◼ Realignment - Critics of Caltrans’ Richardson Grove project stage a rally (they wish was) worthy of the Hurwitz era
And where are the ringleaders? They aren't the ones being hauled off to jail, are they?
No-o-o-o.
Look, kids, wake up. Learn a little bit about trucks and wheel bases before you go off half cocked doing someone else's bidding. If they really cared they'd be there getting arrested with you.
◼ Anon.r.mous' helpful picture guide to STAA trucks.
As you can see above, the ENORMOUS interstate highway sized trucks really aren't that much larger than the trucks that can currently get into Humboldt County. It's just the room for the sleeper. The Volvo VNL 300 (above) has a wheelbase of approx 166" and the VNL 670 (below) has one of approx 221". You can order them longer or shorter. We already allow large STAA style trucks into Humboldt County, and have for years. Some of the longest trucks on the roads are moving vans, which are allowed, and have been allowed on 101 for years. So far, the chaos that the special interest groups such as Paul Cienfuegos and Richard Salzman support has failed to happen
◼ Realignment - Critics of Caltrans’ Richardson Grove project stage a rally (they wish was) worthy of the Hurwitz era
Didn't you say the same thing during the Maxam years?
ReplyDeleteI think Garr Nielson deserves credit for handling the situation in a professional way. Some of the protesters went too far in my opinion and Nielson didn't overreact like some police chief's do in situations like this.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Tom.
ReplyDeleteMuch as I would like to live in some Jeffersonian ideal yeoman farmer community where everything I need is produced within walking distance of my residence, I don't and no one in the United States does. It isn't like there's a village cobbler who sits around in a leather apron making shoes, or a weaver who produces cloth on a hand loom, who are put out of business by chain stores. We need stuff from outside the Redwood curtain, and this bizarre paranoia about the outside world invading via slightly bigger trucks just puzzles the hell out of me.
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to all that "civility" we supposedly see from the left? Look at the face of the poor idiot in the picture, does that guy look civil to you?
ReplyDeleteAnd who bused these guys in?
Humboldt's highest paid spokesmouth Natalynne is on the job at the Times Standard comments thread, too. Wonder who's paying and how much this time.
BTW, loving the global warming down here in San Francisco
ReplyDelete2 1/2 weeks of low to mid 70's weather. In February!
Rose
ReplyDeleteThank-you for a refreshing bit of reality. Hyperbole doesn't began to describe the rhetoric spouting from the mouths of the misinformed demonstrators.
The police were too kind. Rather than grind them out of their wrist holding pipes they should have turned the security cameras on, put a man to watch them, and gone home. They would have soon tired of their histrionics without an audience.
I am an environmentalist, I'm not sure what those demonstrators are.
I feel the same way, Ernie. I grew up in those forests. We made our forts in those trees. The trees are more cathedral than any church I have ever been in.
ReplyDeleteBut, you can cut a tree - or a tree can be blown down in a windstorm, or burned in a forest fire, and the world doesn't come to an end.
As for those who are tying to paint this as a "Hurwitz moment" - get real. I remember that video coming on the screen as clear as day - the pepper spray being applied to the eyelids of protestors. I thought it was from another country, and was shocked to find that it was happening here. Outraged, really, as were we all.
But later - as I came to learn about the Salzman crew's manipulations here, and came to realize that they KNEW that this would happen, because there had been a prior incident, and they plotted, and sent those idealistic young kids in to have their eyes swabbed so they could videotape it and win the PR war they were waging - those actions are cynical, and they are one step above strapping a suicide vest on a teenager and sending them to murder other people. It's a matter of degrees.
This was not that shocking moment. This is the same old behind-the-scenes manipulators trying to relive those glory days, trying to drum up doomsday scenarios and once again sending in the poor dumb young things to bear the brunt of it.
Let's see Ken Miller get handcuffed. and Richard Salzman. Book 'em Dan-O.
A bunch of them biked in Rose. There was a lot of grass roots get out the word on this that I was informed about. I didn't like the way the protest ended and felt that the lock down and arrests were un-necessary. I mean, the cops were actually more peaceful than some protesters.
ReplyDeleteAnd Anonymous, I agree with you for the most part. I just wish we had a railroad for all that freight. It would be off loaded locally and that would create jobs. Or the bigger trucks could just use highway 299 to avoid local labor costs.
