Helene Floods Are a Reminder They Hate You

In case you'd forgotten

If you live in a Western country and haven’t figured it out yet, the message is clear: Your government hates you. The last several years have shown plenty of evidence to this effect, but the abysmal response to the hurricane-stricken areas of the United States is one of the clearest demonstrations yet of the government’s contempt for its people. 

Hanlon’s razor states this: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” Certainly, bumbling bureaucracy is par for the course for any government. But what’s happening in the southern Appalachians isn’t adequately explained by stupidity — not even close. It’s clear that “someone” is going well out of their way to frustrate rescue attempts at the very least, and potentially aiming for something darker. 

Certainly, there are good people within governments, and they’re not monolithic entities as competing factions within vie for power. However, it’s readily apparent that the real decision-makers are more than a bit uninterested in the well-being of their citizens. Consider, in the southeast US: 

Civilian helicopter pilots are being threatened with arrest for attempting rescue missions.  

Business owners in Asheville are being threatened with arrest for trying to collect their belongings: 

As of October 3, Democratic North Carolina governor Roy Cooper has still not deployed the 1,000 troops approved to aid in the rescue efforts, who are currently stationed at Fort Liberty. Meanwhile, an unknown and probably quite high number of people are trapped in towns that are totally cut off from food, water, electricity, and other necessities. This has been going on for several days. So what the hell is he doing? Meanwhile, 700 soldiers from Tennessee’s National Guard have been deployed to the Middle East instead of, y’know…Tennessee.

The FAA has banned drone pilots from flying over some affected areas of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, citing safety concerns. Logically, one would think you’d want anyone possible to help locate stranded people in need of help, especially since many areas are currently only accessible by air or foot. Drones seem like the perfect tool in this case. Again, what the hell are they doing? Is this an attempt to cover up how bad things actually are?

There are even reports of FEMA confiscating donations and supplies and barring civilians from providing aid to victims of what could be the worst natural disaster in recent American history. A reasonable reporter could ask Secretary Mayorkas, “What are you even for?”

Credit where credit is due to the North Carolina National Guard for activating missions, but it’s already days after the hurricane hit. Already too many have died. Furthermore, according to US Congressman Cory Mills (FL-07) Joe Biden’s Oct 3 visit to the region shut down airspace for 4 hours over a wide region where air rescue is still necessary. 

Insult to Injury

It gets darker, and this is why I’m throwing Hanlon’s Razor out the window. On October 3, Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced FEMA doesn’t have enough money to last through the hurricane season. This is the same FEMA that announced $640 million in new funding for illegal migrants just last April. 

Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration has just announced they’ll be providing $20 million to Hurricane Helene survivors.

For simple math, FEMA created a budget 32 times greater for illegal migrants than American citizens who’ve survived a natural disaster. And if you are indeed a survivor, you have to apply for these funds — a paltry $750 per person for “immediate needs.” 

Some logical questions would be: How are you going to get money to people in areas with no electricity, no internet, no working ATMs, no functioning banks — and then what happens when there’s nothing to buy? 

It’s simply an insultingly low number for people who’ve lost loved ones, homes, and livelihoods, and stand no chance of getting back on their feet anytime soon. This was the exact same playbook that was pulled out after the Lahaina fire, which also included residents being blocked from attempting to return to their own property long after the danger was gone. 

What’s even more insulting is President Biden pledged $8 billion more for Ukraine as recently as September 26. Combine that with him saying that the federal government has given everything they have to mitigate the disaster (video below) and then having the further audacity to ask American citizens to fund the recovery effort (second video below). 

So Washington has plenty of cash to give to Ukraine and Israel and countless other countries but can barely scrape anything together for its own people? In 2023, the US spent $61 billion in foreign aid, most of which went to just 10 countries. Check out this fun map that shows just how widely US dollars get thrown around everywhere but the US. It’s eye-opening, even if it curiously leaves off Israel. 

When the leaders of government can cough up cash for literally everyone else in the world but not for their own people in a time of need, the conclusion is clear: They hate their citizens. 

Weasel Wording

Let’s go back to that FEMA announcement.  I want to take a moment to parse some weasel wording in that memo, linked again here, because this is ugly. 

As the announcement reads,

More than 5,000 personnel from across the federal workforce are deployed, including more than 1,500 from FEMA. To date, FEMA has shipped over 9.3 million meals, more than 11.2 million liters of water, 150 generators and more than 260,000 tarps to the region.

Look at the word “shipped.” It means something very different than “distributed.” After all, the distribution is the hard part, since shipping pallets and containers of supplies is relatively simple. On the other hand, getting supplies to remote locations where roads are washed out and there are no utilities is a monumental task, especially when many areas are only reachable by helicopter. Doesn’t 1,500 FEMA personnel sound extremely low for a large-scale disaster affecting multiple states?  

This is the kind of weasel wording that’s uber-common in large organizations and governments, where everyone is in cover-your-ass mode. 

Disgusting Political Considerations and Filthy Lucre

It should come as no surprise that your government especially hates you if you live in an area that doesn’t vote in a way the current party in power wants you to vote. It’s well worth noting that the affected areas lean heavily Republican and, with the US election only a month away, it’s hard not to consider this as a potential reason for the inaction. 

