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the DON JONES INDEX… |
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GAINS POSTED in GREEN LOSSES POSTED in RED 9/17/22... 14,953.01 9/17/22... 14,903.37 |
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6/27/13… 15,000.00 |
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(THE DOW JONES
INDEX: 10/1/22… 29,431.73; 9/17/22… 32,151.71; 6/27/13… 15,000.00) |
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LESSON
for September 24, 2022 – “BEAUTY and the BEAST! (Part
Two)”
The first UK state funeral since Winston
Churchill’s in 1965 took place on Monday as Queen Elizabeth II was laid to rest.
A Guardian U.K.
timeline of the services (Attachment One) noted that “(a)t about 9:30am,
Westminster Abbey’s tenor bell started to toll once every minute 96 times”,
marking every year of the Queen’s life.
The coffin, carried
on the state funeral gun carriage from Westminster Hall to the abbey, was followed
by King Charles III and other members of the royal family – arriving at the
West Gate to the strains of the Sentences (“lines from the Bible verse
Revelation 14:13, set to music by William Croft” which have been used at every
state funeral since the 18th century.
After readings including a passage from John 14 by new Prime
Minister Liz Truss, and hymns, the sermon was delivered by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Justin Welby. “People of loving service are rare in any
walk of life,” he said. “Leaders of
loving service are still rarer. But in all cases those
who serve will be loved and remembered when those who cling to power and
privileges are long forgotten.”
(Attachment Two)
More homilies were expressed until, at 11:55 AM (GMT – 5:55 EST)
the Last Post was played, followed by two minutes of silence.
Twenty minutes
later, “the late Queen’s coffin was carried from Westminster Abbey and placed
on the state gun carriage, from where it began the journey to St George’s
chapel in Windsor,” followed by Charles, the family and accompanying musicians,
dignitaries and “detachments from the armed forces of the Commonwealth” in the
traditional Long
Walk accompanied by bells, gunshots and bagpipers.
The Committal
service (which is a graveside service; “Committal” referring to the brief memorial service at the time you commit the body to the ground), attended by about 800 guests, was conducted by the dean of
Windsor, David Conner, with a blessing from the archbishop of Canterbury.
“After the service,
the Queen’s coffin was lowered into the royal vault as the dean read a psalm
and a commendation. At the same time, the Queen’s piper played a lament.”
The Queen’s coffin
will be laid to rest in George VI memorial chapel in St George’s chapel,
alongside Prince Philip and her parents, King George VI and the Queen Mother.
On the day of the funeral, world leaders, politicians, public
figures and those who worked with the Queen, as well as monarchs from other
countries, joined members of the Royal Family to pay their respects.
Westminster Abbey can hold up to 2,200 people. On the day of the
funeral, world leaders, politicians, public figures and those who worked with
the Queen, as well as monarchs from other countries, will join members of the
Royal Family to pay their respects.
The Queen’s four children – King Charles III, Princess Anne,
Prince Andrew and Prince Edward – will be present, as will Camilla, the Queen
Consort, and the monarch’s grandchildren – Princes William and Harry, Peter
Phillips and Zara Tindall, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, and Lady Louise
Windsor and James, Viscount Severn.
(Vanguard, Attachment Three)
Spouses of all close family were present too, including
Catherine, the Princess of Wales, and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. Prime Minister Liz Truss, Labour
leader Keir Starmer and other UK politicians also
attended.
Present, although not invited, was a small spider who hitchhiked
atop the commemorative card that Charles placed atop his mother’s coffin. Some maintained that the arachnid was a
harbinger of good fortune. Others said “Ewww!” (Article:
Attachment Four, video at https://people.com/royals/spider-queen-elizabeth-coffin-spotted-state-funeral-good-omen/
)
Members of Europe’s royal families, from countries including
Spain, the Netherlands, Monaco, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, and Greece, are
likely to fly to London for the funeral, and about 500 foreign dignitaries are
also expected to attend. (A partial list
from Town and Country and last week’s DJI was included as
Attachment Five, re-attached below as... go figure!... Attachment Five)
The Guardian’s
Alexandra Topping explained the symbolism of the crown, orb and scepter atop
the Queen’s coffin. “Nestled among the flowers of the Queen’s funeral wreath was a
handwritten card by her son King Charles III, which read: ‘In loving and
devoted memory, Charles R.’” she wrote.
No symbolic legendermain attached to the spider (Attachment Six) –
except, perhaps, for some of the King’s prior misadventures.
With the conclusion of the
ceremonies, commentators (domestic: Attachment Seven and foreign: Attachment
Eight) said their pieces about the Queen, the new King and the state of the
Empire.
Much of the commentary was inspirational, but some was not
pretty.
Family, royals, commoners and
dignitaries had come to London to mourn the Queen but, as noted in last week’s
lesson, some were not invited. Dictators
like those in Russia and Iran were excluded – and responded with cold
castigatory platitudes (the Queen’s “Dark Legacy from Iran, Attachments Nine A and
B) or hot threats (the “Iron Doll”, a talking skull on Russia State media
stated that the pusillanimous Putin should have nuked QE2’s funeral “today,
when all the best people” were there, Attachments Ten A and B)
The Saudis were invited,
however... and sent a delegation... although a prudent King Salman probably
advised members of the still wealthy, still powerful Bin Laden clan to stay at
home – a consequence of the Nine Eleven, of course, and of another... more
recent kerfluffle.
People with arguments to argue, often
valid, contend that the world is controlled by its past... that history is
merely a tale of the oppressors and oppressed; ugly truths must be told,
revenge must be taken. There are places
where the rites of recrimination date back hundreds, often thousands of
years... the Balkans and the MidEast as well as other
locations where religion has set people against one another. The Uyghur oppression is attributable to
Chinese vengeance for centuries of Mongol domination, the Hindu-Buddhist-Islam
intrigues have plagued South Asia since before the time of Christ and the Islanic/Jewish hostilities preclude the coming of Mohammed
– dating back, as it were, to Old Testament accounts of God’s Chosen People,
the Egyptians and Babylonians. The
destiny of Europe may be attributable to the campaigns of Rome against Carthage
2500 years ago or the even earlier wars of Greece against the Persians and the
Trojans.
