Market Fears Housing? 2025? + A Long Ham Radio Note on SKN

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The Early Futures today were looking grim.  No surprise to that.

The weekend news flow was dominated by:

A special note here: We have long-held that public figures (HWood types) should STFU and not engage is shallow, personal marketing on the occasion of a President’s death.   Scroll around X today and you’ll find hand-wringers galore, hoping to rub some of Carter’s fame off on their unworthy selves.  The exception is rest of the Oval team: Trump and Ex-Presidents Pay Tribute to Jimmy Carter’s Legacy: ‘A Truly Good Man’.

But the Year-End mood is a bit dour because Futures are trying to second-guess the last few hours of the year.

Tomorrow we will get  the S&P Case-Shiller Housing report.  And already, there are a few stories, particularly out of the formerly great state of California.  Tech downturn pushes San Francisco home prices to pre-pandemic levels.  The “ponder problem” is whether this will light off a trend.  Remember, there usually are big market corrections within six-months of a Fed rate cut direction change…

Shades of 1929?

As of the Friday close, we saw no reason to abandon our long-term belief that we could be facing a recession (or worse) in 2025.  For one reason, the largess of investors and the serial bubbles since the Housing implosion in 2008-2009 are pretty clear in the rearview:

Early Futures (7:30 AM E) were down 60 (Dow), 12 (S&P) and 41 (NASDAQ).  With the Dallas Fed report mid-morning, at least a second cup to stay awake seems in order.

BTC Sliding

We couldn’t help but notice BTC was down to $93,753 when checked earlier.  We never got onboard that bandwagon because of three simple reasons:

  • In our view, it was a Ponzi from the get-go.  Taking money from others is dishonest because the Universe is transactional at its core.  Hence, karma and F=MA or 32 ft/s/s in physics.
  • It’s an anti-environment energy hog impacting climate more than even coal. Way more.
  • The  government camel has its “nose in the tent” and those crypto disclosures on 1040s just scream “Come audit me!” down the road as it all plays out.

Thanks, we’ll take a rain check.

BTC price ‘breakdown confirmed?’ 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week.  Or, one thing to know: It’s like speeding, see?  If you don’t speed, you don’t need to do the cop-scan and keep checking the rearview.  Funny thing is? I used to be “that guy.”  Even had a brake light defeat switch installed in my 944 and 930.  (Grinding off the front air dam in heavy braking could have been a hint, too. Just from in front or the side, though…)

The Urban Consumer 

I like Costco, generally. But, their board is full of shit. Costco Board Urges Shareholders to Reject Calls to End DEI Programs.  In case you missed it, America got this far on merit and excellence.  And we’ve institutionalized equality, too, which is a good thing.  No, there are not 57 genders.  To my feeble (old) mind, if board members deviate from the pursuit of Excellence and Merit, or if they make up genders to count, they should go back to school…

A Bagley Note. Bashful Bob,  who runs a securities firm up in Dallas, got me hooked on drinking Tea instead of coffee.  Main reason?  Easier on the blood pressure.  There’s no Costco close by, so we shop Amazon for Taylor’s of Harrogate Yorkshire Red tea (which is on sale).  Now, though, I may have to go back to my old ways. Commercial tea bags release billions of tiny particles that enter your body, study finds. Oh well, there are plenty of polyphenols in coffee to help with anti-aging.   Our last batch of coffee (Thanksgiving for our house guest)  was Community Coffee, but we may try Amazon’s “direct trade” Rwandan next. The terms “fair” “direct” and “support fair labor” seems rather lawyerly.

Also in our sphere of interests: Do Vaccine Cause Chronic Diseases? While the science kids work on that, we’re pretty sure chronic diseases cause a monetary response.  And those monetary flare-ups can be a bitch. They can spawn pharmaceutical companies, if you’re not mindful.  (If they weren’t all linked, we wouldn’t have our antennae up looking for follow-on to Biden White House mulls pre-emptive pardons for Fauci, Schiff and Cheney: report 

Further medical insights: CDC Warning: Drug 100X Worse Than Fentanyl Has Hit America, Deaths Rise Over 700 Percent.  Remember the “good old days” of booze, bongs, and blow?

Behind Curtain #3? Déjà Flu?: Leana Wen Calls for Mass Testing, Immediate H5N1 Vaccine Authorization.  Economy slowing? Need a rash of fear? Whoa boy….

Quippish and Snippish

As the world year comes to an end: 2024 Dishonest Reporter of the Year Awards | HonestReporting.  Which is a more generalized concept in ‘Fox & Friends’ spotlights the worst media lies of 2024.

Let’s take it out of her retirement? Hochul Signs $75B Climate Superfund Act Targeting Oil And Gas Firms For CO2 Emissions.  Remember, fans: No energy, no crypto con…

Reading lessons:  when you read a story like ‘American Workers Deserve Better’: Sen. Eric Schmitt Slams H-1B Visa Abuses, ask why American workers can’t be found?  (Hint: comes back to a failing higher ed system and not teaching today’s kids how to “get your grind on.”)

Here’s a math lesson, while we’re at it: Deporting Illegal Alien Criminals Will Save Taxpayers Money. Duh. No more catch and release.

Around the Ranch: Ham Radio SKN

Hi.  My name is George. And I have an addiction.  Morse Code.

Most of the time, my Morse on ham radio slams along at 20-30 words per minute on the lower end of the 40 and 20 meter ham bands.  But tomorrow night (00:00 UTC), it becomes special.  Because it’s the one night per year – Straight Key Night – and best done on old tube-type equipment – that we really get back to the “roots of ham radio.”

