Saturday Pictures

Saturday Pictures

June 29, 2013

(click to enlarge)

Our Lady of the Rockies, colossal 90-foot statue of the Virgin Mary, that overlooks the city of Butte, Montana from her lofty perch on the East Ridge of the Continental Divide. To her left water drains to the Atlantic Ocean; the Pacific Ocean is catchment basin for flows to her right. A tram is on the way despite neighborhood objections.

Mining derricks overlooking Berkeley Pit Copper Mine, Butte, Montana, a gigantic hole and Superfund site dug into what is nicknamed "The Richest Hill on Earth."

Clark, Sacagawea and Pomp's campsite, a few miles up the valley, at the mouth of Kelly Canyon.  The mouth of the Shields River is where it empties into the Yellowstone River between Livingston and Big Timber Montana.  The Yellowstone joins with the Missouri River just past the Montana, North Dakota state line.

Girl with the Colonel Harlan Sanders, Butte, Montana.

Student Loan Accountability: Put College Skin into the Game

Banks are required to have skin in the game when they originate and sell off high risk mortgages in public markets. This is a post financial meltdown reform. When selling low down payment mortgages to the markets banks must keep a portion of these home-grown mortgages on their own books. No longer can banks pass along the burdens of bad underwriting to financial markets without paying a big price.  

Prior to the 2008 financial crises, the big Wall Street banks (and many smaller banks like Angelo Mozilo's Countrywide Financial) ran mortgage production shops free from obligation. They placed mortgages, collected hefty fees and then sold mortgages off to unfortunate investors who were left holding the bag when inadequately vetted, no down payment and improperly priced loans became delinquent or went into default. There was little financial penalty if the originating banks failed to conduct the necessary due diligence or properly judge credit risk. To the contrary, in many cases originating banks cashed in on their malfeasance when, acting as loan servicers, they reaped the benefit of late payment charges and earned downstream foreclosure fees. 

While the real estate bubble was building, the chattering class said it was all to the good because lax loan standards were reaching out to minorities and promoting the laudable social objective of increasing home ownership. Liar loans resulted. Loan placements surged and real estate values skyrocketed. The real estate bubble was formed, which bursted ignominiously in late 2007 and through 2008, precipitating the worst recession in post World War II economic history.

So what do we have now? A college tuition bubble, blown to the bursting point by an unaccountable student loan process. It comes to you, growing by leaps and bounds, courtesy of crony collaboration between the good ole U.S. government and college administrators, fronted by students, institutions of higher education and university systems, and financed by loans. These days most anyone who wants tuition help qualifies for student loans so long as a college or university accepts them and certifies the student is making adequate progress towards a degree. The chattering class says, of course, the simple standards and simple program are promoting education and reaching out to minorities.  They publish tables showing the difference in average incomes between high school and college graduates, implying to naive 17 and 18 year old students that they, by matriculation, too will increase their earning potential regardless of the school, the degree or their academic performance.

As of 2013 total student loan debt has eclipsed $1 trillion, tripling in less than a decade. Recent graduates (and a portion of the 40 percent who fail to graduate) are saddled with an average of $35,000 debt.  The average borrower has $25,000 in debt, which has risen by 70 percent in less than a decade. 

Nothing this side of a pawn shop or a loan shark's fiefdom, is higher risk than student loans.  Almost 7 million borrowers, or 17 percent, are 90+ days delinquent. The 30-49 year age cohort has a higher delinquency rate. That's because the core delinquency rates are much higher than meets the eye, 31 percent for borrowers in repayment status. Many of the younger borrowers have yet to go into default only because they are temporarily in a period of grace or forbearance, such as due to the fact they are still in school.  

Yet the student loan balances continue to skyrocket, with balances now eclipsing even the Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) loans which played such a big role in driving the financial crisis.

Student loan debt is the only form of consumer debt that has grown since the peak of consumer debt in 2008. Balances of student loans have eclipsed both auto loans and credit cards, making student loan debt the largest form of consumer debt outside of mortgages. 

It's a mess.  The progressive political and lousy liberal answer is to clean up the mess by is loaning more and more at lesser and lesser rates.  Loan leverage destroys, so let's have more of it, right?

Hungry Hoards

At long last, tourists are streaming into town.   After a string of days with highs in the 60's and 70's, real summer is descending upon us, with highs predicted in the 80's for the next week.  Check out the Old Faithful webcam to see the hungry hoards making the loop through Yellowstone National Park.  

