"If at the start this cancerous growth in the nation was not particularly noticeable, it was only because there were still enough forces at work that operated for the good, so that it was kept under control. As it grew larger, however, and finally in an ultimate spurt of growth attained ruling power, the tumor broke open, as it were, and infected the whole body." The White Rose, Munich 1942
"There must be renewed recognition that societies are kept stable and healthy by reform, not by thought police; this means there must be free play for so-called subversive ideas— every idea subverts the old to make way for the new. To shut off subversion is to shut off peaceful progress and to invite revolution and war...
All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out."
I. F. Stone
Stocks finished off a bit, and gold and silver gave back some of the gains from yesterday.
The FCC voted to overturn 'net neutrality.'
And so the third-worldisation of the US continues.
Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md) just said that the Dems 'do not need a message' for the 2018 mid-term elections. It is enough just to run on a referendum on Trump.
They'll never learn. Because they don't want to. It's the credibility trap.
"For twelve years this nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing government. The nation looked to government but the government looked away. Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines! Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair!
And, my friends, powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that government is best which is most indifferent to mankind."
Franklin D. Roosevelt, October 1936
"DNC Chairman Perez and allied power brokers keep showing that they’re afraid of the party’s progressive base. No amount of appealing rhetoric changes that reality."
Norman Solomon, After the Unity Reform Commission
“In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.”
Czesław Miłosz
I guess this sort of nonsense is what happens when you allow a powerful private interest like Hillary, Inc. to take over your organization and shape its mission for their own purposes.
The result is an imperious, top down operation where only a few insiders can follow the money because they control it. And the grass roots initiatives and state organizations starve from neglect.
Budgetary and fiduciary oversight and transparency within your own organization is fundamental to any good governance. But not within a credentialed oligarchy, which is what the DNC had apparently become.
It seems to have started out as the ascendance of the self-proclaimed elite, the knowing, and their super-delegates. But in reality, all they had in addition to their professional pedigrees and places of power was the unique talent of betraying their duties in order to amass enormous amounts of money. They maintained and expanded their power by distributing the party's funds selectively, ruthlessly, and with a Machiavellian intent for the accumulation of personal wealth and power.
Surprising that a community organizer wouldn't understand that. Of course it seems like he understood very little about reform, financial or otherwise. Or wanted to.
Who are these five consultants and what did they do to earn their $700 million? Were these no-bid contracts? Who approved them?
Whatever it was, it could not have had much to do with effectively winning elections. But it had everything to do with the arrogance and self-delusions of a few largely isolated from those who they were sworn to serve and protect.
Until change comes with meaningful reform it's— DNC RIP
“Let us not, in the pride of our superior knowledge, turn with contempt from the follies of our predecessors. The study of the errors into which great minds have fallen in the pursuit of truth can never be uninstructive. As the man looks back to the days of his childhood and his youth, and recalls to his mind the strange notions and false opinions that swayed his actions at the time, that he may wonder at them; so should society, for its edification, look back to the opinions which governed ages that fled...
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.”
Charles Mackay
“The primary purposes of the political pamphlets of the early 1700s were neither to enlighten nor educate the masses, but to incite partisan conversation and spread commensurate ideas. Facts were not permitted to fetter the views they espoused, and the restraints of objective journalistic credibility were discarded by pamphleteers bent on promoting subjective slant to an insatiable general public for whom political dissonance was an integral part of social interaction.”
Gavin John Adams, Letters to John Law
Knowledge without the wisdom that is hammered out of it by experience is a very dangerous thing.
Today was likely to be Janet Yellen's last FOMC meeting as the Chairperson.
The Fed raised their key interest rate by 25 basis points.
Chair Yellen has agreed to resign when her successor, Jay Powell, is approved by the Senate.
And so task of tending to the third post-regulatory asset bubble is passing from Janet to Jay, as its forebears had passed from Alan to Ben.
Janet said that the Fed is not interested in pursuing anything to do with Bitcoin, but the central banks of the world are actively investigating their own forms of digital currencies. I am sure that this will not turn out badly for the general public. (/sarc).
Perhaps they can create, issue, and hold our digits in their banking system for us. And we can tattoo, figuratively speaking, our digital money accounts on our hands, for the purpose of buying and selling, all of it recorded in one great ledger. And if you misbehave, whoops, your digits are gone.
Money is the life blood of all worldly power. And as with all great power, it is immensely attractive to the easily corruptible, who willfully prey on the weak and the naive. Political and financial power is the mother's milk of spiritual death.
Well, such are the times. And since some have done it so well with this general corruption, many others are joining in. Truth is too often led down a blind alley and strangled in the service of this power. And people look aside, based on their own personal advantage and craven careerism.
Bitcoin stumbled a bit today As did the dollar. The one is a cresting bubble. The latter, not so much— yet. But they are working on it.
There is seems to be little understanding of the fundamentals of monetary value today and its foundation in history that one might despair of our ability to avoid one of the more memorable failures.
The spirit of John Law is alive and well. And it is stalking the halls of the academy, and the fevered brains of the untethered innovators of money creation. And the less unfettered the better.
The FCC looks set to put an end to 'net neutrality.' This is the beginning of the end for the internet as we have known it. I would hope that the Congress can do something to override it, but I am not hopeful in their integrity in the face of corporate millions.
Don't give yourself away to the worldly powers too easily. Yes, the lies are flying thick and fast from both sides. But deep down you know what to do. It is just hard sometimes.
Gold managed a nice rally back off the FOMC day. Wow, who could have expected that?
And silver joined in and took back the 16 handle.
Stocks were lackluster. There will be a stock option expiration on Friday.
I doubt we will see any sustained selling into the end of the year. The volumes are likely to be too light for that, although we should expect some 'portfolio rebalancing.'
This will get very interesting next year. We will hardly be able to stand the excitement.
Have a pleasant evening.
The End of an Error, or Just the End of the Beginning?
“Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Charles E. Schumer and someone who would come to my office begging for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump.”
Donald Trump, tweet du jour
Trump is a compulsively vulgar knucklehead.
FOMC announcement on rates tomorrow. 25 basis point increase is expected.
There will be a stock option expiration on Friday.
Let us pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.
We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.
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