... and at this stage I haven't a clue what will happen and frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. I never thought we would get to this point in the good ol' U S of A but here we are with the only thing that is clear is that this mob in D.C has been circling each other for so long that they have forgotten whay they were sent there to do except for the tea party guys who remember too well but can't get there from here. The Leader is no longer a joke but an embarassment which bodes ill for the country's foreign relations: everybody has figured the guy out. I hate to say it but he's not up to the job. Too bad.
Now for guys like your buddy Charlie here, this is a real mess. I have been unable to talk to all but a few of my old buds and all those people want to talk about is the budget mess. I'm flying blind unless I want to write about this which I don't. I guess you got that idea when I went silent yesterday. Sorry, but it's really hard.
Oddly, I guess I'm still one of the few who is not overly concerned as to the result nor I'm I concerned as to who will be catagorized as winners and losers. From my standpoint everyone is a loser as is the country until the root of all of this, the tax code, is reformed...or not. The next election will define the fate of the country probably for the better part of the century which is how it should be in a democracy. The next year, however, is going to be pretty bad as indicated in the economic numbers which were released today. Everyone pretty much expected that 2nd quarter GDP was going to be lousy but the real killer was the downward revision in the first quarter numbers to, well, nada. How the stock market only fell by about 100 points is beyond me but then again, I never understood the stock boys. The other thing that I can't understand is how it is possible for the first quarter numbers to have been so far off? There have been rumblings (there always are) that the numbers had been cooked but this time it makes you wonder.
While all of this is going on things in Euroland are not going well at all as the realization is finally sinking in with the Vox Populus--or should I simply say Das Volk--that they have been royally screwed. Spain and Italy are looking ugly and when I tried to cal Massimo today...non ce. This weekend could really be momentus on two continents.
One other thing of which I have taken note. The terrible train wreck in China produced a remarkable reaction. In prior times, when faced with bad or embarassing news, Bejing has always been able to put the lid on the dissemination of information if not internationally, at least domestically. Not this time. I remember many years ago a dear friend who at the time was living under communist rule in Eastern Europe asked me what I thought the future held. My response was that the present regimes could not survive. "Why?" my friend asked. "Television." I replied. "The people can now see what they have been told about the West isn't true. You made a huge mistake." "Not me," replied my friend with a smile. "THEY did."
The internet is today's television. I hope I'm right again.
Wonderful weather forecast for the fly-over zone, and the first tomatoes of the year are ready. Washington? Can someone say, "who cares."
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