Comments by "Ficus-lovin\x27 Capybara N\x27 pals • 🌟 • 25 yrs ago" (@YourCapybaraAmigo_17yrsago) on "Texas Dam Turns Family Farm Into Lake. State Refuses to Pay" video.

  1. (long post) People just don't understand that in this country, it's quite clear that those who who ascend to public office here have very little conscience. This seems to have been a constant over many generations. This isn't the right or left thing and I started realizing this long before I subscribe to this channel. Unfortunately it seems quite clear to me now that in a very large number of cases, you cannot count on your public officials or publicly elected persons to care about you in this country or even try to do the right thing. They answer to big-money donors and big money interests and not you. They're in it for themselves, and to satisfy whatever big money interests are behind them. If you think your party of choice cares about you I'm sorry, please think again. This is equally true of the GOP or the Dems. The GOP-controlled Texas has sold it to the large corporations (which of course has happened in every state) which has directly and indirectly killed quite a few Texans over the past several years. By and large public officials in this country only care about themselves feel little to no obligation or responsibility towards the public that they claim to represent/make decisions for. I'm on the far Left but that doesn't mean I would ever vote for any Democrats anymore. Democrats aren't on the Left; they're just as much corporate and elite money-captured as anyone else. It was Democrats who poisoned Flint and then lied and intentionally buried the evidence over and over and over again to cover it up; acts which caused very significant and real harm to thousands of men, women, and children, mostly poor and minority. There were severe consequences from that that those people are still living with. To my knowledge it has still not been made right, almost 10 years later, and nobody guilty has been brought to justice. It's a good idea not to trust or respect any public official in this country. Either they're criminally incompetent by choice or because they can't do any better, or openly malicious or sociopathic or disregarding of the needs or rights of the public that they claim to serve. Are there a few public officeholders out there who are generally decent and generally mean well? I'm sure there are, but I don't believe they're the majority, I just don't. I've lived too long and seen too much malfeasance at this point. Of course there's plenty of malfeasance in the private sector also, no doubt about that, but we're talking about the public one right now. Just be aware that in a significant majority of cases in my opinion, public officials in this country are anything from truly incapable or genuinely clueless and useless, to openly hostile, harmful or indifferent to their constituents or their sphere of the public that their office is supposed to administer to. Whether you're on the right or the left these cases really aren't the exception. Hurricane Katrina wouldn't have been near the apocalyptic catastrophe that it was if local city officials hadn't completely paved the way for that disaster 15 years prior by refusing to reinforce and shore up the city's levies, and had not chosen to remove massive swaths of the mangrove forest which conduct a vital buttressing function against hurricanes and ocean swells. Was it because they weren't warned and begged not to do so by scientists and civil engineers? No not at all, quite the opposite. But Big Real Estate controlled them all apparently and wanted to build over the mangroves. As to why they didn't at least build up their levies better, knowing the potential for heavy damage if they got a bad storm, god who knows. I guess they hated the city they had chosen to manage. You'd think that's one thing - basic weather safety - we could all agree on. God forbid one spends money on vital public infrastructure. There's going to be a lot of suffering in this country until we find a way to control the people who get into public office better. Because right now the vast majority of them are basically what I would call a quasi-sociopath. Weather we vote or don't vote, regardless of what their political party affiliation is at the end of the day, I don't believe hardly a single one of them gives a single flip about any of us. And I believe this goes all the way back to the early 1800s. Look at what East Palestine, Ohio is dealing with right now. The governor and the state's EPA doesn't care about them them, are you kidding? They answer to Norfolk Southern, the big villains in this story. Industry and big real estate has been running it's own people for public office or public agency positions for decades - and when they win, which they often do, of course they make sure that that office will never stand in the way of anything Industry or Big Real Estate wants, or if they're a politician, will take the bribes aka campaign donations and always vote the way they're told. It's wise to have a healthy distrust if not an outright hatred for the vast majority of public officials in this country. I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them. They just don't seem to have any ethics or willingness to have any sense of responsibility towards those they claim to represent. Until this changes, regardless of one's political persuasion, we need to be on our guard and constantly watching our back around these people. I won't say all government is bad, some of it is useful and necessary, but as anyone who's been following this channel and probably has just lived a little bit of life knows, those who occupy it can frequently become tyrannical, abusive or flagrantly criminal. Even in some cases downright evil. Local, county, state, or federal – for the 90% of us that are average Joes, we just need to be aware that the vast majority of people in this government don't work for us and don't care about us, regardless of what their lying mouth says, and always be willing to fight back. The challenge is finding a lawyer who's not a coward or just uninterested to take our case, but we have to keep trying. In my life experience so far, I see people who ascend to government, public agency, or legal positions in this country as selfish, cold-hearted, crooked, often criminal, and, esp of police, frequently bullies or predators. I wish it was otherwise but it doesn't seem to be. We can help ourselves by staying aware, always educating ourselves about their continued misdeeds, and forming or joining various citizens' defense groups, both militia and legal. TDLR: I don't really know why but a great number of public officials here are simply terrible people, for whatever reason. This is bad for us. Let's stay aware and be willing to fight back if and when we need to.
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  2. Perhaps they thought they needed the barriers for safety but surely there was alternative to this? Like someone else mentioned a simple drain pipe or just not doing it, as it's quite possible the safety risk was not at all severe and didn't require this kind of action. They knew or should have known that catastrophic effects sooner or later would have happened. They owe this family and all other residents twice the full market value of all of their homes and goods lost. I say twice because this never should have happened and for the pain and suffering these people are now dealing with. It's the 21st century. Civil engineers know how to handle these problems. I can't imagine there's an excuse for this. I don't think it was just stupidity. Clearly somebody at the top just didn't care. They knew they'd get heavy rains and potential for floods in the area. There's just no excuse.
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