What’s the point of new gun laws if we don’t enforce the old ones?
Dylann Roof, who is accused of killing nine people at a church in South Carolina three weeks ago, was only able to purchase the gun used in the attack because of breakdowns in the FBI’s background-check system, FBI Director James B. Comey said Friday.
Comey said that Roof should have been prevented from buying the .45-caliber weapon used in a shooting that authorities have said was motivated by Roof’s racist views. The political repercussions of the June 17 massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston led South Carolina to remove the Confederate flag from its statehouse grounds Friday.
“This case rips all of our hearts out, but the thought that an error on our part is connected to a gun this person used to slaughter these people is very painful to us,” said Comey.
The lapse was the result of errors not only by the FBI but by the Lexington County prosecutors’ office, and Comey said he has ordered a review of procedures that led to the failure. The errors came to light as investigators examined a gun purchase Roof made two months before the shooting in Charleston.
Roof had been arrested for possession of narcotics in February, a felony charge that alone did not disqualify him from buying a gun. But Comey said that Roof’s subsequent admission of the drug crime would have triggered an automatic rejection of his gun purchase if the information had been properly recorded in background-check databases.
Instead, Comey said the data was not properly entered in the bureau’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), and that an FBI examiner assigned to review Roof’s purchase never saw his admission to the narcotics charge.
Surely the NRA and the Republicans (brought to you by the department of redundancy department) would get behind a measure to fully fund and overhaul the existing gun laws, right?
Brachiator
Even though the NRA insists that we don’t need background checks, if the unnecessary background checks fail, it must necessarily be the Democrats’ fault. Benghazi!
JPL
After it was reported that he purchased the gun, the Charleston Paper said that the drug use, was initially coded as a misdemeanor.
I’m not sure whether they corrected that yet though.
MattF
The joke is that the FBI Director thinks the purpose of background checks is to keep lethal weapons out of the hands of psychopaths. Ha ha.
glory b
Having worked at ATF many years ago, I can tell you that one of the problems with gun law enforcement is/was the demand that these agencies enforce these laws and providing little funding to do so.
Long after every other federal agency was computerized, my coworkers at ATF were keeping information on index cards in large cabinets, using a system similar to the Dewey Decimal system to keep track of things.
I know that situation is resolved now, but I’m sure others have never been adequately addressed.
It always makes me upset to hear Republicans (and some democrats) trash them as stupid bureaucrats and then fail to give them the resources to do the job they claim they can’t do.
An interesting read I saw the other day, at stonekettle.com, Jim Wright proposes taking the NRA’s safety rules and codifying them into enforceable criminal statutes.
gratuitous
“Just enforce the laws on the books!” I wonder if lax enforcement of the laws on the books might have something to do with pressure from any particular lobbying group which seems intent on getting firearms into the hands of as many persons as possible?
Naaaah. That’s as far-fetched as the Republicans passing hopeless litigation as a political stunt.
MomSense
What is the likelihood the Republican Congress will adequately fund the NICS?
Roger Moore
@MomSense:
Approximately the same as them agreeing to fix obvious problems with Obamacare.
glory b
And another thing,
The nuts who scream about the thousands of gun laws we have usually come up with the number by adding up every local, state and federal law in the country and don’t bother to note that most individuals (unless you make it a habit to cross state lines with weapons) won’t have to worry about any of those outside his or her own state and municipality.
ThresherK
@gratuitous: I am old enough to remember when gun nuts said “Enforce the laws on the books”.
When that stopped being the case I don’t know. Now the official line has morphed into “Ya can’t do nuttin about nuttin except shoot that killer’s bullets out of the air with your own bullets”.
Villago Delenda Est
Fuuuuuck no. Might put a dent in sales.
“Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That’s not my department,” says Wernher von Braun
aimai
@Brachiator: That sounds about right. Print up a few million and we can sell them at the next NRA rally.
Villago Delenda Est
@gratuitous: You are SO cynical! I’ll need to borrow Ms. Lindsey’s fainting couch for sure!
Davis X. Machina
We need to replace the phrase “mass shooting” with “prompt freedom excursion”…
Matt McIrvin
@glory b:
That’s the classic conservative death spiral. Underfund government, and when it performs badly, milk that for resentment of the crappy service our tax dollars are buying and cut the funding some more.
