Summary: Fed backstop creates unreal disconnect<br> Statues Fall: Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, & Ulysses Grant?<br> If you saw a Marxist revolution happening would you know?<br> <br> <br> The McAlvany Weekly Commentary<br> with David McAlvany and Kevin Orrick<br> Wall Street Fiddles As Rome Burns<br> June 24, 2020<br> David: If you’ve never studied the horrors brought about by Marxism, you should look at the 20th century, with more blood and gore than any in history, and realize that replacing the stars and stripes off of a narrative of social injustice, if you want to replace that with a hammer and sickle, it’s a deadly move. It’s one that truly reflects Santayana’s is warning: if you don’t learn from history, you will repeat it.<br> -David McAlvany<br> <br> <br> <br> Kevin: I read an interesting book called Brainwash by Dominic Streatfeild, and he talked about various things like sensory deprivation, MKUltra mind control, hypnosis. A very, very good book, actually. But there were five techniques for interrogators when they’re trying to interrogate a prisoner that they would use. They were actually called the Five Techniques. It was all designed to eliminate the identity of the person, whether it’s putting a hood on or making them stand for hours against a wall, sleep deprivation, bread and water diet…but the idea was to eliminate any identity before you actually started the interrogation. Dave, I see that happening in the nation right now. Our identities just being stripped.<br> <br> David: You know, what’s interesting is we’re not coming from a perfect place. If you think about your own family or my family, I could tell you all the foibles and mistakes of an earlier generation that feed into who I am today, the way I think and operate today, and it is what it is. I’m not making an apology for the past or justifying the past. It is what it is. We take it in stride, try not to let it hamstring us, but also appreciate the contribution that it makes to what we will be in the future. So identity is something that we have as an individual, we have in the context of family. We have in the context of a community and even of a nation, and you’re right. The loss of identity, the confusion of identity is something that is very critical if you in fact want to create a brand new identity. But can we actually do that as individuals?<br> <br> Kevin: You turned me on to a quote by Thomas Sowell. He said, “We have reached the ultimate stage of absurdity, where some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born. While other people are not held responsible for what they themselves are doing today.” Boy, that’s the news.<br> <br> David: (laughs) Well, try to imagine that I don’t have an axe to grind and as a market observer I’m looking for cause and effect. I want to understand what’s transpiring to change the face of opportunity for everyone in America. And we have to try this anyways, even if we do it imperfectly and not perfectly or, in that since, impartially.<br> <br> Kevin: Well, like you said, it’s a market commentary, but it’s also a political commentary because the markets are affected by politics. Our lives are infected by politics. I look at what’s going on right now, though, Dave, whatever side. I mean, there’s so many sides right now, but it reminds me of cult reprogramming. You know where again the loss of identity or when you see a communist takeover that you purge the nation of its history first so that people don’t remember. You and I have talked about Shostakovich. When he wrote his Fifth Symphony he was in fear for his life in communist Russia because it didn’t quite fit the narrative that they felt Communist music should sound like. It’s a magnificent symphony, but he almost lost his life for it.<br> <br> David: Well, it’s now critical to distinguish the issues of police reform and the historical cultural hara-kiri bein...