I agree with you too Rose that it isn't the end of the world, trees can be cut or blown down, but they don't need encouragement.
I am on the side of the protesters over Richardson Grove as long as they are peaceful. Those that weren't are a disappointment to me.
Nothing wrong with peaceful protest. But this has gone on for way too long, and it is a waste of our time and money.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Tom, about the railroad - with all the emphasis on "green" and saving fuel, it seems like the railroad is a logical choice. I don't buy the idea that it is because of a few slides either - men hacked their way through granite cliffs to get rails here in the first place - I rode on one of the old routes in Alaska, and it really reminds you of the greatness of men's effort and abilities. When did we get this bunch of mealy-mouthed naysayers?
I am now becoming a a fan of a trail through the Eel River Watershed via rail banking. We have to keep the right of way. Still the railroad worked for about a hundred years but now with all of our modern engineering we can't make it work? Really?
ReplyDeleteI know it's a side issue but if they can spend as much money as they do repairing US 101 from the damage trucks cause, they should be able to keep the rail route open.
Without all of the big trucks, US 101 could probably put off some paving projects for up to 3 years longer than under the current system. Motor homes, cars and travel trailers aren't as hard on the roads.
If not, let's have a world class trail and a friggin' freeway for Wal-Mart and other international retailers. After all, they are people too according to last year's Citizens United Supreme Court decision. They could care less about a trail or a railroad and only want to use the tax payers roads for the price of fuel to deliver international products to our local consumers. Lets subsidize international corporations with big trucks that would rather pay their guys 8 to 10 dollars an hour than create a way for our own people to make a living at a railroad dock.
I don't buy into this and will oppose it until someone can convince me otherwise.
Well, Tom, I know it is fun to talk shit about corporations, but let's leave that aside for the moment. Let's just look at Wal-Mart, which isn't even here, and Target.
ReplyDeleteBoth get a lot of trashing, right? So, think about what happens IF they can't get in at all... what do people BUY at Wal-Mart and Target? They buy basics. Toilet paper. Sheets. Pots and pans. Knives. Dogfood. Lightbulbs. Socks. DVDs, TVs - ok? (Short list)
Where else can you buy sheets? The local shop in Old Town carries the $300 a set sheets, who carries the $30 a sheet sets?
We have some idea because the windstorm a few years ago left us stranded - and the shelves at Safeway were bare within a couple of days.
We need the goods that get trucked in.
And we need good, wide, safe, fluid roadways. They're the arteries of the state.
You know who I did see front and center there with the other morons that "locked down"? Kim Starr. She doesn't give a shit about trees. She's looking to generate complaints against cops with her other copwatch drooler buddies. Nice try smelly bitch.
ReplyDeleteOf course the obvious question is that supplies have been able to get up here to Humboldt for all of these years. So why is there a need for the change. You post photos of trucks that can't get up here because of the narrowness of the road through Richardson Grove, yet there has been no difficulty getting necessary product to merchant vendors all of these years. You ridicule those who were exercising their 1st amendment rights and blithely question their allegiance. Yet your allegiance are to corporations who will eat you for breakfast and spit you out without any thought about it.
ReplyDeleteDon't believe the hype! We were non-violent!
ReplyDeletehttp://kmud.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&
KMUD News interview with Caltrans lockdown participants and arrestees!
Watch the Access Humboldt video from Monday's Caltrans Rally!
http://ia700400.us.archive.org/8/items/AH-Richardson_Grove_Protest/
Were the protesters violent?
Were the cops?
Make your own decisions, don't let the press feed you misinformation, as the Times-Standard and North Coast Journal have been co-opting media for Caltrans since the inception of the Richardson Grove Project...
Stay tuned for a new video coming soon...
Muskrat, I know it's fun right now, but have you given ANY thought to what life is going to be like for you in 20 years? Are you doing ANYTHING to prevent being a bagperson when you're 70?
ReplyDeleteI'm not joking, and I'm not being snarky. I've seen so many like you, who came here young and happy, and lived as free spirits - who found when life suddenly turned, they had nothing. No means of support. No plan. Nowhere to live...
You're wasting time and daylight.