#i am curious to see if all (or any) of the debt theories come true

[one-joe-spoopy]

I have listened to the new episode, and I will say just this: WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK

[feathersandpaintbrushes]

Entye

ENTYE, “Debt”

— Chapter 2: Sparks

 Chapter 1 , Chapter 3 , Chapter 4, 

Summary: The Mandalorian and Kas land on a desert planet in search of a new ship, but find trouble waiting for them.

Warnings: blood, injuries, language

Characters: the Mandalorian (Din Djarin), the child, original character

A/N: If you want tagged, just let me know:) Find me on AO3! Heading art belongs to me (Feathersandpaintbrushes and night-feather-designs)

-------------

It was too fucking hot.

Three frostbitten years on Hoth had forced her body to acclimate to icy winds, and the dry heat of this new planet sucked the moisture from her eyes and mouth and dried the sweat as it beaded on her forehead.

She was miserable.

She shot a baleful glare at the back of the Mandalorian’s helmet.  Getting her out of Hoth and onto a new planet – one with an actual town and spaceports – had been their only deal.  She regretted not specifying which planet; it seemed he’d taken her from one extreme to the other.

A gust of hot wind blew sand in her face and she screwed her eyes shut, an explosive sneeze slipping out before she could help it.

The Mandalorian – curse him – glanced back at her and she could swear she heard a chuckle behind his mask. 

“How much further to the town?” She gasped out, hating that she sounded like an impatient child, wishing her voice sounded like steel, but she was thirsty, and she’d already drained her canteen after a measly fifteen minutes of walking.

The Mandalorian stopped and she caught up to him, forcing her breathing to sound even despite the stuttering of her heart.  He stared quietly for a moment as she swallowed, doing her best to keep her face blank.  She wished she could be wearing her mask too, but she needed her mouth free to catch every baking mouthful of air this planet had to offer.

“Not long,” he replied eventually, and with only the faintest of sighs, handed her his own full canteen.  Pride warred with thirst, and she clenched her fists, willing herself not to grab for it.

“Don’t be stupid,” he said, pushing the canteen at her chest. “You aren’t used to the heat, I am.  Just take it.”

She did, hands shaking slightly as she uncapped it and took a sip of the still cool water.

“Thank you,” she reminded herself to murmur, looking at the horizon to avoid looking at his mask.

He began walking again after she’d taken a second sparing sip of water, and she did her best to keep up with his long stride.

When they finally got to the town, she was torn between the sheer relief of being in something that passed as civilization again and a sudden panic at the noise and press of bodies around her.  Clenching her fists at her own cowardice, she slipped into the Mandalorian’s shadow, letting him clear a way for her while she acclimated herself to what living in a society entailed.

There were humans.  Lots of them.  And dozens of different species she didn’t have names for.  There was laughter and the smell of cooking and a child ran past her chasing some small lizard creature.  She stopped and stared at a stall filled with spices, her mouth suddenly watering as she remembered all the flavors she’d missed out on when trapped on Hoth.

Someone large bumped into her, making her fingers fly to her blaster. 

“Watch it,” they snarled in a deep, garbled Basic.  Gripping her blaster tightly, she spun to catch sight of the Mandalorian only to hit a different alien, who’s damp skin stuck unpleasantly to her arm.  They hissed at her in a language she didn’t recognize.  A hand grabbed her arm and she nearly jumped out of her skin, shoving her blaster against the chest of the Mandalorian who had appeared from thin air.

“Come on,” he said roughly, yanking on her arm and dragging her behind him into a dimly lit building.  The darkness and the sound of loud music threatened to overwhelm her still further until the bitter tank of spirits hit her nose.

A cantina.  She took a deep breath, letting the familiar stenches wash over her and ground her.  It had been years since she’d been in a joint like this.  Years since she’d had anything stronger than the watery meat soup she made in the cave at Hoth.  But one cantina is much like another, and the sights and smells here were more familiar than anything she’d seen so far on this sun baked planet.

“Stay.”

The Mandalorian pushed his gloved hand down hard on her shoulder, forcing her to sit at one of the sticky booths while he disappeared into the crowd around the bar.

She took a shuddering breath, squeezing her eyes shut and focusing on the familiar beat of her heart.  A metallic clang made her open her eyes to see the Mandalorian set a cup of something in front of her.  She raised her eyes to him and smiled tightly.  “Thanks,” she said, taking a gulp of the bitter alcohol.  “It’s just –“  “Been a while.  I figured.” The smile she gave him at these gruff words was more genuine.    

“I haven’t had a decent drink in three years,” she added, taking another gulp.  “Okay,” she said coughing, as the Mandalorian tilted his head to the side in what she imagined to be his equivalent to a raised eyebrow, “I haven’t had any drink in three years.  So maybe I’m a little biased.”  He definitely snorted this time, and she hid a smirk in another deep gulp.  She still felt jerky and droid-like with her expressions.  Three years was a long time with only Tuantuans and herself for company.  She’d talked, of course, to keep herself from going insane.  But smiling – well she’d gone without a genuine smile for nearly as long as she’d gone without a drink.

“So,” she said, setting the empty glass down with a decisive clank. “Where can I go to find a ship of my own?”

-----

It was a hunk of junk.  Its hull was badly scarred, and the inside smelled like the rotten insides of a dead tuantuan.  The pilot’s seat was vaguely sticky, and she was afraid to look in the bathroom.  But it was cheap.  Cheap enough that she could buy it with the few credits she had left over from before Hoth.  And it could, in theory, fly her far enough to get her to a nice mild weathered planet where she could start work doing who knows what.  It didn’t matter.  Anything to keep her fed and clothed. 

“I’ll take it,” she said firmly. She could feel the Mandalorian’s eyes boring into her back, even through his helmet.  She ignored his judgement and set her jaw.  Not everyone could have a ship with an actual bedroom in it thank you.  Beggars couldn’t be choosers, and she was grateful to find something that she could fly away on today.  She couldn’t stand another moment of the heat.  Her nose was already red, and she wasn’t sure if she would ever get the sand out of her hair.

“Are you sure?”

Kas turned and blinked up at the Mandalorian’s helmeted face as he appeared suddenly by her side.  “It can fly me off this desert.  That’s good enough for me,” she pointed out.

“There’s got to be something less,” he gestured with a gloved hand, annoyance coming off him in waves. 

“Less what?” she demanded, stepping closer to hiss under her breath so the seller couldn’t hear.  “Less cheap? Less available?”

“Less trashy.” The Mandalorian snapped, even his modulator failing to keep the contempt out of his voice.  “The guy’s ripping you off.  He should be paying you to take it off his hands.”

This was undeniably true; the seller’s eyes had gleamed when she’d offered her meager credits.  Still, she wanted to be free again.  It left a foul taste in her mouth to be in debt to anyone, especially a Mandalorian. 

“Well what do you suggest I do?” she snapped, unable to resist curling her hands into fists.

To her surprise the Mandalorian’s voice was calm again when he answered. 

“Wait a day.  Maybe two.  Either he’ll come down in price or someone else will have something for sale.”

his carefully controlled tone did nothing to convince her; if anything, it set Kas’s teeth on edge and strengthened her resolve.  She took a step back and frowned up at the Mandalorian.

“I’m taking it. Thank you for getting me here,” she added.  “Maybe I’ll see you around.”

Turning decisively, she walked up the seller and pressed her credits into his hand with a murmur, aware the whole time of the heavy gaze of the Mandalorian piercing into her back.

------

Night had fallen by the time she’d finished stocking her new ship, and weariness dragged at her eyelids.  One more night here wouldn’t hurt her; she’d gotten her ship, and while it didn’t have a bedroom, she’d scrubbed the pilot’s seat into a semblance of cleanliness, and it was comfortable enough with her heavy coat draped over it. 

She was just drifting off to sleep when she saw flashing lights through her eyelids.  Biting back a curse she opened her eyes to see blaster fires lighting up the desert night.  Curious, she grabbed a pair of binoculars and aimed them at the flashing lights.  For a moment the night was dark, then another red flash illuminated a ship in the distance.  Zooming in, she felt her stomach drop when the light flashed again, revealing the Mandalorian’s ship.

“Fuck.”

She put down the binoculars and rubbed her forehead.  She did not owe him anything.  She saved his life from the sapphire worm, he got her to this planet.  They were even.  More than even. 

But.

But her hand still lifted the binoculars to her face again and her heart still pounded when she saw the silhouettes of stormtroopers illuminated in the red of blaster fire.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Sticking her nose where it didn’t belong is how she got dumped on Hoth with no ship and no radio.  Sticking her nose out where it didn’t belong had earned her scar after scar.  She owed this guy nothing.  He was a Mandalorian.  A bounty hunter.  The second someone who knew her put a reward on her head, it would be someone like him who brought her in.

But.

But there was that child with him.  That weird, tiny little green thing that had curled in the Mandalorian’s cloak while he’d been passed out in front of her fire. 

Before she could think about it any longer, she turned, grabbed her weapons, and ran out the door to the Mandalorian’s ship.

--

The desert night was not much cooler, even without the heat of the sun.  Dry air pushed Kas’s hair off her face as she ran towards the Mandalorian’s ship.

As she neared, the battle slowly came into sight.  Troopers were standing on the ramp leading into the ship, weapons firing at the Mandalorian as he tried to get inside.  Kas slowed and hid behind a small rocky outcropping, some ten meters from the fight.  Settling onto her stomach she pulled her a long, rifle like object off her back.  She’d modified a normal flame thrower to project balls of flames that she found went further than the normal stream of fire from a normal flamethrower.  It was one of her most prized weapons, and the modification had helped her against many sapphire worms on Hoth.

Taking a breath she leveled the weapon, aiming for the troopers closer to her.  It admittedly wasn’t the most accurate weapon.  It didn’t always fire, and couldn’t send out more than a dozen bursts in one fight.  But, it was a decent distraction.

She fired, a fierce surge of joy flashing through her as the fireball ripped through the air, hitting a stormtrooper in the chest.  She had maybe one more shot before she became too obvious of a target. 

The second shot went left, hitting the feet of one trooper but skimming the Mandalorian’s cape, which promptly caught fire.

Cursing, she shoved the flame thrower back onto the holster on her back and grabbed her staff off her back.  It was her own version of an electrostaff that had been used by the empire.  Hers was much smaller, built for close combat and easy storage.  It folded in the middle when not in use.  Between the flamethrower that strapped to her back, the blaster hanging from her right hip, and the small dagger she kept sheathed on her belt, she didn’t have room for a long swinging pole.  While not as strong, the electrified end hurt like hell, and the other end sported a blade, strong enough to pierce most armor if she gave it a solid thrust.  

