George Ure

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/George-Ure/e/B0098M3VY8%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share UrbanSurvival Bio: https://urbansurvival.com/about-george-ure/

MH-17: Ferdinand’s Airplane?

Tensions between the US and Russia haven’t been this high since the Cold War and, with reports of crash scene tampering floating about from eastern Ukraine, the question of “Who shot it down” is echoing around the international community. 

Against this background, reader TJ wonders:

Hey George, do you think the plane could be a Ferdinand moment like the one that started WW1?

That’s a pretty interesting question. The Wikipedia entry on point offers this:

On Sunday, 28 June 1914, at approximately 10:45 am, Franz Ferdinand and his wife were killed in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Gavrilo Princip, 19 at the time, a member of Young Bosnia and one of a group of assassins organized by the Black Hand.[4] The event led to a chain of events that eventually triggered World War I.

Notice, however, that World War I did not start quite instantly.  We have a selection of candidate dates to calculate from:

On 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians fired the first shots in preparation for the invasion of Serbia

August 1, Germany declares war on Russia

August 3, German declares war on France

August 4, German declares war on  Belgium (a neutral country).

August 6, Austria-Hungary declares ward on Russia.

Austria invaded and fought the Serbian army at the Battle of Cer and Battle of Kolubara beginning on 12 August.

January 19, 1915 Zeppelins bombed Yarmouth and England enters Total War.

From these events, if this does, indeed, turn into something that’s an analog to the events that swirled in World War I from the outbreak of hostilities over summer, to the entry of England into the Total War in January 1915, we can do the following simple date math

It’s interesting to me to notice that the lag between the Austrian invasion date (Aug 12) and the entry of England due to Zeppelin bombings was 160-days, which approaches our Fine Structure Constant day.

With this in mind, we should have a very clear picture of historical import of the July 17th event this year by December 10.

The good news (I mean, such as it is) is that the economic long wave is not yet to its complete, utter bottom yet.  In fact, with the rise in employment figures and with global markets near peaks and not that far globally from the rollicking good times of 2007, collapse from here is unlikely.

It’s axiomatic that crashes happen from market bottoms, not tops. 

Thus, a much better candidate event would be events to unfold later this year in the Middle East in general, and specifically, in the area where ISIS/ISIL has set up shop.  The fall of additional territory that those forces seems likely, especially given reports this morning of more than 700 killed in Syria as ISIS continues to press from the east.

Of course, the death toll in the Gaza fighting is now around the 500 level, but there’s a much higher media profile to this part of the region.  The rioting in France, for example, tends to keep people in the West focused on the Gaza Strip and not what’s going on up north in Syria.

Meantime, the Middle East is still where global war should come from since so many people are invested psychologically in the religions of the region.  Headlines like this one (real or fake, makes no difference) prove the psychological warfare levels involved…and there are times it’s easy to confuse Iron Dome with divine intervention, perhaps.

Meandering back to point, for now, odds seem (to me) to remain high that the MH17 disaster will (in time, but maybe not in our lifetimes) be found to be high-level “signaling” between Washington and Moscow.  As our Winnipeg news analyst admits…

Dear Mr.

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Coping: Can Dreams Tell the Future (Sky Flashes/Chicago)

Back in about March, I “spun off” my work on the www.nationaldreamcenter.com site to a fine fellow (Chris McCleary) who (packing a couple of Master’s degrees) picked up the project and has moved it ahead and into exciting new territory – all in efforts to give us humans a bit more visibility on “the future” so we can be better prepared for it when it arrives.

I’m pleased to report this morning that Chris McCleary’s Project August is now out with a profile of what the coming month of August may look like.

Project August Report #5 is here. 

It’s long – at least one cup worth, and possibly two if you take it step-at-a-time and work out your own interpretations of what’s being said in the dreams themselves.  Those can be found in the site’s DreamBase over here…. a link to the 20 most recent dreams people contributing to the project have posted.

