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Third World America
Macleans ^ | 14 September 2010 | Luiza Savage

Posted on 09/18/2010 2:18:30 PM PDT by Publius

In February, the board of commissioners of Ohio’s Ashtabula County faced a scene familiar to local governments across America: a budget shortfall. They began to cut spending and reduced the sheriff’s budget by 20 per cent. A law enforcement agency staff that only a few years ago numbered 112, and had subsequently been pared down to 70, was cut again to 49 people and just one squad car for a county of 1,900 sq. km along the shore of Lake Erie. The sheriff’s department adapted. “We have no patrol units. There is no one on the streets. We respond to only crimes in progress. We don’t respond to property crimes,” deputy sheriff Ron Fenton told Maclean’s. The county once had a “very proactive” detective division in narcotics. Now, there is no detective division. “We are down to one evidence officer and he just runs the evidence room in case someone wants to claim property,” said Fenton. “People are getting property stolen, their houses broken into, and there is no one investigating. We are basically just writing up a report for the insurance company.”

(Excerpt) Read more at 2.macleans.ca ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: depression; devolution; recession
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For those who have read Atlas Shrugged or participated in our FReeper Book Club on this book last year, the full article will remind readers of Starnesville, Wisconsin, the former home of the Twentieth Century Motor Company.
1 posted on 09/18/2010 2:18:36 PM PDT by Publius
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To: Publius

I wonder if idiot Obama nad his Hollywood buddies understand that if there is a Communist revolution, it’ll be US dragging THEM out of their mansions and in front of an enraged firing squad! THEY are the ones who are the idle rich! Not us! THEM!


2 posted on 09/18/2010 2:24:44 PM PDT by Niuhuru (The Internet is the digital AIDS; adapting and successfully destroying the MSM host.)
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To: Niuhuru; cardinal4

We don’t have 1,900 sq km in Ohio. They have 1,900 sq km on the OTHER side of Lake Erie, in Ontario. WE have sq mi!


3 posted on 09/18/2010 2:40:37 PM PDT by Ax
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To: Niuhuru

Hell, it’s not limited to a communist revolution; ANY revolution that decides to up the ante and “get physical” will find them dragged out of their homes and dealt with rather harshly. I wonder if they realize that?


4 posted on 09/18/2010 2:41:45 PM PDT by ought-six ( Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
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To: ought-six

>Hell, it’s not limited to a communist revolution; ANY revolution that decides to up the ante and “get physical” will find them dragged out of their homes and dealt with rather harshly.

Rather sad, IMO... I’m in favor of a “radical Constitutionalists revolution”


5 posted on 09/18/2010 2:51:25 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: ADemocratNoMore; Aggie Mama; alarm rider; alexander_busek; AlligatorEyes; AmericanGirlRising; ...

Although this article isn’t about Rand, it’s about Starnesville coming to America and the devolution of the modern state. Rand would have understood the import.


6 posted on 09/18/2010 2:54:02 PM PDT by Publius (The government only knows how to turn gold into lead.)
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To: Publius
 
 
Read the whole article at the link. What stood out to me was opportunity - the broad opportunity of yet another angle of "taking back" our government and nation, by citizens stepping up and taking up the slack that they have been content to let someone else (mis)handle up to now. There are a lot of things citizens can handle without requiring multi-million dollar budgets, contracts, grants, unions and so forth. I can even think of a few examples off the top of my head, like where a city was headed towards closing or abandoning a pool and some parks. Folk in the neighborhoods said that 'We'll take care of them', and so they did, by keeping the grass mowed, trash picked up, things fixed, painted and maintained, all at their own time and expense. When people get that involved at such a base level, they have a true and tangible investment in their communities - something very valuable that we have been slipping away from for decades. It's all about more than political parties, national elections and larger-than-life public figures - the ties that bind are actually how we are involved and what we are prepared to do for the well-being of our local communities where our families, friends and neighbors dwell.
 
