This Week's Post

Staging - Why or Why Not?

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Staging is a layered, complex, and interesting word.   “ Staging is the fine art of pretending your lived environment has always resembled an IKEA showroom. Sociologists call this ‘false consciousness’; Realtors call it ‘value added.’” “Every home showing is just Hamlet without the swords: you stand in someone else’s kitchen, whispering, ‘To buy, or not to buy?’ while the throw rug takes center stage.” “ Staging : the process of arranging items in a manner designed to suggest functionality, but not actual human occupation. See also: government flowcharts.” ---  witticisms generated by ChatGPT, 9/4/2025 That's AI's wit. The dictionary definition includes the method of presenting a play, a temporary platform, a phase in a progressive disease, and the arrangement of sequential components of a rocket. But in North America, it includes setting up a house for sale with art and furnishings so as to increase the appeal. A.I. now allows one to stage and unstage. A potential buyer ...
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Government Decision-Making is Difficult

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Many people think that in following well-established rules and policies, government officials don't have to make difficult business decisions. That is not true. Sometimes they do because of competing interests. Here is one example of a decision that FEMA has to make. 

Disclaimer: the views expressed in this post are solely my own, published under my first amendment rights, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Government or any of its current or former federal agencies. The material used below is all in the public domain, as published by FEMA in August 2025. 

Because of the interaction between the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in Oregon and the Endangered Species Act, FEMA will select from one of three alternatives they have analyzed in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). 

Here is FEMA's own summary of the impacts of those three alternatives (Source: https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_r10_oregon-nfip-eis-briefing-information-packet_082025.pdf) 

Alternatives analysis


Read about the effort, the factors driving it, and the analysis at https://www.fema.gov/about/organization/region-10/oregon/nfip-esa-integration and visit the virtual open house here.

What would you do if you were a FEMA decision-maker? implement something that has significant adverse impacts on people or on fish? You have to pick one. 
What do others say? "Galeeb Kachra truly is one of a kind. A unique combination of optimism, can-do determination and relentless energy, he has the wiliness and moral integrity required to shake up sclerotic systems and sweep away logjams." (Michela Wrong, 2021)

Comments

  1. BehroozSeptember 4, 2025 at 4:49 AM

    This comment is on the topic of the current post, but it is inspired by the current post. Usually, when I read your posts, I skip right over the disclaimer. Today I paid more attention to it. I notice you imply that the first amendment (the US constitution) provides you the right of free speech. I suppose we all think that. However, if you read the first amendment, you see that it does not provide you any rights. What it does is say what rights the US government does not have, not what rights the people in the US do have. I suppose that means that our rights come from somewhere else?

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  2. Galeeb September 5, 2025 at 11:45 PM

    Hmmm.... of course as my mentor, you are right. Technically, the first amendment doesn't assert that every American has the right to free speech. It only states that Congress cannot infringe on that right. Interesting that it only specifies Congress and not the Executive Branch or Judicial Branch of Government. But our rights do have to come from somewhere and the general practice is that our right to speak comes from this amendment :)

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