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Mad As Hell And… Quotes of the Day – Friday, January 27, 2012 – Vince Lombardi

“There’s only one way to succeed in anything, and that is to give it everything. I do, and I demand that my players do.”

And

“If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you’ll be fired with enthusiasm.”

And

“Mental toughness is essential to success.”

And

“You never win a game unless you beat the guy in front of you. The score on the board doesn’t mean a thing. That’s for the fans. You’ve got to win the war with the man in front of you. You’ve got to get your man.”

And

“To achieve success, whatever the job we have, we must pay a price.”

And

“Success is like anything worthwhile. It has a price. You have to pay the price to win and you have to pay the price to get to the point where success is possible. Most important, you must pay the price to stay there.”

And

“Football is a great deal like life in that it teaches that work, sacrifice, perseverance, competitive drive, selflessness and respect for authority is the price each and every one of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”

And

“Once you agree upon the price you and your family must pay for success, it enables you to ignore the minor hurts, the opponent’s pressure, and the temporary failures.”

And

“Confidence is contagious and so is lack of confidence, and a customer will recognize both.”

And

“If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.”

And

“Unless a man believes in himself and makes a total commitment to his career and puts everything he has into it-his mind, his body and his heart-what is life worth to him? If I were a salesman, I would make this commitment to my company, to the product and most of all, to myself.”

And

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”

And

“Once a man has made a commitment to a way of life, he puts the greatest strength in the world behind him. It’s something we call heart power. Once a man has made this commitment, nothing will stop him short of success.”

And

“Unless a man believes in himself and makes a total commitment to his career and puts everything he has into it-his mind, his body, his heart-what’s life worth to him.

And

“It is essential to understand that battles are primarily won in the hearts of men.”

And

“In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail.”

And

“They may not love you at the time, but they will later.”

And

” Leadership rests not only upon ability, not only upon capacity; having the capacity to lead is not enough. The leader must be willing to use it. His leadership is then based on truth and character. There must be truth in the purpose and will power in the character.”

And

“Leadership is based on a spiritual quality; the power to inspire, the power to inspire others to follow.”

And

“Having the capacity to lead is not enough. The leader must be willing to use it.”

And

“A leader must identify himself with the group, must back up the group, even at the risk of displeasing superiors. He must believe that the group wants from him a sense of approval. If this feeling prevails, production, discipline, morale will be high, and in return, you can demand the cooperation to promote the goals of the company.”

And

“Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”

And

“They call it coaching but it is teaching. You do not just tell them…you show them the reasons.”

And

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”

And

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.”

And

“The spirit, the will to win and the will to excel-these are the things that endure and these are the qualities that are so much more important than any of the events that occasion them.”

And

“It is essential to understand that battles are primarily won in the hearts of men. Men respond to leadership in a most remarkable way and once you have won his heart, he will follow you anywhere.”

And

“A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.”

And

“If you’ll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your lives.

And

“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”

And

“I’ve never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn’t appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something good in men that really yearns for discipline.”

And

“The good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It’s your mind you have to convince.”

And

“Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain. Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. Also, most importantly, it is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It’s a state of mind-you could call it character in action.”

And

“Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.”

And

“Individual commitment to a group effort-that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

And

“Teams do not go physically flat, they go mentally stale.”

And

“Teamwork is what the Green Bay Packers were all about. They didn’t do it for individual glory. They did it because they loved one another.”

And

“People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.”

And

“The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.”

And

“Success demands singleness of purpose.”

And

“Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing-the result.”

And

“Winning is not a sometime thing: it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do the right thing once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”

And

“Winning is not everything–but making effort to win is.”

And

“It’s easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you’re a winner, when you’re number one. What you’ve got to have is faith and discipline when you’re not yet a winner.”

And

“I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle-victorious.”

Wikipedia:  Vince Lombardi

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Anyone that has seen a bullfight quickly recognizes that the bullfighter uses his red cape to distract the bull while he is at the same time trying to kill the bull which is an apt description of what governments have been doing in the history of humans on Planet Earth and as always in the American Republic it is always wise for independent thinking and hard-working Americans to keep their eyes off the…

Waving Red Cape

…and on what the Sorry Bastards that are really up to!

A great example of the US Government or in this case a quasi-Government agency waving the Red Flag in front of the American People while actually doing something else entirely was the Federal Reserve and Fed Chief Ben Bernanke announcing that “they” would keep the Fed’s benchmark rates low until at least late 2014….

Bernanke Makes Case for More Bond Buying, Bloomberg.com

….which is like the Fed saying that the Sun will rise in the East if the Fed has anything to say about it.

The TRUTH is that no matter what the health of the US Economy is right now and if the TRUTH be told the US Economy is now slowing coming out of the Financial Disaster Bomb of late 2008 that was created by the Irresponsible Monetary Policy of the Federal Reserve, OUR Clueless “Elected Leaders” in Washington DC that following on FDR (a chicken in every pot) wanted a “home mortgage for every family” and the Gamblers running the Las Vegas casinos on Wall Street who were doubling-down on the idea that real estate prices ALWAYS go up (with a few people on Wall Street betting that the real estate market would crash while telling their clients everything was great!) and if we today were living in normal times when the Federal Reserve was not involved in running the Biggest Ponzi Scheme in the History of Man and Woman on Earth the Fed and Bernanke would be recognizing the improving US Economy but the FACT is that Bernanke and the Flunkies on the Fed that created the Big Ponzi Scheme cannot not now say the US Economy is improving because to do so would mean….

Higher Interest Rates on US Treasuries and Higher Interest Rates across the American Economy

….which would instantly make the US Treasuries the Fed has on it’s balance sheet worth less and more importantly dramatically increase the borrowing costs of the US Government which has some Very Sorry Ass “Elected Leaders” in Washington DC that think it is just fine and dandy to keep piling up $1 Trillion Dollar Plus Annual Deficits on top of the $15 Trillion Plus in National Debt now on the books and the $100 Trillion Plus in Unfunded Mandates for Social Security and Medicare that the American Republic and Its People have NO chance of EVER satisfying in the future.

What a lot of Americans don’t understand is that the US Government is now running a Massive Ponzi Scheme that issues new debt to replace old expiring debt which varies in maturities from a few months to 30 years and since the US Government is constantly issuing new US Treasury debt to replace old expiring US Treasury Debt the TRUE effect is that not ONE DIME of US Treasury Debt has been paid down since 1973 and believe it or not….

The US Government will NEVER EVER again pay down even $1 Dollar of US Government Debt in the future and will in fact keep rolling over the old US Treasury Debt and be issuing new US Treasury Debt until the American Republic can no longer even service the Interest on the National Debt which in 2011 was over…

$450 Billion Dollars

…which was more than the US Government will spend on ALL of the US Government not counting Social Security, Medicare and the Defense Department!

With OUR Sorry Ass “Elected Leaders” not giving Damn about OUR children and grandchildren and Very Damn concerned with getting their precious asses re-elected they are of course piling EVER more debt onto that $15 Trillion Dollars in National Debt with $1 Trillion Dollars in new debt EVERY year now and are projecting $1 Trillion Dollar deficits for as far out as they can forecast (around 2020) which means….

$50 Billion Dollars EVERY YEAR in NEW Interest on the National Debt

….under CURRENT Interest Rates which means if Interest Rates started to creep up…..Can you say disaster?

Since there is NO ONE in Washington DC that gives two rips about our children and grandchildren and untold future generations of Americans that are not even born yet these Sorry Bastards will continue to run $1 Trillion Dollar Annual Deficits for years to come and that means a decade from now the Annual Interest on the National Debt will be approaching…

$1 Trillion Dollars Yearly!

Or more than 20 percent of ALL US Government Spending counting Social Security, Medicare and Defense!

Now you know why Uncle Ben Bernanke and his fellow Flunkies at the Federal Reserve have no option but to try and keep Interest Rates as low as possible for as long as possible because if Interest Rates increased by just…

1 Percent

….it would add over…

$50 Billion Dollars in Interest on the National Debt EVERY YEAR

….so even a 1 Percent increase in Interest Rates would mean the Interest on the National Debt a decade from now would be over…

$1.5 Trillion Dollars

…which is MORE than the Entire amount of ALL US Government except for Social Security and Medicare with this time around including Defense Department spending!

The Bottom-Line you ask?

