Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Temptations and Lies of Old Nick

 

"They may really hold that the ordinary human feelings about the past or animals or large waterfalls are contrary to reason and contemptible and ought to be eradicated. They may be intending to make a clean sweep of traditional values and start with a new set.  It is the magician’s bargain: give up our soul, get power in return. But once our souls, that is, ourselves, have been given up, the power thus conferred will not belong to us. We shall in fact be the slaves and puppets of that to which we have given our souls.

When all that says ‘it is good’ has been debunked, what says ‘I want’ remains.”

C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, 1943

"There is a reason why our great American cities, for all of our supposed wealth, often feel and look so shabby. The money goes elsewhere. Poverty—both individual and social—is a policy, not an accident, and not some kind of natural law. These are deliberate choices about the allocation of resources. They are eminently undoable by modest exercises of political power, although if the state- and city-level Democratic leaders of New York and northern Virginia are the national mold, then our nominally left-wing party is utterly, hopelessly beholden to the upward transfer of social wealth to an extremely narrow cadre of already extremely rich men and women."

Jacob Bacharach, The Egregious Lie Americans Tell Themselves, November 15, 2018

“No philosopher would be willing to accept the idea of philosophy as a way of escape, but might there not be a question of the philosopher being in duty bound to refuse to accept a world, like our real world here, of disorder and crime where the values of the mind and spirit can no longer find a home. Today the first and perhaps the only duty of the philosopher is to defend man against himself: to defend man against that extraordinary temptation toward inhumanity to which—almost without being aware of it—so many human beings today have yielded.”

Gabriel Marcel, Man Against Mass Society, 1952

"The ultimate purpose of crime is to establish an endless empire. It seeks a state of complete insecurity and anarchy, founded upon the tainted ideals of a world thought doomed to annihilation. When humanity, subjugated by the terror of crime, has been driven mad by fear and horror, and when chaos has become the supreme law, then the time for the empire of lawlessness will have come."

Fritz Lang, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse, 1933

"For you are not in darkness, for that Day will not catch you unawares like a thief.   For all of you are children of the light, and children of the day.  We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.  So let us not fall asleep like the others, but we stay alert and vigilant.  Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who become intoxicated do so at night.  But those who belong to the light remain aware, arming ourselves with faith and love as our armor, and as our helmet the hope for salvation."

1 Thessalonians 5:4-8


There is a old saying that if you wish to test a person's character, give them money and the power that money brings.

And in a variation of Lord Acton's dictum about power, power does corrupt, but power attracts the corruptible.

After all, only someone of extraordinary faith and commitment can withstand the temptations of the power of this world.

It is early days yet, and far too soon to draw any serious conclusions about our new Administration, despite the recent experience of only a few years ago.

But we cannot forget that the American republic was displaced by the Imperial Presidency, starting with Reagan.  And it has continued, approaching the stage in its development where the facade will be dropped, and the brick wall of lawlessness will be revealed behind the curtain of democratic legality.

Stocks rallied.

The VIX fell to a new near term low.

The Dollar fell.

Gold and silver managed to obtain a gain.  But notice how doggedly gold was held at the key resistance level.

Let's see if gold and silver can continue to move higher, despite the wishes of the lord of the empire of fiat in New York and London.

Have a pleasant evening.

Those Who Murder the the Prophets and the Innocent, Thinking They Will Not Be Judged

 

"And some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak.  We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak."

Martin Luther King, A Time to Break the Silence,  Riverside Church, 4 April 1967

"It is a dark day in our nation when high-level authorities will seek to use every method to silence dissent. But something is happening, and people are not going to be silenced.

God has a way of standing before the nations with judgement, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America 'You are too arrogant! If you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power! And I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still, and know that I am God.'"

Martin Luther King, Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam, Riverside Church, 30 April 1967

"Wherever you are going this morning, my friends, show the world that you're going with truth. You are going with justice, you are going with goodness, and you will have an eternal companionship.

And the world will look at you and they won't understand you, for your fiery furnace will be around you, but you'll go on anyhow.

But if not, I will not bow, and God grant that we will never bow, before the gods of evil."

