Pennsylvania gave bridge repair money to cops
When something bad happens, the police are involved
News that did not surprise me
A Pittsburgh bridge collapsed on January 28th and guess how surprised I was when I found out that the state of Pennsylvania has been diverting bridge repair money to the police. Not at all. This was less surprising to me than when I fell asleep in my undergraduate class and my professor threw crumpled pieces of paper at me to wake me up. From 2013 - 2019 the state of Pennsylvania stole 4,250,000,000 tax dollars meant for bridges and gave it to the police. I say steal because if you give someone money to do something and they do something else with it, that’s stealing. This money could have been used to fix “2,829 bridges” but instead it went to the people who will kick your ass for asking for a better life budget. That's like walking into a bodega, giving them money, asking for that little box of Mike & Ikes because you are trying to watch your sugar intake. The bodega cashier takes your money and instead of giving you your Mike & Ikes, someone shows up and hits you on the head with a club.
The people of Pennsylvania are paying a 57.6 cents per gallon gas tax to their bullies because the state would rather have drivers play Jenga every time they drive over a bridge. This isn’t surprising at all because giving money to the police instead of literally anything else we need is the United States government’s way of letting us know they are ready to fight us when we get too hungry and ask for more food.
News that made me happy
Atlanta’s Southeast forest is currently being attacked by the police and a Hollywood film studio. Yes, you should always assume that when something bad happens, the police are involved. The police want to build a large training facility aka cop city because cops want to live their dream of being action film heroes. Not to be outdone in the game of who is the bigger villain, Blackhall studios, a Hollywood studio wants to raze down trees to build “an airport and the largest sound studio in America”. Cutting down trees that absorb greenhouse gases to build an airport for planes which are huge greenhouse gas emitters is honestly peak villainy.
Nonetheless, these villains are not going unchallenged. A group of forest defenders are taking on the police and the construction companies to disrupt the deforestation of the forest. These forest defenders have been arrested, chased by the police, and they still keep coming back. They are the real life Poison Ivys. Poison Ivy is a hero and Batman is a villain because he would have been helping the police attack these forest defenders. Nonetheless, if you’ve ever wanted to be part of a band of evil fighting superheroes, the forest defenders of Atlanta need your help. They say you can email them at atldtf@riseup.net if you want to join them in the forest. Also, you can head on over to https://scenes.noblogs.org/ to learn more about the forest defenders.
Personal news that got me looking for the girl from “The Ring” in my hallway
In some personal news, tenants and shareholders of the building that I live in, along with people from other buildings around us owned by the same management company met on Thursday to discuss our terrible living conditions. My preferred reason for meeting my neighbors is to drink booze and unhealthy snacks, but we don’t get to choose our destiny. The management company MAXX Properties, a known slumlord, tried to stop the meeting from happening including threatening the organization (Equality for Flatbush) helping us fight these slumlords.
Despite their threats, we got together and told each other about all the things we’re dealing with and there was a lot. Multiple people had mold, no heat, and leaking ceilings. It felt like they were describing a haunted abandoned building from the movies, not my home. I’m definitely keeping my eye out for the girl from The Ring. Our meeting place was in the lobby where we were being watched by the management company through a camera. I’m guessing the unease of all the tenants coming together was too much for the management company because they got the superintendent to interrupt us, so we yelled at him to leave. They called the cops on us, we asked them why they were here and they left too. My pastime is yelling at cops so I was not going to back down.
After the meeting was over it really dawned on me that capitalists are truly afraid of people uniting because they know when we do we will burn them like bees burn hornets. So if you have a moment today, please call Maxx Properties at 914-899-8000 and tell them to stop forcing people to live in derelict conditions so they can pay for their fancy mansions. Let’s show them that we have each other’s back.
That’s it for the news, but don’t leave yet
Here is a video of one of the residents of my building talking about her terrible living conditions.
If you live in NYC and want to see Feel the News IRL, buy tickets to the February 5th show here.
You can now listen to the Feel the News + Friends podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify or from wherever else you get your podcasts.
Lastly, I shared my favorite quotes from “all about love” by bell hooks on the Feel the News Instagram.
❤️
Your favorite anarchist comedian,
P.S. If you like what you just read, share it with a friend! If you didn’t like it, share it with your enemies. It’s super easy. The button is right below this sentence.