Silver Bullet Theatrics:  The Comedic Jobs Report

My friend Howard Hill called last night, please to advise me that he had written the big story about this morning's unemployment number a day ahead of the event.  So I'm sitting there wondering WTH?  I mean Howard's good and all, but still...  When you click over to his site, however, all is revealed:  Howard's simply taken to calling it what it is.  Example:

"Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that we have such a pathetic economic recovery today, since the “wise old men” the current administration trusts are the same people (in many cases), and believe the same discredited crap about economics as the “wise old men” who engineered the debt- and leverage-driven collapse of the world economy a few years ago."

You really oughta get some cheap economics schooling by reading the whole article over here.

Being the calm and milder mannered reporter from a great outback newspaper, able to leap, yada, yada, I'll be posting the second part on Peoplenomics tomorrow of "The End of ALL Jobs" which is the problem no one likes to talk about, but with robotics, metal printing/manufacturing-on-demand in the wings and a jobs per human that has been whacked roughly in half since 1953 in America, the cause for our fixation with single-digititis (sometimes irreverently referred to as statistical savior economics, or silver-bullet bullshit) is well founded:  Economists don't have a clue what happens next.

When there are no jobs (or only a handful of machine maintenance jobs once machines begin designing machines, a process we're halfway down the road on thanks to software and automation already) how are people to be paid?  And for what?  Work?

Most folks haven't grokked what Honda's got going in the wings with their ASIMO program, but the answer is simple:  ASIMO with a few tweaks and a credit card scanner can wipe out virtually every job in retail, including pizza delivery, and even housekeeping there is.

In a recent Peoplenomics report, Oilman2 contributed some examples of how RP (rapid prototyping) technology was about to what lots of highly paid jobs down in the oil patch support ranks.  What used to involve hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of human labor building precision drilling bits, is on the verge of being marched out back, given the ceremonial last smoke, blindfolded and put up against the wall.

Let me say it again:  There's not a single efftard economist being quoted in the MSM on the severity of the problem.  But if you thought the internet was the weapon of mass destruction of jobs, you ain't seen nothing yet. 

With this as the warm-up act, we will try not to ruin the rest of this morning's performance by pointing out that theater has been set on fire and no one is particularly concern.  So y'all just sit back and enjoy the show.  May I have the envelope?

As I'm opening it, let me say it again:  If you're under 25 you will face this problem for real.  Robotics and automation are coming to get your job and with Google testing self-driving cars in Nevada, automatic landing systems doing CAT 3 landings of aircraft, maybe the Kapitalist wet dream of no workers to deal with is closer than you might think.  So do think a bit about what history teaches us about people who have no redeeming value and ask "Am I only worth what I consume, not what I make?"  and "How come robotics and automation aren't taxed at parity (or above) human tax rates since they destroy jobs?" 

Would you raise the curtain, please?

8.2%

Now all the fine print stuff:

"Nonfarm payroll employment changed little in May (+69,000), and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 8.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in health care, transportation and warehousing, and wholesale trade but declined in construction. Employment was little changed in most other major industries.

Household Survey Data

Both the number of unemployed persons (12.7 million) and the unemployment rate (8.2 percent) changed little in May. (See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (7.8 percent) and Hispanics (11.0 percent) edged up in May, while the rates for adult women (7.4 percent), teenagers (24.6 percent), whites (7.4 percent), and blacks (13.6 percent) showed little or no change. The jobless rate for Asians was 5.2 percent in May (not seasonally adjusted), down from 7.0 percent a year earlier. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) rose from 5.1 to 5.4 million in May. These individuals accounted for 42.8 percent of the unemployed. (See table A-12.)

The civilian labor force participation rate increased in May by 0.2 percentage point to 63.8 percent, offsetting a decline of the same amount in April. The employment- population ratio edged up to 58.6 percent in May. (See table A-1.)"

And the number of "estimated into existence jobs from the CES Birth/Death Model?  I assumed that the estimated jobs (created from statistical aether) will be much larger than the claimed jobs increase, and guess what?

Statistically "created" jobs was 204,000 which means real, provable jobs were down whatever 204k minus 69K is.  OK, real (net provable) jobs were down 135,000

And the U-6 Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization number?  If real jobs were down, this measure of unemployment ought to go up, right?

Well, lookie here:  from 14.5% to 14.8% in the PhD's Flipping Cheeseburgers index.  Look surprised!

Now, for bonus round, the free trip to Hawaii, and whatever is behind curtail number three, can you guess which way the market will open since I went short yesterday?

Global Train Wreck Dept

I don't suppose you notice that Japan took out the key 8,500 handle overnight?

And EuroCollapse, editors cut, features the French CAC blowing through the 3,000 support  level, and The City denizens still ain't getting it: their Unemployed Kingdom FTSE is down only .85% but that's so far.  Maybe they'll get a clue as we tank at the open here.

