Why we need FEMA

Some readers may know I spent my entire young adulthood in Austin, only leaving in my early 30s. The Guadalupe River, which flooded and killed dozens of people over the weekend, is one I know well. Rarely a summer went by that we didn’t make it out there once for an afternoon of lazily tubing down the river.

I’m especially outraged right now that Donald Trump and Kristi Noem want to destroy FEMA, which was established in 1979 to deal with tragedies such as this. There’s an impulse in the aftermath of disaster, from all political corners, to blame the victims. It’s a coping mechanism, a way to tell ourselves this couldn’t happen to us, that we’d make “better” choices.

In truth, it can happen to anyone. Which is why we need government programs that serve everyone, without showing favor.

Trump’s budget is a giant version of his standard fraud

Of course, the other big story is the manmade disaster that is Trump’s budget bill. (I refuse to use the snake oil name he gave it.) In one sense, the bill is just the cumulation of decades of Republicans agitating for a massive wealth transfer from low-income and working people to the already rich. But Trump did put his own spin on it, which speaks a lot to a special brand of American idiocy that helped lead to this moment. 

The White House Instagram account literally advertised the bill by borrowing a “made for TV” ad for hair expanders, with this text: “FLAT paycheck? FLAT broke? BUMP IT UP with President Trump's ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL.” 

This is all, as usual, a total lie. Independent analysis shows that the bill transfers wealth from younger and working class people into the pockets of older, richer people. For instance, the Medicaid cuts will take away health care so that billionaires get tax cuts. But also, we know it’s a lie because it’s coming from the White House, because it’s always the safe bet that they’re lying. 

It’s the form of the lie that interests me. It reminds me of nothing more than the fraudulent pitches used for “Trump University.” Ads would promise customers that they would become millionaires in a year’s time by taking Trump’s alleged “courses” in real estate investment. In reality, they would attend a seminar with no real information. Instead, they were told to pony up thousands — some up to $35,000 — if they wanted access to the real goods. Those who fell for the lie found that the classes were fake, and nothing substantive was offered. 

This budget is more of the same: Glittery promises that Trump will make you rich. Instead, he’s stealing your money. Con artists have always thrived in America, where people are susceptible to “get rich quick” promises. Unfortunately, Trump used the political system not only to make the scam national, but also put it out of the reach of regulators and courts that can make him pay his victims back. 

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All these people eat chicken wings with their fingers

The “Standing Room Only” episode about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is doing well — check it out to join the fun! — and unsurprisingly, we spent much of it talking about Zohran Mamdani. Or specifically, how both the right and the centrists were panicking about him. It’s truly ridiculous. He proposed a 2% tax raise on anyone making more than a million a year, but it’s creating hysteria. 

It isn’t really about small tax raises. It’s about racism, as both centrists and right-wingers showed over the weekend. First, white supremacists circulated a video of Mamdani eating biryani with his hand, which is a normal way to eat it. This attack was immediately adopted by Charlie Kirk and other MAGA standard-bearers, because there’s no daylight between the GOP and overt white nationalists anymore. 

Demonizing immigrants with false allegations about their food is a longstanding racist trope. Before Trump accused Haitians of eating pets, Chinese immigrants got the same hate. For decades, garlic was regarded as a filthy food because Italians ate it. Even to this day, you meet people who think MSG is “dangerous” because it’s popular in Asian cooking. 

This attack was overt, but there was a centrist-pandering version of it: Claiming that Mamdani did something wrong because he identified as both “Asian” and “African-American” on a college application in 2009. Which was….true. He’s from Uganda. He never said he was Black. As Philip Bump of the Washington Post pointed out, Mamdani’s experience reflects confusion faced by millions of Americans filling out those over-simplified forms. Worse, the New York Times used stolen info and a source who promotes white supremacist views, which is the real scandal. 

This all helps illuminate why Christian nationalism has gained traction, even though most Americans do not want to live in their “Handmaid’s Tale” vision of America. People get so blinded by racism that they decide people like Mamdani are the threat, instead of those who want us all to live in a Christian theocracy. 

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What we're reading this week

• “Annoying People to Death,” Annie Lowry, Atlantic

• “Face It. Trump Is a Normie Republican,” Jamelle Bouie, New York Times

• “Are We About to Have Labor Camps in the United States of America?” Michael Tomasky, New Republic

• “Abortion Bans are Another Weapon for Abusers,” Kylie Cheung, Abortion Every Day

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