U.S. hours away from first government shutdown

[Flying Purple People Eater]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-01/us-hours-away-from-first-government-shutdown-in-17-years/4990254



US government shutdown looms as Congress stalemate continues over Obamacare

By North America correspondent Michael Vincent (http://www.abc.net.au/news/michael-vincent/4269358), wires
Updated October 01, 2013 14:16:23
(http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-01/obama-outlines-consequences-of-us-government-shutdown/4990452)
(http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-01/obama-outlines-consequences-of-us-government-shutdown/4990452)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/4743806-3x2-340x227.jpg (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-01/obama-speaks-about-us-phone-internet-surveillance/4990266)[/URL]
[URL="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-01/obama-speaks-about-us-phone-internet-surveillance/4990266"]Photo: Barack Obama must sign a new budget by midnight (local time) to keep the US government working. (Reuters: Kevin Lamarque) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-01/obama-speaks-about-us-phone-internet-surveillance/4990266)
Map: United States (http://maps.google.com/?q=38,-97%28United%20States%29&z=5)

Tens of thousands of US government workers are preparing to stay home as Congress steps closer to shutting down departments over president Barack Obama's healthcare reforms.
US Senate Democrats killed a proposal by the Republican-led House of Representatives to delay Obamacare for a year in return for temporary funding of the federal government beyond Monday (local time).
After a partisan vote of 54 to 46 in the Senate, it now goes back to the House, where a senior Republican aide said the party would continue to seek a one-year delay in the Obamacare requirement for all individuals to obtain health insurance as part of a new spending bill.

Audio: US government facing shutdown over healthcare (AM) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-01/us-government-shutdown-looms/4990596)

Mr Obama must sign a new budget by midnight (2:00pm AEST) to keep the US government working, or otherwise trigger the first shutdown of services in 17 years.
Mr Obama says time is running out and has accused Republicans of pandering to the "extreme right wing" of their party and holding Americans hostage in the budget dispute.
Key points



Congress must agree on budget by October 1
Republicans are demanding Obamacare be stripped of funding as condition to keep funding government
The Senate rejected Republican bill to delay Obamacare for one year
If the new budget isn't agreed to by midnight, Congress will shut down all non-essential government services
700,000 government employees will be sent home without pay
Shutdown will continue until Congress reaches deal
The last shutdown in 1996 lasted 20 days




"One faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government doesn't get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election," he said.
"Congress needs to keep our government open, needs to pay our bills on time, and never, ever threaten the full faith and credit of the United States of America.
He says the shutdown would have dramatic consequences for thousands of Americans.
"Time is running out. My hope and expectation is that in the 11th hour once again, that Congress will choose to do the right thing and that the House of Representatives in particular will choose the right thing," he said.
"Unfortunately, right now, House Republicans continue to tie funding of the government to ideological demands like limiting a woman's access to contraception or delaying the Affordable Care Act, all to save face after making some impossible promises to the extreme right wing of their party."
Mr Obama placed phone calls to the two top congressional Republicans, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, but they appeared to restate well-worn positions and there was no sign of a breakthrough.
What does the shutdown mean for our economy? Read about that here (http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/monday-finance-with-sheryle-bagwell/4988062).


700,000 government workers face unpaid leave

Some 700,000 government workers could be sent home on unpaid leave with no guarantee of backpay once the deadlock is over.
Some services such as homeland security, weather monitoring and food inspections will continue, but they will be paid in IOUs.
Who is affected?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/linkableblob/4990378/data/statue-of-liberty-custom-image-data.jpg

800,000 government employees sent home without pay
1 million asked to work without pay
Department of Education staff will be severely hit
Skeleton staff to remain at Department of Energy to oversee nuclear arsenal
National parks, Statue of Liberty and Alcatraz will close
Washington's Smithsonian Institution, including 19 galleries and the National Zoo will close
Passport offices in the US will shut down and visa applications will go unprocessed overseas
In Washington, libraries will be closed, parking tickets won't be issued




