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Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 3, 2010, 9:37 am
by maxeboy
Now What?
By James Howard Kunstler on October 31, 2010 10:35 PM

Source: http://foreclosureblues.wordpress.com/2 ... -now-what/
James Howard Kunstler wrote: On Tuesday, when the Republican Party and its Tea Party chump-proxies re-conquer the sin-drenched bizarro universe of the US congress, they'll have to re-assume ownership of the stickiest web of frauds and swindles ever run in human history - and chances are the victory will blow up in their supernaturally suntanned, Botox-smoothed faces.

But don't cry for John Boehner, Barack Obama.

The President and his Democrats may have inherited this clusterfuck from the feckless George Bush but they flubbed every chance to mitigate any part of it, ranging from their failure to restore the rule of law in banking (by prosecuting the executives of major banks who oversaw the systematic swindle), to mis-directing our dwindling resources toward ends (such as "shovel-ready" new super-highways) that won't promote a credible future for this society, to misleading the public in the fantasy that alt-energy will offset the disruptions of peak oil (and allow us to keep running suburbia, the US Military, and WalMart by other means).

It's really too late for both parties. They're unreformable. They've squandered their legitimacy just as the US enters the fat heart of the long emergency. Neither of them have a plan, or even a single idea that isn't a dodge or a grift. Both parties tout a "recovery" that is just a cover story for accounting chicanery and statistical lies aimed at concealing the criminally-engineered national bankruptcy that they presided over in split shifts. Both parties are overwhelmingly made up of bagmen for the companies that looted America.

Alas, the damage is now so pervasive in money matters that the federal government could be toast as a viable enterprise, even if a new party or two spontaneously rose up out of the ruins of a plundered democracy. Anyway, one of them will not be the Tea Party, with its incoherent agenda and moron cadres who seek to put Jesus back in the US constitution, where he never was in the first place - though they don't know that.

Nor is there any party on the left or even in the center with a clue or a moral compass. Its just one of those tragic moments in history - like 1850s America, when a strange vacuum of thought occupied the heart of political life, and the scene was cluttered up with mere place-holders like Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan. (Can you state a single idea or position, these political ciphers advanced?)

Where we stand now is on the cusp of another giant step into the abyss, since the latest storm of Foreclosure-Gate suggests pretty strongly that mega-tons of mortgage-backed securities are assured of blowing up, as well as the sundry derivatives of these things (CDOs, CDOs-squared, plus the massive fetid matter infesting the alternative cosmos of credit default swaps). If you follow the media-of-record like The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, you would have to conclude that there is no extant plausible notion among financial leaders as to how the fiasco of botched mortgage-and-title documentation can be resolved. After three weeks of emerging events around this debacle, the consensus among the power brokers is to pretend that there's no problem, that the issue of missing, forged, post-dated, trashed, or non-existent paper related to claims on property can just be put aside, brushed under the rug, glossed over, ignored.

Let me tell you something: this problem is not going away. At the very least it is going to paralyze the real estate industry for as far ahead as anyone can see. For another thing, it could force the disclosure of what the banks are holding in their vaults in the way of worthless paper and expose their insolvency. For still another thing, it could lead to rafts of lawsuits that would additionally shove the banks toward collapse, demolish the claims that underlie our currency, call into question the meaning of property ownership per se that is the basis of Anglo-American law, and tie up the court system until kingdom come. In any case, every pension fund, state government, and insurance operation would be crippled. I could go on but you get the picture.... This might all sound extreme, but I repeat: nobody with any authority in this land has proposed a plausible way out.

By the way, I haven't even touched on the totally insane but now accepted practices of the Federal Reserve attempting to stage manage the velocity of money by so-called quantitative easing - a.k.a. the US writing checks to itself - because even that nonsense assumes that everything else remains more or less stable.

This is what the two major parties can look forward to as we swing around into the Yuletide season and then into 2011. The proud winners of seats in congress and the senate might as well put on clown suits and little pointed hats on Wednesday morning and drive around the Washington monument in toy cars. There will be a desperate need for a new politics in this country, for people unafraid to tell the truth and act in the genuine public interest. If we can't generate it from the saner quarters of this country where people think thoughts that comport with reality, I'm afraid we could see some generals step into the picture.

