[C8]

Social breakdown is beginning to occur within the US. Many observers from both the left and the right are beginning to notice this. While Peak Oil plays some role in the social breakdown, there are clearly other forces at work also. Some of these other forces are intensifying at a greater speed than resource depletion.

Since it begins to look like we are headed for dramatic change, I've decided to start a generalized thread that looks at all the elements of a social breakdown in the US. This will include systems failures, crime increase, loss of public faith in institutions, porous borders, soaring public debt, supply chain disruptions, political corruption, infrastructure decline, etc.

I'm going to begin with the airlines. Many US Airlines received large amount of money from the Coronavirus bailout. In addition, there were requirements that the airlines vaccinate the pilots which led to some quitting. As airline travel collapsed, many went to look for other jobs. The inability of the airlines to respond to these changes has led to massive problems with flights almost on the historic scale. While flight delays may not seem very dramatic, they are a sign of systems failures beginning to cascade. Govt. institutions that were created to prevent these kinds of problems are failing. Many more stories will come later in the thread about different topics that also reflect the same issues.

Analysis: Flight delays, cancellations mar U.S. summer travel
By Rajesh Kumar Singh
CHICAGO, June 29 (Reuters) - Persistent staffing shortages, fewer flights and booming demand have cast a shadow on the busy July Fourth holiday weekend and the entire summer travel season.

While the lifting of COVID-19 curbs and bottled-up travel demand are translating into the strongest summer since the pandemic for American carriers, frequent mass flight cancellations are creating chaos for their customers.

U.S. airlines have canceled more than 21,000 flights, or about 2.7% of the scheduled total since the Memorial Day holiday weekend in May, almost double last year's rate, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. Flight delays are also higher than in 2021.

Analysts and some industry executives don't see a meaningful improvement before fall when travel demand tends to slow down.

On Tuesday, Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) warned of another round of disruptions during the July Fourth weekend when passenger traffic is projected to be the highest since before the pandemic. To mitigate the impact, it is allowing customers to rebook their trip for free.

The Atlanta-based carrier has canceled about 5% of its scheduled flights in the past two weeks due to staffing, weather and air traffic control (ATC) issues.

Carriers are still grappling with staffing shortages after letting go thousands of pilots at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

Now, they have been aggressively hiring, with both Delta and United Airlines , for example, hiring 200 pilots a month

BLAME GAME
American Airlines (AAL.O) said it has added 12,000 new employees in preparation for the summer travel rush. It is also operating fewer flights than last summer.

Yet, its cancellation rate is higher than last summer. The airline blames air traffic control and weather for its troubles.

"American's largest and busiest hubs have been affected, which has a ripple effect throughout our operation," a spokesperson for the airline said.

Frontier Airlines Chief Executive Barry Biffle also attributed flight delays and cancellations to inadequate ATC staffing and an increase in the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) ground-delay programs, which is used to regulate air traffic volume.

Biffle said there has been an up to ten-fold increase in the program compared to 2019.

In a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg last week, Airlines for America said ATC's staffing challenges are disrupting flights even in good weather. It asked the FAA to ensure adequate staffing and to reduce airspace closures.

The FAA said it has added alternate routes, placed more controllers in high demand areas, and increased data sharing. In order to avoid airspace closures, it said no space launches have been scheduled during the July Fourth holiday.

The agency, however, shot back at airlines for reducing headcount during the height of the pandemic.

"People expect when they buy an airline ticket that they'll get where they need to go safely, efficiently, reliably and affordably," the FAA said in a statement.

"After receiving $54 billion in pandemic relief to help save the airlines from mass layoffs and bankruptcy, the American people deserve to have their expectations met."

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerosp ... 022-06-29/



And additional systems failure was the govt./media overreaction to the Covid spread that now has cascading effects. Govts. that can't make good decisions lead their nations into decline.

[Newfie]

My career was in rail transit, governmental organizations, I have been watching this for decades. It occurs unevenly. There are many contributing factors. But humans short sightedness seems to me to be at the root. Heart breaking.

