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Papal Knock-down

Word that the pope was knocked down by a woman as a Christmas Eve mass is interesting since it comes only shortly after the attack on Italian prime minister Berlusconi 10-days ago. The pope got up - apparently unhurt but a cardinal was injured and this turns out to be the same woman, according to a CNN report, that attacked last year.

 

The woman behind the knock down will be getting what's called 'necessary treatment' in hospital, but just what that is we don't know.

 

Healthcare as the WPA?

Hadn't really thought about it in these terms, but with president Obama saying healthcare is the most important piece of 'social legislation since the 1930's" I get to wondering if it will be as far-reaching as the Works Progress Administration or the Civilian Conservation Corps of the previous depression?

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To be sure, the statistics as we end the decade sure support my view that we're in the Second Depression.  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is carrying the Wall Street Journal story about how the "Last decade was the worst ever in the stock market". I get almost daily hate mail from people who don't like my pointing it out - like I had anything to do with making it.  As usual, the messenger and message are hard to distinguish for some folks.

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One reader - Bullish Bob - sent me a nice foam plastic bull which now adorns my office wall.  It serves to remind me that some people actually make money being long stocks, but I've always had better luck on the short side.

 

Iran Runs Clock

An end of the year deadline for Iran to reach a nuclear deal is apparently going to arrive with no deal if I'm following reports on Iranian media and satellite feeds right.  And this will - reckons "The Hill" cause some real problems for Obama and congress.

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Also in the Mideast "US drones wipe out top al Qaeda leaders in Yemen" Thursday - and killing more than 30 in the process.

 

Cooling Japan

Worries are becoming more pronounced today that the world's second largest economy - Japan - is in trouble and headed for worse amidst reports that deflation of of consumer prices are nearing 2% while unemployment is over 5% and climbing.

 

So, what's the government there planning?  Oh, how about spending their way rich - or at least trying such - apparently figuring if it can work elsewhere, why not in Japan?

 

Of course, as I point out religiously, the proof is not in yet because economic developments tend to move at subglacial speed...

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Rabble-rousing Hugo Chavez is taking on Toyota - threatening to kick them out of Venezuela if they don't make a 4-by-4 for public transport in poor areas.

 

Hey!  Why not call it a Volkstrucken?  No?  How about Hugomobile? no? How about....

 

More Tax Dollars

I suppose it will be painted as good news that the "U.S. promises unlimited financial assistance to Fannie May, Freddie Mac" but somehow it just feels like another tax hike in the making.

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Stock promoters and insiders have often been accused of 'pump & dump' schemes so I wonder if things like how the financial crisis has developed could be characterized as 'lax and tax'?

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And speaking of your tax dollars - keep sitting on your wallet: "Congress raised debt ceiling to $12.4 trillion."  Which is almost up to one year of GDP ($13-14 trillion).

 

Tough Life Department

The Obamas are spending Christmas in Hawaii...which means a good chunk of the White House press corp ought to come back looking tan in a week or so.  Can't blame 'em: Washington's cold and rainy with rain & snow showers later in the week.

 

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Coping: This Did Not Compute

Assuming you know that a DDoS attack is a distributed denial of service attack on big computer systems, then you might get a grin out of how bad the DDoS attack on Wal-Mart, Amazon and other sites went this week:  very poorly from the perp's point of view.

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The BBC reports on a ..."YouTube video suggesting "face recognition cameras installed in HP laptops cannot detect black faces has had over one million views..."  The the WSJ blog site followed with "Critics of H-P Software Soften Their Stance."

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I've been looking around for a new computer - I buy one after Christmas often and try to keep abreast of technology - and you know what the least important feature is?  Face ors thumb-print capability.  More important to me?  i7 processor, 8 GB and 1TB and a 1333 FSB - know what I mean?  A lot of us in Texas use these old-fashioned external 9 MM security devices.

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Of course when to buy the computer becomes a problem if you're looking at a laptop because there are so many cool innovations in the pipeline.  For example, Panasonic has a new battery that in the home version could power a Japanese home for a week - not sure how much power they use, but it's all part of Panasonics acquisition of Sanyo - and you know as power/density figures ramp up with evolving technology that will extend laptop run times.  First of the home powering batteries due in 2011 but can I wait on a new computer that long?

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Then there's the matter of should I wait until Microsoft pops with Office 2010?  I hear it's in beta now and you saw where Microsoft lost a patent case and may have to tweak Office 2007 to conform.  Has something to do with XML features that I never use.  Office 2007 is still on sale until January 11th with the old code.

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ComputerWorld cites a ChangeWave report that "High Windows 7 satisfaction spurs corporate IT spending.".  Story quotes 93% satisfaction with 7 - and I have to admit - after I put it in a few months back not a single problem here and not even one BSOD.

 

Down at the WuJo

That place where woo-woo and science gather on the mat of public debate, there's a good read over at the Divine Cosmos website "Disclosure Endgame: free ebook" if you've got a little unallocated/non-manic time to burn.  Covers a lot of recent ground, discussions and disagreements within the PTB and even the spiral lights over Norway recently.  Eggnog helps.

 

Around the Ranch: Christmas Morning

Here at the ranch we got what passes in East Texas for a white Christmas: exactly 17 flakes of snow mixed in with passing rain showers.  But then it turned cold overnight down into the low 20's and cool for the next few days but clear.  Along about the time George II leaves, we are due to get snow or ice pellets in this coming week, but nothing like the rest of the country.

 

Over on the National Weather Service's site, the upper Midwest is in blizzard warning conditions...

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This morning's column is a little shorter than normal for a Friday - not as much going on.  As soon as I hit 'publish' this morning, we start putting the turkey together - and then snooze while it cooks and then eat, snooze, eat, snooze, eat, watch movie, snooze...typical American routine.

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Our next update here will come Monday morning...by which time I figure to weigh about 5-pounds more than I do this morning.  The Saturday Peoplenomics report will be posted tomorrow on schedule and the Sunday in-depth report deals with the migration to high-density language and some of the implications of that.  Most interesting line of inquiry there.

 

Drive safely if you can't avoid it, relax and have fun.  Odds are good that Life's only 18,000 days long - and each morning you burn another one.  Best I can tell, the idea is to make each one memorable.  If you get through life with good memories, good friends, and love...hey!  That's even better than Christmas.

 

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Send your comments to george@ure.net

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The UrbanSurvival Mall:

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"Live on $10,000" A Year

With another round of layoffs due to start later this month...a round which will start to axe many of the middle managers who have managed to avoid the HR grenades...might I suggest a preemptive tactical move?  Voluntarily dropping your lifestyle back a bit, since we're all being marched down that road by either circumstances or some out-of-control-PTB types who write checks to Washington lobby and to anti-reformers in California!  A good starting point, at least if you've still got $10-bucks is my e-book "How to Live on #10,000 a Year...or less!"

 

 

 

It's an automatic download.  It's written in an information dense style: The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the cheap, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you have a little hustle left...  Click here for the index and details.

