Florida

Do You Want To Know The Truth? Infrastructure All Over America Is Crumbling At A Frightening Pace

The great tragedy that we just witnessed in Florida has shocked the entire nation, and it should be a major wake up call for all of us.  Our nation really is literally falling apart right in front of our eyes.  Just a few short months ago, at least 151 people died during a catastrophic failure of the power grid in Texas.  Thousands of water pipes burst, and billions of dollars worth of damage was done.  But most people that don’t live in Texas soon forgot all about that, and now we have another spectacular example of the rapid deterioration of the once beautiful cities that previous generations handed down to us.  According to the latest report that I have seen, nearly 100 people are still missing, and officials say that they are hearing “sounds like banging” coming from the wreckage…

Miami-Dade fire officials said rescuers have heard “what sounds like banging” from within the rubble, but not voices, as they continue to search for survivors of the Champlain Towers South collapse.

Thirty-seven people have been pulled from the structure so far, and the portions of the building that did not collapse have been evacuated. At least 99 people remain unaccounted for.

Hopefully anyone that is still alive underneath all of that rubble will soon be rescued.

What makes this tragedy much worse is that it could have been prevented.

According to USA Today, a study that was conducted last year discovered that this particular building had been “sinking at an alarming rate” since the 90s…

A Florida high rise that collapsed early Thursday was determined to be unstable a year ago, according to a researcher at Florida International University.

The building, which was constructed in 1981, has been sinking at an alarming rate since the 1990s, according to a 2020 study conducted by Shimon Wdowinski, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment.

So they knew that this was probably going to happen, and they did nothing to stop it.

They also know that our entire economy is heading for a massive implosion, and they aren’t doing anything to stop that from happening either.

I have been writing about America’s crumbling infrastructure for many years, and now we have gotten to a point where horrible “accidents” are occurring all around us on a regular basis.

Prior to the tragedy in Florida, the sudden collapse of a bridge in Washington D.C. was making headlines all over the nation…

SIX people have been injured after a bridge in Washington DC collapsed, reports say.

Shocking pictures show that the Kenilworth bridge caved in over a highway, halting dozens of cars.

Five people were rushed to hospital and six people in total were hurt, cops said during an afternoon press conference.

If you are not familiar with that disaster, you can see footage of the aftermath right here.

None of this should be a surprise to any of us.  The ASCE has been sounding the alarm about America’s crumbling infrastructure for a very long time, but very few have been listening.  To me, these numbers are simply astounding…

The topic of improving our national infrastructure is once again front and center in Washington. For years, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has been urging policymakers to reinvest in things like waterways, bridges, energy grids, and roads. In fact, ASCE reports that 43% of America’s public roadways are in poor or mediocre condition, more than 230,000 U.S. bridges require repair and preservation work, and there is a water main break every two minutes, causing an estimated six billion gallons of treated water to be lost each day.

So now the Biden administration wants to make a big effort to patch up some of our decaying infrastructure.

That is a noble goal, but instead of using existing funds the Biden administration is proposing an enormous amount of new spending…

According to the White House, the price tag comes in at $1.2 trillion over eight years, with more than $500 billion in new spending. How the measure would be paid for was a central point in negotiations, with Republicans opposed to undoing any of the 2017 tax cuts.

The plan “makes transformational and historic investments in clean transportation infrastructure, clean water infrastructure, universal broadband infrastructure, clean power infrastructure, remediation of legacy pollution, and resilience to the changing climate,” said a White House fact sheet on the plan released Thursday.

We can’t do this.

Our politicians have already borrowed and spent trillions and trillions of dollars that we did not have over the course of the past year, and this has created very painful inflation throughout our economy.

Stealing hundreds of billions more dollars from future generations may seem like a good short-term solution, but it just makes our long-term financial problems even worse.

I am all for fixing up our infrastructure, but existing funds that are already being greatly wasted elsewhere should be diverted for that purpose.

But that isn’t going to happen.  Our politicians are absolutely addicted to spending money, and after this “infrastructure package” gets passed I am sure that they will soon come up with even more ways to flush our future down the toilet.

Every dollar that we borrow and spend now is a dollar that we will be expected to pay back later with interest.

During the past year, our politicians have been on the biggest spending binge in American history by a very wide margin, but most Americans don’t seem to care.

And the Federal Reserve has been committing economic suicide by pumping trillions upon trillions of fresh dollars into the financial system, but most Americans don’t seem to care about that either.

Our entire society is absolutely addicted to immediate gratification, and so the vast majority of the population wants our leaders to do whatever is necessary to make life better right now.

Meanwhile, the long-term outlook for our nation just gets bleaker and bleaker.