Remember back to the debate in Washington DC last Fall around the extension of National Debt Limit when OUR Clueless “Elected Leaders” said over and over again that we have to increase the National Debt Limit because if we don’t it will drive up Interest Rates and thus the rates on mortgages, car loans, consumer loans, etc.?

The “political class” in America has now gotten used to very low Interest Rates and now expects the Fed to keep Interest Rates low for a long-time which sets up the American Republic for a troubling future where the Federal Reserve is trapped in a low Interest Rate environment because…

1.  The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet which is filled with US Treasury Debt and Mortgage Backed Securities would lose Billions of Dollars of value if Interest Rates went up

2.  The US Government is rolling over Billions of Dollars of old US Treasury Debt and issuing Billions of Dollars of new US Treasury debt all the time and if Interest Rates went up even by 1 Percent it would add Hundreds of Billions of Dollars to Annual Deficits and the 15 Trillion Dollar Plus US National Debt

3.  The “Political Class” in America has convinced themselves and their constituents that a very low Interest Rate environment is now almost “normal” and to be “expected” into the future and if Interest Rates started to go up even by a small amount the American People would start to question why Interest Rates cannot just stay low forever because after all….OUR “Elected Leaders” and the Federal Reserve said rates would stay at low levels.

The Bottom-Line is that…

The Federal Reserve is trapped right now and will be desperate to keep Interest Rates as low as possible going forward because the Fed would lose Tens of Billions of Dollars on its bond portfolio if Interest Rates spiked-up even by a small amount and because the US Government cannot keep rolling over and issuing Trillions in new US Treasury Debt if Interest Rates spiked-up even by a small amount and because OUR “Elected Leaders”…even the stupid ones….must have come to the conclusion by now that higher Interest Rates would equal them being thrown out of office because they have practically promised the voters that Interest Rates will stay low….forever.

The above reality is a very scary place for the Federal Reserve policy makers to be in because the Fed’s Open Market Policy members have to know that the currently reported “official” inflation rate in the United States is Bogus and low by at least half and if inflation begins to percolate up to the 4 percent “reported” rate annually then inflation will actually in the REAL world be headed to 10 percent annually and the ONLY tool the Fed has to control inflation is a higher Fed Funds rate and higher Interest Rates….BUT….the Federal Reserve is now trapped…

By the Fed’s own massive balance sheet

By the US Government’s insatiable appetite for new debt

By the American People’s new assumption that interest rates will be low…forever.

Yes, that is a Helluva spot the Federal Reserve has gotten itself, the American Republic and American People into which ironically the Federal Reserve created with some Incredibly Irresponsible Monetary Policy in the 2000s which allowed the real estate bubble and 2008 financial meltdown to happen in the first place which destroyed the US Economy and created the conditions for the US Government to run these $1 Trillion Dollar annual deficits which sets-up the same kind of painful rendezvous with financial reality that OUR nation went through in the late 1970s when Federal Reserve policy was set by Paul Volcker not in the interest of what the Political Elite, Wall Street and Voters wanted (as is the case today with the Federal Reserve being little more than a cheerleader for establishment Washington DC and on Wall Street) but rather what was best for the country.

That painful rendezvous with destiny which is being created by all of the debt that OUR Sorry Ass “Elected Leaders” in Washington DC are piling up at a rate of over $4 Billion Dollars A DAY is coming and when it hits the American Republic will be forced to deal with at the same time….

Higher Interest Rates

Higher Inflation

Major Cuts to ALL Major Federal and State Spending

Higher Taxes

….which will be a painful time for the vast majority of Americans and the blame for that pain will be put right at the feet of the people that traded short-term fixes over the long-term stability of the American Republic and those people to blame that are unwilling to take on the tough problems now facing the country are the people that now work in this town….

What does ALL of the above mean for the average America who we Give a Damn about here at Mad As Hell And….(see below Mad As Hell And… disclaimer)?

Work like Hell

Tell your kids to work like Hell in school

Pay down all your debt if possible

Save as much money as you can

Buy the stocks of large US and multinational companies that have economies of scale, strong brands and pay dividends in exchange for you handing over your hard-earned money to invest in their company

Buy Gold and other commodities

Buy REAL assets like quality real estate and farmland

 

Mad As Hell And.. disclaimer:

Mad As Hell And… is not a registered investment advisor or broker/dealer. Readers are advised that the material contained herein should be used solely for informational purposes. Mad As Hell And… does not purport to tell or suggest which investment securities members or readers should buy or sell for themselves. Site users should always conduct their own research and due diligence and obtain professional advice before making any investment decision. Mad As Hell And… will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a reader’s reliance on information obtained in any of our newsletters, special reports, email correspondence, or on our web site. Our readers are solely responsible for their own investment decisions.

The information contained herein does not constitute a representation by the publisher or a solicitation for the purchase or sale of securities. Our opinions and analyses are based on sources believed to be reliable and are written in good faith, but no representation or warranty, expressed or implied, is made as to their accuracy or completeness. All information contained in our newsletters or on our web site should be independently verified with the companies mentioned. The editor and publisher are not responsible for errors or omissions.

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Mad As Hell And… Quotes of the Day – Thursday, January 26, 2012 – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Character is higher than intellect.”

And

“I cannot find language of sufficient energy to convey my sense of the sacredness of private integrity.”

And

“A little integrity is better than any career. “

And

“Every industrious man, in every lawful calling, is a useful man. And one principal reason why men are so often useless is that they neglect their own profession or calling, and divide and shift their attention among a multiplicity of objects and pursuits.”

And

“What you do thunders so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say.”

And

“To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.”

And

“We are always getting ready to live but never living.”

And

“None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.”

And

“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men that is genius. “

And

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

And

“Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”

And

“Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.”

And

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

And

“Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.”

And

“A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.”

And

“A man is what he thinks about all day long.”

And

“As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.”

And

“Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.”

And

“Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.”

And

“It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘always do what you are afraid to do.”

And

“Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.”

And

“To be great is to be misunderstood.”

And

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

And

“Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.”

And

“With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.”

Wikipedia:  Ralph Waldo Emerson

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It’s hard to know exactly what will be the fallout among Republican primary and caucus voters and Independent voters in the Fall general election from Mitt Romney’s very belated release of his tax returns which showed what we believed they would show that Romney has made enormous amounts of money and has like most rich folks in America used the Completely Absurd U.S. Tax Code to pay taxes at a very low effective tax rate that must look as outrageous to most Americans as it looks to us here at Mad As Hell And….

Please, Mitt Romney and others on the right need to stop with the Absolute Nonsense that capital gains and dividends are taxed at a 15% percent rate because the corporations that are paying out those capital gains and have already had their profits taxed at the United States 35% corporate income tax rate which is Beyond Absurd and borders on the kinds of LIES that we hear from Democrats all the time because there are Very Damn few companies in America that don’t have massive amounts of deductions, credits and write-offs that dramatically lower or even eliminate the corporate income tax and yet companies still find ways to pass along capital gains and dividends to their owners and investors and that is because high-priced attorneys and accountants are carving up the U.S. Tax Code around the clock to do the very thing that Mitt Romney’s attorneys and accountants did for him and his family to keep their taxes as low as possible.

Romney tax returns highlight tax code’s breaks for rich, Los Angeles Times

“Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s tax returns reveal a sophisticated low-tax investment strategy that includes offshore funds and a now-shuttered Swiss bank account, contributing to a fortune that has emerged as a potential liability in his quest for the White House.

Romney and his wife, Ann, reported more than $40 million in income in the last two years, partly from their investments in foreign jurisdictions long considered tax havens, including the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Ireland. Campaign officials say Romney gained no tax advantage from those overseas investments.”

OK, the people in the Romney campaign says that the Romney family “gained no tax advantage from those overseas investments” which is probably true, but is there someone with an IQ over room temperature that can explain to us why Mitt Romney and the Very Stupid political advisors that surround him thought that Romney having accounts in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Ireland which scream out “tax haven” to most Americans makes any Damn sense for someone that had to know in 2009 that he was going to be running for President in 2012?

Oh, NO is the answer to that question because only a Very Stupid Person or someone that was trying his damndest to hang onto every Dollar that came into his or her possession would bother with all of these overseas accounts when it would be very easy for someone running for President of the United States of America….of AMERICA….to make Damn sure that he had ALL of his money in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?