 

MyGroPonics

My commodity broker JB Slear and I have written a simple book to get you started on high density hydroponics.  It's an example of how someone with a little creativity, access to a few 'dollar stores' and willing to try out some new farming techniques can grow an amazing amount of produce sin a very small space - like even an apartment balcony (if it gets some sunlight).  Sound interesting?  It's just $10 bucks here...

 

       

 

Pass It On

The business model of this website is base Simply click here and send a link to this site to everyone on your distro list...Nothing more dangerous than sharp, clear-thinking upstarts who ask a lot of questions, eh?  Unless you believe WTC-7 fell over on its own, of course....

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 Last week's report is here.    For back issues of this site, click here.  (Goes back to 1997!)

"If you ain't paranoid, you ain't payin' attention!"

 

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Thursday December 24, 2009

Healthcare Deal Done

No doubt there will be challenges on Constitutional grounds to follow, but the healthcare bill was passed today at a cost of $871 billion.  If you're thinking this is the best and worst of politicks,. the case could be made either way since "Every state got special treatment" in some way or other to get the deal this far on the one hand and it forces everyone in the country to pony up dough at some level for mandatory healthcare, but on the other we wonder what ever happened to 'powers not specifically delegated shall remain with the States?

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Next step for the bill is conference to iron out major differences between the House and Senate measures.

 

Some Christmas present, huh? 

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Stock futures are pointing higher, so Santa's still working his stuff.
 

Whistling Past the Graveyard?

"Geithner: Job growth should resume by springtime".  Oh?   And pray tell what might the new engine of economic growth be that's going to appear that will create jobs?  Healthcare employment, maybe?

 

"Dismal Housing States fail to halt Santa Claus rally" in Wednesday's session headlined Fox, but stock market action is seldom a reflection of reality; most times it's a contrary indicator since in a perfect world for investors there's zero employment, high disposable income and runaway growth. Kinda like today's cell-packing mollycoddled kids in grade school.  But happen for the broader economy?  Yeah sure, you bet'cha.

 

Durable & Jobs Data

On the other hand, there is something good in today's new advance report on Durable Goods from the Census folks:

"New Orders

New orders for manufactured durable goods in November increased $0.3 billion or 0.2 percent to $166.9 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This was the second monthly increase in the last three months. This followed a 0.6 percent October decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 2.0 percent. Excluding defense, new orders decreased slightly. Computers and electronic products, also up two of the last three months, had the largest increase, $0.9 billion or 3.7 percent to $25.7 billion.

 

Shipments

Shipments of manufactured durable goods in November, up three consecutive months, increased $0.5 billion or 0.3 percent to $175.9 billion. This followed a 0.7 percent October increase. Machinery, up two of the last three months, had the largest increase, $0.4 billion or 2.0 percent to $22.6 billion.

 

Unfilled Orders

Unfilled orders for manufactured durable goods in November, down fourteen consecutive months, decreased $4.9 billion or 0.7 percent to $724.5 billion. This was the longest streak of consecutive monthly decreases since the series was first published on a NAICS basis in 1992 and followed a 0.6 percent October decrease. Transportation equipment, down thirteen of the last fourteen months, had the largest decrease, $5.2 billion or 1.2 percent to $418.1 billion."

October data was revised upward, too.  But, it seems like every time I just starting thinking bullish that's almost always the short-term top in market, know what I mean?  Some folks even write in about The Ure Indicator, LOL.

 

on the other hand, the shutdown of Arrow Trucking leaves an interesting question about whether we're about to witness a dominoes like collapse of the trucking biz... forget what I said about bullish.

 

Look: Here's another reason not to be a screaming bear - the weekly jobs report:

"In the week ending Dec. 19, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 452,000, a decrease of 28,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 480,000. The 4-week moving average was 465,250, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week's revised average of 468,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.9 percent for the week ending Dec. 12, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 3.9 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Dec. 12 was 5,076,000, a decrease of 127,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 5,203,000. The 4-week moving average was 5,233,000, a decrease of 90,000 from the preceding week's revised average of 5,323,000.

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 5.673 million.

My expectation for today?  A rally early and then people exiting trades ahead of the long weekend for a decline toward the close.  Not advice, just a dart throw.

 

EPA, Drugs, and Water

I often joke (well, maybe joke isn't the right word) about what comes out of Washington DC when I ask "Is someone putting stuff in their water back there?  So it's in this context that I read the AP's report "Feds mull regulating drugs in water".

 

Of course, I don't expect them to open up the fluoridated water debate, but there are plenty of folks who are dead set against fluoridated water for a host of reasons not the least of which include "Fluoride's Neurological Effects: studies show there may be grave implications for Alzheimer's, Dementia, Attention Deficit Disorder, reduced IQ in children".

 

But hey - don't let too much science get in the way lest adding things to water be reconsidered.  It's an industry, you know...

 

Bone-Us Season

I see where "Citigroup's return of TARP money removes pay caps" which ought to make for a Merry Christmas for those at the top of that operation. Ditto out west as "Wells completes TARP exit".

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All peaches & cream?  No, not hardly as "Large numbers of TARP recipients skip dividend payments" - in fact 55 of them by some counts.  Your tax dollars at work.

 

New Middle East Plan

Well-respected Middle East news source Debka.com is reporting today that "Egypt, Saudis secretly draft Palestinian statehood motion for Security Council."  Gist of it is they'd get land within pre-1967 war borders which will likely not be embraced by Israel...

 

If They're Out Friends Department

If Russia is really friendly and now a capitalistic country and all, why am I reading headlines like "Russia to work on new nuclear missiles" Medvedev"?

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To my way of thinking, it's like walking into the home of a supposed pacifist and noticing a table full of Glock parts and a bottle of Hoppe's #9 cleaning fluid, a spray can of Royal Purple gun lube and a couple of blocks of hollow point ammo, then talking about peace, know what I mean?

 

You are What You Read

Say...here's one that oughta get you to dusting off your old copy of Fahrenheit 451º - an Ed Bayley piece on how folks that sell e-books keep track of what you read and then market to your interests.  Having been a long-time marketing guy in corpland I really, really like the concept.  But, then again, it's a record and the way the legal system works anymore, that means it could be used against you if there's anything untoward, prurient, or to anti-establishment in your behavior. 

 

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Coping: The Cashless World Ahead

Been doing a lot of thinking about macro-trends lately - the Big Picture stuff that is slow-moving and yet when you get out a few years into the future, it's these topics which will shape our world into it's new direction.  One of these is the future of money.

 

If you're a long-time reader, you may recall our 2007 coverage of the story that the Council on Foreign Relations house magazine carried an article a couple of years back on the concept of "The end of National Currency".  Since thinking of the CFR has a way of showing up in life some years after being kicked around, I've been watching the international scene seeing whether the concept is taking root, or not.  And just a few weeks back, you saw where Gulf Oil Producers were considering a regional currency.

