Trump claims he didn't know Category 5 hurricanes existed until Irma - Polidicks

No excuses. He's the president of the fucking United States of America.

This should be common knowledge but it quite demonstrably isn't. People wouldn't die in hurricanes if they paid any serious attention to hurricane details. [editline]15th September 2017[/editline] The President, who has to respond swiftly to such disasters should be briefed on these specifics. If he didn't know it represents a failure of his staff to inform him of the situation that Texas and Florida faced. (And that the east cost soon faces) [editline]15th September 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=FlakTheMighty;52684318]Richter scale goes on infinitely, just increasing in energy released and destruction, its logarithmic. F5 is the strongest tornado. No idea on the tsunamis. No google, just knowledge from school.[/QUOTE] [B]E[/b]F5 :eng101:

[QUOTE=OvB;52684619]This should be common knowledge but it quite demonstrably isn't. People wouldn't die in hurricanes if they paid any serious attention to hurricane details. [editline]15th September 2017[/editline] The President, who has to respond swiftly to such disasters should be briefed on these specifics. If he didn't know it represents a failure of his staff to inform him of the situation that Texas and Florida faced. (And that the east cost soon faces) [editline]15th September 2017[/editline] [B]E[/b]F5 :eng101:[/QUOTE] Oh right the Enhanced Fujita scale, forgot that was a thing now. You'd think I'd remember considering an EF5 came less than half a mile away from me in 2013. Also holy shit it's been 5 years since that tornado happened

Even if you conclude that the President shouldn't know that category 5 hurricanes exist (particularly a President who's private affairs are so thoroughly invested on the East Coast), it's still pretty dumb to say "I didn't even know category 5's existed" after being told that the storm reached category 5. [QUOTE=RenegadeCop;52684299] I dunno, I'd have to google it. This is petty.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=RenegadeCop;52684322] But this is petty.[/QUOTE] Is the press quoting him petty or is the responses to his quote petty?

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;52684884]Both.[/QUOTE] He said it at an event covered by the press, should they just selectively not include statements he makes?

[QUOTE=Flicky;52684306]What's petty about criticizing a president who hasn't taken 10 minutes to learn about one of the most destructive US natural disasters in recent memory? It's a little something called "Hurricane Katrina," which reached Category 5 before making landfall as a Category 3. It's basic US history of the first two decades of this millennia.[/QUOTE] Category really doesn't matter to him. A hurricane is a hurricane, and preparedness + location can honestly make much more of a difference. 2 of the top 5 most damaging hurricanes in our history weren't even cat 5. What matters is the destruction caused and precautions/remedies advocated for by well-informed advisors. The specifics? Meh.

[QUOTE=thelurker1234;52685073]Category really doesn't matter to him. A hurricane is a hurricane, and preparedness + location can honestly make much more of a difference. 2 of the top 5 most damaging hurricanes in our history weren't even cat 5. What matters is the destruction caused and precautions/remedies advocated for by well-informed advisors. The specifics? Meh.[/QUOTE] The Saffir-Simpson scale is a scale based on windspeed used to determine the expected damage caused by such wind. The NOAA description of the scale is: [Quote]The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale is a 1 to 5 rating based on a hurricane's sustained wind speed. This scale estimates potential property damage. Hurricanes reaching Category 3 and higher are considered major hurricanes because of their potential for significant loss of life and damage. Category 1 and 2 storms are still dangerous, however, and require preventative measures. [/Quote] The NOAA definition of a Category 5 hurricane is: [Quote]Catastrophic damage will occur: A high percentage of framed homes will be destroyed, with total roof failure and wall collapse. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last for weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months.[/QUOTE] If you're having a conversation about the expected damage a hurricane will cause and the category is not brought up, you are not speaking to an expert. [editline]15th September 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=thelurker1234;52685073]A hurricane is a hurricane.[/QUOTE] A hurricane with winds of 75mph or a hurricane of winds with 185mph? This is what the category tells you, and why it's something everyone in the path and/or responding to a hurricane should know by memory.