There are a couple of points that I would make on interpretation of my own (not official, by any means) but certainly something to think about.

Chris does a fine job of running down the “Otherlies” and there’s also a section about “Sly Flashes” which is taken as possibly indicating something like EMP taking place.

When I read that, something else went off in my head:  Is is possible (as last summer sky watching season comes along) that people on the ground may be able to see “sky flashes” of the Earthlings (our) space-defense system repelling (otherlies)?

And that gets me back to the problem common between investing and  future-forecasting:  The future continues to be a kind of (to borrow from Michael Crichton’s concept laid out in the novel Timeline) bubble-up event of dueling future-potentials which at the last minute coalesce into one alternative, or the other.

The future is ugly, that way:  Dreams tend to get it spectacularly right on occasion and when they do (as they have several times for me personally) they  are not to be ignored. An example of this was my “Serious, Personal, WoWW “ in March of this year.

The problem with really nailing the future is difficult because so many people who claim to work in the field get very proprietary about it.  What’s obvious is that “the future” belongs to all humans.

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Reader Note: Never-ending Site Improvements

You should now (after a hiatus) be able to send in hot news tips using the link on the menu above. I didn’t notice it wasn’t working for a while (sorry about that!) but it should be working again now and it now has its own email routing folder so anything that comes it will go to the right place. I appreciate people sharing their “finds” with us because there’s no way one person can keep up with all of it…but as a group effort, we hope to continue to cover a lot more ground than most. I’ve also been working on server-side enhancements and our typical home page load times are now typically less than 2 second with as fast as 0.

The Biggest Discovery of Our Lifetime?

What would qualify for the term “brain quake?”  That’s a term that could describe what could happen if science (quite by accident) tripped over a discovery that could justify a whole new brand of Life.   Up until now, we’ve been a world full of “converters.”  Not very efficient ones at that; we eat food, convert it to the proteins and sugars we need and blithely assume that’s how all Life works.

Except, it ain’t.

A huge discovery this week has started a real brain quake.  And, as I’ll explain, this one could ripple beyond anyone’s imagination.

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TEOTWAWKI? Next Week We’ll Know

From the top this morning, we all get to be in a holding pattern to see if War breaks out on Sunday.

Why is this important, after all, it’s only a date that has shown up on a couple of posts on various conspiracy and prophecy boards?

Because things seem to be falling into place.  Think about it:

    A plug for our www.nostracoeeus.com project is in order here:  The data rolling out on the 16th prompted future-reader Grady to post that things would heat up in Ukraine shortly under the headline “Banks Rockets and London.  And then, it was “Another Prediction is proven to be true.” and to top things off, people just don’t seem to be interested (really) in thinking about the future that much.  But, this morning the data suggests that we will have 10-more days of serious Ukraine headlines – see “More to Come.”

    And in Other News…

      But this  last development this morning has us sitting back, taking a long pull on the third cuppa and wondering what all the media frenzy is about.  And I’ve come up with an interesting theory.

      Ure’s Crackpot Theory 2014-28:

      As the world runs out of real jobs to do, there will be a huge increase in the number of media and thus, number of column-inches of press, in order to continue growing the media sector since it can be flexibly grown.

      And that sort of rolls us around to the next item.  But if you’re expecting the end of the world as we know it, keep your money in your pocket, it’s still a fool’s bet.  For now, anyway…

      We do see how the Europeans are seriously pissed about the jet shootdown and escalation talk is in the wind among the Germans. 

      Going into the weekend?  Flash goggles, a jacket, and an umbrella, oughta be fashionable.

      More after this…

      What is Microsoft Thinking?

      Young people, particularly in ‘Mercia, are not complete idiots.  Close, sometimes, sure, but not total ef-tards.

