Drink up, it's Christmas!

A couple were in a busy shopping centre just before Christmas.

The wife suddenly noticed that her husband was missing and as they
had a lot to  do, so she called him on the mobile. The wife said "
Where are you, you know we have lots to do"

He said "You remember the jewelers we went into about 10 years ago
and you fell in love  with that diamond necklace.  I could not afford
it at the time and I said that one day I would get it for you."

Little tears started to flow down her cheek and she got all choked
up. "Yes, I do remember that shop"

"Well I am in the bar next to that."

December 20, 1953

It all started back on a Sunday.  The date was December 20^th,  1953 at Stevens County Memorial Hospital in Morris, MN.   I was born at 2:49 pm.    I was 5.55 ounces.  I was 18.5 inches long.   My eyes were bluish grey and my hair was black.  There was a full moon that night.   My parents brought me home from the hospital on Christmas Day,  1953.  Dr. Eide was the delivering Doctor. 

My parents lived at 404 E. 6^th Street in Morris, MN when I was born.  When I was baptized I was dressed in the dress my mother and grandmother were baptized in 46 years ago.   I was baptized by Father Harlow Sheldon.  My godparents were my aunt, Alyce Mae Parisian Myers and my uncle, Jack Parisian.

On December 20 in Morris, MN the maximum average temperature for  a HIGH is 20 degrees Fahrenheit and the average LOW temperature is 6 degrees Fahrenheit.

Dec. 20, 1953	Rise	Set
Actual Time	8:00 AM CST	4:42 PM CST
Civil Twilight	7:26 AM CST	5:16 PM CST
Nautical Twilight	6:48 AM CST	5:54 PM CST
Astronomical Twilight	6:12 AM CST	6:30 PM CST
Moon	4:54 PM CST (12/20)	8:23 AM CST (12/20)
Length of Visible Light	9h 50m
Length of Day	8h 41m

Full, 100% of the Moon is Illuminated
Dec 20 Full	Dec 27 Last Quarter	Jan 4 New	Jan 11 First Quarter	Jan 18 Full

The hospital was completed in 1952  at a cost of half a million dollars and had 50 beds. It was one of the few fully accredited hospitals in west-central Minnesota.   I was birth number 122-53-201332, the son of Douglas Eugene Parisian and Betty Dorene Marquart Parisian.  My parents were engaged in 1948 and applied for a wedding license in the city of Minneapolis.  Dad was 27 and resided at 2107 Portland Avenue and Mom was 21 and resided at 618 East 22^nd Street in south Minneapolis.

I am an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band of Minnesota Chippewa Indians, White Earth Reservation.  

Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House when I arrived. 

This is your Obama libs..................

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.   Here is a prime example of how the media operates in 2015.  Read it and weep.

 http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-18/new-york-times-just-memory-holed-devastating-obama-admission

Life Changes for 2016

As I’ve gotten older I ‘ve become aware of the cost of wasting time and be restless about my time.

Wear my LIFE BELT all the time. 

Make 2016 the busiest and best year of my life. 

Cook more and eat better. 

Engage in conversation with others who are fully engaged to be in conversation. If they have a smart device in their hand or in front of them I will not engage.

 

Pine Ridge SD Law Enforcement, 1970 Christmas Card

My late father, Douglas Parisian is the Officer pictured on the Right.   I see Mr. Vince Brewer, Mr. Glover and  Mr. Two Bulls I believe.  If anyone knows who all or any of the others are please send me an email.  Thank you in advance.  dean parisian

Paul Anthony Gosar, American HERO

Paul Anthony Gosar is an American Republican politician and member of the United States House of Representatives from Arizona since 2011, representing Arizona's 4th congressional district.

Yesterday, Gosar took to his Facebook page to expose the reality of the massive Omnibus Spending Bill... and who is to blame... Why I Am Voting NO on the Massive Omnibus Spending Bill:

Once again I find myself shaking my head at the wasteful spending in DC and a flawed process that drops thousands of pages of text on us with 48 hours to “read” and understand. I wish I could put all the blame on big spending Democrats, liberals who seek to bankrupt our nation and others who are ignorant of the fiscal crisis within which we live. But I can’t. Congress is controlled by Republicans. So, this massive and wasteful spending bill is on Republican leadership—who continues the pattern I have seen for 5 years now.

