"Emmitsburg Mayor Frank Davis voted for Donald Trump in hopes he would cut federal spending. Now Davis hopes those cuts don't include the permanent cancellation of classes at the National Fire Academy, which is part of the town's identity and helps drive its economy. Davis is also a chief at Emmitsburg's firehouse, known as the Vigilant Hose Company."
One of the worst things about being a firefighter is how many of my colleagues are republicans.
It makes no sense. You do a job providing services to people for the government and you vote for the folks who tell us that government is unable to do good...
You do a job providing services to people for the government and you vote for the folks who tell us that the government they'll form is unable to do good...
"We're on a very long, slow path to self-destruction," he says. "Every day that this training is unavailable to the locals is one day closer to a disaster they can't handle or won't know how to handle."
He got to this kernel of truth. He's almost there! If only he could just make the connection and apply it to the big picture.
Yet, he will likely never look back to his actions. He'll just turn out his pockets, throw his hands up and say "I don't know what happened! No one warned me about this repeatedly."
They voted to cut the FD in a neighboring town. Then they found out the fire response would jump from 8 minutes to 20+ and everyone in that area would have huge increases in home owners insurance rates.
They recalled the vote and upped the budget within a month. Fucking morons.
They voted to cut the FD in a neighboring town. Then they found out the fire response would jump from 8 minutes to 20+ and everyone in that area would have huge increases in home owners insurance rates.
It is like these morons are constantly surprised each time they discover that public services cost money.
They've been raised on the idea that taxes are bad, and never put more thought into it than that. They view things like the fire department as good, so they can't really be funded by those bad taxes, right? ...Right?
They want less building though. It’s a small wealthy New England town.
They think they’re immune to wildfires too, even though it’s all woods and the rate of drought has increased here too. Look at even New Jersey burning now.
Davis says the administration is reviewing the academy's operations, and he is hopeful it will restore classes. If not, he says, he'll see the administration somewhat differently.
"It will change my outlook to say that they're not being fair,"
"They were supposed to cut the things that I didn't think were important, even though other people thought they were important. They were not supposed to cut the things that I thought were important, even though other people didn't think they were important." Lmao!
Reminds me of visiting the Libertarian subreddit around the time of the LA fires and the big brains thinking about how to make the fire departments private for profits. That midset is rather universal among republicans (even if not the fire departments, but they will have something that they think would be better as a corporation rather than government agency). Reporter should ask him how long he estimates that the market will signal to investors to pick up the slack.
I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.
“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”
“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”
“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”
The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”
“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”
“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”
He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”
I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.
“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.
“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.
“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”
It didn’t seem like they did.
“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Joe Rogan posters.”
Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.
I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.
“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.
Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.
“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.
I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”
He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.
“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”
“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid?”
“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”
I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.
“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”
He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me.
People need to start asking them what the point of the profits are when the money isn't going back into the respective region (municipal/whatever the states version of provincial is/federal).
Like great, yeah, the fire department is now private. But there are no profits because nobody can afford the services anymore. Insurance goes through the roof, neighborhoods burn down... Real great plan there.
In every single one of these stories, the reporters need to be asking whether it was the racism or the fascism that appealed more to these voters. Inquiring minds want to know and we shouldn't let them off the hook or worse, to cry for our sympathy.
My solution to that was to make them spell out DEI, dont let them hide behind an accronyem. Make them say every part of it, and see which part they wrinkle their noses at. Makes it much easier to tell which flavor of intolerant they are.
Everyone knows the parts of the federal government they have involvement with aren't all that wasteful. The sad truth is we're very, very far away from conservative voters realizing the rest of the government is about the same, and the wealthy just use the idea of wasteful spending as a red herring to distract from their taxes being unsustainably low.