By Nathan Barton

Good afternoon!

I ended up with a short commentary today, as most of it was taken up by a long discussion of the growing contagion of police abuse and violence (BY police and not on police) in the Fifty States, so here are a few other stories.

I suppose the police in Kentucky will get a chance to join their brethren in attacking people, as christians become fair game in more and more states, as the courts force through “gay marriage.” most recently in Alaska. But we have this story from Kentucky, joining similar incidents in New Mexico, Colorado, California, and Washington State. A Kentucky Human Rights Commission examiner has ordered a Christian screen printing company to print t-shirts that bear pro-homosexual messages and undergo diversity training for declining to make shirts for a ‘gay pride’ celebration two years ago.” This isn’t some government agency being told to do this: it is a private business.  This isn’t California or Massachusetts or some blue state: this is  a relatively conservative “red” state.  Freedom of speech?  Freedom of religion?  Freedom to get beaten and sued and forced to slave for anyone who can claim you hate them or just disrespect them: especially if they have a uniform or a twisted and sick sex life.  Seems to me this is a perfect opportunity for some cops to channel some aggression, knock some innocent folks around, tear up some equipment (probably not as satisfying as trashing a printing press like in the old Westerns, but still), and prove to their community how they are “protecting them” from evildoers who refuse to obey the various government agendas.

Other cops are getting a chance to play both thug and  “savior,” in Dallas, it was revealed that a health care worker who treated the now-dead Liberian who snuck into the country tested positive for Ebola. I am sure that she isn’t worried, after all, she has only a one in two chance of dying.  Of course, it is her own fault, according to the “doctor” who is the head of the CDC, who says that she MUST have breached protocol to have been infected.

But the mixed messages from the authorities is terrorizing people.  The cops are already bullying people: having blocked off and standing guard at the entrances to the apartment where the Liberian was staying, and are talking about rounding up a pet (species unknown) that supposedly was in the apartment while the man was there (after being sent back from the hospital the first time).  We all know how cops love killing pets: dogs and cats.  And supposedly there are drums of “hazardous waste” sitting there outside under guard.  We also know how STUPID too many cops are when it comes to dealing with hazmat: like eating pizza on the porch of a meth lab as it is being cleaned up, and opening the back doors of trucks placarded with all kinds of warning signs, because obviously they are using the placards to conceal border jumpers or drug shipments.  There is a reason that hazmat people call cops “blue canaries.”

But enough about cops and Ebola: there ARE other news stories out there.

The Fuehrer and his pet agency, EPA, have been pushing for more and more coal-fired power plants to shut down, by fines, new regulations, and other “incentives.”  It turns out that they may have done a VERY good job by their lights.  It appears that although EPA claims that only 9.5 Gigawatts of electrical generation capability are being lost, the reality is that 72 Gigawatts is gone:  we have that much LESS power to provide to people and businesses, and that much less ability to deal with blackouts and other problems.  This is similar to the problem with gasoline and diesel:  although the US is now producing more petroleum than Saudi Arabia, our ability to refine it has been drastically cut by FedGov efforts and by those of environists to prevent new refineries from being built (such as the Hyperion in extreme southeastern South Dakota).  So we still see enormous prices and the FedGov STILL tries to cut our energy use more.

Not that a bad economy helps.

Last week turns out to be really bad for markets and for claims that the Crash of 2009 is over – and that we are NOT in a recession.  Friday was the latest news: after losing 300+ points on Thursday, the Dow Jones lost another 115 on Friday, leaving it in the negative for 2014, and after three weeks of “fun.”  The Nasdaq has dropped 150 points or more. Also, oil continues to slide further below $90/barrel (good for gasoline prices, at least) as this chart shows. Indeed it is lower than it has been since early 2011:  while both the price of oil and of stocks can be seen to be tied to inflation: this is deflation, due to a combination of factors, including continued slumps in demand. And predictions are for more drops: down to $60/barrel for oil, and several thousand points drop for Dow and Nasdaq.