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/

Crash Planning: Joy of Cash – Data Bummers Arrive

As the market is likely to rally at the open this morning, I’m once again thinking about moving to cash.  The reason is simple: Earlier this morning the S&P looked like it might rally 7 or 8 points, and although the Fed is not likely to actually do anything about getting off the easy-money addiction of quantitative easing, the new banking rules in China do give some reason for concern.

To be sure, the stories about China’s banking picture do give mixed signals:

“Is China running out of cash?”

“China’s shadow banking woes ‘exaggerated’

“China’s banks: fighting back against online upstarts”

“Looming $500 million default to test China’s banking system”

And “Citic’s bad loan writeoff a sign of strain in China’s mid-sized banks”

All of which casts some very long shadows here in the West, since China is the major player in terms of US debt, despite notions to the contrary.  And, China’s economy is inextricably related to the economy of the US>

As you can see in the data that I’ve compiled from major West Coast Ports for the month of December, there has been no year-on-year growth whatsoever in container volumes coming in to the US west coast.

The one (small) bright spot is that US exports to China and the rest of the world is up, but a 5% increase may simply mean that exports of recycled goods (metals) may be up.

This is setting up another devastating round of price attacks on (what’s left of) the US steel industry.  The Chinese output of steel was reported up slightly at mid January, but their domestic consumption is tapers off.  With no huge auto industry, and with most of the steel for all those high rise buildings in Beijing tapering, we expect to see a continued price decline in Chinese steel.

The other name for this of course is the beginning of pernicious global deflation.  And a further indicator of Chinese demand sinking is the report that “Chinese steel firms losing appetite for overseas iron-or assets.”

For now, out expectations are muted:  It seems likely the Fed will be forced into a “No QE change” position in tomorrow’s meeting.  And, depending on how tough Janet Yellen talks, there might even be a rally of a week or three in length.

But for now, the S&P 1,770 level will be key.  If we break that, then there is a fair chance the market could decline a long, long ways.  Like 1,640, or even below that to 1,540.

And if THAT last number fails, then our long-predicted return to the 2009 market lows (and lower) along with falling metals prices (under $1,000 gold, for example) might very easily come to pass.

Still, our trading indicator only momentarily dropped below the mandatory shorting level on Monday and ended the session above it.

We also note with growing concern that the Baltic Dry index (BDI) (which will be more widely reported by the MSM tomorrow) is down 40 at 1,177 this morning.  Remember, this is the dry bulk cargo pricing and in December the Index was up in the 2,200-2,300 range.  So it has been whacked about in half.  And the index often moves ahead of the major US indices by some number of months.  (Usually around 90 days).

So if I were a betting man, I might be inclined to expect an initially accommodative Fed report tomorrow and that might give the market another month or three to the upside.  We’ll just have to wait and see.  But the main thing to remember is that calling the exact top or bottom of markets is not necessary to make very good returns in the long run.

The real “skill and art” is to consistently catch the middle 80% or larger, long-term, market trends.  If we can do that successfully, then it will be better than most of the ‘herd’.

But for this morning, once we see a substantial rally?  Time to be thinking about the joys of cash and looking closely at leading indicators on global trade.

The odds grow by the day that globalism is on its last legs,but that’s just not apparent to many people yet.  Barry Lynn, I think, over the longer term will be correct in his assessment laid out in his book End of the Line: The Rise and Coming Fall of the Global Corporation.  The book was early (2006) but many of the dynamics have not changed.

And as long as you’re reading about “how the sky is going to fall” be sure to also add Richard Heinberg’s Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines.  Like Barry Lynn’s book, this is another one of those “early, but watch the data” books that came out in 2010.

After you read them, you may have a better appreciation for our “outback” lifestyle and why we’re planning for a world that will likely be vastly different from the world of right now.

I know of several authors who are standing by in the wings with “after the crash books.”  Around here, we don’t hold them in particularly high regard.  Reading about the biggest financial collapse in world history may be interesting after the fact, but our focus both on UrbanSurvival and more so in Peoplenomics.com continues to be on the strategic financial and personal lifestyle decisions than may be implemented ahead of events.

That’s where you have the most “room to move.”  As always, it’s better to be 8-years early than one year too late.  The “prepper movement” sort of get’s it, but most are prepping as part of an “in place” strategy.  And for the majority of Americans, that’s not a good thing; fraught with much higher risks. 

It’s also why the evolution UrbanSurvival will be to the www.ruralpioneer.com™ website, because this has the likelihood of being the kind of mass migration you want to be at the front of.  Not the last one out of Dodge.

Data Bummers

Census has a couple of them, including the drop in Retail Sales (down 7%) in yesterday’s report.

Sales of new single-family houses in December 2013 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 414,000, according to
estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
This is 7.0 percent (±17.5%)* below the revised November rate of 445,000, but is 4.5 percent (±19.8%)* above the
December 2012 estimate of 396,000.

We’ll have this morning’s update on the Case Shiller/S&P Housing Index up for Peoplenomics subscribers (hopefully) just ahead of the market open.

And this morning’s Durable Goods report shows an unexpectedly large drop, too:

New orders for manufactured durable goods in
December decreased $10.3 billion or 4.3 percent to
$229.3 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced
today.

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Coping: Yes, Pesticides Kill

Yeah, as if there had been any question about it.  But a new report out says there’s a link between the use of pesticide DDT and development of Alzheimer’s later in life.  According to the EPA website:

DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) was developed as the first of the modern synthetic insecticides in the 1940s. It was initially used with great effect to combat malaria, typhus, and the other insect-borne human diseases among both military and civilian populations and for insect control in crop and livestock production, institutions, homes, and gardens. DDT’s quick success as a pesticide and broad use in the United States and other countries led to the development of resistance by many insect pest species.

The book that spilled the beans on the early dangers of DDT – a classic of investigative reporting in book form – was Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”:”

The New Yorker started serializing Silent Spring in June 1962, and it was published in book form (with illustrations by Lois and Louis Darling) by Houghton Mifflin on Sept. 27. When the book Silent Spring was published, Rachel Carson was already a well-known writer on natural history, but had not previously been a social critic. The book was widely read—especially after its selection by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the New York Times best-seller list—and inspired widespread public concerns with pesticides and pollution of the environment. Silent Spring facilitated the ban of the pesticide DDT[3] for agricultural use in 1972 in the United States.

The use of DDT has been contentious, seems like, most of my adult life.  Looking back on my childhood, I sometimes wonder if my father’s long goodbye from Alzheimer’s was related to pesticides. 