For all intents and purposes,
however, the “modern” cycle of victimization and vengeance can be said to begin
with the voyages of Europeans to the New World and, thereafter, the rise of
empires... where the colonial states of what is now The West divided up the
rest of the world in order to exploit and oppress. Anti-colonial revolutions... notably the
American, but insurgencies in the rest of the Americas against the Spanish and
Portuguese overlords, Africa, the Indian subcontinent (still divided and
hostile as a consequence of the partition of India and Pakistan after the
Second World War)... eventually led to political freedom, but economic liberty remains in the grasp of
multinational corporations in many places; fundamental religious fanaticism in
some others. The British Empire, though
diminished in clout, remains territorially alive and one of the primary tasks
of King Charles will be to deal with the anti-colonial sentiment of numerous
members of the Commonwealth.
Thanks to Crusader-hater Saladin,
Christian and European invaders were unable to maintain dominion over the
mutually hostile states of Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia. Instead, the political and economic rulers of
the powers concerned entered into commercial arrangements with one another...
the engagement of Iran and the West substantially retarded after the overthrow
of the Shah, but the more numerous Sunni states in and around the Gulf ably
balanced commercial engagement with religious discord well into and throught the Twentieth Century until the insurgence of
Osama Bin Laden shattered the concord on September 11, 2001.
The spark as ignited a new ethnic
and religious antagonism did not arise from the wretched of the Earth; it was
lit by Osama, a scion of one of the wealthiest familial empires in the Islamic
world.
For the ancestorship
and ongoing connections to the man adjudicated the greatest terrorist on the
planet since the end of the Second World War, remarkably little has been
written about the Bin Laden family and their black sheep save a perfunctory
biography in the Encyclopedia Brittanica (Attachment
Fifteen).
in 1957 as one of fifty some children by six wives to Muhamed bin Laden, a small-time contractor from Yemen who
became rich and powerful along with the Saudi oil boom of the 1970’s... but
glosses over particulars detailed in Bodansky’s book
- for example, his days as an economics student at Abdul Aziz University in
Jedda. There, as one of many privileged
and dissolute playboys who escaped the confines of Saudi Arabia for weekends of
debauchery and decadence in “cosmopolitan Beirut”, where he frequented “flashy
casinos, nightclubs and bars”, indulging in drinking, whoring and brawling...
always protected by privilege.
In the seventies, the Lebanese civil war curtailed his escapades and,
commissioned by his father to work on some of the magnificent mosques of Mecca
and Medina, regained an attachment to faith (which taught that the troubles of
the Lebanese were a God-imposed punishment for their wayward and dissolute
culture). The disasters of the Yom
Kippur War and the assassination of beloved King Faisal by “a deranged nephew”
who followed the lure of the West, coupled with the concomitant profligacy
engendered by the oil boom also created a culture war, of sorts, and the
orthodox preachers and teachers of Abdul Aziz declared, in no uncertain terms,
that: “only an absolute and unconditional return to the fold of conservative
Islamism” would protect the youth from “inherent dangers and sins of the West.”
By the time that the Ayatollah Khomeini’s legions overthrew the American
puppet, the Shah, in 1979, the young Bin Laden had become an enthusiastic,
perhaps fanatical, adherent of Islamic fundamentalism – advocating war against
the decadent West. But when conflict
came, it was in Afghanistan where Russian troops invaded and imposed a
Communist dictatorship – one which true believers found to be as offensive as
anything to be found in the United States, the United Kingdom or any colonialist
gang of heretics.
One of many foreign “freedom fighters” who went to Afghanistan to fight the Russians, the EB states that: “NairobiKenyaDar es SalaamTanzaniaYemen
Perhaps he was assuaged by the Bin Laden clan’s dedication to capitalism.
So, inquiring minds have to wonder
whether it was a strange desire to re-establish relationships with one of the private
powers of the Islamic world, cupidity, or sheer dog-stupidity that possessed
Prince Charles to accept a bribe... a kinder, gentler bribe in the form of a million pound contribution to The Prince of Wales's
Charitable Fund (PWCF) charity... from the Bin Laden family.
Prince Charles accepted the money
from Bakr and Shafiq, two of Osama Bin Laden's half-brothers in 2013, two years
after the al-Qaeda leader was killed, the Sunday
Times reported. (Picked
up by the BBC: July 31, 2022, Attachment Sixteen)
The (PWCF) received the donation.
Clarence House said it had been
assured by PWCF that "thorough due diligence" had been conducted, and
the decision to accept the money lay with the trustees.
“Any attempt to characterise it otherwise is false," it told the BBC.
“False” characterizations,
nonetheless, spewed from the pens of tabloid terrorists like the ink from the
King’s malfunctioning pen:
A source at the Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund told the
BBC’s Royal Correspondent, Johnny Dymond, that
"the sins of the father" - that's Osama Bin Laden - should not
disqualify other members of the family from making a donation.
(BBC Attachment Twenty One)
Dymond allowed
that this makes sense but, once it was public – “however many checks were made
and rules were followed” - it was “always going to look horrible.”
A colleague, Security Correspondent Frank Gardner, concurred
(Attachment Twenty Two) stating that “to millions of
Saudis, the name Bin Laden is totally innocuous.”
And, across
the waves, the New York Post’s Michael Kaplan interviewed survivors and family
members of the Beast’s terror – the father of one deceased firefighter
declaring that he was “pissed off” at the Royal antics, while others attributed
the King’s folly to “greed”, called the proceeds “blood money” and the incident
“disgraceful.”
