cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/15189
Top Democratic officials in Colorado are among those condemning President Donald Trump’s denial of two disaster relief requests from Gov. Jared Polis—his latest action in a state that critics say he is retaliating against for its prosecution of a former county clerk who was involved in election denial efforts in 2020.
After the White House denied the requests for Trump to declare major disasters in parts of Colorado that experienced the Lee and Elf fires in August and flooding in October—a move that would unlock Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding to help with recovery efforts—Polis joined other Democratic leaders in calling on Trump to reconsider and accusing him of playing “political games.”
“One of the most amazing things to witness as governor has been the resilience of Coloradans following a natural disaster,” said Polis. “Their courage, strength, and willingness to help one another is unmatched—values that President Trump seems to have forgotten. I call on the president’s better angels, and urge him to reconsider these requests. This is about the Coloradans who need this support, and we won’t stop fighting for them to get what they deserve. Colorado will be appealing this decision.”
The governor was joined by Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper in speaking out against the denial.
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Polis made the requests in late September and last month, noting in his first request that Rio Blanco County, which both fires ripped through, has an economy driven “largely by energy production” at the Piceance Basin.
“This local industry is powered by two local utility providers who have sustained over $24 million in damages to their infrastructure,” his office said. “Without support to recover local utility infrastructure, stalled production risks the local economy, major rate increases on Coloradans, and local economic collapse.”
In November, Polis noted that FEMA had confirmed $13.8 million in damages to public infrastructure from flooding in several western counties, with roads and bridges particularly affected.
Communities also have ongoing debris removal needs, sewer system failures, and damages to essential drinking water and wastewater infrastructure.
The Stafford Act authorizes the president to declare a major disaster in order to unlock additional federal funding to respond to floods and other emergencies.
Trump has sought to reduce federal funding that goes to states for emergency management—denying at least 12 requests from states between January-October, with Democratic-led states facing many of the denials.
He has overtly politicized disaster relief, announcing in August that any state or city that boycotts Israeli products in protest of its attacks on and policies in Palestinian territories would not receive funding they requested.
Despite this, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told The Hill on Monday that “there is no politicization to the president’s decisions on disaster relief”—but Polis and other Democrats suggested the flooding and fire relief request denial was part of Trump’s larger efforts to retaliate against the state of Colorado.
Last week, the president’s top budget adviser, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, announced the administration was dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), a major climate research and meteorological facility in Boulder.
A number of critics said that move appeared to be in retaliation for the conviction in a state court of Tina Peters, a former county clerk who was found guilty of allowing someone access to secure voting system data as part of an effort to prove the baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
Despite uncertainty about Trump’s authority to pardon Peters, the president claimed recently that he will do so. He has directly attacked Polis for Peters’ treatment by the state.
“When the people of Western Colorado need assistance the most—as recovery from the Elk and Lee fires continues—President Trump abandons them in a blatant act of retaliation against our state,” said Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) on Sunday night of Trump’s latest action toward Colorado. “Shameful.”
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
I remember when George Bush’s highly inept handling of Hurricane Katrina drew a lot of criticism and many have said that the democrats are trying to divide the country and that maybe democrat cities should be left to rot…
That is no longer bluster. There was a time when disaster relief had to happen no matter what. But we’ve already seen Trump gloat over the California fires earlier this year! Did people forget about that?
My mother voted for the fuck and he denied services to my state when we had wildfires. It’s so cool how he doesn’t care about all the rural voters on his side in my state. Fuck them because fuck me because I voted against him. It’s awesome. Way to go, Mom.
If you’ve gone no contact id be tempted to print out pertinent articles and post them to her.
Stick them in the mailbox, or literally anywhere where she has to confront them.
Why would he have any say? Isn’t this type of thing decided by the panels for the committees/departments that were funded? He signs the budget, but shouldn’t directly control what every single department does.
Trump is a traitor
And sooo much more.
It’ll be another significant milestone toward fascism if and when Trump tries to pardon that election denier …… the president has no say over state crimes, only federal. We all know he’ll try but will is cult let him get away with an even more blatant abuse of authority?
I’m waiting for the blue states that fund the whole government to rise up at this point.
Trump is fucking disgusting.
I honestly think Trump is circling the drain right now. It’s still big, wide circles, and I think he can do more significant damage before he’s done, but IMHO the beginning of his end has started.
