If there is a “lesson” from the escalating tensions in the Middle East, it might well be that “Wars tend to escalate” – beyond which, not much else can be said. Following the Iranian counter (to the Lebanon killings) we are now in position where Israel is expected to take a swipe at Iran in return. Only now, Israel may judge that Iran should be hit with a nuclear device to take out its weapons program.
This puts Slow Joe and Kamala in a bit of a fix. A month out from an election, Jewish voters won’t take kindly to the U.S. waffling. But there’s the bigger escalations problem driving ‘No’, US will not support attack on Iran’s nuclear sites (smh.com.au).
Two aspects of the Iranian attack are worth noticing. First, one of our “extremely well-informed sources” explains this isn’t all making sense – yet.
“The look angle analysis of smartphone videos of the strikes on the primary F-35 airfield definitely seem to indicate the incoming missiles were aimed at the runway end of the airfield, not the aircraft parking and maintenance end of the airfield. In other words, the Iranians didn’t seem to be shooting to do much real damage. (Rapid runway repair is a big thing. We do it. The Israelis do it. Pretty much all the major players have engineering units dedicated to it. So, shooting at runways (versus harder to repair facilities) is almost a waste of time and rounds. Yes, one can impose a temporary inoperational time frame, but against a qualified, determined opponent, that temporary is actually a pretty short period of time, measured in hours, not days.) Again, WTF?”
Which then gets to the question “When (or will) Iran change up from “Firing for effect” to “Firing with purpose.”
Although my consigliere noted that the U.S. destroyers off Israel (think he said two were on station) fired all 12 of their anti-ballistic missile missiles in the first fray. His concern – based on publicly available reports – is that 12-missiles are the total U.S. production run per year of this particular weapon. Which means an interesting resupply issue.
Now, throw in the longshore strike and what do you have?
Meanwhile in that other war, if you’re a taxpayer wondering what Sloow Joe and Kamala have bought for all our billions spent so far, take a look at The Fall Of Vuhledar: What It Means For Ukraine’s Beleaguered Military – Analysis – Eurasia Review. Looks to us like a full-sized diorama from a city collapse in WW II.
Worth what, $10 billion and rising, so far (less any audit of fund to “pops?”)
Market Turmoil
We need to dispense with the Challenger Job Cuts report, first. Going into this, we thought it would hold about level – since U.I. filings in the past few weeks have been steady to lower:
“U.S.-based employers announced 72,821 cuts in September, a 4% decrease from the 75,891 cuts announced one month prior. It is up 53% from the 47,457 cuts announced in the same month in 2023, according to a report released Thursday from global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
In the third quarter, companies announced plans to cut 174,597 jobs, down 16% from the 177,391 cuts announced in the second quarter of this year. It is up 19% from the 146,305 cuts announced in the same quarter of 2023.”
[AGAIN we ask why the Fed dropped rates a half with 5 weeks to a national election if it wasn’t necessary? Bullshit everywhere these days…]
UI Filings for the week just out:
The stock market is influenced by a few things – China being mainly closed for the week, another day of typhoon shutting down Taiwan. And then there’s the overnight action in Japan. Up 743 points, which is a shade under two percent.
With the early futures here, we keep slouching sideways and being under a trend line that would usually act as support this is not particularly encouraging to the Bulls – yet:
Bitcoin, too was still soft – about $60,640 when I looked earlier. Gold and silver are still alive. As the “war indicator” copper was around $4.585 on the futures market.
BoA Blues: Internet Down Test Opty
Remember that Crowd Strike /Microsoft major internet outage a while back? Well, Wednesday had a similar event which we file under “Internet Outage Drills to Learn From” as Bank of America glitched out: Bank of America outage: $0 account balances, other troubles reported. And it was still making waves this morning here in Texas with reports like Bank of America widespread outage: Latest updates.
I’ve been preaching this – ever since my book Broken Web hit Amazon in 2012 – that everyone needs to have a “digital free” strategy to move on with life. Our way of doing this was personal “downscaling” in order to never have a bill for as many things as we could think of. For example, with no car payment and no house payment for a couple of decades, you can actually stack up some decent savings. But the real point is that you can then have money to invest in resilience. We don’t quite have a Seed Vault for example, but we have a couple of growing seasons worth. Things like that where you turn sweat into forward resilience. Not a popular topic and I could go on all morning about it, but there other fish to fry and who listened to old men, anyway?
Dirt and Smirks
Jack Smith is back: Jack Smith Has 77 Potential Witnesses in Donald Trump Election Case – Newsweek. What we really want to know is what happened to the lying democrat ex-intel types who lied through their teeth about the the salacious Russiagate stuff? Oh. that’s different, right?
