Joe Biden's logic can really be out to lunch when Americans are in peril.

Which brings us to the absolutely bizarre specter of Biden's FEMA emergency management agency turning down a request from Ohio to help citizens whose city of East Palestine, Ohio, with a chemical oil spill, which has contaminated the entire atmosphere.

When has anyone heard of FEMA turning down any sort of request for a disaster that affects thousands of people thrown out of their homes by circumstances beyond their control?

According to Fox Digital:

EXCLUSIVE: The White House explained why it turned down Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's request for disaster relief this week in the aftermath of a derailment of a train hauling toxic chemicals.

A Biden administration official told Fox News Digital that it has provided extensive assistance to surrounding communities following the chemical release earlier this month in eastern Ohio. However, the official said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the agency that usually provides relief to communities hit by hurricanes and other natural disasters, isn't best equipped to support the state's current needs.

"The Biden Administration is mobilizing a robust, multi-agency effort to support the people of East Palestine, Ohio. Since February 3, the Environmental Protection Agency has had personnel on the ground," the official told Fox News Digital. "FEMA is coordinating with the emergency operations center working closely with the Ohio Emergency Management Agency."

"But what East Palestine needs is much more expansive than what FEMA can provide," they continued. "FEMA is on the frontlines when there is a hurricane or tornado. This situation is different."

See folks, you need EVERYTHING so we aren't even going to try to render you some aid.

Sound like the taxpayers are getting what they paid for? I hear the voice of my old friend, the late war correspondent Nate Thayer, who told me once that while in a Thai field hospital, feverish with malaria, he pleading with a medical bureaucrat there for that vial of the antidote he could see in the cabinet that could save him, and being told "no," he couldn't, because they were saving it "for good." 

"Can't I have it?" he asked. "Can't I have it?"

So it is, with Ohio, pleading for aid while thousands of its citizens are thrown out of their homes that have been covered in a toxic miasma.

The specifics of the aid they are rendering make FEMA look even worse:

The official highlighted four agencies — the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Transportation and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) — that they said are actively assisting local residents on the ground.

...and...

"The state needed help testing the water and air  — EPA is providing it. They called for an investigation into the derailment  — the Department of Transportation is on it. The Governor today asked for help to conduct additional public health testing and assessments — we’re deploying teams from HHS and the CDC to get that done," the Biden administration official told Fox News Digital.

Fine and dandy, but those other agencies are doing it. Sounds like FEMA is just standing around to "help."

Where are the trailers for citizens driven from their homes?

Where are the ATM cards with cash for those who had to make sudden evacuations without warning, such as they gave to the Hurricane Katrina victims, who actually did have warning?

As one person noted in the comments section of the Fox Digital report:

FEMAs Response to 9/11 (which was not a Hurricane or Tornado):

FEMA grant funding provided more than $238 million for projects to help New York area communities recover by rebuilding or restoring infrastructure, transportation, and other public facilities. In addition, FEMA grants funded more than $2 billion in debris removal, emergency protective measures and response activities.

Another commentator noted that state governments need one point of contact with federal agencies at a time like this, they don't need to be told to call another agency, all of which signals a lack of preparedness.

Meanwhile, all's fine and dandy with the air and water, they claim, even as citizens report headaches and dead livestock. Doesn't seem like anyone's home at FEMA or perhaps the other federal agencies, either. Pete Buttigieg's on the job at the Department of Transportation trying to figure out who to blame for the crash. We already know it won't be the government, so the company can expect Pete's finger coming their way, which may or may not be the problem. In any case, this doesn't help the residents of Ohio driven from their homes much. The HHS is doing public health "testing" which seems a little behind the curve when people need money and a place to lay their heads to survive now.

Bottom line here is that those agencies are useless for the type of aid the stranded Ohioans need right this minute. They need help, they are covered with toxic sludge, they face cancer clusters from extended exposure, and many don't dare go back to their homes now.

That's a mass disaster, and FEMA is not there to help, because, well, they need too much.

Andrea Widburg has a good piece on the potential motivations for the Biden administration's behavior and just how bad the details of the disaster are here.

What we see here is an agency that is doing nothing to help at a time when it should be helping, and it's not the first time.

Texas requested FEMA help from the Biden administration based on the human surge rolling into their border towns from Joe Biden's open border. They, too, got told 'no.' Florida got told 'no' on aid to Charlotte and Lee counties from tornado damage, with FEMA saying it wasn't good enough. They even turned down hurricane aid in December, with predictably idiotic answers:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that the state will provide $25 million in emergency housing assistance for hurricane-impacted Floridians after he said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) denied the state’s request.

DeSantis said $25 million in state funds will be used for building materials and for volunteer nonprofit organizations to restore people’s damaged homes to livable condition.

"Unfortunately, we got word last week that FEMA had denied our request for funding our state-led housing initiative, citing their ‘limited authority,’" the Republican governor said. "We're not just going to sit there and take no for an answer, and we're going to figure out what we can do."

Seems any time a place from a politically useless area (to Democrats) asks for help after a disaster, the answer is 'no.'

And this, from the biggest, most free-spending government on the planet and in history, one that is rolling in inflation and will be for a while based on massive waves of federal money-printing for special interest groups and projects.

FEMA is what federal spending is for, it's for emergencies beyond anyone's control, which affect vast swathes of the population disrupting their lives and livelihoods on the shortest of notice.

Joe Biden doesn't understand that. What he does understand is who votes for him and who doesn't at election time. Nice towns you got there, Florida, Texas, and Ohio, be a shame if anything were to happen to them.

What the heck does he have that huge government agency for at all if he won't help an Ohio town in distress with immediate aid same as other places after a disaster get? Disasters are disasters, there is no need to distinguish. This train derailment might actually have been enemy sabotage, as I wrote about here.

It shows the incredible callousness and ineptitude of this administration at times when it counts. They're never around when it counts, and all you have to do is ask the displaced citizens of Palestine, Ohio.

Image: Picryl / U.S. National Archives / no known copyright restrictions