New Mexico – Honor, or Dishonor

Again from the New York Times: “BILL RICHARDSON, New Mexico’s departing governor, is known for his studied sense of theater. But when he recently declared that he would hold a hearing to consider a posthumous pardon for the state’s most notorious resident — William Bonney, a k a Henry McCarty, a k a Billy the Kid — a lot of us wondered if he had lost his mind.”

Why the pardon?

“At issue is a deal made in 1879 by one of Mr. Richardson’s predecessors, Lew Wallace (later the author of “Ben-Hur”). Wallace promised to grant Billy the Kid amnesty for murders he committed during the so-called Lincoln County War if he would testify about a killing he had witnessed; the Kid testified, but Wallace’s men reneged on the deal. Two years later Pat Garrett, the sheriff of Lincoln County, shot and killed the outlaw.’

OK – short answer … it is NOT what folk legend William Bonney did, or did not do -- that’s just smoke and mirrors by those who, today, are imposing their immorality upon the nation and are thus destroying it.

The real issue here is: Can someone trust the Government – be it State or Federal – to honor its own statements, and, by extension, its own laws?  Or are government officials immoral and corrupt?

The answer will be made clear by the actions of New Mexico.  If New Mexicans are honorable and worthy of trust, the Pardon will be granted -– as originally negotiated and promised.  If New Mexico is dishonorable and its people unworthy of being called Americans, they will reject the Pardon that their predecessors agreed to … Bonney kept his part of the agreement … given the time that has passed, and the fact he was killed before the State acted, it is not a purely symbolic act. 

Symbolically, New Mexicans are either lower than dirt and doomed to exist in the deepest  levels of Hell, or are honorable people worthy of national respect in other matters reflecting their current ability to render just and honorable judgment.

Wonder where they stand on the Arizona Immigration Law?  The Washington Post concluded an article on that bit of fluff with the statement: “Either Arizona lawmakers will have to learn that constitutional and moral principle, or they will have to take the Golden Rule off our license plates.”

Yep New Mexico is faced with a GOLDEN RULE choice: If their state made an agreement with them, and they fulfilled their part of the bargain, would they want the state to renege?  How would they feel about that?  As they do to Bonney, so the state, and nation, will henceforth be free to do to them.

As to them enjoying an eternal vacation in Hell –- Golden Rule happens to the the only criteria agreed to by ALL the world’s major religions.  It is the single criteria of faith … and has been for at least six thousand years … it is stated in the ancient tombs of the first Dynastic Egyptian period; in the ancient Sanskrit texts and traditions going back to 3125BCE; in the ancient first dynastic era in China …

This is not about Bonney – it is about New Mexico and New Mexicans … they give the pardon or accept damnation.  And how you decide … the position you take on the issue … determines how you generally decide … and that attitude determines your fate.

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Palestinians & Republicans – both camps are populated by idiots

 

Gleaning words from  the Jewish Daily Forward article: ”Boycotted, Bothered and Bewildered Good Fences” By J.J. Goldberg (Published September 01, 2010, issue of September 10, 2010.)  We find that there is a reason the Israeli IQ is significantly lower than the general IQ of Jews.  (And now are displaying behavior I have routinely associated with the American Republican Party)

“Israel … now faces a concerted effort by Palestinians under its rule to isolate the Israeli settlers living among them in the West Bank. … The weapon of choice is a boycott of settlement-based products, services and jobs.  And Jerusalem doesn’t have a clue what to do about it.”

OK There you have the first problem – The Government is too stupid to bask in the stupidity of the Palestinians.  If the products are worth producing, and therefore worth having,  the Palestinians will need to replace their sources – so the question is, are the new sources cheaper than the current one being boycotted?  If not, than the Palestinians will inflict economic hardship on themselves to a greater and more sustained level than they will on Israel.  SO WHY SHOULD ISRAEL CARE !?! 

“The problem is that this is unlike any boycott Israel has faced before. For one thing, it’s working. Israeli news reports tell of factories shutting down and millions of shekels lost.”  Again the question – were the products worth producing … if the boycott can have than effect, than the market was too limited.

