Please accept our wishes for a very Merry Christmas and a healthy, happy New Year.  Out of respect for the families of the young victims of the unspeakable horror in Newtown and the families of the courageous adults who gave everything to prevent the attacks, TheFundamentals will withhold posting any essays on topical matters until January 2013. 

Thank You, Willard Mitt Romney

 

This is a thank you note to a good man.

Thank you for turning aside from a life of ease and security to run for the presidency against an incumbent.

Thank you for enduring the slander of you, your family, and your faith perpetrated by a criminally negligent media.

Thank you for calling things such as 'terrorism' by their right name.

Thank for selecting Paul Ryan as vice presidential running mate.

Thank you -- and your lovely wife -- for demonstrating true love.

Thank you for handling yourself with grace and equanimity in every situation.

Thank you for your patriotism.

Thank you for believing in America . It is to our eternal shame that America did not, in this time and place, believe in you.



 



Conflicted about Rights

Our recently reelected president and his supportive coalition are running around these days speaking like the white man of old in his dealings with native Americans – white man speak with forked tongue.  It seems they say one thing one day and a conflicting thing the next.  Mixed smoke signals perhaps.  Let’s take a closer look.

Should we have the right to work?  Which means we get a job and no one can make us pay to get the job?  No payments to anyone including a union representative?  That is the question.  Mr. Obama and his coalition think not.  It’s okay to impose a tariff on work.

Should we have the right to vote?  Unencumbered?  We get to vote and no one can make us pay to vote or show ID to vote or even proof of citizenship?  Mr. Obama and his coalition think, yes, no restrictions on vote.

So, vote – no restrictions.  Work – restriction okay.

Before we go on, ask yourself this question:  you find a bottle in the sand while walking the beach wondering when FEMA is going to arrive with some money for you to rebuild your damaged or destroyed house on the Jersey shore.  You rub the bottle and out pops a gorgeous gal wearing a diaphanous (that’s flimsy for our friends in the coalition of the wanting) outfit barely concealing her genie like attributes.  She says you get one wish from two choices – she can grant you only one and there are only two possibilities to choose from –

1.    You can get a good job and make a living – no strings attached, or

2.    You can get access to the polling place to vote – no ID required

Which would you choose?

We saw out brilliant young president address one of these possibilities yesterday – he told his fawning audience that this right to work thing was not an economic issue – it was a political issue.  In his next sentence he said it was about working for lower wages.  (Aside – now in a real world, someone with an IQ approaching high two digits might scratch their head and say something like, huh?  Who writes this crap for this man?  Or could he have been “winging it?”)

In any event, just like the busted clock that does get it right a couple of times a day, Obama got half of his point right.  It is politics and it’s his politics and the politics of his very needy coalition.

Most every idea or position or even legislation promoted by one politician or another is conflicted these days.  Simply because laws and rules – even court rulings; most certainly bureaucratic rulings are not founded on a principle.  They are founded in politics.  It’s a tough way to run a railroad, much less a country.  We are living the unbridled joy of a country caught up in its own knotted underwear.  All the way up to our collective windpipes to carry our metaphor to the point of strangulation.

It is obvious to some, maybe these days not even most, that without economic freedom – the right to get a job unencumbered; the right to open a business unencumbered; the right to farm your land; the right to mine the minerals on your land; the right to manufacture something or just assemble something; the right to sell something or buy something or trade something, most of the other niceties politicians and bureaucrats and Obama’s voting coalition yap about are just that – hot air – the hopeful wishes of a beckoning diaphanously attired gal of our dreams.

The fools running this country of ours are conflicted up to their eyeballs.  One hand literally does not know what the other hand is doing.  In the vernacular of Hollywood, America’s answer to Islam’s Mecca, the lunatics are running the asylum and the whole world sees it.  Half of these observers are just amazed and the other half are egging the lunatics on – hoping, waiting for the blowup.  Will it happen on 12/21/12?  No.  But it will be underway on 12/21/12.

 

Code of Silence

The facts – an off duty cop – drunk and belligerent and unconcerned about consequence, beats up a female bartender (weight imbalance – cop weighs in at 200+ and bartender about 120) because she cuts him off.  Cop pound her – other cops are called – not much happens.  Finally cops file some misdemeanor charges and try to dismiss it.  Happens too often – bad cop skates.  Oops, this one was captured on video tape – those darn cameras that even a drunk cop doesn’t think about nor do any of his buddies.  The cops pretend nothing happened and finally, the bartender sues and the video tape comes out to display bad cop’s antics.

The system fights it – cop fights it, city fights it – one little gal versus the system.  She wins because it’s tough to deny video evidence of a cop on a rampage pummeling a petite gal. 

She wins $850,000.00 and the verdict includes a finding that the police department tried to cover up their bad behavior.  That is a bad precedent for a city with lots of bad cop behavior lawsuits.  The system has now been found to engage in covering-up the bad behavior of some of its misbehaving police.  (Aside: Yes, spare us please; we know the line – it has to be this way because who else will deal with the scum unless you let us protect our own.) 