The Senate has so far rejected all House efforts to modify the health law in connection with the spending bill.
Mr Obama, saying he was not "resigned" to a shutdown, said ahead of the Senate vote that he planned to talk to congressional leaders in the coming hours and days but held out no new offer of compromise.
A shutdown would continue until Congress resolves its differences. That could be a matter of days, or weeks.
Global stock markets fell and the dollar dropped against major currencies overnight as investors worried about the prospects of a shutdown.
"The government is such an important part of the entire economy, between the people it employs and the impact it has on consumer confidence," said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group in New York.
"The size of the sell-off is logical given the stakes."
The standoff did not bode well for the next political battle, a far-more consequential bill to raise the government's borrowing authority.
Failure to raise the $US16.7 trillion debt ceiling by mid-October would force the US to default on some payment obligations - an event that could cripple its economy and send shockwaves around the globe.
The two parties continued to blame each other on Monday for failing to avoid the impending shutdown. Republicans accused Mr Obama of ignoring their pleas for negotiations.
"This president hasn't been involved at all with the leadership or with the Congress," Representative Matt Salmon, an Arizona Republican, told MSNBC.
But he said Republicans would not give up their quest to thwart the implementation of Obamacare, a program aimed at providing healthcare coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.
Republicans accused of 'extortion'

Republicans say the launch on Tuesday of new online government health insurance exchanges will cause premiums to rise and deter companies from hiring new workers.
Mr Salmon, who was in Congress during the last shutdown from late 1995 to early 1996, said Republicans do not want to see a shutdown but would keep fighting against Obamacare with another proposal.
"We should go back at them," he said.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York said he was still holding out some hope that the House Republicans "would come to their senses" and vote to keep the government open.
"It is extortion," Mr Schumer, speaking to MSNBC, said of the Republicans' strategy.
"It's holding the good of the country - the economy, middle-class people at risk."
Early on Sunday, House Republicans passed measures to attach the Obamacare delay and the repeal of the medical device tax to the stop-gap spending bill that would keep government agencies open until November 15.
In a sign that a shutdown may look increasingly inevitable, the House also unanimously passed a separate measure to keep paying US soldiers in the event of a shutdown.
More people will blame congressional Republicans rather than Mr Obama if the US government shuts down this week and most want a budget deal to avoid disruption to federal funding and services, a poll released on Monday showed.
Forty-six per cent said that if government agencies and programs start closing on Tuesday, they would fault Republicans in Congress while 36 per cent said they would blame Mr Obama, the CNN survey found.
Thirteen per cent said both would be at fault.
About 60 per cent of the 803 US adults polled said they want lawmakers to pass a budget agreement to avoid the shutdown, according to the telephone survey conducted over the weekend with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Welp, it happened.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I guess they'll have to ground all those drone planes and shut down all those military bases for a while... oh wait.:glare:

[Sea]

parking tickets won't be issuedYou know what this means. Park on the sidewalk, it's revolution time!

[alkemest]

What is this called, Washington monument syndrome I believe? Where our wisened oligarchy sees fit to cut salaries for visible public servants, while maintaining their own six digit salaries, military and law enforcement funds, while throwing millions of people under the bus. Fucking fantastic, right?

[Popular Front of Judea]

WASHINGTON, United States—The typical signs of state failure aren’t evident on the streets of this sleepy capital city. Beret-wearing colonels have not yet taken to the airwaves to declare martial law. Money-changers are not yet buying stacks of useless greenbacks on the street.
But the pleasant autumn weather disguises a government teetering on the brink. Because, at midnight Monday night, the government of this intensely proud and nationalistic people will shut down, a drastic sign of political dysfunction in this moribund republic.

The capital’s rival clans find themselves at an impasse, unable to agree on a measure that will allow the American state to carry out its most basic functions. While the factions have come close to such a shutdown before, opponents of President Barack Obama’s embattled regime now appear prepared to allow the government to be shuttered over opposition to a controversial plan intended to bring the nation’s health care system in line with international standards.

Six years into his rule, Obama’s position can appear confusing, even contradictory. Though the executive retains control of the country’s powerful intelligence service, capable of the extrajudicial execution of the regime’s opponents half a world away, the president’s efforts to govern domestically have been stymied in the legislature by an extremist rump faction of the main opposition party.