Many visitors are casting for trout.

Others are looking for bear.

Or watching for wolves.

Packing in.

And rowing out.

Before hanging in town.

Good times for all.

Results Oriented Diplomacy

Obama promises Medvedev that he will have more flexibility after the election because it will be his last term.  Medvedev promises to pass along the news to Vladmir.

Vladmir Putin takes into account Obama's posture by responding to the United State's request for extradition of Edward Snowden with a big fat "Nyet!"  Hey Barack, how are you adjusting to that response? 

Club Fed Cashes In: Special Favors for Federal Employees

We blogged last January on special interest rates for federal employees and retirees.   We said,

How would you like to have had a money market account in the zero interest rate environment of the last few years that paid better than 2 percent? How would you like to buy bonds that will adjust to higher interest rates with no decrease in principal value? If you are an ordinary person, saving and investing, planning to buy house, hoping to fund a college education or contemplating retirement, you don’t have these options because you are not a federal employee. You can stash your money in an interest bearing account that pays 0.01 percent. Or you can package a bundle of long term treasury bonds that yields 2-plus percent, but the package will lose value, and result likely in an overall net loss when the Federal Reserve Board reverts to standard monetary policy with higher interest rates a year or two down the road. 

The federal employee option that you don’t have is referred to as the G Fund in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP).

The reversion has started. Driven by the Federal Reserve's aggressive money printing programs, referred to as QE's I, II and III, the yield (interest rate) on a ten-year treasury note bottomed at 1.62 percent on May 2nd. Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve has since signalled that the Fed is contemplating a slow down and eventual shut down of QE III over the next year and one-half. The market has reacted. As of today's market close the 10-year yield had risen to 2.55 percent.

Ten year Treasury notes, yield history, 5/2/13 through 6/24/13

Similarly affected, over the same period the yield on 30 year treasury bonds has risen from 2.83 percent to 3.56 percent.

Thirty year Treasury bonds, yield history, 5/2/13 through 6/24/13

The price (or the value if you already own it) of treasury debt went the other way. Ten year note prices dropped from 133.67 to 126.13, a decline of 6.6 percent. Thirty year bond prices have dropped from 149.30 to 135.07, a decline of 9.5 percent. 

So someone who actually holds treasury bonds, which you most likely do as an average investor who has a bond fund or funds as part of your investment or 401(k) portfolio, has taken a big valuation hit. Not so us members of Club Fed. Your long-term government bond values have dropped, probably between 7 and 8 percent, which will be reflected in your monthly statements. Not me. You might as well have written me a check for $35,000, because as a member of Club Fed I have had the special privilege of ducking the market impact of the bond revaluation, while immediately earning the increased long-term interest rates. I, along with my federal employee and retiree brethren, we are special -- we are members of Club Fed.   Over a decade the cost of this Club Fed benefit is a $70 billion federal budget deficit hit. It's not just for the IRS. Party on federal employees, party on.      

Open Letter to the NSA Director

Dir Sir,

In this time of gargantuan federal deficits, I think it important government do all it can do to streamline activities, reduce workload and eliminate costs.  Accordingly, I invite you to relieve yourself of the obligation of securing, cataloging and analyzing my meta data.  To help out I have illustrated everywhere I've been for the last 24 hours, free of charge.

You no longer need concern yourself with mining or delving into this useless information.  It's a win/win. 

Saturday PIctures

Saturday Pictures

June 22, 2013

(click to enlarge)

Bridger Creek Golf Camp, Bozeman MT.

Oil Train, Bozeman MT

Girl with pink fedora in from of barn, Bozeman MT

Hook 'em horns, along Trail Creek Road, between Bozeman and Livingston MT 

View down Trail Creek Road, across Paradise Valley, Absaroka Range in the distance.

Black Bear foraging, Yellowstone National Park.

Cow elk lounging on Madison River bank, Yellowstone National Park.

Gaggle of geese gallivanting, Madison River, Yellowstone National Park.

Happy First Day of Summer!

