Empires Fall

Quote: "Empires do not just suddenly collapse; they are abandoned by the productive citizenry as the burdens become unbearable. The independent class of tradespeople (a.k.a. the middle class), driven into serfdom by taxes, lose their shared identity with the aristocracy. Beneath the surface, social cohesion frays. Once the benefits of the status quo no longer outweigh its costs, the system is vulnerable to an external disruption that would have been easily handled in previous eras."    http://www.oftwominds.com/blogfeb16/revolution2-16.html

One reason why empires fall is that the public loses it sense of direction.  Namely they become enamored with government gifts and a belief they need not commit to working hard for a living and standing on their own two feet in a competitive environment.  They lose their competitive drive, sense of civil decency and engage in intolerance of those who hold differing views.  In other words they want government/laws/rules and regulations imposed to sustain their views, delegitimize differing views and control all things important to them.  Some call it fascism.  Others call it socialism. Yet others call it communism.  This is but one example of how poor leftist/progressive government driven education has made its contribution to the mess we confront today.  Quote: "We have spent two generations turning college campuses from places to learn job skills to places to indoctrinate leftism and inculcate an intolerant view of the world that insists on silencing opposition. We have made campuses a fascist "safe space" on behalf of the left. Anyone who disagrees must be shut down, or threatened or hurt.  It's not just college campuses, either. We've entered an era of politics in which baseless feelings count more than facts, in which political correctness means firing those with different viewpoints, in which government actors insist that they can police negative thoughts. We're on the edge of freedom's end, and many Americans don't even see it."     http://townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/2016/03/02/the-leftist-fascists-take-over-college-campuses-n2127442/page/full

Quote: "Europe is in the throes of a long-term immigration-induced crime wave. Pretending it doesn't exist will not make the problem disappear. The only clear way forward appears to be (1) a halt to new immigration until prospective new residents can undergo a more rigorous screening process and (2) a mass deportation of the high-risk illegal immigrant population that has entered the region during 2015." http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/02/foreigners_do_commit_more_crime_than_natives_a_dispatch_from_europe.html

That our country has reached this point is an indication of how far we have fallen.  Quote: "Few jobs are as demanding as the U.S. attorney general’s. The AG’s popularity peaks at the swearing-in ceremony and goes downhill from there. It’s not just the hard cases on the docket. It’s that attorneys general have two mandates that sometimes conflict. Do they follow their responsibilities as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, wherever those responsibilities lead?  Or do they act as the president’s top appointee in law enforcement and do his bidding?  AGs do not keep their jobs unless they know which mandate takes priority. They serve at the president’s pleasure.  This bedrock choice between blind justice and political calculation is almost certain to confront Loretta Lynch once the FBI concludes its investigation into Hillary Clinton, her top aides, and the Clinton Foundation.  Her choice just got tougher now that the former secretary of state is sure to win the Democratic nomination. She effectively clinched that prize with an unheard-of 50-point victory over Bernie Sanders in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, on the heels of a solid victory in Nevada last Tuesday. Clinton's victory in the Palmetto State portends big wins all across the South, leaving Sanders with no realistic path to the nomination. After months of enthusiastic “Feel the Bern” rallies, the Democrats are now back where they started. As one prankster, who managed to photo-bomb a Clinton campaign rally, put it on his tee-shirt: “Settle for Hillary.”"  http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/02/29/hillarys_victories_mean_painful_legal_choices_for_doj_wh.html