Minimal Blogging -- On The Road -- Traveling -- July 11, 2014

We're traveling cross-country: north Texas to southern California. Upon entering California, I-40, near Needles, CA, the least expensive grade of gasoline was $4.99/gallon at the first service station we came to (where we filled up) and then it was $5.09/gallon a few miles down the road. I remember when I first started the blog, talking about "$5-gasoline" and at least one reader wrote to tell me I was crazy to think we would ever see $5-gasoline in the states. That was just a few years ago. I see WTI crude oil is down to $100/bbl. I remember reading somewhere, the California legislature is looking to add to the current price of gasoline through additional taxes and/or regulations.

The big question: will we see $6-gasoline in California for any grade of gasoline before the end of August, 2014? I think we will. 

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COP raises its quarterly dividend from 69 cents to 73 cents.

Personal Observations Based on Reports from The Wall Street Journal

The Mideast appears to be imploding and the top story in The WSJ: Europe worries rattle markets. Worries over the health of a major Portuguese lender spooked global markets, drubbing stocks in southern Europe. US shares swooned but recouped much of their losses.

President Obama's Open Borders policy continues to move forward; few children are deported. Two important data points: a) the bill allowing Open Borders was passed in 2008; b) 60,000 children trekked across the entire Pan-MexicUS desert to arrive on American soil over a span of just a couple of days in the middle of summer, 2014.

Changes proposed by the Obama administration could make it easier for the Houma Nation and dozens of other tribal group to go on the federal dole for health, education, and other benefits.

Global warming success story! Adelie penguin population on the rise. For the first time, researchers have counted the world's Adelie penguins -- a sprightly seabird considered a bellwether of climate change -- and discovered that millions of them are thriving in and around Antarctica.

Pulling a Bergdahl: top US military leaders looked into President Obama's eyes and agreed unanimously to pull a Bergdahl.

House and Senate lawmakers advanced measures to replenish the federal fund that finances road, bridge, and mass-transit projects before it runs out of money next month.

Humor for the day: a judge tells IRS to explain e-mail loss. Spoiler alert: the IRS already explained it. The hard drive on Ms Lois Lerner's simply crashed, most likely due to global warming -- computers crash when inadequately cooled. Ms Lerner called in her own highly trained IT personnel who said, "yup, the hard drive crashed. Let's trash the hard drive, erase everything, and re-use it. We don't have the funds available to buy a new hard drive." That was back in 2013. Interestingly enough, the e-mails that were sent by Ms Lerner to others -- have never been found either. Sometimes these things just happen. [By the way, the best way to really destroy data on a hard drive -- a) erase all data; and, then, re-write over it. Sort of a two-step process.]

Related: US authorities are investigating an apparent breach of computer systems at the Office of Personnel Management, which stores data on federal employees. Gee, I wonder who would even think of snooping on federal employees?

Gaza death toll rises sharply. Really?

Ukraine still at war.

Remember all that talk about a sterling 2Q14? Hey, not so fast. WSJ headline: slowing store traffic worries US retailers. Remember all that talk about the bad weather causing the collapse of the economy in 1Q14 (their word, not mine)? I opined early on that I strongly doubted that bad weather could cause the collapse (their word, not mine) of the world's second largest economy -- the US has had much worse weather in the past -- and now, 2Q14, we don't have the weather to blame. The WSJ lede: American retailers may have more than a weather problem. For many stores, customer traffic has slowed and sales weakened in the spring, when warmer temperatures had been expected to help business. This does not bode well for 2Q14 GDP.

It really is quite funny when you think about it. ObamaCare finally kicks in (okay, the 20% of the plan that hasn't been delayed by executive order) with an incredible 8 million Americans (their number, not mine) enrolled in national health care, all paying their premiums, and coincidentally GDP in 1Q14 collapses (their word, not mine). And the collapse (their word, not mine) of the economy is blamed .... drum roll ... on the weather. LOL.

Microsoft getting ready to lay-off a lot of employees.

Exxon and Pennsylvania fighting over fracking. The most important data point in that article: "fracking" is spelled with a "k."

SecState John Kerry arrived in Kabul to give a global warming speech.  Half of that sentence is true.

Energy prices tumble: energy prices are tumbling, with natural-gas prices hitting a six-month low, in a setback for investors who were betting that supply shortfalls would drive markets higher.  Many, many story lines here. Gotta go....traveling again.

Fiction department. Oh, before we go, what was the jobs report yesterday? Bloomberg is reporting:

Claims remain steady at favorable levels with initial claims down 11,000 in the July 5 week to a lower-than-expected 304,000. The 4-week average is down 3,500 to a 311,500 level that is slightly lower than the month-ago comparison.

Continuing claims, in lagging data for the June 28 week, did rise 10,000 to 2.584 million but the 4-week average is at a new recovery low, down 8,000 to 2.571 million. The unemployment rate for insured workers is unchanged at 2.0 percent, just off a recovery low hit in early June of 1.9 percent.