Month: December 2013

OK, corporate wage slave, up at an ‘em:  Time to jump on the treadmill like a good little hamster and press your nose toward the cheese for another week…all so we can pay interest which will accrue to the Uber Klassen so they, in turn, won’t have to work and can reinvest their money in continuing to buy corrupt politicians who don’t listen to the people, preferring instead the poison lies of the lobbyists instead.

Boy, am I ever a motivator, or what?

The good news, such as it is, holds that we are likely to see a 25% decline in the Dow and other major indices when people figure out how bad the economy really is. 

If you didn’t catch it, the UK Telegraph article “Europe repeating all the errors of Japan as deflation draws closer” is a real eye-opener.

What people don’t remember is that the Japanese Nikkei 225 index (roughly the Japanese equivalent of our Dow Jones average) was up nearing 40,000 points (yen) back in 1989. Overnight, the Nikkei had a huge rally (2.29%) but even so, it’s been stuck in this area (closing  at 15,650) seemingly forever.

“Wait!  You mean the Japanese market was 2 1/2 times higher 25-years ago?”

Well, yeah, duh.  Welcome to Depression economics.

That’s evident when you look at the “max timeline” chart of the ^N225 over here at Yahoo Finance, dude.  It also shows the problem that Europe is running into and where the US is going, as well.  The only thing we’re missing is the killer radiation levels, but give it time. 

Crude Lingo Alert: [Remember SBD – silent but deadly – farts?  Fukushima’s like that…]

One of our readers asked this morning if I could explain the robust growth in GDP.  Well, one way to look at it is “channel stuffing” by manufacturers, who are desperate to hit year-end sales targets so they are pushing crap into the warehouses of retailers.  No target hit?  No bonus…

The retailers, in turn, because of the collapsing cost of money (read: zero percent interest rates effectively) can lock in goods cheap today (they believe)  on the theory that prices will come zooming upward as soon as the “recovery” kicks in. 

“Rut Roh” Scooby. Lil’ tardy on that one…

This is all quite circular, don’t you see?  Channel-stuffing makes jobs which makes demand, which creates jobs, which creates spending, which creates channel “sell-through” which is why Ures truly expects some hellacious deals to be had on everything under the Sun in January. Someone in retail is going to wake the ‘f up in January and start to dump.

Check this out:  A chart (through November) of the total business inventories…got it?

Now, let’s look at inventories in 2009 because that was a pretty good indicator of how these things work.  Back then we had…um….call it $1.33 trillion in business inventories.

What would the equivalent level be today?  It would be about $1.447 trillion, using the Minneapolis Fed inflation calculator over here.  But, as you can see, inventories are at about $1.68 trillion (plus or minus a can of soup) today, which means inventory levels are 16% higher, on an inflation-adjusted basis, in the last four 1/2 years.

That’s a mighty big swing.

So:  Here’s what I’m speculating will happen:

a.  The Fed will hint at increasing rates when they meet in late January.

b.  People in retailing will look at their inventories (up 16% on a real basis, remember?) and scream “Holy shit!  How are we going to afford all this inventory if we actually have to pay interest on it?”  Free money was such a nice ride….

c.  Inventory dumping will begin…

d.  Which means profits will fall…

e.  Which means stocks will fall….(*because earnings will fall)

f.  Which means the Fed is now locked into permanent money printing in order to keep the whole financial system from going KA-BLOOEY!  We become like the Japanese!

g.  Which will set off another round of job cuts…

h.  Which will set off a further decline in real estate prices…  (Also due in part to the prospect of those real estate-binging venture groups facing the prospect of actually paying someone back with interest, which is why housing prices are about to level off and maybe head face down…Banks being under pressure to unload their REO (read estate owned) too…

i.  As soon as this dynamic is realized, then what’s left of commercial real estate falls on its butt (again) since with home office automation, what’s the point of paying big bucks for an office?  Everyone has Skpe, Broadband, and Starbucks!  Toss in online banking and who needs a building?  Ever use Quickbooks Online?  Your accounting department can be in Bozeman.

