The “Alex Problem” – Housing in the Wings, Fed in the Box

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(Part 1 of today’s report.  Part 2 (Housing report) will be up about 8:15 AM Central)

Time to pick up the remnants of the 3-day weekend and roll back to the job – if you’re not yet in one of the Dole Classes.

Let’s do a little Future Tripping and lay out some of the coming week’s highlights so you can focus more on “chasing the bag.” (Of money, if you’re under 55.)

  • As we correctly figured, Joe Biden didn’t waste any time running to Uvalde Texas to spew Marxist dreams of ripping up the Second Amendment. We are disappointed, but right.  Showmanship confused with leadership.
  • Is Joe Biden “caliber crazy?”  Biden goes on anti-gun tirade, suggests there’s ‘no rational basis’ for 9mm pistols.  If you have a flock of Secret Service agents and your own jet, they indeed are not.  However out here in the Outback, where a 2-foot copperhead snake was dispatched from the shop recently, there’s nothing like a 9 MM Model 17 with rat shot (in the Gunfighters Inc Kenai chest holster), ready to “solve that problem.”  Why the utter disregard of the of Bidenistas for Fou7nding Principles remains America’s biggest security issue.
  • The NY Post waxes the anti-gun tone in Over 30 people dead from gun violence during Memorial Day weekend across US. But the parroting mainstream doesn’t mention 42,915 people died in auto accidents last year.  On a three-day weekend?  362.7 dead would be a logical dart-toss.  This means you are AT LEAST 10-times more likely to die in an auto accident.  And maybe a hundred times more likely if you avoid drug users, alcohol abusers, and police cruisers.
  • Not getting anything but local (Texas) traction?  (Not part of the anti-gun agenda perhaps?) NFL player Jeff Gladney dies in Dallas crash at age of 25.
  • Said-same Oval Bozo has also struck down reasonable border security by executive fiat. Keeps them drugs coming.
  • The problem is not Biden’s alone, however.  Both corrupt and divided political parties have a hand in our border collapse. With stories like Sen. Roger Marshall aids migrant suffering from heat exhaustion during dramatic border trip simply underscoring the “optics and theatrics” of it all, to our “reduced thinking set” view.  (Sort of like RISC programming. Except you just assume most people in news stories (and all holding elective office) are crooks. chiselers, and/or liars.  From this baseline assumption and you can process ‘breaking news” more quickly.  See?)

No doubt, there will be water cooler talk about how U.S. marks Memorial Day weekend with at least 12 mass shootings. or 30.  Or, whatever… But in no single case did the guns end life on their own.  Some one pulled the trigger.  Band humans, I’m telling you.  Drugs, gangs, divisive anger pent-up – those are the emotional hot buttons that bring Death around.

Unless you’re a copperhead in Ure’s shop.

Agatha-Alex

Category 2 landfall for hurricane Agatha.  But the real problem is figuring out what happens when storm leftovers jump to the Caribbean side:

If it becomes a tropical storm (and up from there) the impact potential is from the southern tip of Texas, all the way to Tampa.  And maybe even down to The Keys  We’ll just have to look at the “forwards” on this and track.

We’re looking at scattered showers by Thursday in our part of Texas. Which puts a riding mower 500 on the post Memorial Day agenda.

Wind Down Ukraine?

Can’t say, yet.  But pieces are moving.  Big Ones.

This is one of those “story chains” that I feel like wiping my hands with Charmin after typing.  Dirty, foul, and just not how grown-up ought to be running things…

Yet even as some are proposing peace talks be held over Ukraine before it goes mushroomy (which was stupidly overlooked ahead of hostilities, but this has been a monetization, not statesmanship).

When such talks are rumored to MAYBE begin, we’re not surprised to see signs of the Next War.  Report: Israel warns 100 Israelis in Turkey to leave over ‘concrete’ Iran threat.

There are two regions of the world right now that we look at as games of checkers just waiting to be played.

