95 thoughts on “How to Prep for War – Market’s Wall of Worry”

1. RE: Ham Inquiry:
   FINAL announcement. Current roster: 27!

   If you wish to be tagged on, say so, and I’ll add URE screen name.
   (Corrections and additions happily received.)

   Suggest you NOT use URE ham callsign on here. It’s too easily looked up. (QRZ.com)

   But, mentioning URE screen name on HF radio, if and when we ever hold a net or a drill, seems to be less likely to be a problem. Few SWLs would have any idea what that name would mean, but we would all know. Passphrase: “Everything’s a business model,” worked casually into the conversation, without calling any special attention to it, would be another challenge coin.

   – AR –

   P.S. UPDATE As of early this A.M., I have the
   following, either directly or by reasonable inference.

   1 George (et.al.)
   2 William of the Radio Ranch
   3 Random Mike
   4 Randy
   5 Jim in MO
   6 Stephen 2
   7 Mikey
   8 d’Lynn
   9 Ray
   10 T
   11 Hank in Hawaii
   12 Steven B
   13 Bc
   14 ralph
   15 Timmyb
   16 Nancy Attaway
   17 Fred
   18 Egor
   19 olfart (et. al.)
   20 Mark in TX
   21 JD in N AL
   22 DBM
   23 James Johnson
   24 The other Scott
   25 Quiet1
   26 Jim in MO
   27 Hoboken

   P.S. 7.299 by day: 3.999 by night.
   No “HQ.” Self-organized ad hoc. With
   27 (or more) of us, this is probably an
   interesting “Village Green” for sharing.
   information when the plugs go out. For
   example, one 75 meter insomniac’s net
   on 3.933 covers about half the country
   in the wee small hours.

   – 73 –

   • Midwest – Great Lakes region

   • I’m a ham; inactive at present.

   • No code extra in NE Ill

2. if a link to this website is posted, is that a copyright violation?

   • Yes if the posting is without permission, ads placed by content originator are stripped out and the post is under the name of someone who didn’t write it (top) then yep. Scammy shit

   • A link to what website… Urban Survival?

     It depends. If you quote or paraphrase a paragraph or two from Urban Survival you should absolutely post a link back to George’s page. The quote is called “fair use” and the linkback is called “attribution.”

     If you quote six paragraphs, or don’t link back, that is called “theft of content” and leaves you both civilly and criminally liable to judgement, whenever our host gets around to filing a lawsuit or lodging a complaint with the po-po (respectively.)

     Using myself as an example: When you see something non-original that I have posted here (or elsewhere) it will be in the form of:

     Title
     Paragraph, paraphrase, or excerpt
     Link
     My comment (if I care to make one)

     The “Title” is the exact title of the article. The “Link” is the exact linkback or permalink to the exact article. The excerpt is a cut/paste of from two to six sentences, which I select, to describe the article.

     I use this format because it satisfies all legal and moral requirements, and at the same time is courteous to other posters/readers because it “captions” the link, so readers can tell whether they’d be interested in clicking on it. If you notice, George uses substantially this same format, but because he’s a professional, writing an essay, (and because he can use the “name” tag instead of posting raw hyperlinks), he can simply incorporate this format into a paragraph and move on…

3. I’m actually encouraged by this …

   https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2023/01/27/Hungary-will-veto-EU-sanctions-against-Russia-on-nuclear-energy-PM-Orban

   • Orban is the only one of them with a lick of sense, which is why most EU countries don’t like him, and why the George Soros / Vichy Nuland dance troupe spent many millions trying to remove him from the dance floor, this past election…

4. There’s a “war option” you may not have considered. Where the other day Konstanin Garrilov (under instruction from Moscow) told the OSCE outright that were the tanks, Bradleys & Marders sent in with depleted uranium ammunition that, where this has been proven in Yugoslavia, Iraq & Afghanistan to poison the terrain and groundwater with Beryium & Uranium, Moscow “will consider this as the use of dirty nuclear bombs against Russia, with all the ensuing consequences.”

   Given that warning, another option might be that the force staging in Belarus cross the border and head west for Liviv thus cutting off Ukraine from supplies being staged in Poland (including the 90 tanks that are said (incorrectly) to be a game changer. Without resupply from Poland Kiev’s military dies on the vine and is crushed by the 500,000 Russian troops already in place to overrun them. War over. World economy forced into two opposing economic blocks.

5. Your UreNess:

   I don’t much enjoy reading about tomes of war. A good thing I spose? The only item I find myself short on in your abbreviated prep list is comm. A tough nut.

   When my tree guy was doing a walk-around estimate I took him to the biggest tree and asked what it would cost to put it on the ground (where an hourly guy would break it down for firewood). $200? I paused long enough to ask if he was insured and bonded then couldn’t stick my shake-on-it hand out fast enough. In toto we had (13) trees dropped and enjoy safety (some endangered the house, the big $200 stick was aimed at the pole barn) and the firewood.

   Ahem, you can’t imagine how silly it sounds (reads) when people to our south whinge about 35F. It was 13F when I rose this am and has managed to climb to 17F as I type. If you can’t handle 35F you need better winter wear. The sun is out so we threw open the sash (all of them) and are luxuriating due to passive solar. Thx Sol!

   Not enough people think in “net” after inflation. A the nummers are skewed by what we net after. Will Ms. Mkt. today be more influenced by evil Oil Cos. or the likes of INTC? TBD.

   Write when you get wool,
   Egor

6. George I did the tree thing last fall,I’m still seeing the local spin management center. Be careful and rementer your age.

7. RCS2 –

   Don’t underestimate refugees. As citizens start getting bombs dropped on their heads they take initiative and start walking to some place else. “Loot & leave”.

   When the Niagara & Hoover complexes go down the locals will be evac’ed. Possibly by footmobile. Not everyone will make the walk.

   Radioactive water will be a big problem. A lot of people drink from the Niagara/Colorado rivers. People will still drink not believing they shouldn’t. During WW2 trained Americans soldiers drank ocean water, and died. During stress people’s brains go haywire.

   People with a basement could setup one of those 3′-0″ deep backyard pools down there as a make shift cistern. Throw an aquarium bubbler on it powered by a solar panel.

8. you got a pretty sweet deal on the tree removal. Had 2 huge ash trees at the house in town removed last fall that were victims of the dreaded ash borer. The bill was $3800 and change. A friend who owns a tree service handled it for me. I went up to watch over the project, and ahem do some shopping at the Stetson store, but never made it to the Hattery. Watching the crew and their gear was too damn much fun. These trees were both over 100′ tall 38″ and 44″ at the base respectively, all of which was placed into a grinding machine at the curb by a slick smallish tractor with a grapple mounted up front. The climbers and ground guys worked together like a ballet. What a show.
   Wife and I decided to work out a deal to sell the house to our youngest son Knucklehead #2. Handed the bill to him and said consider this is your down payment and you can arrange for the stump removal. No checks. So far so good.
   Stay safe. 73

9. “… best-prepped people in the cemetery.”

   Exactamundo. I’ve done my “experimental garden” so I know pretty much what will and won’t grow in the back yard; fixed and stocked up on everything I can – and still doing it; increased my firepower, for what it’s worth while facing a mob of either o-fisshul misfits or just run-of-the-mill ones and tried to make as many other people aware of what’s coming while they still won’t believe their lying eyes. Things were, well, “interesting” during the Big Freeze a couple of years ago but if it were to go on indefinitely due to war, financial calamity, mostly peaceful invasions going predictably bad … all of the above and more … the probability of keeping most of your stuff goes to zero (like Zero Hedge’s motto) the longer time goes on.