I remember as a kid we had a number of fruit trees on our property up in Seattle. And a persistent problem with weeds.  So products like DDT, malathion, and an assortment of othere “things you wouldn’t do today, necessarily, we commonly used.

Remember, this was at a time when “long-chain science” had not really evolved.  People used whatever worked and the long-term cause and effect (like smoking) was just not questioned.

Today, there’s evolving evidence that this lack of understanding about the things we put in the ground – and in our food – is going to come back and haunt us for a very long time, even though the US discontinued DDT earlier than most of the rest of the world.

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Gray Monday: Don’t Trust Today’s Rally

Longwave economics teaches us that every 48-64 years capitalist economies go through massive expansions and this is followed by contractions.

I’ve spent 15-years trying to figure out the answer to the “which came first, the chicken or the egg” of it all:  Was it debasing the money supply that he Fed set in motion in 1913 and which has averaged 3.24% compounded since then, even including the Great Depression?

Or, has it be the periodic technology booms which come, bring massive change, and then 10-20 years after the break throughs, everything hits the fan while a new reality settles in?

This last one is particularly appealing since the Great Depression of the 1930’s was wrought by a combination of the traction engine (nowadays called tractors) that replaced draught animals, and the invention of the Ford auto which swept the country into a road rage which has lasted a good hundred years now with no end in sight.

Or, was it the Radio Trust?  Radio was the “new thing” and promised to make people fortunes, but that was quickly regulated with the Communications Act of 1934 in which the Federal government seized the formerly “free” airwaves, much as government is eyeing internet kill switches and massive surveillance today, that will almost certainly lead to internet controls in the future since free-thinking and alternative viewpoints are dangerous things in the ands of free men.

And it’s in this larger context that we eye our trading model and expect there may be a minor increase in market levels in the early going this morning, but I would not trust them to be much more than a short-term technical correction this week.  We won’t be able to clearly see the future until Wednesday or Thursday by which time we will have the first Janet Yellen Fed decision in hand, as well as tomorrow’s monthly Case Shiller/S&P Housing data.  That will guide our thinking a bit.

More difficult for traders is the matter of the Bradley Siderograph turn date which comes up on Fed day. The normal Bradley turn would be down about now (and the markets may be telling us that) but the possibility of an inversion is also possible.  We still need to see the S&P cash get down to the 1,770 levels and see if that holds for a while.

Some indication of a market change could come around 10 am Eastern when new home sales are announced.  Durable goods tomorrow, along with the Housing data.

The main reason not to trust any momentary glee in the markets is simple: Asia got kicked on its ass last night: Japan was down 2.5% and China was down 2.11%. In Europe, Germany and France are holding their own, but England is down almost 3%.

So like I said, other than giving the commercials a place a bit higher from which to make more money shorting, I wouldn’t trust any strength in the early going this morning any more than I’d trust a politician.,

The Runaway Presidency

With the upcoming State of the Union (SoU) tonight, here’s a piece with six things to expect el Presidente to cover.

I use the term “el Presidente” carefully here.  You see, aides were on the talking-heads circuit this weekend delivering clear threats that el Jefe would act through “executive orders” independent of Congress if he doesn’t get his way on the Hill.

Even more amazing, is that after essentially saying they would  make up their own laws in order to prosecute their agenda, the White House says the posturing is “not confrontational.”

In this morning’s Coping section, some additional comments on how this administration is setting up “tolerance policies” that allow groups that can break the law long enough to somehow earn rights to be considered something other than law breakers.

But that’s likely just the start.  The president has sinking ratings, as does congress and there’s a simple reason why:  The will of the people has either been put in a trash compactor or has been sent down the garbage disposal.

On immigration?

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Coping: Flu, Robotics, Davos, and Useless Eaters

I’m almost totally immune to colds, flue, and “that stuff” that goes around every winter.  But it gets me to thinking about flu, robots, Davos, and mass murder or excess humans…in roughly that order.  My logic may seem a bit circuitous, but that’s the marvel of swilling cold medicine, isn’t it?

Also,  notice the qualifier word “almost?”

When my son came back from skydiving last week he attributed his bronchitis and hoarseness to yelling a lot (which is something that skydivers do a lot of when doing link-ups and such).

But since he’s been gone since the wee hours of Saturday, I now have the sore throat and general light touch of it and I haven’t been anywhere near a drop zone.

Most of Sunday was spent in my favorite chair surfing articles about how to get well with Elaine offering helpful hints like “Did you take some zinc?  How about some cough medicine?”

So pardon this morning, if with a few more aches and pains that usual, if the column lacks some of it’s usual sparkle.

I’m not the only one getting this crud, either.  Dr. Zero, who works on animals, not uprights, noticed it too:

…this flu bug that’s going around hit me very hard.  Started on December 1st and I was very sick, but continued to work.  Didn’t seem febrile, but had the chills at night.  Also muscle aches and pains.  2 weeks and I went to the doctor and he said I didn’t have Pneumonia, gave me an inhaler with multiple refills and put me on antibiotics.  Told me that the cough might last for a few months.  I also had a sore throat, though not in the usual place but in the back of my Pharynx (mostly soft palate on the roof of my mouth).  And sinus discharge too.  Others around me had it before and after me, some worse than others.  Its only since Monday the 13th that I finally felt better.  Still have the cough once in awhile and occasional sinus discharge and shortness of breath.  The sore throat pain didn’t really stop until Monday the 13th.

This virus must do a lot af damage, because I don’t think the virus would last this long since the immune system should have knocked it in 2-3 weeks.

Which gets me to the first major point of this morning’s Coping section.

I don’t know about you, but as I told Peoplenomics subscribers recently, it’s Management 101 that there are always two ends to solving a problem like overpopulation on Earth and collapsing economies about to be destroyed by robotics.

You see, the coming mass unemployment by robotics/3D printing/running out of tax money will all be part of the Ugly Vortex that will make this pending long wave economic bottom so terribly awful.

The obfuscation of it is really interesting.  On some sites, like Defense One, for example, we see how the defense contractors are getting ready for a field day of next-generation robo-killers.

And yet paradigm defenders are saying in OpEd pieces like this one that “Robots will stay in the back seat in the second machine age.” 

Bullshit.  Google’s driverless car which has been on the road for a couple of years now argues convincingly that the happily-ever-after, life will be as always, and here, let me sprinkle some fairy dust period will not last.

