Troubled Tuesday: BRICs Thrown, Trade, and Elliott

by

Remember the movie, Jaws?  Where that dandy theme rumbles as you can almost see the mega shark?  Cue that up on the hi-fi because, brothers and sisters, the world has changed overnight.

BRICs Thrown in WW III

Specifically, the World (and drivers for WW III) became clear a couple of days ago when the story China’s central bank, BIS set up renminbi liquidity arrangement crossed.

Today, we’re tracking the ripples as media are beginning to connect the Big Dots on this:  How China plans to counter Dollar’s Reserve Currency status using Yuan pool.

Hegemony or Gangland Murder?

The mainstream (thus far) has not caught on to the simple notion we’ve been planning on since 2001.  That’s when a colleague and I figured out there are absolute limits to the debt-loading of a fiat (paper) currency.  That that debt loaded buck in your wallet or purse.  It’s worth just over 3% of what it would buy in 1913.

See, when a currency is NEW it has about zero accumulated debt.  This is why a one-dollar steak dinner with all the fixings and a sharp knife even existed when the Fed was created in the depths of the winter congress back in 1913.

Sad to report, that’s really when – in our simplistic view – the fuse was lit.

As the accumulated national debt is loaded into “money” the purchasing power declines.  More debt?  Less value is retained by money.

To be sure, the one-dollar steak which had risen to $1.79 in 1926, and which was still holding $1.74 when the bottom fell out of the economy in 1929, had fallen to just $1.31 by 1933. $1.29 in 1935.

Even more important, however, was that massive economic damage had been wrought on the country:  In World War I, more than 100,000 Americans were killed.  It was a brutal slugfest in the trenches.  More than 23 million were injured by some accounts.

I could cite minutia like this all day, but our 2001 work got to the idea that the theory-driven maximum duration of currency debasement should be 83.5 years, plus or minus election jiggering.  Surprising to both of us was that the Dollar continues as strong as it has in recent times.

Unless of Course…

Unless we consider that so many dead, wounded, and angry Bonus Army veterans were demolished by the Depression that the 1913 “incept date” was changed up t0 a later date, like 1935.    That was the Depression bargain window for steak dinners and consumer goods.

This is a worrisome concept to consider.  Because that means the “run of the dollar” could have lasted until 2018.5.

Still, the band on the Titanic has played on; fueled by “free money” as interest rates were by then (2018) in freefall.  A long-term view of the 10-year Treasury reveals that indeed rates bottomed – temporarily – in 2016.  Dropped to around 1.488%.

But then, a funny thing happened:  Rates began to rise and too quickly.  That was promptly put to bed – and an even lower wash-out low interest in the range of 0.653 percent were ushed in by the release of Covid-19.  It’s all rather graceful and all more than scary.

Economics? War by Other Means

This bottoming of interest rates has been played out on multiple levels.

The “first world” countries, led by the United States, used this (artificially thanks to Covid) extended interest rate bottom to rollover as much of their national debt to lower interest rate, longer duration bonds.  The public was cared-for with “free money” which may be thought of as a kind of Works Progress Administration issue.  Except it was via vaccines and shut ins.

the problem has evolved post-Covid however.  There weren’t enough people willing to buy the American story at the effective lower bound of rates.  So, we ended up buying our own bonds through the Fed balance sheet expansion.

Whee!  Our “music on the Titanic” has played on continuously with only a change of “band leaders” from that firebrand Trump to the old-style “conductor of status quo.”  Neither matter to Big Money.

In the global next tier down, a new attack on the U.S. dollar began solidifying this week with the BIS creating a Renminbi journal.  This provides for international trade settlement using Chinese money and is crucial to the BRICs countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China).

These countries – not being stupid enough to export their manufacturing – remain the “Up and Comers” in the world.  With sunset on American independence moving along both on domestic personal freedoms limitations, and also in economic independence, the U.S. continues into a “box canyon.”  As the walls of this canyon squeeze in on us, fewer interested buyers of American “paper” assets will appear.  We can’t make our own much-touted tech, our critical chips are in shooting range of China and North Korea, and the Buyed ’em administration can’t pass a lunch bill while the Washington Witch Trials drag out.

