Links on a Potential Collapse

This post at Capitol Hill Daily talking the "Inevitable Economic Default" led to this one at the Western Center for Journalism regarding the aftermath.

First, I think that Mr. Biancuzzo correctly identifies the problem as a Federal Reserve-induced bond-bubble:

By doing so, they essentially solved the problem with the same exact measures that created the problem in the first place.

They created another bubble.

Only this time, it’s within our Federal Reserve. And when it pops, like every bubble does, it will take us all down with it.

This is what Denninger refers to as Bondzilla, the monster that awaits just over the horizon.

It looks like Mr. Brown at CHD is going to make a series out of his thoughts on what will happen in the wake of a government default/collapse, so it might be interesting to follow.

I don't really think even a default will actually collapse the government.  A lot of bad things can happen in the wake of a major financial crisis, especially when there are literally millions depending on a government check to eat, pay the rent, electricity and cable.

I have referred to the Argentine model.  One big difference is that we here are the United States.  Many of the states are well-governed and well-funded.  Parts of even the worst states are strong and solid.  Illinois has two major problems -- Chicago and East St. Louis, but Springfield, in which I have spent much time for work, is a fairly stable little government town.  Most of Illinois is just good farmland.  Northern California and the Imperial Valley could take care of itself.  Los Angeles will probably burn, but I would not be surprised to see San Francisco make it through all right.

You could get someone like Obama or Clinton stepping up to try and play FDR or Lincoln, seeking despotic authority on the grounds of quelling chaos and unrest.  People might go for it.

As I may have mentioned, I attended a retirement seminar a couple of weeks ago.  One of the question was whether or not the Social Security system was sound.  The presenter, who is a very nice man, said that it was.  As long as those who are working are paying in, there is money to send out the checks.  But -- old people like me can sit and scream, "It's not an entitlement!  We paid in!"  all we want,  we are soon not going to have the votes or any other leverage to prevent the flow of funds from being cut off.  If I were going to predict one big impact of a default, that would be it:  an end to the Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid system. 

Massachusetts Gun Control Success Story

Two sources among many. 

The USA Today report is fairly even-handed. 

The New York Magazine version is a little more cynical.

As Hartmann of NYM points out in her article, if there was only one gun belonging to the older brother, it makes more sense that the punks murdered Sean Collier for his weapon:

Authorities are issuing other corrections about the manhunt. Now they say they only recovered one gun, believed to be used by Tamerlan Tsarnaev, while initially it was reported that they found three.

Three and one are both odd numbers.  Anybody could count one gun three times.  It happens. 

Frankly, I'm getting a little tired of the "fog of war" excuse. This is not a war, at least not a war of citizens against police, though it is starting to look a little like the police are warring against the people.

No shots were fired at the homeowner who discovered the fugitive in his boat.  No shots were fired at the police who riddled the boat with bullets for no particular reason.  What?  Did they think he had a dog in the boat? 

Armed with cooking utensils, firecrackers, and a handgun, two amateurish Muslim terrorists disrupted one of the biggest sporting events in the country, murdered four people, maimed numerous others, and completely shut down one of our oldest and largest metropolitan areas at a cost of millions of dollars.  Despite the combined efforts and expertise of the Boston police, the Massachusetts state police, the National frederic-chopin Guard, the FBI, and the CIA, "authorities" cannot even get the most basic of facts correct in their press releases. 

You know who needs to give up their "assault weapons" and "high-capacity magazine clips"?  It ain't us. 

Mistakes Were Made

The LAPD coughs up $4.2 million in a settlement to the two women who were mistaken for Chris Dorner:

Police had been on the lookout for Dorner's gray Nissan Titan truck, and officials have said the officers opened fire after mistaking the blue Toyota Tacoma the women were driving for Dorner's truck.

Cut the cops who did this some slack.  They had probably just seen Cars 2 where Mater the tow-truck goes undercover disguised as a limo.  Mistaking a blue Tacoma for a gray Titan -- hey, they both begin with 'T' -- is one thing, but:

Emma Hernandez, 71, was shot twice in the back and her daughter, Margie Carranza, 47, suffered hand injuries from flying debris when two officers opened fire on them before dawn on February 7.

 Mrs Carranza was hit by debris, but SEVENTY-ONE YEAR-OLD Mrs. Hernandez was visible enough to the officers to take two shots in the back -- probably through the body of the truck, which may be why she is still alive.

Denninger and his commenters loose the dogs of mockery better than I can.

