Tuesday’s Odds

  • Doom: 1:1
  • Pestilence: 1:1
  • Cannibal Anarchy: 1:1

  • Locusts: 1:1
  • Raining Frogs: 1:1
  • Zombie Apocalypse: 1:1
  • Revelation of Alien Invasion: 1:1
  • Envying the Dead: 1:1
  • Rearranged Deck Chairs: 1:1
  • Blogging Heaven: 1:1,000,000
40 Comments

If Krugman is correct (and he’s been right about everything so far) then what we’re looking forward to is a lost decade, much like Japan’s.

Expect to see a succession of one term presidencies from both parties as voters quickly sour on the candidates who promised a return to growth but who as preident failed to make a real dent in a stubbornly high, double digit unemployment, stagnant wages, and miserable job prospects for young people.

@Serolf Divad: Unfortunately, it won’t have the same downward population effect that it has had in Japan, namely because the teatards will continue to breed.

Maybe we will, though, have the super mega advanced cell phone network Japan has by the end of it.

@rptrcub:

The downward population effect could be acheived by roudning up and deporting a sizeable portion of the 12,000,000 uncodumented immigrants living in this country. Don’t be too suprised… we’re about to see some pretty nasty ideological swings in government, it wouldn’t suprise me much to see a Teabag government with strong crypto-fascist leanings.

Like bluegal says – if the House flips, it’s at least 2 years of investigating Christmas card lists and the like.

@Serolf Divad:

Sans the “crypto” part, most likely. Between the not-GZ-not-mosque thing, the nasty TPE campaign against Keith Ellison and pretty much anything that Atlas Juggs gets up to there’s a strong component that’s apparently decided to drop the pretense and just go full Christian-Fascist.

So here I am visiting US America just in time to see this…

Yay?

@blogenfreude: Black Eagle should just go ahead and name Bill Clinton as his Chief of Staff since, well, the Big Dawg knows how the game will unfold.
@ManchuCandidate: Get thee to ArizonaNevada and vote! JamieSomersHarry ReidBig Tony at the Sands can prolly find you a ballot somewhere.

ADD: It’s been ages since I’ve even come close to the tweet feed. /ht/

So I’m watching the 9th Circuit arguments on the SB1070 lawsuit and I fear that one of the judges is older than god and may keel over at any minute.

@al2o3cr: And the worst part? No snappy uniforms. At least the Nazis had a certain flair as they marched entire races and religions off to be to tortured and murdered. I’m going to be dragged off to the camps by some cheeto-munching slob in a “don’t tred on me” T-shirt and Bass Weejuns, I just know it. Bass Weejuns! The mind reels…

@Tommmcatt Thinks Masturbation Can Also Involve The Mainstream Media: See, I was thinking more bright-white athletic shoes (worn by people who never engage in any activity more strenuous than walking to the refrigerator from the couch) and fanny packs (to hold the emergency ration of cheetos).

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Is he using one of those French horn-lookin’ things as a hearing aid?

Gawdamn this is sad. Daddy O could’ve been our FDR. Instead he’s gonna be our LBJ, minus all the good stuff.

@¡Andrew!: I do indeed wonder what Margaret Atwood has to say about all of this.

@rptrcub: At the time Handmaid’s Tale was published, Atwood noted that interviewers in the UK and Canada asked how she came up with such creative, imaginative plots, while interviewers in the US asked, “How long do you think we have?”

@Serolf Divad: My guess is that we’ll also see a strong resurgence in domestic terrahism, as the Tea Klux Klan’s candidates are quickly seduced or destroyed by the DeeSee meat-grinder, and none of the changes that they’re hoping for occur.

Speaking of, what are their goals exactly? Shutting off the gummit spending that’s the last remaining support for the middle class?

And over and over and over again, the media will tell us that it’s all going the hell ’cause the country isn’t right-wing enough.

@rptrcub: I’ve got a bag packed in case I need to ask her in person–there’s a reason that I live next to the border.

@¡Andrew!: Watch out — we might turn into East Germany in 5 seconds if it ever happens.

@Mistress Cynica: It’s quite remarkable how she correctly predicted things like debit cards, for example.

Can I go on record predicting the government shutdown won’t happen? Barry doesn’t have the balls to call the bluff — he’ll cave instead — although I’m open to being pleasantly surprised.

@rptrcub: That book was awesome. She’s not a science fiction writer usually, though, is she?

@rptrcub: Did you read that interview with Gore Vidal recently in which he stated that we’ll be living in a military dictatorship soon because “they’ll be the only ones who can keep it together.” He’s a cantankerous ol’ bastard, but he’s been right about everything else. It would be quite easy actually, if they had a charismatic leader.

