no one there

Yesterday, or maybe Friday, I read an article in the financial news on the internet about the new CEO of J.C. Pennies and the changes he was bringing about. The article noted that the striking thing about the stores these days is that there are pitifully few customers. The author was trying to make the case that the new CEO was primarily to blame for this.

Then, yesterday morning the government report on July retail sales came out. First the headline number was an "unexpected" 0.8% gain (after readjusting the previous months number by 0.2% downward, this is getting to be so tedious and repetitious that I won't even go into it, many others already have.)

Zero Hedge had this to say about the report:

The July retail sales beat came as a surprise to many: an 0.8% increase (full series here) at a time when the data was supposed to grow at less than half this would surely be indicative of a potential turnaround in the US economy. Then we decided to do a quick spot check if maybe the Census Bureau had not adopted one of the BLS' worst habits: fudging seasonal adjustment factors. The reason for this is because we happened to notice that Not Seasonally Adjusted (full series here) retail sales data in July actually declined by 0.9% from $405.8 to $402 billion. Of course, if the Census Bureau was using a consistent, or at least remotely comparable July seasonal adjustment factor as it has in the past, this would make sense and we would move on. So we decided to look at what the July seasonal adjustment variance over the past decade has been. What we found would have shocked us if indeed this is not precisely what we expected: with the July seasonal adjustment factor routinely subtracting a substantial amount from the NSA number, averaging at -$5.2 billion, in 2012, for the first time this decade, the seasonal adjustment not only did not subtract, but in fact added "value" to the NSA number, resulting in a seasonally adjusted number that was $1.9 billion higher than the NSA number at $403.9 billion.

(link)

Then, Morgan Stanley had this retort to Zero Hedge (musta hit a sore spot, usually they try to ignore them):

From Morgan Stanley's chief economist, David Greenlaw: There is some crazy analysis on Zero Hedge that seems to be getting some traction because a few clients have asked about it (see their chart below).

link

Okay, are you still with me? Because finally, we get this article in the financial news .... Wall Street Prepares for more Layoffs, from CNN

See where I am going? Apparently its not just J.C. Pennies who has no customers. In fact, yesterday evening I sauntered up to my local mall, not to buy anything but just to check things out for myself (since the media are getting to be SO reliable these days ....). J.C.Pennies was about empty. But, so Was Macy's. And Sears. And Borders. I also noticed that the woman in the little hookah shop was fast asleep, while the woman at the cell phone shop was playing games on her phone.

EOF

books

I just finished reading a book about black whalemen. There were quite a few. It was a low paying, hard work, dangerous job but it offered a glimmer of hope, and freedom, and so they took it. The industry made important inroads to ending slavery, to the underground railroad, and to the beginnings of equality.

Now I am reading "A voyage for madmen" about a race held for solo pilots to navigate a sailboat "around the world", in 1968. A reminder of how short people tend especially to fight and scrap, against the pharisees (I bet Jesus was short), against the european kings (Napolean), against the sea. Its an enthralling tale.

The world markets, which have been ugly for some time now, just got uglier, after hours. The latest pets, Apple and Netflix, disappointed and they are selling hard in after hours. Tomorrow will be the worst day on the markets in quite some time.

I have lost quite a bit of money the last few years by selling short while the Federal Reserve prints and spends (and buys emini futures??????) But I've always known it will end badly for them when it ends. Do I need to say that I am still short?

I have struggled and fought against authority all my life.

Here I am now fighting all authority of all mankind.

And tonight, there's just a glimmer of a ray of hope.

I just may win this fight .....

one question

I just have one question, for the folks who are selling this morning .... US stocks, bonds, european stocks, spanish bonds, greek anything, houses, oil, gold, corn, Chinese tech, whatever.

What took you all so long?

the greatest country in the world

I ran across this video on you tube today....

So there are still people of courage, of vision, of imagination, of compassion, who care about a little bit more than just where their next cigarette or big gulp is coming from ....

When this mess collapses from the weight of its greed, its sloth, its arrogance, from the ashes, people will arise and build greatness again ....

something is up.

If you have not yet caught on to all the debate about "chemtrails", now might not be too late to get up to speed. Google it. Then spend some time on You Tube looking at peoples' videos. As for me, I do not have a concrete opinion about them, I can not verify that they are "different" than contrails, I cannot verify that there are black or silver threads descending upon us or that there is an uncommon amount of alumina in the air or falling into our topsoil. I just do not know.

