Rally to Easter? Four Day Workweek – Home Front Progress

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After some fear and trepidation, it looks like the outlook around here for a rally to Easter (RTE) is forming up nicely.

In the pre-open today, we see Dow Futures were up over 300 points.  But, on a percentage basis, the Techs are up even more with the NASDAQ Composite showing +260 when we looked.

When applied to the Ebbinghaus-Ure model (a measure of how “forgetfulness” works through markets and multiple moving averages revealing a “solid works” kind of topology of things, the upside is clear for now.

With the metals holding well, and even Bitcoin trying to work higher, what could go wrong, right?

Meanwhile, we have to acknowledge that there’s a close footrace between the crypto segment and hype about higher (as in Michael Saylor Teases New Bitcoin Buying Spree Following Q1 Accumulation – FinanceFeeds) versus the Trump hate which is more over on social.  If I was still teaching reporting (been >50 years ago, lol) I would suggest a column-inches comparison between Trump and Crypto would be interesting.

In fact, so interesting, let me throw one of the AI stacks at it…

How would a modern J-School task turn out? Column inches devoted to Trump and Trump-bashing, or column-inches devoted to hype of cryptocurrencies – inquiring minds want to know!

A modern J-School task, like a reporting assignment or opinion column, would likely reflect the biases and trends of contemporary journalism, shaped by market demands and editorial priorities. If we’re talking column inches in a hypothetical outlet—say, a major newspaper or digital platform—here’s how it might shake out:

    • Trump and Trump-bashing: Trump remains a lightning rod, even in 2025. If he’s in the news cycle (e.g., post-election fallout, legal battles, or MAGA maneuvering), J-School students might be nudged toward pieces dissecting his influence—often with a critical slant, given the leanings of many journalism programs. Expect 60-70% of opinion columns or features to either bash him or frame him as a GOP puppetmaster, especially if the outlet skews left. Neutral reporting might get a sliver, maybe 20%, but it’s rarely the star. Right-leaning takes could slip through in contrarian J-Schools, but they’re the exception—10% at best.
    • Crypto hype: Cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin hovering around $100K and memecoins like DOGE spiking, are sexy again. Business desks and tech sections love the clicks, so J-School tasks might include explainers, trend pieces, or “Web3 revolution” puffery. I’d peg 40-50% of business-focused assignments hyping crypto’s potential—think “blockchain’s future” or “DeFi for dummies.” Skeptical takes on scams or volatility might grab 20%, but they’re less glitzy. Neutral market analysis? Maybe 10-20%, if the prof demands rigor.”

There…neither is worth any headspace in here, we reckon.  Can’t have an election for three years and if you don’t have a BTC yet, there will be another mania along if you’re patient.  So why cut down more trees on either, eh?

Let There Be Lithium

Not exactly a gold rush, but stories like ExGen Resources Secures Strategic Position in Nevada Lithium District and about how American Battery Technology Company Completes Additional drill program, have us wondering about whether Nevada could become an industrial powerhouse of the future.

Ping the assistant:

Key Developments:

  • Major Mining Projects: The approval of projects like the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron mine in southern Nevada is a pivotal step. This mine is projected to supply enough lithium to power nearly 370,000 electric vehicles annually, significantly bolstering domestic lithium production. Nevada News and Views+6Bureau of Land Management+6Ethical Markets+6

  • Corporate Investments: Companies such as Lithium Americas and Ioneer are investing heavily in Nevada’s lithium extraction projects, aiming to meet the soaring demand for lithium in EV batteries. Keystone Nevada Korner+1Eco Hugo+1

  • Manufacturing Expansion: Beyond extraction, Nevada is becoming a nexus for battery manufacturing. Tesla’s substantial investments in manufacturing facilities within the state, along with the establishment of battery recycling operations by companies like Redwood Materials, underscore Nevada’s growing role in the EV supply chain…

Nevada has no state income tax, and the sales tax last time I checked was 6.85 percent which compares with Washington lah-lah liberal land’s  (10.35 percent) or the Gruesome  10.25 percent in Oakland. OK, you’ll need more A/C but it’s all about trade offs…

Iran – the Game Show

“Hey – Digital Gomer! Give me a comparison with TV games shows as Iran discloses main motive for continuing indirect negotiations…”:

“The phrase “Beat the Clock” implies Iran is racing against time to advance its nuclear program before facing external constraints, like military action or tighter sanctions. It’s a reasonable characterization to an extent, given recent developments, but it oversimplifies the situation.

