I think the Unsleeping Eye is about to burn out, watching all that’s going on in this country. I tell you that for the first time I truly am beginning to understand exactly why so many “regular” Romanians are obsessed with pranks, jokes, the superficial and the stupid. It’s clearly some kind of psychological coping mechanism.

I got to tell you it’s going to take some more time to synthesize everything to see the shadows behind the curtain but all hell is slowly breaking loose in this country. About two months ago it was people in the street but that phase is over. Now it’s every power player fighting, scheming, swapping parties, getting fired, getting hired, going on TV, slamming each other and printing up cards saying that Jesus wants you to vote for them.

There’s far too many stories to link to and analyze but in a week when the “Queen” himself, the PDL’s bag man, Sorin Blejnar, gets the axe via a telephone call from the Prime Minister, you know something’s going on. Is the government doing a good job of collecting VAT (TVA) revenue or isn’t it? Are they handing out money they shouldn’t to pensioners or are they short changing them? Are they cracking down on corruption or are they just wiping out the little fish from competing? Are public employees going to get a raise or aren’t they? And is “Gigi” Becali going to pay for his criminal antics or isn’t he? I hate to get all Henry II here but is there truly no judge who will rid us of this troublesome pest?

Victor Ponta and his crew of USL pirates are gunning for the PDL, with half their numbers jumping ship to Team Crazy Eyes over at the PDL. Meanwhile Ponta’s obviously got a personal hard-on for my girl Roberta Anastase that’s approaching serious psychological illness levels and every other day there’s some kind of stupid theatrics right on the floor with double handed voting and walking out and you name it. Even the Hungarians are getting caught up in all of this and all I am seeing is the world’s biggest game of musical (political and court trial) chairs going on, with the same players dancing over and over to what’s become a hellish tune.

Good lord, who is running the ship around here? Except for Rosia Montana, I don’t think the vast majority of Romanians left in this country give a damn far beyond the clothes on their back and the food in their stomachs and the LULZ on the internet and TV. Meanwhile businesses are sinking under a morass of Byzantine taxes and legislation and fees that may or may not be being collected correctly, where even the newspaper shows you how to use complicated schemes to avoid paying the VAT and all of the 7 (or 8 or 9, I can’t even keep track) of the non-stop news channels are full of talking heads pumping out hot air by the metric ton and it’s always somebody else’s fault but nobody knows what in the fiddily fuck to do to fix the situation.

Yes, I know Romania is a chaotic country which inherited both the graft system of the Ottoman Empire as well as the legacy of autocratic Communism. Yes, I know it’s been at the mercy of foreign powers, financial and sovereign, for many a long year. But something new seems to be going on, or perhaps a bigger wave is surging on what was always a chaotic sea, and at the end of the day I see about 500 screaming children with pudding on their faces and not too many adults left standing. Even Daddy Mark is left to his hectoring and finger waggling off in the corner, talking magical tales of unicorn dust about how Romanians can now buy a piece of American companies on the Bucharest stock exchange and a grand total of eight fucking Apple shares were sold the first day.

Meanwhile robberies, shootings, spousal murders and suicides are up and today I saw a lady get her shit stolen by passers by two seconds after a car ran her down in Craiova. Good lord! It’s about ready to make me reach for a bottle and some 9GAG myself.

Something’s got to be done soon or it’s going to be every man for himself and let the Devil take the hindmost.