Don't Buy A House Right Now

When the housing market was going up, I began telling people to stop buying houses. The market was not following the proper trends in design, pricing or location. Recently I have written about the intentional housing bubble in England. They are trying to get the suckers into the game again in America.

Yahoo - Reuters - U.S. pending home sales end slide, hint at stabilization. There are too many propaganda pieces coming out right now for me to ignore them. This article talks about how housing stats are improving; but, it is wrong. Improving for whom? One of the first things the article points out is that house purchases had been lower because of interest rates; but, this is complete and utter nonsense. The difference between taking out a 30 year loan at 3 or 4% did not stop anyone other than completely marginal buyers from buying a house. Most people pay considerably more on their car and credit card loans.

The next garbage we are told in the article is that employment is improving. Hey, wait weren't we told that Obamacare has stopped companies from hiring by Reuters also? People who stop getting unemployment and still don't have a job stop showing up in the numbers counted as unemployed. 1.3 million are just about to drop off and stop being shown as unemployed; but, the number of people employed has not increased.

Yahoo - Wall Street Journal - Home Prices Back at Peaks in Some Areas. Again, more nonsense. The housing market has not and will not recover for a long time. In fact, real prices will drop. Let us consider a possible scenario.

Lets say that the world goes of the dollar standard. It already has; but, the transition is slow to be noticed. The BRIC nations are no longer trading with each other using dollars. Eventually, all the dollars they used to hold will be spent in the United States. They will be spent on high end objects and property and that is already going on. Printing more dollars might pay off our foreign debt; but, then they will just give foreign countries more opportunities to buy our properties and businesses at wildly inflated prices. Increasing the amount of dollars or debt to foreign countries means they can buy all of ours. Still, it all comes down to who owns the asset in the end. Remember, we "loaned" billions and billions of dollars to Europe in exchange for Euros. We gave billions more under TARP to foreign countries.

When you were a kid, you may have played Monopoly. The game is won in the end by the one who has the highest priced properties. You just suck the others dry. It does not matter who has the most cash, what matters is who owns the most and best assets.

Now, the hedge funds may believe they will just rent out all the properties that they have bought and that is one of the reasons that they have inflated the market; but, you cannot raise rents above the affordability index like you can sales prices. In the end, math is just math. If I have to choose between eating and having a home, I will eat.

Lots of Year End News of Interest

YouTube - Meet The Press - Alan Greenspan: WE CAN ALWAYS PRINT MORE MONEY. The video is only 24 seconds, it is of Alan Greenspan, past head of the Federal Reserve, saying that it doesn't matter how much debt we have because we can just print money. Tell me how anyone could be that dumb. It would be like you or I saying that we can run up as much credit card debt as we want and just send checks to pay it even though we don't have any money in our bank accounts.

YouTube - HempCrete Strongest Building material in Nature. There is a lot of talk right now about legalizing Marijuana. Personally, I am 100% in favor of allowing cancer patients to have easy access to it; but, there is another product that is related to it called hemp that is also illegal. Hemp is not marijuana and it would take bags of the stuff to get anyone high; but, historically it has been used to make clothes, paper, boats, buildings and also can be used to produce oils. It is also illegal. I had some hemp soap once and the stuff was great on my skin. If you don't know anything about hemp, you should watch the video. If we used it instead of wood, we could save a lot of trees and it captures CO2.

Yahoo - Reuters - Miami loses bid to dismiss SEC fraud lawsuit
. Here is the short on it, municipalities funnel money to investors and others when they issue municipal bonds and some municipalities fudge the numbers to keep up their ratings. Awhile back I read an article about how a City was issuing bonds based upon the value of their streets. Basically saying that there streets were an asset of the City. I contacted one of the two lawyers who had created the bonds and asked them how they could use streets as an asset when they did not own the streets and only had an easement which the law prohibits them for charging people to use. The municipal bond market is just as rigged as the rest of wall street. When a municipality issues bonds, lots of insiders make money.

Yahoo - Reuters - Italy presses Monte Paschi to complete $4 billion cash call. Keep an eye on this one, how this bank is taken over may be an indication of things to come to other banks.

The Guardian - Mortgage rise will plunge a million homeowners into 'perilous debt'
. England, land of mass debt which is pushed by their own government. One of the last couple posts was on exactly this, their housing bubble.

Yahoo - Reuters - SEC pushes US insurers for details on 'captives': WSJ. More Wall Street dishonesty and cheating.

Yahoo - Reuters - NYC sues FedEx for illegally shipping cigarettes to homes. I bet New York wouldn't sue the Post Office because they cannot. This is really just putting responsibility for what private shippers like UPS and FedEx allow to be shipped, which will then mean that they will start inspecting more and more of your packages. Still sure you want to eliminate the US Postal Service, at least with the Post Office there are laws that protect you, your packages and your privacy.

Huffington Post - U.S. Population Grows At Slowest Rate Since The Great Depression. This is really dangerous on many levels. The long term effect will be that as our population ages, we will not have enough workers; but, equally important is the effect on culture and society. The growth rate is so low that no society has ever recovered from a rate this low, in history.

A Home Of Your Own and Help to Buy

At about 12 minutes and 31 seconds into the first video, you will see Ex-President George W. Bush talk about a program that took tax money and gave down payments for houses to people who couldn't afford the mortgages. He states that the program is "The American Dream Down payment Fund" the other name was "A Home of Your Own".

YouTube - Overdose: The Next Financial Crisis.

I want to make it clear that I am not recommending the video as a whole and disagree with many of the positions taken by some of the people interviewed. Even where I may agree on the positions, I may not agree on their solutions. In either case, here is why I bring this up.

Mark Carney, who is in charge of the Bank of England, is involved in a similar scheme to the ones that caused the housing bubble in America. He is keeping interest rates artificially low and Osborne has instituted a program called, "Help to Buy" which takes money from taxpayers in England to provide down payments for homes and is causing a bubble in the U.K. Why would you possibly want to duplicate something that went so incredibly wrong in the United States.

YouTube - Keiser Report: Housing Bubble Ponzi (E499).

I should also point out that Mr. Carney was in charge of the Bank of Canada, a nation which mostly missed the great recession and has decided to create an even bigger housing bubble than we did in the United States.

Now, I want to go back to the first video. It has a clip of our current head of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, being asked in 2005 what would happen if housing prices fell nation wide and he says that he doesn't buy the premise, that we have never had housing prices fall on a nation wide basis in history (it is at 16 minutes and 31 seconds into the first video). If you wish to believe that Greenspan, Paulson and Bernanke were all stupid or didn't see what was coming that is fine; but, why is it that 8 years later Mr. Carney and Mr. Osborne would duplicate in England the exact same programs that led to the bubble and housing crash that happened in the United States. I am pretty sure that they are aware of the financial crisis that hit us in late 2007 and 2008. Heck, we loaned money to the Bank of England. He cannot not know these things. When they hired him they had to have asked him what he thought caused the economic crash and what he thought he could do to improve the situation. Apparently his answer was to create another housing bubble in England.

Let me put this in real life, real business terms. Imagine that McDonalds decided that they were going to go all vegetarian menus. That McDonalds would no longer sell hamburgers made of beef; but, only vegi-burgers. They spent a lot of time investigating it and decided that it would be more profitable if people went along with it and that it was a healthier choice. I mean, they did it for all the right reasons. After adopting their new menu, sales crashed and all of their stores went bankrupt. Would you hire the guy that was responsible for the decision to be in charge of Burger King next and even more importantly, would you allow him to institute the exact same policy after watching McDonalds go bankrupt for instituting the policy?

The "alternative media" is just as controlled as the mainstream media. Ron Paul and Nigel Lafarge are just as big shills as any others. If they make their living off of lying to you and selling you garbage and lies, they are crooks and deceivers. The most popular alternative media darlings are nothing more than Judas Sheep. Those are sheep who are used to lead other sheep into the slaughterhouse. It is all deceit. The real alternative media is not any media, it is people like me who happen to understand certain industries and don't have a financial interest in getting you to believe anything. The problem is that few have the training or the experience or the time to keep an eye on all of these things unless it is our job. The only reason I have the time is because I do not have an outside life and I find it useful to follow the world events.

Love Thy Neighbor As Yourself

I read today how over one million will stop receiving unemployment benefits. I should also mention that another 3.6 million people will lose their unemployment benefits this year. One loving person said that maybe this would force people to look for jobs that they had not otherwise considered. I didn't know that there are over 4 and a half million vacant jobs waiting to be filled, that is not what the government says. I should also mention that when their unemployment benefits end, they will show as not being unemployed anymore. Government and business statistics lie, as far as they are concerned they will still be unemployed.

I am getting ready to retire and have never received one penny in unemployment in my life. I have also paid into the plan for decades. Where did that money go, it should have gone to pay for the people who do need it, it certainly never came to me. Lets consider what is coming this year and the options. Firstly, 4.5 million people, plus, who are willing to work and did work but were laid off or fired will stop receiving unemployment insurance payouts. That is a lot of people. They will stop making house payments, might not be able to pay rent and will be unable to get jobs unless we add 4.5 million jobs next year. We are not on track to add that many jobs.