 

Seems to me that the single global currency concept has merit at some levels, but fails at others. One of the things it would accomplish would be smoothing the way for corpgov to complete the move to take over the entire world, something that was derailed temporarily by the Climategate leaks and the subsequent falling apart of the Copenhagen agenda.  Not saying it's good, but let's call it what it is.

 

The danger of a one-world currency is that it would soon become apparent to people in other countries  how well they are doing compared to folks in other places.

 

If, for example, you're an American software developer and you have hired some programmers in India to develop a new program and you are playing them  35,000 Rupees per month, the $120,000 per year US programmer who doesn't get that job will probably not take the time to figure Rupees to Dollars and be ticked off at your American export of a good (and except for the Twinkies and coffee which fuels C++ writers) nonpolluting at that.  (The Indian programmer would make about $745 a month, BTW.
 

So the first thing that a global currency would do is reveal that there's about a 12-15 to one cost saving to hire non-US programmers and when that kind of buzz got traction on the net the US programmers would see why their jobs are going overseas on the one hand and there would be some leveling effects over time.  Not a good thing, if you're en employer because competitive edges come from chiseling some expense or other down to near nothing.

 

The other thing that a one-world currency would do - and again this is neither bad nor good...it's just is - is that it would end the foreign exchange trade business.  Billions change hands daily on currency swings and for international stock market investors it's a key thing.  Often, I've been able to trade in a foreign market and even if the trade blew up, the currency swing can save money.  Or, to put it another way, with currencies swinging about, it's like buying a scratch ticket with two chances to win: Once on the underlying stock or whatever and then a second time on the currency swing.  Of course, they can both run against you...so due caution advised.

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Although I've been looking for a 'one world currency' I don't see it happening for a good long while because of these kinds of trip wires.

 

On the other hand what is going on is the diminishing value of cash and even cash equivalents are being phased out.

 

Some examples?  Well, to start with much of Ireland is abuzz today over the report that "National Irish [bank] moves to cashless banking".  Not that people in Ireland have given up on paper money - at least yet.  They will still be able to get it from ATM's and such.

 

But underlying there are some interesting moves afoot which you might want to be aware of:

• The National Irish move follows something called the 'Scandinavian model of banking where cash in minimal.  Almost everything is done by bank check or a credit card.

• Here in the US there has been a large reduction of check writing due to online banking and payment systems such that the Federal Reserve laid out plans in 2008 to have the "Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland will serve as the single paper check processing and adjustments site and that the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta will serve as the single electronic check processing site for the Federal Reserve System"

• In a period of high unemployment (like now?) money moves from the 'official' (meaning taxed economy to the underground economy where things like taxes don't exist.  In a cashless society, the availability of cash for illicit transactions dries up.

• What happens to the drug business?  For years, motorcycle gangs have been using silver as a kind of coin of their realm.

 

Indeed some interesting things to ponder.  While there's no obvious conclusion to where things are going, I keep collecting data points.  Clearly, cash use is declining to the point where if you have more than a certain amount of cash on hand in your home, it may be legal but it's also highly suspect and if ever confiscated, you'd probably have to hire a lawyer to get it back - and you might not...

 

Cash has a dicey future ahead - just like old-fashioned hand written checks.  Something to think about:  How do people remain free if government controls the means of free exchange?  Or, is that the whole point?

 

Net Abuse

How much time are you spending on the net weekly?  "Average Net user now online 13 hours per week".

 

Breaking the Mold

Got a great email from a reader down in the South Pacific worth sharing:

"Hi George,

I have been reading Urban Survival for a couple of years now, and started building my boat about three years ago. A Wharram Tiki 31. As far as being an economist goes, i have NO qualifications whatsoever. But, i can sense danger when i see/smell it, and so, sold up the house and have taken my two boys 12 and 14 out of school and we have taken to the sea to take our chances in the coming years. Have just returned from a six month "adventure" with my boys up and back down the Queensland coast. Fantastic experience in a lot more ways than one. When we started out i had very little experience and my boys even less. But through a careful eye on the weather, and never letting the fear of appearing stupid preventing me from asking questions from more experienced sailors, we did it. Not only that, but with all the humility that the ocean commands, have become quite competent. The lads also. If ever anything should happen to me "while we're out there", they can quite competently heave to, MOB, navigate, operate the vhf and sail the boat with experience in winds up to 35 knots. We also have a store of three months worth of food and have made a note of several places where we can "run to" if/when the need arises. Why do i mention all this? Well i know you love sailing for one, and should you decide to post this? I know from my own experience, i like reading what others are doing in an attempt for there and there loved ones future survival. I'm also looking for places with "higher ground" for 2012. Not sure where that will be yet? NZ? Maybe? What i am writing to you about though, is an interesting correlation i have become aware of over the last couple of months. All the people i know, and most people i meet, (for a half decent period of time) I raise the subject of our current and future plights. What I have noticed is. That people who when using there mobile/cell phones, either hold the phone away from there head, using speaker phone, or plug in head phones/blue tooth because the use of the phone, heats there head, or causes headaches. These people seem more receptive and open to discussion. The people who seem closed to any such discussion, also don't seem to feel any heat or suffer any headaches from the use of their phone. Is there anything in this? I have no scientific evidence to back it up, but i will continue to observe and see if the pattern repeats.

Have a great Xmas with your family mate,

Yep, nice to see some folks get off the treadmill and go have a life.

 

Meantime, Down at the WuJo

My First New Years Resolution

Not sure how I am going to go about this, but I've made a decision to involve myself in a past life regression in the coming year.  And with a very specific purpose.

 

I'm starting a search to find the best possible past life regression expert in East or Central Texas because I've been reading a fair bit in psychology and seems to me that while some of what goes on in 'part life regressions' may be made up by an overly active subconscious, one litmus test would be to do some regressing and try to bring back skills learned in other lifetimes.

 

I am especially interested in skills in areas like music and math.  I absolutely love music - find it very soothing and fun.  But, for whatever reason, the way my brain is presently wired I have a very difficult time telling my right hand to do one thing while the left does another.  Gross motor skills aren't the issue, just I'm hard wired that way.

 

The way I have it figured, if I have any musical background in a past life, it would be cool as hell to bring those former lives skills forward into this one. 

 

Don't know if it would be a way to revolutionize education, but worth giving it a try.  If I can bring back really good music skills, then an exploration of past lives might bring other skills to the fore in things like medicine, machining, cooking, and what have you.  Maybe having instant language fluency in some other tongue would be a plus...you know....get hypnotized and wake up with fluency in Spanish, German, or French kind of thing.

 

Not sure how to proceed, or if there anything in the literature about this, but sure seems like it would be an interesting experiment... suggestions are, of course, welcome.

 

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Wednesday December 23, 2009

Special Update

Secret Jails & 'Disappeared' People

For the past eight or nine months I've been pondering one of the most troubling parts of the www.halfpasthuman.com predictive linguistics reports - specifically the parts where around the first of the year and going forward the existence of secret jails and rounding-up and 'disappearing people' by the authorities would come to light.