  • One is Turkey which wants to control real estate in the Eastern Med in order to control natural gas routes to Europe.  Istanbul’s tradition as a controlling chokepoint is clearly in mind.
  • A later game of Checkers will see China jump Taiwan, then the Solomon Islands, and from there, Australia.

We are entering the 30–to-50-year segment of history I proposed a decade back called the “Manufacturer’s Resource Wars.”  It’s in this window that the global population – having successfully screwed its way to overpopulation – suddenly discovers that to keep the population (and pitchforks out of the villager’s hands) two things must occur.

The first is seizing anything that looks like a pitchfork.  A not-coincidental attack on “private pitchfork ownership” is being generalized and sold by the corporate-controlled press.

The second problem is arriving by two vectors.  Food and raw materials. As the world becomes unable to produce enough food, famine scapegoats will be needed.  Yet, other key resources (like lithium) will gain in value.

A fine time will be had by all – that survive.

Market Decline Expected

We are – right now, this morning – just two weeks from the next Federal Reserve rate hike.  Or, will it?   Always looking for a scapegoat for something, we stumbled over Biden highlights Fed inflation role ahead of Powell meeting on Tuesday.

A more thoughtful (living on blame is bad for you) view surfaces in U.S. policymakers misjudged inflation threat until it was too late.

But the Recession this year, turning to Depression in 2023 is not taking everyone by Surprise!

I’m a stripper – we can read the markets BETTER than bankers – here’s why we’re heading for a recession. So how does she “uncover” such propound truth?  Baubles, bangles, and betas? You’ll enjoy the read…

A Key Oscillator Peaks

Looks to us like the modest rally in Global Markets, while things were closed here for the weekend, lined up the USA and Global markets pretty well.  And this one indicator – which we will review in more detail tomorrow on the subscriber side – gives little reason for any further upside from here for a while.

A possible Elliott Wave count?

To us, it might be 3 (ii) that is done.  Just have to wait and see how it works out.

Real-Life Treasure Story

This is a weird story – more than worth your time to read when you get a few minutes to come back to it.  Because it’s about lost Civil War Gold, two men working to find it, and a government (look surprised here) that may not be telling the whole truth.

FBI records on search for fabled gold raise more questions | AP News.

Just about anywhere you live in the country, there are bound to be “lost treasure” stories.

The one I’m researching (as time permits) around these parts involves a good-sized cache of gold taken by Indians from down around Nacogdoches, Texas, The braves involved then headed back to their tribal grounds, not too many miles to the northwest of us, a days ride, or so, from here.

However, the gold didn’t arrive with them back at camp.  So, it’s thought (by some adventurers) that it’s stashed somewhere in the Concord Mountains of East Texas.

Walking the land out here – with a metal detector – is a lot like fishing for one of those rumored “lunkers”  (huge fish).

Finding a buried treasure is not the objective – because once found, the problems begin.

That’s where your choice of partners becomes critical as the private citizens in this Civil War story linked above seem to be finding out. If you can’t trust your government, who can you trust?

ATR:  Still Printing

One of our readers (of ShopTalk Sunday) asked me a kind of “snarky” question a while back.  Went to the idea of “George, what do you need more than ONE 3D printer out there in the woods?”

Here is the answer:

This is a 3D print started on a CR-10 just after lunch on Friday.

It’s a fluorescent green garbage can.  Because (and you’ll remember I told you this) I have somewhat limited eyesight.  Except with contacts in, but that’s a pain in the shop.

So, I figured, a bright green garbage can would help Mr. Magoo not to trip over things.  And it will.

But it may take almost five days to print.  So yes, bought on sale having two printers (a bigger CR-10 and a smaller Ender-3) actually makes sense.

The price of 3D printers has continued to drop.  Today, for example, there’s a Official Creality Ender 3 3D Printer Fully Open Source with Resume Printing Function DIY 3D Printers Printing Size 8.66×8.66×9.84 inch for $189.

Something to think about – especially if you’re planning ahead to Christmas in July. Print your own.

