North Carolina on my mind

It's hard to know how this trifecta of tragedies will impact the 2024 election. On the surface a dock strike putting us in another inflationary period, another war in the Middle East because USA looks weak under Biden, and a Hurricane where FEMA can't get drinking water to some trapped in 5 days looks seriously bad for Harris/Walz.

But look how many people won't be able to get to the polls in NC? That's the silver lining. Americans will forget Helene in a week or so, while those unfortunate people will still be scrambling for the basics for months or longer. Hang on, my shirttail relatives in NC. 

Hurricanes are not a result of climate change, but they are fodder for politics. Remember how Democrats screamed at Bush for Katrina even though the governor of LA and the mayor of NOLA were Democrats unprepared at the local and state levels? Much of the hold up there was LA regulations preventing outsiders from coming in to help. And Trump had hurricane Maria and the complaints about bottled water not getting there on time. But FEMA had delivered; it was found out after he was demonized by the media that the local government had not delivered it.

 
Republicans blamed Obama for not getting emergency supplies to or visiting the flooded upper midwest in 2009. But he addressed the nation from Camp David, said he was monitoring it, and praised the volunteers. Didn't Kamala cut and paste that one for Helene?

 
And kudos to Tim Walz, governor of MN, who was out there filling sandbags in 2019 when there was serious Mississippi River flooding in Minnesota!

https://youtu.be/Kcld2vYXfWU?si=uvolc-PSaUiVacsT

September 30 news on Hurricane Helene | CNN

Hurricanes and politicking

Incredible state, local and federal cooperation have kept injuries and death to a minimum during the two storms, Marco and Laura, to hit Louisiana and Texas. There will still be flooding and tornadoes. I heard Biden on TV blaming Trump. For what, I'm not sure. The weather? Wonder if he'll give him credit for FEMA’s prompt readiness. I remember how the media tried to smear Bush for Katrina when it was the governor and mayor who failed the people? Food and ice were stopped at the state borders, by local regulations.

"FEMA, other federal agencies and the American Red Cross have also spent the last couple of months preparing to face additional challenges that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic presents. They have modified policies and planning and have taken actions to ensure the federal government can respond to any disaster during the continued COVID-19 response efforts. Actions such as safe distancing in shelters have been taken into consideration when preparing shelter locations. You can read more about how to prepare for disaster during COVID-19 by visiting the Ready.gov website.

Emergency declarations have also been approved for Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Puerto Rico. These declarations help FEMA to rapidly and efficiently respond when states and individuals need aid after a disaster. They authorize FEMA to provide assistance, including reimbursement for mass care, evacuation and shelter support.

Additionally, President Trump approved a major disaster declaration for California. The declaration includes grants to individuals and households, and emergency work in eight counties impacted by wildfires. All areas in the state are also eligible for assistance under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.

To further make sure employees and disaster survivors stay safe from COVID-19, FEMA has added virtual options for meeting needs after disasters. These methods include virtual damage assessments and inspections for FEMA Individual Assistance and Public Assistance programs, as well as for National Flood Insurance Program claims." https://www.fema.gov/blog/fema-prepares-hurricane-laura-california-wildfires

https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-announces-fema-approval-for-federal-emergency-declaration-ahead-of-tropical-storm-laura-marco-landfall

Read the biased, slanted article from Politico side sniping President Trump for the weather and riots in Democrat controlled cities because they happen during RNC convention.  https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/27/hurricane-laura-rnc-trump-speech-402993

Climate change caused by humans

Hurricanes, blizzards and fires—apparently the globe has never had them  before Europeans landed on the shores of North America, the land of a peaceful people who never did anything to disturb the fish, trees and buffalo. Not even when Ohio was buried under a glacier 8,000 years ago was there such weather according to the white man causes everything bad movement.  Now there’s an argument about whether environmental regulations are creating the hazards that cause this massive loss of life, homes and natural beauty.  I read yesterday that some students are finding safe spaces inside the Pepperdine University Library!  We can only pray for their safety since they weren’t evacuated in time.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-pepperdine-shelter-20181113-story.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/winter-storm-northeast-slammed-with-early-snow-latest-weather-forecast-live-updates-2018-11-15/

The natural environment and the built environment don’t always play well together.  We have more damage from hurricanes because people are building in areas that have always had storms, but not necessarily air conditioning or this much wealth to create massive estates “with a view.” We have terrible fires on wooded and scrub land because there are regulations  written by well meaning people  that encourage these tinderbox areas.  We have blizzards in the northeast that cause massive pile ups and traffic jams because when it happened 200 years ago there wasn’t a 24/7 news cycle and no one had long commutes to work attempting to funnel thousands of people into New York or DC.

