08:06 – The other shoe dropped yesterday when S&P finally downgraded Spain’s sovereign debt by two levels, to one level above junk status. That was actually a gift, although Spain professes to be shocked that it was downgraded at all. But as the markets are perfectly aware, S&P should long ago have downgraded Spain to pure junk status. Italy is next.
And, speaking of wishful thinking, the MSM are reporting that Merkel’s position on Greece has softened and that she will likely approve more time and perhaps more money for Greece. I note that Merkel said absolutely nothing about granting Greece more time, let alone more money. She was too polite to say so, but Merkel along with the rest of Germany has already written off Greece. Any actions she takes now will be aimed at minimizing the adverse impact of Greece on Germany, not on helping Greece. German taxpayers are already on the hook for roughly a trillion euros of bad PIIGS debt. Enough is enough.
I’m one of those rare people who are being pursued by both major parties: an undecided swing-state voter. Not that there’s any chance at all that I’d vote for Obama. The last four years of Obama have been catastrophic; the country might not survive another four years with him as president. Romney isn’t much better, but he is marginally so in some respects. So, the question is, do I vote for Gary Johnson, who would actually be a good president but has zero chance of winning, or do I vote for Romney, who’d be only marginally better than Obama but has a good chance of winning? I really would hate to see Obama carry North Carolina by one vote.
I have the luxury of living in a state where the majority supports
Obama and the majority of voters would probably honestly vote for Obama.
And once the fix is put in, New York will definitely go for Obama. My
vote doesn’t matter at all, so I have the luxury of being able to say To
Hell With Them Both. Similarly for Congressional elections; I have no
decent choices with even a glimmer of a chance of winning, so there’s no
conflict between my principled disdain of the system and my desire to
not see the country go completely to hell.
Vote for Gary.
Obama is very bad but so is Mittens. He wants to sign up for more fun in the Middle East.
If you vote for the bad guys it just encourages them. Voting for Gary is the best way to send a message.
If the race were between Mitt Romney and Gary Johnson, I’d actually have to think about who to vote for. Unfortunately, the race isn’t between Mitt Romney and Gary Johnson. The two contenders are Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. Given those two choices, the obvious one is Mitt Romney.
Sooner or later the United States will borrow its way to the bright economic future the Greeks currently face. The European Union won’t be around to bail us out. I’m voting for Romney because it’s a vote for later. If he wins, I’ll reliably criticize his spending cuts as too small, and he just might listen. I have no doubt that any spending cuts from Obama will be tiny ones scheduled to take effect after his second term has ended.
I am sure my criticism of Obama will be listened to even less than my criticism of Romney.
I really would hate to see Obama carry North Carolina by one vote.
Actually, it would not be a win by one vote if you do not vote for Romney. It would be a tie. To go from a one vote loss to a one vote win would require two votes. Unless you are also including the spousal unit.
My opinion is that I don’t want either candidate. But I want Obama out as he has done enough damage. That leaves me no choice but to vote for Romney otherwise my vote would be wasted. I have a choice between sucks and really sucks so I vote for sucks instead of really sucks.
Seems like the last several elections have been that way. Voting for the least undesirable solution.
Mitt and the Republicans will probably borrow as much as Obama. It will benefit their masters, Wall Street and the arms industry, rather than Obama’s masters and both parties will continue the march towards a police state.
I live in a state that will probably support Obama. I plan to vote for Johnson.
Well, they say that politics is the art of the possible. What I’m kind of hoping for is that Romney wins on 6 November, Obama assassinates Romney in a fit of pique on 7 November, and Ryan becomes president.
Obama, gagging as I vote. With his amnesty and his race game he is ripping us apart.
On the other had Romney and his ilk are commanded by their gods to keep their hands firmly implanted in the reproductive tracts of our families’ women. I have a wife, a daughter, and a granddaughter, and the righteous like Romney terrify me.
Better a race huckster than an ayatollah.
If the Republicans weren’t so beholden to the religious right, I’d vote for them. I find it surprising that an atheist would support Ryan.
No matter what you previously have said, these guys really believe their myths.
Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.
Yeah, but it’s kind of like choosing between being water-boarded versus spending a day in Newark.
Ryan is supposed to be a huge fan of Ayn Rand, so I figure he can’t really, really believe the religious crap.
Women’s rights, gay rights, and so on have a much larger and more vocal base than fiscal sanity does. With very few exceptions, even those Republicans who are supposedly fiscally responsible are in fact huge tax-and-spend supporters. So, given the choice between trying to stop the ridiculous taxing and spending and supporting women’s/gay rights, I’d rather try to do something about the former and let the latter worry about itself. Not that electing Republicans would help much fiscally, but they are marginally less drunken-sailor than the Democrats.
Ultimately, the only thing that’ll stop this mess is a complete collapse and a revolution. Some think we’re close to that now. I think it’s further off, but pretty much inevitable. And I’d prefer to avoid it as long as possible.
I have seen little evidence that electing Republicans will slow down the tax and spend.
I agree that anything from a serious shakeup to a total collapse is
coming, but I want it to come as soon as possible. One consideration is
that the longer you put off a “correction”, the more severe it is likely
to be. But for me the driving factor is that I’m better equipped to
handle a collapse than my children are. I do not view that as a
parenting failure on my part: I did everything I could to make sure my
sons wouldn’t be as hardened as I already was by my late teens.
On the other had Romney and his ilk are commanded by their gods to keep their hands firmly implanted in the reproductive tracts of our families’ women. I have a wife, a daughter, and a granddaughter, and the righteous like Romney terrify me.
Mitt has said that he won’t introduce a constitutional amendment to ban abortion. How exactly is he going to affect the reproductive tracts of the women in your family? Allowing groups with religious objections to contraception to opt out of birth control converage? That’s a position that a libertarian would support – it’s a freedom of contract issue, and a freedom of religion issue. And there are libertarians (a few) that have made the case for banning abortion – it’s all how you assign weight to the rights of the mother vs. those of the fetus and is not as clear cut as many think. (Megan McArdle wrote a really good blog post a couple of years ago on how a libertarian could be anti-abortion.)
I expect that whomever gets elected president the status quo will remain for the next few years on gay marriange, abortion, birth control, etc. at the federal level. The president and Congress will be busy dealing with the crash in the EU and possibly China, a possible war in the Middle East (Turkey and Jordan vs. Syria, with Lebanon joining in, while Israel provides tactical intel to Turkey and Jordan), settlements with Iran and North Korea, and reshaping entitlements. Given that Ryan is a real policy wonk on entitlement reforms, I expect that he’ll spend a lot of time on the Hill helping draft legislation and pushing it through.
Mitt claims to be for the Balanced Budget Amendment to the US Constitution. Even thought the President does not get a vote in the matter, I am now a single issue voter. I believe that if we have to raise what we spend then a lot more honesty will be forced in politics.
Of course, Mitt getting the holders of the purse (US Congress) to pass the BBA on themselves will be tricky indeed. I foresee the US Senate being the big problem here.
BTW, I fully expect gay marriage to be recognized by the US Feds shortly. It is just a matter of time before the US Supremes rule on it. And, I think that they will rule in favor of gay marriage, polygamy or whatever you want to cohabit with for the next 50 years or tonight.
The Feds response to this will be to get rid of all marriage affects in the tax laws including inheritance between spouses. Everyone will file as a single and everything will be taxed (there is not a down side for this in federal revenue).
I am also beginning to think that the election might break big for Mitt. Just like Reagans first election:
http://electoralmap.net/PastElections/past_elections.php?year=1980
People are realizing that Obama is incompetent and nobody wants an incompetent for US President. Rush Limbaugh was just remarking in his radio show that CNN has been attacking Obama over Libya for the last 48 hours. CNN has been talking about the diary of the ambassador where he was criticizing them pulling out the security in August and also interviewing the mother of the Seal bodyguard who was killed also. Those are heavy body punches to a sitting President.
Remember how many SCOTUS justices will be appointed in the next few years. I don’t think we need another Kathy Bates or wise latinas.
