Inflation

 In times of inflation, of uncertainty, buy gold and silver. 

Kehilat HaEvionim (The Community of the Poor)

 One of the bizarre Jewish sects of the time of Jesus was the Evionim (Poors in Hebrew and Aramean). They were ascetics who lived in voluntary poverty. They rejected possessing wives and shared women equally (Scandalizing the Antiquity). Today they are included among the gnostics because of their "secret" knowledge and rituals. Some Berkeley hippies of my times (I was there! did not get laid!) tried to adopt similar ideas but it did not last. Being Americans, they left no theoretical literature I know of. The Jews wrote lots. The movie "Hair" hinted at them. Pic.

 Irenaeus (he may be making fun of them) explains the abundance and diversity of sects by saying that "numbers of them – indeed, we may say all – desire themselves to be teachers, and to break off from the particular heresy in which they have been involved. Forming one set of doctrines out of a totally different system of opinions, and then again others from others, they insist upon teaching something new, declaring themselves the inventors of any sort of opinion which they may have been able to call into existence" (Against Heresies, I, 28, 1)

Descendants of the Apostles

 

 

Ibn Batutta said that in Istanbul (13th century) he met descendants of the apostles. I am not the first to be amazed by this, there are some people out there who tried to research the family trees of the twelve. All twelve died violent deaths, and some authentic bones may be kept in churches. Yet it would be superfluous to get DNA samples since we know that all of them were pure Jews from Galilea, and their descendants are walking the Earth all over. To some extent, they must have been like me. 

Probably the most relevant verse is Mark 6:3. “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" The early Christian historian Julius Africanus reported (preserved in Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical history 1.7.14) that Jesus’ close relatives were still known at the end of the 1st century and called desposynoi (meaning, “belonging to the Master”). At one point they were hauled up before the authorities who were searching for seditious behavior among decedents of the ancient King David. However, they were found to be “simple people who worked with their hands” and released.

History has long ago lost sight of the desposynoi but their DNA may exist in modern people who are unaware it is there.

Hypotension

• 
  
  I  am sleeping and sitting all day and my BP is a little lower than normal. I feel tired. 

• Falls and fall-related injuries: These are the biggest risks with hypotension because it can cause dizziness and fainting. Falls can lead to broken bones, concussions and other serious or even life-threatening injuries. If you have hypotension, preventing falls should be one of your biggest priorities.

The neighbors are celebrating something. I see fifty 18-year-old boys and girls twisting and jumping and dancing. The neighborhood is enjoying extra-strong music. Like "Ani meshuga... etc." Soon they will be in Gaza.

The Resolution of the Flynt Water Crisis

FLINT, MI – Flint Michigan property owners, businesses, and adults, reached a $25 million settlement with Veolia North America (VNA), the last private engineering firm Flint residents were seeking to hold accountable for its role in the devastating Flint water crisis. (No one died or got even sick). 

This settlement brings the total amount of the settlements reached on behalf of plaintiffs in the Flint Water Crisis cases to over $655 million. The case, a certified environmental water contamination class action, went to jury trial on February 13, 2024. The plaintiffs are represented by Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, Susman Godfrey, and Pitt McGehee Palmer Bonanni & Rivers.

 

The class action case was filed in 2016 against VNA and other defendants on behalf of more than 90,000 residents. The class action, which resulted in a landmark $626.25 million settlement against the State of Michigan in 2021, was officially certified against VNA and a second private water engineering company, Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam (LAN), in August 2021. LAN settled with residents last October.

 

The certified class action maintained that VNA failed to identify corroding pipes, exacerbating the Flint water crisis, and allowed the water contamination to last much longer than it should have, had Veolia recommended the correct remediation, including adding a corrosive chemical to the water supply.

Comment: This is crazy. The Flynt Water Treatment plant operators failed to add the chemicals provided to them to neutralize the acidity of the water supplied. The companies repairing the mains had nothing to do with the lead content of the water at the kitchen level - they were not even in the town. Yet Veolia "caused the contamination to last longer than it should have because it did not recommend"... to its client to implement what it was believed to be doing. (Had Veolia intervened, it would have been sacked for patronizing and overreaching its mandate). The State of Michigan paid the most while the city government and the operators were not even charged. They were 100% Afroamericans, that's why. They are supposed to have no agency at all. The conclusion is to get as far as possible and to have no deals with Flynt. 

El Hazmerreir de Gaza

Sinwarita

Some British papers wrote that Sinwar, the head of Hamas, is circulating in Gaza under female robes. I am expecting an avalanche of satirical media content. Already some Israelis are writing him that it is OK to be gay, it is normative and he may continue feeling "achla gever" (a Real Man)!

Hazmerreir translates as Laughing Stock. It sounds better in Spanish. 

Celebrating Freedom!

