Inauguration Day Random Mindwalk
Fear and loathing in the Imperial Capital. Frankly, I am stunned.
Times like these make me miss the old days of Hunter S. Thompson and his version of gonzo journalism. Recently, I have noticed a trend on “X” involving “Probably Spam” posts promoting access to psychedelic drugs, but who needs peyote or LSD when you have news cycles like the last 72 hours? If we have felt buffeted and dislocated by winds of change since 2000, I suspect that the next few years will make us long for the stability and peace of the decade's first half. Don’t get me wrong- the Biden years have been a non-stop cascade of failures and mismanagement, requiring pages to catalog. My point is that if you thought the rapid-fire change and chaos of that era were bad, we are facing the prospect of national and global chaos and change that may make even that period look stable by comparison.
The $TRump “memecoin” (shitcoin) launch, resulting in billions of dollars in valuation, for what exactly?
The deeply disillusioning Gates-Trump meeting.
The woman I ran into while walking on Potomac Ave dressed like one of the Handmaid characters in “A Handmaids Tale.”
The conversation I had at a War Room conclave on Potomac Ave with a foreign national from a Soviet block eastern European country who asserted that the USA was now the most communist of nations, far surpassing even China under the CCP, where the spirit of entrepreneurship is thriving (in contrast to the USA).
The apparent threat, domestic and/or foreign, necessitated moving the inauguration indoors (it certainly was not the weather), and what that means for the future.
The HHS appointments that I keep hearing about directly and via the grapevine; other than RFK jr.; no-one who spoke out questioning Operation Warp Speed or the safety and efficacy of the genetic COVID vaccines is being nominated or selected.
The whispered chatter that whether or not Bobby is confirmed, he has already been boxed in and effectively neutralized as a threat to the established order.
And then, not to make it about us, there is the underlying constant drumbeat of the ongoing character assassination aimed at Jill and myself from self-proclaimed members of the “Medical Freedom Movement,” and the striking parallels in the attacks from the same quarter on Casey and Calley Means.
Those things, plus the flare-up of Gout in my left great toe, had me tossing and turning during a long, sleepless night, the fourth in a row. I truly want to celebrate today’s inauguration. We all worked so long and so hard to get to this point. But I cannot escape the nagging sense that things will not play out anything like I had hoped. That unfortunate voice in my mind, unsettling my peace of mind, warning that even my most pessimistic assessments of the nature of the culture and politics of the Imperial Capital are overly optimistic.
Jill and I participated in the MAGA/MAHA/Bitcoin meeting and ball. The Bitcoin boys and whales were giddy over what happened the day before. The meme coin launched by DJT et al. had reached the stratosphere. The speculation being that this was the dawn of a new way to fund political campaigns, in which donations would be fully trackable and documented via the blockchain, and that Trump had just established a new legal precedent.
The $TRUMP memecoin — a financial asset that didn't exist on Friday afternoon — now accounts for about 89% of Donald Trump's net worth.
Why it matters: The coin (technically a token that's issued on the Solana blockchain) has massively enriched Trump personally, enabled a mechanism for the crypto industry to funnel cash to him, and created a volatile financial asset that allows anyone in the world to financially speculate on Trump's political fortunes.
After another massive overnight rally, as of Sunday morning Trump's crypto holdings were worth as much as $58 billion on paper, enough -- with his other assets -- to make him one of the world's 25 richest people.
Where it stands: While the Biden administration broadly took the view that memecoins like $TRUMP are securities subject to SEC regulation, the incoming Trump administration has pledged to be much more crypto-friendly and to regulate such coins with a light or nonexistent touch.
For the record: The coin's official website, GetTrumpMemes.com, urges visitors to buy coins with either dollars or crypto in order to "Celebrate Our Win & Have Fun!"
The coin is "not intended to be... an investment opportunity," per the site, which says that it "has nothing to do with any political campaign or any political office."
That hasn't stopped investors from making millions by speculating on the price of the coin, which was launched while Trump was reportedly hosting a "Crypto Ball" in Washington.
By the numbers: Some 200 million of the 1 billion total coins have already been released and are being actively traded. The rest, which are owned by Trump-controlled entities, will be able to be sold at various points over the next three years, starting in April.