The current rebellion has been led by Sen. Ted Cruz, a young fundamentalist lawmaker from the restive Texas region, known in the past as a hotbed of separatist activity. Activity in the legislature ground to a halt last week for a full day as Cruz insisted on performing a time-honored American demonstration of stamina and self-denial, which involved speaking for 21 hours, quoting liberally from science fiction films and children’s books. The gesture drew wide media attention, though its political purpose was unclear to outsiders.

With hours remaining until the government of the world’s richest nation runs out of money, attention now focuses on longtime opposition leader John Boehner, under pressure from both the regime and the radical elements of his own movement, who may be the only political figure with the standing needed to end the standoff.

While the country’s most recent elections were generally considered to be free and fair (despite threats against international observers), the current crisis has raised questions in the international community about the regime’s ability to govern this complex nation of 300 million people, not to mention its vast stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

Americans themselves are starting to ask difficult questions as well. As this correspondent’s cab driver put it, while driving down the poorly maintained roads that lead from the airport, “Do these guys have any idea what they’re doing to the country?

If It Happened There ... the Government Shutdown | Slate (http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2013/09/30/potential_government_shutdown_how_would_the_u_s_me dia_report_on_it_if_it.html)

[KurtFF8]

"U.S. hours away from first government shutdown"

This is not the first govt shutdown, there was one in the 1990s

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Jeeze. One of those times you wish the left was more prepared to launch into action, eh?
Strong argument for building effective counter-institutions right there, even if they seem immediately unnecessary, since . . . well, arguably this sort of thing is inevitable.

[Misericordia]

Hey at least now we can make terrorist jokes on Facebook and Twitter without the NSA putting us on watch lists.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Hey at least now we can make terrorist jokes on Facebook and Twitter without the NSA putting us on watch lists.

National security is exempt. :glare:

[Flying Purple People Eater]

Hey at least now we can make terrorist jokes on Facebook and Twitter without the NSA putting us on watch lists.

As Takayuki said, national security and the American military still retain power.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

This is pretty terrible all around. The US government's basic services are down, a bunch of federal workers are not being paid and may not get back pay when all this is over, places like parks and monuments will be closed indefinitely, and the military is still bombing/occupying a bunch of countries since defense is exempt.

It shows how dysfunctional the US government has become though. The Republicans are basically undermining the economy and the government at once to score some cheap political points (though history has just shown that they are more likely to be blamed for the government shutdown anyways.)


"U.S. hours away from first government shutdown"

This is not the first govt shutdown, there was one in the 1990s

Apparently there have been quite a few, including one in the 80s when Dems and Republicans disagreed about Contra funding.

[Marxaveli]

This is the 17th time in the US governments history that it has done this, if I recall correctly.

Guess the lords of private capital are at a standstill because one far right party insists on pandering to their fascist Tea Party base, because the other, center-right party is just a little too much to the left of Hayek for their liking.

I think I want to throw up. This fucking country sucks, with its shallowness and apathy - forget Christianity, 'consumerism' is the new religion of American capitalism and culture. Meanwhile we keep votin' for the same pricks of two parties that are one and the same. I want to move out so bad but can't right now. Not that it is much better anywhere else, but jesus fucking christ....

[Comrade Jacob]

Good, let it shut down forever.
Since no police will be on duty...smashing time. EDIT: oh they are, damn it!

[Marxaveli]

Good, let it shut down forever.
Since no police will be on duty...smashing time.

No, police will be on duty.

[khad]

Good, let it shut down forever.
Since no police will be on duty...smashing time.
Police fall under state and municipal jurisdiction.

[Rosso]

Finally they have their chance to get some healthcare and now they're only causing trouble and damage their economy even more. It's time for the Americans to realize they wont get any further keeping this conservative attitude..

[Popular Front of Judea]

Good, let it shut down forever.
Since no police will be on duty...smashing time.

Well informed radical analysis of current events. That's why I read Revleft.

