On October 17th of 1989, at 5:04 pm (PST), the Loma Prieta Earthquake caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in the State of Fornicala, killing 63 people and injuring 3,757 people.

Some double-deck portions of the I-880 (Nimitz) freeway in Oakland collapsed down, killing 42 people. [I posted some remarkable and detailed photographs (that no others had) of another freeway incident in the Bay Area when a tanker fire absolutely melted steel — just as it did on 9/11 — though some people insisted that could never occur, then and now.]

The former elevated Embarcadero Freeway – SR (State Route) 480 — was also brought down and then never replaced.

Additionally, one 50-foot section of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge likewise collapsed, killing one person, sending them (in their car) down to the waters below (see photo). One month later, the bridge was re-opened.

The current bridge, still in use, consists of two separate decks; the upper deck moves five lanes westbound into San Francisco on I-80, and the lower deck moves five lanes eastbound into Oakland and the rest of the East Bay on I-80. I had business there just this past weekend and traveled over the bridge.

Decisions were made that, because of stability problems, the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge would be rebuilt to a large degree. It was clear that quake issues necessitated major repair or replacement for future safety and endurance. The Bay Bridge western span underwent large seismic retrofitting.

The largest project is the eastern span replacement, and is expected to be completed in 2013.

See the photo below.

But, mind you, where is it that the steel and overall fabrication for the eastern span replacement project sources?

Oh, yes: that would be CHINA.

From — oddly enough — the UK Telegraph:

New San Francisco bridge built in China to be shipped to US

First, China made cut-price clothes and knick-knacks. Then it learned how to make mobile phones and iPads. Now it is making a 2,050 ft-long bridge spanning the San Francisco bay.

Next month, four enormous steel skeletons, the last of the 12 segments of the bridge, will be shipped 6,500 miles from Shanghai to San Francisco before being assembled on site.

The bridge, which will connect San Francisco to Oakland on the other side of the bay, is a sign of how China has moved on from building roads and ports in Africa and the developing world and is now aggressively bidding for, and winning, major construction and engineering projects in the United States and Europe.

But yet: China can?

Are you beginning to understand the length, breadth and depth, America?

No; I suspect you do not. You can’t be bothered to wonder about this and ask the requisite questions.

You just want your TV pablum, texting, and your Free Cheese.

You ignorant masses.

With your young futures purposely, by Leftists, uneducated and naive and isolated.

This is only one of thousands of things that will have dire US consequences.

My God, ladies and gentlemen; we can’t even fabricate our own bridges.

BZ

If we want the United States to not only look like Mexico but be Mexico — then keep it up, DC politicians.

Because, of course, Mexico is such a wonderful country. To wit, from the Associated Press:

Official: 140 Acapulco schools close over threats

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON, Associated Press – 4 days ago

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Only one week into the school year, 140 elementary schools in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco closed Monday after teachers refused to show up for fear of extortion threats and kidnappings by drug gangs.

About 600 teachers in the slums on Acapulco’s mountainsides said they were intimidated by recent cases of extortion and abduction, said Julio Bernal, schools delegate for the southern Mexican state of Guerrero. Bernal said 140 of about 1,400 schools in Acapulco didn’t open.

Two teachers said at least four of their peers had been kidnapped on the outskirts of Acapulco in the past eight days. The teachers agreed to discuss the situation only if their names were not used, saying they feared for their safety.

One of the teachers, who works at an elementary school, said she had seen men drive by the school with rifles sticking out vehicle windows. She said fellow teachers had received extortion threats demanding they give half of their salaries or face attack.

The second teacher said dozens of his peers have asked the government to assign more police officers to schools of six subdivisions but their plight has been ignored.

“Authorities are turning a deaf ear,” he said.

El Universal, one of Mexico’s largest dailies, reports that one teacher, who was apparently in charge of handing out pay, received a typewritten letter from one of the drug gangs. In it, the paper reports, the gang demands that within 15 days, the teacher send it a list with “the name, address, cellular phone numbers and copies of every teacher’s voter registration.” The gang also demanded that the teacher send a copy of the district’s payroll.

“Tell the teachers that beginning Oct. 1, they will pay a 50 percent rent on their salary and holiday bonuses,” the letter read. Those who don’t like the terms can leave, it said, otherwise they know we don’t mess around.

Imagine that. Drug cartels simply deciding to take 50% of teachers’ salaries, because they can. Police on the take, judges on the take, school officials on the take, politicians on the take, common people living in fear because the system is corrupt from top to bottom, due to drug cartels, their violence, their money. I don’t believe I indulge in pleonasm writing this.

Right. That’s precisely why we need to ensure our borders are completely unsealed and, further, that we decide to purposely not enforce our border laws.

Because, apparently, we don’t just want to look like Mexico, we want to turn into Mexico.

You ignorant DC whores.

You’re enroute to getting your wish.

BZ

P.S.

And oh yes. Joyous day. Fornicalia passed part one of AB 131, their own Dream Act, awaiting part two signing:

Now that the California Assembly has approved AB 131, the second half of a package referred to as the California Dream Act, will Gov. Jerry Brown sign it into law? Brown has until Oct. 9 to sign the bill, which would provide undocumented college students with publicly-funded financial aid. The bill cleared the Assembly this afternoon 45 to 27; it was approved by the Senate last week.

YOU, the Fornicalia Taxpayer, need to PAY MORE MONEY in order for ILLEGAL MEXICANS to attend universities.

And John Boehner shows a bit of spine, at least for a few moments.

