Wrisley.com

"Juneteenth" becomes the 44th annual federal paid holiday.
Pat Buchanan sees "one nation, indivisible," disappearing.

     The flag pledge still states we are recognizing "the republic for which it stands." Why hasn't it been changed to "the democracy for which it stands?

      Mr. Buchanan does not raise this question, but his article in defense of democracy reminded us of our youth in which patriot speakers on the 4th of July made a point of pledging to preserve "our republic" for future generations. After World War 2 we noticed that politicians had substituted "democracy" for "republic." The words are not strictly interchangeable.

      The article notes that holidays once celebrated in schools - Christmas, Thanksgiving, et al, are now often shown on the school calendar as merely "Days Off." He balks at that. So do we. Killing American Democracy.

Make no mistake. A ower living standard is the price the middle and lower classes pay for years of inflation!

If you were a child of the Great Depression or the World War 2 years in the United States you probably have a relatively clear memory of scarce goods. rationing systems, and general deprivation which was carried by the populace as a patriotic burden. Remember the $25.00 war bonds for which you paid $18.75 by laboriously saving the sum through the purchase of STAMPS saved in little booklets as acquired? You looked forward to making a tidy profit when the bonds eventually were paid. The downside was inflation. By the time you cashed in your $25.00 bond the money would not purchase what $18.75 did when you paid for it. Such is the sneakiness of money inflation. With the exception of 1949 and 1955 we have been hammered by money inflation every year since the war wnich causes the general rise in prices of goods and services.

No period of price inflation has ever "not stopped." It'll be replaced by a painful period of bankruptcies and depression. If we're lucky we will re-establish the dollar's value to our vast national gold hoard. However, we're not holding our breath. The bankers and politicians will trot out a few more attempts to keep the debt balloons afloat before admitting defeat.

"Woke" = An old slang term now used in Progresive Politics.

    The Oxford dictionary expanded its definition of the word "woke" in 2017 to add it as an adjective meaning "alert to injustice in society, especially racism."

    "Woke" currently means being conscious of racial discrimination in society and other forms of oppression and injustice.   If you label yourself "woke" you probably vote Democrat and lean to the left of the political spectrum.

< The "woke" crowd occupies most of the power centers and there's not much the "non-woke" can do about it except prepare for the economic upheaval "woke" social programs are causing.

Don't misunderstand our point. We have long agreed with Martin Luther King that the content of our character matters and skin color does not. But his message has been watered down and has been lost in modern American "wokeness."

The U.S. Constitution if now a battered relic. Even the Federal Reserve has asked its spokespersons not to use the phrase "Founding Fathers." (!)

    Lotta guessing going on these days about where all the confusion about money is leading. For one thing, the actual definition of money is all over the place. Some fans swear bitcoin is the new money. Others are waiting for the Federal Reserve to introduce its exciting printed currency replacement, Fed digital "money" created in computers and tracked by computers. The "I have nothing to hide" crowd won't mind, but there is bound to be a hue and cry and much gnashing of teeth by the stalwart supporters of the U.S. Constitution who point out there is no lawful Constitutional provision permitting banks to define "money" and create it at will.

   Mr. Williams maintains that the present rate of price inflation, when calculating according to a former official formula, is 11 percent - not the 4.25 percent officially announced last week for April. (Annualized basis.) We personally have a sum of money in a "high yield savings account" that presently pays us 0.40 percent annually. It's a cruel joke! We're losing purchasing power on our savings and no one at the bank has explained why the original rate of 2.10 percent has tumbled so sharply or whether it will dip into negative territory and we find ourselves paying a fee to let the bank hold our hard won savings. The smart thing to do is withdraw most of it and spend it on something tangible that will rise in value as infation rages.

     Clouding this plan, however, is the fact that no inflation runs on forever. Ever and always they run out of steam and the shadow of economic depression falls across the land. We cannot begin to guess how the present long-running price inflation episode will play out. We do know that since the Fed went into business in 1914 U.S. dollar purchsing power has fallen from $1.00 to less than 4¢.

   "Why do you constantly print such negative garbage?" asks a reader.

    Because we have lived long anough to detect a distinction between propaganda and reality. Mr. Von Greyerz, writing from Switzerland, is predicting a realistic monetary/economic future based on the fact that all bubbles eventualy burst. We have reached the unfortunate stage where average people expect their government to hand them "free monay" in order to stimulate a stagnating domestic economy. The laws of nature rule and no government can endlessly produce paper and digital currency without creating an unsustainable bubble. And bubbles eventualy burst.

     The late economist Milton Friedman was not wrong when he coined the phrase. "There's no such thing as a free lunch." Democracies always perish when a majority of voters discover they can vote themselves money out of the national treasury, and that's exactly what we've been doing for decades by borrowing trillions of fiat dollars to sustain the illusion of general wealth.

      Here's the link to Mr. Greyerz's current remarks: EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE

In 1963 the printed promise to redeem federal reserve notes in "lawful money" disappeared from the notes. The first skidload of Fed notes sans the promise of redeemability in lawful money left the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in November, 1963, as the nation mourned its assassinated president. Yet the last time we checked the U.S. Code - 2 Sect. 411, it said:

"Federal reserve notes, to be issued at the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for the purpose of making advances to Federal reserve banks through the Federal reserve agents as hereinafter set forth and for no other purpose, are authorized. The said notes shall be obligations of the United States and shall be receivable by all national and member banks and Federal reserve banks and for all taxes, customs, and other public dues. They shall be redeemed in lawful money on demand at the Treasury Department of the United States, in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, or at any Federal Reserve bank."

So, why can't the money muddle be reveiwed in a national debate and settled once and for all? "WHAT is a dollar?"

~Pat Buchanan