Has It Always Been This Way?- The Sunday Collage

*Update on USAF Tortures Old Civilians. I am currently playing phone tag with Mountain Home AFB. I told them that I would most certainly meet them mano a mano if they'd like. So still no resolution. In the meantime, there is not a chance in hell that I will deliver a Pop Tart to an air base resident. I would rather watch paint dry.

If you need any sort of refresher on just how corrupt our system has become, read this link. If you finish it, in it's entirety, and you are not completely sick to your stomach- you are tougher than me. I spent this afternoon reading the piece and verifying some of the statements. I knew some of them were true. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-28/i-am-putting-everything-goldman-sachs-because-these-guys-can-do-whatever-hell-they-w

Without a doubt, 4.5 trillion in stimulus (counterfeiting) found it's way straight into the stock market- that's what has caused the market to triple from the March '09 lows.

Did we pay down debt? Nope- in fact it has gone up 8 trillion. Did we create quality jobs? Nope- the job market was stripped of quality pay, benefits, and jobs were shipped off shore. Did the rule of law get implemented, did the banker crooks go to jail? Nope- the government pretended nothing happened. They haven't even changed accounting standards or filled those vacant properties.

You know those doomsday preppers? The ones people make fun of? They may get the last laugh and that will be the laugh that counts.You might like this vid. I know the compleat patriot will.



I am seriously getting nervous. I have this uneasy feeling- like things are about to go bat shit crazy.

I believe that our economic system is so corrupt from top to bottom that I think it must eventually collapse. I cannot think of any way to fix it other than simply destroying it. How do you pay 18 trillion in debt when allegedly- more people are supposed to be working and paying taxes than ever before- and yet we are still running 1 trillion dollar annual deficits? Our country's citizens are absolutely complacent and apathetic- they have normalcy bias. They just think this is all so much bullshit. Just like all those people did just before the stock market collapsed in 1929.

The difference in 1929 was that our country had the capacity to come back with no debt. Of course they seized our gold and eventually started WWII. So there are those little glitches.

(Btw, have you ever noticed that whenever this country wants to nullify some item in the Bill of Rights, the first tool they use is an executive order? Think gold seizures, Japanese Americans, or the Presidents Working Group on Financial Markets)

What's gonna happen this time and when is it going to happen? I'm not sure and oddly, those doomsday preppers don't seem all that crazy to me anymore. I've been taking a long look at nitrogen packed foods, storage containers, and some defensible ground. Given the circumstances, the next collapse may make 1929 look like a holiday.

What I am struggling with is this. Has our country always been this bad? Have we always been this corrupt and greedy or have I just noticed it during the last 6 years? Or is there a much simpler explanation? As people age, they always seem to think the world is going to hell. That's been my observation. I have never heard an older person say that things are getting better.

Maybe it's a rite of passage. Maybe it's simply my turn.

USAF Torturing Old Civilians *Updated

I like the new title better. Kinda catchy isn't it?

I don't go looking for stupid but sometimes it finds me anyway. Yesterday, was not my finest hour.

The story I'm about to tell you is true. Other than myself, I can't tell you the names of the people involved because (a) I didn't know them or (b) I forgot them. At any rate, I think you'll find this blog amusing. This story is about waiting in lines.

So first up- let me give you my all time, 53 year long, most epic human  meltdown of all time. I thank God Almighty that I was in attendance when this happened.

Many years ago in Moonbat Valley- they built a brand new Albertson's grocery store. The store was very close to my home and I often shopped there. We had a tremendous shortage of qualified workers in our valley back then and a lot of the people that landed jobs at that store...well let's just say they weren't the best or the brightest.

So one evening around 7 PM- I ran down to the store for something. When I arrived at the check stands there were only two lanes open. I landed on the "express lane" which was reserved allegedly, for people purchasing eight items or less.

