TL;DR:  Our dance card (and “the pattern”) is full today.  Part 1 here is SATTP (short and to the point) with Part 2Housing in a few minutes. Focus around here is squeezing amps from solar…

The Future is Ure’s

Dow futures were down a bit more than 100 early.  S&P was down about 15, too.  Bitcoin was $13,107 at press time – and a ton of economic impacting stuff is about to break.

At times like this, a cup of coffee, a quite view of the sunrise helps box in Blood Pressure.  And a flack jacket may be in order. Just in case there’s more than normal “rah-rah” as Trump, Hegseth to headline a highly unusual gathering of top military officials .

We Told You So…

Before the Fed (bent over, groveled and ) gave away Free Money for the Rich with a Rate Cut, we told you that about all that would happen would be massive cash to fund IPOs for the “insiders” and that Inflation would continue sliding slowly up because the US Dollar is falling (it takes more dollars to buy imported good) so it feels like prices are going up. Nope. Money is rotting. Debt ruined it.

The charade?  Well, the money dynamics run on two levels, understand.  For the rich pricks hoi paloi free money is a great deal.  The wholly owned brain-washing media is dog-whistled to report “It keeps money circulating” – but not to the lower end people, but that must be their fault right?

You probably don’t get the NY Fed’s “Multivariate Core Trend Inflation” updates – how could it compete with having eyes glued on T&A and FB, right?  Still, the August report was out Monday and *(drum roll please?) Ure’s right – again.

Yes – inflation sure has come down since 2022 but as you look at the right-hand side of the latest data, it’s very clear that inflation reduction *(not outright disinflation) has already bottomed and is heading up.

I have no argument with the Fed (except the fairytale about, um, most of it) but the reality is that turning around the once-upon a time juggernaut American Economy might be helped with a finely ARTICULATED PLAN.  Which Bessent, Trump, Powell, – the whole cast – has really failed to articulate as we figure it.

“Printing more money” is not a plan, any more than putting more gasoline on a fire isn’t going to change the outcome…

As we figure it, being simpletons and all, we need American Bootstrap 2.0.  We need to have a clearly defined plan to build back the basic industries that would bring America back to Life and which would employ a whole shitload of real people.  Not H1B’s – screw that. Building factories and making infrastructure UPON WHICH we could become great again.

Ure’s Plan to Save MAGA

This ain’t hard but it seems impossible to articulate, Let me help.

• Start with energy. America needs a next-gen nuclear build-out, small modular reactors on the grid, plus a massive commitment to thorium research. Couple that with advanced grid storage using domestic battery production, not Chinese supply chains. Without cheap, reliable juice, nothing else works.
• Move on to metals and materials. Rebuild steel, aluminum, rare-earth mining and processing, and chemical plants. If you can’t smelt, alloy, or refine at home, you’re already on someone else’s leash.
• Third, semiconductors. Not the PR splash fabs, but cradle-to-grave chip ecosystems: lithography, substrates, packaging, and training a workforce that doesn’t depend on H-1B imports.
• Fourth, transport. Real high-speed rail in select corridors, new aviation research (electric and hydrogen), and fixing every crumbling bridge. Infrastructure isn’t sexy until it collapses.
• Fifth, medicine. Domestic generics, antibiotic plants, and supply chain redundancy. You don’t win a war—or even a flu season—when your pill bottles ship from overseas.
• Sixth, agriculture. Controlled environment farming, hydroponics, aquaponics, soil health. Put food security on the same footing as nuclear security.
• Seventh, housing. Prefab factories cranking out high-quality modulars, tied into apprenticeship programs to re-skill millions. Shelter is a national strength.
• Eighth, defense. Not just guns and planes, but cyber, bio-defense, and space. Keep it lean, accountable, and American-sourced.
• Ninth, AI and robotics. Capture the upside by making the tools here, not just renting server space from someone else’s monopoly.
• Tenth, shipping. Merchant marine revival, shipyards that can actually build tankers, and a port upgrade program so goods don’t rot waiting to unload.
• Eleventh, water. Desalination, advanced treatment, and inter-basin transfers. The West won’t survive without a water plan, period.
• Twelfth, education. Trade schools, engineering scholarships, and a war-level effort to restore actual competence in the workforce. No TikTok degree required.

Call it Bootstrap 2.0. It’s not ideology. It’s survival. Without it, we’re just another debtor colony, buying back our own future with borrowed money.

Oh – and have every child before high school have to grow their own food for a couple of day’s w0rth of meals.  Doesn’t take square footage – it takes hydro and aeroponics.  Takes vision.  Food and water? That’s where the rubber meets the road.  If we can’t feed ourselves, or build housing? How can we pretend to lead anyone?

Headlines and the SSDD

You know what that means, right? “Same Stuff, Different Day?”  Roll with me brothers and sisters…

You have until midnight tonight: Trump Slams ‘Deranged’ Democrats Ahead of Shutdown.  With Social Security and Military pay continuing, there’s a lot less pressure for an outbreak of reasonableness.

A little slow on the uptake, aren’t they? Venezuela’s Maduro says he’s ready to declare state of emergency after U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats.

The high cost of political manipulations in presidential elections is becoming clear as YouTube to pay €21 million to settle lawsuit with Trump over account suspension in 2021.

And for your dining and dancing pleasure, the latest chapter of the “Never ending War Ending” is out: Trump-Netanyahu presser unveils Gaza plan; Analysts say proposal could give Israel ‘a long window’.

Around the Ranch:  Squeezing Amps

I will be back working on the solar power center here today.  Upgrading another charge controller and trying to get any additional power out of the system.

For this is the time of the year when we really like to get the max “oomph” out.  Let’s face it, with 2500 SF under air, that’s a lot of squares to cool 100 percent on solar.  And since we have electric (resistance plus heat pump) fors the dead of winter, a check reveals that on frosty 9-degree mornings, when it’s cloudy, solar just ain’t going to cut it.

But keeping the system in tune?  Well, this time of the year we can get the power bills down to under $100 with some focus.

Latest discovery?  I had what I thought was a charge controller going bad this week – was showing all kinds of screwy readings and dropping completely.  But, as usual, methodical troubleshooting paid off.  Turned out tht one of the solar disconnects had failed – even though supposedly “rated 100 amps”  – well, it failed (melted) at 60 Amps.

And that’s how life rolls often these days: Not “As Advertised.”  Retailers don’t seem to care, producers are in China, so what’s a guy to do?  Upsize and economize… which works for now, but it won’t forever – and that’s the point.

Once upon a time you could build to a 20-year spec and actually make it.  Cars used to be on the road over a million miles back when the new Japanese imports landed.  Now?  The science of planned obsolescence is coming for us all.

More in my book Downsizing – which I am thinking about turning into  course for young people.  Because the future is not on your phone – it’s in your hands.

And somehow we see, to be missing that.  We have to hand it to us.

Write when you get rich,

[email protected]

(Back with housing about 8:15 Central)