Life takes us in many strange directions and wonderful discoveries. It never turns out the way we thought it would.
Sunday, July 31, 2022
Saturday, July 30, 2022
Two Very Troubling Cases Of Identity Fraud
Most of us are familiar with identity fraud. Some criminal gets your personal information. They start getting credit cards and other loans in your name. This can cause you huge legal problems and financial losses. A lot of this danger can be eliminated by investing a small amount of money in a service that monitors your credit report.
There are other and more sinister cases of
identity theft that I have uncovered. In the first case, a Brasilian man named
Richard Cesar Guedes obtained the birth certificate of a young child named Eric
Ladd who died in a car crash in 1979. He obtained a Social Security account,
Texas driver's license, and US passport in this deceased child's name. He went
to work at United Airlines. He worked for 23 years as a flight attendant until
his fraud was detected. (Probably an informant with a grudge against him turned
him in) Guedes was arrested by US State Department officers. Amazingly the
security checks required of airline employees including fingerprinting did not
detect the fraud. Guedes was sentenced to 7 months in jail and will be
deported. One wonders what will happen to all the money in his 401(K)-retirement
fund and any benefits he has coming from Social Security. What if some
terrorist has done the same thing and got on a plane to blow it up or worse?
A second case is much more bizarre and
troubling. Two Russian KGB agents infiltrated into the US with stolen birth
certificates of two dead children with the names Walter Glenn Primrose and
Gwynn Darle Morrison. Walter enlisted in the US Coast Guard and served 20 years
as an avionics technician before retiring. He then worked as a civilian
contractor for the Coast Guard in Hawaii with a high-level security clearance.
For those of you really curious, here is a link:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/kgb-photo-deepens-mystery-of-us-coast-guard-vet-and-wife-who-stole-dead-babies-identities-feds-say
When one enters the US military, their
fingerprints are taken. If they are going to work in any sensitive area, they
obtain a secret security clearance. This clearance is simple to obtain. One's
name is run through several US government computers to see if they have had any
problems. A top-secret security clearance is required when one works around the
most sensitive areas. When I was in the US Navy and stationed at the Bureau of
Naval Personnel, I got an offer of a job at the White House. A top-secret
security clearance was required. I filled out a detailed questionnaire. I was
interviewed by an FBI agent. My whole life was investigated. An agent even went
to Alcott Elementary School that I had attended. A minor discrepancy was
detected. I was questioned about this discrepancy. I apologized that my memory
had slipped after all those years. I was granted a top-secret clearance. I
declined the job offer because I would be required to reenlist in the US Navy
for two additional years.
One must wonder how these Russian agents
survived all these security checks including a rigorous FBI check. An even more
troubling question arises. How many more Russian, Chinese, and Iranian agents
have used these birth certificates of deceased US citizens to infiltrate into
far more sensitive places than the US Coast Guard? I will leave all of you to
reflect on this.
Friday, July 29, 2022
The CHIPS Act Does Not Solve All Semiconductor Problems
ASSESSMENTS
The CHIPS Act Won’t Reduce the U.S.’s Strategic Reliance on the Global Semiconductor Sector
7 MIN READJul 28, 2022 | 20:16 GMT
U.S. President Joe Biden participates virtually in a meeting on the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act on July 25, 2022.
(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Thursday, July 28, 2022
Playing Russian Roulette With Russia's Nuclear Arsenal
Yesterday I discussed the potential transfer/sale of aircraft to the Ukraine Air Force. I love and appreciate responses from our readers. One reader is always concerned about the Ukraine conflict getting out of hand with Putin resorting to nuclear weapons. In my opinion, as long as we in the West do not do something really stupid, that will not happen. Two months ago, I was privileged to have lunch with Professor William Craft Brumfield. He is the department head of the Russian Studies section at Tulane University. He speaks Russian fluently. He has been a personal friend of Vladimir Putin for over 20 years. Putin decorated him with the highest medal the Russian state can give to a foreigner-The Friendship Medal. When I asked him if he saw a nuclear war coming with Russia, he calmly responded:
"Putin is a sane and rational man.
