Blondie and I went to bed Tuesday night around 9:30, already fearing that things were not going well as regards Mitt Romney’s chances of taking up residence in that big official governmental residence on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington … so it was not a totally incapacitating shock to the system on Wednesday morning to wake up (to the tune of our next door neighbor’s Basset hound incessantly barking G*d, are we beginning to hate that dog!) in the wee hours, turn on the computer and discover that Michelle will have another four years of lavish vacations on the government dime.
Ah well – as I pointed out a couple of weeks ago, there is a lot of ruin in a nation, and perhaps this turn of events might turn out to be a blessing in very thick disguise. Obama will be in office when all the various incontinent chickens which he or his party launched in the first place come home to roost. Fast and Furious, the overrunning of the Benghazi consulate and his administration’s inaction with regard to, the insupportable burden that Obamacare will place upon small businesses, the expected hyper-inflation Weimar Germany Style, Iran taking aim at Israel in a non-friendly and nuclear way, the Chinese edging into a tangle with Japan, domestic AND international threats to our First and Second Amendments, the fact that the nomination of at least one justice to the Supreme Court will be in his purview, the fact that his administration generally seems to be a rancid commingling of Chicago gangster politics, 1930’s style with the worst of the 1960’s academic Marxism… Well, all of that. With the best intentions in the world, I fear that Romney would not have been able to clean out the Augean stables in any meaningful way, not with him being backbit by the establishment press and the established governmental bureaucrats seeing their access to the money trough hampered.
So, let it happen and let it all be done. That percentage of the voters who wanted Obama most have now got him. Over the next four years they will continue to get him good, hard and unlubricated, starting with the prices of gas and heating oil skyrocketing, the money being devalued, our industrial base being even more gutted than it has been already, and rolling brownouts becoming a regular occurrence, and the economy basically going over a cliff. Sometimes there is no way of learning other than to completely and utterly screw up.
What to do, personally? Well, life will go on, much as it has from age to age. Fortunate I am to be living in Texas who might have thought that it would be our last best hope? Molly Ivins is probably revolving in her grave like a Black and Decker drill. Otherwise – consider the means of going mini-Galt, and ratchet up what we have been already been doing over the last couple of years. Buying second-hand as much as possible. Stockpiling food and other essential supplies. Starving the Beast by minimizing the taxes that I do pay, bartering as much as possible for goods and services. In the next year, we’re probably going to give up cable television although we’ll keep the internet. Redouble the efforts to keep a viable garden. I gave up just about all of my print subscriptions to magazines and the local newspaper. Our list of entertainment personalities who will not be getting anything from us in the way of patronage of their music, movie and television show patronage is now several pages long. (Goodbye, Cher, so long Ken Burns; in my eyes you have joined the ranks of Those Who Are No Longer Our Countrymen. Bow down and lick the hands of the new autocrats enjoy the taste and forget that you ever thought of yourselves as free citizens.) I’ll continue supporting the Tea Party, and carry on with building a support network of like-minded cranky independents who voted with our brains rather than our lady-parts, and considering very carefully how I do spend my money, and who and where I spend it. Get more involved in local and State politics, and utterly reject any attempts by anyone who diminish any part of the Bill of Rights. OK then it’s not the beginning of the end; it’s the end of the beginning.
“Chicago gangster politics,”
My sister, a few minutes ago, informed me that a Chicago judge who has been diagnosed as clinically insane, was re-elected. I’m not sure that qualifies as “gangster politics.” More like a separate world inhabited by people we don’t understand.
My bassett hound bit me this week. He doesn’t know it but he’s getting neutered next week. If Romney had won, I was looking forward to some Obama voters coming around here to create a disturbance. Don’t mess with me.
Mine barks at dogs (or people he can see. If he can’t see them, he doesn’t bark.
On my list of local and state areas of policy/issues to target: school choice and welfare reform. I don’t want my grandkids having to live side by side with the technically connected but morally and skill empty generations being cranked out by these two mechanisms in beautiful synchronization. I didn’t say I anticipate being successful, but I will be able to look my kids and grandkids in the eye.
Mike
I was talking with a friend today about California’s unseen ramifications with the voters voting to enact new “temporary” taxes.
Those on the Left usually think linear – thinking that if they raise taxes X revenues will go up X (not even considering they might go down from people deciding they really don’t even want to play). People respond – positively or negatively – the the cost it takes for them to do a given activity.
And people making +250K will be hit harder – wonder how many (MORE) of them will want to move.
Honestly Sgt I have been thinking of TX – it doesn’t have the weather and geographic splendor of CA (and you being an ex Californian have to agree – even silently) – but frankly the lack of idiots – both in the govt and citizenry trumps the good weather and beautiful beaches, mountains, etc.
These days I feel like I am living in the asylum.