Kas ran quickly towards the fight and pressed the electrified end of her staff against the side of the trooper who was approaching the Mandalorian, who was busy beating the flames off his cape.

“Sorry about that,” she gasped to him as she spun to block a blow from a different trooper.  The Mandalorian recovered quickly, shooting a grappling hook out from his bracer and tripping a trooper before shooting it unceremoniously in the head.

“I had it covered,” he shouted as she grappled with a trooper, grunting as their fist punched into her stomach.

“Duck,” a familiar voice growled next to her ear, and she dropped quickly, watching as the Mandalorian’s arm lunged above her and buried a knife into the trooper’s neck.

The fight was a blur.  There had to be at least a dozen troopers, but there were two of them at least.  And the Mandalorian was a good fighter.

So was she.

She reveled in it, a savage grin stretching her lips as she parried a blow from a trooper and then followed through with a stab of the bladed side of her staff.

They were both quick in their movements, and they slid past each other and watched each others backs like they'd been at this deadly dance together for years.

Pain sliced through Kas’s arm and she snarled, throwing herself at the trooper whose blaster fire had carved a shallow groove into her flesh.

The only problem, she thought grimly as she pushed the electric staff against the troopers neck, was that she didn’t have armor, while the Mandalorian did.  He could take hits and even some blaster fire, protected by the shiny beskar that covered his body.  Her only protection lay with how fast she could move.

A flash of movement flickered in the corner of her eye, and Kas turned to see the Mandalorian, flinching slightly as his gloved hand grabbed her injured arm.

“The child,” he gasped before turning, distracted as a trooper fired at him from a distance.

Kas felt a lurch deep within her stomach as she turned, catching a glimpse of a trooper through the front window of the ship.

She turned and ran up the ramp, hearing shots and realizing the Mandalorian was covering her with fire.

Inside the ship was dark, and she holstered her staff, grabbing the blaster off her hip instead.

“Stop right there.”

Kas froze and turned around with her blaster raised to see a trooper step out of the shadows, a bundle in their arms.

“Drop your weapon.”

The blaster fell to the ground with a metallic clang that echoed in the dark ship.

The bundle in the trooper’s arms moved, a small hand pushing its way out of the cloth.  The sight of it, so small and fragile, filled Kas’s heart with a black rage.  She didn’t know what the troopers wanted with it.  Didn’t know why the Mandalorian was fighting with them.  But she knew deep within her that they should not have the child.

The anger was hot within her, flames twisting in her stomach and up her throat, choking her with the desire to kill whoever stood against the child.  Her hand grasped the dagger sheathed in her belt.

She was fast.  The blade left her hand in the space between heart beats and landed in the troopers neck.  The trooper fell, the child with them, and Kas lunged forward to grab it, heart beating too loud to hear the blaster shot, fire inside too hot to feel the burn of the hole that sizzled in her flesh above her heart.

But the sound of heavy boots walking up the ramp had her moving, gripping the precious bundle to her chest as she snarled, blaster she’d snatched from the ground pointing out at the Mandalorian as he approached her.

 Her ears were buzzing, and she stared blankly at him for a long moment.

“…over, we need to go….. to me”

She blinked and swayed slightly, not lowering her blaster as the Mandalorian kneeled beside her, taking the child from her unresisting hands.

“It’s over,” he repeated gently. “We need to go.”

---

She looked horrible.

Din had helped the girl up to the cockpit, brows furrowing with concern behind his mask as she slumped in the copilot’s seat.  She was bleeding heavily from her shoulder and was pale in the dim light, but he wouldn’t be able to offer her help until they got into hyperspace.

The ship came to life with a soft whir as he began moving switches and pulling levers one handed – he was still too keyed up from the fighting to put the child down.

Once safely in the air he pulled the med pack down from where it was stored and walked slowly over to Kas.  She stirred as if waking from a slumber, and when she met his eyes he was startled by the sadness there.

“So much for getting my own ship, huh?” She said with a weak smile.

Guilt settled into the bottom of his stomach, and Din kneeled beside her, placing the child on her lap.

“Thank you for helping back there,” he murmured, and the smile settled more firmly on her lips.

“I couldn’t let them hurt this little guy,” she explained, uninjured hand lightly touching the tip of the child’s ear.

“We need to stop the bleeding.  Is it okay if I help?”

Her eyes were hazel, he noticed, and looked wary as she nodded her permission.

The blaster shot had hit the fleshy spot of her shoulder, below the collar bone.  Another shot has carved a shallow groove into her bicep.  He did his best to be gentle as he cleaned the wounds, but she went even paler and hissed loudly when the antiseptic touched her skin.  The cauterizing pen was even worse; both of them were sweating by the time he’d finished sealing the deeper wound, and Kas’s nails had left grooves in the leather of the seat, a low growl sliding between her clenched teeth all the while.

The difference between the pale, pained woman in front of him and the ferocious fighter from an hour ago was startling to Din.  Before her eyes had snapped and gleamed; he’d even caught sight of her smiling savagely as she killed the troopers attacking them.  Now she was just… human.  Weariness showed in the purple shadows under her eyes and the tightness of her lips.  She smelled like blood and sweat and blaster smoke.  Yet under it all he still saw the woman who had been hunched in the shadows, cradling the child in her arms like the most precious jewel in the world even as blood dripped down her arm.

He didn’t trust her.  He couldn’t trust her.

But she’d fought with him, fought for the child.

She could have left them; she had her own ship, her freedom.  But she’d turned back to help them.

He couldn’t trust her.

But he did respect her.  And she was a fucking good fighter.

He could use a good fighter.

“We can find a way to get you back to your ship,” Din offered, standing.

“Or?”

Kas turned her head, keeping her eyes on him as he put the med pack away and sat back at the captain’s seat.

“Or,” he said evenly, feeling as his her eyes were locked directly on him, despite the helmet separating them.

“Or you could come with us.  You’re good in a fight.  And the kid likes you.  I can’t offer you anything, and I can’t promise that it’d be safe.  But I can offer my help when there’s trouble, and a place to stay.”

Kas’s face was still pale and clammy, but a look of peace washed over her features.  Her eyes were blazing as they met his, and he was startled by the hope he saw in them.

“Where to next, partner?”

tags: @knockbeforeyouspeak​ 

[lizartgurl]

“Back to You” (Aqualad x OC)

PART FOURTEEN

(part one) (part two) (part three) (part four) (part five) (part six)(part seven) (part eight) (part nine) (part ten) (part eleven) (part twelve) (part thirteen)

@flamebiirds @super-spoiler@keanureevesislesbian @sapphicstargirl @princes-jasmine @the-shadow-of-atlantis 

this is the chapter that y’all have been waiting for forever :)

“This is Cat Grant reporting live from Moose Factory Island in Canada, where over a hundred missing indigenous women and girls have mysteriously reappeared on the Cree Island. Eyewitnesses reported dozens of girls walking out of the forest, and the girls themselves claim to have escaped from the town across the river known as Angelsport. A warrant has been issued, and local authorities are reportedly investigating the accusations, though locals claim that Angelsport is a ghost town, a remnant of French trading back in the 1700s.

“Nevertheless, Shannen Marten, a leader in the community, along with her granddaughter Miiyahbin, has taken charge of seeing to the care and safety of each young woman, while humanitarians from Wayne Foundations note the name, hometown, and tribe of each girl. Moose Factory itself has seen many of its daughters reunited with their families, including young Heather Koostachin, with her fathers.

“Excuse me, Mrs. Marten, can you confirm or disprove any of the rumors going around within the girls that the heroes Aqualad and Nightingale- both of whom have been missing for months- were involved with the rescue?”

“If Aqualad and Nightingale have returned I am certain you could ask that question of themselves.”

“I suppose you’re right. But wouldn’t they be disrespecting international boundaries? Two American heroes trespassing on reservation territory? And what about the other rumor, a new hero that the girls referred to as the Midayo?”

“Let me make one thing clear, Miss Grant. I cannot speak for the entirety of my people, but the Midayo has been a protector of the Cree for longer than the white man. If this Aqualad and Nightingale are working with the Midayo, then the Cree people and the girls that have been rescued here tonight owe them a great debt of gratitude. And so does the world. 

“It is harder to do the right thing than to turn away, now so more than ever.”

-

Sidekick yipped around Kaldur’s feet as they stood on the edge of a cliff, overlooking Moose Factory and the open ocean beyond.

“You sure this will work?”

“It is deep enough here that the sunlight does not reach,” Kaldur glanced down the cliff face. Emma picked up Sidekick before she could dash off the edge and squeezed Kaldur’s shoulder.

“I trust you.”

She thought she saw a smile for a brief moment, before Kaldur crouched down, shooting up in an instant and hurling the ice into the water, far enough from shore that all it did was make the Wayne Foundation Relief Ships bob a  little bit higher in the water, where they were docked at the Island.

Emma’s hand shot out to grab his arm to keep him from falling, forgetting his invulnerability and affinity for the ocean.

“Are you alright?” Kaldur chuckled nervously.

“Fine. You?” She asked.

Kaldur sighed, stretching his muscular arms, and winced. “I believe I have a few broken ribs.”

Emma’s eyes went wide, “Never thought I’d hear you admit that.”

“There is a first time for everything.”

“Should I fly us back to the cabin?”

“Can your wings handle it?” He asked.

Emma paused, and without a word, handed him the puppy. “Hold on.”

They leaped into the air, mimicking a bird of prey as they glided down the mountainside to their hideout, on the uninhabited end of Moose Factory. Her wings still hurt, but she was used to numbing it out by now.

“You did not answer my question,” Kaldur said as they shut the door behind them, brushing the snow off. Emma’s suit needed a wash, and she needed to get into something more comfortable.

“It’s not like you have to tell me all your problems, I’m just here to keep you from getting in too deep,” Emma said, refusing to look him in the eyes.

Kaldur grabbed her arm this time, pulling her back to him.

“You said you needed to get away too. Emma, what is going on with you?” He asked, holding her by the shoulders.

“You said you trust me, Emma. And I trust you.”

Emma swallowed as her eyes began to sting.

“Sit down. I’ll tell you while you get some medical attention for once.”

Kaldur nodded, taking off his shirt and doing as Emma had instructed while she searched for the first aid Charles had left for them. Kaldur, trusting her, didn’t press the question further, waiting patiently while she saw to his ribs. It wasn’t until she had the splint in place that she finally started to talk, but she still wouldn’t face him straight on.

“My powers are connected to my mind. When Joker tortured me, he activated my metagene and messed up my head. I have my wings because I’m terrified of falling, so they’re supposed to keep me from falling, but they’re specifically dragon wings so that they can double as a shield, as the protection I craved when I was captured.”

