Since a lot of my fellow Texans are going to apply for aid through @FEMA let’s talk about the agency and some of the barriers disaster survivors encounter and persisting program flaws.

First things first, @FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Here’s a blog I wrote about its history and shortcomings in how the agency is funded: https://t.co/l3MSztwbcz
Many people will be applying for Individual Assistance (IA), but past disasters have shown us that help isn’t evenly distributed and frequently struggles to reach those in deepest need. This unpacks some of the class bias in accepted/rejected apps:
https://t.co/qwtgexRGXm
Of course, there are racial dimensions to this as well:
https://t.co/vzALMlPApm
Documentation is seen as helping reduce fraud, but after a disaster many docs are destroyed. People who are denied assistance and appeal are often told to make small changes to the documents they provide or provide updated documentation b/c of how long the aid process takes.
Documentation requirements don’t take into account the various ways people, especially non-white folks who were denied access to traditional financial services, come into property. Proof of ownership for an heirship home that technically belongs to several people is complicated
A high documentation burden is, imo, part of our government’s disdain for the poorest among us - making folks jump through needless hoops to ensure that fraud isn’t being committed.
@FEMA is responsible for program design that is implemented by states. The programs they create, however, are better in theory than practice. A recent example of this is the STEPS program, a newish model for disaster recovery thought up by FEMA.
https://t.co/3WhR0NUuzN
In Texas, STEPS went by the name PREPS - its lack of oversight hurt laborers (wage theft) and survivors (some homes were riskier to live in than before). It was overseen by the @txglo (statewide land/recovery office led by @georgepbush).
Here’s how PREPS went in Houston
https://t.co/Qjf9zO3hMq
More on its Houston shortcomings:
https://t.co/QQyc0CyZoO
There are policy fixes to @FEMA and its programs to make it more effective and ensure a more #justrecovery for the increasing number of climate disaster survivors in the US state and territories.
For those changes to take place this country would need to respect science and honor the humanity of poor people and non-white people the way #mutualaid groups on the ground in Houston have shown.
The state has a role that simply cannot continue to be abdicated or half-assed in these climate crises.

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global health policy in 2020 has centered around NPI's (non-pharmaceutical interventions) like distancing, masks, school closures

these have been sold as a way to stop infection as though this were science.

this was never true and that fact was known and knowable.

let's look.


above is the plot of social restriction and NPI vs total death per million. there is 0 R2. this means that the variables play no role in explaining one another.

we can see this same relationship between NPI and all cause deaths.

this is devastating to the case for NPI.


clearly, correlation is not proof of causality, but a total lack of correlation IS proof that there was no material causality.

barring massive and implausible coincidence, it's essentially impossible to cause something and not correlate to it, especially 51 times.

this would seem to pose some very serious questions for those claiming that lockdowns work, those basing policy upon them, and those claiming this is the side of science.

there is no science here nor any data. this is the febrile imaginings of discredited modelers.

this has been clear and obvious from all over the world since the beginning and had been proven so clearly by may that it's hard to imagine anyone who is actually conversant with the data still believing in these responses.

everyone got the same R
Like most movements, I have learned that the definition of feminism has expanded to include simply treating women like human beings.

(A thread for whoever feels like reading)


I have observed feminists on Twitter advocating for rape victims to be heard, rapists to be held accountable, for people to address the misogyny that is deeply rooted in our culture, and for women to be treated with respect.

To me, very easy things to get behind.

And the amount of pushback they receive for those very basic requests is appalling. I see men trip over themselves to defend rape and rapists and misogyny every chance they get. Some accounts are completely dedicated to harassing women on this site. It’s unhealthy.

Furthermore, I have observed how dedicated these misogynists are by how they treat other men that do not immediately side with them. There is an entire lexicon they have created for men who do not openly treat women with disrespect.

Ex: simp, cuck, white knight, beta

All examples of terms they use to demean a man who respects women.

To paraphrase what a wise man on this app said:

Some men hate women so much, they hate men who don’t hate women
It is simply not correct to point fingers at wind & solar energy as we try to understand the situation in TX. The system (almost) had a plan for weather (almost) like this. 1/x


It relied on very little wind energy - that was the plan. It relied on a lot of natural gas - that was the plan. It relied on all of its nuclear energy - that was the plan. 2/x

There was enough natural gas, coal and nuclear capacity installed to survive this event - it was NOT "forced out" by the wind energy expansion. It was there. 3/x

Wind, natural gas, coal and nuclear plants all failed to deliver on their expectations for long periods of time. The biggest gap was in natural gas! The generators were there, but they were not able to deliver. 4/x

It may be fair to ask why there is so much wind energy in ERCOT if we do NOT expect it to deliver during weather events like this, but that is an entirely different question - and one with a lot of great answers!! 5/x

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