ICYMI, It's officially called the Government Office of Fantasy. New divisions include: Office of Election Denial, Office of Climate Denial, Office for Economic Chicanery, Office Against Injustice Towards Billionaires, Office For Protection of Pedophiles, Office of Ignoring Legal Rulings et al.
It's not just FEMA that he is destroying-----it's every agency and department that HE DOESN"T WANT TO DEAL WITH!!!! He wants all the power with himself! Think about it. Look at all the research programs, health programs, food programs, climate programs-----it's a huge list because our government oversee so many areas to protect our health and our lives and he just can't stand it. It's a typical Republican thing that they hate to spend any money on because everything is about money and power to them. We will suffer until he's gone!!!! Terri Quint
As the canary in the coal mine, the people of North Carolina and Central Texas should be asked who let them down in receiving help. Who failed them. Maybe not now, but sometime in the future, because what these survivors say will indicate where the electorate will go next year. Logic, and emotion say that the cause for this misery is felon Trump’s hatred of anything Democrats, especially Joe Biden, did to help those in North Carolina, and his contempt for FEMA. But people are not logical and unemotional when making decisions. We need to know who is with us and who is not.
Normally I would say to the people of Texas, you FA and FO'd. But given the severity of the tragedy, they only have my sympathy. However, is they continue to vote for the MAGA crowd and the same thing happens again in the future with no response from FEMA, then I say yes you FA and FO and deserve the consequences resulting from your vote.
As the old song goes...'freedom's just another word for noting left to lose'. So practicing true freedom in Texas might mean that you will lose everything.
No, but I'm making plans with my students about what to do if/when ICE shows up at my predominantly Hispanic campus in the greater Houston area, since our school admin is silent at best and complicit at worst. Fuck this shithole state.
Sorry, just needed to vent. Back to school week ain't what it used to be.
Gulp. I looked up who my regional FEMA administrator is...a retired fire fighter who appears to have reached the responsibility of "Station Commander" in Salem, NH, before heading up "Trump for Prez" in 2015.
When I was 15 years old, I went to stay with my great-aunt Hilda in Lenachee (actually, unincorporated lower Lenachee County) for a few weeks. On the first day, she explained that if I wanted to make a long-distance call, or take a shower over 5 minutes, or run the dishwasher or other appliances, or “anything that costs real money”, that I needed to check with her first. “Every time.” Her roof, her rules, so I did as she asked.
One afternoon, while we were playing canasta (Bolivian rules), she suddenly collapsed. I knew about the high costs of ambulances and hospital care — great-aunt Hilda had talked about it often when reading the evening edition of the Lenachee County Dispatch aloud, as was her custom — so I asked her if it would be okay to dial 911.
She didn’t answer — I think it might have been due to the unconsciousness — and I was an volunteer EMT trainee, so I knew I had to take charge. So I called a hospital’s accounting department and asked how much it would cost to get her treatment. I didn’t ignore great-aunt Hilda, of course — I put it on speakerphone while I did CPR. They said they couldn’t tell me, so I asked for an estimate. They said that would take a while to figure out. I said I’d call them back, and called two more hospitals.
It turns out the first one I had called — the one I’m sure 911 would have dispatched an ambulance to — offered an estimate over $20,000 higher than the second!
She didn’t survive — when I got the three quotes and called the ambulance, the EMT’s said I’d done as well as one can doing CPR alone when one has to keep stopping to navigate phone trees. But she’d passed some time before they arrived (maybe an hour or two). Still, I know that, had I called 911 and gotten her straight to that first hospital, she’d have been horrified upon waking up to learn I wasted $20K without consulting her.
It was an important lesson: When you don’t take the time to consider the high costs of things, bad things can happen. In saying “wait a second, don’t just send out the rescuers — I need to double-check these numbers”, Kristi Noem is doing God’s work.
Which part of that read like sincerity to you? I’ve been fascinated to hear the responses. Did you think I was making the story up as a lie that I thought would be persuasive, or that it was actually a (maybe slightly batty) actual recollection of some great-aunt who’s the type you comparison-shop for emergency heart-attack care for? Do you think people like my imagined Hilda actually exist — who’d really rather die than overpay for a resucitation — or people like imaginary me imagine must exist?
