In defiance of Donald Trump FEMA spokesperson says that they are not abandoning Puerto Rico.

.@FEMA will be w/Puerto Rico, USVI, every state, territory impacted by a disaster every day, supporting throughout their response & recovery

— Eileen Lainez (@FEMAspox) October 12, 2017

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

In a tweet Thursday afternoon, FEMA spokeswoman Eileen Lainez wrote that the agency “will be w/Puerto Rico, USVI, every state, territory impacted by a disaster every day, supporting throughout their response & recovery.”

Her tweet came five hours after Trump took to Twitter to say the island’s financial crisis “looms largely of their own making” and is due to the poor state of its infrastructure and electrical system and its governor’s “total lack of … accountability.”

Shortly after her initial tweet, Lainez sent FEMA’s latest update on support to Puerto Rico through the social media platform, a reminder that it will take time for the U.S. territory of 3.4 million people to recover, but that residents are seeing some services being restored. 

“FEMA, in coordination and partnership with 36 federal departments and agencies, remains focused on helping the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico with life-sustaining commodities and other essential services,” the agency stated in its press release from Wednesday. “As more businesses open and public services are restored, quality of life will continue to improve for many residents.”

Well it's good that some people still understand the responsibility of government.

It's like everybody's job these days is explaining what the president meant, or telling people to ignore him altogether.

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey Donald Trump once gain visits Texas. Because apparently they have not suffered enough.

Trump says victims of Harvey are "really happy" & calls the storm "a wonderful thing for even the country to watch" pic.twitter.com/mG6Hs3hhF5

— HawaiiDelilah (@HawaiiDelilah) September 2, 2017

Courtesy of WaPo:  

President Trump swooped into this flood-ravaged city Saturday to meet with survivors of Hurricane Harvey in his second visit to Southeast Texas since the storm came ashore eight days ago. 

After focusing exclusively on the government response to Harvey and staying out of the disaster zone during his first trip to the region Tuesday, Trump planned to highlight storm victims and shine the presidential spotlight on communities dramatically altered by Harvey’s enduring floodwaters. 

Trump, who traveled here with first lady Melania Trump, met with residents affected by the storm at the NRG Center in Houston, stopping by a lunch line where volunteers were distributing hot dogs, chips and apple sauce. 

The Trumps, escorted by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), stopped for hugs and posed for photos with storm survivors. In the children’s area of the center, the president got into a scrum with three boys, one with a fake sword, while the first lady sat on the floor with children and books. 

“The message is that things are working out well. Really, I think people appreciate what’s been done. It’s been done very efficiently, very well, and that’s what we want,” the president said. “We’re very happy with the way everything is going. A lot of love. There’s a lot of love.”

Happy with the way everything is going?

He does realize that there is billions of dollars of damage to the state and people still trapped in their homes right?

Not to mention this.

BREAKING: AP Exclusive: Many Houston ultra-polluted Superfund sites are flooded, concerns about toxins spreading; EPA not on scene.

— The Associated Press (@AP) September 2, 2017

Trump also participated in a number of photo ops where he pretended to load supplies onto a truck, and to do something helpful.

Trump did a number of odd things during his visit, such as autographing a wall.

Trump signed his signature directly on the bare wall at the NRG center after meeting with storm victims (next to a "We Love Houston" poster) pic.twitter.com/KjdLw4U951

— Toluse Olorunnipa (@ToluseO) September 2, 2017

And bragging about the size of his hands.

As he puts on plastic gloves to serve food at NRG Stadium...President Trump turns to press and says: "My hands are too big!" pic.twitter.com/WIUTLOS4XD

— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) September 2, 2017

You thought I made that last one up didn't you?

President Obama arrives in Louisiana now that his visit is less likely to interrupt the delivery of services to those who are suffering due to the flooding.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

President Obama met with survivors in flooded Louisiana Tuesday, touring a hard-hit Baton Rouge suburb strewn with debris and rubble. "Sometimes when these kinds of things happen, it can seem like too much to bear. But what I want the people of Louisiana to know is you're not alone, even after the TV cameras leave," Obama said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon after walking through destroyed homes and shaking hands with residents.