https://www.breitbart.com/local/2018/11/15/winter-storm-avery-leaves-5-dead-as-snow-blankets-northeast/

Don’t blame President Trump just because he tweeted about the damage some regulations create.  He doesn’t hate ALL regulations and Executive Orders. It’s just that our media have the attention span of a gnat.   It has been well known for years what over-regulatory zeal has done to our country.  When we travelled in Arizona, California and Idaho in 2003 we certainly heard about it—and it was very apparent then.  Thousands of acres were dead or tinder dry, and no one was allowed to remove the dead wood or have controlled burns.  Glacier Park in Montana was on fire and we could hardly breathe.

https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/environment/item/29738-california-fires-government-policies-not-global-warming

Here’s a list of the necessary laws, regulations, boards, ruling agencies etc. that were required for ONE development in California. The Twin Lakes Fuel Reduction Project is located on the Bridgeport Ranger District of the HumboldtToiyabe National Forest  in Mono County, California.

A roadless rule?  How helpful is that during a fire?

Clean Air Act of 1970, as amended – The selected action is in compliance with the Clean Air Act, 1977 as amended.  All required permits will be secured to ensure compliance with federal and state laws. Pollutant emissions will be within state and federal standards.

The Great Basin Air Quality Control Board enforces compliance with the Clean Air Act. Burning permits are issued and administered by the GBAQCB Smoke production and management, as analyzed in the EA. 
 
Clean Water Act of 1977, as amended - The Clean Water Act (CWA) is a federal statute that requires states and tribes to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters (33U.S.C. 466 et seq., Title I, Section 101). The project does not involve the filling, alteration, or modification of any waterway or riparian area

Consultation with Tribal Governments (E.O. 13175) – Consultation with the interested Tribes of California and Nevada and consultation has been ongoing during project analysis and will continue through implementation. Other laws requiring consultation include: 
 
American Indian Treaty Rights – The proposed hazardous fuels treatments will not conflict with any known treaty provisions. 
 
Archeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 Public Law 96-95 12USC 470 
 
Native American Graves & Repatriation Act of 1990 - Public Law 101-60125 USC 3001

  Endangered Species Act of 1973 - The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2011) identified the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep (SNBS) as the only endangered species that may occur in the analysis area. The analysis area contains a portion of the Twin Lakes herd unit and is adjacent to the Green Creek herd unit (USDI 2007a.) No SNBS have been documented in the Twin Lakes herd unit and no SNBS have been documented in the analysis area. 
 
Environmental Justice (E.O. 12898) (59 Fed. Register 7629, 1994) directs federal agencies to identify and address, as appropriate, any disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects on minority populations and low income populations. This action will not result in unequal impacts on minority populations and low income population and complies with E.O. 12898. 
 
Floodplain Management (Executive Order 11988) and Protection of Wetlands (Executive Order 11990) – This action will not result in significant adverse impacts on wetlands or floodplains as they relate to protection of human health, safety, and welfare; preventing the loss of property values, and; maintaining natural systems. The goals of Executive Orders 11988 and 11990 will be met. All wetlands will be protected through design features which conform to Executive Order 11990. 
 
Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Executive Order 13186 – This action will comply with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. This project may result in an “unintentional take” of individuals during proposed activities; however, the project complies with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director’s Order #131 related to the applicability of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to federal agencies and requirements for permits for “take”. This project complies with Executive Order 13186 because the analysis meets agency obligations as defined under the January 16, 2001 Memorandum of Understanding between the Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designed to complement Executive Order 13186. 
 
National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 - The Forest Service conducted an intensive cultural site survey of the project area. Results of the survey were documented in the Cultural Resource Report (see project record),. In a letter dated November 1, 2012, the California State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) concurred with the no adverse effect to Historic Properties and potentially eligible resources determination. This action will not have any direct or indirect effects on historically significant sites if the design features incorporated into the selected action are followed. 
 
2001 Roadless Rule - When developing the treatment proposal in the Inventoried Roadless Areas of the project, the Forest Service followed the direction outlined in the August 18, 2008, memorandum from the Chief of the Forest Service. The project was also reviewed for consistency by the Regional Forester as per the direction from the Chief dated June 8, 2012. Documentation of the Regional Forester’s review for consistency is available in the project file.

http://a123.g.akamai.net/7/123/11558/abc123/forestservic.download.akamai.com/11558/www/nepa/72379_FSPLT3_1424480.pdf

Why is Puerto Rico a mess and why is it Trump’s fault?

