The Housing Bubble

Sometimes it takes a pull from a jet-ski to catch a big wave. Otherwise you’re just bobbing in the giant swells going nowhere.

“In my neck of the woods rentals are pricey and vacancies are low.”

Me too.

Same here.

I see more families with kids in my apartment. The landlord just converted a open space to kids’ playground and expanded pool and made it kids friendly.

In my neck of the woods rentals are pricey and vacancies are low.”

same here

Me too, rents are high, hard to find good places in Central Coast of CA.

Rent is too damn high, and rising, here in Portland as well.

#2. The cost of maintenance and replacements “particularly” if
they have no skill set to preform some of those tasks
themselves…”

so it probably won’t get done house slowly turns to a junker. Pottersville.

I have a friend who has made millions repairing tubs and sinks in apartments , he patches and paints them.
He has a big crew that does the work now for him.

how many coats of paint can you put on a tub or sink to cover the rust before it falls apart?

how many coats of paint can you put on a tub or sink to cover the rust before it falls apart ??

Zero…You don’t put paint on Tubs or Sinks and if you do, refer back to my #2 above…

I have seen everything from ceramic tile painted, to tubs and sinks. Nasty, but they do it to fool the fools.

oh, you think it will get that bad….

then back to ammo, water and seeds.

oh, you think it will get that bad….

My suspicion is that it will _not_ get that bad, actually—for several reasons:

1) We have a much deeper social safety net. In GD-I, people were literally desperate enough to stand in soup and bread lines, and now they have SNAP and Unemployment.

2) Many of the actions taken to extend and pretend have cushioned the blow to some extend, but at the cost of extending the duration.

So I expect things not to be nearly as bad, but for the malinvestment to take quite some time to be wrung from the system.

Why don’t you give us a date? Give yourself a big safety margin over when you think it really will happen. Describe how you think it will pay out - exchange of state bonds for federal ones? something else? And I will put a note in my calendar and we can revisit the issue at that time. You know, instead of you making entirely unspecified predictions of entirely unspecified actions at entirely unspecified times.

“You know, instead of you making entirely unspecified predictions of entirely unspecified actions at entirely unspecified times.”

Oh, let him have his fun. It’s amusing to watch neo-cons froth at the mouth.

Then the feds will imposes drastic reductions of pensions and health benefits to balance out the costs

So why cant unions step up to the plate and do this themselves?? Eliminate the abuses, and the public will be on your side.

Bailouts for both states will be coming soon enough.

California is the uncle that always cries “poor”, yet has 30 gold bricks buried in his backyard that he chooses to leave there.

I seem to recall reading that if CA taxed oil production the same way Alaska did, it would generate many billions per year in revenue.

Also, CA has the Monterey Shale Oil field (estimated 15 billion barrels of “technically” recoverable oil…whatever that means–sounds like a lot). The problem is beaurocracy. Jerry Brown needed to replace the head of California’s Department of Conservation due to unreasonable delays in their permitting process…must have been REALLY bad if Jerry Brown getting involved improves things.

Unlike Greece (Spain I think is a bit better off than Greece), California actually has the capacity to solve their problems, if they simply had the political will to do so.

California is the uncle that always cries “poor”, yet has 30 gold bricks buried in his backyard that he chooses to leave there.

yea I think you’re right lots of oil plus. It leaks out of the ground in many areas around here. Hwy 156 between Santa Paula and Ojai is one place I know of.

New pumps are going in I have seen 2 in the last 2 years and I’m not really looking.

“So why cant unions step up to the plate and do this themselves?? Eliminate the abuses, and the public will be on your side.”

Unions went ape s**t in WI when Walker told them to contribute 8% of their health care costs. Don’t hold your breath waiting for this to happen.

I’d add Alabama to the list of states going bankrupt. A county there has actually gone bankrupt.

“CA has the Monterey Shale Oil field (estimated 15 billion barrels of “technically” recoverable oil…whatever that means–sounds like a lot).”

Technically recoverable oil does not take into account the price of extraction in dollar and, more importantly for shale oil extraction in dry areas, water costs.

Although 15 bbl might sound like a lot of oil, it’s about two years supply for the US (at 20 million bbl/day). We use quite a bit of the stuff, much of it needlessly.

“Unions went ape s**t in WI when Walker told them to contribute 8% of their health care costs. “

Rewriting history? Unions protested when Walker eliminated collective bargaining rights.

I thought the unions had already offered concessions to Walker and that wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to break the unions entirely.

As for HBB’s favorite union whipping buyz: police and firefighters. Well, Walked exempted them from the unio-busting.

What a laugh.

PUBLIC unions STILL have collective bargaining rights in WI.

It is just NOW people can CHOOSE not to join the public union goon mafia as a CONDITION of employment. And the state DOES NOT take out union dues anymore. The PUBLIC union goons have to collect those dues all by themselves.

