Posted on 10/07/2016 6:46:30 AM PDT by SSS Two
Matt Drudge, author of the conservative media site drudgereport.com, is being ridiculed over his tweets in advance of Hurricane Matthew's arrival in Florida.
Thursday afternoon and early Friday morning the conservative firebrand took to Twitter to imply that the storm might not be as powerful as government officials say it is.
First he tweeted: "The deplorables are starting to wonder if govt has been lying to them about Hurricane Matthew intensity to make exaggerated point on climate."
Drudge was apparently referring to Hillary Clinton's description of some of Donald Trump's supporters as "deplorables."
Just a few minutes later, Drudge wrote: "Hurricane Center has monopoly on data. No way of verifying claims. Nassau ground observations DID NOT match statements! 165mph gusts? WHERE?"
The National Hurricane Center is a division of the federal government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
And in the wee hours of Friday morning, Drudge tweeted, "Don't Blame Mother Nature. Blame Mankind..." with an unflattering photo of a windswept Clinton and a link to an article on the website climatedepot.com. The Climate Depot article downplays a possible link between extreme weather and climate change.
As NPR has previously reported, officials have urged or ordered millions of Americans along the storm's path to head inland. In Haiti, where Matthew landed as a Category 4 storm, at least 280 people were killed, according to local officials.
Since Drudge's tweets questioning the severity of the storm and official warnings about it, he's drawn sharp rebuke. Democratic U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison tweeted, "So irresponsible. If you are in the path of Hurricane Matthew, do not listen to this man! Stay safe!"
Greg Fishel, chief meteorologist of WRAL-TV in Raleigh, N.C., tweeted: "Whatever respect I had for Drudge, which was minimal to start with, was destroyed with this tweet. How insanely asinine can one be?"
Others on social media suggested Drudge go to Florida himself, to really find out just how dangerous Matthew might be.
Follow Gregory Pijanowski @G_Pijanowski If Matt Drudge thinks Hurricane Matthew is hoax, why not go to Florida to prove it? 6:19 AM - 7 Oct 2016 1 1 Retweet 6 6 likes
Drudge's tweets tap into a sentiment held by some that climate change is not real, a view at odds with the overwhelming consensus of scientists. Trump, the Republican Party's nominee for president, has said several times that climate change is a hoax. Trump tweeted that it was a myth created by the Chinese, though later said he was joking. (As NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben reported, 2016 seems to have been a year full of conspiracy theories, and they've been very hard to shake.)
And at a campaign event Thursday night, Trump urged people to stay safe and praised Republican Gov. Rick Scott for his leadership as the storm nears. He even offered a sort of warning to those in its path, "It looks like it's a big one and it looks like it's going to be a bad one, it looks like. Hopefully it takes that right turn."
Offense only has to be lucky once, defense has to be lucky every single time. IF you live in hurricane alley you should realize that every single time there is the potential for great harm but be thanking God when it doesn’t happen. Instead, human nature causes us to curse when we are spared.
On the LA/MS Gulf coast there had been false alarms since Camille. False alarms for 30+ years. Even Katrina was a ‘false alarm’ (supposed to hit as a cat 5, hit has a mod cat 3). Katrina ‘hit’ Louisiana first, as a cat 3. As a result lots of people who SHOULD have evacuated their homes didn’t. Because: ‘false alarm’. They drowned.
(good read about this here: https://www.wunderground.com/education/Katrinas_surge_part13.asp?MR=1 )
If you live in FL you should be grateful for the false alarms. The real deal is way worse than inconvenience for a day or two.
Google streetview this neighborhood:
Slab homes that are literally only 3-5 ft above sea level, for miles in either direction. Imagine realizing you SHOULD have evacuated when one of these things comes ashore and you find yourself trying to escape (with a few hundred/thousand of your neighbors) down those little streets (all just 3-5ft above sea level) that are filled with debris and there’s a 10ft storm surge on the way. That’s the stuff of civil defense nightmares.
