August 25, 2017
Are you watching the TV news about Hurricane Harvey hitting Texas?
I haven't yet, but I'm just guessing that the newsfolk are talking about how much Hurricane Katrina hurt President George W. Bush and are hoping — and trying not to be too unseemly about it — that Harvey will screw President Trump even worse. Check it out for me, and let me know. Please give me credit if I've said it first: They're less worried about Harvey hurting Texas than they are delighted that at the prospect of Harvey hurting Trump.
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1 – 200 of 228 Newer› Newest»Texas has competent State and local officials (compared to NOLA), and Texans of all stripes are pretty self-reliant. I highly doubt we'll hear reports of cannibalism in the Astro-Dome, whatever the physical damage.
Texas would have been destroyed under President Hillary. One way or another.
Best comment about hurricane Katrina: "Canoeing in ankle-deep water."
I live in Brazoria County, Texas. This isn't a wind/storm surge storm for us but a rain problem. 30+ inches are predicted in some parts of the Houston area, but spread out over several days. Hoping the flooding is lessened by that.
Yeah, that was a neat trick the media did. The feds had Navy and Coast Guard assets in place pre-storm for Katrina and did great rescue work.
The city and state governments didn't bother following their own storm plans, leaving many to drown who could have been saved, then dithered and made political calculations afterwards about how to handle things.
So of course all the blame was on Bush, somehow. That TOTALLY made sense.
So far I haven't seen much trying to blame Trump.
The worst I've seen is Jim Acosta on Twitter asking Trump what he plans to do about the Hurricane. The memes made from this have been funny. One guy even wrote a laslo ish story in response about trump standing before the hurricane, removing his wig and light shining forth from his head to stop the hurricane. Was really funny.
Anyway, no matter how good or bad the state and federal response is to the hurricane, the media will find people hurt by it who will blame Trump for their pain.
No joke, the pea-brains at Salon already have a piece declaring that Trump has "flunked" his first natural disaster.
All you Trumpists that think everything on the MSM is a lie and you live in the affected areas, stay put! It's only fake news after all.
I've seen more than one acquaintance on Facebook sort of hoping the storm is devastating to the "dumb Red Trump-ers of Texas." Including jokes about people not evacuating because the hurricane is "fake news".
Best comment about hurricane Katrina: "Canoeing in ankle-deep water."
The comment was im response to a NBC(?) news clip showing the crew canoeing around in the flooded area while describing in colorful detail how terrible it all was - but then the camera accidentally panned across a group of onlookers gawking at the celebrity news crew while standing on the street pavement with the water just up over their ankles.
8
Unknown? I live here. I know it's real. Stick it up your ass.
Once youy get past the weather projections, and the effects on people, the only way to keep on talking about it is to speculate about the political effects.
That would be the biggest things that could happen with the hurricane. Unless maybe it floods New Orleans. They'r rooting for that, too.
The canoe trip *cough* was Michelle Kosinski on NBC (what else?).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgm3_jzcNm4
Unknown, compassionate lefty, strikes again. Never forget - lefties are incapable of being haters.
Please give me credit if I've said it first: They're less worried about Harvey hurting Texas than they are delighted that at the prospect of Harvey hurting Trump.
@Althouse, you're a long way from being first.
You know, it still sticks in my craw that when George W. Bush flew over the flooding in New Orleans after Katrina he was criticized for being aloof and uncaring. But when Louisiana was flooded around this time last year, Barack Obama didn't even take a break from golf and fund-raising on Martha's Vineyard to go look. Aloof? Uncaring? Out of touch with suffering people? Obama wrote the book on how to do it, but not a single journalist raised a peep. And then Brokaw and Kristof have the nerve to complain?
Amusing how the Bush derangement syndrome cascaded into Trump derangement syndrome and pre-cascaded into Hurricane Harvey.
So far many live shots of abeach with mild surf, accompanied by warnings of RAIN. San Antonio and Beeville to be hardest hit. No mention of Trump except hitting the bad taste in making political speeches while people drown.
Ann, you said "President Bush" when you meant "President Trump."
The interesting thing is the dearth of US hurricanes in recent decades.
That should be news, or a notable point anyway.
We know. Ann knows. Give it a break.
UnknownInga64 just couldn't be bothered to pretend that she wished her fellow human beings would get through a storm with minimal property damage and loss of life.
When the personal is political, Leftist politics becomes extremely personal. Personal to the point of hoping for death because the Other is not valuable.
That is deranged and typical.
Blogger Unknown said...
All you Trumpists that think everything on the MSM is a lie and you live in the affected areas, stay put! It's only fake news after all.
The left can't tell the difference between politics and reality.
The right can clearly see the difference between, "Trump is a Nazi!" And "Hey, hurricane. Better prepare."
robother observes: and Texans of all stripes are pretty self-reliant.
Exactly! They probably won't be standing around whining and waiting for someone to rescue them.
One of my brothers in law and his family are directly in the path.
Too paralyzed to try and get the heck out of the pathway? Didn't see it coming, or just not the type to prepare ahead?
Do you understand anyone's situation or do you consider other people props to score points?
I'd be driving up to Dallas for this, if I lived anywhere near the coast. The floods from the rain have the possibility of being horrific. Days and days of rain.
My brother in law is in the cotton business and is manning a warehouse. His family is on high ground and they are 1 county inland from the coast. They didn't seem too flustered by it.