Oh, and did the “She didn’t answer — I think it might have been due to the unconsciousness” line really not let you in on the joke?
I have no problem at all with satire. A lot of my comments are border line satire. A lot are just making fun to lighten the mood. Satire is tricky. I did get the joke but only after I posted my comment. My only feedback is to exaggerate more so even the slowest of us will see where you are going. One last point: WAPO and Boston Globe Felon Trump supporters are always being called down that they fail to include the /s to the crazy things they say. And they do say ridiculous stuff. But to them it is serious.
Huh…. between “unincorporated lower Lenachee County”, “canasta (Bolivian rules)”, reading aloud an evening paper (when even if I were old enough to remember them, evening papers haven’t existed within 20 years of 911’s creation), and “she didn’t answer — I think it might have been due to the unconsciousness”, I thought it was pretty exaggerated. I thought I was overdoing it. But that’s why I’m not a comedian…. I think you just told me I’m the one without a good sense of humor! (j/k)
And the FEMA money will be used for detention centers. Noem is living free in a house for the Coast Guard; Trump still takes gold bribes and pardons criminals for a fee; Bondi chases Letitia James, Patel tries to change history; ICE arrests good people without reason or cause; Trump wants to lower interest rates to permit inflation to ruin the country; Trump places a 50% tariff on beef from Brazil to impact their SCOTUS with regards to their Insurrectionist.
I read Project 2025 and know that this and other departments are supposed to go or be greatly diminished. This is a major reason why I suggest that our legislators pass a bill making states sole taxing entities and anything we get from federal government state pays a fee for. Otherwise, states can be in charge of pension, health care, education, disaster relief, housing, infrastructure, transportation, etc... like countries with simiiar sized populations who have smaller GDPs do. Also, there are countries that rely more on local than national taxes. Under Trump there are 3 funding priorities:
1) billionaires
2) the military
3) ICE
He wants to have a military dictatorship and rule us with an iron fist. We should be defunding that and making sure our tax dollars can go to help us, not harm us.
Tim was saying yesterday that the Louisiana governor is sending NG to DC. That seems pretty shortsighted when he may be needing them come hurricane season. I wouldn’t count on no hurricanes for the rest of the Trump presidency.
And crime is not sparse in Louisiana. The crime rate is higher than normal and Louisiana is 4th in states with high crime rates. But he is showing up those lib’s!
I have to say; been to New Orleans twice, and would never pass up an opportunity to go again. The music, the energy, the music, the food, did I say music? Maybe I wouldn’t want to live there, but I LOVE the French Quarter!
I live in South Texas, and our hurricane season and Louisiana's hurricane season really heats up in August, September and October. We were hit hard by Hurricane Harvey August 25th, 2017. Hurricane season has only just begun for us and Louisiana.
The role of Federal Government is to plug the holes in state government, since every state is governed separately and by different parties. The Federal government is to supposed to back up
state government if necessary.
The problem with many Republican led states who suffer a higher number of catastrophies, is that they don't have state income taxes or sales taxes, or many taxes at all.
That's how the lawmakers keep getting elected. Keep taxes low.
Low taxes means they rely on Federal government more. Republican states receive more money from Feds than they send to the Federal government.
So if Trump wants the states to do more of the work helping people after natural disasters, then he should insist that they increase their state tax revenue and stop relying on the Feds.
the message - "when you are critically injured, put your own bandages on and don't ask the government to help. Authoritarian dictators and narcissists don't care if their people live or die, get sick, or get poor.
Project 25 "watchers" estimate that 80% of the Heritage Foundation goals have been met. Here is the heart of Project 25's mission to reform (deform) FEMA.
FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (FEMA)
Needed Reforms
FEMA is the lead federal agency in preparing for and responding to disasters,
but it is overtasked, overcompensates for the lack of state and local preparedness
and response, and is regularly in deep debt. After passage of the 1988 Stafford Act,12
the number of declared federal disasters rose dramatically as most disaster costs
were shifted from states and local governments to the federal government. In
addition, state-friendly FEMA regulations, such as a “per capita indicator,” failed
to maintain the pace of inflation and made it easy to meet disaster declaration
thresholds. This combination has left FEMA unprepared in both readiness and
funding for the truly catastrophic disasters in which its services are most needed.
Reform of FEMA requires a greater emphasis on federalism and state and local
preparedness, leaving FEMA to focus on large, widespread disasters.
Under the Stafford Act, FEMA has the authority to adjust the per capita indicator for damages, which creates a threshold under which states and localities are
not eligible for public assistance. FEMA should raise the threshold because the per
capita indicator has not kept pace with inflation, and this over time has effectively
lowered the threshold for public assistance and caused FEMA’s resources to be
stretched perilously thin. Alternatively, applying a deductible could accomplish
a similar outcome while also incentivizing states to take a more proactive role in
their own preparedness and response capabilities. In addition, Congress should
change the cost-share arrangement so that the federal government covers 25 percent of the costs for small disasters with the cost share reaching a maximum of 75
percent for truly catastrophic disasters.
FEMA is also responsible for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP),
nearly all of which is issued by the federal government. Washington provides
insurance at prices lower than the actuarially fair rate, thereby subsidizing flood
insurance. Then, when flood costs exceed NFIP’s revenue, FEMA seeks taxpayer-funded bailouts. Current NFIP debt is $20.5 billion, and in 2017, Congress
canceled $16 billion in debt when FEMA reached its borrowing authority limit.
These subsidies and bailouts only encourage more development in flood zones,
increasing the potential losses to both NFIP and the taxpayer. The NFIP should
be wound down and replaced with private insurance starting with the least risky
areas currently identified by the program.
Budget Issues
FEMA manages all grants for DHS, and these grants have become pork for states,
localities, and special-interest groups. Since 2002, DHS/FEMA have provided
more than $56 billion in preparedness grants for state, local, tribal, and territorial
governments. For FY 2023, President Biden requested more than $3.5 billion for
federal assistance grants.13 Funds provided under these programs do not provide
measurable gains for preparedness or resiliency. Rather, more than any objective
needs, political interests appear to direct the flow of nondisaster funds.
The principles of federalism should be upheld; these indicate that states better
understand their unique needs and should bear the costs of their particularized
programs. FEMA employees in Washington, D.C., should not determine how billions of federal tax dollars should be awarded to train local law enforcement officers
in Texas, harden cybersecurity infrastructure in Utah, or supplement migrant
shelters in Arizona. DHS should not be in the business of handing out federal tax
dollars: These grants should be terminated. Accomplishing this, however, will
require action by Members of Congress who repeatedly vote to fund grants for
political reasons. The transition should focus on building resilience and return
on investment in line with real threats.
Personnel
FEMA currently has four Senate-confirmed positions. Only the Administrator
should be confirmed by the Senate; other political leadership need not be confirmed by the Senate. Additionally, FEMA’s “springing Cabinet position” should be
eliminated, as this creates significant unnecessary challenges to the functioning of
the whole of DHS at points in time when coordinated responses are most needed.
ICYMI, It's officially called the Government Office of Fantasy. New divisions include: Office of Election Denial, Office of Climate Denial, Office for Economic Chicanery, Office Against Injustice Towards Billionaires, Office For Protection of Pedophiles, Office of Ignoring Legal Rulings et al.
Republicans and MAGA never understand that a joke is supposed to be funny.
It's not remotely funny when a FEMA "director" allegedly pretends not to know about hurricane season.
"So, hurricaine season is right before football season starts?" -Republicans, probably.
