Some of what corporations are doing for Harvey victims:
Anheuser-Busch suspends its beer operations in order to bottle thousands of cans of water for the victims – they have done this for many years in other situations.
Airbnb – The home rental service is waiving service charges for evacuees and urging nearby hosts to list accommodations for free. As of Monday afternoon, there were around 30 under-$10 listings near Houston.
Apple has set up Red Cross donation pages in iTunes and the App Store. Amazon and Whole Foods said they’d match up to $1 million donated to the Red Cross through the Amazon site.
Google created a dedicated disaster response map and announced it would donate a $250,000 grant to the Red Cross, and match another $250,000 from employees. Microsoft also said it would give the Red Cross an “initial grant” of $100,000.
T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T all said they would not charge people in the affected areas for cell service (for now).
Dallas-based Southwest airlines gave 500 customers stranded in the shuttered Houston Hobby Airport a free flight out Sunday night. Delta announced Monday that it will send a relief flight with supplies to the airport and evacuate more people.
Walmart – the big-box chain has sent nearly 800 truckloads of supplies to affected areas and is expecting to ship around 1,700 more.
Duracell – Duracell reps are in the area handing out free batteries.
There are two kinds of liberalism. That of the left, with its faith in progress, big government, and cultural change. And that of the right, with its faith in free market economics, civil liberties, and individual freedom. Today, both kinds of liberalism are fading away. We are entering a “post-liberal” era.
So says the “radical orthodox” theologian John Milbank in his recent book with Adrian Pabst, The Politics of Virtue: Post-Liberalism and the Human Future.
The authors are British, so they offer a European perspective, with references to America as well. I haven’t read the book yet, but I came across an article in an Australian periodical that lays out part of their thesis, as it applies particularly to religion, The End of Tolerance: On the Decline of Religious Freedom and the Return of Religious Influence – Opinion – ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). More on that topic later.
The book, judging from the Amazon “look inside” sounds intriguing, and other thinkers too are discussing “post-liberalism.” Certainly, in the United States, the old liberalism of the New Deal has failed to bring in its promised utopia, and the general public has become skeptical of its claims, despite all that the Democratic Party can do. But now Republicans are drawing away from free market capitalism in favor of protectionist economics. And civil liberties are under attack from both sides. The left is wanting to restrict religious liberty, freedom of speech, property rights, and the right to keep and bear arms. The right is pushing back against the freedom of the press, rights of the accused, and “freedom of information.” Meanwhile, corporations have taken over everyone’s right to privacy.
Milbank argues that the liberalism of the right has given us an unbridled individualism and moral permissiveness that, paradoxically, undermine the conservative institutions of the family and community, resulting in cultural liberalism. Similarly, the liberalism of the left, in its zeal to improve society, undermines the very social institutions–family, church, community–that are necessary for social improvement. Thus, both kinds of liberalism are ending in self-contradiction. …
_____________________________________________
“Most of the western Houston area remains under water, but not because of flooding caused directly by Hurricane Harvey.
A complaint filed Tuesday alleges the Army Corps of Engineers knowingly “condemned” homes and businesses when they released water from the Barker and Addicks reservoirs after Harvey had passed.
Residents on the west side of Houston who made it through the storm unscathed, woke up post-storm to find their homes filled with rising water. Interestingly, the attorney is not suggesting the federal government acted improperly, but is requesting they fork over cash to pay for damages.
“When they opened up the dams full blast, several hundred homes that were dry and not yet directly impacted by the storm — including mine —got flooded by the Corps’ action,” Banes said.
Banes doesn’t contend that the Corps did the wrong thing, only that the government must pay for the damages it caused.
“When they make a choice to flood one area to save another, it’s their responsibility to pay for the consequences,” he said.
Banes’ is one of three lawsuits filed Tuesday in state and federal court seeking to hold government agencies liable for flooding from the controlled releases.”
My homeowner’s insurance requires us to buy flood insurance if we are in a 100 year flood plain. (we are not currently in a flood plain, but have been in the past). Did none of these people have an opportunity to buy flood insurance? Did they not know they were in a flood plain? Did they read all the documents at closing when they purchased their homes?
