Disclaimer: I am terrible with money, my own and anyone else's; so much so that Sailors on Leave have demanded I stop saying "I spend money like a Sailor on leave" because I'm far worse than that. I mention that because I assume and presume the USA can't afford, literally or politically, to shrug its shoulders at all the people to whom we owe money and put our hands in our pockets so the debt ceiling extension was important. Even if that got lost in the noise real fast.
So the agreement hammered out breathlessly at the last minute was/is a wonderful/terrible exercise in statesmanship/brinkmanship and all points east and west of that on the political and economic compasses of those in the know. Except, dweeb that I am, I can't help wonder about those 'those in the know' folks who got us here, and then left us here. There's something vaguely 'what's good for General Motors is good for America' about what went on that I'm not entirely comfortable with.
But the part that most bothers me is the 'who won? who lost?' aspect of the coverage of whatever car crash of a deal this actually is. For every word offered as an attempted explanation of intent and impact, I'm getting hundreds of words on how one side is such and such and the other is so and so.
I thought we were in this together. We weren't? I missed that memo.
The guys with the button down shirts got the better of those with the Oxford collars? And all this time I thought we were trying to clothe everyone. How can we have an outside when there's no inside, or insight, come to think of it. The video from Dodge City Deliberations and Machinations most nights looks more like Seuss' Star-Bellied Sneetches than reasoned discussion and debate for the good of the republic and those who live in it.
And instead of explaining what is going on and why, we get treated to hours of handicapping a horse race that doesn't actually have horses (okay, maybe the back ends of horses). We have to be content with the politics of posturing and pandering that leaves us all just a little unclean and in need of a shower. Sign me up.
Makes me wonder what we'd look like as a country if the same 'for me to look good, you need to look bad' mindset had made the trip to Philadelphia for that lost weekend in July of 1776. Who wants to tell Washington we can't pay for that boat across the Delaware and what was Franklin thinking of? Jefferson and Adams said he can go fly a kite. Speaking of which, we have video of that coming up right after the break so don't go anywhere.
-bill kenny
And instead of explaining what is going on and why, we get treated to hours of handicapping a horse race that doesn't actually have horses (okay, maybe the back ends of horses). We have to be content with the politics of posturing and pandering that leaves us all just a little unclean and in need of a shower. Sign me up.
Makes me wonder what we'd look like as a country if the same 'for me to look good, you need to look bad' mindset had made the trip to Philadelphia for that lost weekend in July of 1776. Who wants to tell Washington we can't pay for that boat across the Delaware and what was Franklin thinking of? Jefferson and Adams said he can go fly a kite. Speaking of which, we have video of that coming up right after the break so don't go anywhere.
-bill kenny
No comments:
Post a Comment