In Watauga County, in the mountains of northwestern North Carolina, the records bureau measured more than 20 inches of rain. There was a power outage for days. Rescue teams are still removing debris. There's little telling how many more people will be found.
“Yeah, I grew up in Watauga,” Michael Whatley told Beltway Brief by phone Thursday morning. He first volunteered with renowned Sen. Jesse Helms, RN.C., when he was a high school student in the mountains and now chairs the state Republican Party. When we spoke, he was in suburban Charlotte preparing for a vice presidential campaign visit by Republican Ohio Sen. He was on his way back to Watauga with the group Samaritan's Purse.
“Once we have some understanding of the human catastrophe, only then can we focus on the voting side of that catastrophe.”
“Obviously the first priority is rescue and recovery and making sure everyone is safe,” Whatley told the brief.
“As a voter,” he continued,
…The State Board of Elections has certainly had…advance some rule changes and got the Legislature to pass a very good bill yesterday that will help ensure people have the opportunity to vote. Ta. It just adds flexibility to the system. And we think this is a really good step. …But it's going to be very important that we reach out to everyone and let them know how to vote, where to vote, and when to vote.
Early voting starts from… [Oct.] 17. Absentee voting is already in place and you can request an absentee ballot. Of course, you can also vote on Election Day. So we feel comfortable working with the North Carolina Republican Party, where anyone who wants to vote can vote.
But it's not easy. Roads and bridges are found throughout the region. Immediately following the storm, more than 400 U.S. mail routes were out of service, as of Thursday afternoon.
35 was not yet. This type, which is still in the doldrums nearly two weeks after the storm, is not the type that can bounce back and be active again with just a few adjustments.
And as residents and first responders scrutinize the wreckage, Vice President Kamala Harris has waged a frantic media blitz, speaking out in anger at “disinformation” and the federal government's response in each appearance since Monday. Contains bizarre attacks on people who are
This is a completely strange campaign. These are not complaints made up at Trump headquarters in Palm Beach. Blaze News and other news organizations have been reporting on the ground for weeks, and the people we have interviewed are real survivors, real rescuers, and in many cases both. Who, exactly, is spreading misinformation and for what purpose? And how does that affect people's motivation to vote when their lives are in tatters?
“Let me tell you, the people of North Carolina know their elections and are going to do everything they can to vote,” said Jill Savage, host of “Blaze News Tonight.” He spoke to Brief after the visit.
“The day before we rescued a man stranded in his mountain home, Mercury One, an organization we worked with for Glenn Beck's charity work, asked us how to vote as soon as we stepped out of the helicopter. “I was in town,” Savage said. “He wanted to get it done as soon as possible.”
“What I'm hearing from people on the ground is that they're very angry at FEMA,” Whatley agreed. “It's very real that they felt like there was a slow response on the ground. … And Alejandro Mayorkas said there wasn't enough funding to prepare for the hurricane. This juxtaposition is a huge threat to people across the region. I don't think it was accepted at all. So I can see that it could have political resonance.”
Then Hurricane Milton arrived, but so far fears of the worst appear to have been averted.
“Once we have a complete picture of the human catastrophe, only then will we focus on the voting side of that catastrophe,” Whatley said. We're going to work very hard to make sure they get the opportunity and we're going to encourage them to take advantage of it.”
Blaze News: After shouting out about $750 for hurricane victims, Harris now claims Trump spread “disinformation” about FEMA funding.
Blaze News: Hurricane Milton hits Tampa Bay city, resourceful first responders help residents in need
Blaze News: DeSantis again accuses Harris of trying to politicize hurricane response: 'She has no role in this process'
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Fire goes up: City Journal: Get used to the fact that longshoremen and other skilled tradespeople earn higher wages than college graduates.
The short-lived longshore workers' strike thankfully ended, but political observers say it caused a rift in the populist, working-class Republican Party. revealed even more. I laughed out loud at the wages that the Wall Street Journal editorial board thought were too high, but I also heard several college graduates complain about the wages these skilled men were demanding. Have you ever? Get used to it.
Mark P. Mills and I may disagree on the dangers of AI and automation, but he has written an interesting report on the future of the American economy.
The quickly concluded International Longshoremen's Association strike moves us one step closer to a major reversal, a future in which people in skilled and semi-skilled jobs earn higher average wages than most college graduates. Let me. If the legitimacy of most college degrees (only 10 percent of which are in STEM fields) came down to increasing future income, those graduates would be in trouble. (To be sure, a college education is not just about maximizing income.)
It hasn't escaped anyone's attention that the settlement with the longshoremen's union will raise starting salaries to about $80,000 a year, and mid-career salaries to more than $150,000. Both benchmarks are higher than those of 90% of college graduates. A victory for longshore workers is likely to establish market norms for skilled workers as a whole, not just union members who make up just 10 percent of the workforce. The explanation lies at the intersection of technology and demographics.
It is no small irony that longshore unions have railed against automation, yet it is automation that will accelerate the reversal. Its wage-enhancing role emerges from the inexorable logic of demographic dynamics.
