Senator Mike Lee, Reagan, a Machine Gun, and a Velociraptor
If the headline doesn’t make any sense to you, the entirety of the Utah senator’s argument against the Green New Deal won’t either.
Because we watch Trumpland TV so you don’t have to, today we learned that occasionally Trumplandia seeps into the hallowed halls of Congress—as today Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) made a rambling and bizarre attempt to refute the goals of the Green New Deal using Aquaman, The Empire Strikes Back, and a truly bizarre portrait of late President Ronald Reagan.
The senator dedicated 14 minutes of Senate floor time to confronting “climate change, socialism, and the Green New Deal” by turning the entire debate into a farce:
This is of course a picture of former president Ronald Reagan, naturally firing a machine gun while riding on the back of a dinosaur. You'll notice a couple of important features here: first of all, the rocket launcher strapped to President Reagan's back, and then the stirring, unmistakeable patriotism of the velociraptor holding up a tattered American flag, a symbol of all it means to be an American.
OK.
In a future without air travel, how are we supposed to get around the vast expanses of, say, Alaska, during the winter? I'll tell you how. Tauntauns, Mr. President. This is a beloved species of reptomammals, native to the ice planet of Hoth. They're perhaps not as efficient in some ways as airplanes or snowmobiles, these hairy bipedal species of space lizards offer their own unique benefits. Not only are Tauntauns carbon-neutral, but according to a report a long time ago and issued far, far away, they may even be fully recyclable and usable for their warmth on a cold night.
You could have just said that the Green New Deal lacks a plan or any specifics, and left it at that.
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