She had never opened up to anyone about this. Not Richard, not Willow. Bruce and Dinah knew, these were their theories that they shared with her. So far, they had proved to be true.

“After you- after you went undercover, I was consumed with anxiety and depression. Not just because I thought I’d lost you, but because everywhere I turned, everyone and everything that we’d worked for was falling apart. Bruce was gone, Richard wasn’t talking to me, Willow had Conner, who was always fighting with La’gaan, who was dating M’gann, and M’gann wasn’t the same happy young woman I’d met, and Wally and Artemis weren’t on the team anymore and I just felt so alone and then-

“I stopped using my wings for a while, but they still needed to be stretched, like any limb. Then using my electricity just gave me a headache and aggravated my anxiety, so I started staying behind on more and more missions, like Rick.

“And then you came back, and everything somehow fixed itself, but I was still mad at you, and at everyone else for all their secrets. But then I felt stupid because I didn’t feel like I deserved to be upset after everything that happened, and that just made everything worse-”

Kaldur stopped her, holding her tight. Even Sidekick had gone quiet.

“One who drowns in five meters of water is still as dead as one who drowns in fifty meters.” He said.

“But you’re Atlantean,” Emma reminded him, afraid she’d tear the bandage where she didn’t mean to.

“But you are not.” Kaldur leaned back, holding her face in his hands.

“You do not have to face these things alone, Emma. We are your friends, we want to help you.”

“I know that, Kal. Do you?” She ran her hand over the stubble on his chin. “You take the burdens of your mission so personally, you refuse to look after yourself if you think it will detract from the mission.

“But it’s not all on you.”

“It’s on all of us,” Kaldur murmured, finishing her thought.

Emma shrugged. “We’re a team.”

“Always have been.”

“Always will be.”

Sidekick yipped again, tired of being silent.

“Yes, Sidekick, you can be a part of our team as well.” Kaldur assured her.

“So what did we learn from this?” Emma asked, for both their sakes, as she packed up the first-aid kit.

“That once we have the all-clear we are going to have one big team therapy session together.”

Emma snorted, “Sounds good to me.”

Kaldur placed his hand over hers. “Emma, I am here for you.”

Emma paused. “I know. I’m here for you too.”

-

Alarms resounded through the building as the wall of his cell was blown inward.

“Hullo, Davey!” shouted the man on a grappling cord.

“Rhodes,” He nodded curtly at the despicable man. He may want to destroy Atlantis, and everything that Aquaman stood for, but Black Manta had standards.

“What do you want?” He asked, holding out his cuffed hands.

Rhodes shot them off with a flick of his wrist. “Heard there was a bounty out for a certain Aqualad. Bedlam says the rumor’s that he’s your son?”

David grabbed Rhodes by the collar, yanking him into the cell. “What have you done to him?” He snarled.

Rhodes scoffed, unintimidated. “Him? He destroyed my entire operation, him and his lady friend and that kid they had with ‘em.”

“Nightingale.” David growled. The woman his son had betrayed him for.

“You know where they are?”

Rhodes grinned smugly, waving to the opening in the wall. “Shield won’t hold forever, laddie. All aboard.”

-

Emma was drowning. She was being pulled under by a sharp pain in her shoulder blades, stabbing into her soul and refusing to let go. She gasped for air, but none came. Her gasps become quicker, more furious for air. Emma screamed.

Her scream tore through the house, jolting her awake.

And suddenly, it hadn't been just her who screamed.

She barely glimpsed the snow falling outside as she tossed off the covers and sprinted out in the hall, coming face to face with Kaldur.

He heard.

She heard.

They both stared at each other, breathing heavily.

“I heard you scream,” they both said at the same time.

Emma swallowed, trying to think of what to do. Hold him? Ask to hear his dream? Did he even want to talk about it? Should they talk about it? The walls had been coming down bit by bit in the past months, but were they really ready to tear down those defenses they’d built up between each other?

And then she was staring at his lips.

Their breathing slowed, even and in time with each other. They were both making the effort to calm down, for the other's sake.

“Emma?” Kaldur whispered, his voice tight.

She threw her arms around him.

His arms instinctively wrapped around her, pressing their bodies together.

“Emma,” Kaldur whispered again, as if forgetting her name would make her disappear from his grasp. “Emma, Emma, Emma.”

“Kaldur, Kaldur,” Emma sniffed.

“Kiss me.” She said suddenly.

Kaldur's grip slackened. He stepped back to look at her. Instead of disgust, as either of them might have months ago, he was curious.

“Are you certain?”

“Yes.” Emma said. “Are you?”

In the dark of the narrow hall, Kaldur's lips found hers. His embrace returned with fervor, lifting her to her tiptoes to bring her closer.

His forehead rested against hers. “Does that answer it for you?”

Emma looped her arms around his neck, resting her head against his chest.

“I love you, Kal. I always have,” she said.

“That is wonderful to hear,” Kaldur said. He lifted her up in his arms, slowly carrying her to the sitting room couch.

“And why is that?” Emma rested her face in the crook of his neck as they settled on the couch.

“Because, Emma Grayson,” Kaldur reached for a blanket, swaddling it around Emma's light frame, “I think I love you now more than I ever have.”

Emma's voice caught in her throat. This didn't fix things completely. There was so much to talk about, a whole year's worth, but Emma knew now that she never wanted to be without Kaldur ever again, and now she also knew that Kaldur never wanted to lose her again. They could work through it, so long as this was something that both of them were willing to work towards.

“Do you want to be together again, Emma? If you say no now, I promise I will never ask you again.”

“I don’t know. But your biceps and your stupid smile are making it obnoxiously hard to say no.”

“Oh really?” Kaldur gave Emma his biggest, brightest smile, and she hid her face in his chest so that he didn’t see her smiling in return. Kaldur’s arms flexed ever so slightly as he pulled Emma closer and she couldn’t help it. She burst into laughter, meriting some from Kaldur as well.

He lightly kissed her nose. “I love you, Emma,” He said. He tucked her hair behind her ear, “I have for the longest time.”

Emma’s arms wrapped around his torso, feeling his strong heartbeat echo through her entire body.

“I love you too,” She said.

It felt like a two-ton weight meant for Superman had been taken away, something she had tried to hold down for so long was now flying free, as free as her wings had allowed her to be.

“Emma,” his tone was serious, and she shifted to look him in the eye.

“I know I have much to atone for. I should have told you about the mission, and I hope that you can forgive me.”

“You've already started to make up for it,” Emma wrapped her fingers in his curls. His hair had grown so much in the past few months, and since he didn't have to represent Atlantis or answer to any superior like Aquaman or Black Manta, he had allowed himself to let loose and stop shaving every so often.

“I just hope that you can forgive me for believing that you actually had gone evil.”

Kaldur kissed her cheek. “Since that was the goal of me going undercover, then there is nothing to forgive.”

“Now you're making me feel guilty for not forgiving you as quickly.”

“Forgiveness takes time, Emma,” Kaldur murmured patiently.

Emma hummed with a smile, pulling the blanket around them. “And we have all the time in the world.”

[fapangel]

The North Korean Counter-Force Catalog

Or, What We Can Learn From Google Earth IMINT

The world once again finds itself on the brink of a North Korean crisis, and this time matters have come to a head - the DPRK has developed a capable solid-fueled ICBM and a tested thermonuclear warhead to place upon it. Theories have been overturned by the cold facts of capabilities, and now there is only a matter of months before these new weapons are fielded in significant numbers. The free world in general, and America in particular, now have very little time to weigh the consequences of action versus inaction.

Unfortunately, the academics and thinkers whom usually inform and enrich the public debate seem largely unable to grasp the nature and gravity of the current crisis, preferring retreat to the familiar bastion of Cold War era deterrence theory. As Crispin Rovere neatly summarized: "There are analysts discounting the possibility of war, but based on shallow reasoning: North Korea has nuclear weapons, nuclear war is unthinkable, therefore there will be no war." More and more frequently, the terrible specter of war is dismissed out of hand in the opening sentences of op-eds and think tank columns, as if ignoring the beast will compel it to leave. Recent rumblings from the Pentagon have made clear, however, that our military leaders cannot indulge these luxuries - they must confront the possibility, and thus the actual balance of capabilities that determine the outcome.

Unfortunately, public discussion is badly hindered because open-source information on the actual capabilities in play are painfully scarce. Even Barry R. Posen of the New York Times came up nearly empty, forced to extrapolate from published estimates of North Korean Transporter-Erector-Launcher (TEL) numbers and pragmatic worst-case assumptions (every TEL in its own hardened bunker) to work out the weapons required - and thus the scope of the military effort needed. Indeed, this dearth of information is so complete that Roger Cavazos's now well-known article debunking the myth of DPRK artillery leveling Seoul, "Mind the Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality," relied heavily on amateur Google Earth IMINT research done by an anonymous internet user known only as "Planeman!" And even this well is dry, the original internet discussion forum Planeman's work was hosted on having been shut down ages ago, and few others pursuing the same efforts. It's perhaps no surprise - at least one other talented amateur IMINT analyst received a job offer from Janes. (If you’re good at something, never do it for free, as they say.) Thus the public discussion of the potentials and perils of “the military option” in North Korea has been starved of information. The voting electorate are the final arbiters of power in American democracy, as they will eventually hold their congressional representatives - and their President - to account for whatever outcomes generated by their decisions now. This grants popular opinion great influence over events (and North Korea knows it,) yet those commentators seeking to sway the masses have almost no information or evidence to present them with. 

Though unschooled and unworthy in the art of IMINT, I am an educated journalist, and can at least attempt the “footwork” to aid others. Fortunately, I can stand on the shoulders of giants in this effort - especially Jacob Bogle and his amazing work on “Access DPRK,” a colossal project to comprehensively map places and features in North Korea via free satellite imagery in Google Earth. Without Mr. Bogle's work - and all 53,722 Google Earth placemarks he generated - my efforts would be in vain. I also owe a debt to bookmarks compiled by “nkbypanda,” an anonymous amateur analyst, and even the original Google Earth .kmz bookmark file by “Planeman.” Building on their work, I've taken the next step and tried to classify hardened sites in North Korea, with an emphasis on identifying every hardened bunker or facility that might accommodate a TEL, in order to quantify the true scope of the challenge facing the Pentagon.

The Google Earth .kmz bookmarks file can be found here. Though still very much a work in progress, some general points of great significance are immediately apparent and are worth sharing now (especially with the ever-shorter timelines of potential crisis on the peninsula) and by publicizing I might invite the critique of the more informed.

