Houston

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blindpig
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Re: Houston

Post by blindpig » Thu Aug 31, 2017 7:51 pm

kidoftheblackhole wrote:
Thu Aug 31, 2017 7:15 pm
And who is on the side of the angels?
Like we talked about once or twice, the only angel worth anything is St Michael the Archangel (the only angel who is also a saint). And Michael is an Avenger (hes only missing the spandex).
Winning the revolution is all the avenging we need.( though personally I might like a little more...) Moral superiority don't give ya one battery of cannon but it's there for all to see.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Houston

Post by blindpig » Fri Sep 01, 2017 12:30 pm

Harvey is Deemed the Costliest Disaster in U.S. History
worker | August 31, 2017 | 8:21 pm | Local/State
Washington, Aug 30 (Prensa Latina) Tropical storm Harvey, previously hurricane category four of a máximum of five in the scale Saffir-Simpson, can become the most expensive natural phenomenon in U.S. history, estimated today the meteorology enterprise AccuWeather. According to a communiqué of that entity, material damages of the meteor which unleashed catastrophic floods in Texas and Louisiana, will be near the 160 billion dollars.
That amount, said the text, is similar to the ‘combined effect’ of hurricanes Katrina in 2005 and Sandy (2012).
In the opinion of Joel Myers, founder and president of AccuWeather, Harvey will be the worst natural disaster for the United States and when it is complete, the total destruction will represent 0.8 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.

Business leaders, the Federal Reserve, the big banks and the insurance companies should begin to estimate the negative impact of this catastrophe in business, corporative incomes and employment, he sustained.

Myers warned that the disaster is beginning in some areas and it is already clear that parts of Houston, the fourth most populated city of the country, will be uninhabitable for weeks and possibly months due to the damage of floods.

On the other hand, officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said that over 195 thousand persons have applied to the Government for economic aid.

According to news reports, the Executive has given over 35 million dollars in financial aid to applicants through a website (www.disasterassistance.gov) established to give information and support to the victims.

In a press round, the head of FEMA, Brock Long, asked the victims of the storm to contact their insurance company and register in the digital website in order to receive official aid.

He said 30 thousand persons have been accommodated in 230 shelters in Texas and another 1800 were transfered from shelters to hotels in the last hours.

http://houstoncommunistparty.com/harvey ... s-history/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Houston

Post by blindpig » Sat Sep 02, 2017 5:59 pm

North Korea moving flood victims into new homes

A Red Cross adviser said the recovery work has been taking place at a pace that would usually take 3 years in a developing country.
By Elizabeth Shim Nov. 16, 2016 at 8:04 PM


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North Korea constructed at least thousands of homes in the wake of heavy floods that left hundreds of thousands of residents homeless in North Hamgyong Province. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo


SEOUL, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- North Korea has begun moving residents into newly built homes in a region recovering from recent floods the country has described as catastrophic and the worst since World War II.

According to the Russian embassy in Pyongyang, the relocation of flood victims is underway, Voice of America reported.


The embassy confirmed the latest development on Facebook, and quoted Cho In Chol, the vice chairman of the Rason City People's Committee.

Cho told a Russian diplomat construction on a cluster of new homes was completed on Nov. 10 and residents were being moved in by Tuesday.

A Western diplomat who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity also said victims of the August and September floods were being assigned to their new homes.

The diplomat said he has visited sites in the city of Hoeryong, Onsong and Musan Counties and witnessed the construction on 10,000 homes nearing completion, according to the report.

The source said most of the newly built residences were either apartment units or detached houses capable of accommodating two households.

The apartments, however, did not seem to be equipped with good insulation, the diplomat said.

The source added construction appeared to have taken place at a very rapid pace, comparing the progress to an earlier stage of construction in late September.

Patrick Elliott, a shelter adviser with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said the recovery work has been taking place at an incredibly rapid rate, and at a pace that would usually take 3 years in a developing country.

Progress on construction was captured in satellite images, including more than 50 new red roofs in the city of Hoeryong and three large apartment buildings in Yonsa County, according to VOA.

https://www.upi.com/North-Korea-moving- ... 479344309/

Damn, VOA musta been off their meds that day regardless of the criticism....
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Re: Houston

Post by blindpig » Tue Sep 05, 2017 12:04 pm

Hurricane "Harvey": Another capitalist crime against the people

The hurricane and tropical storm “Harvey” in Texas revealed the misery and disaster that capitalist “development” spreads at the expense of public security and people's interests. The same, even in a larger scale, had happened 12 years ago with hurricane “Katrina” in the states of Luisianna and Mississippi. In both cases, the heaviest price of the disaster was paid by the poor strata of these states, the working class and immigrants.

