A lawless society inspired and governed by blatant criminal behavior at the top is the signature of a Third World country. It’s not a healthy situation, particularly when the so-called major media are ignoring or, even worse, covering up for a lawless administration. It’s a direct legacy of the fundamental transformation of America enunciated by one Barack Hussein Obama.
THESE PIG POLS FIND BILLIONS FOR WELFARE FOR ILLEGALS, SQUANDER TRILLIONS TO REBUILD MUSLIM DICTATOR'S REGIMES, BUT CAN'T INVEST IN AMERICA unless they can rig it to go into the pockets of Wall Street cronies!
Chris Hedges & Richard Wolff | Infrastructure & Pandemic Relief Are BLATANT SCAMS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqCDmLdy5jY
Chris Hedges & Richard Wolff | America's OBVIOUS DECLINE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGQT69IuP4U
Chris Hedges & Richard Wolff | Billionares PROFITED FROM PANDEMIC!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJR5g_mcnoo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7ZQHssDTbc
FLEECED! How aid billions were squandered in Afghanistan: £4 million on Tuscan goats for the cashmere trade, £120 million on Dubai villas for corrupt politicians and £400 million on aircraft left to rot
Hannity: Biden clearly lied
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mtLvYnIPFA
Tucker: You don't see this everyday, in fact you never see it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OmWkozn_iQ
Deadly train derailment in Montana exposes decrepit state of US infrastructure
The derailment of an Amtrak passenger train in northern Montana Saturday, which killed three people and injured at least 50, is the latest in a string of accidents and disasters that are the result of the decayed, underfunded and underdeveloped infrastructure in the United States.
According to investigators, the train, known as the Empire Builder, was traveling below the track’s speed limit of 79 miles per hour when eight of its ten cars went off the rails at a switch with a side rail just outside the community of Joplin, Montana. Several cars tipped on their side, trapping passengers and crew who were rescued by residents rushing to the scene with ladders. The railroad’s owner, BNSF, reported that the switch had just been inspected two days before the accident.
While Amtrak is subsidized by state and federal funds, the trains mostly ride on rails that are privately owned by freight railroad companies like BNSF, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, and are used for both passenger and freight traffic. BNSF reported a net profit of $5.48 billion in 2019, while its parent company reported a net profit of $42.5 billion 2020.
Passenger and freight rails services are now blocked on a key transit artery between the Midwest and West Coast as the investigation and clean up continues. The Empire Builder takes passengers on a 2,200 mile route from Chicago, Illinois to Seattle, Washington or Portland, Oregon via St. Paul, Minnesota. On average, more than 400,000 passengers ride the cross country train every year.
The three victims have been identified as husband and wife Don and Margie Varnadoe from Glynn County, Georgia, who were celebrating their 50th anniversary, and 28-year-old software engineer Zach Schneider from Fairview Heights, Illinois.
Even as the investigation into the cause of the crash by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is in its initial stages, with a preliminary report expected in 30 days, there are already indications of what possibly went wrong.
Former NTSB rail accident investigator Russ Quimby told the Associated Press that the derailment appeared to be the result of a heat related failure of the track. “This has all the earmarks of a track buckle also,” Quimby explained. “Sometimes a locomotive, which is heavier, will make it through” a buckled track, “but the cars following won’t. You saw that in this accident,” he noted.
Temperatures in Joplin Saturday exceeded 84 degrees Fahrenheit. This summer brought record-breaking, prolonged heat to Montana as part of a broader heat wave that hit the northwestern US and Canada. The extreme heat, driven by man-made climate change, resulted in hundreds of deaths and stressed infrastructure to the breaking point across the region.
Railroad safety expert David Clarke, director of the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Tennessee, told the AP that it is possible that a defect in the track or switch, which would not have been detected by a routine inspection, could have triggered the crash. “Did the switch play some role? It might have been that the front of the train hit the switch, and it started fish-tailing and that flipped the back part of the train,” Clarke said.
The Montana derailment is only the latest deadly Amtrak accident in the last decade. Eight people died and more than 200 were injured in 2015 when the Amtrak Northeast Regional flew off its rails in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; three were killed and 57 injured when the Amtrak Cascades derailed just south of Tacoma, Washington; and two crew members were killed in 2018 when the Amtrak Silver Star collided with a stationary CSX freight train after being misdirected onto a sidetrack.
Decades of cutbacks and underinvestment have hobbled the United States' rail system. Railroad infrastructure and railroad workers have been put under increased stress as rail companies have reduced the number of crew on freight trains, sometimes to just one, while increasing their length, with trains reaching up to three miles in order to deal with port congestion along the West Coast.
