Dissolving Status Quo Corporate America Might Be Our Last, Clear Chance- The Sunday Collage

In 1992 and 1996, Ross Perot ran for President. Ross Perot was a visionary, he was astute, and he had a lot of solid and well thought out  positions. My favorite thing about Ross was that he wasn't a lawyer and he was a billionaire. Success does not always guarantee future success- but it's a hell of a good place to start.

In America, we forget that electing a President is not unlike hiring an employee. We keep falling for a lot of bullshit credentials held by people who have achieved little or no success. Look at Bush and Obama. Neither one accomplished much on their own prior to their elections. They were simply a couple of silver spooned trust funders- one from an obviously wealthy family- and the other one (and the source of his money) has been a total mystery.

As it turns out, Ross Perot may have been our last clear chance to save ourselves. We needed leadership desperately back then- our mistake is very clear to me now.

Here were the knocks on Ross. He was sort of an ugly little man without much tact. He didn't come from either of our two enslaving, political parties. He was arrogant and paranoid. Those were just the knocks- none of them deal killers.

Here's a snip from wiki about Ross which pretty much captures how it was nearly 20 years ago. Perot tried to keep his movement alive through the mid-1990s, continuing to speak about the increasing national debt. He was a prominent campaigner against the North American Free Trade Agreement, and even debated with Al Gore on the issue on Larry King Live. Perot's behavior during the debate was a source of mirth thereafter, including his repeated pleas to "let me finish" in his southern drawl. The debate was seen by many as effectively ending Perot’s political career.^[40] Support for NAFTA went from 34% to 57%.^[41]


Ross Perot hated NAFTA. He said that if we started supporting free trade agreements that we'd have a great sucking sound in this country. That would be the sound of American jobs and American money leaving the confines of our shores. Since then our country has lost millions upon millions of jobs and generated over two trillion in un-taxable, offshore dollars. Dollars that cannot do anyone in the US- any good. That can only get worse.

I'm going to stop short of calling Perot a prophet but he was pretty much on the mark. He knew this NAFTA mess was going to be really bad for our country and it has been- and it is getting worse. We have not felt the full measure of pain yet but is coming on swift wings.

Instead of Perot or more recently, Ron Paul- the voters of this country have given us 12 years worth of the Bushes', 8 years worth of a drug and sex addicted (and it's pretty well documented) Clinton, and 8 years of the current moron.

That's 28 years of wasted time, a loss of 50 million jobs, a non-working, declining, middle class that finds it's earnings trending lower and lower while government demands more and more of what little income they have. Does government really think we have enough money laying around to pay an extra 500 a month for shitty healthcare?

We don't. And government is too inept and too fucking stupid to have actually asked the people who would be doing the paying. Some might even call us stakeholders. Some might have even of said that we should have been included in the whole, unread process.

By the time President Nine Iron finishes his tour of duty- we are going to be at least 19 trillion dollars in debt, Obamacare will be a complete and unmitigated disaster because our country is bankrupt and our citizens are broke. They do not have 500 or 600 a month laying around to just piss away on crappy, high deductible insurance. (The beauty of this is that if you are fully invested in health care insurers- you are about to witness the entire collapse of that sector brought about by a government who thinks it can squeeze blood from turnips and which also apparently thinks that it has the power to force your compliance)

So who are we going to elect in 2016?  Ross Perot will be 85 although he might live to be 100. He kind of reminds me of the JR Simplot, George Burns, type of lifespanner.

Somebody has to bring corporate America back to America. The vacation is over. I'm not talking about giving them tax breaks. I'm talking about making it illegal for any incorporated institution in this country to employ people in violation of US Labor Standards which sells it's products here.

In other words, you would not be able to employ a Chinese, Taiwanese, Mexican employee unless you have met our very own United States Department of Labor Standards which includes all of the rights and benefits guaranteed to a US citizen. That includes the Family Leave Act, the Minimum Wage Act paid in US dollars, and all of the other standards which this country has fought to achieve.

Quite simply, if an American corporation refused to comply- their right to incorporate and do business in the U.S. would be dissolved. They would be free to move to China or Russia or whoever would have them., pay their dollar an hour wage, and sell their products there. They could export to the U.S. subject to tariffs. In the meantime, new American business would spring up to take the place of those we ex-communicate.

Is that fair? Of course it is. It is no less fair than sticking Obamacare up our collective asses. Or the oil industry charging us the same retail price at every pump in town. NAFTA was a huge mistake. We cannot pay our national debt until we dissolve NAFTA. It is that simple.

