By Nathan Barton

Time to panic?  End of the world (financial world) nears?

Everyone, including the WAPO is screaming about China’s market crash claiming it dents nation’s aura of invincibility and wondering if this is the snowflake (together with Greece) that will trigger the worldwide global collapse.  Trillions of dollars of paper assets have been wiped out in a matter of days. “What had been hailed as a bull market that would embody China’s dream of national rejuvenation has turned into a burst bubble, and fevered government efforts to arrest a month-long slide in stock prices proved fruitless Wednesday.”  So China’s financial commissars are busy lending debt-created money so that people can go out and buy shares.  Right!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, Greece asks European partners for new three-year bailout, the WaPo reports. “Greece and its European lenders prepared for the start Thursday of a final showdown over whether to keep this struggling Mediterranean nation in the euro, amid signs that the economy would asphyxiate within days without a desperately needed bailout.” Desperately needed, of course, because Greek politicians, and the Greek people, cannot discipline themselves and have dug a hole deeper than that plugged stopper in the bottom of the Mediterranean.

The Western Hemisphere is not free of money woes, as the Puerto Rican debt crisis forces its way onto presidential political agenda, in yet another WaPo story.  Never mind bankruptcy, how is it going to impact on the presidential election STILL 16 months away?  Of course, the solution is the same as in Greece: find some way to keep the Commonwealth peaceful and prosperous that doesn’t involve stealing money now (taxes) or later (borrowing) from the people.  In other words, get rid of the Puerto Rican government (which probably means the FedGov would go as well, lest the conspirators in DC impose something else on the island).

Corrupt government.

As government bureaucracies go, the Chemical Safety Board has actually been a “paragon” of virtue, at least relative to 99.9% of FedGov agencies.  It is supposed to and does investigate chemical accidents in industry, government, and transportation that kill people (like the mess in West, Texas, last year, or the propane explosion that wiped out a convenience store and fire crew in West Virginia several years ago).  But even it has its troubles and is, of course, a scummy power struggle and a bunch of conniving paper-pushers and influence-peddlers at heart.  This story at Fox News tells a small piece of it. Even Congress (a scummy, peddling, conniving institution if there ever was one) is getting involved (perhaps because they are not getting their share? They are probing the ex-head of the CSB, who resigned under rather dubious circumstances.  But there is more to the story, according to information circulating in the emergency response community.  Right now I’m trying to find links to information I was sent by a correspondent, which reveals a very sordid tale of power, intrigue, and lawlessness.  Hopefully I will have more soon to share.

Gee, you’d think that the nazgul would have more important things to do, except maybe anger millions of Americans EVEN MORE than they’ve done in the last few weeks.  The WaPo reports that a federal judge ordered cancellation of Redskins’ trademark registrations so (theoretically) the Washington Redskins have lost their biggest legal and public relations battle yet in the war over their name.  Certainly NO political influence here, eh?

Stupid cop tricks galore!

Thugs on the prowl: more assaults on the homes of people.  “Your home is your castle” is probably against the law to even say nowadays.  From the Free Thought Project, I read about a city adding insult to injury.  After an incredibly stupid SWAT team assaulted the wrong house (the right one was two doors down), they spent two hours ransacking the place and terrifying the family.  But then they sent the code enforcement guy out, who wrote the residents a ticket for the broken window that the cop SWAT thugs broke in their home invasion.  The family is being told they are fortunate that they are still alive and should be grateful to the city and the cops for “protecting” them.  Right.

In another case, Political Outcast tells about the “final settlement” of a similar case, involving federal agents in a SWAT-type assault on a private home.  The homeowner thought it was a REAL home invasion, grabbed his gun, ran away from the house and turned to shoot one of the people chasing him.  Then he realized it was not self-employed thugs but the real DEAl, and dropped his gun and surrendered.  That is why he is only getting eight years in prison (just sentenced) and only having to pay for the agent’s medical bills: a measly $83,000.  Oh, yeah, guess what, wrong house, again.

Ah, but sometimes the cops get their come-uppance.  Baltimore mayor has fired police commissioner amid homicide rise, per the WaPo. “Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday that she has fired Police Commissioner Anthony Batts, 2 1/2 months after the city broke out into riots following the death of a man who was injured in police custody.”  Not for that, of course, but because the continuing reign of terror isn’t working: people are still killing each other instead of waiting for the cops to kill them.

Who cannot use guns responsibly?  Well, from the WaPo, we learn that a federal agent’s gun was used in San Francisco ‘sanctuary city’ murder case. “The case of a killing on San Francisco’s Pier 14 last week has turned into a national debate about the merit’s of the city’s sanctuary city policy. But the criminal case against the man accused of shooting 32-year old Kate Steinle took an unexpected turn Tuesday” with the discovery that the weapon used was obtained – gasp!!! – illegally and had once belonged to a federal agent.  None of SF’s vaunted gun laws did a SINGLE thing to keep this thug from killing this woman.  I am SHOCKED, I tell you.  Absolutely shocked!