Whattaday!! Four more fawn killers on New Years Eve!

I caught another four coyotes today which brings me to 8 the last two days.  A nice way to ring in the New Year!   The black one was a beauty but it was near the crack of dawn when we started checking traps.  My two trapping friends had a nice "double" on a red fox and a big tom bobcat! 

It's done, and down is down.............

The S&P 500 traveled a marvelous 3240 total points close to close while amassing the 0.003181% loss it achieved on the year.

Eric Holder is an unacceptable trend....................

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In-the-line-of-duty deaths of law enforcement officers jumped 13% in 2011 compared to last year, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
A total of 173 federal, state and local officers have been killed in the United States, and the year is not quite over yet.
Gunfire accounted for the largest number of deaths, claiming 68 officers. That represents a 15% increase from 2010.
"This is a devastating and unacceptable trend," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a written statement.
"Each of these deaths is a tragic reminder of the threats that law enforcement officers face each day -- and the fact that too many guns have fallen into the hands of those who are not legally permitted to possess them."
The National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund notes that for the first time in 14 years, more police and other law enforcement agents died in shootings than in traffic accidents. This year, 64 officers were killed either in car or motorcycle crashes, or by being struck by vehicles while on the job.
"Drastic budget cuts affecting law enforcement agencies across the country have put our officers at grave risk," said Craig Floyd, the chairman of the memorial fund. Floyd and others have expressed concerns that in these tight economic times, there have been reductions in training and equipment for police.
Spurred by approximately 50 officer deaths early this year, Holder met with a number of police chiefs as well as federal law enforcement leaders in March to discuss what could be done and announced a Law Enforcement Safety Initiative. The program provides information and training.
Holder said in his Wednesday statement that a Justice Department program to help local police obtain bullet- and stab-resistant vests has saved 16 officers since January.
Florida has had the largest number of officer deaths this year -- a total of 14. That was followed by Texas with 13, New York with 11, and 10 fatalities in both California and Georgia.
In additions to gunshots and traffic accidents, law-enforcement deaths this year were caused by a variety of things including stabbings, falls and job-related illnesses.
The report provides some historical perspective -- the deadliest year for gunfire deaths of police in the United States was 1973, when 156 officers were shot and killed.
Gun deaths declined in recent decades, hitting a low of 40 officers lost in 2008.
"However, firearms-related fatalities have increased 70% from 2008 to 2011," according to the report.

Drew Brees

Way beyond my bedtime to be watching a "normal" Monday night football game but this one was special.

Congratulations Mr. Brees on your single-season passing record in the NFL. 

Growing up with the attitude to get it done!

Chippewa Partners, Native American Advisors Inc. "Man of the Year, 2011"

Our two  award recipients this year both provide the truth and speak it.

Our co-winners for the 2011 "Man of the Year" award go to  Judge Jed Rakoff and to "Tyler Durden" of ZeroHedge.com fame.

On behalf of both winners there will be a contribution made to the Dean Thomas Parisian Native American Scholarship Fund at the University of Minnesota, Morris. 

Congratulations Judge Rakoff and to Tyler  Durden and the crew at ZeroHedge.com!

Gretchen is the best at calling it straight!!!

Foreclosure Relief? Don’t Hold Your Breath

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON

THROUGHOUT the foreclosure crisis, Washington has done little to help people hang on to their homes. All those programs that were supposed to help — HAMP, HARP, Hope for Homeowners — have mostly failed.
So many were skeptical when the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced yet another program in April. This one was intended to provide reparations to homeowners who’d been hurt financially by foreclosure abuses at banks.
As the details trickle out, the program looks like more of the disappointing same. “This is just the next program that’s getting people’s hopes up,” said Alys Cohen, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center in Washington. “Not only will it not help people, it could easily harm them.”
The program arose out of a regulatory review in late 2010 of loan servicing practices at the nation’s largest banks. The review followed the robo-signing scandal that erupted after consumer lawyers — not regulators, mind you — identified numerous apparent forgeries and other improper foreclosure documents filed with courts by banks and their representatives.
Last April, the banks agreed to fix problems found in the review and were required to hire independent consultants to audit their practices in 2009 and 2010. JPMorgan Chase engaged Deloitte, while Citibank and U.S. Bancorp hired PricewaterhouseCoopers. Three other banks hired Promontory Financial.
On Nov. 1, letters started going out to more than four million borrowers who were ensnared in the foreclosure process in the two years covered by the program. Those people were told how to request reviews of their cases. The letters also described 22 types of financial harm they might have experienced. Borrowers have until April 30 to request a review.
Obviously, this program has a lot of moving parts. But many of them are flawed, according to Ms. Cohen and other foreclosure experts.
Some of the problems were aired at a Senate subcommittee hearing on Dec. 13. Three Democrats — Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Jack Reed of Rhode Island — expressed doubts about the program to Julie L. Williams, chief counsel at the comptroller’s office. The senators were especially vocal about the potential for conflicts of interest among the consultants hired to conduct the reviews.
This is a real defect since the consultants were chosen by the banks that are paying them. And companies that have done work for these banks in the past, or that hope to do more work for them in the future, were not barred from taking on the assignments.
According to Ms. Williams, the comptroller’s office closely vetted the consultants to disqualify any that posed a conflict.
BUT Michael Olenick, a specialist in mortgage research, said he spotted a conflicted consultant after one hour of digging. Allonhill, a smallish firm appointed by Aurora Bank, a mortgage servicer, is headed by Sue Allon, whose previous small firm acted as credit risk manager in a 2003 mortgage pool for which Aurora oversaw the loans’ servicing. The prospectus on that deal noted that Murrayhill, Ms. Allon’s former firm, would “monitor and advise the servicers with respect to default management of the mortgage loans.” It also said that Murrayhill would make recommendations to the servicers regarding delinquent loans.
Now, under the comptroller office’s program, Ms. Allon’s firm may be analyzing the treatment of borrowers on whose loans it acted as credit risk manager. “This conflict is so deep and so obvious, how could anybody have missed it?” Mr. Olenick asked.
A representative for Ms. Allon wrote in an e-mail that Allonhill “focuses on a different area of the mortgage industry than Murrayhill did.” She said the foreclosure information Allonhill was reviewing for Aurora was “outside the scope of what was provided to Murrayhill.”
Aurora did not comment.
JPMorgan Chase’s hiring of Deloitte to analyze foreclosure practices also raises questions. Deloitte was the auditor not only for Washington Mutual, the huge mortgage lender that collapsed in 2008, but also for Bear Stearns, another defunct firm. Both WaMu and Bear were acquired by JPMorgan, so any loans they made may come under scrutiny by the same firm that audited their books.
Nye Lavalle, a foreclosure fraud expert who began warning bank executives about bad lending practices back in 1999, is troubled by this situation. “This review process is a wink-wink, nod-nod,” he said.
JPMorgan and Deloitte declined to comment.
Robert Garsson, a spokesman for the comptroller’s office, said the regulator was satisfied with its vetting process. “We were particularly focused on situations where consultants and law firms may have previously worked on issues they would be called upon to evaluate in the review process,” he said in a statement. “If we identify conflicts that were not apparent at the time the engagement letters were signed, we will take steps to address them.”
Beyond the potential for conflicts, Ms. Cohen pointed to other flaws in the program. For instance, she said the years under review were not when most subprime loans were put into foreclosure. Many predatory loans are likely to be excluded from the analysis.
Even more problematic, Ms. Cohen said, is the fact that the program has left troubled borrowers who participate in it unprotected against further damage. For example, participants in line to get remuneration may be asked to give up their rights to defend themselves if they get into financial trouble again.
“This process is not meant to fix the original lending practices, so people need to hang on to their right to challenge the original loan later,” she said.
She also noted that borrowers in the process of having their cases reviewed could still lose their homes under the program. “O.C.C. has said their policy will involve an escalation process and expedited review of people in a certain proximity to a foreclosure sale,” Ms. Cohen said. “But the sale itself is not being stayed in any systematic way.”
None of this surprises Ms. Cohen or others familiar with the regulator. “This is the O.C.C . that we’re talking about,” she said. “It has a long record of favoring banks over homeowners.”

