"When we are the victims of an illusion we do not feel it to be an illusion but a reality. It is the same perhaps with evil. Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty. As soon as we do evil, the evil appears as a sort of duty. Once a certain class of people has been placed by the temporal and spiritual authorities outside the ranks of those whose life has value, then nothing comes more naturally to men than murder. As soon as men know they that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers with approving smiles."
Simone Weil, La Pesanteur et la Grâce, 1947
"Wars do not usually result from just causes but from pretexts. There probably never was a just cause why men should slaughter each other by wholesale, but there are such things as ambition, selfishness, folly, madness, in communities as in individuals, which become blind and bloodthirsty, not to be appeased save by havoc, and generally by the killing of somebody else than themselves."
William Tecumseh Sherman, address to Michigan Military Academy, 19 June 1879
"When a war breaks out, people say: 'It's too stupid; it can't last long.' But though a war may well be 'too stupid,' that doesn't prevent it from lasting. Foolishness has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves. In this respect our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words they were exceptional humans: they did not believe in plagues.
A bubonic plague is not made to fit in a man's mind; therefore we tell ourselves that plagues are a mere bogey of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away. But it doesn't always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away, and the exceptional first of all, because they haven't taken their precautions. 'It's impossible that there could be a plague, because everyone knows that they have vanished from the West. We should not act as though half the town were threatened with death, because then it would be.' Yes, everyone knew that, except for the dead.
Our townsfolk were not more to blame than others; they forgot to be human, that was all, and thought that everything still was possible for them; which presupposed that plagues were impossible. They went on doing business, arranged for journeys, and formed views. How could they have given a thought to anything like a plague, which rules out any future, cancels journeys, silences the exchange of views. They fancied themselves free, and no one will ever be free so long as there are plagues."
Albert Camus, The Plague, 1947
"The banks engage in fraud for two reasons. First, they profit from swindling the public. Second, they can get away with it via a simple technique. They buy off the regulators with promises of enormously lucrative jobs when they leave government service, and they buy off the politicians with huge direct and indirect campaign contributions [and lucrative insider trading - Jesse]."
Laurence Kotlikoff, When Banksters Buy Regulators and Prosecutors, Forbes, October 21, 2014
"Monetary and regulatory policy encourage asset bubbles to proliferate. Hot money seeks out the conscious mispricing of risk. Capital, in the form of both money and personal talent, increasingly flows into malinvestment and the gaming of markets. The productive economy languishes, left wanting for the lack of creative resources and attention. The bubble rises to unsustainable valuations and fails — and a nation's capital is consumed."
Jesse, The Men Who Sold the World, 5 August 2019
Stocks sold off hard on this stock option expiration day, bouncing back a little into the close.
But they did set a lower low to confirm a failed rally.
Gold and silver were mugged again. This should help the Banks with their bullion shortage problems.
VIX rose.
The Dollar moved a little higher.
Bitcoin held its ground with a little loss.
I don't think this is over, since the war with Iran is not over. And it is likely to get worse, despite rumors and gaslighting to the contrary.
Worst strategic mistake since Operation Barbarossa in the works.
I don't know what more I can say.
Need little, want less, and lover more. For those who abide in God abide in love, and love in them.
Have a pleasant weekend.