Iran has significantly ramped up its nuclear activities since the U.S. withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018. It’s enriching uranium to 60%, close to the 90% needed for weapons-grade material, and has enough for multiple bombs if further enriched. The IAEA estimates Iran’s breakout time—the period to produce one bomb’s worth of fissile material—is now weeks, down from a year under the JCPOA. This suggests urgency, as if Iran’s trying to maximize leverage before deadlines like the JCPOA’s snapback provision expire in October 2025.”

Yeah, yeah, sure…whatever. Trump and Israel are ready to rock: Netanyahu tells parents of hostage that Israel is working on deal to free 10 captives | The Times of Israel so, how about we look at this in a week, or so?

Meanwhile, G.A. Stewart’s recent piece on how Trump is not the savior of humanity deserves a re-read.  Because we sense the parts about precious metal is likely prescient, if a tad early.  But again, next week, right?  Triggers fingers and three-day weekends for the market’s to chill…

Beat the Clock, indeed.

We do think the Pope will show up for Easter: Convalescing pope opens Holy Week with in-person greeting in St. Peter’s Square.  Whether Easter will be about blessings or last rites might still be changed…

Tired and Wired

Can slicing and dicing the American public into ridiculous gender fraud sell movie tickets is the question at the breakfast table today:  Disney-Marvel ‘Fantastic Four’ Wades into ‘Gender Politics’ — Leading Lady Sue Storm Won’t Be a ‘Doormat’.  (Could be a clothes dryer, then?)

Want to buy a dying newspaper, cheap? Washington Post’s Clinging to Fake Story Reminds Us What the Media Really Is. Spoiler alert: Yes it’s another Beltway Trump story and the bureaucrats continue trying to swim in the draining swamp…

More “American morality” to chew on as you read Food Bank CEO Made $721K While People Went Hungry…

A Lagging Republican is late to the party (again): Sen. Ron Johnson Says Top CDC Covid Vaccine Safety Official May Have Deleted or Destroyed Key Records, Calls For Investigation.  Like 2023 was too early? I mean WTF buddy… (We gotta get us an auto-signer…)

Remember the old days when “Pull out!” had a different context? Wealthy Home Buyers Back Out of Multimillion-Dollar Deals From New York to California – WSJ.

And talking about downers: Six Scientists Living 6,500 Feet Underwater for 40 Days: This Is China’s Ambitious Deep-Sea Space Station. Closer than Mars. Have the DUWB aliens over for din-din?

At the Ranch:  Progress and Problems

Mixed bag on Sunday.

On the plus side, the neighbor mechanic feller came by and found the hydraulic leak on the big tractor.  Got parts coming and a half rack of tractor fluid (hydraulic/transmission miracle drink).

Apparently, when I was brush-crushing, I ran over some small sweet gum tree (1.6 inch diameter) which flipped up and bend the metal hose to the rear PTO lift and that split the rubber hose there…

While he was here, it took him 5-minutes under the rider to get the rope off the middle blade. Now there’s two of us wondering what the feral hogs had in mind with the rope.  Are pigs into kink?

Bubba’s son came along.  While dad was under the mower, son (about age 3 now) hauled out two pennies and told me “I have money now…”  I carefully explained that he’ll need several million more of those if he expects to buy a house or have a girlfriend…. “Too many, though, and she’s come with a lawyer…”

Kids gotta start learning balance early in life…

The Starlink install for the other neighbor turned into a train wreck.  Because – and I didn’t know this going into it – this other neighbor has a mixed family.  Yessir, that’s right: Android and iOS.  His & her’s operating systems.  Incomprehensible, but I still think in TRS-DOS.

Why, the back of my hand is bigger than the iOS POS.  And retina displays?  So an old man can see ’em under a microscope?

Now toss in I don’t use’droid, except for the drones, and discovering “remote imperialism,…”  Which is when a DishTV remote replaces the Sharp (or was it Samsung?) remote and I still have no idea how to set up the network with the DTV remote – Just as well because it will be going down the road anyway… oh boy.

The Big Sunday Takeaway?  Despite all America’s talk about being a technologically advanced country? It still takes a paper clip to factory-reset a brand new Starlink.  I wonder if Tesla’s need one, too?

If you missed the photo tour Sunday, you can still catch up over here…sign the guest book…

Write when one of us gets rich,

George@Ure.net

30 thoughts on “Rally to Easter? Four Day Workweek – Home Front Progress”

      • I feel leery of people who live in a brainwashed echo chamber, unvaccinated were 2.46 times more likely to die than vaccinated,:
        https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10492612/

        A total of seven studies with 21,618,297 COVID-19 patients were included in the meta-analysis. The odds ratio (OR) for mortality among unvaccinated patients compared to vaccinated patients was 2.46 (95% CI: 1.71-3.53), indicating that unvaccinated patients were 2.46 times more likely to die from COVID-19.

