The Only Christie News That Really Matters

Are you, like me, bored senseless with the horserace "news" about the portly governor and former Federal Attorney of New Jersey? He's up! He's down! We got a horserace now! Hillary is wiping the floor with him; the woman mayor of Hoboken is wiping the floor with him! Cat-fight! Cat-fight! Yaaaaaay!

Bullshit.

All through this nonsense runs the devastation from Hurricane Sandy, devastation that lingers years after the event, just as the devastation on the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Katrina (and others) still lingers -- and probably will never be fully repaired, nor will displaced populations ever fully return.

This is how these storm situations are being handled these days. Send money to the best off so that they can get their beach mansions up above the storm surge levels in time for the next event, and deny money to the least well-off and most needy -- so that they will Go Away.

From time to time I get updates from Occupy Sandy and from various Occupy efforts and their offshoots going on around the country and the world, and today's email brought news of the Occupy Christie efforts to shame and ostracize the Governor and all his minions for their deliberate and ongoing refusal to address the real problems of the people of New Jersey left in the wake of the storm. While the events have been going on since last Sunday, and I only got the update this morning (having been drop-kicked from one of the email lists I was on and only just got it restored) I thought it might be useful to post the contents of the email so as to give some idea of the extent of the problems for recovery in New Jersey:

Dear friends and supporters, 

 In light of the recent disturbing disclosures concerning Governor Chris>

 Christie's flagrant misuse of federal Sandy aid money, the collective of
> storm survivors and their allies who organize under the Occupy Sandy New
> Jersey banner are hereby calling on residents of New Jersey to join us in
> Trenton in Occupying outside the Capitol starting this Saturday, January
> 18th, at noon. We intend to maintain our camp through Chris Christie's
> re-inauguration festivities on Tuesday, January 21st.
>
> In particular we invite and encourage Sandy survivors to make the trip to
> Trenton (we'll help you get here if you reach out: call 609-318-4271 or
> email OccupySandyNJ@interoccupy. net) to tell your stories to the state
> and national media already camped out nearby. We know that the people of
> New Jersey have stories to tell, to Chris Christie and to anyone willing to
> listen, and we plan to provide a safe space from which to do so.
>
> Since our Sandy recovery work continues on a daily basis?indeed, some of
> our volunteers and organizers may not even be able to make it to Trenton
> due to responsibilities in the field?this will only be a four day
> Occupation. However, should the administration fail to quickly fix its
> broken response to the storm and shift its attention to the state's
> residents who are most in need, we will not rule out returning to Trenton
> again soon. Governor Christie must understand that the last people he
> should be bullying right now are Sandy survivors.

> #OccupyChristie starts at high noon TOMORROW at the State Capitol. Bring
> sleeping bags.

> To Governor Chris Christie, here is our one demand: do your damn job!

> In solidarity,
> Occupy Sandy New Jersey
> ________________________________
>
> WHEN: Saturday, January 18th, NOON to Wednesday, January 22, 9am.
> WHERE: 140 W. State Street, Trenton, NJ
> WHAT: Camp #Sandygate (see partial schedule below)
> RSVP:?https://www.facebook.com/events/490811191030334/
> ________________________________
>
> ?
> Why "Camp Sandygate"?
> ?
> Sandygate is the real big scandal of Chris Christie's administration. While
> the state and national media are fixated on "Bridgegate" -which indeed does
> make for a good story -the real story should be the thousands of New Jersey
> residents who have been failed by Christie and the state. This is not
> simply an issue of storm recovery being a long and difficult process, as
> officials are often heard saying, but this is an issue of discrimination,
> misappropriation, and lies. Sandygate is about callous state officials
> deciding that one group of people will get help, while another will be
> ignored.

> 

> Frankly, Sandygate is a scandal about mistreating the most vulnerable
> among us.
> 

> Below are just a few of the grievances we hear most often through working
> with both survivors and service providers. As the links below demonstrate,
> the NJ media has actually done quite a good job of telling the real story.
> 

> Unfortunately, the national media has so far failed to put the pieces
> together:
> 