In line in front of me, was a young couple with two small kids. They had at least 80 items in their cart. Instead of simply taking the items out of the cart- this mom and dad decided instead to let their two children, maybe 4 and 5 years old, empty the cart. Item by painful item. It was agonizingly slow watching the kids climb up onto the cart, bend over, and pick one item up, and climb down again. During this process, a younger man arrived in line behind me- toting a half rack of Coors Light. As we watched the family of morons in front of us, I could tell this guy was getting pissed. He was muttering shit under his breath and making those guttural noises one makes when the blood just starts leaking out of your ears. I too was pissed, but everyone in the community was aware of who I was. It was my job to pretend to remain calm and patient- but I wasn't. I was just as pissed as the guy behind me.

Almost 20 minutes elapsed before this whole operation had arrived at that moment where money and receipts get exchanged. And then it happened- that thing we all fantasize about but never do. The cashier ran out of register tape and had to call for more. That was the ignition switch. The man behind me could not take it any longer. It was, without question, the finest public meltdown that I have ever witnessed. This guy blew like the Kilauea volcano. At 90 decibels...

"Do any of you fuckers read?" "When you see a sign that says 8 items or less, just what the fuck do you think that means?!!!" "Do any of the cashiers in this place pay attention to any of that shit or do you just ignore the sign?" "Can you fuckers count?!!"

He said more things which I can't remember now. In that instant- that man became my hero. He said everything that I have ever wanted to say and then some. The people in the line, the people who caused this, were speechless. They were like sheep frozen in the headlights of an oncoming truck. Had they said one thing, I'm not sure what might have happened. I honestly think they were so enamored with their cute kids that they were completely unconscious and unaware of the world around them.

Yesterday, I became that guy.

I have a part time job driving a truck and delivering heavy freight- things like gun safes, treadmills, giant televisions. Two or three times a month I am forced to deliver freight to the inhabitants of the nearby Mountain Home Air Force Base. I absolutely dread it.

For any of you that have ever stood in an airport's TSA line, TSA has nothing on the USAF. Don't ever think that a mind numbing experience cannot get worse because it can. That was my experience yesterday upon arrival at the base. There are two lanes that arriving trucks line up in. There are two traffic signals. You must wait until the AF personnel give you a green light. You then proceed to the guard shack. You park in front. Before you exit the vehicle, you must open every compartment within the vehicle. You must open all of your doors including your cargo door. Then you go inside. You hand them your ID, you fill out a paper asking you all of the same stuff which they already have on your driver's license, and then you give them the customer's name and phone number which is usually on our delivery receipts. You then sit on your ass for 15 minutes while they laugh and giggle inside their control booth, search your truck, try to call your customer, and they take their sweet time doing all of this. When they are done, they hand you back your documents, another document they generate with your picture on it which I have never found a discernible purpose for- and they give you a yellow, laminated card. You then go out and close all of your doors and proceed to a second guard shack, where you hand over the laminated card. Oddly, they do not ask you to utter a secret password which serves the same purpose as the laminated card. If all goes well, you can make it through this process in 15 minutes. It annoys the hell out of me because it could be easily streamlined- but I go through it because you have to. The people working the guard shack have zero people skills, They treat people like sheep.

Yesterday, I arrived at the lights at 1125 a.m. There were trucks everywhere, backed up to a chain link fence outside the base perimeter. Nothing was moving. About every 25 minutes, they let 4 trucks through. I was desperately trying to call my customer to arrange an off base pickup while trying not to get mired in the line without being able to get out. The customer failed to answer his phone although we had set up an at home delivery time between 11 and 1 PM and he should have been there answering his phone. I called 4 or 5 times. After about 45 minutes, I struck up a conversation with a fellow trucker next to me. He said the wait was ridiculous but he gets paid by the hour. Therein lies the dilemma. If people don't care, because they get theirs, why would they say anything? They don't. It's like a giant herd of sheep driving trucks- all afraid to say something perhaps even worried about heaven forbid- losing their crappy jobs driving trucks.

I waited 1 hour and 50 minutes. At a quarter after one, I finally made it to the guard shack. I have to be honest- my ass was on fire. The kid behind the desk asked me how I was doing. I had to bite my tongue. I did everything required of me and I sat down. There were three other truckers in the waiting area with me. One kid told me I needed a front plate on the truck as though that was somehow my fault and responsibility or that I needed a traffic law refresher from a kid whose responsibility does not have anything to do with enforcing state law. I managed to say, "ok." What I am trying to convey here is that I was doing everything humanly possible within myself to keep from exploding. Then it happened.