Davos has just wrapped up with a horrible lack of consensus – at least publicly.   Commentator Patrick Young in an OpEd piece suggests that “Davos Groupthink is Dangerously out of touch.”

Oh?  Let’ me give you an alternative explanation which is not nearly as warm and fuzzy as a bunch of rich-bastards who just accidentally got their Gulfstreams and billions by pure accident of nature end up filthy rich.

It is de rigueur for the rich to paint themselves as “nice” people.  But a close look at the facts generally reveals a very small percentage of wealth accidental or is used to fix core problems of society and most of the Richie Rich types – somewhere in their closets – have boxes of skeletons; people and organizations that have raped and pillaged in order for the top of the heap to claw their way up.  Pardon my gentle cough as I read about how there’s “dangerous groupthink” afoot post—Davos. 

These folks are mostly schemers of the highest order, one notch above the Madoff class of criminal.

Instead, my cough medicine warped mind looks at the flu.  Is it The Plan?  Then  it watches the videos about how H5N1 (H7N9) may be an entirely man-made flu.  Oh, just a coincidence?

We’re hearing reports that the swine flu may be moving into the Rio Grande Valley, especially coming over the border from Mexico.  It’s anecdotal so far, but an outbreak there is hot rumor grist in the oil drilling business these days.  The six deaths in Hidalgo County earlier this month may have been only a “tip of the iceberg” and preview of more to come.  We will keep an eye on it.

As we do, a terrible thought comes to mind:  Is it possible that in the back rooms of Davos an ugly plan was unleashed that said words to the effect “We have two ways to attack this global meltdown thing that’s coming:  We can place nice and take a minor hit to our power and wealth while we blame the coming disaster  it on ”nature” or a laboratory “accident”  and downsize population by 5% or more with an  outbreak of a terrible 1918-like flu or other bioweapon?  Clean, not dirt on us…”

Most people don’t know that the 1918 flu wasn’t that bad as advertised.  Oh, sure, lots of people died in it, but the root cause of many of the deaths was that medicine had not yet gotten to the “minimum effective dose” concept.  And, as a result, people were popping the new wonder drug of the day, aspirin, like it was candy.  As a result, millions may have died from internal hemorrhaging as much as flu.

People don’t read about the role of so-called “medicine” – in the sound-bite world it is just the flu that gets blamed even though now, a hundred years later we are able to read about the still-underplayed role of aspirin poisoning in places like Wikipedia:

“In a 2009 paper published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, Karen Starko proposed that aspirin poisoning had contributed substantially to the fatalities. She based this on the reported symptoms in those dying from the flu, and the timing of the big “death spike” in October 1918 which happened right after the Surgeon General of the United States Army, and the Journal of the American Medical Association both recommended very large (by today’s standards) dosages of aspirin.[64] Further, Starko suggests that the wave of aspirin poisonings was due to a “perfect storm” of events: Bayer‘s patent on aspirin ran out, so that many companies rushed in to make a profit and greatly increased the supply; this coincided with the flu pandemic; and the symptoms of aspirin poisoning were not known at the time.[64]

This hypothesis, insofar as it sought to provide an explanation to the universally high mortality rate, was questioned in a letter to the journal published in April 2010. In it, Andrew Noymer and Daisy Carreon of the University of California, Irvine, and Niall Johnson of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, questioned this universal applicability given the high mortality rate in countries such as India, where there was little or no access to aspirin at the time.[65]

On this basis, they concluded that “the salicylate [aspirin] poisoning hypothesis [was] difficult to sustain as the primary explanation for the unusual virulence of the 1918–1919 in?uenza pandemic.”[65] In responding, Starko pointed to anecdotal evidence of aspirin over-prescription in India and argued that even if aspirin over-prescription had not contributed to the high Indian mortality rate, it could still have been a major factor for other high rates in areas where other exacerbating factors present in India played less of a role.[66]

It’s all a kind of cough-medicine blur, but the basic concept comes down to this:  We have a global population of 7-billion, and if not, give Yemen a few more minutes and we’ll be there.

We have tons of data on flu and some evidence of manmade viruses such as the (purported) H7N9 impossible in nature bird/swine cross.  And tell me again, why do we have level 5 biohazard facilities in big cities like Houston? 

And why am I the only guy who still seems to take some of the assertions in the book  Dr. Mary’s Monkey: How the Unsolved Murder of a Doctor, a Secret Laboratory in New Orleans and Cancer-Causing Monkey Viruses are Linked to Lee Harvey … Assassination and Emerging Global Epidemics as an important enough topic that congress ought to really look at the data and do their frigging job?

In the main, the ultra rich didn’t get that way by being nice.  And tigers don’t change their stripes.  So if on the back-end of Davos, it seems like they are confused?  I got news for you.

Another twist of the knife is pending just as soon as they’re off the public radar for a short while.  You and I are expendable and – arguably – stupid.  Which is why we didn’t get invited to the party.

If American gets too smart, or too many begin to awaken, there are contingency plans I’m sure to keep us from interrupting “the play.”

End of the World Watch

From Patrick Geryl:

Hi George,

Sunspot 1944 is back!

TWIN BARREL M-FLARES ! Twin barrel M-flares have been detected off the southeastern limb of the solar corona at 1:22 and 2:11 this morning. Solar activity is about to step into another gear once old active region 11944 rotates back onto the solar disk tomorrow. X-ray background rising sharply indicates magnetic complexity associated with this large active region.

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Now Arriving: Hard Times Economics

This past Thursday, in an UrbanSurvival report, I mentioned several key factors that will likely usher in the return of “hard times economics.” To be sure, it’s a general umbrella kind of label, but it’s a fair one given that working hours may be set for pending collapse as employers begin to reduce the workweek to the threshold (30 hours) below which employees are really “on their own for healthcare.” Then I mentioned the drought that continues to engulf California, and with it, the likelihood that the Central Valley and south (San Francisco down to San Diego) may encompass the New Dust Bowl (NDB). This morning I thought it would be useful to highlight from the practical day-to-day aspects of living in the new Hard Times. After coffee while we can still afford the elixir of morning…

A Final Hour (Friday) Market Comment

A number of subscribers have asked me how our trading model looks going into the final hour today since the Dow is off more than 240 points for the day, although in line with the expectations this morning based on China’s action earlier this week. More for Subscribers ||| SUBSCRIBE NOW! ||| Subscriber Help Center

Markets: First Level of Support

There has been a lot of discussion in media here lately of how the WEF/Davos meetings might make some decision to promote some kind of global economic reset.  Whenever the ultra-rich and the power class talk about resetting anything, I’m overwhelmed with the need to sit on my wallet because usually what follows is yet another way to screw the little guys.  (YAWTSTLG)  And yes, that includes you and me, our fantasies of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” aside.