 

Noa Argamani was kidnapped in the Re'em Festival on October 7 2023 and held hostage in the home of an Arab journalist for six or more months. She was rescued by an Israeli commando. Yesterday she and her father (pic) were celebrating her rescue. 

American politics

Tim Walz, the governor of the powerful state of Minnesota enters dancing at the party convention. Foreigners cannot believe that Americans are serious people, but they are. Very. 

Walz and Harris belong to the extreme left of the Democratic Party. The good thing is that they will promote social peace and harmony if they seize power. California as a State is ruled by leftists and crazy "green" legislation, like protecting the Sacramento River estuary sardines, yet that has not handicapped its economic growth. 

Gold

 

300 000 shekel/kg cheap. Production is limited and reserves are almost exhausted. People and nations hoard gold as protection in these uncertain times and global inflation. 

I never bought gold, silver, or crypto. They produce nothing, their worth is the hope that somebody will be willing to buy them. My grandparents in Hungary had some and more, but it was all lost in the Holocaust. Their lives too.  

 BTW, the brick on the left is fake.

Our enemies are trembling

 
According to an Egyptian official, the Hamas leader demands that Israel promise not to harm him as part of a hostage deal.

I have heard that true Muslims desire martyrdom:

There are six things with Allah for the martyr. He is forgiven with the first flow of blood (he suffers), he is shown his place in Paradise, he is protected from punishment in the grave, secured from the greatest terror, the crown of dignity is placed upon his head – and its gems are better than the world and what is in it – he is married to seventy two wives along Al-Huril-‘Ayn of Paradise, and he may intercede for seventy of his close relatives. (At-Tirmidhi – Hasan)

Why the interest rate is so high

 No idea. Israel has one of the highest interest rates in the world, with light inflation. Generally, this fiscal measure controls inflation and curbs economic activity to produce a recession. People are not taking out mortgages or buying apartments because of the interest rate. Yet real estate prices are high. Israel is prospering and there is much money in the country - that is my gut feeling. An alternative take is that Smotrich is printing money to finance the war.

 

The ARM mystery

 Earlier this month, ARM reported a 39% increase in second quarter revenue amounting to $939 million compared with the corresponding quarter last year. According to its guidance, revenue in the third quarter of 2024 is expected to be $780-830 million. ARM faces competition from open-source enterprise Risk-5, which was founded at the University of California, Berkeley and allows the developer community to design chip technology, which companies can use free of charge. (Globes)

To me, this ARM thingie is a mystery, what it is doing that is succeeding so fast. Shall have to follow it.  

Pic.: Chief Rene Andrada Haas.

Lebanon in the Dark

 The National Electric Corporation just announced that it has suspended all supply. Not one drop of fuel. Hizballah has ruined the country.

Argentina: The Son of the President

 

The son of Alberto Fernandez who goes by the name of  Dyhzy (Daisy?) feels that the media is persecuting "her". She published a well-written letter asking to leave her alone. "I am 29 years old and am responsible only for myself. I have worked since I was 17 and have lived alone since I was 22. I have no home, no car, no means. I have only love ..."

Germany: Die industrielle Evolution

 

Because of self-destructive "greenness" (no to coal and atomic energy) as well as foreign sabotage of its access to Russian gas, Germany has been de-industrializing. The eupeptic look observes that "while de-industrialization is taking place in volume (and employment), the industrial contribution to national income has held up. The energy shock triggered a shift in Germany's industrial value chain from energy-intensive activities toward high-tech and high-margin activities. We believe it is better seen as an industrial evolution than a de-industrialization."

From

You may call it anything you want, but prosperity is not. I think it is terrible. 

Klein, The Fearless

 

What figure do you think we should pay most attention to here in Israel?

"The quickest barometer is the foreign exchange market. It provides an instant picture. If the exchange rate jumps, I know that something has happened. It’s the parameter that’s really closest to the markets."

If we look at the foreign exchange market, the shekel-dollar rate is fairly high. Will the depreciation continue?

"I hear many people say ‘the shekel will strengthen’ or ‘the shekel will weaken’ in the next month. There’s actually no way of deciding. Tossing a coin will do the job, really. In the long term, after the war, I believe that it will strengthen because of the structural factors in Israel. We have a surplus in the balance of payments current account. That is to say, in the end, more dollars come in than go out. In addition to that, we receive US aid every year. What’s more, the Bank of Israel’s foreign currency reserves stand at over $200 billion, and they’re the third highest in the world as a percentage of GDP. That’s a big safety cushion."

From Globes   "Harel's Ofer Klein is sanguine about Israel's macro position, sees strong growth once the war ends, and doubts predictions of deep Fed rate cuts. ...."but expectations are one thing and events are another. The market is in a state of manic depression. "

Needless to say, I agree. 

