In case you were wondering, I’ve been in Pittsburgh visiting relatives and doing things that I’ll fill you in on later. I’ve been staying with a favorite aunt who doesn’t have time for the Internet and whose neighbors have put passwords on all their modems since the last time I was here.
Anyway, the anecdotal evidence suggests that the urgency of the fiscal cliff is not resonating here. People are bored with it. It’s not like Iraq where the Bushies scared everyone into thinking Saddam Hussein had WMDs that he could drop on us in 40 minutes. No, it’s like they really want mute the next TV pundit who is hyperventilating about his taxes going up in January.
Oh, and that whole messing around with social security or any social insurance program? It’s a no go. Don’t even think about it. These relatives live in a different reality than I do. By that I mean, they watch TV news. And this “fiscal cliff” campaign has been a waste of time. Go over it already. No one here gives a flying f#^*. It’s just a bunch of rich people whining to them. Of course, if working people’s taxes go up in January and benefits get cut, they’re going to be pissed. But no one here is fooled into believing that legislators are twisting themselves into knots on their behalf.
They’re just tired of the incessant droning on and on about the fiscal cliff and, surprisingly, they have very little sympathy for whiny rich peoples’ immiment loss of their Bush tax cuts.
So, there you go, TV pundits. You have created a crisis that instantly triggers bathroom breaks. Suck up the new tax levels and stuff a sock in it.
Gun control is another matter. They’re not opposed to that. And they’ve made the connection with the shooters being primarily “white males”. So, verily I say unto you congress persons and senators brutally ripped from your eggnog and ski vacations, your time would be better spent legislating some way to make it inconvenient for white men to intimidate the rest of the country with their god given right to bear arms.
Filed under: General | Tagged: fiscal cliff, Social Security, stuff a sock in it |
The Confluence 
To fill the voids of a 24 hour news delivery cable channel they have to grab and worry to death every news worthy item that come along. Unfortunately, no blond cheerleaders have gone missing from a resort on a Third world island lately.
Hammer. Nail. Bang!
Plus, in too many cases, reporting about the actual continuing problems out here would damage the reputations of their sponsors, who cause, or at least exacerbate, those problems. 👿
Repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, and consolidation of the media into a few hands, have done exactly what the 1% wanted those things to do. Our elite don’t have to make their true nature and intentions plain by muzzling their critics, because they can simply order their hired liars to outshout their critics.
Welcome to the United States of Fubarica. 😦
This fiscal cliff stuff is just the one percent crying “Bugga, Bugga” to scare the rest of us into “austerity”, ie, poverty.
I wondered why Erin Burnett is such a scold about the fiscal cliff, blah, blah, blah, then, I read that over the holiday, Erin married a Citi Group big shot.
Wonder no more.
Journalism = Dog Thievery all you need to know.
The National Guild of Dog Thieves will file a lawsuit against Mr. Mike for slander in 5…4…3… 😛
We already have a law which takes care of the deficit automatically by raising taxes and cutting spending. Half of the cuts come from the bloated Defense budget and half from the rest with Social Security, Medicare, and medicaid exempt. If this seems rash, it is the agreement that Republicans negotiated two years ago.
To counter this, the Republicans have wrung from Obama an agreement that eliminates the federal Estate tax, retains current tax rates for people under $400,000, and cuts Social Security, federal retirement (including I guess the military) and other payments immediately and permanently going forward. And makes the Democrats the villains who have to propose Republican cuts and vote for them so the Republicans can win the midterm elections in 2014.
Considering that Republicans lost the Presidency and more seats in the Senate and that their majority in the House was reduced (plus the Blue Dogs continued towards extinction). they seem to have gotten far more than they deserve.
The big argument of the Fox News “pundits” is that Wall Street will be upset. Given the trillions these overpaid crybabies have wrung from the economy my sentiments towards Wall Street are hardly generous. And, for that matter, not particularly printable.
It seems to me that the folks in Pittsburgh have got the matter pretty much correct.
When did this happen!!! ?
It was reported in the Washington Post. Don’t worry, the Republicans turned it down. It happened over about four weeks in December as Obama kept raising his offers and the Republicans kept saying no. Each time, Obama had something more.
The nice thing is that at least at present, harry reid is reported to be inclined to start taking back a lot of the concessions. If the Republicans insist on their August proposal, Reid will go with Obama’s December 3 offer.
Further word, is that the Koch Brothers, who live in New York City, are furiously lobbying Republicans to kill all Sandy aid for New York and New Jersey because “it is a local matter.”
