Zero Hedge: Sheep being fattened up for the slaughter

Message from moi:

The public's answer? More of the same---witness Thad Cochran.

Published on Zero Hedge (http://www.zerohedge.com)

Home > The Keynesian End Game Is Near: No Escape Velocity This Year, Either

---

The Keynesian End Game Is Near: No Escape Velocity This Year, Either

By Tyler Durden

Created 06/27/2014 - 19:50

The economic releases of the past few days are putting the lie to the Keynesian escape velocity myth. The latter is not just around the corner—-and 2014 is now virtually certain to mark the fifth year running when the boom predicted by Wall Street economist at the beginning of the year fizzled as actual results unfolded.

You may want to reach escape velocity out of the big cities.  There's going to be trouble eventually.

---

Source URL: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-27/keynesian-end-game-near-no-escape-velocity-year-either

High cost of dentistry

Hey, if you don't have coverage for dental work, you'd better get it.  This crap costs a ton.  Unfortunately, I'm going to need some expensive services here.  That could mess up my plans.  There's a few options I can consider.  Not surprisingly, the cheapest alternative is the one that may not work.  The best alternative is the most complex procedure that costs the most.

Dental coverage could have been had under Obamacare, but I decided against it.  Oh well.  It'd be nice to charge Uncle Sam for this, but that would make me a hypocrite now wouldn't it?  I'm only carrying what I'm required to carry by law.  Irony of ironies that the government is making me pay for something I don't really need right now, but what I do need isn't covered.

I've got a couple weeks to decide.

One more post before leaving for next errand

Yeah, I said that I have a full schedule today, and so it is.

Now that the van is finished, I am sitting before the screen trying to think up a quick post before I go.  While I was at the shop, the discussion was about poker.   I was tempted to say the entire exercise was a complete waste of time ( talking about poker of all things ), but I kept my mouth shut.

If the discussion wasn't about poker, I would have talked to the shop owner about his RV.  Just some basic questions.  It wouldn't be useful for me because it doesn't have 4 wheel drive.  But how it works may be of interest to me.  He showed me this RV before, but that was when I didn't have any questions about it.  It seemed like a nice little outfit.  I recall it had a toilet and maybe a shower.  Nice little amenities in such a small package.  But it would sink like the Titanic in that soft sandy soil out in West Texas.  You have to keep it on that well beaten path.

On another note:  Barnhardt had a discussion about negative interest rates.  It doesn't surprise me the way things are going.  You are going to have to pay to deposit your money.  Makes perfect sense to me! /sarc  Her twitter link provides a story which shows the usual government propaganda about how great everything is, so not to worry!  I'm so reassured.

I'm not critical of Barnhardt, but the opposite, by the way.  Her analysis looks sound and is most likely correct.  But the great herd of unwashed masses are playing poker.  As Bart Simpson would say "Ay Caramba!"

We've got a shark and the "leaders" are telling us that the water is fine!  Yeah, right.

A short post about life

This post has to be short because I am pressed for time.  As I mentioned last night, I have a busy schedule today, so there won't be time for a lot of reading and then writing about that.

Instead of reading, I am thinking about the past a bit.  You know, sometimes I get the impression that someone I once knew years ago is coming here and sending me hints of her presence.  Yet, if she is doing this, she won't write--- neither in an email nor in a comment here on this blog.  If so, why not?

Now, you may think my imagination is getting away from me, and you may be right.  On the other hand, I have known women who sent out the hints and I KNOW that they were doing it.  Why do women act like that?  It has always struck me as completely self-defeating to send out a hint, but then not respond when I respond to it.  Quite frustrating and incomprehensible.  But as I noted once before on this here blog, there may well be good reason for that kind of behavior.  But it leaves me in a bad position.  What do I do about this?  Man up?  Puh leeze!  I am just a man, not a mind reader.  I don't know what you have on your mind if you won't say.  Not for a lady to say?  Then friggin' talk about the weather.  Just don't sit there like a knot on a log.

There's a little scene of how you can get a "pregnant pause".  It was from the movie As Good As It Gets, starring Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt.  She did manage to communicate, but not without difficulty.  She came all the way across town in the rain to tell Jack Nicholson's character that she wouldn't ever, ever sleep with him.  You know what?  I would really like that kind of candor.  Trouble is, there is no way in hell you are ever going to get that from any woman.  It would take someone unusual to do something like that.  Maybe even a bit crazy.  But on the other hand, what's wrong with it?  Hell, if you feel that way, why not say it and save a lot of time and effort?  I like things to be cut and dried.  Obviously, in this life, you don't get things the way you want.  You may have to make compromises and so forth.

