I swear, I think I saw Barry's lip quivering on Monday night as he was pleading with the nation to get behind his, "same ol', same ol'" form of government - keep growing governement regardless of the cost.
Apparently, there is some real concern in the government. The SOBs are running TV commercials trying to sell the public on why they should exist. Seriously.
I just watched a commercial for the EPA. To be clear, this wasn't a commercial telling people not to eat arsnic or the evils of radon. It was a commercial touting the value of the EPA.
Of course, they went to the tried-and-true approach of, "it's for the children".
Without the EPA, evil businessmen would be feeding your baby toxic waste.
Subtle.
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The EPA may be the poster child of why so many Americans are finally pushing back against this big, bloated growth in government. I think most Americans could live with having the original EPA. It is probably even Constitutional, in that it fits the original intent of the "general welfare" clauses. It was doing something to help all Americans - keeping our water, soil and air clean.
Who could object to that?
Look what they've become. Coal is evil. Oil is evil. For God's Sake, carbon dioxide is evil.
Like every single government agency ever created, it is always looking to grow and gain more control.
If you go to the administrator's page [
link], her A-Number-One top priority is Climate Change. There's a shocker.
I think the racial pandering is what burns my ass the most. On Sunday, the administrator had a pander-palooza with the racist NAACP. She was making some comments [
speech link] on the summer heat wave that has been hitting a big portion of the country -
On Friday, the vast majority of the country had air quality rated Good to Moderate. But some communities we were seeing air quality that was rated Unhealthy or Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups.
She acknowledges that the "vast majority of the country" had good, clean, healthy air. She spent one whole sentence with the good news, and the remainder of her speech on how blacks are being targeted - somehow - with dirty, unhealthy air.
The Unhealthy air quality was recorded in both Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. Washington is 55 percent African American, while Baltimore is 63 percent African American and has a median household income almost $13 thousand below the national average. In Richmond, VA the air was reported as unhealthy for sensitive groups, meaning that children, the elderly and other vulnerable groups were at a higher risk of health effects. Richmond is 51 percent African American. Their median household income there is also $13 thousand below the national average. The city of Cleveland – where the air was unhealthy for sensitive groups – is 50 percent African American and has 25 percent of its families living below the poverty level.
Funny how she didn't mentioned Oakland, California. Or neighboring Richmond, California. Or other predominantly black communitites located in the "vast majority" of the country that had great air quality during the summer heat wave. Why wasn't she pimping those communities?
She continues with her, "you're a victim" speech -
I know this issue is a focal point for the NAACP. Your recent report about coal plants and pollution found that 8 million people live within three miles of coal power plants. That helps explain why African Americans enter emergency rooms for asthma treatments at three-and-a-half times the average rate than whites do.
WTF?!? OK, 8 million people live near coal plants. Great. Since you're clearly traveling down Racist Road, how about you tell us what their ethnicity might be?
Obviously, that's not important. The Professional Propagandist knows she merely needs to present two facts in close proximity - in this case (1) the number of people living near coal plants and the fact that (2) blacks have more asthma - and the mouth-breathing public assumes a connection between the two of them.
Whites own most of the guns in America. Most young black males are killed by guns.
The soft-headed public assumes whites are the ones killing young blacks. Never mind that the actual facts show that most blacks are killed by blacks. Inconvenient for the race baiters and government growers.
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After an hour or so of listening to the Professional Propagandists, the group will be sufficiently convinced that
More Government Is Needed. It must be expanded to protect us from the evil Republican businesses that have somehow gotten the sun to shine more intensely on the black communities of America.
Welcome to Mission Creep.
That's how it begins. One department administrator wants to expand the size of his or her department. They do good works for the public, so how about we do MORE good works for MORE of the public? Sure, the areas they expand in to may only be marginally related to their original mission statement, but hey, who really cares? You can't put a price on good public works, right?
Then another administrator sees that his buddy in the department next door is growing and gaining more power, and he'd like a little of that for himself. He expands his charter, and starts to spread out like an oily cancer as well.
You end up with a department like the USDA - that was chartered to make sure America's meat and vegetables were safe - that is now conducting tactical raids on dairies that dare to sell unpasteurized milk products to willing, knowledgeable buyers.
Side note: How many of the salmonella outbreaks, mad cow outbreaks or botulism outbreaks we've seen in the news have come from USDA inspected farms and ranches? 100% To put it another way, how many of the outbreaks originated at small, mom-and-pop, too-small-to-bother-with operations? Zip, zero, nada.
