Bits Bucket for December 3, 2012
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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I fully expect the Plunge Protection Team to quell any and all volatility triggered by the Fiscal Cliff deliberation Sturm und Drang.
Cliff keeps investors jumpy
Expect more volatility on Wall Street in the coming week, as nervous stock investors react to the latest political posturing on the fiscal cliff, with the Dec. 31 deadline ticking ever closer.
Dec. 1, 2012, 10:12 a.m. EST
‘Fiscal cliff’ games to remain in focus
Political posturing, press conferences to rule the market
By Wallace Witkowski, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Political posturing by players involved in “fiscal cliff” negotiations will be the primary market lever in the coming week, according to strategists.
Investors got their first taste this past week of how press events from the Obama administration and members of Congress over negotiations shifted markets. Expect those markets to get even more sensitive to the political drama in the coming week as the Dec. 31 deadline approaches.
“It’s only inevitable that anxiety will build over the next few weeks,” said Andrew Slimmon, managing director of global investment solutions at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.
On Friday, House Speaker John Boehner said negotiations were at a stalemate after a week and called a White House opening bid, “not serious.” That echoed sentiment expressed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who called a similar plan presented by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner “laughable.”
…
Fiscal cliff fight may knock out December rally
End of year historically strong month for markets
REUTERS
NEW YORK — In normal times, this week’s slew of U.S. economic data could be a springboard for a December rally in the stock market.
December is historically a strong month for markets. The S&P 500 has risen 16 times in the past 20 years during the month.
But the market has not been operating under normal circumstances since Nov. 7 when a day after the U.S. election, investors’ focus shifted squarely to the looming “fiscal cliff.”
Investors are increasingly nervous about the ability of lawmakers to undo the $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts that are set to begin in January; those changes, if they go into effect, could send the U.S. economy into a recession.
A string of economic indicators this week, which includes the Institute for Supply Management’s reading of the manufacturing sector on Monday, culminates with the U.S. government’s November jobs report on Friday.
But the impact of those economic reports could be muted. Distortions in the data caused by superstorm Sandy are discounted.
The spotlight will be more firmly on signs from Washington that politicians can settle their differences on how to avoid the fiscal cliff.
“We have a week with a lot of economic data, and obviously most of the economic data is going to reflect the effects of Sandy, and that might be a little bit negative for the market (this) week, but most of that is already expected — the main focus remains the fiscal cliff,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.
Concerns about the cliff sent the S&P 500 into a two-week decline after the elections, dropping as much as 5.3 percent, only to rally back nearly 4 percent as the initial tone of talks offered hope that a compromise could be reached and investors snapped up stocks that were viewed as undervalued.
Last week, the S&P 500 gained more than 20 points from its intraday low on Wednesday after House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said he was optimistic that a budget deal to avoid big spending cuts and tax increases could be worked out. The next day, more pessimistic comments from Boehner, an Ohio Republican, briefly wiped out the day’s gains in stocks.
On Friday, the sharp divide between the Democrats and the Republicans on taxes and spending was evident in comments from President Barack Obama, who favors raising taxes on the wealthy, and Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, who said Obama’s plan was the wrong approach and declared that the talks had reached a stalemate.
“It’s unusual to end up with one variable in this industry, it’s unusual to have a single bullet that is the causal factor effect, and you are sitting here for the next maybe two weeks or more, on that kind of condition,” said Sandy Lincoln, chief market strategist at BMO Asset Management U.S. in Chicago.
“And that is what is grabbing the markets.”
…
I wasn’t on the blog yesterday, but I want to thank you for doing the calculations for why the MID doesn’t really save any tax money for low-mid income households (something I had asked PB/CIBT last week). The standard deduction is usually more than other dedutctions combined.
That said, if the MID doesn’t result in any tax savings, then setting a limit would be economically moot. I guess it would make the masses happy to keep up their illusion.
[on a side note, the MID will probably benefit me because I use the single standard deduction, not the married deduction.]
“The standard deduction is usually more than other dedutctions combined. “
That was my experience when saddled with credit card debt (dental), a newish mortgage and student loans. Frankly I couldn’t imagine being in the debt territory where the MID might amount to something.
“That said, if the MID doesn’t result in any tax savings, then setting a limit would be economically moot.”
Eliminating the MID would end a tax deduction which disproportionately benefits the wealthy.
“I guess it would make the masses happy to keep up their illusion.”
I expect a move to keep the MID would be based on maintaining the current illusion, while a move to modify it would be based on the goal of making it appear that a material change occurred when it didn’t.
It’s all smoke, mirrors and lies when it comes to the NAR’s motives.
“…the MID will probably benefit me because I use the single standard deduction, not the married deduction.”
In the interest of fairness, the MID could be grandfathered for those who bought their homes when it was in effect.
“It’s all smoke, mirrors and lies when it comes to the NAR’s motives.”
+1. I would absolutely love to see the MID eliminated solely on the basis that it removes the biggest lie that is told by anyone selling a house. I think it is in the best interest of future homebuyers (our kids).
The low mortgage rates are saving the debtors a lot more money than the deduction. Since it is being funding by the taxpayers, no need for double-dipping.
I’d be willing to see the MID removed if a corresponding decrease in tax rates were applied. As a renter I’m only disappointed that I pay more in tax than an “owner”. As the middle class gets hit with more and more tax I will be happy to see the collective backlash.
I don’t consider grandfathering the MID to be fair.
Will you elaborate on this?
Sure. Why should a guy who bought a house this year get a deduction for 30 years when his neighbor who buys one next year not get that benefit for 30 years?
I fully expect politicians to do the wrong thing instead of the right thing 100% of the time. They do not intend upon solving the current dilemma with the exception of getting the bad loans off the books of Megabank, Inc., and saddling taxpayers with both past and future mortgage losses.
Oxide:
Simpson/Bowles intended to keep some benefit for borrowing on mortgages, but make it be better for those with lower incomes than higher higher incomes.
What they did was lower the mortgage cap to $500k, and turn the deduction into a non-refundable (you don’t get money back if you aren’t paying taxes) CREDIT equal to 12% of the interest paid on the (up to) $500k.
The MID served me well until it didn’t - )
If we lose it now and I don’t use it anymore, others pay more. I benefit, I guess.
Won’t need it again, I think. Great when I needed it.
Nice to be in the no-brainer standard deduction category.
The MID stopped working for me, but I still think it is still a valuable incentive for new first-home buyers. If that is still a desired consequence.
Certainly should be eliminated for second-home buyers and those who purchase a home above a yet-to-be-agreed-upon price level.
The PPT functions soley for the good of all society. Why would you question the generous humanitarian efforts of those performing the work of God? The PPT is a gift horse not to be shunned for rotting teeth and foul sh*t-smelling breath.
I’d rather not have to look a gift horse with rotting teeth and foul sh*t-smelling breath in the mouth.
Oops…between the drop in the ISM index and the endless ‘fiscal cliff’ wrangling, the PPT has its work cut out for it this week.
Dec. 3, 2012, 10:08 a.m. EST
ISM index drops to 49.5% in November
By Jeffry Bartash
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. manufacturers contracted in November and activity fell to the lowest level since July 2009, as new orders sank and employment plans were scaled back, according to the closely followed ISM index. The Institute for Supply Management index fell to 49.5% from 51.7% in October. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected the index to remain flat at 51.7%. Reading under 50 indicate more manufacturers are shrinking instead of expanding. The index has now fallen in four of the last six months. The ISM’s new-orders gauge sank to 50.3% from 54.2%, although the production index edged up to 53.7% from 52.4%. The employment gauge declined to 48.4% from 52.1%, the lowest level since September 2009. Earlier Monday, a similar U.S. manufacturing survey produced by Markit rose to a six-month high of 52.8 in November.
DJIA = 13K or bust!
My score on first attempt = 50%; second attempt = 100%.
Quiz: How much do you know about the ‘fiscal cliff’?
James Dresch of MND Partners Inc. works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks have been falling over concerns about the “fiscal cliff.” (Associated Press)
By Don Lee and Jim Puzzanghera
Test your knowledge of the fiscal cliff with this quiz. After you take this quiz, try your hand at more more business-related quizzes by clicking here.
Asian stocks fall after US manufacturing shows surprise contraction amid fiscal cliff worries
By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, December 3, 9:07 PM
BANGKOK — A weaker-than-expected U.S. manufacturing report sent Asian stock markets down Tuesday.
U.S. manufacturing shrank in November to its weakest level since July 2009. The Institute for Supply Management said Monday that its index of manufacturing conditions fell 49.5 from October’s 51.7. Numbers above 50 signal growth, while those below indicate contraction.
One reason for the downturn, the trade group said, was that businesses are concerned about the so-called fiscal cliff, which is a package of tax increases and government spending cuts that will take effect in 2013 unless lawmakers take action. Worries about automatic tax increases cut demand for factory orders and manufacturing jobs.
President Barack Obama and Republican lawmakers have yet to work out a budget deal as the clock continues ticking toward the year-end deadline.
Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney, said that while most analysts think U.S. political leaders will negotiate some kind of deal before the deadline, there will still be some degree of tax increases and spending cuts that will impinge on the growth of the world’s No. 1 economy.
“It’s important to remember that there will still be a significant fiscal drag on the U.S. economy next year. So I think markets have arrived at a level that reflects that state of affairs, or close to it,” Spooner said. “The market has arrived around a level which reflects the risk that is still out there.”
…
House GOP counters Obama’s fiscal plan
Deep cuts, no tax rise; White House says no
By Matt Viser | Globe Staff
December 03, 2012
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP
“What we’re putting forward is a credible plan that deserves serious consideration from the White House,” House Speaker John Boehner said.
WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Monday laid out their proposal to avert a potential austerity crisis, countering what they ridiculed as a “La-La Land offer’’ from President Obama with one calling for almost twice as much in spending cuts and half as much revenue increases.
The Republican plan, outlined in a three-page letter sent to the White House, sets out to raise $800 billion in new revenue over the next decade through closing unspecified tax loopholes and cut $1.2 trillion through a battery of changes that could include raising the eligibility age for Medicare. In addition, House Republicans proposed saving $200 billion by slowing the government’s cost-of-living increases for programs such as Social Security.
The plan — which was quickly and emphatically dismissed by the White House — ignores the centerpiece of Obama’s blueprint: allowing tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers to expire. But it does provide the framework for discussion in the coming days, now that both sides have publicly outlined their starting positions.
“Unfortunately,” House Speaker John Boehner told reporters, “the White House responded with their La-La Land offer that couldn’t pass the House, that couldn’t pass the Senate.”
“We could have responded in kind,” he added. “But we decided not to. What we’re putting forward is a credible plan that deserves serious consideration from the White House.”
…
Three Ominous Surprises Coming Toward Obama
by David Frum Dec 3, 2012 12:00 AM EST
How will the president handle the crises around the corner?
This is a good moment to be a Democrat. The economy shows signs of accelerating. The president visibly holds the upper hand in the “fiscal cliff” negotiations. Republicans look in disarray.
Obama
If the U.S. falls behind China on Barack Obama’s watch, it will rock his presidency. (Jewel Samad / AFP-Getty Images)
But the moment won’t last. A number of nasty surprises could be waiting just around the corner, ready to turn President Obama’s world upside down. Here are three of them.
Swan Dive Off the Fiscal Cliff. Optimism is building about some kind of resolution of the fiscal-cliff problem before the end of the year. House Speaker John Boehner and the president have been conferring. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, after briefing Hill leaders on the dangers of failure, submitted a plan on Thursday involving revenue measures and Medicare cuts. Republicans predictably protested.
But it’s one thing to propose a deal, another to deliver it.
Many Republicans believe that the president is bluffing. As former Bush economic adviser (and now-influential economic blogger) Keith Hennessey argues: “The president cannot afford to veto a bill and have no compromise enacted … [H]is veto would trigger a recession that would severely damage his agenda …”
If congressional Republicans believe the president is bluffing, some will be tempted to call that bluff—especially politically ambitious congressional Republicans like House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. Ryan obviously wants to run for president in 2016. He must fear that any vote that can be defined as a deviation from conservative principle will be used against him in the GOP primaries.
It’s in Ryan’s interest to oppose a budget deal—and lose. The problem is that many other House Republicans share that interest. Which means they might win.
…
Dec. 2, 2012, 9:51 p.m. EST
Shanghai’s disturbing stock slump
Commentary: A-shares’ valuation may offer reality check
By Craig Stephen
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — The fall of Shanghai’s main share-market index below 2,000 points last week has put the frailty of China’s domestic stock markets back in the spotlight.
Clearly having the world’s second-largest economy counts for little when equity-market returns are added up. Once again, China’s stock markets look to be in the running for the title of the year’s worst-performing equity market — along with Slovakia and Spain.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended last week near four-year lows, having lost a total of 67% since its October 2007 record high.
The consolation, as various investment banks are quick to point out, means share-price valuations are cheap. The CSI 300 (the index designed to replicate the top 300 stocks traded in Shanghai and Shenzhen) is trading at a historically low forward-P/E of 9.2 times and a price-to-book of 1.3 times, according to Goldman Sachs.
Smart investors should position for a cyclical rebound that could be just around the corner, analysts say.
But this call is getting somewhat tired. China’s stock markets were cheap last year, and they’re cheaper still this year. They might also be even cheaper next year.
…
I’m sure this isn’t even on Foxconn employed, assembly line worker’s radar.
trading at a historically low forward-P/E of 9.2 times and a price-to-book of 1.3 times
What say you, combo? Is it time to buy Chinese stocks?
Absolutely, you should go all in.
Does the magic P/E ratio only count in the US markets?
Go all in and discover for yourself whether it does or if it doesn’t. Then get back to us.
Since I trust that the Chinese Government will ensure accurate reporting of earnings by the companies, I will take your sage advice combo. (now, I will take the sarcasm off).
The U.S has a long, proven history of one easily being able to profit by buying stocks when P/Es on the major averages are low and selling stocks when the major averages become high.
As for China?
Lol.
The U.S has a long, proven history
But that was during America’s two-century rise to world power. Are we still rising, plateauing, or declining? And does that affect the magic P/E ratio buy-time?
I suggest you buy U.S. stocks only when the economic outlook is most promising.
I wonder if anybody else is waiting for that magical low P/E ratio.
It’s not just the waiting, it’s the waiting plus having the money.
Does anyone in the world have a lot of money?
In a totally unrelated topic, the aerial views of Shangai in the new James Bond movie are very impressive! So much height, neon and glitz. I’m guessing those unoccupied high rises for which China is now famous are not located in the heart of Shanghai.
What an awesome movie. Thanks for reminding me of that footage…
If I understand this correctly, as part of Obamacare, individuals above a certain AGI threshhold will pay an additional 3.8% income tax on something called “Net Investment Income.” “NII” includes interest, dividends, capital gains, and income from passive rentals. NII can be REDUCED by losses from passive rentals.
I guess the only thing left is to allow residential real estate to be depreciated over 15 years and we’ll finally be out of this mess.
Good morning, Tenant Nation!
What’s the threshold?
“What’s the threshold?”
No doubt the threshold will start out high and end up low.
Start out high to get the peons on board, end up low because the peons is where the money is.
One peon does not have all that much money but collectively they do because there are so many of them.
The threshold “will” not start or end anywhere, combo, stop talking out of your butt. The thresholds were decided when Obamacare was passed:
The income threshold amounts depend on the filing status of the taxpayer and are $250,000 for married filing joint filers, $125,000 for married filing separate filers, and $200,000 for all other filers.
Good summary and examples of different scenarios can be found here: http://www.bakertilly.com/New-Medicare-Surtax
The thresholds were decided when Obamacare was passed:
What combo is saying is that lawmakers, at any time, could decide to change the threshold to a lower value… or do nothing and let inflation sucker in the masses into the additional tax. Just like the AMT…
When the AMT was originally passed, it only hit “the very rich”, back in 1982. Today, middle class families in coastal states get hit with this all the time and Congress has to pass a “temporary” adjustment so it doesn’t sucker in more every year.
At least one poster gets it.
Lawmakers, at any time, can decide to do all sorts of things, including raising or lowering almost any taxes. It’s the ’slippery slope’ called democracy.
The Willy Sutton approach: Go to where the money is.
The super rich have the money but the government can’t get at it because the super rich control the government.
And the poor don’t have any money to go after. So what’s left?
What’s left is the middle. The middle has the money collectively due to their numbers but they do not have enough money as individuals to have the clout.
So the game is to convince the middle that the rich are going to be forced to pay but the result will be the paying will come from the middle.
See also the history of Social Security.
It was sold as a 1% tax on the “super rich” when it was passed.
Today - a 15% tax on EVERYONE.
So there was a time when people who didn’t pay into it were going to be allowed to draw from it? All funded by the rich?
What don’t you understand about buying votes?
And FYI - this still goes on TODAY.
SSI, Disability. Those who emigrate to America in their 60’s…
Free government cheese has been around for a long time.
So there was a time when people who didn’t pay into it were going to be allowed to draw from it? All funded by the rich?
This is why I have referred to OASDI as a demographic time bomb.
Of course, nobody could have foreseen the huge increases in life-expectancy back in 1935…
Of course, nobody could have foreseen the huge increases in life-expectancy back in 1935…
Check this graph. Source page here.
The huge increase in the fraction of the US population over age 65 was IMHO quite predictable by 1930.
2banana
“See also the history of Social Security.
It was sold as a 1% tax on the “super rich” when it was passed. Today - a 15% tax on EVERYONE.”
From what I can gather, SS was a payroll deduction with an annual cap from the very beginning. I am not sure where the “super rich” thing comes in.
He is mixing up SS payroll taxes with income taxes. Income taxes only applied to people who had very large incomes for the time when they were enacted.
Bananas is wrong. Again.
Income taxes only applied to people who had very large incomes for the time when they were enacted.
IIRC at first the income below which an individual did not have to pay income tax to the IRS in 1913 was $3000, a lot back in 1913. I wouldn’t call it ‘very large’, though. That year a new model T cost $550.
By WWII the minimum income that made one vulnerable to Internal Revenue was $600. My dad joined the US Army in 1943 & was amused at the attitudes of some of the rednecks who joined with him. In May 1943 the minimum pay for a US servicemen was raised to $50 a month. The rednecks were patriotically willing to fight or even die for the USA, but when their army pay got to the $600 level for a year, they would go AWOL rather than pay the ‘revenuers’ anything.
“Bananas is wrong. Again.”
Propagandists actually don’t have to be correct. Persistence is sufficient.
Land of hope and change and home of the moochers….
—————————-
Men Find Careers in Collecting Disability
Townhall.com | December 3, 2012 | Michael Barone
In 1960, some 455,000 workers were receiving disability payments. In 2011, the number was 8,600,000. In 1960, the percentage of the economically active 18-to-64 population receiving disability benefits was 0.65 percent. In 2010, it was 5.6 percent.
