As we hurtle toward financial Armageddon, it feels sad and poignant to read that the space shuttle program has completed its final mission and will now be shut down.
“A permanent marker will be placed on the runway to indicate the final resting spot of the space shuttle program,” the news story says. They might as well add “America RIP.”
The first moon landing happened just a few weeks after my high school graduation, so I remember it well. Then, it seemed there was nothing America couldn’t do. Now, as the lemmings continue their lunatic efforts to drown government in a bathtub, America can’t do anything.
Here’s another news story that metaphorically captures our current predicament. Some bleeping fools visiting Yosemite National Park ignored warning signs and climbed over a guard rail to wade in a river, and shortly thereafter were swept over a 317-foot waterfall to their presumed deaths. Their bodies haven’t been recovered, but the Park Service says that’s often the case when people go over that waterfall. They were all in their 20s.
(One member of the same group who managed to not get swept over the falls was wading around carrying his seven-year-old daughter, who witnesses say was screaming in terror. The guy found his daughter’s terror amusing. I hope law enforcement figures out who this guy is and at least cites him for endangering a child.)
The three waders who were killed were “goofing around” in the water, lost their footing on wet rocks and slipped into the current. Witnesses say their faces reflected absolute terror as they went over the falls. This is tragic, but I couldn’t help but think — did it not occur to them this could happen? Did they think the warning signs were just kidding, and the barriers were just for ambiance?
In Washington, House Republicans have formed a suicide squad and are refusing to even consider any deal on the debt ceiling issue that includes revenue increases, or any deal, period. This is in spite of the fact that a group formed of some of the nation’s wealthiest citizens is begging the House to raise their taxes rather than default.
This group is making the mistake of citing patriotism as their motivation for wanting their taxes raised. Foolish, foolish wealthy people. Patriotism is just a pretty word to wingnuts. The truth is (and they no doubt realize this) that they are likely to take a bigger hit in the long run if the nation defaults. And that’s what they ought to be telling the bleeping fools goofing around in Congress.
However, many reports say that House Republicans have been subjected to many many briefings explaining the consequences of default, and it has not mattered. No matter how dire the warnings that their goofing around could have catastrophic consequences, the House Republicans either don’t believe the warnings, or they do believe the warnings but think that, somehow, going over the falls will be to their advantage.
And why wouldn’t they think that? They’ve gotten away with such shenanigans in the past, such as with the stimulus package. The President let himself be blackmailed into weakening his own legislation, and when the stimulus did not deliver a big splashy, tangible improvement, the Republicans got away with persuading the nation that the package hadn’t worked at all, even though it did.
They’ve also gotten away with continuing to scare the nation about the “failure” of “Obamacare,” even though (well, because) most of the legislation hasn’t even kicked in yet, so it can’t possibly have failed yet. Now they are blaming the high unemployment on health care reform. Seriously.
Anyway — Nate Silver is saying that no one would win the “blame game” if the nation defaults. However, he is inclined to think the House Republicans would be hurt the most.
People who say otherwise argue that, historically, presidents get the blame for a bad economy, whether it was their fault or not. The economy is very complicated, and generally effects of particular policies are not immediately felt or well understood by the public. But as Nate says, nothing like the possible default has ever happened before, and at least some of the effects will be dramatic and immediate.
The stock market could drop by thousands of points. Some major corporations, particularly in the financial services sector, might go under. Although the consequences might take some time to filter through the broader economy, there would nevertheless be a number of immediate and extremely visible effects. Many voters would feel as though they had perfectly reasonable grounds to connect the dots.
So there you have it. No amount of warnings will persuade some people. They won’t realize the mistake they’ve made until they are going over the falls.
I still hold out some hope that sometime next week, as the stock market plummets in anticipation of default, some parts of the suicide pact will realize that the death thing is really, really bad after all and will change their minds. I also hope someone in the White House is preparing a legal justification for the constitutional option, if it comes to that. But at this point I don’t think a deal is possible.
At the Grand Canyon, my wife and I were terrified when we saw a family let their kids climb over the barrier/fence at a viewing area. The boys (maybe 12? 13?) were leaping begween rocks at the very edge of a fatal drop.
On a school camping trip with high school kids in a mountain park, we had strict buddy rules and area limits in evenings at the campsite. A church bus arrived and disgorged 30-40 kids under 10. The little ones were wandering everywhere over a two acre multi-site campground while the fathers built a huge bonfire so they could see to set up tents. They had arrived right at dark, and dinner was not served till well after dark. Our high school campers were amazed at the lack of supervision and safety provisions.
