It's Taxing

There's a lot in the news now about climate change, because a new ice age is climate change...and it's clearly President Trump's fault. Unless you're in France, where the narrative has changed, and they don't want a new weather tax.

California is kicking around the idea of taxing computer texting as a means to defeat the weather. I'm sure that the people there would be thrilled to pay more in taxes if it's going to fight a headwind or to turn down the temperature of the Sun a few degrees. 

Eliminating plastic drinking straws in some progressive communities was a good first step in showing the world how it's done. Most of California is 'straw optional' and waiters give you a choice. At the same time, plastic water bottles are consumed in the millions every day and make their way to landfills -- a few by percentage, are recycled.

Stopping pollution is important for its own sake, but there's no evidence that plastic drinking straws contributed to either the global warming hoax or to the coming ice age.

Los Tiempos Van Cambiando

Angry Hondurans marched in Tijuana, demanding $50,000 each and assuring the US Taxpayers that if they were paid the danegeld, they would go home. It didn't work for English who paid off Vikings 1300 years ago and I doubt that it would work in the case of Hondurans in Mexico, but nice try, right? I wouldn't be surprised if California paid them each $50K to hop the wall and set up residence in the Golden State. Maybe they could tax existing California residents for breathing air and give the money to the new voters. An Air Tax is very progressive. Since everything else is taxed, that's about all that's left to tax in the Golden State.

And from the Russia File

Member of the Czar's Imperial
Guard -- before the revolution.
Yeah, I just like the picture.

A young, ruthless executive died and went to hell. 

When he got there, he saw one sign that said Capitalist Hell, and another that said Socialist Hell. In front of the Socialist Hell was an incredibly long line, while there was no one in front of the Capitalist Hell. 

So the executive asked the guard, "What do they do to you in Socialist Hell?" 

"They boil you in oil, whip you, and then put you on the rack," the guard replied. 

"And what do they do to you in Capitalist Hell?" 

"The same exact thing," the guard answered. 

"Then why is everybody in line for Socialist Hell?" 

"Because in Socialist Hell, they're always out of oil, whips, and racks!"

Sunday Sermonette

Boris, Natasha and Fearless Leader Won!

I never thought that it would happen, but as the attached document (below) reveals, there may be a case for Russian Collusion after all!

The Moose head might be hanging in Putin's dacha.

Aloha

After two weeks of surviving the cruel Hawaiian winter, I'm heading back to the mainland. I know that many of you pity me. Thank you. I deserve it.

Looking down the beach toward the Four Seasons, you'll note that there are not many people here. The stretch the end of Thanksgiving and the beginning of the Christmas rush is notoriously quiet. Some would complain that it's boring.

Down at the Four Seasons the crowd is made up of many executive males who have taken a quiet moment to go to Hawaii. They're all family men, apparently, because they brought their nieces along for company for a final trip before Christmas.

It's interesting to see the middle aged (and later) men jogging down the path that follows the shore, a bit winded from the first work out of the day, accompanied by their young nieces on a gentle run (second work-out). Exercise keeps the men young, I guess.

The middle aged men with slightly older women with them who are only half their age are usually on working trips with their secretaries. They walk down the same pathway, but you know where their minds are work-work-work.

Sunset marks an ending.

I had high hopes that the White Wolf Mine would be complete before Christmas. Promises were made. However, they'd been made before and the place wasn't completed in August. There aren't that many elements that need to be completed, but I can't move in until it's all done. Thus homeless in Hawaii will translate into homeless in Southern California and the constant need of air conditioning at Christmas, once again.

When I land, it's a couple days of work, and then off to the Arizona highlands to deal with the construction project. It's supposed to be clear skies, highs in the 40's there in AZ. While it's a departure from 85 degrees in Hawaii, it's not like North Dakota.

The French Want Trump

Start here.

As demonstrators were clashing with police in Paris and protests were being held across France on Saturday, Mr Trump said: "The Paris Agreement isn’t working out so well for Paris. Protests and riots all over France. People do not want to pay large sums of money, much to third world countries (that are questionably run), in order to maybe protect the environment. Chanting 'We Want Trump!' Love France."

