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How to Jump Off A Cliff [1]

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Date: 2023-05-20

Midjourney AI and mjr: "uncle sam about to jump off a cliff"

When I hang out here at Daily Kos it's depressing how many ideologically pro-biden cheerleaders there are, here, as ideologically pro-trumpers, elsewhere. I guess the great game depends on having some on both sides. The system operates by having suckers at the table.

Can't any of these people see that they are being played by a malicious system that is constructed to control their opinions and the expression of their opinions, in order to allow the ruling two-party system to continue pursuing its own imperialist agenda? In a few places I hear rumbles that progressives are disappointed that Biden appears to be about to cave to the "hostage-takers" which is not surprising, given that caving is what the democrats do. They're not a real opposition party, they're doing their dance in order to eke out negotiating points of their own. I can't tell if any of them are purely delusional (therefore acting in good faith) or if they're showing a level of cynicism that would embarrass a Talleyrand.

Let's back up a second. The debt ceiling is a self-imposed financial control, on an organization that admits that it has no self-control, and consistently violates that control. The question is "how much money do we print?" and the answer is not "as much as we want to" it's "as much as we will allow ourselves to." The whole topic of national debt is not one I am qualified to get into, so I won't, but suffice to say it keeps going up when one party or the other spends like a drunken sailor, while the other wags a disapproving finger attempting to shame them. That's the rough outline. But there is a deeper, more important outline, which is ignored pro forma.

In the latest debt ceiling kerfuffle, we are told that the republicans may trigger a default, and that voters should blame them not, say, blame everyone in Washington. Sure, the republicans are triggering it, but the democrats also helped arm that trigger, and even set up a count-down. Did you notice how both "sides" in this fake event, who cannot agree on anything, agreed that defense spending doesn't get touched? Oh, wait, I guess they do agree on something. They agree on $1tn in defense spending. I've said this before, and I'll have to say it again: anyone who talks about the US deficit or budget, and does not mention defense spending, is not serious.

How not serious are they? They're so not serious they bumped the pentagon budget up, while wringing their hands about how the republicans and the democrats might collectively cut veterans' benefits. I'm not saying that the used-up warriors of the empire should go get fucked, but I don't think they have any more claim for benefits than the people who financed the pointless wars - and certainly less than their victims. But, I digress. Let me get to the question I really want to ask.

The premise is that a US default will cause a financial market freak-out with global impact. I'm cynical enough to suspect that viewpoint is heavily promoted by people involved in the financial markets. But let's assume, arguendo, that they have a point: the US defaults, the economy collapses into a depression, everyone gets fucked and it's like we just "Brexit"ed from ourselves. Ok. As a retired US citizen, I would not enjoy watching my investments evaporate (they won't because the fed will suddenly remember where the key to the money-valve is, and prop up the markets with good ole government-sponsored stock market manipulation) but wouldn't it be a better thing for the world, and maybe even the US, if the economy took a great whale-harpoon self-inflicted shot in the ass? Because, if it did, that would potentially dramatically fuck up our imperial plans for sneaky global domination. Remember, the US is whining about cutting its own promises to its janissaries, retirees, and people who need medical assistance - and it just spent $16bn on an aircraft carrier that barely works. It is in the process of buying whole wings of F-35s that barely work and it's already entrained spending $100bn annually on new offensive nuclear weapons that probably do work all too well. Both parties in Washington are in complete agreement about that, any disagreement is purely pro forma.

If the US face-punches itself so badly that it's no longer able to be a "player" on the international scene, would that be such a bad thing?

Midjourney AI and mjr: "oh beautiful for spacious skies" the US landscape is studded with nuclear weapons ready to launch

It seems to me that, from a practical standpoint, it wouldn't be great, because the US has a history of starting wars to boost its economy. That's another, more subtle, way the US debt ceiling crisis holds the whole world in jeopardy: everyone else does not want to deal with starving Americans, it'd be like Putin's Russia times 1000. [Note how the US response to Putin's nuclear threats has been "we bet your shit won't work but ours will."]

Also, as we've seen the US is going to drag its feet about actually doing something like a "green new deal" because the oil industry has too much money to accept any dramatic cut-backs on use of fossil fuels. So, while it's plausible to think "maybe the US would spend less on nukes and invest in energy" ha, ha, ha, those bastards will cut absolutely everything else until it gets down to a choice between no longer investing in the air the citizens breathe, or the department of defense - and you know citizens can hold their fucking breath forever, unless they are weak and entitled. I would hold out hopes for an economic re-alignment on the part of the US, emphasizing green energy and cost savings, you know, like the Brits did after Brexit. It seems clear to me that the US government will not get serious about climate change until we're all dead. Admittedly, that looks like it's coming charging over the horizon - which ought to make anyone suspicious why the US is building offensive nuclear weapons instead of windmills and solar farms.

So I'm starting to wonder if the most moral and effective response to the debt ceiling crisis is to tell Washington, "punch yourself in the fucking face, please, be my guest." Because the people who'll get hurt the worst are the wealthy (in terms of total value, though not importance of value) but really it's more like, "hey assholes, why don't you do it, step aside, and let China rule the world for a while." That'll put some sense in 'em. They'd rather kill everyone in China (and are preparing to do exactly that) rather than let China rule.

What really blows my mind is that the republicans actually might trigger a depression, "to own the libs" or something, in spite of the fact that the party survives almost entirely on donations from the wealthy and corporations that they seem to want so badly to fuck in the ass. And what scares me is that the democrats, also a bunch of nihilists, might do that, just because they know it'll play badly in the next election. Collectively, they have positioned themselves in what Sun Tzu called "death ground" (the strategic situation that you can only get out of by fighting like hell).

If anyone in Washington reads this, and is having trouble punching themself in the face, give me a call and I'll come down and do it for you.

[Crossposted from my regular blog over at freethoughtblogs.]

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/20/2170400/-How-to-Jump-Off-A-Cliff

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