Skeletons abound and other stuff.

As I have been predicting for quite some time now, the battle for the trust of a broadly disillusioned public (AKA the herd) will dig deeply into the elite skeleton closet this time.  When the herd has full bellies and calm minds, the leaders can just stand on a hill and tell lie after soothing lie and the herd will accept it all without question.  The good old boy network grows fat and strong as a result of the allowed parasitism that results.

But make no mistake.  The elite do not have divine power.  As hard as they work to claim royal bloodlines and ties back to the lineage of Jesus, they only have the power afforded to them by collective vote of the herd.  If the herd is confident in the con man then the con man is allowed to speak and to prosper.  But the con grows old now in the eyes of the herd.  The parasitism is too great and the promised benefits of self-subjugation have not materialized.  The "leaders" are now in a bad way.  They either convince the herd to continue following or the herd will have a pitchfork revolution where it will wipe out the current group of elite and then install new elite. 

The "leaders" know this at some level whether they are conscious enough of it to speak it plainly as I do or whether they just feel it at a subconscious level.  The rise of Trump is clear proof.  Every time he says something iconoclastic, the herd goes wild.  Each of these feedbacks reinforces his view that the herd wants to see real change and real change requires some truth telling and many heads to roll.  This is why Trump says he will prosecute Hillary and tell us what really happened on 911 and why he is publicly saying that Bush lied and everyone in power knew there were no WMDs.  I clearly predicted all of these things would occur as a sign of the end times for the current rendition of the global debt Ponzi.

Seeing how Trump is gaining power by breaking ranks with the elite to side with the people, Cruz is now telling tales about Trump's relationship with the Mafia.  Do I think his story is true?  Yes, probably quite true.  Trump is no angel.  You cannot get that rich by only doing honest work.  But in these situations, the herd begins to back a champion and once that happens he can do no wrong.  Or his wrongs are forgiven or glossed over.  For now. 

From the herd perspective, if Cruz was going to make these allegations in order to win the confidence and backing of the herd, he should have done it from the get-go like Trump did.  He should not have waited to cross the line of criminal allegation against a fellow elite until he had to do so based on the polls.  Whether his allegations are true or not, the circumstances of their disclosure greatly detract from the shock value that they should actually have.

On a personal note, a good number of people have expressed in various ways that they think I am a doom and gloom pessimist.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I in fact consider myself a optimistic realist.  If the reality of the current situation is that the US is running a global debt Ponzi, that is what it is.  I am just calling it like I see it and I have been preparing for it well in advance.  I have no debt.  I have cashed out my 401k and hold gold and silver coins instead.  I have guns and ammo and food and security systems and fences.  I have done what was prudent.  But I have never lost sight of my mortality either.  I am a realist about that as well as all my friends would tell you.  We will not live forever and I only have perhaps 20-30 years left on this planet.  So now that I have created a solid base I am back in expansion mode again, but all based on PayGo.  This is not what one would expect from a pessimist but I am backing this up with real action.

I call this the revenge of the savers.  I recently blogged about having purchased a canal front lot in the Bahamas.  Prices there have collapsed because of a collapse in tourism and lack of easy low cost real estate loans.  As a result I received an incredible deal for pristine waterfront property with deep water ocean access which simply has no equal anywhere in the US.  Some might say that the FL keys would compare and they are the closest thing we have in the US but that real estate requires annual servitude payment to the government in the form of property tax.  Valuations are high there and thus so is property tax.  But there is no property tax in the Bahamas for places valued under $250K USD and the depressed priced mean that it is not difficult to stay well under that price for new builds.  Advantage Bahamas!  I don't plan to live over there until retirement which is still 10 years off but I want to have fun until then and so, as further proof of  my optimism, this weekend I flew to VA where I test drove this 42' classic yacht as the final step toward purchase.  After all, why would someone who calls himself "Captain" have waterfront property without a big old fishing rig?























Most people will not know this but there is a great depression in yachts right now.  The Florida bareboat charter market (which I have been taking advantage of for a couple decades) has absolutely collapsed and boats that were listed at $60-$70k just 3 years ago barely fetch $25k today.  In fact the boat I am buying has had more than $50k invested in it over the last 2 years.  New fuel tanks, new air conditioner, new engines and exhaust systems, new wiring, refinished interior, etc.  The hull is solid glass, no blisters.  The decks are synthetic core, cannot rot.  This is a Chris Craft Commander, 1972.  the hulls are legendary and nearly indestructible.

The owner wanted $70k for it 3 years ago, $50k for it 2 years ago. He reduced the price again to $27k in late 2015 which is when it caught my eye.  But I waited because nobody buys boats in the winter and the owner is leaving VA for AZ where this boat cannot go.  Besides, I had not seen a full 5 waves down in the EW count yet.  So then he dropped his price to 22,500 in early 2016.  Sensing that the price was at or near the bottom, I low balled him with $18k and settled at $20k.  Buy the 5 wave motive collapse, baby.

This boat is worth far more than what I am paying.  The parts could be sold for more than the whole.  But the social mood is dour and so nobody wants to lend money for boats and nobody wants to borrow money for boats.  Thus the boating market has collapsed into being a cash market.  Those who saved money to buy things can now acquire a lifestyle that used to be reserved for the very rich.  Those who borrowed their lavish lifestyles into existence are stuck paying off their past overpriced purchases leaving me with little competition on the buy side.

Does this sound pessimistic?  No way!  I'm an optimist.