TPUSA is already in the process of anointing Vance. I wonder how long before Trump blows his top over it.
I see zero evidence of the beginning of any end for Trump.
The entirety of the US government is 100% backing and supporting his corruption. The US Oligopoly is centralizing all media, they just gave TikTok to Trump’s buddies. They’ve got billionaires funding Palantir and Flock to track every American citizens activities, and they’ve successfully mobilized the military internally and made disliking capitalism and Trump an act of terrorism.
I see zero evidence of the beginning of any end for Trump.
Then you aren’t paying attention. Look at how he’s polling with his own constituents right now. Last time it took over three years and him killing hundreds of thousands of people to get to this point.
The mid-terms are approaching next year, and career politicians he needs the support of are going to be calculating the cost of remaining loyal to him.
He’s also very old, and it’s clear to anyone paying attention that his physical and mental health is very, very poor.
I don’t know if we’re through the worst of it yet… Perhaps not. But Trump’s end is approaching.
I understand what you’re saying, and there will be a lot to be fixed once the Trump era is over, both domestically and in realm of international relations, but Democrats are overperforming in every special election lately, even in deep-red areas, and an openly Democratic Socialist has just won the mayoral race a major American city. Then there is the spectre of the Epstein files, which is not going away, and for all their faults, the Democrats seem to be pursuing this doggedly. Republicans in congress are already jumping ship. I don’t expect them to invoke the 25th amendment on Trump, but it’s becoming increasingly obvious that he’s declining both mentally and physically. If we’re not at a tipping point yet, I’d say we’re damn close.
As with everything Trump, I will only believe it when I see it.
Mamdani getting elected as mayor in a liberal city tells me nothing — Comey was a mess.
I’m not American, and any American reading this should go out and vote against Trump, I’m not trying to discourage you. I just don’t believe they won’t interfere with the election, as they did 2020 and have said they did in 2024.
I’ll be candid with you, those who aren’t American - especially here on Lemmy - have a very distorted view of what’s actually going on over here.
Trump is not Hitler… He just wishes he was. And the opposition against Trump has not lost, they (we) have just suffered a crippling loss that can be placed squarely on the shoulders of our apathetic countrymen.
Our idiotic, sociopathic MAGA problem isn’t unique. I see vicious minorities like this come and go in countless countries. The issue is that our government here has all but collapsed after critical mistakes by our democratic party. Mistakes like RBG not stepping down, which was the beginning of the end of the Supreme Court.
We are not past the brink of no return… We’re simply witnessing the destabilization of our government from within. Trump has done a great job of destroying our fragile system. Putin should be very proud of his work.
Plus remember there is a lot of opposition through the courts, and courts take a long time and do not make headlines. There have been successes but good chance most people don’t read those stories
I’ll cut you some slack since you admitted that you’re not American, but I have to correct you on a couple of points here:
- There was never a mayor of New York City named “Comey”. I think you’re confusing him with the former governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo, who was a mess, but that was a completely different issue.
- The former mayor of New York City was not Andrew Cuomo, it was Eric Adams, who was also a mess, but he was a different guy altogether with a different mess.
- Andrew Cuomo was running for mayor of NYC against both Zohran Mamdani and Eric Adams (who was running as an independent candidate, until he dropped out), and I think that’s where your confusion comes from.
Thank you for correcting me and being nice about it.
I was thinking of Cuomo (don’t know why I wrote Comey)
I’d bet you were thinking of the name James Comey, director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017, who was recently in the news for retaliatory prosecution against him.
These days and wrt US politics resp. state of the nation, pessimism always garners more upvotes than optimism. Kinda funny, kinda sad.
The damages done will last far beyond my lifetime and I’m fairly young.
And that’s an “at best” scenario assuming America even turns things around, which I am seriously beginning to doubt.
I mean yeah we still talk about all the stuff Reagan has done
*Nixon
The damages done will last far beyond my lifetime and I’m fairly young.
Yes, they probably will.
And that’s an “at best” scenario assuming America even turns things around, which I am seriously beginning to doubt.
It will take a while to turn things around. I’m pretty hopeful about new voices like Mamdani and AOC, but I can’t make you share that optimism.