 

Now comes a new report in The Nation under the title "Americas Secret ICE Castles" which shows that Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been operating up to 186 secret jails where people suspected of being illegal aliens are shuffled around without customary minimum stands.  A particularly chilling part of the linguistic fill deals with extra-legal operations described in The Nation's report:

""If you don't have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he's illegal, we can make him disappear." Those chilling words were spoken by James Pendergraph, then executive director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of State and Local Coordination, at a conference of police and sheriffs in August 2008..."

While it's not the whole expectation set, it nevertheless points to an undercurrent of 'secrets revealed' having to do with the nation's power structure going beyond Constitutional bounds and seemingly throwing due process to the wind.

 

Sadly, it looks like another predictive linguistics 'hit' is in the making as the potential for further abuse of process seems likely as the scabs are peeled back on this story.  If you were wondering what the contemporary version of "First they came for the gypsies..." would look like, this certainly seems to be IT.

 

The full facilities list is here.

 

Personal Income & Other Fairytales

Newest numbers out from the Bureau of Eggnog Analysis this morning on personal consumption and expenditures:

"Personal income increased $49.7 billion, or 0.4 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) increased $54.1 billion, or 0.5 percent, in November, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $47.9 billion, or 0.5 percent. In October, personal income increased $33.6 billion, or 0.3 percent, DPI increased $50.2 billion, or 0.5 percent, and PCE increased $63.5 billion, or 0.6 percent, based on revised estimates.

Real disposable income increased 0.2 percent in November, the same increase as in October. Real PCE increased 0.2 percent in November, compared with an increase of 0.4 percent in October."

I know, you're thinking "Say, George, with all those people homeless and all the folks with unemployment running out, and the unemployment rate still up around 10%, how do these people figure this?

 

Beats the hell outa me.  But if anyone from BEA drops by for a hit of Christmas cheer, I got a pee cup out so we can send out samples.

 

Here's more of the myth:

"Private wage and salary disbursements increased $16.1 billion in November, compared with an increase of $3.2 billion in October. Goods-producing industries' payrolls increased $0.4 billion, in contrast to a decrease of $2.0 billion; manufacturing payrolls increased $1.6 billion, in contrast to a decrease of $2.4 billion. Services-producing industries' payrolls increased $15.7 billion, compared with an increase of $5.2 billion. Government wage and salary disbursements increased $1.7 billion, compared with an increase of $2.8 billion."

Only thing I can figure is they over weighted the number of banksters in their sample, skipped the underpasses and didn't talk to the folks in line at the food banks.  But wait!  The real punchline to this statistical joke is what?

"Personal saving -- DPI less personal outlays -- was $525.1 billion in November, compared with $516.7 billion in October. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was 4.7 percent in November, the same as in October."

Yeah, sure, you bet'cha.  Banker over-sample again?

 

New Home sales due out in a while.  Santa rally is like a couple of hits of ecstasy down on Wall Street where they have more uppers lately than a...well, you know.  Future's so bright, gotta wear shades kind of thing.  Grinch me.

 

I wonder if inspectors general ever audit this stuff, or if they just keep their noses down on the credit card slips from govt. travel?

 

Eye of the Beholder

I love to put up charts - you know, a picture worth a thousand words kind of thing.  So here's the delayed Mass Layoffs report for the month in my handy-dandy  chart:

 

 

Data here.

 

This leaves me in a three-way debate with myself.  Part of me says "Dang!  Things are improving!"  Then another side of m e says "Naw...probably the WH figured out how to lean on the BLS folks..."  And the third side says "Everyone is out of benefits, so of course the mass layoffs end at some point..."  Then the three voices start arguing violently and one picks up a rock, another picks up a stick, and I get a headache.

 

Christmas Presents for Taxpayer

Gee,  those thoughtful good-old boyz in the senate - about to spring the healthcare bill and a hike in the federal debt limit on us.  One size fits all...except for the elected rulers who have their own healthcare bill and if this was really such a great deal why are they excluded from it?

 

I must not understand clearly how global fascism is rolling, huh?

 

Christmas Travel

File this in your "Good will toward men" file as an "Out of Control Crowd at JFK" didn't like the delays and got rowdy.

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Meantime, more evidence of the joke to "We're from the government and we're here to help" as the Department of Transportation is "Promises big fines for long tarmac delays..." which sounds good until you read how the clock doesn't start for three freakin hours.

 

Of course, we get what we get.  Kinda like all those "executive comp limits' enacted in the financial community until - after a flurry of TARP pay-backs suddenly they largely disappeared once the real 'bone us' season showed up.  Funny how that works, isn't it?

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You saw where an American Airlines plane overshot the runway down at Kingston, Jamaica last night in a heavy rainsquall?  40 reported injured and looks like the gear collapsed at the end of the runway which ends in the Caribbean.

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Continuing on to Grandma's house, if you weren't flying over the river and were simply planning to drive through the woods, gasoline was up a penny a gallon in the latest reporting week, but more could be coming since oil is up to $74 now.  Crude of me to mention it, but our writers & editors are on vacation this week...

 

"Arbeit Macht Frei" Redux

Our Poland correspondent sends this bit of follow-up:

"Again, not always the most obvious reasons for things happening are these real ones. As our polish portals proudly state, guys who stole this (in)famous sign from former Auschwitz camp were not just hools or thieves trying to prove something to someone, but freelancers working for "mad collector", probably from Sweden

Yeah...somehow a couple of guys doing the heist on a lark didn't sound right...wonder who Mr. X with the dough will turn out to be?  A NWO'er or one of the guys from jackboots are us?  There might be a distinction there, but it's blurred, for sure.  We shall see...maybe....

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BTW 79 dead in sub-zero temps in Poland...which gets us on to...

 

Globull Warming, Redux

A reader wants to know (WRT the "NASA shows quiet sun means cooling of earth's upper atmosphere" that was linked yesterday and I guess to state the obvious,  again here this morning):

"The mention of CO2 in there will still get the Global Warming bobble heads up in a tizzy even though the jist of the article is low sun spots equals climate cooling lots of sun spots equal warming duhhhh..."

Yeah...well...there you go thinking again.  Knock it off and for God's sake, whatever you do, don't go read the Robinson, Robinson, and Soon paper from the Oregon Institute of Science & Medicine because it's only 12-pages long and lays out some really ugly charts if you are still swallowing the climategate laced numbers hook, line, and sinker lest you have to reconcile pictures like this one:

 

 

Nice of them glaciers to anticipate carbon use, huh?  Obviously, I'm not the only one (NASA and the OISM guys just to name two groups) who is looking at the solar cycle and the temps and seeing a correlation, but I suppose I've beat this point pretty well to death.  Good news in CO2 climbing?  Sure...trees are growing 30% faster...and with that I'll tell you how I know this to be true...  (you're braced for the worst pun of the week, right?)  I've been keeping a log....

 

ROFLMAO... Didn't I warn you?