We pay close to $2000 a year in earthquake insurance with a $50K deductible, excluding glass! We live near the San Andreas fault.
Flood insurance can be figured into your monthly payment. If you cannot afford to insure your home and you live in a flood plain, should you be buying a home?
I was a Navy Relief budget counselor for seven years. People get so caught up in the mystique of owning a home, they don’t take into account all the extra expenses of owning a home. Including annual maintenance, which should be calculated at at least 1% of purchase price a year.
Michele, I love what Dave Ramsey says – that when you buy a home you can’t afford (or have debt), Murphy moves into your spare bedroom and brings his three cousins, Broke, Desperate, and Stupid.
Trump is getting grief from both Democrats and Ann Coulter and her ilk for his position on DACA. However, I agree with Rich Lowry that Trump got it right.
On the other hand, Trump siding with Schumer and Pelosi on economic issues against Republicans and even his own Treasury Secretary is the type of thing I always feared and expected.
@7:09 Trump got it right legally. But Congress needs to move to provide some relief for people who are illegal through no fault of their own because they were brought here as children. That could be a good bi-partisan collaboration.
Trump was also right to fast-track the hurricane relief and stabilize the government for the next few months. And it doesn’t bother me that he has reached across the aisle to make it happen. Republicans and Democrats both need to work together right now to provide funding for infrastructure.
Debra, Sarah Huckabee Sanders basically said yesterday that Trump agrees with the immigration position you just stated. That is what made Coulter, et al. so angry. That means that President Trump now agrees with the campaign positions of Jeb Bush, Rubio, Kasich, Walker and the rest and opposes his own campaign position that some people always said was baloney.
And when Ann Coulter gets mad, she gets really mad:
Possible 2020 slogan: "I broke my promises, betrayed my friends & used my office to help my family, but, hey — at least I'm not Hillary!" https://t.co/pz3LxfVgFI
Ricky, That’s a very narrow area of agreement given that the President says he still wants to boost boarder security and renegotiate NAFTA. If they would just secure the boarder and stop treating illegal labor as a tool to depress American wages, I’d even support some kind of path to citizenship for those already here. Virtually NONE of those other candidates were willing to do that.
Every other Republican candidate was for a comprehensive immigration bill involving border security and some relief for the “dreamers” with protections against criminals and terrorists. That is exactly what Trump is now asking for. Only Trump said he would deport all here illegally including the “dreamers”. Trumpkins were conned, but they shouldn’t feel bad. The man has been a con artist his entire life. NAFTA is going to be renogiated to created to create American jobs, Mexico will pay for that wall which will be built, and you too can be rich if you max out your credit card for a degree from Trump University.
Tychicus, your list of corporate help for Houston could help me respond to a very negative post from a friend. Where did you get the information? Did you compile it yourself from different news reports, or was the list posted somewhere?
The college pastors (described at the end) are experiencing some of what I have noticed. When young Christians saw their pastors or parents actively support Trump, it caused them to question other aspects of the theology of their elders, particularly on moral issues.
That last one — the Trump factor — deserves some commentary. A couple of people in college ministry were at the table. They said that it is impossible to overstate how alienating the enthusiastic support their parents gave to Donald Trump was to their students. A number of college students have left the church entirely over it.
“How is that possible?” I asked one of the campus ministers. “How do you decide to leave Christianity altogether over who your parents voted for? That makes no sense to me.”
He said that in Evangelical circles, it’s common for college students to be skeptical at best of their parents’ theological views. For a lot of them, their parents’ backing of Donald Trump made everything they had been taught as kids about Christianity a lie. Their parents were the primary face of Evangelical Christianity to them, and to see this happen was shattering. They concluded that Christianity must be all about the economy, or tribalism, and so forth. One pastor said that a young man he ministers to in college posted a criticism of Trump on Facebook, and was cut off financially by his parents because of it.
Listening to these pastors and laypeople talking about the Trump effect on younger Christians was quite sobering to me. An older pastor said that it is impossible to separate the Nashville Statement from the massive support white Evangelicals gave to Trump. Impossible to separate, I mean, in the mind of the young.
