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Why aren't we PROACTIVE instead of REACTIVE?

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by DaDakota, Jul 7, 2025 at 2:18 PM.

  1. astros123

    astros123 Member
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    I literally just sold my medical equipment company last year at the peak of its value. I knew trump would slash Medicaid/ACA and made the decision to sell at the top and walked away with a large chunk of money while you MAGA trolls swore Trump wouldn't cut medicaid.
     
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  2. astros123

    astros123 Member
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    The issue isnt that they weren't given the funding they requested in the budget but rather their budget was slashed by 40% and laid off thousands of employees even while employees were ringing the bell about a impending disaster
     
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  3. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    We really not all that Reactive
    We are more Selective

    Rocket River
     
  4. DatRocketFan

    DatRocketFan Member

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    Reactive? Hell with our republican government it's just thoughts and prayers when sht hits the fan and tax cut for the rich.

    Kids still dies to school shooting. Natural disaster still wrecks folks. Folks getting kicked off medicaid and Medicare. Homelessness and poverty increasing.

    But the illegal aliens are coming.
     
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  5. subtomic

    subtomic Member

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    The difference is that @DaDakota isn't blaming Republicans for the flooding. He's blaming them for the inadequate warning system - the absence of which is certainly responsible for the deaths of most of the victims - and by the looks of things, that's a largely accurate accusation. The county asked for a flood warning system for 10 years, and our GOP supermajority legislature voted against it every time.

    If voting against life-saving services was an anomaly amongst the GOP, you could argue that they don't deserve the blame. But voting against services and voting to cut services is almost all the GOP does (the only other thing they do is vote for tax cuts). So it's not just this specific example - it's a pattern in bright lights.
     
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  6. HTM

    HTM Member

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    You can always complain about underfunding to programs and services after events occur.

    No matter the budget, people will complain it wasn’t adequate enough.

    That’s exactly what happened in California after the wildfires in LA.

    and will happen after the next natural disaster.

    If the San Andreas fault goes off tomorrow and destroys San Francisco people will be complaining about underfunding regarding some government agency the next day.

    It’s an excuse and complaint that can always be made.
     
  7. subtomic

    subtomic Member

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    A specific need was identified and requested (emergency notification system). Those in power failed to deliver it. The lack of said system leads to hundreds of death. Conservatives offer only “thoughts and prayers” and go right back to slashing services and projects. Their sycophant voters applaud and make bad faith arguments like the one above.
     
  8. HTM

    HTM Member

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    This kind of Monday morning quarterbacking is done after every natural disaster.

    You cannot even demonstrably show that the lack of said system caused deaths. It’s purely conjecture at this point.

    Where is the source for that assertion?

    You’re just attempting to turn a natural disaster and tragedy into a political attack. You’re pathetic.
     
  9. DatRocketFan

    DatRocketFan Member

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    So what is your solution to it if not calling out the party in power incompetency for letting this happen? Cutting nws budget yet somehow raising our national deficit to give tax cuts to the rich.

    This could have been preventable or at least minimized. Oh but thoughts and prayer or just blame biden seems to be the conservative playbook.

    If tragedies occur, one must learn on how to fix and prevent it. All I see conservatives do after school shooting and natural disasters is get triggered with faux indignation at getting called out for incompetency and send pointless thoughts and prayers.
     
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  10. HTM

    HTM Member

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    My first thought, unlike you and the other left wing lunatics on this board, after a natural disaster isn't how to turn the tragedy into a political attack.

    Do you bring this same energy when natural disasters occur in Blue states?

    The government can't "prevent" the Guadalupe River rising 26 feet in 45 minutes. They aren't wizards.

    Flash floods happen. Flash flooding isn't any humans fault. It isn't Greg Abbots fault a flash flood happened in the Texas hill country.

    After every natural disaster findings come out indicating things could have been done better. It happens in blue states. It happens in red states. It happens in Spain. It happens in France.
     
  11. dobro1229

    dobro1229 Member

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    I can tell you why Trump systematically has been tearing apart the federal government to centralize everything under his admin in order to be reactive to issues like natural disasters instead of having a decentralized government that has experts in their field able to be proactive about solving issues our country has.

    Power and fealty. It’s as simple as that.

    Trump wants the power when a state has a natural disaster for those governors or mayors to have to kiss the ring if they want the assistance of the federal government. He wants to be able to use natural disasters to punish blue states if they need assistance and refuse to kiss the ring. He wants to make red states redder like in Texas where the first press conference after the flood we got 5 minutes of talking about how great Trump is from Gregg Abbott so he can always be portrayed as the hero god king in these situations.

    It’s about power and fealty.
     
  12. TheFreak

    TheFreak Member

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    “Don’t Politicize This Flood” - the new summer blockbuster brought to you by the makers of “DEI Plane Crash” and “Rake California Great Again”.
     