Martin Luther King, But If Not, Ebenezer Baptist Church, 5 November 1967

“Now the problem is not only unemployment.  Do you know that most of the poor people in our country are working every day?  And they are making wages so low that they cannot begin to function in the mainstream of the economic life of our nation.  These are facts which must be seen, and it is criminal to have people working on a full-time basis and a full-time job getting part-time income...

If America does not use her vast resources of wealth to end poverty and make it possible for all of God’s children to have the basic necessities of life, she too will go to hell.”

Martin Luther King, 18 March 1968

"We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life — longevity has its place.

But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.

So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything, I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

Martin Luther King, 3 April 1968

The next day, 4 April 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee, exactly one year to the day after his sermon, A Time To Break the Silence.

The sermons given at Riverside Church in April 1967 began his year long march towards the mountain top, and his murder in Memphis in April of the following year.  He was a threat to the moneyed interests, the political establishment, and the captains of industry.

And, some might observe, the message had also been given to the elite in the deaths of John F Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, all of whom favored negotiations over armed conflict, and wanted peace rather than endless war.

As it was then, so it is now.  

The suppression of speech and the stifling of dissent in the media and the schools has freedom in a deadly grip of money, secrecy, lawlessness, and power. 

Hypocrites, their cursed hands dripping with the blood of wars of aggression and crimes against humanity, thinking that they will not be judged.

"Many of us like to ask ourselves, 'What would I do if I was alive during slavery?   Or the Jim Crow South?   Or apartheid?  What would I do if my country was committing genocide?'   The answer is, you're doing it.   Right now."

Aaron Bushnell

"They live out their days in prosperity, and slide peacefully down into hell."

Job 21:13

Are we not exceptional?  Are we not a beacon of freedom to the world?

Are you not sufficiently distracted and entertained?

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Pour Nous Les Petits de Dieu

 

"Almighty God lets the sinner go his own way, for He has given to man free-will, and does not want a forced obedience, but an obedience springing from love.  In his forgetfulness of God, the sinner squanders his fortune, the natural and supernatural gifts which he has received, using his natural gifts, his health, his physical powers, and his reason, to offend God.   The sinner, having forsaken the service of his God, falls under the dominance of Satan, and becomes the slave of his lowest passions, which are signified by the swine which the prodigal was forced to feed. He feels an emptiness and spiritual hunger in his heart which he is powerless to satisfy.   He knows no rest; he only knows that he is miserable, and hateful to himself."

Friedrich Justus Knecht

"Oh my God, forgive me for what I have been, correct what I am, and direct what I will be."

Elizabeth Ann Seton

"When we forgive, we do not simply put up with the person’s hurtful behavior, blame ourselves for the person’s behavior, pretend that we weren’t hurt, or say the person didn’t mean to hurt us. Instead, we acknowledge that we are all imperfect humans. Forgiveness is a moral decision to see the other person’s worth, let go of anger, and offer compassion, benevolence, and love toward the offender."

Robert D. Enright, Forgiveness Is a Choice

"He has shown you what is good. The Lord requires you to act justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

Micah 6:8

"Every century is like every other, and to those who live in it seems worse than all times before it.  The Church is ever ailing, and lingers on in weakness.  Religion seems ever expiring, schisms dominant, the light of Truth dim, its adherents scattered.   The cause of Christ is ever in its last agony, as though it were but a question of time whether it fails finally this day or another.   The Saints are ever all but failing from the earth, and Christ all but coming; and thus the Day of Judgment is literally ever at hand."

John Henry Newman, The Via Media, 1834

"Let us ever bear in mind this divine truth, — the more secret God's hand is, the more powerful — the more silent, the more awful."

John Henry Newman

"To escape the pain caused by regret for the past or fear about the future, this is the rule to follow: leave the past to the infinite mercy of God, the future to His good Providence, and give the present wholly to His love by being faithful to His grace.”

Jean-Pierre de Caussade, L'Abandon a la Providence Divine

"Fear not, little flock, for your Father delights to give you welcome into His Kingdom."

Luke 12:32


Defy the world with love, and a light will come into your life.

If we love and serve the Lord, as He loves us, we need have no fear, despite our human weakness.  