“But Russell Moore signed it, and other Trump critics among Evangelicals,” I said.
“I know, and I’ve tried to tell people that,” said this pastor, a conservative Evangelical. “It doesn’t matter to them. All they see is a bunch of leaders of a movement who voted for a sexually corrupt man like Donald Trump are now trying to take a public stand on sexual morality for gays. It’s totally hypocritical to them. I don’t know how the Nashville Statement drafters and signers didn’t see this coming.”
I saw something recently, not an article to explain, only a statement, claiming that one of Trump’s tax reforms would tax the money a person puts into their retirement account. Anyone know anything about this? Is it true?
Wandering Views 
Some of what corporations are doing for Harvey victims:
Anheuser-Busch suspends its beer operations in order to bottle thousands of cans of water for the victims – they have done this for many years in other situations.
Airbnb – The home rental service is waiving service charges for evacuees and urging nearby hosts to list accommodations for free. As of Monday afternoon, there were around 30 under-$10 listings near Houston.
Apple has set up Red Cross donation pages in iTunes and the App Store. Amazon and Whole Foods said they’d match up to $1 million donated to the Red Cross through the Amazon site.
Google created a dedicated disaster response map and announced it would donate a $250,000 grant to the Red Cross, and match another $250,000 from employees. Microsoft also said it would give the Red Cross an “initial grant” of $100,000.
T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T all said they would not charge people in the affected areas for cell service (for now).
Dallas-based Southwest airlines gave 500 customers stranded in the shuttered Houston Hobby Airport a free flight out Sunday night. Delta announced Monday that it will send a relief flight with supplies to the airport and evacuate more people.
Walmart – the big-box chain has sent nearly 800 truckloads of supplies to affected areas and is expecting to ship around 1,700 more.
Duracell – Duracell reps are in the area handing out free batteries.
The list is too exhaustive to mention them all…
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Douthat pays tribute to Michael Cromartie:
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From Colson Center “Breakpoint”
JOHN STONESTREET
with shane morris
Protesting is as American as apple pie. But if you’re wearing a ski mask and holding a baseball bat, “protester” isn’t the right word for you.
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More from Veith:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2017/09/post-liberalism-of-both-the-left-and-the-right/#sLLlEeyfFweSYDEp.99
Post-liberalism of both the left and the right
SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 BY GENE VEITH
_____________________________________
There are two kinds of liberalism. That of the left, with its faith in progress, big government, and cultural change. And that of the right, with its faith in free market economics, civil liberties, and individual freedom. Today, both kinds of liberalism are fading away. We are entering a “post-liberal” era.
So says the “radical orthodox” theologian John Milbank in his recent book with Adrian Pabst, The Politics of Virtue: Post-Liberalism and the Human Future.
The authors are British, so they offer a European perspective, with references to America as well. I haven’t read the book yet, but I came across an article in an Australian periodical that lays out part of their thesis, as it applies particularly to religion, The End of Tolerance: On the Decline of Religious Freedom and the Return of Religious Influence – Opinion – ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). More on that topic later.
The book, judging from the Amazon “look inside” sounds intriguing, and other thinkers too are discussing “post-liberalism.” Certainly, in the United States, the old liberalism of the New Deal has failed to bring in its promised utopia, and the general public has become skeptical of its claims, despite all that the Democratic Party can do. But now Republicans are drawing away from free market capitalism in favor of protectionist economics. And civil liberties are under attack from both sides. The left is wanting to restrict religious liberty, freedom of speech, property rights, and the right to keep and bear arms. The right is pushing back against the freedom of the press, rights of the accused, and “freedom of information.” Meanwhile, corporations have taken over everyone’s right to privacy.
Milbank argues that the liberalism of the right has given us an unbridled individualism and moral permissiveness that, paradoxically, undermine the conservative institutions of the family and community, resulting in cultural liberalism. Similarly, the liberalism of the left, in its zeal to improve society, undermines the very social institutions–family, church, community–that are necessary for social improvement. Thus, both kinds of liberalism are ending in self-contradiction. …
_____________________________________________
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Some in Houston are blaming the govt. for their flooding after Harvey.
http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/09/houston-area-residents-sue-federal-govt-for-post-harvey-dam-releases-that-flooded-homes/
“Most of the western Houston area remains under water, but not because of flooding caused directly by Hurricane Harvey.
