Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

The willow is too close to the house.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Second rate reporter says what?

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

He really is that stupid.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

You are here: Home / Climate Change / Open Thread: Big Storm, Small Man

Open Thread: Big Storm, Small Man

by | 151 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

I was of two minds about all the bad publicity surrounding Trump’s farcical Texas drop-in yesterday. On the one hand, it’s always good when some of Trump’s deluded cultists more optimistic supporters — not least his cheerleaders from the Very Serious Media — realize they mean as much to him as a well-done steak, to be devoured and forgotten. On the other hand, given Lord Smallgloves’ notoriously pissy temperament, he could very well decide to punish all the LOSERS & HATERS by refusing to sign off on desperately needed aid packages…



Jenna Johnson, at the Washington Post, “Even in visiting hurricane-ravaged Texas, Trump keeps the focus on himself”:

…His responses to the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey have been more focused on the power of the storm and his administration’s response than on the millions of Texans whose lives have been dramatically altered by the floodwaters.

He has talked favorably about the higher television ratings that come with hurricane coverage, predicted that he will soon be congratulating himself and used 16 exclamation points in 22 often breathless tweets about the storm. But as of late Tuesday afternoon, the president had yet to mention those killed, call on other Americans to help or directly encourage donations to relief organizations…

While Trump’s top aides gathered with Vice President Pence at the White House over the weekend, Trump videoconferenced in. On Saturday, he wore a white campaign hat. On Sunday, he opted for a red version. As of Tuesday evening, both hats — which feature “USA” on the front, “45” on a side and “Trump” in the back — were being sold on Trump’s campaign website, prompting ethics watchdogs to accuse the president of trying to profit off the crisis…

Frank Bruni, in the NYTimes, “The Waters Swell. So Does Trump’s Ego”:

… [W]hat Trump saw in Hurricane Harvey was a mirror of his own majesty. A storm worthy of a stud like him. A meteorological complement to one of his resorts, rallies or steaks. Something really, really big.

“Even experts have said they’ve never seen one like this!” Trump marveled on Twitter, and I read exultation into that not because I’m sour on the president but because I have eyes. Also because I have a memory. He has used almost exactly those words to describe a buffet of developments in his rise and reign, always with an air of self-impressed wonder…

Even Ari ‘Dubya’s Mouthpiece’ Fleisher!

.

But then, next day…

Reader Interactions

151Comments

  2. 2.

    Jeffro

    Someone please get this jackass on a hot mic talking about how much money there’ll be to be made grifting off of the recovery and rebuilding effort…

  6. 6.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud:

    It won’t be that expensive. We’ll just stiff the contractors. Trump style.

    And use cheap Chinese steel and Mexican construction workers to keep costs under control.

  7. 7.

    efgoldman

    Apparently somebody at the WH with maybe 30% of a brain looked at the reaction to the trip and issued a proper statement of concern for the dead, homeless and injured over Velveeta Voldemort’s name.
    But nobody can unsee or unhear what happened yesterday.

  9. 9.

    Roger Moore

    @Jeffro:

    Btw this should go well for Republicans: they’re about to hold children’s health insurance hostage for another chance to take a whack at Obamacare

    So they’ll gut insurance for kids if we don’t let them gut insurance for everyone?

  10. 10.

    Old Dan and Little Anne

    F drumph. My crazy rescue dog that we had for 6 years was put down on Sunday. I didn’t think my wife and I had much of an emotional attachment to Yeller because he ran away close to a dozen times. But we were both full of tears all Sunday. 2nd time in 6 years we’ve had to put a cancer stricken dog out if his misery. : (

  11. 11.

    lamh36

    Evening peeps came home to day to the headlines bout Megyn Kelly’s show tanking and how the Today show colleagues are askurred that her dismal ratings and Q score will affect the ratings/Q score of the show.

