Which makes it all the more significant that Josh and I agree wholeheartedly on this post he just put up on the editors' blog on TPM:
Call It a Day, I Guess (Gone Fishin')
Well, if you'd harbored any illusions about the coming budget battles not being a complete friggin' disaster for the Dems, it might be time to push those illusions overboard right now and just kick back and enjoy the fishing.
With Republicans staking out their ground on the back to the 19th Century Ryan Budget plan, Dems and apparently the White House are deciding to make their starting point the ... Bowles-Simpson Plan.
--Josh Marshall
That's right. Obama's starting point is the Catfood Commission. WASF!
Re: The Catfood Commission
ReplyDeleteI have now seriously started reading the labels to be sure that there are no 'chicken' parts, wheat, dairy by-products or artificial coloring or 'flavorings'. So far I've eliminated 'Bountiful' and all Purina products and am finding that the real food cans and kibble will out cost my social security check every month.They are more expensive than 'Dinty Moore Stew.' (which my dog refuses to eat) Can we start the revolution now?
Yeah, and don't start without me!
ReplyDeleteHeck!!!! Prices are through the roof and my SS isn't!!!
I'm sure the President and his folks have a plan and that we all will come out of this fine. Everyone will get a pony out of it or is it everyone will get what comes out of a pony...whatever. I know I am going to plant a bigger garden.
ReplyDeletemandt... in this household, the cats definitely eat better, or at least more upscale, than we do! But we're vegetarians, so we won't be eating catfood. Depending on what happens next, we may stop eating out at all, but I think one way or another we can afford food.
ReplyDeleteKay - grocery shopping is usually my chore, and every time I go to the grocer I am dumbfounded by the price increases. Food is going up, and FAST!
ReplyDeleteFallenmonk, you show more sense than all the rest of us. I just hope the weather cooperates with you for a while.
ReplyDeleteOh, and mandt... I'm pretty sure it's like that old line from The Wizard of Id...
ReplyDeleteSir Rodney: "Your Majesty! The peasants are revolting!"
The King: "You can say that again!"
I am about ready for a large helping of civil disobedience. There is no excuse in a country with this much wealth for anyone to have to live on the street and in poverty... no excuse at all.
If they continue with the "Austeria" [austerity+hysteria] we will be in worst shape than the Great Depression.
ReplyDeleteWalMart has just had its 7th bad quarter in a row, the estimates for for the first quarter GDP are dropping like a rock, the new claims for unemployment are down because there aren't many left who can qualify for the benefits, the changes to the unemployment rate are the result of people giving up on finding a job.
The threats about the debt limit vote are driving up interest on T-Bills, and causing banks and business to hoard cash.
We are approaching the point where civil disobedience is the best they can expect.
Bryan, it's good to see you found a way to resolve the commenting problem. We all missed you.
ReplyDelete"Austeria" (perfect term for it) will be so prevalent in a year or two that I'll start recalling and telling my late father's stories of his childhood in the Great Depression. Here's one of them:
"At dinner, Mother [i.e., my grandmother - SB] passed the platter randomly left or right on any given day. You hoped you were on the right side to grab an extra pork chop if you wanted one, because the platter always returned to Mother empty after one time around the table."
I am one of those people who have given up all hope of future employment. Times are bad enough anyway, and no one wants to hire a 62-year-old cripple in the best of times. I plan to apply for SocSec soon... if it isn't yanked away from us by GOPers, weak-kneed Democrats and our sorry excuse for a president before I get there.
It is very strange to contemplate the possibility of poverty after a life containing a successful middle-class career during which I saved for retirement the way one is supposed to. It almost makes me glad that people with my condition tend to die young... except I want to live long enough to spite the dog-damned GOPers and their tame president.
I am concerned that nonviolent civil disobedience will be met by these bastards with violence... police? National Guard? OTHER??? by people determined and enthusiastic about utterly destroying people who might get in their way. What an ignominious ending that would be to our mostly well-begun nation! (Per Howard Zinn, YMMV.)