Thoughtlessness, carelessness, and plain old stupidity are rampant. A favorite aphorism: Nothing is so uncommon as common sense.
The default-deniers are headed over the same waterfall, and they will doubtless make the same protestations of innocence as the parents whose drunk teens kill carloads of their friends. It is in the news regularly.
Unfortunately, Thoreau’s observation that there was no news in newspapers — he said it was always the same train wreck with different names — applies to our current situation. It has happened before.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
‘Bowel Movement Conservatism’ and ‘The Reagan De-evolution:’ Taking The United States of America from “‘CAN DO!’ to ‘Nope, can’t afford that – so, sorry, but no can do…'” nation…
Use the 14th Amendment, President Obama! Shove it down their throats. If Congress is derelict in its duties, you not only have the right, you have the obligation, to do what is needed.
Let them try to impeach you. You can say, “Hey, Truman had to deal with a ‘Do Nothing Congress,’ I had to do something about the ‘Know Nothing’s” in Congress ruining this nations impecable credit rating.” Impeachment, if they dare, will only make you look stronger, and could help the Democratic Party as a whole.
And I think the corporatists on the SCOTUS will actually agree with him if it comes down to a legal battle. – they’ll be told that that’s the right thing to do.
Slightly OT:
I think it’s high time we started a new Secesh movement.
It’s time the Blue States seceded.
We need to go, “Enough!”, and look at the Red States and say, “You know, Lincoln was wrong. We finally have to admit it. We’ve had enough of supporting you welfare states, with your hypocritical ‘family values,’ living off our hard-earned money, and voting against all of our better interests. So, go f*ck yourselves – WE ARE OUTTA HERE!!! You children’ve been threatening to leave the family for years. Instead, it’s Mom and Dad who are going to leave you. Let’s see how you do on your own. We ain’t comin’ back! So, good luck! What’s that? Forgot to say what? Oh yeah, ok, – Good luck, and God bless. You’ll need it!”
Let them have their own Dominionist Chrisian Fascist Confederation of States of America, and leave us out of their efforts to turn the entire nation into a dystopian nightmare scenario of religious, stupid, ignorant, morons, willing to be serf’s, just as long as there’s someone still left who’s worse off than they are, so that can still feel superior. You know, a nation of good Christians.
I would leave this county in a nano-second, if I had the chance. And I doubt I’d look back. But I can’t. So, I’ll just stay and fight.
Nick Kristoff’s great, and FUNNY, Op-ed piece.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/opinion/21kristof.html?_r=1
Bon appetit!
I often try to reconcile the America of my youth in the 60s with the America of the debt ceiling crisis, and fail. In the 60s, it was possible for a boy to imagine growing up to be a scientist working on the Moon, civil rights and opportunities in society were expanding, and despite the many massive conflicts, the sense was that life was getting better, that ‘progress’ was tangible and real, and that people in general were getting smarter. True, I was a kid, but still, it wasn’t all naivete.
Nowadays, I seriously start to wonder if there’s something in the water, or some supposedly benign chemical we’re exposing ourselves to that is actually making us all stupider and more volatile. I think about those stories I’ve read from before it was understood how toxic lead is, or mercury, or asbestos. Maybe there’s some environmental toxin that’s affecting us. It can’t just be the cumulative effects of decades of Republican nonsense, Democratic laurel-resting and TV, can it? Now, not only do I not feel like “progress” is tangible, it seems like all we can do to just keep “regress” from accelerating. The stupid is reaching historic proportions.
Well, time for me to get ready to go to work (and think about what I’m going to do when they cut out my bus line because the anti-tax zealots and the banksters’ recession have forced the government to slash every expenditure, even the ones that are good for the planet and save us all money, time and hassle.)
Gee, maybe I should change my handle to “Mr. Sunshine”. Sorry about the rant. I’ve become the cranky old man down the street.
I have begun to wonder about the security of the FDIC and our savings accounts. After all, the repayment of savings accounts if the holding financial institution fails depends on the full faith and credit of the federal government. Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, but if the federal government cannot pay its bills, does that not leave all federal financial insurance programs at risk of being able to cover deposits at banks that go under.
That’s a good point.
biggerbox: As a mass transit user of buses in NYC, I feel your alarm at losing the bus line. Our MTA has cut some lines and cut back others or otherwise reconfigured routes. The only good about being unemployed right now is that I don’t have to contend with all their changes on a daily basis.
Yes, at this point I’m at a loss to even imagine what the House Republicans think they’re going to accomplish here, unless they really think this is going to be a political win for them. Destroy the economy, Obama gets blamed, victory in 2012!
