Day: October 5, 2020

When America can no longer build things, do the bean-counters pick up shovels and pickaxes?

The signs of decay and collapse of the American Empire are all around us. I have written about this in other posts. It’s not a popular subject. Americans take “greatness” and “exceptionalism” for granted. They don’t care if the garbage gets collected, just as long as it disappears. They don’t care who designs and make the cars as long as they are available. They don’t care about education, as long as the proper check boxes are checked off on your social scoring balance sheet.

America is collapsing everywhere.

And the lack of skilled talent, and collapse of the educational and support systems that use them, and the rampant corruption at all levels has created a very toxic environment. It is a place where things are breaking down, and there just isn’t anyone remaining who can fix and repair them.

You know it’s really bad when…

…fucking bridges fall down!

I mean, this is ancient technology. If pre-historic Romans and Egyptians could build bridges with their bare hands, what’s stopping modern American society?

Social progressivism.

What is the real cause behind this collapse?

What is behind all this; what is the root and reason for all this collapse? Is it a particular political party? Because that is what all the articles seem to point towards…

…it’s the “democrats” fault. It’s their damn social progressivism.

Ah, but people. It’s not the Democrats fault.

It’s not the Republicans fault.

It’s OUR COLLECTIVE FAULT. We have allowed and permitted lazy and corrupt millionaires to let America fall apart and denigrate. We allowed them.

It’s our fault.

Own up to it.

Our fault?

This level of collapse, and destruction is not due to one person or a group of people. It is due to the structure and the very fabric of our society.

The American nation, and everything that it stands for, created this situation. You cannot deny it. No one president, no one group of people, and no one situation created it. America has evolved in a natural progression. It is natural. It is organic.

Deal with it.

This is the truth.

  • A Republic that allows other forms of governance does not last long.
  • Mob rule is a guaranteed path to an oligarchy.
  • Oligarchies always turn into military empires.
  • Military empires require dumbed-down, illiterate slaves/servants to operate.

And when you are standing around, take a good long hard look at your life. When you are paying $10 for a fucking simple cup of coffee. When everything you do is taxed and regulated, and any projects that are make “for the good of society” just spins around and around like some 5 GB movie that you are trying to download.

There are better ways.

There are more efficient ways.

But first you need to kill off all the slime-balls that have their hands in the till. All of them. Not punish. Kill. And make examples of them. Then you need to put new systems in place. Systems that will never allow a repeat of the past mistakes.

Until that day comes, the dysfunctional America will continue to stay dysfunctional. And all these plans for a railroad from Alaska to California, HST all over the nation, moon bases, walls on the borders, high technology transports, and college of the future are all just…

…wishful thinking.

For they will never come to fruition. Not until you start training and employing people who actually fucking make things. And the way the United States is today, that will NEVER happen.

Making things.

The future belongs to the nations that make things. Not to the nations that destroy things.

Which brings me to what America is today…

The following is a complete reprint of an article titled “2 + 2 = 5 means more bridges will collapse” and written on 4OCT20. It is reprinted as found with only minor editing to fit this venue. All credit to the author.

Reality is true even if you don’t want it to be. And it has certain characteristics, which include the fact that you need to do engineering right.

Firm blamed for deadly FIU pedestrian bridge collapse suspended from federal contracts.

There has been a lot of talk about how Mathematics is racist, and that Math is sexist.

Well, math also describes the way the universe works, and if you want things like electric power, electric vehicles, better internet and computers, and bridges that don’t fall down, someone had better understand the math and the physics.

The FIU pedestrian bridge designed by FIGG Bridge Engineers collapsed in March of 2018 while it was still under construction. Six people died. Faulty design, due to incorrect calculations of load factors, was blamed.

Last month, the Federal Highway Administration placed FIGG on immediate suspension of any projects that involve federal funding. The FHWA also proposes that FIGG be debarred from any federally funded work for 10 years.

The company won’t survive under those conditions.

Texas decided to review work that the same design firm was doing for TxDOT. They didn’t like what they found. Harris County Commissioners vote unanimously to change engineer of $962 million Ship Channel bridge.

I am not an engineer, but clearly there was something wrong with either the design of the FIU bridge or the construction, or both.

