This is a continuation and update of today’s earlier column, Economics , Common and Otherwise.

America came in at Number 11 in this year’s Economic Freedom Index by the Heritage Foundation. That’s in the “mostly free” category. The land of the (mostly) free…

I said that the rankings always jump out at me. And this year both the top set and the bottom set caught my eye, for opposite sides of the same reason.

Look at the “free” economies:

Heritage.

The all have a few things in common if you think about it. They are all relatively small (by population) places and by and large they leave people alone. The Swiss are the most famous for it, but all of these countries generally do not meddle (beyond free trade) in the affairs of other nations. When was the last time Switzerland invaded somebody?

Now another look at those countries at the bottom, generally not even worth considering:

Heritage.

With the exception of two of those “lowest” countries, the rest all have something in common. Did you guess what it is? Liechtenstein is a tiny nation populated almost exclusively by the wealthy. It might as well be placed alongside the top five – if the considerations were pure prosperity. It really is a class unto itself.

Sudan almost falls in with the rest of the international cellar-dwellers. It is a bloody mess though the problems are generally caused by islamists and cultural backward tendencies. Several powers, the U.S. included, have looked hard at Sudan as a meddling target but most have decided the situation lacks sufficient profit motives. There is hope for Sudan if its people are willing to attend to it. The situation is sad, but they did escape the fates of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.

All of those countries, over the past generation, have been in part or wholly destroyed by the U.S. Empire. Not one of them ever posed any credible threat to America. And our government’s actions against them benefited none outside of the major banks, the arms dealers, and the power-lusting political class.

Syria is still a work in progress. The Empire finds its plans disturbed by a man in Moscow.

As I said this morning, these things are all interconnected and relate to issues far beyond mere money. Before American intervention the hapless bottom countries had no way to project any type of force against the West. Now they do.

First, there is the real specter of war with Russia. The fools in and around D.C. and New York seem to be enjoying this game of nuclear chicken. Moscow has told Washington to cool it. The civil defense authorities in Russia have advised their people to prepare for war. the American sheep watch television, play pretend democracy, and whine about how water happens near the ocean.

There’s also abundant terrorism. There wasn’t before. There is now. And much of it (maybe not quite all) stems from these stupid little wars in places we don’t belong. America and Europe are hit again and again and again by ISIS. People almost regard it as the new normal.

Omar Mateen said his rampage in Orlando was the result of U.S. bombings in Iraq. French authorities have concluded the majority (7/9ths) of the Parisian terrorists (at least for November, 2015) were “refugees” from Syria. Gee, who would have thought it?

Several takeaways here:

• We cannot defeat Russia in an all-out war;
• We probably can’t beat them regionally in Syria;
• The fools in D.C. are willing to kill huge masses of your sons trying to disprove the later and all of us to disprove the former;
• Many of you will vote for these fools next month;
• Radical islamists are savage and utterly incompatible with modern, Western civilization;
• On their own the jihadis simply could not ever hurt us or even reach us;
• Really, left to themselves, they would have little incentive to attack;
• Our idiotic wars for profit and power give them the incentive;
• Our brain-dead immigration policies allow them the invasion and revenge they could otherwise never even attempt;
• You pay for all of this insanity;
• Nothing is likely to change (except by gradually getting worse) for the foreseeable future;
• The politicians hate you more than the jihadis; and
• That television is to your brain what cheap beer and cheeseburgers are to your belly.

Earlier I pondered if many of your would contemplate these issues. It’s a Sunday and traffic is usually low this day but, judging by the paltry click rate on the previous article, the majority of you couldn’t be bothered.

I ventured out today and found not a few of you engrossed in the magic of the National Felons League. I’m not calling anyone out but I saw you. Willing participants in the live-enactment of Plato’s Cave. Staring at over-paid, overweight, mentally retarded, Anti-American, pink-clad felons of questionable sexuality and social worth playing with a ball. College and professional games today.

In between the flags, reviews, and agonizingly slow plays you were bombarded by the lowest and crudest forms of social propaganda. But, hey, it’s all fun, right? Or is it?

Next year Heritage will report roughly the exact same global conditions, we’ll have the same wars and idiot “leaders” and that same, stupid sh!t will be on the TeeVee.

Google.

Please wake up, leave the cave, and smell the darkening air.