"We Need To Talk About Why The Dollar Is Dying And How The Employment Numbers Are Being Manipulated"

"We Need To Talk About Why The Dollar Is Dying

And How The Employment Numbers Are Being Manipulated"

by Michael Snyder

"Why can’t we just be objective about the economic numbers? When Joe Biden was in the White House, many Republicans (including Donald Trump) used the word “fake” to describe the economic numbers that the federal government was putting out. And as I documented extensively throughout the Biden administration, the rosy economic numbers that we were getting from the federal government certainly diverged greatly from reality. But now that Biden is out of the White House, we are suddenly supposed to believe that the federal economic numbers that are being calculated by the exact same people as before are somehow legit? Come on. If the government was giving us “fake” economic numbers six months ago, they are still giving us “fake” economic numbers today. As I will discuss below, the same absurd “adjustments” that were being made during the Biden administration are still being made now.

Just yesterday, I wrote about how non-government numbers are showing that the labor market in the U.S. is dramatically shifting. But then the BLS released their employment report for last month, and we are being told to just forget what all of the other numbers are telling us…"Job growth proved better than expected in June, boosted by government hiring, as the labor market showed surprising resilience and likely took a July interest rate cut off the table. Nonfarm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 147,000 for the month, higher than the estimate for 110,000 and just above the upwardly revised 144,000 in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday."

The people that are running around proclaiming that this is “great news” don’t even understand what they are talking about. First of all, we need to create approximately 150,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth. So even if this report was accurate, which it is not, it would indicate that we are simply treading water. That is not exactly something to celebrate.

Secondly, it is important to understand that the “147,000 new jobs” figure was only arrived at after a number of assumptions and adjustments were applied to the raw data.I asked Google AI to tell me about how government economic numbers are manipulated, and this is what I was told…

1. Seasonal Adjustment: This adjustment removes the effects of recurring seasonal events, like weather patterns or holidays, from economic data. For example, the BLS uses the X-12-ARIMA method (and now X-13ARIMA-SEATS) to seasonally adjust many of its series. This allows for a clearer picture of underlying trends and makes it easier to compare data across different months. Seasonal adjustments are applied to various reports, including the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Current Employment Statistics (CES).

2. Birth/Death Adjustments: These adjustments account for the fact that BLS surveys primarily include businesses already in operation, and may miss new businesses (births) or businesses that have closed (deaths). The BLS uses historical data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) to estimate the impact of these births and deaths on employment and other economic measures. For example, the CES uses birth/death adjustments to better reflect the total number of jobs in the economy.

3. Population Control Adjustments: The BLS household survey uses population controls as benchmarks for its estimates. These controls are based on population estimates derived from the decennial census and are updated annually. These adjustments are made to reflect changes in the population since the last census, including births, deaths, and net international migration. For example, the January estimates for the household survey include these annual population control adjustments.

4. Quality Adjustments: These adjustments are made to account for changes in the quality of goods and services, particularly in the CPI and PPI. For example, if a new car has improved safety features, the price of the new car might be higher, but it’s also of higher quality. The BLS uses techniques like hedonic quality adjustments to isolate the price change due to the quality improvement and remove it from the price index. This ensures that the CPI and PPI are measuring “pure” price change and not changes due to quality differences.

I am particularly critical of the birth/death adjustments. Each month, the BLS simply estimates the number of jobs that are being created by new businesses and adds that to the total. Many have pointed out that the number that they come up with out of thin air is often way too high. That is just one of the reasons why it has become so difficult to get a negative number.

Conditions have to be really, really bad in order for the BLS to report that the U.S. is actually losing jobs. In fact, the last time we had a negative number was in 2020 during the early days of the COVID pandemic. It is a rigged game, and even the Washington Post is openly admitting that government statisticians are starting “to rely more on statistical estimates than hard data”…"U.S. policymakers are increasingly anxious about the integrity of certain government benchmarks, the crucial data points that help the Federal Reserve assess the economy’s health and guide interest rate decisions.

The problems have led staff at certain agencies to rely more on statistical estimates than hard data, potentially fueling volatility in benchmarks, particularly for inflation readings from the Labor Department. Falling response rates to government surveys, coupled with pandemic-driven seasonal quirks and long-standing budget strains, have made it harder to collect and analyze reliable data  - including for an employment report due Thursday. Agencies have also shed staff through early retirements, deferred resignations and normal attrition."

And the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics is warning that the numbers that we are being given by our own government are becoming increasingly shaky…"Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said the quality of U.S. economic data is becoming increasingly shaky just as the country faces major shifts from trade, immigration and other policy changes - a time when better investment in data is needed. Among multiple worrying trends, he pointed to the combined 95,000 downward revisions, announced last month, to job gains in April and March, an outsize number of revisions that could be at least partly driven by ongoing strains at the Labor Department. “There’s no smoking gun, yet, but there is smoke,” he said."

Personally, I lost faith in government economic numbers long ago. As I discussed yesterday, I am convinced that the economic numbers that we are getting from private sources are far more reliable. And those numbers clearly paint a picture of an economy that is crumbling.

