Four More (Grueling) Years

As predicted here last Friday, it appears that Hurricane Sandy was the "black swan" event that stopped Mittmentum and caused the presidential election to revert back from a dead heat and the possibility of a long drawn out recount battle in one or more battleground states to a relatively easy Obama victory. Thus was the incumbent awarded a second term he most decidedly does NOT deserve. Despite its many discontents, in the end America voted for the status quo because the alternative was even more unthinkable. It ought to go without saying, but this is NOT how a representative democracy is supposed to work.

I could go on and on about how the country is now going to get four more years of the same old shit, but I'm tired of writing about all of that. Instead, I'll just highlight my greatest personal disappointment from this election. Stephenson County, Illinois, my home county and as I have written about numerous times on this blog the setting of Bain Capital's horrendous decision to close down the local Sensata plant and move all of the jobs to China, went comfortably for Romney despite having a front row seat to witness what his brand of vulture capitalism is all about. If seeing your friends, relatives and neighbors stripped of their jobs while enduring the additional humiliation of having to train their Chinese replacements isn't enough to wake people the fuck up, then there is no hope for this country.

On a personal note, I am taking another break from blogging. I'm burned out and just cannot keep writing about this stuff right now. Maybe I'll be back to comment on the impending "fiscal cliff" battle in Washington, though I'll note that just last week the craven Speaker of the House indicated that he's amenable to passing a so-called "bridge" bill during the congressional lame duck session that will push back the looming deadlines into next year. And thus does the can get kicked down the road yet again with no possibility of any real solutions being offered. Just like the last four grueling years.


Bonus: "It's the same old song and dance"

"Garbage In, Garbage Out"

I'm not voting today. Not exactly an earth shattering pronouncement given my stated views on this blog, I know. If you are thinking about voting today, please do me a favor and watch this first if you haven't seen it before. It was true when George said just over a decade ago, and it is even more true today.

Another Disaster "Saves" Obama

Just how lucky can one smug asshole be? Four years ago, President Hopey-Changey was propelled into office in large measure by the financial market crash, which finally discredited eight grueling years of Bushonomics. Then, after a whole presidential term of repeatedly pissing on the heads of his liberal and progressive base and telling them it was raining, to say nothing of not doing a damn thing to punish the big banks and Wall Street who crashed the economy in the first place, yet another miraculous disaster has appeared and stopped Mittmentum dead in its tracks and, if the way the polls are now swinging is any indication, is likely going to win President Sellout a second term that he most decidedly does NOT deserve.

More amazingly, just last week Obama's people were setting Hurricane Sandy up as a convenient excuse as to why they might lose the election that would deflect blame from their hero's own culpability and complacency. The storm was going to disrupt balloting in key Obama states, so they said, and essentially blow the Republican challenger across the finish line to an undeserved victory. In such a manner, just like after the 2000 debacle with Ralph Nader, do the Democrats try to deflect attention from the fact that it is their me-too, corporatist sellout politics which causes many of the potential voters to stay home on election day, resulting in defeat often being snatched from the jaws of victory.

But something funny happened on the way to the disaster at the polls. Governor 47%-er shot himself in the foot in the worst way by blasting FEMA and threatening to privatize it just in time to see Obama use the agency the way it is supposed to be used to mitigate the disastrous effects of Hurricane Sandy. Because you see, that is the one remaining area where Democrats and Republicans do actually differ. When they get elected president, Democrats tend to appoint technocrats to important positions like the head of FEMA whereas Republicans appoint unqualified cronies like the infamous "Brownie." Just this past weekend, I saw a really stupid online "news" article claiming that Sandy would be "Obama's Katrina." I had to laugh, for as much as I loathe the man the one thing I knew he wouldn't do is hang out at his ranch clearing brush for meaningless photo-ops, leaving the disaster response to the fired head of the Arabian Horse Association while America's most important city drowned in its own hubris.

But what it really comes down to is a simple fact about the American body politic that the Republicans are constantly forgetting to their peril: most everyone says they are against "big government" until they really need it. Heck, even crazy old Ayn Rand went on Social Security during her declining years, the mere fact of which ought to have totally discredited every word she ever wrote for any person who has more than two brain cells to rub together. So buck up, Democrats, Sandy has likely saved your sorry asses so that you can spend four more years slowly legitimizing every horrible policy of the Chimpy Bush years. You win and the country loses, just not as quickly as it would have lost under President Romney.


Bonus: How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see?