If I hadn’t been down to Crescent Con down in New Orleans a couple weeks ago, then I would simply feel badly for the folks down in the Big Easy and keep my fingers crossed for them.
But instead, for me, the Big Breezy has a very personal aspect to it now. I met hundreds of great folks down there, and now I’m worried about all of them. I find myself wondering which of them got out in plenty of time…which ones were sitting there stuck in the unmoving mass of traffic. I remember the chatty cab driver who jovially pointed out the Superdome as the place where the Saints go to lose every weekend (if I got the team wrong, cut me some slack, I’m not Mr. Football), and now I wonder if the cabbie was one of those who couldn’t afford to get out and is now huddling in that same structure for which he showed such disdain. There’s a shop in the French Quarter that sells toy soldiers that Harlan loves, and I didn’t get a chance to swing by there and buy him something while I was down there; now I wonder if it’ll still be there by morning.
Katrina has been downgraded from a category 5 to category 4 which, according to a spokesman for the National Weather Service, is like being downgraded from being hit by an 18 wheeler to being hit by a freight train.
If any of the great folks I met down there are able to, chime in here and let us know how you’re doing.
PAD
• 
Hey PAD, did the same cab driver point out to you the “coke machine?” My girlfriend went to NO a few years back and had a fun cab driver. He was a large black fellow who loves Montreal jazz. It’d be ironic if you got the same guy.
Yes, the Saints play there.
Also, being hit by a 18 wheeler may be surviable. Not so with a freight train. The analogy should be the other way around.
The Saints are “affectionately” known in NOLA as the “Aint’s” cause they ain’t gonna win.
The nickname started when I was an undergrad at Tulane and attendees started wearing paper bags with eye and mouth cutouts over their heads because they were too ashamed to be caught at a Saints game.
However, in NOLA, going to a game is more of an eating and drinking social experience than a football experience. Sort of like the Cubs for baseball.
I also went to undergrad (and grad school) at Tulane. A lot of us alums are wondering what’s going to happen to the school and city where we had all our memories. I took my wife there for her first time about six months ago. I’m glad I did while I still had the chance.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) reports that it’s down to a category 2, which I suppose is like being hit by an SUV.
I did like the one sign I saw.
“We don’t run from Hurricanes, we drink them.”
I pray that’s not too literal and everyone is safe as possible. I visited NOrleans once and it is a great town.
It looks like New Orleans will be spared the worst of it. I hadn’t realized how vulnerable the city is.
This may end up being the most expensive hurrican ever, though thankfully not the most deadly.
Somebody needs to learn how to use HTML. 🙂
Anyways, this is an incredible storm, and the fact that it went from Cat 3 to Cat 5 overnight. Simply amazing.
I’m sorry, my tag didn’t close there. Hopefully this helps.
I’ve never been to NO, but I’ve always wanted to go there. It looks like they’re getting hit hard.
What will really be interesting is what’ll happen as Katrina moves up the Mississippi delta. Last time a major hurricane hit that region, it was very sparsely populated. There has been tons of development in and around Biloxi, for example, over the past 35 years. We’ll see how the hurricane will impact that very soon.
its category 2 now
i hope everybody in new orleans is OK
but yesterday the coverage on this was driving me crazy
fox news had a analyst who said we could be looking at the second coming of atlantis
and their anchors were saying toxic fumes
could leak into the sewers
along with CROCODILES!
report the news
what IS happening!
not what MAY happen
in the case of a natural disaster
that could lead to panic
and its just irresponsible
Gary, you made the mistake of watching Fox News and expecting them to stick to what is known to have happened?
“Fox News” is a brand name, not a description of what they do.
To be fair, CNN was also saying how bad things could get, with all the chemical and processing facilities that could have flooded.
Still, I wouldn’t look at a news show predicting what might happen as bad. We expect that from the weather all the time, and just like today’s predictions, there are some elements that were accurate, and others that were not.
Saying Nawlens got spared the worst is accurate, but only in the original “I didn’t get hit by a speeding locamotive, just a pretty fast tractor-trailer semi.” And while I’m glad it doesn’t seem to be the devastation it could have been, it seems other areas did get hit very, very hard. My prayers are with all those affected, and for the weeks and months of rebuilding to come.
