Those compassionate MA liberals voted for some silly Right to Car Diagnostics law but voted against an allowable assisted suicide law.

In the long run, we're past the worst of things, and I think that the economy continues to improve and add jobs, but struggles to get ahead of the losses of the last crash. Four years of weak employment hurts the long-term job prospects of a lot of people.

Following the election, the sequester fight is the critical one, since no one wants to lose it and the House team doesn't want to compromise. I think that one is too hard to call at present. If Obama and House Republicans can't compromise, then our economy will almost certainly suffer another recession, as the sequester cuts hit. If a deal is reached, then the long, slow recovery continues with some compromise of reduced entitlement spending and increased taxes.

Pressure continues on the government in Iran, but no real progress happens - Iran refuses to totally give up its nuclear ambitions, but doesn't quite push things far enough that we need to attack.

" . . . picture a toilet . . ."

Sorry, first I have to flush it as I just threw up all that nasty stuff they have been shoving down my throat the last few years.

"Flexibility".

> I think that the economy continues to
> improve and add jobs

Yeah? Enjoy the charts.

And consider the land of Lincoln.

I don't know anyone getting a job lately, just people losing them. I take that back, a friend is a medical assistant who was laid off. After more than a year of not being able to find work in her field (healthcare-related jobs are dropping fast around here as more and more parts of Obamacare start going into effect), she ended up getting a part-time job at Starbucks at less than half her previous hourly wage. I don't see this trend umproving anytime soon. And if it holds true that business owners like Steve Wynn are scrapping expansion plans and cutting their workforce because of extra taxes and regulations Obama wants to push through, there are going to be a ton more unemployed people than there are now. If the sequestration goes through there are thousands more out of work from that alone. I know multiple people in natural gas and oil right now that are losing their jobs in the very near future due to new EPA rules.

The markets are high again, so the problem now is how to get some of that to trickle down because so far it doesn't seem to be.

I think a lot will depends with what happens in China. I'm hearing rumors of people not wanting to outsource to China and India so much because labor costs are going up there now. So we will see.

I'm doing my search for finding a decent AR-15 at a decent in the near future.

Then I'm going to be buying silver, shelf stable foods, and bullets.

I'm going to hope I don't live to see the collapse of the republic. I'm expecting that I'm going to have to pay about $75 per gallon for gas, if not more.

If the republic survives, great. If not, I hope the pile of bodies on my lawn doesn't bother any of the neighbors. ;-)

All I know is one thing: with an income cap of 92k (won't earn anything near that) and declaring residency in Europe, from what I hear, I should be fine. My future is in Eastern Europe so I can watch America's future from a safe distance. I dreamt that Romney won but only woke up to learn the unsurprising truth: Obama won again.

Now that obama does not have to worry about getting re elected, he will do what industry and the rich want him to do in return for properties and assets all over the globe(in mexico, dubai, brazil etc). So companies might start posting profits and obama might not push through with things like increasing taxes on high net worth individuals, but I don't see that improving the job situation in usa. It might just lead to even more cost cutting and probably even a lot of the federal and state governments work might start getting outsource.

Not to be overdramatic but I think it is really the end of the era of America as a leading economic and military power.

Demographics and social attitudes have changed greatly since the 80s (my youth). The segment of the population that is concerned about a robust economy or global stability are aging, and priorities of the 47% and Lena Dunham segments are radically different.

Every mouth wanting to be fed voted for Obama, and so they will be fed.

Sadness.

The "marriage gap" for R vs. O was amazing.

Married people voted 56-42 for R. Single people voted for 62-35 for O.

http://elections.msnbc.msn.com/ns/politics/2012/all/president/#exitPoll

Probably what RealityCheck said above is close to what will actually happen. Congress will hammer something out that will satisfy nobody completely, but won't be that bad, either.

In any case, I think we could safely dispense with the apocalyptic talk. We're smarter than that.

Radwaste: "Every mouth wanting to be fed voted for Obama, and so they will be fed."

Yea, but without work, I and others cannot pay for it. But, that's okay, let the grandkids and great grandkids pay fot it - the poor little suckers!

