US government shutdown hilarity

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/07/20856722-obama-to-boehner-hold-a-vote-call-a-vote-right-now-lets-see-what-happens?lite

Obama taunts rubes.  Details at 11.

Damn.

Yeah, it's funny, but the fucking around has pretty much come to an end.  Both sides are playing chicken with default at stake.

And our means of government, at this time, cannot survive a default.  I'm thinking Argentina in 1947 or so.

Yeah, I was thinking about that when I was walking to school yesterday. Everything seems normal now, day to day life hasn't changed, but behind the scenes things are already falling apart in an irreparable way that will take years, possibly decades to fix.  Each day that goes by breaks our fiscal infrastructure a little bit more, and we get that much closer to being catastrophic. It's a little like a tsunami, where right here in the middle of the ocean it isn't very noticeable, but the shoreline is years away and every day that goes by increases the order of magnitude. We already passed the magnitude at which we could have survived with trivial damage on Friday. Now it's a matter of waiting to see HOW fucked we're going to be.

This is a bad decade to have decided to become a scientist in America.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Please let me reprint this everywhere.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It still stuns me to hear the Republicans say, "The shutdown is Obama's fault.  He made us do it."

Yeah, "Now look at what you made me do."

"She made me hit her, officers".

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That was brilliant, Vex!

[tyrannosaurus vex]

That was brilliant, Vex!

[LMNO]

I hope it was as fun for you to write as it was for me to read.



You get 

[Cain]

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[tyrannosaurus vex]

According to the Not-Insane Daniel Larison of American Conservative:

One of the new arguments that Republicans in Congress are floating is that breaching the debt ceiling won't result in default.

Or, as a White House aide masterfully put it, in 2004, "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

Unfortunately, what they will do, is in fact torpedo the global economy.  Larison continues:

Not only is this not true, but it is indefensibly reckless to pretend that the rest of the world will react to a failure to raise the debt ceiling this way. If they continue blithely blundering towards the possibility of default, they will receive and will deserve to receive the lion's share of blame for any costs that this pointless standoff has imposed on the country.

Which brings me back to my main point.  Even if Obama could, somehow, negotiatiate with the Teahadists, would he?  Would he fuck.  The polls show the Republicans are going to be blamed by the majority of the country for this crisis.  It will effectively crush the GOP reputation for fiscal responsibility for another generation, and cause battleground states to flee to the Democrats.

Even if he could stop this, Obama has no incentive to do so.

I love it when you talk sexy like that.

Srsly, as much as I really distrust and dislike Obama, there's no denying that at the very least he is a reasonably strong symbol of "Fuck the New Confederacy." I despise the NSA's tricks, and I am under no illusion that Obama's hands are clean in most of the shady shit that goes on. But at least -- at least -- he is the Smiler, where the Other Guys are grumpy old men who would do no better, AND they probably smell like cologne from the 1960s.

Seeing them happily paint themselves into this corner and then stand there jumping and yelling like its a victory for them is one of the few reasons why I'm happy to be in America right now. And living in a red state, no less. Watching this unfold first-hand.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That is the fascinating part of this whole trainwreck. They're willing to take the country down, and go down with it, in a tantrum over something they insist is fiscally a bad idea. Something that, even if it IS a bad idea, will not bankrupt the country and could simply be repealed. There is no logic.

[LMNO]

"Obamacare The ACA will destroy the economy, so in order to stop that from happening, we will destroy the economy."




Edit: I'm gonna stop using the work "Obamacare", as it can be divisive.

[Cain]

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[Nephew Twiddleton]

"Obamacare The ACA will destroy the economy, so in order to stop that from happening, we will destroy the economy."




Edit: I'm gonna stop using the work "Obamacare", as it can be divisive.

The mentality worked great for us in Nam. Why wouldn't we keep a noble tradition?

[Cain]

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[tyrannosaurus vex]

That is the fascinating part of this whole trainwreck. They're willing to take the country down, and go down with it, in a tantrum over something they insist is fiscally a bad idea. Something that, even if it IS a bad idea, will not bankrupt the country and could simply be repealed. There is no logic.

Also, in the longer term, making governance impossible should benefit the party that wants to reduce the size of government.  Creating the impression that "Congress can't do anything right" leads inevitably to "why have Congress at all?"  It sets a frame on events which invariably benefits the Libertarian position of having a government small enough to drown in a bath-tub.

However, that only works if the blame can be laid with Congress, or equally on both parties.  Which again is not the case here.

"Why have Congress at all?" could go the Libertarian way, or, if things get really uncomfortable, it could go in far more worrying directions.

[Cain]

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