Jay Leno entertains members of the 433rd Airlift Wing, wounded warriors and their families at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. August 6, 2011. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Brian McGloin)
Dear Survivor,
If you want to see Jay Leno’s home in Newport, RI all you have to do is leave my office, turn on to Bellevue Avenue and head out to Ocean Drive, and you’ll see it right there on the water.
“Leno and his wife first admired the house around 30 years ago, when he was in Rhode Island for a standup gig,” explains Fred Albert in Newport Life. “In 2017, the couple drove by it again — only this time, they stopped. ‘Let’s see if it’s for sale,’ Leno said, taking advantage of a departing gardener to slip through the open gate and drive up to the front door, where a caretaker greeted him.” Albert continues:
“Is this house for sale?” Leno inquired. “Yes”
“And I bought it,” Leno says, still dazed by the serendipity of it all. Set on nine oceanfront acres, the Norman-style stone chateau features a dozen bedrooms spread over nearly 16,000 square feet of living space. “It looks like the front of a Harlequin novel,” Leno guffaws. “Every time I pull up to the gate I just laugh.”
Leno owns 187 cars and 163 motorcycles, loves to eat a burger and drive while listening to Sam Cooke (if the car has a radio).
I was speaking with a client who rides his Ducati through the Santa Monica Mountains to visit Rock Store. He said he’s seen Leno there many times and he’s the friendliest guy you’ll ever meet.
And he’s not a bad investor either. Just don’t ask him about stocks and bonds. In yesterday’s WSJ:
People told me: I was crazy to pay $800,000 for a 1994 McLaren F1. The last offer I got for it was $17.5 million. I don’t know anything about stocks, but I collect stuff I like.
Dividends Win Today, They Won Yesterday, and They’ll Probably Win Tomorrow
It’s been quite the run for dividend paying stocks as you can see in the performance of our Retirement Compounders, which sort of looks like bragging. Believe me I’m not.
Imagine for a moment you have a pile of cash. Where are you going to put it? Into the S&P 500? A passive index fund?
Not me.
Legendary investor Jack Bogle, and now Michael Burry, whose story was immortalized in The Big Short as one of the first investors to call the subprime mortgage crisis, have expressed their concerns.
“There no longer can be any doubt that the creation of the first index mutual fund was the most successful innovation—especially for investors—in modern financial history,” wrote Bogle here, “The question we need to ask ourselves now is: What happens if it becomes too successful for its own good?”
“Trillions of dollars in assets globally are indexed to these stocks,” Burry said. “The theater keeps getting more crowded, but the exit door is the same as it always was. All this gets worse as you get into even less liquid equity and bond markets globally.”
Remember, returns you’re looking at today, especially the 10-year annual average, are going back to 2009—the beginning of the bull market.
Be selective with your stocks.
Your work should begin, and certainly not end, with the dividend.
They’re Not Getting My Guns
By Robert Przybysz @ Shutterstock.com
One thing was clear in the September Democrat debate. They don’t know guns. And if you own one, they’re coming for it.
“Hell, yes we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” vowed former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke.
They’ll start with your AR-15 (I own a Colt) and then your AK-47 (also in our family).
And then they’ll go right on down the line to strip you of a Constitutional right.
As my daughter and I watched together, she was clearly upset: “How can they be saying this?”
“How can they believe that?”
Because in their hearts they believe they can run my family better than me.
They believe more government, with them in charge, is the answer.
They’re not getting my guns.
In speaking with a friend after the debate he said he and his dad have talked about that scenario.
And their answer to someone asking for their guns would be that they “must have put them down in the woods while hunting and lost them.”
Here’s a message to arrogant, smug Beto: It’s none of your business why I own an AR-15.
Get out of the way. Let Americans live their lives. We’ll do just fine without your help.
Survive and Thrive this Month.
Warm regards,
E.J.,
“Your Survival Guy”
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P.S. For my all-time favorite burger in Newport click here.
P.P.S. The recent attacks on Saudi oil facilities show that rogue drones are the new weapon of choice for militants in the Middle East. An inability to stop drones capable of raining down terror from the sky day or night could be the biggest defensive gap experienced in warfare since the U.S. encountered IEDs in Iraq. 
The rogue drones are virtual flying IEDs and may have turned U.S. military assets in the Gulf region into a strategic vulnerability. At the moment, America’s military lacks the ability to guard against these crude air assets in such a target-rich environment. Without a proper defense against these rogue drones and missiles bringing more assets into the region seems impractical. Raytheon hopes the delivery of its prototype high-power microwave system will help the U.S. quell this new threat. Read the press release below:
Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) will deliver a prototype high-power microwave system to be deployed to troops overseas under a U.S. Air Force contract. Troops will use the HPM system to destroy hostile drones.
Raytheon’s HPM system uses directed energy to take down drones. HPM’s wide beam can disable multiple targets at one time. The contract follows a separate Air Force contract in which Raytheon will build two prototype high-energy laser systems, also to be deployed overseas. The HPM and HEL systems can be used independently or together to counter-unmanned aerial system threats.
“There’s more than one way to defeat a drone,” said Dr. Thomas Bussing, Raytheon Advanced Missile Systems vice president. “We are delivering the world’s first defensive directed energy systems that can be used alone or in tandem to defeat enemy drones at the speed of light.”
The HPM and HEL contracts follow successful demonstrations of Raytheon’s directed energy systems for the Air Force and the U.S. Army.
Source: Raytheon
P.P.P.S. Recently Tucker Carlson hosted the executive director of The American Conservative magazine, Johnny Burtka, on his show to discuss pro-family policy. The segment was a powerful response to those Tucker called climate alarmists for convincing young people to not have children. Burtka does a great job of explaining a family first agenda for America.
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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
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