What bothers me the most is that this country fought in two (count 'em, 2!) world wars and the Korean conflict in order to stem the time of communism, and now here we have the start of it in our own country. Does no one learn? Are people really that ignorant?

I just wanna hurl. I'd pack up and leave, but there's nowhere to go.

So the brokest nation in history voted for "more of the same". Whoopee. Newsflash to Obama voters - Romney had no chance of ever banning abortion, imposing state religion, invading the world, or whatever delirious nightmare is worst for you. He might have been able to sort out how 30 somethings will actually get a retirement income though. Oh well, another 4 years of kicking the can down the road won't hurt will it? No, wait, it probably will.

It's going to be so much fun watching everyone scream when reality finally sinks in. I don't think it will be apocalyptic but that doesn't mean it will be pretty.

I have to watch what I say here, so I will make no predictions as to America's future, although I'm not optimistic about it at this point. However, I'm going to do something that I've never done before in the aftermath of an election: I'm going to go over the exit polls and the demographics, and I'm going to name names.

First of all, we have the post-post-Holocaust Jews. Evidently, the Holocaust is something that only old, out-of-touch, fuddy-duddy white Protestants worry about any more. Holocaust? That is so last century, man. Israel? Who needs it? Anti-Semitism? Stop worrying and learn to love the jihad.

America's single women have overwhelming rejected the American male. They voted for their exotic alpha male model. He's such a hunk, you know! And he's going to give them all the free health care they watn, including free birth control, and he's going to make those mean average American men quit asking them for dates and stuff. Better to be pumped and dumped by a Marxist alpha male than to be stuck in a relationship with an American beta.

Hispanics voted for open borders. Period. How many electoral votes will Mexico be awarded in the next census?

Blacks... hell, it's not worth the trouble. I hope they enjoy being the Democratic Party's bitch.

The entitlement classes now have an absolute, permanant majority. Everything that happens next will be inevitable. Cutting $100B off of a trillion-dollar deficit isn't going to matter. You can start insulating your house with dollar bills, because they will be worth less than the equivalent volume of insulation. (That is, until the Treasury phases out all currency of less than $10 denominations.) And don't any of you even think about going Galt. Ever heard of imputed income? That's what you will be taxed on if the government decides you aren't working hard enough for the greater good.

The GOP holding the House doesn't matter much. In post-constitutional America, Imperial President Obama will no longer require permission from Congress to do anything. We can't wait!

It doesn't matter what the tax rate is if you have no money and no job. They don't need to tax it, they will inflate it away.

Economically, Europe and the Fiscal Cliff are going to be the big drivers (at least of the events that we know of). The Cliff is theoretically in the government's ability to control - it's only a question of whether they will actually bother to do so. The distribution of power across parties is functionally unchanged from last week.

Europe is functionally beyond the control of the US government. It could implode and send us all back into severe recession.

I'd pack up and leave, but there's nowhere to go.

I've heard that Thailand is a favorite destination for retired CIA and special ops people.

Well, I could pretend, I guess!

o.O

Oh, and I forgot to rip on the young voters, whom one would think would be the most concerned about the state of the Obamaconomy. But I guess when Mommy and Daddy (or, more likely, Mommy's welfare checks and support payments) are paying the bills, and you can go out partying every night with your trendy friends because you don't have to worry about that nasty getting-up-in-the-morning-for-work thing, that sort of thing doesn't matter much.

"The Cliff is theoretically in the government's ability to control - it's only a question of whether they will actually bother to do so. "

We already know the answer to that. The Democrats aren't going to agree to anything that in any way limits their ability to expand the entitlement classes. (And the Republicans aren't as stalwart on that as they should be, but it really doesn't matter. If Obama doesn't get what he wants from Congress, he will simply find extra-constitutional ways to accomplish the same ends.)

Serves Romney right for shutting Ron Paul out at the convention.
I voted for a local presidential candidate.

America will be poorer, sicker, less free, more violent.   increased suppression of free speech and dissent, more media toadies spewing the party line, as country devolves into privileged government elite with privileged government health care and the mass of second class citizens with obamacare; privileged government elite with privileged government pensions and the mass of second class citizens with social security.  surprise?  no.  just a return to the normal human condition of most of the world through most of history, following a 200+ year fluke of history.   it was only a matter of time before the politicians discovered they could bribe the voters with other people's money and voters discovered they could vote themselves freebies.  it was only a matter of time before the politicians discovered that timeless human emotions like hate, jealousy, greed, and envy could be mined for votes.  good bye decency.  good bye freedom.  good bye prosperity.  good bye america.  

