Donald Trump, the president who set new benchmarks for false and misleading claims - more than 30,000 of them during his term, in fact - leads a MAGA movement that increasingly shamelessly treats misinformation as a political strategy. Well, we'll walk through a 24-hour period of MAGA misinformation on Monday. read more
In a less than two-week span the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, charged rapper and entertainment mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs with a racketeering conspiracy centered on his alleged sexual abuse and trafficking of multiple victims over nearly 15 years, and then, just days later, he indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams, accusing him of an almost decade-long conspiracy centered on his alleged solicitation and acceptance of illegal campaign contributions and bribes in the form of free or heavily discounted luxury trips abroad, all in exchange for favors for the Turkish government. read more
Robin Inboden: I live in Springfield, Ohio. Because Donald Trump and JD Vance have appropriated the town as a set for their racist falsehoods, Springfield lives under a pall of fear. A friend opted out of our regular game night because she does not want to be out after dark. Children fear attending school because of bomb threats. And, of course, many of our Haitian neighbors are terrified to leave their homes. read more
New York Times Editorial Board: It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump. He has proved himself morally unfit for an office that asks its occupant to put the good of the nation above self-interest. For this reason, regardless of any political disagreements voters might have with her, Kamala Harris is the only patriotic choice for president. read more
Donald Trump boasted to a rally crowd in Pennsylvania that he hated to pay overtime and wouldn't pay it to his employees who were entitled to receive it. "I know a lot about overtime," he said. "I hated to give overtime. I hated it. I'd get other people, I shouldn't say this, but I'd get other people in. I wouldn't pay." Trump has been touting a plan to end taxes on overtime pay without also saying he plans to limit worker access to overtime. read more
Sometimes I really despise the anti-America cheerleading that Strawlighter does on a daily basis.
This is one of those times.
The wholesale destruction here, where according to the National Weather Service rain exceeded a foot in parts of the area, is heart-wrenching and vast. And yet, only one of multiple spots in western North Carolina pulverized and paralyzed by Helene and its aftermath. It is also an example of all that remains unknown throughout these mountains and of all the people that even now remain isolated and cut off from most communication.So civilization has been completely destroyed in places in North Carolina - roads, infrastructure gone - and the fact FEMA agents and supplies are struggling to reach these people is somehow an indictment of Biden's concern for these American citizens?
Rescue crews have made it here, going door to door where they could and plucking trapped residents by helicopter where vehicles still cannot go, town officials said. One search team even described abandoning its boat and swimming across the river over the weekend to reach people stranded in Chimney Rock. "The damage is unimaginable," wrote Pamlico County emergency responders.
In part, that is because even now, getting to many small hamlets that dot these mountains can be incredibly difficult, if not impossible.
On Monday, the routes into Lake Lure and Chimney Rock remained blocked from almost every direction. Bridges had washed out to the north and south. To the west, the river had swallowed parts of the road. The one way in from the east was dotted with detours and downed trees, snapped power poles and low-hanging electric lines and the remnants of small mudslides, along with multiple police check points.
"This is an ongoing rescue situation and the roads are not safe," town officials wrote on Facebook, urging people to stay away for now.
www.washingtonpost.com
What a heartless POS you are, cretin. You and Trump deserve each other. You're both self-centered cold-hearted bastards.
Republicans call Harris a failed border czar. The facts tell a different story.
Vice President Kamala Harris, tasked to deal with the root causes of migration from Central America as illegal border crossings were rising in 2021, immediately ran into the enormity of the mission.
The region is riddled with corrupt government officials, the drivers of migration are deeply rooted in economic inequality and social factors - and she didn't control the border.
"She was given a very hard, difficult, convoluted portfolio," said U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee and an architect of a bipartisan border security bill introduced earlier this year.
The White House said in March that Harris helped engineer $4 billion in government aid and commitments of $5.2 billion in private investment to create or support an estimated 250,000 jobs in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Nespresso started sourcing coffee from El Salvador and Honduras in 2021. Gap Inc said it is on pace to meet a pledge to invest $150 million by 2025 to source textiles in the region and that it had increased yarn production in Guatemala and provided skills training to women in Guatemala and Honduras.
By May, the number of migrants from the Northern Triangle caught crossing illegally had fallen to 25,000 from a peak of 90,000 in July 2021 ...