[JuanP]

Social breakdown is beginning to occur within the US.

I believe that social breakdown has been ongoing in the USA for at least three decades. After my first year here in 1990 on a job contract for a very large Japanese multinational corporation, I went back to Uruguay and travelled back and forth for the next 18 months. Then I came back to the USA as an international student with my soon to be wife. That was in 1992, and it was obvious to me back then that American society was deteriorating fast.

I had been of the opinion that Uruguayan society was deteriorating since my earliest memories in the mid 70s; in my teens I found out that some adults believed that this had been going on since at least the 50s. It was quite obvious to me that despite minor improvements in sex and race relations Uruguayan society was getting worse.

I used to tell people in the early 90s that both Uruguay and the USA seemed to be converging towards societies with all their flaws and none of their virtues. My opinion hasn't changed since then. I don't talk with people about these things anymore; there is no point. I only discuss these issues here at PO and with my wife.

I read a couple of days ago that some American airline (I don't remember which one) offered passengers $10,000 to give up their seats on an overbooked flight this week. That's insane!

[C8]

The U.S. Could Face Rolling Blackouts This Summer

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Jun 30, 2022, 5:00 PM CDT
As extreme weather events become more frequent and supply chain problems persist, several U.S. states face elevated risks of blackouts.
Heatwaves are causing a spike in demand while droughts are reducing hydropower generation, putting the U.S. energy grid under stress.
Outages are already happening in some parts of the U.S., and utilities are working hard to build out spare energy inventory.

Parts of the Western and Midwestern U.S. states are at elevated risk of blackouts this summer as utilities struggle with supply-chain problems and extreme weather events become more frequent. Blackouts have already occurred in the Midwest at the start of the summer, while the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) asked consumers to conserve energy in May during an early heat wave at the beginning of the month.

System operators have been warning in recent weeks that the electric grid reliability could be at risk amid high summer demand and possible supply reductions. In addition, utilities face supply-chain hurdles to procure the equipment and materials for repairs in case of outages or damages to power lines or transformers in case of heat waves, severe storms, or hurricanes.

Extreme weather, strained grids, and insufficient readily available transformers and other equipment spell trouble for utilities and system operators from California to Ohio this summer, when people are cranking up air conditioning in the heat. Power generation availability is also strained amid droughts in the Western states hampering hydropower electric generation, while unexpected tripping of solar PV resources could also pose issues to reliability.

“Extreme Weather Heightens Reliability Risks This Summer”

As early as in the middle of May, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) warned that “extreme weather heightens reliability risks this summer”.

Several parts of North America are either at elevated or high risk of energy shortfalls this summer due to expected above-normal temperatures and drought conditions over the western half of the United States and Canada, NERC said in its 2022 Summer Reliability Assessment. NERC’s risk scenario analysis shows adequate resources and energy for much of North America. However, the Western Interconnection, Texas, Southwest Power Pool (SPP), and Saskatchewan are at “elevated risk” of energy emergencies during extreme conditions. In the Midwest, Midcontinent ISO (MISO) is in the “high risk” category, facing capacity shortfalls in its north and central areas during both normal and extreme conditions due to generator retirements and increased demand, NERC said in May.

Drought conditions could create wide-area heat events on the one hand, and affect output from thermal generators that use rivers for cooling on the other hand. Drought could also reduce generation from hydropower. Low water levels in the Missouri River can impact generators with once-through cooling and lead to reduced output capacity, NERC warned in its report.

In another key finding, NERC said that “unexpected tripping of solar photovoltaic (PV) resources during grid disturbances continues to be a reliability concern.”

Moreover, supply chain issues and commissioning challenges on new resource and transmission projects are a concern in areas where completion is needed for reliability during summer peak periods, NERC noted.

