The United States federal government is failing, the U.S. dollar is crumbling, food and energy costs are rising, and the economy is on life support. Like it or not, this is our reality, and no amount of "positive thinking" can change these facts. Nothing is inevitable of course, and there are plenty of workable, corrective actions that can be taken. However, you can bet your bottom dollar that our overlords in Washington are only going to make things worse.

To know the state, to understand what the state is, opens your eyes to the powerful and invaluable lessons of history. The United States doesn't exist in a vacuum. We are not immune to man's lust for power, corrupt politicians, and a self-serving "ruling class" that feels entitled to live at the expense of everybody else. And what history teaches us is that, a failing state will assume powers it never had before, crack down on domestic "order," go to war, raise taxes, and print whatever amount of money it needs to pay its obligations.

Does any of that sound familiar?

There is a persistent myth that the state is needed because it creates order out of what would otherwise be chaos, yet history and our own experience both prove otherwise. Because the state means arbitrary rule by the strong and cunning, it's the state that is genuinely chaotic, not human society.

Quartzsite, AZ: Small Town Tyranny

The strange events in Quartzsite, AZ, over the past couple weeks provide a clear illustration of how government "order" often results in social chaos.

In the following video, Quartzsite resident Jennifer Jade Jones is given the floor at a city council meeting open to the public. Realizing that she's about to air the council's dirty laundry, they send their blue costumed attack dogs over to shut her up. Quartzsite's mayor, Ed Foster, is outraged and demands that the officers to stand down. But the officers ignore his orders, and drag the peaceful Jennifer Jade Jones out.

'Nazi' police 'kidnap' woman at town hall

[Jennifer Jade Jones] claims she's been previously harassed by police, says recently some officers – including Chief Jeff Gilbert – have been acting more erratically and dangerously, and says he even gave a speech comparing outspoken citizens like herself to Jared Loughner, the gunman who shot Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson on Jan. 8.

Mayor Foster, a retired Marine and former engineer for Wrigley Chewing Gum, is standing by Jones' account, and says the town council and police department are filled with corruption.

"He's just an insane person, that chief of police," the mayor said of Gilbert. "He's a Nazi ... he's completely out of control. He thinks he's running the town."

WND sought comment from Gilbert, but a 9-1-1 dispatcher said the town was dealing with a massive power outage this afternoon, and the chief could not be reached.

Mayor Foster said it's not just the police chief, but also the town manager and tax collector who are creating a terrifying atmosphere.

"People in town are scared to death of them," he said. "It's just a clear pattern of harassment and intimidation by this government. These people have run this town like they owned it. It's got to be fixed and I'm not going to quit until I see them in jail."

The mayor says the council has even precluded him from examining the payroll. He believes he's uncovered some possible financial wrongdoing involving checks being paid to unknown personnel, and he speculates the recipients could be councilmembers themselves.

"They're playing a sleight-of-hand with federal money," Foster said. "I've tried to get the FBI, the governor and attorney general involved, and no one has paid attention. But since this video, people are asking, 'What's going on in Quartzsite?'"

This past weekend, the Quartzsite situation continued spiraling down into chaos.

State of emergency declared in western Arizona town amid corruption allegations by mayor

Mayor Ed Foster told The Associated Press on Monday that the town council held a last-minute meeting that was closed to the public Sunday night, declaring a state of emergency in the 3,600-person town just east of the California city of Blythe.

The council's declaration put police Chief Jeff Gilbert in charge, making Foster the "deputy chief executive of nothing right now," he said. It also allows the five-member council to meet without public notice and suspend all public comment at the meetings until they declare the state of emergency over.

"I'm going to tell you frankly, this council is out of control," Foster said. "The chief has been out of control for some time and I've asked the state government to help a number of times," to no avail.

Foster described the government and Gilbert as corrupt and abusive of their power, and said all their recent actions are frantic efforts to cover up millions of dollars of money from lining some of their pockets.

Jennifer Jade Jones reported the followingon her blog, The DESERT FREEDOM PRESS, last Sunday.

