We have a tendency to think of these problems like mechanical systems, where if you pull one pin, the machine stops. It’s better to consider them like weeds… you have a dandelion in your yard, yes, but there is a field of green flat little plants growing before the first cotton bandit sticks its head up. To deal with a weed infestation, you either need to get every single one, make the environment inhospitable to the weed, or introduce something you want that crowds them out.

But they were all of them deceived. For in secret, another generation of fighter was forged. And in it he poured all his stealth, all his sensor packages, and all his missiles.

Girl… you gonna get soooo much action the next few years.

Plan is to leave cybertrucks in the path of the assault and hope they use them.

Same reason the people on 9/11 stayed in their seats - they thought they’d be fine if they waited it out.

Oh, did an airline stewardess walk by?

Got caught using the wrong glue is more accurate.

At this point slave labor can be the center free spot.

Do you mean academy award nominated actress MargotRobbie?

So you don’t live south of austin, neat.

It’s good to see they ruled out it being a random fire attack. Those really affect property values.

I would like to remind you of your state’s dependance on The Cajun Navy in disasters.

I’ve spent a good deal of time in disasters that weren’t my marriage, and I think the concern here is that FEMA is the payer and coordinator of the federal response.

Let’s take a sexy part of that topic; helicopter rescue and transport in hurricanes. FEMA has a list of providers ready to shift resources, contracts in place, prep teams, and on declaration of an emergency, can authorize payment for resources to begin moving and staging out of a hurricane’s path, gassed and ready to move in. Helicopters are expensive, and it takes the promise of federal reimbursement to move them.

Now something less sexy and more important; water and food. FEMA has contracts in place with set rates for purchase, transportation, and distribution (including personnel) for these resources. Again, while all the helicopter crews are doing their little dances that they get paid to go look cool, these private contractors are gearing up to position out of the storm path, go to designated staging areas once the storm passes, and await direction. This is coordinated with the state response by the FEMA disaster office in Colorado (after Katrina we realized putting response commands in the storm path wasn’t the best idea).

FEMA’s job is to move massive amounts of resources to an area to mitigate the overwhelming of local resources. Shifting this coordination to a state level doesn’t make sense, unless every state carbon copies what FEMA already does, and puts all these contacts in place. I find this a bad idea, because the power of being a single payer with the purse meant the federal government sets the price, like with medicaid. I see this resulting with more frequently hit states (like florida) paying more for resources by contract, because they are calling for limited resources often, they need them, and they are now competing with, say Texas, who might also want helicopter in their response. Also this creates the specter of “what if there are two disaster at the same time?” Before, FEMA would divide the resources as best available. With the change, the free market would determine who gets the bottled water first.

They think and they pray.

Stop dicking around and fight the dark one, Rand. What do you think this is, books 8-13?

To clarify, that’s if you own SPY or SPX

By code a bathroom is a sink and any combination of a bidet, shower, tub, or toilet.

You jest, but futures can actually go negative. At one point during covid a tanker shortage meant you could be paid a few $100 to accept delivery of a barrel of crude. Some people were joking about filling their swimming pools.

I hate to darken your cloud, but that makes them exactly the people who will be cut off by the administration. The economy won’t care if they die in the streets… pure capitalism has no heart as much as pure communism has no drive.