True, other stations did do some speculation, but no one does outrageous hype more than Murdoch’s shop.
Claiming the second coming of Atlantis (what does that even mean?) might…MIGHT….be taking things a smidge too far.
Hmmm….someone made the speculation that urban development contributed to the strength of the storm….by getting rid of wetlands that would have sucked some of the strength out of the storm. Wonder if that’s true and wonder if the economics would work out right….
“True, other stations did do some speculation, but no one does outrageous hype more than Murdoch’s shop.”
Gotta love the “fair and balanced” outrageous hype…
I’m still waiting to find out what happened to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi. I spent almost seven months there in 1978-79 for technical training. I lived on base for about the first five months, and in the town of Ocean Springs the rest of the time. I remember mentioning to a friend that the beaches in the area seemed dirty, and I was told that it had once been much nicer, but the beaches still hadn’t recovered from when Hurricane Camille hit the area 10 years earlier, circa 1969. I guess the more things change, the more they remain the same.
I just hope the loss of life in the area is minimal.
Draining wetlands won’t increase the storm’s strength, but wetlands can act as a natural buffer against storm activity, slowing it down as it moves inland. So the loss of wetlands may result in the storm retaining more of its strength than it might otherwise have lost.
Huricanes loose a lot of power once they make landfall.
As for the “second coming of Atlantis”–well in the worst case scenario, it’s not far off…
The worst case, which looks like isn’t happening yet again, a hurricane goes up the Misssissippi, puddle jumps into Lake Ponchetrain, lifts it up, and drops it into the city. As someone who grew up on the shore of said lake, it’s a scenario I’m a bit familiar with.
Another former Tulane Undergrad here (and grad grad as well). We got a taste of this my junior year, when Mayor Marc enacted a voluntary evacuation for Hurricane Georges. (Of course, we only got lane out of the city on the 10, rather than all 6). I know the people who were stuck on campus and in the city were pretty miserable during the near miss then, so I hope everybody who didn’t make it out is fairing well (as possible anyway) today.
Wetlands also deflect flood impacts. Nawlens might have escaped the worst of the flooding, but if the rain falls just right, it might yet suffer a lot of flood damage.
When the damage pattern from last December’s tsunami was studied, areas that had retained native plants were spared the worst of the dectruction. I’d like to think that we’ll walk away from all these disastrous events with some lessons learned, but seeing how people that were flooded out a few years ago simply rebuilt in the same place, I doubt it.
As one man said this morning, the perception is that man, and his creations (cities and such) have been here “forever,” and we can always pick up or rebuild what nature destroys. With that attitude, we can expect these kinds of events to continue, and become more damaging as development increases.
“As for the “second coming of Atlantis”–well in the worst case scenario, it’s not far off…
The worst case, which looks like isn’t happening yet again, a hurricane goes up the Misssissippi, puddle jumps into Lake Ponchetrain, lifts it up, and drops it into the city. As someone who grew up on the shore of said lake, it’s a scenario I’m a bit familiar with.”
I think I understand what Foxnews was trying to say…but wouldn’t that be better put as the second GOING of Atlantis, since the second coming, strictly speaking, would be the re-emergence of the fabled Lost Land?
True, other stations did do some speculation, but no one does outrageous hype more than Murdoch’s shop.
yeah, compare them to the calm non-hysterical approach of AP:
Hurricane Could Leave 1 Million Homeless
By MATT CRENSON, AP National Writer
When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans on Monday, it could turn one of
America’s most charming cities into a vast cesspool tainted with toxic
chemicals, human waste and even coffins released by floodwaters from
the city’s legendary cemeteries.
…With top
winds of 165 mph and the power to lift sea level by as much as 28 feet
above normal, the storm threatened an environmental disaster of
biblical proportions, one that could leave more than 1 million people
homeless.
…Estimates predict that 60 percent to 80 percent of the city’s houses
will be destroyed by wind. With the flood damage, most of the people
who live in and around New Orleans could be homeless.
“We’re talking about in essence having – in the continental United
States – having a refugee camp of a million people,” van Heerden
said….
I hope people don’t let the hype make them less likely to leave next time a big storm approaches (which my be next week, for all we know).
The Atlantis scenario is very possible IF certain conditions are met. They have never been met to date and they weren’t met this morning.