Scope Of The Counter-Force Problem

Any preemptive strike on North Korea must assume worst-case scenarios - namely, that the regime will respond to any attack, no matter how limited, with full scale retaliation against Seoul, Tokyo and even the United States with a significant fraction of the weapons in their inventory, including conventional, chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. In other words, counter-force strike is the only feasible preemptive option. The conventional military balance on the peninsula being what it is, the equation is predominantly an “allied counter-force strike versus DPRK counter-value arsenal” problem. Even the oft-lamented artillery threat to Seoul is only notable when considered as delivery systems for chemical warheads.

Of the DPRK's known capabilities for delivering counter-value WMD attacks, three systems are predominant. In order of lethality, these are their SRBM arsenal, their 240mm Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, and their 170mm “Koksan” self-propelled heavy artillery guns.

This owes to several practical considerations. First, their solid-fueled, road-mobile IRBM and ICBM forces are still in their nascent phase, with their first successful tests conducted very recently, late last year at best, (in the case of the Pukkuksong-1.) Thus, at time of writing, North Korea simply hasn't had the time to produce and field them in significant numbers. This leaves their only operational MRBM the “Nodong,” a liquid-fueled weapon which is leashed to fixed bases and sizable support convoys, hindered by long (and fairly obvious) prep times, and above all is a 16 meter long weapon which makes it particularly ungainly to lug about the rugged North Korean terrain - especially on wheeled TELs. 

The DPRK's SRBM arsenal (chiefly domestic variants of the 12-meter long, solid-fueled Scud) are far more mobile, compact, and quick to prep and launch. They can be dispersed faster, across more possible terrain, and hidden in more places for a longer time than the Nodong. Most crucially, their TELs - which determine how many they can fire at once - are available in numbers (published estimates vary widely, the median being 200 TEL vehicles or so.) Combined with their ability to deliver North Korea's first generation of fission weapons, (unlike MLRS or artillery,) the DPRK's Scud force is the most survivable counter-value asset they have, and - despite the bevy of land and sea based anti-missile systems now deployed to the ROK - the one most likely to survive in numbers sufficient to saturate defenses and strike Seoul. (Striking America or even Tokyo is unnecessary, as the potential devastation of even a single low-yield warhead striking Seoul proper is more than enough to constitute an effective deterrent - which is why North Korea still exists.)

Thus, quantifying the scope of the counter-force challenge depends on finding the Scuds, the MLRS, and the 170mm artillery. This is what I've found so far.

The Bunker Blitz - A Concerted Asset Dispersal Effort

The most telling insight so far has been a downright feverish effort by North Korea to build new reverse-slope bunkers, mostly near the DMZ opposite Seoul, beginning in 2009 but peaking between 2011 and 2013. Especially in the latter timeframe, new bunkers on reverse slopes appeared almost everywhere - the .kmz file has northwards of 300 so far. They come in three distinct styles, which I've dubbed “large,” “medium,” and “Koksan.” The lattermost one is distinctive, and sheds light on the goals of the entire reverse-slope building effort:

The curious shape, with its narrow room off the back, was ultimately explained by “nkbypanda's” past work, which provided a ground-level view of storage sheds for the 170mm Koksan gun and overhead imagery to reference. The presence of these storage sheds in close proximity - invariably with gun barrels visible, and occasionally an entire gun parked outside - confirmed the purpose of these bunkers. (The narrow room accommodates the long barrel of a Koksan gun.) They're almost always built in sets of six, with two sets placed as close together as terrain allows (for a full battalion of 12 guns.) The distinct shape of these bunkers (visible in post-construction surface scarring) and presence of Koksan gun sheds allows identification even when imagery of the construction phase is poorly lit, poorly timed, or even nonexistent. So far I've found nine Koksan battalions (about half within 60km of Seoul's center) and a few half-battalion (6 gun) or single-battery (4 gun) dispersal sites for use in wartime (no unit permanently stationed there.)

In addition to being direct evidence of very scarce reports and anecdotal evidence concerning reverse-slope basing of 170mm Koksan guns, this casts other bunker-building efforts in the same timeframe in a decisively offensive light. Half the battalions so far discovered are more than 60km from Seoul's city center (the maximum theoretical range of the Koksan if using Rocket Assisted Projectiles.) They are, however, well-positioned for deep fire on the Chorwon invasion corridor (see page 11.) This makes their other bunkers more suspicious - despite being much closer to the DMZ (and thus more vulnerable) than required to range Seoul, such aggressive forward basing also maximizes penetration chances (steeper, faster re-entry trajectories to avoid ABM defense) and their reach into the southern ROK. In other words, they’re not sited for strictly counter-value employment. 

If Pyongyang harbors hopes of forceful unification still (after precluding American involvement with threats of ICBM strikes on American soil,) then they'll need the asymmetric advantage of WMD-equipped ballistic missiles to overcome the conventional forces imbalance on the peninsula, especially to strike more distant ROK bases, transportation chokepoints and other military targets. (The DPRKs recent pursuit of long-range precision conventional fires such as the KN-09 300mm MLRS, and local Tochka derivative, the KN-02 - both of which are rumored to have optical scene-matching terminal guidance - lends strength to this suspicion. If Pyongyang's motives are strictly self-defense deterrence, then pouring scarce money into new precision capabilities instead of more mature, legacy counter-value systems capable of carrying the DPRK's heavy first-gen fission weapons makes little sense.) With nuclear warheads, even Scuds are tactically and operationally relevant weapons, not just counter-value assets - which suggests that at least some of the new bunkers, outside of the 136 Koksan bunkers so far identified are meant for dispersal of Scud TELs.

Which Bunkers Hold What?

Discovering where TELs might be is easiest to do by ruling out where they can't be - i.e. where they cannot fit, or cannot access. The dimensions of bunkers are an obvious starting point.

Outside the Koksan bunkers, two other types predominate - a “medium��� bunker (measuring roughly four and a half to five meters wide, and thirteen to fourteen meters long,) and a “large” bunker with a six or seven meter width and a 17 to 18 meter length. Even with many bunkers floor plans open and visible during construction, solid measurements are a bit difficult due to various factors - slant angle distortion, shadows hiding the bases of walls, and above all the half-meter resolution of the free DigitalGlobe imagery that predominates in the Google Earth database. When considering the impact of interior wall thickness on overall internal dimensions, the resolution limits impose obvious problems in calculations. The figures given are an overall guesstimate produced over the course of identifying, measuring and cataloging many bunkers.

Can a North Korean Scud TEL fit in these? That depends on the TEL, which complicates matters because various TELs have been shown off in DPRK parades, owing to their need to import and improvise with whatever they can spirit past the sanctions. The length of a Scud missile puts a hard limit on length, however - 12 meters. And a great number of their extant Soviet-delivered stock (as displayed in parades) are likely the Maz-543, which gives us a width. Determining a turn radius required some hunting, but a variety of sources confirmed 15 meters as a reasonable approximation. (Interestingly, half that of the American HEMTT owing to the unique two-axle articulation.) Thus informed, one can analyze road access:

Once one begins sliding around a to-scale rectangle of cardboard around their screen making motor sounds with their mouth, the lesser glamour associated with the IMINT disciplines becomes apparent. Nonetheless, it's effective, and once practicalities are accounted for (such as room to open vehicle doors, and the icy nature of severe Korean winters) certain conclusions become more or less probable. As usual, there's always another wrinkle, such as North Korea's recently revealed tracked Scud TEL, but given the presumption of a mostly wheeled legacy fleet, broad conclusions can still be drawn.

Observing Patterns and Environs

Overall, some patterns emerged:

Every “medium bunker” site had road access that could accommodate a MAZ-543 TEL (though some were tight fits.)

“Large bunker” sites invariably had good road access, but not always sized to comfortably accommodate a MAZ-543's 3.06m wide TEL, even when it would've been easy to do so (see second image above.)

“Medium bunkers” are often associated with large, vehicle-capable tunnels (with widths, slopes and turn radii that can accommodate a MAZ-543 TEL) boring into presumed large garages or bases beneath hills or even mountains, facilities that the oldest imagery shows predates the 2009-2013 construction blitz.

“Large bunkers” are often associated with large nearby military bases with a preponderance of barracks, usually favor areas with flatter, wider-open terrain and are more often found very close to the DMZ (as little as four kilometers on occasion.)

This may imply:

The “medium bunkers” are dispersal bunkers for wheeled TELs, and perhaps for 240mm MLRS, which can be difficult to conclusively separate from the HARTs built for the latter system (predominantly distinguished by presence of firing revetments and shrapnel-shield dirt mounts in front of the entrances, as seen here.)

The “large bunkers” are meant for housing APCs, IFVs and supply vehicles for forward-positioned troops who might be called upon to drive on Seoul in event of war.

There's many caveats to these conclusions - the “medium” bunkers would accommodate a pair of 240mm MLRS (with room for reloads and accommodation for the crew as well) much more comfortably than a MAZ-543 (which can just about squeeze in with room for the driver to wiggle out,) to say nothing of the road access at some sites as well. Additionally, the “large” bunkers, aside from being a more comfortable fit, could provide room for extended crew accommodation (cots, stove, basic maintenance equipment, etc.) which would be of obvious use when TELs are dispersed in times of high tension - which may last indefinitely. Given the well known and longstanding concentration of American ISR capabilities near the DMZ, moving TELs around is something the KPA will try to avoid.

However, the preponderance of evidence seen across multiple sites impels me towards the above conclusions - especially in light of what the sudden bunker-building effort implies.

Deliberate Dispersal of High-Value Assets Away From Legacy Bases

Tangible information on the famous North Korean Hardened Artillery Shelter - outside of a single Nautilus publication from the late 80s and the occasional KCNA propaganda clip - is hard to come by. Looking at the sites themselves, however, reveals a multitude of types with varying protection - and that HARTs for self-propelled guns, including the Koksan, never provided overhead protection for guns  while they were actually firing. Indeed, some of the new Koksan bunker sites were built at already-extant Koksan battalion bases, with the gun sheds visible pre-2009 and the old firing revetments nearby still visible today. The bunker-building is almost certainly a reaction to the drastic shift in artillery effectiveness enabled by modern computer fire control and fast proliferation of cheap GPS guided shells with impressive accuracy, which render revetment protection mostly useless.