 

If I sound disappointed, it’s because I am. Republicans have been elected around the country on the simple promise of reducing spending and the size of the federal government. To rein in a lawless and dangerously incompetent Obama administration. We know what the American people want.They have made that clear in the last three election cycles. Except for the sequester vote in August 2011 (a law I proudly voted for and that actually reduced spending 3 years in a row), no other law has been enacted that makes meaningful cuts to spending. I am disappointed but I refuse to give up.

 

There are some items in the Omnibus that I support and fought to have included such as eliminating taxpayers bailouts of the Obamacare “risk corridor” program and delaying the “Cadillac tax” which puts 2 more nails in the Obamacare coffin, funding for PILT and SCAAP, as well as lifting the crude oil export ban which I have taken a lead role in accomplishing. Additionally, the Omnibus bill includes the House-passed language that reforms the VISA Waiver Program.

 

But the bad far outweighs the good, and overall, this bill misses so many opportunities. A bill with 2242 pages of legislative text and over 1000 pages of explanatory material was first released at 1:34 AM today and we will vote on it this Friday. I am not Nancy Pelosi. I will not vote to pass a bill just to find out later what is in it. That is irresponsible and silly. Bottom line: this is a big spending bill. It spends more ($50 billion) than is authorized and agreed to under the Budget Control Act of 2011. This alone is reason to reject this bill. We set limits that are intended to implement our campaign promises.

 

This Omnibus does not defund the president’s executive amnesty orders and fails to prevent funds for sanctuary cities, both abdications of the power of the purse. The bill failed to defund Obamacare. This bill failed to include a provision blocking refugees from Syria from being resettled in this country until we have a system that can properly vet them. Worse yet, the bill allows the president to bring in as many refugees as he wants and allows access for these refugees to welfare and entitlements at taxpayer expense.

 

The bill failed to block the EPA's new WOTUS, Clean Power Plan and Ozone regulations. It also failed to block the administration's new AFFH rule, to block the new Stream Protection Rule and to block the BLM's new fracking rule, do anything to limit massive designations of new national monuments under the Antiquities Act by Obama and to block the new Central American Minors (CAM) program.

 

It increases IRS spending by over $200 million and includes a $500 million increase for the wasteful and inefficient Head Start program. The bill increases funding for the EPA $717.73 million above the House passed bill.

 

The bill fails to block funding for Planned Parenthood and will allow hundreds of millions to continue to flow to the organization's coffers ($528.4 million in federal funding last year alone).

 

The bill egregiously extends the Wind PTC for five years and extends LWCF for three years with no meaningful reforms even though the program is now unauthorized. The bill includes $226.8 million for new land acquisition and to lock-up more land, even though the federal government can't even manage the land it currently owns.

 

The bill bails out the International Monetary Fund by increasing the U.S. quota. This IMF will now have access to even more taxpayer dollars in order to fund bailouts of other irresponsible governments like Greece.

 

To make matters worse, there were tons of great riders that passed both Houses and were even included in base bills that somehow failed to make it into the final bill.

 

The fact that extremist environmental groups are pleased and that Obama hasn't threatened a veto tells you everything you need to know about this fundamentally-flawed bill.

 

I refuse to go along with the status quo of more wasteful and abusive government spending. It doesn't have to be this way. We must have the courage to fix our broken budget process and return to regular order. As long as I represent hard-working Arizonans, I will never stop fighting to end this madness. This is my line in the sand and I refuse to back down.

Wall Street Humor, THE BIG SHORT and Martin Shkreli in Jail?

I see that "bad" guy Martin Shkreli is in the news again, this time in cuffs, amazing huh?

When Jon Corzine is in cuffs and behind bars I will seriously give a shit. 

Until then it's all just a side show of smoke and mirrors.   Those attorneys should be ashamed of themselves.  Oh wait, they are bought and paid for too.

On another note,   Chair Yellen is having the time of her life talking about the GREAT RECESSION of 2008.  

Doesn't ANYONE in the media remember how much guilt there was to go around?

Maybe the movie rolling out this week, THE BIG SHORT will rekindle some lapse in memory.

Ya think?

