Why Should We Give A Hoot About Arkansas Oklahoma Flooding?

For days now we’ve been hearing all the heartstring-pulling stories about the flooding in Arkansas and Oklahoma, 2 states that continuously vote for garnet-red state legislatures and governors. Both governors are, even as they cry about record flooding, climate deniers and have some of the worst environmental records in the country. So I ask you dear reader, neither pejoratively or rhetorically, why should we care? Furthermore, do you really want your tax dollars going to help out a state that not only denies the existence of climate change, but continues to disregard the hazards of their polluting ways and in a very real way, continues to contribute to the problem of climate change?

Oklahoma had quite possibly the most fanatical climate denier in the country in Scott Pruitt, known for his dozens of lawsuits filed against the EPA at the behest of his corporate donors. On the other hand, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson is presently extolling the virtues of Comrade Donald Trump’s environmental deregulations while simultaneously agonizing over his state’s flooding, currently running at maximum levels and expected to get worse very soon.

So for days I’ve been listening to interviews on NPR, blocks on CNN and MSNBC, and I am starting to feel a strong sense of resentment. Furthermore I can not help but place the blame squarely where it belongs: on the voters in these red states. Voters that choose to listen to and vote for these know-nothings (or more accurately, liars, since they probably do understand the science behind climate change but instead declare “not to believe” it.) Voters that deliberately choose not to educate themselves at all, not a book or newspaper article or, goodness forbid, an actual science paper! This is willful ignorance, nothing less. And, now that they’re feeling the “burn” of their ways so to speak, the rest of the nation will have to bail them out and I can’t help asking myself why? Why is this our problem? I understand that we can not work around climate deniers and expect to make an impact; it has to be an all-or-nothing effort but I refuse to help anyone that will not acknowledge that they are part of the problem anymore. I have decided that I no longer want my tax dollars being used to bail out a state that will not acknowledge reality and take action to interdict the problem.

Comrade Trump stated recently of his own government’s report on the dangers of ignoring climate change, “I don’t believe it.” Our “very stable genius” rejected it summarily, out-of-hand, without any word of an opposing opinion or anything else. He just doesn’t believe it. This as if climate change cares whether or not the Comrade believes it or not. It just keeps rolling along, record-breaking floods, over 400 tornadoes this month alone, and much, much more to come. All while the voters of Arkansas and Oklahoma decide they too don’t believe in climate change. Well here’s my new response: you made your bed, you voted for people over and over again that continue to ignore the problem, now you sleep in it.

You know what else? I don’t believe there are floods in these states. I think they’re making it up to try and grab some federal disaster flood money. That’s what this is all about; they’re looking to try and abscond with some federal disaster funds. That’s my new conclusion. I just don’t believe it, period.

Now you can solve your own problems Arkansas & Oklahoma, with your own tax dollars and then come back to us and tell us your thoughts on climate change. Or better yet (but highly unlikely, I grant you) pick up a book somewhere and educate yourself on the topic. Make up your own mind instead of having it made up for you by some corrupt politician making money on their opinions. Yeah, probably not.