Appetite for Destruction
Since Colin Powell lied to the world about Iraq, the US dug such a deep hole of debt it can no longer get out. The increase — $29 trillion — is almost exactly equal to the amount spent on the Empire.
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
Bill Bonner, writing today from Poitou, France
The dots don’t matter. It’s the pattern that counts.
Harris? Trump?
One, full of bile and bald-faced untruths. The other... empty as a beer can... hollow as a rotten log.
They are on different trains, with different dumbbell slogans and different egregious lies... but both are headed to the same destination, a rendezvous with a perverse and unpleasant destiny.
And yet, the American people will stand in line — even in the cold and rain of November — and vote for them.
What has happened to us all? Did we suddenly awake, one dark and woebegone morning, and decide to be stupid?
Or, is it just part of the pattern? The dots come to think what they need to think when they need to think it. And as an empire ages, its people — both leader and followers — become paranoid delusionals.
How else to explain it? The general level of dumbness is breathtaking. Americans think they can improve their economy by banning imports... cutting taxes and interest rates... and spending money they don’t have on things they don’t really need. Their national debt approaches the critical ‘meltdown’ level... and they just spend more. And neither Republicans nor Democrats even mention it.
But it is on foreign affairs — and the relentless drive for confrontation — that the stupidity is most obvious... and most dangerous.
It was surely no coincidence that the day Donald Trump was in the sights of a loopy 20-year-old from Butler, PA, the press delivered a bombshell report, CNN:
Secret Service ramped up security after intel of Iran plot to assassinate Trump
“Secret Service learned of the increased threat from this threat stream,” [an] official told CNN.
No evidence was presented. No motive proposed. Instead, the ‘news’ item merely reinforced the idea of a ‘threat stream’... that foreigners are behind it... and that the Iranians (whose annual military spending represents just 4 days of the Pentagon budget) are ‘bad guys’ who need to be kept under control.
Secretary of State Blinken continues to beat the war drum: "Iran is one or two weeks away from reaching capacity of producing fissile material for Nuclear Weapons" he claims.
Blinken seems to have taken Colin Powell for his model. Twenty-one years ago, Powell had this to say:
‘We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction; he's determined to make more.’
In the years since Colin Powell lied to the world about Iraq, the US dug such a deep hole of debt it can no longer get out. The increase — $29 trillion — is almost exactly equal to the amount spent on the empire adventure.
Between the two of them — war and debt — the US is stuck. It desperately needs to cut spending to avoid going bust... but you don’t count the pennies when you’re up against an ‘axis of evil!’
Colonel Douglas Macgregor, talking to Tucker Carlson:
‘Over and over, we’ve been told that the Russians are evil... that their army is incompetent... that we’re winning the war. None of it was true.’
Among the most obvious untruths was that Vladimir Putin was a modern-day Hitler intent on conquering Europe. Putin explained the situation many times, urging a negotiated settlement that would guarantee Ukrainian independence and neutrality. American warmongers — notably Victoria Nuland, wife of arch neo-con Robert Kaplan — preferred war, betting on the superior power of NATO forces to defeat Putin.
It didn’t work out that way. As many as 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died playing Ms. Nuland’s war game... and it now appears that Putin has won anyway.
But nobody in US power circles seems much interested in the history of the Ukraine, its complex ethnic make-up, or the legitimate national interests of the Russians. No learning, no understanding, no historical perspective necessary. They just need fuel for their war machine.
And now, China provides a useful enemy. Foreign policy hack, Mary Kissel explained that China aims to “upend our way of life and to dominate and change our way of life.” They are “committed to destroy(ing) us.”
Really? Is it the Chinese... the Russians... or the Iranians who will destroy us? Or, can we do the job ourselves?
Stay tuned...
Regards,
Bill Bonner
Investment Note, by Tom Dyson
The chart shows the ratio of the Russell 1000 growth index to Russell 1000 value index. In short, it shows Growth (stocks with high valuations and strong profit growth) has beaten Value (cheap stocks with little profit growth) for almost 18 years, since 2007.
We first published this chart in early 2022, expecting the trend to reverse and value to start outperforming growth. We were right... for a year. Then the big preference for growth resumed. Now it's at all-time highs again.
But perhaps another rotation has just started? It doesn't look like much on the 25-year chart, but last week, value notched its best weekly performance over growth since 2001. This could be the start of something much bigger. We'll see.
What is so striking to me is the complete lack of consequences to any of these people as far back as when the Federal Reserve was set-up. They lie, they cheat, and they steal and life goes on. No transparency whatsoever. They truly are so egregious (using one of Bill's words) that it is hard to comprehend. Apparently, it is the pattern of humans and empires. For us poor proles (much better word than lemmings) we need to prepare for the expected as well as expect the unexpected. Life goes on but what a shitshow. Time to reflect and then stock up on good wine, bourbon, beer, sodapop and toast each sundown with whatever makes your day.
The empire will eat itself. We won’t need any assistance thank you