Tea and crumpet, in the meantime?

The End (Really is) Near

I entered the short side of the market yesterday and ignored my logical exit point which would have scalped a buck on a $26 dollar trade for the day.  Why?  Well there was something in the wind - and if the early futures hold (down 26 points on the S&P, Robin Landry's key number 1,292.66 is going to fall like a knife through butter and the end of the end is game on.  Sorry, but I told you being in bonds with retirement dough will make sense.

Not like it's just George the Nutter in the Outback on this:  On Scribd this morning you can find a dynamite slide show (32 pages, but it's a quick read) about how what I've been writing about since 1996/97 here is really coming to pass shortly....like starting today...

 The End Game

Key quote if you skipped by it:  "The problem is not Government debt per se. The real problem is that the $70 trillion in G10 debt is the collateral for $700 trillion of derivatives..."

Why merciful sakes, doesn't that sound familiar? 

Crooks of the Senate

No worries on the jobs report - Washington will save us.  Unless...uh...absolute power corrupts absolutely, right?  So go read the article on the Washington Guardian site titled "Skeletons Haunt Senate Hopefuls: Thirteen candidates have past bankruptcies or criminal records..."

I'm not so worried about the criminal records...people can change.  But headed into what is likely to be the worst economic mess in over 200 years, who in their right mind would trust people who can't manage their own money, to be trusted with the public's money?  Times are fruitier than a nutcake.

On further thought, there may not be enough people left in 'Merica who are in their "right minds" to matter. 

The John Problem

Two time(ing?) White House wannabe John Edwards is likely on pins and needles since the jury acquitted on one count and deadlocked on the other charges against him.  Question on the table is whether there will be a retrial on the deadlocked issues?  Public's in a hanging mood toward politicos (or will be after today's trading) so I figure it's probable but not certain.

Try to keep in mind Edwards is a symptom, not the disease...

A Seattle Obit

Terrible shooting spree up in Seattle this week - and it brought a note from daughter Denise about the impact of senseless violence:

Hi Dad,

I just found out that me and Lindsey's co-star, Kimberly Lynn Layfield was one of the victims of the shooting yesterday...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Rod_Girls_Save_the_World 

I worked on this film a little over a year after moving back from New Orleans. I remember telling Kim how I moved away from New Orleans because it was so crazy violent. The irony of this is not lost on me. I liked her. She was nice.

And while the outbreak of violence continues, another story about zombie-like behavior is coming to light in Baltimore.

Seems to me the question is not "Is the world going nuts?"  Far past that point, I'm afraid: The real question is "How far nuts do we go in these episodes?"

---

Now, speaking of horrific crimes, we're off to watch the rape of retirement accounts, playing today in zombie markets near you... I trust you'll watch this safely and guilt-free because you told all your friends to read UrbanSurvival, am I right?

The major change to note is that global declines long held by economic theories are now past the point of "materializing."  From today on, the correct terminology is metastasizing.   As I summed up in a report some years back:  One Over Virtuous Cycle is here:  Bonus round that takes out the 2009 lows and then some.

Sorry.

Coping: With the Future of Gold and Silver

Time to refocus a bit on economic things, and we kick around a very good question from a reader:

Every once and a while you hear that the/a government is going to confiscate gold from vaults when the poop hits the fan. Occasionally you hear the SEC stops trading on certain stocks at limit down, Russia closed their markets this year for a few days.

 

Hypothetically can the US government stop the trading of short ETF’s?

 

Again if you own them could the government stop their trading for an indefinite period of time or even terminate/liquidate the whole position? Has our government ever rendered a position valueless? You and I have had conversations about going short in index funds going on 5 years and this just crossed my mind.

 

What do you think on this topic, will the government scapegoat the bears?

 

This is in no way financial advise (my last email on your long position was friendly concern), this is one crazy old buzzard who worked in the salt mines on Wall Street in the early mid 70’s spent some time in our military worked in the construction industry & was forced out in April 07 during a buyout (thank God). I feel that the bear is coming like a mega tsunami of historic proportions.

 

I have prepared gotten my finances, home, food, fuel, kids college all straight. I am locked and loaded, & feel years of prep is still not enough. I’ve been in places and done things, that most do not ever do, I had to have to play big, get lucky, rely on training and the knowledge I was flat out better than my adversary. I do not feel I match up, there are no rules and or they change; and the referee’s are playing favorites.

 

Is it possible to survive?        Your buddy,

First off, on the question about ETFs:  Yes government can do whatever it wants since, when it feels threatened, all it needs to do is haul out the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (of 1977) which summarizes in Wikipedia this way:

"In the United States Code the IEEPA is Title 50, sections 1701-1707. The IEEPA authorizes the president to declare the existence of an "unusual and extraordinary threat... to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States" that originates "in whole or substantial part outside the United States." It further authorizes the president, after such a declaration, to block transactions and freeze assets to deal with the threat. In the event of an actual attack on the United States, the president can also confiscate property connected with a country, group, or person that aided in the attack.

