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Over the past week, I've had numerous emails regarding the outcome of the election and things that we might be facing.  Below is a reply that I've sent to one of my readers, expanded a bit from that original response.  

Feel free to pass on this at anytime--the following has nothing to do with Distance or the prior three novels... these are just some of the rambling thoughts of the author. However, I doubt anyone would believe the situation we find ourselves, if it were in a novel. 

From a reader:

I would wonder what your take is on what is happening right now. You have an election that appears rigged, you have 42 + states with petitions to secede at the white house, and of course economic collapse is knocking on the front door.

My reply:

Needless to say I was disappointed by the election. Not that I'm a huge Romney fan, but I thought that there were enough people out there that were awake and paying attention to flip Obama out of office. You cannot win an election when the debate moderators, the media, most other nations, and the existing administration are against you. Just cannot happen. I was hopeful until 7PM, Pacific Time. After that though, I poured two fingers of Scotch. 

Obviously, there are enough people awake and 'on the dole' to realize that they've got a very good thing going with the current administration remaining in place, and don't see the need or have the desire to change it.  The "47%" that Romney mentioned didn't vote for him; he was exactly right in his comments. There were too many insurmountables for him to beat.  He couldn't even win his own state. 

So, things have tipped over. There is no going back at this point. With the Senate still in D control; the House now willing to capitulate on anything Obama wants, since the R-party is now so obviously out of touch with the electorate that they have to do what Obama wants or they become even more irrelevant than they are now. They are blustering, but they'll cave soon enough.  They weren't just spanked last weak. They were horsewhipped. I don't know what the R party is anymore, let alone who their leader is, what their goals and ideology represent--any of it. 

The R party needs to remake itself to listen to what the voters want, or it will lose the House in 2014, and that is a very real possibility. The R party leadership has disenfranchised so many people that they'll be lucky to exist at all in eight years. (Don't get me started on what they did to R. Paul at the convention).   So what do the voters want? Everything, with no threat of ever paying for it. 

So what does that mean for us?  D-Party, R-Party, same outcome, but one side wears better suits and doesn't put on phony accents when speaking to working people. 

So, among other things that we're facing: 

The Fiscal Cliff: I expect that either they'll kick the can down the road through a continuing resolution or we go off the cliff as the R party still remains out of touch and stands fast for whatever it is they believe in.  The perception is that they are for the preservation of wealth for the wealthy.  The facts be damned: No one cares that the rich people pay far more than their fair share in taxes and millions of others pay nothing or in fact get paid for breathing.  No one who voted for Obama seems to care one iota that FedGov hasn't had an actual budget since GWB's last effort.    Can you go for four years without balancing your checkbook or at least looking at the bank statement? I know that I can't.  Tax the rich 100%, and you still don't get there. Tax them 200% and you still don't get there.  

We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.  There is no way that anyone wants to fix a spending problem. It's far too painful. But it's necessary. 

Israel/Iran: Either Israel goes it alone or they threaten Iran with both the assassination of their entire leadership tier, or they turn several parts of Iran into a glassy parking lot.  Either way, it won't be long before things Are Decided. Of course, I Could Be Wrong. They are completely capable to do this all on their own and without permission or support from the U.S. As a matter of observation, they're better off not telling anyone anything until they're on their return leg of the mission.  It's not like the U.S. leadership has proven itself competent any any aspect of foreign policy or covert actions for a long time now...

UN Small Arms Treaty: Coming to a nation near you. This could be an exec order, approved by the Senate, crafted and rammed through the same way that Obamacare was. Don't expect a bunch of hearings on it, or expect it to follow legal pathways.  Enforcement: No need to ban the weapons, just tax the crap out of ammunition; pound the manufacturers with all kinds of non-compliable compliance mandates; ban imports and exports of any kind. I visited a Cabelas over the weekend--There wasn't a black gun, magazine or any quality 5.56 left in the store by the end of the day.  AK's were going too, along with 7.62x39. Lots of talk about either capitalizing on the weapons or being ready for seizures, one boat-tail round at a time at high velocity.  It looked a **whole lot** like a Black Friday sale, but with much more determination.  

Economy: Despite the happy-talk, it doesn't matter what Obama does or doesn't do.  Europe's going down hard, and when they go, we go. Might be soon, might be a year...dunno. Read Karl Denninger's site (The Market Ticker) when you can, or daily, including the comments section. These are professional traders, and they see risks and failure where we see nothing. I'm not in that business, so I don't see the danger signs that they do.  I read the site, but seldom post. I treat that site like I do The Drudge Report.  If you want to know the news before the MSM reports on it, you need to be ahead of the MSM. It is not difficult. 

