http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-11-21/US-Debt-Supercommittee/51337976/1?csp=34news

The United States Congress Joint Select Committee On Deficit Reduction, popularly know as the Supercommittee, failed to reach an agreement on its raison d'etre: Deficit reduction.  Congress set up the bipartisan committee last summer after the U.S. Congress couldn't figure out how to slash $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit and make both parties happy.  After the usual vitriolic bickering, congress managed to select twelve members (six from each party, three from the senate and three from the house) to hash out the budget cuts.  All the Supercommittee did was line up along ideological lines -- the Democrats for tax increases and the Republicans for spending cuts -- and bang their heads together in a stalemate.  

My government embarrasses me.  

Give me a bullwhip and a gun, and I'll run the place for a while.  That's what it's coming to...

http://resourcesforhistoryteachers.wikispaces.com/file/view/mussolini.mug.jpg/30431765/mussolini.mug.jpg

Give me a bullwhip and a gun, and I'll run the place for a while.  That's what it's coming to...


You'll do a better job than I would.  But any of us here would do a better job than the lunatics currently running the asylum.

Having just struck out on searches for pony videos for Heaven 17, Fascist Groove Thing or DAF, Der Mussolini, and having already played my Hanzel und Gretyl and Downfall cards in their respective threads, I went for the low-hanging fruit:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/kym-assets/photos/images/original/000/204/019/Lt.%20Crash.png

Which is kinda how my day went.  (That's actually last Thursday's chart, but who's counting?) Surprise surprise, markets don't like political instability.  Which makes the actions of the 0.01% (on Capitol Hill) all the more confusing.  If they're bought and paid for by the 1%, they're certainly doing a miserable job of it.  

Maybe neither Congress nor the Stupidupercongress cares, because no matter which candidate the 1% buys, the 0.01% that makes up the government still gets re-elected.  Are they merely incompetent at trying to keep things propped up on behalf of their backers?  Or are they truly insane and do both sides actually believe their side's respective BS?  (I'm no longer sure which is the scarier alternative.  Today's market action makes me wonder if it makes any difference: whether through malice or stupidity, in America or Europe, the endgame may be the same.)

Democrats are out of power
Across that great wide ocean
Reagan's president elect
Fascist god in motion
Generals tell him what to do
Stop your good time dancing
Train their guns on me and you
Fascist thang advancing...

The cherry on the turd sundae was that particularly impotent gesture:

They waited until after the markets closed for the day to admit they couldn't get it up.  

What about tomorrow?  There is no "tomorrow" in your vaunted global marketplace.  They've got markets on the other side of the international dateline...and television.  I mean, WTF?

But why the Mussolini reference?  Because they're giving us the impression democracy is dead.  If 535 legislators couldn't get the job done, and 12 legislators couldn't get the job done, why not try just one man -- one strong, resilient man -- to take an ax to the deficit and get the trains running on time?  

Both your right wing and your left wing dictator would liquidate the legislature -- and then kill all the lawyers.  Your right wing dictator would then proceed to demolish the intellectual class -- professors and poets.  I wouldn't do that.  As a leftist, I would incarcerate the bankers and the CEOs...then I'd hunt down all disloyal teachers, writers, and filmmakers --- and they're all disloyal, believe me.  I mean, you gotta.  They ask questions and the biggest counterrevolutionary threat is QUESTIONS!  Once our revolution is safe from the running dogs of imperialism, I promise we will restore the old First Amendment.  So...it'll be safe to teach Voltaire in about 400 years.

http://bobhistory.wikispaces.com/file/view/joseph-stalin2.jpg/76865307/joseph-stalin2.jpg

The cherry on the turd sundae was that particularly impotent gesture:

They waited until after the markets closed for the day to admit they couldn't get it up.  


Actually, that was the one thing they did right.  No surprises.  Discreetly remind everyone during the week, let the markets adjust, make it official after the markets have closed, and let the market take its losses at 1-2% a day, rather than a 500- or 1000-point catastrophe that we'd have seen if the market had actually expected them to come to a meeting.