French men and women cried when
their army surrendered to the Germans

To reiterate President Trump's question, "Why do people want to empty their pockets and send the money to third world $hit holes?"  The answer can be found on the streets of Paris. They don't. And their masters, dedicated to a weather tax and massive transfer of wealth, can't seem to understand. The French people were screwed and I expect that the next presidential election in France will have a more nationalistic outcome with a pledge to LOWER taxes, raise prosperity and employment and to Make France Great Again.

There is also the issue of a French government that offers hand-outs to Muslim immigrants and supports them with the taxes paid by hard working FRENCH citizens. It's not just the weather tax that will send wealth abroad, it's the whole elitist cadre who know what's good for us. The news media (tools of the elite class) wants the French people to respect their betters, and fork over their hard earned money.

France disagrees.

The Narco Mata

The question that the United States Government asked was, "Who threw the hand grenades at the US Consulate in Guadalajara, Mexico?" It's a fair question.

The official response from the cartel was a narco mata - a sign.

It's not twitter, but it's more like twitter than a lot of other types of communication.

Narco matas are a species of one-way communication from a cartel or from an organization and they consider them official. Sometimes they are written in the blood of a particular enemy so that the DNA will stand as witness that it's genuine. Sometimes there is one or more severed human head. Most often it's written or printed on a white bed sheet. When you're talking about a big cartel like CJNG, they have it printed. After all, these are the genuine rulers of the Republic of Mexico. For the sake of you who don't read Spanish, I have translated it for you (below).

Important notice for part of our Jalisco New Generation Cartel organization

Our Cartel completely and completely disregards what happened in the United States Embassy. We are not responsible for those events nor do we honor the order of any type of attack against that institution. The US Government knows perfectly well who is doing things in order to soil our image as an organization.

El Mencho, Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, author of the mata above, runs the Guadalajara Cartel (CJNG) and he's being pressed by the Mexican Navy (SEMAR), El Cholo - a former employee and the Colima Cartel (also called the Valencia Cartel), run by Eric Valencia (aka 85). He's being pressed and would like the US Government to focus on his enemies rather than him. When you read the language above, he comes off as wounded, reminding the world and more particularly, USGOV, that he has a reputation and an image to uphold... And you can make of all that what you'd like.

Many narcos, including El Mencho, worship Santa Muerte (the Dead Saint/Satan/Beelzebub) and take advice from "dark priests and priestesses". I know that Hillary Clinton is looking for a place to make a difference. I'm sure that she'd find a place of honor, trust and profit running one of those devil cults in Mexico. She'd need to learn Spanish, but that's about it. It's one of the only things that she might do well.

Energy Dominance

On December 6, 2018, the US Geological SurveySummary announced an assessment of continuous oil and gas in Texas and New Mexico's Delaware Basin. It is the largest USGS has ever conducted, with an estimate of 46.3 billion barrels of oil and 281 trillion cubic feet of natural gas

The Wolfcamp Shale and overlying Bone Spring Formation in the Delaware Basin portion of Texas and New Mexico's Permian Basin province contain a lot of energy that is just waiting to be extracted. It means that American energy dominance is within our grasp. Infrastructure needs to be built, refineries need to be built, and government needs to get out of the way and allow industry to do what they do, safely and with an eye toward protecting the environment.

This could be bad news for the Middle East because US/Canada could be the new OPEC. It is clearly horrible news for Russia because they had entertained hope that one day THEY would be able to set the price of crude oil - and change the mandatory exchange currency from dollars to rubles. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

The new oil field will produce many tens of thousands of dollars of jobs in the US and will lead to trillions in profit (and taxes for the US Treasury). I've often said that oil is the American escape clause for the massive and increasing national debt. I still believe that could be possible but it's impossible to implement with a government intent on growing larger and spending more.

The location of that much energy under the ground in America's heartland means that it is local, easy to access and easy to defend.

Will the Marshall Islands be the Next Chinese Outpost?

It's December 7, and for many of the old silverbacks who haunt this blog, it brings to mind the dastardly and unprovoked attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1941. Never forget. Never EVER. So, I asked myself as I sit a couple of miles from Pearl Harbor this week, what I could blog about that would be significant for this day, near this hallowed ground?

On December 7, we were not prepared as the Empire of Japan annexed everything in its path and folded it into the Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Does that sound somehow familiar in 2018? Maybe it should. Consider this dear readers, as my cautionary note.

