'What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts'

The post Do Cats Get Seasick? Vet-Reviewed Facts & Info by Ashley Bates appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com. Click to Skip Ahead Seasickness/Motion Sickness Explained How to Tell If Your Cat Is Getting Sick How to Reduce Motion Sickness Everyone gets a little uneasy sometimes when their body is being tossed this way and that. Some animals get motion sickness far easier than others. If you’re wondering if cats get seasick, or motion sick, the answer is they absolutely can! In this article, we’re going to explore a little bit more about motion sickness and ways that you can curb your cat’s queasiness. Seasickness/Motion Sickness Explained Seasickness is a form of motion sickness, and most motion sickness in cats is due to the anxiety and stress caused by traveling. They are being taken out of their normal environment and placed into a moving vehicle where everything feels very unsafe, potentially causing major insecurity. To make things worse, the only place a lot of cats go is to stressful situations in themselves, such as the veterinarian or groomer, making their anxiety related to travel even greater. Often, reducing a cat’s anxiety or stress when traveling will help, but not all solutions for motion sickness are so simple. Every cat responds differently to environmental stimuli. If your cat is sick every single time they get on a boat or in the car, time itself might not help too much. However, if they are a kitten or simply not acclimated to the process of traveling, they might just need a little time to get accustomed to it. Motion sickness can also be due to overstimulation of the inner ear, something that can happen with increased movement, such as from a car or boat. This is why it’s important to talk to your vet if your cat experiences motion sickness in order to get the best treatment. Speak To a Vet Online From the Comfort of Your Couch! If you need to speak with a vet but can’t get to one, head over to PangoVet. It’s an online service where you can talk to a vet online and get the personalized advice you need for your pet — all at an affordable price! Click to Speak With a Vet How to Tell If Your Cat Is Getting Sick It’s relatively easy to tell if a cat is getting sick. They might start acting restless, overly vocalizing, and even dry heaving. While you might already know, here are a few things to look out for so you can be prepared for your cat’s sickness. Signs of motion sickness can include: Drooling Lip-licking Distressed meowing Shifting or moving around There is often quite a bit of time in between the first signs of motion sickness to when your animal actually vomits. Some pets may not vomit but may continue to salivate and vocalize along the way. Image Credit: catinrocket, Shutterstock How to Reduce Motion Sickness There are several methods you can utilize to curb most of the issues related to motion sickness in cats. Below are a couple things you can do to make sure that your cat is comfortable and jitter-free for the ride. Empty Stomach It’s best to make sure that your cat’s tummy is empty before any boat or car rides. They can get a lot sicker if they have something in their stomach to throw up. While adequate hydration is important, having food sitting in the gut can actually make the motion sickness more intense, so plan their feedings accordingly. Image Credit: ela_elarts, Shutterstock Anxiety Supplements There are plenty of anti-anxiety medicines on the market. If your cat gets sick due to motion they may need to have some type of medication to soothe their spirits during travel. You should always talk to your vet before giving your cat any medication, including anxiety supplements. While you will find a number of choices over-the-counter, be sure to speak to your vet first to make sure your choice is a good one for your cat. If your cat’s anxiety is significant, you might need a prescription medication to help during this time. Desensitization Sometimes desensitization can lower anxiety levels. This means taking your cat for car rides, or other means of travel, frequently and for short durations. Short, frequent trips can help your kitty gain their sea legs and feel more comfortable with the whole situation.  As your cat starts to feel better about the whole thing, you can increase the length of the trips. This includes desensitization to the carrier as well. Before ever taking their first trip, your cat should be completely at ease being in their carrier. To help them get accustomed to it, start by leaving it out and open around your house. Encourage your cat to use it by putting a comfortable bed and some of their favorite items in it. As they become comfortable using it, you can start to shut the door while they’re in there for short periods. Gradually increase the amount of time they are shut in and then start to pick them up and move them around in it. Once this becomes second nature to them, you can start putting them in the carrier and then moving them to the car. While this doesn’t work in every case, it can if you believe the motion sickness is caused primarily by jitters. Image Credit: Creative Cat Studio, Shutterstock Offer Fresh Water Whenever you can, offer fresh, clean, cool water during travel. Keeping