History Lesson

Tsar Nicholas II:   I know what will make them happy. They're children, and they need a Tsar!  They need tradition.  Not this!  They're the victims of agitators.  A Duma would make them bewildered and discontented.  And don't tell me about London and Berlin. God save us from the mess they're in!

Count Witte:   I see. So they talk, pray, march, plead, petition and what do they get? Cossacks, prison, flogging, police, spies, and now, after today, they will be shot.

Is this God's will?  Are these His methods?  Make war on your own people?   How long do you think they're going to stand there and let you shoot them?  YOU ask ME who's responsible?  YOU ask?

Tsar Nicholas II:   The English have a parliament.   Our British cousins gave their rights away.   The Hapsburgs, and the Hoehenzollerns too.  The Romanovs will not. What I was given, I will give my son.

"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right. The sensitivity of the poor to injustice is a trivial thing compared with that of the rich."

John Kenneth Galbraith

Charts at Thanksgiving Week's End - Nun danket alle Gott

Thank you, Lord, from the bottom of my heart, for another year with my family and friends, and especially with she-who-must-be-obeyed.

Let them all be properly loved and treasured throughout the year, as your most precious gifts, as one your many tender mercies, with which you grace our daily lives.

Make our lives new, O Lord, and take the blindness of pride and foolish distractions from our eyes.

Menus - Happy Thanksgiving!

"We pray for the big things, and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small, and yet really not so small, blessings.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dollar strength has the metals slumping. A nice parting shot for the December options expiration.

The queen has given me my marching orders, and there are many things to be done.

Shopping, cooking, counting blessings.

So I will have at it now, and wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

I may just post charts later today after the close if something notable happens, besides the metals getting pounded lower in light pre-holiday trading.

As you know the US markets will be closed tomorrow, and opened in very light holiday trading on Friday that is not really worth watching 'unless something happens.'

Otherwise, I will see you on Monday.

"And now, bless the God of all,
who has done wondrous things here on earth;
Who fosters people’s growth from their mother’s womb,
and would fashion them according to his will.
May he grant you joy of heart,
and may peace abide among you."

Thank you, Lord, from the bottom of my heart, for another year with my family and friends, and especially with she-who-must-be-obeyed, and let them be treasured as your most precious gifts, one your many tender mercies.


Windsor Hotel, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1883

Plaza Hotel NYC 1899

Gettysburg Hotel, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania 1909

David Cay Johnston: The Making of Donald Trump

“The narcissist devours people, consumes their output, and casts the empty, writhing shells aside.”

Sam Vaknin

This piece by David Cay Johnston below is a reprise of a video posted here on 25 September 2016

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Comex Option Expiration - Tableau Sans Vie

"The Unspeakable—  

It is the void that contradicts everything that is spoken even before the words are said; the void that gets into the language of public and official declarations at the very moment when they are pronounced, and makes them ring dead with the hollowness of the abyss.

It is the emptiness of the end.   It is the void out of which Eichmann drew the punctilious exactitude of his obedience.

You are in no position to issue commands, but you can speak words of hope.  

Shall this be the substance of your message?   Be human in this most inhuman of ages; guard the image of man,  for it is the image of God."

Thomas Merton

Gold and silver largely marked time today on the December option expiration for precious metals on the Comex.

There was nothing of importance in the delivery reports, and little to note in warehouse movements.

The Comex is too often like a tableau sans vie.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - New Highs On Light Volumes

That could be the epitaph of our age— the appearance of new highs, but on ephemerally light volumes, lacking in both effect and substance.

Have a pleasant evening.