Tarot Creativity Challenge, Day #7

The Six of Pentacles

In addition to her moderately popular xeriscaping and much-ballyhooed water recycling initiatives, the mayor of San Diego instituted city sales taxes on meat products to counter federal subsidies, forcing San Diegans to pay upfront for the hidden costs of subsidized meat production, subsidized animal feed, water consumption by stock animals, and environmental degradation. “This is survival,” said the mayor. “It's us or the cows. They will eat and drink and crap us to death.” Beef prices skyrocketed to $200 a pound, pork $140, chicken $90. Black markets for unbonded Tijuana chicken and O.C. beef flourished. A city noteworthy for its restaurants dropped traditional fare from its menus and began serving untaxed meat substitutes such as squab (pigeon), chow (dog), and fish-chicken (seagull). Less reputable establishments began doing a brisk trade in long pork (human). Speakeasy barbecues and catering trucks swarmed the city, advertising their presence and drawing customers by the dozens with the scent of grilling meat and disassembling or driving away at the first sound of sirens. Small-scale riots and looting of restaurant freezers were endemic, as were violent scuffles between residents and city meat inspectors, resulting in multiple lynchings and impromptu auto-da-fes of inspectors. Acts of cannibalism at the burnings were not uncommon. The mayor's policies were in effect for all of seven months before she was assassinated. The interim city council vowed to repeal the mayor's “Stalinesque social engineering.”