Think about that for a moment. I have been mulling it over all week. It is the only way I can think of to give this nation a fighting, economic chance for survival. Absent a similar measure- quite honestly the only other way to satisfy our national debt is through a major hyperinflation event and currency collapse. Nobody has enough money to pay the national debt. Nobody. We can't even afford to buy force placed government health insurance let alone come up with the money to pay the debt.

Maybe in exchange for the return of American jobs to American soil- we would allow corporations to bring home off shore dollars with a minimum tax or perhaps even free.

A declining standard of living, inflation, and a government trying to steal every last dollar it can get from citizens- that is the future. The government dissolved eight major tax breaks at the first of this year. Two of them directly hurt me. They imposed another tax- Obamacare on us- and we are all going to pay more taxes this year. I don't know if you have been noticing this- but things aren't getting any better.

Dissolving the corporate welfare system in this country is key to our economic survival. We cannot carry the burden of millions upon millions of people on disability, social security, and free healthcare without restoring tax paying jobs to America. We can no longer afford to allow corporate America to fatten it's margins on the slave labor of the undeveloped world. This as it stands now, is a system that is 100% guaranteed to fail.

We have lost the capacity to take care of ourselves. In the newly minted world of 2008, the artificial stimulations of central bank counterfeiters and the lies spewed by our government cannot last forever.

  



 



    

They Must Be Running Low on Paper- The Sunday Collage

The greatest trick ever conceived and executed by bankers is the illusion that paper is in short supply.
Have you ever read about Holland's tulip bulb craze some 500 years ago?

This weekend I noted that Twitter stock is trading at 69 bucks- not only is this nearly a 200% gain in less than 6 months- but it supports my greater fool theory perfectly.

By creating the illusion that Twitter can actually turn a profit and provide some essential life sustaining function- you can find thousands of people willing to buy this corporate ass wipe on the theory that there will be a greater fool willing to buy Twitter stock at say 90- because bankers and corporate America have convinced people that this is what has "value." A piece of paper issued by a company that provides nothing essential or useful, has no profit, and if it disappeared tomorrow-we'd all be better off.

This is the insanity currently gripping our American landscape. People actually buy this shit. And they make money because there is always a greater fool willing to pay more. That's how it works up until such point when it doesn't work. Like 1929 or 2008.  

Years ago, I had a guy who followed this blog named Rawmuse. Sometime in 2010, while I was lamenting the insanity of QE and the impending economic collapse which included the now 4 trillion in money printing by the FED which has driven our stock market to insane and ridiculous levels- Rawmuse pointed out the painfully obvious to me.

A lot of people are making a lot of money in the stock market and they didn't seem too worried about any economic collapse. Like mice at an overturned cheese truck, they were busy gorging themselves on this new supply of money.

I had to cringe because Rawmuse was right. It has been 2 or 3 years and the banker bastards just keep winning, the market keeps going up, and the greater fools just keep rubbing my nose in it. I haven't seen Rawmuse around here in a very long time. And then...

A very odd thing happened in 2012-2013. Not many noticed...

Right after Venezuela demanded that 100 tons of their gold be returned- suddenly the price of gold went down 200 bucks. Several months later, Germany demanded the return of 700 tons of their gold and what do you suppose happened? The price of gold went down another 500 bucks.

Removing supply should drive the price up, don'tcha think? Well not if you don't actually have unencumbered physical gold. The bankers, realizing that they'd have to return that which was never theirs in the first place, used paper futures to drive the price of gold down to a level that was cheap enough to start buying newly mined gold which they could then buy and deliver to satisfy these claims.

Another couple of odd things happened. Not only did the US say they couldn't return Germany's gold for 7 years- gold allegedly stored in safekeeping- but Germany's request did not bring about a flood of new requests for repatriation. This is quite interesting. Common sense might say "Hey, I better jump in line and get my gold before it runs out." We call these things "bank runs." Banks hate bank runs especially when you are demanding a commodity that they cannot produce nor can they simply fire up the printing press and make some.

What I am saying is this. Bankers have been caught red handed loaning out and hy-pothecating gold that was never theirs to begin with. When I say bankers I mean specifically the bullion banks which are all members of the US FED. Most importantly this includes the world's central banks and the Bank of International Settlement or BIS aka the mother ship of all bankers.

I believe that the BIS and the world's central banks are busy behind the scenes- swapping gold and settling gold claims with cash- telling countries to be patient while they purchase new supply for delivery. Which is precisely why the NY FED can't deliver Germany's gold for 7 years. 

One last HUGE point. There are only two sources of gold supply. Existing or unearthed supply and gold which has yet to be unearthed. Not only is gold hard to find but it is ungawdly expensive to mine. So when bankers drive the price too low, the miners will just quit mining. That means bankers will have to use their own gold reserves to settle claims if they can't buy new supply. They don't want that.

