"Systemic Self-Destruction"

"Systemic Self-Destruction"

by Jeff Thomas

"During the Obama administration, comedian Bill Maher attempted to take advantage of the ever-expanding trend of political correctness by referring derisively to the possibility of taking the view of "some white guy." Of course, as a proclaimed liberal, his aim was to say to other liberals, "Liberals are slamming those who are Caucasian, and I want you to know that I’m a good liberal, and I’m on your side."

In the years following the event, he continued in this fashion, but as political correctness caught fire, he found that, far from helping his career, his attempt to placate the PC audience resulted in them turning on him. He is a comedian, after all, and comedians deal in abstraction in order to tickle the funnybone. Those who are politically correct found him an easy target to pick apart, describing some of his jokes as racist and demanding that he confess to racism and submit to public shaming. The more he tried to avoid an apology, the more he was castigated. To his credit, he eventually retaliated, calling political correctness a "cancer on progressivism."

However, when we attempt to pander to groups of people whose raison d'être is to fanatically promote irrational standards, we step onto a slippery slope. Today nowhere is this truer than in the education system. Educational institutions tend to be havens for adult instructors who do not deal well with the dollars and cents world. Academics have the freedom to imagine utopian concepts without ever having to implement them and thereby determine whether they can actually work. More to the point, they’re in the position to then teach those concepts to youthful minds, which are open to "new" ideas.

Unfortunately, teachers are paid regardless of how unworkable their concepts are. As Thomas Sowell has rightly stated, "It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong." But what happens when a concept such as political correctness begins to take hold? Does it soon fall out of favor, like a bad joke?

No, quite the opposite. It tends to spread like a skin rash. After all, it provides those who have not excelled in life with an opportunity for immediate one-upmanship. Accusations of sexism, fascism, and - most popularly - racism are easy to conjure up in any situation, and again, nowhere is this truer than in institutions of higher learning. 

Unsurprisingly, so-called woke concepts are welcomed and encouraged by school faculty members. And whilst these concepts may not be welcomed by the school’s administration, they are tolerated, and student eccentricities are pandered to in order to maintain enrollment and revenue.

And so we now see the creation of safe spaces, where no one may say anything that may upset another. Crying closets are now provided for those who find it hard to cope with normal discourse. Play-Doh therapy is implemented. It is becoming difficult to distinguish colleges from daycare centers.

Unfortunately, as part of the bargain, naming and shaming - a modern-day version of the Salem witch trials - has also become a part of the educational firmament. The more the school attempts to placate the mobs, the more it finds itself in a similar fix to Mister Maher. The seemingly advantageous position of pandering to political correctness backfires. Placating the students serves only to cause them to repeatedly increase their demands. This is a condition of the tail wagging the dog and has now reached calamitous proportions across much of the former free world. 

Not surprisingly, school faculties join in on the side of the students. Having once inoculated the students with politically correct concepts, they often take on the role of student leaders against the very administration that pays their salaries. At one school in America, over one hundred faculty have organized to accuse the school of the foremost pet issue of today - systemic racism.

They have submitted eight pages of demands to the school’s administration, including an assortment of "equality" demands, such as forced anti-bias training for all staff, forced public "anti-racism statements" from all staff, new courses on "black liberation," and the elimination of courses in which minority students have lower scores than whites.

It wouldn’t be surprising if the administration were to grit their teeth and submit to some of these demands to demonstrate their opposition to racism. However, there are many other demands, such as the hiring of dozens of new staff, including psychologists who specialize in minority psychological issues, a black student complaints officer, and twelve full-time diversity officers. These measures would not only be costly; there would be no way to recoup the costs except to raise the tuition once more.

Unfortunately, the demands get worse. There are demands to pay back student debt and, worse, re-route half of all donations to New York City public schools. Such demands would force the school into bankruptcy. Don’t these people understand that such measures would collapse the school, forcing its closure?

Well, yes, of course, they do. The object is not to achieve the stated ends of the demands but to increase the demands until the institution cracks and is brought to its knees. The intention of political correctness is not to correct the iniquities of life but to tear down what exists in a bid for self-aggrandizement and power. This is not an appeal for "fairness"; it is a campaign for domination by those who have no real sense of identity or accomplishment.

For those who seek to placate the PC crowd, there is no backing out once you begin. This is understood by those who are being pressured to comply with illogical PC demands; however small, it becomes apparent that political correctness has no limit. It becomes a systemic cry for self-destruction. Historically, when a nation reaches the final stages of decline, the inmates often take over control of the asylum. We are witnessing the rebirth of that eventuality in the present era."

- internationalman.com

The Poet: Czeslaw Milosz, "Hope"

"Hope"

"Hope is with you when you believe

The earth is not a dream but living flesh,

That sight, touch, and hearing do not lie,

That all things you have ever seen here

Are like a garden looked at from a gate.

You cannot enter. But you're sure it's there.

Could we but look more clearly and wisely

We might discover somewhere in the garden

A strange new flower and an unnamed star.

Some people say we should not trust our eyes,

That there is nothing, just a seeming,

These are the ones who have no hope.

They think that the moment we turn away,

The world, behind our backs, ceases to exist,

As if snatched up by the hands of thieves."

- Czeslaw Milosz,

"Hope", from "The World"

The Daily "Near You?"

High Springs, Florida, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Free Download: Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged"

"If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - what would you tell him to do?"

"I... don't know. What could he do? What would you tell him?"

"To shrug."

- Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged "

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"Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard - the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money - the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law - men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims - then money becomes its creators' avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they've passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.

Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors- when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."

An excerpt from "Atlas Shrugged," by Ayn Rand. Full text of Francisco's Money Speech is here: - http://capitalismmagazine.com/2002/08/franciscos-money-speech/

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"Learn to distinguish the difference between errors of knowledge and breaches of morality. An error of knowledge is not a moral flaw, provided you are willing to correct it; only a mystic would judge human beings by the standard of an impossible, automatic omniscience. But a breach of morality is the conscious choice of an action you know to be evil, or a willful evasion of knowledge, a suspension of sight and of thought. That which you do not know, is not a moral charge against you; but that which you refuse to know, is an account of infamy growing in your soul. Make every allowance for errors of knowledge; do not forgive or accept any break of morality."

- Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged"

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Freely download or read online "Atlas Shrugged", 

by Ayn Rand, here:

- http://www.sarahnamulondo.com/o

"A Long March Through The Night..."

"The life of Man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent Death. Very brief is the time in which we can help them, in which their happiness or misery is decided. Be it ours to shed sunshine on their path, to lighten their sorrows by the balm of sympathy, to give them the pure joy of a never-tiring affection, to strengthen failing courage, to instill faith in times of despair."

- Bertrand Russell

"The Dark At the End of the Tunnel"

"The Dark At the End of the Tunnel"

By Bill Bonner

"The price tag will be high."

– President-elect Joe Biden

WEST RIVER, MARYLAND – "Wow… What a week! What a way to begin a new year! Many people were outraged and appalled by last week’s shenanigans in Washington. And this morning, calls for impeachment, destitution, or lynching are still running riot over the internet. But nothing very serious happened last week. The Temple was defiled. But there was no attempt at a coup. Nobody burned the Capitol down or massacred the Washington elite.

And now that that episode is behind us… with Trump leaving office… several vaccines to stop the coronavirus… employment on the rise… the stock market hitting new highs… and Democrats in control of the House, the Senate, and the White House…what could go wrong? Should the pessimists simply go home? Should the declinists put on happy faces… for now, the Biden Clan can finally get to work… and do what the MAGA mob could not – make America great again? Oh, Dear Reader… you’re not serious, are you?

A Matter of Time: We’re looking at an empire… aging, corroding, weakening… rolling over… with a ruling class that is desperate to hold onto power. Joe Biden called the storming of the Capitol an act of “terrorism.” And Rep. Jason Crow, D-Co., says “We are witnessing the birth of a domestic terrorist movement in the United States.” So it’s probably just a matter of time before the vicious birds unleashed in the Mideast in the “War on Terror” come home to roost in the USA. But that is just a guess… Let’s stick with what we know.

High Price: And so far, all is well. The shelves are still filled with food. The U.S. dollar still has value. The stock market is still high. And the lights still work. Enjoy it while you can. Because the real trouble will probably begin this year, as we enter a more treacherous phase. Thanks to the chaos sown in 2020… we need to prepare for a bumper crop of bitterness, economic decline, and political discord in 2021… and beyond.

Last year, the feds made the third major “mistake” of the 21st century. They locked down much of the economy (even though economically active people were not likely to be victims of the coronavirus)… and then tried to replace the real losses with fake new money. And now, both Wall Street and Main Street rely on the fake money just to keep the jig up.

Dig this, from AL.com: "A pair of Democratic Senate wins in Georgia has given new life to a proposal for a $2,000 stimulus payment. Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff’s victories gave Democrats effective control of the Senate and Chuck Schumer, D-NY, is expected to become Senate Majority Leader. Schumer has long supported the increased stimulus and said a higher payment will be one of his top priorities. “One of the first things that I want to do when our new senators are seated is deliver the $2,000 checks to the American families,” Schumer said this week."

According to Joe Biden, more money is on the way. He says he’ll reveal the details on Thursday. But the “price tag,” he says with pride (and maybe a little insanity), “will be high.”

Big-Spending Democrats: On that, if nothing else, the president-elect will surely be proven right. The price tag for all of this nonsense – lockdowns, bailouts, giveaways, money-printing, racketeering, trillion-dollar deficits, the War on Terror, corruption, and associated jackassery – will be much higher than he suspects. Bush, Obama, Trump… and presently, the hack from Delaware… all share the same goal – to keep the elites in power, at any cost. And that now means “Inflate or Die.”

The feds created a debt-drenched society. Now, they must add more and more fake money to keep it from falling apart. In 2020, tax revenues covered only about half of government expenses. And with the aforementioned Joe Biden taking office in nine days, and Congress now controlled by big-spending Democrats (rather than big-spending Republicans), we can expect the printing presses to run hotter than ever.

Permanent Boondoggle: In the first instance, more fake money may mean higher stock prices. This from Business Insider: "The S&P 500 will climb another 10% as the Democrat-controlled government passes new stimulus, Credit Suisse says. Democrats’ upcoming control of the US Senate paves the way for a new fiscal stimulus and healthy stock-market returns throughout 2021, Credit Suisse analysts said Thursday.

The team led by Jonathan Golub lifted its 2021 S&P 500 price target to 4,200 from 4,050 in a note to clients, implying a roughly 10% rally from current levels. The bank expects the index’s earnings-per-share to climb to $175 this year and reach $200 by the end of 2022."

Remember, the big change in 2020 was that while the feds had been passing trillions to their friends on Wall Street, now, they will try to support Main Street, too. Here, we are guessing again… but most likely, the Democrats will try to turn the episodic “stimulus” checks into a permanent boondoggle. That is, someone will notice that occasional bailout checks create a herky-jerky economy.

