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I live in the city centre and based on experience I can say without doubt that the homeless problem is increasing at an alarming rate. Today I counted seven tents, occupied by homeless people, in this public park. A few months ago there were two. However, there was little sign of what might be described as anti-social behaviour.
Within the park there is a memorial and a plaque which refers the the "Croppy's Acre" as the official name is currently the "Croppies Acre 1798 Memorial Park".
[WHAT I SAID IN OCTOBER 2018]
The good news is that this park now appears to be safe to visit and the decision to have it open twenty four hours a day must have solved the anti-social problems that had resulted in it being closed to the public for extended periods of time.
[WHAT I SAID BACK IN NOVEMBER 2016]
There are two separate parks which may be related but in general most tourist guides are unaware of this fact to the extent that some claim that Anna Livia is located in the park beside the the Museum Luas Tram Stop.
The major park, the one normally associated with the museum, is officially the Croppies Acre 1798 Memorial Park while the smaller park featuring Anna Livia and a small pond is the Croppies Memorial Park. The distinction is important because the larger park has been closed to the public for extended periods.
For many years due to anti-social behaviour, mainly drugs related, the major memorial park was off-limits to the public. There was also problems with homeless people occupying parts of the park. Even today, there was a tent towards one corner of the park. One cannot blame the homeless for taking advantage of the available space.
On Tuesday, 14th June at 2:00 p.m. the Croppies Acre 1798 Memorial Park, Wolfe Tone Quay, Dublin 7 was once again open to the public but I did not get a chance to visit until today [November 7 2016]. Having been conditioned to the park being always closed I found the fact that the gates were partly opened a little bit unsettling and as I was the only person [if one ignores the tent and one person who left immediately I arrived] in the park I was a bit worried that an official might come along and lock the gates without informing me. This has happened to me in the past elsewhere.
Following discussions in 2013 with the Office of Public Works it was agreed that the management of the 4.3 acre Park would transfer from the Office of Public Works to Dublin City Council.
Dublin City Council’s Parks and Landscape Services have carried out an extensive works programme to upgrade the park and make it more accessible for the citizens of Dublin and visitors to the city.
The works include a new circulatory path system, upgrading of the existing pedestrian gates and the provision of a new pedestrian gate at the south west end of the park. Existing memorial structures have been upgraded and general landscape improvement works have been carried out. The total cost of the works, were in the order of €120,000.
To be fair the park was in excellent condition when I visited today but the presence of a tent was a bit worrying as was the careless attitude to properly opening the gates.
The name ‘Croppy’ was used in Ireland in the 1790s and was a reference to the rebels who closely cropped their hair to mimic the French Revolutionaries of the period who cut their hair in contrast to the aristocracy who wore powdered wigs.
Historically the Croppies Acre was located on land under common pasturage and part of what was termed ‘Oxmantown Green’.
In the 17th century, a portion was later presented to the Viceroy, the Duke of Ormond to build a palace, however this was never built and the site was sold to the City Authorities for a Barracks. Built in 1704, it served as a military base for 250 years, it was formally the Royal Barracks and later Collins Barracks.
The Esplanade where the Croppies Acre is located today was fully constructed by the 1850s, complete with boundary walls and ornate railings. During the Great Famine, the Esplanade was the site of a food kitchen. By the 1900s, the land was levelled to form two football pitches for the military. In 1997, the Decorative Arts Section of the National Museum was opened in Collins Barracks and the Memorial Park was subsequently designed and laid out in 1998.
by Alfredo Fernandes
Alfi Art Production, Divar
41st Tiatr Competition A group of Kala Academy supported by TAG
13.10.2015
Ciena Furtado and Jovienne Fernandes
more here
joegoauk-tiatr.blogspot.in/2015/10/41st-tiatr-competition...
I realized after the shot that the man who's asleep was placed too left in the frame...but ... it doesn't ruin the photo, I think.
Cause/Pathogen: Undetermined
I will work to diagnose this problem and eventually report the findings here.
Location: Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii
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On the last weekend of November, close to 600 people gathered at the Catholic Junior College Performing Arts Centre for a retreat led by Fr Laurence Freeman OSB, organised by The World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) Singapore.
The topic was the 8 big problems of life.
Watford General Hospital has had a longstanding problem with pigeons. Netting has been repaired and replaced around some of the main building and we have daily visits from a Falconer with his beautiful Harris Hawk, who wanders the site, letting the bird perch on the rooftops etc. Soon, we hope, the pigeons will get the message and leave! (For those of you of a nervous disposition, the hawk does not prey on the pigeons, just scares them). And money well spent if you ask me.
It's now become part of our travelling calendar - we go on a city break for Jayne’s birthday in January - no presents for birthday's and Christmas, we travel instead. This year it was Seville. We had to drive 180 miles south to Stansted to fly there though, Friday afternoon on the A1, such fun... It was a really good drive down in actual fact, the best day for months, glorious blue sky and a fantastic sunset- and I was in a car. We got stung for tea and drinks in the Radison Blu but we were overnighting and leaving the car so we didn't have much choice. Ryanair aagh! Again no choice. To be fair to the abrasive Irish man O Leary things are better than they used to be and it was an acceptable flight.
We were hoping for better weather than we got- don't you always? It was. cold, windy and after some initial beautiful sun on our first afternoon, it was mostly grey. The wind died but so did the sun. The other little problem was that it was my turn for the awful cold that Jayne had been trying to get over. I was under the weather in more ways than one all week, it was only a cold but it was the worst I've had for ages and it didn't help my mood, particularly when the sun was absent. We had a few hours of really nice light here and there and I made the most of it - I think!
Seville has miles and miles of narrow cobbled streets, they seem to go on for ever. They are almost random in layout and it is extremely difficult to find your way around, it's easier to just keep walking and see what you find. So we did! The architecture is stunning and the history is fascinating. Aside from the ancient history the two events that seem to have had a massive recent influence are the Expo's of 1929 and 1992. The incredible buildings or 'Pavilions' that were built for a one off event are now part of the reason that people visit the city. The 1929 pavilions are fantastic, each one is a story in itself and a destination in its own right but there are a lot of them in Parque Maria Luisa. Plaza Espana, built by the hosts of course, is the biggest and I would imagine that you could make a project out of photographing the individual ceramic tile displays around it on their own. These incredible buildings really need the light to be right to get images that people want to see, flat bright light from bright grey skies is good for certain things but dramatic architecture deserves better - or maybe I'm looking for the easy way option. The other discovery that we made, we found just down the road from the hotel, about an hour into the trip – The Metropol Parasol. A giant lattice work parasol, apparently called ‘The Mushrooms’ locally and apparently the world’s largest wooden structure. You have to look twice, having discovered that it is wood. Only later did we discover that we could get to the top and there is an extensive walkway around the top of it. It is built on top of ancient ruins, ( still intact and viewable) a food market and bars etc. and has a plaza around it and on it, that is buzzing on weekend evenings. Walking around the top, the first people up it one day and being back to watch the sunset later was one of the highlights of the trip for me.
The 1992 Expo also covered a massive area but left behind lots of modern - and some very strange - buildings and arenas. Some are of a temporary nature and get dismantled others find a new use. The land used was on an island between two branches of the River Guadalquivir – Isla de la Cartuja. The branch that goes through the city is now a canal, blocked at its northern end by a barrier with a motorway on it, and is used extensively for water sports, mainly rowing. Many of the buildings are now used by private companies as headquarters , others have a very derelict look. The whole area- even though it is home to the theme park- which was shut for the winter, has a neglected air about it. There are weeds growing everywhere but fountains are switched on, which seemed odd. Unlike the city a short distance away, there are no cafes or bars or other people around for that matter, just us meandering through. The car park that was created for the event is massive, it stretches for miles, and I really mean miles. Totally derelict, just the odd person or dog walker around. There is even a railway line terminating here, in the middle of nowhere a modern and apparently unmanned station, like a ghost station. At this point, across the river proper is open countryside, much flatter than I expected and very easy for local walkers and cyclists to get to - also very calm and quiet, a place to linger and enjoy the peace.
