Post: #1

This is becoming a ritual it seems (the last threat of a government shutdown was in 2011), but the US government is on the brink of shutting down:

Government shutdown: Get up to speed in 20 questions

http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/30/politics/g...?hpt=hp_t1

Looking over the ramifications, it looks like most of the government is still going to function, and only the federal workers deemed "non-essential" are going to be sent home if a deal isn't reached by Midnight (~800,000 workers).

My view of the situation is the GOP has painted itself into a corner and it is probably only a matter of time before they cave.

Post: #2

(09-30-2013 10:49 AM)The Texas Prophet Wrote:  This is becoming a ritual it seems (the last threat of a government shutdown was in 2011), but the US government is on the brink of shutting down:

Government shutdown: Get up to speed in 20 questions

http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/30/politics/g...?hpt=hp_t1

Looking over the ramifications, it looks like most of the government is still going to function, and only the federal workers deemed "non-essential" are going to be sent home if a deal isn't reached by Midnight (~800,000 workers).

My view of the situation is the GOP has painted itself into a corner and it is probably only a matter of time before they cave.

The faux government shutdown is not a biggie. They did them in the 90s and nothing much happened to the economy.

The only time the shit will hit the fan is if Congress decides not to raise the debt limit by October 17th. Then shit gets real.

Post: #3

In 24 hours the news story will be how both parties saved the day and reached an agreement for more spending.

In 10 years the US will be on the level of developing countries in that it is too broke to pay for 90% of non essential workers and projects.

This shit can not go on forever.

Post: #4

This could fuck up a job I am in process for, so I will be seriously pissed.

Post: #5

Old, idiotic stunt recycled from the 90s. Nothing to see here.

Post: #6

Yeah. I'm personally affected by this here in DC. But thankfully I learned that since I work under a fixed price contract I will still get paid even if the fed shuts down.

I'm just going to hit up a coffee shop in the event the govt closes and day game.

Post: #7

I'm sure it's a pain in the butt for a whole lot of people, but take for instance the EPA: 15000 out of 16000 workers will furloughed. Many other agencies will be similarly slashed. Half the civilian workers at the Pentagon will be furloughed.

I guess nothing in life is all good or all bad, but this is a trade-off that overall will benefit society a very great deal, indeed.

The greater the degree of government inactivity, the better.

Post: #8

Metro will be empty, so this is a plus.

Post: #9

(09-30-2013 02:00 PM)Menace Wrote:  Metro will be empty, so this is a plus.

The city is already a lot more quiet than it usually is. Not many people out today. I suspect many workers just took the day off and expected the worst.

Post: #10

(09-30-2013 02:01 PM)Hencredible Casanova Wrote:  

(09-30-2013 02:00 PM)Menace Wrote:  Metro will be empty, so this is a plus.

The city is already a lot more quiet than it usually is. Not many people out today. I suspect many workers just took the day off and expected the worst.

Yep. Where I work was very empty. This shutdown is going to suck for those of us who are non-essential. In '95, they reimbursed government employees. This Congress seems like too much of douchebags to do that. I was in the Navy in 95, and it didn't have any effect on us. This time around as a government worker who is financially wrecked by a divorce and hasn't recovered from furloughs yet, it's going to suck.

On the bright side, I can have more time with my girlfriend.

Post: #11

Alot of guys here on base are running around like the sky is about to fall, saying that we won't get paid on time. Typical military fear-mongering although it's a possibility. I'm pretty sure that the 1st of the month paycheck will be on time. It's the 15th of the month one that I am worried about since I have no savings and have been blowing my cash ever since I got here because I'll be deployed to shitholistan very soon.

Post: #12

(09-30-2013 09:36 PM)choichoi Wrote:  Alot of guys here on base are running around like the sky is about to fall, saying that we won't get paid on time. Typical military fear-mongering although it's a possibility. I'm pretty sure that the 1st of the month paycheck will be on time. It's the 15th of the month one that I am worried about since I have no savings and have been blowing my cash ever since I got here because I'll be deployed to shitholistan very soon.

