Top June Posts

June was great.  We had a wonderful month page view wise (rankings below).  More than anything, it was a month for golf, both on the links and in the blog.  Thank you to all our readers!

1.)  The Golf Channel: Spouse's Guide To Sanity (Special Guest Post) - Our Father's Day post, courtesy of the mother of my children, offered golf widow insight and a Father's Day authorship respite for yours truly. She opined on Retief, Tom and Mike, harpooned the menagerie of Tiger, the Bear and the Shark, and simplified the rules to one. Not one to gloss over, she peered beneath surface, to the underwear of it all. Teresa's post not only led the month, it vaulted to number two on the all time list. First place beckons. Don't look over your shoulder Jon Tester, she is catching up. It is rumoured another guest post is on the way.

2.)  Sundays at the US Open: Memories and How to Watch a Golf Tournament - My musings and memories from Opens past at Congressional and Shinnecock, with a primer on how to track down a Tiger at a tournament.

3.)  To Sell a House - Google vs. Bing. Competition for the best search engine? No, the sources of before and after pictures on how to market a house in a hot market.

4.)  Happy First Day of Summer! - KISS.  A Yellowstone webcam. Snow fields lasted into early July, gone now.  But where have all the snowflakes gone?  They will return before Labor Day, claims of global warming notwithstanding.  There is no urban heat island in Yellowstone.

5.)  Club Fed Cashes In: Special Favors for Federal Employees - 
I said you the taxpayer might as well have written me a check for $35K. I've since looked at my account balances and bonds have continued to lose value. It's more like a $50K check you've written me.  I, along with millions of federal employees and fellow retirees, thank you for your generosity.  My children, who the cost of this is being passed on to, not so much.

6.)  Student Loan Accountability: Put College Skin into the Game -  Young, naive college students are becoming the subprime borrowers of the education market.  Let's stop the insanity and inject responsibility at all levels. 



http://gradyent.blogspot.com/2013/06/student-loan-accountability-put-college.html50

Not to Worry, Your Purveyor of Fraud Will Write You a Check

I remember when I put myself on the circulation list for the daily multi-volume set of the Federal Register. I would scan the publication to see what kind of mischief the agencies were up to and to prepare my employer to respond accordingly. It was dull and boring, but every once in while I would come up with a gem that made the effort worthwhile.  Thank God, some are still engaged in that enterprise.

A lot of people were wondering how Obama would continue to enforce the individual Obamacare mandate while dropping the employer mandate. Well, the fraudmeister in chief has spoken. The answer was snuck into the Federal Register last Friday afternoon, a classic holiday weekend sneak tactic (when we played that game the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or the Friday after were favored target dates).

If you thought the delay in the employer mandate was bad news for Obamacare, just wait. On Friday, Sarah Kliff and Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post discovered that the Obama administration had buried in the Federal Register the announcement that the government won’t be able to verify whether or not applicants for Obamacare’s insurance exchange subsidies are actually qualified for the aid, in the 16 states that are setting up their own exchanges. Instead, until at least 2015, these states will be able to “accept the applicant’s attestation [regarding eligibility] without further verification.”

If you’ve been following the latest news around Obamacare, you know that on Tuesday evening, just before the Independence Day holiday, the White House announced that it would be delaying the implementation of the health law’s employer mandate—requiring all firms with more than 50 employees to provide health coverage to their workers—until 2015.

I, and several others at the time, said “wait a minute.” According to the law, you aren’t eligible for Obamacare’s subsidies if your employer has offered you what the government considers “affordable” coverage. But if employers are no longer going to report whether or not they’ve offered “affordable” coverage, how can the government verify whether or not workers are eligible for subsidies?

Now we know the answer. The government is going with what Kliff and Somashekhar call “the honor system.” “We have concluded that the…proposed rule is not feasible for implementation for the first year of operations,” say the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “The exchange may accept the applicant’s attestation regarding enrollment in an eligible employer-sponsored plan…without further verification, instead of following the procedure in §155.320(d)(3)(iii).

And it’s not just there. The feds will also allow people to gain means-tested subsidized coverage on the exchanges without having to…test their means. “For income verification, for the first year of operations, we are providing Exchanges with temporarily expanded discretion to accept an attestation of projected annual household income without further verification.”

