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You are here: Home / Open Threads / They Played With Fire a Little Bit

They Played With Fire a Little Bit

by | 142 Comments

This post is in: 

I’m enjoying this little bit of back-and-forth between Biden and the assholes who run Texas:

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the federal government could not distribute emergency relief supplies, including power generators, after Hurricane Beryl hit Texas until the White House was able to “track down” state leaders and get their formal request for a major disaster declaration.

Biden’s comments came as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is serving as acting governor while Greg Abbott is on an economic development trip in Asia. The president said in an exclusive interview with the Houston Chronicle that he had been trying to contact the governor to get the necessary requests to release the federal aid, which includes manpower and supplies.

“I’ve been trying to track down the governor to see — I don’t have any authority to do that without a specific request from the governor,” Biden said.

1.3 Million people are still without power in Houston after Hurricane Beryl hit.  The lie Dan Patrick told about the delay is that he had to make an on-the-ground assessment first, but:

Rafael Lemaitre, FEMA’s former national director of public affairs, said major disaster declarations do not need to wait for thorough on-the-ground assessment. Governors are the lead requesters for the designation and support, but can amend their asks as they get more information.

“The fact that 80% of Texas’ largest city was in the dark, along with widespread public reports of impacts to life and property is more than sufficient to begin the process,” Lemaitre said. “The one thing you never get back during a response is time.”

[…]

“We just want you to know, we’ve been working on this for two days and we finally got the request,” Biden said. “We positioned an awful lot of stuff in Texas ahead of time, but I had to get a specific request for this.”

“The federal government was there assessing, but we can’t declare a disaster declaration that would free up what we already staged — bottled water, meals, tarps, generators, etc,” the president said.  “And so, we’re on the ground, we’re ready to go, we just needed authority to be able to do it.”

My guess at what happened is that Abbott and Patrick toyed around with the idea of going it alone without federal help, because they’d get Democrat cooties if they worked with Biden.

Reader Interactions

142Comments

  1. 1.

    jowriter

    They can just keep the GOP cooties to themselves. May the affected folk in Houston and elsewhere in Texas get all the help they need.  Meanwhile, the Biden administration will handle this emergency as they have handled many, many others.  Efficiently, and well.

  2. 2.

    piratedan

    perfectly reasonable to assume that since Houston is a “Blue” city that the GOP powers that be were essentially unconcerned with how long it took to help those people.

    They’ve done this shit before and will continue to do it as long as they hold the offices of power.

  3. 3.

    SomeRandomGuy

    My guess at what happened is that Abbott and Patrick toyed around with the idea of going it alone without federal help, because they’d get Democrat cooties if they worked with Biden.

    Oh, come on. They wanted to prevent Biden from getting a win for helping Texas. That said, we already know they are good with people dying, if it enforces the narrative they like. They’d *prefer* the people dying be immigrants, but they’re cool with Americans they consider unimportant, too.

  4. 4.

    Belafon

    Abbott and Patrick were hoping all of Houston would drown, but that didn’t happen and red counties got affected as well.

  6. 6.

    rikyrah

    I believe that they thought they could use this to score points with the base and yell – JOE BIDEN DOESN’T CARE ABOUT TEXAS.

     

    When, in fact, it’s the Governor and Lt. Governor, who don’t care about Texas.

    It’s so on GOP brand to be gone from the state while its biggest city drowned.

    It’s so on GOP brand, that I wasn’t shocked when it happened.

    Also, it’s so on GOP brand that they still haven’t fixed the power grid after it killed people a few years ago. That would mean good governance.

    And, the GOP doesn’t believe in good governance

  7. 7.

    TBone

    I lived in spitting distance of Harris County, Texas for an entire year.  It’s not as blue as all that.  It’s bigger than Houston.

  8. 8.

    Belafon

    The tell is that Texas could have asked for a disaster declaration before the hurricane hit.

  9. 9.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    Anyone else in western NY enjoying this torrential rain and Tornado Alert?