That Mitt Romney’s wealth and taxes were going to be a critical issue when the American Republic and American People are just coming out of a financial crisis that was at least partly caused by some of the Sorriest Human Beings on Planet Earth, the Wall Street Bastards, that would in our opinion (and we worked on Wall Street so this is first-hand knowledge) would swap the future lives of EVERY child in America including ALL of Mitt Romney’s children and grandchildren to put a few more Bucks in their pocket should have been self-evident to Mitt Romney and his hack-GOP political advisors but here we are in late January 2012 with Romney being forced to release his tax returns (which should have been done long ago ) and now we have headlines like this one…

Romney’s tax returns sit uneasily with Florida voters, Los Angeles Times

What was it that Forrest Gump said which applies to Mitt Romney and the Very Stupid hack political advisors that surround him?

“Stupid Is As Stupid Does.”

Yes, that sums up Mitt Romney and his Very Stupid hack political advisors that could have avoided this tax return mess by releasing Romney’s tax returns in the summer of 2011 which raises lots of other questions about who is giving Mitt Romney political advice which we already know are some of the Stupidest People we have ever run into on Planet Earth.

First Mitt Romney Didn’t Do the Obvious and Release His Tax Returns Over A Year Ago and Now Romney Has Millions of Dollars of His Personal Wealth Stashed in the Cayman Islands? – Now That Is Beyond STUPID And Points To How Tone Deaf Romney and His Political Hack Advisors Really Are! – Here’s Some Advice Mitt…..Release Those Tax Returns and Bring That Money From the Cayman Islands Home To America and Do It Now! – In Other Words Act Like A REAL American! – On the Other Hand If Mitt Romney Is Hiding Something Then He Is Not Fit To Be President of the United States of America

What makes Mitt Romney’s personal story very difficult to tell is that most Americans don’t have a clue what “private equity” means which conjures up Wall Street and rich folks moving around pieces and lots of money on a Monopoly board which many Americans imagine ends up hurting working people which is sometimes the case and sometimes not, but the unknowns of just how Mitt Romney made all of this money that years after he has left Bain Capital is kicking off Tens of Millions of Dollars a year for Romney and his family must cause most Americans to just shake their heads and wonder how they can get into the “private equity” business.

Jonathan V. Last over at the Weekly Standard does a very good job of explaining what Mitt Romney was up to during his private sector career at Bain Capital which we here at Mad As Hell And… can complexly understand because we are often involved in the same kinds of things that Bain Capital does by investing OUR capital into private companies albeit on much smaller scales than the folks at Bain Capital because we are always using our own money and we would never be interested in becoming involved in a company if the only way we could do it was by adding a lot of debt to the books of the company going forward. (A few of us here at Mad As Hell And… are right now looking into making a capital investment into a 4 store restaurant company that needs capital to pay down some debt, buy new equipment and expand to 4 more restaurants in the next year or so and if we end up making that investment it will be a direct cash investment into the company and we will be making this investment for the very long-term with hopes of NEVER having to sell or wanting to flip this investment because unlike a lot of private equity folks that are almost forced to focus by their investors (often pension funds) on how to make a quick and big return on investments we invest like Warren Buffett which is for the long-term which we believe is the ONLY way that rational people should be investing their hard-earned money….which is in direct opposition to what the US stock markets have become which are computer driven exchanges which U.S. regulators have allowed to be turned into Las-Vegas-style casinos with a very small group of banks, hedge funds and computer programs executing the vast majority of trades on any given day which is not investing but rather….GAMBLING. That’s not to say there aren’t great buys among stocks right now in America because there are with large U.S. and multinational companies that are creating lots of cash flow, paying dividends and constantly increasing market share being the prime example of companies/stocks that people can invest in for the long haul and there are at least 50 American companies that fit the above criteria that we invest in for the long-term whenever we excess capital and savings to do so)

Here is that very interesting Weekly Standard read on Mitt Romney’s career at Bain Capital and how he had made money in recent years including some details on his recent speaking engagements where he made that $350,000 plus Dollars that Romney claimed didn’t “add up to very much.”

The Rich Really Are Different, Jonathan V. Last, Weekly Standard

“During one of his lesser moments in South Carolina, Mitt Romney insisted he would never apologize for his success, “success” being his preferred euphemism for titanic wealth. Surely, he’s right. He should no more apologize for being wealthy than we should want him to do so. To a greater degree than most of the world, America does not demonize its millionaires—we celebrate them. And this attitude is part of what makes us exceptional.
But Romney may misunderstand the reluctance of some Republican voters to warm to him. It seems plausible that people who have yet to fully embrace his candidacy may hang back in part because they harbor questions about his professional life. It’s not that these voters want Romney to turn his toe in the dirt and say he’s sorry for being really, really rich. It’s that they’re not entirely sure how Romney made his money. It’s the same reason voters were anxious to see Romney’s tax returns. It’s not that Republicans suspect him of being a tax cheat. It’s that aspects of a man’s financial life can be perfectly above-board, yet also instructive in ways that may or may not be conducive to political success.

For instance, while attempting to explain his tax situation before he released his returns, Romney mentioned that he’s taxed mostly at the 15 percent rate because the lion’s share of his income is derived from investments. His earned income, he said, came largely from paid speeches, and was “not very much.”

It turns out that Romney’s speaking fees for the prior year were $374,327. One needn’t be envious of Romney’s success in the paid-speech world to be curious about who was hiring him to lecture, and what they paid.

For instance, in April 2010, Romney gave a speech at Claremont McKenna College, one of America’s great undergraduate institutions. The only item of interest is that Romney accepted payment from them: an $11,475 honorarium. There’s nothing wrong with Romney accepting such payment from a non-profit institution, and it was clearly a bargain rate when compared with some of his other gigs. But it makes you wonder why he didn’t do it for free. He also accepted payment from the non-profit Quest Educational Foundation. Quest provides tutoring and mentoring to high-school students in Florida and Romney spoke at their annual fundraiser (Gingrich was a speaker at the 1999 event) for a $35,771 fee.”

Yes, we thought the very same things about someone worth over $200 Million Dollars taking speaking fees especially from colleges, but then we often wonder about some of the things the very rich do like defending the current U.S. Tax Code and how Capital Gains and Dividends are taxed at a much lower rate than Income received from working in a REAL job which Romney and the other rich folks don’t seem to understand that 99.9 percent of the American People see as Absurd on its face and which raises the point that maybe someone worth $250 Million Dollar really does need that extra $3 Million Dollars a year which Romney would have paid extra in taxes in 2010 if Capital Gains and Dividends were taxed as ordinary income.

Yes, that may be it. That extra $3 Million Dollars in taxes not paid must be very Damn important to the rich like Romney to which we can only say….

Please, get a Damn life.

The most ironic thing about the trouble that Mitt Romney is having with his wealth, income and taxes which could have been easily avoided if his political advisors knew the difference between their asses and a side of the barn is that Mitt Romney having these problems in 2012 is the culmination of more than 25 years of the slow movement of the Republican Party as the champion of both business AND working class Americans to the political party that for the most part represents powerful business and Wall Street interests and little else.

Yes, there is a Very Good Argument to be made for the conservative political position as defined by Ronald Reagan in his announcement to run for the Presidency in 1979 which is in our opinion still today the best speech ever made on what the Republican Party should stand for….

…but somewhere along the way the Republican Party lost its way and we here at Mad As Hell And… know almost to the day when the GOP began its drift into the wilderness and away from the American People which culminated in January 2012 with Mitt Romney releasing his tax returns and actually defending the idea that it is OK that he pay taxes based upon a 13.9 percent tax rate on the money he put into his pocket in 2010 when the TRUTH is that Mitt Romney actually did NO REAL WORK in 2010!

Yes, it is quite a jump from Ronald Reagan’s announcement for the Presidency in 1979 to Mitt Romney trying to justify a 13.9 percent tax rate on his Millions of Dollars and if we had to pinpoint the day that the Republican Party lost its way it would be in January 1985 when then US Treasury Secretary Don Regan swapped jobs with then Chief of Staff to President Reagan, James Baker, which moved James Baker to the US Treasury position and Don Regan into the White House which also happens to correspond to the downfall of the Reagan Presidency which ended with the Iran-Contra mess and then Don Regan resigning his Chief-of-Staff job only two years later in 1987.

Why do we point to Don Regan taking over as Chief-of-Staff to President Reagan as the beginning of the Republican Party losing its way and moving away from average hard-working Americans?