Michael Lewis letter to the SEC about the IEX exchange

Subject: File No. 10-222
From: Michael Lewis
Affiliation: Author

December 12, 2015

It's been interesting to read the public accounts of the money
and time spent by high frequency traders and the existing public
stock exchanges, to lobby your agency and other government
officials, to prevent IEX from becoming a public exchange.

That is, to prevent an honest competitor from introducing
an innovation into the U.S. stock market that promises to
benefit not only investors in that market but the entire
U.S. economy-at the expense of high frequency traders
and the existing public stock exchanges. IEX represents a
market solution to a messy problem. It was created to protect
investors against the predatory trading of high frequency
traders. It has proven itself capable of doing so. If it is allowed
to become a public exchange it will surely further reduce the
tax levied by Wall Street intermediaries on U.S. stock market
investors, and, in the bargain, introduce a new spirit of fairness
to that market. I urge that the U.S. government authorities
tasked with supervising the U.S. stock market move briskly
to enable IEX to become a public exchange. 

Sincerely,

Michael Lewis

Hunter Parisian, 2014-2015

My oldest son, Hunter Parisian shot the deer pictured above (top) in 2014.

The bottom picture is of the buck he killed this year,  2015.   Nice bucks from the same stand at the Ghost Ranch.

An old warrior on the Yellowstone River

We had alot of pictures of this old fellow.   He lived well until an unfortunate incident took out his vision in his left eye.  Whatever it was that made him blind in his left eye he still ruled the roost in battling smaller bucks for a hot doe.   His left eye had grown shut and was crusted over in a hard mass of tissue.

My son, Hunter Parisian, put this buck down in the late afternoon on Thanksgiving day, 2015 after watching him in an interesting sparring session with another big buck.      

Artistry of the main stream media and political hacks................

The old establishments are dead.

What is left are elites, collectives of officeholders past and present, donors, lobbyists, think-tankers angling for jobs, party hacks and talking heads.

What the Republican Party collectivity has to realize is that it is they and the policies they produced that are the reason Trump, Carson and Cruz currently hold an overwhelming majority of Republican votes.

It was the elites of both parties who failed to secure our borders and brokered the trade deals that have de-industrialized America and eviscerated our middle class.

It was the elites of both parties who got us into these idiotic wars that have blown up the Middle East, cost us trillions of dollars, thousands of dead, and tens of thousands of wounded among our best and bravest.

That Republican elites would sit around a dinner table on Capitol Hill and discuss how to frustrate the rising rebellion against what they have done to America, and decide among themselves who shall lead us, is astonishing and honestly, sickening.

To borrow from President Reagan, they are not the solution to America's problems.

They are the problem.

No longer a fawn eater................

Jordan Parisian Birthday

10/8/2015,   Your 19^th Birthday

Dear Jordan,

It’s been a great run.  Being your father and husband to your Mother are two of my greatest joys.   As I have told you, the best is yet come.  Always believe that.    A young man has many roles to play as he grows; to be a good brother, a good son, a good friend, a good husband, a good father.   The qualities to fulfill those roles are rather simple and you have all those qualities.  You were given a good foundation; you have the strength, the courage, the organization, the self awareness, loyalty and sense of happiness.  You are fortunate to have been born with all of these abilities and expand them.  I am not writing this letter to give you a blueprint for your life.  You have your own blueprint.  Any direction you decide to take I know you will do it with excellence, with discipline and do it your way.   Someday I hope you look back on my letters and notes to you and realize that the lessons I have tried to teach have come from the wisdom and experiences of my parents and their parents before them and that they can live forever in you, and yours.

Today, you have a few weeks of college under your belt and I have a hunch you have already figured out some of the tricks to being a good student.  It’s not that hard to filter out the bullshit and the biases and cut to the chase.  If there is anything in life you want to know it is at your fingertips.    Your background in sports has enabled you to figure out your strengths and weaknesses fairly early in life.  Playing safety on the gridiron you were exposed and vulnerable.    You learned early to be prepared, to anticipate, to hustle, to finish, to never give up.

College can be a busy time if you allow it to.  The vast majority of college students are stumbling around unconscious and visiting in their mind, all day long, their regrets and anxieties of the future.  Here is a check list to help you with college.  So tuck away the ego, listen up and remember these.  Are you eating well?  Are you getting enough good sleep?  Are you avoiding the people who stress you?  Are you laughing?  Are you grateful for what you have?  Have you looked to the angels above and asked God, “Who today do you want me to help?”  The rest will take care of itself.

