Paywall removed: https://archive.is/Pnovl

The stalled Harris campaign is alarming senior Democratic Party strategists who fear Donald Trump could gain the upper hand in the crucial Blue Wall states.

With a New York Times poll suggesting the Republicans will take control of the Senate in November, the vice president is facing her biggest test since taking over the Democratic presidential baton from Joe Biden.

Party leaders hoped Kamala Harris would ride her honeymoon boost all the way to the White House, but now they are openly admitting the campaign has got stuck… and there are signs it could even be sliding in some parts of the country.

Surrounded by more than seven miles of coastline and sitting just 14 feet above sea level at its highest elevation, MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida juts out into Hillsborough Bay like a uvula.

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“Approximately 93% of MacDill AFB is within the 100-year floodplain,” according to a 2022 base resource management plan. “Tropical storms typically flood much of the southern and northwestern portions of MacDill, and all of the base proper would be flooded by a Category 3 or greater hurricane.”

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In the meantime, CENTCOM personnel are working out of several locations, including Raymond James Stadium and Homestead Air Reserve Base near Miami, where the Joint Operations Center will be set up, a U.S. defense official told The War Zone.

SOCOM “dispersed to three different locations,” Col. Alexandra Weiskopf, the command spokesperson, told The War Zone. “With our Washington D.C. office, we will have comms up in four different locations and there will be no degradation to our continuity of operations."

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“Space Launch Delta 45 is monitoring Hurricane Milton and will continue making preparations as weather dictates,” spokeswoman Maggie Nave told us. “Patrick Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station have entered [hurricane preparation] HURCON status, which will be adjusted based on the anticipated timing of storm impacts. At this time, tenant units have moved aircraft assets out of the local area.”

Naval Station Mayport has sent three Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers underway, while those vessels unable to leave are being placed on heavy moorings, spokesman David Holmes told us. The station has shut down operations and only essential mission personnel are allowed in.

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The preparations being made for Hurricane Milton are another stark reminder of how climate is affecting the military, especially in locations like Florida prone to these natural disasters

While there are no plans to shutter places like MacDill and Tyndall, the cost to keep them operational in the face of major hurricanes like Milton will only rise.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21211411

Ed Pillington October 9, 2024

For decades, we have been in the streets in defense of the Palestinian people, and will continue to fight until the total liberation of Palestine!

Last week, Hurricane Helene battered the southeastern United States after the storm ravaged the Caribbean and parts of Central America. Making first landfall in the Florida panhandle before raging across another eleven states, the hurricane caused extreme levels of devastation as it tore through Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Virginia with torrential rainfall that caused major flooding.

With upward of 230 confirmed deaths and many still unaccounted for, including workers at a Tennessee plastic factory who were forced to work through the hurricane, the damage and loss from Helene has made it one of the deadliest hurricanes of the century in the United States. As if Helene’s devastation weren’t enough, another similarly powerful storm, Hurricane Milton, is currently barreling down a similar path.

Yet on the same day that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced a $9 billion shortfall in funding desperately needed to address the damages from Helene, Israel publicized that it had secured another $8.7 billion aid package from the United States to “significantly strengthen critical systems such as [the] Iron Dome and David’s Sling while supporting the continued development of an advanced high-powered laser defense system.” This latest aid package does not include the nearly $18 billion provided to Israel in military aid since October 2023, on top of the additional $20 billion that was approved this August.

It was not until October, amid fierce backlash, that the government announced a onetime assistance package of $750 to victims of Helene, a meager amount for victims and survivors relative to the losses they have incurred.

https://archive.is/Olkdk