The media are showing their colors (and if you look closely, their puppet strings) as you read coverage of the mess in Labor. Is there a “Protect Harris” movement going on?
Port Strike Update as Teamsters Launch Foul-Mouthed Tirade at Biden Admin – Newsweek and Picket lines up as port strike begins for thousands of New York and New Jersey dockworkers – CBS New York (cbsnews.com), it certainly struck us as odd that at 5 AM, a major story like this was not THE dominant lead on sites like The Drudge Report. Not the Israeli invasion of Lebanon which has been 100 percent unsurprising since the pager and radio attacks on Hezbollah.
Would Matt Drudge soft-sell the strike and flip public attention to Lebanon – one lining huge the “Breaking News” strike over political ideology? I don’t think so, but I’m also not the only one to notice a change in how the winds blow Drudge headlines. Wikipedia offers this:
“By 2020, some prominent conservatives—including President Donald Trump—had concluded that the Drudge Report had abandoned its alleged conservative ideology, with Fox News primetime host Tucker Carlson stating, “Matt Drudge is now firmly a man of the progressive left.”[59] In 2020, Austrian social scientist Christian Fuchs of the University of Westminster described the Drudge Report as an alt-right website.[60]“
Our soft-sell ponder isn’t Drudge-specific: the soft-sell might be driven by more graphics from Lebanon, not the conspiracy whispered “liberal media bias keeping Joe and Kamala out of political damage” this close to the election?
There you have it – first thing “stuck in my craw” for the day. I’m sure the story will be front and center shortly (with a picture ) and I’ll be shown to be “just off tilting at windmills.” That IS what washed up old news directors do, sometimes. They look at their own 65-years of reporting and wonder “Anyone left who believes in Lead Local?” Or, are we in “If it bleeds, it leads” territory for good?”
Strike Drives Oil Patch Blues
From our Houston Bureau:
“Houston is home to Port of Houston. This strike is going to be ghastly for the entire US, and Houston in particular. What worries me more is a potential for violence should this strike drag on for weeks, even months, something that will have a direct impact on the upcoming election next month. We have 2 months to go before hurricane season officially ends, but I recall one year when it dragged on well into December.”
Strike could cost dems the election, as we see it. What happens if Biden listens to the Chamber of Commerce? U.S. Chamber Letter Calling on President Biden to Invoke Taft-Hartley, Avoid Work Stoppage at U.S. Ports | U.S. Chamber of Commerce. So much for the right to negotiate wage and working conditions so long touted by dems, huh?
I’m willing to bet the Harris speech writers are negotiating right now: Lay Taft-Hartley at the feet of Slo, or have Kamala pick it up and run with it as evidence of her “true leadership” skills. (Yeah…whatever. They are behind the curve no matter what, now… )
One More Thing
Oh, yeah – the Biggest Story of the day really is the long shore strike. Because it’s very likely to impact the global behavior of Russia and China. Because out west, the U.S. having labor woes will mean “plausible deniability” if China goes the embargo route against Taiwan later this month. And Russia will eye the U.S. docks with deep consideration of impacts. Because, as one source explained to us:
“Sunny Point is operated by an Army Transportation Port Brigade, but I don’t know if there are also civilian cargo handlers or not. If so, they may also go on strike,which could have some impact on US ability to flex forces across the Atlantic. Which could put other factors into play. Just an idea….”
But when you remember back to the Francis Scott Key (Baltimore) Bridge accident in March of this year, you have to wonder if America’s adversaries (content to be pretend contenders for now) haven’t got an “isolate America plan” which could involve Labor actions and additional “navigational accidents.”
Guess time will tell, but another shipping accident or two would move events from “wild speculative ravings” to “Hmm…”
Remember a month, or was it two, back when I said “If you need to buy any electronics, load up now! (this was in August). We are the proud owners of two back-up Win11 computers and a new 55″ in the office. And here this morning with the ports shutting down and Taiwan still a wild card, the purchases look far less stupid than they did at the time.
Financialese
New weekly unemployment figures just hit.
