Another Door Opens

“…there’s little political upside in defending the rights of undocumented shoplifters.” — Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times.

If past is prologue, Mr. Trump lacks the acumen to carry out his ambitious agenda. The first problem is management style. In his first term, Mr. Trump was a poor administrator because of his mercurial, polarizing style and a general indifference to facts and the hard work of governance. — Jack Goldsmith, The New York Times

Thus spake one Shawn McCreesh of The New York Times, America’s all-wise, all-knowing font of everlasting rectitude. But to answer his question, why blah blah: Donald Trump is glaring because he means bidness. His bidness is to shift the paradigm on the mendaciously sanctimonious managerial class of the USA, of which The New York Times is the principal mouthpiece. DJT looks stern, does he? All that really tells you is how nervous the Old Gray Lady is. A million or more brains, from sea to shining sea are about to get vacuumed out and redecorated

Readers of The New York Times — in their various C-suites, ivory towers, ateliers, yoga parlors, tasting rooms, bioweapon labs, and other haunts — remain utterly baffled about what is to begin today. No amount of ‘splainin’ seems to suffice. They behold the Golden Golem of Greatness (DJT) doing his dance onstage behind the cop, the Indian chief, and the cowpoke and all they can really see are their own careers going up in smoke (along with vested pensions, reputations, possibly even chattels, marriages, and health).

As I write, long before dawn, “Joe Biden” remains President of the US. You must wonder, as the hours dwindle to noon, what pardon power magic he’s saving for the final minutes of his term, while the whole nation is distracted by the spectacle in the Capitol Rotunda, the moiling dignitaries and celebrities, the solemn arrival of the elect, the snarky palaver of the cable news jockeys, the electric charge of history in the large room. . . .

It is a fact, perhaps missed by some of you, that Rep. James Comer’s House Oversight Committee just last week issued criminal referrals on James Biden (“Joe’s” brother) and First Son Hunter. Wait-a-minute, was not Hunter already pardoned for Gawd-knows how many misdeeds dating back to 2014, and (supposedly) preemptively for any alleged crimes to come ever hereafter? Part B of that may yet have to be adjudicated. A pardon is not intended to be a get-out-of-jail-free card. Anyway, would it be difficult for a federal attorney of average ability to draw a connection between the newly referred crimes of those two and the departing President? Hence, will “Joe Biden” pardon “Joe Biden” at 11:30 this morning?

Not to mention about 1000 other current and former public officials quaking in their Beltway McMansions this frosty morning. This is part and parcel, you understand, of the massive Cleanup in Aisle Four that must happen if the agencies of our federal government can ever be trusted again. For instance, the Department of Justice.

At the end of the workday, Friday, AG Merrick Garland made a triumphal final exit from the building past a throng of cheering and clapping employees, including dozens of federal attorneys who zealously persecuted their fellow citizens under color-of-law for no good reason, or real legal predicate, and ruined many lives and households in the process. Do you suppose they get a free pass on that? And what of the three bears of Lawfare: Norm Eisen, Marc Elias, and Mary McCord, all of them present at the creation of serial affronts against the Constitution (and decency) lo this past decade. Do they just skate? I doubt it, though it might take a while to shine a light on their turpitudes.

Will “Joe Biden” wave his pardon wand over Tony Fauci, Francis Collins, Scott Gottlieb, Deborah Birx, Rochelle Walensky, and dozens of other public health officials who sprung the Covid-19 operation and the deadly vaccinations on the country? Or Ralph Baric, hunkered out of sight in his Carolina lab? You realize, of course, that the orgy of illness and death from that is hardly over. For four years under “JB” the truth has been obfuscated and buried, because none of those characters has really had to answer for anything.

So, today another door opens. The To-Do list for Mr. Trump and his aides-de-camp is dauntingly long, the corrections needed are monumental. You might have even noticed that such corrections are badly needed all over the other countries of Western Civ, and strangely many are already following suit. The WEF-inflected governments of France, Germany, and the UK are already a’wobble, and Justin Trudeau threw in the towel two weeks ago. An Arctic blast could not be more fitting for what will move through the DC Swamp at high noon today. That is, if Mr. Trump manages to survive the hours until his swearing-in. Godspeed Number 47! And everybody else: put your tray tables up! A patch of turbulence ahead!

Update: I posted the above blog ten minutes before “Joe Biden” issued his raft of pardons for Fauci, the J6 Committee members, and others. We will have to stand by to see whether a “preemptive” pardon is a legitimate legal instrument. My guess is that it is not.

Further update: About fifteen minutes till noon today, “Joe Biden” preemptively pardoned the rest of his family, brothers Jim and Frank, a sister, various wives and husbands. What crimes did he have in mind, you must wonder. Money laundering? That would be my guess. Note: “JB” apparently did not pardon himself. Bribery and treason are still on the table then.

~~James Howard Kunstler

“…there’s little political upside in defending the rights of undocumented shoplifters.” — Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times.

Looking at your gold stock holdings with an eye to how much share dilution they’ve done is critical to your investment success.

Share dilution is real across any industry. But how shares are being diluted, and what they’re being diluted for matter.

In the resource space, that means paying close attention to the value of any announced acquisitions, the total shares outstanding, and how that company is performing relative to its underlying resource.

That can make the difference between a good investment, a middling investment, and a killer investment.

In 2023 and 2024, gold prices trended higher. That trend has continued this year, with gold prices rallying over 20%.

In prior years, gold mining companies have been conspicuously absent from that rally. But in 2025, they’re starting to move up – and at a faster pace than gold:

Gold mining stocks should perform better than gold during a rally. Why? Imagine a gold company has total cash costs of $1,500 per ounce.

At $2,500 gold, they make a profit of $1,000 per ounce. If gold rallies to $3,500, a 40% rally, the miner’s profit goes from $1,000 to $2,000 per ounce – a 100% jump in profits.

That’s the power of investing in gold mining companies. Aside from the first half of 2016, this is the best setup for gold mining stocks since the early 2000s. It’s not too late to buy gold stocks if you haven’t done so yet.

Truth matters.

Free and fair money, whether measured in gold ounces or satoshis – a one-hundred-millionth of a bitcoin – can compel a governmental and political system to stay honest. Or at least within some rails.

Fiat currencies, which are determined by those same governments, provide unchecked power, including the ability to keep some in power despite clear abuses of it.

History shows time and again that it’s the power to destroy.

Public confidence has been hit with a one-two punch of hefty inflation the past few years, and a sense of a two-tiered justice system that projects those in power who were harming children.

In a time of rapidly-declining trust in traditional institutions, it’s more important than ever to make sure you hold gold and bitcoin.

I know I sound like a broken record – but every day, there’s about 3 billion more reasons to hold those assets. And that’s just the daily increase in America’s federal debt.

Since the US confiscation of Russian assets in 2022, pretty much every pull back to 50-day moving average (red line) has been bought, and they continue to be bought. The average is now flattening out, as you would expect with this summer consolidation, rather as it did late last year. Some sideways consolidation is good. Ideally, you want to see the short-, medium- and long-term moving averages all flatten and converge. There often follows a big move higher.