The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    cmaukonen's picture

    Not Chess Mister Spock....Poker

    By cmaukonen on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 4:11pm |



    With Obama calmly announcing that seniors may not get their Social Security checks. Geithner saying that a default would lead to economic chaos.  And McConnell deciding to fold. We now have a situation where the economic situation sounds more like a high stakes Las Vegas card game. And now Bachmann insists on Obama showing his hand and accuses him and the dems of playing with a marked deck.  Obama of course just wants to continue the game. 

    But can he win with a busted flush ?




     

    Comments

    Bachmann, Steve King and Louie Gohmert say that it is OK to bust through the debt ceiling, as long as the interest on the debt is paid first, and that's a busted hand in the face of McConnell folding? They also accuse Boehner of lyning to the American people.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/13/gohmert-bachmann-king-debt-limi...

    I'm not sure these are those three jokers are the poker players you should feel safe in placing a bet.


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 4:55pm

    Well I don't know about that but one thing is for sure. Wall Street is not happy.

    "Asking what the U.S. economy might look like after a possible U.S. Treasury default is akin to asking 'what will you do after you commit suicide,' " wrote Steven Wieting, Managing Director in the Economic and Market Analysis team of Citigroup, in a July 11, 2011 report.

    "It's still nearly unthinkable," he added, running through a scenario in which government spending were slashed by $100 billion per month, checks from the Treasury were drastically cut, Social Security payments were chopped down $25 billion per month and payments for military personnel salaries essentially froze. "We doubt that even the most extremist of policymakers believes that private economic activity will immediately fill the void left by so large a drop in these deficit-financed 'income' streams. Their many constituents would let them know the personal impact whatever the perceived benefits."

    And Wall Street, unlike the republicans, knows which side their bread is buttered on.


    by cmaukonen on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 6:04pm

    McConnell is folding. Wall Street wants the debt ceiling raised. How does Bachmann's rant create a busted hand for Obama?


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 7:05pm

    His hand consists of Reganomics. With which he hopes to rescue the economy . Was a loosing hand then and is a loosing hand now.


    by cmaukonen on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 7:23pm

    Wow. Every sentence in your post relates to the debt ceiling. Your reply to my response to your post was about the debt ceiling. You now say that your real point was about Obama and Reagonomics??!!


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 7:52pm

    Obama let the GOP run down the clock by having discussions instead of negotiations. Once Obama insisted on tax increases, the Republicans backed off. Now with the time running out, Wall Street is pressuring the GOP to raise the debt ceiling.

    Whether the Republicans were playing chess or poker, they lost.


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 8:08pm

    Read the Wall Street journal editorial page today, even the WSJ realizes the loss that the GOP has suffered. Cantor says that Obama walked out of today's debt ceiling  meeting. Obama gave the GOP a Friday deadline.

    The debt ceiling cannot be reached by a dollar for dollar reduction in spending and tax increases.

           - Barack Obama


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 8:14pm

    By the way, Obama's reelection campaign took in a record haul. His base is still there.


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 8:17pm

    As my blog on this points out, he outdid the entire GOP stable of candidates.


    by Elusive Trope on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 8:22pm

    Just read it. Thanks


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 10:52pm

    One possible outcome: The Powers To Be (who control the MSM) come to believe that the Republicans are to much in the control of the extreme base and shift their weight behind Obama the Socialist.  If the widely held belief that the MSM controls the messaging and the minds of the public is to be believed, this would almost certainly guarantee an Obama victory in 2012 along with a whole lot of cognitive dissonance on both sides of the aisle.


    by Elusive Trope on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 8:20pm

    The "wild card" in all this:

    According to a Gallup survey done in the last several days, 42 percent of Americans want their member of Congress to vote against raising the debt ceiling versus 22 percent who would prefer their lawmakers to vote for an increase.

    And the feelings were even more negative among those who said they were very closely following the issue, with 53 percent of those saying they were against a rise compared with 37 percent in favor.

    Now that Wall Street is actually talking about the direness of a default, the numbers may begin to change.  And with that a feeling of anger toward those on the Republican side for now being forthcoming about the situation, as well as possible sense that they are like McCain saying the fundamentals of the economy are sound.

     


    by Elusive Trope on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 8:16pm

    I don't watch much MSM so I don't know how well the general public is being educated on what the debt ceiling really means. I agree that Wall Street's unease about the debt ceiling will help Obama sell his message.