Do not fear the blowing and bluster of men, for as you will see soon enough they are but shadows, a tempest of dust for a day.

You do not believe it.  Your fears threaten to drown out His voice.  

But you will see. 

Today was an option expiration.

Stocks rallied higher, because.

Gold and silver were stopped cold again at resistance and pushed back.

The VIX fell.

Markets will be closed on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Day, and there will be the inauguration of Trump 2.0.

He is just a man, soon enough to be gone like the snows of yesteryear.  But he should be remembered in our prayers along with all others of our fellow creatures, especially those who might prompt us to falter.

I have a rule that if someone provokes me, I have to pray for them.  I have been doing this for some years now, and it helps me to abide.  I have been praying a lot lately, and suspect for the next year or two that will continue.

Remember who you are, and what you have been called to do.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - They Worship Wealth and Power, Precedent and the Law Be Damned

 

"But perhaps the most stunning piece of news we're getting in the wake of the MF Global collapse is in the clients of the firm who managed to get away scot-free, with no freezing of accounts or capital -- particularly the accounts of the mega-cap independent oil company Koch Industries, run by the politically active Koch brothers.

A recent report in Reuters has described the billions of dollars of client accounts that were withdrawn from MF Global in the last few weeks before their collapse, including 8 accounts from Koch industries engaged in oil trade that were transferred to Mizuho Securities after years of a steady and profitable relationship with MF. The Reuters piece concentrates on the possibilities of legal "clawback" of client money if the bankruptcy does not allow remaining client accounts to be made whole.

The Reuters piece misses the point.

Both the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange were charged with overseeing MF Global, their clearing member. If we are to believe them, they had no idea of any difficulties within the firm before customer accounts went missing just a few days before the collapse. But someone clearly knew of the cratering positions and imminent collapse of MF Global, as billions of dollars of accounts were "coincidentally" withdrawn. And what do the Koch brothers say was the reason for these withdrawals? There's been no comment."

Daniel Dicker, MF Global and the Koch Brothers: Friends to the End, Huffington Post, Nov. 11, 2011

“It could be argued that we are now in the midst of a coup d’état in slow motion. Democracy is weakening; few people would disagree. Corporatism is strengthening; you only have to look around you. Yet none of us has chosen this route for our society, in spite of which our elites quite happily continue down it. Certainly corporatism is creating a conformist society. It is a modern form of feudalism.”

John Ralston Saul, The Unconscious Civilization, 1995

"The Ivy League-derived orthodoxy of the professional, educated class saturates all areas of American society.  Alternative voices and viewpoints are ostracized through a number of means.  If you do not possess the expertise and stamp of approval as authorized by the academic infrastructure, your ideas are often dismissed out of hand, however profound and substantive.  If you posses the authorization to speak, but step outside of the boundaries of permissible thought (and action), your voice will remain virtually meaningless, or worse, maligned.  While scholarship, research, writing, and practices outside of orthodox parameters exist at universities and in other professions, the work of these professionals does not generally penetrate the paradigms of larger society, nor does it affect large-scale public policies."

Kristine Mattis, The Cult of the Professional Class, April 4, 2016

"The American economy increasingly serves only a narrow part of society, and America's national politics has failed to put the country back on track through honest, open, and transparent problem solving.  Too many of America's elites-among the super-rich, the CEOs, and many of my colleagues in academia-have abandoned a commitment to social responsibility.  They chase wealth and power, the rest of society be damned."

Jeffrey Sachs, The Price of Civilization, October 4, 2011


As a reminder, tomorrow is a stock option expiration.

Stocks attempted to continue their rallied, but failed.   And the major indices went out on the lows.

Gold and silver were rallying, but lost ground into the late afternoon trade.

But gold has held on to its breakout from the big symmetrical triangle.   It needs to punch up through the overhead resistance on the charts to confirm it.

Stocks are continuing a trend of lower highs and lower lows.

This is not constructive to the bullish case being touted by the Wall Street talking heads to the spokesmodels head-bobbing agreement.

People tend to hear and forget what is going on, preferring to lose themselves in the slogans and passions of the moment.

It is like we have the situational awareness of goldfish.

Well, so much the better for the privileged few.

Have a pleasant evening.