Gov. Abbott made a football speech about accountability being for losers. "Depraved indifference" has become their default setting. I can't imagine a parent of lost children hearing that.
Since so many government agencies are going the way of the dodo bird & refusing to help citizens anymore...shouldn't we be getting a big deduction of our federal taxes we pay each year? We're certainly not getting our money's worth anymore.
The phrase "Stupid is as Stupid does" comes to mind. They blame everyone but themselves. This will continue until everyone wakes up! Hopefully before its really too late!
Well said! I grew up in Alabama and the mind-set is exactly as you describe. To this day I don’t understand why southerners can’t understand the concept of ‘economy of scale’ or even ‘join the Co-Op’. The government can do things much cheaper on a per capita basis than people can do on their own. The purchasing power of the government is huge compared to a single person’s.
Another thing people in the south don’t get is that government absolutely should NOT be run like a for-profit business! It should be run like a Co-Op, providing the services that we want and utilising our tax dollars to pay for them. It shouldn’t make a profit, nor should it create a mountain of debt.
And one last thing about southerners wanting businessmen running the US - why would anyone ever think a 6-time bankrupt would be a good choice to run a country?! SMH
Thank you, Mr. Wilson, for a beautifully-worded, perfectly -stated essay. It’s one of the truest, best I’ve ever read in all my septuagenarian years on Earth.
Just wondering if all that razor wire the border ate into money that could have been used in hill country?!?? Cause it sure looks insane when it is more and more on top of even more!? Who’s family or in-laws are getting rich off if those kicks!?! #americawemustdobetter
Western North Carolina & having our area so severely impacted by Helene, I'm pretty unnerved with hurricane season here. As bad as it was, we did have warnings though even with it"catastrophic flooding" posted, I don't think anyone expected what happened, So… honest question-we were told over & over & over that Proi25 was not in the plan. Now we see it is, so really, no one voted for any of this. Pages 664, 674-675 call for dismantling NOAA- cutting weather, research etc. Is there any recourse ? Any possibility that any group could do a class action? It seems willful , negligent, potentially destructive
I am truly sorry for you and the devastation those in your state endured and I don't discount the suffering. But even though Project 2025 was disavowed, Trump was known to be a prolific liar of epic proportions. Why did people in your state believe him?
Thanks so much for your kind words & support. And thankfully, overall compared do some , we’re grateful to be ok. I hear what you’re saying, asking…I can’t speak for those who did believe him, but I did not. For those that did, I saw where others too, his VP, campaign mgrs etc. echoed “no Proj 25) So when they voted, it would seem they believed it. I’m hoping there may be a realization- we need accurate weather reports & to fund NoAA again . Thanks again.
PJ...Truthful...except for the line with the /s which denotes my sarcasm when it comes to those who do not believe in climate change. No slight to you whatsoever...I agree wit cha!
Have lived in DFW for 15 yrs - Actually it is the state of Texas and the maga-trumpies in the Austin state house that s/b held accountable - they could have easily allocated the moola to both install flood warning systems into what has historically been the area plagued by frequent, violent and unpredictable flash floods, as well as incentivized the mobile network platforms to improve their TX hill country coverage, but instead, they chose to play their hand of “less government is better”, and those in the Austin statehouse are indeed there b/c they were voted in by the Texas electorate… this is perhaps an uncomfortable fact for many to acknowledge, but there in the Texas legislature records, is the request to allocate funding to rectify this situation, but alas, it was declined whilst in committee…
(1) The public incentivizing of the cellular mobile platform owners, to expand adequate coverage across the low-local population/high vacationing population hill country locations, is actually a good public service policy decision - this is regularly done, for example, to ensure that an otherwise non-serviced region has access to airline services, etc.
(2) The public/regional government portion of the adequate warning system solution is the funding, building, monitoring and management of the public alert warning system’s tower-based horns and the issuance of the mass e-warning message alerts across the region.
(3) The final piece of the warning system puzzle is the need for individuals to have said alerts activated for their devices…
(4) nations all over the world and so many of our states (yes, even in the Dallas-Ft Worth area where I reside) have such a robust and resilient infrastructure in place, but alas, not in Texas hill country… just sayin
Of course that's all good public policy and it's supported and works well in conurbations like DFW and requires government input, which doesn't fly in the Taliban areas of red states (different headgear, different almighty, one likes to wave around AK-47s and the other AR-15s but otherwise disturbingly similar).
But even in the quote-unquote civilized portions of TX, your high tension power transmission system is in private hands, incentivized to do as little maintenance as possible. So you get a piddling little snowstorm and freeze that Philly or NYC wouldn't blink an eye at and your whole electrical grid goes down and Ted Cruz scurries off to Cancun, while Texans blame it on a few frozen wind turbines, LOL
I grew up in CNY snowbelt region, aka historical high snow accumulations of up to 200”/ winter season, and lived in MSP, so yeah, I know winter better than most… the point is that this region has historically had major unexpected flash floods that have killed multiple 100’s and yet the Texas state government and their “low govt oversight policies” saw fit to not intervene w/ basic modern disaster notification systems…
“Jesus will fix it.” ~Republicans
Gov. Abbott made a football speech about accountability being for losers. "Depraved indifference" has become their default setting. I can't imagine a parent of lost children hearing that.
Since so many government agencies are going the way of the dodo bird & refusing to help citizens anymore...shouldn't we be getting a big deduction of our federal taxes we pay each year? We're certainly not getting our money's worth anymore.
