[blog](blog): 2025-01-30 blogs

_posts/2025/01/2025-01-29-SchiffOnJ6Pardons.md

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+---
+layout: post
+tags: [Schiff (D-CA), White House (WH), president, pardon, January6 2021, insurrection, politics]
+categories: [Donald Trump]
+date: 2025-01-29 11:43 AM
+excerpt: ''
+#image: 'BASEURL/assets/blog/img/.png'
+#description:
+#permalink:
+title: "Senator Schiff Blasts Trump For Pardoning January 6 Insurrectionists"
+---
+
+
+## Schiff Tears Apart Trump Pardons of Insurrectionists
+
+<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RwYXAgp26XU?si=TL__HOh-1qrpQIGl" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
+
+Jan 28, 2025
+I'm headed to the Senate floor to discuss Donald Trump's reckless decision to pardon violent criminals who beat up police on January 6th.

_posts/2025/01/2025-01-29-TrumpSpendingFUBAR.md

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+---
+layout: post
+tags: []
+categories: [Donald Trump]
+date: 2025-01-29 8:58 PM
+excerpt: ''
+#image: 'BASEURL/assets/blog/img/.png'
+#description:
+#permalink:
+title: 'title'
+---
+
+
+## ‘Self-made disaster’: Trump White House takes heat over funding freeze
+
+title: "Trump’s Project 2025 Executive Order Halts Federal, States, and Locals Governments Dead In The Water"
+<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c_HG9dTbQ1o?si=hlKYMy3PdJFb3wew" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
+
+Jan 29, 2025  #Trump #WhiteHouse #federalfunding
+Ali Velshi on the White House rescinding the Trump funding freeze memo: “Do not miss what happened here: a widespread backlash from politicians, but also from activists, from nonprofits, from lawyers, from everyday people forced this reversal.”

