Econ 101

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Red State Update: Crowley / Page 2012

Christine O'Donnel for Secretary of State

Old School Real Estate

As the above depicts, borders are transitory and we are barely out of the tribal stage of co-existence...
A 1000 years of Europe in 5 minutes, things get pretty dicey toward the end.
I recently watched a doc on the Discovery Channel called "America Before Columbus". It basically depicts how the new world, far from being an uninhabited Wal-Mart for Europe on Black Friday,  was actually a populated paradise, filled with millions of inconvenient natives. Until , the above shown Europeans, fresh from a few thousand years of squalor, disease and general destruction and pillaging of their large continent, took the show on the road to the new world. The really fascinating part, is how quickly the contagions they brought with them in their explorations, took care of the "inconvenient native" problem. Within a few decades, both the north and south american populations....were wiped out. Leaving a lush verdant new world to be utterly raped for the next few centuries. Manifest destiny indeed.
Mankind; The toxic mold devouring it's only home.

Bad Stratego

From Crooks and Liars

As the party of no, no, no... stalls on ratification of the new START treaty for...god only knows what reason....
Enjoy the above video, depicting all of the nuclear detonations our poor mother planet earth, has endured since the invention or honest to goodness apocalypse.
It's kind of like watching a really bad video game. Or a visual representation of a Morse code argument, one that nobody wins.

A New Blog, For an Old Reality

What better and more fitting day to start the new blog than the day after the night of long knives:

Allow me to poach a few snippets from myself...commenting on other blogs:

"Suddenly the "Jack Johnson" vs "John Jackson" race, doesn't seem that bad at all.
The choices in this one could not have been more clear...and yet, the collective "Mr. Short Term Memory" candidates cleaned house.
Think too of the hideous timing. All those state houses flipping red right after the census. The redistricting implications alone are, frankly heart breaking."

....." and there was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth"
and then everybody shut up and went to the dentist.


have been thinking about finding a hill some where, digging part of it out, building a domed concrete house in it..and covering it with about 3 feet of dirt. The metaphors of this course of action write themselves.
It's either that, Belize or "I'm openin' a boutique!"

"Cheer up! He still has that "veto" stamp in his drawer, and if anything, the distinctions between his policies and those of the newly elected crop of orcs will be more clearly drawn. They ran to cut the deficits, but none of them will publicly state anything they plan on cutting. As obstructionists, they could spout fictional budget math without having to actually propose any fixes. As the party in power they will be forced to put up, and anything their corporate overlords try to jam through, will surely not look very populist.
Will they actually put forth legislation to privatize social security? (Sending their elderly base screaming in to the streets on their hoverounds). I doubt it.
Are they ready to fight for the repeal of the health care bill on the floor of the house? Where it takes real numbers to win debates, where they will have to pick up at least some dem votes for passage? I don't think so. Will they try to shut down the government again? Didn't work out to well for them last time.
Now they will have to try to paint the dems as the party of no...and look at where that got us...."

and lastly...........

I will certainly grant you this day of grief. It is a bad day, but regarding cycles and pendulae, a few thoughts. 
The youth of this country, for some reason eluding both I and much more skilled political scientists, do not turn out for midterms. That pendulum will swing again in 2012, and after 2 years of the sheer dirt we are about to see heaped upon this administration by the reputhuglicans, it will more likely swing in our direction than not. Drunk with new power, the repubs can not help themselves in this regard, it is their nature. (As Clinton was being impeached (unsuccessfully, at least in its full intent), his popularity remained high, despite the non-stop deluge of negativity from all of the MSM.
We have lived through this nightmare before. Many good dems fell upon their swords in the early nineties, after passing meaningful legislation that in no small way led to the subsequent booming economy and budget surplus.
In the next two years, as unemployment drops and growth returns, largely as a result in the adjustment of the hyper-inflated housing market, the more marginally reactionary orcs, will return to some level of sanity. It happened before, it will happen again. A rising tide raises all boats, weather they like it or not.
I will concede that the media conglomerate, and it's political arm, the republican party look like unstoppable juggernauts right now, and they have done much damage and will do more: but most of that damage was done when they held all the reins of power and were free to rubber stamp their most onerous policies. Policies that ultimatly got us two elections cycles of reality checks. This will happen again.
The repubs "permanent majority" has fallen under the weight of it's own stupidity in the past. I am fairly confident they will find a way to destroy the gains of today in the future.
The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. We will have to pull out the umbrellas for a while.