I write literally over the middle of the Pacific Ocean, en route from Australia where I spent the past week - not on vacation. It's a reminder that there are a lot of other players in the wide world - not all of them nations on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Kind regards from Maxeboy.

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 3, 2010, 7:35 pm
by KHONDAHM
I am familiar with Kunstler and I agree more than I disagree to his contributions to the debate about various issues. He has no formal training in the fields in which he prognosticates and has made several failed predictions regarding U.S. stock markets (citing factual criticisms about him), but he stomps around every now and then when he wants attention. As a messenger, one may want to not want to give whatever he says (pro or con) too much weight.

For a more intelligent and sober commentary about what is next (and all things political, for that matter), I recommend Ezra Klien's blog at the Washington Post:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/

Of particular relevance to the topic are these recent postings:

Wonkbook: Welcome to gridlocked America
Posted at 6:19 AM ET, 11/ 3/2010

AND

Which party is better on the deficit? Maybe the one trying to reduce the deficit.
Posted at 4:50 PM ET, 11/ 2/2010

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 3, 2010, 8:00 pm
by tigerryan
This guy is perfect for the liberal misfits on Udonmap, what a jerk.

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 3, 2010, 8:33 pm
by BobHelm
Then you have obviously never bothered to read anything by him ryan,
His views on the current President, for example, run to...
In 2008, the voters turned to a lanky newcomer from Illinois to rescue itself from just the sort of technocrat jerkoffs who had run the nation into a ditch with their invocations of "mission accomplished" and "Good job, Brownie." Change was in the air. Alas, consistent with the apparent fact that history rhymes but doesn't repeat, Barack Obama proved to be the reincarnation of Millard Fillmore, not Abe Lincoln.
http://www.kunstler.com/blog/2010/06/mi ... ction.html
Hardly a glowing recommendation I feel.
His views on the current Republican party are little better though.
The Republican Party is doing a great job in provoking such a dangerous episode by making consensual governance impossible in a time of awful practical problems and challenges. They're in the process, right now, of transforming themselves from the party of "no" to the party of no decency, no common sense, no ideas, no conception of the public interest, and no respect for the traditions that they pretend to stand for, like due process of law.
http://www.kunstler.com/blog/2010/03/our-turn.html
His past predictions have proved inaccurate, although, in the case of the Y2K danger he would say BECAUSE he highlighted it.
He is probably not to be taken too seriously, and he does get 'hung up' on future disasters - his current one is that there will be NO substitute for oil as a provider of energy & so society will change dramatically when it runs out. He is certainly worth the read & certainly not unintelligent - just not a Republican or Democrat spokesperson that the USA is far too full of.

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 3, 2010, 11:12 pm
by Texpat
Yes, he's a journalist who uses terms like "clusterfuck" and "jerkoff," phrases that are a sure mark of a professional.
(in whose world?)

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 4, 2010, 3:53 am
by KHONDAHM
If nothing else is clear, the election results clearly show that appealing to the fears of the under-educated, mis-informed, and gullible with distortions and outright lies is still a winning strategy. Every village idiot still gets their vote. In 2010 there remain many states with many villages with many idiots who break from "Dancing with the Stars", "American Idol", and the like long enough to inhale fear-based attacks without any merit and exhale them as facts. Then they spread the contagion of ignorance like a stupid-flu epidemic - and for which reality (think 2000-2008) is no cure.

The keys have been given back to the boozers who recklessly wrecked the economy before 2008. These people HATE America. They encourage things like hypocritically and unapologetically trampling on others' civil rights while simultaneously proclaiming they are pro-Constitution. They borrow and spend wildly to enrich their corporate interests without shame or any coherent or credible plan to reduce the deficit while simultaneously proclaiming themselves as fiscally responsible. I could go on. And on. And on.

Here is what we will see over the next two years: Ridiculous proposals to reverse the historic progress made since 2008 and naked obstructionism at every opportunity. Then in 2012, they'll turn around and say, "It wasn't us. The Dems control the Senate and the Presidency" - knowing full-well there are enough Americans who actually don't understand how the government is designed who will then accept that and vote at the polls with that in mind. It is embarrassing to admit or confront it, but it is true. Those people are the Republican base. Those clueless people are the same ones who arrived at the protest via public roads who are on medicaid and medicare collecting social security or unemployment checks (or have family doing same) with children in public schools going to anti-healthcare reform protests with signs, colorful costumes, and screaming "Stop government spending!". It's embarrassing and ridiculous.