A stocky guy in a uniform emerged from the office and told me that they could not get a hold of my customer by phone. I said I understood that- I had been trying to get a hold of him for 2 hours while waiting in line. I explained that I just wanted to go to his house, see if he was home, and then depart. That's when this guy (Mr Tactful) said you are not getting on the base. This happened after 2 hours and 5 minutes of waiting.

I blew up. Blood began gushing from my ears in some primitive response to assholes who have made me wait 2 hours for nothing and who now intend on forcing me to continue the exercise. I told this guy that "I am not waiting one more fucking minute." "If you aren't going to let me on the base then just give me my fucking shit back right now!" "I am not waiting all day in this place." "I told them that a 2 hour wait was outrageous and unacceptable- and that I would be contacting their commanding officer." Mr. Tactful said "Go ahead- we want you to." I don't remember what else I may or may not have said. When I get angry- my memory shuts off as my brain shunts all blood flow from the important judgment and memory centers of my brain and sends it to that part of my brain that controls the, "beat the shit out of these smug assholes" part of my brain.

As I left- driving past all of the waiting truckers dying of old age in line- I flipped the place off. At least one trucker, outside his truck, cheered and clapped. My only hope is that I started a rebellion although I'm sure that is only a fantasy.

I spent the rest of the day and one cell phone battery trying to find phone numbers and call commanding officers. Oddly, no one wanted to cooperate with my efforts nor did the phone numbers I was given have anyone answering them. Last night, I filed an online complaint. Tomorrow sans an explanation or phone call today, I am going to jump on my motorcycle, drive 50 miles, and find someone to lay into. They motivate me.

I paid my dues. For 25 years, I pushed a patrol car around and wrestled drug crazed lunatics, delivered death messages, rounded up stolen property, and nearly got shot a few times. I understood the meaning of public service, of treating people decently, and I believe that the 4th amendment was never intended to be a suggestion. It prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and that includes detaining people well beyond what is necessary or morally right. Or reasonable.

How we let these people bastardize and treat our Constitution like it is some old, ancient, and worn out suggestion rather than the law of the land- beats the hell out of me. The people violating our rights are the same people who we charge to defend them. Maybe they need a refresher course in civics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civics

I am not particularly proud of the way I acted yesterday. I prefer treating people decently although I gotta be honest here- I am not exactly brimming with guilt either.

If the USAF is so afraid of a retired 53 year old law enforcer smuggling bombs onto the AF base- then maybe they should just call every non essential delivery "off limits" and discontinue the practice altogether.

So that's how it is. In the spirit of fair play- I think it's only proper that I return the favor. I've tabbed Thursday for part deux, I'll let you know how that goes.

*Update. I received this reply to my email complaint yesterday. You can damn sure bet I'll be calling that phone number.


Sir,

We sincerely apologize for the 2 hour and 5 min wait at Grandview gate. In
our opinion the best course of action for you is to contact the 366th
Fighter Wing commander's hotline at  (208) 828- 1362 and relay the entire
situation. This hotline is your direct line to voice your concerns. It's
your opportunity to make Mountain Home Air Force Base a better place to live
and work.

Sincerely,
366th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
Comm: (208) 828-6800; DSN: 728-6800 

I'll Leave the Front Door Open For You- The Sunday Collage

Look, I know reading about taxes is boringgg. Most people can't do it. However, this is Frankenstein Government. They pay me to fashion articles which are funny and insightful. That's how I know that my regular readers will carry on here in a determined fashion.

The new tax season begins just after this year's election cycle ends. Odd how that works, isn't it? Nobody is really paying attention now to the 2014 tax law changes- but they will. These tax changes are going to be painful and effect nearly all of us.

The great, uninformed masses who wave itty bitty flags, shout USA, USA, and think they are great patriots- will dutifully march to the election polls in a few months and re-elect incumbent Congressmen. They have been doing this at a rate exceeding 90% for as long as I have been alive. They do this no matter how bad Congress sucks. They will receive a little sticker with a flag on it that says "I voted." (That's what they do here) They will be proud of themselves.