Bill, I have wanted to move to Tucson for several years but my kids are here and I had my heart attack in Tucson last year. My kids would have a fit. I expect California to collapse suddenly. What did Hemingway say about how you go bankrupt ? Slowly then suddenly ?
New money is coming into our region – the bio corridor they call it now. Pick ups and concrete machines (large pool) wake us up each morning as a huge house is growing on the next lot. Apparently, the future here isn’t bad – the bio corridor they are calling it. Texas won’t boom if Obama can help it, but that doesn’t mean it won’t. Yes, Sgt. Mom we’ll survive in Texas.
With me, it isn’t going John Galt – I can just retire, not too gracefully and not with huge wealth, but what will we need? It’s my kids – and their kids. I thought America was a pretty good thing to leave them.
Some voted for Obama, some didn’t vote. My youthful mistakes were more numerous than theirs, but I’m afraid this was their generation’s big one and they are going to pay a higher price than ours did for our many little ones that led to this day. For instance, why did we let the kind of people take over education departments that did?
“why did we let the kind of people take over education departments that did?”
I think grad school was a big refuge for lefty draft evaders. Ironically, many went to work for the VA and told traumatized vets that they had fought an immoral war. Sort of like Major Hassan.
SGT. Mom,
Hunkering down here, financially at least. I suspect that my political activities have drawn attention. So be it. Stay strong there in Texas, and know that there are like minded souls up here in Colorado.
Subotai Bahadur
I’m not sure that survival mode and “going Galt” is optional. There was a lot of interest in this in 1979 but that was not as serious a problem then as it is now.
Michael – I have the same situation here – family that depends on me.
Michael – on California’s impending collapse – since a state can’t go bankrupt I guess there will come a time when they can’t get any more credit and the simply stop paying the vendors, employees, pensions….
So my guess is that it start with a trickle – then a waterfall.
What really got me was their decision to build the start of this bullet train in the middle of nowhere – in the Central Valley.
We could have our own friendly bet ;-)
Sgt. Mom – this is interesting. My mom basically said the exact same thing after the election. She feels that nothing of substance will get done until people feel real pain.
Our employees are about to feel real pain. Our health insurance for them is skyrocketing (again) and they will feel that burden. This is just one example, but there are a lot of things coming at a lot of people in the next four years – but they don’t even hear the train whistle yet. Or feel the tracks shaking.
I also happen to agree that it is good that the zero will be in office if/when we can get some of these scandals to show their ugly faces. The mass media will keep it quiet, but hopefully some intrepid blogger or someone else can bring a lot of the malfeasance to life.
One benefit of Romney/Ryan losing is that Paul Ryan is one of the few people that understand the financial issues this nation is dealing with and he is in a perfect position to address that.
Ryan 2016.
Blaming Former President Bush will no longer be a viable option and 2016 he is out, no longer up for re-election. The Democratic party is Olde with no young vibrant up-and-comers, which the Republican party has in people like Mia Love, Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan. So let the incontinent chickens come home.
Sorry people, I hate to have to be the one to inform you of this, but the demographic and political trends all seem to project that Texas is going to become a purple state by the end of this decade, and continue thereafter to move to the left.
I think Idaho is the place for all of you. Take the canned goods and the ammo, and accept with grace that the world has passed you by.
Interesting times, interesting times. I’m sorry about California, though. Matchless weather and scenery – and out and beyond the Hollywierd and Frisco fringe, rather nice and reasonable people. Texas is HOT in the summer, and the scenery is nice enough, but comparitively unspectacular. Ah well; last best hope and all that.
By the way, the German-language translation of the first of the Adelsverein Trilogy is on Amazon already, although the print version won’t go live until the 15th. All thanks to the Boyz, and especially Lukas Reck, who decided to venture into the enterprise by translating it on spec for a cut of future sales of the German edition.
Dan – I hope – when the layoffs start coming because of the heal insurance skyrocketing, the employers will tell them why – rules mandating the increase.
You know, all that “free” stuff ….
Going through the budget, cutting things out. Reduced cable subscription to bare minimum yesterday.
Also, I’ve noticed that recent home repairmen have all asked for payment in cash. I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of that.
For those of you who are not necessarily heading for the hills, and who may wish to engage in the difficult task of picking up the pieces and crafting a new approach, I would recommend listening to the words of one of your own, one who seems to be willing to take an honest look at the situation on the political right.
LINK
Percy and I think – giving them cash is a way of protesting this monstrosity. It’s patriotic!
Years ago while stationed in Germany I learned quickly of a 2 tiered economy – the official one – and because of the confiscatory tax rates, an underground cash-based one.
Ah, the egregious Frum. Sorry, stopped paying attention to him a long time ago.
