We all know that Bush and the Republicans in Congress have been making all kinds of decisions that, while good for them politically in the short-term, are irresponsible and detrimental to the US in the long term. So far they have gotten away with all the shit they have been doing since Bush and the Republicans came into power, but I believe that sooner or later the consequences of the bad decisions they have made with reach a critical mass in such a way that something significant will break, and when it does, it will have far-reaching cascading effect for the US as one inter-dependent system after another begins to fail, much as a power outage in one location spreads to many other locations. I am talking about the economy and bad fiscal decisions mostly, but also other decisions that affect the economy like war policies, bad environmental policies, etc. We already see signs that a problem is occuring as the U.S. dollar falls around the world, gas and oil prices rise, etc. But I am predicting that sooner or later the US will have to pay for all the things Bush and the Republicans have done and are doing. The US cannot continue on the road it is on without reaping the disastrous consequences it has sown. I have no doubt that the US will not change its ways and will continue on this path. The question is when will the balloon bust for the US and it become conseqence time. Any thoughts?

My thoughts are that all this foolishness will sooner or later reach a boiling point, and it will be the US middle and lower class citizen who will pay the price. Moreover, I think it is perfectly just that consequences be reaped for making bad decisions based upon temporary political considerations. I just don't think those who made the decisions will pay the price. Others will who had no part in that decision making process, and those who did will claim absolutely no responsibility whatsoever for the disasters their decisions led to. Instead they will try to capitilize off of fixing them with more short-term political fixes, and the whole sickening vicious cycle will start all over again. That is the nature of Politics in this country.

Just before our last civil war. We have not been the same since.

The boiling point?

Now, I know there is a name for it, and maybe someone can tell me/us, but I'm not sure America will recognize the "BOILING POINT" until it is too late. The example is the frog that sits in a pot over a flame and does not jump out of the pot because it can not differentiate the temperature increase until it dies from the hot water.

I think that America is in that pot.

There will be those of us who attempt to get people's attention to tell them the water is gettin damn hot.
The same idea Max suggest applies in all ways. Things like Global Warming come to mind.

Something is starting to give... when Helen Thomas and Stephen Colbert publicly reveal the PNAC within less of a month of each other, then that can only be a sign. It's a good sign but it has come right at the time of the other sign, as you say, THE "boiling point". I consider the good sign THE "tide". Hopefully the "tide" will keep rolling in until November , but will it be enuf and in time to prevent or even put a dent in the "boiling point"? I think MM has made the correct analogy about this "boiling point" and the Civil War... if the economic , fiscal , environmental, & infrastructure situation does indeed reach the "boiling point" because of a debacle caused by Bushco, our nation might actually require a Reconstruction phase!

The following is what I am talking about in this post, which I did not make clear before. After reading this maybe you will understand why I say the shit is going to hit the fan sooner or later. It has not happened yet, but one small event can lead to a cascading tidal wave that wipes out the US economy. So much of what the US does in the world, its policies and even military decisions, is really based on fiscal matters. While the US pretends to be the world's good guy, behind the scenes it is a selfish, shrewd, and cunning, and everything it does is about the Benjamins. But what happens when the rest of the world no longer depends on US currency? This is exactly what I am referring to.

The biggest sign that the US is aware of something and is trying to hide something significant is that the US Federal Reserve has stopped reporting the M3 money supply Data of the US Dollar. This is like a corporation purposely hiding profit and loss numbers from its investors so they will not see how bad things really are, and start dumping their stock even faster.

The US is vulnerable today to a threat far worse than Al Queda. If the US loses its fiscal dominance and control of the world's oil and money markets, it will hurt the US in a way that it has never been hurt before. The American economy is so fragile already. To bring it crashing down would not take a lot. And contrary to what I said before, I now believe it is all about the Oil and the control of Oil on the world market.

This is the legacy that Bush and the Republicans have left us. If and when the shit does hit, you can bet none of this foolhardy crowd will accept any reposonsibility for the long-term damage they have done. These people don't accept blame or responsibility. They just exploit opportunities for the short-term and leave the long-term consequences of their actions for someone else to deal with.

* America, already the world's largest international debtor with $5.7 trillion in cumulative trade deficits in goods since 1985, exploded international trade deficits to new records as it depends more and more on the production and savings of others than on itself (see International Trade Report ).

* With a total debt of $44 trillion, and rising rapidly, America now has the highest debt ratio in history that translates to $147,312 per man, woman and child - - or $589,248 per family of 4, $44,312 more debt per family than last year.