Some four decades ago, when I was a law clerk to a federal judge, I had occasion to read briefs in cases appealing denial of disability benefits. The Social Security Administration then seemed pretty strict in denying benefits in dubious cases. The courts were not much more openhanded.
Things have changed. Americans have grown healthier, and significantly lower numbers die before 65 than was the case a half-century ago. Nevertheless, the disability rolls have ballooned.
One reason is that the government seems to have gotten more openhanded with those claiming vague ailments. Eberstadt points out that in 1960, only one-fifth of disability benefits went to those with “mood disorders” and “muscoskeletal” problems. In 2011, nearly half of those on disability voiced such complaints.
“It is exceptionally difficult — for all practical purposes, impossible,” writes Eberstadt, “for a medical professional to disprove a patient’s claim that he or she is suffering from sad feelings or back pain.”
In other words, many people are gaming or defrauding the system. This includes not only disability recipients but health care professionals, lawyers and others who run ads promising to get you disability benefits.
Between 1996 and 2011, the private sector generated 8.8 million new jobs, and 4.1 million people entered the disability rolls.
The ratio of disability cases to new jobs has been even worse during the sluggish recovery from the 2007-09 recession. Between January 2010 and December 2011, there were 1,730,000 new jobs and 790,000 new people collecting disability.
This is not just a matter of laid-off workers in their 50s or early 60s qualifying for disability in the years before they become eligible for Social Security old age benefits.
In 2011, 15 percent of disability recipients were in their 30s or early 40s. Concludes Eberstadt, “Collecting disability is an increasingly important profession in America these says.”
Disability insurance is no longer a small program. The government transfers some $130 billion obtained from taxpayers or borrowed from purchasers of Treasury bonds to disability beneficiaries every year.
But there is also a human cost. Consider the plight of someone who at some level knows he can work but decides to collect disability payments instead.
That person is not likely to ever seek work again, especially if the sluggish recovery turns out to be the new normal.
He may be gleeful that he was able to game the system or just grimly determined to get what he can in a tough situation. But he will not be able to get the satisfaction of earned success from honest work that contributes something to society and the economy.
Among many of my tenants, the aspirations do not center on a better job or a promotion on the job.The main goal of the working man or woman today seems to be to get that disability check , and then to adopt one’s grandkids or some such shenanigan to boost that monthly check up.
One problem that presents is that those folks that get checks are looked to as $$$$ sources,or sugar daddies of a sort.
I have one Tenant who at 68 ended up with an extra check because he has no legs,not even stub legs , a runaway diabetes situation . He can hardly pay his rents because he has a high child support situation that just seemed to happen because of the check .(I would probably have paid good money to see that)…
how is SC treatn you these days? I have been there once to myrtle beach. i remember taking a small boat out 3 miles off shore. Once we hit 3 miles they killed the motor and it was game on. my friend cleaned house at the craps table but i broke about even.
how is the moonshine business these days?
I have one Tenant who at 68 ended up with an extra check because he has no legs,not even stub legs</i?
Sounds like he achieved the American dream!
He got the no-stubs bonus.
“But he will not be able to get the satisfaction of earned success from honest work that contributes something to society and the economy.”
(Reaching for the barf bag) What a freakin’ load. Kiss my arse, Barone, you neocon shill for illegal immigrants. Why don’t you lecture the criminals in Washington and Wall Street? Yeah, they’re getting the satisfaction of earned success from honest work, booyah!
I’d collect disability if I could, before I’d ever take a job at Wal-Mart or Mickey-D’s.
What do you suppose Barone would do if he couldn’t lecture people on getting the satisfaction of earned success from honest work? You mean, like Romney? Stevie Cohen? Hank Paulson? Timmy da G?
Or maybe like the hordes of illegal immigrant moochers who live off their kids and the other goodies they get?
Oh, DO lecture the people, Barone.
Speaking of moochers and continual lying by the Press, I caught some of the latest “Immigration Reform” advocates on TV yesterday. They are all saying the Obama will proposed a “comprehensive bill” in the New year. Amnesty for Illegals to along with his “no enforcement” of immigration laws.
But, the big discussion is how Republicans need to get on board because the aren’t getting “latino” votes.
Like allow 12 million illegal alien “latinos” free citizenship is going to make them conservative republicans? Yes, that’s reality.
It’s a Lock of the Democratic FSA, and they know it.
But, the big sales pitch they were trying to push yesterday was the $1000 fine for being here illegally. The promoters were saying with the huge SS problems we have here, the 12 million x $1000 would go a long way to “solving” our fiscal problems, and also the new “citizens” would now become taxpayers. REally?
More like, they will now be fully qualified to leach out even MORE government benefits. How long before the $1000 fine becomes a $10,000 benefit card?? Humm?
Wake up, America. You are being sold a bill of goods, and it’s a pile of crap. No value to the stuff they are selling.
I wouldn’t buy snake oil, either, but, unfortunately many do.
Dio:
No interpreters allowed at immigration hearings…No English no stayee in America…
I know …they will all flock to all the Zamboni schools they are plasters all over the NYC subways..
At least they will have to prove something like they care about America… and being fluent in English is a very good start.
I’m not against illegals given a chance but no criminal record, clean driving record, their kids doing well in schools not out gang bangin etc….ok I dont think it will be as many as you think…most will be sent back home.
But Obewanna is a wussie, and will make things worse.
“no enforcement” of immigration laws.
Gee, can they legislate that for Colorado and Washington’s new pot laws too?
“his “no enforcement” of immigration laws”
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/may/11/barack-obama/obama-says-deportation-criminals-70-percent-under-/
Better than Bush and focused on criminals. It may be less than you hope for, but it does not qualify as “no enforcement”.
“But he will not be able to get the satisfaction of earned success from honest work that contributes something to society and the economy.”
——————
The beatdown Palmetto delivered in response to this statement is the equivalent of the black kids in school telling the guy who does his homework, gets good grade, uses correct grammar…
“you actin white, we gonna get you after school you f—ot!”
Nobody ever stops to consider that
“the satisfaction of earned success from honest work” might be something males do for themselves because it is an internally generated phenomenon; And that the benefit to society plays no part in its initiation?
I didn’t learn to read in order to get a job when I grew up?
I didn’t learn to write music so people would like me better?
Matter of fact, Im suspicious of anybody who likes me because its usually just a setup to force me into one of their little “boxes”; you know the one where they paint the sky on the cieling and tell you thats the whole world?
(((shakin my head)))
The golden rule for men is to never allow ANYONE to hijack your reason for being.
This is very difficult because the “pressure” to exchange your internal sense of self (confidence) for a utilitarian system generate ” assigned value” is coming at you from all directions.
Its a beatdown.
They want to bring you down to their level.
Don’t let them take the only thing of value you really have.
Don’t let them take the only thing of value you really have.
What is that? Our internally generated sense of satisfaction?
What is that? Our internally generated sense of satisfaction?
I took Spook to mean “the real you”.
“The beatdown Palmetto delivered in response to this statement is the equivalent of the black kids in school telling the guy who does his homework, gets good grade, uses correct grammar…”
In your opinion. When you’ve read a bit more of the puke-inducing Barone, get back to me.
Barone is using a very, very old propaganda trick well known to the Catholic Church and the European nobility of medieval times. Be poor, be lowly, be humble, work hard and ye shall enter the kingdom of heaven. That’s your reward.
We elitists (and our shills), on the other hand, shall nobly bear the burden of great wealth and will gladly go to hell on your behalf.
What I am objecting to is not what Barone said, but that HE is the one who said it. Coming from his mouth, it’s a load, a complete load.
“……satisfaction of earned success…….”
This satisfaction is overrated. Especially when you get it in lieu of actual pay.
Add $1 to this “satisfaction” and you might be able to buy a cuppa joe. at Mickey Dees.
Here is an observation you can try on your kids.
Give them something for free. Watch how they take care of that stuff.
Make they pay for something they earned by doing chores. Watch how they take care of that stuff.
Compare and contrast.
The lessons do not change as they get older.
Give them something for free.
I dunno.
My dad gave me a car when I was 18. I babied that sucker. I washed it every day.
One of my daughters bought a notebook computer with her own money. She trashed it. She bought another one. Also got trashed.
I think this is one of those YMMV things.
I think this is one of those YMMV things.
Another devil in the details. I agree some kids don’t value things they are given, but some do. When I was 10-14 we kids got very little of anything for free & we valued what little we did get.
My parents had an interesting idea, they will pay Half…so we had to work for the other half.. lawns, snow shoveling, paper routes Ihop, Carvel…
We kids just had to pitch in & we knew our folks would ’share’ what they had. We had no allowance as such. We took out or burned the trash, mowed the lawn (bit over 1 acre, with a small power mower), and shoveled the snow (our driveway was 75 yards long, and the highway department would often plow a 6 foot high ridge we had to cut through to get the car out). When my dad built our house, we mixed mud, hauled bricks & block, carried lumber, held the other end of chalk lines and tape measures, nailed shingles, stained the redwood siding, painted the trim, etc. One job dad insisted on doing himself was sanding down drywall after mudding it, but we got to paint it. If I had a 50 cent piece in my pocket, I was truly rich. Once I splurged walking to school & stopped at the lunch counter near the courthouse, and blew 20 cents on a breakfast of hot buttered toast. Toast at home was often burnt because the electric toaster didn’t work well.
“{My parents had an interesting idea, they will pay Half…so we had to work for the other half.. lawns, snow shoveling, paper routes Ihop, Carvel…”
you just described our current economic system.
I love this self-contradiction:
Consider the plight of someone who at some level knows he can work but decides to collect disability payments instead… That person is not likely to ever seek work again, especially if the sluggish recovery turns out to be the new normal.
