American Corruption

This is compiled from I thread I'm writing on Twitter.

The tolls were removed from I95 & the Merritt Parkway due to wasted gasoline, pollution (from idling/braking) and horrific deadly crashes. CT’s gas tax is one of the highest in the country. Malloy and his fellow dems failed policies have made CT a fiscal mess

Why can't we get our act together in this country. The answer seems to be "corruption" at all levels. But I ask: "Were Americans always this corrupt, and we didn't see it? Or did it seep in over time?" I'm curious.

My father grew up on a farm and sold eggs. One day he went through a tiny town and was pulled over by a cop for speeding. "$10 or 10 days in jail" the judge said. My dad called home and said, "I don't have $10 and I have nothing to do." He told the judge he'll take 10 days. Judge threw him out and told him to get outta town.

It was a speed trap to collect money for the town. You've seen them in old movies with motorcycle cops hiding behind billboards. It's little different today, except that the cops have radar guns and lasers. Even way back then (this was the 1920's) the justice system was a scam. Today we know it is.

There are roads in the northeast that have been under constant construction since I was a child. They are permanent union jobs. Some workers must spend their entire lives "working" on a small stretch of road, clogging traffic and getting nothing done. Corruption. We pay taxes at gunpoint for services never rendered.

Some of these road construction projects develop potholes before they're even finished. Yet if there is a road defect, like a raised interface between asphalt and concrete, that defect can be hit by 100,000 pound trucks 10,000 times/day for 20 years and not give way. It's amazing.

Then there are the "cold patch" trucks that go through the neighborhoods in the Spring. The put a shovelful of gravel and asphalt into each pothole without steamrolling it. Thereafter, every car that hits the pothole scatters the sticky gravel all over the road and into the wheel wells of your own car. Incredibly stupid and useless, yet they keep doing it.

Another story: Grandparents go to vote. They're given ballots already filled out for the Dem candidate. They refuse it, are refused a clean ballot, and leave. At home, phone rings. Grandad's brother. "You have to go back and vote or they'll burn down my business!". "Machine" politics. Democrats. I hate them. I have reasons.

Something's wrong. This airplane event really struck a chord with everyday people. They know something is deathly wrong with our society, but they don't understand what it is, and here is a man who dared to escape the madness in the only way he knew how: