There was a cable TV show a few years ago about "preppers", people who thought "the gubment is gonna come get us", or a meteor will strike Earth, probably somewhere near Des Moines, or both. I watched it simply because it was good for a laugh. (Remember, this was long before the Donald and Hillary Show.) But now I'm reading things in major, respected journals and newspapers that are advocating essentially what those nut-cases preppers were doing back then that we poo-pooed as goofy. Seriously?
Yeah, seriously. They started out reminding us that climate change is doing some weird things these days. Like Hurricane Sandy tearing up the northeast a few years ago, and more recently flooding in Louisiana, and in central Texas a few months before that. And how about those killer winters storms that don't let up for weeks, or those tornadoes we're seeing in "the alley" almost year-round? I don't even want to think about a west-coast earthquake. Yikes!
Those showed us that "shit happens" "feces occurs", and that until help arrives, you're on your own. FEMA might bring you a bag of ice, and the nice church people will pass out sandwiches as fast as they can, but hour-to-hour, day-to-day, you are all you'll have.
More recently the experts are warning that evil people, be they foreign governments or terrorists, are working overtime to learn how to shut down our financial system, or our electrical grid(s), or our transportation system, and it's only a matter of time before they successfully cyber-attack us. Lovely.
Now, to add insult to injury, they're saying we shouldn't be surprised by civil unrest after an election that didn't go the way the well-armed losing side wanted, or after a police-minority incident escalates out of control. Too much mayhem, too few police. Too many fires, too few firefighters. DOH!
OK, fine. I'll look into it further and report back all the things you need to know to make it to 2017, like the shelf life of Hostess Ding Dongs, or where to buy the most accurate long-range sling-shot. Stand by. ;)
S
Now, I don't mean this to be a blanket indictment, but I've gotta say I don't have much faith in ANYTHING our federal government does. Or should I say TRIES to do. Yes, I'm sure there are some successes that go unreported, but when taken as a whole, our government does NOT impress.
Think about it: Natural disasters strike, and the boondoggle they call FEMA swings into action. They send in their army of bureaucrats and set up registration stations where the affected can sign up for gubment help. "Your gubment trailer is on the way!" *pay no attention to that outgassing thing that makes them dangerous to live in* "Oh, and feel free to help yourself to a complementary bag of ice."
And for our veterans, the ones who put their life on the line for us, the ones we solemnly promised to take care of if they were injured....do I need to list all the shortcomings of the VA? (It would fill multiple volumes.)
For a decade prior to 2008, up to this day, even, our federal financial regulators turned a blind eye to the unprecedented con job the banks were doing on the American people. "So you're broke? And you want a bailout? Sure....happy to help. Here's a coupla hundred billion bucks, and another few billion to fund a nice bonus for you fine gentlemen, too." Nice job guys. Thanks for looking out for the American people.
The DOJ developed a half baked idea to see where the Mexican drug cartels are getting their guns BY SELLING GUNS TO THEM OURSELVES. DUH!
Now Ebola has made it to our shores and the CDC tells a Dallas nurse on the Ebola-watch short list, "Aww, go ahead, get on the big 'ol jet plane and go visit mama in Cleveland. Never mind that pesky little fever." BRILLIANT!
I honestly believe the people we have working for us on the government payroll are the labor pool "B" "C" team. The really sharp people go to work in the private sector, the left-overs going on to government service. For others it's the allure of essentially lifetime employment, "help yourself to the cash register" pay, lots of perks, and an early, absurdly generous retirement plan. Some can do an adequate job, some (most?) not. *sigh*
The Peter Principle is alive and well. Can we just fire them all and start over?
S
Yesterday I went to the doctor to have him check out a bump on the bridge of my nose underneath where my glasses rest. Turns out it's skin cancer. Not a biggie, but still another nuisance that I have to deal with. Of course they're reminding me to slather on the sun screen, but I hate the stuff. Isn't a hat enough? Jeez!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Looks like it's "sink or swim" time for FEMA, pardon the pun. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is responsible for coordinating federal, state, and local response to national emergencies, such as hurricane Sandy. (The actual work of putting things back right again still falls to the governors and the states.)
They botched it big time after hurricane Katrina all but destroyed New Orleans. Now we'll see if they've learned anything since. Any time there's a federal bureaucracy involved I'm skeptical. I hope I'm wrong.
The images coming out of the aftermath of the storm are incredible. The cleanup looks like an impossible task. Where do you start? They showed how things were down in the underground subways. Yuck! I can't imagine how long it will take to get it put back like it was before, if they can at all.
Looks like unemployment in the area will fall to near zero for years to come, just by putting everyone to work hauling off debris. For building material suppliers I'm sure they'll be producing stuff as fast as they can to replace what was destroyed, which will mean upward pressure on material prices nationwide. Yes, we'll ALL probably feel it with every trip to Home Depot.
Wouldn't it be great to have things all going our way, smoothly, as planned, even if only for a few days? What was it SNL's Roseanne Roseannadanna said?....It's always something! *sigh*
S
So there's an earthquake in Washington, DC, and Wall Street responds by going UP 322 points. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it almost looks like.... :)
S