Temporary Measure: As it is, nobody knows what to expect. Consumers are reluctant to consume; businesses are reluctant to hire… and investors aim for short-term, speculative gains, rather than making the kind of long-term capital commitments that increase real wealth. Economists will tout the benefits of “regular,” predictable stimulus measures – otherwise known as a “Universal Basic Income.”

It will be a “temporary” measure, of course – like the Federal Reserve’s low interest rates, U.S. troops in the Mideast, Amtrak subsidies, the War on Poverty, the War on Drugs, debt ceilings, quantitative easing, social distancing, and airport security screening. But a Universal Basic Income will keep the money flowing… until the dollar itself is worthless."

- www.rogueeconomics.com

"How It Really Is"

 

And wisdom from the great social philosopher of "The Wire"...

"Insurrection Versus Insurrection"

Unconfirmed... yet. Expect it.

"Insurrection Versus Insurrection"

by Jim Kunstler

"In the dark hours of Sunday, the BigTech-government alliance showed its hand in its massive purge of the public square - which is what social media became in a nation of strip-malls, parking lots, and nonstop propaganda - shutting down all voices countering the constructed narrative-du-jour: that the Democratic Party stands for defending Americans’ liberty against a rogue president. There have been many “shots” fired so far to kick off a civil war, but that action was an artillery blast.

Remember, the Left’s playbook is to accuse their opposition of doing exactly what they are doing. And so, of course, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has launched a last-minute impeachment on grounds of the president inciting “insurrection.” By a strange coincidence, reports on as-yet-still-live web channels say that the president has actually invoked the Insurrection Act against seditionists in our government, including, perhaps, Ms. Pelosi. If it is true - and I can’t confirm it - then the nation has blundered into an epic political battle.

Some facts may suggest the truth of the situation: The Washington DC air-space was shut down for hours on Sunday afternoon, and 6000 national guard troops have been moved into the District of Columbia as well as other cities controlled by Democrats with Antifa/BLM mobs at their disposal. What does that signify? The news media couldn’t be troubled to find out. Mr. Trump is reported to be in “a safe location.” As of last week, that was Dyess Air Force Base outside Abiline, Texas. Maybe he is somewhere else now. The New York Times, WashPo and CNN would like you to think that Mr. Trump has been pounded down a rat-hole. That’s one possibility. Another possibility is that the Democratic Party is unnerved and desperate about what’s liable to come down on them in the days ahead, which resembles a colossal hammer in the sky.

Mr. Trump is still president, and you’ve probably noticed he has been president for four years to date, which ought to suggest that he holds a great deal of accumulated information about the seditionists who have been playing games with him through all those years. So, two questions might be: how much of that information describes criminal acts by his adversaries - most recently, a deeply suspicious national election based on hackable vote-tabulation computers - and what’s within the president’s power to do something about it? I guess we’ll find out.

Or, to state it a little differently, it is impossible that the president does not have barge-loads of information about the people who strove mightily to take him down for four years. At least two pillars of the Intel Community - the CIA and the FBI - have been actively and visibly working to undermine and gaslight him, but you can be sure that the president knows where the gas has been coming from, and these agencies are not the only sources of dark information in this world. Also consider that not all the employees at these agencies are on the side of sedition.

By its work this weekend, starring Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Zuck (Facebook), Tim Cook (Apple), and Jeff Bezos (Amazon and The WashPo), you know exactly what you would be getting with The Resistance taking power in the White House and Congress: unvarnished tyranny. No free speech for you! They will not permit opposing voices to be heard, especially about the janky election that elevated America’s booby-prize, Joe Biden, to the highest office in the land.

Now there’s a charismatic, charming, dynamic, in-charge guy! He’s already doing such a swell job “healing America.” For instance, his declaration Tuesday to give $30-billion to businesses run by “black, brown, and Native American entrepreneurs” (WashPo). Uh, white folks need not apply? Since when are federal disbursements explicitly race-based? What and who, exactly, comprise the committee set up to operate Joe Biden, the hypothetical, holographic President? Surely you don’t believe he’s spirit-cooking this sort of economic policy on his own down in the fabled basement.

And so, here we stand at the start of what’s liable to be a fateful week for the United States. There is a lot of chatter on the lowdown that the current president - that would be Mr. Trump, for those out there who are confused - is about to act to take down the scurvy party that enabled and condoned six months of rioting, arson, and looting in at least a dozen cities - cadres of whom may have actually instigated that incursion into the US Capitol building on Wednesday. The president appears to understand his duty to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. He had plenty of opportunity to be a quitter from 2017 to 2021 and he hung in there, against every cockamamie operation the Deep State threw at him. Odds are he’s not quitting now."

- https://kunstler.com/

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Related:

"Trump at the Rubicon: The Insurrection Act"

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A comment: I simply can't see any other option, in my humble opinion, considering Trumps character. It's time to invoke the Insurrection Act, impose martial law, begin arresting the seditionists, order a massive "secret" document declassification and release, and pardon Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. A "long drop and a sudden stop" for the traitors is particularly appealing personally, after trial and conviction by military tribunals, of course. - CP

Gregory Mannarino, "Important Updates: Bitcoin, Crypto, Stocks, Dollar, More"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 1/11/21

"Important Updates: Bitcoin, Crypto, Stocks, Dollar, More"

- https://traderschoice.net/

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MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates

- https://www.marketwatch.com/tools/marketsummary

CNN Market Data:

- https://money.cnn.com/data/markets/

CNN Fear And Greed Index:

- https://money.cnn.com/data/fear-and-greed/

"2021: If It Wasn't For Bad Luck, We Wouldn't Have No Luck At All"

"2021: If It Wasn't For Bad Luck, 

We Wouldn't Have No Luck At All"

by Charles Hugh Smith


"In our self-deluded hubris, we reckon we've moved beyond the influence of fortune, a.k.a. Lady Luck: our technologies are so powerful and our monetary policies so godlike that nothing as random as luck could ever crush our limitless expansion. Thus does hubris beg for a comeuppance: the greater the hubris, the greater the reversal of fortune, the greater the confidence in our godlike powers, the greater the collapse of our prideful faith in technology and economic policies.

