Black Friday & Hoarding – Markets Rolling Over

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Spending Addiction?  America?  (With a nod to the late Leslie Nielsen) “Shirley you jest.”  (And don’t call me Shirley!)

Although I got up at 3 AM today, to work on a computational finance idea (Peoplenomics, next Wed.), a good portion of the early hours was pissed away looking at Dueling Black Friday sales.

Among the tantalizing, there’s the Walmart sales.  A 50-inch UHD TV (Roku) for $148 and change?  Who would have imagined.  And there’s the Amazon sale coming soonly, as well.

Not only that, but one of my favorite hobbies (although I haven’t written on my 3D printing, CNC and laser-cutting site –here– for several years now) is 3D and CNC design. Which explains why a 15-minute block of brain clicks was spent looking at the Nov. 10 – Nov. 30 Creality.com deals.

The biggest problem most people have in life, once you get to your 60s and 70s is that (barring Alzheimer’s) you will have a lot more interests than you have time to pursue excellence in any of your faves.

Don’t know if you got that out of our ShopTalk Sunday series, or not, but yes, I like doing construction projects. Like the patio with wood stove we did.  (By the way, as soon as the project was done, here come the rains…) But there’s the odd 3D idea and build, occasional ham radio projects, there’s all the woodworking gear in the shop. And then I love to cook. And share.

Which explains why Elaine and I were putting together some inexpensive “under bed storage” rollouts Thursday. And why a new panini press is waiting to be trialed. And why there’s a 12-pod hydroponic unit going into the greenhouse, and this was after most of the day was spend futzing with the Chinese diesel heater fuel line replacement…

But, follow me here:  At some point your life gets so bloody complicated that you simply don’t have the time to “live the life you built.”

Do we still enjoy the “hot adult afternoons” now and then? Sure. But, instead, I have to make a run to town to get a load of diesel fuel.  And then, there’s the column for tomorrow. And what about putting on the pot roast?  How about Elaine’s herd of feral cats? Who will remember to plug in the pet warmer pad for them?

Toss in remembering to order this year’s TurboTax and cleaning and detailing for a house guest due in (gulp!) 12-days…and you can see the reason for daily schedules for both of us.

Last thing we need is Black Friday crap.  But don’tcha love it?

I don’t need 20-HF ham radio sets (seriously?) because the parts of the hobby I enjoy most all take enough time on their own. Fixing classic tube-type gear, high speed Morse, BS’ing with the 3806 crowd…and now the upcoming Linear Capacitor Off Center Fed Dipole design/build.

Is Storage Hoarding?

I have to imagine that Gigaparts and Ham Radio Outlet and the RW Antenna Store will all be along with their deals, too. Recently, reader Hank suggested that I sell all my ham gear and buy ONE perfect radio.  Admit that an Icom 7851 would be nice, but they’re running about $13,000 and change.

See it?  This is what I call the “Hunter’s Paradox.”  You can have ONE seriously high-end long gun.  OR you can have a Mouser, a Remington, a Winchester (guns, radios, outboards, boats, cars…all the same disease, see?).  In the end, the game is just as dead with an old Marlin, and the Morse code contact is the same whether with the high-end Icom or a 60-year-old Johnson and a Drake receiver…  Yeah, confusing world.

Same thing in the kitchen, though, when I ask Elaine “Why do we have 9-wire whisks?”  I try to ask on really hot days because the icy stares can be useful.

The real Breakthrough, though, has been realizing I need to hold every object in the shop and the office (I’ll deal with the kitchen some other time) and ask of each item: “How will you serve me before I die?”  When you’re 40 you can bullshit yourself, but when inside the (statistically likely) 20-year finishing line window, you really can throw crap out.

Do we NEED Black Friday sales events?  Nope.  Just encourages over consumption (poster child raises his hand in a sign of confession).  And that, in turn carries over into government and thence into finance.  It’s the craziest locked-loop behaviors imaginable.

But if you see someone in the shop asking his complete set of stsar drive screwdrivers “How will your serve me?” That’s what’s going on.  (Or, the fellow has simply gone daft after making a breakthrough in how to make money and realizing that the biggest curse in the world MAY be being able to “afford it all.”  But where’s it all going to go?  (Shakes head, sips tea.) “When are you going to USE it all?”

There is that… (with a nod to John Malkovich.)

Markets: Freefall Week?