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 8:20pm

    The closest I get to MSM is watching Morning Joe as I get ready for work, and they've done a half-way decent job of presenting all sides of it, which of course includes Crazy Uncle Buchanan. 

    My guess is that most Americans equate debt ceiling with the actual point that the debt because a problem like they are hearing Greece, Spain, Ireland, and Italy are getting to.

    I would add that such polling numbers are why the socialists need to have a moderate like Obama in office for the duration of his 8 year term if they hope to have a pathway to getting an actual socialist in the oval office.


    by Elusive Trope on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 8:37pm

    LOL


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 9:09pm

    Today he said, "Don't call my bluff." Which Bobby Fischer never said.


    by Doctor Cleveland on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 9:38pm

    But Bobby did say: "Yeah, there are too many Jews in chess. They seem to have taken away the class of the game. They don't seem to dress so nicely, you know. That's what I don't like."


    by Elusive Trope on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 10:59pm

    Bobby clearly didn't know Genghis and his collar.


    by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/15/2011 - 1:15pm

    Maybe Maverick  said it.


    by cmaukonen on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 11:06pm

    Any American who is telling the pollsters they want their rep to vote against the raising of the debt ceiling cannot possibly understand what that means.

    Seems pretty simple to me. This has little to do with future spending, but everything to do with debt already accumulated, bills that are coming due now. You CANNOT cut 40% of August's budget in one month w/o cutting bone. Many apparently still don't understand that, or don't understand how much the cost of servicing our debt will go up in the form of higher interest payments if the bond markets get spooked.

    One of the tea whakos was on Hardball tonight...his experience in government and business and raising his family has taught him that the President is lying, and we have the money to pay our debt w/o increasing the debt ceiling. I was speechless.


    by stillidealistic on Thu, 07/14/2011 - 12:13am

    I think the opening of the NPR article on the poll results says it all:

    It may say more about the state of economic education in the nation than anything else but a majority of Americans remain opposed raising the federal debt ceiling according to a new Gallup poll.

     


    by Elusive Trope on Thu, 07/14/2011 - 12:17am

    But let's keep writing the textbooks in frickin' Texas.


    by stillidealistic on Thu, 07/14/2011 - 12:34am

    And in some kind of twist of fate, we just might have Obama vs. Perry for the White House.


    by Elusive Trope on Thu, 07/14/2011 - 12:44am

    Wouldn't that be interesting!?

    I've heard some people suggesting that his entrance into the race would be the only thing that would keep the one of the crazies from being nominated. Um...as far as I'm concerned, he IS one of the crazies.


    by stillidealistic on Thu, 07/14/2011 - 12:48am

    I just want him try to explain to the moderates why Texas seceding from the Union isn't extremist. 


    by Elusive Trope on Thu, 07/14/2011 - 1:06am

    Perry was the guy who suggested to the Tea Party that secession was a possibility. Salon has an article about Perry's support from a Confederate group that believes in secession to create a glorious Southern region. The group identified Perry as a member of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans.

    http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/07/13/rick_perry_sons_o...

    I doubt that the revelation will have any impact on Perry's campaign to be the GOP Presidential nominee, since welcoming an Alaskan separatist group's convention to her state did not harm Sarah Palin.


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 07/14/2011 - 1:19am

    Obama's team would welcome Perry as much as they would welcome a Palin candidacy (well, almost - Palin's would be the Holy Grail).


    by Elusive Trope on Thu, 07/14/2011 - 1:57am

    He currently does not poll much better than a dingo dog, though.


    by cmaukonen on Thu, 07/14/2011 - 9:11am

    There are only two ways to increase your revenue, either you take in more or you cut expenses.

    Borrowing only delays the inevitable, either you take in more or you cut.

    The Republicans are standing firm on not allowing more revenue. 

    End of subject,

    By the way, the deadline is closer today than it was yesterday. 


    by Resistance on Thu, 07/14/2011 - 12:23am

    Lawrence O'donnell's report on the day's happenings is enough to bring me to cheers! He has certainly been critical of the President at times, but he's beside himself impressed tonight.

    I mentioned on my FB page I'd like to smack the smirk off of Cantor's face (along with McConnell's and Boehner's) but it sounds like the Pres may have done it for me.


    by stillidealistic on Thu, 07/14/2011 - 12:30am