And here in CA--if you don't have a good job with the government, you're screwed.

Voted for None of the Above (Gary Johnson) and felt great about it. I feel the same way as Ken at Popehat. To people who are mad I voted libertarian, step off. No one is entitled to my vote.

Serves Romney right for shutting Ron Paul out at the convention
Rom was an awfully weak candidate. I hope the two parties implode. The choices have been getting weaker and weaker. Bush-Gore? Bush-Kerry? Obi-Mac? Obi-Rom? Is this really the very best they have to offer? A socialist revolutionary vs. a corporate fascist? Really scared.

Stinky is right -- Romney was a very weak candidate.

Also, the Republicans are idiots for pandering to the social conservatives. They lose fiscally conservative social moderates with that.

And I see eye-to-eye with Jim Simon on the sad turn of events:

just a return to the normal human condition of most of the world through most of history, following a 200+ year fluke of history. it was only a matter of time before the politicians discovered they could bribe the voters with other people's money and voters discovered they could vote themselves freebies. it was only a matter of time before the politicians discovered that timeless human emotions like hate, jealousy, greed, and envy could be mined for votes. good bye decency. good bye freedom. good bye prosperity. good bye america.

This is the first election where the result has actually frighted me.

I'm not bothered so much because Obama is turning the American system into one I don't like. It's that he's turning into a system that is unsustainable. Obama supporters have completely turned their backs on simple financial common sense. They're like Pompeian revellers partying under a rumbling Mt. Vesuvius.

The concept of the extrajudicial Presidential execution is not going to go away when Obama leaves. It's going to sit there like a loaded weapon waiting for the next President to pick it up. Likewise, the using of executive orders to bypass Congress.

The use of thuggery and intimidation at the polls in places like Philidelphia will go unpunished. Does anyone doubt it will get worse in future elections?

The mainstream press's sickening adulation of Obama has been vindicated and will continue. They wont cover him, they will cover up for him as they have done the last 4 years. The onesidedness of the MS press is frighteningly dysfunctional and dangerous for our democracy.

We're done as a great nation. This is no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave. We are the land of Jerry Springer and the home of Honey Boo Boo.

I was shocked at what I saw happen where I used to live...I mean I knew it was true to some degreee but not to the degree it apparently is.

A number of races are going R mos around 52 to 48 and this continued for quite awhile. All of a sudden they all reverse to D about 52 to 48% -- one county (yes, the big city one) reported their results. And that is pretty much how it has stayed.

The conclusion is that one county gets to decide all the state issues.

THis type of thing has been a problem in the past and I think it is going to be more so in the future. The majority of the state (by acre) is not represented in the state wide offices.

I forgot...I heard this analysis point and I thought it was good.

The Republican party has for the most part become the that party of the religious South and the Republicans in the Western states have some significantly different values and thus the two don't work together very well. Something will have to really change to get them all working together again. According to the analyst I was listening too -- and that seems correct.

I mean how could they have lost this election? Well, Mitt is about the worst candidate - but perhaps the best that the two groups could agree on.

I mean how could they have lost this election? Well, Mitt is about the worst candidate - but perhaps the best that the two groups could agree
Exactly. Obi didn't win b/c of being so strong, Rom was soooo weak, and alienating Paul and the Tea Party didn't help. It was there for the taking. It's pretty much over. As Flynne stated, it's probably best to move.

The republic is now officially dead. I am going assume the role of the coroner and call the official time of death at 11/07/2012 02:00 AM.

Up until now the republic was comatose and limping along on life support for about the last 50 or 60 years. The re-election of this communist party hack has sealed the fate.

The federal government has been so far outside the limits of the U.S. Constitution for years that it no longer matters. No, there isn’t a king and court. But the difference between a monarchy and the President and Congress is not that much different.

Almost every social program including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, section 8 housing are not actually allowed to the federal government. FEMA, EPA, the Departments of Education and Energy should not exist as well as many others.