So we've enshrined our hubris-soaked happy story: the virus will naturally weaken, vaccines will conquer the Covid virus in short order, and by opening the monetary spigots and flooding the global economy with trillions in newly created currencies, we'll unleash the greatest boom in history, because it's so righteously "green."

We seem to have forgotten that to elicit a laugh, tell God your plans. We confused a sustained run of good fortune with godlike powers that are impervious to mere luck.

Unfortunately for all the true believers in our vaunted technology and human agencies, luck still matters, and after 50+ years of under-appreciated, fabulously good fortune, we're in the first at-bat of a sustained reversal of fortune, for as noted here many times, the way of the Tao is reversal: good luck doesn't last forever, nor is it some birthright of technologically advanced civilizations.

Are we ill-prepared for seven lean years of increasingly bad luck? Absolutely. Whatever technology can't resolve, trillions in newly issued currency will: either the magic of technology will work miracles, or the magic of limitless free money will work whatever miracles are left after technology wipes up the spot of bother.

If you wanted to script an unprecedented collapse of faith in the false gods of technology and money-printing, you'd outline exactly what transpired in 2020: a reckless dismissal of the pandemic followed by a monumental financial crash that opened the floodgates of free money, which triggered a massive "recovery" rally in risk assets, driving gamblers' confidence to new heights of fantasy.

All hail our new secular gods, the Federal Reserve, the most powerful force in the Universe!

Then you'd release miraculous vaccines that promised a permanent resolution to the pandemic and a measured return to the carefree pre-pandemic orgy of debt-based consumption. (Never mind the doubts of some experts about the vaccine protocols: "Covid-19 Vaccine Protocols Reveal That Trials Are Designed To Succeed" (Forbes.com) by William A. Haseltine)

Then you'd script the opening inning of the tragi-comedy unfolding in 2021: rather than fading as so many were pleased to confidently predict, the Covid virus has made remarkable gains in function, becoming more contagious and more elusive as multiple variants emerge globally.

Rather than conquering the virus, we're unable to even keep pace. The variant ravaging Britain was finally identified in late December, and subsequent sequencing of previously collected samples indicates that it emerged (or arrived) in September. In the meantime, this variant (and other mutations with similar characteristics) have spread around the world with business travelers, tourists, etc. One or more of these variants may reduce the efficacy of the much-hyped vaccines. It's all in this report from the New York Times: "As Coronavirus Mutates, the World Stumbles Again to Respond" (New York Times)

Everything that was supposed to work smoothly due to our oh-so-advanced technological and administrative prowess in now either in doubt or in shambles. Consider the potential for less than 95% efficacy in the vaccines due to the interactions and mutually reinforcing dynamics of 1) vaccine hesitancy in those who understand the conventional processes of testing vaccines best, i.e. healthcare professionals; 2) the potential for consequential numbers of those who receive the first shot of vaccine failing to come back for the second shot due to unpleasant experiences after the first shot or other conditions such as being overworked, evicted, etc., and 3) variants further reducing the efficacy of the vaccines in unpredictable ways.

So let's say the efficacy drops from the promised 95% to 65%. Are you in the 2/3 camp who are protected by the vaccine from serious illness (though you may be a carrier and infect others, a possibility that was not tested by the trials protocols), or are you in the 1/3 camp who for whatever reason is no longer protected by the vaccine?

Since we're chasing a fast-mutating virus, there may not be a fast, accurate way to identify who's fully protected and who isn't. Since this may be unknowable, everyone will have to continue the behavioral methods of limiting exposure and transmission of the virus. In which case the vaccines will have accomplished very little in terms of returning the world to the pre-pandemic glory days of 2019.

If we have indeed begun a sustained reversal of fortune, it might be prudent to consider the possibility we're only in the first inning of a sustained run of back luck. We might want to consider learning a new theme song for 2021, Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign" (composed by Booker T. Jones and William Bell): "If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all."

The cycles of human history are amenable to a reversal of fortune: please consider historian Peter Turchin's three indicators of systemic disorder: check, check and check.

Suppressing discussions about the potentially lavish banquet of consequences set by a reversal of fortune won't actually change the outcome of the next eight innings, it will only serve to increase the odds of catastrophically consequential decisions being made by those at the top of the hubris-heap."

- https://www.oftwominds.com/

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Albert King, "Born Under A Bad Sign"

"Trump at the Rubicon: The Insurrection Act"

SUN JAN 10, AT 7:40 PM: "6000 National Guard Troops Arrive In DC To Beef Up Security"

SUN JAN 10, AT 2:40 PM: "Pelosi Is Officially Launching Second Trump Impeachment, Will Also Activate 25th Amendment"

SUN JAN 10, AT 9:00 AM: "Natelson: There Is No Constitutional Ground For Impeachment Of President Trump"

Jan. 8, 2021: "Pelosi Pressed Pentagon on Safeguards to Prevent Trump From Ordering Military Action" "But short of the cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment or impeaching and convicting the president, it would be unconstitutional to defy legal orders from the commander in chief, experts note. Mr. Trump, they noted, is still the commander in chief; unless he is removed, the military is bound to follow his lawful orders. While military officials can refuse to carry out orders they view as illegal - or slow the process by sending those orders for careful legal review - they cannot remove the president from the chain of command. That would amount to a military coup, the officials said."