Which leaves only a major decline in lifestyles ahead as the powerful forces of economic determinism require higher tax rates and disassembly of the American Consumption Machine.  It was fun while it lasted, though, wasn’t it?

Second World players (Brazil and India) are in good field position to table actual increases in their citizen’s experienced Quality of Life (QoL).  Because by moving out of the dollar game – where inflation is coming like the Grimm Reaper – the fairytale of U.S. Dollar hegemony (dominance) will fade. Very short-term in the rate rise, bonds will be cheaper, and our purchasing power will hold.  But it will end all too soon.

Our outlook is that as tax rates go up and disposable real purchasing power in America declines (you go shopping, right?), the excess production overseas (which we stupidly provided by exporting whole factories from the rust belt) will be sucked-up by their own populations which are on the way up.  Thus, we see BRIC Money as potentially more solid than our own debt-loaded Buck.

Digital Tulip Wilt

One other area where the U.S. has been flanked is in digital tulips.  Because in Russia reports one site:  “…All cryptocurrency-to-fiat transactions must be conducted through bank accounts, and users must go through know-your-customer (KYC) checks with both banks and cryptocurrency exchanges.”

In China? “Crypto is fully banned in China and 8 other countries.”

India – the “i” in BRICs – is also wringing out the tulips, according to one site we checked: “All crypto (or virtual digital asset) gains will be taxed effective April 1, 2023, and the 1% TDS will come into effect as of July 1. However, on Feb. 3, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) announced crypto transactions conducted between 2021 and April 2022 will also be subject to this new tax.” Retroactive taxation?  You bet.

No government stands without absolute control of its money.  Are we the only people to read history?

Which leaves only Brazil: And in April Brazil passes bill to regulate cryptocurrencies.

U.S. Behind the 8-Ball

All these factors bring us to this morning’s International Trade figures.  As I explained in the Monday report, imports are down two months running through the Port of Los Angeles this year (April and May inbound).

In addition to this, the Association of American Railroads tells us:

“For the first 24 weeks of 2022, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 5,529,499 carloads, up 0.02 percent from the same point last year; and 6,349,485 intermodal units, down 6.3 percent from last year. Total combined U.S. traffic for the first 24 weeks of 2022 was 11,878,984 carloads and intermodal units, a decrease of 3.5 percent compared to last year.”

Could be worse, I suppose; Mexico’s rail traffic is down more than 15%.

From here – in our view – it only gets worse for many years to come.  The Dollar will perhaps reach momentary parity with Europe, but as we’ve told you before, Europe is its own economic septic tank.  That’s an ugly cauldron of megalomaniacal power-hungry, war-starting, bankster class stooges who have also made up a fiat nightmare with the Euro.  Gnomes of Zurich who schooled us talk paper but stack gold.

The U.S. and Europe may be able to continue their “leadership charade” by selling each-other’s paper assets back and forth.  But far be it from us to suggest how to extend play of this totally corrupt game.  Not my Treasury, not our print shop.

Two Global Currencies are headed into War.  China and Russia (along with India and Brazil) in one New World Order.  Collapsing Europe, dragged into war and the hollowed-out US Dollar victims on the other.  What could go wrong?

With this cheery perspective, let’s get down to data, shall we?

Trade

Before I rip open the envelope, just remember that these trade figures are tilted.  They are based on dollars.  The US is in a pop of dollar strength (*we’re paying more interest on our debt money).

Imagine the same number of overseas widgets coming in.  But twice as much money bidding for them.

See what happens?  Dollarized Trade figures DOUBLE.  Which is why container counting of Twenty -foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) down at the docks is a much cleaner methodology.

With that warning in hand:

Advance International Trade in Goods
The international trade deficit was $104.3 billion in May, down $2.4 billion from $106.7 billion in April. Exports of goods for May were $176.6 billion, $2.0 billion more than April exports. Imports of goods for May were $280.9 billion, $0.4 billion less than April imports.