Today, 1100 days later......Nothing has changed, No one is in jail

"Although we at the Federal Reserve remain focused on addressing the current risks to economic and financial stability, we have also begun thinking about the lessons for the future. I have discussed today two strategies for reducing systemic risk: strengthening the financial infrastructure, broadly construed, and increasing the systemwide focus of financial regulation and supervision. Work on the financial infrastructure is already well under way, and I expect further progress as the public and private sectors cooperate to address common concerns. The adoption of a regulatory and supervisory approach with a heavier macroprudential focus has a strong rationale, but we should be careful about over-promising, as we are still rather far from having the capacity to implement such an approach in a thoroughgoing way. The Federal Reserve will continue to work with the Congress, other regulators, and the private sector to explore this and other strategies to increase financial stability."

Ben S. Bernanke

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Annual Economic Symposium, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

August 22, 2008

A Minnesota Collegiate Christmas Party...........

http://www.carlsonschool.umn.edu/holiday11/

Christmas Eve, 2011

Just back in the Big A from Pamelot.   Nice to  be at the 801 once again.

There are some north Georgia coyotes that are in the last week of their life and don't know it.

The Dean Parisian edition of the 2011-2012 Georgia coyote trapping seasons starts soon!  

Now to catch the mice that tore up my bird seed bags!  Does Santa make mouse traps?

Michael Savage

If you are sitting around surfing Facebook like tens of millions do every day you might want to shut off the social media and educate yourself.  That's right, learn somthing.  Sound foreign to you doesn't it?  You might actually learn something about America, how it runs and who runs it.

Listen to this guy every night.

 http://www.iheart.com/#/live/737/?autoplay=true

It's nice to live and work in Milton

It may be one of Georgia’s newest cities, but Milton is already one of the best places to live in the state, according to a new study.
The study conducted by Business Journals and based on the U.S. Census Bureau's 2009 American Community survey, ranks the City of Milton as having the highest quality of life in Georgia, and the ninth best in the south.
Milton Spokesman Jason Wright tells WSB the study looked at economic factors, as well as quality of housing and education.
"It's a beautiful place with very intelligent, engaged residents," said Wright.
More than 96 percent of Milton residents older than 25 have a high school diploma, 66 percent have a bachelor's degree, and more than 20 percent have advanced degrees.
According to the survey, Milton had a median household income of $117,608, more than double the national median of roughly $50,000. It also had a tremendously low poverty rate for families of only 2.82 percent compared to the national average of 11.1 percent.
Wright says as a young city, they're constantly trying to put themselves on the map, both literally and figuratively.
"We are only five years old and this was the first time that we've ever been recognized for anything like this," said Wright.

Too Big To Jail Corzine

TBTJ.   Only the finest web site on the planet, ZeroHedge.com could come up with that moniker!

I thought this was an excellent story on Corzine and MF Global.  I bet you will too!


Submitted by Nomi Prins

Jon Corzine, MF Global, and Unaccountability

In April 2007, former New Jersey governor, 'honorable', Jon Corzine had an altercation with a Garden State Parkway guardrail. A year later, he addressed a bevy of reporters at the swanky Drumthwacket mansion and expressed appreciation for “family, friends, and the fragility of life.” During his recovery period, he advocated seatbelt safety, before returning to New Jersey's budget, extracting $500 million in austerity measures from farmers, educators, and environmentalists, and hiking tolls on New Jersey roadways.

On the one-year anniversary of his accident, his chief-of-staff, Bradley I. Abelow declared, “Corzine has returned to his former self as a thorough and exacting boss.” (Italics mine.)

Fast forward to the current MF Global flameout. Abelow shifted to Corzine’s Chief Operating Officer. And not only did Corzine ratchet up the ante on ways to really piss off farmers, but after several days of engaging in verbal dodge ball with Congress, this ‘thorough and exacting boss’ maintained his Forest Gump type cloak of secrecy regarding the stolen $1.2 billion of his customers’ segregated money.

After days of political-reality TV, we knew nothing more about its evaporation. Corzine and his stewards, Abelow and Chief Financial Officer, Henri Steenkamp, executed a perfect chorus of ‘I don’t recalls’, ‘I didn’t intends’ and ‘the butler did its’.

For the most part, testimony from the various regulators didn’t shed additional light on the ‘missing’ funds either (everyone’s extremely sorry and deep in search mode) but they did reveal extreme, pass-the-blame incompetence, in the spirit of AIG.