Further, it would not surprise me at all to learn that our government and "the powers that be" decided that they are so smart that they can tinker successfully with the weather and the climate. This is the primary hypothesis of explanation for the "pro-chemtrail" side of the debate, although there are other explanations, some of them far more nefarious.

However, I do know one thing for sure. God pointed this out to me recently and so far I have not heard of anyone else noticing.

They stopped.

Some time about two or three months ago, the contrails or chemtrails or whatever they are, stopped. Maybe the one that I flew through when returning from Memphis this past spring, was one of the last ones. For weeks now I have been looking, looking, looking up at the sky and not seeing any. Not on clear days or partly cloudy days or any other kind of weather. None.

Not only that, but even more unbelievably, the stinking helicopters seem to have ceased also. Never mind that I live close to the river where some stupid yahoo gets himself drowned at least once a day and all the rescue operations love flying. Never mind that I am within bicycling range of Camp David, perhaps the very center of governmental flying bathtub syndrome. I have not seen any, not one, in this space of time.

For once my rioting imagination is completely stumped. I cannot come up with one scenario which can explain this sudden, unannounced, unnoticed, change in the habits of TPTB. I am totally baffled. (it does not, however, surprise me at all that no one else has noticed or said anything..... common people are so very slow, especially in this society, where too much money and arrogance have made everybody stupid, egocentric and blind ...) The terrible drought which began unfolding across the midsection of our continent might theoretically have something to do with it. Were they trying to reduce global warming or the greenhouse effect and their plans began to backfire and they realized they had better stop? Or, were they trying to make things worse for everybody and create food and water shortages which will, not too far down the road, bring about a massive population reduction, and they realized that they have been totally successful and they can stop now? I don't have the faintest miasma of an idea. If anybody has any theories, concrete or fantastical, I would sure appreciate some comments on this one ....

hornets

Sometime in the spring, a community of hornets took up residence in the mailbox right next to my front door. (perhaps they had first checked with my postmaster, who had long since duly decreed that I must put a box at the bottom of my front steps if I desire to receive mail at my address.)

One time, I lifted up the lid and was promptly stung. It hurt pretty much, for about five minutes, and then I forgot about it as I had other things to deal with.

Obviously, every time that I come in or go out of my front door, I must take special caution not to disturb them, or let any of them inside. I cannot allow myself to be distracted. But beyond that we have a live-and-let-live policy, to wit: they don't mess with me and I don't mess with them. So far both sides have been cooperating and living in peace.

This morning, I got to thinking about the U.S. 5th fleet base in Bahrain. Don't ask me why I thought of them, I just did. But if I were peacefully trying to live out my life in Iran, they just might resemble a bunch of hornets.

Not quite the same, though .... hornets don't go around stinging each other and stinging the flies and the stray cats and the bricks in the neighborhood. Guess its not a good analogy, after all.

rights

I picked out a selection of music off of my hard drive to play this afternoon. It was something that I had not listened to in awhile, I cannot tell you how long. Up pops the error message "You do not have the rights to play this music selection. To gain access to the rights, go here."

f*cking Microsoft. Listen to me cause I am only gonna say this once.

First of all, yes, I DO have the rights to play this music, I purchased it over 15 years ago, I still have the original purchase, I have dutifully maintained the medium and I have made legitimate backup copies as required to maintain it and I have honestly and faithfully translated it whenever "the powers that be" have chosen to upgrade methods of media and playback. I'm sorry that I am not thrilled about your program of suppressing new artists and of periodically changing the dominant media-playing devices and media storage formats for the purpose of attempting to sell and resell the same old creations over and over and over again without ever paying the artists because they are all dead now. Exactly how legitimate do you think you are?

Second, YOU do not have the right to tell me that I do not have the right to play it. You are not the artist, not the composer, and you do not own the copyright. Furthermore, you are not employed by any government as a police organization. As it happens, none of your current or past employees have ever shown one smidgeon of the talent required to produce the kinds of music that I tend to listen to. You can talk about intellectual property rights all you want, but that doesn't mean that you have any intellect.

Stop it.