The phrase "Stupid is as Stupid does" comes to mind. They blame everyone but themselves. This will continue until everyone wakes up! Hopefully before its really too late!
Stephen, more than anything, I was appreciating Rick's phrasing here.
You nailed it - again. Your descriptions are, well, so damn descriptive! Such brilliant writing.
Thank you 🙏🏼❣️😎
Well said! I grew up in Alabama and the mind-set is exactly as you describe. To this day I don’t understand why southerners can’t understand the concept of ‘economy of scale’ or even ‘join the Co-Op’. The government can do things much cheaper on a per capita basis than people can do on their own. The purchasing power of the government is huge compared to a single person’s.
Another thing people in the south don’t get is that government absolutely should NOT be run like a for-profit business! It should be run like a Co-Op, providing the services that we want and utilising our tax dollars to pay for them. It shouldn’t make a profit, nor should it create a mountain of debt.
And one last thing about southerners wanting businessmen running the US - why would anyone ever think a 6-time bankrupt would be a good choice to run a country?! SMH
Exactly. It's why I have a credit union and don't use a bank.
Tell him the real estate there lost value. And won't recover.Insurance rates will rise. Money is what they understand
Thank you, Mr. Wilson, for a beautifully-worded, perfectly -stated essay. It’s one of the truest, best I’ve ever read in all my septuagenarian years on Earth.
Just wondering if all that razor wire the border ate into money that could have been used in hill country?!?? Cause it sure looks insane when it is more and more on top of even more!? Who’s family or in-laws are getting rich off if those kicks!?! #americawemustdobetter
Gutting NOAA seems insane.. living in
Western North Carolina & having our area so severely impacted by Helene, I'm pretty unnerved with hurricane season here. As bad as it was, we did have warnings though even with it"catastrophic flooding" posted, I don't think anyone expected what happened, So… honest question-we were told over & over & over that Proi25 was not in the plan. Now we see it is, so really, no one voted for any of this. Pages 664, 674-675 call for dismantling NOAA- cutting weather, research etc. Is there any recourse ? Any possibility that any group could do a class action? It seems willful , negligent, potentially destructive
I am truly sorry for you and the devastation those in your state endured and I don't discount the suffering. But even though Project 2025 was disavowed, Trump was known to be a prolific liar of epic proportions. Why did people in your state believe him?
Thanks so much for your kind words & support. And thankfully, overall compared do some , we’re grateful to be ok. I hear what you’re saying, asking…I can’t speak for those who did believe him, but I did not. For those that did, I saw where others too, his VP, campaign mgrs etc. echoed “no Proj 25) So when they voted, it would seem they believed it. I’m hoping there may be a realization- we need accurate weather reports & to fund NoAA again . Thanks again.
Very moving. Brilliant.
PJ...Truthful...except for the line with the /s which denotes my sarcasm when it comes to those who do not believe in climate change. No slight to you whatsoever...I agree wit cha!
Very well written.
Beautifully written, as usual.
Have lived in DFW for 15 yrs - Actually it is the state of Texas and the maga-trumpies in the Austin state house that s/b held accountable - they could have easily allocated the moola to both install flood warning systems into what has historically been the area plagued by frequent, violent and unpredictable flash floods, as well as incentivized the mobile network platforms to improve their TX hill country coverage, but instead, they chose to play their hand of “less government is better”, and those in the Austin statehouse are indeed there b/c they were voted in by the Texas electorate… this is perhaps an uncomfortable fact for many to acknowledge, but there in the Texas legislature records, is the request to allocate funding to rectify this situation, but alas, it was declined whilst in committee…
Just like a privatized electrical grid. What could go wrong? ;)
(1) The public incentivizing of the cellular mobile platform owners, to expand adequate coverage across the low-local population/high vacationing population hill country locations, is actually a good public service policy decision - this is regularly done, for example, to ensure that an otherwise non-serviced region has access to airline services, etc.
(2) The public/regional government portion of the adequate warning system solution is the funding, building, monitoring and management of the public alert warning system’s tower-based horns and the issuance of the mass e-warning message alerts across the region.
(3) The final piece of the warning system puzzle is the need for individuals to have said alerts activated for their devices…
(4) nations all over the world and so many of our states (yes, even in the Dallas-Ft Worth area where I reside) have such a robust and resilient infrastructure in place, but alas, not in Texas hill country… just sayin
Of course that's all good public policy and it's supported and works well in conurbations like DFW and requires government input, which doesn't fly in the Taliban areas of red states (different headgear, different almighty, one likes to wave around AK-47s and the other AR-15s but otherwise disturbingly similar).
But even in the quote-unquote civilized portions of TX, your high tension power transmission system is in private hands, incentivized to do as little maintenance as possible. So you get a piddling little snowstorm and freeze that Philly or NYC wouldn't blink an eye at and your whole electrical grid goes down and Ted Cruz scurries off to Cancun, while Texans blame it on a few frozen wind turbines, LOL
I grew up in CNY snowbelt region, aka historical high snow accumulations of up to 200”/ winter season, and lived in MSP, so yeah, I know winter better than most… the point is that this region has historically had major unexpected flash floods that have killed multiple 100’s and yet the Texas state government and their “low govt oversight policies” saw fit to not intervene w/ basic modern disaster notification systems…