Pardon me, if it takes a few hours to transition back into “blood thirsty money grubber” mode.  It’s been a fun weekend on projects around here.

Between gardening, yard work, shop projects, and grown-up time, it’s a good thing we’re “retired.”  Since there’s no time for a job in any of this.

Back with the Housing report, shortly.

Write when it’s safe again,

George@Ure.net

36 thoughts on “The “Alex Problem” – Housing in the Wings, Fed in the Box”

  1. “The one I’m researching (as time permits) around these parts involves a good-sized cache of gold taken by Indians from down around Nacogdoches, Texas, The braves involved then headed back to their tribal grounds, not too many miles to the northwest of us, a days ride, or so, from here.”

    LOL the one I use to hunt for.. was a lost army payrole.. LOL twenty thousand dollars of twenty dollar gold pieces..

    when I was a kid.. there was an old hermit that hung around a federal park.. he was one of the soldiers that were robbed.. there was a fight and they took off.. after the bandits.. close on their heels.. they had them cornered and surrounded in a wash.. anyway.. after they were caught one of the dying men said they burried it in that wash.. ( there is a lake there now)
    and he got out and stayed hunting that gold shipment the remaining days of his life.. my brother inlaws brother in law.. found a sword and a rifle from the battle.. that he had on display..
    I researched the story and would take the kids there swimming while I walked around with a metal detector..
    I guess there are journals of the lost treasure and a couple of different variations of the story at the local library.. the one I liked was the one I heard from the guy that spent his life searching for it living in the state park as the hermit..
    where my wifes great grandparents had their homestead they turned that into a state park and did it really nice.. love to go there to relax and enjoy..

  3. It’d be interesting to know what caliber and type of personal carry piece the members of the Executive Protection Service favor.

    Perhaps they should be limited to .22 or even .177 in the interests of appropriate level — don’t wanna be unnecessarily cruel to assassins. Don’t wanna unnecessarily blow any lungs out.

    Maybe firearms are too violent, and possibly Kung-Fu or good ole police billy clubs would be adequate.

    (….and, of course, gunpowder probably emits some dreaded carbon dioxide that poisons the environment and promots Global Climate Collapse.)

    (…and them there’s the [gasp!] LEAD in the ammunition. Rubber or bio-degradeable wood bullets might be better.)

    • This!! Remember the right to keep and bear arms is specifically there for people to protect themselves from government overreach. So in my mind the right to bear arms reflects the right to bear any arm the government may deploy against its citizens. So if government should start to restrict their own use of weapons, at that point they could discuss, the need for citizens to own similar weapons. Though as long as any criminal has any availability to such weapons, honest citizens should not be restricted.

    • It depends on how you want to look at shootings.

      Deploy 2 shot .45 calibers to all faculty. Call these 2 shot’ers the “Big ED ‘double-tap’ Special”. “ED” for education.

      But instead of .45 cal make them a unique caliber, .46 caliber. So if the wrong hands get the firearm they’ll only have two shots. Can’t necessarily bring ammo from outside.

      If a kid does get Big ED a maximum of two people are at risk. As soon as the other faculty hear a shot, any one of them can respond.

      Police have guns ‘just in case’ and teachers should have guns ‘just in case’ the police fail.

    • TX school districts have the option of allowing it. Most don’t. Mainly rural districts with no local police force, where they rely on the sheriff’s department, who may be an hour or more away.

      I regularly shoot competition pistol with a number of teachers. They are licensed and carry every day except the one place where it’s prohibited: work. They would jump at the chance to receive additional training, they already have the equipment, and they have the one thing that you don’t get with law enforcement: they care about the kids in their class. They are in the unique position to have both the tools and the *desire* to save their students (unlike the Uvalde police, but I digress).

      They usually have more training and proficiency than is required of the local constabulary. So if you are comfortable with having armed police in the building, you should have no argument with these teachers being armed.

