"Daylight Robbery"

"Daylight Robbery"

by Bill Bonner

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – "We are back in the USA. It is hot and humid here in B’more. We’ve scarcely set foot in the city the last two years, but not much has changed. Elizabeth was mugged on the street last week. She was taking a photo when a man grabbed her phone and ran off with it. But she didn’t give up! Instead, she gave chase… yelling…

Someone called the police… The chase went on… but the man got away. She then went back to the house and called up the “Find my Phone” app. It showed the phone near where the perp had given her the slip. Returning to the scene… she saw the miscreant wandering around. She gave chase again, keeping her distance… shouting… and making a scene. Again, she lost him, but later found her phone in the bushes. “It was just an old phone…” we began a question. “Wouldn’t it be better just to let it go? He could have turned around and shot you.” “Well, it was the principle of the thing,” she answered.

Privileged Elite: The nice thing about being mugged on the streets of Baltimore is that the principle is clear. No hidden agendas. No chicanery or disguised villainy. It was an honest, in-your-face robbery. And while we admire Elizabeth’s courage and scrappiness, we also have a sly respect for the creep who stole the phone. His life could have been so much simpler… so much easier… so much nicer. All he had to do was join the privileged elite.

How? First, you borrow money to go to college. Then, you put on a suit… and get a job in Washington. Or maybe even get yourself elected to Congress. Not too smart? Don’t worry about it; you’ll fit right in with the other morons.

And don’t turn your nose up at the private sector. Every company welcomes a willing and able employee. You might even work your way up to be CEO, earning 278 times more than the typical employee…

Crypto Boomers: Don’t want to go to college? Don’t want a job? No problem. Just follow the example of Michael Anderson, a self-described “Crypto Boomer,” profiled by The Wall Street Journal last week in its “Bitcoin to Bucks” article. The young man made a fortune – in cryptocurrencies. Or you could follow the example of Tom Osman, an NFT millionaire. The New York Post reports: "On Monday night, an anonymous buyer purchased a computer-based illustration of a rock with 400 ethererum (ETH), a cryptocurrency with the current equivalent value of over $1.3 million.

The geologic doodle, supplied from the free clipart website goodfreephotos.com, is one of a series of 100 such images of the same stone, each a slightly different shade, and attached to its own non fungible token (NFT). The project has existed since 2017 without much attention, Vice’s Motherboard reported - that is, until NFT sales broke through the mainstream last year.

UK crypto-trader Tom Osman came forward as the seller of EtherRock #42, which he purchased just a few weeks prior at only 1.7 ETH, or about $4,800 at the time. “I think this might be the best investment of my life so far,” he said of the transaction."

Or maybe you could have gotten a degree in “race relations” and scored a job as a diversity officer, helping a big corporation blackwash its workforce… Or how about this: start a hedge fund? You raise money from friends and family. You “invest” it in the highest-flying, fastest-moving tech companies on the market. If they go up, you become rich and famous. If they go down, well… it wasn’t your money.

Alternative Path: There are so many well-trodden paths to success in a late, degenerate, capitalist system. And the “not your money” mantra is the secret to them all. But who chases the suits through the streets? Who calls the police on them? Still, against the advice of his family (we presume) and all the counsellors, prison psychiatrists, and parole officers he ever met, the mugger chose a career of simple, old-fashioned crime.

And now, the poor man lives on the gritty streets of a gritty city, in the final days of a hot summer. He is neither enjoying a late-season holiday… nor Facebooking his friends… nor adding millions to his wealth. He is just trying to get enough cash for his next drug fix… and maybe a little more for a hamburger.

Better Idea: How much better it would have been to have studied the latest claptrap theories and fantasies of modern economics. Then, he could have gone to work for the Federal Reserve. Instead of sleeping in doorways and flophouses, he could have a nice house in Bethesda… and spend his days in a climate-controlled, paneled, cushy office… with wall-to-wall carpeting and a cappuccino machine down the hall. He could collect a handsome paycheck… while also watching his portfolio of stocks and bonds go up… and up… and up. And if they should ever begin to go down (markets normally go up AND down)… he could simply announce another stimulus plan! Stay tuned…"

- www.rogueeconomics.com

The Daily "Near You?"

Camberwell, Southwark, United Kingdom. Thanks for stopping by!

"Of Course..."

"To show mercy is not naive. To hold out against the end of hope is not stupidity or madness. It is fundamentally human. Of course... we are all doomed; we are all poisoned from our birth by the rot of stars. That does not mean we should succumb to the seductive fallacy of despair, the dark tide that would drown us. You may think I'm stupid, you may call me a madman and a fool, but at least I stand upright in a fallen world."

- Rick Yancey

"Life Comes at You Fast, So You Better Be Ready"

"Life Comes at You Fast, So You Better Be Ready"

by Ryan Holiday

"In 1880, Theodore Roosevelt wrote to his brother, “My happiness is so great that it makes me almost afraid.” In October of that year, life got even better. As he wrote in his diary the night of his wedding to Alice Hathaway Lee, “Our intense happiness is too sacred to be written about.” He would consider it to be one of the best years of his life: he got married, wrote a book, attended law school, and won his first election for public office.

