SKIING, GIANTS OF AMERICAN SPORTSMAN, TELLURIDE TO ASPEN, SKI PATROL HIGH ADVENTURE

     Birdman was on an avalanche detail with Sully, the head of the avalanche program with the Telluride Ski Patrol.  Sully had made the first winter ascent of Mooses Tooth in Alaska, and the first winter ascent of Lizard Head Mountain and Needle Rock near Telluride Colorado.  He was the real deal, a true old time mountain adventurer, who taught everyone on the Telluride Ski Patrol, an amazing list of survival techniques and the art of control of high alpine avalanche chutes.
     Sully would bellow loudly in the morning and shouted, "After we bomb the Mammoth Slide, lets hit the narrow chutes to the left, they will have more powder snow."  Three bombs exploded, and Birdman got first tracks on the narrow chutes.  It was the largest rush of powder, and the adrenaline that results, Birdman had ever experienced from the Big Burn at Snowmass, Aspen, to the wild peaks of Telluride Mountain.  The first rush of powder,  felt like he had dropped out of an airplane into the clouds, the powder blasted over his head, and the powder joy continued even as he launched out of the trees, into the main part of the wide Mammoth Slide, the legendary powder run of the old timers who hiked up the mountain before the lifts went in.  What a day to remember, it will never be forgotten.
     The Big Burn, at Snowmass Colorado, was the first experience that Birdman had with powder skiing.  Sixteen inches of fresh snow on the Burn was known by locals and tourists to be powder heaven.  The small pine trees interspersed in a near perfect glade, kept the snow in fluffy piles of white, with no wind, and cruising through the glades was a delight for the ski patrol and tourists from all parts of the US.  Snowmass has opened up many new above timberline bowls since then, and the powder days are unusually skier free, of locals and tourists.  Everyone wants to ski Aspen Mountain, so they can brag about their adventure in saloons from Aspen to Boston. 
     The early days working on the Telluride Ski Patrol, keeping records for the US Forest Service, bombing the avalanche areas all around the top of Telluride Ski Mountain, was high adventure and a unique opportunity to ski the steep and the deep snow.  The first year in Telluride, on April 22, 1972, it snowed 66 inches in one night on the top of the mountain.  Birdman dropped into Apex Glade, after walking from the top of lift 4, with snow as high as his neck.  He felt a great rush of joy, then could not see due to the blinding blasts of unusually deep powder.  Later he put a bandana over his face, as a breathing technique.  Birdman will never forget his first ride up lift 6 to the top of the mountain, that day.  He saw a short stumpy patrolman, nichnamed "Stump" coming down the lift line doing jet turns in the powder over the moguls.  The snow was so deep all you could see occasionally, was his hat and gloves, and a snorkel sticking above, for breathing.  When Stump got to the patrol room at the top, everyone examined his snorkel.  It was declared an ingenious idea, and talked about in the saloons downtown for years.  Stump was the first person to hang glide off of Smuggler ski trail, on Telluride Mountain, which had never been seen before. He was one of the pioneers of hang gliding. 
     You have to be tough, daring, and have a tiny element of crazy in your soul to be a skier.  Birdman always admired the tourists who came to the mountains, to brave the Big Burn, and the Telluride Plunge, a drop of 3000 feet, non stop to the town of Telluride.  It takes guts and true grit, just to ride a lift to the top of the mountain.  The chairs sway in the wind over deep chasms, rock and roll, and skiers have fallen off in the most peculiar places, one dangling from the top of a tree until the ski patrol showed up with ropes to get them back to Mother Earth.  The Snow Gods from Norway watch over most skiers, in their constant test of gravity, balance, speed , control, and at times a crazy maneuver, best left to a gymnastics arena.  Birdman watched a crazed skier once, bounce off the tops of two moguls on a high ridge at Telluride, do a half flip, land on his back, shoot towards the trees, get up to brush off the snow and smile with joy.  Children from 4 to 15 sometimes look like pros on the circuit, with amazing balance, speed, and grace. 
     You have to admire the Ski Giants of American Sports, the every day common skier who has the guts to challenge the wild mountains.  Once in awhile the White Hawk from the sky, comes down and takes a skier to the Skiers Elysium, the Great Ski Area In The Sky, with no cost for a lift ticket.

