Does this pull it all together?

I admit it, I'm pessimistic about the future of the US, the world and sometimes humanity. Despite being educated enough to know better humanity still clings to stupidity. This stupidity takes many forms, and falls evenly across the political spectrum. In the end it boils down to two basic concepts for me:

TANSTAAFL - their ain't no such thing as a free lunch - made famous by Robert Anson Heinlein in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein

A coworker sent me this link today. It's a sobering read, but it ties together many things that have been nagging at me for quite some time. I fear, as the author does, that we've only just begun to plum the depths of the economic mess that our politicians have allowed to happen because they were in the pockets of the bankers and the manipulators. The hole is deep, and we may not be able to dig our way out:

It appears that AIG - the company we have bailed out (thus far) to the tune of some $100 billion plus, in fact isn't done.  It appears they may have written credit protection on Greece.  If this allegation by the German equivalent to The New York Times is true Americans are going to be asked to pay billions of dollars - or more likely, hundreds of billions (since Greece is almost certainly not the only place - try Spain, Portugal, Ireland, etc) to bail out a bunch of FOREIGN NATIONS.

Do you both think Americans can and will pay that bill?  A bill that has been forced on us, and yet benefits not The United States economy, but foreigners? 

 Scary thought isn't it? We've spent the last 60 years paying a portion, some would argue a significant portion, of the cost of defending Europe from itself and the Soviet Union and now we're going to have to bail out the socialist nightmare they built with the money they saved on defense?

Do you both think Americans can and will pay that bill?  A bill that has been forced on us, and yet benefits not The United States economy, but foreigners? 

 Wars - big wars - start over much less, my friends.

Sobering isn't it? But consider this, how stable is the US domestically? We've just been through three highly charged Presidential elections starting with Bush's narrow win over Gore in 2000, the 2004 election and now the election of our current President. I remarked in 2004 that I'd never seen the US as divided as it was then, 2008 was worse, not better. The left is consumed with hatred for the right; the right is consumed with annoyance at the malfeasance of the press, the continuous race baiting and the endless spending and giveaways that never seem to satiate the left no matter how big. A large, loose coalition of people from the center, fed up with politicians of both parties has risen up only to be characterized as potential terrorists, racists, called 'tea baggers' by the press and politicians alike, while 24 X 7 the left wing noise machine dominates the news coverage presenting a picture that doesn't represent reality, just an "objective truth" invented to agree with the left's narrative. Yet the signs are there that a growing majority of people have had enough:

A recent Rasmussen poll disclosed that only 21% of the voters in this country believe that the government enjoys the consent of the governed.  Put another way, only 21% of the voters in this nation consent to what Washington is doing.  

More ominously, 61% say the government does NOT have consent.  The remainder (18%) are not sure.

May I remind you that in 1776 less than that 21% of the population (19%, actually) were loyal to Britain?

If you do not believe this nation is wound tighter than a clock spring, you need to have that Thorazine dosage checked again.

You are in denial. 

Denial indeed, but it's more the politicians and the press that are in denial because damn near everyone I know is furious with the government; and that is government at all levels from our local towns to the Feds and beyond to the unaccountable UN with it's constant efforts to help itself to a nice helping of what little gold remains in the west with various deceptions and schemes; the "treaty of the sea", the IPCC and the climate fraud, AIDs you name it the UN has it's hand out and they're skimming off the top, the bottom and out of the middle to feed the maw of unaccountable corruption that represents this proto-world governing body.

We helped, we helped a good deal because we refused to recognize when the UN had lost it's way, and ceased to serve any useful function. The US has cruised along, footing most of the bill for the UN while allowing it to sit countries like Libya and Saudi Arabia in judgement of our human rights record. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Yet so consistent.

At home we've helped too. We've allowed the Government to carry out a huge war against us, a civil war that targets us, our neighbors, and their children in a hopeless task; I'm speaking of the so-called "War on Drugs". You would have thought that the US might have learned a thing or two during the alcohol prohibition days. See Albert's definition of insanity above.

