I know many of you hate my politics; of which I couldn’t care less. It’s sad, I know, but the degree to which today’s market is dominated by elected (and occasionally unelected) officials is such that you’d be crazy not to follow the politics.

Now, back in December, in the aftermath of a blood hound-bastard seeking his kicks on the backs of butchering kids, all of a sudden the administration swung around in the most opportunistic way imaginable, as if someone had dished them up a free five course meal with which to sake their hunger.

At that time, not quite as shocked as I might have thought possible, that they would try to capitalize on the tragedy, I offhandedly remarked that Obama had just put in motion the events that would make him an early lame duck.

As if the failure in the Senate of gun control wasn’t the first shot across the bow, now I’m pretty well sure this administration is firmly in the “dead at sea” category.

There’s no coming back from this. The administration’s top brass are seriously trying to stall on these three scandals. And one of them was directed at one of the press’s sacrosanct principles. You don’t run the clock out in a game like this…

If you want to gauge just how bad things are for legislative impasse, just take a good look at the mental gymnastics the administrations staunchest, most diehard of supporters are having to pull to write this all off.

So, what does this mean for things that can make you money? Well, for starters, the obvious is that gun stocks are no longer in the cross hairs, and won’t be again anytime soon. State legislation is probably still being pushed, but it’s all localized, and gun manufacturers are really good at leaving states that punish them. Plenty of other, more receptive places to call home – those stocks should be trading back where they were before December.

I can’t see any of these scandals hurting gun sales either…

The second outcome is going to be less direct and more “what would have happened?” kind of stuff. If the economy should start to slow and require more federal stimulus, you can forget it. It’s dead; done. Not happening.

As it is, negotiations on standard fiscal house affairs are going to be very contentious, and this time around Team Executive is going to have to keep its head down. It doesn’t do well to complain that those nasty Republicans are trying to destroy the country when your own IRS department just got caught targeting them.

Fiscal affairs usually poll conservative anyway – in principle people hate the debt and want government spending reigned in. Obama’s charisma and the trust placed with him were the only things that were leveling that playing field.

Every time Holder and Carney open their mouths, you can watch those things get shredded in real time.

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The California Public Employee’s Retirement System has finally waded into the gun debate (after much speculation they might do so). Effectively, public employees (or more specifically, California elected officials trying to feign being responsible) have now pushed their retirement funds to divest of all firearms stocks – putting downward pressure on RGR, SWHC, and the like.

That’s funny, as last I checked, CalPERS’ was perilously underfunded, with estimates running between final targets as low as 40%. Present funding puts them at a little over 70% funded. In any scenario, I would point out that if CalPERS was in the private market right now, the Pension Protection Act of 2006 would currently obligate the government, under terms of business hardship, to come in and seize the whole operation.

I guess I didn’t realize that CalPERS was in any position to throw away profitable investments.

It should be well known to my full time readers that Cain Hammond Thaler is no friend of the clinically insane residents of California. The 9th floor is very much against their particular variety of arrogance-wrapped-in-financial-illiteracy-in-need-of-a-match.

And when that accelerant finally finds its spark, I will sit back sipping on an Tom Collins and watch with glee as the leadership of California, so long insistent that they are a model for the rest of the country, is forced to come begging with hat in hand, for a bailout.

And when that happens, I think California public employees might realize they had far more serious matters to be debating right now, than whether or not selling legal weapons largely to responsible owners was a moral imperative.

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Hahahaha you have to be kidding me.

The magnanimous US Senate managed to find a whopping $15 billion in budget cuts for 2013? Are you out of your minds?

That’s about .4% of the US’ $4 trillion discretionary budget. Except, it’s not, because the Department of Defense budget is all hush hush and super secret. You throw in the entitlement spending in there. and the great Senators of the United States of America have proposed ~0% spending cuts in exchange for more blank checks.

Just knowing how Washington works, you have to assume you could slash 2% of discretionary spending without any consequences to services whatsoever, merely because DC is a gigantic slush fund for the well connected.

If any of you retained any hope that the system could reform itself, please consider this the force of reason bashing against the side of your head.

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Well, this isn’t fun. Seems like going to cash was the right course of action. Seems like it…

Sadly, if you’ve been following, I did not go to cash.

But still, I wait. I wait because $1 trillion free dollars can’t be wrong. Our markets can collapse after that. Or maybe they don’t collapse at all? Maybe they just stay where they are while the real economy fumbles and craters? That’s an option, after all. Ben pulls a fast one and leaves you all befuddled.

Mind you, most of my own positioning is tied up in POS stocks like CCJ, BAS, and RGR. Sure, I love a good distressed buy. They’re my absolute favorite. I love getting socked in the teeth to the tune of 30% in between 40% rallies. And having psycopaths at the HuffPost, Brady Campaign, anti-nuclear proliferation activists, and Matt Damon slobbering over themselves in a quest to destroy perfectly reasonable and productive activity for wild-eyed, long shot chances at actually improving the world.