And the public union goons have to pay a little more for thier healthcare and pensions.

THE HUMANITY OF IT ALL!

Go ahead and spin the PUBLIC union goon talking points.

It is kinda of funny - really.

The PUBLIC union goons can’t defend insane benefits/ pensions. The PUBLIC union goons can’t defend their corrupt lock on political power. The PUBLIC union goons can’t defend bankrupting cities and the state. So what do they do?

They cry that they are losing their “collective bargaining rights” when it is a lie.

Cause that sounds like something the public may support…

Unions protested when Walker eliminated collective bargaining rights.

Are Smithers and 2banana a Repugnican troll tag team?

I figured Smithers was hard core “Log Cabin” like the cartoon character.

Are Smithers and 2banana a Repugnican troll tag team?

I think so. And all I can say is that if this is the best that Team Elephant can do, they’ve got a problem.

And he still hasn’t said when his predicted bailout will take place and what form it will take. We are just supposed to “take his word” on it.

“I figured Smithers was hard core “Log Cabin” like the cartoon character.”

That thought crossed my mind, an odd choice of handle name for a neo-con, unless like his namesake he too finds Mr.Burns to be irresistible.

It is just NOW people can CHOOSE not to join the public union goon mafia as a CONDITION of employment.

The one time in my working-life that I was unable to choose not to join a union (in WI, incidentally, when I was a grad student—yes, even the grad students are unionized in WI), I was rather unhappy about it. I didn’t see any point in paying union staff for essentially providing no service; the grad-student wages certainly didn’t suggest that they were winning big for us!

My brother helped with the grad school organizing when he was getting his Phd. They weren’t mostly concerned about pay. The biggest problem was the health insurance. One of his friends was denied coverage for an ambulance ride when she had a compound fracture of the femur. Yes, you read that right. Her thigh bone was snapped in half and at least one end was poking though the skin to the outside and they didn’t think that was sufficient injury to call 911. Expected her to get herself to the hospital somehow. Perhaps by hopping.

It was a real problem because a lot of the foreign grad students had wives and kids and their wives didn’t have visas that allowed them to work, so no family coverage that way. They just wanted to be allowed to elect the employee coverage, rather than the coverage aimed at 18 to 22 year olds who were still really covered by their parents’ policies but got the university coverage too so they didn’t have to deal with forms at the student health clinic.

“Log Cabin”

Speaking thereof, what, if anything, is Romney doing to court the Log Cabin Republican vote?

Smithers & 2banana, please weigh in generously, as I eagerly await the news on this subject from your Republican party masters.

I understand the LCR have been excluded from major ‘conservative’ conferences this year, after having been included for many years. The Republicans are on a path that shuns one group after another to the point where they have a long litmus test list, IMO, that if you don’t agree, you’re out.

You gotta be a neo-con. No exceptions. No gays, no small government types, no cutting the military. Killing A-rabs and other Muslims is a duty. Israel can do no wrong. No questioning of the police state.

Here’s a weird one; we’re on the brink of going Greece, but Merika is THE exceptional nation. Somehow they have reconciled this gawd-given greatness with our imminent downfall should the Democrats not be swept from DC.

A big tent indeed. No wonder they are the incredible shrinking party. Here’s a political observation; the Citizen United thing, with the super-PACs, screwed the GOP more than anyone else.

Meanwhile the percentage of non-religious Americans increases every year. An estimated 25% of people between 18 and 34 do not give a hoot about religion. In another generation there will be no more pandering to the religion-nuts. Thank Buddha!

“…instead of you making entirely unspecified predictions of entirely unspecified actions at entirely unspecified times.”

Why not take the unfalsifiable approach to prediction? Nobody can ever laugh at you if you make a prediction which can’t possibly not come true.

“The Republicans are on a path that shuns one group after another to the point where they have a long litmus test list, IMO, that if you don’t agree, you’re out.”

Sounds like they are going Mormon.

My brother helped with the grad school organizing when he was getting his Phd. They weren’t mostly concerned about pay. The biggest problem was the health insurance.

That makes good sense, polly. My bad.

I was really glad about the medical insurance that the UW system provided, and didn’t realize that that had been hard-fought for by the union.

I guess I did benefit from their efforts, including your brother’s.

Somewhere in the Columbia River Gorge or Yakima Valley. Not sure of exact location. He thinks what with the area being deemed a viticultural area that his presence is needed in the game, even though that was years ago and it’s already pretty mature in that area.

Just last month, my wife and I were tasting in the Willamette Valley and several of the winemakers we chatted with were complaining about all the nouveau vineyards and wineries popping up.

I think he just wants to be able to tell everyone he has a vineyard. I’ve NEVER even seen him drink wine. He’s a beer guy.

and several of the winemakers we chatted with were complaining about all the nouveau vineyards and wineries popping up.

