THIS IS INCOMPETENCE PERSONIFIED

This is what incompetence is doing to America. July 4, Trump signed the OBBBA. Flash floods in Texas. More than 100 people dead. About 160 still missing. Local officials immediately blamed cuts to NWS for the disaster. But NWS meteorologists predicted the storm accurately and sent out increasingly urgent warnings at 1:14 a.m., 4:03 a.m., and 6:06 a.m. Hours passed before the police department in Kerrville issued a warning. It wasn’t until 7:32 a.m. that the city urged people to move to higher ground immediately. The missing link between the NWS and public safety personnel appears to have been the weather service employee in charge of coordinating between them. He took an unplanned early retirement under pressure from DOGE and has not been replaced. Rescue teams from FEMA could not respond to the disaster because DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, in charge of FEMA, had recently tried to cut spending by requiring her personal sign-off on any expenditure over $100,000. That meant FEMA couldn’t put crews in place ahead of the storm, or respond immediately. Noem didn’t sign off on the deployment of FEMA teams until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding started. DHS spokesman said Noem did not authorize FEMA deployment because DHS used other search and rescue teams. “FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens. The old processes are being replaced because they failed Americans in real emergencies for decades.” “DHS is rooting out waste, fraud, abuse, and is reprioritizing appropriated dollars. Secretary Noem is delivering accountability to the U.S. taxpayer, which Washington bureaucrats have ignored for decades at the expense of American citizens.” Noem has called for the elimination of FEMA. Might as well. She made sure of that. Meanwhile, FEMA’s acting director is nowhere to be found. This suggests Noem alone is controlling the FEMA response. The day after he took office in May, acting director David Richardson, who has no experience with emergency management, told staff: “Don’t get in my way…because I will run right over you. I will achieve the president’s intent…. I, and I alone in FEMA, speak for FEMA,” he said. Even as rescuers were still at work yesterday in Texas, DHS cancelled a $3 million grant that had been awarded in New York to make sure the NWS can communicate effectively with local officials. Empty bluster and camera-readiness does not equate competence. Vitriolic press releases do not get the job done. The job gets done by people behind the scenes, who make it look easy when it’s not. The Trump administration is proving this point, while we the people have to suffer the consequences. Last night the WH posted an image of “SUPERMAN TRUMP”—a much younger Trump dressed as the superhero, fists clenched, against a gauzy background—with the caption “TRUTH. JUSTICE. THE AMERICAN WAY” Oh boy.