Ways to help Hurricane Harvey victims

image credit: crowdrise

The Texas clean-up efforts, especially in the Houston area, are underway, and I found a helpful list of organizations on the Fox 8 Cleveland page that can help Northeast Ohioans help Hurricane Harvey victims.

Many of the efforts are still ongoing (the list was initially published on Aug 29). Note: A lot of the usual relief organizations, including the Red Cross, were requesting cash rather than in-kind donations. We chose the Mira Family Charity, even though they were so overwhelmed with donations that they could not (as of Friday) arrange pick-up of non-perishable food, clothes, etc., so a friend of ours drove the carload of goods to their Payne Ave. drop-off point.

Below are some of the places Fox 8 lists, where you can drop off items to help.

The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland has scheduled a special second collection, the weekend of September 9-10 at all Masses. The funds will be channeled directly to Catholic Charities USA which is on the ground and assisting the flood-ravaged area.

Mario's Barbershop at  7526 Broadview Rd. in  Parma is collecting water, diapers, and non-perishable food.

The City of Stow is helping the Texas Diaper Bank provide much-needed diapers to families. The city will accept donations of diapers or money at Stow City Hall on 3760 Darrow Road.   Stow will also collect at the annual Summer Blast Sept. 2 and 3 at Silver Springs Park. Stow City Council will be taking donations at the council booth.

Mira Family Charity - Operation Help Houston is holding a stuff the truck campaign Wednesday, August 30 through Friday, September 1. All donations can be drop off at Tenable Protective Services 2423 Payne Avenue. Cleveland Ohio 44114. Between 7am and 6 pm thru September 1st. If you need items picked up, call (216) 401-5148. [Note: Pretty sure this organization is scheduling a second Stuff-the-Truck next week. Give them a call.]

Middleburg Heights businesses (Sips & Such, Euphoria Vapor and M of Hope) have organized a drive for the following non-profit organizations in Texas: Houston Food Bank, The Texas Diaper Bank, Austin Pets Alive, SPCA of Texas. Drop off is at 7535 Pearl Road in  Middleburg Heights Wednesday through Saturday from 7 am - 9 pm. Click here to see a list of items they need.

The list at Fox 8’s page has more giving opportunities. The webpage suggests checking back for updates.

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A Tea Party Salute to the Cajun Navy!

The Cajun Navy comes to the rescue in Houston. Below are extracts from an article by Sally Jenkins at the WaPo (hat tip American Thinker):

At a time such as this, you want the guys who can still thread a line when their hands are wet and cold. They’re descending on Houston in their fleets of flat-bottomed aluminum boats, the sport fishermen and duck hunters outnumbering the government rescuers by the hundreds, their skiffs sitting low in the floodwaters with their human catch in the back, clutching plastic-wrapped possessions.

The country is suddenly grateful for this “Cajun Navy,” for their know-how, for the fact that they can read a submerged log in the water, and haul their boats over tree stumps and levees and launch them from freeway junctions. There are no regulators to check their fishing licenses or whether they have a fire extinguisher and life preservers on board, which they don’t. They’re used to maneuvering through the cypress of Caddo Lake or the hydrilla and coontail of the Atchafalaya, where the water might be four feet or it might rise to 18, and the stinking bog is called “coffee grinds” because of the way boots sink in it. Spending hours in monsoon rains doesn’t bother them, because they know ducks don’t just show up on a plate, and they’ve learned what most of us haven’t, that dry comfort is not the only thing worth seeking.

. . .

They speak an oddly poetic language, of spinnerbait and jigs, chatterbait and Texas rigs, of palomar knots and turls. They have suspended their pursuit of bass and black crappies, blue gills and redfish, crawfish and panfish, to motor through subdivisions, shirtless in the rain. You can’t help but be struck by just how much they know how to do — and how much your citified self doesn’t. Trim a rocking boat, tie a secure knot, navigate the corduroying displaced water, and interpret the faint dull colors in the mist-heavy clouds.

Buster Stoker, 21, is a heavy equipment operator for R&R Construction in Sulphur, La., and spends the rest of his time in his 17-foot aluminum Pro Drive marsh boat, fishing for alligator-gar in the heat of summer and chasing fowl through water-thickets in the winter.

“The best day on the water is every day on the water,” he said.

