AT LEAST IT’S NOT A PEARL NECKLACE: ‘Border czar’ Kamala Harris panned for wearing reported $62K necklace to southern border: ‘You look ridiculous.’

SALENA ZITO: Appalachia: A ballad of the unseen.

Think East Palestine, Ohio, where a train derailed in 2021. The media were slow to show up, and the White House took weeks to acknowledge it. President Joe Biden famously went to Ukraine at the height of the Ohio crisis, and he took a year to show up in the Columbiana County village forever changed by the incident and subsequent controlled burn of toxic chemicals that left still-unknown effects on communal health.

There are a handful of “large” cities in Appalachia, with Pittsburgh being the largest. Others are Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Huntsville, Alabama; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Erie, Pennsylvania; Youngstown, Ohio; and Asheville, North Carolina.

The region also is home to state-recognized Native American tribal communities in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, New York, and North Carolina. . . .

In the days since Hurricane Helene hit the heart of Appalachian Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, it has been remarkable to see, once again, the news media barely mentioning the devastating impact that has destroyed a large chunk of the region. As of Monday, there were 116 confirmed deaths as a result of the storm. The hardest hit county was Buncombe, North Carolina, which includes Asheville, where at least 35 people died.

The number of people missing as of publication in one county in North Carolina alone has reached 600. The people have been cut off from the world more than they usually are. Cell service, which has always been well below national averages, is almost nonexistent, and entire communities have been physically cut off because of downed bridges and washed-out roadways. Power is out, access to water and food supply is also cut off, and entire blocks of homes and business districts are now memories.

The images of cars, homes, and bridges being swept away, along with people desperate for water, food, and shelter, have been hard to consume. We are looking at our fellow citizens, our neighbors, and our families, and not understanding where the help is. We also don’t understand where the national news has been, as the story of Helene has earned scant coverage from NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. Only Fox, which has a lot of local affiliates spread out across the region, was on top of the story.

So why is that? Well, in part, this region has no center of power among U.S. cultural curators; no Hollywood studios, only a few corporate headquarters compared to those located in places such as New York and Washington; and no big centers of wealth. . . .

Nonetheless, despite the lack of political power, the people of Appalachia are more likely to be the first to sign up to serve their country, and they place value in faith, place, and community.

In 2012, when Hurricane Sandy slammed the East Coast and affected New York and New Jersey, the national media covered the devastation that came with it nonstop, and the White House was quick to respond. Conversely, when Oliver Anthony sang his haunting ballad “Rich Men North of Richmond” last year, it was the people of Appalachia of all races, who sang along.

When reports started flickering through X over the weekend about Helene’s devastation, both David Axelrod and Brandon Friedman, former Obama administration officials, immediately pointed to climate change, an issue elites often blame on the very working class who work in the industries they disapprove of.

Read the whole thing.

UNEXPECTEDLY:

The German family who hosted fake Muslim asylum seeker wants to send him away but he doesn't want to leave and takes a knife: "It's my home now!" pic.twitter.com/ufY2TyLHvp

— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) September 29, 2024

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China launches reusable Shijian-19 satellite for space breeding and technology tests.

DOING THE JOBS AMERICAN PRESIDENTS WON’T DO: Gov. DeSantis launches ‘Operation Blue Ridge’ to help rescue Floridians trapped in North Carolina. “He said that thousands of rescue missions were successfully completed across the state, and now that those are behind us, Florida crews will head north to rescue Floridians trapped in western North Carolina in ‘Operation Blue Ridge’. ‘Operation Blue Ridge’ puts people from the State Guard, the National Guard, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on the ground in western North Carolina, which was devastated by flooding from Hurricane Helene.”

Flashback: Ron DeSantis has emerged as America’s awesome ‘shadow president.’

WOW: Boil water notice in effect for Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Virginia Tech and Montgomery County.

WELL, YES:

It’s been 2 months since the media conceded Biden was mentally gone, party donors crowned Kamala, and for all practical purposes Kamala became acting President.

Kamala’s failed response—or lack thereof—to Hurricane Helene proves in the most tragic way she’s unfit to be POTUS.

— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) September 30, 2024

COLOR ME UNSURPRISED: Position of Defibrillator Pads Makes a Huge Difference to Restarting Hearts.

CHANGE: New: Israel Launches Limited Ground Op as Lebanese Army Hits Reverse.

