In a weekend speech in West Palm Beach, Florida, close to his winter retreat at Mar-a-Lago where he is spending the holidays, Trump, rambling and nearly incoherent, outlined his lack of “understanding” for “windmills” and how “They kill the birds”.
“I never understood wind. You know, I know windmills very much. They’re noisy. They kill the birds.
Trump at speech to young conservatives
In a recent New York Times article some real facts behind Trump’s true attitude toward birds and the environment in general were detailed. Of course, by now it is well known and standard practice for his speeches to veer off into wild and reckless lies and untruths, but this recurrent theme of a concern for the danger that “windmills” pose for birds is particularly bizarre when compared with the real facts.
His administration’s new interpretation for the Migratory Bird Treaty Act means that companies that literally destroy birds, even by the millions, no longer have to pay fines or even report the destruction. This contrasts his nonsensical and false allegations that “windmills” are killing birds with actual examples such as when BP paid $100 million in fines as a result of having killed or injured at least one million birds during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Quoted in the Times, Noah Greenwald, the endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity stated that the Trump administration has engineered “a fundamental shift” in policy that “lets industrial companies, utilities and others completely off the hook.”
“Even a disaster like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010, which killed or injured about a million birds, would not expose a company to prosecution or fines.”
So, while he is out whining about deaths of birds due to wind power turbines, completely imagined and for which there is no proof, his administration is quietly sanctioning companies to commit what nearly amounts to bird genocide with impunity. It doesn’t take much to see that we are talking something about far more dangerous than a lying clown or entertainer. There is a clear pattern of protecting big oil and other corrupt environmentally destructive entities while at the same time attacking all sustainable energy solutions or pollution reducing projects or policies.
Trump Tilting at Windmills Tweaks Twitter, acting as Buffoon: the Subject is no longer Humorous
Above and below are some samples of recent tweets, of course there was parody and jokes at Trump’s expense, but also others more on point. The real motivation is exposed behind what appears to be clowning, as Trump attempts to insert imaginary faults to anything that challenges the hegemony of the fossil fuel industrial complex.
Finally, our own Eric Cho with his cogent analysis: