“Lawlessness has come out of Babylon, that is, from the elders who were to govern the people as judges. They perverted their thinking; they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven, and did not keep in mind just judgments. How you have grown evil with age. Now have your past sins come to term, passing unjust sentences, condemning the innocent, and freeing the guilty."
Daniel 13:5,9,52-53
"Banking today is like playing Russian roulette— with someone else’s head. With rewards often far outweighing the risks, the sense of responsibility has vanished. There is a system that pushes you to take risks and a culture that shames anyone who admits errors or weakness. Nobody ever challenges the front office. You become part of the fabric of the place. Then they dispose of you."
Joris Luyendijk, Swimming with Sharks, 2015
“The failure of normal empathy is central to sociopathy, which is marked by an absence of guilt, intentional manipulation, and controlling or even sadistically harming others for personal power or gratification. Power not only corrupts but also magnifies existing psychopathologies, even as it creates new ones.
Fostered by the flattery of underlings and the chants of crowds, a political leader’s grandiosity may morph into grotesque delusions of grandeur. Sociopathic traits may be amplified as the leader discovers that he can violate the norms of civil society and even commit crimes with impunity. And the leader who rules through fear, lies, and betrayal may become increasingly isolated and paranoid.
Trump creates his own extreme manipulation of reality. He insists that his spokesmen defend his false reality as normal. He then expects the rest of society to accept it—despite the lack of any evidence. This leads to what Lifton calls 'malignant normality' — in other words, the gradual acceptance by a public inundated with toxic untruths of those untruths until they pass for normal.”
Dr. B.X. Lee, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, 2017
"The world is ours, we are its lords, and ours it shall remain. As for the host of labor, it has been in the dirt since history began, and I read history aright. And in the dirt it shall remain so long as I and mine and those that come after us have the power.”
Jack London, The Iron Heel, 1907
"The status quo has at least tolerated the corruption and the fraud, if not profited directly from it, and most likely continues to do so. The power brokers have become susceptible to various forms of blackmail. And so a failed policy can become almost self-sustaining long after it is seen to have failed, and even become counterproductive, because admitting failure is not an option for those in power.
The financiers will attempt to make the people an 'offer which they cannot refuse' again, as they did on the occasion of TARP, when they threatened to crash the economy. I do not see meaningful reform happening easily, given the intractable hysteria which is gripping those wealthy few who are eager to seize and hold power. There is a portion of the public who think that whatever they believe must be true, whether the facts support it or not. And this is a great heresy against reason, and an abuse of faith. There will be no rapturous escape from judgement for this apostasy and lawlessness, except perhaps into madness.
There is an almost unbelievable tolerance of brazen bullying and deception, a sneering cyncism and disregard of any truth in people who say a thing one day, and then deny it and say a totally different thing on the next, without shame. Love grows cold even among the faithful, and lies abound. This is the very epitome of the will to power. The western world and its leadership are at a crossroads. And the path ahead, if taken, means hardship, sorrow, and blood."
Jesse, Wall Street, Largely Unreformed, 25 October 2012
Stocks shook off the intensifying war in the Mideast once again, and managed to move a little higher in to the weekend.
Gold and silver struggled again, as the rally in paper assets seems to draw liquidity to itself.
VIX has fallen to a near term low.
The Dollar chopped around but closed unchanged.
SpaceX continues to wallow.
Bitcoin is bouncing along in its trading channel.
The geopolitical situation bears watching this weekend.
Will Trump use one of his media mouthpieces on Sunday night to float false news about an impending ceasefire at Iran's request?
Can this familiar ruse work once again?
Hard to say. It is not that people believe it. It is that the moneyed interests and insiders want to continue looting the capital of the nation that they are running into a ditch.
Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
Have a pleasant weekend.
