How The Seeds Of Revolution Take Root

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I'm short.  Not shorter…I haven't begun age-related height shrinkage yet.
But for the first time since 2009 I now have exposure to the equity market with a 25% short position on the accounts I hold at New Harbor Financial placed on Friday.

The time has finally come to reengage with the ""markets,"" such as they are.  I will add to those positions if conditions warrant increasing that exposure.

Those accounts represent roughly 7% of my total net worth (which includes gold. silver, real estate, etc) but about 60% of my fully liquid holdings (cash and cash equivalents).  So you can either view my newly established short position as representing ~2% of my net worth, or 15% of my liquid position or 25% of my trading position.

All I'm trying to convey is that this was not a "all in" move.  

I'll write up more about this later, I just wanted to park this in a current thread for now…

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This might be sorta "out there", but oh well.
As the world chugs along, in my every day life, I am a high school history teacher.  I have the benefit of teaching seniors, and therefore have the opportunity to mix a lot of local history material in my government classes.  I don't go against the curriculum, just use the local historical societies to jump into what we "have to teach" and manipulate those things toward what I want to teach.  A recent project that has taken up a good amount of my personal research time have been the back to the land movement in the late 60s and early 70s.

When I see articles like this, then read comments about change, the future, frustration with the current political climate…I can't help to connect the dots from the past and see a likely outcome as part of the cliff society is heading toward.  In the 60s it was the Vietnam War, the deaths of the Kennedy's and MLK, the Civil Rights movement, a generation brought up after WWII and the Holocaust…coming of age during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

One of my research veins has been the spread of the communes…growth of an idea that people would leave the cities and embrace a much more simple life style.  Live more honestly, away from the rat race.  Tending garden, doing work that revolved around self reliance rather than the web of perhaps waisted social/interactions of a less than active/real life.  I found there was actually a commune in the town next door to where I grew up, there were several dozen spotting the very countryside.

My purpose in writing about this is not to promote or romanticize the hippie life style that ultimately even the participants pretty much gave up on, it is to make a connection to a likely outcome in the future. 

I'm wondering if…as things collapse, as people start to become more frustrated, dissatisfied with everything around them, if people will seek a more hands on life style.  I don't mean to speak for anyone else, but just to suggest that "back to the land" communities seem to come up in many of the conversations that involve our uncertain future.   People will be forced to grab onto the things they can control and lead a better life in the process.

I write this kinda as a reaction to Dave, and his anguish about admitting that he would probably vote for Trump over Hillary.  I'd write in Mickey Mouse first, but sadly recognize that somehow Disney would profit from such an action.

But seriously, when we are all aware of a certain future, when our probable options are Trump or Clinton at this juncture in history…doesn't taking care of your friends and family away from it all sound SO attractive?

Just my two cents. 

Jason

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As a participant, I appreciate your overview of the back to the land movement, jbarney. It was a very idealistic and occasionally well-grounded movement. What I discovered is 1) you still need money, and making money is difficult in rural settings, and 2) spouses didn't agree, got divorced, people had to cash out their part of the land, nobody else had the capital to buy them out, etc. In a word–horribly under-capitalized. This is why my system outlined in "A Radically Beneficial World" generates its own currency and thus its own wages and capital. There is no other way to create a new institution that is sustainable IMO.

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Chris-
Ok I know I'm jumping the gun, you said you were going to write about it - but what did you see that made you go short?

And under what conditions will you cover and wait to fight another day?

I found the timing of your post interesting.  Just recently a trader I respect entered short for the first time in a while, but then covered on Thursday's move above 1950.  He's probably a lot more tactical than you are, but the sense of looking for a short opportunity is definitely in the air right now.

I went short too about that same time, but I covered a bit sooner than he did.

 

 

 

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Thanks for pointing out the article in the daily digest titled "The New Mind Control".   The part I found most interesting and had never heard before was "Looking ahead to the November 2016 US presidential election, I see clear signs that Google is backing Hillary Clinton. In April 2015, Clinton hired Stephanie Hannon away from Google to be her chief technology officer and, a few months ago, Eric Schmidt, chairman of the holding company that controls Google, set up a semi-secret company – The Groundwork – for the specific purpose of putting Clinton in office. The formation of The Groundwork prompted Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, to dub Google Clinton’s ‘secret weapon’ in her quest for the US presidency."