Yeah, there are an amazing number of them that have sprouted up in recent years…

From what I understand, sales are starting to pick up a smidge on the higher-end, after taking a bit of a shellacing in the downturn.

Personally, I expected more of a shake-out in the space, with the more heavily leveraged small wineries going bust. Haven’t really seen it yet, though. Oh well, can’t guess ‘em all right.

I think, other than rental houses, as discussed earlier in this bucket, people are looking for that annuity to retire on. It’s causing a glut in those areas.

If there’s a good business case, I say go for it. But as I noted, (that you might not have seen since we posted at the same time), this guy has zero experience in the area and isn’t even a consumer of wine. I think he’s succumbed to a trendy image more than anything.

I think he just wants to be able to tell everyone he has a vineyard.

Priceless.

The wine business will likely eat this guy for lunch… You know the old saying about the best way to make a small fortune in the wine business…

“I’m an amateur winemaker”

Box it up and I’ll buy it!

You’ll get no snobbery from me, Muggy; the box is not a bad packaging, even if it doesn’t get the nod of approval from the establishment yet.

It is kind of mind-blowing that we still seal our bottles up with a chunk of _tree_!

Just for the record, the cork comes from the outer layer of bark and is renewable. When we lived in Portugal we saw the trees, they strip the bark, then paint the tree and put a number on it (I think the year) and then repeat when the bark has grown back to the right thickness. So it doesn’t kill the tree at least.

The Portuguese are concerned about the trend toward screw caps on wine bottles, worried that it will mean the decline and fall of their cork business. Someone is always unhappy about something in this world.

Federal and State governments are doing everything in their power to make the old fashioned way difficult, expensive, and time consuming because after all they are all victims.

“Federal and State governments are doing everything in their power to make the old fashioned way difficult”

See, this is where the circle jerk is completed. The State/Fed entities are kicking the can down the road, too, because they are most likely still getting paid their taxes dollars.

The two abandoned homes around me do not have delinquent taxes. Nobody wins by looking behind the curtain, all at once, all at the same time.

Lucky for me and my children this approach will effectively price us out for… for… for… for… for… for…forever.

Worse? NAR data shows that my children will grow up to be poor, color-blind, partially deaf, and possibly lose a kidney through renting.

You said it, I didn’t!

The position of the Catholic Church in these matters is almost laughable. They have no problem taking federal money for schools, medical services, etc., but then cry foul when the goobermin tells them what to do, bloviating about “separation of Church and state”. Really? Don’t take the money, then.

At one time there was no income tax in America (for almost 140 years).

Now the average joe pays almost HALF his wages in some kind of tax.

How about we give some money back to them so the PARENTS can make the choice of where to send their kids to schools?

Oh - that’s right. Liberals are all for CHOICE - but only when it comes to aborting a baby. ALL other decision are better left to the government.

It is almost comical. The government takes more and more of a person’s money and force those people to become dependent on government. Never does it dawn on them to take LESS money.

Really? Don’t take the money, then.

The Catholics have to obey the laws of the land just like everybody else. The rest of us should support their rights to otherwise act according to their beliefs. The Feds like to play the bully, going beyond what is law often, using the flow of money as a big stick. Personally, I think it’s ridiculous to insist that the nuns hand out condoms with every free school lunch. JMO.

I don’t disagree with you, but they shouldn’t take the money if they don’t want to hand out condoms with free school lunches.

“Personally, I think it’s ridiculous to insist that the nuns hand out condoms with every free school lunch. JMO.”

Since no one has insisted on that, I guess it is a good that you got your opinion out there. What about addressing something that actually happened?

“Personally, I think it’s ridiculous to insist that the nuns hand out condoms with every free school lunch.”

Since they don’t hand out condoms with the free school lunches at the PUBLIC high school where my kids went, I don’t see why they would have to hand them out in Parochial schools.

That said, K-12 Parochial programs don’t get any government funding, unlike Universities. The thing about most Catholic Universities, unlike K-12 schools, they are not Church property. Technically, Parochial Schools are owned by the local Diocese. Universities are not. Most have ties to religious orders, which in many cases are tenuous. For instance, none of the board members at my alma mater are Priests or Nuns.

And they force your kids to speak ENGLISH when they walk in the door.

Not just English… French as well. French lessons start at Kindergarten in my children’s school.

Sad you kids wont learn Ebonics…its the new normal language

—-French lessons start at Kindergarten in my children’s school.

Sad you kids wont learn Ebonics…its the new normal language

Ummm, deejay, I think it’s time to cut the race-baiting out. Seriously.

You’ve told us that you work in radio, which is a very diverse field. Which means that you’d be well served by learning to get along with all sorts of different people, from the guy who does the hip-hop show to the lady who’s been hosting the gospel show for decades. Not to mention the Latino/bilingual public affairs show producers.