The American public now has a choice of civil disobedience and starve the leviathan.

Change your W-4 to have eight dependents and feed the extra money into a separate checking/savings account. Then when you have to write that check at the end of the year — the governemnt still gets the money, but they are starved the rest of the year.

Do not cooperate with any “legal” authority.

Keep a copy of the U.S. and your state’s Constitution on or near you at all times.

Get your concealed carry license and carry on a regular basis.

Tell you state representative not to vote for anything that is federally subsidized.

By the way, my dear wife and I were planning to spend a fair chunk of change in 2013 on landscaping, plus buy a new car. We talked about it this morning and we're not going to do that now. The landscaping is on indefinite hold, and we'll probably not ever buy a new car again. Her car is only 4 years old; mine is going on 13 but I'm going to drive it until the wheels fall off. Then I'll buy a used car. There are some other things we probably won't do. I was going to expand our home automation system, but now I think I'm done with it. I was going to buy some music gear, but that's off. We were going to take a nice vacation -- we haven't had a real vacation in about eight years. That might still be on, but we'll look for something less expensive than what we were planning.

And I think I'm going to have to look for another career. I can see the aerospace industry in the United States winding down; it's already been happening since the mid-1990s and I think the trend is going to accelerate. The one growth area is going to be in domestic surveillence technology, and I don't know how good I'd feel about working in that.

A face book friend just posted this (not exact quote): My kid just showed me her face book and bunch of her friends have posted to the affect that Obama won now we can keep our food stamps for 4 more years.

Whoever shot this video should be hailed as the new Norman Rockwell. He captured America's personality perfectly with this short video clip.

This is the face of America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAOwJvTOio

I'm not bothered so much because Obama is turning the American system into one I don't like. It's that he's turning into a system that is unsustainable.

And one that will lead to an imperial presidency and, eventually, to dictatorship.

Every president has tried to usurp Congressional powers as his own, just as every Congress has tried to negate presidential powers to enfeeble a president of the opposing party. Throughout history the two sides have fought each other to a certain balance of power.

However, gone are the old guardians of Congressional privilege. I was no fan of Robert Byrd, but he stood guard against any president of any party trying to end-run the Senate. Byrd castigated Obama for his appointment of policy czars and both Bush and Clinton for excess use of recess appointments.

Harry Reid and his fellow Congressional Democrats seem content to stand idly by and let Obama essentially dimantle the US Senate and negate the House of Representatives.

While George W. Bush used czars and recess appointments, he generally respected the Constitution. When BUsh appointed John Bolton to be US ambassador to the UN, he did so in a recess appointment ... and when the allowed term was up, Bolton resigned and Bush presented a different nominee to the Senate.

Bush waited until Congress was actually in recess. Even when Harry Reid maintained pro forma sessions during weeks-long absences to prevent Bush from making recess appointments, Bush refrained from making recess appointments. Obama, on the other hand, simply declared Congress to be in recess when it wasn't and made his appointments ... as Harry Reid cheered him on.

Obama hasn't submitted a budget to Congress in three years - to the outright approval of Harry Reid and silent consent of Nancy Pelosi.

When a Republican president comes along and exercises all the powers Obama has assumed as president, look for those same Congressional Democrats who cheered Obama on to cry foul.

By then it may be too late. Precedents have consequences and Obama is setting some bad ones.

My husband and I have been doing well financially these past 4 years. We'd probably do the same no matter who was in office.

People who are predicting the end of America are drama queens. We've survived for over 230 years, with a civil war, two world wars and numerous other conflicts, including social and financial upheaval, but we're supposed to believe that one magic black man is going to bring it all crashing down -- or that one Republican could have prevented it if it was going to happen anyway. If America is really so fragile that one president can bring it to its knees, then that collapse was inevitable, and we need to start over anyway.

The Republicans screwed themselves. Even moderate candidates like Romney have to bend themselves into such twisted knots to win the nomination that they are unelectable in the general. In another time, Romney would have had a better chance. Third-party candidates are fun but not a real factor. So that leaves the Democrats for anyone who doesn't want to see social policy retreat to some 1950s fantasy (or nightmare, depending on your perspective) that never existed. Not to mention that Romney's plan for fixing the economy never made any sense anyway.