I wonder if Romney would propose the first Norman for SCOTUS.
Oh, wait. All this time I’ve thought the Southern Baptists were complaining about Romney being a *Norman*, talking about how he’s not Christian and all. I thought they meant he worshiped Thor, like me, and I thought that’s why Pournelle supports him. But I just checked Wikipedia, and learned that Romney is a *Mormon*.
But I just checked Wikipedia, and learned that Romney is a *Mormon*.
You got one two many “M’s” in there. Take out the middle “M”.
Hmm, I just read an excellent sf book where a Druid called Thor a pompous and dangerous windbag:
http://www.amazon.com/Hounded-Iron-Druid-Chronicles-Book/dp/0345522478/
I wonder if Romney would propose a Mormon for SCOTUS. We could certainly do worse. I figure that just about anybody presented by Romney would Borked by the likes of the Bidens still in the Senate though.
Have I ever mentioned that I would like to see term limits in the US House and Senate? 5 terms for a House member and 2 Senate terms should be enough for anybody to live on the public dole.
Well, I’m on record of a term limit of one, total. That is, if you’re elected dog catcher, you serve one term and are then ineligible for election to any other local, state, or federal public office.
I don’t support term limits, per se. I think that politicians should not be allowed to succeed themselves. If a Representative wants to run for Senator in the next election, that’s fine, but he can’t run for his current seat until someone else has filled it. Yes, this means that the entire House will turn over every two years and that no one will have seniority. I view that as a feature.
Well, my actual scheme for term limits was that you could be elected to one term. After serving that term you’d be shot. No exceptions. Zero tolerance.
I’ve been at times to suggest that we send the winner of the election to DC, and execute the loser. I’ve never suggested it though, because I keep getting confused about which party in the election gets the more severe punishment.
It’d work better the other way around. Execute Obama and Romney, and send Johnson to DC.
“…Voting for Gary is the best way to send a message.”
To whom? Who would give a fuck about my “message”?
“…so I vote for sucks instead of really sucks.”
But that’s the choice we always get. Why play that game at all?
“Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.”
Exactly.
“…the only thing that’ll stop this mess is a complete collapse and a revolution. Some think we’re close to that now. I think it’s further off, but pretty much inevitable. And I’d prefer to avoid it as long as possible.”
Depends what you mean by “close.” I say within ten years.
“…I want it to come as soon as possible. One consideration is
that the longer you put off a “correction”, the more severe it is likely
to be. But for me the driving factor is that I’m better equipped to
handle a collapse than my children are.”
Ditto.
“Remember how many SCOTUS justices will be appointed in the next few years. I don’t think we need another Kathy Bates or wise latinas.”
I used to agree with this idea but have learned since Nixon that it doesn’t matter who the bugger appoints; the appointee may turn 180 degrees in office and make things worse. For all we know, Kathy Bates and the wise Latina could turn hard-rock conservative or libertarian. Doubtful, though.
In any case, we Mundanes have been exhorted to vote as its our sacred duty to choose who sucks as opposed to who really , really sucks. Or, ha, ha, the lesser of two evils. This is a de facto cynical charade being played upon us; the winner has already been chosen and will do the bidding of his overlords and masters on Wall Street and elsewhere. Actually, we Mundanes have zero to say about who rules, how they rule, or whether, in fact, we or our children live or die under these criminal regimes.
This little game will continue for a while longer, probably until we hit The Great Default and all Hell breaks loose. Then, yeah, we’re looking at a sort of revolution and a probably civil war. The country is already polarized right smack down the middle on most issues and there are 320 million of us, with at least half a billion firearms.
Y’all overseas correspondents would be wise to stay where you are for a while….we gon have us some fun here, y’all…
Lessee…”a probably civil war…” Switch the “a” and the “probably” and it works, ….or make cut the “y” and insert “e” in “probably” and that works, too. Fat fingers furiously flogging da keys…
“maybe’ instead of “make.”
Sheesh. Just got home from work via the usual homicidal/suicidal commute trying to evade morons and cretins. Blood pressure is up.