"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 may never, never awake?"
Sophie Scholl, The White Rose, Second Leaflet, Munich 1942
"Many will become addicted to hateful and malicious thoughts and hateful words. Slaves to their desires, they will be ferocious, angry despisers of what is good and right. With brutal treachery, they will act without restraint, bigoted and blinded by clouds of conceit.
They will demand and find their delight in the pleasures of this world, and ignore their need to serve God. They may act religious, but they want to serve themselves."
2 Timothy 3:1-5
"If you have not chosen the kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.”
William Law
"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."
Friedrich Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse
"And yet Virgil could also present the Roman Empire as a gift from the gods themselves. At the very beginning, Jupiter, the king of the gods, prophesies Rome's future power. 'I have given,' he says, 'I have given the Romans imperium sine fine. I have given them empire without limit.' It hadn't really started that way."
Mary Beard, History of Rome
Stocks were once again reaching for new highs today, shaking off concerns about pandemics, wildfires, plagues of locusts, and all those other acts of God to which our new era of endless prosperity is now apparently impervious.
The dollar finished a bit higher, as did gold and silver.
We watched the movie
Joker last night. It is a very dark psychological study of a disordered mind spiraling out of control, and a very cleverly woven origin story for the Batman series. It is bleak, and there is virtually no comic relief.
It is also a dark social commentary on the course of public events in our age of arrogant inequality. In that sense it can be thought of as a 'message movie.'
Joaquin Phoenix is a powerfully effective actor. I am informed that the movie has received a number of Academy award nominations, and is wildly profitable.
There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report tomorrow. Optimism is running high because of the low unemployment report and strong ADP Payrolls Report.
This Fed-fueled bubble is going to end badly.
Our audacious oligarchy is in for a steep, gut-wrenching fall. If only there were not so many innocents involved as collateral damage for their greed and madness.
No matter how things may become, no matter how lawless and hysterical it may seem to be, try to remember who you are, and whom you serve.
Have a pleasant evening.