“It’s shocking and makes my skin crawl,” declared a Nine Eleven widow;
“I will never go to England. I thought they were our allies.” (8/2/22.
Attachment Twenty Three)
Cozying up to the terrorist’s
family has been the new King’s most egregious error, but Charles has
dis-endeared himself to the world and to his subjects in other ways which will
only swell in significance as the pomp and ceremony of the Royal Funeral fades
and the seven-decades of affection for his mother recedes.
The Royal Family was already in
the loo (to use Britspeak) over several incidents...
a young Prince Harry was once vilified for wearing a Nazi armband to a costume
party before, of course, marrying the... uh, darker-complexioned... Meghan Markle, provoking old racial
hostilities which, allegedly, included the King, and a break with brother and
heir apparent Billy – the escalation of which, or easing of which, was much
mentioned in the U.K.’s famous tabloid press.
And then there was Andrew’s wild
ride – revisited after a heckler reprimanded the Prince as a “sick old man” and
controversy flared up over the Queens revocation of his honours...
Randy Andy being forced to wear a common suit amidst his uniformed fellow
Royals during the ceremony. (Time, 9/13,
Attachment Twenty Four)
And then two more Charleshoppers surfaced after the funeral... the sick and
sordid story of long-time household retainers being unceremoniously booted out
of Clarence House and revelations that he, like the other royals, pays no
income tax at a time when the ordinary gobs and gals are struggling with inflation
worse than America’s.
Dozens of Clarence House staff
have been given notice of redundancies as the offices of King Charles and the
Queen Consort move to Buckingham Palace after the death of the Queen according
to the ubiquitous (and liberal) Guardian U.K.
(9/13/22, Attachment Twenty Five).
Up to 100 employees at the King’s
former official residence, including some who have worked there for decades,
received notification that they could lose their jobs just as they were working
round the clock to smooth his elevation to the throne.
Private secretaries, the finance
office, the communications team and household staff are among those who
received notice during the thanksgiving service for the Queen, at St Giles’
Cathedral in Edinburgh on Monday, that their posts were on the line.
A Clarence House spokesman said:
“Following last week’s accession, the operations of the household of the former
Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall have ceased and, as required by law, a
consultation process has begun. Our staff have given long and loyal service
and, while some redundancies will be unavoidable, we are working urgently to
identify alternative roles for the greatest number of staff.”
Staff who are made redundant are
expected to be offered searches for alternative employment across all royal
households, assistance in finding new jobs externally and an “enhanced”
redundancy payment beyond the statutory minimum.
Pippa
Crerar and Caroline Davies of the GUK went out into the street
searching for reactions and encountered more than a few. (Attachment Twenty Six)
Podiatrist
Christhell Hobbs said of the staff facing redundancy:”I think it’s sad. They
have families they have to support.”
Hobbs,
who left Farilight near Hastings in East Sussex first
thing in the morning to see the Queen’s coffin arrive on Tuesday evening,
added: “Many of them have put in many good years of service and now they’re
told ‘we don’t want you’. You have to be human about this.”
These
firings yanked the chain of young and old, Conservative and Labour
alike. A political student commisserated: “[these are] people who’ve been working hard
and are faithful and loyal. Nobody deserves to be fired because someone dies.”
“I
don’t think this was a good time to do it right now,” seconded a fashion
student.
But
a fifty-something property developer self-identified as “an enthusiastic
royalist” conceded: “It is bad timing. It’s not what you would expect because
it’s so soon.”
If the precipitous sacking of the
new King’s staff engendered disappointment and sympathy, news that Charles III,
pays no taxes spawned anger.
“It is only proper that the new
King pays no inheritance tax,” observed the leftist GUK’s even leftier corresponden Aditya Chakrabortty,
saying (Thu 15 Sep 2022 01.00 EDT, Attachment Twenty
Seven) that the state (and, by inference King Charles) makes
citizens choose between heating or eating
“It has not been widely reported, but
King Charles won’t have to pay a penny of inheritance tax on the vast estate
passed to him by one of the wealthiest women in the world. Nor is he under any
legal obligation to pay income
tax;
he does so voluntarily. This has been the arrangement only since 1993. For
decades beforehand, the monarchy paid no tax at all.
“One law for King Charles the
billionaire, another for you. Bailiffs for the poorest in society, privileged
exemption for the very richest. A society with all the latest technology and
sophistication, yet still in the shadow of medieval feudalism. Except even John
of Gaunt couldn’t have counted on the unstinting support of the Daily Mail.”
Summing up the day, after the
funeral, a more thoughtful GUK meditation asked whether the personality of the
Queen (probably never to be repeated) overshadowed the evils of the
empire. Spare a thought/laugh for the many
puffed-up presidents and prime ministers and global bigwigs present in the
Abbey imagining their own future send-offs, and realising
that compared to this, those would tend toward the low-key,” appealed
correspondent Marina Hyde. (Attachment Twenty Eight)
“But still they pay obeisance,
with even the Japanese emperor submitting to the supposed indignity of
park-and-ride coaches to the Abbey,” Hyde added. “For all her celebrated lack
of vanity, one can’t imagine those image-conscious courtiers would ever have
let the Queen herself be just another figure emerging from an international
dignitary bus. So there remains something undeniably unique about her final
event, in a church whose building was begun by Edward the Confessor almost a
thousand years ago. All flags on public buildings in the United States have
flown at half-mast for a full 10 days. Landmarks around the world shone
red, white and blue (the English, as
well as American hues), or went dark. It is difficult to
imagine another figure for whom all these things would have been done.
“Was she, then, bigger than the
club? After initial scepticism about her youth on
accession, Winston Churchill very quickly came to believe that the Queen was
something more than merely special.”
Bigger than Charles, at least
according to another GUK dispatch (Attachment Twenty Nine)...
this by Stephen Bates, described as their “former religious and royal
correspondent” and author of “The Shortest History of the Crown”. Bates proposed five irreligious changes (some
serious, some not) that the King could make which, in his opinion and probably
that of most left-thinking Brits who take the Guardian along with their morning
quinoa and whatever passes for Starbucks’ frappes over there. They were...
Inheritance
and corporation tax (reform)
A
slimmed-down monarchy
Giving
up Buckingham Palace (he suggested selling it to Donald Trump for a hotel/casino)
Reforming
the honours system (CDC’s Jack Parnell suggested the
opposite... selling off American royal
titles to attack the deficit), and
Banning
leaky pens
And finally, the GUKsters surveyed press dispatches from around the
nation. Their own main image displayed
the bearer party taking the Queen’s coffin up the steps into the darkened
entrance of the George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle. The Financial Times looked
from above at the coffin in the nave of Westminster Abbey and chose a quote
from Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, for
its headline: “People of loving service are rare in any walk of life. Leaders
of loving service are still rarer.”
The Telegraph homed
in on a tender moment for its main image, showing King Charles placing the
Company Camp Colour of the Grenadier Guards on the
Queen’s coffin. “An outpouring of love” was the headline, above Hannah
Furness’s five-column report on the day.
The Mail opted
for image of the coffin being lowered into the vault at St George’s chapel,
Windsor, with the headline: “Her final journey” for its bumper 120-page
edition.
Further afield, the timings
allowed Australian papers enough time to place their own poignant tributes on
their front pages. Amid debate about whether
Charles should be Australia’s head of state, Tuesday’s papers were united in
covering the occasion in subdued tones. The Age (“The final farewell”)
and Sydney
Morning Herald (“We’ll meet again”) both
showed the Queen’s coffin being guided into Windsor Castle, while the Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph sought
to capture the feeling of readers with their headlines: “Thank you, our Queen”, and “Rest in peace, Ma’am”
respectively. Adelaide’s Advertiser went
with the headline “Eternal Queen”, and Queensland’s Courier Mail went
for “Thank you, our Queen”. National paper the Australian calls
the late monarch “Elizabeth the great” and focuses on the grief-stricken
expression of King Charles for its image, with the headline, another: “We’ll
meet again”, perhaps an echo of Welby’s reference to
Vera Lynn’s song, which the Queen used in a broadcast during the worst of the Covid pandemic (and, of course, during World War Two. (Attachment Thirty).
Iran and Russia chose a different
path, as above. China weaponized the
funeral to round up nostalgics and subversives; A Hongkonger who played a harmonica to a crowd outside the
British consulate during Elizabeth II’s funeral was arrested for sedition. After 2019’s democracy protests, China has
cracked down on dissent in Hong Kong using national security legislation and charges
of sedition.
The latter is a colonial-era law
that had fallen into obscurity for decades until prosecutors reintroduced it in
the aftermath of the protests. Police
said a 43-year-old man surnamed Pang was arrested outside the consulate for
“seditious acts”. A police source confirmed to AgenceFrance
Press (Attachment Thirty One) that the man arrested
was the harmonica player.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle headed
home to California, Vanity Fair reported on Thursday, after Queen Elizabeth’s death extended their visit
overseas. (Attachment Thirty
Two)
The royal couple flew home from
the UK on Tuesday following their mourning period, and one day after attending the late monarch’s funeral service; Harry highlighting the queen’s
commitment to serving the United Kingdom.
“In celebrating the life of my grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen—and in mourning her loss—we are all reminded of
the guiding compass she was to so many in her commitment to service and duty,”
the Prince wrote.
While
half the “Fab Four” were flying back to California, Kate and William, back at
home, expressed their appreciation for “those behind the scenes who facilitated
the Queen’s final televised funeral ritual” (unlike his father, giving them the
sack), and discussed the rainbows that had appeared over several of the
historic sites over the week, noted Thursday’s People Magazine (Attachment Thirty Three). “Her
Majesty was looking down on us,” Princess Kate replied.
Still, after the ceremonies, however, with the U.K.
and much of the world was still under the spell of the dead Queen and the
centuries-old trappings of power, ritual and pageantry as well as ancient
grudges – newly excavated. “So the Queen died, Lizzie kicked the
bucket, she’s out of here,” wrote an irreverent Danny Price from Hunger (Attachment Thirty Four...
presumably a publication or website of some sort). “Let’s be real, she was 96, she had great
innings, and this was expected. Was it sad?….for me,
no, but for a lot of people, it was devastating.”
During the course of the funeral,
he added, there was war in Ukraine, racial strife, economic hardship and, to
all intents and purposes, anarchy in the U.K. Climate change and Covid-19 deaths
are vastly ignored. And forget about
bringing up colonialism, as you would have surely been met with the response of
“now is not the time”. So, “when is the right time?” asked Mr. Price.
People in other countries and
media in other countries are saying that this is the beginning of societal
collapse in the UK. Earlier this month, a certain Professor
Eliot Jacobson stated that the UK is likely to be the
first world country to implode due to Brexit, government spending, corruption,
and inflation.
And the expense of sustaining the
royalty.
And Prince Andrew.
And, just yesterday, it became
apparent that the new King’s stumbling and fumbling regarding the character of
his charities continues apace. “In the
last two years, Charles has pretty much only done two things that have come to
the public’s attention: one, accepting millions of Euros from a suspicious
title seeker in a suitcase and/or carrier bag, and the other… accepting
millions of pounds from the Bin Laden family for his charity,” scowled the Man
from Hunger (above). “Charles will be a
fine King.”
The Bin Laden swag we have already
noted. But now, the Guardian (Attachment
Thirty Five) and... notably... the Kuwait Times
(Attachment Thirty Six) chronicled Charlie’s convening with either the Saudi
billionaire (GUK) or Qatari sheikh (Kuwait)... or both.