   Even in OSA, again George – yer welcome, the entire town banded together under competent leadership to fend off a well-armed mob, made peace pacts with neighboring strongholds and food producers and generally kept the “others” out to promote personal survival still succumbed to overwhelming force from people with bigger guns and air power. The only way a secret is kept so is if NO ONE ELSE KNOWS which means solitude very deep in the mountains or a desert isle even Gilligan hasn’t discovered yet. Once TSHTF it’ll be a while before successful gardening is safe and you’d best look as bad as everyone else or fall under suspicion of being one of “those evil Preppers that stole everything from us”. (You know how that narrative goes) The more I think about it the more I look forward to the Sun’s micronova event.

   • Shooting into a mob for your life is an easy task.

     Perhaps some people look to you as a leader and have told their tribe, “If there’s ever a problem go to Bill’s house.”

     ‘Where you going?’ Like ducks, “We’re going to Bill’s place. C’mon.”

     Crying adults and kids. Brains going haywire. Now they want to let more people in.

     • Look to me as a leader? Oh heck no. I’m just the uncouth hick nutter that doesn’t keep his yard up to Better Homes and Garden’s level of acceptability. The house doesn’t scream “We’re rich and I don’t care who knows it!”. There’s better ways of enjoying what wealth you have, if any, than begging for others’ approval. We’re not Sanford & Son’s (that’s the ranch – never throw anything durable away.) but the only thing green in the yard are weeds which don’t look all that bad when mowed and there’s no expensive toys that we’ve been parading about in parked in back.

       In a real SHTF scenario when the truth of things really sets in to peoples’ minds the various groups in our area – probably delineated by those already involved socially in the town, those of exceptional means (mainly the Chamber of Commerce bunch) which are somewhat related to the former and the rest of us who’ve been here for a hundred years. It all depends on what the attitude of all the newbie rich people take toward the rest of us that know how to do stuff and have resources. It could be fairly easy and it could be a real mess. There are a few newbies I know that have a real potential to go Hitler on us but we all know where they live. They’ve been put in their place once before but time will tell if they actually learned their lesson. Being in a small town is a double-edged sword.

       The real fun will start, however, when the banks go South and everyone tries to start figuring out how to use the CBDCs …. and then the lights go out.

   • Bill
     January 27, 2023 at 08:54
     … The only way a secret is kept so is if NO ONE ELSE KNOWS which means solitude…
     __________________________________
     You are right! As a heads-up, if one is all wired up and enabled on the electronic-computer entertainment scene, AND think this way about keeping secrets, they’d best get rid of their Alexa and Seri equipment.
     It listens better than you think. So does your cell phone.
     If you have one of these, you are leaking private information during EVERY conversation…

     • ” It listens better than you think. So does your cell phone.”

       Old news from 2021 but:

       Yes, your iPhone is taking ‘invisible’ pictures of you

       A video showing a mobile device snapping infrared images of an iPhone user is circulating around the internet and is catching many by surprise.

       In the TikTok shared by user Brie Thomason, a digital camera using an infrared lens is seen filming an iPhone user observing his home screen. As the iPhone user stares at the device, Thomason’s digital camera captures the iPhone snapping multiple infrared images every five to 10 seconds.

       https://wgntv.com/news/yes-your-iphone-is-taking-invisible-pictures-of-you/

     • Our old IP is going away this year as Verizon gobbles it up so we got a new provider’s router installed yesterday. We went from about 3Mb/second download to around 100 so we’re doin’ juuuuus fine out here! So far we’re the only one on their tower so we can stream to our heart’s content now as the grandkids play their games.

       Don’t know what to do about the phones just yet. I have no Bluetooth or Internet turned on with mine but I know that will have to change. I’m under no illusions that I can’t be tracked in the back pasture with or without those services turned on so perhaps just leaving it at home may be the best option when things get squirrely. I know Siri lives on both the wife’s and grandkids’ phones so we’re probably screwed there – as long as we’re within earshot. But there’s going to be so many people on the NSA’s and all other alphabet agencies’ sh*t list all we can do is hope we aren’t at the top of the list to be rounded up so we’ll have some foreknowledge of things happening.

       … Surely they aren’t monitoring George’s site now are they??? C, how’s the coffee in your agency’s break room?

   • “Exactamundo. I’ve done my “experimental garden” so I know pretty much what will and won’t grow in the back yard; ”

     That reminds me I need to check on the brackets for the cube.. you can grow so much without soil…. there is a guy in Brainard Minn.. nice guy works as a driver for walmart.. he has millions of people following him.. the soil in his yard sucks.. so he wanted a garden he made the first one was a pop bottle garden a window garden.. then the ultimate a kiddy pool garden and his rain gutter grow system..
     He did one test to see how air pruning worked and did a stalk of corn in a five gallon bucket.. the corn was so tall where a normal stalk of corn was around five foot tall.. his got three times taller.. the root ball was so big it filled the bucket..
     https://youtu.be/wvwg5MdS-T0
     https://youtu.be/TWsoG3_u45E
     https://youtu.be/-qC4JFu-Oyw

     • ” rain gutter grow system..”
       That’s so funny. I mean that seriously! Sounds like the rain gutters at my grandmother’s place. I ought to be growing grapes in them and let them overhang the patios.

       • Check Larry out..rain gutters was the perfect way to provide a continuous feed.. using a wicking grow bed.. his method of using a float valve as a way to maintain the system without having to use energy..
         there are gutter grow beds now all around the globe.. quite a few variations of the same method..in Washington state University horticulture they have a greenhouse where they use the dutch bucket hydroponics.. virtually the same principle as the gutter grow system..
         the Mayans and Aztec did something similar..using raft gardens..

10. hope you are saving those Butt logs for future use ……………
    tens and twelve footers right off the base.

    Only had 2 logs I couldn’t pick with a log loader…
    A 22 foot cherry log and a 12 foot hard maple…..
    that scaled out eleven hundred board foot on the “Doyle” scale.

    Hate to see good logs end up in someones fire wood pile

11. Hey G., I see an attack on the US strictly an EMP event i.e. biggest bang for your buck most of the stuff that I have read says an EMP one over the east coast and one over the west coast would leave 2/3rds of our population dead within 90 days and our infrastructure somewhat intact then all they would have to do is wait for the smell to go away. A sad and sick way to look at it but the people doing it will not be “woke” or will they care.

    • Each potential life-ending attack has its advantages and disadvantages.

      The advantages to a HEMP (High-altitude ElectroMagnetic Pulse) are it doesn’t break buildings or melt roads. It doesn’t kill people directly, thus creating a serious need for the military, in their EMP-proof vehicles, to engage in a huge, domestic humanitarian effort, rather than an overseas fight, and it provides an “astronomically high” return on investment. Its most-gaping disadvantage [is] it doesn’t disable any of our first-strike or second-strike theater weapons, nor does it disable the planet-wide satellite surveillance we employ, to let us know when anyone fires a missile, anywhere. Ergo, we would know whodunnit before the flashes popped off in near space, and within a few minutes of our electrical grid going away, we would be launching 500 multiple-warhead nuclear ICBMs, to turn the entire attacking country into a glass parking lot. If somebody launched a few “satellites” over a period of months, thus could not be identified, I suspect we would launch a couple dozen EMP warheads of our own, to ensure all possible combatants would be fighting without any substantial technical advantages (fighting on a “level playing field”). Bill Forstchen’s projection was that after an HEMP attack 90% of Americans would die off within one year — most from starvation or from sickness caused by lack of sanitation (and that includes Canadians and folks living in the northern 2/3 of Mexico, as well.)

      The advantage to a nuke is you can take out a specific area, dropping one on an ICBM silo or an Air Force base, for instance, or a command & control center like D.C. There’s also the possibility of the “Nagasaki effect” (where a combatant capitulates from shock because you just vaporized several million of its citizens, thus proving you have the balls to actually use nukes). The disadvantages are you destroy 100% of the local infrastructure, and do it in such a manner that nobody can clean up the mess for several hundred years, and if there’s no “Nagasaki effect,” you’ve just REALLY pissed-off a nuclear combatant who’s now going to nuke ALL of your cities.

