CURRENT EVENTS July 6 - July 13
- Thread starter nycfan
- Start date
- Replies: 813
- Views: 19K
- Politics
- Status
BillOfRights
Iconic Member
- Messages
- 1,182
Bluesky
bsky.app
Two days after catastrophic floods roared through Central Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.
The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters.
The agency laid off the contractors on July 5 after their contracts expired and were not extended, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who has instituted a new requirement that she personally approve expenses over $100,000, did not renew the contracts until Thursday, five days after the contracts expired. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
theel4life
Iconic Member
- Messages
- 2,120
BillOfRights
Iconic Member
- Messages
- 1,182
He said he could shoot someone on fifth avenue and not lose any supporters. He should just release the list and admit that he raped underage girls. I doubt he'd lose many supporters. He wouldn't lose supporters in Congress or his cabinet or on this board.
Mulberry Heel
Inconceivable Member
- Messages
- 3,112
Indeed. I can already hear the excuses and defenses from MAGA Nation if something like that was to occur. I recall reading a story within the last couple of years that was yet another of the seemingly endless scandals of fundamentalist preachers getting caught assaulting/raping underage girls or boys. In that case the preacher's lawyer's defense was that the accuser (she had been about twelve years old when the rapes happened) had "seduced" the preacher into having an "affair". I'm sure any defense of Trump would pursue some such line - all of these teen girls just throwing themselves at Dear Leader, so it was all their fault.
BillOfRights
Iconic Member
- Messages
- 1,182
This might come across as crass…..not a big loss.
- Messages
- 29,363
U.S. Citizen Among Two Palestinians Killed in Israeli Settler Attack
Florida-born Sayfollah Musallet, 20, was visiting family in the West Bank
—> https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-ea...3?st=YZ9Tdc&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink“… Sayfollah Musallet, 20, was beaten to death by settlers who attacked the town of Sinjil, 10 miles northeast of Ramallah, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and his family.
Another Palestinian man, Mohammad al-Shalabi, also in his early 20s, went missing during the attack and was found dead hours later with a gunshot wound to the chest, the ministry said. The circumstances of his death weren’t clear.
… Mussllet was born in Port Charlotte, Fla., and helped run his family’s ice cream shop, according to the Washington, D.C.-based American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
He was in the West Bank visiting relatives for the summer. On Friday, he joined a protest against the construction of a new Israeli settler outpost near Sinjil, the ADC said.
… Few settlers have been convicted of violent crimes. The Biden administration imposed sanctions on some settlers, but the Trump administration lifted them after assuming office in January.
At least three other Palestinian-Americans have been killed in the West Bank since the war in Gaza erupted, including Amer Rabee, a 14-year-old from New Jersey. Israeli forces shot and killed him in April. …”
- Messages
- 3,963
And I would like to be known as the man who saved the world from the giant space lobster that was on the brink of eating the planet. Unfortunately for trump and myself neither of these things were about to happen and thus no action we took meant anything.
It’s pretty obvious to me trump’s nickname should be Fruit Loops.
Orange Julius.
HandsonFire
Distinguished Member
- Messages
- 488
Nah Altmin I believe in you. Thank you for saving me from the space lobster.
- Messages
- 29,363
Trump Is Gutting Weather Science and Reducing Disaster Response
As a warming planet delivers more extreme weather, experts warn that the Trump administration is dismantling the government’s disaster capabilities. —> https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/13/...e_code=1.WE8._i2f.-svRRtDG7DpR&smid=url-share“… Mr. Trump’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year would close 10 laboratories run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that research the ways a warming planet is changing weather, among other things. That work is essential to more accurately predicting life-threatening hazards. Among the shuttered labs would be one in Miami that sends teams of “hurricane hunters” to fly into storms to collect critical data. The proposed budget would also make major cuts to a federal program that uses river gauges to predict floods.
The president is also envisioning a dramatically scaled-down Federal Emergency Management Agency that would shift the costs of disaster response and recovery from the federal government to the states. The administration has already revoked $3.6 billion in grants from FEMA to hundreds of communities around the country, which were to be used to help these areas protect against hurricanes, wildfires and other catastrophes. About 10 percent of the agency’s staff members have left since January, including senior leaders with decades of experience, and another 20 percent are expected to be gone by the end of this year.
… National security and disaster management experts agreed that FEMA — or any federal agency — could be improved but they said the chaotic changes the Trump administration is making to FEMA, as well as other parts of the government, are harmful….”
