Or the lack thereof. A huge headache is drillin' in via my left ear. It's just the weather getting synerjiggy with my normal migraine but it has fair driven most thoughts from my head.
I'm not polit-blogging quite as much as I have in the past, largely because I think at the Federal level the system is unfixably broke, in both the "not working" and "no money" senses. Between the Party of Spending and the Party of Spending Even More,* the FedGov is at this point in time running on bad checks and (relatively) good reputation and as Larry Correia pointed out back on the 15th, the finances are so unprecedentedly far out of whack, there is no tellin' how it will fall when it falls, let alone what form it will take. (And do not even talk to me about planned collapse; whle there are plenty of rats gnawing away at the foundations, their contributions are barely a patch on the huge damage done by elected and appointed officials who refuse to believe water runs downhill -- and by majorities who vote for the voteable fools and liars.)
One thing's for sure, the superbigsavings budget Congress came up with is a bad joke; it replaces a cowflop with...a cowflop with a ribbon it! Dig in, kids. If you don't like that, there's a proposal to jack up the taxes on the companies and people who employ us, which, as any simpleton know, could not possibly result in even more bankruptcies, layoffs and offshoring. Oh heavens no. And meantime, the party that was chanting No Blood For Oil elected their Own Very Special Peace-Loving Guy who got us in another war in oil country! Oh, hurrah. Meanwhile, our other wars sputter on, all of 'em producing the FedGov's primary tangible product, maimed young people.
The collapse, when it comes, may look a bit like the fall of the old Soviet Union. We are fortunate in the U.S. that we've got State governments (at least, if you like governments). Many of them are even solvent, or nearly so and when -- not if, when -- the Federal Government of The United States of America augers in, the States will likely be able to cobble something together. If they can manage to dodge debt collectors after the Feds, there may be a path out.
But the clock is ticking. I hope things hold together long enough for the Golden Age of Commercial Space Travel to really get cranking but I have my doubts. It's a pity -- there is wealth enough up there to even prop up the bloated monstrosity headquartered in the District of Columbia; but do you want that? Perhaps the best we can hope for is that it falls slowly.
It's sad. I never thought things would take this sort of a turn, not in this country; but we are within a few years of internal passports (if I don't hurry up and get a passport so I can get a RealID driver's license, I won't even be able to travel far), government is getting back into the business of tellin' businesses what to do (after FDR and Nixon's efforts mostly landed in the toxic waste dump of history reeking quietly as a warning) the wheels keep spinning and spinning as the country sinks into the mud while grinning politicians call it "progress."
Gah! A pox on 'em all!
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* Interchangeable, if you don't mind repainting.
Update
3 days ago
10 comments:
What scares me more than the collapse of the FedGov is the steps that the FedGov will take to prop itself up. That process has already begun, with the Federal Reserve monetizing the debt, and the printing presses cranking out C notes as fast as they can get more ink.
When the people begin to figure it out, there will be discontent, martial law, and many other defensive measures, including suspensions of the constitution for the "safety of everyone."
Interesting times.
We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgment of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song
I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
And I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
It occurs to me that dropping an asteroid on Washington, DC, might be a good first use of commercial space capability.
But they'd have to get the asteroid a passport to enter the country, so that idea is probably out.
How governments collapse, the financial crisis and such, is all over the globe for the last three centuries. The folks in Washington, DC are still in the "Too Big To Fail" and last SUPER POWER mode of denial.
Don't worry about it, hope you have a fine storm shelter.
The most of us belong to a loosely knit network of people who can and will survive almost anything. Possibly it's time we knitted it more closely, and assigned duties and responsibilities, and had regular blogmeets-er, association meetings.
WV: hasit. Paranoia. I hasit.
After the USSR fell they came up with the CIS. Will we end up with the CSA? Just a little something to explode the heads of any progressive lurkers.
*goes looking for a Bonnie Blue Flag*
Tango Juliet quoted:
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
And I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
I remember back after Bush 41 was defeated, the Clinton campaign headquarters, which had been using Fleetwood Mac's Don't Stop Believin' as a campaign theme suddenly switched to The Who's Won't Get Fooled Again. I thought it particularly ironic given the last lyrics of the song:
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
WV: "offing"
I WISH!
And this post made Quote of the Day.
Don't worry Roberta, Humanity will get into Space someday. But the Ships will be lifting from the Shanghai Air and Spaceport, heading to Mao City on the Moon. Even if we HAD a D.D Harriman, he'd have been taxed to death before he could buy the land for the Launch site. Meanwhile, in a Parallel Universe, the news of the day is that Ms. Roberta X set a new speed record in this year's Asteroid Belt 500...
Hi Roberta X,
"(And do not even talk to me about" ....what?
Dave
Kevin: Gosh! Thank you.
UC: I fixed it.
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