Let's talk about Trump declaring an emergency... a month late.... - Belle of the Ranch

[TexasTowelie]

Well, howdy there Internet people. It's Belle again. So, today we're going to talk about Trump declaring an emergency a month late.

It's been a week of Trump attempting to politically grandstand on social media and play the blame game over a spill in the Potomac and a week after saying FEMA would play a key role in managing what he called a “massive ecological disaster.” It's been more than a month since the spill started. It's been a month since the bypass was installed to stop the spill. Well, Trump finally took the very first step this weekend to actually initiate federal involvement.

The FEMA release says, "The president's action authorizes FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to alleviate the hardships and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance to save lives, to protect property, public health, and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe caused by the emergency--a month late. Emergency.

They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means. It's worth remembering that Mayor Bowser of DC formally declared a major disaster in the district on February 18th and directly asked Trump to mobilize FEMA. It had already been days since Trump was known to be personally aware of the issue and was posting on social media about it. That's giving him the benefit of the doubt and assuming that somehow he wasn't informed of the spill before then.

That in and of itself would be a problem because it would mean that if you watch the Roads Not Taken on the other channel, you were made aware of a “massive ecological disaster” before the president of the United States during a weekly roundup. Not to downplay our own stuff, but I don't feel like our weekly roundup should ever be more current than the presidential daily brief. Just saying.

It's also worth noting that Trump said local officials would “have to call me and ask politely to get it fixed.” That's right. It appears that Trump was willing to let Americans deal with sewage in the rivers unless local officials were sufficiently catering to his ego.

We've had a couple of questions about E. coli levels in the Potomac because it seems like the media is giving conflicting reports. The short version is that they're all right at different times. Levels did drop, but as the temperature warmed and sewage that was frozen thawed, more bacteria was released.

Trump tried to use the month-old incident to gain political capital and leverage over Democrats because FEMA is under DHS, which isn't currently being funded because Americans are clamoring for pretty basic rules governing the actions of immigration forces.

The attempt to use this politically seems to be falling flat because Americans remember that Trump wanted to eliminate the very agency he's now trying to say is critically important. His month of inaction and then week of delays in actually doing anything also demonstrates to most that it's just a show for the least informed portions of his base.

Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.

[Lovie777]

1. Martial Law.................

with no facts, evidence, reasoning.