The streak continued. In 1883, he wrote “I can imagine nothing more happy in life than an evening spent in the cozy little sitting room, before a bright fire of soft coal, my books all around me, and playing backgammon with my own dainty mistress.” And that’s how he and Alice spent that cold winter as it crawled into the new year. He wrote in late January that he felt he was fully coming into his own. “I feel now as though I have the reins in my hand.” On February 12th, 1884 his first daughter was born.

Two days later, his wife would be dead of Bright’s disease (now known as kidney failure). His mother had died only hours earlier in the same house, of typhoid fever. Roosevelt marked the day in his diary with a large “X.” Next to it, he wrote, “The light has gone out of my life.”

Life comes at us fast, don’t it?  It can change in an instant. Everything you built, everyone you hold dear, can be taken from you. For absolutely no reason. Just as easily, you can be taken from them. This is why the Stoics say we need to be prepared, constantly, for the twists and turns of Fortune. It’s why Seneca said that nothing happens to the wise man contrary to his expectation, because the wise man has considered every possibility—even the cruel and heartbreaking ones.

And yet even Seneca was blindsided by a health scare in his early twenties that forced him to spend nearly a decade in Egypt to recover. He lost his father less than a year before he lost his first-born son, and twenty days after burying his son he was exiled by the emperor Caligula. He lived through the destruction of one city by a fire and another by an earthquake, before being exiled two more times.

One needs only to read his letters and essays, written on a rock off the coast of Italy, to get a sense that even a philosopher can get knocked on their ass and feel sorry for themselves from time to time.

What do we do? Well, first, knowing that life comes at us fast, we should be always prepared. Seneca wrote that the fighter who has “seen his own blood, who has felt his teeth rattle beneath his opponent’s fist… who has been downed in body but not in spirit…” - only they can go into the ring confident of their chances of winning. They know they can take getting bloodied and bruised. They know what the darkness before the proverbial dawn feels like. They have a true and accurate sense for the rhythms of a fight and what winning requires. That sense only comes from getting knocked around. That sense is only possible because of their training.

In his own life, Seneca bloodied and bruised himself through a practice called premeditatio malorum (“the premeditation of evils”). Rehearsing his plans, say to take a trip, he would go over the things that could go wrong or prevent the trip from happening - a storm could spring up, the captain could fall ill, the ship could be attacked by pirates, he could be banished to the island of Corsica the morning of the trip. By doing what he called a premeditatio malorum, Seneca was always prepared for disruption and always working that disruption into his plans. He was fitted for defeat or victory. He stepped into the ring confident he could take any blow. Nothing happened contrary to his expectations.

Life comes at us fast… but that doesn’t mean we should be stupid. We also shouldn’t be arrogant.

We have to hang on. Remember, that in the depths of both of Seneca’s darkest moments, he was unexpectedly saved. From exile, he was suddenly recalled to be the emperor’s tutor. In the words of the historian Richard M. Gummere, “Fortune, whom Seneca as a Stoic often ridicules, came to his rescue.” But Churchill, as always, put it better: “Sometimes when Fortune scowls most spitefully, she is preparing her most dazzling gifts.”

Life is like this. It gives us bad breaks - heartbreakingly bad breaks - and it also gives us incredible lucky breaks. Sometimes the ball that should have gone in, bounces out. Sometimes the ball that had no business going in surprises both the athlete and the crowd when it eventually, after several bounces, somehow manages to pass through the net.

When we’re going through a bad break, we should never forget Fortune’s power to redeem us. When we’re walking through the roses, we should never forget how easily the thorns can tear us upon, how quickly we can be humbled. Sometimes life goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t.

This is what Theodore Roosevelt learned, too. Despite what he wrote in his diary that day in 1884, the light did not completely go out of Roosevelt’s life. Sure, it flickered. It looked like the flame might have been cruelly extinguished. But with time and incredible energy and force of will, he came back from those tragedies. He became a great father, a great husband, and a great leader. He came back and the world was better for it. He was better for it.

Life comes at us fast. Today. Tomorrow. When we least expect it. Be ready. Be strong. Don’t let your light be snuffed out."

- https://ryanholiday.net/

"Look Ye, Shipmates - He Breaches!

"Look Ye, Shipmates - He Breaches!"

by Jim Kunstler

"Like the white whale of legend surfacing close to the mainland, special counsel John Durham popped up this week with one Michael Sussman in his jaws, a smallish fish among the squamous and tentacled monsters hiding in the depths of the Deep State below the raging political seas. Who he, anyway?