Statistically, it will appear that unemployment is down because these people will no longer be included in the statistics. Somewhere next year that unemployment number will match the number that the Federal Reserve has been waiting on and then they will stop buying treasury bonds. LOL. That will the official end of quantitative easing and the stock market will crash.

Now lets consider the options. We can continue paying unemployment to people and get nothing in return or Wall Street can force businesses to take the roughly 1.5 Trillion dollars they are holding in cash and invest it in creating new industries or bringing jobs back to America. That is not going to happen, Wall Street is not interested in investing in America. We could let 4.5 million able bodies just go hungry along with their families. What will the United States look like with an extra 4.5 million homeless people? It will look like and be a third world nation. There is another option, we can create a jobs program like they did after the great depression.

Don't think that telling them to get a job means anything when there are no jobs. If business adds 200,000 jobs next month that will still mean that 4.3 million people will be unemployed and not getting benefits that were getting benefits in December. Get it? It is just math.

I went to the store today and I hate shopping, I was waiting till after Christmas to buy something I needed, new bed sheets, blanket and comforter. I like to be warm. Everything the sold was made in China. I think Americans are more than capable of making their own blankets, it is not that tough; but, we don't have much of a fashion industry anymore and make very little of our own clothes. We could; but, we do not. Now many will tell you that it is the cost of labor that "forces" business to use Chinese labor; but, this is a lie. I bought a set of things that cost $79; but, an identical set and most of the sets were selling for $49 or $59, they had cut the cost on most sets by 20 to 50% and still managed to make a profit. Hmmmm. Lets think about this.

Somewhere around 50% of all retail sales are made around Christmas time. After Christmas prices usually drop at least 20%. Yet, we are told that the 1% difference between manufacturing in America versus China is what keeps us from keeping the jobs here, does that really make sense? Macy's is having a 50% to 80% off sale on fashion, if it only costs us one more percent, not 50 to produce products here, then why don't we want to?

Perhaps you might think it is environmental concerns. There are a few problems with that. Is it really fair that we think it is okay that everyone in China get cancer because they don't use clean energy? The truth is China is burning oil and coal and not ever efficiently or cleanly. If China only kept their plants as clean burning as America's they would have a livable environment. I live in California, our requirements are the highest in the nation and we still manage to meet them.

Maybe it is the lax regulations in China that brings American companies there. Nope, they are a Communist country and regulate everything. In fact, in order to due business in China you have to give away trade secrets. We could keep industry here; but, do not want to. Why?

The real enemy to any society is not caring about one another and trying to control and limit one another. True libertarianism is not about selfishness, it is about not imposing your will on others. I can help others without forcing them to think or be like me.

I have worked for 43 years, I am physically are wreck and a shell of what I was. I have had two heart attacks, high blood pressure that is considered a hypertensive emergency and blood thicker than oil. LOL. I have made and saved my organizations well over $2 billion, I lost count so long ago it is funny. I got a year left before retirement. If I lost my job tomorrow, I could live on unemployment until I collect my pension in about 10 months. I will never go hungry or without a place to stay, I have fed and clothed and given a home to the homeless more than once and currently do. I am lucky, many of those 4.5 million people worked as hard as me and as long as me; but, their companies sent them away or disappeared themselves. We are living in tough times and people with college degrees and experience cannot even get a job at McDonalds.

What about this, what if we made sure everyone had a place to stay, food to eat and the ability to get to and from a job that they actually qualified for or had the opportunity to learn new skills that would allow them to qualify for jobs that we believe we will create? Some of the more right wingers will quote the bible to me and say things like "teach a man to fish" and assume that they will be self-sufficient. Not every skill has value or better said, many only hire so many. There are still companies that make buggy whips; but, the number of people employed in that industry is very small.

When I was young they were telling everyone to become rocket scientists because rockets were the big industry. Somewhere in the early 70s, they stopped making as many rockets and stopped going to the moon. I watched engineers with decades of experience go unemployed. Some ended up working at fast food restaurants, was the really the best use of their talents and is that what we want to do with people today?

Some will say that Americans are too proud to take certain jobs; but, it is a lie. When 20,000 Americans line up to take 200 jobs that pays $20 an hour, they are willing to work. When jobs that pay minimum wage have 2,000 applicants, know there are more than enough Americans willing to work.

People in high tech are calling for an easing on immigration saying that Americans cannot do the jobs, it is a lie. Steve jobs said that Americans were too dumb to make his products, another lie. We are still the only nation to put a man on the moon, we are plenty smart. What if we did this, what if we created the jobs here in high tech and then if after a year we cannot fill them, we opened up on immigration for those who were more qualified. Why is it that the tech companies are not proposing that?

The point of this post is aimed at Christians or those who believe they are such. Support loving and helping your neighbor and stop trying to excuse selfish behavior.

Peak Oil and Climate Warming

There is something that confuses me and tends to make me think that someone is lying to me. That is when someone tells me two things that contradict each other in effect. Let me lay this out for you.

There is a common belief amongst people that are into green energy that we have or will soon hit what is called "peak oil". Peak oil is the idea that there is a limited amount of oil in the earth and that it will never increase. Now, originally we were told that the oil came from dead dinosaurs and of course there are no more dinosaurs. The reality is that oil did not come from dead dinosaurs, I was brought up on a lie by Shell and public schools. The current claim is that oil comes from algae, they sort have to go in that direction because there is so much oil deep beneath the sea and dinosaurs did not live there. In either case and regardless of what oil came from, it is either limited or it is not.

The second thing that we are being told is that oil and it's emissions when it is burned causes global warming. The fact that the planet has actually gotten colder over the last 15 years and followed the same pattern as all the other planets and sun spot activity in the universe doesn't seem to matter. For purposes of this post it really doesn't matter, I have a different question.

If we have reached peak oil then by definition we don't have to worry about CO2 emissions from oil being burnt because we can only burn less and less as we will not find more and more. Why should I worry about how much oil we burn if we will be out of it in 20 years? After that, CO2 levels will have to be reduced because there will be no oil to burn. The earth then according to these scientists would have to almost immediately return to normal levels, non-industrial levels or CO2. Think about it. You can worry about one or the other but to worry about both makes no sense.

So we may be experiencing peak oil; but, if we are then global warming from CO2 is irrelevant as when the oil runs out, we cannot burn it and cause the horrible problems that we are told it causes. Now if you do not believe in the concept of peak oil then you have to believe that oil is constantly being produced and explain where it is coming from. I have only ever read that oil is a finite material and I am in my 50s.

Let us consider another question, Canada has billions of barrels of oil in it's rocks, we call this shale oil. How did it get there and how come it did not sink. We have been told that it takes millions of years for these dinosaurs to become oil and even the algae to become oil. Oil left to the elements loses it's useful properties fairly quickly, in a lot less than one million years. It also separates when exposed to the elements.

Something is wrong with the whole story about oil. There is no scientific reason that a planet would need to produce oil to have life on it, none. I hope that you understand that we have only been using oil for a couple hundred years. Gas for even less. Oh, we used tar but it wasn't used as a fuel, it was used as a coating and others were used too, it was not needed for man to exist. Wood has been the energy source for most our existence. Animal fat and oil was used for lighting and even that is only for a couple thousand years.

Now I am going to prove to you that we have been lied to. Carbon dating allows us to date the age of organic material. We cannot carbon date the age of rocks or inorganic materials. If oil is organic, which all scientists agree on, then why haven't we carbon dated each oil field? What if we had and found that the oil fields each had a different date, that they did not all occur at once? We do have two possibilities, either all oil was created at the same time and is a limited nonrenewable resource or it has continued being created for history. If it was not all created at once then odds are, it is still being created and not a limited resource. This is simple math and logic and considering the money involved, I am pretty sure that someone has carbon dated the oil fields and has not released the information. Actually, that sort of tells you what the answer is, oil is still being created.

Let me ask this question, if oil is what made the industrial revolution and if it is as valuable as we are told, if it is used to energize our world then shouldn't we have tried to figure out where it came from and how it was created? If I sold oil and made trillions of dollars from it, I would want to know how it was created. I would want to know if I could create it myself, like the Nazis did. Yep, while having the living world bombed out of them, the Nazis were able to produce and inexpensive oil and it did not come from corn. Unfortunately, I was told as a kid in school that gosh darnit, we didn't find out how they did it. Now we did manage to capture the scientists that created the rockets; but, I guess they didn't know how the Nazi's created oil. Sounds like garbage to me.

Happy Boxing Day - Retirment

Boxing day is an English holiday, it is the day when your boss would give you a present, a box, hopefully with something nice in it. It is the day after Christmas to the rest of us.

For me it is another day closer to the end of another year and another day closer to retirement. This may or may not matter to my readers; but, I have not decided if I will continue this blog after I retire. That is undecided. It is possible that I may post even more often and longer; but, if I do I will probably narrow the focus.