It was just a matter of time before that building in Florida fell, and it is just a matter of time before the entire U.S. economy collapses.

The whole system is crumbling all around us, but very few people are concerned enough to try to save it.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Own Mother Moved Out Of New York Because The Taxes Were Too High

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez continues to come up with new ways to bankrupt America, but meanwhile we have now learned that her mother actually moved out of New York because the taxes were too high.  When AOC’s father Sergio died, things got very tough financially for the family, and at one point Blanca Ocasio-Cortez was unable to pay the mortgage on the family home for an entire year.  But ultimately she was able to come to an agreement with the bank, and she ended up moving to Florida where taxes and the cost of living are much lower…

‘I was cleaning houses in the morning and working as a secretary at a hospital in the afternoon. I was working from 6am until 11pm. And I prayed and prayed, and things worked out. After the children graduated from college, I figured it was time for me to move to Florida.’

Blanca said it was a no-brainer, adding: ‘I was paying $10,000 a year in real estate taxes up north. I’m paying $600 a year in Florida. It’s stress-free down here.’

And of course it greatly helps that there is no state income tax in Florida, while New York has the highest tax burden in the entire country by a wide margin.

Things are particularly oppressive in New York City.  On top of federal taxes, state taxes, exceedingly high property taxes and a whole bunch of other taxes, the city itself also imposes an income tax on those residing there.

By the time it is all said and done, some New Yorkers end up handing over close to 50 percent of their incomes to various government entities once all forms of taxation are taken into consideration.

This is the socialist environment that has given us Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

And it isn’t as if the money is being used well.  In fact, it has just been revealed that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s wife was handed $900,000,000 for a mental health program, and nobody seems to know what happened to the money…

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, was given $900 million to start a mental health initiative focusing on helping the homeless in the city. Four years later, no one seems to know what that money was actually used for, according to the New York Post.

The City Council discovered this shocking amount of potential waste during a meeting Wednesday. And while it sounds good to spend heavily on a mental health initiative, it appears that nobody has noticed any real benefits from that investment.

Perhaps NYC would have been better off spending that money bolstering their police.

So far in 2019, the murder rate in the city is up 37 percent compared to last year.

New York City is a total mess, and now AOC wants to make the entire nation just like it.

But AOC is far more ambitious than your typical tax and spend liberal.  She wants to take government spending to crazy new levels that nobody has ever seen before.

For example, one new study has determined that AOC’s “Green New Deal” would cost U.S. taxpayers approximately 93 trillion dollars.  The following comes from Fox News…

The sweeping “Green New Deal” proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., could cost as much as $93 trillion, or approximately $600,000 per household, according to a new study co-authored by the former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The sobering and staggering cost estimate came as Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris pointedly declined in an interview broadcast Sunday to put a price tag on the Green New Deal and “Medicare-for-all,” saying “it’s not about a cost,” but rather return on investment. The Green New Deal’s botched rollout included the release of an official document by Ocasio-Cortez’s office that promised economic security even for those “unwilling to work,” and called for the elimination of “farting cows” and air travel.

To put that number in perspective, U.S. GDP is about 19 trillion dollars a year, and the U.S. national debt is sitting at just over 22 trillion dollars right now.

It is easy to attack AOC, because she is the perfect member of Congress for the “idiocracy” that America has become.

She literally doesn’t know what she is talking about on just about any issue that you could possibly name, but the people of her district decided to send her to Washington anyway.  And the frightening thing is that there are quite a few other new members of Congress that are even worse than her.

But as bad as AOC is, I have to give her credit for one thing.

At least she is willing to stand up and fight for what she believes.

If you regularly follow my work, you already know that I can’t stand the “seat fillers” in Washington that are interested in little more than protecting their political careers at all costs.  They never make any waves, they never fight for anything important, and they spend most of their time raising money for the next campaign.

Because if you do stick your neck out in Washington, very powerful people will likely bring the hammer down on you, and that is something that AOC is finding out right now…

Two political action committees founded by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s top aide funneled over $1 million in political donations into two of his own private companies, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday.

The cash transfers from the PACs — overseen by Saikat Chakrabarti, the freshman socialist Democrat’s chief of staff — run counter to her pledges to increase transparency and reduce the influence of “dark money” in politics.

Chakrabarti’s companies appear to have been set up for the sole purpose of obscuring how the political donations were used.

Of course the truth is that just about every member of Congress is deeply corrupt and should be kicked out of office.

But until the American people wake up and decide to take their government back, this is what we are stuck with, and that is a very depressing reality.