I could, of course go on, but it would make a mighty messy and depressing report.  So I decided to keep it really light and uplifting this morning (and this is the best I could come up with?):

OK, corporate wage slave, up at an ‘em:  Time to jump on the treadmill like a good little hamster and press your nose toward the cheese for another week…all so we can pay interest which will accrue to the Uber Klassen so they, in turn, won’t have to work and can reinvest their money in buying corrupt politicians who don’t listen to the people, preferring instead the poison lies of the lobbyists instead.

If you’re not saving money hand over fist, you’re screwed. 

And even if you are saving money, you’re screwed anyway, because when all this begins to roll (it’s the Debtberg, remember?  90 percent of the Debtberg is invisible…) you’re going to be subject to a “wealth tax” which will roll globally in order for the PowersThatScrewedThingsUp (PTSTU) will take one last turn at the global citizens financial gang-bang before the global version of the French Revolution comes around.

I expect America, unlike other countries (think Iceland) will call BS on what’s coming, but we could roll over Cyprus and Greece-like.  Depends on the marketing.  But if Healthcare is a template, there is no alternative to becoming a Prepper.

The realities were Friday (and still are, Monday) that:

1. You can’t have more people getting free money than paying taxes
2. You need REAL jobs in order to pay taxes.  Flipping burgers is counted as a “manufacturing job now” notes a similarly cynical reader.
3. You don’t have jobs because of automation and robotics and 10-an-hour foreigners.
4. Until robotics are taxed on parity with humans, and the lie of job-wrecking imports is dispensed with,  this is a one way ride to the financial slaughterhouse.

You see why I love getting up and writing on Monday?  Things are just so crisp and clear…

See Dr. Marc Faber’s comments along the same line, too: “World Center Bankers are going to Bankrupt the World.”  Yeah, we noticed…

In spite of reality, the markets looked flat this morning because the 7% unemployment figure is all based on free money which is unsustainable and as some point the markets will think that part through, too.  I sense one more blow off to the upside and new all time highs.

Then duck.

More after this…

Obamacare:  The latest nightmares

…is the report that “New affordable Care US health plans will exclude top hospitals.”

I don’t know as I’d go so far as to write something like “Shock Claim: Obama worse than a communist.” 

The Russian people brought the Soviet Empire down.  But here in ‘Merica, the People can’t bring down the Lobbyist Empire…far most entrenched. Which is why the Russian peeps had a leg up on us…

Making the rounds on discussion boards are posts like this one which claims “Obamacare seeks to segregate patients/doctors by ethnic races…”  Is this “giving the customers what they want” or something more sinister?  I look forward to my liberal pals to arguing both sides of this one…

Madness on Bordering

Over on the “Tea Party Command Center” site, we see “Texas defies feds: We shut the border down ourselves, said Lt. gov…”

NK: The Urge to Purge

Morning seems like a fine time to cover this:  A purge in the ranks of the North Koreans as the kid at the helm has kicked out the party old-line power broker (uncle) who was not playing nicey nice with the People’s resources…

Clearly Kim Jong Un “gets it” – namely you have to feed the People…and feed them an occasional scapegoat to hold hunger at bay.  And Uncle will do, nicely.  Shows that no one is above the “law”.

Good management.  But what about Auntie?  Remember, she (and her hubby) defected to the West, had plastic surgery and are in hiding…

Just a guess:  These North Korean leader/people have some serious unresolved family problems!  Poster family for dysfunctional.

Global Warming Joke

The joke’s on Al. It was the Sun, all along.,…d’oh! 

Here’s the latest just out this morning from the Solar Weather Prediction Center which has been counting the extreme lack of sunspots in what I’m selling as Ure’s Minimum…

Australia is getting snow in their summer.

Record snowfalls around Texas from the storm this weekend.  None here, thanks, but colder’n hell.

Cold snap in Oregon.

Point for Gore: Record cold temperature in the Antarctic is being disputed.