Among the now well-known cast of creatures involved in the panoramic episode of perfidious sedition known as RussiaGate, Mr. Sussman was a bit-player, an errand boy for the Perkins Coie law firm that did much of Hillary Clinton’s dirty work in the 2016 campaign and for the Democratic Party beyond. Mr. Sussman is charged with lying to the FBI in conveying campaign dirt paid-for by Mrs. Clinton to the FBI’s general counsel, James Baker, Mr. Sussman’s old colleague from the days when he worked as a cyber-security expert at the bureau. He also peddled-around the same material, cooked up by Glenn Simpson’s Fusion GPS company and man-of-mystery Christopher Steele, to The New York Times and other news media, who ran with it like kids with a kite.

I have a theory about the case. It is a shot across the bow of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s ship, testing whether main DOJ will attempt to interfere with Mr. Durham’s mission to uncover the predicates of RussiaGate and the vast web of dishonest and illegal acts carried out subsequently by figures in the FBI, the DOJ, and other dark corners of a government gone rogue against its own citizens. Mr. Baker has long been suspected of acting as a cooperating witness in the RussiaGate matter, perhaps realizing early-on that he’d been played by old pal Mr. Sussman and set up for prosecution.

The problem for Merrick Garland is that Mr. Sussman’s activities amounted to a mere preface for the graver development of the Crossfire Hurricane operation, which involved a shoal of much-bigger fish across several agencies including Directors John Brennan of the CIA and James Comey of the FBI and many others. The Sussman indictment also provides a window into the FISA Court fakery that federal law enforcement used to go after people connected to candidate and then President Donald Trump.

Mr. Garland will be left having to explain why the DOJ and the FBI were never self-accountable for the illegal acts of their employees, including Robert Mueller’s fishy special counsel team, which now looks like a cover-up operation, not to mention current and continuing matters such as the DOJ sitting on the laptop of President “Joe Biden’s” son, Hunter, and its bales of incriminating memoranda detailing payoffs to the Biden family from companies run by the CCP. Really, the fate of the Democratic Party is on the line with what might potentially develop if Mr. Durham’s actions go beyond Michael Sussman’s little caper.

The overwhelming body of opinion for more than a year is that John Durham is a phantom doing next-to-nothing about the greatest political scandal in US history. If his efforts end with Mr. Sussman, he will disgrace himself, of course, and that’s a possibility. But I would venture to suppose that it won’t end there. The insult to the nation of all the epic dishonesty is too grave, even potentially fatal - since it has enabled a depraved skein of additional seditious activities afterward, including the 2020 election subterfuge, the lawlessness of BLM and Antifa, the psychotic race-and-gender “Woke” mind-f**kery infecting the US military, the ongoing invasion across the US-Mexican border, all the coercion around Covid-19, especially “mandated” shots of a dangerous so-called “vaccine,” and the destruction of small business from sea to shining sea. All of that has left the American public demoralized, economically savaged, and the country’s standing in the world dangerously reduced.

I hope you are ready for a month of shocks to the system. The deceit of the CDC and the FDA in gaming and cooking their Covid-19 data is now emerging from the fog of pandemic hysteria. I will also dare to conjecture that the number of recent and current Covid-19 “cases” turns out to be actually and overwhelmingly adverse reactions to the mRNA experiment, not the disease itself, and that holy hell will erupt among the public as it becomes understood that their livelihoods - and their health - are being stolen as part of this fraud. A week from today, the Arizona election audit results are now scheduled to be released. Expect trauma. Tomorrow, a demonstration in support of the 1/6 political prisoners is on-board for Washington, DC. The potential for Deep State manipulation of the event is high, so stay away from it. There are enough other forces in motion now to throw a spanner in the engine of malice our government has become. Let Karma do its thing and hold on tight for a rough ride."

- https://kunstler.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

Gregory Mannarino, "The Economy Is DEAD. Is Evergrande Really Going To Bring Down The Financial System?"

Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Your guide:

Gregory Mannarino,  AM 9/17/21:

"The Economy Is DEAD. Is Evergrande Really 

Going To Bring Down The Financial System?"

- https://traderschoice.net/

○

Related:

Yahoo! Finance: 

“China’s Nightmare Evergrande Scenario Is an Uncontrolled Crash”

"Economic Market Snapshot AM 9/17/21"

"Economic Market Snapshot AM 9/17/21"

○

"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will

do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."

- John Maynard Keynes

○

"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

○

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/

○

A comprehensive, essential daily read.

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

September 16th to 17th, Updated Daily

○

Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."

○

Daily Job Cuts

- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

○

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

○

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

○

- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

○

- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

○

- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

○

Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

○

And now, the End Game...

○

Oh yeah...

"Bank Meltdown Is Coming To China As Evergrande Crisis Triggers Commercial Real Estate Collapse"

Full screen recommended.

"Bank Meltdown Is Coming To China As Evergrande 

Crisis Triggers Commercial Real Estate Collapse"

by Epic Economist

"The financial disaster alert is on! A catastrophic bank meltdown seems to be looming in China: The country's entire financial sector is getting extremely alarmed with the possibility of a major default crisis, given that one of its biggest property developers, Evergrande, recently announced that it became unable to pay its gigantic debt. That debacle has exposed the perilous state of China’s vast property sector and its consequences could have a ripple effect across global markets and lead to billions in losses.

