Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Industrious Lunatics with One Vast Vision of Imbecility

 

"These are peoples that have lost the power of astonishment at their own actions. When they give birth to a fantastic fashion or a foolish law, they do not start or stare at the monster they have brought forth.  They have grown used to their own unreason; chaos is their cosmos; and the whirlwind is the breath of their nostrils.   These nations are really in danger of going off their heads en masse; of becoming one vast vision of imbecility, with toppling cities and crazy countrysides, all dotted with industrious lunatics.”

G.K. Chesterton, In Defense of Sanity

"Your adversary, the devil, prowls the earth like a roaring lion, seeking those whom he may devour."

1 Peter 5:8

"The essence of God is existence, and He defines Himself as: 'I am Who am.'  The essence of the devil is the lie, and he defines himself as: 'I am who am not.'  Satan has very little trouble with those who do not believe in him; they are already on his side.”

Fulton Sheen

"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 great dragon was thrown down – that ancient snake called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.   He fell to the earth, and his angels with him."

Revelation 12:7-9

The Fed is the pivot man in the axis of oligarchy.  They failed miserably in their stewardship during the era of Arthur Burns and Alan Greenspan.   Now they are just going through the motions of bubble-bust cycles and looting.

Stocks were doing a major rally to a new all time high today...

And then flopped hard into the close.

Earnings reports from the likes of Tesla after the bell were not helping.

Gold fell, as did the Dollar.

Silver put in a hard rally after being pummeled earlier in this week.

VIX rose.

Comex option expiration on the futures for precious metals on Friday.

I am not very excited about the upcoming Presidential election.

I would never even consider voting for Trump, but I also would not vote for Biden, the Clinton-Obama-Biden clan, and the Reagan-Bush-GOP cult of Molok.  

And I don't like the idea of being shamed into voting for the 'lesser of two evils' which has been the core Democratic strategy since 1990.  Tough to make a meaningful pick for the national level.

But this doesn't seem to be just a US phenomenon.   If one starts naming leaders around the world, the 'leaders' do not inspire much confidence.  Actually, it gathers in the throat, like a sour mix of dark humor and horrified astonishment. 

Maybe I am too picky, but perhaps it also says something about those that are drawn to great power.

Hard times to come.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Before the Banality of the Gods of Evil

 

“We carry on like slaves. There isn’t time to breathe, and I am up to my eyebrows in this business of feeding those who have nothing.   And they are many—those with nothing.  As a rule my purse is as dry as [Mexican President] Calles’s soul.  We ought to speak, shout out against injustices, with confidence and without fear.  

Viva Cristo Rey!"

Miguel Agustin Pro, Martyred 'in hatred of the faith', Mexico, November 23, 1927

“This great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts.  For evil to appear disguised as light, compassion, historical necessity or even social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Word, it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil.   Mere waiting and looking on is not Christian behavior.  Christians are called to compassion and to action."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martyred, Germany, April 9, 1945

"But if not, I will not bow, and God grant that we will never bow, before the gods of evil."

Martin Luther King, Martyred,  America,  April 4, 1968

"The government soldiers cut him with a machete until he was bleeding from several wounds. They made him watch the execution of some of his friends. He cried and moaned with pain as they cut off the bottom of his feet, and made him walk through the town. At times they stopped him and said, 'If you shout, 'Death to Christ the King' we will spare your life'. The young Josélito would only say,  'I will never give in,  Viva Cristo Rey y Santa Maria de Guadalupe.'”

José Sánchez del Río, Martyred, Mexico, February 10,1928

"The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the the sacrifice of many victims of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are ourselves are defeated in our innermost selves?”

Maximilian Maria Kolbe, Martyred, Poland, 14 August 1941

Stocks were wobbly, but managed to gather themselves together for another heave ho higher.

VIX fell of course.   Geopolitical and economic risks?  Talk to the invisible hand.

Gold and silver moved higher,

The Dollar moved higher.

The outsized self-importance of the worldly would be a parody in its lack of perspective and judgement, if they were not also able to cause so much damage and heartache to others through their delusions.

They are not so much tragic as just sad.

Sadder still are those who throw the best of themselves away, foolishly, in blindly following them.

It calls to mind the recent children's crusades of the gullible and the deluded, the demented opera buffa of the 'insurrection' and wars for territory and egos of the anointed.

This is the tragedy of the madness.  Few can stand against it, unless they remain firmly standing in love. 

And it has not yet found its completion.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Ship of Fools

 

“Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love a cow - for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them.  This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort.  They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own advantage.”

Meister Eckhart

"What I worry about is that when problems are not addressed people will not know who is responsible, and when the problems get bad enough — as they might do for example with another serious terrorist attack, as they might do with another financial meltdown — some one person will come forward and say: ‘Give me total power and I will solve this problem.’  That is how the Roman republic fell.  That is how democracy dies."

David Souter, US Supreme Court Justice, September 17, 2012

"Now one believes every fool
Much practice and fortune telling
Springs forth due to the printers' art
They print all that one brings to them
What one says and sings of scandals
That passes by now without punishment
The world wants to be deceived."

Sebastian Brant, Das Narrenschiff

"The foolish ask nothing better than not to have to understand anything, and they even used to get together and try not to understand, because the last thing of which a person is capable is to be malicious and foolish all by themselves.  Without understanding, they form spontaneously into herds, not according to any particular affinities but in obedience to the petty ideology, which swallowed up the whole of their small lives, allotted them by birth or chance.  They would far rather kill than have to think."

George Bernanos, Under the Sun of Satan

"Everyone knows that plagues have a way of recurring throughout history, yet somehow we find it hard to believe in the ones that crash down on us out of the sky.  There have always been plagues and wars, yet they always take us by surprise.  When war breaks out people say it's stupid and won't last long.  Stupidity has a knack of getting in the way, which we would see if not wrapped up in ourselves.  In this our townsfolk were like everybody else— they did not believe in plagues."

Albert Camus, The Plague


Stocks popped in a continuation of the optimistic rally from Friday — and then flopped into the afternoon.

Gold and silver moved lower.

VIX fell once again.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

There will be a Comex precious metals futures option expiration on the 25^th.

It is a tragically ironic aspect of history and human nature that because of their intense obsession, people often become what they hate.

Have a pleasant evening.