Two Brief Videos About Covid-19 That May Be Informative

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt


“No one in the world can change Truth.  What we can do and and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it.  The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the catacombs 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 personal selves?”

Maximilian Kolbe

How to Know If We Are Beating Covid-19

Most people lack a natural feel and understanding for the power of exponential growth, and so fall victim to memes that seek to trivialize the effects of this illness and the speed at which it can strike and grow. This differentiates Covid-19 from comparisons with other illnesses.

And because of the speed and incubation period a significant problem is the lack of testing.  Forget what claims have been made.   Testing capability is woefully inadequate and undersupplied now and will likely be so for some time.  This is because of our priorities, mostly financial.

Hopefully that will change. Our infrastructure has for a long time been underfunded and inadequate in any number of areas besides roads and bridges and public transport.

I wonder what it would take for a public health effort, in certain test areas, to do simple blood tests to find out who has already had the illness and may now be effectively immune?  This would tell us quite a bit.

Disinformation is always a problem, and not just in undemocratic countries. It is a very serious problem in the US and the UK for the obvious political reasons, and cult-like tendencies in a sizable minority.

Some of the moneyed interests have been funding and supplying efforts to downplay the seriousness of the disease for, what else, short term profits and continuing compliance from their political base.

There are some bright spots on the internet.  There are many that are kitchen table talk and clickbait.  And I think you know which ones thrive on fear and hate and clever deception.  

We are, because of our willful actions and the mad mythology of our exceptionalism, in God's hands now in so many ways. We will face a reckoning for what we have done and become.  We can change it.  Because in addition to God's hands, we are in the hands of our own arrogant and risky behaviors.

And to that point something like covid-19 is the perfect storm.  The disease does not care what the polls say, what nicknames we give it, how often we downvote or ignore it.   It infects, its spreads, it sickens,  it kills.  Our pride and our greed and our social and political position are without power against it.

Properly speaking, it is not an act of God— it is an act of our willful ignorance.

We will learn. We can change.  We can make it better together.

But when?   And at what cost?

Need little, want less, love more.





Example of What China Did to Break the Spread of the Disease

This is what the Chinese lockdown looked like. It was 'comprehensive' and authoritarian. I put this forward not as an example, but rather to help to explain those who point to the course of the disease in China as an example for us. And there is little doubt that there was no full disclosure of deaths.

The decline of the illness in China was no natural progress of the disease, or so called 'herd immunity.'   I think seeing what was happening in Italy gave some Western leaders a wake-up call.

Certain countries like Japan and South Korea have also had successful efforts to slow down the spread of the disease. They benefit from a culture of 'self-policing' where the public acts as a force for deterrence against harmful behaviors by individuals, as well as experience in battling these viruses through personal measures, such as personal distancing and the wearing of masks.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Full Metal Bailouts - We Have Been Lost for a Long Time

"We looked into the abyss if the gold price rose further. A further rise would have taken down one or several trading houses, which might have taken down all the rest in their wake. Therefore at any price, at any cost, the central banks had to quell the gold price, manage it.

It was very difficult to get the gold price under control but we have now succeeded. The US Fed was very active in getting the gold price down. So was the U.K."

Sir Eddie George, Governor Bank of England in conversation with Nicholas J. Morrell, chief executive of Lonmin Plc, 1999


"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. There is no Republican Party. There is no Democratic Party. There are no Republicans nor Democrats in this House. You are lick-spittles and panderers, the creatures of the plutocracy.”

Jack London, The Iron Heel


And they said to him, 'Where will this happen, Lord?' And He said to them, 'Where death is, there will be a gathering of vultures.'”

Luke 17:37

Stocks gave up some of the gains of the last three days.

Traders were reluctant to hold positions into the weekend.

The dollar continued to fall from its recent high.  I have included a second Dollar chart that shows its performance over the last six months.

Gold and silver are looking like they want to break higher again.  

We have been lost for a long time.

Perhaps we will be able to find our way back again.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Bezzle - Panic in the NY and London Gold Markets

“In many ways the effect of the crash on embezzlement was more significant than on suicide.  To the economist embezzlement is the most interesting of crimes.   Alone among the various forms of larceny it has a time parameter.  Weeks, months, or years may elapse between the commission of the crime and its discovery. (This is a period, incidentally, when the embezzler has his gain and the man who has been embezzled, oddly enough, feels no loss.  There is a net increase in psychic wealth.)

At any given time there exists an inventory of undiscovered embezzlement in — or more precisely not in — the country’s businesses and banks.   This inventory — it should perhaps be called the bezzle — amounts at any moment to many millions of dollars.   It also varies in size with the business cycle.  In good times people are relaxed, trusting, and money is plentiful. But even though money is plentiful, there are always many people who need more.

