Hacker News Reader

Comment by taylodl | Hacker News Reader

Awesome! If California residents weren't paying for all the hurricanes in the deep red South and tornadoes in the deep red plains states, then they'd have plenty of money to take care of themselves.

Does this guy ever think through anything before opening his mouth? Is he even capable of thinking?

View on HN

> Does this guy ever think through anything before opening his mouth? Is he even capable of thinking?

None of this behavior is new; the American people have been fully aware of this and a voting majority decided that he was the most qualified person for the job.

Dismal Trump did not get a majority of voters. He received 49.8% of the vote.

> a voting majority decided that he was the most qualified person for the job.

There's your mistake: the technocratic assumption that elections are job interviews selecting for the "most qualified" candidate.

That's one part, but not the only part. This thought experiment should make it clear: You're voting in an important election. One candidate is an incompetent and unqualified clown, the other is a highly competent and qualified Nazi. You hate Nazis. Who do you vote for?

If you're arguing that voters choose a person who is less qualified, can you explain how Harris is a Nazi?

> If you're arguing that voters choose a person who is less qualified, can you explain how Harris is a Nazi?

Why? Harris isn't a Nazi. The hypothetical was exaggerated to emphasize a specific point. Don't take it too literally or try to map it directly to current events.

That was obviously sarcasm and ironically you took it literally.

I don't know enough about how FEMA works, but I'm assuming it operates at a federal level?

Could eliminating it force states to strengthen their own disaster relief programs?

If that's the case, some potential benefits of this might be that states get more efficient with their overall budget (in order to support disaster relief initiatives). And maybe spurs more innovation in disaster relief tech/processes.

Yes, FEMA is federal. If eliminating FEMA lowers federal taxes states could increase their state taxes to compensate and each have their own emergency management agencies. But generally it seems like having 50+ emergency management agencies is less efficient than having 1.

I'd assume states with tighter budgets and less of a tax base will be unable to replicate FEMA's resources, while more populous and wealthy states will be able to work around it.

My questions are if this would have any repurcussions on EMAC membership and if it would increase politicization of aid between states. We've seen this with a number of conservative-leaning states pulling out of ERIC over flimsy political reasons.

BINGO! Poor, rural states don't have the manpower resources or monetary resources to take care of the aftermath of disasters. Let me put it this way, North Carolina wasn't waiting on FEMA in order to start taking care of their disaster.

Red states will still get government assistance after disasters. Just watch.

Never forget Super Storm Sandy

Yeah…that must be the problem. They just don’t have enough money for themselves because of all the red states. Of course what little money California does have is mismanaged to hell by its state and local governments, but that will obvious not happen if there is a lot more money available.

Does California take any federal money? Do any of those plains states provide food to California. I don't think you would like this game as much as you think.

Does California get its food for free from the plains states? No? Well then, you can sit down and STFU. BTW, over half of the produce in US grocery stores comes from California. Also, over 90% of the goods coming into the US from East Asia comes through California ports. No California, no Walmart.

How do you like them apples?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com