Get Prepared NowAbout the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

Apocalyptic September? Here Is A List Of 27 Major Disasters That Have Already Happened So Far This Month

Two major hurricanes, unprecedented earthquake swarms and wildfires roaring out of control all over the northwest United States – what else will go wrong next?  When I originally pointed to the month of September as a critical time, I had no idea that we would see so many catastrophic natural disasters during this time frame as well.  Hurricane Harvey just broke the all-time record for rainfall in the continental United States, Hurricane Irma is so immensely powerful that it has been called “a lawnmower from the sky”, vast stretches of our country out west are literally being consumed by fire, and the magnitude-8.2 earthquake that just hit Mexico was completely unexpected.  As I have stated so many times before, our planet is becoming increasingly unstable, but most people simply do not understand what is happening.

My good friend Zach Drew is getting married next month, and I would encourage everyone to go wish him well on Facebook.  On Friday, he posted the best summary of the major disasters that we have been experiencing so far this month that I have seen anywhere…

California is on fire.
Oregon is on fire.
Washington is on fire.
British Columbia is on fire.
Alberta is on fire
Montana is on fire.
Nova Scotia is on fire.
Greece is on fire.
Brazil is on fire.
Portugal is on fire.
Algeria is on fire.
Tunisia is on fire.
Greenland is on fire.
The Sakha Republic of Russia is on fire.
Siberia is on fire.

Texas is under water
India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, experience record monsoons and massive death toll.
Sierra Leone and Niger experience massive floods, mudslides, and deaths in the thousands.

Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia are crushed in the death grip of a triple digit heat wave, dubbed Lucifer.
Southern California continues to swelter under triple digit heat that shows no sign of letting up.
In usually chilly August, the city of San Francisco shatters all-time record at 106 degrees, while it reaches 115 degrees south of the city. Northern California continues to bake in the triple digits.

(()) Yellowstone volcano is hit with earthquake swarm of over 2,300 tremors since June, recording a 4.4 quake on June 15, 20017 and 3.3 shaker on August 21, 2017.
(()) 5.3 earthquake rumbles through Idaho
(()) Japan earthquake 6.1 possible tsunami..
(()) Mexico earthquake 8.2 imminent tsunami. Beach lines are receded atleast 50+ meters

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma (biggest ever recorded), Jose and Katia are barreling around the Atlantic with 8 more potentials forming

And last but not least an X10 C.M.E solar flare two nights ago. The highest recorded solar flare ever!

*****

For much more from Zach, you can follow his work regularly at TruNews.com.

Some are describing what is happening to us as a “perfect storm”, and they are wondering if even more major disasters are coming in the very near future.

Let us hope not, because there is a tremendous amount of concern that we may not be able to pay for the disasters that have happened already.  The following comes from Politico…

 

Harvey and Irma could be a breaking point. At $556 billion, the Houston metropolitan area’s economy is bigger than Sweden’s. New Jersey could easily fit inside the region’s sprawling footprint, where Harvey dumped 34 trillion gallons of water, as much as the three costliest floods in Texas history combined. The Harvey response alone eventually could double the $136 billion in government aid spent after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans.

And as of Friday, an estimated $1.73 trillion worth of real estate was in the path of Irma’s hurricane-force winds, according to the University of Wisconsin’s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies.

We won’t know the true extent of the damage that has been caused down in Florida for many days, but we do know that much of the state is already without power…

More than 3.3 million homes and businesses and counting have lost power in Florida as Hurricane Irma moves up the peninsula. The widespread outages stretch from the Florida Keys all the way into central Florida. Florida Power & Light, the state’s largest electric utility, said there were nearly 1 million customers without power in Miami-Dade County alone. The power outages are expected to increase as the storm edges further north. There are roughly 7 million residential customers in the state.

In the end, the federal government will likely step in and spend a lot of money that it does not have to rebuild and restore the communities that Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma have destroyed.

But we are already 20 trillion dollars in debt, and it is being projected that we will continue to add another trillion dollars to that total every year for the foreseeable future.

At some point all of this debt will simply become completely unsustainable.

Of course the major disasters will just inevitably keep on coming.  As Politico has pointed out, major natural disasters seem to just keep on getting bigger, and they seem to be hitting us more frequently than in the past…

The disasters are arriving with greater frequency. Counting Harvey, the U.S. this year has experienced 10 weather-related events each costing $1 billion or more. The country averaged fewer than six big-dollar storms, flood, fires and freezes a year between 1980 and 2016, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Between 2012 and 2016, however, weather catastrophes occurred almost twice as often.

I know that I have been writing about these hurricanes a lot in recent weeks, and I promise to get back to focusing on the economy in the days to come.

But it is absolutely imperative that we all begin to understand that something has fundamentally changed.  Our world has become much less stable, and “apocalyptic events” are starting to hit us one after another.