Just for the record, sc, my stepson had both nose ring AND purple hair, was elected student body president, and graduated from an Ivy then went on to get his MD.

Lost the mohawk and nose ring, but has now has full body tats to go with his specialty board certifications. Just sayin’.

Just for the record, sc, my stepson had both nose ring AND purple hair, was elected student body president, and graduated from an Ivy then went on to get his MD ??

The exception or the rule here my lady ??

Besides, the metaphor was used to make the point that in the program I watched there was obviously no open policy to how you dressed or looked vs. the anything goes in our public schools…There were rules…Simular to most if not all private schools…Hell, if you can get the kids to follow the damm rules you are likely 99% of the way to a productive citizen…

Just for the record, sc, my stepson had both nose ring AND purple hair, was elected student body president, and graduated from an Ivy then went on to get his MD.

Lost the mohawk and nose ring, but has now has full body tats to go with his specialty board certifications. Just sayin’.

A couple of weekends ago, I was part of the volunteer crew that organized the grand re-opening of the city pool in the park at the end of the street.

The Tucson Fire Department came with a ladder truck, and oh, was that a big hit with the kids. One of the firefighters was, shall we say, quite well acquainted with tattoo parlors.

There was a time when such a guy probably wouldn’t have been considered fit for duty as a firefighter. But not now.

Listening to him talk to the kids about his job was all that was needed to dispel any doubts. This guy’s a professional firefighter through and through, and I’m glad to have him serving us in Tucson.

It’s gonna be a wierd world when you see people in corporate offices with face tattoos.

It’s gonna be a wierd world when you see people in corporate offices with face tattoos.

Bet we’ll get there eventually…

We won’t get there. The “Dress For Success” lessons about classic attire commanding respect is going to always win. No way would anyone respect a tattooed face popped out of the neck of a classic suit.

Overly tattooed people are worse than the punks of the early 80s with spiked rooster tail Mohawks and piercings. Because tattoos may just as well be permanent.

Permanent low man on the totem pole status. Like a felony, but worse!

Subsidies from low-income students can come from the fees of other parents/children.

Why should non-low-income parents subsidize the education of low-income students any more than you should? They didn’t choose to have _those_ kids, only their own. That position seems disingenuous, drumminj.

Personally, I think there is societal value in an educated populace; in other words, we all benefit, so we all pay.

There is a certain logic to that, but I think we’re better off as a society to pay to give the poor an opportunity for a decent education. I think we should be much quicker to kick out the troublemakers, though. It’s not fair to the ones that are trying to have to do it in a jailhouse environment. Also not fair to make teachers do the work of wardens.

Why should non-low-income parents subsidize the education of low-income students any more than you should? They didn’t choose to have _those_ kids, only their own. That position seems disingenuous, drumminj.

There’s already a precedent for this type of approach - if I have a phone line, I subsidize phone service for low-income folks. Same with other utilities - other customers pay a fee to subsidize the lower-income customers. Why is it disingenuous to suggest such an approach for government schools?

I don’t disagree there’s value in an educated populace. However at what cost to folks like me, without children? I really don’t believe it’s proper/right/moral for one group of people to be able to vote for the government to take money from another group and put it in their own pockets.

Are you willing to pledge to never use services provided by people with public educations? Go to a special line in the supermarket that can’t be staffed with people who went to public school? Never use a doctor who went to a public school? Or pay some kind of other extra tax so that your share of the public education of members of the military can be covered? No? Well, you benefit from public education every single day of your life. We happen to allocate that cost (direct benefit is too burdensome to trace) by having you pay property taxes to educate the people who are children while you own property (and a bit of state and federal income tax). The benefit of educating childen goes to the child and the people who have to share a society with that child, not just to the parents of that child.

Are you willing to pledge to never use services provided by people with public educations? Go to a special line in the supermarket that can’t be staffed with people who went to public school?

That’s a ridiculous argument, Polly. They are being paid for their service — I’m paying for the products. There’s no distinction to be made here regarding public schooling vs private. Should folks have to pay MORE if it’s staffed by someone who was schooled privately?!

Yes they are being paid for their services. But they can only provide those services because of the public education they received. If you decline to help educate the current crop of kids (the way society currently decides to maintain an educated populace) then you should have to pay something for taking advantage of the education that society has provided for the publicly educated people you interact with on a daily basis. Otherwise you are a free rider on the system.

Stop thinking about public education as a benefit to the parents by realizing that we are all dependent on living in a society filled with educated people of all ages, and it becomes obvious.

Polly,

Seems like a great issue to leave to the states to decide. No reason the feds have to get involved.

Where is that Lew Rockwell link again? Polly conveniently ignored it the first time…

Ah!

http://lewrockwell.com/vance/vance279.html

Drumminj, you are correct!

If you decline to help educate the current crop of kids (the way society currently decides to maintain an educated populace) then you should have to pay something for taking advantage of the education that society has provided for the publicly educated people you interact with on a daily basis.

