There once was a storm named 'Helene' 

Whose handiwork still can be seen.

Mountain folks needing aid

Got thrown gov'ment shade

'Our FEMA cupboards are already clean.'

Democrats, progressives, Washington bureaucrats, and the media might not remember the brouhaha last October, but I do.

I recall it distinctly. As the folks in the mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee, and parts of nearby states were still trying to scrape the mud off themselves and look for missing neighbors under tons of debris from the roiling waters Hurricane Helene sent rampaging through their hollars and isolated valleys, the federal government announced the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had no more dinero to get through the rest of the fiscal year.

These muddy, sodden, homeless fellow Americans were just going to have to wait until that got straightened out or Congress pooped an emergency appropriation.

SORRY, NOT SORRY

The wrath of Hurricane Helene and the path of utter, unimaginable suffering and destruction left in her stormy wake is going to be with us for years upon years.

What will also, hopefully, never be forgotten is the Biden-HARRIS regime's complete incompetence in preparing for the storm and handling even the tiniest aspects of its aftermath. What will also hopefully live long in infamy re the regime is how their agency tasked with handling events of such magnitude - the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) - performed so badly from the outset and yet cried poor mouth so shortly afterward. That revelation caused a general sense of astonishment on top of the outrage building in the face of their seeming indifference.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVE NO MONEY "LEFT"?

Where'd it go?

'Where'd it go,' indeed. For the second year in a row, no less.

What followed next was a classic lesson in the federal dollar games that we Marines used to call 'green money, blue money.'

There's lots of money...buttloads. Just not what you need when you need it at the time.

Your airplanes have no fuel allocation left - so the squadron is essentially grounded - but they're in the middle of a bazillion-dollar renovation of the officers club? 

SORRY, NOT SORRY

You see, grasshoppers - fuel is 'green money,' and base improvements are 'blue.' Never the twain shall meet. Never shall the funds, like the streams in Ghostbusters, cross, no matter how desperately the greenside, which is responsible for the mission, might need a couple of bucks from the pot of gold on the blue.

This is essentially what excuses were made for FEMA's dearth of assets when Helene hit. Too many disasters in one year and, when it was revealed that the Biden administration had shifted funds out of one FEMA fund (think 'green') to another (think 'blue'), the 'BUT, BUT, BUT DIFFERENT MONIES, SAME PLACE!' tapdancing excuses began.

...One of Biden's first acts in office was to cancel Trump's declaration of a national emergency at the border in order to shut down the wall project. But he soon started invoking his own authority for border-related national emergencies. 

The disbursement of FEMA funds falls under "national emergencies."

Hello.

It took an X buddy of mine who spends his off time scrolling through government grants to find where some of that assistance has gone. As he said, it's called the "Shelter and Services Program" and has scooped up over a billion dollars and counting.

Guess I’ll bump this since FEMA just said they’re out of money.

They’ve spent nearly a billion dollars on assistance for illegal immigrants in the last two years https://t.co/fwfB2LiiF5

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) October 2, 2024

GREEN MONEY, BLUE MONEY

They're different, peasants. Shut up and suck it up.

...The White House swiftly rebutted the claims and accused Republicans of spreading "bold-faced lies" about funding for the disaster response.

...Trump and his allies expressed outrage that the agency had spent over $640m (£487m) on housing migrants.

But officials pointed out that this funding, authorised by Congress, was part of an entirely different programme run by Fema unconnected to disaster relief.

...Republicans have attempted to link the disaster relief effort to immigration - one of Trump's core issues - but have spread misinformation about how government money is used.

See, it wasn't 'disaster relief' money - it was 'emergency relief' money. Derp.

We were also told the exact same thing every single time another ten, fifteen, thirty or sixty million dollars in anything flowed into Sweater Boy's Ukrainian coffers.

SHUT UP AND SUCK IT UP, PEASANTS - BILLIONS TO UKRAINE DO NOT AFFECT HELENE AID 

Different money - doesn't matter if it's yours and you need it now.

It's different, so you can't have it. American media was very helpful in explaining how different all the pots of money were and how wrong anyone who thought differently was. 'Stoking resentment' types.

The disaster caused by Hurricane Helene is being used to drum up resentment against U.S. spending in Ukraine, accusing the White House of providing "no more aid" and neglecting American citizens.

Multiple posts on social media over the weekend have tried to portray a gulf between domestic and international aid as Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee deal with the catastrophe.

