ASHEVILLE, North Carolina, Jan 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he would sign an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally overhauling or eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “FEMA has turned out to be a disaster … I think we recommend that FEMA go away,” he said during a tour of North Carolina to see damage done by Hurricane Helene last year.

  • ZeroCool@slrpnk.net
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    5 days ago

    “But my egg prices” - morons about to have a very bad 2025 Atlantic hurricane season.

    We all warned you this would happen. This move was plainly outlined in Project 2025. Nobody tricked you, you’re just fucking morons.

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    They say they have a plan to give money directly to the states instead. So far nobody has seen or heard this plan.

    Even if such a plan exists, that still sounds like they’re taking a stockpile of vehicles and personnel and getting rid of it all only to be unprepared for all future disasters.

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    I think if he denies a state assistance because they won’t play his games, other countries step in and send all the assistance that state could want. Imagine if China just threw billions of dollars at LA without conditions to make a point. I don’t expect Xi to be that smart, but it would be funny as hell watching Trump scramble.

    • Ziro427@lemmy.world
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      I remember a story about a remote town that needed a bridge replaced. And the federal government was dragging their feet about it until the town wrote to the Soviet Union about helping them build the bridge.

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      Xi and Trump seem to coordinate pretty closely. If Trump weakened US cohesiveness and Xi stepped in, Trump would thank him and kiss his ass.

  • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    How long until we start hearing about politicians having legitimate discussions about secession? The whole point of the Union is to help each other out.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.worldOP
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      Yeah, they’re not cutting subsidies to businesses, rolling back tax breaks, or anything that affects the deep pockets. Nope. They’re cutting stuff that helps people at home and abroad. Cut FEMA here, cut foreign aid. Eliminating housing and food help.

    • lemmus@lemmy.world
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      If you plan to drill baby, drill, natural disasters are only going to get worse, so they are mitigating against future emergency budgets they don’t want to pay by scrapping FEMA—leaving them free to destroy the environment and cut taxes with no future blowback, because states’ rights or some shit.

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      This is money that will just stay with the states. For the best for places like California and Washington. For the worst for places like Florida.

      Which is to say that this is terrible, but if states aren’t giving money to FEMA, the money will stay there.

      • n2burns@lemmy.ca
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        5 days ago

        Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t FEMA funded out of the Federal budget? Meaning if they cut FEMA, that money will just go elsewhere, not “just stay with the states”.

        EDIT added clarification.

        • adarza@lemmy.ca
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          ‘elsewhere’ as in tax breaks for the wealthy and funneled to lord diaper’s designated recipients.

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
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          Yes, but it’s blue states that contribute the most and red states that take the most. Without the federal government distributing these tax dollars, red states won’t be able to afford disaster recovery.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.worldOP
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    California apparently is in the news regarding secession again. But we have to also consider that it’s BS designed to create more divisiveness.

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      It’s established what happens should a state decide to secede. There was a war fought over it. It’s not worth speculating about unless it’s happening.

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    I’m willing to bet that the “problem” with FEMA is that, due to its vital role in dealing with emergencies, it has particularly stringent safeguards in place to prevent it becoming a partisan tool. And since Trump’s stated goal is to turn the entirety of the federal government into a partisan tool, it has to go.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.worldOP
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      Maybe there are some buddies of the trump crime family that would be happy to privatize aid to disaster victims for a nice fee, and trump would like to withhold or bestow aid on States and individual officials that kiss his ass. So you bet the Left Coast won’t be getting any, but Mar a Lago will get a new roof every year.

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        How hard can it be? They have to buy supplies and resources somewhere. And in an emergency no one is looking where you get stuff, from who, or how much. I’m surprised it isn’t ripe for abuse…

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          Ironically, the Republicans installed a lot of oversight against single source contracting. You can do it but it’s very obvious. So privatizing the entire thing makes it easier to grift.

