Hop aboard the dipshit express and fall in the pit full of vipers...

My brothers are all pretty much convinced that the absurdity of the last election was no big deal -- the Republicans are idiots, the Democrats are idiots, most Americans are idiots and what the hell, AXE, go play some guitar and drink so coffee and chill out, a little, ok? Well, some of my brothers in the Defeatists and assorted associated Malcontents have children. The spouse and I will leave behind...cats. If that. If I wake up in ten or twelve years and find myself spouseless and catless, I'm setting fire to everything and heading for the nearest ice flow. There's some dignity in that...I'm not killing myself, I'm just going to go watch the scenery.

However, if you've bothered to have kids, you probably care about what their future is...or, what the fuck is wrong with you? Seriously, if you aren't interested in the future of the country, the economy, the world why are you having children? Trust me, condoms are cheaper than kids. If you're going to make that sort of investment in the future, you probably ought to care about the future.

Once again, Paul Krugman who plays David Hume to my Immanuel Kant so often, provides a bit of clarity on his blog. The Republicans are proposing rules changes in the house that will make it easier to vote legislation to cut taxes while harder to add programs and far more difficult than at present to raise taxes. In other words, they're saying that so long as the deficit grows through generosity to people who don't need it, things are fine with owing all that money. The only way to cut the deficit is to cut spending...In other words, the deficit hawks are really lackies and pigeons for the nonsensical ideology of starve the beast. Krugman call them frauds. I think he's generous...being a fraud requires that you have the sense to pour piss out of a boot and not all over your own feet and rug. You pour it over some other guys feet and rug. Since most of these guys and gals aren't that rich, they're pouring it all over their own feet, their own rugs, and their children's cots.

In addition to the rules issue, the Republicans are floating the idea of passing a law to allow the states to declare bankruptcy, with the requirement that the bankruptcy judges will be prohibited from raising taxes or requiring the states to do so. The theory appears to be that being required to cut expenditures will result in the necessary re-negotiation of things like union contracts, pension agreements and so on. This will reduce the burden of those things -- the good faith and credit of the states -- on the state governments. Of course, the pensioners of New Jersey and Florida will find themselves destitute...however, as Antony says of Greeks in Rome, "Fuck 'em."

I expect that I will head off tomorrow to get the car serviced and while I wait, I may wander over to see the Coen Brothers version of True Grit. I was kind of indifferent toward it -- I always considered the Duke Wayne version a less than wonderful experience, and while I'd enjoyed the novel, I wasn't going to spend the money. However, Stanley Fish's column in the Times this morning has made me want to at least consider the argument, especially in line with the Krugman column. While Fish begins with and sees a meditation in the movie on the disconnect between heroism and virtue, I found the conflict between the issues of fairness and grace to be key in exciting my interest.

Mattie gives a fine (if terrible) example early in the novel when she imagines someone asking why her father went out of his way to help the man who promptly turned around and shot him. “He was his brother’s keeper. Does that answer your question?” Yes it does, but it doesn’t answer the question of why the reward for behaving in accord with God’s command is violent death at the hands of your brother, a question posed by the Bible’s first and defining event, and unanswered to this day.

In the novel and in the Coens’ film it is always like that: things happen, usually bad things (people are hanged, robbed, cheated, shot, knifed, bashed over the head and bitten by snakes), but they don’t have any meaning, except the meaning that you had better not expect much in this life because the brute irrationality of it all is always waiting to smack you in the face. This is what happens to Mattie at the very instant of her apparent triumph as she shoots Tom Chaney, her father’s killer, in the head. The recoil of the gun propels her backwards and she falls into a snake-infested pit. Years later, as the narrator of the novel, she recalls the moment and says: “I had forgotten about the pit behind me.” There is always a pit behind you and in front of you and to the side of you. That’s just the way it is.

The pit, for Mr. Boehner and friends, is the disconnect between what they're saying and what they're going to do. I don't know if they will be able to totally fuck up the tax code or overwhelm the Senate and the President. I suspect not -- John Boehner is too much of a politician to want to have eveything go totally south on his watch. Because, he wants another watch. However, he's at least proposing a score to march to that has traps for him. If he's able to pull the trigger, utterly slash spending while cutting revenue from the only people who will be able to afford to pay it, we're fucked. And, he may not have any choice...assumming the Democrats can overcome the tendency to move toward the middle of the divide, then we will have two years of nothing. However, if they do what is in fact natural in negotiations and in governance -- grant a concession to get a concession -- we'll have chaos. I already expect to see no infrastructure, no education funding, no increase in benefits for the 99ers, no jobs bills, no further aid for Veterans. Expect programs for seniors, children and infants to be slashed. If States are allowed to declare bankruptcy, expect greater and greater problems. These people are threatening the nation, so that their constituency of nutcases and uberrich can buy more crystal chandeliers. If the states, in some pattern of randomness start declaring bankruptcy, what exactly happens to the good faith and credit of the United States? The idea that a bankruptcy court will not be able to force a state to increase revenue -- another idea floated in this bankruptcy thing -- is just irrational nonsense. If you have a deficit that you are concerned about, you try to control your spending and to increase your income. Slashing spending is actually easier than increasing your income, because increasing income requires thought and making smart choices.

If John Boehner and Eric Cantor and Michelle Bachmann decide to do something totally nonsensical, we will be forced to depend on the good sense of the Republican Senators in conjunction with the Democrats and the courage of Barrack Obama as president and the wisdom of the Supreme Court to prevent it.

See why Crusader AXE is worried? Well, the Huntsman family and the Koch brothers will all get to buy more yachts and collections of pornography...and hell, human organs. Why not? Let the rich stockpile livers and kidneys from cops, firemen, teachers, librarians, farmers, and soldiers. What the hell -- they're not rich, and they're not needed for these people.  Boehner will be able to afford some Merlot to swill while the Capital goes up in flames while Jeanne Schmidt and Michelle Bachmann play canasta in the Lincoln Monument and shantytown...

Comments

[mac cosmetics outlet]

Its opportunity are so fantastic and working style so speedy.I will continue reading your post for it tackles different issues in our society that keeps me interested and go on reading the rest of your articles.Good luck to the author!Hope everyone keep good mood.