Time Out: The Cypriot parliament said no, so for now no one knows what'll happen but it's pretty unanimous that whatever comes next won't be pretty. That it will squash Cyprus is inevitable. Whether it will make much difference to Bonn or Brussels is another story.
Gutless Wonders: Democrats have betrayed not only Newton's dead children but those who will be killed next time and the time after – whenever some nut grabs an assault rifle and a 25 shot clip and heads off to kindergarten. The balance between dead children and gun nuts is very delicate, according to Harry Reid, but in the end the NRA and wild-eyed fear of the government win.
It Begins: The Russian Cypriot depositors may be loathsome folks, but dumb they are not; their billions (about 15 billion euro, minimum) will be gone as soon as their lawyers draw up the demands. This will, of course, destroy the Cypriot banks, which the confiscations were supposed to save, and without the financial sector, all Cyprus has is a few goats and two olive trees.
Easing Does It: The big danger is not the rate at which the Fed's balance sheet has grown – currently at $85 billion a month and approaching $3.1 trillion. Nope, the going up is just fine. If the Fed ever tries to reduce that by a couple of trillion dollars, selling those assets off best be done gently. Very, very gently. Most likely they'll just bribe the banks with higher interest rates on their reserves (and excess reserves), keeping the cash out of the consumer's pocketbooks. Ah, but then there's the higher interest rate goblin...
Follow the Money: House Democrats, ahem, Democrats, I say Democrats, are signing on to bills that would “expressly allow bailouts of our largest Wall Street banks,” and “impede legislation aimed at forcing the banks to break up.” They are also backing bills to deregulate derivatives (which are pretty much regulation free anyway). Vox populi and all that.
Unchanged Monotony: "Ryan’s budget is intended to do nothing less than fundamentally transform the relationship between Americans and their government. That, and not deficit reduction, is its real point, as it has been Ryan’s real point throughout his career." Ezra Klein
Executive Privilege: Last year the US Supreme Court ruled that a warrant or court order is required before the police can attach a GPS tracking device to a private vehicle. The Obama administration has over-ruled Mr. Chief Justice & Team and says no such paperwork is needed. Constitution? We don't got need no Constitution.
Sauce/Ganders: Turns out that a lot of those members of congress and members of business round tables running around worrying about The Debt and Living Within Our Means are members of the 'do as I say not as I do' brigade. Like the rest of us.
Curb Your Enthusiasm: The smarties who have gobbled up tens of thousands of houses in order to rent them out and rake in the dough while the price of the houses skyrockets had not planned on 50% occupancy rates. And these clever buggers also didn't understand that the people who got pushed out of their houses are not going to be able to rush in and buy another one next week. And that pretty much those who buy a house sell one, too. What drives demand for more housing and drives prices skyward is called household formation – which unemployed and underemployed folks don't rush into. Oh, and another departure from the business plan: rental prices are falling. Too many rental houses, y'know.
Bully's 'R' Republican: Now it's Louisiana’s Senator Vitter that is putting a 'hold' on an Obama nominee for nor particular reason other than to show off. Vitter says it's because of Secretary of Labor nominee Thomas Perez's “spotty work related to the New Black Panther case.” Real spotty. As in Perez was not involved in the case at all. Reform? Can I get a second for reform?.
The Parting Shot:
Wedgeleaf Whitlow Grass, Draba cuneifolia.
8 comments:
looks like Vitter pulled that hold...page not found on his website, the url looked ok..
Found another source. Thanks rjs.
As a "gun nut" who appreciates your work in assembling news items from various sources, I am perplexed at your characterization of us as having a "wild-eye fear of the government." Especially when many of The articles you link to highlight cases of government overreach and abuse, e.g. NDAA, drone killings, and and theft through monetary policy.
