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Photos by: joanneleon. September, 2013.
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I only watch the morning news when there is some breaking news I'm interested in, or in times of Peak Propaganda, and we're in Peak Propaganda right now.
It goes something like this. Republicans are crazy! Look how crazy they are! Everyone can see how absolutely crazy they are and they shut down the government because... Obama! OMG, what will he have to give up in order to get them to open up the govt again? OMG, the debt ceiling is coming in two weeks! OMG we better do a combination deal now for the debt ceiling because they are so crazy, they will cause the government to default on our debt. And that debt, it's just like family debt or credit card limits and it's wrecking the country. The debt! The debt! We're owned by China! It's not the trillions spent on wars, surveillance and obscenely wealthy contractors, or tens of billions spent by the Fed on bailing out banks every month, or the fact that the Bush tax cuts have been in effect for a decade or that the manufactured fiscal cliff was used to make most of the Bush tax cuts permanent, or that all wealth and productivity gains have gone to a tiny percentage of the most wealthy for 30 years, or that for 20 years we've steadily given away our jobs, our manufacturing expertise, our intellectual property, in order to drive down the price of labor.
No, it's because we were irresponsible and we borrowed too much and never mind that the debt ceiling is an entirely manufactured thing and that we have fiat currency and bankruptcy is a technical impossibility. It's the debt that is killing the country and therefore the 99% must make more sacrifices. If we cut the defense budget, which has doubled since Bush, the terrorists will get us and doom. If we don't appease the crazy Republicans, the debt will get us and doom. The Republicans are crazy and the Noble Democrats have no other choice. So suck it up, suckers.
Now play your part, citizens. Talk about how crazy the right-wing of the Corporate Party is and talk about how noble and brave and ultimately helpless the left-wing of the Corporate Party is. And constantly talk about the terrible things happening in the shutdown. Make lists of things that have been shut down for two days. Name every national park that is closed. Tell stories about federal employees who are furloughed and will starve, even though it's almost certain that Congress and the president will make sure (like shutdowns in the past) that they end up getting paid for those days. And also tell all the stories about all the genuinely tragic and unfair things happening to people because of this manufactured crisis and shutdown and milk those stories for maximum political benefit to the Democrats, even if you don't ever mention them or give a shit about them at other times, unless of course, you can use them for your own political benefit. Oh, and don't forget to talk about how crazy the Republicans are and how we'll probably have to give up something big because they're so crazy. So don't forget to play your part.
Now we have the Washington Post, who have parroted the debt fetishism for years, misleading the public with the Pete Peterson style debt and austerity mongering, and they're surprised at these irrational poll results. Greg Sargent says he's shocked at this.
If we get a debt ceiling crisis, it’s because Republican voters want one
If we are going to have a debt ceiling and default crisis — with all of the havoc it may well entail — it may well be because Republican voters want such a crisis, even if it causes serious economic harm.
The new Washington Post/ABC News poll on the debt ceiling tells us something remarkable: Among Republicans who believe that not raising the debt ceiling would cause serious harm to the economy, a majority of them wants Congress not to raise it anyway. By contrast, Americans overall see it in the opposite way.
On MSNBC, they've pivoted toward talking about the debt ceiling crisis in two weeks and are saying that a deal will have to be made. Wall Street has been pretty quiet, but they'll start playing their part soon too, and each day the pressure will ramp up further. Any guesses on what we'll lose this time?
One other interesting thing. There have been a number of protests. One of them involved some disabled folks from an activist organization whose name I don't remember at the moment. They stormed one of the House or Senate buildings in protest and the news article said they "occupied" the hallway there protesting. Good for them, I'd stand with them if I was there. And amazingly, nobody got arrested! Amazing how if you agree with the administration's stance, you don't get arrested.
I'm focused on the Senate Judiciary committee hearing today at 10am. It's still on, but Dianne Feinstein's NSA friendly "reform" bill is not. She has postponed her markup meeting for now. Hearing details below. There's a webcast link on the site and it's scheduled to be broadcast on C-SPAN3. There should be a good number of people and information on Twitter, live tweeting the hearing.