I decided to research why Puerto Rico was such a financial mess before Hurricane Maria in 2017. I didn't do my usual careful 15 minutes, but spent about 3 minutes in Wikipedia, which would be a no-no if I were a student. Now I know. There are several roots to this problem--all white men, of course. 1) Christopher Columbus (1493), William McKinley (1900), Woodrow Wilson (1917), Richard Nixon (1973), and most recently Bill Clinton (1996), phasing out important parts of the favorable federal tax code over a ten-year period ending in 2006 (G.W. Bush). The U.S. did help make Puerto Rico weak, helpless and poorly run by making it a playground for the rich and providing billions to its corrupt officials, but Donald Trump was not part of that.

Millions of water bottles found undelivered in Puerto Rico

Michael Smith says:

“Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean. Islands in the Caribbean are statistically more likely to be hit by a hurricane each year than any other single location in the Western Hemisphere.

Puerto Rico is a self-governing island, a protectorate of the United States and receives $21 billion in aid each year and received $16 billion in disaster aid to cope with the damage done by Hurricane Maria.

There are 3.7 million people in Puerto Rico.

And yet, it is Donald Trump's fault that the Puerto Rican government was not 1) ready for the disaster, 2) had no infrastructure in place to deal with the aftermath and 3) failed at distributing donations and materials sent by aid agencies and the federal government.

This isn't a failure of Trump or FEMA, this is the legacy of a corrupt government made up of people wanting to be a big fish in a small pond at the expense of the people.”

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/406206-fema-confirms-millions-of-water-bottles-for-hurricane-relief

The federal government is NOT a first responder.  Democrats pretend it is when a Republican like Bush or Trump are in office, when in fact, it is the responsibility of the governor and the mayors. When a Democrat is in the White House, the media just looks the other way and finds something else to write about like racism, or homophobia.

Irma, Harvey and Climate Change

Has climate change created fewer hurricanes?  Something to think about. Things have been historically quiet since Katrina, when it was predicted that we were in for terrible storms. I’m watching TV with non-stop coverage, and they still don’t know where Irma will go even with deserted streets and hunkered down people who aren’t leaving. So why do these climate mystics and gurus think they know what will happen next month or next year or in 2030? We even have better technology, and drones, since 2005 and they still have computer models that look like a plate of spaghetti on the floor.  They should look backwards.  Last week I was walking on the shores of Lake Erie, the shoreline of 10,000 years ago on 6th street.  Absolutely climate change exists.
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/despite-hurricanes-harvey-irma-science-has-no-idea-climate-change-causing

“What ensued [after Katrina] was an historically unprecedented 12-year absence of major (category 3 or higher) hurricanes making landfall in the United States, until Harvey, which ties for 14th-most intense hurricane since 1851. The events after 2005 were “consistent with” some projections, but any other events would have been as well.The long absence of landfalling hurricanes also points to another problem when opinion writers connect GHGs [greenhouse gases] to extreme weather. Science needs to be concerned not only with conspicuous things that happened, but with things that conspicuously didn’t happen. Like the famous dog in the Sherlock Holmes story, the bark that doesn’t happen can be the most important of all. 

It is natural to consider a hurricane a disruptive event that demands an explanation. It is much more difficult to imagine nice weather as a disruption to bad weather that somehow never happened.”

Bienvenidos Pto. Vallarta, Patricia

Hurricane Patricia was the strongest hurricane on record, and just messed up some trees and houses a bit when hitting Mexico, and there seems no loss of life.  Of course, there was a sand sculpture of Mary on the beach at Puerto Vallarta that was untouched. But surely prayer couldn't stop a hurricane.

Are you prepared for the hurricane?

If it hits land, it’s climate change; if it goes out into the Atlantic it’s nothing but Mother Nature.

Obama and Sandy

Obama is right on top of this hurricane. Too bad he was so careless on 9/11 when people were dying in Benghazi while he was watching in real time. Last night on Geraldo at Large Charles Woods, the father of murdered Benghazi SEAL Tyrone Woods, looked into the camera and sent this message to Barack Obama: “It’s better to die a hero than live a coward.”

