Most of America is probably celebrating today’s SCOTUS win.

Don’t.

Sure, the Orange Man got kicked in the face by his own Justices. That’s probably a moral win for some of you. Trouble is, you haven’t thought this through.

The immediate consequence of this decision was spelled out by, of all people, Justice Kavanaugh — the last man I’d have suspected of having activist leanings, but there it is.

Ten thousand corporations are about to file lawsuits against the Federal Government, demanding their money back. Money they paid in for imports; money they’ve already figured into their profit/loss statements and thus passed on to the consumers. Money they took from us once and will take from us a second time. After all, the government has to get it from somewhere. If not corporations, then where?

Don’t think Congress is going to help you. The Republicans for once would like to, but the Democrats will resist every effort, because that’s what the voters want them to do. Even now, when it’s going to hit us all hard where it hurts the most, our voting public is vehement in demanding an obstructionist legislature — Because Trump.

Don’t mistake my meaning: This mess is entirely Trump’s doing. Any idiot could have predicted this outcome, and in fact quite a few members of Congress actually did.

But fault and blame won’t much matter once the government crashes over the upcoming and much-bemoaned fiscal cliff.

We’re paying out more in Social Security than we’re taking in, which would be tolerable. Unfortunately, we’re also paying out far more in Medicare and Medicaid than we’re taking in (just as we’ve been doing for thirty years), and there’s simply no way that’s sustainable. Our economy isn’t large enough to support the gargantuan profit-making engine that took the place of healthcare in this country.

Again, this isn’t about blame or fault except in passing. It’s about consequences.

There’s a philosophy called “American Exceptionalism” out there, the theory that, just because we’re free to speak our minds and act as we please, we’re better than other countries. Credit where it’s due, there’s some data out there to support the contention. We went to the moon because people believed it, and now we’re going back for the same reason. That’s laudable.

However, the arrogance engendered by this belief tends to blind the most patriotic among us to the doom toward which we’re presently rushing headlong.

Historically, once governments reach the point ours has, where debt has become mountainous, impossible to repay, they traditionally have only a few options. First, they could declare some sort of war on the wealthy, seizing their assets, much as Henry VIII did with Catholic monasteries and Spain did with the New World, looting hoarded wealth and using it to stave off creditors. Unfortunately for us, we’re the richest country around, so that’s not practicable. Ruinous taxation is a second scenario, which often leads to periods of financial collapse, to be ended only by the next Joan of Arc. When the tax riots start, someone’s gonna declare Martial Law, and Trump’s just the man to do it.

Things cannot go on as they are, not for long.

As I see it, you’ve got two options:
1. Stock up on canned goods and build a bunker.
2. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

After all, what the heck: Any excuse for a party. Right?

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