239 years after it was signed, events this week in Davos rudely demonstrated why the US Constitution is a document of genius.
In a way far too contrived for a novel, the 47th President of the Republic rambled on like what his office was meant to prevent:
A mad king.
This was that group of 55 white men who attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787, and were delegates from 12 of the 13 secessionist states (minus Rhode Island), intended to future-proof their republic from.
After all, they had already decided that they couldn’t thrive under the rule of the clinically insane George III of England.
The number of attendees eventually dwindled from 55 to 41, with 39 eventually signing the Constitution; 32 were English, Dutch, Irish, Scottish, or Welsh descendants, and 7 were English, Irish, or Scottish immigrants.
A big issue for the signatories was the guarantee of “liberty”.
However, half of the delegates owned slaves.
Hence, the shameful “Three-fifths compromise”.
Despite all that, the core belief contained in that Enlightenment document is that there must be constraints on those who wield political power.
Investing total power in the hands of one person is a recipe for authoritarian darkness.
Dear reader, that is what we are all living through now.
Alarmingly, calls to the US Congress, meant to be a coequal branch of government, seem to be going straight to voicemail at least until after the midterms in November.
On the streets of Minneapolis, ordinary people are facing down the kind of authoritarianism that the Founding Fathers of the United States wanted to prevent.
History isn’t made by Hollywood action heroes but by folk who refuse to accept the diktat of the powerful.
I was reminded of this reality when I received a special consignment from Mayo this week.
My late aunt, who passed away at the end of last year, had put together some family items for me.
It included this.
The war medal of Óglach Michael Derrig is something I will treasure until OUR flag is over MY coffin.
History forgotten is a betrayal.
History remembered is a weapon.
It is time for those in the most powerful state on the planet to reconnect with their revolutionary anti-monarchist past.
I’ve had kith and kin Stateside since the time of An Gorta Mór, so skin in the game.
It will be for history to judge whether the people currently facing down Trump’s ICE militia are made of the same stuff as the Greatest Generation.
No doubt erudite readers will have spotted the literary clue in the title of this piece.
Philip Roth remains one of my favourite American novelists.
It isn’t a coincidence that authoritarian regimes hate writers.
As I have written here, before 1916 was a writer’s rebellion.
If Trump in Davos wasn’t mental enough, then there was a genocide meets real estate pitch moment.
Having a luxurious beachfront apartment over a mass grave isn’t something even Orwell could dream up.
These are indeed dark times.
So, the magnificent triviality of a football match was a welcome relief from the week that’s in it.
Digging out a valuable point in Italy was a tonic.
I shudder to think what would have happened if Wilfried Nancy was still in the dugout in Bologna.
Having Martin O’Neill back in charge gives Celtic one last chance to save the season.
However, it’s the untrammelled power of another septuagenarian that remains the problem at my club…
Perhaps Celtic needs a new constitution!
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US wants the whole western continent and it’s islands, Russia wants Europe, China the eastern continents and the natural resources they bought fairly across the globe, parallels with the run up to WWI imperialist carve up are stark.
It is becoming more likely that only the people of the good old US of A, a fair amount of whom were stupid enough to misplace him again, in the first and second place, are the only ones capable of tearing down his towers of grandiosity and idiocy.
Closer to home a similar, though smaller revolution is required, though probably less likely to occur and succeed, for the same reasons that Scotland fucked up the independence referendum and Ireland has taken so long to get this close. Power, corruption, and lies. It’s all about the money.
Horrible to see events unfolding in America.
Trumps ramblings in Davos were cringy too.
Turning to the fitba, a hard fought draw in Bologna was an unexpected but welcome result in this household.
There is a wee chance of qualifying for the next stage but the squad does need improved. There’s not a lot of time left in the January window. A big one tomorrow away to the diets. More miracles required from Martin and his backroom team to avoid falling further behind HH
US Constitution – Article 1 Section 10
“No state shall…coin money, emit bills of credit, make any thing but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts…”
Nixon “temporarily” closed the gold exchange for the $ in 1971 to stabilise the market , 55 years later that temporary measure is still in effect .
$38.6 Trillion in debt is what happens when there are no restraints on the banks ability to print $$$s out of thin air . The price of gold and silver is exploding or rather the value of those $$$s priced in gold and silver is collapsing . As an example a 1964 quarter (25c) which was 90% silver is today worth $18.68
The Constitution understood that man can be insatiably greedy . The $ is in its death throes and the West will suffer very badly from its collapse.
As JP Morgan was noted “gold is money , everything else is credit”
A constitution so many were afraid to sign on the celebrated day and even more are afraid to live up to all the way til this day
The lauded checks and balances of the usa have been shown not to work and with the lifetime appointments to the various benches it will still be lout of kilter after he is gone
What stops Trump from running as vice president with a puppet at the top of the ticket at the next presidential election
I believe if you’re ineligible to run for President (already served 2 terms in this case), then you’re automatically ineligible to run as Vice-President
When a clown enters a palace it doesn’t turn him into a king. Instead it turns the palace into a circus.