Obama won re-election, ensuring more agonizing partisan gridlock that the nation would rather not think about.

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Look at this lake. So peaceful.

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The gridlock deals largely with the "fiscal cliff," a series of tax hikes and spending cuts that will occur unless lawmakers can compromise on laws such as the Bush tax cuts and the 2011 Budget Control Act. That will not happen.

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John Boehner said he would accept new revenues to avoid the fiscal cliff, but everyone said he was just posturing, and they were right.

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Feel the crunch of crimson leaves underfoot. Isn't nature miraculous?

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Tim Geithner brought the White House's proposed solution to Republicans. The plan included new tax revenues and therefore fell on deaf ears.

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Mitch McConnell laughed at the proposal. Ordinary Americans congratulated themselves for not getting their hopes up.

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Breathe into your third eye.

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Geithner replied that there would be no deal without higher tax rates for the wealthy, at which point ordinary Americans asked the whole thing to stop, please stop.

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House Republicans made a counteroffer that the far right doesn't even like and Obama rejects, so really, what's the point?

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The two sides are still willing to sit in a room together, though, which is something. Maybe.

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Shhh. Just listen to the waves crashing on the shore.

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