Gold and silver has been going up while the markets are headed for another opening down in the dumps.  Look for the Dow to drop another hundred, or so, at the open.  Then, by taking out the S&P 1820 to 1818 level, anything lower on a weekly close brings the possibility that  this move is complete.  If our trading model indicates a change, there will be an update for Peoplenomics readers in the final hour of trading today.  Not that we give trading advice, but we do discuss playing on the freeway in front of rolling semis now and then.

The real question is “How far is down?” 

We have a number of choices and a great deal will depend on how the discussions among the money-mad at Davos go, coupled with next week’s Fed meeting.

For now, there’s a good distance down to our trading model decision point…maybe another 200 points or better.  And that may not happen since key tech stocks, like Microsoft, are out with earnings that are a surprise to the upside.  The possibility of a late session bounce today is in there.

Still, as we eye the tech stocks, we have the nagging suspicion that a global economy based on more cell phones and more time gaming may not really be the crowning pinnacle and glory of humanity.  One doubts that Leif Erickson would have said “Great land here, let’s develop it so we can all take C# programming courses and make video games for our grandchildren!”  The absurdity of gaming (and tech) is obvious, yet few confront the hollow vision.

About here, you might want to kick back and read this week’s longer perspective on things as penned by Margaret MacMillan in the OpEd section of the Financial Times this week in “A world above it all – welcome to Davos 1914.”

It’s sure to all sound fine, when the plans and platitudes begin to roll.  But the reality is that the Economic Long Wave finds the world in serial bubbles over a gaping chasm and should the money-huffing promoted at all levels stop, the world will drop into Depression like none ever seen before.

In case you haven’t noticed, we live in a surveillance state without legality, a highly communicated life though mostly without purpose other than self preservation, and we look to gaming to save us from the untaxed onslaught of automation and robotics that makes us all obsolete.

As a result, so-called “leadership” rejects Constitutionally based findings that NSA surveillance goes too far in violation of protections. Our future is pinned on the success of entertainment which hasn’t been tried since the fall of Rome.

WE live in a country where one minute of Super Bowl time is worth $8-million dollars to an industry that’s made up of rich guys who get massive tax breaks at all kinds of levels. Yet unemployment benefits can’t be extended.  Say what?

So if you hear a massive national creaking later on this morning, that will be last layers of support at this level of the S&P giving way as more studied minds consider whether investing at the top of a financial mania makes sense. 

As goes China, so goes America.  They rule us, not the other way around.  And China was down 1.25% overnight so this morning’s dart toss suggests down 202 for the day here and that pushes us out to “turnaround Tuesday by which time we should be at the make-or-break line for our trading model.

And then it will all hinge on how goes Janet’s Yellen after the Fed meeting next week.  Leg up to follow, or down in a heap?   Major European markets are also down 1% and more so at least the first level of support is likely to fail and that sets up the possibility ofS&P 1775 as the next resting place, say say by Tuesday mid-morning?

 

More after this…

Politics in a Bundle

Hot lead in the Hollywood Reporter this morning about how “‘2016: Obama’s America’ Filmmaker Indicted for Violating Campaign Finance Laws” is a must read.

So the GOP leaning fellow’s crime?  Gave $20,000 to a campaign when the limit is $5,000.

OK, what’s really going on?

Well….

It really has NOTHING to do with the amount of money raised but more about the form that is used.  Political influence is for sale, but you have to buy it just so…

For example, on the demo side, we read how one top Hollywood Bundler for the Obama campaign was Jeffrey Katzenberg who reportedly (according to OpenSecrets) bundled something like $1.8 million for Obama.  Compared to this other fellow who did $20,000 direct.

But, you see, that’s the point, isn’t it?  Bundling is OK but direct contributions of much smaller amounts are not.  Form, not substance, but that’s the New Merican way.  Appearances, my friend, appearances.  Smoke, mirrors, and bear traps.

Say, as long as we’re on that OpenSecrets page, we note the entry for Jon Corzine listing $$882,932 in bundling.

The truly paranoid would point to the headline this week that the “US Lawsuit against (Jon) Corzine over MF Global collapse can proceed, judge rules…” and wonder if that figures in, if at all.

Ask me when we have more time.

Guns on De Nile

70 wounded so far and four dead police in Cairo and Egypt continues to play out a kind of gangstah version of democracy.   Wait, let’s change this up to…

Cynics Corner: The Daily Bomber

So it’s now five in Egypt, then.

None as a small bomb went off near a church in Rome where the Pope is meeting with the prez of France.  No word if the hottie would join ‘em.

US and Russia are cooperating on bomb investigation (making and detecting)  technique in advance of Sochi.

US Officials are downplaying an apparently foiled embassy bombing plot in Israel.

The Washington Beacon reports the nuke deal with Iran only delays their Big bomb by one month.

Six dead from an explosion – car bomb-  at an auto repair shop in Pakistan.  No details on whether the car was in for a bomb repair or not…

Meantime, our editor in chief says out new motto for this section ought to be “All the news you can fuse.”

Syriously

Those so-called peace talks in Geneva are  in trouble.

Leave it to Bieber

Things keep going from bad to worse for America’s latest bad boy du media..

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Coping: With the “Great Texas Blizzard of Ought ‘14”

(West Elmwood, Texas) The commute to the UrbanSurvival office this morning was deemed treacherous and writers were urged to stay at home and offline if possible as the Great Texas Blizzard of Ought ‘14 swept through the Outback Region overnight dropping billions of flakes.

“I haven’t seen this many flakes since the 2012 elections,” one local resident told us.

Forecasters, who have named it “Winter Storm Klink” immediately attributed the storm to the effects of global warming. 

One forecaster, Mortimer Snerd of the Fort Worth forecast office said it was the worst storm he’d seen in his whole career since being hired on in late 2013 .

Another weather expert, Dr. Phil Dirt or MazinWeather, proclaimed the source of the storm as the “Oklahoma Effect Snow.”

As he explained it, cold weather from the Polar Vortex presently centered over Durant, Oklahoma mixes with warm moist air from Guadalajara, Jalisco State, Mexico.

“We’ve complained to Immigration and Customs Enforcement a zillion times,” explained Dr. Phil. “We know that they have a political agenda at the management level, but Texas needs stronger border weather enforcement. All it would take would be a higher wall.   Without it, we could be facing rain from illegally immigrating moisture this spring.