…in Germany I learned quickly of a 2 tiered economy
In NYC also, along with interstate smuggling of cigarettes and such. When I worked in Germany there was also a two types of doctors, company doctors and workers doctors. The latter are where the Italian and Spanish workers went to get their two weeks sick leave and recoup their contribution to the German medical system before returning home.
“Ah, the egregious Frum. Sorry, stopped paying attention to him a long time ago.”
I am not surprised to hear that. This seems to be the core pathology on the right. Fingers in the ears to all that fails to sustain the myths…
This seems to be the core pathology on the right.
Perhaps, but complemented on the left by a conceited assumption of superior brilliance and snotty condescension. We’ll just have to see how things go, no? I’m betting on big troubles coming myself, but I could be wrong. If I am right, it is a sure bet that the left will find some way to blame it on people other than themselves. That’s how they roll.
“I am not surprised to hear that. This seems to be the core pathology on the right. Fingers in the ears to all that fails to sustain the myths”¦”
I think this is a characteristic of almost all people to a point. Including the Left, just look at MSNBC. It takes a strong stomach to listen to the diatribes coming from the entire spectrum of political and societal discourse and discern what small nuggets of wisdom might be found. Everyone has biases of some sort, even you. Everyone thinks they have the right answer for the most part. It’s a natural assumption people make.
Remember it was a 50% to 48% result. Don’t take too much pleasure in sticking it to those you disagree with.
Jeff,
Its rather amazing though, isn’t it? One would think that those who are so passionate about creating a world according to their principles would be strongly focused on learning the truth about the way the world is, as opposed to being told stories that soothe and comfort.
How can one expect to change the world if you don’t know how it really is? This is what Frum was alluding to, and I think his point is inescapable. Perhaps everyone is guilty of this, as you say, but the degree varies. I think the results are showing that at least in this time period, my side is more in touch with reality.
From a previous exchange with Joe C.:
Verdict: WORTHLESS. TROLL.
Michelle’s dress cost enough to feed and clothe a thousand shivering homeless children on long island.
“h, the egregious Frum. Sorry, stopped paying attention to him a long time ago.”
I used to read David’s stuff and even corresponded with him. He was angry and left NRO because he was not invited on the cruises which are (I’m sure ) free to participants. I even read his blog for a while but it quickly became a gathering place for trolls like our local one who never posted a comment without a derogatory and snide line.
Frum is convinced that Republicans should shift to a lite version of Democrat. Read his blog, if you can stand it. I have given up. One lefty I respect is Kevin Drum. I read his blog at Calpundit, then at Washington Monthly. I used to post comments and we exchanged e-mails but the blog began deleting my comments. This was amusing as they often drew a flurry of nasty ad hominem replies. After the deletion, the nasty replies would be there with no clue about the subject.
It was also amusing back in 2008 that I referred to my previous blog posts on health care reform. The folks at Washington Monthly looked at my posts and became incensed because I do not favor their version of single payer. I like the French system, which the troll seems to think means I agree with him. The lefties have no concept of how the market system can control utilization without coercion. If people want to spend more, they can. If they don’t want to, they will put pressure on doctors to be more economical. Obama and Pelosi prefer death panels because that is what the IPRB is. It removes all freedom from doctors in primary care and they will avoid the field. You can write guidelines that work most of the time but the USSR showed us the corrupting effect of central planning and control.
Always interesting to see whose reading lists overlap mine, or doesn’t. The “egregious Frum” line is from Jerry Pournelle, who always refers to him in this fashion after a particularly nasty spat during the Gulf War. A brief quote to give you the flavor :
“These are the people who insisted we could do it on the cheap; who, when some of us Old Conservatives pointed out that you can’t build Iraq into a nation on the cheap, you can only conquer it and run it as an empire on the cheap, had the egregious Frum read us out of the party as unAmerican. Turned their backs on us, they did.
From the beginning I have pointed out that if we simply wanted to conquer Iraq, we could send in the troops, then strike a deal with the surrendered Iraqi Army. The Sunni would rule as they always have. They would be so busy keeping the Shia down that they couldn’t make much mischief. Meanwhile, we keep a Heavy Division — about 3 Legions — over there in as much luxury as Iraq affords. Their job is to be the big hammer in case the Iraqi Army forgets it was defeated and surrendered and is now running the country for us.
This is the stuff of Empire, rule by clients, and it is well known to any historian. Among the neos Hanson and Kagan certainly ought to have known all this. God knows Kagan’s father knows it.
But if we wanted to rebuild Iraq, dismantle the Ba’ath Party and the Iraqi Army, and try to reconstruct from scratch, nation building, build a democracy, it would take all the resources of the Republic. A big army and a big occupation force, and the occupation force can’t really be the Army because Armies are good at breaking things and killing people, not at nation building. God knows I and many of us said all this. And their answer was to have the egregious Frum set upon us in National Review. Bill Buckley must be proud.