This strongly implies the other bunkers were also built as intelligent adaptations to changing ROK/US capabilities as well. Almost no information is available on North Korean missile bases (outside of a handful of badly outdated anecdotes from defectors and vague military press releases,) leaving us with naught but ludicrous claims of missile bases deeper than 1,000 feet (despite defector's testimony about the DPRK's inability to deal with the water table) that are nigh impregnable to all attack. Impregnable though the bunker may be, the exits are not so blessed:

As long as the bunker-busting bomb goes off on the right side of the blast door, the occupants will be unharmed (the image illustrates how the GBU-57 MOP subverts the bunker-builder's expectations in dramatic fashion.) But intact or not, a few tons of rock in your tunnel entrance complicates vehicular traffic some. A TEL that cannot sortie is a TEL that cannot fire. If DPRK missile bases are indeed buried deep under mountains, the last decade of rapid advances in precision standoff guidance weaponry and ever-more advanced and effective bunker-busting warhead design can be expected to compel rapid KPA efforts away from these newly vulnerable bottlenecks. 

Indeed, this seems to be the case. The facility I dubbed the “Kaesong Missile Base” features three generously-sized tunnels that lead under a sizable hill, and in historical imagery a 16-meter long vehicle is visible - almost certainly a Nodong missile on its TEL. Though the number of recently-dug bunkers in close proximity to this base are far more vulnerable than the under-mountain base, each must be attacked individually - a far higher burden on any would-be attacker than simply sealing every missile underground by hitting just three tunnel entrances. Given the short distances of the entire Korean theater, and conventional Allied military strength, by the time base occupants dig themselves out, they'll be in occupied territory. Thus the mass of the first retaliatory salvo is paramount. In light of modern weapons, this strongly favors dispersal of SRBM assets.

In light of this logic and the frequent observed association of pre-existing, TEL-accessible bases beneath hills and the “medium” sized bunkers, I find it highly plausible they're meant for dispersing SRBM launchers.

Conclusions

This document is informative; detailing the research and rationale that underlie the guesses offered within the .kmz file itself. I advance no argument from this data as-is, especially as the research is incomplete (in MLRS HARTs and hardened airbase facilities especially) and I must expose it to the criticism of the more experienced and informed before trusting it with such weight. However, a few simple conclusions are self-evident:

The DPRK is an alert, adaptive and responsive enemy who is keenly aware of allied counter-force abilities. The enemy is never idle.

From their decision to keep investing great money and effort into dispersal bunkers, despite concurrent investments in TEL mobility and the obviousness of construction efforts (for instance, amateurs can easily find them on Google Earth's low-res imagery) one may conclude they rate their chances of evading modern ROK/US ISTAR assets in a compact and terrain-constrained theater to be too low to ensure force survival alone.

Once the tracked TELs revealed this year are put into mass production, the counter-force targets will go from two-hundred odd wheeled SRBM TELs to more mobile, nimble and survivable TELs - and their already-mobile Scuds will be an order of magnitude more elusive.

In sum: time is short.

Commentary and questions best directed to my twitter, or use the anonymous “ask” box on this blog.

[misscrawfords]

Sparkling like granite?

So ITV is making a new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice which is going bring out its “darker tones”.

Here are my thoughts at considerable length (which nobody asked for) about this adaptation (which nobody asked for).

My initial response was mixed. On the one hand, I’m actually not averse to a new adaptation of P&P. Sure, it’s over-adapted and there are lots of novels which deserve a multi-part adaptation more than P&P. (Mansfield Park? The novels of Fanny Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Walter Scott?)  However, P&P is one of the world’s most popular novels and there hasn’t been a straight TV adaptation of it in over 20 years. Adaptations of P&P often say as much about the time in which they are made as they do about the source material and a good adaptation, even if one doesn’t necessarily agree with the choices made, can make you see the book in a new light and provoke discussion. I’m not averse to that.

So there’s that response of muted interest. That warred with deep misgivings about the “darker tones” of Austen’s “adult” novel which is “much less bonnet-y” in an adaptation by someone who has apparently never watched an adaptation of the book, despite loving it. Really? Has she been living under a rock? P&P is so much part of popular culture that it seems impossible to adapt it in a way that does not pay homage consciously or subconsciously to previous adaptations. Can one avoid a “post-modern moment” as Lost in Austen so delightfully made explicit? I’m deeply sceptical. (Does one even want to? Intertextuality can add so much... but that’s a discussion for another day.) Anyway, back to the “darker tones”. My instinct is to say that this seems terribly wrong. Of all Austen novels, P&P is the most light-hearted, the most sparkling, the most comforting. Why oh why, would you want to mess with that? For goodness sake, let us have our romantic comedies and laugh out loud satire and implausible happy endings! Why must everything be marred with the brush of making things grim and dark and equating that grimness with gritty reality? Reality may be sometimes grim and dark but it is also sometimes hilarious and warm and full of love. Why must the former be prioritised? I have a massive problem with reinterpreting texts to “make them dark” as if that is a naturally good thing. But that’s probably also a discussion for another day.

So, mixed feelings. But naturally the purists are up in arms about this idea (and a part of me certainly wants to join them) and that makes me desperately inclined to take a second look and examine the possibilities of this adaptation and some of the potentially intriguing things the writer has said. 

“Darker tones”

Okay, so firstly what does this mean? Does P&P even have darker tones? Surely you have to squint? Weeeeeell, yes and no. It’s a mistake to assume Austen never wrote about the nastier aspects of human nature and experience. The more obvious examples (leaving out Mansfield Park’s troubled potential references to the slave trade) are the fate of Colonel Brandon’s ward, Eliza; the decline of Mrs. Smith; the condition of the Prices in Portsmouth; the fate of Maria Rushworth; General Tilney’s treatment of his wife - and of course Wickham’s role in P&P. Just because Austen doesn’t write rape, seduction, abuse, death etc. explicitly on the page and just because her novels end (mostly) happily doesn’t mean she lives in a fantasy world untouched by these things.

Let’s look at Wickham. He attempted to seduce a vulnerable 15 year old girl who knew him and trusted him and used a woman in a position of authority to her to gain access to her. To use modern terminology, how long, one wonders, had he been grooming Georgiana? The elopement was prevented but only just. And while Darcy clearly thinks his sister’s reputation is intact (and her virtue), is it? Could Wickham have persuaded Georgiana to sleep with him before the elopement? I don’t personally think so - I think she would have somehow told Darcy if that had happened - but it is a possible and interesting idea, even if I don’t know where you would go with that except to show what an awful person Wickham is... which we know.

Wickham then successfully elopes with another 15 year old girl in a vulnerable position away from her family a year later - this is looking like a pattern of a rather unhealthy interest in underage girls (again to use modern theory, which is dangerous as an interpretation but sometimes useful). He’s the same age as Darcy after all - 28. Not an unheard of age gap in those days but still creepy considering the vulnerable positions of the girls in question. Lydia is ruined and by proxy, so are her sister’s chances. Wickham causes a LOT of problems by this one act. And all to get revenge on Darcy for refusing to give him money after he spent all his.

There is, moreover, the Meryton gossip: “He was declared to be in debt to every tradesman in the place, and his intrigues, all honoured with the title of seduction, had been extended into every tradesman’s family.”

Is this true? Has he been seducing (raping?) respectable girls in Meryton? Who knows! This is the wisdom of Mrs. Phillips after all. But they are talking about it openly in the text, there is rarely smoke without fire and it would hardly be out of character.

Is this sufficiently dark? It’s certainly not exactly a riotous comedy. Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of a Meryton tradesman’s daughter who loses her virtue and her father his money would be a very different novel. Georgiana’s history bears close examination. As with Eleanor Tilney’s story in Northanger Abbey, a real Gothic tale right under Catherine’s nose which she doesn’t even notice, there’s something pretty horrible going on in P&P if you care to look. 

Perhaps this is what the writer Raine means by “actually a very adult book”.

What else could that refer to? (Because I give her sufficient credit to assume she’s not going to add in random pornographic scenes for the sake of it. Honestly.)

Jane Bennet. Jane is basically depressed for the duration of the novel. Elizabeth constantly worries over her low-spirits and concern for her affects her own happiness. In fact, Elizabeth herself is miserable for a lot of the novel. She goes on a journey of self-discovery but that comes at a cost. She is affected by Charlotte’s marriage, Jane’s disappointment, her own disappointment in Wickham, the effect of reading Darcy’s letter, Lydia’s elopement and finally realising she loves Darcy and will never have him. That’s a lot to throw at even the most resilient, good-humoured and optimistic person. Just because Lizzy loves to laugh doesn’t mean she is not unhappy in some way or other for a lot of the novel. For example:

After disappointment re Bingley and Wickham: 

“Oh! if that is all, I have a very poor opinion of young men who live in Derbyshire; and their intimate friends who live in Hertfordshire are not much better. I am sick of them all. Thank Heaven! I am going to-morrow where I shall find a man who has not one agreeable quality, who has neither manner nor sense to recommend him. Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing, after all.”

“Take care, Lizzy; that speech savours strongly of disappointment.”

(I am always struck by the great bitterness in Elizabeth’s humour in that scene. It’s often overlooked IMO.)

After reading Darcy’s letter: 

...it may be easily believed that the happy spirits which had seldom been depressed before, were now so much affected as to make it almost impossible for her to appear tolerably cheerful.

The only other use of the word “depressed” in the novel also applies to Elizabeth.

When Lydia has returned with Wickham:

Elizabeth could bear it no longer. She got up, and ran out of the room; and returned no more, till she heard them passing through the hall to the dining parlour.

You’ve got to be pretty much at the end of your tether to run out of the room at the age of 20 because you cannot bear to hear your sister talking any more.

Elizabeth is not happy. Jane is not happy. Mrs. Bennet is certainly not happy. Sure, it’s a comedy and Elizabeth has the delightful ability to laugh at herself and others and Jane tries very hard to overcome low spirits and always sees the best and Mrs. Bennet absolutely must be a caricature or else the humour is lost and everything becomes terribly heavy and not like the novel at all, but we feel triumphant with Elizabeth at the end precisely because she has actually suffered so much along the way in very human ways - romantic disappointment, losing a friend to a lifestyle choice she can’t understand, family troubles... These are not the things of epic but that doesn’t make them unimportant. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries conveys this aspect of the characters so well without losing the comedy. It is possible. Certainly I don’t think any other period adaptation has succeeded so well and I would love to see an adaptation that does. It’s not graphic sex, but I would describe this as in the realm of adult themes.

“Much less bonnet-y”

Okay, I don’t really know what this means. I suspect it’s a dig at the period dramas of the 1980s and 90s with beautiful aesthetics and no dirt and everyone speaking very properly. I thought we got the reaction to that overwith in the 00s and I really don’t want more sackcloths and pigs in the corridors, please. Ladies in that period wore bonnets. Get over it. This strikes me as the most provocative statement in all the things that were said, but it is also largely meaningless without more context. Productions like Poldark and Victoria have made an effort with costumes and sets so I don’t see why this would skimp on them. Will it be set in the 1790s this time with more of a rompish Georgian feel than a neo-classical Regency tone? Time only will tell!

