A Bridge Collapses in Pittsburgh. We're One Step Closer to Idiocracy...

 ...that is, if we're not there already.

Image:  KDKA Radio

In the film Idiocracy, when Joe Bauers, aka "Not Sure," emerges from his cryogenic capsule, it is at the foot of a garbage landslide.  As he looks around the landscape of the U.S.A., landfills that dwarf the highest skyscraper literally litter the horizon.   Collapsing buildings are lashed against upright buildings to keep them from finishing the job.  All potable water has been replaced with a Gatorade like sludge called Brawndo.  Hospitals have names like St. God's Memorial.  Entropy rules over the once fruited plain.

When Joe Biden was scheduled to appear at the Forbes Avenue Bridge in Pittsburgh, PA, it collapsed.  Ten people were injured.   One can only hope there was space in the ICU at St. God's to let them get proper treatment.  I don't blame Grandpa Joe.  I can't point a finger at a single politician or a clutch of them for the collapse of the superannuated bridge.  It's a negligence of the city as a whole.  Arenas and stadia are renovated or constructed to draw in sports fans and tourists.  The problem is, if the infrastructure collapses, how are these zealots going to congregate at their temples of testosterone without suffering an injury?  Or worse, will they prematurely stand in front of the throne of St. God to receive reward or punishment?

In my own neck of the woods, the Tappan Zee Bridge - or Crappan Zee Bridge depending on who you ask - was replaced by the more modern and (hopefully) more durable Mario M. Cuomo Bridge before the more weatherbeaten span bridge crumbled and dumped x amount of motorists into the cold, brown waters of the Hudson.  A close shave, one might say.

Pyroclastic storms ravage the West Coast every summer.  The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection wouldn't be so helpless in the face of these fire storms if they had a decent supply of water.  Such water supplies are available, however they are siphoned by the almond industry, among other agribusinesses.  https://www.mashed.com/225543/the-real-reason-almonds-are-destroying-california/

I'm saying water is wet when I point out that our farming industries only see results in the short term, but how the hell are you expected to support the 300 + million consumers in this country alone, never mind the countries we export such foodstuffs to?  Turning back to my original point, how do we continue these industries if our bridges, roads, and tunnels are rotting and falling apart?  It's bad enough our international shipping is being hamstrung by factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic.  What about our nation alone?  Where is our foresight?

Though Biden's infrastructure bill successfully passed both the Senate and the House, how much pork is included in the bill to divert much needed funds to save industries that don't really need saving?  How about the military, for which, as an example, tanks are manufactured that the US Army did not want?  https://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/12/18/congress-again-buys-abrams-tanks-the-army-doesnt-want.html

What am I doing about it personally?  Jack shit.  I blew away money to have a statuette of Ereshkigal from Fate / Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia shipped to me all the way from Japan.  Hey, at least it was guaranteed by the manufacturer to have non-toxic, non-carcinogenic materials!

Chances are that, long after I'm dead, this favorite graven image of mine will wind up on a massive heap of detritus under which my own remains are buried.  Irony!  I mean, who can I offer this to as an heirloom when I have no heirs?

So, will we get our shit together to breathe life into the decaying edifices which are the arteries through which our goods and services flow?  Will I, in time, be able to offer up my Ereshkigal figurine as recyclable material to help reconstruct our once mighty city, state, and interstate network even as my own remains are recycled by a body of politic worms?

St. God only knows.

- JJB