      With Russia’s recent military advances comes a third way to use nukes — the Poseidon. The Poseidon is a stealthy remote controlled torpedo with a 10,000+ mile range and a 100 megaton warhead. Its detonation would create a tsunami 1500 ft high which may (or may not) be radioactive. A Poseidon detonated 100 miles west of Bermuda would kill every American between the eastern ridge of the Appalachian mountains and the east coast. A Poseidon detonated 500 miles west of San Francisco Bay would kill every American between the Sierras and the west coast. We have no means of preventing or countering such an attack, and would likely not even know it had occurred until the water receded ahead of the tidal wave. The super-advanced, super-stealth submarine which carries the Poseidon sailed out of the Black Sea a few months ago, and disappeared…

      Understand, the social pervs in D.C. seem to believe they can goad Russia into using a battlefield nuke in Ukraine. That’s not going to happen. Ukraine is “Europe’s breadbasket.” It’s dirt is extremely valuable, and there’s also a bazillion gallons of crude and cubic feet of gas underneath that dirt (a fact of which few know…) Also, it has been Russian turf for 85% of the past 1100 years. Mr. Putin has no desire to contaminate even a square inch of Ukraine. He has no such reservation when it comes to the United States or the U.K., and what the idiots in Washington don’t understand is Russia is not going to drop a tactical nuke somewhere. They will never use a nuke unless they have to, but if they do, they’re going to use 7000 nukes all-at-once, and destroy France, the U.K., the U.S. and Canada, and likely large swaths of Europe and Australia.

      • Was it someone here a week or two ago that asked George about why the two Japanese cities were re-inhabited almost immediately after being nuked? Chernobyl had much more fissionable material that is still in the process of burning itself out and I think they’re letting people back into to Fukishima but what are the current radiation levels in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after 78 years?

        In any case, though, we all should say a prayer for any of the astronauts still in Space when the first firecracker goes off. If China calls their guys home and the ISS is suddenly empty then I think it would be well to find a hole somewhere … Fast!

        So the Poseidon has a 100 MT yield? And the Tsar Bomba was only 50? I’d hate to test the Russian’s “truth in advertising” factor on this but I really wonder if Putin has the cajones to lite the fuse on that one.

        • ” I really wonder if Putin has the cajones to lite the fuse on that one.”

          I have no doubt he has the testicular fortitude. I also have no doubt he is acutely aware of the possible ramifications.

          For some reason, our military has the impression that combatants should trade punches and play by the Marquis of Queensbury rules, where everybody else leans more toward the Marquis de Sade. We play like we’re going to trade punches (missiles) until somebody can’t toe the line. Putin won’t play until forced, but if he does, he’s not going to “trade” anything.

        • “I really wonder if Putin has the cajones to lite the fuse on that one.”

          I think he’s been trying to avoid just such an event..both Putin and Xi have been trying to avoid the events elevating to that extreme.. the one that would in a moments notice is Kim in NK.. have you noticed no one is pushing his buttons by taunting him.. he’s made sure all the string pullers know that he has plans to involve them and their families in the events..
          i believe that all Xi and Putin has to do us give Kim the nod and a whole new unpredictable ballgame will begin..
          heck he fed his uncle to the dogs when they tried to buy him..and he liked him..

        • ” the two Japanese cities were re-inhabited almost immediately after being nuked?”

          this story got a chuckle out of me LOL LOL LOL
          https://apnews.com/article/world-news-japan-tsunamis-5a5a70d852d2290d527123d3ec300c57
          the reason they are reinhabited is space.. why are people moving back to ukraine to rebuild already.. the space.. in Fukishima the reports I read about it.. were so scary.. that I still won’t buy wild caught salmon from the PNW.. they tell everyone it is ok.. just like trying to sell the indians on letting them store the nuclear waste from the spent rods of reactors.. telling them that the raidiation is nothing more than what they get from the suns rays and is actually good for them vitamin D you know.. LOL ( vitamin your DEAD ) they did the same thing to the residents of the Bikini Islands.. who are still droping dead today from the affects of it.. they need the space.. fukishima was a big farming area..
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_testing_at_Bikini_Atoll
          from my own personal experience working day labor.. that the US govt.. didn’t tell any of us why we were scooping dirt next to a tank.. and why the guys supervising all had on safety gear while we wore t-shirts and jeans no face masks or anything at all.. we found out after the job was all done.. I think about eating my bologna sandwich sitting in that dirt on the edge of the hole.. drinking my coffee.. from the thermos.. ( yes I didn’t get a chance to see if the thermos was affected later on.. the liner broke and I got rid of it long before I got equipement to test the levels)
          they tell them oh its safe.. go start growing crops.. and the people believe them because.. they have to know for sure.. that is there job..

        • Chernobyl is like a Garden of Eden paradise. It is mainly uninhabited through tradition, now, but there are people living there (cancer and birth defects are not an issue), and the foliage that grows all through the region is without equal. There have been a few “surveys” or “reports” done by journalists and wanderers, which you can find on the Internet, today. IIRC only the immediate area around the reactor site is still nogosville.

          That’s why I shrugged my shoulders when Russian troops moved through the Chernobyl area at the start of the war…

      • “the social pervs in D.C. seem to believe they can goad Russia into using a battlefield nuke in Ukraine. That’s not going to happen. Ukraine is “Europe’s breadbasket.” It’s dirt is extremely valuable, and there’s also a bazillion gallons of crude and cubic feet of gas underneath that dirt”

        that brings up a touchy question.. we know Ukraine’s the bread basket and not only for Europe but the us also what is it 30 to 50 percent of our wheat comes from there…. so.. what perspective will Europe have of the USA sending over tanks that have radio active material as an inner part of the armor.. would Russia consider that a potential first strike like a dirty bomb. since in a war a tank shooting or attacking Russian forces would definitely be taken out of the picture.. leaving the area otentially uninhabitable for many decades..

        • The amount of radiation in a depleted uranium panel is about the same as would be in a steel panel that’s been covered with radium paint. It is, for all practical purposes, negligible unless you’re breathing it as a powder or vapor.

          The thing with Xi and Putin is they’re grownups. They know the object of the game, as a Head of State, is not to win, but to not lose. It is we, whose leaders will kick & scream and throw a 2yo’s temper tantrum when we don’t get our way. President Trump was amazingly grown-up and rational (for an American) when dealing with other nations. It kinda makes me wonder how much good he’d have done, if he had a staff dedicated to world peace and the U.S.A. instead of their political establishments, and there were grown-ups in Congress, so he didn’t have to deal with all the Establishment 2yos from both Parties.

          As one pundit put it, after Yellen’s shameful Africa tour: Yellen’s telling these African subsistence farmers who drink piss and make as much money in a lifetime as she does in a day, that they should save the planet by not burning coal, or oil, or trees. Meanwhile, the Russians and Chinese are telling them “Live your life as you wish, but share your underground minerals with us and we will build stuff for you…”

          Who’s “winning?”
          Who sounds like a blithering idiot?

12. Blackstone President Says BREIT Still Has “Backlog” Of Redemption Requests
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/blackstone-president-says-breit-has-backlog-redemption-requests

    The $68 billion Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT) has failed to stem soaring redemption requests from high-net-worth investors, Blackstone President Jonathan Gray told Financial Times in an interview.

    Gray said it was “a little early” to say redemption requests of the nontraded real-estate investment trust were slowing.

    “We have a backlog from November and December,” he said, adding, “I will say the tone of the conversations with our advisers is much improved.”

13. Speaking of eggs. How do we know what is truth anymore? Is the following true? If no Tractor Supply should sue, right.

    “Tractor Supply “Producer’s Pride” Chicken Feed has been recently altered & its new formulation is causing chickens to stop laying eggs. Egg shortage was manufactured! ”

    https://twitter.com/TheThe1776/status/1618513334869065728

14. 4/20 Wall Steet.

    (to the person who asked, but not openly ask, when will I die? I will answer you your age, when you die, without saying your name. most people don’t want to know when they will die.

