Bullies Is His Term

In our just posted piece, 2016/10/big-government-force, we wrote that when you disagree with the Hillary tribe they have ready names for you, all negative, without ever having met or knowing anything about you.

A columnist in the Financial Times yesterday referred Trump as a vulgarian, indirectly suggesting that anyone who supports him is such. He went onto to label any residual of the Trump movement should Trump not win as "a nativist-populist rump dominated by Trumpians." Translation: nativist-populist asses. It's the British understatement way, politely call you an ass hole. Make no mistake about it, populist is a pejorative also. It's essentially anyone who differs with the status quo. There is no room for the merit of your position. It can't have any to these self-appointed, anointed members of the cognoscenti.

He later says, in his plea about bravery and the apparent demise of the Republican party he sees as having been hijacked--this from a guy who is calling 40 million people he's never met and knows nothing about, names from a distance--"to risk the ire of the Trumpian mob." No mention of the thugs on the other side.

No matter. They don't care. These are people who want what they want. End of sentence. And they obviously intend to stop at nothing to get it. Rigging an election is most likely the milder action they  will take. Now we don't know the author of the piece below. We do know that he is a committed liberal and has now come out for Trump for his own well-explained reasons, something he is not by any means obligated to do, but is simply honest enough to do it. For that he apparently has received much grief. Bullies is his term. We prefer thugs.
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I’ve been trying to figure out what common trait binds Clinton supporters together. As far as I can tell, the most unifying characteristic is a willingness to bully in all its forms.
If you have a Trump sign in your lawn, they will steal it.
If you have a Trump bumper sticker, they will deface your car.
if you speak of Trump at work you could get fired.
On social media, almost every message I get from a Clinton supporter is a bullying type of message. They insult. They try to shame. They label. And obviously they threaten my livelihood.
We know from Project Veritas that Clinton supporters tried to incite violence at Trump rallies. The media downplays it.
We also know Clinton’s side hired paid trolls to bully online. You don’t hear much about that.
Yesterday, by no coincidence, Huffington Post, Salon, and Daily Kos all published similar-sounding hit pieces on me, presumably to lower my influence. (That reason, plus jealousy, are the only reasons writers write about other writers.)
Joe Biden said he wanted to take Trump behind the bleachers and beat him up. No one on Clinton’s side disavowed that call to violence because, I assume, they consider it justified hyperbole.
Team Clinton has succeeded in perpetuating one of the greatest evils I have seen in my lifetime. Her side has branded Trump supporters (40%+ of voters) as Nazis, sexists, homophobes, racists, and a few other fighting words. Their argument is built on confirmation bias and persuasion. But facts don’t matter because facts never matter in politics. What matters is that Clinton’s framing of Trump provides moral cover for any bullying behavior online or in person. No one can be a bad person for opposing Hitler, right?

blog.dilbert.com/post/152293480726/the-bully-party 

Golden Confidence

For many gold isn't an investment. For others it's a commodity they love to hate. Another term that should come to mind here is risk management.Still another is gold represents one of the worst nightmares of the fiat money crowd.

There are several things that could brighten the yellow metal's barbaric-investment-non-yielding-risk management luster. Inflation, first off. We think it could surprise more than many think. Central banks have been buying and they've also been bringing it home, a kind of of bullion twist on a bird in hand is worth more than two in the bush. Miners have been stung by lower prices. Once burned recalls more discipline to implement twice shy. And then there's always the risk of political disruptions. Uncertainty these days looks to be about as far away as the next corner. The shorts get squeezed. Still another is real wealth preservation. It's one thing to make it, another to hold on to it. And last but hardly last in that sense is supply-demand. Some capacity has gone out of business.

Confidence should also come to mind. Central bank buying. Is that a sign of lack of confidence in their fiat money antics?

Big Government Force

Immigration is not about what Americans think. And as more Americans learn the real meanings behind this they are finding it deceptive and unacceptable.

Oppose these people and they have a ready, convenient pejorative name for you. They don't know or have never met you but they don't want to honor your right to express your freedom of speech no matter what your feelings are. So they are all to willing to vilify you to get their way.
                                   


In the third debate Hillary claimed she would vet these immigrants and that the current administration was doing a good job. What else is she going to say? Well, as has been pointed out, they recently missed numerous immigrants from the war torn areas who were forced onto a small community in the western U.S. We're not talking one or two here. Many were TB positive, it turns out, in its active phase.So when did big government find out and how did they find out? Did they know beforehand and ship them off anyway? What's the voting and ethnic make-up of that community? Is it historically Democrat or Republican or something between? Remember, this is big government you're dealing with here.

