Gravity and Markets should be explained as today and tomorrow roll by.

Reader dLynn is just one of our readers who was wondering WTF? about the Powell rally Friday.  The answer is?  It fills a trend line move.  Now, in our ChartPack (Peoplenomics) gravity is “cleared for takeover.”  Even my consigliere was  calling over the weekend to talk shorting this bloated hog of a market.

Bloat to float, anyone?

In case you missed it? BTC is struggling to tread water at the $111,000 level today.  European markets were split – with the only green coming from the now occupied United Kingdom as part of their “pop-swap” moves.  But, in Asia, Japan and Australia were still suckling the Powell “juice” as financial hopium over-ruled logic, once again.  (Pop-swap has been going on here, too. Just slower RoC (rate of change) because of frogs slowly boiled theory – which is another one of those falsifications like lemmings that infests weak programmable minds…

Gold and silver were meh to down. As we begin with out portable electron microscopes looking for…

What’s Driving?

Yeah…what IS driving this porcine panic?

The REAL cost of living is starting to reveal itself: Why utility bills are rapidly rising in some states. Readers are reminded that we swapped out 20 of our solar panels earlier this year.

Deep down – few in the mainstream will give it Voice – but a number of future-scanners (like the Polish Seer) are seeing that Donald Trump may not serve out his term.  Health concerns are getting low-beam mentions now: Donald Trump photo shows large mark on hand as fears swirl over his health and aging. Pay very strict attention to activities of (next president) Vance are in coming months.

Count us among the deeply troubling move of government into the Private Sector.  We ain’t alone as  Conservatives Rage Over Trump’s ‘Socialist’ Intel Purchase.Going a bit Beijing are we?

With this level of uncertainty, the “future ain’t what it used to be…” – and people aren’t willing to commit: Home sales are falling through at highest rate in years, led by Texas and Florida,  As Globalists continue with pop-swap, the thin line to talk is “keep homes affordable for imported populations, but not so much existing [majority] pops will have confidence and get back to higher birth rates.  Oh, what a mess for policymarkets.

Is taking over Cities an answer?  Don’t ask in Chicago: Trump threatens to target Chicago next in crime and homelessness crackdown. Resulting in? Furious and next expect felonious as City-States try to protect their drug-based leisure classes. Earlier in my newsing career, Chicago was “the Winy city.”  Age has reduced this to “Chicago blows.”

Around the edgers, the mainstream herd’s getting nervous.  People are looking at their bank balances, again: Recession specials could be the latest sign of deteriorating consumer sentiment.

Monday’s BBL – BIG Bottom Line – The world will end in 25 years, humanity will die and towns will become slaughterhouses: Oxford scientists’ nightmare prediction, their proof it’s inevitable and why billionaires in their bunkers should tremble.

CFNAI – A Lagging Indicator?

American econometricians have this nappty habit of looking at the past then inferring future.  This woirks in high-speed data sets (ballistic calcs out on the gun range here).  But in economics?  So before today’s data drop, let’s look at the structural problems of a number like the CFNAI:

Release Lag

• Typical publication: The CFNAI is usually released around the 3rd or 4th week of the month. That’s where we are this morning.

• Coverage: It summarizes economic activity for the previous month.

• Lag length: That means there’s about a 3–4 week lag between the reference month (July) and the index’s release month which is August.  following?

Underlying Reason

• The lag isn’t arbitrary—it’s tied to the availability of source data (85 different indicators). Some series (like industrial production) come out mid-month; others (like housing starts, retail sales) also have delays. The Fed can’t finalize the CFNAI until all—or nearly all—inputs are in.

Revisions

• The index does get revised, sometimes modestly, when source data are updated or late-arriving indicators are incorporated. So the number you see at release is the Fed’s best estimate, but it’s not set in stone.

Bottom line: Expect about a 3–4 week lag from the close of a month to when the Chicago Fed publishes its CFNAI.  Here’s what staring in the rearview will get you today in the Blow City report.

“The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) decreased to –0.19 in July from –0.18 in June. One of the four broad categories of indicators used to construct the index decreased from June, and three categories made negative contributions in July. The index’s three-month moving average, CFNAI-MA3, increased to –0.18 in July from –0.26 in June.

