The 2016 Rio Summer Olympics...

Now that the summer 2016 Summer Olympics are behind us, let's check out the highlights-

Nothing more fun than civil unrest right before the big games. Brazil is suffering the beginnings of what will go down as the worst economic recession in it's history, despite the fact that some are saying the worst is over. The international ratings service Standard and Poor's cut the country's sovereign status to 'junk". The neoliberal template for such catastrophes clearly states the bottom levels of any society must pay for the financial largess of the political and corporate elites. Austerity measures are already being implemented. Let's see how they are achieving this.

Brazil is in the midst of rewriting the constitution and the changes are as follows-

-Retirement age has been raised to 70 in a country where in at least three of its states, life expectancy is 65. Goodbye Golden Years, Hello casket. If you do live past 70, they might as well bury you alive. 

-Constitutional changes will see an end to the current 44-hour work week in exchange for an 80-hour work week, with no more paid vacations, overtime pay, lunch breaks, or sick leave. 

The poor and lower middle classes are always at fault when a country's economy tanks, so it's just as well they pay when things take a downward spiral. Ayn Rand must be doing a traditional Russian dance as she happily spins in her grave, watching from the depths of Hell where her spirit can finally rest at the spectacle of such economic comeuppance for Brazil's working class poor. 

Nothing really put a damper on the games despite some fairly egregious shenanigans, like a decapitated corpse washing up right in front of the (almost) completed beach volleyball venue, the collapse of a cycling path that killed a couple of peeps, green algae in the diving pool, or the fact that the sailing and other maritime competitions were held in Guanabara Bay, where the untreated sewage of neighboring favelas finds its final resting place. To fully appreciate what the water in this bay is like, wait until you get sick with gut-wrenching diarrhea, use the toilet for three straight days, do not flush, and then stick your head in it with your mouth and eyes open. 

Nothing like swimming in the crystal clear waters of Guanabara Bay-

There were the 150-pound rodents (yes, giant rats) strolling the golf greens without ever paying the requisite ticket fees. They are called capybaras, and they are monstrous. They definitely put the infamous NYC pizza rat into perspective-

Golfers Sergio Garcia of Spain and Bernd Wiesberger of Austria tasking photos of a capybara-

Speaking of ticket fees, we also had an IOC official scalping tickets to events. Patrick Hickey, the 71 year-old president of Ireland's Olympic Council and member of the IOC's executive board, was arrested along with six other slugs for price gouging on tickets they were meant of the general public. Over 1,000 tickets were confiscated in the investigation, which is still ongoing. Hickey had to be hospitalized when Brazilian authorities came to arrest him, and he is currently in a Rio de Janeiro jail. The tickets were being funneled through a British hospitality company called THG Sports, and the executive of the parent company, Marcus Evans of Great Britain, is wanted in connection to this massive fraud scheme. 

Headlines were made by Usain Bolt and his sexual trysts during the games, but so far no light has been shed on what IOC officials were up to. According to an undercover investigation by our Latin American Affairs correspondent, IOC officials imported prostitutes from Bogotá, Colombia and Buenos Aires, Argentina and put them up in Rio's finest hotels, showering these putas with free tickets to events, spending money, and gifts like Rolex watches, which IOC officials received free of charge from representatives of the Rolex company. 

Nice, eh? These Five-star amenities are in stark contrast to the infamous favelas of Rio de Janeiro. I can only imagine what these prostitutes and their septuagenarian lovers would feel about the type of tone deaf decadence and grotesque use of IOC funds they enjoyed if they had any idea what it is like for the more unfortunate citizens of the city's poorer neighborhoods. In a twisted perspective of schadenfreude, some of the hookers who were conscripted to sleeping with these hideous, slithering, reptilian IOC mummies told their tales on social media of Viagra overdoses and heart attacks that were treated at a discrete private mobile hospital that was set up exclusively to cater to these embalmed zombies, away from the glare of the international media. 

As for the events themselves, they were manned by unpaid volunteers and the venues completed by construction workers who averaged US $15 dollars a day, while IOC officials were provided with US $900 dollars a day per diem spending money. The Olympic team from India had to fly coach while their Olympic officials flew business class ON THE SAME FUCKING PLANE. And just check out what awaited them at the airport-

These are police officers and firefighters who have been working without pay for weeks, some even months, due to the lack of public money available that was siphoned off by politicians in order to pay for the ever-increasing costs of putting on the games. And they aren't the only ones. Teachers and other state employees have also gone months without paychecks, with the money nowhere in sight to pay them. Some estimates say that after all is said and done, the 2016 Summer Olympics will have cost Brazil US $12 billion dollars. So far the number is about US $9.7 billion. This is along with the US $25 billion Brazil spent on the 2014 World Cup, which the Brazilian national team, heavy favorites to win the tournament, duly fucked up in epic fashion, Here is a chart that describes the spending for these events in direct contrast to the money spent on the mosquito-borne viruses that have threatened the people of Brazil-dengue, zika, and chikungunya. It's always good to have one's priorities in order when you're a politician-

So what were these cops doing while on patrol with no pay? Shooting at practically any young black man who had the unfortunate circumstance of being caught out there during Rio's now-infamous and wholly ineffective Favela Pacification Program-

Yes, nothing like a paramilitary force armed to the teeth occupying your neighborhood while you attempt to make it through your day in one piece. My guess is these pacification programs, meant to establish the authority of the state and wrest it from the drug gangs will be a thing of the past. There is no money in the budget for these continuing actions, so the favlelas will be retaken by the drug dealers who didn't just disappear-they moved to other neighborhoods until the dust settles. 

Here are a few books that will enlighten anyone interested in reading further on the subjects discussed herein-

No one here at "Busting Chops" witnessed one second of this debacle on television out of respect for the prevailing economic and social conditions of the people of Rio, and we were right in boycotting the event. It was yet another example of how the rich get richer while the poor and working classes  pick up the tab. Besides, we tried to get a seat in front of the television, but the couch was taken-

We also did not need to see Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks and member of the US Olympic basketball team compare his neighborhood in Baltimore to any favela in Rio. His little slum porno tour was meant to pay homage to the stinking, pathetic conditions that any favela resident would do anything to leave behind, but there he was, calling the place "beautiful".

Newsflash-favelas are not representative of the "real" Rio de Janeiro any more than the projects of the South Bronx are a representative of the "real" New York City. Favelas are slums where there are little to no public services. They are places the government has chosen to abandon, leaving the administration of these areas to the drug gangs. Favelas are places where the playboys of Rio go to have their fun with underage prostitutes while consuming every drug known to man. Good thing the gangs were able to cash in on the marketing bonanza that was the Rio Olympics. Who would want to get left out? The logo below reads "do not use near children", a comforting thought when you're attending a baile funk in the City of God as you open a packet of cocaine while getting blown by a twelve year old hooker.

Drug traffickers with a social conscience-

And what will happen now that there are no more intercontinental sporting events on the horizon, and the Brazilian public has to deal with the impeachment trial of it's president for corruption while facing an economic recession that has no end in sight? Stay tuned, because we will probably see more of the photo below before any sense of normalcy returns to the "Cuidad Maravillosa".