American ineffectualism.

The greatest economic, political and societal collapse in recorded history is unfolding and has been doing so ever since the final denouement of partially sound money occurred at Bretton Woods II in August 1971 – thereby allowing governments, the financial systems and elites to substitute money printed out of thin air and politically correct/corrupt legislation for sound economic policies. This process has been unfolding for 40 years and is nearing its demise.

Is there a political leader, apart from, oh, Ron Paul, who expresses any kind of urgency on this point?

Is it accurate, even? It can't be that inaccurate if we know that

• the U.S. is now just a market heavily dependent on Chinese manufacturing and our number one U.S. retailer is nothing but a marketing outlet for Chinese goods;
• our president has disdain for the nation that elected him;
• he seems more enamored of the Cloward-Piven strategy to generate economic collapse than of the basics of revitalizing the economy;
• he makes war on coal and obstructs the Keystone XL Pipeline and oil exploration on public lands;
• he and the Congress are oblivious to our having the highest corporate tax rate in the world, which drives business from our shores;
• we have a $16T debt increasing horrifically even now plus massive unfunded liabilities for Medicare and Social Security;
• we print money at an astronomical rate, punish saving, and reward debt;
• we have a huge hostile, parasitic, rejectionist minority to whom we have naively handed powerful legal tools of extortion and solidifying unearned privilege;
• we have police SWAT teams in full body armor responding to situations that Barney Fife could have handled with a chat on the front porch;
• we have a news media establishment that pedals lies and fairy tales about our culture and the historical experience of people the world around;
• we have wide open borders inviting self-immigrating, third-world foreigners to dine at our table gratis;
• we cheapen our precious citizenship;
• Supreme Court justices disdain the Constitution; and
• we have massive unemployment that is resolutely denied by the federal government.

Inter bleeding alia.

Where are the voices of realism among the leadership? Do the MSM even honestly report the nature of our problems, let alone support voices offering solutions other than the "solutions" of the current health care catastrophe, class warfare, and crony capitalism, if not outright socialist revolution?

We're not even a nation any longer, just "a cool place to work," as a writer in Chronicles put it years ago. To the extent that we still exhibit vestigial characteristics of a vibrant, functioning nation, we simply are failing to deal with the problem of fiscal profligacy and a failed civil rights movement. Fiscal and social chaos is upon us but the nation's chief executive frets over "inequality," the policies of the president of Syria, and the arms requirements of his bestial al Qaida opponents.

Not that events in Syria aren't of compelling interest to the people of Oklahoma. Don't hang that absurdity on me.

What we see before us today is the highest and best expression of our national political life. That's essentially the epiphany that some alcoholics in AA meetings recount after detailing the minute details of the utter collapse of their family, their mental health, and their careers: to wit, "And my best thinking got me there."

Well, our "best" thinking got us where we are today, along with weakness, craven cowardice, and intellectual and moral failure that surely make our ancestors hang their heads in shame.

Lincoln thought that God might require that the sword would exact retribution for every drop of blood from the overseer's lash. Well, we'll soon see in our own time what mental flabbiness, worship of unbridled government by the most educated, ignorance of history and human nature, waging class warfare, and disdain for economic fundamentals exact.

"2014 Outlook: Pandora's Box." By tedbits, Zero Hedge, 1/17/14.