Lofgren and Moyers - What Is the Deep State?

"... there is another government concealed behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, a hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country according to consistent patterns in season and out, connected to, but only intermittently controlled by, the visible state whose leaders we choose.

My analysis of this phenomenon is not an exposé of a secret, conspiratorial cabal; the state within a state is hiding mostly in plain sight, and its operators mainly act in the light of day. Nor can this other government be accurately termed an 'establishment.'

All complex societies have an establishment, a social network committed to its own enrichment and perpetuation. In terms of its scope, financial resources and sheer global reach, the American hybrid state, the Deep State, is in a class by itself. That said, it is neither omniscient nor invincible. The institution is not so much sinister (although it has highly sinister aspects) as it is relentlessly well entrenched.

Far from being invincible, its failures, such as those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, are routine enough that it is only the Deep State’s protectiveness towards its higher-ranking personnel that allows them to escape the consequences of their frequent ineptitude.

Mike Lofgren, Anatomy of the Deep State


“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”

Søren Kierkegaard

I do not think our time is all that different from those that have gone before it, insofar as the substance and types of our actions are concerned.  Every age has its thieves and hypocrites, in high and low places.

Rather, what is a little more distinctive of us is the numbers, the sheer number of people whose character, or a lack thereof, fits a common pattern— mean, petty, deceitful, and often willfully ignorant of moral constraints, lacking in civility and grace, and utterly unrepentant of it.

They are quite proud of their cleverness in gaming the system, in embracing the worst aspects of the human economy and abusing them, in the name of their unnatural virtues.  If they are liars, they strive to be among the most shameless and adept.  If they are thieves, they admire those who tirelessly steal  the most, while paying none of the consequences.

And above all, their perspective on life allows them to have no shame in it, any of it, in what other times would have been done in the darkness, and only behind closed doors, and carefully covered up.

We take our ill gotten gains and place them in the spotlight with the high sounding names of wise-sounding and humanitarian organizations and foundations.

Charts For a Warmer Wednesday - Pillar of the Cloud

"And the Lord went before them by day as a pillar of cloud to lead them on the way, and by night a pillar of fire to give light in the gloom."

Exodus 13:21

Stocks were a bit jumpy this morning as The Donald, aka Cheeto in Chief, spoke at his first press conference in about six months.

Hard to believe, but these jokers in the press, sometimes going by the name of journalists, actually make the guy look better than he probably is. They are just terrible, and go for the low road like ducks to water.

Glenn Greenwald said exactly what I have been thinking, that the 'deep state' is making its displeasure known to Mr. Trump for spoiling their plans for a New American Century.

Did not vote for the guy, but it seems like every day I become even more content that Hillary is not in the White House.

I would not be shorting this stock market, yet. But sometime around or after the inauguration most likely something will happen to burst this bubble of happiness and self-delusion, and we might get a 10+% correction.

Gold is still struggling to move higher along with silver. The Comex is a joke when it comes to gold, and nothing much ever really happens there. Silver still stays busy with ins and outs of the warehouses, since this is how some wholesalers manage their working inventory for silver's domestic uses.

Have a pleasant evening.

Charts For a Quiet Tuesday - US Government's Key Role In India's Crash Cash Suppression Fiasco

"The business interests of the US-companies that dominate the global IT business and payment systems are an important reason for the zeal of the US-government in its push to reduce cash use worldwide, but it is not the only one and might not be the most important one.

Another motive is surveillance power that goes with increased use of digital payment. US-intelligence organizations and IT-companies together can survey all international payments done through banks and can monitor most of the general stream of digital data. Financial data tends to be the most important and valuable.

Even more importantly, the status of the dollar as the worlds currency of reference and the dominance of US companies in international finance provide the US government with tremendous power over all participants in the formal non-cash financial system. It can make everybody conform to American law rather than to their local or international rules."

Norbert Haering, A Well Kept Open Secret


"...and where they make a desert, they call it peace."

Tacitus

I hear that the speculation which I had about the US government's involvement in India's  heavy handed program of cash suppression may in fact be true.

Thanks to Harald Malmgren et al. for passing along this blog which was originally published in German.

I certainly concur with the various motives ascribed to the India crash cash suppression campaign.  The rentiers want everyone hooked on their digital dollars:  one ring to rule them all.  And to them, the public at large is just collateral damage, and their national interests are at best irrelevant, and most likely a genuine impediment to the broader 'globalisation' of the system ruled by the Anglo-American Banks.

But with regards to the big rush and the timing of this, I suspect that the Anglo-Americans are desperate to staunch the flows of physical gold and silver into Asia.  Crushing the cash economy and driving the people of India into a digitalized banking system might have done the trick, in some alternate universe.  If this is all true, talk about crazy desperate ideas from the bowels of the credibility trap.

Stocks were lackluster, with tech stocks once again playing their role as financial crisis bubble-born revenant.

Gold is struggling to take back the ground that it gave up into the year end, while silver continues pushing higher, trying to regain the 17 handle.

Let's see if the metals can break out.

As for stocks, it might not be bad to keep 'buy the election and sell the inauguration' in mind.

The Dems wish to de-legitimize the Trump presidency, and would like to set him up for a fall, and a possible impeachment. In that sense, they are certainly no better than the GOP, which would have followed a similar strategy it seems. Both parties are more like rival crime families than public servants.

Thanks to William Banzai (I am not worthy) and Zerohedge for reminding us all of one of Stanley Kubrick's classics, probably worth watching again as the ghosts of unscrupulous politicians past slither once again in new forms along the halls of power.

On the good news bad news front, President Obama will be giving his 'farewell address' tonight in Chicago.   The bad news is that hope and change has left the building, and the worse news is that it actually happened sometime around 2008, when Mr. Obama sold out the American people to the Banks.

I would not exactly call myself 'hopeful' about the next four years.  But they could be very good for things like gold and silver.   If the world can escape from the neo-cons' dreams for a New American Century, and the proposed tyranny of the United States Dollar.  Six to the six to the six-wise.  lol.

Have a pleasant evening.

Charts for Stocks and Metals - Three Kings

Interesting divergence in stocks today as the tech sector led the way to new highs there, but the SP 500 was lower on the day, and the Dow Industrials, industrial in name only these days, once again not only failed to close above that 20,000 level, but actually gave up some additional ground.

This is bubble action.  Whether it is late stage or not remains to be seen, but I keep thinking that the Wall Street wiseguys are just executing the same gameplan they would have followed regardless of who won the election, with perhaps some variation on the sectors they pushed.

So, in other words, can we expect them to 'buy the election, and sell the inauguration?'

That would be an appropriately cynical outcome for very cynical times.

Gold and silver managed to inch higher after the December drubbing they took into deeply oversold territory.

I suspect that was an 'end of year' thing.

The Comex warehouses and deliveries were the usual snooze.  The real metals action is taking place in points East.

Yesterday marked the end of the Christmas season with the feast of the Magi, or the Three Kings.

But hopefully the Christmas spirit will live in our hearts throughout the year.

Have a pleasant evening.