The Tragic Failure of the Democratic Establishment And Their Contemptible Betrayal of the New Deal

"There is a lack of critical assessment of the past. But you have to understand that the current ruling elite is actually the old ruling elite. So they are incapable of a self-critical approach to the past."

Ryszard Kapuściński


"Every president since 1988 attended an Ivy League university. Not only does this perspective from the professional class cross party lines, their orthodox worldview extends far beyond politics. It is based on an ideology that has served elites well – (semi) free-market capitalism and continuous economic growth. It is an orthodoxy that values corporate interests and personal gain over public good. It permeates all fields of society and American culture.

In their book Manufacturing Consent, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky laid out the media propaganda model of journalism, in which they describe the small parameters of discourse allowable in mainstream media, due to factors such as advertising, corporate ownership, and the dominant elite mindset. The media propaganda model they describe is akin to the Ivy League orthodoxy of which Frank speaks.

Disciplines cater to a small span of acceptable dialogue and thought based upon shared assumptions. Within that realm, diversity exists, but that diversity does not usually breach understood boundaries. Some voices reach the periphery of the border, but retract from crossing the line through caveats.

Those who traverse boundaries tend to be marginalized, regardless of the substance, depth, and validity of their arguments and ideas. This orthodoxy is maintained chiefly through tacit self-censorship and is internalized by those who practice it."

Kristine Mattis, The Cult of the Professional Class

The Democratic leadership is caught in a credibility trap of repeated failures to do the right thing out of self-interest.     The Republicans are so bent that they are most likely beyond redemption.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Sorrows of Empire - Non-Farm Payrolls Next Week

"Rome has grown so much from its humble beginnings that it is now overwhelmed by its greatness."

Titus Livius


“I know not why any one but a schoolboy in his declamation should whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another.”

Samuel Johnson


"Whatever happens, the [1997 Asian currency] crisis probably signaled the beginning of the end of the American empire and a shift to a tripolar world in which the United States, Europe, and East Asia simultaneously share power and compete for it.

What we have freed ourselves of, however, is any genuine consciousness of how we might look to others on this globe. Most Americans are probably unaware of how Washington exercises its global hegemony, since so much of this activity takes place either in relative secrecy or under comforting rubrics.

Many may, as a start, find it hard to believe that our place in the world even adds up to an empire. But only when we come to see our country as both profiting from and trapped within the structures of an empire of its own making will it be possible for us to explain many elements of the world that otherwise perplex us.

A nation can be one or the other, a democracy or an imperialist, but it can’t be both. If it sticks to imperialism, it will, like the old Roman Republic, on which so much of our system was modeled, lose its democracy to a domestic dictatorship.

It is time to realize, however, that the real dangers to America today come not from the newly rich people of East Asia but from our own ideological rigidity, our deep-seated belief in our own propaganda."

Chalmers Johnson

The mighty rise and are fallen, but the word and the spirit endure.

Stocks attempted to rally today, but sold off into the close, finishing a little more than unchanged.

Gold and silver gained back a little bit, and the Dollar was lower.

The slow decline of physical gold registered for immediate delivery continued.

Let's see if the metals can muddle through the Non-Farm Payrolls report next week. 

The report might be considered important now that the Atlanta Fed has cut its GDP forecast for 2Q.   Although I suspect it would take something quite impressive to hold back the Fed from their rate raising campaign.  It has little to do with the real economy, and more to do with their need for maneuvering room to cut rates when their latest financial asset bubble starts to implode.

The US markets will be closed for the 4th of July holiday next week.

There will be a surprisingly busy economic calendar for that holiday shortened week. I have included that calendar below.

The FAA has posted air space restrictions for our area from today until next Monday, so I suspect that Trumpster will be dropping in on his golf course in Bedminster NJ which is just down the road for the weekend. 

He might have been better off going down to his winter place in Mar-a-Lago Florida.  It may be cooler.   The weather here is expected to be a humid 100 F over the weekend.  Too hot except for the most ardent golfers in my book.

I have a pot of Anasazi beans, with various types of smoked sausage, baby back ribs, onion, peppers, celery, carrots, and a blend of spices simmering in the slow cooker.   Their smell is permeating the house.   The young man will be coming this evening for dinner, and Dolly will be dancing with joy on his return.   Their reunions are something to see, the simplest and purest of affection.

This is contentment, my joy and consolation in His tender mercies.

As Aloysius Gonzaga noted, 'It is better to be a child of God than king of the whole world.'

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

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Narcissus and Echo - God's Eloquent Silence

“The narcissistic orientation is one in which one experiences as real only that which exists within oneself, while the phenomena in the outside world have no reality in themselves, but are experienced only from the viewpoint of their being useful or dangerous to one. The opposite pole to narcissism is objectivity; it is the faculty to see other people and things as they are, objectively, and to be able to separate this objective picture from a picture which is formed by one's desires and fears.

The faculty to think objectively is reason; the emotional attitude behind reason is that of humility. To be objective, to use one's reason, is possible only if one has achieved an attitude of humility, if one has emerged from the dreams of omniscience and omnipotence which one has as a child. Love, being dependent on the relative absence of narcissism, requires the development of humility, objectivity and reason."