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"Trump at the Rubicon: The Insurrection Act"

by Alexander Macris

"In the closing days of 50 BC, the Roman Senate declared that Julius Caesar’s term as a provincial governor was finished. Roman law afforded its magistrates immunity to prosecution, but this immunity would end with Caesar’s term. As the leader of the populares faction, Caesar had many enemies among the elite optimates, and as soon as he left office, these enemies planned to bury him in litigation. Caesar knew he would lose everything: property, liberty, even his life.

Caesar decided it was better to fight for victory than accept certain defeat. In January 49 BC, he crossed the Rubicon River with his army, in violation of sacred Roman law, and began a civil war. “Alea iacta est,” said Caesar: The die is cast.

In the closing days of 2020 AD, the American media had declared that Donald Trump’s term as president was finished. As the leader of the deplorables faction, Trump has many enemies among the elite irates, and as soon as he left office, these enemies planned to bury him in litigation. Bill Pascrell, the Chairman of the House Ways & Means Subcommittee on Oversight, has officially called for the prosecution of President Trump for “government crimes” following his term in office. In his thirst for vengeance, Pascrell had made it clear there will be no Nixonian escape by pardon: "Donald Trump, along with his worst enablers, must be tried for their crimes against our nation and Constitution. Any further abuse of the sacred pardon power to shield criminals would itself be obstruction of justice, and any self-pardons would be illegal."

Like Caesar, Trump now must fight for victory or lose everything. Now in January 2021, will Donald Trump decide to cast the die and cross the Rubicon? He might. The same people who warned us that Trump is worse than Hitler will now scoff: “Donald Trump is no Caesar!” That’s true. Trump is in a much better position than Caesar was. Unlike Caesar, Trump can cross the Rubicon legally. He need violate no sacred law. He has all of the legal power he needs to act and win. Congress has given it to him. All he needs to do is invoke the Insurrection Act.

Invoking the Insurrection Act: During the 2020 summer protests and riots, commentators on both the Left and Right argued about whether Trump would use the so-called Insurrection Act against the crowds. Strangely, no one seems to be considering the fact that Trump could use it now.

The history of the Insurrection Act dates back all the way to 1797, and the legislative record is so long and tortured that it’s woeful to contemplate. Suffice to say that in the 21st century, the Insurrection Act has been pleasantly re-titled “The Enforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order Act” and codified in four sections of the US Code:

• 10 USC § 251 Federal Aid for State Governments

• 10 USC § 252 Use of Militia and Armed Forces to Enforce Federal Authority

• 10 USC § 253 Interference with State and Federal Law

• 10 USC § 254 Proclamation to Disperse

Of the four provisions, the most recent and the most powerful is 10 USC § 253, which was written in 2006. This is the one that liberal pundits always forget to mention when they blab about Posse Comitatus and governors. It reads: "The President, by using the militia or the armed forces, or both, or by any other means, shall take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy, if it so hinders the execution of the laws of that State, and of the United States within the State, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.

That’s powerful language! Consider: The authority is vested solely in the President. He does not need the invitation of state governors to intervene, nor does he need the approval of the Supreme Court. Older provisions of the Insurrection Act required either a governor or a judicial proceeding to authorize its use, but these limits were purposefully removed by Congress in § 253.

There is no time limit on the President’s activities. Older versions of the Insurrection Act limited the use of force to brief periods of time and then required legislative approval. Those limits, too, are also gone.

The President is allowed to use any means that he (and again, he needs no one else) considers necessary. This includes using the armed forces (which enables him to bypass the Posse Comitatus Act) and using the militia (which we’ll discuss in more detail below).

The President’s ability to use force isn’t restricted to actual rebellion or insurgency. He can act against merely unlawful combinations and conspiracies. To be clear: If the President decides that a conspiracy has deprived people of a right and believes that authorities fail or refuse to protect the right, he can send in the troops.

In blunt terms, Congress has given the power to President Trump to proclaim: “I, President Trump, have determined that a conspiracy has deprived 70 million Americans of their right to vote and that the other authorities are refusing to protect this right. I therefore order the suppression of this conspiracy by any means necessary.” And with that, Trump will cross the Rubicon.

Horror and Denial: He Shouldn’t! He Wouldn’t! If you are of libertarian leanings, you are likely to feel horror: “Why on Earth did a free republic vest so much power into one man?” You should feel horror. The Romans required a Senate vote to appoint a Dictator with emergency powers, and that Dictator served a strict six-month term limit. In America, we’ve given the President the right to decide when he should become a Dictator and for how long he can retain his emergency powers.

This was certainly unwise; but it is done. “Game over, man.” The power has been given. The power can be used. And it probably will be used if the Democrats continue on their foolish campaign to seek vengeance on Trump.

If you are in the grip of normalcy bias, you are likely to be in denial: “Trump wouldn’t dare! The US Armed Forces would remove him from office! The troops wouldn’t respond to his call!” Pompey said the same about the Roman legions. He was wrong. He was so wrong, in fact, that his decapitated head ended up in a stylish gift box presented to Caesar as a present when he landed in Egypt. Don’t be Pompey.