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Thanks for the response Charles…
In thinking about this, I agree with you that buying the land is one of the primary obstacles to such a movement kinda getting off the ground.  Part of my research about the Vermont Hippie Communes from the 60/70s time period is that some of them actually had wealthy out of state folks go ahead and buy the land for them.  How this was arranged is beyond me, but I suppose if I had all that sorta extra cash hanging around, and I was too old to participate in working the land, I might try to arrange circumstances for those who could.   In their own way, many of the participants back then believed they were at the cusp of the revolution…that certain movements were only treading water and not really making progress by the late 1960s.  That dropping out of society and only being responsible for your own actions, work ethic, friends and family was the thing to do.  Part of that was the classic hippie perspective, as evidence that there were plenty of college kids who bought into the back to the land movement until they had to do some physical labor…then it didn't seem so romantic.  On the flip side of it, many embraced it for a time and were successful.

I guess I am thinking along the lines of Chris's writings maybe a year or so ago, where he was talking about the need for a movement…I think he deliberately stopped short of putting out specifics, but I think we are at that point now.  In the 60s it was all of those things I mentioned in my original post and more…people felt like a revolution was brewing.  The effectiveness of the politics of that dynamic were beat down pretty hard at Chicago in 68…and so those people that could made a point of trying to embrace the back to the land life style.  On a side note, I hope I am able to do my students justice with the coming units I have to prepare…

Anyway, this has me thinking about not setting up a prepping commune, (let your imagination go wild with that one) but just trying to find a way of expanding my relationships with like minded people here in the communities around me.  One of the benefits of the people who came to Vermotn in the 60s (and who stayed) was the idea of taking more control over the food we eat.  Not everyone is in line, but in Vermont there is a pretty vibrant local farm/food market.  So I think one stage of this coming "revolution" should be all of us organizing our preps in a way where we do a better job reaching out to the like minded who live around us.  Doesn't have to be the typical historical commune idea, but a better, more honest extension of the local communities. 

Food for thought, anyway.

Jason

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Hello All,
 

Wow, I'd almost think this was a MSM controlled web-site if I didn't know any better.  I know it is supposed to be a non-partisian web-site but this is ridiculous.  Not the article by Mr. Smith.  That was great.  The comments are what gets me.  
 
Can revolution be talked about without ultimately talking politics?  "Revolution" is in the subject line of this article.  It's just the seeds of "revolution" but still, once the seeds are planted, what's going to grow???
 
Have you all given up?  The comments reflect a lack of...dare I say, names.  Bernie Sanders in particular.  The comments seem to me to represent the MSM's candidates, the two that the MSM wants to only talk about.  Why even say their names?  I was just baffled that no one has mentioned his name in these comments until now.  Haven't you heard?  Bernie Sanders is all about REVOLUTION.
 
So it is all around you,  The seeds had already been sown.  What is growing is a movement that has got the Establishment running scarred.  And they should be.  Here's what the MSM is not telling you.  
 
Iowa was a virtual tie, and it would have went to Bernie except for 6 coin tosses that went Clinton's way.  Go figure.  Wow, 6 for 6 on coin tosses.  Anyone want to bet on those odds happening again?  Ha ha. 
 
Sanders won every demographic in NH, most notably the youth vote (1st and 2nd timers), except for the older, affluent voter.  After NV Sanders was behind by only one delegate in the delegate count.  In SC he was trounced.  Yet he won segments of that electorate too, again younger voters. 
 
In February Sanders has raised almost $43,000,000 as of this writing, from over 1.4 million real persons.  That's simply incredible.  But will the MSM be reporting that?
 
Congressperson Alan Grayson, who is running for Marco Rubio's Senate seat and is a Super-delagate held a vote on whom he should support.  He appealed to Democrats across the nation to tell him for whom he should vote, as a Super-delegate at the Democratic National Convention. The response has was absolutely overwhelming.  Almost 400,000 Democrats voted at GraysonPrimary.com. More than the number who voted in the South Carolina primary. More than the number who voted in the New Hampshire primary and the Nevada caucus combined.  The results: Sanders 86%, Clinton 14%. More than just a landslide. An earthquake.
 