Personally, I think Bloomberg should consider institutionalizing those weasels as they may not be a threat to themselves but they are surely a threat to others. Talk about the mental health aspect.
Btw, my significant other and I were watching some history or biography show about Josef Stalin.. She commented, “What is the difference between Josef Stalin and a serial killer? There isn’t any.” Just like the Bundys and Dahmers, he’d stop briefly and then go into another wave of purges. I wonder if the same could be said of the Koch Brothers and Grover Norquist and Wayne LaPierre.
If that is true about Reid’s inclination, that is hopeful. Perhaps my lonely phone call to Reid’s Reno office helped just a tiny bit? The one where I told the nice lady that if
the Democratic Senate permitted any changes whatsoever to Social Security, Medicare, and/or Medicaide ; that I would no longer be able to vote for Democrats ever again ever? Gee, I hope so. (I also gave her the words “Catfood Commission” which she claimed to have never heard of).
What if thousands of readers of The Confluence were to make thousands of phone calls to Senator Reid’s Reno office or his other office in Carson City, all saying that if the Dem Senate permits any changes whatsoever to be made to SS/Mcare/Mcaide . . . . that every single one of those thousands of phone callers will never be able to vote for Democrats ever again ever? Would it have an impact on Senator Reid? More of an impact that calling Washington, because a call to Reno or Carson City costs more . . . and shows more work invested in finding the phone numbers? I believe the experiment deserves to be run.
So what is the phone number?
Btw, a non-specific ‘never again’ isn’t as believable as ‘I’m voting third party’.
I already voted third party for president this year, unlike a lot of Democrats who chickened out at the last moment after a fresh barrage of carefully targeted peer pressure and guilt trips.
I also promised to vote third party for Congress in 2014 if the Democrats didn’t get their act together and I mean it.
But you need to really stick to that promise if it is to have any effect whatsoever and there needs to be a reasonable alternative.
As for contacting my Congresspersons and Senators, you can check me off the list. I did it. I got a very confusing return email from Menendez and a “we got your email! thanks for contacting us!” reply from Lautenberg and Lance.
This is post-apocalyptic New Jersey. I have very little expectation that my Congressional reps will hold out when there is so much devastation here.
Or, for that matter, of the Droner-in-Chief. I’m sure there are plenty of folks in Pakistan who consider him a serial killer as well. Not quite in the same league as Stalin, to be sure, but that’s not for want of trying and he does have 4 more years to up his score.
They did not wring this from Obama. It is a part of what Obama has been conspiring to achieve for years. His stage-managed “fabrication”
of this being “wrung” from him is itself wearing thin with some people.
This is Obama’s own Simpson-Obama Catfood Plan.
If the Tea Party Republicans can prevent the Catfood Coalition from passing the Simpson-Obama Catfood Plan, perhaps I should vote Tea Party in future elections to do my part to further sabotage and obstruct the Catfood Coalition and “burn the governmen all the way down to the ground” if that is the only way to prevent President Droney McCatfood from achieving his Grand Catfood Bargain during the next four years.
And then I will look for the most bitter hate-filled Class War Socialists I can find to vote for after that.
( Since it is still two years till election 2012, that gives the Democrats 2 years to purge the Catfood Democrats out of the Party. If the Democrats can successfully purge many key Yersinia pestobamacrat bacteria from the Democratic Party, then I will consider the Democrats as being something worth voting for)
I think you mean 2014? Anyway, I was going to say, go see Les Miz, it will wake up your inner socialist/populist.
You are correct. I of course meant 2014. And I do need to get out more . . . .
Teresainpa,
With months ahead to think about gardening at leisure, here is a site you might possibly find interesting. For myself, if I were to actually apply some of the information and approaches at this site (and others like it), I think I could gain some major benefits.
http://growabundant.com/
( I think Yersinia pestobamacrat is a little too clunky. I will refine it into . . . Yersinia pestobamis. Fly or die, little meme.)
And, of course, while the airwaves and intertubez have been saturated with fiscal cliff hysteria, this happens in virtual silence:
http://gizmodo.com/5971743/senate-approves-warrantless-phone-tapping-law
And only 28 years late.
I’ll offer my usual advice to any poor government flunky assigned to spy on me:
Caffeine, and lots of it. Also plenty of facial tissue, because you will be bored to tears.
Let me know if I need to open a can of Earnest on their ass . . .
Huh? 😕
Referrence to memories of years ago on Hullabaloo when you laughed at my “terminal earnestness”. Well . . . it was years ago.