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  13. DaDakota

    DaDakota Balance wins
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    Yep, and smart money says buy stock in the companies that own private prisons and have contracts with ICE.

    Trump is transparent, he is a pedophile and moron, but that TACO trading deal is real.

    DD
     
  14. DaDakota

    DaDakota Balance wins
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    They have voted nearly every year not to give this area a siren system, this same flood happened and washed away a church camp in 1987.....**** that noise of - not the right time....and **** anyone that says that ****.

    It is ALWAYS the right time to do the RIGHT thing.

    Thoughts and prayers is the same as saying Farts and Beers, neither are good for anything.....just make the person saying it feel better, doesn't help in any way......

    DD
     
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  15. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Member
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    gift link will work for everyone

    Before Tragedy, Texas Repeatedly Rejected Pleas for Flood Alarm Funding
    Kerr County failed to secure a warning system, even as local officials remained aware of the risks and as billions of dollars were available for similar projects.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/...e_code=1.Vk8.36aU.gSwt7e4r6zxv&smid=url-share

    excerpt:

    The New York Times identified at least three occasions between 2017 and 2024 when local officials sought funding for a flood warning system but were rebuffed by the state. Those failed applications came even as the federal government made billions of additional dollars available for disaster-reduction projects — including $1.9 billion that has flowed to Texas over the past decade to be spent at the discretion of state officials, according to a Times analysis.

    The Texas Division of Emergency Management rejected a 2017 request from Kerr County because it did not meet federal requirements, according to Wes Rapaport, a department spokesman. Those included a requirement to have completed a recent plan for addressing natural disasters.

    The state rejected a 2018 request from the county because state officials chose to focus that spending on counties affected by Hurricane Harvey, a massive storm that caused flooding across large portions of Texas in August 2017, Mr. Rapaport said.

    Kerr County, a popular resort area northwest of San Antonio with only about 50,000 full-time residents, was not among those counties.

    Since 2018, Kerr County officials submitted no other grant applications for flood warning systems to the state emergency management office, according to Mr. Rapaport.

    ***
    Kerr County’s inability to get help paying for a flood warning system is all the more striking because of a shift in U.S. disaster policy in recent years — one that made disaster-protection money far easier to obtain.

    After Hurricane Harvey inundated Texas in 2017, the start of a series of record-breaking disasters across the country, the federal government shifted its approach to protecting Americans from more frequent and severe weather catastrophes.

    Instead of simply rebuilding communities after disasters, the government began providing more money to build protections ahead of time, through a mix of new and existing programs. The approach, championed by the first Trump administration, became supercharged under the Biden administration, with billions of dollars directed to those preparations.

    One of the greatest beneficiaries of that funding was Texas. Over the past decade, according to federal data, Texas has received nearly $1.9 billion through FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, one of the federal government’s main disaster-protection programs. Only a handful of states, including Florida and North Carolina, received more.

    The way FEMA structured that program gave officials at the Texas Division of Emergency Management the authority to decide which projects, in which counties, received the funds. Over the past decade, that money has been approved to fund disaster warning systems in more than two dozen of the 254 counties in Texas, federal records show.

    The episode highlights a major flaw in America’s disaster defenses, according to Roy Wright, who managed the risk-reduction programs at FEMA during the first Trump administration. Because so many levels of government are involved, it is impossible to know who is responsible.

    “Big risks aren’t getting to the top of the list for funding,” said Mr. Wright, who now runs the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. “Clearly, it needs to be different.”
    more at the link
     
  16. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    "Loser are the ones trying to blame people." - The person that is the most to blame

    Rocket River
     
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  17. Amiga

    Amiga Member

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    Governments can't be proactive on every possible issue. The critical question isn't whether to be proactive, but where to focus limited resources. The answer shouldn't be driven primarily by political popularity, but by objective data analysis.

    An effective system would operate non-partisanly, examining facts without political bias, assessing risks, and setting priorities accordingly.

    Take climate change: ignoring increasingly severe weather events reflects either partisan blindness, flawed data interpretation, or poor judgment.

    When people lose their homes or loved ones to preventable disasters, they have every right to be furious with politicians who prioritize ideology over evidence-based risk management.

    "Just let the voters decide" is a cop-out. Real leaders lead. They make tough decisions based on evidence, even when those decisions aren't immediately popular.
     
  18. Amiga

    Amiga Member

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    He knows he did wrong. This is an overly partisan politician. Hope he is gone soon.
     
  19. CrixusTheUndefeatedGaul

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    He’s smart enough to know that Biden is a vegetable. You on the other hand are still sniffing Joe’s bunghole till dis day!
     
  20. DaDakota

    DaDakota Balance wins
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    It has been requested since the last 20 or so years....and the GOP has declined every year......Screw feelings, do the right thing.

    DD
     
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