KING OF SKI TOWNS, ASPEN AND TELLURIDE, FREE ACCESS TO NATIONAL FOREST LAND, JOY THAT IS FREE, COMPARED TO CITY LIFE

     Birdman recently visited Telluride Colorado on a gorgeous sunny day, with a stop at Orvis Hot Springs.  During his three day stay in the ski town of Telluride, an insight of massive proportions, struck Birdman as he rolled over Dallas Divide, looking at the wide expanse of the Sneffles Range.  The miles and miles of high country timber, creeks, valleys, wildlife, endless hiking and joy, above the Ralph Lauren Ranch is all totally free of charge to gain access.
     Ralph Lauren paid mega millions for his pasture land below, the best land is above all over the west, a great majority of it set aside by Teddy Roosevelt a long time ago.  Birdman knew this from 35 years of hiking the high country, but it came back with the impact of lightning striking close by.  An Austrian friend, who had spent time with Birdman, hunting and hiking the high country, said, "In Austria you would have to pay a few hundred thousand a year to do what eveyone living in Telluride can do for nothing, hike the majestic high country, with no permission and payment to anyone.  In Austria the descendants of the kings own all of the best land, nothing can be bought or hiked on.
     Three years living in Colorado Springs and Denver also has reaffirmed this fact.  No matter how wealthy you are in a city, you must still deal with the traffic gridlock, inferior air to breathe, lack of wildlife, the constant cacophony of sound generated by sirens and cars and  people exercising their right of freedom of speech, talking constant nonsense on cell phones.
     Even the libraries and book stores are noisy havens of crying babies, people on cell phones, and loud speakers announcing nonsense every five minutes.  A quiet spot in America has become priceless.
     The poorest worker living in a town on the Western Slope of Colorado, with quick access to the National Forest, can live like a King, and enjoy his birthright, free access to public land, 750 million acres of it.
     The Trust For Public Land is buying up millions of acres of mining claims and inholdings, and selling it back to the US Government.  At one time in the nation, almost 950 million acres of high country public land existed.  Now is the time to gain more, and buy it back from the old miners, inholdings, and developers with the wrong intentions.
     We must preserve this legacy for the children of the future.  The genius of John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt allows us to enjoy some of the most pristine land in the world, the high country of the western US.  Leave the city for a day, take a long hike on National Forest Land and you will see what I mean.
     It is all free, and it is wild, and it is beautiful, and it allows for the experience of complete and total Joy.