      Unlike a school resource officer, who is a single point of failure, so to speak, teachers are many. In TX, approx 5% of the population is licensed to carry, and I assume that teachers are just regular people. This equates to about potential 20,000 armed first responders in TX schools. The people who are already on the scene when SHTF.

      Now, no one is saying to make it a *requirement* of any teacher. And no is suggesting that it’s the teacher’s job to be police. Just saying that by simply removing the “gun free school zone” laws, we could immediately make a massive improvement in school security. Let them have the choice.

      • Interesting ideas. Situations that would need to be explored are “rules of engagement”, liability, and the possibility of friendly fire.

  5. The government has always been interested in significant caches of treasure. Victorio’s Treasure on Victorio Peak in N. Mex. is a prime example. Once the original finders bungled their discovery by letting greed get in the way the government expanded the White Sands Missile Range to include the peak and, reportedly, the treasure trove was cleaned out. The book “One Hundred Tons of Gold” said, if I remember correctly, that there was enough treasure there to topple governments back in the day. Just like the events in Roswell were kept under wraps until recently it boggles my mind that no one involved in Victorio Peak has come forward to talk about it.

    Also, speaking of governmental bodies you can’t trust, given the pending release of Strategic Reserve diesel as outlined by Glenn Beck last week isn’t there ANYONE in charge of reserve resources, resources that have to supply our Defense Department, that has the backbone to say “HELL NO” to this demented jerk in the Oval Orifice and his handlers? If it leaves us destitute in the face of a pending Chinese takeover of Taiwan and other aggression (yeah, I know, it’s hypocritical) by our traditional foes can’t someone call TREASON! on these people??

      • Reminds me of Lynette Zang’s constantly saying how the whole World is “incestuously” related. With the effect that disrupted supply lines are having right now it’s easy to see that we’re at just about Peak Everything and de-pop is upon us.

    • “The government has always been interested in significant caches of treasure. ”

      They sure do.. and it isn’t just the american government.. just look at was canada is doing to the oak island boy.( I believe that we won’t go to war at least not until I find out the mistery of oak island and try the mead of RA and the wine of the First emporer of china.. most expensive wine I have made to date…. should be able to bottle it in two weeks.. .. JB’s handlers are in my opinion scared at what he is doing.. which is why he said yes he was sending them then almost instantly said no he was not sending missiles.. the realization is that once they send them the USA and Delaware are open targets..). no no you can’t search there.. there was a piece of a broken bowl buried there LOL…
      the big question is.. if you found it.. would you necessarily claim to have found it.. or stuff it away in some off shore account.. you didn’t hear about the hundreds of millions being hidden by the kid.. or the trillions being hidden in offshore accounts to avoid taxes.. or just shove it in a glas jar and rebury it.. take ole Black settler named Samuel Ball. That wouldn’t be so unusual if it wasn’t for the fact that Ball — a cabbage farmer who lived for decades on Oak Island on Lot 13, — was one of the richest men in the province. did he find it.. then spend it.. who knows ..

      • I groan every time they poke another hole in the ground over the main suspected cache. By the time they dig anything up it’s going to be a mangled mess.

    • I thought that that diesel was reserved as an emergency home heating oil supply for the East Coasters? Sux for them, if we have a long or cold winter before grownups get back into the White House.

      …And no, there isn’t anyone to say “no” because the Executive has dictatorial control. If someone stood up to the commie cabal, they’d simply be fired and ruined, and a compliant lackey installed in their place.

      This is why the Founders centered the Government’s power in the House, and also why Democrats (and regressives, and fascists, and communists, before they all became one-and-the-same) have steadily grown the power vested in the Executive. The Founders knew if this happened, we would become an empire, and despotic, hence their insistence for, what became our Second Amendment.

      The Right to bear arms is absolute, and is codified in the Constitution to ensure the Citizens of the United States have at least a fighting chance of defending themselves against, and deposing a despotic regime or emperor. When people (like Mr. Biden, the other day) say it’s not, they do so because they wish to further the groundwork for gun confiscation and indenture of the people into State servitude — the final goal of all central-authority-based political ideologies.