Obama said Americans are "heartbroken by the loss of life" and said the floods have cost survivors more than property.

Obama signed a federal disaster declaration over a week ago, freeing up $120 million in aid.

The article is filled with criticisms concerning how long it took the President to arrive in Louisiana  but I ignored them because we know that the Governor asked the President to stay away and that Obama signed that federal disaster declaration immediately which is really the most important thing he could do in response.

This press conference only has value in bringing attention to the crisis, which everybody is already paying attention to already, and quieting those on the Right who attack the President at every opportunity.

Our President is much more concerned with helping these people get the services and help they need rather than to use their suffering as a backdrop for political purposes.

By the way Hillary is also not planning to visit the area until she knows that her appearance will not disrupt the response to the crisis.

P.S. It appears that Donald Trump's $100,000 donation (If he actually donated it.)  may have gone to Tony Perkins and his anti-LGBT ministry.

Trump donated $100k to a La. church helping w/ flood relief effort, along w/ truck of supplies he helped unload Friday, per his spokeswoman

— Ashley Killough (@KilloughCNN) August 21, 2016

The church is Greenwell Springs Baptist Church, which Trump visited Friday and where Tony Perkins is interim pastor https://t.co/iw9dbipEdF

— Ashley Killough (@KilloughCNN) August 21, 2016

Gee, that's really helpful.

Louisiana resident working to help flood victims has a question for Donald Trump: "Where is the f**king check?"

According to Raw Story this was written by Louisiana resident Neva Butkus, and she was clearly fed up with the attacks on President Obama and Trump's bullshit photo-op.

To be honest I was not going to talk about Trump's visit to Louisiana again since I posted something about it on Friday.

But that is until this showed up on one of the morning comment threads:

Donald Trump visited Louisiana today. He brought with him a truck loaded with food, supplies, and toys that he personally passed out. He also donated money to a flood relief charity. He went and walked flooded houses in a community. He didn't ask for state police or military security, I I imagine he may have had his personal security with him but hey he pays them so not my business. He didn't ask for any road to be closed to bring him in or an escort to his destination, matter of fact he didn't inform the government of his visit at all. He didn't care if the government knew he was coming, he just came and brought needing people needed supplies. And the news covered it about 15 seconds and then used it as a hit piece to plug Obama's visit that will happen. It was just wrong on many levels. No matter of you agree with Trump political are not what he done today was honorable and good, and he did it without making a big deal of himself. I hope more people of his statue will do the same in the same way, without all the hype of announcing their visit with intent of a public photo op.

This person spent some time writing this so they clearly wanted us to believe that it was a factual account, despite all of he evidence which disputes that.

And since I have a very hard time believing that ANYBODY on their own would bother to write something like this, and post it on a blog located all way up here in Alaska, I think it indicates that there are now Trump brand paid trolls surfing the internet and attempting to change the narrative on his campaign.

THAT is the kind of thing for which his new campaign chief Stephen Bannon is well known.

In other words Trump has no intention of changing anything about who is he or what he plans to do as President, but he is going to change the amount of bullshit pumped in our direction to alter our perception of who he is and what he plans to do as President.

You know I don't usually believe in Karma, but.....

The locals are saying that they have never seen anything like this in South Carolina, and many of the residents do not have flood insurance.

Which means they are going to rely almost exclusively on Federal funds to help them recover.

You know, the same Federal funds that their own lawmakers voted against giving to those hit by Hurricane Sandy.

Death toll in Nepal rises to almost 2,000.

Courtesy of The Guardian:  

The death toll from the devastating earthquake in Nepal climbed above 1,900 on Sunday and was continuing to rise as officials struggled to gauge the full scale of the disaster and the world rushed to provide desperately needed aid. 

Dozens of aftershocks jolted Nepal on Saturday and Sunday as people sheltered where they could. Nepalese authorities continually revised the number of dead upwards a day after the Himalayan country was shaken by a magnitude 7.8 quake that wrecked houses, flattened centuries-old temples and triggered avalanches on Mount Everest. 

More than 5,000 people had been injured, with the number of dead and injured expected to rise in the coming days. Nepalese police officials said more than 700 people died in Kathmandu alone. 

