The president could have used a question about plastic waste to inflame the culture wars – but his answer wasn’t far off the markTrump was oddly reasonable about plastic straws. “I do think we have bigger problems than plastic straws,” Trump responded. Plastic straws only make up about 1% of the plastic waste in the ocean, according to Jim Leape, co-director of the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions. Plastic straw selfies were a mini-Maga meme last summer, with various rightwing pseudocelebrities photographed themselves wasting plastic for no reason other than to “own the libs” who care about sea turtles and sustainability. “Squeeze it until it doesn’t work.” The campaign website is also selling packs of 10 plastic straws “laser engraved” with Trump’s name for $15, with the tagline: “Liberal paper straws don’t work.”But if the campaign message was supposed to be “Vote for Trump because the libs are coming for your straws”, Trump himself failed to get the memo.

Source: The Guardian July 20, 2019 01:18 UTC