In the annals of American disasters—man-made ones like the bombing of the 1995 Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City or natural ones like Hurricane Katrina in 2005—there has never been a more mismanaged and bungled disaster response by our federal government than the current aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
The monster storm plowed across Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, downing power lines, sweeping away bridges, devastating entire towns, and leaving over 200 dead and countless hundreds still missing as this is published.
Into this hellscape of destroyed cities, overturned cars, and shattered lives have parachuted the Presidential “nominee” of the Democratic Party—the one nobody actually voted for—Kamala Harris. Conservative estimates of the cleanup in Helene’s wake exceed $ 300 billion…but the tone-deaf Harris put on her cheeriest face and announced that victims would be getting reparations from Washington. In an October 2nd speech in Augusta, GA (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/10/02/remarks-by-vice-president-harris-on-response-and-recovery-efforts-following-hurricane-helene-augusta-ga/) Mrs. Time To Turn The Page stunned onlookers with these words:
“…And the federal relief and assistance that we have been providing has included FEMA providing $750 for folks who need immediate needs being met, such as food, baby formula, and the like. And you can apply now.”
Wow! Your home has been leveled, your car is crushed under tons of rubble, your streets are closed, and your cell phone is useless. But it isn’t all bad news: you can “apply” for a $750 gift card from Kamala Harris.
And where’s the Federal Emergency Management Agency? FEMA—according to its inept and impeached head Alejandro Mayorkas, speaking on Air Force One--“…does not have the funds to make it through the hurricane season.”
But it turns out (surprise!) Mayorkas is lying. On the Salem Media Group news program, THIS WEEK ON THE HILL with Tony Perkins, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) they got the hay down where the goats could get at it regarding FEMA. “I want to make this very clear: before Congress left Washington last Wednesday, we provided over $20-billion additional dollars to FEMA to ensure they had the necessary resources to respond to this storm which was imminent at that time.” Johnson added that “they do have the funds,” but Harris, Mayorkas and the Biden Administration have failed in their immediate response.
Critics of the anemic actions by FEMA point to the fact that the agency is part of Homeland Security, which—probably just a coincidence—Mayorkas directs and which has plowed literally billions of dollars into processing, relocating, feeding and providing expensive hotel rooms for millions of illegal aliens whom Kamala Harris has gleefully allowed to enter the United States. But with Election Day only a month away, our “Border Czar” just made her first fact-finding trip to our southern border near Tucson…spending a grand 20 minutes walking beside spools of razor wire in her Banana Republic outdoor wear as two unfortunate Border Patrol officers were forced to pretend to be briefing her. (On her first-and-only trip to the border, Kamala Harris spent less time that it takes to order and have delivered a gluten free crust pizza from Domino’s.)
Sad, but at least average citizens in the devastated areas can use their own drones to survey their property and even search for clues as to the whereabouts of missing family members or pets, right? Wrong. Our hapless Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg issued this warning on the DOT’s X page: "Drone pilots: Do not fly your drone near or around rescue and recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene. Interfering with emergency response operations impacts search and rescue operations on the ground."
What rubbish. FEMA—crying crocodile tears about not having enough funds—isn’t mounting any substantial operations in many stricken areas. In fact, FEMA left hundreds of thousands of Helene victims without even cellphone communications until Donald J. Trump stepped in and tapped Elon Musk to provide StarLink™ trucks which are now operating in areas where cell towers collapsed during the hurricane.
This is not to diminish in any way to heroic work of the National Guard, state and local authorities and private citizens who have worked tirelessly in the wake of Helene’s fury to rescue people in their communities. Additionally, we all are blessed that groups like Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse, The Salvation Army and Team Rubicon immediately rolled up their sleeves and mobilized to literally save lives throughout the hurricane’s path. God bless every one of them.
However, could we at least be spared Kamala Harris’s parroting of word- processed lines created by her consultants like her insipid “It’s time to turn the page on Donald Trump” ? Like it or not, Trump doesn’t just flap his gums like most politicians—even ones allegedly leading our federal government. He picks up the phone, engages private resources like the aforementioned Elon Musk, and actually gets important things done.
That may not impress elites in Georgetown or Beverly Hills or Nantucket. But my guess is the people of North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia were far better served by the man regularly vilified on MSNBC and by the Associated Press as “authoritarian” or “scary” than by the woman to pushed her elderly boss aside and clawed her way forward to lead Democrats into next month’s elections.
When I even consider the frightening possibility of Kamala Harris actually becoming President of the United States, it brings to mind the phrase originally attributed to Abraham Lincoln in the 1800’s: “It hurts too much to laugh, but I’m too old to cry.”
Tom Tradup is V.P./News & Talk Programming for Dallas-based Salem Radio Network; he also serves as Executive Producer of THIS WEEK ON THE HILL which is heard on leading radio stations and is broadcast Saturdays at 10AM Eastern time on Salem News Channel.
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