Another day and another tornado/flood/hail disaster in the Red States that voted against Hurricane Sandy aid and who want to cut FEMA money or force cuts in all other systems to pay for Red State disasters. This bizarre world of the right wing ‘We hate the Feds except when we want Fed money’ gang is out in full force demanding we all fund their disasters for them while they withhold disaster aid to liberal states that give the majority of funds to FEMA in the first place.
Four-state tornado outbreak kills 1 and Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa and Missouri are going to have more storms. Texas and Oklahoma are the most vicious states when it comes to Federal disaster spending, both being top recipients of aid while deny it totally to all others so it doesn’t surprise me to see that San Antonio Flooding Kills At Least Two People and the slackers who run the GOP are running to DC for money.
Sen. Jim Inhofe: Oklahoma “hit hard, but we’re not knocked out” – CBS News: this story features one of the ugliest of the ‘no aid for you’all and all aid to me’all’ acting all high and mighty pretending he stands on his own two feet while expecting the Democrats to bail his state out of yet another disaster. Damage is over $2 billion and I am certain the Koch Brothers could easily find the funds to pay 100% of the damage to their beloved home base state.
But they will provide nothing! Nay, paying taxes is anathema to them’all. Yup. So what is important to the GOP today?
Well, Obama shook the hand of a Marine guard instead of giving a Sieg Heil salute! This is supposed to be a civilian democracy, not a police state run by the military. When a Marine held an umbrella, the right wing leeches who have made our military budget the biggest on earth had a collective hissy fit. Now this ‘scandal’ has them all up in arms, feeling as if they are insulted while they hurl insults at Obama constantly even if all he is doing is sitting in a chair minding his own business. To keep the militarists happy, he gave this speech:
“We are who we are today – a free and prosperous nation, the greatest in the world” because of their sacrifice, Mr. Obama said.
And because only 1 percent of Americans serve in the armed forces, that sacrifice made by servicemen and women “isn’t always readily apparent,” the president said.
“Those who serve tend to do so quietly,” he said. “They don’t seek the limelight. They don’t serve for our admiration, or even our gratitude. They risk their lives, and many give their lives, for something larger than themselves or any of us: the ideals of liberty and justice that make America a beacon of hope for the world.”
“And because of that courage – that willingness to fight and even die – America endures,” he said.
This is what is so irritating. Making up stuff to appease the militant, they have to pretend to be humble and ignored. The last thing on earth that is ignored in the US is our military global war machine. And this is not about liberty and justice. We see with the anti-Muslim wars, this is open racism, religious intolerance, a naked move to steal natural resources the latest being Syria’s oil, Obama did quietly admit that Gitmo is causing us yet another international diplomatic disaster due to its resemblance to the Soviet gulag system.
The US is not seen as a ‘beacon of hope’ in much of the world, it is seen as an aggressor power that props up vicious dictatorships like the one in Saudi Arabia and which oppresses the Palestinians while funding the Jewish war machine and it menaces China while enabling Japanese imperialism. Far from being a beacon of hope, the US has supported many fascist coups over the years and has gone to great lengths to undermine and overthrow elected governments that are leftist or which nationalize resources the US elites want on the cheap.
Our nation is under fire not from the Chinese or from handfuls of angry Muslims retaliating for our activities overseas, our nation is under fire from Mother Nature. And will be under fire for a long, long time, like, forever since Mother Nature is also the Great Destroyer. Life and death are always on the scales being balanced and then something lands on the ‘death’ side of the scale, a volcano, tornado, earthquake, tsunami, or asteroid.
Here is the 31 Senate Republicans Opposed Sandy Relief After Supporting Disaster Aid For Home States if you go to Think Progress to see the long list of guys who claim they have ‘God’ on their side and who blame Mother Nature events on things like gay guys kissing. They love to claim the military is the best part of our culture and government while also claiming churches are great, too and they claim God loves them and hates us liberals but who saves them and who pays for the military?
Liberal states, of course. This shameless game of demanding respect while giving none will continue while Mother Nature happily stirs the pot while being totally ignored by the religious right wing fanatics.
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“They risk their lives, and many give their lives, for something larger than themselves or any of us: the ideals of liberty and justice that make America a beacon of hope for the world.” I almost spit a mouthful of coffee halfway across the room when I read that! While it is true that we were once a beacon of hope, and that defending liberty and justice may indeed be the motivation for our brave men and women of the armed forces, what they’re being sacrificed for is Neo-Roman delusions of imperial grandure, the opening of new markets for exploitation by the multi-billion dollar multinational corporations, securing non-renewable resources, playing geo-political chess games against China, Russia, and Iran, and generally making the world safe for ZioNaziism and the greater good of Greater Israel.