Well, like most Wall Street executives, Don Regan who had spent his entire Wall Street career at Merrill Lynch was a BIG-TIME megalomaniac that brought a “Wall Street” view of the world to the White House which came to dominate the last 4 years of the Reagan Administration, the 4 years of George H. W. Bush Administration and then the Republican and even in some ways the Democratic Party during the Clinton Presidency which led to the Stupidest Move by a Congress and President in the history of the American Republic which was the repeal of Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 by the Gramm-Leach-Bailey Act which set-up America for a decade of the US Capital Markets doing little but lots of useless speculating and NO REAL investment and then the almost complete meltdown of US Financial Markets and American Republic in 2008 all under the guise of George W. Bush who still to this day has not done an honest day’s work and still doesn’t have a clue what the average American thinks about life, money and the American Republic.

As we say around here at Mad As Hell And… all the time:

Wall Street spent Billions of Dollars buying the US Government and OUR “Elected Leaders” in both political parties from the mid-1980s forward and the American People have paid for that Wall Street purchase of the US Government and OUR “Elected Leaders” to the tune of Trillions of Dollars that have been stripped out of the American People’s net worth over the past 25 years.

What then can be done to get the Republican Party back to its roots of…

Abraham Lincoln

Teddy Roosevelt

Dwight Eisenhower

Ronald Reagan

…who ALL cared more about hard working Americans than powerful interests that have been stuffing money into the pockets of Republican party leaders (and Democrats as well) for the past two decades plus that have done little but sell-out the American People at every turn with little concern for how their actions would impact upon the future of the American Republic and Its People?

Well, we can start with Republican Party leaders like Mitt Romney who says he wants to be President of the United States and NOT the President of the Rich Folks and Wall Street to start putting REAL Americans ahead of the wealthy interests that have purchased the US Government wholesale in the past two decades which is for the most part the circle that Mitt Romney has spent most of his life running in and that means Mitt Romney moving from working just for the “rich folks” and FOR the American People will be the defining issue on whether Mitt Romney will be elected President or not forget about what Barack Obama and the Democrats stand for because the only way the Republicans can WIN is to stand strongly FOR Republican and Conservative Principles and not just against what the Liberal are for.

We are REAL Conservatives here at Mad As Hell And… which is now almost the opposite of saying we are Republicans which for the most part have represented the Top 10 to 20 percent of the American People over the past two decades and our ONE goal that started with the 2010 election is to RIP BACK the Republican Party from the Wall Street Bastards that starting in January 1985 began their Complete Takeover of the GOP.

The Bottom-Line is that either the Republican Party will get back to its roots or there WILL BE a new political party formed in this decade that will be different from both the Republican and Democratic parties that right now really don’t represent the majority of the American People which are for the most part an afterthought in OUR nation’s capital and of little concern to OUR “Elected Leaders.”

Yes, we know what the Republican Party used to stand for AND will stand for again if we here at Mad As Hell And… have a say in the matter:

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Mad As Hell And… Quotes of the Day – Wednesday, January 25, 2012 – Arthur Ashe

“A wise person decides slowly but abides by these decisions.”

And

“Clothes and manners do not make the man; but when he is made, they greatly improve his appearance.”

And

“From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.”

And

“I don’t care who you are, you’re going to choke in certain matches. You get to a point where your legs don’t move and you can’t take a deep breath. You start to hit the ball about a yard wide, instead of inches.”

And

“I don’t want to be remembered for my tennis accomplishments.”

And

“I have tried to keep on with my striving because this is the only hope I have of ever achieving anything worthwhile and lasting.”

And

“I keep sailing on in this middle passage. I am sailing into the wind and the dark. But I am doing my best to keep my boat steady and my sails full.”

And

I may not be walking with you all the way, or even much of the way, as I walk with you now.

And

“If you’re paid before you walk on the court, what’s the point in playing as if your life depended on it?”

And

“Later, I discovered there was a lot of work to being good in tennis.”

And

“My potential is more than can be expressed within the bounds of my race or ethnic identity.”

And

“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.”

And

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

And

“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.”

And

“The ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight.”

And

“Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time.”

And

“We must believe in the power of education. We must respect just laws. We must love ourselves, our old and or young, our women as well as our men.”

And

“We must reach out our hand in friendship and dignity both to those who would befriend us and those who would be our enemy.”

And

“When bright young minds can’t afford college, America pays the price.”

And

“You’ve got to get to the stage in life where going for it is more important than winning or losing.”

And

“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”

Wikipedia:  Arthur Ashe

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One really has to feel sorry for those Bastards that live in the Broken State of California because in addition to the High Taxes, Tons of Regulations and the California state bureaucracy waging a Daily and All-Out War on business in the state the UGLY TRUTH is that the People of California are RIGHT NOW subsidizing those massive public employee union pensions to the tune of….

$3.5 Billions a Year!

….and the big group of government workers that will be retiring by the thousands has not even hit yet so…YES…the future is going to be Very Damn Ugly for the People of California as they have to pay more in taxes so Public Employees can lay around on their asses, go to the beach and play golf after retiring at the age of 55 with a pension that pays them 100 percent of their last salary!

See the 15.000 PLUS retired California public employees that have pensions OVER $100,000 a year at..

CalPensionReform.com

Oh, what Joy!

If that $3.5 Billion Dollars annual payment that the People of California are picking up RIGHT NOW for public employee pensions wasn’t bad enough the people charged with managing those pensions, CalPERS, couldn’t even beat this fellow….

…..if he was instead managing the pension money for the state and was just sitting at a computer all day and punching a button that purchased the S&P 500 Index all day long!

Oh, the Idiocy!

From the Sacramento Bee….

CalPERS reports just small gain in 2011, Sacramento Bee

“CalPERS, still struggling to recover from the market crash of 2008, said Monday it earned a return of just 1.1 percent on its investments in 2011.

That was a fraction of the 12.5 percent it earned in 2010 and underscored the challenges facing CalPERS amid cries from some elected officials to curb the cost of public pensions in California.

In a report to a California Public Employees’ Retirement System board meeting in Monterey, chief investment officer Joseph Dear said the 2011 results were held back by a rocky year in the stock market. CalPERS’ public equities lost nearly 8 percent of their value.”

What the Hell?

CalPERS lost nearly 8 percent on their public equities in 2011?

Someone, Stop the Damn Insanity!

When counting dividends the Total Return on the S&P 500 Index was…

2.3 percent

…which means that if all of those High-Priced Flunkies that are investing the public pension money at CalPERS had been replaced by this fellow at the beginning of the year…

….and he had just sat at a desk all day long punching a button that bought the S&P 500 Index all day long CalPERS would have been up….

2.3 percent on their public equities

….which is 10.3 percent MORE than those High-Priced Flunkies managing the money that is invested in equities at CalPERS.

Yes, these are Some Very Stupid People!

How much is that in REAL Dollars that CalPERS actually lost in public equities in 2011?

Since CalPERS had about $100 Billion Dollars in public equities in 2011 that means that CalPERS lost approximately…

$8 Billion Dollars

…in their public equities investments in 2011.

IF only that this fellow….

…had been just pressing a button all day buying the S&P 500 Index then CalPERS public equity investments would have been UP…

$2.3 Billion Dollars

…which is a…

$10.3 Billion Dollar swing in favor of the monkey pressing the S&P 500 Index BUY button all day long!

Yes, these are Very Stupid People at CalPERS!

Now the People of California might understand why they are forking over $3.5 Billion Dollars to the Morons at CalPERS right now and that Annual CalPERS payment is only going to go…..

UP, UP, UP, UP, UP, UP

….in the coming years because these folks at CalPERS have their Annual Returns Forecast set at 7.75 percent and there is not a Chance in Hell that CalPERS will be able to meet that 7.75 annual percentage gain mark especially since one considers that between 1999 and 2009 CalPERS only had a…

2.5 percent annual return

…which they could have easily beaten by TEN times or MORE if they had just bought US Treasuries and bought the S&P 500 Index.

As we said….these are Very Stupid People at CalPERS that have multiple degrees coming out of their rear-ends but most don’t have the Common Sense of a jackass forget about the average human being in the state of California.

Oh, by the way, in 2011 CalPERS has approximately $200 Billion Dollars in investments COUNTING the $30 Billion Plus Dollars the People of California have put into CalPERS from the State’s General Fund over the past decade and if these Idiots at CalPERS had just bought US Treasuries and the S&P 500 over the past decade with a 50 – 50 equal split between bonds and equities CalPERS would not have $200 Billion Dollars on hand today but….

