"Broken Down Gambler"

I used to be a dedicated viewer of “The Sopranos” on HBO when it was first aired. I enjoyed the character portrayals and the action; it was very well written and accurately reflected life in an organized crime family. It portrayed the amoral values that Mafia members had about their business when it came to committing crimes and acts of violence; conscience was never an issue in any situation.

I remember a certain episode when a high school friend of Tony’s wanted to get into a high stakes poker game, and Tony knew that his friend had a problem with gambling. While Tony was napping during the game, one of his men allowed his friend into the game.

Upon awakening, Tony was upset and told his friend to get out of the game, but his friend protested to the point that Tony told him there would be no special treatment because he knew Tony. The friend said “fine” and then proceeded to lose over $50,000 in bad debt.

The game had gone on for several days before it finally broke up, and Tony told his friend he should go home and get some sleep and he would be over in two days to pick up his money.

Two days went by and Tony went to his friend’s place of business to collect, but was met with an excuse rather than his money and the Tony Soprano who was a mob boss took the place of Tony Soprano the friend. After a mild beating, he informed his friend he would be back on Friday for a payment of at least $25,000 and NO EXCUSES.

In the end, Tony’s “friend” lost his business, divorced his wife and had to leave town because he didn’t understand with whom he was dealing! He thought he had a “friend”; big surprise, his friend was a thug!

The United States is in a debt crisis regardless of the outcome of the Congressional debt agreements. It will probably be a deal which will push the debt problems down the road for a short time, but actually solve nothing.

Red China, our chief lender, is watching all of this with great interest; they hold quite a bit of our “bad paper”, actually billions of dollars which we would be unable to pay if China called in our debt. I believe they want us to increase our “debt ceiling” as it will further weaken the American economy and increase the influence of the Red Chinese throughout the world.

Russia is also watching in the wings as this economic bubble is continuing to inflate and our President will, in all probability, look to military cuts to alleviate the ever growing debt while leaving entitlements in place. I’m sure Mr. Putin is happy American funds are going to be spent on “cell phones and food stamps” rather than national defense.

President Obama has stated that the raising of the debt ceiling is no big deal, like that “broken down gambler” writing I.O.U.’s he knows he can’t pay.

Actually, he doesn’t have to pay those mountains of I.O.U. chits, he is leaving them for our children and grandchildren to pay; they aren’t his problem.

Barack Obama has set America down in a “poker game” with the world’s most dangerous “mobsters” and he’s overplayed his hand. How much more money will we throw away on this “BROKEN DOWN GAMBLER”; soon we will all go broke. “Tony Soprano is at America’s door”, what happens next?