Jobs Data, Epstein List Relief Rally?

by

The early stock Futures were showing something of a bounce early today, even ahead of the release of the ADP Employment report and the Challenger Job Cut’s analysis.

Could that be based the first tranche of names released in the Epstein docs case was a semi-yawner?  Well, maybe…

First the Jobs Data

The set-up to this was the Labor JOLTS report Wednesday.  Which stands for:

  • Job Openings:  “…the number of job openings changed little at 8.8 million; this measure is down from a series high of 12.0 million in March 2022…”
  • Layoffs and Terminations: “…the number of layoffs and discharges changed little at 1.5 million…”
  • Separations: “The number of other separations changed little in November at 342,000…”

Which, as a name (JOLTS) made sense.  And then came the marketing people insisting it’s now the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.  Whatever…

(We have long railed against this kind of idiotic modernity.  Ever since the wholly self-explanatory term “cycles per second” (CPS) was turned into a Hertz (Hz) in some half-baked BS marketing scam. Liberals leading engineers around by their slide rules. Causing senior thinkizens to wonder what’s a car rental joint doing in electrical engineering classes?  The correct answer is they shouldn’t be there. Cycles were easy, electrons understandable.  Not some much currently.  Hertz is an artifact of egotistical delusion pretending to “Honor the Dead.”  Which is only permitted so long as it wasn’t on the wrong side of the Civil War. In which case tear it down or rebrand.  That’s why Fort Bragg is now Fort Liberty. Following?  We are in globalist sociological upheaval – which is tantamount to being in a world of Hertz, if you will.  Why, next thing you know, a car named the Ampere will be along…electrifying stupidity being shocking as it is; conducted everywhere. Only a matter of time until the historical revisionist idiots will get on to bulldozing Monticello and that’ll be the end of us as a country…Don’t get me started…we just knit the dots; 2, 3, purl…)

ADP Hires

ROSELAND, N.J., Jan. 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Private sector employment increased by 164,000 jobs in December and annual pay was up 5.4 percent year-over-year, according to the December ADP® National Employment Report.

Which sliced by region looks like so:

Challenger Layoff Data

“U.S.-based employers announced 34,817 cuts in December, down 24% from the 45,510 cuts announced in November, and the second-lowest monthly total in 2023 after the 23,697 job cuts announced in July. It is down 20% from the 43,651 cuts announced in the same month one year prior, according to a report released Thursday from global outplacement and leadership development and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

In the fourth quarter, companies announced plans to cut 117,163 jobs, down 20% from the 146,305 cuts announced in the third quarter of the year. It is down 24% from the 154,329 cuts which occurred in the final quarter of 2022.”

While the market was clawing to hang on to an upside open, the job numbers are strong enough that it means no hurry for the Fed to move on lowering rates.

Meanwhile, the close and today’s open leave our Crossing Aggregate Moving Averages (CrAMA…has an Epsteinian ring to it, don’cha think?) looks like so:

We have been waiting for this because with  a flat to down close this week, we could enter the “blue under red, play short of get bled…” area.  Which is not advice.  Just think of it as an analysis of a Hunter NFT or something…

Speaking of whom: GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says he wouldn’t pardon Hunter Biden.  Yeah? Well, what about Slow Joe, though? The questions unasked….which wheels us around to:

Axios Laps the NY Times

We’re almost to the time of year when I beg you to tell me which of the columns around my websites were the best of 2023.  So I can enter them in the National Society of Newspaper Columnists annual writing competition.  I haven’t won anything – ever. But, I did have a drink with Stu Bykofsky once.

As a result, my journalism instincts are running high.  And we’re pleased to offer you some keen insight into why the NYT is losing street creds with us while Axios is gaining.

The top stories on each website tell the whole thing.

Axios stories

While the New York Times top was:

Let’s work this through:  Axios is talking stories of local interest – the failure to out the perv’s in Epstein, the border invasion, and the crackup of the Woke left’s DEI bullshit.  (*Works for us…)  Versus the paywalled NYT stories.  Way overweighted to the Middle East, except that New York has the second-largest Jewish population in the world (outside of Israel).  1.6 million in NYC versus less than a million in Jerusalem, the largest city in Israel… So, we understand the Middle East emphasis and everyone’s got an Audience to appeal to….