The record rainfall and floods, the “extreme natural phenomena”, cannot explain by themselves alone the scale of the destruction. The real cause behind the disaster in Texas is the policy which, in order to maximize business profits, destroys natural envirnoment, creates anarchy in construction, builds huge factories, industries, shopping centers without any fundamental security plan.

The Texas disaster reveals the true nature of Capitalism: for the capitalist system, the security and health of the people, of the workers, of the masses is not important. What matters in Capitalism is the profitability of the monopolies, of the large business corporations, of the capital, at any cost, even by sacrificing people's lives.

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For the issue of “Harvey” hurricane in the United States, we republish an article appeared on “Liberation”, the newspaper of the U.S. Party of Liberation and Socialism:

Twelve years to the day after Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans and much of the Gulf coast, millions in southeast Texas are suffering the devastating impact of another huge storm. An unknown number of people are dead or missing, and tens or hundreds of thousands are desperately seeking refuge as the flood waters rise to historic levels. Thousands of heroic volunteers of all nationalities have joined in efforts to rescue thousands trapped on rooftops and nursing homes.

The immediate cause of the crisis is record rainfall, in some places over 50 inches in just a few days. But like Katrina and virtually every other major natural disaster, the crisis has been worsened by an abject lack of government readiness.

Hurricane Harvey has exposed government at every level as being woefully unprepared to meet the needs of the people. While in ordinary times this reality is somewhat concealed, in times of catastrophe it is fully visible and undeniable.
The fundamental cause of the repeated pattern of government failure is that under the existing capitalist system governments are organized not to serve the interests of the people but instead those of the corporate owners and the super-rich.

The Center for International Policy, a research and policy group based in Washington, says “a person is 15 times as likely to be killed by a hurricane in the United States as in Cuba.” How is it possible that socialist Cuba, a blockaded country with far fewer resources, “consistently weathers Category 4 and 5 hurricanes with relatively few casualties”? A New York Times article from 2013 reports:
“Cuba would have suffered a great deal more if not for its well-rehearsed storm preparation system. It is a multilevel process that starts with the young. Grade school students practice evacuations; high-school students monitor neighborhoods to identify weak trees and other hazards. … In the event of a storm, the head of every institution — schools, hospitals, hotels — is considered a member of the Cuban Civil Defense force, responsible for the well-being of people around them. … In Pinar del Río, the province most vulnerable, the government deploys large brigades to prepare for disaster. ‘If you have nowhere to go, then there’s the state shelters with food and water and doctors,’ said María Fajardo, a resident.
“Hurricane Tips from Cuba,” New York Times, July 29, 2013.

Houston, the fast-growing and fourth largest city in the U.S. with a metro population of 6.6 million , is on low, flat land and vulnerable to flooding. The current disaster is the latest and worst of four major flooding episodes in just the past nine years. A major cause is that the city has no zoning laws, so development is largely unplanned. So, too, is emergency preparedness.

A December 6, 2016 article in the Texas Tribune reported: “As millions have flocked to the metropolitan area in recent decades, local officials have largely snubbed stricter building regulations, allowing developers to pave over crucial acres of prairie land that once absorbed huge amounts of rainwater. That has led to an excess of floodwater during storms that chokes the city’s vast bayou network, drainage systems and two huge federally owned reservoirs, endangering many nearby homes … “

As the hurricane approached, the mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner, told residents to “stay in place” citing the fear of highways becoming clogged with people, and then flooding. Later, as the flood waters rose, city officials advised residents to move to the second floor of their homes, and then, if the water continued to rise, to their roofs, and “wave white towels to attract attention.”

At the same time, the governor of Texas, a virulent right-winger, Greg Abbott, called for Houston residents to evacuate, but offered no assistance or plan for evacuees. This, too, was reminiscent of Katrina, when those who had the funds escaped New Orleans in chaos, on jammed roads, forced to pay sky-high rates for hotel rooms. Those without resources were left behind, leading to the deaths of more than 1,800 people, overwhelmingly poor and African American, when the levees broke.

As the Texas crisis turned into catastrophe, President Trump tweeted a self-congratulatory, “Wow – Now experts are calling #Harvey a once in 500 year flood! We have an all out effort going, and going well!” Later in the weekend he sent out a book recommendation on Twitter, followed by an admission that he had pardoned the criminal sheriff Joe Arpaio as Harvey hit because the TV ratings would be “far higher.”