Mayhaps if the sluggish recovery wasn’t the new normal, the person who knows he can work would be able to find a job that wasn’t disability?
And palmetto, you’re right, and in a similar vein as GS-fixr’s argument. When you factor in the expenses associated with working (transport etc), disability may actually pay more… especially if you can shack up with a roommate or family member who would be glad to take a little of the check to pay (rising) rent.
I have long suspected that working for a living is highly overrated.
One poster here has given a plan that countracts all this BULLS**T. It’s called the oil city plan. As long as it still exists, I will argue that the corporations have not won. I don’t think people have a “right” to live in the city cultural centers while drawing unemployment checks for 99 weeks. The fact is, you CAN make it out there, it just won’t be at the standard of living you are used to. Yes it *could* be better, but rather than taxing the middle class to keep the unemployed in the cities because “the rich are bullies”, we need to free the middle class from taxes so they can employ the unemployed.
I don’t disagree that “corporations are bullying”. There is an answer to it though… stop buying there. Problem is, instead of educating and organizing the poor to stop shopping and working at wal-mart, we just try to regulate Wal-mart and tax anyone with a better than wal-mart job.
You CAN get out of debt on the oil city plan. You won’t be living in San Diego or New York doing it though. Ultimately that is how the “occupy wallstreet” people will win. Disengage from the debt machine. Stop buying TV’s, cellphones, video games, movies, cars, designer clothes, sunglasses and the like on credit. If your rent is too high MOVE.
There are a LOT of jobs in North Dakota right now, and they pay A LOT. Not 50k a lot, 100k -150k a lot. It is cold as heck there though, and “boring”. My brother just did this as a laborer. It was hard hard work though. It’s crazy too, since he worked so hard, taxes took a LOT of that money. The harder he works, the harder they tax him on it. And yes, I’m talking about the “progressive” tax rate.
There are lots of guys who *could* work hard like he does, but instead skate at a retail job in Orange County for $15/hr. For the benefit of being motivated, instead of paying say $5k in taxes on his labor, he has to pay nearer to $30k. Is this truly because he can more afford to support society? Or is it because we as society see someone who is willing to work hard and decide we want them to carry us so we don’t have to work as hard?
My solution to this is as follows: eliminate personal income taxes. Instead, corporations, sole proprietorships, and partnerships pay income tax, and wages are not deductible, nor are dividends. Dividends are taxed an additional 5%. This is truly a “progressive” form of taxation, since those earning money through dividends instead of labor are more “rich” than those laboring. If the percentages need to be argued over fine. Income tax is dividing this country into worker against worker rather than building us together as a nation.
I don’t think people have a “right” to live in the city cultural centers while drawing unemployment checks for 99 weeks.
I don’t think you can get by on a UE check in those places. Maybe in Topeka, but not in LA, NY, Bay Area, Chicago, etc.
There are a LOT of jobs in North Dakota right now, and they pay A LOT.
“A LOT of jobs”? Just how many exactly? Enough to absorb the millions of unemployed, many of who are too old to work as oil field roughnecks? I just did a google search. There are about 9,000 unfilled jobs in North Dakota. Whoopee.
I’m also guessing that not just any Tom, Dick or Harry can do those jobs, otherwise they would be filled. There are hundreds of thousands of people who drift from town to town, looking for work. I’m sure they’ve dipped their toe into North Dakota and for whatever reason they couldn’t land one of those $100K+ oil jobs.
eliminate personal income taxes. Instead, corporations, sole proprietorships, and partnerships pay income tax
Good luck getting that past the RNC.
Here is one guys experience the psychical exam for oil workers in ND
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvIDWMxzbZM
The jobs available in the oil fields are for things like creating concrete forms(carpenter), positioning and cutting pipe (pipefitter), digging trenches and grading roads and pads for structures (operator). Each of these fields have entry level apprenticeships that are available as jobs *right now*.
“I just did a google search. There are about 9,000 unfilled jobs in North Dakota. Whoopee.”
HAHAHAAHA! First of all if you are 1 person, there are 9000 potential jobs to choose from using “your numbers” . Some of those are journeymen level jobs. Many of those jobs will take a less skilled apprentice at reduced rates if you show a modicrum of motivation and dedication. Getting on a bus with a sleeping bag, backpack, and surviving in North Dakota for a couple weeks (can’t hack it? take a bus back) while looking for a job shows a lot of that initiative, and those people hiring WILL notice that.
Second, if the “lazy way” of googling found you 9000 jobs, how many would someone find getting up there and getting their feet on the ground?
Third, I constantly hear people complaining about how the geezers won’t get out of their way and retire so they can earn some money. Never do I hear them thanking old folks for adding to the economy by working a job instead of sapping from it by being unemployed. In fact, why don’t they climb out of their 15/hr job in retail and go work in the oil fields, or work in a plant in Mexico doing hard labor that the old folks can’t? No, everyone wants to avoid the “hard work”. How many people from the last generation climbed out of manual labor positions into management?
Finally, in almost every sector of the economy, there are open jobs. North Dakota w/ oil jobs… California w/ engineering jobs… etc.. yet I constantly hear about college grads who have missed the mark of career choice and are “unemployable”. WTF??? It honestly takes about 1 year to learn basic programming or web design. If you someone is “so smart” with their college education, how come they aren’t doing it? Same with carpentry, pipe fitting, roughnecking.. People don’t want to leave their comfort zone…
“Getting on a bus with a sleeping bag, backpack, and surviving in North Dakota for a couple weeks “
Have you ever camped in the snow?
I recommend this book: The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin.
http://www.amazon.com/Childrens-Blizzard-P-S-David-Laskin/dp/0060520760
If you want the short version:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoolhouse_Blizzard
Snow is the easy part. It’s the cold…
That’s kind of my entire point. If you can do that, you are able to think and act in an adverse environment, and just being there shows it. It’s more telling of character and ability than a few scribbles on a piece of paper called a resume.
“My solution to this is as follows: eliminate personal income taxes. Instead, corporations, sole proprietorships, and partnerships pay income tax, and wages are not deductible, nor are dividends. Dividends are taxed an additional 5%. This is truly a “progressive” form of taxation, since those earning money through dividends instead of labor are more “rich” than those laboring. If the percentages need to be argued over fine. Income tax is dividing this country into worker against worker rather than building us together as a nation.”
No deductions for wages paid? Tax Schedule C’s but not others? Seriously?
So I own a sole proprietorship - Schedule C business. I make $200,000 before expenses. But I also employ 2 sales people who make $35,000 each plus $5,000 in benefits. And my expenses are $40,000. Do I have to pay taxes on $80,000 as it stand now, or as a job creator and small business owner do I pay taxes on $200,000 or $160,000. At 30% that leaves me $20,000 - $38,000 to live on (and pay state taxes.)
Sorry to be rude, but taxing the Schedule C guys and not the individuals is ridiculous. We are trying to get people to open businesses, not turn everyone into a wage slave. Your way is so blatantly unfair you either don’t understand what a sole proprietorship is or you think we all should be slaves to the corporation.
As a small business owner I pay both sides of social security and carry all the risk in my business. I’ve shut down a chunk of my business because the regulations are just to onerous - which is exactly how the big corporations want to destroy the little (meaning ethical) guys. Now you think I should pay taxes and you should not? Don’t give me that song and dance when I’ve just worked an 80 hour week and the not gotten home before 2am three nights in a row. Lots of small business owners work a lot harder than a whole lot of employees. You don’t get to screw me over because you have a nice, safe job and feel entitled to ALL my money.
Republicans, Democrats play political dare ahead of more fiscal talks this week
Published December 03, 2012
Democrats and Republicans elevated their political brinkmanship Sunday on fiscal negotiations in Washington, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner challenging Republicans to improve on his offer — which Republicans dismissed as “non-serious” and an attempt to undermine negotiations.
Geithner, now President Obama’s chief negotiator with congressional Republicans, told “Fox News Sunday” the White House plan has “balance” and “detail” but he’s willing to hear suggested improvements.
“But what we cannot do is figure out what works for them,” said Geithner, who appeared on all five major TV talk shows. “The ball really is with them now.”
House Majority Leader John Boehner, appearing later on Fox, called the offer “non-serious.”
The Ohio congressman also said he was “just flabbergasted” when Geithner presented the plan last week.
“I looked at him and I said, `You can’t be serious.’” Boehner said.
…
`You can’t be serious.’” Boehner said.
I despise Boehner, but it’s fun to see him throw Madame Pelosi’s line back in the face of an administration shill.
It’s just like I wrote in a previous post. The Democrats serverely criticized Romney for not providing specific DETAILS about proposed cuts. He didn’t want a more specific plan because as soon as you say
“We’re going to cut x, y, or z”, the Press would have a field day with criticism form the opposing parties about the “draconian cuts” to x or y or z, rather than saying, “we’re going to reduce spending 10% across the board”. ‘The specifics are what get the people in an uproar when they see “their” program is getting cut back.
NOW, the Democrats have played the same game. They WON’T put forth a series of cuts, only saying the if the Republicans will go along with the 1.6T increase, an open-ended Budget for the President, and increase taxes on the upper tier, the will agree to holding the Bush-era tax levels on the middle. And, if you don’t like it, which they know they won’t, then put forth a list of CUTS so we can show the public what you want to CUT>
That puts all the Cutting on the Republicans, and all the give-aways on the nice, helpful, “we want to save you” Democrats.
Then trot out Geithner, the lying buffoon to tell America, it’s all the Republican’s fault for not ‘going along” with the Spending increases, and promises of reducing deficits “later”.
