"May the town be accursed and destroyed!
Disintegrate and wither, Rome!
Your degenerate people wish it so."
Wilhelm Richard Wagner, Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen, (original libretto), 1842
"Successful totalitarian rule is precisely that because it allows little variation in its subjects’ intentions—and the Nazi regime was a totalitarian regime par excellence. When Hitler spoke of the German ‘Volk’ he did not make a suggestion, but a demand: 'if a German, you are a Nazi or a traitor'.
It is crudely general to suggest collective responsibility for the German populace. It is, however, fair to suggest that those who continued to defend the idea of Germanhood publicly as the war went on—when this had become synonymous with barbarity—were in fact renouncing their humanity for the sake of individual survival and peace of mind.
On April 11th 1945, as the Red Army fast-approached Berlin, the Berlin Philharmonic gave what might have been its last concert before the end of the war. Albert Speer, who had intervened to save members of the Orchestra from their senseless drafting into the Volksturm, organized a final concert, entitled Konzert für Minister Speer in the Berlin Beethoven Hall, still curiously standing amidst the city’s rubble.
According to Traudl Junge the Goebbels’ children sang for Hitler, who was very pleased to hear their song. This innocent choir of young voices was soon murdered by its very mother, in the bunker, just before the mother herself committed suicide. There is no academic phrasing suitable enough to describe the incomprehensibility of how mankind can achieve this nonsense, especially at this high level of leadership."
Panayiotis Demopoulos, Götterdämmerung: Suicide Music and the National Self
"It isn't by chance that I have the Party Rallies open with the overture to Rienzi. It's not just a musical question. At the age of twenty-four this man, an innkeeper's son, persuaded the Roman people to drive out the corrupt Senate by reminding them of the magnificent past of the Roman Empire. Listening to this blessed music as a young man in the theater at Linz, I had the vision that I too must someday succeed in uniting the German Empire and making it great once more."
Adolph Hitler, from Albert Speer, Spandau: The Secret Diaries, Trans. 1976
"The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the catacombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?”
Maximilian Kolbe
It is not likely that there will be a new war crimes trial, a new judgement at Nürnberg, conducted by mindful victors anytime soon.
They would certainly need a bigger courtroom.
But, and this I believe as much as I can believe anything, there will be a judgement, a final judgement.
And nothing will be held back, nothing covered by the darkness of lies and dissembling.
The truth will penetrate to the core of those standing before the judge of nations.
And the sentences will be lawful, just, and quite likely, severe.
“If any one should cause these innocent ones who believe in me to go astray, it would be better for them to have a great millstone hung around their neck, and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."
Matthew 18:6
Judgement is coming.
And hell is coming with it.
They know who they are. They do not believe in judgement. They do not believe in hell.Nevertheless, judgement and hell await.
Stocks fell back a little from their lofty valuations today.
Even mania needs to take a break, every now and them.
Today was an option expiration for precious metals on the Comex, for the big August contracts.
There will be an FOMC decision on Wednesday, and Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday.
You have to laugh at the quick turnaround by Trump and crew on l'affaire Epstein, and the contortions of his true believers in excusing and deflection yet another betrayal, and justice denied.
There are so many dishonorable and faithless acts by those in government these days.
But they are almost made insignificant in the shadow of wars of aggression, theft, rape, murder on a grand scale, and unacknowledged crimes against humanity.
The people are easily manipulated and distracted and misdirected.
But there is one who is not.
Judgement is coming.
Have a pleasant evening.
