"You are the very cause of your ignorance, yourselves. You put away the light, yourselves; you first pluck out both your own eyes, yourselves; and after that other men’s too, so that the blind may lead the blind, until you both fall into the pit.”
Thomas More, The Sadness of Christ (Gethsemane), Tower of London, 1535
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
The National Park Service and the Civil War Trust have posted on youtube a large collection of videos. The NPS presents the individual tours of the major areas of the battlefield, as conducted by the Park Rangers. Most of them are quite informative. A few could have benefited from a wind noise reduction microphone. I have taken most of them with my family over the years.
"There is a lack of critical assessment of the past. But you have to understand that the current ruling elite is actually the old ruling elite. So they are incapable of a self-critical approach to the past."
Ryszard Kapuściński
"Every president since 1988 attended an Ivy League university. Not only does this perspective from the professional class cross party lines, their orthodox worldview extends far beyond politics. It is based on an ideology that has served elites well – (semi) free-market capitalism and continuous economic growth. It is an orthodoxy that values corporate interests and personal gain over public good. It permeates all fields of society and American culture.
In their book Manufacturing Consent, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky laid out the media propaganda model of journalism, in which they describe the small parameters of discourse allowable in mainstream media, due to factors such as advertising, corporate ownership, and the dominant elite mindset. The media propaganda model they describe is akin to the Ivy League orthodoxy of which Frank speaks.
Disciplines cater to a small span of acceptable dialogue and thought based upon shared assumptions. Within that realm, diversity exists, but that diversity does not usually breach understood boundaries. Some voices reach the periphery of the border, but retract from crossing the line through caveats.
Those who traverse boundaries tend to be marginalized, regardless of the substance, depth, and validity of their arguments and ideas. This orthodoxy is maintained chiefly through tacit self-censorship and is internalized by those who practice it."
The Democratic leadership is caught in a credibility trap of repeated failures to do the right thing out of self-interest. The Republicans are so bent that they are most likely beyond redemption.
"Rome has grown so much from its humble beginnings that it is now overwhelmed by its greatness."
Titus Livius
“I know not why any one but a schoolboy in his declamation should whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another.”
Samuel Johnson
"Whatever happens, the [1997 Asian currency] crisis probably signaled the beginning of the end of the American empire and a shift to a tripolar world in which the United States, Europe, and East Asia simultaneously share power and compete for it.
What we have freed ourselves of, however, is any genuine consciousness of how we might look to others on this globe. Most Americans are probably unaware of how Washington exercises its global hegemony, since so much of this activity takes place either in relative secrecy or under comforting rubrics.
Many may, as a start, find it hard to believe that our place in the world even adds up to an empire. But only when we come to see our country as both profiting from and trapped within the structures of an empire of its own making will it be possible for us to explain many elements of the world that otherwise perplex us.
A nation can be one or the other, a democracy or an imperialist, but it can’t be both. If it sticks to imperialism, it will, like the old Roman Republic, on which so much of our system was modeled, lose its democracy to a domestic dictatorship.
It is time to realize, however, that the real dangers to America today come not from the newly rich people of East Asia but from our own ideological rigidity, our deep-seated belief in our own propaganda."
Chalmers Johnson
The mighty rise and are fallen, but the word and the spirit endure.
Stocks attempted to rally today, but sold off into the close, finishing a little more than unchanged.
Gold and silver gained back a little bit, and the Dollar was lower.
The slow decline of physical gold registered for immediate delivery continued.
Let's see if the metals can muddle through the Non-Farm Payrolls report next week.
The report might be considered important now that the Atlanta Fed has cut its GDP forecast for 2Q. Although I suspect it would take something quite impressive to hold back the Fed from their rate raising campaign. It has little to do with the real economy, and more to do with their need for maneuvering room to cut rates when their latest financial asset bubble starts to implode.
The US markets will be closed for the 4th of July holiday next week.
There will be a surprisingly busy economic calendar for that holiday shortened week. I have included that calendar below.
The FAA has posted air space restrictions for our area from today until next Monday, so I suspect that Trumpster will be dropping in on his golf course in Bedminster NJ which is just down the road for the weekend.
He might have been better off going down to his winter place in Mar-a-Lago Florida. It may be cooler. The weather here is expected to be a humid 100 F over the weekend. Too hot except for the most ardent golfers in my book.
I have a pot of Anasazi beans, with various types of smoked sausage, baby back ribs, onion, peppers, celery, carrots, and a blend of spices simmering in the slow cooker. Their smell is permeating the house. The young man will be coming this evening for dinner, and Dolly will be dancing with joy on his return. Their reunions are something to see, the simplest and purest of affection.
This is contentment, my joy and consolation in His tender mercies.
As Aloysius Gonzaga noted, 'It is better to be a child of God than king of the whole world.'
Need little, want less, and love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
Let us pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.
We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.
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