He and several other construction colleagues met in the company parking lot Monday morning at 5 a.m., loaded up with gas and supplies, and headed toward Houston. They launched their little fleet of 14 craft from the intersection of Highway 90 and 526, and over the next several hours they pulled hundreds of people out of their flooded homes in subdivisions, hauling them aboard like gasping bass.

. . .

This Cajun Navy is a nebulous, informal thing. It has no real corps or officers. It’s “an intensely informal and unorganized operation,” says Academy Award-winning filmmaker Allan Durand, a Lafayette, La., native., who did a documentary on the “Cajun Navy” volunteer-boats following Katrina.

. . .

The same groups have by now acquired deep experience in storm-aid and are growing thanks to social media. They were critical in helping Baton Rouge residents during historic flooding there a year ago, when federal help wasn’t forthcoming. It’s a movement basically founded on the realization that large government agencies aren’t quick-moving.

According to Honore, they have become utterly essential.

“The first-responders aren’t big enough to do this,” he said. “You might have a police force of 3,000, and maybe 200 know how to handle a boat.”

Full story is here.

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Labor Day weekend Air Show

This year it's the Thunderbirds!

The Cleveland Air Show runs this weekend, Sept. 2,3, and 4. If you live anywhere near the downtown area, starting today, you'll be able to see - and hear - some of the rehearsals. 

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Must Read of the Day

image credit: FreedomWorks 

This little blog tries to find news, activities, action alerts, and ideas of interest to Cleveland Tea Party people. Over the weekend, Clarice Feldman at the American Thinker linked to a piece in The Federalist that analyzes the unchecked propaganda machines in the media and in our government. It’s long, so I’ve extracted the sub-headings to give an idea of the ground Stella Morabito covers. It explains, for example, why the "Antifa" groups are the opposite of what they claim to be. Forget the length, it’s still a Must Read.

The title: America’s Post-Charlottesville Nervous Breakdown Was Deliberately Induced: Americans are being emotionally manipulated to take up cause with those whose ultimate purpose is the repeal of the First Amendment and erasure of national memory.

·         Why Are We Being Assaulted With Fringe Concerns?

·         Element 1: Loading the Language

·         Element 2: Using Distorted Language to Rub Resentments Raw

·         Alinskyite Cultivation of Hatred

·         Element 3: Mass Manipulation Via Mass-Media Propaganda

·         Media Collusion with Rioting

·         The End Result: Division and Loneliness

Conclusion: because of the gaslighting tactics of power elites, we are actually in the throes of a nervous breakdown.

It’s doesn’t make for fun reading, but it may help explain the daily “news” broadcasts - including all the violent images that seem to be running in endless loops - or some of the world-views of friends and relatives. Full article here. 

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Cat 4 storm

Hurricane Harvey plowed into the Texas coast as a Cat 4 storm. Lots of wind and rain and we send our thoughts to our Texas neighbors. Not to minimize the real dangers to Texans and the state of emergency, but here’s another take on the “Cat” storm classifications:

 

via Bookworm Room

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City Club Mayoral Candidates Forum

Today's City Club Mayoral Candidates Forum is now accessible on YouTube.

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Cleveland Browns: new ways to lose

At American Thinker today, Silvio Canto, Jr. comments on the dozen Cleveland Browns players who decided to follow Colin Kaepernick’s "example" at the game over the weekend:

Over the years, we've grown accustomed to the National Anthem to start sporting events.  It means that the umpire is about to say "play ball," or the referee is about to flip the coin.  It's like a prayer before dinner or one of those moments when you see the big picture, where you are part of something bigger than yourself.

A few days ago, some of the Cleveland Browns decided to create their 15 minutes of fame.  They decided to take a knee during the National Anthem.

Here is the story:

On Monday, before their game against the New York Giants, a dozen Cleveland Browns players took a knee during the playing of the national anthem while several players placed a hand on the shoulders of kneeling players in a show of support, ESPN reports.

"There's a lot of racial and social injustices in the world that are going on right now," Browns rookie safety Jabrill Peppers told ESPN. "We just decided to take a knee and pray for the people who have been affected and just pray for the world in general."

Players said linebacker Christian Kirksey led the prayer.

"We did it out of respect," Kirksey said. "No disrespect for anyone, we just felt like it was the right time and the need to do it."

No disrespect for anyone?  What about respect for the National Anthem or the flag?

. . . a 3-13 team projected to go 2-14 should be grateful that anyone pays to see them play or gives them a uniform to wear.

The Browns are finding more ways to be losers. Sad.

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