$300 Billion Dollars PLUS on hand

…OR a $100 Billion Dollar difference!

Yes, that’s right, if this fellow….

….had been put in charge of CalPERS in 2000 and had only been taught to buy US Treasuries and the S&P 500 Index all day long while he ate bananas CalPERS would have….

$100 Billion MORE Dollars on hand today!

Yes, these are some Very Stupid and Way Overpaid Idiots running CalPERS and what Joy that must be to the People of the Broken State of California that are going to be paying DOUBLE through the nose in the coming years with the DOUBLE Whammy of…

Public Employee Pensions that are OUT-OF-CONTROL

AND

The People running the public pension funs at CalPERS being some of the Biggest Idiots this side of the California Legislature and that is saying something!

Yes, in case you didn’t know it, California taxpayers are on hook when CalPERS doesn’t hit its’ investment targets and when the Wacko Liberal Nuts in the government allow government employees to set themselves up with huge pensions and don’t forget the really big elephant in the room…

Health Care for Life for Retired California Government Employees!

Oh, the Joy!

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Late in the evening on Monday night while a few of us here were watching a replay of the Republican Presidential Debate from Florida and the Australian Open tennis tournament Mitt Romney released his tax returns from 2010…

Romney paid 13.9 Percent Tax Rate on $21.6 Million 2010 Income, Bloomberg.com

“Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney earned $21.6 million in 2010 and paid 13.9 percent of that amount in income taxes, using the preferential rate on investment income and charitable deductions to pay a smaller share of his earnings than top wage earners typically do.

The former private-equity executive and Massachusetts governor earned more than half of his income from capital gains and dividends, which are taxed at a top rate of 15 percent, rather than the 35 percent top rate for ordinary income. His campaign showed his tax returns to reporters last night and will release them publicly today.”

….and we cannot help but wonder:

“Why the Hell didn’t Mitt Romney release his 2010 tax return when he announced he was running for the Presidency in June 2011?”

Damn good question.

Yes, Mitt Romney has made a lot of money, has given a lot of money to charity and has paid a lot of taxes…..so why in the Hell was Mitt Romney so unprepared for the issue of his taxes which he and his advisors had to know would be raised in the Republican Presidential race and more importantly in the general election against President Obama if Romney was the GOP nominee?

There is NO reasonable answer to the above question, but now that Mitt Romney has released his 2010 tax return and an estimate of his 2011 income and taxes the much more important question to us revolves around the Complete Absurdity of the U.S. Tax Code which is the perfect hodgepodge that is the outcome of the US Congress being purchased Lock, Stock and Barrel by wealthy individual and corporate interests in America that now spend as much almost time lobbying OUR “Elected Leaders” and bribing them with “campaign contributions” as they do running their companies anymore.

As is usually the case Warren Buffett is right about the Complete Absurdity of the U.S. Tax code in his comments to Bloomberg.com…

Buffett Blames Congress for Romney’s 15% Rate, Bloomberg.com

“Warren Buffett, the billionaire calling for more taxes on the rich, said Mitt Romney’s U.S. rate of about 15 percent reflects poor laws rather than failings by the candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

““It’s the wrong policy to have,” Buffett told Bloomberg Television’s Betty Liu in an interview today. “He’s not going to pay more than the law requires, and I don’t fault him for that in the least. But I do fault a law that allows him and me earning enormous sums to pay overall federal taxes at a rate that’s about half what the average person in my office pays.”

Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), supports Democratic President Barack Obama and said Congress needs to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans to close the budget deficit. Romney has agreed to release his 2010 tax return tomorrow, under pressure from Republican opponents, after saying he pays about 15 percent. Romney co- founded Boston-based private-equity firm Bain Capital LLC.

“He makes his money the same way I make my money,” said Buffett, 81. “He makes money by moving around big bucks, not by straining his back or going to work and cleaning toilets or whatever it may be. He makes it shoving around money.””

Amen to that Warren Buffet and with many of us here at Mad As Hell And… long-term shareholders in Buffett’s Berkshire-Hathaway company and avid user of Berkshire’s products (which Warren should promote more and provide links to from the Berkshire Hathaway website, www.berkshirehathaway.com, which as a website is really a big embarrassment to you and your company Warren) we expect Warren Buffett to tell the TRUTH and the TRUTH is that the tax rate on capital gains and dividends being at 15 percent is ABSURD.

We have heard the arguments from Corporate America and the Wall Street crowd about “double-taxation” that occurs SOMETIMES when people receive Capital Gains and Dividends, but the TRUTH is that there are all kinds of loopholes in the U.S. Tax Code that are hidden from the American People that lower the corporate tax rate to absurd levels which means the Bullshit put forward by Corporate America and the Wall Street Bastards is just that….Bullshit.

William D. Cohan who wrote the great book on the Wall Street Bastards…

House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street

…points out the BIG tax subsidy that private equity gets from the American People in his latest at Bloomberg.com:

Private Equity’s Public Subsidy Is A Tragedy, Bloomberg.com

“The real reason that private equity executives need to be full taxpayers — paying 35 percent of their income in federal tax as opposed to the 15 percent capital-gains rate they have enjoyed for years — is not because, generally speaking, they make so much money.

Nor is it because the return they get on what personal capital they risk is dwarfed by the profits they get on their investors’ capital.

Nor is it so they will pay the same tax rates as their secretaries (although this is a good reason, too).

No, the real reason the tax loophole for private equity mavens must be closed once and for all is that American taxpayers subsidize the private-equity industry — and its outsize paychecks — and simple fairness demands that they don’t also get an additional break in the form of lower tax rates.

Mitt Romney, the co-founder of Bain Capital LLC and the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, got blindingly rich because of this taxpayer subsidy, and it isn’t right that he and his cohort can also pay taxes at a 20- percentage-point discount compared with the rest of us.

Here is how the subsidy works: The Internal Revenue Service allows for the tax-deductibility of interest expense on corporate debt. Since corporate debt is the mother’s milk of a leveraged buyout, there would be no private-equity/LBO industry without this huge tax benefit. Indeed, anyone who has used an Excel spreadsheet to model a leveraged-buyout — you know who you are! — knows that the magic of the entire industry depends almost solely on the interest-expense provision in the tax code.”

After reading the above there cannot possibly still be anyone among the Corporate America and Wall Street Crowd that is willing to argue that people that pay a 15% tax rate on their capital gains that was garnered via the Bogus idea of “carried interest” makes any sense at all since private equity would not even exist is they were not getting a BIG tax subsidy from the American People by being able to write-off the interest on all the debt they put on the backs of company when they take them over or take them private….right?

Please, the arguments that this American should pay a 15 percent tax rate on the money he put in his pocket because he is an “investor” and this other American that works a 40-hour week pays a 30-plus percent tax rate because he has “earned income” are just Beyond Stupid and show how shallow the debate around public policy and tax policy has gotten in the American Republic which is of course driven by the US Congress not representing the American People that elected them to office but by people that are willing to BRIBE Members of Congress with “campaign contributions” and even worse Members of Congress that takes those BRIBES and then immediately move to implement the laws the people doing the BRIBING want to see enacted into law. If the U.S. laws against BRIBERY were actually enforced in Washington DC it is our opinion that more than 95 percent of the current US Congress would be in prison within 2 years which former lobbyist Jack Abramoff has been telling the TRUTH about to anyone that would listen since he got out of prison for…BRIBING Members of Congress:

We have a very simple view on taxes here at Mad As Hell And…

If you put money into your pocket you pay taxes on that money no matter how you received that money.

Is that simple enough? Good then you are a REAL American and not a Member of Congress that has been BRIBED.

