vxbush 10/11/2024 5:53:00 AM

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I learned of this story at Ace even though it came out two days ago, but want to draw attention to it here because it seems so big-government-esque and rather exemplary of what happened during COVID: 

On the eve of Hurricane Milton’s landfall on a disaster-weary Florida, FEMA, the nation’s disaster relief agency reported a stark shortage of frontline workers available to be deployed: just 8% of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s vaunted Incident Management personnel were still available for deployment.

The stunning declaration in Wednesday’s Daily Operations Briefing exposed the longtime impact of FEMA’s expanding work on unrelated missions like COVID funerals and illegal immigrant services, a crisis created by a worker shortage, a workforce morale issue and the reality of burnout from a increasingly frenetic natural disaster pace.

...

“In May 2023, we reported that as of the beginning of fiscal year 2022, FEMA had approximately 11,400 disaster employees on board and a staffing goal of 17,670, creating an overall staffing gap of approximately 6,200 staff (35 percent) across different positions. This means that FEMA’s disaster workforce was operating at 65 percent force capacity during the pandemic,” [the Government Accountability Office] added.

...

At virtual press conference Wednesday, FEMA Director Deanne Criswell said her agency was has “sent as many resources as we can” to disaster areas to support recovery and prepare for the storm. But, Criswell alluded to the strain her agency is facing, explaining FEMA drawing on other staff from across the agency to supplement disaster response teams. 

“We have a layered approach to our staffing, and when we think about our primary staff, our disaster staff, those are the folks that are designated that this is their full time job, but we are also bringing in our staff from across headquarters in our regions that don't do disaster work directly, full time, and they have all been trained to be able to pitch in and help out when we need additional support,” Criswell told reporters. 

[bolding mine] What? Only some of their staff are working on disaster stuff? Only some of them have this as a full-time job in the agency? What the hell are they doing? Oh, right, the border stuff. The stuff that KJP says they aren't doing, but they are and the GAO included that in their report. 

Actually, though, I recommend you go read this Wikipedia FEMA article (link goes to when FEMA was crafted) to learn a heck of a lot more that FEMA now has under its umbrella, thanks to government feature creep. Here are the key paragraphs: 

After FEMA's creation through reorganization and executive orders, Congress continued to expand FEMA's authority by assigning responsibilities to it. Those responsibilities include dam safety under the National Dam Safety Program Act; disaster assistance under the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act; earthquake hazards reduction under the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977and further expanded by Executive Order 12699, regarding safety requirements for federal buildings and Executive Order 12941, concerning the need for cost estimates to seismically retrofit federal buildings; emergency food and shelter under the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987; hazardous materials, under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

In addition, FEMA received authority for counterterrorism through the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici amendment under the Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 1996, which was a response to the recognized vulnerabilities of the U.S. after the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995.[13]

vxbush 10/11/2024 6:10:52 AM

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Perhaps you will recall how American female gymnasts at the national level kept reporting issues of sexual assault against them by the team's sports doctor to the FBI in 2015 and 2016 and nothing happened? Yeah, about that; this might be explained by a pattern that seems to have showed up again in the last few years, maybe: 

The senator [Iowa Senator Grassley--vxb] also called for more transparency in how the FBI investigates sexual abuse cases regarding children, claiming that whistleblowers have told him that the bureau reassigned personnel from child exploitation cases to January 6 cases.

One whistleblower allegedly told Grassley that they were "essentially idle" for months on January 6 cases while child sexual abuse cases continued to come into the office. 

If I were to guess--and it is just that, a guess--someone started borrowing investigators from sexual abuse cases and putting them on to other issues before 2015, and that pattern of borrowing has simply continued in the agency.  

Apparently in their minds sexual abuse against kids is a lower priority than many other things. Let that sit in your mind for a minute.

vxbush 10/11/2024 6:54:11 AM

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JCM 10/11/2024 7:55:27 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 2:

MAP..... that's the key. Minor Attracted Persons.

