The Gathering Storm
This year was was the first in which Social Security payments exceeded contributions. The NYT says “analysts have long tried to predict the year when Social Security would pay out more than it took in because they view it as a tipping point — the first step of a long, slow march to insolvency, unless Congress strengthens the program’s finances.” Well wonder no longer. The year is 2010.
But analysts are still undecided about when Euro will begin to unravel. The Greek debt crisis, which a top Chinese banker called “the tip of the iceberg” continues to rise menacingly, with Italy and Spain glimpsed not far beneath. The Eurozone may survive for now, but perhaps only if sweeping new EU controls are approved over member economies and Greek load is spread beyond Europe to the International Monetary Fund. Europe needs a bigger bureaucracy and more shoulders to hold up Greece. And it can’t afford to do so alone; and naturally the burden must be partly borne by the American and Japanese taxpayers, who are themselves in shaky condition. The IMF is the lender of last resort; but the agency itself is operating in deficit. Never mind. The important thing is that Greece needs another loan that it will never repay to keep its public sector going, so the hat must be passed around. After all, if Greece could repay its debts, would it be borrowing?
This is the unassailable reasoning of our age. Even Sacramento knows you can borrow your way out of debt. Of course, Iraqi bonds are now on par with California. But it’s all going to work out. It’s a truism that everyone needs a little more time to come up with the money. So President Obama is now proposing that banks suspend mortgage payments of the unemployed — in effect lending them more money — until they get the check they’re waiting for to settle their account. What check you might ask? Why maybe the one from Social Security, the program that’s recently gone into the red. Never fear. Social Security will borrow the money it needs from somewhere.
Everybody’s got money except the taxpayer. The WSJ says that personal income has dropped all across the country. But before you thank God for your existing health care plan, or the one you will soon get from the government, remember that CBS News says that if you’re already insured, you should get ready to pay more. And more. But that’s not even going to begin to make a dent in paying for all the free government programs coming up the pipe. So Charles Krauthammer warns that a national value added tax is probably in the works. Because someone’s got to pay for Greece. And California and healthcare and Medicare and all that affordable housing.
2010. Quite a year.
And the President knows it. He’s a man in a hurry. For example he’s given Netanyahu until Saturday, you know the Sabbath, to answer an unspecified set of demands that will allow Washington to go to the Arab League and receive that organization’s backing for ‘proximity talks’ so that maybe the Palestinian Authority may someday, sometime decide to negotiate with Israel. For their part, the Arab News says the Palestinians are discussing whether to postpone their proximity talks with Israel. The article said:
“Any talks with Israel can never be launched as long as the Israeli government continues its settlement plans in the Palestinian territories, mainly in occupied east Jerusalem,” said the official on Saturday.
The official revealed that several Palestinian figures are pressuring on Abbas to postpone the talks.
“There are Palestinian concerns that the indirect talks would fail as Israel insists on continuing construction in settlements in east Jerusalem,” said the official.
Israel has all the watches, but the Palestinians have all the time. 2010. The other thing that may happening in this fateful year is a disarmament deal with the Russians. Ralph Peters says that Moscow hurried things along by announcing a deal was done even when it wasn’t. “Folks, this is diplomacy at a level we can’t begin to touch. With their unilateral announcement, the Russians ensured that Obama will cave on the final points — otherwise, it would look as though he scuttled the disarmament deal and undercut his own argument for anti-nuclear sanctions on Iran.” This happens as Washington handed Pakistan a $7.5 billion for being America’s stalwart ally against the Taliban. The sands of time and money are running free.
Jay Cost says the Republicans have got messaging on Obamacare completely wrong. He believes it’s wrong to be talking in terms of repealing the health care “reform” bill since that somehow sounds like being against mom and apple pie. No. Cost says the Republicans should simply talk about the economy. Focus on it like a laser beam. Because once the economy is front of everyone like a dead and gutted fish it will be perfectly obvious to everyone there’s no way can Obamacare can be funded. Or maybe not. Maybe if we think happy thoughts all the bad things will go away. Ezra Klein at the Washington Post says talk like that is dangerous. It’s “fear-mongering”.
Fear is probably the last thing that needs selling. It’s already creeping like a vast shadow. The real problem now is not whether there’s something to worry about, but how to get out from under. The terrible skeins are all coming together: the accumulated fecklessness, the foreign policy misjudgements, the deception and the unkeepable promises are gathering like a terrible storm. An entire era has come to the end of a joy-ride. The bill has come due; and everyone is doing a courtesy reach-around for his empty wallet hoping that someone else can pay for what they can’t.
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Good Morning BC! If society is going to collapse, I wish it would hurry up.
“If society is going to collapse, I wish it would hurry up.”
Not too fast, Obama still has to de-fund and de-fang the military.
After all, that’s what it’s all about!
And the Democrats, ably assisted by the NLMSM, are busily claiming the Evil Republicans and the AstroTurf Tea Partiers are behind the violence against individual Democratic Party members of Congress. Ignoring that some of the targets of violence are Evil Republicans. And whining that rude remarks are threats. Makes this paranoid 18th Century Liberal wonder who really is behind the actual acts violence, if it wasn’t the isolated idiots present in every emotional debate, including an attack on Republican for verisimilitude.
(Re)read the Declaration of Independence. Our Founding Fathers wrote down the answer. And we have two elections with which to begin to redress the destruction being wrought and to begin to recover our economy and our standing in the world.
One small side note on Obama’s foreign policy of pell mell retreat and appeasement of our enemies: Iran wants nuclear weapons, not so it can gain status in the world, not so it can intimidate its neighbors, but so it can use them. Iran fully intends to destroy Israel, and just a few nuclear warheads does the trick. Iran fully intends to pass along nuclear warheads to terrorists with the means of delivering them to, and using them on, the US. Russia and the PRC are actively blocking meaningful action against Iran to prevent this (and they know that the present timid administration will never use military action) because the outcomes hurt the US. Obama knows this full well, and he’s engaging in his present behavior, anyway.
As to Greece, it’s clear that Germany continues to accept its status under Versailles and feels obligated to continue to open its wallet to anyone in Europe that demands it. Else it would simply refuse to continue to bankroll the profligate. The best way to save the Euro, the Eurozone, and the EU would be to let the debtor who will not [sic, look at the rioters who do not accept their obligation, demanding instead that the rich nations owe them] pay the debt go bankrupt. The loss of Greece to the EU would be no loss. And it would serve as an object lesson the the rest of the PIIGS.
Eric Hines
Can we reverse the tide? Yes, although as Rep Paul Ryan has said, it’ll be a tough row to hoe. It begins with getting more and more state Attorneys General to join in the present constitutional challenge to Obamacare or to mount their own. Aside from the Interstate Commerce and illegal takings clauses arguments, the 10th Amendment argument gains a whole lot of force if most or all of the offended States are in the argument. It gains a whole lot of concrete force, too, if most or all of the States simply refuse to comply with Obamacare.
And the message has to be on target. It’s insufficient (and probably tactically unsound) simply to campaign on “repeal and replace.” This argument simply cedes initiative to the other side, being purely reactive in nature. The message needs to be about the state of the economy and its lack of improvement and of lack of wealth generation and lack of money to pay for government entitlements, and about specific weaknesses and failures of Obamacare (already there is one difference between Republicans and Democrats that can be exploited: the former provides facts and specifics as it describes such failures and weaknesses while the latter provides only glittering, unsubstantiated generalities in their insistances of the good things). And it needs to be, bluntly and plainly, about the philosophical differences between the conservatives and the liberals: what is America? Are we a nation of self-reliant free market communities of free individuals having small governments that do not take away individual freedoms and that are responsive to the governments’ bosses–we, the people–or are we a nation of plebs on the Patricians’ villas, dependent on and beholden to our betters and to large, intrusive government? I draw an analogy founded on old Rome. Others will see the parallel in our own American history: miners and the company town.
Eric Hines
Time to go on a ‘Taxpayer’ strike.
(unless someone has a better idea)
I once went to a bar in Anchorage Alaska, Chilkoot Charlies, I think is the name. They were selling T-shirts that said:
“We overcharge the other guy, and pass the savings on to you!”
Down in Louisiana, we once had a senator that was fond of saying:
“Don’t tax you! Don’t tax thee! Tax that guy behind the tree!”
Seems that such wisdom has lead us to the heights at which we now stand.
Wretchard, in all the time I’ve read BC I’ve never sensed as dire a mood as your entry here. Cold-eyed realism, always. But grim conviction that the end is at hand, no.
I wonder if there’s still time to learn home canning…
Cost says the Republicans should simply talk about the economy. Focus on it like a laser beam. Because once the economy is front of everyone like a dead and gutted fish it will be perfectly obvious to everyone there’s no way can Obamacare can be funded.
Absolutely. Up to the passage of ObamaCare, my “Indepedent” friends were noncommittal on Obama, basically willing to cut him some slack, give him a chance.
We gathered several night ago and it was clear the passage of ObamaCare scared these guys. The talk focused on whether the economy could bear another such burden. One fellow, who’d been especially non-committal, ranted that he’d never seen so many friends and associates losing their jobs. Talk devolved into America entering another Depression and becoming a second-rate country.
People are beginning to understand.
If Ezra Klein is against it I’m for it.
I would disagree with Wretchard only in this: “our betters” are not doing a courtesy reach around for their wallets, they’re reaching for ours, and if we don’t cough up, they’ll show no courtesy at all about extracting from us whatever they want. And while they’re reaching, they’ll spew out a flood of soothing talk sufficient to ensure that the empty can they’ve been kicking keeps rolling down the road that isn’t there until it goes right over the cliff.
W
from the thread….
…..and naturally the burden must be partly borne by the American and Japanese taxpayers, who are themselves in shaky condition
My goodness W don’t be so bold in your writing…nominated for euphemism of the week……”shaky condition” ROTFLMAO
Frankly I do not see how two parties with diametrically opposed world views can exist together in peace. The stakes in this contest are now seen as liberty, prosperity and peace or the complete loss thereof if the opposition attains or holds power. How much longer will it go on before these are upped to life or death? It certainly appears to be headed in that direction.
There is a lot of effort on the part of the few sane leaders we have to try an head off violent confrontation. I wish them well in this and hope very much that they will succeed. But candidly I do not see how it can be done. If the GOP regains control of government in 2010 and 2012 it will only mean that the dispossessed left will be working with great determination to undermine that government by any means necessary in order to regain control. Many on the center/right side have not yet come to the conclusion that the battle is not just about who gets to divide the spoils but about whether or not this Constitutional republic will endure at all. But it is obvious that this is now sinking in with more and more of them and that the realization that something MUST be done is also becoming real to them. They are a majority and if they act together can retake power. That being the case how then do we ensure that those who would shred the Constitution and rule by fiat are denied the opportunity to do so without, at the same time, employing means that will effectively kill the Constitution? And will the side that is rendered politically impotent simply roll over and allow this to happen without resorting to extreme means to prevent it?
I am beginning to think that a breakup of the states may be the only solution to the intractable opposition of the two major parties. Whether this would be allowed without violence is certainly questionable. But the alternative appears to be subjugation of one group by the other by coercive means which will almost certainly result in violent confrontation anyway.
The future looks grim because the more likely outcomes being presented ARE grim.
I hope I am just having a bad morning here and engaging in overly gloomy rumination. I really do.
Is this CBO that missed Social Security rolling over by merely six years the same one that our beloved Congress based their Health Care Reform economics on? Yeah, I thought so.
I feel like I am in the Seinfeld episode where Kramer decides to keep driving the demo car while the gas light flashes “E” to see how far he can go. Wretchard’s lack of safety margin is all I can think of.
The thing that frightens me is that when governments feel that they are “losing control” their first instinct is to ruthlessly strengthen their control over the things that they can. And when it makes matters worse, which it always does, they tighten their grip even more.
KRB
I’ve noticed a fair amount of “Say WHAT!” as the details of the Health Care package become known. As one Republican said when asked how he expects to keep up opposition to Obamacare until November said, “No problem, as contents and effects of health care become known over the next few months, there will be all kinds of angry people going to the polls, both left and right.”
Color me paranoid but I think it is no coincidence that the left has been seeking to create and armed force with a more direct line to the White House and outside the chain of command to the established law enforcement agencies. It is like they don’t trust the FBI, Treasury Dept, and etc. to enforce their dictats. Provoke and destroy may be coming down the road.
Still waiting for that portrait of King George on a bill board, “Dost Thou Miss Me Yet?”
The Democrats – one hand on your shoulder, and the other hand in your pocket.
4. E Hines
“tough row to hoe” Isn’t that the one who was so ashamed to be an American, or is that obama’s pet name for his hoe?
interesting times!
….”The bill has come due; and everyone is doing a courtesy reach-around for his empty wallet hoping that someone else can pay for what they can’t.”
If they are sentient what they are reaching for is another magazine to fill. The storm has gathered. We can’t take 3 more years of this, nor should we.
obama is a clear and present danger to this country.
One of the biggest problems is that American’s just don’t know how long and how many have been activly working for the downfall of our Republic..
Here is a short video (very short) that will give you some insight into the depth of our enemy from within:
Uncovered Video Shows Extreme Coordination Among Obama’s Coalition for ‘Revolution’
We have to stop being complacent and non-aggressive. We have to counter our enemies at every turn, at every opportunity.
Papa Ray
“The stakes in this contest are now seen as liberty, prosperity and peace or the complete loss thereof if the opposition attains or holds power. How much longer will it go on before these are upped to life or death?”
and
“…the battle is not just about who gets to divide the spoils but about whether or not this Constitutional republic will endure at all.”
As intimated in the above, it already has become a matter of life or death. The survival of the American republic, with a wealth-creating free market economy, vs a nation ruled by Patricians with a centrally controlled economy struggling just to maintain a lower status quo is very much in the balance.
As to whether this ever will be resolved, yes, if the Patricians win. Never, if Americans win. The struggle between those for individual freedom and the gains accruing to society from the pain of creative destruction on the one hand and those on the other hand who, usually for well-intended reasons at the outset, seek to remove the pain and to share by government fiat rather than from the natural generosity of Americans, will always be in place if we maintain our Constitutional foundations. This dialectic is a fact of life in free societies, and it is both the vast strength of them and their great weakness, and it has stood us in good stead for all this time. Can we win this struggle, as we won the last serious struggle 140 years ago, we’ll do all right. But we’ve known all along that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and often blood. Every generation, though, must learn this for itself, or suffer the consequences.
Eric Hines
…one Republican said when asked how he expects to keep up opposition to Obamacare until November…
It is essential that our side — and by that I mean us as individuals — not let the electorate become complacent.
I have flown my American flag inverted since ObamaCare passed. (This is authorized by the US Flag Code as a signal the flag is in distress or danger). Some in my community have commented on it, albeit indirectly. The cautious include members of the local GOP. The county supervisor from my precinct slowed down briefly to have a look at it and me on Wednesday.
I will replace Old Glory with a Gadsden flag as soon as it arrives.
It’s time to stand up and be counted folks — and not just by typing on a keyboard — because if you don’t do it now, this country may be over, and you will go to your grave knowing you hid when your country and Liberty needed you.
#17. Ah. A Liberal Left plant, with the racist remarks.
Eric Hines
O.T.P. -
In Hypothetical 2012 Matchup, Obama in Statistical Dead Heat Against 2 Republicans: Nobody and Anybody
#17. Ah. A Liberal Left plant, with the racist remarks.
Eric Hines
Actually has more to do with past history and character. Maybe even police records. But I’m sure they have been purged by now.
The only race factor involved here is one that has consistently been shown to be more involved and convicted in criminal cases (percentage wise).
Papa Ray
“And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you.” Genesis 12:3
Someone missed that bit in his 20 years at an antisemitic church.
Now that HCR aka BFD has passed what will Big F***ing Deal #2 be? Cap and Trade, Instant Citizenship or both or will they chill until November?
“And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you.” Genesis 12:3
“And I will give you and your seed after you the land of your sojournings, the entire land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be to them for a God.” 17:8
If the tide against socialist tyranny is to be turned in a peaceful fashion, the collaborators that call themselves the “Republican Leadership” need to be forcefully shown the door.
The McCains, Snowes, Grahams and Collins, as well as the McConnells, and Kyls of our legislative branch need to be told that either they pull their heads out of their collective butts, or we are headed for a nasty, bloody fight to save this country. It will be very ugly, not purdy.
Wretchard, it is NOT enough to simply talk about the economy, in my opinion.
We need to talk about the conspiracy to overthrow our free market enterprise.
We need to name the co-conspirators. We need to accuse and stand ready to prosecute the claim. We need to not back down. We need to accuse the entrenched media of plotting against the American people.
We need to lay out our grievances and not wither and wilt when they come back with slander and false attributions.
The economy, as large a problem as it is…is not the disease. Its a symptom of the disease. And it is high time we stop treating the symptoms…and start attacking the disease itself.
We have been in permanent “diagnostic” stages. We are doing better at “issue spotting”, pointing at the nefarious acts and saying “Look, they are doing this or that”, but we haven’t gotten to the nub of it.
We are like a hockey goalie, deflecting away slap shots time after time, hoping that nothing gets past us to allow them to score yet again. That’s the wrong approach at this moment in time.
It is no longer enough to point out the entrenched media’s acts of distortion, omission and propaganda. It is no longer enough to point out the fallacy in the “check kiting” governmental schemes. We need to connect the dots and prosecute the conspiracy. Today.
The joker in the deck is Iran. Either there will be an Israeli military strike which will provoke a wider Middle-East war (and much higher oil prices) or Iran will not be stopped & will acquire nuclear weapons & either start a war or bully the other oil producers to raise prices – no matter what happens, the blow to the West’s economy will tip it over the edge into a major depression.
Foont 12: “How then do we ensure that those who would shred the Constitution and rule by fiat are denied the opportunity to do so without, at the same time, employing means that will effectively kill the Constitution?”
Answer:
1. Public proclamation that the Declaration of Independence is America’s supreme un-amendable moral law. Our moral law (sacred human equality before law and sacred individual rights to life, liberty and private property honestly earned through labor – i.e.: pursuit of happiness) trumps even our supreme amendable secular law (Constitution), particularly when our supreme secular law is ignored or becomes corrupted (arbitrary “Living Constitution”) (arbitrary regulation of all commerce as if it were interstate commerce – thereby un-Declarationally destroying human liberty). If Federal Government won’t do it; the Governors, State Legislatures and State Supreme Courts must proclaim it, along with private organizations and private individuals. All Federal laws for example which do not treat individuals equally (Marxist social engineering laws) are un-Declarational and must be declared null – if not by the Supreme Court then by States. All future attempts to create un-Declarational law must be prosecuted as criminal if not as treason. The concept of “un-Declarational” law must find its way into the American Mind and into American Government.
“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who (un-Declarationally) pervert the Constitution.” Abraham Lincoln
2. Amend the Constitution – our supreme amendable secular law.
* The 16th amendment will be changed to:
“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes up to 10%, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”
http://topics.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amen…
* The spending of Federal Government will not exceed its revenues which must only derive through the 16th amendment and foreign tariffs.
* Revocation of the 17th amendment
* Congressional and Supreme Court term limits
* Congressional 2/3 override over the Supreme Court – just as Congress has 2/3 override over Presidential vetoes
I’d settle for the first three articles in the Constitutional amendment for now.
#27–
My guess would be Instant Citizenship. They need to get the new voters in place before the 2010 elections.
22 saltlick
“It’s time to stand up and be counted folks”
Yep, The next in line for me and one of my local buds is the county commissioners meeting later next week. We will be there with bells on and they are not going to be glad to see us.
Then we have several of us going to state of Texas meetings/confabs in Austin. We are going loaded for bear and expect some fireworks. Which is nothing new to Texas meetings and such.
Then there are the ones of our group that are fanning out over their areas to campaign for Conservatives seeking offices. And of course all of our constant donations to our favorite candidates.
Also one our our group is headed out to DC to put his considerable financial and other support to repubs who want to do right and have shown that they intend to over the next few years. But he just wants to have a little confab with them so that he can determine and make sure if they are serious or just being politicians. He will know, he is good at that kind of thing.
There are many ways each of us can help. If it is nothing more than a few hours a week helping educate your local population. If your local conservatives and repubs are too lazy or scared to talk to kids and young adults or hold meetings, step up, advertise and hold your own meetings, nobody has to wait on someone else, step up and take responsibility.
Don’t forget that the elderly and some others need a ride to vote. Or a baby sitter to watch their kids or any other way you can help people vote.
In the coming elections, democrats will be giving out “street money” in order to buy votes. I’m not saying that you do that, but just be aware of what the enemy is doing.
It is your town, your city, your family, your Republic. It is time to stand up, be counted and to do everything you can to wipe out our enemy from within.
Your kids and grand kids future.
Papa Ray
I suspect a lot of people are looking at their cash and investments right now and asking “what to do?”
We’ve lived, by what we thought was the grace of God, in an economy that hasn’t had to think about the need for “portable wealth.” Asians, especially Chinese-Singaporeans, have always liked to invest in precious stones. Out of government sight, out of government mind. Jews, subject to the occasional pogrom and needing portable wealth, developed portability to an art form, literally. Artwork that you could scroll into a container is quite portable. When the economy recovers, the value of the artwork might return, and if not . . . well, you’ve still got the Picasso.
I feel like a 401k hostage today.
A BC commenter asked the other day what BC members are doing re. short-term investment plans. Any comments, e.g., for diverifying allocations within a 401k?
Gee, could not have been more than 5 or 6 years ago that the Democrats were assailing pres Bush’s attempt to “reform” Social Security in a very modest way as being Fear Mongering.
They said “What’s the rush? The system is fine for another 10 or 15 years or so. And they thought “And then something will ‘turn up’ as it always does.”
I should start a Roth IRA that invests only in MREs, canned chili and beans, guns, and ammunition. Any of y’all interested?
“Any comments, e.g., for diversifying allocations within a 401k?”
Good luck with that–the government already has plans for you 401(k). There’s a lot of wealth sitting around in 401(k)s and they will not ignore it.
I imagine the first step will be, in the name of protecting peoples accounts, will be to require that a certain percentage of the accounts must consist of ultra secure investments– in other words, government bonds. I’m also pretty sure that the percentage required will steadily rise over time.
I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it.
I am a delegate to my county’s Republican convention, where I will run for delegate slots at higher conventions. I am pretty sure that this will be the very last time in my life that I will be engaged in electoral politics, as it will be moot soon. But you have to try, to justify acting in what follows.
Purely domestically, there are critical things that must be dealt with, and these are going to be influenced for the worse by foreign events that are going to include WMD terrorist attacks on our country that are aided and abetted by our government, and a worldwide economic collapse. Anyone whose mood is not grim does not understand the situation.
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INSERTED UPDATE: as I was writing the above, reports have come out that a South Korean naval vessel is sinking near the maritime border between North and South Korea. Indications are that it may have been torpedoed by a North Korean vessel. Further reports that another South Korean naval vessel is engaging a vessel to the north.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SGE62P0GW.htm
Based on the cited crew size of greater than 100 it means that the vessel, unless it is a naval auxiliary which is unlikely but possible, is probably a Frigate or Destroyer. Those are the major warships in the ROK navy. They are also large enough that a single torpedo hit may not sink them right away. The mist you see may be the organic waste impacting the rotating airfoil.
=================================
As I said yesterday, I do write elsewhere. A quote from one of my recent pieces that attracted the ire of Obama’s paid trolls:
——————————-
I believe that we have become two separate, hostile peoples within one national boundary. Nationality can be considered to be a combination of shared language, history, and culture with an attachment to a specific piece of land.
Speaking to Democrats and their allies farther to the Left who are included in all that follows; you find that they do not speak the same language as we do. Logic, cause and effect, and the very meaning of words in standard English are not there. Everything is filtered through Leftist cant and fabrication. Even the concept of there being a fact or evidence based reality is considered to be a “bourgeois construct” inferior to subjective reality. It is the closest thing to the Muslim concept of Taqiyya that I have seen in the West. Coupled with this is the automatic insistence that everything we say is a lie, while their most blatant lies have to be accepted in good faith. Failure to do so, is considered to be evidence of our own bad faith. And we go along with it.
You cannot honestly say that we share a history any longer. To Democrats, and their academic cadres; the United States is irredeemibly evil and the cause of all the harm that exists in the world. They share no belief in American exceptionalism, they reflexively support dictatorships and just as reflexively oppose American attempts to support Liberty.
Indeed, the love of an all powerful State and hatred of Liberty and individuality is the basis of the Democrat culture. The individual is nothing and only the intervention of the State in all aspects of existence can make life bearable. The Democrats view any faith in anything other than a special interest group controlled by them, or the State itself, with horror. Look at how they view religious faith of any western kind, the Constitution, or moral values.
They don’t even totally share the attachment to the same piece of land, as they are more than willing to accept and encourage the Reconquista of the western part of the United States by Mexico.
We have been engaged in a Cold Civil War for at least two generations. And we have been losing to the Left, publicly led by the Democrats. In part, our loss has been because we have not taken two of the critical steps in engaging in hostilities. First you have to realize that you are in a conflict. Second you have to identify the enemy, which I did.
——————————
Wretchard sounds grim. And he is observing from thousands of miles away. He gets it, perhaps more than those who are immersed in events.
Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less
Subotai Bahadur
Perestroika, USA. Believe it.
I share Wretchard’s grimness. Cashed out my 401K’s (available due to layoffs) – rolled ‘em into IRAs, then took some cash out to buy gold and silver – I’d rather take the penalties now before it all becomes worthless. I opened an account with a credit union and will be shifting my accounts over away from the national banks. Using monies to store up supplies – a good book is “Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook” by Peggy Layton; the bible for canning is the Ball Blue Book guide to preserving. Signed up for an Intro to Guns, a four hour class and will buy a gun and ammunition (if any is left).
More bad news from the Washington Times,
CBO report: Debt will rise to 90% of GDP.
If this is Greece I should go to Astoria for a meal or a cup of espresso.
Tcobb is correct about the impending citizenship amnesty drive.
Storm-Rider given the time we spent going back and forth over this I find it unpleasant that you simply did a cut and paste of your original statement on a prior thread. My disagreements with your timetable, your reliance on fiat by principles when dealing with those who are held to no principles, and your intent to return the government to the feeble condition of the Confederation when we face many enemies in a dangerous world, remain.
It is interesting that the Democrats are accusing the Republicans of selling fear. This is a shot of pure projection with a chaser of preemption. The entire Democratic program has been based on increasing the level of fear in order to provoke a sense of crisis. As Rahm Emanuel said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
The legislation they have produced in this blind panic have some common features. The bills are large and ill constructed. They have not been actually read by the people voting on them. They mandate large expenditures far in the future, not in the near term as would be true if they were a response to a genuine crisis. They are produced in response to planned and orchestrated media campaigns and triggering events. Those events are caused by the same people who benefit from the legislation, by the elimination of competition, and who the legislation will ostensibly regulate. An example is the crisis in the housing market caused by the managers of Fannie Mae and the financiers of Goldman Sachs. They are still profiting while their competitors were destroyed.
Will everyone please be careful, any expression that crosses the line into advocating violence is not only unwarranted but endangers the credibility of this forum. My belief is that there are agents provacateurs going onto conservative blogs to incite people to advocate for violence.
Subotai Bahadur,
Thank you for the information about Korea.
Mark,
Jews know that the ultimate portable wealth, for when you have to get out of town quickly, is what is between your ears. Human Capital is everything, read Gary Becker.
In re Knight1, #41:
Take care where you store your metals–in what political jurisdiction. Remember that Obama’s other hero, FDR, seized all privately held gold at the start of the Great Depression. His government had a more legitimate need for the wealth, you see, than did honest individual Americans. Except those who held substantial amounts, who were Evil Rich.
Eric Hines
RWE
“I should start a Roth IRA that invests only in MREs, canned chili and beans, guns, and ammunition. Any of y’all interested?”
Well if you include rice, pasta, dehydrated fruits, rechargeable batteries, water purification equipment and storage with small to medium sized generators, then I would say you had a winner.
The supply of most of the above is on back order and it’s first served and will only get worse in the next couple of years.
Papa Ray
32. Storm-Rider: “2. Amend the Constitution…”
I agree that this is the last non-violent recourse. I sincerely hope the 28th Amendment is something to this effect…
Section 1. The sixteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed. Congress shall make no law taxing personal income, property, wealth, or inheritance.
Section 2. Congress shall make no law taxing domestic goods or services greater than 10%. Congress shall tax no domestic good or service more than once.
Section 3. Congress shall neither approve any deficit budget, nor carry debt to the next fiscal year, except in times of formally declared war against at least one foreign nation. Any formal declaration of war which suspends this balanced budget requirement shall be signed by a 2/3 majority in both Houses of Congress each year.
Section 4. The seventeenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed. Senators shall be chosen by the Legislature of each State. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall make temporary appointments until the Legislature thereof fills the vacancies.
Section 5. No single Bill approved by Congress shall exceed 2,000 words in total length.
Section 6. Persons born on US soil are not US citizens if neither parent is a US citizen at the time of birth. Foreign persons entering US territory illegaly shall never be eligible for US citizen status.
Knight1
“I share Wretchard’s grimness. Cashed out my 401K’s (available due to layoffs) – rolled ‘em into IRAs, then took some cash out to buy gold and silver – I’d rather take the penalties now before it all becomes worthless. I opened an account with a credit union and will be shifting my accounts over away from the national banks.”
This is good especially going to a credit union. Don’t forget to stash a few hundred dollars in cash in a safe place.
“Using monies to store up supplies – a good book is “Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook” by Peggy Layton; the bible for canning is the Ball Blue Book guide to preserving. Signed up for an Intro to Guns, a four hour class and will buy a gun and ammunition (if any is left).”
Good stuff and a good idea to have books because the internet may not be always available as well as electricity. Water…it should be your first priority. The storage of large amounts. I understand this is a problem for urban residents but there are places such as under your bed or in your attic for storage. Don’t forget chemicals or UV or other water sterilizers and filters. Water doesn’t keep forever and rotating it out monthly as you can is something to do while you still have ample supplies of it.
If you don’t have ample drinkable water you will get sick and die.
[edit] If you have a generator or camp stove or something that requires fuel, storage for the fuel can be a problem. Fuel is dangerous, the fumes are dangerous, storage needs to be safe. Study the rules of fuel storage. Urban storage can be a problem but it can be over come with a little ingenuity and planning. Even urban storage where it is not visible or can cause problems needs to be thought out. Fuel also doesn’t keep forever, rotate it out and buy additives to put in it to make it last longer.
“Will everyone please be careful, any expression that crosses the line into advocating violence is not only unwarranted but endangers the credibility of this forum. My belief is that there are agents provocateurs going onto conservative blogs to incite people to advocate for violence.”
LOTM is correct. Watch what you say and don’t forget that everything on the internet is read by anyone and can be traced back to you.
If you want to discuss something in private it will have to be person to person from now on. Email is not private!
Remember that.
Papa Ray
Lifeofthemind 42,
I did not simply cut and paste my former comment; I added new thoughts and incorporated your point regarding Federal income through foreign tariffs. A recognition of Declarational Law, and the Constitutional amendments (not a Constitutional Convention) that I proposed, would not take us back to the Articles of Confederation. I am not displeased that you and I have a disagreement; I find it unpleasant that you express displeasure when someone like me honestly expresses an idea that you do not want to hear.
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” George Orwell
At dawn, the night sky painted pink
With rose and amber hue
The Founding Fathers had to think
The morning loved us too
The rising sun climbed in the sky
Too bright for us to view
We strode the world and we knew why
The noontime loved us too
Now sunset draws the curtain low
And sky turns dusk from blue
And sadly full well do I know
The evening saddens too
The risen sun is setting now
Some say our course is run
But patriots refuse to bow
To Diktats from the One
We’ll fly our banner high again
The lefty cretins gone
We’ll take our country back and then
A glorious new dawn
While the economic argument is important, it cannot exclude the bigger motive underlying HC, and indeed all of this president’s actions – IMHO, he is trying to bring America down. Everything he has heard via Wright, Ayers, etc., he believes.
I say that the argument cannot only be on the economic side, although it is huge, because I imagine the left already have their talking points. People will believe them – after all, if it is announced on NPR or written in the NYT, they will think it must be true.
I had linked on facebook the article in Bloomberg that for the 1st time in history, a number of corporate bonds had a lower yield than US treasuries. Most of my friends that I have on Facebook are like me, conservative Christian. But, some of the responses I got back were a bit shocking – friends that I know blamed this as a build up of a number of things – especially fighting 2 wars for 7+ years.
I had to point out to them that that was a pretty amazing coincidence, i.e. we fight 2 wars for 7+ years, but that the yields dropped the day after obama signed HC…
Anyway, my point is that the left will come back and blame the bad economy on spending for other things, such as the war on terror, and there will be folks a plenty who will believe this. If there are enough of these folks, obama will use this to achieve his next objective and will begin gutting the military even further claiming ‘we have to cut spending.’
The argument against the dems cannot be limited to economics alone.
HsvToolFool,
While I disagree with your desire to repeal the XVI Amendment in full I agree with the general thrust of your suggestion. The history of my back and forth with Storm-Rider on this is on the last thread.
How to prevent prevent vast unread bills is a thorny problem. Some bills need large texts appended or the alternative is simply ceding the legislative authority to a regulatory agency. For example should the tariff schedule be created by bureaucrats or by elected Representatives? The line item veto is a possible improvement but that too could be used abusively to change the intent of Congress. Sunset provisions may be another approach that addresses the problem. By making the law, whether large or small, go away after 5 or ten years the incentive to craft vast unreadable bills that include complicated linked payoffs that generate corruption over time is reduced. There are undoubtedly drawbacks to that approach also.
The best system is one that has honest people staffing it, then we don’t have to jury rig procedural barriers to venality. Unfortunately if everyone was honest then no government would be needed at all but that is not the case. The paradox is that we need government because people are not honest and we can’t trust or control the government because people are not honest. Now that we have Health Care Reform we are placing new demands on this paradox.
So a Pair of Docs walk into a bar and one says …
Storm-Rider,
I will reread more closely, I might be wrong. Thought I was wrong once but I was mistaken. Your general intent I always agreed with, our argument is more over timing, flexibility and the role of the Declaration, not the goal.
Papa Ray,
Thank you.
Something that may come handy. (Downloadable PDFs are good too. Chances are that there may be some electricity available at some times, so you would be able to fish it out of your laptop if needed.)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2205119/Ditch-Medicine-Advanced-Field-Procedures-For-Emergencies-1993
Will everyone please be careful, any expression that crosses the line into advocating violence is not only unwarranted but endangers the credibility of this forum. My belief is that there are agents provacateurs going onto conservative blogs to incite people to advocate for violence.
I also second LOTM’s admonition, and not just for the reasons he stated, though they are sufficient. The other reason is for Wretchard’s sake, and out of respect for his having provided us with this excellent forum.
You *can* own hard assets in an IRA. I do. Google “LLC IRA”.
There are important and reasonable restrictions, though. In short: 1) You may not benefit from the asset in any way, or it is taxable. 2) Arms-length on purchases–can’t buy from yourself, relatives, etc. 3) No artwork–assets should be able to be readily and objectively valued. Bullion is fine, but check purity and coinage restrictions. 4) You can buy a business, but beware ERISA, lest your unfairly compete with a taxed business.
I set up mine with Nabers Group. You can spend more or less, but I feel they are a good value. Dislaimer: the summary above is IMHO, only. I have no relationship with Nabers, except as a satisfied customer.
A local restaurant just changed the senior discount age from 55 to 65 – for a 10% discount, and raised prices at the same time. Amazing number of upset customers.
Odds are the restaurant will stay in business. Government as we know it, not so much.
It’s probably still too early for a new constitution that returns us to the fundamentals of civil voluntary society, written clearly in today’s language in a manner that can be understood for the next 200 years. One that insures and motivates tax, regulatory and quality-of-life competition between local governments (drawn to roughly the size of the original states – less than half-million souls each)and removes most federal authority beyond a stable dollar and the mutual defense.
HsvToolFool 45,
Thank you for your ideas on saving the American Declarational/Constitutional Republic by amending our Constitution. I’ve heard nothing about acknowledging un-amendable Declarational Law or amending our Constitution from the Republican Party. They are evidently not the Party which will save our Republic – they are evidently not going to creatively and courageously defend the American Revolution from our Marxist (Democratic Party Leadership) enemy.
Lifeofthemind 50,
Thank you!
Any comments, e.g., for diversifying allocations within a 401k?
I rolled mine over into an IRA last year (changed jobs, made it easy) and then on the first business day of January this year I closed the whole damn thing and cashed out.
My feelings on this subject are thus:
1. There will be a double dip and associated market crash. When, I don’t know. I’m just certain in my bones that it is coming. I didn’t feel my money was safe.
2. The government will come for that money. They are going to be in a desperate financial crunch, and that money will start to look awful tempting.
SEIU is already advocating this.
(couple of links to read there, one from the SEIU directly)
3. The penalty is only 10%. Since I believe the chances are very good I lose close to 100% leaving it there through another crash and the government confiscating the rest, a 10% loss sounds pretty decent. You do have to pay taxes on the funds as income, but you have to do that anyway, when you start to receive disbursments from it. And face it, taxes are likely to be lower now than at any time in the future with the road we’re traveling on. I “lost” 35% (25% taxes + 10% penalty) on the funds I withdrew.
I used the funds to pay off a car, helping out my cash flow every month. I’m down to student loans and one vehicle as my total debt level right now. Its still way to high for my comfort level in this nation, but its a good start. If all stays status quo, I’ll have that remaining vehicle paid off in less than 3 years, and my student loans probably never. Oh well.
As always, this is just my viewpoint. Don’t consider it sound investment advice, as I’m an amateur with opinions. Talk to someone who knows taxes and accounting before making any decisions.
The storm will not abate. It has gathered and will do what all storms do, unleash it’s fury.
Those who believe that November will save us (and I was one until I read the following) will see that the stats compiled with Chicago styled gangsta elections will not produce a sufficient change in the momentum of the Left.
Immigrants Not Voting Republican
The Center for Immigration Studies reports that, since 1980, some 25.2 million immigrants have entered legally and been granted permanent status with “green cards” to work and become citizens.
“Immigration, Political Realignment and the Demise of Republican Political Prospects” is the title of the CIS report, which understates the crisis. Bottom line: The more immigrants in an electoral district, the more grim the GOP prospects. Consider a few of the largest counties in the nation.
Between 1980 and 2008, Los Angeles, No. 1, grew by 2.5 million to 10 million people. The immigrant share went from 22 percent to 41 percent. Over those decades, the GOP share of the presidential vote fell from 52 percent in Ronald Reagan’s rout of Jimmy Carter to 29 percent for John McCain.
Orange County, the bastion of Barry Goldwater conservatism, saw its population rise from 1.9 million in 1980 to 3.2 million in 2008, with the immigrant share rising from 13 percent to 34 percent. Reagan swept Orange County with 68 percent. McCain got 50 percent.
Consider Cook County, the nation’s second largest. While Cook grew by 350,000 from 1980 to 2008, the character of Chicago changed, with the immigrant share of the population rising from 12 percent to 25 percent. In those 28 years, the GOP share of the presidential vote fell from 40 percent to 23 percent.
In Kings County (Brooklyn), the immigrant share of the population rose from 24 percent to 44 percent and the Republican share of the presidential vote plummeted from 38 percent to 20 percent.
Richard Nixon and Reagan carried California seven times on presidential tickets. Both carried New York and Illinois in their greatest victories. Yet the GOP has not won one of those three pivotal states even once in the last five elections.
If California, New York and Illinois are moving out of reach for GOP presidential candidates and the party is being annihilated in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, our three largest cities, what of red states Arizona, Texas and Florida?
They are going the same way.
Harris County, Texas, the nation’s third-largest, grew by 1.4 million since 1980. Its immigrant population tripled as a share of total population to 25 percent. Where Reagan carried Harris with 58 percent, McCain lost it with 49 percent.
Dallas County added a million people to hit 2.5 million by 2008, as its immigrant population surged from 5 percent to 27 percent. Where Reagan won 59 percent of Dallas County, McCain got only 42 percent.
Phoenix is sited in the fourth-most-populous county, Maricopa. Its population in 30 years has gone from 1.5 million to 3.8 million. Where 5.5 percent of Maricopa was immigrant in 1980, the percentage is now above 15 percent. And where Reagan carried Maricopa with 65 percent, McCain, an Arizonan, carried Maricopa with only 54 percent.
In Dade (Miami), the immigrant share of the population has gone in 30 years from 36 percent to 58 percent and the GOP share of the vote has fallen from 60 percent to 42 percent. In Broward (Ft. Lauderdale), legal immigrants tripled as a share of the population, while the GOP presidential vote fell from 56 percent to 32 percent.
The correlation seems absolute. The more immigrants who come in and become citizens, the more Democratic the country becomes.
Why? Almost all immigrants, legal and illegal, are poorer and less skilled than Americans, and depend far more upon government .
According to CIS, of recent immigrants who became citizens by 2008, by 55-30 they identified as Democrats. Among immigrants who have not yet become citizens, 70 percent identify as Democrats, 15 percent as Republicans. The sooner Democrats get them naturalized, registered and voting, the sooner the bell tolls for the Grand Old Party.
Is the GOP problem its hard line on illegal immigration?
This is a myth. According to a Zogby survey done for CIS, 56 percent of Hispanics and 68 percent of African-Americans say legal immigration is too high. Only 7 percent of Hispanics and 4 percent of African-Americans say it’s too low. On no issue is the gulf between elites and the people so wide and deep.
So, visit http://survivalblog.com/ on a daily basis and begin to prepare for a fight. Those who fail to do so will be herded like sheep to reeducation camps. Yes, I know some of you are saying piffle to that …. Good luck to you.
UPDATE on the Korean ship sinking:
The vessel was a large corvette/small frigate in size. From later details of tonnage and crew, I am assuming it was a Pohang class corvette. Of the 104 crew, reports are that 58 have been rescued so far. The ship had an explosion at the stern, which may have come from a torpedo that homes on screw noise. I am assuming good damage control, because it took several hours to sink.
The ROK Navy is heading that way, and I assume that if they encounter any opposition they will not be in a good mood, which for Koreans is fairly hard core. The ROK defense cabinet is meeting. The background for this includes a statement by the Norks Friday [it is Saturday there on the other side of the International Date Line] that threatened “unpredictable strikes,” including a nuclear attack. If this escalates, I assume “Teh One” will be rooting for Kim Jong-il.
Here is the location. Note that the island is ROK territory and has been so since the Korean War armistice. I believe it is both military and civilian occupied, but that may need confirmation.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47542000/gif/_47542554_n_s_korea_baen_226.gif
Subotai Bahadur
Papa Ray, Email is not private!
Well, that depends. If you’d use non-public (public: gmail, yahoo, etc) email server and use PGP (while it is still legal), then you get as private emails as they come the only people that would be able to read the emails are sender and recipient. Of course, when the email is displayed on your screen and that screen is CRT, then it can be read meters away, but with a LCD monitor, that is much harder.
If you want to discuss something in private it will have to be person to person from now on. Email is not private!
Neither are cell phones! Especially considering Obama said citizens should have no expectation of privacy on them. Telling words. Watch your tongue.
I’m going crazy here in the Denver area. People are waking up, but there is absolutely no one I trust other than my wife here. There is one family that I’m leaning towards, but I don’t know how close they are to full recognition of events. I wished I lived closer to Subotai and his friends. My bug-out plan is to book it north to Wyoming in case of trouble. Born and raised in that loving, conservative environment.
Cetera 60: cell phones
Habu #57:
The sad fact is that most immigrants, legal or otherwise, are coming from authoritarian governments or outright dictatorships with communist or at least socialist economic systems and what they are looking for essentially is the same thing, except have it actually work economically. Fat chance.
This contrasts with the immigrants of earlier eras who mainly were traying to get the hell away from that same thing.
Unfortunately, the Pax Americana, rather than eliminating socialist dictatorships, has made it possible for them to survive, and if not exactly prosper, hang on longer than they have any right to do.
Rather than taking over the world in an asbsence of mind as the Europeans did, in our compassionate imperialist power we have quite deliberately created a less Hobbsian world, and so crippled ideologies get to go on reproducing.
Cetera 60: about cell phones. My understanding is that so long as these have a power source they are traceable, probably more true for the newer varieties especially. I’ll leave that for the twidgits to answer definitively.
Someone (Papa Ray or Habu) on this site got me started on survivalblog.com. There are a ton of resources there, potable water, cell phones, food preservation, geographical concerns that you might find useful. Take a drive by when you get a chance.
Concerning 401k’s, after mine took an alley beating I borrowed 50% of it at 5% (all that was allowed), placed the remainder into the “most secure” investment selection and then stopped contributions to the skeletal remains. They’ll get no more of my monies. Most secure… yeah, I still can’t bring myself to laugh about that little pun.
In fact, I’m thinking I’m going to want back what was stolen from it one of these days…
#57 Habu
Exactly. And maybe I’m just a paranoid, but I’m beginning to wonder if the whole health care thing served more than one purpose. Was it perhaps a loyalty and feasibility test for what was to come after? If they can muster the legislators needed to pass something that a substantial majority of the American people were against, then the die is cast. The will of the people be damned. They can do it again. The timid and reluctant followers have been shown the light. And having once committed to such a course their only electoral salvation must come by granting citizenship to the illegals.
Like Cortez, who was determined to conquer Mexico, the Democrats have burned their ships. From now on there is only one way to go–total victory or electoral death.
“In the economic sphere an act, a habit, an institution, a law produces not only one effect, but a series of effects. Of these effects, the first alone is immediate; it appears simultaneously with its cause; it is seen. The other effects emerge only subsequently; they are not seen; we are fortunate if we foresee them.”
Frédéric Bastiat
1801-1850
*****************
The US government was already more than $50 trillion in the hole before passage of the health care bill. That’s net of assets. The biggest hole in history .
And now the health care program will dig the US in a little deeper…or maybe a lot deeper. No one seems to know exactly what is in the 2,400-page law . Whatever it is will surely cost money. And it will surely cost more and more money as time goes by.
Let’s imagine that the US budget goes to $5 trillion…and $2 trillion is borrowed (not too far from the facts). And let’s imagine that interest rates go to half their peak in the late ’70s. Well, you can do the math yourself. But what it means is that the feds couldn’t cut expenses fast enough to keep up with the interest payments
Wretchard: Fear is probably the last thing that needs selling. It’s already creeping like a vast shadow. The real problem now is not whether there’s something to worry about, but how to get out from under. The terrible skeins are all coming together: the accumulated fecklessness, the foreign policy misjudgements, the deception and the unkeepable promises are gathering like a terrible storm..…in the land of Mordor where Obama lies!
Breathe deep the gathering gloom
Watch lights fade from every room
Bedsitter people look back and lament
Another day’s useless energy spent
Impassioned lovers wrestle as one
Lonely man cries for love and has none
New mother picks up and suckles her son
Senior citizens wish they were young
Cold hearted orb that rules the night
Removes the colours from our sight
Red is grey and yellow, white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion
FYI, my financial strategy while waiting for the next market crash and/or global economic collapse: I got a modest inheritance right after the ’08 crash. I watched gold and silver mining stocks establish their bottoms in 1-2-3 chart formations and began buying. Lucky timing. At first I thought physical gold was too expensive. A little research convinced me otherwise. I started buying at around $900. Now I wish I had bought more silver than gold, as silver appears to have greater prospects for dramatic moves and is being consumed rapidly by industry. Right now I’m waiting for silver to hit $19 and I will sell half or two thirds of my mining shares. Then I’ll hoard that cash in Canadian dollars for the expected crash, assuming the metals will take a temporary hit to cover shorts and the rush to cash. Then I will buy low and hold. I won’t sell any physical metal. I see a possible supply problem and price spike may develop rapidly if the dollar goes Zimbabwe. Obama could go farther than FDR in gold confiscation and clear out safety deposit boxes along with bullion storage, so my stash site ls out of government reach. Can’t eat gold, sure, still beats paper. I keep a month’s supply of food on hand for the oil crisis that will happen when Israel hits Iran. One sunken tanker will shut the Strait of Hormuz for a while. Like others have said, this time feels like the summer of ’39 in Europe. Assume we are all Jews in Obama’s National Socialist Utopia.
64. Tcobb:
Like Cortez, who was determined to conquer Mexico, the Democrats have burned their ships. From now on there is only one way to go–total victory or electoral death.
This is the thing that worries me the most. Obama doubled down, just like Wretchard and others expected him to do, and he won doing so. They are out in the open now, and there is no turning back. Its full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes and the citizens.
Some (Glenn Beck) think that it is ultimately a good thing they are out in the open, and openly advocating socialism and control of the populace (see Al Sharpton). People will now see and recognize the true nature of the beast. That may be true, and maybe we’ll gain some more traction in opposition. However, the ante has well and truly been upped. Things are moving faster and faster, and I’m having trouble keeping up.
I’m worried that Subotai is right. I’m worried that in losing this battle, we not only have surrendered the field, but we’ve lost the whole conventional war. I’m worried that our three options are to:
1.) Give in and deal with it.
2.) Go underground with guerrilla and insurrection tactics.
3.) Escalate one more time to NBCs/WMDs. Take the Declaration of Independence seriously. Follow it to the letter.
