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E Norton's avatar

The staff asking the questions sound a lot smarter than the guy answering them

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bitchybitchybitchy's avatar

Richardson comes across as even more incoherent than Trump.

The takeaway is that FEMA as we have known it will cease to exist, and states will noe be basically 100% responsible for cleanup and recovery from all natural disasters.

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Mary Murphy's avatar

My God, do they have something against competence

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Nick Calomino's avatar

Worse than Trump for sure. A babbling, incoherent, Trump sycophant who needs to be told if it's light or dark and just as willing to change his stance if he should sray, "go along to get along." MORON. GOD HELP US!!

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Ravi Pillalamarri's avatar

Obviously we can't read tone into a transcript but it sounded like a lot of these questions had never occurred to him.

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Gordy's avatar

Based on this article my conclusion is that Richardson is clueless and is counting on clear direction from Trump. I have never heard Trump say anything clear and concise and seriously doubt if he has a clue what FEMAs mission is. We are headed for a cluster f**k. I hope this isn’t the year we get hit by a hurricane. Richardson probably doesn’t know how many states there are but thanks to his girlfriend he now knows Texas is bigger than Spain, I hope she knows how big Alaska is and u hope he knows he is not responsible for Spain. Maybe his girlfriend will help out.

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Bill Huber's avatar

Reminds me of "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job". In another era, I would have snarkily compared this shamefest to something that would happen in a third-world dictatorship, but now I wouldn't want to offend them.

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J. Rock's avatar

To play "stump the chump" for a second...when they bring the plan to Secretary Noem the most important question will be "What kind of costume should she be wearing that would be appropriate for that meeting?"

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Judith Dyer's avatar

Lordy!

(FBI Chief James Comey testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. “Lordy, I hope there are tapes" June 2017)

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Mr. J. Citizen's avatar

Fellow is gifted at babbling!

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Earlene Busch's avatar

Good God!! How illiterate do you have to be to become a "leader"! If I lived in the hurricane zone, I would be horrified!

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Judy's avatar

So they had a meeting to talk about making a plan to make a plan? 🤨

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Deborah Al-Bassam's avatar

Well, after reading the previous posts there's nothing left for me to say that could describe this individual better, but I just have to say it -- what an idiot!

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Kent Smith's avatar

FEMA, like most government services, isn’t meant to operate as a business aiming for efficiency or profit. Instead, it exists to fulfill collective goals like ensuring public safety and facilitating recovery in times of crisis. When you shift the responsibility for essential services to the state level, especially when it involves public safety and disaster response, you're essentially suggesting that those services should become subject to cost-benefit analyses that might not align with the public interest, especially in communities where resources are scarce. In a business model, decisions are driven by profit margins; in a public service model, decisions should be driven by societal needs, fairness, and shared responsibility.

And this logic applies to all government services—public goods, like healthcare, education, infrastructure, and emergency management, are not meant to be commodified. They are essential for the well-being of the community as a whole. When these services are reduced or fragmented under a decentralization model, it often leads to greater inequality and inefficiency, as states or municipalities with fewer resources struggle to maintain them, while wealthier areas may still be able to rely on private corporations to provide the same services, thus further exacerbating disparities.

For FEMA in particular, removing its central, standardized role could undermine the collective strength of the national response system and leave individual states or regions more vulnerable in times of widespread disaster. It might also push people and communities to increasingly turn to private sector responses, like insurance companies or corporate aid organizations, which could distort the public good for private profit.

This point is clear: services like FEMA should not be reduced to market-driven efficiency models; they are foundational to our collective societal goals. The debate isn’t just about efficiency, but about what kind of society we want to live in—one where we each take on more of the burden individually or one where we pool resources and power to create a system that works for everyone.

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Nevin Oliphant's avatar

Buckle up America. It appears many Americans are headed over the cliff FEMA used to deal with, only now there will be no safety net.

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Charles Main's avatar

Sounds like this guy is going to be as great at his job as Trump is at his...There is an insidious kind of genius in embedding a real agenda in all that apparent incoherence. It probably comes from a successful career in the post WWII military, which found itself openly operating increasingly for the exclusive benefit of oligarchs while pretending to 'spread democracy'.

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