The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help

[billy.pilgrim]

Probably not healthy, but I do find some small satisfaction watching all the big strong self-made mericans whining for help at the least sign of personal trouble.
But then, there are good people in Texas too and I am only too glad that my taxes and donations will go to help some of them. Too bad that the lion's share will go to enrich the kB&r and blackwater types.

https://theintercept.com/2017/01/24/get ... apitalism/

"For instance, the author Mike Davis tracked the way FEMA paid Shaw $175 a square foot to install blue tarps on damaged roofs, even though the tarps themselves were provided by the government. Once all the subcontractors took their share, the workers who actually hammered in the tarps were paid as little as $2 a square foot. “Every level of the contracting food chain, in other words, is grotesquely overfed except the bottom rung,” Davis wrote, “where the actual work is carried out.”


I think the 175/ft is a typo and should have been sq yard, but then this was the Cheney years where government only meant "profit center"

I do remember during Ivan that the FEMA debris contracts were $225/yard for hauling to the numerous close temporary county sites (fresh concrete delivered was $90/yard at the time), but everyone actually doing the work were mostly anyone with an old beat up pickup and a few teeth who earned about $15/yard.



"...immigrant workers. Some were not paid at all. On one Halliburton/KBR job site, undocumented immigrant workers reported being wakened in the middle of the night by their employer (a sub-subcontractor), who allegedly told them that immigration agents were on their way. Most workers fled to avoid arrest."


Watch out for the Q-tip

[billy.pilgrim]

Did dump really issue Disaster Declaration for the entire state of Texas?

That's what I'm hearing from the media.

[rstrong]

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help"

That phrase was used very effectively by Reagan against Carter, along with his promise to shrink government and lower taxes.

In reality it's Carter that was responsible for major deregulation. Reagan grew government and spent like a drunken sailor, but passed the bill to the next generation.

[billy.pilgrim]

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help"

That phrase was used very effectively by Reagan against Carter, along with his promise to shrink government and lower taxes.

In reality it's Carter that was responsible for major deregulation. Reagan grew government and spent like a drunken sailor, but passed the bill to the next generation.

Yeah, the idiots do fall for silly slogans.

MAGAts one and all

[Vrede too]

Did dump really issue Disaster Declaration for the entire state of Texas?

That's what I'm hearing from the media.

"State disaster declaration now covers 50 counties."
TX has 254 counties.

Trump makes disaster declaration for Hurricane Harvey

I can't find the specific answer to your question, but I suspect that the POTUS makes the general declaration and the Gov. names the counties.

However, if Dolt .45 declared all of TX a disaster it would be hard to argue with that.

[O Really]

It was a clever attempt at humour by Reagan, but the reason it worked is that there had been a good bit of government "help" that not everybody - particularly Republican business types - liked. OSHA had only been around for 8 years or so, and was seen largely as an intrusion, along with the EEOC. And of course when Carter was President during the oil embargo there were government guidelines on keeping your thermostat at 68 at wearing a sweater. And not long before that were the wage/price controls of Nixon and Ford. The quip had a ready audience.

[Boatrocker]

. . . The quip had a ready audience.

Quips always have an audience amongst the folks who just are not interested in and/or intellectually capable of grasping issues and actually thinking about them. Same for internet memes, bumper stickers and tweets.