We are a nation that is absolutely drowning in debt. Meanwhile, the housing market is in a depressed state due to high interest rates, employers are conducting mass layoffs all over the nation, our cost of living crisis never seems to end, and the global trade war is causing all sorts of chaos for U.S. businesses. The rest of the world can see what is happening, and they are losing confidence in our currency.

The value of our currency has now fallen for six consecutive months, and it is being reported that the U.S. dollar is “suffering its worst start to a year in more than five decades”…"The United States dollar is suffering its worst start to a year in more than five decades, likely triggering a price hike for some everyday items and a jump in expenses faced by travelers abroad, some analysts told ABC News." The greenback has fallen more than 10% in value this year relative to a group of foreign currencies that belong to top U.S. trading partners.

Investors have fled U.S. dollars out of fear inflation could devalue the currency, especially as Congress has moved forward with a large spending bill set to worsen a decades-long trend of ballooning U.S. debt, analysts said. This is something that government statisticians cannot spin.

Our currency is steadily getting weaker, and that means that we are steadily losing purchasing power…At home, a bigger concern is inflation, and lost purchasing power for U.S. consumers and businesses, who still remain heavily reliant on imports. Until America is able to sustainably produce more goods on its own at higher volumes, purchasing power will decline as it becomes relatively more expensive to import goods from abroad.

In the meantime, analysts say, a more alarming trend may be taking root: Foreigners are no longer buying U.S. financial assets, like stocks and bonds, at the levels that have allowed the U.S. to finance its trade deficit in the first place. Don’t be fooled. The U.S. economy is definitely not in good shape. If it was, the value of the U.S. dollar would not be dropping like a rock."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "An Undeniable Truth: Zombies Are Real..."

"An Undeniable Truth: Zombies Are Real..."

by Gregory Mannarino

"Yesterday I did a breakdown of this new spending bill, click HERE. I would suggest reading that first, then return to this. Now with that, let’s move forward.

The United States Is Now The Largest Zombie Corporation On Earth: The term “zombie corporation” has been around a while, and it was once used to describe private companies that can no longer survive without constant infusions of debt. Companies that are effectively dead, but still moving… feeding only on borrowed money and artificial lifelines. But today…

This is America….It Borrows to Survive: The US government spends trillions more than it takes in through taxes every year. Like a zombie, it consumes without producing any surplus. Its lifeblood is debt issuance/expansion and not productivity. (Now we can all point fingers at a particular political party and say they did/are doing this… but how about our own accountability? Have we not allowed this to happen? And continue to do so even now?) But why do we allow this? That is the real question…

You want to know why we allow this to happen? Because we all know that It Can’t Stop or It Dies… and that means YOU lose everything. And so, we allow this to continue while at the same time allowing, and even calling upon the system itself, to slowly consume us. Make no mistake, America is dying… its rotting from the top down.

An Undeniable Truth… Zombies Are Real: The US economy is now structurally dependent on vast debt expansion. If the government were to stop borrowing, stop spending, or stop expanding credit, the illusion of prosperity would collapse instantly. Just like a zombie corporation’s stock might rise on “hope” and “perception,” the US dollar and the markets float on “hope” alone… propped up only by expanding debt. Therefore… There is no foundation to build on.

“Hope” has been sold off like a commodity as of late, and it goes like this.. “We Need A Weaker Dollar” because this will allow the US to compete in global trade. This is “hope” has been commercialized, propagandized, and sold off to an unknowing public. Even if the remaining 4% of the dollar purchasing power were removed, (as the US dollar has already lost 96% of its’s purchasing power already), the world is not going to rush out jumping for joy to buy American made products. Moreover, the mechanism of artificially suppressed rates and currency devaluation is the rot in the system which is responsible for the US industrial engine, its factories/manufacturing, falling deeper into contraction.

You want to fix this? The purchasing power must be returned to the currency! Not taken away. So what is really behind this? A weaker dollar/lower rates means more debt must be created to further zombify a system which is already dead…So who wins? The Federal Reserve. The more debt any central bank is allowed to create, or is called on to issue, (lower rates/weaker dollar), the exponentially stronger they become. (The single goal of every central bank is the same; to become both the lender and buyer of last resort, to own it all…)

Just as every zombie corporation cannibalizes resources to service their debt. Likewise, America’s fiscal machine is now predatory, pushing click - the Cantillon Effect into overdrive.

• Money creation benefits the 1% first.
• The working class pays through inflation.
• Wealth is extracted from the bottom up.
•The people themselves feed the zombie.

As a result of planetary debt expansion, stock markets further disconnect from reality… not because of strength, but because debt expansion acts as artificial stimulus. Spending bills, rate cuts, backdoor liquidity, dollar devaluation. These aren't signs of life they’re symptoms of decay.

• No political party will reverse course.
• No candidate will shrink the debt.
• No treasury secretary will pull back spending.

This zombie, the longer it walks, the more it destroys… Whatever is left of the USA, its economy, its industrial engine, its middle class will be consumed by this zombie. The United States of America is no longer a functioning sovereign entity. It is the largest zombie corporation on Earth."

