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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32473502125509148792016-09-26T09:25:19.182-07:00The New and Improved- Frankenstein Government Everything great in the world is done by neurotics; they alone founded our religions and created our masterpieces. ~Marcel ProustBrianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-31610779596269291962016-07-30T12:10:00.001-07:002016-08-01T01:56:29.916-07:00Hot and Homeless in Tucson- The Sunday CollageI love Tucson, Arizona. The people are friendly, the Mexican food is authentic, housing is cheap and so is gas. (currently about 1.79 a gal.) The mountains around Tucson provide a gorgeous skyline just before sunrise and just after sunset. The mountains are littered with giant saguaro cactus poking up everywhere. Tombstone and Bisbee are close by. If you're ever in this neck of the woods, Bisbee is worth the drive. Very unique place.

So in mid July, I sold my bungalow in Boise. It was going to be three weeks before my new home would be ready. That left me in the awkward position of being homeless for three weeks with nothing to do. I had narrowed the possibilities down to Saratoga, Del Mar, or Tucson. I love Saratoga Springs, NY. It is one of the coolest places in the U.S.- especially during the horse racing meet. But finding lodging anywhere near Saratoga or Del Mar (San Diego) is just insanely expensive. At over 200-300 bucks a day, three weeks in those places was going to run about 5k figuring in their sky high tax rates as well.

I could find places near L.A. for under 200 a day but that meant fighting Los Angeles traffic.

So I settled on Tucson. I turned the high speed Elantra toward Vegas. I spent a couple of nights at Sam's Town before reaching Tucson.

Nothing too eventful happened until I arrived in Tucson. I booked a room at an extended stay hotel. The last time I stayed here, the hotel was brand new and nice. Not so much anymore. I switched rooms to a quiet corner after spending a night underneath some tweakers who apparently stomp around on the floor all night and never sleep.. The hotel is already starting to show signs of being run down. But it's nice enough for my purposes. It's very easy in Tucson to find a decent hotel/motel for around 50 bucks and there are plenty of alternatives.

The only other knock on Tucson is the heat here in the summer. It's smoking hot. On consecutive days, the thermometer in my car showed 109 degrees. I happen to be one of those people who can handle temperature extremes pretty well so I don't even turn on the a/c until somewhere after 90.

The food here has been fantastic. There is an In and Out Burger near me. I found an Italian restaurant called Ragazzi and had the sea bass. It was excellent. I found a few authentic Mexican restaurants and the truth is- they are all good. For breakfast I found a place called the Baja Cafe. I have eaten there at least 7 times. The food is very good and every dish is under 10 bucks. The staff are friendly and they are very efficient.

They have a couple of Indian casinos with live entertainment on the outskirts of Tucson. The other night I listened to a band that only plays Bob Seger music- it was fun hanging out with the 50+ crowd. There were quite a few young folks there too, because the truth is- their generational music really does suck.

Driving in Tucson is strange. There are many people here who actually obey the speed limit.

The Elantra is hard to see out of. So I've managed to bang a few things including the trash cans at my house. I have also lost the use of one eye, on and off for a year now, and I've noticed my rear bumper cover has taken it's share of abuse during that period. When you lose an eye, you lose depth perception or the ability to triangulate between 3 points. At any rate, my rear bumper cover is banged up and I have already replaced it once so I am simply gonna wait until I sell the car to buy a new one. (On line covers are only 90 bucks compared to the 650 that I paid the body shop to fix the last one.)

The day before yesterday, the cops had a robbery and shoot out with a bad guy who is now with St Peter. They closed the highway to Nogales and this caused me to seek an alternative route to the casino. Traffic was backed up and very snarled as people tried to find ways around the closure. I was stopped at a stop light and suddenly felt a thud and lurched forward as some gal rear ended me with her Subaru. Her bumper matched mine pretty well and she put another crease into my already beat up bumper cover. She was about 70 and very apologetic. I looked at her grill, my bumper cover, and announced no damage. She thanked me. When I got to the casino, I reached up and inside with a screwdriver handle and pushed the crease out.

I made some dough when I sold my house so losing a grand or so would not be a life shattering event. Yesterday, I would get it all back and then some. It's funny how things happen.

Bad beat jackpots for poker started in California many years ago. Casinos take an extra dollar from every pot won and use it to build jackpots. They are generally awarded when aces full of something is beaten by a higher aces full of something, four of a kind, or a straight flush including a royal flush. Having your aces full of jacks full house beaten by a larger hand is a pretty rare event. So these jackpots generally build over time and some get quite large. In Kansas City, four of a kind must beat 4 of a kind. That jackpot is always at 100,000 dollars plus- although I have not seen it for many years.

Generally speaking, nearly half of the jackpot is awarded to the losing hand, about 25% percent goes to the hand that won, and the remaining 25% is usually divided among the players at the table where the bad beat happens.

In my 35 years of playing, I have only seen four of a kind beaten twice. I witnessed it when a man flopped four sixes and was beaten by a straight flush. That happened 30 years ago in Vegas before I had even heard of a "bad beat" jackpot. The only other time I have seen four of a kind beaten happened last night. The jackpot was 50 thousand.

I got into the game around 8 pm. It was a small 3-6 limit game. The players were pretty tough and the pots were small. I had decided to play until the band started at 9 pm. By 9, my cards were running pretty good and I was up a hundred or so and the poker room also had a promotional drawing for a 100 bucks every hour or so which I had qualified for. So I decided to play some more. I teased the dealer and asked her if she had ever dealt a jackpot and if so I inquired- did she have proof? About 15 minutes later, there were two players left in a hand. An older gal on my right and this crazy looking long haired guy on my left. There had been some betting and calling and after the last card had been dealt- the two people left in the hand become embroiled in a "raise war." Each of them would raise, the other one would raise back, and I actually heard both of them ask the dealer if they could raise again. The board had two kings and two nines on it. I'm not sure what the other card was. After 4 or 5 raises, I think most of the players like myself thought they each had a king and would split the pot. But generally speaking, and this has been my experience, common sense minded players will quit raising when they figure out that their opponent has the same hand. These two did not do that- because both of them knew they could not have the same hand. Unbelievably, the gal with four kings was the one who quit raising. She turned her hand over. Then the guy with four nines turned his hand over. A roar went up from the table as we realized what had just happened. Players from surrounding games scrambled over to see what had happened.

It took them two and a half hours to pay us. The casino checks video to see who was in the game and that no cheating occurred, employees prepares IRS forms for every player, the room manager counts the deck down to make sure all the cards are there, and then employees obtain 50 thousand in one hundred dollar bills from the casino cage. The gal with the 4 kings received 10,001 dollars, the guy with the four nines received 20,001 dollars, and each of the rest of us in the game received 1669 dollars. The rest was split among the players in the other games.

While we were waiting to get paid, they called my name for the drawing. I won 100 dollars more. The older gal who won the hand- drank 6 Black Russians while we waited to get paid. We became friends, yakking away. After we got the dough I kissed her and thanked her for not "mucking" or discarding those kings. She was pretty drunk by that time and I'm not sure her husband appreciated me kissing her but it wasn't like I was looking to run off with her. After 40 years of marriage... well let's just say I know a few men who wouldn't have minded too much but from the look on this guy's face... he might not have been one of those.

We tipped the dealer nearly 3000 dollars. Not bad for a night's work.

Homeless in Tucson. Not the worst place to spend your summer vacation.

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-29502810771900773072016-07-13T08:54:00.002-07:002016-07-19T07:35:05.037-07:00My Last Day in BoiseSome things, perhaps all things, must run their course.

Seven years ago, this month in fact, I moved to Boise. I found a nice condo near Vista and Overland. Two years later I bought my bungalow on the bench.

Boise is a nice town. There is a tug of war here. A lot of liberal California attitudes in the north and the east side of town. The rest it seems, lean conservative. I used to see Ron Paul bumper stickers up here on the Bench so I must have been in the right part of town.

Idaho legalized your right to carry concealed guns this year. This was always your right although most states think their laws trump the Constitution. So now, we can carry guns concealed without a note from our parents. For violent criminals- this might not be the best place to practice your trade.

Idaho did away with live horse racing a few months ago. While undoubtedly saving me a considerable amount of money- horse racing was one of the big reasons I moved to Boise. Last year during the live race meet, I had one losing day out of 15. It was like handing out free money. I found the races, the trainers, and one excellent female jockey to be quite predictable. It was a very good year. In nine months, racing was gone.

So today I sit among the spartan ruins of my home, doing last minute fixes and cleaning before the new owners arrive. The bungalows sits on a large corner lot with mature landscaping and gobs of parking. It was the lot that attracted me here 5 years ago. Tomorrow, we close the deal and I will be officially homeless. My new home in Twin Falls will be occupied until the first week of August. Oddly, that home has mature landscaping and gobs of parking.

So I am in the process of figuring out what to do and where to go for the next three weeks.

I have never been to Del Mar during the live race meet. The Del Mar meeting starts Friday. Maybe I'll just throw a bunch of clothes in the car and head to San Diego. Maybe if I get to Del Mar, I'll post up some pictures. Take the surf train up the coast- best kept secret in America. I don't know what I'm gonna do yet but I have 3 weeks to sort it out.

Brian

Brianhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-41358657463132524812016-07-10T01:20:00.003-07:002016-07-11T06:58:47.345-07:00It Was Never Comey's Call To Begin With- The Sunday CollageJames Comey offered another government whitewash on Jul. 5 when he declined to "pursue" the case against Hillary Clinton. That's what our government does best. They lie. And in a moment, I'll offer proof of a cover up by way of procedure.

First of all I'd like to say- James Comey was never a cop. He is a lawyer and a political appointee. The FBI's top cop? Let me explain. The best cops in this country aren't pussies and they sure as hell don't behave like compromised political prisoners. I detest people like Comey. I always have. They are nothing but political whores- unprincipled and always for sale. Oh sure they'll prosecute some minor league player who can't hurt them, but when real danger comes calling they try to find ways to circumvent the law. Doing the right thing is never selfless. These guys always think about themselves first. In fact, they believe that's all that matters. They never put it on the line because they are cowards. That's how folks like Comey find those lofty perches. Real cops ruffle feathers and piss people off. Real cops never make it to the top rungs because they have ethics and principles and they will enforce the law regardless of who it is that is breaking it. Their careers get derailed and so be it.

Guys like Comey are a dime a dozen.They go to school, make the right connections, spend their lives at cocktail parties, write resumes' and kiss ass. Then they spend a lifetime trying to convince the rest of us how special they are.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437643/fbi-director-james-comey-testimony-clinton-defense-crumbles-under-scrutiny

Now I promised you proof of deception. Comey has spent a lifetime on the law enforcement side of the law. He is a prosecutor, ugh lawyer. It pains me to say he is Irish. Probably from the north side of the isle.

Many years ago, I responded to a stabbing call. It was two Mexican males. One of them had beat the other's boy and during the heated debate that followed...one of them had pulled out a knife and stabbed the other one in the shoulder blade. The victim was taken to the hospital and via an interpreter, the victim told me that he deserved the stabbing and did not want to pursue charges. He was an illegal alien and that complicated things a bit. But he was adamant that he would not testify against his attacker.

Knowing all of this, I decided not to arrest the suspect. I mean, what's the point?

The point is- is that the State of Idaho considers felonies such as aggravated battery- a crime against the citizens of the State of Idaho. The law doesn't care what I think. My job was to gather evidence and bring the suspect before a higher authority. Prosecutors and courts adjudicate cases- not cops. My boss arrested the suspect the following day and ultimately the prosecutor dismissed the case. We had done our jobs. I had learned a valuable lesson which I pass along here.

It is not Comey's job to whitewash a case. It is his job to gather evidence and to present the case to Loretta Lynch. It is Lynch's job to prosecute, decline it, or appoint a special prosecutor to white wash the whole ordeal since she is compromised and quite honestly could be called as a WITNESS as a result of her meeting with Bill Clinton. Think about that for a second! We all know that Comey and Lynch are Obama appointees, we know Bill Clinton secretly met with Lynch days before Comey made his announcement. We don't need a road map to find the corner grocery store.

Comey knows what his job is. He has been a prosecutor his whole life. He does not have the right or the authority to decline to pursue a case. That is Lynch's job. In fact Comey not only pretended that it was his call in that Jul 5 press circus- he could only do so with the blessing of Lynch and Obama himself. Because guys like Comey advance and protect their careers. They don't take chances when it comes to their image and future. They certainly do not go on national television without the full consent and knowledge of their superiors.

Comey was bought and paid for by this administration long ago. With an overwhelming amount of evidence, as well as the vast destruction of evidence that Hillary Clinton did to that email server (not to mention her lies about Benghazi) smacks of a complete cover-up and that stretches right to President Obama himself.

Declining to pursue the case against Hillary Clinton was never Comey's call. Any cop with two years on the job knows that. Richard Nixon would be proud of this bunch.

Brianhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-7593054748083485222016-07-02T12:43:00.003-07:002016-07-03T08:43:01.590-07:00Want a Return on Your Money? Try Silver, Gold, and Platinum This Year
First a little background.

My state run retirement system, which is in the top 10% in terms of funding, is on track to either lose 1% this year or break even. It's fiscal year ends Jun 30.

Most state run retirement funds are based on actuarial returns of 8% annually. This is not net of a true inflation rate which is running right around 9%. The government's wholly fictitious Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publications which include the monthly PPI and CPI manipulations are some of the finest accounting gimmickry ever produced. They do this to keep inflation "contained" and to keep cost of living increases for SSI down to next to nothing. State retirement systems love the BLS- they cite their ridiculous numbers every year while screwing plan particpants out of cost of living allowances. Last year my state system gave out nothing- unless you had been retired for at least 5 years. They gave those people 1%.

They are bankers. They know their actuarial rates are ridiculously overstated and un-achievable. Just like this year's return. Wait until markets turn down. I can hear the howls from here.

If you want a true inflation picture, click here. http://www.chapwoodindex.com/

If you think your private or state run retirement system is secure- think again. I am seriously concerned about Idaho's and we are one of the best. Not only have these systems over stated actual returns- we haven't seen a bear market since Mar. of 09. Bond yields are negative in Europe and headed that way here. Retirement systems look for yield. They can't get it. Ultimately they are going to have to ask participants to contribute more. The stock market has run out of gas, PE multiples are sky high and earnings are flat. Without another round of QE- the market can only go sideways or down. If the market is ever allowed to trade without Federal Reserve intervention- the ensuing shit storm will wreak havoc on all investment classes, retirement systems, the worthless US dollar, and your savings- whatever they might be.

If you need further confirmation of just how shaky things are, read this. http://www.gold-eagle.com/article/gold%E2%80%99s-final-warning-impending-monetary-collapse

After the January 2016 bottom in precious metals- and 4 years of bear market manipulation- the precious metals sector has returned from the dead. I know a couple of authors who honestly don't believe commodity desks at investment banks are engaged in market manipulation. That level of naivete' is awesome. Banks have been caught manipulating every market from oil to libor, including silver. They have admitted as much. On Friday, I closed out one position on a gold and silver miner for a 130% gain in 5 months. Every one of my 100 screened metals miners is hitting one year highs or are higher than that in multiples. Gold has rallied 30% on the year, silver has rallied a stunning 40% after Fridays spectacular close, and even platinum has rallied 100 bucks. Platinum is where I am currently focused. Platinum is a screaming buy- I just can't see any scenario where platinum gets left behind as precious metals rally. It is sub 1100 now and I have plans to buy some this week.