ASPEN, TELLURIDE CELEBRITIES, GENERAL SCHWARZKOPF, MADONNA, STEIN ERIKSON, SKIER

     Birdman lived in Aspen and Telluride ski resorts for years, and worked on the ski patrol and in the land sales business.  During his time from 1970 to 2012 he had many revealing experiences with many famous people.
     Stein Erikson was the head of the ski school in Aspen for many years in the 70's before he moved to Deer Valley Utah, where he became director of skiing at the resort.  Birdman was standing by the Sams Knob lift at Snowmass during the winter of 1971.  There was two feet of fresh powder snow, and the Big Burn powder paradise, was calling him to the slopes.  All of a sudden he spotted Stein, flying and dancing down the mountain in a perfect powder form, with snow blowing over his head.  Birdman had never seen such an amazing display of perfection and grace before or since. Stein looked like he was dancing the mambo, at a very high speed.  Birdman thought that Stein was blessed by the Norwegian Gods of skiing, he had never seen anything like it, and never would again, until he saw Chongo on the Telluride Ski Patol, a few years later, in perfect powder form, dancing in rhythm over the moguls, with two feet of fresh snow, on the Mammoth Slide.
     Stein Erikson is currently married and has 5 children.  He is 85 years young, and still has that famous head of hair.  They say that he is a humble man.  He is quoted as saying "Be tough, be confident, but you will never be a whole and happy person if you aren't humble."  In 1997 Erikson was honored by the King of Norway. He was Knighted with the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit for his contribution to Norway, the highest honor that the Norwegian government can give to people living outside Norway.  It is said that Erikson was skiings "first superstar" since he was handsome, stylish, and charismatic.
     Norman Schwarzkopf walked on the treadmill in the summer at the Peaks Hotel, almost evey day, where Birdman worked out.  Birdman thought, I wonder how many miles the general walked while he was in the military.  Norman was a large man, but walked with a smooth motion, never losing his stride.
     Stormin Norman, "The Bear" was loved by the locals in Telluride and marched with the soldiers in the local Memorial Day parade each year.  Birdman recently heard that the vets in Telluride, came out of hiding, and proudly marched with Norman.  Before they were afraid to let people know they had fought in Vietnam, because of the anti-war sentiment in town, and the abundance of peaceniks.
     Norman loved to trout fish and hunt pheasants, and went to pheasant country with some local bird hunters.  He was a remarkable pheasant marksman, which is an upland game bird that often causes humiliation.  He fly fished the San Miguel river, and loved it.  One night he returned home, to discover a black bear in his kitchen, who had an arm load of ice cream, and a look of joy, like a child, caught with too much candy in his fists.  Norman got mad, chased the bear out into the Ski Ranch night, and fired several rounds of his shotgun into the sky.  Now he would have to drive 6 miles to Telluride to replenish his favorite ice cream.
     Norman has a series of medals for his duties as a soldier. The number of metals is astounding including three Silver Stars for Bravery.  He also was honored in France as an honorary First-Class Private in the French Foreign Legion. 
     Norman had crawled on his belly in a mine field in Vietnam, to rescue a wounded soldier, and led an entire group through his tracks out of danger.  He received a special medal, his third Silver Star for bravery for that brave action.  He has an Elementary School named after him in Lutz Florida.
     Stormin Norman brought the Kuwait ground war to a close in just four days, a record in the history of warfare.
     In Vietnam he implemented strict rules for his soldiers.  He told his men later, "When you get on that plane to go home, if the last thing you think about is "I hate that son of a bitch", then that is fine because you are going home alive."
     Madonna paid a special tribute to the General, during the 1990 Oscars ceremony.  When she performed the Academy Award winning song "Sooner or Later, I Always Get My Man" from the movie Dick Tracy, she added the line, "Talk to me General Schwarzkopf, tell me all about it."  Her performance was homage to Marilyn Monroe and saluting the general was reminiscent of the 1950's when Marilyn Monroe paid her respects to General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
     General Norman Schwarzkopf was an amazing soldier, and a true and real human being.  The folks in Telluride were lucky to have him there, chasing off ice cream eating bears and honoring the local vets.  He is truly and in real life "The Bear", the legend, the General.

THE JAZZ GODS, MILES DAVIS, JOHN COLTRANE, THELONIOUS MONK, SONNY ROLLINS, GONE, BUT STILL HERE, THEIR SOUND IS STILL HERE

