Pressure Points
Revolution. These three things are present in every single one.
Economic instability. War. Civil unrest.
It’s top down, bottom up, and you are caught in the middle turning inside out through the chaos. Pretty soon the cries can be heard for someone --- anyone --- to make it all stop. By any means necessary.
After getting bogged down in multiple foreign wars, the economic fallout was inevitable. The ineffective --- and increasingly corrupt --- government was powerless to stop it. In fact, it appeared they actually wanted it to happen. Spending then borrowing, spending then borrowing --- in just three years the national debt doubled.
Was it really a surprise when the academics and other members of the middle class began inciting the poor and disenfranchised to violence?
What I’ve just described may sound familiar, but it’s actually the same conditions that led to the French storming the Bastille in 1789.
How many pressure points can a nation endure?
We’ve been bogged down in foreign wars since the turn of the 21st century. Now, North Korea is knocking on our door. From the year 2000 until today, the national debt has nearly quadrupled. First Harvey, now Irma. Can the already weakened economy withstand this much weight?
And finally, civil unrest. We are approaching violence in the streets not seen since the 1960s. People like Frances Fox Piven were advocating violence in 2004, but the Occupy movement just a few years later didn’t quite get there. Fast forward a few years. Antifa and the alt right are lighting streets on fire.
Our pressure points are being pushed and we have tough times ahead of us. Beware those inciting violence and advocating hate. Chaos is coming. Don’t let them turn you inside out amongst it.
Miami's Vulnerability
It won’t survive.
That’s what the former FEMA Director said when he was asked how the Miami area would hold up under a severe water surge from a major hurricane and related flooding. It. Won’t. Survive.
Hurricane Irma is on a projected path to make landfall in south Florida. It could hit Miami this Sunday. Irma is a Category 5, with 185 mile-per-hour winds, already the second strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic.
Amazingly, Miami hasn’t been hit by a major hurricane --- Category 4 or stronger --- since 1926. That one killed 400 --- the third deadliest hurricane in U.S. history. But Miami at the time was a quaint resort town compared to what it is today.
Yesterday, two firms estimated a repeat of the 1926 Miami hurricane could cause $130 billion in property damage.
Why is Miami so vulnerable? Its flood-control system was designed in the 1950s and desperately needs updating. Our government has blown through hundreds of billions of dollars on wasteful spending that could have been applied to preparation.
Just last year, the government found the cash to study TV binge-watching, comedy clubs, monkey drool, fish treadmill endurance testing and hamster fights. Miami itself has been the home of a radio and TV station, attempting to broadcast into Cuba, but was blocked by Fidel Castro. Half a billion dollars down the tubes.
What happens when you have a country more concerned with political favors than prioritizing what really matters?
It. Won’t. Survive.
Even Congress Doesn’t Trust Congress Anymore
Yesterday, the Trump administration announced it would be ending DACA. That’s the Obama-era Presidential edict that allowed hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to avoid deportation.
The plan would give Congress six months to fix the problem.
And the reaction, from too many members of Congress, was, "How dare he let us handle this!"
Even Congress doesn’t trust Congress anymore.
It was Obama who in the fall of 2010 said this: "I’m the president of the United States, I’m not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed."
We all knew that was true then (except Barack Obama).
Now, Trump returned power to Congress and many complained.
Our Founders thought the balance of powers would work because each branch would want to protect their own power. Now, when decisions are tough, they fall over themselves to give that power away.
As Trump said yesterday: "I know some here wish that I could just bypass Congress and change the law myself. But that’s not how democracy works."
Sorry, that wasn’t Trump --- that too was Barack Obama. He was right.
Even Congress doesn’t trust Congress anymore. And neither should you.
Corey Comperatore's firefighting gear outside the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company. The Washington Post / Contributor | Getty Images
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