Making political hay or telling the truth?

You know, some people have accused me of using tragedy to make political hay.

This is my response:

If a space capsule can be built to withstand what it does surely there are solutions to storm shelters for tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes.

Manufacturing such shelters would be relatively cheap if undertaken by a government owned manufacturing program using the best known scientific methods and technology.

The government financed a lot of nuclear war shelters now serving well as tornado and hurricane shelters.

It really is a question of governmental priorities. Will we have a government where the needs and requirements come before war and corporate greed.


Any government that can fund war after war for more than a hundred years without complaint certainly can find the funds to protect people from natural disasters.

Then the other problem is; there are some areas that never communities of people never should be allowed to live in... farms are one thing but converting that expansive farmland into residential communities when we know there will be hurricanes, floods and tornadoes is another thing... but, here again real estate developers and construction companies profit and politicians and their appointed public officials get campaign contributions and kick-backs to allow all of this to go on.

The idea though is to take the precautions necessary to minimize the threat and harm to human life. We have a political and economic system which values profits more than human life and that is where our problems begin.

I live in a "tornado alley" and a flood plain. When purchasing the property, because it is near a large lake and rivers and streams fairly close by, I sent written letters to both the realtor and the county asking if the property was in an area that ever flooded; both responded: NO. Well, it wasn't long before I found out the area flooded. But would any government agency do anything to this crooked and corrupt realtor, Scott Pahlen, that lied or the county official who no doubt received some kind of kick-back from the realtor--- and then there was the bank, Citizen's State Bank, which approved the mortgage which required all kinds of surveys, inspections, etc. but told me they didn't require anything about floods because the property was not in a "designated flood plain."

So, people can't even get straight and honest answers from anyone when there are profits to be made.

We all take the "risk" of being confronted with natural disasters of one kind or another... and many people have expensive insurance to to "protect" them... but, how often have you heard the heartbreaking story from the family who had to fight one of these insurance companies tooth and nail just to get the coverage they paid for?

During flooding up this way in the Red River Valley a few years back I happened into a restaurant where a bunch of insurance claims adjusters were gathered. They were laughing and joking about how they screwed people out of what they were entitled to because many people didn't know how to talk the legalese of their policies.

And then there are people who have experienced all kinds of hardship and death in mining country simply because the mining companies were allowed to get away with breaking the law by not properly caring for dams that have broke.

And just recently we saw the huge explosion in Texas--- more connivance between private corporations and government agencies who claim they weren't funded well enough to do their jobs--- but did you hear the heads of any of these government agencies warning people of the potential consequences of their inaction? No.

Makes me sick; the entire rotten system stinks. Why should we make up excuses for this governmental neglect be it "benign" or malevolent?

Oh, yes; and then these government officials and politicians always hide behind their favorite scam: "immunity."

Those making this accusation can kiss my ass and go to hell.