Articles by Herschel Smith

Please visit my new featured post, How Helene Affected The People Of Appalachia.

To begin with, this is your president. This ought to be one of the most shameful things ever said by a sitting president.

“Do you have any words to the victims of the hurricane?”

BIDEN: “We’ve given everything that we have.”

“Are there any more resources the federal government could be giving them?”

BIDEN: “No.” pic.twitter.com/jDMNGhpjOz

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 30, 2024

We must have spent too much money on Ukraine to help Americans in distress. I don’t generally advocate governmental control of anything, and following Biblical sphere law (State, Church and Family), communities and the church should be the first to respond and maybe the only ones.

But we’ve impoverished the middle class with taxes, and government has taken the role of both justice and grace/mercy (which is not its role). So if we’re going to have a FEMA, the least they could do is be present and do their jobs.

It’s a lie to say that no one can get there because of trees and road closures. The Billy Graham Association and Samaritan’s Purse were there within one day.

But on to the horrible affects to the fine people of Appalachia from storm Helene. This will be in flow of consciousness fashion, with some stunning video of both the storm and aftermath.

One of the most stunning things I’ve ever seen, provided by Reed Timmer.

Massive debris flow traveling at lightning speed in eastern TN! The preceding drought conditions followed by days of rain ahead of Hurricane Helene set the stage. This is incredibly rapid for a debris flow. pic.twitter.com/LhT2Dzos6B

— Reed Timmer, PhD (@ReedTimmerUSA) September 28, 2024

Black Mountain.

Chimney Rock.

From Lake Lure to Asheville.

I-40 damage.

Chopper9 arial video.

THREAD: Today we flew in Chopper9 for nearly 5 hours to get a look at the damage in Western North Carolina.
What we saw was devastating. @wsoctv
These are some of the images:

📍Riverside Dr NW Charlotte pic.twitter.com/pEJqaH5kQq

— Hannah Goetz (@HannahGoetztv) September 29, 2024

Nolichucky River and bridge collapse.

Arial video of Helene damage, especially Lake Lure.

I know all of these places well. Very well. It makes me very sad to see it.

Pray for the good folks of Appalachia. Pray for God’s mercy and grace, in spite of the malevolence of their government. Pray for communities and churches to step up.

I will continue to update this thread with more videos in the comments or as updates to this post.

I would appreciate it if readers added their own data, observations, videos and news reports.

Here is one such report of a good son.

It had been 48 hours since the winds and rains from Hurricane Helene ripped through western North Carolina and Sam Perkins still had not heard from his parents.

So, on Saturday morning, he got in his vehicle and started driving toward their home, nestled on a mountain between Spruce Pine and Little Switzerland, to find them.

“My parents live in an absolute gem of the North Carolina mountains,” Perkins said in a post about his experience. The area is about an hour’s drive from Asheville. “Under normal circumstances, it’s pleasantly very isolated,” he added.

“Little did I know that up there, Helene has demolished roads, homes and utility networks. This area is completely cut off from resources in every direction.”

More than 100 people are dead after Helene tore through the southeastern United States, including at least 30 in Buncombe County, where Asheville sits, according to CNN’s tally. North Carolina was hit hard: Days of unrelenting flooding have turned roads into waterways, left many stranded without basic necessities and strained state resources.

Gov. Roy Cooper called it “one of the worst storms in modern history.” While supplies have been deployed, at least 280 roads are still closed throughout the state, making it hard for officials to get them into areas in need, Cooper said.

When he realized how many roads were cut off, Perkins said, he left his vehicle near a closed highway at the bottom of the mountain and started hiking to his parents’ home.

“I tried every road route I could, but the roads, no matter where you go, are blocked by landslides or failures,” Perkins explained to CNN. “I can’t tell you how many failing roads and deep mudslides I had to cross, how many fallen trees I had to take off my backpack for and navigate through.”

While hiking, Perkins said, he ran into multiple people trapped due to the devastated highway. For more than three and a half hours, Perkins said he hiked 11 miles and 2,200 feet high to finally reach his parents’ home.

“I have never been so relieved to see anyone OK,” Perkins told CNN, adding his parents are in their 70s, but pretty resourceful people.

“I just hugged them, cried, filled them in on all the news they were missing … walked around the property, helped them decide how to approach some challenges.”

Perkins found his parents in decent health and their home was mostly fine, but they were effectively trapped, unable to hike down the mountain on foot, he said.

“They have food. They are pretty much out of water, but they have enough propane to boil once they start needing to,” Perkins told CNN on Sunday, noting power restoration may take weeks for their area.

