Sorry if this morning’s column goes off in a Hunter S. Thompson way. We spent six-hours Thursday in the emergency room as Elaine was having abdominal pains. Turned out to be diverticulitis – common among people “our age” if you don’t eat regularly, hydrate well, and eat enough fiber to “keep things moving” but not too much of “small aggregate” (to put it in concrete mix terms).
She’s fine, enjoyed the morphine for pain, only blew out one IV (again, common in our age group) and is resting well this morning with significantly less pain. Which means now, I can “get my head back in the game” around here.
But Speaking of Games...
It was a real pleasure to get back in the saddle this morning and read the latest high-stakes poker adventure from reader D’Lynn. OK, even if you don’t get many “invitation-only” invites to high stakes poker games, his account (here) is more than worth that time it takes to read.
I’ll tell you why, too. Three reasons, actually. The first is that D’Lynn’s descriptions of the games are “clinically interesting” to anyone who pretends to “invest” in today’s markets. Because the term “invest” is really misleading. It’s all a gamble. As such, you have to focus on the basics – reading the table and other players (Trump and Harris come to mind) – and then there’s managing your stake in order to persist.
The second reason is that D’Lynn’s a pretty good writer. See, one of the things any young journo learns (which for me began in 1966 when I did my first high school newspaper reporting stint) is that in order to come up with a good story and snappy copy, you need to be fully present as a reporter. So, when he talks about the other players, there’s no BS. You can spot the BS’ers in writing in how their words hang together. But, you take accounts by people who have (mostly) been there – L’Amour, Cussler, McLean and a lot of the old short stories in Soldier of Fortune and the like – and you get insights into people and places not ordinarily seen.
Some news reporters/journos get it right; Studs Terkel in Working comes to mind. So does the Mike Rowe America’s Dirtiest Jobs series. Laughably – Universe was playing the slime eel episode in the ER waiting room. Yuck, but thanks to The Dude behind the curtain for that one. Wryrony is still a great hand to play in pseudo-crisis…
Point #3: I have often thought about letting a few (hand-picked) readers write a short “adventure bio” of themselves. Pretty damn sure D’Lynn’s got a backstory suitable for Hollywood. BIC does in his Africa water supply adventures for sure, Ray’s time in Early Computing, how LOOB keeps coming back for more – and how Andy is not dead yet- would all make good copy. Even better as movie scripts. Because I think that’s how a little backwoods website like this one has survived and prospered over the years. Old members of the tribe passing on street-level views to the up-and-comers.
Though I have to admit at that at times, I have thought about recasting UrbanSurvival as “Soldiers of Finance” or perhaps “Wonder Woo.”
ETEIABU
This being fried-egg (Friday) one Big Ponder to work on this weekend – which I am still smiling about – as visits to the ER do remind me there’s always a clock running.
Springs from a couple of emails from my consigliere who has been following some key and keen “seers” he’s dug up around the web. While individually, they may have “above noise, but far from perfect” prediction success rates (generally in the 20-40 percent area – above chance, but don’t forget to pack a parachute anyway), taken as a whole clothe, it does give you a “Where the story is going” about modern life.
In The End It All Blows Up
In a recent series of emails, the view that my consigliere pieced together from one (foreign language) seer, is that the purpose of life is to Learn. And that the familiar concepts of heaven and hell are not how reality actually works. Instead, imagine your “essence stuff” taking (however long, because time is a Life illusion) to replay the whole present-experience and see what you can learn from it. You get to be your own judge, jury, and hangman.
Life is a “term limits” deal. Even Methuselah “only” made it to 962 -and his son Noah half that. Why, just this morning I was reading how the First wave of COVID-19 increased risk of heart attack, stroke up to three years later | National Institutes of Health (NIH) and I found myself asking “Where are the people on Death Row for funding this kind of bull-crap?” Can we not get to the yachts (‘cept that one off Greece), or what?
The answer – at the Big (many lives in many worlds) answer seems to be “right action matters” but in the world of the woke, the joke’s on people who “get it – a kind of Universe/writer’s double MacGuffin.
“The MacGuffin technique is common in films, especially thrillers. Usually, the MacGuffin is revealed in the first act, and thereafter declines in importance. It can reappear at the climax of the story but may actually be forgotten by the end of the story. Multiple MacGuffins are sometimes derisively identified as plot coupons[6][7]—the characters “collect” the coupons to trade in for an ending.”