- https://gregorymannarino.substack.com/

Musical Interlude: Johnny Cash, "Battle Hymn Of The Republic"

Johnny Cash, "Battle Hymn Of The Republic"

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Along The High Ridges"

Full screen recommended.

Deuter, "Along The High Ridges"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Colorful NGC 1579 resembles the better known Trifid Nebula, but lies much farther north in planet Earth's sky, in the heroic constellation Perseus. About 2,100 light-years away and 3 light-years across, NGC 1579 is, like the Trifid, a study in contrasting blue and red colors, with dark dust lanes prominent in the nebula's central regions.

In both, dust reflects starlight to produce beautiful blue reflection nebulae. But unlike the Trifid, in NGC 1579 the reddish glow is not emission from clouds of glowing hydrogen gas excited by ultraviolet light from a nearby hot star. Instead, the dust in NGC 1579 drastically diminishes, reddens, and scatters the light from an embedded, extremely young, massive star, itself a strong emitter of the characteristic red hydrogen alpha light."

- http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090130.html

"When We Walk To The Edge..."

“When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take a step into

the darkness of unknown, we must believe one of two things will happen.

There will be something solid to stand on, or we will be taught how to fly.”

- Patrick Overton

Adventures With Danno, "Aldi Drops Prices On 100's Of Items"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 7/4/25

"Aldi Drops Prices On 100's Of Items"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Different Russia, 7/4/25

"What Does A Typical Russian Shopping Plaza Look Like?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "Stopping At BUC-EE'S In Texas Today; Business Is Booming; Government Jobs Boom, Private Sector Plunge"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, 7/4/25

"Stopping At BUC-EE'S In Texas Today; Business Is Booming;

 Government Jobs Boom, Private Sector Plunge"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Poet: Rolf Jacobsen, "When They Sleep"

"When They Sleep"

"All people are children when they sleep.

There's no war in them then.

They open their hands and breathe

in that quiet rhythm heaven has given them.

They pucker their lips like small children

and open their hands halfway,

soldiers and statesmen, servants and masters.

The stars stand guard

and a haze veils the sky,

a few hours when no one will do anybody harm.

If only we could speak to one another then

when our hearts are half-open flowers.

Words like golden bees

would drift in.

God, teach me the language of sleep."

- Rolf Jacobsen,

"The Roads Have Come to an End Now"

The Daily "Near You?"

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Whiskey And Car Keys..."

"Giving money and power to government is like

giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."

- P.J. O'Rourke

Jim Kunstler, "The Fourth of July"

"The Fourth of July"

by Jim Kunstler

"I can negotiate with a man who wants to make money.

 I can't negotiate with a communist who wants to kill me." 

- Josh Lippincott on "X"

"O, Norman Rockwell, where are you when we really need you? Forgive us, Emma Lazarus, our second thoughts about those huddled masses yearning to breathe free...the wretched refuse of your teeming shore(s). That was then and this is now. O, beautiful for spacious skies (but, why so many contrails criss-crossing overhead from the New York Island to the gulf stream waters?). O, land of tattooed grandmas, hostages of the tiny screens, the sexually confounded, the illiterate and innumerate, the lawless and the feckless, brainwashed youth marinated in Marx, the deranged, befuddled, the bought-off, the bug-eyed and bewildered, the lame, the halt, the addicts, grifters, hustlers, porn-stars, drugstore cowboys, alpha dogs, beta boys, shrieking Karens, and sundry victims of future-shock - wither, this hallowed experiment in nationhood?

Wouldn’t you like to know? In the meantime, husk that corn and flip them burgers! Turn them wieners! Mash your guacamole, pop another frostie, pass the Jack, lock-and-load, and mind those hovering drones! It is the 249th birthday of what remains of our country! Respect and thanks, ye ancestors!

At least, there is Mr. Trump in command now, not Norman Bates’s mother (or whatever decrepitating thing pretended to rule from the White House those previous four years of anarchy and agony). Daddy’s in da house - finally! - and things are being put in order against all odds. Yeah, you’re gonna clean up your damn room, or else! For many, this is a yuge relief. The rest of you, with your “No Kings” fake revolution, your Antifa monkey business, your mean girl psychodramas, your trans psychosis, your childless despair, your occult Gramscian schemes of destruction - please report back to the margins, where you belong.

The struggle to get normal again is epic and harsh. And, of course, many will deny that there ever was such a state of being, of minding your business in the purest sense of the phrase, acting like responsible, self-respecting, autonomous adults. In the immortal words of Aimee Mann, better wise-up. Childhood ends; something else begins. Take yourself seriously for a change, but keep your heart light, ready for the jokes that travail always presents. After all, nothing is funnier than unhappiness.

To get back to normal, to shed the burden of absurdities we’ve been heaped with, requires an accounting. You know this. Matter of fact, the absence of such an accounting has been bugging you no end. A whole lot of pain and suffering was inflicted across this land in recent years and barely a soul has had to do any ‘splainin’. It rankles badly. When, if ever, will these vicious, seditionist goons who turned the nation inside-out and upside-down be compelled to sit at the defendant’s table in a court of law?

