National Security and National Survival

The feds, desperate to hold onto power, clamp down. Free speech is banned. Critics are silenced. Political candidates are selected — not in the rough and tumble of real democracy — but by party inside

Monday, September 2^nd, 2024 

Bill Bonner, writing today from Poitou, France 

By popular demand! 

We’re going to take today off. It’s Labor Day, after all. 

But if our ‘Primary Trend’ picture is clear... Western consensual democracies are becoming less and less consensual. 

The model — take from young, growing, prosperous generations... give to old voters — is becoming less attractive. Because younger generations are smaller than they used to be.  And less prosperous. 

And the Empire is so larded with the burdens of the past — programs that never worked... wars that couldn’t be won... transfer payments to parasites and shysters — there is little energy or money left for the future.  Already, the US public debt is more than America’s entire annual output…and combined with private debt, it is nearly four times GDP.  

The voters are fed up. They turn away from the center... towards the extremes. Bloomberg: 

Populists Surge in Germany’s Regional Votes, Humbling Scholz 

Far-right AfD on course to win regional ballot for first time 

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition was punished in two regional elections in eastern Germany on Sunday, with populist parties on the extreme right and left taking more than 60% of the vote in Thuringia and almost half in Saxony. 

The Alternative for Germany is on course for a clear victory in Thuringia on 32.8%, according to projections for public broadcaster ARD. It represents the first triumph for a far-right party in a German state ballot since World War II, even if it’s highly unlikely to be able to form a government as it’s shunned by the other parties represented in parliament. 

The feds, desperate to hold onto power, clamp down. Free speech is banned. Critics are silenced. Political candidates are selected — not in the rough and tumble of real democracy — but by party insiders.    

The only way to keep the money flowing to key elites and the voters is to inflate the currency. And the only thing that will keep the public on board with the program is war. Nothing aligns the antediluvian passions of The People and the venal self-interests of the elite better than war. It marshals together the resources of the nation... and the emotions of the masses... for a great cause — national security... even national survival. 

Anyone who resists can be branded a traitor. In the old days, he might have had his nose cut off. Today, they may cut off his credit card. 

But it’s Labor Day.  No need to worry about the future now.  So we will wait ‘til tomorrow to do our heavy fretting. 

As always... more to come. 

Regards, 

Bill Bonner 

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Research Note, by Dan Denning

On Friday, Bill mentioned that Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested by French authorities for the lack of content moderation on the messaging service used by nearly one billion people. The authorities claim Telegram is used to facilitate drug trafficking and the distribution of illegal materials.

The assault on free speech and the promotion of censorship intensified over the long weekend. Former Clinton Secretary of Labor Robert Reich said Elon Musk should be arrested by ‘global regulators’ for ‘disseminating lies and hate’ on X (formerly known as Twitter). Meanwhile, a judge in Brazil banned Twitter in the country, joining a list of authoritarian countries blocking public access to the platform.

Here in the United States, Constitution Day is September 17th (Utah even has an entire Constitution Month that began yesterday!). Constitution Day commemorates the 237th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution in 1787. It was ratified by all 13 Colonies over a year later, with Rhode Island being the last to sign on (Rhode Island even proposed a comprehensive list additional rights and amendments that were not in the Constitution as ratified but would later appear in the Bill of Rights).

But an article published in the New York Times over the weekend makes the case that the Constitution is not only out-dated, it’s dangerous! The article rehashes the key points in new book by Erwin Chermerinsky called No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States.

In this interview on MSNBC, the Dean of Berkeley’s law school says the most outdated and dangerous parts of the Constitution are lifetime appointments for Supreme Court justices, the Electoral College, and Article 1, Section Three, Clause 1, which gives each State two Senators. Reform of these outdated provisions, through statute or a Constitutional convention, may be necessary to prevent a new wave of secession in the coming years, or the end of the Republic altogether.

Unsurprisingly, all these ‘reforms’ would concentrate even more power—including the power to restrict and censor speech—with the Federal government and especially Congress. For example, if Senate seats were apportioned based on the size of a State’s population instead of the principle of Federalism (in which each State has two Senators regardless of size), California would have twelve Senators, Texas would have nine, and Florida and New York would each have six. I’m not sure Wyoming would have one!

In theory, these ‘reforms’ would be far easier to amend the Constitutions—and make ‘common sense’ and ‘reasonable’ restrictions on the 1st and 2nd amendments—if the size of the Senate were based on each State’s population and the Supreme Court was either expanded or Justices ‘term limited’ (no term limits for Congress, of course!)

What do you think? Which is the bigger threat to ‘democracy,’ the Constitution or the Congress? Exercise your free speech (while it lasts) by leaving a comment below. And from all of us at Bonner Private Research, enjoy your Labor Day!