“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
Søren Kierkegaard
"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
Hannah Arendt
"Narcissists are unstable and go through repeated cycles of self-destruction, with other people usually paying the heft of the price. Narcissists tend to be divisive, vindictive, confrontational, aggressive, hate-filled, raging, incoherent, judgment-impaired, and irrational.
Narcissists are liars, confabulators, and miserable failures, although some of them are geniuses at disguising the fact that they are, in fact, losers."
Sam Vaknin
"And because of the increase in lawlessness, the love of most will grow cold."
Matthew 24:12
Stocks took a bit of a dive today, as the weight of mispriced risk and the illusion of economic recovery continues to weigh on the speculative excesses of the markets grown corrupt and inefficient through lack of proper oversight.
Being based on the human profit motive and the principle of selfishness markets in themselves have no basis for being a moral principle. Profit can be obtained through fair means and innovation, but as we have seen can more easily and richly be gained through exploitation and lawlessness.
The campaign to overturn the laws that protect the markets, which served us well for so long, has been determined and well-funded. And it has worked a great deal of damage on the public and the quality of the financial system.
As usual the stocks regained much of their losses in the quiet afternoon.
Gold and silver moved sideways and the Dollar was marginally higher.
I think the charts are fairly clear. The problem is that most other things are not.
The other day I said: "I am certainly no fan of Joe Biden, who has a long record as a corporatist tool. And certainly not of Trump, who I suspect may wish to be impeached, and be remembered by some as a martyr, and spare himself the humiliation of losing badly in the next election."
And I will certainly stand by that as a possibility. But like so many others I may be giving Trump far too much credit as a thinker, and cunning strategist. His strength is his weakness, and he has some distinct flaws that work to his political disadvantage.
Trump is the consummate narcissist, a king among the class of egotists, bullies, and weasels. He does not make occasional mistakes in judgement like most people. He is driven into error by recklessness and pathological excess.
Don't expect things to get any better— they will become progressively worse, until something finally either works, or breaks. And if it breaks, there will be plenty of collateral damage, and much of it among the innocents as well as true believers.
And I hope that the liberal establishment, who expended a great deal of political capital and energy on their own madness that was RussiaGate, will regret their foolishness when they try to surmount their losses and perform an adequate investigation of this genuine abuse of power.
In her day Hillary and her machine seemed to be indestructible and
unstoppable— and it fell apart like a house of cards. And when he
falters, Trump's 'supporters' are going to descend on him like a pack of
jackals.
Trump is not 'good for the markets.' He is not the state, and as President is not above the law, although he thinks that he is.
“Hubris calls for nemesis, and in one form or another it's going to get it, not as a punishment from outside but as the completion of a pattern already started.”
Mary Midgley
He is corrosive and corrupting, and quite possibly the rope of excess with which the predatory capitalists and their cronies are going to hang themselves.
Have a pleasant evening.
