But maybe angry enough to not vote at all… so, win? Maybe…?

Nope. There’s no chance of change while such States are so heavily gerrymandered. Plus, the bulk of the voters in these states will vote red 'til they’re dead because voting for a dem would somehow be worse.

The saying I’ve always heard is, a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client.

Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, praising the former Real World cast member…

Ah, the most important characteristic for any possible Trump appointee, they’ve been on television.

I know, right? How am I going to get that image out of my head? It’s almost enough to make me support censorship.

I’m more bothered by the fact that it’s not enough of an insult for this piece of shit. Barbie is supposed to be some sort of idealized female form. That does not fit for Noem at all, in my opinion, and it’s also irrelevant.

I prefer to call her Gravel Pit, to remind people of where she hides her mistakes. Neither she, nor anyone else, should ever be allowed to forget that she dragged a puppy into a gravel pit and shot it solely because she failed to train it and then bragged about it in her book. She is a horrible human being, utterly lacking in compassion, and any name for her should highlight that aspect of her being rather than any physical traits she may or may not possess.

No, it is not normal at all. You are talking about a relief package to help people rebuild. Those come later. This article is talking about search and rescue teams. Those teams go in as soon as possible to help find and rescue people.

“In the past, FEMA would have swiftly staged these [search and rescue] teams, which are specifically trained for situations including catastrophic floods, closer to a disaster zone in anticipation of urgent requests, multiple agency sources told CNN,” reported Gabe Cohen and Michael Williams. However, “even as Texas rescue crews raced to save lives, FEMA officials realized they needed Noem’s approval before sending those additional assets.”

That approval came on Monday. Apparently she doesn’t work weekends.

Because Trump and his handlers never intended to replace anyone. They just want to fire as many people as they can and shrink the government. These are true believers who really think, like the article’s author apparently, “that the federal bureaucracy was, and still is, in need of reform.” They honestly believe that most federal workers are lazy and not doing anything of value and the whole government should be downsized in the interest of profit efficiency.

By the way, the author’s attitude really pisses me off a lot. Even ex-DOGE workers have since said they found very little fraud or waste to cut yet they still took a chainsaw to the federal workforce.

I’m not sure I’d bet money on that. A lot of the dem leadership is a monolithic good-old-boys club that always seems to have each other’s backs.

Democrats are not saints, either. Clinton (Bill), for example, was a buddy of Epstein too, remember. It’s entirely possible that there is dirt on him or other higher up among the dems that don’t want it released. There are also leaders and/or ministers of foreign nations in the file. The USA releasing it could impact relationships with allies.

Chances are it will never be fully released unless hackers manage to get it and do it.

They love fancy words written on parchment. It doesn’t seem to matter too much what the specific words are, as long as the words mean that they are special. But you’re right, they never read, or at least understand, the documents they worship.

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you - Matthew 6:5-6

They are truly hypocrites. Also,

Other commentators have said that the rhetoric calling for physical violence is anti-biblical and should be denounced.

Physical violence is anti-Biblical? More proof they haven’t read the thing or understood it if they have.

This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they ambushed them on their way up from Egypt. Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’” - Samuel 15:2-3

Yeah, sure, the Bible is anti-violence. 🙄

Me’thinks the lady doth protest too much.

Good luck, and I mean that sincerely. I hope they can force it.

From a 1949 book cover distributed to schools by DC.

MAGA is basically opposed to truth, justice, and the American way, aren’t they?

One thing I wonder is how seriously people take the flood warnings.

Most of the time if it is raining at all, I get the various flood warnings. I could imagine people underestimating those.

You have a point. But the issue is probably that some people don’t differentiate between the different watches and warnings. There are different levels of alerts. Most flood alerts are not of the immediately life threatening variety, and often focus on informing people that they shouldn’t drive across flooded road ways. This article about the Texas floods details what alerts were sent out and when as this disaster unfolded.

Initially, the NWS issued flash flood watches on Thursday, the day before the floods, which indicated that conditions in the watch time frame suggested flash floods were going to be possible. Later in the evening, they issued a second watch highlighting the slow moving nature of the storm which suggested even heavier rainfall which increased to risk of flooding. Friday morning, shortly after midnight, they issued a flash flood warning which which is different than a watch.

A weather warning means that there is immediate danger in the highlighted area, not just a possibility of danger. A flash flood watch equals there may be a flash flood, a flash flood warning means there is a flash flood happening. A tornado watch means a tornado could form. A tornado warning means a tornado has formed.

The initial flash flood warning issued after midnight Friday also included the “considerable” tag which triggers the wireless emergency alerts to go out to cell phones and NOAA radios. That warning was upgraded 2 hours later with instructions to “Move to higher ground now. Act quickly to protect your life.” A half hour after later, that warning was upgraded to a flash flood emergency which again set off the wireless emergency alert system. Sadly, the region has spotty cell service so it’s unclear how effective the wireless emergency alert system was in this incident.

It’s possible that people not realizing that each alert represented an increase in the immediacy of the threat to their lives which led them to fail to take action. The solution to that is education, of course. Teach them the meanings of the alerts so they are not confused in the future. But that requires increased funding which is the one thing we can be sure Texas and the Trump administration will not do.

Nah, Trump isn’t the cause, he’s just a symptom, probably the worst symptom of the decades long efforts of the GOP to undermine campaign finance. education, ethics laws, and any other law or rule that impeded their efforts towards fascism. They’ve been working on this since Reagan and we are at the culmination. They have taken control of every branch of government and with Trump as a figurehead, they are tearing down the last planks of democracy.

Trump signed of on disaster relief for Texas yesterday morning.

President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he “signed a Major Disaster Declaration” for relief for Kerr County in Texas, as the region deals with heavy rains and extreme flooding that have killed dozens.

Of course he’s going to help a red state. It will be another story when it’s a blue state. Just like the last time.

Mark Harvey, who was Trump’s senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff, told E&E News on Wednesday that Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state’s Democratic leanings.

But Harvey said Trump changed his mind after Harvey pulled voting results to show him that heavily damaged Orange County, California, had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa.

Nope. He’s not a first responder, is he? If not, then it’s pure PR. He could just as easily go out there after the recovery efforts are done when he wouldn’t be in the way. Going out with the first responders means that he’s taking up space and resources that could otherwise be used to help people in need.

Also…

“I can tell you in hindsight, watching what it takes to deal with a disaster like this, my vote would probably be different now,” said Virdell, a freshman GOP lawmaker from Brady.

Probably. First hand view of the death and damage and he might, change his mind. Fuck him.

I suspect because they didn’t have all his video files. Couldn’t kill him if those files could get leaked after his death.

Who’s keeping the current list?

Mossad?