M16 Star talks

 The British Intelligence star Alastair Crooke just now gave an interview to Judge Andrew Napolitano. He is decidedly pro-Iran and anti-Israel, accusing Israel of having provoked Iran and waiting for a reprise and then planning a full escalation across the board to a World War III. He said that the timing is not good for the Democratic Party, but the West needs to reset because of its financial situation. He says that the real base of gold, oil,resources, etc. is too small to sustain the inverted financial pyramid. I understand he thinks that the West is too indebted and needs rewinding. These days Iran is carefully calibrating its attack on Israel, to avoid involving in the following phase the big powers - Russia and China. Israel, in his view, is definitely trying to provoke a general conflagration. 

The Jews like Smotrich are, he says, messianic. I always thought that Christians are the messianic cult, we Jews are rather skeptical about Deus-ex-machina salvation. Had been there, done that, enough once every two thousand years. 

Gaza Strip divided

 

The London Times writes about a successful attack against Hamas members in Gaza. The illustration shows the strip divided into five separate districts or cantons. Having each canton an individual identity will make it easier to take back and re-settle this piece of Eretz Israel. I am an Anglophile and have been one all my life. 

Our girls in Paris

 

The 7th medal for Israel in Paris. 

They hate us = We try harder. 

Second Foundation

 

Right: CIA map of Israeli settlements in Gaza Strip, Below: How those villages looked twenty years ago, and Down: How the place looks today. 

 Ariel Sharon made the big mistake of thinking that they were obstructing peace and if removed, the Palestinians will be happy and leave us in peace forever. 

I hope those beautiful Israeli villages will be refounded and reconstructed. 

But most, I feel the loss of the erased town of Yamit. You will not find it on any map.  

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Lithium Triangle

 

Lithium, the new gold, is found mostly in Northeast Argentina Chile, and Bolivia - see map. I have visited the Salinas Grandes salt lagoons, it is a sterile piece of desert. On the Atacama Altiplano there are large copper mines, they are well equipped to take advantage of this opportunity. Bolivia is unstable and socialist, Argentina - I don't know. 

Survival

 

I asked my father why the Jewish men in Hungary accepted unarmed uninformed labor service for the army in Ukraine, while a war was going on and it was known what was happening in Poland? They left their wives and children defenseless? It is the most elementary duty of manfolk to defend their people. They failed. 

I was ruthless. And there is no answer. 

Muslim Riots in Britain

 

They never mention the fact that the riots were a Pakistani/African thing. It was a "man problem".

Incredible. 

Killing time

 Hi. Killing time while waiting for the Irani attack.

היא: ממתי אתה רואה קפיצה במוט?

אני: ממתי? אני גדלתי על קפיצה במוט. אצלנו בחולון כולם קפצו במוט. זה מה שהיה

J.D.Vance Dixit

 Childless People Don’t Have a Stake here.

I'd moderate it by saying they have a limited stake here and none in the future. 

Ill.: with Chief of Staff Jacob Reses

The Gods vs Astronomy

 The Gods won. After decades of mounting tension between scientists and Native Hawaiians, Caltech has completed its removal of a telescope from the summit of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano that is revered by the island’s Indigenous population.

The decommissioning of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory in July follows the removal of a University of Hawaii observatory a month earlier and comes amid a cultural resurgence (superstition?) among Native Hawaiians.

War Premonition

 Our enemies in Iran Lebanon Yemen and Turkiye publicly warned of unpleasant retaliation in the coming days. Here we are preparing for harm. In Tel Aviv, the anti-atomic refuges have been opened. Just in case.

The macuahuitl

 The macuahuitl, an Aztec weapon, combined the force of a club with the precision of a sword. Made of sturdy wood and embedded with razor-sharp obsidian. It is much mentioned in the Spanish conquest of Mexico, but I had never seen one. It appear heavier than I imagined. Some of Cortes's soldiers replaced their swords with this native weapon, for being more effective.

On Local Regulatory Approval

We provide credible estimates of the effect of duration and uncertainty in local regulatory approval times on the rate of housing production. The analysis derives from a novel dataset of development timelines for all multifamily housing projects permitted in the City of Los Angeles between 2010 and 2022. As a lower bound, simply by pulling forward in time the completion of already started projects, we estimate that reductions of 25% in approval time duration and uncertainty would increase the rate of housing production by 11.9%. If we also account for the role of approval times in incentivizing new development, we estimate that the 25% reduction in approval time would increase the rate of housing production by a full 33.0%. Both the expected value and the uncertainty in approval times are salient to incentivizing new development. The results provide new evidence that local approval processes are a significant driver of housing supply and reinforce the notion that municipal regulatory reform is an important component of housing reform.

How true! Describes a situation similar to the Israeli approval regime. If California, the most advanced state in the world, cannot solve this problem, what can we do?  

אם בַּאֲרָזִים נָפְלָה שַׁלְהֶבֶת – מַה יַּעֲשׂוּ אֲזוֹבֵי קִיר?

Illustration:  Israel - a partial list of forms to be submitted for a municipal approval.