The Metropolitan
police confirmed
that on 6 September officers interviewed a man in his 50s and a man in his 40s
under caution in relation to offences under the Honours
(Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925.
The
force launched the investigation in February after media reports alleged offers
of help were made to secure honours and citizenship
for a Saudi national.
In
September last year, the Sunday Times published claims that the
billionaire Mahfouz Marei
Mubarak bin Mahfouz paid tens of thousands of pounds to
fixers with links to Charles who had told him they could secure the honour.
Bin
Mahfouz was awarded a CBE at a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace in
November 2016.
Bin
Mahfouz has been one of the biggest donors to Charles’s charities and even has
a forest named after him, the Mahfouz Wood, at the 15th-century Castle of Mey, formerly the Queen Mother’s home and now one of
Charles’s Scottish residences.
When
the allegations surfaced, the Prince’s Foundation launched an internal
investigation, which in turn led to one of Charles’s former closest aides,
Michael Fawcett, 59, temporarily stepping down as the foundation’s chief
executive.
Fawcett, a former valet to the
Prince of Wales who has been close to Queen Elizabeth II’s heir for decades, is
alleged to have coordinated efforts to grant a royal honour
and even UK citizenship to Mahfouz. The
King, of course, denies that any quid pro Qatario
took place... and even if it did, it was legal.
Legal, but as one of the Nine
Eleven victims remarked, above (Attachment Twenty Three),
“blood money.”
The public affinity gap between Queen
and posterity (Anne, who did a lot of the hard work of the services excepted)
was, so it would seem, enormous.
|
Timeline (non-QE2) |
September 17th – September 23rd, 2022 |
|
|
Saturday, September 17, 2022 Dow: 32,151.71 |
QE2 security reports that the wait-in-line time is down to fourteen
hours as thousands of mourness mass to say goodbye
to the monarch. The funeral is set for
Monday at 11AM GMT (6 AM EST). In the aftermath of the
political “stunts” being pulled by Govs. Ron deSantis (R-Fl)... raiding the
plague settlement coffers to fly migrants to ritzy Martha’s Vinyard... and Greg Abbott (R-Tx)... busing them to Veep Kamala Harris’ house in Washington, the Mayor of El
Paso makes his case for extreme measures.
4,000 refugees from Venezuela alone have descended upon the West Texas
town, half of whom are unsponsored.
Without jobs or homes or places in which to hold them, many are
sleeping on the streets – terrifying residents. Also terrified are residents
of Puerto Rico, where Hurricane Fiona is taking aim at... the island’s power
grid still shaky five years after Maria stirred the pot. And on the other side of the continent,
Typhoon Merbok blasts the coast of Alaska. Weatherpersons call the storms “Historic!” |
|
|
Sunday, September 18th, 2022 Dow: Closed |
It’s POW/MIA Day. Also National Cheeseburger Day. Thousands of British security police mobilizing to protect five
hundred world leaders from, as the pundits put it, “protesters, pickpockets
and terrorists.” Some of the more
amiable pickpockets are the merchers who are
cashing in on thousands of Queenly pilgrims.
Hotels raise rates. The bobbies
warn people to stop coming to stand in the line, but they keep coming. Russians keep going... in
reverse. But in revenge for Ukrainian
military victors, Bad Vlad carpet bombs more civilian targets, including the
enemy’s second largest nuclear plant, raising more cries of nuclear
terror. So far, 34,000 war crimes have
been reported with more emerging as more bodies are dug up out of fields and
basements in liberated towns. After a two
year plague hiatus... and despite the power pinch caused by Angry
Russians, Germany resumes celebrating Oktoberfest. |
|
|
Monday, September 19th, 2022 Dow: 31.019.68 |
The Queen’s funeral begins early in the morning, even earlier American
time. Prince Harry is forbidden to
wear his military uniform but comes anyway, as do many thousands while an
estimated four billion watch the services on television. The Archbishop of Canterbury charges: “Go
forth, Christian sould.” King Charles cries. The piper who woke QE2 up mornings plays
“Sleep, Dearie, Sleep” and Queenly homilies are recalled such as the advice:
“Look up. Look out. Say less.
Do more.” And then, as mourners follow
the casket out of Westminster, the talkers on TV networks resume their
talking during “the long walk”... the three mile
procession from Westminster to Windsor.
Ian Pannell predicts “a void”.
Robin Roberts predicts that Charles will remain under the thumb of
Princess Anne, who has done most of the heavy lifting over the past week; he
leaves an inspirational note in an envelope placed atop the coffin (down
which a spider crawls). Everybody
sings: “God Save the King”. An ocean away, Puerto Rico is
devastated by Fiona – eighty percent of residents without power. And, although the services have been
remarkably free of crime and violence (perhaps due to the massive security
mobilization), the CEO of Beyond Meat is accused of biting a man on the nose. |
|
|
Tuesday,
September 20th, 2022 Dow: 30,706.23 |
Flags in the U.K. go back to full staff and the world goes back to
doing what it does... most, if not always best... making money. Ford announces a price increase, blaming
the supply chain. Russia officially annexes its
captured Ukrainian territory – quickly, it is said, before the people who
live there reclaim it. Iran, being
Iran, executes a woman for improper dress.
And the One Six Inquisition resumes with Judge Dearie (referred to as
Judge Drearie by some mediums) disappointing his
patron by telling Team Trump to “put up or shut up”. Doctors report that plague
infections and deaths are down but STDs are way, way up. Some of them blame the pandemic related
quarantines. |
|
|
Wednesday,
September 21st, 2022 Dow: 30,183.78 |
It’s World Alzheimer’s
Day. And the world is already
beginning to forget QE2 and get back to its business... which is, well, business. For decadent Westerners, the business
means money – who gains and who loses.