An avalanche triggered by the quake struck a section of Everest’s base camp, killing at least 17 people and injuring 61 others, local reports said. Further up the mountain, about 100 climbers were safe but facing difficulty getting down as the route back to safety was damaged, with the situation of more people on other other routes on the mountain still unknown and rescue efforts under way.

So much devastation!

My daughter arrived back home last night after being on the road with a traveling stage show for almost a month, and she sort of shamed me by asking how I could be so focused on the President's WHCD speech and not this tragedy.

She had a point.

I guess part of the reason I had not written about it is that I found it a little overwhelming and didn't know what I could do to help here on this blog.

The US is responding by sending a disaster response team and a million dollars in aid, but I imagine that amount will go up as we learn more about the devastation and loss of life.

I would suggest to those that want to help that they could start by making a donation to the Red Cross, because you know they will be in the thick of things.

If any of you have more information, or more legitimate places to donate, please let us know.

After all we are really one community sharing this planet, and what hurts one of us, hurts all of us.

President Obama and Governor Chris Christie back together again.

Oh look Christie even dressed up like the President. How cute.

Courtesy of New Jersey.com:  

President Barack Obama has returned to the Jersey Shore. More than six months after touring the area with Gov. Chris Christie in the wake of Hurricane Sandy's destruction, Obama and Christie are surveying the Shore's recovery. 

The president landed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst at 11:08 a.m. 

After a few hours with the governor, Obama began speaking at Convention Hall in Asbury Park around 1:25 p.m.

You know I'm not really a big fan of Christie's, and I hope that if he decided to run in 2016 that Hillary crushes him like a bug, but still it is nice to see at least ONE Republican who likes to be photographed with the President.

Besides I KNOW that it drives the Right Wing crazy, and that Wallas puts a smile on my face.

(H/T to the Obama Diary for the video.)

Update: It looks like New Jersey had Obama fever today.

Yeah NO wonder Christie stayed close to him all day long!

Rachel Maddow's report on the stranded oil rig in Alaska.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Damn she always does SUCH a good job!

By the way apparently the weather has cleared today and a salvage team was able to board her and do an assessment.  So far they have been tight lipped as to what they found.

That does not seem like a good sign.

Trying to turn a natural disaster to political advantage, the naked opportunism of the Romney/Ryan campaign.

I am beyond certain that the Romney/Ryan campaign is completely panic stricken by the fact that hurricane Sandy has, unfortunately for many, provided the necessity for the President to do his job, under the watchful gaze of the American voters. So while the President is proving to the voters why he IS the man they want in catastrophic times, Romney is left to jump up and down in the hopes of catching a reporter's attention.

I guess in the face of such a situation it can be expected that the campaign might become somewhat desperate, but seriously, this is just fucking pathetic!

Take Romney's campaign stop Storm Relief Event in Ohio yesterday:  

But even as Romney, clad in blue jeans and rolled-up sleeves, hustled around his area of the gym, shaking hands, thanking supporters, and stacking cases of bottled water on top of each other, signs of stagecraft remained. 

As supporters lined up to greet the candidate, a young volunteer in a Romney/Ryan T-shirt stood near the tables, his hands cupped around his mouth, shouting, "You need a donation to get in line!" 

Empty-handed supporters pled for entrance, with one woman asking, "What if we dropped off our donations up front?" 

The volunteer gestured toward a pile of groceries conveniently stacked near the candidate. "Just grab something," he said. 

Two teenage boys retrieved a jar of peanut butter each, and got in line. When it was their turn, they handed their "donations" to Romney. He took them, smiled, and offered an earnest "Thank you."

Not only THAT but many of the donations the supporters seemingly provided were not even something that that they themselves brought. This from the Atlantic Wire:

Mitt Romney was really concerned that his "Storm Relief Event" in Kettering, Ohio yesterday would look like a dud, so he and his team stocked their donation tables with $5,000 worth of supplies at Walmart. 

And as completely fake as THAT event was his running mate's event in Wisconsin was no less phony.

