The Department of Homeland Security ain't exactly the department of fuzzy fluffy puppy dogs. They have a bad habit of groping grannies and little children at checkpoints, doing warrantless searches at "border stops" well inside the U.S. borders, and otherwise generally treating the Constitution like some sorta toilet paper to wad and flush. So why do I bring them up? 'Cause as evil as the DHS is, there's some evil out there so evil that even the DHS don't want to associate with 'cause of the reek of brimstone. And by that, I'm referring to, of course... Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
If you want the scoop on Sheriff Joe, the place to get it is the Phoenix New Times. They've documented Sheriff Joe's jackboots throwing cripples out of wheelchairs to lie on the floor of jail cells in their own feces and urine... refusing to allow diabetics to take their insulin with predictable result (dead diabetics)... repeated beatings of inmates who have died from their injuries, one of those beatings being one of those cripples thrown out of his wheelchair... and other similar atrocities against people who have been convicted of no crime but poverty (i.e, being too poor to make bail while waiting trial).
The man is evil. Pure evil. Yet the people of Maricopa County, Arizona, have re-elected him every year since a long time ago. What does that say about the folks who live in the largest metropolitan area of Arizona? Disgusting. Just disgusting. That's all I got to say about it.
-- Badtux the Brimstone-smellin' Penguin
The fact that a majority of residents of a major American metropolitan area keep reelecting Sheriff Joe the Nazi is one reason I look forward to the break-up of the United States as a nation. There are many others.
ReplyDeleteOn the whole, the Czechoslovakidivorce, or more likely the Yugoslavidetonation, of the USA will be a bad thing. But at least a lot of the stupid motherfuckers who support these neo-Nazi tactics will die with all the other victims of the anarchocivilwar. I will be watching, with plenty of popcorn, hopefully from the distant shores of Australia. In that way, I am like crusty oldfuck BBC.
@Bukko I just don't see it happening. Things aren't bad enough yet for anything actually too disruptive to happen. I've seen whole cities crumble to the ground without any major governmental upheaval.
ReplyDeleteBut if it did happen and our federal government collapsed and the states were left to fend for themselves, I don't suspect that many of those sorts who vote for guys like Sheriff Arpaio will be the ones to suffer the most. We like to think that there is some sort of karma that rules bad situations and while things will be bad for everyone in a collapse, the more resources a person has, the better outcome they are likely to get unless you have a situation where everyone gangs up on the super rich.
I don't know what to do about guys like Arpaio except to try to catch him doing something illegal. It seems to me that refusing to allow a jailed diabetic to take their insulin would be illegal. Ditto throwing an inmate out of a wheelchair to lie in their own feces and urine.
So why is he still there? That is the ultimately the problem that needs to be fixed. Democracy is wonderful but obviously less than perfect. We need to have a system where elected officials have limits that can be enforced.
Well, just don't be a dumb ass that gets tossed in jail there, problem solved.
ReplyDeleteOh please. Even if I lived in that area, the odds of me spending the night in jail are miniscule and even if I did have to spend the night in jail, my skin color and socio-economic status would likely protect me. I can afford bail and can also afford to engage in a civil lawsuit if they got out of hand.
ReplyDeleteThat is part of the problem, I suspect. I can't imagine that anyone who thought they might have a chance of suffering at this man's hands would vote for him. Therefore people must think that he isn't likely to mistreat their sort of people. No, it is just the wrong sort of people (who usually happen to be brown) who get the Arpaio treatment. I'll bet a lot of the voters there are bigots who think they have it coming.
Lynne, it must be nice to be you. So optimistic. I am optimistic about my own life -- doing quite well financially, thank you, living in a pleasant country, at a job I enjoy (getting paid triple-time with weekend shift differential today for coming in on what was supposed to be one of my "stat" days of designated off-time, but they needed someone to fill in at the easier of the two wards I work at.) In addition to living in a nice country, I have the option of escaping to another one. It would cost us about $25,000 to move between hemispheres again, but to me, that's just a "meh" expense. Not saying this to brag, just to point out that I'm happy about the small scale, not a mordantly depressive type of person.
ReplyDeleteBut I see nothing but trouble on the horizon for the U.S. The whole world's money system is a row of dominoes sitting on top of a house of cards, surrounded by Jenga towers that have had a dozen blocks removed already. Have you read much about re-hypothecation? This sucker is about to blow. It might be Europe that goes down first, but China and the U.S. will fall in quick sequence. It's all tied together.
You write about seeing Detroit falter. I lived in the U.P. for part of the 1980s (L'Anse, Calumet and Manistique) and I remember passing through Motown as it was starting to go down. Flint, too, at the time of "Roger and Me." Things were, and are, bad there. Burnings like Devil's Night, degradation of all civic life, murders galore. Now imagine if the entire country was like that, with no other regions to escape to or lift things up for the faltering area. When the money system short-circuits, even if it's for a week-long "bank holiday" while TPTB make adjustments to the suddenly fried balance sheets of every financial institution, the hunger riots will start. I BELIEVE in the saying that "you're only three missed meals away from anarchy."
You mention "democracy." The U.S. doesn't have that. It has a rigged ballot-counting system fed by an ignorant and apathetic population. It's a system guaranteed to keep power in the hands of the fake duopoly that already holds it. But they're holding the reins of a carriage that's being rotted by termites that the power-brokers set loose themselves.
I hope your sunny view of circumstances is right, and that mine is too bleak. But I'm going to be a winner either way. And if I should be swept up in the tide of disaster anyhow, despite my best preparations, I'm still happy, because I've had a hell of a good life!
I'll admit that a sudden collapse would be devastating and also is a possibility. I just don't think it especially likely. But if it did happen, it will likely be global. Canada's economy is so intertwined with the United State's that if the US government fails and our economy fails, Canada is likely to go down too. Besides, the next big crisis is likely to be one of water. While you are dying of thirst in arid Australia, people in Michigan will be sitting pretty and will probably have changed our state motto to "We got water, bitches!"
ReplyDeleteI still dont really see a sudden collapse of society and goverment though. What I see happening is something more similar to what has happened to Detroit. A gradual decline over a period of decades. It isn't pretty to be sure and a lot of people suffer. But one of the reasons I am so optimistic is that I have seen what people can do in such situations and how an economic collapse can create a lot of opportunities too.