Rand Paul's FESTIVUS REPORT

If you pay tax to the United States Government you should contact the call center at the Department of Government Efficiency and report some of this egregious abuse of YOUR money.

Remember, it's not what you get for Christmas it's what YOU support with your money for Uncle Sam to piss away.

In a hot stream of unadulterated depravity read it and weep. 

Dr. Rand Paul's 2024 Report on WASTE!

71

Happy Birthday to me and thank you to my Mom............she did all the work!

Been a grand ride around the sun but time is not refundable.

Not much difference besides a mustache from 70 to 71.  Weight down.  Eating well. Feel strong, legs need more miles.  Losing fat is hard. Being fat, obese, or overweight is harder.  Always something to do. 

I didn't harvest an elk, an antelope, or a deer this year.  May never again.

Last night was great. Had so much scenery, and it was so close to the boat.

Whales. Seals. Birds. Mahi-mahi chasing schools of baitfish. Massive flock of man-o-war birds. Great night on the water. Great food and family. Blessed and thankful. Another day in Baja!!!

I received several nice presents today (a new Keurig coffee maker had my name on it, thank you), but Mr. Market came through in true holiday ebullience.

What more could a trader ask for?  It's been a solid year.  I don't make prognostications often, but I would assume it will be tougher in 2025 without the Mag 7 garnering all the attention.  Some phenomenal companies are doing great things with explosive earnings out there.   Let's hope more Palantir's find their way into my portfolio.

I did sell half my Costco position above a grand the other day.  When they announce a split I will be back in size.  

Last night it was time to celebrate.  I had a martini.

Alcohol doesn't do it for me these days.  Seldom imbibe.  It'll be another year until my next martini!

Elon, Vance, Vivek, and the rest of the Trump Train are about to leave the station.   What a time to be alive!

LFG!

And in 2025 keep my favorite quotes in mind.  They have served me well.

The extra mile is never crowded.

Americans underestimate the value of pure freedom.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. 

Choice, not chance, determines your destiny. 

Luck, typically created by hard work colliding with opportunity.

  

College Life..................

 

This time in my life was special.  College days.  Trapping my way through life!  $65 for a red fox pelt was special then and still is today.  It was then that I knew I would always work for myself.  I would always cook what I caught, and eat what I killed.

I had one job in college that I despised.   I worked for the Minnesota Highway Department, a state government job that taught me about the lack of incentives for employees to do the right thing for taxpayers.  I couldn't imagine working for a government agency or large corporation for a career. 

I earned a degree in social science with a secondary teaching certificate in Minnesota and quickly learned that teaching was rewarding but wasn't going to take me where I wanted.   Sitting in teachers' lounges listening to teachers gossip about students and their parents wasn't my cup of tea nor was the simple fact that no matter what I tried, the same kids in the back of the class that were goofballs on the first day of school would be jag-offs on the last day of the school year.  I can't imagine the difficulty in classrooms today without a father in sight for them.         

VAX STATUS UPDATE for VAXXED CHILDREN

New CDC study finds Pfizer's COVID vaccine increases the risk of infection and symptomatic disease in young children who have never had COVID.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39656907/

Hey You, Yes, You, CONGRESS, listen up............

The only people in the United States of Amerca that deserve a pay raise are the AMERICAN PEOPLE.

Not Congress, not the Senate.

It's Mexico .......................

 SOMEDAY......................

Milton Eagles H.S. Football, Georgia Champions!

A big shout-out to the Milton High School Football Team for last night winning the top spot in Georgia over Langston-Hughes H.S. by a score of 56 to 35.  Thank you also to Georgia Public Broadcasting and all its sponsors for allowing me to sit here in Palmilla, in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico, and watch the game on my phone! 

Ben Reaves is the real deal as head coach.  It is Milton's first 15-0 season!   Congratulations to the entire community, the coaches, staff, Milton H.S. administration, and the staff surrounding this effort.     

THE YELLOWSTONE RIVER

Ghost Ranch sits on the northern bank of the Yellowstone River for a couple of miles.

Click on this link and enjoy!

The Yellowstone. Shape of a River.

Elon Musk X and Donald J. Trump

I can't imagine how far down the rabbit hole we would be if Elon Musk had not mustered up $44,000,000,000 and purchased X. 

The injustice of the media, the agencies, the politicians, and liberal lunatics against Mr. Trump were out of control.

