While Awaiting Kanye’s Two Cents Worth
By Mitch Berg
As a rule, I treat the axiom “government is the things we do together, stupidly” like a well-tested law of physics. Politics – which is what drives government – is the worst possible way to allocate limited resources of any kind.
And FEMA’s record is…checkered.
But some of the stories coming from the Carolinas, Georgia and Virginia seem…
…stretchy?
Here’s a POV.
As grandma used to day, “trusting anyone is always a sucker bet, especially online”. Since Grandma died 15 years before anyone but Algore had the internet, she was pretty savvy.
October 8th, 2024 at 7:25 am
That’s a sensible, moderate, well-reasoned video. But I’m a right-wing kook so I’m going to pick a few nits, Mitch.
Helene’s rain hit North Carolina on September 28. The video was posted October 7. Most of the reported incidents of non-performance and interference occurred during early days. Saying “We’re on the job now” doesn’t refute the earlier reports.
The reports I saw were not gossip or rumor, they were first-hand reports by people who were threatened with arrest and turned away, perhaps not by FEMA personnel but by locals such as the Assistant Fire Chief of Lake Lure.
The video said Congress passed the continuing resolution on September 25 so FEMA has plenty of money. Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas said on October 1 that FEMA had enough money to pay for Helene but not to make it through the rest of the hurricane season. Who should I believe?
The $750 is not a loan but it does count against other assistance.
The video encourages us to find “trusted” sources of information. Elon Musk posted on X that he told Mayor Pete to call him about the helicopter being turned away. Is Elon a trusted source?
We are warned that people are saying things to make political points. That’s true on both sides. FEMA people don’t work for free, or for me, they work for their boss.
It’s a huge area, there are many local variables, government is ponderous and slow to get started, bureaucrats demand control and obedience whether or not they know what they’re doing, and volunteers may be helping or may be hindering. It’s hard to know for certain what’s true.
I agree with one thing in the video – look for other sources of information, first-hand accounts, and evaluate them critically rather than accept them blindly to make political points.
October 8th, 2024 at 7:36 am
The guy sounds credible and reasonable. He may be right and he may be wrong about a couple of points – but the take-away is the best way to counter misinformation is more voices, not less, and certainly not the goberment deciding what is true and what is not.
October 8th, 2024 at 2:49 pm
Just in case you need more left wing climate myth busting info:
https://climaterealism.com/2024/10/noaas-u-s-temperature-data-demonstrate-that-population-growth-uhis-measurement-inadequacies-drive-tavg-increasing-outcomes-not-climate-change/
October 8th, 2024 at 6:32 pm
This obese computer jockey is obviously in command of the facts, and these right wing nut jobs are just spreading misinformation and disinformation. 👍🏻
https://nypost.com/2024/10/07/us-news/redneck-air-force-is-bringing-aid-to-nc-when-fema-came-up-short/
October 8th, 2024 at 7:01 pm
This is kind of a touchy subject for me, because I have a very close friend who lives in South Carolina, and was directly in the path of this storm. He lives in the woods, 25 miles SE of Asheville and is building his own house.
The storm caught him by surprise at 3:30 am when his cell phone went off with a flash flood warning. This guy lives on a reservoir fed by a big ass river, so he didn’t just roll over and go back to sleep. By 9 am, the wind was blowing at 75 mph and trees started falling, and flattened his well house. Two trees then fell on the unfinished house he was building….there’s nowhere to run in the woods when the trees are falling, so he had a breakfast beer, petted his dogs and waited for whatever.
When it was all done, 25 Oak trees, 80 – 120′ tall had fallen. 8 of them across his dirt road.
There was no power; no cell coverage or internet and he wasn’t going anywhere until the road got cleared. His well was crushed, so no water. He hunkered down with his dogs and figured he had a lot of work to do tomorrow. Next morning, his neighbors showed up with a bob cat and chain saws. They all got to work, but it still, it took 3 days to clear the road.
He had no idea how bad it was until he got to the blacktop. There was a single wide trailer down the road with a family with 4 kids in it. They were OK, but the trailer was crushed under 2 big pines. South Carolina didn’t get the flooding that NC did, but because it had rained 15″ the ground was sodden and the wind took down an enormous number of very big trees.
South Carolina did not suffer as much as WNC did, but that’s a distinction without difference when everything is down. My friend says he met a guy coming back down from Asheville who said the feds had turned him back. He was hauling a ‘cat to dig his son out, and they said no unauthorized equipment would be allowed to pass. There are too many first hand accounts of helicopter and plane pilots being threatened with arrest if they did not stop delivering food and supplies up where they were needed to be faked. This is a classic cover your ass operation.
My friend says, to this day, he’s not seen one single fed down there to help. It was all on them. And he says his friends up in Spruce Pine and Black Mountain report the same.
Don’t ever tell me we need the feds, friends.
October 9th, 2024 at 6:27 am
I’m glad that a couple of you piped up in protest to that obese computer jockey (I liked that) because he really annoyed me. The guy is literally the personification of the akshually image.
October 9th, 2024 at 7:19 am
I liked how the obese computer jockey used Newsmax to certify his bona fides….Newsmax? Oh well then, that’s different; carry on.
Why would Newsmax guy jump to cover up federal and in the case of NC Governor Roy Cooper, state bungling?
He really didn’t try to cover fed bungling up. What he was doing was touting the Army National Guard, on whom he relies for whatever bullshit business he does besides sit behind a computer to make idiot podcasts and sell tee shirts.
