How it is going to head

IMHO

All of this is guesswork, done in the middle of the night. It is an old custom in my family, when the times get hard and direction is to needed to navigate an uncertain future, the paterfamilias retreats to a private place and casts the mickle runes. It is a ceremony unsuited for the faint of heart, involving as it does,

• latex gloves,
  
• a two-pound jar of orange marmalade,
  
• the carburetor from a 1967 Camaro,
  
• a rubber spatula, and
  
• the family cat.

But the work has to be done.

Taxes: Of course these are going to go up, you jackasses. The fed has been slinging money around like a horny sailor on shore leave. You can bitch and moan, whine and complain all you wish. We have been paying one of the lowest tax rates in the world and spending money like crazy. You gotta end up paying for it all. All of the fancy roads, bridges, space shuttle flights, oversized FBI, trips to Iraq for the troops, schools, laid-up mcmansions, blowed up HumVees, judges, food stamps, and other such ancillary have to be paid for.

We are gonna be the ones doing the paying. Get over it and tighten your belts.

Civil Rights: Will stay pretty much the same. For a bit. Don't get too cozy, keep a low profile, and don't go marching around outside. The vast majority of folks will do anything and tolerate anything to stay safe. They will cheer their government when it stomps on the outliers.

This is a great country, you can do pretty much what you please as long as you are discreet and keep your mouth shut. Holing up in a compound with a shitload of guns, screaming for the overthrow of the illegitimate government is certain to have unwanted visitors with agency names on their windbreakers come a knocking. Great for wanna-be martyrs, I think I'll pass.

Military: This ties in closely to the economic sphere. The worse the economy gets, the sooner we will declare victory and start bringing troops home. But be aware, the sooner that we declare victory, the sooner that some 4-Star will throw his hat in the ring and run for office. The Praetorians don't like the way things are looking, they will try for control.

Economy: The old game is over. No one has a clue of what the new game will look like. The only thing we know is that it will be a lot less. Start living small. You might even find out it suits you pretty well.

The stock market is now completely dissociated from the real economy. It rallies when only 623,000 jobs are lost instead of the expected 632,000 jobs. At some point the hallucinogens will run out and the price will drop like a rock. My prediction is towards the end of the year or first quarter of next year, the stock market and the economy will resume the tanking. I am guessing S&P ≈ 300-400 with unemployment in the 15-20% range with pockets of very bad 35%

Politics: This administration and the current congressional whorehouse will patch and patch and patch. They will man the pumps and pump and pump and pump. They aren't going to do anything too radical, they have too damn much to do just keeping the boat afloat.

I'll continue this on Monday....gotta go bathe the cat.