It's not just FEMA that he is destroying-----it's every agency and department that HE DOESN"T WANT TO DEAL WITH!!!! He wants all the power with himself! Think about it. Look at all the research programs, health programs, food programs, climate programs-----it's a huge list because our government oversee so many areas to protect our health and our lives and he just can't stand it. It's a typical Republican thing that they hate to spend any money on because everything is about money and power to them. We will suffer until he's gone!!!! Terri Quint
As the canary in the coal mine, the people of North Carolina and Central Texas should be asked who let them down in receiving help. Who failed them. Maybe not now, but sometime in the future, because what these survivors say will indicate where the electorate will go next year. Logic, and emotion say that the cause for this misery is felon Trump’s hatred of anything Democrats, especially Joe Biden, did to help those in North Carolina, and his contempt for FEMA. But people are not logical and unemotional when making decisions. We need to know who is with us and who is not.
Normally I would say to the people of Texas, you FA and FO'd. But given the severity of the tragedy, they only have my sympathy. However, is they continue to vote for the MAGA crowd and the same thing happens again in the future with no response from FEMA, then I say yes you FA and FO and deserve the consequences resulting from your vote.
As the old song goes...'freedom's just another word for noting left to lose'. So practicing true freedom in Texas might mean that you will lose everything.
No, but I'm making plans with my students about what to do if/when ICE shows up at my predominantly Hispanic campus in the greater Houston area, since our school admin is silent at best and complicit at worst. Fuck this shithole state.
Sorry, just needed to vent. Back to school week ain't what it used to be.
Gulp. I looked up who my regional FEMA administrator is...a retired fire fighter who appears to have reached the responsibility of "Station Commander" in Salem, NH, before heading up "Trump for Prez" in 2015.
When I was 15 years old, I went to stay with my great-aunt Hilda in Lenachee (actually, unincorporated lower Lenachee County) for a few weeks. On the first day, she explained that if I wanted to make a long-distance call, or take a shower over 5 minutes, or run the dishwasher or other appliances, or “anything that costs real money”, that I needed to check with her first. “Every time.” Her roof, her rules, so I did as she asked.
One afternoon, while we were playing canasta (Bolivian rules), she suddenly collapsed. I knew about the high costs of ambulances and hospital care — great-aunt Hilda had talked about it often when reading the evening edition of the Lenachee County Dispatch aloud, as was her custom — so I asked her if it would be okay to dial 911.
She didn’t answer — I think it might have been due to the unconsciousness — and I was an volunteer EMT trainee, so I knew I had to take charge. So I called a hospital’s accounting department and asked how much it would cost to get her treatment. I didn’t ignore great-aunt Hilda, of course — I put it on speakerphone while I did CPR. They said they couldn’t tell me, so I asked for an estimate. They said that would take a while to figure out. I said I’d call them back, and called two more hospitals.
It turns out the first one I had called — the one I’m sure 911 would have dispatched an ambulance to — offered an estimate over $20,000 higher than the second!
She didn’t survive — when I got the three quotes and called the ambulance, the EMT’s said I’d done as well as one can doing CPR alone when one has to keep stopping to navigate phone trees. But she’d passed some time before they arrived (maybe an hour or two). Still, I know that, had I called 911 and gotten her straight to that first hospital, she’d have been horrified upon waking up to learn I wasted $20K without consulting her.
It was an important lesson: When you don’t take the time to consider the high costs of things, bad things can happen. In saying “wait a second, don’t just send out the rescuers — I need to double-check these numbers”, Kristi Noem is doing God’s work.
You have got to be kidding (and that's too light of a term) with this.
Which part of that read like sincerity to you? I’ve been fascinated to hear the responses. Did you think I was making the story up as a lie that I thought would be persuasive, or that it was actually a (maybe slightly batty) actual recollection of some great-aunt who’s the type you comparison-shop for emergency heart-attack care for? Do you think people like my imagined Hilda actually exist — who’d really rather die than overpay for a resucitation — or people like imaginary me imagine must exist?
Oh, and did the “She didn’t answer — I think it might have been due to the unconsciousness” line really not let you in on the joke?
If in “God’s work,” Noem is greasing the path for God’s children to go home.
Are you fucking kidding with this? God's work??? She's happily killing people like she did her puppy. What a piece of plastic-shit monster she is!