An ounce of platinum is trading 300 dollars less than an oz. of gold. That disparity is enormous. Platinum and gold swap positions during times of uncertainty. Platinum, because of it's scarcity and utility, generally trades at a premium to gold. Central banks don't horde platinum. Platinum is used primarily in the auto industry for catalytic converters. If anyone has seen film of Beijing's air pollution- the potential market for platinum begins to take shape. It is expensive to mine and the vast majority of platinum comes from South Africa. In the United States, Stillwater Mining (SWC) is the only platinum producing mine and it's not too far from Billings, Mt. That stock is up with significant upside still. Platinum closed Friday up 33 bucks an ounce at 1054. SWC is trading at 12.25. A 25 year chart of SWC shows that it once traded for 50 bucks a share- 15 years ago. http://www.barchart.com/chart.php?sym=SWC&t=BAR&size=M&v=1&g=1&p=MO&d=X&qb=1&style=technical&template=

I own some silver and gold and I've started to add platinum. I also own shares in a South African miner, Platinum Group, or PLG. PLG was up 16% on Friday to 3.96.

This stock has been so out of favor for so long- it's remarkable. People whine about it on the message boards because they aren't making the money they think they should. Platinum Group has some interesting property and they are within 6 months of full scale production. They did a "10 for 1" reverse split earlier this year. The base price of this stock (it traded sideways for months)- is about 3.10 a share. At 3.96, you have not missed the boat. I can easily see this at 10.00 a share before I die of old age. I am going to load up on this one if I can find a pullback point soon. My favorite gold play is up next.

Pretium is probably the single greatest gold find in the world. It's in British Columbia, it has been permitted, and they are constructing the mine. A neighboring property (Seabridge gold) trades at 15 up 350%!! Pretium (PVG) has been on fire this year. They had a secondary offering of shares at 4.50 and they are up a stunning 150% to 11.69. They have an experienced CEO in Robert Quartermain who is well respected in the industry. The breath taking part about Pretium is the assayed amounts of gold on the property. You have to do your own due diligence here. Compare proven amounts to other profitable mines and you'll get an idea of what this property holds. The only knock is the amount of over burden- but given the price of gold, the amount of gold at the mine, and future demand- I easily see PVG trading at 25. In fact, after doing a little math on proven and prove able reserves, 25 might be too low. http://www.pretivm.com/corporate/management/default.aspx

Endeavor, (EXK) Tahoe Resources, (TAHO) and McEwen Mining (MUX) are three silver plays. I have owned these in the past and I still think Tahoe is the pre-eminent silver producer right now- it should benefit greatly from a recent acquisition, rising gold and silver prices, and decreasing overhead.

Owning bullion doesn't hurt either. There is so much uncertainty in the world right now between Brexit, negative yields on bonds in the eurozone, collapsing currencies and central banks flooding countries with liquidity- not to mention the two nitwits running for President in the U.S.-

I have sell targets too. The last time I sold silver it was at 40 bucks an oz. I sold 10 ounces. My next target would be 60 or so. We all have a buying plan- you should also have a selling plan. In fact, I hit my target price for Tahoe at 15.50 on Friday and sold that position.

You simply cannot afford to be 45-65 years old right now in this country and hope that everything is going to go well. If your income is tied up in retirement systems that need 8% annual returns- you are already in trouble. Social Security is a ponzi scheme as well. They will eventually ask plan participants for more money, reduce monthly benefits, or collapse into insolvency. The entire retirement industry in the United States is based on equity markets. People who don't see the utility in investing outside of equity markets may watch all of their acquired wealth vanish. At 45-65 years of age, with diminishing returns and a not so bright future, buying precious metals this year- even after the recent run up- is a no brainer. Protect yourself.

Or, you can always buy near the all time high of an 8 year bull market in equities and hope for the best.

Brianhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-60106019447127544352016-05-22T16:04:00.002-07:002016-06-16T11:40:02.359-07:00The Essential Uber DriverIn January of this year, my friend Jon talked me into driving for the ride sharing service, Uber. Jon had made nearly 600 bucks in three days, half of which he made on New Year's Eve. That sounded like a pretty good deal to me. So I set about the task of trying to investigate Uber online. All I could find were a couple of cheer leading pieces telling me how lucrative Uber driving was. I suspected if people were making 50, 75, and 100k a year as some posts claimed- everyone would be driving for Uber. So I knew that was bullshit. I also found some disgruntled comments here and there. What I wasn't able to find was a comprehensive "pros and cons" type of piece written by an actual driver and not some company stooge or displaced taxi cab driver.

For the record, I am a retired police officer from small town America. Driving people around in cars comes pretty natural to me, although in the case of Uber- it's the rider's choice to take a ride rather than my decision to give them one. I like people, tolerate drunks well, and I can talk to anyone-so I thought Uber would be a strong fit for me. I decided to give it a try.

GETTING STARTED

Uber requires that at a minimum, prospective drivers have at least a 2006 model, four door vehicle. You must provide registration and proof of insurance. You must also have a driver's license with a fairly clean record and prospective drivers must submit to a background check. Your car also has to be inspected by a local shop which you will pay for- usually about 20 bucks. All communication with Uber is done using your camera phone and email. You will never talk to a human being in the Uber hierarchy- they see no utility in that. Drivers take pictures of themselves- pictures which are furnished to riders. You must have a fairly current smart phone to receive calls and map directions. I am currently using a Samsung Galaxy 4. It is easy to burn through a stock battery in just a few trips so I bought a huge battery pack which tripled my storage capacity. I still use a car charger as well. I have a three pronged set-up for passengers to use. You'd be surprised how many passengers have dead phones.

It takes 3-7 days to get through Uber's application process. There are a couple of online tutorials that will help you and give you some tips. Tips like buying passengers water- which I found to be a complete waste of time and money. If you really want to provide something passengers use- try gum instead. More on that later.

Once you are approved- you can go online. My first call was a young gal at the airport. Drivers have 15 seconds to accept a ride. You simply touch your phone screen and then google maps locates you and gives you directions to your passenger. Once you accept a ride you can actually call or text your passenger. I use this feature quite a bit at the airport or when a passenger keeps me waiting curbside.

Google's mapping feature is far from precise. I have had five different addresses offered for the Boise Airport. Sometimes you can be an entire block off- meaning the customer is actually a block in front of or behind the given destination. Sometimes riders screw up the address when requesting a ride. Finding people in crowds is also very hard or in wide open spaces like giant apartment complexes and malls. In those types of environments, you must rely on the pin on the map which is the customer's GPS. Sometimes I use two navigation devices.

Uber does not let drivers see the trip length in advance. After arrival at a pick up point, you must swipe the "start trip" screen before you can see the destination- provided the rider has bothered to put it in. That way, drivers cannot decline a trip based on trip length.

Nothing irks me more than riders who cancel the ride after you are halfway there or riders who leave you waiting by the curb. I wait 6 minutes for riders and then I promptly leave. That happened today. I suspect she did it because the price was surging and paying the nominal 5 dollar no show fee (after a driver waits 5 mins) was cheaper than taking the ride to where ever it was that she was going. Which brings me to a few passenger tips and the two way rating system.

Anytime you have trouble with a passenger before the trip starts- especially if you are new to Uber- you are far better off canceling the trip than trying to salvage it. You can cancel as often as you like. Uber likes to call us "sub contractors" rather than employees. A huge benefit to having that designation is that you are the Captain of your ship. Anytime a passenger makes you wait too long, over stuffs your car with 5 or more passengers, tries to smoke, vape, or smuggle in drinks, asks you to haul muddy pets, or anything else you don't like- you are better off canceling the trip. Those types of trips tend to degrade and you can't stop the impending bad rating anyway- if your passenger doesn't like you at the beginning they will not like you at the end. Cancel those types of passengers. Save yourself the grief and a bad rating.

I've had people spit chew down the door, spill drinks on the seat and floor, been an unwitting party to a drug deal, and even witnessed a gal give a guy a hand job in the backseat. Check your backseats frequently. Lost cell phones and other items are common. Had I checked my back seat one night, I might have been able to mop up a rum and coke stain on my backseat before it became permanent.

RATING SYSTEM- ONE TO FIVE STARS

Let's talk about Uber's rating system. I personally believe that rating passengers after a trip is a waste of time because the data is simply not relevant. Bad passengers get us the same money as the good ones. I see no utility in giving a rider a bad rating. That's part of the job. Uber lets passengers get away with a lot. I have hauled passengers with low ratings and some deserved worse. In my 600 plus trips- I have never given any rider anything other than 5 stars. Uber doesn't care about rider ratings and even if they do- they sure don't communicate that to drivers. If you do see a ride pop up and the user has a low rating, you can choose to not take the trip. That has been the only saving grace to rider ratings.

Riders can see previous trips and the driver's photo on their application which is a nice feature. Drivers must remember names- I have a few "stand outs" which I remember- one who likes to vape in my car (vaping leaves a sticky film on your windows) and the other which used the service (and my car) to complete a drug deal including two trips to the same house and an atm. After tying up the car and being a general creep- I dropped him back off where we started from- a strip club. He immediately gave me the only bad rating I had that week. He was just a scumbag- there really is no other way of describing him, his appearance, or his demeanor. I immediately committed his name to my "no fly" list.

Riders issuing bad ratings to drivers works differently. Uber can and will shut your app down if a driver rating falls below 4.6. Drivers then have to pay for an online course and complete it before they can continue to drive. I get the whole accountability piece but the part that irritates me about the rating system is that any angry, drunk, surly, depressed, or entitled prince or princess can give you a bad rating for no other reason than they are just miserable people. Short of a functioning crystal ball, drivers can't avoid these people. A few days ago, I picked up a snotty gal who barked orders at me the entire trip. I tried to be nice to her but she ignored me while staring at her phone. I tend to remember people like "Charla." Those types of trips can never get over fast enough- I wanted to hit the NOS. I thanked her despite her crappy attitude and waited for the inevitable bad rating which oddly, showed up a day or two later. Charla, I can guarantee you, will never ride in my car again.

When riders rate you poorly- they tend to do it right away. It will show up quickly. My personal experience is that about 1 person out of 20 will rate you poorly no matter what you do. Decent people are far more forgiving. Boise's best drivers sport a 4.88 rating. Mine is a little higher. One of the best things about driving for Uber, and one of the few reasons that I continued to drive for Uber as long as I have is that the vast majority of people are decent, interesting, and some are really fun to cart around. You are working in close quarters with strangers. I like people and Uber is a fantastic way of meeting them. Unfortunately, Uber is becoming the Walmart of transportation- enriching itself at the expense of their drivers.

THE UBER PAY STRUCTURE

I started driving for Uber in January. They had minimum hourly guarantees, rates of 9 and 14 depending on the time of day. We also had higher base fares and we received an additional dollar a ride.

By March, Uber had slashed the base fares some 35%. They did away with hourly guarantees. They also phased out the additional dollar a trip. Now we receive a base rate of 2 dollars, 1 dollar per mile, and .15 cents a minute for the time that the car is tied up. There is no additional fee for 2-4 riders- this is a fact not lost on partying college kids.

A very typical 3 mile trip in Boise will gross 6 bucks. Uber swipes 25% off the top, leaving you with about 4.50.

The average trip for a driver goes something like this. The pick up is 2.5 miles away. You take the customer 3 miles and your return trip home is 3.5 miles. You have driven 9 miles for a trip that will net you 4 bucks and change. If that sounds like a formula for financial success, Uber is looking for you.

Uber employs a strategy called "surge" pricing wherein they charge riders more at peak travel times. Surge pricing, a novelty really, has added about 400 dollars or less than 10% to my gross earnings. Most potential riders just wait 10 or 15 minutes until the rates return to normal before requesting a ride. In fact, I used to use surge times for breaks to go to the store and get gas because people just wait out surge pricing or take a cab instead.

People tip infrequently but I usually make something in tips. Maybe 5 bucks a day averaged over time. I use tips to buy gum. Many of my riders are hung over, trying to get back to their cars and homes on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Hardly anyone turns down gum and it cures cottonmouth. It doesn't hurt your rating either.

Uber it seems, can change your pay rate any time they choose with little notice. Under normal working conditions, employees in virtually any other job in this country are given a pre- determined and agreed upon wage which generally cannot go down. Apparently Uber thinks it does not have to adhere to that custom and so far- at least in Boise- they have proven that.

I have talked to other drivers from other locales. Where there is competition, Uber cannot afford to lose drivers. In places like Salt Lake City and San Francisco, drivers are still making decent money because Uber can't find a way to scalp employees and keep competitive in those markets. Here in Boise, many of us are simply quitting. About the time the competing Lyft service gets here, Uber will start paying drivers again. Given a choice, I hope Boise drivers remember what Uber did here.

COSTS

You will need a cellphone, a data plan, a car, insurance, gas, brakes, tires, and oil. Uber does not re-imburse any of that. Writing it off on your taxes is tricky business and all costs are certainly not recoverable. Uber with holds nothing so you'll be on the hook for the additional tax bite.

The wear and tear on my car has been significant. I smoked a clutch hauling 4 of the biggest human beings ever stuffed into an Elantra. I was the small guy at 260. The clutch repair cost me 700 and two weeks of downtime. I had a tire blow up in front of me on the interstate and as I was dodging airborne parts of truck/trailer tire, I rolled over a piece which slapped up and damaged my rear bumper cover. I've also had two near collisions which brings me to a point that all drivers really need to consider.

If your insurance company finds out you are driving commercially- they will cancel you. They will not pay claims. That leaves you high and dry. Oddly, I cannot find policy terms for James River Insurance which is on the waybill as Uber's insurance carrier. My gut tells me that Uber probably insures themselves against losses incurred by drivers or passengers (liability) but I doubt that loss coverage is extended to drivers. If you were to get in a significant injury accident you would be in serious trouble- particularly if you were at fault. Brokering a commercial policy is expensive and probably the best way to go- this is something Uber should be doing. How they've managed to avoid this boggles my mind. If cities in America required Uber to adequately and commercially insure their drivers- they could probably run them out of business.

THE BIG FINISH

Uber is a great idea and probably the best thing that ever happened in the passenger hauling space. Riders love Uber. It is a car on demand anytime you need one. You know who is coming to get you, what they will be driving, how long it will take, and you can even watch them on the screen. The car is dedicated to the requesting party and cannot be hailed by anyone else. The entire trip from request to finish is logged even when a driver forgets to start the trip. The cars are generally nicer and the drivers speak fluid English. Uber costs one half of what a taxi might cost in our market although I cannot speak for other markets. No cash changes hands.

I like Uber a lot. It works. The problem is that Uber, like so many other greedy corporations, has found a way of exploiting drivers and cars. The result of this will be a thinning of the driver gene pool, so to speak. Cars and drivers will only meet the minimum standards. Intelligent drivers will quit because the math doesn't work. The workforce will become transitory, new drivers will come and go. It's a shame really because Uber is such a good idea. Eventually, the market will push back and the novelty of ride sharing will wear off. I don't think the barriers to market entry are all that great and one day I envision- an efficient and improved peer to peer application- (not unlike Tinder) may just take the place of a corporate entity skimming proceeds off the top of the ride sharing biz..