Then the zombie voters can stumble through their day beaming like grand patriots- as us enlightened types (FG readers) realize that we have just received another two years worth of tax sodomy thanks to the zombie majority. This is what Adams and Jefferson envisioned?

Those about to be re-elected Congressmen are the same Congressmen that stole trillions of dollars from the national treasury, the same Congressmen that voted Obamacare without even reading it, the same Congressmen who vote themselves giant raises and benefit packages, and they are indeed the same ones responsible for tax laws. Congress writes tax laws.

This year, Congress let several tax "breaks" expire. (I use quotation marks because those "tax breaks" should not have been taxable items to begin with)

In the 1700's, colonists revolted over a paltry 3% tax to the King. "No taxation without representation" was the phrase every one of us was taught in our government grade schools.

Today, my Idaho state sales tax is 6%- twice that amount.

My state tax is generally around 5% of my income. My property tax adds another 3% and the Feds generally get me for around 10% after everything is adjusted. Throw in nearly .50 a gallon for gas tax and all in all- I believe I lose about 25% of my net income per year to those taxes.

I don't want to cover government's force placed insurance programs which I consider to be nothing more than an additional tax- and in the case of our Supreme Court and Obamacare- they indeed  agree that it is a tax. For me that tax amounts to 8 grand. That is 500 a mo. in unsubsidized premiums x 12 months plus a 2k deductible before anyone other than me pays a cent. Good deal for someone...else.

I am going to use first person here because I have no idea how bad your tax situation is about to become. This is how it's looking for me.

This year will be the first year I will have to pay the penalty for failing to sign up for Obamacare. Most of us will pay 1% of our annual adjusted gross income. In my case, I just lost another 400 bucks or 1%. Oh, by the way...this tax goes up to 2.5% in following years.

Also set to expire this year are deductions for state taxes. So not only do your assets get seized by the state that you live in- but they are no longer federally tax deductible. That means I have an additional 2000 dollars subject to federal tax. That should cost me another 300 bucks.

Last but not least, the government force places personal mortgage insurance (PMI) on all of their FMA home loans. It is really just a tax. It costs me 1200 a year. This year, PMI is no longer tax deductible. So once again, not only does the government seize my money to insure someone else's investment interests- but I have to pay taxes on money that was seized from me despite the fact that I never had it to begin with. The corporate pirates of America dream of laws like this where they can simply seize YOUR assets to insure against THEIR potential losses. Who doesn't dream of a guaranteed, paid for by someone else, income stream? The American aristocracy does- that's for sure.

Anyway, that's going to cost me another 100-200 bucks in taxes.

Therefore at the very minimum this year, I just lost another 1000 dollars. (I am throwing in a higher tax bracket since my adjustments will be less)

You want to know what really frosts my backside? The people that will go out and re-elect these miscreants to Congress. Many have no skin in the game. They get free healthcare thanks to Obamacare, 47 million get food stamps, and oddly- that guy that pays for their food stamps and their healthcare- cannot afford healthcare for himself.

I'm out of money. Why don't you people just come over and steal some stuff out of my home instead? At least I can get a deduction for casualty and theft losses. They haven't gotten rid of that deduction yet. Just make sure you do it before Dec. 31. I'll leave the front door open for you.

Additional pain for you can be found here: http://money.msn.com/taxes/7-sneaky-tax-changes-for-2014-1

And here: http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2014/03/26/key-tax-changes-for-2014-and-beyond/

War Stories: "Brian, Ya Gotta Get Over These Things"

I wrote a "Sunday Collage." I didn't like it so I sent it to the anti matter place where all deleted things must go. About 20% of the things I write wind up in that place. In the old days...

People would often tell me that you just have to get over "things." Usually these "things" were things that happened in the workplace. This apparently is where we go to accumulate things that in turn we have to learn to get over. Unfortunately, I just don't know what any of that means. Perhaps it means forgetting.  I will tell you that there are some things in life that I might never "get over." Maybe I just have a slow forgetter.