I disagree with your line of argument, but let’s accept it for a moment.

It naturally follows, then, that one should pay more when provided a service by or purchasing a product designed/manufactured/delivered by someone who’s parents paid for a private education, yes? And if one went to private university rather than public, same thing?

And new immigrants - legal and illegal - should pay more as well, as they’ve not contributed, right?

And the folks living in Sun City and other 55+ communities who don’t pay property taxes to the school district?

Are you beginning to see why your argument is ridiculous?

built in 1900, renovated in the 1970’s, and is a complete “living space” disaster ??

Funny but its the truth…Houses that age have the most dysfunctional living area’s you can imagine…How big is your cl;oset ??

Understood. I have always avoided the “handyman’s specials” (or as Realtors describe them: “needs TLC”) like the plague. Yet another reason why we fled California. Those were the only places we could afford there.

Those were the only places we could afford there.

Yep. Sounds exactly like us. Only difference is we’re stuck here if we want to raise kids with family around.

How big is your cl;oset ?

You have closets?!?

LOL….

Built in 1918 - master (originally 1BR) has 3′x3′ closet.

It was the only company in town that I could work in. Had to relocate as a temporary in the next city and brought my girlfriend with me - she was finished with her classes for her Phd and just had to follow up on her thesis and could do it in the next city. But I lost the stability. I could not go back to that corporation and it turned out that Phoenix was (in 2002) about to have a glut of engineers looking for work.

Still want to go back to that original company - not for the love of the management, but with a big pile of cash and be driving an Audi R8 with investment income higher than the annual income of managers two levels above me - that’s the only revenge I wanted.

I think I reacted to the lost decade at the very beginning of that decade without guessing it would be lost. I mean I really prospered because of living very cheap and dollar cost averaging in all asset classes outside of real estate. Gold and Series I savings bonds were my best places and if I could go back to 2001 I would have put every last penny in those areas.

“It seems like 40s is when you first look up and try to evaluate whether the prize you’re after is really what you want.”

BINGO. Took the words right out of my skull.

ask anyone whose adult working life has been framed by the dotcom bubble, 9/11, the housing bubble, and the Greater Depression of 2008-2020 how well it has worked out for them…

Stop. You’re depressing me…

The Arab Oil embargo, the rampant inflation of the 70s, outsourcing of the 80s and 90s, S&L debacle.

The Arab Oil embargo, the rampant inflation of the 70s, outsourcing of the 80s and 90s, S&L debacle.

I remember asking him how much he made when I was in middle school back in 1988. It was in the $50K range. Solidly middle class. Fastforward to now and I’m about the same age he was and I’m still not at what he made 25 years ago. Part of that is my choice of profession, but it still sucks to think about that.

70’s inflation worked out pretty well when they bought a house in the early part of the decade and sold it for much more in the latter part. And then sold that home in the late 80s for almost triple what they paid for it.

That only works out well if you are cashing out or down-sizing. If they bought a roughly equivalent or better home elsewhere, then those gains were all phantom, as the houses they were buying had inflated as well.

“All of that seemed to work out pretty well for my parents, who worked through all of that. 70’s inflation worked out pretty well when they bought a house in the early part of the decade”

Buying in the early 70s was key. By 1973, inflation took off and the ability to save at a rate that beat inflation declined. I suspect your folks were born before 1950. If they graduated in 1968, they had 5 years to save, unless they went to college.

I seem to recall reading that, once in the United States, more than a few sleeper cell members come to the realization that this country isn’t so bad after all. So, their terrorist aspirations, nod off and fall asleep.

I don’t know … my in-laws seem well heeled and medicare seems to pay for all their medical costs. They did opt for Kaiser or some other HMO as part of their medicare, I believe.

You’re confusing Medicare with Medicaid. Medicaid is welfare, and no you don’t get it if you still have significant assets. Did she end up at a nursing home? that will eat up the rest of someone’s assets for sure.

The only thing I can think of is you are confusing Medicare with Medicaid and health care with maintenance care.

If you are sick and have Medicare and a pretty good Medigap policy, pretty much all your health care expenses are taken care of.

But Medicare does not pay for long term nursing home care (it might pay for a short term stay while you are actually recovering from something). You have to pay for that yourself. Unless you have essentially no assets. Then you become “dual eligible” and Medicaid will pay long term nursing home care (assuming you can find a place that will accept the Medicaid reimbursement rate). If assets are only in a house, Medicaid might kick in earlier, but they put a lien on the house so that they get paid back when the second member of the couple dies or the house is sold.

Polly is correct. Wife’s gall bladder surgery and my arthritic joint clean-up (remove bone spur, dress edges of remaining cartilage) resulted in NO out of pocket as the medigap policy covered it.

When I hear of medicare-eligible people being saddled with big hospital and/or doctor bills I presume they have no medigap policy.