Today is my last day of Uber driving. The risk-reward ratio is just too far out of balance for me to continue. I have made 600 trips and I have only managed to gross 4200 bucks this year- about 7 bucks a trip. That total includes money from the old, attractive pricing structures, long trips, and surge pricing. Boise has two larger problems- a lack of long rides and excessive downtime between ride requests. I can't even make it pencil by only working peak times.

So it boils down to this. Find a value for your time, your car (cost), insurance, gas and oil, wear and tear, which I have priced at .90 cents a mile. (.60 for car, .30 a min. for labor or 18.00 an hr) Find your average trip length, let's say 9 miles round trip. If you didn't make 8.10 on that trip, you lost money. Uber would have paid you 4.50, before taxes. They do not count your time and mileage to the trip nor your time and mileage to return.

That as they say is the bottom line. In the end, market forces will determine what drivers make. With a current glut of math challenged drivers and no ride sharing competition- Uber is sweeping every last crumb off the table while they can in Boise. The truth is- Uber would do away with human drivers if they could. Read this piece on "driverless" cars. http://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/05/uber-to-begin-testing-self-driving-cars-in-pittsburgh/ That makes me laugh. Some riders would still find something to whine about.

Years ago when I was a kid, I got ripped off by an unscrupulous radio station that promised to pay me mileage and a dollar per delivery for coupon books they were selling. They never paid me a dime. I never forgot that lesson. They beat Uber to this punch bowl by some 40 years.

Hopefully I've been able to write the sort of comprehensive, "here's the pros and cons, this was my experience" sort of piece that I was searching for back in January. I know it leans a little harsh against driving for Uber but I think the information is generally accurate and universal. It might help people make informed decisions and perform a little due diligence on their own. Markets are different and Uber prices markets differently. Any potential driver can sort out his or her city's pricing structure. Uber up a ride and ask the driver a few questions. That's the best and most accurate information that you are likely to get.

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-25064820321223987242016-05-07T07:42:00.002-07:002016-06-01T12:10:30.145-07:00The First Casualty Is the Truth- The Sunday CollageA few years ago, I got a call from my first love. The one thing I always hated about her was her ability to white wash the truth. She is one of those people who will tell you how fantastic her life is while her house is burning down along with all of her possessions. Never, ever, would she disclose anything about herself or her life that was less than perfect.

That kind of self deception is nauseating. I hated it back in college and while we were on that phone call, she began telling me about her perfect life- while throwing a few little barbs my way. I remember thinking how close I came to marrying this gal. Marriage would have been disastrous. For just as she edits every last scintilla of awkward truthfulness about her life- I am the polar opposite.

I embrace the inconvenient truths about my life. I have no problem telling anyone my entire life story, the unedited and candid version, particularly if I think it will help them. I don't view my life as a series of events that I should be ashamed of. Should I be ashamed of living my life, making some bad decisions, and then cover them up? Is that how we learn? Is that how I grow and become a better person? By telling lies? Has that ever helped anyone?

I think a lot of families teach their members to keep the family mistakes private. In fact I believe so many people are accustomed to doing just that- that is is imprinted on our national conscience. It has become a universal truth in America that we have all tacitly agreed that lies about our personal lives are acceptable. In fact, if you tell the truth about yourself- often your peers will look at you like you've lost your mind. That's how bad it has become. So we all agree that it is acceptable to lie about personal issues because the judgers will make us feel ashamed. Sometimes our mistakes cause us to lose jobs, get divorces, lose custody of our children, and become bankrupt. Clearly, we can't always tell the truth, can we?

I have no other explanation for the rise of people like Barack Obama. Conceived by an unwed and juvenile mother- Barack Obama is the quintessential example of a person who we really know nothing about. His life is this giant mystery wherein if anyone dares look for the truth- they are castigated by the millions of supporting minions who have all agreed to the great lie. It's none of your business.

Hillary Clinton. Hillary might be the most scandalous person I have ever laid eyes on. Her entire life has been one scandal after another. I am in awe that in America- Hillary Clinton could accept millions of dollars in bribes, call them donations and put them in the "Clinton Foundation" while Secretary of State. The Clinton's foundation, a tax free charity organized in Canada, allows them to use the money any way that they wish. About 10% of the money is spent on charity- the rest is spent by the Clintons. Benghazi might be the greatest lie ever told by anyone in government- where good people fought desperately and died needlessly. We know the truth about what happened. Yet nobody is held accountable. That this woman actually stands any chance of becoming President is mind boggling.

We have a national debt that nobody ever talks about. A debt where nearly 20 trillion (on the books) is owed (and 100 trillion off the books) which is never going to be paid off- financed by a Federal Reserve Bank that is private and unaccountable to the American people. That debt will become the onerous burden of someone else.

People don't care. Not only do they not care but the majority of them have all apparently taken oaths wherein discussing the truth is akin to treason. You are forbidden to discuss certain things particularly if it involves high ranking officials. This is also the way it is in North Korea- that bastion of freedom.

So we have serious problems in America and like the good dysfunctional family that we've become- we're going to ignore our problems and hide them. Pretend they don't exist. That's how far we've fallen as a country, as a society.

The first casualty is always the truth. That has been the way of the world forever. The decline of civilizations everywhere can only be brought about after truth has been taken to the gallows. Once the quest for truth dies, then any number of lies can be offered up as replacements and accepted by a society that has found the truth to be inconvenient, useless, or even shameful.

Once again, I shall leave you with the Isabelle Patterson quote. It always seems appropriate.

Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends.

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-85069251939263126942016-04-16T11:40:00.000-07:002016-04-24T15:09:28.957-07:00The Winter Season- The Sunday CollageMy friend Jim at Conservatives on Fire abruptly quit blogging over a year ago. He offered no explanation. Jim had always been a great supporter of mine. I missed him and worried about him. Jim was a class act. He tried to be impartial and never used profanity while writing. I have never had that sort of restraint.

Jim I think, was wiser than I- much sooner than I.

Back in 2008, I had this idea that blogging would be an excellent way to reach out and unite people. I believed that people could circle the wagons and repair our country if we could all just agree that we had a problem. I realize now, at age 55, that I was an idiot. That the vast majority of people don't care.

I can't even call them stupid because they might actually be the smart ones. Not caring might be the healthiest thing that the minions ever do for themselves. There is no saving America as we once knew it. Perhaps the best blog ever written on that topic is linked here. http://www.freemansperspective.com/wont-be-fixed/

This morning, I read that Judicial Watch had filed a Freedom Of Information Act request for Hillary Clinton's phone conversations during the period surrounding the siege at Benghazi. They struck gold. There it was- Hillary Clinton lying to our nation about some idiot videographer bashing Mohammad and Islam on "You Tube" which she alleged caused the Benghazi attack- and now we discover she was telling Saudi Arabia on the phone at virtually the same time that Benghazi was a planned Al Qaeda attack. Like her husband, she just flat out lied to America rather than suffer the shame and ridicule that her actions warranted.

The ramifications are enormous. After begging and pleading for additional staffing help, Ambassador Chris Steven's pleas were ignored by Hillary Clinton. Once the siege began with less than two months before the presidential elections, the Commander in Chief not only failed to send help that night but disappeared altogether. After Chris Steven's body was dragged through the streets of Libya- Hillary either concocted or saddled up to that ridiculous cover story to escape her wanton disregard and her dereliction of duty. She should have been immediately relieved of duty and prosecuted but we all know that ultimately President Obama called the shots that night. That this shameless sociopath has a chance to become President is testimony to the complete apathy of the American public. I can find no finer example of how far this country has fallen. Most people in America don't fucking care about this country or politics and people like Jim and I- albeit slow learners- are finding this out.

We are spoiled. America has become a nation of self absorbed, superficial, greedy, fat, unhealthy, plastic boobed narcissists who are forever wanting and thinking some material bullshit will make them happy. Many Americans actually believe we are better than other cultures. More than half this country checks out daily on prescription meds, illegal substances, and booze or some other mindless activity involving cellphone chatter or television. They are too self absorbed to pay attention to anything beyond their inner circle.

You know why we have a huge substance problem in America? Because we don't like who we are and what we have become. Why do people use substances? They want to change the way they feel. If we really believed we were this shit hot role model for the human race- we would actually lead caring and spiritual lives with emotionally healthy coping mechanisms. We wouldn't need placebos like food, sex, booze, drugs, therapists, cellphones, and tobacco to change the way we feel. We can lie- like the Joneses' to our neighbors- but we can never lie to ourselves.

I know all of this. I finished this big blog this morning about Hillary Clinton's illegal and unethical activities because I am deathly afraid that this sociopath will become President. And then I remembered three things- people don't care, Blogger has a delete button, and that the world is perfect- exactly the way that it is. If Hillary becomes President then that is the way it is supposed to be. Acceptance is always the answer.

I'm about to share the greatest lesson I have ever had to learn.

The world is much larger than any of us. It was created perfectly. Everything that happens here is supposed to happen. People are supposed to grow old and die, some die young, and some die for terrible reasons. People make mistakes. People fail, that's what we do. It's what we learn from those mistakes and how we respond that is important. Sometimes people learn and get better, sometimes they don't. None of this is the fault of the earth or some make believe divine being who asks us to offer up human sacrifices or on occasion, sacrifices their own for the sake of us. Surely there has to be a better way of practicing faith.

Terra firma doesn't fail. It's just a platform, a stage, a place for all of this drama that we create to take place. When the time comes, a space rock will come and reset this planet. Mother Earth will shake us off like a bunch of fleas. Everything has a season and I understand that.

So why do bloggers write? Self fulfillment, ego, sometimes money. It's a damn good question and I'm afraid I don't have much of an answer right now. I have published 2030 blogs in 8 years. Some were pretty good and some were awful. I am out of topics, tired of writing about the same old stuff and tired of reading the same old stuff. A friend of mine sent me this video today. I never get tired of it.

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-40946951284274602022016-04-11T17:45:00.001-07:002016-04-11T17:47:45.142-07:00A Libertarian (Free) v Progressive (Collectivist) View of the WorldAn excellent essay. This lays out the thought process of every liberal I've ever known. My apologies for a little margin encroachment.

The Modern Progressive's Insatiable Thirst for Tyranny

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By Dr. Richard Ebeling

What does freedom mean? What is the purpose of government? And what should be the government's relationship to each of us as individuals and as members of society as a whole? These issues recently came up during a dinner conversation with a new acquaintance with whom I'd not previously had such a discussion.
The views that I expressed in the calm and friendly and enjoyable exchange are those usually labeled as classical liberal or libertarian. My dinner companion reasoned from what is the "modern" liberal or "progressive" point-of-view. Like myself, he has been a professor in higher education, and he is widely read and very knowledgeable.
What became clear to both during the conversation and from reflecting on it afterwards are some of the following conclusions.
Conflicting Meanings of Freedom

As a classical liberal, freedom means that each individual possesses as a human being certain inviolable rights, those being rights to his life, liberty and honestly acquired property. And that human relationships should be based on voluntary consent and mutual agreement.
For my interlocutor, freedom means "empowerment" or the ability to do or achieve certain things, without which "freedom" is not complete. These include a minimum or "decent" standard of living and the ability to attain certain potentials in life, which are everyone's "right" as a member of society.
For my fellow conversationalist, society is a shared "community" of human beings each of whom owes certain things to the others, just as the others owe certain things to us. Society might be viewed as an extended family, from this perspective, all the members of which have certain required obligations to support and give assistance to their social "relatives."
I suggested that society is a network of human relationships formed between individuals based upon opportunities for mutual betterment, including both the economic and the cultural in the widest sense, the fundamental foundation of which derives from those essential individual rights.
The "Social Contract": Individualist or Collectivist?

My dinner companion raised the issue of "the social contract," to which we are all participants and benefactors. He referenced the famous French eighteenth century philosopher, Jean-Jacque Rousseau, who reasoned that man began as savages in the wild threatened by both beast and other men. Everyone entered into a social contract and formed society for mutual safety and betterment by giving up a portion of their complete and unrestrained "freedom" in that earlier setting of savagery for the order and security of shared community. The freedom given up is compensated by safety and the security of mutual aid, including the modern welfare state.
I suggested that if one was to refer to a "social contract" as a basis or rationale for organized society, the starting point should be the earlier British philosopher, John Locke, who argued that rights are not bestowed upon man by government or the community but belong to him by his nature as a human being. Government, in Locke's social contract, is to provide individuals with a tool for the common defense against the violence of some of their fellow men. The role of government is the securer of liberty by protecting each individual's rights to his life, liberty and property, and not as a guarantor of a certain standard of living or desired access to various material things.
The reason, I said, was that if the government undertook this latter responsibility of "social safety nets" and "positive" access to various other desired states of affairs, it can do so only by imposing through police power an obligation on others to provide the material means that some others are to be guaranteed. By doing so, government would be violating its original purpose for being brought into existence: the protecting of liberty (including people's property rights to their own honestly earned income and wealth) rather than a violator that takes from some without their consent for the asserted benefits of others.
Private Benevolence or Political Paternalism

At this point my dining companion asked, did this mean that concern and support for those less well off than us was to be left to private charity and philanthropy? I answered in the affirmative; that such an approach was the only one consistent with the ethical principle of an individual having the right to live his life as he chooses for his own purposes, taking on those obligations and benevolent activities on his own or in consort with others that he considers worthy and deserving.
The response from my new acquaintance was to say that that is a primitive and simplistic approach that may have been minimally workable in an earlier age, but not in a time of such complexity as our own. "How will 'Kenesha' in a low income job and little educational background know how to manage a retirement account or select a healthcare insurance policy, or even afford to have them?" he asked.
I resisted mentioning what seemed to me to be an implicit "racial profiling" that a young black woman would not have the ability to manage aspects of her daily life without a governmental overseer taking her by the hand to take care of it for her.
Instead, I asked who supposedly is qualified to make these decisions for others through the government, if it is not to be the people themselves through the competitive options and information that would be offered and constantly improved upon in a truly free market?
He replied that is precisely the role and task of the qualified experts who man and manage the appropriate governmental agencies, bureau, and departments concerned with providing for the necessities and needs of the general public and especially those in the lower income brackets.
The Paternalistic Hubris of the Progressive

I pointed out the paternalistic attitude in his view of things that people are neither responsible nor informed nor interested enough in their own lives to take care of these matters. He said, "Yes, look at how many people are obese, who clearly do not know how to follow reasonable and healthy diet choices. There need to be educated and trained by qualified experts in the government to move the uninformed and irresponsible citizen in the better direction that they don't always seem willing or able to do for themselves."
I said that I considered such an attitude to reflect a high degree of arrogance and hubris, a view that humanity is made up of weak-minded simpletons who need guiding care-givers and wardens to watch over and confine their conduct into narrow corridors of behavior that the government officials -- the "experts" – consider "good," "right" and 'just."
Contempt and Disregard for People's Free Choices

I explained that while "progressives" often use the rhetoric of "democracy" and respect for the dignity and diversity of people, the reality is that that they wish to override the choices people make in their everyday affairs to fit the presumed "right" and "rational" and "socially conscious" courses of actions that the proponents of political paternalism are convinced are the only "enlightened" and "just" ones.
The world is to be reduced to and confined within a narrow corridor of forms of "good behavior" that people will be either penalized for violating or subsidized for doing through government regulation and spending.
I reminded my new friend of the words of the British political philosopher, John Stuart Mill, who declared that until people are ready for freedom they can only hope to be ruled by a wise and benevolent dictator. But that Mill's contemporary, the noted British historian and political writer, Thomas Macaulay, replied by saying that Mill's suggestion reminded him of the fool in the story who said he would not go into the water until he knew how to swim. Unless freedom is exercised, individuals will never learn the lessons that may lead them to make wiser and more intelligent decisions over time. Otherwise, we run the risk of maintaining large portions of the population in a form of permanent childhood, living off and dependent upon the commanding decisions of those in political power.
The Arrogance and Abuse of Power