Birdman was sitting in 1962 in the front row at the Village Vanguard, Greenwich Village, NYC.  A black cat slowly moved into the spot light, like a jaguar stalking a deer in British Honduras.  It was Miles Davis, dressed in an immaculate French suit, handsome, his golden horn sparkling in the blue and red light.  He turned around and started blowing Kind of Blue, a chill went through the body of Birdman, he was awed and overcome by the sound, the man, the rhythm, the music.  Later on in the decade of the 60's,  he again saw the legend, Miles Davis at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco.  Davis played from his Sketches of Spain,  and the same feeling took over the soul of Birdman. The audience gasped with disbelief.   It was if a god of music had descended from the Elysium, to blow out the unbelievable sounds into the night of San Francisco,  and the Universe above. 
       "Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes."  Walt Whitman, American Poet
       Miles Davis, sat in with his horn when he was 19, at a club in Kansas City with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.  He said in his book, "Miles" he knew at that moment, he had an epiphany of sound, with two of the greats of early bebop, and had to go to NYC, where he played as a young man on 52nd street, with Bird, and became the musician he was meant by the gods to be.
       Sonny Rollins was at his peak between 1956 and 1966.  He took two years off, playing as he strolled into the night from the Williamsburg Bridge, NYC.  He would trill at length, bark out phrases, slurs and distorted his line, harps on a couple of braying figures, and showed off a gloriously beating tone.  He would occasionally belch his horn, sounding like a lost mule.  He is the only survivor from the gods of jazz, and still plays at 85 years young.  He was recently interviewed on PBS, and asked if the great sounds of the legendary musicians were dead.  He answered, "No, they are still here, their sound is still here."  What a statement on the vision of immortality of the giants.  He said, "When I leave town, my sound will still be here."  He also played with Charlie Bird Parker, Davis and Coltrane in NYC.  Can you imagine the rush to the soul, hearing Rollins' horn from the Bridge, mixed with the night sounds of NYC.  Hopefully that music is still echoing in the Universe somewhere, maybe above Europa.  "All the bells that ever rang, still ringing in the dying rays of light," William Faulkner, novelist. 
       Birdman saw Thelonious Monk in 1962 at the Five Spot, NYC.   His eccentric dancing and walking around like a crazed Beat poet will never be forgotten.  He left a lot of space in his music, yet could be most effective when paired with busy-sounding saxophonists such as John Coltrane.  Opposites attract.  Birdman later on saw Monk play at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco.  These experiences were unique, most people today never saw these cool cats from the heyday of Bebop and Cool Jazz.  It was if Birdman had seen Bach play in person, in a previous life, in the old days of Europe.  After Monk finished at the club he spun around in a rhythmic, weird dance, and exclaimed, "All ways know, always know, always night."
       John Coltrane's briefer stay on the planet earth, showered people and the planet with sheets of sound.  He played with explosive improvisations, expressive energy, and once mesmerized an audience with his saxophone, playing "My Favorite Things" for 45 minutes, non stop, in a club.  Coltrane could blow seven notes squeezed into the space of a beat or two.  He played at the Five Spot Cafe,  East Village NYC, for 7 months with Monk.  Monk didn't mind Coltrane playing so many notes, as long as his improvisations developed out of or illuminated the source material.  He left town to play the big saxophone in the sky, at a young age.   John Coltrane was a beat poet, whose sheets of sound echoed around Greenwich Village for 6 years, playing with Monk and Miles Davis.  He favored cascading waterfalls of notes.  He created a musical revolution.  The major outgrowth of his free jazz tended to represent an outgrowth of the bohemians, and angry young men of the 50's, and the Beat poets and writers. 
       Jazz critic Frank Kofsky took this view further, asserting that the free jazz movement represented nothing less than a vote of "no confidence" in Western Civilization and the American Dream.  Kofsky wrote in John Coltrane for vice president in his ballot of 1964.  Coltrane studied music at a school for years in Philadelphia and also studied philosophy.  He was a quiet, serious musician who lived music 24 hours a day, according to his mother.
       If any single sound signifies jazz it is Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, with a Harmon mute.  Kind of Blue is the most famous and most analyzed jazz album in history.  It is listened to over and over again by students of jazz, and people who do not even listen to much jazz. It sold over 62 million albums and CD's, a record in the history of music.  His "Sketches of Spain" still echoes in the soul of most aficionados of jazz.  As Rollins said recently, his music is still here, even though Miles is gone, his music is here forever. 
       What is the future of jazz?  Nobody knows.  It had a breath of fresh air in the 70's at the Keystone Korner Club in North Beach San Francisco.  Today jazz is played at a few surviving clubs in NYC, Chicago, and New Orleans, and at festivals around the US, most notably the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival held each spring in the Big Easy.  It may take a young musician, sent by the Gods, with extraordinary feeling and talent, to walk the Williamsburg Bridge at night, and blow his horn amidst the sounds of the City. 
       Jazz sounds are still beaming and echoing out into the Universe. 
      

