In June, Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley unveiled a "climate change plan." The press loved it. Glowing articles appeared in many places, including the Washington Post, USA Today, The Hill and the Huffington Post, whose Kate Sheppard wrote that the former Maryland Governor had "Just Set An Extremely High Bar ... For 2016 Democratic Contenders."
Well, if they're so wired into climate change, why are they ignoring O'Malley's claim yesterday, in an interview with Bloomberg News, that climate change, aka the sanitized term for global warming, is largely responsibe for the rise of ISIS? Answer: Embarrassing comments by leftists are ignored until a Republican or conservative criticizes them. Then the story can be admitted into the news as a "so-and-so attacks" item.
Here is the portion of the interview where O'Malley makes his bizarre claim (HT Fox Nation via Instapundit's Ed Driscoll):
Transcript:
Martin O'Malley: Climate Change Created ISIS
For example, one of the things that preceded the failure of the nation state of Syria and the rise of ISIS, was the effect of climate change and the megadrought that affected that nation, wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a humanitarian crisis that created the symptoms — or rather, the conditions — of extreme poverty that has now led to the rise of ISIS and this extreme violence.
Apparently, there's no end to the evil things climate change can do.
As to farming, well, that depends on things like reliable water supplies and supply chains. It seems like a non-stop atmosphere of terror and tyranny, which has been around for almost a half-century now since the 1967 and 1973 Arab wars with Israel, would have a lot more to do with why farmers can't make a living than the rise of ISIS in the past few years. The fact that people in the region generally haven't gotten along with each other for as about as long as anyone can remember would also tend to impede the creation of an infrastructure supportive of serious farming.
But maybe Martin O'Malley possesses special knowledge about all of this that the rest of us don't have, and can prove that climate change is really to blame for this. I doubt it.
Perhaps the media outlets which loved his climate change plan a month ago would consider asking him to get a bit more detailed about his unique take on history. Don't bet on it. They know that the answer, if it ever came, would be embarrassing.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
