Dissolving Your Village to Own the Libs
Well I guess that's one way to avoid a 1% income tax.
HOUSEKEEPING: NO DISPATCHES ON THURSDAY OR FRIDAY BECAUSE I KNOW NOBODY IS GOING TO READ THAT SHIT ANYWAY. SERVICE RESUMES MONDAY UNLESS I’M IN JAIL.
Well well well welcome to the Day Before Thanksgiving that time you either love to spend with your family or go out drinking in a shitty dive-bar in your hometown like a true degenerate.
I’m not going to Marion this year. I have too much to lose to throw those cosmic dice onto the table for another year. You can find me in Franklinton shirtless and screaming fuck the Pilgrims.
AMELIA COMMITS SEPUKU OVER 1% INCOME TAX
In case you have forgotten Republicans control Ohio’s state government which means low state taxes which only help the wealthy and deprive the rest of us of needed local services:
This places the tax burden onto cities and other municipalities. At some point even the most hardcore Republican villages like the 119-year-old Amelia are forced to raise taxes — in this case enabling a 1% income tax — to pay for things everyone uses like roads.
1% income tax might not sound like much to us folks in the big cities but in a ruby red place like Amelia it’s grounds for abolishing the village entirely and that’s exactly what happened.
From Sarah Mervosh of nytimes.com:
AMELIA, Ohio — There were allegations of suspicious political donations and rumors about fake social media accounts. Protesters wore T-shirts that said “Stop the tyranny!” At one point, a former official was escorted out of a public meeting in handcuffs.
For more than a year, the residents of Amelia, just outside of Cincinnati, have been consumed by a fiery debate over a proposal to impose a new local tax of just 1 percent. This month, voters found a way around the problem — by getting rid of their 119-year-old village altogether.
In some ways, the dramatic move, which takes effect this week, reflects the frugal, small-government mind-set that permeates Amelia, a conservative community of 5,000 people where the median household income is $61,500. Many residents are reluctant to hand over any more of their paychecks to the government, even the one that picks up their leaves in the fall and plows snow from their streets through the winter.
…
There were threats to boycott businesses. An anonymous letter urging residents to “defend our village” showed up in mailboxes. Mr. McCoy, the activist in favor of dissolving the village, stood outside a gas station in a clown suit, encouraging voters to “stop the clown show.”
“This election was worse than any presidential election I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Steve Crawford, 56, who owns a flooring store and was among those who wanted to keep the village intact. He blamed much of the division on social media.
On Election Day, the vote to disband was decisive: 893-to-419. Whoops of celebration filled the night air. But there were also murmurs of regret.
Facebook used to be a place where college kids could meet new friends. Now it’s a place controlled by Boomers who will use it to fight over local elections. Somehow I’m thinking we’ll regret allowing a lizard person like Mark Zuckerberg to control the most consequential publisher of the 21st century.
Anyway congrats to the radicalized tax trolls on successfully cutting off their nose to spite their face. I’m sure this move won’t have any unforeseen circumstances that most voters will come to regret.
CINCINNATI TAKES SOLAR ENERGY INTO ITS OWN HANDS
Mark Twain said if the world ever ended he hoped he would be in Cincinnati because it’s always 10 years behind the times. Well Twain never lived to see solar power come into existence or Ohio’s state government gutting clean-energy standards to aid and abet the fossil fuel industry.
As such Cincinnati has taken measures into its own hands by striking a solar energy deal that should power a quarter of the city government.
From Chris Wetterich of bizjournals.com:
The city of Cincinnati plans to buy enough energy from a new solar plant to be built in Highland County to power about a quarter of city government year-round, Mayor John Cranley said on Thursday.
A company is building a 400-megawatt plant on 1,000 acres of soybean fields in the county, which is east of Clermont County. The city will buy energy generated by 100 megawatts of the array, and city officials projected that Cincinnati either will break even or save up to $1.7 million over 20 years based on current energy prices. There also is room at the plant to add additional panels, so other cities or businesses could join Cincinnati.
At a news conference on Thursday at the city’s West Side police station, which uses net zero energy, Cranley said his goal is to do just that and try to make up for what he called the Ohio General Assembly’s shortsighted decision to end requirements that a certain percentage of the state’s energy be generated from renewable sources.
