So I decided to glance at my blog roll to see what is going on in the world. And discovered the following:
1. Everybody is optimistic about the default but cannot explain why.
2. Pogroms fueled by ethnic tensions started in Russia.
3. Four-year-olds are being trained to do multiple choice tests in New York which traumatized them (and with good reason).
4. A man in Alabama is paying good money to import Jewish families into his tiny town.
5. Somebody wrote a post essentially saying that I’m stupid without a slightest provocation on my part.
Please inform me when the news cycle gets better because for now I see no reason to go back to it.
Clarissa's Blog 
It’s not gonna get any better until sometime after you get back home, so ignore it and enjoy the beach and the hunt for good seafood while you can.
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Good idea! 🙂
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I think the yankee doodle dandies have finally been driven completely mad. This is the end of the cycle of their developing collective insanity.
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Mad is the word for it. I’ve never seen anything of the kind: they will cause a global financial crisis just because they are too stupid to understand what that is. Ridiculous.
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A tope I have noticed with Ameicans, ever since the Internet began, is they don’t trust you when you tell them the truth about things. They inevitably assert that it’s a nasty trick to take something away from them — whether it’s as petty as their trust, or as large as their fortune. Basically, they don’t trust the processes of normal conversation and shy away from them. But, then they are convinced by the next sales gimick or the next religious prophet or shyster. They will pay these people a fortune, just because of the way they talk, which presses all their buttons.
I would say Americans (and to a large degree much of the West) have become a narcissistic culture, incapable of giving credence to reality (not even able to recognise it) but willing to keep paying out to maintain the illusion that that they are more superior and discerning than others. They’re completely addicted to that feeling, which is why reality hits them as a let down, a descent from that constant state of feeling high.
Even the critics of this decline inside the USA keep advocating a return to religiosity as a way out of their narcissistic disorder, but religiosity of the American sort is a large part of the problem, as an outsider like me can see.
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“trope” not “tope”
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Repubenrons have too much to lose in the next mid-term election to provoke a default. Even though I think Mediocrats should offer a compromise about Osamacare to really settle this mess.
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Sadly, I doubt the Tea PArtiers will lose their support over this.
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No, but moderate GOPers have too much to lose.
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I just read that they’ve been bullied into tanking their own proposal by any ultra-conservative lobby organization. This was about 2 hours ago.
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I think that the Tea Partiers will lose support, but that it doesn’t matter to the T.P congresscritters because they are in heavily gerrymanderd districts. Just listen to Fox Radio for any length of time, and you will hear the crazies behind the mike and on the phoneline. It is up to the business-first caucus of the Republican Party and funding individuals to put a stop to the TP. I don’t know that the Democrats owe the Republicans anything on the ACA, it has been enacted into law, which means that the way to get rid of it is to repeal it by another law. The Dems could well concede on Medicare and Social Security – raise eligibilty age to 67 or 68, for starters, while keeping the under 67/68 population covered by ACA supplement if necessary. Cancel SS for those retired with substantial (top 1% to top 5% ) retirement income , with option to be enrolled in SS only when “spent down”, to allow for inevitable actuarial goofs (say, living over 90 or 95 – most people don’t expect to live that long).
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By now, a large percentage of Americans are wishing to kick the butts of all of our elected officials, regardless of party affiliation. Or, lock them all in a very large room until they make an agreement.
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I’m with those Americans. Of course, these politicians are all very rich people and they will not be touched by the new economic collapse. The rest of us, though, will pay for this.
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