Expectations of higher electricity demand this summer and possible supply reductions have raised concerns that the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) balancing authority could face tight reserve margins during peak summer demand. MISO, the balancing authority of 15 central U.S. states, expects, in theory, enough available power generating capacity for the summer months. Yet, planned and forced outages could reduce the capacity available.

In May, grid operators from a growing number of U.S. states started warning about electricity shortages as grids cannot cope with the imbalance between demand and supply heading into summer. California, for example, has warned that it would need to produce more electricity than it is currently producing to avoid blackouts. ERCOT asked consumers in early May to conserve energy after six power plants went down unexpectedly.

In June, MISO, which operates the grid providing power to 42 million residents, asked utilities to prepare emergency resources and delay any discretionary equipment maintenance.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) initiated in mid-June two rulemakings aimed at improving the reliability of the bulk power system against the threats of extreme weather.

“Increasingly frequent cold snaps, heat waves, drought, and major storms continue to challenge the ability of our nation’s electric infrastructure to deliver reliable affordable energy to consumers,” FERC Chairman Rich Glick said.

Outages Already Happening

A heat wave and a high-wind storm in Ohio in the middle of June already led to outages in the Columbus area.

Summer heat waves, droughts in the West, low levels in the Missouri River, and the approaching hurricane season will test grid operators’ capability to maintain the reliability of power supply to Americans this summer. Grid resilience will also have to take into account the growing share of renewable energy in the mix as solar and wind resources have increased at the expense of coal-fired power as coal capacity continues to retire in the United States.

All these factors add to the supply-chain struggles of utilities across America. They are keeping spare inventories for the worst of the storms and heat waves.

“You don’t want to deplete your inventory because you don’t know when that storm is coming, but you know it’s coming,” Ralph Izzo, chief executive at New Jersey’s Public Service Enterprise Group, told Reuters.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

Supply chain breakdowns are becoming more frequent everywhere. Many stores and businesses are running out of supplies. More of what the US needs is made by other nations which lengthens the supply chain- increasing the odds of disruption. A nation that makes so little of its own goods is weak.

US manufacturing has been increasingly driven offshore due to the high costs of local production. These costs are raised by the thousands of rules created by govt. each year to satisfy special interest groups and activists. Slowly the bureaucracy cannibalizes the producing sector of the nation.

Rolling blackouts lead to a loss of production/profits and will drive even more manufactures abroad. Slowly, the seeds of a third world nation sprout.

[Nefarious]

Just wait till the food starts running out

[Pops]

I think you need to look beyond the news to make any sense of it.

Politics is certainly broken, or rather, our system is as broken as ever but at root, the single dominant group the system was designed for and that it served well many years, now sees itself losing dominance. They appear to have no limit to what they will tear down to get it back.

Economically the great middle class era was offshored and the party of labor was all for it. Meanwhile, the party of big business, having won the tax and labor battles, cast about for a raison d'etre and settled on the rural and rust-belt folks abandoned by the democrats. Once a party of great patriots and serious thinkers, republican pols are now nativist know-nothings, buffoons and petty tyrants. They'll burn up the constitution to save it or at least fundraise off the fire.

I guess for news of social breakdown I'll have to nominate any poll. They will tell you that it is one party off the rails. Where violence in the 60s-70's was from the left, around war and rights and capitalists, since the 80s it has been on the right:

The January 2021 American Perspectives Survey found that white Christian evangelical Republicans were outsized supporters of both political violence and the Q-Anon conspiracy, which claims that Democratic politicians and Hollywood elites are pedophiles who (aided by mask mandates that hinder identification) traffic children and harvest their blood; separate polls by evangelical political scientists found that in October 2020 approximately 47 percent of white evangelical Christians believed in the tenets of Q-Anon, as did 59 percent of Republicans.5 Many evangelical pastors are working to turn their flocks away from this heresy. The details appear outlandish, but stripped to its core, the broad appeal becomes clearer: Democrats and cultural elites are often portrayed as Satanic forces arrayed against Christianity and seeking to harm Christian children.
https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/arti ... ed-states/

Democrats are overmatched, in fact we're out of our element. As we are always reminded, this is a republic, not a democracy. The difference is simple, in a democracy everyone has a voice, that is how Ds think. But in our republic, that voice of the mob—the citizens—is not to be trusted. Madison said as much. It is, by design, hobbled at every turn. In fact expect the SCOTUS to consecrate the "independent legislature"theory next term. Basically it will allow state legislatures (who now are allowed to gerrymander to no end) to override the popular vote and do legally what trump's fake elector scheme failed to do... just in time for 2024.
Among other things...

