Cynicism just doesn’t even cut it with this guy. We’ll have to come up with a new word.
Senator J.D. Vance, Republican of Ohio, is a strong supporter of the oil and gas industry, opposes solar power and electric vehicles, and has said climate change is not a threat.
It wasn’t always that way.
Mr. Vance, a fierce critic of Mr. Trump before becoming one of his most loyal MAGA supporters, also appears to have undergone an evolution on the issue of climate change. As recently as 2020, Mr. Vance said in a speech at Ohio State University that “we have a climate problem in our society.” He praised solar energy and he called natural gas an improvement over dirtier forms of energy, but not “the sort of thing that’s gonna take us to a clean energy future.”
Fast forward to 2022. As Mr. Vance sought Mr. Trump’s endorsement for his bid for the Senate, his positions on climate change took a sharp turn.
“I’m skeptical of the idea that climate change is caused purely by man,” Mr. Vance told the American Leadership Forum that year.
He acknowledged that the climate was changing but said that humans had no role in the changes. “It’s been changing, as others pointed out, it’s been changing for millennia,” Mr. Vance said.
(Scientists have conclusively determined that human activity, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, is the dominant reason the planet is at its warmest in recorded history.)
Referring to environmentalists, Mr. Vance said, if “they think climate change is caused by carbon emissions, then why is their solution to scream about it at the top of their lungs, send a ton of our jobs to China, and then manufacture these ridiculous ugly windmills all over Ohio farms that don’t produce enough electricity to run a cellphone on?”
Ohio ranks sixth in the country in gas production and is the eighth-largest consumer of coal, which accounts for about a quarter of the state’s electricity generation while gas makes up about 46 percent. Wind and solar power account for less than 4 percent of electricity in Ohio, according to the state’s Public Utilities Commission.
Mr. Vance has celebrated the technology of hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, to help extract vast gas reserves in Ohio. Many environmental activists oppose fracking because the technique, which involves pumping water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into underground shale formations, can pollute the groundwater.
Abortion: Vance describes himself on his campaign website as “100% pro-life” and has argued against rape and incest exceptions for abortion laws. He has specified that he does think there should be exceptions if the mother’s life is in danger. He praised the U.S. Supreme Court for overturning Roe v. Wade and agreed with Trump that there shouldn’t be a national abortion ban but that it should be left up to the states.
Climate change: Vance does not believe the climate crisis exists and has called electric vehicle production a “scam.” He is a strong supporter of the oil and gas industry and opposes wind and solar energy sources.
2020 election results: Vance has asserted that he believes Trump won the 2020 presidential election. He told ABC News in February that if he were vice president at the time instead of Mike Pence, he would not have certified the election results.
January 6: Vance has dismissed the idea that Trump was responsible for instigating the Capitol building attack.
Immigration: Similar to Trump, Vance wants to finish building a border wall and has said he opposes “every attempt to grant amnesty” to immigrants who come to the U.S. illegally.
LGBTQ rights: Vance opposed a bill protecting gay and interracial marriage rights. He describes gender-affirming care for minors as “gruesome, irreversible operations.”
Military aid: Vance has openly been critical of the U.S. sending military aid to Ukraine. In an interview with former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, Vance said, “I’ve got to be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.” Vance has supported sending more funding to Israelamid the Israel-Hamas war.
Initially saying that “God wants better of us” than Donald Trump – now says God should just get over it.
I suggest we refer to him as him “Grasshopper”. He fiddles away /the world owes me a living/ while the rest of us try to mitigate and adapt to the changing climate.
Another guy who used to be ‘liberal’:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/elon-musk-donate-45m-month-pro-trump-super-pac-endorsement-former-president-report
https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-and-tucker-carlson-secretly-lobbied-trump-to-pick-jd-vance
Carlson loves Vance for his anti-Ukraine position and because he thinks Vance doesn’t secretly despise Trump (Carlson himself despised Trump well into Trump’s Presidency).
Plans with Vance in the campaign are to shore up blue collar votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and Musk’s money will help with that. A Teamsters leader spoke last night for Trump at the RNC. The populist swing for the Republican Party is complete. It’s like dressing a thief in policeman’s clothing, but I’m afraid it will have effect.