      Hence, when a company acts in strangely anti-job ways, people in ‘Mercia take notice.when Microsoft announces 18-thousand jobs are about to get whacked.  It comes a week after the company pressed for more imported as reported by Information Week a while back under the headline “Microsoft says 6,000 jobs open, wants more Visas…”

      (Think about time lags here:  Request in 2012, hiring 2013 and training and now, today…)

      Confused?  I’ve got a nickel side bet that says it’s cheaper to bring in H1-b’s than  to retrain American workers. Besides, that way, even more people can get roped into hopeless student loan debt.

      Didn’t you learn anything from reading how the world works?

      The Real Economic Schiznit

      It’s easy to laugh at the economic numbers (and decisions, policies, and so forth) coming out of Washington.  So around here, we tend to look at what real U.S.

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      Coping: With Food Patterns

      One of our readers (RD) mentioned in a recent email that Tuesday was “hamburger day” for him.

      This reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to mention for a couple of years, but it just keeps slipping my mind:  Is it an indication of something [fill in this blank if you can come up with a word for it —>_____] when people get into ritual and routine about their food?

      When we were living in Burbank back in the 2005 era I knew people who would always to a certain restaurant on a certain day.  Like Acapulco’s on Thursday for lunch…that sort of thing.

      More recently, a consulting client and his wife (east coast folks) made a major change in their life, moving Tuesday Chinese to Wednesday.

      I’ve never really understood it, because part of the joy of “listening to your body, thus reducing stress” includes sitting back for a moment and asking “What do I FEEL would be good for me today?”

      Going to the Northwest (as we’re about to for a month) I can see how people slip into foody-patterns.  In fact, if for the rest of my life, I had only one meal to it, I’d have to go with the dinner-sized crab cocktail, a small salad with bleu cheese, and the dinner-sized fish and chips from Harbor Lights in Tacoma.

      There (and Ivar’s) are about the only places the fish and chips are perfect to my taste.  Most places do a heavier (and therefore greasier) batter.  I don’t care for that…more of a Panko-style fish eater, thanks.  If I want that much breading, I’ll mix up a few baguettes of French…know what I mean? 

      Anyway, the only other reasons for eating a certain thing – on a certain day – that I can come up with is maybe the “Wednesday special.” 

      Over the years, some great restaurants have day of the week specials.  My other favorite haunt in the PNW is 13-Coins where (if you scroll down their 24-hour menu here) you’ll see why I love going there on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.  (Stroganoff, pot roast, and prime rib specials if you’re a bit slow on the click this morning.)

      Around out place, we eat (more of less) when hungry and what depends on activities around the house.  During construction projects (a seemingly perpetual state) there are a lot of microwaved Reuben sandwiches and pizzas,

      It’s really amazing how a regular frozen “base” pizza can be fixed up with a jug of good organic red sauce, some fresh sliced mushrooms and a pound of additional ‘mutz. 

      Other days, like today, we still turn on the crock pot and do something like an all-day pot roast…but mostly, the “right answer” seems to be skipping routine and if a couple of tall glasses or orange juice, or a whole celery are what your body wants, then by all means, I figure going for it is one way to keep healthy:  Just like animals graze differently, depending on their health, what’s in season, and what their mood and feelings are, seems like that makes sense for us, too.

      Except on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, or while in Tacoma along the waterfront, of course.

      Music in Retirement

      A few days back we were talking about the other kind of “listening to yourself” that seems pretty good:  Making your own music, particularly, if like me, you didn’t practice as a kid.

      At least when retirement shows up, you should be able to set aside plenty of practice time (since the kids only call on state occasions like birthdays, and when their bank accounts are low).

      Reader Dave (one of the 642 Daves that read this site) is in the process of rediscovering music, too, so lots of us on this path…

      I haven’t done much music, but I have done alot of art and I listen to music alot.

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      A Rare Midday Update: Putin Message in a Missile Miss?

      As we have been reporting for months, the EU has its eyes on subjugating Russia and forming a super union which (as one EU official put it) would stretch from Lisbon to Vladivostok.