        • G, if you want more recent data, the rate goes up to 11 -17 times more likely to die if unvaxxed:

          https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/severe-covid-19-death-lowest-far-among-vaccinated-canadians
          ‘Unvaccinated 11 to 17 times more likely to die
          During the study period, 1,194,694 COVID-19 infections in patients with complete vaccination history (73.6% of all cases) were reported to PHAC. Most infected patients were unvaccinated, and the lowest percentage of infections was among those who received a primary COVID-19 vaccination series and one booster dose.’

          Return to your regular programming of daily brainwash/ rejecting science and facts!

  2. Trouble bee brewing in da markets G-Pops.

    Better half was inquiring about investing in Phyz Gold this weekend. I have been stacking for years, since Gpappy was first writing about it back during the “street reports” days when you got a feel for the price of a bag o weed in any given location in US.
    Now all of a sudden lamestream market mavens be squawking that eric schroders cat (GOLD) is ALIVE, without even opening the Box and DETERMINING its state of health..WTF, over?

    These frigging powdered and quaffed talking heads couldnt tell the difference between a lump of Coal and a lump of Shit, let alone WHERE all the phyz GOLD actually went ? Says here WOLRD be missing TONS…dam ET’s, dont even inquire bout Platinum..DONT go down that rabbit hole, as you might spy an Ouroboros on Ure journey down ze holes.

    Poppycock you say ? Please find answers to;
    What is a “Prometheus Drop” ?
    What do Argentina, western Sahara and the Hindu Kush Mtns have in common ?
    What is and Where is – Lunar Vault Theta ?

  3. “Iran”

    One of the Sunday morning TV rags had a commentator, maybe Navarro explaining China has killed over 1,000,000 million Americans with Fentanyl. Blah, blah, blah…

    Can I use that excuse when caught drunk driving – Hey, judge, Jim Beam was driving the car and not me!!

    Beat up the wife and when the nice officer arrives, “The Beefeater (gin) knocked her teeth out.”

    C’mon, right.

    • Couldn’t agree more , time to start blaming the people who put it in their mouth instead of China or Mexican Drug Cartels or whomever. We have a “Demand” problem not a “Supply” problem.

      • Local Chinese buffet +
        Semi-local band +
        Horny band mate and hot Han girl who wasn’t interested =

        The band patronizes the buffet and spikes the candy in the dish by the register, which every kid and a third of the patrons partake in on their way out the door, with a dusting of molly.

        This happened a dozen years ago. My daughter was friends with a couple guys in the band, until they told her about it. They each pocketed a handful of the candy, took it to wherever they were staying and doped it, then rewrapped and returned it to the restaurant. If they’d used F instead of M, they would’ve killed some people…
        ______

        Virtually none of the people who die from a fentanyl OD take fentanyl. They take something else, which has been laced with (or steeped in) fentanyl.

        On the streets of my nearest town, over the past 15 years, pot has shown up, doped with ecstasy, coke, heroin, molly, amphetamines, fentanyl, oxy, and God only knows what else. There was one pusher, not yet 30 and a 3-time loser, who carried a bag each of X-, heroin-, and molly-laced pot. 5-6 months after he started frequenting my watering hole he got busted for possession and distribution of heroin (so maybe the 4th time was the charm…)

        To completely fix the fentanyl problem, the culture must be fixed — not the “culture” that wants to get stoned on fentanyl, but the culture that wants to get stoned on anything. I have no idea how this could be done, especially in a society with way too much free time and a “ruling class” that’s aware enough to realize it is to their advantage to keep the masses stoned…

        • Usually the ruling class tries to substitute debt slavery for chemical slavery. The dopey twenty-something year old
          recreational users become the thirty-something McMansion owners, with an employer who does random drug testing to enforce the lifestyle mod. I would suggest an alternate lifestyle- Tune in, don’t turn on, and drop cash, not IOU’s. No nod to T. Leery.

    • I wonder if A person could argue… it was the preservatives in my ho hos.. the go-to defense .. I got fat because of hohos lol

  5. Got a earthquake alert on my phone 10 minutes ago, 2 or 3 seconds later had a pretty good roller and a shaker here. 2 to 3 seconds doesn’t give you much time to do anything but brace yourself but better than nothing. 5.3 mag 30 miles miles away, lasted for about 20, 25 seconds. Biggest one I’ve felt in quite a while. Explains why I’ve been exhausted allweekend. If you’ve never felt a strong one it really gets your attention because you don’t know how long it will last or how strong its gonna be. Kinda fun once its over and your house is still standing. Take a earthquake over a tornado any day.

  6. “Meanwhile, G.A. Stewart’s recent piece on how Trump is not the savior of humanity deserves a re-read. Because we sense the parts about precious metal is likely prescient, if a tad early.”

