What the Heck Just Happened?

The News Is Crazy! [The Daily Reckoning] February 09, 2024 [WEBSITE]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( What the Heck Just Happened? Annapolis, Maryland [Brian Maher] BRIAN MAHER Dear Reader, As a scribbler we are — at times — spoiled for choice. Today is one such time. Yesterday the Supreme Court of the United States commenced proceedings into Colorado’s ruling barring Mr. Trump from the ballot… Yesterday the United States Department of Justice issued an official report bringing into vast question the sitting president's cognitive competence… Yesterday the same president met the press to refute this report… and proceeded to affirm the report… Yesterday Vladimir Putin appeared before millions and millions, to explain himself, under interrogation from Tucker Carlson. Where to begin? Perhaps with the Department of Justice dispatch. Special counsel Robert Hur — a Republican — concluded that: President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified information after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen… “Willfully” retaining and disclosing classified information runs contrary to United States legal code. Yet Mr. Hur did not recommend criminal prosecution. His reasoning is perhaps more damning to the president than prosecution itself. It is because the fellow is too forgetful: Mr. Biden's memory was significantly limited… at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory. Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties —of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness. The president subsequently appeared before the press. In the course of his comments he named the president of Egypt the president of Mexico. Perhaps he confused, momentarily, the Crisis in Baja with the Crisis in Gaza? We are willing to entertain the possibility. We may even concede that the president is not only psychologically hale — but perhaps psychic! He evidently harbors the occult capacity to communicate with the deceased. In the past week alone the president relayed 2021 conversations with France’s Francois Mitterand and Germany’s Helmut Kohl. Monsieur Mitterand passed beyond the rainbow in 1996. Herr Kohl, in 2017. Yet the president talked to them both in 2021. We expect reports of future conversations with similar 1980s stalwarts — Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan chiefly among them. Alas… we do not believe the United States worthy of a president endowed with such prodigious psychic capacities. It is far too crass and materialistic in orientation. Its sole concern is the here and the now. These capacities may even distract the president from his secular obligations under Article II of the United States Constitution. They may, for that precise reason, prove dangerous to the Republic. “Mr. President, I need your urgent attention. Russia’s invading Poland, China’s invading Taiwan and Martians are invading Earth! What should we do?” “Don’t bother me, I’m talking to Cleopatra.” Thus we recommend that the fellow resign his post immediately… consecrate his energies towards ghostly pursuits… and entrust the nation to a person far worthier of its profane nature: Vice President Kamala Harris. Say what you will of her. Yet one capital fact remains: She cannot communicate with the dead. After all… she can scarcely communicate with the living… Below, James Howard Kunstler analyzes yesterday’s events for you. Be forewarned: It is excessively bartisan. And Mr. Kunstler is far less respectful of the president’s capacities than we. Read on if you will. Regards, [Brian Maher] Brian Maher Managing Editor, The Daily Reckoning [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:feedback@dailyreckoning.com) Editor’s note: James Altucher shocked the world in 2010 when he said Apple would be the world’s first trillion-dollar company… A benchmark it hit eight years later, after the stock ricocheted more than 400% higher. It’s been 13 years… but now, [James is making his second huge Apple prediction.]( And it’s big. It’s all thanks to the game-changing release of the Vision Pro. The VR headsets sold out before they even hit stores. Should you invest in Apple now? The problem is, Apple stock is pricey. A hundred shares will cost you close to $19,000 — that’s more than five Vision Pros. The good news is that James is sharing [a way to play the profound effects of the Vision Pro that anyone can take part in.]( It involves a tiny, [$2 stock]( that’s absolutely crucial to the Vision Pro’s existence. [James tells you everything you need to know right here.]