The military will be paid because Congress passed a bill today that preserves funding for paying military salaries in the event of a shutdown.

I guess they didn't want a bunch of armed people mad at them.

Post: #13

We are already paid too but they may still stop us from working. We will at least get four hours tomorrow. If shit goes on for a week, I am driving to Belize to flip a car and party in Cancun or hit up Internationalswagger in Playa del carmen.

So I am for the shutdown haha.

On a serious note, I am not a democrat or Repub but I see were the Repubs are coming from. Demos force fed the ACA without much debate. Delay the mandate for a year and make the Washington cocksuckers vet on the same plan and fix the shit in the coming year.

Post: #14

I guess this shutdown is going to last longer than I thought.

Post: #15

Anyone who thinks this shutdown will accomplish anything is on drugs.

Here's what will happen: sometime in the next week or so, John Boehner and all the tough-talking Tea Party Republicans will do an about-face and cave in to every single one of Obama's demands. Obamacare will go into effect as scheduled and the debt ceiling will be raised once more. Then the Republicans will go back to their constituents and sniffle: "Welp, we tried our best, but we just couldn't stop Obamacare. Sorry."

It's all political theater. The GOP has absolutely no interest in actually solving any of the issues it focuses on: abortion, gay marriage, Obamacare, nothing. If the government ever reached an agreeable conclusion to any of these issues, why, the GOP's demographics would be far less likely to turn out at the polls every November... and we can't very well have that, now can we?

Not only that, the idea that Congress has any real authority over the federal budget---or any authority of any kind---is a sick joke. Ever since FDR began transitioning the U.S. from a capitalist economy to a managerial one, power has increasingly shifted from elected politicians to alphabet agencies and civil servants---the NSA, FBI, CIA, the Fed etc.---who are completely unaccountable and have no real checks on their power. Any elected politicians who tries to rein in these bureaucracies always finds himself smacked down, whether it was Scott Walker taking on the public sector unions in Wisconsin two years ago or the conspiracy theories that the CIA was responsible for Kennedy's assassination. (There's also sizable evidence that the CIA was responsible for helping bring Nixon down; coincidentally, both Nixon and Kennedy had tried to rein in the agency's growing power and influence.)

Just watch how this "shutdown" unfolds. The only agencies that will be affected are the superfluous one. I can guaran-fucking-tee you that no matter what happens in the shutdown, the CIA, FBI, NSA and other law enforcement agencies who shove their fists up our asses with impunity will stay open. No matter how much the budget is supposedly "cut," the NSA will still have enough money to monitor the personal data of everyone in this country, reading your emails, making backups of those Facebook photos of yourself drunk at that party, and hijacking your webcam to watch you masturbate to teenage Latina porn.

Thing is, you can only jack someone off for so long before they come all over your hands. This shell game the Dems and Repubs keep playing, this political theater that plays out in which nothing ever gets solved; eventually the whole thing will come crashing down. I'm just hoping it comes in the form of, say, an internal peaceful revolution and not in the form of the Chinese calling our tab.

Tl;dr: this shutdown is bogus, politics is a lie.

Post: #16

Guess what? Stock futures are UP. No one gives a shit about this game they are playing.

Post: #17

(10-01-2013 12:33 AM)Matt Forney Wrote:  Then the Republicans will go back to their constituents and sniffle: "Welp, we tried our best, but we just couldn't stop Obamacare. Sorry."

Makes sense to me. "We wanted to SAVE you from having health insurance, we're so sorry."