I run hot and cold on this climate thing…(wink-wink, budge-nudge)

Laughable Headlines & Stories Department:

“Congress Readies a Year-End Dash” flashes the Wall St. Journal.  That’s as believable as Ures truly joining the Bolshoi.

Blah, blah blah, Kardashian, blah,blah, yada, yada…

“US Tech companies call for more controls on surveillance.”  Yes!

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A nice cold, snowy, wintry morning deserves something nice and hot for breakfast.  So along with the usual two-cups worth of reading material today we’ll serve up some hot economic data and a side of sausage.

Our first serving is the Jobs Almighty number which lives more formally in the Employment Situation Report just released by the Labor Department.

The unemployment rate declined from 7.3 percent to 7.0 percent in November, and total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 203,000, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in transportation and warehousing, health care, and manufacturing.

Household Survey Data

Both the number of unemployed persons, at 10.9 million, and the unemployment rate, at 7.0 percent, declined in November. Among the unemployed, the number who reported being on temporary layoff decreased by 377,000. This largely reflects the return to work of federal employees who were furloughed in October due to the partial government shutdown.

As always, we look at the Labor Participation Rate which is 63% this morning, and in a Christmas-sized miracle, it’s up 2-10th’s of one percent.

Dow futures have spikes to 86 up on the Dow.  Crack may be this good, but the jobs number is legal.

“OK, Ure, how’d that come about?”

Heck if I know.  Looks to me like the economy might really be getting some traction.  Free money has to go somewhere.  And how many quantitative whatchamacallits are we at now?

Even the CES Birth/Death Model which estimates jobs into existence decreased the happy talk by 15,000 jobs.

As to whether people who had extended benefits run out this month (many more in coming months) are in some kind of statistical limbo won’t be known for a few months.

Meantime, we have the monthly PhD’s flipping burger’s number which is the underemployed and underutilized people which show up in the U-6 data.  This improved a good bit down to 13.2% from 13.8% last month.

Magic of seasonal employment, methinks.  Pardon me if I hold the Ho-Ho until March.

Or, at least hold it until you read about disappearing incomes in the Bureau of Economic Analysis data which is also out this morning:

Personal income decreased $10.8 billion, or 0.1 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) decreased $23.6 billion, or 0.2 percent, in October, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $32.7 billion, or 0.3 percent.  In September, personal income increased $64.3 billion, or 0.5 percent, DPI increased $62.1 billion, or 0.5 percent, and PCE increased $23.8 billion, or 0.2 percent, based on revised estimates.

More people working – for less money!  Exactly the kind of thing to expect in a lifestyle collapsing economy, like I’ve been saying.

The punch line part is the Personal Savings Rate reference; always a knee-slapper:

“Personal saving — DPI less personal outlays — was $604.9 billion in October, compared with $660.7 billion in September.

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“Ho, ho, ho, George, of COURSE I’d be pleased to do an interview with you!”

I’d spied a fat old man, mid 70’s by the look of him,  wandering around our ranch/outpost out by the carport in the wilds of East Texas.  He was staring down the barrel of my 9 mm Ruger and acting like it was an every day occurrence..

Upon hearing my command “Halt!  Raise your hands slowly…” he announced an unlikely claim:

“I am the REAL Prepperclaus and you need to interview me.”

“Are you shittin me?  I’ve got a SWAT Team on speed dial, mister.  So just keep your hands where I can see them and explain yourself.  This is Texas and this is private posted land.  Only a damn idiot would be here uninvited and you look close enough to an idiot for me…”

“OK, OK, I know you’re a little tense, George, but please allow me to explain.

In your column yesterday you hinted that Santa might be a marketing figure and it was a very catchy article.  Not viral, but it did  spawn a lot of talk among the elves, it did.

But you know, Georgie, most of us Joy and Mirth spreaders really are joyous at this time of year.  And your reader,  The Wizard,  was right…you did miss reporting on some of the really evil spirits that put on shows at this time of year…like Black Peter, also known as Zwarte Piet.  Heard of him?

Georgie?  Who was this guy?

