this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2025
182 points (98.4% liked)

politics

24662 readers
2280 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 16 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Wytch@lemmy.zip 48 points 2 days ago (2 children)

She blames "previous administrations" for failing to upgrade older systems. She seems to forget that Trump was among them.

She means Biden and Obama, and Trump's cultists will make that connection.

[–] Soulg@ani.social 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It really is remarkable how literally every single thing that is bad is somehow someone else's fault.

I still remember Rubio on ABC explicitly saying that he believes everything bad happening in the world was because of Biden.

[–] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago

Yeah, which party do the congress fucks that oppose spending money on modernizing belong to? But Fox won't draw that connection for their viewing public.

[–] Botzo@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Trump tried to cut NOAA funding by billions over the first administration, but Congress basically kept funding steady.

NOAA isn't under homeland security, so who knows why Numbskull Noem even talked about it.

Why didn't they ask her if this was going to affect her ability to meet the arrest quota for illegals? Or if the weather response would take eyes off the border allowing the cartels to use this distraction to increase fentanyl shipments?

At least give her the proverbial rope to hang herself with questions in her own purview.

[–] forrcaho@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I've got to admit, I was a bit confused by this headline, because I'd heard that despite cuts to NOAA, the usual flood alerts were given and Texas officials were lying about that.

The article clarifies that a bit:

Former and current NWS employees have defended the agency’s response, as have meteorologists across the country. NWS’s Austin/San Antonio office—which covers the region— issued a flood watch on Thursday afternoon, followed by flash flood alerts that night into Friday morning.

However, the office’s warning coordination meteorologist took an early retirement offer in April as part of NOAA’s personnel and budget cuts, which were part of DOGE’s efforts to slash government “waste.” The position still hasn’t been filled, and according to the department’s website, the office currently has six additional vacancies. That vacancy may have delayed urgent communication with local officials.

It also sounds like the Trump admin isn't going to change their plans for NOAA:

Unfortunately, NOAA’s recently released 2026 budget plan would shut down multiple NOAA labs, including the decades-old National Severe Storms Laboratory, which is crucial in researching and developing storm prediction technology, including hurricane forecasts. These cuts were outlined in Project 2025, with Russell Vought—Trump’s OMB Director—writing that he wanted to gut NOAA because the agency is responsible for “climate alarmism.”

I have to agree, knowing the facts about how rapidly the climate is changing does lead to alarm.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

One thing I wonder is how seriously people take the flood warnings.

Most of the time if it is raining at all, I get the various flood warnings. I could imagine people underestimating those.

I recall quite a bit being made of how overtly grim, specific, and certain the Katrina warning was and how that may have helped set it apart from the usual "warning"

[–] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

One thing I wonder is how seriously people take the flood warnings.

Most of the time if it is raining at all, I get the various flood warnings. I could imagine people underestimating those.

You have a point. But the issue is probably that some people don't differentiate between the different watches and warnings. There are different levels of alerts. Most flood alerts are not of the immediately life threatening variety, and often focus on informing people that they shouldn't drive across flooded road ways. This article about the Texas floods details what alerts were sent out and when as this disaster unfolded.

Initially, the NWS issued flash flood watches on Thursday, the day before the floods, which indicated that conditions in the watch time frame suggested flash floods were going to be possible. Later in the evening, they issued a second watch highlighting the slow moving nature of the storm which suggested even heavier rainfall which increased to risk of flooding. Friday morning, shortly after midnight, they issued a flash flood warning which which is different than a watch.

A weather warning means that there is immediate danger in the highlighted area, not just a possibility of danger. A flash flood watch equals there may be a flash flood, a flash flood warning means there is a flash flood happening. A tornado watch means a tornado could form. A tornado warning means a tornado has formed.

The initial flash flood warning issued after midnight Friday also included the "considerable" tag which triggers the wireless emergency alerts to go out to cell phones and NOAA radios. That warning was upgraded 2 hours later with instructions to "Move to higher ground now. Act quickly to protect your life." A half hour after later, that warning was upgraded to a flash flood emergency which again set off the wireless emergency alert system. Sadly, the region has spotty cell service so it's unclear how effective the wireless emergency alert system was in this incident.

It's possible that people not realizing that each alert represented an increase in the immediacy of the threat to their lives which led them to fail to take action. The solution to that is education, of course. Teach them the meanings of the alerts so they are not confused in the future. But that requires increased funding which is the one thing we can be sure Texas and the Trump administration will not do.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Thanks for that write up, very informative about what went down.

I wonder about having different alert sounds. The one alert sound I barely think to take seriously. I read them and I think I would notice unique phrasing, but I also imagine people are tempted by the ability to turn off emergency alerts as they seem a bit overused.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think she has brain worms. Or her stylist is really angry with her.

[–] P1k1e@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The worms run the govornment

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

This is why they want the chickens dead. Can't let them eat all the worms

[–] P1k1e@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Lord save us, it's all part of the birdflue industrial complex

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If this becomes a real problem for Taco (doubt it will, though), she'll be fired in about .2 Scaramuccis.

[–] Bahnd@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This is technically somewhere between 48-52.8 hours.

A Mooch is not an exact measurement of time.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Has anyone within the media asked what SPECIFIC "ancient" systems she means, in detail, and exactly HOW they had an impact? And have her be as detailed as possible in her answer? And if she tries that "two weeks" bullshit that Taco does all the time, they should openly laugh in her face, by the way...

I hate it when people in any context just spew out some jargon to create a smokescreen, most especially when it comes to tech.

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 4 points 2 days ago

Let them fight.