The East Texas Outback was particularly hard-hit by the storm, with some area’s reporting up to a sixteenth of an inch of the dangerous spawn of Klink.

The heavy snowfall overnight may also have contributed to a massive regional power interruption that lasted nearly a 1/10th of a second at the height of the storm.  Local power officials blamed the especially noticeable power bump Thursday night on excessive downloading during the storm.

“We had terrible load problems about 8:17 last evening” said utility spokesman George Westinghouse.  “Even though the Texas grid is independent from the other four power regions in the country and we produce more energy than most other nations, there’s only so much load we can support,” he confirmed.  “The flash outage was likely due to a slow switching relay at the Coldmutha  switch yard combined with too many people downloading videos, making dinner, and having their sound systems up to high,” he explained.

Working on the clock, crews had restored power to 100% of the areas 2,387 residents in 96 milliseconds, although some families reported outages lasting at long as 134 milliseconds.

Government officials in Bradford, Montalba, and unincorporated districts Brushy Creek and Elmwood are holding an emergency meeting at Bubba Jean’s Café in Bradford once roads are passable.  Around at 8:30 this morning they’ll meet with the public to discuss storm recovery efforts.

“We may petition  County Judge Elbert Johnson for an emergency declaration.  Once that’s done, a state declaration should follow as a matter of course.  Things are that bad out here,” said Elmwood activist Willy Survive.  “As soon  as that’s done, we expect federal aid will follow which means FEMA and Xe forces should arrive within weeks to enforce peace during the storm recovery operations.  “Things are so bad, I think governor Perry call up NORTHCOM right away,” said Survive.”Besides, we need a disaster area tax break for local agriculture on 2014 taxes…we haven’t had a decent break since Ike.”

All ready, there have been reports of scattered looking, and minor thefts.  Anderson County Sheriffs are investigating a black cat named Zeus suspected stealing mouthfuls of cat food from an American tabby, Ms Puscilla, up in the headwaters region of Mound Prairie Creek, a known refuge for the endangered Sasquatch last reported there in 1921.

In Washington, Concerned Friends of Cryptoarcheology have organized a demonstration outside the White House today to underscore the Obama administration’s lack of concern the Mound Prairie Sasquatch plight..

East Texas tree farmer George Ure took this reporter on a tour of his farm at daybreak to survey the extensive damage caused by the storm.

Pointing to a surviving stand of trees he  explained that he was not able to find smudge pots in time to prevent extensive damage to his crops by the wintry blast. 

“We reckon there’s been a loss of maybe half a million pine needles, already,” said Ure.  East Texas pine needle exports account for as much as 1/1000th of one percent of Anderson County agriculture exports and officials are worried about the ripple effects on the US Balance of Trade.

Farmers, like Ure, are so desperate for additional smudge pots that prices of them on eBay are running up.

Forecasters have some relief in store for the region in their long range forecast with temperatures expected to zoom up into the mid 60’s by Saturday.

Reporters covering the disaster are running low on supplies, as well.  The officials meeting at Bubba Jean’s have announced some liquid writing supplies should be available at Gaines’ Package Store in Palestine by 11 AM.

Elsewhere, we understand cooler weather is in store for the Northeast.

[No horses were injured during the filming of this report.]

Seriously: Skydiving

George II, a/k/a “The Headless Skydiver” made it back from his five-day adventure down at Skydive Spaceland.

Shown right doing is his soon-to-be-patented back-flip exit from a Twin Otter at 14.5.

Reader Steve did send in a correction about the sport which involves voluntarily leaving the safety of a perfectly good airplane which makes no sense whatsoever to George the elder…

George,

If G2 continues as he has been, there is little chance that some whuffo-chic will ‘get her hooks in him’.  The sport tends to consume your energies, and you tend to self-select the significant others that you associate with.  There has been more than a few relationships that received the “Its either me or skydiving” line, resulting in a lot more skydives.

Cheers,

Steve

1st jump 1969

Total jumps 4000+

Hmmm…the sport has its own lingo, turns out.  UrbanDictionary has the definition of a “whuffo” over here….

My reluctance to trust nylon instead of 6061 aluminum is based on 220 pounds of reasons and the sentiment is echoed by reader Fred:

Your talk about not wanting to take up skydiving reminded me of my late father.  He was a private pilot too with about 10,000 hours in the air.  His sister (my Aunt Geneva) asked him if he wore a parachute when he was flying.  His response was that he didn’t, because he might get excited some time and jump out.  Said he’d rather just take his chances on landing it somewhere. 

Yessir, a man after my own liver.  That’d be chicken liver.  From reader Hal…

i’m an old guy with about 200 jumps a number I have arrived at by doing too few jumps over too many years.  I would qualify for a class c license if I went that route, which I have avoided.

There is a concept called “air time” which is how much time you spend in freefall multiplied by your number of jumps.  50 jumps times 2 minutes free fall equals a little over an hour of “airtime” which really isn’t that long.

To even consider base jumping with an A license is simply crazy.  I cannot imagine any serious jumpmaster would advise any jumper to attempt base jumping at that level of experience.  Keep in mind that base jumping is often done without a reserve simply because at that shortened altitude a reserve would never have a chance to open.  He’s already had 2 reserve rides?  A lot of people would consider that to be a high number but hey if you have to go to reserve not too many skydivers will fault you.  ( It may also have something to do with renting gear).

Skydivers fly their chutes just like pilots fly a plane.  So the old adage remains:  there are old pilots and bold pilots…

Yesterday’s regaling of the sport also got this base jumping note from reader Paul:

Hi George,

The BASE jumping you mentioned in your column as being a high antenna on the Gulf Coast could be the LORAN-C antenna tower in Raymondville.

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Coriolois Economics: Last Gasps of the Crack-Up Boom

You know how when you flush the (john/crapper/head/throne) how it begins to spin as it goes around prior to taking a load of crap out of your life? Scientists call this spin-up the Coriolis Effect and around here we’re becoming terribly fixed on watching the opposite-acting effect in economics. The one that will be lots of crap into our lives shortly. The way this one’s going to work (take this to the bank) is simple: Things have been flushed and now they are beginning to spin up nicely.

Coping: With Adrenaline Junkies, Skydiving, Death-Stalking

I’m pretty much convinced that everyone has (like cats) nine lives.  I can account for a handful of times when I have almost lost mine…and each time there’s a lesson to be learned.  The imminence of losing your life does two things for you:  First, it teaches you how incredibly important having information is.  The second thing it teaches that not everyone dies every time.  And that leads to point three:  When your number’s up, your number’s up.

