By Nathan Barton
Good afternoon. Some stories from the end of the week to comment on. Greed, stupidity, and eating their own. Oh, and the war on some drugs and taking care of the troops, and updates on wars and stupidity abroad and at home.
Are we supposed to be proud of how much is stolen from us? A new record has been set: more than Three TRILLION dollars has been collected by the FedGov in one year. 3,000,000,000,000. Amazing: equal to about 30 billion dollars about fifty years ago, but still a staggering, staggering amount of money extorted from people and businesses, through all the various inventive ways that government has figured out to slide money out of our pockets to go out and waste.
Mama’s Note: Well, “waste” is a relative term, naturally… but theft is theft, no matter what use the loot is put to. So, it would not matter at all what the swag was spent for as far as I’m concerned.
Nebraska, as I have pointed out recently regarding North Dakota, no longer produces and consumes its own methamphetamine, but rather buys the nasty imported stuff from Mexico. In North Dakota, it is attributed to weather and insatiable demand by oil-field workers which can’t be supplied by local sources. In Nebraska, according to the WaPo, it is because Nebraska law-enforcement has done such a great job of controlling the supply of cold medicine that the raw materials are just not available. And as a result, the Sinaloa Cartel is busy establishing a firm marketing and distribution position in the Cornhusker State. The WaPo calls this “unintended consequences,” that is, a glitch or bug in the system. I think it can be at least looked at as a feature: there is FAR more profit for the “silent partners” of the world drug trade in having meth made (even more cheaply and with more sleezy “quality control”) in Mexico or further south, and then smuggling it halfway across the Fifty States, to sell for a premium price because local competition has been all but wiped out.
Ironically, it may be American soldiers that first get to enjoy the long-predicted FEMA-style concentration camps as part of the Ebola crisis; apparently the Army has been directed to set up isolation camps for soldiers returning from West Africa (when they do – if they do) for 21 days or more (anyone want to bet on more?) I’ve heard (no documentation yet) that Fort Bliss is to be the site of the first one(s). Right now, more than 400 US troops are in Liberia and other West African nations: the Fuehrer has committed to at least 4,000, including (as of Thursday) National Guard and Reserve troops. Although the photos of troops show them wearing Army Medical Department shoulder patches, supposedly only 101st Airborne troops are there now: I suspect the MSM still can’t tell what unit is what.
It has been almost a month since 43 Mexican students disappeared, kidnapped by police allied (supposedly) with drug cartels. Now, teachers and students are progressively occupying town halls in various cities in the state, to demand action, following weeks of street marches by tens of thousands, and the arrest of 40 police officers by 1200 deployed federales (federal “police” – an occupation army in all but name). Can someone explain to me how protests and sit-ins can find these victims? Assuming the troops really are looking for them, what does this sort of thing do? Or why there can be mass graves all over the place? I’ve heard that the Mexican’s latest civil war was over, but it looks otherwise.
Islamic State fighters continue their advance in Iraq’s Anbar province as officials worry that the group’s gains will provide momentum for an assault on the outskirts of Baghdad. Indeed, reports are that Baghdad is surrounded. Kobane is supposedly still holding out against the Caliphate, without help from Turkey and worthless “help” from “allied” warplanes that are killing nearly as many civilians as ISIS is beheading. Again this weekend, there are reports WITH photos (and no signs of photoshopping) of Caliphate warriors and the chopped off heads of children as young as three. Guess they learned from Carrington: “nits make lice.”
Not that other countries are any better. It sounds like something from Stalin’s war on the kulaks, the Third Reich, or perhaps the Caliphate and Kobane city: a military assault on a civilian house to arrest a wanted criminal in which a flashbang is used on a sleeping grandmother and her granddaughter, after which a single “accidental” shot to the chest kills the seven-year-old girl. Except it was a scumbag cop in a SWAT team in Detroit, and the second jury in a row could not come to an agreement on a MISDEMEANOR charge of “improperly discharging a firearm resulting in bodily injury or death” – and the prosecutor isn’t going to try again. We need an IQ test for jury members – but wait! We already have one: they aren’t allowed to be very smart. This jury seems to have been burdened with some members too stupid to tie their own shoe laces.
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About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.
