• IHeartBadCode@fedia.io
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    1 month ago

    The disaster hit areas will get funds. It will be rebuilt. But none of that happens overnight. The US has spent $1.79T on disasters since 1980. Hurricane Katrina alone costed about 190 Iron Dome Systems.

    I get that there’s always more we can do, and trust me I really dislike that a ton of our budget goes towards war and military. But I think people forget how absolutely massive the destruction is in some of these disasters and how much it’ll cost to rebuild. I mean the conservative end of cost from Helene is eleven years of 100% of the funds annually allocated toward FEMA. And that’s just a single disaster.

    We’re still spending FEMA money on the 2013 Colorado Flood because these disasters are that destructive, the 2017 California wildfires are still a 15 million a year recovery operation that’s still on-going. There’s even $15B earmarked for COVID-19 and it’ll likely be the late 2020s or early 2030s when we finally see that fall off the FEMA spreadsheet.

    I’m not trying to defend the wasteful expenses on military that we do, but things like those missiles in the picture are minuscule to the massive amount of destruction these disasters bring. And I think it’s important to highlight that because it hopefully gives people some clue to the true cost of climate change.

    • lohky@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      How much have we spent turning brown kids into ash over that same 40 year span?

      • IHeartBadCode@fedia.io
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        1 month ago

        That’s vague, but I’ll assume you mean funding directly for combat operations excluding VA hospital, vet benefits, DHS appropriations, etc. So that would come to $19.903T over that same period.

        But the thing is that also excludes maritime trade protection and I don’t believe brown kids sail boats towards shipping channels, but there could be possibilities where that is the case. Also that dollar figure doesn’t have anything to do with the event being depicted in the picture. That’s Israel’s Iron Dome system and costs associated with that would not be reflected in the US military budget. That is funded by general transfer of funds. Good example of such is public law 117-103. Under Division C, Title VIII, Sec. 8142 which is page 209 of that PDF linked there.

        So that number doesn’t include that and it’d be a lot harder to get that number as the Government doesn’t put out a spreadsheet for general transfer of funds. Though they ought to, because that would make tracking all of this a lot easier. It’s not impossible to calculate that, the information is all there, it’s just spread out and requires a bunch of leg work.

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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    1 month ago

    Ya’ll know that Israel got the nuclear fissile material for their first nukes by a Zionist stealing it from the US firm NUMEC and clandestinely shipping it to Israel, right?

    The CIA and NRC were very much convinced of this in 1976 and then … for some mysterious reason it was never fully investigated.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Been wanting to vent or cry all night. Whatever you see tomorrow after Milton, it’s far worse on the ground.

    • Mouselemming
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      1 month ago

      Our tax dollars will go there, as soon as the Republicans in the House agree to fund FEMA. Our tax dollars also funded the NOAA weather analysis systems that gave people warning to evacuate. As a Californian who’s never experienced a major hurricane, I’m glad to send my share of taxes to where it’s needed. Could definitely cut back on the bombs, though.

      • EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Speaker is adamant about not bringing them back until after the election last I heard.

        Which means blocking the money by doing so and they can blame Biden/Harris

        • Mouselemming
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          1 month ago

          They can try, but it’s patently evident who’s holding up the funds, and it could backfire for the Speaker under the new rules of his appointment.

          • gdog05@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            It’s patently evident if you’re rational. If you’re not rational and all you hear is “when the people of Florida were devastated by Milton, where were Biden and Kamala?” you won’t be blaming the poor Republicans who obviously wanted to help (based on tone) but couldn’t because the evil Democrats were buying designer drugs like insulin for welfare queens.

            Republican rhetoric works extremely well for a large chunk of the electorate. And we all suffer for it, even those who vote against their interests.

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      1 month ago

      “Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy — to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”

      Benjamin Netanyahu, 2019

    • Ephoron@lemmy.kde.social
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      1 month ago

      And also the fact that all arms manufacturers are public companies, invested in by global hedge funds which any wealthy investor from Tehran, to Moscow, to Washington will be heavily invested in.

      We live in a global economy of asset management. It doesn’t matter which government invests the tax dollars in which firms, as long as the money flows in the wealthy investors profit, then use those profits to promote more wars (among other things) to drive more profits.

    • 14th_cylon@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      One of the main sources of Hamas income is stolen UN aid for Palestine

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    1 month ago

    You must pay taxes kid otherwise second pic would look like a wild uncontaminated forest populated by multiple animal and species.

  • yesman@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Calling the war for independence a revolution is an insult to that word. Revolution happened in Hatti, France, and Russia. What happened in America was just an “under new management”, one George for another.

  • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Yeah, but you get the best murdered infant blood that money can buy!!!

    Israel and Joe Biden - making sure only the freshest and youngest blood ends up covering the hands of Americans, willing or otherwise!

    (Judging by the many rabid self-annointed Biden protectors even here, not all those willing to soak their hands in the blood of “brown” infants are Trumpists)

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        For anybody with even the mildest of Humanist Principles, it’s far more than “just”.

        • slacktoid@lemmy.ml
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          1 month ago

          My point is that American foreign policy always been fuck brown people no matter who red or blue. I don’t think it’s right. But it’s what it does.

            • slacktoid@lemmy.ml
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              1 month ago

              The most American of traditions if you will! (Eagle screech while proud to be an American plays in the background)