Everyone Looks, Wondering If GOP Suicide Caucus Will Only Kill Themselves

Update II: GAME ALMOST OVER: Boehner to Let The Senate Debt Ceiling Deal Come to the Floor

Update: Markets are banking on this debt deal: 7 charts

The world knows America is pretty foolish, but disbelief is the predominant sentiment as default is hours away.

Rational Americans hold to about the same sense of disbelief and horror.

Matt Taibbi in 2011 described John Boehner as "the ultimate Beltway hack, a man whose unmatched and self-serving skill at political survival has made him, after two decades in Washington, the hairy blue mold on the American congressional sandwich."

That's Boehner. 

And his betters may be telling him to knock it off, economic catastrophe is a very bad thing.

Tea Baggers can go back to their white homeland and pray, no matter how many rightwing nuts tell them suicide is glorious.

That's what we hope.

Fear Awaits Signal GOP Is as Crazy as Many Believe

Update: 'Fear Index' (VIX) (CBOE Volatility Index) stays mellow, as every policy maker and his mother mouth feel-good platitudes. "Make no mistake about it, the VIX is moving with direct correlation as to whether or not the government is making progress on reopening and addressing the debt ceiling," says Seeking Alpha (SA).  SA says an agreement on a debt ceiling is imminent.

Here's a somewhat contrary view: "Last week Todd Salamone said, 'If the VIX closes above the 18 area, it is quite possible that a move to the 22-24 region would happen quickly. This area marks double the 2013 low and the most recent August low. A close above 18 would suggest negative sentiment is building instead of decreasing, pressuring stocks and heightening volatility expectations in the process.' Todd was dead-on, as the VIX soared above 18 and peaked just beneath 22 before imploding later in the week." VIX is trading at 17 at 12:48 Eastern P.M.
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Now here is one fascinating interplay, the potential death throes of an American political party (John Judis), mass racism, and the possibility of the meltdown of the world economy.

The base, the popular base of the Republican Party or suicide caucus, doesn't fear an economic meltdown, much less the government shutdown they engineered.

After all, God is watching and a global economic crisis may enable the succession of the Republican Homeland free of ZOG and the United States federal government. Don't think for a moment the lunatics don't hold sway in the Republican Party, in case you were not already convinced.

Fear itself is something to fear. And so is lunacy.

The U.S. federal government., this is the entity helping to deliver healthcare to the brown and black still intent on passing themselves off as decent Americans to the chagrin of the Republican homeland.

Yet, Wall Street does not seem to buy this as a compelling argument to crash the global economy.

As soon as the 'Fear' indices suddenly rise, watch out. This is not happening right now.

"Major equity indexes surged again at the end of last week with optimism that Washington's budget stalemate will be broken, pushing the CBOE Volatility Index back below the 16 level," reports Chris McKhann, echoing a widespread estimation that markets have already priced in a political deal on the government shutdown and impending default.

This holds no comfort for the vast majority of Americans. Nor should it.

"I've gone up to a 25-percent chance" of a government shutdown, said Potomac Research chief political strategist Greg Valliere. "Last month, I was at 10 percent. I think (House Speaker John) Boehner and most of the leadership know this could blow up on them in the 2014 election, and they're leery about doing anything that radical," reports Patti Domm, CNBC Executive News Editor. Valliere's statement was reported on September 18, 2013.

Tea Baggers Wave Confederate Flag at
Weekend Rally at White House Protesting
Gov Shutdown That Tea Party Demanded

Radical and crazy is the GOP order of the day.

Press coverage is trying to chill out the American populace, that segment not significantly composed of God-fearing whacks who believe in magic and white power.

See Bill Moyers' Let's Call The Shutdown What It Is: Secession by Another Means and Debt limit defeat turns conservatives into neo-Confederate fantasists.

Hopes for sanity and rumors of a solution to the GOP-created crisis abound today, I'll believe it when I see it.

Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz, rallying Tea Baggers, remain optimistic about something.

GOP Gov Shutdown Devastates Veterans

The Republican-Tea Party government shutdown is far worse than Scott Walker appointing cronies with no veteran advocacy experience to non-profits only do watch as his cronies embezzle $10,000s.

From the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

Americans are starting to grasp the full impact of the federal government shutdown on veterans and troops. Today, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki appeared before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs to discuss the impact of the shutdown on veterans. In his testimony, he said that if the shutdown continues, veterans won’t receive disability and GI Bill benefits on November 1.

The hearing also included testimony from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which called for Washington to end the shutdown that has a damaging effect on veterans and troops. IAVA continues to call for an end to the shutdown, and clarity for those veterans trapped in the uncertainty of how the shutdown will continue to affect their benefits and services. IAVA has launched a Change.org petition calling for Washington to put a stop to the political games and ensure that veterans get the care they need:

“Veterans are hurting and are tired of being used as political chew toys, said IAVA CEO and Founder Paul Rieckhoff. “They need Washington to end the shutdown so they can receive and benefit from the services and support they have earned. But until the government re-opens, our veterans deserve clear, reliable, and accurate information.” 

Tea Party Letter Indicts GOP on Shutdown

Rep. James Sensenbrenner signed Tea Party letter
calling for government shutdown

Update: A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning (Stolberg, McIntire. NYT)

"More than a third of congressional Republicans told their leader on Thursday (August 2013) to shut down government rather than pay for the Obamacare health care law, according to the Associated Press."