Equally ridiculous and hypocritical are the elected multi-millionaire Republicans who are inciting them to rally against government spending and such while still collecting public paychecks (!), social security checks (!), and avail themselves of their publicly paid health care plan (!).

So what is next? More of the same.

What do I think Obama should do about it? Get off the moral high-road and get in the dirt with them. During the lame-duck session, they should push through everything on their to-do list without compromising and trumpet the efforts loudly and clearly. Make the Republicans show their true nature plainly and transparently. Then they should beat them over the head with everything they try to defeat for the next two years. Gridlock is their game plan, so beat them at their own game. No more obscure sounding legislation should be introduced by the Dems. For example, "The Defense Funding Bill" (or whatever it is called) currently being fillibustered by Republicans because of the provision repealing DADT should be renamed "Money for Our Troops Need to Keep America Safe and Free Bill". Yeah, let them fillibuster that. See how that plays with the public and in those Faux News soundbites.

Really, the age of being a gentleman politician has been over for awhile now. He missed the memo that the Republicans wrote decades ago. Obama trying to bring civility back in his first term is like trying to bring back the powdered wigs. Ridiculous. Hopefully, this is a wake-up call that it is time to "get Chicago on their a--" to get things done and to put 2012 in the bag. Save all the civility talk and gestures for the run-up to 2016. Be a bully and then play like you've been the thoughtful peacemaker all along. It's been working for the opposition, and it worked this election.

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 4, 2010, 4:09 am
by KHONDAHM
Edit: "Money for Our Troops Need to Keep America Safe and Free Bill" should read "Money Our Troops Need to Keep America Safe and Free Bill"

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 4, 2010, 4:34 am
by KHONDAHM
IMHO and to visualize exactly what I mean in my above post, mild-mannered Obama needs to transform into Ving Rhames:



If you haven't seen Pulp Fiction, you really need to see what happened to this tough guy prior to this scene to TRULY appreciate what is about to happen to that Republican. Oops. I mean "guy".

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 4, 2010, 6:43 am
by nkstan
Personally,I am happy with the results,although I would have liked to see both houses of Congress in the opposite camp from the President!

I think the American people corrected the imbalance in our Gov't that would allow ''extremism'' to reign,preventing the ''change'' at any cost from happening!

If the democrats had not been turned out,IMO,we would have been a ''welfare state'' within a few years.destroying the Capitalist system that has been the foundation of our way of life!

In the other camp,the republicans,the voters blocked some of the extremist of the Tea party,further confirming my belief in this being a vote against ''extremism''!

Although ,there will probably be some ''gridlock'' to start with,the politicians will eventually have to leave their extreme positions and move to the middle ground,or they will get turned out in 2 years. =D> =D>

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 4, 2010, 6:59 am
by Laan Yaa Mo
KHONDAHM wrote:If nothing else is clear, the election results clearly show that appealing to the fears of the under-educated, mis-informed, and gullible with distortions and outright lies is still a winning strategy. Every village idiot still gets their vote. In 2010 there remain many states with many villages with many idiots who break from "Dancing with the Stars", "American Idol", and the like long enough to inhale fear-based attacks without any merit and exhale them as facts. Then they spread the contagion of ignorance like a stupid-flu epidemic - and for which reality (think 2000-2008) is no cure.

there are enough Americans who actually don't understand how the government is designed who will then accept that and vote at the polls with that in mind. It is embarrassing to admit or confront it, but it is true. Those people are the Republican base. Those clueless people are the same ones who arrived at the protest via public roads who are on medicaid and medicare collecting social security or unemployment checks (or have family doing same) with children in public schools going to anti-healthcare reform protests with signs, colorful costumes, and screaming "Stop government spending!". It's embarrassing and ridiculous.

Yes, this is Obama's argument too. The electorate is too stupid to understand what he is doing and why.

