Migrant Buses and the Governments inability to respond to a crisis - Part 3: Stop the Buses!

The Migrant Crisis is only a crisis of ill preparation and 50 years of Republican perfidy in slashing social services, cutting taxes on the rich, and hollowing out the administrative state.  Dealing with this relatively small influx of people could be handled by the government.  It's not 1909 anymore with Immigration agents asking people to sign cards declaring they aren't Anarchists.  But, taxes have kept low and we can't have large number of government workers on the payroll because Government doesn't Work.

Start thinking of why the people who denigrate government often run to be in charge of it and why they want you to believe government can't handle issues like the migrants and asylum seekers being trucked here under false pretenses from Texas assholes.

Of course, the response from the suburbs in the collar counties has been less than admirable.  Numerous small suburbs have passed ordinances banning the dumping of migrants in their towns.  Especially, when the Kankakee County Sheriff's panicked just before Christmas because 30-40 people were abandoned at a gas station before dawn.

Now, the complaint is small villages in DuPage, Lake, suburban Cook, and the nearby counties aren't equipped to take in large number of migrants might be true, but why is that?

First off, I think villages and everyone of these communities could take in 10-20 people and house them temporarily but, most have allocated zero budgetary funds and have made zero preparations with local churches or charities, and because small suburbs have bitterly resisted building any sort of temporary or homeless shelters because NIMBY.  Thus, fail to plan, plan to fail and all that...

So, as Chicago began to decide buses could not drop off migrants without having coordinated first and began turning away buses full of people.  The suburban response is to tell the buses to keep going.  In my town there was such a panic in December of buses stopping in town that we (i.e. the Police) were supposed to follow them and ensure they don't stop, if the bus did stop we were to ensure the migrants didn't get off.  As far as I know there is no "official" policy from the town board or city manager, obviously due to the fear of lawsuits.  But, in many other suburbs residents have expressed their desire to help.

It's would certainly be better than keeping the migrants on the buses because the sub-zero cold will kill the lightly dressed people.  The bitter negative degree temperatures will supposedly abate by this Monday so we'll see what happens.

Now, I think IDOT, the Illinois State Police, and Secretary of State should have asked for guidance from the Governor's office and treated the busing of undocumented people north as a case of possible human trafficking.  Which means detaining drivers, impounding vehicles, and conducting a thorough investigation, including filing charges against the owners of any companies engaged in a conspiracy.  Now, I read that the migrants who arrive here have supposedly signed affidavits requesting transport but, regulations for shipping people are laxer than those for transporting livestock.

The federal Department of Transportation in conjunction with the FAA and airport authorities at Rockford, Midway, and elsewhere should have taken a stronger hand and suspended the shipping licenses for whatever shitkicker backwater Texas airline/bus company is transporting people as well as investigating the companies for human trafficking.  

But, instead the Texas bus company Wynne Transportation LLC, trucking migrants north filed a federal lawsuit against Illinois for interfering with interstate commerce and for "intentional discrimination".  Chicago is again the second city because New York City did the right thing suing 17 bus companies in Texas for $708,000,000 with Docket No. 01 at the beginning of the year. 

Now, these above ideas obviously reflect my focus in terms of law enforcement but, this is really a question of the soul of the Nation and the perfidious nations Republicans are taking to make white people insane.  It's generally worked, nearly half of the white Republicans in Iowa declared immigration the number on issue.  Iowa... 

And of course, Republicans in Congress openly declare they will fuck up the budget and will hamstring any legislative efforts to address immigration because they've staked their political futures to making white people insane.

Texass, of course, receives billions from the Federal Government for "Border Security" and what have the Republicans governors done in the last 20 years?  Well, shuffle those public monies to private companies.

An investigation by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and The Marshall Project found that the state’s claims of success have been based on shifting metrics that included taking credit for uncovering crimes that had no links to the border, work conducted by troopers who were in the region before the operation began, and arrests, drug seizures and migrant apprehensions made in conjunction with other agencies. More than nine months into the operation, DPS told the news organizations that it had removed about 2,000 charges it deemed not related to border crime from a dataset of arrests credited to Operation Lone Star. The state faces several lawsuits and calls for investigation from Democrats, lawyers and advocacy groups following media reports detailing alleged civil rights violations and court rulings raising questions about the constitutionality of the trespassing arrests. Despite DPS and Abbott’s office highlighting human trafficking and smuggling arrests, the largest share of arrests are of people accused of trespassing on private property. The Army Times and the Tribune have also reported about poor working conditions and suicides among National Guard members deployed under the operation.

