12/30/16

Hickey: shutter Ellsworth

South Dakota's Republican senior US senator is crowing about the drone mission at Ellsworth Air Force Base being secure; but, former legislator and pastor emeritus, Steve Hickey says enough is enough.
A politician in South Dakota who wants to close Ellsworth commits political suicide by saying so. When I was in elected office my private commitment to myself was to be willing to commit political suicide once a year to support the right thing. Many of my Republican colleagues in the legislature were “fiscal conservatives” and would get loud and vocal about Washington DC’s inability to balance the budget. Yet we seemed so oblivious to the depths of cuts it would take to balance the national budget and what that would mean to a little dependant [sic] state like South Dakota, and of course an income tax would never be considered. Never was there talk of cutting Defence spending in DC, ever. And never would anyone support closing a base in our state that brought MONEY and JOBS and PEOPLE into our state. Say goodbye to Ellsworth if you are truly a fiscal conservative and figure out how to wean South Dakota off Federal Dollars. [Steve Hickey]
South Dakota's US senators trumpet success after prostituting stolen Lakota ground by bringing the current heavens-based smart-executor of civilian death, the Predator drone, to Ellsworth Air Force Base, cementing the continued commitment of South Dakotans to rain white phosphorus and dismemberment on children, women, and men of color for decades to come.
"We're seeing problems in the MQ-1/9 community at both the major command and base levels that can be solved quickly," said U.S. Air Force Col. Troy Jackson, C2ISR Operations division chief and CPIP officer in charge. "Airmen in this career field are being exhausted with no end in sight; we want to fix this." [Rapid City Journal]
But how safe are soft targets in Rapid City from a retaliatory strike?

US imperialism created the Somali refugee crisis where ISIL chickens are coming home to roost in Minnesota now Syrians are fleeing another Israeli/American war of aggression and taking its toll on American airmen in South Dakota and other remote locations.

But you know what scares me? Someone from Yemen, Afghanistan or somewhere rolling a truck bomb into Rapid City Central High School or the School of Mines after an Ellsworth-based drone pilot targets a wedding party or religious service.

It's just a matter of time until Hell comes to breakfast.

Rapid City sez: fuck you, Mr. President; but, thanks for the dough.

Ellsworth Air Force Base has resumed practice-bombing parts of Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota. Damage to ranch land values, wildlife habitat and to quality of life is expected to be in the millions if not more.

Can't wait for bombers to buzz Betty Olson's house.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Got to be a way to re-purpose Ellsworth. Maybe put all non-violent prisoners on the base and relocate a vo-tech school there. If we are going to pay for these folks anyway let’s at least make it an investment in the possibility of introducing them to their dignity as human beings and producing good citizens at release. You finish your course program, you get to come home. Time to drop the felon stigma and let them vote.

The goal should be they leave saying prison was the best thing that happened to me, not the worst. Our present failed philosophy of retributive justice in our criminal justice system is not working and it’s making people madder and meaner and worse for society than before. Instead of bombing people from there we could build people right there.

larry kurtz said...

It used to bean alternative landing zone for the space shuttle and I have proposed it be a tanker base to manage wildland fire.

larry kurtz said...

When Hillary Clinton was a New York Senator i sent her a letter suggesting this concept for the hole at the WTC but it would work at a decommissioned Ellsworth, too. <a href="https://futurism.com/why-space-elevators-are-the-future-of-space-travel/>Why Space Elevators Could Be the Future of Space Travel</a>