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Frustrated America - Monetizing Misery
As I've written extensively in my lead-in papers to this Second Depression, this one's going to be different than its 1930's prototype. It's going to be longer, worse, and cause more pain and suffering than any that have gone before it. Not that any individual leader in government would will such a thing - in fact, quite the contrary: all give lip service to fighting all enemies, foreign and domestic, but then miss the last point; namely taking a good look at themselves.
In case you've been sleeping, America is going down the crapper by fits and starts due to the fact that America's Framers had in mind the design for an 'independent' kind of America, one where self-sufficiency, freedom, minimal governance, and oh, did I mention the pursuit of happiness? was the goal.
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I've proposed that there are seven major physical support systems which define the physical quality of one's life and that each of these has be undergoing dramatic change over the last year to the point where it's tearing the country apart despite the best intentions of those who would pretend to lead us.
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Food: Over the past year, millions of American families had to make the once 'unthinkable' decisions - "Do I feed my family or make this house payment?"
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Shelter: Thanks to the government-sponsored (starting with Greenspan et al and their 'easy money, non-regulation of housing lenders) we're still in the opening portion of the Second Depression with housing prices down nationally almost 33% (*S&P/Case-Schiller this week) since most markets peaked in mid-2006.
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Transportation: Ford skirted financial death, but GM and Chrysler have been bankrupted.
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Communications: Television, once mandated by the Communications Act of 1934 to serve the public need, interest, and concern, can now no longer be had "free". You have to either buy an analog -digital converter, or put on the yoke of a monthly cable or satellite bill to get your news. The corporate hijack of communications is nearly complete. Where else, but in America, would the public supposedly have 'free access' to what goes on in Washington, but then have to pay to have a corpgov 'provider' move the signal to the home? And it doesn't stop there: Censorship of the internet is coming along nicely too, in places like Australia which are test beds for the limited or corporate domination of sheepish people.
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Energy: We've been fighting in Iraq - ostensibly for freedom - yet strangely as the energy deals come together for the multinationals, the war 'winds down'. It's a shocking coincidence.
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Environment: Health care reform is coming, along with taxes on cow-farts, or anything else that Al Gore and his cronies can sell as ways to 'Save the earth from global warming'. Reality check: It's summer. And in case you didn't notice, the "Health overhaul in Senate bill imposes penalty on those refusing affordable medical coverage." Affordable? In whose book? Meantime, notice how the 'avoid crowds or swine flu might get'cha' meme effectively killed the "Tea Parties"? Might as well set up an exchange to trade wife-beating credits while we're at it.
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Finance: The country is essentially broke. Unbelievable as it is, the people who are trying to monetize misery are still spending far beyond the ability of the country to pay - unless, of course, they plan a massive hyperinflation starting as early as late fall this year. Of course, that would fit nicely, since hyperinflation now won't take as much equity out of the pockets of the PowersThatBe since the weakest of our countrymen have already been foreclosed upon before paying back their mortgages with hyper inflated (thus widely available cheaper money) will be one of those fire exits that's been conveniently chained shut.
Not like UrbanSurvival or the IndependenceJournal (mirror site) is the only place you'll sense the rage.
"Hi George,
It's after midnight and I'm frustrated beyond belief in my own country! Last week the House passed the despicable Carbon Tax and Control bill under dubious conditions, and the SINate is now talking about forcing us all to have health insurance against our will. It's so un-American I don't even know what to do anymore - these cretins are stealing us blind, then forcing us to live in "approved" houses and forcing us to be registered and insured! We are not cars!
I suppose they figure that it's summer and nobody will notice........
I just don't know where to turn anymore - it seems that the system can't fall fast enough for me. As an autonomous human, I've never had health insurance, refusing it at every turn. NOT having it keeps me alert, since I know I can die from a single mistake. I have and will continue to refuse hospitalization and most "care", taking full responsibility for my own health. Surprisingly or not, I'm your age and in good health, and I work hard on my own stuff each day.
Now I find that marketable title for our homes will be taken without compensation - certainly a gross violation of the fifth amendment, though not without precedent. The following links clarify if you haven't seen them already...
I read the Carbon Tax bill when it was only 1100 pages and haven't found an up to date copy of this garbage - even though I doubt most congresscritters read any of it. There are too many laws to fight - it seems there should be a moratorium on all change until we can catch up. Then maybe just one law a year, with a month between final form and voting in either house. That way we'd know what we are dealing with. It seems that if the bills haven't been read, then the vote is invalid anyway. Obviously politics doesn't work - does anything? I've already stopped earning money(and paying associated taxes) voluntarily since there's no profit left in it.