Pretty much, large and small, I've learned that 'the government' over-reaches and abuses our theoretical rights (and breaks its own laws and all that), but the government does not go into my granddaughter’s classroom and spray 100 or so armour-piercing rounds into a couple of dozen kids in 97 seconds. Nuts with high capacity magazines on automatic weapons (assault or other, doesn't matter, the cyclic rate of fire does and the magazine capacity does)can and will continue to be able to do so unless we-the-people stop them.
I'm not naive enough to think that a few armed citizens are going to become "a well armed militia" in this day and age, nor think that the flood of automatic weaponry is going to secure or protect 'our way of life."
I'm not suggesting we need only do away with these weapons to reach nirvana - but it is a good a place as any to start. We can go after the Wall Street crooks next, they're not going anywhere. Nor, more's the pity, are our current crop of politicians going to scurry off stage - but automatic weapons are not the solution to those types of problems either.
The lack of simple courage on the part of elected officials is stunning, and will continue.
ckm
Before you can regulate something, you must first know what it is. Civilian ownership of machine guns is "effectively" illegal, due to the restrictions of the National Firearms Act (Title II if the Gun Control Act of 1968). The sale to or transfer of any machine gun to a civilian manufactured after 1986 is prohibited. Machine guns and conversion kits made prior to 1986 must be registered with the BATFE and a $200 tax stamp must be purchased.
The weapons used in Newtown were not machineguns. The rifle was a semiautomatic chambered in .223 Remington. That means it fires only one round per trigger pull, like many modern hunting rifles, but uses a caliber that many states don't allow for deer hunting because it is not powerful enough.
You mention the militia clause as well. First off, the existence of a standing army capable of crushing the populace was probably not in the founders' plans. All I will say about that is that a rag tag group of fighters has given the US and NATO a hard time for over a decade in Afghanistan, and the Syrian rebels are holding out against their government going on 2 years now. So I don't think it is too far fetched to think it's at least possible if it ever came to that point.
Machine guns? Who snuck a machine gun into this conversation. Converting a semi to a fully automatic weapon is trivial, but even pulling the trigger will work to kill a lot of kids before your trigger finger gets tired.
And lets not equate the Syrian military with the US Army or pretend that good ole boys with semi automatics are going to perform with the skill and resourcefulness (and military equipment) of the Taliban.
Tomato, tomahto. A machine gun is a fully automatic weapon. And it is "easy" to convert a semi to fully (if you know what you're doing) but it's also illegal to do so w/o registering it and paying the tax. So, what you are saying is that making something illegal really doesn't stop people from doing it? Hmmm... I think we agree on that point.
CKM,
1. Nobody, not even the most liberal media outlet, has implied that any automatic weapons were used at Newtown. The Bushmaster .223 presented by the police was semi-automatic, which means one shot per trigger squeeze.
2. Modifying a semi-auto rifle to full auto typically requires machining skills, which makes it fairly unusual. Most people won't chance it, because it effectively eliminates the resale value of the gun by making it's possession a federal felony.
3. 100+ shots, 26 multiply shot children, 97 seconds. Doesn't add up does it? What also doesn't add up is the weight of the guns and ammunition that 150 lb Lanza was purported to be carrying. Out here in the hinterlands, SWAT officers have publicly called bullshit on the "official story" on radio talk shows, but the MSM will never report that.
4. I'm not so sure about a well-regulated militia, but in the event of widespread domestic strife, the military is expecting up to a 40% desertion rate (and some have questioned that figure as optimistic). Combining that with the absurdly high tooth to tail ratio of the modern military, it's highly doubtful they can handle nationwide guerrilla warfare, nor would they attempt it. The military will protect the wealthy and the rest of us will be on our own, if the SHTF.
5. During Hurricane Katrina, residents of New Orleans found "assault" rifles immensely useful for protecting their property from gangs of looters, when the authorities gave up. Judging by the changes in climate, infrastructure, and economics, another regional catastrophe seems fairly likely to me. If 911 stops working, even for a few days, there are many parts of this country that I wouldn't dream of being unarmed in.
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