When other candidates from previous elections challenged the establishment's preferred candidate the amount of money that they raised was always a talking point as to why they weren't viable candidates because they didn't have the money.  So Sanders has proved that he can raise enormous amounts of money from just ordinary folks, millions of us.  And the 400,000 that voted on Grayson's web-site, who are they?  Sure they are from all over the nation but that tells you something too that MSM won't be telling you.
 
So, today is Super Tuesday.  Eleven states and a territory will be voting today when most of you will be reading this.  If you are voting today or in the days and weeks to come, be bold, be brave, be real...VOTE FOR BERNIE!
 
Most of all don't be afraid.
 
Broadspectrum
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goldmannsachsss
 

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Yes, this is a nonpartisan site and maybe that is why people for the most part aren't pushing for candidates - I mean we don't want to aggravate people from the "other" party. Nevertheless, since the subject has been broached, I will say this: a vote for Bernie IS a vote against Goldman Sachs.
Broadspectrum, you seem surprised that the MSM isn't adequately covering all the candidates. But it is nothing new. Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader each faced similar challenges. The MSM has failed the democratic process for many years now. But you know what? Your vote still counts.

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https://youtu.be/Xfcs0D9s8-E
https://hrdag.org/guatemalan-national-police-archive-project/

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Aloha! Well, its been 28 years since Ross Perot warned of the "sucking sound" and now we have finally progressed to a point where we've now been Trump-ed! So many similarities between Trump and Perot, but mainly they are both businessmen representing the "industrial capitalists". Injecting back into the bank controlled means of production those who actually take risk for a living on a day-to-day basis.If you must have capitalism even Marx preferred "industrial capitalists" over "banker-lawyer capitalists".

After 100+ years of central banks and their financed bought and paid for career politicians making a change is not going to be perfect! I am always reminded of the infamous AA-Alcoholics Anonymous saying to new comers - ALL YOUR BEST THINKING GOT YOU HERE! To translate that to US politics and the typical American voter it means that after decades and decades of two party politics the best we have to offer our children is a totally corrupt and bankrupt system based on unending debt. To the two party American voter in the words of Trump himself … YOU'RE FIRED!

Is Trump the Messiah? NO WAY!! Is he different than Hillary! IN EVERY WAY! Change is always a very messy affair. Ask any addict! Trump is "change" and I foresee this will be the beginning of the industrialist trend to replace the "banker-lawyer" class!

Chris speaks of risk and even talks about taking a short position. That is "real risk"! The Hillarys and the Blankfeins and the Cockrans of the world operate risk free. They get paid whether they win or lose. With that mentality it is no wonder such careers are very much sought after. There is no level playing field so long as the "banker-lawyer" class rules the American Dream. There is no real capitalism or free markets so long as central banks tilt the game and continually get "free balls" and then trump the legal system with "get out of jail free cards"!

It's way past time or the working class to …

TRUMP THE SYSTEM!!

 

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And, of course, while Republicans and other politicians take the Measure of their Members, actual heroes battle around the world every day against the greed and idiocy they too often represent.  The revolution rolls on, and it's a brutal fight.
Berta Cáceres, a Honduran community activist was murdered in her home on Thursday morning.  We heard her speak last year when she accepted the Goldman Environmental Prize in San Francisco.  Here’s a little of what she said:

“The Lenca people are ancestral guardians of the rivers, in turn protected by the spirits of young girls, who teach us that giving our lives in various ways for the protection of the rivers is giving our lives for the well-being of humanity and of this planet…

Let’s wake up!  Let’s wake up, humankind!  We’re out of time.  We must shake our conscience free of the rapacious capitalism, racism and patriarchy that will only assure our own self-destruction.    The Gualarque River has called upon us, as have other gravely threatened rivers.  We must answer their call.  Our Mother Earth – militarized, fenced in, poisoned, a place where basic rights are systematically violated, demands that we take action.”

The video describes her community’s bloody fight against big money’s “progress”:

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/4/remembering_berta_caceres_assassinated_honduras_indigenous