I will never do #1. #2 and #3 scare the shit out of me. I won’t back away from them, but I won’t like them either.
I was once told that when you’re mad as hell and can’t take it anymore, grab your rifle and run outside. If you’re the only one outside with a rifle, then it isn’t time yet. Go back inside. More and more, I’ve been itching to run outside. Someday, it won’t just be me. On that day, may God be with us all.
Question:
Who said government healthcare leads to socialism?
Hint:
It was 1961, and he was a Republican
“Now back in 1927 an American socialist, Norman Thomas, six times candidate for president on the Socialist Party ticket, said the American people would never vote for socialism. But he said under the name of liberalism the American people would adopt every fragment of the socialist program. …
One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. … Now, the American people, if you put it to them about socialized medicine and gave them a chance to choose, would unhesitatingly vote against it.
We have an example of this. Under the Truman administration, it was proposed that we have a compulsory health insurance program for all people in the United States, and, of course, the American people unhesitatingly rejected this.“
Ask your Congressman to change the law that gives him a pension after 6 years, tell him just contribute to Social Security like they MAKE us contribute. Tell him/her or in Barney Frank’s condition /it that they WILL use only the same health care program they just passed, or vote him/her /it out. These people and I say these people with disgust have given money to every crooked dictator and lazy ass on this earth and now they want to claim moral imperative and the only moral solution is at hand. I’d rather have unprotected sex with a crack whore than shake a politicians hand, I don’t know it would just feel cleaner.
PS. Forgot to mention I bought a rifle as insurance. A local gun dealer ordered 150 civilian versions of the AR-15 used by Army MPs. All but 12 sold before delivery. First gun I ever owned. If it all goes to hell I expect roaming predatory gangs wearing Obama T shirts. LA Koreans knew where it was at.
Habu,
East China Sea, think oil.
Regarding immigrant groups to many treat them as a uniform mass, which is both insulting and defeatist. Mexicans are not Puerto Ricans and neither are anything like Argentinians, Chileans or Columbians. What is especially dissonant is the complete failure of the Republicans to effectively communicate to Asians. Most Koreans Chinese and Vietnamese should be affiliated with the Republicans and their children should be rising to elective office through the Party. This is not happening. Bobby Jindal did poorly in his first nationally televised response to Obama but the Democrats are understandably terrified of him. Like Sarah Palin he represents an existential threat to them.
To be blogged under the title “Asian Waters.”
I am the Jay of old. We can not sustain a European style socialist system. People who work in private sector con not coninue to support a vast number of non military government drones.
The cold civil war will turn hot within two years. The combat troops will soon learn that they are being wasted in the Middle East and they will not reup. Many will become under employed in the private sector. Some will be employed in the public sector but their values will be derided. Boom!!
Another strategy, in addition to all the good advice above, is to continue working (possibly at a slower pace) after official retirement age – probably something the American Marxists have already factored into their calculations. You’ll notice that no animal (except for the pigs – the elite class of Marxist animals – and by definition the lazy proletariat animals) were ever able to retire in Orwell’s Animal Farm.
God Save the American Revolution (and our retirement). We need enforcement of Declarational law and a Constitutional amendment to do so.
My Russian nesting dolls got me to thinking… Is the call here at BELmont and elsewhere for cons to man-up man-ipulation? I’m a sincere opponent of Dem proglitics, but considering Alinsky tactics, anon internet performance “art”, avatar surfing and the nature of the con…
Full disclosure: I change names but never allegiances. Oh, and I am not a man. Should I woman up with eyeshadow, letters to the editor and ammo?
OT, but related to how this administration is doing its best to bankrupt our country.
The EPA just denied Arch Coal a permit to create a new coal mine in West Virginia. First time in 37 years that the EPA has done this. Arch is no fly-by-night miner; they are one of the largest miners in North America. Coal is our most abundant energy resource; if one doesn’t replace depleting mines with new ones, production declines, which it is doing. This administration has declared war on the coal industry imho (and I don’t work in the coal industry, fwiw).
The clear objective of this is to drive energy costs up to the point of making renewables competitive, since they can’t seem to compete on their own merits. Very clever energy policy.
So next time anyone discusses Obama’s approach to creating jobs, remind them what is considered an “acceptable” job.
We are in the best of hands.
Gary @72 & anyone else new to owning or contemplating owning a combat rifle:
I hope you also bought seven or more new Magpul or Heckler & Koch 30 round magazines, and seven 20 round magazines, and several thousand rounds of relatively inexpensive practice ammunition. Many folks who aren’t very experienced with semiautomatic firearms don’t realize how quickly they can chew up ammunition.
Seven 30 round magazines is the standard combat load our troops carry in ready ammunition. In Afghanistan today, if they go outside a safe area they usually carry a couple hundred additional rounds in boxes in their packs. Don’t leave your magazines loaded all the time, it wears out the springs. If you want to keep two or three loaded, rotate the loaded magazines with their unloaded twins at least monthly. Don’t bother with 40 or 100 round magazines, etc. they’re overly expensive, and often unreliable.
Maintain at least 1000 rounds of combat ammunition in storage with your rifle at all times, and fire a magazine or three of it each time you’re at the range in addition to the several hundred or more practice rounds you should fire each month. I’m fond of CorBon solid copper slugs personally, but any T.A.P. rounds designed for police use should do.
Get a good rifle sling and either a good (expensive) combat vest to carry your magazines, or inexpensive military surplus webgear harness and pouches work fine. Don’t skimp on load bearing equipment buy purchasing cheap third world made crap or it will let you down at the worst possible time.
If you’re not a kid anymore your eyes aint what they used to be. Get a good combat optic for your AR. A Trijicon ACOG with 3x or higher magnification is highly recommended, or Nightforce & Leupold both makes some quality optics as well. Don’t get a monster 5-42X magnification scope designed for sniping. The effective range of your AR is 400-600 meters. If the optic you select has a magnification of higher than 9X, you’ve got way more scope than your carbine needs. Most of our troops equipped with M-16s and M-4s in A-stan are quite happy with scopes in the 1X to 5.5X magnification range. Whichever optic you get, don’t buy cheap crap. Spend the extra few bucks for a really sturdy mounting system. Whatever optic you choose should have an illumination system to allow you to fire accurately in low light and all but the darkest nights.
Get tritium illuminated back up iron sights for your AR. Never forget Mr. Murphy. If your expensive optic can get dinged and broken or just knocked and out of alignment when it’s the least convenient moment, it will. Back up night sights are essential and much less expensive than an optic. Don’t buy or use plastic gun sights for the love of G-d!
I don’t want to be obnoxious, but how are you stocked for cleaning supplies. The biggest downside to Stoner’s AR design is that it sh!ts where it eats. A dirty AR will jam. A defensive weapon should be both reliable and accurate. Breakfree CLP works in a pinch, but SlipStream, Tetra, and several other manufacturers make better cleaning and lubricating products to keep your carbine running properly. Clean all semiautomatic firearms religiously after use and before storage. Carry lubricant with your rifle everywhere it goes!
I highly recommend you attend an “appleseed” class ASAP. They are designed for both new and experienced rifle owners. The price is low and they are given all over the country periodically. The US Air Force rated me an expert marksman with the M-16. (Stop laughing Habu!) I still learned a lot of useful information and improved my technique by attending a weekend appleseed class.
http://appleseedinfo.org/
When not in use, secure your rifle where it won’t fall into the wrong hands.
Above all get out and practice, practice, practice!
If you already know all this, I apologize for preaching at you in such a condescending manner. If you don’t need this information, hopefully someone else here at BC can benefit from it.
Be Prepared!
Regarding my suspicions on the cause of today’s possible naval conflict off Korea reported by Subotai Bahadur I did a little homework.
A couple of searches on “offshore drilling equipment” and “oil exploration yellow sea” yielded some interesting results. Clearly the DPRK is exploring in the area.
The industry is large and complicated this is a good web site, SubSea.org, but has little on the North China/Yellow Sea area.
The Norks are against the wall. If the industry told China that they can not do business as long as the waters are not safe then the DPRK may get defanged. The South Koreans manufacture much of the drilling equipment so there may be an opening to induce China to apply pressure.
My expectation is that in the event of a real war North Korea might simply implode leaving a humanitarian disaster behind. The biggest constraint on South Korea is not the mayhem that the North could inflict for 24 to 72 hours, which is real given the proximity of Seoul to the DMZ, but the cost of absorbing their impoverished cousins. The burden that West Germany assumed by unification with the DDR was seen. For 20 years now the ROK governments have paid to keep the North on life support.
This time “Some damn fool thing in the Balkans” can happen anywhere.
To be blogged under the title “Yellow Sea, Black Oil.”
Now the blankety blank WordPress engine is eating my post. For any who are interested it was about the Korean situation and my view of the lubricated background.
This time “Some damn fool thing in the Balkans” can happen anywhere.
It is on my blog.
But analysts are still undecided about when Euro will begin to unravel. The Greek debt crisis, which a top Chinese banker called “the tip of the iceberg” continues to rise menacingly, with Italy and Spain glimpsed not far beneath. The Eurozone may survive for now, but perhaps only if sweeping new EU controls are approved over member economies and Greek load is spread beyond Europe to the International Monetary Fund. Europe needs a bigger bureaucracy and more shoulders to hold up Greece. And it can’t afford to do so alone; and naturally the burden must be partly borne by the American and Japanese taxpayers, who are themselves in shaky condition. The IMF is the lender of last resort; but the agency itself is operating in deficit. Never mind. The important thing is that Greece needs another loan that it will never repay to keep its public sector going, so the hat must be passed around. After all, if Greece could repay its debts, would it be borrowing?
IFM european contributors altogether still pay more that the americans’ and Japaneses’.
Last news, Germany was pushing ahead IFM, a way to not directly respond to the crisis, as Merkel’s party is facing elections soon (in a hostile atmosphere against Greece bailing out), though she can’t avoid the reality, the Deutsches Bank is directly implied in greece debt bonds purchase, and the BCE threw a stone into the german garden, by announcing that it will allow Greece to borrow at a lower rate, but still higher than of germany’s. The idea, of letting the thing getting worse, was that the euro rate would lower, thus good for the exportations.
BCE involved for 2/3, IFM for 1/3, though these are still virtual promises, every 2 days there are new announcements, so the Wall Street banksters have a certain difficulty to dance among the euro ratings, they are up then down, up and down…
also
“C’est l’Allemagne qui a exigé l’intervention de l’institution de Washington. La France, tout comme la BCE et la Bundesbank, y étaient opposés : pour eux, la crise grecque est une crise budgétaire et non monétaire”
It was Germany that required the intervention of the Washington institution. France, as so BCE, and BundesBank were opposed to this decision: for them the greek crisis is a Budget crisis, not a Monetary one
sure it’s isn’t a monetary’s, is a deep institutional crisis that could end the EU, because no EU country has the same rules for taxations, for social protections, for economy goals… so wether EU will end, (it depends on Germany to carry along the dream), wether we’ll get a toughter economical governance (again, it depends on Germany too, 40 % of the Germans want to go back to the Mark, more than 60 % of them don’t want to hear of the greek debt)
so, next news, after the german elections !
73. Lifeofthemind,
In my opinion, for what it is worth there are immigrants and illegal aliens. Country of origin or ethnic background are not the issue. If someone, anyone comes as a legal immigrant just live by the same rules we live by learn to speak English and I’ll weclome you. If you enter illegally I say to you go the hell home. I don’t care what you want or need just go home. The intent of the 14 th Amendment was NOT intended to make every slippery criminal that could deliver a living baby citizenship, and everyone know this. Maybe it is time to become as enlightened as Canada and change the law to disallow the practice of anchor babies. Honest politicians would insist that aliens follow the law not weep and cry that it’s to hard to enforce the law, the “pooooor people” they need us.
68. Gary Ogletree
Some good moves Gary. A few thoughts.
I bought my first 10k worth of gold in the Am. Buffalo, which contains the greatest percentage of gold in its composition at $400. I bought 10k of silver at something around a seven dollar basis. I took it all in coin and vaulted it in my 2000 lb vault which is bolted from the inside into the concrete foundation. Why? Brokerage firms may not let you have your gold when you want it. They already have the legal authority to NOT pay out on mutual funds should they determine it bad for them. I then bought @20k of “junk silver”, coins minted in silver but had been in circulation prior to the trinket coins we now have. This is for buying items when fiat money is toilet paper.
Last week I added another 20k of gold, in Canadian Maple Leafs…or course vaulted.
