Rogue Waves

Imagine what happens when you have teams of amateurs led by ambitious incompetents and loudmouth show-offs, unaccountable to anyone, spending other peoples’ money!

Thursday, April 3rd, 2025

Bill Bonner, from aboard the Queen Mary II

“There you are!” writes Tom…sending a handy shipping map (seen above).

Looking out the window it is not clear where we are. It is so foggy, we can barely see anything more than 100 yards away.

The ship left Brooklyn on Saturday and made its way up to the northeast, following the coast of North America… up past Maine, past Nova Scotia… and then past Newfoundland towards Greenland. Out in the Atlantic, but still near the continental shelf are the ‘Grand Banks’ — noted for the abundance of fish and fog.

The fog results from the confluence of the cold Labrador current and the warm Gulf Stream. The large area of relatively shallow water also seems to encourage an abundance of marine life. It is one of the richest fishing areas in the world. Basque fishermen apparently fished here as early as the 15th century.

Undersea oil exploration began in the 1960s, leading to the discovery of the Hibernia field in 1979, which became Canada’s most productive oil area. The exploration however — so far from land, in the cold and foggy Atlantic — was not without its hazards. There are rogue waves, icebergs, hurricanes and sea ice to worry about.

It was a rogue wave that hit the Ocean Ranger drilling platform in 1982. Winds of 100 knots and waves as high as 65 feet struck in the middle of the night. The platform listed… took on water… and for hours the crew tried to pump it out and save it. But then, they lost control and it rolled over and sank.

Some members of the crew managed to get away in a lifeboat. But the small boat over-turned in the rough water. Even with helicopters and rescue boats arriving on the scene, the waves and darkness swallowed its victims. All 84 hands on the drilling platform died. And the following year, three more divers died trying to re-float the wreckage.

Even with security drills, rescue plans, helicopters, the Canadian air and naval forces… the latest meteorological and safety technology, things still go wrong.

Imagine what happens when you have teams of amateurs led by ambitious incompetents and loudmouth show-offs, unaccountable to anyone, spending other peoples’ money!

Yesterday was Liberation Day. Since WWII more people have been rescued from poverty than in any other period in human history. The doctrine of ‘Free Trade’ helped make it possible. But now we have a policy of un-free trade, controlled by political insiders.

CNN:

Donald Trump just took the greatest political gamble with the US economy of any modern president.

Presidents normally try to do everything they can to avoid upsetting the country’s economic engine and global stability — especially if unemployment is low and growth is ticking over, as it was when he took over from Joe Biden.

But with his stunning outburst of new tariffs on almost all imports from 185 nations, Trump administered an extraordinary shock that went against the advice of almost every economic expert and the lessons from some of history’s grimmest omens.

But now that we are unshackled from the doctrine of free trade, maybe we can break free of fetters elsewhere.

One of the most comical themes in the news lately revolves around the release of documents relating to JFK’s assassination… and Elon Musk’s meeting with CIA and NSA officials. The New York Post:

President Trump’s release last month of “long-secret documents” on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy revealed that “three top CIA officials lied” to investigators about the agency’s awareness of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, according to dogged researchers who have studied the tragedy for decades.

Fox News:

Elon Musk visited Central Intelligence Agency headquarters on Tuesday to discuss his government efficiency program. "Had a great visit and meeting with @ElonMusk to discuss his ideas and progress so far in making our government more efficient!" Radcliffe wrote. "I look forward to working with Elon and his team to ensure that the CIA remains the premier intelligence Agency in the world.”

If there is a ‘Deep State’ the CIA is at the center of it. And if a pushy rich guy, not even an elected official, can get it to reduce its budget and its power, the whole idea of the deep state’s sinister control evaporates.

The book we are reading — The Ghost, the Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton — shows how the CIA wasted thousands of lives and billions of dollars. Angleton was paid to chase Soviet spies. But he didn’t notice that his best friend — with whom he vacationed and lunched regularly — British agent Kim Philby, was actually a Soviet spy.

Nor did he bother to tell the Dallas police that the man he had been watching for years — Lee Harvey Oswald — was going to be in Dallas when president Kennedy was in town.

For decades, the CIA did what it ought not to have done…and failed spectacularly when it needed to do something worthwhile. It spied on people all over the world. It assassinated them. Tortured them. It spread propaganda to them. It undermined their governments.

Finding waste in the CIA would be child’s play; it’s almost all waste. The Jerusalem Post:

Classified CIA files reveal psychic quest for the Ark of the Covenant

Review the documents: Remote Viewer No. 032 described a container made of wood, gold, and silver, adorned with images of six-winged angels, and similar in shape to a coffin.

And then, when it really might have been useful, the CIA was nowhere to be seen. Where was the CIA assessment when Lyndon Johnson thought he could beat the Vietnamese by sending US troops… and Richard Nixon thought he could bomb them ‘back to the stone age?’

Where were CIA agents when Saudi terrorists were blowing up the World Trade Center? Who was it that told Colin Powell that the Iraqis had ‘weapons of mass destruction?’ Or that Russia would back down in the Ukraine if its economy were sanctioned?

By any reasonable assessment, the agency has done far more harm than good and should be eliminated. But how? Is the CIA going to cooperate to put itself out of business?

“Here are some files that show how we’ve gone rogue,” CIA director John Ratcliffe might say as he handed a file to the New York Times.

“And sure… tell Elon to come on over and show us how to cut our budget and reduce our power. Ha ha.”

“And by the way, we have a file on you too.”

Regards,

Bill Bonner