In All Things Humility - To Remain Standing

 

My children, perform your tasks with humility;
     then you will be loved by those whom God loves.
The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself;
     so that you will find favour in the sight of the Lord.
For though great is the might of the Lord;
     by the humble he is glorified.
Neither covet what is too difficult for you,
     nor be perplexed by what is beyond your power.
Reflect upon what you have been commanded,
     for what is hidden is not your concern.
Do not become contentious in matters beyond you,
     for more than you can understand can be seen by you.
For pride has led many astray,
     and wrong opinions have impaired their judgement.

Without eyes there is no light;
     without knowledge there is no wisdom.
A stubborn mind will fare badly at the end,
     and whoever loves danger will perish in it.
A stubborn mind will be burdened by troubles,
     and the sinner adds sin to his sins.
When setbacks come to the proud, there is no healing,
     for an evil spirit has taken root in them.
The minds of the knowing love wisdom,
     and an attentive ear is the desire of the wise.

Sirach 3:17-29  

"He must become greater, as I must become less."

John 3:30

"To accept that guilt, to admit one's complicity in such a horrendous assault on justice, to humble oneself and ask for forgiveness, would have taken a heroic act of self-awareness, humility and repentance. And worse, for these fanatics, it would diminish their pride, which was at the foundation of the most fervent supporters of such flamboyant excess.

And so they lashed out, and killed everything that held up a mirror to their darkness, and showed them their pride was based on a lie."

Jesse, Seth, the Arbiter of Chaos, 15 May 2018

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Defy the World With Your Faithfulness

 

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God. Trust also in me."

John 14:1 

"Our hearts are continually prone to wander from Him; prosperity and enjoyment all too easily satisfy us, dull our spiritual perception, and unfit us for full communion with Himself.  It is an unspeakable mercy that the Father comes with His chastisement, makes the world round us all dark and unattractive, leads us to feel more deeply our sinfulness, and for a time lose our joy in what was becoming so dangerous.  

Though He has indeed no pleasure in afflicting us, He will not keep back even the most painful chastisement if He can but thereby guide His beloved child to come home."

Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ, 1895

"Do not be afraid little flock, for your Father delights to welcome you into His kingdom."

Luke 12:32

"Defy the world with love, and a light will come into your life. If we love and serve the Lord, as He loves us, we need have no fear, despite our human weakness.  Do not fear the blowing and bluster of men, for as you will see soon enough they are but shadows, a tempest of dust, for a day. 

Jesus, I trust in you."

Jesse, Nous, Les Petits de Dieu, 17 January 2025

"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

 

Our starry-eyed markets finally shook off their Panglossian mispricing of risk.  

At least for a day.   Ahead of a long holiday weekend.

Stocks fell.

VIX ticked up off its recent lows.

The Dollar chopped sideways. 

Gold and silver exploded higher in what looked like a flight to safety.

A nice way to say goodby to August, and look forward to the three day weekend with the national holiday on Monday.

There are quite a few things one can be concerned about: the lopsided economy, the erosion of personal freedom, the undermining of the Constitution, complicity with  mass murder, the normalization of aggressive war, and the moral decline and servile corruption of the Western elite.   

We see the darkness and madness advancing, in a most shameful moment in history.  And we are at the center of it.

Jesus, I trust in you. 

Have a pleasant weekend. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - All the Poets Can Do Is Warn

 

“This book is not about heroes.
English poetry is not yet fit to speak of them.
Nor is it about deeds, or lands, nor anything about glory,
honour, might, majesty, dominion, or power,
except War.
Above all I am not concerned with Poetry.
My subject is War, and the pity of War.
The Poetry is in the pity.

You shall not hear their mirth:
You shall not come to think them well content
By any jest of mine. These men are worth
Your tears. You are not worth their merriment.
Yet these elegies are not to this generation,
          This is in no sense consolatory.

