It began as an ordinary Friday – looking forward to the weekend, checking
out trailers of new movies, finishing to-do lists, planning visits to yard
sales and craft fairs to appease the wife, getting ready for the football game
[which I may watch out of obligation], the wife making an 11 o’clock Saturday doggy
groomer appointment for our Boo, the Shih Tzu. Fall is always a special time since
it’s a reprieve from the increasingly hot summers that climate deniers religiously
reject. But what the hey? No big deal. It’s just theory, right?
Same for default on the national debt. It’s just liberal theory, right?
Throughout the weeks leading up to the potential “Day After,” I try to hide my unease about the political turmoil threatening the nation. Admittedly, I cannot accept the U.S. Government will default on its full faith and credit – especially over such foolishness. But even for this political junkie, the brinksmanship is more than I can handle.
My obsession with politics through the years has created an understood space between the family and me. I have to conceal politics like a sleazy man hiding porn. At least I’m allowed the “pleasure” on my own TV and computer in a side-room. But seldom am I permitted to bring up the subject in “polite” conversation. It’s taboo Number 2, preceded only by shit.
The pending crash is no different, too negative to be on-the-table. I dare not report what’s actually going on. So, I must internally harbor the anguish. How can I finally tell my wife her Social Security check is soon to be withheld? If internalizing such bad news is a recipe for heart attack, I’m way overdue.
The weekend before dead date is strangely silent. CNN, MSNBC and FOX broadcast regular programming, which means endless hours of “Lockup” on MSNBC. The “progressive” network somehow attempts to placate its sadomasochistic crowd Friday through Sunday. (Don’t they have enough sense and cents to air something better?) CNN runs specials about food – true responsible journalism, while FOX of course replays the just-adjourned Values Voter Summit ad nauseam as if everyone but white rightwing evangelicals are heaven-bound patriots and everyone else is Rosemary’s Baby.
What qualifies as continuous coverage? If only the double-whammy shut-down and default had been the George Zimmerman Trial or another mass-shooting compliments of the NRA… or Obama unleashing an unauthorized airstrike on Damascus stirring a constitutional crisis [since Republicans can’t tolerate a Democrat President doing the same as their own did 24 times – such blatant hypocrites they are]. Weekend TV is as if nothing’s about to happen. At ease, gentlemen. Calm before the storm.
But potentially it’s the biggest news since 9/11.
The termites – not the terrorists – are finally bringing down the Grand House. They’ve been eating away at it for years, but now is their time – the crash. The cartoonish characters celebrate as they exit their cavernous chambers to announce “Mission Accomplished”. Yes, there is manifest rejoicing as they notice the walls creak and chandeliers sway. How they despised the Grand House that gave them nourishment all these years. “Grand House isn’t the solution to our problem; Grand House IS the problem.” I vividly recall the dream 10 years before about the strange little humanoid parasites consuming the Grand House USA. My interpretation was then as it is now – rightwing extremists are bringing down the US.
Of course, I’m nearly as upset with the House’s maintenance crew. They had ample opportunity to exterminate and re-construct the structure. Either they were distracted by personal issues or obsessed by newfound celebrity attention. But the finalé is the same. The termites win.
We’ve come so close to the cliff before, anxiety is worn thin. Like a criminal’s conscience, we feel no urgency, no dread. Hardly anyone is concerned about impending disaster. We’ve been inoculated by countless false alarms; vacuum in network coverage proof.
Where are the OCCUPY demonstrators? Oh well. It was of no effect anyhow – whisked away after 15 months of fame. No political muscle whatsoever. Where are its congressmen to balance the Tea Party in Washington? Zilch. Just twerpy, whiney leadership talking out of both-sides of the mouth with no solid values to anchor a movement. Morality in the abstract is a-moral. OCCUPY is about as beneficial to the 99% as Ted Cruz is to repealing the Affordable Care Act. There is no energized Progressive Movement.
Republicans have employed a ransom strategy for two years. Obama went along with them of course, thinking appeasement would bring them around. In 2011 they threatened the collapse of the US if Obama didn’t agree to their demands – a sequester that was eventually activated March 2013.
But this time is different. He finally decides to put his foot down. Republicans demand the repeal of Obamacare or else they will not only refuse to pass a budget but will default on the full faith and credit of the United States. Never has this been done, because supposedly the parties “love” their country more than their party or ideology.