The IEEPA falls under the provisions of the National Emergencies Act (NEA), which means that an emergency declared under the act must be renewed annually to remain in effect, and can be terminated by Congressional resolution."

No, it does not require a war per se:  Only existence of an unusual and extraordinary threat, which, believe me, this administration (or any other, regardless of party) would jump on in a NY second faced with global economic collapse later this year or next.  So yes, if you don't get out of ETF's (and get your money the hell out of a stock account) you can bet your bippy it would be frozen as part of a Bank Holiday of the 1930's variety.

Now, that gives us a "legal" framework to launch from, since once in power, governments tend to be "self-legalizing" - a topic for a much deeper study.  But in answer to your question, this is precisely the kind of thing Robin Landry and I talk about when we get together:  What will the order of collapse be.  When will be the moment to bail on short positions and make a clean move to your bank or into physical assets?

On your second question: Of course government will blame "short sellers" but this will be unadulterated bullshit, so be ready for it when it arrives. That happened in the 1930's event and it will happen again.  Everyone will be wrong (except government) and everyone but excess spending and watering down the dollar's purchasing power done hand-in-hand with congressional approval will be blamed.  The corporate ownerships will love it because in the short term, it might result in something of a bounce so owners of companies can cash in.

Yes, it is possible to survive.  Keep your mouth shut and go with the flow and always have a number of exit strategies from any situation.  Why do you think Clif is building a boat?  Why do we have a "magic carpet?"  A wise person would have some land, sea, and air skills banked by now, along with some grub and means to grow a subsistence existence.

But it may not be pretty:  Should the global collapse be avoided, it will still be many times worse than the "nearly lost it" events of 2009.  Government will be bailing out "to big to fail" outfits right and left.  Do you know anyone who actually has stock certificates in hand anymore?  Turn off the internet and what have you got? 

My book on that little nightmare is almost complete - I should have it available in about two or three weeks.  In the meantime, last week's Peoplenomics report outlining the systemic attacks on autonomous systems (home gardening, home chicken raising, homeowner association rules that remove property rights, requirements to hook up to city water and sewage, and on, and on...) is a must-read, as well.

Feel better for asking?

Friday at the WuJo

Ah, here's a fine email:

"Hi, George,

I've been reading your blog for years and have always been interested in the WuJo stories. I have had some woo woo stuff happen over the years but feel compelled to write you now because of something that happened to my husband this week. Unlike me, he is not particularly interested in the paranormal and is quite the skeptic. He is very much a practical person who doesn't entertain the possibility of supernatural events, which makes his experience unlikely to be the product of an overactive imagination. While his experience is unlike any of your recent reports, I wanted to add it to the record since it may be another example of the "thinning of the veils" between dimensions.

My husband related his experience to me yesterday (Wednesday), but it occurred on Tuesday at his workplace. He works for a manufacturing firm that has a military/government presence on the site. Many ex-military work for the company, and the facility is monitored by government officials because some of the work there is related to military defense--not experimental in nature but still regulated. Not sure if it is relevant to the event but thought it should be noted. My husband's desk is in an open area close to the operations part of the plant. He was working on his computer when he felt a hand firmly clasp his shoulder. He immediately turned around, saying "Hey" as he did so and was stunned to find that no one was standing there. He had thought that a colleague had approached him from behind and was greatly disturbed to see no one anywhere close in the vicinity.

I questioned him closely about the event. I asked him if it was a light touch or a firm one and if he could have imagined the touch. He was adamant that he most definitely felt the clasp and demonstrated the firmness by gripping my own shoulder. He said he immediately got up and surveyed the area to make sure someone hadn't ducked behind a nearby desk, but there was no one remotely close to him. He wasn't sure of the significance of the clasp, but he speculated that he had been touched by God or some other spiritual entity. He said for the rest of the day, he thought he had been touched for a reason and imagined that he was either going to die of a heartache that day or win the lottery! Of course, neither event happened, and he told me the next day when the perceived danger had passed. He has no idea why it happened. I have asked him to let me know immediately if anything else unexplained happens to him. I am curious to see whether any of your readers have had anything similar happen recently.

