"Have these been scotch-guarded?"
September 12 // August, 26, 2017
"I knew I'd regret wearing these shoes" and other lessons in crisis management.
Just for today, we’re going to take a bit of a longer stroll down memory lane than we typically do here at Two Weeks Ago News. We will eventually land on the current news (that’s about a fortnight old at this point) but bear with us. Here we go:
Remember this story, from January 2017? What would newly elected President Trump do about filling the post at the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association for those among us who are acronym-challenged)? With the departure of Kathy Sullivan, an appointee from the Obama Administration, where does that leave us?
Maybe you don’t remember it. That outrage is pretty old.
Well, it seems that it left us nowhere for a while, with nothing new to say, because a few months later, in April, we read more about how we still had no one officially appointed and confirmed to lead this group. According to Climate Central: “NOAA currently has an acting administrator, Benjamin Friedman, who has kept things running. Weather alerts are still going out, the global average temperature is still being calculated and ocean data is still being crunched for El Niño forecasts. (Bold from TWAN.) But without a permanent leader in place, the agency is essentially treading water.” (We assume there was no pun intended there because the NOAA appears to be a humorless bunch but who can say? Maybe they make these kinds of “inside” jokes all the time.)
Well, the truth is, we were left with Benjamin Friedman, who is (still) acting NOAA Administrator. True, he wasn’t “official” but he was better than no one. And what’s more, he was in place way back in January when the first round of “who will lead us?” articles appeared.
But you’d never know that if you read The New York Daily News in June. (And really, do any of us read more than a headline these days?) Here it is: Hurricane Season is Here but the NOAA and FEMA Still Don’t Have Leaders.
Well, hold on there, NYDN. We have Benjamin Freidman, along with Steve Volz, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Satellites, who also serves as Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observations and Prediction. Don’t they count? Must people be “official” before we, or the media, pay any attention to them? (For your answer, see Trump, Ivanka or Kushner, Jared.)
And in addition to Benjamin and Steve, we have Edward Rappaport, Acting Director of the National Hurricane Center. Ed who? Does he know what he’s doing? A few career highlights:
Lots more on the link. Let’s just say he knows hurricanes.
Okay, fine. So we have Ben, Steve and Ed. All “acting” directors; none confirmed. Logical conclusion? We’re doomed.
But wait. What about FEMA? What about that leadership? Keep reading.
According to NPR, FEMA's last director, Craig Fugate, who stepped down in January, says day-to-day operations at the agency are in good hands, so he is not concerned about a temporary vacuum at the top. He says, "The bigger challenge is longer term, is setting the tone and direction of the agency; being able to represent the agency in the policy discussions at the highest level of government."
Thanks, Craig. We feel a little better. But the hurricane season is here and not only do we have no leaders, the administration is proposing cuts. And what about those cuts? Devastating, no?
Read on. Again, from NPR:
"This is a very harmful approach that's essentially saying that states are on their own, communities are on their own in terms of responding and recovering from these disasters," says Rachel Cleetus, a climate policy expert with the Union of Concerned Scientists. "And the reality is, states just don't have the budgets."
But wait – again (yup, the same article):
And, as alarming as she finds it, Cleetus acknowledges that Trump's budget is unlikely to be adopted. Congress, not the president, determines how money is allocated to federal agencies.
And again…one more time:
Fugate says FEMA has enjoyed stable funding since 2011 under a formula developed by Congress and the White House after Hurricane Irene. So despite the cuts to his former agency, Fugate says, "I don't get too excited when the president submits their budget. I wait until I start seeing what the appropriations chairs have to work with and what their initial marks are. Because that's a better indicator of what ultimately will get funded or not get funded."
Well...whatever, Craig. Maybe that’s true. But still. It’s hurricane season! Storms are coming! Are these guys any good or what? We need someone to head up FEMA and we need someone now!
ALERT! Today’s word-of-the-day from TWAN: Litotes. It means describing something as the opposite of its negative. Example: “It wasn’t bad.” Please continue....
Good news on the FEMA leadership question! New York Magazine has some comforting words for us: Trump’s FEMA Director Doesn’t Seem Incompetent.
(TWAN aside - Here’s another way to say that: Trump’s FEMA Director Seems Competent. Just a suggestion.)
But is he really any good? Well, this is what the Huffington Post had to say as late as just a few weeks ago (See, we told you we’d get there…)
In an event like Hurricane Harvey, [Brock] Long is “probably one of the best prepared (people) that the country could ask for,” Mark Merritt, a co-founder of a disaster cleanup consulting firm and a former FEMA official under President Bill Clinton, told The Associated Press.
