Surprise Surprise Surprise

So as a semi retired guy, who plans on living off investments and not relying so much on my diminishing ability to make money, I watched our nation's slouch towards financial calamity with more than a passing interest.

Our Treasury Department needed an authorization to raise the "debt ceiling," a usually routine request, that allows them to keep printing enough money to pay our many creditors, soldiers, federal employees, my ancient mother through her $1064 monthly Social Security check...

But this time it was different! A new group of so called Tea Party Republicans were now in D.C., and they swore that the rules had changed. No new taxes! Less government, unless it involved matters of curtailing abortion and gay rights, which everyone knows is anathema to a fine Christian nation.

One of those morons gave a speech about how he refused to saddle his children with future financial burdens, so he was NOT approving any debt ceiling raise. Then it came out that he owed thousands of dollars in child support, and was fighting like any savvy deadbeat dad to avoid paying...

Politics is at an all time low in the US. One of D2's friend's Dads is a very highly placed politico in the Democratic Party. I asked him his take a few months ago --this fellow has been in the game over 30 years. He said he has NEVER seen such a divide --we truly have 2 nations --and he sees no relief in sight.

It used to be that the extremists got the press, and then the grown ups took over in the back rooms to keep things moving. But now, the Republican Party seems afraid of the Tea Party nuts, and sees the party leadership with idiots like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh... This is why the GOP grownups were afraid to deal with the Dems...

And the Dems show little backbone as well. They learned nothing from the Clinton years --the only chance for Dems is when they govern from the center. Instead, Obama thinks he can still pull the kind of stuff that works in inner city Chicago, but that doesn't play in the Heartland...

All in all, a recipe for gridlock, which is what happened...

So if they didn't reach a deal by last night, stocks likely would have fallen 1/3, and who knows what would have happened to bonds...

I'd have had to become a barista. That might have actually been pretty cool.

But then, the Tea Party got a lot of their way...no new taxes...and no real changes in policy to the future. Obama and the Dems folded, which will just embolden the idiots for the next fight.

But at least the market won't crash, and things can keep humming along. One columnist wrote that this whole affair shows that if a group like the Tea Party is willing to see the destruction of our whole nation, they can get their way.

And the truth is, many Tea Party types are Evangelicals, who believe that the End of Time is a good thing, and if they help hasten it, well then Jesus will just return that much sooner, and bring paradise to all those toothless trailer dwellers...

I kind of like things the way they are now. And, luckily, at least for awhile, they'll continue.