For the thugs running the police union and mau-mauing the city hall suits, the answer to this will be more "training".  Stupidity, arrogance, and a tyrannical disregard for the lives and property of honest citizens -- you know, the people you are supposed to "serve and protect" -- cannot be cured by watching "Adam-12" videos in the training room.  The answer that would do some good is jail time in the general population.  The shooters are incompetent, but they also know that the department, their buddies, and the union will act as a buffer against any actual punishment.  The worst that will happen is that they will be terminated with a reduced pension.  In fact, the worst has already happened to the LA tax-payers.

Dorner was a punk who murdered innocent people.  If he had confined his attacks to armed police officers, he might have had a shot at being viewed as some kind of twisted anti-authority quasi-folk-hero.  But Dorner, apparently not too unlike the officers he maligned and threatened, was a big, mouthy loser who was too dumb and lazy to manage to remain in the ranks of an organization renown for its dumbness and laziness, not to mention its corruption.

Here is government at its finest.  There are a lot of good, decent, intelligent police officers out there.  There are also some corrupt and stupid men and women who think a uniform, a badge and a gun or a government title or position of some sort makes them the masters of the hapless citizens who are unfortunate enough to get in their way. 

Lying to Congress

Did you know that Hillary Clinton was one of the Congressional staff attorneys working to expose Richard Nixon in the Watergate investigation?  Can you tell me how many people died as a result of the Watergate break-in?

Hillary Clinton lied to Congress.  She lied publicly in her testimony.  She lied under oath. 

House GOP faults Clinton.

Saying "GOP" makes it sound political.  This is the report of a Congressional committee.  Yes, I'm sure the Democrats on the committee disagreed with the conclusions, but the facts are not really in dispute.  From the CBS link -- chosen because it's not Fox:

... Clinton approved security reductions at the consulate, pointing to evidence such as an April 2012 State Department cable bearing her signature.

I'm pretty sure Clinton said this didn't happen, but there is her signature.  She lied.

... after a Sept. 15, 2012 meeting, administration officials removed references to the likely participation of Islamic extremists.

The report also contradicts administration claims that the talking points were changed to protect classified information. None of the email exchanges reviewed ever mentioned a concern about classified information, according to the report.

There is no question about this.  Emails were altered and both the altered emails and the originals were found in the archives.  The Obama administration tried to divert attention to the Youtube video so as not to lose the positive spin from the "Arab Spring" narrative and Obama continuing support for the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies in Libya. 

This was a coverup.  Islamic radicals, armed and funded by American dollars, attacked a U.S. consulate and murdered American citizens.  Obama refused to call it terrorism.  The media covered for him and Clinton, and we are stuck with this despicable weasel for four more years.  Not that Romney would have been much of an improvement, but at least the media would have attacked him. 

Knives Save Lives

From Blade magazine's "Blog of Steel":  Knives Save Lives, Period.

It's a nice write-up by EMT and former New Hampshire state representative, Jenn Coffey, regarding the usefulness of knives in emergency situations.  Coffey is also advocating for automobile dealerships to help their customers and themselves by including something like a CRKT Exitool with a dealer logo in the vehicles they sell.

I had never paid attention to the Exitool because I always have a blade or two on me, not mention a flashlight of some kind.  I can see, though, where it would be something I could attach to a seat belt strap for use by my wife, daughter or granddaughter in the cars they usually drive. 

I was driving home one night many years ago as it began to snow.  I was hurrying a little trying to beat the storm, which was supposed to include significant accumulation, but the temperature was starting to drop and ice was already forming on parts of the road surface.  I discovered that when the little 2WD Ford Ranger I was driving broke loose and went into a series of spins.  I went airborne over the edge of a fairly high embankment.  (I don't know why they say "airborne".  The air ain't bearin' nothin'; it's all gravity and forward momentum.)  Anyway, I crashed pretty impressively and rolled, coming to rest upside down, hanging from the harness.  The passenger side was mashed up, but my side was not too bad.  All I had to do was press the button on my seat belt, whereupon I dropped to the roof, opened the door and got out. 

Lessons from that?  I always assume that if it's anywhere near freezing, the road is slick.  I no longer buy rear-wheel-drive only pickups.  I always buckle my seat belt.  And I always try to have something at hand that would help me find and fight my way out of a vehicle if I should crash. 

