1-17-2025 Week In Review

Laugh of the week

Watching Sky News and a lady proclaimed that social media sites should be held to the same strict standards as newspaper publishers and television news sites. Clearly she meant the UK, but some of the craziest and insane misinformation has come to me via Sky News and UK newspapers. 

Admittedly, the UK media is not as off the rails as American Media.

Greenland, what if...

If Greenland were to be independent, would it still be part of NATO? If not, why would we think they would align with the USA. China and/or Russia would run the bids up, imo. A strategic part of the world could be up for grabs.

Don't just laugh off the "Greenland" rhetoric, imho.

Climate Change

Accepting that the climate is definitely changing, why is all the focus all on the halt of bad emissions? If we were to suddenly halt these bad emissions, things will not return to normal the next day. In fact it would take many decades, if not hundreds of years. 

During that period of time, the ice caps will continue to melt, the oceans will continue to rise and the storm patterns will persist. The state of Florida will likely be under water, much of New York City will be under water. So why aren't preparations being made NOW... for such events?

Which brings me to...

LA Fires

There has always been wild fires in California, yet climate change is now considered the root cause. Yet nothing is being done to prepare for what should be considered a certainty. 

Blaming "climate change" is much easier than doing something, imho. 

Cease Fire

I am typing this on Thursday, 1-16-2025. Call me skeptical, but this seems like a peace deal for Biden, that will fall apart immediately and the Democrats will attempt to blame it on Trump. It theoretically takes place on Sunday, the 19th, so I think shortly after noon on the 20th... things will fall apart. 

Economic reports this week

A lot of pink, which indicates rising numbers, but not above expectations, imo.

Also, the retail sales report clocked in with an inflation adjusted +1.0% over the preceding 12 months. The current inflation adjusted sales is the highest since January, 2023.

Energy

Pump prices will likely rise about a nickel over the next couple of weeks. Which matches the nickel rise over the past week. 

That's it, this is getting boring.

1-10-2025 Week In Review

Weather

Yep, been a fun few days, as we received about 6" of snow, then about 3/4" of ice, then another 3" of snow. I am no longer able to clear the driveway, so hoping nothing in the way of an emergency.

I have no real reason to leave the house, although the long range forecast shows no warming temperatures to thaw that mess. Another 2" predicted for this weekend, below freezing temps through the following weekend, with a possible big snow of 6"+. 

Groceries might be needed.

Politics

You already know the U.S. news, but what about abroad?

U.K. news media is all a-flutter over Musk tweets. This forced the Labour government to respond. Apparently, there was a grooming gang problem back a decade ago, which resulted in several inquiries, which further resulted in recommendations. 

A decade later, after the Musk tweets, it seems the Labour government has decided to begin implementing some of those recommendations. 

Sir Keir Starmer was the head of the Crown Prosecution Services back in the day, and is now Prime Minister. He claims Musk is promoting a right wing attack. Strange that nothing was implemented until Musk got to tweeting. 

So successive U.K. governments did nothing and it is Musk's fault for tweeting about it. Hard to imagine where the issue would be without the tweets. 

A Sky News (UK) reporter, after news of META dropping "fact-checking" and going to community notes... asked the question of what is the future of liberal fact-checking. The irony of such a question.

I watch Sky News on a regular basis and the opinion I have is... The U.K. has much bigger problems than Musk tweeting.

Back to the U.S., and is the media hyperventilating like they did... 8 years ago? It does seem that way to me. 

Energy

Not much to say, although pump prices likely to rise a nickel in the coming week. Same for diesel.

and the rest...

Fires. Plentiful dry vegetation, high winds, and homes built of largely dry timber. Just takes a spark.

Jobs report. Looks really good, but remember all the revisions the past year. I'll take a wait and see.

Zombie companies. These are companies that seemingly were profitable, but largely due to low interest bonds and rates. Those days are gone and we will likely see some corporate profits suffer as these bonds are rolled over.

Trump jail. He's a convicted felon without having to spend time in jail, or on parole, etc. Almost as good as a pardon. Speaking of which... wonder who else is about to get pardoned. 

Greenland. This suddenly got interesting.