Now we come to the breakthrough part of getting up at 3 AM – most of which will be saved for Peoplenomics next week.  But there’s massive wisdom, turns out, in our DMA-X (daily moving average-crossings) data.  Which in the preopen today, looked like so:

Which – as you will see – says contrary to what was spewed *bull* by the Bitcoin Nazi we actually started down in this view of things and the rally this morning at the open will be followed by an interesting short entry for Ure who thinks (but never offers financial advice!) that his get-rich quick playing alongside The House will make him fabulously wealthy just in time to die in a few years.  I know, of all the luck, huh?

Oh well.  That does bring up the Death and Dying meme, though and that gets me to thinking about?

A WW3 Progress Check

Once we have a rough idea of the short-term future (stocks higher into the close, collapse down next week) the next timeframe is What’s after that?  See the comments section and G.A. Stewart’s dandy remarks Thursday because poop-in-group times are past and the world’s headed into the fan.

Of course, a skeptic could question all this “future fitting” going on around here, so let’s take a look at the morning’s…

Evidence Table

“Ure Honor, the world is batshit crazy.  Please notice…”

Syria is starting to light up (making the 1500 mile front a little clearer to those who can’t see it, yet): US bases on fire: US attacked with Iranian ballistic missiles and drones in Syria & Iraq – bombing F-15s.

The pain in Ukraine is out of its lane: Ukrainians threw in the white towel: Russians on the outskirts of Avdivka – Russian armies converged on the “flanks” of the city causing chaos & carnage of dead.

We also expect any old day now that Turkey will tell the EU to piss off, particularly if the Swedes get in. Which will drive Turkey to the Iran/Russia column… What is driving Turkey’s Erdogan pro-Hamas, fiery Israel criticism? – Al-Monitor. All while he’s planning some internal housecleaning (Erdogan blasts Turkey’s top court, backs probe into judges) and taunting America’s stumbler-in-chief: Turkey’s Erdogan, on Israel-Hamas war, says West is ‘too weak to even call for a cease-fire’. Doesn’t he know the neocons hold Slow’s strings?

Lemme see down to Lebanon and Hezbollah next: Where we gate to ask, but is making a body count tantamount to setting a count-down timer? Hezbollah Says It Has Lost 70 Fighters Since Start of War (wsj.com)

In Gaza, a lucky few are getting out as Palestinians flee north Gaza during window for safe passage.

And down at the south end of the front? Egypt’s Sisi and Qatar’s Tamim discuss efforts to achieve ceasefire in Gaza – Foreign Affairs – Egypt – Ahram Online

And one political correctness note: since Georgia (the country, not state) is in play in the neocon’s losing chess game (that leads to WW3 becoming undeniably obvo): Ukraine designates prominent Georgian winemakers as ‘international sponsors of war’.

We will see how the weekend rolls, but not a good time to be long markets, because of a spread between moving averages in our data and THAT we’ll get into next week on the subscriber side.  Which could be worth 20-years of $40 bucks a year all by itself… we’ll see…

Elsewise and Otherly

Watch Bitcoin.  $37,218 at press time, but very close to a .618 retracement from all-time highs. Looks to us like the prospects of more “greater fools” is pushing things: Institutions Rush for Bitcoin as CME Group Flips Binance for BTC Futures Contracts (thecryptobasic.com).

Passings:  Astronaut who led humanity’s first mission around the Moon dead at 95. Frank Borman’s accomplishments came at a time when America still had big goals and hadn’t gone stupid.

Also overhead: ‘Aliens,’ or a foreign power? Pentagon UFO chief says someone is in our backyard | The Hill.

Toss a green star for the morning at the Metro for US Air Force officer goes public with terrifying UFO encounter.

Spinning Nancy: David DePape, man accused of attacking Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer, was ‘caught up in conspiracies’ about the wealthy elite, but had ‘no intention of harming’ the 82-year-old, defense says | Daily Mail Online

An article in the  Washington Examiner waltzes around a point we made about people not liking government making personal decisions for citz’s of a supposedly free country.  On abortion, GOP must recognize people don’t like bans on anything.

Best thing the GOP could do, in our modest (yet nearly infallible) view is toss the name “republican” and rebrand as the Freedom Party. (That may still be too hard for Dumbocrats to grok, but it moves the lingo war along…)

Around the Ranch: Pot Roast

We’re going to play house now and put on the pot roast. I figure the opening of today’s column was enough of a snapshot into financial dementia.