He would not resort to the use of nuclear weapons."
When our reader raised the prospect of
Ukraine turning into a nuclear conflict, I quoted Professor Brumfield. I then
made a joke as follows:
If I was the US president and heard that
Putin had gone to DEFCON ONE and was ready to launch nuclear weapons, I would
make the following comment to Putin:
"Vlad, I sure hope that your nuclear
weapons work better than your conventional weapons have worked in
Ukraine."
I absorb a large amount of data each day.
In the afternoon I came across an obscure report on the current status of the
Russian nuclear arsenal. It painted a picture of a lot of warheads that had
decayed to the point where they would not work correctly. Some thermonuclear
(hydrogen) bombs would only detonate as atomic bombs. Other warheads would not
detonate at all.
I shared this information with Elena.
Without wasting a second, she responded:
"This tells me that they never were
really serious about using such weapons."
I will leave all of you to reflect
on this.
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
The Ukraine Air Force Just Got Some Good News!
The Ukraine Air Force got some good news that I want to share with all of you. Slovakia is just about ready to donate 11 Mig-29s to Ukraine. US defense officials have changed their minds and are ready to give US jet fighters and ground attack aircraft to the Ukraine Air Force. They have told Ukraine officials: "Tell us what planes you want and we will work out a deal."
I'm proud that one of our readers is a
Ukraine pilot. Denys asked me what plane I would recommend for the Ukraine Air
Force. I did not have to think about it long and hard. I told him the A-10
Warthog. For those of you curious, here is an excellent video on this aircraft
that has been in service with the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard units
for 50 years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5us5ce56YHo
The A-10 is the kind of plane that I love.
It is easy to fly. It is easy to maintain. It can operate out of rugged
airfields. It is tough and can take a lot of punishment. It was designed as
"a tank killer." Its only weakness is that it is an easy target for
very advanced air defense systems like the SA-300, SA-400, and SA-500. This
weakness can be overcome!
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Monday, July 25, 2022
Sunday, July 24, 2022
Big Setbacks And Defeats Often Happen To Us In Life For Reasons That Are Not Revealed Until Much Later
Many of you in the northern hemisphere are experiencing great heat today. One pool friend talked about family members in Alberta experiencing 109-degree Fahrenheit days. My sister and one of our readers is experiencing days with 107 degree Fahrenheit temperature.
In almost seventy-four years of life, I
have learned one lesson. What looks like a defeat or a bad setback happens for
a reason that you only see much later. Elena and I moved into his house on
January 21, 2004. It was falling apart. It was a disaster. Elena and I both were
used to climates with sunny and beautiful days. I endured the fog and cool
weather. Elena despised it. She was complaining all the time.
The higher power that guides our life had a
reason for this. Now it is clear. Our daily temperatures stay in the 50-60
Fahrenheit range. The fog keeps vegetation wet. We do not have fires. In the
hills just above us, fires have broken out. We have no problems with insurance
for the house. People above us have seen their insurance premiums go up
dramatically or have faced cancellation of their insurance. According to
climate models, as the sea levels rise, the Pacific Ocean will be touching
Highway One by the year 2100 (Assuming no intervention to control sea level
rise-California send your engineers to Holland!!!!) Our house will still be
above the ocean. We sit on solid rock which means we would ride an earthquake
well.
One of our readers sold us this house. At
first, I was very disappointed in him. Now he is a hero in our eyes.
If you're in
hot weather, find some relief from the heat. It might be a good day to take in
several movies back-to-back or to have a long 3-4 hour lunch in a cool
restaurant.
Saturday, July 23, 2022
Despite The Ukraine/Russia Grain Export Agreement, The U.S. And Other Countries Face Food Shortages Going Forward
Yesterday, I was overjoyed that Russia and Ukraine had reached an agreement to allow up to 22 million metric tons of Ukrainian grain to be exported. The New York Times celebrated this agreement this morning.