As for time anomalies, I have had a couple of experiences. The first happened several years ago while visiting Mesa Verde National Park with friends. There were four of us, and I was the only one with any interest in the WuJo. Two of the others are engineers and one is a math teacher, and all three view the world from a scientific perspective. We had purchased timed tickets to some of the cliff dwellings that you cannot visit without a ranger guide. It was the middle of the day, and we had almost three hours before the next tour, so we decided to stop for lunch at one of the park cafes at an outdoor patio. We were careful to note the time because we had to drive a distance to the next tour location. We got lunch and ate it fairly quickly. While we were talking and enjoying the beautiful day, I glanced at my watch and was surprised to see that instead of being about an hour into lunch, over two hours had passed. I informed my friends, and we were all puzzled by the late hour. Each one of us had the distinct impression that we had lost over an hour of time. All of our watches were in agreement of the time, but our internal clocks belied that fact. I had a sense of disorientation, as did the others. it wasn't simply a matter of losing track of time. We all knew we had not spent two hours at the cafe but were at a loss to explain what happened to the lost time. We talked about it all the way during the drive to the next tour but could not come up with a satisfactory explanation. All four of us were sure that we had lost more than an hour out of our day. I have often sensed a feeling of otherworldliness when traveling in the Southwest and chalked it up to the unexplained in that part of the United States. I know this is not as dramatic as losing a day of time, like your recent reader, but it was the shared feeling of lost time that felt significant to me about our experience in Mesa Verde.

More recently, I had a shared experience of a time anomaly with my husband and son. During this occasion, however, time seemed to stretch instead of contract. It was a weekend day about a month ago at home. Nothing overly dramatic, but all three of us had a strong feeling that the day was lasting unnaturally long. Several times in the afternoon, we noted the time and marveled that it wasn't later in the day. After noting this feeling earlier in the day, we consciously monitored the passing of time the rest of the day and continued to have the feeling that the day and night were lasting longer than normal. Again, it was the shared feeling of a time anomaly that seemed significant. Also, noteworthy to me is that prior to this experience, I had had a feeling of time acceleration over the past few years, which made the loooong day particularly unusual. It reminded me of those sweet days of summer during my youth in which time seemed to extend on and on.

Thank you, George, for providing a forum for your readers in which we can share and compare our experiences of the WuJo. Maybe we can together discover some underlying explanation for all of our varied experiences."

Want a wild-ass guess?  After a near-brush with enlightenment (the internet providing for mass consciousness arising, and coincidentally when CERN is on the verge of figuring out the whole workings of the material world) we discover that we've ripped a hole in the bottom of the boat (economically) and so we descend into a morass of lesser-lifestyle people in order to reorganize and make another run as this mass consciousness stuff.

But, of course, it won't happen for  a good long time, and just like this time around, having shot ourselves in the foot, we'll be taken over by power-hungry groups and organizations which will sell fear, shame, guilt, and all those other negatives into life in order to keep us all under control and away from that dangerous self-realization stuff.  Oh, and when those get shaky, it will be back to guns and clubs again.

You see, there's a good bit of data to suggest this is a cycle:  Arise and fall back otherwise the Vedics would have been successful, or in another cycle, maybe the "How To" book was really in the Library at Alexandria when it burned.

So while the real work may be generally described as "Chop wood, carry water"  in my circle of friends, it's "Chop wood, carry water, build boat, fly magic carpet, prep like the dickens, work on 'right action' and hope the numbers work out.  And if they don't, we'll at least have tried to keep our options open in order to contribute to "what's next,", which is more than most of the rest of the herd which obviously ain't gettin' it."

Which is why our whole framing concept for the morning has been the bankruptcy of silver bullet theatrics as a solution to sand in the Vaseline.

Thursday May 31, 2012

Special Update

Student Loan Debts Near $1-Trillion

Like we don't have enough worries with Euro and Greak, Spanish, etc?  Try this on for size - just crossing...

NEW YORK - In its latest Quarterly Report on Household Debt and is Credit <http://www.newyorkfed.org/creditconditions/index.html> , the is Federal Reserve Bank of New York today announced that student loan debt is reported on consumer credit reports reached $904 billion in the first Reis quarter of 2012, a $30 billion increase from the previous quarter. In is addition, consumer deleveraging continued to advance as overall is indebtedness declined to $11.44 trillion, about $100 billion (0.9 is percent) less than in the fourth quarter of 2011. Since the peak in is household debt in the third quarter of 2008, student loan debt has is increased by $293 billion, while other forms of debt fell a combined $1.53 trillion.

More tomorrow - look for market reaction over the next day or two...

The Hijack of Legislative Process

We begin this morning not with our usual assortment of economic this and thats - we'll serve those up in a minute.  But instead we pause to congratulate state representative Mike Bost of Illinois who called it like it was, telling fellow members of the Illinois House that he was sick of House rules that stripped the full House of power and put it in (look surprised here) that hands of one or two power-brokers - contrary to Constitutional intent. 

We emphasize that this is in Illinois, but the problem is endemic in places like Washington, where bills are introduced in "hurry-up" fashion (remember the Patriot Acts which we so handily available minutes after 9/11?) and shoved through would serious debate.