Except that Obama is out there, right now, visibly tying himself into pretzels to try to avert the crisis that the House Republicans visibly don’t give a damn about. And even though no one is looking beyond August 2 right now, for obvious reasons, there are still 14 months between that date and the election, and the House Republicans will continue to be a ravening horde during that period, and Barack Obama will continue to be Barack Obama. Whatever his faults may be, that in itself is no small advantage against numskulls like these.
And he might well be facing one of them in the presidential campaign. Her, or Mitt Romney. So I’m definitely worried about August 2, but not so much about Obama’s chances of being a one-term president.
I know how you feel, PurpleGirl.
I try to look for the positives wherever I can find them. 🙂
For instance, ever since I left my job, moved back upstate NY with my folks, and have been jobless, I don’t have to contend with some of those pesky decisions I used to have to make a couple of times a week when I didn’t feel like bringing lunch or cooking dinner – what to eat, what to eat? Sushi? Pizza? Indian? Thai? Chinese? A burger? Italian? Vietnamese? A sandwich? Seafood?
Instead, Im left with trying to turn whatever my parents and I can afford into something vaguely resembling an interesting and nutritious meal. Usually out of the cheap meat and fish and vegetables we can afford, and some starchy sh*t to cut it with, so it looks like more, and is more filling. I hardly ate carbs for years, now we live off of bread, potato’s, rice (brown, when I can fool my parents into eating it), and pasta’s and noodles (whole wheat, again, when I can fool my parents into eating it). It’s true, btw, that as we age, we regress back into children. My parent’s don’t want to, or won’t eat, certain foods – and they’re usually the ones I happen to love.
PS: This was in no way intended to make fun of, or mock what PurpleGirl wrote. Not having to contend with bus schedule changess, to me, is like not having to worry about a menu that varies too much.
This is sort of snark, but directed at the world as I now see it. Ah, who am I kidding – I’m just plain ol’ bitchin’! 😉
That’s okay CUND.
I try to look for the positives wherever I can find them. 🙂
If we all didn’t try to find positives somewhere and somehow and/or rant on a regular basis to cope, we might kill someone or hurt ourselves.
This blog really has turned into something like an online support group, hasn’t it?
maha,
Yup!
I don’t know what I’d do without you and the regulars here.
We may criticize Obama and the Democrats here, but if you go to other sites, the commenters there think that even Ivory Soap isn’t pure enough for the anti-Obama Purity Police. That other nasty other .56% needs to admit that it blindly follows the President and Democrats, and is stupid and ignorant, and needs to realize how they dogmatically follow what’s being spoon-fed to them. They are as Manichean as the people they bitch about on the right. But they can’t see it themselves.
Yours is one of the few sites where rational discourse is encouraged, and loud-mouthed oafs who can’t back up what they say get put in their place – or out of this place.
Thanks, everyone!
If it weren’t for the 10 to 20 people I ‘converse’ with every day here, I might be doing 10 to 20 somewhere not quite as convivial.
This blog really has turned into something like an online support group, hasn’t it?
Well, I’ve been getting my therapy here for quite awhile… It’s sort of like rage therapy, but instead of hitting a pillow..I get to verbally off load on Bush, Bachmann, Beck and the rest of those Bastards.
Actually, the Space Shuttle to me symbolized a lot that was wrong with America (and winding it down is one of the few hopeful signs). The Apollo Program – which preceded the Shuttle and resulted in our landing on the moon – was far more symbolic of “Can do!”
The Shuttle was result of corporate lobbying, an expensive taxpayers’ gift to the aerospace industry. It never really did much of anything. NASA scientists moaned that it was all but useless for “space exploration.” It could send astronauts on joy rides around the Earth. With a maximum altitude of 350 miles, it was vastly inferior to the Apollo and its Saturn rockets, which could travel 250,000 miles to the moon at a much lower price. Most of what we learned about the solar system came from unmanned probes sent to Mars, Venus, and beyond, but it was hard to get funding for that because the Shuttle sucked up most of NASA’s budget.
The Shuttle had no mission until we built the International Space Station. Alas, the ISA had no mission either, other than to provide a showcase make-work project for the Shuttle. Great for sending astronauts on joy rides, but no real space exploration. But the Shuttle was a very poor choice even for building a space station. Any NASA engineer would tell you that bringing wings and wheels into space (at great cost) is crazy. The only purpose of the wings and wheels is for landing on a runway. The great complexity of the design made the Shuttle inherently unsafe, as two disasters proved. But the “space airplane” did look cool though, and the public no doubt enjoyed seeing that America had a cool toy like they saw on Star Wars or Buck Rogers.
