HEY RUSH LIMBAUGH, WE FOUND YOUR CONSPIRATORIAL OVERSEAS TWIN

Rush Limbaugh has some theories about NASA's latest announcement:

Flowing water on Mars? That’s just part of the liberal agenda, Rush Limbaugh says.

The conservative radio talk show host addressed NASA’s announcement on Monday that it had found evidence of flowing water on present-day Mars, and -- spoiler alert -- he doesn’t believe it.

Limbaugh thinks NASA climate data is deceitful -- of course he would -- and therefore this news must be as well:

"...I said 'look at the temperature data, that has been reported by NASA, has been made up, it's fraudulent for however many years, there isn't any warming, there hasn't been for 18.5 years. And yet, they're lying about it. They're just making up the amount of ice in the North and South Poles, they're making up the temperatures, they're lying and making up false charts and so forth. So what's to stop them from making up something that happened on Mars that will help advance their left-wing agenda on this planet?'"

NASA's going to use this announcement to advance liberalism, Limbaugh says:

" ...NASA has been corrupted by the current regime. I want to find out what they're going to tell us. OK, flowing water on Mars. If we're even to believe that, what are they going to tell us that means? That's what I'm going to wait for. Because I guarantee, let's just wait and see, this is September 28, let's just wait and see. Don't know how long it's going to take, but this news that there is flowing water on Mars is somehow going to find its way into a technique to advance the leftist agenda. I don't know what it is, I would assume it would be something to do with global warming...."

But Limbaugh's not the only person who thinks the NASA announcement is a huge conspiracy. So does this guy, who sounds like Limbaugh's conspiratorial twin (although not quite as crazy):

NASA’s dramatic September 28 announcement that it has found "the strongest evidence yet" of flowing water on Mars was momentous. But according to one Russian lawmaker, it had a more nefarious purpose.

Vyacheslav Nikonov, a Kremlin-loyal member of Russia’s lower house of parliament, has alleged that the U.S. space agency decided to time the announcement to distract the world’s attention from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech to the United Nations the same day.

"Putin's speech was certainly the central element of the UN General Assembly session," Nikonov was quoted by the state-run TASS news agency as saying on September 28." ... It is not surprising that the United States held a NASA news conference devoted to water found on Mars at the time when Putin was addressing the UN General Assembly.”

... "Putin's speech was tough and concise. He formulated the basic principles of international relations without matching the United States and its allies. He offered concrete steps for resolving major international problems," said Nikonov, a member of the Kremlin-backed United Russia political party and a grandson of Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s foreign minister.

"This means that they had to interrupt Putin’s speech with something very serious,” he added.

So there you go. Rush Limbaugh thinks the announcement is connected to a sinister leftist agenda, and Vyacheslav Nikonov thinks it's connected to a sinister anti-Putin agenda. Maybe the two of them should argue about this at great length, while we'll ignore them.

*****

Meanwhile, there's a third conspiracy theory: that the announcement was timed to coincide with this Friday's release of the film The Martian. I learned this from Entertainment Weekly:

Within moments of the announcement, Twitter began lighting up with cynicism and sarcasm suggesting that the news was timed to generate more attention for both the film, which opens Friday, and NASA’s own explorations. On Monday, The Martian director Ridley Scott did nothing to dispel the notion that the space agency was waiting for the most opportune time to present its findings about water on Mars.

“I knew that months ago,” Scott told Yahoo Movies.

... According to Scott, the topic of H2O on Mars came up during his discussions with the agency.

... Scott specified to the New York Times that he ... learned about Martian water after the film went into production....

This conspiracy theory I actually believe. The announcement's timing had nothing to do with Putin or liberalism. This is America. It was probably all about cross-marketing.