In closing, you have heard me say on more than one occasion that the biggest decision a man will make beside his faith in God is who he will marry. When you find a girl to settle down with, take a hard look and consider if being with her will improve you or not.  Always opt for the improvement.  Remember, you never know if it is right, you will always know if it’s not right. There are going to be a lot of women trying to snag you, as you’re an outstanding catch.  Don’t allow a woman to choose you, choose her and make it a mutual thing.  Use Mom and me as an example and live by that.  And never forget the hero your Mom is, because she has had to overcome a million obstacles that would have killed an ordinary person in order to achieve her goals of being a successful wife, mother and corporate executive.  Mom and I always regarded marriage as ‘till death do us part.  We have had our ups and downs for sure but the love and confidence in each other was strengthened by the downs as well as the ups.

Jordan, you have so many great years ahead of you.  Make the most of them.  Make good use of your time every day.  Time you can never get back.  When you get much older, and believe me when I tell you this, never let an “old man” live in your body.  I try to live that mantra.  Live as you did in your youth, live large, think big, have great dreams, keep your eyes open, live life, dance like no is watching and hunt like it’s your first animal!

And above all, praise God and continue to use your tremendous vision and discipline in going after what you want out of life.

Happy Birthday Jordan!

Love,

Dad

 

Drones

As the fall foliage drops I generally start watching more hunting shows on the boob tube. My wife has come to understand the change in seasons by how much TV I watch. If it isn't the weather channel, Bloomberg, football or a hunting show I won't have it on. I do watch CNBC at work but NEVER with the sound on unless Rick Santoli, Jimmy Rogers, David Stockman or a handful of other market mavens who I respect may be speaking.

I have really enjoyed some of the hunting episodes that engage the use of drones/go pro's. Naturally, 99% of what hunting film I am watching was taken last year and I look forward to how unique a bunch of these young gun videographers can get with a drone.

Life gets better as I get older. Let's drone on. Maybe I will put one on my Christmas list.

Musings at 3 a.m.

I usually wake up about 3 a.m. every morning.   Nothing new, been that way for a long long time.

Generally I get right back to sleep after a drink of water and a trip to the bathroom.

This morning I was thinking more than usual which isn't good for getting back to sleep.

This morning I thought that when you really think about it, most if not all of the countries problems come from two area codes.   212  and  202.

Sleep on that.

TBT

Saving deer fawns and elk calves one by one.........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D71d_PxWN0c

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzCTaECeO3Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4P6_Gszhm4

 

ISIS, Obama and the MIC

I am a simple guy.  Grew up going to Catholic school and lived on more Indian reservations than most kids can count across the Great Plains.

Let me see if i can get this straight.  It can't be that hard if Obama is involved.

How many billions of dollars did President Zero spend on trying to eliminate the JV team, ISIS?

If the United States launched over 6,700 air strikes over the last year against ISIS and had very little effect then how in hell can Russia in only 60 air strikes knock the living hell out of the so-called JV team and literally degrade them?  I guess the mission was accomplished as the Military Industrial Complex "won" the battle!

There are one hell of a lot of fat cats in the military industrial complex feeding off this mayhem.

All at the expense of the United States taxpayer.

In college, way back in the 70's,  I learned more from my daily dose of the Minneapolis Star Tribune then I did from the overpriced text books.  Back then it was day after day of United States military men dying in Vietnam. The Military Industril Complex was cleaning up back then as they are today.  The suburbs of Virginia and Maryland have all the stories. 

When will the youth of this nation rise up and demand some accountability?

We sure aren't getting it from anyone who is elected and needs $$$$$ from lobbyists.

Wake up America..............

We’re social animals — it’s just the way the cookie crumbled. For the most part, even the most introverted of human beings need some sort of human contact every once in a while, and face-to-face interactions may still be better than sending an email or a text. Despite what we may think about staying connected via technological advances, a new study suggests that when it comes to staving off depression, actually seeing your friends does a whole lot more good than sending them an emoji.
The effects of actually seeing your friends in person are particularly salient in older individuals, and according to the Oregon Health and Science University study, those who reported “regular interactions with family and friends” were 5 percent less likely to face depression when compared to peers who only maintained phone, text, or email relationships.  “We see a dose dependent effect with in-person contact,” says Dr. Alan Teo, a professor of psychiatry at OHSU. “The more face-to-face meetings, the lower the [depression] rates go.”