Now, I don’t expect beheadings (just helicopters) but I do expect that the US Armed Forces would obey Trump’s orders. Although he is not popular with the Pentagon, Trump remains popular with actual soldiers, especially with white middle-class men who make up a disproportionate number of the infantry, armor, pilots, special forces, and other combat arms. (His support among law enforcement personnel is even higher. The men with guns love Trump.)

But let’s assume the Armed Forces are paralyzed, split, or neutral. If so, Trump still has millions of troops available: The militia.

Calling Up the Militia: The militia is defined by 10 U.S. Code § 246:

(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and… under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.

(b) The classes of the militia are - 

(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and

(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.

This is, again, an incredibly powerful piece of legislation. Put into plain English, and ignoring a few minor exemptions (postal workers, etc), Trump commands an unorganized militia consisting of every able-bodied man between the ages of 17 and 45. The men don’t need to be in the National Guard. They don’t need to be veterans. They don’t need to be anything except 17 to 45 and able-bodied.

Remember that 10 USC § 253 grants the President the power to use the militia to take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress conspiracy. The militia is statutorily defined to include the unorganized militia. Therefore, when you combine 10 USC § 253 with 10 USC § 246, the President can call on every able-bodied male age 17 to 45 to take any means he deems necessary to suppress the conspiracy to deny Americans their voting rights.

How many men is that? With 328M Americans, 50% of them male, and 40% of them between 18 and 45, that’s 65M militia members.

Organizing the Unorganized: When Trump calls up the unorganized militia, how does it get organized? What Federal statutes, regulations, and case law govern what happens next? The answer… Well, there isn’t one.

“The Citizen-Soldier under Federal and State Law”, a lengthy law review article published in 94 W. Va. L. Rev (1992), reviewed all of the available statutes, regulations, and case law relating to the use of citizen-soldiers. Turns out, there’s not much about the unorganized militia. In fact, in the entirety of the 20th century, there has only been one case: In 1946 Virginia Governor William Mumford Tuck issued a call to the state's unorganized militia to come to the aid of the state and to quell a labor dispute.

Let’s quickly look at what happened. According to the Encyclopedia Virginia, the crisis began when the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) union announced that its members would strike against the Virginia Electric and Power Company unless its demands were met by a deadline of April 1, 1946.

At the time, “Virginia law divided its militia into four classes: the National Guard, the Virginia Defense Force, the naval militia, and the unorganized militia. This latter unit hypothetically consisted of all able-bodied males between the ages of sixteen and fifty-five who could be summoned by the governor if needed.” (Virginia law thus mirrored 10 U.S. Code § 246.)

Two days before the strike deadline, Governor Tuck “unilaterally decreed that all IBEW employees were summarily drafted into the unorganized militia and ordered, on pain of court-martial, to continue at their jobs.” Shortly thereafter, the dispute was resolved and questions as to the constitutionality of Tuck's actions were left unresolved. However, the next month, US President Harry S. Truman “used a similar tactic in threatening to draft into the U.S. Army railway workers whose union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, was calling for a nationwide strike; as in the VEPCO affair, the two sides reached a settlement at the eleventh hour.”

So in the only recorded instance in the last 100 years, an unorganized militia was called up, drafted, and ordered to perform particular duties on pain of court-martial, unilaterally by a governor, without any other legislative action, new statute, or court order. And rather than condemn the governor, the US President thought this idea was so awesome he used it himself the next month on the federal militia.

With no apparent limits whatsoever, the Insurrection Act combined with the Militia Act isn’t just a blank check; it’s a blank check book. Apparently our government can call on its citizens to do whatever it wants! I would protest this, but I’m currently on lockdown.

The Balance of Forces: Let’s return to our earlier assumption that Trump has invoked the Insurrection Act and then used it to call up the militia. Let’s continue to assume that the US Armed Forces are either paralyzed with indecision, split in their loyalties, or opting to stay neutral, and just look at the militia. So who is going to fight?

Now, no matter what the law says, not every eligible militia man would respond to Trump’s call. But it seems likely there’d be a large number who did respond, and an even larger number of noncombatant supporters. Right now, 70% of Republicans don’t think the election was free and fair. If Trump calls on the unorganized militia to save the Republic from voter fraud, a militia will come.

So too would an anti-militia or resistance. In fact, lots of people who are willing to fight are fighting on the streets already. It seems likely that if Trump crosses the Rubicon, he will trigger a civil war, just like Caesar triggered a civil war.

When Caesar crossed the Rubicon, he had only one legion against the might of Rome. What would Trump and his opponents be able to muster? Let’s assess the balance of forces. Trump’ voters consisted of 58% of 98M white men; 55% of 98M white women; 36% of 30M Hispanic men, 28% of 30M Hispanic women, 20% of 22M black men, and 9% of 22M black women.