Mike in NC
@glory b: Conservatives have spent many years undermining ATFE. Many of them want to see it abolished. I worked there briefly as a contractor in the late 90s and we were always hearing about complaints from Congress.
lamh36
I’ve already seen some idiot blame this on Obama and his crappy go mint…on Twitter.
so fully expect the RWNJ headlines about how the Obama guvt put the gun in Roof’s hand.
well added the the headlines blaming Obama for Charleston that they already have
Steve From Antioch
Would proper enforcement of current gun laws have prevented Roof’s purchase of this firearm from this seller? Yes.
Is the ATFE underfunded? Maybe.
Will either of these facts encourage gun control advocates to seek more funding of ATFE and enforcement of current gun laws instead of continuing to carp on about the need to ban “assault weapons” and other emotionally charged “bad things” that play a statistically insignificant role in gun-related crime in this country? Nope.
Baud
I hate to bring politics into something as sacred as the NRA, but this is interesting.
My amateurish take is that Hillary’s early strategy is to pursue a broad coalition of supporters while Bernie’s is to make a name for himself by focusing like a laser on economic security/corruption issues.
Cervantes
@glory b:
Thanks. I hadn’t seen that.
cmorenc
No, because
1- the kind of accurate, thorough database needed for effective gun background checks will only make it easier for criminals to hack the database and select victims, or worse, make eventual gun confiscation by the government much easier.
2- the best defense against criminals is a good offense since gun laws are ineffective in keeping them out of the hands of criminals – i.e. if Rev. Pinkney had been packing heat, good chance he would still be alive, although they’re not quite tacky enough in this instance to explicitly say that – however you need only look at the NRA push to arm school personnel in response to the elementary school shooting in CT.
3- 2nd Amendment trumps everything else, bitches.
Jay C
The question that occurred to me to me when I read about Dylann Roof’s permit “issues” was to wonder just how strictly these “background checks” are actually investigated, or not. Embarrassing as it is that Roof was able to buy the weapon even though he had checked that “arrested” box, or whatever, what if he had simply lied on his application and said “no”? Are these applications vetted that thoroughly? Or does the “dealer’s discretion” apply?
Suzanne
@Baud: Concur.
LanceThruster
Clerk: [Homer grabs for his gun, but the cashier holds onto it] Sorry, the law requires a five-day waiting period. We’ve got to run a background check.
Homer: Five days? But I’m mad now!
[the cashier pulls the gun away from him]
Homer: I’d kill you if I had my gun.
Clerk: Yeah, well, you don’t.
danielx
Granted that the ATF has pulled some truly, outstandingly, stupid undercover operations in the last few years, including Fast and Furious and various other operations. Including some that targeted poor people with mental disabilities….they’re addicted to high risk undercover operations that make headlines (and get funding) and way underfunded for the routine day-to-day stuff that does more to keep guns out of felonious hands. I’d like to say ‘unfit’ hands, but there are a hell of a lot of guns in the possession of people unfit for the responsibility of owning deadly weapons (IMHO) and current gun laws and the BATF don’t do shit about them.
“Three day waiting period? Ohhhh, but I’m angry now!”
– Homer Simpson
Edit: the Homer quote above is more accurate, I thought I’d heard it more or less the way I wrote it…
Another Holocene Human
@glory b: That list is probably full of dead-letter statutes, especially given their success in lobbying state governments to take away local control.
Another Holocene Human
What none of these gun nuts can explain to me is why it’s okay for them to open carry an assault rifle or keep a large caliber handguns unlocked everywhere so they can totally waste that carjacker/burgler/bad guy with a gun, but if I try to open carry a katana–and basically a fake/dull one at that, lord knows I can’t afford the real thing, the cops will shoot me.
Oh, I can take a gun and ammunition on common carrier transportation, but a small pocket knife gets confiscated?!?
So it’s illegal to own brass knuckles but any knucklehead without a felony record can keep a Saturday Night Special in their pocket?
Shit that don’t make no sense.
Fuck, I feel nervous taking my knives out of the house to the GRINDER.