Of course, it's shameless but, that's how Republicans operate.  And the rise of rightwing media and the explosion of social media agitprop grants Republicans a wide latitude and enormous cover to engage in these schemes, shenanigans, and crimes.  And that's they name of the game for Republicans;  having Two Sets of Laws.  For Republican friends and allies everything, for their enemies The Law.

Homelessness dehumanizes Us all

“I think everybody is at the edge of their frustration.
You can say, ‘My gosh, that’s heartless.’
Well, maybe that person gets up every day
and sees human shit on his front door.”
Greg Gutfeld defends inhumanity

"Yeah Oscar, you're a grouch..." 

"Bitch! I live in a fucking trash can, I'm the poorest mutha fucker on sesame street".  Dave Chapelle (2000) before his descent into NIMBY coarseness 

I exit the Ike at the infamous and decidedly racist Oak Park Harlem and Austin exits (center of the highway) from time to time.  There is often several homeless persons on the roadway with little more than half-a-foot between them and the voluminous traffic.  We've been trained as society to ignore them or worse become antagonistic towards them.

America is a pauper Nation.  I don't mean in terms of material goods we have so much crap in this country to fill any number of giant "fulfillment" centers.  No we have a lack of basic humanity which is galling and certain level of coarseness brought about by the political pressure from Rich assholes.

The Coarsening of America is of great benefit to the  Plutocracy and it's guard dogs;  they want a desperate underclass and a mean and hungry working class ready to acquiesce to whatever vicious political onus the 1% puts upon those struggling with a variety of problems. 

Make America Great Again a return to Wage Slavery, short lives, scant job security, and no retirement is favored by the 1%.  To do this, the middle class is made to fear and hate the poor and the homeless.  They are taught to equate homelessness with crime and drug addiction and to support authoritarian crack downs and dehumanization of them.

I think a major reason is that charity was pushed onto religious institutions is the Christian Churches in America could not give a fuck about poor and homeless people.  Not one little fuck.  Joel Osteen is merely the largest example of the so-called Unchristian Prosperity Gospel.  In 2017, Houston was inundated by Hurricane Harvey, the first thing Man of God Joel Osteen did was lock his Mega-Church doors because The fuck if I'm going to let those poor, mud covered, desperate people inside my money-making machine.  Osteen's "Christianity" is facade for making Joel Osteen rich. 

And then Individuals are supposed to pick up the slack and that is too great a burden for any one person to bear.  Tending to the poor is far too overwhelming for an individual.  Think back to semi-mythical life of Saint Francis of Assisi.  Do you know why he's a Saint?  Because he took on the task of actually helping the poor and spreading Christ's message.  It killed him.  The powerful and very wealthy Church was already wary of so called holy men preaching poverty and brotherly love, the Transalpine region at this time was in midst of actually adhering to Christ's teachings and would soon find the French King and Pope allied in their destruction, genocide, and seizure of lands (The Albigensian Crusade).

Trying to tackle homelessness as an individual is certain to get most people heartbreak and an early grave from the pressure and emotional stress.  I want to point out there are in fact individuals of singular ethical fortitude, strength, and compassion who have taken upon themselves to fight the scourge of homelessness by themselves despite the hardships, obstacles, for instance Zoomers The Backpack Project and Pack the Kindness.

But, placing the onus of dealing with it on Individuals also affords the Coarse American Right the opportunity to gainsay and target anyone who voices concern over homelessness and hasn't started a 501(c)(3).  The attacks usually involve gotcha charges of hypocrisy 'Oh so you care about the homeless? Then sell everything you own and let every homeless person live in your house!' and a kind of dishonest Socratic Questioning; i.e. 'Fine we don't know you tell us how to deal with homelessness.'

This has lead to paralyzed inaction, a Newtonian-esque cessation of movement, and an entrenched political opposition which all serves the Moneyed interests and moneyed interests are overwhelmingly allied with Republican politicians. (Please, don't try and both sides it since rightwingers are adamant that taxes not go to actually helping anyone in the country and Republicans routinely refer to unhoused persons as animals).  Because for decades the Right in America has been steadily undermining the concept of We, the People for a Everyman for himself meanness.  This manifests, for instance, in people buying bigger and bigger cars which keep them safe and kill the person in the other smaller car, or the pedestrian or with which they run their own family member over.  Or the whole insanity with keeping a Gun in the House for "self-protection" when guns are overwhelmingly used by the gunner to kill themselves (usually after killing their families).