* Last year debt increased $3.5 Trillion, 5 times more than GDP. Household debt soared 12%.

The debt level of US is increasing at an alarming 80 million dollars per hour. To sustain this American trend, the world's readiness to soak up the soon to be worthless American dollars is increasingly becoming a key issue. China and Japan, the two main debt holders of America for example, who together hold an accumulated $1.7 trillion in US securities and currency, are already steadily moving away from the dollar towards the Euro.

America's financial health report, to say the least, is grim and the future prospects grimmer.

Currently there are only two exchanges for trading oil in the world. One is called the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and the other as International Petroleum Exchange (IPE). Oil remains the chief commodity on both exchanges.

NYMEX, together with its subsidiary New York Commodities Exchange (COMEX), is the world's largest physical commodity futures exchange located in New York City. Together they handle the buying and selling of billions of dollars worth of energy products, metals, and a whole range of other commodities. Needless to say, all transactions are done in US dollars and the prices quoted for these deals on the exchange are the basis for prices that people pay for those items throughout the World.

The IPE, based in London, is another one of the world's largest energy futures and options exchanges. Brent Crude is a world benchmark for oil prices. This exchange additionally handles futures contracts and options on Oil Gas, natural gas and electricity.

In simpler language, these two institutions presently ensure that the world stays awash with US dollars. Their locations too are not a very faint hint at the names of the two main coalition partners that attacked and occupied Iraq.

Although since 1971 the US $ value has not been openly linked to any commodity, it has in fact stayed linked to the Middle Eastern oil after the US secured the oil-for-US $ deal with Saudi Arabia in return for supporting the House of Saud. Since then, however, the US dollar has continued to lose value and now stands at a mere 10% of what it was forty years back.

With the arrival of Euro on the scene, the US dollar's hegemony started to wane at even greater pace. The Euro began to appeal to many oil selling countries. In 2000, for example, Iraq converted all its oil transaction to Euros. To stem the trend and send a chilling warning to other would-be Euro lovers, Iraq was attacked and occupied by the dollar keepers immediately later. When U.S. took over Iraq in 2003, one of the first things it did was to return oil sales from the Euro to the U.S. dollar.

Likewise, in 2001 Venezuela's ambassador to Russia spoke of them switching to Euro for all oil sales. Within a year there was a coup attempt on democratically elected Hugo Chavez, reportedly with the assistance of the CIA. Chavez has been, since then, called a Hitler and a dictator and his name has been promoted on America's most wanted list to immediately below Iran's Ahmadinejad's.

Now let us come to Iran's cardinal sin. Since the beginning of 2003, Iran has required Euros in payment of exports toward Asia and Europe, though prices are still expressed in US dollars. Now Iran is planning to open a commodity exchange, the Iranian Oil Bourse, for the sole purpose of trading oil, petrochemicals and gas in various non-dollar currencies, primarily the Euro. When successful, this would establish a Euro-based pricing mechanism for oil trading. That would, in time, break the stranglehold of NYMEX and IPE on the world's financial market by sending the US dollar into a graveyard spin. The US economy would be an unfortunate, but sure, accompaniment.

To imagine that the American and British bankers, the principle war profiteers, are unaware of the coming fate of the US dollar, is hoping for an ice flake to survive in hell. To keep blinders on the US dollar's coming instability, they have already taken their first action. The United States Federal Reserve, from March 23, 2006, has stopped reporting the M3 money supply data of the U.S. dollar. (M3 is the quantity of money available within the economy to purchase goods and services.)

Since there is nothing I can do about the big picture , I only deal with the little picture ....ME! Work for the government, ANY government, they don't go bankrupt, their benefits more than make-up their lower salary, and the security is better than private sector. Own, don't rent. Concentrate on paying off the mortgage first, even pay two payments a month , instead of buying a new car. NEVER EVER buy a NEW car (they depreciate as soon as you drive off the lot... just get a reliable used car and AAA auto club). Pay off the used car with a credit card, even if the interest is higher on the credit card. Why? The repo man can't haul away a paid-for car. And NEVER EVER get a home equity loan.. why? So you don't worry about foreclosure (judges foreclose on home equity more than first mortgage)! Pay more than the minimum on your credit cards every month and before the due date. Don't rely on the mail either when it comes to paying credit cards, I wire money to one card and pay Discovercard at the Sears store. Regularly ask them to lower your APR rate. Of course pay down the cards if you can, but if you can't, at least pay more than the minimum. Eat in more, eat out less. That's what I do ... think of #1 first. Accept the things I can't change, change the things I can, and Lordy, give me the wisdom to know the difference!