Another Holocene Human
@danielx: I talked to a lawyer who works for DOJ about this once and she said the biggest problem is that criminals get guns through straw buyers but due to our ultra shitty loophole laden gun laws, this shit is almost impossible to prove and prosecute. Basically the straw buyer just has to claim he didn’t know he was as straw buyer. She said basically there was a tussle going on between ATF and DOJ because DOJ would keep warning ATF that what they were doing was not going to lead to successful prosecutions but ATF kept gunning (I crack myself up) to make a big score. In her opinion that was what led to the very ill-advised Fast & Furious operation.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
That sounds about right. I think a big part of Hillary pursuing a broad coalition is that she’s trying to make it clear that she learned from what she did wrong last time, especially the idea that she could just present herself as the inevitable candidate and scare everyone else out of the race. And I think Sanders’s goal is at least as much to push the economic issues that he cares about as it is to win the nomination himself. I don’t know that he’d make a good president, but he can get a big policy win if he can make economic security/corruption issues a major part of the campaign.
Cervantes
@Another Holocene Human:
There is draft legislation shelved somewhere that would deal with this problem, even if only by requiring sellers to report purchases of N or more firearms at a time.
Needless to say, it’s staying on the shelf for the foreseeable future.
danielx
@Jay C:
Background checks are reasonably thorough, if relevant information (like criminal convictions or court orders) is included in the database and recorded for the right individual….but courts/justice/law enforcement operations are bureaucracies. Delays, data entry errors and plain human fuckups can and do happen, just as they do in any large organization. Seems incredible when you think about the impact that such errors can have on human lives, but all too true. That’s not even considering perfectly legal person-to-person private sales for which no background check at all is required, at least at the federal level and for many states as well.
JPL
I’m so crushed. The NYTImes book review of Harper Lees book Go Set A Watchman
Major spoiler alert.
Kay
@Baud:
There’s also a gender gap on gun control:
The poll isn’t “new” (it’s from 2013) but it’s consistently there although I rarely see the gap mentioned. With Clinton’s big gender gap versus the GOP in general I’d be surprised if her campaign wasn’t paying attention to it with every issue.
nationaljournal.com/politics/explaining-the-gender-gap-on-gun-control-20130412
Keith G
Not too surprising when one considers news items such as the things that get past TSA checks. Human processes are highly fallible.
I’m sure that if a nation-wide check were done, there would be a terrifying number of similar applicants.
MomSense
@Baud:
I will watch this closely and if she really gets tough on it, I will work my butt off for her.
Citizen_X
@Steve From Antioch:
Bullshit. Yes, I would like the current laws enforced, and the ATFE to be properly funded (along with the IRS), and yes, the CDC should be allowed to study gun violence.
Those are the things we should be doing already, as a matter of course. But the GOP stands in the way.
Kay
Now that Trump is a serious candidate he gets fact-checked like everyone else.
The other Republican candidates could have done this instead of stumbling around like dopes wringing their hands, “what to do, what to do?” pretending this is all a matter of opinion.
How about saying he doesn’t know what he’s talking about? Try that.
MomSense
@Roger Moore:
They won’t even fix the darned roads anymore.
#nowaytorunasuperpower
OzarkHillbilly
@Steve From Antioch:
What, do you mean more than we do already???? Hey asshole, it is the NRA titsucking leeches who are blocking the funding. Not us, the gun owners of America who know the NRA is a terrorist enabling organization lobbying for firearms industry profits. Why don’t you try getting on board with us? And while you’re at it, how about joining us in eliminating expanded round magazines? People who buy them don’t need a bigger mag, they need practice.
Corner Stone
Speaking of special:
The Obama Administration’s Scandalous Stance on Slavery
“I thought the list of betrayals in the Obama administration’s trade agenda couldn’t swell any further, but a remarkable development this week proved me wrong. Add to those wronged the unfortunates sold to Malaysian slave traders. Hopes that international pressure would force the Malaysian government to protect these victims has been snuffed out, overcome by the White House’s desire to write a trade agreement.”
Corner Stone
Ellen Pao does not seem to be having a really very good year.