MICROBIOME NEWS: Gut Bacteria Form Communities To Outsmart Medications, New Study Finds.

MY SERVICE IS STILL FINE. But I was at the Verizon store today to pick up my my new iPhone 16 Pro (review forthcoming) and there was a steady stream of people who had no service. When will the Verizon outage be fixed? Here’s what we know.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Preterm births rising in United States. “The rise dovetailed with an increase in some factors that make an early delivery more likely, including rates of diabetes, sexually transmitted infections and mental health conditions, along with a corresponding decline in factors that protect against it.”

A VERY OLD KIND OF WISDOM: “It’s a very old kind of ‘wisdom’ that the contemporary world has walked past.”

IT ONLY AFFECTS ICKYY RED-STATERS THEY’D RATHER DIED OUT ANYWAY: The entire Biden-Harris Cabinet is missing in action on Hurricane Helene disaster response.. “Zero Cabinet-level officials are on the ground in the American South.”

UPDATE (From Ed): Missing in action?! Why the man himself says he was “commanding” — and  on the phone for two hours!

"I was on the phone for two hours" as a response to Americans dying in floods ought to be remembered as one of the most shameful statements ever uttered by an American president. https://t.co/VbEe7uey3p

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) September 30, 2024

KAMALA’S KATRINA:

Reporter calls out Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for not being in DC to coordinate the Hurricane Helene response.

Biden spent the weekend in Delaware, while Kamala was fundraising in California pic.twitter.com/E79TuUgdek

— Media Research Center (@theMRC) September 30, 2024

WE’VE SEEN HOW ISRAEL WEAPONIZED PAGERS, CAN’T LET CHINA WEAPONIZE OUR CARS: Is your car safe? Biden’s new ban could wipe Chinese tech off the road. “While the full report can be found on the Department of Commerce notice, the breakdown by the White House highlighted systems which could control or correct vehicle movement, any data collection on driver and/or passengers, all cameras, sensors, autonomous driving software, and anything which could record and/or send information about American infrastructure.”

ELAINE BENES SMILES: What causes positive drug tests? It’s not just drugs… or poppy seeds. Experts say rapid testing for controlled substances isn’t always accurate.

IT’S WORKING FOR ME: Massive Verizon outage — live updates and what to do with iPhone in SOS.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY:

NEW: Privately owned helicopters are delivering supplies to stranded victims as the government is "nowhere to be found" after Hurricane Helene demolished the Southeast.

Locals are volunteering their time and money to help Americans in need.

"Today, myself and my family cooked… pic.twitter.com/Ur9v04N9sp

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 30, 2024

Related:

@NC_Governor post videos from some kind of safe, isolated operation room or podium.@GovRonDeSantis is on the ground everywhere

Am I being unfair? Maybe it's not safe for the governor of North Carolina to be oit there. let's see what happens in the next couple days.

I sense… pic.twitter.com/oPzIcJKwmH

— Never Tread on Me Vikov (@NeverTreadOnWe) September 30, 2024

Also related:

CHEERFUL NEWS: Your cells are dying. All the time.

BUGS, THEY’RE JUST LIKE US! Like human shoppers, bees have irrational biases when choosing flowers to feed on.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: VA makes emergency telemedicine available nationwide.

SHOT:

The modern economy rests on a single road in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. The road runs to the two mines that is the sole supplier of the quartz required to make the crucibles needed to refine silicon wafers.

There are no alternative sources known. From Conway’s Material World: pic.twitter.com/mYfrfub8dw

— Ethan Mollick (@emollick) March 9, 2024

CHASER:

I have asked for pictures on facebook. I joined the Let’s Talk #SprucePine #NC page. 12K+ Hundreds of families have loved ones unaccounted for…the roads into Spruce Pine are not passable. Bridges are collapsed. People are scared and desperate. Spruce Pine needs the… pic.twitter.com/FttEYIW3Ai

— Gretchen Smith🇺🇸 (@MAGAgpsmith) September 28, 2024

UPDATE (From Ed):

You’re about to hear “don’t politicize hurricanes” from the people who ran on “George Bush hates black people because Katrina” https://t.co/PBXt3qIA59

— Auron MacIntyre (@AuronMacintyre) September 30, 2024

DEMOCRATS ARE VIOLENT CHILDREN, CONT’D: Kari Lake’s daughter assaulted at Arizona State U. voter registration drive.