As a white woman who was once caught off-guard by her own unexpected privilege, I wanted to share what I learned and guide you through this new phase in your life.
The post White Privilege: What to Expect When You Weren’t Expecting appeared first on Qween City.
The new head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency greeted his staff Friday with an aggressive promise to "run right over" anyone who doesn't get with his program, according to a new report by Reuters.
"Obfuscation, delay, undermining. If...you think those tactics and techniques are going to help you, they will not, because I will run right over you," David Richardson said during an all-hands call. "Don't get in my way... I know all the tricks."
Richardson, a combat veteran who previously served with DHS's office for countering weapons of mass destruction, was appointed to replace acting FEMA chief Cameron Hamilton.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem canned Hamilton this week after he told a congressional hearing "he did not support eliminating the agency," according to the report.
EXCLUSIVE: Breastfeeding mom of US citizen sues Kristi Noem after being grabbed by ICE
Noem and President Donald Trump "have called for the agency to be shrunk or even abolished, arguing that many of its functions can be carried out by the states, a stance that is already leading to decreased federal aid for disasters."
According to Reuters, Richardson said he would "look to narrow the agency's operations to only actions that 'are within the law' and 'within our mission,'" but gave no details.
Richardson sent memos to staff Friday directing them to "begin collating lists of FEMA tasks and authorities" so he could identify redundancies and achieve "Trump's vision for the agency," Reuters reported.
"We're going to find out how to do things better," Richardson said during the staff call. "We're going to find out how to push things down to the states that should be done at state level. Also we're going to find out how we can do more cost sharing with the states."
Reuters noted that the leadership change comes just before hurricane season gets underway June 1.
Read the Reuters article here.
I am seeing a lot of nonsense being reported about the America-attacking Donald Trump alleging last weekend he will not seek a third term in office ... as if anything that comes out of his dirty mouth is at all credible.
Have we learned nothing yet?
Listen to me, good people: Unless he has the decency to die first, America’s First Felon has no intention of leaving the White House in 2028.
What we do between now and then in revolt of this revolting man will tell the tale.
After 10 years of carpet-bombing the truth, can everybody at least understand that we can never trust a single word that comes out of the dirty mouth of the woman-abusing narcissist, who according to one count told an astonishing 30,573 lies and mistruths during his first chaotic presidency when hundreds of thousands of Americans needlessly died because of his RFK Jr.-like response to a once-in-a-century killer pandemic?
We need only rely on his past despicable actions to get at his true future intent, because whatever this racist lowlife — who is actively trying to disappear people of color and their history from our government websites — is saying and what he has actually done is far, far worse.
We know by his actions that after losing the 2020 election by more than seven million votes to Joe Biden, Trump began making it crystal clear to everyone that he had no intention of stepping down and honoring the vote of the people.
Thus, the Big Lie was hatched.
Rather than gracefully concede his loss, as Hillary Clinton had done four years earlier after winning close to three million votes MORE than him, Trump decided to go to war against America.
We know by his revolting actions, that after losing scores of legal challenges, and publicly threatening and shaking down poll workers and election officials, Trump finally summoned the worst people in America, his lawless base, to Washington in an attempt to violently overthrow the government.
We watched for hours as overmatched law enforcement officers were beaten with American and rebel flags, and stomped into curbs. We watched as Trump’s thugs breached our Capitol inflicting millions of dollars worth of damage, and then hunted down politicians threatening them with death and hanging.
And while all this was happening Trump took no action, except for hoping the insurrection would succeed.
Finally, when it was clear the attack had been put down, he grudgingly harrumphed in front of a camera on the White House lawn, and through gritted, yellow teeth told the people who had attacked us that he loved them.
He told them that he loved them …
I just want to stop here for a second and ask again, because it can never be asked enough: What would have happened on this terrible day if Black people had inflicted the worst attack on our Capitol since 1812? Would they have have been told they were loved by the outgoing President of the United States?
Fact is, there would have been thousands of dead and wounded littering the Capitol grounds, and most white people would have been falling all over themselves to say they got what they deserved.
Because that is how America operates today and always. We are a racist country governed by white people, who predominate our elected offices, our military and law enforcement barracks, but mostly our banks.
I’ll never forget any of what happened that terrible day, but mostly I’ll never forget that chilling moment when the racist Trump told those disgusting people that he loved them, because that’s when I knew for sure he was coming back.
It was yet another call to the far-right, racist extremists who cement his morally bankrupt base to “stand back and standby.”
By telling the people who violently attacked us that he loved them, Trump was making it plain as day that unless he was jailed and/or prevented by Congress from ever running again, he was going to be back to finish us off in 2024.
He was telling us he understood America and the degenerates in the Republican Party better than the elected officials who were supposed to keep us safe, and honor our Constitution.
He was telling us he knew this country better than Mitch McConnell, or Biden, or anybody who he appointed to be his Attorney General. He was making a bet on injustice and cruelty, and against the country he had attacked.
First, McConnell and 42 other gutless Republican senators failed to vote to convict at Trump's second impeachment trial, which would have prevented the America-attacker from ever running for office again. Then there was the three-dimensional chess-playing legal scholar, Merrick Garland, who spent four years successfully putting himself in check.
So catastrophically did Biden's attorney general fail us, that even the foot soldiers in the Jan. 6 attack who he was able to successfully jail are now back on the streets because he refused to lay a glove on their lawless leader, the most dangerous man in the world.
Finally, there was Biden, a good man who spent four years too often talking about an America that never existed, and ended his term perched in front of a crackling fire at the White House just days after Trump had carried out his threat to return, and enthusiastically offering him his hand, a warm smile and a, “Welcome back!”
Welcome back. My God …
When will people start taking this violent, democratic arsonist seriously? When will we start looking at his repulsive actions, instead of taking him at his empty word?
I bring all this up today because in addition to making sure we never forget what has really happened to America, we keep a close eye on what is really happening in America.
The American-attacking Trump is telling us in words what he has been telling us with his actions the past 10 years: The Constitution of the United States simply does not apply to him.
When asked during the same interview last Sunday in which he said he wouldn’t run again, NBC’s Kristen Welker pressed him on if he will uphold that Constitution.
Trump answered this way: “I don’t know.”
Now ask yourself what would have happened if Barack Obama had given that answer.
D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.
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