The CFNAI Diffusion Index, which is also a three-month moving average, increased to –0.31 in July from –0.40 in June. Thirty-two of the 85 individual indicators made positive contributions to the CFNAI in July, while 53 made negative contributions. Forty-two indicators improved from June to July, while 41 indicators deteriorated and two were unchanged. Of the indicators that improved, 17 made negative contributions.”

Highlights:

• Production-related indicators contributed –0.10 to the CFNAI in July, down from +0.01 in June.
• The sales, orders, and inventories category’s contribution to the CFNAI was –0.02 in July, up from –0.10 in June.
• Employment-related indicators contributed –0.06 to the CFNAI in July, up from –0.08 in June.
• The personal consumption and housing category made a neutral contribution to the CFNAI in July, up from –0.01 in June.

Durable Goods will spring tomorrow.  Let me be the first to remind you that Tariffs are Taxes on foreign made goods. So? To the extent that prices are going up (and demand flattens because now one is clear on pop-swap dynamics) an upside surprise tomorrow is not off the table.  Which will set Wednews of Thursday as the minor turn rally into the weekend before the bloodbath we expect this fall.  Qwik-Clot and vodka, anyone?

The News Coaster Plus

Feeling the need to puke, yet?  No?  Let us help.

Someone didn’t read how Pop-Swap works because the US ambassador to France slams Macron over ‘lack of action on anti-Semitism. Surely he can’t be so stupid as to fail to integrate Pop-Swap dynamics into his thinking and project from there?  Well, yes, seems so…

Why, you’d think they have gold and oil, or something valuable to protect: Venezuelans join militia as US warships arrive in Caribbean.

Liberal Reality Check, anyone?  Read: US National Guard units begin carrying weapons in Washington. Then let me ask “Would you go out at night into the most crime-ridden parts of ANY major city (Blow Town, fort instance) without packing?”  Elaine and I have already worked this one out with “his and her” 9’s… Maybe filling out lots of mail-in ballots would change our mind?

Remember a few months back how the lookaheads were hinting at a nuke plant becoming central in the Ukraine War?  Getting close to linguistic fill on that front: UAWire – Ukrainian drones hit Russian targets, prompt fires at Kursk nuclear plant.

Here’s a (non-Illinois) policy blow: Orsted shares sink to record lows after US halts near-complete offshore wind farm.With enough lawyers, we could get America totally immobilized, yet.

Meanwhile, if your blood pressure is anywhere near normal, have an Alex: Trump’s Lawyer Ed Martin Gives DOJ Intel To Alex Jones That Will Shake The Foundations Of USA!

Last one?  Here’s a Gavin Newsome report card: Major industry leaves California for good as factory closes after 78 years and hundreds laid off.

But enough about pain on the wires and in the markets – let’s deal with real pain, shall we?

Around the Ranch: The Personal Pain Guide

I woke today with a terrible sense of guilt.  Then it dawned on me:  A number of readers (Elanor, Hank, and now BIC, have been through some mighty painful medical experiences lately.  And I have failed in my (self-appointed) Solver of All Problems role. Because I have “done a study” on point.

Out here on the ranch, I’ve come to appreciate that pain is part of the package deal of being human.

You swing a hammer wrong, your thumb swells up. You lift too much hay, the back lets you know. And when the years pile up, well, some parts just plain wear out—knees especially. Our friend BIC is in the thick of it right now, fresh from knee replacement surgery and feeling every throb. Hank’s through the worst of it…but this site is for grass roots solutions.  (As Debb will find when she gets into the discussion about how the Narrator function and speech-to-text can be used to augment her hearing loss…)

This morning, instead of prattling on about markets or local weather, I thought I’d share a few tools I’ve used over the years to manage pain without surrendering to it. I call this “PPM—Personal Pain Management.” It’s a short course in using your own mind as medicine.

