The Shutdown is proceeding apace, and it looks fair to be... accommodated, or rather hardly noticed, by the multitudes, much like the Sequester. Ah, glory!
Well, given the fact that the Shutdown was more important than even having another War! we have to give Our Rulers some credit here. If there is a semblance of Peace breaking out in the Middle East (let's not count on it) and for the moment the missiles aren't flying at Damascus from either the Mediterranean Fleet or that nasty little state of Israel, we can ponder the fact that Those In Charge have their Priorities.
First Things First.
And the first thing, right now, is the take down of the Federal Government. One assumes that there will be a subsequent "rebuilding" phase, as there have been some piece by piece restoration bills hammered out between the Congress That Says No and the White House over the last few days.
They say this is all over Obamacare and the necessity to get rid of it. If it were, I'd almost be a happy camper, but it's not. Obamacare is a pig in a poke as those of us in favor of Single Payer/Medicare for All have known since kick-off day to get 'er done back in 2009. Let's not fool ourselves; this semi-universal health insurance program is first and foremost a profit-guarantee for major insurance companies and major health care providers essentially in perpetuity. The radicals in Congress agitating the Shutdown don't want to stop that, not on a bet. What they want to stop is any requirement imposed on Health Care Insurance and the Industry to provide service in exchange for their guaranteed profits and to stop the subsidy payments to the Rabble to help cover the health insurance premiums they are compelled to pay.
That's all.
No, this isn't really about Obamacare at all, it is about gaining full control of the Federal Government and re-making it into what the Radicals think it should be: an invasive and controlling force on behalf of favored segments of the Powers That Be. Nothing more, nothing less.
And they are nearly there.
By taking down the discretionary portion of the Government (some 20% of the budget), then restoring it piece by piece over an extended period, they demonstrate their power as a minority to eventually control everything. That's what the Debt Ceiling battle will be about. The Debt Ceiling battle will involve mandatory spending like Social Security, etc., and it will likely be resolved much the same way: there will be a default on those portions of the debt the Radicals want repudiated, such as the SS Trust Fund, and there will be a restoration, piece by piece, of what they want to preserve.
Of course, it's obvious by now, or at least it should be, that despite all the huffing and puffing and bombast on both sides of the Congressional aisle and at the White House, and despite all the breathless "news" we get through the propaganda media (unfortunately now including almost all the so-called "New Media"), this sequence was laid out long ago, and it became all but inevitable shortly after Obama was re-elected. It has not been a mystery -- except to the Public, of course, who are deliberately kept in the dark about what is really going on and to what object this shit is happening.
Everything's going according to plan.
Evil though it may be...
Synchronicity, Che - my brother and I were just talking about this yesterday afternoon, in much the same terms you are. After we got off the phone, I checked in on Che, just 'cause I usually read your site every day and realized I had not stopped by yet. Very weird - and startling - to see you had just posted our conversation (the one between my brah and I). We had, during our conversation, come to the conclusion that the shutdown doesn't hurt the Powers That Be at all; in fact, they have managed to slough off about a million federal workers and their salaries (tough shit if those people can't afford their mortgage payments this month) and inconvenient gov't expenses like WIC, inspections of oil drilling sites on national park land, and trash pickup in DC. On the other hand, Bernanke's QE infinity - $85 bb/month to Jamie and Loyd, continues unaffected by the shutdown. And, by the way, the FDIC is bereft of damn near all employees - this is the only agency that protects OUR money (as opposed to the money of the elites). Most of the regulatory agencies, such as the FTC and the Financial Crimes Enforcement, are likewise shuttered. Which means who protects our cash assets as we go into the debt ceiling crapstraviganza - a "debate" that has surely been set up in advance to be as detrimental to the common man as possible?
ReplyDeleteI suspect that we will see a lot of the federal workforce gradually replaced with private entities now that they have finagled the situation to get these people off the payroll. And, yes, of course they will take our social security, medicare, and whatever else they can grab. Because, why the fuck NOT take it? The people have shown a tolerance for - indeed, a joyful complicity in - all the austerity measures thus far imposed throughout the last 5 years. (I would count the crash of '08, when they started the bank bailouts while our retirement funds were cleaned out and the confiscation of our homes began, as the first austerity measures).
The outcome of the debt ceiling "negotiations" will be more of the same, an acceleration of the same, and I would not be at all surprised if the TPP and its Atlantic counterpart get quietly passed before the end of the year. Then it is truly over, as the big banks and big corporations will actually own our country - in fact, not just in theory. Even without the TPP, we will have plenty of privatizations, austerity, and loss of any gov't services that up until now have protected and served the common weal.
And your average US citizen, being functionally retarded as of this writing, will cheer madly for all of it, thinking it will only affect the "deadbeat" poor folks, none of whom he personally knows. Yet.
And now I am off to update the last post on my blog, which was also about the shutdown.
Two links for you, Che. One is a list of gov't offices shut down as of yesterday, and one is a prison planet article (I usually avoid that website, but was linked to the article by someone else) about one man's experience on the Obamacare website.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/01/politics/government-shutdown-closings/index.html?iref=allsearch
http://www.prisonplanet.com/obamacare-fines-to-be-seized-from-bank-accounts.html
-Teri
Something tells me we're looking at the End Game playing out right before our befuddled eyes.
DeleteAnd apart from a few of us, no one seems to recognize what's happening.
Yes, if they can, the PTB'll take it all and spit in our faces when they're done. No, it was not ever thus. But the signs and portents have been clear as crystal for many months.
I think you're right. The Rabble -- apart from those of us on the fringes -- will cheer madly because they are convinced only the "undeserving" will suffer. Fools and their folly.
Thanks for the links...