Charlie Sykes: How the Right Lost It's Mind

"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."

Charles Mackay

As Thomas Frank is to the Democratic Party, Charlie Sykes is to the Republicans.

I have been no fan of Charlie, but he seems to have come to some very pointed observations worth hearing.

The GOP did not lose their minds—  they sold their souls for power and money.

But the real tragedy is that so did the Democratic establishment.

And then there is the 800 pound gorilla in the room that no one dares discuss—  the corrupting power of big money in politics, and in darn near everything else downstream, until thought itself dies by suicide, either from expedient convenience, or embarrassment.

Those among us who have for whatever reason remained relatively aloof from this madness, who follow a different way, wonder if they have changed, or if things have changed just that much around them.

But however it has occurred, increasingly they find themselves to be in this world but not of it, as if visitors, almost at times like strangers, in a stranger and stranger land.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Take It to the Limit, One More Time

Stocks were in 'risk on' mode today, finishing their strongest week in 2018.

Gold and silver gained back a little bit as the Dollar moved lower.

Next week the FOMC will meet, and it is expected to be a nothing meeting.

There is some whispered hope for a more dovish dot plot, but that seems to be a bit of a stretch and probably not necessary.

Stocks have returned to short term overbought.

It was in the mid-70's here today. There are cold days yet to come, and perhaps even a late snow, but Spring is in the air.

Have a great weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Artificial Intelligence - Quadruple Stock Option Expiration Tomorrow

"Most of them became wealthy by being well connected and crooked. And they are creating a society in which they can commit hugely damaging economic crimes with impunity, and in which only children of the wealthy have the opportunity to become successful."

Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation


“There is massive propaganda for everyone to consume. Consumption is good for profits [clickbait] and consumption is good for the political establishment.”

Noam Chomsky


“The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”

Garry Kasparov


“The official philosophies of the totalitarian regimes unanimously brand as nonsensical the idea that there exists a single objective truth valid for everybody. the official philosophies of the totalitarian regimes deny the inherent value of thought. For them thought is not a light but a weapon: its function, they say, is not to discover reality as it is, but to change and transform it with the purpose of leading us towards what is not.”

Alexandre Koyré

As previously noted there will be a significant stock market option expiration tomorrow.

The Dollar rallied, and gold and silver were slugged. I wonder how much of that was due to the punters and assorted small specs crowding into mining company calls, and the quadruple stock expiration tomorrow.

Stocks failed to penetrate overhead resistance and gave some of their recent gains back into the close.

Shenanigans are the custom, in a nation whose primary business is fraud.

Have a pleasant evening.

Thomas Frank: Amerikanische Kultur For Germans

"The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel."

Horace Walpole


"It shall be so.
Madness in great ones must not unwatched go."

William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 3, Sc. 1

We in the US must certainly present a puzzle to the German mind.   Although there is a growing body of puzzling evidence in the developed nations of the West. We have cast off the moorings of tradition, and set sail into the vast uncharted but terrifyingly familiar seas once again.

Madness has both a simplicity and an intricacy, interwoven into a fabric that is both opaque and yet revealing.