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2011-02-25 Home Front: Culture Wars

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Posted by g(r)omgoru 2011-02-25 05:18|| || Front Page|| [11128 views ] Top

#1 What happens in Wisconsin is linked to what happens in Islamistan. The US economy has been hollowed out by billions of dollars sent overseas to import oil, pay for jihadis and buy them airline tickets to the west. The domestic US economy has been taken over by rent-seekers, most prominent of which are the financial Pig Men and their allies. Globalization has also played a big role in weakening the US economy. Please recall that damaging the US economy was one of al Qaeda's goals. The public unions are also rent-seekers, determined to do business as usual until the whole scheme collapses. When debts cannot be repaid, and taxes are at their limit, sovereign default and/or economic collapse are the only two possible outcomes.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-02-25 07:32|| 2011-02-25 07:32|| Front Page Top

#2 My opinion about mobbing:
Apparently the Madison statehouse has been packed elbow-to-elbow with demonstrators who have been camped out continuously for days. This is a safety hazard from the viewpoint of fire alarms, stampedes & intimidation & interference with official business. When something very similar was attempted recently in Columbus, Ohio the state simply locked the doors of its capitol building when a quota of people had entered. After that, only when people left, were new people allowed in. This fascist behavior of the Ohio state government got a big headline in the Akron Beacon Journal, which seemed to imply machine-gunning of the protestors would be the very next thing to happen. Federal authorities would not tolerate mobbing like this in the US Capitol building, around the Supreme Court, etc., no doubt about that. The layout of DC was drawn up after the French Revolution, the streets & buildings are designed so that a few Federal artillerymen could sweep the streets clear with a whiff of grapeshoot if it ever came to that. During the Civil War, DC became the most heavily fortified city in history for that time.
From Madison:
Lawmakers also approved a rule to allow Capitol police to close the statehouse at 6 p.m., requiring demonstrators inside the building to take their protests outside after normal business hours end, the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison reported. The statehouse now must remain open to the public as long as lawmakers are in session or a public hearing is being conducted.Otherwise it usually closes by 6 p.m.

Apparently Wisconsin has no rule about the maximum occupancy of its public buildings and nothing defining the limits of 'peaceable assembly'. I think opening the statehouse to the public is one thing, and packing it shoulder to shoulder with the public is quite something else. Also, if a crowd is making so much noise that hearing is being damaged, is that 'peaceable'? Not in my opinion, but no one ever asks me.
In addition, is there any rule saying that the Wisconsin government has to conduct its business in its statehouse? I understand the GOP does not want to provoke more of a confrontation than it already has. The occupation of the Wisconsin statehouse seems well-established. What keeps the legislature from passing another law to allow its business to be conducted at a National Guard facility elsewhere in Wisconsin in case of emergencies which disable to capitol building, then declaring an emergency, then simply leaving the ~~rioters~~ protestors behind until they get tired & go home? Recall the US Congress basically was out of business for a time after anthrax contaminated the US Capitol shortly after 9/11. Those gutless wonders did nothing about creating one or more alternate places to do their business, which convinced me the feds were not serious about the war against terror.
I imagine there are other creative approaches might be considered. I've been scanning the news, and apparently I am the only one who raises these issues.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-02-25 09:04|| 2011-02-25 09:04|| Front Page Top

#3 The U.S. Has been brought to the brink of collapse by people who can't comprehend the fact that when we go under everything goes under.

Posted by Fred 2011-02-25 09:08|| 2011-02-25 09:08|| Front Page Top

#4 Properly speaking, the failure happened in earnest for essentially the same reasons that the Great Depression happened. "The permission of marginal debt."

The essential truth about credit is that it must be limited to those who do not need it. Ideally, credit is secured by an equal or greater amount in the same, non-volatile medium. In a manner of speaking, it is a form of insurance.

However, credit is extended beyond this, first with the acceptance of a different form of non-volatile collateral, then by a volatile collateral, then on margin based on fractional collateral, and finally using other credit as the collateral for new credit.

Margin and beyond are the danger zone which tripped up the US economy in the Great Depression. But "credit based on credit", is geometrically worse, because it goes beyond just uninhibited speculation into the realm of all or nothing, doubling stakes gambling.

And because it uses imaginary money and is backed by speculative margin, it deals in fantastic numbers with no relationship to reality. This is how, for example, just the derivatives market was theoretically "worth" $500T, many times greater than the GDP of the entire world.

Because the US government was ignorant, or willing to let such gambling happen in an unregulated market, these trillions of dollars are supposedly back by dollars. Or at least are transferable to dollars. Supposedly. So the US is on the hook for some gambler's computer gaming.

Logically, the way to end this is for the US government to split its real, but virtual, currency from this imaginary, and virtual currency. If someone gambled using debt as collateral, win or lose, there should be no profit from it.

So simply put, such "dollars" cannot be honored or transferred to anything more real. Unfortunately, there may be no way for such a split in virtual money to happen.

Which means that the US would have to renounce the virtual dollar internationally, by renouncing its foreign held and speculative market debt. Then all dollars held by US citizens would be reformulated to "new dollars" of some variety.

In practical terms, this would wipe out many speculators and "cash billionaires", that hold paper not based in equity or bonds. As it would have to happen quickly, before they could convert their imaginary money to something more tangible.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-02-25 09:31|| 2011-02-25 09:31|| Front Page Top

#5 AH, you ignore the PR value of these mobs.

As a generalization, Midwesterners aren't mob type people and aren't sympathetic to them. This is probably very true of those who are undecided/independent (and rely on the MSM for their "news") in the conflict between the trunks and the unions. By and large the treatment of the unions by the MSM has been sympathetic. But they can't avoid showing these mob scenes which are very unsympathetic. They clearly show that there is a party of adolescents and a party of adults. Which looks better and which do you want to govern you? That is the question the people of Wisconsin will decide again in 20 months. I think it is a good idea to let these thugs reveal themselves for all to see.

