DRED SCOTT AND THE COLLAPSE OF EUROPE

Everyone I know always looks at me like I'm an idiot (I've grown used to it) when I talk about the parallels between today and all that led up to the American Civil War (The War of Northern Aggression, but that's a debate for a different time).

Study history to understand current events. It goes 'round and 'round.

"Never underestimate the impact of supreme court rulings. The plan by a quartet of German professors to freeze the EU bail-out for Greece and block the European Central Bank’s back-door rescue through lax lending has epochal implications.

As I reported in this morning’s story after talking to two of the four, Wilhelm Hankel and Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider, the complaint is primed and ready to go to the Verfassungsgericht (constitutional court) in Karlsrühe days after the rescue mechanism is activated.

I have been scratching my head thinking about precedents and suddenly the light bulb went on: the Dred Scott case, the ruling by the US Supreme Court in 1857 that brought the simmering conflict over slavery out into the open. The [decision] forced resolution one way or another."
Telegraph

"Just reported: Greece will not cut public salaries or there wll be civil war.

There's the gauntlet folks. It means that no "assistance" can actually succeed, because it is not possible to get the fiscal situation under control without significant cuts in public spending.

This, incidentally, is the same problem we have in the US, and why attempts to deal with our fiscal situation at both state and federal levels is going to end up in the same place eventually. The majority of our budget is comprised of handouts of one form or another, whether they be Social Security, Medicare, or public-sector salaries.

The "unified opposition" by public-sector employee unions (just look at what Florida teachers ran when their pension handouts and tenure were threatened) says everything you need to know.

Greece has to be cut loose. The best way to do it is for Germany to walk away from the Euro and return to the Mark for its currency, leaving the rest of Europe to twist in the wind.

I see no other solution. Threats of civil war, which are effectively what the public sector unions here in the US have also threatened repeatedly since 2008 (and to which we have responded by refusing to cut their salaries and benefits) mean that we have the irresistible force meeting the immovable object.

All such governments who refuse to take on these bullies and meet that threat with immediate charges of inciting overthrow of the government by force (in the US this charge is known as seditious conspiracy) will fail.

We have refused to make clear that such threats will result in charges of this sort - and so have other nations such as Greece. Yet unless this is made crystal clear and this sort of approach by these unions is put down immediately all nations beset by this sort of action will fail both politically and economically.

Simply put the artificial support proffered to the financial sector should have never been put forward, but having done so, the public must now bear the cost, here, today, and immediately.

Those are the only choices folks. Greece, and indeed the entire European Union, will ultimately disintegrate (as will America) if this is not done."
Market Ticker

THE PAST NEVER REALLY GOES AWAY

For those that say the War Between the States is ancient history and has no bearing on current affairs, welcome to Missouri!!

"City government leaders renewed their push to place the St. Louis Police Department under local control Monday at a lengthy hearing in Jefferson City.

Supporters of the legislation say returning control of the St. Louis police force to City Hall would increase transparency and accountability. Mayor Francis Slay, who has long campaigned for ending the state control, testified before the House Special Committee on Urban Issues in favor of the bill, saying returning the police department to local control would make for a better department...

The St. Louis Police Department Board of Commissioners has run the department since the Civil War, when pro-slavery officials in the capital wanted control of the anti-slavery city's armory. Kansas City is the only other American city of comparable size with a police department controlled by the state."

STL Today

The state was given authority over the St. Louis police by the Federal Government after the elected government of Missouri was driven from the state and a Union puppet government had been installed. The purpose was to protect the arsenal at St. Louis. However, this form of Police Board was common in the country at the time. Most had switched to local control by 1900. But not my beloved state of Missouri.

I really need to read up on this issue if I can find some good history about it. My guess is that since by the early 1880's Missouri politics were once again in firm command of the Southern Democrat interests, they may have found control useful since the real hotbeds of Unionism and Republican support could be found primarily in our two largest cities. Control of the police would have been useful in controlling the polls, along with the use of the local muscle, such as Egan's Rats and later on Harry Truman's benefactor, Boss Tom Pendergast.

Anyway, I just thought that it's interesting how history never really goes away. We are affected by it every day of our lives. Those that fail to pay attention to it do so at their own peril. Nearly everything that is happening today has happened before, to one extent or another. If you want to know what's coming you just have to look backwards to see what has happened.

Learn your history to prepare for our immediate future. We are doing nearly the same things that we did after the 1929 crash, things which deepened the depression and prolonged the pain. Why should it be any different this time around?