Last week, Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer, warned that it would likely fail to meet its financial obligations, triggering widespread panic among investors, dealing a severe blow to its bonds, and resulting in trading suspensions in the markets of Shenzhen and Shanghai.The crisis led two credit rating agencies to downgrade Evergrande last week, and it sparked a shocking 80% collapse on its Hong Kong-listed shares since the beginning of the year. And at the beginning of this week, the Shanghai Stock Exchange stopped trading in Evergrande's May 2023 bond after it dropped more than 30%.

Right now, the Chinese developer is sitting under a colossal pile of liabilities that total more than $300 billion, after decades of borrowing to finance its rapid growth. Over the past few weeks, Evergrande has been rushing to sell assets to generate cash but several companies are refusing to accept the firm's commercial paper. According to S&P analysts, the developer might be paying suppliers through transfers of its properties instead of cash.

In essence, the company has become exposed to a vicious debt cycle, and it doesn't have enough cash to finish its projects and generate further proceeds from sales. Only in August, sales declined by a staggering 26 percent compared to the same time last year despite the steep discounts. And, of course, the developer is in desperate need of that cash not only to service but also to reduce, its enormous debts.

Beyond financial markets, the most significant problems that could be triggered by the Evergrande downfall are a residential and commercial real estate collapse all across China, as well as a brutal crisis on the broader property sector. Other worries include the growing possibility of a bank meltdown, as at least 128 banks are highly exposed to Evergrande's liabilities, according to a 2020 leaked document. On top of that, 121 non-banking institutions are also exposed, and all of them are at risk of facing billions in losses.

Analysts have been comparing the imminent bank meltdown in China to the 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, which sparked crises at counterparties and ended up collapsing global markets. Bloomberg reported that Chinese authorities warned major lenders to China Evergrande Group "not to expect interest payments due next week on bank loans, which takes the cash-strapped developer a step closer the nation’s largest modern-day restructurings," and signals that China's "Lehman Moment" is right around the corner.

Authorities have been silent on whether they will allow Evergrande creditors to face major losses. Bondholders are speculating that a buyout, break-up, or bailout are the only possible scenarios, which has infuriated countless investors and creditors. The company's intricate web of obligations to bondholders, investors, banks, suppliers, and homeowners has essentially turned into one of the biggest sources of financial risk in the world’s second-largest economy.

It is now threatening to trigger a crisis that goes beyond a residential and commercial real estate collapse -- or even a widespread bank meltdown -- but it could result in a financial catastrophe that would impact the entire world. Analysts argue that now that investors started to sell off their holdings of the company, the broader credit market may be dragged further down if the property developer fails to buy time with banks to pay off its debt. The consequences are also threatening to spill over the Chinese economy.

Considering that real estate is the central engine of China's growth, which accounts for 29% of economic output, a residential and commercial real estate collapse in addition to the bankruptcy of such a large company would have severe repercussions on the economy. Investors are growing increasingly nervous that the Evergrande collapse could spread to other property developers and result in dangerous systemic risks for the country's banking system.

As the financial expert Mark Twain noted, companies go bankrupt in two ways. "Gradually, then suddenly." Until last week, Evergrande was in the "gradually" phase. Now, it just got to the "suddenly" phase. From now on, the collapse is likely to accelerate and generate a cascade of systemic failures, bankruptcies and push China to the verge of a default crisis never before seen in world history."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com

"California Is Done, I'm Getting Out; Consumers Dependent On Payday Loans And Credit Cards To Survive"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, PM 9/16/21:

"California Is Done, I'm Getting Out; Consumers Dependent

 On Payday Loans And Credit Cards To Survive"

"The Two U.S. Constitutions"

"The Two U.S. Constitutions"

by Brian Maher

"Tomorrow the nation celebrates Constitution Day. Rather, tomorrow the calendar acknowledges Constitution Day. Few Americans realize the high day exists. Fewer yet will hoist a cheering toast in honor of the nation’s founding charter - the first written constitution in Earth’s history.

Nor will your seditious editor celebrate Constitution Day. That is not because he scorns or abominates the United States Constitution… but because he reveres it. It has been distorted beyond semblance. The original constitutional text remains, it is true. The original procedures and formalities remain. The constitutional republic has its three branches of government. It has its official separation of powers. It has its protocols and decorums. That is, the Constitution’s skeletal structure is intact.

Yet take a scalpel in hand. Knife your way through the outer layers… past the intermediate tissues… to the innards, to the vital organs. There you will discover astonishing discombobulations of the bodily processes. The heart breathes oxygen, the lungs pump blood. The kidneys digest food and the liver thinks thoughts...The appendix assumes the powers of the spleen... and the spleen is reduced to an appendage. In all, the original constitutional anatomy is scarcely recognizable.

On What Constitutional Authority? We lift our pocket Constitution from our breast pocket, where it is permanently stationed - near our heart - a heart that pumps blood, though icy blood. We consult Article 1, Section 10, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution, which reads, in part that: “No State shall… make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.”

