U.S. Lawsuit against Screaming Eagle aftermarket parts, emissions

[ITSec]

WE all know that laws are passed by Congress but, as an example:  The famous BP  Gulf oil spill of a few years ago.  It's amazing to see hundreds of agencies from local Louisiana parishes to the State and Federal Government along with lawyers possibly numbering in the hundreds filing anything from personal to class action lawsuits.   Many were thrown out of court simply because they didn't have any merit.   And, of course, a lot of people have and are being arrested for fraudulent claims of being harmed in some way because of the spill.

Many new expensive motor homes were bought to use as "command centers" along with fleets of new 4 four wheelers, boats. etc.  In short, the BP tragedy became the biggest economic boom in recent years for southern La, MS and SE Texas, especially for government agencies.

You pick a bad example. My aunt lives in Pass Christian, just across US 90 from the beach. She lost her home and business, and my uncle, who died when Katrina hit.

I spent the next five years helping family get back on their feet. Governments there didn't do any better than the residents - some got way too little, some got barely enough, and a few milked the system - and I'm talking about businesses, government agencies, and plain old everyday citizens.

[rocker59]

Did they live in a condo in Pass Christian?

My mom lost her place there to Katrina.

[Joliet Jim]

I just want to say after reading the first four pages of this thread, my adult Attention Deficit Disorder has been well satisfied.

[oldbike54]

I just want to say after reading the first four pages of this thread, my adult Attention Deficit Disorder has been well satisfied.

" SQUIRREL " 

 Dusty

[Sheepdog]

https://gearheadgrrrl.com/2016/08/18/is-the-epa-protectionist/

Compared to VW Group, HOG(NYSE) got off easy!

How about Toyota? The government couldn't even prove their case against them. Toyota paid the fine so the could end the conflict quickly and move on. I guess that they're accustomed to dealing with crooked governments...

[rodekyll]

So we talk about VW HD and Toyota cheating, and you conclude the government is crooked?  Go back to sleep.

[LowRyter]

So we talk about VW HD and Toyota cheating, and you conclude the government is crooked?  Go back to sleep.

 

[ITSec]

Is that actually true? I was under the perhaps mistaken impression some government agencies, like the EPA are handed the responsibility of creating the standards they are enforcing, so they're a step removed from Congress.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a bit of hippie/greenie from a "let's all do our part standpoint" but I think in same breath that the EPA regularly oversteps their bounds with no checks or balance.

You raise a good point - there are any number of areas where the legislation establishes a framework for regulations and standards, but leaves the specifics to the administration. However, Congress has many times stepped in to add specifics where they felt various agencies were becoming too loose or too aggressive in their actions. EPA is subject to many such added controls, as is the BLM, as is Wildlife Protection Act enforcement, and so on. The check and balance exists, and works as well as anything in our current government (where is that emoji for rolling on the ground cackling wildly?)

[LowRyter]

well said IT

[bacongrease]

How about Toyota? The government couldn't even prove their case against them. Toyota paid the fine so the could end the conflict quickly and move on. I guess that they're accustomed to dealing with crooked governments...

   Shakedown ? ?

  Almost everyday I notice the enormous fines and penalties companies large and small imposed by the gov't.  Whether deserved or not. 
Again, it is often easier to just to pay any fines rather than years of litigation. 
 Big money.

[oldbike54]

 It's all (insert name of choice here) fault  Let's do be careful here .

 Dusty

[Sheepdog]

So we talk about VW HD and Toyota cheating, and you conclude the government is crooked?  Go back to sleep.

I don't know about that...the government has a great deal invested in GM and MOPAR. Seems they're sending a message to the competition to me.

[charlie b]

I wonder of HD didn't give enough money to the political parties so they got "raided"  ;)

[ITSec]

Did they live in a condo in Pass Christian?

My mom lost her place there to Katrina.