Strong Dollar makes the deficit smaller – for now. We simply pay less in this window.  When it slams shut?  BIG trouble.

But there is another problem lurking – and that is retail inventory build.  People have a sense that bad juju is ahead so they may be pulling in their horns even before more (of Biden’s wrongheaded) economic impacts settle in.

Advance Wholesale Inventories
Wholesale inventories for May, adjusted for seasonal variations and trading day differences, but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $880.6 billion, up 2.0 percent (±0.2 percent) from April 2022, and were up 25.0 percent (±1.4 percent) from May 2021. The March 2022 to April 2022 percentage change was revised from up 2.2 percent (±0.2 percent) to up 2.3 percent (±0.4 percent).

With today’s figures and with some actuals for May out of the SoCal ports, you can visualize the “political reality gap” which distractions like the 50-year running BS over Roe versus Re-election keep most people from thinking about.

Shotgun News Analytics

Requires no particular aim – which suits us fine.

Are you still working?  Maybe a click to Should You Claim Social Security Early Due to Benefit Cuts? | The Motley Fool is worth your time.  Remember, the party line is Social Security will still be able to pay 76% of current benefits just based on current tax receipts even in 2035.  Which totally ignores the reality that we’re facing huge inflation till we get to the “fresh outta money” point.

And if there’s crappy employment (since we could be in an economic depression by then) maybe 50% of current benefits on an inflation-adjusted basis is more reasonable.  Talk to your financial planner, though a lot of them are still drinking the Kool-Aid.  (Normalcy bias, selling the highest commission investment products and so forth.  Which is all fine, but do you have a house/place to live that’s free and clear?)

Tired of Trump-Bashing?  How about Rudy-bashing? Five Colleges Won’t Rescind Rudy Giuliani’s Honorary Degrees.  Toss in pronoun silliness and the RvW pig with lipstick and we’d have the makings of a profitable media empire.

Back at the Witch Trials, meantime: Tuesday’s surprise Jan. 6 hearing comes with a bold claim. Same kind of headline-mongering democrap we heard about “Russian collusion with Trump” isn’t it?  (I mean, refried and all.)

Let’s all spend more on war! G-7 summit ends with pledge to help Ukraine ‘as long as necessary’.

Air-Based Rally still on.  But! Fund manager: Investors should learn from past bear markets.

File under Happy-Talk:  Europe’s central bank ready to ‘stamp out’ surging inflation. Sure, you bet.  Umbrella Academy finance?

All in the name of science, mind you:  We stumbled on this in our wide-ranging research this week: Pharmacokinetics of Cannabidiol Following Intranasal, Intrarectal, and Oral Administration in Healthy Dogs.  Poochie duchy research deluxe?  No.  Zeus the cat demands a parallel feline study – says it could be, um, 50 shades of interesting.

Far more useful medical note: Flu shots linked to 40-percent lower risk of Alzheimer’s onset – Study Finds.

ATR: Tastes of Youth

From the old reporter’s notebook:

So, there was this place in Seattle, years ago, called King’s Cafe.  I’m not the only one to rave about the quality of the food there.  Here’s another journo’s take on the place. Closing time at the International District’s King Cafe.

During much of my news reporting time – when there wasn’t often time to eat while covering busy press conferences and the usual urban mayhem of a bit city – two places ended up as favorites.

The “321 Cafe” across from the Public Safety Building (a/k/a the “cop shop”).  A fresh Gai’s Bakery French loaf with perfect rare roast beef -piled high, thinly sliced onion, a bit of lettuce, ‘maters, and a schmear of mayo.  Hard to beat that while thumbing through MIR reports (miscellaneous incident reports) in the press room.  While trading jabs with the dicks who came by for the fresher coffee and cuter office help. (Oh Jesus, can I even write this anymore without the threat of jail time or Correctness terrorism?)

King’s Cafe was different.

I’d usually just have a bowl of soup.  Not just ANY soup.  The “Lunch Special won ton soup” and a big bowl of Hong Kong Beef Noodles.