NOW THIS IS OVERBOARD: “Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin called it “a declaration of war against Israel.” The Yesha Council, which represents Jewish settlers in the West Bank, called it “economic terrorism.””  Of course the Palestinians are at war with Israel … they would rather be at war than produce anything productive or better their living conditions and the prospects for their children … these are people who have call themselves refugees since the 1930’s … these are people who have achieved nothing!  Have no prospects for achievement!  Add nothing to the human condition and world as a whole!  Of course they are at war:  Then are junk yard dogs barking and biting … but worthless in any civilized setting.

Now consider this: “For another thing, this boycott isn’t exactly anti-Israel in the normal sense. Up to now Israel has argued to foreign governments and universities, mostly successfully, that an across-the-board boycott of Israeli products and institutions is an attack on the Jewish state itself, not on any particular policy. That proves that Israel’s foes are bent on destroying it, not merely changing it. But the new campaign attacks only a specific policy, and a highly controversial one at that: building an Israeli civilian presence in the still-disputed territory captured in 1967.  There’s no challenge to Israel proper or its economy; Palestinian leaders have stated repeatedly.”

SO!  What’s the big deal.  These guys don’t want construction in Israeli territory … Territory that Israel owns only because these Palestinians idiots were stupid enough to start a war they couldn’t win  – an act taken in conjunction with Arab idiots, like those who are disrupting peace in third world countries across the globe.

Palestinians want to be poor and suffer … it’s their thing in life.  They think suffering is what makes a Jew, and they are desperate to become the new Jews.  Islamic people always have been desperate to become Jews – they were, after all, before the Arab invasions, originally of the Ten Tribes … Palestinian DNA affirms that connection.  That’s why they were formed around being Kosher and their prophet moved to, and organized in, a Jewish town.  Only problem … these idiots are too stupid to know their own history and genetics.

But, of course, ”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in May, that Palestinian boycotters only “hurt themselves.””  Obviously Netanyahu knows reality when he sees it.

“Even more awkward, the boycott is an embodiment of something Israel has been demanding for years: that Palestinians pursue their goals non-violently. Boycotts are not violent. Dubbing a settlement boycott illegitimate suggests, in effect, that Palestinians have no right to pursue their goals at all.”  Which only goes to prove that there are low IQ individuals in the Knesset  -- but didn’t they get quoted ??? Yep the idiots speak out (Does remind me of Sarah Palin and her Tea Party friends).

Now to more idiots – actors seeking publicity through stupidity (Think Roseanne Barr) who announced their own boycott “in late August by a group of Israeli theater personalities, who vowed not to perform in West Bank settlements. The announcement singled out the bustling West Bank town of Ariel, population 17,000, where a $10 million government-funded municipal auditorium is scheduled to open in November. The auditorium’s schedule for the opening season was published August 25, featuring appearances by major repertory theater companies including Habimah and the Cameri. In response, two actors announced on August 26 that they would not participate.”

 

OK answer here … fire the actors … black list them … they are too stupid to be role models for a prosperous nation.

“Culture Minister Limor Livnat, who oversees theater subsidies, said the actors are “dividing Israeli society and spreading hate.” Other Likud lawmakers are demanding that funds be cut to any theater that employs actors who refuse to perform.”

Yep!  Obviously there are intelligent people in the Israeli government …”  And get this, “…  the actors could even be charged under a pending Knesset bill that outlaws public support for boycotts against Israel.”  If the bill is enacted in a timely fashion.  Note that the Bill, like the GOP & Arizona anti-immigration actions, is the product of idiots which will ultimately affect their fellow idiots.

Bottom line, those who wish to hurt themselves will always achieve their goal.  That they hurt innocents as well is a trademark of their stupidity and disrespect for their creator (who they generally, often universally, assert to be supporting).  We do not do to another what we would find hateful if done to us.  Simple rule – seldom followed by either Palestinians or Republicans.   

(For specific article and more on these fun & games:  J.J. Goldberg  blogs at www.forward.com)

Stock Market Cycle

So far, investors are pulling out of their Mutual Funds and avoiding the Stock market.  ! STUPID !

Risk aversion makes sense – but not after a crash.  The time to be risk averse is when everything looks great and the bubble is growing.  This week the DOW went below 9000 and then bounced back 200 points.  Back in March 2009, the DOW fell to a low of 6626 … scary … but in terms of the time period, that was a “farmed” double bottom relative to October 2002.