Brings us to today.  The city can appeal, of course.  They won’t but they can threaten to appeal which delays payment of the verdict to the bartender.  But they have one other reason to appeal and this one may cause them to appeal.  That verdict – that their system is proven to be corrupt – that they do cover up their own crimes can now be used in all the other cases that are filed or will be filed claiming bad police behavior.  Oh, what to do?

These little cleveristas (new mayor and his cronies) come up with a deal – pay off the verdict – the $850,000.00 to the bartender right now and get her to agree to ask the court to set aside the verdict – in other words, just get rid of it – act as if it never occurred – no precedent then – no record then – no one can refer to it as a proven fact that the cops cover up their own crimes.

Read all about it at:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-bar-beating-cop-settlement-1204-20121204,0,6403944.story

So here is our question to these tough police officers – is it okay for a drunk cop to beat up your wife?  Your grandmother?  Your daughter or niece?  Maybe your granddaughter?   You know how you say, “Keep it in the family.”

One other thing about these tough guys.  We listen to them carry on about the code of silence in the neighborhoods when a crime goes down.  No one will come forward.  Neighbors didn’t see a thing.  No one is identified.  Could it be that these same neighbors know that a cop who won’t drop a dime on one of his own will also not be around to stand up for the citizen who does?

The judge in this case – a federal judge mind you, can make sure the cops don’t have a good day – let the verdict stand.  And make the cop pay the judgment himself as added incentive to get these slugs to clean up their house.  Nothing quite makes a cops day like a pinch in the pocketbook.

The Cliffs – continued

In our last post with this title, we addressed three cliffs –

·         The “hecho en chine” cliff,

·         The bond cliff, and ‘

·         The fiscal cliff

We suggested that the one getting all the attention (fiscal) was a distraction tactic – that the other two were very significant; fiscal was peanuts.

We have more cliffs.  Yep, America is a cliff dwelling society but you’d never know from listening to the news sources or governing sources.  We are now the world’s most advanced cliff dwelling society – passing the ancient cliff dwellers of the American southwest.  We have cliff dwellers in New York and Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia and the eastern geographical region encompassing  Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia is entirely inhabited by cliff dwellers.  Here are three or four of their tribes:

·         The legal cliff dwellers.  Millions are now legal cliff dwellers – catapulting on top of  the highest ever recorded population of “lawyers” and completely dependent on a society based on litigation, laws, rules, courts, bureaucrats and judicial settlements.  Opening new communities weekly –  just opened up one called –“ Lily Ledbetter dwellers.”  Already sold out!.  Very affluent communities.

·         The military industrial cliff dwellers.  Been around for a long, long time.  These inhabitants have a very special skill – finding and making war.  They will seek a war even if it is halfway around the globe.  If they can’t find a war, they will fabricate a war.  They love war.  They live off war and they must be doing well – their cliff homes are really well built and look out over all the others.

·         The health care treatment dwellers.  This relatively new group of dwellers has discovered that the more sicknesses and health problems they can identify,  the more treatments they can sell to deal with the new found discoveries.  Almost everyone has something wrong with them and these dwellers have a procedure or a pill or therapy or some medicine that they will sell you – or your insurance company,  to “treat” your problem.  Coming on strong.

·         The public employee union dwellers.  America’s largest and still fastest growing cliff dwelling society.  They too don’t really make anything – or grow anything – or extract anything but they sure do have a lot of ideas for anyone who does make, grow or extract something.  And they get paid a lot for a group that doesn’t do anything but tell others what to do.  They hang together – real tight community.  Some think they will soon be in charge of all the people who work for a living  – many think that milestone was passed years ago.

So, that’s our cliff update – no need to report on the so-called “fiscal cliff” because it is a Hollywood media creation with full producer credits to the Democrat party.  They actually want to go over this cliff but they will blame the republicans for it.  They don’t have the leadership discipline to even try to make some cutbacks and balance the budget.  So, they will act as if the republicans “made me do it – go over the cliff.”

In the meantime we encourage you to find any information about the real cliffs – bond, hecho en chine, legal, military industrial, health care and public employee unions as described on these pages.  We do wonder what the archeologists in the 22^nd century will make out of America’s cliff dwellers – all gone – disappeared – extinct.  We predict that it will be difficult for anyone to explain their existence 100 years from now.

The Cliffs

We have identified three –

1.     The “hecho en chine” cliff

2.     The bond cliff

3.     The fiscal cliff

We will deal with them is reverse order which happens to also be their order of consequence.

The fiscal cliff.   A Hollywood media creation starring Washington DC politicians and bureaucrats.  The recent episode brought us the cameo appearance of little Timmy Geithner.    We learned why little Timmy seldom gets released to the public.  We did enjoy the contrast – little Timmy regurgitating up to three or four of the six talking points he was forced to memorize late last week, regardless of the question posed (e.g. question: where are you spending the holidays?  Little Timmy: making investments in America – building infrastructure – stimulating job growth.)  Hmmnn.  On the other hand, George Hamilton, er, we mean John Boehner showed up in the role of acting like an adult to little Timmy’s juvenile performance.  Three year old treasury secretary v. a fed up Midwestern congressman who just wants to go home and be around people who still work for a living and pay taxes.  Challenge for viewers – is this a real cliff or just a Hollywood set?   How do find out?  Simple – go over it and see what happens.  There is little downside and it will help our fiscal situation as well as help Mr. Obama with his coalition.