Without in any way wanting to belittle the problems of people who are suffering and will suffer, it is worth noting that it is still only a Cat 2. May increase to a Cat 3. It might be newsworthy that it has been a long time since a Cat 4 or 5 has hit the U.S. Stories report matter of factly that Katrina killed 1800 people. It wasn't the hurricane, it was the levees.
After watching the Weather Channel, the most important thing to do is dress properly.
"how much Hurricane Katrina hurt President George W. Bush and are hoping — and trying not to be too unseemly about it — that Harvey will screw President Bush even worse."
Poor Bush. They never let up on him. You would think they would pick on Trump for this one.
I see our betters are here to demonstrate the kindness, concern and compassion for others who might be trapped in harm's way that we've all come to expect from such woke individuals.
More likely they try to blame Global Warming
It should also be noted that the FEMA aid for the Katrina disaster was the greatest emergency disaster aid effort organized up to that time. You may argue that it still was not enough, but not that the Bush administration - including "Brownie" - did not try their best.
I also remember that the Bush administration got 8 billion dollars budgeted for the Katrina reconstruction effort, but last thing I read - well into the Obama administration - only about 4 billion had been spent. There was just more money than the area could absorb - especially with all the red tape difficulties the bureaucracy came up with to prevent anything effective being done, or at least slow it down and make it as expensive as possible.
I'm more worried about flooding due to the rain rather than the wind.
I see I was piling on. 15 yard penalty and and apology.
What's kind of sad is how many people had migrated to Houston from New Orleans after Katrina.
Migration Numbers
Stories report matter of factly that Katrina killed 1800 people. It wasn't the hurricane, it was the levees.
Does that distinction make any difference? No Katrina, then no levee failure.
If a car crashes into a tree that then falls on your house and kills you -- it's the car crash that caused the death (of the tree and of you).
I anticipate a lot of flack after Harvey about the administration's changes to the National Flood Insurance Program (roughly speaking they reversed the proposed tightening of regulations on building in flood prone areas, such as barrier islands.)
What's kind of sad is how many people had migrated to Houston from New Orleans after Katrina.
Not sad. Smart. I remember on the news one young black woman who packed up her kids and the car and said she was going to Houston. She was a nurse and said she'd be able to work there.
Ann Althouse said...I haven't yet, but I'm just guessing that the newsfolk are talking about how much Hurricane Katrina hurt President George W. Bush and are hoping — and trying not to be too unseemly about it — that Harvey will screw President Bush even worse.
You're certainly correct, but it's worse than you imagined: Acosta at CNN isn't bothering with the "trying no to be too unseemly about it" part. This morning he tweeted:
'Good morning Mr. President... what is your administration doing about the hurricane to keep Texans safe?
Watching and waiting. We are on higher ground, but on the "dirty" side of the hurricane, so heavy weather is coming. We have had two outer bands pass through already, where it gets breezy, then some rain, then gets still. Third one arriving now. Hurried home from our eclipse trip to make the house ready for the storm.
People have not boarded up here, but if the storm turns, we will go get the boards, and put them up.
I've quit watching newsless news, however I am occasionally checking Weather Channel for updates. So far they've not uttered the words "Trump/white/neo-nazi/antifa/statue", good times!
And another thing, the weather people seem to be pushing for a Category-3. A Cat-4 is too much to hope for at this point, but a Cat-2 will be a huge disappointment. Apparently.
Oh, that's interesting; a man just strolled by in the background wearing nothing more than a T-shirt, completely unperturbed by the "storm" - while in the same frame the weather guy was holding on for dear life.
"It should also be noted that the FEMA aid for the Katrina disaster was the greatest emergency disaster aid effort organized up to that time. You may argue that it still was not enough, but not that the Bush administration - including "Brownie" - did not try their best."
Canard. Emergency planning is not Federal, it's local. I don't think New Orleans and the state of Louisiana EVER got the credit they deserved for making a bad situation as bad as possible. It may well be that NO and La and the people of NO have geld their hands out for so long that they didn't realize they actually needed to do something for themselves. That will likely not be a problem in Tx.
My co workers family has arrived from Corpus, and he's not particularly happy at their presence, but he certainly understands the need, having recently moved up to Austin from the coast.
held, not geld.
http://www.salon.com/2017/08/24/trump-just-flunked-his-first-natural-disaster-test/
Levee failure. As in, the $billions the fed granted N.O. for flood control, were not utilized as they should have been. Govt failure. Not the federal govt. Local and state govt. The local govt was like all corrupt cities, Democrat cesspools of cronyism. Graft sucked up much of the funds available. That graft and inefficiency, rest on the shoulders of GWB
I did have the TV on in the background, and caught a small new bite, that stated 19 pumps used to pump flood waters, were inoperable. Trump is a rotten President for not having anticipated that problem.
(A bunch of comments seem to have washed out to sea)
saw that and wondered why , and not just on this thread
IT'S OFFICIAL: IT'S A CAT-3!
It was Bush's slow response, his incompetent FIMA head, and New Orleans' general lack of preparedness (inadequate dikes, disorganized city officials, etc) that hurt Bush. None of this is likely to apply in Texas.
Maybe the Russians are controlling the weather.
MSNBC will be all over that no doubt.
"It was Bush's slow response, his incompetent FIMA head, and New Orleans' general lack of preparedness (inadequate dikes, disorganized city officials, etc) that hurt Bush."
-- Bush's response would have been way faster if the local governments didn't deliberately hamper him. Would the federal government have handled it better if they were given more support early on? We'll never know; maybe Bush would still have screwed it.