Mount Washburn Webcam Yellowstone National Park

At the top of Dunraven pass at an elevation of 10,243 feet is Mount Washburn. The views are spectacular. It is a six-mile hike round trip to the top of Mount Washburn and back. A fire lookout is stationed at the top of Washburn and uses this camera to track fires during the summer season. When it is not being used to track fires the webcam is usually pointed in a southern direction with a view of the ridgeline of Mount Washburn in the foreground, and the Grand Tetons, portions of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Yellowstone Lake in the upper left hand corner and background.

Next Time You Read an AP Story

Remember this.  There was a moose on the loose in Bozeman today.

A bull moose wanders near the Law and Justice Center in Bozeman, Mont., Thursday, June 20, 2013. Game wardens hazed out the moose away from the city and back into the forest without tranquilizers. (AP Photo/Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez)

The AP reports,

A bull moose wanders near the Law and Justice Center in Bozeman, Mont., Thursday, June 20, 2013. Game wardens hazed out the moose away from the city and back into the forest without tranquilizers.

And the AP reports,

The moose made appearances near Montana State University, Bozeman's law and justice building, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and a grocery store. Eventually, wildlife officials were able to catch up with the animal and hit it with a tranquilizer dart. It was loaded into a trailer to be released in the Spanish Creek area of the Gallatin National Forest.

Version A or Version B, same article, take your pick.

May Top Posts!

Looking back at May, in rank order of page views, here are our top posts:

1.) Mainstream Media -- Handmaiden of Government Distortion and Deception:   The AP front page story and banner headline contrives stories about supposed fiscal and financial security impacts of government accounting games.  We used the analogy of saving for a college education by creating a useless spreadsheet.  

You say to your kid, "Don't worry, I am fully funding your college education."  "Young lady, look at these numbers, they are growing every month."  What do you do when the kid says, "But Dad there is no real money there and you have spent your income on other things, what are you actually going to do when I start college? 

There is no good answer for the young lady, as there is no excuse for the government accounting shenanigans and the support they receive from the obedient mainstream media.

2.) Global Cooling?:  Snow in May won't go away.  Flashback to global cooling warnings and starvation scares circa 1975.

3.) On the Road to Sweden: Grandma and Grandpa Stuberg: Ja, I'll take some of de Swedish ancestry.

4.) North Dakota -- AKA Son of Saudi Arabia:  Billions of barrels below in the bountiful Bakken.

5.) So Why Did You Move?:  Taxes may be inevitable but they don't need to be high.

6.) Where Have All the Tornadoes Gone?:  Before more came to More (Oklahoma) U.S. tornadic activity fell to a recorded low, making Al Gore out as a paranoid, panicky progressive.

7.) IRS Flashback -- Tax Cheat Tim Geithner:  Obama's prevarication notwithstanding  the IRS was anything but independent.  It reported to tax cheat Timmy.

Thanks to you, our loyal readers.

OMB -- Obama's Right Hand Men and Women

Poor little Barack Obama. Boohoo. If you were to listen to the mainstream media and his legion of lapdog apologists, we should be playing the game of zero expectations.  You can't expect this poor, overworked and overwrought President to understand and manage the sprawling, out of control and scandal ridden federal bureaucracy all by himself.  Why he is just too busy recruiting gaggles of first responders, covens of betrodden women and collections of multicultural kids to gather behind as a backdrop for his contrived rants and raves.  

I am almost at a loss for words. Has anyone who works for the AP, the New York Times, the major television networks, CNN or MSNBC ever heard of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)? Let me help them out. I know it's out there. It's not hard to find. The physical manifestations are front and center.

Let's start right at the White House. Co-located, within the White House's security perimeter and across the parking lot from the West Wing, is the Old Executive Office building. I snapped a picture of it our last Christmas Eve in Washington. I know that the animatronic wearers of blinders in the media find it hard to discern, but the Old EOB is that white rococo, French provincial architectural thing, topped by multiple U.S. flags, peaking out from behind the National Menorah.

Old Executive Office Building Behind National Menorah, Christmas Eve in Washington

Is OMB located there? For sure, but much of that prime space is needed to satisfy office requirements of the White House Czars (who are appointed to influence and control specific elements of the federal bureaucracy on the President's behalf). The old EOB doesn't have near enough space for all the OMBers, though it has two miles of corridors. To give a measure of how far we have come, in the decades before the federal bureaucracy spiraled out of control the OEOB was large enough to house the War and Navy (collectively DOD) and the State Departments.

To find the OMB overflow, que just across Pennsylvania Avenue. Less than a half block up the street is the ten-story New Executive Office building, tucked just behind the Renwick Gallery.

