Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Lost Souls In the Court of Nero

 

"Diversity in the Democratic Party means politicians of various races, faiths and sexual persuasions lining up dutifully and immediately in support of the candidate and agenda selected by Wall Street billionaires."

Max Blumenthal, X, July 22, 2024

"The even larger problem is that there is a kind of chronic complacency that has been rotting American liberalism for years, a hubris that tells Democrats they need do nothing different, they need deliver nothing really to anyone – except their friends on the Google jet and those nice people at Goldman.  The rest of us are treated as though we have nowhere else to go and no role to play except to vote enthusiastically on the grounds that these Democrats are the 'last thing standing' between us and the end of the world.  It is a liberalism of the rich, it has failed the middle class, and now it has failed on its own terms of electability."

Thomas Frank, Trump to the White House, and liberals put him there, The Guardian, 9 November 2016

"The end result was to be a new Imperial Order and a New World Empire run by elite, self-perpetuating oligarchies from the leading nations of the earth."

Dr. Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, 1966, p. 860

"It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system.  Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president.  And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members.  So now we’ve just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election’s over."

Jimmy Carter, Citizens United Decision, The Thom Hartmann Show, July 2015

"Seneca had made the bargain that many good men have made when agreeing to aid bad regimes.  For many, this has been a bargain worth making, even if it has cost them—as it may have cost Seneca—their immortal soul.”

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

Stocks had the wobbles for most of the day, but managed to jump back to nearly unchanged after the close.

Earnings season is upon us, and the big names like Alphabet are pulling them in.

Tesla continues to struggle.

Gold and silver held a little bounce.  The miners as well.

Too early to call a turn.  Comex expiration for the precious metals on Thursday.

The Dollar edged higher. 

VIX fell.  

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Jesting Pilate

 

“God's truth judges created things out of love, and Satan's truth judges them out of envy and hatred. Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Be merciful, just as your Father in heaven is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured for you. For as you measure, it will be measured to you."

Luke 6:36-38

Then Pilate went back into the praetorium, and having summoned Jesus he asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own, or have others told you about me?”  Pilate said, “Am I a Jew? Your own people and the chief priests have handed you over to me.  What have you done?” Jesus replied,

“My kingdom does not belong to this world.  If my kingdom did belong to this world, my followers would have fought to prevent me from being handed over to the Jews.  The fact is that my kingdom is not here.”

Pilate then said to him, “So you are a king!”  Jesus answered, “It is you who say that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this I came into the world: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

And Pilate asked, “What is truth?”

John 18:33-38

"It is important to observe that nowhere is it suggested that Dives' [the rich man] wealth is ill-gotten nor that Lazarus was his victim. The sin of Dives is that, cushioned by his lavish life-style, he was simply oblivious to the presence of a beggar at his gate."

Wilfrid Harrington

Pilate asked, 'what is truth?' while staring at truth in the flesh, and then turned and washed his hands of it.

To the proud peacocks of this attractive but deceitful world, virtue is a stranger, and truth a beggar. 

But even they must bend the knee to their master, money and power.

Stocks rallied.   And they went out nearer to their highs.

The VIX fell sharply.

I suspect the suspension of Biden's candidacy was viewed as removing some risk off the table, or at least some uncertainty. 

It was fairly obvious the Joe was past his 'sell by' date, but these things take time to resolve.  Even among us plebeians, no one wants to tell grandpa that he is too old to drive.  And he surely doesn't wish to hear it.

Gold and silver were hit early on, but managed to finish up fairly close to unchanged.

The Dollar also chopped sideways.

Comex metals option expiration this week.

Have a pleasant evening.

Little Cells of Joy and Peace In a Stricken World

 

We are called to acts of love, selfless acts that may be of little value in the eyes of a stricken world. 

Sheila is my friend, a long time patron of Le Café, and a wonderful human being.

"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.  We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world.  There is nothing we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as our friend.”

Dorothy Day

And yes, dogs too. And birds and squirrels and all of God's creatures.

And especially the worthy and the unworthy poor, and those who are destitute in their hardened hearts being both blessed and blinded by the world, as they are all our brothers and sisters in the Lord. 

This is what we are all about.

Whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for me.

Matthew 25:40

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Hidden Hand of God

 

"The Lord did not come to make a display.  He came to heal and to teach suffering humanity.  For one who wanted to make a display the thing would have been to appear and dazzle the beholders.

But for Him Who came to heal and to teach, the way was not just to appear here, but to place Himself in the service of those who needed Him, and to be made known to them as they could accept it, not diminishing the value of His Divine presence by overwhelming their capacity to receive it."

Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word, 335 AD

"Wonderful providence indeed which is so silent, yet so efficacious, so constant, so unerring.  This is what baffles the power of Satan.  He cannot discern the Hand of God in what goes on; and though he would fain meet it and encounter it, in his mad and blasphemous rebellion against heaven, he cannot find it.

Crafty and penetrating as he is, yet his thousand eyes and his many instruments avail him nothing against the majestic serene silence, the holy imperturbable calm which reigns through the providences of God.  He makes a guess here, or does a bold act there, but all in the dark.  If even devils, sagacious as they are, spirits by nature and experienced in evil, cannot detect His hand while He works, how can we hope to see it except by that way which the devils cannot take, by loving faith."

John Henry Newman, Christ Manifested in Remembrance

“There is not a moment in which God does not present Himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed. All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals His divine action.

The books which the Holy Spirit is writing are the living, with every soul a volume in which the divine author makes a true revelation of His word, showing it to every heart, unfolding it in every moment.

To escape the pain caused by regret for the past or fear about the future, this is the rule to follow: leave the past to the infinite mercy of God, the future to His good Providence, and give the present wholly to His love by being faithful to His grace.”

Jean-Pierre de Caussade, L'Abandon a la Providence Divine

"Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me: for you are the God of my salvation; and I wait for you all the day. Remember, O Lord, your tender mercies and loving kindness for us, as they have always been of old."

Psalm 25:4-6

Well, today was an interesting day.

Stocks got hammered.

Gold and silver were body-slammed.

The Dollar was up slightly.

The VIX put in quite the impressive range, which no doubt was tied into the ghost of Y2K we experienced today.

Several of the online brokers were shut down for the day.

I'd be willing to bet that none of the pigmen were locked out of trading.

How did one Wall Street wiseguy put it, 'like shooting fish in a barrel.'

After figuring out that none of my orders were going anywhere I took the day off.  And I am glad that I did.

Life is too short.  And it's good to walk away from the game every now and then.

But the need to regulate and keep these jokers honest has never been more apparent.  

And quite frankly it isn't happening.

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

Have a pleasant weekend.