[QUOTE=OvB;52685184]The Saffir-Simpson scale is a scale based on windspeed used to determine the expected damage caused by such wind. The NOAA description of the scale is: The NOAA definition of a Category 5 hurricane is: If you're having a conversation about the expected damage a hurricane will cause and the category is not brought up, you are not speaking to an expert. [editline]15th September 2017[/editline] A hurricane with winds of 75mph or a hurricane of winds with 185mph? This is what the category tells you, and why it's something everyone in the path and/or responding to a hurricane should know by memory.[/QUOTE] That doesn't mean it's particularly relevant for him specifically. What is more relevant to him, is how prepared is an area for what is coming (TS Allison was horrible, beating many 5s,) and what will need to be done. That's the big picture for a policymaker. Cat5 was probably mentioned around him several times but with how much information presidents take in he very likely forgot it. He got a bipartisan deal passed to provide a large amount of aid, and is visiting during the aftermath. As far as I'm concerned, he dealt with this just fine.

it feels like people are saying that it isn't a big deal the president doesn't know his ABCs or something it's just such elementary knowledge to have, I would expect the average person to be aware of it, and we're talking about the fucking president like people are acting as though we should judge the president as though he's ten years old, it's just absurd

Pretty sure they never taught me that throughout K4-12th grade, however public schooling here isn't great. To be honest I didn't really know much about hurricanes until I started watching hurricanes.gov often and the news during Irma. I live in an area in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that practically never has natural disasters. That being said, maybe he meant to say he never knew they existed to emphasize how powerful of a storm it was? Or am I overestimating him? He seems truly unpredictable. I voted for Bernie in the primaries, and Hillary in the general. Ever since his inauguration it still feels surreal. I am trying to keep an open mind, as my understanding of politics is practically what I've learned the past year or so when Bernie ran. I was able to get a diploma without taking civics. I don't like things he has said or done, but part of me has hope that maybe he could be a decent bipartisan president. I believe only the results of the investigation could possibly diminish that hope or further actions against my beliefs(not religiously) take place.

[QUOTE=Mr. Scorpio;52685240]it feels like people are saying that it isn't a big deal the president doesn't know his ABCs or something it's just such elementary knowledge to have, I would expect the average person to be aware of it, and we're talking about the fucking president like people are acting as though we should judge the president as though he's ten years old, it's just absurd[/QUOTE] Honestly, if you conducted a poll a couple months after the news of these storms has subsided I think you'd be quite surprised.

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;52684299]I didn't know either. I don't keep up with disaster scales. How high does the Richter scale go? How are tornadoes categorized? Do tsunamis even have a scale? I dunno, I'd have to google it. This is petty.[/QUOTE] Off the top of my head: Richter scale is theoretically infinite, it directly correlates to the energy of the earthquake. It's logarithmic though so an X is ten times as powerful as an (X-1), so we will likely never see a 10.0 or higher. It's also not the Richter scale anymore, we use something that's technically different but laypeople still just call it the Richter scale instead of whatever it's called now (moment magnitude?). Tornadoes use the EF scale, the E stands for "Enhanced" and the F is some guy's name, "Fujita" I think but could be wrong there. Goes from EF-1 to EF-5. Like hurricanes, it's a measure of damage not purely windspeed, so it maxes out at EF-5 because that's "everything's gone". I don't think tsunamis have a scale, we just measure height because that's a good enough scale for how much damage it does. After fact-checking: I was almost exactly correct. The moment magnitude scale for earthquakes is logarithmic, but on 10^1.5 instead of 10, for the sake of lining up with the previous Richter scale. We still won't see a magnitude 10 earthquake, although a supervolcano or asteroid strike could measure at that level. Kind of a moot point to measure those, though. The Enhanced Fujita scale goes from EF-0 to EF-5, not EF-1 to EF-5. But I got everything else, even the name, right. There are tsunami scales, but the main ones in use are measures of the intensity, directly based on height. They also differ between region and don't seem to be commonly used outside oceanographers. There is a proposal for a magnitude-based scale, but Wikipedia reports it as "rarely used". Now, if I, a person whose biggest responsibility is paying the rent on time, and with no particular interest in natural disasters, was able to recite all of that from memory, shouldn't we hold the President to at least that standard, if not higher? None of that is particularly arcane knowledge - the basic disaster scales are taught in school. Hell, he owns property in Florida - even just as a real estate investor, I'd expect him to have a basic working grasp of the threats his flagship properties might face. Trump's mind-boggling incompetence at everything he touches should not result in lowering the bar - not for him, and definitely not for future presidents. I don't expect any President to be able to personally coordinate an emergency services response to a top-tier natural disaster... but I do expect them to have enough grasp of the subject that they can actually work with the person who is. To delegate authority, you have to know what it is that your delegate is doing, or else you have no idea if they're even doing a good job. So yes, when your fucking job includes "managing the guy who manages FEMA", you [I]do[/I] have to know what scale hurricanes are measured on.

I would have expected him to know the scale especially seeing as he owns property at the coast, but I can't fault him for it. I live in the middle of tornado alley and I have to admit that I don't pay any attention at all to the scale of those storms either. Calling him out on something as simple as this is pretty petty when there are real issues with him to be talked about.