your pet hydrated can help significantly with motion sickness. Having a water bottle that clips to the carrier can really help with this. Keep the Car Comfortable The car should not be too hot or cold. Try to keep a very friendly temperature to ensure the comfort of your kitty. Keep in mind that air blowing directly on them can cause distress as well, so always make sure to cool or heat the car before your cat gets in. Add a Favorite Item Sometimes, everyone needs a little reassurance. If your cat is having trouble acclimating to the new environment, you might try bringing something that they like or that smells like home. Whether this is a favorite toy, a blanket, or something else that is very familiar, it can help reduce and alleviate a lot of that stress. Keep in mind that if your cat does get sick, whatever item you choose should be easy to wipe down, in case they accidentally vomit on the item. Conclusion Now you understand the process of seasickness or motion sickness in cats a little better. It is perfectly normal for cats to feel this way, especially if they aren’t acclimated to traveling. However, with proper preparation, they will typically become better adjusted to travel, especially if you expose them to it frequently. Don’t let their motion sickness keep you from putting them in the car as more frequent exposure can actually alleviate a lot of the issue. Also see: Can Cats Swim? Truths & Myths About Felines (Vet-Reviewed) Sources https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/motion-sickness-in-cats https://www.merckvetmanual.com/cat-owners/brain-spinal-cord-and-nerve-disorders-of-cats/motion-sickness-in-cats https://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/digestive/c_ct_motion_sickness Featured Image Credit: Mertframe, Shutterstock The post Do Cats Get Seasick? Vet-Reviewed Facts & Info by Ashley Bates appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com.

On Monday, nearly 50,000 workers at 36 ports with the International Longshoremen’s Association began striking, the latest failure of Biden-Harris economic policies.  The workers are demanding higher pay, a backlash against the record 20% cumulative inflation under the failed leadership of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.  This strike could have major inflationary effects as it affects a shocking half of the country’s goods. Depending on the severity of the strike, it could play a major role in November’s elections—an October surprise, of sorts.  A prolonged strike could create price spikes, even as inflation and elevated prices starting in 2021 are still hurting consumers. That would unfold as wholesalers and retailers are already expected to pass higher transportation and shipping costs to consumers. It’s no secret that Biden and Harris’ White House has been an economic disaster for all Americans, especially for low-income and middle-class Americans, because inflation is essentially a tax. Poorer and working-class Americans are hit the hardest because they spend a greater proportion of their incomes on consumer goods.  Depending on how long this strike lasts, it could have a significant impact on family budgets. Under the strike, cargo stuck in ports doesn’t make it to store shelves, leaving fewer options and supply chain disruptions. Fresh and perishable foods could be lost. Former President Donald Trump noted the contrast in a statement released after the strike began:  “The situation should have never come to this and, had I been President, it would not have. This is only happening because of the inflation brought on by Kamala Harris’ two votes for massive, out-of-control spending, and her decision to cut off energy exploration.” As economist Stephen Moore notes, during Biden’s nearly four years in office, inflation is up roughly 20%, but during Trump’s four-year term, inflation rose a much smaller 8%. As other observers noted, while protectionism can raise prices and should be avoided, Trump’s relentless focus on building American-made goods also protects against the shock of disruptions to foreign-produced supply chains. And protectionism is not the same as ensuring that foreign countries engaging in unfair trade practices are held directly accountable. “Americans who thrived under President Trump can’t even get by because of Kamala Harris. This strike is a direct result of her actions,” Trump continued. “American workers should be able to negotiate for better wages, especially since the shipping companies are mostly foreign-flag vessels, including the largest consortium ONE.” (The Singapore-based ONE is the sixth-largest shipping company in the world, according to Politico.) The strike could cause furloughs and job losses because jobs connected to ports could be affected, including truckers delivering goods, warehouse workers, manufacturers, and other workers dependent on the ports. These workers could be furloughed or let go if the strike is prolonged. That’s why it’s not surprising we are witnessing generational shifts among blue-collar workers, including Teamsters union workers (breaking from their union leadership), trending toward Republicans like Trump. It’s because Harris’ policies–which are indistinguishable from Biden’s policies, according to the White House—are a disaster for