It was the second of Paul Ryan's photo ops in his home state today where the campaign made a show of helping storm victims however they could. At the first stop in La Crosse, the vice presidential nominee thanked supporters for coming, shaking hands with some standing in front of an American flag, where minutes before, aides arranged boxes of Cheerios and cans of corn in perfect order. 

In Hudson, the packing was proceeding too quickly, and the supporters wearing red "Team Wisconsin" t-shirts were given the order to slow down and then to stop to be sure there were still goods to be packed when Ryan entered. 

One by one the boxes were filled and loaded into a waiting U-Haul, and then they stopped to wait for the candidate. 

"Thanks a lot, thanks for doing all this," Ryan said to the supporters when he arrived. 

As Ryan walked back through the office to the motorcade volunteers finished packing the supplies, which are being driven to a Red Cross facility in New Jersey. 

As supporters walked out the door they were handed a flier about the GOP's election night party.

This of course should come as no surprise to many of us as Paul Ryan has a history of staging phony, self serving, and completely unhelpful photo ops.

Seriously this just makes me sick to my stomach. Especially since this the campaign of a man who calls federal spending on disaster relief "immoral,"

My personal opinion is that these sad attempts to appear presidential will not fool the majority of the voters, who are probably right now just waiting for their opportunity to vote THIS man back into office.

H/T to Democratic Underground

You know, the guy who trudges through sheets of pouring rain to return to his job of helping the American people, instead of staging a photo op PRETENDING to help the American people.

In fact the President is doing such an impressive job of attacking this terrible situation, and keeping politics out of it, that he even made a believer out of this guy.

Courtesy of the New York Times

 Let's see the Romney/Ryan campaign compete with that!

Update: Here is another picture of our President giving to those who are hurting in ways that others simply cannot do.

Photo courtesy of the Obama Diary

Some people had to work this Labor Day weekend. Very important work.

The President visited New Jersey today, and spent time with Governor Christie surveying the damage wrought by Irene.

Courtesy of The Obama Diary:

“I know that there’s been some talk about whether there’s going to be a slowdown in getting funding out here, emergency relief. As President of the United States, I want to make it very clear that we are going to meet our federal obligations – because we’re one country, and when one part of the country gets affected, whether it’s a tornado in Joplin, Missouri, or a hurricane that affects the Eastern Seaboard, then we come together as one country and we make sure that everybody gets the help that they need. And the last thing that the residents here of Paterson or the residents of Vermont or the residents of upstate New York need is Washington politics getting in the way of us making sure that we are doing what we can to help communities that have been badly affected.”



This is what a President, a good President, does.

He goes to where people are hurting and comforts them, promises to help them, and then he does exactly that.

Could ANYBODY imagine this man worrying about what is said about him on a blog?

There are just too many more important things for him to do.

If I lived in Washington DC this is EXACTLY what I would be expecting next.

But hey you know what? I bet President Obama has a plan to deal with this too.

I'm just saying.

(More comics can be found over a Cagle.com.)

This is how a leader handles a disaster and puts the minds of Americans at ease.

I swear it feels like President Obama is always prepared for just about ANYTHING that might come our way.

Of course there are some who are criticizing the response to this storm as "overkill."

But as we all know if the President had not been so completely on the ball he would have been slammed for leaving the country unprepared for the damage left in its wake.

Hell they are already giving him shit for not ending his vacation earlier, even though it is clear he was able to handle both it and spend time with his family at the same time without a hitch.

Eric Cantor will withhold federal disaster funding to states impacted by Hurricane Irene unless Democrats agree to spending cuts.

From Business Insider:

A spokesperson for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said that if there is any damage caused by Hurricane Irene requiring federal disaster funding, the money would have to be balanced out by spending cuts elsewhere in government. 

"We aren't going to speculate on damage before it happens, period," his spokesperson Laena Fallon told TalkingPointsMemo. "But, as you know, Eric has consistently said that additional funds for federal disaster relief ought to be offset with spending cuts." 

Already states from North Carolina to New York have declared states of emergency in preparation for the storm.

You know I wish Eric Cantor were MY Congressman.  So I could punch him right in the ball sack!