So reads an August piece by Jennifer Jacobs in the Des Monies Register.

The corporate media is sticking to its who-is-to-blame blather, despite the fact we have known for months the GOP suicide caucus has called for a government shutdown.

The Tea Party letter calls explicitly for a government shutdown unless the Affordable Health Care Act is somehow repealed.

The Tea Party called for the shutdown; House Speaker John Boehner gave the Tea Party the shutdown; and is actively blocking an up-or-down vote on a bill ending the shutdown.

Every honest news headline should read some variation of:

Tea Party to Blame for Government Shutdown; 
John Boehner Still Blocking Vote to End Government Shutdown

"Harry Reid and his Democrats will have no incentive to compromise unless they know the Republicans are willing to take a hard stance -- even allowing the government to be shut down, if necessary -- in order to stop the catastrophically unworkable and unaffordable health care law from taking effect," the Tea Party-FreedomWorks, website says in pushing for supports for the shutdown letter.

In Wisconsin, Rep. James Sensenbrenner is the only member to have signed the August Tea Party letter.

Contempt for People Defines GOP Project

Update: See The White Man's Last Tantrum. "American pundits are missing the bigger point about the Republican shutdown of the U.S. government and the GOP’s threatened default on America’s credit. The real question is not what policy concessions the Tea Partiers may extract, but rather can a determined right-wing white minority ensure continuation of white supremacy in the United States?"

The reason Republicans lie repeatedly without shame is not just a lack of conscience.

Republicans are engaged in implementing their project to disenfranchise out-of-favor Americans, and lies are imperative.

The Project has been launched and every Republican will toe the line.

In Wisconsin—where Republicans hold sway in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government through the injection of tens of millions of dollars into the GOP—one can see clearly the GOP objectives of repressing non-favored Americans by stripping people of their rights to organize, associate, and exercise community control of their local governments.

This American GOP social engineering project is fascistic; it's not just Greece or far-off countries where fascism is consciously pursued.

Women, college students, Americans of color, unions, environmentalists, attorneys enforcing rights of citizens, and citizen groups, earned social insurance programs; all are defects in Republican society to be corrected, problems to be solved.

Shut down the government, they are taking away our country. 

Misogyny, religious fanaticism and racism are the rallying cries for The Project: Engineering American society as a Republican homeland.

That's why shutting down the government, even threatening the world economy are acceptable as the scope and mission of The Project creeps outward.

One illustration, in Madison, Wisconsin one doesn't have to travel far to see in person the contempt the Republicans have for the black and brown citizens trying to pass themselves off as good Americans. The nerve.

Locally, in my neighborhood on the Madison-Fitchburg, Wisconsin border, the Meadowood Shopping Center represents a paradigm as hard-working people at the library, community center, and other small businesses contend with the racism inflamed by former Republican Dane County Supervisor David Blaska and the staff at GOP-infested Best Cleaners who just cannot stand the sight of black children walking past their establishment.

Call in some JPM security to yell and harass those children, a frequent occurrence.

The fact is Republicans do not regard black and brown Americans as full-blooded human beings, much less full-fledged citizens of the American republic.

"So long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the right to vote I do not possess myself. I cannot make up my mind — it is made up for me. I cannot live as a democratic citizen, observing the laws I have helped to enact — I can only submit to the edict of others," said Martin Luther King.

Submitting to the GOP edict.

This is the GOP project.

As long as you are alive and breathing in GOP land, your function is to submit to GOP edicts.

Challenge this project where you see it.

It may not appear so, but the GOP project is a house of cards.

Zero Wisconsin Republicans Call for Up-or-Down Vote to End Shutdown

Paul Ryan and GOP friends posture, but will not end shutdown;
or even call for a simple Up-or-Down vote. Yes or No? And what
the hell is Paul Ryan, House Budget Chair, doing? Staring into space?

GOP: Gov shutdown is irrational and destructive, but let's keep doing it.

We're not going to be disrespected," Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Indiana.) told The Washington Examiner. "We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is," notes the Huffington Post.

That's crazy.

ThinkProgress is keeping a running total of Republicans who differ from Stutzman and would vote to open government now, if Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) would allow a simple Up-or-Down vote to end the shut-down.

Boehner says:  No way.

And the entire Wisconsin Republican congressional delegation is with Boehner, following the most extremist and destructive Republicans in our nation's history.

Writes John Isreal:

Seventeen House Republicans have now indicated that they would support a 'clean' continuing resolution, like the one passed by the U.S. Senate, to reopen the government. If they joined with all 200 House Democrats, it is possible that they could give majority support to such a bill without any additional Republicans — if Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) allowed an up-or-down vote.

Cowards. The list of seventeen contains not one Republican from Wisconsin.

Take Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Sherwood):

From Kate Nocera:

Wisconsin Republican Reid Ribble called the shutdown strategy “irrational” and admitted that it would cause “risk to our economy.” And yet—out of loyalty to leadership, fear of a primary opponent or some other mysterious reason—he voted with the rest of his party for the “irrational” and economy-damaging strategy at every opportunity. You get zero credit for knowing the right thing if you keep doing the wrong thing anyway.