Obama got a lot of extra TV face time due to Sandy. He usually doesn’t respond to national emergencies, but this one comes during the last week of campaigning.  He monitored the Joplin tragedy from Ireland, and the BP oil spill help was so tardy even Democrat James Carville was criticizing him. 

"The President of the United States could've come down here, he could've been involved with the families of these 11 people" who died in the oil rig's explosion.”

I don’t think he’ll postpone the election (it’s illegal, but that alone wouldn’t stop him, I’m sure SCOTUS would overlook that), because the news about Benghazi just gets worse and eats into his shrinking group of supporters. They’re racists, of course.

12,000 flights cancelled so far.  But even if you’re not in one of the affected states, that sure messes up flights further inland.

Here in Columbus they’re predicting 60 mph winds so we’re not going to our FOOF meeting tonight

Why it's called Climate Change

The alarmists changed from "global warming" to "climate change" because the climate has always been changing and therefore, everything is due to climate change, right? This year the hurricanes and cyclones didn't cooperate, but it's probably due to climate change.

"2010 is in the books: Global Tropical Cyclone Accumulated Cyclone Energy [ACE] remains lowest in at least three decades, and expected to decrease even further… For the calendar year 2010, a total of 46 tropical cyclones of tropical storm force developed in the Northern Hemisphere, the fewest since 1977. Of those 46, 26 attained hurricane strength (> 64 knots) and 13 became major hurricanes (> 96 knots).

Even with the expected active 2010 North Atlantic hurricane season, which accounts on average for about 1/5 of global annual hurricane output, the rest of the global tropics has been historically quiet. For the calendar-year 2010, there were 66-tropical cyclones globally, the fewest in the reliable record (since at least 1970) The Western North Pacific in 2010 had 8-Typhoons, the fewest in at least 65-years of records. Closer to the US mainland, the Eastern North Pacific off the coast of Mexico out to Hawaii uncorked a grand total of 8 tropical storms of which 3 became hurricanes, the fewest number of hurricanes since at least 1970.

Global, Northern Hemisphere, and Southern Hemisphere Tropical Cyclone Accumulated Energy (ACE) remain at decades-low levels." Link.

Who murdered the vets?

Yesterday at the Women's Club book sale for 50 cents I picked up a signed copy of "The Key West Reader: The best of Key West's Writers 1830-1990." Published in 1989, and edited by George Murphy a resident and writer of Key West. It's a very interesting collection by known and unknown (to me) American writers, such as John James Audubon, Robert Frost, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, and John Hersey.

I've never been particularly fond of Hemingway's fiction, but the non-fiction accounts of the Labor Day 1935 hurricane (category 5) that killed over 400 people in an area with a population of a thousand or so in this book are stunning. Every governor and city mayor of the gulf states should be required to read this. If Louisiana's state and local officials knew this story and how bad FDR looked for sending unemployed and mentally addled WWI veterans to their certain death in a hurricane, maybe the outcome of Katrina would have been different. Or not. Hemingway disliked FDR intensely, so Democrats probably don't read him. This is from HNN account:

"Shortly after the natural disaster had occurred, writer Ernest Hemingway was contacted by the editors of New Masses to write an account of the storm from an insider's perspective. Hemingway's response was the article, "Who Murdered the Vets?: A First-Hand Report on the Florida Hurricane," published September 17, 1935, just weeks after the event. Although billed as a personal account, in reality it was an outraged demand for accountability for the needless death of the veterans. A hostile tone was established within the first few lines. "Whom did they annoy and to whom was their possible presences a political danger?" Hemingway asked. "Who sent them down to the Florida Keys and left them there in hurricane months?" Hemingway presented the veterans not merely as murdered but almost as though they had been assassinated for someone's personal political gain or simply that they were disposed of as an unnecessary burden to the public after courageously serving their country.

The left will always blame Bush for damages and deaths during Hurricane Katrina because they can't face up to the Democratic controlled administrations of Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana, and Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, who were in charge of the first line of defense. Presidents through FEMA then send in aid. Like FEMA hasn't done for the people of Ohio after its June tornado which destroyed a town (too white, too rural and too small to matter). Here's some background on the veterans from the Veterans' Memorial page:

"Unemployed WW-I veterans staged hunger marches and demonstrations in several cities, but the most famous was the Bonus Expeditionary Force in Washington, D.C., in June, 1932. A WW-I bonus law was passed in 1922, but vetoed by the President. In 1924, Congress overrode the presidential veto and gave every veteran a certificate payable in 1945. The nation entered the depression and in 1931 the vets demanded to be paid the bonus early. In June, 1932, about 15,000 veterans descended on Washington to convince the Senate to pass the bill. They were unsuccessful and finally President Hoover chased the "bonus marchers" out of Washington with bayonets and tear gas. Some say this action "put Roosevelt in the White House." Anyway, FERA was created in May, 1933 and various work programs and camps were established throughout the country. The events leading to the presence of the veterans in the Matecumbe work camps followed this scenario."