The waiter (Greg something) was always there with occasional things to talk about.  But mainly lightning-fast service.

This past week a strange craving came over me for the won ton soup.  Finally – 50-years after the fact – I’ve come up with an almost taste-alike that can be built almost anywhere.

Goes like this:

One package Lipton Chicken Noodle soup.  The kind where you dump the mix into 3 cups of boiling water.  Except for this, use 3 1/2 cups.  Hard rolling boil.

Into this, put in a full cup (or more) of freshly chopped Bok Choi.  Chinese cabbage will work, but not nearly as well.  The overtones of the bok choi matter hugely.

Also have ready 3-4 precooked link sausage.  Not the maple flavored, though.  Just regular.  Sliced into 1/8th to 1/4-inch chunks.

Now comes the magic:  About 3/4ths of a tablespoon of hoisin sauce.  And while you’re at it, a half teaspoon of soy (or Tamari – which is gluten-free soy) sauce.  A splash of mirin (Japanese cooking wine).

Then – importantly – a half teaspoon of oyster sauce.

A heavy half cup of very thinly sliced fresh mushrooms, too.  Tiniest shake of cayenne you can manage is optional.  Another option is a handful of (thawed) tiny frozen salad shrimp (cleaned and deveined).

Boil it all for about 5-minutes.  Then turn off heat and adjust the seasoning.  I usually end up with closer to a teaspoon of hoisin being used and a similar size oyster sauce dollop.   Occasionally, three drops of fresh ginger juice, too.

Wait 5 to 7 minutes to cool just a bit.

What you get for all this, dialed into your own (now burned) tongue, will be a somewhat close approximation of the flavor of the King’s Cafe soup.

Served with a half-pound of Chinese BBQ pork, there is nothing finer for a winter hot lunch.  If it’s an accompaniment to something else, then 4-5 slices of REAL BBQ pork go into the soup.

The tooth of this, is nowhere near original, though.  See, the sausage and the shrimp were rolled up in the won ton wrappers.  This just gets you in the ballpark of the taste.

With a three-day weekend coming up, we like to spend a bit more focus than usual on food around here, and what fun is a holiday if you can’t eat, drink, and be merry?

A small (half liter) of Ozeki hot sake is a good pairing.  But don’t expect to drive (or get much else done) for the rest of the afternoon, though.

Now it’s time to go add ingredients to the Thursday shopping run.  You’ll want that chore done in advance of Friday when the smart people stock up, and before Saturday when the planning-impaired are out.

Write when you get full,

George@Ure.net

37 thoughts on “Troubled Tuesday: BRICs Thrown, Trade, and Elliott”

  1. You guys finding anything good at the Target and other sales?

    What I’m finding is the lower quality stuff is on sale. Patio furniture “Conversation sets” as example. The plastic/wood-look stuff is around 50% off. The low-end wood and Rattan stuff is about 40% off. The better wood is about 10% off…. None of the teak or iron is on sale.

    Lowes doesn’t have any of the good appliances drastically reduced. Just the end-cap stuff.

    La-z-boy has a few of the solid recliners on sale at 25% off but the starter price is over 2K.

    • I just got a new Samsung refrig. marked down from $2695 to $1895, being delivered today from the orange box place. Old one still works, but is over 10 years old. New one is more energy efficient and larger. Savings in the long run.

  2. About 5% of people who had flu shots later got alzheimer’s and about 8% got alzheimer’s who didn’t get flu shots.

    Probably has more to do with income level and the ability to eat healthy foods. Richer people tend to have health insurance and get free flu shots. They also have routine health care and hopefully take care of minor problems before they become big issues.

    • complete waste of time and energy regards Alzheimer’s

      4 legit shit – Bridge playing is KEY – as is healthy/clean eating.