We could list other egregious errors of process - like the hacking of the legislative process that goes with putting "riders" on bills - pork oftentimes, but if placed in "essential legislation" who can say no?

The American political process is just great.  What's not so-great is the twisting and turning of events to concentrate power into the hands of a well-connected few, instead of the thoughtful (and open would be nice) discussion of critical issues.

So a tip of the hat to Mike Bost, Illinois assemblyman and one of our dwindling supply of honest politicians.  I'm sure we wouldn't agree on all matters, but on the hijacking of process, he got it right.

Creeping Government Dept 2

Then there's NY City which - crazy as it sounds - has plans to outlaw sales of large-sized sugary drinks.  Could happen as early as March, so not much time to move to a free state.

If you live in the Northeast, my condolences from the still free state of Texas.  I'm not aware of any mayors down here who would be so pretentious as to practice medicine or drive costs up for consumers who want to buy the more economical one liter bottles.

And I suppose it would just be a further annoyance if I pointed out that all alcoholic beverages sold in NY contain a far more dangerous long-chain sugar-like molecule, but that might bring me to a discussion of political expediency and hype. I'm just guessing alcohol is more of a public health issue than soda pop.

Meantime, the Fooled and Drugged Administration did get something right (for a change):  Rejected the kinder, gentler name for high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) which was proposed by the refiners:  "corn sugar" since it's not crystaline.

If we could just stick to making liquor, ethanol, on the cob, and fattening cattle....

Speaking of Texas Politics...

You might find this Fox 19 Reality Check of interest, since although the GOP (strong arm division) is asserting Mitt Romney as the presidential pick of the party, there are some interesting possibilities still open.

Six Dead in Seattle

With our plans including a brief stop in Seattle in July, but the Emerald/Jet/Queen City has been having more than its share of violence, including a gunman and five others dead in two shootings.

More worrisome was the report of 60-shots being fired at four houses in the city during drive-bys Saturday.  In quick, out quick for us.

Hanging in Greece

The all too human consequences of financial exploitation are showing up in Greece...things like people hanging themselves in a public park...

Then there's the report about Greek prisons starting to run out of food....

As Goes HP....

...which announced 27-thou of job whacks last week, now Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RiM) is looking at - say reports like this one - 5-thousand fairly soon.

Jobs Reports

Just out from ADP this morning (highlights):

Employment in the U.S. nonfarm private business sector increased by 133,000 from April to May on a seasonally adjusted basis. The estimated gain from March to April was revised down modestly, from the initial estimate of 119,000 to a revised estimate of 113,000.

 

Employment in the private, service-providing sector increased 132,000 in May, after rising a revised 119,000 in April. Employment in the private, goods-producing sector increased 1,000 in May. Manufacturing employment dropped 2,000 jobs, the second consecutive monthly decline.

That ADP reports is current to backward looking.  The forward looking Challenger report is really sour:

CHICAGO, May 31, 2012 –In May, the nation’s employers announced plans to cut 61,887 workers from their payrolls, the most since last September when layoffs totaled 115,730, according to the latest job-cut report released Thursday by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

 

The May job-cut total was up 53 percent from the 40,559 planned layoffs announced in April. It was 67 percent higher May 2011, when employers announced job cuts totaling 37,135. This marks the fourth year-over-year increase in monthly job cuts in 2012.

Markets had been about even earlier, but now, take dart and blindly throw.  I got out of my short position near the lows yesterday but I may be back in on the short side after we get through the amateur hour and see how charts look.

The Global Slowdown

Our bureau down in Indonesia sent word that the global chill is being felt in Asian countries now:

Hiya chief! There’s a bit of a shift in attitude around these parts of late, with the EU mess starting to spook investors and local businesses.

 

Indonesia is a major supplier of textiles and practically IS the Euro fashion industry. Nearly every major Euro clothing and shoe manufacturer/designer has a factory here. Obviously, if/when the EU goes down the toilet, it will take a significant amount of income away from these parts. As a consequence, the rupiah has dropped rather precipitously in the past week or so, going from 9,100 to the dollar, down to 9,400. That’s the biggest movement in the past couple of years. The rupiah has gone from 12,000 to the dollar in 2008, to as high as 8,900 per dollar as recently as last January.

 

Another regional dot to connect is the US beefing up its naval presence in SEAsia. This is ostensibly to counter China’s increasing militarization. It’s inconceivable that the US could maintain force projection in the Asia Pacific while effectively prosecuting a war against Iran, and this may be one of the primary reasons why the US has had cold feet in backing Israeli aggression. If Iran were to go hot, it’s a sure bet that China would capitalize on it with some territorial grabs near Japan and the Philippines. It would seem that Russia and China are providing effective foils to further Middle East adventurism on the part of the US…at least for now. There are a number of political/economic lynch pins working loose around the globe, and losing any one of them could trigger a domino effect of economic implosions and military responses. Seems only a matter of time.

