Hurricane Ian and What We Owe to Each Other
Disasters ought to remind us that there's only one real team, and we're all on it.
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1. Matt Labash
Look, I get the desire to shiv your political enemies opponents in times of hypocrisy-inducing crisis. Watching Republican leaders who stoked outrage about āgovernment tyrannyā over vaccines and masks get frustrated as their constituents resist evacuation orders. Watching socialism-obsessed-by-your-bootstraps types lining up for government assistance from FEMA. Watching the guy whose entire MO is trolling Democrats gratefully accepting help from Brandon.
I get it.
But hereās the thing: Weāre not talking about abstract ideas. Weāre not talking about debating points. Weāre talking about human beings. Whoāve had tragedy visited on them. And the only responses should be empathy, charity, and love.
Matt Labash has the words we all need to hear about Florida and Hurricane Ian:
[I]tās tempting to crack wise about Florida, which has become a safe place to snub out the butt of our jokes. Itās the news-of-the-weird capital of the world, āa sunny place for shady peopleā as the unofficial marketing slogan goes. And if youāre of a certain centrist stripe like I tend to be, it also seems to attract every bomb-throwing crackpot of the modern political age, from Matt Gaetz, the pride of the western panhandleās first congressional district (if by āpride,ā you mean āshameā), to the tangelo-flavored real estate developer who runs a golf club/classified-documents storage facility in Palm Beach. Hell, when it became apparent that Hurricane Ian was coming, I made plenty of gallows jokes to friends myself, wondering if Governor/Professional Culture-Warrior Ron DeSantis now wished that the migrants heād sent to Marthaās Vineyard had saved him a seat on his taxpayer-funded publicity-stunt charter.
But as the day wore on, and as I watched footage of what looked like an angry whitewater river running down the streets of Naples, Fla., cars bobbing along it like corks, the dark comedy dried up. You realized what you were witnessing: scores of peopleās lives coming undone. Our fellow Americans losing everything they own. Thereās not a damn thing funny about that.
I covered Katrina on the ground, and I remember, in the days and weeks that followed that devastating storm/levee failure, a lot of victim-blaming going on: āWhy would those morons build The Sliver By The River in low-lying floodlands?ā The same will get said, if it already hasnāt been, about Florida residents who build dream houses on the barrier islands or more modest dwellings in the myriad canal-cities. The human eye/heart never ceases to seek out beauty to lighten the load, no matter how closely that beauty cozies up to peril. They just want what so many people naturally desire in easing the drudgery of life: the sun shining on them, water proximity, maybe a fishing boat to escape the pressures of this world. Which, whether you live in the tropics or in the Minnesota tundra, nobody ever manages to escape. Not entirely.
We canāt all live in the Midwest. And besides, plenty of coastal types like to discount their misfortunes, too: āWhy do those people choose to live in Tornado Alley?ā To which I say we all live in a Tornado Alley of one sort or another. Thereās some disaster, natural or otherwise, with all of our names on it. Donāt be arrogant, and pretend youāre above it. Because if you do, thatās all youāre doing, is pretending.
Read the whole thing and subscribe. As a bonus, Matt gives you the entirety of his 2005 piece where he went to New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. This piece will knock you flat. Itās one of the great magazine essays of the ā00s.
Also: Thereās something comforting about it now that we know how the Katrina story ends: New Orleans came back. It took years. It wasnāt the same. People were lost. Those who survived suffered.
But New Orleans came back.
And Florida will, too. So long as we pull together.
If you can, please consider donating to one of the relief efforts underway. World Central Kitchen is my go-to, because right now theyāre in the field feeding Floridians who have no homes and the workers who are manning the rescue efforts.
You can help World Central Kitchen feed people in Florida, right now, by donating here.
2. Popular Information
Judd Legum continues to get the kinds of scoops that illuminate the cravenness of modern politics on the right.
Last June he reported on they hypocrisy of corporate America:
Since the murder of George Floyd, Verizon has been an outspoken advocate of the Black Lives Matter movement. In dozens of tweets and statements, Verizon has said that, as a company, it is not enough to express support for racial justice. The company has repeatedly said that it's committed to backing up those words with action.
"The events unfolding across the country that are rooted in hate are contradictory with our beliefs as a company and leave me with a feeling of regret and sadness. Verizon is fiercely committed to diversity and inclusion across all spectrums because it makes us and the world better...We cannot commit to a brand purpose of moving the world forward unless we are committed to helping ensure we move it forward for everyone," Verizon CEO said in a June 1 statement.
"Actions > Words.ā¦[O]ur brand is taking a stand, pairing words with actions, and walking the walk!" Verizon tweeted on June 3. . . .