( [URGENT: Unclaimed Giveaway Offer]( We have an item of considerable value on hold for you in our warehouse. Valued at nearly $300, this special item is an opportunity you wanted to miss… [Click Here To Claim Yours Now]( The Daily Reckoning Presents: A tale of two presidents… ****************************** Eventful Events By James Howard Kunstler [James Howard Kunstler] JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER Historians of the future, gathered round their campfires poaching armadillo tail-flaps in their own shells, will harken back to the wondrous day in 2024 when they could watch and compare two heads of great nations present themselves to the world for assessment. There was Mr. Putin of the land called Russia, calmly discoursing in fine detail on a thousand years of his country’s history. And there was Mr. Biden of the USA, facing the White House press pool, angrily refuting a special prosecutor’s glum conclusion that the president was not mentally competent to be tried in court on the finding that he’d indeed mishandled classified documents. The contrast between the two figures might even alert the mandarins of our Ivy League that something has gone very wrong in this country for a decade or more, and could arouse suspicions among the faculties that they had been gulled into a false view of our recent history. Special counsel Robert Hur’s report issued Thursday said it rather plainly: In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (“if it was 2013, when did I stop being vice president?”) and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (“in 2009, am I still vice president?”). He did not remember even within several years when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. The disclosure raises not a few uncomfortable questions. If Mr. Biden’s declining mental condition was apparent to federal attorneys interviewing him — admittedly not top psychologists — then wouldn’t the same picture present itself to the scores of assistants and subalterns busy toiling with the president around the clock for three years in the White House? Not to mention the myriad other government officials, agency heads, corporate nabobs and news media notables streaming through the Oval Office every hour of the day? And yet every last one of them has gone along with the pretense that Mr. Biden is doing just fine and is capable of running for reelection. Weird, a little bit. If there has been any discussion about Mr. Biden being in possession of the so-called “nuclear football,” the briefcase full of launch codes for our arsenal of missiles and bombers, it has gone unnoticed in the press. I suppose a conspiracy to suppress that chatter would be labeled a “conspiracy theory,” which also suggests that Mr. Biden’s mental deficiencies have somehow infected the entire body politic of the USA. That is, much of the whole U.S. population is mentally unwell, living in a national hall of mirrors. How did that happen? Is it possible that there are branches of our government dedicated to driving the population crazy… a kind of ordeal-by-gaslight? That impression was only reinforced by listening to the president of our supposed adversary Russia, Mr. Putin, in his confab with independent journalist Tucker Carlson. For one thing, Mr. Putin dared to express the likelihood that somebody, or group of somebodies, must be secretly running the executive branch of America’s government behind the mentally vacant figurehead “President Biden,” but Mr. Putin would not venture to guess who that might be. [Famed A.I. Expert "Do This By March 8th"]( Genius investor James Altucher is predicting between now and March 8, a new generation of A.I. will create a brief "wealth window" in America. It could make crypto look like pocket change… [Click Here For All The Details]( What Mr. Putin displayed most of all was an air of prudence, an awareness that America’s behavior has become increasingly and dangerously unhinged over the years he’s been in power, requiring much delicacy and Christian patience not to worsen. Ukraine was at the center of the discussion, of course, since it has become a point of dangerous geopolitical inflammation. It is unclear whether the American audience was able to follow Mr. Putin’s detailed disquisition on the history of Ukraine, and how lately it eventuated in America’s bungling effort to wrest it out of Russia’s sphere of influence. He explained his view of events around the “Maidan coup” of 2014 and NATO’s repudiation of the Minsk agreements that might have satisfactorily ended hostilities and provided a framework for reestablishing Ukraine’s status as a neutral borderland between Europe and Asia. Mr. Putin also confirmed my own conjecture: that, after the fall of the USSR, Russia had one overriding concern in foreign affairs, to be readmitted to the European family of nations as a once-again “normal” member, especially in trade relations, after 75 years of its peculiar communist experiment. He spoke of this quite ruefully as a lost opportunity to shore up