The operator, the key, the station, and the antenna.  Straight Key Night.

Since Wednesday’s Peoplenomics report will be focused on the charts – after the market closes tomorrow – I should be able to get in several hours of “brass pounding.”  A tradition that goes back to when my buddy The Major and I were competitively pursuing radiosport through high school in the mid 60’s.

He wasn’t as rabid about it.  Which left him time to graduate cum laude from Seattle University.  Where I dropped out of the E.E. program because I insisted on using a calculator instead of an old (yellow) K&E slide rule.  Still, 40-words per minute code was more fun than all that book time.  Besides, Shraders was more useful.  First class commercial radio license and 40 WPM or cum laude?  We’re not really sure – even here 60-years later on – which was the better choice. Beasley, Hymer, and Miller is close and much more up to date. We’ve both had great rides.

My, How Electronics Has Changed!

Back in those halcyon days, my first “real” radio was a Hallicrafters S-20R.  To which I had nobbled up a single transistor Q-Multipler to improve on sensitivity and the “Q” of the radio’s passband.  Even now, some of the best radio gear ever built (like the Drake 2B and it’s mating 2BQ Q-multiplier) provide awesome performance in the hands of a good operator.

Back then, communications was about to make a serial leap into solid-state devices.  People seldom seem to appreciate what a huge change it was.  But the “magic inside transmitters” changed.

Tube type transmitters used high voltages (4,000 volts) and small current (0.5 amps, or so) was the common design.  And these were “tuned” to “match” an antenna using a simple pair of variable capacitors (that looked like bread slicers) and a coil or two,.  It was called a pi-section filter. It reduced the plate impedance of the final amplifier (typically in the 5,000-10,000 ohm range) down to the antenna’s typical 50-450 ohm range.

Inside the newer (solid-state) radios coming along since, the final RF amplifier could be down in the 1 to 10 ohm range (common collector).  This meant a different filter (and systems designed for more wide-band applications) had to come along.  There it was the Chebyshev filter, much more friendly to low impedance amplifiers.

Of course, as you look at the Wiki page, you will see there is a LOT more math and less fiddling when done with a solid-state output radio.  And that’s how we evolved from “hands on” radios (with lots of dials and fiddling around) to the Modern Marvels.

Is it “the same” on Morse?  Hell no.

The difference is between driving an early 1930’s racing car and a modern speed spending, lane control, automatic braking semi-self driving ride hot off the showroom.  There was no “book of code” in the early racers.  But now? Computers and sensors uber alles! 

From that came the digital follow-ons to early frequency-domain multiplexing that made huge phone systems possible.  Cool? You bet.  But as we keep pushing technology forward we are inventing a whole new class of what us “old school hams” call “Appliance Operators.”

In the driving analogy, the 1930’s driver taking a turn at 80 miles an hour, had to be “all over it.”  Today, a turn at 80 (on a freeway)  doesn’t even require a hand on the wheel if the white lines are in good shape.

Ditto in planes.  Back when we didn’t have BRS systems, a trans-con was more an adventure.  With fewer VORs and no GPS.  Today, any idiot can fly and find the airport again.

Radio is the same way.  Something gained, but in the process the Art has been killed.  Stick potters at the marina always held us “rag boat” drivers in contempt, as well.

A hand on the tiller, a hand on the yoke, a hand on the wheel?  All indicators of a Luddite, caught in an Age when people were generally more competent. Hands on worked.

A conversation of “dits and dash” in your head, too much of a stretch?  Might we suggest a DC12V Morse Code Decoder Reader,Ham Radio Telegraph Cw Morse Code Key Morse Translator Interpreter for  $22-bucks on Amazon?

If you even think about it, even for a sec? You’re just another “appliance operator” wannabe.  Which forces me to ask: what part of “Life is transactional” aren’t you clear on?

Write when you get rich (or can do 25-30WPM Morse  in your head — as all advanced direct-digital humans can…),

George@Ure.net (AC7X)  ddh

86 thoughts on “Market Fears Housing? 2025? + A Long Ham Radio Note on SKN”

  1. email sent…
    great book I also got the forgotten Amish apothecary.. wow sinuses have been giving me fits for a year…
    there is a recipe in there I thought what the hell..
    1 cup warm water ( not boiled)
    1 tsp honey
    1 tsp. lemon juice
    1/4 tsp of ginger
    1/4 tsp of black pepper.

    • oh..I am going to double bucket mine.. the pool noodle slice then growing medium in the upper bucket . put a drip line in the top bucket to… from the hydroponic book of I believe 1897 that was how they did it.. potatoes and the deep well with growing media above..

  2. Folks,

    A circus cannot thrive on bread alone. President Zelensky has used the platform of his office in a fundraising appeal for his charity, U24 (United24).

    The charity has existed for almost three years and claims to have raised us$920+ million to date. It’s a platform for donors large and small to contribute towards. There aren’t any readily apparent financial statements for review. Website readers are assured that everything is on the up-and-up. 100% of donations go to their intended purpose via the government-owned central bank, The National Bank of Ukraine. 20% is held back by “International Funds” for expenses.

    Babs and Luke Skywalker among others are listed as Ambassadors of the charitable endeavor.

    • if you’re worried about charities you should take a look at business history of the president elect, like the trump foundation. you may have heard that the president elect’s charity was shuttered for fraud. he actually stole money from a fundraiser meant for vets. https://www.npr.org/2019/11/07/777287610/judge-says-trump-must-pay-2-million-over-misuse-of-foundation-funds

      criminal fraud, civil fraud, universities, real estate schools. there’s a pattern and trump has left a wake of fraud. and folks “think” trump should be entrusted with the keys to the car.

