Just Shut Up!
I'm not supposed to be nasty, simply because I write a financial newsletter that goes out to thousands of folks. When you are trying to express opinion and observation to thousands of people, the last thing you're supposed to do is get nasty. Well, that is unless you're a Hollywood snob or a rap artist. Otherwise PR people will tell you that you should be "pleasant".
At this moment, I don't feel pleasant. Let me explain.
We all know about the Martin/Zimmerman verdict. We all know that despite overwhelming evidence that this had nothing to do with racial profiling, a vast sum of folks are using the case to push that agenda. Then there's another group using the case to further their agenda of pushing for more gun control. I'm tired of both factions.
On Friday, the President himself did more to divide the races from a political pulpit than any other standing official I can think of. He gave examples of how racial profiling had even affected him in his life. At one point he said the following...
There are very few African-American men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me. And there are very few African-American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator. There are very few African-Americans who haven't had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often.
As he proceeded, he said that reasons for that were because of violent situations in the past. And then there was this.... And so the fact that sometimes that's unacknowledged adds to the frustration. And the fact that a lot of African-American boys are painted with a broad brush and the excuse is given, well, there are these statistics out there that show that African-American boys are more violent -- using that as an excuse to then see sons treated differently causes pain.
Did you catch the line.. "well, there are these statistics out there that show that African-American boys are more violent"? Here's where I get my panties in a bunch. I wanted the President to approach this whole racial problem from a different tact. But no, he went right along with the same story we've had to endure for years. Bad things happened a long long time ago, and the pain lingers and that's why this happens.
How about standing up and saying that ladies wouldn't clutch their purse, and door locks wouldn't click if African American boys didn't express violence? How about saying that the reason Chinese, or Vietnamese boys aren't feared in an elevator is because young Chinese boys are busy studying to be engineers, not leaning "gangsta rap?" How about saying that is time to say "no more" to the old way. End the violence, and there will no longer be any reason for the different reactions from people. If more young black men were choir boys, engineers, doctors and professionals, instead of wanna be gangsters, no one would fear them and they'd never raise an eyebrow. But no one, no one at all that has a voice will say that.
That makes me sad and angry. Do you know why? It is on purpose. The black community has been sold down the river by the very people that confess daily to trying to save them. It's baloney.
My son Eric's best friend for over 12 years was a black kid named Joseph. They hung out, had sleep overs, and did what youngsters do. Joseph loved anything technology and put his mind to learning everything he could. I'm proud to say that Joseph is now an employee at Microsoft. His parents didn't let him fall into the "why me" camp. They didn't blame anyone for their family's success or failure. They explained that some shallow people might look at you differently, but just ignore them and act nice. The message was simple, work hard and you'll get ahead. He worked very hard, was a "good kid" and is now very ahead. Why isn't that message preached from the pulpits of Jesse Jackson and al Sharpton? Because it puts them out of business. It should.
Now onto the gun control folks.
Unless you've actually been intelligent enough to read all the transcripts of the case, and most haven't... what most people are going on is what they get from the media. A cop wanna be selected a young black man, followed him and shot him down like a dog. It makes sensational press, gets folks all fired up, and pushes their agenda for the confiscation of guns down the road. Of course the fact that it was completely not true has nothing to do with it.
In my town of Sarasota, there's an all you can eat Chinese buffet a couple miles from the house. My parents ate there periodically in their 25+ years of living in town and we enjoy the occasional visit too. Not a month or two goes by where we don't decide to stop in at the "Dynasty" and have a feast. Frankly I don't know how they can stay in business. They put out over 60 dishes every day, the food is always crackin fresh, and you can eat all you want for 9 bucks. It is one of the few bargains left in life.
Last Sunday, the manager of the place, "Andrew"...who's real name is Tian Tian, was running the dining room as usual. A more pleasant guy you couldn't meet. He was always making sure your food was good, the glasses full and the décor spotless. He was basically just a "great guy".
A group of 3 guys described as "Hispanic" walked up to the register after eating. They tossed their checks on the counter and bolted out the door. Andrew quickly chased after them out the door. After a short while the staff went out to find him. They found him in the next door parking lot unconscious. He'd been beaten badly, very badly. After 3 days in the hospital, Andrew died from his wounds.
Despite living in Florida, where you can indeed carry a concealed weapon, Andrew didn't carry. For less than a 30 dollar dinner bill, these 3 punks beat him to death. This could have been your son or daughter. This could have been your mother/father/brother/sister. Beaten to death by punks willing to kill you for 30 bucks. Yet the gun grabbers will tell you baloney about how he'd have probably shot innocent youths or even himself. Their logic is beyond infantile, it's a mathematical notation of stupid not yet invented.
Don't let uninformed media idiots use the Zimmerman case to further their utopian fantasy. Had Andrew had the ability to draw a firearm, even if he didn't hold anyone until the cops got there, he most certainly wouldn't have been beaten to death. Doesn't he have that right? Luckily Florida says yes he does. It's the gun grabbing idiots that don't think personal protection is your right.