Read this: http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2753128     That particular post explains the nature of exponential spending and debt accumulation.  You don't know how bad it is until you are nearly out of breathable air.  Scary as Hell when you think about it, especially in light of where we are post-election. 

Money: QE to Infinity will continue--and accelerate the destruction of our money. Europe will go first, meaning there is a flight to the perception of "quality": They will run to the dollar as other currencies die; then the dollar will go too. Things you need will continue to get more expensive--food, fuel, etc., but prices will not climb steadily and the .gov will leverage that as 'recovery'.  Bumpy, unpredictable, and drawn out for far longer than would be reasonable.  When it goes though, it will go very quickly. Think: Hours not days. Silver and gold gyrate a bunch. The old maxim applies: If you don't have it in your hands, you don't have it. 

Obamacare: Gets fully implemented, full-throttle.   Private insurance companies will be driven out of existence.  Health care quality plummets, and prices skyrocket.  The Death Panel won't be needed, because simple delays in getting needed treatment will kill people....just like Great Britain.  If you need a medical procedure done, get it done sooner rather than later. If you have insurance at a reasonable price now, you won't have it in a year--you might have insurance, but you'll be paying for much more of it (assuming your employer pays a portion of it now). ALSO, expect massive terminations of full time employees and hiring of part time employees, none of which will be eligible for employer-sponsored medical insurance.  Expect all kinds of current fringe benefits to be eliminated as a result, causing further downward pressure on the workers. You're going to see a massive reduction in employers, as people figure out that it's just not worth it to work hard to pay the government more taxes and end up with much less at the end of the day. This may be the price of Austerity. I think it's more the cost of bloated government. 

ScandalGate and Fallout:  An ambassador--the second highest envoy a country can have, after the President--is allowed to be killed, when numerous options were available to save him; and after dozens of failures of security were allowed to happen.  Protocol was completely ignored in multiple agencies and at multiple levels, including in the Situation Room where BHO was present and ordered 'Stand Down'.   No one goes to jail or is punished.  

Fast and Furious:  Weapons were supplied by the FedGov to Mexican drug gangs, resulting in hundreds, if not thousands of deaths.  No one goes to jail or is punished. 

CIA Compromised: The head of the CIA is banging his biographer, and isn't smart enough to use widely available, easily accessible and highly secure encryption means to express his need to get some from his mistress.  The mistress is allowed access to all kinds of classified environments and probably information, as that kind of thing happens in the afterglow.  Mistress talks, another woman gets involved, and Petraeus' succeeding General in Afghanistan decides to get involved to the tune of thousands, if not tens of thousands of emails. An investigating FBI agent gets overly involved and tries to start a relationship with one of the women, including communicating topless pictures of himself sent to her. This throws dirt on the CIA, the FBI, probably to a smaller degree State, and by extension, Obama, but he is far above the fray.  Look for Petraeus and his general-buddy to be retired in disgrace, and word to come out that both were leading Bush-men in the big scheme of things.  No one goes to jail or is punished. 

As a result of the shiny entertainment of a married four-star general getting all horizontal with a much younger woman, and the accessory collapse of several other major careers, Benghazi and the weapons smuggling is forgotten; F&F is forgotten, the CIA is reformed with new, Statist-approved leadership, as is the FBI.   No one goes to jail or is punished. 

All this proves is that the most of the upper echelons of leadership in this nation are utterly corrupt. 

Regulations: Expect many more restrictive, private-business-unfriendly regulations to come your way. Expect there to be increasing restrictions on use of any kind of fuel: Wood burning, diesel, gasoline, whatever through a Carbon Tax.  Expect environmental 'Agenda 21' stuff to grow quickly. Expect both parties to be sponsors as a way to seriously increase revenue. 

Courts: We're going to see more radical Supreme Court judges, and a vast increase in radical judges in lower courts. This isn't even on the radar screen right now. Scalia, Ginsburg, Kennedy, two Reagan appointees and a Clinton appointee, will all likely be replaced with three Obama appointees. If this happens, this will be the largest bunch of USSC judges appointed by a single President since Eisenhower. Think about that one for a long time. 

If you've read Asimov, it's time to build your version of the Great Library of Trantor.  If you've read Rand, it's time to re-read Atlas Shrugged and prepare accordingly.  If you haven't read either or can't stand Rand's endless monologues, you still have some time to catch up, but don't waste time. If you're unfamiliar with any of the aforementioned, research the purposes and functions of medieval monasteries. They weren't all about religion and were designed to exist for many lifetimes.  

I think we are in for a very rough time ahead. 

T