If Members of the US Congress gave two rips about the American Republic….they don’t….they would have long ago quit taking bribes from lobbyists and interests on Wall Street…and that is what they are BRIBES since the US Government is now owned Lock, Stock and Barrel by the 5 or 6 large interests that have purchased OUR Government wholesale…the US Congress would have moved to disconnect all of the Bullshit exemptions, deductions and all manner of other BS that is in the U.S. Tax Code and put into law a very simple tax rate structure that would look something like what is below (which we have written about many times here at Mad As Hell And… with the below from July 2011):

Federal Income Tax Rates

No Deductions, No Itemizations, No Exemptions for ANYTHING
Indexed to Inflation – Income and Capital Gains Taxed at Same Rate

$0 – 50,000 – 10 percent
$50,001 – 100,000 – 20 percent
$100,001 – 250,000 – 25 percent
$250,001 – Infinity – 30 percent

Yes, there is a Very Simple Debt and Deficits deal that could be had by right now if the U.S. Congress was filled with Real Americans and any Real American would rightly see that the United States of America CANNOT be allowed to continue to run $1 Trillion Dollar Plus annual deficits and that means that a balanced approach of significant cuts in spending, major reforms and means testing for entitlement programs and tax reform that will lower rates but bring in more revenue would be the major outlines of that deal.

1. Tax Reform – Toss out the current U.S. Tax Code and replace it with the following income tax rate for individuals:

Federal Income Tax Rates

No Deductions, No Itemizations, No Exemptions for ANYTHING
Indexed to Inflation – Income and Capital Gains Taxed at Same Rate

$0 – 50,000 – 10 percent
$50,001 – 100,000 – 20 percent
$100,001 – 250,000 – 25 percent
$250,001 – Infinity – 30 percent

And replace the current Bogus corporate tax code with two different tax rates:

Companies up to $10 million in revenues – 10 percent income tax rate
Companies over $10 million in revenues – 20 percent income tax rate

Yes, the above reforms and new tax rate changes make perfect sense but there is NOT a chance in Hell that anything like the above U.S. Tax Reform could ever be passed into law (Which the US Congress did do in 1986 with the Tax Reform Act of 1986, but that was before the majority of the Members of the US Congress had sold themselves off to wealthy interests with BRIBES which is what we have in America in the 21 st Century), because the reality is at least HALF of the US Congress is owned Lock, Stock and Barrel by Wall Street and Corporate America and the other HALF of the US Congress is owned by Unions, Trial Lawyers and the Americans that are willing to trade their vote in exchange for them getting other Americans’ hard-earned money so they can sit around on their lazy ass and do nothing or they are retirees that are taking out anywhere between TWO and TEN times from what they paid into Social Security and Medicare which are TWO of the FOUR very large Ponzi Schemes the US Government is now running that if any of us tried with our companies would get us tossed into prison.

Good on Mitt Romney in releasing his tax returns but what Mitt Romney really needs is in addition to his 59 point plan (which has a lot of good things in it) is to propose a Simple but Complete Overhaul to the Completely Absurd U.S. Tax Code which is the biggest killer of jobs in the history of Humans on Planet Earth and will be a key component in taking down the American Republic as more and more people go to Washington DC with their money stuffed with pockets so they too can BRIBE Members of Congress and get their share of the tax breaks, tax exemptions and other tax advantages that their high-priced accountants can dream up.

Unfortunately, since most Members of the US Congress now have this sign hanging around their neck….

….means OUR public officials and “Elected Leaders” are willing to sell their souls, the American People and even their own families and children off to the Highest Bidder which really means there is a lot better chance of things getting much worse in America as the bills come due on all this debt that has been run-up…

…in the name of “stimulus” instead of what REAL “Elected Leaders” would be doing which is proposing and passing laws that would benefit the American Republic and its People for the long-term and not for the next 30 days or the next election which when you really get down to it is all that these Sorry Bastards in Washington DC care about….the next election…that is EVERYTHING in Washington DC while the Republic burns.

Yes, it is TRUE.

Most Members of the US Congress right now at this very moment in both political parties would sell out the life of EVERY child in the United States of America to win the “next” election and they would not lose a nanosecond of sleep over what their actions.

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Mad As Hell And… Quotes of the Day – Tuesday, January 24, 2012 – Howard Schultz

“Care more than others think wise.”

And

“Dream more than others think practical.”

And

“Expect more than others think possible.”

And

“Risk more than others think safe.”

And

“I believe life is a series of near misses. A lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It’s seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future. It’s seeing what other people don’t see And pursuing that vision.”

And

“People want to be part of something larger than themselves. They want to be part of something they’re really proud of, that they’ll fight for, sacrifice for, that they trust.”

And

“There are moments in our lives when we summon the courage to make choices that go against reason, against common sense and the wise counsel of people we trust. But we lean forward nonetheless because, despite all risks and rational argument, we believe that the path we are choosing is the right and best thing to do. We refuse to be bystanders, even if we do not know exactly where our actions will lead.

This is the kind of passionate conviction that sparks romances, wins battles, and drives people to pursue dreams others wouldn’t dare. Belief in ourselves and in what is right catapults us over hurdles, and our lives unfold.

“Life is a sum of all your choices,” wrote Albert Camus. Large or small, our actions forge our futures and hopefully inspire others along the way.”

And

“In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart. They are real and sustainable. Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of the human spirit, not an ad campaign. The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic.”

And

“Remember: You’ll be left with an empty feeling if you hit the finish line alone. When you run a race as a team, though, you’ll discover that much of the reward comes from hitting the tape together. You want to be surrounded not just by cheering onlookers but by a crowd of winners, celebrating as one.”

And

“To stay vigorous, a company needs to provide a stimulating and challenging environment for all these types: the dreamer, the entrepreneur, the professional manager, and the leader. If it doesn’t, it risks becoming yet another mediocre corporation.”

And

“People want guidance, not rhetoric. They need to know what the plan of action is, and how it will be implemented. They want to be given responsibility to help solve the problem and authority to act on it.”

And

“There is a word that comes to my mind when I think about our company and our people. That word is ‘love.’ I love Starbucks because everything we’ve tried to do is steeped in humanity.

Respect and dignity.
Passion and laughter.
Compassion, community, and responsibility.
Authenticity.

These are Starbucks’ touchstones, the source of our pride.”

And

“There’s a metaphor Vincent Eades likes to use: “If you examine a butterfly according to the laws of aerodynamics, it shouldn’t be able to fly. But the butterfly doesn’t know that, so it flies.”

And

“One of the fundamental aspects of leadership, I realized more and more, is the ability to instill confidence in others when you yourself are feeling insecure”

Wikipedia:  Howard Schultz

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Mad As Hell And… Quotes of the Day – Monday, January 23, 2012 – William Butler Yeats

“Books are but waste paper unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought – asleep. When we are weary of the living, we may repair to the dead, who have nothing of peevishness, pride, or design in their conversation.”

And

“Choose your companions from the best; Who draws a bucket with the rest soon topples down the hill.”

And

“Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.”

And

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

And

“Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing.”

And

“In dreams begin responsibilities.”

And

“One day when I was twenty-three or twenty-four this sentence seemed to form in my head, without my willing it, much as sentences form when we are half-asleep: “Hammer your thoughts into unity.” For days I could think of nothing else, and for years I tested all I did by that sentence.”

And

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
The Second Coming, 1919

And

“All women dote upon an idle man
Although their children need a rich estate.
No man has ever lived that had enough
Of children’s gratitude or woman’s love.

Test every work of intellect or faith,
And everything that your own hands have wrought
And call those works extravagance of breath
That are not suited for such men as come
Proud, open-eyed and laughing to the tomb.

My fiftieth year had come and gone,
I sat, a solitary man,
In a crowded London shop,
An open book and empty cup
On the marble table-top.
While on the shop and street I gazed
My body of a sudden blazed;
And twenty minutes more or less
It seemed, so great my happiness,
That I was blessed and could bless.

Things said or done long years ago,
Or things I did not do or say
But thought that I might say or do,
Weigh me down, and not a day
But something is recalled,
My conscience or my vanity appalled.

Seek out reality, leave things that seem.”
Vacillation, 1933

Wikipedia:   William Butler Yeats

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If there is one thing that the American People do not have enough appreciation of it is the American news media which extends far beyond the Elitist Bastards in New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles that have little interaction with or little interest in how most Americans live their lives and often struggle to raise their families in modern day America.

Two stories over this weekend from the New York Times and Wall Street Journal prove that there is a significant place for America’s largest newspapers in the life of our nation and imagine for a moment if the editors editorial page/opinion writers of these papers actually took the time to spend some of their precious lives in the REAL America they might actually learn a thing or two about this country that sometimes the stories they publish in their papers reveal for all to see.

