A measured reply to a commenter named Davenport

…And I don’t mean a commenter here. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t really matter who Davenport is. Here I present a most righteous rant, a stinging smackdown of the clowns who have saddled us with 4 more years:

Do you want to know why the power is STILL off on Long Island, Davenport? Read this here: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Sandy-LIPA-Outages-Power-Long-Island-Defense-Military-178115341.html

In it you will find reference to a report from 2006, SIX YEARS AGO, which found that Long Island Power Authority had not done the basic maintenance required to secure the power grid from weather damage. The maintenance they’re talking about here is tree cutting mostly, and replacing bad power poles.

I lived in New York in the 1990’s. I could have written that report. The f-ing power went off every time it snowed because they didn’t cut trees and the trees ripped the lines down. They also didn’t plow the roads, but that’s a story for another day.

You want to know why they don’t cut the f-ing trees Davenport? It isn’t because they are stupid, it isn’t because they don’t know, it isn’t because private enterprise is inherently corrupt, it isn’t even because union workers are a bunch of rent-seeking layabouts. It’s because every time they go to cut down a tree, some local Greenies get up a petition or a court order to make them stop. So they stop. So the trees break and knock down the power lines. Same thing all over the North East until you get up into snow country, where even the f-ing tree huggers know better.

Well -this- time it all came home to roost the same day, and every overhanging branch from New Jersey to Connecticut took out a line.

But don’t get me wrong, there’s a ton of corruption and scamming going on too. Paying off inspectors, hockey tickets for town council, that sort of thing. That’s why all those flooded switching stations were within reach of a flood in the first place, because the money to move them was skimmed off by graft. That’s why FEMA didn’t have any forward located stuff, because it all either vanished or was never there to start with except on paper.

But now that there’s been a disaster the LIPA wankers are screaming for crews. And they aren’t getting them. You know why Davenport? Because volunteer crews from as far away as Florida showed up Monday -before- the storm and cooled their heels until Friday, didn’t get any assignments because they WERE NOT UNION, and then those volunteer crews went the hell back home.

And FEMA didn’t say jack about it, did they? Nor did anyone else. One phone call from Barack “The Golfer” Obama to the head of the union could have fixed that. Just one, single phone call. Didn’t get made, did it? He made a speech on Wednesday and then flew to Vegas.

It gets better. Read it all here and marvel at the breadth of the anger and disillusionment. Too bad more folks like him didn’t speak up BEFORE the election, isn’t it? It’s just too damn bad.

Me? I’m considering taking up golf. It seems to be the thing all the successful people are doing.