I also explained the argument and insight of the Austrian economist, Friedrich A. Hayek, that the more complex the society the less it is in the capacity of any one person or any group of people, no matter how well trained as "experts" in the art of political paternalism, to know enough to successfully manage and direct the affairs of the society better than leaving such matters to the individuals themselves in their own circumstances as they see and understand it best.
I pointed out to him that leaving such vital and essential matters in the hands of those in political authority and to the presumed "experts" in the government bureaus, agencies and departments ignores what we all, pragmatically, know to be true: the misuse and abuse of power and position by those in government for their own self-interested purposes and for those who assistant them in remaining in power.
The Hope And Dream for a World of Political Altruists

My interlocutor seemed unmoved by any of these counter arguments. He merely pointed to the class of especially trained "experts" who man the interventionist-welfare state in France, who seem to be not susceptible to the same corruption and abuse of power as in America. There are special French universities that have the precise purpose of educating and graduating a selfless elite who enthusiastically wish only to manage society for the good of the "the people."
I responded by pointing out that there seemed to be plenty enough scandals concerning those in political positions of power and responsibility, and corruptions involving influential special interest groups in France, as reported in the American media from time-to-time; this suggests that the French have their equal "fair share" of human beings who take advantage of their political and regulatory authority just like everywhere else.
They are not a special political class of ethical eunuchs who are altruistically living for and serving "humanity" in a manner different from the rest of mankind. This was merely another instance of the socialist fairytale that, once we go beyond the self-interest and selfishness of capitalism into the "social justice" of collectivism, human nature will be transformed into a world of pure and simple other-orientedness in which human beings only think in terms of and act for the good of some imaginary "common good" and never just for themselves.
His response was to point to all that is provided and done through government for the good of the poor and less responsible, and for economic improvements in society through government-business partnerships in the area of innovation and transformative technology.
What is Seen and What is Not Seen

I observed that after spending trillions of taxpayers' dollars over the last half-century "the poor are still with us" in America, with millions of people still locked out of market opportunities due to the burdens of the interventionist-welfare state. And there have been enough scandals and failures in the arena of government-business "partnerships" to suggest that the rhetoric surrounding them was "smoke and mirrors" to cover what they are really about: special interest groups picking the pockets of taxpayers because they cannot successfully market technologies and products that consumers value enough to buy at prices covering costs of production.
I pointed out that there was a nineteenth century French economist, Frederic Bastiat, who once penned a great essay called, "What is Seen and What is Not Seen." Yes, when government taxes away people's income and wealth to subsidize a solar power company, or to repair a bridge, or cover some people's expenses to go to college, we more directly see the results. And the proponents of such programs can proudly point to what is created or made available that might not have if not for this government largess.
But Bastiat's point was to remind us of what is not seen. If government had not taxed away those dollars and if they had remained the pockets of those who had honestly earned them, they would have been spent on many other things that the income earners themselves considered worthwhile and valuable. Instead of a government subsidized solar company, maybe some of those untaxed dollars would have been invested in a market-based profit-oriented pharmaceutical product that would alleviate the pain and suffering associated with some deadly disease.
Instead of repairing an existing bridge, maybe some of the money would be been invested in computer and software technologies that would made telecommuting for work easier so some roads and bridges would have to be less travelled. Or instead of covering one person's college education, some of the untaxed dollars would have been given as a charitable contribution for cancer research or to help fund a private wildlife preserve, or simply to buy new better pair of shoes for a taxpayers' own child's feet.
The look on my dinner companion's face hinted that that sounded all well and good, but those were just imaginary things in my trying to make a point. Private people do private things – therefore, non-"social" things – when they spend their own money. "Socially good" things only come primarily through governmental action serving the interests of all of us together, the community to which we all belong, and for which we all have the obligation and responsibility to contribute through tax dollars.
Progressives Cling to Collectivism

Here, in my opinion, are some of the essential issues and dilemmas facing the advocate of individual liberty, free markets, and constitutionally limited government. Too many of our fellow citizens do not believe that individuals have a right to live for themselves. They truly and honestly believe that "society," "community," the collective, is something independent of the distinct individuals who comprise it, and for which the individual is morally, politically and legally obligated to serve and sacrifice for. Police power is a legitimate and appropriate tool of enforcing these obligations and duties, if resistance or indifference is experienced among the citizens citizens in the undertaking of these activities.
For the "progressive," government is "society's" agent to undertake the tasks of "social justice" and "entitlement" that are owed to each member and to which everyone is required to provide their contribution. Police power is the means by which everyone is made to contribute their "social dues" in the form of either obedience to government regulations or payment of taxes for redistributive purposes.
Liberty and the Meaning of Society and the "Social"

For the classical liberal or libertarian, on the other hand, government is considered an agency for the protection of each individual's rights. "Society" is comprised of the networks of relationships and associations formed by individuals and in which they interact for various fulfillments of human happiness and well-being. These are not only the market exchange relationships of peaceful cooperation through competition and the buy and selling of goods and services.
It incorporates family, friends, professional associations, intellectual organizations and hobby groups. It includes faith and religious affiliations and participation, and all networks of charity and philanthropy at local community and wider levels. These networks of human association are what are often called "civil society."
The purpose of government in the classical liberal or libertarian perspective is to assure the security and protection from private plunder and violence that would disrupt or disturb the peaceful pursuits that individuals find it useful and enjoyable and fulfilling to follow through various and diverse associations of civil society.
Through them people express and satisfy the sundry sides of life and human existence that make the earthly sojourn meaningful and joyful, and "lived." Any intrusion of government, the political authority with its legitimized use of force, other than in the "negative" form of rights protection, weakens, undermines, and potentially destroys a person's liberty and therefore his ability to make his life have meaning and have happiness for himself.
Furthermore, the interventionist-welfare state undermines people's personal and financial ability to participate in those acts and associations of benevolence towards others that they are called by their conscience to pursue in the ways they consider best and most likely of success. The redistributive state arrogantly replaces each person's personal judgment and decision with that of the self-appointing "experts" who claim to speak and know best for society through the coercive arm of government.
Matching these ethical issues of the rights of the individual to live and act peacefully for himself as he sees best, the "progressive" often demonstrates a blinding degree of ignorance and misinformation about the workings of a competitive market economy, the nature of the profit and loss system, and the "invisible hand" of competitive cooperation through the peaceful and the voluntarist pursuit of self-interest.
He suffers from a confused, garbled, and contradictory grab bag of ideas derived from Marxism, Fabian socialism, nationalism, fascism, and, though it would be radically and vehemently denied, often-subtle forms of racism, as well.
Through all the progressive's rhetoric about "democracy" and "equality" and "social justice" and "diversity," theirs is a political philosophy and public policy ideology of elitism, hubris, and authoritarianism dominated by the idea and ideal of remaking human beings, human relationships and the structure and order of society into redesigned patterns and shapes that reflect their notion of how people should live, work, associate and earn a living.
That is why the modern liberal or progressive represents the face of a contemporary political, economic and cultural "soft" tyranny – compared to the brutal and murdering totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century – against which the classical liberal and libertarian must continue their centuries-long fight for human liberty.
Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-91481613045771555502016-04-09T22:29:00.003-07:002016-04-10T09:13:49.457-07:00A Looking Bike, Hipster Tuneup, and the American Slave State- The Sunday CollageIt all started with an email from my sister and then a phone call from Late Night Dave. Late Night Dave works in a law enforcement capacity and by all accounts is a pretty nice guy. He lives in Seattle. I've only met him once.

Dave had found a beautiful 1994 Harley Davidson Heritage in the Nampa- Caldwell area about 20 miles west of Boise. He had been negotiating with the owner who had originally asked 8,000 for the bike which Dave had negotiated down to 7,000. With only 9800 miles, Late Night asked me if I would go check it out.

I met the owner at his residence. His name is Dennis. Dennis showed me the bike. I am in awe anytime I see a motorcycle that is 22 years old and absolutely pristine. Not even a discolored pipe. The only flaw I could find was a 1/4" rock strike on the gas tank which peeled a little paint- even the tires still had the nubs on them. Dennis had just put on the second set of tires.

I often refer to bikes as "riding" bikes and "looking" bikes. This bike was a "looking" bike, nearly a museum piece. A trailer queen. I've never owned one. My bikes get ridden hard, sometimes in rain, and sometimes they swap paint or find the pavement. I've agreed to all of those terms. But the point of this story doesn't have anything to do with that pristine bike. It has to do with Late Night Dave-who at age 62 and without a motorcycle endorsement- asked me if he should be buying motorcycles.

Have I ever heard anyone, regardless of age ever say, "gawd I wished I hadn't bought that bike." I don't think I've ever heard that- certainly not in the company of men. If someone actually regretted buying a motorcycle, that is something you keep to yourself or perhaps utter in a confessional booth. Mostly, I know people who regret not buying a bike or who regret selling a bike. That is the stuff I remember. And so it was- Dave at the advanced age of 62- bought a motorcycle. A very pristine one. I think he'll love it.

Shifting gears so to speak...

This morning my gal and I went out to eat. I've been doing my annual meat diet hoping to lose 40 pounds. We often go to this small restaurant that is quite popular and on weekends there is always a line. As it turns out, there was only one couple ahead of us. This is a seat yourself joint.

So as we stood in line, these two hipsters showed up and one of them muscles past me into the restaurant. I'm thinking he already has a seat and he just ran out to the parking lot for something. His buddy stood behind me in the line. As it turns out, the first hipster located a couple of vacant counter seats, turned around and motioned for his friend to come on in.

I suppose 25 years of dealing with assholes doesn't just wash off overnight. I wish that I could tell you that my Zen Buddhist philosophy kicked in and those of us in line hummed a few bars of "'Que Sera...Sera....whatever will be will be"....but that's not quite how it worked out.

As soon as the first hipster motioned his friend in, I looked at them and I said "Sure you guys go ahead...you were first in line." The hipster behind me said, "you don't have to be a dick." That lit me up just a bit. I responded, "Well as a matter of fact it appears that I do and by the way, go fuck yourself." Now when you have a moment like this, and you decide to pull the trigger like that, you must accept the consequences. And for a brief instant, I was prepared to take an even more enthusiastic stand if you know what I mean. Sometimes that's how these things have to go. I am not particularly proud of how I handled this- but I'm not offering up any apologies either.

The truth is, at age 55 in my most lucid moments, I'm not sure I wanna dance anymore. I may get my ass kicked some day. Unfortunately, I just can't run away from my sense of right and wrong- it's like a part of me. I can't tolerate bullies either, I confront them. My gal was embarrassed and she's a girly girl- not much help in a scrap, so here's the deal.

People make mistakes. When I screw up, I apologize because that's what responsible people do. This sense of doing the right thing and offering an apology when you are out of line has apparently gone missing from whatever upbringing those two hipsters had. As is stands, I feel confident that those two won't be cutting in front of anyone having received that rather blunt, refresher course in manners.

For a couple of days, I've wanted to write a piece about the anger in this country as it applies to this "leadership" we have. We were conned. We had bank bail outs with tax payer money and then we had health insurance bailouts wherein our masters simply directed us to send in 6 thousand a year or more rather than simply steal it out of the treasury like they did for the bankers.

Do any of us actually think we are free?

American corporations, bankers, billionaires, the oligarchy. Winning. The rest of us....the middle class...

Are economic slaves. Our masters spend and we pay. Although I can't stand Warren Buffett, I actually like his father. His father understood well, the correlation between gold and freedom. I don't think I can explain it any better than this. Here then is a piece which will cause even the most skeptical people to pause. I think you'll like it.

https://www.sprottmoney.com/blog/warren-buffetts-father-gold-and-liberty-jeff-nielson.html

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-2089296248836508962016-04-03T21:02:00.004-07:002016-04-04T16:21:26.044-07:00The Affordable Plumbing Act of 2014

Greg drives to President Obama's new house, which is located in a very exclusive, gated community near Chicago, where all the residents have a net income of way more than $250,000 per year.

Greg arrives and takes his tools into the house. He is led to the guest bathroom that contains the leaky pipe under the sink. Greg assesses the problem and tells Obama that it's an easy repair, that will take less than 10 minutes. Obama asks Greg how much it will cost. Greg checks his rate chart and says, "$9,500."

"What?! $9,500?!" Obama asks, stunned, "But you said it's an easy repair. Michelle will kill me if I pay a plumber that much!"

Greg says, "Yes, but what I do is charge those who make more than $250,000 per year a much higher amount so I can fix the plumbing of poorer people for free. This has always been my philosophy. As a matter of fact, I lobbied the Democrat Congress, who passed this philosophy into law. Now all plumbers must do business this way. It's known as the 'Affordable Plumbing Act of 2014'. I'm surprised you haven't heard of it."

In spite of that, Obama tells Greg there's no way he's paying that much for a small plumbing repair, so Greg leaves. Obama spends the next hour flipping through the phone book calling for another plumber, but he finds that all other plumbing businesses in the area have gone out of business. Not wanting to pay Greg 's price, Obama does nothing and the leak goes un-repaired for several more days. A week later the leak is so bad President Obama has had to put a bucket under the sink.

Michelle is not happy as she has Oprah and guests arriving the next morning. The bucket fills up quickly and has to be emptied every hour, and there's a risk the room will flood, so Obama calls Greg and pleads with him to return.

Greg goes back to Obama's house, looks at the leaky pipe, checks his new rate chart and says, "Let's see, this will now cost you $21,000."

Obama quickly fires back, "What? A few days ago you told me it would cost $9,500!"

Greg explains, "Well, because of the 'Affordable Plumbing Act,' a lot of wealthier people are learning how to maintain and take care of their own plumbing, so there are fewer payers in the plumbing exchanges. As a result, the price I have to charge wealthy people like you keeps rising. Not only that, but for some reason the demand for plumbing work by those who get it for free has skyrocketed! There's a long waiting list of those who need repairs, but the amount we get doesn't cover our costs, especially paperwork and record-keeping. This unfortunately has put a lot of my fellow plumbers out of business, they're not being replaced, and nobody is going into the plumbing business because they know they can't make any money at it. I'm hurting too, all thanks to greedy rich people like you who won't pay their 'fair share'. On the other hand, why didn't you buy plumbing insurance last December? If you had bought plumbing insurance available under the 'Affordable Plumbing Act,' all this would have been covered by your policy."

"You mean I wouldn't have to pay anything to have you fix my plumbing problem?" asks Obama.

"Well, not exactly," replies Greg. "You would have had to buy the insurance before the deadline, which has passed now. And, because you're rich, you would have had to pay $34,000 in premiums, which would have given you a 'silver' plan, and then, since this would have been your first repair, you would have to pay up to the $21,000 deductible, and anything over that would have a $7,500 co-pay, and then there's the mandatory maintenance program, which is covered up to 17.5%, so there are some costs involved. Nothing is for free."

"WHAT?!" exclaims Obama. "Why so much for a puny sink leak?!"

