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.

Car Culture was a Mistake Part 6: Roads

In my on-going tirade against Cars in America let's talk about the biggest drawback of using cars as the primary mode of transportation;  Roads.  

Where we're going we do need roads...

There are (as of 2017) supposedly 4 million miles of roads in the United States.  Of this, over 2,600,000 are paved by asphalt or concrete.  Roads are expensive to make and maintain and represent the biggest drawback to cars, because anything which disrupts clear well-maintained paved roads leads quickly to a cascading failure of travel.

And if you have to go off-road, well I don't recommend the CyberDalek because you can't fit a 4 ft tree in the bed and you can't get over a mild snowy incline without being pulled by a Ford F-150...

A single point of failure will snarl traffic and create hazards which leads to bad driving, accidents, and injuries.  In Chicago, this single point of failure can range from excessive snowfall, vehicle breakdowns, to general road disrepair and maintenance.  

Cars are "fantastic" modes of transportation... as long as everything goes correctly.  When a poorly maintained vehicle (whether through negligence, ignorance, heavy usage or lack of finances) breaks down in traffic that road quickly becomes an evil red line on google maps.  And woe be to the commuters caught in a massive accident, like the 100 car pile up on the highway between Beliot and Janesville or when a Wisconsin semi-truck wrecker driver leaves his trailer arm I an elevated position and takes out an underpass.

Or even worse most people don't think about what is transported on these roadways.  So if a careless speeding driver tries to pass in a no-passing zone and the semi-truck trailer which veeres is transporting Anhydrous Ammonia, people die;

On Friday, September 29, 2023, about 8:41 p.m. central daylight time, a 2005 International 9900ix truck-tractor in combination with a 1978 Mississippi Tank Company MC331 cargo tank semitrailer (combination vehicle), was traveling west on United States Highway 40 (US-40), a two-lane roadway near Teutopolis, Effingham County, Illinois. The combination vehicle was owned and operated by Prairieland Transport, LTD., of Brownstown, Illinois, and the cargo tank was loaded with approximately 7,500 gallons of UN1005, anhydrous ammonia, which is a Hazard Class 2.2 material and an inhalation hazard. [1] ​ 

At the same time, an oncoming eastbound vehicle was approaching the westbound combination vehicle, and a westbound passenger vehicle was passing the combination vehicle in a no-passing zone. The driver of the combination vehicle stated that to prevent a collision between the westbound passenger vehicle and the oncoming eastbound vehicle, he took evasive action by steering to the right. The combination vehicle departed the roadway and traveled into a shallow roadside drainage ditch. The truck-tractor struck the end of a 12-inch-diameter corrugated metal pipe culvert installed beneath a field entrance, and the combination vehicle jackknifed and rolled onto its right side with its cargo tank sliding forward. 

The exposed front end of the cargo tank struck the tow ring of a utility trailer that had been parked adjacent to the roadway on private property. The tow ring punctured the front of the cargo tank, which led to the release of anhydrous ammonia into the atmosphere as a toxic gas in the form of a white cloud.   

​​​​The driver of the combination vehicle sustained injuries as a result of the crash and exposure to the anhydrous ammonia gas. Additionally, five people in the area of the crash died and 11 others sustained injuries ranging from minor to severe due to their exposure to anhydrous ammonia. (From the NTSB Report October 25, 2023)

About the only thing I remember from the Hazmat training courses is Anhydrous Ammonia is incredibly dangerous and you'd better flee in the area.  Anhydrous Ammonia attacks and destroys membranes in the lungs, eyes, nose, mouth and so forth.  It's a fertilizer and is widely used in Illinois and other farming states.

The trailer carrying the Anhydrous was on that small narrow crumbling state road because I-70 is undergoing a massive rebuild due to multiple years of delayed maintenance 

This is part of the Rebuild Illinois program which according to the State,

Over the next six years, IDOT is planning to improve more than 2,500 miles of highway and nearly 10 million square feet of bridge deck as part of Rebuild Illinois, which is investing $33.2 billion into all modes of transportation. As of March 31, Rebuild Illinois has made $10.9 billion of improvements statewide on 4,913 miles of highway, 479 bridges and 709 additional safety improvements.

When I was in junior high I always recall everyone making the ridiculous comparison that highways weren't even XX years old and are constantly falling apart whilst the Pyramids are 2500 years old and still standing.  These type of trite factoids blew teenage minds.

Then there is the weather as the Chicago Winter approaches everyone is hoping the El Niño will bring diminished cold and snow fall because the snow exacerbates the already poor driving behavior, as I've yet to meet anyone who doesn't over-estimate their driving skill, underestimates the space needed to brake or avoid a situation in the road in front of them, and constantly overdrives the conditions.  The old joke is there are only two seasons in Chicago; Road Construction and Winter.

So, disrupt any one link on the chain or stress any of the single point of failure and things became very messy, very quickly and drivers already stressed, late, distracted, or angry become very, very dangerous.