  10. 10.

    bbleh

    @SomeRandomGuy: I think this is it.  It’s all “our team vs. their team,” and governance does not even enter the picture.

    And you can be sure they’ll blame any problems or delays on the Feds.  And, unfortunately, that a very large number of Texans will be dumb enough to believe them

    @rikyrah: and as to the Texas power grid, it’s one of the worst failures of BASIC governance in the country, it’s been a known major problem for DECADES, and they are bound and determined to die in the heat &/or the dark rather than admit they were stupid to try to go it alone and even stupider to continue given what’s happened since.

  13. 13.

    Roberto el oso

    Abbott, Patrick et al. have been at war with Houston for quite a while. Glad they got caught in the lie, and yes, the absenteeism, dilly-dallying, and neglect have been getting a lot of airplay here.

  14. 14.

    TBone

    @TBone:

    Edumacation

    Krugman and others may delight in the misfortune of Texas’s oil and gas producers, but they forget that the main reason oil prices have fallen so far, so fast, is due to good old ingenuity—much of it developed in Houston, Dallas, and Midland. Technological innovation in everything from drill bits and mud pumps to seismic analysis and digitally controlled drilling rigs has unlocked galaxies of energy that have helped transform America into an energy superpower. The U.S. now has an energy-price advantage on commodities like natural gas, propane, ethane, and even electricity over nearly every other country. That advantage is a direct result of the dynamism of the domestic oil and gas business, the epicenter of which remains in Texas.

    https://www.city-journal.org/article/texas-flood

    That’s how they see it. What grid?  Whar grid?

  15. 15.

    SomeRandomGuy

    Fixing immigration: women and men, make sure you conceive. At this point, you have a full US citizen that you are parent to, according to Republicans. Demand sanctuary, saying you’ll be forced to have an abortion if you’re sent back, by anti-life trans activists who hate “Trump”. (You gotta put the quotes, so it looks like “He” wrote it.) The lack of evidence won’t matter – just believe, very strongly, that you’re right, and soon, the NYT itself might interview you to find out why you hate Biden’s policy on the Palestinians so much.

  17. 17.

    Old Man Shadow

    @TBone:

    “What’s going to power our modern 21st century economy? Well, by golly, it’s gonna be the best energy sources the 19th century had to offer, dammit!”

  18. 18.

    ArchTeryx

    What an incredibly discouraging day on BJ. Watching even a front pager, one who just a day ago was saying the whole Biden kerfluffle was over, advocate for him to step down?

    And people wondered why I panicked about Biden actually being forced to step down. They’re never going to quit until he either actually steps down and lets the D party be destroyed, or destroys any chance of his being elected just to prove that they were right all along. Fascism and genocide be damned, egos are at stake here

    Will Rogers was right and always has been.

  19. 19.

    scav

    @TBone: Innovation is about corporate people, and thus important ones.  Grid is about serving peo-ple, mere fleshbags.

  22. 22.

    jimmiraybob

    “… the idea of going it alone without federal help …”

    I assume that everyone is familiar with the strong secessionist movement in Texas – Texans don’t need no stinkin’ help.  Until they do.  Same story, different century.  Remind me again why they aren’t still an independent republic.

  23. 23.

    Old Man Shadow

    @jimmiraybob: If we let ’em play nation-state on their own, they’d probably have nuked Mexico by now and the fallout would have turned the Southwest into a wasteland.

  24. 24.

    dm

    Well, that just shows Biden’s weakness — a Project 2025 enabled Trump would just send the military in (with orders to shoot looters, of course) without asking permission of the local bureaucrats first.

    .…. Just as soon as his golf cart could get Trump back to the clubhouse.

  26. 26.

    Josie

    My middle son and one of his daughters are here at my tiny townhome (in Houston) since my youngest son and I are among the few who actually have power and internet. We suspect the reason is that we are on a line with Memorial Hospital and therefore a priority.
    His wife and other daughter are at the other grandmother’s house since she has a generator.
    It is beyond ridiculous that so many are without power for so long. I have no idea who to blame, but Abbott being gone has echoes of Cancun Ted. I’m hoping that Allred can somehow make hay of this.