On top of this, Conservatives have for years advocated and aided Republicans in transferring the burden of society and taxes onto middle and working class people as the GOP slashes taxes on Rich, helps them shield their money through byzantine tax codes, and lowered the Corporate tax rate to the point mega companies get away with paying nothing in taxes.

Worse still the Right propagates this theory that UnHoused persons wish to remain homeless and of course, everyone deludes themselves that every person they see panhandling is actually a well-off grifter and the ubiquitous Republican tactic of equating poor and unhoused people with wild animals.  This has led to treating the Unhoused and desperately poor as another NIMBY problem , an unsightly annoyance to be legislated away so I don't have to see it.

The new Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has announced the unhoused will be moved into hotels in Los Angeles in a program called "Inside Safe".  

Bass said the initiative would not involve clearing out encampments where unhoused people gather, and said that in four years, a metric of the city's success in tackling homelessness would be if there are little to no encampments left.

This is good but, will require a lot of bureaucratic oversight and monitoring, which means funding and taxes.

The Christmas 2022 deep freeze and blizzard killed more than 50 people, many in Buffalo, New York.  Councilor Marc Silvestri of Revere Massachusetts got into a heated exchange at a Town Hall over using a Senior Center as a nighttime warming shelter.  One women blithely threatened his elected position, 

"You're forgetting about the seniors and you want us to vote for you?"

Silvestri responded, "You want to know what? We're talking about people's lives here. And you know what? If I have to lose some votes to save some lives, then I will do so!

This is the end result of the constant sensationalism around CRIME CRIME CRIME!  And the dehumanizing refrain and stigma directed at the Homeless and illustrates that, even though there are numerous ways to combat the housing crisis and even though there really is enough physical buildings, many Americans are okay with the unhoused dying in the streets.

Qelon Musk and Dave NIMBY Chapelle walk into a club

Let's sprinkle some crack on him and 
get out of here.

On Sunday night, Dave Chapelle invited Qelon Musk onto the comedy stage at the Chase Center in San Francisco.  Musk however has all the comedy skills and instincts of a rightwing asshole, i.e. none.

“Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for the richest man in the world,” Chapelle declared and the crowd booed.  Musk flopped around stage and the booing and jeering increased.

Chapelle tried to come to Musk's rescue but, when that didn't abate the booing Chapelle engaged in pissing on his fans for being poor,
“All these people that are booing, I’m just pointing out the obvious — they have terrible seats in the stadium.”

That's right fuck the poor.  Dave Chapelle is little more than a Rich guy who identifies with other Rich people and doesn't care to hear complaints from lessers.  Young Dave from Killin' Them Softly would satirize rich gravely voice buff Dave.  And there have been numerous telling signs about Chapelle's descent into direct opposition of his younger self.  From extremely vile and repeated anti-Trans rhetoric to his best MAGA impression by threatening the Village Council of Yellow Springs with economic retaliation if they dared to approve a proposed residential development which would have included affordable housing.

Unleashing America's Energy - the Port Neches Explosion

"They share our desire to Unleash America's Energy..." Traitor Trump announces how he rolls back Safety Regulations. 

"You don't really realize how close to danger you are until something like that happens in your own backyard," said a Port Neches resident.

Over Thanksgiving holiday 50,000 Texas residents were told to evacuate their homes, by a mandatory evacuation order due to multiple explosions at a petrochemical plant operated by Houston based TPC Group in Port Neches. Witness The Unleashing of America's Energy...

Eliminating Obama's Presidency was one of the main reasons conservatives voted for Trump. Part and parcel of Undoing Obama is eliminating any regulation, treaty, or agreement affiliated with President Obama.  Of course, rolling back "burdensome" clean air and water and safety regulations has been a goal of the Republican Party for decades. Republicans repeatedly assert eliminating regulations actually helps the EPA, saves money, and protects Americans. It's a game the Republicans have played for a long time; often with the concept of Regulatory Capture; i.e. placing an implacable foe of regulation in charge of regulatory bodies. Often Republicans would claim any regulation, any enforcement, any interference with Private Enterprise is burdensome, costly, and unnecessary. But, nowadays in the Era of the MAGA Cult, they have dispensed with the need to even put the facade of enforcing laws to hold back the rapacious Capitalist corporations. Instead, all Republicans need do is invoke President Obama's name and claim This Law is Socialist! and conservatives willingly assist in their own poisoning.

