Spine-Chilling Hallowe'en Tales (Left, Right, And Center)
It's that time of year again, so gather 'round, kiddies, for our spine-tingling and bone-chilling tales of political horror!
This Hallowe'en, we've got not only two frightful nightmares to recount, but actually three, so that absolutely nobody will feel left out. Yes, horrific futures await not only for Democrats and Republicans, but one at the end for everybody to run from, shrieking in terror all the while!
As always, our spooky stories are accompanied by hand-carved Jack-o-lanterns (so that I can write off "pumpkin purchase" on my taxes). That first one's supposed to be a baseball mitt (get it... Mitt?), but admittedly wasn't my best effort. The second one's supposed to be red, too. The third one came out OK, I thought... but I digress.
To get back into the frightful spirit, let's turn off the lights, and everyone make a circle and turn on your flashlights and point them at your chins (for the proper spooky atmosphere), and we'll begin with our skeleton-rattling, chain-dragging tales of fearful futures...
Democratic Nightmare
The unemployment number is released on Friday, and America is shocked to see it rise to 8.4 percent. As a result, a late-breaking wave of voters all swing to Mitt Romney, and he comfortably wins election next Tuesday.
Republicans not only retain their control over the House, they also pick up two Senate seats, to put their number at 49. Democrats are confident that they've dodged a bullet, until they notice that Angus King has won in Maine as an Independent, and has still not told anyone who he's going to be caucusing with. King, after being offered the chairmanship of the Senate Committee On Lobster Fishing, throws his support behind the Republican Party. The tie vote is broken by incoming Vice President Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell becomes Senate Majority Leader.
Mitt Romney is sworn in, and attempts to govern as the moderate politician he truly is, but he is soon thwarted by his own party. Because Mitt refuses to stand up to the Tea Party Republicans, the most extreme members of the House wind up essentially running the country, dictating policy to the White House.
The House passes ever-more-extreme bills, and while Democrats initially make a show of resistance in the Senate, thirteen of them form their own bloc and start voting with Republicans on just about every measure, removing the threat of filibusters.
Obamacare is overturned immediately, and replaced with nothing. Taxes are slashed to one percent for anyone making over a million dollars, under the slogan, "You want to call us the 'one percent'? Fine, then that's what we'll pay!"
Taxes are not initially raised on the middle class, fulfilling a campaign pledge, but then Romney and Ryan have to actually admit that their math simply doesn't add up. Republicans flood the airwaves with a propaganda campaign which convinces America that massive deficits and debts are actually good for the economy and borrowing money from China is a super-secret method of bringing that country to its knees. Deficits soar to three trillion dollars per year as a result.
President Romney also shows little backbone to standing up to the neo-conservatives on foreign policy, and America immediately bombs Iran. Iran retaliates and shuts down shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, driving world oil prices to $300 a barrel. Gas prices of $15 at the pump shock Americans, but by this point we've already got boots on the ground so there is little anyone can do. Mitt decides this isn't sufficient, and we invade Benghazi just for the heck of it.
John Woo is named Attorney General, and delivers his legal opinion to the White House that the Constitution simply doesn't say how many justices should be on the Supreme Court, so it'd be fine to just go ahead and appoint a few more. Romney appoints four new justices, each one of whom signs an oath stating that the Bible is a higher legal authority than any law passed by man. The thirteen Democrats in the Senate vote to confirm all four, and suddenly the balance on the court is 9-4 against liberals.
A massive wave of Democratic immigration flows over the border to Canada, fleeing the ruins of the United States of America.
Republican Nightmare
After the unemployment number is revealed to be 7.1 percent this Friday, President Obama sails to re-election next Tuesday. Mitt Romney is chagrined to only receive 47 percent of the popular vote (which somehow seems fitting).
The Tea Party influence on the Republican Party costs them several seats in the Senate, where anti-abortion extremists lose races that a generic Republican really should have won quite easily. As a result, Democrats retain control of the Senate.
The one bright spot for Republicans from the election is maintaining their majority in the House of Representatives, by a slimmer margin.
But the real horrorshow for the base of the Republican Party comes after everyone is sworn in next year. The adults in the Republican Party finally say they've had enough, and stage a massive break with the Tea Party insurgents.