Still, Epstein’s sordid details are news but not as important in NYC (judging by content above the fold in digital terms) as the NYT’s A Stunning Eclipse, a Moon Race and Other Space Events in 2024.

Were it not for Prince (Naughty!) Andrew, we wonder if the Brits would be seeing content like Jeffrey Epstein ‘victim’ Johanna Sjoberg claims predator told her ‘Clinton likes them young’ in bombshell newly-released court documents?  Might be hard for some editors and papers that strongly supported the Clintonistas (and subsequent too liberal, open border presidents) to swallow.  We’re reminded of the movie line “You can’t handle the Truth!”

Media lefty’s are trying to find some way to tie Donald Trump into the Epstein name list disclosure.  But we went through the 900+ pages and the juiciest parts found include:

17″Jeffrey said, Great, we’ll call up Trump
18 and we’ll go to — I don’t recall the name of the
19 casino, but — we’ll go to the casino.”

And the part where the question was asked:

“17 Q. Donald Trump?
18 A. No.
19 Q. Did you ever massage Donald Trump?
20 A. No.”

Unless there more in additional disclosures, Bill Clinton comes off very aass-hat badly in comparison.  Which part of surprised should we feign?

Moving Right Along

A Poker note for our private invite-only poker game readers which was pretty interesting: 23 arrested in Texas Hold’em gambling den in Taichung Taiwan.  I though Pai Gow was the game, but Texas rules the world when comes to balls and bets. Keep an eye on Taiwan – they are planning live-fire military drills at a small island near them.  And China’s keeping up a presence as China Conducts Patrols in South China Sea Amid Ongoing Run-Ins.

Speaking of card games, while we’re on point: Fox News Gets Psychic to Read Trump’s Future, She Draws ‘Sense of Loss’.

End Games:  We wonder how the liberal press will pivot from war-pimps to peaceniks if Ukraine is driven to negotiate a settlement with Russia that will involve ceding land to Moscow: Very hard Russian strike against Kiev: The air defenses of the Ukrainian capital were dismantled – V.Putin: “I boil whole with rage”. I think it would be stylish if someone could do a post-war detailed accounting and see where all the effing money has gone.  We catch various whiffs, now and then, if you follow.

Keys to the Future

Story in Forbes caught our eye: Microsoft Copilot Button: New Windows Keyboard Lets You Summon An AI Assistant.

Our Million Dollar idea of the day (since MSFT will have already made patent moves on an AI key) would be to put a Weather key and a Porn key on keyboards.

Since Today is the Fourth

Watch closely as Bitcoin ETF: US SEC Can Notify Bitcoin ETF issuers Approval Notice By Friday (coingape.com). Bitcoin was at $43,380 at click time for us.  Still stuck in the Fibonacci bounce zone from the all-time high and crater. Hype springs eternal. Never say never.

Around the Ranch: $10 Buck Radio

My consigliere has a new toy.  Picked it up off Amazon and bought several for his tribe: XHDATA D219 Portable AM FM Shortwave Radio. One for the house, one for the bug-out trailer.  Thing about these is they are $1o bucks each when you buy 2 or more.  Which I promptly did.

He reports that on the AM band, sitting in Columbus in the living room, he was able to pull in stations out of NYC and Chicago plus a bunch of other states.  Which means the sensitivity of the radio’s pretty fair.

Elaine and I used to wake up, around 1 AM and listen to Coast to Coast AM a lot. WPAI out of San Antonio. But, here lately with CPAP machines and such, we seem to be sleeping better and more. Unless the alarms systems wake us.  Transitional part of aging, I reckon.

So far, so good on semi-retirement. We’re working on “less chair time, more doing time.”  Although it’s kinda cold working outside (36 is chilly for tractor work!) we ought to have a dandy looking yard, by, oh…this time next year?

Weather continues dry, but the Pacific Northwest is getting a bit worried over the lack of rainfall up in Canada.  Where forest fires in dry conditions tend to muck up air quality.