The Price of Liberty 
Libertarian commentary on the News, #14-42A: Weekend this and that
By Nathan Barton
Good afternoon. Some stories from the end of the week to comment on. Greed, stupidity, and eating their own. Oh, and the war on some drugs and taking care of the troops, and updates on wars and stupidity abroad and at home.
Are we supposed to be proud of how much is stolen from us? A new record has been set: more than Three TRILLION dollars has been collected by the FedGov in one year. 3,000,000,000,000. Amazing: equal to about 30 billion dollars about fifty years ago, but still a staggering, staggering amount of money extorted from people and businesses, through all the various inventive ways that government has figured out to slide money out of our pockets to go out and waste.
Mama’s Note: Well, “waste” is a relative term, naturally… but theft is theft, no matter what use the loot is put to. So, it would not matter at all what the swag was spent for as far as I’m concerned.
Nebraska, as I have pointed out recently regarding North Dakota, no longer produces and consumes its own methamphetamine, but rather buys the nasty imported stuff from Mexico. In North Dakota, it is attributed to weather and insatiable demand by oil-field workers which can’t be supplied by local sources. In Nebraska, according to the WaPo, it is because Nebraska law-enforcement has done such a great job of controlling the supply of cold medicine that the raw materials are just not available. And as a result, the Sinaloa Cartel is busy establishing a firm marketing and distribution position in the Cornhusker State. The WaPo calls this “unintended consequences,” that is, a glitch or bug in the system. I think it can be at least looked at as a feature: there is FAR more profit for the “silent partners” of the world drug trade in having meth made (even more cheaply and with more sleezy “quality control”) in Mexico or further south, and then smuggling it halfway across the Fifty States, to sell for a premium price because local competition has been all but wiped out.
Ironically, it may be American soldiers that first get to enjoy the long-predicted FEMA-style concentration camps as part of the Ebola crisis; apparently the Army has been directed to set up isolation camps for soldiers returning from West Africa (when they do – if they do) for 21 days or more (anyone want to bet on more?) I’ve heard (no documentation yet) that Fort Bliss is to be the site of the first one(s). Right now, more than 400 US troops are in Liberia and other West African nations: the Fuehrer has committed to at least 4,000, including (as of Thursday) National Guard and Reserve troops. Although the photos of troops show them wearing Army Medical Department shoulder patches, supposedly only 101st Airborne troops are there now: I suspect the MSM still can’t tell what unit is what.
It has been almost a month since 43 Mexican students disappeared, kidnapped by police allied (supposedly) with drug cartels. Now, teachers and students are progressively occupying town halls in various cities in the state, to demand action, following weeks of street marches by tens of thousands, and the arrest of 40 police officers by 1200 deployed federales (federal “police” – an occupation army in all but name). Can someone explain to me how protests and sit-ins can find these victims? Assuming the troops really are looking for them, what does this sort of thing do? Or why there can be mass graves all over the place? I’ve heard that the Mexican’s latest civil war was over, but it looks otherwise.
Islamic State fighters continue their advance in Iraq’s Anbar province as officials worry that the group’s gains will provide momentum for an assault on the outskirts of Baghdad. Indeed, reports are that Baghdad is surrounded. Kobane is supposedly still holding out against the Caliphate, without help from Turkey and worthless “help” from “allied” warplanes that are killing nearly as many civilians as ISIS is beheading. Again this weekend, there are reports WITH photos (and no signs of photoshopping) of Caliphate warriors and the chopped off heads of children as young as three. Guess they learned from Carrington: “nits make lice.”
Not that other countries are any better. It sounds like something from Stalin’s war on the kulaks, the Third Reich, or perhaps the Caliphate and Kobane city: a military assault on a civilian house to arrest a wanted criminal in which a flashbang is used on a sleeping grandmother and her granddaughter, after which a single “accidental” shot to the chest kills the seven-year-old girl. Except it was a scumbag cop in a SWAT team in Detroit, and the second jury in a row could not come to an agreement on a MISDEMEANOR charge of “improperly discharging a firearm resulting in bodily injury or death” – and the prosecutor isn’t going to try again. We need an IQ test for jury members – but wait! We already have one: they aren’t allowed to be very smart. This jury seems to have been burdened with some members too stupid to tie their own shoe laces.
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About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.