working-class Americans, and the dock strike is a case in point. This generational shift is a significant blow for Democrats, who have taken organized labor for granted for decades. Over the past 10 years, the Republican Party has shifted to the working-class party in many areas. This came following record household wealth and income gains seen under the Trump administration (prior to COVID-19 shocks) among women, black, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. These gains came thanks in part to the 2017 tax-reform bill passed by a Republican Congress and signed into law by Trump. In the battleground state of Arizona, new polling from Suffolk University and USA Today found that 29% of black voters are going to vote for Donald Trump. That’s a significant shift away from Democrats for black voters, with Harris garnering only 67% of black support in that state. (Historically, nationally, black voters often break 90% or more for Democrats.) Nationwide, including projections for all battleground states, RealClearPolitics’ estimates place Trump with 281 Electoral College votes and Harris with 257, with 270 needed to win. The dock strike could continue to shift those trends further toward Trump, what with Harris’ inflationary policies. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Dock Strikers Demand Higher Wages to Offset Biden-Harris Inflation appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Seriously, Who Is Running the Country Right Now?

Politico loves the smell of Lawfare in the morning.  The Playbook team of Eugene Daniels and Rachael "Impeachmas" Bade was so excited about this newly unsealed Jack Smith filing designed to harm Donald Trump that they blatantly declared that this Smith filing was "The first October surprise of 2024." Let us now join Daniels and Bade gleefully delighting in Smith's "mountain of evidence" against Trump. THE UNTOLD SECRETS OF JAN. 6 — It looks like we have October Surprise No. 1, courtesy of a man you may have forgotten about: special counsel JACK SMITH. Yesterday, in an unsealed legal filing, Smith gave his most complete look yet at the mountain of evidence he’s amassed against Trump in the case laying out his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. In recent American history, there are probably few moments that have been more scrutinized than the months leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, and yet the filing’s 165 pages were filled with new details and anecdotes. (That’s in part because Smith, unlike other investigators, spent more than a year knocking down Trump’s immunity claims and following lines of inquiry that none of the other investigations were able to.) Did Smith's filing very conveniently overlook the transcripts released on September 20 by the Committee on Administration that President Donald Trump told Mark Milley on January 3, 2021 to use the National Guard or regular army soldiers to ensure the Capitol would be safe on January 6 of that year? Probably  not since that would serve to ruin the narrative presented by the very political Jack Smith hyped by his Politico acolytes. Daniels and Bade also reviewed the downbeat legal angle followed by their upbeat hopeful blatant political angle. — The legal angle: If it wasn’t already clear, there’s no way this case is going to trial this year. Trump’s lawyers don’t even want to respond to Smith’s claims in court until late November, Josh reported last night — three weeks after the election. And if Trump wins, well, that’s lights out for Smith. — The political angle: While Trump’s trials were helpful in coalescing the Republican Party around him during the GOP primary, it’s much more complicated for the general election, where both Trump’s legal imbroglios and attempt to overturn the results of a free and fair election are not viewed favorably by the voters who are likely to prove decisive. Daniels and Bade conclude that while it would be unseemly for the Harris campaign, at least in public, to comment on the Smith filing, Harris surrogates and other Democrats could go full October Surprise politics to hype it. Remember, officially there is nothing at all political about Jack Smith's October surprise despite Politico pretty much announcing that it is absolutely political and loving every anti-Trump tidbit. But much will depend on how the Harris campaign and Democrats actually use what’s in the filing to drive home their points about Trump’s return to the White House. So far, the campaign has been mum. When President JOE BIDEN was at the top of the ticket, he was always extremely careful to not comment on ongoing cases so as not to be credibly accused of putting his finger on the scale. Harris is expected to handle it the same way, aides tell Playbook. While she has repeatedly brought up Trump’s criminal indictments on the campaign trail, it’s exclusively on the 37 counts on which he was actually found guilty in court. We wouldn’t expect that to change in the next month. But, that’s not going to stop other Democrats and Harris surrogates from using the filing as a reminder of the messiness and chaos of the Trump years. Thank you for that helpful suggestion, Politico, for those outside the Harris campaign to go full bore on hyping Smith's utterly political "October Surprise" filing. 