“A lot of independent weather stations...” - all of whom depend on accurate government data sets from satellites and planes flying into the storm - assets which none of those stations have.
What people SHOULD realize is that it isn’t ‘crying wolf’.
It’s playing roulette.
If you stay behind, there’s a non zero chance that you will be sorry about that.
Instead of being grateful for the ‘zero chance’ THIS go around, they bitch the gun wasn’t in fact loaded in that particular chamber.
Living in hurricane alley is, in fact, playing roulette with hurricanes.
We shall soon see.
Wasn’t there a big hysteria last year over a mega-hurricane that never materialized?
One thing we do know is that there will be a big monster hurricane and some point in the future. But all these little really disappointing smaller ones that don’t do enough damage or kill enough people are a problem for those pushing the “climate change causes more severe weather” line.
However, at some point they will get their big mega monster hurricane, and then they will be happy.
NPR defending its government sponsors, as usual.
I thought Drudge lives in south Florida.
This is a sticky issue. I’ve read that US forecasting and modeling for hurricanes now include a bogus “climate change” factor that makes path predictions inaccurate. Indeed, the European models have turned out to be correct for Matthew, and last year for Joaquin, which never came near the coast.
Weather Channel definitely enjoys hyping storms.
I also believe that official records of temperatures, rainfall, and wind speeds are being recorded inaccurately for the climate change politics.
On the other hand, I believe when it comes to hurricanes, there is a major factor of unpredictability and no elected official wants to be the one who failed to warn people to evacuate.
The ‘RAT led federal government lying to the people.
****************
Yep, the same people who brought us the so-called Affordable Care Act. Another big lie.
We have a weather reporting station local here that does not get information from government satellites. Simple barometers can tell how forceful the winds might be. There are other satellites not owned by our government where accurate data can be had.
This is true but there are always people who play the odds and stay behind. Has been this way for 60 or 70 years, however long we’ve had more accurate tracking systems. There are always people who don’t heed the evacuation advice.
Same thing happened when Mt St. Helen’s was about to blow. Some people would not evacuate ... did not believe the prediction. They were incinerated.
If people don’t want to go there is not much you can do.
Follow Gregory Pijanowski @G_Pijanowski If Matt Drudge thinks Hurricane Matthew is hoax, why not go to Florida to prove it? 6:19 AM - 7 Oct 2016 1 1 Retweet 6 6 likes
Drudge lives in Miami...!
The wind speed being hyped is at or near the eye wall of the hurricane. Yeah, the media is making more out of this than they should, but that’s what they do. Florida dodged a bullet as this storm stayed out at sea. Hurricane Andrew was similar back in ‘92 but, unlike Matthew, made landfall. The area of damage was small, but it was devastating if you were in or near the eye of the storm. Same with Matthew. Just look at Haiti for proof.
How many years since a major hurricane has made landfall in the continental U.S.?
This storm has been overnyped to the max.
They were pretty giddy this morning about reporting one new death from the storm.
by “mankind”, not “mother nature”.”
This quote would have turned into a month long discussion by the media if Trump had said it!!!
Kooky!
And her comment is I think DEPLORABLE!
Nope, nothing you can do.
My beef is with those who essentially curse at having been inconvenienced/spared this go around.
‘We’ think ‘cry wolf’. The reality is roulette. Sooner or later the odds, even with roulette, will pay out. You don’t want that payout.
That scenario happens in Texas with tornados too. Local stsions play up every thunderstorm to the utmost and in turn when there really is severe storm, people are complacent.
Yeah. It sounds like she believes there’s a weather machine.
Land based barometers will not tell you of the wind force in the hurricane itself - “might be” is not an accurate account of actual wind speed. Other satellites charge for access - are those stations willing to pay for what is otherwise free from government? Do those station maintain supercomputers of sufficient size and speed to model storms?
Unwelcome data has a tendency to become massaged and adjusted in the government to the point that it is either rendered innocuous or simply unintelligible. So I don’t doubt for a second that “fixes” might be applied to election data.
Those in power want to stay in power. And they want more of it.
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