      • Yes, good luck trying to confiscate the guns. Such an action would make the worst conspiracy theorist’s view of TEOTWAWKI look like child’s play. The best they could do, really, is make ammo so expensive you couldn’t buy it like they’re doing to fuels which make me think about buying some more reloading supplies.

      • “…And no, there isn’t anyone to say “no”…”
        Exactly, just like the bus drivers and flight crews that have been moving people in from South of our border to the interior of our country. They KNOW what they’re doing and do it anyway. We’re SO screwed!

        New Star Path Academy audio post about Romania under the Communists:
        “When will people wake up? denial until domestic industry gets taken over”
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Te3aqoGWTg

      • “I thought that that diesel was reserved as an emergency home heating oil supply for the East Coasters? Sux for them, if we have a long or cold winter before grownups get back into the White House.”

        I hear ya @Ray.. I still can’t decide if these idiots are just morons or if this is a plan of some sort.. allowing illegals from countries that swore revenge by the millions access to our country from within our borders.. how many are refugees and how many are enemies of the state we don’t know .. without a vetting process being used.. then give up our emergency reserves.. back a few years they increased the reserves.Now they are getting rid of all of them..
        Or if this is some dark plan to toss the american citizens into a frenzie and the country into a state of emergency… with the country in a state of emergency.. then COG goes into affect.. and from how I understood the policy that was passed years ago.. the president and the department of defense is in total control.. I believe that IRAQ used a similar law when Hussein got in power to do away with their congress..
        https://theconversation.com/saddam-hussein-how-a-deadly-purge-of-opponents-set-up-his-ruthless-dictatorship-120748
        My curiosity on this.. is that why members of congress on either side quiet.. no one in congress is opposing or standing up for the country.. or no one is reporting or posting their position..

  6. You can buy alot of trashcans at the dollar store for $1.25 each. Your green trashcan seems expensive.

      • I’m sorry, but that little plastic trash can 3D printer is sort of, well, puny. When are you going to start printing in a more manly media , like concrete:

        https://www.3dsourced.com/guides/3d-printed-house-2/

        Integrating the printing of reinforcment, insulation and coatings would be the innovation that sells the technology.
        Haven’t seen a full scale 3D printer on Harbor F yet. Sounds like a weekend shop project. Leave integrating the wiring and fiber optics for a follow-up shop talk.

    • For less time and material invested, you could have printed a lower receiver. I believe that’s still legal.

  7. “I believe nothing until it is officially denied.” – someone posted that in the past couple of days.., therefore:
    .
    Fears of a U.S. recession in 2022 are overblown:
    Goldman Sachs is reiterating that a recession in the U.S. is not inevitable despite what stock say.
    .
    Citi Bank says the route is over in stocks and the recession just won’t happen.

    • Goldman and Citi (and Chase, Wells Fargo, Manufacturers, AMEX, Morgan-Stanley, etc.) will ALWAYS deny that a recession is even possible, because they make boatloads of money when stupid or gullible “investors” buy into a market that’s about to tank. Believe your eyes, not anything a talking head says. Watch the scroll with the sound off…

  8. A Bunyun U Bee – but thats okay! https://youtu.be/FshU58nI0Ts
    “concorde mountains in East Texas” bwahahahahahah – mountains my ass.
    There aint no mountains in Texas . Maybe a couple of foothills, maybe – how much of the squeezings did you partake in yesterday?

    …more in likely you fell over from drinking too much yesterday – and struggled to get back to the house/deck, and determined that lil fire ant hill out back the shop was a real mountain..prolly needed some extra water and boost just to get over it and back on Ure feet, a long arduous climb no doubt.

    * Was that BIC in the background singing in the chorus dressed as a Mountie? Think that might have been Jester feat: a red Canadian mountie coat in the background as well? Where is Nell during all that / I dont know.

    Presses are still cranking -X that, decimals are still being Clicked” over..not actual printing as that would be ridonkulous. That does not begin to cover the massive amounts of US dollars flooding the globe.