What kind of cowardly piece of bull feces holds victims of a disaster hostage so that he can earn a couple of political points with the tiny minority of Teabaggers currently holding the GOP hostage?

Oh yeah, THIS cowardly piece of bull feces.

I certainly hope the people of Virginia keep this incident in mind the next time Snidely Whiplash here is up for reelection.

By the way if you are from Virginia, forget about punching Cantor in the scrotum. He would have to actually have balls for you to punch him IN them.

When it comes to overcoming the odds and letting nothing stand in our way, this little dog could teach ALL of us a lesson.

Courtesy of Time Magazine:

Three weeks after a series of tornadoes blew through Alabama, leveling everything in their path, a family in North Smithfield returned to their damaged home to sift through debris. Miraculously, they found their missing dog Mason waiting for them on the porch.

With both of his front legs broken and his fur matted and dirty, Mason had obviously been through a terrible ordeal. According to MyFox Alabama, the terrier mix was hiding in his garage when the storm picked him up and blew him away. For weeks, his family searched but found no sign of their scrappy pup.

"This is probably the most dramatic we've seen as far as an injury in an animal that's survived this long," Phil Doster of the Birmingham-Jefferson County Animal Control Shelter told MyFox Alabama. "For an animal just to show up on someone's porch after this time was pretty remarkable, especially with the condition he's in."

We have seen a lot of amazing stories emerge after these devastating tornadoes, but for some reason I simply could NOT stop thinking about this one.

I don't have anything terribly witty or enlightening to add to this story, in fact I choke up so bad when I read it that I can barely type.

But I just thought it was a story worth sharing.  Hopefully you agree.

While others made fools of themselves this Memorial Day weekend, our President was quietly comforting those in despair.

Courtesy of Obama Diary

:

Will the recent tornadoes damage the GOP's anti-government argument?

From the Kansas City Star:

A pernicious story line, recited on talk radio, in state legislatures and in some quarters of Washington, says that government can’t do anything right. Government is the problem, Ronald Reagan famously said. And a vast political and business alliance works furiously to make his declaration a self-fulfilling prophecy by underfunding vital programs and disparaging public employees.

But when disaster strikes, we expect government to work. We need it to work. Last week, it did.
Police, firefighters and medics made their way through the dark and the rain Sunday night to rescue the trapped and aid the wounded. Kansas City had 50 firefighters en route within hours. Its police department sent communications specialists, tactical teams, a search-and-rescue dog and a traffic enforcement squad.

Other cities sent first-responder teams. They worked in the rain that first day, searching the rubble for survivors and for bodies. In a cruel sign that nature hadn’t quite finished its mayhem, two police officers from Riverside were felled by a lightning strike. Officer Jeff Taylor was gravely injured.
Like the city he was helping, he will have a long road to recovery.

Throughout the week, personnel from the state of Missouri poured into Joplin. The National Guard and the Highway Patrol got there quickly. Officials with expertise in emergency management, insurance, mental health, care of senior citizens, land use and power grids followed.

The often-maligned Federal Emergency Management Agency got a team to Joplin within hours of the tornado to set up telecommunications and help with logistics and support.

This in no way diminishes the vital role of the Red Cross and other nonprofit agencies, and of businesses, in responding to the disaster. But public employees and government agencies make up the underpinning of the recovery effort.

The need for government help in Joplin will continue for years. Streets must be replaced. Schools and a hospital must be rebuilt. Families will need temporary housing.

It is easy to wax poetic about trimming government spending, and cutting costs to taxpayers, but when disaster strikes, or our elderly loved ones suffer a health crisis, aren't we ALL suddenly fans of government programs like FEMA, Medicare, and even the National Guard?

That is why the Republican rhetoric is simply blown away in the wind when  you look out the window and see this bearing down on you.



I don't know about the rest of you, but after seeing the images of the devastation left in the wake of these massive tornadoes, I am one hundred percent on support of having my taxes raised to pay for the programs that help my fellow Americans.

But hey if we are going to get serious about cutting government costs, I know a couple of wars I would gladly see come to an end.  Just a thought.

Sarah Palin goes to Alabama. I think she was embarrassed that she was not the FIRST natural disaster to arrive there.

