Failed Amendment? In our Constitution? I think so. Consider Section One of the 20th: “The Terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the third day of January…” The time between electing a new Congress, and the end of the previous one’s power, has for many decades been known as the Lame Duck Congress. “Lame Duck” meaning a duck or office holder, who is unable to function properly, but who was able to do so previously. The first use of that term, in regards to an office holder, seems to be in 1926, referring to Calvin Coolidge, when the Appleton Post-Courier (Wisconsin) paper ran a story calling Coolidge a ’lame duck.’ However, way back in 1761, in reference to the London Stock Market, people who couldn’t pay their debts were called ’lame ducks,’ also.
The 20th Amendment was ratified January 23, 1928. Section One was designed to eliminate what we have now, and that is the outrageous “Lame Duck Congress.” Before the 20th, Congress took office two months later than currently; namely in March. That gave lots of time for the defeated party to wreak havoc with the law, as the current Lame Duck Congress now is doing. When the defeated Congress had from early November to early March to pass all sorts of laws which were against the wishes of the voting citizens, time was of no consequence. The 20th Amendment, Section One, moved up the date from March to January, and with the holidays, winter travel, etc, that was supposed to solve the problem. It didn’t.
Look at the D.C. Gang now. They are voting in direct opposition to the wishes of the voters’ wishes, who, in November, voted dozens of them out…as of January 3rd at noon, anyway. The Democrats are staying late, skipping weekends off, and doing their level best to pass laws which the electors in November were heartily against, and about which are currently outraged. When the new Congress is seated, it may be impossible to kill or revoke what the current Lame Ducks have wrought. So, the 20th Amendment is a failure, because it failed to consider the possibility of what is happening now. Maybe it should have read, “Two days after elections.”
This then, makes two Amendments to our Constitution, which have been to the detriment of America. The 17th, which took the election of Senators away from state legislatures, and gave it to the public, and Section One of the 20th, which gave Congress too much time between elections and taking office.
A nice lady forwarded a piece to me from November, where some ’expert’ economist writer said that we have no inflation, no increase in the currency supply unless banks loan money, all is just fine, and silver should be shorted. What a bunch of nonsense. The ’official’ cost of living increase, doesn’t include food and fuel, first of all. The government assumes that we don’t eat, drive, or heat, maybe? Even the least intelligent person, realizes what has happened to the price of food and fuel. Short silver? Not me! I’d buy silver.
Then there are those who get all uptight about the ’manipulation’ of gold and silver prices. Count me out on those worries also. Tangible, physical things, can only be manipulated so much and for so long. Pieces of paper, such as stocks and bonds, can be manipulated virtually forever. The so called ’manipulators,’ have kept the prices of gold down a lot, haven’t they? I remember when they were ’manipulating’ the prices of gold to keep them under $200, then $300, then $400, etc. Silver also. Are the prices of lettuce, milk, sugar, tires, lumber, furniture, or gasoline expected to do down? No, because these are tangible, physical things. How can you ’manipulate’ prices of things which require capital, exploration, machinery, and labor to produce? Obviously, it can’t be done, other than briefly. Real estate took a hit because of massive assistance, pressure, criminal outrages, crooked, ignorant lawmakers and appraisers, etc. It was the paper trail in real estate that broke its back, and there is no such thing with precious metals.
I have no crystal ball, but I’m betting everything I own, that metals, lettuce, gasoline, lumber, furniture, etc, will proceed ever higher as each year passes, as trillions of dollars move into circulation. The debt is unpayable, other than with unbacked scrip known as dollars, which can and are being printed with wild abandon, whether the banks loan them or choose not to. All paper currencies which are unbacked, eventually reach zero, unless economic history, for the first time, fails to repeat itself.