Lehman Brothers alum John Kasich had a message for those communities devastated by storm damage from last week’s historic tornado outbreak.
Pull yourself up by your damn bootstraps, you lazy parasites.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich said thanks but no thanks to immediate federal disaster relief Saturday, even as governors in Indiana and Kentucky welcomed the help.
Kasich did not rule out asking for assistance later, but his decision means tornado-ravaged towns in Ohio will not get federal aid now and are not eligible at this time for potentially millions of dollars in payments and loans.
The governor said Ohio can respond to the crisis without federal help and he would not ask federal authorities to declare the region a disaster area.
“I believe that we can handle this,” Kasich said while visiting a shelter for storm victims at New Richmond High School. “We’ll have down here all the assets of the state.”
Ron Paul has a message for victims of the tornadoes that killed dozens of people in the South and Midwest: buy insurance.
“There is no such thing as federal money,” he said Sunday on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’ “Federal money is just what they steal from the states and steal from you and me. The people who live in tornado alley, just as I live in hurricane alley, they should have insurance.”
The libertarian-leaning presidential candidate went on to reiterate his opposition to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and suggest the National Guard play a key role in the aftermath of natural disasters.
“To say that any accident that happens in the country, send in FEMA, send in the money, the government has all this money–it is totally out of control and it’s not efficient,” he said.
Paul railed against FEMA last year after wildfires ravaged his home state, Texas, destroying 4,000 homes and killing ten people. He wrote a column in the Houston Chronicle arguing for elimination of the agency, calling it “symptomatic of a blind belief in big government’s ability to do anything and everything for anyone and everyone.”
After a political F5 storm erupted across Ohio, Kasich reconsidered his stand, deciding that maybe storm-struck small towns are as worthy of government attention as Wall Street gamblers.
The irony is – as the GOP blocks progress on mitigating climate change, events like last week’s storms become more and more likely – and the storms that are coming will make our current outbreaks pale by comparison.
http://www.monbiot.com/2012/03/05/a-manifesto-for-psychopaths/
“… the most devoted member of [Ayn Rand’s] inner circle was Alan Greenspan. Among the essays he wrote for Ayn Rand were those published in a book he co-edited with her called Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal. Here, starkly explained, you’ll find the philosophy he brought into government. There is no need for the regulation of business – even builders or Big Pharma – he argued, as “the ‘greed’ of the businessman or, more appropriately, his profit-seeking … is the unexcelled protector of the consumer.” As for bankers, their need to win the trust of their clients guarantees that they will act with honour and integrity. Unregulated capitalism, he maintains, is a “superlatively moral system” ”
It took me many years but I’m finally starting to believe that there really are people who think helping others is bad. And together with that understanding comes the realization that while I was asleep, the greedcult members occupied all the important seats in business and government.
Seriously, they really believe in it! Wow!
yeah. greedy bankers. what a crazy leftwing crackpot idea!
Considering that at least 45% of Americans will vote republican this autumn in the election brings to light the horrible society we have evolved into. Selfish, extremely individualistic, against knowledge and reason, intolerant- just what Ayn Rand thought was right in ‘Atlas Shrugged’- but is this really the kind of society she really envisioned?
The GOP in the future will be remembered a long time for their denial of climate change- especially from those most effected- climate will become the most harsh in the future in predominantly Red States- and the populations of those states will likely face a horrible future of endless heat waves, locust and insect plagues, droughts of biblical proportions and violent storms-
I’ll never forget Greenspan testifying before Congress, expressing his astonishment that the Masters of the Universe would allow their greed to lead them to act in such a way as to bring about the collapse of their own institutions. The idea that greed can blind people to the obvious? It’s an all-too-human trait, one that every confidence man in history has depended upon to work his con. Why it’s one of the Seven Deadlies, Alan.
To really gauge how the Corporatists believe things really are, look at what they DO,not what they say. Just as they fought tooth and nail against Health Care Reform because I think they KNOW that contrary to their propaganda that all the pollution their industries spew is not as dangerous as scientists KNOW it is and that this country will soon see an explosion of health problems related to this pollution (ie. the health “chickens” are coming home to roost real soon). So they really do KNOW that we will be facing a real and horrendous increase in natural weather related disasters not decades from now but RIGHT now and in the immediate future.
I caught on to this about 5-6 months ago after hearing one of the right-wing weather guys on The Weather Channel offer an editorial about how Americans needed to stop counting on the ANY level of government to help them recover from disasters. Now these garbage from the governor of Ohio. We’re going to have to wade through a lot of this stuff more and more in the months and years to come. THEY KNOW WHAT’S COMING and they’re desperately trying to keep their corporate masters from having to pay anything to alleviate the harm they know they’re causing.
Shame an investigative reporter can’t find a “smoking gun” memo spelling the strategy out.