Basically, you’d need a stationery Category 5 hurricane with 175+ wind gusts sitting immediately on top of New Orleans. Not to the east, or west and not something moving in and out of the area fairly quickly. Katrina hit 30 miles to the east, moving at 10-12 miles an hour to the north and pressure was gradually dropping, reducing her strength.
Really, you’d have to put several very common hurricane conditions together into one uncommon mega-storm before FEMA’s “soup bowl” theory could occur.
Atlantis itself wouldn’t be the issue, it’d be clean-up that presented the most problems. They’d rebuild but the immediate realization is that landmarks would be gone. You can’t rebuild history. Sewage would present a problem, the cemeteries and such could cause environmental hazards. Even the pumps removing water from the city would be excruciatingly slow because they’d be overloaded. You’d need electricity to begin rebuilding, and with roads washed out it wouldn’t be easy to get where you need to go. I imagine it would be a nightmare. You need to fix A but you can’t fix A until you fix B but you really need C fixed before you can fix A and D depends on B which directly influences how easily C can be fixed.
So, see New Orleans wouldn’t be forever gone, it’d just be an extremely hard clean-up.
Btw, we’re ok in Central Louisiana. Reports as close to New Orleans as Baton Rouge has said they’ve weathered it fairly well. Mississippi and Alabama honestly seem to be getting it worse from my impression.
I don’t have any close personal connection to New Orleans, but having lived in LA during the Northridge quake I understand the type of feelings people must have had.
Glad it turned out to be something other than a worst-case scenario; best wishes to everyone down there.
TWL
Not sure how accurate it is, but a friend from Baton Rouge is saying inital reports are that there have been bodies seen floating by in certain areas and it could be up to a month before power is returned to a few areas. Personally I’ve heard that before, and as far as I know it’s never taken a full month, my guess is 2 weeks and some few days before power is restored to the worst but habitable neighborhoods.
Cnn reports there have been unspecified “total structural failure” in New Orleans Metro area
“I hope people don’t let the hype make them less likely to leave next time a big storm approaches”
Depends on whether they make the mistake of following certain medias’ advice.
A chap in my class in D.C. last week is in the Coast Guard. He’s quite familiar with these things. He called up his family – they live in Florida – and warned them to batten down, it was going to get rough.
Called them the next day to find out a couple of windows had been smashed in and lots of water in the house.
Why hadn’t they put up the shutters as he’d instructed? They’d listened to the media who downplayed it enough they figured it wouldn’t be as bad as he’d said.
Can’t win …
Peter & everyone asking: my husband and I got out of New Orleans before the hit, and we’re in Illinois for the time being. The city is locked down for at least 48 hours.
Anyone who wants the most up-to-date info, check http://www.wwltv.com – looks like our neighborhood is mostly just downed trees, but still, everyone please keep your fingers crossed for us. Thank you to everyone who sent their well-wishes, and I’ll post in when I can.
Another Tulane grad here as well. I was on the only “good” side of this storm as I was in Florida when it was still a Cat 1. While I have more of a connection with NOLA, I feel for all the areas affected by the full strength of Katrina.
The fact is that even though New Orleans didn’t have a direct hit, there was very little good side to be on for this storm. New Orleans is a victim of bad logistics — barely being able to manage the water with a heavy thunderstorm. Katrina was big and it was extremely powerful. New Orleans, Mississippi, and Alabama were all slammed — there’s no two ways about it.
The amazing thing is that as many people were actually able to evacuate from New Orleans as did. The problem is that many of the people who didn’t evacuate were those who couldn’t evacuate due to either not having a car or not having enough money to afford gas or a hotel to evacuate. The Ninth Ward, was one of the areas most affected by flooding when the levee broke and it is also one of the more poverty stricken areas of NOLA.
This catastrophe is compounded by the fact that most areas that aren’t Florida don’t have the housing codes in place that Florida enacted following Andrew.
Hmmm….someone made the speculation that urban development contributed to the strength of the storm…
Well, others already refuted this, but some of those dastardly scientists mentioned global warming as a potential factor in the strength of this hurricane. 🙂
But, no, this wasn’t worst case scenario for New Orleans – but it sure was a wake up call to the problems they’re likely to face in the future.
