Being up in the mountains and out in the country a bit, not on city water or sewer, Maureen has been concerned about our ability to manage in a disaster. She had me get a portable generator when we first bought the house and now she's working on a hand pump for our well for when the generator runs out of gas. Facebook occasionally has a reoccurring story about a prepper who buys and buries a large steel shipping container and turns it into a fallout shelter/bunker. I occasionally kid that my prepper efforts consisted of getting one of those large shipping containers, packing all of my stuff in it, loading it on a truck, and then moving out of earthquake country. I then had the driver drive through tornado alley and stop before he hit the hurricane coast. I understand the national head quarters for the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) are in Asheville, NC because this area has the fewest natural disaster events in the nation. That was good enough for me and that was the extent of my prepping.
And then came "A Stark Realization!" We don't live anywhere near a Trump Resort property. Should the unthinkable happen there is nothing within hundreds of miles to attract enough attention to ensure that we would get federal aid. When Erma hit Florida, the home of Mar-a-Lago, FEMA was all over it. However when Maria hit Puerto Rico, over 1000 miles from Mar-a-Lago, all they got was Trump touting how great a job he was doing, but no real aid. It's been months and 75% of Puerto Rico is still without power, water and just basic needs for survival.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the guy. And whether you are in the Secretary of State Tillerson's "Trump is a f***ing moron" camp or not, you have to admit, Trump has a talent for taking care of his own!
Trump has openly professed that "Global Warming" is a hoax. He recognizes the climate change effects of man made carbon in our atmosphere has only affected one location in the entire world, Doonbeg, Ireland. What is unique about Doonbeg, Ireland? It is the home of Trump's luxury golf resort, the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel. On his application to construct a sea wall to stem the erosion, Trump cited the effect of rising sea levels due to man made climate change as the primary reason the sea wall was needed. (Read about Trump's "other" wall here.)
After the tragedy of 9/11, it was reported that Trump successfully filed a "small business" claim for $150,000 even though his business netted several times the revenue ceiling that defined a small business. (Politifact small business claim article.) In 2005, Trump was also able to collect on a $17 million dollar insurance claim for hurricane damage to Mar-a-Lago, damage that few actually remember happening, with some of the excess money he admittedly transferred to his own accounts. (AP article about questionable hurricane damage claim.) Throw in the reports about Trump using RNC and Republican Donor money (Vanity Fair article) to fund his legal team for his Russia Gate scandal defense and his self proclaimed business acumen that allows him to pay little or no taxes and it becomes very apparent that Donald Trump has a talent for taking care of his properties and his wallet.
And what about this new tax bill? I know that Trump professes that he and his pals will be losing money but by the most conservative estimates Trump is set to make millions! And if you include everyone in the top 1% the number is in the Billions!
Then there is his latest Trump proclamation eliminating offshore drilling restrictions for the entire eastern and western seaboards of the United States. Of course afterwards he did exempt the Florida coast where the restrictions will remain in place. Trump does not want to have to look out from Mar-A-Lago and see oil drilling rigs ruining the view from his personal resort.
Everyone seems to be concerned about Trump's proximity to the nuclear button. I don't know why his advisers haven't considered this yet but if someone would just point out to "The Donald" that "Nuclear Winter" would be horribly bad for his resort properties Trump would likely become the biggest proponent for nuclear disarmament!
After considering all the evidence above I just want to be under that "Trump Umbrella" should an unlikely but unfortunate disaster strike in the Western North Carolina mountains.
I don't think I could afford the fee that Trump gets for naming rights and I really don't think our apartment downstairs that we promote through Air B-N-B is grandiose enough to attract Trump's attention. Maybe if his deal with Putin to build a Trump Tower in Moscow falls through and he is not too in debt to the Chinese I could sell Trump on the idea of building "Trump Tower Asheville." Or, for expediency I could try to sell him on an existing property, something like "The Trumpmore Estate." Or if the Biltmore owners don't want to give up the estate proper, they might be willing to part with the real estate and shops outside of the estate. We could have "The Trumpmore Village."
Sam's club sells a bulk "Emergency Food Supply." You can buy different packages that will feed 1-4 people from 1-12 months. And the food is advertised to last in storage up to 25 years. I think my next project might be to build shelves to house our new emergence food supply just in case "The Donald" is too distracted playing golf in Florida to send help our way. And just to hedge my bet, while Maureen is researching and arranging for our new hand pump to be installed on our well, I think I'm going to circulate a petition to try to get our local Planning and Zoning agencies to consider a new resort project somewhere between Asheville and Weaverville. You can never be too prepared for an emergency!
Then there is his latest Trump proclamation eliminating offshore drilling restrictions for the entire eastern and western seaboards of the United States. Of course afterwards he did exempt the Florida coast where the restrictions will remain in place. Trump does not want to have to look out from Mar-A-Lago and see oil drilling rigs ruining the view from his personal resort.
Everyone seems to be concerned about Trump's proximity to the nuclear button. I don't know why his advisers haven't considered this yet but if someone would just point out to "The Donald" that "Nuclear Winter" would be horribly bad for his resort properties Trump would likely become the biggest proponent for nuclear disarmament!
After considering all the evidence above I just want to be under that "Trump Umbrella" should an unlikely but unfortunate disaster strike in the Western North Carolina mountains.
I don't think I could afford the fee that Trump gets for naming rights and I really don't think our apartment downstairs that we promote through Air B-N-B is grandiose enough to attract Trump's attention. Maybe if his deal with Putin to build a Trump Tower in Moscow falls through and he is not too in debt to the Chinese I could sell Trump on the idea of building "Trump Tower Asheville." Or, for expediency I could try to sell him on an existing property, something like "The Trumpmore Estate." Or if the Biltmore owners don't want to give up the estate proper, they might be willing to part with the real estate and shops outside of the estate. We could have "The Trumpmore Village."
Sam's club sells a bulk "Emergency Food Supply." You can buy different packages that will feed 1-4 people from 1-12 months. And the food is advertised to last in storage up to 25 years. I think my next project might be to build shelves to house our new emergence food supply just in case "The Donald" is too distracted playing golf in Florida to send help our way. And just to hedge my bet, while Maureen is researching and arranging for our new hand pump to be installed on our well, I think I'm going to circulate a petition to try to get our local Planning and Zoning agencies to consider a new resort project somewhere between Asheville and Weaverville. You can never be too prepared for an emergency!
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