Is there a state today that accepts gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts? Please inform us if there is a state. It will be our next address (our minions inform us certain states are considering it).

Next we thumb to Article II, which limits presidential powers to: Signing or vetoing legislation. Ordering around the military and naval forces. Requesting the written opinion of his Cabinet. Convening or adjourning Congress. Granting reprieves and pardons. Receiving ambassadors.

Where does the Constitution authorize the president to mandate vaccination… determine the wages of federal contractors… suspend oil production on federal lands or offshore waters… to name some. Is this not the work of the legislature? Examples of constitutional derangement multiply and multiply.

The Two Constitutions: We conclude the United States Constitution has endured what old Greek Aristotle labeled “a revolution within the form:” People do not easily change, but love their own ancient customs; and it is by small degrees only that one thing takes the place of another; so that the ancient laws will remain, while the power will be in the hands of those who have brought about a revolution in the state.

We have in fact two United States Constitutions… The first is the Old Testament Constitution, the “government shalt not” Constitution. The second is the New Testament Constitution, the “government shall” Constitution.

The Old Testament Constitution represents what the legal men term a “charter of negative liberties.” It binds and shackles the federal authority. It throws up a cordon around it. What is the Bill of Rights but a charter of negative liberties? Congress shall make no law… shall not be infringed… The right of the people to be secure… No person shall be… the accused shall enjoy the right to… shall not be construed to deny or disparage (other rights) retained by the people.

The New Testament Constitution: But the Old Testament Constitution has yielded to the New Testament Constitution over time, a process vastly accelerated during the Great Depression. The needs of the day - we are told - required an energetic, centralizing government… busy on ever-expanding and previously uncontested fronts.

Social Security is but one example. The Great Society legislation of the 1960s was perhaps the New Testament Constitution’s high moment, its apotheosis, its grand culmination. That is, the New Testament Constitution turned the Old Testament Constitution upon its head… Under the Old Testament, the people looked after the government. Under the New Testament, the government looked after the people.

Here former President Obama sketches the division between Old and New Testaments: "Generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. It says what the states can’t do to you, says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf."

Government That Does for You Must First Do to You: Yet the government that does on your behalf is the government that vandalizes the Old Testament Constitution, ransacks the Treasury... and shatters the domestic peace. That is, government generally assists society the way a hammer assists a nail. It assists the way a leech assists the blood. It assists the way a termite assists a house. The helping government constitutes, in brief, a menace.

Of course… we understand others hold an opposite view. We have no heat against them. Yet of this we are certain: The “parchment barrier” of the Constitution could never restrain men determined not to be restrained. As 19th-century individualist Lysander Spooner lamented, in devastating fashion: "Whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it…" There is much justice in this comment… at least as we see it.

The Constitution Wasn’t Written in Stone: The nine members of the Supreme Court are the high priests and priestesses of the New Testament Constitution. It is they - and they alone - who interpret scripture under the New Testament. The drafters of the Old Testament Constitution, in contrast, left the business to the People. That is, the original United States Constitution blessed future updating. But only through the amendment process. “If there are errors, it should be remembered, that the seeds of reformation are sown in the work itself,” argued signer James Wilson in 1787.

Signer Gouverneur Morris added: "Surrounded by difficulties, we did the best we could; leaving it with those who should come after us to take counsel from experience, and exercise prudently the power of amendment, which we had provided."

No less a personage than Tommy Jefferson - author of the Declaration of Independence - argued the Constitution should be updated: “Every 19 or 20 years”... to “be handed on, with periodical repairs, from generation to generation, to the end of time.”

Penumbras and Emanations: The abstruse and nuanced legal insights of these clergy are beyond our slender abilities to appreciate. The “penumbras and emanations” glowing from the constitutional text are visible to them. They are invisible to us. That is, we are incapable of distinguishing Article I from Article II. We are incapable of distinguishing “shall” from “shall not.” That is, we are disqualified from service upon the Supreme Court of the United States. But the clergy has blown so much life into the Constitution, so much vitality… the thing is so alive… it is nearly dead. New Testament beatitudes have displaced the Old Testament injunctions.

The Only Constant Is Change: Here we do not pass judgment. We merely observe… reflect… and stroke our chin, pensively. Perhaps it was all inevitable.

Our co-founders Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin, from "Empire of Debt:" "Institutions have a way of evolving over time - after a few years, they no longer resemble the originals. Early in the 21st century, the United States is no more like the America of 1776 than the Vatican under the Borgia popes was like Christianity at the time of the Last Supper…

In America, all the restraints, inhibitions and modesty of the Old Republic have been blown away by the prevailing winds of the new empire… The United States Constitution is almost exactly the same document with exactly the same words it had when it was written, but the words that used to bind and chafe have been turned into soft elastic. The government that couldn’t tax, couldn’t spend and couldn’t regulate can now do anything it wants. The executive has all the power he needs to do practically anything. Congress goes along, like a simpleminded stooge, insisting only that the spoils be spread around."