As usual I researched and discovered as we walked, we averaged around 13 miles a day and tried to get off the beaten track. We were out around 8.15, before sunrise, and had orange juice, coffee and Tostada with the locals for breakfast. The trouble is that there are many miles of walking in a relatively small area, some streets are only a few feet wide so there are a lot of them to explore. Incredible ancient churches and squares are around every corner- it's a very religious place - Catholicism rules in Spain. Unfortunately many are only a few feet away from the building next to it and it is difficult to get a decent shot of them. Seville is also famous, historically, as a producer of ceramic tiles. A building isn’t complete without a tile display of some sort and it would be very easy to make a project out of tiles alone. It may be a little boring for any companions though!
We walked the length of the embankment a couple of times, it has graffiti from end to end, several miles of massive concrete walls covered in everything imaginable, from marker pen scribbling to works of art. It was suggested to me that allowing people to paint here might prevent them from daubing property and monuments in the city- it hasn't! Most alleyways and shutters have been attacked to a greater or lesser degree. Spain has very high youth unemployment and maybe this plays a role. To be truthful though we haven't seen a city that's free of graffiti. The other problem is dogs- or what they produce, it's everywhere, absolutely everywhere, in a week we saw only one person remove his dogs mess. Fortunately the city streets are cleaned exceptionally well, some of the cleanest we have come across, men (and a lot of women) and machines are washing and sweeping endlessly.
Having had the wettest winter on record at home - almost three months of rain - we didn't want more rain but we got it. The upside was the water and the reflections that it created made photography on the cobbled streets more interesting, particularly at night. I usually find that it takes me a while to get into the groove on a trip and this one was no different, I didn't start shooting with total disregard - street shots- for a couple of days. Whilst the locals wore quilted jackets and scarves we got down to tee shirts at times, the warmer afternoons would be welcome in summer, never mind January, in Huddersfield. I envied the cyclists, being able to train in temperatures like this in winter - I wish! You need a lot less willpower to get out there and train hard in pleasant weather.
From a photography point of view I had a frustrating time, I never felt to get to grips with the place- other than on the streets at night. Writing this on my phone on the flight home, I haven't a clue what I've got to work with when I get back. I usually edit first and write later. Generally I have a first look, I'm disillusioned, I then revisit and see things differently- thankfully! Architectural shots with a grey sky could be destined for the monochrome treatment, we'll soon see. I'm still editing stuff from our London trip before Christmas, it's getting decent views in black and white and I quite enjoy looking at them myself.
We visited most of the notable tourist destinations, and went up anything that we could. Seville doesn't have a high point-it's flat! Nothing really stands head and shoulders above the city. The Cathedral tower is over 300 feet but the Cathedral itself fills a lot of the view on some aspects. Being square and having to look through bars in recesses you don't really get a completely open aspect. A new 600 foot tower is close to being finished, it's an office block and I couldn't find any mention of it being a viewing point in the future.
Oranges were the last thing on my mind when I suggested going to Seville. There are 25000 orange trees in Seville and now is the time that they are laden with big-and sour- Seville oranges, they are everywhere, apparently they are the property of the city authorities and will be harvested and sent to the UK to be made in to marmalade at some point in the near future. These trees will soon be covered in fragrant blossom, the city will smell beautiful for a couple of months. Studying the surrounding area it would be good to tour in March or April I would think, the scents, longer days and better weather would make for a fantastic trip. One for the future. The sunrise on our final morning was the best of the week, this was what we had looked forward to, we had to leave for the airport at 9.00...... Needless to say it was raining hard as we drove the last twenty miles home. Nothing new there then.
