Instant-Runoff Voting Passes in Maine a Boon for Third and Fourth Parties Breaking the Hold of Our Duopoly System of Republican - Democrats!

 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Instant-runoff voting (IRV), also known as the alternative vote (AV), transferable vote, (single-seat) ranked-choice voting (RCV), or preferential voting, is a voting system used in single-seat elections when there are more than two candidates. Instead of voting only for a single candidate, in IRV voters can rank the candidates in order of preference. Ballots are initially counted for each elector's top choice. If a candidate secures more than half of these votes, that candidate wins. Otherwise, the candidate in last place is eliminated and removed from consideration. The top remaining choices on all the ballots are then counted again. This process repeats until one candidate is the top remaining choice of a majority of the voters. When the field is reduced to two, it has become an "instant runoff" that allows a comparison of the top two candidates head-to-head.

Maine Just Voted for a Better Way to Vote

O

n Tuesday, Maine became the first state to challenge America’s first-past-the-post voting system, as voters approved, by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent, a referendum instituting ranked-choice voting for state and federal elections. It’s by far the biggest victory for a reform movement that has attracted high-profile endorsements from politicians like John McCain and Howard Dean but had so far failed to gain traction beyond a few progressive American cities. For Maine, it’s a shift that could make third-party voting more viable overnight—by eliminating the ability of third-parties to play spoiler.

Ranked-choice voting, sometimes called instant runoff voting, has a smoothing function. Under the system just approved in Maine, voters rank five candidates from 1 to 5 on their ballots. Election officials then eliminate the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes and immediately re-assign those voters to their second-choice candidate. The process repeats until one candidate is favored over the remaining alternatives by a majority of voters. It gives candidates with lots of second-choice votes a chance. Gone is the three-way election where the winning candidate gets only 38 percent of the vote.

DYI:  States rights working just as our founding fathers had anticipated with each of the 50 State's the incubator's of new ideas.  This certainly would have change the Republican run off when Ron Paul was a candidate.  A large percentage wanted Ron Paul but didn't vote for him for they felt he would not have won.  With instant run-off the dynamics would have changed dynamically.  With instant run-off the current Presidential primaries and election would have been totally different with one NOT assuming a Trump or Clinton square off.

I like the idea as it encourages the formation of addition parties who would have a possibility of winning not just to be a spoiler if they are lucky.  This would help to break up the duopoly Republican - Democrat parties and force them to run more freedom constitutional type candidates that I believe a vast majority of Americans desire.  At any rate, will see over time if the Maine experiment has legs with the other States.

DYI   

Trump nominates Rep. Tom Price for HHS secretary

Price insisted that Republicans can keep the protections for those with existing medical conditions without mandating that all individuals carry coverage or pay a penalty to support an expanded insurance pool. Price said Republicans want to address "the real cost drivers" of health care price spikes, which he said were not necessarily sicker patients, but a heavy regulatory burden, taxes and lawsuits against medical professionals.

DYI:  Nothing in the article - not even hinting - predatory monopolistic pricing of health care costs that are violation of the Clayton - Robinson Patman - and Sherman Antitrust acts.  Enforcing these laws plus allowing for re-importation pharmaceuticals will drop the underling cost of health care by 75% on average!  Dropping medical care from 20% of GDP to 5%!  Not a typo - 5%!  Today medical care is the reincarnation of John D. Rockefeller - COMPETITION IS A SIN.

Here is a short list of changes that DO NOT REQUIRE CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL as these laws have been on the books for over 100 years.  All they need is active enforcement!

Enforcement of basic business practices - Here is a short list

1.)  Posting of prices with a cap and estimation of service.  This will allow patience the ability to comparison shop.  With the internet competition would quickly become fierce. There is one hospital - a true rarity - The Surgery Center of Oklahoma that posts their prices.  

2.)  Payment based upon service - NOT devised by the paymaster [Medicare - Medicaid - Cash - Private Insurance etc.]  A felonious acts as it constitutes a kickback - and a taxable event for the organization(where is the IRS??). 