[argeiphontes]

The harsh whip of capitalism will remain in full swing, I'm afraid. Police are considered essential.

[Popular Front of Judea]

Not a Daily News fan but I like this. Subtle.

http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/918d9673-f30b-4e8c-895d-c1c126c8f3be.jpg

[Comrade Jacob]

Well informed radical analysis of current events. That's why I read Revleft.

Good to know.

[argeiphontes]

What's wrong with the Daily News? ;)

[Klaatu]

This is all about health care. Republicans do not want average-joe to have health care.

This is while they themselves have taxpayer-paid, platinum-diamond healthcare benefits :cursing:

[Remus Bleys]

Do you think this will keep libertarians quiet when they see what their "true capitalism" leads to?

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Do you think this will keep libertarians quiet when they see what their "true capitalism" leads to?

What does it lead to?

"Man, we were just fine when the government shut down. Shut it down forever."

"Somalia's not really so bad, show true capitalism working good... GDP growth..." -paraphrasing David Friedman, the son of Milton.

[Remus Bleys]

What does it lead to?

"Man, we were just fine when the government shut down. Shut it down forever."

"Somalia's not really so bad, show true capitalism working good... GDP growth..." -paraphrasing David Friedman, the son of Milton.
Many people unemployed, a return to well water for some people, a shutting down of libraries and museums.

Many libertarians, in my experience, are just ignorant of how much the state and capitalism are linked up and rely on each other. There are a few, but the vast majority like this stuff. I mean, at the most it makes them liberal, but thats less infuriating than libertarianism.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Many people unemployed, a return to well water for some people, a shutting down of libraries and museums.

Many libertarians, in my experience, are just ignorant of how much the state and capitalism are linked up and rely on each other. There are a few, but the vast majority like this stuff. I mean, at the most it makes them liberal, but thats less infuriating than libertarianism.

lolbertarians don't care about unemployment, and libraries and museums in public ownership are "state-subsidised shit that can't survive in the market". These are the people who want to shut down the FAA, I don't think they are likely to be swayed by what some "government teat-addicted bums and shills" will experience. At most they might form a right-wing nut militia and run crazy in some small towns.... disturbing in its own right.

[RedGuevara]

Haha and the irony is I've heard people blame Obama and I've people blame republicans, though if we're looking at the facts the Repukelicans aren't far from taking the blunt of blame. They're all fascists and the facts that libraries are being affected in this whole drama is a true crime in itself. Hey the lower income kids aren't going to be able to go to a place to be exposed to learning and education but hey we have our points to make and we're still making a tax payer paid paycheck.. It's frustrating things like this that made me become a leftist.

[Glitchcraft]

The government isn't shut down. At most about 20% of it's employees are on furlough. 800,000 is what they are saying.
Organizations like the FCC, FDA, and the EPA are all running on skeleton crews at around 30% NASA is 93% furloughed.
You cannot at the moment: Apply for a passport, gun license or mortgage. No new social security checks will go out. The post office is self sustaining so it's still open. The FBI, CIA NSA etc are all still %100 on. The Troops still get their paychecks. Anything to do with protecting property or public safety or has any remote connection to national security is still turned up all the way. Just watch the first half hour of todays Democracy Now. They explain the whole thing.

Last time I shut down my computer it wasn't just 20% percent off. The government isn't even in sleep mode. It's more like the browser crashed. They will restart it soon. This is the 17th time the govornment has "shut down". the longest being during the Clinton/Gingrich beef that lasted 21 days till it was squashed.

[Klaatu]

It is becoming more and more obvious that Capitalism is in fact "the law of the jungle," where the strong crush the weak.

And where the simple-minded become obsessed with protecting the status quo (thanks to unlimited spending on misleading political propaganda, with Fox News leading the pack in the deception department)

Anyone ever read the novel "1984"? Well that's what's coming our way: Capitalist Dictatorship (unless we all wake up... before it is too late!)

