Stocks And Precious Metals Charts - The Enveloping Horns of the Beast

 

"There are so many ways of escaping from that which one fears, and not the least of these is hatred.”

Philip Kerr, Berlin Noir

"The pull of fascist politics is powerful.  It simplifies human existence, gives us an object, a 'them' whose supposed laziness highlights our own virtue and discipline, encourages us to identify with a forceful leader who helps us make sense of the world, whose bluntness regarding the 'undeserving' people in the world is refreshing.   Fascism thrives under conditions of economic uncertainty, where fear and resentment can be mobilized to set citizens against one another,

When you legitimize yourself entirely by inventing enemies, the truth ceases to matter, normal restraints of civilization and decency cease to matter, the checks and balances of normal politics cease to matter.  The dangers of fascist politics come from the particular way in which it dehumanizes segments of the population.   

It limits the capacity for empathy among other citizens, leading to the justification of inhumane treatment, from repression of freedom, mass imprisonment, and expulsion to, in extreme cases, mass extermination."

Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works

“When Fascism came into power, most people were unprepared, both theoretically and practically. They were unable to believe that man could exhibit such propensities for evil, such lust for power, such disregard for the rights of the weak, or such yearning for submission. Only a few had been aware of the rumbling of the volcano preceding the outbreak.”

Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom, 1941

"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.  It is not merely that at present the rule of naked force obtains almost everywhere.  Bully-worship, under various disguises, has become a universal religion."

George Orwell, Review of Bertrand Russell's Power, 1939

"Faustus, who embraced evil and shunned righteousness, became the foremost symbol of the misuse of free will, that sublime gift from God with its inherent opportunity to choose virtue and reject iniquity. Faustus had advanced beyond the level of a scarlet sinner — he was a conscious follower of the Prince of Darkness. 

The fact he could publicly project an Antichrist image with pride, having no fear of reprisal, and his seeming diabolical art of escaping all punishment when others who were considered heretics had burned at the stake for less, would certainly signal that an unnatural individual walked in their midst. It is true in many respects he assumed the role of the charlatan, yet how apropos, considering his willingness to follow the Father of Lies and deception. 

The lofty mind of man can be imprisoned by the artifices of its own making. If there are damned souls in Hell, it is because men blind themselves.”

E.A. Bucchianeri, Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World

"Everywhere and always demonic powers lurk in the dark, waiting for the moment when man is weak; when of his own volition he leaves his place in Creation, as founded for him by God in freedom; and when he yields to the forces of evil, he separates himself from the powers of a higher order; after voluntarily taking the first step, he is driven on and on to the next and to the next, at a furiously accelerating rate."

Die Weiße Rose, Fourth Leaflet, Munich, 1942


I am posting this a bit early today because I have somewhere to be shortly after the close.

Stocks managed to gain back their early losses in a gradual afternoon rally.

Gold and silver were under pressure, with both regaining some ground.

VIX continued to wallow in complacency.

The Dollar had a slight decline.

Most leaders are a little vain, and are tempted by power.   But that does not make them a narcissist.  To stand against the tide, especially for principles, requires some measure of self-assurance which often leans to excess.

A malignant narcissist does not have friends, supporters, principles, or colleagues.

They have people and things that they use for their own selfish and vain desires of the moment.

They will use you, abuse you, and throw you away.

They will take every opportunity to bully the weak, and bring misery to those who do not have the power to stop them.

If you have ever dealt with a true narcissist, either at work, or among acquaintances, or even family, you will understand that there is no way to reason with them, no way to really work together.  

You may serve, and it will not be pleasant, but that is the best you would expect.

The best example of the ultimate malignant narcissist I could think of is Satan.  And he will not serve.

So, Jesse, what then are we to do?

Most people who realize we are in a tough spot choose to make whatever peace they need to get by, hope to make a great deal of money, and then retreat to some fortress in a distant land.

Even those who are nominally religious pin their hopes on a 'rapture,' to abandon the world and look on with the smugness of membership in the exceptional.

We know what we have been told what to do.   We just don't want to hear it, since it is not to our liking.

But that is how things are.  And how they have been before, for our parents and grandparents, and their parents, although we like to think that we are special, unique.

Need little, want less, love more.  For those who abide in God abide in love, and love in them.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Nourishing Itself from Its Own Destruction

 

"There was war in heaven.  Michael and the angels fought against the dragon.  The dragon fought back, but he did not have the power, and so lost his place in heaven.   The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it.  Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have salvation and the power come, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Anointed.  For the adversary of our brothers and sisters is cast out, who accuses them before our God day and night.

They triumphed by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; love for life did not deter them from death.   Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them.  But woe to you, earth and the sea, for the Devil has come down to you in great fury, for he knows his time is short.’"

Revelation 12:7-12

“The investment ecosystem has effectively self-organized into one giant short volatility trade like a snake eating its own tail, nourishing itself from its own destruction.”

Chris Cole, Artemis Capital, 2017

"And he said to them, 'Behold, I saw Satan fall, like lightning from heaven.'"

Luke 10:18

"What is cast (or casts itself) into hell is not a man: it is 'remains.'  To be a complete man means to have the passions obedient to the will and the will offered to God: to have been a man – to be an ex-man or 'damned ghost' – would presumably mean to consist of a will utterly centered in its self and passions utterly uncontrolled by the will."

C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, 1940

"Narcissism becomes particularly 'malignant' (i.e. malevolent, dangerous, harmful, incurable) when it goes beyond mere vanity and excessive self-focus. Malignant narcissists not only see themselves as superior to others but believe in their superiority to the degree that they view others as relatively worthless, expendable, and justifiably exploitable.  

This type of narcissism is a defining characteristic of psychopathy/sociopathy and is rooted in an individual’s deficient capacity for empathy.  It’s almost impossible for a person with such shallow feelings and such haughtiness to really care about others or to form a conscience with any of the qualities we typically associate with a humane attitude, which is why most researchers and thinkers on the topic of psychopathy think of psychopaths as individuals without a conscience altogether."

George Simon, Malignant Narcissism, December 27, 2013


Stocks continued moving higher.

VIX continued to fall and wallow at near term lows.

The Dollar rose.

Gold rose higher in its breakout attempt.

Silver, not so much.

We will have a futures contracts option expiration next Tuesday, January 28.

There are a surprising number of malignant narcissists prominently on the scene in the West these days, both in political and corporate positions of power.

This reminds me a little of The Planet of the Apes.  The gorillas have all the horses and guns, and they ride around shooting and terrorizing the human beings.

Have a pleasant evening.

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.