Another daily dose of perspective: Trump was arraigned, the markets didn't care

 Donald J. Trump was arraigned yesterday.  His attorneys will try to convince Aileen Cannon to push the trial past the 2024 election so that he can either win the presidency outright and pardon himself, or have his political servants steal the White House for him, leading again to a self-pardon.  Or his attorneys will try to ensure that the jury includes loyal Trumpists who are indifferent to facts and the law, counting on jury nullification to keep their client out of prison, and aided by Aileen, that strategy too has a high likelihood of success.  All of this began in earnest amid a typically Trumpian circus of batshit, and I have no more confidence in the American legal system, indeed, in America than I did yesterday.

The markets are continuing to climb back.  Perhaps, anyway.  With the expectation that the Fed won't raise rates today given current inflation trends, all while there are jobs aplenty for anyone who wants one, capitalism does what capitalism does, indifferent to our petty nonsense, and at the end of the day, at the end of the week, the fiscal quarter, that means opportunity for those who choose to seize it.

None of this is to say that the rule of law does not matter.  It does.  America has become what it is by convincing a group of disparate people to accept this weird social contract called, "the rule of law," and when we see its dissolution, we cannot necessarily expect the continued prosperity it has provided.  Yes, this is still prosperity.  We have observed a spell of inflation, and it has sucked, but if you think this was bad, you have no sense of historical perspective.  The labor market is desperate for workers in a country with plenty, the markets are rising, and whatever Shangri-La you have imagined is a nice fantasy, but in the real world, we appreciate what is good and real.

There is danger.  The opportunity that now exists depends on the laws that sustain it, and laws are fragile things, existing only as long as the ever-elusive "we" collectively respect them.  But here's the thing.  If what matters at the end of the day is money, you can use that opportunity as it now exists.  If not, you may regret it later.

This is not his usual style, but Sun Ra, "Perspective Prisms of Is," from Monorails & Satellites.