This photo of the White House's New Executive Office Building is courtesy of TripAdvisor, which ranks it 85 out of 401 tourist attractions in Washington, DC.  

Let's look at the structures together.  Obama has quite a complex working for him.  The Old Executive Office Building (formally named the Eisenhower Executive Office Building) is the light colored six story structure in the foreground.  The New Executive Office Building is the red brick structure behind and partially offset to right from the Old EOB. To the right of the Old EOB is the roof of a small flat structure, which is actually the West Wing of the White House, housing the Oval Office where the dunderheads in the mainstream media and the Kool Aid drinking Obama supporters would have you believe the only management resources of the President are located. If you want to get this view live, all you would need to do is travel to the top of the Washington Monument, if only the crackerjack Obama administration were to get around to repairing and reopening it, now almost two years after the earthquake.

OMB exists for one reason and one reason only -- to manage and control the federal bureaucracy at the President's behest. OMB is the instrument of the President's will.  Regulatory actions, including all proposed rules and regulations, must be cleared through the OMB.  Most OMB career employees work in the New EOB, while their political bosses in order to be close to and have easy access to the President, work across the street in the Old EOB.  OMBers are well trained.  Every request, every instruction uttered to their colleagues in the cabinet agencies, is prefaced by some such statement as the President wants or the White House needs.  Their word is law. 

Obama doesn't lack power, resources or the reins to influence and control the federal government. Far from it.      

  

Obamaphones

I called it a "rip", "phones for the door" and a "pure waste."  Now there is a new moniker -- Obama Phones -- in honor of his anything goes, big government give away society.  The dingbats over at Microsoft say that people "contend" the free phone program is abused.  Hey navel gazing lefties, it is a matter of proven fact, supported by none other than Obama's FCC study.  Geez.  What does it take to get through to these hard-headed progressive extremists who are so anxious to give away other people's money away that they deny reality again and again?   Everyone can get the phones, for whatever reason they want.  It's a fraud, courtesy of the government you voted for.

Truck Control, Not Gun Control

The headlines are a lot different in Chicago.  This is why Barack Obama's remedies don't play well in Montana.  Pickup trucks are the instrument.  Jon Tester had a different idea. 

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog

Do you really want Barack Obama and Kathleen Sebelius driving your health care choices? Look at the data.

A new study has found that mothers experiencing low-risk pregnancies and who are planning home births may have an overall lower risk of birth complications than those who plan their births in hospitals. 

Kathleen Sebelius, Barack Obama's Health Care Dictator

LiveScience is reporting that just 1 in 1,000 of the mothers monitored for the study suffered from severe complications during their home births, as opposed to 2.3 in every 1,000 who gave birth in a hospital.

The study, conducted by researchers in the Netherlands, additionally noted a marked decrease in incidents of postpartum hemorrhage in mothers who gave birth at home – 19.6 out of 1,000 compared to 37.6 out of 1,000 respectively.

The real War on Women is being waged from the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services, unequivocally.

Happy Father's Day!

To a father.

George Foster 1909-1999

To a grandfather.

Issac J Foster 1862-1934

And another grandfather.

Johan August Stödberg 1890-1951

The Golf Channel: Spouse's Guide To Sanity (Special Guest Post)

The Golf Channel

Spouses guide to sanity

Surviving a season of pro golf coverage requires some self-education.  Start with this knowledge base:

1. Play the ball where it lies
2. Golf is played outdoors
3. Pro golfers are not super models
4. Mike or Retief – golf vs wine
5. Golf is polite
6. Pro golfers are easy to spot in their underwear

Play the ball where it lies. This is where golf gets both practical and philosophical. There is a rule book (see USGA Rules of Golf), because no one remembers the technical definition of “casual water.” Golfers do not walk around with the official rule book in their pocket. Golf Channel viewers have never seen a copy of the rule book. Most of the rules are just dumb anyway. So only remember this, “Rule 13: Ball Played as it Lies,” even if it bounces off spectators and lands inside a beer pitcher in the concessions tent. You are always allowed to play the ball where it lies.

