It is hard to believe that we are hearing this sort of thing presented seriously as news analysis.
Unfortunately this has become quite popular on the news media outlets that are becoming virtual fronts for various and particular political agendas.
Fox News started it, and showed that it pays. But CNN and MSNBC have certainly jumped on the bandwagon, and are giving them a run for the money.
We live in an increasingly insubstantial economy of gigs, clicks, financial frauds, and the illusions that power them.
This is McCarthyism, the fear and derision of which has long been the shibboleth of the liberal intellectual establishment. It is and always has been a despicable and cynical play for power popularized but not exclusive to its namesake Senator from Wisconsin.
The irony is that we become what we hate.
And as a reminder, Bill Clinton and the GOP Congress of the 1990's, in a bipartisan effort, placed the mainstream news media in the hands of a powerful few.
"The ability to control the narrative about what is going on in the world is of unparalleled importance to the plutocrats who use governments as tools to advance their agendas. The agenda to make an example of a leak publisher with a massive platform who has repeatedly exposed the corruption of the establishment upon which western plutocrats have built their empires will require continuous narrative spin, since the precedent set by prosecuting a journalist for publishing authentic documents would arguably constitute a greater leap in the direction of Orwellian dystopia than the Patriot Act...
Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. If you can control the stories that the public are telling themselves about what’s going on in the world, you control the public itself."
Caitlin Johnstone
“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are... Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Below is one of my favorite leaflets from Die Weiße Rose. I appreciate the reminder from their observation that 'German intellectuals fled to their cellars, there, like plants struggling in the dark, away from light and sun, gradually to choke to death.'
One cannot blame them in some way, since from the very beginning the National Socialists were backing their words with violent street thugs in brown shirts. But many among the very wealthy and the highly trained professional classes threw themselves willingly into the arms of the powerful, while others resisted, because it was a means of professional advantage, gaining power, and getting paid.
But even if we rightfully condemn the failure of those whose obligation it is to speak, how often are we seeing this in our own time? Certainly we are not seeing physical violence in state repression, save for a few incidents, to the same degree. But in its essence, it has the same purpose and character: the subjugation of a people who thought that they were free.
When the economy was very obviously building towards the financial crisis of 2008, how many economists were carefully ignoring the bubble conditions, preferring to keep their noses in their statistics, a useful condition of apathy in times of moral crisis that I call data blindness. Or as Pontius Pilate asked, as he looked truth in the face and washed his hands of it, 'What is truth?'
And are we not in a state of perpetual emergency, under assault by clever and malign foreign elements? Surely exceptions to justice, and then common decency, must be made. And so we hate and fear the others, oppressing them with lies, then false imprisonment, the abuse and separation of families, and, in the end, with murder.
How many lawyers and doctors look at outrageous miscarriages of justice and say and do nothing? How many of those who have been blessed by circumstances sit back and smugly attribute their good fortune to their own merits if not natural superiority as a the epitome of human achievement as a new ubermensch? Well, what can one do? That's just how things in a meritocracy work, isn't it? And so these others, these so-called unfortunates, obviously deserve what they get.
But if they serve us, we may take some care of them, at least in a beneficial neglect, in return for their freedoms.
It is not safe to see too much, and even less safe for the career minded to speak out against the actions of powerful insiders who control the benefactions of position, and the perks of the privileged class.
It is much more judicious to hide one's nose in a selective book of statistics, ignoring the reality, and relying instead on being data blind or ideologically blind to what is really happening.
It is easier to say 'I didn't know of this injustice' and afterwards, 'who could have suspected, much less seen such a thing approaching?'
"I was satisfied that I wasn't personally to blame and that I hadn't known about those things. I wasn't aware of the extent of the crimes. But one day I went past the memorial plaque which had been put up for Sophie Scholl in Franz Josef Strasse, and I saw that she was born the same year as me, and she was executed the same year I started working for Hitler. And at that moment I actually sensed that it was no excuse to be young, and that it would have been possible to find things out."
Traudl Junge
And so it happens, and old evil rises, all over again. And again— as the people forget.
Lord, forgive me my blindness. 'What then will you have me to do?' (Acts 9:6)
The White Rose Second Leaflet
Munich, 1942
We will not be silent.
It is impossible to engage in intellectual discourse with National Socialist philosophy, for if there were such an entity, one would have to try by means of analysis and discussion either to prove its validity or to combat it. In actuality, however, we face a totally different situation.
At its very inception this movement depended on the deception and betrayal of one's fellow man; even at that time it was inwardly corrupt and could support itself only by constant lies. After all, Hitler states in an early edition of "his" book (a book written in the worst German I have ever read, in spite of the fact that it has been elevated to the position of the Bible in this nation of poets and thinkers): "It is unbelievable, to what extent one must betray a people in order to rule it."