So it was I landed on this story- which really had a lot to do with shaping my career.

In the mid 1990's, I was a patrol sergeant working in a very small town of about 4000 people. It was a very cold winter night, mid December, about 5 below zero. Earlier that evening, our local Sheriff's Office had embarked on and completely screwed up a very large drug deal in a remote part of our county. They had used two confidential informants who had arranged the delivery of a large amount of cocaine, heroin, and pot. This was a big deal- it involved pounds of drugs. They had selected a "radio dead zone" as the meet point- a rest area at the junction of two highways where it was impossible to get out on a high band frequency radio. In other words, if something went bad- no cop in radio land would have been able to hear a call for help. The selection of that site had one other tremendous drawback. It was next to a river. In sub zero weather, that area habitually fogs over as the warmer, flowing water of the river causes ground fog which is quite dense. That was the situation that night. The Sheriff's Office had a team of men, concealed in cars and underneath the snow, waiting to spring into action just as soon as the drug deal was complete. So it was, the dealers arrived, the deal went down, the money was not exchanged because Sheriff's Office personnel sprang into action. One of them took a shot at the dealers and the dealers got away in the fog before any of the deputies could identify the vehicle they were driving or the direction it went. They could not even broadcast any information because they didn't have any information to broadcast and couldn't  have anyway- because they were in that radio dead zone.

None of this of course- was ever disclosed to local media.

We call that kind of operation a cluster fuck because that is what it truly was. I am in awe that 8 grown men with over a 100 years worth of experience, collectively landed on that plan. At no time that evening did any of those deputies inform any of the other cops working in our valley what they were doing or what ultimately happened. They didn't seem the least concerned about our safety.

A few hours later, around midnight, I was following a large, yellow, Mercury Marquis (do you remember those?) southbound on the highway that led out of town.

The entire back window was completely frozen over as were the exterior mirrors. The occupants could not see me. They had crossed the center line a couple of times but I couldn't tell if they were drunk or just trying to pass the vehicle in front of them. I decided to stop them. I was in a neighboring city which our city had a mutual aid agreement with. I asked permission from the officer on duty and made a traffic stop on the car.

The car took almost a mile to pull over which I attributed to the frozen windows and mirrors. As I stepped out of the patrol car, I could actually see the car "rocking" side to side. I believe now they were repositioning themselves in the car. What happened next covered no more than 15 seconds. As I arrived at the driver's door, I saw 4 men in the car. All of them were staring straight ahead. None of them looked at me. They were all illegal aliens- Mexican nationals. All four of them had their hands in their coat pockets. At that moment, I knew I was in deep shit. I asked the driver for his driver's license and registration as I prepared my emergency exit strategy back to my car for cover. The driver handed me the items without looking at me and dropped them both on the ground.

I did not look down. I did not pick up those items. The driver looked at me for the first time, looked at the ground and back at me as though he were asking me to pick those things up. I was staring straight at him and his passengers. We had arrived at that moment in time where those men were deciding whether or not this was where they were going to try and make their stand.

I have often thought that had I bent over to pick up those documents- I was going to get a .357 round through the back of my head. I think that was their plan. Instead I walked backwards, watching them and knowing they couldn't see me. I called the cavalry. Actually the dispatcher that night recognized the driver's name as I ran a driver's license check. The Sheriff's Office then rolled out to the scene, performed a questionable search, and then arrested all four of them for delivery of a controlled substance. Thankfully, only one of them had a gun. We found the .357 on the front seat passenger.

Had I bent over to pick up those things, I don't think I would be here. 

After we arrived back at the Sheriff's Office, I let their entire staff- which included the Sheriff himself- know how angry I was and that they nearly got me killed. One of their crew looked at me, chuckled and said "Pard, if we thought it was any of your business we would have told you."  That moment- was the closest that I ever came in my professional life as a cop- to actually striking another cop. I considered it briefly and  wondered whether they would arrest me or not, decided against it and plunged my hands in my pockets, wheeled and left the room. I vowed then and there that I would never take any orders from that Sheriff or his men ever again- and I never did.