The courage, experience, love of country, perseverance and the intelligence of Musk and Trump will be on center stage for years.

God Bless America and God Bless Elon Musk and Donald Trump.  

MEDIA CLOWNS

The clueless media is worked up about the criminal families that will be separated when being deported during the Trump 47 reign.  These criminals invaded the United States in the last four years and are about to be deported from the country.

These media hounds and clowns had not a care in the world for elderly family members who died alone during the COVID lockdowns. 

Pilots over New Jersey, BEWARE!

 

Waterfowlers in America!

It was right at legal light, maybe 3 seconds after.

They came into the decoy spread with legs down. I heard it coming and hit the flock with a load of 3.5-inch buckshot............. I was told it isn't wise to eat them.

Not a clue on bag limits but I couldn't pass it up.

Waiting on the F.B.I. C.I.A., D.H.S. now before I take it to my taxidermist.  Might be tough to clean it.`

For young people the world over.........

I stumbled across Mr. Vitaliy Katsenelson years ago on Victor Niederehoffers' site, DAILY SPECULATIONS. I own shares of Berkshire Hathaway and thought Vitaliy's writing should be shared. He is a great author and probably a great investment manager.

Q&A Series: Money Habits for Kids and the Power of Writing

I wanted to share with you some edited excerpts from a Q&A session I held with readers in Omaha during Berkshire Hathaway's shareholder meeting weekend. In this email, we'll explore teaching money habits to young people and how writing has improved my investment approach. How do you teach good money habits to young people?  What skills should kids learn? I'm a big believer in scarcity and constraints. My kids get limited allowances, always less than they think they need. For instance, my 18-year-old daughter gets $20 a week – just enough to visit Starbucks twice. This scarcity motivated her to get a job at a coffee shop and work at IMA to supplement her allowance. With Jonah, I used a different approach in high school. I paid him for his grades, but with an interesting system. He got nothing for C's, lost money for D's and F's, and earned money for B's and A's. If he got okay grades, he got nothing. Great grades meant a good payout. He went from a 1.3 GPA in 11th grade to a 3.9 GPA in 12th grade. Money wasn't the only motivator, but it helped. The point is, no matter how much you make, you can always spend more. You always have trade-offs. Hannah has to choose between going to the movies or eating out an extra time. That's how I deal with teaching money management. How has writing helped you become a better investor?  I'm so thankful for this question, especially because my kids are here. I want them to hear this answer twice a day. For anyone who wants to be a thoughtful, mindful human being, writing daily is crucial, even if it's just for five or 15 minutes. Think about it – throughout the day, we're so busy with life, picking up kids from school, scrolling through TikTok; we don't have time to think, right? But when you sit down to write, it's pure focused thinking. That's all it is. None of you would be here if I didn't write. I'd be a far less interesting person without writing. It gives me time to ponder all these different topics. Without it, I wouldn't have the mental space to even consider how to answer this question. Take my latest investment, for example. I've spent countless hours in front of my computer, writing about it, thinking it through, finding logical gaps in my reasoning, then going back and rethinking it all. This process is invaluable, and I believe everyone should give writing a shot. I'm a morning person, so I write early. But Walter Isaacson writes at night. The key is finding a time that works for you, doing it daily or almost daily, and just start journaling. I'm proud that my son is journaling almost every day now. Writing has transformed me as an investor. It forces me to organize my thoughts, challenge my assumptions, and dive deeper into my analysis. It's not just about putting words on paper; it's about thinking critically and clearly. When you explain something in writing, you often uncover gaps in your understanding or flaws in your logic. This process of self-discovery and refinement is priceless in investing, where clear thinking and thorough analysis make all the difference. How do working-class people approach bargaining with employers without unions?  That's a great question. About 90% of our economy functions without unions, and we're doing fine. I think the key to bargaining with your employer is to create more value. This is advice I give my kids: Be more valuable than your cost. It's that simple. If you're producing $100,000 of value but want $150,000, you probably don't have much bargaining power. Let me give you an example using Amazon, which is often criticized. I had dinner with a young woman, a professional musician. She's never taken an economics class and hates Amazon, thinks Jeff Bezos is worse than Putin – I might be exaggerating, but her anger towards Jeff Bezos was intense. She both criticized Amazon for harsh working conditions in its warehouses and then criticized Amazon for automation. It's a catch-22. The key is to have skills. In today's world, just having capable hands isn't enough anymore. You need unique skills to be better than others – or robots. That's the reality we're facing. Factories are starting to look like sci-fi movies with all the automation. This is why I emphasize good education for my kids. I want them to think about how they can create value for their employer. I don't believe anyone owes us anything. There's a sense of entitlement in the younger generation that I disagree with. Maybe it's my immigrant mentality – when I came to this country, I knew nobody owed me anything. I had to achieve everything on my own. In this new world of automation, it's crucial to have multifaceted skills. Hannah is considering studying psychology and business. There are many who study one or the other, but fewer who combine them. This gives her an edge in the job market. Interestingly, today you don't necessarily have to go to school in the traditional way. You can take Ivy League classes online for free and build your own curriculum. It's not for everyone – I needed the structure of school – but if you're self-disciplined, it's a viable option. Imagine two people applying for a job at IMA. One created their own curriculum from various online sources, while the other went to an Ivy League school. I'd probably find the self-taught applicant more interesting. It shows original thinking and value investing principles – they saved $400,000 on tuition! I have a friend who was rejected by Goldman Sachs. He went home, read 150 books, created outlines of what he learned from each, and reapplied the next year. He got the job. That's the kind of creative thinking I encourage. Many kids today just click "Apply" on every job on LinkedIn and wonder why they don't get hired. There are 250 other kids doing the same thing. It requires creativity to stand out. That's what I encourage my kids to do. So, to answer the question: Develop valuable skills, create more value than you cost, and always look for ways to improve. That's your bargaining power in a world without unions.