No, they had a big 1860 plantation house (on the Register of Historic Places) that they were running as a bed and breakfast - you can still find references to Harbour Oaks Inn in Pass Christian. It was three and a half stories tall, and was on the ridge just up from the beach and across US-90 - about 100 yards from the water, and the ground was maybe 15 feet above sea level.

The storm surge was marked on the live oaks next to where the building had been, 53 feet up. Afterwards, the highest thing left was the concrete platform the front steps had been on.

Government agencies could have been more helpful, certainly - but at least they tried. The insurance companies ran like dogs.

[Lannis]

No, they had a big 1860 plantation house (on the Register of Historic Places) that they were running as a bed and breakfast - you can still find references to Harbour Oaks Inn in Pass Christian. It was three and a half stories tall, and was on the ridge just up from the beach and across US-90 - about 100 yards from the water, and the ground was maybe 15 feet above sea level.

The storm surge was marked on the live oaks next to where the building had been, 53 feet up. Afterwards, the highest thing left was the concrete platform the front steps had been on.

Government agencies could have been more helpful, certainly - but at least they tried. The insurance companies ran like dogs.

How in the world did that house survive Camille in '69?    When Camille hit Pass Christian, the winds were coming onshore at 200 MPH and the storm surge wave were breaking over the electric lines a quarter of a mile inland ....  ?

It's the 47th anniversary here in Virginia (August 19th) of when the tropical depression remains of Hurricane Camille sneaked over the Blue Ridge, met an August cold front, and dumped 40 inches of rain in 6 hours on top of the ridge, washing away half of Nelson County and killing 110 people.   That was a bad time ....

Lannis

[rodekyll]

We just had the anniversary memorial for the folks who died in the landslide that took out a subdivision last summer.  Nature is still in charge, and I think she's getting pissed.

[ITSec]

How in the world did that house survive Camille in '69?    When Camille hit Pass Christian, the winds were coming onshore at 200 MPH and the storm surge wave were breaking over the electric lines a quarter of a mile inland ....  ?

Camille came ashore with the eye about 1/4 - 1/2 mile to the east of our place - so the winds to the west of the eye came from onshore, not from the water. To the east of the eye, the winds come from the water and are stronger. Back then, the stuff between downtown Pass Christian and Biloxi got the big surge, with the stretch from downtown Pass to Gulfport hit the hardest.

With Katrina, the eye came just about dead center up through the entry to the waters of Bay St Louis, between the town of that name and Pass Christian, west of my family's place. This time, the house was on the east side of the eye and took the brunt - as the part of the Pass further to the east had done during Camille. Once again, the surge carried inland - this time all the way to the railway tracks and beyond. In some areas it reached I-10, although by then it was much diminished, down to a 5-10 foot wave.

[Lannis]

Camille came ashore with the eye about 1/4 - 1/2 mile to the east of our place - so the winds to the west of the eye came from onshore, not from the water. To the east of the eye, the winds come from the water and are stronger. Back then, the stuff between downtown Pass Christian and Biloxi got the big surge, with the stretch from downtown Pass to Gulfport hit the hardest.

With Katrina, the eye came just about dead center up through the entry to the waters of Bay St Louis, between the town of that name and Pass Christian, west of my family's place. This time, the house was on the east side of the eye and took the brunt - as the part of the Pass further to the east had done during Camille. Once again, the surge carried inland - this time all the way to the railway tracks and beyond. In some areas it reached I-10, although by then it was much diminished, down to a 5-10 foot wave.

Tough town.   I might think about moving!

Lannis

[Sheepdog]

Below is a photo of the tidal surge from Katrina. Over 35' high, it crushed everything in it's path. The November after the storm, I saw a dead horse still in the upper limbs of a Live Oak tree in Waveland...