I have a theory. The right dawgs, you well-know, have been in position for months. They understand the conspiracy hatched ten years ago through-and-through. Mr. Patel, remember, ran Chairman Devon Nunes investigation of the nascent RussiaRussiaRussia hoax in 2017 as senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and helped draft the “Nunes Letter,” much abused by the perfidious news media, that laid out the plot by Brennan, Clapper, Comey, Obama & Company to smother Donald Trump’s newborn presidency in its crib.

Through some alchemy of mass political psychosis, that conspiracy has rolled on for a whole decade, one malice-driven prank after another. It continues to this day, an evermore rearguard action conducted by Deep state rogues and their public mouthpiece, Norm Eisen of Lawfare, Inc. Dan Bongino, now at Mr. Patel’s right-hand, chronicled that long march of treason in several books while he conducted daily podcast discourses on the workings of it all. “Remember the names,” he always said. Danny Boombatz remembers the names.

Normality, with all its own problems and hazards, demands that accounting for crimes and insults against the people of this sore-beset Republic. That fateful accounting is the one element missing in all of Mr. Trump’s implacable “winning” of the past five months. Those remembered names fester like an abscessed wound in America’s body politic. That wound must be cleaned, irrigated, debrided, and dressed in judicial process that restores the probity and honor of our much-abused law.

My theory is that a whole lot of other matters had to be cleared out of the way first. And now, that is pretty much where we’re at. Mr. Ratcliffe, formerly Director of National Intelligence (in Trump One) and now Director of the CIA, also knows all the names. He’s been as quiet as a tick on a wild hog lo these many months, but on Wednesday he issued quite a squawk, in the public arena of X, no less, along with a report by trusted agency colleagues titled (nontoxically) Tradecraft Review 2016 ICA on Election Interference 062625.

This fateful report, which lays out the originating crime, should commence the more general institutional accounting so overdue. It’s coming. Cases are being laid and made quietly in the background. Cases will be brought. The insults will be redressed. Derangement will slip away like that quicksilver mirage on a desert highway. The inordinate division of recent years will go with it. We will allow ourselves to be a people again, one nation under God, as the old chestnut goes. Next year, on our country’s 250th birthday, there will be a special reason to celebrate. For now, patience and fortitude."

- https://www.kunstler.com/

Bill Bonner, "Scott Bessent's Big, Beautiful, Budget Abomination"

US Treasury Department, Washington DC

"Scott Bessent's Big, Beautiful, Budget Abomination"

by Bill Bonner

"We are going to have to have some kind of a grand global 

economic reordering.I'd like to be a part of it. I've studied this."

- US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent

Youghal, Ireland - "The die is cast. The deal is sealed. We’re on our way to national bankruptcy - whee! "Trump Wins Broad Economic Policy Shift as House Passes Tax Bill." It’s deficits as far as the eye can see...followed by money-printing, inflation, and chaos - practically guaranteed.

But wait. Scott Bessent is the ‘adult’ in the financial room. He supported John McCain. He supported Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Now, he supports Donald Trump. Why? What’s he up to? We don’t know, but the stated reasons for the Big, Beautiful Budget Abomination (BBBA) are nonsense. It is supposed to ‘stimulate’ the economy into producing so much growth that debt won’t matter. We’re going to see ‘growth like we’ve never seen growth before,’ says POTUS. We know that won’t work. The US economy got more stimulus in this century than ever before. But GDP growth rates are still only half those of the ‘50s and ‘60s.

We’ve already established that spending by the government decreases real wealth. Bessent must know that. And today, we’ll look at what happens when the feds try to boost GDP - by stimulating growth in the private sector.

The BBBA program is similar to Japan’s ‘Three Arrows’ scheme that went live in 2013. It was Bessent who proposed it and designed it. Japan’s three arrows were meant to stimulate the Japanese economy out of its 20-year funk. The arrows - increases in government spending, lower interest rates (more debt) and Quantitative Easing (more printing press money) - went flying in 2013. Since then, in dollar terms, Japan’s economy has lost nearly a third of its GDP.

(A little mentioned detail. Scott Bessent, now US Secretary of the Treasury, used to work as a fund manager for George Soros. In 2013, he made a big bet that the yen would go down. The trade reportedly made $1.2 billion in profit in 90 days.)

Economists wondered how Japan could continue borrowing, spending and building up the world’s biggest pile of government debt as the economy shrank. Now we know; it couldn’t. Japan faces a credit crack up. It has government debt two and a half times greater than its GDP…and the cost of borrowing is going up. Global Financial Market Review: "Japanese Bond Yields Reach 16-Year High As Global Sell-Off Intensifies."

When the feds try to stimulate the economy by spending more money (running deficits) the result is wealth destruction, not wealth creation. Resources are thrown away on unproductive, unprofitable and unwise expenses. The feds don’t know or really care whether or not their programs have real value. And even when the goals are laudable, they can’t control costs and can’t operate efficiently.

And, the more of a society’s resources that are spent on the feds’ projects, the less is left for everything else. Government borrowing in the US now ‘crowds out’ private borrowing almost completely. Private savings are about 7% of GDP; US government deficits - also around 7% of GDP - take up almost all of it.