The city is incurring no capital costs to build the array, Cranley said. It will be constructed by Chicago-based Hecate Energy.
Shoutout to Cincinnati. Never was sure why the old crook himself Ronald Reagan took down the solar panels from the White House roof. Do you know what kind of clown you have to be to be against free energy provided by the sun? Honestly it was the beginning of 1/3rd of our nation believing Climate Change to be a Chinese hoax.
SUPRISE: FUYAO STILL STUCKS
Fuyao Glass America in Dayton has been anti-worker since its inception. Even one of its little P.R. toadies was caught threatening to cut Senator Sherrod Brown’s head off when he had the audacity to mention workers’ rights during a speech at the glass plant’s opening.
This is just the latest example.
From Thomas Gnau of daytondailynews.com:
Fuyao Glass America has agreed to pay $1.3 million to a group of current and former workers — and their attorneys — who sued the company over the auto glass manufacturer’s scheduling and work conditions.
A federal magistrate denied the Fuyao’s request to keep settlement terms sealed.
“Defendant agrees to pay a total settlement amount of one million three hundred thousand dollars and no cents ($1,300,000.00) (‘gross settlement amount’). The gross settlement amount includes all amounts to be paid by defendant under this agreement,” states a new filing in the class-action lawsuit against Fuyao, dated Monday.
…
According to settlement terms outlined in the new filing, Fuyao agrees not to oppose a request by plaintiffs’ attorneys for “reasonable attorneys’fees and litigation costs,” not to exceed $500,000. That is to be paid “solely from the gross settlement amount,” the filing indicates.
Keep in mind this place is held up as an ideal “post-modern” American manufacturing plant. It was hailed for brining “jobs” to Dayton. And instead it’s led to more exploitation and suffering of the American worker.
A WELL-MEANING LETTER MISSES A BIG POINT
I wish more people wrote Letters to the Editor defending abortion but this is a great example of a well-meaning letter missing an important point to the debate.
From Roni Benson of Euclid to cleveland.com:
Ohio women should be concerned about the anti-choice bills that are advancing in the legislature, including two bills approved by the Ohio Senate on Nov. 6 (“Ohio Senate passes two abortion bills on survival, ‘reversal’,” Nov. 7).
Senate Bill 155 would jail doctors if they do not inform their patients regarding the possibility of “reversing” a chemical abortion. But well-known health organizations say there is no evidence that such a thing is even possible. Senate Bill 208 would require health care providers to administer medical care to an infant that survives an attempted abortion and require doctors to report instances of an attempted abortion results in a live birth. Pro-choice groups say failure to provide medical care is already a felony.
Ohio men should also be concerned because this anti-abortion anti-science shit affects all of us. And that’s why the anti-abortion movement has made so many inroads — too many good people have stayed silent against their unrelenting march
ILLEGAL DAY CARE WORKER FOUND PASSED OUT ON THE JOB
Bad idea to get drunk around a bunch of kids but doubly so to do it while running an illegal childcare service out if your house.
From David Winter of local12.com:
CINCINNATI (WKRC) - Parents of nine children are looking for a new childcare provider after theirs, 42-year-old Julie Groteke, was arraigned on nine counts of child endangering.
The investigation began with a 911 call the afternoon of Oct. 24.
"She's passed out on the couch,” said the 911 caller. “She's breathing, but we can't wake her up."
…
"She was unconscious on the couch, not able to care for the children,” said David Wood, the assistant prosecutor. “When they took her to the hospital, it was obvious she was intoxicated."
The prosecutor went on to say that Groteke was operating an unlicensed daycare with nine children in her home while she was passed out drunk. Paramedics brought her to the hospital where she recorded more than a .328 blood alcohol content -- four times the legal limit to drive.
Thank God no kids were hurt due to her negligence. But let’s hope Ms. Groteke gets the help she clearly needs over the holiday season.
THOSE WMDs. Pete Buttigieg is a lying MF… “There’s something terribly wrong:” Young Americans are dying at alarming rates… The war criminals I have known… Billion-dollar art heist: Thieves use fire and axes to plunder Dresden’s Green Vault… The fragile, resilient Scioto River.