Those two news stories:

How the United States Lost Our on iPhone Work, Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradscher, New York Times

The New American Divide, Charles Murray, Wall Street Journal

The above two stories on the realities of American Life in the 21 st century are related because the reasons for Apple Computer moving ALL of its manufacturing to China and the divide between the Rich and Middle Class/Poor in America are directly linked and more than likely American companies will increase and quicken their outsourcing of jobs to Asia and other foreign countries in the future and the divide between the Rich and Middle Class/Poor will only get bigger which poses some terribly difficult problems and choices for the American Republic and its People in the coming years.

First on the New York Times story…

How the United States Lost Our on iPhone Work, Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradscher, New York Times

“When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley’s top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president.

But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?

Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.

Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.

Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” he said, according to another dinner guest.

The president’s question touched upon a central conviction at Apple. It isn’t just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products.

Apple has become one of the best-known, most admired and most imitated companies on earth, in part through an unrelenting mastery of global operations. Last year, it earned over $400,000 in profit per employee, more than Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil or Google.

However, what has vexed Mr. Obama as well as economists and policy makers is that Apple — and many of its high-technology peers — are not nearly as avid in creating American jobs as other famous companies were in their heydays.”

Several of us here at Mad As Hell And… heard about President Obama’s question to Steve Jobs during that Silicon Valley dinner last year and we were not surprised at all at Steve Jobs response because Jobs’ view of the world and attitudes towards Americans and the American Republic are widely shared and believed in Silicon Valley and besides….in OUR opinion Steve Jobs like many American corporate CEOs don’t give two rips about the American People and if they can turn a few extra jobs making products in Asia and then selling those products back into America they will do it and not lose a nanosecond of sleep over the jobs that have been lost in OUR country.

We have written many times here at Mad As Hell And… about the life of Steve Jobs and the company he founded Apple Computer and we have made it very clear that we don’t think Jobs gave two rips about America, the American People or anything much beyond his own precious ass and his personal reputation which was fine because in America Steve Jobs certainly had the right to act in anyway he pleased, but Damn sure don’t ever try to convince us that Steve Jobs gave two rips about anything but….Steve Jobs…because in our opinion that claim would be a BIG LIE.

Here’s a FACT: Apple Computer could move ALL of its manufacturing business for products it sells in the United States back to America and still make HUGE profit margins on those products…BUT….Apple Computer making those products in America with very good wages with benefits for American employees which would employ somewhere in the neighborhood of 75,000 workers would shrink Apple’s net profit margin from its now 24 percent by 5 percentage points or so to a company wide 19 percent net profit margin which would still make Apple Computer one of the most profitable companies on Planet Earth.

Why wouldn’t Apple Computer then make at least the products it sells in the United States of America in the United States of America?

Our opinion here at Mad As Hell And…: The executives at Apple Computer including the late Steve Jobs do not give two rips about the American People beyond the American People coming into the Apple Computer stores and emptying out their wallets and purses. It is also our opinion that the executives at Apple Computer are no different than the executives on Wall Street and across Corporate America along with most of the Members of the US Congress in that Apple’s top leadership would sell-out the American Republic and American People to turn another Buck (or to get re-elected in the case of Members of Congress) and not give that selling out of the country and its People a nanosecond of thought.

In FACT…that is what Apple Computer is doing right now which makes Henry Blodget of the Business Insider right on the point when he recently wrote:

Your iPhone Was Built, In Part, By 13 Year-Olds Working 16 Hours A Day For 70 Cents An Hour, Business Insider

“We love our iPhones and iPads.

We love the prices of our iPhones and iPads.

We love the super-high profit margins of Apple, Inc., the maker of our iPhones and iPads.

And that’s why it’s disconcerting to remember that the low prices of our iPhones and iPads — and the super-high profit margins of Apple — are only possible because our iPhones and iPads are made with labor practices that would be illegal in the United States.

And it’s also disconcerting to realize that the folks who make our iPhones and iPads not only don’t have iPhones and iPads (because they can’t afford them), but, in some cases, have never even seen them.”

Yes, Henry Blodget raises a Very Damn Important point but here is the Ugly TRUTH about the people that buy Apple products but especially the supposed Wacko Liberal Nuts that love their iPhones and IPads which is very evident among the current White House staff and on Capitol Hill…

They, the Americans that buy and use Apple products that are produced by…

“13 Year-Olds Working 16 Hours A Day For 70 Cents An Hour”

….do not give a Damn about the FACT that “13 Year-Olds Working 16 Hours A Day For 70 Cents An Hour” are making those Apple Computer products which makes those Lovers of these Steve Jobs inventions Big-Time hypocrites which especially applies to the Wacko Liberal Nuts that preach “good pay” for Americans when the products they are using to put out their Liberal messages are the Very Damn Things destroying “good pay” for Americans!

Of course, the following headline from the CEO of FoxConn the company that makes all of Apple Computer’s products in Asia should give those Lovers of Steve Jobs inventions a warm feeling inside:

CEO OF APPLE PARTNER FOXCONN: ‘Managing One Million Animals Gives Me A Headache’, Business Insider

Maybe the above headline will get the Wacko Liberal Nuts to do what we here at Mad As Hell And… did several years ago with our iPods when we learned about the way that FoxConn and thus Apple Computer were treating their employees in Asia…

We tossed our IPods into the trash!

Below are a few of the Mad As Hell And… blog posts on Steve Jobs and Apple Computer which make it Very Clear what we think about Jobs and Apple moving the manufacturing business for Apple Computer to Asia:

The Remarkable Life and the Sad Death of Steve Jobs – Mad As Hell And… Quotes of the Day – Thursday, October 6, 2011 – Steve Jobs

And

Apple Computers CEO Steve Jobs Has Said That Apple Is Building A New Headquarters In Silicon Valley – Great! – Now, What About Bringing Home A Few Thousand Manufacturing Jobs To America From the Tens of Thousands of Jobs In China That Make ALL of Apple Computers Products? – Wouldn’t Someone That Was Running A Successful American Company That Actually Cared About America Make At Least Some of Those Products In America? – Maybe Not….and People That Buy and Like Apple Computers Products Should Keep That In Mind As They Go About Their Daily Lives, June 9, 2011

And

Apple Computer Has $65 Plus Billion Dollars In the Bank….But They Make ALL Of Their Computers and Phones In….CHINA! – Memo to Steve Jobs: Is It Possible That Apple Computer Could Create Some Manufacturing Jobs In America To Make At Least Some of All Those Computers and Phones You Are Selling in America? – No, We Can’t Have That Because America and the American People Are In Our Opinion Just An Afterthought For Steve Jobs and the Silicon Valley Boys and Girls – What A Surprise! The Pompous Arrogant Ass Al Gore Is On the Apple Computer Board of Directors – Jobs and Gore = Two Pompous Arrogant Asses That Care About Little But Their Own Precious Asses While the Average American That Is Having A Hard Time Paying the Bills and Finding A Good Job Be Damned! – Who Exactly Raised These Folks, Because It Couldn’t Have Been, Americans Because Our Parents Taught Us To Be Loyal Americans and NOT To Chase $$$$$$$$$$$$ At the Expense of Everything Else – Bastards!, May 9, 2011

And

Big United States Firms Shifting Hiring Abroad? – Gambling in Casablanca? – No, IT CAN’T BE! – Oh, It Be and These Large U.S. Companies Have Been Shipping Jobs Overseas For Years and Then Selling Products Back Into America To Americans That Used To Make Those Very Same Products – Shame On Those Companies….Although We Rather Doubt That Any Of These Bastards CEOs Lose A Minute Of Sleep Over Destroying Jobs in America – Frankly, They Could Care Less Because After All…There Is Money To Be Made! – Bastards! – 99 Percent of These Products Made Overseas By American Companies That Are Then Sold Into America Could Easily Be Made In America Without the Price at the Retail Level Going Up Much At All….But Then Those CEOs Would Have A Tougher Time “Beating the Street” and Those Big Bonuses Are Based on Their Company’s Stock Price Going Up!….So Overseas the Jobs Must Go! – As We Said….Bastards! – Question: Even After Shifting Thousands of Jobs Overseas Exactly How Is GE CEO Jeff Immelt Still In A Job….Because He Has Been An Abject Failure As CEO of General Electric!, April 20, 2011

And

An Important Question For All Users of Apple Computer Products, But Especially for the Wacko Liberals That Often Seem to Love Apple Computers, iPhone, IPads, Etc…: Why Does Apple Computer Make All Of Its Products In China…Especially When There Are Millions of Unemployed Americans Right Now? – Damn Good Question! – What Is the Cost Difference Between Making An Apple Computer Product In China Compared to the United States – It’s A Lot Less Than You Think and Thus We Ask Apple Computer and Steve Jobs: Do You Not Give A Damn About America and the American People?, March 23, 2011

Yes, if you read the above Mad As Hell And… blog posts you will learn our views of Apple Computer and other American companies that make products that have HUGE profit margins that could easily be made in America because the one thing we need most in America right now for those Americans that do not have access to “good paying” jobs which is as Charles Murray points out in his essay in the Wall Street Journal is increasing at an alarming rate outside of America’s “elite” neighborhoods and communities

The New American Divide, Charles Murray, Wall Street Journal

“America is coming apart. For most of our nation’s history, whatever the inequality in wealth between the richest and poorest citizens, we maintained a cultural equality known nowhere else in the world—for whites, anyway. “The more opulent citizens take great care not to stand aloof from the people,” wrote Alexis de Tocqueville, the great chronicler of American democracy, in the 1830s. “On the contrary, they constantly keep on easy terms with the lower classes: They listen to them, they speak to them every day.”