Yea. That’s right, just give us an “open-ended” spending authority, and we will fix it later.
Boehner should refuse, as he has. It is unfortunate that the media gives Obama and the left a continual platform to misguide the American Public. Why hasn’t the House Leadership been given massive Television time to Blame the Democrats?? I have seen a couple TV spots, but the bulk of interviews are always Democratic Friendly, deceiving the Public about the “BUDGET” proposals.
They have NO idea what is being proposed, only that the Republicans “refused” to go along and won’t publish a plan for us to criticize. We “told ” them our plan. And although the Republicans have put forth numerous budget plans, they NEVER get published.
Just criticized as “dead on arrival”, and the press goes along.
It’s sickening.
I have seen a couple TV spots, but the bulk of interviews are always Democratic Friendly,
Maybe because the bulk of the nation favors the Democratic tax increases on the rich. Now that’s a fact.
And if the bulk of the nation favors the Democratic tax increases on the rich, then why would not the bulk of the interviews be “Democratic friendly” on this issue?
It’s just mathematics and that “will of the people” thing.
No, it’s just pure propaganda, and has no basis in any truth about what’s going on.
Let’s see, you are for:
I) increasing taxes on the rich
2) unlimited spending, without congressional overight
3) an unaccountable police-state TSA-style government
4) Killing babies
5) eliminating voter id requirements
6) open borders
7) destroying any constitutional protections to unreasonable search and seizure,
etc., etc, etc.
Let’s talk about TAX increases on the Rich.
Okay.
Yea. That’s what the people want.
What about the other stuff they might want to know about.
Oh, well, we don’t need to talk about that.
I see.
We need to sign the legislation to know what’s in it? ala Nancy Pelosi.
Yes, that’s right, now onto the next issue. The Cubs look like they are set up for a good season this year…………..
it’s just pure propaganda, and has no basis in any truth about what’s going on.
It is not propaganda. It is an accurate reflection of most American’s opinion on the issue. Most Americans say the rich pay too little in taxes. So if the bulk of the nation favors the Democratic tax increases on the rich, then why would not the bulk of the interviews be “Democratic friendly” on this issue? It’s math.
Pew Poll: Most Americans Believe Rich Pay ‘Too Little’ In Taxes
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/08/27/160115779/pew-poll-most-americans-believe-rich-pay-too-little-in-taxes
Today the Pew Center has some survey numbers that addressed these issues. It found that 58 percent of Americans believe the rich should pay more in taxes. About a quarter of Americans believe the rich pay their fair share and only 8 percent believe they pay too much.
Pew adds:
“Even among those who consider themselves upper or upper-middle class, fully 52% say upper-income people pay too little. Only 10% of this group says upper-class adults say people pay too much in taxes.”
As Pew puts it, the survey also found that most Americans believe what F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote: the rich are “different from you and me.”
“Let’s see, you are for:
…
2) unlimited spending, without congressional overight
3) an unaccountable police-state TSA-style government
4) Killing babies
5) eliminating voter id requirements
6) open borders
7) destroying any constitutional protections to unreasonable search and seizure,”
This is pure partisan hyperbole and misrepresents Democratic positions.
Then you should refute them if you disagree.
Yeah, I agree, Dio pretty much hit the nail on the head describing the positions of nanny statist egg headed self loathing guilty white progressives.
Then you should refute them if you disagree.
Sometimes mindless blather does not need to be refuted, but OK.
Let’s see, you are for:
I) increasing taxes on the rich
Yes.
2) unlimited spending, without congressional overight
As in 2 off-the-books wars along with tax cuts for the rich? No.
3) an unaccountable police-state TSA-style government
No, because I am not a Republican.
4) Killing babies
Would never do it.
5) eliminating voter id requirements
Too broad of a statement. They are not uniform.
6) open borders
Not even.
7) destroying any constitutional protections to unreasonable search and seizure
No, because I am not a Republican or a Republican nominated SCOTUS justice.
So people were supposed to vote him in with no idea what his positions were. Didn’t seem to work.
You knew his position was to cut spending. Obama claimed to have the same position. in Term 1, he was going to cut the deficit in half? HOw?? What are the specifics?
Press didn’t care.
Voters didn’t care. He said he would do it.
Instead, deficits have soared.
The “specifics” was just an excuse to say he “didn’t tell us what he was going to do”.
Obama didn’t either, and to both you and the PRESS, it didn’t matter.
You don’t want spending cuts. Period.
The left side always thinks their a vast-right-wing pool of money somewhere to be re-distributed.
That is what Obama’s supporters believe, and why we don’t need a budget.
Why isn’t the PRESS all crazy about the lack of the Senate passing a budget for the entire Obama tenure??? Humm??
Get real.
This had nothing to do with specifics.
AS I said, Obama’s team isn’t offering much in the way of “specifics”, either. So is that really the issue?
The left side always thinks (there is) a vast-right-wing pool of money somewhere to be re-distributed.
Because it’s the same pool of money that was re-distributed from the middle-class to the rich.
The Democrats serverely criticized Romney for not providing specific DETAILS about proposed cuts.
This is what is so funny about the current situation. The whole Republican “cutting spending” meme is a sham. The Republicans just talk spending cuts because it sounds good. Now Obama has put them in a corner to counter his proposal. So the Repubs have to put a plan on the table and they are scared to do so. They are left with a very weak option of trying to get Obama to negotiate with himself. Hey Repubs, it’s put up or shut up time in Washington.
GOP’s “position” is always to cut spending… yet they never cut spending. How many times do you need to be lied to before you learn? How many does “buh but Obama!” work?
This is why the GOP is becoming irrelevant, and it’s the fault of their voters that follow blindly, no matter how preposterous the party gets.
Because it’s the same pool of money that was re-distributed from the middle-class to the rich.
It’s even being documented by the biz news sources:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/03/news/economy/record-corporate-profits/index.html?iid=HP_LN
Headline: Corporate profits hit record as wages get squeezed
But the record profits come at the same time that workers’ wages have fallen to their lowest-ever share of GDP.
“That’s how it works,” said Robert Brusca, economist with FAO Research in New York, who said there is a natural tension between profits and the cost of labor. “If one gets bigger, the other gets smaller.”
Wouldn’t it be good for the stock market if the dollar gets hammered by ‘fiscal cliff’ squabbling?
December 3, 2012, 5:50 a.m. ET
FOREX FOCUS
Dollar at Risk From Budget Squabbling
By NICHOLAS HASTINGS
The ‘fiscal cliff’ has never really been a big problem for the dollar.
Up until now.
If anything, fears that the U.S. economy could face a $600 billion hit from tax increases and spending cuts on January 1 have been positive for the U.S. currency.
Worries about the cliff, and the impact it would have on the U.S. and global economies, mean that investors have tended to lose their appetite for risk and remain in safe havens–such as the dollar.
In the runup to the U.S. election last month, when markets were uncertain not only about who would make it into the White House but also about how the fiscal cliff would be tackled, the dollar index rose steadily.
The index even continued to rise in the period immediately after the elections, probably driven in part by hopes that the newly re-elected President Barack Obama and the House of Representatives would move immediately to resolve the fiscal cliff issue now that there wasn’t an election ahead.
At each stage since then, however, the politicians have disappointed and a compromise between the Democrats and the Republicans has become even more elusive.
The deep divisions in Washington appear to have boiled down to two main issues: the depth of tax increases that should be inflicted on the wealthy and the level of spending cuts that should be made to government healthcare and pension programs.
With only three weeks until Christmas and four weeks until the new year, time for a solution is running out.
For the dollar, that it isn’t really a problem.
Chances are that Congressional leaders will come up with a last-minute solution. If necessary, they will “stop the clock” just before midnight to achieve their aim and effectively avoid the fiscal cliff.
And if they fail, the dollar would likely still be supported by investors worried about the impact on the global recovery.
But now, a new, and more insidious, concern could be undermining the dollar and would certainly explain the decline in the dollar index in the last week or two–the sheer depth of policy divide in Washington.
Rather than coming together in a spirit of cooperation in a post-election atmosphere, the Republicans and Democrats have gone for each other’s throats.
And as far as investors are concerned, this is not good for the future of the U.S. economy and the ability of the new Obama administration to contend with the country’s even larger budget deficit problem.
“While the U.S. is embroiled in this ideological trench warfare, sustainable budget policy seems unlikely,” warns the currency strategy team at Commerzbank.
“This problem is going to continue even if it is announced to great fanfares that the cliff has been overcome at the last minute. Much of the damage for the dollar is likely to be permanent.”
…
Isn’t that a curious spin! If we threaten to cut spending (increases) and raise taxes the dollar will fall.
And the fall will be ‘permanent’!
Chances are that Congressional leaders will come up with a last-minute solution.
It’s virtually certain that they will.
The Daily Grind~
The media via congress falsely defines the monetary disaster as a “fiscal cliff”. The truth is congress takes their orders from the Fed. An accurate characterization is the monetary sinkhole that if it were allowed to proceed, would result in rational monetary policy response with 8% rates.
“The truth is congress takes their orders from the Fed.”
Garbage pure and simple.
The “fiscal cliff” is simply a deficit reduction plan so extreme that Congress was sure that approving it as default would force them to find something less extreme. Well, right now we are at the time when they actually have to find something else. Exactly what the new plan will be is up for grabs.