That decision of course, would have consequences.

A few weeks after this event, I had a confidential informant- who was unprompted and who did not otherwise know this story- tell me that he had heard those men discussing in Spanish at the jail that they they should have killed me like they had planned. I have always wondered why they didn't try.  He had figured out later they were talking about me. Eventually they were all set free. I know that at least two of them re-offended and that at least one of them was killed.

Several years later, I became the Chief and the Sheriff- well he stayed the Sheriff. People began to realize that the two of us did not like each other very much. The Sheriff taught me a lot of things. But mostly, he taught me how not to be.

Over the years, I learned that to emotionally and financially survive in any career- most people must be willing to compromise their integrity. They have to or they risk career suicide. I am thankful and grateful to say that I did not have to do that. Did I commit career suicide? Yes, probably. I doubt very much that I ever would have been able to leave and get a job so long as the Sheriff and his men were around handing out recommendations to any would be employer doing a background check.

In America, employers like to hire sheep. In fact, if you come with a lot of credentials and a willingness to turn a blind eye toward every immoral facet of any job or career including the conduct of your bosses- you become a perfect candidate. That's how it is in America. Become an ass kissing good boy or suffer the consequences. This is beyond an epidemic. This is how we live and how we work- we agree to this nonsense. This then is how it is out there in working class America- and anyone with a lick of common sense will tell you so. So I think people must live with that. And in a very simplistic way- I believe that the current working environment in America has led to the epidemic of drug and alcohol abuse. I mean after all, you have to find a way to live with your compromised principles and get some sleep, don't you?

Many years later, I had a Catholic Priest tell me that people don't always get over the things that happen to them. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a few odd shaped stones that were worn smooth. He said that he had always hated his alcoholic father- even after his father became sober. Eight sober years later, Desmond Crotty still hated his father- when his father died. After the funeral and burial, Des collected a few stones from that Irish grave and carried them with him every day for 31 years. For the rest of his life. All 61 years of it. The stones were polished and smooth. I remember them well.

Des died without ever "getting over his father" in Feb. of 2008. That's a long time to carry a grudge. In a weird way, for oddly selfish reasons, I'm glad that Des didn't get over his father and all of those drunken beatings he received as a child. It makes me feel a little better when packing all of my own baggage around. There are some things that stay with you and they're hard to get over. I understand that now. There are probably a few of us with very slow forgetters.

Odd Facts...Amidst Scandals Everywhere, Obama Never Fires Anyone

“Every sentient human being whose brain isn’t stuffed with ideological fairy dust can see that Obama is behind every major scandal of his administration from Benghazi to the I.R.S. disgrace. How can one know this? Because the culprits haven’t been fired. Moreover, if they are serial liars like Susan Rice, they’ve actually been promoted to posts where their loyalty to the criminal-in-chief can do America and its citizens even more damage, if that is possible.”
--- Ben Shapiro

The NFL, Roger Goodell, and Local Prosecutors All Abandon Virtue

Best evidence.

Last week, I wrote a blog on how our culture has abandoned virtue. I set forth the premise that American culture has devolved from a society that honored truth to a society which routinely practices dishonesty. This moral erosion is everywhere.

I am a football nut. Shortly after TMZ released the video of the Baltimore Ravens' running back, Ray Rice, punching and knocking out his wife on an Atlantic City elevator- I received a phone call from an old friend of mine. He still works on the police department.

He asked me what I thought of the video, the two game suspension, and the 500,000 dollar fine that Rice received from Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner. Goodell, or the NFL, had issued a statement that they had never seen the Ray Rice video.

I told my friend this was bullshit, a flat out lie. Nobody is going to levy a two game suspension and a half million dollar fine without getting or viewing the best evidence. In this case, the best evidence of what Ray Rice had done was the video.

Unfortunately for Goodell, once the country had seen what Ray Rice actually did on that elevator, we were all shocked. Not just at the paltry 2 game suspension that the NFL handed out- but the failure of local prosecutors to prosecute a clear cut case of domestic battery without the testimony of Rice's girlfriend.