Apparently Salon is the new "Charlie Sykes" for credibility.
I'll bet there were never any hurricanes in the Americas until Columbus reached it's shores with his horrible Europeans.
Let's see if this sticks
The NO levee failure was a simple geotechnical engineering mistake. The boring logs were right, but the cross section was wrong. The lithologic cross section mis-located the depth of the competent clay soils that the sheet piles needed to be driven into to create a subterranean dam designed to hold back quicksand liquifaction. The sheet piling was not driven deep through the sand into gumbo clay and the levee failure was caused by washing out of loose sands under the sheetpile which undermined the levee.
When the Levee Breaks
As an aside,but applicable. The new French president who won 66% of the vote a couple of months ago now has approval rating (according to the WSJ) of 35%. Sic Transit Gloria.
According to Rasmussen Trump is at 42% (the Democratic polling firm, Gallup, has him at 34%).
The state and municipal governments can't possibly be as corrupt or as incompetent as in NOLA and LA. That was the real problem that made Katrina such a disaster all around.
"It was Bush's slow response.."
BS
The Democrat governor sat on her duff and refused to trigger the appropriate requests even as she was being told to do just that.
First, the media will blame global warmerung and then use Drumpf backing out of the Paris Accords as the underlying fault of teh Dronald.
Correction in part: The state and municipal governments in Texas.....
@Howard Is "global warmerung" a German term? Something from Wagner, perhaps?
The most incredible aftermath of Katrina was that Ray 'Baby' Nagin was re-elected mayor.
@Howard Is "global warmerung" a German term? Something from Wagner, perhaps?
Yes but it's all one word: Globalwarmerung. It was originally in Wagner's Ring but was dropped when the opera house flooded during the first performance.
Good Catch Khesahn, the alarmists preach Ragnarök. from Wiki
Götterdämmerung (About this sound pronunciation (help·info); Twilight of the Gods),[1] WWV 86D, is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung, or The Ring for short). It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 17 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of the Ring.
The title is a translation into German of the Old Norse phrase Ragnarök, which in Norse mythology refers to a prophesied war among various beings and gods that ultimately results in the burning, immersion in water, and renewal of the world. However, as with the rest of the Ring, Wagner's account diverges significantly from his Old Norse sources.
sparrow said...
saw that and wondered why , and not just on this thread
One of the people she always deletes is posting. So she probably selected a few extra comments unintentionally.
The local NBC affiliate had a fellow I liked to call Danger Boy. When the storm rolled in, they would put him in a parka on top of the Space Needle to make a report about how bad the storm is. I assumed that the station manager wanted him to find a new job.
Thanks Rick that makes sense
Partisan politics is the lens through which everything including bad weather is now viewed. Like all the other Dem operatives in the media (as Insty calls them), Acosta demands to know what Trump is going to do to keep Texans safe from a hurricane? Really? Everyone has to be reduced to the status of victim, because victims are by definition wards of the state wholly dependent on Uncle Sugar to save them. And Acosta is talking about the weather.
That level of partisan shilling shouldn't be surprising anymore but somehow it still is.
CNN already has a score card up.......
Richard: You are 100% correct. What is frustrating for me is that these media cunts are actually enabling Trump by incessantly picking flyshit out of pepper.
There are considerable differences between Katrina and Harvey. Some glaringly obvious. As if we needed any more proof that these people are basically stupid.
He'll probably outsource the real work to Walmart and Costco who have better weather models than the U.S. for their own purposes and dealing demand peaks. Everything, food, lumber etc. And last time I looked Costco pumps gas. They are probably doing great business. The only problem last time was the government FEMA people limiting acess to those that wanted to help because they did't have the right training. Aka is "Don't do my job, someone might discover I'm not needed and I cost too much." "What you didn't buy home-owner's insurance so Buffett could foot the bill for your losses?" "It's a little late." Next will come the claims of price gouging. Which they've never done before in excess sometimes to force shoppers to go down the street because they didn't stock enough, And they ofteh hand out supplies for free. Unfettered Capitalism doing what it does in a free and civil society, isn't it great?" Imagine what capitalism could bring to medical care. Unlimited innovation. Where the wealthy prefer the same (innovative) treatment as the poorest of us.
Are they eating people in the Astrodome yet? Shep? Shep???
Didn't Texas want to secede when Obama was president? There are so independent and shit but whenever those red states has some disaster they are the first to come begging for money from the federal government. Texas is really gross too. I don't like Texas.
I think that the real salivators are the global warming fanatics. They would love to have a damaging storm to buttress their lies about AGW. Trump could be collateral damage to put a cherry on top. So far, this storm in Houston is a nothingburger. I've had about a half inch so far. No wind. If Harvey goes in just above Corpus and heads inland, Houston won't have a problem. If it bounces up the coast then it'll be bad. Which, judging from the nonsense I've seen on TV, that's what NOAA would like most of all.
The single picture from Katrina that sums up for me the incompetence of New Orleans government was the aerial shot of the flooded parking lot full of school buses. They were going to be used for evacuating city dwellers but Ray Nagin and his people couldn't organize the equivalent of a two-car funeral.
Members of our family helped Biloxi clean up after Katrina (with a great volunteer organization then called "Hands On") and the extent of the devastation was epic. It overwhelmed every level of government. I think the official (and logical) cascade of responsibility is from local government to state to regional and then federal, so I think the rush to blame Bush is simplistic and partisan.