Olympia Snowe becomes a spokeswoman for the movement, rather than enjoying her retirement. "We've lost too many Senate seats we should easily have snagged, and we're fed up with nominating 'base' candidates that have no prayer of winning a general election," she announces, and calls for all House and Senate GOP members to join the "Snowe Republicans" in rejecting always-say-no obstructionism. "Also, we feel that we can accomplish more of the Republican agenda by working with President Obama and the Democratic Senate than by just refusing to do anything for the next two years."
Fox News shockingly reports, the next day, that 47 Republican House members and 13 Republican senators eagerly sign up with the movement. This new Republican caucus is instantly labeled the "Red Dogs," continuing the spectral shift from Democratic "Yellow" and "Blue" dogs of years past.
The Red Dog Republicans stage a sitdown meeting with Harry Reid and President Obama, and they negotiate a budget both sides can live with. Taxes are raised on the ultra-wealthy, and loopholes are closed for anyone making over a million bucks a year. Social Security is saved by abolishing the cap on incomes while simultaneously lowering the rate everyone pays -- which assures over 75 years of solvency for the program. Federal spending is cut, but judiciously rather than with a meat axe. With the help of Democrats, the budget agreement sails through both the Senate and House, while Tea Party Republicans seethe on the sidelines.
Obamacare is allowed to be fully implemented and funded, and it not only works well, but people realize that the Republicans have just been trying to frighten them with horror stories for years about ghosts which do not, in fact, exist. Republicans kick themselves for the labeling job they've always thought was brilliant, as generation after generation of Americans remembers who started such a wonderful program every time they call it "Obamacare."
Due to the budget agreement and overall stability in the country, the American economy starts booming once again. Tax revenues pour in to the federal government in the new boom time, and Obama balances the budget before he leaves office. Red Dog Republicans ride the wave of good feelings to all but wipe out the Tea Partiers in their midst in the 2014 midterms, and the Red Dogs win the struggle for control of their party, ushering in a new era of cooperation in Washington.
American Nightmare
The election is extremely close, and America doesn't find out who won until the final votes are counted in Ohio on November 17. In a surprise twist, even though Obama wins the popular vote nationwide, each candidate only gets 269 votes -- resulting in an Electoral College tie. The election is thrown into the houses of Congress.
The incoming Congress (the one that will be voting) is split, as Republicans retain the House, and Democrats barely hold onto the Senate. The House votes for Mitt Romney for president, but in an even bigger twist, the Senate votes Joe Biden back into office as vice president. America has its first split government since Andrew Jackson's era, as the Romney/Biden administration enters office.
Both House Republicans and Senate Democrats dig in their heels. Both chambers begin passing bills that are more and more party ideology rather than actual laws anyone wants to see enacted. Mitt Romney attempts to govern with zero mandate, but the Tea Partiers in the House soon stop even returning his calls. Romney flounders around, and eventually tries to cut deals with Senate Democrats, who also turn him down.
Absolutely nothing gets done in Washington for the next two years.
America faces fiscal cliffs on a monthly basis, as the machinery of government grinds to an absolute halt. Every credit rating agency in the world downgrades America's debt to junk bond status. As a result, interest payments skyrocket and America enters not just another recession but a true economic depression, dragging the rest of the world's economy right along with it.
The only economic bright spot in the business world are gun and ammunition manufacturers, as a scared and angry America goes into a buying spree to arm itself for the coming breakdown of all society. Bands of marauders begin roaming America's streets at will.
Mitt Romney declares a national emergency, and gives himself new emergency powers. He declares that America is beyond redemption, and that he's got no choice but to break the country up and sell off its assets to the highest bidder. Strangely, Romney is the only person who actually makes money off these deals, pocketing billions of dollars for, as he puts it, "management fees." National Parks are all renamed, in Chinese.
Mitt leaves office after four years, and retires to the Cayman Islands.
Have a happy Hallowe'en everyone!