Long as we're quoting song lyrics tonight:


You ever get the feeling that everything in America is completely f*bleep*d up" You know that feeling that the whole country is like one inch away from saying 'That's it, forget it'? You think about it, everything's polluted - the environment, the government, the schools - you name it. Speaking of schools, I was walking the hallowed halls the other day and I asked myself. 'Is there live after high school?', because I can't face tomorrow, let alone a whole year of this *poop*. Yeah, you got it folks. It's me again with a little attitude for all you out here in whitebread-land. All you nice people living in the middle of America the beautiful. Let's see, we're on, uh, 92 FM tonight and it feels like a nice clean little band so far. No one else is using it, and the price is
right! (Heh, heh!) And yes, folks, you guessed it. Tonight I am as horny as a 10-peckered owl, so stay tuned because this is Hard Harry reminding you to eat your cereal with a fork, and do your homework in the dark.


  - Pump up the Volume (1990)

d-FF5gV8ouc

Beaming out a message across the nation,
Are you tuned in to our radio station?
Sending out a signal to cure isolation,
It's called PWEI-zation!
  - Pop Will Eat Itself, PWEI-zation (1989).

Tell the world.  Tell this to everybody wherever they are.  Watch the 'net.  Keep looking.   Keep watching the 'net.

Sequestration time, baby! :D



Or probably not.

Are they merely incompetent at trying to keep things propped up on behalf of their backers?  Or are they truly insane and do both sides actually believe their side's respective BS?  (I'm no longer sure which is the scarier alternative.  Today's market action makes me wonder if it makes any difference: whether through malice or stupidity, in America or Europe, the endgame may be the same.)

I used to think the former, now I'm not so sure: there does seem to be such a large degree of self-delusion around that it's quite possible they've started to believe their own lies and fairytales.

Actually, that was the one thing they did right.  No surprises.  Discreetly remind everyone during the week, let the markets adjust, make it official after the markets have closed, and let the market take its losses at 1-2% a day, rather than a 500- or 1000-point catastrophe that we'd have seen if the market had actually expected them to come to a meeting.



Ah, good point.
::)

Actually, I'm glad they failed.  The cuts now mandated don't emerge until 2013, and half are in the military.  SS, Medicare and Medicaid are off the table, and the Bush tax cuts will expire.  Obama won, for a change

Supercommittee failed? Surprise, surprise.




Cat

What would be necessary would be an Occupy Supercommittee group to surround the meeting and keep them from going home for Thanksgiving, or even the bathroom, until they finished what they are supposed to do. BUT as Carlos has pointed out SS, Medicaid, and Medicare are off the table, I can live with that.

What would be necessary would be an Occupy Supercommittee group to surround the meeting and keep them from going home for Thanksgiving, or even the bathroom, until they finished what they are supposed to do. BUT as Carlos has pointed out SS, Medicaid, and Medicare are off the table, I can live with that.



As long as the DOD can't take the cuts out of services for soldiers and veterans.

As long as the DOD can't take the cuts out of services for soldiers and veterans.



Agreed

I used to think the former, now I'm not so sure: there does seem to be such a large degree of self-delusion around that it's quite possible they've started to believe their own lies and fairytales.


That's the part that keeps me up at night.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
  - C.S. Lewis.

Mere evil is necessarily forced to adapt itself to reality.  But people who sincerely believe their own delusions are reality cannot be stopped.

As long as the DOD can't take the cuts out of services for soldiers and veterans.

i'm not sure how i feel about that. if the job of soldiering for the US empire becomes less attractive, fewer people will want to do it, and it's not like the government can enact its reprehensible foreign policy without warm bodies. on the other hand, the job of soldiering in America is awfully unappealing already, and yet plenty of people are desperate enough to sign up.

i'm not sure how i feel about that. if the job of soldiering for the US empire becomes less attractive, fewer people will want to do it, and it's not like the government can enact its reprehensible foreign policy without warm bodies. on the other hand, the job of soldiering in America is awfully unappealing already, and yet plenty of people are desperate enough to sign up.



I can only speak for myself but I joined as a means to leave home. As stupid as it may sound, that was the truth. But, that was a different time. We were not in two wars-we weren't in any war at the time. To me, it was a steady job with a steady paycheck. I can tell you that I wouldn't go in today.

I think the U.S. NEEDS to honor its promises to the vets. If you go to work at a company and you get hurt on the job, that company should pay compensation. It is the same with the military. If you get wounded because you are doing what the military tells you to do, you should get compensation. If you retire from some company, you will probably get retirement pay. Same thing if you retire from the military. It is as simple as that.



Cat

That's the part that keeps me up at night.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
   - C.S. Lewis.

Mere evil is necessarily forced to adapt itself to reality.  But people who sincerely believe their own delusions are reality cannot be stopped.


