But it could never happen here!

First it was Cyprus.  Now, Ireland.

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-04-23/forewarned-irish-savers-have-just-been-cyprusd-and-theres-much-more-cyprusing

It will happen here.  But here they'll start with a nationalized retirement plan.

Sickening.

Crazed American, out.

http://politicker.com/2013/04/bloomberg-says-post-boston-interpretation-of-the-constitution-will-have-to-change/

"In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday the country’s interpretation of the Constitution will “have to change” to allow for greater security to stave off future attacks.

“The people who are worried about privacy have a legitimate worry,” Mr. Bloomberg said during a press conference in Midtown. “But we live in a complex word where you’re going to have to have a level of security greater than you did back in the olden days, if you will. And our laws and our interpretation of the Constitution, I think, have to change.”

No

Quote of the day

I like George Takei, but I find it amazing that somebody who has been personally put into an internment camp by his government can hold the position that only the government should have guns.

Marko Kloos

Via Smallest Minority

While everyone was waiting...

... for the last of the Chechnyan / Dagistanian commandos to be killed or apprehended, this happened:

http://www.zdnet.com/cispa-passes-u-s-house-death-of-the-fourth-amendment-7000014205/

Pretty much legal cover for unfettered surveillance.

Let it be known.  The Marathon Bombings might be viewed as the historical turning point, where the gloves came off and the existing police state have begun to flex their muscles.

I will begin the process now of weaning myself off of the "voluntary tracking / intelligence gathering tag" - i.e. my smart phone.

The kimchi's getting pretty deep.  All of these coincidences are quite implausible.

Crazed American, out.

Attention: Echelon / CISPA Task Force:  Go Fuck Yourselves.

Backpedaling

A while back I posted this:  http://troaca.blogspot.com/2013/03/yep-i-crazed-american.html

It was all about my admiration for Senator Reid.

I take it all back.  Perhaps he still respects the civil rights enshrined by the Bill of Rights - and is just playing harball politics.  Too f---ing bad - I don't care.  Tired of politics.  Throughout history - imagined tyranny has had a very bad habit of cropping up as quite real tyrrany, given the room to flourish.  I don't even own any "assualt weapons"...


REID: In the 1920s, organized crime was committing murders with machine guns. So Congress dramatically limited the sale and transfer of machine guns. As a result, machine guns all but disappeared from the streets. We can and should take the same common-sense approach to safeguard Americans from modern weapons of war.

That is why I will vote for Senator Dianne Feinstein’s assault weapons ban – because we must strike a better balance between the right to defend ourselves and the right of every child in America to grow up safe from gun violence. I will vote for the ban because maintaining law and order is more important than satisfying conspiracy theorists who believe in black helicopters and false flags. And I will vote for the ban because saving the lives of young police officers and innocent civilians is more important than preventing imagined tyranny.


Fuck tyrants, be they real or imagined.

Crazed American, out.

Attacked... and the usual suspects are back out

Someone or a group of someones or groups of someones are attacking the US as you read this.

Boston, attacked like so many other cities - innocent people killed and maimed.

Our leadership in Washington is under attack from Ricin laced letters.

Meanwhile people from the right and the left are out decrying the other and throwing blame around with little to no information.

We are a damaged, divided country.  G-d help us.

I weep for the pain that has been suffered, I fear for the nation I love.

I will not yield one inch of freedom, one iota of our imperfect yet noble union.

I and my fellow Americans are resolute and strong.

You can only kill us.  You cannot defeat us.

Crazed American, out.

Korea

On or about today, Son of Mr. Ronery (Ronery Jr.), has threatened to touch off a few medium range missiles and a few intercontinental ballistic missiles as well.

We'll see.

In preparation for the fireworks (hopefully all bluster), read this excellent post on Korea, from someone who was there:
http://thecluemeter.blogspot.com/2013/04/korea.html

via Tam

Giving it a try

So, since 2002 I've been writing a book.   I'm about 300 pages into it.

This week I begin the act of self publishing.

http://onceuponempire.blogspot.com/

Once Upon Empire.  A tale of conflict and the end of hegemony in the near term.

If people put eyes on it, I might just have to put an audiobook together for sale.  We'll see.