-- Chris Weigant
Cross-posted at Business Insider
Cross-posted at The Huffington Post
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
That's the SCARIEST Halloween commentary yet!!! :D
In the spirit of the ghoulish festivities, let me add my own little trick of a treat... :D
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XQTIwFkrCKI/UJBD37RXwMI/AAAAAAACFic/Jndqy6W-WFA/s1600/IMG954666.jpg
Now, com'on!! Ya'all gotta admit that it's funny!!! :D
That little gem is courtesy of my daughter, Tanya... :D
Michale.....
That's the SCARIEST Halloween commentary yet!!! :D
I concur.
And, the thing that would wake me up in a terrible cold sweat would surely be anything that could be described as Romney/Biden.
Sends shivers up my spine just typing it.
Chris,
Nice job on the pumpkins, as always.
My favourite is the GIANT mitt...which seems to be saying B-bye! Adios! Hope we never Mitt again! Heh.
Michale,
I'm too scared to click on your link.
:-)
Haha great post!
That little gem is courtesy of my daughter, Tanya... :D
Just be sure to tell your daughter to trick or treat at the houses w/ the Obama signs. The ones w/ the Romney/Ryan signs don't give out any candy because they don't care about anyone but themselves!
:)
-David
p.s. Seriously though ... have you read Ayn Rand? She be crazy
-David
That little gem is courtesy of my daughter, Tanya... :D
Are you being a bad influence, Michale!? :)
Michale -
OK, I gotta admit, that gave me a laugh...
LizM -
Yeah, typing Romney/Biden is kinda scary, isn't it?
:-)
-CW
LizM -
On that first pumpkin, I guess I've got baseball still on the brain, for some reason...
Heh.
-CW
Are you being a bad influence, Michale!? :)
Are you kidding?? She's as obstinate and as stubborn as her father! :D
I think she doesn't care about politics either way..
Ahhh to be 24 again.... :D
Michale.....
p.s. Seriously though ... have you read Ayn Rand? She be crazy
Never heard of Ayn Rand..
Any relation to Yeoman Rand?? :D
Michale.....
Are you kidding?? She's as obstinate and as stubborn as her father! :D
I think she doesn't care about politics either way..
Ahhh to be 24 again.... :D
http://sjfm.us/temp/1112.jpg
That's Tanya on the Left... er... left. :D
The other two are my nieces... :D
Michale.....
Never heard of Ayn Rand. Any relation to Yeoman Rand?? :D
Heheh ... if only!!!
Seriously though, you should check her out. She's all the rage w/ the Tea Party folks. Paul Ryan is a big fan (though he will never admit it on the campaign trail).
Her basic philosophy is that you should only care about yourself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand
Which to me is really funny because you have all of these people who say they believe in America or religion or freedom yet at the same time their guiding "philosopher" is someone who says that you should only care about yourself.
This is why I know that you're an independent, Michale. Because, even though you may hate to admit it, you care about other people :) Maybe not liberals. But other people ... heheh
-David
Because, even though you may hate to admit it, you care about other people :) Maybe not liberals. But other people ... heheh
"Ouch! And the ref takes a point away!!"
-Jim Carrey, LIAR, LIAR
:D
I care about everyone who is worthy of such care.. Sometimes, you can't know ahead of time. So I always err on the side of compassion...
It's served me well... :D
Michale
Her basic philosophy is that you should only care about yourself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand
I see a lot of stuff I agree with there..
I also see a lot of stuff that the Left would agree with...
Interesting..
Michale....
Many on the left probably do agree with the Atheism stuff - but not for the same reasons (that religions are evil because they encourage people to be charitable)
Joshua - be interested in your thoughts on this piece: http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/24/my-view-why-i-will-vote-for-president-obama/
How come the Republicans get their dream scenario on the list, and the rest of us don't?
Interesting.
Yep ... I was surprised you hadn't heard of her.
Especially because she packages her ideas in pseudo-science fiction works like "The Fountainhead". Unfortunately, her fiction writing is rather bad. I remember trying to read one when I was in high school and thinking, this is just boring. I tried again later on, but I still thought it was awful.
It's quite likely you haven't heard of her because you have much better taste in science fiction ... :)
Gimme Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Neal Stephenson, or Harlan Ellison any day!
-David
Her basic philosophy is that you should only care about yourself.