So will things start to calm down in the months ahead?  Please feel free to tell us what you think by posting a comment below…

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Hurricane Irma Is Being Called ‘A Lawnmower From The Sky’ And FEMA Warns It Will ‘Devastate’ The Southeast

It looks like Hurricane Irma is going to make landfall in south Florida on Sunday morning.  Of course that could still change, but this is what the meteorologists are telling us at this point.  But of course the exact spot where Irma makes landfall is not so important because of the absolutely immense size of this storm.  Irma is going to cause chaos and devastation over a very large area, and just like Hurricane Harvey the recovery from this storm is literally going to be measured in years.

Down in the Caribbean, the destruction that Irma has caused has been absolutely unprecedented.  The president of the island of Saint Martin “estimated that 95 percent of his country had been obliterated”, and one resident of the island described the storm as “a lawnmower from the sky”…

Witnesses described similar scenes on the island’s Dutch half. “It’s like someone with a lawnmower from the sky has gone over the island,” said Mairlou Rohan, a European tourist visiting Sint Maarten, part of the Netherlands.

That is not the sort of terminology that I would use, but without a doubt the devastation caused by this storm has been off the charts.

On Barbuda, at least 90 percent of the buildings have been destroyed…

Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, said Barbuda was “totally demolished,” with 90% of its buildings destroyed. Communication with the island was cut off because of the destruction. As Hurricane Jose approaches the island, Barbuda officials are trying to evacuate the entire population of 1,800.

Now the storm is heading straight for south Florida, and FEMA is using apocalyptic language to describe what might happen…

FEMA Director Brock Long, in a Friday morning update, told a news conference there’s no question that Hurricane Irma will devastate parts of the souheastern United States:

“Obviously, Hurricane Irma continues to be a threat that is going to devastate the United States in either Florida or some of the southeastern states,” Long told a 7:30 a.m. news conference.

Some are comparing Hurricane Irma to Hurricane Andrew, but the truth is that Irma is much, much larger.  You can see a comparison of the two storms right here.

At this point, scientists are running out of superlatives to describe this storm.  At the National Hurricane Center, one expert is already labeling Irma as “the most infamous in Atlantic hurricane history”…

“Irma has me sick to my stomach,” said Eric Blake, a scientist with the National Hurricane Center, on his personal Twitter account on Thursday evening. “This hurricane is as serious as any I have seen. No hype, just the hard facts. Take every lifesaving precaution you can.”

“I have little doubt Irma will go down as one of the most infamous in Atlantic hurricane history,” he added.

We shall see what happens over the next few days.

Hopefully things will not be quite as bad as the experts are projecting.

At this hour, thousands upon thousands of Florida residents are desperately trying to flee north on the highways.  Unfortunately, a lot of gas stations are already completely out of gasoline, and it is getting worse by the hour.  Just check out these numbers…

In Gainesville, it was the worst: At least 58% of stations were out of gasoline as of Friday morning, according to GasBuddy’s fuel tracker.

More than 40% of stations in West Palm Beach and Miami had no fuel, while 38% of Fort Myers-Naples stations, nearly 35% of Tampa-St. Petersburg locations and more than 32% of Orlando stations were offline.

At the stations where gasoline is still available, some people are having to wait up to 90 mins for fuel.

Of course there are others that are not planning to leave Florida at all.  In fact, 82-year-old Joseph “Tony” Vincent told the Washington Post that he is quite content to ride the storm out at a local hotel…

“Hell, you’d be safer here than taking a car on those roads. You might be killed before you get to Atlanta,” he scoffed.

If Irma fizzles, Vincent said he’ll just ride his three wheeler back to his trailer. “I’ll come on home and get drinker than hell,” he said.

Hopefully he will be okay.

The warnings have been issued, and I don’t think that they could have been much stronger.  People have made their decisions about what they are going to do, and now we will see how things play out.

On another note, I had to smile today when I came across a Think Progress article entitled “The case for a Category 6 rating for super-hurricanes like Irma”.  I have been heavily criticized for saying the exact same thing that the liberal media is now talking very heavily about, but of course those outlets will not receive the same sort of criticism that I did.

In the end, the main thing is keeping people safe, and if anyone in the direct path of this storm still feels like they want to “ride it out”, I would very much encourage you to flee while you still can.

This is an exceedingly dangerous storm, and you do not want to be there when it hits.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Mainstream Media Viciously Attacks Republican Candidate For Congress For Suggesting ‘Category 6’ Should Be Created For Storms Like Irma

Somebody really needs to be fact checking the so-called “fact checkers”.  A few days ago, I published an article in which I stated that “some have suggested that we need to add a ‘category 6’ to describe the kind of ‘super storms’ that are now developing in the Atlantic”.  That article ended up going megaviral on Facebook, and there has been a tremendous backlash from the mainstream media.  By their reaction, you would have thought that I just committed some very serious form of blasphemy, but the truth is that scientists have been talking about adding a “category 6” for more than a decade.  Nothing that I said should have been controversial.  In fact, if this had come from a liberal source the mainstream media would probably be gushing about how this is more evidence for their “global warming” narrative.  But because I am a Republican and I am running for Congress, they had to attack me.