As expected, the Federal Reserve raises interest rates: gladdening
some, maddening others. For Mad Vlad Putin, the business means
doubling down on the Ukraine War; despite certainty that his move to call up
reserves and impose a sort of draft upon the population, the dictator pulls
the pin anyway – raising an army of 300,000 (including prisoners seeking
pardons and conscripted protesters) to fight the Ukes. Experts predict that they’ll be cannon
fodder for Zelenskyy’s experienced and desperate
troops. For President Joe, a trip to New York Cit y where he appears before the United Nations and
tells the assembled diplomats that Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons
against the Ukes is “irresponsible”. |
|
|
Thursday,
September 22nd, 2022 Dow:
30,076,68 |
It’s the first day of Fall.
First frost of fall manifests in Manitoba, and in Minnesota. Fiona spins away to the north, leaving
another massive Puerto Rican cleanup behind. Putin’s threats of escalation
sends gas prices rising again after months of
decline... just in time for winter and the heating fuel season. Fool season marches on as former President
Trump says that a President can declassify classified documents “just by
thinking about them.” When the courts
find that unlikely, Djonald Undeterred pivots and
says that the FBI planted fake, incriminating documents upon the real ones. Iran’s “morality police”,
facing accusations of murder, double down on illegal and irresponsible
fashion, with the result being that the mob follows Russians out in the
street to loot and riot. |
|
|
Friday,
September 23rd, 2022 Dow: 29,590.41 |
Fiona batters Bermuda and then heads due north, making another
landfall in the Canadian maratimes. Down in the Caribbean another storm, soon
confirmed to be Ian (even the hurricans have
British names in honor of the Queen) takes a path that might result in a
direct hit on Tampa. Experts predict a “mild”
recession with unemployment rising from 3.7% to 4.4% meaning that, with
Congress refusing to extend the plague benefits, a prognosis of hunger,
homelessness and a Republican sweep in the midterms. Early estimates are that pandemic fraud
raked in 45B in fake unemployment claims. Russia begins its own
elections – or, at least, imposes them on occupied Ukraine with a referendum
on being annxed by Putin or not. Russian troops go door to door to get out
the vote with machine gun totin’ soldiers following
to separate out the naughty and the nice. |
|
|
@ |
|
|
|
|
CATEGORY |
VALUE |
BASE |
RESULTS |
SCORE |
OUR SOURCES and COMMENTS |
|
|||||||||
|
INCOME |
(24%) |
6/17/13 & 1/1/22 |
LAST |
CHANGE |
NEXT |
9/3/22 |
9/17/22 |
SOURCE |
|
||||||
|
Wages (hrly. Per cap) |
9% |
1350 points |
9/17/22 |
+0.44% |
10/22 |
1,381.63 |
1,381.63 |
|
|||||||
|
Median Inc. (yearly) |
4% |
600 |
9/17/22 |
+0.03% |
10/1/22 |
603.79 |
603.79 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 36,010 020 030 |
|
||||||
|
Unempl. (BLS – in mi) |
4% |
600 |
9/17/22 |
-5.41% |
10/22 |
616.25 |
616.25 |
|
|||||||
|
Official (DC – in mi) |
2% |
300 |
9/17/22 |
-0.14% |
10/1/22 |
315.86 |
315.86 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 5,620
6.015 014.911 |
|
||||||
|
Unofficl. (DC – in mi) |
2% |
300 |
9/17/22 |
+0.03% |
10/1/22 |
286.22 |
286.22 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 11,829 519
514 |
|
||||||
|
Workforce Particip. Number Percent |
2% |
300 |
9/17/22 |
+0.007% -0.007% |
10/1/22 |
299.72 |
299.72 |
In 158,356 756 767 Out 100,157 99.444 447 Total: 258,513 |
|
||||||
|
WP % (ycharts)* |
1% |
150 |
9/17/22 |
+0.48% |
9/17/22 |
150.48 |
150.48 |
https://ycharts.com/indicators/labor_force_participation_rate 62.40 |
|
||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
15% |
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Total Inflation |
7% |
1050 |
8/22 |
nc |
10/1/22 |
1010.64 |
1010.64 |
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.1 |
|
||||||
|
Food |
2% |
300 |
8/22 |
+1.1% |
10/1/22 |
289.34 |
286.15 |
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.8 |
|
||||||
|
Gasoline |
2% |
300 |
8/22 |
-7.7% |
10/1/22 |
221.46 |
238.50 |
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm -10.6 |
|
||||||
|
Medical Costs |
2% |
300 |
8/22 |
+0.4% |
10/1/22 |
293.45 |
292.28 |
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm
+0.4 0.8 |
|
||||||
|
Shelter |
2% |
300 |
8/22 |
+0.5% |
10/1/22 |
293.46 |
291.99 |
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.5.7 |
|
||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
WEALTH |
6% |
|
|
|
|||||||||||
|
Dow Jones Index |
2% |
300 |
9/17/22 |
-2.66% |
10/1/22 |
267.85 |
267.85 |
https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/index/ 32,151.71 30,822.42 |
|
||||||
|
Home (Sales) (Valuation) |
1% 1% |
150 150 |
9/17/22 |
-6.05% -2.93% |
10/1/22 |
154.06 309.58 |
154.06 309.58 |
https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics Sales (M): 4.81 4.80 Valuations (K): 403.8
389.5 |
|
||||||
|
Debt (Personal) |
2% |
300 |
