If Only It Were a Joke

 

What You Get For A Quarter of a Billion Dollars

 From the New York Times:

Dismantling FEMA?

 So, now there's talk of dismantling FEMA and letting states deal with their own natural disaster relief. In the usual "Ready, Fire, Aim" process, there are no details yet as to how that might be handled.

Let's assume that this would incur giving money to the states to budget on their own, much like the partially envisioned demise of the Department of Education. I realize this is a huge assumption, since no such plan has been actually fleshed out, and it could be just as likely that states will be left to sort it out on their own. But if funds were to be given to the 50 states, how would that be decided? Would it be California, who has the most federally declared disasters (284) since 1953, get the most funds? Would it be Alaska, who has the highest disaster rate per million citizens (74.98)? Would they go by population? That way, New York would get as much money as Florida because they have very similar populations, even though New York has far fewer natural disasters?

There are two main reasons for FEMA to be federally situated. The first is that resources can be allocated from a wide variety of places to best suit the needs of a specific situation, The second is because each disaster can be dealt with financially based upon The particulars of the disaster itself. Dismantling FEMA is not something that immediately lends itself to efficiency, readiness or fairness, begging the question of why then it is being tackled in the first month of the new administration.

Red Herring Siting

For those of you adversely affected by paper straws, congratulations!

For the rest of us, another Red Herring.

 

 

A Question About Spending Cuts

 

 

Who's In Whose Restroom?

 

 

Gulf of America Day

In honor of Gulf of America Day 

 

Best and Brightest

This is 25-year-old Marko Elez. Marko is one of the young men who has been granted access to all the federal government’s financial data as part of Musk’s DOGE. Marko was actually rehired today. See, he’d resigned because it was brought to light that Marko has some rather unsavory views. Among them…

“I just want a eugenic immigration policy, is that too much to ask?”

“Normalise [sic] Indian hate.”

“I was a racist before it was cool.”

These we all posts of his on X (formerly Twitter.)

Why was he rehired? Because the Vice President requested that he be brought back. Just a reminder: J.D Vance’s wife is Indian.

Look it up if you doubt the story.
While you’re at it, look up “eugenics,” too.

Priorities