Above, Abdul El-Sayed will compete in the Michigan Democratic primary against Rep. Haley Stevens to be the US Senate nominee to replace the retiring Gary Peters.
Below, John James is the Trump endorsed candidate in the Republican primary for Michigan Governor.
Voting is on August 4th.
UPDATE: Below, CBC reporting on US lawmaker’s criticism.
Republican members of U.S. Congress are slamming Canada’s federal and provincial governments over what they claim is inaction in preventing the wildfires currently spreading smoke and poor air quality across much of the northeastern U.S., in addition to Central Canada.
The criticism comes in a sharply worded letter from four Michigan members of the House of Representatives, addressed to Prime Minister Mark Carney.
It accuses Canada of failing to conduct adequate forest maintenance to reduce the risk of wildfires and warns that the U.S. “will look elsewhere, and act on our own” if more action isn’t taken.
“This is the third consecutive year we have had to write to Canadian officials about a crisis that Canada has the tools to prevent and has chosen not to,” write the four Michigan Republicans — John James, Jack Bergman, John Moolenaar and Lisa McClain — in a letter dated Wednesday.
“Our hospitals are once again treating children, dialysis patients and older residents for the effects of smoke that did not originate anywhere near them.”
The Republican lawmakers say they are “done accepting apologies in place of action,” and float the idea of taking cross-border fire prevention into U.S. hands.
“Sovereignty comes with responsibility, and the responsibility to prevent a foreseeable disaster from crossing into another country’s airspace has not been met,” they wrote.
“Our constituents are breathing the consequences of this failure right now, and they deserve better than to be told, again, that it will be handled.”
There were 858 active fires across Canada as of Thursday, according to data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
Carney did not directly address the letter when asked about it by reporters on Thursday, but took a jab at the current U.S. administration’s climate change policies.
“Climate change is everyone’s responsibility — truly everyone’s — including the United States,” Carney said in French during a news conference in London, Ont.
He contrasted Canada’s investments in clean energy with U.S. prohibitions on clean energy, including wind power — a particular target of U.S. President Donald Trump.
FYI, currently there are 614 active wildfires in the US, up from 591 last night.
John James’ response is in lockstep with other MAGA politicians like Reps. Tom Tiffany (WI-07), Brad Finstad (MN-01), Tom Emmer (MN-06), Michelle Fischbach (MN-07), Glenn Grothman (WI-06), and Pete Stauber (MN-08). They believe Canada is derelict in its forest management and sent a truly asinine letter to Canada’s ambassador to the US last July excoriating Canada and demanding to know what Canada is going to do about it. Their simple-minded, accusatory attack is not surprising. They are all climate deniers and there is not a shred of recognition that wildfires are driven by climate change or that maybe, just maybe, we have some responsibility. Nor do they acknowledge that we are all in this together (especially folks in the Great Lakes states) and we should be working in partnership with Canada to address this massive problem. It does nobody any good to go all South Park and just blame Canada. I will close with a gratuitous shot at one of the MAGA politicians. I know one of these guys personally – and I won’t say who – but he is a truly loathsome creep.
I wonder what kind of “forest management” these idiots think that Canada was using for all of those decades when they didn’t have all of these major fires.
They were not raking the forests!
Often when I’m talking to someone dealing with tough times I end by saying, “Remember to breathe.”
Not with this.
“This is the third consecutive year we have had to write to Canadian officials about a crisis that Canada has the tools to prevent and has chosen not to,” write the four Michigan Republicans — John James, Jack Bergman, John Moolenaar and Lisa McClain — in a letter dated Wednesday.
“Our hospitals are once again treating children, dialysis patients and older residents for the effects of smoke that did not originate anywhere near them.”
Do these clowns also send strongly-worded letters to the fuel companies every time heat waves send people to hospitals? Heat stress is deadly to infants and the elderly along with people suffering cardio-pulmonary illnesses.
Are they threatening the truckers and automakers and the people who sell the diesel and gasoline, exacerbating air quality problems, especially in those heat waves that are increasing due to CO2 emissions?
I would personally enjoy watching the four of them suit up and go and actually deal with containing a wildfire in the boreal forests, though. Not like they’re doing anything useful right now. It’s time people who sit on their hands to avoid dealing with the real problem got some useful work done, instead.