It's no secret that China wants to make the entire Pacific Ocean part of the Middle Kingdom. The Marshall Islands would seem to a focus of ambitious efforts.

A little background: The US government formed the Congress of Micronesia in 1965, a plan for increased self-governance of Pacific islands. The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in 1979 provided independence to the Marshall Islands.

More on current background here, at Asia Times. The article may not be up for long so I'll excerpt it, below.

Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine has accused “Chinese interests” of trying to force her from office after her administration refused to back plans to establish an investment haven in the central Pacific country 

...Eight senators behind the no-confidence vote cited the planned introduction of a state-backed cryptocurrency, known as the “sovereign”, that they said risked harming the country’s image and making the nation a potential hub for money laundering and terrorist financing.

The International Monetary Fund has said the cryptocurrency’s introduction puts the country in “uncharted waters” and raises the risk of losing its correspondent banking relationship with the US dollar. 

The currency will now be introduced, but Heine said it wasn’t the main issue. “Really the vote of no-confidence is about the so-called Rongelap Atoll Special Administrative Region, or RASA scheme, which is an effort by certain foreign interests to take control of one of our atolls and turn it into a country within our own country,” she told Radio New Zealand.

Ceng Xian Xi (also known as "Steve"), CEO of The Buffalo Group, which operates out of Thailand as a cat's paw for the Chinese central government is said to be behind much of the effort. He, and his employee, Marcus Maher, an Australian are alleged by some of their former associates to be key in this effort to turn former US Territory into a Chinese satrap.  Ceng Xian Xi (Steve) holds both Chinese and US Citizenship.

Again citing the Asia Times article: Located southwest of Hawaii, home to key US military installations, the country’s 1,200 islands are also close to key central Pacific shipping routes. 

Chinese military analysts have said that China wants a base in the area. Australian media reported in April that China and Vanuatu had engaged in preliminary discussions about China building a permanent military base on the South Pacific island nation. 

China has defended its push into the Pacific, which it says is driven by “friendship and cooperation” with the island nations. “No country should try to obstruct the friendship and cooperation… China has no intention to touch the cheese of any country, instead China is committed to make the pie of cooperation larger,” said Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Zheng Zeguang, according to news reports.

About six months ago, Marcus Maher, acting on behalf of Ceng Xian Xi, approached my company to ask for assistance in furthering their scheme and advancing the Chinese effort. We declined. There was information in the press that concerned us. You can read more about the politics that HERE at China Daily. We conduct serious due diligence before taking on a client/customer and disturbing information about kidnapping Chinese citizens in Thailand, for ransom was made by at least one former employee of The Buffalo Group. It became readily apparent to me that Chinese efforts politically subvert the Marshall Islands so that the nation would "embrace China" were underway. 

There is huge (nearly unlimited) funding behind the effort, some of it put up by Bai Shi Yuan, said to be one of the wealthiest men in China. An ambitious and expansionist China certainly would offer additional patronage and nearly unlimited funding to gain control of the Marshall Islands, and a center piece in the Central Pacific. 

If they are not stopped, China will eventually pay enough money to overwhelm the island nation and will take control of it "by peaceful means". Military (friendship) bases will be established to "protect the Marshall Islands". It's the Chinese vision. It's why China is expanding its navy. It's imperialism on a grand scale. It's an extension of their Belt Road Initiative. 

I've discussed this with friends at the US State Department, but they have much bigger fish to fry, and there's a trade deal to be concluded.

Submitted for your consideration on December 7.

Daily Thoughts

Coming Attractions

I normally don't tout upcoming blog posts, but there is one coming up December 7 that I'd like you to  think about and possibly comment on.

The December 7 blog reflects only briefly on the past, and is focused on the future and the only legitimate threat that we face in the Pacific. I expect that you haven't heard about it because the media is focused on fake scandals, their hatred of the President, and on stories of racial, gender, religious and other divisions. Yes, they are all so precious - bless their hearts.

Hymns

I watched some of the George H W Bush funeral while getting ready to attend the final day of the Van's Triple Crown of Surfing contest at Sunset Beach. The choir crooned out the Battle Hymn of the Republic, but didn't sing Dixie. I would have thought that Dixie or The Bonnie Blue Flag would have been appropriate for a Texan. Or maybe just the Yellow Rose of Texas?