All of this of course is hedging against the inevitable hyperinflation that is coming or devaluation of the dollar. You are correct that you can’t eat the gold or silver but you can buy things with it. How many meals do you think J.P. Morgan missed during the Depression …zero….he had very diverse holding in metals and commodities. Keep your gold and silver until the Schumer hits the fan
The rifle…great move…how many magazines did you buy? You’ll need at minimum twenty and a minimum of a thousand rounds of ammo. If you can afford it get a AIMPOINT scope on it. The practice, practice, practice ….until you can hit your target with a killing round on the first squeeze.
Vitally important is a water filtration system ..Berkey , http://www.berkeywaterfilterstore.com/ is the absolute best, but for bugging out you should also get http://www.katadyn.com/usen/ Katadyn is primo.
The Survival Blog …. http://survivalblog.com/ …. has a multitude of only the best equipment as sponsors so take a look …Rawlings , the blog author, also has books on what to do ..I highly recommend those as well.
Most of all good luck … I’ll be there with you as will probably several million other Americans.
78. Armageddon Rex
Well its the “great minds thing thing go’in on bro. Great advice.
Best
Habu
77. steeple
Thanks for the info.
I believe POTUS is attempting to break the United States. He’s attacking on many fronts that are vital to our well being, for now he has the votes. Soon he’ll get his revolt.
This is one very dangerous man and he loves the worlds dictators.
And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.
— E.A. Poe
Regarding combat rifles—-
They’re a good thing to have, but they are not the universal solution. Much depends upon the environment in which you live. If its very likely that any boogers you will encounter will be at close range a 12 gauge shotgun is a much better choice of weapon. Despite media hype to the contrary, a 5.56/.223 round is not a high powered weapon. Its intermediate between a pistol round and that used by real battle rifles like the M-1 or the M-14.
People I knew who fought in Vietnam who had to actually patrol in the jungles tended to favor pump action 12 gauge shotguns over M-16′s or captured AK-47′s. At close range a shotgun produces damage that an “assault rifle” simply cannot match.
Forgotten Man,
Concur.
We are a big empty country. All I ask is that people obey the law and love the Republic. Arguments about marginal tax rates don’t bother me. On those I can be right and lose the politics and just hope that people learn from the market. Bigots might fret over the new arrivals but my view is that if we believe in ourselves and have an educational system that teaches why we are a country worth moving to then all will be fine. People came here from some nasty places where life was cheap, Czarist Russia, famine ravaged Ireland, Imperial China, even feud beset Italy, and they did so legally and they became good citizens.
They got along beautifully in America.
To be logged under the title “For Immigration.”
Interesting read about life in Argentina after their currency collapsed:
http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2008/10/thoughts-on-urban-survival-2005.html
LotM/87: “Bigots might fret over the new arrivals but my view is that if we believe in ourselves and have an educational system that teaches why we are a country worth moving to then all will be fine.”
Bigots, belief in America, and schools teaching our country is worth it?
May I offer a slight revision? Unbigoted and concerned Americans might fret over illegal arrivals, but if we believe in law and only deliberative (not PC) revision of it, and have a non-hostile educational system that didn’t apologize for America to native-born and naturalized citizens, and that didn’t promote bi-lingual ed over a common language and meta culture, explicate group grievance and teach identity voting blocs, then all would be fine.
Too much? “Non-hostile” wouldn’t mean hostile to critique of our country, but just not institutionally biased against the idea of American exceptionalism. Yes, I’m a dreamer, but apparently you are, too…
87. Lifeofthemind:
I must truly applaud your blue sky view in the midst of what W believes is the gathering storm and my belief that the storm is already here.
Love the Republic….you bet, but the new immigrants of the past quarter century have eschewed to large degree embracing the American ethos.
Having an educational system that teaches we are a countryworth moving to …..only if they did that but from primary school through university that is not on the curriculum.
Yes, I applaud your blue sky view, too bad it’s not in harmony with the zutreffend zeitgeist.
Habu,
As Subotai Bahadur and Papa Ray have said I believe, and I believe that you have indicated yourself, the real hard unrelenting work is in constantly talking to people of all ages and conditions. School Boards are the keystone. We all need to push back from the computers and go out for two reasons,
1. to remind ourselves of why it is all worth the struggle,
2. to talk to people and engage in nuts and bolts politics.
All the bad things may happen but if we haven’t been doing the work now then we will be in no position to lead later.
We have to keep dealing with people as individuals and a with a hopeful spirit, because that is what we stand for. That does not mean that we should not be prepared or fail to observe a strangers eyes and hands.
Enjoy the Big Sky, I wish you well.
AKA,
I began by saying “obey the law.” From that all else follows.
A.R. at 78. Appreciate the tips, they add to the advice from my brother the ex USAF K9. Been slow to get the scope and mags. Good prod. Also, thanks to Habu and T Cobb.
As always grateful for the insights found here.
Suggest y’all investigate Swiss insurance annuities Lots of favorable qualities going for them. Best to all. JS
Armageddon Rex,
Loaded AR mags don’t go bad, it’s the cycles that wear out the springs, not being stored compressed.
Have fired AR mags that have been loaded since the late 60′s, never a problem.
The new Magpul P-Mags are excellent, but the most reliable are the old allow follower 20 round mags.
I’m an Aimpoint guy, and like the 3X magnifier if on a flip mount.
With optics you get what you pay for and nothing more.
Also if you can swing it get a NV monocular, PVS-14 comes first to mind, can mount it behind the Aimpoint for night use.
Gary @93:
Mags, Ammo, webgear / load bearing vest, optics in that order I would think.
I urge you to get the tritium iron sights on your rifle and attend appleseed as soon as you have a half dozen magazines and a few hundred rounds of ammunition.
http://www.trijicon.com/user/parts/products1.cfm?PartID=276&back_row=2&categoryID=7
If you can, take both practice and combat ammunition with you to appleseed. You may be surprised at the difference in impact points out at 300 and 400 meters when using cheap South African 55 grain practice ammo vs. black hills 69 grain hollow point ammo vs. TAP ammunition of different weights.
I wish you continued liberty & good shooting!
If I had to choose between borrowing money from the U.S. government and borrowing from a Mafia-connected loan shark, it wouldn’t be a contest: I’d go with the loan shark.
Hey, the interest rates and repayment terms would be better, and, if I didn’t cover the vig on time, the wiseguys would only break my legs and be done with it.
Philip Manduca, Head of Investment of the ECU Group gives a near-term market benchmark to watch.
In addition to restating his long gold position, which I only mention because the theme is becoming reasonably consistent among the long-term “big picture” market watchers, he also says that Europe has to unwind, not just the effects of a global derivatives trading debacle, but a half century of socialist programs embedded in EU countries. According to Manduca, the corruption of Greece is just the beginning and the only market player that can forestall another – worse – global crisis is USA.
At a minimum, the markets look dicey to flat for at least five years and more likely ten, given that western banks can sidestep another meltdown and manage some form of benign “melt-up” while 50 years of bad things shake out. Western banking and financial institutions can make this happen. The wild card is the impact of geopolitical instability.
Just a note on SS, the so-called “debt” can be erased with the stroke of a legislative pen by incrementally adjusting the eligibility age. I will even go on record as saying Congress has to do this – and will do it.
Any suggestions on Buying Bullion for Dummies? Reputable brokers? Things to watch out for? (Aside from Habu’s post about Canadian Maple Leaf coins, which I noted.) I also note at front that it depends on the balance of objectives between investment and barter.
Everyone needs to read and understand the following link, and then forward it to your email group and link it back on other blogs.
It is that important.
What It Means (first in a series)
Papa Ray
AWM @95:
I beg to differ with you on the longevity of magazine springs that stay compressed for a long time. The material science and metallurgy classes I took in college taught that metal under bending stress and / or compression stress fatigues. Steel springs are much better about it than aluminum, but all metal under stress fatigues. I’ve certainly seen many 1911 pistol and Berretta 92 magazine springs worn out after long storage while fully loaded so that they failed to feed the last several rounds properly. In each case the situation was corrected by replacing the magazine spring with a new Wolff spring. One of these days someone will manufacture some high quality titanium springs for a decent price, at which point we may finally have a truly durable magazine!
I’m a fan of both Aimpoint and Eotech sights, which some of my shooting friends can’t understand. With them it seams to be an either / or thing, like Chevy vs. Ford, or Toyota vs. Nissan, or Mercedes vs. Rolls Royce. You either love one or the other, but certainly not both!
It’s proof I’m a heathen that I like both, but that I prefer the Trijicon Reflex over either of them for CQB.
I haven’t tried an Aimpoint with magnifier yet, so I can’t comment on it. If the quality is as good as the M68 sight, then you couldn’t go wrong with that setup!
For infantrymen, SpecOps and cops busting down doors, CQB is where it’s at these days, but for the citizen rifleman, I believe longer range engagements might well be the order of the day, just like they were over 200 years ago, thus my recommendation for an ACOG 3X, 3.5X, or 4X gunsight, or a Nightforce NXS compact, or Leupold Mark 4 CQ/T optic.
With high quality gear, it’s hard to go wrong if one asks the correct questions.
LifeoftheMind: All people all the time prefer their own race, are “Race Men” putting their own race first, and that all non-White races without exception hate and loathe Whites. An individual non-White might not, but we are not concerned with Yao Ming or Verne Troyer, rather the great mass of people.
Allowing great masses of non-Whites into America (currently, almost all of them Mexican) is ten times of stupid. Mexicans never assimilate, in fact due to the proximity of Mexico and La Raza ideology (“for those inside the Race, everything, for those outside the Race, NOTHING”) plus Mexican ideas of race (mestizos as “the cosmic race”) makes that a fantasy of the most “noble savage” / AVATAR order. Its not just stupid, it is monumentally stupid, proven wrong everywhere every time.
Asians have no reason not hate and loathe Whites, not the least of which is that is the path to power, alliance building with other races, leads to AA preferences in many cases, and the overall culture of America and the West detests Whites who are average and every day. [Much of it but not all of it driven by women who hate and loathe ordinary men expressing interest in them.]
As a practical matter, Mexico has never produced much of anything in terms of science, technology, skilled and productive work force, rule of law, order, anti-corruption, and the like. Mexico is a failed state because its people are failed: corrupt, driven by the Big Man machismo, non-cooperative, mostly illiterate, without much value of education or record of consistently high average IQ. As Heather McDonald at City Journal has written, third and fourth generation Mexicans are good at going on welfare and having lots of kids, many of whom become gang-bangers or single mothers (or both!) but not much else.
All people are not the same, nor is there no differences in the averages, mass behavior, and abilities/flaws of different groups of people including races and nations. Different is not “better” or “worse” but merely different, this does not however preclude value judgments as public policy of what US immigration policy should be. Taking low IQ, mostly illiterate, poverty stricken, corrupt, un-cooperative, racially hostile, different language speaking people who have a constant cultural re-inforcement while the US struggles for decades with a depression / low wage and job growth, is not my idea of a good policy. It’s not 1910 any more, we are not taking lots of poor but otherwise culturally adaptable and high IQ Eastern Europeans and Central Europeans.
Mexican background US citizens routinely demonstrate in the LA area for special, privileged treatment, their disdain of Whites as obvious as the Mexican flags they wave, or their demand for one-way open borders (none of them desire any American to go down to Mexico and become an instant citizen, much less repeal of restrictions on Americans doing business, owning property, and advocating policy in Mexico). Mexicans in the LA area openly speak of the Reconquista, making the entire West/Southwest into Mexican territory again, and kicking out the Whites. Mexicans routinely carry signs telling Whites like me to go back to Europe.
Therefore, I wish to have as few Mexicans in the US as possible, and would support greatly any effort to simply deport those in the US illegally, as well as their children. After all, the Constitution is a “living document” and can be adapted for any purpose and desire, this is what Liberals tell me constantly about the 2nd Amendment.
Cell phones attempt to ping the network several times per second when they are powered on. Phones w/o gps can only be approx located via which cell tower they are communicating with at a given time. Default is to choose the strongest tower signal, but this changes during peak usage time. All providers have real time access to this info, and it’s logged.
Lifeofthemind 88: “Bigots might fret over the new arrivals but my view is that if we believe in ourselves and have an educational system that teaches why we are a country worth moving to then all will be fine. People came here from some nasty places where life was cheap, Czarist Russia…”
Shouldn’t that read Bolshevik Russia?
It is a lie to equate fretting over illegal (or legal) immigration in large numbers with bigotry. I am against illegal immigration period – they should all be deported. Job opportunities for unemployed Americans would immediately go up, as would wages. Illegal immigrants are GDP draining proletarians – low skilled and looking for the poisoned Marxist government tit – the same shriveled tit found in all the Socialist hell holes to our south.
