GWOT VI - Refugees
Nov. 6th, 2023 01:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drewkittyGWOT VI - Refugees
Even before deploying to Iowa, I'd been asking a pointed question of a number of people and agencies, both within the California Republic and even outside it.
Problem.
The nuclear strikes on the Midwest made millions of people homeless. They could not return to glassed craters and wrecked landscapes. Many had been resettled all over the United States, but particularly "one city over" from their vaporized hometowns.
The most desirable of them had been integrated into their new communities.
Most struggled on, trying to get by, as people do.
And then there were the shitheads. The people who would rapidly wear out their welcome anywhere they went. The handful who justified the general stereotype.
The ones that had coalesced in Iowa, and drawn the ire of the fundamentalists, had committed three damning sins. They were inadequately grateful for the charity they had received (and it is not clear how they could have done so 'adequately'). They refused to abandon their silly mistaken beliefs and pick one of a hundred rag-tag fundamentalist Christian sects. And then, they were mouths to feed and competitors for scarce jobs.
So Iowa had no home for them.
Question.
Where were they then to go?
Iowa is landlocked. So sweeping them into the sea - that famous proposal extended to both the Jews and the Palestinians over the years - was not practical.
Nebraska not only said no, but hell to the no! So did Minnesota, but they weren't quite as hoser about it. Minnesota would photograph, tag and turn around loads of migrants. Nebraska suffocated them with the thinnest excuse of plausibility, checking containers for pests. Yet both had state troops on their borders to enforce the exclusion.
Missouri had bunkered up, and closed all commerce with Iowa as well, so there was no traffic at all - another hit on the Iowa economy and another thing to blame the refugees for. Wisconsin was a train wreck, and on the wrong side of Iowa to boot.
That left South Dakota.
Already dirt poor, they couldn't take in any number of refugees. But they were the potential logistics pipe to get refugees out and through. Also other stuff in, but that would be later.
So I'd asked if California wanted them.
Mostly, we didn't. We could take a handful if they had special skills. We (by which I mean the California Military Department) were reluctant to recruit more than a few, despite immigration through military service policies, because 1) American infiltrators and 2) did I mention shitheads?
I'd asked if our semi-allies, the other five of the Six Sinners, could take them.
Arizona would take them if they were willing to be radical Marxists. An oddball religion, but OK. The problem was screening for that, which they were not willing to do. If we delivered the refugees FOB to an Arizona border, they would take them on spec. If they passed. Or that would be the last load.
Oregon was also Hell to the No without the need to militarize a border. Our immigration agent in Portland said we should not even ask.
Washington Trust Territory said sure, as many as you like, but only east of the mountains. As WTT had no operational control over Spokane, this was a case of giving away what was not theirs to people who were also not theirs.
Given conditions in Spokanistan, dumping Iowa refugees there would just be fighting fire with gasoline. There was no one to ask permission for the same reason that there was nothing there to succor refugees with.
Utah ... ah, Utah. So close to God, so far from charitable. The Latter Day Saints (you may know them as Mormons) were flirting with coming into the Iowa war on the side of the fundamentalists. They had already taken in all refugees that were LDS or easily converted. They didn't want the rest. Their reply hadn't been in writing, it had been a polite phone call with a Bishop. He ended the call by stating that given the circumstances, they had decided that I was no longer apostate. I did not take this in the spirit in which it had been meant, and hung up before I nuked that particular bridge.
Nevada's Immigration Directorate sent me a rate schedule. $10,000 CAD per person and they would do it. Minimum $10,000,000 or 1000 persons or it wasn't worth their time. They also forwarded my unpaid citations for trespassing, disturbing the peace and littering (littering!?!?) during the arrest of General Batesman. Thanks Nevada, keep it classy.
Due to dramatically reduced carrying capacity from the Firecracker War, Alaska and Hawaii were also no gos. Note that they had never entered into rebellion, just drifted sideways.
Last but not least were my answers from the Americans and from the United Nations.
The UN High Commissioner For Refugee Affairs sent a form letter about the plight of refugees everywhere in the world and thanked me for my concern. I followed up through UNNAPD chain of command and they said I was lucky to get even that much of a reply.
