He was a George W. Bush appointee who also served under Obama, so I’m guessing he’s more public health professional than raging idealog. He also has been around long enough to understand travel regs are a thing.

Cabinet Secretaries are almost always allowed to resign. Carter fired some and it was viewed as huge admission he was wrong and had a mistake. They are leaned on to quit be rarely out right fired.

She’s adorable! I hope she grows and thrives and that the insurance company and assorted bureaucracies do the right thing by her.

Yeah, I feel like this ignores they have grades of furniture. Like the cheapest stuff doesn’t always last, but some of it is very sturdy.

Compliance cost is a very real thing. The government can spend a ton of money on that. We haven’t mastered the whole risk reward thing. Making sure nuclear material doesn’t get into the wrong hands is where you spend whatever you need to get it right. Making sure extra kids don’t free lunch. Not worth it.

That’s not actually true. The inspectors general are independent. The recommendations will probably be ignored, but it will probably be a fair investigation.

This should be on the free school meals article.

Some of this is likely what we in government budgeting call “shenanigans.” We have arbitrary caps for “regular” expense, but not “emergency” expenses. This is certainly an emergency, but there is also a baseline of FEMA money we spend every year because it’s a big country so some place is having a disaster. But if the…

Very true. But talking about it helps. Acknowledging what happens when peopled don’t come back so you have isolated patches of houses is important.

Besides being on the look out for gentrification, leaders need to be on the lookout for things get built back exactly the same. Because lots of these places will flood again like this. People are very attached to areas that climate change will decimate and building back isn’t always a good option.

In addition to all the problems with militarization of the police there is the problem of the Pentagon giving this stuff to fake police. See https://www.wired.com/story/gao-sting-defense-department-weapons/

The people I know who are talking about doing it are all clergy who serve churches where the members would consider this part of the job.

She adorable! Her eyes are so bright. She’s clearly checking things out.

They personally should not be eligible for anything like federal flood insurance.

That’s a level of fuckery that was too much for George W. Bush.

It would probably get litigated to death, but she was born an American citizen. John McCain wasn’t born in the US either.

Some people are making noise that it was a junket into the path of the total eclipse.

It’s amazing how the exact same trip seems overly precious when called a babymoon as opposed to “one last trip before I can’t travel.”

Some of the techniques for interviewing children from that time are so laughable. Like giving little kids naked dolls with exaggerated orifices and assuming that sticking fingers in the holes indicated abuse. Like had they met a toddler? Give a toddler something with an obvious hole and they will stick a finger in it

Except that’s not when the whole nature of childhood changed. Most people I know who were children then had a tremendous amount of freedom, that their kids don’t have.