Glad I Am Strong on High-Dividend Stocks

Maybe more food?  Bloomberg Business is reporting:

As interest rates turn negative around the world, the Federal Reserve is asking banks to consider the possibility of the same happening in the U.S.
In its annual stress test for 2016, the Fed said it will assess the resilience of big banks to a number of possible situations, including one where the rate on the three-month U.S. Treasury bill stays below zero for a prolonged period.
"The severely adverse scenario is characterized by a severe global recession, accompanied by a period of heightened corporate financial stress and negative yields for short-term U.S. Treasury securities," the central bank said in announcing the stress tests last week.
In that particular simulation, the unemployment rate doubles to 10 percent, the same level it reached in the aftermath of the last financial crisis.
Three-month bill rates have slipped slightly below zero several times in recent years, including in September after the Fed delayed rate liftoff amid global financial market turmoil, touching a low of minus 0.05 percent on Oct. 2.
But in the stress test, banks would have to handle three-month bill rates entering negative territory in the second quarter of 2016, and then falling to negative 0.5 percent and holding there through the first quarter of 2019.

At what point will I be able to refi at 0%?

What A Tragedy

I am doing some custom work for a tripod that I have never built for before, and the CNC mill is busy making parts, holding up this effort.

Cruz Victory in Iowa

I lean toward Trump mostly because he has the money and enthusiastic voters to beat Hildebeast.  But I think Cruz would be okay, and might beat the wife of the sleaziest recent President.  He would certainly beat Sanders who came very close to beating Ms. Wall Street in the Democratic caucuses.


Still pleased to see Cruz followed by Trump.  Take that, GOPe.

Good News

Virginia's new Attorney-General was scrapping reciprocity agreements with 25 states on concealed carry.  Bloomberg bought himself an A-G one in the last election.  This reveals:

New details revealed on Friday show the gun carry deal between Virginia Republicans and Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D.) is more expansive than first reported.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), one of the state’s leading gun rights groups, said in an email to its members that the deal would not only restore the 25 reciprocity deals Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D.) had planned to eliminate but also expand Virginia’s recognition of gun carry permits to all states.

The deal also pushes back the attorney general’s reciprocity deadline from Feb. 1 to March 1 and will require the attorney general’s office to enter into any reciprocity agreement offered by any other state, removing the discretion that allowed Herring’s unilateral action.

- See more at: http://freebeacon.com/issues/virginia-gun-carry-deal-more-expansive-than-first-reported/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=4c8179a5f1-WFB_Morning_Beacon_02_01_161_31_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-4c8179a5f1-45580813#sthash.YajQALNf.dpuf
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Public University Building Race Segregated Housing

University of Connecticut:

ScHOLA2RS House is a Learning Community designed to support the scholastic efforts of male students who identify as African American/Black through academic and social/emotional support, access to research opportunities, and professional development. The intent of this Learning Community is to increase the retention and persistence of students using educational and social experiences to enhance their academic success at UConn and beyond in graduate and professional school placement. ScHOLA2RS House will encourage involvement with the larger university community to foster peer and mentor relationships and will actively engage students in inclusion efforts at Uconn.

And an advisor explains:

"It is a space for African American men to one, come together and validate their experiences that they may have on campus. Number two, it's also a space where they can have conversation and also talk with individuals who come from the same background who share the same experience," said Hines.

Teaching the history of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)("separate but equal") is never going to be the same.

I Have Not Said Much About the Oregon Standoff

Looking at this video doesn't look good for the guy who the FBI shot.  It isn't very close but the behavior does not look like someone surrendering to police, and the claim that they he was reaching for a gun is utterly plausible.  Just because the FBI has a long criminal history doesn't mean they are always in the wrong.

This article about Captain Moroni defending them is a really disturbing reminder of the odd connections this group has.

The underlying issue of the sentences given the Hammonds remains unresolved:

The U.S. Department of Justice issued a statement Monday: "The jury convicted both of the Hammonds of using fire to destroy federal property for a 2001 arson known as the Hardie-Hammond Fire, located in the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area," it said.

"Witnesses at trial, including a relative of the Hammonds, testified the arson occurred shortly after Steven Hammond and his hunting party illegally slaughtered several deer" on Bureau of Land Management property. "Jurors were told that Steven Hammond handed out 'Strike Anywhere' matches with instructions that they be lit and dropped on the ground because they were going to 'light up the whole country on fire.' "

Federal law mandates that the offense carry no less than a five-year sentence. The first federal judge to oversee the case thought the sentence was too harsh and gave them two years which they served. In October 2015, the Ninth Circuit ruled that they had to serve the mandatory minimum.

Not every injustice is an argument for insurrection.

More Investing

I just bought BCS/PRD which is preferred shares of Barclays Bank.  Current annual dividend yield is 7.72%.