LTC is indeed a different situation.

I think Polly’s description nailed it in my family’s circumstance of LTC.

So many people do not get the Medicare/Medicaid distinction. They didn’t 20 years ago and they still don’t. Good luck reforming either.

They should have called Medicaid Free Sh#t or something.

I didn’t say it was illegal. I said it was evil. Lots of evil things are legal.

The other problem with it is that until people are wealthy and educated enough to have regular contact with a lawyer for planning purposes (not just OMG, something happened puroses) they don’t do it. It increases the wealth gap. Look, my grandfather did this level of planning. He then died without ever going into a nursing home, but he did it. I have had a lot of time to think about it. I don’t think my parents have done it just because I expect I would know about it if they had, but they have at least some long term care insurance.

One a scale from evil to angelic, where would you put purposefully bankrupting yourself so you can make the taxpayers pay for your long term care while your children get all your cash and assets? I don’t have a problem with taxpayers subsidizing real need and poverty. This is fake need and poverty and setting it up is evil.

Imagine if you had a baby and took 3 years off to be a mom

One of my mother’s friends did that. While her kids were still young and she wasn’t practicing law in a firm, she set up an office in her home. Call it mom’s home-based legal practice.

She also made a deal with her husband that Wednesday night would be her night down at the Penn law library. She wanted to keep up with developments in her areas of expertise. He arranged his schedule (he was a hospital physician) to accommodate her.

When she went back to work part-time, the law firm considered her work to be so good that they made her a partner. While she was part-time.

Her excellence was noticed by a certain Jimmy Carter. He nominated her to federal bench in 1978. She’s still there.

My sister-in-law took off one year for each of her kids. Her legal employer had no problem with that. It was, in fact, office policy to allow it.

I’m sorry you had that problem. Doesn’t change the fact that the 5 limit on Medicaid claw backs is terrible, fiscally and pretty much every other way I can think of.

Polly it may be terrible to you but its the only way some people will ever get an inheritance. Get the house live there for a lot less then renting

If you take that away then the next generation of 20-30 something will be hopeless…student debt no chance of SS being around and now no parents home to save $$ and try to regroup.

If you want to use public money to guarantee an inheritance to everyone in society, then go ahead and propose one. But doing it by letting older upper middle class adults with good estate attorneys to get around the rules and get the taxpayers to pay for their nursing home care is the WRONG way to do it.

to get around the rules

I don’t see why you call this “getting around the rules.”

They are optimizing their situation to the rules.

If you don’t like the outcome, how about we change the rules?

That seems preferable to me to calling people who engage in planning “evil”?

OK then the parents should die broke…Heloc the house at 85, will that make you feel better… spend it on trips to alaska, then when the big c comes I aint gotz no mooonnnnneeeyyy…

Polly i propose a win win solution, you no transfers and the get hospitals to put a lien on the house and I get a Dr Kevorkian type to end my life when I want, and no one gets sued or arrested.

Therefore…I can save on my death costs and pass on what i own to the rest of my living family…..OK?

If you want to use public money to guarantee an inheritance to everyone in society, then go ahead and propose one

“Palmy I see this a lot in NYC….I’ll bet yet they are Pakistanis Indians cubans, etc. who run or own the store where that kind of heat reminds them of the old country and are used to it.”

Well, mostly the big box stores are corporate, shareholder owned, and although I’m sure some of the shareholders may belong to the above ethnic groups, probably not in any number that would affect the temperature. I doubt they go to shareholder meetings and complain about the A/C costs and demand that the stores be climate controlled like back in the old country.

And what part of “defined benefit” do you yet-to-be-retired not understand?

You have been, or soon will have been, sold out.

And what part of “printing press technology” do you not understand?

There are 2 ways to renege on pension obligations. The straightforward bankruptcy or the inflation solution. I suspect both will happen before all is said and done.

I am also expecting that SS will be inflated away by the time I really need it in 25 years. And that most providers will not accept Medicare patients. Most of my generation will be dead by then, but I have a good chance of still being healthy at 85 - barring accidents, natural disasters, and acts of war.

If Medicare is replaced by vouchers for those now younger than 55, then Medicare will more quickly become worthless.

We will all be sold out.

And if people get the option of taking a $4K voucher to a private school, what do you want to bet the tuition would be close to $10K very, very quickly.

West metro Denver is covered in smoky haze. Squad colleague who lives in Fort Collins informs us it is much worse up there, but fires unlikely (as of yet) to move down from foothills into densely populated nabes…

I’m working at home today in Loveland. Lots of smoky haze today and from what I hear the fire is still out of control.

It was mild in Boulder but bad in Longmont this morning. Now the wind has shifted and everything is further north.

Well, stay safe, folks, please. If you have any respiratory issues, stay inside.

Having been through it here on a number of occasions, I’m praying for some rain (and lots of it) to come your way.

