Twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 hurricane, claiming an estimated 1,833 lives, leaving millions homeless, and causing approximately $161 billion in damage.
Hurricane Katrina was not just a natural disaster, but a man-made one: the inexperience of senior leaders and the profound failure by the federal government to deliver timely, unified, and effective aid to those in need left survivors to fend for themselves for days, and highlighted how Black, Indigenous, and low-income communities are disproportionally affected by disasters.
These failures prompted Congress to pass the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (PKEMRA), which introduced safeguards to ensure such shortcomings of disaster preparation and response would not be repeated. However, two decades later, FEMA is enacting processes and leadership structures that echo the conditions PKEMRA was designed to prevent.
ā¦ and so on.
(The following are our Six Statements of Opposition from FEMAās workforce and our Petition to Congress)
We oppose the reduction in capability of FEMA to perform its missions. ā¦
We oppose the ongoing failure to appoint a qualified FEMA administrator, as required by law. ā¦
We oppose the elimination of life- and cost-saving risk reduction programs. ā¦
We oppose interference with preparedness programs that build capacity for our SLTT partners. ā¦
We oppose the censorship of climate science, environmental protection, and efforts to ensure all communities have access to information, resources, and support. ā¦
We oppose the reduction of FEMAās disaster workforce. ā¦
Our Petition for Action to the United States Congress
1. Establish FEMA as a cabinet-level independent agency in the executive branch.
2. Defend the agency from further interference from DHS, including illegal impoundments of appropriated funding; ensuring FEMA retains its full authority, responsibilities, functions, and capabilities to perform its missions.
3. Protect FEMA employees from politically motivated firings and ensure continued protection under merit-based personnel systems.
4. Demand transparency from OMB, DOGE, and FEMA leadership regarding internal employment policies and future agency reductions.
Who We Are
The signatories of this letter are FEMA employees from across the United States who are dedicated to helping people before, during, and after disasters, and who are members of the communities we seek to support. In addition to named signatories, we include anonymous signatories who share our concerns but choose not to identify themselves due to the culture of fear and suppression cultivated by this administration.
We stand in solidarity with our colleagues and public servants at the NIH, EPA, NASA, NSF and CDC who have released similar declarations concerning the administrationās actions at their respective agencies. We dedicate this Katrina Declaration and Petition to
every life lost from disasters,
to the survivors who endured and rebuilt,
to every first responder and public servant who places service above self, and
to all the federal partners who serve alongside us to deliver our mission. Their sacrifices and courage strengthen our commitment to speak the truth, sound the alarm, and defend our mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters.
ā¦ The existence of the seven-page memo has not been previously reported. While Trump and other officials have continued to press for abolishing FEMA in its current form since the memo was created, itās unclear which specific recommendations from the document are still on the table.
āThis just means you should not expect to see FEMA on the ground unless itās 9/11, Katrina, Superstorm Sandy,ā said Carrie Speranza, who used to advise the agency and is now president of the US council of the International Association of Emergency Managers. ā¦
The loss of these staff will degrade FEMAās ability to execute the critical missions the agency performs for the country. Beyond responding to ongoing storms, fires, and floods, FEMA staff help communities prepare for disasters, support long-term recovery efforts, work to reduce statesā and communitiesā vulnerabilities, and support resilience and preparedness efforts nationwide.
Increased Storm Activity: La NiƱa may bring about more frequent and intense storms, leading to heightened risks of property damage due to hurricanes, high winds and flooding. This costly forecast is underscored by the trending rise in billion-dollar disasters, from an annual average of 8.5 (1980-2023) to 20.4 in recent years (2019-2023).
Wildfire Risks: Considering La NiƱa conditions, southern regions are forecasted for a warmer and drier winter in the early months of 2025, increasing the risk for prolonged drought conditions and above-normal fire potential.
Although the time for discussion is pretty much over, that runway is behind us at this point. Now we just hang on to what we got, and itās true many of us still have it fairly well, savor every moment for all itās worth, because the ugly now marching down our very streets. The beautiful days will become fewer and further apart - Because it is the trumpsters with all their pent up brainwashed, unopposed, self-fabricated hatred, and that passion to vandalize that they got on their side - and we, us lefty āenlightenedā types, what do we have?
