Trump’s 2nd term: American Carnage

[OILERMAN]

 

[tgo]

 

[pat]

Is this the right thread to discuss the DOGE Dividend ie the 59+ people killed by flash floods in Texas following cuts to the National Weather Service?

[ctm]

19 hours ago, pat said:

Is this the right thread to discuss the DOGE Dividend ie the 59+ people killed by flash floods in Texas following cuts to the National Weather Service?

 

This swath of Central Texas is the most flash-flood prone region in the country, and officials know the Hill Country’s terrain can turn slow, shallow rivers into walls of water. But even as weather forecasts began to hint at the potential for heavy rain on Thursday, the response exposed a disconnect: Few, including local authorities, prepared for anything but their normal Fourth of July. When the precipitation intensified in the early morning hours Friday, many people failed to receive or respond to flood warnings at riverside campsites and cabins that were known to be in the floodplain.

 

Ahead of these floods, the Weather Service office near San Antonio, which oversees warnings issued in Kerr County, had one key vacancy: A warning coordination meteorologist, who is responsible for working with emergency managers and the public to ensure people know what to do when a disaster strikes. The person who served in that role for decades was among hundreds of Weather Service employees who accepted early retirement offers and left the agency at the end of April, local media reported.

 

Lyons said that departure would have had a limited impact on Friday’s emergency, however, because this staffer’s key work takes place weeks and months ahead of a disaster, ensuring training and communication channels are in place.

 

Pat Vesper, meteorologist-in-charge of the Weather Service’s San Antonio/Austin office, declined to answer questions about the vacancy, flood warnings or communications with Kerr County officials. He referred questions to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials, who did not immediately respond to questions.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/texas-hill-country-is-no-stranger-to-flash-floods-why-were-so-many-caught-off-guard/ar-AA1I5cVH?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=caef77c64e644770bbf8e9e55614ba48&ei=13

[pat]

The more I read about this flood, the more it sounds exactly like Oceangate.  At every moment, every opportunity, the option to reduce risk was discarded.

 

one thing that stuck out to was the line “sirens are expensive”

 

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/07/us/texas-floods

 

Nope, sirens are cheap.  What’s expensive is cops and firemen looking up and down the river bank for the bodies of 41 people.  That is a ton of overtime.

 

And don’t expect anything but thoughts and prayers for the dead.

[pat]

“Unimaginable tragedy” that there was flooding along a riverbank?

 

GTFO

[Jamalisms]

2 hours ago, ctm said:

 

This swath of Central Texas is the most flash-flood prone region in the country, and officials know the Hill Country’s terrain can turn slow, shallow rivers into walls of water. But even as weather forecasts began to hint at the potential for heavy rain on Thursday, the response exposed a disconnect: Few, including local authorities, prepared for anything but their normal Fourth of July. When the precipitation intensified in the early morning hours Friday, many people failed to receive or respond to flood warnings at riverside campsites and cabins that were known to be in the floodplain.

 

Ahead of these floods, the Weather Service office near San Antonio, which oversees warnings issued in Kerr County, had one key vacancy: A warning coordination meteorologist, who is responsible for working with emergency managers and the public to ensure people know what to do when a disaster strikes. The person who served in that role for decades was among hundreds of Weather Service employees who accepted early retirement offers and left the agency at the end of April, local media reported.

 

Lyons said that departure would have had a limited impact on Friday’s emergency, however, because this staffer’s key work takes place weeks and months ahead of a disaster, ensuring training and communication channels are in place.

 

Pat Vesper, meteorologist-in-charge of the Weather Service’s San Antonio/Austin office, declined to answer questions about the vacancy, flood warnings or communications with Kerr County officials. He referred questions to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials, who did not immediately respond to questions.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/texas-hill-country-is-no-stranger-to-flash-floods-why-were-so-many-caught-off-guard/ar-AA1I5cVH?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=caef77c64e644770bbf8e9e55614ba48&ei=13

 

Making America Great!

[pat]

The idea that this was an “unimaginable tragedy” betrays a severe lack of imagination 

 

 

[tgo]

 

[Number9]

11 hours ago, tgo said:

 

Middle class people will be able to purchase these vaccines through their children's doctors.  

[tgo]

 

[Starkiller]

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/08/supreme-court-federal-worker-firings-ruling-00442721
 

The Trump administration can move forward with plans to fire tens of thousands of workers across the federal government, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

 

A judge in California had blocked the layoffs, finding that they would likely violate federal law. But the justices granted an emergency appeal from the administration seeking permission to enforce a Feb. 11 executive order that instructed agencies to carry out dramatic “reductions in force.”

 

In an apparent 8-1 ruling, the high court said it was not assessing the legality of any particular agency’s layoff plans, nor any moves taken so far to implement those plans. Litigation over the downsizing efforts is sure to continue. But for now, the justices said, the administration can enforce the executive order and a memo from the Office of Management and Budget implementing that EO.

[pat]

When shit falls apart because people aren’t doing these eliminated jobs it will be again called an “unimaginable tragedy”

[MadMax]

the most embarrassing asshole in the world.  

 

 

Get in retards,  tell us how great this is.

 

[ctm]

As monstrous floodwaters surged across central Texas late last week, officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency leapt into action, preparing to deploy critical search and rescue teams and life-saving resources, like they have in countless past disasters.

But almost instantly, FEMA ran into bureaucratic obstacles, four officials inside the agency told CNN.

 

As CNN has previously reported, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — whose department oversees FEMA — recently enacted a sweeping rule aimed at cutting spending: Every contract and grant over $100,000 now requires her personal sign-off before any funds can be released.

For FEMA, where disaster response costs routinely soar into the billions as the agency contracts with on-the-ground crews, officials say that threshold is essentially “pennies,” requiring sign-off for relatively small expenditures.

 

For example, as central Texas towns were submerged in rising waters, FEMA officials realized they couldn’t pre-position Urban Search and Rescue crews from a network of teams stationed regionally across the country. But even as Texas rescue crews raced to save lives, FEMA officials realized they needed Noem’s approval before sending those additional assets. Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding began, multiple sources told CNN.

 

Texas did request aerial imagery from FEMA to aid search and rescue operations, a source told CNN, but that was delayed as it awaited Noem’s approval for the necessary contract. 

 

FEMA staff have also been answering phones at a disaster call center, where, according to one agency official, callers have faced longer wait times as the agency awaited Noem’s approval for a contract to bring in additional support staff.

 

Trump approved a major disaster declaration for Texas on Sunday, July 6.

By Monday night, only 86 FEMA staffers had been deployed, according to internal FEMA data seen by CNN — a fraction of the typical response for a disaster of this scale.

By Tuesday night, the federal response expanded to 311 staffers deployed, the data showed.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/09/politics/fema-texas-flood-noem