Trump had a successful child trafficking interdiction program that was working and ended by Biden.

Remember Pelosi walking in the SF Pride Parade with a convicted pedophile?

The entire trajectory of the gay movement as always been more depravity.

I don't believe for one second that the gay / trans  alphabet soup agenda is about rights, or acceptance or anything of that. It falls directly in line with Marcuse Repressive Tolerance, use the trans agenda to silence anyone opposed. It also falls in perfect alignment with the Marxist agenda regarding the family. That the family was an impediment to true communism, as long as people had family they would be resistant to reliance on The State.

Therefore pushing the gay agenda to the extremes of pedophila futhers the Repressive Tolerance and the destruction of the family unit.

With the government in the hands of Marxists minimizing enforcement and report of crimes against children and minors fits nicely into the published works of the Marxists.

I would go even further to say I think that the whole Pizza Gate / Pedophile flare up was a false flag operation. Put a story out that was juicey enough for the "right wingers" to buy into. Then prove it false and then in future discussion about pedophila apply Repressive Tolerance, and label the individual opposing pedophila as a "Pizza Gate Conspiracy Nut", and discredit their point of view. A perfect example of Repressive Tolerance in action.

buzzsawmonkey 10/11/2024 8:29:32 AM

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Just received the following drivel from the funeral outfit that buried my mother.  It's terrifying to see how deluded the MSM makes some people

vxbush 10/11/2024 8:33:12 AM

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JCM 10/11/2024 9:56:01 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 6:

Nibbling on the edges. Plus opens up a whole new pantheon of loopholes, breaks, and special circumstances.

While tempting, it's just just another crumb.

The uniparty will never allow REAL tax reform.

JCM 10/11/2024 9:58:21 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 5:

I would respond with a curt reply.

Stick to your business you know less than nothing, I'm deeply embarrassed that I trusted my mother's remains to such a group of political hacks and imbeciles.

vxbush 10/11/2024 11:10:34 AM

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In #8 JCM said: Stick to your business you know less than nothing, I'm deeply embarrassed that I trusted my mother's remains to such a group of political hacks and imbeciles.

I'm going to guess such a message would not even enter the first ear, let alone make it to the brain. 

buzzsawmonkey 10/11/2024 12:45:53 PM

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In #8 JCM said: I would respond with a curt reply. Stick to your business you know less than nothing, I'm deeply embarrassed that I trusted my mother's remains to such a group of political hacks and imbeciles.

Tempting---very tempting---but ultimately pointless.  There's no chance, I think, that anything I could say would penetrate what is clearly a very deep indoctrination.  Mom's safely underground, so there's nothing I could say that would in any way hurt her, but I've plenty of better ways to futilely waste my time.  

My sister was also tempted to respond to his screed, and after a brief email exchange we both agreed that any attempt to do so would serve no useful purpose, annoying though it is that someone with whom one is acquainted is exhibiting such a many-layered delusional worldview.  

I posted it here merely to show the scope/breadth of that delusional worldview---not that it likely comes as a surprise to anyone, but it's still something to see it fully laid out on the brain-morgue slab.

JCM 10/11/2024 1:14:33 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 10:

I know.... and if you challenge these ijits, they have feelings and not opinions, and to them it is personal attack.

JCM 10/11/2024 2:53:03 PM

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Administration playing games, withholding approved arms shipments to Israel.

Your administration is engaged in bureaucratic sleight-of-hand to withhold this crucial aid to Israel during a shooting war. As you are aware, the Arms Export Control Act requires the administration to notify Congress before sending weapons to a foreign country. Your administration has manipulated this requirement by withholding this formal notification to Congress of approved weapons sales, including F-15s, tactical vehicles, 120-mm mortars, 120-mm tank rounds, joint direct attack munitions, and small diameter bombs. Your administration can then claim that the weapons are “in process” while never delivering them.