10 January 2018

And Now Comes the Internet Censorship


"A credibility trap is when the regulatory, political and/or informational functions of a society have been so compromised by a long term, generalcorruption that they cannot address any meaningful reform without implicating, at least incidentally, themselves.  The status quo has at least tolerated the corruption and fraud, if not profited directly from it, and most likely continues to do so.  The power brokers have become susceptible to various forms of blackmail.  And so a failed policy is sustained long after it is seen to have failed, because admitting failure is not an option for those who hold positions of advantage and power."

Jesse


"One of the primary characteristics of narcissists is their exaggerated sense of entitlement.  It's hardly surprising then that so many politicians somehow think they deserve to game the system.  After all, from their self-interested perspective, isn't that what the system is for?  In their heavily self-biased opinion, if they want something, by rights it should be their's.  So, nothing if not opportunistic, they take from public and private coffers alike whatever they think they can get away with. And given their grandiose sense of self, they're inclined to believe they can get away with most anything."

Leon F. Seltzer


"Representative institutions no longer represent voters. Instead, they have been short-circuited, steadily corrupted by an institutionalized system of bribery that renders them responsive to powerful interest groups whose constituencies are the major corporations and wealthiest Americans. The courts, in turn, when they are not increasingly handmaidens of corporate power, are consistently deferential to the claims of national security."

Sheldon Wolin, Inverted Totalitarianism


"The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform."

Simon Johnson, The Quiet Coup


"On Wall Street he and a few others—how many?— three hundred, four hundred, five hundred?—had become precisely that—  Masters of the Universe."

Tom Wolfe, Bonfire of the Vanities

The pain of remaining human—  when the increase in wickedness unleashes the age old enemy, and makes the love of most grow cold.

How does the status quo deal with an erosion of confidence in their actions in the late stage of a cycle of looting and abuse, caught as they may be in a credibility trap?

This is the point where we seem to be, when the facade of benevolent justice starts slipping away, and the looting and self-dealing becomes all too visible, on brazen display in scandal after scandal,  special privileges and bailouts, and historic inequality.

And if there is an erosion of confidence, it surely cannot be due to anything that the best among us have done.  They are wise and benevolent, heavily burdened by the task of guiding the public.

So there must be some foreign enemy or internal dissidents, actively trying to  cause people to lose confidence in their rule.

When you run out of credible answers, one solution is to stop people from asking the questions.   An offer of the bullet or the bribe is often effective for those with significant profiles and platforms.  It is being used now more than you may know.   The pressure on the well-informed to be silent is presently palpable.  The quiet sacrifice of many people of conscience is under-appreciated.

A broader and more general use of censorship is sufficient for the rest.   Concentration of mainstream media ownership in a few powerful hands is soon followed by increased and unilateral censorship powers over the wider variety of remaining independent sources.

There is a case to be made for restricting certain types of public speech, especially that which incites the public to violent prejudice. But that case must be narrow, highly transparent, and exceptional and infrequent. Unfortunately in times of general corruption measured restraint becomes abusive, widely and secretly used to silence any form of truth-telling and dissent from the established narratives and powers.

And it should be noted that in the cases of the most extreme examples of hate speech in history, their power was not in their eloquence, or the powerful logic of their arguments, of which they had neither.  If we look at them now their language is crude and their ideas vulgar, false, and repugnant..

No, their power was that no one was able to speak out freely against them, to dissent from their obvious misstatements and errors, that were repeated endlessly without anyone who could effectively stand against them.  And the people followed those lies into the abyss.

The Intercept
First France, Now Brazil Plan to Empower the Government to Censor the Internet
By Glenn Greenwald

Yesterday afternoon, the official Twitter account of Brazil’s Federal Police (its FBI equivalent) posted an extraordinary announcement. The bureaucratically nonchalant tone it used belied its significance. The tweet, at its core, purports to vest in the federal police and the federal government that oversees it the power to regulate, control and outright censor political content on the internet that is assessed to be “false,” and to “punish” those who disseminate it. The new power would cover both social media posts and entire websites devoted to politics...

Tellingly, these police officials vow that they will proceed to implement the censorship program even if no new law is enacted. They insist that no new laws are necessary by pointing to a pre-internet censorship law enacted in 1983 – during the time Brazil was ruled by a brutal military dictatorship that severely limited free expression and routinely imprisoned dissidents...

The move to obtain new censorship authority over the internet by Brazilian police officials would be disturbing enough standing alone given Brazil’s status as the world’s fifth most populous country and second-largest in the hemisphere. But that Brazil’s announcement closely follows very similar efforts unveiled last week by French President Emmanuel Macron strongly suggests a trend in which government are now exploiting concerns over “Fake News” to justify state control over the internet...

Beyond having one’s political content forcibly suppressed by the state, disseminators of “Fake News” could face fines of many millions of dollars. Given Macron’s legislature majority, “there is little doubt about its ability to pass,” the Atlantic reports.

Both Brazil and France cited the same purported justification for obtaining censorship powers over the internet: namely, the dangers posed by alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. But no matter how significant one views Russian involvement in the U.S. election, it is extremely difficult to see how – beyond rank fear-mongering – that could justify these types of draconian censorship powers by Brasília and Paris...

So for those who are comfortable with the current French leader overseeing a censorship program in conjunction with courts to censor “Fake News” from the internet, do you trust the Trump administration to make those determinations? Do you trust Marine Le Pen?...

Read the entire essay at The Intercept here.

Given the growth of intolerance, a surprisingly large segment of the public will not only tolerate, but may welcome censorship.  They wish to escape the pain of thinking, of being human.  They wish to smash all the mirrors that reflect their growing inhumanity.