We have seen what happens when income checks are lax or non- existent with the Obama phones -- 40 percent unjustified or unverifiable. Much larger sums are at stake with Obamacare.  This is fraud, this is budget busting and deficit skyrocketing insanity.   I never thought I would live to see anything so outrageous.  

No Pipelines

Thanks to the enviro left's preferred transportation mode, Lac Megantic, Quebec is burning.

Pipelines are evil,

Horrible,

Destructive of the environment,

Unsafe for where you live.

If you don't believe me just ask Warren Buffett, Obama supporter and owner of BNSF, oil train shipper extraordinaire.  

“Whatever people bring to us, we’re ready to haul,” Krista York-Wooley, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern, a unit of Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), said in an interview. If Keystone XL “doesn’t happen, we’re here to haul.”

According to Tony Hatch, an independent railroad analyst, rail cars are “a pretty hot commodity.”  Boy, I can second that 

Planes, Trains and Burgers

As the San Francisco plane crash investigation moves east to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) facilities, a television microwave tower forest will sprout in L'Enfant Plaza, Washington DC.  I snapped this photo a couple of years ago when the NTSB had a show hearing castigating the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority and its looney, loose liberal leadership for their lax oversight and horrendous safety performance.  This is a place you want to go if you are in DC touristing along the National Mall, not for microwave towers, but because L'Enfant has a great food court down in the Plaza. It beats the hot dog vendors. The food court is down the steps a block south of the Smithsonian Castle Building. If you stop there have a "5 Guys" burger on me with some of those scrumptious peanut oil french fries.

The Microwave Forest

Food Court

Government employees and contractor frequent the food court for lunch.

Morton Grove 4th of July Parade -- The Shriners Return

I grew up in Morton Grove, Illinois, which was the topic of one of my most popular posts (No. 3 all time). The Village of Morton Grove is a place that honors charity and community service and is a locale where traditions continue. This year, as usual, the Shriners were well represented in the lengthy 4th of July parade parade down Dempster. They are folks whose charity is second to none and they love their conveyances. Here are some photos, shared courtesy of the North Shore Voice.   

The Shriners love their camels.  They have noses.  Anyone got a tent?

Shriner and his plane.

Shriners on motorcycles.

Shriners in a fire engine.

Shriners on a bus.

Shriners on rolling carpets.

Shriners in a Prius.

And the parade ended with the obligatory street sweeper.

Barack Obama Stands With Defense Contractors

During my days in Washington, DC we called them the Beltway Bandits. Apparently that information hasn't filtered down to today's generation of political leaders, for they are a band of brothers with the defense industry. The common goal, led by none other than Barack Obama, is to reverse the effects of sequestration and rebuild annual deficits to a trillion dollars. The headline reads, "Defense Industry Hatches Plot to Kill the Sequester." The industry and the check writer in chief are pursuing common goals, sharing tactics and suffering similar fates.

In assessing the difficulty of reversing the sequestration cuts, defense analysts say that much of the industry’s trouble is self-inflicted — because the apocalyptic predictions their leaders made about the sequester have not come to pass.

You don't say.  We highlighted the charade as it was launched earlier this year, covering Obama's seminal rant and describing the tactics, best known as the Washington Monument game. As per normal, the military has its own terminology, they call it the "gold watch" gambit.

But perhaps the biggest example of the Washington Monument maneuver is coming from the Defense Department, where it goes by another name. Over many decades of defense budget battles, the Pentagon has often used a tactic known as a "gold watch." It means to answer a budget cut proposal by selecting for elimination a program so important and valued -- a gold watch -- that Pentagon chiefs know political leaders will restore funding rather than go through with the cut.

"Already, the threat of these cuts has forced the Navy to delay an aircraft carrier that was supposed to deploy to the Persian Gulf," Obama said at a White House appearance on Tuesday, in case anyone missed the news.So now, with sequestration approaching, thePentagon has announced that the possibility of budget cuts has forced the Navy to delay deployment of the carrier USS Harry S. Truman to the Persian Gulf. With tensions with Iran as high as they've ever been, that would leave the U.S. with just one carrier, instead of the preferred two, in that deeply troubled region.