"Happy Constitution Day!"

- dailyreckoning.com

Musical Interlude: Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Footprints On The Sea"

Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Footprints On The Sea"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Fans of our fair planet might recognize the outlines of these cosmic clouds. On the left, bright emission outlined by dark, obscuring dust lanes seems to trace a continental shape, lending the popular name North America Nebula to the emission region cataloged as NGC 7000. To the right, just off the North America Nebula's east coast, is IC 5070, whose avian profile suggests the Pelican Nebula. The two bright nebulae are about 1,500 light-years away, part of the same large and complex star forming region, almost as nearby as the better-known Orion Nebula. At that distance, the 3 degree wide field of view would span 80 light-years. 

Click image for larger size.

This careful cosmic portrait uses narrow band images combined to highlight the bright ionization fronts and the characteristic glow from atomic hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen gas. These nebulae can be seen with binoculars from a dark location. Look northeast of bright star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus the Swan."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Chet Raymo, “The Journey”

Click image for larger size.

“The Journey”

by Chet Raymo

“Here’s a deep-deep sky map of the universe from the March 9, 2006 issue of Nature. The horizontal scale is a 360 view right around the sky; the vertical gaps at 6 hours and 24 hours are the parts of the universe that are blocked to our view by the disk of our own Milky Way Galaxy. The vertical scale – distance from Earth – is logarithmic (10, 100, 1000, etc.) measured in megaparsecs (a parsec equals 3.26 light-years). Across the top is the Big Bang, and the oldest and most distant thing we can see, the cosmic microwave background, the radiation of the Big Bang itself. A few relatively nearby galaxies are designated at the bottom. All that stuff in the middle that looks like smoke or dusty cobwebs are quasars and galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

A smoke of galaxies! (2 trillion galaxies according to latest estimates.- CP) A universe cobwebbed with Milky Ways! Each galaxy itself a smoke of stars, hundreds of billions of stars, many or all of them with planets. My book, “Walking Zero,” is about the human journey from the omphalos of our birth into the world of the galaxies, a journey many of us are disinclined to make. Here is how the Prologue to the book begins:

“Each of us is born at the center of the world. For nine months our physical selves are assembled molecule by molecule, cell by cell, in the dark covert of our mother’s womb. A single fertilized egg cell splits into two. Then four. Eight. Sixteen. Thirty-two. Ultimately, 50 trillion cells or so. At first, our future self is a mere blob of protoplasm. But slowly, ever so slowly, the blob begins to differentiate under the direction of genes. A symmetry axis develops. A head, a tail, a spine. At this point, the embryo might be that of a human, or a chicken, or a marmoset. Limbs form. Digits, with tiny translucent nails. Eyes, with papery lids. Ears pressed like flowers against the head. Clearly now a human. A nose, nostrils. Downy hair. Genitals.

As the physical self develops, so too a mental self takes shape, not yet conscious, not yet self-aware, knitted together as webs of neurons in the brain, encapsulating in some respects the evolutionary experience of our species. Instincts impressed by the genes. The instinct to suck, for example. Already, in the womb, the fetus presses its tiny fist against its mouth in anticipation of the moment when the mouth will be offered the mother’s breast. The child will not have to be taught to suck. Other inborn behaviors will express themselves later. Laughing. Crying. Striking out in anger. Loving.

What, if anything, goes on in the mind of the developing fetus we may never know. But this much seems certain: To the extent that the emerging self has any awareness of its surroundings, its world is coterminous with itself. We are not born with knowledge of the antipodes, the plains of Mars, or the far-flung realm of the galaxies. We are not born with knowledge of Precambrian seas, the supercontinent of Pangea, or the Age of Dinosaurs. We are born into a world scarcely older than ourselves and scarcely larger than ourselves. And we are at its center.

A human life is a journey into the grandeur of a universe that may contain more galaxies than there are cells in the human body, a universe in which the whole of a human lifetime is but a single tick of the cosmic clock. The journey can be disorienting; our first instincts are towards coziness, comfort, our mother’s enclosing arms, her breast. The journey, therefore, requires courage – for each individual, and for our species.

Uniquely of all animals, humans have the capacity to let our minds expand into the space and time of the galaxies. No other creatures can number the cells in their bodies, as we can, or count the stars. No other creatures can imagine the explosive birth of the observable universe 14 billion years ago from an infinitely hot, infinitely small seed of energy. That we choose to make this journey – from the all-sustaining womb into the vertiginous spaces and abyss of time – is the glory of our species, and perhaps our most frightening challenge.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

The Poet: Wendell Berry, “The Circles Of Our Lives”

“The Circles Of Our Lives”

“Within the circles of our lives

we dance the circles of the years,

the circles of the seasons

within the circles of the years,

the cycles of the moon,

within the circles of the seasons,

the circles of our reasons

within the cycles of the moon.

Again, again we come and go,

changed, changing. Hands

join, unjoin in love and fear,

grief and joy. The circles turn,

each giving into each, into all.

