George Rebane
The National Weather Service is buying tens of thousands of rounds of jacketed hollow point 40 caliber bullets as reported by infowars.com. It is the latest government department to start packing heat, and joins a disconcerting number of other government units (e.g. Dept of Education) that have no obvious use for deadly force that are now arming themselves. I reported on this before (here), and note that everyone is quite sanguine about a sudden increase in such huge and curious arms and ammo purchases. What’s going on? (H/T to a RR reader for this alert.)
[Update2] Russ Steele reports that the above report was due to a government clerical error. See his 1:20pm comment below for details. Unfortunately no such retractions have been issued for the other departments strapping on their guns and grenades.
And now we hear that the Dept of Homeland Security is adding to its previously reported purchase of 450 million semi-auto pistol rounds with another 750 million rounds that include several calibers including 357 magnum. The putative purpose is to prepare for massive civil unrest in the United States. A referenced report on all this can found here.
Europe’s major countries are all considering massive new taxes to stave off national bankruptcies – and, yes, that includes Germany. These range from the standard increase of tax rates, to asset taxes on the variously defined ‘rich’, to one-off (or so they say) huge tax bills that would suck out an additional 10% of the countries’ GDPs. All this is necessary because, as predicted, the bills for socialism are coming due. The astute reader will recall my reminders over the years of the unsustainability of socialism (led by nationalized healthcare, public employee pensions, and repressive employment regulations). Hearing of this, our leftwing readers will merely readjust their blindfolds, and up the volume on their collectivist mantras. Nevertheless, for an excellent analysis of the European crisis, here is The Economist’s fictional ‘Plan B’ memo to Angela Merkel on the matter.
Did everyone catch the big propaganda show for Britain’s National Health Service so prominent in the Olympics’ opening ceremony. Here’s a bit of socialism that’s totally on life support, and bolstered only by massive borrowing and cash transfers in the nation’s budget. These heroic efforts cannot last long, and the pound will be pounded into oblivion. A smile (grin?) came to many faces as one TV commercial by GE featured that company contributing scores of incubators to Britain’s nationalized healthcare system that would save so many of their little babies. I didn’t know Great Britain had now achieved third world status that requires such contributions to keep up appearances.
As an aside, you’ll recall that low/no tax GE is one of Obama’s picked winners, and the conglomerate works cheek by jowl with the administration in implementing its global economic strategy. It would be embarrassing for the National Health Service to suffer any premature black eyes – like a high infant mortality rate – as the poster child for Obamacare. So Government Enterprises (‘We bring good things to life’), another member of the state/industrial complex, was miraculously there to fill the gap. Who says crony capitalism doesn’t have its good side?
Speaking of the EU, Obama’s re-election will guarantee that such one-off and asset taxes will be copied here, simply because we have an electorate with a sizeable cognitively disabled cohort of voters. This morning National Propaganda Radio did a marvelous Obama campaign ad that lasted about ten minutes – it gave a new meaning to ‘unabashed’. In it were featured Iowa voters who had never heard of Paul Ryan, and who had consumed every bit of our President’s campaign rhetoric.
The dollar’s destruction derby continues apace. Besides the faux interest rates at ridiculously low levels and quietly ongoing dollops of ‘quantitative easing’ (aka printing the stuff while keeping it out of circulation), the dollar is being rejected overseas as more and more countries (e.g. in Africa) are demanding that their products and natural resources be paid for in the local funny money. This is a temporary ‘fix’ that, if maintained, will soon bankrupt its practitioners and contribute chaos to world markets. And keep your eyes peeled for the Dawning of the Drachma (also the title of the new musical and light show premiering at the Parthenon
Closer to home Governor Moonbeam held another global warming summit at Tahoe this weekend. Apparently the skeptics are beginning to get to his kidneys, so he had to gather the True Believers for a revival of IPCC consensus science that featured Hockeystick Hansen’s latest temperature bamboozle as the cherry on top. The information presented will give skeptical bloggers like Russ Steele and Anthony Watts more technical material to correct and/or discredit that will keep them busy for weeks. But consensus science is a worthy adversary with enormous staying power in the Land of Dumbth – recall the fate of those few who first introduced the notion of a round earth.
Exit question: Could there be a connection between the increase in man-made global warming skepticism and that the National Weather Service will soon become the armed enforcement agency for climate change regulations? Nah 😉
[Update1] The Americans who firmly believe that for private citizens ‘if you have a gun, you are a criminal’ continue to be busy on the seamy and sleazy side of life in keeping the Second Amendment debate from the public forum. Instead, they sneak in legislation across the land to abolish or effectively neutralize the Second Amendment as it supports private ownership of firearms. Its California cohort has a passel of bills in Sacramento designed to take the next step. Look up SB249, AB1547, SB1315, SB1366, SB1221, AB2333, AB2460 for their current broad-based assault on freedom (details here). And then contact your assembly member and state senator. For Nevada County these are Dan Logue (assemblymember.logue@assembly.ca.gov) and Doug LaMalfa (senator.lamalfa@senate.ca.gov) respectively.
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