An absolute floor on the gold price in any scenario will not be less than 1000 an oz. I can't see a lesser price even in a horrible deflation scenario and certainly not in an inflationary scenario. Gold at 1000 will cause mines to shutter. Bankers can't kill new supply or they will be forced to deplete already dwindling reserves.  

Gold has never failed as a currency. Gold is money.

The tulip craze ended in Holland when it finally dawned on someone that tulip bulbs were pretty much non essential- kind of like Twitter stock. By that time they had run out of fools with newly mortgaged farms willing to speculate on astronomically priced tulip bulbs anyway.

Eventually the same thing will happen here particularly when the FED stops QE altogether. There will be another collapse, Twitter stock will go to 2 bucks and the bankers will be busy trying to seize assets and save their hides like they did when they hijacked the US tax coffers in 2008. This time around- there will be a huge fight. The bankers think they have the power with their bought and paid for political lapdogs- but I think their position at that point will be utterly defenseless.

In the meantime Rawmuse- where ever you are in Marin County- I miss you. I got a feeling this run is about over. There has always been a generous supply of paper and a scarcity of gold. I think this will be the year when that fact gets proven out once again despite the bankers best efforts to convince you that paper is in such short supply that the DJIA will be bid up to 20,000. Really. 

 



 

A Free Speech Eulogy- The Sunday Collage

We are gathered here today to recognize the death of one of our greatest freedoms- free speech.

The Duck Dynasty debacle is just the latest in the leftist/media attack on anything they disagree with.

Free speech once allowed us to converse like adults. We were not offended by opinions nor did we feel the need to personally attack someone who offered their opinion.

We respected people who shared their opinions with us even when we disagreed. We did not feel "under attack" which is the common thread in today's dialogue. People voice their displeasure and often attack others for their opinions. This attack mentality is brought about by two things.

Insecurity and intolerance.

In short, today's culture takes everything personally. It demands that you agree with it or suffer the consequences.

We can't talk about anything it seems- without offending someone. Either we have become the most insecure nation ever or perhaps and more likely, we have forgotten what is really important.

Diversity. The ability to share thoughts and opinions without suffering an attack. I don't ever tell people what to say nor do I act like a baby when I hear something I disagree with.

That includes terms like nigger, faggot, cunt and all of the other horrible words. I use those three words specifically- because they tend to arouse the most hatred and vitriol- and they are not going to go away anytime soon. They are just words but you'd think that they have some sort of secret, evil power to see the reactions those words conjure up in people. I don't give those words much power. I tend to not use them and what I don't do- is march around the planet like some victim attacking everyone who does use those words. I don't demand your compliance with my unwritten and un-communicated expectations.

Grow a spine America. Quit acting like babies every time you hear something you disagree with.

It's a shame that we have a growing majority who does not understand the utility and importance of free speech. They want to tell everyone how to behave, how to act, and what to say.

Fuck them.

I don't practice conditional tolerance. I practice unconditional tolerance.That includes my card carrying leftist friends who think their opinion is the only one which counts.

Free speech dies when you quit protecting it. Even when you hate it or disagree with it. A lot of people died protecting your right to engage in free speech, Without free speech- we are just a nation of voiceless sheep.

That's one of the big reasons we left England in the first place. Those who hate free speech can always go back. 

The Obama Economy- No QE Taper Possible Before 2014 Elections

Every few weeks, a new Quantitative Easing (QE) rumor begins. I have been following this phenomenon quite closely while consuming and digesting virtually everything that I can read on the subject. In a nutshell...

QE is the FED's way of liquefying the bankrupt banking sector by injecting 85 billion a month. In an inflation sense- this is incendiary. With all of this free money, the bankers and the elite have run the markets to astronomical levels in this pretend recovery. Predictably enough, outgoing Chairman Bernanke (the same guy who saw no bubble in housing in 2007) assures us that the FED can instantly withdraw all of those excess reserves (trillions) sitting around on member banks' computers.

I can virtually guarantee there will be no stop to QE prior to the 2014 elections.

Instead, the FED will simply talk about ending QE by supplying various lines of bullshit to a naïve and unwitting populace. In fact, this has been their modus operandi over the last 9 months or so. Every time the FED talks about ending QE the market tanks- this I suppose simulates a normal market that occasionally sells off.

A risk manager once told me that the best predictor of future behavior occurs when we examine historical fact.

I believe that 2014 will be the year that common sense gets thrown out on it's ear.