REALITY – the financial people who love the GOP so much looked at at the Bush election and panicked … hence the 1999 problems.  The optimists – those who believed the ride could never end and affirmed that belief by buying into the housing and debt bubbles – carried the market to its 2000 high.  Thereafter the bought the bubbles and the market fell from the money being sucked out – until it hit a cyclical bottom.

We are now in a trading range … and could remain between 14000 and 8000 until 2025 – or more likely the 2028 election cycle.  People who are twenty today will only be 38 and approaching their professional peak at age 40 – with 25 years left before retirement.  Those who are approaching forty will be in their late fifties and on the way to final planning before retirement.  At that point, the DOW will be racing, or rocketing, upwards to break 20000 and beyond.  Those who wish to become VERY RICH will be investing in the stock market NOW – or, over the next six years.

IF the 2012 election evicts Obama, the market could fall below the 6000 level (but not below 5000).  If GOP, whoever is elected will either be a one term President, or the President who wages the first phase of the Third World War.  Remember, wars are profitable and yield boom time in their aftermath.  Also, a war, which will devastate populations around the world and be heralded as the predicted apocalypse, would reverse the baby-bust and stabilize resource consumption with resource availability…  more likely, there will be no “biblical apocalypse” and conflicts will be limited and truly devastating only to those stupid enough to initiate them.  We can expect the Arabs, with their average IQ of 85, to be the ones who initiate the problems of the next two decades.

By 2035, Oil will cease to be king.  Israel, if the current repots of oil and gas finds prove accurate, will have more than ample resources to power their military and decimate those nations which are intentionally subjugating the Palestinians and denying them productive integration and full membership in the Arab world.  There is no rational reason for refugees to still exist – other than the Arab League laws which designated refugee status to the children and grandchildren of those refugees from the 1930’s (yep pre-Israel & Hitler).  The Arab League is the continuation of the Nazis with who they aligned in the 1930’s and 40’s – and, as was stated during the 60’s with regard to the racists holding down the blacks, find they must must get into the mud in order to keep the Palestinians there.   Given their oil resources, the Arabs should have surpassed -- in general wealth, trade and education – the accomplishments of their medieval ancestors.  Unfortunately, they have become enamored with the idea of being idiots attempting to reinstate the Inquisition as an Islamic cause. !!! STUPID !!! (ok … there is clearly a competition between fundamentalists – Christian and Islamic – for how can establish their claim to the lowest levels of hell … but that’s another issue)

In any event … NOW is the time young investors should be looking for buying opportunities.  Curiously, secure bond investments – held properly – could be used to leverage investment loans.  Borrowed capital makes sense when the effective interest rates are at or below historic inflation rates – and can be offset by bond interest to … over the long term .. generate zero risk stock portfolios with explosive long term potential.

Washington Post still doesn’t get it

Today, 25 August 2010, the Washington Post reported:

“The Commerce Department says new home sales fell 12.4 percent in July from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 276,000, the slowest on record dating to 1963.
”The numbers are the latest sign that the economic recovery is fading.”

When will they put the demographic data together with the housing data and realize that the housing data is no longer a reliable source for evaluating the economy?

Our population is going into negative growth.  It doesn’t matter how it continues to grow, the growth rate is lower than the available housing stock.  Older houses are inefficient – therefore they have been replaced with newer, energy efficient, homes at a rate comparable to the population changes attributable to the maturing of the depleting portion of the Baby-Boom generation (those born before 1966 who became first time home owners before 1996).

So long as we have insufficient immigration -- to replenish the declining native population – there will be a surplus of older homes.  That surplus creates a market effect which reduces the demand for new homes (the more efficient older homes, and those situated in warmer climates, will continue to sell at a diminishing pace).  Older homes which are inefficient will be purchased for their LOTS – the building torn down and either turned into lawns for an adjacent property, or replaced with a new end efficient home.

We can expect a slowdown in construction of apartment houses, office buildings, and even shopping malls.  However, there will be significant growth in  – if the Republicans cease their opposition to – Green Energy providers … Wind Farms, Solar, Tidal, geothermal and other energy providing technologies yet to be revealed, developed, or discovered.  The totality of our society is in for a dramatic change which is rendering conventional economic indicators virtually worthless.