High speed train travel, common in Asia and Europe, is all but non-existent in the US. Only a single train can reach speeds up to 150 mph, the Acela, which connects Boston to Washington D.C. However, the ability of the train to run at peak speeds is limited by the fact that it operates on lines also used by freight and regional passenger trains. Plans for a high speed line in California have been hobbled by repeated delays and cost overruns. The first segment of the line is set to begin operation in 2029, nearly two decades after the project was approved by voters.
As the rich pile up ever greater amounts of wealth, allowing billionaires to fly on private rocket ships to space, the public infrastructure that tens of millions rely on every day is crumbling, with deadly effects. Pockmarked freeways, train crashes, bridge failures, condo collapses, mass power outages and major flooding are just some of the consequences of decades of systematic deregulation and defunding for the enrichment of the financial oligarchy.
The 2021 review of the nation’s infrastructure by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave the United States a C-. The ASCE found that the passenger rail system has a $45.2 billion repair backlog, with just $713 million spent on repair projects by Amtrak between 2017 and 2019. Meanwhile the country’s roads were given a failing D grade, with 43 percent of public roadways in poor or mediocre condition and a $786 billion backlog in road and bridge repairs or enhancement needs.
Last week, the House passed a $768 billion billion budget for the Pentagon for 2022, $15 billion more than requested by President Biden, including $24.7 billion for nuclear weapon modernization. Just one year of the funding which is spent on war and preparations for military aggression abroad could fill the road repair backlog.
According to the Costs of War Project, the so-called “global war on terror” launched by US imperialism in the aftermath of 9/11, which killed more than 1 million people, has cost the country $9 trillion over 20 years. The ASCE estimates that less than one third of the money spent on the wars, $2.6 trillion, is needed to repair all of the infrastructure problems in the US.
Despite the burning need for a major overhaul of the country’s infrastructure, the Democratic-controlled Congress is haggling over a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that will barely scratch the surface, with billions of dollars to be funneled into the banks and private corporations. The main purpose of the measures under discussion is to prepare for war with China, a prospect that places tens of millions of lives at risk.
The deadliest outcome of the subordination of everything to the interests of Wall Street has been the collapse of the country’s public health and health care system under the pressure brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The bipartisan “herd immunity” and back to work, back to school policy pursued by the ruling elite has resulted in the deaths of at least 700,000 Americans, more than one out of every 500 residents.
With the abysmal state of infrastructure, the ongoing consequences of the pandemic and continued rise of massive social inequality the ruling class prove the bankruptcy of capitalism, the social and economic order on which it rests.
The solution to the social crisis in the United States, as it is for the world, is the transformation of society under the democratic control of the working class to run on the basis of human need and not private profit. Trillions must be expropriated from the rich and the big banks, while the largest corporations are turned into public utilities run by workers themselves, on the basis of a socialist program.
THE LAWYER CLASS IS AMERICA'S GREATEST THREAT!
A lawless society inspired and governed by blatant criminal behavior at the top is the signature of a Third World country. It’s not a healthy situation, particularly when the so-called major media are ignoring or, even worse, covering up for a lawless administration. It’s a direct legacy of the fundamental transformation of America enunciated by one Barack Hussein Obama.
Does Biden Believe That Laws Should Only Be Observed Selectively?
I suspect there is not a driver anywhere who hasn’t routinely exceeded the posted speed limit. I often find myself zipping along at 65 mph in a posted 55 mph zone. After all, who hasn’t? Who doesn’t?
In fact, it’s not uncommon for a patrol car to whiz past me doing 70, clearly unconcerned about how fast I am driving. I would probably have to be going at least 75 to gain the trooper’s attention.
Unelected bureaucrats set speeds in what they perceive to be the interests of public safety. No one expects those speed limits to be strictly enforced.
This is called selective law enforcement. It’s a growing American cultural norm. There are a number of these, some more obvious and serious than others, such as smoking marijuana or illegally crossing our southern border. At local levels, many Democrats who run cities have expanded these norms to the point where they no longer concern themselves with any sort of drug use, much less shoplifting, trespassing, urinating or defecating in public, minor violence such as muggings, and leftwing riots. There’ve been precious few reports about prosecuting hundreds of BLM and Antifa members who participated in the 2020 riots that cost billions in damages.
This alarming lawless approach to governing by Democrats is adversely affecting multiple corners of our society.
Creaky Joe Biden’s taste for lawlessness surfaced immediately in his administration. Sean Higgens reported, “One of Joe Biden’s first acts as President of the United States, the removal of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) general counsel Peter Robb, was probably unconstitutional. It was certainly highly unethical. Biden fired Robb despite the NLRB being an independent federal agency.”
