Florida also brings a Senate seat, which would take pressure off the other tight senate races.
1 Like
Within its budget, FEMA has a very small envelope for allocation to NGOs providing essential services to those queuing at the border for entry. In accordance with its own government budgetary rules, FEMA cannot divert funds from disaster relief to pass on funds to NGOs to assist those in migrant queues. But donāt let that stand in the way of Vance and Trump lies. FEMA has called it out as false, but that doesnāt stop the lies being peddled on social media.
FEMA is not sufficiently funded to cope with the scale of relief for those impacted by Helene. Its earlier request for additional funding has been mainly blocked by Republicans.
As to the complementary State budgets for disaster relief, no questions are being asked of Governors of the affected Red States and AFAIK, nothing to this effect has surfaced in the MSM.
At least this time round there should be enough of the National Guard to assist, unlike the situation with Katrina.
The Bush Administration was unprepared for the scale of Katrina in New Orleans. It had to source supplies and personnel from UNHCR. IDK where the cost of sourcing from UNHCR got buried in the budget, perhaps donations to UNHCR.
2 Likes
There is a lot of talk from people in Florida that the polling may be over representing the Trump vote. Things could be tighter than they appear
Which people?
Thanks BigAl ā¦ Republicans blocking more FEMA aide is poor, though thereās likely some sort of horse trading involved as ever up at the Hill. Aide is being fast-tracked though and Biden sending extra 500 reg troops into the zone.
2 Likes
True enough ā¦ thereās a few interesting races on the go, really interesting to see how some of these Senate seats fall.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4917075-nebraska-senate-race-independent/
1 Like
The most impactful use of small dollar donations is down ballot congressional and senate seats. An influx of cash in the right place can drastically swing a small race, catching out the opposition.
There are massive issues in Florida that many people are unaware of. One of them is another Cat4 Hurricane ( Milton) about to hit Tampa Bay with a massive storm surge after torrential rain in the lead up.
No kidding this could be another massive disaster. FEMA needs money now. Biden needs to plan for this now.
Canāt someone organise Trump to get down there and start throwing out rolls of paper towels to the crowd.
2 Likes
Austin said the US has significant capability in the ME to protect American interests, to support Israel in its self defence and to deter further escalation ( source transcript of readout of Austin Gallant meeting, defense.gov ).
The capacity to deter further escalation could be optimistic. If any further escalation canāt be deferred before 5 November, how would that affect the respective campaigns?
Much of the upcoming disaster response has already been baked in by funding decisions over previous years. Capacity has to be built, supplies can be purchased. If there is insufficient trained people to organise the relief operation, then youāll struggle to deliver even an uncapped amount of aid. Relief funds can only be transferred to victims at the rate the admin can be processed.
I doubt Biden will be stingy with the cash, but heāll be limited by the tight control the GOP has had on the budget in recent years.
1 Like
Kamala invading southern oblast to take pressure off central trench warfare
7 Likes
Exceptional 
The big one Iām seeing as impactful is the oil infrastructure of the region. Iran has told Israel that if they hit Iranās oil infrastructure, Iran will hit the Saudiās oil terminals. Thatās not a threat aimed at Israel, but one aimed at Biden. If Iranās oil is taken off the world market, followed by Saudi Arabia, then you face a global oil shortage weeks out from a Presidential electionā¦ which would beā¦ not small.
6 Likes
The US has aircraft carriers in the region, troops on land in the UAE. So far it has used aerial counter attacks, but what happens if it needs boots on the ground?
Thereās no realistic scenario where the US deploys ground troops against Iran. Maybe they will send some Patriot batteries to supplement the Saudi ones, but you could present that as a low key decision.
Maybe you get the US navy and airforce involved in defending Saudi or Israeli territory a few more times, but I donāt see a driver for the US to go hard at Iran offensively. I also donāt think Iran wants to have a go at the US. We are watching a game of chicken, with the various sides working out what they can get away with.
3 Likes
Almost half of all exportable oil goes through The Strait of Hormuz off the Iranian coast. If they decided to shut that down it would throw the world into chaos.
3 Likes
Plus natural gas shipped in LNG tankers through the Persian Gulf.
3 Likes
The pacifist , non puppet, anti warmongering Donald thinks Israel should bomb Iranās nuclear plants.
9 Likes
Flips on policy year to year, month to month, day to day, sometimes even minute to minute, not even dependent on who he is talking to, but what might get him more votes in the current news cycle
3 Likes