But not this time. The nation is held hostage by the Tea Party which apparently has the Speaker of the House by the balls. Boehner is too cowardly to allow a clean C.R. and clean debt ceiling bill to come up for a vote by the entire House, not just a majority of Republicans. Tea Partiers demand amendments to the bills requiring deep cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Food Stamps while increasing Defense spending. The Majority, the Democrats, which control the Senate and White House, object, naturally. But the temper-tantrum Tea Party infants must have it their way or they threaten the collapse of the US and world economies.
Rachel Maddow of MSNBC gives a clever visual of their hostage attempt:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/17/rachel-maddow-shutdown-republican-chart_n_4114662.html
The day arrives with no agreement. Washington is at an unresolvable impasse; the clock is ticking. Finally at the last minute a deal is struck to rescue the nation from certain collapse. 100% ofl Democrats in the House vote for the measure while 62% of Republicans vote against it. Yes, a large majority of Republicans are FOR crashing the US economy.
But wait.
The agreement also guarantees the country will be going through the same thing in three months. A new joint-budget committee is required to come up with a solution by December or else, and Republicans are still chained to the Grover Norquist pledge never to raise taxes, zero exceptions. George Bush’s damage must remain as is or else. The termites are still busy eating down the House.
D-Day is simply put off until early February with actors the same, actions as well.
February 17 mirrors October 17.
The day after is only the beginning of disintegration. No government means no controls and having no controls means chaos. Religious broadcasters are quick to blame Democrats, liberals and an illegitimate president for what ensues; millions buy into it. No longer is it only 800,000 federal employees deprived of incomes, but 70,000,000 Americans who rely on Social Security, military pay, Veteran’s Benefits, and Disability.
The states also begin to collapse – as they also rely heavily on federal assistance. The “States Rights” crowd is gleeful, but not for long.
If only they would have come to an agreement…. If only Barack Obama would have invoked the 14th Amendment, bypassing Congress to prevent default. If only the Republican Party wasn’t possessed by the demons of religiosity which are natural specialists at demonizing opposition to rejection in the public eye.
But, no, none of this was possible, because Tea Party Republicans would have sabotaged the country anyway. And if Obama had stepped in to prevent collapse, they would have introduced articles of impeachment (as they’ve desired all along).
I sit here in mid-winter 2014 puzzled how this could have all happened. I didn’t expect the movie to end this way. This soon.
The following was written in 2003 the morning after the dream:
THE GRAND HOUSE AND TERMITES
by Loren Adams • Fayetteville AR USA • October 3, 2003
Grand House America is being eaten away by human termites. The very foundation of the nation is trembling; our house is divided and shall fall if not repaired in short order.
It’s about greed and corruption of the highest order. The concentration of wealth into the hands of the few only leads to chaos, the same reason all forms of tyranny fail. Extremism is no virtue.
I had a dream last night (2 October 2003). NOTE: This is not embellished to spice up the story, but what I saw was most vivid and [to me] seemed real. In the dream I was admiring a large, well-built house surrounded by tall oak shade trees — at which time my dream’s focus was transferred to the roof where I saw what looked at first like termites eating away.
But upon closer inspection, the termites were little people. The tiny odd human-like creatures were building little dwellings throughout the ceiling and up to the roof, and then in the basement and inside the walls. But they were using materials FROM the house to build their own — thus undermining and compromising the walls and support beams. Their nourishment came from the very house they were in the process of destroying.
The effect on the Grand House was ruin. I saw it begin to shake, crumble and fall. The creatures were parasite-like and cared not about the big house, but only cared about their separate little dwellings which could not have come into existence without the Grand House’s materials. They were invaders and parasites but assumed they owned the house.
The Grand House is America. The little termite humans are the greedy ones who care not about the Grand House, but only about their narrowly focused points of view, agendas, and their own extreme ideologies.
I also saw a link from the disintegration of Grand House USA to the collapse of entire world. For, it wasn’t only the Grand House affected, but like a giant tsunami, waves surged around the globe wrecking nation after nation with instability and violence following.
My take-away is that the Grand House America is riddled with termites determined to eat away at the very fabric of our heritage, and upon completion of their parasitic, destructive process, they will condemn us to Third World status.
I awoke very puzzled and troubled by the dream. I could visualize how the forces of greed combined with extreme religion (not true Christianity) could eat away at America’s fabric. For the humanoid-like creatures had the faces of zealotry, racism, self-righteousness, greed, and hate with a lethal, incurable ingrained ideology enabling these vices to appear as virtuous.