Here on the southern plains of the United States of America the year 2013 has arrived as a cold, damp, and gray beast. It looks to be, at the moment any way, unforgiving and pitiless. We can only hope for kinder, gentler, days ahead as the future unfolds in front of us.
Yes, you see, 2013 is part of The Great Unknown. There is no telling what brilliance, madness, charity, and debauched decadence lays ahead.
As we plunge into the new year there are a few things we do know, however, that might, perhaps, inform us, or at least give us a hint as to the shape of things to come.
We know, for instance, that the odds seem to favor Hugo Chavez's demise. Chavez is currently tucked away in a Cuban hospital, which tells us a great deal about the quality of health care in his native Venezuela. He has suffered through multiple major surgeries and more telling, named a successor just in case the dark shade of Che Guevara comes to collect his soul. Once El Comandante bites the dust look for a wild political scramble in Caracas that, in the end, might involve the military.
And speaking of wild political scrambles. A few weeks ago there was no doubt in many minds that the nominee of the democratic party in 2016 would be Hillary Rodham Clinton. That was before the fainting spell, the concussion, and now a blood clot located in a vein between her brain and skull right behind her ear. Doctors are adamant that Mrs. Clinton did not have a stroke, although no one in the credible media, that I know of, ever asked that question. It is reported she is on anti-coagulants and her physicians expect a full recovery.
The fact is, if she can't go in 2016 because of health reasons, or if there are sufficient questions regarding her well being and her ability to carry out the duties of the office, the primary race for the democratic nomination will become chaotic at best. The blood letting will be gruesome and possibly fatal if the republicans can finally find someone who can at least appear to be a human being to head their ticket.
That whole human being thing remains elusive for the GOP though. Last night the senate passed a measure that would allow the government to avoid the fiscal cliff. The bill ups taxes on individuals who make more than $400,000 per year and couples who make more than $450,000 per annum. It also will stop a 27% cut in fees paid to doctors who treat medicare patients and allow the long term unemployed to continue to collect benefits. The bill as written passed, 89-8. Among those dissenting were the anti-government government employee Rand Paul and Florida's Marco Rubio. Rubio has been widely rumored to be a major player in the republican primaries four years from now. Rubio is young, good looking, and most importantly, Hispanic. One has to wonder what his popularity rating will be among AMA members, especially in his home state of Florida, when it becomes common knowledge he just tried to cut nearly a third of their fees when it comes to treating retirees.
Of course we aren't really off the cliff's edge yet. John Boehner, who has proven himself to be the most ineffective Speaker of the House in perhaps the history of the republic, has yet to give it his support. Not that it matters. Boehner can't even control his own right wing. Like, Karl Rove and Dick Morris he is so terrible at arithmetic that he had to call off a house vote on his own budget "Plan B" last week. In the end it dawned on him that he didn't have enough support within the republican majority for it to pass. Quick, name the last House Speaker who needed the minority party's help to pass legislation he authored because his own members wouldn't vote for it.
One of the things we don't know at this time is exactly how accomplished of a marksman Adam Lanza was. We do know, however, that when you are packing a Bushmaster .223 and are standing in a class room full of terrified first graders all you really have to do is point, squeeze and let 'er rip. We also know, thanks to Slate and the twitter feed @GunDeaths, that as of 8:00AM CST yesterday 321 Americans have been murdered by guns since the Newtown, Connecticut massacre on December 14th. That would be 284 more deaths than were recorded in Australia for the entire year of 2011, 282 more than in England and Wales for the same period, and 261 more than in Spain. All in just over two weeks. Who says America has gone soft? Finally we also know gun sales and the sales of high capacity ammunition clips have sky rocketed since young Mr. Lanza began his morning by blowing his mother's head off.
Look for more of the same in 2013. In the end it is the one thing we can truly count on.
Just stay low and keep moving.
sic vita est
1-1-13
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