Rulebook Artwork
at Amazon.com

If play stops in the golf tournament and you see the course official walking around staring at the ball, while players gesticulate at various objects on the ground, this is a consultation regarding the Rules of Golf. To the non-golfing spouse watching this on The Golf Channel, it is watching grass grow, literally.  Consultations continue through commercial breaks. Ads on the golf channel are never scintillating, nothing will blow up in flames, and the musical scores are forgettable. This is your chance to raid the fridge and open some wine.

When you return, the game has resumed. If you’re lucky, one of the golfers had spoken into an open mike with, “That effing turtle ate my ball!” This sound byte will be replayed on The Golf Channel for eternity. That player will be nicknamed “The Turtle,” His career will plummet, he’s headed for a job as a commentator (see Charlie Reimer), not hall-of-famer. His dreams of opening a winery are dashed as all his backers withdraw their support – no one wants to drink “Effing Turtle” wine.

We display the artwork for the illustrated copy of the rule book.  Anyone can buy a copy from Amazon.com. But no one does.  Tiger Woods won't even fork out bucks for a book (see the 15th hole at The Masters).

Guys and Gals Who Will Come to Get Their Honey

Saturday Pictures

Saturday Pictures

June 15, 2013

(click to enlarge)

New State Motto?

There were Friday's snows.

Take that Missouri!

Montanans on Main.

Honest workers at Burger Bob's.

Money for Mansions

It continues. I've blogged about Obama's bifurcated economy before, how his policies drive wealth inequality to previously unheard of levels. Obamanomics is about reflation, not fundamental economic growth. Why work?  Reflation (i.e., printing cash) helps those with money. Everyone else, not so much, particularly our children and grandchildren who are inheriting the debt that is driving reflation.  They are getting crushed by Obama's policies.

The latest news is there is a shortage of mansions on the housing market. They are darn near sold out. We are talking about the top end of the upper crust.

A study from Altos Research, the Mountain View, Ca., real-estate research firm, found that inventory in the nation's 90 wealthiest ZIP codes fell 15 percent over the past year, slightly faster than the broader market.

But in the richest ZIP codes, inventory is down more than 50 percent. In a ZIP code in Carmel, Calif., inventory fell 76 percent over the past year. There were only four homes left on the market priced at $1 million or more as of the end of May, according to Altos.

A mansion no longer on the market.

In Palm Beach, Fla., the number of $1 million-plus homes has plunged by 70 percent, falling from 89 to 26. And in the Old Greenwich, Conn. ZIP code, there are only 10 homes left priced at $1 million or more, down 58 percent, according to Altos.

"I don't recall seeing the market like this, and it's come so quickly," said Cristina Condon of Sotheby's International Real Estate in Palm Beach. She said buyers have poured into the market in recent months, many from overseas. American buyers are also piling in—some from higher-tax states like California, lured by low taxes and still-low prices in Florida. 

Condon said one of her listings that sold in the past year is a $11.3 million property on the Intracoastal that had six bedrooms, two baths, and Tuscan-inspired gardens, along with a pool and a boat dock.

Interest in her remaining listings remains strong. She cited strong interest in a $34.9 million lakefront estate in Palm Beach as an example. The 13,278-square-foot mansion has 7 bedrooms, 8 baths, a sprawling pool overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway with outdoor loggias.

Meanwhile, food stamp rolls continue to swell.

Food stamp particpation grows
as unemployment declines.

The latest data released by the Department of Agriculture indicated that in March, a notable 168,888 individual recipients were added to the food stamps program with the current total increasing 2.85% on a year-over-year basis.
Individuals receiving food stamp benefits increased to 47.72 million which, as a ratio of the overall civilian non-institutional population now stands at a whopping 19.48% of the population.

Households receiving food stamps benefits increased by 109,731 to 23.11 million households with the current total rising 3.86% above the level seen a year earlier.
As participation continues to swell, so too has the total nominal benefit cost climbing 2.58% on a year-over-year basis to $6.34 billion for the month.

There is a lot to like about this economy if you are rich. Elsewhere, there's an open invitation to the cycle of dependency, but not much in the way of economic opportunity. For the present, and most importantly our future, we need policies that favor real growth of the real economy.   

Corny Requirements

Almost no corn is grown in Montana.  The growing season is too short and the climate too dry for high yield corn production.  But in Montana, like the rest of the country, most of the fuel sold at filling stations is a blend of gasoline and corn-based ethanol, resulting from a government requirement of dubious environmental value.  It's a great benefit to the corn lobby and a special perk sought and received by Senators in corn producing states.  On the one hand the Federal Government drives up corn prices by requiring refineries mix ethanol with gasoline.  On the other hand, consumers, and the government through the Food Stamp program, are shouldering rapidly escalating food prices.