“How’d you know about that?  That was in a secured email file…are you connected with the NSA?  We pay our taxes, we inform people, and we keep a crack legal team at the ready…”

“Ho, ho, ho, that’s a good one!  Crack and legal right next to one another…oh, you’re the funny writer…Ho….ho….ho….

No, you silly skeptic, I AM the original Prepperclaus and I’m here to spread the joy of preparation and preparedness.

You were assigned to me by the Head Office because of your Claus clauses, and because the Claus cause was paused by your lack of prepping advice which people need to get from breaking news.”

“Huh?”  I lowered the Ruger, but just slightly.  Whoever this guy was, he was old, didn’t look threatening, and this was getting to be an interesting conversation..

“Your column yesterday reported many things, but of all the headlines you didn’t focus enough on the arrival of bad weather.

And what did you do about it?”

“You mean in the column?”

“Yes, yes…what did you DO about it…”

“Well, I mentioned that Global Warming was having it’s ass kicked.  And I figured when ass-high snow drifts start  stranding people, they’d figure out that this was the time to break out the winter storm gear and get ready for the crap to hit the fan…power outages are something people should ALWAYS be prepared for…”

“But, what did YOU DO after you wrote the column yesterday?”

“Well, I got out my landline phone…it’s an AT&T 210 Corded Phone, Black, 1 Handset and for under $10 bucks on Amazon…”

“And then?”

“I took one of those phones from our supplies over to the house, one to my office, checked the flashlights, and wrote down the local power outage reporting number.  Then I taped 3-by-5 cards with the phone number to each of the phones.

Panama dug out the backup 10,000 BTU ventless propane heating unit for the house and hauled it over.  I checked the small propane tank for Panama’s apartment and the backup catalytic heater for there…

Then Elaine and I baked bread (sourdough French) in the bread machine…”

“And did you ever mention that you’d purchased a bread machine?  Specifically, according to our records a…hmmm…ah… an Oster CKSTBRTW20 2-Pound Expressbake Breadmaker, White for sixty-three dollars?”

“Well, no, I guess I hadn’t mentioned it …but do you really think people would care that we’re doing bread at home in a machine?

“That’s it!  Now you’re getting to my point!”

“Which is what, besides sneaking around and being obscure?”

This was dragging out and the wind was picking up and all I had on was a short-sleeved shirt.  The rotundo fellow looked like he was decked out for Arctic survival school.

“You need to focus more on the things you actually DO around here.”

He gave a sweeping gesture, waving around the property.

“Well, I do report a lot of it…”

“I’m sure some of your readers find your falling off a ladder interesting, but do you ever talk about the REST of it?

How many readers know about that cheap plastic miter gauge on your table saw that you’re trying to find a replacement for, as an example?  You should give people more useful information, like that.

It’s OK to tell them that an aluminum table on a table saw SEEMS like a good idea, but cast iron is probably a better long-term investment.  That kind of thing, do you see?

Report stuff people can ACT on…”

“Like what?”

“Well, like you and Elaine having the debate about that big bull pine tree  over yonder…and that strip of pines out to the west of your office building.  Why not talk about THAT?”

“I figured that the conversations we have are between us and don’t need to be written up…”

How the hell did he know that Elaine doesn’t want me to take down a dozen big tall pines because my elaborate plans to compete with the Tennessee Valley Authority (with my solar power system ) are being seriously hampered by big tree shadows that are blocking direct sunshine?  I’d figured it’s costing me about fifty to seventy-five bucks a month in lost solar power…

“You want me to write up more of the small stuff?”

“I wouldn’t tell  your bride that going Paul Bunyan on her trees is small stuff.

Nor is it small stuff to think for a week on where to put those 10 glass block windows you’ve framed up for your studio/sound/thinking room retreat you’re building.

Anyone can write on the Internet.  The Head Office just wanted me to drop by and mention you need to focus more on keeping it real, relevant, and responsive.

You knew that, I suppose, but my messenger duty was to remind you.

Now I’ve done that and I gotta go…Ho, ho, ho…

“Wait!”