    92.

    • Welll craaaap. My ex-step dad is 92 and he look like Hell. (Actually I think he’s afraid to die and mean enough to make it stick this long) Can we move it up a bit?

15. Since your playing lumberjack today, you might as well sing along.
    Look at those two, could be you and Elaine for sure!

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FshU58nI0Ts

16. “Doesn’t seem to have held the price of eggs down, does it? $18 a dozen: how did America’s eggs get absurdly expensive?”

    Apparently the egg shortage was caused not by the avian flu, but by hens identifying as roosters. I propose we fix that by getting roosters to identify as hens. Now where can we get some high heels for roosters?

17. Just a couple of things about EMP. The effects presented in fiction books like the one you mentioned are not at all realistic. Small circuits are much less likely to be damaged than large ones. Most cars will still run. Watches will still work. Your toaster and microwave will still work, if you can get power to them.

    Power lines, radios connected to antennas, things like that will most likely be fried.

    The power grid going down will be the worst part. That leads to what I consider the HUGE elephant in the room that everyone likes to ignore. Nuclear power plants rely on grid power to operate. When that power is interrupted, they go into an emergency shutdown. After shutting down, they still need power to run the cooling system, but the typical plant only has enough fuel for the backup generators to last about three days. After that they start melting down.

    You can do your own research into how many nuclear power plants we have in this country (over one hundred the last time I checked), as well as how many will be hot enough to melt down in a prolonged power grid failure event. Remember that in a total grid down event, it is unlikely to have any real, coordinated, effort to keep the generators running.

    Just thought I’d throw in a bit of sunshine to brighten your morning.

    • We don’t hear much about neutron bombs anymore…

      The neutron bomb is a small hydrogen bomb. The neutron bomb differs from standard nuclear weapons insofar as its primary lethal effects come from the radiation damage caused by the neutrons it emits. It is also known as an enhanced-radiation weapon (ERW).

      The augmented radiation effects mean that blast and heat effects are reduced so that physical structures including houses and industrial installations, are less affected. Because neutron radiation effects drop off very rapidly with distance, there is a sharper distinction between areas of high lethality and areas with minimal radiation doses.

      This was desired by the forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), since they have to be prepared to fight in densely populated areas; any tactical nuclear explosion will endanger civilian lives and property.

      https://www.atomicarchive.com/science/fusion/neutron-bomb.html

      • I have only read the reports on an emp.. but the thought I have is.. not the emp itself but the dominos that start to fall.. the tiered collapse of the system..
        the transformer coming to my house the legs went out and we got full power from that power line that came into the house.. you could hear the motor on the refrigerator take off like a jet engine.. the same with the freezers and the computer gor real bright.. before it died.. etc.. when it started I went around and flipped off everything I could find.. we did end up having to get a new fridge furnace and freezer and a new computer.
        that is how I see an emp happening.. take the hundred year storm in texas.. almost took out the core of the USA because of the failure there.. and where we get the replacement parts.. the same place that the administration is working overtime to manipulate into a war..

        • ShopTalk Sunday Homework: Although old, read the 2008 long and very offishul report here http://www.empcommission.org/docs/A2473-EMP_Commission-7MB.pdf

          Then, for your personal One Second After plan for every eventuality that came up with and then adapt, adopt and overcome fear.

    • “Just a couple of things about EMP. The effects presented in fiction books like the one you mentioned are not at all realistic.”

      Prove it.

18. Dr. John Campbell now fully awake –

    Excess deaths in 30 countries
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av4Ej6om0WI

    Some Canadians making comments.

19. that is the answer HE gave me.

    I actually was on Wall Street last night, gave a lady a ride who auditioned.

    it as super fun time. they all did very well.

    Istarting tomorrow. back to 16 hour days. hustle and grind time.

    • and one second after is a very good book. i had all my children read it at age 14. I have given away 4 different copies of it to ex girlfriends who after reading it Said thank you. I needed to read that.

      not sure where I read this. thought maybe it was on here. “if 6 is the devil? then 7 is God”.

      thank you for saying that. it very meaningful to me last night. helped me make a decision.

20. I’m about 1/3 through OSA myself for about the fourth time. My original first run copy of Alas Babylon disappeared in one of my many moves during a 25-year Army career.

    I’m on the south side of metro Hotlanta and you can’t even get out of town starting at noon on an average Friday using the interstates or adjacent state highways. Forget about during the rain or a holiday weekend.

    If any of the locals would even wait for my small garden to become edible they’d already have missed out to the bugs, rabbits, squirrels and the increasing deer herd. Did you know rainbow box turtles eat melons? Sure do. Coyotes will take one bite out of every melon in a small patch just for the hell of it. I’ve never gotten one ear of edible corn before the squirrels or racoons got them. Eventually they’ll end up as a protein source to go with rice or instant mashed potatoes.
    This is the suburbs, folks–before the hordes get on the move. Gray Fox

    • Everyone has their eye on the same squirrel.

      Here’s a good ‘human nature’ story. A guy got caught in a snowstorm and his vehicle failed. He went house to house asking/offering money for shelter. “No room at the inn” is all he heard.

      The guy started finding others who were also stranded. A mob of the stranded started, if you will. The guy led the stranded to a scholl where they broke in for shelter. If that school wasn’t there how long until the mob is back at front doors? People aren’t going to stand around and freeze to death.

      Now the front doors have to decide shoot/don’t shoot into the mob.

      A lot of decisions are coming down.

      ‘I had to do it to save everyone’: Man breaks into school and shelters more than 20 people from blizzard

      https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/30/us/blizzard-new-york-rescue-school-break-in/index.html

      • He wasn’t smart enough to tell the first person to answer his knock to “call the police?”

    • “I’m on the south side of metro Hotlanta and you can’t even get out of town starting at noon on an average Friday using the interstates or adjacent state highways.”

      I’m so sorry…

      I’ve been there once or twice, but that’s before it went to crap.

      I would grab an area map (or visit ARCgis and locate a map like this one: https://gis.fultoncountyga.gov/Apps/propertymapviewer/ ) and find a “street-level” escape route. I would want to go south or southwest until I was beyond metro Atlanta, then go west or even northwest, into the hill country…

      Traveling “street-level” is something I started doing in Cleveland. Ohio cities have lots of highways going over and through them. Morning gridlock starts about 0500 and ends about 1030 (local time). Afternoon gridlock begins at about 1500 and lasts until at least 1900. It doesn’t matter if the city’s metro area is a couple hundred thou (like Toledo or Akron) or multi-millions (like Columbus and Cleveland). The Charlie Foxtrot is the same, except on Friday evening, when it’s worse. During these times, driving city streets is much faster than driving on the highways. It helps if your route has as few stop signs as possible (I learned this in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and had the lesson reinforced in Providence when, every time I stopped, someone would come up to the car and try to get me to buy a vial of crack.) You can “time” traffic lights but not stop signs. In a “get out of town” scenario, people will be coming up to carjack you so the fewer times you stop, the more-likely you’ll escape…

21. The Gadianton Robbers shows what happens when secret groups gain power. The Nephites and Lamanites (enemies) withdrew into a group and left no sustenance behind. Privation was a main source of their destruction. Do we need to consider grouping together for our protection?

    https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Dictionary_of_the_Book_of_Mormon/Gadianton_Robbers

    “so desperate had the condition of the people become that Lachoneus devised and carried out the stupendous movement of gathering them all, both Nephites and Lamanites, to one land, where they would be safe by consolidation, and be able to wear out the robbers by masterly inactivity. In this he succeeded, and the robber bands were destroyed by privation, famine, and the sword.”

    When studying this group (other wiki pages or the BOM itself), I find it amazingly on point to what is happening in today’s world. It looks like in times of desperation and lawlessness, groups will form. It seems after Katrina, arms and food were confiscated, but that’s only what I’ve read. I wasn’t there.