The Economist threw its back-handed support to Obama with the phrase, "Better the devil you know."

Food stamps and welfare aren't the problem. "Rearranging deck chairs on the titanic" comes to mind here. Medicare, Social Security and Defense spending are where the money matters, but neither Romney nor Obama has the balls to tackle those problems. It would be political suicide.

One interesting note: the GOP's brightest intellectual made a fantastic prediction about the election just yesterday.

It's this kind of wisdom that makes me wonder - am our politicians learninger?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57545624/newt-gingrigh-mitt-romney-will-carry-over-300-electoral-votes/?tag=fdleft;fdmodule

We can't just blame Obama; opportunists have thrived since the dawn of time.

Our problem isn't clever elites.

Poor people did this.

Rich people did this.

It's fun to pretend that a few sentences of optimistic Reagan rhetoric would have made this a better outcome, but it would still have been an appeal to the same pool of people. When you crunch the numbers, there's no escaping the truth: More than half the voters are cowardly, naive and pompous; They're afraid of work, intimacy, and investment.... Five quarts of blood in each of 'em, but not one red drop of humility. These people are all around you, and they're quite pleased with themselves.

Human nature is what it is, and there's nothing new under the sun, but I'm running out of people to admire.

Trying to get to Heaven on someone else's dime.

I wish you'd think about this stuff before you so flippantly mock religion. The bible is VERY specific about how virtue works... Political rhetoric, always an appeal to plain sense, elides important details.

Bible? Now there's a reliable source.

People who are predicting the end of America are drama queens. We've survived for over 230 years, with a civil war, two world wars and numerous other conflicts, including social and financial upheaval, but we're supposed to believe that one magic black man is going to bring it all crashing down -- or that one Republican could have prevented it if it was going to happen anyway. If America is really so fragile that one president can bring it to its knees, then that collapse was inevitable, and we need to start over anyway. -- MonicaP at November 7, 2012 10:00 AM

I'm a drama queen. Thank you for defining it for me.

We were generally hosed no matter how it went. With Obama I give us 12-18 months to the collapse.

With Romney it would be about 24-28 months. With Romney and a Tea Party congress I could have seen a chance.

We are just so fucked.

Jim P is correct. The American people effectively repealed the US Constitution. Too many voter feel entitled to govt goodies at somebody else's expense, and the number of people that feel entitled to other people's money is steadily increasing. Eventually, we will run out of other people's money and face the problems that Greece has. Unfortunately, there is no EU to bail us out.

In the international arena, Islam will continue to exploit the vacuum being left by the America. The relative peace of Pax Americana is going to end. Although, when the rest of the world, that has been vilifying us for all these years, calls 911 and we don't answer I will find it hard not to shrug my shoulders. However I really am going to miss having the worlds best military, but not much point in having something that we won't use anyway.

The news is not all bad.

Republicans still control the House of Reps. The US system is designed to prevent a 51% majority rolling over a 49% minority. Call, write and otherwise keep pressure on your member of Congress. "Gridlock" is not always a bad thing. And 2014 will be here before you know it.

And WA and CO legalized recreational marijuana... so there's that.

> People who are predicting the end
> of America are drama queens.

Perhaps I missed it, but I don't know that anyone's predicting the end of America. Many think important standards and insights are being squandered. Wealth creation is being inhibited in fundamental ways, and public goodwill is being irrevocably squandered.

The Economist is a British publication.

You are woman who, for dozens of topics over several months (or perhaps years, because who's counting?), has presented an ever-more polished surface of detachment and disinterest in the people and topics under discussion. That's mundane, because these are blog comments. But on an interpersonal level, it's weird enough for us to take note. By your own example, there's no one here we could less trust to identify a 'drama queen'. You claim to be cheerlessly unaffected by the largest evaporation of wealth the world has ever seen. Your opinions are proudly, theatrically inflexible, and offered so curtly as to seek no fellowship; and so far as I can tell, they find none. What exactly do you want? Why are you here?

This is the pattern of the grade schooler who makes it a point to show up (on time) at Christina's birthday party to shoot her nose towards the sky and affirm that she doesn't care whether she's invited or not.