The result is a lack of capital investment, with a general softening of useful output throughout the whole economy. Government spending doesn’t make us wealthier, even when the actual work is done by private companies. Private enterprises can deliver goods and services at a profit. No doubt, Krupp, BMW, and I.G. Farben made good money during WWII. But doing the devil’s work does not exactly make people better off, even when it is done well.

But in addition to more spending, Scott Bessant’s BBBA has two other arrows - less government regulation and lower interest rates Turning to his second arrow, lowering .barriers to output ought to boost ‘growth.’ Private industry ought to flourish, producing things people really want...at a profit. But there’s a catch.

It is already late in the empire cycle. The elites have more power than ever; they don’t want to give it up. Democrats and Republicans now both favor the ‘supply side/abundance’ creed, but only insofar as it helps them get what they want. They are not taking away regulations that free up the economy, generally.

Instead, they favor certain industries and punish others. Republicans reduce regulations on the oil industry, for example, so it can ‘drill baby drill.’ But then they want to regulate who sells oil, to whom, and at what price. Democrats say they will reduce the regulations that keep them from putting in railroads, ‘sustainable’ power plants, and “affordable housing.” But they want to tighten up rules on the environment, housing, and employment.

The Wall Street Journal illustrates how this degenerate ‘government of men,’ as opposed to a ‘government of laws,’ operates: "Trump and his advisers said they would explore new tariffs on parts used in wind turbines, and potentially slow permitting for some renewable-energy projects, according to lawmakers. The offer was aimed at placating Republicans who were angry that the Senate gave wind and solar-energy projects more time to start construction before becoming ineligible for tax credits."

In other words, the feds are still at it - central planning; they are regulating/deregulating to achieve specific outcomes, not to let ‘The People’ pursue happiness in their own way with their own money. Next week, we’ll look at the third arrow in Bessent’s Big Bet quiver – lower interest rates. Stay tuned. And Happy Fourth of July!"

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"The Secret Plan to Control Your Money While You Were Distracted"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 7/4/25

"The Secret Plan to Control Your 

Money While You Were Distracted"

"Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are set to change everything, and not for the better. In this video, I break down how CBDCs could destroy your freedom, offering proof with real examples and stories. From regional banks struggling to keep up with technology to companies like Circle Internet Group aiming to control the digital dollar, I lay it all out for you. Imagine a future where your spending, travel, and even diet are dictated by centralized systems. Scary, right? This isn’t just a theory, it’s happening now."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete
when everything the American public believes is false."
- CIA Director William J. Casey.

James Brown, "Living In America"

Full screen recommended.

James Brown, "Living In America"

Happy 4th Of July!

Have a safe and happy 4th of July folks!

Full screen recommended.

John Philip Sousa, "The Stars And Stripes Forever"

o

Ray Charles, "America The Beautiful"

"A Patriotism of the Heart"

"A Patriotism of the Heart"

by Brian Maher

"Here is the trouble with America’s jingos, warhawks, drum-beaters, glory hounds, world-improvers, do-gooders and idealists: They are not patriotic. A jolting, nearly scandalous claim, it is true. Do these Americans not cry tears red, white and blue? Do they not yell about American “greatness”... American “exceptionalism”... the “shining city” atop the hill? That and more they do, yes. Yet they are not patriotic. That is the curious case we haul before the jury today.

Yes, we are stepping away from our normal beat of manna and markets… and reflecting upon the virtue of patriotism. (We first doff our cap to the late writer Joseph Sobran, upon whose insights we rely today).

Country or Empire: Famed English writer G.K. Chesterton once denounced Rudyard Kipling’s “lack of patriotism.” The fellow’s lack of patriotism? What did Chesterton mean? Kipling was chief rah-rah man for the British Empire, its loudest bugler. English civilization overtopped all rival powers, he believed - as Everest overtops all rival peaks. And as was proper… Great Britain gave the law in all four corners of Earth.

From Kipling’s story "Regulus", citing Virgil’s "Aeneid": “Roman! let this be your care, this your art; to rule over the nations and impose the ways of peace…” Substitute Britain for Rome, and you have Kipling. Why then did Chesterton deny his patriotism? The reason is subtle. Subtle… yet critical.

“He Admires England, But He Does Not Love Her” Chesterton argued that Kipling admired England because she was powerful. He did not love her because she was England: "He admires England, but he does not love her; for we admire things with reasons, but love them without reasons. He admires England because she is strong, not because she is English."

Now Chesterton. He loved England as England — its customs, its eccentricities, its people. Even, if you can believe it, its “food.” A man loves his mother. It is a wordless love, wide and deep. He requires no reason. He requires no justification. And as he loves his mother, so he loves his country. Be it China, be it Russia, be it Chile, be it Romania… it is all one.

Sobran: "Of course Chesterton was right. You love your country as you love your mother - simply because it is yours, not because of its superiority to others, particularly superiority of power."

