If you’re under 50, new to this site, this morning is “Old Men Talking About Real Shit” –  – the kind of crap that doesn’t make it onto the teevee and which your politically correct mush-filled brain can’t possibly have assimilated. You’re not old enough.

This is also because people under 50 have been inculcated, inoculated, politicized, guilt-tagged, stupefied, and fluoridated well past the bounds of rationality.  If you’re an under 50 reader, you have our sincere admiration.  Clear thinking is a rarity.

Read More

Immediately after the Paris attacks, we raised a very pertinent question on the www.peoplenomics.com side of the house:  Could terrorism become a business model?  Are there unseen manipulators who are making a killing in all senses of the word?

I spent a good part of Wednesday afternoon and evening tied to a San Bernardino County sheriff’s scanner listening to the drama play out.

But already, we were keenly aware that this latest Islamic Outrage was sadly fitting a number of predictive markers.

To begin with, there is our “murder cycle” work that suggests mass killing sprees often happen in the 139-146 days period after a previous mass killing.

As soon as initial reports can in, I hopped on the computer and calculated that 145-days earlier would have been around the 10th of  July.

According to the website www.shootingtracker.com, there were 19 murders in the US in this timeframe – the largest of which was the Chattanooga, TN shooting spree alleged to have been committed by Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez .  This one resulted in 5 killed (including 4 U.S. Marines) and wounded 3 back on July 15th.

Moreover, this report from Business Insider noted that:

“According to Reuters and SITE, Abdulazeez blogged on Monday that “life is short and bitter” and Muslims should not miss an opportunity to “submit to Allah,” according to an organization that tracks extremist groups.”

In our work, we should expect another shooting outrage in the vicinity of April 16, 2016.

Returning to the immediate events, you’ll recall that I discussed with you last week how it was my opinion that as the number of undetected jihadists jumped over legal immigration requests by the Obama administration’s f/u’ed immigration schemes increased, as soon as America awareness on point began to increase, the shootings and attacks in the Homeland would increase because the invaders would have “nothing to lose.”

I hate being right about bad stuff for our beloved country.

Indeed, as predicted, in the aftermath this morning, we note that the Community Organizer in Chief is once again using this tragedy of San Bernardino as an excuse to attack legal gun ownership.  Yet the weapons used were long guns and we note that Obama has never been able to utter the worlds “militant Muslim jihadists.”  It’s a talk-around point and highly suspect.

If the Obama anti-gun people were more honest, they would note that strict gun control in France didn’t stop the mass killings there a few weeks back.  According to Wikipedia, France is tough on guns:

The total number of firearms owned by an individual is also subject to limits (not possible to have more than 12 authorizations/permits on B1, B2 and B4 type firearms).^[98] As of September, 2013, France has a capacity limit of 20 rounds for handguns;^[99] one needs a permit for category one^{[clarification needed]} semi-automatics that have a capacity greater than 3 rounds. Fully automatic firearms are illegal for civilian ownership.

As I have told you repeatedly:  Gun control does not impact militant jihadists, drug cartels, or the evil criminal elements of this world.  They simply don’t care about “laws” of infidels, Nortes, or fools.  (If you think otherwise, put a checkmark next to the “fools” category for yourself.

But to the main points:

This morning, the futures are bouncing back (up 44 when I checked).  But is it possible that within the jihadist community there are day traders?  We wonder because if you KNEW in advance of an event such as yesterdays, would it have been possible to buy put options on the weekly S&P series, buy them the day before and then off;load them after a bump in price by late afternoon when the S&P was down 23 points and 1.1%?

It’s the same question we raised around the Paris shootings.; in that one, however, there were more bodies and an even larger market move in reaction.

At some point, those with foreknowledge of events could do very well trading – and making money for their antihuman and criminal enterprise.  Cowering under the cover of being a “religion” the extremists  – in our outlook – will now promote more attacks in the West.

It will serve to further restrict gun rights while at the same time getting the civilian population used to the idea of “no more freedoms.”  We note that Belgium essentially lost ALL civil rights in the witch-hunt following Paris.

The next major move we can begin thinking about is whether James B.

Read More

I need YOUR investment advice.

