Andy1
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Posts posted by Andy1
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Here is a good article addressing the role of government in Texas flood management. Texas is well behind other states in how they manage flood risk.
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/09/texas-floods-growth-kerr-county-camp-mystic/
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1 hour ago, leh-nerd skin-erd said:
Again, agreed, but a 25’ rise in 45 minutes seems apocalyptic. I struggle with the planning that can be put in place to eliminate the threat of that sort of issue in that short a time frame, beyond “You can’t camp/live here.” Obviously, more will come out and maybe that will be incorrect, but after watching homes destroyed/rebuilt/destroyed in tornado prone areas like Tornado Alley, I think this kind of thing is going to happen. Very sad.
A lot of it is people not understanding the danger of building in certain areas. Or if you are going to live in these high hazard places, responsible government needs to spend extra on mitigation/safety. This applies to those people living in the fire prone hills of CA, tsunami areas, flash flood zones etc. This isn’t the 1800s or some third world country where the government is clueless.
Tornados are very local and unpredictable where they will hit. Aside from building a bunker for personal safety, there is not much one can do. Dangerous flash flood areas are known based upon local climate and the geography/geology of the area. This river is known for dangerous flash floods. “Oh well… thoughts and prayers” is not a recipe to prevent future loss of life. If engineers took this approach, bridges would be collapsing all over the place.
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20 minutes ago, leh-nerd skin-erd said:
Agreed, but the reports are the heavy rainfall caused the river to rise 25’ in 45 minutes. Rainfall was clipping along at 2-4” per hour. That’s crazy.
But rain isn’t like a tornado that you can’t see. Rain takes time before it impacts areas with flooding. You can see it on radar. If you see it dumping on the hills, you know downstream areas are under threat.
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18 minutes ago, JDHillFan said:
How do you feel about Newsome? Fan?
A bit further left than I’d prefer but I don’t give a crap how he sits in a chair. Probably not electable to national office, but who knows? Politics in this country seems to swing wildly…with each presidential election, people choosing the opposite of the last guy.
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38 minutes ago, SCBills said:
It’s not the end of the world, but as a man, would you respect another man who sits across from you like this?
Trump is the least masculine president of my lifetime. He wears heels, a face covered with makeup and spends hours obsessing over his fake hair each morning. MAGA thinks he is some marvel of Superman strength but he is just a fat old guy wearing diapers with a lot of money who tries to project a tough guy, macho, mob boss image.
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So are the inept actions of all the officials in Kerr County who are white guys with cowboy hats also because of DEI? Just asking.
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1 hour ago, leh-nerd skin-erd said:
Andy was just reminding others that those who believe in douchey posts have a place in the world, too.
Hey, I’m not here to argue and fight. The reality is that a lot of people are repelled by science and would rather get their information from other sources these days. That’s all. I’m out.
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For those who believe in science, here is an article explaining why this part of Texas is prone to these disasters. Government planners and emergency managers need to prepare for the environment they live in since this is not an unexpected event in that region.
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This is an example of why zoning and building codes are important. The freedom lovers hate them, so you end up with innocent people dying. Texas and every other state needs to review where it allows people to build homes. Flash flood prone areas are especially dangerous as seen here, and in NC last year.
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Sounds like more of a failure of local emergency management officials. They are all in a CYA mode now trying to deflect blame to National Weather Service. The lawsuits will be coming. Having the sleeping quarters of a kids camp located in a flash flood zone is so stupid.
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22 minutes ago, aristocrat said:
The cuts don’t go into effect until October fyi. So did the nws do this on purpose?
So DOGE didn’t touch the NWS?
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1 hour ago, leh-nerd skin-erd said:
For sure, next thing you know we’ll have an administration laying siege to a former president’s home, tossing the place, removing documents clearly outside the scope of the search, photos of file folders leaked to the press, and quite a hubbub about how national security and classified documents must not be removed by an outgoing commander-in-chief….then when it turns out the current prez has been pilfering and maintaining documents for decades he’ll probably tell us that that sort of classified document pilfering is ok because he has a nice American muscle car stored nearby. Then from there it’s a hop skip and a jump to fisa surveillance, reimagined and reinvented criminal statutes, working with foreign nationals to influence the outcome of elections, and preemptive ex post-facto pardons for anyone the president ever met.
I really miss the old days when everything was sunshine, roses and beyond reproach.
Leh-nerd this is a lame response distracting from the issue. It’s like Dems replying with the atrocities of J6 for every topic.
The relevant topic is how much power should the president have. Look beyond Trump to when a Bernie type president gets elected. Would you want them to have increased powers? Or would you rather the courts to be able to mitigate their decisions, until the issue at that time is decided by the SC? Maybe it’s all irrelevant since when that time comes, this court will probably reverse itself and decide the states have rights and the executive power is limited.
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During the Obama and Biden times, conservatives repeatedly used lower court rulings to constrain their orders. That is a good thing and in keeping with conservative principles in that it forces slower societal change through laws developed in the legislative branch. Through this process, the 49% of Americans who supported the losing side of the presidential election felt that they still had some say, through the courts, in the future of the nation.