Acronym alert. SEC director, Robert Cook testified that MF Global Holding Company (like AIG) had no official consolidated supervisor regulating it; one of its subsidiaries, MF Global UK Limited, fell under the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA.) The other one, MF Global Inc. (MFGI) was registered under the Commodity Futures Trade Commission (CFTC) as a FCM (futures commission merchant) and also, under the SEC as a broker-dealer. It was the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) supposedly overseeing MFGI’s broker-dealer activities, while its futures activities fell under the CFTC, National Futures Association and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Somewhere in the mix lurked the private self-regulatory body, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Really, how many inept regulatory bodies does it take to screw customers out of $1.2 billion?

But, here’s how we know Corzine was lying – besides the nervous body movements.

During the summer of 2011, the CBOE and FINRA told MF Global Inc. that it didn’t have enough capital behind its repo-to-maturity (RTM) positions in European sovereign bonds – the positions Corzine put on. By mid-August, the SEC got involved and met with Corzine and other MF Globalites. They then had to file a net capital deficiency notice on August 25^th for $150 million.

During the week of October, 17^th – MF Global Holding had to increase capital again at MFGI - for the same positions. The next week, on October 25^th, it released abysmal quarterly earnings, and got downgraded to almost junk status. The stock plummeted and customers were heading for the hills, the fastest ones getting their money out, others getting locked out. The SEC set up camp at MF Global headquarters in Manhattan on October 27^th to “monitor the situation” and “engage with senior management regarding the steps that were being taken by the firm” regarding possibilities like selling the firm, selling the customer business, or selling the RTM positions.

On Sunday afternoon, October 30, a perspective buyer for MFGI’s customer business emerged: Interactive Brokers (whose judgment I question, so watch out for them). In the wee hours of Monday morning, October 31, – the ‘missing’ funds were detected. Interactive Brokers balked. Bankruptcy proceedings begun at 9 AM.

The CME’s testimony stated that just past mid-night on October 31,^st Christine Serwinski, the chief financial officer of MF Global's North American division, and Edith O’Brien, a treasurer, told Mike Procajlo, an exchange auditor that about $700 million in customer money was transferred on October 27th, 28th and possibly October 26 from the broker-dealer side of the business to ‘meeting liquidity issues.’ The CME hadn’t noticed this while reviewing the firm’s books prior to bankruptcy. Another $175 million was used by MF Global UK.

The CFTC disclosed that MF Global’s general counsel, Laurie Ferber notified them Monday evening, October 31st about “a significant shortfall in its segregated funds account”. Neither the SEC, nor the CME had picked up on this beforehand.

As a broker-dealer registered with the SEC, MFGI was not just subject to CFTC rules, but also to the SEC's customer protection rule that prohibits use of customer funds or securities to support proprietary trading or expenses. It also prohibits customer funds or assets from being pledged as collateral for the firm’s own trades or to raise funds, plus requires a reserve account be maintained that is bigger than their holdings – just in case.

The CFTC has a more lax rule, called Reg 1.25, weakened courtesy of MF Global, JPM Chase, and others that enables segregated customer funds to be used for investing in foreign sovereign bonds (investing – not posting as margin or acting as collateral). But as Janet Tavakoli pointed out in her excellent MF Global analysis; the ‘missing’ customer funds were not in the currency of the foreign sovereign bonds, as per the rule’s stipulation. Plus, none of the required replacement assets were held against those funds. Indeed, there is no element of Reg 1.25, the reg cited as a potential legal loophole by various media, that allows segregated customer funds to be used for risky purposes – like saving a firm from destruction long enough to sell it. Translation – the ‘missing’ funds were stolen against rules, from their rightful segregated customer accounts. Corzine claimed no knowledge of this.

But the reality is - the clock ran out on Corzine’s big bet and customer funds were the only way to keep it ticking until a potential sale of the firm could be confirmed. If the funds hadn’t been switched, the firms seeking margins would have taken losses. The motive was to optically alter the appearance of MF Global and exit, leaving the bag with someone else. You can’t have that clear a motive and no idea of how to achieve it. It’s implausible.

Let me put $1.2 billion into a perspective that the House committees didn’t. According to its second quarter SEC filing, MF Global had $3.7 billion of available liquidity. The funds were equivalent to a third of that liquidity. That’s not a tiny figure. If you’re running a firm buckling under the weight of the bets you’re losing, you’re damn well aware of your liquidity lines – they are your life raft.

Besides that, MF Global’s net revenue for the second quarter was $206 million and for the six months ending September 30, 2011, it was $520 million. The ‘missing’ customer money was more than twice the firm’s net for the first half of their year.

To recap. Corzine was obsessed with the European sovereign bet. So, he fired his risk officer, Michael Roseman for questioning it, and replaced him with a yes-man, Michael Stockman whose job description appeared to have included stroking Corzine's – er – ego, and to remain quiet about any trade concerns. He rides the trade through a succession of flailing earnings and intense market volatility, while meeting with regulators questioning its sustainability. He knows he’s got to pony up a chunk of capital in the summer to appease them and stick with it. And when finally, MF Global’s ratings were downgraded on October 25th, a bunch of calls transpire between him and NY Fed head and former Goldmanite, William Dudley before the firm goes bankrupt a week later, with nearly $1.2 billion in customer money ‘missing.’

We’re supposed to believe this ‘thorough and exacting’ man knew nothing about where it went? Or that his sense of entitlement and bravado was so big, he didn’t think it was wrong to take that money? Or that he wasn’t aware it was available? At all?

No. Not possible. And yet, over half a dozen regulatory bodies were oblivious to the fund heist. Finding Corzine guilty of a crime would be like asking them to indict themselves. The CFTC Enforcement division can refer criminal matters to the Department of Justice for prosecution. But the DOJ has punted on every Wall Street crime related to the 2008 subprime crisis. So what will probably happen – is that Corzine may get a little fine from the Washington regulators. Legislators will move on to figuring out how to incorporate MF Global into stump speeches. Those that had their money stolen will battle it out in civil suits for years. And again, no lessons will be learned. No practices altered. No heads will roll.

CNBC cheerleaders

The cheerleading crew is out in force this morning.  The only thing missing is the pom-poms.

Rick Santelli is the only voice of sanity.   

Afghanistan and the United States

Wars are expensive.  Why is America sending Americans into combat there?  What are we doing there?

They will never be a democracy.  Somebody, anybody?

Tom Smith of AT&T

The world lost a good man last night.  Tom Smith went on ahead.  What a great guy, husband, father and football fanatic.  It is almost uncanny that you would have left us on the way home from the Falcons game.  Your good nature, your friendship, your wonderful humor and your love for Clemson football will never be forgotten.  Rest in peace, Tom Smith!  