A Spacious Patriotism: Does the other fellow believe his own mother towers high over all others? Well, friends, maybe he does believe it. But that in no way irritates, annoys or threatens the other fellow. No harm flows from it. After all... Adults allow children to cherish the fiction that reindeer fly and round men descend chimneys... A husband allows his wife to cherish the fiction that she is a superior cook or automobilist… as a wife allows her husband to cherish the fiction that he is a skillful and formidable lover... or that his bald head is actually ennobling.

These are benevolent fictions conducive to the domestic peace and happiness. In that spirit, the patriot’s attitude toward the foreigner is relaxed. It is accommodative. It is spacious. He understands this fellow’s affection for his country is essentially the affection for his mother. But a Kipling does not love his country as a man loves his mother. His country must show all others its dust. It must outrace them all… else he feels diminished.

The Patriot Loves His Country Regardless: The United States of America stables many such gentlemen. They are dizzied, wobbled, staggered by a higher American vision. Their eyes roll perpetually heavenward. To these fellows, America must always be up to something big in this world.

She must be forever charging up San Juan Hill, going over the top, storming Omaha beach, bearing any burden, paying any price... She must be beating the Russians to the moon, beating the world at basketball, beating democracy into someone’s head. Tall deeds, some of these, and fantastic attainments.

But would the patriot love America less if she fell short of the glory… if her history was a page mostly blank? He would not. It is - after all - his country. And he loves her as he loves his mother. But to that certain species of American, America must dazzle and glitter upon the world’s stage. She must be the “indispensable nation.” If not indispensable… then dispensable. If dispensable, then unworthy of his love. Hence his lack of patriotism. He is Kipling.

The Difference Between the Patriot and the Nationalist: Sobran takes their measure: "Many Americans admire America for being strong, not for being American. For them America has to be “the greatest country on Earth” in order to be worthy of their devotion. If it were only the second greatest, or the 19th greatest, or, heaven forbid, “a third-rate power,” it would be virtually worthless… Maybe the poor Finns or Peruvians love their countries too, but heaven knows why - they have so little to be proud of, so few “reasons.”

And so Sobran trains his cannons on the nationalist ideologue: "The nationalist, who identifies America with abstractions like freedom and democracy, may think it’s precisely America’s mission to spread those abstractions around the world - to impose them by force, if necessary. In his mind, those abstractions are universal ideals... the world must be made “safe for democracy” by “a war to end all wars”... Any country that refuses to Americanize is “anti-American” - or a “rogue nation.” For the nationalist, war is a welcome opportunity to change the world."

We might list some names in point... but our legal counsel is wagging his finger and shaking his head. The patriot and the nationalist babble the same American tongue. The one is therefore mistaken for the other. Yet lean in. Listen closer. You will find they speak alien languages: "Because the patriot and the nationalist often use the same words, they may not realize that they use those words in very different senses. The American patriot assumes that the nationalist loves this country with an affection like his own, failing to perceive that what the nationalist really loves is an abstraction - “national greatness,” or something like that. The American nationalist, on the other hand, is apt to be suspicious of the patriot, accusing him of insufficient zeal, or even “anti-Americanism.”

A Patriotism of the Heart: The patriotism Sobran hymns is a relaxed, natural, healthful patriotism. It is a patriotism of the heart. This patriotism flies no ideological flag, hauls no missionary cargo, steers by no heavenly star. It is the patriotism of the prairie, of the plain, of the lonely jackrabbit crossroad, of the greasy spoon, of the truckstop, of the front porch, of the pool hall... of Main Street. And his fellow countrymen? The patriot takes them as he finds them.

Might they sometimes neglect to wash behind the ears? Might they mistake the salad fork for the dinner fork? Well, sometimes they may. But they are his countrymen… and that is enough. The patriot allows himself to laugh - not at his fellow Americans - but with them.

The nationalist, meantime, does not laugh. He hectors. He preaches. He scolds.

“Patriotism Is Relaxed. Nationalism Is Rigid.” “Patriotism is relaxed,” as Sobran concludes. “Nationalism is rigid.”

We in turn conclude, paraphrasing Chesterton: "The relaxed patriot, the average American, the American who tends to his own business and sweeps his own stoop, the American who loves his country as he loves his mother - this fellow is all right. But the rigid American, the uber American, the zealous American, the American nationalist hot to put the world to rights - the American who admires America for her strength - but fails to love her as herself? This fellow... he’s all wrong."

- dailyreckoning.com

"Of The People, By The People, For The People"

Battle of Chancellorsville, 1863

"Of The People, By The People, For The People"

by Bill Bonner

"General, I have been a soldier all my life. I have been with soldiers engaged in fights by couples, by squads, companies, regiments, divisions, and armies, and should know, as well as any one, what soldiers can do. It is my opinion that no fifteen thousand men ever arrayed for battle can take that position."

- General Longstreet to General Lee on the eve of Pickett’s Charge

"It’s July the 4th…it is also the 162nd anniversary of the most decisive battle in the War Between the States. It is usually called the “Civil War” but a civil war is one where two groups fight for control of one government, like the English civil war, or the Irish civil war or the many civil wars in China.

The War Between the States was a war with two groups, each with its own government. The southern states wanted to go their own way – much like the Donbas and Luhansk areas of Eastern Ukraine today, who sought their independence after the Maidan coup d’etat in 2014. And like the Kyiv government today, Washington wanted to take the breakaway states back…by force.