“even if all he is doing is sitting in a chair minding his own business.”
This is a great line. This is what I mean by “deligitimizing”.
When congress attacks the president for requesting an umbrella for a foreign head of state, it is a desperate attempt to delitigimize him when all he does is follow orders to kill and torture people. This also deligitimizes congress in the eyes of those who think a foreign head of state should not be left out in the rain (never mind our own).
Compare this to the scandals of the recent past, where some kind of sexual impropriety or a connection to a corrupt business was the core issue (think: Clinton, Bush, Cheney, Bush, Sr.) behind the power struggle.
Europeans thought we were insane for making a big deal about our president having a mistress (Clinton), but not making a big deal when our president makes jokes about nuclear war (Reagon) or launches a genocidal war (Bush & Cheney, Inc.).
What can they be thinking now?
CHAFFEE, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri highway overpass that partially collapsed when rail cars smashed into one of its support pillars after a cargo train collision was about 15 years old and in good condition but just couldn’t withstand the impact, a sheriff said.
Seven people in two cars on the overpass were injured, none seriously, when two 40-foot sections of the overpass crumpled early Saturday
I want to add USA has a skyrocketing population. Immigrants are tax receivers, not payers. Almost HALF the Somalis in Columbus Ohio are
‘on the dole’. In California the population increased by 5? million, while tax payers increased by 200,000!
Turn it Round:
We see with the Muslims, this open racism, religious intolerance, a naked move to steal natural resources from the developed world. See post #4.
lucky, that just seems fitting, since the Hew-Hess-of-Hay has been stealing natural resources from the Muslims for sixty or seventy years over in the ‘stans.
Elaine, those San Antonio drownings may simply belong under the heading “Darwin at work”; in any case, FEMA is not required to address flash floods in a semi-arid zone. The floods would be over before FEMA could mobilize a … what is it again that FEMA does to prevent flash floods? You have said you once lived in Arizona, I’d think you’d have heard of these things. They happen every time there’s a hard rain.
The bottom line is, if you are out driving your car, and you come to a low spot where the road is covered in water, do not drive across it. Floodwater can look deceptively calm, but it will sweep your vehicle off the road and into the ditch, and if that ditch is full of running water you’re likely to drown.
I used to put up barricades in Bear Canyon during flash floods. Once, a lady in an expensive car said to me, as I sat on Socksie, the old rodeo horse, ‘Little girl, get out of the way.’
I said, ‘You can’t drive any further, the road is flooded.’ She honked her horn, I got the horse to step aside, she drove into the river and nearly died.
As I stood there watching, I thought, ‘Should I save her or let her drown?’ I got the rope out and saved her.
On the other hand, years later when I no longer patrolled that area, a guy moved the barriers, drove in and drowned while the sheriff and his guys waited for a news crew to come and film the rescue operation.
The family sued the media and the sheriff. But the guy was stupid, driving into the flooded road.
Indede, “Darwin at work”
Darwin is a very, very busy guy, no? 🙂
It’s all a roll of the dice. They belong to your Kali-like goddess.
I mean we all got to play the game because we won the biggest lottery in the whole universe. Just think of all the people that could be alive and will never be born.
Some people decide to take a few extra rolls in life for good or for worse. We call it Darwinism.
The road to Chaco Canyon has at least 5 or more signs warning about flash floods. My father and I laughed about it but we seriously thought about crossing those dry riverbeds. No floods, I saw one of the strangest cities of my ancestors. Incidentally filled with signs that warn about rattlesnake attacks. I roll dice too, it seems.
Those road signs were first put up 60 years ago. I remember them.
Back when I was a child, when we came to a dip in the road and there was a thunderstorm to the north (higher elevation) one of us kids would get out of the jeep and listen for the sound of rushing water in the distance.
This was to avoid being suddenly swept away when a front of water hit!
Amazing to watch this in action, have seen in many a time while running around the Southwest. Literally a wall of brown water and sounds like a coal burning freight train.
And when you camp out, never pitch your tent in the arroyo!
Main reason being, this is where rattlers like to slither due to it being cooler than the surrounding desert. And also desert mice go there for the moisture which collects at sunrise.