Amazing Statistics, from ZeroHedge.com

The Economic Collapse Blog does a terrific job of periodically putting together a compilation of the scariest data points about the US economy. Today is one such day, and the list of 50 economic numbers presented is indeed, as the author puts it, "almost too crazy to believe"... Almost. As noted: "At this time of the year, a lot of families get together, and in most homes the conversation usually gets around to politics at some point. Hopefully many of you will use the list below as a tool to help you share the reality of the U.S. economic crisis with your family and friends. If we all work together, hopefully we can get millions of people to wake up and realize that "business as usual" will result in a national economic apocalypse." Or, far more likely, 99% of the population can continue watching Dancing with the Stars, as what little wealth remains is terminally transferred to those who are paying attention right below everyone's eyes.

From the Ecopnomic Collapse Blog:

The following are 50 economic numbers from 2011 that are almost too crazy to believe....

#1 A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.

#2 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be "low income" or impoverished.

#3 If the number of Americans that "wanted jobs" was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.

#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.

#5 One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.

#6 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.

#7 Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation.

#8 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.

#9 A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that approximately one out of every five Americans that do have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.

#10 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

#11 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

#12 Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job. In July, only 81.2 percent of men in that age group had a job.

#13 One recent survey found that one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.

#14 The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of U.S. households declined by 4.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.

#15 According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.

#16 As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married. Back in 1960, 72 percent of all U.S. adults were married.

#17 The U.S. Postal Service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past year.

#18 In Stockton, California home prices have declined 64 percent from where they were at when the housing market peaked.

#19 Nevada has had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for 59 months in a row.

#20 If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.

#21 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant. That figure is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.

#22 New home construction in the United States is on pace to set a brand new all-time record low in 2011.

#23 As I have written about previously, 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.

#24 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

#25 According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%.

#26 One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

#27 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.

#28 The United States spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.

#29 It is being projected that the U.S. trade deficit for 2011 will be 558.2 billion dollars.

#30 The retirement crisis in the United States just continues to get worse. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.

#31 Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.

#32 According to a study that was just released, CEO pay at America's biggest companies rose by 36.5% in just one recent 12 month period.

#33 Today, the "too big to fail" banks are larger than ever. The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.

#34 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.

#35 According to an analysis of Census Bureau data done by the Pew Research Center, the median net worth for households led by someone 65 years of age or older is 47 times greater than the median net worth for households led by someone under the age of 35.

#36 If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.

#37 A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7%) than has ever been measured before.

#38 Child homelessness in the United States is now 33 percent higher than it was back in 2007.

#39 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.

#40 Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.

#41 Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#42 In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income. Today, government transfer payments account for more than 18 percent of all income.

#43 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.

#44 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP. Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.

#45 For fiscal year 2011, the U.S. federal government had a budget deficit of nearly 1.3 trillion dollars. That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.

#46 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.

#47 Amazingly, the U.S. government has now accumulated a total debt of 15 trillion dollars. When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.

#48 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.

#49 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.

#50 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

As for the culprit, there is no surprise here - all central planning, all the time.

Of course the heart of our economic problems is the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is a perpetual debt machine, it has almost completely destroyed the value of the U.S. dollar and it has an absolutely nightmarish track record of incompetence. If the Federal Reserve system had never been created, the U.S. economy would be in far better shape. The federal government needs to shut down the Federal Reserve and start issuing currency that is not debt-based. That would be a very significant step toward restoring prosperity to America.

During 2011 we made a lot of progress in educating the American people about our economic problems, but we still have a long way to go.

Hopefully next year more Americans than ever will wake up, because 2012 is going to represent a huge turning point for this country.

Indeed it will - in it America will pick yet another president that it so rightfully deserves.

Hey you, ask yourself this question, come on, be honest......

How often do you suppose money "disappears" at Goldman Sachs and the fiduciary or manager in charge gets away with it?

Bill Yellowtail, surely a relative of my friend, Robert Yellowtail

“Privatizing land is fine but it falls far short of the answer,” says Yellowtail. “Our people don’t understand business. After 10 or 15 generations of not being involved in business, they’ve lost their feel for it. Capitalism is considered threatening to our identity, our traditions. Successful entrepreneurs are considered sell-outs, they’re ostracized. We have to promote the dignity of self-sufficiency among Indians. Instead we have a culture of malaise: ‘The tribe will take care of us.’ We accept the myth of communalism. And we don’t value education. We resist it.”

But Yellowtail believes that the situation is improving. He says there are more entrepreneurs than 20 years ago as networks of Native American business people have sprung up in Montana and elsewhere. “We have to start with micro loans, encouraging small businesses. Then we have to make it okay to leave the reservation because the most successful are going to want to branch out. Entrepreneurs are going to have to stick their neck out, be a role model. We Indians are going to have to do it.”

Morality in a WalMartian America

Christmas, like at all times of the year, a time to share, to give and help those less fortunate. 

I live close to a WalMart store.   If anyone from the WalMart brass wants to see theft in action I encourage you to give me a call and we can drive on over to the store or I can meet you there and we will see all kinds of theft in action.  Almost 100% of the time I go to WalMart and look for theft I can find it.

Easy.  Yes it is sad.  It's unfair in many ways.   Here's a young lady who tells it straight on what is wrong with America.

http://thecollegeconservative.com/2011/12/13/my-time-at-walmart-why-we-need-serious-welfare-reform/

$50 Grand a month buys what?

I bet the old Arkansas duck hunter will try to distance himself from this quagmire faster then he went after the intern with the blue dress in the Oval Office.   The problem for America is that Corzine is like Bank of America.   Too Big To Jail.  TBTJ.

 http://nation.foxnews.com/mf-global/2011/12/05/report-bill-clinton-reaped-big-bucks-corzine-firm-collapse

Who pays? Do you?

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/incometaxandtheirs/a/whopaysmost.htm

Doug Server

Good guy, father, a giver.   Rest in peace.

Sandi Lewis of San Diego, California

My friend, you lost your worldly battle on Friday, December 9th.   You were a friend who inspired, a woman with grace, warmth, fun, intellect and charm.  You will alway be remembered that way.

To your precious daughter, your loving husband, to the world,  you are gone. 

Your inspiration to all those who knew you will live forever.  May God hold you close as he did your parents.  I know you would want us to celebrate your life.  Thank you for your friendship,  and may God be with you.