Receipts:
Kamala Harris Was Never Biden's Border Czar.' Here's What She Really Did
In fact, Harris was never put in charge of the border or immigration policy. Nor was she involved in overseeing law-enforcement efforts or guiding the federal response to the crisis. Her mandate was much narrower: to focus on examining and improving the underlying conditions in the Northern Triangle of Central America"El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras"which has been racked by decades of poverty, war, chronic violence, and political instability. The strategy relied on allocating billions for economic programs and stimulating private-sector investment in the region in hopes that these programs would ultimately lead fewer migrants to make the dangerous journey north.
The so-called "root causes strategy" focused on improving economic and security conditions by creating jobs, combating corruption, improving human and labor rights, and reducing violence. Harris allocated funds for humanitarian relief from natural disasters, and directed more than 10 million COVID-19 vaccines to the Northern Triangle countries. She held bilateral meetings with the region's leaders, as well as meetings with NGOs, business executives and human rights advocates. She worked with the U.S. Justice Department to launch an Anti-Corruption task force focused on prosecuting corruption cases with ties to the region, as well as Anti-Migrant Smuggling task forces in Mexico and Guatemala.
Most importantly, Harris spearheaded a public-private partnership that, as of March 2024, had secured commitments from major U.S. and multi-national companies to invest more than $5 billion in the region. The Vice President "put her name on the line with very serious senior CEOs and kind of created a brand appeal for Central America that didn't exist," says Ricardo Zniga, who until recently served as the U.S. special envoy to Central America.
Harris also spent time in Washington communicating with regional leaders. One tangible result, according to two former U.S. officials, was that it gave the U.S. the standing and relationships to help prevent Guatemalan prosecutors from overturning the results of last year's presidential election, which was won by anti-corruption outsider Bernardo Arvalo. While delayed, the ultimately peaceful transition of power avoided the political instability that Biden Administration officials feared could cause a spike in migration. The U.S. applied public pressure through sanctions and visa restrictions on officials they accused of undermining the democratic process, as well as behind the scenes. Harris's team was directly involved, especially her national security adviser Philip Gordon, who traveled to the region to push for a peaceful democratic transfer of power, according to the two former U.S. officials.
Biden-Harris Administration Continues Whole-Of-Government Response to Hurricane Helene, Over 3,500 Federal Personnel Across North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina and AlabamaJust more gaslighting by Strawlighter. Doesn't he ever get tired of lying?
September 30, 2024
FEMA and federal, state, community and voluntary partners continue providing resources to aid response efforts across the Southeast as survivors begin recovering from Hurricane Helene. More than 3,500 personnel from across the federal workforce are deployed and supporting Hurricane Helene response efforts across the impacted states - more than 1,000 are from FEMA. Across the impacted states, FEMA has shipped over 1.9 million Meals Ready to Eat (MREs), more than 1 million liters of water, 30 generators and over 95,000 tarps.
The Biden-Harris Administration declared Major Disaster declarations for areas of Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, allowing disaster survivors to begin their recovery process by applying for federal assistance through FEMA.
People in 17 counties in Florida, 25 counties in North Carolina and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, as well as 13 counties in South Carolina can now apply for assistance with FEMA.
North Carolina
*People can get in touch with loved ones by calling 2-1-1 or visit unitedwaync.org to fill out a request form to add them to search and rescue efforts.
*Rescue crews are continuing to work in affected areas and utility crews are working to restore cell service and critical infrastructure to restore communications to the impacted areas. People should not travel to western North Carolina to keep the roadways clear.
*With 10 search and rescue teams on the ground, another nine teams are arriving today for more than 900 personnel to assist with these efforts.
*Two FEMA Incident Management Assessment Teams are in North Carolina. The team will coordinate directly with the state to facilitate requests for assistance.
*So far, 25 trailer-loads of meals and 60 trailers-loads of water have been delivered to the state to support response efforts. More trailer loads of meals and water will be delivered in the coming days.
*A C-17 cargo plane full of food, water and other commodities has arrived at the forward operating base in Asheville, with a daily flow of commodities established via air bridge.
*There are 29 shelters open with over 1,000 occupants.
*40 Starlink satellite systems are available to help with responder communications and an additional 140 satellites are being shipped to assist with communications infrastructure restoration.
*One Starlink will be deployed per county EOC to assist with communications and continuity of government.
*Generators are moving from Charlotte-Mecklenberg to Asheville, with another 30 generators enroute to the staging base in Mecklenburg.