> Racial discrimination: Blacks and Latino applicants have been
> disproportionately rejected for resettlement and construction grants. 14.5%
> and 13.5% of White applicants were rejected by the Resettlement and RREM
> programs, respectively. Contrast these rates of rejection to 20.4% / 18.1%
> of Latino applicants, and a shocking 38.1% / 35.1% for African-Americans.
>
> Regional disparities: South Jersey's battered Delaware Bayshore has been
> almost completely left out of the recovery process. Residents of Cumberland
> County, one of the poorest counties in the state, are ineligible to receive
> state-administered federal funds. This means that while a beachfront
> homeowner on Long Beach Island is eligible to receive up to $150,000 to
> repair their home (or even to jack it up on stilts so their flood insurance
> remains affordable), bay-front or marsh-front homeowners in Downe Township
> could have lost everything and yet be eligible to receive nothing from the
> state.
>
> Discrimination against mobile-home owners: Despite assurances from the
> state that the grant application process did not exclude mobile-home
> owners, the process was riddled with confusion. In October, 2013, only 10
> of 3,500 statewide applicants for rebuilding grants were given to
> mobile-home owners. In the devastated Vanguard and Metropolitan parks, in
> affluent Bergen County's working class borough of Moonachie, only 4 of 400
> residences were approved. The state website still contains language
> excluding "RVs and trailers," which is believed to be the main cause of the
> confusion.
>
> Mishandled recovery for renters: Rental property recovery was underfunded,
> and relief went to landlords based on demand, rather than need, leaving
> renters out in the cold. As a result, $2 million of the $4.5 million
> awarded through the state's Incentives for Landlords program ended up in
> Essex County, which did not experience nearly the magnitude of
> storm-related damage as did other Atlantic counties. Devastated Ocean
> County, by contrast, received a mere $47,484 from the same program.
> Furthermore, while the state has been focused on landlords, renters
> themselves have too often been ignored.

>
> Leaving people out in the cold: As a result of the systemic mishandling
> and inequities in the Christie administration's recovery effort, many of
> the most vulnerable among Sandy's survivors have fallen through the cracks.
> The state has yet to commission a comprehensive survey of survivors, nor
> assessed the needs of those who currently live crammed into motel rooms
> with their whole family, or by sleeping in the condemned ruins of their
> home, or in between the reeds hidden in sand dunes. These and countless
> other survivors are still in urgent need of assistance with basic
> necessities such as food, clothing, medical services and stable housing. We
> do what we can for them every day, but there is so much more work to
> do.
>
> With so many resources going to well-off people and businesses, even one
> vulnerable person left behind should be a scandal. Tragically?and due to
> the decisions of Chris Christie and the state of New Jersey?thousands have
> been left behind.
>
> This is Sandygate. Please join us in Trenton tomorrow if you share our
> outrage.
>
> ________________________________
>
> PARTIAL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
> Day 1 - Saturday
>
> Noon - Occupy
>
> 6pm - Community Dinner & Assembly
>
> 8pm - Memorial Candlelight Vigil for Sandy's victims
>
>
>
> Day 2 - Sunday
>
> 9am - Breakfast
>
> 1 pm - Community Lunch & Assembly
>
> 7pm - Sunday Dinner
>
>
>
> Day 3 - Monday
>
> 9am - Breakfast
>
> 11am - Press conference
>
> 1 pm - Community Lunch & Assembly
>
> 7pm - Dinner
>
>
>
> Day 4 - Tuesday
>
> 8am - Breakfast
>
> 11am - Sandy Survivor Speakout
>
> 1pm - Lunch
>
> 7pm - Dinner
>
>
>
> Day 5 - Wednesday
>
> 9am - Breakfast and break down encampment

This is the real story of the Hurricane Sandy relief debacle. 

It's not about the mayors and the governor and Hillary and the polls

and the Rockefellers and all the rest, it's about the People and their struggle 

in the face of this ridiculous mess and media 

sideshow. 

This issue is the real story all over the world. 

One day, we might come to know about these things in real time. 

Haiti, anyone? 

"From Relief to Resistance..." From The Rockaways and Beyond

 

Something's happening here...

The situation for the victims of The Storm continues to be dismal as winter makes its way into the the vast stretches of despair and destruction along the Eastern Seaboard, particularly in the hard hit coastal areas of New York and New Jersey, where simple official neglect has left the People without electricity, heat, running water, food, clothing, livelihoods or the means and materials to repair their dwellings and businesses... hm, sounds somewhat like the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

What is happening here?