Wake Up America

America sits idly by.  The Congress-critters are all at home tonight, sitting smug on what they all "do" for their constituents.    Any change in Native America?  Nope.  The casino skim continues.

There is no budget, no discussion of what ails America.   They are talking about trading pipelines for payroll taxes.  What on earth is up with that?   No immigration reform,  no social security reform, no tax code reform.  It is just business as usual with $15 trillion in debt.

They don't even ask the right questions of Corzine and the nonsense of having time limits on each inquisitor of Corzine is laughable.   The buffoonery continues.

All of these mobsters should all be voted out.

Alpharetta fee-only investment manager

That would be Chippewa Partners for those of you who still believe that salesmen-stockbrokers still have your best interests at heart.   If you want a true fiduciary Registered Investment Advisory firm to work for you we are easy to contact.

Divorce versus Murder

A nice, calm and respectable lady went into the pharmacy, walked up to the pharmacist, looked straight into his eyes, and said, "I would like to buy some cyanide.

The pharmacist asked, "Why in the world do you need cyanide?"

The lady replied, "I need it to poison my husband."

The pharmacist's eyes got big and he explained, "Lord have mercy!

I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband, that's against the law. I'll lose my license! They'll throw both of us in jail!  All kinds of bad things will happen. Absolutely not! You CANNOT have any cyanide!"

 

The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist's wife.  The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, "You didn't tell me you had a prescription."

Quote of the Decade, maybe of our entire American history

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America 's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America 's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that, "the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”
~ Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006

Lies by Corzine today............

The under/over on how many times Corzine pleads the 5th is 7 times today.

Place your bets.

I'll lay odds that Corzine is not going to do 14 days compared to Blago's 14 years.

South Georgia

There is an entire generation "lost" down there.   There is almost zero desire to work.

Many, if not most of the younger generation have no clue about work, working, work ethic, love of work, incentives or how to remain employed.    It is like being in a communist  country.

All Obama voters.

If you know this soldier........

This young fighter might make the best hire on the planet.    If there is an H.R. department with any hutzpah they best look him up.

http://www.mywarvideo.com/play.php?vid=132

Jail for Jon Corzine? Does anybody care?

Why Jon Corzine isn't in prison stripes and cuffs for his Congressional hearing next week is hard to fathom.   Frank Lucas should have some sense and do the right thing, let Jeff Liddle and his firm into the fray and clean up right from wrong.  Nope, look who gives to Frank's coffers.  These psychopaths think they won't be prosecuted for anything. NO ONE has been indicted in the last few years for this insane mess.

Corzine stole hundreds of millions, maybe billions of unmargined customer cash, the CME didn't allow those customers to trade their options for a full week, costing actual ranchers and farmers hedging their business expectations like they must, hundreds of millions, and now they're talking about clawbacks of cash from recent customers who may even be totally out of the exchange altogether when the company went under!   You steal a $6 item from WalMart today and go straight to jail.

Then you have creditors like BoA who think they should have first dibs at the bankruptcy.  It's insane. If everyone is not made whole, EVERYONE, then the sacred law preventing the co-mingling of customer cash is destroyed, as is the trust in all brokers. If Corzine gets off on this, that means they can all get off, they can all say, for example, some broker like Schwab or Fidelity or Ameritrade or Interactive Brokers or Morgan Stanley can say "oh sure you have x number of shares in some company, see it says there right on our web page, and all sorts of cash there too, see it on the screen there?"  Meanwhile, they could be doing exactly as MF Global's prop desk was doing, using that cash for their own purposes.

There is no gray area here, Corzine  should go to straight to jail and the customers must be made whole, with the creditors taking ALL OF THE LOSSES. The whole system is destroyed because of the way this was handled. There is a clear path to make things right, and if they stray from it at all, then the whole thing is a goner.

Here's some of the latest that should make any investor shudder:   Click here: MF Customer: $50M Commodity Account Gone - Bloomberg

TEAM PARISIAN, Montana, 2011

If you can't laugh at this.............

A man boarded an airplane and took his seat. As he settled in, he glanced up and saw the most beautiful woman boarding the plane. He soon  realized she was heading straight towards his seat . As fate would have it, she  took the seat right beside his. Eager to strike up a conversation he blurted  out, "Business trip or pleasure?"

She turned, smiled and said, "Business. I'm going to the Annual Nymphomaniacs of America Convention in Boston "

He swallowed hard. Here was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen sitting next to him, and  she was going to a meeting of nymphomaniacs. Struggling to maintain his composure, he calmly asked, "What's your business role at this convention?""Lecturer," she responded.  "I use information that I have learned from my personal experiences to debunk some of the  popular myths about sexuality. "Really?" he said. "And what kind of myths  are there?"

"Well," she explained, "one popular myth is that African-American men are the most well-endowed of all men, when in fact it is the Native American Indian who is most likely to possess that trait.

Another popular myth is that Frenchmen are the best lovers, when actually it is men of Jewish descent who are the best.

I have also discovered that the lover with absolutely the best stamina is the Southern Redneck."

Suddenly the woman became a little uncomfortable and blushed. "I'm
sorry," she said, "I shouldn't really be discussing all of this with you. I
don't even know your name."

"Tonto," the man said, "Tonto Goldstein, but my friends call me
Bubba."

Envy, uncensored...........

Click here: Adam Carolla explains the OWS Generation - YouTube

Smart guy, pay attention for your own good............

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/kyle-bass-explains-new-world-order

Herman Cain and Tiger Woods.......

They seem to have alot in common.........alot!

Ignorance at Thanksgiving

This week has been a doozy!   American media can't get enough of the few hundred OWS crowd it seems.  The blow-by-blow coverage of the mob mentality doesn't astound me, it sickens me.  A few hundred slackers getting together and sharing STD's for some reason isn't the same as 46,000,000 on food stamps.

Of half of the American work force NOT paying a dime in tax.

Or open borders,  wide-open borders. 

Or a bankrupt Social Security System.

Or the Obama healthcare billl that is holding up corporate hiring.

Or the sound bites that the GOP candidates spout at each other.

Or the military industrial complex "owning" Obama and opening up a new revenue stream in Australia this week.

Or $600,000,000 missing from citizens accounts at MF Global.

Or the Fed keeping interest rates artificially low to rob and plunder the retirees of America.