For the many birthdays to come, we should all bear this consciously in mind. OK? OK.

> "Gridlock" is not always a bad thing.

That's not what we've got here; Big Government is the enthusiastic project of both parties. These barbs draw blood because whatever the party affiliation, an overwhelming percentage of voters believe that government in the United States is the best way through which civilization can be pursued, and through which their own lives can be given comfort and meaning.

Sucks.

The husband of a (defriended today) FB friend-after posting several "eat crow conservatards" posts, argued with me about Obama's spending being unreasonable. I said it was like a family running up their credit cards and then saying "Oh well, we SHOULD be making more money, so we're not going to stop spending". He said that wasn't an accurate comparison because the government can always make more assetts.

The mental immaturity of someone who uses the term "conservatard" is one thing. But thinking the government actually MAKES anything? Hopeless.

The French are lunatic.

So that leaves the Democrats for anyone who doesn't want to see social policy retreat to some 1950s fantasy (or nightmare, depending on your perspective) that never existed.

I keep hearing this and it makes no sense.

Romney is cleancut, Mormon, has a nice wife and a lot of kids.

That doesn't mean he is going to take away your birth control

Perhaps I missed it, but I don't know that anyone's predicting the end of America.

I've seen countless comments from people talking about getting their guns and food stores ready in preparation for when the government storms their castle.

What exactly do you want? Why are you here?

I'm here because I like Amy's blog and find her topics interesting, like most everyone else here. Why are you here? I disagree with the prevailing idea that we are all going to hell in a handbasket. Our country faces problems, like it has always faced problems. Some of them will be solved, and some of them will get worse. I don't believe the answer is to stop spending on everything possible and keep taxes as low as possible. I believe the answer is to focus on the spending that's dragging us down (like an unsustainable Social Security system) instead of focusing on the stuff that doesn't matter (like NPR and the endowment for the arts), and raising taxes where we need to. I believe we need to spend on education, infrastructure and other areas if we want to continue to grow, and that a first world country does not let people starve to death in the street, and that costs money.

Ir's an American fantasy that we are chronically living in the most dangerous times ever. We've survived worse. We'll survive this.

The mental immaturity of someone who uses the term "conservatard" is one thing.

Agreed. I hate this approach. About as much as I hate "libtard." It is needlessly provocative, says nothing and gets us nowhere.

One thing I have found that conservatives, liberals and libertarians have in common is that each camp thinks it has a monopoly on the truth. If Camp A disagrees with Camp B's interpretation, then it's clearly because Camp B is stupid and shouldn't be allowed to vote. Childish.

That doesn't mean he is going to take away your birth control

Romney had to accept the Republican platform on abortion rights if he wanted the nomination. He supported cutting funding for abortion advocates like Planned Parenthood, which provides women with low-cost birth control and other services that have nothing to do with birth control. He supports giving health care workers the right to "follow their conscience," which would inevitably limit access to birth control and abortion. In addition to that, I find his support of abortion in the case of rape, incest and the life of the mother morally abhorrent. I have more respect for people who oppose abortion in all cases. Either the fetus is an innocent life or it isn't, and allowing exceptions for rape and incest is saying, "If the state decides you're not a slut, you can go ahead and do it."

Although to be fair, the Obama campaign wildly misstated what Romney's position was. It was highly unlikely he was going to try to overturn Roe v. Wade, even though he probably wouldn't have cried tears over it.

"He supports giving health care workers the right to "follow their conscience," which would inevitably limit access to birth control and abortion."

Guess what? All health care services are limited, in that you can't just walk into a doctor's office and demand that they treat you for free. At least I can't; you're a woman and thefore one of the privileged classes, so you probably can. Obamacare requires that a whole bunch of female-specific medical services be covered by insurance at no cost to the insured. We just got our new insurance packets last week and it's all spelled out. Meanwhile, I will be paying higher premiums and hugely higher deductables for much worse coverage. And because I'm a middle-aged male, insurance doesn't have to do a damn thing for me.

"I don't believe the answer is to stop spending on everything possible and keep taxes as low as possible."