Not to belittle the point of the thread but I think much of the economic issues are intertwined with the political, not something separate. As well, demographically the world population is aging, which among other things leads to more grumpy old men like me, LOL. Seriously, fewer younger workers and consumers is part of the supply issue. And the trend will only continue, not just in America but globally:.




I've been a prepper since forever. Dealing with short term supply issues is kind of a hobby. I actually practiced dealing with collapse for many years with varying success. The creeping derangement of the right and their decision to abrogate the constitution to cling to power I hadn't anticipated
.

[JuanP]

A friend is remodeling her Miami Beach home's 4 bathrooms and kitchen, which are 50 years old. The house is 100 years old. Her father remodeled the house when he bought it half a century ago. She inherited it when her dad passed a few months back. Three of her bathrooms will have bidets now, all except the guests' one. She was living with her dad and kids and ran out of toilet paper when COVID caused supply disruptions.

Lucky for her, her dad, and her kids, my wife and I gifted her a bag with 24 jumbo rolls when we found out, so they only had to use rags for a day or two. My wife and I have enough of everything at home to last more than a year. Our farm in Uruguay has enough supplies to last a decade, including long shelf-life food.

[Newfie]

Sometimes I think we are running a gigantic rat utopia experiment.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-ne ... 180954423/

[evilgenius]

I think the right would like to see confirmation of social breakdown. The desire is for something like a civil war. They might accept something short of that, something like the Handmaid's Tale.

[jato0072]

The creeping derangement of the right and their decision to abrogate the constitution to cling to power I hadn't anticipated

Funny thing. Over here on the Right, everyone thinks the Leftists have taken over our country, with the exception of SCOTUS. Maybe its because everyone I know IRL is a Commiefornia Expat.

I think we need to define Left and Right and what constitutes the Overton window during these strange times.

[Plantagenet]

Crime is getting so bad that people are fleeing the big liberal cities.

And it doesn't help that D politicians are defunding the police while leftist district attorneys won't charge people for shoplifting and other crimes, reduce charges on felony crimes to misdemeanors, and refuse to set bail so repeat criminals just go right back out on the streets after an arrest.

I remember when NYC was a crime-ridden hellhole and they greatly reduced crime rates by instituting "broken windows" policing....a policy of enforcing every small law as a way to deter criminals from moving up the scale to bigger and bigger crimes. When the police are out on the streets enforcing laws against littering and subway fair jumping, it sends a message that crime is not tolerated and criminals are not wanted.

Now we see how wise the "broken windows" police policy is....because the new liberal policy is the exact opposite....and by defunding the police and then not enforcing minor laws on things like shoplifting or defecating on the street the liberal Ds have opened the door to the large increases in murder rates, theft, assaults, etc. that we see happening now in the big liberal cities.


I'm arresting you for littering in the first degree!

CHEERS!

[JuanP]

Crime is getting so bad that people are fleeing the big liberal cities.

And it doesn't help that D politicians are defunding the police while leftist district attorneys won't charge people for shoplifting and other crimes, reduce charges on felony crimes to misdemeanors, and refuse to set bail so repeat criminals just go right back out on the streets after an arrest.

I remember when NYC was a crime-ridden hellhole and they greatly reduced crime rates by instituting "broken windows" policing....a policy of enforcing every small law as a way to deter criminals from moving up the scale to bigger and bigger crimes. When the police are out on the streets enforcing laws against littering and subway fair jumping, it sends a message that crime is not tolerated and criminals are not wanted.