In clear cases of illegal racial discrimination, Biden administration officials have been implementing programs only open to Black, Hispanic, or female Americans. The Small Business Administration (SBA) has been accepting applications for grants from the $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund, designed to help those adversely affected by Covid. White males have been excluded from applying. In a similar move, Biden’s Department of Agriculture began forgiving loans to farmers affected by the Covid crisis. You won’t be surprised to learn White farmers and ranchers were excluded.
In dealing with Covid, Biden’s various mask and vaccination mandates have been a direct challenge to the very Constitution he is sworn to uphold. The New York Post reported,
The national vaccine mandate that the president is poised to issue is unlawful. White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain made the obvious explicit by retweeting a progressive commentator’s observation that the ploy of imposing the vaccine requirement as a workplace-safety rule under OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is the ‘ultimate work-around.’ Translation: The president knows that an executive order mandating COVID vaccination would be shot down instantly, so he’s trying to camouflage it in a maze of Labor Department regulations.
On another front, Biden’s CDC decided in early August to extend for two months a federal eviction moratorium on renters who are behind in payments to their landlords, although the Supreme Court had already indicated the CDC lacked legal authority to do so. The Washington Examiner reported that,
When asked about the legal obstacles this policy would inevitably run into, President Joe Biden admitted that what his administration is doing is illegal, but he said he doesn’t care....
[snip]
...Biden knows that the CDC is acting illegally but wants the agency to continue to act illegally until the courts can get around to stopping it. Litigation takes time, which means the moratorium could be in effect for weeks, maybe even months, before it is struck down. And even when it is declared unconstitutional, there is no way to go back and force renters to pay the money they owed when the moratorium was in place, even if the moratorium itself was illegal.
This is such a flagrant violation of the law and the constitutional bounds of Biden’s presidency that it’s a wonder no one outside of conservative circles seems to care.
Biden’s lawlessness is particularly acute and painful on our Southern border. Immediately after becoming president, old Joe halted Trump’s border wall construction and, more or less openly, invited illegals to swarm in. As part of this, he halted congressionally approved spending on the wall. Some legal experts believe this broke the law.
Andrea Widburg noted in an earlier American Thinker article,
People may no longer realize that America has robust immigration laws. You can find them at 8 USC §1151 et seq. These laws govern all aspects of admitting non-citizens and non-legal residents into the United States.
The laws are predicated on the idea that America has a border and that it has the right to control that border. Congress addressed not being a public charge, working illegally in the country, bringing in dangerous communicable disease, being mentally ill, and being a dangerous criminal or a drug-runner, and required visas, sponsors, and entering through appropriate checkpoints rather than sneaking in. Stuff like that.
One of the first things Joe Biden did upon entering the Oval Office was sign executive orders that either make it harder for government employees to enforce these laws or require them not to enforce them at all. Thus, he stopped work on a wall that had as its sole purpose preventing illegal aliens from bypassing legal border checkpoints. That is, he made it easier for illegal aliens to sneak in.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who sued the Biden administration, said,
President Biden’s outright refusal to enforce the law is exacerbating an unprecedented border crisis. By failing to take custody of criminal aliens and giving no explanation for this reckless policy change, the Biden administration is demonstrating a blatant disregard for Texans’ and Americans’ safety.
This is a highly troubling aspect of a disintegrating presidency that appears to run on the premise that if you don’t like the law, evade it or ignore it. But what else could one expect from a man whose sleazy, drug-fueled, wannabe porn star son has apparently been peddling access to his father to the Chinese and other foreign interests? Fox News reported an email thread found on son Hunter’s laptop where Hunter appeared to outline a payout for the President in a deal with a Chinese energy firm. One email includes a discussion of “remuneration packages” for six people, including a 10% cut for Mr. Big, a likely reference to old Joe. Your gut tells you there’s more. A lot more.
A definition of a criminal is someone who breaks the law. We’re not just talking here about cultural norms such as exceeding the speed limit or turning a blind eye to pot-smoking; we’re talking outright serious criminal behavior that should demand long stays in the federal prison system.
A lawless society inspired and governed by blatant criminal behavior at the top is the signature of a Third World country. It’s not a healthy situation, particularly when the so-called major media are ignoring or, even worse, covering up for a lawless administration. It’s a direct legacy of the fundamental transformation of America enunciated by one Barack Hussein Obama.
I have this fantasy about Peter Doocy asking Jen Psaki or, even better, old Joe himself if he believes laws should only be followed selectively. I would love to hear the answer.
Frank Hawkins is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer, Associated Press foreign correspondent, international businessman, senior newspaper company executive, founder and owner of several marketing companies, and published novelist.
Image: "Police arresting Biden" based on Baltimore Police Arrest by Keith Allison. CC BY-SA 2.0.
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