By Jim Kirwan
8-27-16

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'The view of any given situation from a totally opposite perspective'

This is what 'global affairs' around the world have become.

The same is true of the Disaster in Louisiana.

“Around the world, governments have recently been issuing an unsettling call for their citizens to become more self-reliant. Just this week, the governments of both Germany and Czechoslovakia warned that people should be prepared for “be prepared for the worst case possible scenario.”

But here in the United States, just the opposite is happening. Our government seems to have an unquenchable thirst for cracking down on those who take responsibility for themselves. There is an abundance of evidence of this in Louisiana.

The southern state has been hit with the worst flooding in over 500 years.”

k ­ it's fascinating that neither the president, who was busy playing golf, nor the Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton could bother to visit the scene of the disaster.

“While the final numbers won’t be known for some time, Gov. John Bel Edwards’ office has estimated 60,646 houses were damaged and 30,000 people rescued; other people escaped on their own. FEMA says 109,398 people or households have applied for housing help, and 25,000 National Flood Insurance Program claims have been filed. The American Red Cross called it the worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy struck New Jersey in 2012.

This massive disaster was all but ignored by the mainstream media, since it didn’t fit the current agenda of divisiveness and racial tension. So what did the folks in Louisiana do?

They rolled up their sleeves and took care of business.

First, the Cajun Navy, a loosely organized group of local fishers, boaters, hunters, and guides, took it upon themselves to begin rescuing people trapped by the sudden flood. Initially, the local sheriff’s department was reluctant to accept the assistance, but as they became quickly overwhelmed, they realized that they were disregarding a valuable asset.

Initially, authorities in Livingston Parish didn’t want private citizens headed into the water, worried amateur rescuers might end up in trouble themselves, said Layton Ricks, the parish president. But as the calls from stranded residents continued to mount — at one point, Livingston officials said they were about 150 calls behind — parish officials relented.

“Then it was like, do you have vests? Do you have insurance? Are you truly capable of doing this?” Ricks said. “And as it turned out, we couldn’t have done it without those guys. They were a tremendous asset for our people.”

Locals who were not affected by the flood began cooking and donating food. Others helped flood victims to begin gutting their homes so they could start to rebuild. This community in the bayou pulled together to show the world that a real emergency response begins at home, undertaken by the very people who were affected. They didn’t wait around bemoaning the lack of FEMA, Red Cross, and government aid. They got to work.”

k - If this had happened to me or to most of the real people still alive today we would have reacted in a much different way. If the government lackey's had come around demanding permits for life saving or food distribution, I would have picked up whatever was handy and proceeded to beat the government agent until he or she stopped speaking ­ especially given what we now know about what happened during Andrew & Katrina before the current crisis.

It is this parallax view of any life-threatening situation that is at the core of how Americans naturally used to respond. In the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco, everyone came together almost immediately to address any and all the problems that were facing the city and the residents: No government thugs came to tell us that we had to have licenses to do any of the things that were going on.

The cops did come by to close all the open bars, fearing as they always do that people might become unruly ­ as it turned out that was totally unnecessary. By the third day the homeless and the outlaws were working up to the better neighborhoods when the lights were restored ­ but we were ready for them, if they crossed California they would not have had any more problems to bother about ­ ever again.

“They opened up their own shelters in local businesses that were not affected. They distributed immediate relief to those who were displaced. They performed their own rescues, organized the response, and used social media to coordinate their efforts.

They made just about everyone in America who heard about their efforts feel a wave of pride. In fact, they were so effective at their own free-market local disaster relief that they rendered the government’s assistance all but unnecessary

And that is when the government said, “Oh, no. We can’t have that.”

Of course, the government doesn’t want citizens to realize that they are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves. If people realize that they can perform independently and that it is much better than performing within the strictures of government regulations, they will be a heck of a lot harder to control. So, they stepped in and uttered the scariest words ever.

“We’re from the government and we’re here to help.”

Like a horde of modern-day carpetbaggers, they began “helping” by forcing people who were struggling to rebuild to purchase permits. That’s right. They forced people to ask for permission for the right to repair their own property.

Considering the daunting expense of rebuilding in itself, those State permission slips may make reconstruction cost-prohibitive for some, while others — given the strict regulations pertaining to the floodplain and more — may not be allowed to rebuild on their own property at all.”

k ­ The irony of ironies is that the feds fail to remember that the property they wanted to work on was their own ­ and did not belong to the feds or the states and the same was true of the food or clothing, because none of that belonged to the feds ­ the feds were basically acting as carpetbaggers trying to sell the right to have, to fix or to feed themselves based on how much they were being illegally and additionally charged for, in whatever the disaster had created in the first place.