    Yeah…they should worry…who woulda thought…hiring the main Blonde Faux news bobblehead, who never failed to finda a racist way to spin any story about people of color vs white folks…would have an issue with keeping a diverse audience….ya know DIVERSE…

    @thedailybeast
    NBC colleagues are nervous that the poor showing of her Sunday night current-affairs show will follow her to “Today”
    https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/902985049901060098

    NBC in ‘total panic’ as Megyn Kelly attracts only old white people after firing popular black host Tamron Hall http://www.rawstory.com/2017/08/nbc-in-total-panic-as-megyn-kelly-attracts-only-old-white-people-after-firing-popular-black-host-tamron-hall/#.WadiIq26Ppo.twitter

    (They didn’t technically FIRE Tam’Ron Hall. Tamron quit when they overlooked giving her a hosting time spot and instead hired Kelly and gave her a solo prime spot)

    Still, if I’m Tamron Hall, I’m sitting at home ready these articles like this: https://media.giphy.com/media/86XNoBdI44ZYA/giphy.gif

  12. 12.

    donnah

    Dear Trump: Obamacare and Hurricane Harvey = human lives.

    You’re selling fucking hats on your campaign website. You touched none of the flood victims. Your words offered no empathy or comfort or hope.

    You are already passing over Harvey to promote tax cuts for the wealthy, passing over the cost of rebuilding ruined Texas for funding your ridiculous wall.

    Presidenting: You’re doing it wrong.

  16. 16.

    Anne Laurie

    @Old Dan and Little Anne:

    My crazy rescue dog that we had for 6 years was put down on Sunday.

    Condolences on your loss.

    Even with the ones I was convinced I wouldn’t regret losing… as the Spousal Unit puts it, If you’re the sort of person who’s willing to take a less-than-perfect rescue, you’re the sort of person who’ll mourn them when the time comes.

  18. 18.

    lamh36

    Another great Luvvie blogpost featuring the best of the Luvvie-Nation comments on her Faebook post…some of the funniest commenters on the interwebs (outside of BJ of course)

    ThumbsUp Trumpledick and Disaster Barbie to the Hurricane Harvey Rescue! – via @Luvvie

    Melania Trump in the new Hurricane Harvey SS17 runway collection. Who doesn’t need a pair of 5 inch stilettos to wade through waist deep water? I mean, you can’t comfort a suffering city without reminding them that at the end of the tunnel is a squinting white lady to receive you in her Air KneeBreak black heels. And her dumbass thumbs up giving buffoon of a husband.

    I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling comforted already, knowing Squinty McGee and Squirrelwig McRacistpants are coming to Houston’s rescue. Except they didn’t even touch down in Houston, going to Corpus Christi instead. Fuckasses. They are the true worst. It’s for the best, though, since the people of Houston have suffered more than enough….

  21. 21.

    Old Dan and Little Anne

    Thanks. One of the strangest things has simply been opening house doors without the worry of him bolting. I hope he finally finds what he was wanderlusting after. The local police and animal control folks will probably miss him as well.

  22. 22.

    randy khan

    Someone should tell Abbott that not everything is bigger in Texas.

    The package should, of course, be whatever is appropriate considering the damage and the number of people affected. Maybe it should be more than Katrina, but maybe not.

  25. 25.

    TS

    @donnah:

    You touched none of the flood victims.

    More likely than not – none of the flood victims wanted to be touched by this president*

  26. 26.

    eclare

    JFC, why is KAC still invited on CNN? Anderson is in TX, though, I’ve always liked him. KAC is on with Cuomo, who she owned a couple of weeks ago.

  28. 28.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    This has probably already been mentioned but apparently the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby TX is going to probably explode and or catch fire, per the company CEO: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/30/arkema-ceo-no-way-to-potentially-stop-an-explosion.html

    “Richard Rowe, CEO of the North America unit, told reporters that chemicals on the site will catch fire and explode if they are not properly cooled, and that Arkema expects that to happen within the next six days as temperatures rise. He said the company has no way to prevent that because the plant is swamped by about six feet of water.”

