As I sit here on day 10 of hurricane-ravaged western North Carolina with no power or water ...

As I sit here on day ten of no power/water in Hurricane Helene-ravaged Western North Carolina, it occurs to me: why did none of the trillions we’ve spent on “infrastructure” do something eminently sensible, like bury all the wires?

“Burying wires costs a fortune,” you say.

Well, if a trillion bucks ain’t a fortune, I’d sure like to know what is. 

The streets should’ve been paved in gold for that money, ferheavensakes.

In the last week here, I heard one “expert” (beware those experts) say that if a power line’s pole goes down and has to be completely replaced, it takes three to four hours for the linemen to replace it and make it ready to go. 

Multiply that by how many times and in how many locations, per year, year after year, that exact thing needs doing, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.

Not a trillion, but real money. Not to speak of the ridiculous, repetitive tediousness of it all. 

Enough already. 

If we’re going to spend ourselves into un-pay-back-able debt, then let’s at least go with the damned lights on.

I saw something else storm-related today that caught my eye: 

FEMA’s Spokesperson and Director of Public Affairs, Jaclyn Rothenberg, locked down her personal X/Twitter account. 

Now, I distinctly remember lefties making a literal federal case out of another high official limiting access to his personal account: one Donald J. Trump.

When then-President Trump blocked some individual propagandists, there was a great hue and cry from the left. They went to court saying his personal account should be deemed official.  “We’ve got to be able to see what the Leader of the Free World is tweeting,” they said.  “We have rights!”

Of course, nobody was violating any “rights.”  All they had to do was sign out of Twitter then go to www.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump and voilà, there were his tweets.  All of ‘em.  In all their MAGA glory. 

Ultimately the Supreme Court got involved, by which time President Trump was no longer in office so on those grounds, they dismissed it as moot.

The irony of it all was that the left brought the case based on viewpoint discrimination in the public square.

Yeah, we know something about viewpoint discrimination on Twitter.  We know what that looks like.  Know it when we see it.  Well, when you lock down your tweets, as the FEMA spox has done, it really is viewpoint discrimination because unless you agree with her, she won’t let you see her tweets, logged in or out.  They’re blocked.

Don’t hold your breath for anyone to make a literal federal case about this. You might be waiting at least as long as I have just to get my lights turned on.

Image: Twitter video screen shot

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