Under these circumstances the rate of embezzlement grows, the rate of discovery falls off, and the bezzle increases rapidly.   In depression all this is reversed.  Money is watched with a narrow, suspicious eye.   The man who handles it is assumed to be dishonest until he proves himself otherwise.  Audits are penetrating and meticulous. Commercial morality is enormously improved.  The bezzle shrinks."

John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash of 1929


“Government has coddled, accepted, and ignored white collar crime for too long.  It is time the nation woke up and realized that it's not the armed robbers or drug dealers who cause the most economic harm, it's the white collar criminals living in the most expensive homes who have the most impressive resumes who harm us the most.  They steal our pensions, bankrupt our companies, and destroy thousands of jobs, ruining countless lives.”

Harry Markopolos


"Thou shalt not sacrifice any of your children to the fires of Moloch, and thereby profane the name of your Lord, who is God.

Leviticus 18:21


"You are of your father the devil, and your will is to fulfill your father's desires.   He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand with the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks from his own character— for he is a liar and the father of lies."

John 8:44

Dürer, St Jerome In His Study

"Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, rejoice. Let your gentleness and consideration be known to all, for the Lord is always near. Do not be anxious about anything. But with prayer, and by supplication, and with thanksgiving, let your needs be made known unto God. And the peace of the Lord, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds, in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:4-7

Today was a major option expiration for the precious metals April contracts on the Comex.

Gold and silver were hit back to unchanged in the afternoon trade in NY.

The discrepancy between 'spot' quotes and the front month April futures quote for gold continues.

The Dollar continued its decline.

Stocks soared, with the SP 500 and the NDX gaining back even more ground off of their lows.

Please take care of yourselves, and follow the guidelines from the CDC as best you can.

And do not fall into the web of lies being put forward by those who care nothing for you and your families.

I do not think it has ever been more clear for us to see than now.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - American Oddities - Comex Options Expiration Tomorrow

"Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country.

When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin!

Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out."

Andrew Jackson,  Taken from the original minutes of the Philadelphia bankers meeting from Andrew Jackson and the Bank of the United States (1928) by Stan V. Henkels


"Both religion and socialism thus glorify weakness and need.  Both recoil from the world as it is: tough, unequal, harsh.  Both flee to an imaginary future realm where they can feel safe.  Both say to you, be a nice boy.  Be a good little girl.  Share.  Feel sorry for the little people.  And both desperately seek someone to look after them—whether it be God or the State.

A thriving upper class accepts with a good conscience the sacrifice of untold human beings, who, for its sake, must be reduced and lowered to incomplete human beings, to slaves, to instruments...  One cannot fail to see in all these noble races the beast of prey, the splendid blond beast, prowling about avidly in search of spoil and victory; this hidden core needs to erupt from time to time, the animal has to get out again and go back to the wilderness.”

Friedrich Nietzsche


"The LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success. The real people want to get back to work ASAP. We will be stronger than ever before!"

Donald J. Trump, March 25, 2020


“There's a reason narcissists don't learn from mistakes and that's because they never get past the first step which is admitting that they made one. It's always an assistant's fault, an adviser's fault, a lawyer's fault. Ask them to account for a mistake any other way and they'll say, 'what mistake?'

Narcissism falls along the axis of what psychologists call personality disorders, one of a group that includes antisocial, dependent, histrionic, avoidant and borderline personalities.  But by most measures, narcissism is one of the worst, if only because the narcissists themselves are so clueless."

Jeffrey Kluger, The Narcissist Next Door

The stimulus bill was held up today, in part because a section was written badly, and then as various GOP Senators were using this delay to object to the amount of money being given to the unemployed.

The Sentaors are very concerned that giving too much money to unemployed people might make them lazy.  That's funny, because they also think giving too much money to failed corporate elites will make them smarter and more virtuous.

Bernie Sanders weighed in, and said if these Senators do not drop this constant objecting about unemployment, that he would personally put a hold on the bill until stricter standards are placed on the massive corporate bailouts.  Ouch.

Oh well, such are the times.

The stock markets tried to make it two days in a row with another up day,  Alas, it was not to be, although the spokesmodels were pleasuring themselves throughout the morning with talk of a second day of 'the biggest stock market rally since 1933.'

And the pundits were urging the public to buy, buy, buy.

Gold remains in a very odd situation.

The premium of the gold futures over the spot market is the largest that we have seen in a very, very long time, since the late 70's early 80's, which were indeed exciting times for gold.

I have included a chart of this below.

Word of a 'fail to deliver' on physical in NY has been rampant, although the fingers are being point at— wait for it— the coronavirus.

Funny, since the stores of gold supposedly in the Comex warehouses right now are so vast.

Silver has been in a strong rally mode, briefly tagging the 15 handle today before falling back a bit.

Tomorrow will be an option expiration for the metals on the COMEX.

The behavior of the LBMA and the COMEX have been what one might expect from such august establishments of secrecy and privilege.

One can only wonder.

Have a pleasant evening.