Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Cheated by the Artifices of False and Designing Men

 

"The liberties of our Country, the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending at all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.  We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors:  They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood; and transmitted them to us with care and diligence.  It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle; or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men."

Samuel Adams, Essay in the Boston Gazette, October 14, 1771

"Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege."

Tommy Douglas, quoted in Straight Through the Heart, 1995

"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression.  In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged.  And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."

William O. Douglas, Supreme Court Justice, The Douglas Letters, 1987

"When you legitimize yourself entirely by inventing enemies, the truth ceases to matter, normal restraints of civilization and decency cease to matter, the checks and balances of normal politics cease to matter.  The dangers of fascist politics come from the particular way in which it dehumanizes segments of the population.  It limits the capacity for empathy among other citizens, leading to the justification of inhumane treatment, from repression of freedom, mass imprisonment, and expulsion to, in extreme cases, mass extermination."

Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works, 2018

“Truth and love will overcome lies and hatred.  The dormant goodwill in people needs to be stirred.  People need to hear that it makes sense to behave decently or to help others, to place common interests above their own, to respect the elementary rules of human coexistence.  

They want to be told this publicly.  They want to know that those ‘at the top’ are on their side.  They want to feel recognized and cultivated.  For goodwill to develop and have an impact it must hear this, so that the world does not ridicule it.”

Vaclav Havel, Summer Meditations, 1991 

This was an interesting Comex option expiration day for the precious metals, primarily gold.

The metals were under early selling, but as the day wore on gained a footing and rallied back for a gain.

Silver in particular just crushed the metals bears.

VIX rose initially, but then fell back during the day as well.

The Dollar rallied sharply and held it.

Bitcoin continued to slide and closed below 110k.

Let's see what happens tomorrow, and how things are held into the weekend.

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Hammer of the World

 

"The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself: ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity— greedy, dishonest, adulterous— or even like this tax collector over there."

Luke 18:11

“People with advantages are loathe to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages.  They come readily to define themselves as inherently worthy of what they possess; they come to believe themselves 'naturally' elite; and, in fact, to imagine their possessions and their privileges as natural extensions of their own elite selves.”

C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite, 1956

"What will you do on the day of reckoning, and in the time of desolation which follows?  To whom will you flee for relief?  Where will you safeguard your riches?"

Isaiah 10:3

"God had brought me to my knees and made me acknowledge my own nothingness, and out of that knowledge I had been reborn.  I was no longer the centre of my life and therefore I could see God in everything."

Bede Griffiths, The Golden String, 1954

"For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature.  It will be too late then to choose your side.  That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not."

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1944

"God has a way of standing before the nations with judgement, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America 'You are too arrogant! If you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power! And I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still, and know that I am God.'"

Martin Luther King, Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam, Riverside Church, 30 April 1967

"See how the hammer of the world has been broken and shattered, how Babylon has become an object of horror, a desolation among the nations."

Jeremiah 50:23

Today was a wash and rinse day.

The Dollar moved higher, gold and silver moved lower.

Tomorrow is a futures contract option expiration for the precious metals on the Comex.

VIX fell.

Stocks fell, extending the recent retreat from their new highs.

Risk remains highly elevated, and significantly under-appreciated.

Change is coming.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Whims and Desires of the Elite

 

"Let them wait, if their past experience shall induce them to think that any high honour or any exquisite pleasure is to be obtained by a policy like this.  Let them wait, if this strange and fearful infatuation be indeed upon them, that they should not see with their eyes, or hear with their ears, or understand with their heart.  But let us know our interest and our duty better.  Turn where we may, within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us,  'Reform, that you may preserve.'"

Thomas B. Macaulay, Speech Before Parliament, March 2, 1831

"The real problem for others is when narcissistic features, especially a sense of entitlement and a lack of empathy, shade into antisocial and destructive behaviors.  When this happens, the pattern might be described as aggressive or malignant narcissism, which is difficult to distinguish from psychopathy.

Another characteristic of psychopaths is an ability to avoid taking responsibility for things that go wrong; instead, they blame others, circumstances, fate, and so forth.  Psychopaths will lie even to people who already know the truth about what they are saying. Even in the face of contrary evidence, the psychopath can lie so well that listeners doubt themselves first, rather than question the psychopath."

Babiak and Hare, Snakes in Suits, May 2006

"There is a class of individuals who have been around forever and who are found in every race, culture, society and walk of life.  Everybody has met these people, been deceived and manipulated by them, and forced to live with or repair the damage they have wrought.  These often charming-but always deadly-individuals have a clinical name: psychopaths.  Their hallmark is a stunning lack of conscience; their game is self-gratification at the other person’s expense.  All take far more than they give.

The most obvious expressions of psychopathy-but not the only ones-involve the flagrant violation of society’s rules.  Not surprisingly, many psychopaths are criminals, but many others manage to remain out of prison, using their charm and chameleon-like coloration to cut a wide swathe through society, leaving a wake of ruined lives behind them.

Psychopaths appear amazingly unfazed by the possibility, or even by the certainty, of being found out. When caught in a lie or challenged with the truth, they seldom appear perplexed or embarrassed-they simply change their stories or attempt to rework the facts so they appear to be consistent with the lie. The result is a series of contradictory statements and a thoroughly confused listener. And psychopaths seem proud of their ability to lie."