Still, no sign of snow here and the diesel heater is clicking away in the lean-to/winter greenhouse and tomatoes are still setting fruit.  Never thought of “year-round tomatoes” as a technology that would hold my interest more than a few seconds, but they are pretty good. Not to mention novel this time of the year.

Thermal mass designs are ahead, too.  Plan is to pipe the hot diesel exhaust through some pipes set in concrete block.  But too many other projects on the list ahead of that one.  Still, worth thinking about…

Write when you get rich,

George@Ure.net

56 thoughts on “Jobs Data, Epstein List Relief Rally?”

    • https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08T1FB7J3?th=1

      this is the one we have.. nice but I doubt that if the balloon goes up that there would be radio anyway..
      Estimated 3-5 years in a short term disruption but in a massive escalated return 50-100 years of disrupted service..
      its been the business model of discourage and deny people from going solar so very few have them and those that do don’t usually have a backup battery bank..then depending g on your position and distance from ground zero..would you have the ability to utilize the equipment you have.

      • Sometimes the really cheap analog radios can be the best DX models. When I was a kid, I had a radio that was an unsolicited promotional gift (it was too cheap for the adults to lower themselves to listen to). I frequently pulled in WLS in Chicago on AM while in the deep south with that little transistor radio, back way before they changed formats.
        AM & SW bands will become more important with major regional grid outages. Think about news and weather off AM stations you’ve forgotten. Todderbert does a lot of DX listening in his reviews, so when he says a $9 radio has excellent reception, that is significant.

        • absolutely.. best radio I ever had is the one I use in the garage.. most people wouldn’t have it around..

      • Oh, there WILL be “radio”around post-balloon.
        The only question is WHAT radio, and by whom.

        Hams will get SOMEthing going, if any are still alive. 2-meters FM (repeaters & simplex) for close by stuff, and 80 and 40 meters — single sideband — for more distant. (Higher bands generally need more complex equipment and antennas for good performance.) 80 & 40 will be most useful.

        Hams don’t need central services — like phone or internet. We are spread out wide and thin across the landscape. Highly “survivable,” and quite independent and maverick. It’s one reason we enjoy strong support from FEMA as a viable wildcard in catastrophe.

        If you buy a receiver for 80 & 40, be sure it can receive SSB Some can’t. virtually any common scanner can get 2-meters. (144 to 148 mHz)

        Old-style “shortwave” is far less useful than it once was. Although, I believe it will make a big comeback over the nex few years. One plus: there is no ‘log-in record” of your listening — it’s completely anonymous and un-trackable. That feature may be of increasing relevance.

        • Radios could perhaps become illegal to use even for listening other than “approved” radio sources and bands. Few today can cobble a tolerable unit from scavenged junk without youtube at a minimum. WW2 had strongly controlled radio and WW3 is likely to also. Can’t have sheep drifting away from the herd.

        • after a mass extinction event as severe as the one we might expect after a nuclear war, life may need millions of years to recover and regain the level of biodiversity we have today.
          https://ota.fas.org/reports/7906.pdf
          Let’s consider the long-term effects of a nuclear war on all terrestrial life forms, starting with a so-called “nuclear winter” and radiation poisoning. Recent simulations, plus data from past nuclear disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima, give us a good idea of what the consequences would be. a paper written a couple years ago would be a good start..
          https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019JD030509
          what is it again.. an estimated hundred and fifty tons of soot and ash alone in the upper atmosphere..
          growing season would drop down to approximately what it is in antarctica now..
          they estimate the high temperatures would be above freezing but just barely..
          except for the countries that prepared for this.. all industry would be done with..
          besides radiation poisoning the few that remained would be sick and suffer from freezing temperatures and mass starvation..
          should such a catastrophe event occur, people, animals, and even plants would die by the millions. What kinds of life would survive that disaster? It makes me think.. the smaller they are the better off they are..
          Many microbes can handle amazingly high amounts of radiation, particularly those that live in deserts. The extreme stress of living in such a harsh environment, where desiccation and higher levels of ultraviolet radiation are a constant threat, would seem to give these microbes an advantage in surviving a nuclear war. The same goes for certain large desert animals, such as scorpions.
          But deer and rabbits chickens and most birds.. gone.. those living in the tropics.. or at the equator.. possible.. so the tribes in amazon jungle would have a better bet of surviving such an event.of course that is just my opinion..
          what about the angle of the earth.. ever read the book cataclysms of the earth.. and then take the timeline that is put on that.. against the timeline of the changes in the ice ages.. and historical accounts of wars similar to what is being sought now..
          what I see is a timeline where this all seems as a possible reason for the events of the past.. of course its all speculation.. the only true answer to this.. is not to play this game..
          https://archive.org/details/cataclysmsofeart00brow
          of course that is just my opinon.. from what I have read and digested from what others have spent millions on that they refuse to read..
          https://youtu.be/MpmGXeAtWUw?si=8xy6ojiGCyafUCOp

        • oh a hundred and fifty million ton’s of soot and ash…lol lol lol oops forgot the million

      • It’s always worth reading comments for the occasional chuckle ‘-). Personally I’m retired so long that methinks it was always like that.

  2. The funny side to my decades old rant on solar towers greenscaping and co2 filters..handing out grid tied solar power systems..
    last spring a friend stopped by for coffee..he’s on a tribal Council.and my normal rant came up he was on a business trip and thought what the hell and stopped by… that is what they did..no solar tower but they put in150,000 kilowatts of solar systems.. handed out 10kw systems to anyone on the reservation that was willing to hook them up. he brought up line of site and tree growth..so what there’s still light and during the summer you lose some but gain it in winter.
    I will get a tour of what they did this next spring. but he called a month or so ago and another tribe is planning to do the exact same thing this next spring.
    the funny part of it is.. when this all happens They will have power.

  3. The radio looks a lot like my Kaito WRX911, which is good. Same dimensions, design. Bought several on sale 10 yrs ago. Great battery life, funny how long 2 AA batteries last without lights, LCD, or noise making internal logic. Doesn’t survive a drop on a hard floor tho.

  4. “the world when comes to balls and bets. Keep an eye on Taiwan – they are planning live-fire military drills at a small island near them. And China’s keeping up a presence as China Conducts Patrols in South China Sea Amid Ongoing Run-Ins.”

    I am curious..I have always considered Taiwanese to be rather intelligent ..
    so what is it they are thinking..
    its obvious that we cannot protect them..I actually thought they would do similarly to what Hong Kong did.. so was their some sort of negotiations in similarity as to how business dealings are done in the beltway city?

    • Loob,
      The thing is that there are so many places to keep an eye on: Ukraine, the Baltics, South Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, The Red Sea, Venezuela, Guyana, Taiwan, North Korea. Any one could blow up at any Time.

      • We are screwed..
        and administration that has never had to work a day in his life as an hourly wage earner.. politicians that have everything handed to them .. they live the life of luxury without any of the hardships associated with real world living..
        we are being faced on what is it now .. eight or nine sides.. not even counting the illegals and the cost of supporting them.. an infrastructure that is failing on almost every front..
        we are simply screwed.. they have been dumping oil from the strategic oil reserves.. to keep prices down.. eventually they will have to replace it.. the same with our military reserves.. what part of not having a clue..
        this goes hot.. the world as we know it will change over night..

        • “.. the world as we know it will change over night..” and all YOU can do is modify your own thinking. I know it works if making an effort. Love yourself.

        • “all YOU can do is modify your own thinking”