    • Speaking of “A Star Is Born”, here’s a special bulletin from the Telegram office of the President of the Ukraine:

      The President has dispatched “teams” from his Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Food to “the new Syria”. He looks forward to “the opportunity to help restore stability in Syria…”.

    • re: The Greatest Show on Earth
      feat: “Oligarch”, 2002

      Folks,
      Late last week President Zelensky promised a big announcement. It should be no surprise at least a dozen pencils and pens were stood neatly at attention on the Presidential Desk for a photo op. The President donned a charmed look and what appear to be a new pair of gold wire spectacles as he clasped hands with his newly appointed “Commissioner of the President of the Ukraine for the Protection of Rights of Servicemen and Family Members of Our Soldiers”. Let us consider Ms. Reshetylova a Military Ombudsman? Her familiarity with the Ukraine eastern front in the 2014 to 2019 era was firsthand as a journalist with “The Den”, subsidiary of a Russian language, Moscow registered, digital media bearing Ukrainian messaging called “Grani” (Granary?). It was founded by 3 parties- OOOFlavus (Golden?), a late Russian oligarch of the Yeltsin ‘family’ (associate of the “Oligarch” novel author), and a non-partisan Washington USAID agency, NED (National Endowment for Democracy). One of NED’S late co-founders is quoted on “Wikipedia” comparing its operations as being “like what the CIA did secretly in decades past”. Another co-founder spent four years achieving chairmanship of the YPSL (Young People’s Socialist League) attached to the Socialist Party of America. Apparently the YPSL was headquartered in Chicago early in the 20th century in an office at the “Chicago Daily Socialist” newspaper building. One perhaps may find back issues of the newspaper at the Marxists Internet Archive website.

      Let’s rejoin DJ George to bring us back to present day reality and reassurances about who’s #1 in the world’s family with a ditty from The Steve Miller Band – “Abracadabra”. Tomorrow’s undercard will feature President Xi delivering his New Years address from Beijing at 0500 cst.

  3. In 1960 I was a brand new graduate of the US Army Signal School at Ft. Gordon, GA, and assigned to the USAPR&DC (US Army Polar Research & Development Center) at Ft. Belvoir, VA. My cohorts and I spent 3 months at a time in Greenland communicating (mostly via Morse) between base Camp Tuto and Camp Century (City Under the Ice) and various supply and personnel transports on the trail.

    The supply trains consisted of sleds pulled by D8 and D9 tractors, hauling equipment and supplies over 138 miles of ice and snow. The people movers were small, tracked vehicles (Polecats) that could haul 8 people at a time up to 20 mph (usually no more than 15 mph due to roughness of the trail). Each train (multiple vehicles) had a radio operator. The Polecats had a BC-191 transmitter, and the sled train had a BC-610. Both required tuning before transmitting, a fact that was missed by the train commander when I was on the supply train. I was asleep when he heard the base camp calling us (AM voice), so he grabbed up the microphone and replied so as not to disturb my sleep.

    Upon waking, I was puzzled to find that I couldn’t talk to anybody. I was receiving, weakly, but not transmitting. When we got to Camp Century, I had the radio tech take a look at it. He found the antenna coax burned off at the antenna base. He chewed my butt about being sure the transmitter was tuned before transmitting. That’s when the train commander confessed about letting me sleep.

    That old BC-610 tended to drift in frequency, so I had to key down and wait for it to stabilize before I started sending Morse. The Camp Century commander told me he had dived under his desk the first time he heard that transmitter drift back onto frequency, because it sounded to him like a bomb falling. Then I had to send rapidly to keep it on frequency. Using a straight key strapped to my leg, I was running about 20 wpm.

    Fast forward 29 years, and I took my General ham exam. Sitting in a room where several other guys were taking various exams, I was copying in my head the 20 wpm Morse of an Extra Class applicant behind me while I was taking the General written. When I took my General 15 wpm Morse test, the examiner checked my paper and shouted, “Hey! This guy got a solid copy!”. Apparently that didn’t happen very often.

    • Last night I listened to a WWII “Treasury Hour” OTR — It was about our soldiers in Greenland responding to a Flying Fortress crash 35 miles away, and crevasses, and sled dogs.

      • I had the privilege to go down into a crevasse in June 1960 when Walter Cronkite sent a film crew up to do a story on Camp Century. We went out on the trail to a known crevasse location and blew the top out of it so the film crew could get a shot of how the trail was made. If you’ve ever been to Carlsbad Cavern, just think of that in shades of blue. Absolutely beautiful!

  4. I think a similar path for btc that we traveled on from march of 24 to oct of 24. Lets consolidate and move up again is my plan. Ive endured 80% draw downs on btc over the years. I have diamond hands from 88$. You folks do you, thats the only way.

  6. Rick Ackerman: Bitcoin’s inevitable implosion could set an even bigger disaster in motion. The collapse will inflict psychological wounds on securities markets, but it will also purge an important source of meth-money from the financial shell game that sustains global GDP. The possibility that Bitcoin will fall from whatever peak it achieves above $100,000 to under $100 exists because it is mostly greedy fools too young to know the devastation of bear markets who have pushed valuations of something that is fundamentally worthless to insane levels. Anecdotal evidence of this comes from Florida women I’ve dated over the years. Every one of them had a son with a day job that paid low-to-mid six figures but who supplemented his income gambling on cryptos.

    https://www.howestreet.com/2024/12/my-predictions-for-2025-you-dont-want-to-know/

  7. (“ask why American workers can’t be found? (Hint: comes back to a failing higher ed system and not teaching today’s kids how to “get your grind on.”)

    years ago my boss..the CEO of the hospital told us at a meeting.. American citizens want more money! If he could legally he would take a bus to the borderge could get ten for the wages of 1… another comment was if he could get a robot to do the same job he would have them instead of wage earners..

