U.S. support for the Sunni camp was made clear by the fact that Trump made Riyadh his first foreign stop as president, by his willingness to sell the Saudis $110 billion in military equipment, and by his repeated criticisms of Iran during his speech.Why the United States would want to tilt toward either side in the Sunni-Shiite divide is mystifying.

These two sects have been at odds for centuries, with no signs of a detente. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the world's most dangerous terrorist organization, is Sunni. The same goes for al-Qaeda, the group founded by Osama bin Laden that brought down the World Trade Center on 9/11.”

USA Today, In Saudi Arabia, Trump turns Sunni

“I served in all commissioned ranks from a second Lieutenant to a Major General. And during that time, I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street, and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.”

Smedley Butler, USMC

“The enormous gap between what US leaders do in the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments of the dominant political mythology.

Michael Parenti

The inflation numbers came in weakly this morning, prompting stocks to rally on the notion that the Fed will stick to the minimum schedule of raising rates in order to give themselves sufficient room to cut rates when their latest financial asset bubble begins to implode.

And with this softness in rate increases, the dollar dropped and gold and silver rallied a bit in response.

There are lots of things that barely make sense that tend to dominate the mainstream news and discussions. I would imagine that you have noticed.