Now these neoJacobins are accusing the military of being arrogant! ”
Despite the use of the term as a form of abuse of all conservatives, Neo-cons are leftists who broke with the left on foriegn policy. From my perspective, damn near everything that went wrong in during the Bush administration ties back to neo-con ideas. Most of the toxic political legacy of Bush is a consequence of Frum and people like him. Ditto on some of Bush’s worst domestic policies. And then I get to watch Obama continue 90% of Bush’s worst policies (from my perspective) while tarring conservatives with Bush’s legacy (you could make a weak case that Iraqis were secular enough for nation-building to pay off for us. Maybe. In 20 years. But walking away from that to double down in Afghanistan? Obama’s wasted lives and treasure there at much the same rates Bush did in Iraq for even less benefit – some change). Sorry, listening to that crowd did enough damage the first time.
“From my perspective, damn near everything that went wrong in during the Bush administration ties back to neo-con ideas.
…
Ditto on some of Bush’s worst domestic policies. And then I get to watch Obama continue 90% of Bush’s worst policies (from my perspective) while tarring conservatives with Bush’s legacy”
Seconded.
It drives me up the wall that so many on both the Left and Right talk about BO and Dubya (and sometimes Romney) as if they were polar political opposites. That may be true for some of their rhetoric, but looking at how they actually governed, the differences are largely ones of emphasis and degree.
Obamacare is certainly a bigger and more elaborate clusterfork than Medicare Part D, but both are built on the same broken models of economics and human behavior.
If it weren’t for the decades-long damage that may be done to the SCOTUS, I probably would have been rooting for Obama, in the hopes of more accurately placing blame for the state of the economy in 2016. Like many others here, I take some solace in that possibility now.
“It drives me up the wall that so many on both the Left and Right talk about BO and Dubya (and sometimes Romney) as if they were polar political opposites.”
I think Romney has the track record to actually accomplish something. I was never a Bush fan and some friends got very angry with me because I supported McCain in 2000. He was actually a deficit hawk and there not many around in the late 90s.
The GOP does need to change. It cannot continue to cede ground where it’s got good arguments. I’ve been trying to do something of that with my series on a workers movement for today that deprecates unions. But urban policy is another arena. Democrats are running so many cities into the ground, yet they don’t meaningfully get called on it because the GOP has merely provided lip service for urban policy, instead of fighting for cities as hard as they fight for suburbs.
@Percy – “Also, I’ve noticed that recent home repairmen have all asked for payment in cash. I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of that.”
Yes, you will. In HVAC residential, most of the time it is now half down, half when the job is completed. The days of doing business on a handshake are over (and have been for some time).
“Molly Ivins is probably revolving in her grave like a Black and Decker drill.”
It was Molly who first said Obama would be president. She liked him and would be pleased at the election results.
Why you would drag her into this as an exemplar is beyond me. Have you not enough right wing idiots to compare stuff to?
Ummm … because she wrote about Texas in a funny and endearing way, but she certainly didn’t see it as an exemplar, politically. PenGun, it’s time for you to empty out your pockets and lighten up again.
If memory and a quick google-ectomy serve, she died of cancer very early in 2007, and she didn’t much like Hillary Clinton, so many of her friends and associates seemed to assume that she would have backed the Won … maybe. Frankly, seeing that she was dying of cancer at about the time he was being made ready for his triumphal progress, I can’t picture her being much interested.
Now, PenGun, have you not enough other bloggers to condescend to, insult and leap to unsupported conclusions about?
I followed Molly for many years and have a pretty good idea of her likes and dislikes. To have you take this fine person as a prop for your kinda half wit blame the voters shtick is a bit hard to take.
She was interested and wrote well right up to her death.
Molly predicted the political humor drought of the 1990s:
‘What’s in it for me as a political humorist is that George Bush is just fabulous material. Bush-speak, the thing-thing, that gloriously daffy streak he has – “Read my lips,” “90/90 hindsight,” “the manhood thing.”
‘Lord, but I would miss that goofy, preppy, golden retriever-like part of his personality, those moments of transcendent dorkiness when we all stand there trying to believe he’s just said what he did.
‘If you have any mercy in your hearts for those who make a living being funny about politics, take pity on us. Mark Russell is going to commit suicide if we elect Bill Clinton. Saturday Night Live will fall on its collective sword. Russell Baker will molt and decline. Mike Royko will be stuck with Chicago and I’ll be stuck with Texas.’
– Molly Ivins, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Election Day, November 3, 1992
(No link available – transcribed from my own newspaper clipping.)
This sounds about right to me. The latter part as a first and continuing reaction, and the former part as an eventual conclusion after the initial shock. We can’t cut anything else, short of living in a tent in the woods or something, so ironically it means doing better in order to be prepared for worse. To the extent that doing better will be possible.