Barron's Magazine came out with a warning
article this morning that big food shortages are going to be a part of our
lives for a while. Here is the complete article:
y Lisa
BeilfussFollowing
July 22,
2022 2:30 pm ET
Solar farms
like this one in Andrews County, Texas, are gobbling up prime farmland. Some
observers see a long-term threat to the nation’s food supply.
Matthew
Busch/Bloomberg
Text size
Listen to
article
Length7
minutes
As financial
markets and media remain focused on recession timing and debate over when the
Federal Reserve will flip to cutting interest rates, growing threats to the
U.S. food supply—exacerbated by government policy—go underappreciated.
Concerns of
a global food shortage have been mounting given the war in Ukraine and the huge
amounts of fertilizer, wheat, and other food-related exports that come from
that region. Many economists and strategists say a food shortage can’t happen
here. After all, the U.S. produces most of its own food and roughly half of
domestic land is used for agricultural production, according to the Food and
Drug Administration. There are several overlapping reasons, however, why
America shouldn’t take a sufficient food supply for granted.
Eva Slatter,
a farrier in Emory, Texas, travels from farm to farm to take care of horses’
hoofs and has a small farm of her own. Her neighbor is selling his herd of
cows, and a local livestock auction earlier this month brought out more
trailers than she had ever seen, with ranchers looking to sell backed up for
miles. Record temperatures and the worst drought in more than a decade mean
there isn’t grass for the animals to eat, and hay—the alternative—is tough to
come by as higher fuel costs make it harder to transport from other states. The
cost of hay in her area is around $220 a roll, compared with about $45 in
normal times and $120 in a typical drought year, she says.
“None of the
ranchers I know want to get out, but they have to,” Slatter says of the
livestock liquidation. “Everybody is selling because they can’t feed them, and
no one is buying the cows to raise.” That suggests more meat and lower prices
in the near term. But the Texas Farm Bureau said in a report this past week
that with much of the current breeding herd going to processing plants, calf
numbers will fall in years ahead. As Slatter puts it, if everyone sells out of
cattle now, what are we going to do later on?
About 250
miles away from Slatter, Stephen Brantley is getting nervous—but for a
different reason. Brantley, a longtime banker at Waggoner National Bank in
Vernon, Texas, says his bank has been fielding calls lately from farmers
approached by solar companies interested in their land. First the companies ask
to test the land over about a year, during which time the farmer can continue
growing crops such as wheat. Then, if the testing goes well, the solar company
either offers to buy the land or lease it for 20 to 30 years.
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The offers are
hard to refuse. Farmland often best meets solar-site requirements, and Brantley
says solar companies are paying as much as $800 an acre in his area of the
wheat belt for leases that last for decades. That’s $512,000 a year for a
section of land—640 acres—an attractive lifeline for farmers increasingly
strapped by rising input prices and unfavorable weather. There is also a
precedent. Wind came in about 15 years ago and turbines proliferated in the
area, overall a net positive, Brantley says. But unlike wind, which is less
lucrative and can coexist with crops, solar is pretty zero sum. “I know how
fast it can happen. I’m afraid this thing might snowball. If solar catches on
like wind did, all this cultivated land will go out of production,” says
Brantley.
So far solar
hasn’t started to really move into the Midwest, where the soil is considered
superior, says University of Illinois ag professor Nick Paulson. It makes
sense, he says, for solar companies to be more aggressive in a place like Texas
given the relative quality of the farmland and more pervasive droughts. Still,
Texas and Oklahoma represent about a quarter of planted acres of wheat in the
U.S.
One part of
the story is that investors have sought farmland as an inflation hedge. Bill
Gates, the largest private owner of U.S. farmland, said on social-media
platform Reddit earlier this year that his investment group is buying the land.
A May report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago said agricultural land
values in the region surged 23% in the first quarter from a year earlier as
investors bought a rising share of some of the country’s best farmland.
Strategic Solar Group, which brokers land, says the high end of the average
solar-farm lease is $2,000 an acre.