On second thought,  there are plenty of sales to be found in your Christmas shopping.  Get after it this weekend so you won't have to deal with the thieves at the mall next week and the week after.  But be careful of your personal spending because your country owes $15,000,000,000,000, yes folks, that is Trillion in debt.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving.  We have much to be thankful.  Gratitude is a gift, share it.

Today, we are fortunate to call ourselves American.  And give some thought to many Native Americans this week for taking good care of the first settlers to our shores.  They needed all the help they could get then.  In many ways, we still need all the help we can get now.

CNBC cheerleaders

are at it again.........Cramer telling the world how bad Europe is compared to the United States takes the cake.  Leaving the sound on when watching CNBC is grounds for termination around here.

Darla Leslie, NAJA

Your resignation was rather unusual.

What "fix" is needed other than some smarts about handling money?

Sad numbers for America, my children and yours..........

Too sad for commentary, but here is some math: total US debt has increased by 41.5%, or $4.4 trillion, from $10,626,877,048,913 on January 20, to $15,033,607,255,920, under Obama as president.



(as a reminder the most recently updated debt ceiling is $15.194 trillion)

Clients have so much to be thankful for.........

http://www.chippewapartners.com/ria

Geez, all I wanted for Christmas was some CRP fields..........

Secret farm bill’ primed for passage in debt deal

By Erik Wasson - 11/15/11 05:15 AM ET

 

Lawmakers on the House and Senate Agriculture committees are trying to write a new five-year farm bill through the supercommittee process.
The legislators are using the supercommittee to avoid what would be a more public, election-year debate in 2012, when the current farm bill expires and new legislation would be scheduled for writing, according to critics of the effort.
“We call it the secret farm bill,” said one environmental activist, who worries that if the lawmakers succeed, it will prop up U.S. farm payments through 2017.

Environmental groups and poverty advocates say the supercommittee should dismiss the recommendations from the farm-state lawmakers, which are expected to be delivered later this week. The recommendations are expected to propose the replacement of some existing farm payments with a new crop insurance program and new payments that would be linked to commodity prices.
While some of the changes lawmakers are expected to propose would save billions on paper, critics say the new farm payments could balloon in cost if commodity prices fall.
Opponents also worry the lawmakers are trying to get around longtime critics of the farm bill who for years have said the legislation is a symbol of waste that costs taxpayers money while hurting farmers in poor countries who do not receive similar levels of support.
“They are completely trying to write a whole new farm subsidy program,” a second activist said. “They are making an end-run around people who question these programs.”

“That is the last thing we want, to authorize multiyear programs through this process. I am worried,” Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said. "Their mission is to cut."

An advantage of locking in the changes through the supercommittee is that the panel’s recommendations must get an up-or-down vote in Congress. That would give less leverage to opponents of farm subsidies.
Ben Becker, a spokesman for the Senate Agriculture Committee, defended the effort to propose farm bill changes to the supercommittee.
“Either the supercommittee would in essence write the Farm Bill, with no hearings or public input, or the Agriculture Committees and the communities we represent would have a voice. Democrats and Republicans are working hard within the process that’s been imposed on us to develop a sound bipartisan and bicameral recommendation that members of both parties can support,” he said.
But the secrecy of the process has even some farm lobbyists raising questions.

“All big legislation is written behind closed doors, but they are doing this is in such a compressed way,“ one longtime agricultural lobbyist said. “I am having trouble finding out what’s going on.”
The proposals from Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and ranking member Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and ranking member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), who have been negotiating for weeks, are expected to include a new type of revenue-based insurance for some crops as well as a bolstered price-triggered payment for other crops.
The Agriculture committees had been asked to deliver recommendations on $23 billion in cuts over the next 10 years by Nov. 1, but they missed that deadline.

Different commodity groups have been trying to maximize their payments by pushing their own formulas, which has lengthened and complicated the lawmakers’ effort.
The $23 billion package is expected to include billions in cuts to nutrition and conservation programs, but the biggest chunk, estimated at $13 billion, would come from payments to farmers.
Stabenow has focused on a new revenue-based “shallow loss” insurance program that is supported by corn, wheat, barley, soy and canola farmers.
Lucas, with the support of rice and peanut farmers, wants to modify the existing price-based payment to farmers for those crops.
Payments to cotton farmers have been a sticking point, and they are set to get their own program, also linked to commodity prices.
Farmers now receive “direct payments” that are based on historical production. This means that even if the farmer produces nothing, payments from the government can still be received.
The farm safety net includes subsidized crop insurance and countercyclical and marketing loan payments that rise when prices fall. These latter payments are intended to help farmer survive dramatic changes in world prices.
Outrage over direct payments going to farmers who no longer farm has led the Agriculture committees to largely agree that direct payments need to be replaced.
Stabenow’s proposed “shallow loss” insurance program would complement traditional crop insurance. The program would pay farmers for small losses typically not covered by existing insurance.
The proposed replacement payments for cotton, rice and peanuts would be based on higher “target” prices. If the market falls below the higher “target,” the government would pay farmers the difference through countercyclical payments or marketing loans.
The American Farm Bureau decided to oppose the shallow-loss proposal, arguing that it will encourage farmers to take on excessive risk.
Environmental and international poverty advocates are against the whole process.
The groups believe higher price-based payments promote overproduction and distort world trade, hurting farmers in the Third World and causing them to cut down rainforest in search of more income.
This story was updated at 11:21 a.m.

Unbelievable

This Mr. Evans from the FED on CNBC is clueless about how America lives.

So very sad for America.

Rick Santelli schooled this guy on common sense for America.  Great work again Rick!!

From where I sit........

If you're at a party and someone tells you they work for a "creditor's rights" firm, dig a little. If they tell you "I work in real estate finance", ask what that means. Ask if residential judicial and non-judicial foreclosures constitute part of their work.   If they say "yes", walk away. De-friend them on Facebook. Anything. Shame them and make those that do this work for their masters question their efforts and who they work for.

Why not?

Paul/Rakoff 2012

The Integrity Ticket.

Keepseagle

As a member of the White Earth Reservation, Minnesota Chippewa Tribe the Keepseagle case is looking to me like it's a whole lot of money chasing very few Native American Farmers.

As a farmer, I wish I had been denied some loans.  As a businessman, it wouldn't have been good business for me to do so, that is, run to a bank looking for money for buying a farm back in 2005.

The lawyers make out.   If you are a Native American farmer who gets himself into a "windfall" ie, my tax dollars and you want Chippewa Partners to entertain investing those funds give me a call or shoot an email this way.  