3.)  One deductible per insured event.  Not based on the calendar that requires you to pay ongoing deductibles.

REQUIRES CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL

1.)  Re-importation of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.  I know of many folks who buy their drugs from Canada for around 1/3 the cost.

2.)  End CON laws - Certificate of Need or CON - more like conned as large hospital attempt to flip basic economics on its head by stating less competition will improve patience care.

  Donald Trump's Campaign Website

Require price transparency from all healthcare providers, especially doctors and healthcare organizations like clinics and hospitals. Individuals should be able to shop to find the best prices for procedures, exams or any other medical-related procedure. 

Remove barriers to entry into free markets for drug providers that offer safe, reliable and cheaper products. Congress will need the courage to step away from the special interests and do what is right for America. Though the pharmaceutical industry is in the private sector, drug companies provide a public service. Allowing consumers access to imported, safe and dependable drugs from overseas will bring more options to consumers.

DYI:  Below is his transition team web site - What is missing are those TWO SWEEPING CHANGES.  Without those changes debt levels will explode along with increasing interest rates. 

The Administration recognizes that the problems with the U.S. health care system did not begin with – and will not end with the repeal of – the ACA.  With the assistance of Congress and working with the States, as appropriate, the Administration will act to:

• Protect individual conscience in healthcare
• Protect innocent human life from conception to natural death, including the most defenseless and those Americans with disabilities
• Advance research and development in healthcare
• Reform the Food and Drug Administration, to put greater focus on the need of patients for new and innovative medical products
• Modernize Medicare, so that it will be ready for the challenges with the coming retirement of the Baby Boom generation – and beyond
• Maximize flexibility for States in administering Medicaid, to enable States to experiment with innovative methods to deliver healthcare to our low-income citizens
• DYI:  If those changes are put back in and implemented there will be plenty of money for the military, infrastructure repair, Social Security and paying down of the national debt by 2% to 3% per year! This would put inflation going backwards or as it is called deflation; based upon increasing supply with a declining money supply improving the common man's purchasing power!
  
  
  Its up to you President Trump.  If implemented you will go down as George Washington! 
• DYI

    

Old Line Media Continues to Spiral Down into Obscurity....Who will be the First to Close up Shop?? Washington Post - New York Times - MSNBC - NBC etc.????

Ron Paul Lashes Out At WaPo's Witch Hunt: "Expect Such Attacks To Continue"

The Washington Post has a history of misrepresenting Ron Paul’s views. Last year the supposed newspaper of record ran a feature article by David A. Fahrenthold in which Fahrenthold grossly mischaracterized Paul as an advocate for calamity, oppression, and poverty — the opposite of the goals Paul routinely expresses and, indeed, expressed clearly in a speech at the event upon which Fahrenthold’s article purported to report. Such fraudulent attacks on the prominent advocate for liberty and a noninterventionist foreign policy fall in line with the newspaper’s agenda. As Future of Freedom Foundation President Jacob G. Hornberger put it in a February editorial, the Post’s agenda is guided by “the interventionist mindset that undergirds the mainstream media.”

Naked and proud: Media tripling down on blatant anti-Trump sentiment

Instead, it's triple-down time in the valley of the unhinged. And worst of all, many journalists still seem to think their words, their impact, still somehow has a huge impact on the daily narrative. Truth is, traditional media has about 1/10th the impact it did at the turn of the century. For if it had more sway, Hillary Clinton wins going away two weeks ago.

DYI

Justin Trudeau Says Castro Was ‘Larger Than Life Leader

“On behalf of all Canadians, Sophie [Trudeau’s wife] and I offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends and many, many supporters of Mr. Castro. We join the people of Cuba today in mourning the loss of this remarkable leader,” Trudeau said in a statement released while he was attending the Francophonie Summit in Madagascar today.

EU Chief Grieves Death Of ‘Hero’ Fidel Castro

Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, called deceased Cuban dictator Fidel Castro “a hero for many” whose “legacy will be judged by history.”