      You will not find one Bridge player alive today who has Alheimer’s . Bridge players for some reason ???????? just seem to never have a problem with it.
      The “circles” I run in – tend to bump into/ mix with Bridge players…all 4 parents, all my aunts and uncles, Bridge playing workshops/conferences are usually held at really nice spas and ranches, the kind we like to visit for horseback riding adventure/trips. First noticed Bridge playing phenomena when started clerking for Specialist on PHX options trading floor in 80’s – most of the seasoned Market Makers were Bridge players. Something about Ure Brain being active with puzzles and such – Active “puzzleing”… hmmmm a new old “eldercare” therapy…

      Soduko ?

      • Yo crash, think of it as mental gymnastics, I like crossword puzzles, do minimum of five a day. Helps with the vocabulary…I view the RvW decision as a win for the good guys. The pendulum slowly swings back away from these wack jobs that continue to push the normalization of deviant behavior. Some recent videos I have seen of these so called parades are pornographic and not fit for any child. Now it seems this is all now out in the open and in your face. I find it appalling….

    • I read about that too. Had to have been an on-going study with regular visits. Doubt it was just a questionnaire.

      But my personal thought about it is, it’s probably a marketing guise to get people to continue getting flu shots.

      I think only got one flu shot in my life and guess what? I coughs the flu immediately after the injection. Not to mention my general health took a turn at the same time and still isn’t at the level I once enjoyed.

  3. Speaking of BRICS. They know it’s the Americans/NATO who are in process to starve the world. The Kremlin site:

    BRICS+ meeting

    Vladimir Putin attended a BRICS+ meeting involving the leaders of several invited states, held via videoconference.

    “This is the same cynicism that certain Western countries are now showing by destabilising the global production of agricultural products and dealing with this matter by restricting, for example, supplies of Russian and Belarusian fertilisers and impeding exports of Russian grain to world markets. Speaking of which, we are expecting a good harvest. God willing, everything will be fine and, if we supply 37 million tonnes to the world market this year, we would most likely be able to supply 50 million tonnes of grain. However, it is becoming more difficult to insure the transport that carries grain, bulk carriers, transactions under trade contracts, and so on.”

    “But that’s not even the point. I have said publicly many times, and want to emphasise again, that Russia is not preventing the export of Ukraine’s grain from its territory; we are ready to ensure safe passage of grain ships via international waters if, of course, the Ukrainian military demines the ports and nearby waters.”

    http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/68700http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/68700

    • Putin says the ferts will flow to Brazil. Perhaps only NATO countries will get the famines.

      “The presidents focused on the problems of global food security. The President of Russia gave a detailed assessment of the causes of the difficult situation on the world market of agricultural produce and fertilizers. The importance of restoring the architecture of free trade in foodstuffs and fertilizers, which was collapsed by Western sanctions, was emphasised.

      In this context, Vladimir Putin stressed that Russia is committed to meeting its obligations to ensure uninterrupted supplies of Russian fertilizers to Brazilian farmers. ”

      http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/68714

  4. Sargent at arms on Jan 6th, resigned, and now is dead. He talk to much? Paid agitators is in the Congressional record by his testimony!!
    https://t.me/PepeMatter/10419
    UNselect committee seeks help, liars club meeting. lets US see how desperate they are. The level of bull cheese will show US.
    G. Maxwell to be sentenced, where is the Epstein client list?
    They FEAR THE Q

  5. Just found this on a ‘net ramble and thought it worth sharing…
    From U.S. Naval Institute website, interesting article titled “Functional Medicine for a Functional Force”. The article itself is paywalled but it does have a materials referenced list, as follows:

    1. For more information, see Ari Whitten, The Ultimate Guide to Red Light Therapy (self-pub., Create Space Publishing, July 2018);
    Michael Hamblin and Ying-Ying Huang, Photobiomodulation in the Brain Low-Level Laser (Light) Therapy in Neurology and Neuroscience (Cambridge, MA: Academic Press, 2019);
    Carolyn McMakin, The Resonance Effect: How Frequency Specific Microcurrent Is Changing Medicine (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2017); and
    Dave Asprey, Super Human The Bulletproof Plan to Age Backward and Maybe Even Live Forever (New York: Harper Wave, 2019).