I donāt see anything but memories of a good time had, and squandered.
Even as our philosophers are busy patting themselves on the back, while their students buy them books, and buy them books, yet all they do is eat the covers.
What can we do. Well sadly, It may not be enough for society, but for us individual living creatures, time to get straight with oneself - donāt sound like much, but I believe from my own experience, that it is everything..
You are the only thing you truly possess, and the one thing that you are - like yourself or not. Lots of magic and wonder within that physical reality.
Remember in the final analysis, we each need to save ourselves, no one else can do that for you. Other people are important, still you canāt truly love someone else until youāve come to terms with yourself.
Save ourself? As in saving your our soul, your sense of self-awareness, an appreciation for having had this moment within the most amazing biological body, the Earth (and quite possibly the universe) will ever create. Your sense of sanity, appreciation for the good things that have come your way, and graceful acceptance that death, is something everything living creature does, but only humans need to think about and ādealā with.
For me and myself, Iāve found that taking a deep dive into learning about the evolutionary pageant that created me, and learning first hand how my body is an evolving repetition of a biological genetic plan* that goes back hundreds of millions of years, every new generation slightly different, always moving forward handing down its collective physical real world understanding into the seed of the next body to come along. That may all sound crazy, but amazing is what it is, and its real, and the story is there within our accumulated scientific knowledge of Earth and biology and neurology (though it makes no sense to think that consciousness is confined to what neurons to. Thereās so much about the biological machine itself, that we still donāt know. Ground breaking iconoclastic discovers keep happening - why donāt our greatest philosophical thinkers show any humility in the face of all we still donāt know.
Itās funny even reading Descartesā Discourse, first he goes through great length exposing how little we knew, yet by the end of his discourse he was ennunciating opinion, with an air of certitude - that all his disciples emulate. Even on to this century when I still canāt get serious people to admit, or even want to discuss the fact that - Biology and Evolution has made it plain as sunlight, that we are biological creatures, who produce our own sense of awareness, scaling to consciousness.
I am therefore I think.
And seems that no one can deal with it, uppity and puffily, and slammed eyelids and doors.
When all Iām after is a simple interesting discussion, but no one care relate.
So why am I surprised that weāve self-destructed our country - not that the rest of the world, at least the part that āmattersā is every bit as screwup up as we are.
Think of the chain of events, trump the pedophile muscling into Beauty Contests, Russian noticing trump, thereās our man. And god damn if all the enlightened horse and lettered men, couldnāt expose the con job being pulled on Americans.
Back in 2004, during the Vice Presidencial debates, the question of the moment was: Americaās Right to āGo It Alone.ā Cheney proclaimed: āAmerica will not allow anyone veto power!ā Senator Edwards (and by extension the Democratic Party) could respond no better than to mumble meaningless platitudes.
Why couldnāt Senator Edwards invoke the words of our United States Declaration of Independence? The last line of the first paragraph reads: āā¦ a decent Respect to the Opinion of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to Separation.ā
Our Declaration of Independence and its signers granted no one veto power, however they did recognize a higher arbiter of correctness and a requirement that they be able to justify their actions in the eyes of the world!
Why couldnāt the Democrat articulate that?
Why have we so easily misplaced our respect for the rest of mankind?
***********************************************
~ A historic inspiration worth recalling ~
Our Founding Fathers were all men of passionate, deeply held and defensible beliefs.
Yet, each one knew they needed the knowledge and experiences of their ideological opponents.
They allowed themselves the luxury of respecting their opponents and they appreciated that there was something to be learned from most everyone.
They had the humility to understand that no one of them held absolute insight.
And they had the integrity to be able to alter perspectives when new information justified it.
Shouldnāt all of us reacquaint ourselves with this principle?
Thatās just one instance of Democratic Party (along with We the People) failures to show up and defend democracy . . .
Excuse me, old man finishing his second beer, listening to rain on a hot tin roof, disgusted with the world, yet still wishing for some intelligent conversation.