Interestingly "Bloomberg" is blamed for the continuing catastrophe on Staten Island and the Long Island shore, as well as the mess still afflicting parts of Lower Manhattan. It's his fault, not anyone else's, that there is still no coordinated relief effort from his office, his lofty perch, his corner of Paradise. He drops in for occasional inspection tours and then drops out again in order to go in front of the cameras and once again to counsel "patience" and "resilience" and all the rest of it that he has been counseling from day one.

There is still no coordinated relief effort... Electricity is still not on, water is still not flowing, temporary housing is still not being provided, food and clothing are still hard to find or impossible to get through reliance on official resources... People are suffering.

What's happened?

It really wasn't that long ago that public disasters like this were met with coordinated disaster efforts that focused on the public necessities (rescue, food, clothing, shelter, etc.) first, then coordinated infrastructure rebuilding, then restoration of what could be restored, reconstruction of what couldn't. Some semblance of "normal life" was intentionally put back in place almost immediately; the point being to enable survivors of whatever disaster it was to get into a re-building frame of mind as quickly as possible, and to see to it that the rebuilding took place.

Now it seems like none of that even enters the pretty little heads of the Ruling Class, as their first objective seems to be to make it as difficult or impossible for the People to even stay in the affected area, and to provide nothing in terms of "relief" -- so that they will go away on their own. Just leave. Get gone. And don't come back.

Occupy Sandy stepped into the void left by official neglect, and has been providing food and clothing, as well as the means and materials for clearing and rebuilding from almost the moment The Storm moved on.  They've provided generators for power, volunteers for clean up, meeting hubs, coordinated supply efforts, and on and on, while "Bloomberg" and his ever vigilant staff have harassed and threatened them at every turn.

"You can't do this." "It's not your place." "Go away!" "It's not safe!"

Yes, well.

Their answer is "Mutual Aid, Not Charity."

The difference is enormous, and the difference they are making in people's lives is striking.

It's not so much that they are providing for the material well-being of the multitudes of suffering humanity -- though they are -- as it is that they are providing uplift for the spirits of the People, hope, and they are showing how to meet both the challenge of The Storm and the official neglect that left the People so bereft.

They are transforming their efforts from relief to resistance.

Something that happened after Katrina as well, though resistance had something of a different character in those days. The Bush Regime is all but forgotten (except for its precipitation of numerous disasters and its inability to fathom them let alone handle them) and it was Katrina and its aftermath that led to the de-legitimazation of the Bushevik Era. Once de-legitimized by events and bitter experience, they could not recover in the eyes of the People. And now, it's as if they never were...

Such is apparently going to be the fate of "Bloomberg." Of course he can purchase any future he wants out of petty cash, but apart from that, his neglectful response to The Storm is going to be remembered as the precipitating cause of his de-legitimazation. The response of the Occupy Sandy volunteers, on the other hand, will live on as examples of how the People themselves can aid one another.

And so it goes...

The following essay at Waging Nonviolence pretty much sums it up:

The Best Response to Disaster: Go On The Offensive

Illegitimi non carborundum -- as it were.

The Storm -- Redux

The Storm from overhead via NASA

Found a link to this stunning slideshow of The Storm over at dKos and I'm reposting it here so that we'll have it available for further contemplation as time goes on. (It's from NASA but it's not that easy to find at the NASA site.)

Despite claims to the contrary from some officials, it does not seem that response to The Storm has been in any way appropriate to the needs of the devastated areas and people, most of whom are not rich and don't have the means to escape the worst effects.

Unfortunately, Our Betters have a privileged claim on government services both in times of peril and times of peace and plenty. The Masses are left, as always, to fend for themselves -- or die. We saw this clearly in New York and parts of New Jersey where the tony well-to-do were provided with practically everything they needed almost immediately after The Storm passes while those many thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of Americans who faced the full wrath of The Storm and particularly the storm surge were ignored for days by official relief agencies (such as FEMA and the Red Cross) as was reported from Staten Island, the Rockaways, Coney Island and elsewhere in the New York/New Jersey area.

Occupy Wall Street brigades stood in the breach, helping where no one else did, stepping in where all the other "helping organizations" seemed to be tied up with currying favor with the High and the Mighty. They did heroic work under trying circumstances and are to be commended, but of course, because OWS is nothing but a bunch of DFHs, they will get little or no recognition from On High, in fact, they might be arrested for their temerity to go where angels fear to tread.

Oh, and there was an "election" yesterday, too.

Turns out those of us who predicted that the Romney campaign would forcefully try to steal the election were wrong. I wasn't alone in the view that Romney et al would do just about anything to have their way, but I was surprised when I heard that Obama was declared the "winner" and that shortly thereafter, Romney had conceded.