1PAD,
I have had contact with a good portion of the convention community. They are all safe as far as I am aware. I will keep you posted as soon as I get more info.
ugh, after the worst appeared to be over and things had begun to calm down, people in the French Quarter are waking up to massive flooding in the streets due to the levy giving away. Looks to be a huge mess. As overwhelming as this must be for those people, they are thankful, no doubt, that it wasn’t worse and more people weren’t lost.
Fred
“Hmmm….someone made the speculation that urban development contributed to the strength of the storm…”
It may not have added strength, but it may have helped prevent a direct hit, which would have taken the damage from catastrophic to apocolyptic. Here in Chicago, we rarely get bad thunderstorms, and meteorologists are starting to think that the large amount of pavement and lack of vegetation absorbs and retains the sun’s heat long into the night. They think that residual heat acts as a sort of shield against storm fronts, deflecting them or literally vaporizing them before they can form. Nawlens may have had a similar effect, accounting for what seemed like a last minute shift away from a direct hit.
Which is all good speculation, but I’m sure won’t comfort those that now find their homes under 20′ or more of water. Despite missing the absolute worst, things went from terrible to nightmarish overnight.
And that’s not even accounting for the places that did actually suffer a direct hit. The damage from this storm is really unimaginable.
I spent six years at Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa, right in the heart of Typhoon Alley. Every typhoon season, we got hit directly or indirectly by a number of typhoons, and at least a few, as I recall, were of the super-typhoon variety. Typhoon response and preparation was done so frequently that it was literally a routine part of living on Okinawa.
Since Okinawa is relatively small island, there is no place to evacuate to when a typhoon comes a-calling. Thus, every one of the tens of thousands of buildings on Okinawa is made of reinforced concrete, including the roofs — many of which are flat. Windows are smallish, and most roofs have a three- to four-foot concrete overhang above them to help shield the windows from flying objects. Housing on base had steel doors and sealed windows, which not only kept out the rain, but the palmetto bugs (and other critters) as well. Power lines were often underground.
Thus, when the average typhoon rolled by, things were pretty much back to normal within a few hours. In the case of the super typhoons, damage was greater and recovery took a little longer, but things seemed to be back to normal within days. However, unlike in the Gulf Coast region and parts of Florida, storm surges in the area where I lived and worked had minimal impact because there just weren’t all that many people living that close to the water on lowlands, or as in the case of New Orleans, sub-sea level areas.
Still, it’s clear that there is a lot U.S. builders can do to make houses hurricane resistant, or even hurricane proof, but it boils down where the building emphasis lies. Cost is often cited by some, but it is not a good excuse. Why? Simple. Even the dirt-poorest Okinawan homeowners have sturdier housing than people with million-dollar homes in Gulfport, Mississippi. So the real problem is there just is no emphasis in the U.S. to build homes that can withstand hurricanes.
And that is the real tragedy here.
Ugh, the news from New Orleans seems to keep getting worse…if this is how bad things are from a “better than it could have been” scenario, I shudder to think of the worst case scenario…maybe the newsfolks weren’t as over the top as some of us assumed.
My heart goes out to them.
No food, no power, no school, no jobs, no tourism, no sewage, no clean water, no homes, 8 feet of water. Basically, new orleans is no more for a long time.
it looks like according to the mayor & govenor, it will be months b4 services are restored and it will take a long time for the water to recede.
millions of people now that are jobless & homeless.
i truly wish them all the best & i will keep them in my prayers. i encourage everyone who can spare some cash & donate to the red cross to do so. i forfitted buying my comics this month to give a little bit.
Joe V.
I am praying for all those who have and are still suffering from this horrible disaster.
As calloused as it may sound, whatever happened to shooting the looters? The excuse one gave that they have been repressed and this is their chance to get back at society is a telling commentary on where some are coming from. Such actions are just inexcusable. I hope they save the video footage and work hard on prosecuting every one of them.
Iowa Jim
The devastation is literally breathtaking. I couldn’t help but gasp at some of the scenes I’ve seen so far.
But sadly, I can’t help but wonder how soon the (political) vultures will show up . . .
[Even money says that within a fortnight, some holier-than-thou type declares this to be God’s razing of a modern Gommorah.]
