The loss of lives and property from Hurricane Helene keep adding up. This hurricane may end up more horrendous than Katrina in 2005.
An outstanding farmer I know in Hickory, North Carolina, immediately rounded up a few friends and began using their drones to airlift supplies, up to 5 miles, to families in the mountains who were cut off. All they needed was an address. Others are bringing them trailer loads of equipment, water, food, generators and other necessary items, often from hundreds of miles away. Of course, charities such as Red Cross, Samaritan’s Purse, UMCOR, and others quickly geared up to help in all the states hit by flooding. The Federal government is providing help through FEMA and our military.
The union representing Longshoremen along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts agreed to a temporary 3-month delay in their strike. They will get a big raise in hourly wages to help offset the high inflation of recent years. But they are determined to stop automation from taking their jobs on the docks. Our ports are already far behind others around the world in efficiency, so automation and other technology advancements are inevitable.
Can you imagine if our farmers had resisted new technology and automation for the last 50 years? Yes, there would be 3 or 4 times as many people working on farms, earning a wage. But our food would more than double in cost. If fact, more of our food would be grown in other countries by farmers using the latest technology. Interestingly, that would provide more work for Longshoremen handling imports. However, our exports of corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, almonds, meat and most other agriculture products would dwindle because other countries would out compete us.
A few readers have replied than I have included more negative comments about Kamala Harris than about Donald Trump. To balance the discussion, I am hereby including quotes by Democrats trashing Trump.
Just like you, I’ve seen plenty on social media and television. Here are a few: “Donny Boy has his own special language: demented word salad gibberish.” “It’s almost impossible to believe he actually exists.” “Trump needs to be extinguished.” “Corrupt and corrupting orange clown.” “Trump is an existential threat to democracy.” “Trump peddles in anti-Semitic stereotypes and fuels Islamophobia.” “What a f**king a**hole the guy is.”
Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“Some people spend a lifetime juggling with words, with not an idea in a carload.” DT #2061, March 13, 1933
“No man is great if he thinks he is.” DT #810, March 1, 1929
“This country is a thousand times bigger than any two men in it, or any two parties in it. These big politicians are so serious about themselves and their parties. This country has gotten where it is in spite of politics, not by the aid of it. That we have carried as much political bunk as we have and still survived shows we are a super nation.” DT #1948, Nov. 1, 1932
Note: I switched parties on this quote because Republicans were in charge in 1932, and Democrats are today. “[Republicans] are attacking and the [Democrats] are defending. All the [Republicans] have to do is promise ‘what they would do if they got in.’ But the [Democrats] have to promise ‘what they would do’ and then explain why they haven’t already done it.” DT #1917, Sept. 26, 1932