The unions think it is still 1930, Walter Reuther vs. Henry Ford and his Pinkertons. It ain't. The unions apparently need a weather man to tell them which way the wind is blowing, and Bill Ayers was a bad choice

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2011-02-25 09:33|| 2011-02-25 09:33|| Front Page Top

#6 A H - very good points, but the last struck me in the afteermath of 9/11 as well. Forget another location. Why does congress even need to "meet"? There's this new Internet thing and video conferencing and electronic communication after all.

I also recall Newt raising the issue of dispersing the govt. Put Ag in Iowa, State in Ny, Defense in Colo, and so forth.

It's the whole monument complex that s so wasteful.

Posted by Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division 2011-02-25 09:36|| 2011-02-25 09:36|| Front Page Top

#7 One warning to the Unions: if they cause a collpase of the government, in the subsequent anarchy, it is they who will be hunted down and killed by the free people.

Posted by OldSpook 2011-02-25 11:25|| 2011-02-25 11:25|| Front Page Top

#8 My wife grew up in the shadow of Cammell Laird Shipyard in England. In her childhood she remembers the constant strikes. Now there is industrial peace. The ship building is dead, replaced by Beatles Museum, Fun Wheel and Restaurants.

The movie "I'm Alright Jack" says it all.

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2011-02-25 11:40|| 2011-02-25 11:40|| Front Page Top

#9 Haliburton,

BRAVO, SIR!!!! I have been saying this for YEARS - there is no real need for Congress to meet in Washington except for ceremonial occasions and highly classified testimony. Besides the money we would save, consider this: how many of the off-the-wall stunts our Congresscritters have pulled over the years would have even happened if these people had to leave their homes the next morning and see their constituents/neighbors?

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2011-02-25 13:43|| 2011-02-25 13:43|| Front Page Top

#10 Decentralizing the USGov is one of my fantasies - not only because it reduces power aggregation, but also because it reduces vulnerability, and makes states more important in "flyover" country.

Defense in Texas is a natural fit, Commerce in NY NY, Interior in Denver Colorado or SLC Utah, FBI in Chicago (close to the corruption), Health in Atlanta (near CDC), State Dept in .. umm.. St Louis Missouri (centermost point of the US and keeps them out of trouble), and so on.

Posted by OldSpook 2011-02-25 13:49|| 2011-02-25 13:49|| Front Page Top

#11 Wisconsin uses the 2006 International Building Code, as adopted by the state, with some of their own amendments. In the code, there are set occupancy levels (people per specified floor area), based on the type of occupancy classification. You will see this often displayed in signage in restaurants, assembly halls, etc. This is to ensure that the emergency exits are not overloaded when they are most needed. These occupancy levels should be enforced. Everybody will bitch and moan, but a fire or other emergency will have overloaded halls with people stacked up like cordwood trying to get out.

You cannot let a mob, ruly or unruly, take over a public building.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2011-02-25 14:07|| 2011-02-25 14:07|| Front Page Top

#12 Everybody will bitch and moan, but a fire or other emergency will have overloaded halls with people stacked up like cordwood trying to get out.

Should building security have a fire drill then, to make sure they could handle a real emergency under those circumstances?

Posted by trailing wife 2011-02-25 14:43|| 2011-02-25 14:43|| Front Page Top

#13 TW - I was thinking the same thing - with video rolling.

Unfortunately someone will probably get killed in the stampede.

Posted by CrazyFool 2011-02-25 15:14|| 2011-02-25 15:14|| Front Page Top

#14 There are some very curious jurisdiction questions involving the Wisc. Capitol building.

I don't know, but presume, the State Police cover the bldg. and grounds. From there out, City of Madison takes over. I commuted/consulted there for three years, and didn't pay much attention, but caught some very PC whiffs from Madison City govt.. Noble Wray is police chief, and apparently has already made noise about Gov. Walkers prank call comments. Wonder how he's coordinating with the Statehouse authorities?

A big shame when professionalism goes out the window in a PD. I'm betting the PD and FD don't want to make a show of inspecting the bldg. but someone (Sgt. at Arms?) should call them on it.

Posted by Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division 2011-02-25 15:26|| 2011-02-25 15:26|| Front Page Top

#15 Um, where are all these union swine going to the bathroom? What do you want to bet that the grand building that is the Wisconsin state house, is being trashed by these people?

Posted by Jefferson 2011-02-25 18:18|| 2011-02-25 18:18|| Front Page Top

#16 One warning to the Unions: if they cause a collapse of the government, in the subsequent anarchy, it is they who will be hunted down and killed by the free people.

If you only knew just how true that is. And not just the Unions.

Posted by Secret Asian Man 2011-02-25 19:51|| 2011-02-25 19:51|| Front Page Top

#17 Where are they going to the bathroom? My buddies who work in the building every day tell me that they at least use the bathrooms for the intended purpose, along with sleeping in them, changing clothes, 'sink showering', etc. The facility management folks are now limiting their access between 6PM-8AM to the ground floor only. They'll be banned from the building during these 'off times' beginning this next Sunday. Of course, our protester friends say that there will be 'peaceful' resistance to this action.

The building is a mess, smells, and is pretty noisy all the time. At least the protesters do limit themselves to the 'public' areas and haven't tried to take over the various offices (unless the legislator has agreed to their presence), workrooms and other 'non-public' areas.

There's a few photos of how our brave public employees have left their surroundings here. The recent Tea-Party rally folks left the area cleaner than when they arrived, though.

Posted by Mullah Richard 2011-02-25 22:52|| 2011-02-25 22:52|| Front Page Top

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