This takes a bit of explaining, so here goes:  On Wednesday, over on the www.peoplenomics.com side of the house, we had the start of a very interesting discussion about 2016 financial planning.

This morning, I’d like YOU to toss in your 2-cents worth in response to a very simple question:

How good are you going to be at picking THE ONE BEST INVESTMENT VEHICLE which should outperform ALL OTHERS in 2016?

Read More

Now that TurboTax Home & Business 2015 Federal + State Taxes + Fed Efile Tax Preparation Software – PC/Mac Disc ($80, Amazon) is shipping and I’ve gotten it installed, it’s time to get serious about my “personal management plan” for 2016.

This is something that goes on all the time in real businesses:  There is a year-end review and the examination of all pertinent financial information is usually quite exhaustive.

Is it therefore any wonder than most corporations are extremely well-managed?  Hardly.  There is a combination of method and plan that leads to inevitable management success.

Read More

Readers should likely be thinking more about geopolitics than the markets this week.

There have been some reports that Turkey either has, or will, impose restrictions on oceanic traffic transiting the Turkish Straits (the Dardanelles). 

This would likely set off World War III, if true and prolonged,  since Turkey is in a key position as the “door to Europe” from the Middle East.

Before getting into the specifics of war worries, we need to step back and look at how the War with ISIS has been a mainly “soft war” – so far.

The U.S. actually got things rolling when the residual neocons – still holding sway among Washington’s power elite – managed to convince the idjits at the top that toppling yet-another-government in the Middle East would be “good” for the U.S.

We refer to the “idjits at the top” because anyone on this side of an Alzheimer’s Unit remembers how well the last neocon (made-up) LIE about regime change worked.  If the National Media Kool-Aid continues to work its magic on you, that would be the ill-managed Iraq War.

The neocons have done it again, not once, but actually TWICE – by screwing with two former areas of relative stability (Ukraine) and Syria where the neocon remnants declared war on president Assad with no corresponding concurrence from Congress.  There, lead by death-merchant lobbyist-controlled miscreants, there has been no restraint on U.S. war-making.

Read More

Now that we have been home, and with the flu symptoms and aches & pains declining, we have gotten back to the largest problem in Life.

Which is:  Where to live to make “the most of it.”

As you may remember, I wrote a book 10+years ago titled “How to Live on $10,000 a Year – or Less.”   It has been hopeless copied and ripped off – my welcome to digital publishing.

It has always been a cornerstone in our thinking that living below our means makes sense for people of all ages.  Tomorrow I will be doing and update on our Peoplenomics.com site about how our plans for living well on Social Security for the two of us are doing.  Short summary:  Quite well.

Read More

The news came out in a press release from ShopperTrak this weekend:

CHICAGO – Nov. 28, 2015 – ShopperTrak, the leading global provider of consumer behavior insights and location-based analytics, today released its preliminary sales estimate for brick-and-mortar retail on Thanksgiving Day (11/26/15) and Black Friday (11/27/15). The two dates accumulated a projected $12.1 billion in combined sales, which is an estimated decrease versus 2014.

Read More

I believe “Science” has gotten climate change stupendously wrong.  And I’d like to thank a Washington Post story for making it so easy to dispute climate change claims.

I wasn’t planning to present a major discussion of the silly climate change meetings getting underway today, but time has come to lay out a much more precise (and scientific) point of view.

The guts of this were laid out in Peoplenomics in “The Scariest Holiday – Ever” a month ago.

The WaPo Ocean Boulders Story:  Academic Absurdity

The Washington Post story “That’s heavy: climate-change warnings include rising seas and wild weather shifts. But giant flying boulders?” details some massive rocks on the otherwise mostly flat southern Bahamas Island of Eleuthera.

Among the alarmist claims is that 1,000 ton boulders like those in the Bahamas could come from climate change.  Whips up the ocean and mega-storms and all that.

Well, it’s a clever half-truth.

Yes the boulders are there, but probably not from Climate Change as hyped.

The first problem is that the assertion is that 2-million pound rocks could be washed up on the Bahamas by “mega-storms” resulting from climate change.  Kids like me from a fire department upbringing know a thing, or three, about water’s coefficient of friction.

