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Harvey has returned to tropical storm status as it moved back into the warm waters of the Gulf. The longer it stays there, the more water it picks up from the Gulf, depositing it as rain in Texas and Louisiana. Harvey strengthened to 50 mph winds again and is expected to move slowly northeast, dumping 5-10 inches of rain on New Orleans.
http://www.abc15.com/weather/harvey-re-enters-gulf-rain-to-shift-to-louisiana
Unfortunately, all the water pumps in New Orleans have broken down in the last two weeks, and they have no way to pump water out of the city. After Katrina, the federal government gave them $2 billion to fix the pumps. They said they needed $9 billion. So they compromised and built casinos instead.
As if Hurricane Katrina in 2005 wasn’t enough, it appears that New Orleans is in for another catastrophic flood. It will be interesting to see how many people move out before the flooding begins, and how many will remain to be trapped in the city again as they wait for the government to rescue them.
Harvey could well become the most expensive hurricane in US history. Coming at a time when the nation runs out of money and when Congress has to decide on raising the debt limit, this is not a good time for extra expenses. Do you recall when the US reached its debt limit of $20.1 trillion last March? How have they been functioning for the last six months? Why has the US not run out of money?
The answer is that they “found” money lying around unused. Really? What money? Well, they decided to raid the government workers’ pension funds, figuring that they would just replace the money later when the debt ceiling was raised. That is why the US won’t run out of money until September 30.
But now we are coming to the next big showdown as Congress debates raising the debt ceiling. “I will vote to raise the debt ceiling, if you vote for my favorite project.” Even Trump is threatening to veto any increase in the debt ceiling if the budget does not include funding for the border wall. He has yet to learn that if Congress calls his bluff, he will lose far more than Congress loses. He will end up being the lightning rod once again. Those who are trying to present Trump as “mentally ill” will only get more support from those who know it is a lie, but will use it as an excuse anyway.
No one thought Trump was mentally ill until he won the presidency.
The real solution to the debt is first to declare a Jubilee and reset the system. Secondly, the Federal Reserve needs to be nationalized, so that the government does not need to borrow in order to put money into circulation. We should be using Treasury Notes, not Federal Reserve Notes. But that would also release us from bondage to the banksters. When that happens, it will be a major sign of the end of our captivity.