In conducting their study, researchers examined the interpersonal interactions of more than 11,000 Americans aged 50 years and older. Study participants were then monitored for two years for risks and signs of depression (other factors including health status, distance from family members, and mental health history were also taken into account). Ultimately, doctors found that respondents who had regular face-to-face interactions with their friends and family (at least three times a week), faced only a 6.5 percent chance of developing depression. On the other hand, those who only saw their friends or family once every few months or even more infrequently had an 11.3 percent risk of developing depression.

 

Overall, some 9.5 percent of American adults suffer from depression at some point in their lives, so study results would suggest that having these in-person meetings with loved ones more frequently actually helps with overall psychological health.

Of course, this isn’t to say that emails, texts, and other digital forms of communication are bad for us as a society. Indeed, an increase in messaging devices and mediums certainly allows human beings to stay more connected to one another. But at the end of the day, Teo says, emails, texts, and even phone calls, “are no substitute for face-to face contact.”

While the study only examined older Americans, researchers believe that similar results may be extrapolated to millennials as well. However, with young adults’ widespread adoption of various social media outlets, Teo is curious as to the effects of Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms on feelings of depression, anxiety, and isolation.

“In one of my next studies,” he said, “I am now trying to measure all different types of social media use to see how that plays out with mental health outcomes, particularly in younger adults.”
So take note, friends. The next time you’re sharing a laugh or a gif via text or email, consider actually sharing some time in person. You may just put yourself in a better mood by doing so.

For gun haters everywhere..............

Bernanke after the fact. This is YOUR AMERIKA!

Q. Should somebody have gone to jail.

Bernanke: Yeah, yeah I think so. It would have been my preference to have more investigation of individual actions as obviously everything that went wrong, or was illegal, was done by some individial not by an abstract firm.

The Chief of the murkily-owned Federal Reserve shows a level of hubris I thought I would never hear.  He knew what was going on from Hank Paulson on down the chain.    

 

In addition to Pauson blackmailing Ken Lewis, how about Senator Chris Dodd getting special gtreatment from Countrywide to buy a house in Ireland?   His mortgage rates were WAY below market mortgage rates.

 

How about Barney Frank running constant interference on anyone who pointed out FNMA was bankrupt, had no risk controls and had been turned into an overlevered MBS hedge fund run by none other than Franklin Raines?  

  Remember Frank whining on the floor of the US Senate that FNMA was solvent and even if it admitted bankruptcy it wouldn't cost taxpayers a dime?

 

Every time the crooks in Washington tried to convict a crook on Wall Street it just turned up more dirt on Congress, the Treasury, the Fed, etc....For heavens sake, Eric Holders Dept of Justice only wanted to go after S&P when they downgraded the US!!! 

 

Bernanka knows all of this.

 

Now he is just a book salesman.

 

And pure asshole.

 

Putin

Does anyone in the MSM understand what it means to run the KGB for years?

Anyone?  This isn't some piker we are dealing with.

Putin was a player long before anyone knew the pot-head from Harvard who became President was and Putin will be a player long after Obama is retired to a golf course in Hawaii and forgotten.

I say we leave the land of sand pronto.

It's only about oil after all.  

Federal Reserve Bank of the United States of America

I wouldn't allow these clueless bums to run my kids lemonade stand let alone fiddle with interest rates in what is known as the United States of America.

They know not what they are doing.

Socializing losses, privatizing profits and letting the 1% run roughshod.  For how many years?

Between the Congress critters, the lame brains at the Fed and the clueless Senate what on earth have we become? 

And now we have to listen to the greatest nacissist of all time run for President.

I will sit back and take it all in.  It's better than HS football.    Blue label anyone? 

Boehner

John Boehner, the Orange man, is shutting down the tanning bed for good.

I think he must have hit his head against the DEBT CEILING!

A true poster boy for GOP dysfunction.

