I feel that if the Republicans have their way on this debt ceiling fiasco it will happen even sooner. They will have accomplished one step in the process overnight and on purpose — “…the end of the dollar’s privileged status as the global reserve currency.”
It is a bone-chilling prediction and one I see not just as possible but highly probable.
“Three generations from now, when our great-grandchildren are sitting barefoot in their shanties and wondering how in the hell America turned from the high-point of civilization to a third-world banana republic, they will shake their fists and mutter one name: George Effin’ Bush.”
I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Certainly not in time to change the course of self-destruction. Oh, sure, at that fist-shaking point, there’ll be many saying, “If only we hadn’t focused on who was at fault,” but, like global warming/climate change, we’re past the tipping point. Nobody wants to sacrifice, and everyone sacrificing something is what it would take RIGHT NOW to even begin to turn things around.
Call me a doomsayer, but I’m not the only. (My deep apologies to the spirit of John Lennon.)
I’m afraid you are right Wicked. From what I read on several local blogs most haven’t got past the point of blaming instead of looking for a solution that will be to the benefit of all
Take a close look at who the Republican Party considers qualified to lead our country. Closely examine their crowded field of nincompoops vying for their parties 2010 nomination. The whole demise could be hastened by any one of them. Take a close look at Congress and you find an equally bad situation.
We have been thoroughly trained to disrespect each other. We don’t debate things anymore. If one side says “I am for this,” the other side is automatically “against it.” We don’t stop and say: actually, s/he has a point. Both parties have good ideas and both have bad ones but we’re frozen in ideological warfare.
Honestly sit back and think about this: Who has the most to gain from all this division?
to Firebird1971 & Wicked — Here’s the problem with your solution(s), i.e., “that will be to the benefit of all.” What do you think the false disagreement is all about? Common good and public interest are antithetic to ‘marketing’ & ‘big business’ where all the money is made. “Benefit to all” only comes to the attention of leaders who are not corrupt of which there are none.
This is beyond believable! Absolutely screams of incompetence! If Boehner can’t control his freshmen congress critters he plans an end run around them.
WASHINGTON — Debt ceiling negotiators think they’ve hit on a solution to address the debt ceiling impasse and the public’s unwillingness to let go of benefits such as Medicare and Social Security that have been earned over a lifetime of work: Create a new Congress.
This “Super Congress,” composed of members of both chambers and both parties, isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, but would be granted extraordinary new powers. Under a plan put forth by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his counterpart Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), legislation to lift the debt ceiling would be accompanied by the creation of a 12-member panel made up of 12 lawmakers — six from each chamber and six from each party.
Legislation approved by the Super Congress — which some on Capitol Hill are calling the “super committee” — would then be fast-tracked through both chambers, where it couldn’t be amended by simple, regular lawmakers, who’d have the ability only to cast an up or down vote. With the weight of both leaderships behind it, a product originated by the Super Congress would have a strong chance of moving through the little Congress and quickly becoming law. A Super Congress would be less accountable than the system that exists today, and would find it easier to strip the public of popular benefits. Negotiators are currently considering cutting the mortgage deduction and tax credits for retirement savings, for instance, extremely popular policies that would be difficult to slice up using the traditional legislative process.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has made a Super Congress a central part of his last-minute proposal, multiple news reports and people familiar with his plan say.
WTF? So now they think they can circumvent the Constitution by creating a new Congress? Do these idiots truly think we’re going to swallow this b.s., when this totally reeks of one of the biggest power grabs I’ve seen by anyone? Who is pulling the strings of these puppets? Because they surely can’t believe the American people are stupid enough to allow this. This is so illegal according to the laws of this country and un-effing-believable.
The only thing that can be behind this is $$$$. Koch? Or perhaps a cartel of Koch-like tyranists? We fought a war of independence from this type of crap. Do we need to do it again?
IF China or Iran threatened our national credit rating and tried to drive up our interest rates, or if they sought to damage our education system, we would erupt in outrage.
Well, wake up to the national security threat. Only it’s not coming from abroad, but from our own domestic extremists.
We tend to think of national security narrowly as the risk of a military or terrorist attack. But national security is about protecting our people and our national strength — and the blunt truth is that the biggest threat to America’s national security this summer doesn’t come from China, Iran or any other foreign power. It comes from budget machinations, and budget maniacs, at home.
House Republicans start from a legitimate concern about rising long-term debt. Politicians are usually focused only on short-term issues, so it would be commendable to see the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party seriously focused on containing long-term debt. But on this issue, many House Republicans aren’t serious, they’re just obsessive in a destructive way. The upshot is that in their effort to protect the American economy from debt, some of them are willing to drag it over the cliff of default.
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
I knew it was coming, but so soon?
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/12/06/america_collapse_2025/index.html
I feel that if the Republicans have their way on this debt ceiling fiasco it will happen even sooner. They will have accomplished one step in the process overnight and on purpose — “…the end of the dollar’s privileged status as the global reserve currency.”
It is a bone-chilling prediction and one I see not just as possible but highly probable.
This piece begins —
“Three generations from now, when our great-grandchildren are sitting barefoot in their shanties and wondering how in the hell America turned from the high-point of civilization to a third-world banana republic, they will shake their fists and mutter one name: George Effin’ Bush.”
And continues telling how it all began.
Unless and until both sides stop the idiotic “it’s their fault” game this will indeed be our fate.
I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Certainly not in time to change the course of self-destruction. Oh, sure, at that fist-shaking point, there’ll be many saying, “If only we hadn’t focused on who was at fault,” but, like global warming/climate change, we’re past the tipping point. Nobody wants to sacrifice, and everyone sacrificing something is what it would take RIGHT NOW to even begin to turn things around.
Call me a doomsayer, but I’m not the only. (My deep apologies to the spirit of John Lennon.)
I’m afraid you are right Wicked. From what I read on several local blogs most haven’t got past the point of blaming instead of looking for a solution that will be to the benefit of all
Take a close look at who the Republican Party considers qualified to lead our country. Closely examine their crowded field of nincompoops vying for their parties 2010 nomination. The whole demise could be hastened by any one of them. Take a close look at Congress and you find an equally bad situation.
Yes, it’s easy to believe it will be that soon.
We have been thoroughly trained to disrespect each other. We don’t debate things anymore. If one side says “I am for this,” the other side is automatically “against it.” We don’t stop and say: actually, s/he has a point. Both parties have good ideas and both have bad ones but we’re frozen in ideological warfare.
Honestly sit back and think about this: Who has the most to gain from all this division?
to Firebird1971 & Wicked — Here’s the problem with your solution(s), i.e., “that will be to the benefit of all.” What do you think the false disagreement is all about? Common good and public interest are antithetic to ‘marketing’ & ‘big business’ where all the money is made. “Benefit to all” only comes to the attention of leaders who are not corrupt of which there are none.
This is beyond believable! Absolutely screams of incompetence! If Boehner can’t control his freshmen congress critters he plans an end run around them.
Just the possibility of so few having so much power over the many is absolutely reprehensible.
WTF? So now they think they can circumvent the Constitution by creating a new Congress? Do these idiots truly think we’re going to swallow this b.s., when this totally reeks of one of the biggest power grabs I’ve seen by anyone? Who is pulling the strings of these puppets? Because they surely can’t believe the American people are stupid enough to allow this. This is so illegal according to the laws of this country and un-effing-believable.
The only thing that can be behind this is $$$$. Koch? Or perhaps a cartel of Koch-like tyranists? We fought a war of independence from this type of crap. Do we need to do it again?