79% Say U.S. Economy Could Collapse

Most American voters believe it’s possible the nation’s economy could collapse, and majorities don’t think elected officials in Washington have ideas for fixing it.

The latest Fox News poll finds that 79 percent of voters think it’s possible the economy could collapse, including large majorities of Democrats (72 percent), Republicans (84 percent) and independents (80 percent).

Just 18 percent think the economy is "so big and strong it could never collapse."

Moreover, 78 percent of voters believe the federal government is "larger and more costly" than it has ever been before, and by nearly three-to-one more voters think the national debt (65 percent) is a greater potential threat to the country’s future than terrorism (23 percent).

I wonder how many people are thinking about what to do if it happens compared to how many just plan to eat the neighbor’s cat. Or their neighbor.

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/paterson.tax.refund.2.1569690.html

For hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, the check won’t be in the mail — at least not on time. New York State has stopped paying tax refunds and won’t start again until next month.

The tax refund delay is part of a bigger cash crunch.

Message to New Yorkers: don’t start spending your tax refund money because it’s going to be delayed.

Half a billion dollars’ worth of refund checks were put on hold last Friday, and state beancounters won’t start sending you your money until at least April 1.

"I apologize that we had to do this. I hope it serves notice on the public of how serious our financial situation is," Gov. David Paterson said.

I’m pretty sure if you tried to serve notice to David Paterson of how serious your financial situation is by not paying his greedy ass, you’d get a knock on the door from a friendly but firm fellow with a gun. The nice thing about moving toward authoritarianism is that they won’t have to apologize anymore. They’ll just take your shit and shoot you if you complain.

From Cryptogon

The article doesn’t mention why it was illegal in the first place, but I don’t really care, either. I still can’t imagine why you’d need to register to collect your own rainwater.  Or why you’d need a Cthulhu-approved container to store it in. Or why you’d only be allowed to store a certain amount.

I can only assume that it’s just stupid government being stupid again. Or maybe you’re not supposed to be able to provide for yourself. Self-sufficiency and resilience are frowned upon.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – The Utah Legislature has passed a bill that would permit the personal collection of rainwater.

The House unanimously approved the legislation on Wednesday. It has already cleared the Senate.

If signed by the governor the measure would reverse a decades-old prohibition on rainwater harvesting in the state.

Senate Bill 32 would permit the collection of no more than 2,500 gallons in a storage container.

If it becomes law Utahns wouldn’t be able to just put out barrels in the backyard. The proposal requires registering with the state and buying a standardized container.

Some thoughts on Joe Stack from Global Guerillas:

Here are some quick notes on Joe Stack’s violence and the acts of others (there have been many recently).  I tend to view people like Joe Stack as canaries in the coal mine — people on the margins, mentally and situationally, that fatally explode at the early onset of severe societal and economic pressure.  Here’s what’s driving them:

    * Extreme frustration/hopelessness.  A great many people have seen little to no success in the US commercial sector despite a considerable effort, for decades.  For workers below the median wage this current environment is a depression — from the duration to the rate of the un/underemployment.  Any status gain they might have achieved before this occurred is now gone.
    * Few mitigating influences.  Most of the community and familial structures that historically buffered people in the US against economic failure have been ravaged.  Even functional families are now atomized. 
    * Rage and a loss of government legitimacy.  Time worn beliefs that have underpinned the American experiment, such as the idea of a level playing field, the correlation between hard work and success, and the underlying basic fairness of our system have been savaged by the government response to the financial crisis.  Frankly, the perception of many is that Wall Street’s pros are guilty of criminal fraud and even traitorous behavior (they damaged the security and future of the US for personal benefit).  Worse, they not only avoided punishment, they were rewarded for it.

Will we see more of this violence?  Most assuredly.  Further, as this economic failure matures, damaging ever greater numbers of people, we may see less violence against people and more economic violence (disruption) in an attempt to extract from society as great a cost as they possibly can.  A couple of hundred people, using the super-empowerment afforded by network disruption, could easily cause countless billions in economic damage.  A thousand people? 

MILLION HIT BY ‘PLAGUE WORSE THAN SWINE FLU’

A cocktail of three flu viruses are reported to have mutated into a single pneumonic plague, which it is believed may be far more dangerous than swine flu. The death toll has reached 189 and more than 1 million people have been infected, most of them in the nine regions of Western Ukraine.

…

A doctor in Western Ukraine who did not want to be named, said:” We have carried out post mortems on two victims and found their lungs are as black as charcoal.

“They look like they have been burned. It’s terrifying.”