Western Civilization — now engaged in a mystifying act of mass suicide that Russia decidedly wishes to opt out of by strategically reorienting with the BRICs bloc. Today, the USA is fraught with events unspooling. As I write, there is almost zero opinion yet formed about these troubling matters on the vast internet — but it will probably come in hot-and-heavy as the day ticks on. If Mr. Biden is truly mentally incompetent, as established more-or-less legally by special counsel Hur, then there is the obvious remedy of the 25th amendment — removal of a president for reason of disability. A debate over this would seem unavoidable now. The question also implies that Mr. Biden’s charade of running for reelection must come to an end. What will the Democratic Party do about that? A not inconsiderable part of our Ukraine problem has been that our chief executive was for years engaged in bribery and money-laundering misadventures there, for which there is abundant and powerful evidence, meaning he may have had very personal interests in keeping that country disordered — and sending billions of dollars there, some of it surely embezzled among the Zelenskyy government. You’d have to also be aware that the bag-man in those operations, the president’s son Hunter, might well have misbehaved with drugs and prostitutes on his many trips to Ukraine as a board member of Burisma. Hunter’s self-compiled archive of round-the-world drug-fueled porn recordings on the laptop that (the FBI confirmed recently) was unquestionably his own suggests that the Ukraine authorities may have their own recordings of him behaving similarly, or worse, and are using them to blackmail “President Joe Biden.” We will also learn the judgment, probably with remarkable dispatch, of the Supreme Court in the matter of Colorado kicking Donald Trump off the election ballot. Meanwhile, the case against Mr. Trump in Fulton County, Georgia, is falling apart in DA Fani Willis’ pathetically comical scandal, now with a new “love nest” twist (paid for with public money). And Judge Engoron and AG Letitia James might be weighing the fates of their reputations in the shabbily conducted and bogus real estate valuation fraud case against Mr. Trump, which will eventually be vivisected at some level of appeal. The old saying remains powerful: There are decades when nothing happens, and weeks when decades happen. Regards, James Howard Kunstler for The Daily Reckoning [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:feedback@dailyreckoning.com) Ed. note: James Altucher shocked the world in 2010 when he said Apple would be the world’s first trillion-dollar company… A benchmark it hit eight years later, after the stock ricocheted more than 400% higher. It’s been 13 years… but now, [James is making his second huge Apple prediction.]( And it’s big. It’s all thanks to the game-changing release of the Vision Pro. The VR headsets sold out before they even hit stores. Should you invest in Apple now? The problem is, Apple stock is pricey. A hundred shares will cost you close to $19,000 — that’s more than five Vision Pros. The good news is that James is sharing [a way to play the profound effects of the Vision Pro that anyone can take part in.]( It involves a tiny, [$2 stock]( that’s absolutely crucial to the Vision Pro’s existence. [James tells you everything you need to know right here.]( Thank you for reading The Daily Reckoning! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:feedback@dailyreckoning.com) [Brian Maher] [Brian Maher]( is the Daily Reckoning's Managing Editor. Before signing on to Agora Financial, he was an independent researcher and writer who covered economics, politics and international affairs. His work has appeared in the Asia Times and other news outlets around the world. He holds a Master's degree in Defense & Strategic Studies. --------------------------------------------------------------- [James Howard Kunstler] [James Howard Kunstler]( is perhaps best known for his 2005 book [The Long Emergency]( which predicted the financial meltdown and the implications of the peak oil problem. His 1993 book, [The Geography of Nowhere]( about the fiasco of suburbia, is a campus cult classic among the architecture and urban planning students. [Paradigm]( ☰ ⊗ [ARCHIVE]( [ABOUT]( [Contact Us]( © 2024 Paradigm Press, LLC. 1001 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. By submitting your email address, you consent to Paradigm Press, LLC. delivering daily email issues and advertisements. To end your The Daily Reckoning e-mail subscription and associated external offers sent from The Daily Reckoning, feel free to [click here.]( Please note: the mailbox associated with this email address is not monitored, so do not reply to this message. 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