9/17/22 |
+0.11% |
10/1/22 |
290.28 |
290.28 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 70,962 913
985 |
|
||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
NATIONAL |
(10%) |
|
|
|
|||||||||||
|
Revenue (trilns.) |
2% |
300 |
9/17/22 |
+0.18% |
10/1/22 |
325.77 |
325.77 |
debtclock.org/ 4,456
763 827 |
|
||||||
|
Expenditures (tr.) |
2% |
300 |
9/17/22 |
+0.30% |
10/1/22 |
332.14 |
332.14 |
debtclock.org/ 5,903
6019 6003 |
|
||||||
|
National Debt tr.) |
3% |
450 |
9/17/22 |
+0.05% |
10/1/22 |
441.43 |
441.43 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 30,879 894
909 |
|
||||||
|
Aggregate Debt (tr.) |
3% |
450 |
9/17/22 |
+0.16% |
10/1/22 |
436.83 |
436.83 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 92,572 716
861 |
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
GLOBAL |
(5%) |
|
|
|
|||||||||||
|
Foreign Debt (tr.) |
2% |
300 |
9/17/22 |
+0.03% |
10/1/22 |
325.58 |
325.58 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 7,413 412 410 |
|
||||||
|
Exports (in billions) |
1% |
150 |
9/17/22 |
+1.60% |
9/22 |
163.46 |
163.46 |
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/index.html 260.0 259.3 |
|
||||||
|
Imports (bl.) |
1% |
150 |
9/17/22 |
+0.29% |
9/22 |
153.99 |
153.99 |
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/index.html 340.4
329.9 |
|
||||||
|
Trade Deficit (bl.) |
1% |
150 |
9/17/22 |
-7.41% |
9/22 |
210.77 |
210.77 |
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/index.html 79.6 70,6 |
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
SOCIAL INDICES
(40%) |
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
ACTS of MAN |
12% |
|
|
|
|||||||||||
|
World Affairs |
3% |
450 |
9/17/22 |
-1.5% |
10/1/22 |
458.53 |
458.53 |
QE2 funeral set for 6AM EST on Tuesday. The coffin watching line drops to 14 hours,
but starts rising again. London
bobbies prepare for outbreaks of protest and pickpocketing. |
|
||||||
|
Terrorism |
2% |
300 |
9/17/22 |
-0.2% |
10/1/22 |
296.01 |
296.01 |
U.S. trades Afghan druglord for
Taliban hostage. Russians stop
shelling Zaporizhazha, but rain missiles on another
nuke plant. Iran’s “morality police”
kill woman for wearing headscarf wrong way.
Everybody riots!... Iranians burn hijabs, Russians burn Russian flags. |
|
||||||
|
Politics |
3% |
450 |
9/17/22 |
+0.2% |
10/1/22 |
467.38 |
467.38 |
NY AyGee Leticia James calls Trumpish transactions “art of the steal.” Gini Thomas agrees to testify before One
Six Inquisitors. U.N. begins hearings
on Putin’s War but failure already assured due to Russian veto power. What will China do? |
|
||||||
|
Economics |
3% |
450 |
9/17/22 |
+0.1% |
10/1/22 |
438.39 |
438.39 |
Fed raises interest rates 0.75%.
Ford raises prices, blames supply chain. Inflation causing decline in youth
sports. Target to hire 100K holiday
temps; WalMart only 40K, down from 2021. DOJ investigates Google as a monopoly
(well, 92% of one). FTC investigates
Amazon’s gobbling of iRobot. |
|
||||||
|
Crime |
1% |
150 |
9/17/22 |
-0.7% |
10/1/22 |
285.89 |
285.89 |
Dozens arrested (Brett Favre investigated) in $250M Miss. child
nutrition scam. Kidnapped Hawaiian
girl rescued, abductor nabbed.
Washington monument defaced with red paint. |
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
ACTS of GOD |
(6%) |
|
|
|
|||||||||||
|
Environment/Weather |
3% |
450 |
9/17/22 |
+0.2% |
10/1/22 |
440.27 |
440.27 |
As Fiona heads towards Eastern Canada, typhoon Merbok pounds Alaska’s West Coast. New tropical storm gets named... Ian... and
heads for Tampa. |
|
||||||
|
Disasters |
3% |
450 |
9/17/22 |
-0.4% |
10/1/22 |
440.94 |
440.94 |
7.6 EQ shakes Puerto Vallarta, Mexico followed by 6.8 aftershock
and mad typhoon bedevils Philippines.
Fentanyl OD survivor complains: “Nobody knows what they’re taking
anymore.” Newark to Brazil flight
catches fire but lands safely. |
|
||||||
|
LIFESTYLE/JUSTICE INDEX |
(15%) |
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Science, Tech, Educ. |
4% |
600 |
9/17/22 |
-0.3% |
10/1/22 |
616.66 |
616.66 |
Japanese invent Jetsonistic hover bike
that retails for only $777K. But
American flying car company Kittyhawk goes broke. Food scientists invent purple tomatoes,
said to be healthier. |
|
||||||
|
Equality (econ/social) |
4% |
600 |
9/17/22 |
-0.1% |
10/1/22 |
590.42 |
590.42 |
Alex Jones exasperated – refuses to apologize for calling Sandy
Hook a hoax and parents hoaxers. Climate warriors fight to ban natural gas
from furnaces and stoves... Now! Let
the bastards freeze in the dark! |
|
||||||
|
Health |
4% |
600 |
9/17/22 |
-0.1% |
10/1/22 |
486.96 |
486.96 |
To accompany plague, Monkeypox and flu season, doctors now say
that STD cases are out of control. Anxious
doctors say that everybody under 65 should get anxiety screening. Lemons for Leukemia raises money for bone
marrow donors. |
|
||||||
|
Freedom and Justice |
3% |
450 |
9/17/22 |
-0.2% |
10/1/22 |
450.39 |
450.39 |
Border states groaning under refugee crisis – 4,000 Venezuelans
alone fleeing Communism in 2022.