And that is why those people should have picked up whatever and beat the hell out of these so-called agents ­ who needed to have that message driven home.

“We haven’t suspended any or our requirements for permitting,”Justin Dupuy, building official for Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge, told Reason in an interview. “Before they start making any repairs, they just need to call in and check with us to see what they need.”

Really? These people who are about to undertake a repair have no idea what they need unless they ask the government?

Fortunately, in a small act of grace pointed out by Reason, fees for reconstruction permits have been waived by local officials — though the permits, themselves, are still mandatory, as permission to repair some of the 20,000 flood-ravaged buildings in East Baton Rouge might not be given at all.

How very kind.

k ­ Remember what happened to the homeowners in Hurricane Sandy? The one where the government priced the homeowners out of the ruins of their own homes ­ using government permissions to do that?

But that isn’t the worst of it.

“They also decided to charge fees to the Cajun Navy before they were “allowed” to continue rescuing people. I couldn’t make this up.

The Libertarian Republic reported: No good deed goes unpunished. The Cajun Navy is a group of volunteers that operates at its own expense to rescue people trapped in flooded areas in Louisiana. They use their own boats. They risk their lives. And now that people have noticed that they are far more effective than government rescue efforts, there are plans to require them to pay a fee before they are allowed to do any good. “Don’t worry. It’s just a small fee,” legislators explain. “Maybe only fifty dollars. That would be worth it to put authority behind the Cajun Navy, wouldn’t it?”

k ­ And just exactly what would that fifty dollars go toward? The fact that it wasn't needed to continue the rescues, makes it clear

This is the Carpetbagger's using EXTORTION,

citing the disaster as their excuse

“When the Cajun Navy members said, “No thanks” to the government who wanted to train them to do what the government wasn’t even able or willing to do, they were treated like criminals.

That’s right. The government deployed the police to prevent these good Samaritans that we all wish now were our own neighbors from continuing with their efforts.

Louisiana State Senator Jonathan Perry is the engineer of the licensing requirements. “Perry said that if members of the Cajun Navy continue on without his legislation, they will be stopped by law enforcement officials from rescuing residents past police barricades…

Under current state law, citizens who cross police perimeters are breaking the law and could face punishment.” (Source)”

k - So it all comes down to this ­ the government is only on the scene to scam the already threatened public with more fines and possibly prison for trying to save themselves ­ since the public was already in such a serious condition, most probably they didn't take the time to think this through ­ but now the time is here to round up all those agencies from FEMA to State Senator Perry and the state guard and the local police and fine them all: For threatening the public in the middle of a national disaster, when the only thing they were supposedly there to do was to save lives and or to provide the services they were trying to extort the public for.

k - And that money should come directly from every agent, personally, as well as the agency that illegally followed criminally contrived orders in every commission of these illegally enforced extortion's!

“You can be assured he’s doing this for the Cajun Navy guys’ own good. He is trying to “empower” them. That must also be what the Red Cross is doing when they make it more difficult for good-hearted locals to help. Beth Yancey Houghton, a local woman who volunteered made the following post on Facebook.

“So as we are headed back home from the River Center in Baton Rouge volunteering our nursing services Dawn and I have come to the conclusion that neither of us WILL EVER volunteer or donate to the RED CROSS. The Red Cross basically takes over the shelters and starts refusing clothes, donations and various volunteer services UNLESS they are previously contracted.

So what does that mean….well, 60 boxes of doughnuts were discarded this morning because the delivery vendor was not “in contract”, hot meals were refused because the entity providing wasn’t “contracted”, and medical supplies including medications were trashed for the same reason. Clothes that were “donated” needed to be left on the street unless they were “furnished” by Red Cross. As of tomorrow, the shelter we were at will be completely over taken by the Red Cross other than the medical area because they couldn't have the actual room since LSU has a contract with state to provide medical care.

Its sad when the military police were helping to “protect” the medical areas from the red cross when there are so many other issues at hand. Anyway, next time you to want to donate or volunteer your services, do your homework.”

The Red Cross vehemently denies Houghton’s claim. Except…this:

Nancy Malone, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross, said there’s misinformation being spread around, and people are confusing the Red Cross with their partner organizations. She also said there are liabilities to feeding people food that doesn’t come from certified vendors, which is why some offers to cook hot meals have been turned away.

But she categorically rejected allegations that the Red Cross has thrown away donations.“If you came today and said you have 5,000 meals to offer, well, we already had food delivered today, let’s find a way to arrange for you to help someone else or come back another day,” Malone said. “It has to be about coordination. We are held accountable to state regulations. This food has to come from a certified kitchen.”