Is she clearing brush?

I thought she wanted to be Ronald Reagan, not George Bush.

If you want to help the people of Alabama, make damn sure to send your money to the Red Cross, or look for a suitable charity on this Facebook page, but do NOT give your money to Samaritan's Purse!

Even if knowing that Grandma Grifiter was involved with this agency were not enough to alert you to the likelihood that they are not reputable, then perhaps knowing that they have been investigated for using natural disasters as an excuse to proselytize and accused of attempting to convert desperate people at the very lowest point in their life to their fundamentalist brand of Christianity, might give you a hint as to their real agenda.

And if you DON'T think that Sarah Palin gets a little piece of the action, or some other compensation, for putting on her work gloves and running the risk of smudging her makeup, then you simply not know this greedy, self promoting hypocrite nearly as well as you think you do.

Amazing footage taken by Japanese film crew just as the tsunami hit.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So gay marriage finally comes to America. How bad can it be?

From SF Gate:

In fact, it would appear that millions of people across a surprisingly large number of dashing, industrious countries all over the world -- including Belgium, Spain, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal and even adorable little Iceland -- are still not yet imploding, not yet suffering the furious wrath of God, not yet dying in unchecked anguish before our very eyes.

What to make of it? After all, in each and every one of these sinful nations, gay people have been happily and legally getting married (and, presumably, divorced, remarried and tossed about on the same socio-emotional rollercoaster as their straight brethren) every single day, for months and years and -- in the case of the Netherlands -- nearly a decade now.

What the hell is wrong with them? Didn't they get the newsletter? Don't they know how very wrong, sinful, sick and perverted they all so obviously are? Haven't they heard the hoarse wails of the terrified Mormon elders, the raspy screams of the obsolete Vatican, the tightened bowels of confused fundamentalists of nearly every major religion worldwide, all of them absolutely positive that allowing certain kinds of consenting adults who love each other to get married will spell the end of civilization, families, innocence, the military, God's bitter and judgmental love as we know it? Someone should send them a pamphlet.

The point made by columnist Mark Morford is the obvious one. If allowing same sex couples to marry is such an earth shattering event, and numerous other countries have been allowing it for quite some time, then how come the earth remains unshattered?

Now in the interest of full disclosure I should reveal that I personally am against gay marriage. I just think it is wrong.

Of course I am also against ALL other kinds of marriage. 

I see marriage as a soul crushing primitive tradition designed to strip romance and passion from a relationship and leave the two participants yearning for the sweet release of death.

But hey, that's just me.

So congratulations gay people!  You can now participate in the same venerated tradition that inspired such reality programs as "Trading Spouses", "Bridezilla", "The Real Housewives of Orange County", "Jon and Kate plus 8", and the recent Bristol and Levi engagement debacle.

Well one thing is for sure, the gays certainly cannot screw up the idea of marriage in this country anymore than straight couples have already screwed it up over the last 233 years. THAT is for damn sure!

Fascinating post on Daily Kos about BP oil spill. You all need to read this.

From the Daily Kos:

I would argue that at this point in the disaster the die is cast, and it makes little if no difference to BP's ability to operate as a going concern whether the gushing volcano is stopped now or months from now. The sheer magnitude of the lawsuits is going to be staggering--think of the hundreds of billions of dollars in permanently despoiled property alone. All of these claims will ultimately find their way to BP's door, or the door of their excess insurance carriers.

Which is why it makes sense, from the standpoint of defending itself, for BP not to stop the gushing, and in fact to take half-measures which by their very nature will not succeed, yet prolong the appearance of BP "making an effort." The nature of this type of liability litigation practically demands that BP do this to survive.

If BP were able to stop the flow of oil through either its "top hat," "junk shot," or any of the other creative methods being bandied about, the line of attack at trial would be "Why weren't you able to do this sooner?" That's an argument that BP, with all of its hired experts, can never win. The sole question the plaintiff's lawyers will rely on (in addition to their case on causation of the explosion itself) will be "Was the technology available to stop this a month earlier?" The answer is obvious--yes, it was. Of course it was.

"Then, BP, why didn't you employ that method sooner?"