And the follow-up dispatch from this morning:

As if someone is reading the dispatches from the Far Side, today’s news addresses the very issues raised yesterday: Bank Indonesia moves to stabilize rupiah freefall:

 

Textile trade set to slow on western economic weakness:

 

UrbanSurvival readers are always a day ahead of the headlines.

 

Salam dan hormat,

Bernard D. Grover, Bureau Chief, Jakarta

Don't ask how we ended up with presactly one foreign bureau, and that in Jakarta.  Risks of running a one-man economic newspaper...

Case of the Missing Telescope

Before telling you about the missing 'scope, let's first review some popular conspiracy talk from the 'net.  Has to do with the idea that somehow, Planet X (Niburu, or whatever) will first become visible in the southern skies and that views will be best from the Antarctic.

OK, hard to get to the Antarctic, let alone with a sizeable telescope, unless one is part of the "in-crowd" - and in particular, government agencies (like, oh, NASA etc) which mostly all have confidentiality agreements that may include government paid vacations to the fed-pen at Leavenworth, KS, for breach.

OK...wildly crazy sh*t - wacked and wonky.  Until, that is, along comes a multi-million dollar telescope project, which was destined to arrive here in Palestine, Texas, where the National Balloon Center is located.

Now here's the weird part:  KLTV is reporting the telescope parts bound for assembly and shipment way south has gone missing.

Is this just the case of an errant truck driver, or something, or is this part of some coordinated effort to keep "public eyes" from looking up with great clarity from a balloon over the most southern skies?

I'm sure the fans of Px will come to the obvious conclusion, but we'll just wait to see if the trailer shows up... 

But then again, some reading on this Google search might be of interest.  And tell me again why they launched a telescope called LUCIFER?

Loose Lips Sink Preppers Dept.

The SHTFPlan site has an interesting account of how a "Doomsday Prepper Sentenced to 21 Months In Prison For Stockpiling “Destructive Devices” After Insider Rats Him Out."

Coping:  Is this What Disclosure Looks Like?

Been getting a tremendous amount of feedback on our Tuesday WuJo report which chronicles a series of dreams which starts with lights on the bedroom wall and got progressively weirder from there - including some abduction-sounding aspects.  Along the way were slippery glyphs and Pythagorean figures which seem to be showing up in dreams lately.

And not by just the one reader who stepped forward:

Yes, other people are seeing strange visual images. No Pythagorean images for me but twice within the past 6 months a large golden mirrored-finish circle, with perfect saw tooth edges appeared in my vision. It was very bright and would not disappear if I closed my eyes. The object was very real and shimmered as if it was made of gold foil and the wind was making it reflect different shades from a light shining on it from somewhere behind me. After some 30 seconds the object started to fade and completely disappeared in about 5 minutes. It is very disconcerting to clearly see an object that is not coming to you through your eyes.

Is the WuJo …….am I getting a download of something?

Another report?  Sure...

"Hi George

Love your blog. I read it every morning.

My woo woo experience...my father died late last year, and his death seems to have opened some sort of a door for me. After I go to bed once I get relaxed I see all kinds of different shapes entities and aberrations. One night I saw balloons and a butterfly which was my wife's grandmother. Another night I saw a angel I've also seen figures and shapes also orbs. I've never had anything happen to me like this before and now it happens quite often three or four times a week. Last week I sat down on the bed and I saw lights in my eyes like when you rub your eyes hard it looked (like fireworks kind of.) The fireworks began to spin into kind of a vortex like a tornado, once the tornado got very tight at the bottom it kind of dispersed or exploded. The disbursement turned into the word "watch" then the next word came and laid over the top so that the letters became very jumbled and I could not read them. Probably eight or 10 words laid on top of each other. I said aloud "that I could not read them" and they began to spin again in the same pattern as the first time. The second word was the name "Terry" which is also the name of my lead installer in my construction company. Both times that it happened my heart rate increased dramatically and I began to breathe heavily, it was a very strange experience. The next morning I told my wife about it and she suggested that I call Terry and schedule a meeting, it was a Saturday so I took him to lunch. He shared with me that he received a letter from the county and had to go to the police station on Monday morning, he also shared with me that nothing was really going on differently in his life and I had nothing to be concerned about. Monday morning Terry was put in jail and he is still in jail today, he will have to spend about six weeks in jail total for not showing up in court he had contempt of court charges put on him by the Judge. I have since found out that Terry is into some somewhat dubious things and his friends were quite concerned about it. He has also gone through a tremendous amount of money in the last three or four weeks so when he gets out of jail I need to find out what was going on. I have never received a message like that before and I don't know if I ever will again... it certainly was startling and I'm still kind of freaked out about it. It was definitely a message from somewhere, I don't know where but I certainly would like to learn more about it, if any of the readers can help me or I've ever had a message like that I would certainly like to know about it. I just thought you might be interested George, it's the type of thing I've read about, it never really happened to me and definitely belongs in the Wujo.