Another part
of the story involves the government’s green agenda. While President Biden’s
climate legislation suffered a new setback when Sen. Joe Manchin this month
pulled his support, some lawmakers and analysts predict Biden will issue
executive actions. To achieve Biden’s goal for 100% clean electricity in the
U.S. by 2035, the Energy Department says solar deployment will need to
quadruple. Land.com, a marketplace for rural real estate, says generating
electricity solely from solar farms would take 13 million acres—or double that
to account for energy storage, electric vehicle charging stations, and the
necessary increase in electrical infrastructure. Apart from business
incentives, government subsidies and tax credits also help explain why solar
companies are aggressively seeking land.
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Biden has
pushed solar further into the mainstream than ever before, says Texas A&M
University law and engineering professor Felix Mormann. There is lots of merit
to seeking reduced emissions, cleaner air, and cheaper energy. But, Mormann
asks, who ultimately pays for public spending on this scale and who will reap
the economic benefits? The flip side of that question: At whose expense will
those economic benefits be reaped?
Already,
Americans have seen double-digit price increases in food categories this year.
In the latest consumer price index report, meats, poultry, fish, and eggs leapt
12% from a year earlier as bread rose 11% and milk increased 16%. That’s
occurring as the U.S. Census Bureau has found about a 10th of Americans don’t
have enough to eat.
News of a
deal between Russia and Ukraine to resume Ukrainian grain exports via the Black
Sea should cool some commodity prices. But Paulson at the University of
Illinois says falling food-commodity prices may not easily translate to less
expensive food, in part because still-high oil makes up such a big portion of
U.S. food costs. Given the short supply of domestic oil, together with the
impact of severe droughts and the war in Ukraine, the timing of solar’s
encroachment on U.S. farmland may be cause for concern.
Write to
Lisa Beilfuss at lisa.beilfuss@barrons.com
Friday, July 22, 2022
Laos A Hard Lesson And A Warning For All Of Us!
The Trains To Nowhere
LAOS
When Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt in May, as the BBC reported, the resulting loss in confidence in the government led a mob to occupy the presidential palace and mansion. Photos in National Public Radio captured Sri Lankans hanging out in sumptuous offices, partying in the president’s pool and even using his gym.
As the mob shared pictures of his residence, impoverished Sri Lankans living amid food and medicine shortages became furious, forcing Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and then resign when he realized it was game over.
The episode showed how quickly an economic crisis could transition into a full-scale political and social revolution. A decade ago, Sri Lanka was still emerging from a 26-year civil war and was hailed as an Asian success story. Now, given how Sri Lanka’s crisis occurred due to excessive Chinese lending, the Wall Street Journal wrote, analysts are wondering which other countries might be next to enter into periods of chaos and instability. Many are worried about Laos.
Credit rating agencies and World Bank analyses recently warned that Laos is flirting with default due to two factors, Voice of America reported. First, rising energy costs due to the Russo-Ukraine War, higher US interest rates and other post-pandemic disruptions have caused the local currency to plunge in value. Meanwhile, the country must continue to service massive debts on Chinese-funded infrastructure projects.
Part of China’s Belt and Road initiative to improve trade routes between Asia, Africa and Europe, the projects include more than 600 miles of railways, hospitals, energy projects as well as collaboration in education, finance and other sectors explained China Daily, an English-language newspaper owned by the Chinese Communist Party.
Upheavals can result when such massive investment leads to bankruptcy and financial chaos, however, as Sri Lanka illustrates. Already, Laos’ passport office said it couldn’t cope with the massive uptick in Laotians seeking these documents in order to flee the country for work elsewhere, Malaysia’s the Star Online, reported. It’s no wonder, though, when the price of food and other necessities has jumped almost 25 percent.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh has admitted that corruption is the main driver of Laos’ situation: He told the National Assembly last month “that embezzlement by executives and staff, combined with poor management, are the main reasons for the chronic losses racked-up by 178 state enterprises,” the Diplomat reported.