  8. As we age, sarcopenia or muscle mass loss becomes a bigger and bigger factor in things like balance, strength and general good health. There is mounting evidence that the new miracle drugs for weight loss may carry a potential side effect in reducing muscle and bone as well as fat unless attention is paid to proper diet and exercise.

    Here is a recent paper and a summary that should be taken seriously by anyone considering the GLP-1 drugs.

    “Available evidence suggests that clinical trial partici-
    pants receiving IMDs for the treatment of obesity lost 10% or more of their muscle mass during the 68- to 72-week interventions, approximately equivalent to 20 years of age-related muscle loss.

    https://theconversation.com/weight-loss-drugs-help-with-fat-loss-but-they-cause-bone-and-muscle-loss-too-245797

    • thanks for that… I was considering trying those .I lost just about thirty pounds but am stuck.. two pounds up two pounds down ..

        • I look in the mirror and see an old man staring back at me…my father aged gracefully..sadly that isn’t a trait I inherited..
          I’m a grazer…I don’t over eat but if there’s something yummy .. I nibble..
          now if I chewed each bite twelve times.. then the calories I would burn in the chewing process and drinking ice cold water..hmm would that actually burn more calories than I would be putting in my body.. oh well food is about one if the only pleasures we have in life..

        • Thanks, JC. I began ‘intermittent fasting’ (6-18) after my ortho surgeon suggested that any weight I could lose before hip joint surgery would be a good thing. So far I’m down 15 lbs. This video supplies all the other parts of the equation to ‘do it right’.

      • Try a High protein High fiber diet with grams of protein per day equal to your target weight combined with resistance training. You are better off with a couple of extra pounds and muscle than lower weight and sarcopenia/muscle loss IMO. Loss of muscle leads to some really bad things.

    • From the source material –

      https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35441470/

      “Conclusions: One year after withdrawal of once-weekly subcutaneous semaglutide 2.4 mg and lifestyle intervention, participants regained two-thirds of their prior weight loss, with similar changes in cardiometabolic variables. Findings confirm the chronicity of obesity and suggest ongoing treatment is required to maintain improvements in weight and health.”

      Sooo… if you get off the drug-train, you’ll probably gain most of it back. Oh and never mind any of the side-effects or changes that you get to keep….

      “TANSTAAFL” – kind of an ironic use, given the subject…

  9. CW was always difficult for me. 5 words a minute was easy for my Novice ticket, and I spent lots of time on the air, but progress in copy speed plataued at around 10-12 WPM.

    I was able to Technician out and up, and stay licensed and active — but on VHF only. (A Novice license was not renewable back then.) VHF is not where the True Romance of global radio is. “Low Bands” — “HF” — is where the real fun is.

    While I was in the Army my code speed improved — slowly.

    Then one day, I stared to ‘”copy behind.” I was hearing several cgaracters, and THEN write them down.

    Previously I had a three step mental process. HEAR the CW, mentally DECODE the character, WRITE it down. One character at a time.

    As soon as I began copying behind a couple of letters, speed zoomed. (Parallel simultaneous processes?) It’s hard to describe, but basically (for me) time spent doggedly copying CW that’s WAY too fast, forces this to eventually happen. Its’ like drowning on purpose.

    I guess people for whom CW was natural and easy never got trapped coppying way slow — allowing time for double conversion thninking.

    HEAR-WRITE is the faster way. It’s almost like “automatic writing.” It’s like a semi-subconscious thing.

    …or something.

    I still hate CW, but I can do 25 WPM on a good day now, with a few minutes’ re-groove training refreshment.

    73
    KW1B

      • I know I know…my wife tells me all the time…your6not as funny as you think you are..a sad attempt at humor there..

    • (“CW was always difficult for me. 5 words a minute was easy for my Novice ticket,”)

      that’s sad to hear..I am pretty sure I could do several hundred words a minute like my typing skills… you wouldn’t be able to read any of it..but hitting that little button Damm I could tippy tap all day fast as grease lightning…

      • If we remember with spaces Morse can be 5-characters per letter or number and how many of them to make 5 letter words per minute?
        And we sometimes chat for hours? You are getting out on the ice here…watch it!@

      • “that’s sad to hear..I am pretty sure I could do several hundred words a minute like my typing skills”
        ROFL!! Optimist!! My original elmer (SK) was a Navy RTTY operator who heard so much he could copy 60 wpm RTTY in his head. But he couldn’t type that fast.
        I’ve never heard of a CW operator doing “several hundred workd a minute”.

        • lol lol I was being funny there… heck between auto type and tippy tap on finger typing lol lol…
          when I had list the use of my hands I had dragon put on the computer…the kids were bouncing on the bed playing and it went off…a whole new language appeared…lol lol lol I took dragon off of the computer…

    • The ‘copy behind’ thing is where the ‘language’ portion of the brain kicks in, and it improves with practice… like baby talk.