ālearning first hand how my body is an evolving repetition of a biological genetic plan* ā
Actually Iām more than just an evolved genetic plan, Iām proof positive that thereās some universal something, that wants more, and that to know itself, would require experiencing through the lives of its creatures. And here we are, introspective humans, who can learn and write and build instruments to see beyond our biological limitation. To see the world behind ourselves, from the outside in. āWe are the Eyes of the Universe.ā (mind you, thatās poetry, not science )
And, if thatās the case, why not be a worthy set of eyes. Besides, because of this fundamental attitude my life has been an adventure.
Human life is not about accumulating toys and cheap thrills. >>> I would suggest that she or he, who dies with the most experiences, in living, in connecting with other humans, in connecting with other creatures and this planet Earth herself, wins!
Bernie sanders is on mission impossible to save the democratic party. The Democrats think their problem is āmessagingā i.e. more effective communication and framing of their message. Their real problem is the message itself which lacks substance. They have nothing to offer the people.
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were right to worry about an elite group like the financial oligarchy, taking control of the country. That is what has happened.
The Democratsā diatribes against Russia are just as bad as anything we heard during the Cold War, and very dangerous
Like this thread asks, who needs FEMA, just another bankrupt liberal idea that needs destroying.
Hereās another one of those empty liberal ideals, treating people with respect and behaving with dignity and honor.
Back in 2004, during the Vice Presidencial debates,**the question of the moment was: Americaās Right to āGo It Alone.ā**Cheney proclaimed: āAmerica will not allow anyone veto power!ā Senator Edwards (and by extension the Democratic Party) could respond no better than to mumble meaningless platitudes.
Why couldnāt Senator Edwards invoke the words of our United States Declaration of Independence? The last line of the first paragraph reads: āā¦ a decent Respect to the Opinion of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to Separation.ā
Our Declaration of Independence and its signers granted no one veto power, however they did recognize a higher arbiter of correctness and a requirement that they be able to justify their actions in the eyes of the world!
Why couldnāt the Democrat articulate that?
Why have we so easily misplaced our respect for the rest of mankind?
***********************************************
~ A historic inspiration worth recalling ~
Our Founding Fathers were all men of passionate, deeply held and defensible beliefs.
Yet, each one knew they needed the knowledge and experiences of their ideological opponents.
They allowed themselves the luxury of respecting their opponents and they appreciated that there was something to be learned from most everyone.
They had the humility to understand that no one of them held absolute insight.
And they had the integrity to be able to alter perspectives when new information justified it.
Shouldnāt all of us reacquaint ourselves with this principle?:
Oh and science that devilās handmaiden needs be crippled, itās endless profit growth that matters.
trump is a certifiable hate filled moron, who is dedicated to vandalism and self-aggrandizement - and inflicting as much damage onto America and regular people, as he can possibly get away with.
And it looks like the country is going to give him carte blanche - outcomes will be what they are.
You tell me the Right Wing is a great thing.
I donāt see why a thinking person would idolize the destructive imp.
Georgieboy, can you explain what is it that you see, that you love, that you respect about the movement to destroy our government?
Because they were too busy enjoying the party to keep their eyeās on the prize.
General mentality, hollywood dreaming, too much is never enough, I want my Maserati too!
And thinking and compassion is too difficult.
And doing with a little less, or sharing, is even worse.
For a more serious, thoughtful answer, might I recommend - although he doesnāt single out the Democratic Party - every thinking adult American shares in the guilty:
Riding the Trump Train to the End of the American Line
The depths of this destruction became particularly clear to me after listening to an episode of David Frumās podcast a couple of weeks ago (transcript here). Before interviewing his guest George Conway, Frum spent some time discussing a question that is really at the core of Americaās situation today:
What is the difference between being a fully developed society ā a society that can meet the needs of people ā and one that isnāt?
Frum comes up with eight features that he feels are necessary for a modern capitalist society to be responsive to the needs of its people.Itās a good list.
A responsive society must respect peopleās rights and liberties.
Its government must be honest, and be seen as honest.
It must have a stable currency.
It must have a predictable tax regime.