Uh … cuz everyone hates Americans? As a former ex-pat, I speak from experience. I NEVER advertised that I was a Gringo, which I got away with since I speak Spanish without an accent. To do so was to ask for trouble.

I remember an old AMEX commercial, where a couple in a foreign country has lot all their stuff.

Cabbie: Are you Americans?
Them: Yes
Cabbie: You have American Express?
Them: Yes
Cabbie: No problem, I take you there (to the AMEX office)

I always envisioned the cabbie taking them somewhere desolate and killing them.

Which promps the question; Why ?

A rhetorical question, I presume?

A rhetorical question, I presume ??

No…A serious one…America has came to the rescue in many ways over our recent history and still it seems we are so generally disliked…On the other hand, everyone wants to come here so whats up ?? Our interventionist ways ?? The worlds Bully ??

“On the other hand, everyone wants to come here so whats up ??”

It’s sort of a survival thing. The best way to preserve your arse, if you’re living in a place the US is crappin’ on, is to move to the place that’s doing the crappin’, rather than being one of the crappees.

It’s got nothing to do with adopting some American way of life, or God Bless the USA.

Most of the folks who want to come here at this time, are looking for the goodies. And maybe to get out from under drones and bombs. Period.

Most of the folks who want to come here at this time, are looking for the goodies. And maybe to get out from under drones and bombs. Period.

My mother’s grandfather came to this country because he could get paid better than he was in Canada, and before that, in Scotland.

My father’s grandfather came here because he was the youngest of nine children. And there was no work in County Cornwall after the British Empire started bringing cheaper tin in from Malaysia. Poof went the Cornish tin mining industry.

Today, Cornwall is one of the poorest counties in England.

Well, I don’t know what your forebears felt toward the US, but mine were very grateful for the opportunity and happy to adopt the US as their new home, assimilate and contribute.

I’m seeing some newer arrivals to this area that make the illegals from south of the border look like a bunch of cub scouts and charm school graduates. The surliness, resentment, nastiness and sense of entitlement is worse than I’ve ever seen it. Their treatment of some of the volunteers in this area is beyond disgusting.

On the other hand, everyone wants to come here so whats up ?? Our interventionist ways ?? The worlds Bully ??

I think you nailed it right there, but I’ll expand a bit on what you said:

We’re hated because we intervene all around the globe; this is perceived as bullying. Often the effects are not good: supporting horribly-repressive dictators because they do what we want; toppling actual democracies if we don’t like the elected leaders’ policies while saying we support democracy around the world; complicit in arm-twisting using IMF money to privatize needed things (like water!) in order to allow the financial rape by big business of countries with few resources; do I really need to continue? The list is long.

Yes, at times we have been the virtual saviors of the world (WW I & II). Much of the rest of the time we have treated the rest of the world rather badly.

I think people still want to come here because they distinguish between the policies of our government, and the fact that there is still much more opportunity available here for someone who is willing to work hard than there is for them in their home countries. Even if our class-mobility is much lower than in the past, I think they are still correct.

The people who ran the bed and breakfast I used at the theater festival in Canada would give me little Canadian Flag lapel pins. They recommended them for travelling in Europe to avoid the assumption that you are American.

Well, I don’t know what your forebears felt toward the US, but mine were very grateful for the opportunity and happy to adopt the US as their new home, assimilate and contribute.

Yup, mine learned English as quickly as possible and only spoke the mother tongue among their own generation. In one generation they were fully Americanized in the eyes of everyone but the KKK…who were so bored in Wyoming they had to settle for harassing Polish Catholics.

“They recommended them for travelling in Europe to avoid the assumption that you are American.”

Really? Europe? Admittedly I’ve only been to Germany, Poland, and Italy but I found all to be helpful and friendly and they could easily pick me out of a crowd.

Well, okay, maybe not the ferry boat operators on Lake Como but I partially won them over by at least trying to speak in my ancestors tongue, unlike the English-only speaking English tourists on one of my trips over the lake who they wouldn’t give the time of day to.

Good business saying: Underpromise and over-deliver. Would have served him better, I think. Really, he didn’t need to go much over the top to bury McCain. I would never have voted for him and still wouldn’t, I have a nasty habit now of doing the third party thing in pres elections. But I could almost be persuaded to vote Romney (barf) just to bring to an end the current gobbermint reign of terror. Jeebus, it’s scarier than Bush’s.

All Obama had was over the top hype. Without it he was a 1 term senator with the most liberal voting record in the senate. And this was at a time when Ted Kennedy was still in the senate mind you.

People voted for the hope and the change and the history. Had everything been said and done by Obama but he was a white dude named Ron Johnson, he would have been laughed off the stage. But he was the first (half) black president so everything he did was magic. And he couldn’t just turn it off midway through. He went all in. Remember he said himself that after the election the oceans would recede. How was McCain supposed to counter that?

