Donald J. Trump Inauguration Speech

January 20th, 2017

Washington, D.C.

Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans and people of the world, thank you.

We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and restore its promise for all of our people. Together we will determine the course of America and the world for many, many years to come.

We will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done. Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power. And we are grateful to President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent. Thank you.

Today's ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today, we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another. But we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people.

For too long, a small group in our nation's capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered, but the jobs left. And the factories closed. The establishment protected itself but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. And while they celebrated in our nation’s capital,  there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

That all changes starting right here and right now. Because this moment is your moment. It belongs to you. It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America. This is your day. This is your celebration. And this, the United States of America, is your country.

What truly matters is not which party controls our government but whether our government is controlled by the people. January 20th, 2017 will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.

The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.

Everyone is listening to you now. You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement, the likes of which the world has never seen before. At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction -- that a nation exists to serve its citizens. Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families and good jobs for themselves.

These are just and reasonable demands of righteous people and a righteous public. But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists. Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation, an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge. And the crime, and the gangs, and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

We are one nation, and their pain is our pain. Their dreams are our dreams, and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home and one glorious destiny.

The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans. For many decades, we've enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military. We defended other nation’s borders while refusing to defend our own. And spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.

We've made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon. One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind.  The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world. But that is the past and now we are looking only to the future.

We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital and in every hall of power. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this day forward, it's going to be only America first -- America first.

Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. I will fight for you with every breath in my body. And I will never, ever let you down. America will start winning again, winning like never before.

We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth, and we will bring back our dreams. We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation. We will get our people off of welfare and back to work rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor. We will follow two simple rules -- buy American and hire American.

We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world. But we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first. We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone but rather to let it shine as an example. We will shine for everyone to follow.We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones. And unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth.

At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other. When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.

The Bible tells us how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly but always pursue solidarity. When America is united, America is totally unstoppable.

There should be no fear. We are protected, and we will always be protected. We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement. And most importantly, we will be protected by God.

Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger. In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving. We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action, constantly complaining but never doing anything about it.

The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action. Do not allow anyone to tell you that it cannot be done. No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of America. We will not fail. Our country will thrive and prosper again. We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the earth from the miseries of disease and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow.

A new national pride will stir ourselves, lift our sights and heal our divisions. It’s time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget -- that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots.

We all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same great American flag. And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams and they are infused with the breath of life by the same Almighty Creator.

So to all Americans in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, from ocean to ocean, hear these words -- you will never be ignored again. Your voice, your hopes and your dreams will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way.

Together, we will make America strong again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And yes, together, we will make America great again. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you. God bless America.

2017 Dogs of the Dow*

*Honorable Mention: Altria (MO): 3.61% Yield (But Not A Member of the 30 Stock Dow Jones Industrial Average.) "Dogs of the Dow" is an investment strategy that picks the highest yielding 10 Dow components from the previous year-end to comprise next year's investment portfolio. It is theorized that the Dogs of the Dow, via their high yields, are by definition under-valued as an asset class to their peer group and may offer superior returns over the coming year.

Dividends

Above is the per share dividend growth for Procter & Gamble over the past 60 years. As financial farmers, it is imperative we consider the impact of dividends on a financial farm; indeed, dividends have historically accounted for 42% of a portfolio's return!

Much of Wall Street is laser-focused on obtaining Alpha (positive returns), yet you rarely hear the "fast money" discussing boring dividends. Or Yield on Cost. Or the Dogs of the Dow. Boring doesn't make for flashy news, but it sure does make for a fat stack of benjis on your farm! Don't underestimate the true goal of investing: cash flow.

Tools of Titans

A fitting start to the New Year would be picking up a copy of "Tools of Titans" by Tim Ferriss for about the price of a mimosa. It is thick and rich with examples, strategies, tactics, habits, procedures, and systems from the most successful people you've ever and never heard of! Tools of Titans is an overflowing resource of process-driven philosophy and execution methodology, superb.

Happy New Year!

Wishing you a happy, healthy, and profitable New Year from the wonderful shores of Santa Barbara, CA! Below, the traditional year-end song to remember long-standing friendships sung the world-over written by the Scot Robert Burns.

Auld Lang Syne

Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,

and never thought upon;

The flames of Love extinguished,

and fully past and gone:

Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,

that loving Breast of thine;

That thou canst never once reflect

On old long syne.

CHORUS:

On old long syne my Jo,

On old long syne,

That thou canst never once reflect,

On old long syne.

Dow 20,000

     So close you can almost taste it...Dow 20,000! Will we hit this milestone before the end of 2016 as I predicted 3 years ago? Maybe. Maybe Not. But what's the story behind the story? The impetus that drove a tepid market up 2,000 points over the past 80 days? Behavioral Economics fellow investors explains it all.

     Never underestimate the power of the psyche in market movements, especially ones centered on signifiant social, political, and economic events.  The reality over the coming 120 days is probably even brighter than sobbing, dour progressive pundits could possibly imagine...prosperity is at hand again. You can bet the farm that the proposed policy changes implemented beginning in January 2017 will have massive positive effects benefiting millions of Americans across the entire socioeconomic spectrum. Lower taxes across the board for the Middle Class, repatriation of TRILLIONS in overseas corporate cash, and...hold your breath here...a pro-growth administration hell-bent on restoring American industry in such hated sectors as manufacturing, energy, and finance. My fellow farmers,  Dow 20,000 is already here.

In Hoc Anno Domini

This editorial was written in 1949 by the late Vermont Royster.

     When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

     Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.

     But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression--for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?

     There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

     Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.

     And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.

     So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.

     But it came to pass for a while in diverse places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

     Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

     Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.

     And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:

     Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Yield On Cost

     One of the most fascinating concepts of compounding interest is the concept of Yield On Cost. For those who aspire to Invest Like A Farmer it could be said that this is THE fundamental concept. Yield On Cost is calculated by dividing a company's current annual dividend payment by the original purchase price. It is expressed as a percentage; so for example if you bought Altria at $30 a share 5 years ago and the stock now pays a $0.61 per quarter dividend the Yield On Cost is 8.13%.

     Yield On Cost differs from a dividend yield in that a dividend yield is the current annual dividend divided by the current share price; so in the above example of MO, the dividend yield is ($0.61 X $ =$2.44/yr divided by $66/share) is 3.69%. The significant difference here is that Yield On Cost factors in the benefits of reinvested dividends over time.

     For financial farmers this is particularly important because ad believes in Dollar Cost Averaging and selecting stocks that Pay You To Own Them, the Yield On Cost is a favorite barometer over time of the true success of an investment in your portfolio.

     A carefully constructed portfolio ultimately takes on a life of its own; dividends are typically paid quarterly and reinvest. Over multiple years, and even decades, these dividends provide a healthy backstop to inevitable stock market cycles and economic booms and busts; ultimately the "farm" generates recurring income that seeds additional investments which generate additional cashflow themselves and so forth. This virtuously cycle compounds and should reveal a very, very positive Yield On Cost over time.