That's not what you voted for. You voted for more spending, directed towards people like yourself. Because not offering you whatever you want for free is exactly the same as stripping you of your Constutional rights, in the same way that restricing affirmative action is exactly the same as resurrecting Jim Crow. Some groups of people have rights that include the right to force others to do work and give them the results. I get it now. And in return for shouldering the burden of being a second-class citizen, I get the pleasure of dehumanized and insulted across media ranging from TV shows to Facebook feeds. I am the cause of everything bad that's ever happened to anyone who isn't a Southern white male, everywhere, across all of human history. I deserve to be crushed and have my heart ripped out and handed to me. I get it now.

Some commentary from Alexis de Tocqueville:

"A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.

Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

It is indeed difficult to imagine how men who have entirely renounced the habit of managing their own affairs could be successful in choosing those who ought to lead them. It is impossible to believe that a liberal, energetic, and wise government could ever emerge from the ballots of a nation of servants"

Politics is a dirty game, and to some extent both Mitt Romney and John McCain were too pansy to play it. Ron Paul would probably have done no better, becuase he opens his mouth and the truth comes out. Most people can't handle the truth.
The government will have two choices when they can't borrow any more money. The first is, they run the printing presses 24/7 which will allow them to stiff their creditors, and destroy the savings and soft assets of the middle class. (The rich keep their assets overseas) The second move will be to raise taxes, and when that doesnt work,impose wage and price controls.
The governments, both federal and state have bought peace with borrowed money, but when that runs out or loses value, the riots will start. Most blue cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, and LA will soon resemble Detroit. It will take just long enough for the entrenched politicians to blame it on "not enough government regulation" and "bad luck"

I believe we need to spend on education....

We already spend more on education than any other country in the world - and get less for it than any other country in the world.

http://rossieronline.usc.edu/u-s-education-versus-the-world-infographic/

Spending more is not the answer. Spending wisely is. And hiring more teachers is not spending wisely.

If isolated Ethiopian kids can teach themselves to read with nothing more than a tablet computer, why do American kids require small class sizes, more teachers, politically powerful teachers' unions, self-esteem boosting programs, and high levels of administrative overhead?

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506466/given-tablets-but-no-teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves/

...and that a first world country does not let people starve to death in the street....

Where are people starving to death in the streets in the US?

No one is talking about letting people starve to death in the streets.

Raising the eligibility requirements for food stamps is not the precursor to becoming a Third World hell hole.

I waited in line three hours to cast my vote for Johnson. My polling station in NYC was a chaotic mess (and my neighborhood wasn't even flooded)! Of course I knew he wouldn't win, but it felt good to pull a lever for someone I actually like for a change. I wasn't about to miss that pleasure.

Monica, I am not stocking up on guns and food to protect my family from the government. I am doing it to protect my family from the severe shortages that will occur when the the government attemps to repeal the law of supply and demand to satisfy an ever growing dependent class of people.
When food stamps don't work, because there is little or nothing in the stores to buy with them, it will probably get ugly in the inner cities quickly. (the food stamp values will not keep up with hyper inflation if the government continues printing money with nothing backing it)
I don't live there but I get my essential items from the same supply chain.
Wyoming passed a constitutional amendment yesterday, saying that a Dr must accept cash in payment for services. They are free to accept insurance too but the feds can't force them to take medicare, medicaid or anything else. It passed with 80 percent of the vote. I predict that states that don't do this will probably lose most of their doctors to the ones that do.

> I believe the answer is to focus on the spending
> that's dragging us down (like an unsustainable
> Social Security system) instead of focusing on
> the stuff that doesn't matter (like NPR and the
> endowment for the arts), and raising taxes where > we need to. I believe

For the record, I didn't actually ask.

> We've survived worse. We'll survive this.

We want more from the country than "survival."

> I wasn't about to miss that pleasure.

You're doing the Lord's work. (Me too, only without the

Monica, I am not stocking up on guns and food to protect my family from the government. I am doing it to protect my family from the severe shortages that will occur when the the government attemps to repeal the law of supply and demand to satisfy an ever growing dependent class of people.

Democrats don't need to stock up on food. If any food shortages hit, the "Marxist alpha male/communist party hack" has a secret plan to go all soylent green on the children of conservatives and libertarians.

