- Which coming due item will be the biggest 'Black Swan' game-changer in 2024?
BYE-BYE BORDER
DONE-IN DETERRENCE
SCHOLASTICALLY SAVAGE
POLITICAL PRECIPICE
FISCAL FOLLY
NONE Of The Above (I believe in divine intervention!)
ALL Of The Above (Don't kid yourself. We are SO SOL)
In a sense the country has cruised on fumes from better, wiser prior generations and institutions in recent years—and insofar we are likely to see a climax to any number of current dangerous ideas, events, and forces, which finally will either overwhelm us or be addressed and remedied in the year ahead—some way or another the tab for our current apathy, toxic politics, and incompetence will come due.
BYE-BYE BORDER
Since January 2021, the Biden admin has flagrantly and unapologetically dismantled federal immigration law, and can’t even honestly explain why it did so. Both in real numbers and percentages, the US has exceeded all past numbers of non-native born residents— at a time adherence to assimilation has never been more under assault.
The US is cracking under 8 million illegal entries; it cannot sustain another year and an added 2 million more—or a total of 55-60 million foreign-born residents, with no idea of how many are US citizens, illegal aliens, or green card holders–or how many are employable, free of criminal records or in need of massive federal and state subsidies.
In 2024, either the border will close, or the US will suffer radical political realignments, sheer chaos in major cities, protests from Americans furious over complete flaunting of federal law by elected officials, and a likely impeachment of Biden for deliberately forsaking his oath to "faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States."
DONE-IN DETERRENCE
In 2023 it became clear the Biden administration has simply lost or indeed forfeited US deterrence abroad. Many of America’s opportunistic enemies have drawn conclusions correspondingly and adopted strategies that were previously unthinkable. Our foes do not fear us; our friends do not trust us; and neutrals do not care either way.
Either adversaries will be so emboldened to start regional wars—Iran now brags it will block the entire Mediterranean—or a US will be shocked into responding and have to deter Iran, the Houthis, and Islamic terrorism, while dealing with an opportunistic China eager to annex Taiwan and Russia determined to finish off Ukraine.
To again be an effective force, the military will have to retool and rearm dramatically. Staunching recruitment hemorrhaging and rectifying low morale will require the military discarding the woke agenda, stopping the DEI proselytizing and virtue signaling, and returning to a meritocracy focused on military preparedness and battlefield efficacy.
SCHOLASTICALLY SAVAGE
The postmodern massacre of nearly 1,200 Jews was a wakeup call about the racialized hatred and virulent anti-Semitism endemic on the Left. Pro-Hamas protestors on campuses and big city streets feel free to harass Jews, break the law, battle police and chant genocidal chants promising the destruction of Israel and its Jewish population all with absolute arrogance & impunity.
Israel hate on campus is considered a necessary fad like 1970s bellbottoms or pet rocks. Students feel exempt from racist and anti-Semitic charges, as they conflate Israel with the now maligned "white" stereotype. The apogee of such extremism was evident in the congressional testimony of 3 ethically challenged Ivy-League presidents.
So insulated are our elite campuses these atolls of privilege cannot recognize growing public anger over the damage the undisguised hatreds emanating from radical DEI students and faculty are doing to the country. In 2024, radical changes in university administration and values will begin to be made, or higher education will face a reckoning from the public and a newly elected government.
POLITICAL PRECIPICE
Colorado led off the movement to keep Trump off the 2024 ballot. Those responsible know he was never charged with, much less convicted of "insurrection" and never will be. This is only the Left's latest Soviet-like weaponization of government designed to degrade our campaigns, elections, and political customs, tradition, and discourse.
A jaded public knows too well such punitory actions never applied to his truly criminal 2016 opponent–& the entire Biden syndicate, including the "Big Guy", could easily be indicted on state and local felonies, & yet is exempt due to its leftist ideology and control of the US DOJ– What then do the campaign and election of 2024 foreordain?
In territory entirely new and completely dangerous, either we will see the destruction of presidential electoral politics as we have known them or a complete repudiation of lawfare. The current new normal that the party in power indicts the leading candidate of the opposition is not sustainable or compatible with the idea of America.
[ BONUS POLL #1:
- What do you see resulting from the 2024 campaign & election? ]
The destruction of presidential electoral politics
A complete repudiation of lawfare
Partial destruction of presidential electoral politics
Incomplete repudiation of lawfare
A sh!tstorm regardless of who wins
Too soon to say (Who sez we'll even have an election?)
Don't know/Not sure/No opinion
The US 2023 annual budget deficit is about $1.7 trillion; the nation is burdened by a $34 trillion national debt. Mounting interest on the debt is now crowding out optional but soon essential annual federal spending—even though since 2021 the federal government has raised all sorts of new income and excise taxes.
As the era of printing money, zero interest rates, “modern monetary theory,” and spending wildly draws to a close, at some point soon Americans need to embrace government spending restraints or accept a continuing decline in living standards.
In 2024, the US will begin to see that to meet its spiraling debt it will either reign in spending, or keep inflating its currency, or raise even further taxes to the degree that even the lower middle class will have to pay 50 percent of their income in state and federal taxes, or renounce its debt, and thus go full-Third World.
[ BONUS POLL #2:
- By what way & means will we start to see US spiraling debt met? ]
Cut gov't bloat top to bottom, & limit spending
Digital currency: Stay the funny money course
Equity! Shrink the middle class, grow the lower
IMF imposed austerity/destitution be our destiny
Whatchoo talkin' bout Willis! I don't see no debt
What? Seriously? In an election year? Get real!
Don't know/Don't care/Not sure
- *IF*
What we witness nightly on TV at the southern border, or
The paralyses of our policy & military abroad, or
What we saw after October 7, or
The wild and out-of-control reign of weaponized local and state prosecutors, or
The breezy way in which our officials promise groups here and abroad billions of dollars in easy money,
We should recall the now modern proverb of Nixon-era economic advisor Herb Stein to the effect what cannot go on (without destroying the nation), simply will not go on. We live in a Neronian age but can recover if we understand the nature of the suicide we are committing—
[ BONUS POLL #3:
- Will Americans meet these challenges or ensure ongoing decline?- ]
Challenges Met
Ensured Decline
Lawd Only Knows
* I Really Don't Give A Sh!t *
There's only one☝way out of our $34T debt and my lips are sealed. 
🏔 