[Bostana]

Awww the American Government shutdowns. And when I say shutdowns I mean the shutdowns only affect the poor and disabled. We'll cut stuff that helps them but now Corporate welfare which is more than those two combined

Yep that's the America I know

[Marxaveli]

It is becoming more and more obvious that Capitalism is in fact "the law of the jungle," where the strong crush the weak.

And where the simple-minded become obsessed with protecting the status quo (thanks to unlimited spending on misleading political propaganda, with Fox News leading the pack in the deception department)

Anyone ever read the novel "1984"? Well that's what's coming our way: Capitalist Dictatorship (unless we all wake up... before it is too late!)

Nah, I would say "Brave New World" is a more accurate description of what is taking place now than Orwell's vision.

[KurtFF8]

Besides pointing out the priorities of who keeps funding during the shutdown and pointing out how absurd both parties are, I'm not sure how much of an opportunity for the Left this really is.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

This whole healthcare reform debate since it started has been nothing but shit for working people, this last ditch effort to end it being the pinnacle of arrogance by the faction of capitalists trying to end Obamacare. Since the beginning we've had lies and slanders to the point that single payer options and even the public option had to be scrapped(or weren't even on the table) for a plan that forces us to buy insurance from private dealers. And what happened when that passed? How many companies declared open season on their workers to try and foster anti-Obamacare opinions among us? The minimum wage worker at your local fast food joint who was barely making it by already had their hours cut to 28 hours a week so the company didn't have to help pay for insurance, companies fired then rehired whole crews as temp workers(which not only cut into their hours but their benefits), etc, etc. Millions of workers have already felt devestating blows by the capitalists economically during their political battle against any type of healthcare reform that even dares to touch a penny of their profits. This is just a final attempt to stop it before it gets implemented, it should already be abundantly clear by the broader context of this mess that they really don't care about sending 800,000 workers home without pay, funding not going to services that feed the poor, etc, etc.

[argeiphontes]

No new social security checks will go out.

If true, then this would be a cynical political move on the part of the administration to cause problems for Tea Partiers by literally starving their constituents. Social Security is an insurance program and should be fully-funded in and of itself.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

If true, then this would be a cynical political move on the part of the administration to cause problems for Tea Partiers by literally starving their constituents. Social Security is an insurance program and should be fully-funded in and of itself.

If Tea Party constituents literally starve they have no one to blame but themselves considering they're the driving political force behind the government shutdown. I don't think it's much up to Obama whether SS checks go out either, I don't think that's a decision he makes.

[Glitchcraft]

If true, then this would be a cynical political move on the part of the administration to cause problems for Tea Partiers by literally starving their constituents. Social Security is an insurance program and should be fully-funded in and of itself.

Supposedly in the past these things have just caused delays. No new checks till the offices are restaffed. According to the articles I've read on it.

[adipocere]

I got a text message from someone today that read: "my grandpa asked me "so you get yer nigger insurance yet?"

I'm not sure how this is relevant, but I wanted to share because it's depressing. This is essentially the attitude of the Tea Party, in a nutshell. I suspect the gubment would be chugging mightily along right now if the issue was Romneycare.
Also I saw this:
sx2scvIFGjE

[Misericordia]

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/02/shutdown_fulfills_gops_confederate_fantasies/

The House-led federal government shutdown is more than maddening, but nobody should be surprised by the Republican confederacy behind it. Nor should anyone underestimate this century’s secessionists.

This fight has been seeping inward from the political margins for years, where increasingly ideological Republicans—from Tea Partiers in Congress, to red-state governors, to Chief Justice John Roberts—seek a less perfect union.

They are not the political stepchildren of Ronald Reagan, who, after his day’s political battles, shared a belief in a functioning federal government with his top adversary, Democratic House Speaker Tip O’Neill. They are closer to the GOP activists drawn to Barry Goldwater’s 1960s-era Conscience of A Conservativemanifesto, which counseled killing government and not making it work.

The most apt historical precedent for today’s marauder Republicans is the old Confederacy, where the provocateurs are not merely intent on stopping federal governance, but withdrawing from it or sabotaging it if they can’t get their way. Today’s Tea Party darlings like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and the House right-wingers driving the federal shutdown are cut from the same disunionist cloth as the old Southerners who fomented secession and the Civil War.