Legal immigration should be limited to small numbers – limited to highly skilled people who would immediately be self-sufficient and contribute to American culture and GDP – creative individuals reaching with their own labor for life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
We need to be making more American babies right here at home – but hey – to the elite crowd that makes way too much sense – you know – redneck thinking – cowboy thinking – bigotry.
“The heresy of heresies was common sense.” George Orwell – 1984
Thank you, LoTM/ 92
Your “obey the law and from that all else follows” may be sufficient, and perhaps my qualifier of “only deliberative (UN PC) revision of it” is unnecessary, but I don’t think so, not given what passes for law these days and, very likely, in the months to come. Is all law by any Congress going to secure this country’s security, opportunity and prosperity?
I am getting prepared, probably in small ways. Got a pistol and a rifle. I’m storing a little food some food under the house, which plan to rotate into a foodshelf if we don’t need it first. I’m moving to hard assets, diversifying my holdings. Got some silver in my IRA, and have physical possession. I got it from Tulving, since someone asked.
Prudence dictates planning, yet I am mindful of this:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2010:29-31&version=KJV
BTW, “La Raza” Mexicans are hardly the norm, in my experience.
Cheers,
Jimbob
(Long-time lurker)
Wretchard:
“Fear is probably the last thing that needs selling.”
But, there is Hope.
…-
Charles Lamb:
“Hope* is charming, lively, blue-eyed wench, & I am always glad of her company, but could dispense with the visitor she brings with her, her younger sister, fear*, a white liver’d-lilly-cheeked, bashful palpitating, awkward hussey that hangs like a green girl at her sister’s apron strings & will go with her whithersoever she goes.”
(Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb)
Lifeofthemind,
I endorse both your cautionary note and your general thoughts about how to proceed from here. I can understand the doubts that many of our colleagues at BC have that a plan like yours will succeed. However, it seems to me that it gives the best chance for the kind of country we would like to live in. I can imagine that my 1000 gallon propane tank, my propane electric generator, my well pump, and my ammunition and fishing tackle would get me through for awhile here on the Minnesota-Canadian border. But I cannot imagine how we would then get back to a life that was not “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”.
Best wishes,
Jim
Gary Ogletree
PS. Forgot to mention I bought a rifle as insurance. A local gun dealer ordered 150 civilian versions of the AR-15 used by Army MPs.
Good on you but only if you get to a rifle range and practice and learn gun safety. Practice, practice and more practice.
Sell your used brass to someone at the club who reloads or trade for reloads.
Owning a gun without knowing it like the back of your hand and how to use it safely is like trying to fly an airplane without any lessons.
Both will get you killed or your friends and family killed.
Storm-Rider
“Another strategy, in addition to all the good advice above, is to continue working (possibly at a slower pace) after official retirement age – probably something the American Marxists have already factored into their calculations.”
You could do that, but work OFF the books. Work Cash or Barter only.
Papa Ray
Armageddon Rex
Wow, somebody knows the value of an optical sight.
My personal fav is the TA11C, mounted to a flat top 16″ precision AR it tracks perfectly with 75/77gr ammo (out to 800 meters!) but has the donut for CQB.
And the SN-3 USO, worth every cent and made in America (really)!
Good comments all. I am curious about LFMayor @63 regarding trying to get some of our losses back. What chance do we as investors have of a class action against the “Too big to Fail” to get our losses back due to thier lack of moral compass? just pie in the sky ?
Armageddon Rex
“Wow, somebody knows the value of an optical sight.
My personal fav is the TA11C,…”
Well, damn… so do I, but I find it hard to justify a thousand bucks (in the case of the TA11C)for optics.
But that’s just me, I’m a frugal ol’ man.
But I’m always keeping my eye out for a used one or one already on a good long gun and might be willing to do some trading.
Papa Ray
It is essential that our side — and by that I mean us as individuals — not let the electorate become complacent.
Well, I’ve attended tea parties (and a nicer, more well-behaved crowd you could not imagine. I’ve seen rowdier behavior at state fairs.) I’ve written my share of checks to GOP opponents of Obamacare, including one mailed off to Stupak’s challenger in the UP last Sunday. I don’t know what else I can do.
Remember the one-third rule: it’s been estimated that one-third of the colonists during the Revolution either took up arms or actively assisted the rebels, one third of the colonists were loyalists and many of them left for Canada, and one-third sat on their butts and did nothing. The Dems are banking on the antipathy of the masses.
The frightening thing is that none of us can really assert (yet) that they’re wrong, that they’re mistaken about the character and nature of Americans. We hope the November elections will prove them wrong – but what if, present company aside, the American character really has changed drastically and we’re the ones who are misreading it? That’s the fear that keeps me up at night.
During the horrible day of September 11, 2001 I remember having one optimistic thought flash through my brain. “PC is dead. It died today with the people in those planes and towers,” I thought. Who could possibly continue the conceit that non-Western cultures are superior to Western culture when Palestinians were cheering and passing out candy because people were dying in Lower Manhattan?
I thought I was looking at witnessing the end of one of the Left’s pet theories on 9/11. It never occurred to me on that day that PC would not only survive, but become even stronger.
So, I’ve become leery of making predictions. My best case scenario has the Dems overplaying their hand so much – amnesty, VAT, Cap and Trade – that the dullest of citizens wakes up and kicks the SOBs to the curb in November. But I don’t know. And most of the young people (with the exception of kids in the military) I know frighten me, because they have been so successfully indoctrinated by their teachers and so mollycoddled by their boomer parents that they are utterly detached from reality. They simply can’t conceive of a world where they won’t have cars and high tech toys and free-range chicken and someone to bail them out if they overextend themselves.
Armaggedon Rex: these sights you mention require batteries. Does it worry you that sometime in the future the batteries might not be available and your scope useless? Maybe old fashion glass scopes are better.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_economy_0_22/03/2010_115787
“State-controlled Hellenic Post Bank (TT) spent nearly 1 billion € last year to secure its positions against the possible bankruptcy of the Greek government”
the Greeks will always be surprising !
so governments bail out banks, banks refinance government debt, that’s OK for a state controlled bank !
must be some well shared rules for the aware elite !
Legal immigration should be limited to small numbers – limited to highly skilled people who would immediately be self-sufficient and contribute to American culture and GDP – creative individuals reaching with their own labor for life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
My Ellis Island forebears were not skilled – my Czech grandfather worked in NYC sweatshops before moving to the Midwest and saving enough to buy a small farm – and since he died in 1937, long before I was born, I’m not sure he was terribly creative. He was self-sufficient though, because when he arrived here in 1912, you had to be. No welfare programs, healthcare, or bilingual signs for him. My father spoke broken English when he started kindergarten and learned English in months -because he had to. He didn’t have even a trace of a foreign accent as an adult.
But of course, what is lacking now is the massive industrial engine that made it possible for my family to go from laborer/peasant (my grandfather) to blue collar factory worker/ management (my father) to college-educated professionals (my siblings and I) in the space of 60 years.
Alvin @ 113:
Trijicon sights utilize ambient light and beta particle radioactive decay from tritium, just like aviators watches during the 2nd World War. They don’t require any batteries.
The tritium illumination on Trijicon’s sights is usually guaranteed for 10 years.
The prototype sight was built in 1986, and its illumination is still glowing today.
Due to radioactive particle decay all Trijicon sights will lose their illumination eventually, but a 10+ year lifespan with zero battery changes works for me!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium_illumination
Marie-Claude: May I ask, is there any nostalgia for the franc? I remember feeling slightly sad when the Euro was implemented because the mark, the franc, the lira and so on had such history behind them. Even though it drove me crazy to try to figure out Belgian or Italian currency compared to the dollar. I was traveling without a calculator in hand and I am not terribly good at math. I realize that the Germans might miss the mark, not for sentimental reasons, but because it was famous for being solid currency…
#89 Arkroyal – thank you for the link. Read it all – info sinking in.
Storm-Rider,
Definitely Czarist, just look up the numbers.
America has swung between extremes in our immigration policy, with the door either wide open or slammed shut, based upon the perceived needs of our economy. For 20 years after WW-II we had what looks like a reasonable balance. Then Ted Kennedy created the nightmare we now have. This system relies chiefly on the concept of “family reunification” and encourages fraud, deceit, illegal immigration and “anchor babies.” We can return to a policy that offers hope to honest people offering loyalty and ambition to earn a place while encouraging those with talent or potential achievement to move here. There is reason to expect that we do not need to vastly reduce the number of legal immigrants. The need to return to the rule of law and system that ensures that legal immigrants are first considered on the basis of their expected benefit to America is something I support. My interpretation of that may be broader than yours but I hope that you would be satisfied with a return to a system that both worked and could enjoy broad political support.
I agree with you about making babies. Perhaps we could try an advertising campaign? “Make babies, it’s Fun.”
whiskey,
Snap out of your despair. It is a dead end.
Make something better. Repeat once a day.
Jim Nicholas,
Thank you for your kind words.
The worst case may happen. We should be prudently prepared. Eventually we will die. Until then let us live well standing on our feet and each with a smile on our face as examples of civilized achievement.
The wiki says that you live in the footprint of the bed of Lake Agassiz. When can you expect the special tax levy to offset the victims of colonialism who have been denied full access to peatlands connected with mesozoic formations around the world? You may find it mentioned between pages 850 and 1200 of any bill that comes out of Congress.
AKA,
to secure this country’s security, opportunity and prosperity
The only thing that secures those are not the laws of Congress but the people who elect that Congress. Wise laws help but they come from a wise people and do not create them. Work with your neighbors and get involved in your local schools. It is late but it is better to start than stare at a clock. If it turns out that it is to late then what have you lost?
Papa Ray @111:
If you don’t want to drop the dozen Ben Franklins on an optic for an AR you might examine one of these:
http://www.burrisoptics.com/xtrtactical1.html#10x
They aren’t as rugged as a Nightforce, but I honestly think the new Burris XTR tactical scopes are almost as clear as a Leupold. So close that I have difficulty telling the difference with my middle aged eyes. The current stable of Burris tactical XTR scopes seems to be just as rugged as anything comparable from Leupold, and they’re considerably cheaper at around $650-$700. They have a battery powered illuminated reticle and an extremely nice bullet drop compensator (BDC) built into the cross hairs.
http://www.burrisoptics.com/pdf/XTR_Ballistic556.pdf
The Burris XTR series come with their forever warranty, which is quite good in my experience and covers 100% replacement unless you do something unimaginably stupid like smashing your scope with a hammer or shooting it, or just losing it.
I don’t own one of these. I have fired a buddy’s rifle many times using one. If this scope had been available when I purchased my Nightforce NXS, I would have purchased the Burris instead and saved myself $600+ dollars.
If he reads this I’ll have to put up with weeks of sh–.
I really like the BDC on the XTR-14. My Nightforce has MILdots, and they work great, but the BDC eliminates some thinking and arithmetic at a time when you may be under enormous stress and not thinking clearly. Yes, I’m an engineer by training, but there are times I’d rather not do the math! That wonderful BDC minimizes one more thing that can cause a miss at a critical time.
If you don’t have an optic for your general purpose AR yet, and you want to spend less than a grand, the Burris XTR-14 is my recommendation.
Donna V,
Today I regret the Franc, though when the euro was launched we were sold it will make the export finance easier, understand globalisation of the finances through investments into european enterprises, one currency instead of 10 to 20 is a net gain with the banks exchange charges, and no border taxes. Also we ourselves found it more practical when travelling into the different countries.
None forecasted the nowadays mess with the trade of the governments debt ! Each country found its benefit, the businesses were going on their high speed ! But the different governments were hiding the dark side of the euphory. Only a few would acknoledge that the prices of the goods got higher. I still remember discussions with a Brit and a Hollander who told me that the euro was a too expensive operation, the Brit didn’t want that UK leaves the pound, and the Hollander was regretting his Florins, so I was thinking that they were euro sceptic, that we ought to wait a few more years to watch the success of the euro !
This operation of the unique money could have worked out if we hadn’t been governed by a elite ignorant of the businesses world and its obligations, by letting it spending more for appeasing the unions lobbies…
Therefore if we still had the Franc, we could be able to devaluate, and to freely collect taxes at our borders ; might be that we would have had lesser foreign investors with their big money, but our small and average enterprises would still be working at home, and their activity would not have been delocated into cheap labor places, which is the result of the anonym big investments that want always more short term gains.