It must invest in growing a healthy and well-educated workforce.
It must invest heavily in science and technology.
It musts have a competent, merit-based, and well-trained civil service.
Finally, it must be able to compete successfully in the global economy.
In the era of American global supremacy that began in the ashes of World War II and is ending in the ashes of Trump 2.0, the United States led the world in developing and maintaining most if not all of these features (its biggest failing: āgrowing a healthy and well-educated workforceā ā¦ that got hijacked with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980).
But now, under Trump 2.0, all that progress is being undone in what can only be described as a blatant and deliberate destruction of every standard and principle the American republic has ever stood for.Thom Hartmann sums it up nicely:
[Trump] is dismantling Americaās scientific leadership, destroying our universities and public schools, gutting our social safety net, rigging our future elections, legitimizing corruption for himself and his high-level cronies, building a network of concentration camps across America, and has created a massive federal police force of masked, unaccountable agents with a larger budget than Russiaās entire military. (source)
Interestingly, neither Frum nor Hartmann mentionsone other likely effect of Trump 2.0 āinterrupting and rolling back Americaās efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions, modernize the countryās energy infrastructure, and limit the damage of global warming. But this abandonment of a science-based climate policy in favor of a ādrill, baby, drillāfantasy, will only lead to even more devastating results, although the worst effects may not appear until after the perpetrators are long gone. I hope to take this issue up in a later post.
Trumpās American overhaul is not sustainable ā¦
A lot have been taught to hate taxes, as though being a Freeloader was something to be proud of. While being stupidly oblivious to all the services our government performs for us
And a lot were stupid enough to buy into the hate your government, why bother voting, b.s.
Most forgetting the ultra important ingredient to operating a healthy democracy, AN INFORMED AND ENGAGED citizenry.
Rather than working harder on getting good people into office, they listened to idiots who simply told them sweet lies, made jokes, and encouraged people to ignore getting involved in elections.
Gullible is as gullible does.
When the anti-tobacco, and Anthropogenic Global Warming denial advertising industry started, where were the Americans standing up and demanding that HONESTY MATTERS, especially when dealing with such existentially critical matter! Nothing, blight acceptance of transparent lies as the foundation for future. How the heck was that supposed to work out.
Now weāll simply slowly, or rapidly depending on those Black Swans, devolve into a Lord of Flies reality as times get tougher and tougher, and hope gets dried up like a pile of poop on a sunny day in the Arizona desert.
Iām not endorsing Frum. Try reading the article. Start an argument about the 8 features.
____ comes up with eight features that he feels are necessary for a modern capitalist society to be responsive to the needs of its people.Itās a good list.
A responsive society must respect peopleās rights and liberties.
Its government must be honest, and be seen as honest.
It must have a stable currency.
It must have a predictable tax regime.
It must invest in growing a healthy and well-educated workforce.
It must invest heavily in science and technology.
It musts have a competent, merit-based, and well-trained civil service.
Finally, it must be able to compete successfully in the global economy.
Oh and no I didnāt realize it was that Frum - as if that really matters, again itās the content I thought worth sharing and thinking about.
At least the Democrats still tried to abide by our Constitution - while it appears you want to burn it up, the best document a people has ever created, flawed, but then we are flawed humans arenāt we.
What the heck do you suggest?
What are you offering?
As for hopeless, donāt naive enough to think you are telling me something I donāt know, way better than you do. But then again, I also know that hope is a survival strategy in hopeless times. Put that into your pipe and puff on it a while.
If this is true and is so dear to the hearts of the Dems moving forward, they would have changed policies to win the election . Sadly no as the educated and engaged knew would happen
Iām not associated with him - but then this is how your mind works, twist and weave, never even try to comprehend what the other is discussing. Weave your own tale and donātā give a inch.
As for terrorist warmongers doesnāt that apply to almost everyone in power - shockān awe and everyone climbed on that bandwagon.
Oh and Iām not defending Frum, and my comments were about an article written by
Steve Genco, and it quotes Frum - get over it. But here, you may like this first article, as for the second it is not about Frum, but you would have to actually read it to understand that.
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