If the Shuttle could have flown to the moon or Mars, that would have been something. But actually not – the Shuttle required a runway to land, so how could you land the Shuttle on the moon or Mars when there are no runways there? Not to mention no atmosphere on the moon, or a very thin one on Mars, which means the Shuttle’s wings would never work and the vehicle would plunge to a disastrous death even before dealing with the no runways problem.
NASA knew it was the wrong vehicle for the wrong job, but it got built anyway thanks to corporate lobbyists. Now that symbolizes the America’s malaise!
Great essay about this:
The Wrong Stuff, by Steven Weinberg
http://www.slick-net.com/rnr/wrg_stf.phtml
Candide — I’m sure you’re right about the space shuttle, but its still sad to think that now we’ve entirely abandoned any sort of manned space program. It feels like civilization is going backward instead of forward.
This is a time where everyone needs to take names and numbers. All of those in Congress who support defaulting need to be primaried–need to lose his/her job. If default happens, the results will be the motivators to getting rid of the ashholes. However, those who do vote for default and it doesn’t happen need to be remembered at election time. They need to know that there is NO REWARD when they work against the BEST interests of the whole country. If we do get through this crisis, I’m sure the Repugs will find another way to put us on the brink. They are relentless when it comes to destruction. It will be a struggle to get through this Presidency. If Obama were to win a second term, I hope he will wreak havoc on the Republicans. As for the future, the stupid Americans seem to be multiplying; I fear for the future.
Re: warning signs, and “not getting it”… I don’t remember if I was told this, or figured it out, but – most warnings are not because of ordinary circumstances. They’re for times when something goes unexpectedly wrong. You can do something a hundred times, and nothing will go wrong, but sooner or later, a 1 in a hundred (or one in a thousand) piece of bad luck will catch up with you.
And yes, a lot of people don’t realize that.
Re: the house Republicans, a lot of young people are taught that what’s good and noble is to be strong and steadfast in one’s beliefs. It dovetails well with the Republican game of talking points that are supposedly simple answers to everything. I think I mentioned this – Newt Gingrich really cranked up the propaganda machine in ’93, and the people who became politically active for the first back then have been hearing that Democrats and liberals are “pro-tax, pro-abortion, anti-family, anti-patriotism, etc.” for their entire adult lives, and now they’re in the position where they can start, e.g., running for the House.
If we’re lucky, some of the old Republicans are going to realize that, “holy shit, we’ve been playing this propaganda game for so long people don’t even realize it’s a game any more!” and will seriously apply the brakes. But they might not be able to. That’s what really scares me.
On the other hand, no sense assuming the worst. I am hoping that we might see a situation in which the “bold, principled leadership of refusing to pay the debts we’ve already incurred” ends up making them look like the irresponsible, inflexible fools they’re acting like.
Yes, although sometimes the danger is so apparent one shouldn’t need the warning signs. The waders were just 25 feet upstream from a 317 foot waterfall. Apparently even the child being carried around understood it was dangerous.
And to risk a child? I took another look at the article and realize I misread it earlier. The guy carrying the child did go over the fall, but someone was able to grab the child and pull her out, and so she is safe. She and an older sibling watched their father die. Way to go, Dad.
The space shuttle has made an impact on me in many ways. When Challenger exploded, I was working on the Chevron oil wharf in Los Angeles Harbor.
I had just surfaced from a dive shift, and one of the dock carpenter said “that space plane just exploded!” How terrible.The President’s speech was kinda corney, but seemed to fit the moment.
The shuttle used to land at Edwards AFB in California back then, and was sent home on the back of a 747.(we heard the sonic booms in Long Beach)
Several years later, we moved to Kissimmee, which is close enough to the “Space Coast” that night launches are beautiful to behold from the lake front down at the end of our street, we are also awakened by the sonic booms when the shuttle lands, as we were this morning at about 5:45 AM.
When Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry several years ago, one of my (not so bright) neighbors asked me if the Iraqis shot it down because there was an Israeli astronaut on board. I kid you not.
The news this morning said there are many private companies hoping to get after the space business, Russia will continue to provide transport service to and from the space station, several firms are hiring NASA workers in anticipation.
There are no words to describe the feeling you get when you view a launch at close range. It is magnificant.
As far as the accident in Yosemite goes, we have a saying in Florida about tourists leaving their brains at home. Tourists tend to be stupid around ‘gators, traffic, and lighting (in particular).I think the “reality show” mentality kicks in and can be deadly.