Of course, we might also be heading for some cataclysmic variation on a modernistic stoneage – again, this depends on the ability of an element within our society to promote sustained global conflict.  On the global level, the choice is between quick violent, totally destructive, responses – or, the prolonged, “feet on the ground” approach which gives an advantage to insurgents and those fighting on their own turf … it’s a matter of supply lines, energy requirements, and the resources to maintain them.  No single nation has the domestic resources to fight (in the “conventional” manner) conflicts half-way around the world.  The only ones whop can fight such wars are those who engage in insurgent or anarchist tactics.

But, once again, We cannot rationally expect the Washington Post to grasp that reality either.      

Again the GOP Hypocrisy

New York Times,  August 23, 2010, “A Real Debate on Taxes” … and a great line of reality:

“The Republicans are insisting on extending each and every one of the tax cuts forever. It is impossible to square that demand with their calls to reduce the deficit, so they do not even try.”

Fiscal Conservatism is based on BORROW & SPEND economics.  It would be no different than declaring that we should not work – rather we should all acquire credit cards and just spend.  Pay the cards?  Nope we will use a card to pay a card and then a card to pay that … until we die and our estate must pay.  Ultimately, the beauty of the matter is that our estate will never have to pay – the security on the card is not our assets, but rather our word.

What value the word of the dead?

Yes!  The Republicans and their evangelical base has decided that America – The United States -- shall die.  The Democracy … our Democratic Republic … shall be replaced by a Theocracy.  The dream of the evangelicals, the basis of all their beliefs and customs, is an end to democracy and a return to the aristocracy based upon the DIVINE RULE of a KING.

Every apocalyptic believer prays for the overthrow of democracy and the return to a KINGDOM of mindless serfs and slaves whose only occupation is to bow and worship.  There will be no freewill … because the world will be a world of slaves.

Come November – we will freely grant them their desire.  We will yield our freedom to the BORROW & SPEND reality that will bring an end to our nation and the freedoms … the human free will … it stands for.

Idiotic Analysts

With their report on the decline in previously occupied housing sales, WashingtonPost.com

has today established they need to hire competent reporters.

OK … the opening line is cool: “WASHINGTON -- Sales of previously occupied homes plunged last month to the lowest level in 15 years, despite the lowest mortgage rates in decades and bargain prices in many areas.”

But the promotional line contained in the e-mail notification:  “Sales of previously occupied homes unexpectedly plunged 27 percent in July from a month earlier to 3.83 million…”  now this is reveals the stupidity of the writer and editor.

You don’t see it?  Read it again … and consider that one word: “unexpectedly”!  Really?  Has there staff no concept of Baby Boom?  Are they completely ignorant of demographics?  The whole article makes good points about intelligent economic decision making – but to read it, you realize that the writer was completely out of that loop.

Quick Lesson:

1. Baby Boomers are turning 65.

2. People retire at 65 (they have option to retire at 62 and the economy is giving perks to early retirees – who get shifted to other areas of corporate & governmental balance sheets and budgets – where the governmental often allows for full retirement after 55).

3. If you retire, you don’t need to live near work – so you sell your existing home (but it isn’t selling in this market).  On the other hand, record low mortgages, tax incentives and poor investment performance,  make it economically wise – given that you will retire in a few months or, at most, within two years -- to buy that retirement home now.

4. Buy now?  Use your reduced nest-egg?  Hum?  On the face, for some (the young reporter under 50, for example), this might not make sense.  But for those who know money, you invest in a house that will grow in value (because it is a retirement location – low energy needs, low maintenance, and low mortgage).  The home you have isn’t going to sell today – but you don’t need the money:  a) you have your nest-egg to cover you; b) you’re working and can cover the debt; c) the economy, & your investments, will improve in a year or so – and your existing home will probably sell by then.  d) even if you need to drop your asking price later, there is no reason to drop it now.  If your investments do well, they will offset a later reduction in asking price.  If they do poorly – well – the nation will be going down the crapper with no possibility of retire and you take what you can get … in any case, you will have the option of staying or moving … and if moving, you had time to get the new place in order without having the work done “over your head” with you living in the dirt and mess.

