How A Baltimore Bridge Became Unlikely Battleground In Terrible People’s War On ‘Woke’
It’s repulsive.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed early Tuesday after the container ship Dali collided with one of its support pillars. Six people working on the bridge fell into the icy water, which was 50-feet deep at the crash area. Search-and-rescue efforts had become a grimmer recovery mission by Tuesday evening. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon N. Gilreath said, “Based on the length of time that we've gone in the search, the extensive search efforts that we put into it, the water temperature — at this point, we do not believe that we’re going to find any of these individuals still alive.”
The ship reported a power failure before impact, and this gave officials the chance to stop traffic on the bridge before it collapsed.
“By being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge, these people are heroes. They saved lives last night,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore said at a news briefing. He confirmed that the bridge was up to code and there were no known structural issues. It was a tragic accident.
Incidents like this remind you how nice it is to have a president who’s not a deranged psychopath. Unlike his Klan-robed predecessor, who once called Baltimore a “disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess,” Joe Biden expressed his genuine sympathy for the dead and their loved ones, and he resolved to help the city through this crisis without demanding a metric ton of ego stroking in advance.
“We’re incredibly grateful for the brave rescuers who immediately rushed to the scene,” he said. “And to the people of Baltimore, we want to say, we're with you, we're going to stay with you for as long as it takes.”
Biden added, “We’re gonna send all the federal resources they need as we respond to this emergency. And I mean all the federal resources. And we’re gonna rebuild this port together. Everything so far indicates that this was a terrible accident.”
Bang and Blame
Biden refers to the bridge collapse as an accident because that’s what it was. However, Republicans and right-wing media were eager to blame their usual scapegoats. They didn’t care that it didn’t make any sense.
Aaron Rupar at
documented some of the worst GOP responses in real time. Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo asked Sen. Rick Scott from Florida, “You’ve been talking a lot about the potential for wrongdoing or the potential for foul play given the wide-open border. Why have the Republicans had such a hard time securing this border? The president has said he’s not going to take any executive action.”Not only is there no evidence of foul play in the bridge collapse, but according to the Baltimore Banner, the workers who died are from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, and live in Dundalk and Highlandtown. They were young people with families.
Accused groper Matt Schlapp, during an appearance on Newsmax, blamed 2020 Covid lockdowns — a relatively new but no less reliable right-wing bogeyman. “I’m no expert about what’s going on …” he said before continuing to speak, “but if you talk to employers in America, they’ll tell you filling slots with employees who aren’t drug-addled is a very huge problem. I’m not making any specific charges here because we don’t know …”
Republicans recoil in horror if anyone mentions the word “gun” after a mass shooting, but it’s apparently never too soon for them to disparage workers. The people who died were toiling in the cold while Schlapp was safe and warm in bed.
MAGA pundit Brigette Gabrielle posted on social media, “Mayor Pete needs to resign immediately.” She seems to think Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is responsible if a bridge collapses. A Newsmax anchor whose name I refuse to Google complained that Biden’s major infrastructure bill somehow hadn’t made all the nation’s bridges collision proof in the two years since it passed. Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, always ready with some nonsense, claimed the infrastructure bill was mostly “Green New Deal” with little money for roads and bridges. This is a lie, and the infrastructure bill has already funded at least 7,000 bridge projects.
Of course, racists online blamed diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. They usually just look to see if a company promotes DEI and then claims that’s why anything bad happened. “Is Boeing prioritizing DEI over safety?” the right-wing Dallas Express asked after Boeing’s recent mishaps. They never blame the reckless cost-cutting measures.
But “iamyesyouaro” over at the generic social media site didn’t even bother trying to connect the dots, no matter how loosely. The user shared a video of Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott discussing the tragedy and wrote, “This is Baltimore’s DEI mayor commenting on the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. It’s going to get so, so much worse. Prepare accordingly.”
Baltimore is about 60 percent Black, and Scott was elected in 2020 with more than 70 percent of the vote. “DEI” has just become another way of saying the “n-word.” It’s not very subtle. (Not surprisingly, Twitter defouler Elon Musk has liked and shared this bigot’s posts.)
Unfounded conspiracy theories were also rampant. Andrew Tate suggested without evidence that the Dali was cyber-attacked, and fellow scumbag Alex Jones responded, “Looks deliberate to me. A cyber-attack is probable. WW3 has already started.”
Actual member of Congress Marjorie Taylor Greene shared some other fool’s cyber-attack conspiracy post and replied, “There should be a serious investigation into the horrifying tragedy of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland. Is this an intentional attack or an accident? Praying for the victims, survivors, and families.”
Simple-minded people seek conspiracies everywhere. It makes them feel important. They need something and preferably someone to blame for a tragedy because while their emotional toolbox is fully stocked with hate, they can’t express simple empathy and compassion. Contrast their words with those of real American President Biden who said, “I have directed my team to move heaven and earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible ... it is my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge.”
Blame remains easier than governance, so it’s no surprise that so many on the Right choose the former.
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It is depressing how right wingers cannot even for a moment just react to a tragic disaster like a human being would. No "wow, what a scary thing to happen, I hope they rescue all the survivors" or something like that. They just always have to be "on", that's what their right wing ecosystem demands--assholery 24/7, if you let up on that you're left in the dust. I'm just surprised Nancy Mace didn't say "as a rape victim, how dare this bridge crash try to shame me, as a rape victim, with its DEI woke crashing".
The fact that the ship's crew was able to get a warning off tells us the accident was most likely a mechanical error, and an investigation will surely bear that out. But I'll bet a doughnut that we won't be seeing any apologies from these rotting pustules for having made such idiotic and offensive conclusions within hours of the tragedy.
I guess blaming the LGBT community is reserved for natural disasters