I’d put the gun back in shoulder shoulder holster.  This fellow had as good a line of BS as I’d ever heard.

“Before you leave, I noticed you’re wearing green cammo.  I thought all you Mirthers wore RED suits.  Nice beard, however…

“Your reader Ben already told you the answer to that…you have to listen more closely to your readers.  That’s the responsive part.”

“What he asked was whether it was true ya’ll used to wear GREEN suits prior to Coca Cola doing a marketing campaign  and forcing you to change to RED because it went better with their product color…”

“Well, he’s right, but like you always say, Everything’s a Business Model, isn’t it?  Ho….ho….ho…..

Say…did you watch Tomorrow People’s first season?

“Yeah…how’d you know?

“Watch this….beats a sled six ways to Sunday….”

With that, he raised his right hand over his head, snapped his fingers once and there was a soft ripping sound followed by what looked like a vertical purple rip in….space-time….and he just stepped through it.  And at that very same moment, a brief orchestral hit with a touch of synthesizer came from his direction.

“Hey!  Where’d you go?  Where did you come from???”

The wind was picking up and it had turned bitterly cold.

Then suddenly a voice – sounding far, far away – was heard clearly just above the wind:

“Check the Carol Christian piece in The Houston Chronicle!   Ho…ho…ho….”

I went back in the office and hit the Houston Chronicle site.  Well, I’ll be damned!  There it was as I read:

Ho…ho…ho….

Now, About that Birthday

I am shocked.

Not one single email complaining about my Christmas story yesterday.  Could it be that the Retailing Christmasjack is that real and apparent?

Reader Rose Marie came to my defense:

Hi George,

I almost always enjoy your columns…and the days I don’t are only because I am too busy to sit and really read. But, today’s article on Christmas was exceptionally good and correct. Don’t misunderstand, I am a Christian. But, I am so tired of religion. And one of my favorite sayings that I use quite frequently is ‘everything is a business model’!

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Dowsing, which we talked about earlier, has really brought out the comments.  And some of them are pretty darned interesting.  Here’s one from the Wiz, for example:

My maternal grandfather was a dowser… Dowsed a well for my Dad back in ’60?  ’61? when he was building a new house.  That one never went dry.   Grandpa never used metal rods… he was the classic forked-stick-palms-up style dowser…but he said fruitwood worked best.
Mom couldn’t dowse, but said it skips a generation…  When I tried it, the stick dipped straight down every t time I crossed the water main that passes through my driveway & back yard. So I guess maybe it does skip.

Haven’t had the opportunity to look for something I didn’t know was there, but no opportunities have presented themselves.
Best Regards
Wizard.

There’s more, too…like this from WF…

Hello George,
it was interesting to see what you had to say about DOWSING! My  life brought me all over the world – from Europe to South America and the US. In 1980 I caught Gold Fever in California and worked my own claim for a while. I found good gold, especially with home-made dowsing rods (coat hangers) and NO experience.

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There are some days I ought to be producing “made for TV” movies and this is one of them.  Why, if I were a writer of any repute at all, I’d already have this puppy in production.  Since I’m not, however, I will simply write a really short screenplay for you to read.

Opening Scene:  We see an ultra-modern minimalist office with a couple of gray dudes.  One (older and wearing a suit and obviously in charge) is sitting at a desk and is obviously “in charge” while a younger fellow (only wisps of gray) in a lab coat is handing him a document.

Geek:  Chief, we just got this latest data run out about China and their successful launch of the Chang’e-3 Lunar mission.  Not only is the story all over Xinhau this today (this part isn’t fiction) but you can see in this data run from those fools at the www.nostracodeus.com project that “moon madness” has overtaken the Chinese state media machine!

Zoom In:  We read a snip from a just completed word-frequency table which looks at Chinese (English language) sites only:

This part, like the launch in our story, is also not fictitious.  This is all very, very real.  The fiction begins here…

Director:  “No worry, Chambers, the situation is well in hand.  As you undoubtedly know, we have made many forecasts and we have arranged for their to be an absolutely terrible February which will begin our period of incredibly high tensions which will last from almost the beginning of the new year until July sometime…”

Geek:   “But why would we do that, sir?”