Uh… I mean, I was an EMT trainee when I was 15. That part I wasn’t kidding about. But it isn’t really relevant, since I have no great-aunt Hilda….
Ah. Satire. You forgot the /s
Indeed. The JVL-Yoest video this morning about “dark Gavin Newsom” gave me a reason to expand on that point:
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/gavin-newsom-is-going-hard-against/comment/147424053
I have no problem at all with satire. A lot of my comments are border line satire. A lot are just making fun to lighten the mood. Satire is tricky. I did get the joke but only after I posted my comment. My only feedback is to exaggerate more so even the slowest of us will see where you are going. One last point: WAPO and Boston Globe Felon Trump supporters are always being called down that they fail to include the /s to the crazy things they say. And they do say ridiculous stuff. But to them it is serious.
Huh…. between “unincorporated lower Lenachee County”, “canasta (Bolivian rules)”, reading aloud an evening paper (when even if I were old enough to remember them, evening papers haven’t existed within 20 years of 911’s creation), and “she didn’t answer — I think it might have been due to the unconsciousness”, I thought it was pretty exaggerated. I thought I was overdoing it. But that’s why I’m not a comedian…. I think you just told me I’m the one without a good sense of humor! (j/k)
And the FEMA money will be used for detention centers. Noem is living free in a house for the Coast Guard; Trump still takes gold bribes and pardons criminals for a fee; Bondi chases Letitia James, Patel tries to change history; ICE arrests good people without reason or cause; Trump wants to lower interest rates to permit inflation to ruin the country; Trump places a 50% tariff on beef from Brazil to impact their SCOTUS with regards to their Insurrectionist.
It's time to impeach
Way, way past time! Every single one of those a-holes who voted to let him go can go to hell!
I read Project 2025 and know that this and other departments are supposed to go or be greatly diminished. This is a major reason why I suggest that our legislators pass a bill making states sole taxing entities and anything we get from federal government state pays a fee for. Otherwise, states can be in charge of pension, health care, education, disaster relief, housing, infrastructure, transportation, etc... like countries with simiiar sized populations who have smaller GDPs do. Also, there are countries that rely more on local than national taxes. Under Trump there are 3 funding priorities:
1) billionaires
2) the military
3) ICE
He wants to have a military dictatorship and rule us with an iron fist. We should be defunding that and making sure our tax dollars can go to help us, not harm us.
Another example of willful, deliberate incompetence.
Solution? Congress won't act to defend our Constitution, so it's up to us:
1. Impeach and convict the Felonious Oath-Breaker.
2. Vote out of office every adherent to Project 2025 in 2026.
Tim was saying yesterday that the Louisiana governor is sending NG to DC. That seems pretty shortsighted when he may be needing them come hurricane season. I wouldn’t count on no hurricanes for the rest of the Trump presidency.
And crime is not sparse in Louisiana. The crime rate is higher than normal and Louisiana is 4th in states with high crime rates. But he is showing up those lib’s!
Yeah Tim was saying the crime rate is higher in New Orleans, Shreveport and Baton Rouge than DC.
Which, first I expected would be the case and second why the hell would anyone live in Louisiana?
To be fair, I’m sure plenty of people don’t want to live in upstate NY either.
I have to say; been to New Orleans twice, and would never pass up an opportunity to go again. The music, the energy, the music, the food, did I say music? Maybe I wouldn’t want to live there, but I LOVE the French Quarter!
Even the funerals are hopping. There’s a Bond movie with a funeral that’s taking place there. They do seem to know how to go out.
Shortsighted is their middle name.
I live in South Texas, and our hurricane season and Louisiana's hurricane season really heats up in August, September and October. We were hit hard by Hurricane Harvey August 25th, 2017. Hurricane season has only just begun for us and Louisiana.
🙏
The role of Federal Government is to plug the holes in state government, since every state is governed separately and by different parties. The Federal government is to supposed to back up
state government if necessary.
The problem with many Republican led states who suffer a higher number of catastrophies, is that they don't have state income taxes or sales taxes, or many taxes at all.
That's how the lawmakers keep getting elected. Keep taxes low.
