In what should be a surprise to no one, it turns out that FEMA likes Texas way more than Puerto Rico.

Courtesy of Politico:  

No two hurricanes are alike, and Harvey and Maria were vastly different storms that struck areas with vastly different financial, geographic and political situations. But a comparison of government statistics relating to the two recovery efforts strongly supports the views of disaster-recovery experts that FEMA and the Trump administration exerted a faster, and initially greater, effort in Texas, even though the damage in Puerto Rico exceeded that in Houston. 

Within six days of Hurricane Harvey, U.S. Northern Command had deployed 73 helicopters over Houston, which are critical for saving victims and delivering emergency supplies. It took at least three weeks after Maria before it had more than 70 helicopters flying above Puerto Rico. 

Nine days after the respective hurricanes, FEMA had approved $141.8 million in individual assistance to Harvey victims, versus just $6.2 million for Maria victims. 

During the first nine days after Harvey, FEMA provided 5.1 million meals, 4.5 million liters of water and over 20,000 tarps to Houston; but in the same period, it delivered just 1.6 million meals, 2.8 million liters of water and roughly 5,000 tarps to Puerto Rico. 

Nine days after Harvey, the federal government had 30,000 personnel in the Houston region, compared with 10,000 at the same point after Maria. 

It took just 10 days for FEMA to approve permanent disaster work for Texas, compared with 43 days for Puerto Rico. 

Seventy-eight days after each hurricane, FEMA had approved 39 percent of federal applications for relief from victims of Harvey, versus 28 percent for Maria. 

Those imbalances track with another one: the attention of President Donald Trump. In public, Trump appeared much more concerned with the victims of Harvey than Maria. He visited Houston twice during the first eight days after the hurricane, but didn’t visit Puerto Rico for 13 days. In the first week after the disasters, Trump sent three times as many tweets about Harvey as Maria — 24 about the plight of Texas and eight about Puerto Rico, including a series of comments about Puerto Rico’s debt level and quality of infrastructure that local officials considered insulting and enraging while lives were still in jeopardy.

Trump also seemed less concerned with the actual delivery of services as he was about public relations, often  pressing FEMA Administrator Brock Long to make more television appearances bragging about the agency's progress.

This desire to flout his ability to respond to disaster was undermined by San Juan's mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz who constantly and publicly called out Trump for his ineffective response and his attempts to change the subject.

In the end Trump's preference for a state that voted overwhelmingly for him in 2016, to a territory that has no electoral votes to offer was impossible to miss:

“On Texas and Florida [during Hurricane Irma], the president was very vocal and engaged in the run-up to the storm. His messaging was frankly pretty good,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, the former top disaster response official at USAID under former President Barack Obama. “If you look at his public messaging on a comparable timeline around Puerto Rico, there’s virtually nothing. ... That sends a signal to the whole federal bureaucracy about how they should prioritize.”

I guess when Trump says "America first" he is really only talking about that part of America which voted for him, kisses his ass, and does not have so many damn brown people in it.

The costs of global warming are literally too expensive to ignore.

Courtesy of TPM: 

A non-partisan federal watchdog says climate change is already costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars each year, with those costs expected to rise as devastating storms, floods, wildfires and droughts become more frequent in the coming decades. 

A Government Accountability Office report released Monday said the federal government has spent more than $350 billion over the last decade on disaster assistance programs and losses from flood and crop insurance. That tally does not include the massive toll from this year’s wildfires and three major hurricanes, expected to be among the most costly in the nation’s history. 

The report predicts these costs will only grow in the future, potentially reaching a budget busting $35 billion a year by 2050. The report says the federal government doesn’t effectively plan for these recurring costs, classifying the financial exposure from climate-related costs as “high risk.” 

“The federal government has not undertaken strategic government-wide planning to manage climate risks by using information on the potential economic effects of climate change to identify significant risks and craft appropriate federal responses,” the study said. “By using such information, the federal government could take the initial step in establishing government-wide priorities to manage such risks.”

And of course this does not calculate the cost of human life that will also rise exponentially as these devastating weather patterns worsen.

Just imagine for a minute how much less all of this would have cost if thirty years ago people had listened to those wacky climate scientists and started working toward weaning ourselves off fossil fuels, and moving toward renewable energy sources.

We could have literally saved billions and billions of dollars.

But then how would those poor oil companies have made their billions and billions of dollars?

While Donald Trump goes golfing for the 74th time since his inauguration, 5 former president's show up to raise money for hurricane relief.

Courtesy of CNN: 

Members of an exclusive club are making a rare joint appearance Saturday. 

All five living former US presidents will take part in a benefit concert in Texas to raise money for hurricane relief efforts, while President Donald Trump will appear in a taped video message to the concertgoers, the White House announced Saturday. 

Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter will attend Saturday night's event, named "Deep From the Heart: The One America Appeal," at Reed Arena at Texas A&M University in College Station.

Apparently Trump is going to send a video message, but that is really all he can do right now as he is dealing with more important matters.

Per pool, Trump has arrived at Trump Nat'l Golf Club in VA.

This is his 74th day at a golf club, 94th day at a Trump property as president.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 21, 2017

Priorities.

However the men who took their jobs seriously are showing up to help their fellow Americans whose lives have been devastated by these recent disasters.

The concert won't be the first time the former presidents have joined forces. 

After Hurricane Harvey struck Texas in September, all five started the "One America Appeal" charity effort and filmed a video urging citizens to help out amid the devastating flooding. 

They have since resumed the effort in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

As Americans, we lift each other up. I’m proud to be a part of this night. Hope you’ll tune in. https://t.co/FZLWfNBLw5 https://t.co/Mv6Kg2ZwMZ

— Bill Clinton (@BillClinton) October 21, 2017

I am long past hoping that Trump is capable of learning on the job, but just maybe he can be shamed into actually doing his job by the example set by these men.

I mean at this point anything is worth a try.