LIFE, THE BIG VANISH, THE BIG DISAPPEARANCE, COMETS PASSING

Enrico Fermi, the renowned physicist exclaimed "Where is everybody?" He was referring to the fact that no life has been detected in the Universe after hundreds of years and thousands of people searching.  On this planet many people have an epiphany when they notice that, like comets, events, eras, people, friends, money, movie legends, presidents, athletes on the radar screen, dogs, bank robbers, seasons, gorgeous women, time itself, is in a constant mode of things and people drifting over the horizon, or vanish like a large flash of light, an arcane event.  To many this is disconcerting, they weep over the end of fall or miss an old friend.  To some like George Carlin, the comedian, things passing is great and a giant joke, like when an annoying, crazy uncle leaves.  To others like Joey who cried out in the western movie Shane, across a mountain valley, to Allen Ladd as he rode away for good on his horse, "Shane, come back, come back Shane."  That had to be one of the saddest moments in the boys life, and a very sad and touching scene in western movie history.  The scene gripped the audience to the core of emotion, even when watched to this day, years later; the tears of a young boy in the West and the final farewell of a cowboy he loved.  If you believe like the American Indians, who thought that nature and life was a circle, and all things and people return, there remains hope, and even in passing you go to the Happy Hunting Grounds.  In New Orleans when a jazz musician passes, they shouted at his musical, loud funeral, "He left town."  The past 4 years millions of people who sparkled in their communities like a comet, have left town to greener pastures, on a new, long, dusty trail.  The American Dream itself may have vanished.  It has been a major exodus especially from ski towns that saw the end of their Gold Rush years.  Does John Steinbecks "Grapes of Wrath" come to mind?  "...all the bells that ever rang still ringing in the long dying rays of light."  William Faulkner.  The Khazars, a warrior tribe in the Caucasus, said their prayers by weeping.  Their sadness over a life that vanishes is expressed in prayer.  Then, suddenly they vanished, as a tribe, wiped out by other warrior tribal nations, with almost no archeological sign of their existence, by the Black Sea.  "Ships that pass in the night, and speak to each other in passing, only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness; so on the ocean of life we pass and speak, then darkness again and a silence."  Longfellow   "Hast thou never seen the comet's flaming flight?  The illustrious stranger passing, terror sheds on gazing nations from his fiery train of length enormous ; takes his ample round through depths of ether; coasts unnumbered  worlds of more than solar glory; doubles wide, Heavens mighty cape; and then revisits earth from the long  travel of a thousand years."  Edward Young "Night Thoughts"

CITIGROUP-FEDERAL JUDGE JED RAKOFF-SEC ENABLING-REAL PUNISHMENT?-RISK OF ANOTHER FINANCIAL MELTDOWN-FRAUD AGAINST INVESTORS