Only music keeps us here,

each by all the others held.

In the hold of hands and eyes

we turn in pairs, that joining

joining each to all again.

And then we turn aside, alone,

out of the sunlight gone

into the darker circles of return,

Within the circles of our lives…”

- Wendell Berry

"Life, eh?"

Gerald Celente, "Inflation Up, Wages Down, China's Economy Weakening"

Gerald Celente,

"Inflation Up, Wages Down, China's Economy Weakening"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsresearch.com/

"A Little Late..."

 

The Daily "Near You?"

Wichita Falls, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Expect the Unexpected with the Economy - Inflation Surges as the Economy Shrinks"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly AM 9/16/21:

"Expect the Unexpected with the Economy - 

Inflation Surges as the Economy Shrinks"

Gregory Mannarino, "AM/PM 9/16/21"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/16/21:

"The Economy Continues To FREEFALL, 

And The Worst Is Yet To Come"

- https://traderschoice.net/

○

Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/16/21:

"Ignore The Constant Warnings! 

Understand What You Are Doing And Why"

- https://traderschoice.net/

A Cherokee Prayer Blessing

"May the warm winds of Heaven blow softly upon your house.

May the Great Spirit bless all who enter there.

May your mocassins make happy tracks in many snows,

and may the rainbow always touch your shoulder."

~ A Cherokee Prayer Blessing

Musical Interlude: Warren Haynes, Gov't Mule, "Forever More"

Full screen recommended.

Warren Haynes, Gov't Mule, "Forever More"

Some songs you just feel...

"How It Really Is"

 

"Lies at the Speed of Light"

"Lies at the Speed of Light"

by Freed Radical

"Chapter 1,984: A conversation overheard by a park bench on the mall in Washington, D.C.

“Thanks for meeting me on short notice. Our team has some questions with all that’s going on. We need to touch base to make sure we are on the same track. I did not want to do this over the phone, especially since we are not even supposed to know each other.”

“No problem. First, judging from the reports I have received, your crew is right on target and doing good for the effort. I apologize for not showing you more of the big picture, but things have been moving so fast.

Let me give you an update. Our plan is progressing well. The vaccination push has about half the population submitting. I know, the media says 60% or 70%, but that’s just the inflated numbers we are feeding them. Half of those have received the placebo and have no side effects, other than giving their lives over to us and thinking they are protected against our virus. The ones who got the various experimental formulations are right on track as well, with the expected number of miscarriages, heart problems, and deaths. Anybody putting out truth about these things gets immediately censored and ridiculed, and we have an office full of news and social media monitors in Arlington working 24/7. We are ready when the infertility phase starts, with numerous waves of disinformation, including blaming the unvaccinated. Nobody is suspecting that the new operating system for the human body is hosting a spontaneous abortion app. Maybe a few researchers, but they were quickly silenced.

Demonization of the unsubmissive is also going well. Social media is playing a huge part, and we are not even having to coach the CEO nerds much. It’s as if they believe our lies, too, which makes this all easy. Labeling free thinkers as domestic terrorists has moved the ball way down field. Blaming the vaccine poisoning hospitalizations on them has worked well, too. This dumbing down of education over the last 50 years is really paying off. People will believe anything they see on their phones.”

“That’s encouraging. Thanks for closing the loop for me. On our side, we have been pumping the employer vax mandate through back channels, and have received only positive feedback from business. We estimate that within weeks 80% of the unvaxxed population will be under pressure by their employers to get the shot. Even if the courts strike down the mandate, that will take months, and millions more will have taken the vaccine just to stay employed.”

“And the ones who get fired will be on unemployment. We get their submission either way."

“The courts have been a great strategic tool, and even when we lose, we win. Our law school infiltration team has been a great investment over the last century."

“We are also working back channels with some major grocers on implementing a vax mandate to buy food. Expect an EO on that, too. Speaking of pressure, how is Operation Terror Bait going?”

“Very well, indeed! These right wing crazies are eating it up. With every pronouncement from President Air Head the forum chatter of molon labe, shooting threats, and acute lead poisoning snark increases. We have infiltrators fanning flames on every major comment board on the planet, with two or three arguing several sides for division’s sake. We’ve discovered one of the best tools of division is theology."

“These Trumpers are red lining at 500psi and are ready to explode. When one of them cracks, then ten of them will. And then we’ll have smooth sailing for total gun confiscation. We are pushing for this to happen before the welfare state collapses, and are accelerating it to the best of our ability. You guys just need to keep the welfare payments flowing until the right wing has been eliminated. Then we can work on the useless eaters."

“These bitter clingers are so easy to jack up. With every new phase of our plan, each new restriction and right lost, they express fresh outrage, and respond with blistering blog posts! Do none of them suspect that our end game is not their subjection, but their death? The only problem we are seeing is some of the wing nuts are building community, off the communications grid, and we cannot track them. But we think there are too few to make a difference.”