The story:

Barack Hussein Obama wanted to address a joint session of Congress this coming Wednesday, September 7th. Oddly enough, that was specifically the same day that there was a previously-scheduled GOP presidential debate.

As a result, Speaker Boehner said there were logistical and parliamentary problems and the date wasn’t feasible. There were words back and forth. The words “pro forma” and “normal” and “customary” were bantered about. The word “unprecedented” as well.

Despite all, Boehner somehow prevailed. Obama re-scheduled his address for the next day, Thursday the 8th. Of course, this pissed off NFL interests because that is the NFL season opener (Green Bay vs New Orleans). However, networks have already said if the president goes long, they will cut away. “Are you ready for some TelePrompter?” Or is this just a “run of bad luck“?

As a result (you would expect no less from this network), MSNBC correspondent Richard Wolffe said on “The Last Word“:

The interesting question is: What is it about this president that has stripped away the veneer of respect that normally accompanies the Office of the President? Why do Republicans think this president is unpresidential and should dare to request this kind of thing? It strikes me that it could be the economic times, it could be that he won so big in 2008 or it could be, let’s face it, the color of his skin. This is an extraordinary reaction to a normal sequence of events.”

That is to say: any obstruction to Mr Obama must be, per se, racist in nature foundationally.

Let me be blunt, if I may, in response:

Mr Obama was elected because of the perceived color of his skin (He’s only half black — but, depending upon his audience, he can go total verbal “ghetto” when he wishes to pander). GOWPs voted for Mr Obama because of his melanin count. The vote for Mr Obama was primarily a vote against Bush, not a vote for a man whose background was mostly ignored by the purposely-ignorant DEM/MSM.

Because of his melanin-count. Specifically and truly. And, further, because he could be slipped in as a contender and not offend the Bulk Of Yokels. He didn’t have the dark purple/black skin color. He didn’t have the wide, flat nose. He didn’t have the expansive lips. He could, in other words, “pass” and not be fundamentally offensive to the American electorate. To those who voted due to looks and not beliefs or philosophy or history. He was, in fact, the Magic Negro.

And so, when facts won’t work, when background won’t work, when experience won’t work, when history won’t work, when policy and philosophy won’t work —

Why, you simply play the Race Card.

Boring.

And America may, perhaps, be starting to actually “clue in.”

So on Thursday, who’s stupid enough to actually watch Mr Obama vs the NFL opener?

That’s right: about a hundred ignorant people.

Me?

I’m rooting for Green Bay. Go, Pack!

BZ

P.S.

Demorats actually trying to distance themselves from The One??

No one can say that Dick Cheney isn’t brilliant.

At the young age of 37, he’d already experienced heart problems.

Richard Bruce Cheney (b. January 30th, 1941) served as the 46th Vice President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009 under President George Bush.

Once a heavy smoker, Cheney sustained the first of five heart attacks in 1978, at age 37. Subsequent attacks in 1984, 1988, 2000, and 2010 have resulted in moderate contractile dysfunction of his left ventricle.^{[135] [136]} He underwent four-vessel coronary artery bypass grafting in 1988, coronary artery stenting in November 2000, urgent coronary balloon angioplasty in March 2001, and the implantation of an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator in June, 2001.^[135]

In early July 2010, Cheney was outfitted with a left-ventricular assist device (LVAD) at Inova Fairfax Heart and Vascular Institute to compensate for worsening congestive heart failure.^[145] The device pumps blood continuously through his body.^[146][147] He was released from Inova on August 9, 2010,^[148] and will have to decide whether to seek a full heart transplant.^[149][150] This pump is centrifugal and as a result he is alive without a pulse.^[151]

^{Because of his history of public service, he was sufficiently intelligent to realize that taxpayer dollars could pay for his medical issues from then to infinity.}

Your taxpayer dollars at work.

No matter what your political philosophies may be.

You think these people DON’T plan these things?

BZ

From The Daily Caller:

In response to recent comments made by Indiana Democratic Rep. Andre Carson and California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters that denigrate the TEA Party movement, Florida Republican Rep. Allen West — a member of both the Congressional Black Caucus and the TEA Party Caucus — sent a letter to CBC Chairman Emanuel Cleaver Wednesday requesting that the body condemn such remarks.

“As Chairman of the CBC, I believe it is incumbent on you to both condemn these types of hate-filled comments, and to disassociate the Congressional Black Caucus from these types of remarks. Otherwise, I will have to seriously reconsider my membership within the organization,” West wrote. (OPINION: Andre Carson: Serial racebaiter)

The freshman congressman declared, “It is unconscionable when a fellow CBC Member, Congressman Andre Carson, comes to South Florida and claims that some in the TEA Party would love to see black Americans ‘hanging on a tree.’ It is appalling to hear another CBC colleague, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, say ‘The TEA Party can go straight to hell.’”

Further:

West added that Carson’s comments, which caricature the TEA Party movement as a group of racists, are “baseless” and “desperate.” West reiterated that the movement is focused on fiscal responsibility and American Exceptionalism and wrote that the the CBC should be working to end the “Balkanization” of America. (RELATED: Rep. Allen West decides against campaign for Senate)

Finally, Representative Allen West stated:

As a member of the CBC, I look forward to working with you to help end this practice. All of us, especially Congressman Carson, Congresswoman Waters and others who have engaged in racially-motivated rhetoric, should follow the example of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., not the example of Reverend Jeremiah Wright,” West added, concluding that he hopes to work with the CBC to bridge divides.

Rep. Allen West states the obvious. He needs to seek higher office. Much higher.

As most of my readers already agree.

BZ