Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Baghdad Barbies and the Bubbylonians

 

“The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy."

Alex Carey, Taking the Risk Out of Democracy, 1995

“Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.”

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”

H.L. Mencken, In Defense of Women, 1918

"The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information.  With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.  American fascism will not be really dangerous until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information, and those who stand for the KKK type of demagoguery.”

Henry Wallace, The Danger of American Fascism, 1944

“The British press is extremely centralised, and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics.  But the same kind of veiled censorship also operates in books and periodicals, as well as in plays, films and radio.  At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question.  Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness.” 

George Orwell, Animal Farm, 1945

"When humanity, subjugated by the terror of crime, has been driven mad by fear and horror, and when chaos has become the supreme law, then the time for the empire of lawlessness will have come."

Fritz Lang, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse, 1933


Stocks did a fairly impressive 'pop and flop' today,' as the rally lost steam at new highs and then properly folded like a house of cards, finishing unchanged or in the red.

The 'tell' for this was the almost shocking lack of breadth in the rally, being driven by program buying in a few stocks that weigh heavily on the NDX and the SP500.

The Dollar rallied during the day trade. 

Gold and silver were smacked down in NY again.  

I don't think the current Administration likes them.   They are disobedient, and implacable in the face of political demands and directives.

Talk to the gram. 

Donnie dealt with the Epstein files controversy by pointing at AG Bondi saying, 'It's up to her.' 

VIX is barely aware of what is going on.

CPI came in on the warmer side this morning.  PPI tomorrow.

America's disastrous economic policies with regard to tariffs are going to bite. 

Bitcoin turned back from its all time high.

There will be a stock option expiration on Friday. 

We had some fairly serious flooding here yesterday.  Our particular area is on higher ground, so we were mostly spared, although the lower areas south of us got clobbered. 

I was getting flash flood alerts on my phone, and at one point the State Police advised people to 'stay off the roads.'

Daisy and I sheltered in place on my recliner.   

It's always something,

If you think deeply, you may realize that reality is eternity. 

Have a pleasant evening. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Apparatus Makes Us Slaves

 

"You who make wicked judgements, who write oppressive laws to deprive the needy of justice, and to rob the poor of their rights, that widows may be your victims, and that you may make the orphans your prey— what will you do on the day of reckoning, when the consequences come from afar?  To whom will you run for protection, and where will you hide your riches?"

Isaiah 10:1-3

"The impotence one feels today—an impotence we should never consider permanent—does not excuse one from remaining true to one’s self, nor does it excuse capitulation to the enemy, whatever mask he may wear.

Whether the mask is labelled Fascism, Democracy, or Dictatorship of the Proletariat, our great adversary remains The Apparatus—the bureaucracy, the police, the military.  Not the one facing us across the frontier or the battle-lines, which is not so much our enemy as our brothers’ enemy, but the one that calls itself our protector and makes us its slaves. 

No matter the circumstances, the worst betrayal will always be to subordinate ourselves to this Apparatus, and to trample underfoot, in its service, all humanity in ourselves and in others.”

Simone Weil, Reflections on War, February 1945

"They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control.  They will be cruel and hate what is good.  They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.  They will act religious, but they will refuse the grace that could make them righteous."

2 Timothy 3:3-5

"For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."

Matthew 6:21


God is not going to ask us, when we stand before him in judgement, 'whom do you serve, whom do you love?' 

He is asking us this now, and every day we answer — with what we say, and what we do. 

Whom do you love?  Whom do you serve?

Stocks managed to rally today, most likely in a Potemkin tribute to Donnie's address to the nation this evening.  

There is a need to distract the true believers from l'affaire Epstein. 

We need such exorbitant decorations and embellishments.   Because the reality is too awful to sustain the illusion.

The rallies in gold and silver were pressed back.

The Dollar ticked up in late hours of trading.

There will be a stock option expiration this Friday. 

Bread and circuses.

And no one could see it coming.

Can you see what is coming for you?  Or is it easier to become a beast to avoid the struggle of being a man? 