A complaint filed Tuesday alleges the Army Corps of Engineers knowingly “condemned” homes and businesses when they released water from the Barker and Addicks reservoirs after Harvey had passed.
Residents on the west side of Houston who made it through the storm unscathed, woke up post-storm to find their homes filled with rising water. Interestingly, the attorney is not suggesting the federal government acted improperly, but is requesting they fork over cash to pay for damages.
“When they opened up the dams full blast, several hundred homes that were dry and not yet directly impacted by the storm — including mine —got flooded by the Corps’ action,” Banes said.
Banes doesn’t contend that the Corps did the wrong thing, only that the government must pay for the damages it caused.
“When they make a choice to flood one area to save another, it’s their responsibility to pay for the consequences,” he said.
Banes’ is one of three lawsuits filed Tuesday in state and federal court seeking to hold government agencies liable for flooding from the controlled releases.”
LikeLike
My homeowner’s insurance requires us to buy flood insurance if we are in a 100 year flood plain. (we are not currently in a flood plain, but have been in the past). Did none of these people have an opportunity to buy flood insurance? Did they not know they were in a flood plain? Did they read all the documents at closing when they purchased their homes?
We pay close to $2000 a year in earthquake insurance with a $50K deductible, excluding glass! We live near the San Andreas fault.
Flood insurance can be figured into your monthly payment. If you cannot afford to insure your home and you live in a flood plain, should you be buying a home?
I was a Navy Relief budget counselor for seven years. People get so caught up in the mystique of owning a home, they don’t take into account all the extra expenses of owning a home. Including annual maintenance, which should be calculated at at least 1% of purchase price a year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Michele, I love what Dave Ramsey says – that when you buy a home you can’t afford (or have debt), Murphy moves into your spare bedroom and brings his three cousins, Broke, Desperate, and Stupid.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Trump is getting grief from both Democrats and Ann Coulter and her ilk for his position on DACA. However, I agree with Rich Lowry that Trump got it right.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/451097/donald-trump-daca-congress-should-legislate-not-president
LikeLiked by 1 person
On the other hand, Trump siding with Schumer and Pelosi on economic issues against Republicans and even his own Treasury Secretary is the type of thing I always feared and expected.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/09/06/politics/trump-meeting-with-democrats-deal/index.html#scso=uid_WbCE2AAGr1oKg9GE9w7aCQ_1:0
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Tychicus, This Longhorn is very conservative, but he is not in the cult. His posts are generally informative and funny.
https://twitter.com/orangeblood2012/status/905501399529742336
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A Canadian perspective on the repeal of DACA. I agree. We’ve taken in the Syrians, the Haitians etc why not dreamers.
https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/canada-must-dare-to-help-the-dreamers/article36190668/?ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theglobeandmail.com&cmpid=rss1&click=sf_globefb
Trump agrees with whoever had his attention last. Schumer and Pelosi obviously have learned how to play Trump
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Roscuro?
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Tweet of the day:
https://twitter.com/iankarmel/status/905444427161772033
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This is interesting. It appears that one of Russia’s goals in the last election was to divide Americans.
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@7:09 Trump got it right legally. But Congress needs to move to provide some relief for people who are illegal through no fault of their own because they were brought here as children. That could be a good bi-partisan collaboration.
Trump was also right to fast-track the hurricane relief and stabilize the government for the next few months. And it doesn’t bother me that he has reached across the aisle to make it happen. Republicans and Democrats both need to work together right now to provide funding for infrastructure.
LikeLike
Debra, Sarah Huckabee Sanders basically said yesterday that Trump agrees with the immigration position you just stated. That is what made Coulter, et al. so angry. That means that President Trump now agrees with the campaign positions of Jeb Bush, Rubio, Kasich, Walker and the rest and opposes his own campaign position that some people always said was baloney.