Now we see how wise the "broken windows" police policy is....because the new liberal policy is the exact opposite....and by defunding the police and then not enforcing minor laws on things like shoplifting or defecating on the street the liberal Ds have opened the door to the large increases in murder rates, theft, assaults, etc. that we see happening now in the big liberal cities.

CHEERS!

I agree! We had TWO deadly shootings in the City of Miami Beach in this past week, which is extremely unusual, and also a couple of other very violent crimes. I have also seen with my own eyes several people defecating and urinating in public on sidewalks, parks, and the beach in the past couple of years, which I had never seen in the previous 30. I believe this is due to the fact that the Miami Beach government has closed most of the city's public restrooms since the COVID pandemic started.

[C8]

There has been an ongoing trend to decriminalize offenses several ways:

1. Making them legal
2. Not enforcing violations
3. Quick release of caught violators

A society that loses the ability to punish and deter lawbreakers is a society that is breaking down. There is no end to how far it can go once started.

Enforcement is a measurement of energy- societies that are forward looking and optimistic have lots of energy and enforce with enthusiasm. Tired, worn out societies let things slide and look the other way. Eventually, the accumulation of disorder overwhelms the society and central control dissolves- to be replaced by dictatorial rule by an outside power or locally. Either way, its the end of democracy.

[jato0072]

Not enforcing violation

Anarcho-Tyranny.

Anarcho-tyranny is a concept, where the state is argued to be more interested in controlling citizens so that they do not oppose the managerial class (tyranny) rather than controlling real criminals (causing anarchy). Laws are argued to be enforced only selectively, depending on what is perceived to be beneficial for the ruling elite.

Compare and contrast J6 with the riots of 2020.

Having spent 30 years in law enforcement, this issue really grinds my gears.

[Newfie]

The idea that DA’s selectively enforce laws greatly erodes the credibility of the government. If a law is stupid, and many are, then that law should be repealed.

People have a very strong attachment to the concept if “fair” and that means if the law is enforced selectively the. It is seen as unfair, and that erodes faith in the government.

This is not a small thing. And is, or should he, a core principal taught to lawyers. Think about it, if the aDa Says he will selectively enforce laws is that not the same as saying he sees himself above the law? That cuts right at the fundamental principals of government.

[Newfie]

Here is an interesting article tie about how we perceive discrimination.

He uses the term “EMPATHY GAP”, which I thin is useful.

Lots to think about here.

https://theconversation.com/poll-reveal ... ups-185278

[C8]

A “professional booster” with an alleged penchant for shoplifting at Manhattan retailers notched what could be her 100th bust over the weekend — and was released without bail yet again on Sunday.

Michelle McKelley, 42, was arrested late Saturday for allegedly pocketing $125 worth of goods from a CVS in Lower Manhattan, and then was freed under the state’s soft-on-crime criminal justice reforms.

Prosecutors said in Manhattan Criminal Court Sunday that McKelley has failed to appear in court 27 times on her multitude of past arrests — and has five other pending cases.

But the charges do not qualify for bail under the 2019 state reform, which means prosecutors could only ask that she be let go on supervised release while the case is pending.

Manhattan Judge Charlotte Davidson agreed, noting the charges do not qualify for bail.

McKelley, who described herself to cops as a “professional booster,” was last cut loose Thursday after she was charged with stealing from a Duane Reade in East Harlem.

Last month, she was charged with robbing a Rite Aid at Second Avenue and East 96th Street 10 times, with cops at that time reporting it was her 108th arrest. Court officials said the Thursday bust was just her 99th, without explaining the discrepancy.

McKelley is so brazen that when she was arrested in February for allegedly ripping off a Target store on the Upper East Side she bragged that “I haven’t got caught in a long time.”

“I have to get a new outfit,” she said at the time.