The democrats are winning the messaging on this one because their alternative is to keep the tax cuts for 98% of the country and some fairly mild spending cuts. By putting something out there, they are “forcing” the republicans to respond with something similarly detailed that actually will reduce the deficit by a similar amount. The republicans are stuck, because if they get detailed enough with what they want, the CBO will score it and discover that it doesn’t begin to have the same amount of deficit reduction as the dems plan. So, what they are doing instead is claiming that the dems offer is so terrible that it isn’t really a plan and the administration has to offer them something better. The administration thinks they can win the media war on this one by pointing to their detailed offer and saying that is our first offer, if you don’t like it counter it.
So far, it is working a little. The MSM is calling it an offer and describing it as a first round in the negotiations and, while they are reporting Boehner’s remarks and saying that the final package won’t look like the first offer, they aren’t buying into the idea that the administration has to put out another offer before getting a response.
Meanwhile, there is a really nasty cold going around DC right now. Everyone is sick. Cokie Roberts sounded a mess on NPR this morning. The coughing is epic. Bronchitis all over the place. I’m home today. Not fun at all.
“Meanwhile, there is a really nasty cold going around DC right now. Everyone is sick. Cokie Roberts sounded a mess on NPR this morning. The coughing is epic. Bronchitis all over the place.”
OMG! Poor darlings!
Can common cold symptoms be eased quantitatively?
There is currently an outbreak of whooping cough in our local public schools. Attributed to conspiracy-theorist parents not wanting their little darlings to be vaccinated. Sigh. On the bright side, maybe Cokie has it.
“Attributed to conspiracy-theroist parents not wanting their little darlings to be vaccinated.”
Do the other kids - the vaccinated - do they get whooping cough?
Witnessing a little dose of Darwinism, perhaps?
Too bad it’s the kids suffering from their parents’ paranoia. The vaccine is highly effective. Next up: a resurgence of polio? (shudder)
Darwinism can be a bitch.
I have a relative who refuses to inoculate her kids.
Some irony:
If a human-borne disease needs a human as a host to survive and every human around you is immune to this disease then you, yourself, do not have to become immune.
But if there is a tipping point that is surpassed whereby the population that is not immune is high enough for the disease to survive and be passed along to you then you will need to become immune.
And because people have short memories regarding such diseases such as whooping cough due to its scarcity the chances of getting such a disease is increased as the short memories of everyone around you convinces them that they do not need to get vaccinated.
So the shorter the memory of people that surround you regarding such diseases the greater the need for you to get a vaccination.
Vaccinated KIDS shouldn’t be getting whopping cough from their unvaccinated friends. However, their vaccinated parents might. Turns out the initial shot and the booster don’t last all that well into adulthood. They have added pertussis (whooping cough) to the tetanus booster you get as an adult. It is now a full DPT. I just got one in October. It had been 8 years since my last tetanus shot anyway and 8 years ago they didn’t include the pertussis.
Polly, your point is excellent. Adults should get DPT booster shots!
“Next up: a resurgence of polio? (shudder)”
Polio IS coming back around the world.
“If a human-borne disease needs a human as a host to survive and every human around you is immune to this disease then you, yourself, do not have to become immune.”
That’s the free rider problem, and it applies to organic farming, as well: The organic farmer whose neighboring farms all use pesticides need not worry about a pest infestation.
An amateur like me can’t find much “detail” regarding the President’s detailed proposal in a simple internet search. I see $190 B taxes on the “rich” and $50 B in unspecified spending reductions over 10 years, maybe, later anyway. That’s a whopping $5B per year in reductions, probably reductions in increases if I get the DC double speak correctly. Nothing compared to a Trillion or two in deficits. Sounds to me like the detailed plan is to run this sucker into the ground. The president is winning the message war, my that is reassuring.
Speach at the Tinker Toy factory! Priceless.
READ: The White House’s fiscal cliff proposal
Posted by Suzy Khimm on November 29, 2012 at 5:59 pm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/29/the-white-houses-fiscal-cliff-proposal/
Republican aides are circulating what they say is the White House’s opening bid on the fiscal cliff. Here’s a summary of the main components:
STAGE ONE
Taxes
Immediate increase in both top marginal rates, as well as capital gains and dividends: +$960 Billion
Additional taxes: +$600 Billion
2009-level estate tax
AMT and business tax extenders: -$236 Billion
Payroll tax extension or alternative policy: -$110B
Bonus depreciation extension
Spending/Extras
$50 billion stimulus package in FY13
Mass refi mortgage proposal
Deferral of sequester
Savings from non-entitlement mandatory programs
Extension of unemployment insurance: $30 billion
Medicare SGR Patch: $25 Billion
Increase in the debt limit to avoid requiring Congress to vote to increase
^^^^^^^^^^
Junk
It is only junk if you are looking for a “grand bargain” to fix everything. That isn’t even on the table. No one is talking about it at all. The president got re-elected, but we currently have a lame duck congress. They don’t have time to do anything close to a complete fix to the federal budget.
The time nor the will, even to speak of such a thing.
“Mass refi mortgage proposal”
Great to see yet another gift to the NAR was worked into the ‘fiscal cliff’ proposal…
There aren’t two sides Blue. They are one and the same and answer to the same corrupt entity called the fed.
they are “forcing” the republicans to respond with something similarly detailed that actually will reduce the deficit ??
Exactly….They are caught in a sandwich between their rhetoric and the reality….By maintaing all the tax cuts, hands off the military, there is only one place left big enough to cut that would ease the deficit…I say off the cliff…
Meanwhile, there is a really nasty cold going around DC right now. Everyone is sick.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people…
In all seriousness, hope you don’t get it, Polly. I understand not everyone in DC is a crooked politician or lying lobbyist.
She already said she was home today. She probably does have it. Get well Polly.
The R’s are having conniptions “Hey how come the Dems aren’t caving this time like they usually do?” At the librul sites there’s a run on popcorn.
Oxy, the colds and flu are a Republican conspiracy.
Knock it off, already, would you? Try the WWF hypothesis on for size. It fits the facts. The partisan bashing is tiresome, and it is a facsimile of real analysis.
WWF hypothesis: ALL of the shills in the legislative and exec branch of government are puppets whose strings are pulled by the PTB (the 300 fat white oligarchs). We who buy into diversionary tactics - the bread and circuses, in which we obediently eviscerate one another - are settling for the equivalent of the easy lay. Analysis-wise, that is.
WWF Hypothesis. Nice.
WWF Hypothesis
And all the people you think are the alternative third-party choices, are also part of the charade?
I have it. Not fun. The guy who reads the news at the top of the hour on WAMU sounded like he was about to explode in a coughing fit for the entire 6 minute report. It is like a bunch of people got overtired in the beginning of the month and their resistance got messed up. I wonder what that might have been? So yes, I’m blaming the political staffers. There are people in my office who haven’t taken a day off for their own illnesses (saving sick leave for their kids’ illnesses) for years who are getting knocked on their behinds with this one.
It is like a bunch of people got overtired in the beginning of the month and their resistance got messed up.
Much more likely is that the etiologic agent is something people in your age & socioeconomic group are not resistant to. Sometimes environmental fluctuations aggravate it. Here in NE OH it’s been unusually warm & humid for this time of year, I have seen many similar outbreaks with this kind of weather over the past 30 years. Us moderns tend to be overtired most of the time & have poor resistance due to our lifestyle most of the time. Seeing so many get sick in the same time & in the same area is a good marker of an epidemic. Doesn’t sound particularly dangerous so far.
That happened where I work also , no thanksgiving off for many, weekends having to work, and with the stomach flu as well as a nasty cold
So I got both ugh
Zinc may help with your cold
Definitely not dangerous. Just very, very messy.
The thing that concerned me was the shortness of breath that accompanied my bronchitis. I’m clear now, but a week ago, I was struggling to breath.
Sounds like she got it, as she said she is at home sick today.
“Meanwhile, there is a really nasty cold going around DC right now. Everyone is sick. Cokie Roberts sounded a mess on NPR this morning. The coughing is epic. Bronchitis all over the place. I’m home today. Not fun at all.”
It must be a national epidemic, because I am almost as far from DC as one can get without leaving the U.S., and I had this last week. I was literally worried about dying, and I am not a hypochondriac (took one sick day, but otherwise worked all week). And today I’m pretty much all better.
I was literally worried about dying, and I am not a hypochondriac (took one sick day,
Only taking one sick day while literally being worried about dying is not wise.
It is one way that people die. (literally)
Exactly. If you’re very sick, do us ALL a favor and stay home.
Hard to stay home when you don’t get paid for it.
Not if you have some savings.
Hard to save when there is recession every 7 years and you only make $500 a week and get laid off.
I was literally worried about dying, and I am not a hypochondriac (took one sick day, but otherwise worked all week). And today I’m pretty much all better.
Going to work when you’re sick as a dog.
How uniquely American
Ich bin ein Foxconner!
I have better things to do with my sick days than sit at home being sick!
Besides, a hacking cough isn’t that much worse than indian food cooked in the commual microwave or some guy whining about his weekend or some gal on the phone all day for her side business selling purses.
How uniquely American
Yeah, well Horatio Alger didn’t bootstrap his way to success staying home sick.
Going to work sick = Producers
Staying home sick = Parasites
For better or for worse, I have job duties which pile up when I don’t come in to work. So I may have come back to work a day sooner than I would have otherwise.
But don’t worry — if I have a really bad cough, like I did the day I took off, then I don’t come in…
if I have a really bad cough, like I did the day I took off, then I don’t come in…
The problem with many of these ailments is that people are sometimes very infectious for 24 hours before they feel very sick. They may have a brief spell of diarrhea or a tickly nose that comes & goes. So they are happily working away and exhaling clouds of infectious agents or spreading them by face to hand to surface contagion. The next day when they feel bad, whether or not they stay home, they will have already infected everyone in their office. The newly infected feel OK for the first 24 hours of the infection, and so forth.