    • treadful@lemmy.zip
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      I would bet it was as stupid as someone (or even naturally by group via social media) inventing a narrative during the Biden administration because everything he does is evil. Then the destruction of the agency being the natural conclusion of said narrative. It wins points for Trump since people living in that reality see this as a win over evil.

      Then later, when it all blows up, likely during the next hurricane, they can just figure someone else to blame. Everything is probably purely off the cuff.

      It’s what con men do. Just roll with everything and keep it up for as long as they can. It’s worked for Trump his entire life.

    • Desert Hermit@lemmy.world
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      This 1million%

      Also grew up being promised that any day now, 1) Bill Clinton will take all the guns, and 2) We’ll go to FEMA camps to get gassed. It was all part of the UN Agenda 21 thing that George HW Bush/Clintons/Soros/CNN/Bill Gates and the New World Order One-World-Government are bringing.

      Except none of that ever happened. Hm…were those guests on Art Bell in 1998 possibly…wrong?

      And yet, 30 years later, here we are.

  • Zier@fedia.io
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    Just like the covid crisis (it’s a hoax) where he said it would ‘disappear’, President Felon & his cult will leave us all to die without any help or caring from our government, that we fund !

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        It’s kind of funny when you put it that way because the FEMA claims and reimbursement process is so convoluted and labor intensive that those funds often only go to the wealthy.

        FEMA funds are often only for [the wealthy] and not for [the poor]. FEMA absolutely needs an overhaul, but probably not the one Trump has in mind.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          wtf, I got fema cash once. No paperwork. No convoluted process. I’m certainly not wealthy although I was surprised to qualify. Just money directly to fund repairs

        • orcrist@lemm.ee
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          Many of us have direct experience getting FEMA relief and cash. We disagree with your claim.

          • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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            +1. i got money from fema in 2017 and all i had to do was sign a webform saying i was impacted by the hurricane that just hit

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            Here is some research on the inequitable distribution of Stafford Act disbursements. They go to wealthy and white neighborhoods that have the resources to navigate the barriers to receiving funding. People in these neighborhoods have an easier time passing through the federal government’s fraud detection barriers, and are more likely to receive support from their (better-funded) local governments in filing for and receiving federal aid. FEMA payouts and insurance payouts are often intertwined, and this leads to further red tape, delays, and denials.

            That said, I’ll admit that I may be biased because my mental model on the topic almost entirely comes from a former boss who relied on talking up these inequities to secure investment funding for a tool we claimed we wanted to design (in our public messaging) to help people navigate these barriers, organize their claims paperwork, and receive funding.

            • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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              I would agree with the assessment that there can be a lack of fraud investigation, or even simply the inability to determine what areas need help vs. not, so they blanket approve some places. Whether or not that approval is driven by demographics I can’t say, only that in-laws who did not get much damage from one of the past storms had complete opportunity to claim some money for “whatever damage there was”, and didn’t because…that’s the wrong thing to do morally. How many people would do that, probably not 100%. But I don’t blame FEMA in concept, only in its funding and organization, and not being manned well enough to do its job well.

              Looks like Trump fixed that problem by just removing it altogether. Free market disaster response will be a fascinating thing to document. Not to live through.

  • Hegar@fedia.io
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    The amount of americans this will kill would demand retaliation if putin had used kinetic warfare instead.

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      I think you misunderstand his goal here. This won’t stop him from giving aid to the people/states who help him. This will only stop FEMA helping everyone unconditionally. He isn’t trying to stop aid. He’s trying to stop aid without strings attached. This is a power play.

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        Plus read about how he specifically didn’t want emergency response people ready to jump in and help, just money. Money to be allocated on personal choice, not need, to the governor. Money for the governor to allocate by personal choice, not need, to communities and companies. This is about buying favors all the way down.

      • olympicyes@lemmy.world
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        States would need to create an emergency bureaucracy redundant to each other state. California or Texas could do it but good luck South Dakota.