Erich Fromm, Art of Loving


"You do not know the working class. But you are not to be blamed for this. How can you know anything about the working class? You do not live in the same locality with the working class.  You herd with the capitalist class in another locality. And why not? It is the capitalist class that pays you, that feeds you, that puts the very clothes on your backs that you are wearing to-night.  And in return you preach to your employers the brands of metaphysics that are especially acceptable to them; and the especially acceptable brands are acceptable because they do not menace the established order of society.

Each of you dwells in a cosmos of his own making, created out of his own fancies and desires. You do not know the real world in which you live, and your thinking has no place in the real world except in so far as it is phenomena of mental aberration."

Jack London, The Iron Heel

Someone asked me if the moneyed interests and their servants and enablers wouldn't become afraid eventually if things get really bad, and ease up a bit.

 I said that history suggests that the answer is probably no. The professional enablers are compelled forward by the credibility trap, and their own continuing self-interest and service to their paymasters, who are malformed destroyers at heart.

For the moneyed interests, tragedy is a wonderful opportunity, because it greatly increases the lawlessness which they use as a cover and opportunity for their predations and depredations, bringing greater power and personal increase. After all, vultures do not produce, but prey on weakness and tragedy.

And because of their all consuming egos and developmental infirmities they are not only without conscience, their distorted world view prevents them from seeing themselves as ever failing.  They believe themselves to be the center of all creation, superior and virtually immortal.   Their pride makes them blind.

They are Narcissus. 

And they are capable of doing monstrous things, especially as they falter, because failure is not a possibility, and so they retreat into fantasy and paranoia.

And who then is their Echo?  Their media?  Their supporters?  Their close associates?  Their own minds?  Perhaps all of the above.

They never do see what they are doing even to themselves, and care even less about others except those who are extensions of themselves.   They will press forward until the very moment of their own downfall and bitter end, when rough hands take them where they do not wish to go. Have we not seen this, even in our own time?

And this is why people combine to make laws and establish justice, and why this is a never ending task, given the forces in some segments of humanity that constantly war against justice and fairness.

Stocks managed another dead cat bounce today.  We may have to wait until something more tangible cheers them.  Like a addict, the markets need an almost daily fix, whether it be some fantasy of numbers, or some rallying cry of policy, to make them feel that they are, indeed, winning.

Gold and silver drifted a bit lower, and the Dollar went pretty much sideways.  The inventory of physical gold available for immediate delivery continues to be rather low.

When one has an imbalance of 'paper claims per ounce' there are two ways to resolve it.  The first is to find more physical gold to be delivered at current prices.   And the other is to somehow drive down the number of claims, the open interest, but reducing any enthusiasm in the demand.

You may wish to consider what is happening now, and what it means, what is implied by it.

Tomorrow we will be heading into a weekend followed by a holiday shortened week—  often risky business.

But we nevertheless will be seeing a fair amount of interesting economic data, including a Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.  Yippee.

There is the world, with its kingdoms in all their glory. And there is the Lord, and him crucified.   And he bids us follow. 

To the world this is incomprehensible,  both madness and obstacle.  And yet we are called, just as when he walked the earth among us.  It is a continuing struggle, a way of life, a journey, until we finally enter into his father's house.

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

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Seneca at the Court of Nero

"Rome stuffs its ears when it hears you; the world reviles you.  I can blush for you no longer, and I have no wish to do so.  The howls of Cerberus, though resembling your music, will be less offensive to me, for I have never been the friend of Cerberus, and I need not be ashamed of his howling.  Farewell, but make no music; commit murder, but write no verses; poison people, but dance not; be an incendiary, but play not on a cithara. This is the wish and the last friendly counsel sent you by the — Arbiter Elegantiae."

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis, Last Letter from Petronius to Nero


"Seneca had made the bargain that many good men have made when agreeing to aid bad regimes.  On the one hand, their presence strengthens the regime and helps it endure. But their moral influence may also improve the regime's behavior or save the lives of its enemies.  For many, this has been a bargain worth making, even if it has cost them—as it may have cost Seneca—their immortal soul...

The Rome he has been trained to serve, the Rome of Augustus and Germanicus, was gone.   In its place stood Neropolis, ruled by a megalomaniac brat.”

James Romm,  Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero

Stocks attempted to add to the rally, but failed in the afternoon and went out on the lows.

Perhaps a little more downside is warranted, but one might think that if this is a usual retracement it will find its completion quite soon.

However, there is the possibility that the decline may continue on. And if so, we may find ourselves breaking new ground to the downside, and opening up different possibilities.  And since this depends upon what new antics the man-child in the Oval office may unleash, its probability is difficult to assess.

And that significant uncertainty is the very definition of risk.

Gold and silver continued their disappointing performance in this day after the option expiration. Let's see if they can find a footing here on support.

I spent the day taking care of some work outside, and watching some of the games from the World Cup.  My Greek attorney noted that there has been a record set for 'own goals' at this World Cup, meaning goals inadvertently assisted by a defending player on his own goal. He thought that this might be symbolic of the state of our country, the US, at this time—  that is, beating itself.

While that is an insightful and subtle observation, as those of his profession are often inclined to do, I remarked that perhaps it is even more telling about the state of our America that we are not there, and the rest of the world does not seem to mind it at all.

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

Have a pleasant evening.

Manuel Domínguez Sánchez, The Death of Seneca