On the other hand, if she espouses taking care of one's self FIRST, before taking care of others, there is a certain logic to that...
Michale.....
On the other hand, if she espouses taking care of one's self FIRST, before taking care of others, there is a certain logic to that.
I'm with 'ya. And don't get me wrong, I'm by no means saying that one should never be selfish. It's absolutely ok to be selfish. It's like anything to me ... a balance.
I feel about the same about teetotalers as I do about people who drink too much. Balance ... people.
What's a bit absurd about her view to me is that she advocates against altruism and for selfishness in every situation.
It's an interesting philosophy if you think about it hypothetically ... I'm just not sure I'd want anyone like this as a friend. You'd need an armored backplate to prevent the stabbing :)
-David
I imagine Ayn Rand's reaction to Hurricane Sandy would be to say 'tough luck, you're on your own' while she looked for opportunities as to how to profit from the entire thing...
I imagine Ayn Rand's reaction to Hurricane Sandy would be to say 'tough luck, you're on your own' while she looked for opportunities as to how to profit from the entire thing...
While I gave high marks for Obama's prep.....
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/video/#!/on-air/as-seen-on/Sandy-Starved-New-Yorkers-Dumpster-Dive/176839571
His follow thru seems to have a lot left to desire..
I wonder if Obama would forgo campaigning in Vegas to make sure that people in NY/NJ have some food???
Probably not...
Michale.....
Michale [11] -
OK, now that was funny!
David -
Gimme Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Neal Stephenson, or Harlan Ellison any day!
I could not agree more. I also tried reading Rand, but couldn't make it through the whole book because the writing was so astoundingly bad. Also, architecture's not really my thing.
Michale [23] -
I guess my software's not up to that link... maybe post a tinyurl link or something?
-CW
I imagine Ayn Rand's reaction to Hurricane Sandy would be to say 'tough luck, you're on your own' while she looked for opportunities as to how to profit from the entire thing.
I think it might look something like this ...
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/384838_10151074244387854_2057330672_n.jpg
:)
-David
CW,
I guess my software's not up to that link... maybe post a tinyurl link or something?
For some reason, your software killed the link part half way thru the entire link..
Try copying the entire link:
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/video/#!/on-air/as-seen-on/Sandy-Starved-New-Yorkers-Dumpster-Dive/176839571
.... and pasting it in the browser..
Warning.. It's not a pretty sight..
While you view it, I will ask you to recall how the Left savaged Bush over Katrina..
And Bush wasn't even CAMPAIGNING!!!
Michale....
Michale,
78% of Americans disagree with you: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/10/31/wapo-abc-tracking-poll-high-marks-for-president-obama-on-hurricane-sandy-response/
David,
Those Romney storm tips were excellent! Number 12 was the best - "Everyone in the path of the storm: don't be a victim and stop looking for handouts!"
78% of Americans disagree with you:
I am on record as saying that Obama's *RESPONSE* to Sandy was great... Kudos to him...
His FOLLOW-UP to Sandy has royally sucked...
When you have Americans in a large metropolitan area begging for food and eating food from dumpsters like a low-life 3rd world country, it reflects badly on the competence of the leadership.
This is fact, not partisanship..
Michale.....
Those Romney storm tips were excellent! Number 12 was the best - "Everyone in the path of the storm: don't be a victim and stop looking for handouts!"
There is a certain logic to that..
Hurricane Sandy was a somewhat unique occurrence in that PLENTY of notice was given.
Anyone who did not stock up and/or evacuate are at least PARTIALLY responsible for their fate...
Michale.....
I guess my software's not up to that link...
Let's see if it works with a percent code:
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/video/#%21/on-air/as-seen-on/Sandy-Starved-New-Yorkers-Dumpster-Dive/176839571
Now that's bizarre. It says it's the dumpster-dive URL, but when I click it, the page it actually takes me to is http://www.nbcnewyork.com/video/#!/news/local/Water-Reaches-Bronx--Far-Rockaway-Storm-VIctims/176897811.
Or should I say http://www.nbcnewyork.com/video/#%23/news/local/Water-Reaches-Bronx--Far-Rockaway-Storm-VIctims/176897811