Schedule
Closing Argument: Who Is Voting for Biden, Trump or Kennedy?
Book Recommendation: National Populism
They were very much ahead of schedule… We went out into the backyard where the cocoons were, and two butterflies had hatched. They have now been set free!
The metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a butterfly is truly something spiritual.
I did a quick hit on Richard Syrette yesterday. Gotta keep Canadians apprised of the U.S. madness.
Planned Appearances
Art of the Day: Swiss Master Craft
Patek Phillipe, the Swiss watchmaker whose rare watches can fetch millions at auction. The signature accessory of successful men, and the Swiss tradecraft remains world renowned for a reason. I uncovered the significance after a client gifted me one of their watches years ago, only to uncover I was giving would-be bandits about six-figure reasons to machete my hand off. I generally avoid watches to this day. The artistic rendering of time in the Swiss skill-craft proves an art of its own kind which I leave at home rather than accompany me in public. Indeed, a well-chosen watch can be a valuable asset of a financial freedom plan. My favorite watch I still cherish the most though still recalls my Dad’s favorite watch, a then $49.99 calculator watch he could use to do math in a jam, which he showed off to everybody. It wasn’t Swiss-made, but it represented an equally true form of expression and real wealth.
Book Recommendation
Wealth & Democracy by Kevin Phillips includes a substantial section dedicated to the economic rise and fall of great powers, with a particular focus on trade and industrial policy.
Wisdom of the Day
“The fact that hearings are utilized by the Executive to secure an informed basis for the exercise of summary power does not argue the right of courts to retry such hearings not bespeak denial of due process to withhold such power from the courts.” Justice Frankfurter, Ludecke v. Watkins (1948).
Schedule
Past
Future
Book Recommendation: The VBL book list, a humble 568 of them. An example: Kevin Phillips’ biography of President McKinley, a book enjoyed by President Trump. https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/130921670-robert-barnes?ref=nav_mybooks&shelf=vivabarneslaw
Art of the Day: The effusive ebullience of jazz, the colorful spirit the saxophone sings in its inventive riffs, the chic cool of a jazz club off an alley in Paris or hidden in a cave-like basement in Gotham or enveloped by the memory of history in New Orleans amongst the young folks’ revelry. The explosion of color in the art evinces that echoed memory of jazz clubs on a warm summer night, where everybody is a cool cat. In another life, I’d be a jazz drummer.
Wisdom of the Day: "It was the stage in which they were starting to lose what had been built up by the solid things: industry and physical commerce and agriculture and maritime industries. If we look at what happened to them, it's confirming the dangers of letting yourself get into this posture of thinking that you can provide services and finance to the world and that works. It never has." Kevin Phillips.
Schedule
Future
Book Recommendation: Framed by John Grisham. Non-fiction work on wrongfully convicted.
Art of the Day: Geometric ancient art found on walls, temples, and pottery from centuries ago across civilizations, societies, and geographies around the globe. Recently highlighted by the likes of Graham Hancock and other explorers of ancient civilizations, this unique geometric art depicted here in Greek pottery, represents a kind of collective unconscious across ancient societies. It stood out to me for a different reason: a tattoo artist from Tahiti (where the word tattoo originated) designed an engagement ring tattoo for me a decade+ ago mimicking the same identical design, though I neither requested nor he suggested it. Something deep in the human consciousness calls to this simple symbol of truth in life.
Wisdom of the Day: “The power in the judicial will enable them to mould the government into almost any shape they please.” Brutus, Anti-Federalist, 1788.
Closing Argument: Time to Judge the Judges