    Apparently they lost power this weekend and then their emergency generator got swamped by flooding. So no refrigeration for chemicals that need it.

    I also wonder what’s going on with the level 4 Biosafety labs at the Galveston National Labs on Galveston Island.. https://www.utmb.edu/gnl/safety/ Yes they have back up generators but as we have seen time and time again, generators often seem to be put in place with protection from moderate flooding, then they get biblical flooding. Additionally generator have to be refueled. In situations like this where is the additional fuel come from…

  29. 29.

    BethanyAnne

    @JPL: She’s fine, thanks for asking :) She went to work today, and was grateful to leave the apartment. I think those of us who are lucky enough to have dodged the worst are still a little stir crazy, and tired from anxiety. It could have been so much worse, though, and was for friends.

    Her cow-orker had just moved back into his house. He was out a year, repairing from the Memorial Day floods of 2015. Went for a week vacation in San Francisco Tuesday. Neighbors posted pics of their neighborhood with 3 feet of water in his house. He needs to #!@(** move.

  30. 30.

    lamh36

    @eclare: Anderson was on vaykay, like Wolf Blitzer was for the Situtation Room, Anderson couldn’t stay away, so he’s back today on location in Texas, with his usual on location uniform of tight Black shirt and gleaming gray hair.

    (FYI, I’m being snarky, I like Anderson actually, but I do sometime snark on his disaster coverage since Katrina)

  32. 32.

    james parente

    I just found out that the Houston Mets/Astros serries will be played in Houston, this weekend. Is it just me or does this decision look ill advised?

  33. 33.

    Old Dan and Little Anne

    One last story. The day we brought Yeller home was mid August 6 years ago. 2 days after our beloved 10 1/2 year old yellow lab was put down. I was absolutely against another dog until all vet bills were paid. Wife goes to shelter and sees Yeller and thinks he looked like Mickey. I was forced to go look at him and I knew he was nuts but I couldn’t leave him there. Anyway. as soon as we sat down to dinner that night he jumped directly into the middle of our kitchen table and sent everything flying. I wanted to take him back every day for a least a year. Lol…. Damn dog.

  34. 34.

    efgoldman

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone:

    “…chemicals on the site will catch fire and explode if they are not properly cooled, and that Arkema expects that to happen within the next six days as temperatures rise….”

    We’re Texas, y’all. We don’t need no stinkin’ gumint regulations :::spit:::

  36. 36.

    Brachiator

    But as of late Tuesday afternoon, the president had yet to mention those killed, call on other Americans to help or directly encourage donations to relief organizations…

    Kanye West once said, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

    Trump doesn’t care about anyone who is not himself or his family.

    That said, I get the impression that people and responders care more about dealing with the flood than what Trump says.

  39. 39.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Old Dan and Little Anne

    I so sorry for your loss. I lost my 16 yr old fluffy kitty Sunday night. He was old and slowing down a bit, but he seemed fine and I thought sure I had a few more years with him. At least I still have his crotchety sister Minnie the Meaney. It still hurts. Hugs if you want them…

  42. 42.

    efgoldman

    @Brachiator:

    people and responders care more about dealing with the flood than what Trump says.

    That’s clear from the video. Story after story of ordinary citizens using their boats and vehicles in rescue operations, some from hundreds of miles away.
    Unfortunately, it takes a tragedy of this scale to bring out the best in people.

  46. 46.

    efgoldman

    @mvr:

    Maybe the various Trump properties could offer free rooms to Harvey refugees.

    I’m sure instructions have already come down to charge a significant premium. Cash or approved cards only.

  47. 47.

    BethanyAnne

    Aw, now Mattress Mack is going to use his stores as dropoff points for cleaning supplies to help people recover from the storms. As soon as he’s done letting people use them for shelters. He’s such good people.