Lesson in Government

THE FOOD STAMP PROGRAM IS ADMINISTERED BY THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. THEY PROUDLY REPORT THAT "THEY DISTRIBUTE FREE MEALS AND FOOD STAMPS TO OVER 46 MILLION PEOPLE ON AN ANNUAL BASIS." 

MEANWHILE, THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, RUN BY THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ASKS US "PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS".  THEIR STATED REASON FOR THIS POLICY BEING THAT  "THE ANIMALS WILL GROW DEPENDENT ON THE HANDOUTS AND THEN THEY WILL NEVER LEARN TO TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES."

 

Bears don't vote. 

 

Life is about incentives.

 

Here, BUTTER UP your INFLATION!

Butter prices hit $3.10 per pound today in Chicago trading, a record high.

Just leave the Democrats in charge..........

You know it's bad when you log on and see that "Chicago 53 shootings" is trending on the internet.  Obama has time to worry about things like in Texas when a Muslim kid brings a clock to school that looks like a bomb but he turns a blind eye to Chicago every weekend.

Eight people were killed at at least 45 were wounded in Chicago between Friday evening and early this morning making it the second most violent weekend in Chicago this year.

Forty or more where shot every weekend from late July to late August.  Stunning huh?

Since March, the number of gunshot victims has reached double digits every single weekend and since April, the number has always been 25 or more.

This weekends shootings bring the total for 2015 to at least 2,213.  Dam, that is alot of ammo and an increase of more than 350 over last year.  So far, 365 have died.

If you have ever shot a pistol you will understand how many people have to get shot AT to have hit 53 (thank God only 8 died out of the 53).  

Just imagine how many shots were taken by these thugs to hit 53 over the weekend.

War zones are alive and well in America.

Inflation and the FED

Change you can believe in!   With 100,000 low IQ (probably very similiar to Crossville TN) migrants coming to fix things in America there is room for "growth"!  This FED is all about big money, big banks, big jobs, big bags of wind, big expense vouchers, big salaries, big waste, big gobs of narcissism.   When President Teleprompter calls Janet to let her know to keep rates unchanged to guarantee her a big time job in government down the road you know all is not well.

Inflation in America is up how much according to government economists?

Despite soaring food, utilities and healthcare costs to say nothing about housing is  making the American SCAM-O-METER hit new highs daily.    

Atlanta Feds Lockhart...............

Why does the media take such bullshit artists like Dennis Lockhart  seriously?

Borrowing and reckless spending is modeled by our bloated government.  They know that austerity now equals a crash.  There is NO WAY BACK.  When the Fed raises, it comes apart.

The game is about over.

 

Be very careful when you speak to your children!

My wife hosted a dinner party for all our friends, some of whom we hadn't seen for ages, and everyone was encouraged to bring their children along as well. 

All throughout dinner my wife's best friend's four-year-old daughter stared at me as I sat opposite her. The girl could hardly eat her food for staring. 
 

I checked my shirt for spots, felt my face for food, and patted my hair in place; but nothing stopped her from staring at me. I tried my best to just ignore her, but finally it was too much for me. 
 

I asked her, "Why are you staring at me?" 

Everyone at the table had noticed her behavior, and the table went quiet, waiting for her response. 

The little girl said, "I'm just waiting to see how you drink like a fish." 

GOP debate last night...........

I don't have a clue who "won" last night but I can tell you who lost.  Ben Carson got taken to the woodshed and the American people lost big.

Is this really the best group of Presidential hopefuls in a country of 320,000,000? 

I weep for our future.  So should you.

As an investment manager I thought it rather lame that  QE, ZIRP, federal debt, global debt, corporate debt, debt funded stock buy-backs, deflation, inflation, crude prices (after all what are middle eastern wars being fought for?), commodity prices and global trade crashing were topics that were NOT addressed.  Amazing isn't it?  Think about it.  $19 trillion in the hole and not a shred of discussion.  Winning!!!    Bend over America!

Aren't you glad we could listen to the gay marriage debate and  discuss who should be on the $10 bill?  Jeb Bush have a MJ buzzkill going with that Margaret Thatcher response regarding the $10 bill?  What the hell is up with that Jeb?   Get off the pipe pal, geesh.........

Nobody in America gives a shit about who is on the $10 bill.  Nobody.  NO ONE!

What a circus!

Who makes it to President?

Hopefully ANYONE who is not an attorney or a professional politician.