So, while I wasn't close friends with this man, going to the Dynasty for the buffet will never be the same. Life has changed for that business, his family, and all that knew him. That didn't have to be, and I'm saddened by it. Yet again, so many want to take away the right to have that firearm, to defend yourself against feral punks. How sad is that? Very.
Let me wrap this up. Our Country is going through some massive changes. Everything from the fundamentals of our economic system, to radically different views on government to social issues, is being poked, prodded and twisted. Our Government is spying on us like an Orwellian big brother, and every day flexes its muscles against normal every day folks that have done nothing. The IRS admits it has singled out "conservatives", our jobs are gone, and our future is blurry.
The racial tensions in this country are at the highest level I can remember. Instead of getting better, they're egged on by race baiters, and they're taking the bait. It disgusts me to the core. The media is nothing short of the State Propaganda machine. Honest reporting of issues is as long past as Clark Kent. People that have never actually seen a real gun let alone handled or shot one are convinced they know what is best for everyone else.
Why can't people just leave other people alone? What is it in the American's psyche that makes people want to impose their beliefs and agenda on other people? I just don't get it. Most folks I know just want to be left alone, to enjoy their lives in peace, but every day that is harder to do, because someone else has an idea of how you should live, where you should live, what you should drive, when you should drive it and on and on and on.
The grumbling gets louder. Almost every day if I keep my ears open, I'll hear someone grumbling about what's going on in the Country. I stop in the Wawa for Coffee and listen to the guys complaining about something. In times past, folks would complain about the weather or working too hard or their boss or yard work. Now, a lot of it centers around Washington, Stupid laws, race division, taxes and Obamacare. Times are changing, attitudes changing.
They say the one constant is change and I agree. But what I don't agree with is that all change is good. It isn't. Some things need to be left just as they were, such as "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". But with all this poking and prodding I fear that what is happening is that a lot of folks are hardening up. They're going to push a lot of the edge dwellers over that edge. Meaning they don't feel like they're free to have their life liberty and pursuit of happiness. How they lash out over all that remains to be seen, but I think it's time for a lot of folks to just shut up. The race baiters should shut up, the gun grabbers, the evil politicians, the crooked Wall Street banks, and a host of others.
Gerald Celente says that when people have nothing left to lose, they lose it. Meaning they go off, they go nuts, they do things they normally wouldn't do. We've lost our jobs, we've lost our economy. We've lost our moral compass. They want our second amendment rights, and they want the very last of our privacy. A lot of people have nothing left to lose. That makes for desperate folks. I wish a lot of people would just shut up and leave everyone else alone. It won't happen. Be careful.
The market...
It is hard to find the words to describe what has been happening in the markets lately. Each day the market has been pushed higher and higher to all time new highs, despite ever worsening economic numbers. This isn't new, but the pace is accelerating.
In the last few days we've seen MOST of the big major companies miss on the revenue line. We've seen mortgage applications fall for 10 weeks out of 11. We've seen China admit that growth is slowing. We've seen multinationals like Caterpillar miss earnings and warn that the entire globe is slowing. Yet the market just gets pushed higher and higher.
Take a listen to this...
Quarter of homeowners in government program default again. Over 306,000 of the 1.2M delinquent homeowners who have received loan modifications under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) since it was introduced in 2009 have re-defaulted, an audit shows. The cost to the taxpayer is $815M. "Treasury does not understand and the servicers do not understand why homeowners are falling out," says Christy Romero, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program
Or here's one...
Average new home sale price has biggest 2 month drop since Lehman's
Doesn't any of this sort of thing matter any more? One day it most certainly will, but for now they're content just happily pushing the markets higher. Yet there is REAL danger lurking. While Mr. Retail investor is desperately trying to get into the market at these lofty levels, institutional investors have sold more stock in the last 4 weeks than EVER. You read that right. The "smart money" is selling the stocks they've already profited from, to those late comers to the party. You can see how this is going to end. The common folks will get fleeced.
So, today the market was a bit weak on less than stellar news out of China, and then of course we had the President launching his 2014 election campaign...oh wait I'm sorry, I meant his "focus on jobs" campaign. What a joke that speech was. If you listened to him, he saved the planet, did everything right, got everyone back to work and if it weren't for those pesky republicans and rich Corporations, we'd all be kings. What a joke that was.
But from a low of - 70, they came back as they usually do in the last moments and then closed the show with just a 25 point loss. Then to help the hopeless cause, Face Book beat earnings and was trading up some 20% after hours.
What's it all mean? The market is having a tough time pushing for a new leg higher. They want it, and they're willing to sell Joey Sixpack all the stock he wants. But the real insiders are becoming very cautious. They know trees don't grow to the moon, and we're already way over the treetops. Can it go higher? Sure, 5 billion a day from Bernanke can make all sorts of things happen. But one misstep and boy.., it won't be pretty.
My guess is that Face book fires them up in the morning, but after that, it's a crap shoot again. We've been seeing the market run in the am, then peter out around noon and just "hover". I think there's a case for that sort of action tomorrow. One thing to keep in mind is this.. the S&P is the important index and it slammed into 1700 and couldn't take it out. If we try again and it still holds firm, I suspect we'll see a pull back brew. So watch that level.
Have a great night, we'll see you Sunday.
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