Overwhelmed -- Not Ready For Prime Time -- February 5, 2025

Locator: 48483ARCHIVES.

Be sure to review the disclaimer if you are reading the blog.

I am absolutely overwhelmed -- way too much to cover. 

Not sure how to handle this.

I may have to take a break (six to twelve hours); listen to some music; chill.

Or just give up completely. LOL. 

The other option is to post "incomplete memos" on the blog and come back later and complete them, I don't know.

These are the stories that need lots of attention.  Note: because of the volatility of the market, I am not blogging much about the market. If I do blog about investing it will be do to something that readers have sent me or something that I just happened to see.

Again, these are the stories that need lots of attention.

House of cards about to fall: global warming; climate change; the grid; expensive electricity; EVs.

Re-posting:

• Geo-politics: I have never been more excited than I am now about the current state of geo-politics.
• Gaza: pending. This is incredibly interesting. One can easily how Trump views this; one can easily see how the journalists completely miss how Trump's mind works.
  
• Ukraine: pending.
• Norway: pending.
• Trump appointees: pending.
• most interesting: RFK, Jr -- if he is approved,  things are not going to play out like "we" all expect; and, I think Trump knows that; and, again Trump will be following the Eisenhower principle -- see below
  
• DEI is dead: exhibit A -- google announced today, that going forward, it will only hire the best and the brightest regardless of an applicant's immutable features. It's hard to believe it took "a Trump" to make that happen. 
• Elon Musk, DOGE, and AI: FAA next. 
• renewable energy: the house of cards is about to fall; huge opportunity for investors (traders and investors, for that matter) 
• Europe is in deep doo-doo and it seems no one knows that; when it hits, it will hit fast
  

The American Airlines -- US Army Blackhawk:

• the story has disappeared; reminder: occurred on January 29, 2025
• the NTSB will announced preliminary findings at 30 days (February 28, 2025 = Friday; 30 days will happen on the weekend; likely the 30-day preliminary finding will occur during the week of March 3, 2025).
• my hunch: mostly aviation jargon; mostly covering the rules, regulations; very little will actually be mentioned about the immediate cause of the crash; everything possible will be done to obfuscate the obvious.
• so much misinformation out there: the biggest? The magnitude of this disaster. CNN says this is the worst since 2001. In fact, CNN is wrong. This is the worst since 1968 -- that's 57 years ago. It depends how one measures "the worst," but trust me, this is the worst since 1968. 
  

Gaza:

• do folks remember this: https://theconversation.com/assads-fall-opens-window-for-syrian-refugees-to-head-home-but-for-many-it-wont-be-an-easy-decision-247051?
• in the month of Assad's fall, 125,000 Syrians returned to Syria -- from Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan
• how many Syrians fled Syria under Assad (since 2011)? more than six million
  
• do folks remember what happened when the Berlin Wall fell?
• do folks know who controls the border between Egypt and Gaza?
• do folks know who used to "own" Gaza?
• do folks know the ethnicity of 99% of all folks living in Gaza?
• Trump is the smartest politician in the room; one may hate him or hate his actions but that doesn't mean he's not smart. On Gaza he knows exactly what he's talking about. Political leaders in Egypt have every "right" to be terrified if they're following Trump's actions on the US southern border.
• if one can't connect the dots now, well, what can I say?
• I know exactly what Trump was thinking when he alluded to "boots on the ground" -- yeah, those comments, the comments his White House staff had to walk back.
• the discussion is not over, not be a long shot.
• Later, February 6, 2025: finally, Israel  / US holding Europeans accountable -- link here. 
• finally, something different
• region and Europe are terrified
• brilliant
• just wait until "they" open the border to Egypt; after all, 99.99% Gazans are Egyptian.
  

Having said that, the big winner in most recent meeting between Netanyahu and Trump? Israel.

• it's very clear Trump made it very clear, he will do whatever it takes to protect Israel
• both Biden and Kamala were a bit ambivalent with regard to Israel; Trump may be a lot of things, but one thing he is not, is ambivalent;
• Israelis can sleep well tonight after Netanyahu's visit with Trump.

Please read the blog's disclaimer.

I'm not done yet on Gaza: one last thought - "the Eisenhower principle." Link here.

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Britain

Headline without comment:

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California

Just how bad are things in California? I think that will end up being one of the biggest stories this year -- to what degree will California need a bailout of historic proportions. 

Much, much more, but need to take a break.

Read the disclaimer.