Swami, I hear ya! Same for me!
I was thinking the same thing. I looked up articles on the psychology of risk-taking and they were all about people being addicted to the adrenalin rush. But sometimes I think people do stupid things because they don’t fully perceive the difference between television and real life. Or real death, as it were.
House Republicans either don’t believe the warnings, or they do believe the warnings but think that, somehow, going over the falls will be to their advantage.
Because they think they are so uniquely virtuous and blessed by their Invisible Sky Daddy that they actually look forward to going over the falls and going to heaven. Whatever the political equivalent of that is.
This is why you don’t put self-righteous arrogant crusading assholes, whose thought processes revolve around fairy tales and magic, in charge of things. The Koch brothers deserve to take a massive hit to their financial holdings and be jeered and spit upon whenever they show their faces in public.
I echo Candide’s sentiments about the space shuttle and the space station. I’m not sure what its practical benefits were, but it was hugely symbolic, and a great deal of make work. One of the charming features of Southern California was this strange locally produced TV show called Hot Seat, where this conservative commentator, named Wally George, would belittle a liberal “guest”. A boisterous studio audience, seated in bleachers jeered, and eventually by the end of the show, the guest would be escorted out of the studio by a security guard, for their own protection. It was all great fun, usually at 2:30 in the morning, on some channel way out in UHF neverland. Behind Wally, were arrayed all these conservative icons, including a poster of the space shuttle, blasting off, emblazoned with “We’re #1” in big letters.
Fortunately a country that could afford the somewhat useless spectacles of the space shuttle and space station, could also afford some profoundly amazing projects, such as the various robot explorers and orbiting telescopes which have dramatically expanded our understanding of the cosmos. It’s no exaggeration to say that we’re living in the golden age of astronomy.
Cheers everyone, Thanks to you all for so many insights.
I feel a fool not to have seen this it on my own, but, I think Candide is right. Apollo was about a lot of things, but not the least was man’s non-rational desire to “set foot” somewhere, there was something uniquely human about it. (I watch “Apollo !3 periodically and I always get misty when that fellow says, “She sure a good ship.”) The shuttle was more about productive capacity and the exploitation and display of the technological advances that had been the fruit of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.
I was working in Clearwater, Florida when the Challenger disaster happened. The CEO of our company came up to me and asked, “Did you hear what happened? The shuttle blew up, they’re all dead.” I went out into our parking lot and I asked one of my co-workers if he heard the news and he pointed at the sky and said, “Yeah you can see the smoke over there.” And you could see the smoke.
I don’t remember how many months later it was before the next launch. But, I was driving home from work listening to the account on the radio. As the countdown neared zero many of us pulled off the road, got out of our cars and looked toward the sector of the horizon that had become familiar from previous launches. When I saw that familiar streak of orange against the sky I felt a pride and an optimism that was almost unparalleled.
Well, that didn’t come to so much in the end did it?
“Sally used to play with hula hoops, now she tells her problems to therapy groups.” I don’t think we’re that bad. But, for now, it’s hard to keep the old chin up 24/7.
When the Challenger disaster happened I was working for a now-defunct K-12 textbook company in New Jersey called Silver Burdett. Most of the editors had been teachers. The company had set up television sets on every floor so we could watch the launch. Naturally, the events of the day were devastating to the staff. I remember sitting in silence until the television announcer verified that we really did see what we just saw, and then people started to cry.
If you’ve never been to Yosemite you may not know about granite polish and the water. Once the rock is wet, it is very slippery. And around the falls there are no sharp edges. They’ve all been polished by the water. Massive, massive amounts of water. Smaller than Niagara, but you are closer to the edge. Very close to the edge. The barriers at the edge are steel and blasted and concreted into the rock. The little stick figures even scare me. That’s as far as it goes tho. You can easily cross or go under the barrier to get a picture without it. Go a half mile upstream and there is something called the “Emerald Pool” which people swim in, although the snow melt temperature has never tempted me. I try to imagine the ride down. Jumping off the high dive leaves me dizzy in the stomach. How was that ride?
I understand that we’re all wired differently, but I never understood taking risks for thrills. I don’t like being frightened. I can’t stand amusement park rides. I get panic and vertigo attacks in high places even when I’m in no danger, although airplane rides don’t bother me as long as the turbulence isn’t too bad. Go figure.
I’m with you, Maha, on that. I don’t like being frightened either. I not only don’t do amusement parks; but, I never go to scary movies either. I was dragged by a friend to The Exorcist and proved that having the s**t scared out of you was no fun at all.
I’m with you guys – life is scary enough as is…