The problem about making babies is that the responsible people have to (1) support their own babies and (2) support the babies of the irresponsible people, who become “entitled” to support because they have babies.
When you are required to feed the child of someone else before you can feed your own (you know, that money that Uncle Sam takes out of your paycheck) things change. If you know that you will be required to pay to educate the child of someone else before you can pay to educate your own, things change.
In the world of the welfare state the parasite is valued far more than the host because without the parasites the ruling class has no justification for its existence. Contrary to popular opinion, in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is not the King, he is considered to be a lunatic.
Life — It is not despair. I do not prefer to live as a discriminated minority in my own country, where before I was a majority. You may prefer to be in effect a White South African, or an Indian in East Africa, or a Chinese ancestry person in Indonesia or Malaysia, but I do not.
I prefer to live in a nation where my skin color and ancestry does not make me a second class citizen and convenient target for anyone with different skin color.
I don’t have a hundred million dollars lying around to flee to Switzerland. So I prefer to keep the nation the way it is, and if anything increase the number of Whites relative to non-Whites.
Certainly with government controlling everything from health care to education to daily life, only a fool would not want complete control of his own race of every lever of government, otherwise he will be a second or even third class person and piggy bank for others.
Perhaps you are so rich it does not matter, or prefer to believe everyone is good. I have no illusions — the great mass of Non-Whites wish to make me a second class citizen, such as Goodwin Liu. They don’t believe I even have a right to exist. People like Liu want me to simply be a second class citizen. Damien Williams would like to kill me (he nearly did Reginald Denny). That is the spectrum spread of the vast majority of non-Whites.
It would be fine and dandy if this were not so, but it is indeed so. You have to shout and pretend lalala that it is not, ignoring the evidence in front of your own nose. Orwellian double-think. As childish as a belief in the fictional Navi.
Donna V. 115,
Both sides of my family immigrated here during the eighteenth century. They were poor Southern Appalachian farmers; creative and self-sufficient. BTW; self-sufficiency is the surest possible measure of human creativity – self-sufficiency through the creativity of human labor and the fruits of labor – an essential part of our self-esteem and pursuit of happiness. Both my mother and father were born in log cabins without electricity or running water. My maternal grandfather was a subsistence farmer and ran moonshine still. My father’s log home burned down during a winter night – no insurance – no government bailout – his neighbors helped in the re-building – your neighbor was your insurance. I was raised poor; we lived from meal to meal. We were poor in property but not in spirit; we worked for our bread and were proud to do it.
Times have changed. We can no longer take in large numbers of immigrants because we are already straining our environment with over 300 million people. I don’t want to live like an insect in an insect colony, and I don’t wish this on my children or yours. Overpopulation is an immoral condition which can be averted by limiting legal immigration and undoing illegal immigration. The illegal immigrants of today are not assimilating; they are entitlement minded, tending to fall into our indigenous tax-eating neo-proletariat class, and thereby manipulated by Marxist type government re-distributive class struggle – you know – “Social Justice.” We are facing an invasion, and it will destroy the tax-paying American middle class, and thereby the American nation and the American Revolution.
Lifeofthemind 119,
I did look it up and it is true that most of the Russian immigration occurred during the Czarist period; so I’m guessing you might know how to play the balalaika. It is also true that a large second wave occurred during and after the Bolshevik Revolution – the “White Emigres.”
“A large wave of Russians immigrated in the short time period of 1917-1922, in the wake of October Revolution and Russian Civil War. This group is known collectively as the White emigres.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_American
Whiskey @ 123 is right about the tables being turned on the American middle class. It is worth some analysis. Both Fascism and Marxism are socialist systems; they socially engineer their populations for self-serving purposes. Both Fascist and Marxist governments engage in class struggle which ultimately is the justification for their existence. Fascists suppress any convenient minority (or group of minorities) for the benefit of themselves (Fascist ruling class) and the middle class majority – government managed class struggle with a predetermined losing class. This is relatively easy in comparison to Marxism and only requires coercive government control of enterprise. Marxism is more difficult but as history has shown, very successful (successful for the Marxist ruling class that is – the pigs of Animal Farm). Marxists suppress the middle class majority for the benefit of themselves (Marxist ruling class) and any convenient minority (or group of minorities) – the proletariat class – government managed class struggle with a predetermined losing class. This is of course more difficult to pull off; it requires coercive government ownership of enterprise. I believe it is not too difficult for Socialist ruling classes to reverse course as the need arises – depending upon the nature of prevailing social conditions – Red to Brown – Brown to Red – no problem. For example: Once a Marxist Ruling class has exhausted the middle class it is entirely possible that a need might arise to suppress a minority group; in that event Red becomes Brown.
Both Fascism and Marxism are evil; both are built on government of the elite, by the elite, for the elite. Both Fascism and Marxism require that some men are more equal than others. Both Fascism and Marxism destroy individuals sacred rights to life, liberty and private property (pursuit of happiness) based on class designation.
if we hadn’t been governed by a elite ignorant of the businesses world
Ah, well, the damned “elite ignorant of the businesses world” are screwing all of us.
We are facing an invasion, and it will destroy the tax-paying American middle class, and thereby the American nation and the American Revolution.
I agree. I retain hope that we will be able to repeal, at the very least, significant portions of this damnable Obamacare bill – but not if the Dems are able to push amnesty through. If they do that – well, it truly will be difficult not to despair then and say so long to the American dream.
I told an Obama-supporting nephew of mine the other day that he might end his days in an overcrowded hospital ward remembering a time when average Americans enjoyed luxuries like cars and single family homes and meals in nice restaurants. He laughed. He can’t imagine. That’s the problem – they can not even conceive of a less than prosperous America. My parents, raised during the Depression, would not have laughed.
Donna,
SEIU is doing their best to dash our dreams:
White SEIU organizers silence Hispanic Amnesty Demonstrators!
The Battle of the Mimes looks pretty silly in many ways. But beneath the makeup and balloons, the SEIU’s “silencing campaign” on Sunday showed a lot about the ability and willingness of one of the biggest money/muscle partners of the pro-amnesty forces to use well-orchestrated intimidation to keep debate from happening.
Perhaps surprising was that the main intent was not so much to silence me but to silence their pro-amnesty marchers. Once the Park Police finally required that the marchers be given the right to speak to us, we could see why SEIU didn’t want them to be heard. Pretty radical stuff.
—
Paul Ryan on Healthcare Reform
“Health care experts across the political spectrum acknowledge that a fundamental driver of health inflation is the regressive tax preference for employer-based health insurance. This discriminatory tax treatment lavishes the greatest benefit on the most expensive plans while providing no support for the unemployed, the self-employed or those who don’t get coverage from their employer.
Reform-minded leaders like Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, and Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, pushed legislative proposals that would directly address this issue. I helped write a plan that would replace the bias in the tax code with universal tax credits so that all Americans have the resources to purchase portable, affordable coverage that best suits their needs, with additional support provided for those with lower incomes. All these ideas, though, were dismissed early on, as they didn’t fit with the government-driven plan favored by the majority. But going forward it’s important that we reconsider this regressive tax issue.
Then, when helping Americans with pre-existing conditions obtain coverage, we should focus on innovative state-based solutions, including robust high-risk pools, reinsurance markets and risk-adjustment mechanisms. I intend to continue advancing true patient-centered reforms like attaching tax benefits to the individual rather than the job, breaking down barriers to interstate competition, and promoting transparency and consumer-friendly coverage options.
We should ensure that health care decisions are made by patients and their doctors, not by bureaucrats, whether at an insurance company or a government agency. By inviting market forces into health care, we can encourage a system where doctors, insurers and hospitals compete against one another for the business of informed consumers”
I had read 89′s link some time ago. I might have even linked here at BC.
Here is a snippet of it. I recommend reading it all.
When hard times come a knocking here in the good ol’ USA, many millions will have to “Grow up” or perish. One of the major problems for us older Americans will be our younger generations who know how to take, but not how to give.
We will be the ones that they take from.
Papa Ray
P.S. AR Thanks for the links, interesting they are.
“…no 6th sense is going to tell you that there is a guy pointing a gun at your back when you are trying to fix the water pump that just broke, or carrying a big heavy bag of dried beans you bought that morning.”
—
Papa,
A member of the fairer sex taught me that lesson very well!
Living within easy range of our son’s bulging gun safe, I feel fairly secure, his semi-auto 12 gauge representing a MAD weapon to my mind, on an island almost devoid of guns.
—
“When hard times come a knocking here in the good ol’ USA, many millions will have to “Grow up” or perish. One of the major problems for us older Americans will be our younger generations who know how to take, but not how to give.
We will be the ones that they take from.”
—
“ Children give more than they take.
And they take everything.”
– Dana Carvey
foont@12,
As I’ve tried to answer the question you posed here over the last 45 years, I’ve concluded, sadly, that a single party system must be the outcome, no matter who wins.
Continue to divide the spoils, or not.
Compromise with evil, or not.
Accept enslavement, or not.
The Left plays for keeps. If that is not the MO and objective of the conservatives, we’ve already lost all hope; and resistence is futile.
Here’s a touch of optimism in a very pessimistic thread. Gary Becker, one of the founders of the Chicago School of Economics, believes all is not lost:
“When I think of my children and grandchildren,” he says, “yes, they’ll have to fight. Liberty can’t be had on the cheap. But it’s not a hopeless fight. It’s not a hopeless fight by any means. I remain basically an optimist.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704094104575144011906222520.html?mod=WSJ_comments_MoreIn_Opinion
SEIU, Coalition Partners Launch Retirement USA Initiative
Initiative will work to establish principles for a visionary retirement income system
SEIU partnered with The Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare and the Pensions Rights Center to launch Retirement USA, an initiative working for a new retirement system that, along with Social Security, will provide universal, secure, and adequate income for future retirees.
—
Some evidence, Geoff:
Democratic Stimulus Haul is Almost Double Republicans
The Hill reported
“Let’s see…my mom (89) loses her Medicare Advantage,
my husband’s company thinks they will save $$ by dropping us and
my daughter’s gynecologist said she will be going to teach because she wasn’t going to let the govt come between her and her patients.
There’s a few details you should be able to understand.”
BY Alice Martin on 03/24/2010 at 15:02
Bigger Government?
The Financial Regulatory Reform bill will be debated this week in the Senate.
What is at stake is a permanent TARP.
Is this the reform we need?
Chris Dodd continues to serve the nation.
As expected:
“THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK”
OK, time to see who is who and who backs down.
Papa Ray
@ Papa’s link:
A reader writes:
Good post on the true cost of ObamaCare. But it gets better: the Dems are now shaking down CEOs who don’t get with the program. In the attached letter, Henry Waxman not only orders the CEOs of AT&T, Caterpillar, Deere & Co, and Verizon to testify before the Energy and Commerce Committee, but also to produce internal analyses and emails related to their statements. They don’t expressly subpoena the CEOs, so we can hope that they tell the Dems to GFY, though somehow I doubt that will happen.
The Dems sent these letters to the Republicans on the committee after 6pm tonight with no advance notice or prior cooperation.
Here is the letter Waxman sent to the Chairman of AT&T; the others are similar. Click to enlarge
—
Obama to set new Poverty Guidelines
But fast forward to today and the new definition of poverty takes on an entirely different meaning. No, this latest affront from our Pretender-In-Chief is yet another tool in his arsenal to, yep you guessed it, “spread the wealth.” As I said above, American families will be considered poor if their income falls below a certain specified income level.
But under the new Obama guidelines, there will be an “escalator clause” built into the equation. Really and honestly, I am not making this up. The “escalator clause” will rise directly in proportion to rises in the living standards of average Americans .
What exactly does this mean? Well, presently poverty is measured in how much purchasing power you have. In other words, how many groceries you can buy. Obama’s new system measures comparative purchasing power; or how many groceries you can buy relative to other citizens.
The problem might be endocrine disruptors in the water. I’m hearing ever more rumors that they queer the fish & salamanders.
There’s something in the water
A musical interpretation: Jethro Tull “A Fat Man”
Don’t want to be a fat man,
people would think that I was
just good fun.
Would rather be a thin man,
I am so glad to go on being one.
Too much to carry around with you,
no chance of finding a woman who
will love you in the morning and all the night time too.
Don’t want to be a fat man,
have not the patience to ignore all that.
Hate to admit to myself half of my problems
came from being fat.
Won’t waste my time feeling sorry for him,
I seen the other side to being thin.
Roll us both down a mountain
and I’m sure the fat man would win.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1RPvjlshOU