As Hurricane Helene left a multi-state path of death and destruction, President Joe Biden napped on the beach, and Vice President Kamala Harris partied at California fundraisers.
As more than 100 people perished, and more than a thousand unaccounted for, Harris told her fellow party-goers, “Oh, it’s good to be home!”
Biden snapped at a reporter Monday who asked the president why he and Harris were AWOL all weekend instead of in Washington managing the disaster.
“I was commanding!” he shot back. “I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday and the day before as well! I command! It’s called the telephone!”
Also, while Biden has bequeathed $175 billion to Ukraine since the February 2022 Russian invasion, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is responsible for offering relief to disaster victims, claimed to be broke.
In fact, they ran out of money in August — you know, in the middle of hurricane season.
Biden’s most recent gift to Ukraine was last week’s $8 billion in military aid.
On Sunday the Virginia Project, which describes itself as a “Republican political action committee for normal Americans,” posted a plea to Biden in Ukrainian. Translated into English it said: “Help Mr. Biden, we need your help for our Ukrainian town of Asheville in the Ukrainian state of North Carolina.”
While the federal government struggles to react to the disaster, a number of state governors — including those from Florida, Alabama, Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio —deployed national guard troops to provide manpower and assist North Carolina’s own national guard.
But that doesn’t cover communications. With cellular towers destroyed and phone lines down there was no way to coordinate rescue efforts with the people on the ground.
Enter private industry, led by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk. He delivered 500 Starlink communications units to the Florida base of former NASCAR icon Greg Biffle. Yesterday they were airlifted to the areas they were needed.
“Thank you to @PolarisInc and @SpaceX, @elonmusk for donating 3 pallets of Starlink systems and many generators for deployment on helicopters and flights to support the communities!” Biffle said on Twitter/X Monday afternoon.
“THIS IS HUGE. I’ve seen the impact first hand for 3 minutes of WiFi and I’m so thankful for the connections of friends to be able to get this done. We will post photos and videos of these systems going out so you can know which communities will have them!”
Yesterday Biffle reported that helicopters were arriving from all parts of the country to deliver the equipment and supplies.
“Helicopters from Western New York are here deploying Starlinks out to fire departments and other essentially places,” he said. “Thank you to all the pilots risking their lives.”
These were all privately-owned helicopters — not government-owned. Same with the trucks that delivered the equipment to Biffle’s base.
Here’s some Starlink history.
Included in Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill was $42.5 billion earmarked to provide high-speed internet in rural areas.
Starlink offered to do the job for a fraction of the cost — $885 million. The FCC initially awarded the contract to Musk’s team, but later backpedaled. Starlink appealed that decision and was rejected again in December.
So why the reversal?
Elon Musk used to be a Democrat, but the craziness coming from the Democrat Party turned him off. He switched to the other team and became a Trump supporter to boot.
“There’s a couple things going on here. So, one is typical government waste, fraud, and abuse,” said David Sacks, on the All-In-Podcast. “But it’s worse than that. You also have naked political retaliation going on here.”
Since the infrastructure bill was signed into law three years ago, exactly zero customers have been connected to the internet.
And while Biden was dozing at the beach and Harris was partying in California, Trump was in Valdosta, Ga., delivering supplies, inspecting the damage, and thanking Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian international humanitarian aid organization, that also delivered aid to the victims.
“When a crisis hits, when our fellow citizens cry out, none of this matters,” Trump said. “We pitch in, we persevere, we pull through.”
Everyone complains about big business, but there’s nothing worse than big government and the career politicians who run it.
Maybe that’s why Flag Officers 4 America, a group of more than 200 retired admirals and generals, signed a letter endorsing Trump for president.
If elected, Musk offered to be Trump’s “Director of Government Efficiency,” at the same salary as Trump’s — zero. Anyone who can turn a $42.5 billion project into a $885 million project should have all our votes.
We can see the damage that the professional politicians leave behind. Time to bring the amateurs in again. It worked last time.
Other stories you may want to read:
- Michael Dorstewitz: New York: ‘Come for Communism, Stay for Jihad’ - October 9, 2025
- Michael Dorstewitz: Democrats Misunderstand Free Speech, Reveal Their Own Hypocrisy - September 27, 2025
- Michael Dorstewitz: Helene Demonstrates the Inefficiencies of Big Government - October 3, 2024