Houston is home to many oil refineries, all of which were shut down in advance of the storm, in some cases releasing toxic pollutants into flood waters and the air, affecting nearby communities which are disproportionately Latino and African American. One chemicals plant in the northeast edge of Houston, Arkema, is in critical danger of massive explosion because the electrical cooling systems and back-up generators have failed.

Image
Pensioners trapped in Texas care home flooded by Storm Harvey.

Even before the shutdown, some oil executives were talking of gas price hikes when they re-start and gas stocks rose 7%. As always, the corporate profiteers have only one real objective.

Nearly 600,000 undocumented workers live in Houston. While the governor was telling Houstonians to evacuate, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that they were keeping in place internal checkpoints on major highways. Undocumented workers were thus forced to choose between the flood and a potential threat of deportation.

More than 30% of Harris Country, 444 square miles, is under water and hundreds of thousands of residences have suffered water damage that will often require tens of thousands of dollars each in repair costs – if they can be repaired.

While Trump staged a public relations trip to “assess” the damage in Texas, his administration is calling for slashing the federal flood insurance budget and flood insurance subsidies to homeowners who live in areas highly vulnerable to floods. If enacted, this would raise annual insurance costs to astronomical levels, from present monthly premiums of $100-200 to as much as $2,400.

Presently, the homeowners insurance covers wind damage, but not water damage. Many Houstonians have the former, few have the latter.

The danger in southeast Texas remain acute, with rain still falling, rivers and bayous still rising and old reservoirs and levees in danger of failing. But even if the rain were to immediately stop and the rivers recede, the long-term crisis would only be starting.

Many months and perhaps more of reconstruction are ahead. The Party for Socialism and Liberation salutes all those on the ground in Texas who are engaged in the recovery effort, and we are joining in that effort.

At the same time, what is needed more than ever is a mass people’s movement that demands the federal and state governments provide the assistance and funds – not crushing loans – for rebuilding what has been destroyed, in a long-term sustainable fashion.

We need a new system of political governance. Under capitalism society’s plentiful resources are marshaled by the government to streamline profit-making by bankers, real estate developers and corporations rather than to protect and defend all the people and the environment.
The people’s needs must come first!

https://communismgr.blogspot.com/2017/0 ... alist.html
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Houston

Post by blindpig » Tue Sep 05, 2017 3:32 pm

Harvey’s Victims: Prisoners Drink Toilet Water in a Fight to Survive Under Lockdown
Inmates in Texas experience flooding and lack of food and water. They are drinking toilet water while under lockdown and two prisoners were reported dead. Left Voice interviews Rachel, whose husband is currently in Beaumont Federal Prison.
September 04, 2017

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An evacuated Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison surrounded by floodwaters last year. (David J. Phillip / AP)

The following interview was conducted over a week after Hurricane Harvey hit. Rachel’s husband has been an inmate in Beaumont Federal Prison, located about an hour outside of Houston and 40 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico. Although some local media has denounced the conditions in the prison, in general, the media has remained silent on the plight of inmates.

Left Voice: Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you know about the conditions in Beaumont Federal Prison?

Rachel: My name is Rachel Villalobos, I’m married to my husband of 13+ years. We have two kids which are 9 years old and 11 years old. My husband has been locked up since July of 2014. I spoke with him on Saturday and he told me about the conditions in the prison after Hurricane Harvey. There have also been a lot of emails sent around by the wives of inmates- we share news with each other when we get it.

LV: What happened during Hurricane Harvey in the prison?

During Hurricane Harvey, Beaumont Federal Prison was put on lockdown. There are two people to a tank—it’s a small cell. There is flood water in their cells and they didn’t let them out. They were stuck in their cells for five days- cells that were flooded. They were on lockdown for five days. I spoke to my husband the very first time on September 2nd when he informed me of the conditions. August 27th was the last time I spoke to my husband before that.

During that time, I watched the hurricane on TV. I would call the jail and say "Hey, are you moving them? Hurricane Harvey is hitting" and they would tell me they can’t give me that information. I would ask why they couldn’t tell me and then they would hang up on me. They did that about five times.

On Saturday, they let out the inmates for an hour for the first time. After the guards found out that the inmates were contacting their families and loved ones to tell them about the conditions, they locked them all back up. When I spoke to my husband, he was angry and frustrated. There was still water in his cell. I don’t know some of the details because I didn’t want to frustrate him even more. I haven’t heard from him since.

LV: What happened in the prison after the hurricane?

