Category: A Vieux From Toulouse

Hard Rock Hotel Swept Away

Mayor Cantrell posted on social media on April 21,9021:

“Canal Street lake-bound is officially reopened to vehicle traffic for the first time since the Hard Rock collapse. Even as the challenges piled up in the last 18 months — the work never stopped. We grieve for the lives lost, and we are grateful for the progress that has been made. We thank our businesses and our residents for their patience.”

To read the Mayor’s words it would sound as if she is proud of the work her administration has done in clearing up the collapse site. ” Even as the challenges piled up in the last 18 months — the work never stopped. ”

A little perspective here: The entire World Trade Center disaster site was cleaned up in only SEVEN MONTHS. The Twin-fucking-Towers and several other buildings hauled away in less than half the time of one 18 story building.

“…the work never stopped ” The collapse occurred in October of 2019, demolition didn’t start until May of 2020. Correction, there was about seven months of nothing but thumbs up collective asses trying to un-cluster this fuck. The last body wasn’t recovered until 10 months after the disaster. Even by a Big Easy metric, this was slower than shit through a funnel.

There has been a long history of a corruption and incompetency with the New Orleans building inspectors going back to the Landrieu administration. There was a Federal investigation into bribery involving city inspector Kevin Richardson and charges were filed. He was dismissed from his position by then Mayor Landrieu.

Just months prior to the HRH collapse, the city leadership blustered about holding the permit inspectors accountable using the latest in GPS tracking and digital records. City building inspectors Julie Tweeter, Eric Treadaway were suspended and Thomas Dwyer resigned before he could be suspended (What a pussy).

With all of the current social outrage over the behavior of law enforcement recklessly taking lives and being held responsible, I ask why aren’t all government employees held to the same level of accountability? Officials, employed by the city failed at their positions whether by negligence or corruption and it resulted in the deaths of three construction workers and dozens more injured are just allowed to resign and walk away?

Would everybody have been cool with Derek Chauvin just handing in his resignation and walking away? I didn’t think so. Is it comparing apples and oranges? City employees fucked up and people died. In one case the city government throws the employee under the bus in the face of public opinion, the other city employees are quietly ushered out the back door of city hall.

Perhaps indicting those building inspectors for negligent homicide would open up a Costco-sized can of worms for city hall that they would prefer not to see the light of day. Disclosure would involve emails and records from with in the department and the depth of the incompetence would reveal more that there were more people involved in the endemic corruption of city hall. Where were their supervisors?

QR-ANON POSTS:

Julian Assange, Seth Rich, Delmer Joel Ramírez Palma

What do these three men have in common?
Think whistle-blower.
Think targeted.

Why was Delmer Joel Ramírez Palma deported back to Honduras after giving an interview about HRH construction safety issues?
How did ICE get suddenly involved with a migrant who had been here for 17 years? (Washington Post from 11/30/19)

Why would a federal agency (ICE) deport a material witness to an investigation of a serious construction accident that killed three and left 20 injured?


WQRWE
We’re Quarter Rats,
We’re Everywhere

Mitch, I know where you got them shoes

I follow former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu on twitter. I don’t know why, all of his tweets are essentially the same: Condescending, white “progressive” and self-flagellating for woke points. If you saw him on the street and said “Nice weather.” He would probably respond with “Only for white people.”

In all fairness, he is running a business. In 2018, he wrote the book “In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History.” Genius grift by the way. How can a white Southern man from a prominent political family gain capital from racism? I chuckle when I see CNN calls Mitch to polish up his head to appear on one of their panels discussing…what?

To paraphrase President Biden: “You’re a one-trick pony soldier horse fat face … come on man, you know, the thing.”

“Hey Mitch, where can I pick up a good po-boy?”
“There’s a place three blocks down from the white supremacist statue to racism, on the left.”
“Uh ok, thanks.”

Like that monotypical uncle who always manages to steer the family dinner conversations back to his favorite topic of model railroading; Mitch will always come back to the statues. I think he deserves a statue for tearing down statues of fellow Democrats. It’s probably safe to say Mitch’s official stance on slavery in this country is that it was a bad idea. I really don’t know any American that would dispute that. None. The minute number of actual real white supremacists share that same belief, also.

The statue issue aside, who cares? Tourist come down here to binge eat, binge drink and cheat on their spouses. They want to see titties, not General Lee. Some locals may find the reminder of slavery from 200 years ago offensive? Slavery bad?

I know where you got them shoes.
CHINA!

You must have at least one pair of sneakers in your walk in closet filled with those wild gray suites. Do you even wear the pants anymore? Or just the shirt, jacket and tie when you’re a talking head for six minutes of relevancy?

I’d bet a paycheck that many of those folks down at the statues protesting wear one of many major brand of sneakers; made by humans enslaved on the other side of the globe, imprisoned for no other reason than their ethnicity, forced to work under horrendous conditions and daily inhumane abuse. Protesting the ugliest part of America’s past that’s been over for about 150 years while wearing shoes made by slaves a few weeks earlier.

Imagine 180 years ago, a Northern educated white lady and an abolitionist, sipping tea and clutching her pearls while saying, “Those Southerners are so evil, using slaves to work in the fields! By the way, do you like my new cotton dress? It’s so comfortable and inexpensive.”

Imagine being a Black slave and knowing that 180 years later your descendants would be wearing apparel made by forced labor. You could hear that facepalm clear across the field.

We cannot correct past injustices to those people. History is etched in stone despite what we write on paper or what bronze we tear down. If you are sincerely and deeply disturbed by this blot on our nation’s past, and feel the need to do something positive, work to end slavery that is happening today. Your moral outrage will not change the past, but it could change today.

Perhaps it’s not important to you since they aren’t Black Americans. They’re so poor and live so far away, it doesn’t matter to you. In 2016, there were about 40 million “modern” slaves, including forced marriages, sexual exploitation and debt bondage, according to the United Nations. It’s difficult to calculate exact number for obvious reasons. Less than 400,000 human beings used for chattel slavery were shipped to the U.S. between 1525 and 1866, according to Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Imagine if we turned all of our energy and passion for this crime in a direction that could tangibly change something. If protests were directed towards bad actors, instead of inanimate objects from the past, there would be meaningful change.

In September 2018, there was news story about how Kenner Mayor Ben Zahn wanted to ban Nike products following the Collin Kaepernick-Nike deal. Mitch was quick to jump on board that streetcar named Attention and call “unpatriotic” and defended Nike. How could Nike afford to pay Collin Kaepernick $25 million dollars? Slave labor. Does any of this click?

A few corporations have stepped up to the plate and took a stand against China and its Uighur concentration camps: forced labor, sexual abuse, forced abortions and organ harvesting of Uyghur Muslims. Any business that takes a position opposing slave labor in China should be applauded and patronized. Those who ignore or profit from it should be treated worst than Aunt Jemima syrup was. Doesn’t that seem a little ridiculous now? Outrage over a syrup label but none over people enslaved today.

Hey Mitch, do you know where the slavery is?
On your feet.

About the title. Here in the French Quarter of New Orleans, specifically Bourbon Street we have street hustlers. “Shoe Guys” will stroll up to unsuspecting tourists, point to their feet and say: “Nice shoes, I’ll bet you $5 that I know where you got them shoes.” The gullible tourist will usually blurt out “Where?” The Shoe guy will respond: “You got them shoes on your feet. You owe me $5!”

If they’re not running shoes, you better pay up.