Khon Dahm you sound like Sondhi, the yellow shirt leader, explaining Thaksin's success at the polls. He would have you believe it is owing the stupidity of the rural voters in Isaan and northern Thailand; therefore, they should forfeit their right to vote since they are not acting in accordance with Sondhi's wishes. Likewise, your argument is that it is the stupidity of the American voters for the catastrophe that struck the President and his party last night.

This is a very elitist way of looking at things, and a misreading of the public who may actually have had a good reason to vote the way that they did.

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 4, 2010, 7:32 am
by KHONDAHM
Your conflictinator is working overtime. How what I posted relates in any way to Thailand's politics or whether or not it's rural population should vote escapes me, so I will leave that argument to you to resolve.

On the matter of the topic at hand, and to follow up on some of the comments about the result: I agree with the theory that the Executive and Legislative branches should be opposing parties. However, that would presume civility and an overt eagerness to want to compromise from BOTH sides AND that neither side were extreme in its views or demands. That is simply NOT the reality we find ourselves in today

On another note, a vote to raise the debt ceiling almost immediately following the swearing in ceremony will have to happen. Republicans are on record as being against any further increase in the debt ceiling (although they did so frequently between 2000-2008). Simply put, America will default immediately if it is not raised, causing economic chaos around the world the likes of which could not begin to be imagined (pssst...buy gold now).

Another matter: How will Republicans pay for extending the Bush tax cuts without increasing the deficit? Nothing but song and dance from the Republican leadership because it is simply not possible. Or, an easier question, now that they control the purse strings, what programs are they going to cut to bring about the "smaller government" they campaigned on? Again, crickets...

Those questions and more (with video of the Republicans themselves selling their snake oil campaign promises) can be found at

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/

Enjoy!

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 4, 2010, 10:10 am
by KHONDAHM
Another thing to expect: A very public internal war within the Republican ranks. On one side, there are the Good 'Ole Boys such as Cantor, Boehner, and McConnell. On the other side there is the VERY Libertarian-masquerading-as-Republican Rand Paul leading the Tea Party. The Republican leadership understands clearly that the Tea Party agenda is incongruous and at times antithetical to the GOP agenda. However, the Republican base still remains clueless - preferring to hear only what they want to hear from Rand Paul. And he's been purposefully telling them exactly that without being inconsistent with his very strong Libertarian beliefs.

Watch this guy shine.

I am very familiar with the staunch Libertarian views and positions of the father, Ron Paul. I have personally supported him in the past. If the son is anything like the father (and I am only now devoting time to sizing him up and comparing him to his father now that he is a real player), the majority of Republicans will find out in short order that this has all been a marriage of convenience. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend", so to speak. A straight Libertarian candidate could not win a Senate seat in a two-party system. The father and others tried that already. Aligning himself with Republicans and stressing the few values that the two parties do share was a master stroke! Rand Paul was able to ride the ignorance of the politically under-educated Republican base right into the Senate Chamber. It is there that his true Libertarian colors will shine blindingly. Again, if the son is anything like the father.

When the dopey Republican base discovers that they've been duped, and that he isn't one of the Good 'Ole Boys, it will be too late. He will have already garnered the support of true Independents everywhere and the I-am-embarrassed-to-say-I-voted-for-Bush-twice phony Republican Independents will be filtered out. Expect the number of declared Independents to decline as quickly as it exploded following the 2008 election.

If/When it happens, we could very well FINALLY see the rise of a third party which takes voting Independents from both Democrats and Republicans along with those lifelong moderates who are weary of all the extremism and insanity on the right and the timidity and incompetence on the left. If the Republican leadership is smart, they will reform their snake oil ways. They are not smart, but they are certainly cunning. Therefore, if they lose in 2012 using the same old shenanigans and running Haley Barbour (Good 'Ole Boy Governor of Mississippi) or the like, they would be wise to fall in line behind Rand Paul for President in 2016. I do believe - and time will tell the tale - that with all the Independents and moderates from both parties behind him, he would easily win a 2016 bid for POTUS running as a Republican in a (by then) reformed Republican party. Mark this post.

And what about the Democrats? Will Obama face a primary challenge? Very doubtful. He and Biden have and continue to build enormous political capital among fellow Democrats. Obama will run and could win if he spends the next two years in Ving Rhame mode down in the dirt getting things done and beats the Republicans at their own game. He will lose if he remains civil. Sad, but true.