I would like to say Trump and the Republican Party policies are, figuratively and literally, blowing up in their faces. But, the world doesn't work that way. Republicans are shielded from the consequences of their actions on guns, on healthcare, on terrorism, on climate change, on relaxing safety regulations. Instead the fallout from Republican policies indiscriminately kills all Americans regardless of political belief.

But, despite predicted massive oil spills, toxic pollution, plant explosions, mine collapses, poisoned drinking water, preventable deaths on the job Republicans understand most people don't care as long it's not happening in their backyard. And for those that do care there is the powerful sense of 'what can I do?' and the despair at feeling powerless against these corporate behemoths who are fervently protected by Republican politicians.

So, Republicans continually trot out the Myth of Self-Regulation** and the lies about eliminating regulations actually making Americans safer because they know too many Americans are struggling with day-to-day concerns to keep track of and hold Republicans accountable for the rightwing agenda of oppression, intolerance and shackling Americans into perpetual Wage Slavery and Corporate Bondage.

Fracking is Wonderful unless it threatens the property of Rex Tillerson CEO of Exxon Mobil

Ah NIMBY(Not In My Backyard) is an old acronym. But, everything old is new again.

Update (02/27): 

Chris Hayes interviewed Lou Allstadt a former Executive of Exxon (pre merger) who has been fighting Fracking for over 5 years.

As Oil Companies push Hyrdaulic Fracturing (Fracking), the literal cracking and destruction of the earth's subsurface in order to extract petrochemicals, the Petroleum Pigs ignore the Thousands of Americans being harmed, the toxic fouling to the water table, and the political efforts of local communities and municipal governments to curb their reckless and rapacious behavior.

Unless! It threatens the Property of a Rich Man.

Rex Tillerson the CEO of Exxon Mobil has joined a lawsuit to stop the construction of Hydraulic Fracking Tower next to his 83-acre horse ranch.

The tower, being built by Cross Timbers Water Supply, would rise 15 stories, the Journal says. It's adjacent to Tillerson's horse ranch and not far from an 18-acre homestead. Tillerson is devoting considerable time to the matter: he sat for three hours in the lawsuit last May and attended an all-day mediation session in September, besides his Town Council appearance. 

Among the others opposing the project are those who are not exactly known for environmental crusading: former U.S.House Majority Leader Dick Armey and his wife are the lead plaintiffs.

See, Fracking like the Koch Brothers Petcoke piles is something done to Poor People.

But, for years duped and gullible Conservatives have been saying Fuck the EPA and all Regulations because Republicans have convinced them that it is only by lawsuits, and not by evil government regulation, issues like Fracking, Petcoke or other gross violations should be stopped or addressed. 

Of course when Real Americans realize they don't have a few spare million dollars lying around to bring a powerful lawsuit? Well, that's just what you get in conservative America. Justice and Government is reserved for the Rich. One of the main missions by the modern Republicans Party is to let Working Class Americans know They have no Friend in Government.

Conservatives idolize the Rich and hate the Poor that's why when local municipal governments have tried to stop Petroleum Pigs from Fracking them, Republicans and Conservatives swoop in with the awesome power of government to thwart the will of the people, to harm as many Americans as possible and to transfer money into the hands of the rich.

Petcoke in Chicago

Earlier this year Detroit was smothered in Petroleum Coke (Petcoke), the newest waste product of the filthy Koch Brothers Koch Carbon LLC and other Multi-National Oil Conglomerates, from the refining of Canadian Tar Sands. Giant clouds of toxic black dust and carbon choked poor Detroit residents until Detroit Mayor David Bing ordered Koch Brothers Sovereign Corporation Koch Carbon LLC to remove the petcoke.

Koch Carbon surreptitiously removed the Petcoke, most likely to Ohio, where the High-Sulfur heavily polluting toxic waste was probably burned for electricity.

Well, Our Corporate Lords and Masters are at it again. If you ever wondered what it was like to live in 19th century London with Industrial Factories dumping massive amounts of carbon on your heads come to the Southside of Chicago where massive piles of Petcoke are collecting along the Calumet River.

BP Whiting, which under George W(orst President Ever) dumped thousands of tons of toxic chemicals (including tons of mercury) into Lake Michigan in violation of the Republican neutered EPA regulations, now don't even have to worry about the Rump EPA, as the Right-Wing Government Shutdown has furloughed 99% of the EPA.