    They want us to think silver is not a monetary metal.

    12:24 Gold vs. silver
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Gq8HVXn1s

    Atocha History

    In 1969, Mel Fisher and his Treasure Salvors crew began a relentless, sixteen year quest for the treasure of the Atocha. Using sand-clearing propwash deflectors, or “mailboxes,” that he invented, and specially-designed proton magnetometers, they spent long years following the wreck’s elusive trail–sometimes finding nothing for months, and then recovering bits of treasure and artifacts that teasingly indicated the proximity of the ship and its cargo.

    In 1973, three silver bars were found, and they matched the weights and tally numbers found on the Atocha’s manifest, which had been transcribed from the original in Seville. This verified that Fisher was close to the major part of the wrecksite.

    https://atocha.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=13

  7. Full power – Full speed ahead !

    USS Truman had high hopes, but anyone knows a silly old Ant cant move a rubber tree plant. Anzo she bee dead in water – OOS, needz to be moving to launch aircraft – and Houthis’ claim she aint moving.

    How em bare assing ? Million dollar PER SHOT anti aircraft Missiles cant neutralize $4500 Sahed drone.

    New NAVY motto – Haze Gray and NO Way!

    Dam the drones, full speed ahead ? NERP!

    Brilliant maneuvers, brilliant execution – perhaps USN should hire some Houthi fighters for some consultant work – Clueless in Red Sea we be.

    Too bad US didnt use any of those new ABOVE SECRET weapons tRUMP been blathering on about..

    Yep – they had High Hopes – https://youtu.be/4VMOkpm3eoA?

    • you never fail to amplify our enemies’ anti american fake agitprop. you’re always cheering and hoping for anyone to harm our people in uniform. if you hate the US that much move to yemen.

  9. I’ve never been much of a bullion bug, but having some Eagles as a hedge against a tax seizure sounds right to me for systemic failure scenarios. A meltdown of the paper PM trade would not necessarily shut down the local dealer trade, but it might make it difficult to acquire physicals, so this may really be approaching last opportunity for easy aquisition. With a silver monster box approaching $19k, that may already be out of the reach of most, and would be a reported transaction. Maybe something a little less aggressive would work for many. This would be an insurance policy, not something you tote down to the dollar store for groceries. A lot depends on how much Ure yearly property tax bill is.

    • Richard Russell – Dow Theory Letters (2010)

      I maintain that the truth will come out, and that Fiat paper is a fraud that will be found out. When that happens and people realize that they have been hoodwinked by their government, there will be such a rush (including both fear and greed) for gold that it will make the recent tech mania look like conservative investing.

      http://www.321gold.com/editorials/russell/russell082610.html

    • The only problem I see with precious metals ..is the only ones to want it…are the very ones that sold it to you.
      Farmers do that … a cattle farmer that buys his beef at retail or the farmer with chickens can’t eat the eggs the chickens lay he has to pay retail.
      the government can do exactly what they did before.. confiscate it at what they deem its value is.

      • Don’t think the government isn’t giving you a haircut on your fiat script greenbacks every time they crank up the printing presses. Or that they won’t confiscate all manner of assets if they get backed into a sufficiently tight corner. No doubt your name is on Lists by now. Again, I’m not a big PM advocate, but there are some reasons for having a modest stack for back-up, not a treasure trove.
        Knew a guy (long since dead) who was buying gold and stacking it in a safe room when it was $30 an ounce. He got rich when the price shot up tenfold. Problem was, he lived with an itchy finger on the trigger. I would not want to put myself in that position.

  10. PICKLEBALL !!!
    Completely off of any possible subject but some of you might find Pickleball a fun and healthy time consumer. VERY cheap sport to get into and very nice people play it. Easy to learn too. If there is any interest I will post info on equipment costs and places to play.

    Also thanks to all who gave me info on airguns. I will follow up on the links.

  12. ANZ slashes term deposit interest rates as Big Four banks brace for RBA cut: ‘Signal is loud and clear’

    “ANZ has slashed its term deposit interest rates, giving Aussies a “clear” sign that a rate cut from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is coming in May. ANZ joins fellow Big Four banks Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and NAB who cut their rates last week.

    ANZ has cut its Advance Notice Term Deposit rates today, with the majority of its terms, including its 6-, 12- and 24-month terms, cut by 10 basis points. Its 8-month term has been slashed by 25 basis points, bringing its leading rate down to 4.25 per cent.”

    https://au.yahoo.com/news/anz-slashes-term-deposit-interest-rates-as-big-four-banks-brace-for-rba-cut-signal-is-loud-and-clear-012417460.html

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