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Robot Bender's avatar

It's not just Florida. They're just one of the poster children. There are already red states that are desperately pleading for help to recover from tornadoes and such. They're being ignored. At least Puerto Rico got some paper towels. 🙄

The destruction of FEMA, NWS, NOAA, and other organizations is insidious. It tells all of us what the MAGA leadership really thinks of the average American. Disposable. Non playing characters in a game.

The vandals aren't at the gates. They're inside hacking at our vitals with axes, as this Misadministration laughs with glee.

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Clint (CCCV)'s avatar

“And yeah. Floridians can fornicate themselves with a flaming palm tree without lube. Between their Proud Boy cosplay and their unhinged love for all things Orange, it does seem karmically delicious that they’re about to get drowned by their idiocy.”

Easy there!!! I’m a native and live here now. It’s a much less expensive C-O-L with no state income tax, and on disability income, that’s huge! Besides, America needs some blue voting folk on the front lines here! Yes, I saw the li’l disclaimer, just thought it needed strengthening.

Oh yeah, hurricanes AND the insurance co have already fkd me bigtime. I’m old enough to remember when this was a purple state, siiiigh….

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William A. Finnegan's avatar

lol... if you continue reading... I do walk the dog back and suggest perhaps we shouldn't all be gleeful watching the state go up in flames.

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Clint (CCCV)'s avatar

I mentioned the disclaimer, lol! S’all good, just making sure y’all (proof I’m a FL guy) know there are still a few of us down here who love democracy. Very few, maybe, but still…

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VQN's avatar

They had Democratic governors, hard to believe.

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JOE P's avatar

Former 20 year resident. Yeah they did have Democratic leadership at one time. It was quite some time ago but like cockroaches and palmetto bugs its now so infested with republicans that as soon as they are done soiling whats left they’ll come begging for some democratic support to save them…

I say enough of this bullshit, republicans run shit into the ground, deny any and all services for the people and take everything they can monetize out and into their pockets and then cry ‘help’, well how do you like your 💩sandwich ?

And just for the record its not just FL.

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VQN's avatar

You are right, it's the red states in general, not just FL. They take such glee immiserating their own citizens and letting them die (miscarrying women in Texas; Louisiana, etc).

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Ann Gaspari's avatar

Everything I've read of yours seems spot on. I'm waiting for Mar A Lago to get hit soon - sad but probably coming some time.

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R D Noisemaker's avatar

If that does happen, it'll no doubt be Biden's fault....

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cara's avatar

Download windy.com. The Europeans are way ahead of the US

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JJ's avatar

The areas that are “uninsurable” are perfect for the Network State experiments of the Technocrat Counter-Elites (Thiel, Balaji, Andreessen, etc). They are the right wing flavor of “Own nothing, be happy” and 15 minute cities. Thiel is a WEF and Bilderberg guy. Same people but different branding.

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John Schwarzkopf's avatar

Living in South Georgia the gutting of FEMA and the NWS doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling. Our local weather forecasters are the worst I've seen after living in 5 states from WA to here, and that's with having accurate info from the NWS. I can't imagine how fucked up their forecasts will be now. At least I have a generator to run the whole house, a freezer full of meat, and plenty of guns and ammo.

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Marcia Diederich's avatar

If you wear a paper bag over your head you won’t see anything that bothers you.

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VQN's avatar
Jun 5Edited

Or trying to block out the sun with your thumb . . .

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Benthall Adventures's avatar

Wow. We were just talking about the hurricane that took my then-boyfriend-now-husband’s house. Completely devastating…life-changing in every way. But without FEMA, it would’ve been unrecoverable. Emotionally, financially… all of it.

It’s easy to forget until you’ve been the one picking through soggy drywall or watching your past float down the street. The failure is real - but so is the lifeline, when it works.

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Scott Monty's avatar

Recall that in the first Trump administration, they wanted to put Barry Myers, the CEO of AccuWeather in charge of NOAA and the National Weather Service (until charges of sexual harassment at his company sidelined him). The goal was to commercialize weather — to make people pay for AccuWeather‘s service instead of the free forecasts by the government.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/11/20/white-house-pick-lead-noaa-withdraws-nomination-citing-health-concerns/

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Bob Donaldson's avatar

If Mar-A-Lago( god I hate typing that) got hit, you can bet our money that the federal government will pay to restore and fix it up. While this is a stupid situation, it is on the Florida state government to advocate for their needs and they don’t. So, at the end of the day it will be an unfortunate and unfair situation to many in Florida and I do really care and worry for them, but the state politics feed the beast and have to be held accountable. These people want to imagine the problem away or blame someone else. That is not how this works. Nature doesn’t give a shit about your wishes it will only respond to your actions.

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Laurie Hart's avatar

“I met Michael Brown” took me aback. Be good to explain who THAT Michael Brown is for everyone who remembers 2014.

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VQN's avatar
Jun 5Edited

Thank you for this post, it made me think and brought back some memories.

You mentioned Katrina. Let's wind back the clock to 2005. Remember the New Orleans Superdome, and the horrendous scenes of human suffering and degradation, and how conditions got worse and worse? Desperate people on the roofs of their homes? I seem to remember a nursing home or hospital accused of having euthanized elderly patients when it got really bad.

Imagine a Hurricane Katrina or an Andrew, but with no FEMA, RFK Jr at the helm of public health, Trump golfing and with so many resources diverted to the border and to disappearing people (not that ICE would be worth a damn in a crisis like that, anyway. They would just shoot "looters").

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Bambi Sears's avatar

I from New Orleans . I was living there during Katrina. You are spot about what's coming.

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Gaily's avatar

(Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco)

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Alexis Ludwig's avatar

One of the core principles of US politics these days (as you know better than I) is take credit for every victory (or perceived victory) and blame someone else for every defeat, however obvious was your hand in engineering it. Reagan was called the Teflon president. Not sure what the mot juste is for the man in charge now, given his supernatural abilities in the politics of credit and blame. He seems to thrive with particular relish in environments where the facts are directly at odds with his representation of them. Maybe that’s why making America great again means driving it into the mud to a depth it’s never quite been before. 😳

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Citizen Raff's avatar

Is there a word for cannonade of warning shots, I wonder?

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