Also on the Traitor Watch: DHS threat report warns migrants with ‘terrorism ties’ will continue to exploit border crisis (nypost.com). Surprised? No?
As FEMA continues to underwhelm with their Hurricane response, some local officials are getting some public wrath, as well: Local Heroes Speak Out After Lake Lure Fire Chief Threatens to Arrest Them for Rescuing Helene Victims (Video). Why, it’s almost like the Cajun Navy volunteers who got threatened how long ago?
Democrats have sold out America in this one, looks like, too: UN & WHO: Forced Vaccinations and Internment Camps, Common Law Solutions. Don’t mind our whining, we remember when America was its own country, not some sub for the Global Socialist Power Grabbers…
Come on – you can’t really be surprised, can you? Elite colleges shocked to discover students ‘don’t know how’ to read books: ‘My jaw dropped’ | Fox News. Of course they need to be stupid. Programming doesn’t work on smart folks. FMTT.
At the Ranch: How to Save a Washer
Already today, a short version of “ShopTalk Sunday” washed ashore in East Texas. I saved the washing machine.
Story goes like this: I’d gotten up at the usual time (4 AM) had a close shave and a leisurely shower. After dressing and making the first decision of the day (“Which of the 3 every day carry pocketknives to roll with today?“) I was ready to do the vitamin stack while the Tea was ‘waving.
On the way from the master bath to the food dispensary, I tossed a load of clothes in the washer. Soap, large load, medium-deep cycle on warm.
With the stack onboard, and the cup of tea brewing, it was off to the living/media room for the BP check in the recliner. (123/66/52, thanks.) Eyes closed, I was just sitting there when the microwave announced the caffeine was ready.
Then I heard it.
Something about the washing machine just wasn’t “right.”
As the machine ran, there was what sounded like a zipper sliding across the bottom of the tub. It would make the noise for a half-dozen sloshes of the agitator, then go away for a minute. Within another few, though, it was back, only to disappear again.
“Oh-oh!” I had once – a few years back – forgotten to take some small drywall screws out of a shirt pocket. Normally, they’d have been caught being too big to make it through the holes at the bottom of the (stainless) washer tub. The one that got through ate the water pump used to pump out the used water… So, my ears have been on “$500 dollar washer alert” ever since.
Suddenly, the tea was out of mind; it would have to wait. I went to the washer, and wearing a short sleeve shirt, was fishing around in no time. I felt around the bottom but didn’t catch anything, though I gave myself high marks for using warm, not the cold water cycle. No Wim Hof, me.
Another start – and a few more minutes of listening – damn! It was still making that metal noise.
About here, Elaine came out asking the obvious, “Something wrong with the washer?” “Uh…something’s in it. Do you have a five-gallon bucket handy?”
I’d hatched a plan to empty out all the wet (soap still on them) clothes into a pail, conduct my search, and then dump it all back in and continue.
No, but we could use a kitchen garbage bag…”
A few seconds later, the Improvization Princess was assisting as the clothes came out and went into the bag. Not a drop of water was spilled anywhere in the making of this adventure. I was ready to go “fishing” again.
“GOT IT!!!!”
A key to the lawn tractor was held up – with the same aplomb usually reserved for Southern bass fishermen who had one “for the books.”
The bag of sopping wet clothes went back in the tub, Elaine smiling at our 4:40 AM teamwork, and I rinsed the soapy water off my arms with the kitchen sink rinser.
So why is the story useful?
Simply to point out that – regardless of our age – we can still pick up nuances of trouble in the wings if we are just open to the prompts. In this case, having listened to washing machines for 75 years, I had an idea of what “normal” was. Everyone probably has that. Was it the audio engineering trained ears? Or just a sense of something? Can’t say.
What Life teaches (and I’m not sure if its a sound reason to build a complex Reality with reincarnation and whatnot) is that usually – somewhere down near the noise floor in Life, there are clues about the Future that can be intercepted while it’s still malleable. That’s when they first rise into consciousness. Inklings and hints.
I’m not one for idle boasts, but I’m pretty sure I now have the “cleanest lawn tractor key in Anderson County, Texas” – at least for the day.
More importantly, somewhere, an UrbanSurvival reader will be reminded to “Fix the little things – the out of place things – before they blow up on you.”
Because if you don’t, they will.
Besides, money saved spends the same as money-earned. The tractor key now joins the collection of World’s cleanest drywall screws, too.
Write when you get rich,
Read the full article here