Because if you have not-yet experienced deep, soul-scarring pain (divorce, gout, and joint surgery all have common elements) rest assured, it’s on the “dance card” of Life.  You don’t want to be in a hurry to go there…

Some of our readers (LOOB, for example) have suffered unimaginable long-term pain. We can use this as a “class_of.object” in our thinking.  Another class of pain will be “simple” pain.  One and done.  Like hernia surgery.  But then there’s the BIC/Hank class of “Pain-to-banish-pain” class; the sort where if you thought the surgery was bad?  Well, the physical therapy is another [resistance.object] on the path to full range of motion and whole recovery.

Pain – and one of its source points (“modern”) medicine  will drop pain as it changes you both mentally and physically.

Wife Elaine was always 5-foot 7-inches and #130 and generously proportioned.  Two total hip replacements later (THRs) she’s a bit over 5-foot 3-inches and has re-normalized at #114 pounds.  Humans don’t go through change without pain.

BTW, when I began dropping weight as part of my personal reconstruction project, I noticed that I have a physical pain series in my lower back that gets triggered.  Yeah, change brings pain.

Key thing is embrace the change…there’s a lot more “little pain to banish Big pain” that we’re taught while young.

The other missing piece is that no one – at least when I was young – gave me the tool set for working through the experiential part of pain.  Pappy was always a “Leave me alone, I’ll tough it out” firefighter.  That leads us back around to Internal Mastery of Experience.

Your Three Internal Beings

Inside you reside three voices that interpret pain:

The Father — calm logic, able to see pain as signal, not incarceration
The Impetuous Son — reactionary, quick to flare, demanding immediate response
The Court Reporter — the observer, chronicling every sensation, often amplifying it

These three are metaphors, but they’re also mental “seats” you can inhabit. The central persona has “declaration power” and domination of all things experienced.  Freud’s approach to mental topology was more sexually-oriented – it doesn’t need to be.  Religious books are thought.templates to a much greater degree than most people realize.  For instance?

When the Son is in charge, pain seems unbearable. When the Reporter runs the show, the story grows darker. But when the Father steadies the wheel, pain becomes something you can live alongside. That’s the muscle-building for the soul. Recognizing who’s at the microphone in your head is the first step to managing what comes next.

Technique 1 – See Pain as a Branch Circuit

Your nervous system is wiring; pain is the alarm. Visualizing a mental breaker switch and flipping it can effectively turn down the volume on pain signals—not to ignore danger, but to reduce their emotional weight.

Think of it like a house circuit: you don’t burn the house down just because a toaster shorts out. You go to the panel, flip the breaker, and silence the racket. The same can be done in your head. By treating pain as a “circuit screaming for attention,” you can reassign its importance. The brain is good at triage; you just need to give it a clear instruction that this alarm isn’t a five-alarm fire.

Technique 2 – Reframe and Rescale

Step into the Central Reasoner’s seat and ask: is this pain a pinpoint or a field? Then resize it—shrink that spot or diffuse it—until it becomes small enough to handle.

Reframing is a way of changing the picture in your head. Instead of letting pain loom large, you adjust its size and placement in your awareness. You might imagine it shrinking to a dot, or stretching so thin it fades into the background. Athletes use this trick when they “play through” injuries—recasting the pain as a small side-note instead of the headline.

Technique 3 – Flow With It

Resist the fight. Instead, breathe with the pain. Picture yourself floating past it, letting it be present but not blocking your flow.

This is about cooperation instead of confrontation. Fighting pain often tightens muscles and makes things worse. Flowing with it—accepting the sensation, aligning breath with its rhythm—allows your body to relax. Try inhaling as the pain rises, exhaling as if washing it away. With repetition, you stop being the victim of pain and instead become its witness, calmly drifting downstream.

Technique 4 – The Reporter’s Detachment

Tell the inner Reporter: “Just note the facts—no adjectives.” Make pain neutral data (e.g. “Twinge in left knee, lasts 3 seconds”) instead of emotional headlines.  (This is the non remote viewing, religious experience which is gatewaying – we’ll do that as Technique 6,

This Reporter detaching technique borrows from cognitive therapy. Pain isn’t just sensation—it’s the meaning we attach to it. By stripping out judgment words (“horrible, unbearable”), you reduce the emotional payload. Pain becomes data: “sharp here, dull there.” The Court Reporter stays on the job, but now as a stenographer, not a dramatist. This quiets the brain’s panic circuits.