Politically speaking, there's not one chance in 100 that the FED will taper or reduce it's treasury or mortgage purchases unless it runs out of supply. If that occurs, they will simply start buying something else- perhaps state debts or student loan debt.

This is a government that manipulates everything- from propaganda in government statistics to the money supply. That is why there is virtually no chance that QE will end in the next year. To stop QE and drive the market to all time lows- would spell disaster for the ruling democratic party. They would lose an unprecedented amount of seats in the 2014 elections.

I don't see any reason to get nervous about the markets or the ultimate economic collapse until the fall of 2014.

Until then, expect the same old bullshit talk about QE ending when it actually won't. Political expediency, or the willingness to forego doing the right thing for your own selfish interests, is the hallmark feature of Obama and the ruling party. There will no reduction in QE prior to Nov. 2014.
I have read nothing about Janet Yellen (and her very liberal husband) to suggest to me that anything will change anytime soon.

Holding stocks seems fairly risk free- at least over the next 9 months or so. I expect gold and silver prices to languish over this time frame as well. The fun won't start until Oct. 2014- then I think things will get quite interesting.

Obama Tells Another Lie, Legacy Media Refuses to Publish the Truth Once Again

We don't have media in this country. We have state owned propaganda distributors.

Here's Obama lying about Syria a few months ago. It's almost like we knew it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/08/seymour-hersh-syria-report_n_4409674.html

The Art of Losing- The Sunday Collage

I've had a very interesting couple of weeks. I took a job, which is temporary throughout the winter, moving heavy freight and delivering it. It can be viciously hard work moving a 500 pound gun safe up or down a steep staircase but it is also interesting.

Imagine spending the better part of 25 years as a cop. Virtually everyone I talked to was never happy to see me. Cops deliver a stream of bad news. We aren't Welcome Wagon. Realistically speaking, that experience skewed my view of the world. I began to feel as though the world was full of assholes. It was the anti-thesis of the Stockholm Syndrome.

Everyone is happy to see me now. I am bringing them some new toy. Maybe it's a gun safe, a new bed, a giant plasma tv, or some other hideously large item.

I have always said that one in ten people are assholes. Those numbers have remained constant throughout my working and private life. In the old life it was true- in the new life- it is true also. That has been my observation.

This past week, I delivered about ten items per day. On three days, I ran into three assholes. What did the three have in common?

All three of them were educated and well off. Their homes or ranches were all in the 600k plus category. They seemed annoyed by my presence. Like I was inconveniencing them by showing up with whatever they had ordered. No amount of being nice to these people works. You cannot rehab an asshole. On one occasion, I paid a compliment to one of them on a very uniquely carved interior wall of their home. He told me he didn't like the wall and then made a couple more diminishing remarks that apparently his ego demanded that he make in order to reassure himself of his superiority.

Make other people feel bad so that you can feel better. It is a form of mental illness. In the old days, I let people like that have both barrels. When they took a cheap shot, I put a torpedo in the water.

You know what happens? I always feel bad after igniting a flame war. Wisdom is the art of losing and realizing that you are really winning. I am mastering the art of losing and I gotta tell ya, it feels like winning.

Some people are just miserable. Perhaps they are stressed out, failing, insecure, or maybe they have some wall that their deceased wife just had to have and it cost a fortune to carve. I don't know. The good news is that I don't need to know.

In fact, I used to be one of those people. In my most most depressed days- I'm not sure I could have mustered enough where with all to come off like a decent human being. What I am saying is this. I used to be one of the "one in ten."

Today I have learned not to take anything personally. I accept that one in ten people, for a littany of reasons, is going to behave like an asshole. That has nothing to do with me. These people present growth opportunities. They force you to learn, to develop counter solutions, and to learn that often in life the answer for many mysteries is nothing more than acceptance and trying something new.

Sometimes you must give up to win. That is the art of losing. That type of wisdom does not come easy. Imagine our government saying- this drug war thing isn't working. We should give up and try something different- maybe even legalizing drugs. Can you imagine that? Government does not possess that type of wisdom. Every problem is a nail. Government will never be anything more than a hammer. They might as well sell every other tool in the box because they will never need them.

It's been an interesting month. Meeting people without a badge on. It is an amazing thing to see people happy when you show up. It's like a whole different world for me. The contrast is amazing- it almost makes the job worthwhile. Well, except for pushing 500 pound gun safes up hideously steep staircases.

Icelandic Cops Shoot Man, First Ever

I read an interesting story this morning. In recorded history, Icelandic cops have never had to shoot a suspect. Until yesterday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25190119

As soon as I read this, I remember that some people with mental illness are responding to a drum that nobody else hears. That doesn't make it any less real for them. I think this was one of those guys.