Impending Doom

There are three major pending crises, all of which have the potential to greatly alter the US and world political scene, and they are all coming to a head next month: (1) the impending decision on gay civil marriage, with its potential impact on the US legal system; (2) the Cyrpriot financial failure; (3) the sequester, with its pseudo-random destruction of the US government

The divisive potential of all three is enormous: I expect: (1) a poor decision on the Court's part that will in some way bear on states' rights and weaken civil marriage; (2) the weakening of the Euro and the weakening of the entire European Union project; (3) a reaction by the US conservative right, as they discover what Rome Washington does for them. All three have the potential for vast human pain, even violence.

I simply cannot imagine what, say, Alabama will do if required to recognize gay marriage. A reprise of the violence that burst out during the struggle for racial equality seems not impossible. But the other two have the potential for explosive reactions as well.

I'm not going to make a "food for corvids" joke here — this is just too bitter. I hope for the best, but I do not believe it is possible, and even the good seems unlikely.