It. Is. So. Awesome.

As 2013 runs to a close, I wish suffering on all of you. This world is increasingly not big enough for all of us, and so I say, may the next one of you to suggest it would be better for Cain Hammond Thaler to live in Detroit without a gun be gang raped by knife wielding maniacs.

Dicks…

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My twitter stream lit up with NRA criticism today, which was then mostly accentuated by a combination of political pundits, network anchors, and, for some unknowable reason, finance types.

You railed endlessly against the NRA position that, maybe, the real problem is that we filter our kids into defenseless buildings with 25:1 ratios of adolescents to adult supervision. You called them heartless murdering bastards for not recommending the preferred solution to gun violence in America: a magic wand that makes all guns go away.

And what was the one constant attribute you all seem to possess?

You’re all living in New York, NY.

Has it ever dawned on you that you are making recommendations of gun control while literally living on an island? And not just any island, I would add. You live on the most fucking reinforced, police monitored island on the goddamn planet.

Every day, all commuters pass through a handful of highly monitored access points. Every day, one of the most vigilant police forces in the country (who operate not just in NY, but now in secret safe houses across America) performs hundreds of random channel checks on you or people like you without anyone realizing it.

I’m guessing that plays a huge part in New York City’s relatively safe streets; likely more than New York State’s ridiculously unreasonable gun laws do.

With 300 million some odd weapons in circulation, where else in the US do you plan on implementing these awesome gun control policies? I’d be very interested to hear the answer to that; particularly from Mayor Bloomberg.

You could use New York City’s variety of gun control in one other state, maybe…Florida. Build a fucking wall of security and box it off. Possibly Michigan, I guess, if you promise we can double the wall as a precaution to keep those asshole Ohioans out.

And one other thing; explain to me how any of the suggestions I’ve heard about limiting gun sales and taking guns off the market changes the fact that there are 300 million weapons in circulation today.

If you banned all the semi-automatic weapons in America, this 20 year old psycopath’s mom still would have had one. He still would have taken it and shot her. And the school would still have been completely unguarded for him to waltz in and snuff those 20 defenseless kids out at near-point blank range.

The teachers, completely restricted from carrying any form of personal protection (don’t give me that bullshit about handing guns to kids, there are no CCL permits available to anyone that young), would still have been shot to death.

So I ask you; what are we supposed to do between banning new sales of these weapons (which is the ONLY suggestion, even coming from Feinstein) and the time when the last of those that are in circulation finally breaks down?

Don’t worry, these shootings will stop after we hit the gun manufacturers. In just a hundred years or so…

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Yes. Celebrate. Be drunk and happy. You do not see the noose around your necks yet, but you will. When it is too late, you will…

At around seven of the clock tonight, I cast my ballot – the very one you see above you. I told you exactly what I planned to do months ago.

In the background of the 9th floor, I hear the voices of Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow and Al Sharpton talking stupid. I’ve left them on, because it amuses me hearing them contradict themselves. Their voices carry talk about the need to heal the rift in this country and how Republicans should begin to compromise on, oh…all sorts of issues. That’s cute.

I’ll tell you what they’re not saying. Last I checked, Romney is winning the fucking popular vote.

WHERE IS THE GOD DAMNED OUTRAGE? Hmmm. Mind you, I’m not outraged he’s losing the electoral college because I like the electoral college.

But to all you little fuckers who were screaming in 2000; I’m waiting.

Elsewhere, the GOP is taking full control of the House of Representatives. They maintain a filibuster in the Senate. Do I care about anything else? The local elections, mostly. I want to see conservative principles slowly push on the ground. That’s what will let business really advance in this country. It’s not about the guy upstairs. It’s about the men and women wielding the rubber stamps. They’re the ones you need. Fuck the presidency.

Besides that, I am concerned about the Supreme Court. Conservatives have held that institution for a long time. But I need to trust in the vehemence of the elderly conservatives to keep those bastards alive.

I am elated that Michigan has completely shut down the Union’s pet proposals. These assholes were trying to enshine supra-legal powers for themselves in the constitution. They just helped sink more than $150 million into these initiatives. I’m sure declining membership will help pick up that tab…

The next 4 years are going to be a severe disappointment. The talking heads behind me are chatting like we’re in a recovery.

We are not.

The debt issues that Europe is mired in are not trivial. They are presently witnessing a great claim against their civilization. This claim – this entitlement – is tearing them apart at the seams. And it is coming for us.

When that happens, it may yet be that the talking heads behind me eat their words. With a side of peas…

Because when it comes, they are taking the fall.

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