This is a follow-up discussion to the article I published yesterday that focused on the outrageous snow gridlock in my home state of Virginia. While mainstream media outlets are focusing on the spectacle of thousands of people being stranded on 95 for over 24 hours and even going as far as presenting Senator Tim Kaine as a victim, they are intentionally omitting from their coverage the reason why VDOT essentially let the roads go untreated until the snowstorm passed.
In this first of many riverside chats to come, I highlight how decades of gutting government employees either through firings or attrition was done so in order to outsource essential services to corporations. Politicians like former Governor Tim Kaine, current Governor Ralph Northam, Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson and local Councilmen like John T. Chapman are outdoing this preferred fleecing of tax payers that Republicans like Bush and Trump swear by.
It’s a slight of hand, they cut budgets to agencies which forces agencies to cut staff. Elected officials then turn around and justify siphoning off government coffers to their donor class by claiming that they are “supplementing” government workers. In fact, Mayor Justin Wilson justified this exact pilfering in a response to my tweet. It’s win-win for politicians and their corporate patrons and a loss-loss for tax payers and the working class.
I’m not sure what you’re referring to. The City has always supplemented our snow removal with contractors. Every jurisdiction in the region does.
This year things are harder as many of our employees and contractors have COVID.
— Justin Wilson (@justindotnet) January 3, 2022
The massive gridlock on 95 that lasted through yesterday evening was but a sample of greater nightmares to come. Democrats and Republicans alike are colluding to enrich corporations while sticking a dagger in the poor, working and middle-class. I explain this and more in the podcast below that I just recorded this morning. This paradigm of what is essentially graft is the reason I am starting #MyLove4VA, in order to solve corruption, we must understand the root cause and then dig it out.
I hope you join me in this worthwhile endeavor to form a united front of all Americans, one that transcends our differences in order to defend our common interests. As I noted in the podcast, I’ve been getting a number of mentions on social media and calls asking me if I’m going to run for office, though I have thought about it in the past, given the uncertainties on the work and home fronts, I must focus on my family but that will not stop me from being a strong advocate for justice so the work continues.
If you appreciated this write-up and believe that articles like this should be widely read by others and if you likewise support truly independent journalism, I ask you to support my endeavor. As noted in the Ghion Journal statement of purpose, we are a media entity that disavows corporations and we do not raise ad revenue, we are 100% supported and empowered by our readers and writers. CLICK HERE or click on the icon below to contribute as you are able. Thank you and stay blessed::
- Riverside Chat: the “Privatization” Scam Behind the Hellish Virginia Snow Gridlock - January 5, 2022
- Snow Jobbed in Virginia: We Pay Top Tax Dollars Only for Politicians to Outsource Essential Services to the Lowest Bidders - January 4, 2022
- Start of a New Guzo (Journey): From a Raging Ghion to Still Waters - December 17, 2021