After he found his parents on Saturday, fog and rain settled in and Perkins decided to head back down. “I didn’t want to use their supplies, so I went ahead and decided to trek back,” Perkins explained, adding on the way down, he was even able to hitch a ride on an undamaged portion of a road with someone in the community.

And that community is strong, he said: “Everything you would expect with Southern Hospitality.”

His mother was able to a send him a message earlier Sunday, and it mostly focused on trying to get supplies for her neighbors.

“I’m still processing it all. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Perkins said. “Power is a couple weeks out. I cannot fathom how long it will take (the Department of Transportation) to repair the curvy roads that hug the steep mountainsides.”

Sam Perkins is his name. Sam is a good man, unlike Joe Biden.

It is also of great concern to me how completely tied we are to cell phone and cell towers (we’ve all cancelled our land lines, although they may not have survived this either), local grocery stores, grid power, local medical care, and government assistance.

I have the necessities of course like most readers do, firearms and ammunition, water and means of filtration, freeze dried foods, generators, etc., etc.

But a lot of folks don’t, and even if you do have these things, they aren’t forever.

UPDATE #1:

Sam Perkins’ FB Post.

Gov. DeSantis launches Operation Blue Ridge. He’s a better man that Biden, of course.

Bat Cave, Ashville River.

Swannanoa.

I-40 & I-26 closure estimates and detours.

From a reader, as reported by Cowboy State Daily.

Early Thursday morning, archery hunter Landon Clement was backed up against a rock in the remote Upper Green River Basin, hoping and praying that the three grizzly bears that were 10 yards away would just walk away.

It was the most intense, terrifying moment he’s experienced in his 31 years, he told Cowboy State Daily.

The bears, a female with two large cubs, had come downhill on his left and turned to cross in front of him.

Although he already had his Glock 10mm semiautomatic drawn and leveled at the bears, all he wanted was for things to end peacefully.

“But that’s not what happened,” he said.

Instead, the mother grizzly charged Clement and sank her teeth into his left thigh, and he ended up shooting the bear to death.

“She lunged right at me,” he said. “I saw nothing but her head and her white teeth coming right at me.”

He described the attack was incredibly fast and violent, as the bear locked her jaws down on his leg and started shaking her head.

He was too pumped full of adrenaline to feel any pain, he said. That came later.

What struck him in that awful moment was the sheer force of the grizzly’s jaws.

“I did not feel the pain in the moment,” he said. “I could feel the force that it put on me. It felt like a freight train. I’ve never felt that much force in my life. It’s unbelievable that something could do that to me, and how fast it happened.”

Clement’s ordeal was the third time this hunting season that grizzlies in the region have attacked archery hunters, and the hunters used handguns to kill the bears in self-defense. The two previous incidents were in Idaho and Montana.

Clement said he considers himself lucky.

He suffered four deep puncture wounds to his thigh. Doctors at the Pinedale Clinic “stitched me up really good,” said Clement, who is from Blue Ridge, Georgia, but frequently hunts in the Upper Green River Basin near Pinedale.

They told him that he hadn’t suffered any permanent damage and should recover fully.

[ … ]

The four of them rode to a remote spot in a side-by-side, and then started hiking. Before long they split up. Clement’s father and cousin decided to keep going farther back in to do some scouting.

Quintrell and Clement selected good spots to set up and wait for elk to come within bow range. The two hunters were about 300 yards apart, with Quintrell downhill from Clement.

Clement found what he thought was the perfect spot, a large boulder with some deadfall timber leaning against it.

Then the bears came into full view.

“I knew right away it was grizzlies,” he said. I could see the shapes of their heads, the shoulder humps, everything.”

At first, it looked as if the bears would just keep going downslope, passing him by and leaving him with nothing but a great story to tell.

Then the grizzlies turned, taking a path that would put them right in front of him.

“When those bears cut down that trail and veered toward me, I knew I was probably going to have an issue,” Clement said.

So he drew his pistol.

“I was still backed up against the rock,” he said. “And when I realized that they were coming my way, I just backed up even further against that rock, I was practically glued to it.”

As the bears came up in front of him, his only hope was that they wouldn’t notice him and would keep going.

But they caught his scent.

“They stopped on a dime. All three of them, with their noses going in the air,” he said.

The mother grizzly locked in on him and silent tension exploded into absolute chaos as the bear charged Clement, and he opened fire.

The cubs bolted and ran off when the shooting started, and Clement and his companions never saw them again.

The mother grizzly’s attack was utterly ferocious, he said.

“She just leaped. She just charged right at me with her mouth wide open,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything move that fast, she covered that 10-12 yards in less than a second.

