“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
H.L. Mencken, The Divine Afflatus, New York Evening Mail, 16 November 1917
"Among those who participated actively and enthusiastically in [Woodrow] Wilson’s war were the progressive intellectuals, people of the John Dewey circle, who took great pride, as you can see from their own writings at the time, in having shown that what they called the 'more intelligent members of the community,' namely, themselves, were able to drive a reluctant population into a war by terrifying them and eliciting jingoist fanaticism.
The means that were used were extensive. For example, there was a good deal of fabrication of atrocities by the Huns, Belgian babies with their arms torn off, all sorts of awful things that you still read in history books. Much of it was invented by the British propaganda ministry, whose own commitment at the time, as they put it in their secret deliberations, was 'to direct the thought of most of the world.'
But more crucially they wanted to control the thought of the more intelligent members of the community in the United States, who would then disseminate the propaganda that they were concocting and convert the pacifistic country to wartime hysteria. That worked. It worked very well. And it taught a lesson: State propaganda, when supported by the educated classes and when no deviation is permitted from it, can have a big effect."
Noam Chomsky, Media Control, 2002
"They have become foolish in their reasoning, and their senseless minds are darkened."
Romans 1:21
"Journalism is one of the devices whereby industrial autocracy keeps its control over political democracy; whereby the minds of the people are kept in a state of acquiescence, so that when the crisis of an election comes, they go to the polls and cast their ballots for either one of the two candidates of their exploiters."
Upton Sinclair, The Brass Check
"Many will become addicted to hateful and malicious thoughts and hateful words. Slaves to their desires, they will be ferocious, angry despisers of what is good and right. With brutal treachery they will act without restraint, bigoted and blinded by clouds of conceit. They will demand and find their delight in the pleasures of this world, and ignore their need to serve God. They may act religious, but they want to serve themselves."
2 Timothy 3:1-5
Monetary canards never die. They just get spun with a twist and come back again in different forms.
The trillion dollar platinum coin is morphing into a 'Strategic Bitcoin Reserve' to pay off the US debt.
Well, at least we know we are nearer to the end of this phase of the great transfer or wealth - the downward spiral of dumbness.
I have seen a lot of things in the past 50 years of so of trading, but the same dumb scams and debates keep coming back, again and again, and people keep buying them. Until the end comes.
Deflation is inevitable. Debt doesn't matter. Madoff found a money machine. Enron was making a killing thinking differently It's a new era of tech stocks and valuations.
It's all about the Benjamins. And those with few morals seeking those with little sense.
Ask yourself this, as you would of all Ponzi schemes. Who is the greater fool?
And those who know better stand by and do nothing, or just go along to get along and get their piece.
Stocks were a bit mixed. They are getting tired.
The economic data this morning came in-line, but got spun as Dollar strong.
Gold and silver just got hammered. Stock option expiration on Friday.
And the beat goes on.
Have a pleasant evening.
