perfidy

I have several hours worth of negative commentary on yesterday's test for gravity, but I'll condense it. There doesn't seem to be much point in exploring facts or numbers or doing realistic extrapolations. I guess I held a foolish hope that, to some extent, the American political system was self-correcting. I was wrong.

At least the popular vote broke for Bush, this time. He has legitimacy he did not, after 2000. It also appears that the election was clean, this time. I don't know how many black "felons" were denied an opportunity to vote in Florida; let's hope it isn't the 45,000 that we saw last time. Bush's margin in Florida is several hundred thousand, which puts him safely (and legitimately) in the lead.

It's not that John Kerry was a great candidate; he wasn't. But Bush represents the certainty of an economic death spiral, the affirmation of xenophobia (and just about every other phobia, including homo-), and the sunsetting of liberty. He's got a four year track record to prove it. At least with Kerry there was a chance for fiscal discipline and for cooperation on the international level; no such chance exists now.

So I sit here, perplexed. All the graphs and charts and analysis I've done, countless discussions conveying the facts, everything written and done and said...it all means pretty much nothing. I think that it means that my focus has to change; I think it means that there simply isn't any point in trying to work and hope for change that is good for everyone. It turns out they're not interested.

The ironic thing is that Bush's policies are fine, or even good, for me personally. His tax cuts go to people like me. The crash and burn of the medical system doesn't affect me; I can afford it, whatever happens. Expensive oil? Doesn't bother me. The forthcoming rise in social security taxation rates (to "fix" social security) won't be much of a factor for me; my income extends past the social security range. All these things are going to screw over the average 30k/year guy in America; that guy just voted for Bush, so my sympathies are limited.

We're really entering a new era, now. If you're a smart, wealth-producing, socially liberal, fiscally conservative person, you need to start thinking about protecting yourself and your family from this lunacy, and you need to start doing it right now. The bible-wielding welfare-staters are coming for us. They want to spend our tax dollars on things we don't agree about, like stupid wars. They want to force everyone to hate gays. They want to take away a woman's right to choose. They do not believe the environment should be protected. They want to swagger around the playground, declaring that the opinions of those who live elsewhere in the world don't matter. They talk financial discipline, but implement the largest discretionary spending increases in modern times. They hand huge breaks to the buddies of the people in charge of their "party", and they hand the bill to us, and to the next generation.

So how do you protected yourself and your family against this lunacy? I don't know yet. I'm trying to figure it out. I'm not sure it's possible; at least, not in America.

The baby boomers start retiring in five years. Demand for treasury bonds is dropping dramatically. America's position in the world is the weakest it has been in modern times. The federal government is running 6% of GDP deficits and is two years away from the highest percentage-of-GDP deficits ever recorded (exceeding the record set after World War II). Dislike and distaste for America is causing increases to trade deficits. Oil prices are likely to double (from their current record-high levels) over the next two years, which will have a massive ripple effect on America's remaining, highly dispersed manufacturing infrastructure.

The very idea of trying to deal with a longer-term problem, like global warming, is foolish.

Is this who you are?