The other thing wrong was that FIU spent something like 12 million dollars for a bridge that could have been built for less than 1 million.

There was a federal grant!

I don’t know how to gauge the quality of their designs, but when you get bridges designed incorrectly, they fall down.

They usually don’t fall down before they are in use.

Harris County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday night to change the engineer of record on the Sam Houston Tollway Ship Channel Bridge after a review found one portion that had not yet been built contained a potential design flaw.
The @HCTRA plans to temporarily stop construction on the Ship Channel Bridge replacement project. An independent consultant found a design issue with the curved portions of the pylon legs. (1/2) @KHOU #KHOU11 Photos courtesy: HCTRA pic.twitter.com/ICdRu0zVR0

— Chris Costa (@ChrisCostaTV) January 7, 2020

That design was done by FIGG. FIGG is saying it all fine. They were also replaced on another bridge in Texas. New designer named for Corpus Christi’s Harbor Bridge replacement after FIGG fired.

In removing FIGG from the project, TxDOT cited a National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the 2018 Miami bridge collapse. The report released in October cited load and capacity calculation errors by FIGG for the pedestrian bridge’s design.

You can find more info about the FIU bridge collapse at this link. It is what started this whole review process.

It’s a God-damn cluster fuck.

And no amount of bafflegab is going to change that.

Bafflegab.
Feminist bafflegab.

America is not supposed to be like this.

You have to understand that America, as founded, was the most amazing nation ever to grace this good earth. There are many reasons for this, but nothing can say it better than this…

  America's founders embraced a previously unheard-of  political philosophy which held that people are "...endowed BY THEIR  CREATOR with certain unalienable rights.." This was the statement  of guiding principle for the new nation, and, as such, had to be  translated into a concrete charter for government. The Constitution of  The United States of America became that charter. 

  Other forms of government, past and present, rely on the state as the  grantor of human rights. America's founders, however, believed that a  government made up of imperfect people exercising power over other  people should possess limited powers. Through their Constitution, they  wished to "secure the blessings of liberty" for themselves and for  posterity by limiting the powers of government. Through it, they  delegated to government only those rights they wanted it to have,  holding to themselves all powers not delegated by the Constitution. They  even provided the means for controlling those powers they had granted  to government. 

 This was the unique American idea.  Many problems we face today result from a departure from this basic  con­cept. Gradually, other "ideas" have influenced legislation which has  reversed the roles and given government greater and greater power over  individuals. Early generations of Americans pledged their lives to the  cause of in­dividual freedom and limited government and warned, over and  over again, that eternal vigilance would be required to preserve that  freedom for posterity.  

-Footnote: "Our Ageless Constitution," W.  David Stedman & La Vaughn G. Lewis, Editors (Asheboro, NC, W. David  Stedman Associates, 1987) Part III:  ISBN 0-937047-01-5

You see, America today in no way resembles what our Constitution says it is supposed to be. It has turned in to a huge enormous monstrosity.

"Allow me, just now old enough to  apprehend the freak show for what it is, to put something radical to my  conservative forbearers: 

Little about the present state of American life is worth conserving. Nothing of what the Founders envisioned remains."

-Andrea Yung

We Americans, living in this mess, move along with the flow and ebb of the political and social winds. Often making the most absurd statements, and rationalizations. Thus this fellow that I was chatting with.

He then went on to say that “We need to police the world. We need to spread democracy... ...the rest of the world is one big shit-hole, seriously.” And then asked me, “Have you ever seen the Mexican side of the border?“

American houses in the suburbs.
America is very beautiful once you leave many of the urban areas. The sky is often awesome, the roads are wide and often clear of traffic. Many of the houses are large and spacious. When compared to other nations, the United States appears to be (hands down) the most desirable place to live. So it is natural to assume every other place is a hell-hole.

Now this is coming from a guy who doesn’t even has a passport, has never tried to get a visa, and his only experience outside the borders of our country was by watching reruns of Baywatch.

Ah. that old “no one has it better than us Americans” argument. We are so fortunate. Eh. Well, it plays well in Peoria. And it’s a good conversation stopper. As we, as Americans, have all seen the “Save the Children” commercials. That money-generating venture brought images of poverty into the living-rooms of Americans for decades.

So the argument seems to have some validity.