Over the past 24 hours, the Washington Post and dozens of other mainstream news sources have all run similar articles specifically attacking me for suggesting that a “category 6” should be created for storms such as Hurricane Irma.  Of course I never said that Hurricane Irma is a category 6 storm or that such a category was about to be established.  But what I did say is that the establishment of a “category 6” has been discussed for a long time, and that if you were to extrapolate the Saffir-Simpson scale, Hurricane Irma would potentially qualify as a category 6 storm.

The source that the Washington Post and other mainstream media sources are quoting in their hit pieces is Snopes.  Of course Snopes is well known to be a mouthpiece for the left, and just about everything on their site lines up with the progressive agenda of the radical left.  So it is no surprise that they would attack a Republican candidate for Congress…

The idea that Irma is a Category 6 storm seems to have originated with a a blog post that implied that a new category, Category 6, would be created for Irma. While the post does not state this directly, its headline reads “Category 6? If Hurricane Irma Becomes The Strongest Hurricane In History, It Could Wipe Entire Cities Off The Map.” That story, written by end-time enthusiast and Republican candidate for Idaho’s first congressional district Michael Snyder, was first published on his blog “The Economic Collapse” before being aggregated by other clickbait websites.

As I noted above, the idea that we need to start looking at adding a “category 6” to the Saffir-Simpson scale is not controversial at all.  It has been discussed very widely for well over a decade, and if you do a search on Google you will find many, many articles.  The following are just three examples…

ABC News – May 21, 2006: There is no official Category 6 for hurricanes, but scientists say they’re pondering whether there should be as evidence mounts that hurricanes around the world have sharply worsened over the past 30 years — and all but a handful of hurricane experts now agree this worsening bears the fingerprints of man-made global warming.

In fact, say scientists, there have already been hurricanes strong enough to qualify as Category 6s. They’d define those as having sustained winds over 175 or 180 mph. A couple told me they’d measured close to 200 mph on a few occasions.

Weather.com – July 28, 2016: The results showed that three vulnerable areas of the world are at risk for a “high-end” Category 5 tropical cyclone by the end of the 21st century due to the Earth’s changing climate: Tampa, Florida; Cairns, Australia; and the Persian Gulf.

These potential Category 6 hurricanes may be up to 14 times more likely by 2100, according to the study.

Scientific American – August 23, 2011: Atmospheric researchers tend to agree that tropical cyclones of unusual ferocity are coming this century, but the strange fact is that there is no consensus to date on the five-point scale used to classify the power of these anticipated storms. In what may sound like a page from the script of the rock-band spoof Spinal Tap with its reference to a beyond-loud electric guitar amplifier volume 11, there is actually talk of adding a sixth level to the current Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, on which category 5 intensity means sustained winds higher than 155 miles per hour (250 kilometers per hour) for at least one minute, with no speed cap.

Without a doubt, after this storm is over the academic community will again start having these sorts of debates, and the mainstream media will once again report on them.

And if a “category 6” is ever created, it is very likely that Hurricane Irma will fit that classification.  The following is from the article that I posted yesterday…

I was criticized for suggesting that Irma could become so powerful that it could potentially be labeled a “category 6” storm if such a thing existed.  Well, now it has actually happened.  If you extrapolate the Saffir-Simpson scale, “category 6” would begin at 158 knots, which would be 181.8 miles per hour.  Since Irma has surpassed that mark, I believe that it is entirely reasonable if people want to refer to it as a “category 6” storm.

Hurricane Irma is not just another storm, and it would be useful to have a special designation for a storm that is so extraordinarily dangerous.  Wherever it makes landfall, it is going to wipe out virtually everything in its path…

Irma strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane Tuesday with winds up to 185 mph. The storm is most powerful ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. It’s so strong it is even showing up on scales for measuring earthquakes.

“No way to sugarcoat it. Irma is the type of tropical cyclone that wipes everything, including all vegetation, clean from small islands,” wrote Anthony Sagliani, the Meteorological Operations Manager at weather data firm Earth Networks.

And the National Hurricane Center is specifically warning that “a high percentage of framed homes will be destroyed” by a storm of this magnitude.

The National Hurricane Center reports dryly that when a Category 5 hurricane hits land, “a high percentage of framed homes will be destroyed,” adding power could be lost in some areas for “weeks and possibly months.”

