"They defended him, verbally and physically, every time he committed one of his criminal acts. They went blithely on past the suffering of all the bombing victims, the prisoners in the concentration camps, and the religious persecutors, because a different regime would have meant the end of their power. You forget our hatred is a deadly poison."
Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen, Diary of a Man in Despair, 1947
"The face still smiles while the limbs, literally and loathsomely are dropping from the body. These are peoples that have lost the power of astonishment at their own actions.
When they give birth to a fantastic fashion or a foolish law, they do not start or stare at the monster they have brought forth. They have grown used to their own unreason; chaos is their cosmos; and the whirlwind is the breath of their nostrils."
G. K. Chesterton, National Madness
"No doubt it is more comfortable to deliberately wear blinkers that prevent one from seeing the evil done in the discharge of their responsibility— to be unwilling to see that one is defending murder and robbery."
Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, Executed in Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, 23 January 1945
“Today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups. We are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power."
Philip K. Dick, How To Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later, 1978
"What is offensive is that they lie, and worship their own lying."
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
"For these are a rebellious people, deceitful children,
unwilling to listen to the commandments of the Lord.
They say to their seers,‘Do not see!’
and to the prophets,‘Say nothing of what is right!
Tell us only things that please us,
prophesy illusions."
Isaiah 30:8-10
Another lull in the markets, as the VIX drifts lower and complacency seems to be settling in.
Stocks tried to pop a rally into the weekend, but it faded back to almost unchanged into the close.
Silver was off a bit, but gold rallied and held on to a good portion of it.
Option expiration for stocks next Friday.
Inflation data coming out which may move the markets.
War is simmering on multiple fronts overseas.
Have a pleasant weekend.