On Cop-Hating

As a result of what looked much like martial law imposed on Boston last week following a pitched gun battle between police and a couple of Muslim punks, a lot of people out here have been critical of the police.  To counter that, several bloggers and others have pointed to the actions of one police officer in particular who delivered milk to a family during the lockdown.  As one of the comment there at Lagniappe's Lair says, there was probably a lot of this going on.

This retired police officer gives a good defense of the actions taken from his perspective.  It's readable and makes good sense.  I agree that the police were in a bind and would be criticized either way -- certainly everybody would be on their case, calling them incompetent goons if the wounded Muslim punk had managed to hurt someone else.  No one could know that the fight had been taken out of him.  The police had to assume that it was not, that he still intended to actively continue on his chosen path of death and destruction.   

Despite my jab at police unions and my utter disdain for public sector unions in general, I am quite familiar on a personal level with the courage and dedication of individual police officers.  I have stood in a line with and fought alongside law enforcement officers.  For me it was a job, a paycheck for a brief period rather than a career choice.  Were a bunch of them losers?  Sure.  But when you needed back up, you didn't really care all that much which ones showed up, because they would all pitch in to bust heads or pull somebody off you just the same.  When it was all over, you might have to help them write their reports in those days when the only spell-checker was the guy sitting across from you, but we got the job done and nobody was too badly hurt or dead.   

So let's put aside for the moment, how we feel about Officer Friendly or Deputy Fife, and focus on the legality and more importantly the constitutionality of what was done in Boston.  It's perfectly legal for a state to call out the National Guard in the evident of an emergency.  Technically, this was an emergency.  Mad bombers were on the loose.  We'll give them that one. 

Were there legal and constitutional grounds for a lockdown?  No.  Did it make the job the police were doing easier to the extent that the citizens of Watertown complied with that request?  Yes.  Requesting people to stay off the streets and remain in their homes, if possible, was a reasonable if somewhat extreme measure.  But if the authorities demanded that they stay in -- and that seems to be what some are saying, it is pure police state action.  People who were advised of the risk and issues involved and were willing to be mistaken for a perpetrator, as the ladies delivering newspapers during the Dorner manhunt, should be allowed to go about their business.  I think the police and the state were wrong here.

Involuntary searches of residences appear to have been conducted by the police.  If people were forced out of their homes and forced to permit law enforcement officers to enter and search those homes -- if that took place, it cannot be justified constitutionally.  Seeing a fleeing perpetrator enter a residence and pursuing that individual is very different than saying a perpetrator might have been seen in the "neighborhood" and then forcibly trespassing.  Did the police do that in Watertown?  Were weapons confiscated?

I don't think it is cop-hating to be concerned about increasing militarization of local police forces.  I don't think it is cop-hating to question whether actions are constitutional.  I don't even think it is cop-hating to suggest that a lot of those guys were out there and happy to be getting the overtime -- although I will admit that given the fact one officer was killed and another nearly so, that is a rather insensitive and cruel joke.

I do not need the police to take care of me, look out for me, or protect me.  I can do that myself.  They do a lot of thankless, routine work under difficult conditions.  They take a lot of harassment from the people they are paid to help.  They make mistakes.  Some have exemplary character and are worthy of our respect.  Some are thugs.  So long as the police remember they are working for the taxpayers and not the tax-collectors, we should all be able to get along fine. 

We're Already Dead!

AD points us to FreedomWorks on the founding of Earth Day:  

"In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution… by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half." — Life magazine

Tanning beds are our only hope.

"At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it's only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable." — Ecologist Kenneth Watt

At least nitrogen composes 78.08% of Earth's atmosphere, as opposed to the less than 0.97% that includes carbon dioxide.  

"By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate… that there won't be any more crude oil. You'll drive up to the pump and say, ‘Fill 'er up, buddy,' and he'll say, ‘I am very sorry, there isn't any.'" — Ecologist Kenneth Watt

Gas stations attendants have been wiped out. 

"[One] theory assumes that the earth's cloud cover will continue to thicken as more dust, fumes, and water vapor are belched into the atmosphere by industrial smokestacks and jet planes. Screened from the sun's heat, the planet will cool, the water vapor will fall and freeze, and a new Ice Age will be born." — Newsweek magazine

 Water vapor is falling from the sky!  Run for your lives!

Forgot to add, for our environmental Cassandras, the Firefly quote, from "Out of Gas".

River Tam speaking to Shepherd Book:  You're afraid we're going to run out of air.  That we'll die gasping.  But we won't.  That's not going to happen.  [Book looks up with a glimmer of hope.]  We'll freeze to death first.