The Distraction That Is Ferguson, Missouri

After waited far too long for the information to come to light, it seems that everyone knew that the shooting of Michael Brown, a very big and aggressive kid from the streets of Ferguson, MO, was, in the terms of gun owners everywhere, a “Good Shoot”, meaning that the officer was justified in using deadly force even though young Mr. Brown was unarmed. Being unarmed has nothing to do with anything when two people are wrestling for the same gun or when a guy who is 60 pounds heavier makes a rush at you.

When I was younger I had a roommate who was a State Trooper for the state of Massachusetts. One time he gave me a quick demonstration of how easy it is for an officer to lose a gun to an experienced criminal. He had me wear his gun belt with the (empty) pistol in the holster and the security strap snapped in place and while facing me with a quick and singular movement of his open hand he unsnapped the restraint and removed the pistol, upside down from the holster with his finger on the trigger before I had a chance to react. “It still shoots upside down” he said. Yes it does and that would have been it for me. It didn't take much practice for me to do the same thing. It was quite an education.

The real crime in Ferguson, MO is that it took this long for the information to come out when everybody knew this a few days after the shooting. The Obama Regime and the disgraced criminal who heads the Department of Justice, Eric Holder, was hoping to use Ferguson as a race-based distraction in order, I presume, to keep the economy and the looming government debt out of the news although there are so many controversy and intrigues happening in government right now that to point out just one thing proves difficult but for the most part the economy and the precarious financial pins we are on should be the nations biggest concern.

The economy is not getting better regardless of how much the national press, Bloomberg news, Reuters and PBS glad-hand it and now we are pledging millions more on renewed interventions in the Middle East and on the Ebola scare that has threatened to knock Ferguson, MO off the front pages of the news and it is pitying to see the lengths the race-baiters will go to put it back. A trial for Officer Wilson, the policeman who shot Michael Brown, would serve that purpose very well. Then there could be a new round of indignation when he is acquitted. That should be good for half a years' worth of headlines. 

But despite all this it is the lack of jobs and the lack of opportunity for America’s educated youth that is the 800 pound gorilla in the room and anything to keep this from being discussed prior to the November elections is a result that is dreamed about in the upper reaches of Washington, DC. And for President Obama and his shifty crew, if it’s an issue that will divide America upon racial lines, even better!

The people of Ferguson, MO may very well be getting hosed by the local police but they aren't going to change anything by being on the wrong side of the Michael Brown shooting. To deny the evidence won’t garner any sympathy with the people who can only read what has happened and who have doubted from the beginning the contradictory nature of the local “eye witnesses” to the shooting. Once the truth is known the American people will be on to the next distraction.

At my bank there are 4 year college graduates who are working as Tellers. They make $11.00 an hour 3 and 4 years after they graduated. Individually they are all over $40,000.00 in debt to student loans.  How are these people going to participate in the economy? They can’t borrow more money because they are already in debt and they are struggling to make the minimum payment on their student loans. What the hell are they going to buy? A new car? A house?  Don’t think so. And these young graduates are far from alone. I know a young lady who is also 4 years out of college who works in marketing. She said that she is the only one of her peers who is actually working in the field they went to school for. 

Retail banks aren't making much in the way of money right now either. With the Fed keeping interest rates the lowest they have ever been in the history of American Finance, it costs more to write and service the loan than they receive in return payments on interest.  This leads to slow to no growth. No growth means employee raises remain sparse. Add to that the rising premiums employers have to cover for healthcare and profits are eaten up before they find their way into anybody’s pockets. This is our “recovering economy”.  Not a warm fuzzy feeling for most people around here.

So sure Mr. Obama, distraction and division are the new normal for our national government. It has become so unwieldy, so morally corrupt, so grasping, so unabashedly spendthrift and devoid of irony or guilt as to have rendered itself almost totally ineffective in doing almost anything right. It neither goes far enough or cares enough about doing the job it was intended to do; provide a level field for business, assess and address foreign threats to the nation and to protect the American people.

In all facets of its purpose, America’s government has clearly failed.