          Exactly… knoweledge.. so many times I have had to learn how to make what I needed to keep some sort of quality of life..I was told I would never be able to own a home… I didn’t make enough money to qualify for the free income loans..but to much to qualify for habitat for humanity..plagued by medical expenses.. finally got a small house that had none of the modern conveniences.. had to resort to old school.. heat water on a stove and hang the bathtub on the outside of the house..putting in sewer and water was a big chore… tripping over everyone.. the only option was once infrastructure was in.. build on.. which I did..one board at a time.. tore down a barn to get material..( another job I won’t ever do) most beautiful spot on the planet to.. deer would walk right up almost next to you and graze.. there was an ancient ice house from when it was homesteaded on the property.. I loved the ice house.. it was a soddy.. and definately made to last..
          you have to change your whole outlook..first time I was laid up.. blood poisoning.. I was laid up for a long time.. and all we had was one channel.. then a friend heard about a guy up by chicago that built a satelite receiver on ice he drove us there and we took a look at it.. the visions of sugar plums was racing through my mind..he gave me a schematic to.. and a parts list..and my winter project was building one.. huge.. the home made dish was bigger than the house..the problem came in tuning it in.. the settings in the LNA was so critical that a really expensive piece of equipment is used.. I did it the hard way.. adjust a adjust b and check c in micro amounts till I got something..
          this comercial always got a chuckle out of me
          https://youtu.be/gX0pyZzCMSw?si=253plv1maPPnnZgn
          except instead of can you hear me now it was can you see anything yet.. LOL..
          We had television long before anyone else did.. now I wouldn’t tackle that job again either.. I did it.. I could possibly do it again with parts.. but I won’t.. I will buy mine from china LOL LOL which is where I had to get the chips to build the dumb thing at that time there was only one place to get them..and we still manufactured crap here..
          that is where todays youth will fail.. they go to the store and buy it. One thing I have always wanted to do is build a rammed earth home.. now I had the idea of taking the insulated concrete forms and trying that put the hard plywood form on the outside and pack in the earth.. now I see that they are doing that..
          I seen one once.. the college in Kansas professor and I was visiting and he had a summer work project for the kids to see how it worked.. it turned out great.. proper mix is three parts of clay five parts of sand and two parts of mortar.. mix it till its clumping and you can pack it into a ball.. then ram it in.. back after WW2 there was a wood shortage so the process was being taught at colleges around the USA.. for returning soldiers..
          My great grandmother lived in her sod house until she died.. they built it when they homesteaded..I believe it is still a museum today.. .. Its all in the knoweledge…
          the old saying adapt and overcome..
          here is an excellent talk on just that..
          https://youtu.be/nHsXGbJtGy0?si=nUB9qgF6iypeeHpk

  5. “Vivek Ramaswamy says he wouldn’t pardon Hunter Biden. Yeah? Well, what about Slow Joe”

    Who was the last former president or family member of, arrested and jailed let alone convicted and imprisoned? Spin clock cycles but it’s just not going to happen.

    “New Windows Keyboard Lets You Summon An AI Assistant.”

    I don’t recall which investment house it is/was but one of them hired new finance people from the same school and all had to have a certain GPA….. meaning new staff read the same books and listened to the same professors lecture and by default everyone at the firm would march to the same tune.

    Our thoughts will be homogenized by using the A.I. assistants.

    • the thought that the bidets would hold responsibility for their deceptive or illegal business activities is kind of comical.. Everyone knows that in the dual standards of law.. that they are immune to any prosecution for any of their alleged deceptive , illegal and foreign business activities that borders on high crimes… heck they don’t even have to report their incomes how much better can it get for them..

  6. Wyatt: Doc, I thought you said that gambling was an honorable profession.
    Doc: No, I said ‘poker’ was an honorable profession.
    .
    Texas Hold ‘Em is “not” poker.

    • re: Sepulchrum, Az.
      feat: “In vino veritas”

      I wonder what the odds are of eikositriophobics being dealt a bad hand? Especially when one considers that 2 and 3 are lucky numbers in China. Any1?

  8. Tech Wreck

    The magnificent seven stocks (AAPL, AMZN, GOOG, MSFT, META, NVDA and TSLA) accounted for the majority of the returns in the S&P 500 in 2023. Until recently the other 493 stocks were even on the year. These seven stocks amount to over 30% of the S&P 500 valuation, the highest in history. Their valuations are at the higher end of the range. Their combined market capitalization exceeds $12 trillion. This clearly will not continue. Much like the year end 2021, it will be very difficult to hold these seven stocks up once they lose momentum, given their market capitalization is 50% of the total US GDP. …

    Wall Street is presently pricing in 5 1/2 interest rates cuts for 2024. This is a rate cut at almost every Fed meeting next year. This is unlikely to happen without a material slowdown in the economy. This will hurt corporate profits. With no slowdown their easing expectations are too aggressive. Either way it is not positive for stock returns.

