Most Politicans are Knaves

That sentence in French was Friday's "La Phrase" - the French noun, "fripon" translates as "knave". And that sentence was also used in Thursday's "Zdanie" as an example for Thursday's Polish Słowo Tygodnia, "niegodziwiec" which also translates as "knave".

Today's news brings many, many examples, as well as some knaves getting into trouble.

The President of Honduras, a Chavez wannabe, wanted to hold an unconstitutional referendum to gut the constitution so he could remain in power. At least the Honduras army had the backbone to stand up to him and kick him out. It's laughable how some politicians [read: Obama] are calling for his reinstallation. What are constitutions for ? Oaths to uphold the constitution need to be respected. If a knave violates it, he should get the boot.

WSJ: "BUENOS AIRES -- President Cristina Kirchner suffered a stunning setback in Argentina's congressional elections, losing absolute majorities in both houses of Congress. Mrs. Kirchner's husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner, lost his own bid for a seat from Buenos Aires province in Sunday's election." I wonder if the people of Argentina might be awakening from their multi-decadal infatuation with demagogues.

The NY state senate continues its farce. Members refuse to work. I suppose they are fighting over patronage and payoffs, and whose will be cut in the budget cutbacks.

The California gridlock continues. That state will run out of money to pay bills any day now. States relying on "soak the rich" taxation systems incur the costs of that folly. In hard times, that income drops fastest, leaving huge budget holes. This happened in the tech bubble, too.

The US House of Representatives passes a foolish climate change bill to kowtow to Obama and the Greenies. Of course that bill is larded with provisions that are untenable, such as tariffs on goods from China and India. Fat chance those have of ever coming into force. Any legislator pointing to those to justify his vote wears the label, "knave",

Five examples are enough.

Ooops, one more: a Bible toting, values touting governor of South Carolina gets caught taking very, very private Spanish lessons from his Argentine mistress. He's married with four kids. Sheesh, what a knave.

Markets

Doing nothing. As more news of economic recovery appears, the bears should be suffering slowly on the rack. Chance of an upside buying panic will grow. Target: that air pocket in upside resistance from about S&P 950 to 1200. A solid recovery should get the S&P back to 1200. After that, the details will matter.

Word of the Day

"Provenience" - noun [$10]
Provenience means origin, source.
Sentence: The provenience of power for knaves is the fatuity of the people in a democracy. This caused the destruction of the power of Athens in the Peloponnessian war 2,500 years ago. Will the people ever learn ? No. This is why the US constitution provides for a republican form of government with distributed power and many checks.

Le Mot du Jour

"Tromper" - transitive verb, regular -er conjugation
Tromper means to 1. deceive, to fool, to trick; to be unfaithful to, to cheat on; to mislead; 3. to elude
La Phrase: Les fripons peuvent souvent tromper le peuple. Pourquoi ?
Sentence: Knaves can often fool the people. Why ?