Labor’s JOLTS (job openings, layoffs, terminations, and separations) report drops at 10 AM this morning which may result in a market change of direction…eyes open.
Look for a jump in UI filings in a few weeks when the hurricane impacts may begin to dribble into the mix. The flood of those is a week or three out. We also see this as justr ore evidence the Fed got political with its half point cut, Which Powell is distancing on now: Fed Chair Powell Says Rate Cuts Aren’t on ‘Preset Course’ (wsj.com).
Stock futures are weak. Dow’s down a hundred, S&P down about 5 and the techs almost even when we looked.
Bitcoin is under $64-thousand again. And we are using the hurricane Helene disaster in our own noodling about alt.money to wonder just how BTC would perform in a live-fire disaster (like the ‘cane) in North Carolina, We STILL don’t see the magic of made up secret numbers as “money” but you all have fun. And don’t forget to check the box on the 1040.
The Foregone War
Yes, of course it’s a war. But not if your only source of gouge is the NY Times: Why Did Israel Send Troops Into Southern Lebanon? – The New York Times (nytimes.com). Again, we wonder about the one-month proximity of US elections on newsroom mental acuity. Yes, it’s a war and all the adjectives & modifiers in the world don’t stop bullets.
About here, things get interesting. There is an election a month and a couple of days from now. In this election, the Jewish vote’s influence is significant. But so is the vote of Muslims who have been imported en masse by an administration near you. Which we think accounts for headlines like US out of step as world reacts to Israel’s ground offensive into Lebanon. Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, we’re wondering what Vlad Putin was doing up so late last night with this prime minister in Iran: Zayn on X: “Russian President Putin to hold an emergency meeting in Moscow in the next 10 minutes. Prime minister is in Tehran, Iran ? Something big is coming.
Yep – something already has happened: US: Ukraine free to strike Russia with own weapons without permissions. Of course that’s a BS/weasel-speak because all Ukraine would need to do is change a battery or hand ’em a can of spray paint and they could say “their weapon” was involved. We’ve got a small wager on a Russia strike on a western nuke plant before the end of November if you’re playing the classic wartime news follower’s game “Targeting and Timing Roulette.”
We also found it interesting that Spain urges Israel to halt its ground raids in Lebanon | Reuters. Which interests us because one of Spain’s biggest (financial) industries is charging tolls to American drivers who paid to build (misnamed) public highways. Only to have miscreants in office “lease them out” to foreign corporations (including a biggie in Spain): U.S. roads, with foreign owners (tampabay.com). See, this is the kind of thing when DEI becomes more important than counting pennies and shepherding financial responsibility (a part of which is fee simple ownership in capital assets) by government. Are we the only people left who remember “If it’s leased, you don’t own it for now…” Sheesh! America has been leased out from under us.
Back to News Basics
Getting Old: Former President Jimmy Carter turns 100: A look back at his legacy.
Getting Dead: Pete Rose, MLB’s polarizing all-time hits leader, dead at 83
Getting Close: Shocking video shows Russian fighter jet flying within feet of crashing into US plane above Alaska.
Getting Ready: JD Vance and Tim Walz to face off during vice-presidential debate.
Getting Old: Mysterious sunken seafloor discovered under Pacific Ocean may rewrite Earth’s past (studyfinds.org)
Getting seated: Claudia Sheinbaum to be inaugurated as Mexico’s first female president.
Getting Help: Collin Rugg on X: “JUST IN: Donald Trump authorized GoFundMe for Americans impacted by Hurricane Helene surges past $900,000 in over an hour. Former US Senator Kelly Loeffler (Georgia) made a massive donation of $500,000. Other large donations include: Dan Newlin: $100,000 Dana White: $100,000.
Getting high: Recreational Marijuana Taxes by State, 2024 (taxfoundation.org)
As B.C. Forbes famously wrote, “With all thy getting, get understanding” A bit challenging some mornings…
Around the Ranch: Still Older
Tomorrow on our Peoplenomics.com paywalled site, those 18 charts from our unconventional view of financial markets. And another chapter in the old man’s book on longevity strategies.
Write when you get rich,
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