      I’m a lot like you. I practiced with a friend as a teenager until I could do 13wpm solid and 20wpm with a few errors. Full of confidence we drove 100 miles to the FCC office to take the test. The code tape started and I was nervous and rattled, and wasted four minutes trying to ‘latch on’ to the copy. I finally got one minute of solid copy and the tape ended. The examiner told me he knew what happened, but I didn’t have enough copy for 13wpm. He gave me credit for 5wpm and I took the general exam, which gave me a Technician license that I had for years. VHF work only. Only in 1999 when the rules changed to allow 5wpm for Extra class licensees did I ‘cash in’ my FCC 5wpm and took the extra exam. So I am an ‘Extra Light’ as the old-timers call me. George berates me for not practicing more. But I dislike CW because I’m not good at it. I have a little DMX-40 transceiver that works well

      https://www.preppcomm.com/products/dmx-40-transceiver

      I find that if I spend time with it, it trains my ear as I watch the decoder screen. I’m sure if I spent lots of time with it I could get my speed up. But I need that scarce tool… the round ‘tuit’.

  10. (“ask why American workers can’t be found? (Hint: comes back to a failing higher ed system and not teaching today’s kids how to “get your grind on.”)

    thinking about that..I asked one of the young girls from china working at the Chinese restaurant.. she was excited to come here and get rich. they oaid her minimum wage meals and a place to sleep .. works from nine am till closing every day..half of her wages sent home to mom and dad..the exciting part that got her to come is minimum wage here..is a months wage there.. every day she makes a years worth of wages there..
    just like the dishwasher we bought made in another country where the yearly income is a dollar a month..the retail cost there is 4.50 us all the parts are made in china.. we have had it just one year and it’s already had to be serviced three times..
    they’re cost of living ING is so much lower than hours..they move here then they have the whole family live in the sa.e home.

  11. Am I the only one that sees that no one in congress seems to give a hoot about anything at all?
    it’s like an eco chamber in DC nothing Noone at all …I think I know what the plan is.. it’s just a wild guess …but here goes…

    for Congress to just go bankrupt on the deficit and create a new currency would be suicide for their being a member of congress. so my thought is either way they go it’s suicide the whole world is going to feel the effects of what is going to be happening we have the h1-82 or HB 82 the Social Security Act that if they sign it into law. will look like a breath of fresh air to all of the people on Social Security and lower income people. but it’s just a leaking Band-Aid as our economy will spiral out of control. the thing is it’s like a mezzanine on a spiral staircase where you stop and you have a short flat deal and then you go down to the next level. for a short period of time it will look as if it’s the perfect fix. my thought is they’ll going for the 3 trillion dollars print up at 8% interest can get us in such an unsustainable debt that there’s no way we can do it there’s no way that this is sustainable at today’s amount of tax revenue and there’s no looking at it. the Chinese and all these other countries that we’ve outsourced our money and Industry to we are shipping money over there to them so they can manufacture our existence here. so they literally have already won this battle they own America we are all dependent on them completely for everything that we get. our Pharmaceuticals are equipment our cars or parts everything is made somewhere else. so my guess is they’re going to borrow the money let it level off bring in that Social Security Equalization act so the Democrats will go out office looking like Heroes and then those that are in office this gives them an escape clause so that in the two years or year or two years that it takes before this really becomes evident that it’s no way that this is going to work they can get out of office and leave it in somebody else’s hands that way then they retire looking like the Glorious Congressman of the heroes to mankind and leave the those damn bastards look at what they did to the new guys that will come in and take their place. the three card Monty that’s the P under the cup and they’re just going to let some sucker go and take over and if this goes to nuclear war it won’t make a difference anyway cuz nobody will be here. might have what 5 or 10 people per state you know it’s I got this this is I think that’s it I think they’re going to just Shuffle it along another couple years get the hell out of there unless somebody else take the blame for it the Democrats will look like they’re the heroes

  12. On the H1B issue, many years ago I was at the State Employment office looking in thier computers for job sources. I saw many engineer jobs requesting “19.5 months of experience in yada-yada, 17.3 months experience in doodly -doodly”, etc.
    I would apply thinking, hey I have 3 years experience in both, i should be a shoo-in.
    The clerk said, Sorry, but you won’t be considered. They write it that way so they can say, ‘no, he has more experience than we are looking for.’
    Why is that, Ask I?
    Answer: They have an H1B employee they are trying to keep, whos visa is expiring, and they are writing to his EXACT specs, so no one else will be qualified.
    No one has ever asked me to train my replacement.
    If they had I would have cut the process short and resigned on the spot. But I have seen whole rooms of contractors from India or usually Pakistan, brought in to do only the stress analysis on piping over 200 degrees for high pressure steam, so they could get it mounted in the racks without tearing loose from the pipe clamps.
    They would be put in apartments dormitory style and fed take-out and would have one van rented for all to transport them to and from the job.
    Minimum pay and minimum benefits but they got to send the entire check home.

  13. (“ask why American workers can’t be found? (Hint: comes back to a failing higher ed system and not teaching today’s kids how to “get your grind on.”)

    I have a slightly different take on that. As someone who made a “living” in the field of Analytical Chemistry after my 6 years in the Army, I had many extended times of unemployment between one job and the next. I am glad I never kept track of the number of job ads that described exactly my background, and then at the end of the ad said, “Women and minorities encouraged to apply.” That is nothing more than code that said I would not be considered.

    Now, young, white, men need to also compete with H1B visa holders who will work for even less money that I was paid.

    WTF would they want to do the hard work to get a degree and also go into debt so that they can compete in a job market like that?

    • Yes. I seriously considered changing my name to Patel a decade ago just so I could get interviews.
      A high percentage of the H1B technocrats I run into have questionable credentials. I have been in a niche market cleaning up after ’em. Not sure how much longer it will last. I tend to spend too much time caught in the middle between H1B pretenders, home grown Dunning Kruger poster children, and regulators trolling for victims. I’m getting too old for this sh!t.

