U.S. governments (state and federal) are sometimes too heavy-handed

[barbos]

Did you read the article? All he needed was an out-bound ticket.

Yes I read it, he did not have such ticket. Ticket for a bus to Mexico/Canada does not qualify.

 

[TV and credit cards]

For federal workers, bending the rules should be totally alien at the worker bee level, even at the immediate supervisor level.

This may qualify as the scariest thing I have ever read.

Understanding the reasons behind a set of rules, and applying those rules flexibly to comply with their spirit and purpose, is the essence of civilisation, and the inflexible application of rules because they are the rules is the root of authoritarianism, totalitarianism, and fascism.

No. Not at this level. You are overestimating the capabilities of these workers, probably based on your capabilities.
Worker bee refers the matter to supervisor, supervisor refers it to manager, manager makes judgement call.
Expecting the worker bee who is either young and inexperienced or older and incapable of ever achieving anything beyond these low level positions to make judgements calls on the spot is not an example of totalitarianism, it is dangerous. This is why we have managers. This is their job. Knowledge, experience, and reasoning skills.

 

[Jarhyn]

What? Infidels happy to spoil the young tourist's long-saved-for vacation for a rule so obscure that even the airline didn't know to check for it, are unwilling to offer an opinion an whether he should have been allowed a phone to remedy the non-compliance?

Should the pharmacist have sold or given us 1 or 2 of these tiny tablets? Even though we didn't have a prescription. Be aware that nitro has no utility as a recreational drug. Yes, nitroglycerin is an explosive but it would take many hundreds of the pills for even the tiniest bomb.

Poll Question:
(A) The pharmacist should certainly have NOT sold us nitro tabs. He would be in violation of federal law.
(B) He SHOULD have helped my Mom after the purse-snatching. A couple of tablets would never be missed.
(C) Swammi should have fanned his hand with a $20-bill saying something like "Maybe we should buy that nitro right here in Brainerd."

Note that this is a case where the medical decision was already made--she had a prescription for the nitro tablets. Given the lack of recreational value it's a reasonable medical decision for the pharmacist to make and one they routinely do make.

You lost me. We obviously didn't have a prescription to present to the pharmacist (this is a true story). If she'd had one with her it was in her stolen purse. Would/should the pharmacist have given us some pills? In fact, he did not. I included option (C) as a joke but in a country where the elite routinely pass $100 bills to bouncers and maitre-d's — oh no! the U.S. isn't like those undeveloped countries with their "settle it here in Brainerd" approach — perhaps that would have been the proper American way.

It's exactly the part where the CBP agent took away their access to fix the problem that all this went pear shaped.

Of courses the US could just be a lot less shitty about entry requirements in the first place. If you are less shitty about the front door, you probably won't need an army of overzealous bouncers guarding the back door and beating up folks who are really just in that alley to take a piss and rifle the trash can.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

About 4 years ago, my wife and I were returning from a day trip to Canada. We had packed a picnic which included some fruit. Everything we had obtained everything in the US.

At the border stop on our return, the US border patrol agent asked us if we were bringing in any fruit. We said we had some grapes leftover ftom our daytrip picnic. We were told we couldn’t bring in any fruit from outside the country. I said I was happy to comply but that we had brought the grapes with us from the US. He let us keep the grapes. So the border people can exercise common sense.

Well, now we know who was responsible for that devastating Grape Blight disaster in Canada 4 years ago.

 

[TSwizzle]

It's a lot less ridiculous and less heavy handed than the dumb lockdown rules that prevented thousands of Australian citizens and travelers getting in to Australia and also kicking out a professional tennis player.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It's a lot less ridiculous and less heavy handed than the dumb lockdown rules that prevented thousands of Australian citizens and travelers getting in to Australia and also kicking out a professional tennis player.

Yeah, that lower death toll is fucking shame!

Because the Omicron outbreak finally made it through the population post vaccine distribution, while their per capita cases are about equal to America's, their death toll per capita is less than 10% of America's. I don't know how the Aussies can sleep at night due to this shame... I mean other than they are still alive to actually sleep at night.

 

[Swammerdami]

Here's another story, of a man mistreated by Texas and New Mexico governments. Read this horror tale!

There are doubtless many countries where this sort of crap happens, but does it happen in any prosperous Western democracies other than the U.S.?

(Decades ago I was arrested on false charges and visited two jails before even being informed of the charges. But my experience was totally trivial compared to what Michael Lowe endured.)

 

[Hermit]

It's a lot less ridiculous and less heavy handed than the dumb lockdown rules that prevented thousands of Australian citizens and travelers getting in to Australia and also kicking out a professional tennis player.

Quoting the current numbers (Covid deaths per million) to what Jimmy Higgins mentioned:

USA 3072
Australia 306

If the USA's rate of Covid deaths per million were the same as Australia's, 925,741, that is close to a million fewer Americans would have died from the coronavirus.