While I don’t fault the scientists involved for taking their research in a direction of loose budgets to scare the daylights out of people (and stampede the whole world into global government complete with global climate taxes) the facts of the matter are considerably different than climate fear-mongers would care to let on.

Want to go to school for a few minutes?

S.V. Clube, William Napier, and www.dtic.mil

Unfortunately for climate adherents, we have very good evidence as to what causes global warming and periodic catastrophic cooling.  However, to arrive at the source, we need to adopt an interdisciplinary approach which (no surprise here) is lacking in climate research.

A short comment on the evolution of science is important:  When initial discoveries are made, they are equivalent (as in geometry) to individual points.  Not that these aren’t useful when science is young, but the more points, the better.

Recall that (again referring to geometry) two points make a line which allows us to project things.  Extensibility is a fine thing.  but lines are limiting.

Three points define a plane and four points define an object.

Science has not moved beyond points and lines in many areas, and you’ll see this in a few moments when I introduce you to object-oriented thinking.

Dot, line, and planar thinking characterizes where most science lives in today’s world.

Now to DTIC:  This is the Defense Technical Information Center.

One reason the U.S.

Read More

If you like conspiracy thinking, and you have not yet read the complete book “Report from Iron Mountain (on the accessibility and desirability of Peace)” you really need to Google it or pick up a copy from a bookseller.

Although there has been much conversation in the public press about how this 1967 book published by Dial Press was likely a farce on the Vietnam War and the whole “war gaming mindset” we continue to extract huge swaths of meaning from the book in such diverse realms as computer programming and logical approaches to “unthinkable” problems.

Hence, this morning we tackle the first parts of Report from Iron Mountain with an eye not toward what is held by the crowd to be just a “farce.”

Because, as you’ll see as this series unfolds, when you look at the books “Substitutes for War” one topic – distinctly missing in 1967 – is terrorism.

Read More

The combination of high-potency vitamins, elderberry pills, sleep, and what-have-you, has finally begun  to work its magic…we are starting to feel a bit better this morning.

So much so that I will probably get around to doing my “Shopping Matrix” this afternoon and laying in a few goodies.

The process begins with a cup of coffee (got i`t!) and a reflective moment such as the one we’re having now.  It’s sort of like a guided meditation except it applies to the outer, rather than inner, world.

The first question to ask is…

1.  What do I have?

Story time:  I did this on Sunday in the palatial offices of UrbanSurvival and Peoplenomics, 

My “super-computer” had stopped booting from the big SSD and – for a frustrating half-hour – I contemplated buying another Super Computer to replace the existing one.

If you look through your possessions in life, what you will often find is that a good portion of spending is due to the existing item you have not working as well as it should.

In my case, ripping the computer apart was all that was needed.  I discovered that the SSD’s SATA cable to the motherboard had somehow worked loose (or I hadn’t seated it right the first time) but whatever the cause, the machine is back to smoking-fast speed.

I saved $2,300 on the spot.

This is the most important part of the Zen of Shopping – and it’s the one that many people fail at:

They have something. 

It develops a perceived flaw.

Instead of repair, they REPLACE and there goes the money.  Double-time.

2.  Make a Repair List Before a Shopping List

The UrbanSurvival Office (which was written up at the Perfect Home Office) was a design project done on the Peoplenomics side several years back.  (Subscriber note:  See “Building the Perfect Home Office”  Peoplenomics #258, Sept. 17, 2006 here)

There are several “workstations” in my perfect office. Writing position, two radio positions, electronics position, filing section, treadmill, tool cart….etc.

The computer system – which occupies one position – has been relatively economical because I have focused on repairing and upgrading rather than throw oodles of money at various problems.

On the computer system, for example, there are three 28-inch flat screens and a 37-inch screen.

A year, or so, back when the power supply on one of the 28-inch monitors failed, I bought power supply repair kits and installed them.  At $200 each, the cost of replacement would have been well over $600.  But three power supply repair kits cost me $45 plus the fun of replacing the old failing capacitors in the power supplies.  (Wrote about this in mid 2014 here)

Same thing for the tower itself.  It is fast, full of RAM, but when the main hard drive approached mean time between failure at the three-year mark, rather than buy a new computer ($2,300 for a screaming gaming machine with four video outs, I simply installed a 500 GB SSD and kept the old drive in a power-managed secondary position.