Lawyers mobilize to address busing stunts. Boeing settles to air crash lawsuits. Angry judge raises sentence on
“manipulative” fake kidnap victim Sherri Papini
from 8 to 18 months. California
legalizes human composting. |
|
||||||
|
MISCELLANEOUS
and TRANSIENT INDEX |
(7%) |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
Cultural incidents |
3% |
450 |
9/17/22 |
+0.1% |
10/1/22 |
465.62 |
465.62 |
Aaron Judge slams 60th homer, ties Babe Ruth. Vegas Aces beat Conn. to take WNBA
title. Celtics suspend Coach Udoka for having sex... with a female! Sir Elton
plays the White House and President Joe gives him a medal. Failing Hollywood trying to squeeze money
out of recycling old favorites like “Avatar” (One) and “The Bodyguard”. RIP Hollywood villain Henry Silva, base
thief Maury Wills |
|
||||||
|
Misc. incidents |
4% |
450 |
9/17/22 |
+0.1% |
10/1/22 |
461.44 |
461.44 |
“Beyond Meat” CEO bites man on the
nose. On the Continent, Germans prepare
for resumption of Oktoberfest after a two year
plague hiatus. |
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
The Don Jones
Index for the week of September 17th through September 23rd,
2022 was DOWN 6.76 points
The Don Jones Index is sponsored by the Coalition for a New
Consensus: retired Congressman and Independent Presidential candidate Jack
“Catfish” Parnell, Chairman; Brian Doohan,
Administrator. The CNC denies,
emphatically, allegations that the organization, as well as any of its officers
(including former Congressman Parnell, environmentalist/America-Firster Austin
Tillerman and cosmetics CEO Rayna Finch) and references to Parnell’s works,
“Entropy and Renaissance” and “The Coming Kill-Off” are fictitious or, at best,
mere pawns in the web-serial “Black Helicopters” – and promise swift, effective
legal action against parties promulgating this and/or other such slanders.
Comments, complaints, donations
(especially SUPERPAC donations) always welcome at feedme@generisis.com or: speak@donjonesindex.com.
ATTACHMENT ONE – from the Guardian U.K.
QUEEN ELIZABETH II’S FUNERAL: TIMELINE OF DAY’S KEY
MOMENTS
A guide to proceedings of first state funeral since Winston Churchill’s
in 1965
By Tobi Thomas Mon 19 Sep 2022 11.38 EDT
The
first UK state funeral since Winston Churchill’s in 1965 will take place on
bank holiday Monday for Queen Elizabeth II. Here
is a guide of what will happen at key moments throughout the day.
6.30am
(all times BST) – The Queen’s lying in state ended
The
Queen’s lying in state, in which her closed coffin has been placed on view to the
public at Westminster Hall since Wednesday, came to an end in the early hours
of Monday morning. An estimated 300,000 people queued to pay their respects,
with the wait time reaching an estimated 17 hours.
8am –
Westminster Abbey opened for the congregation
The
abbey opened to the congregation attending the Queen’s funeral. The event,
which will be one of the largest gatherings of heads of states and royalty the
UK has hosted in decades, will be attended by European royal families and world
leaders.
As
the abbey opened, the King’s Guard trooped through the gates of the building,
with two soldiers stationed at the metal gates awaiting the start of the
proceedings.
At
about 9:30am, Westminster Abbey’s tenor bell started to toll once every minute
96 times in the run-up to the funeral service, marking every year of the
Queen’s life.
10.30am
– The Queen’s coffin is carried by gun carriage to the abbey
The
coffin was carried on the state funeral gun carriage from Westminster Hall to
the abbey, towed by 142 sailors from the Royal Navy. The tradition dates to the
funeral of Queen Victoria in 1901.
Shortly
before, the King arrived at the Palace of Westminster after driving the short
distance from Buckingham Palace.
10.44am
– The royal family followed the coffin into the abbey
King
Charles III, joined by the royal family as well as members of the household,
followed the coffin as it made its journey from Westminster Hall to Westminster
Abbey, via gun carriage.
The
coffin was draped in the royal standard, and carries the imperial state crown
and a wreath of flowers containing plants from the gardens of Buckingham
Palace, Clarence House and Highgrove House.
The
procession was also led by 299 pipers and drummers of Scottish and Irish
Regiments, the Brigade of Gurkhas and RAF.
10.52am
– The procession arrives at Westminster Abbey
The
procession carrying the Queen’s coffin has arrived at the West Gate of
Westminster Abbey.
The
bearer party –comprising members of the Queen’s guard – have carried the coffin
from the gun carriage and into the funeral service.
The
procession from Westminster Hall took about eight minutes, and as the coffin entered
the abbey, the choir sang the Sentences, lines from the Bible verse Revelation
14:13, set to music by William Croft. The lines have been used at every state
funeral since the 18th century.
11am
– The service begins
The service, which is being led by the dean
of Westminster, Dr David Hoyle, has commenced.
The
First Lesson was read by Patricia Scotland, the secretary general of the
Commonwealth. The Lesson is taken from Corinthians 15.
The
first hymn – The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, is Ended –
was written by John Ellerton.
The
prime minister of the UK, Liz Truss, read the second lesson, from John 14.
The
second hymn – The Lord’s My Shepherd – was sung to the Crimond
tune.
The
sermon, delivered by the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby,
describing the Queen as having been “joyful, present to so many, touching a
multitude of lives”.
After
Welby’s sermon, the choir sang My Soul, there is a
country by Hubert Parry.
Subsequently,
a series of church leaders offered prayers.
The
Church of Scotland’s Reverend Dr Iain Greenshields begins by offering thanks
for the Queen’s “long life and reign” and her “gifts of wisdom, diligence and
service”.
The
archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, offered thanks for the Queen’s
“unswerving devotion to the gospel”.
The
leader of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent
Nichols, gave thanks for “the rich bonds of unity and mutual support she
sustained”.
The
congregation then sang the third hymn, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling, which
followed the Lord’s Prayer.
Welby has now given the
commendation, a prayer that entrusts the soul of the deceased to God.