Black Lives Matter: We Must ‘Come To The Defense’ Of Castro

“And there are lessons that we must revisit and heed as we pick up the mantle in changing our world, as we aspire to build a world rooted in a vision of freedom and the peace that only comes with justice. It is the lessons that we take from Fidel,” the group claims.

DYI:  We are going to mourn the death of a tyrant who had no hesitation to use a firing squad to end any political debate??!  Who heavily censured any form of news media.  The communist way of life of continuing declining standard of living bringing the Cuban people almost to a 3rd world level!  Of course as with all socialists/communists live a life of luxury along with their families and cronies who help keep them in power.

Fidel Castro’s son is enjoying a millionaire vacation, while Cubans are starving

According to Turkish media, this is Antonio Castro’s yacht. It doesn’t say if he bought it or  is renting it.  A yacht this size is normally rented for as much as $50,000 per day.

Inside Fidel Castro's Luxurious Life on his Secret Island Getaway

For 17 years, Juan Reinaldo Sanchez served as bodyguard to Fidel Castro. But when he became disillusioned with the Cuban dictator’s hypocrisy and tried to retire in 1994, Castro had him thrown in prison. Sanchez made 10 attempts to escape the island, finally making it to the US in 2008. Now he reveals all in his new book, “The Double Life of Fidel Castro.” In this excerpt, Sanchez exposes “El Jefe’s” privileged life.

To Cubans, Fidel Castro presents himself as a man of the people, claiming to make only 900 pesos a month (about $38) and owning no property other than a modest “fisherman’s hut” somewhere on the coast.

In truth, El Jefe is worth hundreds of millions and owns 20 properties, including a chalet where he goes duck hunting every year and a private marina in the Bay of Pigs.

His main home is Punto Cero, where his family was kept hidden away. No one knew until recently that he had a wife, Dalia, with whom he had five sons, all with “A” names: Alexis, Alex, Alejandro, Antonio and Angelito. Even Fidel’s own brother, Raúl, did not meet them until the children were adults.

DYI:  President elect Donald Trump when Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau calls have your staff inform "Justin" he has no time for communists.  To say the least I'm appalled by what Trudeau thinks as normal.  If Justin desires better relations with the U.S. he will need to deliver a heart felt apology and condemn Fidel's iron clad rule of 47 years.

The EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker President of the European Commission has showed why everything is failing in Central Europe.  Thank God more and more EU countries are "waking up" to throw off this socialist monster.  France and Italy are probably the next to go.

Black Lives Matter and I'll attempt to say this as gently as possible, are "useful idiots" in order to destabilize the U.S.  Mostly funded by George Soros and other billionaires who desire the U.S. being run by a global corporate feudal state.

DYI    

Wells Fargo says that its customers gave up right to sue by having their signatures forged

Even though disgraced Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf has left the building, his most outrageous legal theories live on: 

on Wednesday, the company filed a motion in a federal court in Utah seeking dismissal of a class action suit by the customers it defrauded -- 

the bank argues that since customers sign a binding arbitration "agreement" when they open new accounts, 

that the customers whose signatures were forged on fraudulent new accounts should be subject to this agreement and denied a day in court.

DYI:  

Dear Banker's, 

the American public has something for you!

Dallas to Declare Bankruptcy?

The New York Times just reported that the Dallas police and firefighters pension plan is $7 billion short of meeting its obligations and needs an immediate bailout of $1 billion just to stay afloat. The problem is that Dallas’ annual budget is $3 billion. 

But in January Dallas’ pension plan trustees will open the 2017 legislative session with demands for $1 billion to keep the plan from defaulting. “It’s a ridiculous request,” said Dallas Mayor Michael Rawlings, but according to Moody’s, Dallas has more pension debt, relative to its balance sheet, than any other major American city except Chicago. 

How did this happen? And why all of a sudden? 

The answer, predictably, goes back to a decision made by Dallas city council officials in 1993 to offer policemen and firefighters about to retire (at age 50, by the way) a bonus to stay on longer. 

The offer: a fully-funded side account, paid by the city, earning 8.5 percent interest, tax-deferred, if they would put off retiring for a few years. 