So I stand by everything that I have written, and I demand a retraction and an apology from every mainstream news outlet that has slandered me.

Just because I am a Republican candidate for Congress does not mean that you can write things that are untrue.  At one time the mainstream media at least attempted to be objective, and there is a reason so many are now referring to them as “the fake news”.

It amazes me what passes for “journalism” these days.  These jackals jump on anything that even smells like it could be a “scandal” for a Republican, and they seem to have no regard for the truth whatsoever.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Hurricane Irma: If There Was Such A Thing As A Category 6 Hurricane, This Would Be It

Hurricane Irma has become even stronger than the most extreme forecasts were projecting.  According to the National Hurricane Center, Irma had sustained winds of 185 miles per hour at one point on Tuesday.  That makes it the strongest Atlantic hurricane in history “outside the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean”.  I was criticized for suggesting that Irma could become so powerful that it could potentially be labeled a “category 6” storm if such a thing existed.  Well, now it has actually happened.  If you extrapolate the Saffir-Simpson scale, “category 6” would begin at 158 knots, which would be 181.8 miles per hour.  Since Irma has surpassed that mark, I believe that it is entirely reasonable if people want to refer to it as a “category 6” storm.

Of course some meteorologists will get very heated with you when you use the term “category 6” because no such category exists at this point.

But we need some way to describe an Atlantic hurricane with sustained winds of 185 miles per hour.  “Category 5” simply does not do such a storm justice, and yes, Hurricane Irma is the type of storm that could wipe entire cities off the map if it came ashore at this power.

We don’t know where this immensely powerful storm will make landfall in the U.S. yet, but you don’t want to be there when it does.  I don’t want to freak people out, but the truth is that the best thing you can do is to get as far away from this storm as you can.

Just remember what happened in Houston.  The people were told not to evacuate, and that turned out to be an absolutely disastrous decision.

This is not just another storm.  This is a history making event, and if Irma slams directly into one of our major cities as a category 5 storm, it could potentially make Hurricane Harvey look like a Sunday picnic.  The following are some of the key things that you need to know about Hurricane Irma…

#1 According to the Miami Herald, Hurricane Irma had sustained winds of 185 miles per hour on Tuesday afternoon…

Irma continued to explode into a powerful storm Tuesday afternoon, with winds increasing to 185 mph, National Hurricane Center forecasters said in a 2 p.m. advisory.

As the storm continued to track westward, islands in its path raced to complete last minute preparations. The Leeward Islands are expected to get hit with “catastrophic” winds tonight, forecasters said, with the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico slammed tomorrow. In Puerto Rico, the governor asked President Donald Trump to declare a state of emergency, while the electric company warned Irma’s fierce winds could leave the island without power for four to six months.

#2 The NOAA is saying that Irma is “the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic — outside the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico.”

#3 As mentioned above, if you extrapolate the Saffir-Simpson scale, Irma could be considered a category 6 storm…

While few are willing to admit it yet, according to meteorologist Ryan Maye, Hurricane Irma is still intensifying, with winds up to 155-knots (180 mph) and that extrapolating Saffir-Simpson scale, 158-knots would be Category 6.

Yes, I know that a “category 6” does not exist yet, but perhaps it is about time that scientists got together and updated the scale in light of the dangerous new realities that we are now facing.

#4 Hurricane Irma is so enormously powerful that it is even “showing up on seismometers”…

Hurricane Irma is so strong it’s showing up on seismometers — equipment designed to measure earthquakes.

“What we’re seeing in the seismogram are low-pitched hums that gradually become stronger as the hurricane gets closer to the seismometer on the island of Guadeloupe,” said Stephen Hicks, a seismologist at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.

#5 In all of U.S. history, only three category 5 hurricanes have ever hit the United States – an unnamed storm in 1935, Hurricane Camille in 1969, and Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

#6 A state of emergency has already been declared for every single county in the state of Florida.

#7 If you are in the “danger zone” and you have not already stockpiled food, water and supplies, it is probably already too late.  Reports of “panic prepping” are coming in from all over Florida, and down in Puerto Rico many stores are already out of all the most important supplies…

On Tuesday, the lines for fast-dwindling gas, food, water and hardware were interminable and anxiety mounted. One hardware store in San Juan had been nearly picked clean by afternoon.

“This has been like this for the last three days,” said Juan Carlos Ramirez, the store manager. “We’ve sold all of the most necessary items — flashlight, batteries, plywood.”

One of my readers made the point the other day that this isn’t the kind of storm that you can “prepare” for.

And my reader was precisely correct.  You can’t “get prepared” for a hurricane with sustained winds of 185 miles per hour.  Such a storm will snap homes like toothpicks.