      At the time, I told you this was dangerous talk and that the Russian people still had borders and no intentions of joining the EU particularly in the wake of the German siege in World War II.

      But now fast forward to today’s tragedy over Ukraine where a(north) Malaysian airline has been involved in disaster – thing time a purported missile shootdown that claimed all 295 souls aboard the jet.

      But here’s the rub:  The rebel forces in Eastern Ukraine/disputed territories, don’t have that kind of hardware.

      And what’s more, Russia Today/RT reports that “President Putin’s plane might have been the target for Ukrainian missile – sources…”

      If you’re a non-partisan analyst, with an eye to detail and a keen sense of inquiry, the Russian denial of Kiev’s move on Black Sea ports would be reason enough to attempt to kill Putin, but then toss on the flames of that fire, no more “freebies” on natural gas.

      Now toss in Russia’s backing for a reopening of a Cold War era spy facility (regardless of how insignificant compared to the American mass recording/Studio Provo operations).

      Then for a capper, toss in Putin’s efforts to end US Dollar hegemony via the BRICs summit and you have all the makings for an….er….accident.

      It reads like a poor novel of political intrigue played out by fools.  Unable to aim, alright, and now it’s not an unreasonable stretch to call it a “Message in a missile.”

      We shouldn’t have to wait more than a month, or two, for Putin to retaliate with a “message back” if indeed it was a missing message, so to speak.

      Still, it may be an “accident” (or it may be sold after the fact as such.  It wouldn’t be the first time that Ukraine has knocked down an airliner, if it plays out that way.  Check the Wikipedia entry for Sibera Airliones Flight 1812:

      Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 crashed over the Black Sea on 4 October 2001, en route from Tel Aviv, Israel to Novosibirsk, Russia. The plane, a Soviet-made Tupolev Tu-154, carried an estimated 66 passengers and 12 crew members. Most of the passengers were Israelis visiting relatives in Russia.

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      “If You Always Do…

      ….what you’ve always done, you’ll always get, what you always got.” 

      The sage advice from an old friend applies (many times over) in politics.  While a Gallup poll out this morning shows that immigration has eclipsed the economy in most people’s minds, the results of recent elections continue to sting:

      Overwhelmingly, the same idiots who got us into this mess have been winning their primaries…so the public expects those “who broke it” to now “fix it.”

      If that isn’t the clearest example of national stupidity ever, I’ll eat my hat.  (I had a special chocolate one made, so it won’t be too bad if it comes down to it…)

      It also begins to show the Northeast Liberals for what they really are, too:  Do as we say, not as we….

      Maryland governor says don’t dump illegals here.

      So too, Connecticut wants no part of housing illegal kids en masse.

      What?  Two standards?  One for the border states and one for the land of liberals?

      I know my N.E. liberal friends will be calling any minute – it will go to voicemail today.  But the point is that tearing down America’s border (let’s call it what it is….) is treasonous.  Both money-corrupted parties are elbow-deep in the scam including George Bush who pushed for Amnesty, something the right doesn’t like to bring us.  It’s a business model to have a “zone” and not border. 

      Anyone who’s in favor of that is a scammer, in my book.  Border or merger with Mexico…there’s no “soft in-between.”  I’m prepared to leave Texas if the border continues to fall.  I’m willing to vote with my wallet.

      And if American’s aren’t bright enough to figure that out, then we would like to thank Common Core and its precedents that eroded once solid values-and-skills-based curriculum and stuffed the minds of America’s young with situational excusifications, all backed up by case law made up from the bench liberalista-stuffed Courts and promoted by the political correctness corps.

      So enjoy your police state, your surveillance, and what the ACLU calls the Constitution-Free Zone –  and remembers those fine words of Pogo:  “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

      I wish I could say “George is losing it.”  But no, you are:  The country.  You know, those things on maps indicated by borders?