The assumptions made at the time were that the funds would come from two places: a five-percent annual growth rate in employment, which would bring in lots of new blood (and contributions), and a nine-percent annual rate of return on those contributions. 

Neither of those assumptions panned out.

DYI:  A five-percent annual growth rate in employment???  From the beginning a Ponzi like scheme to make the numbers work.  Of course as with all of the best laid plans of mice and men this one quickly went bad.  Interest rates continued their downward march reducing bond returns and seven years later the stock market would no longer deliver the returns needed as well.  

How long were they planning on having this early retirement going??  If you retire at age 50 and live until age 80; that is 30 years of benefits! Wow!  That is a huge stress in of itself; then with the add-on side account the hand writing was on the wall but no one was willing to read.  The markets were hot as a pistol back then creating the thinking that high percentage returns were baked in the cake forever!  Anyone with a bit of value driven historical perspective would have thrown cold water onto this misguided venture.  A kill joy back then - would have said his piece and hoped like hell he or she would not be fired. 

I'm certain there was a bit of vote buying going on as well.  A too good to be true pension that sucks in policemen and firefighters (who have little understanding of pension mathematics) who as a group will vote for the Mayor and Council Members in record numbers.  In a low voter turnout a block of voters such as the policemen and firefighters could very easily tip the balance in their favor.

Just when it seems impossible for these State and local pension plans to get any worse....it will and sooner than later.

   November 28, 2016

More Blowoff than Breakout

John P. Hussman, Ph.D.

 We continue to view the equity market as tracing out an extended two-year top formation, at what is presently the third most extreme level of market overvaluation in history. 

Enthusiasm about a runaway market “breakout” to the upside is clearly evident in fresh sentiment extremes, with advisory bullishness rising to 55.9% and bearishness down to 21.6% (Investors Intelligence), but the fact is that the S&P 500 Index closed Friday less than 4% above its May 2015 high, and just 1% above its August 2016 high. The broader NYSE Composite Index remains below the level it set in July 2014, though with a slightly positive return including dividends. The stock market has reestablished an extreme overvalued, overbought, overbullish syndrome of conditions that - unlike much of half-cycle advance from 2009 to mid-2014 - lacks internal uniformity, particularly among interest-sensitive and globally-sensitive sectors. For that reason, the recent marginal highs are more consistent with a “blowoff” than a “breakout.”

Frankly, regardless of how market action plays out on a shorter horizon, I still expect the S&P 500 to surrender its entire total return since 2000 over the completion of the current market cycle. The interim returns are likely to represent little but temporary paper gains, except for investors who exit. Even in that event, some other investor would then be in the position of holding the bag. In aggregate, the U.S. equity market is unlikely to avoid a roughly $10 trillion paper loss by the completion of this market cycle.

We’ve shown similar and only slightly less accurate relationships back to the early 1900’s using other valuation measures. Nothing - not the Great Depression, penicillin, World War II, the digital computer, the atomic bomb, Mr Potato Head, the microprocessor, the 1970’s inflation, the Cold War, the breakup of the Soviet Union, the expansion of global trade, the tech bubble, 9/11, the global financial crisis - nothing - has durably changed the mapping between reliable valuation measures and subsequent 10-12 year market returns. We cannotsay the same thing for shorter segments of the market cycle, where speculation, panic, and shifts in investor risk-preferences play a critical role. But to imagine that stocks are priced as desirable long-term investments here is a denial of every lesson of market history.

DYI:  Stocks are going to be blasted with a very normal decline of around 45% to 60%! Why would this be normal??  Valuations are very pricey - so pricey a 60% decline would only have stocks marginally undervalued.  To have valuations back at the bottom of 1982 stocks would need to retreat - after inflation - around 85%!  That's not a typo! 85%!  To arrive there will take one of two additional market cycles.  Also during a market smash of this magnitude the Fed's only know one thing - lower rates!  Will we see negative rates??  My guess is most likely yes for Treasuries of 5 years of less and with 10 year T-bonds under 1% and 30 year T-bonds under 2%!