Dollar is down, gold should turn up and it will take more ducats to buy an index, making it LOOK like a rally.  Maybe, but likely not. Go read the Economic Fractalist’s similar outlook to ours in the Comments section from Thursday.

Write when you get rich,

George@Ure.net

author avatar
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/
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45 thoughts on “Black Friday & Hoarding – Markets Rolling Over”

  2. What do you mean finding time to live the life you’ve built? Seems to me you already are. Good job. Drive on.
    Diana has 3 levels of the “icy stare”. They are:
    Defcon 3 – icy stare
    Defcon 2 – Icy stare while crossing arms. Uh oh.
    Defcon 1 – Icy stare, crossed arms, right leg twisting sideways. Seek cover.
    Stay safe. 73

    • LOL LOL LOL I get that here.. IF….
      I buy a book in paper.. LOL
      or
      If I buy a new kitchen gadget.. but lately her sewing stuff is mounting since she has semi retired LOL LOL .. so no icy stare when the new cook book showed up.. instead I got an oh that is nice.. LOL LOL
      but you only have nine whisks.. I have that many and want a great big one for wine making.. but I always seem to be looking for another one.. the real little ones are nice for eggs and for drinks.. I like the rattlesnake flat bottom whisks.. the handles have that rattlesnake texture.. the flat bottom triangle keeps crap from getting in the edge of cups etc..
      One friend was commenting on my kitchen gadget stuff.. and suggested I get rid of some of it LOL LOL LOL he is into computer crap.. I said sure we can.. I toss one you toss one and we will both have more room LOL LOL no more suggestions on it LOL LOL everone has one.. the boss ( aka wife) did make me downsize books.. every once in a while I will start looking for a book I had to re read.. and then realize I gave it to the library LOL LOL.. speaking of which.. the smartest woman I have ever met.. ( she is eighty something and still reads a book and a half a day) was wanting to read the lost books of EDEN which I have a copy that has been translated.. OR had a copy that was translated.. I must have given it to the library.. great books.. My copy of the Veda texts got damaged a year ago and I had to throw it out.. I do want to get another one of those.. but they are all on line at holy books..
      https://www.holybooks.com/secret-adam-study-nasoreaen-gnosis/
      https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Kesh_Temple_Hymn.html

  3. “The biggest problem most people have in life, once you get to your 60s and 70s is that (barring Alzheimer’s) you will have a lot more interests than you have time to pursue ”
    … and 90s, because time ‘seems’ to run faster :-(.

  4. “…. when I ask Elaine “Why do we have 9-wire whisks?” I try to ask on really hot days because the icy stares can be useful.”

    That kind of writing/thought is BRILLIANT. Thanks!!

  5. Wait a minute – stop the bus mr bus driver , stop the bus. Back back back it up..
    -“Crackerass busdriver” m’on back..

    “Icom 7851 ..runs about $13,000″ Hmmm, lets do some Maths, shall we? Pay attention numbnutz, this scheisse can directly impact Ure future (coming year) –

    Price of Bitcoin on 11/10/22 – $17,500
    ” ” 11/10/23 -$36,900
    delta – $19,000 !
    G – me thinks youse coulda woulda shoulda bot a Bitcoin or piece of a Bitcoin (Satoshi) in November – 22 – back when BCN was Urging the Readership to BUYBUYBUYBUY BTC !

    Cant tell youse all how frustrating leading thirsty horses (oldfartz) to water, only to see them not only decline to take a drink, but to actually physically balk at water itself and curse it..blows my F-ing mind.

    Teaching me yet another lesson in this Life, Letting Go, Letting IT Go, Detachment.

    There I feel better already and not even hungover this AM.

    Markets trends higher in to Christmas Holidaze, after New Year – all my “bets” are off – as BCN hops a flight wit BetterHalf and 2 lil bitch ass Russels to Bayleaze and Casa BCN – lagoon-side – “backabush”.. (“Tree”) 3-Barrel Rum at the ready, H. Upmann& Hoyo’s -Habana, Cuba – aging nicely in humidor – spear fish and Eat em, Lobster & Conch 2

    Farsight.org just posted RmV session of Largest Repto Base on Moon. Really interesting insights provided by Viewers, awesome data was collected and shared.
    * note “Controller”/headPOS viewed Earth as “dense dark Cage” according deep mind probes – very aware of Viewers presence(not happy about it/grumbles). Worthy the membership fee to view projects, with entertainment dollars.

