Three Things You Need to Know - September 7, 2017

September 07, 2017

WRITER

Catastrophe Looms Over Miami, and It’s Not Just Hurricane Irma

Before the storm arrives, Miami already has the third worst real-estate market among major cities in the U.S. Only Cleveland and Detroit ranked lower than Miami in foreclosure rates and delinquent mortgages.

Last year, Miami had over 7,000 home foreclosures. Seven thousand. This year, the number is already over 3,600.

Irma is still bearing down on South Florida.

The Category 5 hurricane could make landfall in Miami this weekend.

The human toll is our main concern.

But, the combination of a devastating hurricane hitting a real estate market that is already in shambles would be catastrophic. Especially if there is flooding like we’ve seen in Houston.

Hurricane Irma Could Shatter Florida – and the US – in These Ways

Flooding in the Miami area is already a serious problem under normal circumstances, never mind a hurricane.

Miami recently spent $500 million to install anti-flood pumps around the city, but only 15 percent have been installed so far. Even if they were, engineers have warned that the pumps "would probably fail during a hurricane because there are no backup generators if the city loses power."

And that’s exactly what happened just last month.

A heavy rainstorm overwhelmed the pumps' capacity and caused a power outage that knocked two pump stations offline for almost an hour --- long enough to put some sections of Miami Beach under several feet of water.

Do you remember the Great Miami Storm of July 2017? No? Neither does anyone else. That was just a rainstorm. This is Irma.

Our country can only take so much. War, chaos in the streets, two major hurricanes and a housing collapse?

Catastrophe looms, and it's not just hurricane Irma.

Watershed Moment With North Korea

This is one of those moments.

The standoff with North Korea is approaching endgame. Change --- on a level not seen since WWII --- could be taking place very soon.

The vehicle of this change comes in the form of a UN draft resolution shown to the media yesterday. The United States is seeking an oil embargo, and regardless of whether the resolution passes or fails, this conflict has reached an inflection point.

Watershed Moment: Is This the Beginning of the End for Diplomacy?

Let’s say the embargo passes. This would mark the beginning of the end for diplomacy. Japan saw this as an act of war during WWII, eventually leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Kim Jong Un will either be forced to the negotiating table, or he’ll see it as the Japanese did. If war occurs, it will be catastrophic on both sides. Carnage not measured in hundreds and thousands, but hundreds of thousands.

China and Russia have already made statements hinting they’ll veto the resolution. Without the help of both countries, we’re staring at a very hard and cold truth: North Korea is now a nuclear-armed nation, and we’re stuck with accepting it.

Think of the dominoes that might fall if that happens. Would Kim Jong Un take his newly acquired nuclear deterrence out for a test drive?

U.S. security guarantees --- in place since WWII --- would be deemed worthless. Japan would re-arm. The Philippines would turn to China.

History is full of watershed moments --- those moments that flipped everything upside down and sent the world hurtling in a new direction. We’re living one of those moments.

The Art of the Bad Deal

Trump has cut a deal with Democratic leaders to increase the debt limit and finance the government until mid-December. But, this deal isn't about Trump.

The deal proposed by Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi combined the debt ceiling increase with relief aid for Harvey victims.

The Art of the Bad Deal: Our Leaders Are Failing Us – but We’re All Part of the Problem

We could talk about the GOP’s refusal to address runaway spending.

How unserious Washington is about restraining the deficit and debt.

Or we could look in the mirror, and ask the really hard question.

How much do conservatives actually care about this stuff?

The reason Washington has been able to kick the can down the road is that we have put up with it. Over and over again.

Our government is a reflection of who we are. And right now, as a country, we are a people who would rather talk about the personalities in a meeting about the debt ceiling, than the debt itself.

We would rather whine about our politicians and gossip about who has hurt feelings, than worry about how we have voted again and again to pass this bill onto the next generation.

Yes, this is a bad deal. But, America has turned accepting bad deals into an art form. It's time we spit ourselves out of the system.

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Glenn wrote this essay on September 12, 2001. Are we the same people now?