Seems to.

Being older with some experiences…

But, you know, I am from a different generation. I grew up in the 1970’s, and at that time between all the smoking blue haze we came to appreciate the strengths of the American system. We did so cranking Jimmi Hendrix, Robin Trower, Yes, Jefro Tull, Alice Cooper, Boston, Manfred Mann, Traffic, Uriah Heep and Three Dog Night.

"I'd love to change the world... but I don't know what to do.
That 70s show.
That 70s show was a television comedy that sort of reflected what it was like living and growing up in the 1970’s.

And…

We knew, since the Vietnam war was still fresh in our minds, that America should be for Americans. We did not need to be off throwing money, and wasting lives in some off-the-beaten track for some globalist oligarch.

We knew that America was wasting money in Vietnam. We knew that people were dying there, and many of them were friends, or relatives. We knew that what ever benefit would come of that war, none of us would ever see that benefit. 

We knew that the war was just pissing away American resources.
Scene from Vietnam.
Americans in Vietnam. We fought and died there for “democracy”. When the truth was that it was an effort with the wealthiest in America to game the situation for their very own personal advantage.

We, almost my entire generation, felt betrayed by those older than us. Those who ended up throwing away lives in far off rice paddy’s, and making laws against marijuana that everyone was obviously breaking. What was the matter with these people? We asked.

Why can’t they just let us be? Why do they have to take too much of our money, regulate too much of our lives, and go off fighting wars that are too far away? Why?

The 1980's meme.
Things were so different the. We weren’t expected to apologize for being born. We weren’t ashamed of our nation. We were American gosh darn it!

Well, that was only the tip of the iceberg.

A few more years passed. Ronald Reagan did put the breaks down to some degree, but he made some other blunders that (sad to say, eventually) set the stage for what was to come…

Geoprge Bush Senior
President Bush Senior spent most of his Presidency trying to undo the good works of Ronald Reagan. In many ways he was very successful.

First, was President Gerald Ford Bush (Senior) who made it his life’s work to undo “Reaganomics”, and implement The New Global Order. Then came a succession of socialist criminals, such as Clinton, Bush Jr and finally Obama.

Each one, in their own way, contributed to the state of affairs that America is enduring today. Each one played a role. Each one created the situation leading to all the complaints that we Americans have about “our” government.

They snipped the brake-lines to the American Constitutional government, and it has been in free-fall ever since.

Free-fall.

Ahhhhhhhhhh.

Those of us, still trapped in a rapidly decaying world try to grasp for straws trying to make out some sense of reason to the hordes of pink-haired ignorance, the black-thugs of Antifa and the BLM that seem to want to put average Americans in concentration camps.

So we listen to the news. Many, well meaning of course, have no idea just how tainted it really is. They believe the news.

They believe what it says.

Here’s some “oldies but goodies”…

America is full of the manipulated, living inside an echo chamber created by the military oligarchy to control and subdue the “citizenry”. Meanwhile, as the military empire trudges on, the quality of life of the peasants (oh I mean “citizens”) falls dramatically.

Nothing works any longer.

When a nation can no longer build bridges and walls…

… homes, and houses won’t be far behind.

Conclusion

Should I bring up China? Yeah. That nation run on merit that is populated with engineers? That are building bridges and High Speed Rail at a breathtaking rate? Nah. It’s far too easy.

China is a merit based nation of hard workers.

And…

America is what?

A nation run by a corrupt Casino owner…

Is a $500 scoop of ice cream served to you by an unkempt and illiterate moron just as good as a $1 scoop served by an attractive cheerleader / honors student?

Not until you start training and employing people who actually fucking make things. Instead of accountants, stock brokers, bankers and bean-counters who can count and look at spreadsheets. The world needs people who make things. Not people who stand by and approve of what others say.

If you were trapped on a desert island, who would you want to share it with? A handyman with a set of tools, or a a stock broker who doesn't have electricity for his computer?

America is deep into decay. And you all know what?

It’s gonna get a whole lot worse.

Do you want more?

Do you want to see similar posts?

I hope that you found this post curious. Please take care. You can view other similar posts in my SHTF Index, here…

SHTF Articles

Articles & Links

You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.

  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
  • You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
  • If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
  • If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.