  33. 33.

    Roberto el oso

    I know I’m a broken record on this subject, but just a reminder that the state which provided the 4th largest amounts of Dem votes in the last few elections was …. Texas. I get it that Texas-bashing is easy, and we Texans do our best to bash the GOP/MAGAs every single fucking day, but the sometimes gleeful lack of support from supposed allies in blue states is extremely dispiriting.

  36. 36.

    Lobo

    Biden handling Texas emergency well.  Abbot and Patrick AWOL.

    NYT & Others:  But his debate!!(accompanied by screeching noises)  Only Democrats have agency.

  38. 38.

    mali muso

    For no particular reason, just reminding all of us (me included) that you can get involved in supporting the Dem ticket by going to Mobilize (link) and finding events and volunteering opportunities near you. Has a more tangible impact than tearing our hair out about the FTFNYT’s crusade to tank democracy.

  39. 39.

    bbleh

    @Old School: @WaterGirl: uh, ok, guess that kinda seems like some pretty serious misreading to me.  Like, reading something that isn’t there at all, which might also qualify as delusional.

    Whatever, eyes on the prize.  We’re not gonna get very far if we go all purity-police.

  42. 42.

    Lapassionara

    Hooray. Rex Hupke has an editorial in today’s USA Today, calling on Trump to step out of the race and describing the bizarre ramblings that came out of Trump’s mouth at his rally last night.

    My apologies. I am not able to provide a link.

  43. 43.

    Belafon

    Watching the leadership here in Texas, you can tell they would eliminate the cities if it didn’t cost them votes in Washington. They wouldn’t like the revenue drop, but they’d prefer a Mississippi to a California.

  44. 44.

    Captain C

    @Lobo: Also NYT:  Why is Biden refusing to help Texas?  (perhaps with a mention in paragraph 23 about how Abbott and Patrick didn’t bother to ask, or forgot to, so it’s really on them)

  45. 45.

    Anotherlurker

    Wow. I used to come to this place to escape media induced doom sayers.  However, this has all changed since people I used to respect have fallen hook, line and sinker into the dump Biden chorus.

    We have already lost and President Biden needs to be thrown into a vat of Soylent Greed mash.  s/. Snark. This is snark.

    The only solution is to throw up our hands.  I guess I should just walk in front of a bus right now to avoid trump’s inevitable win.  s/. This is snark.

    I’m done here.  I’m self imposing an almost top 10,000 blog black out while I donate to President Biden, write postcards to voters and explore other ways an ordinary citizen can help.

  46. 46.

    jimmiraybob

    @dm: “Trump would just send the military in (with orders to shoot looters, of course)…”

    But only in the legs.  Or something.

    Oh, wait a minute.  I thought you were talking about peaceful protesters.  Looters?  Death sentence.

  52. 52.

    Eolirin

    @Belafon: Well of course, the cities vote against them, after all.

    It’s so much easier to consolidate and maintain political control in a place like Mississippi.

  53. 53.

    ArchTeryx

    @Baud: mistermix. It seems way too many people are getting sucked into the Dump Biden shit vortex the media is working like Trojans to stir up.

  56. 56.

    jimmiraybob

    @Belafon: “Unless they’re white. Then they’re just trying to survive.”

    Peaceful patriots just enjoying a tour of the capitol.

    Peaceful patriots just taking what’s rightfully theirs.

    Peaceful patriots just hanging the vermin.

    Peaceful patriots just firing on Fort Sumter.

    Peaceful patriots just burning the neighborhood and massacring the neighbors.

    Peaceful patriots……..

    I think that there a blues song in here somewhere.

  61. 61.

    Eolirin

    @ArchTeryx: Mistermix wasn’t advocating for Biden to step down, he was dismantling Bennet’s statements by rhetorically accepting the premise behind them and carrying it to its logical conclusion.