After Hurricane Harvey, I was told they are very low on food and water. They are getting two sandwiches a day. These are grown men. They need more than two sandwiches.

They are using the restroom in bags so they can save the toilet water. They all have been drinking the toilet water since they have been low on water supply. He said that even though the toilet water has bacteria, at this moment he didn’t care and the other prisoners didn’t care either. They are really thirsty. He said he would drink anything. He told me that if this water didn’t kill him, the conditions were going to kill him. That’s how bad it is.

They have no air conditioning and they barely got the power back on three days ago. These prisoners haven’t even taken showers or had a hot meal since Sunday, August 27th.

I have an email saying that two inmates in medium low have passed away because of this treatment. I found out because an inmate’s wife emailed me that. Her husband who is locked up told her. They need help.

I know at least one of the people who died has been drinking the water. That’s what got me. My husband has been drinking that water. I don’t know the health situation of the rest of the prisoners, but if two people already died, they need to make a change now. This was a couple days ago.

LV: What do you think about the lack of media coverage about the plight of inmates after Hurricane Harvey?

These prisoners are losing hope and think that nobody is going to help them. It’s important that these men get the right treatment. It’s unfair. We see animals evacuated before even thinking about the inmates. This is coming from their mouth. The inmates understand the situation.

These men have no voice in there. All they have is their family to depend on to get this story out so the suffering and mistreatment can stop. They feel forgotten about in there. They are giving up hope. I can tell by the way my husband sounded.

LV: What do you think needs to happen now?

I would like them to be evacuated ASAP to a clean, healthy, safe environment. They need to be given a hot meal, a lot of water, and medication (my husband is a diabetic, also has high cholesterol, and high blood pressure). My husband has gotten his medication, but he said they were low. Who knows how much longer they will have it?

I would also like the inmates to get treatment because they have all been drinking that bad, bacteria infested water. I wouldn’t want anybody to ever go through what these inmates are going through. Some of the guards there are covering up their corrupted prison and that is not right. In the high security prison, the guards were on stand-off mode. I got an email from the wife of one of the inmates telling me that. The guards are patrolling with huge guns.

I know that there is more going on in those prisons. Inmates like my husband don’t want to tell us because they don’t want us to worry, but I have the feeling there is more going on in there. They need help now.

http://leftvoice.org/Harvey-s-Victims-P ... ode=calcul

class warfare
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Re: Houston

Post by blindpig » Tue Sep 05, 2017 5:57 pm

After Harvey, Houston Landlords Force Tenants to Pay Rent or Face Eviction

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Vince Ware moves his sofas onto the sidewalk from his home which was left flooded by Harvey, Houston, Texas, U.S. Sept. 3, 2017. | Photo: Reuters

Published 5 September 2017 (3 hours 40 minutes ago)

h eviction and late fees in Houston as tenants try to recover from the devastating storm, calling for intervention from city authorities.

"We are paying rent for somewhere we can't live in. They said 'you aren't the only ones in this situation,' but what are we supposed to do? We don't have any money. We don't have anything," Rocio Fuentes explained to the Guardian.

"Our landlords say we have to pay rent and late fees and every day it is going up,” she added.

Former tenant and Harvey victim Isela Bezada was taken to court and evicted shortly after the hurricane.

"There are a lot of property owners who aren't conscious of what has gone on; they are being rude and kicking people out,” she said, “There are people who have been hit really badly by these floods. We are all human beings. We all deserve help."


A representative of Houston’s housing department stated authorities are aware of the situation, but that landlords are protected by law.

Per Texas law, either tenant or landlord may terminate a lease if the property is deemed uninhabitable due to natural disaster. However, Houston city ordinances permit owners to charge rent and late fees if the living area is determined to be partially usable, with the court only allotting a small reduction to tenants willing to fight the notices.

Officials and clergy members from the Metropolitan Organization called on city officials Saturday to intervene on behalf of tenants and give at least a three week grace period.

"TMO is convening this group because pastors and families are afraid of evictions for not being able to pay rent, due to a week without work caused by Hurricane Harvey," the community organizing group said in a statement. "This loss of income is devastating to families and evictions will exacerbate financial hardships and instability during this recovery period."

Other landlords in the area state they are willing to work with their tenants, who, unable to leave the city and get to their jobs, have unavoidably fallen behind in the wake of the storm.

Over 203,000 homes were damaged or destroyed when Harvey slammed Houston on Aug. 25, leaving 52 inches of rain and devastating floods in its wake.

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ ... -0008.html

Rentiers are the reptile brain buried in the cortex of the capitalists.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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