...As work continues to support those affected by the disaster, some have tried to tie the U.S. government's response to the crisis with Ukraine, suggesting little to nothing has been provided for those suffering along the storm's path.

One post viewed 2.8 million times on X, formerly Twitter, by the conservative account @EndWokeness, which Newsweek's Fact Check team has previously investigated for misleading content about Ukraine, said: "'$2.4 billion aid to Ukraine' vs 'No more aid for Hurricane Helene' - 3 days apart."

The post included a video of Biden announcing Ukrainian aid and, speaking on Sunday, that there were no more resources the federal government could be giving, telling ABC News, "We have pre-planned a significant amount, even though they didn't ask for it yet—hadn't asked for it yet," Biden said Sunday.

Another post by account @ShadowofEzra, viewed 1.5 million times said: "The United States has allocated over $16 billion to support Ukraine and Israel, leaving its own citizens feeling neglected and abandoned."

The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh also wrote: "Unfortunately the North Carolina flood victims are citizens of the USA, not Ukraine, so the Biden Administration sees no reason to help them."

The social media posts and videos suggest that federal aid for those caught in the recent disaster's path has been held back while Ukrainian support has been easily extended, a misleading description.

Goofy us. 

The only things we could do at the time about the situation were keep protesting, keep information flowing, seethe with resentment every time Zelensky showed up with his hand out yet again, send money to the charities that were working their asses off to fill in the gaps where an efficient, prepared FEMA might have been an enormous help...and wait until we could vote for Donald Trump.

What a difference an election makes.

Donald Trump has turned Musk and his DOGE team loose to flip over rocks, and the first big boulder was USAID. No one had any idea how deep the snekpit was underneath.

Talk about 'different' money.

HOLY CRAP

And this gang of homegrown thieves operated an unregulated, unrestricted, unfettered international influence and graft ring of epic proportions on our dimes - billions and billions and billions of them.

While successfully fending off all accountability for any actions until now.

...Ernst’s account marks another blatant example of the independent agency’s “demonstrated pattern of obstructionism,” she wrote, when responding to congressional requests on taxpayer-funded spending.

Rubio, who is now the acting administrator of USAID, said that was also the case for him when he served in the Senate for 14 years.

“It’s a completely unresponsive agency. It’s supposed to respond to policy directives with the State Department, and it refuses to do so,” Rubio told reporters on a visit to El Salvador on Monday. “Every dollar we spend and every program we fund, that program will be aligned with the national interest of the United States. USAID has a history of sort of ignoring that.”

Everyone on the blog here has been on top of what is probably the greatest scandal YET - I mean, they only just got started digging - uncovered, from USAID funding the media (Politico et al), to the Trump impeachment to terrorism overseas, and university programs diametrically opposed to American tenets here in the US.

But the one that really stuck in my craw yesterday...God.

Remember this?

A man in North Carolina who lost his business shares his story and how many people lost everything, including loved ones in Helene. He then prays over Trump to lead our country from this darkness. Our world needs prayer. 🙏 pic.twitter.com/vwjVtWryx3

— DollyH (@patriot_dh) October 22, 2024

And this?

🚨#BREAKING: The Small Business Administration (SBA) confirms it is "totally bankrupt."

It says it has "no funds left" to help desperate small businesses in Western North Carolina.

Yet, just 24 days after Helene ravaged #WNC, the Biden/Harris admin sent $400 million to Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/o0zVFdspld

— Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) November 12, 2024

DESPERATE SMALL BUSINESSES IN NORTH CAROLINA

What a shame they weren't Ukrainian.

USAID might have help...nah. Who am I kidding?

...Upon her staff’s review of the requested data, the Senate Republican discovered that more than 5,000 Ukrainian businesses received foreign assistance funded by American taxpayers through several USAID programs. These included the Competitive Economy Program and the Investment for Business Resilience. Up to $2 million was provided to each Ukrainian business, per the letter.

Read that last highlighted section again and let it sink in.

UP TO $2M TO EACH UKRAINIAN BUSINESS

5000 of them.

TO. EACH. UKRAINIAN. Business.
TO
EACH

North Carolina would like a word. https://t.co/vBpm0oWUAm

— tree hugging s*ster 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) February 6, 2025

Different money, yo.

Thank God for Trump and Musk's team.

Shut this whole thing down and expose every last disgusting crime.

I'd also pay good money to witness a Samantha Power frogmarch.

I'm willing to wait.