About that fabled Morgan Stanley research.........

Seven years ago today, Lehman Brothers failed. But it is what took place just over two weeks prior that is of interest for the scope of this article.

On August 27, less than 20 days before the failure of Lehman, Morgan Stanley analyst Patrick Pinschmidt revised his forecast on Lehman's Q3 earnings from an 8 cent profit to a Q3 loss of $2.80 a share.

Patrick cautioned: "For the franchise and shares to turn the corner, we think management needs to announce a significant bulk asset sale or framework for investors to evaluate the structure or pricing of likely asset disposals."

Also he wasn't very far off when he said that "we believe a key question for investors is not the size of the writedown, but how remaining illiquid asset exposure squares with capital cushion."

And yet, despite his clear concerns about the longevity of Lehman, did the then-Morgan Stanley analyst cut his rating on Lehman? As Reuters reminds us, the answer was a resounding no:

"The analyst maintained his "overweight" rating on shares of Lehman and Goldman."

One month later Lehman did not exist, and Goldman would have followed into the abyss had it not been bailed out first by Buffett and then by the FDIC and the Fed.

Why is this episode relevant? After all virtually everyone was saying Lehman is fine and that there is no risk for the longevity of the bank, at least until the very end, when it was revealed that Goldman's alumnus at the US Treasury had decided to sacrifice Lehman (in the process eliminating Goldman's biggest fixed income trading competitor).

Patrick Pinschmidt is now one of the top-placed people in charge of the US Treasury's FSOC. Yes, the same person who 2 weeks before Lehman failed, had an "overweight" rating on the Lehman stock, is not in charge of financial stability.

Is there any doubt why nobody has any faith that without the perpetual backing of the central money printer, US capital markets can no longer exist?

Listening to Hillary Clinton campaign on TV

.....reminds me of when I had a bad case of hemorrhoids.........the pain just won't go away.........

the class warfare, the bullshit,  the promises,  the war on women,  ad nauseum...........

would somebody just whack that criminal syndicate sooner rather than later?

I swear America needs muck boots to listen to this nag............. and to think she is wanting to take the place of a President who was supposedly a professor of constitutional law.

GMAFB.......

Just a matter of time boys and girls...........

Coming to a shore near you.  Europe's refugee crisis is getting worse by the day. Less than 24 hours after Germany announced it would impose border controls with Austria, followed promptly by the Czech Republic, Slovenia and now the Netherlands, German vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel predicted that as many as 1 million refugees may arrive by the end of the year as other nations moved to fortify their frontiers. In the meantime, however, Europe is dramatically escalating measures to halt the influx and as AFP reported earlier today, the European Union has now approved military action against human traffickers in the Mediterranean Sea.

Peyton Barber, Auburn running back

Five very short years ago I had the opportunity to watch Peyton Barber as a Junior in high school when he played for the Milton Georgia high school program.  My son, Jordan Parisian, was in his first year at Milton playing football as a freshman and it was Coach DeCristofaro's first year in bringing the Milton program up to where it needed to be.  Coach D got the Milton players to buy into the hard work year 'round.  The off-season weight training was special.

It took me all of about 3 plays watching the fall practice to see this Barber kid was special.  It took watching him about 6 plays to see he was going to be a hell of a college running back.  It took a game to see that he could play at whatever college he wanted whether he was recruited or not. 

In football, cream still rises to the top.

I can't believe it took Peyton this long to garner a starting spot but hey, the Auburn coaches finally figured it out.

They couldn't have a better running back and person on the field to represent their University.

What a nice young man.  Humble, hard-working and gifted with the ball.

I hope he signs a massive professional contract some day.  The kid is a winner.

10,000 Syrians headed to America.......

How do you define a country?

Borders, language and culture.

Refugees flooding Europe,  Europe will disappear as we know it.

Why must America be invaded from within?

Met some interesting people today. It takes all kinds.

Don't judge the majority by yourself or those you associate with.

To quote Carlin, “Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider!” 

We didn't get to this point via an intelligent voting public.

Perfect summation of Native American higher education today............

Dr. Dean Chavers is director of Catching the Dream, a national scholarship program for Native college students. He invites students to contact him at CTD4DeanChavers@aol.com. They do not have enough applicants.