  14. “Deporting Illegal Alien Criminals”

    Which of Trump’s “Day One”s will be 1st – pardoning J6’ers or the big round up of illegals? or maybe there was a bunch of misunderstandings. 21 days….

    • J6 Prosecutor – draw and quarter that vile POS, dark” Fckr he IS.

      Same with heinous Cheney, Schmear and pencil neck traitor Stiff. Gulag the rest of the em somewhere remote Alaska – for LIFE.

      Only 4 Living Presidents now – soon to fulfill prophecy of things starting to come undone, once only 3 remain.

      So we have lil idiot bushy, clinton, obongo and tRUMP. Pedo joe does not count – apparantly NOBODY can COUNT VOTES properly in 2020. So we have one Pretendisdent – a fraudulent copy of a real Man.

      Who is next going to try and catch a ride from the Boatman on River Styx, with absolutely nothing of which to pay the TOLL with.

      * Hey bubba bill, what did you kill, bubba and hil & where is Captain America to zap him tween the eyes?

  15. 2 eggs
    1/2 cup cream
    1/2 cup sugar
    1/2 tsp baking powder
    1/2 cup pancake flour
    1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
    start out by whipping the eggs cream sugar and the other baking powder cream of tarter like you would for whipped cream… then add the pancake mix.. cook them on the griddle low heat…
    my mini me likes his with chocolate chips in it.. I make a big batch..this is the little batch recipe..
    enjoy..oh they are what I use for waffle sticks to

    • 2 Gallons of whole Milk
      1 12-16 oz Bottle of Beer (your choice)or wine
      1/4 tsp MA4002 Culture or 1 packet C101 Mesophilic Culture
      1/2 tsp Single Strength Liquid Rennet or ( 3 tbsp of lemon juice ir vinegar)
      3 tsp Salt
      Calcium Chloride (for pasteurized milk 1/2 tsp.

      warm the milk to 90 degrees
      Sprinkle the culture let sit for a few minutes then stir it in..
      salt and the rennet.. stir it in let it sit for one or two hours.. then cut the curd stir at 90 degrees for a few minutes this releases the whey..
      then cook it on low about 100 degrees for two hours .. sous vede is perfect for this..it hardens the curd..
      then strain the curds
      now transfer the drained curd in a pan and pour the beer or wine let the curds soak in it for about an hour drain the infused curds and salt the curds this stops the Culture then put it in the press..after its pressed gradually increase the weight..up to seventy pounds ..in the press for about three days .. half way you can take it out and turn it over.
      now brine the cheese..
      1 gallon of warm water 2 pounds of salt ( natural canning salt )
      1 tsp calcium Chloride
      1 tbsp of white vinegar
      place the pot on the stove and cook it similar to making a simple syrup..
      let the brine come to room temperature then place the cheese in it five hours per pound..with 2 gallons you should have about 5 pounds of cheese.. drain it then wax it..

  16. That “2024 Dishonest Reporter of the Year Awards” is in itself dishonest reporting. Every supposedly dishonest report they mentioned concerned only anti-semitism, as if that’s the only issue the media lies about. The awards must have come straight from Netanyahu!

  17. Lit a Trangia alcohol stove this morning, boiled some water, then made a cup of tea. That earns me my prep merit badge for the holidays.
    Not all that easy to procure economical ethyl alcohol here local. The real 200 proof stuff is plentiful, but pricey, and their are open-carry issues hauling it around.
    It is a little hard to find MSDS info on denatured alcohol. Never quite sure how much methyl alcohol is in the stuff you get at the paint or hardware stores (if you can find it).
    Kleen-strip contains methanol, ranging from 5 to 60% depending on the version, according to the MSDS. Also has Methyl Isobutyl Ketone, up to 1%. Don’t think I would burn that indoors, even with a hood.
    Amazon carries Ecoheat, which Amazon indicates is the same as Volusol bio-fuel alcohol in one of the ads. Volu-sol is out of Salt Lake City, and is mostly ethanol, with 4.76% isopropyl alcohol, <1% tert-butyl alcohol, < 1% and denatonium benzoate. It is labeled for indoor use. That was what I burned this morning, outdoors. Volu-sol no longer sells on Amazon under it's own label that I can find. Best price for Ecoheat is $115 for 4 gallons in 32 oz bottles. That's about as cheap as I have found recently. You have to watch the bottle sizes; the 16 oz bottles are priced almost as high as the 32 oz. Sneaky.

    • At $28.75/gallon for fuel, enjoy your tea! I like my little knockdown portable rocket stove. Hotter, quicker, and the fuel is free. Yes, it’s ‘outdoor only’, but that’s where emergency cooking should be.

      • A lot of the economics depends on where you are and what you are doing. It takes less than an ounce of alcohol to bring two cups of water to a low boil. That is enough for boiling water for a minimal meal and a hot beverage. Potentially, that is a lot of meals from a gallon of fuel. The alcohol stoves are about the lightest thing you can haul, and the cooksets can be very compact. The ultralight through-hikers use them.
        With the weather that will be rolling in next week, cooking outside would be more of a survival challenge than anything.
        I have several ways to burn wood for cooking, and I have a lot of wood, so that is my back-up for any long term scenario.
        The price on the alcohol has gone up significantly. It is still cheaper than isoburane or small propane cylinders. And I don’t want propane in my house, or nearby in large quantities.

        • *1) hotglue hundreds 308’s to old piece of carpet.
          2) drape loaded carpet over big ass propane tank in such a way as to be pointing/directed at house.
          3)attach glow in dark Tannerite target on other side of tank.
          4) when extracting Ure self from SWAT/FBI raided house, turn, stop & drop, and take shot at tank.