According to a criminal complaint filed after she apparently reached the century mark with her weekend arrest, prosecutors said McKelley grabbed bars of cocoa butter, chocolate bars and soap and shoved them in a black duffle back then scurried out of the store.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/26/professio ... ail-again/

A society that cannot control its lawbreakers is a society that has no future. it takes energy to deal with the reliable percentage of people in any society that will try to violate rules and harm others. What we are seeing is that the US no longer has the energy to enforce its laws. America is like an old woman that just lets her grandchildren take what they want from a room because she has lost the will to stop them- she is resigned.

[C8]

American happiness hits record lows
CNN Digital Expansion 2018 Harry Enten
Analysis by Harry Enten, CNN

Updated 5:00 AM ET, Wed February 2, 2022

(CNN)One word can describe how Americans are feeling about the way things are going: bad. That's the finding of a new Gallup poll out Wednesday that measures the state of the nation, and it's what a lot of other data tells us as well.

Any sense of optimism that was apparent after vaccines were developed for the coronavirus has abated, and a lot of Americans are not pleased with what is going on in their daily lives, the state of our nation and the state of our politics.

Gallup has been asking Americans how they are feeling about different aspects of life and policy issues for the last two decades. And this year, across those 29 different measurements, just 38% of Americans say they're satisfied.

In 2020, before the pandemic began, an average of 48% of Americans said they were satisfied. There was a big drop in 2021, when 41% indicated they were happy with what was going on these 29 different metrics.
What this data indicates is that, nearly two years into the pandemic in the United States, there has not been any real recovery in how Americans believe things are going.

When you break it down by aspects of life and policy issues, the same story emerges. Just 41% are satisfied on the seven aspects of life issues measured consistently over the last two decades. These aspects include quality of life, the system of government and how it works, and the influence of organized religion. That 41% is statistically insignificantly different from the 39% who were satisfied last year, which was the lowest on record.
On policy issues, 35% are satisfied on the 16 areas measured consistently over the last two decades. Some of these policy issues include the nation's abortion policies, the policies to reduce crime, the state of the economy and the quality of education in our nation. This 35% is the lowest ever measured.

Because there are more policy issues than aspects of life issues measured, this means that, on average, Americans are less satisfied with the way things are going than at any point in the last two decades.
Perhaps this shouldn't be too surprising, given everything we've seen in the polling.

The General Social Survey has been asking Americans since 1972 whether, all things considered, they're very happy, pretty happy or not too happy. The percentage who said very happy outran the percentage who said not too happy in every poll taken before the pandemic.

Today, 24% indicated they were not too happy, compared with 19% who said they were very happy. The former is a record high, while the latter is a record low. The rest, as Christopher Ingraham noted, are in the "pretty happy" camp, which hasn't changed much since 2018.

But it's not just where American happiness with daily life currently is, it's also about a lack of optimism for the future.

Look at a Marist College poll from December. Only 49% of Americans were more optimistic than pessimistic about how things were going to go in the world in 2022. This was the first time since Marist started asking the question in 2009 that the optimistic percentage fell below 50%.

Heading into 2021, 56% of Americans had been more optimistic than pessimistic. This suggests that despite the pandemic, some Americans had hope for 2021. This hope was dashed.

Pandemic fatigue likely is a big driver of that negativity. President Joe Biden's net approval (approve minus disapprove) on handling the virus has gone from about +30 points to negative territory.

More than a quarter (28%) of Americans now believe that the outbreak will never be under control in Monmouth University polling, and a majority (60%) think it will take at least a year, if ever. At the beginning of 2021, only 30% felt that way.

Americans are looking for a way out of the pandemic, which could be why 70% told Monmouth that it was time to accept that the coronavirus is here to stay and we need to move on.

Of course, even if Americans become more satisfied with how the coronavirus is going in the country, it won't solve longer-term issues with happiness about where we are politically.

More Americans have said the country is going in the wrong direction than have said it is on the right track consistently since the early 2000s. There was a slight jump to a decade-high percentage of Americans (in the mid-40s on average) agreeing in mid-2021 that the country was going in the right direction; however, this has dropped back below 30% in recent data.