I know the first instinct is to rebuild it just the way it was…but given this disaster and the potential of more to come, is this wise? It’s probably impossible to contemplate raising the city above sea level but something must be done…dikes? Drain the lake nearby that threatens to overwhelm it? Or is it just a given that New Orleans will be wiped out every few years and theer’s nothing we can do about it?
There were many great sites and efforts by places like Amazon.com that provided a way for people to contribute to the Tsunami relief–I hope we start seeing the same for the victims of Kimberly.
Okay – who is this “Kimberly”, and what did she do to you, Bill? 😉 (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
In seriousness, all hope and good wishes to the people of New Orleans, and the other affected areas of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. Hopefully today’s dark outlook will turn out to be as inaccurate as yesterday’s “whew”, and recovery will be more quickly achieved than feared at the moment.
Once again, I’m thankful to live in an area (Central New York state) free of most of nature’s most devestating disasters – earthquakes, tornados, wild fires, and hurricanes (and flooding, for most of us, as well).
Bill,
“I know the first instinct is to rebuild it just the way it was…but given this disaster and the potential of more to come, is this wise?”
Very good question. Because if you cut thriugh the emotion of it all, the answer is no.
“It’s probably impossible to contemplate raising the city above sea level”
Yes, it is.
“but something must be done….dikes? Drain the lake nearby that threatens to overwhelm it?”
Both suggestions sound sensible to me. Given the tecnology and improvements in engineering and the like, there is no way, if as a country we have the will, we can make some changes that can at least minimize the impact of storms like these and other natural phenomena.
“Or is it just a given that New Orleans will be wiped out every few years and there’s (sic) nothing we can do about it.”
I think we should refuse to accept that kind of thinking here in the 21st century.
Sasha,
“Even money that within a fortnight, some holier-than-thou type declares this to be God’s razing of a modern Gomorrah.”
Really? Because I’ll give you better-than-even odds that some greener-than-thou type will declare that the reason we’ve been getting such numerous and powerful hurricanes lately is global warming (which is responsible for all that ails the world in their greener-than-thou eyes) and will use that as an excuse to take “environmental friendly” steps that will have devastating effects on our economy and quality of life.
And I bet we not only hear this but we hear it within a week, and not from some Ted Kaczynski wannabe, but a high profile elected official.
“
I was listening to “Talk of the Nation” on NPR Tuesday, and they were interviewing a report who lives in the French Quarter. After the storm had passed and he stepped outside to look at the damage, he reported other people who were doing the same thing — but with cocktails in their hands. It seems several of the area bars just boarded up the windows but otherwise conducted business as usual. The reporter mentioned that many people in the city would probably not be surprised at this.
Posted by Gracecat at August 29, 2005 06:18 PM
The Atlantis scenario is very possible IF certain conditions are met. They have never been met to date and they weren’t met this morning.
Basically, you’d need a stationery Category 5 hurricane with 175+ wind gusts sitting immediately on top of New Orleans. Not to the east, or west and not something moving in and out of the area fairly quickly.
Not true, actually.
With a storm that big, the two worst scenarios are moving slowly in more or less due northward either just to the east or to the west.
With the storm moving northward, if the storm hits to the west, you get the highest winds and the biggest storm surge. The winds are highest because, due to the anti-clockwise spin of the storm the wind in the northeast quadrant hits you with the “true” windspeed — 154mph+ for a Cat5 — PLUS the storm’s speed of advance.
I’m fairly familiar with New Orleans’ geographical situation and the levee system — about as familiar as you can be without actually living there — and 170mph+ winds pushing a 28 to 30 foot storm surge ahead of them (particularly if they his at high tide) would shove a hëll of a lot of water into the city, which would have no way to get out.
Bang — fifteen to thirty foot deep water in virtually thw whole NOLa area.
And don’t say it can’t happen — i’ve seen several feet of water in the streets in the Quarter after an unusually heavy rainstorm.
Also, 170mph+ winds would, if sustained for any particular length of time, wipe out the sort of percentages of the structures currently extant in NOLa — take a look at Biloxi, with one of the gambling barges carried *across* Highway 90, and, destroying a Holiday Inn in the process, dropped on land parallel to the water’s edge hundreds of feet away.
Consider Beauvoir, which has stood and withstood every strom since Civil War Days — gone.