On average, Trump's companies will be able to sell some 24 million coins per month into the market, which at current prices (which keep moving), would amount to an income of $1.73 billion per month, or $20.7 billion per year. (Although no one has a clue what the value of the coin will even be this afternoon, let alone three years from now.)
Not to be outdone, Melania Trump launched her own coin MELANIA Sunday night, almost immediately achieving a market capitalization north of $5 billion.
Flashback: During the first Trump administration, there were worries that individuals were able to enrich the president by staying at his hotel in Washington.
Since then, Trump has listed a meme stock where he controls more than 50% of the shares — and, now, has a meme coin that's even less tethered to reality.
Both of them represent a much more direct way of funneling money to Trump than staying at his hotel did.
Between the lines: The emoluments clause of the Constitution, written in 1787, hardly envisaged a world where a president could conjure billions of dollars of wealth out of nowhere just by endorsing a meme.
In the present day, it's impossible to track who's going to be buying this coin over the next three years and thereby directing their money directly at Trump.
Given the Supreme Court's expansive view of presidential immunity, there's a good chance that any such action will be deemed lawful.
The bottom line: Trump has just delivered a masterclass in the ability of a president to turn power into wealth.
All of this reminds me that, despite all that I may know or think I understand, there are layers and layers of issues and undercurrents at play here that are way above my pay grade.
And then the real bombshell landed this morning.
Presidential pardons for Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and the January 6 commission members. The implications are stunning, far-reaching, and only beginning to be appreciated. At a minimum, the findings of the “Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government” of the US House of Representatives are not only validated, but they may have been too cautious.
If this “Last Minute Preemptive Pardon” Biden administration action withstands legal tests, we have established the legal basis for a rotating, permanently lawless executive branch. The President can direct not only his private CIA army to act in a lawless and unaccountable fashion offshore, but also virtually anyone under his administration can circumvent the law with impunity. This will completely undermine the tattered case that the United States is a nation committed to the rule of law. The corruption of the concept of “American Exceptionalism” will be complete. This will establish a “new normal” for the world- Administrative Lawlessness. And will confirm the weaponized accusations of our global adversaries. I cannot understate the international damage that will be done if this is allowed to stand.
And now Joe Biden (or Jill Biden?) is preemptively pardoning the members of the Biden crime family. USA has officially gone full banana republic. According to the BBC:
11:43 BREAKING
"Biden pardons family members in final moments as president”
Joe Biden has just issued a pardon for members of his family in his last moments as president.
"My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me—the worst kind of partisan politics. Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end," he said in a statement.
"That is why I am exercising my power under the Constitution to pardon James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens, and Francis W. Biden."
Biden has preemptively pardoned his family members as his final criminal act as President. Unprecedented. In terms of lawlessness, Biden and his administration embodies all that they accused Trump and MAGA of being.
How will we ever restore the rule of law? How will we restore the primacy of the US Constitution? Murray Rothbard must either be rolling in his grave or smirking from on high, completely validated.
If these preemptive pardons are allowed to stand, it will forever change this republic. We will no longer be a nation of laws. There will be laws for the little people, and lawlessness for predatory political and corporate classes. Mexico and its criminal cartel culture come to mind.
DC is no place for the naive and untutored.
I hope I am wrong, fear I am right, and from where I stand it seems like many (if not most) HHS appointments have no real experience with the culture and practices of the Imperial Capital, or in navigating the federal bureaucracy. These people are going to be cannon fodder for the permanent bureaucracy, the deep state, the administrative state, the Senior Executive Service. And if that is not enough, it is apparently open hunting season for the circular firing squads.
God save us from ourselves. He may be our only hope. I want to go home to the farm now. I have had enough of the Imperial Capital for quite a while.
God bless America.
On my knees, physically and mentally, this is what I humbly pray.
I agree about pushing back on preemptive pardons. Is that even possible, or legal? How can you pardon someone for crimes they have not yet committed or been accused of? In addition to creating a mafia-like insularity of the power elites, it simply makes no legal sense. We are at war with our government.
Presidential pardons only protect against federal charges. They can still be charged by the states.