  62. 62.

    ArchTeryx

    @Eolirin: I see. I thought he was agreeing with Kay, who seems to be absolutely all-in on Dump Biden and will. Not. Let. It. Go.

  63. 63.

    Eolirin

    @ArchTeryx: I took that part of the thread as him just trying to get people to be less mean in how they were commenting. Which is fair enough I feel.

    Though Kay does not seem to be a let it go kind of person in general.

  64. 64.

    prostratedragon

    Beware the paperback blurb form of journalistic skullduggery. This one is from MSNBC:

    MOMENTS AGO: Dem Sen. Blumenthal: “I am deeply concerned” about President Biden.

    Philip DeFranco caught’em:

    IN THE ACTUAL VIDEO he says, “I am deeply concerned about Joe Biden winning this election because it is an existential threat to the country if Donald Trump wins. So we have to come to a conclusion. Joe Biden as the Democrat nominee has my support”.

  72. 72.

    Eolirin

    @JWR: I hope this kind of mockery breaks through. It’ll neutralize things quite a bit if people start laughing at the Times when they bring up Biden’s age. And they’re too defensive as an organization to take it well.

  75. 75.

    Lapassionara

    @JWR: this is why they have not let Trump appear in public since the debate. He is bonkers, totally.

    I wish someone would put the photo of Trump with Putin after the Helsinki summit on a big billboard. He looked like a whipped puppy.

  77. 77.

    UncleEbeneezer

    The risks these people are perfectly fine taking with my life, my children’s lives, my parents, my community—100 percent unacceptable. Your mouth is reckless, your motives impure from your lofty perch. This fever pitch circus is business to you. But you will learn what the will of the people is really about. #BidenHarris2024 

  83. 83.

    TBone

    @prostratedragon: I had to cuck TV, oops, I meant “chuck” MSNBC until Deadline Whitehouse at 4pm.  ‘Up the Down Staircase’ starring Sandy Dennis is more informative today.  As well as more encouraging.

  85. 85.

    ArchTeryx

    @Central Planning: You’re 100% correct – and wrong. I never was a part of the Dump Biden mess. But I’m sick to death of seeing people here jump on that bandwagon and no, I’m not going to let that go. My anxiety levels are high enough as it is without us getting into yet another circular firing squad

    At this juncture I consider ANYONE advocating to dump Biden to be a troll and aligned with the MSM, which seems to consist of nothing BUT anti-democratic (small d AND big D) trolls these days. This isn’t a legitimate debate any more. It’s sealioning.

  86. 86.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    Oh, I never suggested there was anything casual or accidental about it. Of course they knew. This is disgraceful. Really upsetting. Blumenthal should sue the living fuck out of MSNBC for that.

  88. 88.

    Josie

    @TBone: I don’t think that spending one year in Texas gives you the right to be an expert on the state. It’s a huge state with a diverse population. Houston is a huge city with an even more diverse population. Those of us who have been here our whole lives and who have spent time in various parts of the state do not appreciate being pigeonholed by others.

  89. 89.

    prostratedragon

    @SiubhanDuinne:  There seem to be several examples lately that are that bad, close to bare naked lies.

    More typical, though, are the nasty little sniping frames that we’ve become inured to, like this one I just saw from Ryan Nobles:

    Rep. @AOC officially files articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

    They stand no chance of passing the Republican controlled House.. but a provocative move as Democrats fret about the direction of the Supreme Court.

    Ahem. Here are someclassical frets.

  93. 93.

    Central Planning

    @Josie: So what’s the minimum amount of time someone would need to spend in Texas to be an expert on the state?

  98. 98.

    Juju

    @TBone: I haven’t watched Deadline Whitehouse for a week, and I’ve stopped watching all the other shows except for Lawerence O’Donnell. I can’t stand  Alex Wagner.

  102. 102.

    zhena gogolia

    @rikyrah: Noel Casler, someone who never gets asked to do an op-ed for the NYT about his up-close-and-personal experience of Trump.

