reminder that the national guard was deployed during this time, to Los Angeles to support ICE
And this was one of the flagship Red states! Imagine if it were a well-established Blue state?
They’ll deploy FEMA in advance to stop protestors
This reminds of the response of the Bush administration after Hurricane Katrina. Bush had appointed a big campaign donor whose primary experience was in running and judging show horses to manage FEMA, and he was in way over his head with Katrina.
They knew Katrina was coming, it took nearly a week to move across the Gulf of MEXICO after crossing Miami, and doing a lot of damage there. Then it creeped across the Gulf, growing larger until filled the entire Gulf.
This was obvious to EVERYONE who was watching any television, but the Bush administration did nearly nothing to prepare. They didn’t use dozens of school buses to evacuate people, they just let them sit in the yard and get destroyed by floodwater. They made no attempt to stage supplies, make arrangements for food and shelter, evacuate hospitals, etc. They literally did NOTHING.
Katrina hit New Orleans on a Monday, and by that evening it was clear that it was a major disaster. People escaped to the SuperDome for shelter, where rumors spread of violent gangs roaming the Dome raping and pillaging. News videos showed dead bodies in the streets, desperate people just walking past them. If people saw a news camera, they would literally beg for help, for water, for food, for safety.
By Wednesday, the Bush administration had still done nothing. They had lots of excuses, but New Orleans is only a long day’s drive from DC, and yet yet somehow they couldn’t get rescuers, food, supplies, etc. to them, even though the news media had no problem getting there and sending out video.
On Wednesday, I was watching one of the news people interview “Brownie,” the head of FEMA, as he actually said: “We weren’t aware of the situation in the SuperDome until today,” which was two days after the storm hit. Literally EVERYBODY in the country was watching it on LIVE TV, 24 hours a day, but somehow the head of FEMA wasn’t aware of it until 2 DAYS LATER?
This sounds like the same lack of preparation, but also mostly a lack of caring. These are self-appointed Aristocrats, and they think they are above worrying about the nonsense going on in the daily lives of the rubes. They literally don’t care at all about any of those dead people.
It also didn’t take long for the aftermath to become racially charged, either.
As it turns out, the folks most impacted by hurricanes and other weather events (e.g. flooding) are people of color. So, sending FEMA late to these sorts of things just reeks of malicious compliance.
Oh yeah, there was no doubt at the time that the primary reason for ignoring this incoming disaster was because Nawlins was a Democratic stronghold among a vast Red region.
It was the first real time that we saw Republicans withhold help from Americans simply because they weren’t from the same party. Now it’s expected that Dems will help everybody, but the MAGA Nazis (the Republican Party doesn’t exist any more) will only help their own.
which makes it more shocking when dozens of girls from a christian summer camp are killed because of MAGA malice
I’m sure the families are all super-perplexed that God chose to smite their little girls.
Recently, four women on a girl’s weekend in Florida, took shelter under a beach cabana during a sudden storm. The cabana got hit by lightning, and knocked all of them unconscious. They recovered, and one of them was on the news, saying in her thick southern drawl that she was praying and thanking God for protecting them.
I was so shocked, I yelled at the TV “Honey, have you forgotten that being struck by lightning is God’s traditional method of smiting people he HATES? If there’s a God, he wasn’t trying to save you, he was trying to KILL you!”
Religious people who are being rampaged by natural disasters should really be reconsidering their version of religion. It seems that their God isn’t on board with their choices.
Damn, I didn’t know this, thanks for sharing. I am not American, and I was pretty young when Hurricane Katrina happened, so context like this is new to me. More reasons to hate Bush
She deserves to be hung along with all rightwingers: the sooner, the better
Why the hell would this admin do anything that helps people? I’m not being sarcastic.
Would it be possible for FEMA to have just gone on their own accord on the ground that any reasonable Secretary of Homeland Security would have asked them to go?
No
This is correct, as a federal entity, FEMA will only show up after being invited by the governor of the state that needs assistance. Thats why search+rescue is usually handled by local authorities and FEMA focuses on clean up, logistics, and rebuilding. This does not exclude them from assisting with S+R, but they will almost never be the first ones on scene.
Sacrifice the weak for Capitalism!
Well, FEMA funds are being redirected towards building concentration camps in the Everglades. Whatcha gon do without any money?
I remember when the paranoid right was freaking out over “Obama’s FEMA camps” that he was gonna use to round them all up for reeducation or worse. Their fears really are all projections of what they would do when they got authority
They think everybody thinks like them, so they are sure Dems would treat them the way they’d like to treat everyone else. It truly doesn’t occur to them that the other side might not be as filled with ferocious hatred as they are.
Maybe we should be
I agree. Now that we know that they would enthusiastically murder any non-MAGA if they thought they could get away with it, we need to let them know that we are going to do the same to them, except morality and history will be on our side.
They’re literally incapable of imagining anything else. Otherwise, we’d have radically different outcomes from all this.
It’s okay, it’s not like red states ever have any emergencies.
I know not to expect better but as a parent this is just beyond unacceptable. If I was a parent of one of those lost children I wouldn’t know what I would do with myself other than be more radicalized
How dare you suggest that she uses tax money to save your lives? Disgusting, that money could be better used for fascism.
I’m sure there is a completely normal reason, like she wanted to make sure all the dogs were dead, too.
Note: if she cannot shoot the dogs, she will attempt to starve them.
Gather round, my pilgrims. The mighty LORD came to her in a vision, and informed her that God sent the hurricane to destroy the wicked, like Sodom and Gomorrah. And so, the LORD ordered her to withhold rescue until God’s Punishment has fully swept through the land, purging evildoers wherever they hide from the LORD’s holy light. Only the faithful will be spared by the LORD. Hallelujah!
Oh uh, and I’m joking with this comment. Sometimes my roleplay is too good for some folks.
It probably not far from her twisted little peabrain.
She had to make sure that Texas deployed all their thoughts and prayers first.
And that’s a state they like. Any state that went blue is on their own.
California resident here, we’re just going to succeed at this point if the GOP keeps power.
Thanks for all the… paper towels.
*secede
But I hope you’re successful.
She waited 72 hours. The last living rescue was less than 24 hours after the flood.
We don’t pay government to provide services, we pay government to support political functionaries and their appointed staff in their role as thieves of our taxes.
Small government for ®'s is no spending on services. Small government for (D)'s is no limits on spending for things we all agree we need (with all of the overhead of the R’s).
I guess I would rather have the one where I get some basic level of service from my government but I can’t claim to like it.
Next time just tell Noem that the rain didn’t have a visa to enter the country.
And was a slightly disobedient puppy.
I don’t think shooting the rain would help much…
Well, yeah. FEMA, bad…remember?
Aren’t they the ones that kidnap people and put them into concentration camps?
Ah, wait I’m being told that it’s handled by another agency nowadays.