      The Securities and Exchange Commission and Congress' incompetence has put the nation again at risk of another financial meltdown.  No-admit/no-deny settlements are no real deterrent to future bad behavior.  The banks love this policy since by not admitting fraud, they cannot be sued by thousands of investors, who have lost millions of dollars.  The same old story, when Wachovia and Wells Fargo paid a slap-on the wrist fine for holding cartel money, repeatedly, and the question remains, where is the cash from drug money being laundered today?  The best guess from the US Treasury Department, is that it is going to European banks, who desperately need the money. 
      The new case that may be litigated in July of 2012, developed when Citigroup allegedly defrauded investors when it had not adequately disclosed to investors its role and interest in creating and selling-and betting against-a mortgage-backed investment that was intended to fail.  When the investment tanked, the bank made $160 million, according to the SEC, while investors lost $700 million.
      Judge Rakoff said that his understanding of the matter indicated that a tougher charge of knowing or intentional fraud was indicated.
      SEC chairman Mary Schapiro is pressing for larger penalties, and is asking Congress to pass laws that would allow the SEC to impose fines up to nine times greater than the maximum currently allowed by U.S. law.
      If the proposed new law would have been applied in the Citigroup case, the maximum penalty would jump to $1.44 billion from $160 million.
      Many Republicans and some Democrats are resisting the new proposed law, giving the SEC more powers.  The main question is whether the larger fines would deter illegal behavior.  The admission of wrongdoing would be an investment banks worst nightmare, opening them up to monstrous litigation and law suits from individuals and parties who had lost a large amount of money.  The lobbyists are already driving up to Congress getting ready for this dramatic change in the law.
      A new law that makes fraud on the American people by banks, a major crime, with monstrous penalties, may save the nation from another bank meltdown, and the disastrous Category V Hurricane, that has made the lives of a great number of people on the verge of a collapse, and permanent poverty.  Teddy Roosevelt warned the nation in a 1903 speech, that prosperity in America could only be sustained by the conduct of the larger banks with the following requirements:  a legitimate business practice, fair and honest dealings with the public, no wild speculation, and a disciplined adherence to established conservative rules.  Maybe Federal District Judge Jed S. Rakoff, who has the courage to tackle this deal between the SEC and Citigroup bank, maybe he read the history books that detailed the Roosevelt presidency.
      The policy of small fines for banks, no individual liability of bankers, and extraordinary fraud from 2000 to 2011, would be eliminated by Judge Rakoff's successful ruling and victory in July of 2012.  If he loses, and Congress doesn't have the courage to act on stiffer laws, the recession may never end.
     

JON CORZINE-CASINO CAPITALIST-DEBT AND GAMBLING ADDICT-LOSE OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY-JUDAS DUCK AT GOLDMAN SACHS AND MF GLOBAL-TELLURIDE LAND INVESTOR-BUY HIGH, SELL LOW