    MaxOut Savings Report
    Ted Geoca
    12/28/23

    • That’s the design I used for my solar porch. It was open and rather useless except for sitting out and getting bitten by bugs. I added heavy glass since it already had a reasonable orientation, and there’s thermal mass between it and the house proper. In the summer, much of it is shaded by the roof overhang and remains comfortable.

      Now I can watch the snow instead of stepping in it as it rots the floor. During part of a sunny day, I can open the inner doors and let the hot air directly circulate into the house without compromising security. At night, the wall is relatively warm and can’t directly radiate its heat back into space.

  10. A little something about the Moon, which isn’t in the news …

    https://youtu.be/9duN09uy13w?si=z4OioJad_kf45Q0X

    MrMB333 has posted some in-depth videos about this and says it’s occurring on about a 15 month cycle.

    Kinda interesting.

    And, we’re about 90 days from the solar eclipse. Crossing a path of a previous eclipse 2017 at Little Egypt.

    https://whenisthenexteclipse.com/little-egypt-and-the-crux-of-the-eclipses/

    And, there’s a bonus !!
    You’ll get to see the “Devil Comet” during the eclipse in the day time sky. Damn, what a deal !!

  12. “Speaking of card games, while we’re on point: Fox News Gets Psychic to Read Trump’s Future, She Draws ‘Sense of Loss’.”

    Naw,,, that card is NOT for Trump
    That card is Trump
    Trump is the tip of the spear,,, The Storm
    The Pedos are in FEAR, but ole ‘other brother Darrel’ is happy happy happy, every morn, is a Zippity do dah,,
    watching sleepy heads WAKE UP to the TRUTH
    Pizzagate is real, ya knuckleheads, and I ain’t talkin Harleys
    it is show time,,, time to show,,, can’t ya see?
    https://qalerts.app/?q=%23%234904

  13. https://youtu.be/KGetPDrNHME?si=s3ytpAmkvBoxz7M2

    of course that isn’t how it would play out.. for one.. the public wouldn’t ever be notified of an emergency.. can you imagine millions in panic.. the other is no one watches CNN anymore.. Did the present administration allow in the cleanup crew.. already with his open borders..

    https://youtu.be/yy7cbsJlHxE?si=HcXxQIvRO8DeMgug

    https://youtu.be/hkDehmzF18o?si=e7jr9SLUH5J69C-x
    below is a great movie.. an oldie but goodie..
    https://youtu.be/TOPaaHSjMcw?si=pB4X4XFyRq5qOvKt

    Movies of course paint it prettier than what it really is like.. I remember my oh shit what is going on now moments.. when they hit it is unlike anything you have ever experienced in your life.. instant doubts.. the pain and struggles are real .. nothing pretty or positive at the time.. you deal with it.. make it a survivable event.. just the thought of millions and millions.. of dead and injured.. at one time..those suffering and dying the slow death of decay ..
    HOW many people do we all know that are preparing.. but they are preparing with the thought that modern technological advances that we all take for granted will still be there.. the Water on.. not just some mud hole that the dog peeing in.. as your only source of water..

    https://youtu.be/6Hv4ADUr-0E?si=PtnQbEk8clqXMS5Q

    • The problem with movies like “The Day After” is they’re overly optimistic. They DO however illustrate why communities are bad for survival: Given a HEMP and seven ground bursts, there would be no food or water within 50 miles upwind and nearly 400 miles, downwind. anybody not already hunkered down with a stocked pantry, and away from the target area, would die of thirst before they could die from radiation poisoning…

  14. Wish the cheaper radios had sideband reception. Other than a few shortwave commercial stations left on the air, most transmissions are SSB or CW.

  15. ISIS., a very violent and militant Sunni jihadist terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for the bombing in Iran. “With more to come.”
    Iran has vowed ‘extreme’ retaliation and measures in response to the bombing.

  16. RIGHT AGAIN – BEWARE OF WHAT COMES NEXT!

    G.A. Stewart: I have always believed that George has had the best approach for what is coming while still clinging to the edges of civilization. I do not sell survival here just a look into the future. His model is workable and was once affordable.

