Cue trumpets, trombones and sackbuts -- is everyone on the left (especially the driveby media) listening? Trump has failed already / is failing as we speak / will continue to fail all through next week when it comes to dealing with the devastation that will be wrought by Hurricane Harvey.
Please excuse me, however, if I point out an inconvenient fact. According to this devastating report from ProPublica, Texas has long been on notice that it needed to do more to prepare for the next big storm to hit its coast. And note that the date of the report is March 3, 2016 -- which is months before Donald Trump became the Republican candidate.
Don't expect hard facts to stop the mindless media from piling on, however. They will run endless loops of video showing the devastation, all as they repeatedly ask: "What is the President doing about it?" Well, what has Texas done about it? (That question won't be asked.)
If the Houston Ship Channel is disrupted, and the largest oil refineries in the country have to shut down as a result of Hurricane Harvey, the ProPublica report predicts a major disruption for the entire country:
Flanked by 10 major refineries — including the nation's largest — and dozens of chemical manufacturing plants, the Ship Channel is a crucial transportation route for crude oil and other key products, such as plastics and pesticides. A shutdown could lead to a spike in gasoline prices and many consumer goods — everything from car tires to cell phone parts to prescription pills.So the talking vacuum heads and copycat scribes of the media will have a field day over the next weeks and months. Every disruption in supplies, every spike in prices, every shutdown, flooding and other calamity that nature can deliver will be laid at Donald Trump's feet.
"It would affect supply chains across the U.S., it would probably affect factories and plants in every major metropolitan area in the U.S.," said Patrick Jankowski, vice president for research at the Greater Houston Partnership, Houston's chamber of commerce.
What was he supposed to do to stop a Category 4 hurricane, with its winds of up to 156 mph? Play King Canute? Issue everybody umbrellas and rubber lifeboats?
Get real. Texas isn't ready for this storm, even though it has had years of warnings and years to prepare. No President in this situation can do more than ask the personnel of FEMA to do their jobs, and do them well. Unfortunately, FEMA has a reactive mandate. It has to be called in after the fact, and so it works by trying to shut the barn door after the horses are out.
In my personal experience, the people of Texas are pretty resilient. They may get clobbered by this storm, but they won't play patsy for the media, either. Indeed, if I were a reporter for CNN, the Washington Post or the New York Times, I would be especially leery of what I asked of whom.
Hunker down, and pray to the Lord. There are bad times a comin'. And remember this: just like charity, preparation begins at home.
Louisiana wasn't prepared for Katrina, despite years of warnings, either.
ReplyDeleteMost of the coast of Texas is low-lying land, some sandy, some swampy. Difficult to effectively fortify. Corpus Christ and Galveston have seawalls that protect against normal storms, but as was seen after Ike in 2008, are no match for hurricanes. People beyond the seawalls build their houses on stilts hoping to spare their belongings from sea surges. But all of life is a risk assessment. I suspect the City of Houston asked itself "Do I spend spend money on fortifying the ship Channel and the refineries or build a new sports arena?" I do think that the Port of Houston should be the most protective of its income producing areas. I don't know what if anything they've done since Ike came thru to strengthen against storms.
I have to admit my bias. I grew up in Galveston and it and Houston were bitter rivals at the time, 40's & 50's.
Houston is a Progressive enclave and plans based on Progressive ideals however any problems will be blamed on Trump.
DeleteAccording to this Mindless Media, no matter what success Trump has he is a failure because he is not instituting the Progressive agenda.
From a few web posts I've seen, Texans have prepared their homes. They know what to do. I only hope that those on the coast did evacuate as they were advised to do. And possibly this time the mainstream media won't be able to whip up hysteria as it did for Hurricane Katrina. In that case the US president (GW Bush) begged the governor to ask for disaster assistance as the storm approached. She refused. Texas, today, has a sensible governor. The disaster declaration has already been issued, but there is very little anyone can do until the rain subsides, which may be the middle of next week.
ReplyDeleteCNN, et al., have been busy destroying their credibility in recent months. Perhaps hurricane insanity will accelerate that process.
I am not surprised that the leader of the "IN Party" is being blamed for the problems that may result when Harvey hits the land of Texas. As we have "learned" from History, government is the source of and the answer to everything. All problems fall at the feet of "The most powerful office in the world, the US Presidency." There are all manner of problems in the world and certainly the worst of them are created by different government's activities. Leadership, Journalism, Inspiration, enlightenment, responsibility, temperance, statesmanship and service are whimsical terms buried deep in the cemetery of enlightened concepts along with other archaeological artifacts. And, the idea that the Presidency is a powerful office no longer exists because the real power of such offices is the "Bully Pulpit" which has been sullied to the point of irrelevancy just as training masquerading as education has been. Regardless of what those seeking our wealth and moral support tell us, life is pretty fair usually; most personal problems result from personal failings. Those in high offices who no longer have letters in their signatures because they no longer know who they are and whose mouths no longer have vermilion borders because they have pursed them so many times on hearing what they are spewing out there into the ether in their attempts to gain our votes, have become intellectually unhealthy and we have not noticed or reacted as we should have. Reluctantly, I accept my part of the blame for not having spoken up more forcefully but I'll promise you this I am not going to make my life about saving dysfunctional groups such as political parties from themselves. Regardless of such groups as they, life can be good, if one accepts responsibility for the one he is assigned, by whatever force that so delegates such things, Ted
ReplyDeleteJust read on local weather channel that Harvey is expected to stay pretty much where it is for the next 4 days. Rains, Rain, Rain and more Rain!