They may be to the next.
All the poet can do to-day is to warn.
That is why the true Poets must be truthful.
If I thought the letter of this book would last,
I might have used proper names;
but if the spirit of it survives Prussia,—
my ambition and those names will be content;
for they will have achieved themselves
fresher fields than Flanders.”

Wilfrid Owen, Poems, 1920

For from the least to the greatest,
     they are greedy for unjust gain;
     and from prophet to priest,
     they all deal falsely.
They treat the wounds of my people carelessly,
     saying, Peace, peace,
     when there is no peace.
They act shamefully, they commit abominations;
     yet they have no shame,
     they do not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
     at the time of my judgement, they shall be overthrown."

Jeremiah 6:13-15

Stocks managed to pull together a rally, shaking off some geopolitical and corporate concerns.

What, me worry?

VIX fell again.

The Dollar dropped further.

Gold and silver rallied in a flight to safety (or from insanity).

Assuming the stock market shakes off its bubble excess,  which can unfold in several ways and several time frames, gold looks poised to run to 4000.   

It *could* happen in a significant flight to safety sooner than we expect.

I am not quite as keen about this, given the economic damage from which gold (and silver) will rise.

But certainly the metals are no cause of this, but simply an effect, an indicator, of disastrous mismanagement. 

We are so foolish to allow such scoundrels and grifters to set the course of our societies.

Nothing is inevitable.   There is always a choice, another way.

Unfortunately most are choosing to look on and say nothing, until trouble comes to their doorsteps. 

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Abyss From Which There Is No Return

 

"Through his first year in Germany [1933], Dodd had been struck again and again by the strange indifference to atrocity that had settled over the nation, the willingness of the populace and the moderate elements in the government to accept each new oppressive decree, each new act of violence, without protest.  Dodd continued to hope that the murders would so outrage the German public that the [Hitler] regime would fall, but as the days passed he saw no evidence of any such outpouring of anger.  The controlled press, not surprisingly, praised Hitler for his decisive behaviour."

Erik Larson, In The Garden of Beasts, 2011

"Around the world, authoritarian leaders are on the rise.  They're working from a common playbook:  They use violent rhetoric.  They attack the media.  They see their political rivals as existential enemies to the nation.  Demagogues are willing to do or say anything to gain office or to consolidate their power.  Unconstrained by ideology, they have no concern for the consequences of their actions.  Anything that serves to make them more powerful is good enough for them — even if the political system that facilitated their rise should be destroyed in the process."

Daniel Ziblatt, Saving Democracy from Demagogues, 2022

"It can only be hoped that American democracy will thoroughly realize, before it is too late, that fascism is not confined to any one nation or any one party; and it is to be hoped that it will succeed in overcoming the tendency toward dictatorial forms in the people themselves. Only time will tell whether the Americans will be able to resist the compulsion of irrationality or whether they will succumb to it.”

Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism, 1933

"A society which respects civil liberty realizes that the freedom of its people is built, in large part, upon their privacy.  Those who love the twilight speak as if public education must be training in conformity.  We have also seen a sharpening and refinement of abusive power.  The legislative investigation has too frequently been used by the Nation and the States as a means for effecting the disgrace and degradation of private persons.  Unscrupulous demagogues have used the power to investigate as tyrants of an earlier day used the bill of attainder.”

John F. Kennedy, Opinion Piece, Boston Herald, October 1960

"If this government ever became a tyrant, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny.   That is the abyss from which there is no return." 

Senator Frank Church, Meet The Press, 17 August 1975 

The silence among the Western elites in support of the worst wars of aggression and  mass murder that have been seen since the last World War is truly astonishing. 

We are expected to watch the actions of men who have become beasts in their lust for wealth and power, and say nothing.

Shame.  They have none, so we must be ashamed for them, that they can walk unashamed among free people. 

Stocks muddled around today, with a fair lack of conviction.

Gold and silver had a bit of a pop as the Dollar did a bit of a drop.

VIX is still quiescent.

How bad this is going to be is still hard to tell.  But it will end, badly. 

But be not deceived— God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, so shall he reap."

The night approaches.

Have a pleasant evening.