Irma, Trump Border Wall, and God

​I have a friend who is a “conspiracy theorist.” No, he’s not a nut; he just likes pulling my chain with outré theories. He has proposed everything from ancient astronauts to the existence of a creator god who is also a personal savior.
His latest, however, trumps (pun intended) everything. He’s decided that (1) Trump (the one in the White House) is an alien; (2) Harvey and Irma are some god’s punishment or test of the human race; and (3) these are signs of the “end times.”
Oh, and (4) all these things play together nicely, somehow.
I cannot comment on (1) (that Trump is an alien) except to say that he’s definitely not my idea of a president. Remember when “gravitas” was considered important? What ever became of that? No, Trump lacks gravitas. In fact, sometimes it seems that he’s taken gravitas into negative territory.
Harvey and Irma. There’s a lot of crap on the internet. You knew that. There are no gatekeepers on the internet, and we are responsible for understanding and assessing all that we read.
I won’t call it fake news, even though some of it is what that is. $3500 fares on a major airline? In your dreams. The person who posted that is one of the reasons the rest of us Primates are called stupid. Post an anecdote and get the state’s attorney general involved. Weatherpersons are wrong and shouldn’t be paid? Another of those cretins who thinks they know the cost of everything (but, as the adage goes, know the value of nothing). It’s been shown that if the TV weather persons simply said, “Tomorrow’s weather will be a lot like today’s,” they would be correct more than 50% of the time… unlike their usual attempts to spin the information from the National Weather Service—which is where they all get their raw data. Meteorologists? It’s like calling me a doctor because I know how to access the internet’s medical sites.
Yeah, I know some of them have degrees in meteorology, and some really know what they’re talking about. However, most of them appear to be slaves of the networks, which are fighting for ratings. The worse the meteorologists say things will be, the higher the ratings, and the higher the advertising revenues. Did you know that “meteors” were once defined as anything that appeared in the heavens, from clouds to comets? Just saying, you know.
I find it disappointing that the Christian fundamentalist preacher who ordered Irma, in the name of his god, to return to the Caribbean, failed in that attempt. I also wondered what he had against the peoples of the ravaged Caribbean islands who would face the brunt of his curse.
It was interesting to see that an ugly haint, known as a right-wing political pundit, claimed that Harvey was her god’s punishment of Houston for electing a lesbian mayor. That was almost as ludicrous as the mega-church preacher of the ‘my god wants me to have a mansion and G5 jet” persuasion who claimed that Harvey was his god’s test of the people of Houston. I guess we can assume that the 70+ people who have already died failed that test. To bad we don’t know exactly why they failed. Nor do they include the thousands who are devastated by the storm, the hundreds who will die from cancer after exposure to toxic chemicals that got into the water that soaked into their drywall, and on and on. You should be able to complete this picture.
A news story I saw last night showed Trump at Camp David meeting with his cabinet about Irma. Apparently he started the meeting with prayer. Ummm. That didn’t work for the Xtian Fundamentalist preacher who ordered Irma, in his god’s name, to “turn back.” I just don’t understand. If you believe your god can stop (or mitigate) a storm, you must (if you are a rational person) believe he (or she) also caused the storm. But, why would he?
 
Of course you know that an infamous (and ugly as sin, initials AC) political pundit and author said that Harvey was her god's punishment of Houston for having elected a lesbian mayor. Of course, this mayor wasn't in office when the storm struck. What? Her god couldn't gin up a storm earlier? He (or she) forgot?
 
Joel Osteen, he of the "Jesus wants me to have a mansion and a G5 jet" said Harvey was his god testing the people of Texas. I guess it's safe to say the 60+ people who have already died so far failed that test, as did the thousands who are displaced, and the hundreds who will contract cancer from the toxic chemicals that got into the water and then into the drywall of their waterlogged homes, and the thousand who will suffer stress as a result of the storm. Looks like Joel's god got this one right... with all the testing that has happened and will continue to happen for years... he (or she) got a lot of bang for his (or her) buck.
 
Of course, it goes without saying that god (some god) is testing the people of the Caribbean islands, Florida, parts of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, etc. with Irma. I'm not sure what this god is doing with Irma's little brother, Jose, who is likely to spin around and flake out some 700-800 miles due west of Miami. Perhaps god (he or she) decided Jose wasn't needed. Why, then, didn’t he (or she) simply cancel that storm? Inquiring minds want to know. (Maybe Trump can turn Jose into a divine border wall, but only if he prays enough.)
 
I think it is just as logical to say that Harvey and Irma are some god's punishment of this nation for having elected Trump.