    Interesting how red light and frequency resonance information is being referenced and in particular, by whom…

    …that is all.. :)

      • Yep, remember, over 14 years ago, I shared a dream that I had about red light therapy in the early 1990’s. Except, I didn’t know to call it that, however, I saw it.

        My dream. I walked into a red lit room. It was made clear to me that the color red healed. There was a person in the room in what I now understand to be an airsuit (I have seen these now in the covid shots of the researchers in an air filled white suit to keep the O2 circulating in their suit and keep germs out) anyway, in this dream, there was a man in a red air suit and this suit helped him stand up (he had a spinal cord injury), so the red air suit held him up as the red light in the room and on the suit or in the suit healed him.

        I have been waiting for this technology to be discovered. I really enjoy reading about it from your contributors and yourself, George. Let’s see what develops.

  6. George
    I was gifted an almost new portable generator recently. I had been wanting one so as to have a way of running a 25000 btu window air conditioner so as to keep my wife cool during a power outage.
    Putting my engineers hat back on and doing some back of the envelope calculations showed that my new toy could not meet the surge current of the AC unit.
    That was 56 amps locked rotor on the compressor tag. The generator could only do 26 amps for starting current. So I’m screwed.
    Not so fast calculator boy!
    The Devine Chief Engineer of All Things shoved a YouTube video in front of my face that described a Soft Starter device for the home/RV market. I knew about industrial soft starters but not commercial units. Apparently they don’t advertise.
    The device I will purchase come payday claims a 65 to 70 percent reduction in surge current. That makes it doable to use said generator to power my AC unit.
    And No, it’s not snake oil! The technology has been around for a while usually for large industrial motor starter applications.
    Why air conditioning manufacturing companies don’t offer this device is odd! Oh wait I know, they want to sell you a new AC unit in 5 years not 10 years. Silly me thinking logical again bad habit.
    The device I am interested in is made by Micro-Air in Utah for $335 for a 3 ton load.
    Not China, how strange!
    I’L provide an update when I get some run time with the device.

    • That is just damn interesting.

      The main house A/C here is 5 tons, and since there are 12,000 BTUs per ton, we’ve got 60,000 BTUs. 12,000 BTU comes in around 12 amps at 12o v t, so figure 1,440 watts per ton, given our 5 tons thats 7,200 watts (about 10 horsepower) but since gensets (and the a/c and the locked rotor current, you need to size a genset about 1.25 to 1.4 times what you really need.

      In the office the 10 tons is about a 1500 watt load, so free a/c with the solar panels.

      Cycling figures in, too. Even on a hot day here in East Texas, my office a/c is only under high load about 50% of the time, so with 5500 watts of panels, computers, shop tools and whatever are an easy load.. We use the battery bank as buffer storage.

      Just remember that locked rotor current as sizing for a genset would mean buying a much larger generator. Ask the mfg for the locked rotor current starting curves. Remember, there is mechanical inertia in the rotation of the gen set, so a half-second of 40 amps settling down to run at 20 amps MAY be what you’re looking at.

      I took our 6.5 kW Chineseum diesel and tried to load on the whole house a/c. The genset belched out the blackest, hardest working soot you ever saw. But clearly, 15 kw would have gotten the 7.5 (+++) load going.
      Your mileage may vary, but the soft start is a dandy approach and we’re all standing by for a first hand report.

      thanks!

      • George
        Here’s the title of the YouTube video that got me started down this path:

        How to install a Soft Start kit on a air conditioner | run home AC with a generator | Microair

        By How To Home YouTube channel of Adam Carr 12:46 run time.
        Shows shows 72 amps reduced to 31 amps using clamp on amp meter at compressor start ups!
        Worth a look!

  7. These guys are providing YT video updates of the dropping Lake Mead level. Every two weeks or so they drop a new video.

    Lake Mead vanishing could be catastrophic. Parts of the area Lake Mead feeds in terms of power and water could be orphaned returning to ‘frontier’ status. If the faucet doesn’t turn on how long can you stay? Unpatrolled, lawless bad lands, if you will.

