LET'S ALL HELP HOUSTON!

Dollar or time amount should never be compared, doing anything is the same no matter who does it

 

I really wish I could help. I'm currently already on orders though

 

Then you do enough

/thank

 

Agree.
But the Lone Star State was inept in planning for a much lesser storm.
Scan the news, try some searches and see if that ain't true.
The State of Texas should pass some emergency State taxes
to make up for their years of not taxing appropriately.
A sales tax exempting food.
An income tax.

Shall we pay their way while they continue in their lowest tax folly?
Not Moi.
When they tax themselves, I will contribute.

Texas needs to pass some emergency tax and bond issues now!
But, they won't.
If they wanna live as they have with insufficient taxes and growth planning,
I will hold my wallet close.

 

It's ok, character reveals itself at the darndest times

 

Remember the fable of the Grasshopper and the Ants.
There is a price to pay for being of a Grasshopper mentality.

BTW I have, all totaled, "donated" $4,300 directly into peoples' hands this years.
Last year it was $7,000 as 2 + 5
I have nothing to be ashamed over when it comes to charity.
My monthly pension is less than $7,000.

How about you? Just the popular charities?

Oh, and all these people were involved with boot strap efforts too at the time of my donations.

 

I hit the plate.

Gotta say, it's looking like low death numbers, which is amazing.

 

That. Is. A. Lie.

 

Red cross is one of the worst organizations to donate to for disasters. They have a bad track record of making sure the money gets to where you want it to go and not where they decide to spend it instead.

 

You are probably right. I know airports are closed.

And, thank you for not helping or suggesting your method of choice to help- which I suspect is none at all.

My experience and that of many other with the Red Cross Look up some of the charity ratings site... American National Red Cross is Platinum rated. I have first hand experience witih their response and effectiveness, and it was awesome. I am critical of how charities use funding, but I don't expect any of them to be perfect and please everybody.

 

My suggestion is not the Red Cross. Charity rating sites do not address the issue I made about the red cross. They raised half a billion for Haiti and only built six homes. They have a track record of raising money that never reaches the intended beneficiary. It is that simple. If you need a suggestion beyond that, donate to the Mayor of Houston's effort. At least it won't be spent on crap in Idaho or wherever. https://ghcf.org/hurricane-relief/

 

In major disasters, the Red Cross provides a way for you to designate where your money will go, and as I stated in the original post- you can specify it as aid for Harvey victims.

The Red Cross is worldwide, and a very large complex charity. I'm aware of the Haiti issue- can't say that it is reported accurately or correctly, not sure anyone can tell the full story.
The Red Cross wasn't the only helping hand to catch hell over it's performance in Haiti- The Clinton Foundation had a big thing going on too, which apparently helped a lot of people except the Haitians. I know that there was a lot of red tape from the Haitian government, where politicians were allowing or disallowing contracts, and according to some reports- demanding bribes to be allowed to help.

However, if you care enough to help when the disaster affects everyone regardless of color, politics or wealth, you find a way. Let's focus on the need, and do the best we can to see it gets to those who really need it. As the storm has gone offshore and is making a landfall at New Orleans while the rains are still dumping on Houston, the magnitude of need continues to grow.

I encourage all to help however they can.

 

I will donate if and when I am certain the money will go to New Orleans and not Texas if they get hard hit. I have already stated previously in another thread, I will not donate to help Texas period.

 

Noted that you do not recognize Texans as Americans, or at least not worthy of saving with your help. Not sure why, but it doesn't matter, it's your privilege.
I seem to remember that a great deal of help was provided to New Orleans by Texas in Katrina, and note that a lot of New Orleans people are now doing all they can to help Texas.
I'm not from either state and I dismiss all political differences and issues under these circumstances, because they are all Americans in my view.

 

Interesting. So punishing whom? The very bluest part of TX ? This seems antithetical to liberal logic.....

 

I am not a liberal. I am a progressive. Texas is never going to change if everybody bails them out for being ridiculous money-hoarding cheapskates. Benefits have costs. The benefits they have received in the past are now throwing out costs. Let them pay for it. If you want a more concrete example, burdensome government regulations like not allowing people to bulldoze wetlands to build neighborhoods and strip malls are especially beneficial when the water has nowhere else to go.

 

Sure... I suppose that should have been abundantly apparent. Why not just say collectivist as this would be vastly more appropriate?

 

Because the collective is filled with money-hoarding cheapskates so I really don't care if they have to come up off some cash.

 

I can offer some free advice ...

A) Don't Eat yellow Snow
B) Stop Threatening to Succeed
B) Don't Build Homes in Floodplains

 

BSquared) has always baffled me.

By now, you'd think we could better protect those properties, or at least would try our damnedest to avoid populating them.

Seems it would be best to try to make our desserts habitable, that have these huge disasters pop up.

 

While planning to consider the long term is always the wise thing to do- bear in mind that 85% of Houston is NOT in the 100 year flood plain; but this is a 1,000 year flood.
Construction regulations usually prohibit building in the 100 year plain, or require special flood insurance. However if we avoided populating any location in the 1000 year flood plain, places like the Florida peninsula (as well as almost all major cities with rivers- St. Louis, etc-) would be vacant.

 

I understand all that.

Still doesn't answer the bit where I bring up making uninhabitable areas habitable, to help avoid the problems in the first place.

 

But how- and which risk? "Uninhabitable" is a changing condition- and we do most of the changing. In case of flooding part of it is ground we pave which increases run-off, or in the way of fills, levees and flood control efforts for example. In some cases like Katrina, we built levees to the force of a level 3 hurricane- very short-sighted, and got caught. In other cases, the most we can do is set up warnings systems. For example, the entire west coast is earthquake prone, but the northwest also has risks of both big tsunamis and big volcano eruptions- and while these events can and will eventually happen, that coast from Portland to Vancouver is densely populated. If you live in he central part of the nation as I do... you risk tornadoes. No matter where you go, there is some kind of risk. If the label of uninhabitable has no limits, then about 30% of the country surrounding the Yellowstone basin is uninhabitable. About every 4-600,000 years, it erupts and would wipe out life for several hundred miles around. We make choices and take risks, in part we trade some risk for the advantage of living the way we want to- and do the best we can to minimize the risk. This was a 1000 year flood. That would mean that 40 or more generations of people could be born and die before it happened again- but these things will happen somewhere. I don't think there is a way to avoid them altogether- only to be well prepared to limit their effect on us and maximize our survival. I don't know of anyplace you can go that has no natural risk at all.

If you have suggestions on how one eliminates the risk of life, please share it.

 

Funny how the viability of the progressive agenda always comes around to expecting that somebody else should pay the bills for what they think is right.
I say we all pay for ourselves in everyday life, but we come together and help each other through crisis without using political grudges to avoid pitching in.
Just my opinion.

 

Ah, so you believe in arbitrary socialism - just when you like it.