All the above is IMO. Cheers! ;)

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 4, 2010, 10:34 am
by tigerryan
Khondahm you are as big of a condisending ass as your boy Obama, you clearly don't get it. just keep calling Folks that don't like your brand socialist BS "dopey" and watch what happens in 2012. I can see it from my porch.

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 4, 2010, 10:38 am
by BobHelm
Texpat wrote:Yes, he's a journalist who uses terms like "clusterfuck" and "jerkoff," phrases that are a sure mark of a professional.
(in whose world?)
I don't think he has ever claimed to be a "journalist" Tex, rather a "author, social critic, public speaker, and blogger" which is a rather different being.
It is interesting that you believe that the use of certain words by an individual automatically negates the value of the theories behind the words. Yes, very strange concept....

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 4, 2010, 12:28 pm
by pienmash
Please enhance my learning of the term CLUSTERFUCK as never heard the saying b4 !! is it Latin or wot ??

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 4, 2010, 12:37 pm
by Fahlep Yai
tigerryan wrote:Khondahm you are as big of a condisending ass as your boy Obama, you clearly don't get it. just keep calling Folks that don't like your brand socialist BS "dopey" and watch what happens in 2012. I can see it from my porch.
i agree with your assessment of the one kd and his brother barack. what happened in the elections on tuesday is only the beginning. there will even be republicans thrown out and more conservative candidates replacing them.

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 4, 2010, 12:38 pm
by BobHelm
1. clusterfuck
Military term for an operation in which multiple things have gone wrong. Related to "SNAFU" (Situation Normal, All ****** Up") and "FUBAR" (****** Up Beyond All Repair). In radio communication or polite conversation (i.e. with a very senior officer with whom you have no prior experience) the term "clusterfuck" will often be replaced by the NATO phonetic acronym "Charlie Foxtrot."
By the time the artillery came in the enemy was already on top of us. It was a total clusterfuck.

2. clusterfuck
Traditionally/originally of military origin.
Today, however, "clusterfuck" is commonly used to descriptively generalize any situation with a large scale of disarray.
possibly synonyms: mess, disaster
1. "Well, that concert was a clusterfuck."
2. "Did you see the clusterfuck of a traffic jam on Main St.?"
3. "That house party turned into a giant clusterfuck once those cops showed up!"
vulgar ---- fuk fuc fukc cluster disarray disorganization military

3. clusterfuck
A combination of things going extremely wrong in a short period of time within the same general activity -- caused by stupidity and/or ineptitude.
A polite term using the same initials would be compound fiasco.
This PR fiasco is a gigantic clusterfuck.

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 4, 2010, 12:51 pm
by jackspratt
Fahlep Yai wrote: i agree with your assessment of the one kd and his brother barack. what happened in the elections on tuesday is only the beginning. there will even be republicans thrown out and more conservative candidates replacing them.
God help America. :shock:

I can imagine under the current thinking of right wing, conservativeville USA, GWB would struggle to get a nomination, given his "socialist" tendencies. :confused:

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 4, 2010, 1:26 pm
by jimboLV
Contrary to the opinion of all you ideologues out there, both right and left, yesterdays' selection was not a repudiation of Obama or any political theories. The average man on the street in America couldn't care less about liberalism, socialism, libertarianism, or any other "ism". All they know is that they see themselves, their neighbors, friends and relatives out of work or underemployed; health care cost rising astronomically; hordes of illegal immigrants streaming across the borders choking schools, hospitals and social welfare systems. Obama captured their imagination and promised to fix all that. He didn't. Things just got worse. They see unemployment still rising. The new "health-care plan" did nothing but increase the cost of health insurance. Attempts by States to control immigration are met with lawsuits by the government telling them to cease and desist.

So they "threw the bums out". Even Republicans who supported the administration's ill advised plans got the bum's rush in many cases. And they voted in a new slate of "bums" with more promises. It remains to be seen if the surviving members of Congress, and Obama himself, will learn from this and actually do something of benefit, so that they do not meet the same fate in two years.

Re: Now What? (American Politics)

Posted: November 4, 2010, 1:47 pm
by pienmash
Sounds like a clusterfuck to me !!