Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Love of Power Is Hell

 

"A new commandment I give you — that you love one another, as I have loved you.  By this all will know that you are mine — if you love one another.'”

John 13:34-35

"Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be.  Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them.  Without love deeds, even the greatest, count as nothing.  Our Lord's love shines forth as much in the simplest of souls as it does in the most highly gifted, as long as there is no refusal of His grace."

Thérèse Martin de Lisieux, L'Histoire d'une Âme

"What we would like to do is change the world–make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe and shelter themselves as God intended them to do.  And to a certain extent, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, of the poor, of the destitute – the rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor.  We can to a certain extent change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world."

Dorothy Day, Love Is the Measure, June 1946

“The opposite of love is not hate, he said.  It’s power.  Relationships fueled by a drive for power, where one person seeks dominance over the other, are incapable of producing love.”

David Talbot, The Devil's Chessboard: the Rise of America's Secret Government, 2015

"And the rich man replied, ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone is sent to my brothers from the dead, then they will surely repent of their sins and turn to God.’ But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded, even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Luke 16:30-31 

The absence of love is power.  The love of power is hell. 

The emptiness of the absence of divine comfort, that selfless presence which comforts and flows around a soul in the vastness of eternity, is what will burn those who refuse the call to love.  The absence of God from 'interference with their lives' that they had desired is a terrible judgement.  They suffer in a torment of regret, alone and unloved.

The casual ease with which people consign themselves to the abyss makes the devils in hell rejoice, and the angels in heaven weep. 

Who could have seen it coming?

 Stocks continued to rally today.   

Today was a minor option expiration for gold and silver futures on the Comex. 

Gold and silver came in struggling, but rocketed higher in the late day trade as the Dollar continued its cascading decline.  

Uncle Buck plunged in the closing hour to fall into the 95 handle. 

What are the markets saying to us?

VIX wallows.

Bitcoin managed to stage a little rally in the last hour.  It is back in its trading range after a failed breakout attempt.

FOMC rate decision tomorrow. 

Trump is heading into a turning point.  That much is obvious to anyone who is watching.

His attempts to thwart the midterm elections will escalate.  

The hand of God is moving now among us.   

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - And Where Are the Snows of Yesteryear?

 

"They shall eat the bitter fruit of their ways, and be gutted by their schemes.  The foolish turn away from me — to death.  For fools are destroyed by their pride and self-deception.”

Proverbs 1:31-33

"Where are the princes of this world, and those who lorded it over the creatures of the earth?  Those who hoarded up riches in which they placed their hope.  Those who have no limit to their greed, who scheme to get more wealth, and are always anxious about their possessions.

Now there is nothing left of them.  They have vanished into the bowels of the earth, and others like them have risen to take their place."

Baruch 3:16-19

"And Joan, the holy maiden from Lorraine
Whom the English burned at Rouen;
Where are they now, O Virgin Queen?
And where are the snows of yesteryear."

François Villon, Ballade des dames du temps jadis

"The inability to identify with others was unquestionably the most important psychological condition for the fact that something like Auschwitz could have occurred in the midst of more or less civilised and innocent people.  The silence under the terror was only its consequence.  The coldness of the societal mindset, the isolated competitor, was the precondition, as indifference to the fate of others, for the fact that only very few people reacted. The torturers know this, and they put it to test ever anew.

One must come to know the mechanisms that render people capable of such deeds, must reveal these mechanisms to them, and strive, by awakening a general awareness of those mechanisms, to prevent people from becoming so again.

It is not the victims who are guilty, not even in the sophistic and caricatured sense in which still today many like to construe it.  Only those who unreflectingly vented their hate and aggression upon them are guilty.  One must labor against this lack of reflection, must dissuade people from striking outward without reflecting upon themselves.  The only education that has any sense at all is an education toward critical self-reflection."

Theodor Adorno, Education After Auschwitz, 18 April 1966


Silver rocketed to a new all time high today of 117.70, but backed off to around 108 into the close.  Still a solid gain piled on the recent breakout over 100.

Gold rallied.

Bitcoin slumped a bit.

The Dollar continued its cascading decline, now to the bottom of the 97 handle.

Stocks rallied sharply.

Then tend to do that on Mondays lately.

We will be having the FOMC rate decision on Wednesday.

It's hard to tell, but things seem to be approaching a tipping point in the States, as we head into the midterm elections. 

It seems that the bold lawlessness of the day will keep testing the strength of justice and the commitment of this generation to the freedoms which it has been given.

That boldness will continue until stopped.  And as men learn that they can break the law with impunity, they will develop a taste for it, and the impetus for even greater excess.