    Whats in Ure wallet – USD ? Kremlin says USA “running out of paper to print moar”. You cant know whats in my wallet – its off chain and therefore does not exist…fckrs!

    * Think Ive been hacked ! Again, gonna have to book another loss on Tax return..ohh darn it!

    …look over there a Bank! Not for much longer…tickticktick

    • no paper needed its a number flickering on a screen …take away the screen and the electrons displaying it.. and what is it you have..but if you had lets say a hundred pounds of peanuts.. and the electrons quit flowing… then what do you have.. you still have the hundred pounds of peanuts.. or gold or silver or zinc or aluminum..you still have to locate someone that wants it.. we seen toilep paper selling for the price of precious metals and more than oil.. in the sudan.. water and food

  6. “But to tear down a factory or to revolt against a government or to avoid repair of a motorcycle because it is a system is to attack effects rather than causes; and as long as the attack is upon effects only, no change is possible. The true system, the real system, is our present construction of systematic thought itself, rationality itself, and if a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a systematic government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves in the succeeding government. There’s so much talk about the system. And so little understanding.”

    — Robert M Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

  7. George :
    re: Bitcoin In USD (trading 7 days a weeks)

    On daily basis starting 11 October 2023 Bitcoin is following a 7/16.5/8 of 14 day fractal series ending 16 November. A possible peak would be 1.618 times the ideal base (17 days divided by 2.5 or 6.6 days), so the final high may be on this Sunday.
    The crash devaluation should occur over M-Th.
    The dominant weekly fractal series started on 8 November 2022 and follows a 9/23-24/23-24 week maximum growth fractal x/2.5x/2.5x. A decay fractal of 14 weeks would complete a 9/23-24/23-24/14-15 week 4 phase fractal series.

    Recent Lacy Hunt macroeconomic big picture interview:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzBGXF0t02k

    • Today I was thinking about an EV comparison and the Chinese ghost cities came to mind.

      “Ghost Cities are vacant neighborhoods and sometimes whole cities that were built but were never inhabited. Their existence is a physical manifestation of Chinese overdevelopment in real estate and the dependence on housing as an investment strategy.”

      G, the host ran the numbers for the U.S. electrical grid and there wasn’t enough watts in the system to handle all the Btu units currently used in the ICE fleet.

      EVs may be ‘ghost manufacturing’ and a simple way to keep the minimum payments paid.

  11. ..Lettuce begin todays lesson in evil/vile places and people.

    First things first – need an accurate “Map” – for this selection We choose Sidereal for the study.

    ..Natal chart Israel -May 14,1948 @4 pm

    ‘Their Sun is aligned with end of Aries, on the same longitude as The Gorgon, the most malefic sector of the heavens in some cultures, whose main star is Algol, also nicknamed The Star of the Demon.

    Think Greek and legend of Medusa, whose gaze turned her enemies to stone..or pillar of Salt? Latin name for Algol gives Caput Larvae meaning Head of Septre. Stars brightness changes every 2 days or so due eclipse from neighbor star.
    In Arab tradition the star represented the Ogre’s head or the head of a ghoul, which is reflected in its name Ra’s al Ghul. The ghouls in Arab folklore were Female, related to class of vampirising djinn, offspring Iblis – who sieze physical and physic corpses.
    The Greek godess Algos is also personification of Pain and Sorrow..which gives interesting meaning Algorithm = Painful Rhythm.
    Finally Hebrew word for this star Rosh a satan “the head of satan”

    All these names clearly show the malefic character of the Star projecting its gaze on isreals natal Sun. The Chinese call this star “Tseih She” – which translates “piled up corpses”. Certainly dont want to see this Star in Ure 8th House on Ure Natal Chart..Al Ghoul in this position promises “violent death”. This maybe why, in the constellation, Perseus cuts off the demons head on Athenas orders.
    Perseus is, of course, a quasi homographer of Persia, todays modern Iran; of Aryana, the land of Aryans.
    -Romaine/JH

    Buybuybuyb BTC – never mind pending pullback, must have technology..Must Have.

    • I am NOT an astology person but I have always disagreed with the CLAIM that Israel came to exist on May 14, 1948. The actions of that date were merely ASPIRATIONAL STATEMENTS and a WISH for the FUTURE since Israel had no land and no government, or structure for a government, at that point in time.