Becoming good at investing can be challenging, so I’ve crafted a straightforward 6-step guide encompassing the essential lessons every investor ought to grasp.   Grab this guide at no cost today by clicking here.

AVIAN FLU in SNOW GEESE

Been a birdwatcher for over 60 years.   In my next life I want to become an expert on ROBINS or study migration in Snow Geese.

Here is a video of snow geese infected with AVIAN FLU taken the other day in Idaho.

Rough to watch.  Death in the bird world is harsh.

 

REV SHARK lays it out...........

 

Conversation

James DePorre

@RevShark

We are so lucky that Trump won the election. We would never have gotten rid of the Dems if they had won this time--- Marc Andreessen

@pmarca

says he attended “absolutely horrifying” meetings where Biden’s government vowed to take “complete control” over AI technology: “They basically said AI is going to be a game of 2 or 3 big companies working closely with the government… We’re going to protect them from competition, control them, and dictate what they do.”

Dan Hill said it best.................

How did a country of 330 million mostly good, kind, honest, hardworking people end up with so many Representatives who are corrupt, evil, bastards?

Question for Lawmakers

If a criminal alien is in the United States and the bounty for illegal, criminal aliens is $1,000 can United States taxpayers who turn in those lawbreakers get a tax break on the $1,000 for helping cut expenses for American taxpayers? 

Asking for a friend who lives on an Indian Reservation.

Poster Boy for Criminality

 

Gavin Newsome.  Criminal!

Elon Musk Speech

Full remarks from Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago, on November 14, 2024.

“I guess someone's got to be the George Soros on the right. I mean, I'd call myself George Soros of the center, I think We obviously need to have just the basics. As President Trump rightly said, we need to restore common sense. We want safe cities, we want secure borders, sensible spending, freedom of speech, and respect for the Constitution. If that's George Soros of the right, that's me. 

I'm incredibly excited about the future. The public has given us a mandate that could not be more clear. It's the clearest mandate. Winning the popular vote, clearly, the House, the Senate, the Electoral College by a mile, a majority of governorships, a majority of House legislatures, all Republican. The people have spoken. The people want change. And we're going to give it to them. They will get what they asked for. I think this will be the most transformative presidency, perhaps, since the country's founding. 

And President Trump is picking the Cabinet to do it. You can see that the choices are people who will make change. It's not going to be business as usual. We're going to shake things up. It's going to be a revolution, and we're headed towards, I think, a fantastic future. I'm super excited. I look forward to experiencing that with everyone. Thank you.” 

Mar-a-Lago, November 14, 2024

2024 Ghost Ranch Christmas Goose

 

Have been enamored with hunting Canadians since 3rd grade.  

It never gets old. The team did well. Cool temperatures and some wind helped. They could have used some clouds, but hey, it's hunting, not shooting.