And even more..

Hey there George -

Just saw your latest column, couldn't help but do a double-take on the story about the Pythagorean solids. I've been intentionally "meditating on the sun" myself lately (from the comfort of the hammock), and ol' Sol has been broadcasting variations on the merkaba and metatron's cube with great intention. One of my life-functions is producing visionary art when I'm not hard at work on the ranch, so more grist for the mill there, but over time I have also become convinced that the star tetrahedron is some kind of catalytic shape that takes on a life of its own when used as a focus for meditation. "Spinning on its axis way too fast" is exactly what seems to happen. Interesting to hear something similar is going on for others as well. One of the keys to the kingdom? There has to be a mechanism to transcend this mess. We hope.

Transcend, or this is mental food prep to make harvesting easier - hard call to make just yet, but don't mind me, I work in a Faraday cage office with good reason.

And yep, a kind reader sent me a story from the Issac Asimov Science Fiction Manager (June 19866) with a very interesting story  by Michael Bishop: "Alien Graffiti: a personal history of vagrant intrusions" so maybe this kind of this falls into a pattern?  Not enough data yet, but certainly a possibility.  A fair use extract of that story:

So is that fiction, or a dream account?  Prescience or whimsy?

But then we have to look into archetypical constructs and inspect the question whether such things are self-arising from social/society norming, or whether they are externally caused.

Oh and the best of the reports may be this one:

"I am writting to you as that case report today is the only one that barely resembles my own experiences, and I have been looking into hundreds to gain some insight for close to 30yrs. Perhaps only in the last few years I just gave up looking, excepting my wierd fate. It was only a recent dream i had of zombies and then being forwarded he report on the cdc site using this media stunt for their purposes had me wondering what your followers were seeing lately in way of dreams etc. I never expected anything like this to show up? To my surprise, this report jumped out and followed a more intimate experience for me since my early twentys and I am now almost 51 yrs old. yes, the first visitations I can recall clearly around the age of 25/6. I woke first with fear of a presence in my room, then ..The most incredible music which seemed to create in me a different state of being. pure joy...a being walk into my room and stood beside my bed..no form was witnessed, only foot steps..and a clear very powerful sence of presence...I asked 'who are you' he said as if within my scull.."I am your brother' I replied no my brothers are {named} the being laughed as u would with a child being innocent..he told me 'just look straight ahead..it was non threatening, the voice was rather sung more than spoken...I was thinking, cant do much else but move my eyes as I followed this simple ask I saw The light beams of an irridecent blue hue, see thru..about 6 or 7 inches long and 2 wide..crossing above me from 'its' direction from right to left..there was other colours but this more wonderful to witness..they disolved through the cornacing in the cieling as I followed with my eyes..then I was lifted out of my body (I suspect as i was wieghtless) and was heading for the cieling, I felt great joy and asked if I could remember this time.( I was aware this was not the first ,yet cant remember earlier times?) When I returned unable to remember where I had been, I was aware this being was still on the right side of my bed, my husband was still sleeping but now he was snoring, and the being spoke as if externally now and i could not hear over the snoring, and then it/he was gone. I checked the clock and I had no obvious recollection of around 2 hours. I still wonder what I missed? also around the same time about 6months prior, I have seen the these flashing lights coming from out the window with no sound or visible machinary to be found. and what appear to be falling stars out of my window at close range, maybe half a mile away, of huge proportions and no landing sound or fires? Puzzling? I am not relating others here, yet many other experiences of a similar nature.It would fill a book. more recently, around 2010 3 nights in a row, not dreams, awake. 1st night/ Woken to see A floating word 'doubt' in the middle of the night hovering above to the left of me. 2nd night/ 'Want to get up and walk' woken in shock as it is spoken in my ear...my answer, no, why would I? looked at the clock its 1.30am..then a knock on the door...my son lost his keys...hmm got up and let him in 3rd night/ 'Look out'! spoken like a shout in my ear. I am awake and hear The phone ring a second next, its 6am in the morning, we both jump out of bed startled at an early call..usually means trouble, no one calls early...its the police!!..demanding to know why my husbands car is in thier car park..very angry and suspicious...turns out my daughters boyfriend is a policeman, they bought our car and forgot to change the registration , it was still in my husbands name! suspected terrorist?eeek!

.I am only mentioning these cases for me, in regard to your account, and to say...your not crazy in my books and I am grateful to hear floating lights are'nt as uncommon as I thought.

Whew!  And that leads into...