Meanwhile, the demographics of gun ownership in the US are as follows: 48% of white men own a gun, while only 24% of white women own a gun, 24% of non white men, and 16% of non-white women. Assuming that women largely don’t fight (which is the historical norm), the balance of forces looks like this:

• 98 million white men x 58% Trump voters x 48% gun owners x 40% 18-45 = 11 million white gun-owning Trump militia

• 36 million Hispanic men x 30% Trump voters x 24% gun owners x 40% 18-45 = 1 million Hispanic gun-owning Trump militia

• 22 million black men x 20% Trump voters x 24% gun owners x 40% 18-45 = 0.4 million black gun-owning Trump militia

• 98 million white men x 42% Biden voters x 48% gun owners x 40% 18-45 = 8 million white gun-owning anti-Trump resisters

• 36 million Hispanic men x 70% Biden voters x 24% gun owners x 40% 18-45 = 2.4 million Hispanic gun-owning anti-Trump resisters

• 22 million black men x 80% Biden voters x 24% gun owners x 40% 18-45 = 1.7 million black gun-owning anti-Trump resisters

This basic math suggests 12.4 million potential Trump gun owners and 12.1 million potential anti-Trump gun owners. However, it’s likely the odds would stack more favorably to Trump. Although only 39% of Americans are Republicans, gun owners are actually 64% Republican. In other words, those who own guns are disproportionately Republican by a factor of 1.64! If we replace the percentage of Trump voters with the percentage of Republican gun-owners, then the balance of forces changes to 17.6M pro-Trump and 6.9M anti-Trump.

3% of Americans fought in the Continental Army during the Revolution. If 3% respond to the call for the militia, that would mean between 450,000 to 700,000 militia and 210,000 to 450,000 resisters. To put that in context, there’s only 60,000 soldiers in the Infantry Branch of the US Army.

Of the militia who do respond, those on Trump’s side will be much better trained. As noted earlier, the military’s combat arms are disproportionately white, with the infantry being 79% white and only 9% black. Since the United States has now been at war for 20 years, there are millions of combat veterans, and the vast majority of those who fought as infantry are likely to be on Trump’s side. Likewise, the vast majority of LEO veterans seem likely to fight on Trump’s side, if they chose a side.

The Oathkeepers, a hundred-thousand-strong organization made up of military and law enforcement veterans and personnel, has already stated that it will refuse to recognize a Biden presidency. “We’ll be very much like the founding fathers. We’ll end up nullifying and resisting,” said founder Stewart Rhodes. The founding fathers resisted, of course, with guns.

This Is Not a Drill: Meanwhile, those in the grip of normalcy bias still think that the ‘nuclear option’ is for Trump to ask the state legislatures to appoint some electors to the college. Using legislative ballots isn’t the nuclear option. It’s barely a grenade. The nuclear option is Insurrection Act and the Militia.

Left-wing media is a parade of ostriches marching heads down in the sand. “Trump lost in a landslide!” Wrong. “Trump has already lost!” Wrong. “There is no evidence of fraud!” Wrong. “Civil War could never happen!” Wrong. Maybe it won’t happen. The future is unpredictable. But it really, really could happen.

If I had told you last November that in the next 12 months the US would endure the worst pandemic since Spanish Flu, AND the worst depression since the Great Depression, AND the worst Constitutional crisis since the Civil War, AND the worst civil unrest since the summer of 1968, AND an unprecedented nation-wide lockdowns that led to the end of sports, bars, restaurants, movies, in-class attendance at school, and commuting to work, AND that it would culminate in the World Economic Forum announcing a Great Reset to the global economy to lock in this new normal, would you have believed me? No, you’d have laughed me off as a tinfoil nutjob. Yet here we are.

To repeat a statistic from earlier: 70% of Republicans think that the most recent election is illegitimate. In a functioning democracy, if 70% of the second-largest political party in the country thinks an election has been stolen, the elites come together to cooperate to investigate and restore legitimacy in the eyes of the voters.

In the US, that’s not happening. Instead, an enormous machine, consisting of tech oligopolies, liberal media, watchdog groups, and partisan activists, is doing everything it can to silence and suppress the dissenters. Simultaneously, this same machine is making enemy lists and actively declaring that when it wins, it will be taking vengeance, against Trump, against everyone who helped him, and against everyone who voted for him.

This is not a drill. This is where we are. If Trump is standing on the banks of the Rubicon, it’s because the leftist machine has purposefully widened the Rubicon River until it reaches his feet.

Clear-headed left-wingers - if there are any left - need to step in and deescalate the threats against Trump and his supporters, and listen to 70 million Americans clamoring for fair and fraud-free voting. There is still time. Otherwise, as another great military leader put it, “when on death ground, you must fight.”

- https://macris.substack.com/

"The Great Relocation: Americans Are Relocating From Major Cities Before 2021 Economic Collapse"

"The Great Relocation: Americans Are Relocating

 From Major Cities Before 2021 Economic Collapse"

by Epic Economist

"A mass relocation from Big Cities is being recorded all across the nation. Migration trends have been considerably intensified during the economic collapse and health crisis, a phenomenon experts named The Great Relocation. Amongst some of the reasons residents are seeking alternative locations to move out with their families are the growing civil turbulence in metropolitan areas, strict lockdowns, and, in some states, high wealth taxation. 

However, there are many other factors at play. As more people flee away from once-thriving states, such as California, these states get increasingly impaired by the lack of sufficient labor force, therefore, their growth and economic recovery get considerably compromised. According to analysts, the trend is expected to grow as the sanitary outbreak has reshaped work arrangements and severely damaged the economy of several major cities. That's what we're going to expose in this video. 

A new report published by U-Haul, which tracked one-way U-Haul truck customer transactions and observed nationwide migration trends, found that the outbreak certainly enhanced the exodus from liberal-run states and metro areas because of higher wealth taxation to conservative states that were more "business-friendly”. A different study from United Van Lines found different patterns, but similar results. The company found that relocation to Western and Southern states from Northern states has accelerated in 2020. 

Another survey conducted by the same company examined the reasons why their clients relocated to different states in 2020, and it found that 40 percent moved in an attempt to find a new job, or due to a job transfer. Others moved as a consequence of changes in employment status or work arrangements - approximately 57%, including the ability to work remotely; and 53% disclosed seeking a lifestyle change or improvement of quality of life.