When reviewing opinion surveys of confidence in US institutions, only the military comes anywhere near majority support, which is doubly bizarre considering that they’ve failed spectacularly at every task they’ve been ordered to perform over the last ten years. A large number of AmeriKKKans, possibly the majority, believe that our rights are granted by the military. Combine that with the failures of the civilian government, including the upcoming demise of basic services, like water, schools, and police due to extreme income inequality and the subsequent collapse of state revenue systems, along with the world’s largest war machine that must be constantly fed–it doesn’t take a PhD in History to see where this is going.

@¡Andrew!: A real live portrayal of Seven Days in May might be coming our way, too.

@Tommmcatt Thinks Masturbation Can Also Involve The Mainstream Media: I don’t think so, but Cynica could probably speak to this better than I can.

Make mommy a martini – alcohol more destructive than heroin and cocaine (and pot, of course).

Speaking of “they’re smoking weeeeeeed” in California, I heard a hilarious No on 19 radio ad yesterday: If 19 passes, school bus drivers will be high when they drive your kids around (but Otto already does that and San Francisco doesn’t have school buses) and California will lose money because we’ll lose $8 beeeelion dollars a year in federal education funds (WTF?).

I’ll also go ahead and predict more blatant attempts at generating mass hysteria in the public regarding immigrants (especially Latinos), crime, homos (public trials for Gender Treachery, perhaps?), and of course, the GOP Jackpot–TERRAHIZM! TERRAH TERRAH TERRAH, BOO!

The Angle campaign was merely a preview, especially since the Repukelicans have absolutely no plan to actually govern.

@¡Andrew!: No, their plan is to fuck things up so bad that Barry can’t be reelected.

And hey, it’s working!

@nojo: BHO is doing all the heavy lifting, so that aspect of their plan’s the easiest.

@Tommmcatt Thinks Masturbation Can Also Involve The Mainstream Media: She has written at least two other sci/fi (or at least future dystopia) books, Oryx and Crake and its sequel, Year of the Flood.

@SanFranLefty: Conspiracy theorists would say that this news was conveniently released for Prop 19 purposes. Another question related to the rethuglican Congress — what’s the likelihood that BHO and the GOP will gang up and push an all out prosecutorial attack on users and everyone?

Re: Atwood, I just finished Alias Grace and hope to make time for The Handmaid’s Tale before too long.

@¡Andrew!: No, but that would be an excellent accessory for him.

@SanFranLefty: No school buses? Well, that explains the origin of the “walk to school uphill, both ways” meme.

@¡Andrew!:

See also this (found it on LG&M a while back) which misses some important points but still seems relevant today.

Note that even the dystopian view from 1992 didn’t include the total collapse of government services that we’ve got on the horizon, nor the “endless war against nobody in particular” that the neocons dreamed up.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Was it Noonan or Bea? Interesting factoid about Bea – he was born in Spain, raised in Cuba, and ordered deported by the INS. He appealed and won, ultimately ending up appointed to the 9th Circuit by Shrub. The third judge, Paez, is the son of Mexican immigrants and former legal aid attorney.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: No schoolbuses for SFUSD – partly because of an insanely crazy and complicated school assignment system. Kids have to ride Muni instead.

@al2o3cr: I don’t know; I’m not inclined to go along with someone who essentially blames gays for the downfall of the military.

@SanFranLefty: Not sure because I never caught their names, but based on inappropriate racial stereotyping, I’m gonna with Noonan because the other two looked more Hispanic. Also, because the dude looked like Ye Olde Irish Asshole.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Yes, he’s olde (85?) and Irish. Don’t know about the Asshole part of it. He’s a Reagan appointee who has ruled against some folks I know on various progressive causes, but according to an article I saw somewhere (LA Times? Daily Journal?) he’s actually fairly sympathetic to immigrants, at least if you measure it by his votes on appeals on asylum cases and other things coming out of immigration court. But I saw in the coverage that he seemed the most hostile towards the feds’ arguments.

@mellbell: It’s a challenging and symbolism-packed novel and can be quite sad and scary in some sections, but the unnamed narrator does provide some comic relief here and there. It’s definitely worth your time, and you may be amazed at how many near-future details that she correctly guessed when writing it in the 80s, as well as the highly complex militaristic, theocratic society that she envisioned.

@mellbell: @¡Andrew!: Handmaid is one of those books that has really stuck with me over the years. It’s scary how very plausible–if not probable–it all is.

@Mistress Cynica: One of the key themes of the book is how rapidly the once-unthinkable can become the new “normal,” and how quickly people accept new situations that would’ve been recently considered insane. Things that we can all relate to after the Roaring Zeroes. Not to overstate it–most aspects of the book are quite subtle–but that’s definitely a profound insight into human culture and sociology.

I found myself re-reading certain sections because Atwood always chooses her words so carefully and precisely, and I didn’t want to miss her meaning or clues that she left regarding the society in this alternate reality.

Add a Comment
Please log in to post a comment