Technique 5 – Substitution (Thought.Object Method)

Draw from your thought.objects framework: replace the pain with a stronger, more meaningful internal construct. In battlefield scenarios, injury loses potency when the mind is gripped by duty or mission. Channel pain into something that outshouts it—purpose, service, resolve.

Substitution works because the mind can only hold so much at once. Soldiers override pain by focusing on comrades or survival. Parents do it instinctively, ignoring their own discomfort when a child is in danger. The trick is to consciously swap the “pain object” for another—maybe an image of healing, maybe a goal worth enduring for. You’re not erasing pain; you’re drowning it out with a louder signal.

If your head is full of future plans, and you pour huge energy into these, there won’t be much power left for pain.  See how that works?

Technique 6 – Pain as a Gateway

Some spiritual traditions deliberately push through intense physical pain (e.g., self-flagellation) to disassociate from the body and reconnect with The Presence. (The Dude if you’re Andy.) Pain becomes the entry point for a deeper, transcendent experience. Use the pain not as a wall, but as a portal—observe how it can open you internally. Use pain to drive your (Castanada-like) “assemblage point” and use it to literally “hound you out of your local Waking Realm” and go adventuring in the Non-local Realms.  Experienced awake or asleep.  (** I refer to Carlos Castaneda’s shamanic concept of shifting awareness…Don Juan  was a nagual, not a doctor, though…)

Viewed this way, pain isn’t the enemy but a domain threshold scaling tool. Like “walking on coals.”

People who meditate on pain often find themselves “slipping behind it” into altered states of consciousness. The mind shifts attention away from the body and toward a greater sense of connection—whether to spirit, to God/Presence or simply to the vastness of awareness Itself. For those inclined, pain can be an unlikely teacher.

It’s useful in this work to remember on this roller-coaster ride called Life, we usually Call into our lives the very demons we need to learn from.  That’s what pain’s all about.  Contrast. The more depths of pain the higher your soar during delightful bouts of Peaking Experience.  

The Bad give contrast by which contrast of Good is more clear.

Technique 7 – Guided Imagery & Creative Visualization

Use your imagination to reshape the senses. Visualize peaceful scenes—or imagine pain dissolving and being replaced by neutral or healing imagery. Research shows this can lower pain-related anxiety, reduce medication needs, and improve function.

In deep pain, I go to my “perfect beach.”  A lagoon, crystal waters, palms, a more intimate version .  Reader Hank may not realize it, but I was not far from his Volcano Ranch on the Big Island last time I was in severe pain.

Here’s the part missing from your onboard experience library so this will make sense:

“Waimanu’s big brother, Waipi’o Valley on the northeast coast of the Big Island of Hawai’i, is one of the most dramatic landscapes in the islands.

It’s often called the “Valley of the Kings,” since it was once home to Hawaiian ali’i (royalty) and a thriving population before Western contact. The valley itself is about one mile wide and six miles deep, flanked by sheer cliffs rising up to 2,000 feet. Several waterfalls, including the spectacular Hi’ilawe Falls (dropping over 1,400 feet), tumble down into the lush valley floor.

At the bottom lies a patchwork of taro fields, streams, and forest, all opening out to a black sand beach more than a mile long where the ocean meets the valley. Surf can be powerful, and the currents dangerous, so the beach is better admired than swum.”

MY imaginary “escape from pain place” is like Waipi’o Valley, but only 300-400 feet wide around the lagoon.  (Waipi’o Valley doesn’t have a protective reef – it’s deep water facing.)

Guided imagery like this works because the brain often can’t tell the difference between a vividly imagined scene and a real one.  That’s why long-ago claims and charges – even UFO experiences like abductions – can be so perplexing to researchers like the late Dr. John Mack: REAL events are recalled the same as IMAGINARY and are just as powerful.  Let’s close the psychology books and get back to point here:

Picture your knee as cool, light, and surrounded by healing tissue. Imagine the ache fading like mist in the sun. Over time, this creates a conditioned response: when you imagine relief, the body begins to follow.

Technique 8 – Mindfulness & MBSR

Anchor your attention in the present—observe pain non judgmentally. Mindfulness reduces both the intensity and the suffering of pain.