    • The only time we begin to advance and feed ourselves once again is when Peace breaks out all over. Until then it’s going to be pure dumb luck that you survive. For those that are in the D.U.M.B.s I wouldn’t give the chance a rat has in a prison full of vampires when they emerge again. They’d be up against some hardened survivors and most will have learned how to fight to survive.

      • ever seen the list of vintners and nasa picks for the planned trip to mars..
        someone shared that with me once upon a time..then couldn’t understand why I started laughing..
        where’s the depends and ensure.. huh..they will be ancient when they get there..it would be the same with the DUMBS.. then imagine being in the bunk next to 90 proof Nancy .. omg he’ll is what that’s called.. I built a house by myself at 47 .. there’s no way in hades that I could do that by myself at my age now.. they haven’t planned for the rebuilding of a society..primitive or technical.. seed vaults in the arctic with no way in.. I’ve been in some of the shelters..nice but nothing more than a tomb.. and you can bet countries other than the usa know all the entrances and exits..
        now china..and Russia have drills and have prepared for a good share of the population.china has factories and cities built extra power plants sitting ready to go online. we designed for the control and profit not security..and after they emerge..they will be to old to do the job..instead of dumbing down the youth they should be pushing education..skills

22. If you had tried to remove YOUR trees in say, the Puget Sound area, you might have had push back from the local ‘save the old growth’ contingent or the city-county review board. Anymore, they aren’t your trees…The point is that a 100′ Douglas Fir or Western Hemlock has no place on a postage stamp size city lot, but many people insist that they remain.

    These people don’t realize that with the shallow root system these trees have and the amount of rain we get, a windstorm generally blows them over pretty easily and not necessarily on your house. When that happens, the bill ought to go to the county.

23. A fire side book…….BLACK DAWN BRIGHT DAY by SUN BEAR with WABUN WIND. cc1992 simon&schuster. also LOOK for the words of BLACK ELK….his vision is at hand…
    peace & love to all

    • https://youtu.be/3ourewjSP-E
      the hopi..
      https://youtu.be/-XagZt80bTs
      https://youtu.be/Bu_rSpmEcxw
      then you have alois Irlimaier the books are way better but getting one that isn’t written in german for alois is really hard.. all the versions are pretty much german and need to be translated..
      https://youtu.be/QgUJ9Yg8Wnc

24. Flashing , screaming , short short short . Nobody even bothers anymore . So dangerous. Wake up

25. Good insight, George. I love it when you go strategic.

    Many folks in the DoD expect some type of EMP scenario, possibly married to a targeted cyber attack on critical infrastructure and comms to amp up confusion in command and control. If an EMP blast (or blasts) originates from an orbiting satellite and detonates over U.S. territory, that of our allies, or over deployed naval fleets, orbital and surface assets will pinpoint the launch and detonation points. By treaty, some level of retaliation is to be expected. The major issue with orbital nuke explosions, other than the need for SPF 9000 sunscreen, is that the blast results in a huge area of radioactivity lingering for years in the orbital altitude of detonation. Military satellites are nuke hardened and temporarily shut down and can safely pass thru these areas relatively unaffected. Many commercial satellites are not hardened and many would likely be lost. Commercial SATCOM ops could nosedive for an extended period of time. The world wide web and all it enables would be sorely affected – cable TV, international calling, global trade, the markets, etc. While a Russia EMP would degrade western SATCOM capability, it would be pissing in its own swimming pool, as all low and near earth orbiting assets would have to pass thru the orbital radiation clouds.

    Littoral ships, surface and subsurface, are also constantly tracked. If a missile is launched from the sea, that location will be vaporized and a suitable retaliation ordered. But again, if the missile is hypersonic, engaging it is currently problematic. Laser and high energy pulses may be the only defense against hypersonic weapons, and it is not clear if those types of defenses are currenly deployed or ready for prime time.

    Drone attack is a new capability, one that seriously concerns me. Drones are now ubiquitous and can be shipped piecemeal to Caribbean and Mexican locations, assembled and moved near borders or placed on cargo ships which traverse U.S. coastal areas and gain access to commercial U.S. or Canadian shipping harbors. If these drones have small yield nuke warheads, things could get real messy real fast.

    Finally, nuke terrorism is always an option, one most feared and the one most nations are the least prepared for.

    Bottom Line: a savvy aggressor will find innovative ways to repackage old tricks. Think of this as an analytic continuation of ‘Pearl Harbor.’ After WWI, the U.S. was worried about the hostile expansion of the Japanese Empire, and it prepared for a naval attack. Few expected Japan to launch a carrier based air attack on Pearl Harbor from the ocean north of Oahu. The results were stunningly successful for the Japanese. Similarly, after WWI, France fully expected that if Germany were to attack again, it would be via land or perhaps using heavy bombers, investing in the infamous Maginot Line of concrete bunkers manned with long range field and anti-aircraft artillery. France did not plan for Germany’s innovative ‘Blitzkrieg’ tactics, using Messerschmitt fighters as precise aerial artillery orchestrated with rapidly moving ground troops and armored vehicles sweeping thru the decimated Maginot defenses and into France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Hitler’s generals were sipping Bordeaux in Paris within days.

    If whoever is leading Russian military planning were wise, and they might consider planing for war against the West, they would unleash a next level of innovation in warfare, e.g. a ‘Cyber Pearl Harbor’ married to space, air, land and sea actions, the simultaneous orchestration of which the West would be ill prepared to counter.

    We can only hope that the U.S. led NATO are working to anticipate the most probably future strategic attack innovations Russia (and China) might use and how to best defend against them. Reaction time to any Russian/Chinese aggression will be critical, both for planning and retaliating. My concern is over ‘who’ will be leading the West’s preparation and, if necessary, response? Response time will be of the essence. I’m not getting a warm and fuzzy over U.S/NATO lines of communication. Speed and adaptability will be crucial for withstanding any well-planned attack against the West. History clearly shows that “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” ~ Robert Burns

    • Warhammer It reads like you’ve seen the new drone cassette loader for the Klub-K container offering ?

      With all the theatrics being played out in the 2020 opening act, Id expect this could play out in scene 23 of Kabuki theater Soar O’s edition. [double entendre]

      • I was just going to bring that up LOL LOL did you see the space platform version of that.. there is a video on Youtube about it.. and a few years ago.. China went about converting the cosco transport ships for military .. they now have a bigger navy than we do.. and they adopted the shipping containers.. with us only checking one percent of incoming containers.. those damned things could be anywhere..
        Do they really think that a dock worker would have more ethics and morals than someone in politics.. not a chance in hell.. all they need would be to have a pretty girl flirt with the night worker LOL.. night workers social lives suck.. society is designed around the day worker.. and the idea of going out for a drink and a meal or go dancing at eight or nine am makes you look like a lush..
        if congress can be bought.. so can a dock worker..
        https://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-building-long-range-cruise-missile-launched-from-ship-container/
        the other thing of interest is the club K.. is designed for drone warfare..
        https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202211/1279349.shtml
        https://youtu.be/O-2tpwW0kmU

        • https://youtu.be/zt7uO6GghRo
          https://youtu.be/n-h8R9dCuIU
          https://youtu.be/Q1lgwNMDYP0
          I can’t find it now.. but china and russia have a gatling gun style drone missile launcher.. seen a video of it on youtube a few years ago.. it was scary and impressive.. none of it manned.. all auto.. so did they send one or two of those up into the atmosphere.. do our dock workers making fifteen dollars an hour have more morals and ethics of those in politics getting millions of dollars given to them yearly.. from my perspective in the last couple of years all morals and ethics that we use to value have been thrown out the window.. things that were considered depraved three years ago are now acceptable by those we depend on to do the right thing.. that alone should scare the hell out of everyone….

    • Aside from the SPF 9000 sunscreen there is the major issue of the grid going down which, in turn, means cooling stops and the 100+ nuclear reactors and holding ponds going critical. Those hundred plus nuke plants melting down and spreading considerable fallout will ruin everyone’s day except a select few graced by weather/wind patterns.