The war began when Southerners tried to take possession of a Union-held fort built on an artificial island to protect Charleston, SC. – Fort Sumter. When the Union commander refused to give it up, the Confederates lobbed artillery shells into the fort, until the Yankees surrendered. That incident was probably not significant enough to set off a real war. But war was in the ‘air du temps’ and both sides were ‘gunning up.’ By July, 1861, hotheads on both sides were ready for action. The Northerners invaded Virginia, expecting an easy victory. Washingtonians drove out to Bull Run in their carriages, with picnic baskets, to watch the anticipated rout of the “Johnny Rebs.” It didn’t work out as planned and the gawkers soon hastened back across the Potomac.

But once underway – like an empire, inflation or a love affair – war takes on a life of its own. People lose sight of what they are fighting for and concern themselves only with winning. They use “any means necessary” – murder, mayhem, deceit, invention, starvation, poison…whatever they can come up with – to beat their opponents. Ultimately, the goal is to inflict so much pain on the enemy that he calls it quits. That is why Richard Nixon tried to bomb North Vietnam ‘back to the stone age.’ And it is why George W. Bush hit Iraq with a campaign of ‘shock and awe.’

In order to win the war, the Yankees had to conquer the South. The Confederates would win by not being conquered. But the Yankees had decisive advantages. They had industries that could make weapons and supply their armies. They had a navy that could blockade Southern ports and cripple the Confederate economy. And they had thousands of immigrants—many of them Irishmen who had come to Boston, New York and Philadelphia to escape the famine – whom they could draft into the army.

After two years of warfare, the Confederates had proved their fighting elan. They won battles, often against much superior forces. But each victory brought them closer to defeat. Because the South could not readily replace its fallen soldiers or its lost supplies.

The Battle of Chancellorsville showed Robert E. Lee’s skill as a commander. Military historians call it a ‘perfect battle.’ Union general Joseph Hooker tried to take on Lee’s army from the front and the rear in a ‘double envelopment.’ Lee, outnumbered more than two to one, managed to defeat both of Hooker’s armies. But in the battle, Lee lost his ‘right arm’ – Gen. Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson -- who was accidentally shot by his own troops in the half light of evening.

Lee won a great victory at Chancellorsville. ‘Many more victories like that,’ said an astute observer on his staff, ‘and we will lose the war.’ It was then, in the spring of 1863, that the Confederates decided on a different strategy. They needed some ‘shock and awe’ of their own to bring the Yankees to the bargaining table. And they badly needed supplies. So, they invaded Maryland and Pennsylvania, leading to the Battle of Gettysburg.

What the Confederates really needed was Stonewall Jackson. He had spent 10 years teaching tactics at the Virginia Military Institute. He had studied Napoleon’s campaigns, in detail. He had watched, too, as his own troops were able to beat back more powerful Union assaults by taking protected positions and letting the enemy come to them. He had understood how, with improvements in riflery, it was almost impossible for the attacker to dislodge a well-positioned defender.

And yet, at Gettysburg, that is what Lee’s Army tried to do. By July 3rd, the battle had already been going on for three days. The Union army held the high ground. Now, on its own ground, it was the defender, not the attacker. And in the center of its main line was a low stone wall at a place aptly named, “Cemetery Ridge.”

Lee’s most trusted subordinate, Jackson, was dead. General Longstreet argued against attacking the ridge. But he couldn’t dissuade Lee. So, after noon on the 3rd, some 12,500 Confederate soldiers, under General George Pickett tried to take the ridge. They had to cross a large, mostly open area, where they were hit by artillery and rifle fire from several directions. Only a handful of them reached the stone wall, but were soon beaten back. Half of the attackers lay dead on the field. Lee retreated back to Virginia. The war went on for nearly two years more, before the the South, exhausted, finally gave up.

As Lincoln put it, the war was fought so that ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’ But by 1865, the people of the South were ruled by Lincoln’s armies."

- https://bonnerprivateresearch.substack.com/

"Independence Day"

"Independence Day"

Classic Thoughts Re-Written for the Modern Patriot

by Contemplations on the Tree of Woe

"Any man with any measure of heroism in his blood who actually reads the texts and speeches of our Founders cannot help but to feel the call to pick up his musket and fight Britain. Moreover, the tyrannies endured by our ancestors seem almost trivial in comparison to the daily villainies perpetrated on their descendants by those who purport to rule them; shouldn’t the urgency of action be all the greater? And yet…

Perhaps I should clarify: Any man or woman who can actually read the texts and speeches cannot but help to feel the call to action. But today almost no one can actually read them. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech is 11th grade; of the Declaration of Independence, 12th grade; of the U.S. Constitution, 18th grade.

According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 57% of Americans have a reading grade below 9th level, and 13% have a reading grade below 5th level. Only 13% can understand the Declaration or Patrick Henry’s speech, and virtually none can understand the Constitution. And that includes all Americans. Among Generation Z, it’s far worse. They are the least literate generation in American history.