We’re going to talk about skydiving in a minute, but first a few notes on nearly dying that are quite personal.  Worth sharing because they taught me things…

When have I almost died?

Once, back in 1986, or in there, I was on my way to the office.  I was driving my 2.7 liter Porsche 911, wearing the power suit, and looking like “that guy.”  The engine made an odd noise and I popped open the rear deck to take a look by the side of the road, engine running.  My yellow “power tie” took one turn around the alternator belt as I bent over and flipped back out, again.

Whew!  Close one!

That’s what I mean by a close brush with death.  Wrapping a tie up in an alternator would have pulled my head into a running engine.

Oh, sure, I was competent in all kinds of things mechanical and aced every shop/power tools course I’d ever taken.  And yet, that’s how accidental death works.  It sneaks out when no one is expecting it and WHAM!

Another time, much younger, I was working on a transmitter.  A Johnson Pacemaker, (here’s a whole page on how cool they are) one of the finest early single sideband transmitters ever. 

Aged 17, or so, I’d replaced a few components and the final tube (a 6146B if that matters) and I was readjusting the plate neutralization cap.  Momentarily, I lost focus, distracted (looking at the manual while making an adjustment inside a high voltage cage that’s open ain’t terribly smart.

WHAM!

800 volts!  I had been wresting the bottom of my palm on the grounded metal chassis and one finger brushed a high voltage point.  The reason I’m still alive is simple:  When I was 13, I’d picked myself up off the floor from a more modest 200 volt shock and already had learned the “keep one hand in your pocket” rule of dealing with electronics.  High voltage through the hand was another one of those near-miss deals.

And on my first flight solo in an airplane, I inadvertently entered a spin after doing a series of [planned/required] stalls.  I recovered from that because I’d memorized the part in the “learning to fly” book about stall recovery.

So far, I haven’t hit nine lives, but toss in a commercial flight to Panama where I was in an L-1011 that dropped 1,500 feet in severe clear air turbulence and a close call of short final in Miami when a new mechanic pulled a DC-10 in for maintenance right onto the active runway as we were 500 feet up in a 727-227 down and dirty for landing.  Again, close, but no cigar.  The Captain (Kel) had a nearly photographic memory and rolled left, keeping an eye on the 727’s left wingtip, holding it 10-feet off the ground in order not to cartwheel a fully loaded 727 into the ground.  It was a full flight, as I recall, and I was riding jump seat. 

All’s well that ends well, in each of these cases, but it reminds me of the critical things to pass onto my kids, lest they do similar things and exit this life prematurely.  My list?

    • Never, ever, no matter what, get near a running engine with anything other than bare arms and tight-fitting clothing.
    • In ham radio, never make an adjustment without a) wearing nitrile gloves on the “hot” hand and b) memorize the schematic, settings, and only look at a diagram with hands away from hot transmitters and receivers.
    • Never unintentionally let a stall develop into a spin when driving airplanes.
    • Never – even for an instant – take off your seat belt when flying (even commercial).
    • Always – if you have a choice – fly with the smartest pilot you can.

    Those are just a few personal encounters with death that didn’t work out for the Grim Reaper.  But now that I’m up there a bit (65 shows up next month) I’m hardly in a taunting mood.  I know he’s out there somewhere, waiting for me to put on one more pound and trigger an M.I., waiting for me to choke on a big piece of steak, waiting for me to slip and fall wrong off a ladder, or have a table saw blade break up while I’m using it.

    Death is always around and you’ve just got to keep an eye out for it.

    But this morning’s ramble isn’t about me …it’s about why we pursue the kinds of activities that give us the adrenaline rush.

    I don’t know as I mentioned it, but my son came down to visit on Saturday.  After a nice steak dinner, the usual father-son chat, we went off to the local Denny’s Sunday morning, him driving my old pickup truck, and I haven’t seen him since.

    Since Sunday, he’s been down at Skydive Spaceland where’ he’s been fine tuning his free-fall skills.  When he left the house he had 61 jumps, or so, but when he returns this morning he’ll have about 75 under the canopy.

    Why skydiving?  Frankly, he’s an adrenaline junkie of the highest order.

    Yes, he got into a bit of trouble when he was young, but turns out that his brief encounter with crime was not because of a need for money, or a drug addiction.  No, for him it was an addiction to adrenaline.  That’s been sorted out for 10 years and then some.

    Over the years he’s found more socially acceptable (and legal) ways to “get some” of the buzz that goes with high adventure and it has worked for him professionally.  That’s why he’s been a first responder, EMT, and works in epidemiology sorting out who’s got AIDS and so forth.

    About a year ago he took up the sport, getting his “A” license up at Harvey Field (Snohomish) north of Seattle.  It’s a wonderful place to jump, but George II wanted to visit with “the old man” a bit and he didn’t want to wait for the wintertime Seattle gray to clear every time he wanted to go up.

    The weather is a lot better for skydiving this time of the year, and he made a decision to come down here and use four days of vacation time to get max fun out of life, which seems to be the point of it, right?

    You can click over onto the Skydiving Spaceland site and go through the pictures, but the nice thing about it from G II’s standpoint is that if you are a jumper, they have a bunkhouse (great showers and facilities including laundry) for itinerant skydivers, which G II fancies himself.

    I know from our talk before he headed south that he’s thinking about becoming a “skydiving tourist.”

    Tuesday, the winds in the drop zone were running 25 and gusting 30, so he only got one jump in, but as he pointed out, by jumping a 170 chute instead of a 180 or 190 and keeping speed up on final approach while in the pattern, you can come down, flare out, and so a “tip-toe” landing with no forward speed.

    For reasons that aren’t clear to me, skydivers are some of the most adrenaline-hooked-up people on earth.  To hear G II tell it, nothing on terra firma is anywhere near as exciting. 

    And for those who find event free-fall not enough, there’s the matter of base-jumping.  This is where you find a tall structure and pack a special chute and go off at super-low altitude.  I friend of mine from back in my news days, John S. was one part of the original group that base-jumped the Space Needle in Seattle.

    Oh, and that’s why the Space Needle Observation Deck was eventually encased with clear plastic so people like John and Art couldn’t plan round 2.  (Not sure what the statute of limitation is on base jumping, but it was more than 30-years ago now…)

    Rumor has it that G II almost went base jumping while on this trip.  Apparently there’s a high antenna somewhere down on the Gulf Coast where base-jumpers go. 