    So you dont want to be wealthy – thats okay, many choose to live in fear, why I dont know.. been putting serious coin in pockets with latest and greatest. Today is about the wild eyed gamble, the throw caution to the wind and throw some “entertainment” budget money at petroleo brasileiro/Petrobras July Calls – Out of the Money – Naked!

    … repeat after the coot – 5x “I am the alpha and the omega..round the pentagram points. very good, well done.

    • Blllooooooooooooooonnndieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

      love that “dust in the wind’ whistle with waawawa finish from The Good,The Bad and Ugly..

      even the RGEa’s jack russel terriers know the sound of that whistle -they hear it right before I get blast em with supersoaker..just the sound of that whistle gets em going!

      • And who digs up the grave? Tuco digs. Why is that?

        Man With No Name: You see, in this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.

    • It’s been so many years since I’ve seen that movie straight through. Did they really create that many graves for the movie? That was long before CGI.

      • Bill,

        Measuring 300 metres in diameter and featuring more than 5,000 grave markers, the cemetery was specially built for the famous denouement of the film by several hundred Spanish soldiers.

        Now overgrown with weeds and shrubs, the set of the cemetery in the province of Burgos, 140 miles north of Madrid, was abandoned after its stint as a backdrop in the film. “It’s been a bit forgotten over the past 50 years,” said David Alba. “Many people drive right by it without knowing that this is where parts of the film was shot.”

        Alba is one of the volunteers behind the Sad Hill Cultural Association, dedicated to restoring the glory of the cemetery in preparation for next year’s 50th anniversary of the film. Since October, he and dozens of others from across northern Spain have been spending their weekends at Sad Hill, shovels and hoes in hand, pulling out weeds and uncovering stones in a bid to make the cemetery appear just as it did 50 years ago.

        https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/29/clint-eastwood-sad-hill-cemetery-good-bad-ugly

  10. Hurricane Watch. A stress most landlubbers don’t have. Constant watch on the updates, and trying to divine ‘where will it go’. After years of observations, I know that hurricanes cannot make a direct hit on Hawaii island… the mountain range is too tall, and acts like an atmospheric ‘bumper’. But the hurricanes that bounce around just offshore and lash us with the fringes are the worst. Last one that parked south of the island chain lashed us with tropical inflow to the tune of 54 inches of rain in 24 hours in my district. It was like living under Niagara Falls. Fortunately the lava rock substrate has long established drainage channels, so it runs off in a day or two as the floods subside.

    Premium gas in Hilo is $5.93/gal. My electric bill is up 25% from last year. Now $0.498/kWh. Thank you, solar-assist! The salesman was right… electric prices will go up with oil prices. Hawaii used to get cheap Russian oil for our lone refinery and electric generation plants. Now we are getting more expensive Indonesian oil. Thanks, Joe.

    And you, Mr. Ure, are the ‘temptation devil’ himself with that inexpensive 3D printer. My little DMX-40 ham CW transceiver is in a nicely printed case that shows me what can be done for electronics enclosures. I need more space! And a Texas-size workshop.

  11. Re “Future Tripping…”

    The federal health minister and their provincial BC counterpart made a joint announcement today. Illicit drugs like opoids will be legal for possession in an amount up to 2.5g commencing January 2023 for a planned three year trial period. The CBC has the health story filed under politics. One imagines as with advertising for cannabis and gambling, those imbibing will be encouraged to enjoy responsibly.
    https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/opioid-crisis-bc-canada-1.6471878

  12. George
    Just drove from Oklahoma to Florida gulf. We saw trucks but not in great numbers. We also saw help wanted signs everywhere we went. Went to Waffle House tonight for dinner and had to take it out. There was only one person working, taking orders, ringing them up, and cooking. He can’t get anyone to work .

  13. It’s farked . Schwab and the new joe biden on fire !!! Yayyyy we are all veges !!! And moriarty reckons golds not mapipulated !!!! Ahhhhhhhhaaaaa yah old fart

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