I am debating what I will do when I retire and I am even considering dating again. Of course, I am also considering replacing my car with a new one. LOL. Just about everything is on the table right now. Once I retire, I have options. The last debt I have is giving my ex half of my retirement for the time we were together. I have less than a thousand dollars in credit card debt and can pretty much pay that of when I want. After I retire, I will have met all my legal obligations and can then choose freely what I want to invest in or take debt out on or where I want to live. I am really looking forward to that after all these years, it is my boxing day present from my employer, a retirement. I may not get it all because of the divorce; but, it will be enough to get by somewhere.

My employer has made mistakes as an organization over the years, it has also done wrong things in my opinion; however, it has also done great things and has a lot of great people working for it. For more than a quarter or a century, my job has paid me to live my passion and fed my family and I. I have worked since I was 12 years old and am now in my mid-fifties. I have worked in factories, in the service industries and in both public and private services. I have worked in so many industries that I have lost count and have enjoyed seeing all the things I have; but, of all my jobs, the one I am leaving has been the most rewarding and I will be ever grateful that I got to work in the industry of my choice.

My ex was very selfish; but, she thought we all should be. She believes in looking out for number one. I mention this for a reason. Just before I took the entry level job for my employer, I was offered over $100,000 a year to work in the industry I was in at the time. I turned it down and took $29,000 a year to work in the industry I wanted to work in and she always supported that decision as did my kids. One of my kids married an artist. Nobody wants their kid to marry someone in the arts because there is so little chance of making money; but, I supported it 100% because this person is and must be an artist. I have no doubt that my ex believes the exact same thing.

Young people often ask me what they should do for a career and I always say the same thing, you have to live your passion or you are cheating yourself. Now, it may take 20 years before you get to work in your field, took me that long. If it does then everything must be in preparation for success. Eduction and work to feed yourself while you continue to apply for jobs in your passion. Every action, if aimed at keeping you on track to getting to work in your passion area is a positive step and you should view it that way. The negative steps are when you allow money, fame or power to get you to lose sight of your passion.

There is a story in the New Testament where a rich man asks Jesus what he needs to do to get into the kingdom of heaven and Jesus tells him to sell all his goods and follow him. He couldn't do it. The funny thing that nobody ever talks about is that the rich man probably lost everything in the next few years to the Romans anyways. He thought he had security in money; but, there is no security in money, not in gold, not in money, not in land, not in anything except in God. I have had a great career and still I could die the day before I retire or the day after, there are no guarantees in this world. There are however choices and sometimes they all stink and some of us never get to work in our industries; but, we should never give up because that is hope and the only chance you get in this life.

Merry Christmas and News

The only gift I have is in pointing things out to people who don't have the time to scan the news. Here is what is going on.

Fox News - Nearly 1 Million Veterans On Food Stamps

Yahoo - Associated Press - Military pension cuts now unsure; changes likely. This one annoys me in so many ways. The entry pay for the military is less than the poverty line. Poverty in the United States is considered to be about $20,000 and entry level in the military is about 20% less. I guess killing people pays less than minimum wage, think about that. And now they want to take away their pensions which in fact is only paid to about 10 to 20 percent of all the people who ever join the military.

How many articles did you read in the last month about some rednecks on Duck Dynasty saying homosexuality is wrong and how many articles did you read about how we are going to take away even more benefits from veterans? Utah Mormons gave $80 million to prevent California from having gay marriage. The won the battle and lost the war. What if they had spent that money to overturn the NDAA, the Patriot Act or investigate Wall Street corruption, which would have been more effective at improving the world?

The News Herald - Computerizing people may be next step in tech
.

The Motley Fool - The Iranian Millionaire Gunning for Cracker Barrel. I find it amusing that Cracker Barrel makes a major mistake, reverses itself and makes another at the same time that someone is looking to buy them out. Nothing that happens is an accident when hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake. The mistake Cracker Barrel made was getting rid of all Duck Dynasty items that they sell, the response from their customers was overwhelming in support of anti-gay sentiment. After their customers revolted against them, they put the items back on sale. Both actions were heartless, they did what they thought would make them money, not what they thought was right.

There is a line in the bible, it says that "you are neither hot nor cold, so I will spit you out". That is God's comment to those who don't choose to be right or wrong, those what choose to do what is best only for them. That is evil, we call it selfishness. The love of self is evil.

Comedians Are Conservative Often

I was watching some video and it led me to another video. The second video was an interview that Howard Stern did with Jerry Seinfeld. Funny thing is, I was never really that into either of them. Howard Stern was a little too offensive for me; but, I appreciated his talents. It wasn't until I saw his movie about his life that he began to intrigue me a bit. After seeing him as a judge on America's Got Talent, I began to really see a kinder side of him. As for Seinfeld, I saw the show a few times, it was funny; but, I was not one who followed it. To me, it was a bunch of self absorbed New Yorkers. I actually preferred his standup routines over the show. He was a good standup comedian.

Anyways, here I am watching this interview of Mr. Seinfeld on Howard Sterns show and he is blowing my mind. He eats, drinks and breaths jokes. He cannot imagine not telling jokes and believes in hard work, real hard work. To get ahead in this world, you got to do something special, you gotta work hard and he talked about it. As I heard him talk I got to see a glimpse into what type of person he is. He prefers to be around other comedians, this is not that common. I was also impressed by how humble he was and how little he was concerned about being judged. Then it occurred to me, he was right. Something I have always said is that money is easy to get, you just have to be the best something. If you work harder, study non-stop and never give up, eventually you win or die. You cannot lose until you quit.

What is my point, well, I haven't got to it yet. What I started thinking was that comedians are nothing more than small business owners, they are entrepreneurs in the truest sense. I went to Mr. Seinfeld's website, "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" and watched him just being him with his friends and he said that comedians cannot understand having a boss and got it. He is an entrepreneur, he is the captain of his life and takes responsibility for how things turn out. I was very impressed by him.

He also talked about how life is repetition and how he had no respect for small talk. It also occurred to me that he would not respect the type of person he played on Seinfeld. He is a craftsman who respects people in his craft; but, only the ones that are also craftsman. To truly succeed at anything, you got to give it 100%. When I had something to give, I gave 100% until I know longer was 100%. The discipline it takes to achieve that, to give your all consistently, is immense. It is also obsessive. You have to believe in what you are doing to break new ground.

It is one thing to inherit money or steal money or be given all the advantages up front; but, to break the ceiling and move up, to be really successful requires commitment and talent. There is a video on his website where Chris Rock and he are joking about how people want their money and how people think what they do is easy and how in fact hard it is to speak to and influence a crowd. I understood their answers.

Preaching and any public speaking is hard for a lot of people. Oddly enough the people who are best at it are often the shyest. It stuns people who know me from working with me or from seeing me speak public how incredibly shy and quiet I am. LOL. When I am not working I spend most of my time with one or two people and more likely than not, alone in my room. When I go out I am very pleasant and have many friends; but, I don't usually seek out others. I would have made a great hermit and may yet, we shall see.

Maybe it is retirement that is making me think about this all. I have always been quite happy with my internal voice, it is sufficient company usually. I could sit and read and analyze all day long and have. When I was in law school I had to actually study once and did. I don't know how many hours I went without eating or sleeping; but, I just studied. Eventually I began to go into a state of delirium, I started knowingly imagine things. Drat, I cannot think of the word I am looking for; but, I started seeing things that were not there. I decided I had done enough and went home to sleep. I used to go days without eating because I was focused and forgot to eat. I miss those time and I doubt most people can understand that. I miss being so focused that nothing was more important than my figuring out what I was looking at. It is better than sex. Complete and utter focus is joy.

I would be quite happy retiring to a crappy little apartment in a crappy little town and just read the news all day and post my opinions on it. I am okay with the idea. The only thing that stops me from doing such a thing is others, people I know I can and should help; but, I would rather be a hermit if the truth be known. This is going a couple of places, please be patient. So, I was telling one of my kids about Seinfeld and what I was seeing and I told a story that Seinfeld told about how when you are in a relationship you have to call in when you are on the road. The person talked about how they saw Prince have to make the spouse call. LOL. Prince of all people having to make the spouse call. ROFL. I said how I was glad that I never had to do that again, I don't have to call anyone because I am not in a relationship and am quite happy being alone. Well, two people argued with me over the point and wanted to tell me how I should be in a relationship.

Some people seem to believe that I should be in a relationship because it is healthy. I haven't experienced that. Seems like a heck of a lot of work to me. I don't need to be in a relationship to enjoy life. Having said that, I do believe it is worthwhile to put yourself in a position where you are in a relationship because it forces you to work outside of your comfort zone and grow. Everything that is not growing is dying. I am not growing, I am coasting down hill on a bicycle. I a have done what I wanted and am just watching the wheels go round and round. At some point in time, life does become repetition because the new ones have to learn the old rules on their own.