Notice sensations without labeling them as “good” or “bad.”

MBSR stands for Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, a program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn at UMass Medical School. It combines meditation, gentle yoga, and body scanning to train attention. Studies show it reduces both pain intensity and the mental distress that rides with pain.

You don’t “fix” pain with mindfulness—you change your relationship to it.  Tear up the “bad label” – it’s teaching you something about how the Presence works.

Technique 9 – Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Tense and then relax muscle groups progressively. By recognizing the shift from tension to release, your mind learns contrast and your body learns to let go.

Often, pain makes us tighten unconsciously. PMR gives us back awareness and control. Start at the toes: clench, hold, release. Move upward through legs, hips, shoulders, face. The relief after each release teaches your nervous system that relaxation is an option, even in the midst of discomfort.

Technique 10 – The Relaxation Response

A daily intentional practice—20 calm deep breaths—activates your body’s built-in counter to stress. The relaxation response reduces emotional reactivity and eases physical pain.

Coined by Dr. Herbert Benson, the “relaxation response” is the physiological opposite of the fight-or-flight reaction. Heart rate slows, muscles soften, blood pressure drops. Practiced regularly, this becomes a protective shield. With practice, you can call it up almost at will—a quieting of the storm inside.

Limits to Techniques

Pain has purpose, but it does not need to run your life. By using substitution, reframing, flowing, detaching, visualizing, and invoking mindfulness or relaxation, you reclaim control. This is the essence of Personal Pain Management—a toolkit for moments when medicine alone is not enough.

For everything else?

There’s Drugs

Each of us comes from the factory (our mothers) with a highly customized personal chemistry set.  How you react to pain, medications, and drugs will be different than mine.  Variance of genetics.

What I’ve found useful is this:

• Aspirin works – to an extent.
• Tylenol and Advil also work – and in combinations they can do well.
• CBD oils and extracts help too – but now we close the shop because CBD and table saws, for example, is not the signed path to Old Wise Dude.
• The opioids (low level) include acetaminophen/codeine which – for me – isn’t as effective as stronger options.  It does change my ‘head-space’ and tones down some of the ADHD traits. But that’s at the expense of slower thinking speeds.
• Hydrocodone is seriously dangerous shit.  This is the Caterpillar D9 with rock-ripper option and is to be used only sparingly. Highly addictive. BUT it does work.

Physical Object Layer

This one is much better for you. No addiction (except for runners, lol).   Keep these handy.  When you get to be almost 77 and are still insane-active on a ranch, it’s your “pocket pal.”

RICE

Rest the injured area to prevent further damage
Ice for 15–20 minutes to reduce swelling and numb pain
Compression with an elastic wrap to control swelling
Elevation above heart level to promote drainage and reduce throbbing

PRICE

Protection by using a brace, sling, or padding to shield the injury
Rest to allow tissues to heal
Ice to limit inflammation
Compression to minimize fluid buildup
Elevation to improve circulation and reduce swelling

POLICE

Protection to avoid worsening the injury
Optimal Loading means carefully reintroducing movement and weight-bearing as tolerated rather than strict rest
Ice for swelling and pain control
Compression with wraps or sleeves to stabilize the area
Elevation to aid lymphatic drainage

MEAT

Movement encourages circulation and healing when done gently
Exercise strengthens supportive muscles and restores function
Analgesics such as over-the-counter medication can reduce discomfort
Treatment refers to adjunct therapies like physical therapy, massage, or modalities (heat, TENS, ultrasound)

Again, with apologies to BIC, Hank, Elanor, and LOOB, I should have gotten to this sooner.  I will put a copy on the Peoplenomics book shelf on the subscriber side so you can access any time. If you have any friends who are facing ‘life is a pain’ tell ’em it’s just another UrbanSurvival problem….

OK – over the guilt now – and appreciating the wry humor of The Presence.

You do know Monday’s are a PAIN, right?

(If you find this pain guide anywhere other than UrbanSurvival or Peoplenomics, let me know. We have a whole copyright infringement law firm ready to pounce on monetizers who steal content without permission…)

ShopTalk Sunday is here.

Write when you get rich,

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