With a bland look, Greg replies, "Well, paperwork, mostly, like I said. And the internal cost of the program itself. You don't think a program of this complexity and scope can run itself, do you? Besides, there are millions of folks with lower incomes than you, even many in the 'middle class', who qualify for subsidies that people like you must support. That's why they call it the 'Affordable Plumbing Act'! Only people who don't make much money can get it. If you want affordable plumbing, you'll have to give away most of what you have accumulated and cut your and Michelle's income by about 90%. Then you can qualify to GET your 'Fair Share' instead of GIVING it."

"But who would pass a crazy act like the 'Affordable Plumbing Act'?!" exclaims the exasperated Obama.

After a sigh, Greg replies, "Congress ... because they didn't read it."

This will help you understand Obamacare .... And here you have it, the 'Affordable Plumbing Act of 2014'.

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-48745715099893474902016-03-28T09:48:00.002-07:002016-03-30T07:15:36.370-07:00The Hypocrisy of "naked capitalism"Old bankers and old cops. Sometimes we just cling to the old ways.

Today, I thought I'd comment on a blog I love to hate. I read it although there are things I despise about it. So let's just call this a review. "naked capitalism" is a blog with 77 million hits.

The author, Yves Smith is actually a gal named Susan Webber. Ms Webber is a Harvard grad (business school, I guess) who became a Wall Street banker among other things- even working for Goldman Sachs at one point. Her sketchy bio and what little information it provides- tells you very little about who she actually is. You get the privileged child meme but little else.

I have found over the years that people who write under pen names generally have something to hide. They are like the minions, those millions of commenters who refuse to use their real names. They do that because they want to be free of the accountability and responsibility of what they write. I get that. Free speech in America does not mean that what you say won't generate nasty retaliation and sometimes it crosses the line. Some anonymous types are just scared and they see the with holding of personal information as prudent.

I tend to overlook all of that and classify it under "personal circumstances." Whether you are rich or poor, educated or not- you may have something insightful to say. That is all part of the grand birth lottery initially- you are either born to a single crack addicted mother or you catch Susan's parents. Either way it is humbling to know that your success is probably owed to the winds of chance and nothing else. I often think that way.

In the 8 years I have been writing here, I have deleted 5 or 6 comments (other than spammers) only because they were vicious attacks. I would have let them stand had they been truthful or contained content of some merit- but they were just vitriolic, nasty, personal attacks and as such- I sent them to comment hell. Sometimes the reverse is true regarding comments. Some of the commenters and readers here have become my friends. They are actually on my Facebook page. I can think of at least four of you. Some comments have caused me to set aside my own personal bias to investigate allegations and claims which ultimately changed my belief about something.

Ms. Webber doesn't like my comments. I point out flaws and sometimes lies- like the Clinton surplus which never happened but for some odd reason people still believe it did- I guess because Slick Willy said so. That surplus chat was a big piece of a recent "nc" William K Black piece.

I don't like Modern Monetary Theory much either. It is just old Keynesian thinking dressed up as something new. Yves writes about MMT. So when I write comments, the few that have made it past her controlling eyes, they are either attacked or deleted.

I have this blog. I have never tried to create an echo chamber. My skin, while certainly not the thickest, is still pretty thick thanks to 25 years of policing and about 8 more years of writing publicly. If you take shit personally- and you don't feel comfortable with a little confrontation- then policing or public writing might not be for you.

Which brings me here.

I'm not going to work in a field filled with fraud, take paychecks for 20 years or so from thieves in suits, and then suddenly realize the banking industry is full of corruption. It's not going to take that long unless you are simply co-opted. It only took me about 9 months worth of ripping people off in Las Vegas- and I returned to law enforcement. The company I worked for, ITT Financial Services, was simply the most dishonest predatory lender I could imagine. Even the manager was stealing collateral (a Corvette) and claiming it was sold at auction.

So how does a blog receive 77 million hits while rendering a fair amount of opinion and bullshit? Is it clever writing or entertaining? Perhaps marginally so. Huffington Post, the online liberal fluff generator, sold for 300 million. I still scratch my head over that.

Writers have a great opportunity to include people. Instead they exclude people. If I were going to write a credible, believable blog- here are some rules I might employ.

Rule #1. Don't take paychecks from crooks for 20 years. (Hint- they are still crooks whether they are prosecuted or not, kind of like mobsters) That damages one's credibility. It either means you were complicit, a crook yourself, or after 20 years you became a disgruntled employee. Either way- being a bank insider and then suddenly discovering what they do and becoming angry abut it twenty years later makes me wonder if you might be a little slow.

Rule #2. Let's not pretend you are in possession of some proprietary information that only Ivy League grads can understand. You are not. Many of us understand that banks and trading desks manipulate markets, make exotic bets through the use of complex strategies and trading conduits, employ strategies to inure or re-insure positions, give shitty advice that they profit from, rip off clients or taxpayers as the case may be. Only the conduits by which they accomplish this are new.

Rule #3 Print comments. If you are going to be a fearful, controlling type that must edit everything except the inaccuracies of your own featured writers- then maybe close commenting altogether. As it stands- all the comments appearing under any given piece seek only to produce one big echo chamber where agreeable ass kissers pass the gatekeeper's muster, dissenters are persona non grata. Perhaps Susan should have us fill out an online application listing our credentials before approving it.

Rule #4 Don't be a snob even if that is at the core of your being. People don't like snobs and if they do- that concerns me. It takes me back to the Dave Barry days. Pay attention to how people treat the waiter because that is how they will treat you one day. I have seen such things come to pass.

I have probably read a thousand blogs. I learn something from every one of them. I have a gold trading blog where the author has been "dead on" with every turn in the market for over a year. That is a must read for a trader like me. I have two blogs which I have quit reading because they have turned into "pay to read my stuff" sites. I have one or two blogs wherein the writers have simply quit writing altogether. I read some blogs for their great writing, Ace and Taxicab Depressions, I like the pictures and conservative attitude of the Feral Irishman.

In the end, we do and read what we want. I read naked capitalism- but it is often inaccurate. It is certainly not a free speech zone either- you can do your own investigating while reading the comments and looking for dissenters. The other hallmark of snobbery on "nc" are the rules for commenting. Read that caustic page for the true flavor of who Susan Webber is.

Each year Yves-Susan launches a campaign drive looking for money. I giggle when I see that. It reminds me of some poor broker trying to shake down his clients selling the company's book. I suppose the old ways are hard to shake off. I'd kind of like to see how much Yves receives each year and where it is spent. Those are my old investigative ways and indeed, they are hard to shake off.

There it is Frankenstein Government style. Offering opinions for nothing and expecting the same in return. Sugar free since 2008.

Brianhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-64660774550644205132016-03-16T08:05:00.002-07:002016-03-28T10:05:17.116-07:00King Putt Nominates Gun Grabbing Judge, Quelle Surprise!I stole the quelle surprise line from Yves at naked capitalism. More on naked capitalism in a week or two.

CNBC calls nominee "centrist." Carly Fiorina calls bullshit on live television and says he is the most liberal of the three potential picks.

Reading a lot about Obama's Supreme Court nominee today, Merrick Garland. Now waiting to hear King Putt introduce the pick on television.. Chief Justice on the D.C. circuit court of appeals.

He is a statist technician. A guy who would seek to expand federal power.

Merrick Garland is another crafty Washington insider and of course- he has the mandatory Harvard indoctrination. (His undergrad degree was the highly sought after Sociology degree) They are calling him a moderate. At first blush he looks moderate but the truth is- he is a gun grabber and wants to revisit the 2nd amendment and overturn our Constitutional right to bear arms.

http://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/432716/moderates-are-not-so-moderate-merrick-garland

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-63558502974254369732016-03-12T09:31:00.001-08:002016-03-12T14:33:31.539-08:00Mass Appeal and the No Bullshit Donald Trump- The Sunday CollageBeen awhile since I've been here.

I cannot tell you how disillusioned I've become watching the eternal campaign season and knowing that we still have 8 months of this. We have a socialist, a criminal, and an ego-maniac running for the Presidency. It appears we are going to get one of these people in the White House. God help us.

I have to take you back here, just a little bit, to explain a couple of truths about politics as explained to me by my college professors. The most relevant lesson here is that politicians try to cast the widest net while appealing to the largest voting block imaginable. Today's politician has that lesson down to a science. They know that opinions and drawn lines will cost them votes and campaign support. So today's career politicians are some of the biggest pussies around. They will drone on for hours- carefully watching every word they utter- telling voters what they think they want to hear. They are professional salesmen and liars. Obama has those nuances down to a science. Obama came off like this moderate, funny guy while gathering votes in both campaign cycles. Once in office we saw who he really is. A lazy, controlling far leftist who supports big money in industries like banking and health care. He's a war monger and a statist. In short, President Obama is the political science 101, cookie cutter politician. Had he not bailed out the banks and caused this inflationary, giant balloon economy- he would be an unmitigated disaster. As it stands, jumping in bed with the bankers has probably helped his image and his "legacy," It didn't help the country- but it helped him. We know where his priorities lie.

I heard another name for Obama just the other day that made me chuckle. King Putt.

So what is it about Donald Trump that has such mass appeal?

Oh sure people are dis-illusioned with our system. The system doesn't care about "we the people." It cares about big money and special interests. Of course it is corrupt. Congressmen all over the United States get elected and walk out as lobbyists (read paid off) or as millionaires. They get nice little loans here and there, their kids get college admissions and nice jobs. (think Chelsea Clinton's first job making 600k a year and doing nothing,)
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2014/06/13/chelsea-clinton-in-first-journalistic-gig-paid-600000-by-nbc/

So the system is corrupt. The political process is corrupt. We desperately need campaign reform and term limits but we can't make it happen and then all of a sudden, Donald Trump arrives.

Trump is already a billionaire. He doesn't need to kiss anybody's ass for money. He doesn't even need to choose his words carefully. He is the political science 101 anti-christ. He just tells it the way it is- no dancing around, no hedging bets, no convenient little lies like Hillary or Cruz might use.

In short, Trump doesn't have to play by established rules. It gives him a huge advantage not just over his opponents but even the Republican Party can't find a way to control or rein him in. He doesn't need their advice or their support.

That's money. And money my friends- buys a lot of freedom and free speech.

For the first time in decades- we have a candidate who tells it like it is. Lost jobs, immigration, the leftist "common core" mediocre teaching methods. Trump doesn't mince words- he just lays it out. And that pisses off the left. The left is so used to controlling the conversation and the dialogue that they don't know how to stop Trump either. All that blunt truth telling about their failed programs and policies just pisses them off.

It should.

Yesterday, Trump told it like it is about the debates. He is sick of them. He is sick of regurgitating the same old information over and over again while the only beneficiaries are the networks and their ratings. Trump also received the endorsement of my favorite guy, Ben Carson. Carson is an all around nice guy, level headed, boring, and un-electable.

The mass appeal of Donald Trump is that he is a "take no prisoners, spew no bullshit" sort of guy. For millions of Americans- this is the first time we've seen someone like this in our lifetimes.

What kind of leader might he be? Well we know Trump doesn't have to feed at the special interest trough, He's not looking for handouts or speaking engagements. He doesn't need the endorsement of any moneyed interests or party support. That's not a bad place to start. Given the alternatives, Trump looks like a no brainer. You actually get the feeling he will get things done. Imagine the entertainment value! This could actually be fun to watch.

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-64961790274978904692016-02-24T11:53:00.001-08:002016-02-24T15:00:06.221-08:00Mike Pompeo, Kansas Rep, Receives Tongue Lashing From Yours Truly I have to quit watching television. Some years ago...in a land not so far away...

The founding fathers came up with this document called the Constitution with an accompanying document called the Bill of Rights. I think it's safe to say the documents came about as a result of all of the human history which pre-dated it's origin including the Magna Carta and it's material demise. Indeed, the Constitution and Revolutionary War came about as a result of a King still rendering taxes on those which had fled his rule.

Today while watching CNBC, I witnessed a Kansas Representative, Mike Pompeo, on national television lecturing those watching on why Apple had no right to impede the FBI and the federal governments' never ending intrusions into our lives. You see, folks like Pompeo don't get it. They don't understand that the Constitution and Bill of Rights are the law of the land. In their minds, Congressmen can simply ignore the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It's as though it doesn't apply to them and they are free of those constraints.

Moreover, as they go about their business of ignoring inconvenient laws they install freedom stripping laws in their place- laws like the Patriot Act.

So today's speech on CNBC consisted of Pompeo telling the uninformed, small fry in America why it was acceptable to suspend the 4th amendment. You know that amendment, the one which states we will be from free from unlawful search and seizure without due process.

Of course, the CNBC interviewers never bring up the 4th amendment nor did Representative Pompeo. It's an inconvenient fact or truth in America- that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were taught to all of us. In fact, learning about the Constitution is still a part of becoming a citizen. I guess everyone has forgotten it or maybe they think, the Constitution has an expiration date. The ironic part, the part that always makes me shake my head- is when I observe elected Congressmen who swear an oath to protect the Constitution and then set about the task of engineering laws- which subsequently violate it.

You did a helluva job today Mike.

So after listening to Pompeo rant about why Apple has no business hindering the Federal government in it's quest to search and seize data from our phones- I got a little miffed. I looked up Pompeo's email. Here's what happened.

Pompeo has a website which attempts to restrict email from anyone other than his "constituents." I suppose Congressmen can do this and provide any number of excuses for limiting access. I am kind of ok with that if you are a state legislator- only working on state laws which effect Kansas residents.
However, when you are elected to Congress- the rules change. Now you are originating and voting on legislation which effects all of us. You are also making appearances on national television and bloviating to the bourgeoisie by telling us how we should think. That level of ego and arrogance is just one of the many reasons why Congress has the worst approval rate in history.

So I had to tell one lie. I said I lived in Wichita and I grabbed a zipcode and I wrote Mr. Pompeo an email. In it, I outlined the 4th amendment and I also mentioned the cowardly nature of an email filter which would protect a Kansas legislator from emails from a concerned Idaho resident- concerned because Pompeo clearly forgot about the Constitution while riding high for the FBI.

So here's your constitutional refresher Mike, just in case you have forgotten what it says.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

So maybe Mike, the cops can just get a search warrant like they HAVE always had to do.

I imagined as a Police Chief that it would have been nice to limit all the tourists from contacting me and rendering their opinions over the years. "I'm sorry ma'am you are from the Bay Area and do not pay property taxes here. I am so busy that I only have enough time to talk to local residents" as I handed her back her California driver's license.

It's time people. It's time to take responsibility for these ego maniacs we keep electing and it's time to hold their feet to the fire.

Or it's not. Perhaps we should just surrender the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and let these people render it useless.

I swore to uphold the Constitution once. I don't remember that oath having an expiration date but maybe it did. Or maybe guys like Mike just don't take oaths anymore. Maybe one day the press can ask the appropriate questions- ya know if it dawns on them- and maybe one day I'll get to hear an appropriate answer. Gawd it's mind numbing.

Politics done right, is just civil compromise. Done wrong, it's deceitful, harmful propaganda. It would be nice to see it done right again.

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-64784731328930489672016-02-16T11:20:00.002-08:002016-02-18T07:47:41.887-08:00Larry Summers, Banker Shill, Suggests Eliminating the 100 Dollar BillWith an honorable mention to Ernest Hemingway for a proprietary concept- I must admit that thirty years seems like a long time. For me, it was 1986.

