“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as cunning as serpents and yet as innocent as doves. Be on your guard, for people will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be brought before governors and kings because of me to testify before them and the Gentiles.
“When they hand you over, do not be concerned about how you are to speak or what you are to say. When the time comes, you will be given what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise up against their parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved."
Matthew 10:16-22
"Therefore they shall eat the bitter fruit of their ways, and be gutted by their own schemes. For the foolish turn away from me — to death. For fools are destroyed by their pride and self-satisfaction.”
Proverbs 1:31-33
"It is as popular now as ever to blame poor people for their station in life. Republican politicians love to talk about how poor people could stop being poor if only they made better choices or worked harder. If only they'd stop buying iPhones, they could afford insurance! These assholes - and I do not use that slur lightly - have no clue what it is like to grow up poor. They have no clue how hard it is in many places in the US just to keep the lights on and food on the table.
It is easy for them, from the comfort of their cushy offices and homes, with full bellies and bank accounts, to pretend that poor people like my mother are poor because they are stupid or lazy or ignorant or irresponsible rather than confront the broken systems that perpetuate poverty in Appalachia and all across the US. Poor people don't contribute to reelection funds, but those who profit from poor people sure do.
Therefore, truth be told, most politicians couldn't care less about the plight of the poor. There's so much profit to be made from poor people - think payday loans, high-interest rent-to-own stores, for-profit colleges, and overpriced mobile homes - that politicians and their crony-capitalist donors have a vested interest in keeping them poor."
Joshua Wilkey, My Mother Wasn't Trash, May 2017
Stocks popped and floundered today, taking a break from a truly speculative rally.
The markets are one trigger event away from a fairly remarkable selloff.
The underpinnings are constructed of leveraged debt.
Those positions will start 'pancaking' under the weight a significant wave of selling.
The Dollar chopped around the 97 handle.
Bitcoin rallied up to a new all time high.
I suspect the fat lady is at least clearing her throat.
Silver had an impressive breakout higher, a powerful move that completed our intermediate measuring objective on the chart at 39.
Gold continued to advance as well.
The difficulty we are in, we being the public, is that we can not trust what the government or the mainstream media say about many of the most important things.
“The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more, and tolerated by all.”
Tacitus, Histories 1.28
This lack of trust will facilitate any break in investor confidence.
All in all, this is as bad of a market setup I have seen in a long time, having traded through the market breaks of 2002 and 2008.
These are the fruits of lawlessness.
Have a pleasant weekend.