I’m going to make it a point to go into a few realtard offices the moment I detect I’m getting sick.
go into a few realtard offices the moment I detect I’m getting sick. That’s downright eeevil.
Sometimes in TV you dont have a choice…seats have to be filled 24/7 ….and sometimes people dont live close by to cover it.
So the person there might get an unexpected treat of a 16 hour shift….
Going to work when you’re sick as a dog
I will say the pressure for me to go in to work four days last week was internal; I get less done at home, whether sick or healthy, and I don’t have a job where I need to come face-to-face with lots of people I work with unless I choose to do so. So I didn’t really think I was putting others’ health at risk by coming in last week. Imagine how guilty I felt today when my immediate neighbor at work accused me of giving her my cold. But it wasn’t as though there was any obligation on me to come in last week; it was my decision alone.
I can say that twenty-five years ago, my experience was much different, and worse. At the time I worked for a Fortune 500 company in one of those downtown high-rise glass-windowed insurance towers with poor air ventilation. When my boss’s workaholic lackey came down with a wicked nasty sore throat, you can be sure she never took a single sick day, and infected all of her colleagues with her virulent affliction.
Flu season hits U.S. early and hard
Seasonal influenza has gotten off to its quickest start in nearly a decade, health authorities say.
By Michael Muskal
December 3, 2012, 1:58 p.m.
The flu season has gotten off to its quickest start in nearly a decade, a sign that it could be a bad year for the illness, officials said on Monday.
Dr. Thomas Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urged people to get a flu shot to minimize the impact of the deadly disease’s spread. Speaking to publicize National Influenza Vaccination Week, Frieden said a flu shot was the best tool available to stop the spread of the disease, along with covering your mouth when coughing and washing your hands.
“This is the earliest regular flu season we’ve seen in nearly a decade,” Frieden said in a conference call with reporters. “That suggests this could be a bad flu year.”
The flu is caused by different strains and part of the test for scientists is trying to mix a vaccine that includes the strains that are most likely to be dominant in any given season. The current vaccine, which has been prepared in advance, seems well-matched for the strains that now working their way through the population, Frieden said.
Based on early testing, Frieden said that the number of suspected flu cases has jumped in five Southern states: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. The dominant flu type is the same as the one associated with the flu season of 2003-2004, when the outbreak was bad, he said.
The CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccine for everyone 6 months of age and older. It usually takes about two weeks for the body’s immune response to fully kick in.
Especially at risk are very young children, particularly those younger than 2, and people older than 65. People with chronic conditions such as asthma and heart disease are also at risk.
With the holiday season in mind, Frieden urged people be careful.
“Spread good cheer and give presents,” he said. But “don’t share infections and spread the flu.”
…
“Garbage pure and simple.”
The GBOT (Government Bot) speaks.
The pejorative anti-progressive troll speaks.
Nick is right Stucco.
“The truth is congress takes their orders from the Fed.”
Refute it then.
The Fed has said repeatedly in the past few months that their tools to improve the economy are not working because they are up against the zero lower bound. They are doing what they feel they can, but monetary policy isn’t good at stimulating an economy when interest rates are this low. They have specifically called for Congress to use fiscal policy to accomplish this. That means an additional stimulus package. This whole going off the fiscal cliff/finding some alternative austerity program is exactly the opposite of what the Fed has called for recently.
The administration has some additional stimulus in their current proposal, but it is clearly there as a card to be thrown away in the negotiations. No one thinks it is going to survive the talks, even though it is exactly what the Fed has said should be done.
“The Fed has said repeatedly in the past few months that their tools to improve the economy are not working because they are up against the zero lower bound.”
Really?!
The FOMC certainly hasn’t given up on the jawboning component of monetary stimulus.
U.S. NEWS
November 28, 2012, 3:24 p.m. ET
Fed Stimulus Likely in 2013
Bond Buying Is Expected to Continue in Effort to Spur Slow-Growing Economy
By JON HILSENRATH
Three months after launching an aggressive push to restart the lumbering U.S. economy, Federal Reserve officials are nearing a decision to continue those efforts into 2013 as the U.S. faces threats from the fiscal cliff at home and fragile economies elsewhere in the world.
The U.S. economy has been growing at a skimpy rate of around 2% for much of the year. While Fed officials have been encouraged by progress in the housing and banking recoveries, business uncertainty and hiring restraint are still holding back growth. And if President Barack Obama and lawmakers fail to reach an agreement before year-end, the fiscal cliff’s roughly $500 billion in tax increases and spending cuts could kick in next year and throw the economy back into recession.
For now, investors have shown optimism over the fiscal negotiations, with stocks rising early Wednesday and continuing higher after The Wall Street Journal reported the Fed’s likely intentions. The Dow closed up 106.98 points, or 0.8%, to 12985.11. Asian markets edged higher on Thursday morning, with Japan up 0.6% and South Korea up 0.9%.
Central bank officials face critical decisions at their next policy meeting Dec. 11-12. The most pressing is whether to move forward with bond-buying programs in which the Fed is accumulating immense stockpiles of long-term mortgage-backed securities and Treasury bonds. The bond-purchase programs are meant to drive down borrowing costs, and in turn boost the prices of assets like stocks and homes, and stimulate hiring, spending and investment.
The Fed signaled strongly in September that it was inclined to sustain these programs and markets have anticipated some combination of bond purchases will continue next year. Several Fed policy makers have suggested in recent interviews and public speeches that they support more bond buying. At their meeting next month, officials will debate extending the programs and hear staff presentations on their impact.
The Fed has been experimenting with different bond-buying programs since late 2008. In all, it has accumulated $900 billion in mortgage securities and more than $1 trillion in long-term Treasury securities since then. Critics of these policies inside the Fed and out worry that the programs could cause inflation or asset bubbles.
Moreover, Fed officials acknowledge that the programs aren’t as powerful as they were during the financial crisis. But they believe they are still helping the economy, especially housing, and the risks are manageable.
…
But they believe they are still helping the economy, especially housing,
Here it is…. right out of the mouth of one of the temple moneychangers. “Help housing”. This “help” results in harming people. Alot of people.
Shouldn’t their job be helping people instead of harming?
“Shouldn’t their job be helping people instead of harming?”
In this country, that’s just crazy commie talk.
I think the truth is both the Fed, the President and Congress take their orders from the same PTB and that they are all tools in the final analysis. Orders might be a little strong but all three know that if you cross certain people you will lose your power.
And as if anyone gives a flip about Cookie Roberts.
Why all the Cokie Roberts hating? Is she some kind of eeeevil being, like Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly?
I clearly have to get out more, because some times I feel culturally illiterate when I read here.
Who the hell is cookie roberts?
The libruls dislike her because they think she is a conservative in the outdated 1980’s model, but she uses her NPR street cred to appear “unbiased.” Wolf in sheep’s clothing.
(I don’t know if that’s true, but that is what i hear.)
I’ve never considered Cooky Roberst credible for anything, and certainly not for being a “Conservative”.
NPR is a propagandist wing for the Democrat party.
No one takes their commentary seriously who is reading conservative papers.
It is a soft-talking, feel-good mis-information network with an agenda, not a “news’ outlet.
It does, however, make the left side feel “informed”.
NPR is a propagandist wing for the Democrat party.
No one takes their commentary seriously who is reading conservative papers.
An instant classic.
It’s like saying “no one who believes right-wing propaganda takes left-wing propaganda seriously.”
‘It is a soft-talking, feel-good mis-information network with an agenda, not a “news’ outlet.’
I suppose I understand how NPR can come across that way to somebody accustomed to fair and balanced news.
i used to listen to NPR a ton when i was in Mississippi…they had a thing featuring the band “pavement” once.
pretty cool.
i was a big time idiot republican back then and i never remembered thinking they were leftist…but that was 15 years ago…maybe things have changed.
If anything, in the last 15 years they have moved right, especially in adding big business voices to their shows. Diane Rehm spent a whole hour today talking to Grover.
Diane Rehm appears to me to be an apologist for the underclass, with every word she speaks. Just listen to the metadata sometime. Step back and extract the semantic patterns.
“Why all the Cokie Roberts hating? Is she some kind of eeeevil being, like Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly?”
Seeing that she is a statist egg head self loathing guilty white progressive, I would say she is much worse than Rush or O’Reilly in the Eeevil department.
she is a statist egg head self loathing guilty white progressive
Kind of a mouthful, nick. How about “she is a SEHSLGWP”?
I like that
It flows.
“I would say she is much worse than Rush or O’Reilly in the Eeevil department.”
They more than counterbalance her in the st00pid department.
What’s the threshold?
Here’s a good summary:
Wouldn’t the “earn $550k” on a sale of property automatically mean your AGI is about $250k for the year?
I think the $250,000/500,000 exemption on RE profits for single/married occurs before determining your AGI.
X-GSfixr, can you contact me privately so we can discuss the comment you made yesterday regarding your life and how you feel about it?
Your comment was very interesting but its also tragic.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
You can change it.
If thats what you want to do?
Contact me:
spookwaffe@verizon.net
X-GSfixr, I hope you read the comments various posters made in response to your post. Life is a gift, but it can take effort to learn to fully appreciate it.
I agree, I went back and read the thread.
The best piece of advice I can give is to avoid those who put you down, make negative comments about you (sometimes in the name of “help”) and otherwise contribute to screwing up your life. Now, sometimes, this can be unavoidable in job and family situations, but that can be temporary as you transition to a new job and jettison family members who just aren’t supportive or at least neutral. In fact family is often the place where one gets the short end of the stick, but even with children, you don’t have to put up with them once they turn 18. You’ve done your duty. Easier said than done, I know, but not impossible.