    Unfortunately, if you are just now preparing, you may run into problems. Once Iran enters the Israeli-Hamas War and The First Blow of Steel comes, say goodbye to civilization as you know it. China will move on Taiwan soon-after, and there goes the supply chain.

    https://theageofdesolation.com/nostradamus/2024/01/04/right-again-beware-of-what-comes-next/

    • it was a great read.. we had an ice storm.. many years ago was without power for almost three months.. luckily it was winter time.. and we had a gas heater..
      https://www.ecomfort.com/Williams-5002522A/p71184.html
      so we were warm.. the real problem was no communication.. we had a shed so the food stayed cold and frozen.. Watching everyone outside was funny.. everyone had bet on their furnaces staying going.. and everything else.. we in turn had lights.. oil lamps.. I am a lamp person.. a tilley heater etc..

      https://youtu.be/u8VVVogqKro?si=dL2hg97WQcNog0ze

      when I first put solar on the house.. a friend that worked for the government in research and development.. razzed me because of the cost was to high.. at that time on sale it was ten dollars a watt.. then a storm hit the NE coastline.. he had his generator.. but eventually the fuel ran out.. and he discovered that.. he couldn’t get any.. he called me to tell me that he could cook an egg on his counter..
      well when the lights went out.. that long ago.. I went out and bought a generator for the next time.. then never had to use it..
      a few years ago.. there was another bad storm and one state had a whole area that was without power for almost a year.. the first thing is.. you run out and get a wood stove.. and put it in.. no fuel you can’t drive anywhere.. you are where your at..
      now solar towers an idea I had when I was very young and first heard about them.. there wouldn’t have been the mass outage.. in california.. there wouldn’t be rolling brown outs.. and it is cheaper than what they are doing today.. hand out a ten kw system.. grid tie or battery backup.. would be cheaper than building some of the monstrosities that they are doing today with almost a hundred percent return on their money.. they won’t do it because billy big bucks won’t get more money…. so we go with brown outs and random shortages and a grid that is vulnerable to attacks on all levels.. someone takes out the hoover dam .. not only does the people living in the flood plains die.. but look how many millions would be without power.. vital water pumps etc..
      The big thing is.. we take it all for granted.. all of it.. we are so use to the conveniences that we don’t know how to survive without them..

      • The longest I have gone without electricity in town was a week during the icestorm from hell. I had natural gas water heat, a kerosene space heater, some candles and a flashlight. The city water stayed on. Talk about steamy hot showers.
        Now I have a wood stove and as much fuel as I can cut, but no natural gas. I have all sorts of lights and lamps. A week would be relatively easy; three months would be rough. I can’t really imagine what the nearest metro area would be like without electricity for three months. I need more solar powered equipment.

        • 3 months was the longest for us..heck the power went out three times last night. lately monor outages has become quite regular.

    • Thinking about that no electricity and heat.. in the military I lived in an apartment with a guy that had been in jungle warfare one day to many ( you didn’t tippy toe in you announced your coming in loudly ). the apartment wasn’t in the nicest of neighborhoods in DC..he couldn’t stand to be cooped in..all the screens were taken off and all the windows wide open. no air.. doors wide open accessible to any of the neighborhood criminal elements.. he had guns .. and he had more guns..
      anyway one day I was watching tv..they had a channel with old movie’s on it and fell asleep.. one of the three of us was reading in his command the combat gorilla was asleep in his room.. all of a sudden I heard the chamber to the pocket cannon closing with a shell in the chamber..the guy reading and I kept to our feet.. and ran to see what he was locked and loaded for.. we get to the kitchen and there he was got that canon shoved down some guys throat had him by the hair dragging him in to the apartment to shoot him.. ( the guy thought our place with all the windows wide open was an easy mark and he was going to rob us) my friend and I begged for him to not kill him … after a few long minutes he shoved him out the window telling him to tell his friends.. our apartment was the only apartment that wasn’t robbed or worse..
      the store across the street was a favorite spot. the owner from China had the nicest daughter and sons..all my age so we would visit..anyway one day we were talking and there was a flurry of activity..get over the dad beat the hell out of a robber taking his gun.. I said dam aren’t you going to all the cops. no they won’t do anything anyway and this is how we keep the store open. with that he opened a big drawer filled with guns that he had taken off of would be robbers..he sold the guns to make expenses..
      so..power goes out..all those dangerous neighborhoods are now even more dangerous and criminal elements that are now immune from the white supremists will have even more access than they do now..women are already main targets in those neighborhoods. ( what is it they call them..THOTS.. that hoe over there or thirsty hoe over there heard it both ways..want one just tag as many of them as you want and no one cares those fine upstanding individuals that are being picked on and called criminals by the white supremist pigs ). it would be chaos..