  48. 48.

    Adam L Silverman

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: If both of those go kaboom, then disaster management and emergency response in the greater Houston area is going to turn into something else entirely. And it will be very, very bad.

  49. 49.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I think what is so awful about Trump’s reaction can be summed up this way; people who were to ill or sick to escaped laid there helplessly drowned because help couldn’t get to them in time. Trump as the leader of the country is ultimately responsible for that. And while there was little if anything he could have done to prevent it, the fact that the reality of the limits of his powers doesn’t disturb him in the slightest and instead he sees this something to make himself famous, is just simply wrong.

  50. 50.

    mai naem mobile

    @lamh36: I am kind of po’d at Anderson not reaching out to Kathy Griffin for over 2 months after the Dolt45 beheaded effigy thing. I get it that he didn’t reach out in the immediate fallout but maybe after a month??? Even behind the scenes. Kind of cowardly. He worked with her for 17 years.

  52. 52.

    Brachiator

    @efgoldman:

    Story after story of ordinary citizens using their boats and vehicles in rescue operations, some from hundreds of miles away.

    A radio host here in the Los Angeles area interviewed a friend of his from Austin. The guy’s church bought a boat and they were out trying to help people. Even cut the interview short when he got word that they needed to go back and pick up some people who had tried to wait out the previous storm wave.

  55. 55.

    WaterGirl

    @BethanyAnne: I have worked with a number of cow-orkers over the years, but I wasn’t on as good terms with them as you seem to be with yours. :-) Just teasing, I thought that was a cute typo. Cow-orkers is a term best saved for the colleagues you don’t like, I think.

    edit: Forgot to say how pleased I am for you that the worst has passed in your area. What a relief!!

  56. 56.

    mai naem mobile

    @BethanyAnne: I don’t think he’s doing it for the publicity but,man,this guy has gotten millions if dollars of free advertising at a relatively small cost. This guy is going to get people buying furniture from his business for decades based on what he’s doing right now. Stupid Joel OSteen and supposed Brandmaster Dolt45 could learn a lesson from Mattress Mack.

  58. 58.

    efgoldman

    @Brachiator:

    Even cut the interview short when he got word that they needed to go back and pick up some people who had tried to wait out the previous storm wave.

    I’m sure multiple books about Harvey will come out, full of stories like this about casual heroism.

  59. 59.

    Old Dan and Little Anne

    Cheers,everybody. I don’t know how I wound up here many years ago but dogs may have been involved.

  63. 63.

    WaterGirl

    @efgoldman: I don’t think it has to be on this scale, EF. When the tree hit my house 4 years ago, so many people were amazingly kind. The furniture store stored my leather sectional for 6 months. No charge. The owner of the cleaners stored all my clothes and all my bedding, pretty much everything I owned except for half a dozen outfits I wore for 6 months. He was only going to charge me next to nothing for 6 months of storage, I made him take more money. I could go on and on, everyone was so kind!

    edit: the guy who took down my tree was the kindest of all… he knew how much I had loved my tree – he called it the matriarch of our neighborhood, he waited an extra day to take his vacation so he could take it down for me so I could get it over with.

  64. 64.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @scav It somehow gives me a very Fallout 4 vibe, I don’t know why.. or maybe Castle Wolfenstein…Bio lab, huge storm, airborne disease vectors.. I’m sure people in authority have everything under control…right? It’s not funny, I just feel a little bit like I’ve been living in a disaster movie spoof since last November.

  67. 67.

    Ruckus

    @Old Dan and Little Anne:
    Sorry for your loss.
    Sometimes I think that the most ornery dogs are the best. My last one was one ornery bastard and yet, he was a great companion. Have his picture as my phone background, so I can see him everyday.

  72. 72.

    efgoldman

    @Ruckus:

    My last one was one ornery bastard and yet, he was a great companion.

    Don’t ornery dogs usually have ornery owners?