I long for the good old days of George W. Bush, a capitalist alpha male who showed us what a manly man he was by getting us involved in not just one, but two, wars.

For some actual predictions, how about the following, limited to things that will directly result from Obama's policies:

1. Federal government debt tops $22 trillion by end of term.

2. Inflation relatively flat for first two years, but tops 8% by end of term as Wall Street figures out the only way out of the debt trap is debasing the currency.

3. Iran tests a nuclear weapon, hopefully not on Israel.

4. Syrian civil war lingers on and eventually ends up in tribal warfare encouraged by various outside actors.

I think his EPA will attempt to cripple oil and gas production via fracking and coal-generated electricity, but the effects of the first on crude oil prices is unclear given the disastrous state of the Middle East. The second will cripple the economy long-term, but maybe not in a four-year time horizon.

Worst day on Wall Street since 11//11: the day after Obama wins.

Put that on the mantle next to that Nobel Prize - which was awarded for what, now?

Be sure to use the "two wrongs" fallacy when you defend the President (JD).

There's only so long you can blame someone who, a) is no longer in office, and b) acted fully in compliance with the War Powers Act.

That last one suggests you have no idea what Congress' role in overseas military deployment really is.

Catch up.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/49724122

If you don't think the same thing can't happen here, wait until they try and claw back some of the free stuff.

Can I vote for Captain Trips?

That leaves out about 95% of the ugliness of armed insurrection.

You're doing the Lord's work. (Me too, only without the

. . . closing paren.

Ok, that was a cheap shot. Could be I'm celebrating my citizenship in the State of Washington.

Gay marriage and pot. Just doesn't get better than that.

I do agree that some people are being drama queens here. Still, the future is not looking rosy.

I do see big economic cliffs.
Loss of liberty to government. From EPA to IRS.
Tipping points being reached from states being bankrupted to government programs collapsing.

Something in me also says to expect a big complete irrational move by the US Federal government. One that people thought would never happen, more so with Saint Obama. As to what it is? I don't know. Something along the lines of a war or conflict with unexpected ally or change in government with liberty.

Thanks, Rad for the post on the stock plunge. I remember my sisters comment on the last election in 2008 and the consequences of stock and the US dollar going down. Lo and behold it did again.

"I've seen countless comments from people talking about getting their guns and food stores ready in preparation for when the government storms their castle."

I'm not worried about the government storming my castle, as you put it. I am, however, worried that I will lose my job and I won't be able to find another one; that inflation will eat up my savings; that when I get sick I won't be able to get medical help; and that if I go anywhere in public some TSA mug will squeeze my balls. Given current trends, I don't think those are unreasonable things to worry about.

In the larger context, I'm worried that America is no longer interested in being an exceptional nation. All of our chips that previous generations worked hard to earn have been cashed in and spent. Some other nation where the people are more financiall responsible will eventually be able to subjugate us and use us as a colony. You know what happens to colonies? They don't make or build anthing. They send their natural resources out, and then have to pay through the nose to import finished products. The country that owns the colony makes out like a bandit.

And to be honest, a nation that doesn't make anything is just plain boring. All we are good for is mindless entertainment and law-gaming? Where's the fun in that?

I'll add one more thing: Authoritarian government always needs a scapegoat class. It's pretty clear that in Obama's America, white males are that class. I am the new Jew.

> . . . closing paren.

You meant parenthesis.

Also, you didn't answer the points here.

Ah, here.

The rumor mill has it that Boeing is about to announce a major layoff, shedding a third of their work force and closing several big plants. The plant where I live is probably on the list, as it isn't central to the commercial airliner business. However, even plants that are may be on the list. It would not surprise me terribly much if the huge Everett plant were to be closed. We're talking about 40,000 high-skill and good-paying jobs.

Could be I'm celebrating my citizenship in the State of Washington. Gay marriage and pot...

Same here, Steve. I'm proud of the people in Washington for voting in favor of those two measures.

"In the long run, we're past the worst of things"

When you look at the facts and at the numbers, the only story they tell is of problems on the horizon. USA doing a Greece seems to be basically a mathematical certainty at this poinnt, it's only a matter of when, and Obama didn't even try do so much as lip service to balancing the budget; kleptocracy continues full steam ahead.

Lobster is right