At the same time, the International Federation of Human Rights lamented the lack of progress in tolerating free speech, political dissidence and other rights in Laos. But many Laotians have become disgruntled enough to air their opinions. That’s in one of the world’s poorest, most isolated countries where the population has been cowed for decades.
“People are losing their fear and not scared to be openly critical because the economic crisis is affecting their daily lives,” wrote an anonymous Laotian in a social media post quoted in Nikkei Asia. “Social media is the only avenue they can do so in Laos’ repressive political environment.”
Despite that sentiment, Bloomberg predicted that the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party would weather the crisis, describing the party as a “secretive communist regime that’s had an ironclad grip on power since 1975,” two years after the US ended its secret bombing runs over the country in the Vietnam War. That said, Laotian officials, perhaps reaching for a safety valve, have scheduled minimum wage hikes to help ameliorate the cost-of-living crisis, noted Radio Free Asia. And there are rumblings of some high-level heads to be sacrificed, Bloomberg noted.
That move could be the first of many that the regime and its critics make.
Ukraine Will Be Allowed To Export Its 22 Million Metric Ton Wheat Crop!
Some wondrous news this morning. An agreement has been reached to allow Ukraine to export its 22 million metric tons wheat crop. Ships carrying the wheat will proceed through the Black Sea. They will be inspected at Turkey checkpoints to make sure that they are caring only wheat. An unnamed third country will escort the wheat-carrying ships and provide mine sweeping services.
Elena asked if Ukraine would get the money
from the sale of the wheat. The answer appears to be "yes." This will
be a big "shot in the arm" moneywise for Ukraine farmers. It will
also ease hunger and the potential for starvation in North Africa and the
Middle East. I suspect that Russia accepted the deal on the condition that they
could export their very large wheat crop without interference from sanctions.
There is that old saying in English as
follows:
"There's no news like good
news!"
Thursday, July 21, 2022
Many US Citizens Are Moving To Europe For Cheaper Housing
True to my promise, I'm always out there hunting for obscure stories that other media outlets miss or do not take seriously. Bloomberg came out with a surprising article stating that Americans are moving to Europe to lower housing prices. Here is the article if you are curious:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-20/americans-moving-to-europe-housing-prices-and-strong-dollar-fuel-relocations
I found this fascinating. At one point I
had given serious thought to moving Elena and me to Norway. I researched the
housing market there. It was slightly more pricey than the San Francisco Bay
area. I'm quite familiar with the Southern British housing market. The area
around London is just as expensive as the Bay area. The same can be said for
Switzerland.
Many people have been “locked out" of
the US housing market. I bought my first house in Falls Church, Virginia, in
February of 1972 (I was 24 years old.) The price was a rousing $22,000 US.
Since I was an active-duty military person, I got a 100% loan to buy the
property. My house payment was a couple of hundred dollars a month.
Young people in the US and other countries
today face a harsh and different reality. Housing prices have gone up
geometrically. There is also an acute shortage of houses for sale. Around where
we live, the average house goes for well in excess of one million US. Most
purchases are "all cash deals" (Very wealthy people and people who
have sold a prior high-priced house and are flush with cash.) Even if someone
wanted to finance a purchase with a mortgage (bond for my British friends) the
monthly payments would be staggering. Owners selling houses would not wait for
the cumbersome process of getting a loan approved.
In many other US cities, there used to be
low-cost housing where young people could buy their "starter home"
and start to build equity and move on to a larger house later.
Now massive investment companies buy up
these cheaper homes hundreds at a time. They fix these homes up and rent them
for high prices. Many young people see themselves being trapped as renters for
life.
I have no political agenda. I try to keep
politics out of my reporting. I want to be both informative and entertaining. I
have warned repeatedly that there are a massive number of people not only in
the US but in a lot of other countries who feel that they have been left behind
as others prospered. This is a recipe for some serious violence and social
unrest. I have warned both US political parties to start listening to these
people carefully! Neither party is handling this situation right now!!!
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
Ukraine- "The One-Million Casualty War??"
