Where the fuck is Gogama?
And why is it in the news?
I was pondering these questions even after the Farm Manager reminded me we'd been to Gogama just a couple of years ago.
We were camping at Halfway Lake, and managed to hit Gogama on a day trip.
Gogama seems to be ground zero for the Bakken bombs these days.
Pity.
It's utterly beautiful pristine country.
At least it used to be...
Showing posts with label Bakken bombs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bakken bombs. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Monday, March 2, 2015
CP Rail boss Hunter "Hitman" Harrison wags terror threat
It's not two years since a rail accident caused by criminally negligent railroad managers killed 47 innocents in Lac Megantic, but Hunter Harrison is not afraid of accidents.
He's afraid of terrorists!
Yup, those dastardly terror types could blow up a train-load of Bakken crude any time, any place.
True enough. Yet this potential terror threat he sketches out seems to be strictly imaginary. Those 47 dead in Lac Megantic were totally real.
If there were actual terror cells active in North America, one would expect they might have struck by now. Yet, before and after 9/11 they've done exactly nothing. I think it's safe to say that they don't exist.
Sure, we get the regular headlines about the FBI/Homeland Security/CSIS/RCMP busting up some half-brained terror plot or another, but on close inspection these can uniformly be filed under "informers gone wild." You pay informers millions to lure dim-witted Muslim kids, or even more reprehensible, actual home-grown Canadian kids who have fallen through the massive cracks in our mental health-care infrastructure, into talking stupid shit into the ubiquitous police recording instruments, and voilà, you've busted another terror plot!
But Harrison wants rail traffic re-routed around major urban centres, just in case. This will of course be paid for by the public, not by the railroad that Harrison and his hedge fund bosses are busy looting. That will minimize the chances of a terror attack utilizing a "Bakken bomb" in the downtown core of a major city.
Good thinking, Hunter.
But think about this; we send tractor-trailer loads of highly explosive propane and gasoline and myriad other concoctions into urban cores every day, all across North America, with absolutely no security. Never has there been a terror attack on a single one!
What that tells me is that these terror cells we're supposed to be so afraid of simply don't exist.
Nevertheless, that's what Hunter Harrison felt compelled to talk about in his speech to the Canadian Club today, and it sure made good press!... completely took the eye off the fact that CP Rail's recipe for success since the Ackman putsch consists of nothing other than running longer trains faster with fewer employees.
That's a far greater threat to our safety than the imaginary "terrorists" he's waving around.
He's afraid of terrorists!
Yup, those dastardly terror types could blow up a train-load of Bakken crude any time, any place.
True enough. Yet this potential terror threat he sketches out seems to be strictly imaginary. Those 47 dead in Lac Megantic were totally real.
If there were actual terror cells active in North America, one would expect they might have struck by now. Yet, before and after 9/11 they've done exactly nothing. I think it's safe to say that they don't exist.
Sure, we get the regular headlines about the FBI/Homeland Security/CSIS/RCMP busting up some half-brained terror plot or another, but on close inspection these can uniformly be filed under "informers gone wild." You pay informers millions to lure dim-witted Muslim kids, or even more reprehensible, actual home-grown Canadian kids who have fallen through the massive cracks in our mental health-care infrastructure, into talking stupid shit into the ubiquitous police recording instruments, and voilà, you've busted another terror plot!
But Harrison wants rail traffic re-routed around major urban centres, just in case. This will of course be paid for by the public, not by the railroad that Harrison and his hedge fund bosses are busy looting. That will minimize the chances of a terror attack utilizing a "Bakken bomb" in the downtown core of a major city.
Good thinking, Hunter.
But think about this; we send tractor-trailer loads of highly explosive propane and gasoline and myriad other concoctions into urban cores every day, all across North America, with absolutely no security. Never has there been a terror attack on a single one!
What that tells me is that these terror cells we're supposed to be so afraid of simply don't exist.
Nevertheless, that's what Hunter Harrison felt compelled to talk about in his speech to the Canadian Club today, and it sure made good press!... completely took the eye off the fact that CP Rail's recipe for success since the Ackman putsch consists of nothing other than running longer trains faster with fewer employees.
That's a far greater threat to our safety than the imaginary "terrorists" he's waving around.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Canada determined to host major rail disaster
And we're talking MAJOR here.
Apparently the sacrifice of 47 lives in Lac Megantic last year was just something we're to expect in the "business as usual" department, because mere days ago former CN boss Hunter Harrison was standing in front of a Senate committee crying about the government's over-reaction to that disaster.
So now we have a new disaster, at the great Canadian railroad that Hunter gutted before he gutted the other great Canadian railroad, and from all accounts it is only a matter of dumb luck that this didn't turn into another Lac Megantic.
Neither Lac Megantic nor this latest close call will silence the de-regulators and privatizers in their campaign for zero oversight of railroads. Sooner or later, one of these Bakken bombs will go off in the downtown of Winnipeg, instead of the outskirts of some out-of-the-way non-entity like Wadena.
Then we'll have hundreds or even thousands of deaths, instead of the mere dozens fried in Lac Megantic.
And you can bet that the Hunter Harrison types who have pocketed vast fortunes in making Canada's railroads less safe, will continue whining about over-regulation.
Apparently the sacrifice of 47 lives in Lac Megantic last year was just something we're to expect in the "business as usual" department, because mere days ago former CN boss Hunter Harrison was standing in front of a Senate committee crying about the government's over-reaction to that disaster.
So now we have a new disaster, at the great Canadian railroad that Hunter gutted before he gutted the other great Canadian railroad, and from all accounts it is only a matter of dumb luck that this didn't turn into another Lac Megantic.
Neither Lac Megantic nor this latest close call will silence the de-regulators and privatizers in their campaign for zero oversight of railroads. Sooner or later, one of these Bakken bombs will go off in the downtown of Winnipeg, instead of the outskirts of some out-of-the-way non-entity like Wadena.
Then we'll have hundreds or even thousands of deaths, instead of the mere dozens fried in Lac Megantic.
And you can bet that the Hunter Harrison types who have pocketed vast fortunes in making Canada's railroads less safe, will continue whining about over-regulation.
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