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And when Ann Coulter gets mad, she gets really mad:
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Which then provoked this rational response:
https://twitter.com/bkerogers/status/905510682925441024
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Ricky, That’s a very narrow area of agreement given that the President says he still wants to boost boarder security and renegotiate NAFTA. If they would just secure the boarder and stop treating illegal labor as a tool to depress American wages, I’d even support some kind of path to citizenship for those already here. Virtually NONE of those other candidates were willing to do that.
LikeLike
Every other Republican candidate was for a comprehensive immigration bill involving border security and some relief for the “dreamers” with protections against criminals and terrorists. That is exactly what Trump is now asking for. Only Trump said he would deport all here illegally including the “dreamers”. Trumpkins were conned, but they shouldn’t feel bad. The man has been a con artist his entire life. NAFTA is going to be renogiated to created to create American jobs, Mexico will pay for that wall which will be built, and you too can be rich if you max out your credit card for a degree from Trump University.
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John Podhoretz chain of Tweets nails it. Dave Weigel’s reply is also wise.
This is why the wise move for every Republican in Congress would have been to announce your retirement as soon as Trump was nominated.
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Republicans under President Trump:
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…and this is why. ;–)
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Tychicus, your list of corporate help for Houston could help me respond to a very negative post from a friend. Where did you get the information? Did you compile it yourself from different news reports, or was the list posted somewhere?
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I watched the movie when it came out in 2006. Like Kevin D. Williamson, I thought it was too ridiculous to be funny.
https://twitter.com/chirumbpkrajini/status/901532639164645376
Like Williamson, I watched the movie again a few months ago. It was like reading the morning paper.
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Announcing the creation of a new organization: Globalists for Trump.
https://twitter.com/aaronblake/status/905511196576632835
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More Dreher on The Nashville Statement:
The college pastors (described at the end) are experiencing some of what I have noticed. When young Christians saw their pastors or parents actively support Trump, it caused them to question other aspects of the theology of their elders, particularly on moral issues.
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From the article:
That last one — the Trump factor — deserves some commentary. A couple of people in college ministry were at the table. They said that it is impossible to overstate how alienating the enthusiastic support their parents gave to Donald Trump was to their students. A number of college students have left the church entirely over it.
“How is that possible?” I asked one of the campus ministers. “How do you decide to leave Christianity altogether over who your parents voted for? That makes no sense to me.”
He said that in Evangelical circles, it’s common for college students to be skeptical at best of their parents’ theological views. For a lot of them, their parents’ backing of Donald Trump made everything they had been taught as kids about Christianity a lie. Their parents were the primary face of Evangelical Christianity to them, and to see this happen was shattering. They concluded that Christianity must be all about the economy, or tribalism, and so forth. One pastor said that a young man he ministers to in college posted a criticism of Trump on Facebook, and was cut off financially by his parents because of it.
Listening to these pastors and laypeople talking about the Trump effect on younger Christians was quite sobering to me. An older pastor said that it is impossible to separate the Nashville Statement from the massive support white Evangelicals gave to Trump. Impossible to separate, I mean, in the mind of the young.
“But Russell Moore signed it, and other Trump critics among Evangelicals,” I said.
“I know, and I’ve tried to tell people that,” said this pastor, a conservative Evangelical. “It doesn’t matter to them. All they see is a bunch of leaders of a movement who voted for a sexually corrupt man like Donald Trump are now trying to take a public stand on sexual morality for gays. It’s totally hypocritical to them. I don’t know how the Nashville Statement drafters and signers didn’t see this coming.”
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Kevin B.: It was from a list that someone had posted in our local paper. Here are some links with similar info:
http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/30/news/companies/hurricane-harvey-corporate-donations/
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/30/these-companies-are-donating-1-million-or-more-to-harvey-relief-efforts.html
http://www.npr.org/2017/08/28/546740254/corporations-pledge-millions-toward-relief-efforts-for-tropical-storm-harvey
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/hurricane-harvey-relief-brings-millions-in-corporate-gifts/
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I saw something recently, not an article to explain, only a statement, claiming that one of Trump’s tax reforms would tax the money a person puts into their retirement account. Anyone know anything about this? Is it true?
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