Verizon, however, hired right-wing provocateur Matt Schlapp to represent the company on Capitol Hill. Schlapp has spent the last few weeks smearing and insulting the Black Lives Matter movement.
Schlapp dismissed Black Lives Matter protests in DC as a political stunt by people who "refuse to hold the [Democratic] elected officials in [Minnesota] to account for Floyd's murder." Schlapp said that "all lives matter," a phrase that is routinely deployed by people seeking to delegitimize the Black Lives Matter movement. . . .
Schlapp has specifically criticized corporations supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. He described the Black Lives Matter movement as "hostile to families, capitalism, cops, unborn life and gender." Schlapp attributed corporate support for the movement to "leftists" that have "infected" corporate boards with destructive ideas.
Legum went to Verizon to ask what was up. Verizon responded that they were no longer paying Schlapp. Which is nice, I guess? Though they had given the guy $800,000 since April 2013. (Not a typo.)
Because of Legumās reporting, Verizon, Abbott Laboratories, Comcast, and Walmart all cut ties with Schlapp
This all took place during the summer.
This week, Legum reported on Schlappās attempt to shake down these former clients so that he can get back on the teat:
In addition to being a corporate lobbyist, Schlapp is the chairman of the American Conservative Union, which is best known for hosting the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). In that capacity, Schlapp wrote a letter to Republicans seeking leadership positions in the next Congress. In the letter, Schlapp says the way to earn the "support" of CPAC is "to reprimand corporations that have gone woke."
Specifically, Schlapp has asked current and prospective Republican leaders to ā[p]ledge that you will not meet with these CEOs or their leadership teams, especially their Government Affairs staff, who have been hostile to policies that help all Americans until they change their ways."
Which corporations have gone "woke"? Schlapp says the group includes any corporation that supported the "BLM [Black Lives Matter] movement." He links to an article specifically blasting Walmart for its allegedly "woke" policies. And Schlapp says companies that pledged to cut off donations to Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election qualify as "woke" ā those companies include his former clients Verizon, Abbott Labs, and Comcast.
In other words, now that these companies are not paying Schlapp, he wants Republican leaders to refuse to meet with them.
Schlapp's letter appears to be an effort to leverage a potential Republican majority in the House and Senate to revive his struggling lobbying firm.
Iām not sure if this is mau-mauing or a protection racket Schlapp is running.
Read the whole thing and subscribe. Legum does as much impactful journalism in a week as some media companies do in a year.
The irony in all of this is that the entire system would be more efficient if politicians and corporate America could just cut Schlapp out of the loop. Let Big Business pay its protection money to whatever pols are in power, directly. So long as itās all done in public.
Instead, our set-up incentivizes middle-men like Schlapp to gin up outrage so that they can then get paid by the corporations in order to deliver votes from the politicians.
This arrangement is done in the name of āgood government,ā so that we donāt have businesses directly bribing the elected officials. And theory, that makes sense.
Yet part of me wonders if we wouldnāt be better off making the direct bribery legal and transparent. The corporations could get their preferred outcomes at a lower price. The public square wouldnāt get polluted by shakedown artists like Schlapp, whoās business is manufacturing outrage so that he can convert it to dollars. The voters would have a better sense of who was paying whom. And the politicians could spend more time legislating and less time fundraising.
It might be better for everyone except Matt Schlapp.
But thatās probably another point in favor of the idea.
3. DMV Pro Wrestling
Here is a category Iāve been waiting for: Substacks about pro-wrestling. Iām not talking about a dirt sheet, but a newsletter about wrestling history. This one, by Jeff Quinton, is about the history of wrestling in the D.C. area.
The only live wrestling show Iāve been to was the 1997 Starrcade at the then-MCI Center in DC. My sister and I got $30 tickets at the last minute and went on a lark. It was . . . underwhelming.
Anyway, in this edition of his newsletter, Quinton talks about the history of events at the Baltimore Arena:
The Baltimore Civic Center (renamed the Baltimore Arena) opened in 1962. It was built on the site of Congress Hall,where the 2nd Continental Congress met from December 1776 through February 1777.
The Beatles played there. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke there. Minor league hockey and indoor soccer games have been played there, as well as NBA games when the Bullets were a Baltimore team before moving to Landover and becoming the Washington Bullets. Elvis Presley played there twice - in 1971 and 1977 a few months before his death.
There also is a wrestling history in the building going back to the beginning as well. In April 1965, WWWF champion Bruno Sammartino defeated Gene Kiniski in a return match for the title (see the full card). Kiniski became NWA champion soon after that. In 1997, Sammartino lost that same belt in the Civic Center to Superstar Billy Graham - which you can watch below.
Yes, thatās a young Vince McMahon doing color commentary.
Read the whole thing and subscribe, if youāre into this sort of thing. (I am.)