Now we have a SC which is repeatedly increasing the power of the presidency through their decisions. Trump will use these powers to the max. And these new powers will be used by all who come after him, including those with liberal views. This is not a good thing for society in that it allows for more radical change in either direction, depending on the whims of one individual. The other 49% will feel powerless and become increasingly hateful, all of which is bad for America, making us more divided and less United.
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Well it looks like there is some reason for hope and peace moving forward and I guess that is a good thing. Only caution is that in the Middle East, hope never seems to last for long. Hope is usually what comes before the next explosion.
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I have been following this issue a bit. The proposed law would require the mandatory selling off of about 2-3 million acres of Federal land in the west. People in Montana are opposed to it so lands in Montana are exempt along with National Parks, historic sites, rivers corridors, etc. Most of the land sold would be from US National Forests or BLM land. This is a stupid proposal that will become a corporate favor.
There is currently an established process, that has been in place for many dacades, for the sale of Federal lands. This process incorporates public input and other factors, as should happen in a democracy, when the government sells land which belongs to all of us. Once the land is sold, it’s gone forever. They aren’t making any more of it.
This law would avoid that process. There is currently no list or map of the lands that would be sold, so no one can voice opposition to a specific chunk they want to privatize. This is just a concept that sounds good to MAGA that they want to push through in this Big Fugly Bill. There will be no public hearing on this law. This likely means that the sale of our lands would be behind closed doors to corporations who want specific blocks of our land. This leads to more corporate corruption and corporate favors at the expense of the public interest.
Our public lands where people can hunt, fish and hike are one of the things which makes America great. Europe has old cities, cathedrals and castles. In America we have our land for our public heritage which is passed on from one generation to the next. Once gone, it’s gone forever. Your Mountain podcast has a recent episode going in depth on this proposal.
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DHS better refocus from deporting immigrants to protecting us from Iran’s retaliation. They might want to rehire all those cyber security staff they fired under DOGE. Also, it’s probably safe to assume there will be some sort of Fatwa death order on Trump and his family for the rest of their lives.
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I have no idea if this is a good thing or the day when the world changes for the worse. What will happen with the nuclear material? Hopefully it’s all buried deep in the mountains. What happens next is unknown.
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I have no faith in the judgement of Iran’s leader, Khamenei.
I have no faith in the actions of Netanyahu.
I have no trust in the decision making of Trump and Hegseth.
If Trump enters this war, Iran will kill American troops in the Middle East to suck us deeper into the war. Netanyahu would love for that to happen too. I’m also concerned about cyber attacks from Iran.
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The whole vibe around the army parade is a bit weird. I have mixed feelings about it all. Cheering people driving deadly war machines is’nt an American tradition, although we use those machines to do plenty of killing. We all know the death and pain those machines inflict. We still have bad memories of Iraq. Plenty of Americans and innocent civilians died there. Trump himself ran on keeping us out of stupid wars and disapproval of all the money and lives wasted there. Trump sending Guard troops into LA against the wishes of the state is another weird part of it all, along with his admiration for dictators. On the other hand, 250 is a significant anniversary for the Army. We all should be proud of that. The whole event seems a bit Ho-hum and tomorrow we will be on to other more significant things.
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It’s not the parade by itself. It is in the context of Trump sending Guard troops into LA, against the States wishes, and masked unidentified men snatching people off the street. Regardless, I think we will survive this one and Trump will get his wet dream.
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Warren Buffett never talks about how wealthy he is. On the campaign trail, Trump always felt the need to remind people of how rich he is. The most powerful military on earth doesn’t need a parade of hardware to show everyone. That’s dicktator sh#t that Trump adores.
A celebration of the Army should honor the men and women, of all races who have sacrificed and served, past and present. Tell their stories, sacrifices and achievements. I hope this is the focus of the event rather than a parade of tanks, rocket launchers and marching troops for Trump.
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This is Trump getting nothing. All the financial losses to American businesses and consumers just so we can continue to pay more in tariffs than before Trump. The key issues remain unresolved.
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9 hours ago, B-Man said:
RFK Jr. removes all members of CDC panel advising U.S. on vaccines
* Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday said he is “retiring” all 17 members of a crucial government panel of vaccine advisors.
* Kennedy is removing all members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
* It’s the latest move by Kennedy – a prominent vaccine skeptic – to change and potentially undermine vaccinations in the U.S. since he took the helm at HHS.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/09/rfk-jr-cdc-panel-vaccines.html
So why is this a good thing? There are plenty of problems with health care but vaccines isn’t one of them. Insurance companies only pay for vaccines based on what the CDC recommends. So is RFKj puts his quacks in there, you will end up paying full cost for your vaccines.
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2 minutes ago, Thurmal34 said:
Toddlers.
This is similar to what was reported before. Japan wants to make a deal but Trumps negotiators could not negotiate because they don’t know what he wants. Trump wants the fight but doesn’t know what the hell the end goal is. Where are the incredible, amazing deals?
Texas flooding
in Politics, Polls, and Pundits
Posted
It looks like Texas is allergic to disaster preparation. At all levels of government, the approach to preparing for future severe weather events is “hear nothing, see nothing, speak nothing”. To spend money on climate preparedness would be to admit climate change is real. They would rather do “thoughts and prayers”, and take the “we can’t believe this happened, there is nothing we could have done” approach to planning.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/13/texas-disaster-weather-preparations-us