 

Indian Country, Your weekend primer on INFLATION

Happy Labor Day to one and all............

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

In an article that first appeared in Fortune magazine on December 10, 2001, Warren Buffett penned a great letter about falling prices:

“When hamburgers go down in price, we sing the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ in the Buffett household. When hamburgers go up in price, we weep. For most people, it’s the same with everything in life they will be buying– except stocks. When stocks go down and you can get more for your money, people don’t like them anymore.”

He’s right. Any rational human being actually LIKES falling prices.

We enjoy getting a great deal, and we like it when our money goes further.

To Buffett’s point, investors are a major exception and prefer investing when prices go up, i.e. their money buys less of a high quality asset.

But there’s one more giant exception that Buffett didn’t mention: economists.

Economists quiver in fear at the prospect of falling prices.

They call it ‘deflation’, and it’s a force so dreaded that central bankers have threatened to drop bricks of cash from helicopters in order to prevent it.

Instead, economists prefer INFLATION, i.e. that the things you buy become more expensive.

We can look at official statistics to get a sense of inflation, but these numbers are totally meaningless.

When I was a kid, my father earned enough money to support his family with a single salary.

We had a house, a car, an occasional vacation, and we never missed a meal. All on one income.

But those days are long gone. Now it’s almost obligatory to live in a dual-income household just to make ends meet.

The official statistics never paint this picture.

They focus on some palatable number, telling us the inflation rate is 2%, and then adjust their computational methods to derive that figure.

In fact, the US federal government has changed the way it calculates inflation at least twenty times since the mid 1980s.

And it’s obvious that they have a huge incentive to do so.

The #1 expense of the federal government today is the mandatory entitlement programs that are paid out to seniors in the US– primarily Social Security.

It’s nearing $1 trillion annually and eats up a third of all tax revenue.

The government is required by law to increase the amount of money paid to Social Security recipients each year through what’s called a COLA, or cost of living adjustment.

Essentially they’re adjusting your monthly Social Security payment to keep up with inflation. Or at least, the inflation that they’re willing to admit.

This is where they have a huge incentive to fudge the numbers.

If the real rate of inflation is 5%, but they only give a 2% COLA, the government saves 3%. That’s almost $30 billion.

(Ironically this is 3x the size of the annual budget for the Department of Labor, which is responsible for calculating the inflation statistics.)

But by doing this the government is effectively stealing from seniors.

There’s actually been a new law proposed in Congress to prevent this from happening anymore.

It’s known as HR 3074, and it was written “for the purpose of establishing an accurate Social Security COLA. . .”

So even the government admits that their inflation numbers are a bunch of baloney.

But sadly, according to the legislative watchdog GovTrack.us, this bill has a 0% chance of being passed. So I wouldn’t expect a solution anytime soon.

In fact, this problem will likely get worse given how transfixed economists are on the deflation threat.

Their concern is that the Chinese economic slowdown and currency devaluation will cause a wave of falling prices around the world.

But there’s a very curious effect at work here that most people forget:

It’s entirely possible (and now very likely) to have BOTH inflation AND deflation. At the same time.

Assets and investments can fall, while at the same time the prices of retail goods and services rise.

In other words, the value of your investment portfolio goes down, but your grocery bill goes up.

It’s also important to point out that not all prices rise and fall equally.

Gas prices may be down from a year ago in the US. But as the recently-released Hotels.com Hotel Price Index shows, hotel prices are up sharply.

Salt Lake City: 8%. Raleigh: 5%. Portland: 9%. Washington DC: 5%. Los Angeles: 8%.

I’ve seen the effects of this dual inflation/deflation phenomenon as I’ve traveled around the world in places like Argentina, Greece, and Indonesia.

It is a very real threat. And it may now be coming to US shores.

But everyone is focused exclusively on the deflation side.

You’ll get laughed at in financial circles if you mention the word ‘inflation’ anymore. It’s being completely ignored… even denied.

They’re pretending like half the problem doesn’t even exist, which is seriously foolish.

Inflation is a long-term disease. Quarter by quarter the numbers may change. But over the long run it’s like a cancer, slowly eating away at your lifestyle.

It’s not a question of either/or. It’s not a debate over inflation VS. deflation.It’s only a matter of WHEN we’ll end up with BOTH. And how well you’re prepared for it.