*Disaster Medical Assistance Teams are in Asheville providing emergency room medical support at hospitals. 200 federal ambulances have been provided to the state.
*FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance teams are going to the field, focusing on shelters, where they will assist survivors in applying for assistance.
This is looking like Biden/Harris' Katrina.
Yeah, just like Katrina was Obama's fault.
A Third Of Louisiana Republicans Blame Obama For Hurricane Katrina ResponseNothing new. The ignorant are gonna be ignorant no matter what the truth is.
The Middle East is on fire.
Israel is unilaterally attacking all their recognized foes. Would be doing the same if Trump were President, except he'd publicly support the attacks without trying to negotiate a cease fire.
Illegal immigration is out of control
Illegal crossings at U.S.-Mexico border fall to 3-year low, the lowest level under BidenIf you actually cared about these issues you'd vote for the party actually addressing them instead of the one demagoguing them to get elected and then do nothing about them - as happened in 2016.
Migrant crossings dropped across border regions, including in remote and rugged stretches of Arizona and California that had become the busiest sectors for illegal entries.
www.cbsnews.com
But hey, you do you.
50 year inflation
100 year global pandemic that shuttered economies and strained supplies and supply lines.
Sold the oil reserves
On top of the 140 million barrels of oil secured by working with Congress to cancel previously-mandated sales, this brings the total purchased or kept in the SPR since 2022 to 180 million barrels " the full amount sold following the unprecedented Russian war against Ukraine .Jul 29, 2024Can't develop a proper federal response to a hurricane
www.google.com
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell announced today that FEMA is reforming its federal assistance policies and expanding benefits for disaster survivors to cut red tape, provide funds faster and give people more flexibility.
With the increased frequency of extreme weather events fueled by climate change, these updates will provide survivors with faster and easier access to resources they need after disasters. FEMA developed these new forms of assistance based on direct feedback from survivors, and in response to threats the nation faces due to our changing climate; they will create more equitable outcomes for all communities by increasing accessibility and eligibility for post-disaster support.
"In the past, the limitations of federal assistance have delayed disaster recovery for too many, especially communities that are disproportionately affected by disasters. That's why the Biden-Harris Administration has been determined to update our programs to ensure we provide disaster assistance to the people who need it, when they need it most," said Secretary Mayorkas. "The Department of Homeland Security interacts with more Americans on a daily basis than any other federal agency and we will continue to eliminate red tape to ensure that our services, resources, and support reaches the people we serve."
"We are on the verge of making the most significant update to survivor assistance in the last 20 years to reach more survivors and deliver assistance faster," said Administrator Criswell. "The limitations on federal assistance have frustrated survivors and delayed recovery for far too long. The Biden-Harris Administration was determined to remedy this situation and help reach more people -- especially in communities disproportionately impacted by disasters. From quickly providing assistance to people who become displaced to simplifying the application process, we are delivering on President Biden's commitment to empower individuals and communities so they can rebuild their lives faster after a disaster."
www.fema.gov
He pretends to be offended now ... ... ..
I'm not pretending, I'm deathly serious. People are dead and lives have been destroyed while we're still in the middle of this. My disgust is about the lack of respect shown to American citizens - be they government employees or not - who're currently doing all that they can to help people stranded by rivers of water destroying their lives.
It is not the time to criticize anyone when all one needs to do is read the ------- news reports showing how the government is doing all it can to respond. I don't care what party people belong to, but believe it or not, nobody asks for party affiliation when you're trying to save their lives.
I'm reading stories about people going through PTSD, having watched their entire town float down river, or a 75 year old man hang onto a tree for 8 hours while his friends weren't able to get to him because the water was flowing too fast, finally seeing him lose hold and get swept away in the raging water. I have no stomach for a fat ass bigot to spew his garbage when I know what he's saying not only is false, it demeans those who are doing everything they can to help these people, especially the federal government.
Why not offer prayers for these people and their rescuers and responders instead of taking a political dig for no reason whatsoever? In my eyes, he's dismissing all that's being done to help American citizens in need, when they need it.
I've never wanted anything for any American effected by a natural disaster other then they get the help they need from their government. There is simple nothing going on in these efforts - from planning, conditions and execution - where a rational person would look at the totality of information and say "It looks like a f-ed up response."
In my America we pull for each other, we don't take book with our money on the side of tragedy.