But he did say FEMA has plenty of money which is odd because Mayorkas says they are running low. He also says anyone can just walk up to a FEMA tent and they’ll hand you a $750 gift card, “no questions asked”. Really? Well if that’s true I expect there’s truck loads of Somalis headed down there to get in on that scam, since they’ve mastered the art of bilking government idiots.
No. In order to get the money you have to do what? Let’s say it together: You have to show picture ID to prove you live in the area.
FEMA didn’t even show up in WNC until a full 5 days after the storm; that’s a fact. And when they did, they interrupted what by then was a pretty smoothly operating machine being run by civilians. NC & SC state assets were in place before then, but they mostly took up road block duties.
Obese Newsmax computer guy can go fuck off to Germany. He is dismissed.
October 9th, 2024 at 7:58 am
Well, OK, can of worms opened 😉
Brian Trascher of United Cajun Navy Confirms a Blackhawk Did ‘Rotor Wash’ a Western NC Resource Site
On the evening of Sunday, October 6, a helicopter “rotor washed” a POD center where the United Cajun Navy was distributing supplies and giving relief to the people impacted by Hurricane Helene. This area was no-fly territory, so the appearance of a helicopter flying 500 feet from the ground was extremely frightening, as the UCN documented on its X page.
I read yesterday and it was re-iterated in the comments that Tony Suruga on X Twitter reported: Fury 147 is a UH-60 assigned to the Connecticut Army National Guard. Flight tracker has it in the area at the correct time.’ There are probably multiple misunderstandings, exaggerations, and perhaps even a fib or two involved here, but the event itself did take place and no one has owned up nor apologized.
October 9th, 2024 at 9:49 am
UPDATE: North Carolina National Guard Admits They ‘Rotor Washed’ a Hurricane Helene Relief Site
Who is in charge of North Carolina’s National Guard? None other than Democrat Governor Roy Cooper, who has been part of the glacial response by FEMA and the roadblocks experienced by other relief organizations like the United Cajun Navy and individual citizens wanting to help. Interestingly enough, on that same Sunday of the incident, Gov. Cooper decided to take to X to slam the “relentless vortex of disinformation” and “bad actors” on X for making him a target.
Still no apologies or even offers to replace what was lost.
October 9th, 2024 at 12:21 pm
I saw that video. It’s clear that rotor wash was deliberate.
If you go to youtube and search for “civilian rescues stopped north carolina” you’ll find several videos of copter pilots being told they’d be arrested if they flew another mission by local authorities, and the FAA. There are at least 2 dozen still grounded at Asheville airport because FENA copters have landed on the fucking runway, and there they sit…doing nothing.
Most of those missions originated from Greenville (SC) airport, and were staged at the Asheville airport. What you must know is that Asheville and the immediate surrounding area are controlled by liberals from up North. Since the early 80’s, hippies (real, hairy dirty hippies) have been moving in up there and have taken control. Since the early 00’s, rich boomers from California have been moving in and constructing estates in the mountains, completely trashing the mountain culture and replacing it with the effete leftist vibe they prefer. The mayor of Asheville, Esther Manheimer, is a real piece of work.
The Democrat Governor of NC, Roy Cooper is out after this year because of ter limits, but he’s pushing to be replaced by another piece of shit liberal so his credibility is important. These scum will do anything to protect one another.
My friend tells me that since this issue has taken off, the feds and state have backed off and are now “cooperating with local efforts”. That rotor wash shows what that means.
They’ve been shamed by honest to God men, and they’re pissed off.
October 9th, 2024 at 12:23 pm
I have to wonder why Mitch Berg is running cover for these shit bags though…🤔
October 9th, 2024 at 10:28 pm
I have to wonder why Mitch Berg is running cover for these shit bags though
Well, there’s a fucking shock.
Running cover? Nah. Putting a different perspective out there. I’m nowhere near big enough to matter even if I were trying to “run cover”.
I don’t really trust anyone these days. Including “my own side”.
And, uh, “Arthur”? I’m done with letting guests think they can try to piss on me in my house.
October 10th, 2024 at 1:17 pm
No body is pissing on you Mitch. Your pissing on yourself.
You linked a video of a guy who like, the cops and NG had every reason to lie.
The truth, from people on scene is easy to find…why didn’t you look?
https://youtu.be/s8ICG0iaHqw?si=etTDu_laThOmSOkt
October 10th, 2024 at 5:17 pm
“Arthur”,
Nah. I’m looking at information from all sides.
“why didn’t you look”
Don’t flatter yourself.
“you’re pissing…”
Speaking of which, you left about a year ago in a flurry of “never coming backs”.
To what do we owe the honor this time?
October 11th, 2024 at 7:24 am
BTW, “Arthur” – you’ll note (or maybe you won’t) that I started things out by saying trusting government is a sucker bet, but here is a point of view from someone with a set of qualifications to do with what one will.
That’s the worst “running cover for da man” ever.
Kinda makes me wonder if you aren’t just stirring up yet another pointless argument, “Arthur”.
I mean, dopamine is dopamine, right?
October 11th, 2024 at 12:02 pm
I think I made my interest in the issue pretty damn clear. Maybe it takes a couple trees falling on a guys house for him to get pissed when some fat ass computer jockey says “They’re lying!”
Fuck him. I’d like to see him show up down here with that bullshit…10/10 he’d get the dog shit slapped out of him.
October 11th, 2024 at 2:11 pm
Hes a “fat ass computer jockey” who spent 20 years as an infantryman.
I’m neither saying he’s right nor wrong. Just adding a point of view.