The man who oversees the federal government’s response to natural disasters has received accolades from environmentalists, who see him as someone who will work toward better preparing the country for climate change-driven extreme weather, as Bloomberg reported in June. During a Senate confirmation hearing, Long said, “If we ultimately want to reduce costs in the future for disasters, we have to do more mitigation.”
So here we are; a few weeks out from Hurricane Harvey and dealing with the remnants of Hurricane Irma. The devastation to Houston was unprecedented. The length and breadth of the storm was relentless and it will take billions of dollars and many months to address, repair and revitalize the communities it destroyed. Southern Florida and Florida’s west coast were impacted most significantly but the storm inflicted less damage than predicted, thankfully.
Leaving the leadership question aside, what about the people? Those who endured the worst of it? What can we say? The news was horrifying. Those hundreds of pictures and the endless footage of people in Texas and Florida, deliberately ignoring the cries of others who were in danger; abandoning them to die, after determining that the people in need practiced a religion different from their own. Or were from a different ethnic group. Or had a sexual preference different than their own. Or because they were registered as a member of a different political party. Given the mayhem in Charlottesville not one month ago, are we really that surprised? We hate each other!
Oh wait. No, we don’t. None of those stories happened because the wide swath of “middle” in this country, the people who are largely ignored by the media, seem to do the right thing almost all the time, and almost always in times of trouble. If we don’t believe that, we’re not looking closely enough.
But here’s the thing – because we always have a thing. The shoes. The hat. The stilettos and the cap. That’s what we need to be outraged about. Just google ‘stiletto and Melania’ or ‘Trump and Houston cap’ if you need more background. You’ll have hours of reading in front of you in seconds.
Let’s sum up. Our complaints about the lack of leadership proved to be largely pointless. But it was vital that we noted (over and over again) the stilettos and the hat on the First Lady and the President.
What choice did we have? The storms hit; the government agencies in place did their part, and the people dealing with the wrath of nature showed every bit of their better natures in the face of it all. All we had left were the wardrobe choices. Got it. Whatever it takes to weather the storm.
"I knew I'd regret wearing these shoes" and other lessons in crisis management.
Just for today, we’re going to take a bit of a longer stroll down memory lane than we typically do here at Two Weeks Ago News. We will eventually land on the current news (that’s about a fortnight old at this point) but bear with us. Here we go:
Remember this story, from January 2017? What would newly elected President Trump do about filling the post at the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association for those among us who are acronym-challenged)? With the departure of Kathy Sullivan, an appointee from the Obama Administration, where does that leave us?
Maybe you don’t remember it. That outrage is pretty old.
Well, it seems that it left us nowhere for a while, with nothing new to say, because a few months later, in April, we read more about how we still had no one officially appointed and confirmed to lead this group. According to Climate Central: “NOAA currently has an acting administrator, Benjamin Friedman, who has kept things running. Weather alerts are still going out, the global average temperature is still being calculated and ocean data is still being crunched for El Niño forecasts. (Bold from TWAN.) But without a permanent leader in place, the agency is essentially treading water.” (We assume there was no pun intended there because the NOAA appears to be a humorless bunch but who can say? Maybe they make these kinds of “inside” jokes all the time.)
Well, the truth is, we were left with Benjamin Friedman, who is (still) acting NOAA Administrator. True, he wasn’t “official” but he was better than no one. And what’s more, he was in place way back in January when the first round of “who will lead us?” articles appeared.
But you’d never know that if you read The New York Daily News in June. (And really, do any of us read more than a headline these days?) Here it is: Hurricane Season is Here but the NOAA and FEMA Still Don’t Have Leaders.
Well, hold on there, NYDN. We have Benjamin Freidman, along with Steve Volz, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Satellites, who also serves as Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observations and Prediction. Don’t they count? Must people be “official” before we, or the media, pay any attention to them? (For your answer, see Trump, Ivanka or Kushner, Jared.)
And in addition to Benjamin and Steve, we have Edward Rappaport, Acting Director of the National Hurricane Center. Ed who? Does he know what he’s doing? A few career highlights:
- His nearly 40-year career in meteorology comprises positions in forecasting, research, administration, management, academia and the media.
- In his 30th year at National Hurricane Center, where he began as a post-doctoral fellow for the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
- Has since worked in all of NHC’s organizational components--front office, Hurricane Specialist Unit (HSU), Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch, and Technology and Science Branch (TSB).
- Has issued hurricane forecasts for nine years.