      Israel did NOT COME INTO EXISTENCE IN THE REAL WORLD until .. 1) the Cease Fire between it and the first set of combatants occured a number of months later OR .. 2) when the final Cease Fire agreements were signed several months later.

      It would be like saying the US came into existence as a formed nation on Jul 4, 1776 versus it’s actual creation on March 9 1789. For the US the events of July 4, 1776 were important … but were ONLY ASPIRATIONAL at that point in time. The US did NOT COME TO EXIST on that date, just as Israel did NOT come to exist on May 14, 1948. Aspirational Statement do NOT a country make.

      Let me repeat: Aspirational Statement do NOT a country make.

      The initial TRUCE between Israel and the waring parties finally occured with Egypt on February 24, 1949 and the final truce signed July 20, 1949. THOSE are imo the ACTUAL DATES that Israel may have come to exist.

      ————————-

      “The last military activity happened in March 1949, when Israeli forces captured the Negev desert and reached the Red Sea. In 1949, Israel signed separate armistices with Egypt on 24 February, Lebanon on 23 March, Transjordan on 3 April, and Syria on 20 July.”

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestine_war#:~:text=The%20last%20military%20activity%20happened,and%20Syria%20on%2020%20July.

  12. Been talking to someone about getting help with a six panel ground mount solar install, with enough cable to expand to 12 panels without pulling more homerun wire. OMG. $$$$$. I think the first thing I will have to do is self-perform the underground conduit with a rental trencher, then look for help with the racks. I wish I could find a prefab on runners I could tie down with auger anchors, and eliminate digging and concrete work.

  14. News just out of NATO . . .

    https://www.newsweek.com/russias-nuclear-weapons-move-sparks-nato-fears-1842761

    . . . reports Russia is no longer going to abide by the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). This has me more concerned than I’d like to admit, but I’ll hold further judgements until I hear if the U.S. decides to start putting more warheads ‘on alert’ (loading bombers and having them sit 24/7/365 nuke alert; fully equipping boomer subs with SLBMs; putting more ICBMs in U.S. silos & placing them nuke alert; and supporting NATO allied nuke programs, planning and posturing). Looks like George Patton was right after all regarding Russia:

    “We had the atomic bomb, they did not at that point…we should have dropped one right down the Kremlin chimney on to Stalin’s lap. We had the long range B-29 bomber and could have established bases in Germany..and bombed them all the way to Siberia…none of their fighters could match an escorted B-29 high atltitude bomb run. The first thing the Russians do is reverse engineer the B-29, and steal atomic secrets to build their own bombs. Devious SOBs.”

    Putin was and is KGB. He was and is a staunch commie bastard. And he wants to resurrect the USSR any way he can.

    • Wwell … when you swat a hornet’s nest what do you expect? At least Putin loves his country and acts accordingly. I can’t fault him for that. He’s not actively trying to subvert his bedrock society even though he’s going through a lot of soldiers fighting the Ukrainian outback. That’s just their business model. He has his neocons to contend with and I’d put good money down on the probability that they invest in U.S. armament companies, too. They pay better dividends than Russian fire cracker makers, I’m sure. But our neocons’ wet dream of defeating and making Russia a taxable satellite state is bonkers beyond measure. Neither Russia nor China are truly “Communist” in any sense of the philosophy any more. They’re more like GM, Chrysler and Ford competing against each other by blowing up their franchises. The Elites have always been Capitalists.

      • Here I will both agree and disagree with you guys. China is hardcore communist. However, in the interest of building a one world empire, they have put their ideology on hold, to temporarily become fascist. Their temporary ideology corresponds to the neocon in the United States. In the U.S. Neocons are fascists; “Progressives” or “progressive Democrats” are communists. They are both socialist, merely disagreeing on the means to achieve the same end.

        Because both fascism and communism are economic tools of socialism, they can be freely interchanged by the ruling authority (in the case of China, that’d be the CCP.) If GM and VW and Siemens and Intel stay in China long enough, they WILL see their “government partnership” destroyed, and replaced, literally overnight, with nationalized entities, and their management boards expelled, interred, or executed, at the whim of the Party.

        Russia is not communist and is probably less-socialist than France, the UK, or the US. Russia has seen the effect of the communist-socialist lifestyle, and I don’t believe that (aside from the holdovers in the Duma) any Russian wants to go back. History bemoans the 40mln Ukrainians Stalin killed (through starvation). They don’t even mention the 23 million Russians he executed, or the 60 million “Soviets” Lenin terminated, before him. I haven’t studied Putin extensively, but from what I have gleaned: He has no desire to be a Premier or see a return to the Soviet Union. However, he would like to see a return to Czarist Russia. IMO the dude has a stiffy for Czarina Catherine II who, were she alive today, would likely be a capitalist in a thriving democracy, or possibly even a republic.