Or maybe - per Janis Joplin - "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.."
At this rate, we'll become the new North Korea, full of starving citizens and pariah state of the world. Maybe that's the plan.
If there's any hope left - please share - I'm doing my best and will be fine without the meddlers. Is there any hope at all? Is there any reason to do anything positive at all other than just enjoy the moment, squander my wealth, and max out my cards?
Thanks again for all your work,"
Bankster Field Day!
This reader email is one of just hundreds I've received over the past couple of months - almost all of them going to the idea that "We're good Constitution-loving Americans and what happened to the Country that we fought and died for? The Framers never had in mind what's going on in the world today - where special interests have made millionaires out of virtually all of our 'leaders' who even have their own retirement and insurance plans - separate and apart from what's good enough for the electorate.
Am I the only one who understands that 'equal protection' under the Constitution is supposed to be more than a catchy positioning statement?
A reader in the Southeast shows his anger at the banksters when he notes (in previous emails) that not only are they trying to restrict credit (and up card rates) to get every last drop of blood from every penny of debt, but that they are right now actively denying credit and loans to what in previous times would have been superb lending opportunities. Read this carefully: The Banksters are restricting credit in order to push the country further into Depression 2...
"George, FYI I have been shopping for an equipment loan for several months now.
Our credit scores are 753 and 799. I am told by loan brokers these are very good scores.
Our net worth is north of 2 mill. We owe $120,000, zero interest, on three pieces of Kubota [farm] equipment.
We have a letter from the ********** state department of mining that says that we do not need a permit to sell sand and gravel. We have a 75 mile radius around the farm that gives us a monopoly on sand because of hauling costs. Sand sells for $36 a ton. We have a sand and gravel deposit in the middle of our ********** acre farm in the amount of 4+ million tons. Our cost of production with a $400,000 loan at 7%, amortized over 7 years, including all costs is $.50 per ton. Sand and gravel are as basic to civilization as any commodity you can name short of food.
We have been unable to find $400,000 (fully collateralized by equipment) for this project after months of looking by two competent loan brokers.
The local banksters will loans us $400,000 on the first deed of trust on the farm. Considering the value of the farm (comparative sales, large acreage, 3/4 mile river frontage, 3/4 mile highway frontage) is $2,500 per acre, $1,650,000 with no consideration for improvements, $*%^&^%* banksters think we are all IDIOTS.
They want it all and they want it now. Any suggestions?"
None! Except I'd offer this as just another example of how the banking industry is causing - deliberately - the worsening crisis. It's all being orchestrated by the PTB to see how much they can get away with this time around. The old Hegelian dialect at work: First you plan your agenda, then you create a crisis, then you force acceptance of your solution. Dress it up as thesis, antithesis, and synthesis and most folks won't get it.
If you have any ideas, please pass them along. This is a fellow who has - as he notes - good credit and a marvelous opportunity to build a new business. But, the long and short of his predicament serves to illustrate that banksters used to beg him to go into debt and today - as they drive the country down Depression road - they won't even give him the time of day without title to his Life's work promised.
Although hopefully I won't need it for a couple of years, this weekend's Peoplenomics report (out Sunday afternoon) spells out my answer: Each of us developing a Personal Constitution since the one that was provided by the Framers is being shredded in Washington.
Bucked: As In Rhymes with...
My guess that hyperinflation is the way out of the collapse of America come into clearer focus this morning as Bloomberg reports that "India joins Russia, China in Questioning U.S. Dollar."
Journalistic Prowess
Reader spied...
"This paragraph from the Guardian UK gave me a huge chuckle this morning. Kathryn and Heather deserve a big raise for their clever use of The King's English....
"While optimism regarding the overall business situation remained firmly negative, according to the CBI, the rate of decline had slowed on that in recent quarters. However, business volumes fell at the fastest rate since March 1991, but are expected to start to rise over the next three months."
Up, down, and nowhere...all at the same time, huh? Works for us...
Palin Rambles Out
I watched the resignation video of Alaska's governor Palin and after listening to it, what I walked away with was a sense of confusion. Wonder how many cups of coffee she had? A high speed flurry of...uh....disconnected phrases.
If she were going to run for president, why not say so?
Ever go to a conference room meeting and see a colleague caught completely unprepared? And to make matters worse they don't have the nerve to say "Not ready" and let it go? Instead they go off into gibberish -- which can be mighty entertaining, but it doesn't move the ball? That's the Palin...er...'speech'.
I'll just put this down as another one of the predictive linguistics "strange disappearances" for the summer.
Will she and her family just 'disappear' off the public screen, or will she run for president? Keep your eye on the greedy old party - a hint would be if they ask for their wardrobe back.