Council Declares STATE OF EMERGENCY?

About noon today, the town council, at the request of the police chief, declared an official state of emergency. Sgt Xavier Frausto was dressed in tactical gear when he and the police chief demanded the mayor get in their car. Mayor Foster declined, and drove himself to town hall. Frausto unlocked the door for the mayor. Foster and others saw town officials convened for official business, with the town clerk and town attorney also present. "This is an illegal meeting!" said Mayor Foster. Sgt Frausto locked the door on him.

'State of emergency' in 'Nazi'-cop town

The Arizona Republic reported the emergency meeting was held "to beef up security after receiving death threats."

Jones told WND there's actually no emergency of any kind, as it's a peaceful Sunday with people attending church; but in the wake of a WND report which exposed allegations of wrongdoing by local government officials, the town council and police convened an unpublicized meeting to declare an emergency for their own protection.

"Obviously it has put a fear into them, as they realize, 'Oh my God, everyone's looking at us now,'" she said. "There's been no incident to warrant this. They did this to protect themselves. The people are in danger."

She says local residents have no idea what may be coming next.

"They've got their tactical gear on, the police chief and his sergeant," Jones said. "I don't know what that means. I need to get the word out in case they come here. I am very concerned for my safety. We're two hours from Phoenix, out in the middle of nowhere. A lot of things can go wrong before someone gets here."

"I have no idea what their intention is," Jones said. "I called the FBI in Washington, D.C., and the guy just laughed at me and asked, 'Ma'am, how come I haven't seen this on the news?'"

Jones explained the emergency declaration just happened this afternoon, and that's when the FBI representative told her not raise her voice and then hung up.

It's interesting that Quartzite's mayor, Ed Foster, and resident Jennifer Jade Jones both sought help from the federal government and were systematically ignored. But then again, it's hardly surprising. Because calling the Fedgov in this case is the equivalent of calling the mob boss for protection from his own henchmen.

The extraordinary measures taken by the city council to protect their racket, for all intent and purposes, installed Chief of Police Jeff Gilbert as dictator of Quartzsite, AZ. Police allegedly claimed during the closed meeting that ousting the mayor and installing Gilbert was necessary because the residents were "trying to incite a riot." But as the actions of the city council and police have made perfectly clear, the only people "trying to incite a riot" here is the Quartzsite city council and police themselves.

Is Social Chaos in America's Future?

When President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson were fear-mongering about an alleged Financial Armageddon in the fall of 2008, members of Congress were threatened with Martial Law if they failed to pass TARP, a $700 billion looting of the American taxpayers, even though the American public was overwhelmingly against it.

So, blackmail clearly worked before. What makes anyone think they won't use it again?

The U.S. Constitution is a dead letter as far as Congress is concerned anymore, and the president simply acts on his own authority - in defiance of common sense, morality and the rule of law. The Homeland Police State grows more violent and abusive by the day. Our inalienable rights are being eroded faster than the U.S. dollar. And regardless of whether the debt ceiling is raised or not, the United States government is deep, deep in unsustainable debt.

So again, what makes anyone think they won't resort to more blackmail?

More and more Americans are starting to realize they're broke because of government greed, and that the state is nothing more than a gang of thieves writ large. They also know there is no economic recovery on the horizon, that the banks are still failing, and that the next economic collapse could very well be our last.

Are Greek-style riots in our future? "LBJ's great grandkids" are already going wild in Chicago, IL, and Quartzsite, AZ, is clearly out of control.

Congress is already prepping for social chaos, and the Pentagon is actively war gaming "large scale economic breakdown" and "civil unrest" too. Perhaps chaos is what the Ruling Class wants ... Order out of chaos. Who knows?

But I do know this. The "Democrat vs. Republican" charade is a fool's game at best. I mean, let's get real here ... Fellow Americans arguing with each other over the "best" thief to rip them off?

Quartzsite Arizona: A Prelude to Social Chaos? is a post from: The Classic Liberal Blog