If I was in Florida, I would be heading north immediately.  Those that wait could find themselves in absolutely nightmarish traffic jams.

And if I lived on the Gulf coast, I would be watching this storm very, very carefully.

Because the waters in the Gulf of Mexico are so warm, there is the possibility that Irma could get even stronger if it slides to the south of Florida.

Let us hope that it does not happen, but a scenario in which Irma makes landfall along the Gulf coast as a category 5 storm would probably be the worst of all potential possibilities.

If such a scenario plays out, please get out of the path of this storm.  Trying to “ride this storm out” would do you no good whatsoever.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Hurricane Irma Projected To Reach Category 5 And Hit The East Coast – Panic Prepping Begins In Florida

On Monday, Hurricane Irma strengthened into a category 4 hurricane, and some meteorologists are projecting that it will eventually become a category 5 storm before it eventually makes landfall in the United States.  And since a “category 6” has not been created yet, category 5 is as high as the scale goes at the moment.  Over the past couple of days, the track of the storm has shifted “a lot further to the west”, and at this point it appears that Miami is the most likely to take the full force of the hurricane.  But as we have seen, trying to forecast the behavior of hurricanes is not an exact science.  Irma may never become a category 5 storm, and it may never hit the U.S. at all.  Or it may zip past Florida to the south and end up making landfall in the Gulf of Mexico.  The truth is that we just don’t know.

But for the moment things are not looking good for Florida, and a state of emergency has already been declared for every single county in the state…

On Monday afternoon, Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for every county in Florida in anticipation of Irma. A state of emergency was also declared in Puerto Rico earlier in the day.

Another scenario still on the table is that Irma curve northward and miss the East Coast entirely. This would still generate large surf and rip currents along the East Coast. However, this scenario is the least likely to occur at this point.

And as I mentioned above, many are projecting that Irma will become a category 5 storm just a few days from now.  The following comes from the Express…

Many projections show the category storm strengtheing to a category 5 hurricane, capable of ripping roofs from houses and causing huge waves and storm surges.

Predictions from both the National Environmental Satellite data and Information Service (NESDIS) and international weather forecaster Ventusky suggest though Irma is currently a Category 3 storm by Thursday she is expected to strengthen to a Category 5.

A category 5 storm has winds of more than 157mph – enough to destroy whole buildings and cause devastating flooding.

But just because the experts are telling us that certain scenarios are likely to happen does not mean that they will actually take place.

In the end, it is entirely possible that Florida may not see a single drop of rain.  Hurricane Harvey certainly behaved in ways that nobody was expecting, and I have a feeling that the same will be true for Irma.

As Irma inches closer to Florida, “prepping fever” has hit the public.  Grocery stores and home improvement chains are already being flooded with traffic, and this is only going to get worse the closer that Irma gets.  The following comes from one local news report…

As Hurricane Irma continues to make its way towards a possible strike on the Southeastern U.S., stores in South Florida are beginning to see a rush for supplies.

Several Publix supermarkets were full before noon Monday as residents grabbed water, non-perishable food and other items.

Another local news report noted that essential supplies were already running low at a Home Depot in south Florida…

With Hurricane Irma churning west, many South Florida residents are taking precaution and stocking up on supplies on Labor Day.

A Home Depot in Royal Palm Beach on Monday morning posted a sign that said they were short of some hurricane supplies, including wing nuts, 5-gallon containers for gasoline and 5-gallon jugs of water.

Those that wait until the last minute are going to find that there is nothing left for them.  One resident of Palm Beach Gardens told reporters that the local Wal-Mart in her area is already completely out of water…

“There was nothing at Walmart,” said Bianca Rodriguez of Palm Beach Gardens. “Not even like one thing of water.”

Of course those that have been preparing all along don’t have to run out to the store in a panic.

If Irma hits the United States as a category 4 or category 5 storm, it is going to make history.

Meteorologists are telling us that the United States has not been hit by two hurricanes of at least category 4 strength in the same year in more than a century.

And prior to Hurricane Harvey, a hurricane had not made landfall in this country in about 12 years.

There is still a possibility that Irma could miss us completely, but as CNN’s Tom Sater has noted, “that window is shutting quickly”…

Computer models show the system moving through the Caribbean, and by the end of week, it will turn right toward the north, said CNN meteorologist and weather anchor Tom Sater.

“There is a small window. If it turns sooner rather than later, we could maybe see the system slide by the East Coast into the ocean, but that window is shutting quickly,” Sater said. “It definitely looks like we will be impacted by a major hurricane that is a Category 3, 4 or 5.”

If Irma is indeed a category 5 storm when it hits the U.S., it would completely rip coastal communities to shreds.

