We should remember the now modern proverb of Nixon-era economic advisor Herb Stein to the effect that what cannot go on (without destroying the nation), simply will not go on.

In some sense, the country for recent years has been cruising on the fumes from prior and likely better wiser generations and institutions. In 2024, the tab for our current apathy, toxic politics, and incompetence will come due.

So next year we will likely see the climax to a number of current dangerous ideas, events, and forces, which finally will either overwhelm us or be addressed and remedied. We live in a Neronian age but can recover if we first understand how we got here and the nature of the suicide we are committing.

Then we can answer: What then do the campaign and election of 2024 foreordain?

In 1862, Dakota Sioux Indians went on a mass murder spree, butchering more than 600 innocent whites, mostly women and children at New Ulm, Minnesota.

The Indians murdered babies, beating their brains out and nailing them to trees. They tortured children. They engaged in gang rape of women on a mass scale. Their rampage was enabled by the fact that many Minnesota men were away, fighting in the Civil War.

That slaughter was the worst massacre by either whites or Indians from 1492 to the present. On a per capita basis, it was five times the carnage of September 11.

If the narrative sounds familiar, it should. What the Dakota did in 1862 was remarkably similar to what Gazans did on October 7. And the reaction, too, was similar.

Argentina's new president, Javier Milei, has unleashed a slew of new deregulations on the Argentinian public, doing exactly what he promised the public during his election campaign.  For giving Argentina less government not more, the Left is hysterically denouncing him as a “dictator.”

From this report: Argentina: Javier Milei Signs Executive Order Weakening or Ending 350 Socialist Policies.  And yeah, it’s a lot of stuff.  The edict was put into effect late last week (12/21).  What happened: Food prices dropped 15% overnight.

Milei was like a mad anarcho-capitalist all right, just as he calls himself, running wild through the prison of Argentina's economy and opening every last cage to let the prisoners out, everybody out, all at once.

The Argentine Left can’t stand it.  It’s glorious - and instructive - fun to watch.

[This is a useful nutshell history of Taiwan since WWII, helpful in understanding its tussle with Chicom China.]

The problem of identity is the most important issue in Taiwanese politics, occupying the center stage for both presidential campaigns and cross-strait relations. In recent years, there has been a notable decline in Chinese identification in Taiwan.

This decline is the result of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s monopolization of Chinese identity since the 1970s. Beijing’s goal is to use Chinese nationalism and cultural appeal to draw Taiwan closer to the mainland. However, it backfires by pushing Taiwan away; Taiwanese people are searching for an alternative identity to demonstrate their difference with the PRC.

Here’s how that evolved.

Why is Donald Trump so resilient?  Here’s a clue – its source goes back centuries.

As 2023 draws to a close, the ex-president is on track to win the Republican nomination and beat Joe Biden come November.

If the election were today, Trump would get his second term.

Yet he’s charged with crimes that run a gamut from election interference to mishandling classified information.  He’s under gag orders and lost a $5 million civil suit this year.

Why don’t voters care — or if they do, why are they rewarding Trump, not punishing him?

A hint can be found in the work of a great historian who died last week at age 99, J.G.A. Pocock.