Another palindromic day.......11/11/11

Friday

You knew it was coming...........

If an older woman going after a younger man is a cougar, is an older man going after a young boy a Nittany Lion?

A bad stage to commit a blooper pal..................

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/moment-rick-perrys-presidential-chances-flash-crashed

Native American tragedy today

The annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that 39 percent of white teens between the ages of 12 and 17 admitted to using substances in the past year, compared to just 32 percent of blacks and 24 percent of Asians.

Topping the list of adolescent substance users are Native American youth, at an astounding 48 percent.

I grew up on several welfare states propogated by the Federal Government.

Anyone care to comment on these numbers?

Cramer on the Bakken field........

Am watching Cramer ask questions on North Dakota's Bakken bonanza.

What ND needs is infrastructure, drug rehabilitation services and housing.

So many come to ND to work, find work, make some big money over a short period of time and then fail drug tests. 

Some Christmas "change" from Obama

The Teleprompter-in-Chief's historic, legacy legislation will not be ObamaCare.

It will be the Christmas Tree tax.  

No one has done more to drive gun and ammunition sales than the Teleprompter-in-Chief.

And with this tax, no one will do more to drive "fake" Christmas tree sales which will help foreign manufacturers.

He doesn't get it.

Dogwood Forest, Alpharetta

Last evening I went to the Dogwood Forest facility in Alpharetta, Georgia to attend a nice meeting for family members of former Dogwood Forest residents who have gone on ahead.

If there is anybody in the Alpharetta, Cumming, Roswell or Milton areas who might like to speak with somebody who has first hand experience with the facility feel free to call me at 877-772-1621.

My experience, and I will speak for my late Father, couldn't have been better.   Yes, the walls are pretty, the lights are nice, the food is good.  Dogwood is all about the people who so selfishly give their best to make the lives of the residents so comfortable with the quality care they so richly deserve.   I am so glad I went.

There is alot of love there and it shows.  

Monday in Atlanta...........

Had to run down to Georgia Tech today.  Just a gorgeous fall day in the city.  Great to see the fall colors and the sparkle in the city.  Someday, and it's coming, far, far slower than I ever thought, Atlanta will have a vibrant down-town.   I thought the 1996 Olympic Games might have brought some majic but that was only wishful thinking.  Atlantic Station isn't happening, the surrounding neighborhoods won't allow for it.  Eventually, they will get it figured out and the economics of real estate, interest rates, demand, schools, business, transportation and entertainment will trump the welfare state.

Be smart forever...........

Many years ago, prior to moving my banking relationships to a credit union I did business with Chase.

One of the most brilliant financial moves of my life.  You should too.

Reservation life or life in white America?

The following are some statistics about the poor that might astound you....

#1 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of "very poor" rose in 300 out of the 360 largest metropolitan areas during 2010.

#2 Last year, 2.6 million more Americans descended into poverty. That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.

#3 It isn't just the ranks of the "very poor" that are rising. The number of those just considered to be "poor" is rapidly increasing as well. Back in the year 2000, 11.3% of all Americans were living in poverty. Today, 15.1% of all Americans are living in poverty.

#4 The poverty rate for children living in the United States increased to 22% in 2010.

#5 There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.

#6 In Washington D.C., the "child food insecurity rate" is 32.3%.

#7 More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.

#8 One out of every six elderly Americans now lives below the federal poverty line.

#9 Today, there are over 45 million Americans on food stamps.

#10 According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly 15 percent of all Americans are now on food stamps.

#11 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.

#12 The number of Americans on food stamps has increased 74% since 2007.

#13 We are told that the economy is recovering, but the number of Americans on food stamps has grown by another 8 percent over the past year.

#14 Right now, one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#15 It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives before they reach the age of 18.

#16 More than 50 million Americans are now on Medicaid. Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, approximately one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

#17 One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one government anti-poverty program.

#18 The number of Americans that are going to food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 46% since 2006.

Lies and more lies......

Obama talking about  saving the banks, with more money and saving Greece, with more money

All with tax money taken from taxpayers.  The American Jobs Act will not put people back to work.  It will only take care of the union bosses so popular in an election cycle.

Funny.............

Obama addressing the G-20 would be like me addressing the National Association of Quilters.

Scott Galloway

Holy cow cowboy, great job on Bloomberg today on the NYSE floor!

You shoot straight and keep those spurs on.  

Medivation

This name extracted it's pound of flesh from me last year.

Congratulations to anyone long this name today.  

No hubris with her..........