The unhappiness with our country is seen especially well in how people feel about the two major political parties. Almost every poll Gallup has taken over the last decade shows that less than a majority have favorable opinions of the Democratic and Republican parties.

There's a reason why a clear plurality of Americans identify as independents instead of as Democrats or Republicans, when initially asked.

When it comes to the midterm elections, nearly a third of voters say it doesn't matter who wins.
Indeed, we likely won't solve our collective issues overnight. Hopefully we can get back to a better normal. Because right now, these numbers are just downright depressing.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/02/politics ... index.html

[JuanP]

A “professional booster” with an alleged penchant for shoplifting at Manhattan retailers notched what could be her 100th bust over the weekend — and was released without bail yet again on Sunday.

Michelle McKelley, 42, was arrested late Saturday for allegedly pocketing $125 worth of goods from a CVS in Lower Manhattan, and then was freed under the state’s soft-on-crime criminal justice reforms.

Prosecutors said in Manhattan Criminal Court Sunday that McKelley has failed to appear in court 27 times on her multitude of past arrests — and has five other pending cases.

But the charges do not qualify for bail under the 2019 state reform, which means prosecutors could only ask that she be let go on supervised release while the case is pending.

Manhattan Judge Charlotte Davidson agreed, noting the charges do not qualify for bail.

McKelley, who described herself to cops as a “professional booster,” was last cut loose Thursday after she was charged with stealing from a Duane Reade in East Harlem.

Last month, she was charged with robbing a Rite Aid at Second Avenue and East 96th Street 10 times, with cops at that time reporting it was her 108th arrest. Court officials said the Thursday bust was just her 99th, without explaining the discrepancy.

McKelley is so brazen that when she was arrested in February for allegedly ripping off a Target store on the Upper East Side she bragged that “I haven’t got caught in a long time.”

“I have to get a new outfit,” she said at the time.

According to a criminal complaint filed after she apparently reached the century mark with her weekend arrest, prosecutors said McKelley grabbed bars of cocoa butter, chocolate bars and soap and shoved them in a black duffle back then scurried out of the store.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/26/professio ... ail-again/

A society that cannot control its lawbreakers is a society that has no future. it takes energy to deal with the reliable percentage of people in any society that will try to violate rules and harm others. What we are seeing is that the US no longer has the energy to enforce its laws. America is like an old woman that just lets her grandchildren take what they want from a room because she has lost the will to stop them- she is resigned.

Can you imagine the fortune this person has costed taxpayers in 911 calls, arrests, processing, temporary detention, administrative, and court costs? IMO, a person like that doesn't deserve to live and should be given a death penalty.

[C8]

Confidence in U.S. Institutions Down; Average at New Low
BY JEFFREY M. JONES

Americans' confidence in institutions has been lacking for most of the past 15 years, but their trust in key institutions has hit a new low this year. Most of the institutions Gallup tracks are at historic lows, and average confidence across all institutions is now four points lower than the prior low.

Notably, confidence in the major institutions of the federal government is at a low point, at a time when the president and Congress are struggling to address high inflation, record gas prices, increased crime and gun violence, continued illegal immigration, and significant foreign policy challenges from Russia and China. Confidence in the Supreme Court had already dropped even before it overturned Roe v. Wade, though that ruling was expected after a draft opinion was leaked in May.

The confidence crisis extends beyond political institutions at a time when a near record-low 13% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S. Confidence in institutions is unlikely to improve until the economy gets better -- but it is unclear if confidence will ever get back to the levels Gallup measured in decades past, even with an improved economy.

To stay up to date with the latest Gallup News insights and updates, follow us on Twitter.

Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/394283/con ... w-low.aspx

People are sensing that the institutions that maintain a functioning US society are breaking down. A nation that can't jail criminals, stop illegal immigrants, or curtail inflation has only a dark future ahead of it.