What will this do to the Dallas Police and Firefighter's pension?  Dallas you will need to get "lawyered up" as bankruptcy is on your horizon.  Dallas will have a lot of company as many other cities and States are in the same boat.  Plus a hell of a lot of disappointed employees with many having to continue working well into their 70's.  Employees with 401k's will be affected especially if they are carrying a high percentage in stocks.  Most will have to work into their 70's as well.

A very dismal picture but not for DYI.  My model portfolio speaks for itself as we wait for better values ahead.

  Updated Monthly

AGGRESSIVE PORTFOLIO - ACTIVE ALLOCATION - 11/1/16

Active Allocation Bands (excluding cash) 0% to 60%

85% - Cash -Short Term Bond Index - VBIRX

15% -Gold- Precious Metals & Mining - VGPMX

 0% -Lt. Bonds- Long Term Bond Index - VBLTX

 0% -Stocks- Total Stock Market Index - VTSAX

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This site strives for the highest standards of accuracy; however ERRORS AND OMISSIONS ARE ACCEPTED!

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The Dividend Yield Investor shall not be held liable for any loss and/or damages from the information herein.

Use this site at your own risk.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS.

DYI

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

by Naomi Wolf 24 April 2007

Because Americans like me were born in freedom, we have a hard time even considering that it is possible for us to become as unfree - domestically - as many other nations. Because we no longer learn much about our rights or our system of government - the task of being aware of the constitution has been outsourced from citizens' ownership to being the domain of professionals such as lawyers and professors - we scarcely recognize the checks and balances that the founders put in place, even as they are being systematically dismantled. Because we don't learn much about European history, the setting up of a department of "homeland" security - remember who else was keen on the word "homeland" - didn't raise the alarm bells it might have.

Conason eloquently warned of the danger of American authoritarianism. I am arguing that we need also to look at the lessons of European and other kinds of fascism to understand the potential seriousness of the events we see unfolding in the US.

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy

Creating a terrifying threat - hydra-like, secretive, evil - is an old trick. It can, like Hitler's invocation of a communist threat to the nation's security, be based on actual events (one Wisconsin academic has faced calls for his dismissal because he noted, among other things, that the alleged communist arson, the Reichstag fire of February 1933, was swiftly followed in Nazi Germany by passage of the Enabling Act, which replaced constitutional law with an open-ended state of emergency). Or the terrifying threat can be based, like the National Socialist evocation of the "global conspiracy of world Jewry", on myth.

DYI:  Multiple agendas requires different threats to mobilize our citizens into acceptance and action[propaganda - LIES].  9-11 was just such an action designed for that purpose.  In the beginning it was very successful ramping up the military industrial complex for wars all over the Middle East.  Another agenda is an oil and gas grab as the natural resource wars move into high gear with the grand prize being attempted for the seizure of Russian resources especially those east of the Ural Mountains.  I have many other prior posts in greater detail explaining this.     

2. Create a gulag

At first, the people who are sent there are seen by citizens as outsiders: troublemakers, spies, "enemies of the people" or "criminals". Initially, citizens tend to support the secret prison system; it makes them feel safer and they do not identify with the prisoners. But soon enough, civil society leaders - opposition members, labour activists, clergy and journalists - are arrested and sent there as well.

DYI:  The Fed's have built multiple FEMA facilities around the country so far to the best of my knowledge they have remained unused.  The development of these camps has been muted due to citizen journalist and alternative news outlets.       

3. Develop a thug caste

When leaders who seek what I call a "fascist shift" want to close down an open society, they send paramilitary groups of scary young men out to terrorize citizens. The Blackshirts roamed the Italian countryside beating up communists; the Brownshirts staged violent rallies throughout Germany. This paramilitary force is especially important in a democracy: you need citizens to fear thug violence and so you need thugs who are free from prosecution.