ReplyDeleteThat's what they predicted even before the storm came in -- that it would stall and dump rains of biblical proportions on southeastern Texas. Pray that people will heed warnings not to drive, and that the weather will permit rescues.
DeleteThe left hates Texas too (except Austin) so they are going to blame Texas and Trump somehow. Call it T squared when you see it.
ReplyDeleteTrump has already declared a federal disaster area in South Texas. If Hillary had been in office she would do noting of the sort as punishment for Texas not voting for her which it never would have.
ReplyDeleteI live in San Antonio. Texas will take federal government assistance. After all, it's there for a reason and we pay our taxes. But, we don't rely on it. We rely on Texans. Hurricanes are a fact of life on the Gulf Coast. We know they're coming--not IF but WHEN. Folks on the Texas coast are a resilient bunch. Most don't spend much time fretting. They just get on with what they need to do, even if that is hurricane clean-up. And they aren't shy about saying "Please pray for us." Please do so. My Priest (and I'm sure many others) added the people affected by the hurricane to the Prayers of the People at Mass this morning.
ReplyDeleteWe are prepared. We have children and grandchildren on the edge and within the worst of the mess. The ones in the worst of the mess are following instructions during these moments and then going forth to help neighbour and stranger in those moments. We are Texans....most of us.
ReplyDeleteA Latin fellow jumped off an overpass in downtown Houston this morning to swim over to where an older Anglo man was literally holding on for dear life, to a traffic sign-post, while rushing water, chest deep attempted to carry him to the storm sewer.
The rather portly Latin fellow took his charge and swam back to a place where they could easily stand without fearing any currents. It happened to be where an ambulance had found access via a labyrinth of still-open streets, and the man could be loaded up and taken to still to one of any number of functioning and fully-staffed hospitals. Such events were in abundance.
Much of the infrastructure is still functioning.....only 300,000 connections have "gone down" and to-morrow there will be 12,000 highly-skilled line-men "planting poles" and "pitching wire", and replacing "old pots with new pots (transformers). We are Texans.
We shall round up our dogs and cats, roosters and chickens, cows and bulls and steers, horse and mules and donkeys, and pet longhorns.....and begin to build again. Some will grouse about FEMA, while I shall grouse that it never should have been established to begin with. There will be grousing and finger-pointing, especially by the identity-politics Democrats who will be pointing out that the reverse-retransgendered Eskimo lesbian men's badminton team had her/its game cancelled by that Nazi-lover Trump. And that there were no Mandatory Trans and Mixed Restroom facilities that required everyone to crowd into the restroom and stand line there, until Pocahontas and Bernie allowed them to leave. First things and important things first.
We shall even survive those things that have suddenly become more important than anything....including things such as sane, normal, responsible social deportment and compliance with reasonable cultural norms.
Once again, in concurrence and / or agreement with one and all. I retire and remain,
Sincerely,
El Gringo Viejo
Now THAT'S a proper report! Strength to you and yours and all involved durable no this hardship.
DeleteAmen.
DeleteWell said El Gringo.
ReplyDeleteI've seen lots of photos of rescues, people helping people without regard to what "group" they may belong to. Y'all are in my prayers.
ReplyDeleteOn Monday 28th August, my family and I fled Houston and on Thursday 31st August we learned that our street had five feet of water and that though there was some damage on a bedroom floor we were spared thankfully. Our area has no working sewage as of now and no word as to when it will return because the water utility was flooded as well. We've been away for a week and will return to stay with friends. We'd prepared ahead due to the fact that when we moved to that area, we knew we were living in a "Hurricane warning zone." Responsible people in Houston should know that, and every year they hold preparation awareness events around the city. Your prayers are appreciated for the city's recovery efforts.
ReplyDeleteAs we watched the media's coverage, the storm slowly encroached upon the city, we were not surprised by the negative reporting that we read and heard. It's true Texans are resilient, but they should've been more prepared; our POTUS is not responsible for the state's unprepared areas. Our Governor Abbott said it correctly, that evacuation was a good idea. Our family heeded that warning and managed to get out safely, though our departure was scary with flood waters rising, re-routing us, and an eerie quiet (we were alone on a freeway heading toward the city for several miles, just to find an accessible freeway entrance going the opposite direction). We are grateful for our lives.