As to a possible hit on the east, just a little closer to NOLa, that’s almost worse in long-term effects; a hit ten or so miles further west than what we actually got would have basically pshed its surge ahead o fit into Lake Ponchartrain — and the levees on Lake Ponch are significantly lower than those on the river and toward the Gulf.
As a matter of fact, that’s what almost did happen this time — most of the floding has come from Lake Ponch, and levees collapsed further after the strom had passed, with the result that, last i heard, the water had been rising since the storm hit and was still rising — streets in the Quarter that were dry immediately after the pass aree under water.
As to structural damage, consider the Hyatt and the SuperDome — and remember that NOLa got the *easy* side of the winds due to the storm passing to the east.
Katrina hit 30 miles to the east, moving at 10-12 miles an hour to the north and pressure was gradually dropping, reducing her strength.
Umm, her strength was slowly dropping (which is irrelevant on the time scale we’re talking here to the storn surge; it takes a while to get that much water moving, and it takes time to stop it, too…), but the pressure would be *rising*, not dropping, since what drives a hurricane is an area of *low* pressure over warm water that moiture laden winds spiral into. (Hence the term “tropical depression”.)
I’m hearing the “west feed” of the news as I write this.
Having seen the devastation earlier this evening I’m reminded of the 1997 natural disaster where the winter’s snowfall had been so great that in spring the Red River became so swollen that it jumped its banks and literally destroyed Grand Forks, ND., as well as turning the rest of the northern valley in ND and all of southern Manitoba from Winnipeg to the border into one giant lake. That’s 147 miles long by about 100 miles wide of w.a.t.e.r! It was surreal if nothing else.
I have been to NOLA several times and greatly enjoyed the wonders of the city and the friendly people. I can only hope that somehow they find the will and the strength to rise from this devastation even greater than before.
Just went to CNN.com
Good Lord – surviving the actual hurricane seems like a piece of cake compared to what these poor folks have to struggle through now. What a nightmare, what a nightmare…
Jerome, Sasha … with all due respect, I don’t know that this thread is a good choice for political rants (of either stripe). Time enough for that later.
TWL
[Even money says that within a fortnight, some holier-than-thou type declares this to be God’s razing of a modern Gommorah.]
Really? Because I’ll give you better-than-even odds that some greener-than-thou type will declare that the reason we’ve been getting such numerous and powerful hurricanes lately is global warming (which is responsible for all that ails the world in their greener-than-thou eyes) and will use that as an excuse to take “environmental friendly” steps that will have devastating effects on our economy and quality of life.
And I bet we not only hear this but we hear it within a week, and not from some Ted Kaczynski wannabe, but a high profile elected official.
Give the man a kewpie doll. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/afor-they-that-sow-the-_b_6396.html
Robert Kennedy Jr is sure no Robert Kennedy. Sometimes the apple DOES fall far from the tree.
“As calloused as it may sound, whatever happened to shooting the looters?”
I hope it doesn’t come to this. It would be to add tragedy on top of tragedy. Certainly, use the news footage if you want to try and go back and prosecute the people taking appliances and electronics, jewelry, and other luxury items that can’t possibly be of any use to anyone there now. But for those people out trying to get drinkables, food, diapers, infant formula, I have a hard time putting myself in any position to judge them. It’s been 2 days since the storm hit, and the best anyone’s been able to do for the people trapped there is….move them to the Superdome? Where conditions are little better than they are anywhere else in the area. I know that this is an event of unprecedented destruction in the history of our country, but I’m really shocked at the lack of preperation on behalf of the agencies we entrust our civil care to. I read that it will take the navy a few days to even launch rescue ships. And we’re reading how the city and the Army Corps of Engineers are at a loss as to how to repair the levees. Why was there no call to prapre the navy ships as soon as this storm hit Cat 5, before the devasation occurred. Why does the city not have repair contingencies ready to go, if the failure of the levees is such a well-known danger?
This is a terrible situation that grows worse every day, and while the immediate rescue efforts showed us the heroic spirit we can muster, the delay caused by a simple lack of foresight is making the situation that much worse.
Jerome, Sasha … with all due respect, I don’t know that this thread is a good choice for political rants (of either stripe). Time enough for that later.
Tim,I wasn’t trying to rant. I was venting my frustration at the inevitability of this national tragedy become someone’s self-serving talking point.
But, yeah, I agree. There’ll be time enough for cynicism later.