    • Have to agree with Bill here.

      Russian and China both left the economic and political theories of “Communism” behind decades ago. Now both are acting as any big nation with national interests has acted since the Middle Ages.

      Remember …. the US PROMISED IN WRITING to Russia in the early 1990’s that Nato would not expand past East Germany … that Nato’s old boundaries plus East Germany would be the extent of Nato on the East in the future.

      Since then the US /Nato (virtually one and the same) have kept tightening the noose around Russia, pushing US and Nato troops right to the very edge of Russia in a clear violation of that agreement the US made in the early 1990’s. (this includes our troops and bases in various “Stans” countries)

      How would the US feel if Russia or China moved a couple of hundred thousand troops into Mexico, along with nuclear weapons … and then did the same moving troops and nuclear weapons into Canada? We might be a tad upset too and ALSO WORRY about our survival as a country.

      Putin is acting in a classical Czarist manner … no different from the Czars of old, but he definitely is NOT acting as a Communist (which entails state ownership and state control of EVERY business, including the bakery shop down the street, AND NO PRIVATE PROPERTY).

      Russia is a risk to us … AGAIN …. but because of our own actions in trying to cause it to fall apart into many pieces which we can then try to individually dominate. Russia is now rebelling against the US trying to dismember it, which the US has clearly been trying to do for the last 30+ years, … and eventually that may lead to full scale War between us as the US continues to try to cause Russia to collapse and disintegrate and Russia fights against that occurring.

      Just like any animal a country WILL FIGHT for it’s survival if that is threatened. Something to remember … A country IS a living organism and IS going to react in the same way that any other living organism will react when it’s survival is at stake.

      A “Fight To The Death” may be in the cards between the US and Russia as the US continues to try to destroy and dismember Russia.

  15. “Hunter’s Paradox”?
    Not a paradox at all. Having only one item that’s in great shape is always subject to catastrophic failure. Two is one and one is none. No redundancy at all!

    Much better to have a few items(two at least) that are in good enough shape to work when needed. The “best” is for enthusiasts. Good enough is best for those of us who need redundancy. I could not live where I am safely with just one car. I need a minimum of two vehicles registered and insured so I can move freely regardless of regular maintenance and unexpected failures. One can tow the other one home. I’d prefer more than two for more specialized mission profiles, but the insurance and registration are not really worth it. I don’t put the same value on radios as you do, but the principle applies.

    • George and Mike
      I read an article about putting together a Tactical Sniper Rifle for a small police force on a budget. They were thinking small town Mayberry type forces with very small budgets.
      When they got done buying their bare minimum of equipment and modifications, they spent about $3-4000.
      I went to a pawn shop and bought a Remington 700 in .308 Win. with a Tupperware plastic stock like they sell at the big box stores for about $300 (That was then; They are higher now). .308 is hard to find, but if you have to, there will be lots of .30-06. You just won’t be able to find free ammo from people no longer using it.
      Bought a scope for about $75 at a gun show, and bases and rings for about $30 at the sporting goods store.
      Did these four things:
      Took the bolt apart and lapped it to the receiver with valve polishing compound until the bolt lugs seated evenly. Dyken blue the bolt lugs and cycle the action until the blue is worn off both sides the same.
      Took the Rem factory trigger apart and used my Dremel to polish all of the internals. Put it back together with Honda Reassembly lube (moly based). Then adjusted it properly, with a minimum of 0.015″ sear engagement. Most people don’t do this and that’s where accident happen. (There is a porthole on the side for doing this with a feeler gauge.) Then set the trigger weight by turning in the overtravel screw until it released the sear, then setting it back in 1/2 turn. Instant 3 lb. trigger.
      Filled the tupperware stock with urethane foam to deaden it, then filled the opening under the recoil lug and the rear stock screw with JB Weld. Used thorough coating of clear KIWI Shoe polish on receiver and in screw holes for release agent. Fast epoxy bedding.
      Last is removed the finish from the scope bases and the receiver and JB Welded the bases to the receiver. The rings never come loose, its the bases. If I had a drill press then, I would have drilled and tapped the bases and the receiver for 8-32 or 8-40 screws and not the tiny 6-48 screws our US gun companies traditionally supply (because of …TRADITION!)
      Oh, and replace every spring in the gun with a Wulff spring. Wulff make kits to replace all springs.
      These four steps get your garden variety M700 about 80% of the way to a US M40 marine sniper rifle. I was happy with the results, well under 1″ at 100 yds.
      Police snipers aren’t shooting at a mile, usually under 100 yards so I had everything I needed for about $500 including a couple of boxes of S&B 147 gr .308 Win FMJ and a nice Kevlar sling.
      Have one in .308 Win and one in .223 Rem. Then you can Pick up ammo from people who are not using it anymore.

