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As our kids return to class, hopefully to be educated--- not indoctrinated---Hurricane Harvey has educated us all in several ways.
The power of nature is still mightier that the power of man.
Sometimes professors say stupid things and get fired for it.
The old cliche, "No good deed goes unpunished" is still true sometimes.
And most importantly, Harvey taught us something about ourselves that contradicts the popular media narrative.
Nature is a powerful force.
AccuWeather is predicting that Harvey's price tag for damage will reach $190 billion, or a full 1% of US economic output.
Joel Meyers, founder of AccuWeather, says, "This is the costliest natural disaster in American history."
The epic storm is expected to shave 0.3 to 1.2 percentage points off our nation's growth for the July-September quarter.
I'm reminded of the words of the Prophet Jeremiah--chapter 31, verse 35, "This is what the Lord says, He who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar---the Lord Almighty is His name."
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
President Trump's press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced last Thursday that President Trump will be donating $1 million of his own money to a relief organization working with those affected by the hurricane in the Houston area.
CNN immediately ran a story explaining that was no big deal, Barack Obama gave his $200,000 dollar Nobel prize money to charity, while The Hill quickly quoted the guy who co-wrote the book, "The Art of the deal" with Trump, who, after making a lot of money off Trump's bestselling book, doesn't like him anymore.
The co-author says and The Hill reported, Tony Schwartz said, "No way Trump donates $1 million of his own money to Harvey victims. He only promises to give. Never actually does it."
He has donated all of his paychecks since becoming president. We'll see if he gives the $1 million. I believe he will, but you won't hear about it in the news media.
Sometimes professors say stupid things.
Sometimes they pay a price for it..
"Professor" Harvey also reminded us that classroom professors sometimes say stupid things---and sometimes get fired for saying them.
Professor Kenneth Storey, University of Tampa professor of sociology, suggested that Texas deserved hurricane Harvey because of the way they voted in the last election.
Texas, as you know, voted for President Trump. Storey tweeted he doesn't "believe in instant Karma but this kind of feels like it for Texas. Hopefully this will help them realize the GOP doesn't care about them."
That felt pretty good so Storey continued; "I guess we're a red state, we deserve some bad karma too, right?"
And, "Yep, those who voted for him [Trump] here deserve it as well."
While Storey was still savoring the moment, the backlash on social media began. It was so forceful, Storey tried to apologize, but the University came out with its own statement that said, "We condemn the comments and the sentiments behind them, and understand the pain this irresponsible act has caused..." and, "As Floridians, we are well aware of the destruction and suffering associated with tropical weather. Our thoughts and prayers are with all impacted by hurricane Harvey."
The University made it clear that the values projected by Professor Storey were not the values of the University of Tampa.
Then they fired him.
John Nolte wrote a powerful piece for Breitbart News yesterday titled, "Houston Proves Everything the MSM [Mainstream Media] Says About Our 'Divided' Country Is A Lie."
Nolte says he wrote the article "to offer some perspective on the difference between our corrupt media's relentless portrayal of a hopelessly divided America, and a little something known as reality."
He says you need not live in Manhattan or DC to bubble yourself, and by extension, be hoodwinked by a media and Left desperate to crack our union in two. The only requirement is a news addiction fed by the establishment media. If that toxin is your primary portal to the outside world, you are being misled."
Nolte says, "Basically, the media fabricates the following; that old white men (i.e. Trump supporters) are desperate to hold on to their privilege at the expense of brown, black, gay, female, and young Americans. And for this reason, every brown, black, gay, female, and young American must vote Democrat."
Nolte makes the case that America is not fractured "politically" in the way the media would lead you to believe we are.
The facts tell a different story. America is not divided politically in the way we are led to believe.
CNN's own exit poll numbers defy their "news" narrative
Nearly half ---48%---who voted for Trump are not men.
More than 43% of those who voted for Trump are not white.
Therefore there are tens of millions of people who voted for Trump that are women and non-whites.
Nolte says this:
If you look at the establishment media, though, this inconvenient fact is intentionally memory-holed, all in service to a propaganda campaign meant to hustle Americans into believing we hate one another. The obvious goal is to turn propaganda into reality by fooling us into believing we must join a tribe, a tribe as defined by the media, a tribe that comports perfectly with the evil of identity politics, which can only result in putting elites and their centralized government back in power.
The primary weapons in this propaganda war are extremist groups the media dishonestly uses as avatars for all of us. Therefore, it is no accident that every single one of these groups, starting with the KKK and white supremacists, and ending with AntiFa and Black Lives Matter, are leftwing hate groups — groups conceived, birthed and raised by a Democrat Party desperate to cover up its failed ideas with grievance coalitions too shallow to see past their own precious identities.
These hate groups also give the media its desired chaos narrative, the emotional blackmail that demands we take a side, which is, at its essence, a ransom note that reads:
DEAR AMERICA: ALL THIS UGLINESS AND DIVISION WILL GO AWAY IF YOU VOTE THE WAY WE TELL YOU TO.
By over-blowing and inundating us with 24/7 strife and violence, by stressing us out, this is the media holding civility and the social compact hostage; demanding we pay a ransom that surrenders merit to identity and individual freedom to government.
In other words, what you see 24/7 on CNN is not America. What you see on CNN, rather, is the America CNN wants to create through lies. The truth is this: even on a Big News night, no more than about 7 million tune into ALL of cable news, and any amount of time spent in the Real World is a revelation of just how little impact and influence the establishment media is having on our country.
Houston has given us pictures of how great this country really is.
The very people who are ordered by the media and a few far left puppet masters to hate one another, because they are part of another tribe, have come together. Blacks, Hispanics, whites, southerners, northerners and all kinds of "deplorables" from other places East, West, North and South have come to Houston to help, rescue, save, console and sooth one another.
This is e pluribus unum on steroids.
This picture has gone viral.
The other day the National Guard showed up in Richmond, Texas and a 4 year old boy went out and stood in flood water to greet the Guard.
He was holding up an American flag.
Emily Claburn, the boy's mother, said, "He also offered to give the soldiers his favorite Grave Digger monster truck to help others with the flood in the time of need."
The great French historian, after traveling our country, concluded, "America is good because the people are good."