"Don't be so humble - you are not that great."
~~~Golda Meir (1898-1978) to a visiting diplomat

Some "squid" humor............

Jim Corzine, John Thain, and Lloyd Blankein are walking down the street with a new recruit, when a beautiful woman strolls by.

The intern says I really would like to screw that and simultaneously all three reply, out of what.     

Ms. Sonders saying it

Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Schwab, said that the MF Global situation seemed to be more a miss by the auditors than a regulatory problem.

"It may show that we don't have adults manning the regulatory store, and that to the extent that this was a miss on the part of auditors, that should have been obvious suggests that this is still a problem," she said.

"It's another hit to the confidence certainly of individual investors who have, maybe rightly so, felt that the whole game is rigged against them."

Palindrome date today............

11.02.2011

This make you hungry or want to vomit?

Here is this month's refresh from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which informs us that in August, a new all time record number of Americans, or 45.8 million, relied on food stamps for sustenance. So for those who are looking for those up and coming states where the population has decided that slowly but surely work of any kind is an anachronism we suggest you move to Alabama, Delaware, Utah, or Washington: all states that have seen at least a 3% sequential increase in food stamp usage. And, tangentially, confirming that this country's economy is headed straight to hell and won't pass go is the latest news from LPS according to which nearly 40% of loans in foreclosure have not made a payment in two years, and 72% have not made a payment in the past 12 month

Goldman Sachs poetry

There once was a prick named Corzine

His firm looked sick but he said it was fine

Then he finally went broke

Client funds up in smoke

With any luck he'll be doing some time

Only in America...........

I would love to take a two-by-four to anyone remotely Kardashian.   

11/1/11

Native American month is here!   The trick-or-treaters last night were different.   They came in packs and came with no zest or fire or speed.   There was no rush to get on to the next house and accumulate massive amounts of candy.   They were polite and civil and some barely stopped their conversations long enough to say, "trick or treat".  Are they simply products of the social media revolution?

Nice job in landing that 767 in Warsaw......not only do they make them to fly but to get around pretty well on the ground too!   Boeing engineers, the best in the business!

Those big pythons cruising around the Florida everglades are coming to a neighborhood near you if you live in Florida near water.   Keep an eye out because it's just a matter of time before they consume a child.

The Greeks are done.   Amazing how the chickens have come home to roost on that island.   It's just getting good and the case for gold only grows.    And speaking of mayhem, those thugs in New Orleans should be put in front of a firing squad if they ever catch them.   I'd love to be in the front row doing that work!

 

Kids being kids again.......

Actual quote from protesters occupying street of Toronto's stock exchange...

                                                               

“It’s weird protesting on Bay Street. You get there at 9 a.m.  and the rich bankers who you want to hurl insults at and change their world view have been at work for two hours already. And  then when it’s time to go, they’re still there! I guess that’s why they call them the one per cent. I mean, who wants to work those kinds of hours? That’s the power of greed.”            

Institutional Investor magazine

Great to see the powers that be at II bring up the best and brightest in Tyler Durden of Fight Club fame and of course his wonderful web site,  ZeroHedge.com.

Tyler is keeping the cons, the liars, the thieves, the bankers, the vampire squid (aka Goldman Sachs) and just about everybody else on their computers occasionaly checking in with ZH.

You should too.  More than ever.  Keep it up Tyler, there is no equal.

Thanksgiving, 2022

"Winston, come into the dining room, it's time to eat," Julia yelled to her husband.
"In a minute, honey, it's a tie score," he answered.

Actually Winston wasn't very interested in the traditional holiday football game between Detroit and Washington.

Ever since the government passed the Civility in Sports Statute of 2017, outlawing tackle football for its "unseemly violence" and the "bad example it sets for the rest of the world," Winston was far less of a football fan than he used to be.

Two-hand touch wasn't nearly as exciting. Yet it wasn't the game that Winston was uninterested in. It was more the thought of eating another Tofu Turkey. Even though it was the best type of VeggieMeat available after the government revised the American Anti-Obesity Act of 2018, adding fowl to the list of federally-forbidden foods, (which already included potatoes, cranberry sauce, and mincemeat pie), it wasn't anything like real turkey.

And ever since the government officially changed the name of "Thanksgiving Day" to "A National Day of Atonement" in 2020, to officially acknowledge the Pilgrims' historically brutal treatment of Native Americans, the holiday had lost a lot of its luster.

Eating in the dining room was also a bit daunting.

The unearthly gleam of government-mandated fluorescent light bulbs made the Tofu Turkey look even weirder than it actually was, and the room was always cold. Ever since Congress passed the Power Conservation Act of 2016, mandating all thermostats - which were monitored and controlled by the electric company - be kept at 68 degrees, every room on the north side of the house was barely tolerable throughout the entire winter.

Still, it was good getting together with family. Or at least most of the family.

Winston missed his mother, who passed on in October, when she had used up her legal allotment of life-saving medical treatment.

He had had many heated conversations with the Regional Health Consortium, spawned when the private insurance market finally went bankrupt, and everyone was forced into the government health care program. And though he demanded she be kept on her treatment, it was a futile effort.

"The RHC's resources are limited," explained the government bureaucrat that Winston spoke with on the phone. "Your mother received all the benefits to which she was entitled.---- I'm sorry for your loss."

Ed couldn't make it either. He had forgotten to plug in his electric car last night, the only kind available after the Anti-Fossil Fuel Bill of 2021 outlawed the use of the combustion engines - for everyone but government officials. The fifty mile round trip was about ten miles too far, and Ed didn't want to spend a frosty night on the road somewhere between here and there.

Thankfully, Winston's brother, John, and his wife were flying in. Winston made sure that the dining room chairs had extra cushions for the occasion. No one complained more than John about the pain of sitting down so soon after the government-mandated cavity searches at airports, which severely aggravated his hemorrhoids. Ever since a terrorist successfully smuggled a cavity bomb onto a jetliner, the TSA told Americans the added "inconvenience" was an "absolute necessity" in order to stay "one step ahead of the terrorists".

Winston's own body had grown accustomed to such probing ever since the government expanded their scope to just about anywhere a crowd gathered, via Anti-Profiling Act of 2022. That law made it a crime to single out any group or individual for "unequal scrutiny," even when probable cause was involved. Thus, cavity searches at malls, train stations, bus depots, etc., etc., had become almost routine.

Almost.

The Supreme Court is reviewing the statute, but most Americans expect a Court composed of six progressives and three conservatives to leave the law intact. "A living Constitution is extremely flexible," said the Court's eldest member, Elena Kagan. "Europe has had laws like this one for years.----We should learn from their example," she added.

Winston's thoughts turned to his own children.

He got along fairly well with his 12-year-old daughter, Brittany, mostly because she ignored him. Winston had long ago surrendered to the idea that she could text anyone at any time, even during Atonement Dinner. Their only real confrontation had occurred when he limited her to 50,000 texts a month, explaining that was all he could afford. She whined for a week, but got over it.

His 16-year-old son, Jason, was another matter altogether. Perhaps it was the constant bombarding he got in public school that global warming, the bird flu, terrorism, or any of a number of other calamities were "just around the corner," but Jason had developed a kind of nihilistic attitude that ranged between simmering surliness and outright hostility.

It didn't help that Jason had reported his father to the police for smoking a cigarette in the house, an act made criminal by the Smoking Control Statute of 2018, which outlawed smoking anywhere within 500 feet of another human being. Winston paid the $5,000 fine, which might have been considered excessive before the American dollar became virtually worthless as a result of QE13, the latest round of quantitative easing the federal government initiated stating, once again, it was to "spur economic growth." This time, they promised to push unemployment below its years-long rate of 18%, but Winston was not particularly hopeful.

Yet the family had a lot for which to be thankful, Winston thought, before remembering it was a Day of Atonement. At least, he had his memories.

He felt a twinge of sadness when he realized his children would never know what life was like in the "Good Old Days," long before government promises to make life "fair for everyone" realized their full potential. Winston, like so many of his fellow Americans, never realized how much things could change when they didn't happen all at once, but little by little, so people could get used to them.

He wondered what might have happened if the public had stood up while there was still time, maybe back around 2011, when all the real nonsense began.

"Maybe we wouldn't be where we are today if we'd just said 'enough is enough' when we had the chance," he thought.

Maybe so, Winston. Maybe so.