If you needed proof that prayers don’t work, Trump is it.
Cancer is proof prayer doesn’t work. Trump is proof there’s no god.
Yeah, the thought that Trump is nearing his end sounds like cope to me. It has been from the very start. Fucker has plot armour.
Agreed. MAGA, to be more precise - Trump alone being done, one way or another, wouldn’t change much. But the whole movement is showing its true colors in ways that even its own constituency cannot ignore.
That said, what’s to come after? The USA’s government system has ultimately proven itself to be prone to abuse, and a lot of additional damage has been done to the legislature.
Let’s just hope we solve this before WW3 breaks out.
A new party either keeping the Republican name or changing it to be more fitting but idk what that would be.
It’s kind of an echo of what happened with the Whig party.
none of this improves when he dies, unless republicans are smart for a change and try to disown maga finally…but amy with the balls to do that quit or got forced out a long time ago.
I disagree. There is no heir to the MAGA throne with Trump’s charisma (for lack of a better word). Vance is a wet noodle with the personality of an even wetter noodle, and Charlie Kirk is dead.
plan for the worse, hope for the best.
my money is on the people who said violence would be required to remove them requiring violence to be removed
His death only marks the middle game. He took office old and decrepit; that’s part of the plan.
It’ll be tricky to do since the states don’t pay taxes to the federal government, the people and businesses that reside in the state do.
I’m waiting for the people of the blue states that fund the whole government to rise up at this point.
better?
Don’t disagree. Just saying it’s tricky.
If you don’t take your taxes, the feds can fuck with your wages, savings, mortgage / loans, retirement, ability to travel, etc.
That will start a civil war and Trump will then assume full control of the country by military force.
If the army supports this then we’re all kinds of fucked
Fucking disgraceful. What a pathetic disgusting LOSER.
State needs to withhold federal taxes and fund their own emergency funds.
Federal taxes don’t pass through the state, there is no way they could withhold then. Citizens pay federal taxes directly to the federal government.
Only because the state follows Federal laws. They could pass a law that makes businesses and payroll companies direct the payroll deductions somewhere other than the IRS.
They could also evict the IRS from the state, cancel all IRS court cases, etc. They aren’t seceding, they just aren’t going to send money to the Feds, only to use it to actively hurt them back.
Make Colorado a tax sanctuary state, but to take advantage of it, you have to have a net worth UNDER $1 million. Anybody with more than that will be hit with heavy STATE taxes.
It would be a crazy shit show, but that’s the point. Fuck up the system, and make them fight for their money. Maybe next time, they won’t be so keen on retaliation.
The IRS won’t care, all they’ll see is that a person hasn’t paid their federal income tax. They’ll make an example out of them, with huge fines, and probably jail time, because cruelty is the point, and they would want to send a message.
Im sure there is some way state leaders can divert the funds.
I wish blue states would figure out a way to stop paying federal taxes / halt in-state employers from taking them out of paychecks.
Basically impossible, I know, but one can dream.
Is there any sort of legal or social contract here that the state(s) could argue is being violated, as grounds to draw up a resolution of secession? Would such a threat do any good? Maybe this isn’t the ‘hill to die on’ but… what will be, if anything? Am I out of question marks? :p
I’m not American so I don’t know if this even makes sense, but at what point will states have to take things to another level in their relationship with the Federal government?
The realistic answer is lawsuits. They take a long time and don’t make headlines but there’s probably been more successes than most people realize.
There’s regional health cooperatives, for things like vaccine recommendations now that CDC is mostly conspiracy theory nonsense.
Trump may have withdrawn the us from the Paris Accords, but 24 US states and many cities committed to the climate initiatives. There’s less they can do as Trump rolls back efficiency standards and air pollution regulations but they do have control over local issues like energy portfolio standards, building requirements, insulation and appliance updates, incentives for businesses and homeowners, etc. my state still has some pretty compelling incentives for energy improvements
Varies from State to State. New Hampshire has one of the best IMO
https://www.nh.gov/glance/state-constitution/bill-rights
[Art.] 7. [State Sovereignty.]
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The people of this State have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent State; and do, and forever hereafter shall, exercise and enjoy every power, jurisdiction, and right, pertaining thereto, which is not, or may not hereafter be, by them expressly delegated to the United States of America in Congress assembled.