Some 30 years ago, my best friend who is now deceased, explained to me how he believed that bankers controlled the United States and he said that one day- bankers would desperately try to eliminate cash altogether. Whoever controls the money supply controls commerce and people he explained. Ultimately he said, banker leverage would far exceed the claims on cash in the event of a massive bank run. That would cause a cataclysmic bank disaster not unlike the one that unfolded in 2008. Given their choice, bankers would love to force everyone onto a credit card where the banking industry and government could monitor every transaction, eliminate cash transactions that avoid scrutiny and taxes, skim every transaction, and shut off your card whenever government deemed fit to do so. (We are seeing this with passports right now) In addition, electronic currency would allow banks to operate with impunity. There is no end to counterfeiting and leverage when bankers can convert a tangible form of money into largely intangible, electronic digits. Think about that. No more bank runs. Just add a few zeroes to your card. In an odd way, the currency that bankers created has become a heavy chain and burden around their necks.

I thought Craig was nuts at first but he was simply ahead of his time. And like most people who can see the future- Craig and his family were ultimately ridiculed. When you arrive first with a proprietary idea which speaks truth to power- ridicule, harassment, and prosecution will surely follow and it did.

Craig's father ultimately went to prison for engaging in the the same balance sheet tomfoolery that banks have been engaging in for ever. They called it bank fraud. When stealing money it seems, bankers don't like any competition.

So when I saw a CNN piece about Harvard educated and would be Federal Reserve chair, Larry Summers, suggesting the elimination of the 100 dollar bill- my thoughts immediately flashed back on my old friend. http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/16/investing/hundred-dollar-bill-larry-summers/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom This is how it starts. Seemingly intelligent, credentialed people telling us how it would be a good idea if we eliminated the 100 dollar bill. There must always be some demonstrated need to sell a big change- and in this case Mr Summers uses the "curtailment of crime" as his conduit. Drug dealers and money launderers would be the target. What a noble premise! Well except that...

Getting rid of the 100 dollar bill would actually have the opposite effect. It would enable crime to flourish. It would be the first step in eliminating currency altogether. If eliminating currency and evolving it into something digital become the end game- not only would audits become useless- but counterfeiting would become effortless. Leverage would go bonkers, reserves would never be disclosed. The greatest thieves- the ones in suits- would be dancing in the streets. And crime would just shift from one relatively small group of drug dealers and money launderers- to a giant horde of bankers skimming every transaction with money they don't even possess.

Precious metals would be outlawed. Guaranteed.

And the government? Wouldn't it just love to exert complete control over your bank accounts as it slowly goes broke, withdrawing taxes and shutting off your ability to transact whenever it deemed necessary? The government could simply declare you a domestic terrorist and seize your assets without due process. Kind of like they are doing with passports right now- rescinding them if you owe 50k in unpaid taxes- a number which will surely ratchet down in the years to come until they seize your right to travel altogether.

The sad truth, the one Craig understood, was that all things are accomplished incrementally with a long range plan. You can't simply outlaw currency altogether- you have to do it slow and incrementally- one little piece at a time offering a reasonable explanation for every step. That's been the slow drip of an ever oppressive Federal Government and the resultant erosion of our constitutional rights over time. One day we will be stripped of everything, mostly our freedoms, and while scratching our heads we shall wonder how it came to be.

My friend Craig died in an explosion a few years ago. It was a devastating loss for me. I wish he were here to see this. I can almost see him now- laughing and nodding his head- knowing full well that a nation of gullible and uneducated people might just concede the 100 dollar bill. Buying into some Harvard bullshit offered up on behalf of the banking cartel.

I must give credit to Ernest Hemingway for the general idea and observation which I have re arranged just a little bit... How did we lose our freedom? Two ways. Slowly at first, and then suddenly.

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-49257107946814272462016-02-11T06:25:00.004-08:002016-02-11T06:53:54.675-08:00Sweden Interest Rates Go Negative- Gold Jumps Nearly 50 Bucks PreMarketIt may finally be over. I think we can say the 5 year gold bear market is done. You know it's a crazy morning when Zerohedge servers are so overwhelmed that I can't get to the site.

Gold jumps nearly 50 bucks this morning- silver and platinum are up but not like gold is.

Sweden is the latest counntry to announce negative interest rates. If negative interest rates are going to cause deposits to erode away- people are simply going to withdraw their money and find the means to preserve capital.

Gold is a perfect vehicle for capital preservation.

I am now expecting Mr. Yellen to try and talk back the gold jump today during Humphrey Hawkins testimony. She might say some dovish thing about rates- but at .25 it's either zero or negative- so I can't imagine gold will do anything but continue to go up.

We'll know the fix is in if she suddenly goes dovish- but I don't think it will matter much. People and gold are starting to sniff out the future as bankers try to end cash and confiscate deposits.

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-38720738044529426382016-02-05T11:30:00.001-08:002016-02-05T11:35:01.512-08:00While Stocks and Commodities Deflate, Why Is Gold Up 10%?I've been following markets for 35 years. The first equity I ever owned was called Eastern Airlines. I have not owned an airline stock since then.

As I write today, the entire market is down. Oil has moved a little higher today (.13%) and gold after opening ten bucks lower this morning- is now in the green- albeit barely. (.40)

Gold, after trading down and closing an old gap around 1040 in January, has rallied to 1157. The HUI or mining index, after essentially having been driven into the ground, has rebounded 40%. That is where the smart money is flowing and it's just starting.

So while the markets deflate, including copper and silver to some extent, gold and gold miners are finding new life. The 64,000 dollar question is "why now?"

Markets, completely overpriced and inflated by 3 trillion dollars in QE and 7 years of zero interest rates, must come down. The dollar has been coming down which has helped gold considerably. There is simply no demand for anything right now despite the fact that everyone in America apparently has a minimum wage job. I think the perfect storm for higher gold is here.

Exiting a 5 year bear market where prices were driven inexplicably lower for years by dumping thousands of future contracts at oddball times, gold is catching a serious bid in 2016.

I think the single greatest thing- other than debasing all of the world's currencies- is the current talk of negative interest rates. Negative interest rates- a term never heard in my lifetime- is being bandied about and actually implemented in other countries. Can you imagine a situation where your money is so worthless with regard to fractional lending requirements that the bank actually charges you interest to store your money? It's not far fetched. It's happening now. http://www.bloombergview.com/quicktake/negative-interest-rates

So if you have any sort of excess wealth and you are desperately trying to save it from a falling market, confiscatory governments and banks, what's left?

Gold. And I prefer gold over silver, platinum, and palladium because gold is where the demand is. Central banks secretly horde it, The Chinese and Indians love it and right now with energy prices hovering at 10 year lows- gold miners will be extracting gold with improving margins.

I think negative interest rates are the latest trick in a banking world that never seems to exhaust all of it's tricks. I believe that gold will be a huge beneficiary of this latest charade. People will buy gold to simply preserve the inflated wealth they have garnered until they can re-deploy it. It is that re-deployment period that has me interested. I simply can't foresee it right now.

In my 35 years of trading and investing, I've never seen markets so completely detached from normal supply and demand relative to an alleged 4.9% employment rate. In the past, that type of employment rate would have created huge demand and inflation as more dollars chased fewer goods. Instead we have oil and commodities at decade lows.

I'm going to give you the names of 5 junior gold miners which I am accumulating. I believe the bottom is in. I will list these miners in order of my preference for them. These are junior miners which may or may not be takeover candidates. Please do your own due diligence.

Tahoe (TAHO) is a low cost producing miner paying 3% in dividends. They also have options.

Pretium (PVG) might be the biggest gold find in the world right now. Production is slated for 2017. I also think that they are a serious takeout candidate by a gold major.

Gold Resource Corp (GORO) They mine primarily in Mexico and they had a slightly bad (-.01) quarter. I think they were negatively impacted by silver prices.

Eldorado Gold (EGO) is a producing miner which has been acting very strong.

Klondex Mines (KLDX) is a new addition. The are reporting excellent gold intercepts and ounces per ton. They trade at an 11 PE with a good balance sheet. They are trading around 2.25.

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-35010331720591082662016-01-20T05:25:00.000-08:002016-01-20T10:29:36.982-08:00The Big HitYa ever heard anyone say that they felt like they've been hit by a Mack truck?

Just one day after a massive 20 semi-tractor trailer rig pile up just East of Baker City, Oregon- yours truly got a piece of the action yesterday on Martin Luther King day. Here's some video from the pileup that happened the day before. The Oregon State trooper at the end of this clip is the same trooper who attended our collision. http://www.onenewspage.com/video/20150118/2462721/Multi-Car-Pile-Up-Near-Baker-City-Oregon.htm

I've had a rough 6 months between retina detachments and surgeries, broken water mains, and various other minor calamities including but not limited to blood clots, another minor accident, and furnaces going out during cold snaps. Oddly, it should come then as no surprise to anyone reading this, that I should get rear ended by a semi-truck.

While traveling down the Oregon interstate early Monday morning, we encountered that nasty form of road- the one where the road surface appears wet but it is actually frozen over with black ice. Having spun out a time or two on that stuff as we headed west near the Snake River, the young guy driving our truck slowed down to an appropriate speed. As we began to crest a small rise, we noted a wall of trucks on either side of the two westbound lanes. Other truckers had pulled over and stopped. We had probably slowed to about 30 MPH when a sonic "KA BOOM" hit us and sent our 20 foot delivery truck careening into the median.

The force of the impact was such that I was sent reeling forward into the dash and then backwards into the metal cab directly behind my seat. I acquired a nice lump on top of my head from the dash, and an even bigger lump in the back of my head from the metal support behind my seat- I bit down so hard on my tongue that it was lacerated and bleeding on both sides. When we came to, both of us just stared at each other. I do not remember how we landed in the median. I do remember some guy asking us if we were ok through the driver's side window. I could taste the blood in my mouth and my head, neck, shoulders, and back were hurting. Eventually we unbuckled and got out of the truck to find out what the hell hit us. The road was so slippery we could barely stand.

This is where I will give you some helpful advice.

If you ever rear end someone with your semi-truck at 60-70 MPH, it might be nice of you to ask the occupants that you have just struck if they are alright or heaven forbid- apologize to them for hitting or injuring them. Under no circumstances should you exit your truck and in a hostile and angry manner ask the people you have just struck, "How come you didn't have your flashers on!" Trust that I am telling you the truth as I mention this.

Had I known Ms Ramirez would be driving with her head up her ass, and had I thought it might have helped her avoid striking us, I would have begun lighting flares and throwing them out of the passenger window as she careened down on us.

As it stands, the 2 feet of wrought iron lift gate on the back of our truck probably saved us from serious injuries. It did however, put a woeful gash through the front of Ms. Ramirez' Peterbilt truck before caving in her radiator and supply hoses- sending radiator fluid onto the back door of our truck.

Ms. Ramirez, employing the same successful strategy she had used earlier, followed us down the shoulder as we surveyed the damage and another semi turned over in the ditch. That driver had the good sense to try and avoid striking the unfolding collision in front of her and chose instead to careen down an embankment and overturn instead. That decision may have averted another 20 truck pile up like the one the day before. As I stood trying to figure out whether that driver was hurt, Ms. Ramirez doubled down on her first winning statement by telling us she needed our names and insurance info. I told her, "Let's just wait for the cops instead."

Ms. Ramirez and her female passenger spent the rest of their morning filming us with their cellphones after we victimized them- by slowing down with nothing other than our brake lights sans some fireworks and a flashing neon sign or two.

We waved off the ambulance, mostly because I didn't want to spend the day in Baker City or the night in observation. We exchanged info with the Oregon State police who oddly, made no inquiry as to whether or not we had employed our flashers. We limped the truck back home.

At the hospital in Boise, I went to the ER which only had one person in the ER waiting room. After signing in, a river of people began arriving. One by one, all six or seven people were checked in behind me and seen by doctors. I was left all alone in the waiting area. After an hour or so, I stood up and informed the desk that I was leaving. In the same helpful tone employed by Ms Ramirez earlier in the day, the gal at the front desk told me, "Ok, whatever."

On Tuesday night I found another river of people at the same ER. Having experience in the matter, I left, got in my truck, and traveled to the hospital in Nampa which checked me in and treated me ala a CT scan in a fairly expeditious manner as hospitals go. Two hours later, I received a clean bill of health.

This morning my lower back still hurts. My swollen tongue has returned to normal size. I can move my head side to side although I keep hearing popping noises in my neck. All in all, I feel pretty good and grateful given the circumstances.

I'd be a liar if I told you I hadn't thought "Ok, so what's next?" I can hardly wait.

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-83971928891602375812016-01-07T03:14:00.001-08:002016-01-07T03:38:04.254-08:00The Best Move in Oregon Is To Simply Walk Away- The Sunday CollagePlease allow me to meander just a bit....

One of the great gifts of small town policing, the kind we saw in the Andy Griffith Show, was Andy's ability to resolve every situation amicably. This happens or used to happen in small town America. In my old policing days, I am not ashamed to say that often enough- drunken bar patrons would call the police station directly for a ride home and if we had time as we often did- we drove them home.

Back in those days, we didn't fear some public backlash. There was severability- which meant we were free to do our jobs as policemen without getting sued for the actions of others. That all changed in my lifetime as groups like M.A.D.D. and large award seeking lawyers found ways to sue the police and our employers, (government and thus taxpayers) for our actions. The lawyers were always looking for the most money or "deepest pockets." In the end, I won't speculate whether that was all good or bad. but it changed the way we did business and it also spelled death for policing ala Mayberry style and the places that policed in a similar fashion.

I remember being in Jackson Hole, Wy. in the early 90's once and reading about a big debate in the local paper in which the cops were defending the practice of taking would be drunk drivers home- long after the rest of us had thrown in the towel.

The next big police controversy to take center stage were vehicle pursuits. People were getting killed needlessly over small infractions and misdemeanors all over America. It was a big deal. Ultimately pursuit policies were revised and thinking changed. Law enforcement quit engaging in frivolous pursuits. We were consistently weighing them for their ill effects and refusing to engage in pursuits if they were too dangerous. I believe there are thousands of people alive today because police officers began to see the error in that "one size fits all" approach to pursuing drivers for every minor offense.

The point of those two illustrations is that circumstances beyond our control caused us to rethink the way we did business. We became better risk managers. We began to see the larger picture and the ill effects of our actions. Every way of resolving a situation was examined. We made better decisions.

Which brings me to the current state of affairs in Oregon. Last week, armed militia members took over an abandoned (for the winter) wildlife visitor center in a very remote and un-populated part of Oregon. The militia are protesting the treatment of a local ranching family who live near the Malheur Wildlife refuge- the Hammonds. The Hammonds have apparently been getting the worst of it for several decades as the Federal government employs it's brand of big city policing in the middle of nowhere. Here is the best, most comprehensive history of the situation- shaded a bit for the underdogs. http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/01/03/full-story-on-whats-going-on-in-oregon-militia-take-over-malheur-national-wildlife-refuge-in-protest-to-hammond-family-persecution/

In the story you will see a picture of a small visitor center. This I guess, is what the militia has taken over and occupied. Big deal.

What would Andy do?

Well, let's think. Nobody has been hurt or taken hostage. There have probably been a couple of minor crimes committed, trespassing and burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, but all in all- not much of anything has really transpired. The Bundys and their supporters are responsible- they have publicly claimed responsibility thus investigating this at some future point and charging them appropriately seems pretty easy- albeit a little time consuming. What's the worst thing that can happen if law enforcement packs it up and goes home? Maybe a government building gets destroyed. Big deal. I doubt they will do that anyway.