“How was McCain supposed to counter that?”

Jeebus. He wasn’t, don’t you get it? By running McCain, the Pubes couldn’t have come up with a better way to elect Obama if they tried. McCain was a complete train wreck.

“May be it’s his ideology, or his naivety, or his arrogance he perpetuated and continues to perpetuate the beliefs that Government can fix things for the little people.”

+1 Obama’s administration is indeed arrogant while our congress has become venal serving the needs of the warmongering neo-cons who could care less about individual liberty.

McCain was a complete train wreck.

Let me fix that for you…

“Palin McCain was a complete train wreck.”

All set.

By running McCain, the Pubes couldn’t have come up with a better way to elect Obama if they tried. McCain was a complete train wreck.

Roger on the train wreck sentiment. We in Arizona have known this for a long time.

Yeah, and Palin was part of the train wreck.

I about had a heart attack when I read this am that McCain and Graham were teaming up to demand a special prosecutor look into that Stuxnet thing. I actually agreed with them. I scared myself.

read this am that McCain and Graham were teaming up to demand a special prosecutor look into that Stuxnet thing

Not sure what this is in regards to as I haven’t been following it closely. Is it the leak of the existence of Stuxnet as a sanctioned US cyber attack against Iran or that Stuxnet went awry and went global or that we attempted to covertly attack another sovereign nation’s sensitive computer systems that needs to be investigated?

It’s the leaks, LOL! That’s what they’re concerned about, LMAO!

You are rare. Do what you can in your own sphere of influence to help relieve the situation for them. You can influence others.

These kids have to have a chance at the same or better than the life I had.

BTW, last week here on the blog we spoke of Ray Bradbury and his visionary work. One of my fave stories by the master was the last one in The Martian Chronicles, entitled “October, 2006: The Million Year Picnic”. It still sends chills up my spine.

God bless the tough visionaries like Elon Musk. It will be because of men (and women) like him that future generations will escape this nasty little mudball and its foul (would-be) totalitarian stew, spread through the stars and flower in gardens of their own, unmolested by global elitists and their gulags.

And how I wish I could be there to see it, ridin’ that rocket in the sky like Randy Quaid in Independence Day, hurtling toward some derelict invading spacecraft full of elitists looking for another planet to screw.

What a way to go!

No comment to the above. You’ll just have to get your own Uncle Sugar gravy trough contracting gig and find out for yourself. And rest assured, dear taxpayer, no government computers or networks are used posting to the HBB, Ben’s IP logs will attest to that

“no government computers or networks are used posting to the HBB, Ben’s IP logs will attest to that”

Of course not. “Contracting” gets around that sort of thing. I’m sure the contractor’s computers or networks are used quite liberally. Or you can just log on from the old “home office” and have at it.

You may note that I don’t post - if I post - till late at night.

I work for a non-profit that exercises (statutory) oversight over government contracts, in large (ACAT I and II) hw and sw systems development programs. I am conversant in the Acquisitions Life Cycle (what proofs need to be proffered to justify continued funding) and in Systems Engineering (how well does your actual performance stack up, vis-a-vis your claims on paper).

I run the milestone reviews; I know approximately where the skeletons can be buried; I know what questions to ask; I now know enough to understand exactly where I am subject to being bull-sh*t; I have enough literacy to understand when a question is being ducked (albeit nicely, and with propriety); and, having grown up as a research scientist, I love hard data.

We like to think of ourselves as development partners. I will schedule a preview a month before the fact to advise my partners whether or not they are ready for prime time. I note that the previews are now standing room only. I’m not doing anything different than I was the day I started.

Checking the box (documentation-wise) does not always equate to a working system, on time and on budget.

I have a ton of respect for the technical and cost pressures the contractors are working under. Generally speaking, thinking things through before committing to build saves a ton of heartache down the line. Therefore, the solution to perceived jerking around is making sure the thing d*am well works before you build it on my dime.

Naturally, I have a bulls’ eye on my forehead. In the immortal words of Cody Lundin, Party On!

I actually like what I do. Being as I am working for the man, this is hard to admit.

In the immortal lyrics of Poison: “Pour that sugar on me!

Thanks taxpayers (LOOSERS). Pay for my vacation already…

In the immortal lyrics of Poison: “Pour that sugar on me!

No. Poison != Def Leppard and that != some :-).

Well, at least you didn’t get a bone-us, like companies such as Bain give.

It is called a push poll. They ask a series of leading questions and then announce the next day that X% of likely voters support [person/policy/whatever]. When I get those calls, I just answer the opposite of what they want to hear. It isn’t too hard to figure out. If you had just answered “no” to the pollster, you might have found out a little more about the what they were fishing for.

Cognitive dissonance?

“I totally understood the longing for golden sunshine and mild weather.”

Well, there it is. They get paid in sunshine!

Well, I got the yuk.