I was talking about comedians wasn't I. True entrepreneurs, real self sufficient and willing to take anything to achieve their goal of making others laugh. Comedians tend to be morose people, not very social, highly competitive and fearless. I have noticed that on a personal responsibility level, comics are as cold hearted as they come. They don't have sympathy for lazy or weak because nobody becomes a successful comic that is. Most comics are very smart and have skins like leather. Still, they live to make others happy. They overcome pain and try and make others happy, an interesting bunch. Just some random thoughts, have a great night.

Christmas Thoughts For Today

Well my dear friends, Christmas is in three days. Wow, what a year. What an amazing last few years. I do hope that I have added something to your days and been of some benefit to you all, amusing if nothing else. I will not explain why exactly; but, I will talk about what I am posting for the season. Something to consider, a touching story, a Christmas story.

Yahoo - Two years after her death, woman gives family wonderful Christmas gift. Please watch the video, it will lighten your heart.

A woman died two years ago and left a letter for her husband, she didn't want him to get it until he had found someone new to love and take care of him and their children. Well, he found a new wife and he didn't know her wish for him. Her wish was that he be happy with his new wife. That hit home with me for many reasons. The link above is to when he found out about her letter. She had it sent to a local radio station that makes Christmas wishes come true. This video is viral and not because of me.

Ever since my wife left me for her hiking partner, I haven't really celebrated Christmas. I do not consider it a religious holiday as we have no reason to believe Christ was born on that day. Having said that, I consider Christmas to be a wonderful secular holiday that reminds of all that we can and should help one another and love one another. I like to see the face of children on Christmas when all is possible. My children were always good on Christmas, they never expected much, always got more than they should have and never focused on the presents other than the ones they gave others. I may have done something right in my life.

This Christmas I hope you all get to spend time with your loved ones and enjoy the most important thing in this world, family and friends and sharing love. For those who are not Christian, it is still okay to celebrate family and friends and love. It is okay to express your love by giving to others.

Now, some fun things for Christmas. My present to my readers. My favorite Christmas videos, some funny and then the last is the one that has always been the hardest on me.

YouTube - Jeff Foxworthy - Redneck 12 Days Of Christmas

YouTube - Cheech & Chong - Santa Claus and his Old Lady

YouTube - Elmo & Patsy - Grandma Got Run over by a Reindeer

YouTube - Charlie Brown Christmas Dance

YouTube - The Grinch Song

YouTube - Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Christmas Song (Don't Be Late)

YouTube - White Christmas from Holiday Inn 1942 (colour)

YouTube - I'll Be Home For Christmas by Bing Crosby


YouTube - Judy Garland - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

I do hope I have included some of your favorites, they are mine. Now I am going to ask a favor. For any of my readers that wish they could give me a present, you can. There is a lady in Detroit who gives out coats to the homeless that also function as sleeping bags. It is a brilliant concept and I want to support her endeavors. Oh, she hires women from shelters to make them and gives them a job. Contribute to her endeavor and what ever value you have ever found in this blog has more than been returned. I may be alone for much of this Christmas; but, I will be happy, warm and well fed. I will be sleeping inside. I will have the luxury of a little quiet time to ponder next year and remember all that has gone into becoming me. Others will be happy if they get anything to eat and can stay warm. Here is the link. The Empowerment Plan. To be clear, you don't have to celebrate Christmas to help the homeless.

More Spin To Manipulate You - Gay Marriage

Firstly, I have written about how I don't care about the government sanctioning marriage, they don't, they enforce contracts. I do think gays should be allowed to have the same contractual rights as straight people. I think blacks should have the government enforce their contracts in the same manner that they enforce the contracts of white. I believe nothing other than insanity and inability should excuse you from meeting your contractual obligations. I believe people should meet their commitments when they were entered into with no undue duress or influence.

I am a Christian. No surprise there. Homosexuality is only possibly referenced about six times in the bible. Count the number of times marriage is mentioned or adultery is mentioned, they are discussed much more often. Heck, adultery made the top ten, it made the 10 commandments. People are so worried about gay marriage; but, support no-fault divorce. Huh? I want you to understand what I believe to understand why I agree with an organization that is against gay marriage. I don't agree them with their stance, I agree with their right to have one.

This pastor for the Methodist church officiated over his son's gay marriage. I am good with that, it is merely a ritual that recognizes a commitment. Marriage does not require a government license or a preacher, marriage is a commitment, a contract between two people. The preacher was just a ritual recognizing that two people made a commitment to one another. You do not need a preacher to officiate over your buying a car and that is a contract too. You cannot find a place in the bible where it says that you need a preacher or the government to be married. It is fairly specific and what unites two is sex. Sorry; it is fairly specific, when a man and a women unite physically, they are one. That is my perspective on gay "marriage". I should also point out that you can make commitments that are not true marriage. I am sorry if my gay friends do not like what I have said and if my straight conservative friends don't like it either. I am not really sorry.

A contract between two people to commit themselves to each other should apply regardless of sex, race or anything else. If you give your word in a trade, meet your obligation. That is "legal" marriage. Spiritual marriage is between a man and a woman and it is for eternity, in my opinion. It can only happen when both parties truly commit. A commitment to stick by one another as long as you benefit is not a marriage.

Back to the news. Some Methodist preacher officiated over his gay sons marriage. He got defrocked, kicked out of his church and he should have been and he should have wanted that result. The organization he joined and claimed to represent did not believe in gay marriage. Organizations, especially religious and political ones, have a common belief. They may not agree on everything; but, they have some common beliefs. I would not join a church that believed that gays are why we are going to hell and that our country is failing because there are gays. There have been gays forever, they are not causing the end of the world.

If you join the Catholic church or the Mormon church, it is their doctrine that homosexuality is a sin and must be stopped. I might agree that it is a sin, many things are, anything short of perfection is a sin, that is the definition of sin and I know I am straight and still not perfect. Paul said he was the greatest sinner of all. Which sins I personally find repugnant are no worse than the sins I commit in thought and deed. Personal preference and selfishness if you will.

Bottom line, I don't believe the Methodist church is right and I don't believe that God will make two gay people become one. I do not believe that two people of the same sex can become one in God's eyes; but, I do believe that the world should allow them to commit to one another. Something for both side of the argument to hate. Now, lets get back to the pastor who officiated over his son's gay marriage. Shame on him.

I am not upset that he officiated over his son's gay marriage, I am ashamed of him for not publicly leaving the Methodist church before doing the ceremony. What a liar, what a hypocrite. He chose to be a leader in a church that did not believe in gay marriage up until his son came out as gay. What about all the other gays that wanted to get married and he didn't stand up for? If he thought his church doctrine was wrong, why didn't he stand up sooner. Nope, he waited till it effected his family to stand up. They should have thrown him out, he is a hypocrite and a liar.

Look at the media, you are being manipulated. You are being focused on the relatively meaningless. Laws have nothing to do with marriage. Big news all around about how some hillbilly from a reality show said that homosexuality is wrong. Who cares what he thinks. He was taken off his show because he said that God did not believe in gays being married. Well, his theology is weak and stupid; but consider the consequences, complete censorship and ridicule. We should reward people for telling what they believe to be the truth, not punish them. If someone hates blacks, I cannot have a reasonable discussion with them over the matter unless they have the guts to tell me what they believe. The truth sets you free because you cannot learn from others if others do not know what you believe. The redneck told the truth as he saw it, the Methodist pastor lived a life of selfishness and only changed his actions because he cared more about his family than his beliefs.

Yahoo - Pa. pastor defrocked after performing gay wedding.

Extremist Economists

The mainstream economists that you see on television or read in the news are basically owned by the business community. In fact, there are very few independent economists unless they work as professors and even in academia you tend to only hear a couple of belief sets. I am not an economist, I am a professional analyst; however, I have been asked to write a book on accounting by a very senior Accountant and I used to manage about $250 million dollars a year for my organization. I am not bragging, I am trying to give some background. My main area of expertise has always been government and law and I also studied and worked with real estate.

One day, a friend of mine who I had mentored in business and real estate asked me to come speak to a group of people involved in real estate by giving a seminar in Las Vegas. At the time I needed a distraction and agreed. I decided to give a two day seminar. This was while the real estate market was booming and I was telling my friend (a mortgage broker) that the market would burst and fail. I will get to the point soon enough. I knew the market was just wrong, housing prices were going up too much at a time when wages were not and people were buying houses that obviously could not afford them. I should also mention that the types of houses people were building and buying were not in line with an honest market, they were overbuying.

Well, I gave my seminar and then everything I said was going to happen, happened and in the time frame I had predicted. While preparing for the seminar I did a lot of research that confirmed my predictions. Simple things like "The Affordability Index" and debt to earnings ratios were being ignored and people who did not qualify were being given enormous loans. Bus drivers were buying 2, 3, 6 and even more houses and everyone was getting a home equity loan or house flipping. What amazed me in my research was that nobody in the mainstream financial media was seeing what was painfully obvious to me. I now believe many saw it; but, neglected to report on it because of their own financial interests.