Did the innocent people of that community have a say about their own future and that of their children? Are the children of those elected officials and others who rammed this down that community's throat going to intermix with those active TB immigrants? We all know the answer to that. And this tracks right up to the White House.

breitbart.com/big-government/2016/10/25/michigan-township-feds-will-not-actively-participate-refugee-resettlement-program/

Academic Dishonesty

Not all shysters are in politics. Some are in academia.

Well, now, that's a surprise to just about nobody.

A global warming research center at the London School of Economics got millions of dollars from UK taxpayers by taking credit for research it didn’t perform, an investigation by The Daily Mail revealed. The UK government gave $11 million dollars to the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP) in exchange for research that the organization reportedly never actually did.
Many papers CCCEP claimed to have published to get government money weren’t about global warming, were written before the organization was even founded, or were written by researchers unaffiliated with CCCEP. The government never checked CCCEP’s supposed publication lists, saying they were “taken on trust,” according to the report.

“It is serious misconduct to claim credit for a paper you haven’t supported, and it’s fraud to use that in a bid to renew a grant,” Professor Richard Tol, a climate economics expert from Sussex University whose research was reportedly stolen by CCCEP, told The Daily Mail. “I’ve never come across anything like it before. It stinks.”

Read more: dailycaller.com/2016/10/24/top-university-stole-millions-from-taxpayers-by-faking-global-warming-research

Overnight

The dollar moved higher against the yen in overnight trading and the Nikkei responded, gaining 0.8% to hit its highest level in six months as Japan's exporters benefit from a stronger dollar. Two other markets were up,  the ASX 200, 0.6%, and the Taiwan TWII climbed 0.3%.  

The WSJ reported that South Korea gross domestic product grew 2.7% year-over-year in the third quarter, down from a 3.3% gain in the prior three-month period, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea. Business investment declined in the country amid frail private consumption and weak exports. Analysts said that without brisk housing construction—made possible by cheap bank loans and easier mortgage rules supported by financial authorities—Korean growth would have slowed further.

“Low productivity is prevalent, in particular in the services sector and among small and medium-sized enterprises,” Fitch Ratings said in a report about the South Korean economy.

Korea’s Kospi was down 0.8%. Both the Hang Seng Index and the Shanghai Composite were down about 0.2%.." Chinese shares traded down as the yuan was at 6.7744, off 0.8%, from Monday against the dollar, six-year low. Some postulated this suggests a directed path of depreciation. In The Markit flash U.S. manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to 53.2 in October from 51.5 in September. That bit of news seemed to stoke belief that a December Fed rate hike is more certain and risk bets are on again as the U.S. Economy shows some signs of life.

With the dollar index hitting a nine month high, 98.846 on Monday, gold edged slightly lower early on Tuesday as the U.S. dollar gained on increasing expectations of a December interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

Looking For A Thug?

What adds up to 342/47 times? The number of times of of Hillary's re-election thugs visit the Obama White House since 2009. Forty-seven of those were personal visits with the President. Here's more.
According to The Chicago Tribune, Creamer has a criminal history; in 2006, “he was sentenced to five months in federal prison for bank fraud and a tax violation,” said the Tribune.

So if you need a thug, check with Hillary's campaign. There apparently are enough there to go around. Short of her check the the resident Lame Duck.
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Last week, Jame O'keefe and Project Veritas Action potentially altered the course of the U.S. election, or at a minimum raised serious doubts about the practices of the Clinton campaign and the DNC, after releasing two undercover videos that revealed efforts of democrat operatives to incite violence at republican rallies and commit "mass voter fraud."  While democrats have vehemently denied the authenticity of the videos, two democratic operatives, Robert Creamer and Scott Foval, have both been forced to resign over the allegations.

Many democrats made the rounds on various mainstream media outlets over the weekend in an attempt to debunk the Project Veritas videos.  Unfortunately for them, O'Keefe fired back with warnings that part 3 of his multi-part series was forthcoming and would implicate Hillary Clinton directly.