  104. 104.

    TBone

    @Josie: I’m guessing you missed the point of my comment at #74.  I’m no expert. But I know a problem when I see one IRL.

    P.S. I also lived in the shadow of the oil refineries in Marcus Hook, Delaware County, Pennsylvania for most of my adult life.

  107. 107.

    schrodingers_cat

    Forget Biden for a minute and remember how NYT treated Bill Clinton when he was running and even when he was President. I remember the incessant demands for him to resign because of the Lewinsky scandal. How many op-eds did you read from NYT or any other rag for the rapist and impeached President Trump to resign.

    And seriously you want to give NYT the veto on the nomination process for President? Just cancel the primaries and appoint NYT editorial board to select the nominee.

  110. 110.

    Roberto el oso

    @Central Planning: Glad you asked! Given the size and diversity of the state I’d say a minimum of 3-4 years. Allows you time to do a bit of traveling, go through several seasonal cycles, and so on. And, unlike Wyoming/Montana etc., the state is not just large empty spaces. The differences between El Paso, San Antonio, Dallas, Amarillo, Austin, Houston are culturally various. Spend time in the Valley and in the Panhandle and in the Hill Country.

    I’ve lived both abroad for extended periods of time as well as in other states (East Coast, Atlantic Seaboard), and TBH, there are a few states where the right to opine as an expert could probably be gathered in less than a year. But not Texas.

  113. 113.

    Roberto el oso

    @Juju: Possibly. Allred has a very good ground game going, and is relentlessly upbeat. More importantly though, Cruz is deeply and passionately loathed by many Texans, including some in his own party. He’s not a team player and oozes opportunism and smarmy disingenuousness and seems incapable of hiding his fundamental contempt for the state and for his own voters.

  114. 114.

    Geminid

    @Lapassionara: That picture from Helsinki could do Trump damage. I read his remarks about Ukraine at the debate, and he was effectively running up the white flag. Today Trump repeatedly evaded a simple question from Fox’s Brian Kilmeade about his commitment to Nato with a rambling rehearsal of election themes.

    Foreign policy questions typically play a secondary role in American elections, but there is a pro-Ukraine, pro-Nato cohort of conservatives, both Republicans and Independents, who consider these issues paramount. Some of these otherwise reliable Republican voters will defect this year because Putin’s hold over Trump is so transparent.

    So I say, put those billboards up. This is a wedge issue for the other side, and it amplifies a bigger wedge issue: Trump’s character.

  115. 115.

    Josie

    @Roberto el oso: ​
     Thanks. You, sir, are both gracious and eloquent, which I am not. Maybe the current chaos is getting to me. I should retire from commenting and get back to my post cards. :-)

  118. 118.

    RaflW

    Assholes like Dan Patrick complain all the time about ‘states rights’ and then, when the federal government follows proper procedure, which is to respect state sovereignty by waiting for the disaster declaration, of course Patrick blows it.

    So many layers of GOP incompetence.

  120. 120.

    Roberto el oso

    @Josie: No worries! I get very prickly as well, on this particular topic, and the run-in with Beryl hasn’t improved my mood.

  121. 121.

    Juju

    @Roberto el oso:  I was considering putting him on my donate list. I will make a donation.

    Cruz was all of those things during his re-election campaign against Beto and Cruz managed to pull a win off.  Perhaps Dobbs will make more of a difference time?

  122. 122.

    Roberto el oso

    On a somewhat lighthearted note. On May 16 there was a brief but very destructive wind and rain event in Houston (a “derecho”), which was especially devastating in The Heights, just north of downtown. A huge number of large trees, along with power lines and entire transformer towers, came down. The area was without power for nearly 2 weeks in some places, and the downed trees turned miles of neighborhood into an absolute maze. Centerpoint Energy more or less gave up even trying to communicate with the public, although all praise to the workers who were actually doing the heavy lifting. Hurricane Beryl was of course much worse, with extensive flooding and crazy-ass, scary-as-hell winds and nonstop sideways rain. Centerpoint’s maps have been received with justified and near-universal mockery for their vagueness and overall uselessness.