 

Still only two sunspots today when we should be in the 5-10 range at least...meantime the "Climate change alliance crumbling" says the Financial Times and oh, so sorry about your plans to become a carbon gazillionaire:  the FT also reporting that "Carbon prices fall in wake of Copenhagen" for reasons that we hold self-evident.

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I see where the Washington Examiner is asking "Who is more respected: Sarah Palin or Al Gore?"  Since most UrbanSurvival readers are bright enough to figure out that the whole myth and legend of Right vs. Left politicks is nothing more than a put-up job by the PowersThatBe to keep us all distracted and sharpening our pitchforks to use against their bought & paid for minions instead of them , I won't remind you that my editor, Zeus The Cat consistently polls higher than both Palin & Gore combined... since he spends his time on Bing looking at the gray literature for papers like the OISM one...but then again he doesn't have eyes on the White House or carbon trading. 

 

Who took my eggnog?

 

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Coping: While You Were Sleeping, 2

First thing in the coping department this morning I'd draw your attention to an article by Giordano Bruno called "While You Were Sleeping...the Economy Collapsed."  Not only are the facts lined up much as we try to line them up around here every day, but the theme is the same - a kind of "Go out and yell at the sheep wandering by..." which passes as entertainment when you're living in the East Texas Outback.

 

Yelling "Sleepwalking into 2010!" has a nice ring to it, although if this is more than your fifth or sixth visit here, you no doubt have that developing sense, too.

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As tonight is Christmas Eve Eve, and hardly anyone left will commit to getting a package out in time to play Reindeer Driver, there is still one gift you can give - the gift of awareness.

 

Not that I can tell you how, or where, to deliver it.  Anymore, even within my own family, I've become a bit of an outcast for my incredibly practical and well-reasoned views.  People just don't have much interest in those since it's so much easier to go along with the spin and float down the river of De Nile.

 

What sets the whole world up for a second major leg down in the economy is a bullish consensus and with headlines about like "World market up again on US economic hopes" I wonder how close the downturn is?

 

We live in a world where stories like "Report says 225,000 Haiti children work as slaves" are reported without going deeper into the modern context of slavery.  You know: The kind where 306-million (less old, young and unemployed leaving about 155-million workers in the USA) work as wage slaves.  Give a man a Lexus and he's slave to an gasoline bill, give him a big screen and he's a slave to the power company, etc.  Give a man an office, he's slave to the PTB...etc.  Give a man a home and the PTB can repo it...

 

Runaway materialism is a hard addiction to beat, but like Bruno writes, "While you were sleeping...the economy..." is dying.  Or, as Rogoff & Reinhart's book This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly hint's in its title, people on the treadmill have a hard time envisioning a different reality. 

 

But we seem poised to enter 2010 in a headlong rush to discover it ain't really any different this time, either.  Think I'll go back to bed; I may be suffering reality-induced depression depression, know what I mean?

 

The Razor's Edge

A friend of my visiting son was chatting with us last night about cell coverage here in the Outback and the subject of "What's the best cell phone?" came up.  My son's phone is an iPhone in a ruggedized cover while hers was a Razor.  Since both kids are in the emergency response field the discussion about "How many bars for what kind of signal" came up and turns out that our guest's observation is that Razor's have a very good rep for working in low signal strength areas among local LE & fire types...something I thought I'd pass on.

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At least with ham radio gear we measure ultimate sensitivity  (I kinda like -137 dbm or better myself).  Wish they would report features like minimum sensitivity but no, what do we get specs on instead?  Pixels! MP3 capacity....number of available aps...

 

The Great Escape

A couple of readers have sent in the article from New Scientist this week titled "Engage the x drive: Ten ways to traverse deep space ".  Not sure why anyone would want to leave this rock that we're in the midst of destroying with resource-stripping consumerism, especially if there ain't no tax collectors in the rest of the galaxy, but that's a topic for a different day, I 'spose.

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I've always loved Star Trek which manages to have very little 'economic content' but I imagine that if you have a holodeck it would be hard to keep an economic con game going, wot?  Of course that has set a lot of brainpower in motion trying to actually build a holodeck.

 

If you get one working, invite me over...better still: Sell one to the government so they can save money printing our way out of the current financial mess...save some trees, yada, yada....

 

Year-Enders

Marketing, marketing, marketing:  I see where the NY Post has done something a little different than the usual boring countdown of the "Year's Top Stories".  They've come up with the "2009 Best Lingerie Images".

 

Oh sure, for the more serious-minded, there's Project Censored's "Top 25 Censored Stories for 2009" but where's the Christmas cheer let alone eye-candy in that?

 

If I were 30-years younger and single it'd be a simple choice to pick #12 from the Post list instead of #12 from Project Censored ("Bush Profiteers Collect Billions From No Child Left Behind"), but on this side of 60 the choices become more difficult.

 

Only a few more years and I'll be at the next great intersection of Life: Where IQ, speed limit, and age all converge.

 

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Tuesday December 22, 2009

Update

Global Warming Delay

Opps...seems the snow/global warming powder that dumped on Washington this week screwed up the scheduled Mass Layoff report:

"Announcement Due to the weather-related closure of the Federal Government on December 21, 2009, the publication of the Mass Layoffs: November 2009 news release scheduled for issuance on December 22 at 10:00 a.m. has been postponed. A rescheduled release date and time will be announced once it is determined."

At the current rate, if I just sit here and drink coffee till it comes out, I stand to blow out a kidney...

 

Meantime, home buying is reported as "soar 7.4%" in November.

 

Stagnant GDP

Although the dollar seems to have initially ticked a bit higher, you'll have toi pardon me if I don't get all hot & bothered with this morning's update to the Q3 GDP Estimate which is as follows:

"Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the third quarter of 2009, (that is, from the second quarter to the third quarter), according to the "third" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP decreased 0.7 percent.

The GDP estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for the "second" estimate issued last month. In the second estimate, the increase in real GDP was 2.8 percent (see "Revisions" on page 3).

The increase in real GDP in the third quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, private inventory investment, federal government spending, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a negative contribution from nonresidential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

The upturn in real GDP in the third quarter primarily reflected upturns in PCE, in exports, in private inventory investment, and in residential fixed investment and a smaller decrease in nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by an upturn in imports, a downturn in state and local government spending, and a deceleration in federal government spending.

As I've pointed out, with a long-term (like since 1913) deflation of purchasing power of dollars clicking along at 3.24% per year, a 2.2% annual growth rate is negative.  Sure, this is based on 'chained 2005 dollars' which is supposed to approximate 'real' dollars, but give me a chance to pick a different base period and care to guess how I could jigger the numbers?  LOL - you don't want to know.

 

Then there's a new home sales report due out which is all roses if the buzz is right.  Word that these may hit the highest levels in three years sound...oh, you know....kind of unbelievable.

 

Nevertheless, Santa is still in down and stuck in the financial district which is why working people don't get gazillion dollar bonuses, I guess.