 

7 posted on 09/18/2010 2:54:07 PM PDT by lapsus calami (What's that stink? Code Pink ! ! And their buddy Murtha, too!)
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To: ought-six

Of course not, because these idiots are like the upper class Russian intellectuals who thought Communism would be brilliant, since they would be the ones leading and running things. They don’t realize that THEY are the ones who epitomize the idle rich that Marx ranted about, Lenin persecuted, and Stalin purged. Look at how they live for pity’s sake! These people are walking propaganda for any movement that hates the rich. It would be fitting in the US that if such a thing happened, that it would happen to the celebs, not the Wall Street execs or industrialists.

The revolution in Russia wasn’t really grassroots, but done by a bunch of agitators that didn’t really want a stable prosporous country, but wanted revolution. Another facet is taht the Czar wouldn’t let a constitution be formed and the aristocracy was exploiting their peasant laborers while living a jet set life. So there was no other way except for the Czar to have changed when it was time to grant a constitution. But he didn’t, he fought to retain the autocracy while at the same time being completely incompetent.

In China it was more grassroots, but even the Chinese are tired of Communism and I think that at the time of the revolution, that the people were at their wit’s end with the system in place and wanted fudnamental change than just a new dynasty. Mao exploited that aspect to gain power. Mao was exceedingly clever to tap into and trigger the rage that the peasants felt about their lack of choice, opportunity, and the failure of their government to protect them from the Imperial powers when they were ruthlessly colonized.

If someone cleverly tapped into the hatred that normal people feel for the privileges that the celebrities exploit and the crimes they get away with, then it could end up with the entertainment industry being ripped to pieces and celebs dragged into the streets and shot and their wealth looted. Which I think would be very therapeautic for a lot of poeple.


8 posted on 09/18/2010 2:57:05 PM PDT by Niuhuru (The Internet is the digital AIDS; adapting and successfully destroying the MSM host.)
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To: Ax

Damn right! Articles written like that really show the author’s ignorance.


9 posted on 09/18/2010 2:58:31 PM PDT by Slump Tester (What if I'm pregnant Teddy? Errr-ahh -Calm down Mary Jo, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)
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To: Publius

Funny how the county isn’t cutting any social services. It is just cutting the important stuff. Must be their way of punishing the voters for not agreeing to more tax hikes.


10 posted on 09/18/2010 3:00:36 PM PDT by pnh102 (Regarding liberalism, always attribute to malice what you think can be explained by stupidity. - Me)
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To: Niuhuru
 
 
Good post - you verbalized what I have been summerizing to myself for some time now. By fanning the flames of class warfare the elite and jet-setter idiots are sticking their own heads in nooses they crafted for themselves. If someone were to yell "Get the Rich!!", they certainly wouldn't be talking about me, my family or friends for that matter. It takes little imagination to discern who and where the prime targets would be.
 
 

11 posted on 09/18/2010 3:05:23 PM PDT by lapsus calami (What's that stink? Code Pink ! ! And their buddy Murtha, too!)
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To: lapsus calami

Thanks. It’s taken me some time to really get the nitty gritty down to really write something that detailed. Such is the odd way of America, that we might end up with breaking the necks of arists instead of aristocrats. Of course, these idiots promote themselves as the aristocrats of our country.


12 posted on 09/18/2010 3:20:56 PM PDT by Niuhuru (The Internet is the digital AIDS; adapting and successfully destroying the MSM host.)
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To: Publius
"'People are getting property stolen, their houses broken into, and there is no one investigating. We are basically just writing up a report for the insurance company.'"

Well, there's still an insurance racket there, so they haven't defaulted back to honesty, yet. Until then...no real conservatism anywhere.


13 posted on 09/18/2010 3:22:38 PM PDT by familyop (cbt. engr. (cbt), NG, '89-' 96, Duncan Hunter or no-vote.)
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To: pnh102
McCleans=lefty magazine, same one that dragged Mark Steyn into P.C. lawsuit.