Moving on to the ham radio part of my office (yes, I do listen a lot on 40/80 meters to hear what people are talking about!) I look over my equipment with the same attitude.

When I look at my 2000 watt linear amplifier, I think to myself “Gosh, wouldn’t a new QRO HF-3KDX look better sitting there?”

Unfortunately, while the QRO amplifier would be a major upgrade, the fact is that there are only a few problems with the old amplifier that need to be fixed to put my old amplifier “perfect” again.

I already have the Harbach Electronics  capacitor replacement kit awaiting installation. 

And a fresh set of 3-500Z’s can be found from K5SVC for under $400 on eBay.

After looking at the existing amplifier, it dawned on Mr.

Read More

Markets in the US are closed until tomorrow – which is traditionally called National Call Your Broker Day.

Of course, that was back before we were beggared and poor as a country.

The usual headlines are about:  Retailers are hoping against rising bills at home that this will be a Big One

The big mover in Asia was Japan, up half a percent – hardly notable.   In Europe, Germany and France are up over one percent each.  The Kneeler:Land (where Pilgrims escaped from to come to the US) is up 3/4th’s of one percent.  Probably glad to be reminded they got rid of us…and maybe they’re right… we’ll see.

In other business news, we note how Philippines posts 6 pct economic growth in Q3.

Want to know why?

You sure?

OK:  It’s because of all the customer service jobs being sucked up there.

If you deal with a company that is “nominally” US-based, and you speak to some who calls you something like “Mr. George” – hang up, call the US HQ of said company and ask to speak to someone who is a citizen (green card or naturalized only, thank you.)

Otherwise, we will see EVEN MORE of our country’s jobs being shipped off.

This has got to become a social movement:  If the money is spent in the US can we keep the economic benefit here that should accrue with that?

“Is there anything else I can do for you today, Mr. George?”

Well…now that you mention it…

A group thank-you to people in police, fire, medical, and retail who are working today…

Thinking About Headlines

I’m snarfier than usual with my cold….so try some of these on:  (Fair warning – you may not like my views)…

Chicago releases new videos from scene of Laquan McDonald’s shooting

This informs us that Chicago really is working hard to promote racial divisions and conflict.  And since ChiTown is run by former Obamster Rahm What’sHis…why are we surprised? 

And the dimwitted media are promoting it as much as possible to further fan divisions…because that’s good for RupeRev and good for ratings…but shoot-darn, let’s recycle a 13-month old story, shall we?

Read More

Black Friday or January?

That is the main driver to get out of bed at 4 AM on a holiday morning and take up the keyboard.

Which date-range offers better deals?

Today is when we can see the ultimate in monetization of a holiday…

A quick Google search reveals an almost unlimited number of websites that have capitalized on the term “black Friday.”  A sample Google search is here.

The way this works is very simple.

1.  You get as domain name which has the term blackfriday buried in it somewhere.

2.  You sign up for as many affiliate marketing programs as you can.

3.  You write enough 500-word articles to optimize the hell out of things so you get some web traffic.

4.  Then you load your site up with Amazon and whoever else you’ve signed up with.

When people come to your site today…and click on a link…it sets a cookie which means any sales that happen are credited to your account.

And (so goes the dream) you become an internet gazillionaire.

To be sure, a few sites will do pretty well…but the revenue stream gets pretty close to dead the rest of the year.  I, for one, hate lumpy revenue models because they are harder to budget around.

As to our actual spending plans?

Easy-peasy:  We will be sending out checks this year (from the National Bank of Dad).

Each will be accompanied by a monograph on how Black Friday is a retailer scam to get people to buy things that are fairly useless.

That report will explain that most things will be found on sale in January or February and will extoll the virtues of refurbished items.

Sure, it would be fun to have a fiber internet link, a 32 GB 8-core processors at 4.4 GHZ and terabyte graphics drivers and 73-inch monitors.

But to play CandyCrush?  Are you serious?

Still, we understand how people work, so here’s our own contribute to BFAOD (Black Friday Ad Overdose):

Usually, around the Thanksgiving table (which we are foregoing for a week or two) there is much discussion about how my “check and think about it” approach shows what a cold-hearted person I really am.