As part of the launch of her new book, former First Lady Melania Trump put out a video where she broke with pro-lifers and spouted her own pro-abortion stance. But according to some of the cast members of ABC’s The View, Melania couldn’t possibly hold personal opinions that run contrary to her husbands or the political party she’s not a member of. Instead, they suggested that it was part of some GOP plot to trick voters about the Republican position on abortion. The suggestion that Melania’s position was just “a big scam” came from co-host Joy Behar. But she couldn’t get her argument straight. She flip-flopped between claiming it was ploy to help her husband get elected but also, at the same time, she hated him: So, 62 percent of Americans oppose overthrowing Roe v. Wade, 62 percent. The Republican Party knows this. I think they put her up to this. I think it's a big scam. They put her out there, you know, as the face of, like, the American population that wants to have abortion rights, and they figure, well, maybe, you know, she'll talk him into – The only problem she doesn't talk to him. “But besides that, I think that this is just a big lie. It’s another lie from that area. Don't buy it,” she proclaimed. Faux conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin noted that “even though it was written a while ago,” the release of Melania’s opinion was “strategic” to the election. “I think they think this is going to give Republicans permission or independence to be like, ‘oh, I guess I could vote for him because people who support abortion can,’” she said. But she also pointed out that “this actually doesn't put her out of step with all modern Republican first ladies. Laura Bush, Barbara Bush were all actually pro-choice themselves and had declared that on the record before.”     She then dubbed this another “hypocrisy” of the Republican Party since the story didn’t cause them to abandon their candidate a month before the election. “But in the Trump-era if any other national Republican candidate running for president, if their spouse came out and said, ‘I am pro-choice and I even support late term abortion,’ their career would be over,” she huffed. Co-host Sunny Hostin used dangerous language when suggesting what Melania did was actually her trying to hurt her husband. “I also think that she wants to take him out! She does not want to be the first lady. Anymore,” she proclaimed, just weeks after the second assassination attempt on former President Trump’s life. Pretend moderate co-host Sara Haines proposed that “Trump probably feels like Melania” but because “he made promises and deals with the Devil” he now “has to pay up” to the pro-lifers who helped elect him the first time. As NewsBusters has previously shown, Haines is not only pro-abortion, she’s seemingly anti-pro-lifer. Last December, she suggested it was “God’s will” that pro-lifers die rather than receive life-saving cancer treatments. In recent days, Melania had become something of a common topic of discuss for the liberal ladies and some of their past claims contradict what they’re saying now. A whole week prior, they were mocking the Trump marriage for being dysfunctional; which doesn’t seem to fit their new narrative that she was doing this to help him. Two weeks ago, they were trying to say Melania represented the entire Republican Party after racy photos of her resurfaced. On a related note, moderator Whoopi Goldberg had the nerve to "all of those Christians and Catholics out there" that the only "human being" impacted by abortion is the mom. "Is this the way Jesus wants you to be? Is this the way Jesus wants you to act?" she chided, going on to suggest they didn’t care about the struggles people go through.   Whoopi lectures "all of those Christians and Catholics out there" that the only "human being" impacted by abortion is the mom. "Is this the way Jesus wants you to be? Is this the way Jesus wants you to act?" She also suggests that religious folks don't care about folks' struggles pic.twitter.com/8L6JSg8hle — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) October 3, 2024   The real hypocrisy comes from The View as their framing of Melania rapidly shifts depending on what’s needed in the moment. And while they wanted to keep the focus on the Republican candidate’s spouse, they refused to talk about Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff being accused of slapping a former girlfriend after drinking heavily during a date. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View October 3, 2024 11:04:20 a.m. Eastern (…) SARA HAINES: I actually think Trump probably feels like Melania does but made a lot of promises – cause he used to be pro-choice and he used to be more of a Democrat. I think he made promises and deals with the Devil and has to pay up and that’s why he can't quite figure out which way he's going. But I do think this could affect enthusiasm for people that are voting on this one issue. JOY BEHAR: So, 62 percent of Americans oppose overthrowing Roe v. Wade, 62 percent. The Republican Party knows this. I think they put her up to this. I think it's a big scam. They put her out there, you know, as the face of, like, the American population that wants to have abortion rights, and they figure, well, maybe, you know, she'll talk him into – The only problem she doesn't talk to him. [Laughter] But – Probably. But besides that, I think that this is just a big lie. It’s another lie from that area. Don't buy it. ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: By the way, I bet this is coming to a Kamala Harris ad near you very soon that Melania Trump is in favor of not just abortion rights, she goes on to defend late term abortion. She goes into great detail in the book about it. HAINES: Cause she understands why less than one percent do that, just to be clear. FARAH GRIFFIN: Yes. And I think that it's a couple of things. Well, for one, this actually doesn't put her out of step with all modern Republican first ladies. Laura Bush, Barbara Bush were all actually pro-choice themselves and had declared that on the record before. But in the Trump-era if any other national Republican candidate running for president, if their spouse came out and said, ‘I am pro-choice and I even support late term abortion,’ their career would be over. But underscores the hypocrisy with Trump in that just nothing matters within the Republican Party at this point. BEHAR: Nothing. No. FARAH GRIFFIN: I think it's twofold. I agree. I think it's strategic even though it was written a while ago. I think they think this is going to give Republicans permission or independence to be like, ‘oh, I guess I could vote for him because people who support abortion can’ but it's also money. Who was going to buy this book outside of MAGA die-hards. But now it's buzzy, now we're talking about it because she's putting stuff out that’s more interesting. So – BEHAR: You agree with me. FARAH GRIFFIN: I do agree with you. HOSTIN: I have a different take. BEHAR: All right. Well, go right ahead, missy. HOSTIN: I think she – I think she hates him. BEHAR: Yeah. Well, yeah. HOSTIN: Okay, so we can all agree on that. BEHAR: That’s a given. HOSTIN: That's a given. I also think that she wants to take him out! She does not want to be the first lady. Anymore. [Applause] BEHAR: They agree with you. HOSTIN: She doesn’t want to be the first lady. (…)

I reported last week about the decided move of young women to the political left and away from the religious affiliation of their childhood. But these measures, at least in the short run, do not appear to be relevant to the success young women are having in day-to-day living in America. By measures such as work and academic achievement, young women are doing much better than young men. Regarding work, as recently reported in The Wall Street Journal, more young women are now working than ever. The workforce participation rate of women ages 25-34, the percentage working or actively seeking work, stood at 78.5%, up nearly 6 percentage points from where it stood 10 years ago. The picture regarding young men in this age range is far different. The workforce participation rate of young men ages 25-34 stood at 89.1%, down several points from where it stood 20 years ago. At the rate of 2004, another 700, 000 men in this age range today would be working. The article reports that, per the Census Bureau, 20% of these young men are living with their parents, compared to 12% of women. If we look at education, we get a similar picture. As reported recently in Forbes Magazine, per data from the Chronicle of Higher Education, the gap between the number of women and the number of men enrolled in college has grown markedly over the years. In 2021, there were 3.1 million more women enrolled in college than men. In 1979, this gap stood at 200,000. Regarding high school graduation rates, in 2021, for 30 states that break out their data by gender, the graduation rate of women exceeded that of men by 6.2 percentage points. Among those ages 16-24 who graduated high school from January to October 2023, the percentage of girls going on to enroll in college was 8 points higher than the percentage of boys. Graduation rates of women from college exceeded that of men in 2022 by 6 percentage points. Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the suicide rate in the United States increased almost 37% from 2000 to 2022. However, in 2022, the suicide rate among men was four times higher than among women. However, an apparent counterfactual to all this is the rate of incidence of depression, as reported by Gallup. Per Gallup, the incidence of reported depression in the United States is at an all-time high. In 2023, 17.8% of Americans reported currently being depressed or being treated for depression. This compared to 10.5% in 2015. Twenty-nine percent reported having been treated for depression at some time in their life. This compared to 19.6% in 2015. However, the percentage of women reporting in 2023 to be depressed or being treated for depression, 23.8%, is double that of men, 11.3%. Further, the percent of women reporting depression or being treated for depression was 6.2 points higher in 2023 than in 2017, compared to an increase among men of 2 points. What conclusions might be drawn from all of this? Americans, overall, are stressed out in increasing numbers. Even though women are doing better than men coping materially in our country's increasingly hedonistic society, it's not working for them spiritually. Women are hard-wired, at least in the short run, to materially cope better than men in a spiritual vacuum. Men need the responsibility that comes with meaning, and most often, the source of meaning is marriage, family and religion. The declining appreciation for the importance of faith is taking a disproportionate toll among men. But beyond all this, the data points to one important conclusion, simple and obvious, but increasingly obfuscated in our very confused, politically correct society of today. Men and woman are different.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his order to send the National Guard to end a damaging union strike at ports on the Gulf Coast. 'It is unacceptable for the Biden-Harris administration to allow supply chain interruptions to hurt people.' DeSantis made the announcement on Thursday, only two days after the International Longshoremen's Association began a strike meant to pressure the United States Maritime Alliance into bending to the union's demands. "At my direction, the Florida National Guard and the Florida State Guard will be deployed to critical ports affected by the strike to maintain order and, where possible, resume operations," he said to reporters Thursday from Manatee County. "It is unacceptable for the Biden-Harris administration to allow supply chain interruptions to hurt people who are reeling from a category 4 hurricane," he added. He went on to announce various other emergency measures meant to aid disaster relief efforts in the wake of the massive damage from Hurricane Helene. He also said that there have been 15 confirmed fatalities in the state of Florida but that he expects the actual number of fatalities to climb much higher. The union represents more than 40,000 workers at ports on the East Coast and the Gulf Coast. The ILA union is demanding a steep pay raise and also a ban on automation that would make ports far more efficient but may decrease demand for dockworkers. Critics of the strike have accused the union of using force and damaging the economy in order to stand in the way of progress and efficiency. The president, however, issued a statement blaming the greed of the shipping industry. “As our nation climbs out of the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, dockworkers will play an essential role in getting communities the resources they need," said President Joe Biden (D). "Now is not the time for ocean carriers to refuse to negotiate a fair wage for these essential workers while raking in record profits.”Former President Donald Trump signaled that he also sided with the dockworkers. “American workers should be able to negotiate for better wages, especially since the shipping companies are mostly foreign-flag vessels," he said. Video of the governor's address can be viewed on the news report from WTSP-TV on YouTube. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, announced on Wednesday temporary flight restrictions "near or around rescue and recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene."Buttigieg stated, "Our goal is to make sure that funding is no obstacle to very quickly get people the relief that they need and deserve."'This is biblical-level devastation. This is apocalyptic, the things that we see out there.'"There's also some safety issues that come up," he continued. "For example, temporary flight restrictions to make sure that the airspace is clear for any flights or drone activity that might be involved in helping to allow those emergency responders to do their job."The Transportation Department posted a video of Buttigieg's comments, adding, "Drone pilots: Do not fly your drone near or around rescue and recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene. Interfering with emergency response operations impacts search and rescue operations on the ground."During a Wednesday press briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claimed that the federal government lacks the funds to fully respond to such disasters, Blaze News previously reported. "We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane hitting. We do not have the funds," Mayorkas remarked.America First Legal reported that the Biden-Harris administration's Federal Emergency Management Agency blew a significant portion of its funding on illegal immigrants."The Biden-Harris FEMA spent over $1 BILLION on funding illegal aliens," AFL stated.Many have expressed frustration and dissatisfaction with the federal government's disaster relief response for American citizens residing in areas devastated by Hurricane Helene.Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) torched the administration for its lackluster efforts to help Americans, particularly those living in rural areas.Kemp told WRDW, "When the first emergency declarations came down, there was only 11 counties in that. A lot of people were outraged, including me, because there was such devastation in up to 90 counties.""So we called the White House. We spoke to the president's chief of staff, the FEMA administrator and said, 'Look, you're sending the signal that you're not paying attention to some of these rural communities,'" he continued. At least 200 people have been confirmed dead. "It was a massive storm, and we're dealing with things statewide, even the metro-Atlanta area had record flooding. We had mudslides. We had to evacuate people below lakes and ponds up in the northeast part of the state, so we've been dealing with it," Kemp told the news outlet.Tim Kennedy, co-founder of Save Our Allies, recently told Fox Business that FEMA is getting in the way of his team's rescue efforts."Where is the federal response and the plan?" Kennedy questioned.When asked whether FEMA was on the ground, he responded, "I mean, they're present. They're in the way. They're directly interrupting our ability to conduct missions and operations."Kennedy explained that he had attempted to place a couple of people in a hotel earlier this week, but he was unable to do so because federal employees had booked all of the rooms."This is biblical-level devastation. This is apocalyptic, the things that we see out there," he added.On Thursday, Blaze News' Julio Rosas joined Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) in Swannanoa, North Carolina. Rosas noted that a group of veterans and locals had banded together to provide relief to those in need, making deliveries with civilian helicopters, UTVs, and ATVs."When I asked about the feds response, one guy said: What response?" Rosas posted on X. — (@) When asked about his impression of the federal government's response to the disaster, Mills told Rosas, "It's obvious that FEMA has continued to drop the ball."Mills explained that FEMA used to focus on providing disaster relief but has since been recruited also to handle the mass illegal immigration crisis."They're peeling off over 900 million plus dollars that's going towards immigration resettlement, which outside of what their actual scope should be," Mills stated.He credited Americans for coming together to help one another, saying the federal government has adopted an "America last agenda that we have to change." — (@) Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A group of liberal activists called on the Department of Justice to investigate the actions of a Wisconsin mayor who moved an absentee drop box and posted a photo of himself doing it. On Sept. 22, Wausau Mayor Doug Diny put on a hard hat and used a dolly to move the absentee drop box from in front of the city hall and into his office. The Republican ran for mayor and won while campaigning against drop boxes in elections. Liberal activists accused him of election tampering, but Diny downplayed the incident. “This is no different than the maintenance guy moving it out there,” Diny said. “I’m a member of staff. There’s nothing nefarious going on here. I’m hoping for a good result.”He went on to say that he decided to move it when he saw that it wasn't secure, and the city clerk said there were plans to secure the drop box to the ground before it was unlocked for use. “As it stands now, I don’t have a dog in the hunt,” Diny explained. “I want it to be done properly and with the proper input and consent of citizens.”The Wisconsin state Supreme Court had banned drop boxes in the state in 2022, but a more liberal court reversed the decision in July and allowed communities to determine their own rules regarding drop boxes. About 60 towns, villages, and cities in the state have opted out of using drop boxes for the presidential election. Some residents demanded an investigation into the incident. “This is the kind of action that’s designed to stir the pot,” said Wausau resident Pamela Bannister. “It does not tamp down the rhetoric that we’re all facing in this election cycle. It accomplishes nothing positive and amounts to, in my estimation, voting interference and intimidation.”On Thursday, the Wisconsin Department of Justice confirmed that it was investigating the matter. The drop box was locked at the time the mayor moved it, and it had no ballots inside. In Wisconsin, it is a felony to interfere with or impede voting in an election. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!