Left with Balls

Mission Accomplished! The Left finally has grown a pair!

Obama is hot this week. He decided to strike the iron while it’s hot.

He signed the bill, made 15 recess appointments, despite Republicans pleas not to, achieved significant arms control treaty with Russia, and to wrap up the week, stopped by Afghanistan to lecture Karzai.  Obama makes surprise visit to Afghanistan .  Such a pleasure to see adults finally running the show.

Now the danger for the left is to become overconfident and complacent. But that is too far ahead, I ‘d say at about the same distance from now as Fed tightening interest rates. I’d give it a year or two. In the meantime Obama can also appoint a couple of  Supremes. Aren’t there rumors of John Paul Stevens retiring? Or Ginsburg?

Real American Experience

Some friends recommended that I expand my posts into a wider range of topics. I think it’s a good idea. How much more can I trash Republicans? Although, I’m afraid, that no matter what I write about I will be inevitably skewed into looking at things through a political prism. Whether I write about money, sex or drugs I like to put things into context.

Here’s a good story about my real American first-hand experience.

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Words of comfort to my conservative friends

Dear friends,

This morning has caught you in an apoplectic state. I feel your pain. And as we move closer to socialism let me offer you some consolation.

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Corporations are people too

These guys are brilliant.Campaign stunt launches a corporate \'candidate\' for Congress

Until now, corporate interests had to rely on campaign contributions and influence-peddling to achieve their goals in Washington,” the candidate, who was unavailable for an interview, said in a statement. “But thanks to an enlightened Supreme Court, now we can eliminate the middle-man and run for office ourselves.

If corporations are people, as was ruled by the Supreme Court recently, why can’t have the same rights? Like run for office for instance? How about a law firm for an Attorney General? Or Goldman Sachs for Treasury Secretary? Church of Latter Day Saints for Governor of Massachusetts? Oh, wait, the latter one is not too improbable.
And John Roberts is surprised that he’s being criticized by Obama.
Conservatives, who, frothing at the mouth, proclaim the love of Constitution and the Bill of Rights here and there should be very alarmed about this development, but they are not for some reason. I wonder how they would like to have ACLU as Attorney General.

REIT conference

I went to a REIT conference today. Everybody was there. Sam Zell dropped a couple of customary F-bombs. While answering somebody’s question related to a lot of money sitting on the sidelines he said: And what the fuck are they going to buy? He was the most entertaining speaker of the day. He was very critical of Obama and of the political risks that have to be considered if investing in the US. Steven Roth, the chairman of Vornado, who is a big Democratic donor is also disappointed about the administration. None of these guys seem inclined to invest in the US assets for this reason. Another reason is that even though there are a lot of juicy assets out there, no one is willing to sell them because they have no equity. Meaning they would get no money out of the sale. Bill Ackman of Pershing Square rolled in on a big white horse after making a hugely successful bet on General Growth (GGP) when he bought it last year at 40 cents. It is trading at $14 now. He also got himself on the board of GGP, so that he can have some leverage during bankruptcy proceedings. If I was an anti-semite this conference would be a perfect example of a Jews-running-the-world conspiracy. Frankly, if this kind of Jews runs the world I wouldn’t have any problem with it. Guys like Sam Zell maybe conservative but he’s not nuts, he’s not a teabagger. He’s anything but. I guess whenever your money is involved you stop being an ideologue. You look at the facts and act according to them. You don’t make bets based on the way you WANT things to be, you make bets on the way things ARE.  I mean at this point I would consider going long insurance companies in case the Health Care Bill doesn’t pass. A major defeat for Obama, but at least I would get something out of it.

But I digress. It seems that until a large transaction will take place, a catalyst of some sort, commercial real estate market will remain frozen. Public and private investors raised hundreds of billions of dollars last year in anticipation of making acquisitions and some of them will be pressed to invest them in a short period of time. But there’s nothing to buy in terms of property, because the sellers are not in a position to sell. Where will that money go? I don’t know but I’ll stay long some REITs just in case. Steve Roth used a good metaphor about the situation: You guys came here with a knife and a fork, but there’s nothing to eat! And then he probably thought to himself: What a roomful of suckers!

Well, despite Obama’s supposed hostility towards Wall Street, the stock market had the most spectacular run in decades. Some analyst even said recently (I think I saw it on Bloomberg) that if Obama was a Republican he would be praised non-stop for his policies on CNBC. Remember how early in his presidency whenever he spoke, CNBC would have a real-time graph of Dow Jones as if to say: See? When Obama speaks market goes down. For some unknown to me reason they stopped doing it. I guess because the facts don’t conform to their agenda. CNBC is clearly an ultimate roomful of suckers.

Vietnam

I liked it not. Beautiful country, least pleasant people. I haven’t met a single tourist who didn’t have a story about an attempted or successful scam by the locals. Be it a taxi driver who takes you to the wrong hotel or tries to charge you more than you agreed on, or street vendors that grab you by your hand and don’t let go – everyone had a story.
They think you’re a foreigner – you must be stupid. I always had to be on alert and that was very tiring.
What I found curious about Vietnam is their fusion of religion and Communism. Their Buddhist shrines often feature Ho Chi Minh, who was a Marxist. They call him Uncle Ho and are pretty reverent about everything related to him. They worship him as if he was a deity and somehow it all fits nicely with the religious tradition. Even commies need to believe in the supernatural! Which made me realize that unfortunately, the quest to ban all religions would be an exercise in futility. People will find a way to believe.
Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City). The war museum in Saigon was sobering. There are pictures there you won’t see in the US. There are victims of Agent Orange still being born, three generations later. I mean they are born crippled, without hands or legs. I wanted to make a picture of that building in the famous “Last Helicopter out of Town” photo, but that building (the American Embassy) does no longer exist. The trip to Vietnam made me realize why Americans lost the war. These people can not be defeated. The communal is more important than the personal, they have no sense of personal space and they always work together. At the street disputes between a foreigner and a local, they all stick together and it’s easier for an unfortunate Yankee to just pay the damn $10 or whatever they are trying to hustle out of him than to argue.
Oh, and also, there are almost no places in Vietnam with decent food. The best Vietnamese food I ever ate was here in New York.
Rich experience, but I wouldn’t visit Vietnam again.

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Presidential Reunion

I’m sure some of you have seen it. Click on the link to see the video

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I especially appreciate the advice given to Obama by Reagan.

Thailand (Bangkok)

Temples, temples and more temples. Sitting Buddha, laying Buddha, standing Buddha. It became overwhelming after a few days. I also overdosed on Thai food the first week and switched to burgers and fries. I know, it’s pretty pathetic.

There are some curious categories of tourists that visit South East Asia: there are ubiquitous German couples (both straight and gay), British tourists on a colonial nostalgia tour, dressed like and thinking that they are Indiana Jones, young hippie looking women on a spiritual journey, which I could have become 10 years ago if I have had a bit more acid than I actually did. And of course, single (or married travelling w/out spouse) guys on, well, another kind of spiritual journey. I felt myself out of place.

But the massages are amazing and for about $10 available on every corner. I couldn’t get enough of those. Jewelry shopping is also pretty good. Eventually I had to summon all my willpower to forbid myself from visiting jewelry stores. And they are everywhere!

Pictures under the link:

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