      Gaza Reloaded

      So in the rest of what passes for news, we see how there’s what passes for a cease-fire in Gaza.  But based on historical data, the smartest bet in the house this morning is that this will just time time for resupply and reloading until the death festival comes back for an encore.

      Hmmmm….another one of those hard questions to answer:  Where is that line between optimist and idiot, again?

      Selling Terrorism

      Say, this is choice:  The CBS affil in NYC headlines “Police: Al Qaeda magazine suggesting attack on US Open.”

      I know, how is it with anti-terrorism budgets what they are, that AQ can publish a magazine that the NY PD  gets?

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      Coping: Here’s What Will Save America

      As we were sitting here, splitting a bag of O’berto Teriyaki Beef Jerky for breakfast, Zeus the Cat was remarking on how what has saved America’s bacon in the past has been our sense of inventiveness.

      “Ure kind of a sourpuss and too cynical, most times,” he told me.  “You didn’t mention the article on HackaDay about the Midwest Maker Faire up in Kansas City.  If you want to see where the future is going, and be able to invest in “the right stuff” you need to get out to precisely this kind of event.  More jerky?”

      I didn’t find too many right off the bat, but a list of some of the major international technology fairs over here looked interesting, particularly the Smart Materials and Surfaces conference in Thailand.

      “Wrong search terms, Fatso.  Try “inventor conventions” to improve your search results.”

      And insulting cat who hogs the beef jerky….what could be worse?  I mean other than him being right all the time…

      “Say, the Cat, there’s only one good one left on this list (close enough we could make it) – and it’s up in Chicago in November.”

      “Try this one.”

      “I don’t see anything good there….”

      “I’d be a lot more up to speed if you’d give me back the big-screen you took away claiming I was watching kitty porn on it…”

      “It wasn’t just the kitty porn, if the 976 numbers and not sharing your catnip,” I reminded him.

      “Trivialities, biped.  You and I have both missed Everyday Edisons and a whole lot more.”

      Hmmm…

      Truth of the matter is that the Cat may be onto something.  Inventing is one of the coolest pursuits out there…and just having my name on three or four patents is a high-mark in life.

      I didn’t pursue the conversation.  Original thinking is our stock-in-trade around here.  Besides, I already have an IP attorney, and I don’t want Zeus the Cat’s animal rights attorney crossing him.

      But I thought I’d mention it: Who will be the next Ron Popeil  (perhaps the second best American inventor/marketer after Edison) and where do I buy shares in it?   Ever read the list of his (or should we count them as Ronco) products?

      • Chop-O-Matic: a hand food processor. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to show you the greatest kitchen appliance ever made … All your onions chopped to perfection without shedding a single tear.”
      • Dial-O-Matic: successor to the Veg-O-Matic (and very similar to a mandolin slicer). “Slice a tomato so thin it only has one side.” “When chopping onions with this machine, the only tears you will shed will be tears of joy.”
      • Popeil Pocket Fisherman: a small fishing pole. “The biggest fishing invention since the hook … and still only $19.95!” (According to the program Biography, the original product was the invention of Popeil’s father and only marketed by Ronco, but as of 2006, Popeil had introduced a redesigned version of the product.)[6]
      • Mr. Microphone: a short-range hand-held radio transmitter that would broadcast over an FM radio. The nearby radio(s) would therefore amplify the sound coming from the Mr. Microphone.

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      The Future for Millenials

      A look into the next 10-years for Millenials this morning, along with a visit to my electronics bench were we will turn a sine wave pattern on an oscilloscope into a useful economic teaching too. But first, we need to go over a few things including the PPI numbers just out this morning and the other floating bits of madness. With coffee, of course… More for Subscribers ||| SUBSCRIBE NOW! ||| Subscriber Help Center

      Retail Numbers: Is the “Auto-Save” Ending?

      We begin this morning with a quickie “economic history” lesson, but you’ll soon see why somewhere, someone in Washington who has been laughing their butts off about the taxpayer bailouts of Detroit’s auto giants may be coming to their senses today. 

