You know what happens tomorrow, right? The Labor Department is scheduled to release the long-delayed employment situation report which was stalled by the government shutdown, although we’re still mystified why 83% of government couldn’t have just kept going better, but don’t get me started on that.
This morning, the markets are milling around as nervous as cattle outside the slaughterhouse, as the price of Oil slipped under $100 on the future’s market which some (Ures truly) would point out is a major hint that pernicious deflation is still in the wings.
This morning, the Insurer in Chief will explain how the Obamacare computer system is all screwed up (we hold these truths to be self-evident) and how this is unacceptable (no shit?) and how fixes will be found. (But they won’t be free, of course).
And so, just as the insurance industry got the police to be the enforcement arm on the auto insurance side of things, president Obama (who has his own plan at Bethesda) this morning will be an apologetic Frank Nitti for them on this latest TAX (which is what Justice Roberts called it, not me).
Lest you think my use of Nitti is inappropriate, I’d point to the WSJ as using the word “omerta” – a reference to the mafia’s code of silence – as a word of the day.
Transparency’s a little late, don’tcha think?
The hype-ography this morning to focus on a “tech surge” and I’m sure no expense will be spared things. You and I, after all, will be stuck with the tab.
For the sake of comparison on Sunday, I downloaded the Windows 8.1 update (3.68 GB worth) and it worked (how do I delicately say this?) Better than the Obamacare site. I ordered Win/8 for my main laptop back on October 29 of 2012 and here we are, just under a year later and 8.1 seems bug-free (so far). But I didn’t have issues with 8.0, either.
Which gets us to the first ponder of the week: When comes to software CEO’s, who rules: Bill or Barack?
Answer: Which one has the largest group of involuntary beta testers?
Not that it matters: With QE Infinite going through at least March now, we can all sit back, relax and live securely knowing nothing can go wrong. Nothing can go wr….
What’s this? 8-minute standing ovation for Ted Cruz when he came back to the Republic? Say, have you noticed how the term “accounting competence” is now equated with “right wing wacko” by the left?
Snowden: Revelations Keep Coming
And in the latest round, we hear that the US spied on millions of phone calls made in France. Which, from an intel standpoint makes sense because of the high number of Muslims in France (am I the only one who remembers the successive nights of car burnings a few years back in France? This is a hotbed, right?).
Of course, the French government knows it has an immigration-driven problem (like a north American country that comes to mind) so while the US Ambassador has been called on the carpet by the French Foreign Minister, nothing’s likely to come of it.
The French have gotten themselves into the same kind of “love illegal immigrants to death” mindless political correctness, which has already turned and is biting them so hard on their political asses, that they are immobilized an incapable to respond at this late date to an assault the Moors would envy.
Obviously, or at least to us, any clues as to what’s going on in their own country – even if the clues were delivered from Uncle Sam, would likely be appreciated.
But this is a cluster-whizzy where right and politically correct and what’s doable all get thrown into a stew pot, turned up on high, and the people in charge leave the house and lock the doors after them….and go on vacation.
Obviously, what happens next isn’t pretty, but this is how history works out and it’s how imperialistic cultures overwhelm those who play nicy-nice. Especially when the nicy-nice are faced with an exploding demographic bomb having lost the sex race. You can almost hear the genius-Socialistas of France muttering “Oh shit, forgot about birth rates” from here.
But that’s all obvious, except to the dummies in French leadership, and maybe even them too, although that would have to be privately. They can’t afford to say the US is right and helping keep an eye on their internal stew, presently on high, or the streets of Paris would erupt in burning cars again, and that just wouldn’t look good for the appeaser crowd.
After all, there always elections to come, new persuasion blocks to be forged, phony alliances and appeaser-deals to be cut. But if you look close, this is what’s going to rip apart the EU mirage at some point. Meanwhile….uh…..The French might learn something from China’s handling of dissent…
Popcorn?
Then there’s the report on the hack of the president of Mexico’s email. But where did 11-million people and the cartels come from, we wonder? So, why not see what’s going through that pipe? What’s the use of runaway horsepower if you can’t deploy it? It’s only ones and zeroes, after all…
More after this…
Saudi Watch: The Oiling of America
Well, the good news is finally, as the Allentown Morning Call put it, good for heating oil customers.
It’s always grins and giggle to see how the Saudis react when the price of oil is fading, as this morning (to remind you) the price dropped under the $100 mark.
The thing is, however, that the Saudis are acting – oddly.
As you may remember from last week, the Saudis were offered a seat on the UN Security Council which they promptly turned down.
What’s going on behind the scenes is that the Saudis are thinking the UN Security Council is something of a joke since it failed to so anything about the mess in Syria, which we note, is still a mess this morning.
Meanwhile, there are a series of rights groups, which are pointing to the Saudis treatment of minorities and women as needing more than a small tune-up.
All of which leaves us with a kind of anticipatory feeling: What future events would drive the US into Syria, up the price of oil, and pressure the rights groups to bugger off? Answer that one right (assume you have a billion or so to spend) and you might be able to make a fair guess at the future.
Speaking of Dot-Connecting (and Earthquakes)
Oh boy – where to start this morning? As the beginning of the list, I suppose…
www.nostracodeus.com is a project I haven’t had time to get deeply engaged in, but (as luck would have it) Grady does and so if you look this morning, you’ll find that he’s now posting every day or so some of the word-frequency analysis.
You’ll see in the report from Sunday that the world “derail” and disease-related terms epidemic and pandemic are hot. But some of that may be due to this getting to be flu season and follow-ups to the bubonic plague and dengue fever stories from a week or three back.
On the other hand, the derail hits started popping up hours in advance of the 6+ quake down in the the Baja area this weekend. This was related to the derailment up in Alberta.
Later today, we should be getting a “SOFT” bit of leftovers from a coronal mass ejection on the Sun last week. When you add that to the derailment story, there’s some question about whether we won’t get at least a 6.5 (and possibly into the 7’s) earthquake before the week is out.
One other big story about derailing popped in Pakistan, but it was attributed to a bomb. On the other hand, if the source was indeed earth movement, with the bomb being an ancillary event, then we might shade our 7.0 or so expectations higher.
Cough, Cough…Dept.
Now, if you’d like something a little more nat’chul, sample the smoke in New South Wales that may threaten Sydney Oztralia. Smoked wallabies, mate?
Thumbing Through Press Releases
Soft Economy: Means holiday shoppers will be expecting discounts this year.
Also: Hats off to Dr. Joseph C, Maroon who completed his 5th Iron Man this weekend in the 70-74 bracket in 17-hours.
But is THIS Healthy?
We note the report that futurist Ray Kurzweil, age 65, is taking 150-vitamins a day in an effort to be alive long enough for him to transition into a robo-body, if I follow the report here right…
I’m just guessing the Iron Man approach (Dr. Maroon is a neurosurgeon) will pay bigger dividends…sleep, exercise and modest calorie reductions seem to be the ticket…but we’ll wait for Ray Robot to prove us wrong…