Notes from Surreal Land

Headline: “U.S. careens toward shutdown; financial crisis.”
News item: A study says that, if the U.S. defaults on its debt, it would trigger a financial crisis of unprecedented proportions, leading to loss of six million jobs and fifteen trillion dollars in wealth.

Classic military strategy calls for the artillery to soften up the enemy’s defenses, then send in the infantry to capture new territory. Republican strategy is based on the same idea: Create chaos to soften the ground for staging a coup and installing an authoritarian regime. The line fed the public is that things have gotten so bad that only this strong and uncompromising leader can fix it.