"It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue, and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character."
Joseph Heller,
Catch 22
"Many of our rich men have not been content with equal protection and equal benefits, but have besought us to make them richer by act of Congress. By attempting to gratify their desires we have in the results of our legislation arrayed section against section, interest against interest, and man against man, in a fearful commotion which threatens to shake the foundations of our Union."
Andrew Jackson,
Message to the Senate On the Veto of the Second Bank of the United States, 1832
"Each of you dwells in a cosmos of his own making, created out of his own fancies and desires. You do not know the real world in which you live, and your thinking has no place in the real world except in so far as it is phenomena of mental aberration. We know, and well we know by bitter experience, that no appeal for the right, for justice, for humanity, can ever touch you.”
Jack London,
The Iron Heel
"I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside. I do not mean that they may not wish to come out of hell, but they certainly do not will even the first preliminary stages of that self-abandonment through which alone the soul can reach any good.
They enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved."
C. S. Lewis,
The Problem of Pain
Stocks slumped badly today, purportedly on a warning from SNAP and the economic data from this morning, which fell a bit short on the PMI.
Unsurprisingly, they managed to take back quite a bit of their losses in the afternoon trade.
The Dollar fell further, dropping into the 101 handle.
Gold and silver rallied, and held most of it.
Tomorrow is a not inconsequential option expiration for precious metals on the Comex.
Dolly will be going in for surgery tomorrow, and her return will most likely happen at the end of the day.
Old age is no joke, even for good little dogs.
So unless something unexpected happens, there will likely be no commentary tomorrow night.
Have a pleasant evening.