No fight in them, or what? Is it something else? Is it that the Rs know full well, and have known from the get go, that Obama is really one of them (well, except for his complexion and kinky hair)? And that they would rather someone like him, somewhat closer to the Masses, execute the Program?

It was never possible for me to imagine someone like Romney -- or Romney himself -- sitting in the Big Chair in the Oval Office except as a joke. Of course I felt the same way about addle-pated (But Ever-Saintly) Ronald Reagan. See where that got me. Given the polling consistency, I doubt that Romney actually thought he'd get there, but the Horserace was as always the most important thing to sell to the unwashed, and so it was, right down to the wire.

The game was called by shortly after 11pm EST, rather shockingly early given all the uncertainties in  places like Ohio and Florida and whatnot. Obviously, it could have been strung out much longer than it was, but apparently the mathematicians at the networks wouldn't have it, and so they did their noble thing and let the Kenyan Socialist continue to sit on the Throne.

But who will control him and to what object?

We'll have to see, won't we.

Interestingly, there has been little change in the Senate and House, meaning the idiocy of the last two years will continue. But look at this, the GOP has retaken the Wisconsin State Senate, so that all the sturm and all the drang over the Walker/Koch Brothers take over of the Wisconsin State House will either have to be repeated on a bigger scale, or it will have to dissipate into the mists of time. There's a level of absurdity in these things (anomalies abound in state and local election results) that simply defy rational consideration.

It is what it is.

[Note: Meant to mention the Nor'easter that is now visiting the East Coast, but this post was written early in the morning, before I was fully awake... not the first time, not the last.]

The Storm

No Name Storm of 1991

Hurricane Sandy will be known simply as The Storm for some time to come. I haven't been able to check the news very thoroughly or very often so I don't know very much about what has been going on along the East Coast, but there are plenty of lessons for the rest of us.

The statistics of loss, damage and destruction are not really the important thing to those who are affected by these events, and hurricanes are not the only events that give rise to the lessons I'm thinking of. How many people and animals are lost and injured, how much property damage there has been, how long it takes to get things back in some kind of order... these are all matters that become abstractions at the individual and family level of people trying to adjust and survive in the midst of chaos and greater or lesser disruption.

The trauma is really what affects the people who live through these events. I remember, for example, how traumatized my mother was by the 1925 earthquake in Santa Barbara. She was a teen-ager at the time, and apparently her mother was trapped for a while in a collapsed building. My mother didn't know where her mother was, though, and she was terrified. The trauma never left her for the rest of her life. It was obvious in her eyes when she told me about it decades later.

It seems that most of those who lived through the wrath of The Storm this time did not actually suffer loss -- apart from, perhaps, some inconvenience of some sort. Many are apparently taking it in stride, in part because they are OK and everyone they know is OK. They have what they need and are able to carry on well enough in the midst of the chaos.

But there are so many others who can't. Their routine is completely disrupted. Perhaps they have no home any more. Their treasured things are gone. They've lost loved ones. They can't find their pets. Their clothes are ruined or they can't get to their jobs. They're out of food and water. On and on. The disruption and the loss from The Storm -- or from any stupendous event -- can be overwhelming.

Unfortunately, there are too many people who seek their own advantage at the expense of the victims who are overwhelmed by the disruption and loss others have experienced. These are the carrion feeders and predators who are always among us. They look forward to seeing others in such distress or so overwhelmed, they make easy prey.

We saw this horrifyingly in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina -- which doesn't seem so very long ago now. Whether we will see it in the aftermath of Sandy remains to be seen, but from a distance the mood and the spirit seems to be quite different. Well, except for a certain smirking former Massachusetts governor who decides to collect food at campaign events in Ohio -- food which none of the helping agencies want or need. The sight of it is stomach churning.

Meanwhile for those who have "lost everything and who are trying to pick up the pieces," the legacy of The Storm will last the rest of their lives. Most of that legacy is trauma and loss, but some of it-- the survival part of that legacy -- is the chance for something new. Not everyone can handle or wants that. But those who can and do may find the legacy of The Storm to be energizing.

I just hope that those who have lost loved ones, homes, livelihoods, ways of life and so on are not further victimized -- as many of the survivors of Katrina were -- by predators and carrion feeders, such as that smirking doofus. Things are tough enough for them already.