“Rejoice in the Lord, always. I will say it again: rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, give your concerns to God. And the peace of the Lord, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds. in Christ Jesus.” ~ Phil 4:4-7

I do believe that the queen and I are in the endgame now. She requires constant watching and care, and I rarely leave her side. I have been dealing with the short term emergencies and gathering the facts and resources together for next steps, as the situation calls out in its own good time. As anyone who has been involved in this sort of thing knows, it can drag on for much longer than one might expect — in the manner of the Fed’s serial asset bubbles achieved through top down stimulus.

There is a kind of a peacefulness amidst all this turmoil that at times seems almost beautiful. And, even when things get very bad, there are God’s tender mercies, if we can but keep our hearts and eyes open for them.

Don’t get me wrong When a loved one suffers or seems afraid, it still has the power to break any heart. One would think that something that gets broken so often over the years would somehow harden, but no, that does not seem to be the way it is in this case. Love has a transcendent power, as well as a transformative power.

But still, I can see love moving here among us — and He does send His angels in the darkest hours.

I believe that I can provide updates and links to news stories right along, since there is much time spent just being available nearby to her with my laptop. However, access to my office and the larger computer there with the data for the charts and means to generate them appears to be a more occasional luxury for now.

I did manage to link my laptop to the big multi-screened desktop computer for the streaming of video games (Skyrim and Fallout) on a hardwired gigabit ethernet I had installed, so perhaps when my son visits here from his Summer internship out of state later this month I will put him on the case. I could probably do it, but I just don’t have the bandwidth for that now.

There are many things I could say about the markets, and about the economic and social and political situation we find ourselves in.

People do not want to hear it. If I have learned anything in the last ten years it is that people just do not want to hear it, even if the truth is presented factually and with transparent reason, in a fairly calm and straightforward manner. They set up ideological strawmen and economic shibboleths like firewalls against reality and hide behind them. This is too often driven by self-interest, but more than we might expect because it is easier than thinking for oneself and dealing with ambiguities.

I have tried dressing the need for reform up in different ways, with humor, with sarcasm, with rational discussion and even with rowdiness, that last more of a habit of some years ago. You cannot effectively deliver a message if you write it on a brick. Although some appear to be making a living at that sort of thing — la nouvelle boor-geoisie.

Lately, as you may have noticed, or not, the emphasis of what I have been writing here has shifted to reassuring the faithful, and cautioning them against falling away as things get a little crazier, which they are bound to do, as opposed to arguing for systemic reforms as I and many others have done for so long.

I think the outcome, in general, of all this is ‘baked in’ now, at least in the broader realization of years of mispriced risk and policy errors. The problem is that I just cannot believe it. It has been like watching a train wreck in slow motion. So the sense of urgency one might have had when they thought that the situation was still manageable is no longer there.

And yet, you never see the good coming when things get darkest. But I don’t think they are the darkest yet. I think the next collapsing bubble may usher that one in, with the usual posturing and false flags from the high priests of the god of the markets, caught as they are in a credibility trap.

I see nonsense everywhere. But the truly hysterical part of this cycle is still approaching, and it may get quite a bit worse when it does. Paranoia is almost a given when the exceptional fail spectacularly. Since they are so great, if they fail they must be a victim of those jealous of them.

There may be blood, if history is any indication, and a great deal of propaganda and distorted information spread by the money masters without a doubt. It is what they do.

Both political parties have failed, and the most sustainable solutions are being opposed vigorously by the very few at the top of the status quo, who will hang on to their privileges, with great indignation and self-righteous anger, to the bitter end. Better to rule in hell to serve in heaven.

What is going to happen is approaching with a kind of inevitability. And I have no more time or patience left for debating this with people whose minds are closed. Still, times like this show us who are our real friends, like stars in the night, and in some of the unlikeliest places.

All in all, we ought to draw comfort from the realization that, despite our prideful ignorance, we are not all that exceptional, and that historically our situation is hardly unique. I draw that same comfort in my own personal situation, and feel the power of the commonality with those of my fellows who have entered, almost without intention and often under the duress of suffering, into the invisible community of those who care for the things of the mind and of the spirit.

Those who have gone before us have stood on similar ground, over and over again. And now it is our turn.

And in the end, the only real tragedy is not to be a saint.

Keep the faith.

Posted by Jesse for Jesse’s Café Américain ~ July 8, 2017.

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