Post: #18

The GOP has played itself into a corner. They can't back down without looking like dweebs, and they can't force their hand without looking like renegades. The GOP is filled with such clownery that I sometimes can't even believe it. The social conservatives lost the fight against gay marriage and abortion a long time ago. I think the social conservatives are right to fight for a term limit on abortion, and I think churches should be able to make up their own mind as to whether they wish to marry gays or not, but the GOP only destroys itself by trying to abolish these things outright. Social conservatives will simply never vote for the democrats, but fiscally conservative liberals may vote for the GOP. Thus the most effective track for the GOP is to dump the socon zombies and embrace the fiscal conservatism.

If they do that I think they'll win in 2016, particularly for one additional reason. The MRM and red pill is going to catch on and when it does the left is absolutely going to tear itself apart worse than the federalists did two centuries ago.

Post: #19

(10-01-2013 12:33 AM)Matt Forney Wrote:  ...

Any elected politicians who tries to rein in these bureaucracies always finds himself smacked down, whether it was Scott Walker taking on the public sector unions in Wisconsin two years ago

I thought Walker won, and the unions lost a lot of power.

Post: #20

(10-01-2013 12:46 AM)Wadsworth Wrote:  The GOP has played itself into a corner. They can't back dow the most effective track for the GOP is to dump the socon zombies and embrace the fiscal conservatism.

This makes sense. Back in the 50's the Republicans were human beings, not bloodthirsty zombies campaigning for bizarre, trivial shit.

You can make a reasonable argument for fiscal conservatism, but not about gay marriage ctype rap. And not while you're borrowing trillions to invade Iraq.

Post: #21

(09-30-2013 12:42 PM)bacon Wrote:  In 24 hours the news story will be how both parties saved the day and reached an agreement for more spending.

In 10 years the US will be on the level of developing countries in that it is too broke to pay for 90% of non essential workers and projects.

This shit can not go on forever.

I'll take you money on that bet with 2-1 odds in your favor.

Yer just talking shit.

The US is one of the most powerful, resilient economies in the world. Ready to put up some cash that the US personal income will remain far, far above current devoloping countries?

I expect resounding silence, or changing of the subject.

Post: #22

Quote:Makes sense to me. "We wanted to SAVE you from having health insurance, we're so sorry."

Obamacare will only advance the decline of America.

Nothing good will come of it.

I'm curious, what magic spell will the Democrats use to conjure up doctors out of thin air?

Let's not forget all those doctors running away to private practice.

It's okay though, CHANGE is good.

Post: #23

(10-01-2013 12:53 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  

(09-30-2013 12:42 PM)bacon Wrote:  In 24 hours the news story will be how both parties saved the day and reached an agreement for more spending.

In 10 years the US will be on the level of developing countries in that it is too broke to pay for 90% of non essential workers and projects.

This shit can not go on forever.

I'll take you money on that bet with 2-1 odds in your favor.

Yer just talking shit.

The US is one of the most powerful, resilient economies in the world. Ready to put up some cash that the US personal income will remain far, far above current devoloping countries?

I expect resounding silence, or changing of the subject.

For how long? For the next few years? Sure, the USA will be better than say Russia or China.

In 30 years, if we keep wasting money at the rate we are with no economic return. Unlikely.

The economy is on the verge of collapse due to all the wasteful spending.

Post: #24

(10-01-2013 12:48 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  

(10-01-2013 12:33 AM)Matt Forney Wrote:  ...

Any elected politicians who tries to rein in these bureaucracies always finds himself smacked down, whether it was Scott Walker taking on the public sector unions in Wisconsin two years ago

I thought Walker won, and the unions lost a lot of power.

Yes and no, he succeeded and the law was later overturned (I think?) but when the law was overturned most of the big state government unions had already dissolved and I don't think people would sign up again.

Post: #25

(10-01-2013 12:53 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  I'll take you money on that bet with 2-1 odds in your favor.

Yer just talking shit.

The US is one of the most powerful, resilient economies in the world. Ready to put up some cash that the US personal income will remain far, far above current devoloping countries?

I expect resounding silence, or changing of the subject.

Let me guess -- you were a real estate agent in 2008?

Everything stays the same, until it changes.