Like the “Landfill Park” in The Mask – the public is always the recipient of that which is unsuitable for “people of influence and obligation” – a bureaucratic wrapping up of garbage for those “gift giving” publicity photos. So what does local government do with a dark and polluted bit of rural woods at the bottom of a steep valley? Make a gesture.
It’s a gesture that rural people are familiar with.
A picture may be worth a thousand words – but there are some pictures that the public doesn’t see.
Farmers are sometimes just referred to as the “rich people” in the poor rural communities. One dental technician told me that she knew the farmer crying for subsidies on television: he has a 40-ft yacht.
“Farm Friendly” doesn’t begin to describe the deliberately biased and un-equitable treatment that exists in the rich farmer – poor unrepresented and disposable “non-farmer” rural communities.
Agricultural Law protects farming; like beheadings protect a tyrant.
A few years ago: it would have made me cry – but now, I just shake my head and laugh: electric cars. Electric cars will make no meaningful difference. Electric cars are what you do along with meaningful changes — not instead of.
Did you know that the Agricultural Sector in New York State and elsewhere is allowed any amount of open burning, and the unlimited use of smudge pots? And not only is Agriculture a significant user of fossil fuels – in states like New York: they are Fuel Tax Exempt – undercutting any regulatory attempts to curb their fossil fuel usage.
Methane emissions are driving Climate Change – and the Agricultural Sector is the largest producer of methane in the US – and the only sector where emissions are still increasing. And the farming methods being promoted by the USDA and Land Grant Colleges are the largest emitters of methane of all farming methods.
All the biggest producers are transitioning – from claiming Climate Change doesn’t exist: to claiming they’re doing something about it.
Climate Change is here to stay – and it’s already too big to get out the door. Drive happy!
Ithaca is the place where everybody wants to live: because it’s the only place in the county where people have individual worth.
While Ithaca rules the county – it never leads by example. Their plan to blanket rural Lansing with CAFOs is balanced by their own petition to the New York State Supreme Court: enumerating serious concerns about lack of CAFO and Agricultural regulation and oversight, lack of disclosure, and the possible effects of modern farming practices on their own residents and the their own town’s environment. Lansing’s puppet government has expressed no concerns at all.
Ithaca is Camelot: A castle community where people dump their slop on the unprotected commoners outside the walls – without a second thought.
Where would you want to live?
Policy making in Tompkins County is a purely mechanical process: every outcome is decided before the issue is revealed.
The round of comments, and meetings and surveys is only a meaningless backfill for an edifice whose foundations have already been laid.
The “meeting” for a radical zoning change for the rural Lansing community is called an “Open House” – a PR phrase for an exclusionary paradigm shift that denied that same rural community any participation in its planning.
When you connect all the dots — it’s a picture of money.
Politics is all about convenience – and there’s nothing more convenient than a vague and nebulous classification:
Especially one with emotional leverage.
How many communities have allowed housing complexes that will serve elderly residents – that turned out to be high-crime, felon and sex offender dumping grounds — with a scattering of elderly as perennial victims.
The “Homeless” designation is the perfect heart-tugging catch-all to disguise the problems of drug addiction, violent crime, and under-the-radar serial killers passing through.
Dumping your problems on someone else is more convenient than trying to solve them yourself – and more practical. It changes: “I’m no good for not solving them” to “you’re selfish if you don’t accept them.”
The Cornell-Ithaca machine “allocates burdens” to the other towns in the county – while keeping all the benefits to themselves.
It’s not that residents don’t understand what’s going on – it’s just that Tompkins County is not a representative government – and these days: it doesn’t even bother to hide it.
When corruption reaches a level of blatant display and whispered stories — it’s past remediation.
When you’re only a passenger – there’s no guilt in throwing up your hands and shouting: “we’re all going to die!” — and having your arms broken by the airbag.
Too many cooks may spoil the broth – but too few rowers becalms the boat – in the middle of the channel – approaching the falls. Can you hear it? Puffing won’t fill the sails.
“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander” – refers to a concept of gender equality that is no longer permissible in modern Doctrinal Society. Acceptable behavior is set forth in law at a higher level: by people who refuse to reveal what they are giving, what they are taking, and how they are weighting the scales – or to have their decisions questioned.
“Doing unto others . . .” is just an out of date homily in this time of naked greed. People who distain menial jobs; have no problem taking from those who work them. And “compassion” is just a tool to shame those who have it; into giving to those who use it.
The only crimes left are not getting what you want — or someone not giving it to you.