_posts/2025/01/2025-01-30-TrumpFEMAActionsHurtNC.md

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+---
+layout: post
+tags: [USA Today, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), North Carolina (NC), Texas (TX), California (CA), Louisiana (LA), Florida (FL), politics]
+categories: [Donald Trump]
+date: 2025-01-30 4:01 PM
+excerpt: ''
+#image: 'BASEURL/assets/blog/img/.png'
+#description:
+#permalink:
+title: "Trump's Lies and Dismantling FEMA Is Harming North Carolina 's Recovery From Hurricane Helene"
+---
+
+
+## [My home state is still recovering from Helene. Trump just made rebuilding harder. / Opinion – Sara Pequeño](https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/01/30/trump-getting-rid-fema-climate-change/77977310007/)
+
+Story by Sara Pequeño, USA TODAY. January 30, 2025.
+
+- **[Trump's](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) Proposal**: During a visit to [North Carolina](https://www.nc.gov/), [Trump](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) proposed "getting rid" of the [Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)](https://www.fema.gov/) and signed an [executive order to establish a task force](https://www.whitehouse.gov/[president](https://www.whitehouse.gov/)ial-actions/2025/01/council-to-assess-the-federal-emergency-management-agency/) to decide the [agency's](https://www.fema.gov/) fate.
+- **Criticism of [FEMA](https://fema.gov)**: [Trump](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) criticized [FEMA](https://fema.gov), calling it a disaster and suggesting that disaster relief funds be paid directly to the states instead.
+- **Impact on Recovery**: The proposal comes at a time when [North Carolina](https://www.nc.gov/) is still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which caused significant damage and loss of life.
+- **Misinformation**: Misinformation about [FEMA's](https://fema.gov) relief efforts has influenced public opinion and [Trump's](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) stance against the agency.
+- **Project 2025**: The overhaul of [FEMA](https://fema.gov) is part of the [Heritage Foundation's](https://www.heritage.org/) [Project 2025](https://www.project2025.org/), which aims to transform federal agencies.
+- **State-Level Challenges**: Critics argue that states lack the infrastructure to handle disaster response without federal assistance.
+
+“[FEMA](https://fema.gov) has turned out to be a disaster,” [Trump](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) said at a briefing. “I think we’re going to recommend that [FEMA](https://fema.gov) go away and we pay directly – we pay a percentage to the state.”
+
+@RalphHightower: [Trump](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) issued an executive order establishing a [Council to Assess the Federal Emergency Management Agency](https://www.whitehouse.gov/[president](https://www.whitehouse.gov/)ial-actions/2025/01/council-to-assess-the-federal-emergency-management-agency/) look at getting rid of [FEMA](https://fema.gov), or reforming it. [Trump](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) exposes the vendetta that he has with [Biden](https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/) by narrowing the focus to the previous four years. Why not evaluate prior [administration](https://www.whitehouse.gov/)s, going back to Hurricane Katrina? States aren't equipped for large scale disasters. Hurricane Hugo devastated the Lowcountry of [South Carolina](https://www.sc.gov/), even doing severe damage in Sumter, part of the Midlands. Hurricane Joaquin in 2015, didn't make landfall. It sat off the coast of [South Carolina](https://www.sc.gov/) sending an atmospheric river of rain, causing numerous deadly dam breaks. It breached the Columbia Canal taking their water system to the brink of failure.
+
+That’s a bold recommendation when [California](https://www.ca.gov/) is still on fire and winter storms are around the corner. People are still recovering from last year’s "once in a generation" storm in the Appalachian Mountains; entire towns are having to rebuild. Instead of improving disaster response, completely transforming [FEMA](https://fema.gov) is more likely to create chaos at the state level.
+
+@RalphHightower: During [Trump's](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) 2024 campaign he claimed that he knew nothing about [Project 2025](https://www.project2025.org/). By now, people should recognize that [Trump](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) lies.
+
+### [FEMA](https://fema.gov) is vital – and a constant target of misinformation
+
+@RalphHightower: [Trump](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) depends on spreading misinformation and fear to divide the nation.
+
+Sara is from near the parts of [North Carolina](https://www.nc.gov/) hit by Hurricane Helene, which led to 104 deaths in the state and caused at least \$60 billion worth of damage. So far, [FEMA](https://fema.gov) has approved \$320 million in funds to help more than 146,000 households.
+
+While [FEMA](https://fema.gov) isn't a perfect organization, its personnel are the first people to respond when a natural disaster hits. A functioning disaster response agency is a necessary function of government.
+
+[Misinformation about FEMA](https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/08/fima-disinformation-hurricane-helene-response-00182841) relief services started shortly after [Helene made landfall late September](https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2024/12/31/hurricane-helene-how-the-deadly-storm-devastated-the-southeast/77179217007/). These incorrect social media posts may have influenced [Trump's](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) stance against [FEMA](https://fema.gov) in the months since.
+
+Sara saw it on her own Facebook feed from people back home: everything from an [AI-generated image](https://www.npr.org/2024/10/18/nx-s1-5153741/ai-images-hurricanes-disasters-propaganda) of a girl and a puppy being rescued to [accusations](https://apnews.com/article/election-hurricanes-false-info-helene-milton-a4c2df2463b69c1f2e3eb6846e3b37ae) that [FEMA's](https://fema.gov) financial resources had been rerouted to help undocumented immigrants, a lie that [Trump repeated](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/in-north-carolina-trump-attacks-fema-and-repeats-false-claims-about-its-response-to-helene) in the weeks following the hurricane.
+
+@RalphHightower: Actually, there is a ring of truth to [Trump's](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) claim that money was diverted from [FEMA's](https://fema.gov) Disaster Relief Fund for undocumented migrants. Except it wasn’t the [Biden administration](https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/), it was the [Trump 1.0 administration](https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/) that diverted $155 million; [[Trump](https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/) admin pulling millions from [FEMA disaster relief to send to southern border](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-admin-pulling-millions-fema-disaster-relief-send-southern-border-n1046691). NBC News. Aug. 27, 2019, 2:48 PM EDT
+
+At one point, [FEMA](https://fema.gov) had to pause part of its disaster relief work due to [reports](https://apnews.com/article/fema-north-carolina-disinformation-threats-militia-04b8f753a82c652bc013d556d22a5d46) of militias potentially targeting the agency’s employees.
+
+### [FEMA](https://fema.gov) overhaul is key component of Project 2025
+
+Completely overhauling [FEMA](https://fema.gov) was laid out in the [Heritage Foundation's](https://www.heritage.org/) [Project 2025](https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-fema-project-2025-56ff64f264403b8934ecbf1f91928d73) – meaning this is something [Trumpians](https://www.gog.gov/) have been considering for years.
+
+Meanwhile, [Texas](https://www.texas.gov/), [Louisiana](https://www.louisiana.gov/) and [Florida](https://www.myflorida.com/) – all red states – have received the most individual assistance payments from [FEMA](https://fema.gov) since 2015 till last April. Axios, based on numbers from the [Disaster Dollar Database](https://carnegieendowment.orgundefined/?lang=en) collected by the [Carnegie Endowment for International Peace](https://carnegieendowment.org/), reports that those states received more than [$7.12 billion](https://www.axios.com/2024/10/08/fema-direct-payments-state-recipients) altogether.
+
+This isn’t the first government agency on the chopping block in [Trump](https://www.whitehouse.gov/)’s second term. On the campaign trail, the [president](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) proposed dismantling the [Department of Education](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2024/11/13/trump-education-department/76231305007/).
+
+[Trump](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) used his appearance in [North Carolina](https://www.nc.gov/) to announce that he would appoint [Trumpian National Committee Chair](https://www.gop.com/) [Michael Whatley](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/us/politics/trump-north-carolina-california-disaster-aid.html) to assist in the state's recovery. Sure, [Whatley](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/us/politics/trump-north-carolina-california-disaster-aid.html) is from [North Carolina](https://www.nc.gov/). But if [Trump's](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) problem with [FEMA](https://fema.gov) is that it isn't local enough, why is the solution to add another [federal bureaucrat](https://www.usa.gov/) to recovery efforts?
+
+Nothing makes things run smoother than adding a layer of [Trumpian](https://www.gop.com/) oversight.
+
+While [Trump](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) seems to think everything is best handed back to the states, he ignores the real repercussions of his decisions. States do not have the infrastructure to do what [FEMA](https://fema.gov) does. States need a [federal government](https://www.usa.gov/) that will assist in times of crisis.
+
+@RalphHightower: States can't anticipate all disasters that may happen. Sure, Tornadoes are expected in the state's that are in Tornado Alley. Southern states on the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic are expected to get hurricanes. [California](https://www.ca.gov/) gets earthquakes and wildfires spread by the Santa Ana Winds. [South Carolina](https://www.sc.gov/) in on a fault line, but we haven't had a devastating earthquake like [Charleston](https://https://charleston-sc.gov/) experienced in 1886.
+
+A [president](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) should respect the essential functions of government instead of trying to dismantle the systems we have in place for a reason.
+
+Then again, we all know [Trump](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) is a [president](https://www.whitehouse.gov/) who doesn't respect the [country](https://www.usa.gov/).