“When it came at me it was making this noise, not really growling, but more like a ‘huff, huff, huff.’”

Clement fired as fast as he could; he’s still not sure how many rounds.

“It bit into my left thigh, and it would not let go,” he continued. “It just bit into my thigh and starting shaking its head.”

It was then Clement he noticed that, although he was still pulling his pistol’s trigger, nothing was happening.

“As the bear was still clamped onto my leg, I was finally able to look down and see that my gun was jammed,” he said.

Clearing a jam in a semiautomatic pistol can be chore even under the best of circumstances on a shooting range.

Clement managed to do it with a 600-pound grizzly clamped on his leg trying to ragdoll him.

“Once I cleared the jam, I put the gun as close to its head as I could and shot a couple of more times,” he said. “It let go and rolled off me. I knew that I had killed that bear.”

Let’s stop right there. You can read the rest of the horrible story at Cowboy State Daily.

While I don’t like or own Glocks, they certainly have a reputation for being a reliable gun. This isn’t the first instance I’ve read about 10mm guns jamming (FTF, FTE) in all sorts of make and models. And then this happened.

As things started to settle down, “I looked down at my pistol, and it was jammed again,” he said.

“It jammed right after the kill shot,” Clement said. “If it had jammed again before then, I don’t know what I would have done. The Lord was looking out for me.”

I’ve also heard it said that you just have to test it out to find what ammo the gun “likes.” Okay, whatever. You know what? My 1911s like everything. Even the 1911 that I modified with the 22# spring to take 450 SMC will shoot lighter loads without complaints or hiccups.

With the possibility of shooting a .44 magnum wheel gun, or a 1911 shooting 450 SMC, or a modified gun shooting 460 Rowland, I don’t see the attraction of 10mm semiautomatic pistols. You know how to unjam a revolver, right? Pull the trigger again (assuming the cylinder isn’t locked for some reason).

I’m sure some readers will rush to the defense of the 10mm semiauto lineup, especially Glocks, but you have now heard this anecdotal evidence that there was something very wrong with this picture.

If you’re going to be in the bush, choose wisely.

Sadly, a lot of gun owners will believe her, especially 60+ year old Fudd upland bird hunters who only believe you have the right to own an over-under. Don’t get me wrong. I love a good over-under. That just has nothing at all to do with the RKBA.

Silence from the Harris campaign on this blockbuster. She wants to ban handguns entirely. Thats how much she "respects the Second Amendment." pic.twitter.com/bekCTnQZQ0

— Chuck Michel (@CRPAPresident) September 26, 2024

30 years ago, President Clinton signed the federal Assault Weapons Ban into law. During the 10 years it was in effect, people across our nation were far less likely to die in a mass shooting.

It is long past time to renew it. pic.twitter.com/CFESvc3Fw5

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) September 13, 2024

Kamala: “Just because you legally possess a gun in the sanctity of your locked home doesn't mean that we're not going to walk into that home and check to see if you're being responsible.”pic.twitter.com/PpFivXGzp8

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 18, 2024

David Codrea.

Some “gunfluencers,” those with a flaccid grasp of history, come out gushing to their followers every time increased gun sales numbers are announced, mistaking gun ownership and gun skills with fellowship and solidarity. That’s not only shallow and naïve, but it’s also ridiculous. “Diversity” is no guarantee for enhancing Second Amendment recognition.

I always have to smirk at the stupidity of the “gunfluencers” cheering when the enemy buys guns. I’m not a “gunfluencer.”

I don’t care that someone has guns. I care that they support the right to keep and bear arms.

Those are not the same thing at all.

Bad news from the ammo front.

The recent decision by China to halt the export of two critical components —nitrocellulose and antimony— has raised alarms within the U.S. ammunition manufacturing industry and among defense experts. These materials are indispensable in the production of propellant powder and primers, and their restriction threatens to create significant supply chain disruptions. As geopolitical tensions rise and global conflicts, like the war in Ukraine, drive up demand for ammunition, the U.S. faces an uncertain future in maintaining adequate ammunition supplies for both military and civilian markets.

Go read the rest at Ammoland.

And that’s not all. Even if this potential problem didn’t exist, there could be massive logistical problems on the horizon.

Late last week, the CEO of Flexport – one of largest US supply-chain logistics operators – warned that “the biggest wild card in the presidential election that nobody’s talking about? The looming port strike that could shut down all East and Gulf Coast ports just 36 days before the election.”