  81. 81.

    NorthLeft12

    I keep wondering how many times that Deadbeat Donald has to show what an incompetent, ignorant, and selfish ass he is to his core supporters before even they get that he is an odious person and not worthy of being the US President.

    My gut feel is that it will always be plus one. They are bound to him like an anchor. They will sink to the furthest depths with him. Hopefully they do not take a lot of other Americans with them.

  82. 82.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: I had to fix the title. I took northern Kentucky from the email and made it northwestern Kentucky in the title. So I had to change it to northern, which then makes it a different post. Just reload this page and then hit on the next post arrow to the right.

  87. 87.

    Bill Arnold

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
    According to Google Maps (searching on Arkema Inc., Crosby Eastgate Road, Crosby, TX 77532, USA) there appear to be residences nearby, the closest (nice looking swimming pool) very roughly 400 meters away from site center. (or 500). Moot, I suppose; they’re probably all flooded ATM.
    https://www.arkema.com/en/media/news/news-details/Status-of-Plant-in-Crosby-Texas – status – last update Aug 29.

    I can imagine the desirability of owning/renting a house within walking distance of the potentially-explody factory where one works. Sort of. Particularly if the plant pays substantial real estate taxes. A bit weird though.
    (Is this unique to Texas? Found this, about Houston (not Crosby) amusing (punchy/decohered a bit today) : Zoning, More Than Just a Tool: Explaining Houston’s Regulatory Practice )
    (On the third hand, people do live near nuclear power plants and accept the arguments that the risk of an accident is low, in return for low real estate taxes.)

    So, guessing that the plant will be allowed to explode if it does, and the level 4 Biosafety labs at the Galveston National Labs will be saved, because there is no risk to saving the later until the generators go, and letting them fail would be bad.

  95. 95.

    WaterGirl

    @BethanyAnne: They should add that to the menu. Comfort food platter. Except they would have to call it “many sides”, and that would ruin everyone’s appetites because it would make them think of the Dumpster.

  99. 99.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Bill Arnold: Texas does not have zoning requirements about where industrial commercial facilities have to be separated from residential. Hence the industrial explosion in the town of West, Texas a few years back. The facility that exploded was smack dab in the middle of a residential area.

  102. 102.

    BethanyAnne

    @WaterGirl: Normally, I have the seafood poboys at Popeyes. This is the first time in a long time that I’ve had any chicken at all there. But they were clearly running on a skeleton crew – didn’t even have the dining room open, just drive through. So, I tried for simple.

  103. 103.

    Aleta

    @BethanyAnne: I used to go by one on the way to skiing and just get mashed potatoes gravy and biscuits. Was there okra too or am I imagining?

    wait–red beans and rice too.

  104. 104.

    WaterGirl

    They had a 13-episode Ziva NCIS marathon over the weekend, so I am off to spend some quality time with Ziva. Pretty sure i have missed her more than she has missed me.

  107. 107.

    WaterGirl

    @BethanyAnne: @Aleta: I haven’t had them in years, but they always had the BEST onion rings. They had a kick to then, too, if I recall. Now I’m really going, I hear Ziva calling me now.

  108. 108.

    catclub

    @randy khan:

    Maybe it should be more than Katrina, but maybe not.

    I saw somewhere they thought maybe 300k houses have been affected by the flooding.
    I wonder how that compares with Katrina.

    It seems to me that unlike Katrina, Houston is not totally without power (or water)
    for weeks on end. – Or at least large regions may be better off. Also destroyed bridges from Katrina

  111. 111.

    catclub

    Housing damage. Katrina damaged more than a million housing units in the Gulf Coast region. About half of these damaged units were located in Louisiana. In New Orleans alone, 134,000 housing units — 70% of all occupied units — suffered damage from Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding.

  116. 116.

    rikyrah

    Tallahassee Democrat‏Verified account @TDOnline

    FAMU named No. 1, No. 2 top producer of African-American bachelor’s,doctoral degrees in U.S.

