Black Friday, Fake News and Gold (VIDEO)

Black Friday and “Black Friday” weekend have largely become irrelevant. Every retailer in the U.S., from auto dealers to furniture stores to online tennis apparel shops have been advertising “Black Friday” sales since November 1st.

We have no doubt that the Census Bureau will concoct phony holiday sales for November (reported December 14) and December (reported in January). But the truth – the non-Russian influenced truth – is that retail sales spending per capita this holiday on an inflation-adjusted basis is going to be less than in 2015.

Already the National Retail Federation has announced that spending per person over Thanksgiving weekend was $289.19, down 3.4% from $299.60 last year. Gallup released a survey of shoppers and determined that Americans intend to spend an average of $752 on holiday gifts this year, down from $830 in 2015. Gallup, looking for a “silver lining” in the survey, stated that this matches the average for the last seven years since 2010. Of course Gallup fails to note that on an inflation-adjusted basis, the number for 2016 would be significantly below the average.

Turning to the “fake news” witch hunt, Gallup blames the results above on unseasonally warm weather. This is a perfect example of propagandized fake news. The average household is spending less money this year because the real median household income is lower now than in 2007. Consumers faced higher gasoline prices in October and November which cut into disposable spending budgets, as well as facing the prospect of huge increases in their health insurance premiums.

The establishment has implemented a full-court press in the hunt for “fake news” purveyors. This is the clearest sign that the alternative media bloggers have touched the raw nerve of truth and the elitists do not like it. The latest attempt is from Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post, which featured an organization called PropOrNot, which purports to use “manual and automated” analysis to determine that several hundred Alternative Media websites were “Russian propaganda outlets.”

If the Washington Post is reporting it, it must be authentic, right? The truth is that this is nothing more than the rebirth of Joseph McCarthy’s 1950’s communist witch hunt – the Red Scare. “McCarthyism” is defined as, “the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence.” It also means “the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism.”

In truth, the U.S. Government is the biggest purveyor of fake news in an effort to control the flow of information made available to the masses and to coerce their perception of reality. It’s yet another form and implementation of insidious propaganda in a manner quite similar to the use of propaganda by the Nazi Party.

Finally, there are many indications that the systematic and methodical take-down of the precious metals sector since mid-August has reached its limits. Today, for example, the mining stocks experienced big rally on huge volume. The volume in many stocks was triple the 10 and 90-day average volumes.

In today’s episode of the Shadow of Truth, we dissect some of the important events as they unfolded over the long Thanksgiving weekend and explain why we think gold has bottomed: