Gold, Silver, and US Equities - A Telescope Into Eternity

"Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”

Martin Luther King


“The tyrant dies and his rule is over; the martyr dies and his reign begins.”

Søren Kierkegaard


"Cæsar was swimming in blood.   Rome and the whole pagan world was mad.   But those who had had enough of transgression and madness, those who were trampled upon, those whose lives were misery and oppression, all the weighed down, all the sad, all the unfortunate, came to hear the wonderful tidings of God, who out of love for men had given Himself over to be crucified, to redeem their sins.

When they found a God whom they could love, they had found that which the society of their time could not give to anyone— happiness and love.

And Peter understood that neither Nero, nor all his legions, could overcome the living truth—  that they could not overwhelm it with tears or blood, and that now its victory was beginning.   He understood with equal force why the Lord had turned him back on the road.   That city of pride, of crime, of wickedness, and of a lust for power, was beginning to be His city."

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero

Gold and silver are hovering just below overhead resistance, 1200 and 17.00 respectively.

These are more 'round number' symbols than anything else, with the real breakout resistance just a little higher on each.

The divergence in stocks continues, with big tech carrying the ball higher while the more mundane stocks continue to chop sideways, as is easily seen in the SP 500.

The continuing saga of the incoming Trump Administration and the Russian hackers who deprived Hillary of her place of worldly power becomes more and more interesting, and at times entertaining, as in an opera buffo.

As you may recall, the American markets will be closed on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King day.    As for the rest of the world, please try to carry on without their guidance.

Have a pleasant weekend.

On 4 April 1968, the day after he gave this speech in Memphis, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

Charts For a Rainy Thursday Afternoon - Standing Before the Nations With Judgement

"Then Abraham drew near and said to Him, 'Will you also destroy the righteous with the wicked?  Suppose I can find fifty good people within the city. Will you then sweep it all away, and not spare it for the sake of the fifty good ones who are in it?...

And then Abraham said again, 'Oh Lord, do not be angry, and I will ask this again but this once:  Perhaps [not fifty but] just ten good people shall be found in that city. And God said, then I will not destroy it, for sake of those ten good people...

And so it came to pass that the Lord rained fire and brimstone out of the highest heavens, down upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  He overthrew those cities in His judgement, and so all of their surroundings, and all of their inhabitants, and even all which moved and grew upon the ground around them."

Genesis 18: 23-32, 19: 24-25


"So let us stop debating the basic teachings again and again. Let us go forward instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds, and placing our faith in the Lord. You don’t need further instruction and debate about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding. For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened— those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God.

It is impossible to bring such people who were given the grace to see and then fallen away, back again to true forgiveness— for by accepting Him with their words, and then rejecting Him with their actions and in their hearts, they themselves have nailed him back on to His cross, and held Him publicly to shame."

Hebrews 6: 1-6

This is what is called the sins against the Spirit—  those who turn the good word to ill and to a temptation, who dwell in the words but not in the Spirit, who have the leaven of the pharisees, who may appear good and whole to the eye, but who inside are but hollowed tombs, filled with every evil and corruption.

Stocks sold off this morning, but the volumes being light, it was lacking in conviction, and equities spent the rest of the day drifting back higher.

Gold also took out the 1200 level this morning, but could not quite hold on to the 12 handle.

I have included the inventory report for the Comex Hong Kong gold warehouses, as they have once again fallen to a lower level.

When you don't have anything nice to say, it is better to say nothing else at all.

Have a pleasant evening.

Lofgren and Moyers - What Is the Deep State?

"... there is another government concealed behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, a hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country according to consistent patterns in season and out, connected to, but only intermittently controlled by, the visible state whose leaders we choose.

My analysis of this phenomenon is not an exposé of a secret, conspiratorial cabal; the state within a state is hiding mostly in plain sight, and its operators mainly act in the light of day. Nor can this other government be accurately termed an 'establishment.'

All complex societies have an establishment, a social network committed to its own enrichment and perpetuation. In terms of its scope, financial resources and sheer global reach, the American hybrid state, the Deep State, is in a class by itself. That said, it is neither omniscient nor invincible. The institution is not so much sinister (although it has highly sinister aspects) as it is relentlessly well entrenched.

Far from being invincible, its failures, such as those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, are routine enough that it is only the Deep State’s protectiveness towards its higher-ranking personnel that allows them to escape the consequences of their frequent ineptitude.

Mike Lofgren, Anatomy of the Deep State


“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”

Søren Kierkegaard

I do not think our time is all that different from those that have gone before it, insofar as the substance and types of our actions are concerned.  Every age has its thieves and hypocrites, in high and low places.

Rather, what is a little more distinctive of us is the numbers, the sheer number of people whose character, or a lack thereof, fits a common pattern— mean, petty, deceitful, and often willfully ignorant of moral constraints, lacking in civility and grace, and utterly unrepentant of it.

They are quite proud of their cleverness in gaming the system, in embracing the worst aspects of the human economy and abusing them, in the name of their unnatural virtues.  If they are liars, they strive to be among the most shameless and adept.  If they are thieves, they admire those who tirelessly steal  the most, while paying none of the consequences.

And above all, their perspective on life allows them to have no shame in it, any of it, in what other times would have been done in the darkness, and only behind closed doors, and carefully covered up.

We take our ill gotten gains and place them in the spotlight with the high sounding names of wise-sounding and humanitarian organizations and foundations.