As usual I have aimed to present a pretty extensive collection of photographs of our chosen destination, some, at first glance will be pretty mundane shots of everyday life on the streets, often though, close inspection will reveal something humorous, something that needs a bit of thought. Others are definitely just people going about their holiday or work. Travelling with someone else it wouldn’t be fair to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to nail the perfect long exposure or HDR image of a cathedral or similar in perfect light – the one stunning shot to add to the portfolio- it’s not really my thing, I go for an overview of the place in the time available. Looking at the postcards locally it becomes obvious that stunning shots of some of these buildings are hard to come by. Heavily corrected converging verticals were quite obvious – and most likely will be in my own shots. As the owner of tilt and shift lenses I never travel with one – ever! My knees are already creaking from the weight of the bag.
So I'm having a bit of problem creating an effect I want in photoshop, and this is the best place I could think about for help.
I'm trying to create some writing on skin and want it to look as realistic as I can. To achieve this I want to set the blendingmode to Overlay, to make the skintexture appear through the numbers and lines to some extent. But as I chance to Overlay, the color of the numbers/lines change with the skintone depending on how bright it is there going from black to red instead of staying black/gray as I want it.
I'm aware that I can make the problem go away with making the entire image B/W but I want it in color.
Any input as to how I make it work as I want to, or perhaps a better way to achieve what I'm trying to?
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Westland Whirlwind was a British twin-engined heavy fighter developed by Westland Aircraft. It was the Royal Air Force's first single-seat, twin-engined, cannon-armed fighter, and a contemporary of the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane.
A problem for designers in the 1930s was that most agile combat aircraft were generally small. These aircraft had limited fuel storage and only enough flying range for defensive operations. A multi-engined fighter appeared to be the best solution to the problem of range, but a fighter large enough to carry an increased fuel load might be too unwieldy to successfully engage in combat. Germany and the United States pressed ahead with their design programs, resulting in the Messerschmitt Bf 110 and the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
The first Whirlwind prototype (L6844) flew on 11 October 1938. Construction had been delayed chiefly due some new features and also the late delivery of the original Peregrine engines. Further Service Trials were carried out at Martlesham Heath, where the new type exhibited excellent handling and was very easy to fly at all speeds. It was one of the fastest aircraft in service when it flew in the late 1930s, and was much more heavily armed than any other.
However, protracted development problems with its Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines delayed the entire project. The combat radius also turned out to be rather short (only 300 miles), and the landing speed high, which hampered the type's utility. The major role for the Whirlwinds, however, became low-level attack, flying cross-channel "Rhubarb" sweeps against ground targets and "Roadstead" attacks against shipping.
Time went by and worked against the Whirlwind: By 1940, the Supermarine Spitfire was mounting 20 mm cannons, so the "cannon-armed" requirement was also being met, and by this time the role of escort fighter was becoming less important as RAF Bomber Command turned to night bomber missions. The main qualities the RAF were looking for in a twin-engine fighter were range and carrying capacity (to allow the large radar apparatus of the time to be carried), in which requirements the Bristol Beaufighter could perform just as well as or even better than the Whirlwind.
In order to catch up in performance, Westland 's team around Teddy Petter attempted in summer 1942 to mate the Whirlwind's compact fuselage with the much more potent Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. Most apparent external change were the longer engine nacelles and an added fin fillet in order to improve directional stability. In order to counter the CG shift associated with the longer engines, the rear fuselage was stretched by 2'with a plug, similar to the Focke Wulf Fw190 D-9.
More changes had to be done under the Whirlwind's skin: the wings' main spar had to be reinforced, as well as the outer wings' hull (now all-metal, including the rudders, and now able to carry unguided RP-3 rockets) and the landing gear. The extended fuselage was used to add a fuel tank behind the cockpit, which would compensate range losses due to the higher overall weight and power output. Furthermore, the original Hispano cannons with drum magazines were replaced by belt-fed Mk. II cannons, which more than doubled the four guns' magazine capacity (from 240 shells to 560).