Titus proclaims: I don't like Texas.
Of course not.
Jack Wayne observes: I think that the real salivators are the global warming fanatics. They would love to have a damaging storm to buttress their lies about AGW.
Yes but the Galveston hurricane/flood of 1900 was the worst in history to ever hit the US coast. So....
It was Bush's slow response
c'mon, we all know it was Dick Cheney blowing up the levees.
Regarding the global warmunists, yes, this is their payday after a 12-year drought in any serious hurricane making US landfall. You can look up the statistics on frequency and intensity of hurricanes over the years, and the accumulated cyclonic energy of storms (a kind of integral or proxy of atmospheric heating) and IMHO they do not support Al Gore and his repeatedly-debunked prophecies of doom.
"Does that distinction make any difference? No Katrina, then no levee failure."
Hint: Don't live below sea level in a hurricane zone. It's not a good idea.
Does that distinction make any difference? No Katrina, then no levee failure.
Well, there's the other but-fors. If local government officials hadn't demanded levees in the place where they failed, instead of the originally-proposed less-expensive gates, Katrina wouldn't have caused a levee failure. And if the Army Corps of Engineers hadn't subsequently screwed up the engineering and construction of the levees in an effort to save money, then Katrina wouldn't have caused a levee failure.
Well I expect Houston, or a good part of it, will be flooded. I just finished reading David Oshinky's book "Bellevue" about the history of Bellevue Hospital. Prior to Katrina a tropical storm hit Houston--and flooded several of Houston's hospitals. Bellevue had its emergency generators and backup power on the 13th floor. But the fuel tanks and the pumps to get the fuel to the generators were in the basement. After Houston, and after Katrina (with flooding of hospitals in New Orleans) Bellevue put in "submarine doors" to protect the fuel tanks and pumps in the basement. They thought that was enough. But when Sandy hit the East Coast, the East River water level rose so high that the basement was flooded--and the submarine doors weren't proof against the water flowing in. Hospitals are tough to evacuate--even if the water doesn't come in, loss of power means all the equipment goes down.
Bellevue got most of its patients out (although a 550 pound patient couldn't be carried down the stairs and the elevators were all flooded out with water in the bottom of the shaft). They kept the emergency generators going by a "bucket brigade" that passed 5 gallon cans of gas hand to hand up 13 stories of stairwell.
Let's hope they won't need similar heroics in Houston.
You can look up the statistics on frequency and intensity of hurricanes over the years, and the accumulated cyclonic energy of storms (a kind of integral or proxy of atmospheric heating) and IMHO they do not support Al Gore and his repeatedly-debunked prophecies of doom.
This Democrat was fired for not perpetuating the storms are more severe and more frequent lie.
This is Texas, not New Orleans, not Louisiana. Texas will handle it. As will Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowe's. (And normally Waffle House, but there are none in that part of TX - FEMA won't know what to do!). My son is a manager for a major trucking company and he was working in Memphis when Katrina came through. The general public has no idea how well these companies and their logistics providers get prepared for something like this.
I lived in TX through the 1980s and we once had a "storm cell" that parked over our community and dumped 14 inches of rain in 8 hours. it was an incredible experience - standing outside under an umbrella was like being under a waterfall - but we handled it. In a few days everything was OK. Our local and state responders were excellent.
New Orleans had Ray Nagin and a very incompetent governor, Kathleen Blanco. Democrats. That's all you need to know about Katrina.
The NO levee failure was a simple geotechnical engineering mistake.
Don't ever mix Texas medicine with railroad gin.
Not exactly a hot take by Althouse.
And yes, we are going to have to re-litigate Katrina, and yes, more monuments will have to be torn down, names replaced, and a sports broadcaster or two will have to be re-assigned...so we can heal.
So Gov Abbott is on Weather Channel right now already requested of the President that a federal disaster be declared. Very smart. That is what Blanco waited too long to do. IIRC, she was crying.
Titus is always at his most dramatically angry "overwroughtness" level when it's time for real men to do real things.
The reasons are probably obvious to most. Perhaps a local Islamist is in need of a cockholster whereby a pacifier effect might be obtained.
"The Democrat governor sat on her duff and refused to trigger the appropriate requests even as she was being told to do just that."
Exactly.
It just kills me to see the left blame Bush for NOT rolling in the feds before the state legally requested their presence .... you know, like Hitler would've done.
The streets of Houston are basically designed to act as giant gutters, as multi-inch rainfalls are semi-annual occurrences there. Just that bit of urban planning right there puts it far ahead of where New Orleans was when it got hit.
Given how much information we have about the frequencies of various natural disasters in specific areas over time, as well as information on the geology of specific areas, it's amazing that people still choose to build homes in certain areas. In a given area we know where flood zones are, we know how frequently earthquakes occur, as well as tornadoes, hurricanes & tropical storms, ice storms, and other severe weather phenomenon. We also know generally where karst is (sinkhole prone land) as well as areas where beach erosion occurs.
Maybe it's my imagination but it seems like we have all this information, and yet we still seem to be caught off guard. Historically, it's understandable why homes were built in dangerous areas, that is, we didn't yet know what we know today.
Please give me credit if I've said it first: They're less worried about Harvey hurting Texas than they are delighted that at the prospect of Harvey hurting Trump.
My wife was saying it back when Harvey was still only a tropical storm.
"The local NBC affiliate had a fellow I liked to call Danger Boy."
You're talking about the self-described Ratings King, Jim Forman.