      • MY DAM DYSLEXIA…… LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL when I first read this post.. I thought you were referring to Nancies Proof ratio LOL LOL LOL 9000 proof nancy LOL LOL LOL

    • ” I’m not getting a warm and fuzzy over U.S/NATO lines of communication.”

      Communications hell… I have serious doubts in the capability of NATO’s leaders to actually — lead.

      • the problem with that.. was just like a family business.. grandpa gets the company started he works his butt off and builds the company.. his kids.. they inherit the company and they to had to work.. just not as hard as dad… the kids like the parents were coddled a little bit.. they feel impowered by the fact that dear old dad made it rich.. and he passed it on down to the kids.. the grand kids.. now they aren’t just coddled.. they are spoiled rotten.. they get everything that they ever wanted didn’t have to work for a dime.. daddy or grandpa will take care of it.. why work.. do you know who I am.. and they are in charge..
        Now grandpa was cunning and a shrewd business man.. he had his set of ethics.. take for an example a Big box store in the wastelands.. a woman I worked at the grocery store with.. quit to go work for them.. they paid four dollars an hour at the time.. that was unheard of money..
        weeks later I asked her how it was going.. she said the manager was a shizthead mean and he really rode her azz day and night.. NO MERCY… on anything.. he loved to do that to.. then one night she was stocking shelves with this little old man.. and the boss just got done with his daily azz chewing.. she was there and emotions took over.. and she started to cry.. the little old guy working for her came up and asked her.. whats wrong honey.. and she vented about the shizt head boss.. after she got done.. the little old guy named SAM said.. oh honey that is not the quality that this store supports.. it was the man that built the chain.. he came in donned a vest and went to work.. no forward knoweledge no warnings or fan fares.. it was his way.. and the problem was solved right then and there.. she just retired from that chain.. nice lady we have been friends for decades.. almost forty years..
        my father worked for a big multi national company.. that build a business and brand.. I knew the guy he helped me unload a semi of product.. and then sack groceries just before he sold the company the colonel.. great guy wanted to wish my parents a happy anniversary asked me about my siblings and what we were up to..Now that man had thousands of employees all around the world and he knew me.. my siblings and my father and mother.. My father was a delivery man one of the lowest on the totem pole..He took care of those that retired that devoted themselves to his company.. today the empowered bunch probably don’t even know the name of the janitor that empties their trash..all benefits and perks go to the empowered bunch even if it is just because they have a piece of paper on the wall.. the old guys started at the bottom and worked their way up..they knew the business.. they had to work it..Now that doesn’t say that those in charge aren’t working hard.. just that they haven’t had to really work the situation they were born into it.. or empowered into it because they had the money to get that piece of paper.. working cabinet making years ago.. the boss was a great boss.. he still has a cabinet building factory.. but he can’t read a tape measure and doesn’t have a clue how the job is done.. those in charge.. probably went to some sort of class where they taught the art of war.. or how to manipulate in three easy lessons.. but haven’t lived it.. done it.. they sit in an office with the books and pencils around them.. and don’t have a clue about the real shizt that is going to happen…then it will be a shock.. like our president.. the only job he has ever had is as a public servant where everything came easy.. money was nothing and the road to damnation was wide and paved with beautiful stones….

        • https://www.patrickwanis.com/spoilt-brat-paris-hilton-has-serious-issues/

        • WaIT! Dude needs a PhD to figure THAT out? GMAFB – Ure’s law of Obviousness.

26. Glad to hear they got the trees down with NO damage to any of your buildings. I bet you feel better about that being done … and the additional solar power you will now be able to “harvest”.

    On the tree front, from what you have posted, it sounds like you still have a bunch of pine trees that are really close to your abode. Remember “Paradise”!! Close in pine trees are a BAD thing when it comes to forest fires.

    Many years ago saw one blow up into a major firestorm in California … dry conditions with pine trees as fuel … and it was one very very scary fire to see develop. Couldn’t believe how fast it went from just a small fire to one that covered a multi-mile front moving forward at 20 to 30 mph. Was driving the last car they allowed to drive across the Sierra’s as the fire came east … and the Sherriff Deputy manning the road block they were setting up said “Don’t Stop For ANYTHING. Everything you see for the next 15 miles will probably be burning in the next 4 to 5 hours!!”

    After that California experience I decided I NEVER wanted pine trees around ANY place I may live!! LOL

27. Solar Power …

    Russia provides huge oil /diesel /natural gas /nuclear fuel (50% of US consumption) energy exports … which with the Ukraine War we have been trying to cut off. (cutting off our nose in spite of our face?)

    Our “stated” goal is to for ourselves to move from those types of energy to “renewables”, SOLAR being a biggie.

    Well for 2021 … “China accounted for 97 per cent of the world’s (solar) wafer production, according to an International Energy Agency report published in July.”

    VOILA … cut off China’s exports = NO MORE SOLAR installations in the US or Europe!! (for a number of years)

    China is the world’s TECHNOLOGY LEADER when it comes to making solar wafers, their technology is proprietary and WE, and Europe, can’t at the present make solar wafers even in small amounts with the energy efficiency that China’s wafers can produce.

    Something to consider as the US Neocons /Neoliberals continue to push a direct US-China confrontation over Taiwan. (oh … and note, the US does NOT make the stuff needed for the large wind turbines either – that stuff is also all imported)

    https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3208206/chinas-proposed-export-curbs-key-solar-technologies-could-backfire-hurt-domestic-giants-analysts-say

    • the sad part of that is our congress sent the industry over there.. they had a huge meeting and decided that crap should not be in the USA.. Bush Senior bush jr.. and Obama did tours of a plant in the USA where they could make solar cells for a penny a watt.. and they showed their tours of the industry on television.. shortly after that.. congress passed a bunch of bills.. ( probably got a good donation from lobbying firms) and the industry was shut down.. similar to TESLA and his idea of copper roofing.. one side copper oxide coated.. one side of the copper is positive the other negative.. sealed in a plastic and I believe activated with vinegar but its been a while since I did it.. don’t quite remember if I used water.. or used vinegar to activate the copper plating.. just sprayed it then put glass over it.. today laminated plastic would do the same thing.. this was not so much for solar but to get the free radical ions floating in the air.. tesla thought that by placing towers in a grid fashion that electrical ions could be harvested on every home.. HEY aren’t the pyramids in grid fashion around the world.. Hmm.. anyway it was like the solar cell industry.. cant stop the filling of big buck billies pockets LOL so tesla never seen his idea come to life..
      I have told everyone that they should be putting on a backup solar power system.. and a gravity fed heating system..
      I have the stove ready to go in.. still working on the boss about the backup battery solar power system.. our grid was designed to follow the business model of I WANT MORE.. not lets make it secure.. so it can be shut down realitively easy.. we grouped all our eggs in one basket so to speak.. making it an easy target.. I could get into my decades old rant again.. solar towers and promote solar for homes.. a good backup system under twenty grand and would give you the security that if the grid went down from a hemp or other catastophic event.. the things you rely on would still be useable..
      https://shopsolarkits.com/products/complete-off-grid-solar-kit-6-1
      add more battery power..
      https://rocketheater.com/
      Now the one I want to talk the wife into is a little smaller because I already have solar power.. I just need the backup power and enough panels to charge them.. my system is grid tie I tell the kids put in a ground mount to.. it is easier to clean them off in a snow storm..
      the rocket heater I love that design and that is the one I got for us.. just picking up the pieces to install it one at a time right now.. you can burn branches split logs or pellets coal or old newspaper and magazine in it..its more efficient and versitile.. and the guy that makes them is making them in his garage.. the people working for him don’t get paid.. and they make very little off of the heater.. he makes them because he sees what I see coming..
      anyway.. my kids think I am a paranoid loon that nothing at all could ever happen in the USA there will never be a war or destruction on our soil it will always happen on theirs.. ( they forget look how bad it was for a few days with BLM and Antifa terrorist groups destroying.. now multiply that by tens of thousands of percent.. it could happen here and any leader of another country does not want only destruction of his lands .. I am pretty certain they would love to share that experience with those wishing to destroy they land) and that is why they have said for years that they would cross in posing as refugee’s.. makes me wonder.. did they really give the family money to let them come across the borders of the USA.. there is a reason we have a vetting process.. I don’t care if someone wants to come as a citizen and raise their families.. welcome.. make yourself at home.. but no benefits you make it the way a citizen does you pay taxes and you come in legally..

