A few thoughts, Foreign Policy, The Economy, Bartering

Economic Mess 
Robert A. Hall, Author of -The Coming Collapse of the American Republic- wrote-  "In WWII Budapest, it is reported that the Nazis (doubtless to the approbation of their Islamic admirers) would line up Jews who were chained together on a bridge over the Danube. They would shoot the more fortunate one on the end, who would fall into the river, dragging the others to their drowning deaths one by one." 
The US economy has the prudent states chained to the feckless, and ultimately to other economies, eventually to Greece, Spain, Ireland, and the rest of the EU disaster states. It’s hard to see how their collapse wouldn't drag the rest of us into the abyss with them. We are close to fiscal collapse, followed by political and social collapse. Meanwhile, everyone in Washington is demanding, “Borrow what you must, tax who you can, but don’t cut me!” 


In a time when the incumbent president of the United States and our congress has done their very best to obfuscate the realities of our nations troubles and hide from their share of responsibility  for our bankrupted country, flawed foreign policies, Americas continued invasion and colonization by the third world and a "jobless" recovery (which is no recovery at all), we have nowhere to turn but away.

I no longer confine my weeping for the future--I weep for the present.


When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you … you may know that your society is doomed. 
Ayn Rand

Alexander Fraser Tytler

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

• From bondage to spiritual faith;
• From spiritual faith to great courage;
• From courage to liberty;
• From liberty to abundance;
• From abundance to selfishness;
• From selfishness to complacency;
• From complacency to apathy;
• From apathy to dependence;
• From dependence back into bondage.

Barter
I did some Bartering, because I have a welding and machine shop on our homestead I get some work in drips and drabs from neighbors. The latest project was modifying a wild hog trap. Had to re-work the door and fab up a trigger mechanism. My payment will be in ham steaks and sausage..... I really will work for food!