      The Wikipedia entry on the global auto crisis in the wake of the Housing Collapse, sums it up this way:

      The crisis in the United States is mainly defined by the government rescue of both General Motors and Chrysler. Ford secured a line of credit in case they require a bridging loan in the near future. Car sales declined in the United States, affecting both US based and foreign car manufacturers. The bridging loans led to greater scrutiny of the U.S. automotive industry in addition to criticism of their product range, product quality, high labour wages, job bank programs. The government-backed rescue of the American auto industry gained the support of a 56% of Americans in 2012 according a Pew Research Center poll.[62]

      While the “Big Three” U.S. market share declined from 70% in 1998 to 53% in 2008, global volume increased particularly in Asia and Europe.[63] The U.S. auto industry was profitable in every year since 1955, except those years following U.S. recessions and involvement in wars. U.S.

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      Coping: A Personal Time Warp

      I don’t often begin with a bit of personal woo (and in WoWW) but I had one of those days Monday that only comes along every of often, and I thought I’d share it with you.

      It almost feels like one of those scenes from the movie The Adjustment Bureau but obviously it’s not.  Still, here’s what happened:

      Monday was “double lube, oil, and filter” day for me.

      I finished writing my column at precisely 8 AM (as always) and then headed over to the house, took a shower and got dressed.  Leisurely, too. 

      I departed the house at exactly 8:33 and it takes 25-minutes to get into town for my first appointment – a fresh set of labs for my doc since we keep an eye on cholesterol and so on. 

      I’d walked into the office at 9 AM and when I walked out I noticed the time on the clock in the car:  9:17 AM.  Hmmm…people never get out of a doctor’s office in less than 20 minutes, and that includes not only the blood draw but a fair amount of screw-around time because the veins in my left arm were on vacation.  That meant giving up on that one and doing the right arm.

      Done in less than 20- minutes?  Not bloody likely, but a check of the cell phone confirmed “cell time” was also 9:17.

      On to the next stop then:  The lube joint on the loop.  Showed up, and there was an empty bay so my car went right in.  Dang! 

      I settled in, repaired to wait a good while and started to read on my Kindle.  Just after only three pages, the lady at the counter called me up, gave me the amount and I’m sure thought I was a nutter as I muttered  “Done already?”

      Even more curious, I’d had a cup of coffee while I was reading, so I didn’t think to check the clock at this point.

      OK, on to the next task:  Get the car washed and have the inside windows cleaned. 

      Again, first in line, but a bit of screwing around because the detailing part (windows) had to be wrung up  on a different machine, and there was some confabbing about how much to charge.  Turned out to be $5-bucks, by the way.  Even with a very generous tip, that is a deal.

      The car washed and detailed, clean windows and all, my next stop was Lowes for some molding that I’d run short on.  And I tried to get an LED dimmer – a long story, but I bought one – and tossed it in the car.

      OK:  Get in the car and it’s only 5-minutes before 10.  What!!???

      I went through a mental checklist:  Doctor’s appointment, oil change, car wash, detail, tripe to Lowes and less than an hour?  (I’m good and efficient, but this was verging on ridiculous.

      Next stop was J.C. Penny’s where I picked up two pairs of pants, a shirt, some socks and figured I’d killed enough time that surely my favorite Chinese joint would be open for the lunch buffet.

      But as I pulled into the parking lot, that wasn’t the case:  It was only 10:30!  So I went to the place next door (Cavender’s Boot City) to buy a shirt and some knickknacks for the kids on our upcoming trip.

      Finally, I got to the Chinese buffet and ate and returned home.  Elaine looked a bit surprised to see me to early, too:  Doc’s appointment, oil change, car wash/detail, Lowes, Penny’s, Cavender’s, and lunch – and the half-hour drive home – all in less than 3-hours.