Some sad news has come out of this Tehran summit. Iran changed course and decided to sell "several hundred" military drones to Russia. Some pundits claim that President Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia deeply upset the Iranian leadership.
Love them or hate them, Iranians can be
excellent engineers. Their drones will be effective. Ukraine is becoming a
testing ground where many different countries can test their military equipment
in a real war.
Neither Ukraine nor Russia will be honest
about their civilian and military losses. I suspect that Russia has had around
40,000 military personnel killed and another 120,000 wounded. I suspect that
Ukraine has similar losses. I can only rely on a statistic saying that for each
military death on the battlefield, 8 civilians die. This means we could have
already had 320,000 Ukrainian civilian deaths. What I see coming is a repeat of
the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s with over one million casualties.
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Ukraine-Some Good News And A Baffling Mystery
Ukraine got good news yesterday. Holland is sending them 500 tanks. There was also a bizarre announcement from the President of Ukraine. The Attorney General and the woman who heads their CIA were relieved of duty. They are accused of being Russian sympathizers. Many treason charges are in the works. Any criminal trial will be held "in camera." There will be the deepest secrecy. There is one troubling aspect of the case for me. The number one assassination target of the Russians is Ukrainian President Zelenskky. There have been numerous assassination teams sent to kill him. All have failed and the players have been executed. Russia would love to get some coordinates to fire a missile and kill Zelenskky and decapitate the Ukraine government. Why didn't one of these alleged traitors tell the Russians exactly where to strike him? I will leave you to reflect on that.
Monday, July 18, 2022
Chechnyans Are Fighting On Both Sides In Ukraine!
Mirror Image
CHECHNYA
The Russian republic of Chechnya is intimately intertwined with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Having battled Russian forces in an unsuccessful bid for independence in the 1990s, Chechens know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of Moscow’s military might. But from that experience, they also know how to dole out punishment against Russian forces.
At present, Chechens are fighting on both sides of the Russo-Ukrainian War, reported the Washington Post. Some are helping Ukraine resist Russia, citing their experiences fighting against Kremlin leaders’ imperial designs. These people are especially courageous, argued France 24, because they face imprisonment and torture if they fall into the hands of Russian soldiers or Chechen militia units allied with Russia.
Meanwhile, many Chechen fighters from the Muslim-majority region in the Caucasus Mountains are part of a so-called shadow mobilization to bolster the Russian army’s flagging manpower, Radio Free Europe explained. The Caucasus, incidentally, has Russia’s lowest living standards and income levels.
Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who once fought against Russia as a separatist guerilla, has asked the Russian military to request more Chechen troops to fight in Ukraine to “get even with our blood enemies,” added Newsweek.
Despite the attraction of a military paycheck, Chechen officials seeking to fill quotas or demonstrate loyalty to Putin have also allegedly used “intimidation, blackmail, or threats of torture and kidnapping” to compel men to “volunteer” for military service, the Moscow Times wrote.
And as the fighting rages, other parallels are developing between Chechnya and Ukraine. “Images of the devastated city of Mariupol are eerily reminiscent of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, which was leveled by Russian forces in a brutal war that went through two phases in the mid-1990s and the early 2000s,” wrote CNN.
Putin’s plan for Ukraine is similar to what he has created in Chechnya, argued Armenia-based journalist Neil Hauser in the Atlantic. The Russian president wants to demolish cities to demonstrate Russian power and suzerainty, install dependable local rulers like Kadyrov and create an atmosphere of fear that destroys civil society and the political landscape, making people easier to rule.
Researchers at the Wilson Center, a Washington-based think tank, also believe that the conflicts in Ukraine and Chechnya echoed one another. High levels of civilian deaths, war crimes and propaganda wars marked both wars, they added.
These two conflicts may have many parallels. But the ending to the conflict in Ukraine has yet to be written.