Feel safer with all of that government "protection"?
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Government should regulate and inform, not operate and dictate.
I love the idea of the government requiring food processors to have to list the ingredients of their products. It provides an uninformed public with what kinds of stuff are hidden in that Twinkie you want to eat. Hostess can continue to make Twinkies, and you can now choose to eat it or not.
I even like the nutritional and calorie stuff. I think it's great that cigarette companies must put the warning on their packs of cigarettes. "Smoke this stuff and you're virtually guaranteed to shorten your life. Have a nice day!"
It's when they operate a company or industry - or dictate behavior - that I push back. I can't choose the kind of light bulb for my own house? Really?! You're going to tell bakeries the kind of fats they can use in their cream puffs? What?! If I own a bar and everyone in there wants to smoke cigarettes, we've all broken the law if we choose to do so? How about letting the non-smokers open their own business that prohibits smoking? What business is it of the government to try and control this behavior?
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And that's the point.
It's the business of government to control.
The twisted logic goes something like this: Well, if we let you smoke, you're more likely to come down with lung cancer. If you come down with lung cancer, you're going to cost Obamacare/Medicare/Medicaid more than your "fair share", so we need to keep you from harming yourself, 'cause that harms us all.
"If we let you eat that fat..."
"If we let you ride that motorcycle without a helmet..."
"If we let you smoke that joint..."
"If we let you use that tanning booth..."
"If we let you eat that unpasteurized yogurt..."
"If we let you smoke that cigarette..."
"If we let you buy that gun..."
"If we let you plant that vegetable garden...[
link]"
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The "collective you" is more important than the "individual you".
It's about government substituting its judgement for yours.
Like most Americans, that's not what I signed up for. When I was a kid, I took all of that personal freedom, personal responsibility and liberty nonsense to heart.
Silly me.
So it leaves me with few options. I know that government will never shrink of its own accord. It's not natural for any entity to want to kill itself off.
When you've got over half of the population not paying any taxes but still reaping the benefits, how are you going to get them to vote against their best interests? You just won't get enough of the population to vote to take a cut in pay/benefits. It ain't gonna happen. The recipients simply won't voluntarily downgrade their way of life.
So, it's gotta happen the hard way. The involuntary way.
It could happen sooner if the handful of Republicans in the House stick to their beliefs and don't vote for a debt limit increase. This will cause the Administration to make choices on how to spend the available tax dollars. No way will everyone be happy with the choices.
It could happen later if the Republicans either cave in, or the next congress provides Obama or his successor with enough votes to get the debt limit raised at will. We will eventually crash from debt overload, and we'll be back to the same choices of, "who gets the available cash"?
Accept The Challenge
Let the debt downgrade begin!
I don't know about you, but I have no desire to be dependent upon any government entity for my survival. Food, health, housing - no thanks.
You've got to store and hide assets - the more you've got going into a depression, the more likely you'll have something when we emerge on the other side. Equipment, precious metals, supplies, guns, ammo, tools. Anything you'll need during tough times that also will have value to others.
Hiding your stuff from the prying eyes of your government and neighbors can be tough. Cash in a bank account/IRA or PMs in a safe deposit box are as good as confiscated. A public storage shed full of food or guns would probably be toast as well. If you need to use these, use them judiciously. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket.
Now, you can only store so much food, and stash so much equipment. It will eventually be depleted if you're looking at your stores like a baby chick views the yolk sack. You need to be able to provide for yourself for the long-term. If you have skills that others find valuable, you can emerge from this mess quite well off.
Position yourself to produce more than you consume.
Forge tools from scrap metal. Sew clothes. Weld/braze/solder. Brew/distill. Can/preserve/smoke/pickle. Repair stuff. Create stuff. Convert stuff. Repurpose stuff.
Food is obviously a bigee. If you have a bit of land, grow veggies. Look into "secret gardens" planted in forests or public lands. Learn to forage wild edibles. Catch fish, shoot or trap birds and other small game.
If things get really ugly, I can very easily see farms and ranches being nationalized as we (effectively) did during our Great Depression, and as has happened in virtually every country in the world that has gone over the socialist edge.
Black market, unconventional, under the table skills and knowledge are what will separate those that survive a downturn and those that
thrive during the downturn.
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Copyright 2011 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com