Robert Hare, The Charming Psychopath: How to Spot Social Predators, Psychology Today, 2007

"The more power a government has the more it can act arbitrarily according to the whims and desires of the elite, and the more it will make war on others and murder its foreign and domestic subjects.  Power will achieve its murderous potential.  It simply waits for an excuse, an event of some sort, an assassination, a massacre in a neighboring country, an attempted coup, a famine, or a natural disaster, to justify the beginning of murder en masse."

R. J. Rummel, Death by Government: A History of Mass Murder and Genocide, 1994


Stocks gave back some of their rocket rally from yesterday.

Just a normal pull back so far.

Gold and silver rallied, but gave it back in the afternoon.

There will be a option expiration on the Comex this coming Thursday the 25th.

VIX ticked up a bit.

Bitcoin continued to decline.

There is a new documentary about the tragic US war in Afghanistan called 'Bodyguard of Lies.'  It is coming out on Paramount+.   It looks to be a good one.  

The US spent 300 million dollars per day for 20 years on the failed military exercise against the Taliban, not including the tragic loss and disruption of life.   A few gained wealth and power from it.

"Faustus had advanced beyond the level of a scarlet sinner — he was a conscious follower of the Prince of Darkness."

E.A. Bucchianeri, Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World, 2008

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Greeding Frenzy - Servants of the Beast

 

"They will not see. They will not listen. Blindly they follow their seducers into ruin."

The White Rose, Fifth Leaflet, Munich 1943

"Having thus become a mindless tool, the foolish person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil.  This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.  The word of the Bible that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom declares that the internal liberation of human beings to live the responsible life before God is the only genuine way to overcome foolishness."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 1945

“He will choose you, disarm you with his words, and control you with his presence.  He will delight you with his wit and his plans.  He will smile and deceive you, and he will scare you with his eyes.  And when he is through with you, and he will be through with you, he will desert you, and take with him your innocence and your pride."

Robert D. Hare, Without Conscience

“This great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts.  For evil to appear disguised as light, compassion, historical necessity or even social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Word, it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil.  Mere waiting and looking on is not Christian behavior.  Christians are called to compassion and to action. "

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Who Stands Fast, Letters and Papers From Prison, 1945

"The foolish ask nothing better than not to have to understand anything, and they even used to get together and try not to understand, because the last thing of which a person is capable is to be malicious and foolish all by themselves.  Without understanding, they form spontaneously into herds, not according to any particular affinities but in obedience to the petty ideology, which swallowed up the whole of their small lives, allotted them by birth or chance.  They would far rather kill than have to think."

George Bernanos, Under the Sun of Satan, Paris 1926 

 

Ivan the Terrible reportedly was shocked with remorse, after he struck and murdered his own son with his scepter in a fit of anger.  This is the famous portrait of them by Ilya Repin pictured above.

To stand fast as a faithful Christian you must not just talk like one, you must act like one, and serve the commandments of God.   The leaven of the Pharisees colors a lot of what passes for piety these days. 

Many say how they hate evil and love good, with the trappings of solemnly pious words, but it is they who decide what is evil, and what is good.  And do so in the darkness of their hearts. 

If you are a servant of the Beast, soon enough you will fall into lies, then hate and anger, and after into an eternal regret. 

Only love and the humility of faithful service can keep you standing in this greeding frenzy.

Gold and silver were on an absolute tear higher today, and went out on the highs.

I wish some of my old friends like Ted Butler and Jim Sinclair were alive to see this. 

The rally we have been seeing in both precious metals is truly impressive, but it's making this old cross-market tape reader a little edgy.

There will be a futures contract option expiration for the precious metals on the Comex this Thursday, the 25^th.  It is for the October contracts which are more significant for gold rather than silver.  As you know the biggest contract month of the year is December. 

If stocks were not rallying right along with the metals I would be even more concerned that the financial class were circling the wagons. 

It looks like something is broken behind the scenes, or somebody is going to get whacked.

Yeah, the Dollar is sliding and the yield curve is acting a squirrelly, like it sees trouble coming but it doesn't know when. 

The economic indicators are sucking out loud now, and it almost looks like stagflation on the horizon.

VIX is still sleep-walking, but that's just another sign of the mispricing of risk.

Bitcoin continued its slide today which was also a bit odd, since it usually correlates with the NDX. 

It is hard to have any certainty about a long odds event, but this market seems to be gearing up for a really stiff correction, maybe after a little more frothing at the top.  It's only a matter of time.

How much? 10%?  20?  More?   Let's see what the trigger event and government response will be. 

Uncertainty is the rule of the day, with Donnie and his Merry Pranksters doing their wild and crazy cowboy routines in world affairs and economic policy decisions.    

The recent debacle over H1-B visas was handled from a messaging standpoint about as badly as any bad decision I have seen in a very long time.   

The geopolitical situation is a nail-biter.  If you don't know this then you probably aren't paying attention, just listening to the mainstream media infomercials. 

Overall I cannot remember so much brazen lying going on in my life.  

I have faith, and I have hope, but my confidence levels are getting thin.  There are too many Bozos and Baghdad Bobs and not enough guys with nets to rein them in.

 Well, let's see what happens.  

Have a pleasant evening.