Do you understand anyone's situation or do you consider other people props to score points?
Some people think it would be lots and lots of fun to ride out a hurricane. "Hurricane parties," do exist and they are a phenomenon. Wife and I rode out a cat 4 when we got stuck on the Caribbean island where we were vacationing and couldn't get off. The people who think it will be fun are wrong.
The real cause of the Katrina disaster wasn't even the levees although that was the part played by crooked Louisiana pols.
The real cause of the disaster was MRGO, the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, that cut through the delta that had protected New Orleans for centuries from hurricanes and left a freeway right into the city.
The Mississippi River – Gulf Outlet Canal (abbreviated as MRGO or MR-GO) is a 76 mi (122 km) channel constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers at the direction of Congress in the mid-20th century that provided a shorter route between the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans' inner harbor Industrial Canal via the Intracoastal Waterway. In 2005, although disputed by the Corps of Engineers, the MRGO channeled Hurricane Katrina's storm surge into the heart of Greater New Orleans, contributing significantly to the subsequent multiple engineering failures experienced by the region's hurricane protection network. In the aftermath the channel was closed.[1] A permanent storm surge barrier was constructed in the MRGO in 2009, and the channel has been closed to maritime shipping.
I sometimes wonder if the Army Corps of Engineers likes America.
People forget that LA handled Katrina well, EXCEPT for New Orleans. And even there, had the Levees held, New Orleans would have been OK.
Wasn't Galveston wiped out in 1905 by a Hurricane with 5,000 killed and washed away?
@rcocean - It was 1900 and the death toll was more like 8,000.
The big reason NO was a disaster is that a large part of the city is actually lower than the Levees. IOW, without the Levees large parts of it would uninhabitable and would flood probably every year.
"It was 1900 and the death toll was more like 8,000."
Thanks. Its one of those amazing things in US History that's more or less forgotten because it didn't occur in New England or New York.
Nonapod: I think you are right to point out the wealth of information available but apparently discounted or ignored in building things. I think the sxcan be explained by incentives. If I can get cheap flood insurance why won't I want to build right on the beach? Especially when others are doing the same, and soon the price of beach property will rise, so I better act quickly, right? And the lender is OK because I'm
insured, and the town is happy because taxes go up.
So it is just pretty wonderful until the next storm.
Rinse, repeat.
And fuck the fucking weather people! The OFFICIAL forecast the day before Ike hit Galveston was "certain death". I slept like a baby.
I think althouse is onto something... https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/901164623608647681
FYI, I am a 30 year resident of Galveston.
The left are collective ghouls.
Also -the left are more like the KKK than they understand. Both the KKK and the left want to divide everyone up by skin color.
Dr. Navarro on Weather Channel just said prediction is that storm will hang around on TX coast and probably move up from Corpus to Houston, where it could remain until Wednesday. Wow, that is going to be something.
I was in New Orleans the year before Katrina and saw first hand how unprepared they were because I flew in the day after Hurricane Ivan missed the city and devastated the Gulf Coast and Pensacola.
I was going to a medical convention and wondered if it even would be cancelled. Nope, I got there the next day and there was ZERO storm preparation.
I guess they just trusted to luck. It ran out with Katrina. All the levee money appropriated by Congress was spent on casino parking lots.
Regarding FEMA, in Biloxi they brought (after a very long wait due to travel time) trailers for people to live in. The trailers had been made in Alaska. The trailers came without steps or ramps so that elderly or disabled people couldn't get in or out without building these pretty obvious additions. And then it turned out that the trailers were made with materials that exceeded federal limits on formaldehyde (outgassef by the glue or insulation, I think) so nobody was allowed to live in them after all.
I think some of these genius moves antedated Bush or somehow escaped his personal supervision, but let's blame him anyway.
The media can try all they want to Bushwhack Trump after this impending natural disaster, but I think he'll blow them away like a Cat4. DJT was really strong visiting the 2016 Louisiana floods @ Greenwell Springs- that kind of thing is right in his wheelhouse.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/us/politics/donald-trump-louisiana-flood.html?mcubz=0
@mockturtle
It's sad because they were hit by one large city-destroying hurricane not that long ago and now another one is rolling over them. I'm not expecting Houston to wash away. But I do expect there to be some major flooding.
Xmas, I understand what you were saying. My point was that the smart people LEFT New Orleans before Katrina hit. If I were on the Gulf I would have boarded up and left yesterday.
"I guess they just trusted to luck. It ran out with Katrina. All the levee money appropriated by Congress was spent on casino parking lots."
If it hadn't been so real and tragic, that could be an Onion satire.
"Both the KKK and the left want to divide everyone up by skin color."
Except there are 5,000 KKK Members and 50,000,000 Leftists.
But otherwise, I agree.
storm will hang around on TX coast and probably move up from Corpus to Houston, where it could remain until Wednesday
That's been a consistent forecast for some days now. Harvey comes ashore then wobbles around for days and days. Rain will be measured in feet over a large area. Unprecedented is a word that is used too often, but this might call for it. Flooding rains all the way back to Austin and San Antonio as well as along the coast.
We'll see if it verifies and how widespread it is.
The story of the Galveston hurricane of 1900 is told in "Isaac's Storm" by Erik Larson, excellent book, available at Amazon through the Althouse Portal.
If people (you know what people I mean) are already blaming Trump for his response to the hurricane BEFORE the hurricane hits, you know that we aren't dealing with honest people.