“Good, good. 10-4 on all that. We are writing every executive order with more and more radical, conservative-targeted policies. If we can get just a few of them to break, we’ll be golden. We have some false flags in reserve, and some informants that we are gas lighting. It’s a piece of cake to pour fuel on the flames of these conservative cults. They enjoy being enraged. The indefinite detention for the Jan 6 protesters is working like a charm to dampen any real resistance as well.”

"We’ve been pushing conspiracy theory demonization widely on mainstream outlets. It’s so easy to get people to stop thinking, with only a frown from somebody they don’t even know. But I must admit I’m a bit worried about Biden’s optics. The guy is so out to lunch it’s laughable. My plants in the media are telling me their colleagues are having reservations, it’s such a comedy show. I’m having to feed them some scraps of meat to keep them engaged.”

“I know, but optics are the least of our worries. You have to ask who is viewing the optics. It’s a bunch of public school educated morons who lap up every lie we tell. Look at the man on the street interviews. Most people have no idea who Biden is, much less what gaffes came out of his mouth last week. It’s only the slightly smarter media types, the ones who think they are smart at least, that we have to manage. The population is a pile of dupes."

“Don’t sweat the optics. Just stay the course and this will all work out as planned.”

“Okay. I’ll pass that on to the troops. I did get some raised eyebrows about the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, and they are wondering how we will spin the hostages that remain.”

“That was not a botched anything. All went according to plan. Right now thousands of older loyal US military people are planning their exit, and after that we can replace them with more public school graduates who’ll do anything we tell them to. I just love the Ritalin generation.

We have a media blackout on the hostage situation. There are actually more than a thousand, many more, but we’ll have no Jimmy Carter 2.0. Each of those people is a pawn to allow us to control the Taliban savages. They think they have us on a string, but they are the ones all tied up. We’re strangling Islam just like Christianity, with porn and pedophilia. And of course we have withdrawn nothing, we just left some gear behind for them to kill each other. We have many informants in their ranks, and contractors on the ground, and our opium revenue stream is untouched.”

“Not sure how I can dress it up for my people, but I’ll figure out something. How’s the succession plan coming along?”

“All the pieces are falling into place. Kamala is being insufferably cackly. Could be the next Hillary if she developed some cankles. She thinks she’s in line for the big chair. These politicians are idiots. They think they run the show. She’ll be lucky to walk out of this in one piece. And Fauci. I can’t be rid of that moron too soon.”

“What about the Constitutional objections? I know we don’t care about the Constitution, but it seems that might be a rallying point.”

“That’s why we have to get the right wingers to overplay their hand and end up in camps or mass graves first. No high school graduate knows anything about any Constitution. College graduates think it’s worthless anyway. The destruction of free thought is one of those last pieces, also falling into place. Once the succession is complete – and who cares who sits in the big chair? – we’ll have a blank slate to rewrite the Constitution, which is merely symbolic at this point. The new document will be a candy store of freebies for all who submit, at least until they are dead.”

“Last time we talked you mentioned another bug coming out of the labs. Any progress on that?”

“Oh yes! The next one will not be so virulent, but it will cause a lot of gross bleeding and pain, and is nearly always fatal, after a few days of intense suffering. We’re shooting videos of test subjects now, black people, to nip the vaccine opt-out we are seeing today. We want to be right out in front with footage of the new pandemic. These sheep are going to be begging for masks. They’ll lick our boots for whatever ‘vaccine’ we give them. Not as many people will die, but the fear factor will be 100x of covid, and it will look like the masks and lock downs are working miracles. I hope your people don’t have weak stomachs because this bug is a real flesh eater. We have some other bugs in reserve if they are needed.”

“Nice. When’s that starting?”

“We’re going to work the covid variant schtick for a while, to play it for several rounds of boosters, of various types and purposes. With the doctors on our side, withholding actual cures and preventatives, and funneling patients onto killer ventilators, we can get some traction for another year or two at least. The new bug will be deployed sooner if we get any resistance on the change of government. Nobody’s gonna care about a piece of parchment when their spouse’s flesh is sloughing off. But it’s all still in flux.”

“When you first recruited me – what was that, ten years ago? – we talked about the changes this country needed to go through to kill all this capitalism and freedom. I was on board 100%, but seeing it happen now, it’s just surreal. I turn on the television and see a story that our group brainstormed just 12 hour prior. When your group targets a pol for takedown, we can make it happen in a week, tops. A little tweak of a social media algorithm, and you know we have logins direct to their servers… we can make a king or destroy a prince, in minutes. Our offshore cyber teams can target any system, company, or government for immediate action, 24 hours a day. We don’t ever use the word warrant any more. We just do what needs to be done. And our unlimited budget is a dream come true."

“These politicians are so stupid. They know we can hoover up the contents of their phones at any time. But they have not figured out that we can also deposit incriminating evidence on their phones at any time. It will be nice to be rid of this election sham, and the glad handing, drooling politicians with it.”

“Yes, it’s an amazing time we live in. Our philosophical forefathers would have never guessed it would be so easy to manipulate the masses. Lies at the speed of light. That’s what it is.”

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/