Few pages at a time.

I gotta get it out there, before it comes true.

Give it a look, won't you?

Crazed American, out.

and... we're done!!

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/04/08/us-wont-be-returning-to-moon-nasa-chief-says/?intcmp=features#ixzz2PszH1DHe

So NASA won't be going back to the moon.

I'm so angry right now, I could spit.

Someday, the US government will have to get to the moon.  They'll hopefully be catching a ride to the moon on a privately owned launch system.

We won't be going to asteroids or Mars either.

The Russians, Chinese, or a private company might.

NASA is a dinosaur.  Not a live, fearsome one - it's a museum piece of a failing state.

Now I'm REALLY grouchy.

Crazed American, OUT.

A letter to a friend (North Korea - gaming)

He posed a question to me:

Suppose the North Koreans (NorKs) wanted to really crimp our style in the Pacific, re: Power Projection (hitting Navy and Air Force).

They'd throw a couple of Crude atom bombs in a couple of merchant ships and get them near Guam, Diego Garcia and Yokohama, Japan.

Follow my response down the rabbit hole:


Been following that curve all the way down a very deep and dark rabbit hole.

Two DPRK subs are also unaccounted for.

Also, remember in December when they launched a satellite?  We immediately said it was tumbling, out of control. Fail, DPRK?

Not so fast...
http://n2yo.com/?s=39026

Not bad for a failed satellite, big enough to contain a significant thermonuclear warhead. Polar orbit, it passes over the US 2-3 times a day.  250- 500 kt detonated at 300 miles above Nebraska, it would result in a High-energy ElectroMagnetic Pulse event (Compton Scattering Effect - thanks physics) which would render the US power grid DEAD for months / years (would take a while to replace every transformer, relay and substation in all three of the US's electrical grids).

That, in conjunction with some timely merchant ships spontaneously fissioning in a few pacific ports, Guam, Diego Garcia and Yokohama, Japan (Home port of the USS George Washington), and an all out artillery barrage on Seoul, and the surrounding installations, SF raids on targets deeper in South Korea, you have the makings of a damn depressing 2013.

Hit the bases at Guam, Diego and Yokohama, and you pretty much negate the majority of air and naval capability for a while, at least until you can consolidate advances into SK.

But, going down the rabbit hole a little deeper: lets say that this war is the pretext of something larger, something more sinister, with strings being pulled by the greater power currently massing troops on the border of North Korea?  China wants no refugees, does not want the war to spread into the mainland of the Middle Kingdom.  What if the true goal is for the world to drastically reduce the power and power projection ability of the West (US and allies).  We're broke, in hock to them for trillions, and we'll never, ever be able to repay it.  How do they reduce the debt on their books and not have the Chinese population (Chinese save money and their savings are invested in American debt) rise up in revolt?  How to maintain the Mandate of Heaven?

I started writing a book back in 2002...  I'm about 300 and change pages into it...  deals with this very subject.

There's a bunch of ways this can go - none of them good. 10 April 2013 - the date the NorKs told the embassies all to be cleared out of Pyongyang.

I love history, but I'm realizing I hate living through the "big stuff".

We suffer the Chinese Curse:  We live in "Interesting Times"


Crazed American, out.

Rule 762 - Chinese Corrolary

Rule 762 - the Chinese will NOT allow 2-3 million desperate, starving, illiterate,cholera and dysentery laden North Korean Refugees into China proper.  They will be shunted off into internment camps, or...

Rule 762.

The 7.62x54mm Rimmed Cartridge is the Standard General Purpose Machine Gun round of the PLA.

War with South Korea and the US will cause a mass influx of starved, desperate people running into China.  The Chinese are taking steps...  

This is not going to end well.


Crazed American, out.

P.S.  Remember that "out of control", "tumbling" North Korean Satellite that they launched last month, then stopped reporting about?  

Polar Orbit, goes right over the United States a couple times a day...  Not saying it's the case, but I I were a cantankerous 20-something dictator and wanted to set the United States back a century, and kill 50-90% of the population within a year, and have my name echoed throughout history... That's what I'd do.

EMP, baby.  Not saying it's going to happen, but it might.