They have branded Obamacare as their Tariff of Abominations, which were export taxes imposed by Northern industrial states the South railed against before the Civil War. Fox News is the disunionists’ Charleston Mercury,egging on the rebels, and seeking to convey legitimacy to their crusade to save government not by fixing things, but by blowing it up piece-by-piece.

The Republican confederates don’t want to follow any law or election result they don’t like. Whether it’s Obamacare’s coverage of the poorest of the poor, federalgun control, reproductive choice or even the Voting Rights Act, there’s been a parade of red-state politicians in recent years working to exempt themselves and their states from federal rights, laws and remedies.

This is not a new list or trend, but it is growing and is ominous. At its base, it does not share a belief in national government. It includes the 28 states that sued to overturn Obamacare or not participate in it. It includes the two dozen states that passed so-called firearms freedom legislation, which thumbs its nose at federal gun controls. It includes states that don’t want new voter suppressionlaws subject to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. They include states whose public health options do not include family planning.

Writing this week in the Chicago Sun-Times, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. notes that the GOP’s nullification movement revives a very old Southern tactic.


“What is nullification? It’s one of the last-ditch philosophical stands of the slaveholders, the historically disreputable — and thoroughly discredited — concept that a state could “nullify” a federal law by declaring it null and void. The idea of the Slave Power was that the Southern states would “interpose” themselves between the national government and the slaveholders, and prevent our laws from being enforced.”

Jackson notes this legal philosophy was repeatedly struck down by federal courts and was never accepted outside the Confederacy. That may be true historically, but not entirely anymore. Today’s Tea Party, which has never been larger than 20 percent of the electorate—the same cadre of older, whiter, wealthier voters who gravitated to Ross Perot’s grievance-filled 1992 presidential campaign—has never accepted Barack Obama’s presidency.

“They have spent the last five years trying to keep poor and working Americans from getting healthcare,” Jackson writes. “This is wrong, it’s immoral, and it’s very undemocratic, since Barack Obama was re-elected by a large margin.”

But the Republican rebels are not just confined to Congress. At the Supreme Court, the right-wing majority led by the chief justice has ruled that states do not have to implement the parts of Obamacare that would enroll their poor in state-run Medicaid. The court also struck down the 1965 Voting Rights Act’s toughest anti-discrimination provision, prompting a handful of red states to immediately impose old barriers to voting.

This is how federal governance is dismantled.

Meanwhile, GOP opportunists in state legislatures and governor’s mansions have sponsored bills, signed laws and even launched lawsuits to set their states apart from federal oversight on firearms, healthcare reform, reproductive choice, and voting rights.

This is not what a constitutional republic looks like. It is an evolving confederacy rather than more finely tuned federal government. One can wonder aloud which red-state governor will be the first to suggest his state leave the union in 2013. But seriously, the House-triggered federal shutdown is the consequence of the Republican Party’s disunionist fantasies moving into the mainstream.

That’s not just maddening, it needs to be seen and called out for what it is—the outright rejection of national government by a new Republican confederacy.

[Popular Front of Judea]

If true, then this would be a cynical political move on the part of the administration to cause problems for Tea Partiers by literally starving their constituents. Social Security is an insurance program and should be fully-funded in and of itself.

It is and the checks will go out. Oh and it would work the same way if we had a guaranteed basic income.

[Popular Front of Judea]

Good article. I do disagree about Ross Perot. Ross Perot was the only candidate in the '92 election that opposed NAFTA -- or even waned to talk about it. I remember how on the Machinists (Boeing) picket line that's all the workers wanted to talk about. As we know now Perot made possible Clinton's election. Clinton went on to pull out all the stops to pass NAFTA. That's how American democracy works.


http://www.salon.com/2013/10/02/shutdown_fulfills_gops_confederate_fantasies/

[argeiphontes]

If Tea Party constituents literally starve they have no one to blame but themselves considering they're the driving political force behind the government shutdown.