    STRANDED!!! Lake Mead’s Water Dropped Too Fast!!!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gND12rp0IDM

      • And the magnificent fountain at the Casino will be full till the last minute. It really is a beautiful fountain.

        A better location for such a spectacular fountain would be at a casino next a water source like Niagara Falls, or the Mississippi, or the St Lawrence, or possibly the Hudson but not in the middle of the desert.

        Just my opinion. I could be wrong.

  8. The dollar has been and remains strong due to a lack of credible alternatives. Between its COVID lockdowns and real estate crash, China’s not looking too good.
    For BRICs to work, the four countries need to cooperate on a long term basis. Not likely as each participant will eventually try to eat the lunch of the other three. Wanna park your retirement money there?
    In the words of the great philosopher, Professor Chuck Berry:
    “Well, I’m so glad I’m livin’ in the U.S.A.
    “Yes, I’m so glad I’m livin’ in the U.S.A.
    “Anything you want, we got right here in the U.S.A.”
    BTW, I doubt any dead veterans were in the Bonus Army, much less “demolished by the Depression”.
    Peace.

  9. “A small (half liter) of Ozeki hot sake is a good pairing. But don’t expect to drive (or get much else done) for the rest of the afternoon, though.”

    Twice I have been an honored guest (meaning we bought a LOT of their TV elecronics) of SONY Corp in Japan. Treated like royalty, we had a private bar evening with the vice chair of Sony. We drank the Morita family ‘private stock’ of sake’. The next morning I couldn’t move. Took me an hour and a half to crawl (literally) to the bathroom, throw my clothes into the bag and drag it down to the bus. I crawled to the back of the private tour bus where we endured a half day trip over the mountains, while I clung to my paper bag… ‘just in case’. Truly the most painful and lingering hangover in my lifetime.

    • Once upon a time – at the West Coast Computer Faire in SF, my late friend Don Stoner and I made the mistake of walking back from the convention hotel to wherever we were on Jack London Square.
      Along the way, Don spots this Japanese Hibachi BBQ joint. We had a bottle of sake.
      then another. Then…
      I some point during the evening’s adventure, I remember eating eel. BBQ’ed.
      Later, now lip-walking into the hotel, the staff has to usher us into an elevator and by God the next morning I resolved (as I think Don did) never to do that again.
      I am proud to tell you we both lived up to that solemn vow.
      Until next time.
      One of the finest engineers ever to recyle air on this rock – SK W6TNS – author of many books, genius, and teacher.
      https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/author/donald-l-stoner/

    • I had a similar experience on evening when dining with the Chief Welding Engineer of Kobe Steel. In several trips to Japan, I was well acquainted with drinking lots of hot sake. That night, he introduced me to drinking cold sake, out of square pine boxes. I wished I could die the next morning. My only other experience that bad was after drinking Peppermint Schnapps with a former U Boat Commander and a former Panzer Commander, but that’s another story. I feel your pain.

      • I totally plan on making some sake.. I want to make it the way they made it.. what is funny is they make it like a wine.. and yeast cakes.. yeast cakes is easy and a great way to store yeast..
        1/2 cup rice water
        1/2 cup of rice flour
        1/4 cup of palm sugar
        mix until it is a pasty pancake dough
        cover and let it sit for four days… ( like making apple cider vinegar.. letting it sit for four days will allow the wild yeast to grow.. )
        mix in another 1/2 cup of rice flour
        to stiffen it up.. roll it into balls about two cookie size string and dry..

  10. Really do like your USD yah fools . That’s it good on yah !!! Now your gunna pay for your dollar and all the gold shortin . Hill billies

  11. Get the gurus talking up the dollar . Strong dollar my butt . Worse than sheetcoin . Gold gold gold . Forget it now it’s 2 late . Bit of carol king it’s 2 late baby

  12. Is it possible to create a world where people live in harmony without an ideology? Do the leaders of the G7 believe that?

