Courtesy of Bastrop Advertiser
July 1, 2021
By Bill McCann
My mom often told us kids not to talk about others unless we could say something nice about them. Mom never met Louie Gohmert.
Gohmert, a far-right Republican congressman from Tyler, is known for goofy statements, false claims and sometimes conspiratorial rhetoric. In a recent House speech, Gohmert suggested that federal agents may have been involved in the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6. In another speech, he called the Capitol rioters “political prisoners” and said there was no evidence they were armed, though more than 20 have been charged with carrying weapons.
In another weird speech, Gohmert claimed falsely that students scored higher in college admission (SAT) tests before President Jimmy Carter created a department of education. He added that he “did very well” on his SAT test, then admitted that some people think “I’m the dumbest guy in Congress.” Yep.
Gohmert’s remarks prompted ridicule on Twitter, including one person who wrote, “SAT scores started falling in the sixties at about the same time Gohmert was taking his.”
Perhaps Gohmert’s dumbest comment recently was at a June hearing when he asked an U.S. Forest Service official whether the government could alter the orbits of the moon or Earth to combat climate change. He said a past NASA director told him the orbits of the moon and Earth are changing slightly. Altering the orbits could have “profound” effects on the climate, Gohmert said.
The comment drew mockery from Gohmert’s critics and support from fellow climate-change deniers who suggested he was merely being sarcastic in dismissing Democrat plans to fight climate change. Either way Gohmert’s comment was dumb. The idea of making a lame joke about a worldwide climate crisis is beyond disturbing. And the idea of altering the orbits of the moon or Earth brought back scary thoughts of former President Donald Trump’s reported suggestion to nuke hurricanes to keep them from hitting the U.S.
In a statement to NBC News responding to Gohmert’s comment, NASA said orbital cycles, which occur over tens of thousands of years, “are not producing the changes we observe in our satellite and climate records, including rapid warming and CO2 (carbon dioxide) levels that are unprecedented for millions of years.” NASA added that “scientific evidence shows that human emissions of greenhouse gases, primarily through burning fossil fuels and land use, are driving climate change now.”
In January, NASA announced that 2020 tied 2016 for the warmest year on record, continuing the planet’s long-term warming trend. Rising temperatures are causing such changes as loss of sea ice, sea level rise (ask people in parts of Florida), and more intense heat waves, NASA stated.
Not surprisingly, record heat waves hit many parts of the globe in June, according to news media reports. Europeans faced two June heat waves as temperatures jumped more than 20 degrees above normal in some countries. In the Middle East, at least five countries – Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates – recorded temperatures above 122 degrees.
In North America, the story has been much the same. Mexicali, Mexico, reached a scorching 125 degrees. Folks in Palm Springs, Calif., sweltered in a record 123 degrees daytime temperature and a low of 105 degrees at night. In Death Valley the temperature hit 128 degrees. Phoenix had 115-degree highs for six consecutive days. Last weekend the Pacific Northwest suffered life-risking temperatures, with the hottest summer months still ahead. In Portland, Ore., where many homes don’t have air conditioning, temperatures rose about 35 degrees above the normal mid-70s.
Meanwhile, as our planet increasingly reveals to us the dangers of climate change, Gohmert and his fellow space cadets keep orbiting in their own loony alternative reality.
McCann is a contributing columnist for the Advertiser. He is a retired journalist and may be reached at [email protected].
