Crash of 2009 – Economic disaster Home front (3 stories)
101M Americans Get Food Aid from Federal Gov’t; More Than the Number of Private Sector Workers
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: It has been headed this way for a long time.  Continued “depression-level” unemployment (real, not just reported as the next story talks about) is part of the reason for this.  Of course, the administration is working on boosting the number of private sector workers by getting employers to convert fulltime to part time jobs (see the story after next).  But we also have to remember that for several years, the administration has been actively promoting food stamps (SNAP) and other federal food aid (such as to schools and other institutions) to boost numbers dependent on the fedgov for food and a lot more.

Mama’s Note: Yes, and all the while doing everything they can think of to make natural, wholesome food more and more expensive and harder to find. The absolute avalanche of regulations, taxes, land use and “environmental” restrictions and so forth make it a real miracle that anyone still wants to farm or ranch.

54 Months: Record Stretch of 7.5%+ Unemployment Continues
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This is of course the “official” unemployment – the REAL unemployment rate is insanely higher than this, and even the OLD “official” unemployment rate (which the government used to calculate) is a lot higher: the country’s economy may not be in a RAPID death spiral, but is still spiraling down.

Mama’s Note: And the “real” unemployment rate, by any measure, does not take into consideration all of the people who have joined the black and gray market, offering their goods and services outside the definition of employment altogether. This is actually a good thing, as people are pressed to find ways to trade that do not involve government “permission” and, while certainly subject to heavy handed punishment when detected, gives rise to the old entrepreneurial spirit that actually built the best of civilization down through the ages. Rather than honoring and emulating the “statesman,” we need to respect the smugglers and blockade runners.

Number of ‘Involuntary’ Part-Time Workers Jumps 332K in June
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: What a boon to the Administration:  Full part-time employment can increase steadily, and they can continue to fool too many people.  The hours can get cut from “just under 30” to 25 to 20 to 15, and maybe at 8 hours a week, EVERYONE can be “employed” and STILL collect all the wonderful government benefits like “free” food and cell phones and all the rest.  So that all the businesses will work (directly or indirectly) for the government. Then the Crash of 2009 can be a PERMANENT depression but not have to be called one.

Mama’s Note: Ah, but nothing is truly permanent, no matter how hard they try to make it so. The only thing in life that never, ever changes is the fact that all things change.

Theft by government – Broken promises
Social Security Personal Accounts: Prosperity for All
(Heartland Institute) To pay for all of the promised Social Security and Medicare benefits would require almost doubling the current total payroll tax of 15.3 percent to nearly 30 percent, says Peter Ferrara, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis…

Nathan: We ALL can pretty much figure than anyone under the age of 55 or so today AIN’T gonna collect stinkin’ Social Security ‘lessn they’s got privileges and know someone.  It is broke, it just is still wiggling around a little bit.  But personal accounts?  Only so that when the time comes the government can steal them, too, as is already being discussed about 401k and IRAs.

Home Front: Chicago War
67 72 Shot in Chicago in Wave of Holiday Weekend Violence
(NBC Chicago) The survivors were not cooperating with detectives, authorities said. …Twelve men were killed and at least 60 other people were wounded in shootings throughout Chicago during the holiday weekend, including eight people who were shot in a West Side attack Saturday.

Mama’s Note: Now, wait a minute! It’s illegal to carry a gun in Chicago. I guess they’ll just have to make it MORE “illegal.” Funny thing, though. It IS legal a lot of other places where NOBODY was shot over the holiday…

Nathan: The numbers went up even after Mama Liberty sent me this story this morning.  This is almost as bad as Egypt this weekend!  Sadly, this is just a drop in the bucket of Chicago’s population.  Although a lot of people don’t understand, there is a definite correlation between severity of gun control laws which keep normal people from having guns for self-defense, and the number of gun crimes committed.

Theft in general – Broken free market
Rethinking Which Accounts Qualify for Deposit Insurance
(Mercatus) Uninsured brokered deposits reaffirm market discipline and increase stability, making banks rely on a stable deposit base to finance their lending activities…

Nathan: Sounds pretty good.  But what sounds even better is REAL insurance, where private firms have to determine what the risk of loss is, and the premium is really affiliated with the cost and risk for a particular bank, so that it is not a license to do stupid things.

Mama’s Note: The banker (and everyone else) needs to be personally liable for their decisions and business practice. If you can play games with other people’s money, then walk off when things go bad, lots of things can go bad quickly. I’m sure the idea of tar and feathers, or outright hanging, kept many a banker in line in years gone by.

Islamic wars: Arab street revolt
Muslim Brotherhood Claims Early-Morning ‘Massacre’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This “massacre” was as much the fault of the Muslim Brotherhood as it was of the Army, but that is what the MB wants: blood in the streets to fling into the news screens and front pages of European and American papers to get them to restore Morsi (or some other MB stooge) to power.  The MB cares no more for the Arab in the Street than the Army does: they see the normal people as pawns and tokens to be spent for power.  Yes, the Army pulled a coup – with some good reason to do so, and apparently in compliance with at least some “constitutional provisions” – of a constitution that had already been rendered null and void.

A pox on BOTH (or ALL) their houses: let the Egyptians continue to kill themselves as they have done for six or seven thousand years.  Stop wasting Western treasure and lives trying to stop it, or to “establish democracy.”  Indeed, this is where the West came in: when French and British troops intervened in an Egyptian mess because the leaders were killing the people and the people were trying to kill the leaders – and EVERYONE was killing the “christians” and the “foreigners.