Some of us need to move

The U.S. is divided into 3,100 counties. Of the top 30 counties that have received billions in disaster aid, 22 of them are either in Florida (13) or Oklahoma (9). Caddo County, Oklahoma has been declared a disaster area 13 times in the last decade, according to a story in USAToday yesterday. And it isn't just tornadoes, like you might think--that county has had a little of everything. If the rest of us are going to pay, either in taxes or insurance, for rebuilding after the hurricanes, brush fires, and flash flooding, then rich folk shouldn't be building their McMansions on hillsides in California or summer homes with coastal ocean and bay views, or on stilts with decks over river vistas in Ohio. Federal aid is a disincentive for insurance companies to insure, or for home owners to build in safer areas. I don't have a solution, and obviously our Congress doesn't either. They only talk about it when they aren't worrying about athletes on steroids, what Rush Limbaugh said, or alar on apples. But here's a thought.

3667

He thinks Al Gore is an alarmist

and he's been in the hurricane prediction business for two decades. Before Katrina, before Al Gore's movie, but after the 2004 hurricanes that hit Florida, William Gray, the world's most famous hurricane expert was interviewed by Discover magazine.

"A few years ago, you almost called it quits because you’d lost so much funding. What made you continue?

G: I don’t have the budget that I had, so I have cut my project way back. I am in retirement. I’m still working every day, but I don’t teach and I don’t have as many graduate students and as much financial need. I’ve got a little money from Lexington Insurance out of Boston, and I have some National Science Foundation money. For years I haven’t had any NOAA, NASA, or Navy money. But I’m having more fun. Right now I’m trying to work on this human-induced global-warming thing that I think is grossly exaggerated.

You don’t believe global warming is causing climate change?

G: No. If it is, it is causing such a small part that it is negligible. I’m not disputing that there has been global warming. There was a lot of global warming in the 1930s and ’40s, and then there was a slight global cooling from the middle ’40s to the early ’70s. And there has been warming since the middle ’70s, especially in the last 10 years. But this is natural, due to ocean circulation changes and other factors. It is not human induced.

That must be a controversial position among hurricane researchers.

G: Nearly all of my colleagues who have been around 40 or 50 years are skeptical as hell about this whole global-warming thing. But no one asks us. If you don’t know anything about how the atmosphere functions, you will of course say, “Look, greenhouse gases are going up, the globe is warming, they must be related.” Well, just because there are two associations, changing with the same sign, doesn’t mean that one is causing the other."

He notes that he lost a lot of his funding when the global warming views became popular during the Clinton administration. Go figure! You mean there's money in the politics of science? Surely not!!!!

Global warming is a hoax. Washington Post story about Gray. He thinks in about 8 years we'll be cooling again--hmmm, around the time Gore will be finishing his 2 terms launched by his chicken little platform. Long enough for him to have destroyed our businesses and industry and taxed us to the warming heavens and back.

1483 What media bias, pt. 2

The "Jury still out" claimed USAToday (Sept. 7) sub-headline "on whether global warming had impact." That was the headline. Here's what the article said. "Everyone is clear global warming did not cause Katrina and that it is not causing more hurricanes." So where is this "jury" I wondered.

So I continued reading. Apparently, there is an economics professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. who they tracked down for this story (probably has a website) who has suspicions. Elizabeth Weise wrote a story that denies the headline. Don't know who wrote the headline.

However, here's an interesting tid-bit from the article. The lull in hurricanes in the last 30 year cycle coincided with the advent of air conditioning allowing people to live in formerly uninhabitable areas which are hit harder by hurricanes.

Norma Blogs Hurricane Katrina

Sunday, September 11, 2005

1505 The Fear Factor

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

1512 Women can stop poverty

Thursday, September 15, 2005

1511 They may never

Monday, September 26, 2005

1537 Why weren't they prepared for this?

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

1542 Does USAToday Hate Black People?

1543 My Biggest Mistake

1546 Red Cross Money Pit

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

1549 What is Bush's Responsibility?

Saturday, October 1, 2005

1569 Good Samaritans and Katrina