The bond cliff.  We doubt that you will hear much about this one – tad too “wall street” for the new Obama coalition – blacks, Latinos and white gals.  This one does require some education; some analysis; some basics or fundamentals.  Right now the Federal Reserve is buying up most of the bonds issued by the United States?  Why?  Several reasons but we think the number one reason is to avoid a bond vigilante attack in the middle of the night.  Nothing spells cliff catastrophe quite like a sudden spike in interest rates.  So if the fed buys the bonds the vigilantes can’t get at the interest rates.  What could still happen?  Attack the dollar.  It is happening as we write and it is called inflation but the vigilantes may have more in mind one of these days – as other currencies strengthen or, heaven forbid, a viable replacement arrives.  One sure thing about falling off this cliff – the number one cliff dweller in America, Ben Bernanke, will be getting his pension just before the tumble occurs.  How do we test this cliff?  Simple, we let the market buy up all the treasury bonds, bills and notes and all the securitized mortgage debt.  Just like we use to do, in the old era – five or six years ago.

The “hecho en chine” cliff.  This is the one no one wants to talk about.  This is the humpty – dumpty of cliff dwelling.  You see, we don’t make much of anything here anymore.  We don’t because we have made it so costly in so many different ways that anyone with the motivation to make something chooses “hecho en chine.”  En chine they tend to not have Lily Ledbetter laws – heck, they tend to not have any employment laws – come to think of it being an attorney “en chine” has about the same status as being a Penn State assistant coach.  What else is missing “en chine?”  Beside lawyers?  Unions.   Health care laws.  Environmental laws.  Volumes of rules, regulations and bureaucracies (presented bi-lingual of course) telling you what you cannot do; where you cannot do it and when you cannot do it.  How do we test this cliff?  After all this is the big cliff – the high cliff – the one that we all are living on.  How do we test it?  We suggest you ask the new era coalition for their answer – the white gals, blacks and Latinos.  See what they have to say about getting rid of “hecho en chine” and replacing it with “Made in US of A.”  Maybe they can get little Timmy to perform again.

Rules of Attraction – in the New Era

Blacks, Latinos and white gals.  That’s America’s new ruling class.  All 51% of them.

Here is what we wonder about this gang. 

Just who will they attract?  Will they attract the investors who place their capital where it can grow, develop, multiply?  Or will they attract more consumers who now see more handouts and more stimulus spending and more adventures designed to irritate those who pay the bills?

We have looked around to find examples, or even an example, of a successful governance system either consisting of one or more of these groups or even a coalition similar to this coalition.  We need your help.  We can’t find one.  Is it us?  Or is there no living proof that this group is capable of running anything?

Back to the investors.  Does this group even grasp that they need investors?  Or do they think 51% coming together is an answer unto itself?  Here is a brief definition of an investor(s) – it is someone or some entity or some business or some bank or insurance company or pension fund that is run by people who oversee either their money or, more usually, other people’s money tasked to put that money to work to protect and increase the principal by measuring risk and seeking appropriate returns for the risk they accept.

Ask the coalition, this new era governing coalition, the 51%, if they have a clue as to what was just written and explained above.

Where is their evidence of the knowledge connecting the coalition and their needs/wants with the governance discipline to attract investors?

Does this new era; this new coalition; this new governance system not need investors?  Or do they believe what they put in the ads, their talking points, their communications to the media and the voters, particularly the ones they needed to turn out for their win?  Do they believe that government can provide better answers than can the marketplace?  Do they believe that taking more from the rich will build a better society for all?  Do they believe that money flowing to China and Latin America and the far east, where businesses are encouraged to form; where business managers are encouraged to operate as they deem most efficient; where taxes and rules and regulations favor the investor and not the union steward or the environmental meddler or the litigation expert – do they  really believe that the demands of their coalition, the coalition of the wanting,  will attract capital from those places and redirect it to New York or Chicago or Los Angeles or Detroit?

Either we’re nuts or they are off on the binge of their lifetime.  They are giddy over their win.  Do they have a clue what they have in store for them?  Do they grasp their governance responsibility?  Do the people they elect grasp it?  Do they know how to attract investors?    They haven’t been coming our way for some years now.  Will this new era gang bring them home?  And what will happen to those of us who need investors? 

Over the last four years, the number one investor in America is the Federal Reserve Bank.  Trying to prop up an output declining American economy by printing currency – no economic transaction needed – just place an order for currency production.  They are America’s new investor – and the results are horrible.

51% of us, just what it takes by the hair of our chinny, chin, chin, just asked for four more years of the same.  We are quite anxious to see what you who make up this new era coalition do with your win.  We think investors are watching you – very carefully watching you.  Winning is one thing.  Making things work is another.  You need real economic transactions to make things work.