[GearheadGrrrl]

In southwest Florida's Collier County Hurricane Donna in 1960 pushed water 40 miles inland as far as Imokalee, 30 feet above sea level. Only a couple thousand people lived there then, today 400,000 people live there. The developers are throwing up townhouses and condos like there's no tomorrow that barely meet building code. The county's new Emergency Operations Center is a literal "brick sh-thouse" several miles inland, everything essential is on the 3rd floor or above, and the windows are narrow slits with steel storm covers.

[LowRyter]

I just wonder if cheap disposable housing is the way to go.  Evacuate and rebuild?

[oldbike54]

I just wonder if cheap disposable housing is the way to go.  Evacuate and rebuild?

 

 .... Oh never mind , just too easy ...
 
 Dusty

[Two Checks]

Congress created the EPA, the EPA creates and enforces the laws through he DoJ.
Totally unconstitutional.

[blackcat]

In southwest Florida's Collier County Hurricane Donna in 1960 pushed water 40 miles inland as far as Imokalee, 30 feet above sea level. Only a couple thousand people lived there then, today 400,000 people live there. The developers are throwing up townhouses and condos like there's no tomorrow that barely meet building code. The county's new Emergency Operations Center is a literal "brick sh-thouse" several miles inland, everything essential is on the 3rd floor or above, and the windows are narrow slits with steel storm covers.

If the developers are not meeting building code, then the local inspectors are also to blame, because the Florida building codes regarding wind loads are quite sturdy. I built my garage meeting those codes, and in a hurricane I'm evacuating to the garage.

Quite frankly, the Federal Government should stop backing flood insurance policy's for new construction as they are no longer a financially sane program. Let the private sector write those policy's and watch this insanity with building on barrier islands, etc. end.

[rocker59]

Quite frankly, the Federal Government should stop backing flood insurance policy's for new construction as they are no longer a financially sane program. Let the private sector write those policy's and watch this insanity with building on barrier islands, etc. end.

Interesting idea.  What about on existing property?  Pay off, but not allow rebuild?  What happens to ownership and maintenance of the empty land, in your plan?

 

[oldbike54]

Interesting idea.  What about on existing property?  Pay off, but not allow rebuild?  What happens to ownership and maintenance of the empty land, in your plan?

 In most cases the sea oats will take over , which takes care of the maintenance .

 Dusty

[atavar]

I have never understood while people do not feel the need to assume any risk or responsibility for their choices..  Building under sea level has risks of flooding, if you build at the base of a sandstone wall some day it's going to fall on you..  if you build in the desert it's going to be hot. If you build at the tip of a peninsula or on an ocean island some day a hurricane is going to blow you away.  If you build in the center of tornado alley some day a tornado is going to blow at you. You knew this going in.
Foolish should not be a reimbursable expense.
I have never gotten disaster relief in the Dakotas when everything freezes every year.  By current beliefs we should get our heating fuel paid for because the weather was cold again this year..  and let's get the federal government to pay for snow removal on our streets..
People need to start taking care of themselves and taking responsibility for their choices. 

[blackcat]

Interesting idea.  What about on existing property?  Pay off, but not allow rebuild?  What happens to ownership and maintenance of the empty land, in your plan?

I believe that they have modified the flood insurance policy's to three strikes and your out, as in your on your own after the third wipe out, so either take the money and try to sell the stripped property or rebuild at your own risk, but no more flood insurance from the Feds.  I have owned property on the beach and after a couple of hurricanes I said, that is enough and it wasn't because of a flood. 

We currently own a home in the old part of this Florida town that is up high and miles back from the barrier island, the Spanish built a fort in the 1500's? in this area as they understood the power of the storms. No flood insurance back then and there shouldn't be any now for making stupid decisions by building on a barrier island, because sooner or later a named storm is going to take your home and it isn't pretty. Then there are the predators who descend on your life called storm chaser's or insurance adjusters.   

[oldbike54]

 Poor old landlocked Oklahoma is looking better all the time ...

 Dusty

[rocker59]

Poor old landlocked Oklahoma is looking better all the time ...

 Dusty

'cept for all them cyclones y'all get down there.