After I point out this is exactly the kind of thing that pays the most in the business world, I report that in going on 409-years of check-writing, I have never had one returned as defective and everyone is pleased to get them.

Here is this year’s Disbursement Letter:

Dear National Bank of Dad  (NBoD) Customer:

Seasonal Adjustments!  The National Bank of Dad wishes to inform you as follows:   

This years gift disbursement is adjusted for the cost of living adjustment to our Social Security income.  Since there has been no increase, there is no increase in disbursement planned for Gifting Season 2015.

NBoD Customers may refer to the Social Security website here for current gifting parameters.

Our anticipation is that the increase – if any – for the 2016 season, will be held to a fraction of one percent.  The good news about this is you are able to calculate your NBoD Gift disbursement almost a year in advance.

NBoD customers are alerted to a forthcoming internal accounting change that will take place in 2016.

Effective July 1, 2016, the National Bank of Dad will be implementing a significant change in accounting policies.

Where previously we had used Current Adjusted Gross Income (CAGI) as our calculation basis for gifting, in 2016 we will be transition to the Modified Adjusted Gross Income Crap (MAGIC).

The key difference between these two accounting systems is very simple. Previously-used  AGI-based accounting has reflected income on current-year operations.

MAGIC-based accounting reflects current year income plus an increasing allowance for the accelerated depreciation of NBoD Trustee’s bodies:  This includes changes in eyesight, memory, muscle tone, stamina, and so forth.

Our new MAGIC accounting is also adjusted for your location on Gifting Days.  Checks and EFTs disbursed  to zip codes outside of Anderson County Texas, will be levied a 75% handling charge.  NBoD customers may therefore find it advantageous to visit NBoD headquarters and for this purposed we have a new Airfare Matching Program.  Inquire of the Chief Teller for details. A meal will be provided.

Your NBoD Trustees have implemented numerous cost-savings programs this year to maximize your benefit.  For example:  We are no longer providing accidental birth insurance to Trustees.  We have also ended all political contributions.

Unfortunately, we anticipate that new banking regulations will be invented by the Obama administration in the coming year that will require equal disbursement levels for Middle East refugees and other illegal aliens.

Therefore, we are continuing last year’s special offer of a $200 rebate to all NBoD customers and offspring who change to Black, Hispanic, or Asian surnames.  According to our records, special consideration for Scottish, Danish, Germanic, and Cherokee (1/8) refugees has expired. 

We continue to support name-changing as a revenue and benefit optimizing tool.  The $200 rebate per name-change is available only to families of participating customers.  Changed names may be used to advantage but generally work best 1,000-miles, or more, north of the former Mexico border.

Whatever.

George Ure Jackson Xi Hernandez , Chief Operating Officer.

Elaine Lightfoot Bates- Ure Washington Perez , Chief Teller

Member:  Federal Dad Insurance Corp., Cash Flow Matters

Home, Sick

(Back at the Ranch) For those interested in our gallivanting around the past two weeks: 

We rolled in about  4:45 last night.  Just in time to find out that Elaine’s brother (Panama) had been shipped up to the hospital in Tyler, TX because of a suspected heart issue.

We respectfully request your prayers for his speedy recovery as surgery is planned this morning.  Angio and stent if I’m following; not his first rodeo on this stuff.  I’m not sure if website content is government by HIPAA regs, so forget I said anything.

Bates is in remarkably good spirits about it and quipped that it may seem a bit of an extreme method to get out of eating my Thanksgiving Turkey.  Hmmm…

However, I informed him that since we didn’t do any grocery shopping on the way home, we can push back the turkey for a few days to a week.

For readers (and especially subscribers), yes, this is another example of what we call “the Bates Luck” around here.

—

Zeus The Cat has also taken ill with a slight cough and he’s being quite lethargic.  So it will be off to the vet Friday for him.

—

Elaine reported that she’s feeling a bit better this morning, but I’m a little worse for the wear, so with apologies, it will be back to bed as soon as the column is posted.

“Feed a cold and you’ll soon be starving a fever…” seems like good advice to follow.  The turkey will wait…

More tomorrow…

P.S.

Read More