          Big ass DIY claymore – to cover Ure six , when exiting..stage Left.wupwupwupwup..Hey Moe, Hey Larry, look, fibbies!

        • Curly- I don’t think that would detonate the primers on the .308’s, so it would be more likely to p!ss off federales and encourage them to thumb their selector switches on full auto, rather than slowing them down.
          The most likely scenario for violence with propane storage would be someone using it to incinerate me. Also, propane is singularly unforgiving of carelessness.
          Personally, I don’t have any beef going with the Fed’s that I have been made aware of, Boris. But of course, just ’cause I’m not paranoid…

      • Menards wants 55 bucks for 5 gallons of Sunnyside; Amazon wants $65 for 2 gallons. Unless he’s going to drink it, he doesn’t need ethanol. Sunnyside is sold for use primarily as a marine galley-stove fuel (although I use it to make my own hand sanitizer — just add a dollop each of food-grade hydrogen peroxide and aloe ;-)

        $28.75 is about what I paid for my knockdown rocket stove…

        • That’s the best price I have heard for denatured alcohol recently. The MSDS I find for Sunnyside is about half ethanol and half methanol, so venting is an issue.:

          https://www.sunnysidecorp.com/pdfs/SDS_83455.pdf

          I would caution on using wood alcohol as a hand sanitizer. The package stores local have stopped carrying WHO hand sanitizer. The last I found was on Amazon. I use it for killing and and treating redbugs in the summer chigger shooting gallery months. Dallas grass under trees is redbug habitat. You look for shade and get gang swarmed by the tortuous little pests. The parents dusted their pants legs with sulfur, but after first wash, everything you own smells like it. The concentrated DEET helps some. I use the alcohol to decontaminate after I come inside. The sanitizer also helps treat pests that burrow in. It seems to knock ’em out for about 8 hrs.

        • BCNs’ go to product for removing heavy, sticky, resins and residue from smoking devices like my stone pipe, dbl Bbblr, and big bong.
          Also use it for Fondue – the alcohol stove under the fondue pot/tripod stand.
          We buy it by the gallon around here, as I l rather enjoy a clean, frosty pull on da snow Bong.

          * Just say no to dirty Bongs.

    • If you’re concerned, how ’bout getting a self-contained still (like this one?)

      https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BM7HN8BM

      I’m not sure what the differences are between the single button and multi-button machines, but this is the one I have, and it comes with instructions for distilling wine into brandy, so I assume you can create a pure distillate — one way or another.

      If that’s too much hassle, you could always just buy some:

      https://www.menards.com/main/paint/solvents-cleaners-removers/thinners-solvents/p-1444444210602-c-19345.htm

      https://www.acehardware.com/departments/paint-and-supplies/chemicals-and-cleaners/paint-thinners-and-solvents/1064955

      etc…

    • when he was in office..I felt like most people did..I bought the hype…
      then I read a book that explained what happened and how congress threw him and the middle class under the wheels of the bus..
      since then I did more research and gained a world of respect for him. really a decent guy all around and smart to.. if we had done what he had suggested.. we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in today..it would have been hard but things would not be this way we are seeing it today.. he and his wisdom will be missed.. my sincere condolences to his family..

    • Nowhere.
      Nothing.

      they are still out and about – media has been told and controlled..SSDD.

      No more coverage for you or any one else.

      Ya know what they say..Ignorance is Bliss.

      Whats a matta ? You no likey Bliss ?

  20. Recall 25 years ago tomorrow folks were waiting for the lights to go out permanently. The Y2K Apocalypse. But it was a bust.

    • But on the upside, I built a 500 gallon water tower in preparation for Y2K, and it’s still serving me well. Good investment.

  21. how any market “crashes” in 2025? Seems prior 2 years of crash calls didn’t work out …. and the more crash predictions, the higher she goes ……….. how the game is played …. today’s lows being bought hard, same story, same results, nothing to see here …. for now …. good luck all

  22. Coffee? I thought you were a decaf wimp. Pardon my bias, but the world’s finest coffee is NOT Kona Coffee from the Big Island. It is from the other end of the island chain at Kauai.
    https://kauaicoffee.com/

    American Estate grown. Simply the best.

  23. want to help popularize Mesopotamian history, please tell someone who likes food and history to join the waitlist at tableofgods.com.
    The more people who join the waitlist, the more books I can print, and the lower I can price each copy (you’ll be able to pre-order the book in spring 2025).
    it’s a coming finally… the plan is to put the ancient game of Ur on the back of the display box…

  26. This article was on a site I belong to….scary stuff there .. time to make up a bunch of mosquito traps before spring …

    (“Researchers at the Bill Gates Foundation-backed Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands have joined an international effort to transform mosquitoes into flying syringes. According to a study published late last month in the New England Journal of Medicine, they apparently now have an effective way of using
    mosquitoes to deliver some protection against malaria in unsuspecting humans — and possibly other payloads in the future as well.

    Scientists have long toyed with the idea of transforming mosquitoes into “flying vaccinator.

    Gates noted further that it is important to use existing interventions while “laying the groundwork for a malaria-free future.” According to Gates, that future might depend on the use of mRNA vaccines or the genetic modification of mosquito population.

    According to the utopian billionaire, “One of our biggest challenges isn’t scientific; it’s financial and political.”

    Gates noted further that it is important to use existing interventions while “laying the groundwork for a malaria-free future.” According to Gates, that future might depend on the use of mRNA vaccines or the genetic modification of mosquito population.

    According to the utopian billionaire, “One of our biggest challenges isn’t scientific; it’s financial and political.”