“UPDATED: Continued Oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act”
Senate Judiciary Committee
Full Committee
View a webcast of this hearing
DATE: October 2, 2013
TIME: 10:00 AM
ROOM: Senate Dirksen 226
OFFICIAL HEARING NOTICE / WITNESS LIST:
September 25, 2013
NOTICE OF COMMITTEE HEARING
The Senate Committee on the Judiciary has scheduled a hearing entitled “Continued Oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act” for Wednesday, October 2, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
By order of the Chairman.
UPDATED Witness List
Hearing before the
Senate Committee on the Judiciary
On
“Continued Oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act”
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 226
10:00 a.m.
Panel I
The Honorable James R. Clapper
Director of National Intelligence
Washington, DC
The Honorable Keith B. Alexander
Director
National Security Agency
Fort Meade, MD
Panel II
Laura K. Donohue
Professor of Law, Georgetown Law
Director, Georgetown’s Center on National Security and the Law
Washington, DC
Edward W. Felten
Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs, Princeton University
Director, Center for Information Technology Policy
Princeton, NJ
Carrie F. Cordero
Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown Law
Director, National Security Studies at Georgetown University Law Center
Washington, DC
Bloomberg News says "the last time we had a government shutdown, that was actually good for the stock market".
Debt Ceiling Wall of Worry Another Reason for Investing
The last time there was speculation about a U.S. government shutdown was in August 2011, when the S&P 500 fell more than 11 percent in three days. Stocks tumbled during the stalemate between President Barack Obama and Congress over whether to raise the debt ceiling and S&P stripped the U.S. of its AAA credit rating that month.
The losses were later reversed, as the Federal Reserve pledged to hold the benchmark interest rate near zero and maintain bond purchases to support the economy. The S&P 500 gained 25 percent in the 12 months through August 2012.
“If you go back to the 1990s and the last time we had a government shutdown, that was actually good for the stock market,” said Martin Leclerc, founder of Barrack Yard Advisors LLC, in a phone interview from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. His firm oversees $230 million. “It seems the market has climbed every wall of worry and every risk that’s out there, the market has seemed to surpass.”
Conversation morphs and the media misleads the public. Republicans' goal with the debt ceiling isn't Obamacare.
CNN Poll: Majority says raise debt ceiling
With the federal government shut down due to a bitter partisan standoff over spending and the Affordable Care Act, an even more chilling deadline is approaching.
The government faces a debt ceiling crunch around October 17, when it expects to run out of options to keep below the legal cap on federal borrowing.
Matt Yglesias, couple days ago.
The Government Shutdown Versus the Debt Ceiling
Why the Oct. 17 deadline for hitting our debt limit is so much scarier than the government shutdown.
The debt ceiling is another matter. Nobody really knows what will happen if we breach the debt ceiling because it’s never happened before. And everyone worries that it will be awful because nobody’s created any legal provision for not making it awful. A breach is sometimes characterized as a default on the national debt. But it’s actually weirder than that. Normally the way things work is that the Treasury Department cuts the checks Congress has told it to cut, collects the taxes Congress has told it to collect, and borrows to cover the difference. But the statutory debt ceiling also instructs Treasury not to borrow more than a certain amount of money. When we hit the debt ceiling on Oct. 17, Treasury will lack the legal authority to borrow any more money to close the gap between spending and tax revenue.
[...]
And in general, simply nobody knows what anyone should do about anything if the debt ceiling is breached. Unlike with the shutdown, there is no overriding OMB guidance. There are no rules to spell out essential versus nonessential services. Officially, at least, there’s no contingency planning at all. It’s just a kind of terrifying world of uncertainty.
[...] There’s no guarantee that it’ll lead to a worldwide financial panic and a massive global depression, but there’s honestly no guarantee that it won’t. Nobody knows what will happen, and you should find that prospect terrifying.
[Emphasis]
I might add some stories later, but this is so disgusting, I have no stomach for the news today as I watch people who should be a lot smarter than this, just following the bouncing ball and playing their parts. It's ridiculous.
Action
Stop Watching Us.
The revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance apparatus, if true, represent a stunning abuse of our basic rights. We demand the U.S. Congress reveal the full extent of the NSA's spying programs.
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