DYI:  

OBAMA'S 'NATIONAL CIVILIAN SECURITY FORCE' ENDORSED

Back in 2008, Barack Obama, then a presidential candidate, called for a “civilian national security force.” And he wanted it wanted it as big as all of the nation’s military branches.“For several days now, WND has been hounding Barack Obama’s campaign about a statement he made July 2 in Colorado Springs – a statement that blew my mind, one that has had me scratching my head ever since,” he wrote at the time.
“In talking about his plans to double the size of the Peace Corps and nearly quadruple the size of AmeriCorps and the size of the nation’s military services, he made this rather shocking (and chilling) pledge: ‘We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.'”
“Now, since I’ve never heard anyone inside or out of government use the phrase ‘civilian national security force’ before, I was more than a little curious about what he has in mind,” he wrote. “What does it mean?”
Farah pointed out that a “massive but secret national police force that will be even bigger than the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force put together” would be startling.
“The U.S. Army alone has nearly 500,000 troops. That doesn’t count reserves or National Guard. In 2007, the U.S. Defense budget was $439 billion. Is Obama serious about creating some kind of domestic security force bigger and more expensive than that?” he wrote.

Thank God this idea went nowhere.  However the Federal government has been Federalizing local police forces around the country in their attempt to create through the back door a national security force.  Luckily our local police forces are becoming awake and are resisting any sort of nationalization with a push back against their political bosses who only see the Fed's carrot(money).
  

4. Set up an internal surveillance system

In 2005 and 2006, when James Risen and Eric Lichtblau wrote in the New York Times about a secret state programme to wiretap citizens' phones, read their emails and follow international financial transactions, it became clear to ordinary Americans that they, too, could be under state scrutiny.

DYI:  Everyone knows by now the NSA's national data collection - OF ALL CITIZENS. What more can be said?

5. Harass citizens' groups

Other harassment is more serious: the American Civil Liberties Union reports that thousands of ordinary American anti-war, environmental and other groups have been infiltrated by agents: a secret Pentagon database includes more than four dozen peaceful anti-war meetings, rallies or marches by American citizens in its category of 1,500 "suspicious incidents". The equally secret Counterintelligence Field Activity (Cifa) agency of the Department of Defense has been gathering information about domestic organisations engaged in peaceful political activities: Cifa is supposed to track "potential terrorist threats" as it watches ordinary US citizen activists. A little-noticed new law has redefined activism such as animal rights protests as "terrorism". So the definition of "terrorist" slowly expands to include the opposition.

DYI:  The IRS(ABC News)has been used by Presidents of both political parties to harass their political enemies.  I tried to find the first known case out of curiosity.  ABC News mentions as far back as FDR so this is a long held tradition.  Of course what is needed is to eliminate the Federal income taxes and replace it with a national sales tax/importation tax AND repeal the 16th Amendment.  A tall order and a big step for liberty.   

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release

This scares people. It is a kind of cat-and-mouse game. Nicholas D Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the investigative reporters who wrote China Wakes: the Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power, describe pro-democracy activists in China, such as Wei Jingsheng, being arrested and released many times. In a closing or closed society there is a "list" of dissidents and opposition leaders: you are targeted in this way once you are on the list, and it is hard to get off the list.

DYI:  So far I've not heard of this happening...so far so good.

7. Target key individuals

Elsewhere, a CIA contract worker who said in a closed blog that "waterboarding is torture" was stripped of the security clearance she needed in order to do her job.

Most recently, the administration purged eight US attorneys for what looks like insufficient political loyalty. When Goebbels purged the civil service in April 1933, attorneys were "coordinated" too, a step that eased the way of the increasingly brutal laws to follow.

DYI:  The IRS is the prime example to target individuals as mentioned in point #5.

8. Control the press

You won't have a shutdown of news in modern America - it is not possible. But you can have, as Frank Rich and Sidney Blumenthal have pointed out, a steady stream of lies polluting the news well. What you already have is a White House directing a stream of false information that is so relentless that it is increasingly hard to sort out truth from untruth. In a fascist system, it's not the lies that count but the muddying. When citizens can't tell real news from fake, they give up their demands for accountability bit by bit.

DYI:  Both political parties especially the executive branch(President) are notorious for this behavior with the old line media being their lap dogs as long as the message is pro big government/big business further serving the global corporations drive for a feudal state. 