Director:  “Chambers, you’ve been with us, what, six years is it?”

Geek: “Yes sir!  And it will be seven years in September.”

Director:  “Well, I suppose your loyalty is beyond question – and you know you will be killed if you reveal anything discussed here, am I correct?”

Geek: “Yes sir….”

Director: “Alright then, I’m going to lay it out for you – and you might want to take notes – but those notes are only for your personal use while here at work, are we clear?”

Geek: “Yes sir…absolutely.”

Director:  “I’m gong to fill in a number of blanks for you and why we absolutely MUST have a period of extreme tension and uncertainty in the US.  For this to make sense, however, we need to begin at the very beginning.  Do you remember what happened on September 13th of 1959?”

Geek:  “Gosh, sir, all I know is that it was a Sunday…”

Director:  “It was also the date that the Soviet Luna 2 mission hit the moon.  And, as you know, bit less than 10 years later, on July 20th of 1969, the first US mission with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11 touched down.”

Geek: “I’m not following you, sir.  What does this have to do with a February from Hell here in the US this coming year?”

Director:  “Follow along.  You may be aware of some of the moon landing conspiracy theories.  Look that up in Wikipedia and they I’ll explain…”

Long shot of Geek grabbing an iPad and tapping on it…

Geek  “Well, it says here, sir, that…well, let me read it:

“The first book about the subject, Bill Kaysing‘s We Never Went to the Moon: America’s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle,^[8] was written in 1974,^[9] two years after the Apollo Moon flights had ended, and self-published in 1976. The Flat Earth Society was one of the first organizations to accuse NASA of faking the landings, arguing that they were staged by Hollywood with Walt Disney sponsorship, based on a script by Arthur C. Clarke and directed by Stanley Kubrick.^{[Note 1][10]} Folklorist Linda Dégh (de) suggests that writer-director Peter Hyams‘ 1978 film Capricorn One, which shows a hoaxed journey to Mars in a spacecraft that looks identical to the Apollo craft, may have given a boost to the hoax theory’s popularity in the post-Vietnam War era. She notes that this happened during the post-Watergate era, when American citizens were inclined to distrust official accounts. Dégh writes: “The mass media catapult these half-truths into a kind of twilight zone where people can make their guesses sound as truths. Mass media have a terrible impact on people who lack guidance.”^[11] In A Man on the Moon,^[12] first published in 1994, Andrew Chaikin mentions that at the time of Apollo 8‘s lunar-orbit mission in December 1968, similar conspiracy ideas were already in circulation”

“Gosh, you know thinking back on it, I can see how it could have been faked, I suppose, but I thought there was just too much…you know…evidence…

Director:  “Evidence?  Like what?  A good story told over and over, backed up by some bags of rocks and film with lighting issues that wouldn’t pass muster in today’s high-tech video world?  hardly!

No, Chambers, the US “moon landing” wasn’t exactly done the way presented and that’s why things must be bad – very, very bad, this coming spring.”

Chambers:  “I don’t follow…”

Director:  “The Chinese are going to the moon, you idiot!  They know they can do it and so do we.  And, as soon as they show up and find there are no footprints at the US landing site, they can blackmail the West into pretty much whatever they want… do you see it yet?”

Geek:  “But what about things left on the moon?”

Director:  “Nice try…but we sent up lots of junk and crashed it into the supposed landing site later.  We did that under the guise of “secret payloads” for intelligence agencies.  Well, that was US, Chambers.  US as in U.S.

Now you can seer the problem.  The “soft landing” of Chang-e 3 is not the issue.  It’s that when China goes to the moon, they will be able to overfly and take ultra-high resolution pictures.  And when the missing footprints and others technical issues aren’t resolved, the US government will be outed for having lied to the public for 45-years about this.”

Geek: “But the astronauts – they’re telling the truth, right?”