Yeah, they Bushwhacked W good in 2005 over Katrina. But the real authors of the intra-hurricana & post-hurricane disasters were the democrat NO mayor, big-swinging Ragin Nagin (admiral of the sunk school bus fleet) and that sobbing, sweet little cajun grandmother Kat Blanko. These two clowns botched both the response and the recovery from start to finish. And they were set up to a certain extent by the chronic malfeasance of the levee boards.
"Please give me credit ..."
Hmm, both needy and demanding.
New Orleans missed the brunt of Katrina due to the proverbial last minute "wobble", that was hardly reported for days, weeks, if ever.
Houston has learned from years of flooding. There has been a massive program for decades to improve the bayous and build water "tanks" all over the area. There's one about 1/4 mile from my house, essentially 3 large ponds that hold millions of gallons of water. Still to be completed is the hook up from this tank to the main run off system. FWIW I've had 2 heavy rain storms already this year. Both unpredicted. Water got up over the curb. Both rains were in the 4-6" in 2 hours variety.
Stories report matter of factly that Katrina killed 1800 people. It wasn't the hurricane, it was the levees.
Does that distinction make any difference? No Katrina, then no levee failure.
--------
It matters if they're trying to suggest a similar death count could happen here, where there's not the same levee issue.
The narrative has been ordained ... So shall it be spoken and written.
"...and trying not to be too unseemly about it..." The media? Trying to be Unseemly?
Nope. That ship has sailed. And sank...
Except there are 5,000 KKK Members and 50,000,000 Leftists.
Too bad there wasn't time to get the word out that there will be a KKK rally in Corpus Christi tomorrow AM (maybe 50 will come). That at least 250,000 Antifa/et al counter protestors are need to get down there ASAP.
How about a poll Althouse? Will the storm be milder or worse than predicted or about the same as predicted?
The storm doesn't matter. All that matters is the response to the storm. And if the response comes from a Republican administration it won't be adequate. It'll be picked apart and called racist. Take that to the bank.
Listen for the sound of the Hurricane wind. It literally shrieks and howls for hours on end.
It's Harvey the talking storm.
https://www.salon.com/2017/08/24/trump-just-flunked-his-first-natural-disaster-test/
Harvey? Isn't that some sort of drinking buddy?
Please give me credit if I've said it first: They're less worried about Harvey hurting Texas than they are delighted that at the prospect of Harvey hurting Trump.
And if you are wrong, are you going to admit you were being a big jerk?
Generally, I only listen to NPR. And NPR reporting has nothing remotely like what you posit.
Bush was always too content to be judged by history to counter the media's lies. Trump suffers from no such defect.
Micheal K
I had never heard of MRGO. That's why this is the most informative comment section of any news site.
Add this to the list of stories that prove the media, has no interest in reporting the facts. By Today's standards, that makes the media liars. Because when President Trump doesn't read from the media script, and fails to mention what they what him to say, they call it a lie.
Newtonian no-brainer to predict media will blame Trump. Before, during, and after. Tough money’s on Breitbart renaming Harvey to “Antifa” before NYT or CNN renames Harvey to “God’s Vengeance Against Trumpian KKK White Nationalism.” My money and heart are going to relief efforts, studying now which to support.
Somebody's bound to point out that under Obama's Administration no major hurricanes hit the US mainland. So maybe he did stop the ocean's rise.
Here’s a full-fledged documentary on the Galveston storm.
Acosta at CNN isn't bothering with the "trying no to be too unseemly about it" part. This morning he tweeted:
'Good morning Mr. President... what is your administration doing about the hurricane to keep Texans safe?
Look who wants some kind of barrier between Texas and trouble approaching from the south.
5,000 KKK members seems like a lot. If there were that many we surely would hear more about them. Possibly that many KKK's and "Nazis" put together?
Fox News was all "Harvey" tonight. I think they really are salivating at the prospect of "Bushwacking" Trump!
We had hundreds of trees down in our neighborhood after Ike. But I live where there are good ol' boys, and they have chainsaws. They started sawing, neighbors without chainsaws started hauling away the sawed-off trees, and our boulevard was clean and open to traffic in four hours.
By contrast, FEMA took more than a month to come pick up the soaked carpet and sheetrock pulled out of our house. It sat there killing the grass and stinking, and when they finally picked it up, they left big chunks behind which we had to get rid of ourselves.
After Katrina, churches in the Houston area sent teams of volunteers to NOLA to help the restoration and cleanup. I spoke to volunteers from our church, who came back disillusioned. They said the NOLA residents they were trying to help sat in chairs watching the volunteers work. They did nothing to help themselves.
Had our good ol' boys and neighbors been the New Orleans style of citizen, we would have still been stuck in our subdivision for a month, waiting for FEMA to clear our road.
Give me good ol' boys, any time!
I think Harvey is a dud. Totally over-hyped by NOAA. Weather report from Corpus at 5 pm shows 1.5" rain. I've had less than 1" in Houston and I live near the center. They clearly overestimated the amount of water the storm was carrying.
Send Shepard Smith down to cover it. Send some depends with him this time.
"Totally over-hyped"
Democrats can't get a break with their quest to take down Trump once and for all!
Winning consists in insisting and persisting in making sure history is written truthfully. Thank Providence for President Trump's tenacity on facts.
MathMom!
