Grim tidings.

The real tragedy of this financial crisis is that people will die - MarketWatch

I found this story checking on the stock market at MarketWatch, a totally reputable financial news site. This is not a surprise, though. The food price crisis has been building since spring, and as the writer of the article attests, it isn't going to get better any time soon.

New York Times runs soft news story about Survival Preparedness

The New Survivalism - New York Times

OK.

People (friends and family) used to joke with my husband and I about some of our assertions regarding the state of the world, and being prepared to handle anything.

In this article, The New York Times isn't exactly coming out and supporting people taking "survival steps," but, eerily, it does not mock or denigrate them, either.

I feel sort of vindicated, however...how could anyone feel vindicated about civilization collapsing?

When rich people (well, people richer than I am) are storing food and building cabins in the desert, it's time to start taking responsibility for your future and doing the same things you would do if a)you knew something big and bad was going to happen, and b)you knew FEMA wouldn't exactly be around to help (and if they were, you'd be terrified).

On such a pretty Sunday afternoon it's surreal to consider these things, but now would be the time to take stock of your food on hand and how much crap you have in your closets that isn't necessary for survival--and what you can go and buy NOW that would be immensely helpful in any situation for the survival of loved ones, pets, or for bartering to keep freaks from hurting/stealing from you.

He makes sense to me.

Krugman and the Nobel

Krugman and the Nobel

Krugman is interesting enough to listen to when he's talking; he doesn't make economic concerns complex, nor does he talk over his audience in his descriptions and assumptions. That being said...

I don't agree with anything he has to say. I wish Rachel Maddow would have someone else on her show that was just as understandable that would discuss Austrian Economic Theory--and that also did not have a not-so-secret political ambition.

Keynesian economics only works in a socialist or totalitarian society. Krugman loves Keynesian theory because he loves all its intricacies and problems. Math is fun when economy is based on debt!

ARG!

Unfortunately, the participants in the system must be completely controlled for it to work. If this is the crash of the whole model that started with the economy being removed from the gold standard in 1971, it's all over for the U.S.A. as we know it.

No amount of bail-out, posturing, finger-pointing or giving away more pretend money is going to work. The government obviously doesn't have any more money since you the taxpayer spends (via the US government) about $10,000 a year (not including the war or emergency spending). Prepare for the worst of times for a long time. The more the government meddles in this, the worse it's going to be for a lot longer.

Oh hell. It's worse already. Never mind the baby boomers getting ready to retire.

I caught Krugman whining on TV today about how England already put their cash up into their banks and the USA didn't. Hint: England is already a socialist country. Plus the richest woman in the world lives there; I'll bet she loaned the government some money--for a price.

Troops Are Deployed on U.S. Streets

Thousands of Troops Are Deployed on U.S. Streets Ready to Carry Out Crowd Control | AlterNet

This is a short, scary article outlining the threat of the U.S. Army in our streets. They tried to spin it so sweetly in the Army press article I posted previously...

"If the President directs the First Brigade to arrest a bunch of voters, what would stop him?"

"Nothing. It would end up in courts but the action would have been taken."

"If the President directs the First Brigade to kill civilians, what would stop him?"

"Nothing."

"What would prevent him from sending the First Brigade to arrest the editor of the Washington Post?"

"Nothing. He could do what he did in Iraq -- send a tank down a street in Washington and fire a shell into the Washington Post as they did into Al Jazeera, and claim they were firing at something else."

So, posse comitatus really is dead...

Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1 - Army Times

Just in time for the new People's Republic of the United States, we have the military as a police force. Folks, this is what the National Guard usually does. That this directive is being implemented should scare the CRAP out of you:

The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.

Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.

In the meantime, they’ll learn new skills, use some of the ones they acquired in the war zone and more than likely will not be shot at while doing any of it.

They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.
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Training for homeland scenarios has already begun at Fort Stewart and includes specialty tasks such as knowing how to use the “jaws of life” to extract a person from a mangled vehicle; extra medical training for a CBRNE incident; and working with U.S. Forestry Service experts on how to go in with chainsaws and cut and clear trees to clear a road or area.
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“I was the first guy in the brigade to get Tasered,” said Cloutier, describing the experience as “your worst muscle cramp ever — times 10 throughout your whole body.

“I’m not a small guy, I weigh 230 pounds ... it put me on my knees in seconds.”

The brigade will not change its name, but the force will be known for the next year as a CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force, or CCMRF (pronounced “sea-smurf”).

“I can’t think of a more noble mission than this,” said Cloutier, who took command in July. “We’ve been all over the world during this time of conflict, but now our mission is to take care of citizens at home ... and depending on where an event occurred, you’re going home to take care of your home town, your loved ones.”

Vote Switchers

The People That Betrayed the U.S.

The link above will take you to a list of the representatives that switched from voting no to voting yes on the giant nightmare $700 Billion (um, I mean $810 Billion) bail out. Do what you can to make sure they DON'T get re-elected; because of them the United States exists in name only. This morning, we are all officially slaves to the debt that these members of congress thought we should own. Here's something to think about:

I sincerely believe... that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale. — Thomas Jefferson, 1816

Welcome to the People's Republic of the United States.