Our Beloved German Shephard Alfred Has A Life-Threatening Health Crisis
As some of you know our beloved family member, Alfred the German Shepherd is experiencing a life-threatening health crisis. A small lesion developed on his right front leg. He started licking and scratching it non-stop. It reached the point that we took him to an emergency veterinary clinic yesterday. An initial physical examination and series of X-Rays indicated that Alfred had a malignant tumor in the bone of his right leg. It would be a terminal event for him. We were shocked and heartbroken. Later in the day, the doctors reversed their original diagnosis and were not sure that Alfred's tumor was malignant. We go tomorrow to get a biopsy,
Some years ago, I had gone to the
funerals of two incredible professional women (the mayor of Millbrae,
California, and one of Elena's doctor colleagues) who had never smoked but both
died of lung cancer in their mid-50s. I got a shocking diagnosis. A small
growth was detected in the lower part of one of my lungs. A Pulmonologist made
the diagnosis that there was a 90%+ chance that it was malignant. I was face to
face with my mortality. I was going to die in my mid-60s. I would follow in my
father's footsteps. I would die due to lung problems.
Elena spent 16 years as a cancer doctor in Argentina.
She looked at my CT scans of the growth on my lung. She saw no sparkling
speckles around the growth. She told me that most likely the growth was not
malignant.
A treatment regime was initiated. Every six
months I would go in for a CT scan of the growth. The goal was to see if the
growth got larger. In two years, the growth did not get larger. My life was not
going to end due to lung cancer.
With Alfred, Elena came up with the idea of
using radiation therapy to lengthen Alfred's life while providing a good
quality of life for him. There is some hope!
Sunday, July 17, 2022
China Is Now #1 In The World In Industrial Capoacity!!
There is a
fascinating article in the newspaper today about China opening a corn mill in
the heart of the US agricultural country. It emphasizes that our economies have
become tightly intertwined and one dependent on the other.
You have heard me talk about Ward Carroll
numerous times. Dad Ned Carroll was a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps with a
distinguished record of flying jets in combat. When it came time to go to
college, Ward chose the US Navy Academy. He had to try very hard to get in. He
was determined to follow in his father's footsteps and become a fighter pilot.
He graduated from the Naval Academy with a degree in political science. He
reported to flight school. He got the bad news that he would never be a pilot
due to a defect in his eyesight. Ward, one never to quit, was determined to fly
fighters. He opted to become a Naval Flight Officer. He would sit in the back
seat of a fighter and fire the missiles, etc. Ward earned his wings. He spent
15 years flying F-14s off aircraft carrier decks. He saw combat missions in
Desert Storm and the Iraqi war. He migrated to being a flight instructor. He
did a good job and ended up as an instructor at the US Navy Academy.
Ward wrote a novel titled "Punk's
War" about F-14s flying off aircraft carrier decks. Getting a novel
published is like "winning the lottery." Ward's first book got
published by a serious publisher. He wrote two other books. He found himself
sought out by television news services. He was often interviewed as a military
expert.
Ward rose to the rank of commander. He
retired after 20 years in the US Navy. He reinvented himself on the internet. He
did such a good job that the U.S Naval Institute hired him to run their
web-based operations. Ward developed a great podcast. I joined. Every few days
he talks about military history. He gives briefings on current military
situations.
A few days ago, Ward got concerned about
China building a third aircraft carrier. It will be nuclear-powered. It will
have electromagnetic catapults to launch aircraft. The ship as well as its
aircraft appear to be copied from US designs.
Ward made a surprising statement. China now
has more industrial capacity than the US. They can build a ship faster than we
can. We have been the industrial powerhouse of the world for 80 years. Now
China is surpassing us.
Did Ward see a war coming between the US
and China? No, he said that the two economies were too intertwined. We will
have fierce competition.
Saturday, July 16, 2022
Friday, July 15, 2022
An Accurate Praise Of Nuclear Power
| Suicide by Monetary and Energy Policy |
| by Chris MacIntosh |
 |
| - |
The war — and it is a war — between the Western-led economic, social and political system and that of the East becomes more visible weekly.