8/25/17, 6:00
Great post. If you’re really into math, then what you’re describing - metrically - is an exercise in Kropotkin’s theory of “mutual aid,” which he worked into a neighborhood theory of anarchism (his bias: not mine), and has long since been far, far, far better measured (reciprocal altruism), but really, there is a kind of healthy, local, mutual-aid-anarchism (not Antifa destroying stuff) that deserves its generous due of praise, that is, the kind of generous anarchism that doesn’t wait for, and blame government tits. Minimal-statist that I am, I wish that your story goes viral. I'm going to be spreading your story to all my friends. I wish the media would puff this stuff. Perfect - math mixed with heart. Thank you!
"I think Harvey is a dud."
A little to early to make that call. I think the name is a dud, if not for gender neutral naming, this one should be Hillary.
Mathmom
We had the same experience. The dead end road we live on, went through an derecho, a straight line wind 50 to 100 mph. It toppled a bunch of trees, completely blocking the road. Wind hit at 4:30 AM. By 8:00 am we had the road open to traffic. No govt even showed up. No bosses, no direction. Just people doing what they were capable of doing. Chain saw, dragging branches, bringing water, providing day care, even a couple of guys that could keep the engines in saws going. We also didn't have electricity for three days. But that's just life.
"Send Shepard Smith down to cover it. Send some depends with him this time."
I agree, this coverage sucks. "Live from our weather center in New York...!" is so exciting.
Screw that, I want a live report from the beach at Corpus Cristi.
Some advice for those who want to tough it out.
CNN has declared Trump's failure in advance, so we can all relax.
I am Houston in the inner loop. Got my Floaties on. We will survive!
Freder CCN and its Twitter monkeys certainly have, and God only knows what's going on at MSNBC...
The difference is Trump won't take it in the shorts quietly like Bush did.
Also this hurricane is probably a Russian plot.
Harvey will screw President Bush even worse.
Push, push, into George Bush.
"I think Harvey is a dud."
With a name like that, Progressives had such hopes for it.
NOAA is now predicting that Harvey will hit Houston at 1 PM. On WEDNESDAY!!! I suppose all the schools and businesses will stay shut down all week.....
Houston has a competent mayor and Texas a competent governor, unlike New Orleans and Louisiana, respectively, when Katrina struck.
Makes all the difference in the world.
A category four storm is no joke. I live in South Florida on the water and my house was built to withstand a 150 mph wind and is eight feet above flood. If a cat 4 storm was heading my way, I would prepare the house, make sure all of my insurance is inforce, have my credit cards paid, get cash and then get the hell out of Dodge. Of course five million of my friends and neighbors will probably be doing the same so it could be a yuuuuge problem. It's twenty five years ago almost to the day that Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida and if you have never seen the damage a major storm can do, you really can't imagine just how destructive such a storm can be.
The Morial Machine sure got those schoolbuses out driving N.O. people to the polls to park Mary Landrieu in the Senate in '96.
Some people think it would be lots and lots of fun to ride out a hurricane. "Hurricane parties," do exist and they are a phenomenon. Wife and I rode out a cat 4 when we got stuck on the Caribbean island where we were vacationing and couldn't get off. The people who think it will be fun are wrong.
The idea of a hurricane party is to combine persons of the opposite sex, booze, a sense of "this could be our last night on Earth" danger, and an inability to leave into an artificially-induced exhilarating intimacy. If you're there with your spouse, well, of course you didn't have fun.
MathMom, we had a similar experience during Ike. Our street was flooded very early in the morning - until a dad and 2 teenage sons came out with rakes and cleared all the storm drains. Once the rain lightened up, everyone came out, took note of the 2 large trees that were down (1 blocking the road and 1 trapping a family in their house), and set to work. My husband and our next door neighbor manned the chainsaws and everyone else dragged branches out of the way as they worked. The trees were cleared out of the way in no time. And it wasn't just the neighbors who got things done - 3 days after the storm, our regular COH trash pickup showed up, right on time.
We're hanging out here in the Med Center for the duration of Stinkin' Harvey. Let's hope our house keeps up its 77 year record of never flooding. Cheers all.
Trump pardons Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the midst of the Harvey storm that will linger in the headlines until at least Wednesday.
Generally, I only listen to NPR. And NPR reporting has nothing remotely like what you posit.
That explains a lot, Fredo.
This is precisely the kind of crisis that Trump ought to be able to handle with smoothness. I'm hoping he and his people come through here.
Anyone remember the "Cajun Navy" from the Louisiana floods last summer?
Trump can't stand that more people are interested in Harvey than him. Why else do the pardon now?
Took 14 minutes for ABC Evening News (West Coast) edition to get to Trump and the hurricane. Maybe 40 seconds worth. Used it to segue into transgenders in the military. Another 30 seconds.
All in all, modest.
Hmm.
Lots going on today.
- Trump pardons Arpaio
- Gorka resigns
- SF and Berkeley riots cancelled for tomorrow. A pity, I was going to go look.
- NK shoots off a bunch of missiles that don't seem to work.
"Houston has a competent mayor and Texas a competent governor"
Have you noticed that one of them has suggested evacuating and the other recommends against?
That's some pretty fucked up coordination there. Sorry if it disrupts your narrative
"Why else do the pardon now?"
Possibly because Gorka resigned.
Another thumb in the eye of the MSM ..... that would be the pardon of Sheriff Joe. The timing is exquisite.
Trump has taken so many slings and arrows that his skin has become calloused to media abuse. Winning!!
"Why else do the pardon now?"