Low taxes means they rely on Federal government more. Republican states receive more money from Feds than they send to the Federal government.
So if Trump wants the states to do more of the work helping people after natural disasters, then he should insist that they increase their state tax revenue and stop relying on the Feds.
You know, like the Democratic states do!
Very well stated and you are correct.
the message - "when you are critically injured, put your own bandages on and don't ask the government to help. Authoritarian dictators and narcissists don't care if their people live or die, get sick, or get poor.
Project 25 "watchers" estimate that 80% of the Heritage Foundation goals have been met. Here is the heart of Project 25's mission to reform (deform) FEMA.
FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (FEMA)
Needed Reforms
FEMA is the lead federal agency in preparing for and responding to disasters,
but it is overtasked, overcompensates for the lack of state and local preparedness
and response, and is regularly in deep debt. After passage of the 1988 Stafford Act,12
the number of declared federal disasters rose dramatically as most disaster costs
were shifted from states and local governments to the federal government. In
addition, state-friendly FEMA regulations, such as a “per capita indicator,” failed
to maintain the pace of inflation and made it easy to meet disaster declaration
thresholds. This combination has left FEMA unprepared in both readiness and
funding for the truly catastrophic disasters in which its services are most needed.
Reform of FEMA requires a greater emphasis on federalism and state and local
preparedness, leaving FEMA to focus on large, widespread disasters.
Under the Stafford Act, FEMA has the authority to adjust the per capita indicator for damages, which creates a threshold under which states and localities are
not eligible for public assistance. FEMA should raise the threshold because the per
capita indicator has not kept pace with inflation, and this over time has effectively
lowered the threshold for public assistance and caused FEMA’s resources to be
stretched perilously thin. Alternatively, applying a deductible could accomplish
a similar outcome while also incentivizing states to take a more proactive role in
their own preparedness and response capabilities. In addition, Congress should
change the cost-share arrangement so that the federal government covers 25 percent of the costs for small disasters with the cost share reaching a maximum of 75
percent for truly catastrophic disasters.
FEMA is also responsible for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP),
nearly all of which is issued by the federal government. Washington provides
insurance at prices lower than the actuarially fair rate, thereby subsidizing flood
insurance. Then, when flood costs exceed NFIP’s revenue, FEMA seeks taxpayer-funded bailouts. Current NFIP debt is $20.5 billion, and in 2017, Congress
canceled $16 billion in debt when FEMA reached its borrowing authority limit.
These subsidies and bailouts only encourage more development in flood zones,
increasing the potential losses to both NFIP and the taxpayer. The NFIP should
be wound down and replaced with private insurance starting with the least risky
areas currently identified by the program.
Budget Issues
FEMA manages all grants for DHS, and these grants have become pork for states,
localities, and special-interest groups. Since 2002, DHS/FEMA have provided
more than $56 billion in preparedness grants for state, local, tribal, and territorial
governments. For FY 2023, President Biden requested more than $3.5 billion for
federal assistance grants.13 Funds provided under these programs do not provide
measurable gains for preparedness or resiliency. Rather, more than any objective
needs, political interests appear to direct the flow of nondisaster funds.
The principles of federalism should be upheld; these indicate that states better
understand their unique needs and should bear the costs of their particularized
programs. FEMA employees in Washington, D.C., should not determine how billions of federal tax dollars should be awarded to train local law enforcement officers
in Texas, harden cybersecurity infrastructure in Utah, or supplement migrant
shelters in Arizona. DHS should not be in the business of handing out federal tax
dollars: These grants should be terminated. Accomplishing this, however, will
require action by Members of Congress who repeatedly vote to fund grants for
political reasons. The transition should focus on building resilience and return
on investment in line with real threats.
Personnel
FEMA currently has four Senate-confirmed positions. Only the Administrator
should be confirmed by the Senate; other political leadership need not be confirmed by the Senate. Additionally, FEMA’s “springing Cabinet position” should be
eliminated, as this creates significant unnecessary challenges to the functioning of
the whole of DHS at points in time when coordinated responses are most needed.
https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf