"Easy as lying! Do as now you do.
Turn every question to a public stew.
A blood-shot voice, low breeding, huckster's tricks—
What more can man require for politics?"
Aristophanes, The Knights, 424 BC
"It is sometimes said that since everything is for sale under the rule of The Market, nothing is sacred. The Market is not omnipotent — yet. But the process is under way and it is gaining momentum. The Market is becoming more like the Yahweh of the Old Testament — the Supreme Deity, the only true God, whose reign must now be universally accepted and who allows for no rivals."
Harvey Cox, The Market as God, March 1999
“He said they were afraid, and that fear makes stupid people do wicked things. As long as there are crazed or crafty leaders to play on old fears, a mob will turn cruel.”
Leigh Brackett, The Long Tomorrow, 1955
"And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With odd old ends stolen forth of Holy Writ,
And seem a saint when most I play the devil."
William Shakespeare, Richard III, November 1633
"You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things that your father, even in Germany, could not have imagined. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven’t done (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we do nothing). You remember everything now, and your heart breaks."
Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45, 1955
“He who dictates and formulates the words and phrases we use, he who is master of the press and radio, is master of the mind. Repeat mechanically your assumptions and suggestions, diminish the opportunity for communicating dissent and opposition. This is the formula for political conditioning of the masses. The big lie and monotonously repeated nonsense have more emotional appeal in a cold war than logic and reason.
The eternal demagogue will arise anew. He will accuse others of conspiracy in order to prove his own importance. He will try to intimidate those who are neither so iron-fisted nor so hotheaded as he, and temporarily he will drag some people into the web of his delusions. Perhaps he will even wear a mantle of martyrdom to arouse the tears of the weak-hearted. With his emotionalism and suspicion, he will shatter the trust of citizens in one another."
Joost Meerloo, Thought Control: The Rape of the Mind, 1956
As you know today was an option expiration for the May futures contracts in gold and silver. The May contract is important to silver, gold not so much. I think the metals were pre-pounded last week, so today was not so dramatic.
Stocks were wobbly since an attempt to make it seem as though Iran was suing for peace, spread by a mouthpiece in the 'digital media' that was uncritically picked up by understaffed wire services, was found to be yet another dose of meth for the markets.
I don't know where things stand now, the fog of war and all that. I have a few sources I follow that have proven to be more reliable than official media. The US and Israel are playing it close to the chest on one hand, and posturing for renewed conflict on the other. Iran has been much more straightforward, agree with them or not.
VIX is acting like 'meh.'
On the economy, Wall Street is acting as enablers in hiding the risks of recession and worse, pretending this is all 'normal'. We are probably already entering a recession, the stock pricing notwithstanding.
In watching this all unfold in Washington and NY I was reminded of an interview between Bill Moyers and Neil Barofsky. He said of the 2008 bailouts and lack of meaningful reform:"It creates this false illusion that there are people out there looking out for the interest of taxpayers, the checks and balances that are built into the system are operational, when in fact they're not. And what you're going to see and what we are seeing is it'll be a breakdown of those governmental institutions. And you'll see governments that continue to have policies that feed the interests of the one percent or the .1 percent — to the detriment of everyone else."
He also said with the lack of reform that another financial meltdown like 2008 was not only likely, but inevitable. The economist Simon Johnson said pretty much the same thing.
But very important people, who coincidentally appear quite frequent in the Epstein files among other cesspits of elite corruption, have assured us that this is just foolishness, and uninformed worry.
Have you noticed how most of the Western leaders have awful public approval ratings? I need to look that up to see how widespread it may be. How are they getting away with this in nominal democracies?
Rough seas ahead, mateys. Clouds gathering on the horizon. Perhaps its finally time to head into harbor. I'll figuratively be at The Roundhouse Bar, a place where I sat out many a storm in happier days gone by.
Have a pleasant evening.