If at the start this cancerous growth in the nation was not particularly noticeable, it was only because there were still enough forces at work that operated for the good, so that it was kept under control. As it grew larger, however, and finally in an ultimate spurt of growth attained ruling power, the tumor broke open, as it were, and infected the whole body.
The greater part of its former opponents went into hiding. The German intellectuals fled to their cellars, there, like plants struggling in the dark, away from light and sun, gradually to choke to death.
Now the end is at hand. Now it is our task to find one another again, to spread information from person to person, to keep a steady purpose, and to allow ourselves no rest until the last man is persuaded of the urgent need of his struggle against this system. When thus a wave of unrest goes through the land, when 'it is in the air,' when many join the cause, then in a great final effort this system can be shaken off.
After all, an end in terror is preferable to terror without end.
We are not in a position to draw up a final judgment about the meaning of our history. But if this catastrophe can be used to further the public welfare, it will be only by virtue of the fact that we are cleansed by suffering; that we yearn for the light in the midst of deepest night, summon our strength, and finally help in shaking off the yoke which weighs on our world.
We do not want to discuss here the question of the Jews, nor do we want in this leaflet to compose a defense or apology. No, only by way of example do we want to cite the fact that since the conquest of Poland three hundred thousand Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way.
Here we see the most frightful crime against human dignity, a crime that is unparalleled in the whole of history. For Jews, too, are human beings - no matter what position we take with respect to the Jewish question - and a crime of this dimension has been perpetrated against human beings.
Someone may say that the Jews deserve their fate. This assertion would be a monstrous impertinence; but let us assume that someone said this - what position has he then taken toward the fact that the entire Polish aristocratic youth is being annihilated? (May God grant that this program has not yet fully achieved its aim as yet!)
All male offspring of the houses of the nobility between the ages of fifteen and twenty were transported to concentration camps in Germany and sentenced to forced labor, and all the girls of this age group were sent to Norway, into the bordellos of the SS!
Why tell you these things, since you are fully aware of them - or if not of these, then of other equally grave crimes committed by this frightful sub- humanity? Because here we touch on a problem which involves us deeply and forces us all to take thought.
Why do German people behave so apathetically in the face of all these abominable crimes, crimes so unworthy of the human race? Hardly anyone thinks about that.
It is accepted as fact and put out of mind. The German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals; they give them the opportunity to carry on their depredations; and of course they do so.
Is this a sign that the Germans are brutalized in their simplest human feelings, that no chord within them cries out at the sight of such deeds, that they have sunk into a fatal consciencelessness from which they will never, never awake?
It seems to be so, and will certainly be so, if the German does not at last start up out of his stupor, if he does not protest wherever and whenever he can against this clique of criminals, if he shows no sympathy for these hundreds of thousands of victims. He must evidence not only sympathy; no, much more: a sense of complicity in guilt.
For through his apathetic behavior he gives these evil men the opportunity to act as they do; he tolerates this 'government' which has taken upon itself such an infinitely great burden of guilt; indeed, he himself is to blame for the fact that it came about at all...
Please make as many copies of this leaflet as you can and distribute them.
“Several centuries ago the greatest writer in history described the two most menacing clouds that hang over human government and human society as 'malice domestic and fierce foreign war.' We are not rid of these dangers, but we can summon our intelligence to meet them.
Never was there more genuine reason for Americans to face down these two causes of fear. 'Malice domestic' from time to time will come to you in the shape of those who would raise false issues, pervert facts, preach the gospel of hate, and minimize the importance of public action to secure human rights or spiritual ideals.
There are those today who would sow these seeds, but your answer to them is in the possession of the plain facts of our present condition.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address at the San Diego Exposition, October 2, 1935
The financial asset bubbles since the turn of the 21st century have been enabled by four basic instruments of monetary policy error: Greenspan, Bernanke, Yellen, and Powell.
Whether we will have a third major collapse and crash to follow this latest asset bubble, as a consequence of misguided monetary policy, economic priorities, and bank regulation is not the issue. The question is, shall we have a system that holds together long enough to have a fourth?
Certainly the Fed is not alone in this. But in addition to their power to set short term interest rate targets and engage in open market operations, they are also a singularly powerful banking regulator, wield through this office tremendous power in all the financial asset markets, right down to reserve and margin requirements, and the activities in them of the Banks.
Stocks rebounded somewhat today. Whether this bounce will stick, and increase to allow yet another top in equities is certainly an open question.
It seems probable that the Fed will keep raising their benchmark rate as long as the fig leaf of recovery permits, as they recoil in horror from ZIRP. For they maintain as their highest priority the process itself, and the banking system to which they are beholden.
This is the great challenge of our day. The system has been co=opted by and for the benefit of the few, and the people as a whole are suffering for it.
Gold and silver bounced a little today, as the Dollar shows continued weakness.
Tomorrow we will have the decision of the FOMC.
On Friday we shall be treated to the Non-Farm Payrolls Report.