9. Dissent equals treason

Most Americans surely do not get this yet. No wonder: it is hard to believe, even though it is true. In every closing society, at a certain point there are some high-profile arrests - usually of opposition leaders, clergy and journalists. Then everything goes quiet. After those arrests, there are still newspapers, courts, TV and radio, and the facades of a civil society. There just isn't real dissent. There just isn't freedom. If you look at history, just before those arrests is where we are now.

DYI:  The propaganda push against the alternative news outlets ramps up setting the stage AFTER Trump leaves office to shut down alternative media outlets that do not follow the new world order - big government/big business corporate feudal state.  

10. Suspend the rule of law

The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 gave the president new powers over the national guard. This means that in a national emergency - which the president now has enhanced powers to declare - he can send Michigan's militia to enforce a state of emergency that he has declared in Oregon, over the objections of the state's governor and its citizens.

"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands ... is the definition of tyranny," wrote James Madison. We still have the choice to stop going down this road; we can stand our ground and fight for our nation, and take up the banner the founders asked us to carry.

DYI: No doubt the rule of law has become almost nothing more than a joke.  Exampled by the bankers who are repeatedly fined yet no one goes to jail.  The latest fiasco is Wells Fargo where 10's of thousand of account holders were placed fraudulently into new accounts to generate fee's. Anytime a customer opens a new account requires their signature.  The Wells Fargo case there was 10's of thousand of forged signatures - where are the handcuffs??? 

To maintain freedom requires eternal vigilance AND A HUGE AMOUNT OF WORK!

DYI 

Amid Anti-globalist Outcry, New Push to Grant UN Tax Powers

Even as voters worldwide defy the establishment and firmly reject globalism in democratic elections, seemingly tone-deaf globalists are demanding the surrender of vast new powers over taxation and national policy to the United Nations. If the UN is allowed to usurp the draconian powers demanded, freedom, privacy, and prosperity would become history.   

The United States, in particular, could be in the UN's crosshairs, along with other liberty-minded nations worldwide labeled by the UN as “tax havens” for not extracting as much wealth from productive citizens as the UN's tax-funded legions demand. Following the largely globalist-manufactured “Panama Papers” pseudo-scandal, the UN is at it again. 

The latest demands come after years of globalist scheming to impose UN taxes directly on humanity, too. That would allow the dictators club to raise money independently, bypassing national governments. But as the public mood sours on globalism — as evidenced by Donald Trump's victory, Brexit, and survey results from across European polls showing anti-globalist fervor rising — the globalist agenda may face some serious setbacks in the years ahead. 

The most recent globalist demand for greater UN powers over taxation came from UN “human rights expert” Alfred de Zayas (shown above), a Cuban-born “international lawyer,” who demanded “an international Tax Body to fight tax evasion and corruption, phase-out tax havens, stop competition among tax jurisdictions and abolish secrecy.” Translated into plain English, Zayas called for a new globalist UN bureaucracy with draconian law-enforcement powers, a full-blown assault on self-government and democratic principles, a UN effort to harmonize and rig taxation policy worldwide in favor of oppressive Big Government, and a total end to privacy. The policies would undoubtedly produce a collapse in prosperity, in addition to crushing liberty and self-government. 

Rather than fight back against every new totalitarian scheme dreamed up by the UN and the globalist establishment behind it, Americans should push for a complete U.S. government withdrawal from the UN — an Amexit. The American Sovereignty Restoration Act would do exactly that. With Trump declaring on the campaign trail that the UN was not a friend to the United States or to freedom, and with the UN making more ludicrous and autocratic demands by the day, the time has never been better for Americans to demand a permanent end to U.S. participation in the dictators club.

 

DYI:  I've been saying for years the U.N. was from day one designed for a platform for a one world government run for the elites and by the elites to create a corporate feudal state for the masses.  Its a long shot let's hope Trump realizes this and has the U.S. pull out of the U.N.  Besides the picture above of the U.N. complex sure would help the housing shortage in New York by doing a condo conversion.