Some military analysts were immediately suspicious. "A total gold watch," said one retired general officer who asked not to be named. Military commentator and retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters called the Navy's move "ostentatious," comparing it to "Donald Trump claiming he can't afford a cab."

You have no credibility. Keep it up boys. You are all for one and one for all -- Obama calls it a community and the Beltway Bandits call it readiness. No matter which word is used it's about throwing money at politically favored groups, something our country and our children who are picking up the bills can ill afford.

Saturday Pictures

Saturday Pictures

July 6, 2013

(click to enlarge)

Railroad rank car, water tower and grain elevator, pictured from downtown Belgrade, Montana.

Silos and grain storage elevators, pictured from downtown Belgrade, Montana.

Big red barn and mini white barn, pictured from home, sweet home Bozeman, Montana.

Light bay horse, fence posts and stable pictured from Edilou, Montana.

Mule deer (it's in the ears) in grain field, pictured from Spring Hill, Montana.

Aging barn wood against the foot of the Bridger Range, pictured from Spring Hill, Montana.

Save the Chevys

Keeping these old originally equipped beauties on the road is one more reason to get ethanol out of gasoline.

Filling up 1956 Chevy at ethanol free fuel stop in Bozeman, Montana.

The Situation Room.

Rioting in the streets in Egypt and the Obama administration releases this.

President Barack Obama meets with members of his national security team to discuss the situation in Egypt, in the Situation Room of the White House, July 3, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) -- White House supplied caption to the "Photo of the Day."  

Rioting in the streets in Libya (no less than Susan, Hillary and Barack told us), a sovereign U.S. embassy outpost under lethal attack and the Obama administration releases this.

 Blah, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah.  Blah, blah, blah.  Blah, blah, blah.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day everyone!  I am hoping everyone is enjoying this celebration of our freedoms with friends and families.  And if you are working today, thank you for your service.

NPS webcam view up the National Mall.  As the day passes, watch the Potomac fill up with moored boats. By the time evening activities begin you can walk across.  Catch this around 9:15 pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time and you will see the fireworks display exploding over the Washington Monument. If you can't see it in person, it's broadcast live and immediately replayed on PBS.  Enjoy!

Here's a screenshot from this angle courtesy of PBS.

No Flatlanders Here

President Barack Obama belittles and besmirches those those who actually support an all of the above energy policy, dismissing them as members of the "flat earth society." He is on a no coal kick.

COLSTRIP — After several years of taking a beating from the poor economy, new pollution rules and a flood of cheap natural gas, the coal industry was on the rebound this year as mining projects moved forward in the Western U.S. and demand for the fuel began to rise, especially in Asia.

But almost overnight, coal is back on the defensive, scrambling to stave off a dark future amid President Barack Obama's renewed push to rein in climate change.

The proposal, with its emphasis on cuts in carbon dioxide emissions from new and existing power plants, would put facilities like the 2,100 megawatt Colstrip electricity plant in eastern Montana in regulators' cross hairs. That has profound spin-off implications for the massive strip mines that dot the surrounding arid landscape of the Powder River Basin and provide the bulk of the nation's coal.

Montana's sole member of the U.S. House of Representatives bluntly declared that the administration had decided to "pick winners and losers" in the energy sector with its plan.  "He wants to move toward shutting down the coal industry," Republican Rep. Steve Daines said of the president.

C'mon, flat earth in Montana? Where? The great empiricist apparently doesn't even bother to look out the window of his plane during the many presidential flyovers.

Air Force One Takeoff From Bozeman/Yellowstone Airport, See The Mountains Dude.

There is hardly a flat space to be found, not anywhere in the state. My God, the state is named after mountains.

The name Montana comes from the Spanish word Montaña, meaning "mountain", or more broadly, "mountainous country". Montaña del Norte was the name given by early Spanish explorers to the entire mountainous region of the west. The name Montana was added to a bill by the United States House Committee on Territories...

The Hill says Obama is mocking his critics.  They are too kind. It is about time this mocking bird doesn't fly.
  

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.