"It seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence and, more or less consciously, have given up establishing an autonomous position toward the emerging circumstances.

The fact that the foolish person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with him as a person, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like that have taken possession of him.

He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. 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.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer


“A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death— the huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, and murders that we are not going to be judged.”

Czesław Miłosz

09 January 2018

Stocks and Precious Metal Charts - Masters of War


“Above all, don't lie to yourself.  The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie, comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.  And having no respect, he ceases to love.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Stocks tried to rally higher today, and tended to fall back a bit into the afternoon, finishing with modest increases.

It is too early to say with any certainty, but this is starting to look like a blow off top. No need to guess; we will know it, when it confirms. It would most likely experience a two step decline. There will be a drop, a big rebound on dip buying, and then a turn and a loss of confidence.

Is The Donald mouse-trapping himself? He keeps pointing to stocks as the evidence of his policy success. What if the markets turn lower, and there is another financial crisis? Do we have any confidence that the Trump Admin will know what to do, and will do it? Obama and Bush didn't. Unless you are a Banker.

Gold and silver giving us the expected pause now. Let's see how this works itself out. That will speak volumes.

The Comex Hong Kong gold warehouse tally has fallen to a very low level.

It was in the 40's today, and after the weeks of deep freeze we have been bearing up under, it felt like Spring.

Have a pleasant evening.






08 January 2018

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - We Come In Peace - Winning...


"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Ephesians 6:12


"A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater.  I think that's just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from those who believe it's just a joke.”

Søren Kierkegaard

Stocks drifted higher today, setting new records.  Huzzah!

Gold and silver drifted largely sideways.

It was risk on, or at least timidly so, ahead of the start of the new earnings season which I believe begins this coming Friday.

The Trump Administration has a plan to give marching orders to US diplomats and military overseas to promote greater sales of arms to other countries, and non-government organizations as well I would imagine.

Up to this point, the US has been employing 'loss leader' sales strategies, giving arms to al-Qaeda in Syria in the name of freedom, and one of their more radical offshoots which rebranded themselves as ISIS.  This has been very good for business, but is not really maximizing sales and carnage despite some localized successes in Syria and Yemen.

The plan now is to engage a total effort of our presence overseas to sell much larger orders of arms to other countries, and let them fight each other. Then the US can come in the name of peace and humanitarian relief, wreck havoc on the country by destroying their arms and infrastructure.  After the dust settles, our Banks can give them loans to buy our products to rebuild. 

Wash, rinse, repeat. The fruits of instability.  Business genius.

Of course this is just a retread and expansion of the infamous 'economic hit men' strategy that was well documented by others, including John Perkins.   But its nice to see this approach become more open and institutionalized as policy, without hiding our evil works in the darkness.

If you do not wish to hear things as I may see them, that may disturb your view of the world, don't come to Le Cafe.   Attendance here is voluntary.  And there are more than enough sites on the internet that may cater to your particular tastes. 

I will accept the loss of your patronage if that is what it takes for us to remain friends.  I have accepted becoming persona non grata at several sites that I respect, just for believing as I do about some things even though we had a common cause in most others.

No matter what,  you will remain in my prayers. But I cannot betray my own conscience to please you.  I have been open with my assumptions and logic, and reasonably civil about it.  Money is truly the root of all evil.

If  I may be so bold to suggest, if you are so shaken that you cannot bear anyone to disagree with your views in the slightest, even when stated clearly and fairly politely, then perhaps you need to reconsider the foundations of your beliefs.   But it is fair to say that our perspectives can honestly be different.  And I accept that.

That is your choice to make, and it will be accepted here.  But not so much that it will be imposed, as long as there is freedom of will and conscience, and enough people willing to stand up for it.

And if that seems unreasonable, well, it is a sign of the times as had been expected. It would be easy to give in to gloominess, almost eschatological, but there remains too much to be done. 

Have a pleasant evening.









“Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice.

He has forgotten to add:  the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.”

Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte


05 January 2018

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Name of the Rose


"O Rose, thou art sick.
The invisible worm
That flies in the night
In the howling storm

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy,
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy."

William Blake


"Where does the truth lie?   Should one go off and build a little house with flowers outside the windows and a garden outside the door and extol and thank God and turn one’s back on the world and its filth?   Isn’t seclusion a form of treachery, of desertion?   I am weak and small, but I want to do what is right."

Hans Scholl


"The wealth of another region excites their greed; and if it is weak, their lust for power as well. Nothing from the rising to the setting of the sun is enough for them. Among all others only they are compelled to attack the poor as well as the rich. Robbery, rape, and slaughter they falsely call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."

Tacitus, Agricola

The Non-Farm Payrolls number came in quite a bit light this morning.

Stocks finished up the week with a surge higher on very light volumes.

The ruling class rejoices, and points to this of a clear sign of God's favor on our undertaking.  Or whatever gods they happen to be following these days.

Abandonment of principle is a small price to pay, for an elite group of people determined to be every more powerful, and rich.

And for an exceptional people, exceptions must be made.  The ordinary rules do not apply, to those who have risen above the law.  For them, it is a heavy burden, but someone must rule the common people.  Is this not always what is said, especially afterwards, when the proud and mighty have been crushed, and fallen? 

Be wary of being caught in illiquid markets.   What is coming may not be so much a correction as a train wreck.

Gold and silver held their ground.  If they can continue to do so this may be a sign of a stronger bid to the precious metals in the new year.

Have a pleasant weekend.