It feels filthy to think that cynically, but it’s impossible not to in the current poisonous political atmosphere. Besides, the cynicism and willingness to sacrifice human life for political expediency is something the US government is well known for. Recall that former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright noted the half million Iraqi children dead because of US sanctions was “worth it” as just one example. There are countless others. 

So, American citizens are left to rot — in this case, literally — while nowhere near enough is being done and civilian rescue efforts are actively stymied. Combine this disaster with the Lahaina fire, last year’s East Palestine, Ohio disaster, and 2017’s Hurricane Maria crippling the power grid in Puerto Rico — which was still not fixed by 2022. It’s hard not to notice a pattern of intentional neglect rather than simple incompetence. 

An interesting anecdote that’s just gone viral describes how FEMA turns away relief aid for disaster survivors because the goods aren’t coming from their “preferred vendors.” Victims of Hurricane Irma in the Florida Keys were left for days without help from FEMA and volunteers were turned away for that simple reason. As with any anecdote, it must be treated skeptically, but it fits the pattern: The Feds care about money, not people. That’s hardly controversial. 

Mineral (Under) Water, and Conspiracy Territory

The effects of this storm could have wide-reaching consequences for the global electronics industry. Spruce Pine, NC hosts a quartz deposit and mines that produce the purest quartz in the world. The town was hit very hard by the storm, and mining has stopped. This quartz is crucial to the production of modern semiconductors. It’s unclear how long the facility will be offline, but considering the extensive damage to the region it probably won’t be back online soon. So, there’s yet another fun bottleneck to work with in addition to the recent dockworkers’ strike. 

There’s a very interesting coincidence in this story as well, so reach for your tinfoil hat. North Carolina has the country’s largest strip of hard rock lithium in its Piedmont region just east of the Appalachian mountains. For example, the Department of Defense just invested $90 million for a new lithium mine in Kings Mountain, set to open in 2026. There’s much more lithium to be had in the region, which is crucial for manufacturing batteries. Combine that with locals not wanting lithium mines in their backyard and you’ll see a conflict of interest here that can at least raise eyebrows given the circumstances. 

What interest, you ask? Albemarle, which operates the Kings Mountain mine, has exactly who you thought they did as their chief shareholders:

Anytime Larry “Stinky” Fink’s grubby paws are involved with something, I get suspicious — which is often these days. You know those major institutions want that untapped lithium without all the pesky people on top of it.

Combine that with the fact that the affected areas of the region rarely get hit by hurricanes and eyebrows may climb yet higher. While weather modification — including that of hurricanes — might seem like something deep out of conspiracy territory, it’s real and has been around for decades. Consider the case of the first hurricane seeding attempt led by General Electric back in 1947, when airplanes dropped a load of dry ice into the eye of a hurricane that had already veered off into the Atlantic. From NOAA: 

The scientists were eager to examine the storm the following day.  However, when they flew to the predicted storm location, they had trouble locating the eye.  After some hunting around, they found the hurricane center nearly 100 miles (160 km) west of where they expected it to be. To their astonishment, the hurricane had made a 135 degree left turn and was now moving due west.  On top of that, it was strengthening!  By the afternoon of the 15th, Hurricane King struck Savannah, GA. One person died in the storm surge and US$2 million in damage was done to Georgia and South Carolina.

The public was outraged that the scientists had caused the storm to swerve into Georgia and threats of lawsuits were thrown about.  GE’s case was not helped when the head of its Laboratories, Dr. Irving Langmuir, issued a statement that he was “99% sure” the storm had changed course due to the seeding.  Chief of the Weather Bureau, Dr. Francis Reichelderfer, thought differently and appointed three of his weathermen to find a case where a hurricane had followed a similar track but had not been seeded.  The case was published, demonstrating that hurricanes could swerve like that without the used of dry ice, and the threats of lawsuits eventually evaporated.

The unusual path of the 1947 hurricane:

To be clear, I have absolutely no proof that Hurricane Helene was at all unnatural, so consider it pure tinfoil hat speculation. However, bearing in mind that hurricane modification attempts began 70 years ago, it’s reasonable to suspect they never stopped. Helene’s path was unusual for sure, as hurricanes historically have veered east.

NATO’s New Secretary-General

As a brief conclusion, consider: Mark Rutte, former Dutch Prime Minister, was just made the new Secretary-General of NATO. Rutte essentially declared war on his own farmers, indicating he’d forcibly purchase farmland and evict farmers to reduce nitrogen emissions. This led to wide-scale farmer protests in 2023, which somehow feel like a long time ago. Too much is happening. 

Rutte recently indicated he’s in full support of allowing Ukraine to use NATO weapons to strike into Russia. Russia, meanwhile, has indicated they’re considering changing their nuclear strike policy, making such attacks considered a declaration of war by NATO. Rutte, meanwhile, “doesn’t see any imminent threat of nuclear weapons being used by Russia,” which are absolutely famous last words. 

So, hey, great — another warmonger at the helm of NATO. But as his only real combat leadership experience was against unarmed farmers in tractors, one wonders why he specifically was chosen to head a military organization. Maybe he’s just really good at taking orders.