There. Now I’ve spilt the beans. We’re living in a plot coupon. Everything is a Business Model, we’re all in Soul School, and ITEIABU.
Peachy.
Road to War
Still on it. Still pedal to the metal. Two client notes from the consigliere…
- Bibi told Biden to POUND SAND during their phone call. Iran has 3 to 5 nukes available within days at most with means to deliver. (Intel ordelusion you make the call after scanning US still believes Iran has not decided to build a nuclear weapon (newarab.com). We go with Mosad and their points for accuracy. Except Oct. 7…)
- Putin and the Iranian President /Govt Leader are to meet in person Friday Oct 11.
Which is today. So we head back to a D’Lynn-like (ultimate high stakes) game and ask: “Will WW III be a “buy the rumor and sell the news event?” If so, then a run up into the close Friday – to allow Wall St. playahs to short from higher ahead of known/suspected events – would make sense. If peace, love, and brotherhood are about to break out worldwide, then no.
We Don’t See That
Besides the worst match-up for the Oval (perhaps in America’s entire history) [Tweedle Kackle vs. Tweedle Skirt chaser – which all comes down to voting for vice presidents – we think Vance is young enough to be trainable] there are still the other wars forming up.
Where idiot-speak abounds. Example from American state media: Blinken: Civilian protection ‘vitally important’ after Israeli strikes in Beirut (voanews.com), Obviously, if he meant that, we would not be selling arms to Israel, right? But you’re supposed to be an ignorant pig, not realizing that through FMS (foreign military sales) we make “loans” to anyone we can and get them to “buy” our killware and thus keep employment hopping so we can portend the unsustainable life is going to work out. (Hint: ITEITBU!).
So we have that….and we have US condemns China’s ‘dangerous’ South China Sea activities – DW – 10/11/2024. Taiwan to go.
And in the “Can we have some of whatever he’s on” file: Zelensky presents ‘victory plan’ to allies in Europe (theage.com.au).
That’s because – in case you missed G.A. Stewart’s Nostradamus work, there’s a case for Russia to move west into the soft underbelly of Europe and own the mountains so they can fight from high ground. Oh, look, here’s the set up for the westward ho move now: Russians attack Odesa Oblast with ballistic missiles: 2-storey building destroyed, casualties reported. Meanwhile, Ukraine is attacking Russian bases and blowing up planes, so no change in the slugfest – yet. We have a small wager on former Macedonian lands changing hands in 2025.
Silly Season Continues
Last week, Hillary Clinton made a (further) ass of herself saying social media should be controlled. Constitution and free speech seem not to matter to her. But now – and along the same lines – The Government Is Building a Censorship Industrial Complex (independentsentinel.com).
Why, picture that happening: The U.S. Government Is Dramatically Expanding The Use Of Facial Recognition Technology. We are making an industry out of social control.
Meanwhile, we’d love to see what the terms were as Settlement reached in Gateway Pundit defamation case, though details were not disclosed.
And it’s laughable when one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing. So enjoy Mayorkas Gets Big Mad For Being Asked About CIA Asset Arrested For Election Terror Plot. We think Mayorkas needs to be impeached – which about ensures he will be promoted if the dems win in Nov.
Financial Pie
Producer Prices are just out – maybe not the most important number of the week but does it fill in any more on that free money giveaway by the Fed?
“The Producer Price Index for final demand was unchanged in September, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Final demand prices advanced 0.2 percent in August and were unchanged in July. On an unadjusted basis, the index for final demand rose 1.8 percent for the 12 months ended in September.”
In our own work – the Aggregate Index – a decline ahead of a likely Israeli Iran strike over the weekend looks like it’s stuck on a trend line:
Bitcoin was stuck at $60,637 when we looked (Gee, where are all those New Highs we’ve been suffering the hype about?).
And except for the talking Fed Head Choir singing before audiences assorted, expect yawns until Tuesday when the Empire State Manufacturing rolls.
And even that’s going to require NoDoz because it comes from a blue state staffedf mainly by…oh, see if you can figure it out…
At the Ranch: Pick up the Hammer and Saw
“OK, Universe, can I please have no interruptions today while I toss the stairs on the new deck off the screen porch…please?” I really need something to write about for ShopTalk Sunday – and some pictures would be nice plus a history of stair building… (Stop stairing!!!)
Write when you get rich,
Read the full article here