      • I put a .308 Shilen (?) medium weight barrel on my Winchester M70 Varminter with a McMillan fiberglass stock, courtesy of precisionbarrelwork.com, with a Simmons scope (my dream is getting a Shepherd scope) last year and it holds groups at about a half dollar size at 150 yards which is better than I’d ever experienced in a .30 caliber cartridge. With a better rest I could do better. I’d like to have the same work-up in at least a .30-06 or .300 Win Mag to get the best performance out of a .30 but don’t really need it. The barrel likes the Federal loads with the 168gr. Sierra Match King bthp bullets and I hope to work up my own loads with this combination. Stay away from the flat based bullets as they are erratic as the dickens.

        I’ve toyed with the idea of setting up a 1 mile range at the ranch but haven’t had the time to do it. I barely have time to set up for a little sighting-in in our caliche pits preparing for hunting season. Indeed, it takes longer to do all the setting up than the actual sighting-in shots.

        • If you’re thinking about a .30-06 or .300 Win Mag workup, does that mean with a gun you don’t presently own?

          The SpcOps now use the .338 Lapua magnum as their sniper rifle, because it has an exceedingly flat trajectory and a range in excess of a mile, and a lot more energy when it arrives.

          If you’re starting cold, and the cost of the .300mag rounds don’t scare you, would it be worthwhile for you to check out the .338?

        • … But that depends on what you’re going after. I recently saw a video of a bull moose taking at least 3 shots from a .30-06 and it looked like an angry bumble bee attacking it. .338 would be a good start to take down one of those. Around here a .243 is almost overkill for our White Tail deer. We’ve got a Red Stag that got away from someone’s herd running around the ranch. That would be worth at least a .243 in the neck. I’d probably need the tractor to lift it into the bed of the truck and have to take it in to the deer processors as my skinning rack wouldn’t hold it.

  16. re: “Markets Rolling”
    feat. “Over”

    Folks,

    Jest not we are in financially responsible times? Indeed one may look to the Canadian federal government for guidance on matters of finance. Yesterday $500 million in previously assigned funding to a couple of dozen government departments was frozen. Of that, two days before Remembrance Day, The Department of National Defence (DND) was handed a $211.1 million freeze. Separately, the government gave DND a one-time funding allocation of $1.5 billion of which $500 million is to be directed to the special military operation in the Ukraine.

    The Department of Finance headed by the ethnic Ukrainian Canadian Minister of Finance did not escape the freeze either. The departmental annual budget of $118 billion was trimmed by $827,000. The CBC report notes that this represents “about 0.0007%” of Finance’s annual budget. Shirley, we are in awe.

    Break out the tin-foil party hats, but no, it’s not a ufo sighting! DJ George is at the controls sorting through the cacophony. Hop aboard as we climb to the top of the 1964 charts –
    “It’s Over”
    Roy Orbison

  17. Funny, big rally today on nothing, SP500 up almost 70 points, after close of market “Moody’s cuts U.S. outlook to negative, citing higher interest rates and deficits”.
    Once again showing how manipulated this market really is. Next week is going to be a down week it looks like.

  18. First Test Run.., no worse for wear.
    First cuppa and wandered into the ‘office’ but, I did not turn on the trade desk., turned around and wandered outside, into the darkness. I did however check the futures and the open a couple of hours later., but no trades going.
    Looks like I might survive my decision to stop Day Trading. [ decades ]
    Still haven’t decided what to do with my Trade Station though.