I suppose it makes sense. Conservatives have increasingly pushed America back to the 19th century. By, rolling back Voting Rights for minorities, making Birth Control illegal for women, involving the US in various little conflicts, many in the same regions Victoria and her PM's sent troops, and a retarded economic system which rewards the Inheritors of Wealth, Rentiers and Robber Barons.

So, why shouldn't we get to experience the joys of 19th century Industrial expansion as well?

BP Whiting is producing 6000 tons of Petcoke a day.Detroit’s Marathon refinery wasn’t producing petcoke before its expansion, according to the report, but now produces 1,720 tons per day while the Phillips 66 refinery in Wood River, Illinois, is increasing its petcoke output from 1,300 to 5,700 tons per day.

The waste product is laced with sulfur, mercury, nickel, vanadium and selenium and various other toxic residue but why should that matter to the Koch Brothers or BP? It's not in their backyard. They don't have the clouds of choking carbon befouling their lungs. The petcoke isn't sitting next to river they live upon.

Tom Shepard, a neighborhood activist, worries about piles
of petcoke building up along the Calumet River in Chicago.
(Photo by Kari Lydersen / Midwest Energy News)

But, who needs a Government? Who needs an EPA? Who needs Job Killing Regulations?

Frack Baby Frack! The Petroleum Pigs Newest Evil

Fracking, the process of forcing thousands of gallons of water and toxic chemicals at high pressure into Shale beds to extract Natural Gas reserves, is the latest indignity the Petroleum Pigs have unleashed upon people.

Like all problems with Oil Companies, the issue is one of sovereignty, they don't recognize anyone's and simply influence governments at all levels to give them a free hand This map of New York State shows the increasing number of Municipalities fighting to keep Fracking away.

But, Multi-National Oil Conglomerates don't care. They've been destroying ecosystems and people in Nigeria, Ecuador, Azerbaijan for decades why would they think of Americans as any different? For the destruction wrought by fracking is not going to affect them. It's well beyond NIMBY, it's not just the richest members of Oil Corporations, but most involved in the Oil business, who live outside the areas affected and don't come into contact with any of the toxic by products.

“Giving local governments the power to regulate would be the kiss of death for natural-gas development in New York state,” Tom West, an attorney in Albany who represents Denver- based Anschutz Exploration Corp. and other drilling companies, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg News. Anschutz Exploration Corporation is owned by Philip Anshutz, a full-fledged member of the 1% the 34th richest person in America, and credited with the George W. Bush White House with killing the 2001 Kyoto Protocol and in 2010 used financial legerdemain to hide his obscene profits, until a U.S. Tax Court judge ruled he owed $94 million in taxes.

A member of the 1% who thinks Regulation is bad, is a tax cheat, and makes money off of Corporate Welfare. Hmmm, seems to fit a pattern.

A recent spate of earthquakes in the Youngstown, Ohio area are the direct result of fracking. But, don't worry because minor earthquakes are the least of your trouble if a fracking operation sets up near your home in Ohio.

The two Allardale Park gas wells were drilled by Wildcat Drilling LLC for Ohio Valley Energy, based in Austintown. The county park is east of the Mangans’ house and near the Bath Township border.

The wells, about 1,500 feet apart, were being drilled to a depth of 3,700 feet and cemented on the outside for environmental protection at the time that the Mangans’ problems surfaced. The vertical wells were then fracked.

On Sept. 29, 2008, Mangan and wife, Sandy, found that their drinking water well had gone dry at the same time that a company was drilling for natural gas at Allardale Park about a half mile away.

When the water returned to the Mangans’ well in five days, it had an unpleasant taste and a rotten-egg scent. It was salty. It bubbled. It contained methane gas and a gray slurry of cement.

Ohio Valley Energy drew headlines in 2007, after a house exploded east of Cleveland in Geauga County.

In Ohio, state lawmakers can overturn local ordinances. So even if you manage to band together within your local community and stave off the fracking wells. Philip Anschutz or some else of his 1% ilk is simply going to jerk the chain on their obedient lap dog Ohio Governor Republicon John Kasich and his slavish guardians in the Republicon dominated Ohio Legislature and get the rights to frack you. Frack Baby Frack!

The wells won't be anywhere near Kasich's Governor's mansion nor will they affect his speaking fees from the Cato Instiutite or Faux News position post-governorship. And Philp Anschutz is safely ensconced far away from water laden with benzene, gas, and any of the other toxic by-products of his evil hand.