After the crash of the housing and then stock market, I continued following economics. Eventually I came across some videos of others who had predicted the crash. I was impressed that they had also predicted the crash when everyone else was saying it would never happen. It takes a lot to stand up in public to the rest of the media. Eventually I came discover that most of the few who had predicted the crash always predicted crashes and usually because they sold gold. As my long time readers know, I don't sell anything and don't recommend buying gold. The insincerity of these few accurate commentators was highlighted for me when I noticed none of them bothered telling people that the law requires all sales of golf for over $600 to be reported to the government (with gold at $1,500 an ounce, that is just about every gold coin). That law went into effect around 2008. These same people don't point out to the people they sell gold to that they will be reporting the buyer to the government.

Let me ask you a simple question. Why is gold reporting included in the Affordable Care Act (commonly called Obamacare)? They will tell you it is so that the IRS can track capital gains on the sale of coins; but, during the depression the government confiscated gold from citizens. These little facts made me lose faith in the few economists that had predicted the market crashes. I also found that the few who had predicted the crash tended to be rabid libertarians. People who believe there should no government and no real controls over business.

Economic extremists are all we hear. They are sort of like Fundamentalist Muslim extremists, so full of dogma that reality ceases to matter. Federal Reserve chairman Greenspan was an extremist who didn't believe in regulating the markets he was responsible for regulating. On the other end, the goldbugs are often extremists too. They don't believe in much regulation and believe that no company should have been bailed out and the economy should have been allowed to just disintegrate.

Now lets talk about Ron Paul. Did you know he is a gynecologist? Yep. He does not believe in welfare, government or taxes. I hate to tell you this kids; but, show a country that doesn't have a government and has anything other than civil war. Somethings can only be done cooperatively. Roads don't maintain themselves and we have seen what has happened when we deregulated the financial system, complete corruption and thievery. History loves to repeat itself.

Mr. Paul's financial advisory was one of the economists who had predicted the market busts; but, he did not get the timing right whereas I did. The person who advised Mr. Paul is Peter Schiff. After the crash I discovered Mr. Schiff and kept an eye on him, originally impressed I lost more and more respect for him. It is now abundantly clear that he is nothing more than another salesman. I have also lost a lot of respect for Stansberry and Associates and Gerald Celente. I will watch and read things by all of them; but, always with a tilted head. The person I like most currently is a man named Max Keiser thought I completely disagree with him regarding Bitcoin, he is a big cheerleader and I am not. It is meant to fail (and must) and is nothing more that a test ground for an all electronic currency. The volatility of Bitcoin makes it no good for a true currency. There are other reasons that I don't believe in Bitcoin including the amount of computer usage that it would require if widely accepted.

Back to Mr. Schiff. He has hit a new low.

YouTube - Will Walmart shoppers support "Every Day High Wages?"

In the video Mr. Schiff goes to people coming out of a Walmart and asks them if they would support the WalMart employees getting $15 an hour rather than the $8 or so an hour they make. People say yes and then he asks them if they would support his program which he calls 15 for 15 and explains that if WalMart charges them an extra 15% they can pay their employees $15 an hour. This is both cynical and misleading.

How about some basic math. Firstly, half of the cost of what you buy at a retail store has nothing to do with the cost of running the store. They had to buy the products. When you start thinking about the cost of utilities and space, it becomes pretty clear that the cost of the labor at the store has nothing to do with the the final cost. Recently, it was determined that if Apple made Iphones in America rather than China, it would only add $4 to the cost. What does an Iphone go for, about $500? Americans making IPhones would be paid about 10 times what the Chinese get (actually more like 20 times what the Chinese get).

In fact, if we had kept our manufacturing base in America, we could have done it and would only have needed to charge less than 1% more than foreign goods to have paid all the workers in America substantially more. Now lets go back to Mr. Schiff again. His 15% increase in prices being needed to pay workers at WalMart $15 is a complete lie. Let me say lie again. And he knows it. It is fear mongering and deceitful propaganda. Go back and watch the video and ask yourself how you would have responded to you if he had told the truth. "Would you be willing to support my 1% (in fact they already pay their employees something a 50% raise for them all would be less than a half a percent, much less than that) for 15 program? The program says that if you paid less than 1% more to buy at WalMart if the employees were to get $15 an hour rather than $8 an hour would you do it?" I bet if he had asked that, he would hated the answer because most of us would and we proved it when we tried to buy American back in the 80s.

People didn't stop buying American cars because they were more expensive than Japanese cars, they stopped buying them because Detroit was building garbage and didn't care about gas mileage when gas prices were going crazy. Also, Mr Schiff chose to talk to people at WalMart. I am not dogging WalMart; but, I don't shop there. They sell cheap products that won't last. Let me explain. I hate shopping and I hate crowds. WalMart is the store of last resort, it is where people go because they don't have much money. Mr. Schiff doesn't shop at WalMart, look at his suit, he didn't buy that at WalMart. He is ridiculing people of modest means and incomes for buying the cheapest goods that they can. I am so angry that I am not writing my best. American people vote for sales tax increases of 1% just to build schools or bridges. We, even the poor, are more than happy to pay more to help other people and improve society. Why isn't Mr. Schiff?

A long time ago, as a young analyst, I used to get put in charge of charity drives for my organization. The first thing I learned was that the people who made the least were the most likely to give to charity and gave more as a percentage of their income, consistently. It is Christmas time, I hope everyone has watched "A Christmas Carol". In it, the wealthy Scrooge is asked to give to charity for the poor and he says that he is taxed to pay for the workhouses and that he considers that enough charity. Workhouses were created because they needed cheap labor in England, the poor were given the choice between starving or working as slaves. At that time they also had debtor's prisons. If you couldn't pay your bills, you went to jail and were forced to work.

Here is the real issue, are we Americans or just people who live near each other and don't care about each other? Pick any tax you want, if it meant that every American could have a job that allowed them to at least have a place to stay and food and that those who were incapable of working could at least have a place to stay and food, would you pay that extra. I am not saying that in reality they would the government would ever spent it properly, I am asking if you would give 1% of your income to others if it meant nobody in this country would go without a place to sleep and enough food to survive? Both Mr. Schiff and Mr Paul would say no.

Let me bring up another way in Mr. Schiff is being dishonest. What if he had asked people if they would buy support WalMart dropping wages for employees to $4 an hour if it meant they would save 1% on their purchase cost? What if he had told people that WalMart could charge them 10% less if they only used free slave labor? Do you think they would have said yes to the plan? I doubt it. People in America complain about how foreign workers are treated in Asia, do you really think they would accept Americans being treated the same way? That is what Mr. Schiff seems to think America should be like.

We are about to enter some very disturbing times. Mr. Schiff is correct about one thing, the economy is going to tank and badly. He is incorrect about the solutions. Turning America into China is not the answer and benefits only a few while turning the country into a third world nation. The essence of a society is not making money, it is making sure that your society flourishes. It is about making sure that your children, the next generation can also do well. The Founding Fathers talked about the "common good". People like Mr. Schiff are political extremists and nothing more than anarchists with suits.

There is a big difference between no community good and being a slave to the community. There is a difference between anarchy and totalitarianism. The answer lies in between and that is why extremism in political philosophy is wrong. Just like a stopped clock, political extremists are write twice a day. That does not mean they have the right answer most of the time. His opinions are bigoted, they are bigoted to what will make him money and a philosophy of selfishness. The problem is that all the economists that you see in the mainstream media are liars and he is just one more, he just has a different lie than most.

Lets look at this another way. How many of the people that Mr. Schiff interviewed paid for their purchase with a credit card. I have not heard him complain about credit cards charging much more than 15% interest. The bible is against charging interest on money that you lend out. A funny story. When I bought my first house, I had to borrow the down payment. It was easy to do and I only had to pay about 12% interest on $5,000. My mother in law offered to lend me the money at prime, which was about 9% at the time. I prepared an amortization schedule which compounded the interest and laid out the monthly payments over a 5 year period. It was always the first bill I paid and I paid her off early without adjusting the total for the early payment. My ex mother in law will not lend money to her own children because they never paid it back properly, she would lend me money today and her daughter divorced. I have lent money to her children and never been paid back, don't even think about interest as I never asked for any. LOL.

Capitalism only works when people exhibit good behavior and people don't always do that. Economic extremists believe that all people will act rationally, they just differ on which forms of organized society will most benefit from rationalism. The truth is, people don't all act the same even given the exact same circumstance. We are not machines and have different points of view. We all have altruism and we all have selfishness, the degrees to which we hold these views is what differentiates us from one another.

I will repeat the title explanation, you matter. Ayn Rand and extremist anarchists and libertarians believe they matter. They wish you well; but, they only worry about themselves and that is the nature of evil. Evil, in it's most simple form, is selfishness, it is being your own God. That is evil and the destroyer of communities and love. When you die, the regrets of this life are not over how you could have more for yourself, they are over how you could have helped more people and helped people more.

In it's simplest terms, you matter, I matter, we all matter, being human matters. The moment you start thinking and acting as if others do not matter, the moment you stop helping others, you condemn yourself. Justifications that taking advantage of others means you deserve more will be paid for in the afterlife. God does not forgive selfishness but he does forgive imperfection and failure. That is called forgiveness.