Another attempt to blame Reagan/Bush for all problems.

Will any major publication do an audit of how much of the taxdollars are spent on extravegant salaries, health benefits and retirements of public employees driving municipalities into bankruptcy? There's lots of money going into the coffers....where is it being spent?

14 posted on 09/18/2010 3:59:54 PM PDT by cfrels
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To: Publius

BTW, speaking of “Third World America,” a hotel in a small western town is flying, from left to right, the flags for New York, Canada, Britain, the UN, Colorado, the EU, California and Texas. That’s all, and no one seems to care. So let the depression rip. Enjoy the ride, anti-American, bipartisan, liberaltarian globalists.


15 posted on 09/18/2010 4:11:38 PM PDT by familyop (cbt. engr. (cbt), NG, '89-' 96, Duncan Hunter or no-vote.)
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To: familyop
So let the depression rip.

Like you, I take the fatalist position. Certain events have been set in motion, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop them.

The dollar will vanish as a medium of exchange. Gold and silver will end up being the only acceptable media once we get past the guns-bullets-food stage. The federal government will collapse, and states and localities will be on their own. The US will break up, and some states, or parts of states, will end up as part of Canada, or even Mexico. Five or ten nations will replace the US.

The famous Chinese curse was, "May you be reborn in interesting times." Whether you believe in reincarnation or not, we are headed for those times.

16 posted on 09/18/2010 4:25:31 PM PDT by Publius (The government only knows how to turn gold into lead.)
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To: Publius

First off, if you read about 19th century America, communities provided security for citizens via watchmen, constables, town marshals and sheriffs. If that failed, vigilance committees formed.

Before cutting budgets for security, you first get rid of deadweight, like city managers, assistant city managers, bureaucrats of every shape, manner and form and legislative assistants for fat-ass politicians.

Of course this would cut into the voter base of the Marxists. But we don’t care. Or if General Sherman were brought up to speed about the situation in the 21st century, he might say: The only good Marxist is a dead Marxist.


17 posted on 09/18/2010 4:36:53 PM PDT by sergeantdave
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To: Publius

Alas, I am beyond three-score years and know a fair amount of history. I concur with you.

Your second paragraph was a strike between the eyes. As one who has been dollar-cost-averaging his way into the metals market for years (mostly brass & lead), it is plain that the social/political inertia of the system we enjoy will carry it off the cliff. I will fight the Constitutionalist fight nonetheless.

Can you say Balkanization?

I do hope we have a chance to meet some day...(I have followed your posts).


18 posted on 09/18/2010 4:48:06 PM PDT by esopman (Blessings on Freepers Everywhere (and Their Most Intelligent Designer))
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To: Publius

That is a scary portrait.


19 posted on 09/18/2010 4:55:58 PM PDT by definitelynotaliberal
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To: esopman
I am beyond three-score years...

Likewise. I will begin receiving Social Security payments in December, and if Martin Armstrong is right, I will cease receiving them -- and my pension payments -- next June. At that point, it's every man for himself.

...(mostly brass & lead)...

In the short run, that will suffice. But when things settle down to a new normal, gold and silver will be the new media of exchange. Gold holders will be the bankers of the new order. Silver holders will be the merchants. Once that new normal settles in, brass and lead will be for protection of your gold and silver -- or the theft of your neighbor's gold and silver should you be of such a mind.

I will fight the Constitutionalist fight nonetheless.

Should some form of the US survive, it will be under some new form of the Articles of Confederation. Does the word "articleist" exist?

I do hope we have a chance to meet some day...(I have followed your posts).

Thank you. I hope you have been following our FReeper Book Club on the Federalist and anti-Federalist papers. There is a lot to learn.

20 posted on 09/18/2010 4:59:39 PM PDT by Publius (The government only knows how to turn gold into lead.)
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