So you know what I'm thinking?

The smart move here is to simply fold up shop and go home. Nobody gets hurt, the Bundys' will no longer have a stage with which to draw attention to this situation or their plight, and the media will conduct a few interviews and go home. If the Bundys' and their friends break any serious laws- it will greatly damage their future credibility and subject them to the consequences.

So if this was my Mayberry, I'd tell the troops to go home. Maybe check in on things once in awhile to make sure Cliven Bundy doesn't accidentally shoot himself in the foot or poach a deer in the off season. Sooner or later they'll run out of food, energy, and passion and go home.

We'll see if the Feds can sort this out. Perhaps they will worry and speculate that leaving this mess behind will embolden other groups to take over the parking attendant jobs at Mt. Rushmore or the guard shack at the Grand Canyon where the Feds shake us down for 20 bucks. In a way, the whole thing seems pretty comical. Never under estimate the ability of government to screw things up. They can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory nearly every time.

Brianhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-4212791533298693082016-01-01T11:04:00.002-08:002016-01-03T08:25:47.277-08:00Build Lots of Prisons, For We Shall All Be Criminals Soon Enough- The Sunday CollageCourage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.

Billy Graham

I've tried to be a good citizen most of my life. I've never had much use for rural speed limits but other than that- I've been pretty good. Once in awhile a murderous rage overcomes me, but as of yet, the government hasn't figured out how to ferret those thoughts out of me, pass a law stopping them, or just ask me to disclose them and send in a fine. So while I've had the good discipline to avoid any sort of rap sheet thus far- that is certainly subject to change.

You see, you simply cannot look at this leviathan government with it's Supreme Court rubber stampers and envision any sort of future or ending other than a violent one.

Nobody wants to talk about that. We think we can negotiate, reason with our masters. Come to agreement. We think we are too intelligent or civilized to have to settle our issues using "violence." Unfortunately throughout time- it is violence that settles most issues.

Try to envision a day, which shouldn't be too hard to do, when the government at all three levels- local, state and federal are garnishing your wages collectively at 75%- leaving you with 25%. The only people escaping this tremendous tariff will be the poor who simply can't pay it and the somewhat rare and uber rich who have already bribed our government to get the best tax treatment money can buy. The rich and elite also have the means to hide money and evacuate to some other locale. Being the chicken shits that I have known most rich people to be- I doubt they'd be much use to anyone, anyway.

That this is coming is evidenced by our government which has now passed a law preventing people who owe taxes from leaving our shores and suspending their passports. You will be stuck here like some poor, wage slave except this that plantation is much larger than the ones in South Carolina.

Thus at some future point, everyone stuck between the uber poor and the uber rich- will be getting their financial asses kicked paying taxes on everything. This will scale up rapidly I think, as more and more people drop out and the rich start to flee our shores. The most level headed among the remaining souls will want to negotiate with our government masters. Our government masters, having all the power will engage in some superficial negotiations and may even make a minor concession here or there- presenting themselves as cooperative. The middle class negotiators may use this as evidence that our government is still representative and responsible to "we the people"- which of course it is not.

The people with standing power never negotiate. Not only are negotiations not in their collective interest- they don't see any gain in making concessions. Power has a collective ego which says, "we are right and they are wrong." And so it is that our government masters will selfishly trench themselves in- ultimately making peaceful negotiations impossible. Our middle class negotiators will find superficial victories less common and anything substantive will be hollowed out and lost.

That is how this will end.

Now perhaps you are of the mindset that believes that all of this can be avoided. That somehow, some way, people will come to their senses in time to avoid all of this. To that I will point to the history of mob rule democracy- a democratic regime which is clearly in charge right now. They will appropriate for themselves anything they desire and they will invoke their majority as reason enough. Obamacare is a fine example of this.

Our masters are going to seize what they want from us. They are going to pass laws, tax and criminalize any sort of behavior which aids them- while diminishing you and your freedoms. People will appeal these arbitrary laws and seizures to the rubber stampers. The rubber stampers, members of government, will make their decisions in favor of government expansion which they have already been doing for 90 years or so.

And one day, when we are all sick and tired of losing- people are going to wake up. The force that divides us now will be the same force that unifies us then.

They'll pass a lot more laws, try to outlaw guns, outlaw gold and silver, outlaw currency and trade done in cash sans government monitoring. Credit cards with chips embedded in them will track you and shut off your money flow when they see fit. They'll pass laws preventing you from leaving our shores which they already have and they'll continue to tax you after you leave.They will pass a lot of shitty, freedom sucking laws and I suspect that most people- like the sheep that they are- will obey them.

There will be the dissenters, the old men like me, who will tell Obama, or Clinton, or Trump, or Congress, or Justice Roberts to go fuck themselves. I don't need any help reading the Bill of Rights nor do I need their bullshit interpretation of the commerce clause or their abandonment of "we the people" in favor of "we who write big re-election checks." It will be lonely at first. It always is.. These are the bravest of souls. The first ones will be labeled traitorous or treasonous. They will be punished and jailed, perhaps executed. Normal, decent folks like Edward Snowden and those that will surely follow him.

One by one, the pieces will fall into place. The government with it's vast array of eavesdropping capabilities, stored fuel, ammunition, drones and hastily built prison camp system- will think they are ready and own the high ground.

Americans, armed with well over a billion guns, a boatload of ingenuity, and a healthy distaste for a bully government will finally find some courage and have their say. The talking time will have passed.

Oh how I envy those who will see those days. Those deserters of death who will help restore the Republic. Government as we know it will finally be eradicated and re-manufactured with the additional lessons we have learned regarding campaign reform, term limits, the elimination of a central bank and the banking cabal once and for all, lobbyists and corporate bribery all gone. A fair tax and social programs where workers participate- rather than be ordered and gutted. Representation that spends money where it should be spent- at home. Never ending wars finished.Terrible precedent and woeful decisions by the rubber stampers thrown out. A re-installation of our Republic and a rule of law which applies to all once again. What a wonderful place this will be then. What a wonderful place this once was.

And oh how I laugh at those that think things will be settled any other way.

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-56866717024174572972015-12-28T05:40:00.000-08:002015-12-29T08:03:52.273-08:00All Men Are Not Created Equal- The Sunday CollageI think men were created with rights. Be they God given or by galactic mistake. We weren't put here to serve others unless of course, we choose to do so.

I guess that choosing part, who chooses, makes all the difference.

Thomas Jefferson, the great polymath, penned the phrase "all men are created equal." As he penned that phrase, Tom must have forgotten about those slaves he owned. I suppose being a polymath does not always include uncovering your own hypocritical tendencies.The great truth is, all men are not created equal. They never have been. In fact it's not even close and as it turns out- that is a large part of our current problem.

You see the big credentialed geniuses then and now- really aren't the geniuses we think they are. The truth does not become truth simply because some well respected man utters a phrase which we wished were true but in all reality- is completely false. Wishing something were true does not make it so.

This week on "American Thinker" I read a piece about how the government can now seize your passport for being a tax "scofflaw." The author, part of the brain washed herd of Americans, thinks that it is perfectly fine to seize one's passport for an arbitrary amount of uncollected taxes- now currently 50k and certainly to be revised downward in the coming years, Apparently this author believes it is the state that endows us with our freedom. That our freedom to travel is some privilege that can only be conferred upon us by our government masters and now taken away as they see fit.

This is why I detest government yet love my country- filled as it is with brainwashed sheep. This is in large part why I started this blog. I come from the brainwashed herd.

In America, we once fought a war with a King over 3% in taxes. Today we think of nothing of paying 40-50% in taxes or better- nearly all of us- except for those wealthy, elite corporate souls who have created a tax law which allows them to dodge what those of us in the middle class cannot.

Please think about this. Every time the government snatches some of your money- you have lost the freedom that comes with that money. It might have been a vacation, tuition, or elective surgery. Your freedom, your ability to succeed, hinges on what the government takes from you. We see this each time the government passes a new law- somebody somewhere is losing a freedom they used to possess.

Mostly we don't care as government sets about the task of identifying minorities- like lottery winners- and sucking up every last cent that they can get away with. Government couldn't accomplish such brazen acts of thievery without the aid of a hollowed out media that pretends to have some watchdog function- yet we all know that our media owners ride on horses carrying the government's brand.

We once had a media whereby authority was questioned. Where truth spoke to power and our Kings like Nixon- were banished in disgrace. Today we have a corporate media- completely captured and owned by elite tax dodgers. Afraid to call criminals like Hillary- a criminal. They sit idly by while these pieces of shit seek shameless power for themselves knowing they will benefit when they remind Hillary of the stories they quashed, of the checks they sent.

We once had leadership which refused to allow any central bank to skim off our wealth and inflate away the buying power of our work product by manipulating the quantity of our currency. Andrew Jackson where are you now?

We wouldn't dream of allowing tax money- money needed for running our government- to be siphoned off for loans to private banks, insurance companies, automakers, and anyone else promising votes or campaign contributions. We wouldn't have simply gotten rid of these government types that exercised control over our tax dollars- we would have had them prosecuted for malfeasance, fraud, or dereliction of fiduciary duty. Not only do they hijack our tax dollars, and create the very system that destroys us- but they have the shameless audacity to write books about themselves such as Paulson's On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System.

Our founders could not have conceived of a Supreme Court that rules nearly 100% of the time against "We the people" in favor of expanding government control over us and diminishing our freedoms every chance they get. A court that apparently has suspended the rule of law, turns a willful blind eye to 4th and 5th amendment protections against illegal seizures and due process- that allows government to do anything just so long as it can hop over the lowest bars of justification real or imagined. They do this because they owe. They owe their jobs to government and the party which selected them. You, they owe nothing to. You are simply some subservient herd animal, powerless to intervene or change the course of events. You exist as a conduit to be governed and fleeced. Any talk of freedom will be done with their permission.

That's how the system has evolved. Or devolved. The individual is powerless and he sure as hell is not equal.

I believed that Thomas Jefferson bullshit for 50 years. Until I realized it was bullshit, written by a slave owner, a member of the elite class of his day. No different then than the bullshit spewed by Trump to an angry America now. Trump is a man certainly created greater than equal, just like Mr Jefferson was. People are going to fall for Trump's bullshit just like Jefferson's. We desperately want what they say to be true. We believe it.

Unfortunately, it ain't true just because we want it to be true.

The reality is simple. We are not created equal. We are not free in as much as the great orators and geniuses of our time spout that bullshit. For me to believe that means I must disregard everything my lying eyes and ears tell me.

Government and freedom are not mutually exclusive concepts but they certainly are today. There is no stopping this. It will continue until such point that it can't continue- that will happen when virtually every American realizes they have been fucked and a collective anger the likes of which has not been seen in a long time sweeps across this land once again.

I shall end here today with the great inescapable truth about freedom which Isabel calls "harm"- as spoken by someone not a polymath and certainly not a member of the elite class.

"Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends."
― Isabel Paterson, The God of the Machine

 Born Isabel Mary Bowler in rural Manitoulin Island, Ontario, she moved with her family to the west when she was very young. She grew up on a cattle ranch in Alberta. Paterson's family was quite poor and she had eight siblings. A voracious reader who was largely self-educated, she had brief and informal public schooling during these years: about three years in a country school, from the ages of 11 to 14. In her late teen years, Bowler left the ranch for the city of Calgary, where she took a clerical job with the Canadian Pacific Railway. As a teenager, she worked as a waitress, stenographer, and bookkeeper, working at one point as an assistant to futureCanadian Prime Minister R. B. Bennett.

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-64032555202762552822015-12-06T18:27:00.001-08:002015-12-28T06:09:42.657-08:00Now Is the Time To Make Health Insurance Illegal- The Sunday Collage
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Have you ever looked at a problem and thought...."A complete moron could do a better job of managing this?" That's how I feel about healthcare in the United States. Getting rid of health insurers would be a huge leap in the right direction.

The idea is not mine. I culled it from the comments on a daily financial blog. The commenter failed to elaborate on the point yet I began to mull over the possibility that he was on to something. Let's call it a radical reform idea and preface it with a brief history of what happened within the entire health care arena prior to the controversial installation of the Affordable Care Act.

For the purposes of this piece I am going to try and write this as politically non-partisan as possible because politics and who did what are little more than distractions to be studied in some future history class. Interesting, but no longer useful.

A good starting point for our healthcare dilemma begins with the installation of Medicare in 1966. It is important to start here for two reasons. This is the beach head, that moment when government edged itself into the arena and set the precedent. It is also important to note there was no trust fund or savings set up prior to the installation of Medicare- thus it started out in the hole from the very beginning. People were receiving benefits without even having paid anything into the system.

Throughout the remainder of the 60's, 70's, and 80's, health care in the United States was satisfactory and mostly affordable although the slow drip of rising costs had already begun. Costs in medicare were quickly over run. Parts C and D were added. The program expanded allowing new treatments and new providers. The medical device industry and big pharma were demanding and receiving 20 year patent protection which truly amounts to a license to steal. Lawyers refused to cap awards in litigation, malpractice suits were costly and rampant. Malpractice insurance was also outrageous, sometimes forcing doctors to fold up shop. Insurers were busy maintaining margins, paying stockholders, and making all sorts of demands upon insureds and providers seeking to contain costs rather than take care of their customers. Customers became some third party conduit- largely left out of cost containment. Rarely is the actual consumer a part of the cost containment process where insurance is involved. Insurance and risk management in turn forced extended and specialized education with it's associated rising costs and credentialing. Within the provider world, a full third of hospital expenses were administrative. Non tax paying hospitals or non profits- have built empires rather than pay taxes. The demographics are just as bad. It seems that everyone in the health care arena was positioning themselves to take full advantage of the aging and largest generation ever. By the early 90's, the meteoric rise of healthcare costs was just beginning and it would take the financial meltdown of 2008 to bring it to critical mass. It was and still is- the perfect storm. The ACA was hastily written by a desperate healthcare industry and bullied through Congress because millions upon millions of healthy, young workers had left the work force and they weren't coming back to pay premiums. This left an over supply of unhealthy plan participants sucking the assets out of healthcare insurers.

The Affordable Care Act was simply a health insurer bailout. That is all it ever was.

Max Baucus, the former Montana Senator likes to take credit for the two years he spent writing the ACA. The truth is, that's simplistic and inaccurate. The ACA was largely modeled after the Massachusetts health care system. The ACA bill was actually written by a number of people, some in the House and Senate, but others who were advisers to President Obama (like Ezekiel J. Emmanuel), and some who advised members of congress (like Elizabeth Fowler). Other influences included lobbyists from the health care industry; the former governor of Massachusetts (and Republican presidential candidate) Mitt Romney; MIT Economics professor Jonathan Gruber (a former aid to Mr. Romney and later an adviser to the Obama Administration); and Harvard Professor of Public Health John McDonough (also a former adviser to Mr. Romney, and later an adviser to several US senators).

Here's the key. Nobody sat in on the process and protected the interests of consumers. The actual consumers, the people paying for this, were completely left out of the process. For over a year, I have been unable to uncover any evidence or minutes that might suggest that the number one, most interested party to this entire mess- the actual tax paying and insurance consumer- had any voice whatsoever in the ACA process.

Can you imagine passing any kind of legislation, let alone this behemoth, with zero advocacy from the people responsible for paying it? I can't even begin to imagine a process where the overwhelming majority were simply ignored. It actually smacks of collusion.rather than public service.