    (Here’s the lighthearted part): Whataburger to the rescue!

    Because of their efficiency, Whataburger has been on top of things, and so folks have been Googling their locations to find which ones are up and running, which is a sign that power has been restored in that location, and so there’s a good chance one can get food, water, ice, and gas nearby.

  124. 124.

    Geminid

    @Roberto el oso: Those Derechos are something else. There was one 10 years ago that knocked trees down all over Virginia. It started out in Illinois and blew east.

  125. 125.

    kindness

    @ArchTeryx: Buddy….Front pagers have asked us to let it go.  It’ll all pass.  Next week’s Republican convention will smother it.

  126. 126.

    rikyrah

    Veronica McDonald🗣 (@Purify_toast17) posted at 10:52 AM on Wed, Jul 10, 2024:
    Understand this:

    If Democrats are saying Biden is fine right now but he can’t last another 4 years so we’ve got to dump him now…they are saying they have NO CONFIDENCE in VP Harris (or they don’t want her to be POTUS).

    Do you believe they’d really have her back as nominee?

    DFW Sports 4Life (@Kennymack1971) posted at 0:58 PM on Wed, Jul 10, 2024:
    That’s what this really is. If the VP was a white man/woman this wouldn’t be a thing. That’s why they keep saying a new nominee. They’re absolutely trying to step over the VP.
    (https://x.com/Kennymack1971/status/1811097578248818844?s=03)

  129. 129.

    Martin

    I think it’s more than just Texas wanting to go it alone. Texas GOP are still trying to prove that they were able to recover from the Feb 2021 disaster. A lot of consumer rate dollars got poured into ERCOT with the promise this shit would stop happening, and they need to prove they can handle the daily survival stuff.

    This is the kind of ‘all politics is local’ problem that can swing an election. Given the 2020 election margins in Texas, there might be enough swing votes in the state right now sitting in the dark. At some point you start caring more about having power than about the trans kid at the middle school you’ll never even meet.

  132. 132.

    Roberto el oso

    @rikyrah: I have been meaning to tell you for months how much I appreciate your comments, and the links you provide. Thank you!

  135. 135.

    brantl

    In Texas Republican government, nothing should be ascribed to malevolent genius planning when slope-headed stupidity is in unbelievable abundance.

  138. 138.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @rikyrah:

    Thank you for posting that. She is a powerful speaker.

    And, if I may be incredibly shallow for one minute, she looks fabulous in that colour. I totally understand why she opts for dark neutral pantsuits most days, but I love when she breaks out the crayon box for her wardrobe.

  139. 139.

    sab

    @UncleEbeneezer: I agree with your point about changing the ticket at the last moment hurt us before.

    I am furious with the MSM, and these here threads freak me out, but it is clarifying my thoughts on it so that I will be prepared to discuss it intelligently with people I meet out in the world.

    I don’t think discussing it here at BJ will hurt us at all in November.

    On the other hand, our Congress critters discussing it on tv is not at all helpful

    ETA: I cut Clooney some slack because of his wife. She’s from Druse and Muslim Lebanese background, and a human rights attoarney, and Gaza must have her distraught.

  140. 140.

    Another Scott

    Abbott and Patrick probably remember Christie and Obama together after Hurricane Sandy.

    So, yeah, “cooties”.

    It’s a cult. That’s all it is any more. Nothing about doing the job for actual people, interactions with the federal government are all about preventing pictures and sound-bites that the insane cult members would use to prove you’re a RINO or worse. Gotta be the master of the right flank!!1

    🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡

    Pathetic, dangerous 🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡

    Good for POTUS for calling them out.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  142. 142.

    Mercurino

    Woulda been nice if Biden had used some of that sweet presidential immunity to just say, “Fuck it, we’re sending the aid in without a formal request.”

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