Yeah, but the Republicans want the robber barons in tandem with the bedroom police!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/13/jerk.gif

I think the U.S. NEEDS to honor its promises to the vets. If you go to work at a company and you get hurt on the job, that company should pay compensation. It is the same with the military. If you get wounded because you are doing what the military tells you to do, you should get compensation. If you retire from some company, you will probably get retirement pay. Same thing if you retire from the military. It is as simple as that.


I'd go farther than that; it's actually more important in the military.

I'm a civilian.  If my boss tells me to do something sufficiently annoying, I can flip him the bird, and the worst that can possibly happen is that I spend the next 15 minutes packing up the stuff from my cubicle and going home a free man.

In the military, the employment contract makes it pretty clear that no matter how crazy the order, a reply of "No Sir, do it yourself or find someone else to do it, because I resign" results in a court-martial, with penalties range from disonhorable discharge, to imprisonment, to being shot for desertion.  (Unlawful orders are a separate discussion: those who've served can fill in the legal fine points, but the gist of it is that if you don't get shot (99.99999% of the time, nobody gets shot), you and your superiors go to a court-martial and settle the question of the order's lawfulness there.)

tl;dr: Civilians can quit.  Those who serve in the military don't have that luxury.

I'd go farther than that; it's actually more important in the military.

I'm a civilian.  If my boss tells me to do something sufficiently annoying, I can flip him the bird, and the worst that can possibly happen is that I spend the next 15 minutes packing up the stuff from my cubicle and going home a free man.

In the military, the employment contract makes it pretty clear that no matter how crazy the order, a reply of "No Sir, do it yourself or find someone else to do it, because I resign" results in a court-martial, with penalties range from disonhorable discharge, to imprisonment, to being shot for desertion.  (Unlawful orders are a separate discussion: those who've served can fill in the legal fine points, but the gist of it is that if you don't get shot (99.99999% of the time, nobody gets shot), you and your superiors go to a court-martial and settle the question of the order's lawfulness there.)

tl;dr: Civilians can quit.  Those who serve in the military don't have that luxury.



Very true. And what other job description comes with "You may get killed"? (Ok, cops and/or firefighters.)



Cat

I'd do away with military pensions.  Just let the soldiers and officers keep whatever they can steal. 
:o

Very true. And what other job description comes with "You may get killed"? (Ok, cops and/or firefighters.)

Bankers and tabloid journalists.


Well, a man can dream, can't he?

Bankers and tabloid journalists.


Well, a man can dream, can't he?


;D ;D ;D ;D


Karma for dreaming.



Cat

Very true. And what other job description comes with "You may get killed"? (Ok, cops and/or firefighters.)


According to this 2001 PDF on the relative risks of everyday hazards, "being a sailor, a deckhand, a fisherman, a forestry worker, a pilot, a garbage collector, a roofer, a farmer, and a taxi driver."

Being in the military is somewhat higher than the 1:3200 odds from that (pre-Global-War-On-Terra) list, but police work and firefighting is safer than the other professions I've listed.  Being a deckhand is ten times riskier than being a cop.

According to this 2001 PDF on the relative risks of everyday hazards, "being a sailor, a deckhand, a fisherman, a forestry worker, a pilot, a garbage collector, a roofer, a farmer, and a taxi driver."

Being in the military is somewhat higher than the 1:3200 odds from that (pre-Global-War-On-Terra) list, but police work and firefighting is safer than the other professions I've listed.  Being a deckhand is ten times riskier than being a cop.



Yeah, you do have the "Deadliest Catch" people.



Cat

i don't know, but i'm guessing death by garbage collection tends to be unpleasant.

i don't know, but i'm guessing death by garbage collection tends to be unpleasant.


It's better than working for Newt Gingrich!
8-P

It's better than working for Newt Gingrich!
8-P



Isn't that basically the same thing?



Cat

Isn't that basically the same thing?



I guess it was something to do with free association.
:-\\

I guess it was something to do with free association.
:-\\


People and politicians don't associate freely.  It's paid association, and it goes both ways.

People and politicians don't associate freely.  It's paid association, and it goes both ways.


If you give Newt fifty bucks you get to give him a bj!
::)

If you give Newt fifty bucks you get to give him a bj!
::)


http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m174/Yakboy42/td071027.gif

Look, just because I'm a capitalist doesn't mean I'm a Republican, NTTAWWT.