Goodell and the NFL immediately denied that they had seen the video- fearing the backlash and the repercussions that are taking place now.

In fact, if Goodell levied his judgment without viewing the video- that amounts to some piss poor job performance and in that case- I would question whether or not it was time for Goodell to hit the bricks.

Yesterday, an anonymous police department official not only stated they had sent the NFL the video in April- but provided proof that the NFL had received it and had already seen it via a recorded call.

You know what clinches it for me? 

Goodell maintained his lie by stating that he "believed" nobody at the NFL had seen the video. Whenever I hear weasel language like that, I know the person is lying. When people use the term "I believe" they use that term to escape the obvious intent of their lies.

Here is the latest report on the Ray Rice video. http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11503851/ray-rice-videotape-sent-nfl-executive-april

Goodell, having used that weasel language, is a liar, inept as a commissioner, or both. So what is it Roger? Are you a liar or just a piss poor commissioner who levies fines and suspensions without viewing the best evidence? Or are you just a crappy manager who doesn't know what the employees are doing?

I won't even discuss the cowardly prosecutors who also weaseled out of doing their jobs, pointing to the non compliant victim as proof they could not charge the case.

People make mistakes. Everyone dropped the ball here, pun intended. People fail. But the part that drives me nuts is that people like Goodell once caught, compound their failures through lying and dishonesty. That is the state of our society. These are our role models. Our President routinely pulls the same shit.

Thank you Roger for helping me prove the point that our culture has abandoned virtue. I couldn't think of a better example.

Theatre of the Absurd, A Must Read

They are crafting legislation to make depositors cover bank losses. An executive order that allows the government to seize any of your assets that it chooses. Copied in it's entirety. You gotta read this to believe it.

Sunday, September 07, 2014

IT'S YOUR FAULT: Federal Reserve Blames Americans Who “Hoard Money” For Obama's Economic Trainwreck

By Mac Slavo

Despite arguments to the contrary from the Obama administration, mounting evidence suggests that the U.S. economy is rapidly falling back into negative growth territory. More Americans are out of the workforce than ever before, median household incomes are at levels not seen since 1967, and consumer spending is coming to a veritable standstill. The crisis is apparently so significant that a Federal Reserve governor recently said U.S. policymakers are crafting regulations that will force bank depositors to cover any losses should their financial institutions fail.The question that many are asking is, how did this happen? How, after six years of recovery efforts and trillions of dollars printed, is it possible that the economy is not booming again?
This week the Federal Reserve published a report that claims to have figured it out and it turns out that the renewed economic downturn has nothing to do with foreign outsourcing, high taxation, increased health care costs for business or rising consumer prices for food and energy.
No, according to the Fed it is your fault. Apparently, you are not spending enough money. In order for the economy to recover you need to stop hoarding cash now and get out there and start buying more homes, cars, vacations, and electronics. Otherwise, you’ll only have yourself to blame when the system comes unhinged.
From the St. Louis Federal Reserve:

The issue has to do with the velocity of money, which has never been constant, as can be seen in the figure below . If for some reason the money velocity declines rapidly during an expansionary monetary policy period, it can offset the increase in money supply and even lead to deflation instead of inflation.
…
During the first and second quarters of 2014, the velocity of the monetary base2 was at 4.4, its slowest pace on record. This means that every dollar in the monetary base was spent only 4.4 times in the economy during the past year, down from 17.2 just prior to the recession. This implies that the unprecedented monetary base increase driven by the Fed’s large money injections through its large-scale asset purchase programs has failed to cause at least a one-for-one proportional increase in nominal GDP. Thus, it is precisely the sharp decline in velocity that has offset the sharp increase in money supply, leading to the almost no change in nominal GDP
…
So why did the monetary base increase not cause a proportionate increase in either the general price level or GDP?
The answer lies in the private sector’s dramatic increase in their willingness to hoard money instead of spend it. Such an unprecedented increase in money demand has slowed down the velocity of money

