Our next client

A recent Israeli research says that the emergence of the Islamic State was not consequence of a natural drought in Northeast Syria, as I presumed, but the over-exploitation of upwater flow by the Ataturk Dam. It makes sense.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will use former Sudanese and Egyptian water. They'll fight. We shall sell weapons to our Ethiopian blood-brothers. Pic.: Gondar. 

J explains White Replacement

It is the notion … " the “white race” is being squeezed out of existence through its own low birth rate, miscegenation and more prolific reproduction by non-white people."  (From The Economist.) 

Fair enough, but not enough. The question is if (a) there is a basis to it and if so, (b) is it bad? The statistics of the last hundred years surely confirm the trend.  Humanity is brown and the "white" (I prefer the classic Chinese description of 'colored people' or the people with colored eyes and hair) are getting scarcer. I love multi-colored girls (Sadly, only in past tense) and not attracted to big butted African girls, so - for me - it is a (notional) loss.

Is the fear of replacement bad? Taken to the extreme of racism, it is. The Nazi Party, professing its iron will to save the colored eyes people, attacked its neighbors - who were more "white", "pure" and colored than they were, the Polish and Ukrainian peoples. (And Ashkenazi Jews, who are lighter-colored than most Germans, you didn't know that.) Ten million Germans died. How you save your race exterminating your own race? The Nazis said one thing and did exactly the opposite. Ergo, racism is bad, causes people to harm themselves.

More than, I don't know. The girl in the pic resembles my cousin in Australia.

Greenland: Israel should outbid Trump

President Trump is floating the idea that America should buy Groenland. The island is very big and cold, and peopled by some 50000 seal hunting esquimaux. Why should Trump have it? We are a small country and very hot, we need a cold place for our summer dachas. It is worth more for us. We could subdivide it and sell plots for young couples and retirement homes. We could industrialize the seal business. 

Tu böÁv

Hungarian Jewish Lovers' Day

The Talmud describes how the girls of Jerusalem dressed in white went out to dance in the vineyards. On this day, it was permitted that boys not yet married should follow them and choose a wife. Taanit 31a tells us that  

The beautiful girls sang: Seek beauty, because women are for their beauty.

 The girls from good families sang: Look at the family, because women are for children. 

And what sang the plain girls? Decide as Heaven wants, and beautify us with your jewels. 

Dealing with Nervous Wrecks

No one knows why, but the crossed bond yield curves failed to cause the total collapse of the markets as it was universally predicted. Worldwide, players are nervous wrecks, they move in and out trillions without knowing where to hide. Only The Economist conserved his head and warned against exuberance in the bull side. The English are still the best. 

Flint Water Poisoning started a Trend

EPA discovered that Newark's water supply had excessive concentration of lead. That is, it was poisonous. Toxic. Neuro-toxic. Mayor Ras Baraka blamed the aged infrastructure and apparently believed that corrosion
control efforts had solved it.

It should have been so. In a normally functioning city. 

“But Newark changed course after a study found that lead was leaching into the water because of ineffective corrosion treatment at the city’s Pequannock plant,” The New York Times reported. “Last year, lead levels in more than half the samples tested at homes served by the plant exceeded the 15 parts per billion standard.”

In response to the EPA letter, Mayor Ras Baraka and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy issued a joint statement asking the federal government for help in resolving the crisis. A modest 70 million.

However, the problem can easily controlled through corrosion control at the Pequannock facility. Water treatment is no rocket science. It is basic chemistry. Adding buffer chemicals to control the pH. And work ethics, like not stealing the money budgeted for the chemicals. The Flint Water Treatment Plant had the same problem and they too claimed government help. President Obama declared National Emergency and generously, sent millions to Flint municipal incompetents. Ras Baraka expects the same from Trump. This is becoming a routine. 

Ras Baraka is son of poet Amiri Baraka. His sister Shani was killed in a domestic violence episode. I gather that Newark needs lots of Federal assistance to function. I love America. This is so sad.

Are we living on borrowed time?

TASE lost 3% today reflecting worldwide financial panic. I am re-reading George Soros' Alchemy of Finance, and his point is that nobody knows nothing, even his own Quantum Fund just worked on intuition. He advises to focus on expectations, not on hard material facts. Today, investors (speculators) are expecting the stock market to turn sour because an ominous omen in the heavens: the 2 year and 10 year bond yield curves - inverted. It is like the conjunction of Saturn, a malefic and noxious planet, with Mars, the war planet. BAML warned that an inverting yield curve means equities are on “borrowed time."   Who knows. I found no system nor consistent philosophy in Soros, only clever opportunism. He should have titled his book "The Astrology of Finance".