Now consider the "bad side" of America.  The Justice Department estimates there are at least one million gang members - active gang members - in America.  These people, mostly young males, have nearly all drawn or fired weapons in anger.  They are responsible for more than three quarters of all crime in this country, and some eight out of ten violent crimes.  Those gang members have families - younger males who are "coming up", "friends" (if you can call a murderous thug a friend) and others.  Between all of those "loosely attached" folks and the hard-core inner circle itself we probably have somewhere between 5 and 10 million people in this nation who, given the wrong sort of provocation, might decide that "Zombieland" wasn't just a movie.

Our politicians created most of these monsters so the "finest" would have something to do.  A nearly-100-year obsession with what consenting adults put in their bodies is largely responsible for this, and an intentional policy of allowing an effective invasion of illegal aliens over our southern border provides some the most-violent core of this group.  The illegal drug trade has fueled international wars, international gangs, and virtually all of the organized violent crime in this nation going back to Prohibition.  Essentially every automatic weapon in the hands of criminals (and there are plenty of them) comes into the US through this same intentionally-left-open border as do the gangbangers, lies of this (and previous) administrations notwithstanding.  Those of you in the Law Enforcement business may not want to accept these facts, but if you reflect on it you cannot escape reality: weapons, ammunition and other means of street thuggery all cost money, and without these drugs being illegal there would be no profit in it, and thus a huge part of the criminal gangland element would not exist.  You've cheered on the War on Drugs as it has meant more cops being hired and more, better, fancier toys for you to play with, along with $200,000+ pensions (in some areas.) You've been fools and even self-destructive assholes for having done so.  But that, today, is water over the dam - the bad guys are here, they're not leaving, and there's no evidence that the political class is going to suddenly legalize these substances tomorrow, cutting the source of funds for the thugs off at the knees - after all, you won't rise up and demand it happen.  So we must deal with reality on the ground as it is (and as you have cheered on the creation of), whether we like it or not.

Cheery thoughts huh?  Are we close to a breakdown? How thin is the veil of civilization? Ask the Donner party. Ask any combat soldier. Ask yourself. The veil is about as thick as it can be but it'll be wisps of fog as soon as the supermarket shelves are empty.

Mad Max was a movie, but that movie could come to your neighborhood if the political class doesn't suddenly grow a responsibility lobe in their power and status besotted fore-brains. Good luck with that. Instead I think we're about to see Obama and his Democrat dominate Congress push through a bank breaking health care takeover that does nothing to fix the real issues we have with healthcare. It will however break the back of the camel called the US economy and as they say "if the US economy sneezes the world catches cold". The US government has become possibly the most corrupt political mechanism in the world, except of course for all the others.

How bad can it get? You ain't seen nothin' yet! Read the rest here.

Hard choices need to be made by responsible adults with the will to follow through on those decisions. We need to stop spending money we don't have. I don't care where it's being spent, it has to stop. We need to force the politicians to stop bribing us and each other with our money, because the interest payments are going to kill us. We need to close our borders to the invasion of people. Some of those people are good people, some are bad. That doesn't matter because we need to have control of the level of immigration in order to save something for those who qualify to immigrate to, and to honest we owe it to ourselves and our own children to leave something. That's not racist, that's just common sense.

I lack faith that either party can do this because both parties are full of politicians who specialize in lying to us. Why do they specialize in lying? Because we reward them for doing so, politicians who tell the truth, who treat the electorate like responsible adults have very short careers. In a very real sense it reminds me of this:

Col. Jessep: You want answers? 

Kaffee: I think I'm entitled. 

Col. Jessep: *You want answers?* 

Kaffee: *I want the truth!* 

Col. Jessep: *You can’t handle the truth!*

Sick isn't it? We're all in denial and we've lived there most of our lives. Welcome to the 21st Century.