With just over a week to go until D-Day, authorities are gearing up as a threatened strike by dockworkers at ports along the East Coast and Gulf Coast draws closer.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is “coordinating with partners across the supply chain to prepare for any impacts” from a possible work stoppage by workers represented by the International Longshoremen’s Association as they negotiate with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), a Port Authority spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch on Friday.

[ … ]

According to the union, a strike would affect ports from Maine to Texas, and cripple supply-chains worse than the immediate aftermath of the covid shutdown. A stoppage – the first since 1977 – could involve up to 45,000 workers at ports that account for roughly 60% of U.S. shipping traffic, leading to a major disruption of shipments, Oxford Economics said in a report.

“Even a two-week strike could disrupt supply chains until 2025,” Grace Zwemmer, associate U.S. economist with Oxford, said in the report.

Then there’s always the potential for more gun control efforts within the White House, and the ever-present issue ammunition shortages right around election time.

You get the point. If you want more ammunition for whatever reason, now is the time to be thinking about it.

News from Florida.

A Florida sheriff’s deputy allegedly shot and killed his girlfriend while he was showing her how to clean the gun, according to reports.

Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy Leslie Boileau, who had been drinking, was showing his girlfriend, Polina Wright, 25, how to clean an AR-style rifle on Thursday when the gun discharged a loaded round into her forehead, according to the Ocala Police Department.

News from the FedGov.

WASHINGTON — A U.S. Secret Service (USSS) agent accidentally shot and injured himself Saturday evening. He is expected to survive.

According to USSS, the agent was on duty during the “negligent discharge” while he was handling his weapon shortly before 8 p.m. in the area of 32nd and Fessenden streets Northwest. His injuries were not life threatening, and the officer was taken to a hospital for evaluation and treatment. USSS says no one else was injured in the incident.

Fiddling with your weapons, muzzle flagging people, ammunition in proximity to guns being cleaned instead of another room, no trigger discipline, and on and on the failures go.

It’s a good thing they aren’t really supposed to protect us according to numerous court precedents. With friends like that, who needs enemies?

You’re never in more danger than when you are around police. There is no situation so bad that it cannot be made worse by the presence of the police.

Yet again someone has had to file an open carry bill for Florida.

A Labor Day weekend glass bottle attack of two Pennsylvania students wearing yarmulkes has prompted Rep. Randy Fine, R-Brevard, to renew his pledge to file legislation to repeal Florida’s “gun-free zone” for state college and university campuses.

Fine’s pledge comes in the wake of gun activists filing a federal lawsuit in South Florida to have Florida’s open-carry ban declared unconstitutional, and after Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican Legislature earlier this year eliminated a requirement for a concealed weapon permit to carry firearms in public.

Gunowners of America, which filed the lawsuit, said this year’s changes in Florida gun regulations did not go far enough and criticized DeSantis for not pushing for further expansion of Second Amendment rights.

Fine has stepped into the middle of the standoff between Second Amendment activists and Republican lawmakers.

GOA Florida Director Louis Valdes said open carry and campus carry top the group’s agenda for the 2025 legislative session.

But there is more. Here is a court complaint on open carry, and here is the default judgment after there was no response by the state.

But somehow with the awful controllers there in Florida, I don’t think we’ve seen the end of this. I know what they’re thinking. They worry about their tourism income, but so did South Carolina (in the beach area) and yet they have seen no change whatsoever and no vapid, panicked phone calls to the police about a man carrying a gun.

We’ll see where this all goes. I will follow Florida open carry just like I always have. It’s one of the few states left with laws against open carry, and both the state legislature and Ron Desantis should be ashamed of themselves.

David Codrea.

In June, instead of producing what was asked for, the FBI returned copies of two nonresponsive Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) sections anyone can pull off the internet. Neither even remotely address the scope of the request.

“It’s clear that the FBI has no intention of responding, which makes fair another question,” I observed. “Why?”

The final straw came this Tuesday, when my attorney Stephen Stamboulieh, received a response from DOJ’s Administrative Appeals Staff Chief Christina Troiani in which she told him, “After carefully considering your appeal, I am affirming the FBI’s action on your client’s request… I have determined that the FBI’s response was correct and that it conducted an adequate, reasonable search for responsive records subject to the FOIA.”

To paraphrase, we’re not going to tell you. Deal with it.

The Congress could get involved, but honestly, there is a way to conclusively and decisively deal with this. Defund the FBI. Remove all funds for operation and salaries forthwith.

That would stop the infringements, but since they fear the FBI, just like they fear the CIA, they won’t do it.

So the problem will continue.

This is not what the founders intended, and not what the covenant and contract with America called the BoR says.

Me neither.

They’ve run for years from this issue like scared little girls and will continue to do so.