Terrible Tuesday or Interbabble?
(Definition) Interbabble: n. (also v. as in 'interbabbling") Stories on the 'net which are endlessly frightening and entertaining, but which never work out but serve to waste your time when you should really be focuses on much more important, longer-term actions to improve your future...
Besides anger at the current state of affairs in America, a large collection of emails that can be lumped under the heading "Watch out for July 7th" have been landing in my inbox. Here's a typical story that gets pinned along with the email: "Crop circle depicts solar eruptions hitting Earth of July 7th."
This 7/7 date has been recycled on the net innumerbabble (sic) times - so much so that a reader writes:
About 7/7/05. A recent BBC program was put out to debunk this video and the narrator. Unfortunately, all it did was put it into the consciousness of the UK public sending the google video viewing through the roof.
Whoever is flying those little 'orbs' around that make crop circles seems to be playing the 7/7 meme, too, at least ifs you buy the headline that "Crop Circle depicts solar eruptions hitting Earth on July 7th". Looks more like fallout in 8-lunar months, but that's just my take on it.
Not to blow all this off as interbabble, but I won't be hiding under the bed Tuesday...
If you really want something to worry about, pick a year like 2036...
"99942 Apophis (pronounced /əˈpɒfɪs/, previously known by its provisional designation 2004 MN4) is a near-Earth asteroid that caused a brief period of concern in December 2004 because initial observations indicated a small probability (up to 2.7%) that it would strike the Earth in 2029. Additional observations provided improved predictions that eliminated the possibility of an impact on Earth or the Moon in 2029. However, a possibility remains that during the 2029 close encounter with Earth, Apophis would pass through a gravitational keyhole, a precise region in space no more than about 600 meters across, that would set up a future impact on April 13, 2036. This possibility kept the asteroid at Level 1 on the Torino impact hazard scale until August 2006. It broke the record for the highest level on the Torino Scale, being, for only a short time, a level 4, before it was lowered.[5]...
Now, that's a worry worth worrying on. If the earthquakes don't get us first....mind you.
Unstoppable
WHO says that swine flu is 'unstoppable' according to a BBC report.
Call me a latter day Luddite, but you know, with intercontinental air travel comes what? (Diseases, you ninny! Such as swine/novel/hybrid flu, all of which pale in comparison to the most dangerous disease of all: globalism.)
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Coping: Take Your Beatings Like a Prince...
Independence? For whom? A bit of history and a fine idea for America:
"George, the Fourth of July is today. That is supposed to be Independence Day. Unfortunately it is a day that also makes my heart heavy because it reminds me of what we have lost. An idea occurred to me that might be able to help our nation. Some time ago the European royalty had something called a whipping boy. The whipping boy was someone who took the beating for the prince when the prince acted badly. One can imagine with little trouble that people who can bear no consequence for their poor actions (because their whim is law) can't help but be morally challenged. I point to our "properly elected" and appointed government officials as my case in point, since our constitution (the spirit of moral law) is sadly irrelevant today. Perhaps if a few volunteers where publicly whipped (and properly attended to by medical doctors afterwards,) it would vicariously help our modern princes through sympathetic resonance, like it seemed to for the princes of yesteryear. A volunteer could be made up to look somewhat like one of our politicians after lets say 500 constitutional infringements or unethical actions. The volunteer could then read a shortened form of the crimes for which he would be whipped, bless the "prince," then take the whipping. I'm thinking around 500 misdeeds as the minimum or 1, we might run out of whipping boys, or 2 the focus would be lost in a confusing roar of activity. I know sympathetic resonance works, and the idea at least has some merit. I would actually volunteer to be a whipping boy once every couple of years on the mere hope that this would help my country or ensure our future, provided the whipping boy could remain anonymous."
Know what we need in Washington? How's about "Jack The Whipper?"
Around the Ranch: Weld, Weld Now
Along with finishing up a lot of smaller projects around the ranch on Friday, I took a little time to whack off a couple of sections of pipe and some rebar (5/8th's & 3/8th's) and welded up some tripod umbrella holders which should shade my hammock on my new deck I was telling you about a while back...Tell me if this doesn't look like pure Americana, huh?
Not sure which of the umbrella tripods looks best...the one which has the supports at the top of the pipe, or the one with the support a couple of inches down. Whatever. I intend having at least one glass of ice water in this lash-up today.
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A sincere thank you to the 2-million Americans who are still at war, not to mention the police, fire, and medical crews that keep 300-million people safe on major holidays. Safe -- that is -- from everything but Congress, fireworks accidents, and sunburns. Oh, and ourselves.
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