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Tomorrow morning, we get personal income and expenditures and if you need a homework assignment to keep you off the hooch or keep from watching seasonal reruns on TV, go write the definitive 3-4 paragraphs on how personal income figures treat housing prices, foreclosures, and so forth and how that screws up perceptions of how savings are going for the rest of the country that doesn't have a house in Connecticut or out on Long Island. 

 

Bonus points awarded for the best short monograph on how working folks are paralyzed by the complexity of the financial system.

 

Christmasy Mass (Layoffs) Due

Yep - in the spirit of the season, you should plan on dropping by here for a second-visit around 10:30 AM Eastern time for the Labor Department's Mass Layoff report.  I'm expecting to see an improvement not so much because the economy is improving, but because there are so few people left to fire...

 

Let's Make a Deal

Although mainstream wisdom has been that the healthcare bill is headed for passage, the abortion issue keeps creeping back in and may scuttle it yet.

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The nice thing about all the bidding and favoring that has been going on is that it allows the alert to start putting down "Who has what price" in Washington. 

 

Reminds me of an old joke that begins "You you have sex with XYZ for $500-million dollars?" and ends with "We've already established that you're a prostitute, the only detail is your price point..."

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The Washington Post article on how $100-million of "Health bill money for hospital sought by Dodd" figures into the bill debate is worth reading.

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Sometimes readers send in notes saying "Damn, George, you're one cynical SOB..." but others fault the view saying "George that's just how politics works."

 

Which brings me to observe that the difference between America today and America of revolutionary times is the ratio between representation on the one hand and outright bidding on the other.  Once upon a time bidding was a small part of the job.  Today seems to be the whole point - especially when one looks at things like the Dodd (House Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs chair) whose top contributors in the latest reporting period over at www.opensecrets.org had raised just under $7.5 million dollars in campaign dough from 2005-2010 as of September 30th.  Which is what?  About 7-times what Nancy Pelosi has raised in the same time period, but she hasn't made a ghost-run for the presidency, either.  What a great way to bolster fund-raising, huh?

 

And that's just campaign dough on top of his $100-million hospital bill.

 

Which then gets me around to a discussion of term-limits and power of committees and such, but we don't have all day.  Maybe I should just go shopping.  My lousy vote isn't going very far against that kind of dough but it underscores why so many hedge fund and sovereign wealth dudes live in the state of Connectedup.

 

Eggnog, dear?

 

Copen Cuban

Here - have a stogie and let's talk about Cuba's reaction to the Copenhagen gathering: Seems they count president O as "imperial and arrogant" and they're not very pleased with how small countries are being kicked around by the large in the climate debate (see next article).  Well, gosh, imagine that!  Power/Money-crazed Western economies taking whatever they can grab on a real-or-not issue in order to start up a new back-room financial craps game in carbon trading.  Look shocked! Or, at least try and look surprised.

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PS:  The countries like India that are deliriously happy with the climate talks since they managed to skate on binding emissions limits.  Anbd since so much 'once-U.S.-based' industry is there, that's a plus for the financial sharks, too...

 

Sunspots & NASA

I noticed that this morning the www.spaceweather.com folks have a conventional sunspot picture up although with the conventional view, one of the sunspots has disappeared.

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I assume you know never to look at the sun directly, use a smoked glass or a really dark welding shade, or use a pin-hole projector, right?  But I wouldn't bother - since these sunspots are so small as to not be noticeable with the naked eye at least if your eyes are as bad as mine.

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Oh yeah...and I keep forgetting to mention the NASA press release that backs up my claim of a linkage between climate and sunspots.  Go read their press release titled "NASA Shows Quiet Sun Means Cooling of Earth's Upper Atmosphere"

"HAMPTON, Va., Dec. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- New measurements from a NASA satellite show a dramatic cooling in the upper atmosphere that correlates with the declining phase of the current solar cycle. For the first time, researchers can show a timely link between the Sun and the climate of Earth's thermosphere, the region above 100 km, an essential step in making accurate predictions of climate change in the high atmosphere.

Scientists from NASA's Langley Research Center and Hampton University in Hampton, Va., and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., will present these results at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco from Dec. 14 to 18.

Gee...imagine that... George tells you something for months and along comes the scientific proof of the claim yet not a single apology from people who don't get it.  How about that?  This happens with all too much regularity around here...  Whatever.

 

Rube Goldberg Meets Climate

Don't know if you are a fan of the famous Rube Goldberg cartoon series, but if youi have missed that, it's one of life's little pleasures to be savored.  Goldberg, you see, was a cartoonist who would make up fantastic machines that when you study they actually look like they should work.  But, of course they are a completely circuitous way of making something happen, which is their design pattern beauty.

 

I mention this because of the proposal now making the rounds that a huge hose be hoisted up into the upper reaches of the atmosphere which would release chemicals in order to combat global warming.  It's an amazing idea...and maybe the science isn't completely far-fetched. 

 

As my first forecast of things to look for in 2010 let me table "Wild ideas to deal with global warming".  It's clearly the most difficult solution to change our high-consumption lifestyle paradigm, so sure, why not come up with fantastic schemes, huh?

 

Why Behind Berlusconi

A reader sends in this interesting speculation as to why Italy's Silvio Berlusconi may have been attacked:

"George,

The reason that I am writing you is because it seems that on Dec, 11 an article came out on the MAINSTREAM ITALIAN news in the newspaper that is OWNED BY THE BERLUSCONI family. Well George you won't believe this but is seems that the article is explaining who controls the world basically.. The article is in Italian, translate it and read this!!!!

 

(link to translate page courtesy Google's Translate site)

 

THE names /banks /etc.. are all in the article!! this article was published on friday Dec., 11 th and and Sunday Dec 13 th ( notice the number dynamics there :-) ) Berlusconi was attacked during a public appearance. Now there is lots of information going around about this proposed fake attack.... maybe to have some time to hide from someone??? Believe me George that article tells people who are sleeping , some hard facts... If you ask me there is definitely some clash of titans going on!!!!

ciao"

This is not an endorsement of the writer's views, but rather a report, yet the kind of claim made in this article (machine translated) includes things like...

"The Bank of Italy is by no means' the Bank of Italy, "that is ours, the Italians, but a private bank, like other central banks including the European Union, which are owned by large banks, while taking deliberately misleading the people bearing the name of the State for which to produce the money. Ha cominciato la Federal Reserve (che si chiama così ma che non ha nulla di «federale»), banca centrale americana, i cui azionisti sono alcune delle più famose banche del mondo quali la Rothschild Bank di Londra, la Warburg Bank di Berlino, la Goldman Sachs di New York e poche altre. He started the Federal Reserve (which is called this but there is nothing "federal"), U.S. central bank, whose shareholders are some of the most famous banks in the world such as the Rothschild Bank of London Warburg Bank of Berlin, the Goldman Sachs in New York and a few others. "

Which is stuff that was covered in Conspiracy 105 in your freshman year of awakening.  Still interesting to read something like this being fed to the [Italian] mass and then the attack, wot eh?

 

Just another data point if you've building your own home version of the "PowersThatBe Map" and sharpening your pitchfork.

