The Post-Partisan Emporium

  Our Fragile Infrastructure: Lessons from Hurricane Helene Ellen Brown Buncombe County North Carolina – damage after Hurricane Helene floods. NCDOTcommunications, CC BY 2.0  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0,  via Wikimedia Commons Asheville, North Carolina is known for its historic architecture, vibrant arts scene and as a gateway to the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was  a favorite escape  for “climate migrants” moving from California, Arizona, and other climate-challenged vicinities, until a “500 year flood” ravaged the city this fall. Hurricane Helene was a wakeup call not just for stricken North Carolina residents but for people across the country following their  tragic stories  in the media and in the podcasts now  favored by young voters  for news. “Preppers” well equipped with supplies watched in helpless disbelief as homes washed away in a wall of water and mud, taking emergency supplies in the storm.  Streets turned into rivers , and many businesses and homes suffered

  Face To Fasces Evil-doers do evil Radio Far Side "Destiny’s powerful hand has made the bed of my future, and it’s up to me to lie in it. I am destined to be a superhero, to right wrongs, and pound two-fisted justice into the hearts of evil-doers everywhere. You don’t fight destiny. No sir! And you don’t eat crackers in the bed of your future, or you get all… scratchy. Hey, I’m narrating here!" —  The Tick , 1994 As a freelance writer and editor, I work on a lot of high-level international documents. Though they are freely available on the interwebs, very few of us actual humans ever read them, and with good reason. If I didn’t get paid to do it, I would rather pull my own teeth with tweezers. These reports, roadmaps, frameworks, and studies clearly lay out the machinery of global governance. They go into excruciating detail on the legal and regulatory foundations for how governments blend with NGOs, blend with financial institutions, blend with “stakeholders” (how I detest