  120. 120.

    rikyrah

    Marcus H. Johnson
    ✔
    @marcushjohnson

    If Kamala Harris says she is for Medicare for all and Bernie Bros still hate her, maybe its more about identity than policy ??

  122. 122.

    Peale

    @lamh36: I have a friend who once was on a flight to LA with Anderson. He got nervous that maybe Anderson knew something was about to happen in LA and that maybe he would be shocked to find out that the city had fallen into the sea. You don’t want to go where Anderson is flying.

  124. 124.

    Peale

    @ruemara: There ain’t no place better than Queens. To celebrate surviving DVT, he should go to Jackson heights for Pernil and filipino Ukoy.

  130. 130.

    Ruckus

    @eclare:
    I had lost my business that was supposed to take me to retirement, from the recession. A friend took me in but I couldn’t keep my dog. It was that or living in my van. He went back to the rescue org that I got him from as I couldn’t find him any other home. The lady that runs the rescue kept him. He was a cocker of about 12-14 yrs when I had to give him up in mid 2012 so I can’t imagine he’s still going. But you never know about ornery bastards. I’m still going.

  131. 131.

    rikyrah

    Dan Broadbent‏ @aSciEnthusiast

    To be fair, we need to acknowledge that Joel Osteen’s church was designed to shelter from taxes, not hurricanes.
    7:14 AM – 30 Aug 2017 from Indianapolis, IN

  136. 136.

    joel hanes

    @WaterGirl:

    Cow-orkers is a term best saved for the colleagues you don’t like, I think.

    Hmm. Where I’ve worked, it’s been a recognized idiom for “esteemed colleagues” or “gentle persons”, and has been considered perfectly cromulent. And note the affectionate possession, usually “my cow-orkers”, and seldom “the cow-orkers”

  137. 137.

    Old Dan and Little Anne

    @Laura: Thank you. When I created my nym here at BJ the most clever thing I could think of were the names of the two dogs from my favorite book, “Where the Red Fern Grows.”

  138. 138.

    Dave

    @mai naem mobile: Agree he’s a mensch. Also, there’s gonna be a bunch of soaked mattresses that need replacements. Wonder who will sell the most mattresses? He’s done crazy promotions in the past that cost him millions, so he doesn’t seem to be in it just for the money.

  139. 139.

    Laura

    @rikyrah: I’m down with Charlie Pierce’s recommendation, strip Joel Osteen’s “church” of it’s tax exemption and give it to the Matress King, who appears to be his brothers keeper in deed.

  140. 140.

    J R in WV

    So now we have a chemical plant doomed to explode – violently, AND a Class 4 biological lab with megadeath bacteria inside, with the reverse air pressure about to fail, no one knows when, because the generators WILL run out of fuel.

    We are SO fuqed. Anyone with the balls to ask Trump what can be done about these pending events? nope. ‘Cause he doesn’t have a clue…

  141. 141.

    efgoldman

    @J R in WV:

    Anyone with the balls to ask Trump what can be done about these pending events? nope

    He wouldn’t possibly have an answer if they did, but if there’s any fault it’s with Texas’ political leadership, that totally avoids any kind of “regulatory burden” on business.

  144. 144.

    Bill Arnold

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    No, that should be “on the gripping hand.”

    Doesn’t scale. :-)
    At a conference once, one of the regulars stood up at the end of a talk to make some points to the speaker, and got up to “Fourteenthly”. Most of us were amused.

  149. 149.

    BethanyAnne

    I generally like most of the folk at her office, I was just calling them cow-orkers because it amused me :)

  151. 151.

    psychobroad

    @Old Dan and Little Anne: I know this thread is dead but had to say sorry. We had to put our Gracie girl down in April and I’m still crying over her, and not likely to stop any time soon. Peace on your doggie.

Comments are closed.