
At least eight other states are considering similar legislation. In addition to fearing weather manipulation, some supporters also claim these trails are used to drop some sort of “thought control” chemicals on us.
As with most anything Greene or Trump or anyone in MAGA says, the problem is … facts. There’s no evidence that anyone, anywhere, in this universe or the Marvel universe is tampering with the weather the way Greene describes.
This includes chemtrails, cloud seeding and any other devilish means, such as – as Greene once bravely informed us – Jewish space lasers.
Yes, Texas does engage in periodic, small-scale cloud-seeding to increase precipitation in existing rain clouds during droughts. But cloud seeding doesn’t create clouds or rain or steer hurricanes. It boosts rain totals by about 10%, although a Government Accountability Office report issued last December expressed doubts about its effectiveness.
Bria DeCarlo, a meteorologist with the South Texas Weather Modification Association, told the Houston Chronicle last year that the project seeds about 120 clouds a year.
In any event, cloud seeding couldn’t have produced enough rain to cause the recent flooding in Texas. That rainfall was from remnants of Tropical Storm Barry.
In response to Greene’s conspiratorial post, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat, replied on X, "I'm introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release or dispersion of stupidity into Congress.”
Would that they could. Stupidity is lined up at the door and has already pushed its way in.
Which brings us to Kandiss Taylor, host of a podcast called, “Jesus, Guns and Babies” and aspirant to serve in Congress from a district that includes Savannah and the southeastern coast of Georgia. It’s currently held by Rep. Buddy Carter, a Republican.
To give you an idea of how much of a Trumper she is: She lost a GOP primary challenge for governor to Brian Kemp by 70 percentage points in 2022 but initially refused to concede, saying the election was “rigged.”
On July Fourth, as rescuers were searching for survivors and bodies in Texas, Taylor posted the following on X: “Fake weather. Fake hurricanes. Fake flooding. Fake. Fake. Fake.”
The following day, she grew indignant with X users who blasted her insensitivity and wingnuttery. They assumed, understandably, that she was saying the victims of the flooding, including parents frantically search for their daughters at a summer camp, were “crisis actors” in the style of Alex Jones.
No, no. There is “science” behind her claim.
She isn’t backing down. “I’m not walking back a thing. No one can control the way you raging liberals twist words. Brainwashed zombies,” she wrote.
Followed by: “FAKE WEATHER. REAL DAMAGE. Hurricane Helene left me powerless for 16 days & caused $57K in damage. This isn’t just ‘climate change.’ It’s cloud seeding, geoengineering, & manipulation. If fake weather causes real tragedy, that’s murder. Pray. Prepare. Question the narrative.”
Meanwhile, as this bizarre saga plays out, the National Weather Service faces criticism that its meteorologists blew it on the forecasts because of recent staff and budget cuts by the Trump administration.
But WIRED magazine spoke to meteorologists who said the weather service was sufficiently staffed in the days prior to the flooding and had accurately forecast the risk of severe flash flooding.
WIRED reports: “The cuts made to NOAA … have made headlines this year, and with good reason: The NWS has lost more than 500 staffers since the beginning of the year, leaving some offices unstaffed overnight. It’s also cut key programs and even satellites that help keep track of extreme weather. Meteorologists have repeatedly said that these cuts will make predicting extreme weather even harder – and could be deadly as climate change supercharges storms and increases rainfall.”
A New York Times report on Saturday likewise quoted former National Weather Service officials who said the forecasts were as accurate as could be for a rapidly escalating storm. But they have vacancies at two offices involved in the forecast – and the lack of a widespread warning system for residents – may have hampered communications about the storm.
Tom Fahy, legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization told The Times that the San Angelo office is missing a senior hydrologist, staff forecaster and meteorologist in charge and that the nearby San Antonio office is down a warning coordination meteorologist and a science officer, among others.
“Staff members in those positions are meant to work with local emergency managers to plan for floods, including when and how to warn local residents and help them evacuate,” reporter Christopher Flavelle of The Times wrote.
In the weeks ahead, federal, state and local officials will scrutinize the Weather Service response and the readiness of communities to respond to severe weather like this.
Kristi Noem kindly took a break from posing in front of immigrants behind bars to visit Texas on Saturday. She defended the Weather Service but said changes would be forthcoming.
“We know that everyone wants more warning time, and that’s why we’re working to upgrade the technology that’s been neglected for far too long to make sure families have as much advance notice as possible,” Noem said during a press conference.
Senate Democrats need to press for an end to hiring freezes at the Weather Service and for the restoration of critical positions that the slash-happy team at DOGE and elsewhere in the Trump administration simply weren’t qualified to assess.
Upgrading technology sounds good. But let’s leave those decisions to professionals – not Noem, not Trump and certainly not the twin wingnuts in Georgia.
Certainly, MTG and Kandiss are as nutty as fruit cakes. The only chemicals being injected into the atmosphere and oceans are the result of indiscriminate burning of fossil fuels, etc, which undoubtedly result in more severe weather. Too bad those two wackos are way off target.