ED JONES / Contributor | Getty Images

Twenty two years ago today on September 12th, 2001, Glenn wrote an essay called "The Greatest American Generation." These were his visceral thoughts immediately following the 9/11 attacks. This beautiful essay calls upon the American spirit to rise to the occasion to pull us through what was one of the darkest days in our nation's history. He called us to unite around the common vision that unites us as Americans.

Yesterday, Glenn revisited this essay, wondering if we are the same people who could have pulled through that dark hour. Do you still believe the things that he wrote in this essay? Or have we become a people too divided to overcome a tragedy of the magnitude of 9/11? Consider these questions as you read Glenn's essay below, "The Greatest American Generation," published on September 12, 2001.

I've always believed that the greatest American generation is the one that's living, in the here and the now. The question is not if this is the greatest American generation. The question was when were we going to wake up? I remember staying at my grandparents' house in the summer when I was small. Every morning my grandmother would open the attic door and call up, "Kids, time to wake up." For me she'd have to do this a couple of times before I'd lumber out of bed and cross the cold, squeaky wooden floor. But finally, I would. And she'd be there in the kitchen ready with breakfast. My grandfather was already outside in the henhouse because there was work to do. They were hardworking, good and decent people. Seemed to me that they were from not only a different time but a different place. They weren't.

The spirit of our parents and our grandparents isn't from some foreign place. It hasn't died out. It's a flame that flickers in all Americans. It's there and it's ready to blaze to life when we're ready to face the challenges that now lie at our feet. It's what sets us apart. It's what built this country. It's why our borders still teem with the poor and the tired and those yearning to be free, burned with zeal in the hearts of millions of immigrants from every corner of the Earth who came here in search of a better way of life. The flame that Lady Liberty holds is the American spirit which burns deep within all of us, no matter what our race, gender, our religious background. And today the world is watching us. It's really nothing new. It always has.

Since the dawn of man people dreamt of a better life, dreamt of a better way, of freedom. But it was Americans that finally found a way to build it. And out of all that we've built, the powerful machines, the computers, the weapons of mass destruction, hardware and software that we spent millions on every year to protect and keep the plan secret, our biggest seeming secret, the one the world wants most of all, isn't a secret at all. It's something we freely give to the rest of the world. And while it seems self‑evident to us, for some reason it can't be duplicated. Yet it can be passed on from person to person, torch to torch. It's the American spirit.

If you weren't trapped in one of those towers or on a plane or in the Pentagon, then you have great reason to humbly give thanks today, not for our lives but because we're the lucky ones. God hasn't forsaken us. He's awakened us. Standing at the bottom of the stairs, he's gently called out, "Kids, it's time to wake up! We've been given another chance."

Thousands of years ago in Babel, the great civilization in their arrogance built a tower that reached the sky. It crumbled and they were scattered. Our heart and steely symbols of power and wealth may have crumbled, but we have not been scattered. Americans aren't ever going to scatter. Let the world recognize through our actions today that those firefighters in New York are not the exception. They are the rule. Americans don't run from burning buildings. We run into them. It was a beautiful fall morning on the edge of the land created through divine providence. Coffee shops were open. Children were on their buses and people easing into another typical workday when America's greatest generation heard the voice: "Kids, it's time to wake up."

Several times we've ignored the voice. We've drifted back into twilight sleep muttering, "I know, I know, in a minute." But finally we are awake and out of bed, for there is much work to do. The task before us is much more daunting than what our grandparents and parents faced, but we are stronger, a more prepared nation. The torch has been passed. We are the greatest American generation. The American spirit is alive and well. Our flame has not burned out. It had just been dimmed while we were asleep."

Remembering 9/11: A call to unify as Americans

Robert Giroux / Staff | Getty Images

Glenn often harkens back to September 11, 2001, as a pivotal day for the American spirit. When American Airlines Flight 11 hit the South Tower at 8:46 a.m. that sunny September morning in Manhattan, there was no question that September 11 would become one of the most consequential moments in American history. However, in that moment, the outcome of that day was yet to be determined.

How would September 11 be remembered in history textbooks? Would it be the beginning of the end of our Republic? Many thought so and for just reason. Our country was under attack. Planes hijacked by our enemy were headed towards the buildings that represented the institutions that comprise the fabric of our republic. If there was any day that called into question our nation's future, it was September 11.