"I hope I do justice to Austen’s dark intelligence – sparkling, yes, but sparkling like granite.”

Now this intrigues me! This is what makes me curious and also hopeful. Because Austen pulled no punches and had a very good understanding of dark impulses and the awful ridiculousness of human behaviour - and she absolutely skewered it.

In Paragon we met Mrs. Foley and Mrs. Dowdeswell with her yellow shawl airing out, and at the bottom of Kingsdown Hill we met a gentleman in a buggy, who, on minute examination, turned out to be Dr. Hall — and Dr. Hall in such very deep mourning that either his mother, his wife, or himself must be dead.

Or

Mrs. B. and two young women were of the same party, except when Mrs. B. thought herself obliged to leave them to run round the room after her drunken husband. His avoidance, and her pursuit, with the probable intoxication of both, was an amusing scene.

Or

I give you joy of our new nephew, and hope if he ever comes to be hanged it will not be till we are too old to care about it.

Or

How horrible it is to have so many people killed! And what a blessing that one cares for none of them!

You get the point. All expressed in very nicely balanced phrases and a genteel tone and they are very amusing - but what sentiments! In short, I think Raine’s description of Austen’s wit and intelligence actually very apt. Similar things are found in P&P as in her letters. Consider Mr. Collins.

You ought certainly to forgive them, as a Christian, but never to admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing.

Ouch.

“She had better have stayed at home,” cried Elizabeth; “perhaps she meant well, but, under such a misfortune as this, one cannot see too little of one’s neighbours. Assistance is impossible; condolence insufferable. Let them triumph over us at a distance, and be satisfied.”

A nice thing to say about your friends and neighbours...

Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed a little in love now and then. It is something to think of, and it gives her a sort of distinction among her companions. When is your turn to come? You will hardly bear to be long outdone by Jane. Now is your time. Here are officers enough in Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country. Let Wickham be your man. He is a pleasant fellow, and would jilt you creditably.”

“Thank you, sir, but a less agreeable man would satisfy me. We must not all expect Jane’s good fortune.”

“True,” said Mr. Bennet, “but it is a comfort to think that whatever of that kind may befall you, you have an affectionate mother who will make the most of it.”

Such kind parental support!

Mr. Bennet’s sarcasm, Mr. Collins’ pomposity which is eventually revealed as truly cold-hearted, Elizabeth’s biting and often undeserved satire, Mrs. Bennet’s foolishness - all of these are funny and the adaptation must make them funny. The dialogue must glitter and shine or you lose the absolute light-hearted sparkling joy of the novel and everything becomes heavy. But there’s an edge to the humour, there really is. And you treat like the stereotype of Sunday night bonnets and swoonable men jumping in lakes to romantic soundtracks at your peril.

You know what, I’m willing to give someone who describes Austen as “sparkling like granite” a shot. Love and Friendship for the first time presented an Austen adaptation that took absurdity, satire and caricature as its starting point in adapting Austen and I would love to see an adaptation of P&P that did the same, with all the greater subtlety that this novel requires over several hours, considering that it is a beautiful love story as well.

Will this adaptation deliver? Who knows? And there are a lot of things to be concerned about in this endeavor. But it might be really quite interesting.

tl;dr Austen is uncomfortable funny, she has a dark side, but they can’t make the adaptation dark and grim because that misses the point.

[firstumcschenectady]

“Prophetic Justice”based on  2 Samuel 12:1-9

It can seem like the word “scandal” and the phrase “abuse of power” were created to describe this period of history, but the Bible begs to differ. King David had more than his fair share of scandals and abuses of power.

At this point in the story, King David had been crowned king, and had the accouterments of power: he'd married the previous king's daughter, he'd moved into the palace, he had a large harem and many children. The Bible says that all these were God's gifts to him, a statement that I take core issue with, but am going to let lie for now.

Presumably the palace was higher than the rest of the buildings around it, in any case we're told that David was out walking on the roof deck and had the vantage point to see Bathsheba bathing. What he saw, he wanted. Worse yet, he had the power to get what he wanted. He sent his servants to find out who she was. They told him. They told him not only who she was, and whose daughter she was, but also who she was married to. Knowing this, he sent other servants to fetch her.

And then he raped her.

The Bible only says that he “lay” with her, but she didn't have the power to decline, and lacking the power to decline means that there is no possible way for there to be consent. We don't know if it was violent or not, but it was rape. Bathsheba was impregnated by the rape, and let David know.

Unfortunately, the story doesn't get any better at this point. David didn't want to take responsibility for his actions, so he started working on a cover up. Bathsheba's husband was serving in David's military, so David sent word to the general to send him home, under the cover of asking for a report from the front lines. It is also useful to know that at this time, kings tended to function as their own generals, and David staying home safe from the fighting was perceived by many as an inherent abuse of power.

David hoped that while home for the night, Bathsheba and her husband Uriah's marital relations would cover his rape. It turned out that Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, was a man of high integrity though. He felt that it was unfair to the fighting army for him to have the comforts of home while they were on the front lines, and so he slept with David's guards at the palace. Then David thought the man's integrity would break with just a bit more pressure, so he got Uriah drunk. However, it still didn't work. Uriah slept among the guards. So David wrote a letter to his general and sent it back to the front lines in the hands of Bathsheba's husband, Uriah.

The letter instructed the general to put Uriah in the front line of fighting and then pull back all the rest of the troops, to assure Uriah's death. His general followed orders, Uriah died, Bathsheba mourned, and then David had her moved into the palace and married her himself, adding her to his royal harem.

This, apparently, displeased God, the Bible tells us. (2 Samuel 11:27b) Nathan comes to speak God's truth to David's power. As we heard today, Nathan tells David a story about a rich man with a large herds and flocks and a poor man who had only one lamb and treated it like family. The rich man wanted to look hospitable and good, but didn't want to actually kill any of his animals, so he stole the other man's lamb and fed it to his guest.

Like any of us, David was immediately able to see the injustice and wanted to do something to fix it! He thought the rich man had no compassion, he thought the man should have to repay what he'd done 4 times over. In fact he thought the man deserved to die over it (although I'm told what he said didn't constitute an official judgment condemning the man to die, this was merely passion.) Nathan's story worked. It not only raised the issues of abuse of power and basic injustice, it found a way to get at the most basic problem: David's actions valued David more than other people, they indicated that David thought he mattered MORE. God doesn't work like that.

In the New Interpreter's Bible, Bruce Birch, comments on this passage saying, “Power is always tempted to live in the illusion that it is autonomous and self-sufficient. Powerful people in powerful positions often imagine that they can define reality in their own terms.”1 However, “In the eyes of God, the powerless are as valued as the powerful, and the exploitation of the powerless ones is evil.”2 That is, God's justice doesn't have favorites, but human action often does.

I don't know what was going on in David's mind when he took those actions. Did he think he was God's favorite who could do no wrong? Was he just high on power? Did he simply WANT and act on that desire without thought of consequences, and then want to avoid consequences?

Although I am generally not a fan of David's, in this story I think he acts as an extreme version of all of us. He isn't the only human to have desire for someone or something out of bounds.  He isn't the only one to break rules (or laws) to get what he wants. And he certainly isn't the only one to make things worse with the cover-up. It does turn out that when Nathan is done speaking his accusations, David actually acknowledges what he's done and expresses repentance! That is worthy of notice. Most scandals and abuses of power aren't acknowledged. Most of the time people double down on their “rightness” no matter how much harm they've done. In terms of acknowledging what he'd done and not repeating the same mistake, David IS an example of what humans can be.

It seems like David actually did know that what he was doing was wrong, even though that didn't stop him. Now, in those days what he was doing that was wrong was taking another man's property by sleeping with that man's wife, and then the murder. Today we add rape to the list of acts of evil he perpetuated. I suspect he knew that was wrong too.

In addition to my curiosity about David's motivations, I'm rather curious about Nathan's. Why did he bring this up to the king? I don't tend to think that God's connection to humans was actually that different in those days than today, so I think it is likely that “the Lord sending Nathan to David” is much more likely to be Nathan's deep sense that something was wrong and that God wanted his help in naming it. He may well have known that this had to be brought into the light, but it was still a frightening thing to do. Other prophets had been killed by kings, or threatened by them. David was already a murderer when someone got in his way.

Yet clearly Nathan's sense that this had to be spoken was MORE powerful than his concern for his own well-being. Why? Why was this worth it for him? Was Uriah one of his friends? Was David one of his friends? Was God just a really good nag?  Did this seem to matter? Did he want to prevent it happening again and again? Did he think David needed help finding the right ways to use power? Was he worried the whole country would fall apart if leadership like that continued?

Furthermore, of all of the issues of injustice that were present in that day, why was this one the one he spent his time on? This I might have an answer to! Human societies, at least ones with successful agriculture, naturally become domination systems. Some people end up with more power and they do what they can to keep it.

God's vision for the Israelites was a society without a domination system. It was carefully designed to prevent generation poverty or cycles of debt; to welcome the stranger and care for the vulnerable; to offer rest to all, no matter their status; and to prevent the creation of social classes or nobility. In fact, in the original system the Levites were the teachers who taught God's vision and tried to motivate people to keep it, but they were prevented by it from owning any land. Thus they couldn't adapt it to their own benefit!

I think the most significant deviation from this vision occurred at the creation of the kingship. The bible itself expresses DEEP ambivalence about the practice of having kings. It suggests that God didn't want a kingship for the country, but the people “wanted to be like other nations.” Since the people had been called by God to be a “light on a hill” the desire to be like their neighbors isn't exactly flattering. For the most part, the Bible is unimpressed with the kings personally as well as in theory. David most certainly included, and in his case it gives us good examples of why!

I suspect that Nathan knew all this. He knew that kings tend to create domination systems, and they tend to justify them with divine “favor.” And he knew that the well-being of the masses in Israel was dependent on limiting the power of the king to dominate. If that's true then his actions in calling out the king were meant to take care of the people. He might have only been calling out one action, but he was stopping the acceleration of domination.

It also seems worth noting HOW he did it. The use of the parable to bring his point home was brilliant. It raised David's yearning for a just world, and that was necessary to bring David around to seeing his own acts of injustice and evil. This may be a very good strategy to keep in our own toolboxes for the difficult conversations God nudges us to.