Remember the "taxation without representation" cry that rang out among colonists when a foreign King tried to tax us? Where are you now? What about that fourth amendment that allegedly protects me from unlawful search and seizure? Is the ACA not a seizure of my work product and therefore my property? Can the government simply seize, under color of law, anything it chooses and then hide behind the Commerce Clause? Maybe. I'm wondering who's going to stop them and when.

The Solution(s)

The mother of invention is necessity. We have arrived at that moment in time when we have to re-think everything we do in terms of health and health care. We will never be able to eliminate unforeseen events or congenital disease; however we can estimate numbers and curtail risk. This is not rocket science, actuaries and risk managers have been doing this for eons.

If I had an employee charged with reducing accidents, risk, and curtailing employee losses at my company and his solution every year for decades was to simply raise my costs, failing to provide any innovative solutions- at some point I would ask, "Why am I employing this guy?" I'd fire him. That is the situation with health insurance companies. They have become a parasitic one trick pony with only one solution. Raise rates. No price breaks for people who abstain from alcohol and drugs, no financial incentives for people who submit to regularly scheduled health check ups. No bonus for maintaining a physical fitness regimen. They simply don't care to reward people for reducing risk. Indeed, those healthy types swell their margins. They are busy sweeping every last crumb off the table.

Why is that? Insurers are focused on the short term. They have an entirely different focus. They want to make the most money right now- in this quarter. They don't care about individual lives, outcomes, or quality of life. They care about margins. Cutting their costs. Forcing you to see doctors that have agreed to their terms. They do not have a 20 year cultural plan or vision of a changing society in charge of their own health care needs. Indeed, they would see that as their enemy.

We need comprehensive reform at the cultural, grass roots level. We need education in our school system and we need to substantially incentivize people to eliminate risks and improve their health. I'm talking about rewarding people thousands of dollars in premium cuts for maintaining their health supported by annual exams and blood tests. Individuals, people, are not sheep to be fleeced in some corporate boardroom. We have never been a society that can't innovate or solve our own problems- unfortunately we have been led by the wrong people for far too long. We really do need to innovate and re-invent the wheel.

Originally, I listed about 25 reforms that need to happen- a list which doubled the size of this piece- but in the interests of brevity I have deleted them. Instead, I would like to leave you with an intermediate solution for those of us without insurance.

Last month, while searching for alternatives to 500 dollar a month Obamacare plans, I came across a Christian based health sharing innovation. It is Obamacare exempt- meaning that the uninsured will not have to pay fines for being uninsured. For 199 bucks a month, you can obtain a million dollars worth of coverage. There are some hoops to jump through- no tobacco or booze- and they may not cover pre-existing conditions. They have a completely different model- no stockholders and no ridiculous administrative costs. If you know of somebody that is uninsured, reasonably healthy, with an income stream that can support 200 bucks a month- this link might be worth sharing. http://www.libertyhealthshare.org/

Health insurance no longer does what it was intended to do. Rather than hedge against a catastrophic loss...it has become a catastrophic loss. The only answer health insurance companies have had- for the past 50 years- is to raise prices. They have essentially done nothing for their customers except take our checks and redistribute them.

Cutting out the insurance middleman would save billions. Consumers would no longer be forced to pay for marketing, advertising, stock holders, and all of the other expenses of insurance companies. We would save billions in administrative expenses, billions in government subsidies and backstops.

Health care providers would come face to face with their patients again. It would force providers to become competitive and it would also make for better outcomes.

Alternatives to insurers such as the liberty health share plan would be developed. In fact, I think so much money could be saved that plans could be developed according to income- where all but the terminally unemployable would participate and start putting a little skin in the game.

Making health insurance illegal is not as crazy as it sounds. It's time to find alternatives. A nation full of innovative people can surely do better than this.

Brianhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-87167482925528705292015-11-21T09:12:00.000-08:002015-11-21T09:15:15.115-08:00Now the Government Wants Your Passport- The Sunday CollageMore "land of the free" blogging. This time it's the "Drive Act." The government is calling it a highway and infrastructure bill and it's free!!

I am going to just post this and edit it tonight- so forgive me if you find any glaring mistakes, I have lots to do today.

The "Drive Act" like the "Patriot Act" and the "Heart Act", is yet another mislabeled and deceptive piece of legislation designed to raise more taxes and steal money from already existing, dedicated funds. Contained within the Heart Act is a provision that allows the government to seize your passport- your paid for property- if they decide you owe them more than 50,000 in taxes.

Like freezing your banks accounts, the government does this without any sort of due process. Due process as you will recall- is part of that thing called the Bill of Rights.

In 2014, over 3400 Americans renounced their citizenship. That figure is set to double in 2015. The truth is, it's far worse than that. More people are fleeing the U.S. than at any other time in the last 50 years. From wiki:

There were 235 renunciants in 2008,[25] between 731 and 743 in 2009, and about 1485 in 2010;[26][27] In 2011, there were 1781 renunciants.[28] A total of 2,999 Americans renounced their citizenship in 2013;[29] in 2014, 3415 have renounced their USA citizenship or long term residency. [30] The State Department estimates 5986 renunciants and 559 relinquishers during FY2015. [31]

If you think those numbers are remarkable, consider this. The U.S. charges a renunciation assessment. In 2008, Congress enacted the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Act that imposes a penalty—an "exit tax" or expatriation tax—on certain people who give up their U.S. citizenship or long-term permanent residence.[47] Effective June 2008, U.S. citizens who renounce their citizenship are subject under certain circumstances to an expatriation tax, which is meant to extract from the expatriate taxes that would have been paid had they remained a citizen: all property of a covered expatriate is deemed sold for its fair market value on the day before the expatriation date, which usually results in a capital gain, which is taxable income.

They named that bill the "Heart" Act" and passed it in 2008.

In addition to the renunciation tax, the government is also charging a 2350.00 fee per person to expatriate. http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2014/08/28/u-s-hikes-fee-to-renounce-citizenship-by-422/

It would be a complete mass exodus except for Social Security, Medicare, and taxes on foreign earnings. People who have been forced into paying these income liquidating taxes for 40 years- expect something back. If you renounce your citizenship- the government doesn't issue a refund. If you simply move out of country- they will continue to tax your income streams even though you no longer live here which lays waste to the theory that you are actually receiving something in return for all of that money the government takes from you.

One of the great tricks of the government is that when they pass legislation like the "Heart Act" and the "Drive Act"- they target higher income individuals. The poor, middle class- the big voting bloc- will read the law and think- well it doesn't apply to me. They become apathetic. That's how Congress manages to keep passing garbage laws like this- by targeting small groups of individuals rather than everyone. Once our body politic manage to pass these laws without serious backlash, then they will simply amend the law later on and apply it to everyone else. Once you give them an inch- they will take a mile.

What about a hyper inflationary event where the currency spirals out of control? Wouldn't that subject everyone to the minimum provisions of the "Drive Act?" Of course it would, but government doesn't care nor do they consider things like that. It just gives them the additional means to strip you of your property and money.

I will link the actual government propaganda for this bill- note the passport omission. It is written and offered as propaganda. If you didn't know better- it actually sounds good. http://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases-republican?ID=DFAF66C0-D453-42C3-AB84-A90BBD326E44

Make sure you read the last line of this website propaganda. It's all free!!! Woohoo!!!

So here's the latest on the "Drive Act." I think you'll like this. Another "land of the free" writer. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-20/congress-wants-seize-your-passport-unpaid-taxes

Brianhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-69732200705756329082015-11-15T09:58:00.000-08:002015-11-15T17:06:31.820-08:00Life, or Sometimes Death, In Moderation- The Sunday Collage Today I want to talk little bit about the rise of extremism and intolerance. The idea was brought to me courtesy of a statement by a political candidate who believes abortion under all circumstances- including rape or incest- should be illegal. (Carson) Very often this position is taken by religious zealots who believe that somehow instances of rape and incest are examples of "God's will" and that a subsequent birth despite the criminal circumstances that led to the conception- were somehow ordained by our creator.

Indeed, I have friends who read this blog and who agree with that position. I am ok with that and I'll explain why in a bit.

If I've learned one thing over the years, I think it would have to be that life should almost always be done in moderation. The needle should hang around the middle of the gauge. When an issue becomes extreme- the people promoting extreme views become unstable and downright dangerous. People adhering to extremes cannot accept the idea that moderation and tolerance for the views of others is the proper approach. Instead they think that they have been singularly pre-ordained and programmed by God himself with all of the correct answers. God in his infinite wisdom apparently forgot to tell the millions of people practicing abortion that it should be illegal. So today I thought I'd discuss a few issues where people tend to come off the rails with extremism. So let's take a random walk through a myriad of examples first of moderation and then extremism.

I have a friend who can smoke one cigarette in the morning and one cigarette at night. She has been doing this for 30 years. Smoking in moderation. I can't do it but she does.

People who can drink once in awhile, take it or leave it style, or perhaps a drink a day are said to be "moderate" drinkers- meaning I suppose, that their drinking does not cause the rest of us harm. In other words- it's not extreme.

There are folks who go to church once or twice a week. They practice their own beliefs in private and they do not use casual conversations to promote their beliefs or diminish the beliefs of others. In other words, they live their lives with respect for others.

My favorite group of people and you will meet damn few of them- are those that practice tolerance for others and engage in moderation at all times. Very often you will hear others refer to them as "nice people" because they do not offend anyone. Of the thousands of people I have known, I can honestly say I have only met two or three people like this. I had the very pleasant opportunity to work for one- unfortunately his working life and ultimate termination came about as a result of an extremist held completely hostage by ego.

We both worked for the same woman, a gal who once told me that she enjoyed "firing" people. Firing people is an example of extremism. You don't fire people because your ego enjoys it and therefore you must satiate that need- you fire people when you have exhausted all of your intermediate remedies- and thus terminating a person becomes your last recourse. So it was, this woman fired my boss who was effective while practicing life in moderation, primarily because he would not practice her brand of extremism.

We were once a very nurturing society, particularly in small towns and rural areas. In those settings people are forced to be courteous to each other because they interact very frequently. I understood this well. The ticket you write today might be to the mechanic or doctor you will need tomorrow. Often people in small towns attend the same churches and functions. People help each other in rural settings. I feel grateful for those who helped me.

The idea of a caring, nurturing, tolerant society is completely lost in the big city. I believe that. Occasionally there are random acts of kindness in the city but in small town America- helping others or taking time to help others simply because you care- happens every day.

This week in Paris, ISIS attacked and killed a hundred innocent people.

Islam is extremism. I want to believe that people should be free to worship and support the religion of their choice. The problem with Islam, Sharia law, and the Quran is that they support extremism and intolerance of others. That is why I have often thought that Islam is not a religion but rather a spiritually sick philosophy founded by a self declared prophet 600 years after the time of Christ. The other problem with Islam is that while I have studied it a bit and I have read the Quran- most non Muslims have not. If you want a hateful, exclusionary God- then Islam is the way to go.

I am about to introduce to you the concept of killing human beings in moderation.

Killing a person is probably the worst thing human beings do. Yet there are times when it becomes acceptable or at the very least, unavoidable. Killing people in the defense of your life or intervening when someone else is about to be killed are the only times when killing someone is acceptable. That was what I was taught and unless you've been trained specifically to kill someone or are in that business- I think most people generally don't think about it. It's just not something they need to think about but they should. The extremists are growing in number.

My brand of killing in moderation does not require state executions or dropping bombs on brown people.

Ben Carson does not adhere to the idea of abortion in moderation or in certain circumstances. He quite clearly is a Christian adherent to the idea that all births are "God's will" and that all potential babies should be born. I understand that and Carson may actually be practicing his brand of life in moderation. What's he going to do? Reverse the Supreme Court? Not likely. If that is Carson's brand of extremism, the one where the innocents get a chance, I can live with that too. Either way, I'm not too worried about his position.

I miss small town America and civics classes. I miss helping people and having them help me. Here in the big city, it's just another dog eat dog environment. I don't even know my neighbors. Practicing life in moderation has been hard for a guy like me. But I'm getting better.

Brianhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-3247350212550914879.post-80801028446816987672015-11-05T08:34:00.002-08:002015-11-05T08:42:39.321-08:00Getting Ready For the "One Big Run"The great hockey player Wayne Gretzsky was great not because he knew where the puck was- but because he knew where the puck was going to be.

In May of 2013, Ben Bernanke began his "we're going to raise rates" bullshit which is the last policy tool the Federal Reserve has left before introducing negative interest rates.

A few of us who understand our debt fueled fiat currency scheme- knew this was bullshit. In fact, I wagered one ounce of gold with some moron back in April that the Fed wouldn't raise rates- this after they said they were going to raise interest rates in May or September. I have not heard from the moron since then nor was I too concerned about losing my gold.

Now the latest rhetoric is Janet Yellen saying they may raise rates in December which is also bullshit. I will take all bets to the contrary.

For two and a half years I've been listening to this gibberish. At some point, you'd think the American people might wake up and figure this out but alas this country has a long history of being slow on the uptake. I on the other hand, have been keeping track.

In addition to the non stop rhetoric coming from the Fed, they have also been engaged in non stop manipulation of the precious metals markets. They do this to prevent a run into metals which in actuality- is a short on the dollar. If everyone suddenly realized that not only are we bankrupt but that our dollar is worthless- they might start trading dollars for something which is tangible and has value. So in addition to lying to us about nominal rate hikes which have never materialized- the Fed has no choice but to make precious metals look unattractive to investors- thus keeping demand for dollars intact. They do this through the bullion banks which are Fed shareholders. Pretty easy to figure out really- except that the Fed has always refused to disclose it's shareholders and internal operations. It operates above the law with essentially no oversight.

The problem the Fed has now is that they have been suppressing the paper price of precious metals for so long- that the rest of the world has been buying up actual metal inventories. The Chinese are avid gold buyers and at least one company, Zijin Mining, is busy buying a stake into lucrative miners all over the world. Russia and India have been gobbling up supply as well.

With the precious metal lynch mob that is the rest of the world closing in- I don't think the Fed nor the President's Working Group can hold off the demand storm that is coming. The longest precious metals bear markets have lasted 5 years. We are months away from the end of a 5 year bear market which began in 2011.

I have been waiting for the last washout which I think will occur by January when gold trades below 1050 and possibly into the 900s. It may get there much sooner. I think mining stocks will get trashed. At that point, I am going to start buying every lucrative miner I can get my hands on. I am also adding to my physical stores and buying calls. I have as much "powder" as I can muster, a complete list of lucrative miners including some takeover candidates and I have been watching fringe players like bitgold. I like the idea of bitgold especially because American banks are now preventing Americans from purchasing Canadian pharmaceuticals using Visa and Mastercard. With a prepaid bitgold card- we may be able to circumvent the grasp of American bankers who have absolutely no problem interfering with our ability to spend our own money. Here is a good link about bitgold and some of the dangers. https://www.weusecoins.com/bitgold/

In a number of deals- I have noted that even the miners are buying up the best assets. Here's a link which gives you an idea of what is going on. http://www.theaureport.com/pub/na/16815?

I honestly believe this is an investment opportunity of a lifetime. We have a bankrupt world that can do nothing other than try to print itself out of the tremendous hole it has dug itself into. As people scramble to protect wealth- out of paper instruments and into tangible assets- wouldn't it be nice to be there first like Wayne Gretzky?

Brianhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com