All the finest people are doing it. Worshiping the Beast.  It's the fashionable thing to do. 

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Burnt Offerings of the Unspeakable

 

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as cunning as serpents and yet as innocent as doves. Be on your guard, for people will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be brought before governors and kings because of me to testify before them and the Gentiles.

“When they hand you over, do not be concerned about how you are to speak or what you are to say. When the time comes, you will be given what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise up against their parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved."

Matthew 10:16-22

"Therefore they shall eat the bitter fruit of their ways, and be gutted by their own schemes.  For the foolish turn away from me — to death.  For fools are destroyed by their pride and self-satisfaction.”

Proverbs 1:31-33

"It is as popular now as ever to blame poor people for their station in life. Republican politicians love to talk about how poor people could stop being poor if only they made better choices or worked harder. If only they'd stop buying iPhones, they could afford insurance! These assholes - and I do not use that slur lightly - have no clue what it is like to grow up poor. They have no clue how hard it is in many places in the US just to keep the lights on and food on the table.

It is easy for them, from the comfort of their cushy offices and homes, with full bellies and bank accounts, to pretend that poor people like my mother are poor because they are stupid or lazy or ignorant or irresponsible rather than confront the broken systems that perpetuate poverty in Appalachia and all across the US. Poor people don't contribute to reelection funds, but those who profit from poor people sure do.

Therefore, truth be told, most politicians couldn't care less about the plight of the poor. There's so much profit to be made from poor people - think payday loans, high-interest rent-to-own stores, for-profit colleges, and overpriced mobile homes - that politicians and their crony-capitalist donors have a vested interest in keeping them poor."

Joshua Wilkey, My Mother Wasn't Trash,  May 2017


Stocks popped and floundered today, taking a break from a truly speculative rally.

The markets are one trigger event away from a fairly remarkable selloff.

The underpinnings are constructed of leveraged debt.

Those positions will start 'pancaking' under the weight a significant wave of selling.

The Dollar chopped around the 97 handle.

Bitcoin rallied up to a new all time high.

I suspect the fat lady is at least clearing her throat.

Silver had an impressive breakout higher, a powerful move that completed our intermediate measuring objective on the chart at 39.

Gold continued to advance as well.

The difficulty we are in, we being the public, is that we can not trust what the government or the mainstream media say about many of the most important things.

“The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more, and tolerated by all.” 

Tacitus, Histories 1.28

This lack of trust will facilitate any break in investor confidence.  

All in all, this is as bad of a market setup I have seen in a long time, having traded through the market breaks of 2002 and 2008.

These are the fruits of lawlessness. 

Have a pleasant weekend. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Carelessly into the Abyss

 

“He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.”

George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara

"Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried, the little children died in the streets."

W. H. Auden, Epitaph To a Tyrant

"Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed."

Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 1670

“Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars,
whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors
and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.”

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, New Poems, City Lights

"The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying but they keep lying anyway, and we keep pretending to believe them."

Elena Gorokhova, A Mountain of Crumbs, 2010

"They live out their days in prosperity, and slide peacefully down into the abyss."

Job 21:13 


Time magazine named the 'Hawk Tuah' girl one of the Top 100 Creators of the Year.

Look on our works, ye mighty, and despair.

I just don't have the words.  

Stocks attempted to continue on their rally.

Bitcoin enjoyed a midday burst up to a new high.

We are in Trump's crypto country now.

Whatever we say, is.

Gold and particularly silver rallied today.

Silver in particularly rallied up to a new near term high.

And this was noticeably ignored by the equity market in the miners.

Crypto country.  

VIX fell again.

The Dollar is chopping around on the 97 handle.

How do do we know that the spokesmodels of empire are lying?

Their lips are moving.

How do we know that Trump is lying?

We no longer care. 

We will look back on this and wonder, 'what were we thinking?'

We weren't.

We were sleepwalking in silent submission to the worst of us. 

Have a pleasant evening.