Time and time again in the Bible, prophets have to tell those in power that their actions are against God's will and are doing harm to God's people. The role of the prophet is HARD, and dangerous. It was dangerous when Jesus did it too. And now, the role of the prophet is now shared within the Body of Christ. Jesus's lifework was multifaceted, there is much to do as the living Body of Christ today. One piece of our shared work is to name injustices to those in power, to try to limit the destructive power of domination systems. For each of us individually, this is part of our work but the portion is different. At some times we have to speak to friends or family members. At others we have to speak to institutions or their leaders. All of it is difficult, but we are responsible for holding God's vision of a just society in the midst of the many illusions about power and its right to dominate others. Our God is a God of the powerless AND the powerful. Our work is to reflect God's: by seeking to eliminate the exploitation of the powerless. May God be with us that we might be as creative and successful as Nathan. Amen

1Bruce C. Birch, Commentary on 2nd Samuel, New Interpreter's Study Bible Vol 2 (Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1998), p. 1294.

2Birch, 1294.

--Rev. Sara E. Baron

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March 4, 2018

[melindarowens]

China’s A Shares Get Added To The MSCI!

Good day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to you! I’ve done my share of Tub Thumpin’ the last two nights, and with today being an infusion day, I’ll have to leave all the Tub Thumpin’ to all of you! Please Tub Thump responsibly! HA! I’m greeted this morning by Chicago, and their song: Old Days… I was just doing some writing yesterday for an article, and talked about the old days of arriving at a currency’s value… Pretty interesting stuff, I must say!

The dollar strength that was being displayed all over the globe yesterday, has faded, but there’s really been no turn-around, just consolidation of the dollar moves on Tuesday and yesterday morning. The Gold price finally saw some light of day, but the price of Oil slipped further, falling to the $ 42 handle in the past 24 hours…

Let’s start with Gold today, you know, mix it up a bit, and see where it takes us, eh? Well… Gold didn’t do much again yesterday… Closing up only $ 3.70… I said yesterday morning when it was up nearly $ 5 in the early morning trading that it would be interesting to see what happened when the short Gold paper traders arrived… Well it didn’t take long to figure out what they thought! And the short Gold paper traders saw to it that Gold’s mini-rally didn’t go any further…

Then there was this article that showed up on the Kitco.com site, from Simona Gambarini — with the job title of “commodity economist,” reports that “gold’s luck has run out” with the 25-basis-point nudge in rates by the Fed. She further explains that her predicted two more rate hikes will cause even more money to leave the gold market.

I about fell out of my chair folks… As the U.S. economist, Dave Kranzler, responds to the GATA folks, “Hmmm. … “If Gambarini were a true economist, she would have conducted enough research of interest rates to know that every cycle in which the Fed raises the Fed Funds rate is accompanied by a rise in the price of gold. This is because the market perceives the Fed to be “behind the curve” on rising inflation, something to which several Fed heads have alluded.”

I’ll also throw in my two-cents, and say HOGWASH to those two more rate hikes! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, by the end of summer the Fed will be putting a halt on their plans to hike rates, and by Rocktober, they will be beginning their reversal that will eventually lead to QE4, and maybe even negative rates! Let’s see what Ms. Gambarini says then about Gold!

Whew! give me a minute while I climb down from the soapbox…  OK, I’m back on terra firma now, and ready to talk about something else!  The BIG NEWS yesterday involved China, so let’s talk about that for a minute.. I told you a couple of weeks ago that the MSCI (Morgan Stanley Corp Index) International Index was contemplating adding Chinese A share stocks to this index, and I said that they probably would add them, after telling the Chinese no, the previous 3 times they were up for adoption.

This deal comes with some parameters, as only 222 of Big Cap stocks were admitted, and since the Chinese like to “suspend stocks”, any stocks that had been suspended in the past 50 days were excluded. There was no discussion as to how the index would treat the 10% rule that the Chinese have on their stocks… No stock that gains or loses 10% in one day is allowed to trade further that day.  But here’s the real benefit for China…

You see, their stocks and currency will get a wider distribution, which has been a goal of the Chinese to gain a wider distribution of their currency for over a decade now. China has a lot of debt problems that they’ve created in creating an infrastructure that’s second to none. Have you seen the new Beijing Airport? They also keep their citizens happy by spending lots of money… And they have something called WMP’s, which is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme, but… China always seems to be able to weather their storms, and while a collapse of the WMP’s could bring on major damage to the economy and China’s reserves, the Gov’t continues to make inroads to having a free floating currency, that will most likely be backed by some percentage of Gold…

Earlier this morning, the Norges Bank met (Norway’s Central Bank) and like I said on Tuesday when I went through the events of the week, the Norges Bank left rates unchanged…  But also like I said on Tuesday, Norway has seemed to have weathered the storm from the drop in the price of Oil, which they had leaned on very heavily through the years.

Here’s a comment from the Norges Bank this morning after the announcement of no rate change. “Capacity utilization in the Norwegian economy appears to be higher than envisaged earlier. Inflation is lower than expected and may continue to drift down in the months ahead, but increased activity and receding unemployment suggest that inflation will pick up. Inflation expectations appear to be firmly anchored. Low house price inflation will curb debt accumulation, but it will take time for household vulnerabilities to recede.”

“The Executive Board’s current assessment of the outlook and the balance of risks suggests that the key policy rate will remain at today’s level in the period ahead,” says Governor Øystein Olsen.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) also left their Official Cash Rate (OCR) unchanged at 1.75% and in out going RBNZ Gov. Wheeler’s dwindling opportunities to diss kiwi strength, chose to just briefly mention that a weaker kiwi would help rebalance the growth outlook towards the tradables sector. Hmmm… what’s gotten into Wheeler? Has he gotten soft on kiwi strength? I really don’t know, but this is just not like him. Maybe he sees the light at the end of the tunnel, which will come when he steps down from his post in September…  Not that I want him to be himself with regards to dissing kiwi strength, I’m just being a Curious George here…

Kiwi did gain some ground after the OCR announcement, and no major dissing of the currency… So, kiwi has that going for it today!

Next week’s article for the Dow Theory Letters is going to be about what I talked about some yesterday, and that will be all about the euro… I’m putting the finishing touches on it today…  www.dowtheoryletters.com is the website where these articles will print on Thursdays, but you have to pay for a subscription to the site, which is very good, with different writers each day, and ending the week with the Aden Sisters, so if it floats your boat, set sail my friends!

The U.S. Data Cupboard is still being restocked, but we will see the color of the latest, Leading Indicators Index today… This report and Capacity Utilization are about the only two forward looking pieces of economic data, so I’ll be watching for the data print today… On Tuesday, the U.S. Current Account Deficit for the 1st QTR printed, and printed worse than expected… The forecasters had the deficit around $ 112 Billion, but the actual print was $ 117 Billion!!!!!!   UGH, when will the deficit spending every stop? When the wall of debt comes crashing down, that’s when!

To recap… The dollar strength of Tuesday through Wednesday morning faded into consolidation yesterday, and the currencies and metals have won a little of the lost ground back… Both the Norges Bank and the RBNZ left rates unchanged and really didn’t have much to say about their no rate moves either. Strange that RBNZ Gov. Wheeler wasn’t out dissing kiwi strength! Gold finally saw some light of day yesterday, but its gain was kept to just $ 3.70… And the price of Oil slipped further falling to the $ 42 handle…

For what It’s Worth… In 2003, I remember sitting in our convertible mustang, as the three Amigos, Chuck, Duane and Rick were setting out to find Roger Dean Stadium on our first trip to Spring Training together. And Duane asked me what was on my mind regarding the U.S. economy. (now this was long before they realized they should never ask me stuff like that!) And I responded that I had been reading and writing about something that really troubled me, and that was the underfunding that was going on with Pensions.. That’s right I said that in 2003… And I’ve been writing about it since, sounding like a broken record, I guess, but still it goes on and on, and keeps getting larger and larger… Look at Illinois, they’ve now been ordered by a Court to pay bills, but they have no money, and their State Pension is grossly underfunded!

Well, any-old-way you look at it, Chuck was out there seeing stuff that was going to be a problem, long before anyone else did, and that brings me to today’s FWIW… It’s an article on Bloomberg, that talks about GE’s pension shortfall, and when I say shortfall, I’m being kind to GE! You can find the article here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-16/ge-s-31-billion-hangover-immelt-leaves-behind-big-unfunded-tab?utm_source=ST&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ShareTrader+AM+Update+for+Saturday+17+June+2017

Or, here’s your snippet: “It’s a problem that Jeffrey Immelt largely ignored as he tried to appease General Electric Co.’s most vocal shareholders.

But it might end up being one of the costliest for John Flannery, GE’s newly anointed CEO, to fix.

At $ 31 billion, GE’s pension shortfall is the biggest among S&P 500 companies and 50 percent greater than any other corporation in the U.S. It’s a deficit that has swelled in recent years as Immelt spent more than $ 45 billion on share buybacks to win over Wall Street and pacify activists like Nelson Peltz.

Part of it has to do with the paltry returns that have plagued pensions across corporate America as ultralow interest rates prevailed in the aftermath of the financial crisis. But perhaps more importantly, GE’s dilemma underscores deeper concerns about modern capitalism’s all-consuming focus on immediate results, which some suggest is short-sighted and could ultimately leave everyone — including shareholders themselves — worse off.”

Chuck again.. well, there’s no reason for me to pile on here… You know when I played football, I was usually the guy that made the first hit and then as we fell to the ground, I got piled on. I always hated that feeling of being at the bottom of a pie of people, especially other football players! Yes, I was what my dad would call, a “pretty good country athlete”, but that was in a different life, for if you’ve seen me in my adult life, I no more look like any kind of athlete! HA! (maybe a Sumo wrestler! HA)

Currencies today 6/22/17… American Style: A$ .7540, kiwi .7253, C$ .7510, euro 1.1165, sterling 1.2665, Swiss $ .9736, … European Style: rand 13.0052, krone 8.4890, SEK 8.7398, HUF 276.65, zloty 3.7957, koruna 23.5154, RUB 59.82, yen 111.33, sing 1.39, HKD 7.8003, INR 64.56, China 6.8287, peso 18.17, BRL 3.3268, Dollar Index 97.55, Oil $ 42.66, 10-year 2.16%, Silver $ 16.59, Platinum $ 927.73, Palladium $ 888.07, and Gold… $ 1,251.60

That’s it for today… Running a bit later this morning, but no biggie! A great day for me yesterday, I was sent the subscriber list for the Pfennig, which means, we can load it up now and maybe by tomorrow, but probably Monday the emailed Pfennig will be going out once again! YAHOO! Things are looking up once again for yours truly… I do have to get a chemo infusion today though, so I’ll deal with that later this morning, and hopefully it doesn’t rain on my parade! Another extra inning win for my beloved Cardinals last night. But like I told my friend Dennis Miller, winning extra inning games against the worse team in baseball, isn’t what I would call “good wins”… But a win is a win, right?  Ok.. time to get going. The iPod has reshuffled and we’re being taken to the finish line today by Billy Squier and his song: My Kind Of Lover…  I hope you have a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday, and Be Good To Yourself!