Top tier economists, it seems, are unable grasp why consumers have decided to hoard – in other words, save – their money even though the central bank is engaged in an unprecedented monetary expansion.
The answer is simple, really, and you don’t need to look at detailed government charts and statistics to figure it out.
American consumers have been absolutely pummeled over the last decade.
We are losing so many jobs that newly created minimum wage jobs touted by the Obama administration aren’t even making a dent.
Moreover, the price of food, electricity, gas and other essentials have risen so sharply that we’re paying nearly double for those items today than we did a decade ago.
And, as recently noted by The Economic Collapse Blog, over 77 million Americans currently have debt collection accounts and 25% of Americans have absolutely no emergency cash whatsoever.
It’s not so much that Americans are “hoarding” money, a phrase that suggests greedy people all over the country are stacking piles of cash under their mattresses. It’s that most Americans don’t have any money left to spend.
The Daily Bell says that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. government are now creating a new narrative to be spewed by their mainstream media propaganda arms, wherein the blame for this will fall squarely on the American people:

Sometimes Federal Reserve white papers attract attention and this one does because of the term “hoarding money.” This is a startling phrase and – who knows – perhaps it marks the beginning of a new meme.
Certainly the word “hoarding” is a popular one with government officials. When governments are uncomfortable with the actions of citizens for whatever reason, the term “hoarding” is often applied to stigmatize certain behaviors and encourage others.

This isn’t the first time government officials and their quasi-government counterparts have targeted “hoarders” as evil doers. They have done it before and the evidence suggests they are going to do it again as soon as the right crisis takes hold.
In 2012 President Obama signed a an Executive Doomsday Order that was designed specifically to target “hoarders” during a national emergency:

While millions of people have been preparing for the possibility of a catastrophic event by relocating to rural homesteads or farms, as well as stockpiling food, water, personal defense armaments and other essential supplies with the intention of utilizing these preparations if the worst happens, the latest executive order signed by President Obama on March 16, 2012 makes clear that in the event of a nationally deemed emergency all of these resources will fall under the authority of the United States government.
The signing of the National Defense Resources Preparedness executive order grants the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, the Department of Defense and other agencies complete control of all US resources, including the ability to seize, confiscate or re-delegate resources, materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense as delegated by the following agencies

But what is hoarding? According to David Spero of Code Green Prep, it’s whatever they say it is. Right now, tens of millions of Americans are unable to put food on the table or pay their most basic expenses, yet the Federal Reserve claims that we’re hoarding money. In an emergency, they’ll make similar claims.

Hoarding of Just About Anything Can Be Banned

…

These definitions are written in to the 1950 War and National Defense Defense (sic) Production Act, and so let’s see what the act itself has to say for itself.

Go directly to section 2072. That’s the key part from our perspective.

§2072. Hoarding of designated scarce materials
In order to prevent hoarding, no person shall accumulate (1) in excess of the reasonable demands of business, personal, or home consumption, or (2) for the purpose of resale at prices in excess of prevailing market prices, materials which have been designated by the President asscarce materials or materials the supply of which would be threatened by such accumulation. The President shall order published in the Federal Register, and in such other manner as he may deem appropriate, every designation of materials the accumulation of which is unlawful and any withdrawal of such designation.

So the President can simply say that anything more than (for example) a week’s supply of food (and all the other things listed) is an amount ‘in excess of the reasonable demands of personal consumption’ and then order the Army to impound everything you have in excess of that amount.

Now, as we face a crisis in America on a scale never before seen, the government is attempting to change the story. In the end, when the worst of it hits and people start rioting in the streets because they can’t afford food or shelter, they’ll turn the blame on the “hoarders” who have selfishly saved cash and precious metals, stored long-term foods for an emergency, and prepared to deal with the very situation the politicians, central bankers and business elite have created.
Once the meme is pushed in earnest across the media networks, it will only be a matter of time before the crowds turn their attention to those greedy hoarders who ’caused this crisis in the first place.’
Those who hoard resources illegally will have their supplies seized and will likely be detained for actions akin to terrorism, while those who see something and say something will be rewarded with a cut of the booty.
This may sound outlandish, until you consider that this is how all tyrants and authoritarian governments have operated since the beginning of human civilization.
Hoarders beware. They’ll be coming for you.