To drive the MSM liberals crazy, and it's worked. Turn on CNN and MSNBC where "Harvey" has been downgraded to a Cat-1-minus.
The Corps of engineers reads like a meme joke,
The Corps cuts off meanders to speed up the flow, then the Corps builds wing dams to slow down the flow!
There is a map of the central US in the Corps head office, all blue.
http://digitalcollections.uark.edu/cdm/ref/collection/arknatenv/id/40
MSM derangement syndrome.
I think I will drink a Harvey Wallbanger but first a trip to get some Galliano liqueur.
of couse CNN is all politics now when the hurricane should be The Story tonight. The pardon could have waited.
David. I think prob some conservatives are also concerned about the hurricane.
" The pardon could have waited."
CNN playing up the pardon should have waited. They don't seem a have a brain between them. Just imagine if they didn't say a word, other than a short text message on their scroll.
So far Jim Cantore hasn't said a word about the pardon.
Arpaio deserves to be pardoned and the judiciary system deserves to be cleaned up.
CNN has finally done it. They found a way make a Hurricane racist by accusing Trump of creating a political Storm over a racist monster Arpaio while Harvey was storming Texas...the shame, the shame.
Scott Adams was wrong about thetr being no way to make a Trump's handling a hurricane become a Racism.charge.
Most of the coverage I have seen focuses on the effects the hurricane will have on Texas, but if the media really wanted to blow some shade on Trump they might report all the broken glass and anti-semitic incidents in the last few weeks.
Tornados are a big threat despite the diminished threat of high straight line winds. Matthew dropped several big trees on my house in different directions. Looked rotational.
Mock turtle -- do you have a useful suggestion on how to clean up the judiciary? Apart from pardoning those in criminal contempt of lawful orders?
Everyone forgot that the US military rescued hundreds of people right after Katrina. That's the main thing the federal govt is supposed to do.
Well, let's see, steve...are not sanctuary cities in criminal contempt of lawful orders? Whose ox is being gored?
If they are in contempt they should be treated accordingly. A pardon to someone in criminal contempt is thumping your nose at the Rule of Law.
Howard 2:18
That was interesting. Have you seen video of the Oroville Dam almost-disaster? Same idea.
Sebastian Gorka, fired by Chief of Staff Kelly, is already badmouthing the Trump administration to Breitbart. It's a veritable hurricane of breaking news tonight. The Sheriff Joe pardon was a bone thrown to the Trump base. Maybe they'll be so busy chewing on it that they don't notice that Kelly is finally ridding the White House of the Alt Right loons. I wonder if the LGBTQ community will storm the gates of the White House in protest for the banning of transgender Americans from the military.
Does anybody think the media will mention any of the criminals pardoned by Obama and Billy Jeff?
Robert E Lee began his career in the Corps of Engineers, then the elite part of the Army. Do I need to say anything more?
I wonder if the LGBTQ community will storm the gates of the White House
Do you really think that's a winning issue for your side?
"I wonder if the LGBTQ community will storm the gates of the White House."
"Do you really think that's a winning issue for your side?"
I don't know if it's a winning issue, I don't care if it's a winning issue. It's a loser move for the Trump administration and is a slap in the face to patriotic transgender Americans who would willingly and already do willingly risk their lives to serve our nation.
They didn't bother reporting (much) the antisemitic incidents in the Califirnia universities.
Quite a constant thing over here.
And the pardon of Joe Arpaio is a slap in the face to Hispanic Americans and to the Rule of Law and the Judicial System. It may be celebrated by Trumpists-the 33%, but it won't go unnoticed by the rest of America.
Feste -
(*blush!!*) Thank you for your kind words about my comment. I see two others who have had the same experience, iowan2 and Tari. I like your description, generous anarchism that doesn’t wait for, and blame government tits. That's the way I felt about seeing it happen. People were so happy to be able to help. What the NOLA residents think they have, with someone supposedly providing for them, is very empty. They are missing that great feeling that comes from rising to the occasion and making things better, even if you get muddy in the process.
The thing I consider the 8th Wonder of the World, male upper-body strength, is closely followed by what might be the 9th Wonder of the World - the role testosterone plays in seeing such a situation and getting out the power tools. My young lad was texting his friends in the neighborhood and found out "the guys" were helping with all the trees, and went to help. It was largely glorious men and boys, doing what comes naturally, that made short work of the problem, to everyone's benefit. IMHO, we feminize the world and destroy the male impulse to our peril.
You spelled "Trump is deranged" syndrome wrong.
iowan2 -
It's great to see this sort of response to a bad situation, isn't it? When I read your comment, it brought to mind the movie Witness, in which an Amish barn-raising takes place. Everyone's particular talents come out, people do what needs to be done, and the young boys and girls learn lessons about self reliance that can't be taught in a classroom.
They would love to have a damaging storm to buttress their lies about AGW.
Hmmm. Someone's getting a little weird with the language. How exactly does one "buttress a lie," Orwell-wannabe?
A pardon to someone in criminal contempt is thumping your nose at the Rule of Law.
Should pardons be restricted to people who haven't committed crimes?
Tari -
I liked reading your account of your Ike experience. Your picture shows a very smiling face - I'll bet you and the others who cleared the trees away were in good spirits when they were clearing out the mess, finding they could improve their situation even in the aftermath of such a storm!
Sorry about the time in the Med Center. I hope your house remains safe, and the reason you're in the Med Center is better very soon. The hurricane is bad enough - the added stress of hospitalization is not fun.
Best wishes.
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