As an aside, does anyone else know who FDR is describing as 'the greatest writer in history' in the quote above, the person who wrote several centuries ago about 'malice domestic and fierce foreign wars?' I have not been able to find out, and seem to be the only person who uses this quote who even wonders. Let me know if you can discover this person's identity.
Answer: Thanks to astute readership, the author is Shakespeare as one might expect, from Macbeth, Act III, Scene 2.
"...better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further."
And even further, as the definitive answer, we have the admission of an advisor to FDR, Raymond Moley, that the phrase was a conflation that he created in error. As recounted in his book Seven Years:
This reference sent the literati to their Shakespeares, and elicited no small amount of good-natured chaffing. It was, I regret to say, a garbled one, and 1 was responsible for the garbling. Somehow or other, the phrase "Malice domestic, foreign levy"-levy meaning armed force-from Act 3, Scene 2 of Macbeth got mixed up in my mind with the phrase, "Domestic fury and fierce civil strife," from Act III, Scene 1 of Julius Caesar..
Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power.
Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.”
Arundhati Roy
Stocks continued to show weakness today, led lower by the big sled dogs in the Trumpolini Rally, which is big cap tech.
Gold and silver finished largely unchanged despite a weaker dollar.
We will be getting quite a bit of economic data this week in addition to earnings reports.
FOMC on Wednesday, and Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday.
Trumpolini wants to give an extra $100 Billion to the wealthy by unilaterally changing the capital gains tax without involving Congress. What a swell guy. Always thinking about the other guy.
The billionaire class could use a little extra walking around money. And we can always cut meals to the infirm, elderly, and school kids to pay for it. It's a win-win. Enriching the pigmen and culling the herd.
We will be getting rain almost every day this week, and so I spent the morning in the pleasantly less humid prelude finishing up some yardwork and outdoors chores.
Dolly maintained her vigilant watch, and made sure no one bothered the reclining chair while I was otherwise engaged outside. It is what she does best.
"Do we need weapons to fight wars? Or do we need wars to create markets for weapons? ...In the privatization of everything, these companies have made the Indian economy one of the fastest growing in the world. There’s only one problem – they exploit everything and everyone in its wake. It’s a dream come true for businessmen – to be able to sell what they don’t have to buy.”
Arundhati Roy, The Ghost of Capitalism
Thurman Arnold wrote in The Folklore of Capitalism that 'Economic theology is the opiate of the middle class...Law, morals, and economics are always arrayed against new groups which are struggling to secure a place in an institutional hierarchy of prestige."
Arnold goes on to say in an essay in reply to a review of his book that "Philosophies, legal, ethical, and economic appear very different from the outside looking in than from the inside looking out. The inside point of view assumes that if reasoning men get their heads together, they can make the concept of a good life a workable tool. From the outside it is obvious that reasoning men never agree. Their conflicts only create more literature."
What Arnold is going after is the very notion of the meritocracy, and the mythology of philosopher-kings. In the abstract reality is not captured, and therfore cannot be made workable. There is no such thing as a perfect system, one that will solve all problems if you can only tweak it here and there.
A workable system requires practical and talented people, not necessarily the most credentialed and pedigreed, that are working with a genuine dedication and focus to a set of first principles and priorities.
It is a project doomed to failure to allow process to stand over priority, the realization of the perfectly designed system for its own sake, because such a system does not exist, and is almost always a canard to promote some powerful interests for their own sake.
He means ideologically based systems like 'supply side economics.'. It may have failed, miserably and spectacularly at every turn, but it still sounds pretty good on paper. And so here we go again.
Or globalization, free markets and free trade— these are all good examples of a misbegotten first principles, tenets of economic theology that form the foundation of a system designed for process, rather than results.
If you wish to understand Obama, Clinton and the modern Democratic and Republican parties, which are both parties representing different segments of the affluent and the powerful, I urge you to spend the time to watch the latter half of the second video. The Democrats may speak the cause of the dispossessed and the weak, but tend to treat and view them not as constituents but as charges, with the kind of condescension and utility of neo-colonialism and 'the meritocracy's burden.'
Obama is every bit the narcissist as is Trump. The difference is that Obama is more articulate in his expressions of it, in his appeals to those things that will provide him more of what he thinks that he deserves.
It is an analysis of our current situation by Thomas Frank. You may have seen it before, but I urge you to watch it through in light of everything that has occurred. Watch the entire video with the Q&A if you have the time. There are some practical solutions discussed therein. Basically the system is going to be changed from the bottom up, or not at all.
It plays well in the Beltway, and in the deep wells of subjectivity occupied by the establishment and their enablers.
But most Americans seem to think that the Russia scare is just that— a cynical distraction from the real issues that are of their greatest concern. And those tend to be domestic issues.
The liberal elite keep talking past the public and its concerns, while suppressing progressive and grass roots movements in their own base.
They may keep losing elections. But the spice of big donor contributions will flow because of the nature of our corrupt political system.
Let us pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.
We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.
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