  19. George, one of the two keys you mentioned will make the keyboards unacceptable to almost all businesses. What might work better would be a key to perform some other function (e.g. “News”) but could be reprogrammed to follow your suggestion (e.g. “Naughty”). Plausible deniability?

      • Thank you for the humor, George!

        Spent the first half of my career at a company where someone claimed that the corporate marketing people would tout sushi as “cold raw fish”. I don’t think I could keep up with (down to?) such rarified intellects.

  20. Would you do a review of your PTZ solar powered cameras you purchased? Interested to know how they are working out and any hiccups you may have or have not had, Easy to set up and distance (wifi) they can effectively work.

  21. “Why, next thing you know, a car named the Ampere will be along…electrifying stupidity being shocking as it is; conducted everywhere.”
    You win a writer’s ‘Superconductor Award’ for that sentence!
    (chuckle)
    https://www.ampere.cars/en/

  22. “Elaine and I used to wake up, around 1 AM and listen to Coast to Coast AM a lot. WPAI out of San Antonio. But, here lately with CPAP machines and such, we seem to be sleeping better and more. ”

    Aw, c’mon. Enjoy your sleep and spend the buckage to become a Coast Insider. Then download the shows and listen while you’re on the tractor…

  23. My keyboard has 101 keys and weighs seven pounds.

    It is a lethal weapon, and is also dishwasher-safe.

    I have had it longer than some of George’s readers have walked the planet.

    It just works.

    I do not anticipate replacing it until it fails.

    I do not anticipate it failing in my lifetime
    or my kids’ lifetimes
    or their kids’ lifetimes.

    It doesn’t have “Windows keys.”
    It doesn’t even have a place where an “AI key” could be installed.

    But it works
    unfailingly and indefatigably
    without error or double-bounce.

    I own a “hundred year keyboard.”

    I see no reason to ever compromise my good taste in product selection to acquire a gofaster key I will never use, on a keyboard I’ll have to replace every five years.

    • What is it and where can I get one/ USB or the old style with an adapter? I’ve been going through logi keyboards twice a year, though I write a hellavah lot…

      • Original IBM “XT” keyboard, sometimes called a “mechanical” or a “clicky” keyboard.

        Search IBM part numbers:

        1391401, 1390120, 1390131, 1394946, 1396790, 42h1292, 52g9658, 82g2383, or 92g7453

        The originals will have XT (14mm?) DIN plugs, 2nd gen will have PC (10mm?) DIN plugs. There are a few geeks who reman them, and some of them have installed USB 1.1/2.0 plugs (the XT to PC, XT to USB, and PC to USB adapters all work without issues.) Most are IBM-manufactured. Some were made by Lexmark, and a few by Dell. The Dells are black, rare, and expensive. Numbers don’t seem to have a bearing on output plug, cord style (straight or coiled), or whether the cord is detachable. Mine is a 1292, my kids have a 1401 and a 2383. They got their first computers in 1994. Between the three of us, we have had zero failures, zero issues, and yes, I have taken my keyboard apart three times, and washed it in my kitchen sink, with dish water and a brush (rinse thoroughly, several times, then rinse again with warm distilled water and wipe before air-drying…)

        Bring your wallet. If you are patient, one that’s NIB will show up on eBay every couple months, priced in the $50-$70 range. The gamerz discovered them a few years ago, and although there are a number of “gamer” “clicky keyoards” on the market, the serious players will spend serious buckage for a remanned and decked-out IBM-PC keyboard (I’ve seen them listed at close to $1000 — Dunno what they actually sell for.)

        Caveat emptor…

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