  19. I have one Icom 7300 as my main radio, and I was ‘gifted’ an old Kenwood TS-450. The Kenwood went out with the club ‘field day’ during the CQ magazine world-wide SSB contest with a 10-meter hamstick dipole and made 35 contacts in 9 hours of operating. All around the Pacific rim on 10 meters.
    I have more than enough radios. And I spent $12,000 LESS than your ‘dream machine’. Really.. what special accessories do you absolutely NEED to spend that much moolah on? You might as well buy some Bitcoin!!

  20. The poo approacheth…

    I had a lucid dream a few nights ago. I kept putting off logging it, so I’ve forgotten some. However, I’ll give y’all what I remember:

    I was in my local town. (It’s small, boring, ~60 miles from any real city, and aside from an occasional meth lab, nothing happens here.) I stopped at a cstore and glimpsed the local newspaper. The headline and above the fold blurb was all about a local quadruple homicide that’d just happened (there’s a two day lag between real life and stories in the local rag — even breaking news.) The victims were in a store (Family Dollar? DG? cstore…?) and were executed in an apparent robbery. I left the cstore and went to the local farm supply store. Folks were talking about “the shootings” which I naturally assumed were the ones reported in the paper.

    Nope.

    They were talking about the sextuple murder that occurred down the road from the farm store, “last night” (people at a McDonalds had been lined up and shot, SS-style.) As I was checking out, half the county’s LEOs blasted past, running flat-out and noisy. The store MOD had a police scanner in his office and came out to advise the CS gals (I was in the checkout next to the Customer Service island) that someone had just found six more bodies, out by the highway, and he was locking up. The victims had been lined up and executed. This was obviously shocking. Once the shock wore off I turned to the lady behind me in line and commented: “I think it would be a good time to get to know our neighbors — like right now, today!”

    She simply looked at me and nodded.

    Upon awakening, the thought that popped into my head was the several million military-age males that have invaded CONUS, then been dispersed and disappeared hither and yon, by the Islamonazi-sympathizing communists who are running what used to be our country.

    BTW, in case no one noticed, that thought kinda dovetails with the billions of rounds the government purchased under Obama….

    • I won’t negate the probability that the fact we tend to concentrate on the breakdown of our society here on George’s site and, no doubt, carry the thought elsewhere in our surfing, can certainly influence our dreams but cause and effect with an open border are real and this could come to be sooner than one would think. What I remember of the dreams I had last night was of a similar nature. Our highway is a major corridor of illicit traffic but, so far, it’s all concentrated on bypassing us for more fertile ground. We did have a wreck on the highway a few years ago that resulted in some of the occupants fleeing into our little town. One may have been armed but had they come to the school and taken hostages we’d be on the map just like Uvalde. Thank God we aren’t … so far.

    • That is why I literally, LITERALLY, “Don’t leave home without it.” The only place I don’t (can’t) have it is the military base I work on. I have other things there. I have two offices one in the city and one on the base. Both have 4-D cell mag lites in the desk.
      With all the new LED lights out there, why would I carry a huge mag lite? Answer is….
      I have something in my pocket even at home. Getting older they have become smaller and easier to pack in a pocket, some smaller caliber, but always in reach. Not in my neighborhood but one near by, the standard practice is to walk up on al olefart riding his lawnmower in the yard and yank him off and take him inside. Roll him and his wife both up in the carpets (if not worse). Rummage through and leave them there. If they are lucky they are found by someone
      This is occuring a little at a time everywhere and we don’t seem to notice in the noise floor of evening news.
      When I am at work I am an olefart living alone.
      My wife and athlete daughter live together, my son is about 2 miles away in his home. They are alert and looking out for each other.
      When I alone I am not empty handed.
      When my wife and I got to the land in out of town we don’t go empty handed.
      When We go to the Self Organizing Collective in GA we are always heeled.
      George I hope when you ride around on your tractor in the back forty, you are taking care of yourself.

      • Looks like I’ll start again, when I’m working around the place. It took the Shawnee, building a campfire on one of my ancestors’ stomachs, to prompt my Quaker ancestors to strap rifles to their plowshares. Who am I to not appreciate their wisdom in tempering the parson’s word with common sense?

        BTW, you might see what the base regs are WRT flareguns and crossbow pistols. (I can’t carry a firearm in NY, but I can carry both a flaregun and a “toy” crossbow pistol.) My “toy” crossbow pistol has about a 90# draw and hits like a 9mm @ 50′, but it looks like the 30-50 pound toy pistols. I believe you can buy 130# pistols now, but I have no idea what you’d do with one. It’d be too hard to cock, quickly, if you needed to fling more than one persuader..

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