There haven’t been too many category 5 hurricanes to make landfall in modern American history, and a direct strike on Miami would be catastrophic.  But if Irma bypasses Florida and ends up hitting New Orleans or Houston, we could be talking about a disaster that is absolutely unprecedented in our history.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Why Melania Trump Leading The Public In The Lord’s Prayer At A Rally In Florida Was A Historic Event

Melania Trump Prayer At Florida Rally - YouTube ScreenshotWe just witnessed Melania Trump’s finest moment as First Lady so far.  After a week in which her husband declared war on the mainstream media, Melania absolutely electrified a huge crowd at a rally in Melbourne, Florida by reciting the Lord’s Prayer.  What Donald Trump had to share afterwards was remarkable as well, but that night will always be remembered for what Melania did.  After beginning with the phrase “let us pray”, Melania stunned the entire world by slowly but carefully leading the crowd in the Lord’s Prayer, and it is being reported that the assembled throng responded to her prayer with “thunderous applause“.

She did not pronounce all of the words perfectly, but that didn’t matter.

What matters is that her courage enabled her to create the most powerful moment that we have seen from a First Lady in decades.  The following is from a transcript of her remarks…

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed is your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespasses against us.

‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

If you have not seen footage of this incredible moment yet, you can watch it right here…

One of the primary reasons why this moment evoked so much emotion is because the Lord’s Prayer is undeniably a Christian prayer.

Over the decades, our politicians have become very adept at speaking of “god” in a very generic sense.  Even when they pray, most of our politicians are careful to use universal language that could apply to almost any religion.

That is why what Melania Trump did was so radical.  By reciting the Lord’s Prayer, she was clearly identifying herself as a Christian, and there was absolutely no question about who she was addressing.

It was such a simple prayer, but needless to say it sent liberals into a social media frenzy.  They started calling her every name in the book and used some of the most foul language imaginable.

Some of the more moderate liberals objected to the prayer on the basis of separation of church and state, but nowhere in the Constitution does it say that our elected officials cannot be Christian.  And nowhere in the Constitution does it say that they cannot speak on matters of faith.

In fact, if we are to have any hope of turning this nation around we desperately need the favor of God, and that is why what Melania Trump did was so important.

In her prayer, she asked for God’s will to be done on Earth just as it is done in heaven.

If we truly were to follow that course, there would be no limits to what we could achieve as a people.

But in order for that to happen, we must completely change direction as a nation, and Melania’s prayer was also a prayer of repentance.

The phrase “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespasses against us” was not a perfect quotation of the Lord’s Prayer, but it was immensely powerful.

By asking for forgiveness, that implies that we have done things that we need to be forgiven for.  And without a doubt, that list is very long.  We have killed tens of millions of babies since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, we produce more pornography than the rest of the world combined, sexual immorality of every kind you can imagine is running rampant in our society, our entertainment is mostly pure filth, and we have pushed God and His ways out of almost every corner of public life.

If we want to get on the right track as a country, one of the very first things that should be done is to defund Planned Parenthood.  The Republicans finally have control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, and so there are no more excuses.

If Donald Trump and the Republicans truly are “pro-life”, Planned Parenthood will be defunded in 2017.

But if it doesn’t happen, then they will share in the accountability for the Great American Holocaust, and the blood of every baby that is murdered from now on will be on their hands.

That is why this is one of the most important moments in American history.  If we don’t turn around now, I don’t think that we ever will, and choosing to go down the same path that we are currently on will only lead us to judgment.

So that is why I was so thrilled with Melania’s prayer.  By boldly identifying themselves as Christians, the Trumps are giving those of us that also consider ourselves to be Christians hope that a new day is ahead.

But it can’t just be words.  That is why what happens over the next few months is so incredibly important.

And of course the radical left is going to fight Donald Trump and his team every step of the way.  About a week ago, I wrote about the army of more than 30,000 activists that Barack Obama is commanding from his new home less than two miles away from the White House.  Well, now we have learned that Organizing for Action is going to be working with a network of other radical groups to disrupt town hall meetings all over the nation…

Progressive activists continue to take a cue from the Tea Party movement with plans to funnel into town hall meetings this week while members of Congress are at home and make a ruckus.

Groups, including President Barack Obama’s Organizing for Action, are turning to a newer organization, Indivisible Guide, to coordinate tactics.

Launched in December by former Congressional staffers, Indivisible is providing activists with training manuals, such as one that explains how to have a ‘successful’ town hall.

The progressives hate Trump and they want to keep this nation going down the exact same road that we were heading under Barack Obama.

We are literally in a battle for the future of America, and the outcome is still to be determined.

But what Melania Trump did when she stepped behind that podium was a major step in the right direction, and hopefully we will be seeing much more of that from her and Donald in the future.

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