I agree. I was just saying that "be careful what you wish for" might come to pass for those people. Whether it's intentional or not is now a moot point since the checks are going out.

[Red Commissar]

An article about the relationship between the Federal Government, Native American Reservations, and what the shutdown could mean for them. Native American reservations are already pretty depressing and hard to live in, and much of their services are tied to federal programs rather than state to complement what ever meager ones they provide on the reservation.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/3/indian-country-hithardbygovernmentshutdown.html



No roads link the tiny town of Fort Yukon, Alaska, to the rest of the United States, but that doesn't mean the federal government shutdown won't reach the nearly 600 inhabitants, mostly members of the Alaska Native population, who still fish and hunt for subsistence.

Ed Alexander, 36, is second chief of the Gwichyaa Zhee band of Gwich'in Indians who reside there, and he spent most of Tuesday online trying to determine what exactly the shutdown's impact will be. The timing is terrible for Alaska Native villages, he said, hurting students who have not yet received scholarship money they need for faraway universities and creating unemployment — the government is a core employer — just as people are preparing for an interior Alaska winter.

"It's going to be 40-below in a month,'' Alexander said. "I hope the Republicans get their act together and pass a clean CR (continuing resolution). Everybody's hoping that. It's the poorest who are suffering most. That's what's happening here.''

The federal government plays a critical role for the 1.7 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in the 566 federally-recognized tribes, providing key services that include health care, schools, social programs and law enforcement protection, all supported by its long-standing treaty obligations made with Native Americans.

Some essential services will continue during the shutdown, such as law enforcement and firefighting, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. And the 176 Indian Health Service hospitals and clinics will stay open.

But the shutdown means freezes have already been placed on nutrition programs, foster care payments, financial assistance for the poor and anti-elder abuse programs. Some tribes risk losing all their income in timber operations if federal employees aren't there. Vital contracts and grants will be stalled.

"It shuts down jobs,'' said Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe in western Washington state. "They can't administer the sales, they can't administer the appraisals that have to go on for timber assessment. It stops everything in its tracks.''
More in the article.

[Aleister Granger]

I've noticed that libertarians and conservatives are being blamed for this left and right and they've gone into overdrive calling every leaf, every molecule of air "liberal communist."

[ckaihatsu]

The intrinsic bourgeois 'spin' is slowing down....


Ideologies & Operations -- Left Centrifugalism

http://s6.postimage.org/zc8b2rb3h/110211_Ideologies_Operations_Left_Centrifug.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/zc8b2rb3h/)

[Smith's Dream]

Can't post links yet, bu I think you lot will appreciate this...

http: //democracyweb. com/?attachment_id=12923

[ckaihatsu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1m6ElFzjNI

[argeiphontes]

^ They keep polling similar numbers across time, basically 18-31 percent, so the current 25 is maybe close to average.

http://legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CBS-NYT-poll-Tea-Party-Question.jpg

But it looks like (http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/09/26/support-for-tea-party-slips-poll-shows/) their approval is down among Republicans (38%, half of what it was 1 year ago), and that poll is prior to the shutdown. Since it was an astroturf "movement" to begin with, Ted Cruz and those other buffoons can just act as if people support it, since they've been doing that all along. A lot of those districts are gerrymandered no-lose propositions in red states anyway, I'd assume.

People are pissed. It seems that Wall Street is upset with them (http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/government-shutdown-wall-street-tea-party-97734.html?ml=al_2). I wonder how it will end? They can't win on Obamacare; they'll just become irrelevant. The Democrats are more than happy to do the work of Wall Street.

[ckaihatsu]

People are pissed. It seems that Wall Street is upset with them (http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/government-shutdown-wall-street-tea-party-97734.html?ml=al_2). I wonder how it will end? They can't win on Obamacare; they'll just become irrelevant. The Democrats are more than happy to do the work of Wall Street.


I guess I'm really anticipating *institutional* problems developing for Wall Street as the government apparatus becomes increasingly unreliable and non-functioning. Perhaps it *would* take a few weeks to get to that point, but I'll be keeping a close eye on blue-chips, etc., for an ongoing barometer reading....