Then There's Those Zombies Lately

Maybe related, distantly: Ever since a prepared dude, a while back, mentions Zombies (ostensibly humoropusly) we've seen this really set into the public mind.  A rather concerned reader sent this:

"WTH?? First some guy is shot gnawing on someone's face and now another story of a mother going zombie on her kid. If the movie is the message, sure have been a lot of zombie movies in the past few years. I had a dream where a product was being sold to prevent people from eating corpses. Thought it was just about cannibal capitalism or food shortages. Web bot predictions of people standing around like zombies? Who knows. Some kind of EM to mess with the old gray matter?

On a side note, watch out with the stuff about "spidey sense". Somebody gets real TESTY about stuff like that. Especially if you're just shooting your mouth off about using it to ferret out aliens. For a while there my place was getting buzzed in the middle of the night all the time. My birds served as controls. Whatever kind of "beam" was being used it freaked them out. Yeah, I know how weird it sounds. Maybe the beam was EM because metal blocked it prettly effectively. They seemed to like left side of body (vagus nerve?) and the "guts" area especially. Seemed to be trying to stimulate irrationality. The gut has more serotinin than the brain and the vagus connects the two. Gut also seems to retain a lot of those primitive emotion sets. Automatic response patterns to ensure survival. In my own self testing anyway. Maybe the remnants of some primitive neural network? Maybe a back door way to manipulate the brain? I had an older dream where I was being held up in the air by a chimp in a space suit (U.S military?) and someone was bombarding me with emotion manipulation beams. Seems that dream was a hit. Maybe they're bombarding the populace with some kind of energy to stimulate the irrational. "

Our panel of distinguished scientist is out back at the moment, but I'm just guessing we don't have enough data yet to line up on a conclusion, but the target area (humans, consciousness) is sure taking some shots here lately.  Keeping an eye on WuJo-like reports (send yours in, names protected) since there is that statistical non-zero chance that disclosure will come as imagery and mental constructs/tests more than a physical thing. 

2009 - December, wasn't it? - when that pyramid/triangle was spotted over Moscow?

British WuJo Report

And how's this one?

Hi George

I have always wanted to experience one of these weird woo woo moments that you write about and report others experiences on. My wife has on a number of occasions had premonition dreams but not me. I have seen and heard ghosts plenty of times in my life but somehow that is not wujo in my books. So here is my wujo event.

Our 9 year old has a habit of waking up early and sneaking down stairs to watch TV and often helps himself to breakfast cereals etc. We had to come up with a rule that he was not allowed down until at least 6.20 (that was the time one of his favourite programs started) to avoid him and us getting too tired by this early activity.

This morning I awoke to the sounds of the tv on downstairs and clattering in the kitchen. I looked at my bedside clock to see it was only 5.30 a.m. I thought the sneaky lad has gone down nearly an hour too early, so I got up and walked down stairs to the continuing sounds of tv etc to tell him to get back to bed – that is until I reached the bottom step of the stairs when it all went quiet all of a sudden. I went into the living room – no one there – I proceeded to the kitchen – no one there?? By this time I was thoroughly confused and thought, I have just experienced my very own wujo moment. A bleed-through from an alternate reality/dimension maybe?

Who knows what it was but I was awake enough to know what I heard and just after checking on my son who was asleep in bed, I went back to bed thinking about what had just occurred.

Carry on with your great work George and I’ll let you know if I ever experience further wujo.

Strange stuff this WuJo experiences set:  Like the slippery glyphs, easy to cast aspersions on (or asparagus for that matter) until it happens to you.  Then you get a major WTF? moment and decide to either swear off, change brands, or drink less bean.  But it is reported as a person-changer at many levels and that's what makes it so interesting to follow.  Whither go the changed persons?

Oh, and then there's the West Texas reader who has a house (a dome) which also lets off with strange sounds...almost like the sounds are displaced from another time...just like this UK report. 

Maybe we should start publishing a WSI - weird shit index.  Continuing to climb rather steeply.  And you do recall Clif's reference in the predictive work to overloaded people going into "drool" mode?

Speaking of which, look for the economic and political scandal in a week...more on his public update here...

We having fun, yet?

Around the Ranch:  Storms in the Outback

We were awakened about 3:05 this morning...lighting coming down from the northwest.  Out to the antenna tower to lower it, change over the antennas to "grounded" and then, as I dealt with Zeus the Cat, who'd already made a beeline for under "dad's chair"  Elaine backed the car out for a free washing.  Half an hour later, the show was over, cat back out, lightning gone.  But the tornado warnings are popping up here and there east of us today, a reminder that thunderstorms of summer can be deadly.

Lightning Safety Week is June 24-30 this year.  Our lightning detectors are powered by Friskies and Whiskas.

Still dark as night here, so deep is the overcast and gloom.  Expect tornado stories possibly in Friday's news flow...