    This morning G7 leaders would have begun their departures from the Summit at Schloss Elmau with some likely enroute to the NATO confab starting today in Madrid. Of all the places in Germany, it now seems rather stunning how the past two German-hosted G7 Summits (2015, 2022) have been held at the Schloss Elmau venue now operated by the grandson of the original builder. The building and grounds have history. Care to take an evening stroll down Elm Street with nightcap in hand? Sound the symbols.

    Currently the decorative motif points to India and Lord Ganesha, God of wisdom, new beginnings and luck. As chance would have it in 1913, an already accomplished German theologian and eugenicist had a new benefactor who had married into the German nobility, but was born of new money dating to 1730. She financed the construction of Schloss Elmau. Currently her extended family remains one of the wealthiest in Germany. The Kaiser, the Weimar Republic, and the Third Reich all touched Schloss Elmau which alone emerged from the ashes. Arguably it’s fire still burns brightly.

    https://www.schloss-elmau.de/en/history/

    Let’s now drop by the studio where Deej G has polished up the tape heads specially for breaking through glass ceilings with vintage cassettes. Here we go with a band that started out 40 years ago with an ideology and went on to fame and fortune, houses in Monaco, and audiences with the high and mighty. Here’s DJ Ure with
    “I Threw a Brick Through a Window”.
    U2
    ?

  13. Yep the life run low held . Still see the short and long of it . Smash gold here and your going to the horn guy . No veges grow there it’s 2 hot . Don’t need your radios either

  14. To all you gardeners out there I offer this in memory of Baxter Black. It’s good that YT exists to archive all these moments that passed us by so quickly back in the day.

    Hilarious Cowboy Poetry With Waddie Mitchell and Batxer (sic) Black | Carson Tonight Show
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGNLyXF3hLA
    Original Airdate: 01/08/1987

  15. “Tuesday’s surprise Jan. 6 hearing comes with a bold claim.”

    Neither Wednesday’s, nor any other day’s Jan. 6 hearing, will include anyone from Trump’s SecretService detail, nor his chauffeur, all of whom say no tantrum, no rally appearance, and that Hutchinson is a liar.

    BTW how does someone riding in a divider-window limousine grab a steering wheel from which he’s separated by 9 feet and a bulletproof Lexan window…?

    • IF you watched her face while testifying you can see her programming. She has exposed herself with her rabid incessant lying.

      Quite remarkable and quite a break for the average ignoramus to watch.

      Gonna cause some cognizant dissonance in the sheeple; bad move elites over washington. Let’s make a new song up:

      Elites over Washington

      Can you see em, can you see em fly?
      They fly the flag, but burn it,
      They steal our assets and flaunt it,
      They excel their babies up and down the line
      to contain us like their ships at sea, a container for you and one for me.

      Oh, Elites over Washington
      Whereforarethou’s soul…..?

      Oh Elites over Washington
      Keep em crawling and how?

      See they program the masses every single day on tv
      Every single program, every movie, every idea you see
      Some hidden hand’s agenda, filtered through the generations
      Imagining the worst and using propaganda every day
      to sway, sway, sway the masses.

      Oh Elites Over Washington
      We watch you play;
      We watch you eat, we watch you sleep
      We watch you spend and we watch you keep
      Your hidden hand upon us all.

      Yet, a crack has appeared and we are no longer enthralled
      I see AWAKENING across the land, exposing the hidden hand

      PEOPLE AWAKE, ARISE, GO FORTH AND CONQUER TYRANNY.
      Take back your land.
      The Elites over Washington are in your walls, at your doors, in your banks and on your brain.

      AWAKE, AWAKE, AWAKE.

  16. “G-7 summit ends with pledge to help Ukraine ‘as long as necessary’.”

    So basically the G-7 is gaming their economies with near-war-footing materiel production and will continue until the last Ukrainian soldier is dead…?

    What happens (to these economies) when Russia wins? How hard/fast/far will our economy drop when a half-million arms, aerospace, and other materiels employees shift suddenly from tax payers to unemployment receivers?

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