New York City firefighters and a photojournalist work at Ground Zero after two hijacked planes crashed into the Twin TowersRon Agam / Stringer | Getty Images

But the American spirit had a different narrative in mind. Instead of caving to the narrative that the hijackers attempted to write, the American people rose to the occasion that duty beckoned. As Glenn wrote in an essay the day after the September 11 attacks, "Americans don't run from burning buildings. We run into them." And we did. Many remained there as their final burial place.

The American people rose to the occasion that duty beckoned.

As New York Governor Pataki remarked, "On that terrible day, a nation became neighbors." We weren't Democrats. We weren't Republicans. On that day, we were Americans. We chose to write a different narrative in the history books following 9/11, one of resilience, bravery, brotherhood, and the triumph of the American spirit.

As Glenn so poignantly wrote on September 12th:

The spirit of our parents and our grandparents isn't from some foreign place. It hasn't died out. It's a flame that flickers in all Americans.

And that flickering light turned into a roaring fire on that pivotal day, one that not even the fires in the World Trade Centers, the Pentagon, or the empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania could consume.

We chose to write a different narrative in the history books following 9/11, one of resilience, bravery, brotherhood, and the triumph of the American spirit.

But can we say the same about the American people today? Do we still carry the flickering flame of the American spirit that has been passed down to us from generations past? As Glenn reflected today, 22 years after penning those words, he isn't so sure. And I'm not either.

A candlelight vigil for the victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attack is held at Union Square in New York City.Evan Agostini / Contributor | Getty Images

The same American spirit that we relied upon to pull us through September 11 seems to be a waning flame in a torch that few are clinging to. We are increasingly losing sight of what it means to be an American. Common principles that we traditionally shared across party lines are now being vehemently contested, both by the ruling class and in the public square. This is not the same America that triumphed over September 11.

We are increasingly losing sight of what it means to be an American.

This raises the troubling question: Could we endure another attack of a similar magnitude? Would the triumph of the American spirit dictate the narrative of that day, or would a foreign enemy steal the pen from liberty's fingers? These are the tough questions we must wrestle with in our pivotal moment as a nation.

But these questions aren't devoid of hope. There is still time to recall those timeless principles that transcended party lines on September 11 and united us as Americans. There is still time to nurse the waning flame for those who are committed to holding liberty's torch. There is still time to view our political opponents as, in the words of Pataki, "neighbors," whose livelihood and future depend on the survival of our great nation.

There is still time to recall those timeless principles that transcended party lines on September 11.

But that window is short. We must strive towards unity now if our nation hopes to, as Lincoln said in his own time of division, "endure."

As Glenn wrote in that essay on September 12, 2001, we must be, "awake and out of bed, for there is much work to do. [...] Our flame has not burned out. It had just been dimmed while we were asleep."

Acouple cary the American flag down a lower-Manhattan street a week after the September 11 attacksRichard Baker / Contributor | Getty Images

Flames cannot flicker forever. If they are not nursed, they will flicker out, leaving darkness in its wake. It's time to wake up. We must be attentive and awake, nursing the remnant of liberty's flame until it is blazing like it did 22 years ago today. We cannot let it die on our watch. Too many people have sacrificed too much for us to drop the torch.

Trump vs. Biden: A side-by-side comparison of grocery prices under BOTH administrations

Is your wallet ON FIRE? You can thank Bidenomics for that.

Biden has been touting the alleged success of his economic plan. But why are 61 percent of U.S. consumers living paycheck to paycheck? In Wednesday's Glenn TV episode, Glenn showed you all the ways that the Biden admin has been skewing economic figures in their favor to boost their PR campaign. But one thing is for certain: the Biden admin's reckless spending continues to drive up inflation. You feel this every time you go to the grocery store or fill up your car with gas.

What's worse? The Biden admin doesn't even factor in groceries and gas into their inflation rate! Don't be fooled when they boast that they've brought interest rates down. The prices of products the average American consumes every day remain nearly doubled to what it was under the Trump admin.

See for yourself. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the most popular grocery items priced under the Trump admin and the Biden admin.

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