The net power improvement by +34% resulted in a significant higher top speed and better acceleration and rate of climb at medium altitude. But the overall performance benefit of the Merlin engines was less convincing than expected. More modern/potent Merlin versions were considered, but their shortage (being reserved for Spitfires and Mosquitos) eventually led to a stop of that idea. Furthermore, the Whirlwind simply offered not much further development potential, e. g. as a night fighter.
In the end, only 22 Whirlwinds were converted from FB.1 airframes to the updated FB.2 status in the course of March to June 1943. These machines also received exhaust flame dampers, a special night-flying cockpit and other modifications for night intruder missions, including an appropriate black underside and red codes.
During the Second World War only two RAF squadrons were equipped with the Whirlwind FB.1, and only one with the FB.2. By July 1943, after moving to RAF Hunsdon, the 157th Squadron began intruder attacks on German fighter bases with its revamped Whirlwind FB.2s and new Mosquito Mk VIs.
In November 1943 it moved to RAF Predannack in Cornwall, closer to the German bases. However, in March 1944 it moved to RAF Valley and flew defensive patrols over the Irish Sea, while the Whirlwinds kept up “Rhubard” attacks on the continent, including various ground attack missions on V-1 and V-2 launch sites located in Holland. In May 1944 the 157th Squadron moved again, to East Anglia, and received Mosquito Mk XIXs.
The Squadron’s new task was to support bomber streams as part of No. 100 Group RAF, and in the wake of these long range duties the Whirlwind FB.2s were finally retired. The last flight took place on 6th of September 1944.
General characteristics:
Crew: One pilot
Length: 35 ft 4 1/2 in (10.80 m)
Wingspan: 45 ft 0 in (13.72 m)
Height: 11 ft 0 in (3.35 m)
Wing area: 250 ft² (23.2 m²)
Airfoil: NACA 23017-08
Empty weight: 8.800 lb (3.,995 kg)
Loaded weight: 11.467 lb (5.206 kg)
Max. take-off weight: 12.665 lb (5,750 kg)
Powerplant:
2× Rolls-Royce Merlin XX liquid-cooled V-12, 1,185 hp (883 kW) at 21,000 ft (6,400 m),
driving de Havilland constant speed propellers with a diameter of 9 ft 10 in (3.00 m)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 435 mph (701 km/h) at 15.000 ft (4.570 m)
Stall speed: 95 mph (83 knots, 153 km/h) (flaps down)
Range: 800 mi (696 nmi, 1.288 km)
Service ceiling: 35.200 ft (10.729 m)
Armament:
4x belt-fed 20 mm (.79 in) Hispano Mk II cannons, 140 RPG each
2x 250 lbs (115 kg) or 500 lbs (230 kg) bombs, or two racks with 8× RP-3 unguided air-to-ground rockets.
The kit and its assembly
Despite building model kits since 35 years now, I never managed to build a Westland Whirlwind. One reason might be that only the Airfix kit had been on the market for years, as well as the fact that only rather boring RAF planes could be built. But with more confidence in whifery - no more! So, here comes a more or less creative interpretation of what could have become of the elegant and compact Whirlwind Mk. I, if only it had had a proper engine and better timing...
Things started when I got hands on a Mosquito NF.XIX kit from Airfix. I found the model... bleak, and donating parts would be a suitable use for it, and the Mossie eventually ended up with radials in Egypt service - with the whole original engine nacelles ready for transplantation! The kit also offered missile racks, and when I thought about what to do with it, well, the Whirlwind FB.2 was quickly born.
