All day long I listened to Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida blather on about how fantastic his organization and response is, and his lackeys laid it on thick.
Meanwhile, elderly people within less than a mile of the coast were sitting there in their one-story homes getting ready to die, with no one coming to move them out of the predicted storm surge.
I don’t wanna hear his bullshit.
Please share widely!
If a hurricane were approaching the Massachusetts coastline, and the National Weather Service forecast a 12-foot storm surge, we would expect the government of Massachusetts to evacuate all elderly persons in the storm surge zone.
Why people are giving the governor of Florida a pass on this is mystifying to me.
Why should the people of Florida expect anything less than an evacuation of vulnerable elders who cannot move themselves from the storm surge zone when a forecast of such a storm has been available for over 36 hours?
We would not accept this from a governor of Massachusetts. There is no reason in the world that it should be acceptable for a governor of Florida – in fact less so.
People were told in plenty of time if you want to stay you can stay, you’re not going to get rescued. You gonna force them out of their home?
I know plenty of people who rode it out in their doublewide, guess what it’s
their doublewide. Then they warned the looters “You loot, We shoot”.
It’s a different world.
I enthusiastically agree that it’s a different world.
I fear you miss the point. As in every other catastrophe like this, a significant share of those elderly have no ability to evacuate on their own. They lack mobility, they lack transportation, they depend on medical equipment that they can’t take with them, and so on.
As is so often the case with GOP supporters, this stance punishes the weak and the vulnerable — in far too many cases punishes them with death.
So much for the “sanctity of life”.
“Those of us who are 70 plus, we’ll take care of ourselves. But don’t sacrifice the country,”
Dan Patrick, Texas’ Republican lieutenant governor on how senor citizens are or should be willing to risk their lives to save the country from economic strain during the height of Covid.
I’m sure the same can be said of the 70+ that were in the path of the storm. Measures to evacuate them all would be quite costly and a strain on the Florida economy. They should all be honored to give their lives for the GDP of Florida….yeah, that’s the true Republican message to the sick and elderly. “Sanctity of Life” my ass!
Please tell me you don’t endorse that last line!
Is this the same Ron DeSantis who, as a Representative for Florida’s 6th District in 2013, opposed federal disaster relief for New York and New Jersey, which had been impacted by Hurricane Sandy, due to “no plan to offset the spending with cuts elsewhere”? Are we talking about the same guy? I find that hard to believe.
Heh — of course it’s the same guy, and I strongly suspect you’re being sarcastic.
These slimebuckets say anything to anybody at any time they think it will be advantageous to whatever is important to them at the moment.
This was not necessary. It is not a mystery how people die in a hurricane. The vast majority of people who die in hurricanes drown. The responsibility for getting the people out of harm’s way from the storm surge is with the governor of any state. The primary focus – to prevent this from happening again – should be assessing what was not correctly BEFORE the hurricane struck.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is skating on this, and it is ridiculous. Whatever reasons Biden may have for treading carefully, do not change the fact that this is the truth.
Honey attracts flies more than vinegar. We are weeks away from a crucial mid-term election, and Democrats need every vote we can get. Mr. Biden, as he has always done, is choosing competence, compassion, and collaboration over the chaos, violence, and crudity of the GOP.