The special interests section of the Austrian Embassy in Sacramento suggested that they could discuss it with me in person in New York or Washington D.C. They looked forward to paying for my plane ticket once I made my own way to Oregon or Nevada. Some misguided underling attached a copy of the Homeland indictment under which I had been originally arrested a couple years back. Date updated, agency updated to US Marshal's Service, and charge list expanded to include the arrest of General Batesman ("kidnapping") and my work on the Mexican border ("murder of American special operations personnel in Campos, California, in violation of the UCMJ and the laws of land warfare"). Interestingly, not a peep about Alviso. Apparently going after me for adjudicating war crimes trials would not make for a good war crimes trial.
Upshot.
The refugees in Iowa were worthless to anyone except themselves, and for the most part, nearly everyone would be relieved if they would just quietly, mysteriously die.
To the tune of a million dead.
A million - and I have to say this - a million American dead.
There were basically three people who gave a shit.
The Governor of Iowa. A sick old man in a state building, who had in desperation - much like my own - reached out to the Governor of California for help, not expecting any.
The Governor of California. Who had made a career of turning problems into opportunities, and saw several here.
Last but not least, the President of the Untied Snakes. His problems made California's look tame. Forty-four states where there had been fifty, nominally loyal 'American' provinces in conquered China, a world united in fear and hate towards post-nuclear America, and trying to restore our most basic Constitutional traditions and make sure the next elections were even held.A
America just didn't have anything left over for Iowa. Not this month. And six months would be five months too late.
Did I give a shit? Sort of. In a safely theoretical sense.
Until the Governor of California made it my problem, at my very real and personal peril. Pat gives the orders and I carry them out. It's a relationship.
California would play this one for table stakes. Me. Six hundred troops. Some gear.
But if the refugees had nowhere to go ...
... they would have to stay in Iowa.
Resettlement of refugees often means a homeland. A place of their own to go, to make their own.
The word hit me like a truck.
Not sanctuary.
Refuge.
A place to buy a million people a little time.
Maybe the horse will learn to sing.
Even before deploying to Iowa, I'd been asking a pointed question of a number of people and agencies, both within the California Republic and even outside it.
Problem.
The nuclear strikes on the Midwest made millions of people homeless. They could not return to glassed craters and wrecked landscapes. Many had been resettled all over the United States, but particularly "one city over" from their vaporized hometowns.
The most desirable of them had been integrated into their new communities.
Most struggled on, trying to get by, as people do.
And then there were the shitheads. The people who would rapidly wear out their welcome anywhere they went. The handful who justified the general stereotype.
The ones that had coalesced in Iowa, and drawn the ire of the fundamentalists, had committed three damning sins. They were inadequately grateful for the charity they had received (and it is not clear how they could have done so 'adequately'). They refused to abandon their silly mistaken beliefs and pick one of a hundred rag-tag fundamentalist Christian sects. And then, they were mouths to feed and competitors for scarce jobs.
So Iowa had no home for them.
Question.
Where were they then to go?
Iowa is landlocked. So sweeping them into the sea - that famous proposal extended to both the Jews and the Palestinians over the years - was not practical.
Nebraska not only said no, but hell to the no! So did Minnesota, but they weren't quite as hoser about it. Minnesota would photograph, tag and turn around loads of migrants. Nebraska suffocated them with the thinnest excuse of plausibility, checking containers for pests. Yet both had state troops on their borders to enforce the exclusion.
Missouri had bunkered up, and closed all commerce with Iowa as well, so there was no traffic at all - another hit on the Iowa economy and another thing to blame the refugees for. Wisconsin was a train wreck, and on the wrong side of Iowa to boot.
That left South Dakota.
Already dirt poor, they couldn't take in any number of refugees. But they were the potential logistics pipe to get refugees out and through. Also other stuff in, but that would be later.
So I'd asked if California wanted them.
Mostly, we didn't. We could take a handful if they had special skills. We (by which I mean the California Military Department) were reluctant to recruit more than a few, despite immigration through military service policies, because 1) American infiltrators and 2) did I mention shitheads?