The basis for this mod is the Whirlwind kit from Bilek (a re-issue of the vintage Airfix kit). Kit conversion was straightforward: I replaced the complete engine nacelles, and the bigger engines create a weird look. The exhaust pipes with flame dampers come from the Mosquito kit, too, as well as the propellers, even though the blades has to be clipped by 3mm each - otherwise the space for the cannons' arc of fire would have been too narrow.
The whole landing gear was nevertheless taken from the Whrilwind. The fin fillet was added with a simple piece of polystyrene sheet and the missile racks with the RPGs also come from the Mosquito kit. The single piece cockpit canopy was opened and a dashboard added, the pilot is OOB.
Painting
Nothing fancy here, still a "boring" RAF plane, based on one of the decal options of the Airfix Mosquito NF.XIX. But, at least, I was able to find a livery which would set the FB.2 apart from the well-known Mk.I/FB.1 fighters: invasion stripes, coupled with a typical night intruder paint scheme in Dark Green, Ocean Grey and Night (Humbrol 30, 106 and 33, respectively), coupled with dull red squadron codes and type C roundels.
Interior surfaces were painted with Cockpit Green (Humbrol 78) and slightly dry-brushed with light grey. I avoided almost any spectacular detail, the red spinners are the most exciting feature. Roundels and markings were puzzled together from the Bilek kit and the scrap box, the dull red codes are single digits from an Xtradecal aftermarket sheet. And there’s just a small nose art under the cockpit. Finally, the model was slightly weathered, but that's all.
In the end, a subtle whif (which I prefer), but with enough potential to make you look twice, because both the engine change and the night intruder livery on their own make you think that you have recognized what's "wrong" with this Whirlwind. But there's more than meets the eye at first glance... ;)
Heel pain is a common foot problem. The pain usually occurs underneath your heel (plantar fasciitis) or just behind it, where the Achilles tendon attaches to the heel bone (Achilles tendinitis). Although the cause of heel pain often isn’t serious, the pain itself can be severe and occasionally disabling.
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im Herbst ist oft das Beschlagen der Haube! Auch mußte ich vor dem Start eine Reifschicht vom Flieger entfernen.
Somethimes it happens like this..
But take a look at the other times. Mostly this Panorama feature is brilliant. Look at the works down there, look at them the full size and how detailed they are.
This photo, featuring in blogpost about the Fuji X100, here: tenisd.blogspot.com
ainda com muitos problemas prá acessar o flickr.......demora demais e qdo carrega vem todo zoado.......as vezes dá certo....como agora......mas estamos tentando resolver....!!!!!!!!!
beijos estou com muitas saudades de voces......!!!!
Today, I'm going to write a couple of long things that call a lot of people dumb. I do a better job with these kinds of things when I just write them right off when it hits me to do it, and I've been putting this one off a bit. But I really do want to put this out there, so I'm just going to go ahead and do it.
The thesis: Americans are really dumb about immigration. We're dumb and insular and paranoid. We've ignored our own origins -- the people I've known who hate immigration the most are all second- or third-generation Americans whose grandparents passed easily through Ellis Island without any kind of visa. We've forgotten the whole point of the American experiment. Those of us who claim moral superiority based on a spurious attachment to a contorted form of Christianity have devolved into race-based nationalists. We've needlessly handcuffed the economy because we don't understand how much capitalism depends on the constant flow of new labor that birth rates can't sustain. In a couple of words, we're stoopid. You can see it in these signs on a protest fence in Chicago's Brighton Park neighborhood. "We are uneasy and scared." And, well ... God forbid you be uneasy!
"Say, Clint," You might be saying. "You've ranted on about versions of this before. What's the deal, now?"
Well, friends, here's the problem, and it starts with the moron governor of Texas.