"Where are the leaders?  Has our political process become so compromised by powerful interest groups and the threat of character assassination that even the best among us will not dare to speak honestly about the solutions that might bring us back to common sense and fundamental fairness?"    Senator Jim Webb, A Time to Fight, 2008

Where are our leaders indeed?

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Lawless and Self-Enslaved

 

“There are only two kinds of people in the end — those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'  All that are in Hell choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.”

C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, 1945

"As you have willed it, so your house is now yours to command — but it is made desolate.’”

Matthew 23:38

"But, outside the realm of business, these men are stupid. They know only business. They do not know mankind nor society, and yet they set themselves up as arbiters of the fates of the hungry millions and all the other millions thrown in. 

We well we know by bitter experience that no appeal for the right, for justice, for humanity, can ever touch you.  I know nothing that I may say can influence you.  You have no souls to be influenced. You are spineless, flaccid things.  You pompously call yourselves Republicans and Democrats.  You are lick-spittles and panderers, the creatures of the plutocracy.” ”

Jack London, The Iron Heel, 1907 

"We labor and labor and labor for stuff that never satisfies us. The market ideology is now the new form of imperial power and many of us, without any critical reflection, have signed onto that, and organized our lives in that way so we do not have any time, energy or capacity for the things that are rightly important to us, our humanness."

Walter Brueggemann, Truth To Power, 2013

"I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.  I do not mean that they may not wish to come out of hell, but they certainly do not will even the first preliminary stages of that self-abandonment through which alone the soul can reach any good.  They enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved."

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


Fed rate decision next Wednesday afternoon. 

The Dollar slumped down to the 97 handle as the rest of the world is selling hubris.

Gold and silver rocketed higher, with silver punching through $100 and closing above $102.

Gold is knocking on $5,000. 

Stocks tried to extend their rally and then fell back to hold a modest gain.

It did not take much to get VIX wallowing near complacency again.

Donnie's done.  He just doesn't know it yet.  Slowly, and then all at once.

The dogfight that will take place afterwards could be interesting.

We are expecting a major snowstorm here in the northeast this weekend.

Daisy and I are ready.  I washed all the blankets today.

Have a pleasant weekend. 

 

 

Cold Weather Special: Sweet and Sour Meatball Soup

 

This is an old recipe from my godfather who was Prussian/Polish.  My grandmother was German and she had her own similar version.

I have modified the recipe a bit over the years, but here is the basic idea.  Once you get familiar with it free to experiment with things that suit
your taste. 

It is a good cold weather soup.  Süße und Saure Suppe

Into a large pot add four quarts of clear chicken stock.
Add four stalks of celery. If it is green clean the outside
to remove any bitterness.

Add one pound of cleaned pork neckbones. This will add 'richness.'
One or two cloves of garlic.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes.

Remove the bones and celery. I usually take any meat off the bones
and use it in something else, not in the soup. Sometimes the dog gets lucky.

Take 1 pound of ground beef and 1 pound ground pork and 8 to 16 oz.
of plain bread crumbs in a large bowl.  Add one tablespoon celery salt and pepper to taste.
One well diced onion.

Mix in two eggs. If the mixture seems heavy add up to 1/2 cup milk to soften the bread crumbs.
Salt and pepper to taste. A sprinkle of garlic powder if you are of that persuasion.

Bring the stock back up to a boil. Make the meatballs and add them to the stock. Cook them until they float to the top on a slow boil.  Remove them and put them on the side in a bowl.

Add one cup of diced celery, one diced leek, one large potato,
and five or six sliced carrots.
Slice and add one lemon, removing the seeds.
Add one package of cleaned and separated chicken wings or wingettes.  Bring to a slow boil and simmer for about 45 minutes.

Turn the heat down very low.
Add 2 pints of sour cream. 

Add one cup of sugar. Mix lightly without breaking up the carrots and other things in the soup.
Add some stock to the sour cream container and let it cool off.
Add 1/4 cup flour to the stock in the container and mix it well.
Add this back to the soup to thicken it. A rue can also be used. Or cornstarch.

Now taste the soup broth and add sugar to suit your taste. Do not overdo but it should taste slightly sweet.   If it is not sour enough add
some cider vinegar to bring the sourness into balance with the sweetness.

Add back the meatballs and let it simmer for about fifteen minutes. Don't burn.

Add some chopped scallions for color, and ground pepper. Add salt if needed.

Serve in a bowl with a crusty bread.

The meatballs tend to absorb the liquid overnight. Add some chicken stock if needed.