Adam L Silverman
@glory b: I saw that too and it won’t get traction even if the NRA were to propose it itself and the NRA-ILA would handle it through Congress. If you read the comments sections on any firearms websites, specifically on things that aren’t reviews of guns or gear, what you’re going to see is repeated patterns of requiring, by law, what the NRA indicates are the best practices for storing firearms when not in use is a violation of natural, constitutional, and civil rights. That’s usually followed by some example of something bad happening to someone at home followed by several head nod comments of “home carry people, home carry!” My line of work requires firearms proficiency because good, bad, or otherwise its the Profession of Arms… I regularly train in case I were to deploy again – I usually get pinged once or twice a year asking if I’d be willing to. If orders ever get cut, I have to formally requalify. I’m not squeamish about this stuff, but I came to this line of work late – in my mid 30s – and I’m OCD about safe handling and storage, but there’s no reasoning with some of these folks. They’re both literalists and absolutists. Also, in the movies that are their lives that play out in their heads, they’re also the noble and heroic defenders of their families, the innocent, and Liberty!
Keith G
@Corner Stone: Since she’s gone, we can’t ask her anything.
BTW, I am certain David Dayen is a liberal crybaby who wants a unicorn in every garage.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman:
I have friends that take their pistol into the shower. That kind of mentality is a poison, it sickens the brain and seeps into every aspect of your life.
Corner Stone
@Keith G: He probably just wants to know why this happened:
“According to Reuters, next week the State Department will release its annual report on human trafficking, which will upgrade Malaysia from a Tier 3 country, the worst of the worst, to Tier 2. This comes just weeks after authorities in Malaysia discovered a mass grave of 139 Rohingya Muslims, who fled discrimination in Burma and were sold into slavery upon their escape.
Last year, the State Department listed Malaysia among the world’s worst human trafficking nations because of “limited efforts to improve its flawed victim protection regime.” The report described a horrendous life for Malaysia’s foreign workers, threatened by large smuggling debts and confiscated passports that put them at the mercy of recruiting companies. Women in particular, recruited for hotel or beauty salon work, are routinely coerced into the commercial sex trade.”
Adam L Silverman
Better funding wouldn’t resolve this problem. As reported this was a data entry error. That isn’t done at the federal level, in Roof’s case it was done at the local level where he lived in SC. If the Feds don’t have correct information, then the system won’t work. Same thing has happened with the finger print databases. Stuff occasionally gets entered wrong. Or, as in the case with the DC snipers, one of the jurisdictions that had their prints as they made their way across the U.S. was in a state that refused to participate in the finger print database. Had they been entered, several days before they got to DC, because the older shooter had been in the military, everyone across the country would’ve gotten a BOLO. If I’m remembering correctly the state in question is Mississippi. Because states’ rights or something…
Kay
@Corner Stone:
Menendez wants an investigation. How many freaking times does Congress have to get tricked on trade deals before they get smarter?
John Kerry has been lead cheerleader. I’m not surprised he’s up to his neck in this.
Keith G
@Corner Stone: I guess I shoulda used a sarcasm signifier. I was channeling others who are likely to react to such an observation.
Just got back from Goode Company Barbeque. Lordy, when did scrap meats get so expensive?
A 3 meat plate and a Saint Arnold set me back a figure equal to 1/10th of my meal plan my first year in college. Ok, I am old and there is inflation, but still.
Cervantes
@Corner Stone:
I’m tempted to say that speaks for itself, but I won’t.
Cervantes
@Keith G:
You’re a funny guy!
And on that note I must retire. Have a great evening.
Corner Stone
We’re told again and again that inflation is not real, but I’ll be damned if every kind of meat I try to buy has gone through the freakin roof over the last 3 or so years. Paying $10 for a pack of chicken is obscene.
OzarkHillbilly
@Adam L Silverman:
Yeah, there for we shouldn’t fund these agencies at all. Seriously, this argument is stupid from the get go. It is not about stopping every single instance of gun violence. It is about stopping the ones we can. Would a week long waiting period have stopped Dylan Roof? Probably not, but would it have stopped other acts of violence?
YES.
So why not institute waiting periods? Because somebody might be inconvenienced and have to wait a few days so he can get his newest deadly toy? Cry me a river. Grow up. I well remember the bad old days when I had to wait a week or more for the paperwork to come back from the Sheriff. It was horrible….
Kay
@Corner Stone:
It’s like an exact repeat. Congressional Democrats : “We didn’t know they wouldn’t abide by any of the promises!”
They’re reauthorizing NCLB too. The Student Success Act Allow me to predict: “we didn’t know they wouldn’t fund any of it!”