Greg Abbott was elected Texas governor after a long stint as the state's attorney general that focused mainly on important issues like banning sex toys and encouraging large corporations to physically harm as many people as possible. He's been a big supporter of Trump and has sung all of MAGA's greatest hits, and he absolutely hates brown people. His state has a long border with Mexico, and he hates the idea that people cross it, even refugees who have a legal right to seek asylum under the laws of the United States. He'd shoot them all if he could. He's placed barriers in the Rio Grande to drown people trying to cross. He's put Texas National Guard soldiers along the river and ordered them to force men, women, and children gasping for air back into the water. He's a huge anti-abortion guy who loves life so much that he'll kill a woman to prove it, but he loves watching brown kids die.
He's also big on stunt, and for the last year or so, his big stunt has been to grab as many of the people who've made it across the federal border into Texas territory as he can, load them up onto rickety, unregulated buses and ship them all to liberal northern cities he doesn't like. Chicago has been a big target on the MAGA radar for years, so a lot of those buses are running up I-57, where they dump a few hundred refugee immigrants on some random street in the middle of the night and leave them all to figure it out. Abbott could have the buses drop them off at some central processing location and let the city know they're coming and when, but what's the fun in that? That wouldn't be cruel enough, so he just dumps them in random spots, and everybody has to scramble to figure it out on the fly. The city's tried mandating that the buses follow an actual procedure, and the city council recently passed an ordinance allowing them to impound buses that drop the migrants outside a specific location. They nabbed one bus and found the bus driver didn't have a drivers license. Texas responded by flying 90-someodd migrants up here on a private plane and dumping them in a random hangar. The "handlers" ducked out in an uber before the cops showed up.
According to the internet, between August of 2022 and the start of this month, December of 2023, the Greg Abbott buses have dumped 21,700 refugees on the streets of Chicago. (This seems hugely counterproductive if you're looking at this from a xenophobe's standpoint, because now you've got 21,700 people you don't want in the country 1,500 miles from the Mexican border. They could go anywhere.) As of the end of October, this program has cost the taxpayers of state of Texas -- which still hasn't figured out how electricity works -- about $75 million. Switching over to planes will pump that up fast.
But here's the thing about this whole Greg Abbott deal: he accidentally kind of has point.
He has his point for stupid, racist, xenophobic reasons, and he's making his point with as much inhumane cruelty as he can manage. He mostly just wants to troll Chicago mayors Lori Lightfoot and Brandon Johnson, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, and US President Joe Biden. But he's trolling them with a point.
Immigration is a federal issue, and it is up to the federal government to handle it with federal resources. It's unfair to place the financial burden of this issue on any one state, but the states along the southern border with Mexico -- Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California -- have borne the brunt of the cost. The federal government, meanwhile, has been running a wildly haphazard border immigration policy for decades, and has never managed to figure out a logical, reasonable system for processing people. It really needs to do this. In a best-case scenario, the feds would take this thing over and run it themselves at the border crossings. At the very least, they need to supply federal money to cover the states' cost.
But the feds won't do that, and politicians like Greg Abbott are the reason why. People like Greg Abbott don't want to solve the problem. Their only solution is simply to shut the door. Build a wall, put up a bunch of barbed wire, drown people in the river and shoot whoever makes it across, and that is no solution. People have a right codified in American law to seek asylum, and we need a rational process to allow these people in. More than that, the continued success of this nation absolutely depends on new people coming in. But Congress -- where Republicans reign in the House -- would never authorize any such system. And so we're frozen, impotent, unable as a nation to act. So Greg Abbott will just keep up his human trafficking, keep using Texas money to put people on crap buses and planes, and dumping them in the night.
I have never quite had a doll withhold his name from me for so long>~< Its so frustrating just calling him the new kid lol XD
Brewery Road has long had problems drainage just outside the car park. For years it has been the one place guaranteed to have big puddles when it rains hard. With the recent run of flooding and rain, it was as bad as I expected this morning. Most people crawled through, but this was one of two cars that decided to charge through. As a pedestrian it's most unpleasant; I was glad I was standing well back.
Unfortunately this is very blurry due to it being dark (and rainy) and being shot on my phone. Perhaps I should claim it was deliberate to enhance the impression of speed and movement...