    So far, and fortunately for a worried parent, G II hasn’t gone that route.  He enjoys the free-fall part of it the most…but for how long?

    When he gets back, we’ll have the father-son discussion about gear:  Does he keep renting, or, at some point, does he buy?

    The “numbers” work out this way:  Rental rigs run about $25 per jump.  George is looking at buying his own hear now, and has been saving money like crazy for it.  Still, he’s looking at a $5,000 investment in equipment.  And, worse, if you do get all that gear and want to go schlepping around the country, you’ve just got that much more crap to pack and carry.

    Oh, and the gear as a useful life about 10-years, he figures.

    This is where I put on the “accounting hat.”  In order for gear rental to make sense, he’ll have to do 200 jumps over the next ten years.  That’s only 20-jumps a year.  OK, I can see how that might make sense – at least for now.

    But one of these days, one of those young ladies he’s been dating is going to get her hooks in and there goes the party animal lifestyle of a vagabond skydiver.

    Meantime, get’s got the full court press on to get dad and Elaine to take up the sport.  I continue to decline, however.  I’ve counted up the number of times that I’m had near-misses with the Grim Reaper and if we’re playing a “short game” of 9-holes in Life, I’m not going to taken a chance of a bogey.

    He’s had to pull his reserve twice in his skydiving adventures so far…in both case “normal accidents” with safe recoveries.

    I’ve carded a few more bogies and realize that I’m playing an opponent who never loses.  I’ll keep landing with the airplane we take off in, thank you very much.

    But for him, it’s a fine ADHD treatment and much better than what comes out of a bottle of pills.

    Explaining Conan O’Brien

    Reader Ray H, one of our favorite critics of the ol’ column, sent in this:

    Wurst, brats, dogs, get’cher links here. They’re fresh, they’re smokin’, and a few are even spicy! Links, get’cher links…

    Media Reacts: A Christmas Present Or Two Or Ten Edition

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM8L7bdwVaA
    A Conan O’Brian clip featuring excerpts from a number of local news broadcasts. The broadcast affiliates are ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and a smattering of non-network stations.
    Tell me, upon viewing the clip: Are there any “broadcast journalists” left?

    Oh, dear, Ray…you missed something. Lemme fill you in…

    What most people don’t realize is that there are “story idea” companies that send out suggested scripts and story ideas for “soft news” that begins to fill up the local airwaves around holiday.  Usually a subscription service…a couple of hundred a month is budget dust compared to Chopper X time, right?

    So when I see this kind of compilation, I recognize it for what it is….a whole of of assignment editors and/or news directors saw the “suggested script” that came with the story idea from one of these news consultancies, and they look at what the “ratings consultants” have been telling station management “(Usually:”More health heart, and pocketbook!”) and all decided to run with the same story,. same script line, local variances and local B-roll. 

    They show up on slow news days, mostly.  We used to make jokes in radio on such slow days like “Can’t Channel 4 go out and roll over a car on Interstate 5, or something?” 

    So nothing mysterious about it. 

    Just like there’s nothing surprising when  administration “sources” tell the same thing to key reporters (like the WaPo or NYT) because as anyone knows in the major media, when you go to a presidential news conference, the most important story is often not what’s being said by the “talking head” – it’s often what’s being said to the Biggest Media by the “staff briefers.”

    Those remarks often begin with “What the President means to say here is….”  or “What the President is trying to get across is how…”  And yes, I had White House press credentials at one time and I’ve seen “the dance” first-hand often enough to enjoy the choreography.

    No Worries About Summer War

    Earlier this week, we were talking about how one solution to cryptic Nostradamus painting might be the advent of global war this summer.

    Well, hold up there, old pard, says reader Michelle:

    Sorry George,

    The Sun will be in Cancer Jun 21/22 to July 22/23. The dates here depends on the time zone. The Sun will be in Leo on Jul. 27/14, Jupiter is in Cancer till July 16/17…

    Now, she’s not a professional astrologer, and I don’t have time to go through all the machinations, but additional input is welcome.

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    Davos: Danger, and Devolution

    As Davos is getting underway, we pause this morning to look at what may be the most-overlooked aspect of the concentration of power in the “hands of the few” namely massive changes in the traditional “span of control” concept in management. It seems such an innocent thing on the surface, but then so did Lizzie Borden, I suppose. We’ll cut to the heart of things after a few headlines… More for Subscribers ||| SUBSCRIBE NOW! ||| Subscriber Help Center

    Playing to the Fed, Quantitative China

    The market looks to open firmer this morning…and why not?  We still have more than a week to run until the Federal Reserve meeting, at which time most of the smart money seems to think that new Fed chair Janet Yellen will not rock the boat and will take a “go slow” attitude toward ending quantitative easing, which though losing its effectiveness has, nevertheless, allowed the Fed to keep the economy from catering.

    The latest bit of financial candy is that China is boosting liquidity and that, in turn, should give markets a goose globally.

    Between now and Fed day next week, we have a paucity of news and data to look forward to.  There aren’t any big releases set this morning.  A minor home lending number tomorrow and it will be Thursday before we get a small flurry of data. And even that won’t be much: Some home sales figures, a weekly unemployment number, and leading economic indicators.  Then Friday we can all go back to sleep again.

    In foreign markets, Japan was up 1%, China about half that, and Europe is hinting at 1/3% gains which would pencil out to a Dow today up 54 points.  That’s not investment advice.

    No, it’s more like a stark reminder that the last half of January seems to run on and on….almost forever, seems like.  It’s the time of the year for strong coffee or NoDoz while we look for signs in the tea leaves.

    Tax Robotics:  Catching on?

    I’ve been telling Peoplenomics readers (and Urban, too_) that one of the biggest problems coming down the road is robotics and the mass replacement/end of human jobs.  Main thing is I figure we need to start taxing robotics…yesterday!

    Now, as if to exonerate me from looking like the Lone Nutter, here comes an article in the prestigious The Economist that says what?

    “Coming to an office near you:  The effect of today’s technology on tomorrow’s jobs will be immense – and no country is ready for it…”

    You need to read the whole thing…and then make life/job plans accordingly.

    Fracking Fairytales

    [Since this morning is not particularly manic, and with great respect for Jay Ward, we play off the “fractured fairytales” series (here’s a list of ‘em on YouTube) as we eye a few developments which will impact the gas business.]

    Later this morning in Austin, the state Railroad Commission (which somehow regulates the oil and gas drilling in Texas – go figure) will get an earful from the good citizens of Azle, Texas, who are sick and tired of the earthquakes going on in their area ( NW of Dallas).