- Messages
- 29,363
“…Trump Is Gutting Weather Science and Reducing Disaster Response
As a warming planet delivers more extreme weather, experts warn that the Trump administration is dismantling the government’s disaster capabilities.
“… Mr. Trump’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year would close 10 laboratories run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that research the ways a warming planet is changing weather, among other things. That work is essential to more accurately predicting life-threatening hazards. Among the shuttered labs would be one in Miami that sends teams of “hurricane hunters” to fly into storms to collect critical data. The proposed budget would also make major cuts to a federal program that uses river gauges to predict floods.
The president is also envisioning a dramatically scaled-down Federal Emergency Management Agency that would shift the costs of disaster response and recovery from the federal government to the states. The administration has already revoked $3.6 billion in grants from FEMA to hundreds of communities around the country, which were to be used to help these areas protect against hurricanes, wildfires and other catastrophes. About 10 percent of the agency’s staff members have left since January, including senior leaders with decades of experience, and another 20 percent are expected to be gone by the end of this year.
… National security and disaster management experts agreed that FEMA — or any federal agency — could be improved but they said the chaotic changes the Trump administration is making to FEMA, as well as other parts of the government, are harmful….”
The president is preparing to deal another blow to weather forecasting in his spending plan for next year, which would cut funding for NOAA by another $2 billion, or 27 percent. On the chopping block would be the agency’s entire scientific research division, one of the world’s premier weather and climate research centers, preventing the creation of new weather forecasting technologies.
Ten laboratories across the country are also slated to be closed, including the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla. Founded in 1964, the lab created a tool to improve the accuracy of flash flood forecasts across the country — the same tool that correctly predicted the Guadalupe River’s rise after the floods hit Central Texas.
Mr. Trump also wants to shutter the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, which deploys “hurricane hunters,” or specialized aircraft and crew members who fly directly into storms to collect critical data like wind speed, temperature and humidity. Forecasters use this data to predict a storm’s intensity and where it is likely to make landfall.
… Mr. Trump’s sweeping domestic policy and tax law, which Congress passed this month, also rescinds about $60 million in unspent funds at NOAA for atmospheric, climate and weather research. That money had been part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration’s signature climate law.
That cut was inserted into the legislation by the Senate Commerce Committee, chaired by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas.
Macarena Martinez, a spokeswoman for Mr. Cruz, said that the rescinded money had “nothing to do with weather forecasting.” Instead, she said the funds were supposed to be used “for ‘heat awareness’ campaigns, ‘green collar’ jobs” and other programs.
… At the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Mr. Trump wants to halve funding for earth science and terminate satellites that have been collecting data on the atmosphere, ocean, land and ice for more than two decades.…”
- Messages
- 2,769
but can we call him T-bone ... or Ko Ko the monkey ?
- Messages
- 29,363
—> https://wapo.st/4nLjwiT“… There were already whispers of messianism among some of Trump’s supporters, such as the QAnon offshoot called Negative 48 whose members frequented his rallies in 2022. Trump has long claimed that God was on his movement’s side, and attendees at Trump rallies have routinely described the events in spiritual terms.
But after the assassination attempt, many of his followers — and most notably Trump himself — more explicitly cast him as a divine instrument.
“It is difficult not to see the hand of Providence in Trump’s survival of two assassination attempts, one by less than an inch,” said Ralph Reed, an influential evangelical leader and Republican strategist.
“President Trump has said publicly he believes God spared his life, and millions of his supporters feel the same way. For what purpose only God knows, but it clearly isn’t an insubstantial one.”…”
- Messages
- 1,982
We were in Italy when the shooting happened and I said to my family "he was just re-elected".
“… There were already whispers of messianism among some of Trump’s supporters, such as the QAnon offshoot called Negative 48 whose members frequented his rallies in 2022. Trump has long claimed that God was on his movement’s side, and attendees at Trump rallies have routinely described the events in spiritual terms.
But after the assassination attempt, many of his followers — and most notably Trump himself — more explicitly cast him as a divine instrument.
“It is difficult not to see the hand of Providence in Trump’s survival of two assassination attempts, one by less than an inch,” said Ralph Reed, an influential evangelical leader and Republican strategist.
“President Trump has said publicly he believes God spared his life, and millions of his supporters feel the same way. For what purpose only God knows, but it clearly isn’t an insubstantial one.”…”
- Status