28. Fantastic thought exercise today Mr. Ure. ” We’ve wailed endlessly about the Liberal Fake Industries (LFI’s) like gender-swaps, race rekindling, climate scams, and shaming of all stripes, but these are merely your indicators that we have run out of large-scale industrial innovations to power the economy. What happened to the bullshit about higher wages and more time off? All lies told by crooks holding office.”

    You are describing the various flavors of losing in a post industrial bankrupt glo-bail economy with a dying world reserve currency.

    Plays right into my theory that blockchain and crypto will be the last place left to generate money velocity during a time when every other swap repo spin aparatchik and service industry used to generate money flow and skim operations for the 0.01% are in backwardation, off shored, and/or no longer operating [See EU and Nat Gas].

    I dont subscribe to Mad Max world as I believe living in the stone age is untennable. If youve survived the alpha and beta particulate settling, you may not have enough cipro left for when Boris sends over aerosolized nasties as a follow up greeting card for mopping up those who are remaining. Have a bright Sunshiny Day!

    Got Blockchain?

    • In closing, needless to say, prepping for the lesser stages of losing is a prudent thing to do because some of the lesser stages of losing are already in motion, and incoming.

29. George, another good column with a lot to unpack, BUT seeing how it’s Friday and I want to lighten the mental load, I’ll stick with farm life.

    If it were me and I had 4 big trees down like you do I would try to find someone that would cut them up and haul them off for sale as firewood. That’s a fairly robust business and a lot of the folks that do it look for that kind of opportunity. Unless it’s pine which probably won’t sell. If that’s the case, I would try to burn the whole mess right on the spot if it was safe to do so.

30. France and now Canada both agree to send their tanks to Ukraine as North Korea promises to help it’s brother-in-arms. How many troops and how much equipment has been sent to the border of Belarus and Ukraine ? 300,000 ! Seriously !?? Kiev is in some serious trouble. [ ., and my favorite red wine is up 17.7% YoY – which to my way of thinking constitutes as a war crime.] Biden announces a 20 year mining ban and will go with foreign supply chain in his Go-Green push.
    Yet, with all of this war escalation and news, which should scare the crap out of everyone., quietly behind the scenes…,
    Lumber soars 13% as the housing market shows signs of a rebound for the first time in a year.
    Investors are piling the most cash into European stocks in nearly a year as recession outlook fades.
    Digital Currencies tip back over one trillion dollars in the U.S. 18 new start-ups have been announced this week.
    Natural gas prices hit lowest since April 2021 and have crashed 70% from highs as demand weakens.
    .
    I think a lot of people.., millions, are going to be terribly surprised and shocked in the not to distant future. Avoidance-n-Ignorance will only get you so far. However, Risk and Risk-Avoidance seem to have been removed from the lexicon.

    • Dont forget the US sent 330,000 troops to Poland last year. From my experience, kinetics will still be in full swing even after a halt has been announced in MSM. In accordance with that pattern. I’d say whats not being reported on here is the add ons that follow the announcement, Which is even more troops sitting in various forward op zones across EU waiting for the command. When and if there is an official announcement, all sides will have been exchanging pleasantries and kinetics for several weeks to months running. [ have to give the bankers, institutions, and specialists time to position the exits right?]. Haven’t checked recently. How is that short interest ratio looking today.?

      Got Block Chain?

    • dynn housing market rebound?? Stay off the kool aid…

      https://www.yahoo.com/now/2023-housing-correction-could-largest-165335648.html

      cities with the biggest drops:
      https://www.newsweek.com/house-prices-will-fall-fastest-these-seven-cities-1776724

31. “Why does organic always cost so much more?”

    Because it takes real work, to maintain the conditions necessary for the government to return a piece of paper in exchange for that $1096 (per crop) fee.

32. https://twitter.com/i/status/950913422442418176

    this makes a lot of sense to anyone wishing to by BitCoin.. I just got this in my email and enjoyed it so much I just have to share.. it will lighten your day at just how fast money can be made in bitcoin..

33. “Pamela Anderson on Her New Netflix Documentary, Starring in That Jacquemus Campaign, and Possibly Joining the ‘White Lotus’ Cast”

    I always liked Pam, but every time she got a boob-job I liked her less. I thought she was quite pretty without the silly-cone enhancements. I appreciate the fact that, in the pic of her with the JVC Mini-DV she’s got her finger in front of the lens.

34. Re: “Are we having fun yet?” feat. Impressions on Mettle

    Folks,

    This time in America is perhaps a First Son’s finest hour. The likes of which perhaps have not been seen since the “Churchill, the Painter” exhibition did grace North American shores in 1959. The “New York Post” continues to paint with colourful strokes of the First Son’s ascension to the artistic firmament of The City under a gallery mentorship “The Post” tells us who had served time for “assault with an automatic weapon”. Do rest assured he was not the Birdman of Alcatraz. Before becoming viral, one impressionist work was described as gonorrhea-like whereas in these recovering times the canvas garners praise as being covid-like. Fine art can mutate with the times? While the exhibition displays paintings by the first son now tagged at up to $225,000 per masterpiece, a “Post” article from last June ended with a quote from an Upper East Side art collector who only wished to be known as “Jill” with no entymology specified: “I think a lot of people can do that. I wouldn’t pay s–t for it because he’s a criminal.’’ Tsk, tsk, everyone’s a critic.

    Let’s head into the studio for aural rehydration with DJ George and a shout-out to bring back the amoebatron! From “The Mission Bell” album,
    get “Delerious?”

    “Paint the Town Red”

    • Jester
      January 27, 2023 at 14:47

      …This time in America is perhaps a First Son’s finest hour.
      The “New York Post” continues to paint with colorful strokes of the First Son’s ascension to the artistic firmament of The City under a gallery mentorship….
      While the exhibition displays paintings by the first son now tagged at up to $225,000 per masterpiece,…
      ________________
      Could this be an artistic money laundry? Who bought this stuff??
      Seems easy to find stories of cuts and payoffs and skimming and uncounted and undeclared funds and perhaps untaxed as well. Is this just another chapter in a long lousy story?
      I suppose there are IRS 1099 forms filed on each and every dollar that passes through those paint-smeared hands. Perhaps this is why the admin. wanted 87,000 new, armed, agents for the IRS. To count all those foreign beans being paid for ‘art’.

35. “How does one prep for War?”

    Most people cannot fathom the ‘Existential’ issues. Meaning that since all people have ever known for their own self is to be ‘alive’ (and Existing)… it is almost beyond their ability to conceive and feel on a gut level what it means NOT to be alive. To NOT exist. (Because if you truly did not exist you wouldn’t even know it — there would be no sentience to feel no ‘There’… there.

    In short: This ‘Existence Thing’ Is A Big Deal. You’ve got one ride (and only on) on this Planet Earth and that’s it. Some might believe in Reincarnation… but there are other answers for why one might think that actually happens. And to just be dispatched all over again to experience endless first grade classrooms forever is not an enticing picture. At all. Not to mention endless potty trainings.

    We all hope that when our Ticket is up and we have to Get Off NOW At This Stop… that we can ‘go’ easily and quietly. And with the feeling that our life amounted to something and that we did something to make things better on This Magnificent Rock.