    As the link between fracking and water-injection wells clarifies (and we can have that discussion of groundwater pollution later) people are seriously pissed about being shaken up in order to drive more natural gas out of the rocks underlying the area.

    But that might not get very far.  One reason is the state benefits (hugely) from oil and gas operations.  The other is the current press to get as much energy out of the ground as possible.  And then we see stories (with the big winter storm about to swipe New England ) that a “propane shortage” adds to winter woes…”

    Do I expect anything to change?  Platitudes.  Oil and gas are money and I’ve learned never to bet against the house.

    More after this…

    Mars Mystery

    So, what do you do if a planet you have been watching closely suddenly has a new rock appear on it?  Well, you could get confused, hold a press conference, and…well, that’s about all for now.

    Countries in Turmoil: A Collection

    Got’cher pick this morning.  There’s an emergency in effect in Thailand, for example. Charges of nepotism at the top are being met with (looking surprised, I hope?) the government granting itself sweeping powers to go hard-ass on anyone who disagrees with officialdom.

    Then you’ve got Syria where a number of human rights groups are saying that up to 11,000 people may have been killed by the Assad government.  (More in the Coping section this morning because this is a whole dot-connecter’s wet dream in this part of the world.)

    In Ukraine, protesters were out again last night, mixing it up with the cops there.  Ukraine wants closer ties to the EU while Moscow (much closer) is leaning on the government to remain right and keep up that FSU buffer state (bunker/siege) mentality left over from the Cold War.

    I still haven’t had time to launch that new specialty news site “The Daily Bomber” but our would-be front page there would include:

    4 dead in Beirut area bombing.

    US congressional group heads to Russia to investigate Boston Marathon bombings.  (The Sochi games don’t open until Feb 7, so maybe they will be getting a prelim look at security there?)

    No one is sure yet what caused a feed plant explosion in Omaha yesterday.  My bet would be on grain dust and static electricity.  …(See a demo of a flour mill explosion over here YouTube is worth review.

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    Coping: “Solving” the News / Analysis of Future

    Serious futuring discussion here:  The news all makes sense, at some level. It tells us the future, if we but listen closely, inspect the details, view with detachment, and just watch how it flows… 

    Other than the random AoG’s (Acts of God) caused by semi-random mechanical failures and such, there’s a “string” or “current” that becomes clear over time. 

    A flow of events.

    When it clarifies, everyone sits back and says “Aha!  So THAT is what all that stuff that happened before meant!”  Usually, after the fact, though.

    Pardon a long ramble, but we’ve got a ton of data now that is in the formative stages of becoming semi-connected, and perhaps at a meaningful level.  These could be the initial eddies formed as the River of War makes up its mind where to flow next.

    How to see it?  Ah!  That’s the problem.  Most people read the news and see only singular events. Yet, as our studies of finance reveal, there are lever-like. cause-and-effect, relationships that become easily seen with not too much difficulty.  And because big things like War tend to influence things like Markets, some attention should be paid to the playing field upon which the small investor has chosen to engage.

    Consequently, we have a collection of notes that lead us to expect huge (humanity-changing?) developments later this year.  This is not yet conclusive, only conjecture. This is not to say that something will happen.  Only that in nooks and crannies of the new flow there are interesting bits, hints, nibbles, gnaws, clicks, and pops that give signs or a loose a sketch of this big “thingy” that could be happening this summer into fall. 

    Naturally, if the data changes, our outlook changes, as well.

    With that as a disclaimer, let me toss  out some notes and see how future history for the balance of this year could play out.  Some of this will be highly speculative, while other parts are hot out of this morning’s news runs. 

    Let’s toss it ALL on the table and see what the connections are, shall we?

    1.  The first “open bin” has to do with the passing of Ariel Sharon recently.  That’s because of the rabbi Kaduri prophesy that with his passing, the Jewish Messiah will arrive shortly thereafter to announce himself in Jerusalem.

    We have two population groups awaiting a Messiah/Imam to show up.  Followers of Messiahs/Imams have done great wars in the past.  The Muslim Conquests and the Crusades are sufficiently large as to draw attention from an investment standpoint. Happening today they would be world-changers.

    This is because of the huge fractions of population that were swept into partisanship roles during these events in the past.  Wars like these do, indeed, change everything.

    2.  The data collection has to do with the motion within greater Islam at the moment where we see two roots of that tree twisting about for supremacy.  One sees it in the strong internal dissent between the Sunni and Shi’ite sects and it works out in places such as Syria.  There, we have a strongly backed Shi’ite government versus a Sunni insurgency. Who will drive?

    3.  It becomes even more clear when I get emails, like this one, from our news analyst fellow up in Winnipeg:

    Dear Mr. Ure,

    Now that the UAE is drafting a mandatory conscription law, Qatar apparently introduced one late in 2013, and Kuwait could be on the same path, one wonders why this and why now?

    Regards,

    So yes, we see the increasing levels of militarism within Islam.  80+ % of the country is Sunni.

    4.  And yet another bin that’s collecting data has to do with the huge investment that the government of (mostly Sunni)  Saudi Arabia has made in keeping Egypt friendly to their views of the world.  And reports of the growing informal relationships being tilled between the Saudis and Israel over the upcoming role of Syria.  See references to “Frenemies.”

    5.  This morning, another set of horrors emerges in Syria as a purported photographer for the Assad government has escaped to the West with damning pictures that [allege] to show upwards lots of young dead men – victims of alleged brutality of the Assad regime.

    6.  But at the same time, while the bodies are stacking up, readers seem sometimes confused by our reports contributed from “warhammer” as we call him, that point out many of this underlying currents.  Here’s a typical reader concern:

    “I do take issue with your war-gamer pal.  Now, maybe he is only presenting strictly the war gamer’s plans, as derived from their personal psychopathic power & warmongering personalities.  But I do think it is a disservice to your readers to not at least mention that Iran has never preemptively attacked or invaded another country in over 200 years.  Iran wants to stay out of the usury game.  They want nothing to do with the IMF.  They also kicked out the Shah, America’s puppet.  They have lots of reasons to dislike us.  And, they were signers on to the IAEA, until they realized it was so rigged.  Israel has refused to sign on to the IAEA.  Even if Iran were to get nukes, and who could blame them, I doubt they would ever use them preemptively, at least if recent history is any indicator.”

    And yes, that’s all true, so please consider it mentioned and reminded.

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