Spend a few minutes on YouTube watching our young people be interviewed on the most basic matters of our history and values. They do not know anything of the good, the true, and the beautiful; and even if they wanted to, they could not learn it because the texts are inaccessible to them. Far too many have been cognitively crippled.

If we are to properly motivate the masses, we must speak the language of the masses. I am called to action. I have spent weeks immersing myself in the Gen Z gathering hall known as “TikTok.” Today, on the 4th of July, I present our finest patriotic texts in a style that will speak to the young men and women of today. Check ‘em out, fam.

"The Declaration of Independence"

"Aight, so check this, when peeps decide to dip from the squad and do their own thing, it's only fair they spit some facts about why they're peacing out. It's just how it is, you know? We all believe some truths are just straight-up, like we're all equal, and our Creator gave us some dope rights, like life, freedom, and chasing what makes us happy.

And if the government isn't vibing with that, then we've got the right to switch it up and set up something new that'll keep us secure. That's just keeping it real. But when a long list of whack stuff happens, it's not about being salty; it's just time to bounce and do what's gotta be done. And that's where we're at with the British Crown. So, here's the tea.

Like, we're not about to ghost without giving the full deets. Let's get into it, shall we? We've been super patient and chill, trying to work stuff out with the British king. But he's been on a total power trip, acting like a toxic friend that just won't quit.

He's put laws on us that are totally unfair, messed with our courts, and has been all up in our business, trying to control our lives and telling us what to do.

And it's not like we haven't tried to talk it out. We've been sending the king all these messages, trying to get him to understand our side of things. But he's been ghosting us, ignoring our probs, and acting like everything's all gucci when it's totally not. It's obvious he's just trying to flex and show his power, and we're over it.

So, we're taking a stand and cutting ties. We're saying 'bye, Felicia' to the king and declaring ourselves as free and independent states. We'll make our own alliances, trade with who we want, and fight our own battles. We're going to stand up for each other and do everything that free countries do because that's what we are.

We're fully aware that this is a major step, so we're not going to do it without some serious thought. We respect the connections we've had with Britain, and we're not looking to cut ties unless it's absolutely necessary. But they've forced our hand, and we need to do what's best for us.

With a clear conscience and with respect to the opinions of humanity, we're putting it all on the line. We're entrusting our cause to the universe and its divine law. We're ready to face the consequences and stand up for what we believe.

In other words, it's on, fam. We're doing this. We're declaring independence.

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death

Do we really need all these troops and warships for a love and reconciliation gig? Haven't we been chill enough to make peace, or do they gotta flex their muscle to win back our vibe? Don't kid yourself, fam. This is all about power and control, the final say for those in the high castle.

I gotta ask, peeps, why all this military showoff if not to make us kneel? What else could it be for? Does Britain have any beef with anyone around here to justify all this military overkill? Nah, bro, there's none. It's all about us. They're prepping these chains the Brit government's been crafting for ages.

What's our move? Do we try to out-talk them? We've been doing that for a solid decade. Got any fresh takes? Nah, nothing. We've explored this from all angles, all for nothing. Do we beg and plead? What else can we say that hasn't been said already?

Please, fam, let's be real. We've done all we could to dodge this incoming storm. We've filed petitions, we've protested, we've pleaded, we've basically thrown ourselves at the king's feet, begging him to stop the savage acts of the government and Parliament. Our pleas have been ignored, our protests only made them more aggressive, our pleas fell on deaf ears, and we've been kicked aside with nothing but contempt. After all this, dreaming of peace and reconciliation is pointless. Hope has left the chat.

If we want freedom, if we intend to keep the valuable privileges we've been fighting for, if we don't plan on ditching this epic fight we've been in, and swore never to quit till we win, we gotta fight!

I say it again, we gotta fight! Calling on our weapons and the big guy upstairs is all we've got left!

They're saying we're weak; can't handle an enemy this tough. But when will we be stronger? Next week? Next year? When we've got no defenses left and a British soldier's snooping around every house? Does doing nothing and procrastinating make us stronger? Will we gain the power to resist by just lying down and hugging false hopes, till our enemies chain us up?

Nah, we're not weak if we use what nature's given us right. Three million folks, armed for the holy cause of freedom, in a country like ours, can't be defeated by whatever our enemies throw at us.

Plus, we won't be fighting alone. There's a just God looking over nations' fates; He'll bring allies to fight with us. The victory ain't just for the strong; it's for the vigilant, the active, the brave.

Plus, we've got no choice. Even if we were cowardly enough to want it, it's too late to back down now. There's no going back unless we surrender and become slaves! Our chains are ready! You can hear 'em in Boston! War's coming and let it come! I say it again, let it come.

We can't sugarcoat this, fam. Some may shout, "Peace, Peace" but there's no peace. War's already here! The next chill from the north will carry the sound of clashing arms! Our brothers are already out there!

Why are we just standing around? What do y'all want? What's the deal? Is life that precious, or peace that cool, that we'd buy it with chains and slavery? Nah, not on my watch, Almighty God! I don't know what others will do; but for me, it's either freedom or it's game over!"

- https://treeofwoe.substack.com/