As long-time readers of Urban and Peoplenomics will recall, I often use a “thinking tool” called Directorate 153. It’s a fictional shadowy government collective, hidden in plain sight, that provides a thinking reporter a credible way to “think the unthinkable.”
This morning, a memo from D153 is worth considering, As to whether it’s fact or fiction we leave to your personal discernment.
From: Director, Directorate 153
To: Ure, and Esteemed Readers
Subject: The Ukraine Strike, Kernel’s Machinations
Date: June 5, 2025
Ure, old friend, and those who peruse your musings: the recent “Ukraine strike” penetrating nearly 1,000 miles into Russian heartlands demands clarity. Let us peel back the veneer of dueling narratives and confront the machinery beneath.
In 2023, a fragile peace framework emerged between the West and Russia, brokered through back channels in Istanbul and Minsk. This accord, rooted in mutual concessions—Ukraine’s neutrality, demilitarized zones, and resource-sharing protocols—was poised to halt the escalation. Historical records, though obscured, note the involvement of neutral mediators like Turkey and Qatar. Yet, this framework was torpedoed by what we term the “kernel” of the US/UK apparatus. The term is deliberate, Ure, and I urge you to grasp its weight. D153 is a participatory affiliate.
Understand that in computing, the “kernel” is the core of a system, a walled garden within the processor where critical operations execute, untouchable by user applications. The “deep state” meme, so fervently debated, was a mere psyop—a controlled burn to exhaust the concept in public discourse. But the kernel remains real. It is the unelected, unaccountable nexus that governs America’s long-term strategic (and as you have explained, economic) trajectory, rendering the political representatives of “the People” mere figureheads. They are denied access to what we term “steering decisions” shaping the Future. You touched on “steering” in your Hidden Guild paper.
In simplest terms, “the kernel” cannot let Trump “steer” critical decisions. These are reserved for the experts class. You were an early master of Balance of Power, were you not? Back in your “halt-and-catch-fire” days in the PNW? BoP dear friend, was 40-years ago when we green lighted the public release and it lagged kernel workings by at least a dozen years even then.
Elon Musk glimpsed likely figured this truth. His so-called “breakup with Trump,” mischaracterized as a “sunset of bromance,” was no petty feud. Musk, ever the systems thinker, recognized the kernel’s dominance and stepped back. Trump, for all his bluster, would never have greenlit a strategic strike on core Russia. Yet the Ukraine operation proceeded, a testament to the kernel’s override. OK, a bit Kennedy-esque, but that was 62 years ago. The Other BoP (Bay of Pigs, not the video game) failed just over 63-years ago. I digress.
There is a larger concept at play, Ure—one you may hint at to your readers but must tread lightly in the Real World. Trump, in computerese, has been “quarantined,” isolated from the kernel’s decision loop. Musk, bound by the same system, cannot speak this directly or plainly. Evidence abounds: the “plane smack” operation, in planning for over a year, predates the current political kabuki and traces back to when Joe Biden was the kernel’s designated “virus,” a public-facing avatar, similarly sidelined. The Big Beautiful Bill—its timing, its scope—bears the kernel’s fingerprints, an artifact of its subroutines.
Pay heed to the markets, Ure. The screaming rise in silver signals another kernel subroutine, one whose purpose will crystallize in the years ahead. The kernel does not improvise; it executes long arcs. You and your consigliere covered what’s coming in detail in your Thanksgiving client meeting last November. Don’t ask which device monitored. Staff here enjoyed your prescience in “Long wave cycles end in exactly one of two ways: massive deflation or a Weimar-like hyperinflation.
We can’t be too overt. Notice the price of silver, though? And for the kernel on our side, the Russians and the Chinese have “kernels” above the Dhuma, and above the People’s Congress. 8-billion people cannot be allowed “free-running” status; we’re sure you understand.
We stand at a precipice, old friend. Liberty’s preservation demands we see the code beneath the chaos. Share what you can, but know the kernel watches. Think of us as an active A/V scan running.
Yours in Liberty’s Preservation, D-153″
Useful “framing” is it not?
Supporting Headlines
1970s newsroom gallows humor often included references to “dead babies” in the ultra-cynical world of “if it bleeds, it leads.” So try not to be offended at our mention of Six dead, including baby, as Russia strikes Ukraine hours after Putin vows to take… IIBIL never runs out of clicks or eyeballs. (Which doesn’t say much for humans, but gawkers and blockers on the freeway, yeah?
Next we tee up “the auto-signer” versus “the Russia striker” clickbait with: Trump directs DOJ, White House counsel to investigate Biden’s mental state in office. Autosigner versus Russia-striker? Help a brother handicap, please?
The Big Picture Aware will sense that behind Trump bans travel to US from a dozen countries, adds restrictions for 7 others, is the larger game of Russia’s “kernel” or maybe Chyna’s, sneaking in wet work crews for payback…
And here’s the Establishment backing the Russia strike after the fact: Putin’s punitive peace terms are a call for Ukraine’s complete capitulation.
Now, we will pivot back into economics, which is our real claim to fame, as we quaff down more anti-cynicism meds… Did “the kernel” invent crypto to “steer”?
Challenger Job Cuts
Headline says most of it:
May 2025 Job Cuts Up 47% Over Same Month Last Year; Cuts Spread to Other Sectors Than Gov’t for Other Reasons Than DOGE
Stock futures are down at “waffle haus” going sideways. BTC $104,865 are also treading syrup.
Tomorrow, bars open at the usual time despite the release of the Federal jobless numbers. Which may be spun as supporting a rate cut by the FOMC in 2-weeks? What? So more borrowing in a hyper-inflating environment, perhaps? Watch silver, but any other physical asset because when you can “make up money” the Weimar path looks pretty clear…
Clickbait for the Masses! (CBFTM!)
Click sucker, click!
Cue another load of “dead babies!” ‘The View’ Host: Elon Musk Killed 300,000 People with DOGE Cuts – ‘Mostly Children’
9/11 Riffs performs well: Collin Rugg on X: “NEW: TMZ alleges there was a fifth plane on 9/11 that was covered up by the FBI. In a new documentary, TMZ interviewed 3 flight attendants and the pilot who were on United Flight 23. After being evacuated from the plane, the pilot says they later found that the hatch on…
Remember the legend of how “all other rights are reserved to The People”? Well, explain this to me: Incoming US Centralized Federal Government Database — When Data Becomes Power. Another “kernel” in there, huh?
Oh-oh – another Baby story! Moment Meghan Markle twerks and dances with Prince Harry in hospital room to bring on labour as she posts cringeworthy video to celebrate Lilibet’s 4th birthday. Run for that dopamine hit, baby!
(The meds are starting to kick in now, a sense of delta-8 mediated peace begins to flow…)
Around the Ranch: Bumper Pool Universe
A short woo-woo discussion today because this one has me stumped. What (the actual F) is the Universe doing? Remember out conversation about “Accident Chains” and how one minor accident sets off something bigger going wrong as a consequence? Let’s go over my time log for the week, so far, shall we?
- Last week, solar panel trucking outfit called. “Your panels will arrive Tuesday the 4th. Probably after lunch.””
- Early Monday, pharmacy calls “We have two refills for Elaine ready for pickup…”
- Monday afternoon, the landline goes down. We live in the woods, so all the backup comms get spooled up. Cell goes onto Starlink, MagicJack is up and tested along with fallback to ViaSat.
- Monday evening waded through the Brightspeed audio gauntlet only to learn “Only time we can get a tech out is on Thursday. “Ok, what time?” “We’ll call you…” “On WHAT you moron, my phone line is down!” And so it went.
- Tuesday 4 AM-ish I get hold of dispatch for the trucking outfit to get the driver (Laquan – great guy) of the 45-foot rig the working backup numbers so I can meet him with the pickup and I can slide the load over so he doesn’t get stuck on a single track road out here… Done!
- Well, not quite. I have a periodic blood draw on Thursday- when the phone’s going to be fixed.
- I reschedule that for August 6 which was the next opening (per the MyChart UX).
- So there I am – about 10 AM Tuesday morning – Urban report is up, working on Peoplenomics for Wed… Email Alert! “Doctor wants you in on the 19th, can you make it?” “Yes.” [send]
- 10:15 AM the phone rings,…yeah, the broken phone. “Are you a telemarketer?” “Yeah, but…” [click]
- About here, I’m thinking “What’s my move?” 1) Call Brightspeed and cancel the tech – landline and data are back working fine. 2) Go in and pick up Elaine’s script Wednesday. 3) Better make sure the solar truck delivery knows comms are back, too…
- Called truck dispatch up in Dallas: “Oh, Mr,. Ure – is that how you say it? You panels were delayed getting into Dallas so they will be out Wednesday afternoon instead….”
- Wednesday after Peoplenomics, I mozy into town for Elaine’s meds. “Oh, those were the ones you picked up on Friday…you just can’t trust our automated system…”
- 4 PM Laquan rolls out the panels into the pickup truck. Life is back on track.
Now I’ve gotten a pretty good idea – over the years – that the Universe is either a very complicated MESS OF RANDOM (or possibly that God’s a bumbling idiot).
But wouldn’t “reaching out in a dream” (old men do have them, you know) with a hint to change the doctor visit to the 19th have been easier?
Well, except for one thing: Don’t know if you read the piece I put up on Tuesday in the midst of all this froth in personal life, but that article on the outbreak of A.I. intercine warfare would never have gotten done if things had remained on an even keel.
And maybe that was the whole point. Or, so my consigliere would have time (being unable to call me) to parse down the latest from the Polish Seer?
So, was that the whole point?
Learning to be a (semi) detached observer of Life – sort of leaning over the side of your own lifeboat and inspecting how the waves slap things – may be a useful experience. Gives a lot more grandeur to how the GATU runs the “event webs” around us. But it takes a keen eye, and being aware that life is a huge event web…always in motion.
At times, it’s a bit mind boggling: Do I run into the doc’s office today and see if they can slide me in, or was there an accident coming I needed to avoid? See, it’s almost like there is a real Adjustment Bureau (like the Phillip K. Dick novel). Except in this one, there’s a lot more bumper pool going on. Huge webs of causers and effects…
Terribly interesting…but to what end? More coffee and deeper ponders…then unloading the new batch of solar panels… Get your tax credits while you can.
Where is the Mogambo Guru when we need him? RIP brother.
Write when you get rich, yada, yada…
George@Ure.net
Read the full article here