Corner Stone
@Kay:
It’s ridiculous on its face. Oh, we can’t get employers here to abide by our very rational regulations. But! We’re going to get Vietnam and Malaysia to abide by a “rising tide lifts all boats” set of labor laws! Yeah!
Corner Stone
@Kay:
I’m going to be very curious to see where Michelle Obama lands on the Board of Directors when their term is up in the WH.
Incitatus for Senate
@Another Holocene Human: In the socialist worker’s paradise of Massachusetts, you actually can carry a katana, it is perfectly legal.
P.S. A “real” katana can be had for well under a thousand, by the way. It won’t be folded at that price, but that has more to do with prettiness than functionality. The reason for folding was to mix the steel into a homogenous mass without any weak spots, because they could only make steel in very small quantities. With modern metallurgy it’s unnecessary, although it does look cool.
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: I was never so happy that when my BCT processed my arming packet (qualification certification, Staff Judge Advocate notification that I’d gone through rules of engagement training, and authorizing letter from the BCT commander) it included a decision that while on the FOB my weapon/weapons stayed in the armory, which was down the hall from my office. This way I didn’t have to carry to the latrine at 0300 or when I went for a shower or to the gym to work out. I wasn’t there to be a shooter, but I did (do) have a professional responsibility to be proficient and not a danger to myself or my military colleagues if we did wind up in contact. The idea that I need to shower carry at home just makes me shake my head. At one level,it’s to each their own. At another I’m thinking: 1) maybe you need to move? 2) get better locks? 3) get a dog?
Adam L Silverman
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m not arguing for defunding anything. I have no problem properly funding this program or any other. Personally and professionally, I’ve watched what the sequester and the budgeting insanity of the past seven years have wrought compunded with being on the heels of only the second time time in history someone cut taxes during a war (amazingly the first was the CSA during the Great Rebellion…). I’ve had friends and colleagues lose their positions because of the sequester and its applications. My term limited position at my last assignment was not institutionalized because my commanding general couldn’t get traction to have his TDA (table of distributed allowances) amended to make my position permanent. One result was no one in place to stop the knuckleheads that wrote/plagiarized that culture doctrinal publication last month. And I’m one of the lucky ones – I knew this outcome was likely and I was able to land fairly smoothly even if I have to do a current assignment that’s not the best fit.
What I am saying is that this wasn’t an error that more money or new laws would fix, not that more money or properly written and applied laws might make a positive difference on this or other issue areas.
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: you do realize the whole point of the TPP isn’t really about trade? Rather it’s about lining up and pre loading a potential coalition of both state and corporate actors to influence the PRC and keep the Straits of Malacca open as a Sea Line of Commerce and Communication (SLOCC). This is all about constraining China. I know that sounds awfully callous and dismissive of human rights, but I guarantee the calculus is on keeping the straits open, not on the tragedy of human trafficking.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman:
The most clearly ridiculous analysis possible. You and David Frum can dance the dance of the beloved on this one, sir.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman:
What the TPP is clearly about is exporting wages. I agree it has absolutely nothing to do ostensibly with trade. It sure as fuck isn’t going to benefit US workers. Who could we possibly be exporting our high wage goods to?
Pretty soon China is going to be begging people to continue trading with them after their Potemkin Village implosion. They aren’t going to shut down any shipping lanes. And we have no hope of containing their behavior in the sphere of influence anyway. What are we going to do, lose another stealth bomber in their sovereign territory?
Corner Stone
CHINA!! OOGA-BOOGA!!
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: I think David Frum should be sent back to Canada, though I’m pretty sure that would count as an act of war… Since I don’t read him, I really had no idea that he thinks the same thing. It is, however, always possible that he or I and you could all be right for different reasons.
As for their implosion, I was briefing as far back as 2011 that their shadow banking/finance sector was going to implode and cause huge problems. That said I don’t disagree about exporting wages or labor or races to the bottom, but there’s a larger strategic, or at least strategic level, concern here and that’s trying to constrain China. I’m not saying we can, not saying we could, but we’re going to try no matter what I brief to some general or SES… The best analysis I ever heard about the PRC was from a NZ general. He said that China only has to be an enemy if the U.S. makes it one. Not sure anyone who actually makes the decisions would actually take that to heart.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman:
But honestly, and no BS, what are we going to constrain? Even if we wanted to, what could we constrain?
