Alex Carey, Taking the Risk Out of Democracy, 1995
“Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.”
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
H.L. Mencken, In Defense of Women, 1918
"The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power. American fascism will not be really dangerous until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information, and those who stand for the KKK type of demagoguery.”
Henry Wallace, The Danger of American Fascism, 1944
“The British press is extremely centralised, and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics. But the same kind of veiled censorship also operates in books and periodicals, as well as in plays, films and radio. At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness.”
George Orwell, Animal Farm, 1945
"When humanity, subjugated by the terror of crime, has been driven mad by fear and horror, and when chaos has become the supreme law, then the time for the empire of lawlessness will have come."
Fritz Lang, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse, 1933
Stocks did a fairly impressive 'pop and flop' today,' as the rally lost steam at new highs and then properly folded like a house of cards, finishing unchanged or in the red.
The 'tell' for this was the almost shocking lack of breadth in the rally, being driven by program buying in a few stocks that weigh heavily on the NDX and the SP500.
The Dollar rallied during the day trade.
Gold and silver were smacked down in NY again.
I don't think the current Administration likes them. They are disobedient, and implacable in the face of political demands and directives.
Talk to the gram.
Donnie dealt with the Epstein files controversy by pointing at AG Bondi saying, 'It's up to her.'
VIX is barely aware of what is going on.
CPI came in on the warmer side this morning. PPI tomorrow.
America's disastrous economic policies with regard to tariffs are going to bite.
Bitcoin turned back from its all time high.
There will be a stock option expiration on Friday.
We had some fairly serious flooding here yesterday. Our particular area is on higher ground, so we were mostly spared, although the lower areas south of us got clobbered.
I was getting flash flood alerts on my phone, and at one point the State Police advised people to 'stay off the roads.'
Daisy and I sheltered in place on my recliner.
It's always something,
If you think deeply, you may realize that reality is eternity.
Have a pleasant evening.
