Obama won; and the laurel crown is his now as never before. And he has said that bills must be paid, and they will be.
The Boehner Bunch have no status now, and will not command the numbers to deny him anything after this, anything he wants, having destroyed their party for good, as I said they would. The line they drew in the sand is erased, and blowing in the wind.
And the times they are a-changing.
Discuss.
Name:
Good news Bob.Is all I would like to hear now, is that Goerge Bush has been arrested and taken to the Hague. Picking up Tony Blair and John Howard on the way. I will then die a happy man.
At last we can lie back and light up a spliff
Stare out to the stars from the edge of the cliff
Breathe in the universe, breathe out a riff
And wonder what next, instead of what if
And as the evildoer
Told the interviewer
The rich will still get richer
Richer still and fewer
And the next turn of the Screwer
Puts the poor back on the skewer
While he steps back from the edge
And slides back into his sewer.
It may be that it is too early to tell. Yet my first thoughts on hearing that the House Republicans split so seriously 85 to 151 (with 2 of the four leaders voting against the other two!) was that they were (at least) history for the next two years and that Obama can have his way with them, using the shell-shocked 85 while the USA further descends that path leading to social and economic chaos.
Long term, though, it would be more accurate to say that the Republicans destroyed themselves. To place them into a Churchillan-like void as “silent, mournful, abandoned, broken” might be a step too far, and while the people have the right in a democracy to be the turkeys voting for Christmas and many Republicans (85 at least) decided to go along with them, it’s a big call (but not totally baseless) to see their demise just yet. If the 85 somehow thought that surrender was okay just to get the ‘tax the rich’ non-solution off the table, it was short-sighted. Whoever voted them into Congress and who thought that 10-year 620 billion in new taxes (reduced by the 330 billion in new spending) would push the 1 trillion PER YEAR deficit problem away, they are as deluded as Obama himself says that he is.
I didn’t mind John Boehner, he had a good personal story, but with nearly two thirds of his Republicans voting against this motion (including his two immediate deputies), his crying could be out of the public gaze from Thursday.
As for the American ‘turkeys’ themselves, if they are 35 or so, they will, unlike most Australians, thanks to good policy measures taken by both sides of politics to try and ensure that future entitlements are paid for, have to realise, sooner or later, that their planned retirement income will never eventuate, that the Calpers (as one example) Californian pension scheme is getting 1.8% return on its investments rather than the 8.5% that it requires to pay pensions is NOT alone in its forthcoming disaster. While some people have grasped the nettle thanks to governors like Scott Walker and Chris Christie, they are the rarity. Greece beckons, as the freeloaders don’t like it when the teat is turned off. Maybe more severe measures will be proposed down the track when reality sinks home and if there is a Republican Party (and not a new party taking its place) it might lead the fight back, but who can tell at this early stage?.
Hey Frank, aren’t you supposed to be in the sin bin?
Not only is the Republican Party destroyed for good - its oligarchic patrons are drowning in pools of ever deeper convulsive fear and loathing as the capitalist world system completes its swan-dive into suicide while being replaced with one of the two contenders for a brand new world system after five hundred years. This is a truly historical moment we are living in. We will awake in heaven or hell if Immanuel Wallerstein is right - see his brilliant new year commentary here
we are all little butterflies today
http://www.agenceglobal.com/index.php?show=article&Tid=2943
I’m in a flap.
Butterlies really are free. Boehner is buggerred. Norquist is choking on his flabby tongue in cheek. The Kochs are smoking one last Havana as they listen to the eulogy. The end of history is back. Roll over Hegel. Why Kant you see – like it or nor, we’re all more enlightened now. Barak is beaming placidly. Four more years (and twenty odd days or so). A trail of tears for Tea Party goons is already sobbing softly. Rupert and his poodle Tony “Ras-Putin” Abbott are sulking sucking up spilt milk in a Vatican vault.
Drive safe mon amis.
Wow! What sort of a new year bash were YOU at?
A private affair - I had to play with (by) myself so thanx for the encouragement.
I’m not sure, they’ve just pushed the problems a little further down the road. I reckon the republicans will be thrown out of congress in the 2014 elections, leaving Obama with 2 years to do whatever he wants.
That the republican party will have obstructed him for 6/8 of his presidency is their everlasting shame. May they rot in hell and never rise again.