    What we do NOT want is to ‘go’ because some Bastards with delusions of godhood are doing their Johnson-measuring with nuclear weapons that take out billions of people and that leaves the Earth a toxic mess. That is some seriously messed up stupid bullsheet from the actions of some very seriously messed up Mother-WEFers (thanks, Clif).

    We the People don’t have our fingers on the Big Buttons of Death. The various ‘Mothers’ do. Safely hiding away from us. Cowards with Johnson-envy.

    All we can do is live each day to the fullest and with the knowledge that the lights could go out at any given moment or day. Not a fun way to live… but not to do so is the height of arrogance and ignorance and denial of reality.

    Keep on good terms with ‘It’ That Gives Us Life. ‘It’ gave us life in the first place and ‘It’ sustains our lives every nanosecond.

    And if ‘It’ decides to allow the Seriously Effed Up Bastards to turn out our lights… let’s hope that ‘It’ has some surprises in store for ‘Them’ when the Candle gets snuffed out and we wonder where we are… or even IF we ‘are’, anymore.

    Existing is much more fun than NOT existing.

36. A four-star Air Force general sent a memo on Friday to the officers he commands that predicts the U.S. will be at war with China in two years. In the memo sent Friday and obtained by NBC News, Gen. Mike Minihan, head of Air Mobility Command, says, “I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me will fight in 2025.”
    . Air Mobility Command has nearly 50,000 service members and nearly 500 planes and is responsible for transport and refueling.
    . The signed memo is addressed to all air wing commanders in Air Mobility Command and all other Air Force operational commanders, and orders them to report all major efforts to prepare for the China fight to Minihan by Feb. 28.
    .., and one thing I found interesting – especially if you have been in the military: He also orders all personnel to update their records and emergency contacts.

37. If you are still with United, look into scheduling surgery in a nearby state where it is covered (TX not on the list), remember Republicans want to make your health care costs even worse…

    https://www.livingwithkeratoconus.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/UnitedHealthcare_Medically-Necessary_eff-01.01.2021.pdf

    • more on how to find coverage:

      https://www.glaukos.com/cornea/reimbursement/

      • Yeah I had to bend over for obamacare C…
        what killed healthcare in the USA was deregulations.. mom had to go to work and everyone was given the opportunity to increase at will.. before deregulations of essential services and goods.. gas was under a dollar many times less than fifty cents.. ( it still only costs then under two dollars per barrel) and eveyrone had insurance.. auto insurance before deregulation.. was a hundred and twenty dollars for six months.. I pay shy four hundred a month for three cars now.. it was higher..
        I believe my tab is three eighty five a month..
        Health insurance.. everyone had it.. part time full time anytime.. today very few companies offer insurance to their employees.. none to part time.. and the ones getting the benefits are the executives.. govt workers get the golden goose.. my sister still isn’t talking to me because she was ranting about everyone else and I said amen sister.. throw that big govt pension and golden goose health care policy with a two hundred fifty dollar a year family out of pocket back in their face.. LOL LOL she was talking about a add where some doctor was saying that allowing anyone to get health insurance would be detrimental.. ( excuse me poor people and uninsured people still care about their families) only I showed her where it was all an ad campaign.. the doctor supposedly making the claims stars in movies on Hallmark channel.
        Medicare this year has decided that the VA healthcare system is UNACCEPTABLE and no longer recognised as an acceptable healthcare system.. NOW i am waiting to see just how fast my copay changes.. right now it is fifteen if I see a PA or nurse practicioner.. fifty if I see a doctor and two hundred if I see a specialist.. and the co pays on the medications.. shy two hundred on name brand as top fifteen on generic.. my wifes insurance with a ten grand deductible was almost as much as she made.. working for the insurance.. our monthly out of pocket just for insurance is horrendous.. and every year when I do the budget I have to contemplate it for several months..

38. ” $18 a dozen: how did America’s eggs get absurdly expensive? ”

    IMO people who pay more for a lease than the cost of a used Gulfstream can afford $18 eggs.

    That said, my local prices are Meijer – $2.99, Kroger – $3.19, Wal-Mart – $5.99. My organic eggs have dropped from $5.29 to $3.99 for extra large eggs @ Meijer over the past year (prices as of Monday, this week…)

39. The Postman (1997)

    “A nameless drifter dons a postman’s uniform and bag of mail as he begins a quest to inspire hope to the survivors living in post-apocalyptic America”.

    https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0119925/

    It will probably be G.A. STEWART who assumes the roll of The Postman, don’t you think so?

    • who know JC.. with the studies all basically saying the survivors will be just a few.. in a world that is thousands of miles around in either direction.. we will understand why the native american indians were nomadic tribes.. moving with the weather..
      the libraries of today will be the lost libraries.. the shamans will be the ones that can teach other in their communities how to survive and make things..
      we got on this subject yesterday.. there was a big discussion on Gold and Silver.. brewhahahaha.. and the spaniards.. gold and silver didn’t hold importance to those tribes.. even in Egyptian empires.. it was a decoration.. it laid everywhere.. that gave the illusion to those that coveted it that great wealth.. what was important.. was grain.. seeds.. I have some seeds that were sent to me.. that was found in an earthen jar sealed with clay that someone found on a dig.. knew how much I love this garden stuff and sent me a few of the seeds.. I got one to sprout.. but obviously my growing season isn’t long enough.. just waiting to get an indoor container garden going.. the true treasure is grain..gold and silver is just for looks.. well silver can be used in making silvadene.. gold nano particles can be used to filter water and the atmosphere.. which is what I believe the anunnaki race that came to the earth was after.. now there has been a discovery that a cheaper alternative can be use just as well..

    • Hi JC,
      I hope you were well mate…….Happy New Year to you and yours.
      As usual……you deliver the absolute gold with uncommon regularity!
      Yep, for sure……I can see G.A. Stewart assuming the roll of The Postman!.
      Keep throwing out the left jab mate.
      Regards,
      Ray, Canberra, Australia.

      • Hi Ray,

        Thanks. All ok.

        Good to see you here, stop by more often.
        There is a new post at Stu’s Age of Desolation site, IT HAS BEGUN, check it out.

        P.S.
        I don’t comment anymore at USA WATCHDOG, my last comment was to advise him of a WATCHDOG spoof site on YouTube. He didn’t bother to thank me, and it seems he blocked me because in his paranoid mind I was also the culprit.

        Adios, amigo.

40. George, did it not occur to you to advertise for small tract loggers to clean up the big stuff? Not only would they do the heavy lifting, they’d likely also pay you a little for the wood. Saw logs bring a premium, not sure of their going price. Pulpwood (surely you have a paper mill not too far away) goes for $7 a ton here. That would still leave you with the limbs to cut up and burn, but they’re a lot easier to move.

41. What the holy smokin’ wackadoo drugs have you been takin’? There will never be a World War in mine or my great, great, great, great, great grand kiddies lifetime. Makes no sense. It’s all marketing, smoke, mirrors, magic tricks, and tons of profits that are driving the news cycle. Regional skirmishes, yes…but even those are for profit ventures…plus, as is evident by Russia’s own soldiers, more and more civilians that are forced to serve as aggressors are fighting back, moving away or just plain saying F off, I am not fighting for you and your selfish political aspirations.
    I have noticed all the spy and crime series and movies have switched from Middle Eastern bad guys back to the Russian bad guys. Coincidence? It takes nearly a year or more to produce these shows. Russians make better and more profitable bad guys than anyone else. Just ask James Bond. In the meantime, what better way to keep the economy rolling by spending our tax dollars on weaponry that destroys things and then creates jobs to build them back up again. Shameful.

    • You silly ostrich – WW III opening round was the Bioweapono. Next, other arms will be used.
      The Joy of War states it thus:

      “When war is fast, it is given a name: Blitzkrieg or Shock & Awe.

      When war is slow, however, the stupid public does not see behind its mask – History – and instead says there was no war. See the Russian Collectivization, for examples.”

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