Would You Like Some Media Lies for Christmas? Here You Go

A few days ago I saw a video by Conan O'Brien. He does this thing where he shows all these different local newscasters across the nation saying word for word the exact same thing. Here is part of the clip, I couldn't find the one I had originally seen which was a little bit longer.

YouTube - Media Reacts: A Christmas Present Or Two Or Ten Edition. A funny bit showing just how single source the mainstream media is seeing as how 5 or 6 companies control 90% of the media. By the way, this is not the first time that he has shown this.

What I found interesting was that they were all pushing people to "self-gift", to use Christmas as an excuse to buy yourself presents. Anyways, I didn't think much more about it. I had considered posting it; but, thought I may have posted one of Conan's examples of this before and I also felt that I had discussed the pitiful nature of the mass media's being nothing more than repeaters (David Icke used that term and I agree).

Today, I was scanning the news to see if there was anything worth writing about for you dear readers and I came across this.

New York Times - Retailers’ Sly Message: Get Yourself a Gift, Too. It points out how retailers are specifically targeting sales at people buying presents for themselves. One of the comments to the article was by someone who pointed out that if they buy things they need while shopping for Christmas it is not "self-gifting" and it isn't. I hate shopping and when I go I try and get it all out of the way. In addition, I have not bought one present for Christmas, someone else did that for me. Yeah, I got it like that. LOL.

If I do go to the store (and it looks like I will have to), it will be to buy something that I need for the house or me. It will not be Christmas shopping, I still need to buy things for the year. For instance, during winter I like to cook stews and soups. I like the warm means and unfortunately, my crock pot is in another state so I will have to buy a new one. This will not be a gift to myself, it is just something I need to do what I want. I don't think of it as a gift to myself, it is a cooking tool for meals I want to make.

I looked up "self-gifting" to see if there was some sort of trend on selling people the idea that they should buy themselves presents and your know what, there is and it is all a lie.

Los Angeles Times - Self-gifting by consumers is on retailers' wish lists. I like the nonsense in this article because it is flat out promoting "self-gifting" as being important to the economy and that if we don't self-gift we are causing the economy to not improve. Even the person they talk about in the first couple of paragraphs that they use as an example of a self-gifter wasn't. She had been out of work for awhile, just got a new job and had some extra cash so she bought things at the sales. It points out that she bought an I-Pad, well lets think about this. I am out of work for a couple of years, technology has advanced. I get a job and can afford to replace my old laptop, should I do it now, while it is on sale? Is that self-gifting?

Let's try this. I have been out of work for two years and finally get a job. I hadn't eaten out while unemployed because I couldn't afford it. If I decide to treat myself to a meal at a nice restaurant is it a Christmas gift to myself. This "trend" is being reported across the nation as if it were real and there is absolutely no proof that it is. Surveys done by public relations firms for retail organizations. I can even guess how they did the surveys. You stop shoppers as they are leaving a store and ask them if they did any Christmas shopping. They person says yes because they picked up some presents. The next question is "Did you buy anything for yourself today?" The person says yes, they bought a toaster oven because theirs had broken and they found a good sale. Did they self-gift? Nope but it gets counted that way. One of the articles mentioned how people self gifted wrinkle cream. Is that really a gift?

I beat this issue into the ground for a reason. We have absolutely no reason to believe that "self-gifting" is a trend and every reason to believe it is an idea that retailers are trying to sell us on. Now, remember that Conan O'Brian video, kind of creepy now. He has demonstrated that local newscasters are repeating complete propaganda for the media they work for and doing it identically across the nation. Pretty easy to do that when only 5 or 6 companies own all of the local media. I should also point out that these repeaters (news reporters) are nothing more than actors, they don't write the news or even put their perspective into their reporting.

I don't know why I get as many views as I do on this blog. I am sure that each person has their own reasons; but, I don't repeat what I have read, I give my take on it and allow the reader a link to the same thing I read, clearly identifying it as such. I don't consider myself a reporter, I do not do independent investigations or speak to witnesses. I comment on what I read and see, this is an opinion blog, not a news blog and their is a difference. I would never claim that this blog is objective, it is intended to be subjective, it is my opinion and even the comments are moderated. I am not being quite fair to myself, I censor the blog; but, it is never because someone disagrees with me or even questions me, it is usually for profanity, things I find inappropriate (I hold commentators to the same rules I apply to myself and do not cuss on this blog), when I am asked to or when someone makes statements that could be libelous and I cannot prove one way or the other. I have called out people by name; but, I always include source documents and published articles. I also want to point out that I don't sell anything, I don't promote anything for anything and this site is not monetized, not one penny do I receive for redirecting people to anybody.

I am going to retire in about a year and will possibly spend more time writing. I might decide to write a book, I have written two and never did anything with them. I might just clean them up and try and publish online, if I do I might do it on Lulu (a place that allows you to sell electronic books online). The truth, I probably won't publish. If I decide to write a book I will probably do it right here on this blog and do it for free. I don't write for money, I write because I must. Someone asked Stephen King how to become a writer and he said, "write". He didn't talk about making money or how to become successful, he talked about passion and that is why I write. I cannot draw anymore, my arthritic little hands just don't allow me the control needed. I cannot even write out a legible check; but, I can type and have a computer. Writing is so powerful to my soul, it is how I express myself and force myself to think about things I would prefer to ignore. It is life.

I have no problem with people making a living from writing. In fact, one of my followers is apparently a professional writer. I don't think she comes here because of wonderful prose, I think she is probably interested in a particular subject that I have written about. From what I can tell, writing is her career and that is how she feeds herself. I think that is wonderful. I think that someone that writes as a career out of their passion, whether it be in their beliefs or artistry, should be commended. It is a risky career as are all artistic endeavors. I do however have a problem with people that write whatever will make them money. I mean if you totally prostitute yourself and don't care.

What am I talking about? Lets go back again to that video at the beginning where they all say the exact same thing to convince you that everyone is self gifting and it is okay. What they are telling you is to go beyond buying what you need and specifically creating in your mind the idea that Christmas is a time to buy yourself gifts, bobble that you do not need and to do it on credit. Don't turn this season into Debtmas, keep it Christmas.

Here is the reality. This is the last Christmas before the economy is going to tank. I am pretty sure of this now. I have fudged on the when because it has been stretched out by games by the Federal Reserve called Quantitative Easing and it is difficult to know when they would stop. It has just been announced that the Fed is going to taper, just as the head of the Federal Reserve is leaving. That is what I have been waiting to see. Christmas accounts for all the big purchases of the year and this is the last chance for retail and manufacturers to clear their inventories before people cannot buy. Next Christmas is going to be horrible for sales, a bloodbath. The stores that survive will be the smart squirrels that save their nuts for the year during winter.

If you understood the last paragraph, you will understand why the media is pushing for self gifting this year. They are not doing that because they have a good story, they are not doing that because they believe in anything, they are doing that for a paycheck, they have sold you out and are willing to lie to you, to tell you whatever will make them money. They are entertainers, not commentators or news people. Peace.

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Simplicity is wonderful. A one sided conversation is meaningless.

Canada Intentionally Making the Same Mistakes as the US

I am constantly amused by the fact that people cannot see some of the simplest patterns. I read news from all over the US and the world, if you do that, certain things start to become clear. Firstly, real estate is always a local thing. Historically, prices for real estate were based on distance to working centers and the quality of the housing and schools. As the amount of and type of work fluctuated so would the housing market. Pretty simple. After 2001, we began to see a growing housing bubble across the whole nation at the same time even as areas were losing manufacturing jobs.

Now you need to remember that the housing bubble was not just in the United States, it happened in European countries too and again, all at the same time. What I am going to do next is provide a few links to stories about what is going on in Canada. One should remember that Canada was not impacted by the global financial crisis in the same way America and Europe were.

Yahoo - CBCNEWS.CA - Teachers' pension up next for reforms.

In the article it talks about how in Canada the Teachers Pensions are in great condition; but, the Canadian government still wants to change it to restrict benefits. They don't have to, they just want to. Why would anyone want to go after the pensioners when it is fully funded and quite healthy? Why should there be an attack on pensions in Canada that directly mirrors what is going on in the United States?

Yahoo - CBCNEWS.CA - 6 myths and realities about Canada Post. Canada is attempting to destroy their postal service in the same way were are in the United States and they want to blame it on pensions costs, what a surprise.

Yahoo - The Corporate Takeover of Canada. The video discusses a Canadian free trade agreement that allows corporations to sue Canada in an international court over their laws. Hey, didn't I recently write about how the United States is doing the exact same thing.

Yahoo - Cashless Society Coming to Canada, MINT (RFID) CHIP. I wont say that the whole video is great but the discussion about MintChip is interesting. The Canadian government is creating their own version of Bitcoin. The push in both England and Canada is to get rid of coins and make all small purchases use electronic currency while at the same time eliminating checks.