 

Undeclared War Department

54 Houthi rebels have been reported kills in Saudi air strikes into North Yemen.  Ok, so the Yemen central government isn't complaining and the Saudis aren't saying much.  Which gets me to rewriting "If a tree falls in the forest, but there's no one there to hear it, did it really fall?" to something a little more contemporary: "If there's bombing of rebels, but government on neither side complains, is it really war?"  Auuuummmmmm.  Reload.

 

Something Fishy Goes to Court

"Fight to keep Asian carp out of Great lakes reaches Supreme Court."

 

This is a hard one to figure out unless you have lived in The South where once upon a time there were no fire ants.  Those were a product of international trade, too.  They just never got a day in court; what's more, carp ain't gonna bite you on the golf course or ruin your garden, know what I'm saying?

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Article on the Rense site:  Explains how the Supreme Court has mashed what little remained of freedom into the ground by making it easy for government to declare people "enemy combatants" which then means no due process...which guts the once-proud Constitution.  Fine experiment while it lasted, though.  Which gets us around to...

 

Interpol's Growing  Global Police Powers

You saw where president O has signed an executive order which expands the reach of Interpol inside the US?  The discussion on the Ron Paul forums is enlightening.

 

Reader Blowback: Chavez

A reader in Florida takes me to task for expressing such "un-surprise" - if that's a word - at Venezuela setting up a national police force...

"Yes, George, But Chavez's police force in the past (Cuban Thugs) were caught on camera by Telemundo in Miami (channel 51)... shooting at anti-Government demonstrators in Caracas"

OK, and I can turn on the satellite and dial in Middle East (non-corpgov)  media and see American contractors killing people in any of several countries pretty much any old day...your point?

 

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Coping: With Crimes & Times

Good story in the UK's Mail Online under the headline:  "Thou SHALT Shoplift: Priest tells congregation it's better than robbery or prostitution..."  Whilst father Time Jones may be in hot water with the local gendarmerie and pols, it certainly gets some world attention on the kind of planet we have here.

 

Seems like it all starts with the problem of ownership.  You know: owning food, owning land, owning air, owning natural resources...that problem.

 

I've never spent much time on that one, but I have to imagine that if you could gather up a whole lot of smart people and get them to studying it, the notion of property would turn out to be central to every conflict in the world.  Way I have it figured if there was an alternative to property and ownership as deeply held social beliefs, the world would be a whole lot better off than it is now.

 

Instead of evolving from scratching out food and a living and then going into 'getting smart so we could figure out the next move" we humans have gone from "Scratching out living into kill for possessions of all stripe - which in turn gives birth to money and gunpowder as the international way of "diplomacy".

 

No I don't have a grand and glorious answer yet, but at least the framing and context are there should anyone want to deal with the most dangerous four-letter word in the world: "Mine!"

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The recent UFO sightings and that spiral over Norway was it?  All get me to wondering if humans will ever evolve to the point where getting off earth would be more than a major threat to the whole Universe.  you know - humans as fire ants or Asian carp kinda thing we were talking about a minute a go.

"Don't you think that things on Earth and above its surface are going in more and more interesting direction?

Few days ago we had a copy of mr Khufu's tomb floating cheerfully over big bear's den and now we can read about (Shields up on this link!- G) meteorite falling not too far from Beijing to pass it over just shrugging, doncha think?

or it's just me seeing things:)

Thanx for your hard work of helping people to better understand what's going on.

In many columns I've referred to this hunk of rock as "Ant Farm Earth" and the latest from UFODigest "Alien UFOs and our Astronaut Heroes" that recounts astronauts breaking their nondisclosure agreements to reveal what they can has resulted in the press raking them over the coals or marginalizing them doesn't undermine that framing.

 

Makes me wander off pondering how much human development would have been if the operant word behind the scenes wasn't "Mine" but "Team" or "Family" without the conventional boundaries.

 

Mayon Calendar

No, not Mayan...I'm talking about the volcano blowing and flowing in the Philippines...

 

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Monday December 21, 2009

Sleepy Week Ahead

Although published in early 2001, Robert Kaplan's book The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War sure seems prescient as I click through one of my morning routine searches.  Just like 'back in the day' I go through a reporter's 'beat' comprised of search words that help me get what I think is a good sense of where the world's going.  Take the word 'riot' for example.

• "Iranian riot police 'deployed' after cleric's death"

• "Nigeria: Thirty die as farmers, cattle rearers clash"

• "Nepal beefs up security on second day of strike"

 

The good news (since I'm just full of Christmas cheer today) is that a potential flare-up between Iraq and Iran has been chilled as "Iraq takes back oil well, OKs separate oil deal".

 

Also on the positive side is that "OPEC set to leave output limited unchanged" as they meet this week.  This puts oil stable around $73.

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On the positive side for the market, there's some evidence that the Fed's massive intervention has worked and "TIPS give way to inflation as deflation yields drop".

 

But enjoy it while you can since according to the www.halfpasthuman.com validation spiders, we're starting to get 4-6% linguistic 'fill' on the expectation of 'context shift, economic' as no less than four Chinese officials have said that as the US current account deficit shrinks, that will mean less Chinese buying of Treasuries.  Typical:  "China Central Banker says harder to buy U.S., Treasuries" although that should come as no surprise.

 

What this sets the stage for in early 2010 is a slowly emerging realization that the US could end up buying huge UK debt issues with the UK in return buying ours...a kind of symbiotic Ponzi deal.  Which will do fine - maybe - for the January Treasury auction, but after that, someone's likely to figure out the new circular-reference game.  I mean besides us.

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Futures up...Santa's rally continues?

 

Will Anyone Notice?

Federal government in DC will be closed today as the Northeast digs out from under two feet of global warming.  Can those of us who don't work for Uncle also get a freebie day off, too?  Oh, not part of the ruling class?  So sorry....

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One thing making headlines in the snow:  A DC cop in hot water for drawing his gun at a snowball fight. 

 

Somehow, It's a Story

I just love to see stories like this one because they underscore how Americans have been desensitized to our own reality.  I refer to the headline that "Venezuela's Chavez launches new police force".  A little reading around the net and you can pick up on the further demonization of Chavez on this.  "Why he must be a dictator to do something like this..." is the thinking.

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Like we don't have a national police force in the US?  Pray tell, what are the FBI, US Marshalls, and NORTHCOM?  Get a grip, Ovis.

 

Christmas Behind Bars

In order to make sense of the headline "Midlands prisoners get better Christmas Menu than brave British Soldiers" it helps to know that's a large UK prison.  Care to bet the TV offers more choices inside, too?

 

Fake "Attack"?

Headline in the UK Mail online "Was Berlusconi attack faked?"  Conspiracy theory YouTube video becomes overnight sensation..."  Say, you don't think one of the PTB would do that do you?

 

Urge To Merge Department

Sanofi-Aventis sucks up Gold Bond skin products-maker Chattem for $1.9 B.