What all of these data signals is how economic collapse response is leading more and more Americans to relocate from liberal-run states, which imposed tighter restrictions, to more conservative states, which introduced looser measures. 

The outbreak response has also prompted an uptick in the homeless population, mostly in urban areas. That has caused a surge in felonies, delinquencies, improper public behavior, most notably in New York City, where tens of thousands have been fleeing the metro area to find safer locations for their families. 

According to the DailyMail, the exodus has started days after residents of the area revealed plans to sue the city for allocating homeless people in luxury hotels in the neighborhood in a polemic attempt to control the spread of the virus that ended up generating a heated discussion amongst residents and city officials. 

Considering the city has failed to properly address a resocialization plan for the homeless, many of them end up on the streets again, and some of them inevitably resumed old disruptive habits, such as drug abuse, public urination, shoplifting, and physical disputes with locals. Several residents started to feel that the city had become an unsafe place for their families, so they decided to move away to live in less turbulent areas. 

Never before in modern American history, we have seen such a rapid mass exodus away from Big Cities. In fact, just before the 2020 Great Relocation phenomenon, American migration hit a 73-year low. The fact that millions decided to move in 2020 portrays another evidence of the lack of confidence Americans have been feeling regarding the economy and authorities' response to the crisis. Many of them are anticipating harder days and more financial setbacks in 2021. 

The run for affordable housing, better living standards, and locations with improved safety has been leading conservative states to benefit from the migration trends, while liberal states have been progressively falling into more socio-economic turmoil.

That's the case of California, which now has more people leaving the state than moving into it. According to a CNBC article, roughly 135,600 more people left the state than moved into it. It’s only the 12th time since 1900 the state has had a net migration loss, and this is the third-greatest relocation documented in the state's history. 

In short, The Great Relocation is an event that outlines many of the hardships faced in the U.S. since the burst of the sanitary outbreak. As Americans are getting increasingly alarmed by the mounting social agitation, and have been experiencing financial struggles for months now, it's only natural that they want to secure themselves outside of this madness brought by the meltdown. They can already feel that much worse is yet to come, and if you can protect yourself, you should also start right now."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com

Must Watch! “Am I In Venezuela? Economic Hell Is Coming; Economy In Chaos; Gold Price Will Shoot To the Moon”

Jeremiah Babe,

“Am I In Venezuela? Economic Hell Is Coming; 

Economy In Chaos; Gold Price Will Shoot To the Moon”

Peder B. Helland, "Dance of Life"

 

Peder B. Helland, "Dance of Life"

Fantasy music for relaxation and meditation.

Absolutely beautiful!

Be kind to yourself, relax, and savor this at full screen!

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Spooky shapes seem to haunt this starry expanse, drifting through the night in the royal constellation Cepheus. Of course, the shapes are cosmic dust clouds faintly visible in dimly reflected starlight. Far from your own neighborhood on planet Earth, they lurk at the edge of the Cepheus Flare molecular cloud complex some 1,200 light-years away.

Over 2 light-years across the ghostly nebula known as vdB 141 or Sh2-136 is near the center of the field. The core of the dark cloud on the right is collapsing and is likely a binary star system in the early stages of formation."

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101030.html

"The Message of Pain: Valuable Information"

"The Message of Pain: Valuable Information"

by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM

"Both emotional and physical pain are messages that we need to stop and pay attention. When we feel pain, our first impulse is often to eradicate it with medication. This is an understandable response, but sometimes in our hurry to get rid of pain, we forget that it is the body's way of letting us know that it needs our attention. A headache can inform us that we're hungry or stressed just as a sore throat might be telling us that we need to rest our voice. If we override these messages instead of respond to them, we risk worsening our condition. In addition, we create a feeling of disconnectedness between our minds and our bodies.

Physical pain is not the only kind of pain that lets us know our attention is needed. Emotional pain provides us with valuable information about the state of our psyche, letting us know that we have been affected by something and that we would do well to focus our awareness inward. Just as we tend to a cut on our arm by cleaning and bandaging it, we treat a broken heart by surrounding ourselves with love and support. In both cases, if we listen to our pain we will know what to do to heal ourselves. It's natural to want to resist pain, but once we understand that it is here to give us valuable information, we can relax a bit more, and take a moment to listen before we reach for medication. Sometimes this is enough to noticeably reduce the pain, because its message has been heard. Perhaps we seek to medicate pain because we fear that if we don't, it will never go away. It can be empowering to realize that, at least some of the time, it is just a matter of listening and responding.

The next time you feel pain, either physical or emotional, you might want to try listening to your own intuition about how to relieve your pain. Maybe taking a few deep breaths will put an end to that headache. Perhaps writing in your journal about hurt feelings will ease your heart. Ultimately, the message of pain is all about healing."

- http://discuss.dailyom.com/

The Poet: May Sarton, "Unison Benediction"

"Unison Benediction" 

"Return to the most human,

nothing less will nourish the torn spirit,

the bewildered heart,

the angry mind:

and from the ultimate duress,

pierced with the breath of anguish,

speak of love.

Return, return to the deep sources,

nothing less will teach the stiff hands a new way to serve,

to carve into our lives the forms of tenderness

and still that ancient necessary pain preserve.

Return to the most human,

nothing less will teach the angry spirit,

the bewildered heart;

the torn mind,

to accept the whole of its duress,

and pierced with anguish…

at last, act for love."

~ May Sarton