 Chuck Butler

 Daily Pfennig

source http://capitalisthq.com/chinas-a-shares-get-added-to-the-msci/ from CapitalistHQ http://capitalisthq.blogspot.com/2017/06/chinas-shares-get-added-to-msci.html

[everettwilkinson]

China’s A Shares Get Added To The MSCI!

Good day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to you! I’ve done my share of Tub Thumpin’ the last two nights, and with today being an infusion day, I’ll have to leave all the Tub Thumpin’ to all of you! Please Tub Thump responsibly! HA! I’m greeted this morning by Chicago, and their song: Old Days… I was just doing some writing yesterday for an article, and talked about the old days of arriving at a currency’s value… Pretty interesting stuff, I must say!

The dollar strength that was being displayed all over the globe yesterday, has faded, but there’s really been no turn-around, just consolidation of the dollar moves on Tuesday and yesterday morning. The Gold price finally saw some light of day, but the price of Oil slipped further, falling to the $ 42 handle in the past 24 hours…

Let’s start with Gold today, you know, mix it up a bit, and see where it takes us, eh? Well… Gold didn’t do much again yesterday… Closing up only $ 3.70… I said yesterday morning when it was up nearly $ 5 in the early morning trading that it would be interesting to see what happened when the short Gold paper traders arrived… Well it didn’t take long to figure out what they thought! And the short Gold paper traders saw to it that Gold’s mini-rally didn’t go any further…

Then there was this article that showed up on the Kitco.com site, from Simona Gambarini — with the job title of “commodity economist,” reports that “gold’s luck has run out” with the 25-basis-point nudge in rates by the Fed. She further explains that her predicted two more rate hikes will cause even more money to leave the gold market.

I about fell out of my chair folks… As the U.S. economist, Dave Kranzler, responds to the GATA folks, “Hmmm. … “If Gambarini were a true economist, she would have conducted enough research of interest rates to know that every cycle in which the Fed raises the Fed Funds rate is accompanied by a rise in the price of gold. This is because the market perceives the Fed to be “behind the curve” on rising inflation, something to which several Fed heads have alluded.”

I’ll also throw in my two-cents, and say HOGWASH to those two more rate hikes! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, by the end of summer the Fed will be putting a halt on their plans to hike rates, and by Rocktober, they will be beginning their reversal that will eventually lead to QE4, and maybe even negative rates! Let’s see what Ms. Gambarini says then about Gold!

Whew! give me a minute while I climb down from the soapbox…  OK, I’m back on terra firma now, and ready to talk about something else!  The BIG NEWS yesterday involved China, so let’s talk about that for a minute.. I told you a couple of weeks ago that the MSCI (Morgan Stanley Corp Index) International Index was contemplating adding Chinese A share stocks to this index, and I said that they probably would add them, after telling the Chinese no, the previous 3 times they were up for adoption.

This deal comes with some parameters, as only 222 of Big Cap stocks were admitted, and since the Chinese like to “suspend stocks”, any stocks that had been suspended in the past 50 days were excluded. There was no discussion as to how the index would treat the 10% rule that the Chinese have on their stocks… No stock that gains or loses 10% in one day is allowed to trade further that day.  But here’s the real benefit for China…

You see, their stocks and currency will get a wider distribution, which has been a goal of the Chinese to gain a wider distribution of their currency for over a decade now. China has a lot of debt problems that they’ve created in creating an infrastructure that’s second to none. Have you seen the new Beijing Airport? They also keep their citizens happy by spending lots of money… And they have something called WMP’s, which is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme, but… China always seems to be able to weather their storms, and while a collapse of the WMP’s could bring on major damage to the economy and China’s reserves, the Gov’t continues to make inroads to having a free floating currency, that will most likely be backed by some percentage of Gold…

Earlier this morning, the Norges Bank met (Norway’s Central Bank) and like I said on Tuesday when I went through the events of the week, the Norges Bank left rates unchanged…  But also like I said on Tuesday, Norway has seemed to have weathered the storm from the drop in the price of Oil, which they had leaned on very heavily through the years.

Here’s a comment from the Norges Bank this morning after the announcement of no rate change. “Capacity utilization in the Norwegian economy appears to be higher than envisaged earlier. Inflation is lower than expected and may continue to drift down in the months ahead, but increased activity and receding unemployment suggest that inflation will pick up. Inflation expectations appear to be firmly anchored. Low house price inflation will curb debt accumulation, but it will take time for household vulnerabilities to recede.”

“The Executive Board’s current assessment of the outlook and the balance of risks suggests that the key policy rate will remain at today’s level in the period ahead,” says Governor Øystein Olsen.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) also left their Official Cash Rate (OCR) unchanged at 1.75% and in out going RBNZ Gov. Wheeler’s dwindling opportunities to diss kiwi strength, chose to just briefly mention that a weaker kiwi would help rebalance the growth outlook towards the tradables sector. Hmmm… what’s gotten into Wheeler? Has he gotten soft on kiwi strength? I really don’t know, but this is just not like him. Maybe he sees the light at the end of the tunnel, which will come when he steps down from his post in September…  Not that I want him to be himself with regards to dissing kiwi strength, I’m just being a Curious George here…

Kiwi did gain some ground after the OCR announcement, and no major dissing of the currency… So, kiwi has that going for it today!

Next week’s article for the Dow Theory Letters is going to be about what I talked about some yesterday, and that will be all about the euro… I’m putting the finishing touches on it today…  www.dowtheoryletters.com is the website where these articles will print on Thursdays, but you have to pay for a subscription to the site, which is very good, with different writers each day, and ending the week with the Aden Sisters, so if it floats your boat, set sail my friends!

The U.S. Data Cupboard is still being restocked, but we will see the color of the latest, Leading Indicators Index today… This report and Capacity Utilization are about the only two forward looking pieces of economic data, so I’ll be watching for the data print today… On Tuesday, the U.S. Current Account Deficit for the 1st QTR printed, and printed worse than expected… The forecasters had the deficit around $ 112 Billion, but the actual print was $ 117 Billion!!!!!!   UGH, when will the deficit spending every stop? When the wall of debt comes crashing down, that’s when!

To recap… The dollar strength of Tuesday through Wednesday morning faded into consolidation yesterday, and the currencies and metals have won a little of the lost ground back… Both the Norges Bank and the RBNZ left rates unchanged and really didn’t have much to say about their no rate moves either. Strange that RBNZ Gov. Wheeler wasn’t out dissing kiwi strength! Gold finally saw some light of day yesterday, but its gain was kept to just $ 3.70… And the price of Oil slipped further falling to the $ 42 handle…

For what It’s Worth… In 2003, I remember sitting in our convertible mustang, as the three Amigos, Chuck, Duane and Rick were setting out to find Roger Dean Stadium on our first trip to Spring Training together. And Duane asked me what was on my mind regarding the U.S. economy. (now this was long before they realized they should never ask me stuff like that!) And I responded that I had been reading and writing about something that really troubled me, and that was the underfunding that was going on with Pensions.. That’s right I said that in 2003… And I’ve been writing about it since, sounding like a broken record, I guess, but still it goes on and on, and keeps getting larger and larger… Look at Illinois, they’ve now been ordered by a Court to pay bills, but they have no money, and their State Pension is grossly underfunded!

Well, any-old-way you look at it, Chuck was out there seeing stuff that was going to be a problem, long before anyone else did, and that brings me to today’s FWIW… It’s an article on Bloomberg, that talks about GE’s pension shortfall, and when I say shortfall, I’m being kind to GE! You can find the article here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-16/ge-s-31-billion-hangover-immelt-leaves-behind-big-unfunded-tab?utm_source=ST&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ShareTrader+AM+Update+for+Saturday+17+June+2017

Or, here’s your snippet: “It’s a problem that Jeffrey Immelt largely ignored as he tried to appease General Electric Co.’s most vocal shareholders.

But it might end up being one of the costliest for John Flannery, GE’s newly anointed CEO, to fix.

At $ 31 billion, GE’s pension shortfall is the biggest among S&P 500 companies and 50 percent greater than any other corporation in the U.S. It’s a deficit that has swelled in recent years as Immelt spent more than $ 45 billion on share buybacks to win over Wall Street and pacify activists like Nelson Peltz.

Part of it has to do with the paltry returns that have plagued pensions across corporate America as ultralow interest rates prevailed in the aftermath of the financial crisis. But perhaps more importantly, GE’s dilemma underscores deeper concerns about modern capitalism’s all-consuming focus on immediate results, which some suggest is short-sighted and could ultimately leave everyone — including shareholders themselves — worse off.”

Chuck again.. well, there’s no reason for me to pile on here… You know when I played football, I was usually the guy that made the first hit and then as we fell to the ground, I got piled on. I always hated that feeling of being at the bottom of a pie of people, especially other football players! Yes, I was what my dad would call, a “pretty good country athlete”, but that was in a different life, for if you’ve seen me in my adult life, I no more look like any kind of athlete! HA! (maybe a Sumo wrestler! HA)

Currencies today 6/22/17… American Style: A$ .7540, kiwi .7253, C$ .7510, euro 1.1165, sterling 1.2665, Swiss $ .9736, … European Style: rand 13.0052, krone 8.4890, SEK 8.7398, HUF 276.65, zloty 3.7957, koruna 23.5154, RUB 59.82, yen 111.33, sing 1.39, HKD 7.8003, INR 64.56, China 6.8287, peso 18.17, BRL 3.3268, Dollar Index 97.55, Oil $ 42.66, 10-year 2.16%, Silver $ 16.59, Platinum $ 927.73, Palladium $ 888.07, and Gold… $ 1,251.60

That’s it for today… Running a bit later this morning, but no biggie! A great day for me yesterday, I was sent the subscriber list for the Pfennig, which means, we can load it up now and maybe by tomorrow, but probably Monday the emailed Pfennig will be going out once again! YAHOO! Things are looking up once again for yours truly… I do have to get a chemo infusion today though, so I’ll deal with that later this morning, and hopefully it doesn’t rain on my parade! Another extra inning win for my beloved Cardinals last night. But like I told my friend Dennis Miller, winning extra inning games against the worse team in baseball, isn’t what I would call “good wins”… But a win is a win, right?  Ok.. time to get going. The iPod has reshuffled and we’re being taken to the finish line today by Billy Squier and his song: My Kind Of Lover…  I hope you have a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday, and Be Good To Yourself!

  Chuck Butler

  Daily Pfennig

from CapitalistHQ.com http://capitalisthq.com/chinas-a-shares-get-added-to-the-msci/