Doug Casey recently said it well:
"We’re now undergoing our own Great Cultural Revolution. It’s much more serious than what the Chinese attempted in the ’60s. Why? Because a whole complex of destructive ideas have now captured the apparatus of most governments, academia, media, entertainment, charities, and large corporations. The public has been both subtlety and overtly indoctrinated for generations. It’s not easy to reverse a trend this large."
It is not easy to reverse a trend, so instead we follow the trends and do our best to position for the best results we can. Today we’ll focus on the energy trend.
Let’s take a look at uranium.
Next up, India.
India To Build Nuclear Power Plants In "Fleet Mode" From 2023
"New Delhi: With the first pour of concrete for a 700 MW atomic power plant in Karnataka’s Kaiga scheduled in 2023, India is set to put in motion construction activities for 10 ‘fleet mode’ nuclear reactors over the next three years."
It’s not just about economics or geography. At its base level, it’s about an entire economic, social, and political system.
Energy is everything. Always has been. You take any country that has managed to decrease poverty and raise living standards and at the core of this transition you’ll find energy. The reverse is also true.
Let us contrast this now with what we’re seeing in the world of the woke, where people with no experience in energy let alone business now make the decisions for both. These central planners have decided that "renewable energy," which doesn’t produce much energy and isn’t renewable, is the way to go and anyone that disagrees is a terrorist.
To contrast, for instance, nuclear power with that of solar, realize that nuclear power requires 18x fewer materials than solar. 18 times!
Meanwhile…
Over in the US, Chevron CEO just came out informing us that due to the pointy shoes in DC’s "policy decisions" he can’t see that there will ever be another refinery built in the US.
Thursday, July 14, 2022
Syria-The Forgotten War
Oozing Wounds
SYRIA
Recently, some British tourists in Aleppo marveled at how rebel snipers a few years ago fired on Syrian government troops from the very same positions where archers nearly a millennia ago defended the ancient Citadel of Aleppo from Christian Crusaders.
European tourists are returning to Syria.
These visits have garnered criticism, of course. As the Washington Post explained, these tourists are arguably helping finance the brutal and dictatorial regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
One might add that these tourists are putting themselves in danger, too. While fighting in the Syrian Civil War has subsided, more violence might erupt at any moment, noted World Politics Review.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is now dominating the news cycle. But Syria remains perhaps the most tragic and bloody conflict in recent memory. More than 300,000 civilians died in the fighting that started in 2011, the United Nations recently found. That figure doesn’t include another 100,000 combatants or civilians who perished from starvation, sickness or other consequences of war. The war also displaced millions from their homes.
An anonymous testifier referred to as the “gravedigger” recently told the US Senate that Assad’s regime is still digging mass graves for rebels, CNN wrote. “Every week, twice a week, three trailer trucks arrived packed with 300 to 600 bodies of victims of torture, bombardment and slaughter,” said the gravedigger. “Twice a week, three to four pickup trucks with 30 to 40 bodies of civilians that had been executed in Sednaya prison also arrived for disposal in the most inhumane way.”
Iran and Turkey also continue to meddle in Syrian affairs while also vying with each other for influence in the country, Al-Monitor wrote. The Islamic State remains active there. Refugee camps have become hotbeds of recruitment for the militants, reported Haaretz. Syrian leaders have condemned Israel for alleged attacks against Hezbollah terrorists on their territory, Reuters added.
The Syrian Civil War also kicked off a migrant crisis in Europe and the Middle East that is still going on to this day. Officials in neighboring Lebanon are now trying to repatriate tens of thousands of Syrians who fled the fighting, for example, the Associated Press reported.
Global conditions are not necessarily making it easier for people to put the war behind them, either. Observers are hoping Russian diplomats in the UN Security Council, for example, don’t exercise their right to veto aid shipments to areas that are still under rebel control in Syria. Russia is allied with Assad. Amnesty International warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” if the aid is not allowed through.
These developments illustrate how one of the worst disasters of the contemporary era won’t be over until it is 100 percent over. Unfortunately, that day is not in sight.