You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the injured. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with harshness and cruelty. So my sheep have been scattered without a shepherd, and they are easy prey for any wild animal. They have wandered through all the mountains and all the hills, across the face of the earth, yet no one has gone to search for them.
Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, you abandoned my flock and left them to be attacked by every wild animal. And though you were my shepherds, you didn’t search for my sheep when they were lost. You took care of yourselves and left the sheep to starve.
Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I now consider these shepherds my adversaries, and I will hold them to account for what has happened to my flock. I will take away their right to care for the flock, and I will stop them from feeding themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths; the sheep will no longer be their prey."
Ezekiel 34:1-10
"No one screams against this hell. No one protests. And if they abhor what they see, they do not have the courage to damn the damned. One alone would not have failed us. Péguy would have spoken, I hope, he would have let loose his scream. He is not here, and there is no one else."
André Suarès, 1939
"He who does not shout the truth when he knows it makes himself the accomplice of liars and frauds."
Charles Péguy, Lettre du Provincial, 21 December 1899
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness in this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
Ephesians 6:12
"They do not see the image of Almighty God before them, and ask themselves what He wishes. And, for the same reason that they do not please Him, they succeed in pleasing themselves.
Hence, they become both self-satisfied and self-sufficient; they think they know just what they ought to do, and that they do it all; and in consequence they are very well content with themselves, and rate their merit very high, and have no fear at all of any future scrutiny into their conduct.
The more secret God's hand is, the more powerful— the more silent, the more awful."
John Henry Newman
Stocks managed to wobble higher today, in the usual up and down session.
VIX crept a little higher.
Gold and silver managed to hold their ground, with silver even gaining a little.
The Fed is meeting in Jackson Hole.
Expectations are running high for a Fed rate cut, especially after the big downward revision in the Jobs number this morning.
Powell will be speaking later this week. If there is to be some announcement, that maybe the time.
I can't help but wonder if the Fed does finally cut, in September perhaps, the markets will give us a dramatic 'pop and flop.'
And in the background, the rolling boil in geopolitical events continues.
Have a pleasant evening.