      Jon Corzine is the essence of what is wrong in America, the immoral culture on Wall Street, the Street of Shame.  He represents the hubris in national politics, addiction to credit and debt.  Corzine represents the cowboy gambler in finance, who bet the firm on one slot on the roulette disk, and the ball in the largest Casino in the world, Wall Street, the ball fell in the wrong hole, $6.2 Billion in one miserable hole, a black hole.
      His father on his small farm where Jon grew up in Illinois abhorred debt, survived the great depression, as a hard working farmer, a legitimate businessman.  His son built a career on debt.
      As CEO of Goldman Sachs, Jon Corzine lost about $150 million on trades, then unwound the loss by brokering other deals.  One of his colleagues at Goldman (Noguchi) said Corzine managed Goldman through 1994 when massive losses and defections threatened its existence.  He backed a risky bailout of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management.  He was ousted from Goldman by a coup, and the firm was rescued from his cowboy capitalism.  Corzine was not rational, he was not systematic, nor a quantitative analyst and trader.  He winged it with other peoples money, dangerous to the firm, and to the public who invested in the firm.
      Dan Neidich worked at Goldman Sachs for 26 years.  He says, "What motivates Corzine is neither money nor ego.  Mr. Corzine's real problem is he is addicted to gambling.  The whole industry has proven to be unethical."
      Where is the $1.2 Billion that is missing from MF Global?  Suspicious wire transfers before the bankruptcy filing? Yes, is the money in Switzerland, in Latvian banks?  200 FBI agents do not know yet.  Several hundred FBI agents and hundreds of government investigators are looking for it.
      To make a $6.2 Billion long bet on euro zone sovereign debt, you would need ego and hubris, as well as lust for the greenback, right out of a Mark Twain novel.  Neidich's statement sounds like pure cronyism, to protect Corzine, without knowing any of the facts of MF Global's bankruptcy meltdown.
      Corzine spent several hundred million$ to get elected to the US Senate, as well as governor of New Jersey.  His biggest bonehead move as governor, besides being a "yes man" to lobbyists from the world of finance, was allowing his state trooper driver to hit 90 mph, on a public highway, endangering the citizens of New Jersey, and he failed to wear a seat belt.  He was the top cop of New Jersey and should have arrested himself as well as the trooper for violating state law.  He could have saved himself from horrific injuries and the troopers well being and reputation.  Are you above the law if you are the governor?
      If Jon Corzine had listened to Kyle Bass from Hayman Capital, in Dallas Texas, he could have avoided his dumb bet.  Bass' hedge fund made a massive wager against the subprime mortgage bond market.  His wager paid off large.  He said at the time, "The financial crisis wasn't over.  It was simply being smothered by the full faith and credit of rich western governments."  That is exactly where Corzine was wrong.  He thought the western governments would not let European central banks and governments fail, so he bet long on euro zone sovereign debt.  The debt went the opposite direction.  Had he ever heard of diversification?  He was a small town banker a long time ago, and didn't pay attention to that common advice. 
      Jim Rogers a successful commodities investor said after the MF Global bankruptcy filing, "My how the mighty are fallen, it is inconceivable to me he would do this after Refco.  He has referred to himself as a recidivist banker." 
      Many power brokers in Washington and Wall Street, said he was vying for Secretary of the Treasury.  Vice President Joe Biden called Corzine once a week for advice during the US meltdown crisis.  God help us!! No wonder were still in this permanent Category V financial hurricane.
      Jon Corzine also speculated millions in Telluride Ski Area real estate.  According to LandMan, he paid $53,000 per acre on approximately 500 acres at West Meadows, across from the ski area entrance to the Mountain Village.  This was documented at the San Miguel County courthouse records.  Joe Zoline, the original developer of the ski area, had paid $225 per acre for the same land.  That's a 235 bagger.  Corzine alienated the public in Telluride by spending 3 years to get the land subdivided.  He marred one of the most pristine views of the Wilson Range, in the region.  The land was pastureland, not a tree in sight, lousy for development.  He should have created a conservation easement on the land, and planted thousands of native trees, and downzoned to one home per five hundred acres, hidden from view.  He had paid too much, a foolish offer, for the land, and made the Zoline family very wealthy.  Then he paid way too much for 2200 acres on Specie Mesa, built a road to the ranch at a cost of over $2million, and  listed the ranch for $42million.  He never sold one acre on Specie Mesa.  The ranch according to LandMan was never worth more than $7 million, if that.  It had marginal access, no access to the pristine National Forest land on Little Cone mountain, and should also have been turned into a conservation easement, which would have allowed huge tax benefits, and kept the mesa pristine like the last of the real cowboys, Clyde Duroy, envisioned in his late 80's. 
      Corzine's clients at MF Global lost hundreds of millions of their money, several thousand investors.  His friend who hired him at MF Global immediately lost $50 million with the bankruptcy filing.  "What happened to MF Global on Corzine's watch was not just incompetence.  It was spectacular recklessness", Henry Blodget writes.  He writes that it was like running a 747 jet filled with people straight at the side of a mountain and hoping that, just before you smash into it, the prevailing winds will shift and enable you to pull up.  Corzine knew the mountain was there.
      Jon Corzine will have an honored place, a statue as The Judas Duck of the Century, at the lake in North Platte Nebraska, along with the other jerks.  He may end up working at the laundry at Sing Sing prison in New York state.  Why aren't there other Judas Ducks from the Street of Shame, working in the laundry?  The jury is out on this mess caused by a Judas Duck financial nitwit, Jon Corzine.