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We spent a couple hours around the noon hour today to watch and record the coverage of President Trump’s visit here. It is his third time since the Hellish Hurricane Hellene hit Western North Carolina in late September.
We live only a few miles from the airport and our office in Fletcher is even closer to the airport. But as we realized the traffic congestion that a visit from POTUS causes, we decided to work from the home office today.
Air Force One landed at the Asheville Regional Airport at about 11 a.m. POTUS was greeted by several dignitaries on the tarmac and then made some remarks to the press and, of course, took some questions from them.
He then entered “the beast.” That is the nickname of the Presidential limousine. Interesting name from a biblical perspective, eh? We do not assign any nefarious meaning to that moniker since we have spent many hours of teaching what the beast actually is, as it is described in the Bible…and it is not an automobile. LOL
(Screen grab of DJT greeting well-wishers at our airport.)
Mr. Trump then halted the beast in front of the chain link fence behind which were a number of supporters. He and Melania got out and spent a few minutes shaking hands and speaking with them.
They then went to a hangar where a U-shaped formation of tables and chairs had been set up for POTUS to meet with a larger group of officials and other pertinent persons. Trump was flanked at the head table by Melania on his right and Franklin Graham on his left.
(Screen grab of Trump, Melania, and Franklin Graham taking seats at airport hangar.)
Our Congressman, Chuck Edwards, was there with several others from our North Carolina U.S. Congressional delegation, along with NC State Senators and Representatives, and we heard the voice of Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee but the network cameras did not show him.
After that roughly half-hour meeting in the hangar, the Trump entourage then set off to go to Swannanoa, one of the hardest hit areas still relatively easily accessible as it is an eastern suburb of Asheville.
POTUS would need a helicopter to see some of the areas deep in the mountains where some small villages were simply swept away (e.g., Chimney Rock). After seeing Swannanoa and visiting with some victims there, the entourage would head back to the airport for the flight to Los Angeles County.
Here are some of our key take-aways from POTUS’ remarks:
Trump stressed that he wanted to get here sooner after his inauguration, but there were some logistics problems that precluded that. (Hmmm… Secret Service-related, perhaps??)
For certain, he has had countless other top-of-the-list items to get in motion before taking a cross-country trip. Items such as closing the border, commencing the deportations of illegal aliens, cut the red tape to allow, “drill, baby, drill,” the Keystone Pipeline restart, appointing hundreds, indeed, thousands of secondary executive branch officials, etc. (Plus, see one of THE most important ones at bottom of this post*.)
As readers probably know, he’s up to a couple hundred Executive Orders now signed regarding all manner of promises made - promises kept; and that’s a good thing.
(Screen grab of illegal aliens who committed other crimes in U.S. being deported. Notice waist and leg chains. Shades of the movie “Con Air” anyone?!)
DJT avowed that he placed the importance of going to Western North Carolina (WNC) first and ahead of going to the scene of the fires in southern California. He is flying there later today after finishing in our area.
In speaking of the fires and castigating Gov. Newsom for his horrible handling of the disaster, Trump (ad-libbing as usual) gave what we found to be a read-between-the-lines remark. In describing how the fires “hit” California, he cryptically seemed to stop short by saying “and we won’t talk about what hit it…”
That, to many of the red-pilled among us, is an oblique confirmation that it wasn’t just a random fire fanned by the Santa Ana winds, or due to some “homeless” guy starting fires. We have seen the videos of that also.
But the “homeless” guy (with five cell phones and a UN debit card on him) is a cover story for the likelihood that the fires are primarily the result of the use of DEWs (directed energy weapons), as also were the Lahaina fires in Maui, and the horrendous fires in Paradise Valley, CA a few years ago.
Back to the topic of WNC, Michael Whatley may have come off AF-1 with Trump, but we did not see the first people exiting the plane. We tuned in just as the President and First Lady were coming down the stairs from the big jet.
Whatley (whom I have met on two occasions) was previously the Chairman of the NC Republican Party, then with Lara Trump, the Co-chair of the Republican National Committee. That pair of NC natives did a superb job in helping the Red team win the trifecta: retaking the WH, the House of Representatives, and the Senate.
POTUS, in his remarks at several locations in the next hour, praised Whatley and stated that he was placing him in charge of coordinating the federal effort to assist the areas devastated by Hurricane Hellene.
At the same time, DJT frequently blasted FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) for their disastrous incompetency (or deliberate mismanagement) in helping the regions struck by “natural” disasters.
When pressed by the press about the continued existence of FEMA, Trump pulled no punches but repeated that he may recommend abolishing FEMA altogether. He might recommend that in the next few weeks, he said.
He asserted that the states should handle the problems of natural disasters with the federal government providing some financial assistance, but leave the management up to the governors and the states. In so stating, he commended Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee for sending help to WNC even though Tennessee also suffered considerable damage.
Trump stated that NC was treated very unfairly and that FEMA was “way too slow,” so we’re putting Michael (Whatley) in charge. He also commended Franklin Graham (of Samaritans Purse) and other groups for doing what FEMA could not or would not do.
This included flying (via helicopters) needed survival supplies into the areas far into the mountains where roads and bridges were washed out, thousands of homes were destroyed our washed away, and many people perished.
From a purely Constitutional perspective, there are many things that DJT is doing that are problematic (a word that means questionable). For example, millions or billions of “federal” money for this and for that.
However, we give him space and grace because we have to keep in mind that he is playing on the enemies’ home turf. One cannot turn the monstrous behemoth, the ship of state on a dime and head in the other (the Constitutional) direction. It is going to take some time.
Meanwhile, what is he to do? Do we expect him to tell all the now-suffering and many indigent people in WNC and the homeless thousands in southern California that he cannot send any federal money to them/us because it is beyond the powers delegated to the federal government by the states via the Constitution?
That is to say, just because he is ensconced back behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office does not mean that he can wave a magic wand and restore everything to strict Constitutional order in a week, or in a month, or even in a year. We must have patience.
His statements several times today here in WNC concerning his desire to “let the states handle it” demonstrated to this writer that he understands the state-federal relationship as it is (corrupted) as compared to how it should be—within the chains of the Constitution.
* On another topic, and in our view, one of the most important Executive Orders signed by the President ever is the one signed yesterday which bans Central Bank Digital Currencies.
Here is a link to this story from the NASDAQ website. President Trump Signs Executive Order To Ban Central Bank Digital Currencies
And here is pull-quote from another source. Comments in [brackets] are mine. QUOTE:
The order established support for the development of cryptocurrency by allowing people to keep private crypto wallets rather than use services like Coinbase that can be monitored more easily by the Internal Revenue Service.
The order also forbade government-run digital currencies. [Nor run by private central banks either, as in converting the Federal Reserve into a new entity which runs the CBDC—never allow that!]
“Outstanding EO by President Trump banning the creation of a government-run digital currency, protecting Americans’ privacy and financial freedom. This is exactly what my No Central Bank Digital Currency Act was crafted to achieve,” responded Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah. END QUOTE from Blaze News.
Advice to Sen. Lee: Go ahead with your bill and get the ban reinforced with Congressional legislation, so our liberty is not merely dependent upon a presidential E. O. that a wicked president could later counteract.
After five days of a real leader back in the White House, we praise God and we encourage you to join us in thanking Him for our manifold blessings!
END