In Poland, the government confiscated 1/2 of all the pension funds. I am pretty sure that what happens in Canada and the United States did not require the Poles to go after pensions, there is no connection between our pensions and their pensions. Why is the ex head of the Bank of Canada now in charge of the Bank of England and intentionally causing them to have a housing bubble just like we did? Why do something that you know will end in the same way that our housing bubble did?

There are people who are exposing many of the things I talk about; but, the vast majority of them have personal interests in doing so. Some sell gold, some sell advertising and some just sell their soul. One of the things I find very disturbing is how they blame people for not "waking up" and stopping what is going on. The truth is, you can wake up as much as you want and it is still going to go down the way it is going to go down. I do not say this pessimistically, I say it realistically. We could all go out on the streets and demand the government to keep printing physical cash and ever outlaw digital purchases. So what. The world is going electronic and we don't have a choice unless we could convince the world to not go digital and that is not going to happen. The biggest adopter of electronic currency is Africa because they have so few banks, they are also the leaders in the usage of cell phones.

I have to be truthful and brutal with my readers or I fear I will not be doing my job and not deserve your readership. From day one I have posted on what I believe is going on in the world. I am sure nobody agrees with me all the time and that is okay; but, I don't think people would keep reading it if they did not believe I was being truthful. This is not some cat video amusing blog, it talks about corruption and things to be wary of.

I want to be very, very clear. When I say we are going to become a cashless society, it isn't a guess it is the fact. As for genetic manipulation and modification, I hate it and there is absolutely nothing you or I can do to prevent it. We could pass any law we wanted; but, it will go on. The point is to be aware of what is going on if you can. Most people do not have the time to read the news as I do. The few of you who bother reading this blog don't have the time; but, you make an effort. Heck, you read this blog and that is an effort.

The vast majority of people neither have the time nor the understanding to really follow something like this blog or all the different news sources to figure out what is going on. When I was working two 8 hour a day jobs to just survive, I could never have written this blog or read any news.

Where Are We Headed? What is Justice?

Someone told me about this Friday; but, I only came across the actual article today.

Yahoo - Good Morning America - Victims' Family Speaks Out Against Sentencing in 'Affluenza' Case

Basically, some wealthy kid got very drunk and drove his fathers car into another car killing four people. He was tried, found guilty and sentenced to probation. The reason he didn't go to jail was supposedly that he grew up wealthy so he didn't know how to be responsible. He was too affluent to know any better. Now to be fair, he won't be able to see his parents for two years because he will be away at a $450,000 a year treatment facility. So, his prison will be like being at a private club med facility.

A couple of years back our Governor Mr. Schwarzenegger pardoned a young man for murder because he was the son of a politically important person. Schwarzenegger said that it was the type of thing you do for a friend. We later found out that he also slept with his made and had a child with her. Thats the kind of thing you do when you are privileged.

Pensions Versus Compassion That is the Coming Game

There has been a growing attack on Social Security and Pensions, everyone is being scared into thinking that they are not going to be able to retire. We are being led to believe that our 401ks and retirement accounts will be looted by the government to pay it's bills. At the same time we are being told that all of our taxes are being used to pay freeloaders. What would you do if you were told you could keep your retirement, pension or 401k if we stopped having welfare?

We are being played. There is no way that with our aging population anyone in congress would survive if they allowed our Social Security or pensions to be stolen, not in the United States. You would have elderly people with guns in the streets and they own a lot of guns. The attack on the baby boomers retirements is a play to get them to vote a certain way.

Scientists Arguing Over Stupid Ideas

I grew up during the space race and had many family members that worked in aerospace for at least part of their lives all the way from the first rockets to the stealth bomber and other things. I grew up loving science and still do. In particular I like quantum physics because I love to watch the scientists make sense of what they observe on the sub-atomic level.

The bottom line is that on a quantum level (sub-atomic) things don't follow the rules of physics that we see on a atomic level. On a quantum level particles interact on a quicker than speed of light manner. Basically things which are not connected to one another effect one another in a manner that could only happen if the objects could move faster than the speed of light. According to Einstein, nothing can move faster than the speed of light. It has to do with mass and force.

The next problem is that there is not enough mass in an atom to account for gravity and gravity is believed to be the reason why things pull on each other. The idea is that the bigger an object is, the more it attracts objects to itself. The world spent a whole lot of money to build a machine to examine atoms and their parts to figure out why things don't have enough mass to account for gravity. I simplified that as much as I could.

The answer that was offered to the issue of gravity was that science believed there was a particle that somehow magically gave mass to other particles while retaining it's mass. That it gave more than it had. There are some problems with this conceptually. This particle was called "The God Particle"; but, is actually named the Higgs Boson. Some scientists claim that they have found it. They don't know what it does though and therefore have not actually proven anything. Still, they are getting the Nobel prize for saying they found it.

Quantum physics is fundamentally having a problem why there is gravity and why things react to each other faster than the speed of light. Well, some scientists are being hailed for having a new and better explanation.

Huffington Post - Nature - Is The Universe A Hologram? Physicists Say It's Possible.

Wired - Scientists Discover a Jewel at the Heart of Quantum Physics

The new theory is basically that there is no space between things, that distance is an illusion. It also suggests that time is an illusion. Wow. This is as dumb as the idea that there are unlimited numbers of alternate dimensions. They are all afraid to address the real question, why isn't there enough mass in an atom to account for gravity. Very simple. The question they are forced to contend with is wrong. They are trying to say that there does not need to be enough mass, that concept of mass and or space and or time is a mistake or that these things appear from other dimensions that cannot be examined or explained.

Let me give an analogy on a human level. Lets say you and nine other people were in a room. The ten people in the room weigh 100 lbs each. Another person person, the 11th, walks in the room and he too weighs 100 pounds. As soon as he walks in the room everyone else in the room gains 10 lbs and he continues to weigh 100 lbs. The 11th person never touches anyone; but, everyone gains weight just from his being there. That is how the Higgs Boson is supposed to work.

The new theory, the one about holograms. They are basically saying that you were always in the room and always touching everyone else in the room. It is just that to you and everyone else and the room and any observer of you all in the room were mistaken about your ever not being in the room.

Too many people to count have reported that they were aware and had consciousness even after they were dead. They also report that they had seen and heard things in the area around them that they could not have seen or heard. This is called the Near Death Experience (NDE). Scientists are disturbed by medical people talking about NDEs because they don't fit in with the material concept of the universe. They would like to believe that thoughts are the consequence of matter rather than matter being the consequence of thoughts.

We know and can scientifically prove how objects interact. The laws of physics work. We cannot prove why the universe exists only that it should not. If we accept that awareness exists outside of the physical then we can see the answer; but, that means there might be a God.

The Wealthy and Politicians Don't Like Paying Taxes

Yahoo - CNBC - The rich pay all the taxes. That is the headline of an article by CNBC, there is a video or their report included in the link. Those poor rich people, don't you feel sorry for them.

According to a government report the top earners pay for all the taxes and people in the bottom 40% receive more in government benefits then they pay out, this is presented as outrageous; but, it is also very misleading. Lets start with some basics. According to this report, the lowest income group, the bottom 20%, made $8,100; but, received $25,000 in "transfers". Huh? I know people who made under $8,100 and the government did not send them $25,000. Oh, wait are they including the unemployed or people on Social Security? I bet they are and lets consider that. We all contribute to unemployment insurance and social security and that money is paid to the government, when receive it, it is not charity. If you pay into social security for 40 years, when you finally get it back it is not coming from the tax on "the wealthy".

As income inequality has grown I am reading and seeing more and more from "libertarians" and financial media whining that they shouldn't have to pay taxes. We hear repeated all over the news when they talk about the "job creators" and it is still a lie. If they were really sincere then they would asked to be taxed based upon the number of full time jobs they created in the United States. Maybe that doesn't work for the wealthy because they certainly haven't created any jobs recently. In fact, we have lost millions of jobs because of the fraud and abuse that was allowed to go on in Wall Street and by banks which eventually led to our recession. Why don't we call them job exporters instead because most of the jobs that have been created in the past few years were jobs that these same people outsourced to China and India.

I have talked about some of this before. Personally, I am in favor of a flat income tax, everyone pays 10% or whatever percent of their income regardless of how it is derived, no deductions. It is slightly more complicated than that; but, not much. I don't want to tax people on welfare income because that then just becomes a paper chase. If hand you a dollar and make you hand me ten cents back, doesn't it make more sense just to hand you 90 cents in the first place. The same should be applied to military pay.

Some people don't like income tax and prefer a sales tax. I have a couple of problems with that. The most important one is very simple again, I want to tax people based on how they have benefited from the nation. We have built a lot of infrastructure and business relies on that infrastructure. Instead we give tax breaks to companies. Those breaks don't show up in the income tax report done by the Congressional Budget Office.

We are seeing this game end for America and the West. We have given away our industrial base and debased our currencies. After the financial crisis, the pie got smaller. The cost of that crisis was all born by the bottom 60% us. The only winners were the top 10%. From the beginning this blog has talked about the financial crisis, what led to it and where it is heading next. I don't know why this information is less read; but, in many ways it is the most critical to our immediate future. Next year should be really interesting.