DYI

Peak Oil in a Fact-Free World: the New "Oil Bonanza" in West Texas

Peak Oil in a Fact-Free World: the New "Oil Bonanza" in West Texas

So, the USGS comes out with a press release that the media immediately diffuse in terms of a great discovery: 20 billion barrels, somewhere in Texas in a place called "Wolfcamp".  Bloomberg multiplies the number by the current oil price and comes up with a title that reads: "A $900 billion Oil Treasure," for a piece that tells of "bonanza" and of "the gift that keeps on giving". USA today speaks of "The Largest Oil Deposit Ever Found in the US". 

Great fun, and all fact-free! But let's suppose, for once, that facts mattered. What should we say about the "Largest Oil Deposit Ever Found in the US"? One point is that nothing new was "found;" the Wolfcamp formation was well known and already being exploited. The USGS just made a new estimate; probably valid within the assumptions made; but it is just that: an estimate. It doesn't mean that these resources have been discovered (note that the USGS explicitly says "undiscovered.") So, what all this means is that, statistically, these resources should be there, but nobody can be completely sure and it wouldn't be the first time that these estimates turn out to be optimistic. (in this case, the round number "20" is more than a little suspicious). 

But never mind that; let's assume that these 20 billion barrels are there for real. How does this amount stack up in comparison with the world's oil situation? Here are some data, taken from Bloomberg (not exactly a den of Cassandras).

 

DYI:  Oil and gas prices have long been known for their roller coaster prices.  Prices are affected by war, inflation/deflation, bad economies/good economies, market manipulation and few more that I haven't thought of.  One thing is clear major discoveries of oil and its cousin gas is on its decline. The availability of future supplies are what countries and global corporation are fighting over. This is what all of the anti-Russian rhetoric is to carve up Mother Russia especially east of the Ural Mountains for her oil and gas deposits.  This is NOT a new discovery just a new estimate of an old find.  The days of easy to find oil and gas are OVER, now it is increasingly expensive to pull the carbon to the surface.

What is holding this over inflated market up is more than just ultra low interest rates it is low oil prices giving the Fed's massive room to inflate the currency without the cost of living going to the moon.  DYI's Oil Indicator shows just that:

The Oil Indicator

11/1/16
Updated Monthly

Oil Prices: 
11/2/15.....$48.09

10/31/16...$46.54   

DOWN 3.22%
(oil prices approximately one year earlier due to weekends & holidays)
ANS West Coast prices   

 OIL INDICATOR  POSITIVE

Oil prices are well known for their volatility in the short term, longer term due to dwindling reserves energy prices are in a secular bull market.  Technologies such as fracking will extend the life of oil fields but major new discoveries arrive at a snails pace far slower than the world's growth.  

As long as prices rise in a slow and orderly pace our economy can adjust to those changes, however if prices spike (international tensions, war etc.) high energy costs behave as a massive deflationary tax. This will send our economy tumbling down and very possibly the U.S. stock market.

If oil prices rise greater than 75% from one year-earlier level, investors at that time should shift their portfolio geared towards deflationary times.  This would be oil indicator as negative.

If oil prices rise from one year-earlier less than 10% or drop then the inflationary play is in effect; a positive for economic growth along with possible higher stock prices.

Where to find one year-earlier oil prices?  Alaska Department of Revenue    

Oil indicator positive                 
20%  REIT's
20%  Energy
20%  P.M.'s
40%  Small Caps
  0%  Lt. Gov't Bonds

Oil indicator negative
  5%  REIT's
10%  Energy
10%  P.M's
10%  Small Caps
65%  Lt. Gov't Bonds

Vanguard Funds

REIT's
REIT Index Admiral  VGSLX

Energy
Energy Fund  VGENX

Precious Metals (P.M.'s)
Precious Metals and Mining Fund  VGPMX

Small Caps
Small Cap Value Index Admiral  VSIAX

Long Term Government Bonds
Long-Term Government Bond Index Admiral  VLGSX

Disclaimer

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This site strives for the highest standards of accuracy; however ERRORS AND OMISSIONS ARE ACCEPTED!

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DYI