      Any other day the doctor would have been 40-minutes.  The oil change would have been half an hour.  The car wash and detail another 20-minutes.  Lowes is a half-hour almost without fail, and getting into Penny’s and Cavenders?  Maybe 20 minutes each.  Lunch out to have been a half-hour and time in between for driving…Don’t forget we’re an honest 25-30 minutes of driving to get back out to the ranch.

      To to get home at 10-minutes before noon was, to put it mildly, unexpected.

      I don’t hold that anything Woo’ish happened, but what I do know is that Monday I was completely “in the groove” in terms of personal productivity.

      Either that, or as you age things really do seem to go by faster.

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      Point and to the Short

      Lexdysia may have set in early, but according to my calculations, worked out with a piece of sharp bone on a fresh animal skin, along with several cups of herb tea leaves, the market should be ready to bounce this morning at the open.

      I’ve been telling you for a while now that market experts (like Robin Landry) always keep an eye on August 26th because somewhere in there (plus or minute a week, or so) the market usually hit a peak for the “summer rally.”  The high before the Crash in 1929 came on a September 3rd.

      So we look at the news flow this week with some suspicion, while still planning to blow out of my long position (options) in a month, or so, and hopefully with a profit (for a change.)

      News-wise, this morning is a yawner:  With the possible exception of those immigrant kids being dumped far away from the border now, something which has gotten the attention of the Christian Science Monitor.

      Near as I can tell, the American public will sleep through this, until the Mexican government is escorting “refugees” all the way to the Canadian border.

      Other than that, the doomsayers don’t have much to talk about other than the Obama administration saying (via A.G. Eric Holder) that to oppose the imperial presidency is driven by racial “animus.”  Playing that card again, huh?  (Couldn’t be that policies are F/U’ed could it?)

      Elsewhere in our morning survey of guilt, we notice that borders also don’t mean as much in Israel, where the death toll in Gaza keeps rising and now the Israelis say that have shot down a drone.

      If you’re trying to make sense out of the world (and we were talking about rule sets as one of the three major approached to artificial intelligence applications to make scads of money in the markets for Peoplenomics readers this weekend) we can now proudly present the following Monday Morning Truth Table:

        • If you lob rockets into a country, the offended country will respond with an invasion and killing those who did the lobbing.
        • If, on the other hand, you lob children into a country,  the offended country will not be offended at all, and will go out of its way to reward the lobbers so that the flood increases.

        And since both major political parties in America have gotten elbow-deep into the payoff pocket of the K-Street Mafia, we can’t help but notice that the issue is no longer about whether we have borders.  We know those are gone, at least if you’re under 18 and from S.A.  They will still apply to older people, in order to shim up the sagging foreign threat reason to submit to the biggest tax increases in history coming down the pike.  (*Obamacare is a tax don’t forget, as opined not by me but by a Chief Justice.  The good news is that the number of people without healthcare insurance is quickly dropping.  But if government mandates healthcare and it’s a tax, how come government-mandated car insurance isn’t a write-off, hmmm???)

        Against this cynical background, though, (no change from last week) the ascent of gold has stalled and been reversed, along with silver which has slowed.

        If you can stay awake through work today, the retail sales figures come out tomorrow and we’ll get to see if the overpriced autos are still keeping America on life support.  The Empire (state) manufacturing report from the NY Fed is closely watched, too.

        Wednesday morning we get to consumer prices but already we have been collecting a few tidbits on  recent price action to set expectations:

        All of which gets us around to suggesting that ain’t gonna be much happening today. Other than the Dow heading back to the 17,000 levels and the S&P st8ill 30 points from the 2,000 barrier.

        More after this…

        (*Geez…that time already?)

        The Climate Change Scam

        At last!  Someone else is seeing the climate change scam for what it is!  Go read “On Global Warming, Follow the Money…”

        Climate has been changing since humans began to walk upright and we managed to get this far without a global carbon scam, did we not?

        Record low temps this weekend in Slidell, LA.

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