We can’t!
Making a multi-party “trade deal” that specifically excludes China that isn’t actually about trade makes no fucking sense! WTF is this most pragmatic of WH administrations tying on to with this shit reasoning?
None of this makes sense as a way to keep a ring fence around China. That can not possibly be a rational excuse. China is going to implode, even harder than they have been doing so. And I’m appreciative that you have been on this beat for some years but, with no artifice, it has been damned obvious for a long damned time. Anyone reading quarterly reports from Caterpillar saw this eventual nasty BS coming.
They will implode but what can they possibly do to further repress currency controls?
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: I’m in complete agreement here with you. My impression, however, is that the prevailing belief is that we have to line up Asia-Pacific states and business that operate there diplomatically and economically in order to try to get China to develop in a way that isn’t a threat to us, our allies, and our partners. Thats why I don’t think your analysis is mutually exclusive from mine. I think there are multiple interests and concerns, legit or not, that TPP is intended to address. As for awareness of these issues, you’d be amazed at how good we are at self delusion. Or at jumping at shadows. And it’s not that I have any greater insight or special knowledge, I’ve been reading the same things that you have in open source media – you’d just be amazed at what people either don’t look at or don’t know. And some of its self serving. Even before the past 8 years of budget dysfunction, appropriations insanity, and the sequester agencies, departments, and the services have been willing to over emphasize X if it means more funding, when the concern should really be Y. To me an imploding China is more of a concern. It always struck me that the Chinese neo-Confucian understanding of the world with its emphasis on order was driving a good chunk of the PRC’s behavior. They know they have to change to something else/new, but they saw how the end of the Soviet Union quickly turned into chaos. This scares them to death and everything they do, in luring saber rattling to divert societal anxiety and unmet expectations into nationalism, is intended to allow them to find a way to manage the transition. I honestly am not sure if they (PRC leadership) could even articulate what they’re transitioning too, much less the actual ways and means of that transition, but they trying to paddle ahead of the tsunami. If their shadow sector does completely implode we’re in for a lot more trouble than them trying to figure out how to land planes of a flat top or building faux islands in the South China Sea.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman:
But why? Are we rationally considering the PRC will start aggressive expansionary posturing? I mean behind rattling some of their neighbor’s cages? And if they try to divert an economic meltdown by invading Taiwan, what are we going to do about it?
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: I wish I had answers, or better ones for you. I don’t think this or a lot of our other positions make sense, but we seem to need bogeymen… And for some reason we always have to be doing doing something. Not doing something, even if it would bring a better outcome, is somehow worse than doing something that will. Some of this stuff starts from an actual ethical place, like right to protect/R2P. But when you start pushing on the idea that we have an obligation to protect everyone everywhere that’s oppressed or in danger or in harms way you begin to see the ideas crack real quick. At one point there was call for us to forcefully conduct humanitarian assistance in Myanmar. My question was: are we going to hand out sandwiches at gun point? I don’t mean to cop out on you, but in a lot of ways we’re at the point in an interesting discussion where, from a practical perspective, my reply begins to become: “Mongo just analytical pawn in game of life”.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman: Yes, thanks for the response on a mostly-dead thread. I agree we’re certainly not going to expose The One Nugget of Truth ™ .
I will just say that I find our reported machinations re: China to be very similar to the same BS Stratfor pushed for years about our invasion of Iraq. Essentially that it was really (truthfully!) a gambit to contain Saudi Arabia and re-balance the power structure in the ME.
Simply, IMO, we are unable to constrain China in any real non-military way. To have people in power say some of our moves are really (truthfully!) about how we are really looking to contain China, and not what are evident on their face as neo-liberal trade policies, screams to me to be folly. And so I object when I see those views being repeated. Because even if they are just repetitions of what TPTB are vocalizing, they are still dubious in the extreme and deserve refudiation.
If/when the authoritarian mishmash PRC policies bring their superheated faux economy crashing down, I hope to babby jeebus that whoever is running the show decides to sit down and have a damn beer and contemplate for a while.
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: no worries. What I hope is someone remembers where they saved the humanitarian assistance planning document… And that someone is also thinking hard about what a PRC financial meltdown does to North Korea. Especially as the North Koreans have been hinting that they’ve got an agricultural problem coming down the pike.