“When you live under such an oligarchy, there is always some crisis or the other that takes priority over boring stuff such as healthcare and pollution. If the nation is facing external invasion or diabolical subversion, who has the time to worry about overcrowded hospitals and polluted rivers? By manufacturing a never-ending stream of crises, a corrupt oligarchy can prolong its rule indefinitely.”
Yuval Noah Harari
"And I begin to realize that in every chapter of Shortest Way Home—indeed, almost on every page—there is an expression of the same underlying idea, which is that you can substitute experience with problem-solving skills, and approximate perspective, ideology, even morality with sheer intelligence and boldness.
This closely resembles the arrogance of tech billionaires who believe that although they have neither the knowledge nor the experience nor the wisdom, they can solve the world’s problems anyway, because, well, because look how successful they’ve been at everything else.
You almost want to cheer them on. Until you realize that they are dead wrong, that if they want to help solve the world’s problems they had better stop sucking all the oxygen and money out of the room and start paying taxes and letting there be a return to a balance of power."
Dan Simon, Mayor Pete’s autobiography says it all
"But there is a sort of 'Ok guys, you're mad, but how are you going to stop me' mentality at the top."
Robert Johnson, Audacious Oligarchy
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| The Internal Temp Setting in my Subaru Forester Is Aspirational, Not Actual |
And expectations that the markets would do anything today were also not fulfilled.
If you were actively trading this market today, you *might* wish to consider calling Gambler's Anonymous.
Unless of course you are being paid to do that sort of thing by some big faceless, evil Bank, in which case you should reconsider all the life decisions that brought you to this point.
Well hope beats eternal, and a 'cold front' is expected to come through and rip shit on our peaceful village later today, but bringing us weather in the 80 degree range, which is a vast improvement over the 106° actual temperatures we enjoyed over the weekend.
We will also be enjoying another Comex precious metals option expiration this week on the 25th.
The markets may be in this dog days, summer trading doldrums like trance until the Fed meeting next week. Unless Trumpolini splashes the tranquility of the lazy days with some out of left field tweet.
People seem prepared for the ascension of Boris Johnson to be the next UK PM. It does give us some comfort that we are not the only ones with a barely qualified yob at the helm.
There were sightings and photos of a very large shark, swimming in the shallow waters off the Hamptons this weekend. Luckily none of the vacationing elite were attacked, surely out of professional courtesy.
I read today, and posted a link to an article over at Wall Street On Parade that suggests that perhaps Mr. Jeffrey Epstein's mysterious financial concern may have received a secret Federal Reserve bailout. I don't know why this might shock us. After all, it seems to be the customary way of dealing with unreformed and unrepentant serial felons.
It does our hearts warm to see how our oligarchy can shamelessly take care of their own, while brutalizing the average taxpayers and solid citizens, while shaming them for their misery. After all, it's what sociopaths do.
Have a pleasant evening.