I'd asked if our semi-allies, the other five of the Six Sinners, could take them.
Arizona would take them if they were willing to be radical Marxists. An oddball religion, but OK. The problem was screening for that, which they were not willing to do. If we delivered the refugees FOB to an Arizona border, they would take them on spec. If they passed. Or that would be the last load.
Oregon was also Hell to the No without the need to militarize a border. Our immigration agent in Portland said we should not even ask.
Washington Trust Territory said sure, as many as you like, but only east of the mountains. As WTT had no operational control over Spokane, this was a case of giving away what was not theirs to people who were also not theirs.
Given conditions in Spokanistan, dumping Iowa refugees there would just be fighting fire with gasoline. There was no one to ask permission for the same reason that there was nothing there to succor refugees with.
Utah ... ah, Utah. So close to God, so far from charitable. The Latter Day Saints (you may know them as Mormons) were flirting with coming into the Iowa war on the side of the fundamentalists. They had already taken in all refugees that were LDS or easily converted. They didn't want the rest. Their reply hadn't been in writing, it had been a polite phone call with a Bishop. He ended the call by stating that given the circumstances, they had decided that I was no longer apostate. I did not take this in the spirit in which it had been meant, and hung up before I nuked that particular bridge.
Nevada's Immigration Directorate sent me a rate schedule. $10,000 CAD per person and they would do it. Minimum $10,000,000 or 1000 persons or it wasn't worth their time. They also forwarded my unpaid citations for trespassing, disturbing the peace and littering (littering!?!?) during the arrest of General Batesman. Thanks Nevada, keep it classy.
Due to dramatically reduced carrying capacity from the Firecracker War, Alaska and Hawaii were also no gos. Note that they had never entered into rebellion, just drifted sideways.
Last but not least were my answers from the Americans and from the United Nations.
The UN High Commissioner For Refugee Affairs sent a form letter about the plight of refugees everywhere in the world and thanked me for my concern. I followed up through UNNAPD chain of command and they said I was lucky to get even that much of a reply.
The special interests section of the Austrian Embassy in Sacramento suggested that they could discuss it with me in person in New York or Washington D.C. They looked forward to paying for my plane ticket once I made my own way to Oregon or Nevada. Some misguided underling attached a copy of the Homeland indictment under which I had been originally arrested a couple years back. Date updated, agency updated to US Marshal's Service, and charge list expanded to include the arrest of General Batesman ("kidnapping") and my work on the Mexican border ("murder of American special operations personnel in Campos, California, in violation of the UCMJ and the laws of land warfare"). Interestingly, not a peep about Alviso. Apparently going after me for adjudicating war crimes trials would not make for a good war crimes trial.
Upshot.
The refugees in Iowa were worthless to anyone except themselves, and for the most part, nearly everyone would be relieved if they would just quietly, mysteriously die.
To the tune of a million dead.
A million - and I have to say this - a million American dead.
There were basically three people who gave a shit.
The Governor of Iowa. A sick old man in a state building, who had in desperation - much like my own - reached out to the Governor of California for help, not expecting any.
The Governor of California. Who had made a career of turning problems into opportunities, and saw several here.
Last but not least, the President of the Untied Snakes. His problems made California's look tame. Forty-four states where there had been fifty, nominally loyal 'American' provinces in conquered China, a world united in fear and hate towards post-nuclear America, and trying to restore our most basic Constitutional traditions and make sure the next elections were even held.A
America just didn't have anything left over for Iowa. Not this month. And six months would be five months too late.
Did I give a shit? Sort of. In a safely theoretical sense.
Until the Governor of California made it my problem, at my very real and personal peril. Pat gives the orders and I carry them out. It's a relationship.
California would play this one for table stakes. Me. Six hundred troops. Some gear.
But if the refugees had nowhere to go ...
... they would have to stay in Iowa.
Resettlement of refugees often means a homeland. A place of their own to go, to make their own.
The word hit me like a truck.
Not sanctuary.
Refuge.
A place to buy a million people a little time.
Maybe the horse will learn to sing.