Right now we are seeing the start of the economic gambles – the ones that will “last a lifetime.”

Housing is NOT a viable economic indicator!

The housing market is distorted by the retirement needs of the Baby Boom generation.  Housing prices will begin to plummet for real within the next ten years – while land prices in various regions will climb.  People are going to be building new homes – not claiming older ones.

You’ll see the first signs when you realize just how many older homes are being knocked down and the lots turned into yards for the neighboring houses.  It will not pay to carry the taxes on the old place – and there will be nobody to buy it.  This will be exacerbated by a strong Republican showing on the issue of immigration – without immigrants seeking a better life, there will be nobody to purchase your old life.

But HEY!  Who gives a shit!  Those of us who are already retired are only interested in whether or not our kids want our place when we die.   And even there –- unless they are having kids of their own –- unless our place is as energy efficient as possible –- unless we are situated in a location where the property taxes are low – the house will be abandoned, because nobody wants to, or needs to, buy or occupy it.

If you want to use abandoned, or soon to be abandoned, house sales as a measure of economic growth … ok … but that is, in reality, traditional Republican economic idiocy.

Mosque Temple Church & Disrespect

There is a quasi-universal doctrine: “Don’t do to another, what you would find distasteful if done to you.”  The rightwing neocons seem to have been joined by the Anti-Defamation League and other idiots in protesting an Islamic cultural center containing a prayer room.

Horror of Horrors!  The idea that the neocons -– with the backing of the jerks at Fox News -- are opposing is basically the development of a piece of lower Manhattan real estate … a  shuttered Burlington Coat Factory store one block from the New York Dolls Gentlemen’s Club.   Phrased another way, instead of installing another private strip club for Wall Street con artists, someone actually wants to improve the area.  Naturally, anything that doesn’t involve Borrow & Spend credit card living is opposed by the Republican Party and those rare Democrats determined to assist in the destruction of America.

In the New York Times of August 21, FRANK RICH points out the degree to which these anti-American idiots are undermining the “Afghan War” and the work of General Petraeus.  Of course, these neocons are the very people who have, for the past nine years, promoted that conflict.  Why would they want to undermine it?  Could it be that they are deeply afraid that, like Iraq, the Obama Administration will actually resolve matters – will actually save American lives by not placing our troops in harms way?

OF COURSE!  The neocons want to kill young Americans.  That has been their objective all along.  al Qaeda kills a few thousand and destroys some real estate, and Bus & his neocon bosses immediately set upon a campaign which foremost declares Bin Laden (and effectively al Qaeda) irrelevant in their “War on Terror”, and then ensure the death of twice as many Americans as al Qaeda could ever kill.

Has nobody been paying attention?  al Qaeda attacks the Islamic faithful – it sponsors the murders of pilgrims on the way to pray at Mecca; it kills Islamic women and children in Arab market places; it kills Islamic women and children on the roads to school,  shopping, and places of worship.  Al Qaeda is dedicated to killing as many followers of Islam as it can – so long as they are actually adhering to the true dictates of their faith.  Of course, with the economic support of al Qaeda funds, many Republicans dutifully support the effort and dictates of Bin Laden – did he not (in the 1990’s) declare he wanted Saddam Hussein dead & gone?  Did Bin Laden not say he wanted the American deficit to be a Trillion Dollars?  Did not Bush dutifully comply – doubling the national debt in the process?

There is a well known adage – known through many versions & phrasings -- “that which does not kill me makes me stronger.”  Those who know history know that oppression and bigotry culls the weak, unifies the oppressed, and eventually yields a stronger people; a people dedicated to the defeat of their oppressors.  If Bin Laden can create anti-Islamic feelings, he can safely kill the good and just, while unifying the stupid into a suicidal force which can be used to the greedy.  Who are the greedy?  The Republicans who insist upon borrow & spend policies and refuse to pay their fair share for the safety of us all – and the security of their own wealth.

That’s right.  The Borrow & Spend – reduce taxes for the rich – policies of the GOP will, inevitably, lead to the backers of those GOP policies losing all they have and becoming servants to the al Qaeda leaders of tomorrow.