Americans love to see themselves this way. But there’s a problem: It’s not true anymore, and it has been progressively less true since the 1960s.

People are starting to notice the great divide. The tea party sees the aloofness in a political elite that thinks it knows best and orders the rest of America to fall in line. The Occupy movement sees it in an economic elite that lives in mansions and flies on private jets. Each is right about an aspect of the problem, but that problem is more pervasive than either political or economic inequality. What we now face is a problem of cultural inequality.

When Americans used to brag about “the American way of life”—a phrase still in common use in 1960—they were talking about a civic culture that swept an extremely large proportion of Americans of all classes into its embrace. It was a culture encompassing shared experiences of daily life and shared assumptions about central American values involving marriage, honesty, hard work and religiosity.

Over the past 50 years, that common civic culture has unraveled. We have developed a new upper class with advanced educations, often obtained at elite schools, sharing tastes and preferences that set them apart from mainstream America. At the same time, we have developed a new lower class, characterized not by poverty but by withdrawal from America’s core cultural institutions.”

As usual, Charles Murray is right on point and people that want to deny the TRUTH about the widening divide in America are either lying to themselves OR they are out of touch with the reality of the American Republic in 2012 and it is our opinion here at Mad As Hell And… that this divide is primarily being driven by an unholy alliance by the Federal and state governments that often work in cooperation with Wall Street and large American corporations to do the Very Damn Thing they claim they are working to stop…

The wholesale destruction of the Working Middle and Lower Classes in America

If one actually understands or admits to the REALITY of the growing divide in America then what can be done to stop it and return to a path to a good paying job for ALL Americans?

The answer to the above question is a very difficult one to answer, but let’s start with the problem inside the executive suite at Apple Computer and other large American companies that employ Millions of People around the world to make products that have HUGE Profit Margins (Over 100 percent and for Apple Computer 400 percent or more profit margins on their products) that those companies then SELL INTO AMERICA when those companies could very easily make in America and still make HUGE Profits on their products.

What was it that English historian Edward Gibbon wrote in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was one of the primary things that brought down the Roman Empire (from Wikipedia summary of the book)?

“According to Gibbon, the Roman Empire succumbed to barbarian invasions in large part due to the gradual loss of civic virtue among its citizens. They had become weak, outsourcing their duties to defend their Empire to barbarian mercenaries, who then became so numerous and ingrained that they were able to take over the Empire.”

It is OUR opinion here at Mad As Hell And… that the top executives at Apple Computer and other large American companies that could easily be employing Millions of American to make the products that they SELL in America have in the words of Edward Gibbon have lost their…

“civic virtue”

….and that loss of “civic virtue” is demonstrated by Apple Computer and other large American corporations willingness to be in business with companies like FoxConn which is beyond the pale from our point of view and if those American corporate executives really gave a Damn about America, the American People, American Workers and the cities, communities, families and the children of America they would right now be employing Millions of Americans in OUR country but that is not happening because in the words of the Pompous, Arrogant Ass who could be a poster boy for everything that is wrong and sometimes right about America, Steve Jobs, who said to the President of the United States who has a White House filled with staffers that LOVE Apple Computer products that are made by “13 Year-Olds Working 16 Hours A Day For 70 Cents An Hour”…

“Those jobs aren’t coming back.”

No, Steve. Those jobs COULD come back to America but Apple Computer in our opinion believes that making a…

24 percent net profit margin

INSTEAD OF A

19 percent net profit margin

…is more important than employing Tens of Thousands of Americans in good paying jobs IN AMERICA and that is the same attitude of the top executives at hundreds of large American corporations that could create Millions of good paying jobs in America if they were willing to sacrifice a few points on their net profit margin from products that are making HUGE PROFITS for their companies.

We are REAL Capitalists here at Mad As Hell And… but we are…

AMERICANS FIRST

…and one of the biggest problems in America today is that we have too many Americans that put…

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

…ahead of THEIR Country and they put $$$$$$$$$$$$$ first because when you get right down to the FACTS these Sorry Bastards LOVE $$$$$$$$$$ more than the United States of America and the American People and if Millions of Americans cannot get good jobs in OUR country these Sorry Bastards could really care less.

It is impossible for us here at Mad As Hell And… to force Apple Computer or any other American corporation to move the manufacturing business for the products they sell to the American People to America, but it is possible for us to call out the executives at Apple Computer for what they REALLY are…

It is OUR opinion that the executives at Apple Computer and other large American companies that make the products they sell in America in other countries are Sorry Pieces of Crapola that put…

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

…ahead of their country and they do that because they do not give TWO RIPS about America or the American People and that REALITY explains why the American Republic is now coming apart which in the words of Edward Gibbon is being caused by the loss of “civic virtue” which Gibbon identified as one of the main culprits in the Fall of the Roman Empire….and which will be if not reversed be one of the main reasons the American Republic falls as well.

You may have seen this news story recently about the new CEO of Apple Computer Tim Cook:

Apple CEO Tim Cook could earn top salary for 2011 with $378 million package, AP

Isn’t that special?

Well, if Apple Computer made the products it sells to the American People IN AMERICA then Apple CEO Tim Cook would still have received a Very Big payday in the Hundreds of Millions of Dollars…BUT….not employing Tens of Thousands of Americans in America to make those Apple Computer products is worth that extra $80 Million Dollars to Tim Cook and other Apple Computer executives because in OUR opinion Tim Cook and the leadership at Apple Computer and other large American corporations do…..

NOT Give a Damn about America

…and they prove that FACT by their own actions.

Oh, it’s not just Tim Cook that is responsible for the ethos that now dominates Apple Computer and other large American corporations that will trade a few extra Dollars and a little higher net profit margin in exchange for shipping Millions of Jobs overseas and those people are the Boards of Directors of these companies and below are the Board Members of Apple Computer who in OUR opinion also don’t give Two Rips about the American Republic or the American People (Yes, note that the Pompous, Arrogant Ass Al Gore is on the Board of Apple Computer which makes perfect sense since Al Gore is also in our opinion one of the Sorriest Human Beings ever elected to office in the history of the United States of America):

“Arthur D. Levinson, Ph.D.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Genentech, Inc.

William V. Campbell
Chairman and former CEO
Intuit, Inc.

Tim Cook
CEO
Apple

Millard S. Drexler
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
J. Crew

Albert Gore, Jr.
Former Vice President of the United States

Robert A. Iger
President and Chief Executive Officer
The Walt Disney Company

Andrea Jung
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Avon Products, Inc.

Ronald D. Sugar, Ph.D.
Former Chairman and CEO
Northrop Grumman Corporation”

Why is their a widening divide between the Haves and Have-Nots in America which is in our opinion leading to an unraveling of the “American Way of Life” and the American Republic?

Call it a loss of “civic virtue” or call it that the Very Sorry Bastards listed above and across America don’t give Two Rips about the American Republic and the American People, but don’t say that the divide between the Haves and Have-Nots isn’t happening in America because we see that divide every day of our lives with our own employees, in our own communities, in our cites and states and all across America and until the leaders of America both in the corporate world and government start Giving a Damn about America and the American People things are only going to get worse…..much worse in FACT….which means if you give a Damn about America you will start getting involved in the “civic affairs” of YOUR country and start holding the leaders of America accountable for their actions.

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