Director:  “Ever see any of them take a polygraph?  Of course not!  National heroes and all that.  And besides, all the details were piped into them under deep hypnosis helped along with some fairly recent-discovered “mind altering drugs” back when.  What that means is that the astronauts themselves deeply believe everything they report.  But as you know, we have amazing capabilities – far beyond what the general public can comprehend – in manufacturing artificial memories.”

Geek:  “So when the Chinese have men and equipment up there, and actually begin the colonization efforts, then the US will be made to be fools…yes, I see how that could happen.”

Director:  “Remember the Kennedy assassination?  It took how long for the documentary claiming it was an accident involving a US Secret Service agent’s rifle in the car behind Kennedy’s to appear?  Fifty years?  There are sometimes things better left unsaid, Chambers, in the interest of national security.”

Geek: “Understood, sir.  So we need to have a period of extreme destabilization so that people will think twice about disagreeing with government, especially openly and on the Internet, is that right?”

Director:  “Yes.  We need to ensure that our friends with search engines derate and just outright lose sites that get wind of this.  We also need to wait and see how diplomacy works out.  We’re talking back-channel with the Chinese to keep them from overflight and filming.  So we might muddle through this period.  They might even send out a team to install some footprints for us and then have an “accident” with a couple of astronauts, if you know what I mean…

But, if we don’t, there will be a kind of hell on Earth to keep people’s attention focused on other matters.  We will have crashing markets, budget impasse, Obamacare confusion, a spike in unemployment…and maybe we can get a couple of new war fronts open, too.  We may even have to play the “domestic terror” card, but we really need to hold that in reserve for use during the financial collapse, like we played it withy 9/11 to keep people from realizing in 2001 that the great stock market bubble in history had just blow up costing $5-trillion in middle class losses.”

Geek:  “So what do you want me to do about it, sir?”

Director:  “Keep a close eye on Chinese language and actions.  We think they have been playing their Sendaku airspace card loosely but when they announce that they are overflying the American lunar landing sites and release marginal pictures, then we’ll take that as a signal that they’re onto us.  And then we’ll have to move; quickly and firmly….

The real issue is whether our alien friends will give the Chinese permission to do more than a couple of landings, like the US negotiated before being told “Don’t come back…”  If the Chinese get more latitude then we will have lost a major strategic initiative.

So over the next couple of months, add the world UFO to your language search.  If my hunch is right, we should see an uptick in the number of UFO sightings when our alien friends realize that humans are coming back – and that our “advice” to the Chinese has been ignored….”

The mind reels with possibilities.  We could take the ending to this almost any direction we want:  It could be revealed as a joke, it might be real in an objective sense, or it could just be another one of the millions of misdirection’s found every day on the web; many posted by government agent provocateurs using multiple personality posting software.

I’d speculate along a certain line, but that wouldn’t be productive.  Besides, reality will reveal itself, and all in good time…

Oh, I did mention Directorate 153 is completely fictional, and not some secret roundtable of all the black budget security agencies who have really been running government since right after president Johnson’s days, didn’t I?

Dowsing Details

In case you missed Friday’s comments on Dowsing, we had a nice follow-up from a reader named Peter which has a few points of interest in it:

Hi George;
I remember working as a surveyor here in Canada in the 70’s and using coat hangers wires bent in an “L” shape to find existing underground utilities.
Radio detectors were just coming into service and were prohibitively expensive for the small organization I worked for.
There was no mystery or voodoo associated with it. It was just a practical technique passed onto me by one of the older employees.
Peter

Ah!  Someone else who can dowse.  I asked if there were any hints he could think of that I’d overlooked…

The only proviso I remember, was swinging them around a few time to “warm them up”.
The technique was to hold the wires forward and parallel, like holding a pair of pistols and when the utility was crossed, the wires would swing outwards away from each other and line up with the underground pipes.
It worked for electrical wires, metal, clay and concrete pipes. I don’t know if water had to be flowing at the time of detection though.
I never tried to find natural underground water with this method.
I downloaded a book you referred to a while back by Pam Grout E2.

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