{"id":35685,"date":"2026-01-05T05:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T10:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=35685"},"modified":"2026-01-04T19:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T00:52:09","slug":"35685","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/05\/35685\/","title":{"rendered":"05JAN2026 This \u2018N\u2019 That"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday January 4th<\/sup> is the end of my vacation.\u00a0 So, I\u2019ll be busy with a bunch of stuff; work, book launch and various chores and repairs.\u00a0 So today I\u2019m luxuriating in a trifecta of \u201cChristmas Carol\u201d viewings and so I\u2019ll be steeped in \u201cpeace on Earth, goodwill toward men\u201d right before I go back to despising the citizens of Dunwich on a face-to-face basis.\u00a0 Honestly, the bureaucratic nightmare that is unfolding has me questioning my current status and I may decide to walk away from all this nonsense but we\u2019ll have to see.\u00a0 Ethically I\u2019ll have to give notice and let them find someone as stupid as me to volunteer to suffer through all this.\u00a0 And I\u2019d have to train my replacement so relief would still be delayed by weeks.\u00a0 But it is fun to contemplate escape.\u00a0 Even this short venting has lifted my spirits.\u00a0 Okay, enough for now.<\/p>\n

The world stage is becoming increasingly troubled but for now I\u2019ll restrict myself to Venezuela.\u00a0 Now this crisis is actually the most manageable.\u00a0 Essentially letting the US military eject the Cubans, guard the oil fields and end the drug shipments to the United States might all be within the abilities of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Theoretically the oil infrastructure that was nationalized by Maduro\u2019s predecessor could be returned to the western oil companies and very reasonable arrangements could provide enormous money for Venezuela\u2019s people and also flood the American market with cheap oil and gas.\u00a0 This would have the effect of lowering American transportation and energy costs and thereby lowering the cost of living here.\u00a0 Now actually making this happen without major problems is a different question.\u00a0 But I think Trump sees this as an opportunity to attack the cost-of-living problem head on.\u00a0 If nothing else you have to admire his guts.\u00a0 I\u2019ll take a wait and see attitude (since I don\u2019t have any choice anyway).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And finally, it\u2019s only seventeen days until the publication on Amazon of my magnum opus, \u201cThe Sniper<\/a>\u201d I\u2019m hoping everyone who has friends that might be interested in a right-wing, alternate history, techno-thriller will let them know about this great event.\u00a0 In the run-up to the launch, I will become increasingly annoying with my constant shilling and repetitive praise of this product of my literary labor.\u00a0 I apologize in advance to everyone but I must do my best to drum up business.\u00a0 So, if hyperbole makes you break out in hives be warned this will be ground zero for such stuff.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alright, that\u2019s enough of that.\u00a0 On a local weather note it has been snowing either a little or a lot every couple of days for the last couple of weeks.\u00a0 Now I\u2019m pretty used to this but lately it\u2019s been getting mixed up with freezing rain and ice.\u00a0 That\u2019s a lot less fun.\u00a0 So, I\u2019ve been spending a lot more time on driveway surface preparation.\u00a0 Because of this I haven\u2019t had as much time for thinking up stuff for my posts.\u00a0 So, I hope after this weekend things will be better for the next couple of weeks.\u00a0 Thank you for your patience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday January 4th is the end of my vacation.\u00a0 So, I\u2019ll be busy with a bunch of stuff; work, book launch and various chores and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3366,1289,818,1263,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-life-in-dunwich","category-fiction-by-me","category-ocf","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-trump"],"yoast_head":"\n05JAN2026 This \u2018N\u2019 That - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/05\/35685\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"05JAN2026 This \u2018N\u2019 That - 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