“Any idea pushed into the popular mind with considerable force will keep on going until some opposing force—or the slow resistance of friction—stops it at last.”
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“Religion used to be the opium of the people. To those suffering humiliation, pain, illness, and serfdom, religion promised the reward of an after life. But now we are witnessing a transformation: a true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, that we are not going to be judged.”
Czeslaw Milosz, The Discreet Charm of Nihilism
“Evil, when we are in its power, is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty. Power is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the latter it crushes, the former it intoxicates. The truth is, no one really possesses it."
Simone Weil
It was looking a bit grim this morning as stocks were set to open up quite a bit lower.
And then Trumpolini threw out a major news distraction in the press discussion following the announcement of a limited trade pact with Japan.
"U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that a deal to end a nearly 15-month trade war with China could happen sooner than people think and that the Chinese were making big agricultural purchases from the United States, including of beef and pork.
“They want to make a deal very badly... It could happen sooner than you think,” Trump told reporters in New York. Trump said later after trade discussions with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe there was a good chance of reaching a trade deal with China.
He said China was trying to be nice to him and added to reporters: “I was nice to them.”
Reuters, Trump says trade deal with China could happen sooner than people think
And so the Dollar and stocks were off to the races. What great news! Who can argue with that?
Gold and silver were just hammered on the Comex October option expiration. What a coincidence.
I hope you were at least prepared a little for this nonsense. I did mentoin it several times.
Better if you ignored the whole thing really, and just got right and sat tight and ignored all the madness and concurrent goofiness.
There is a bull market in cognitive dissonance. And pathological lying. People often believe what they wish to believe, because it will give them advantage and riches and power. After all, we have to be realistic, practical. Right?
No one can serve both God and Mammon. For he will come to love the one, and despise the other, and hate those who serve Him. And so the love of most will grow cold.
Let justice be done, though the heavens may fall.
Have a pleasant evening.