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The London Stock Exchange "LSE takes 60 percent stake in Turquoise platform" in case you wonder what the LSE is building in the way of a dark pool platform.  Not that you'll ever trade in that pond...

 

Sign of the Times

I mentioned in Saturday's report to subscribers that the sign on the entrance to WW II death camp Auschwitz had been stolen.  Today, word's out that the sign has been recovered and five people have been arrested.  Not neo-Nazis, either.  Just run-of-the-mill crooks looking to score some cash, according to the reports.

 

See Spots, See Spots Run...

Over at www.spaceweather.com you can see how there are supposedly three sunspots going on, which you'd think would allay some of the concerns of people like me who have been looking at the data wondering where have all the spots gone?  We should (by earlier forecasts) be up in the range of 5-10 sunspots visible now. 

 

But here's my question, OK?  Are the claimed spots visible to the naked eye, OR only with a special filter on...in which case it would be data-cooking, wouldn't it?  We shall see...

 

Hungry New Year

Go read "2010 Food Crisis for dummies" - interesting and why we've been harping on home gardens for how long?

 

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Coping: Been Nice, Santa

Why is it that I get the feeling that Santa has unloaded his best on the world well before Christmas this year?  Could it be that the last few minutes of 2009 will leave investors munching some unsavory figures on Mass Layoffs (due out this week), continued soft home sales, dropping personal incomes and so forth? Or is there a more subtle message about what's ahead when a Car & Driver blog talks about the newest "Mercedes-based 10,000 liter Water Cannon"?

 

But who would want such an item under their tree?  I means besides Germany ordering 78...  When I see reports like this I have to pause and ask myself:  "What would Germany ever need 7 8 water cannon on the street for except....except...."  My mind seizes up and the words "Civil Disorder" come to mind. 

 

And it's not like the mood is all season and harmonious as the 'net is still reverberating with a report in Hand Gun Magazine that Homeland Security has inked a deal with Winchester to buy up to 200-million rounds of .40 S&W ammo finished with 135-grain hollow points.

 

You probably missed the report in the San Francisco Chronicle's site that "S.F. cop-training tear gas sickens people, dogs" when the wind blew the wrong way.

 

Not that police don't have to train - they do.  And it's actually pretty cool that San Jose cops are going to be testing body cameras.  But somewhere between the 'routine' tear gas and camera stories on the one hand, and the 200-million rounds and new water cannon on the other, there's what sure feels like a moving line...and it doesn't seem to be moving in the direction of Peace on Earth - Good Will Toward Men; know what I mean?

 

That sense of foreboding is further reinforced by reading the Janet Daly column in the UK Telegraph:  "There'll be nowhere to run from the new world government" although says the author global thinking t'ain't necessarily going to work out as planned..

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The global alignment of national governments is set to continue full-speed ahead now that a key senator (Bill Nelson, of Nebraska) got enough payoff in terms of additional funding for his state to swing his vote into the "Yes" column when this is pushed through in the next couple of days. 

 

On the plus side of healthcare, it may extend coverage to a few more citizens - a good thing.

 

On the negative, alarmists around the net claim it sets up the groundwork for a national health computer system and I keep hearing talk in the worry-forums on the net that RFID chips, incarceration for people that don't buy insurance, and authority for federal health officials to mandate treatment, whether it runs counter to your personal beliefs or not is part of the deal.

 

I'm not so much worried about that (although don't get me wrong, it's bothersome).  Instead what I keep looking at is a design pattern under which numerous moves are underway at a global level to pave the way for 'One World Government."  When I see another that "Gulf Arab States mover closer to single currency" the list of 'alignment efforts' of the PowersThatBe/Globalists comes into pretty clear focus:

• Nationalize US healthcare - give it a day or two.

• Buy more civil control tools (water cannon and ammo)

• Push a global tax system via Climate Change & carbon taxes

• Melt currencies into regional blocks

• The 'Surveillance State" emerges not only in the US and UK as police camera salesmen hit their stride, but also in places like India where "Smart cameras all over as traffic watchdogs"

• Promote international food safety standards as a precursor to control  (Codex Alimentarius)

• Quietly honor newly issued "Super passports" (not by a issued by a country ) to international agencies like Interpol.

• Maintain a constant "State of Emergency" (the flu emergency is still in force, BTW) so that Posse Comitatus is suspended.

• And keep the best and the brightest of America's patriotic sons and daughters out of the country  in the sand box defending the heroin production center of the world.

 

Taken as a whole body of shifting contexts, this is not meant to radicalize; only to inform that there's a wholesale grab-and-run-with-it by a central government that seems intent on forgetting that States retain powers not specifically delegated to the federal government.  Of course, the only place such an issue would get a fair trial is in a state court and the only place that an interstate issue comes up is a federal court so due process has been handed a blindfold and cigarette from the get-go.

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I'm a huge believer in exponential growth rates and I find 'exponent-seeking' a dandy way to look at life.  As I told Peoplenomics subscribers this weekend almost no one will stand up and tell you straight out that the average inflation in America since the founding of the federal reserve system has been a shade over 3.2 percent - and that includes periods when deflation was occurring.  So if you're not making at least 3.2% on your money, you're not even keeping up with inflation.

 

Which gets us to the core problem:  The world is super-saturated with consumer goods, yet the only way to maintain "growth" is to sell more stuff.  And how are we going to do that?  At some point the world needs some really serious production destruction from which to rebuild, or a new kind of socioeconomic system that can handle zero-growth (or even negative growth) without falling apart. 

 

Can global socialism do that?  I wouldn't bet on it...that that seems to be the path we're now on, like it or not.

 

A few moments of appreciating freedom and personal industry, the results of a year's hard work and plans to work harder in the future and climb the materialist rungs of society used to be the model.  But that's all going bye-bye. 

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When my EMT son comes down to the ranch this week for Christmas we'll be picking up a conversation started last week.  "Dad...I'm really becoming a real minimalist..."  What I'm not clear on is how he'll answer the question "From where comes the motivation to progress if you're a minimalist...in other words, where's the quid pro quo, the bigger rewards for bigger effort?"  I'm fuzzy on how that works.

 

Since I'm not into clubs, trance & hip-hop music, dating drop-dead gorgeous women, and doing long-distance bike rides anymore, it should be an interesting answer, but what I suspect is going on is that he (and younger generations than boomers like me) have been 'reframed' to think of the world as running out of everything so minimalism takes root.  I just can't figure where's the motivation in that kind of world....besides personal excellence, but again, from whence cometh it?

 

I'll let you know how it comes out...but it might be a very, very long discussion.

 

Speaking of Stocking Stuffers

My son sent down one of the gifts on Saturday:  Don't know if you have seen the new "Paracord Survival Bracelets" on eBay but they range from about $6-12 - depending on if you want to hang around for an auction end, or just click 'Buy It Now" and be done with it.  They're bracelets that are made up of anywhere from 18-30 feet of cord, depending on your wrist size.

 

Also of note: a place where you can get a rifle sling made out of braided cord - just the thing for Mssrs. AK and Mossberg.

 

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