Now, we have the 3rd installment of O'Keefe's videos which does seemingly reveal direct coordination between Hillary Clinton, Donna Brazile, Robert Creamer and Scott Foval to organize a smear campaign over Trump's failure to release his tax returns.  Per Project Veritas:

Part III of the undercover Project Veritas Action investigation dives further into the back room dealings of Democratic politics. It exposes prohibited communications between Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the DNC and the non-profit organization Americans United for Change. And, it’s all disguised as a duck. In this video, several Project Veritas Action undercover journalists catch Democracy Partners founder directly implicating Hillary Clinton in FEC violations. “In the end, it was the candidate, Hillary Clinton, the future president of the United States, who wanted ducks on the ground,” says Creamer in one of several exchanges. “So, by God, we would get ducks on the ground.” It is made clear that high-level DNC operative Creamer realized that this direct coordination between Democracy Partners and the campaign would be damning when he said: “Don’t repeat that to anybody.” 

Within the video both Clinton and Brazile are directly implicated by Creamer during the following exchange:

zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-24/project-veritas-video-3

Other Views On Gold

 Gold traded at $1264 down $3.70 earlier today.

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Gold prices are expected to push past $1,400 an ounce in 2017, according to one billion-dollar hedge fund.
In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group – which has assets under management of more than £1.6 billion -- said that he could see gold prices rallying 15% in 2017 as he expects the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low next year.

“The Fed is going to increase the rates by a little bit but not excessively and there is no guarantee that a rise in interest rates will put people off. A lot will depend on the real rates,” said Mobius, in the interview, on the sidelines at an event in Mumbai, India.
December gold futures last traded $1,262.60 an ounce, down 0.40% on the day. However, if Mobuis’ forecast proves right then gold at current levels could push to $1,451 an ounce next year.
The biggest hurdle to higher gold prices continues to be the U.S. dollar, which continued to trade at its highest level since March.
“The U.S. dollar is not that strong and may even decline,” said Mobius. “So if that happens, gold gets more expensive.”
The U.S. dollar has been firming, weighing down on gold prices as the Federal Reserve prepares to raise interest rates in December. Currently, markets are pricing in a 74% chance that the U.S. central bank will raise interest rates by 25 basis points by the end of the year.

.kitco.com/news/2016-10-24/Hedge-Fund-Manager-Sees-1-400-Gold-By-2017.
 

Before the next clear winner of the presidential election is decided on November 8, investors are still waiting how the markets will react to the news. It is hard to understand where the markets will be positioned in the next few weeks, so many investors find it hard to hedge their positions.
However, in the early stages of Q3 earnings, over 80 S&P companies are reporting total earnings up 3.9% from Q3 of last year. Of those 79% are surpassing EPS estimates while 62% are reporting better-than-expected revenues. Not bad.
Alan Valdes, Floor operations director at Silverbear, says that it is time to take another look at gold.  During all this uncertainty, gold has been building a base around $1,250. He believes  in investing in the physical gold…
“The yellow metal remains up 16% for the year, and the 8% pullback from the high of $1,363 is very common in a long-term bull market. During the 10-year bull run from 2001 to 2011, gold rose 645%, and yet there were 19 corrections of 6% or more during that time.”
Dave Williams of www.strategicgold.com says that gold will hover in that price range until after the November election and the December Fed meeting. He says, “Looking past the short-term considerations, gold remains in a bull market bolstered by sound fundamentals.”
In terms of where to invest in gold….CEO and founder of focusedstocktrader.com, Harris Shapiro, saw gains this year in the gold mining sector. He recommended the Gold Miners 3X ETF (NUGT) at $10.00 (split adjusted) where he took profits in August and believes now is the time to re-enter the sector.
Maybe it is a good time to start adding gold to your portfolio, either through ETFs or physical gold bullion. Since central banks have been adding to their gold reserves, repatriating their holdings from central banks to their vaults back home.
Hmmmmm. What’s up with that?

marketslant.com/articles/time-look-gold

 On the more political side here a note the recent London Bullion Market Association conference.
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 Regulation continued to weigh heavy on an industry with ever decreasing margins. As Stuart Murray, non-exec chairman at Sylvania Platinum, bluntly put it: “regulation is killing capitalism.”
There was a flurry of news out of the event, mainly linked to the ongoing reformation of the London over-the-counter market.
Things certainly seem to be heating up with the three exchanges currently managing the LBMA prices: the London Metal Exchange, ICE and CME Group.

platts.com/2016/10/20/gold-zero-wedge-margins-regulation

Bring On The Weakness

Much of this selling is owing to expectations of higher interest rates from the Fed.

Speculators are a squeamish bunch. Barring untoward events, we expect weaker prices over the short-term. But this will create opportunity later. The Fed is on the wrong side of its own created mess and at this point can do only more harm. Once the realization of slow growth and higher inflation takes hold, precious metals will again be in demand.
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On Monday gold continued to trade sideways with December futures trading on the Comex market in New York exchanging hands at $1,265.90 an ounce in European trade, down $1.80  from Friday's close.
Gold has been on the defensive since the start of October and is still down nearly $50 after falling to a four month low of $1,243 on October 7.
Year to date the metal is still managing gains of nearly 20% or more than $200 an ounce, one of its best annual performances since 1980.
But there are signs that hedge funds active on the derivatives market have lost confidence in gold's ability to claw back losses suffered since mid-July when the metal touched a two-year high near $1,380 an ounce.
During the previous two weeks speculators dumped more than 10 million ounces, the most rapid reduction since 2006, when government first started to collect the data

Bullish bets placed by hedge or so-called managed money on gold futures and options are down by just over 50% from the July high and  below the net position reached in May, when gold came close to falling through the $1,200 an ounce level.

mining.com/gold-price-hedge-funds-abandoning-market-record-pace

The End Of Your Wrist

Sometimes stories start at the end and go backwards. The is one of those stories. It's about self-reliance. Get it before it's too late. The helping hand you're seeking is as close as the end of your wrist.

The future isn't here yet. There's an old Zen saying: The only thing you can change is the past. Change it or get content with more of the same. A new mode of production that doesn't depend on.....
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There are two sets of solutions as stability and financialized "growth" slide into instability and DeGrowth.

1. Acquire skills that will be increasingly scarce and a network of collaborators, customers and suppliers who value/make use of these skills.

2. Create a new mode of production that doesn't rely on central banks, states and global finance to function: in effect, a decentralized, localized networked system that exists in parallel with the centralized hierarchies of the current mode of production which is centralized, industrialized, globalized, financialized, neofeudal, neoliberal, neocolonial, and dependent on ever-expanding leverage, debt, central planning, regulatory capture and fossil fuel consumption.

I describe the first set of solutions in my book Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy.

The second set of solutions are the subject of my book A Radically Beneficial World: Automation, Technology & Creating Jobs for All.

Ultimately, these two sets of solutions are two facets of the only solution: a more sustainable, just, efficient, decentralized, transparent and opportunity-for-all mode of production.

Naysayers love to claim that these solutions can't possibly work for the usual array of reasons, which boil down to 1) my identity is dependent on poking holes in others' solutions or 2) my status and livelihood are dependent on the status quo continuing exactly as it is now or 3) an unexamined faith that the current mode of production is the only possible mode of production.

Note to naysayers: the "solution" that can't possibly work is the continuation of the status quo. There are only two pathways as the status quo arrangement destabilizes, decays and decoheres: 1) a doomed nostalgia for "solutions" that are no longer attainable (for example, Cargo Cults of "endless growth") or 2) an alternative set of solutions that are sustainable because they are localized, networked, democratized, opt-in and self-funded.

We are about to start a painful learning process about what is "impossible" and what is inevitable. Once it becomes self-evident that the current mode of production is not sustainable, we'll have no choice but to try more sustainable modes of production that are not just more efficient but that offer greater stability, opportunity and social mobility.

charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2016/10/two-sets-of-solutions-as-status-quo. 

Where's The Gold?

You're on your own. Now you know the dangers of a cashless society and why they want one .Gold has been confiscated before. It was later resold to the masses for a huge government windfall.

So where is all the gold? Find any gold around here?

After the Germans had activated a program to repatriate 150 tonnes of their official gold reserves in 2012, which was revised in 2013 to have 50 % of their gold on German soil by 2020, and the Dutch repatriated 123 tonnes in 2014, the Austrians have likely been inspired by these initiatives – if European official gold policy is not adroitly aligned among national central banks behind the scenes. In 2015 the Austrian central bank, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB), revealed it would repatriate a significant share of its yellow metal from the UK, where they were storing 80 % (224 tonnes) of their total reserves (280 tonnes) at the Bank Of England (BOE). The Austrians decided to eventually have 50 % of their gold on own soil by 2020 – just like the Germans.
Have a look below at the repatriation schedule of the OeNB for the period from 2015 until 2020. We can wonder why the gold is scheduled to be transported over the course of five years instead of a few months. My guess is this is caused by some kind of friction between the BOE and its foreign central bank clients, in this case the OeNB. More:

 bullionstar.com/blogs/koos-jansen/central-bank-austria-claims-to-have-audited-gold-at-boe-refuses-to-release-audit-reports-gold-bar-list