I bypassed the additive game last week when I filled up the tank of our Jeep Liberty with plain old gasoline, no ethanol added.  I paid more at the pump, not because gasoline costs more than ethanol (quite the contrary) but because the government has set up a convoluted ethanol credit program, which in essence fines oil refiners for producing gasoline without ethanol additives. Previously, the Liberty had been getting 18 to 19 miles per gallon with the standard 10 percent ethanol blend. My first ethanol free fill up resulted in 22 miles per gallon, a solid 16 to 22 percent improvement.  

The Sinclair station on Bridger Drive sells ethanol-free gas for a 6 cent per gallon premium (call it 2 percent) over what stations are charging in town for the inferior blend.   With increased mileage the net gain is around 14 to 20 percent.  I'll continue to be ethanol free until the government in its fiscal insanity drives me out of the market.

Sundays at the US Open: Memories and How to Watch a Golf Tournament

This week the United States Golf Association is putting on the 113th US Open golf tournament at the classic Merion East Course, with its distinctive red wicker basket topped pins, located along the Philiadelphia Main Line in Ardmore, Pennsyvania. The favorite is Tiger Woods.

I've had the pleasure of attending three US Open golf tournaments -- 1997 at Congressional in Bethesda Maryland, 2004 at Schinnecock Hills on the tip of Long Island New York and in 2011 at Congressional again. The victors of those events were Ernie Els (who held off Tom Lehman), Retief Goosen (who staved off Phil Mickelson) and Rory McIlroy (who lapped the field). By that cycle, God willing and if the creek don't rise one might think I would be aiming for 2018, but that means going back east to  Shinnecock.  Now from Montana more likely I will attend the 2115 Open scheduled for Chambers Bay in Washington, just south of Seattle, or the 2119 event scheduled for Pebble Beach Golf Links on the Monterrey Peninsula south of San Francisco.

A golf tournament is like no other event. The stage is spread out over 150 or more acres and the actors are constantly on the move.  And a US Open is a spectacle like no other tournament.  The course set up is extraordinarily difficult.  The stakes are high and the choke quotient is off the charts. 

Ernie Els leaps out of the bunker to mark his
ball on the 7th green at Shinnecock in 2004
before it can start to roll back.

Spectators have a choice of staying in place and watching the show go by or tagging along with a favored pairing or pairings.  In my experience it is best to do some of both. There are parts of a course that present the most interesting challenges or noteworthy vistas and then there are the players you just have to see. Take for example the infamous Sunday round in 2004 at Shinnecock.  USGA staff pushed the Redan green on the par 3 7th hole beyond its limits.  It couldn't hold a ball.  Uphill chips or putts stopping a few inches from the hole would merely pause before beginning to roll backyards down the slope, off the green, and frequently into an adjoining bunker. It was a fiasco not to be missed.  The same day, drama followed Phil Mickelson as he played out his usual Sunday afternoon US Open swoon. Phil and the incredibly supportive "Happy Birthday" singing New York crowd had to be seen and heard to be believed. If pure will and emotion were all that counted there was no way Lefty would have lost.

Biking Etiquette

If at first you don't succeed, turn around and run over 'em again.



The victim, thank God, was treated for what turned out to be minor injuries.

Orwellian

Apropos of the government now collecting most everything on everyone facilitated and emboldened by "advances in computing and software in recent years" it should be no surprise that sales of George Orwell's book, 1984 featuring Big Brother, have jumped into the top 100 Amazon best seller list for the first time in the internet retailer's existence. It's a tale of mass media, data mining and their harrowing consequences.  

That Clapper fellow, who works for and personally briefs Obama, isn't technically lying when he says, “The notion that we’re trolling through everyone’s emails and voyeuristically reading them, or listening to everyone phone call, is on its face absurd,” Clapper said. “We couldn’t do it even if we wanted to.” Clapper and his tens of thousands of contractor and government employee minions don't have to read and listen -- they got the software to do it for them.  Clapper is doing everything he can to deceive and mislead you.  The way Clapper puts it, he talks in "the least untruthful manner."  If you have never read 1984, consider it an absolute must.

President Barack Obama with his hand picked Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper