I've been crashed out all day and woke up a while ago to eat dinner and watch Jeopardy! The room TV has no guide, so afterward I just surfed a bit and ended up on Fox News. I lasted a minute.
The hospital TV must be on satellite or something, because I was getting the East Coast feed, which I never see. It was Trace Gallagher—I think?— and he was diving straight into the outrage of the day: federal aid to North Carolina being diverted to illegal aliens or something.¹ He threw to a guest I didn't recognize (bald, British accent) who immediately started ranting that he didn't care about different "streams" of money being allocated by law for different things, or whatever. Fuck your "allocations." The feds should just reallocate the cash and get things done.
I think I'm too jaded to even have a reaction. Obviously this is a very convenient opinion for angry conservatives to have since it's Republicans who have refused to increase the stream of money for natural disasters. But that's bygones. We need to look forward. Just pull some money from, oh, maybe a vault in the State Department? And dump it onto Asheville from a helicopter. Right? Amirite?
Sigh. Then there was the usual nonsense about $750, which Fox pulls out of its hat for every natural disaster when a Democrat is president. Only $750 in aid per person?!? What a bunch of incompetent bureaucrats and pencil pushers. It's a joke.
Of course, this is just the amount of FEMA aid being distributed immediately to help folks out until more substantial aid money starts getting disbursed—which the Foxies know perfectly well.² In the meantime, metric tons of food, water, shelter and so forth are being trucked and airlifted in steadily. Roads have been reopened and private aid organizations are helping out. Every local official has agreed that everything is going well under difficult and unforeseen circumstances.
We're actively working with our partners to expediate recovery efforts for #Helene. Over 4,800 federal staff have been deployed to all six affected states to help with debris clean-up, power restoration, & delivering essential supplies, including food, water, tarps, & generators. pic.twitter.com/b29Nd5W42r
— FEMA (@fema) October 2, 2024
If you were affected by Helene, we urge you to apply for assistance as soon as possible.
We understand that everyone's journey to recovery is different, so we are here to help with your unique situation.
To apply, call 1-800-621-3362 or visit https://t.co/gryh5A6N9X.#Helene pic.twitter.com/Ik8CrbEKL1
— FEMA (@fema) October 2, 2024
Like I said, this was all in less than a minute. I switched off just as they were displaying a graphic about how FEMA these days is all DEI this and equity that with no one caring about actual disaster relief. Just imagine if you watched this stuff for hours. It doesn't sound like a lie, does it? And if you believed it, would you have anything other than seething contempt for the out-of-touch coastal liberals who run our country?
¹It's not.
²Ironically, this is part of a program FEMA set up precisely to address the problem the Fox pundits were complaining about. In the past, FEMA distributed $500 in housing assistance immediately but required receipts to show it was really being used for housing. This led to complaints when extensions were denied because some of the money had been spent on food, diapers, gasoline, etc. So FEMA raised the amount to $750 and slashed the red tape, allowing the money to be used for anything without receipts. This new rule was adopted earlier this year under the Biden/Harris administration.
You mean they can just take their $750 and spend it on T-bone steaks or lobster or a down payment on a Cadillac, and get away with it? What a typical Commiecrat program.
Yawn - Fox lies about something. What else is new?
We all know that if a Republican were in power, they'd be lauding it as the best response ever.
I suggest you're not jaded enough since you did react with this post 🙂
I hope Kamala is elected and as her first "official act" as President orders Merrick Garland (who will be held over as AG because the Repugnants in the Senate have said they aren't going to approve ANY cabinet positions) to convene a PUBLIC grand jury to investigate collusion between Fox News, the Republican Party and Trump's Campaign to defraud American voters of their campaign contributions by lies and deceit.
Or something like that, that sounds really really "official" and scares the it-shay out all and sundry of them.
Grand juries aren't public for very good legal reasons, so...
One of the biggest problems democrats face is that there are some people who just don't believe Trump will be as bad as I think he'll be if he becomes president. On CNN yesterday, I watched briefly as a Latino talking head explained that his father was going to vote for Trump because his "life was better under Trump." And I suppose it might have been. It's not for me to say.
But this is the core problem. Lots of people just don't imagine Trump will be bad for them. They think it will all be just fine. Better even. Ain't that a kick in the head? Hilarious.
So... the FEMA nonsense is just one more piece of that narrative. Those democrats are messing up everything!
One other small point. There is this same perspective from some on the left:
"Many of these proposals would, if implemented by a second Trump administration, likely get bogged down in the courts..."
This is terribly naïve. The courts will not stand in the way. If they try, they will be ignored.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/how-trumpworld-uses-dramatic-policy-ideas-to-terrorize-immigrants-and-troll-their-enemies
See... it's all just trolling for fun.
MEOOOOOW. All the Republicans can do is: obstruct, deny, lie, etc. That's why they are being lead around by a CONVICTED FELON WHORE MONGER.... KITTIES KNOW !
Agree about the "biggst problem".
Trump complimented the Chinese government for 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, and he will try to do the same in th US. Even on this blog, where commenters are in general strongly anti-Trump, it seems they don't realize it.
Where’s Brownie when we need him?
He did a heckuva job!
File it under "every accusation is a confession." Trump actually did slow aid to blue states, so FOX has to pretend Biden does it.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/03/helene-trump-politics-natural-disaster-00182419
See the problem isn't 750$, it's that 787.5 million wasn't enough for them to learn any lesson at all. I'm not saying shutter the organization, not bankrupt it and its owners, I'm saying take it for what it can bear.
" He threw to a guest I didn't recognize (bald, British accent) who immediately started ranting . . . "
Slightly comforting that the Murdochs can't find enough demagogic blowhards in the US and have to resort to recruiting from their well-stocked manure piles in the UK and Australia.
Quite discomforting that Jeff Bezos did the same thing for WaPo. Sir William Lewis KB, the worst UK visitor to DC since Sir George Cockburn in 1814.
At least Cockburn only stayed for a day.
From those three data points, I'd guess it was Mark Levin, the Man Who Shouts.
I actually know what the 'illegal aliens' thing is, given that, for some bizarre reason, I have started looking at the 'For You' section of Twitter again.
The allegation is that FEMA has been spending big bucks on building Alien Welcome Centers, and that's why FEMA does not have the money to help when there are real disasters affecting real Americans in real America.
I have no idea if that is true, or if the amount spent is a huge amount or just a speck, or whatever, and I'm not going to investigate. I hope Kevin does a deep dive so as to rescue me from my ignorance.
FEMA has set up what they politely call a “rumor response” page for hurricane Helene.
https://www.fema.gov/disaster/current/hurricane-helene/rumor-response
They point out that money in the Disaster Relief Fund is only used for disasters and has not been diverted to fund other functions. They also point out that the DRF is not currently out of money.
The background is that supplemental disaster relief funding was considered for inclusion in the Continuing Resolution that passed Congress on Sept. 25, but was ultimately not included because of opposition from conservative Republicans. Some reporting describes the CR as making funding available to FEMA, but what that means is that it avoided a government shutdown, so FEMA can spend all of the money in its budget, which is unchanged.
On Oct. 2, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that “FEMA does not have the funds to make through the [hurricane] season,” which ends in November. Perhaps the existing funds will be enough for Helene, but Mayorkas expects at least one more major hurricane. It appears that Congress hasn’t increased disaster relief funding to reflect global warming. The fund would have run out of money last year as well if Congress hadn’t passed supplemental funding.
If FEMA doesn’t receive supplemental money this year and the disaster relief fund runs out of money as a result, it will be because that’s what a lot of Republicans want, and the remaining Republicans aren’t willing to fight them on the issue. If Democrats had a majority in the House, I expect that supplemental disaster relief would have passed already, with the votes of every Democrat and about half of the Republicans.
FEMA also administers the Shelter and Services Program, which provides grants to organizations that assist recent immigrants. Some places get a lot of immigrants, whereas others get very few, so it makes sense for the Federal government to pay for some of the costs associated with recent immigrants. Indeed, I seem to recall Texas Governor Abbot making that very point. I assume he’s against the program now for the same reason Republicans blocked a border bill earlier this year; Republicans now think that a messy border is in their political interest. The Shelter and Services Program was funded back when Republicans actually cared about the border, so conservatives didn’t oppose it.
In any case, Congress decides how much money goes into the Shelter and Services Program and how much money goes into the Disaster Relief Fund. FEMA cannot override that decision by moving money from one to the other.
The list of things Fox Entertainment isn't lying about pales in comparison to the amount of lies.
Being fully aware of the enormity of the damage Fox has done and does to this country is perhaps Kevin's greatest gift to my socio-political awareness. Fox is a deadly, virulent pathogen that will destroy this country unless it is crushed, or at least marginalized into irrelevance. How this happens I do not know, but if those with power who like living in a free democracy don't take the gloves off pretty soon, we will end up in some kind of authoritarian state. They will destroy anything and everything that does not goosestep to their tune, and they will only get worse unless they are forced to stop.