R.O.I.

It all happened pretty quickly last week, but in case you haven’t noticed, Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall over there [Iraq]. The bonehead American news media affects to be too stunned to even ask the pertinent questions, starting with: is that all it took to undo eight years and — what? — maybe two trillion dollars in US-sponsored nation-building? Oh, plus 4,000 US dead and 50,000 wounded. . . .

* * * *

The Iraq fiasco already threatens to spike oil prices way beyond the $107 level of today. That will crush whatever remains of the US economy all over again. God knows what it might do to the financialized Rube Goldberg shadow economy of counterparty booby traps that overlays an abyss of unpayable debt. You can’t squash price discovery forever, and one morning you might wake up to discover that the price of all those shenanigans was your political heritage.^[1]

Speaking of "political heritage," name one aspect of our national political life that can't be characterized by "writing on the wind."

War on fossil fuels? Check. EPA, BLM excess? My man! Euphoria over SWAT teams? Officer safety demands it. Massive unexplained ammo buys by secretive federal agency with "internal security" powers? Three bags full. Supreme Court evisceration of federalism in support of the unitary state? 100-year success story. Mandatory celebration of homosexuality? Dissent at your peril.

Birth of the surveillance state? Fighting terror. Veterans on fusion center suspect lists? Fighting terror. IRS lies and attacks on Tea Party organizations? Nothing to see here. Musliim recruitment in prisons? Our evangelical tradition.

Uncontrolled illegal immigration and cheapening of citizenship? Si, si. Mexican complicity in flooding us with immigrants? Our valued southern neighbor. Reckless gamble with inflation? All ahead full. Uncontrolled spending? Attention shoppers. Subsidies for parasites? Job numero uno. Heart-breaking decay of major cities? So? Sell out political parties? Cash is king. Legal discrimination against whites? Equality demands it. Chinese currency manipulation? Never heard of it. Incoherent, juvenile, pro-Muslim foreign policy? Just the ticket. Education of your children by your enemies? What's not to love. Huge remittances to foreign states and massive drug profits to the cartels? The new patriotism. Insane importation of and fawning over Muslims? Coming soon to a neighborhood near you. Constitutionally unqualified mystery president with a forged birth certificate? Living constitution.

It's not so much writing in the wind as reaping the whirlwind. Solzhenitsyn's "pitiless crowbar of events" will soon put an end to this particular frat party though the destruction involved seems needless premature. But maybe that's just me. New cars are coming out with collision detection devices to avert disaster. Politically and socially we're choosing to ignore the lessons taught by our ancestors.

Which would be the non-automotive equivalent in case you were wondering.

Notes
^[1] "Heads, You Lose." By Jim Kunstler, Clusterfuck Nation, 6/16/14.