If you are in business and the government will not allow you to open a bank account, what do you do?

Thirty years ago, almost anyone could walk into a bank and open a bank account with no questions asked. But now it is increasingly difficult for honest people and businesses to open bank accounts because of all the new regulations on banks, which are intended to make life more difficult for terrorists, drug dealers, child pornographers, money launderers and other assorted criminal types.

Many of those who are involved in the legal Colorado marijuana business — growers, processors and retailers — have found it impossible to get bank accounts, so they have been forced to deal in cash. As a result, armored cars go around to the various pot businesses, pick up the cash and put it in a hopefully secure warehouse.

The business is growing rapidly, so literally billions of dollars of cash are being transported and hidden in Colorado alone. Once the marijuana businesses get up and running in all the states that have made it legal, there may well be more than $100 billion in physical cash sloshing around — for this one type of business alone — making it ripe for theft, armed robbery and, of course, tax evasion.

The need to do everything in cash creates new industries, both legal and illegal.  

We have to preface this HFR with an urgent notice.  The dates of Rendezvous XV have been changed. 

They are now one week later, Friday January 27 to Sunday January 29.  That’s because so many TTPers (myself included) will be in Washington for the celebratory presidential inauguration of President Trump on January 20.

RXV a week after DJT’s ensconcement in the Oval Office is an ideal time to discuss how we move forward into the Trump Era.

However – we cannot commit to the major expense of a Rendezvous until we know how many of you will attend.  This is not a profit-making venture, we operate it on a break-even basis as an opportunity for TTPers to gather together personally. 

Thus we are offering a discount price of $395 for Rendezvous XV for the next 10 days, that is until Monday November 28 – after which the price will be $425. 

So – please call or email Miko now to confirm your attendance at what will be the most exciting and joyful Rendezvous ever!  Call Miko at (202) 656-3008 or email him at [email protected].  It’s a good idea to do it now.

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OK, here we go. Right now (11/18), we know nothing about most of Trump’s cabinet picks; we just know who’s been going in and out of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.  It’s all speculation so far, some of it terrific, some of it terrible.

The worst so far is this morning’s Fox headline: Trump Offers Flynn Post of National Security Advisor.  Pray this isn’t true, or that DJT will withdraw the offer when he realizes that retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is a paid lobbyist for the sponsor of ISIS, the Islamofascist dictator of Turkey Recip Erdogan.

On election day, Nov 8, The Hill (newspaper of Capitol Hill) published an op-ed written by Flynn under his own byline: Our Ally Turkey Is in Crisis and Needs Our Support.  It is disgustingly dishonest, paid bootlicking of arguably the Number One Enemy of America among world leaders today.

On Nov 11, the Daily Caller disclosed who Erdogan was using as a cutout to pay off  Flynn – a Turkish crony businessman named Ekim Alptekin via a Dutch shell company called Inovo BV.

On Wednesday (11/16), Trump announced that lobbyists will not be allowed in his administration.  Flynn would be disqualified as NSC Director by that alone.  Let’s hope he is.

Remember the redneck riots after the election in 2012? Me neither. Democrats and the “mainstream” media warn us constantly about the threat of violence from the Right. But nearly all violence that actually materializes is from the Left.

Colleges cancelled exams for students “traumatized” by the election. The University of Michigan planned to help them “cope” by providing coloring books, play doh and bubbles. Administrators at Cornell provided blankets and hot chocolate to special snowflakes holding a “cry-in.”

CBS News highlighted comments on social media that 11/9, the day it became clear Donald Trump will be the next president, is “the new 9/11.” Prominent celebrities, pundits and politicians liken Mr. Trump to Hitler. Death threats abound on social media.

Democrats and “mainstream” journalists (I repeat myself) have settled on their narrative for this election.  It has yet to dawn on the latter that they lost worse than the former on November 8.

You’re a very funny guy, Al

Mr. Trump has said his focus will be on economic growth and that he will get the economy growing at “more than 4 percent per year,” and that he will balance the budget.

It is indeed true that with massive rollbacks of counterproductive regulations, the right type of tax cuts, and limiting spending (assuming a nondestructive money policy on the part of the Federal Reserve), 4 percent or more economic growth is very achievable -- and the tax, spending and regulatory reform plans that Mr. Ryan and his colleagues have set forth may well do it.

However…

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that with no major spending program changes, real federal spending as a percentage of GDP (assuming approximately an average annual 2 percent real growth in GDP) will grow roughly 30 percent over the next 30 years, and that virtually all of this growth will come from “mandatory” entitlement programs and interest.

CBO projects real cuts in defense spending and other “discretionary” programs. It also projects the federal debt held by the public to rise from the present 75 percent of GDP to 141 percent, and interest on the debt to grow from the current 1.4 percent of GDP to 5.1 percent (or $1 trillion before inflation). These numbers are clearly unsustainable.

What should Mr. Trump do?