    Shigeto Yoshida, the lead researcher on a 2010 study that modified mosquitoes’ saliva such that they would deliver leishmania vaccines to mice when sucking their blood, noted that vaccination by insect was “just like a conventional vaccination but with no pain and no cost.”

    What’s more, continuous exposure to bites will maintain high levels of protective immunity, through natural boosting, for a lifetime. So the insect shifts from being a pest to being beneficial,” added Yoshida.

    Despite the Japanese geneticist’s optimism, his study acknowledged that “medical safety issues and concerns about informed consent mitigate the use of the ‘flying vaccinator’ as a method to deliver vaccines.”

    “What’s more, continuous exposure to bites will maintain high levels of protective immunity, through natural boosting, for a lifetime. So the insect shifts from being a pest to being beneficial,” added Yoshidida.

    Despite the Japanese geneticist’s optimism, his study acknowledged that “medical safety issues and concerns about informed consent mitigate the use of the ‘flying vaccinator’ as a method to deliver vaccines.”
    Robert Sinden, professor emeritus of parasite cell biology at Imperial College London, told Science at the time that in addition to vaccinating people without their informed consent, no regulatory agency would sign off on the initiative.

    The issue of informed consent, apparently an ongoing issue for elements of the scientific community, was evidently not enough to hinder the continued development of flying vaccinators. Hiroyuki Matsuoka of Jichi Medical University in Japan, for instance, announced that with the help of a 2008 Gates Foundation grant, he was preparing work on an engineered mosquito that could produce and secrete a malaria vaccine protein into a host’s skin.

    In 2022, Sean Murphy and his team at the University of Washington demonstrated the workability of that idea, testing mosquito-borne malaria vaccines on humans, establishing what they called a “proof of concept” for the technology.

    Concerned about the short-lived and marginally effective nature of the malaria vaccines currently approved by the World Health Organization, Dutch researchers at the LUMC similarly turned to genetically modified parasites and mosquito carriers as a potential alternative.
    In an earlier trial, the researchers tested the effectiveness of GA1, a malaria parasite genetically modified to stop developing after roughly 24 hours of infection in humans, but found that it only provided low protective efficacy against malaria. Hoping for a better outcome, the researchers crafted another parasite, GA2, to stop developing around six days following invasion in preclinical humanized mouse models.

    The Bill Gates-backed Gavi, also known as the Vaccine Alliance, noted that “because the parasite dies before it infects the blood cells and evolves into its deadly phase, it instead acts as a way of priming the immune system, as a vaccination usually would.”

    Afforded a test group of 43 adults between the ages of 19 and 35 who previously had no record of malaria infection, the researchers subjected subjects to 50 bites from GA2-infected mosquitoes, 50 bites from GA1-infected mosquitoes, or 50 bites from uninfected mosquitoes (placebo), in three vaccination sessions at 28-day intervals. Three weeks following their third devouring by mosquitoes, the human test subjects underwent malaria infection with five bites from infected mosquitoes.

    According to the study, eight of the nine participants in the GA2 group received effective protection against the malaria infection. Only one of eight participants in the GA1 group received protection, and none of the participants in the placebo group received protection.

    The Dutch researchers now seek to replicate their results in a larger human trial.
    “These findings represent a significant step forward in malaria vaccine development,” Julius Hafalla, an immunologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told Nature. “The ongoing global malaria burden makes the development of more effective vaccines a critical priority.”
    Leiden University Medical Center received a $1,578,317 grant from the Gates Foundation in September 2023 for the purpose of understanding “population and geographic factors affecting response to malaria vaccines in endemic countries.” In November, the center received a Gates Foundation grant “to improve health outcomes and prevent premature death in populations around the world suffering from high rates of Malaria infection by developing next generation malaria vaccine candidates.”
    Bill Gates has demonstrated, both directly and through his foundation, a desire to shape public health, the news landscape, education policy, AI, insect populations, American farmland, the energy sector, foreign policy, and the earth itself.

    Gates, who took issue in a January 2021 MSNBC interview with content encouraging “people not to trust the advice on masks or taking the vaccine,” has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into malaria vaccine research. He noted on his blog in August, “Malaria is caused by a remarkably adaptable parasite that’s constantly changing and developing resistance to our drugs and interventions. Fighting it is like playing a global game of high-stakes whack-a-mole: Just when we think we’ve got it under control, it pops up somewhere else or in a new form.”)

    • And everyone ignores the evidence that Malaria can be cured easily and cheaply with Chlorine Dioxide (MMS).

  27. 5×5 loud and clear
    @55 mph,, I believe more CB radios were sold then.
    I was a “on the road” grocery salesman for a small warehouse that sold to institutions ie: schools, nursing homes resturants,, you got the ‘wildturkey’ here.
    Rising gasoline prices hurt me bad back then.

    Peanut boy, he was one of uniparty,,, Good to say bye.
    I am not a fanboy of snakes, “take me in ole tender woman,,,”
    https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/356605-photo-of-lady-gaga-and-five-former-presidents-goes-viral/
    It is a snake den

    a rising tide floats all boats, yes, but with exceptions to a sinking ship, as I Quote Trump,
    “We ran a flawless campaign, having spent FAR LESS, with lots of money left over. They ran a very expensive “sinking ship,” embracing DOJ & FBI WEAPONIZATION,,,”
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/12/elon-musk-wavers-mike-johnson-just-moments-after/
    I also read in another social feed ,
    “the rising tide,,,” seems to be a theme for the New Year,
    positive attitude, an echo in the ‘Force’,,
    iffin one is still afloat, at least know how to swim
    or find a rolltop desk
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RTPdAAdw30

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