Wallace - An impromptu gun show broke out last weekend under the I-5
freeway when Seattle's police department, in one of its feel-good endeavours,
offered to help get guns off the streets with a buyback program offering $100
(in gift certificates) for handguns, long guns and shotguns, and $200 for any
misnomered “assault rifles” — meaning, one supposes, semi-automatic rifles
with black furniture.
The several thousand sheeple who queued up to turn in their guns for a
pittance were greeted by a bevy of cash buyers offering something closer to
market price than the cops were willing to pay - and in cash, not gift cards.
Reported Mac Slavo of SHTF.com: “Police
stood in awe as gun enthusiasts and collectors waved wads of cash for the
guns being held by those standing in line for the buyback program. Several
prospective buyers held placards offering “Cash for Guns,” “Will Pay Cash for
Collectibles” and “$$ For Assault Rifles.”
Quipped one buyer: “Like the cops,” he said, “I'm still taking guns off
the streets. They're just going in my safe.” Hopefully a few heirloom
firearms, maybe a Purdy shotgun, a pre-1964 Winchester or two, or a
flast-side Vietnam-era AR-15 were rescued in this free-market response to
governmental stupidity.
* * *
Pull out your King James Bible and turn to Genesis 47:15:
“And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan,
all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should
we die in thy presence? for the money faileth.”
Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner are conjuring the same recipe the
Pharaoh did to enslave their people. The people in later verses of this same
chapter offered up their land and their freedom in exchange for food, to wit:
“Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and
our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and
give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not
desolate.
“And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians
sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land
became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one
end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof.”
That's what happens when banksters and corporate fascists run the show.
They seek servants. FEMA camps, anyone? As our friend from Australia, John
Percival, who put this matter in front of me yesterday, comments: “The mother
of all currency wars has begun. Good time to own a gold mine and an
ocean-capable yacht.” To which Doug Casey and Simon Black might add, some
arable land in Chile.
* * *
Yet more grim news, this from the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
Idaho doesn't even rate an honorable mention in its 2012 tally of mineral production
from its lead, zinc and silver mines.
* * *
Lastly, we leave you with an imagined conversation between the “Who's On
First?” duo of Abbot and Costello:
COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America.
ABBOTT: Good Subject. Terrible Times. It's 7.8 percent.
COSTELLO: That many people are out of work?
ABBOTT: No, that's 14.7 percent.
COSTELLO: You just said 7.8 percent.
ABBOTT: 7.8 percent Unemployed.
COSTELLO: Right 7.8 percent out of work.
ABBOTT: No, that's 14.7 percent.
COSTELLO: Okay, so it's 14.7 percent unemployed.
ABBOTT: No, that's 7.8 percent.
COSTELLO: WAIT A MINUTE. Is it 7.8 percent or 14.7 percent?
ABBOTT: 7.8 percent are unemployed. 14.7 percent are out of work.
COSTELLO: If you are out of work you are unemployed.
ABBOTT: No, Obama said you can't count the "out of work" as the
unemployed. You have to look for work to be unemployed.
COSTELLO: BUT THEY ARE OUT OF WORK!!!
ABBOTT: No, you miss his point.
COSTELLO: What point?
ABBOTT: Someone who doesn't look for work can't be counted with those who
look for work. It wouldn't be fair.
COSTELLO: To whom?
ABBOTT: The unemployed.
COSTELLO: But they are ALL out of work.
ABBOTT: No, the unemployed are actively looking for work. Those who are
out of work gave up looking, and if you give up, you are no longer in the
ranks of the unemployed.
COSTELLO: So if you're off the unemployment roles that would count as less
unemployment?
ABBOTT: Unemployment would go down. Absolutely!
COSTELLO: The unemployment just goes down because you don't look for work?
ABBOTT: Absolutely it goes down. That's how the current administration
gets it to 7.8 percent. Otherwise it would be 14.7 percent. Our government
doesn't want you to read about 14.7 percent unemployment.
COSTELLO: That would be tough on those running for reelection.
ABBOTT: Absolutely.
COSTELLO: Wait, I got a question for you. That means there are two ways to
bring down the unemployment number?
ABBOTT: Two ways is correct.
COSTELLO: Unemployment can go down if someone gets a job?
ABBOTT: Correct.
COSTELLO: And unemployment can also go down if you stop looking for a job?
ABBOTT: Bingo.
COSTELLO: So there are two ways to bring unemployment down, and the easier
of the two is to have administration supporters stop looking for work.
ABBOTT: Now you're thinking like the Economy Czar.