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I hope the people get help. I'm glad Pres. Biden will offer the federal coffers without making a petty ass of himself like TFG did. I'm glad that the federal government will help, even if that jerk desantis didn't ask for help. But I do also think it's perfectly appropriate come election time to point out the hypocrisy and cruelty in denying aid to other states and then begging for it for your own. All of the Rs who voted against Sandy aid should have that vote thrown in their faces regularly.
I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you my flood devastation story. Quite a few years ago my husband and I bought a home in a known flood zone, near a river, in Northern Cali. It was affordable in an area of rapidly rising property values, and word was there was a once in a hundred year chance. The kids were little, and we truly loved the river where we spent many a hot summer afternoon. Our lender required us to carry flood insurance ( which I have to confess we would not have done unless required; always looking to save a dollar or two).
The first couple of years there was a flood warning or two, then came the real thing. Soon after Christmas, in winter. I spent the last hours before evacuating doing laundry, I mean, as if there weren't going to be washers and dryers where we were going, but it was important at that moment that the kids have clean clothes. The kids and I left for friends in higher ground in my little car before dark; my husband stayed, his truck could carry him through higher water. But he joined us before dawn. It's bad he said.
It was about a week till we could get back to see. A restless, information-hungry week. The water had receded, but it was clear that it had been above the ceiling. The fridge had toppled and spilled open, the smell of spoiled food and mud was overwhelming. The mud was slippery, every step had to be considered. I noticed there were about 5 different varieties of mud, who knew? We had absolutely no idea of what to do next. The Red Cross set up a coffee and sandwich truck nearby, the neighbors congregated, cried, hugged.
Maybe it was a month or so - time seemed different - that we decided to buy a used, zero bedroom trailer to live in on the driveway. We had met with the insurance adjustor and FEMA. Phone service was restored, and then I got a call from a not -flood- impacted neighbor who worked on local housing issues. She said a group of volunteers was organizing to come help with recovery.
We set about getting a draftsman to draw up plans to elevate our house. We hired a house-raising outfit to lift the house above flood, coordinating with the county. This is done using hydraulic jacks to lift the structure, little by little, wood blocks temporarily supporting it.
Then the volunteers arrived. A band of traveling angels. They came, mostly from Canada and some from Michigan, each group staying for 3 weeks. Most were retirees, some used vacation time to come help our neighbors and us. And when I say retiree, don't get the idea that they were old and worn out. Many had been in the construction trades, and were super-skilled and energetic. It's a sight I frequently call up, even now years later, when I'm feeling low - these guys, strangers, climbing, sometimes swinging, from rafters, figuring out, working on rebuilding our home.
They were from a church. I think it was called Dutch Reformed. The thing is: they never, ever, even once pressed their religion on us. Never urged us to attend make-shift church services, but did invite us to dinners at the disused resort where they were staying. My husband was a militant atheist ( I used to tell him he was mad at at the god who didn't exist ) and a pretty angry guy, especially around religion, (lots of distant relatives gone in the Holocaust), and I was nervous that he might lash out at religionists. But that never happened. The volunteers, our family and neighbors always had lunch together over the summer, frequently had barbecues, and always had fun. One man did the Heimlich on our 3 year old son who had an orange section caught his throat.
The women and I worked on the interior of the house, scrubbing, fixing what we could, removing redwood paneling in the living room, which was returned to place after insulation, talking about recipes, breast cancer and whatever. Often laughing. I would not have imagined laughing in a flooded house possible, but these volunteers made it so.
The insurance settlement paid for the draftsman, the house lifting, the foundation, the lumber and other rebuilding materials, the plumbing and electrical work and contents. Without the volunteers, the Christians, who came to our aide, the money would not have paid for getting the house above flood.
We stayed in touch with some volunteers, some came later to visit again and to see the place once we were all settled again. I still have photos we took of us together on my walls.
And finally, while we were living in the tiny trailer, and winter returned, the kids and I were on our way to buy a tv, seeing that outdoor time was going to be winter-limited. On the way we saw a hand painted sign: Horse and saddle for sale $500. So we stopped. Ended up instead of buying a tv, bought a broke down old horse, and between my daughter and me, we cleaned stalls at the ranch where the horse lived to pay board. And that started a whole new interest and love, maintained to this day. That little broke down horse nearly killed me, running off with me on board, but my daughter leaned about bravery, taking command of a large animal with a different mind, and working hard for what you love.
My whole heart goes out to Florida. I understand that many did not have flood insurance. Whole communities were wiped out, not just one river valley, the devastation worse than what we faced. Flood insurance and Christian volunteers quite literally saved us. I do pray for them, and donate.
PS There have been many "100 year" floods since then, some while we still lived there. None have impacted the dwelling space. We paid $140,000 k for the place. It recently sold for $650,000k.