European Banks and You

I don't think most people understand that after the crash of 2007, the Federal Reserve "lent" hundreds of billions of dollars from the TARP fund to European banks. In addition, to provide liquidity, they also traded billions of dollars for a supposedly equivalent amount of Euros and other European currencies. At the time this happened I wrote about how badly it exposed us to European bank failures, it still does.

The reason I mention the above is so that when you read the following two linked articles you will understand that this is not just some problem over there; but, was intended to make their guaranteed failure take our banks with them. None of this is an accident. I used to play poker a lot, I even beat a couple of professionals and won a few tournaments (I am talking about in person tournaments at proper casinos - I won hundred on line and with non-pros). What I learned from playing pros is that they don't make mistakes very often and watch everything that goes on even when they are not in the hand.

People that are real professionals do the same thing. I am not talking about stock traders, I am talking about smart investors and money managers. People like Greenspan and Bernanke and Paulson do not make mistakes no matter what some media might like you to believe. They are the smartest guys in the room. They would have us believe that Greenspan was a follower of Ayn Rand and he was; but, he is also really smart and violated Ayn Rand's philosophy by agreeing to lend money to failed institutions. He believes in something even more than free markets, he believes in globalism.

Yahoo - Reuters - Europe edges toward plan to close failing banks. The European Union has been working on a program for closing failing banks. Now you have to ask why, don't they have laws for closing banks and businesses, they do, they have bankruptcy law too. The claim is that because of how Europe is now integrated, they have to agree on how to close banks. NO, they don't. There is a line somewhere in the article where it says that because they are not like the United States having the same power to change things is more complicated. They made it clear previously that the EU believes the past problems were not fixed because they lacked a true political union. This is all being used to achieve that goal.

Yahoo - CNBC - Europe outlines plan on closing troubled banks. What a shock, they arrived at a plan, it just happens to be in agreement with the IMF plan and the same one that has been agreed to by the United States and the European Central Bank, it just took them more time to adopt it. Maybe that's what they meant in the previous article? LOL.

In poker, the best don't play the cards, they play the player. It is no different in finance. When a group of poker players is working together, we call that cheating. In finance, they call it cooperation. The game is rigged and the purpose is simple. European banks are going to fail and they already decided which ones, read the second article where it says they have already identified the banks that could not survive their stress tests and are at risk.

Lets assume for the moment, as the Europeans apparently do, that some European banks are going to fail and go away, not just restructure, go away. What happens if a country like Greece ceases having any national banks? They financial system would then be completely dependent on the EU.

Pension Theft and Broken Promises

I just read a couple of articles that show how one way or the other they are going to get your pension.

Huffington Post - Stealing From Federal Civil Servants: You May Be Next. Apparently the Federal Government is seeking to change the way that cost of living increases are calculated. Why does this matter, well, because these costs were promises made to retirees, completed contracts. Lets say you made a promise to me that if I worked for you for a year then you would pay me $100,000 at the end of the year. I give you a years worth of work and then you tell me you are only going to pay me $60,000. You don't complain about the work and you have the money; but, you want to spend the difference on someone else to work for you.

Maybe you don't care about federal employees being cheated; but, what is to prevent them from doing the same to everyone who has contributed to social security. There is an attack on all forms of retirement funds.

Bankrate.com - Is your public pension at risk?. State and local pensions are not part of the federal system. Yet, they are also being attacked. In Detroit's attempted bankruptcy the judge has stated that the city can reduce pension payments to people who are already retired even though the State's constitution specifically prohibits this.

The media just lies about public pensions. I read papers from all over the world and United States and see the same story repeated again and again. Do you really believe that not one public pension was properly funded? Not one? The best example of this nonsense is the Postal Service, they are being forced to front fund pensions that won't be drawn on for 30 years. I wrote about this recently, regarding how there are people who are attempting to end the public post office.

Pensions, retirement funds and social security are all under attack. Thieves go where the money is and they want everyone's.

The Next Financial Meltdow Is Being Planned

We all know about the housing collapse and the stock crash and the bailouts. Well the House of Representatives has just passed a bill to eliminate the regulations over derivatives. Lets consider what that means. After the bailouts some regulations on certain types of financial instruments were put back in place and now we are eliminating those regulations. In England, they are actually promoting a new housing bubble similar to the one that happened in the United States. Why would anyone intentionally replicate something that has already failed? The answer is that a few made a lot of money on the financial collapse.

Wall Street created some rather fancy financial transactions, we call these derivatives. They knew that these products that they sold would fail and bet on them failing. As someone recently said, basically it is like someone making a car that they know will have and accident, selling you the car and then taking out insurance on the car having an accident.

Why would congress go back to allowing Wall Street to sell toxic financial instruments? The next crash is going to be worse and it is coming. Some people plan on making a lot of money on this coming crash.

Do You Ever Wonder Why Young Men Have Breasts Now

I was reading a weekly paper today and there was an add for male breast reduction. This is not a result of natural selection. Why do men under 35 have breasts now? Men born in the 1950s and 1960s don't have breasts. So, what has changed? What has changed is our food. What has changed is the hormones that we give to chickens and other animals. Why doesn't this bother anyone? Why doesn't it bother people that we are genetically modifying our crops?

Big Banks as Beggers

A few years back the big banks went before the government to request to be "bailed out". Basically, they were insolvent and wanted the government to lend them lots of money. This was done under Bush and was called TARP. The theory seemed to be that banks that had made bad loans on mortgages should sell those loans to the government. Treasury Secretary Paulson went before congress and basically told them that the world would end if the government did not buy these loans. Currently, the government owns over 80% of all mortgages because of this program.

YouTube - Congressman Brad Sherman: Martial Law if We Voted No [1]
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I do hope you watch the whole video, it is only ten minutes. The TARP bill allowed half of our bailouts to go to foreign banks and the truth is, we do not know how much did and will be told. In fact, Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan later told congress quite specifically that he did not have to tell them and did not. The second really interesting point was that Mr. Sherman pointed out that he was being called by people who worked on Wall Street basically begging for the bail out.

What began this market failure was the deregulation of the banking industry which was strongly supported by Greenspan. Mr. Greenspan did not believe in any financial regulation and was a follower of Ayn Rand. We therefore have two things going on that are fascinating and are largely responsible for our current financial problems. One was the belief that regulating business is wrong and that is why none of these bankers responsible will ever go to jail for the horrible things that they allowed and promoted. If you are a supporter of this "libertarian" perspective (it is not libertarian, it is objectivist and practically a religion) then why regulate begging?

In the past few years cities have put restriction on begging in public. There is one city that is even attempting to outlaw feeding the homeless in City parks or property. The bias seems to be when the poor ask for a handout but not when wealthy supporters ask for one. Think about it this way, millions are losing their homes; but, the people that lent the money after having asked for deregulation were bailed out and put the cost on you and I.

The problem seems to be that there is no justice. Justice is when we are all treated the same regardless of wealth, color, religion or sex. Nope, Mr. Trump summed it up best. He said if you owe someone a thousand dollars, you have a problem; but, if you owe them a Billion dollars, they have a problem. We call this blackmail.

Nelson Mandela and Illegal Aliens in America

Nelson Mandela has passed away. Mr. Mandela led an interesting life and after taking over South Africa managed to prevent it from sliding into what could have been a horrendous civil war. Not an easy thing to do. Prior to the end of apartheid in South Africa many westerners made a lot of claims against apartheid; but, rarely was the whole story told and part of it has some relevance for the United States.

South Africa, like many other countries, allowed people from neighboring countries to come there on work visas for decades. These people were not considered citizens. One of them was a young Indian attorney named Gandhi. He later left and return to India where he was the primary force behind freeing India from English control. While in South Africa, Gandhi set out to give Indians the vote; but, they were not citizens. In fact many were indentured servants who had come there with no expectation of citizenship. Here is the hypocrisy, today many are applauding Mr. Mandela's life, as they should; but, many of these same people are outraged that the United States has illegal aliens here from Mexico.

Some may argue that these people are here illegally and they are; but, many of them have been here for decades working in the fields. How is it that we allow so many people to come here to work as undocumented workers picking our fruit and being given so few rights? You cannot have it both ways. There is a discussion going on right now about giving citizenship to "illegal aliens" in America and I think we need to see how we had called for the same in South Africa.

Part of the reason that we don't see the similarity is because many viewed the situation in South Africa as being the same as it was here; but, there were some real differences. You might be interested to know that South Africa abolished slavery before the United States did. Most people don't know that. It should also be noted that South Africa had a lot less slaves than we did.

I am not arguing for open borders, I am questioning our claim on moral superiority over what went on in South Africa. We have whole families that were born here to parents who came here illegally. If caught, the parents can be sent back to Mexico and the families ripped apart as their children have no right to Mexican citizenship. Over the next few days we are going to hear a lot about how great Mr. Mandela was for ending apartheid, my question is, how much sympathy and compassion can we find for people who come here without permission that work the most menial jobs in our country?