On the other hand, if you do feel that way, why not say it?  Of course, it is not "lady-like" to say it.  OKAY, I GET IT.  Just stop it with the mystery, okay?  I don't like that.  All the hints and stuff make mystery and that ticks me off.  I like answers, not more questions.  Romance is ridiculous and highly overrated.  It's not all about skyrockets in flight and all that bullcrap.  Come to think of it, I think people prefer the bullcrap.  Maybe that's the reason this blog isn't successful.  People just can't nor won't handle the truth.

New problem emerges

This idea of going to live in this desert area is going to be a challenge, no question about it.  The results of the soil test were negative for clay, which means a number of things.  One, you can't make adobe bricks with the soil on hand.  Two, it may be a hazard because sand that gets deep enough will be hard to drive a vehicle upon it.  It will get stuck as the wheels sink into the sand.  You need wide profile tires, and most likely a 4 wheel drive vehicle.  Three, the sand can come loose, especially in high winds.  There are high winds in the area.  There may be frequent "sandstorms".  Four, erosion occurs because of the nature of the sand.  Not only from wind, but from rain.  The surrounding mountains will send water runoff down with a lot of force that will gouge out huge cracks in the sand.  Sometimes, an area can collapse altogether.  If this happens near a road, the road is washed out.

That last sentence allows me to segue into the most significant problem is I see for now.  You have to be able to transit into and out of the place, or you won't be able to do anything useful at all.  If roads gets washed out frequently enough, that will make the job all but impossible.  But roads do not have to be washed out to be a problem.  You can get stuck into a rut quite easily.  I noticed plenty of ruts in the road.  You really need a specialized vehicle to deal with these situations.  A horse?  You have to keep a horse fed, sheltered, and watered.  A horse may be OK if you are around all the time.  I can't be there all the time, or even much of the time at all.

A four wheeled vehicle for the double duty of working in as a delivery vehicle is an option.  I haven't checked that out as of this writing.  However, there are other options that I've looked into.  There's 4 wheeled ATVs, but these seem to cost a bit more than I would like.  Something really cheap like a toy scooter with a 50 cc gasoline motor might do the trick.  A "toy scooter"???   Yes, because it is cheap, relatively speaking, and I would only need it for special situations.  This one I was looking at has a 20 mile range, it claims.  More than enough to get back to town, if that is what I need to do.  No place to put cargo, unfortunately.  If you get stuck with your big vehicle, you may have to go fetch help to get out.  That's too expensive, so it may be wise to take along a scooter if traveling back is not an option.  The scooter can get you to town, hopefully, since it has the range.

Besides the roads washing out, the sand may be troublesome when trying to dig holes.  I noticed that when taking the soil sample.  The problem is that the hole fills in when you take out soil.  This means that the hole will cave in.  In other words, it won't be stable.  That's a problem I will have to solve later when I start upon that task.

Getting shelter up is really important.  If getting something up like a double wall to shield from the sun and wind, that would be a big plus.  A tarp could go over the top of it, when needed.  So, transit and getting a shelter in place are top priorities.  Each of these are complicated by the overabundance of sand.

Advance notice

Blogging will continue to be light.  I may put in some posts early in the morning, but around 8 am or so, I'm going to have to do some stuff that's been long overdue.

Do I need to go into details?  Yes, I suppose so.  I'm very bad at taking care of myself.  I didn't go to a dentist for a long time, and now I've got a problem.  Okay?  So, I'm going to have to take care of that problem.  This may be an ongoing series of visits for what could be a lot of dental work.  This will make the dentist happy and me not so happy.  But it has to be done.

Secondly, I'm going to have to do some maintenance work on the van.  So, tomorrow is pretty much booked.  How many posts I can do will be limited.

Soil test

On my trip out West, I managed to think of getting a soil sample to bring back home.  Yay, me.

Seriously, this is important.  I need to know what kind of soil is out there with respect to making adobe bricks.  If it doesn't have enough clay in it, that could be a problem.  Wish I had more samples.  I only got one.  It's like Lays potato chips.  ( You can't eat just one. )

I've already learned one thing from getting the sample itself.  The soil may be super sandy.  That makes sense.  If the mountains in the vicinity are mostly made of sandstone, then this accounts for all the sandy soil.  That place could have been a beach millions of years ago.

As of this writing, I've just placed a soil sample in a glass jar in a 2/3 to 1/3 ratio as indicated here.  I will let it sit overnight, and check the results in the morning.

Update:

RESULTS:   No clay in this soil.  Nearly 100% sand.  There was a top layer of what I could describe as "scum", which may be biological in origin.  This is useless for adobe bricks.