Lots more on the link. Let’s just say he knows hurricanes.
Okay, fine. So we have Ben, Steve and Ed. All “acting” directors; none confirmed. Logical conclusion? We’re doomed.
But wait. What about FEMA? What about that leadership? Keep reading.
According to NPR, FEMA's last director, Craig Fugate, who stepped down in January, says day-to-day operations at the agency are in good hands, so he is not concerned about a temporary vacuum at the top. He says, "The bigger challenge is longer term, is setting the tone and direction of the agency; being able to represent the agency in the policy discussions at the highest level of government."
Thanks, Craig. We feel a little better. But the hurricane season is here and not only do we have no leaders, the administration is proposing cuts. And what about those cuts? Devastating, no?
Read on. Again, from NPR:
"This is a very harmful approach that's essentially saying that states are on their own, communities are on their own in terms of responding and recovering from these disasters," says Rachel Cleetus, a climate policy expert with the Union of Concerned Scientists. "And the reality is, states just don't have the budgets."
But wait – again (yup, the same article):
And, as alarming as she finds it, Cleetus acknowledges that Trump's budget is unlikely to be adopted. Congress, not the president, determines how money is allocated to federal agencies.
And again…one more time:
Fugate says FEMA has enjoyed stable funding since 2011 under a formula developed by Congress and the White House after Hurricane Irene. So despite the cuts to his former agency, Fugate says, "I don't get too excited when the president submits their budget. I wait until I start seeing what the appropriations chairs have to work with and what their initial marks are. Because that's a better indicator of what ultimately will get funded or not get funded."
Well...whatever, Craig. Maybe that’s true. But still. It’s hurricane season! Storms are coming! Are these guys any good or what? We need someone to head up FEMA and we need someone now!
ALERT! Today’s word-of-the-day from TWAN: Litotes. It means describing something as the opposite of its negative. Example: “It wasn’t bad.” Please continue....
Good news on the FEMA leadership question! New York Magazine has some comforting words for us: Trump’s FEMA Director Doesn’t Seem Incompetent.
(TWAN aside - Here’s another way to say that: Trump’s FEMA Director Seems Competent. Just a suggestion.)
But is he really any good? Well, this is what the Huffington Post had to say as late as just a few weeks ago (See, we told you we’d get there…)
In an event like Hurricane Harvey, [Brock] Long is “probably one of the best prepared (people) that the country could ask for,” Mark Merritt, a co-founder of a disaster cleanup consulting firm and a former FEMA official under President Bill Clinton, told The Associated Press.
The man who oversees the federal government’s response to natural disasters has received accolades from environmentalists, who see him as someone who will work toward better preparing the country for climate change-driven extreme weather, as Bloomberg reported in June. During a Senate confirmation hearing, Long said, “If we ultimately want to reduce costs in the future for disasters, we have to do more mitigation.”
So here we are; a few weeks out from Hurricane Harvey and dealing with the remnants of Hurricane Irma. The devastation to Houston was unprecedented. The length and breadth of the storm was relentless and it will take billions of dollars and many months to address, repair and revitalize the communities it destroyed. Southern Florida and Florida’s west coast were impacted most significantly but the storm inflicted less damage than predicted, thankfully.
Leaving the leadership question aside, what about the people? Those who endured the worst of it? What can we say? The news was horrifying. Those hundreds of pictures and the endless footage of people in Texas and Florida, deliberately ignoring the cries of others who were in danger; abandoning them to die, after determining that the people in need practiced a religion different from their own. Or were from a different ethnic group. Or had a sexual preference different than their own. Or because they were registered as a member of a different political party. Given the mayhem in Charlottesville not one month ago, are we really that surprised? We hate each other!
Oh wait. No, we don’t. None of those stories happened because the wide swath of “middle” in this country, the people who are largely ignored by the media, seem to do the right thing almost all the time, and almost always in times of trouble. If we don’t believe that, we’re not looking closely enough.
But here’s the thing – because we always have a thing. The shoes. The hat. The stilettos and the cap. That’s what we need to be outraged about. Just google ‘stiletto and Melania’ or ‘Trump and Houston cap’ if you need more background. You’ll have hours of reading in front of you in seconds.
Let’s sum up. Our complaints about the lack of leadership proved to be largely pointless. But it was vital that we noted (over and over again) the stilettos and the hat on the First Lady and the President.
What choice did we have? The storms hit; the government agencies in place did their part, and the people dealing with the wrath of nature showed every bit of their better natures in the face of it all. All we had left were the wardrobe choices. Got it. Whatever it takes to weather the storm.