And watch the movie “Hitch”. It’s worth it, even if only for the laughs from Kevin James’ dancing lesson.
“In fact family is often the place where one gets the short end of the stick, but even with children, you don’t have to put up with them once they turn 18.”
I’m pretty sure my 18-year-old daughter doesn’t read here.
X-GSfixr,
It has been said people who are the most successful are people who are happy… not jobs, wealth or how other people perceive you.
You have everything inside of you to BE HAPPY NOW. If you have billions of be happy now moments, you will be a smashing success.
I struggle with all of this myself but I am better at it than I was a year ago.
Had to go back and check.
Fixr, gay? Likely not. There are dozens of reasons to be unattached. But when the lonely unattached reach out for help, most people are too stupid/lazy to figure out what the reason is, or they wouldn’t understand anyway, or they don’t care because they have their own attached lives to lead and they’re tired of listening to some loser fifth-wheel. So they use the now-fashionable term “gay” as an umbrella solution just to get rid of the hanger-on. And to score a few ego points (I’m-attached-and-you’re-not-ha-ha).
+1
+2
Fixr- If you were trying to find someone to go to the Cher concert, then I’d think maybe you were gay. Springsteen? No way.
Ask a bunch of rednecks if they think you’re gay? What do you think they’re going to say? ” Gosh, no! We think you’re a swell guy and one of the fellas, Wally!” ?
Bruce Springsteen did sing that gay song “Streets of Philadelphia” for that gay Tom Hanks movie “Philadelphia”, so yes, going to that concert is gay.
My family tells me I am not a normal woman. I don’t like chick flicks, wear pants all the time, enjoy sports and science, and often react differently to things than a lot of women do.
I suppose there are some folks who might think I was gay. But I don’t let it worry me. I find men attractive and that is enough for me.
My wife wears pants a lot but can wear a dress when appropriate, and she keeps me informed about the sports stats, as I don’t read the sports page. (I suppose my “spectator sport” of choice is watching economic crises play out — about as exciting as watching paint dry!) She also pays the bills and balances the check book because she is into that, and I find arithmetic God-awful boring unless it is done for pure entertainment (e.g. working math problems in your head).
And I probably qualify as a girly man: I like to cook, play the violin, sing, and wash the dishes because I hate it less than my wife hates it.
If anyone else has a problem with the ways my wife and I depart from traditional gender roles, then that’s their problem, as we are both fully liberated and fine with who we are.
Regarding “no single women over age 30″, we can only recommend you leave the Midwest! A coincidental personal anecdote, one of the squad’s female friends who lives in Boulder just broke up with her boyfriend who lives in Kansas (with 50% custody of his kids) because he insisted she move there.
Yes, depression must be clouding the sight. We are awash in 50 somethings, even 40 somethings who are looking for a man toy.
It is better to rent than to own, as usual.
Also in 30’s and 20’s. More and more men of any age group have given up on women with their FB, Cellphones, Computer Games and Sports. Being unemployed and not having enough disposable income hurt the chances, too.
“It is better to rent than to own, as usual.”
It’s certainly the least expensive option by far.
“their”… Wait, is it the men or the women who have the computer games and the sports?
BTW, if women want a man toy, they can rent too ya know — often with very little time and money spent. If women have been looking for a long time without success, then it’s not a man toy they want.
If women have been looking for a long time without success, then it’s not a man toy they want.
I don’t know about that. When all else fails, lower your standards.
“it’s not a man toy they want…”
I’m no expert on motivations, just reporting from the field.
they can rent too ya know ??
LOL…Good one Oxide…
” When all else fails, lower your standards.”
Good company lasts a lot longer than physical attractiveness.
In Westalke Village and surrounds this is my take on the situation
Many sucessful men trade in their first wife for a younger version and buy a fancy sports car leaving the old wife really pissed off and in full on Gold digger mode.
so in other words first marriage for love which didn’t turn out so good, second marriage for money.
I don’t know what its like in the midwest ?
what its like in the midwest
Past age 25, most single people in the midwest are either fat, have kid(s), smoke, drink too much, if divorced have divorce-related financial issues, one or more of these.
have kid(s)
If I ever had to find a replacement mate, the last thing I would want is one with kids. There’s no way I’m raising some other dude’s kids.
I used to think that. Now I think there are exceptions to that.
there are exceptions to that
Maybe in David Brooks’ “Bobos In Paradise” towns like Ann Arbor or Madison which are not representative of the Midwest.
Midwest = spending five months of the year on the couch watching TeeVee because it’s too cold to go outside.
Midwest = spending five months of the year on the couch watching TeeVee because it’s too cold to go outside.
I must live in the South, then, because it’s 70 and sunny outside. I’m out playing in the yard between posts.
It’s supposed to hit 70 in Denver this week.
There’s no way I’m raising some other dude’s kids.
Sorry, I meant there were exceptions to this ^^^^^.
There’s no way I’m raising some other dude’s kids.
The man has to really like the mother and her kids for what they are. A bit more complicated than simply adopting kids or deliberately taking them as foster children, but a related process. Then there is the possibility of kids disliking the new man in their mother’s life and making an invidious comparison of him with their father.
My brother took on a project like that over 20 years ago, the foster son turned out well & they are very close now.
Midwest = spending five months of the year on the couch watching TeeVee because it’s too cold to go outside ??
I would go looney….
because it’s too cold to go outside ?? That is about 90% an individual value judgment. Most midwestern winter weather is tolerable for walking outdoors. One exception is severe icing when falls are most likely.
Last winter here in the midwest I was able to comfortably work outdoors for hours a day, for several days every week all winter long. Even worked out in scrounge-it-yourself junk yards getting spare parts for my trucks in Jan. & Feb. There were a few cold snaps of several days duration when it felt so much better to spend all day indoors. I had all my winter and springtime chores done by the end of March, so I could spend most of the summer traveling & camping. It was an unusually warm winter, I will grant that.
Midwest = spending five months of the year on the couch watching TeeVee because it’s too cold to go outside.
Maybe in North Dakota. I would say that there are fewer than 30 days a year where I wouldn’t go outside because “it’s too cold”.
Heck, most of the new shopping centers built here are of the “outdoor” variety. Indoor malls are mostly ghost towns.
There’s no way I’m raising some other dude’s kids.
Sorry, I meant there were exceptions to this ^^^^^.
Obviously many do, as half of my kid’s friends grew up with a step parent. But I would never do it. I already have my own, I don’t need to raise some other guy’s kids. That’s his job.
If I can’t where shorts and a t-shirt its to cold as far as I am concerned…
The cold doesn’t bother me much. What I hate about winter is the darkness, and that’s everywhere, warm or cold.
I already have my own, I don’t need to raise some other guy’s kids. That’s his job.
I understand. But I’ve met some of those kids…not the bad ones…the really good ones. If I were in that situation I’d be taking it case by case rather than ruling it out.
Come out of closet, X-GSfixr. It’s almost 2013, damn it!
Spook, is it true you live in B’more? I don’t always agree with you but if there is ever a B’more HBB meet up, I’d like to buy you a drink.
X-GSfixr feck em feck em all. At the end of the day what some one thinks of you ain’t worth a hill of beans.
what some one thinks of you ain’t worth a hill of beans..
The entire WORLD is based on what others think of you.
The entire WORLD is based on what others think of you.
The WORLD is made up of 6+ billion people, a fairly good number of whom would be glad to have you as a friend. Might have to look around a bit, and not just in places you habitually go to.
tresh, never a truer word was spoken.
“The entire WORLD is based on what others think of you.”
Speak for your own world. I take what others think of me into account, but I don’t base my personal world on the judgments of others, which sounds like a path to unhappiness.
X-GS,
You only go around once, it’s your script, and in your case it is a complex and interesting one.
If “they” don’t like it, there’s an old saying. “F ‘em if they can’t take a joke”. Said to yourself with a worldly shrug. It’s not like you”re going around with a chip on your shoulder.
Is it possible that there’s just not enough people with your temperament for you to find a decent conversation?
(I can’t either, but I chalk it up to the fact that anymore, you don’t dare have a convo at work in the DC area that’s about anything other than - well - WORK. I swear, people with not enough to do will use the slack time to jockey for position in the crassest ways while laying bets on who gets pink-slipped next. No camaraderie in the trenches whatsoever - a real lost opportunity. It was NOT like this during the 80s recession.)
At least I feel right at home with my classmates. All of us are haggard. We communicate with winces, nervous twitches and grunts. We clutch our stomachs a lot. Many of the would-be engineers in the program have drop-dead senses of humor. For these, I am grateful.
X-GS, You are wise and you don’t need to wonder about what ‘they’ think. F- ‘em if they can’t take a joke.
Hello HBBers
The remodel tunnel has a light ahead. The majority of it is behind us. Our new Kitchen and Ba chocolate cabinets are beautiful. You guessed it, the granite arrives this morning. The fabrication is really reasonable.
Ordered an LG suite on sale at Home Cheapo. Saved $800. I hope the consumer reviews are
accurate.
The last thing after flooring is three steps leading to the front entrance. The lawn walk is a lawsuit waiting to happen. It’s muddy out there.
House and remodel, all cash. We’re not spring chickens. We don’t do debt well.
Everyone have a great Monday.
Throwing good money after bad.
Don’t be harsh. Tears of Joy do not come cheap.
BTW Awaiting, you are supposed to put your email address in the other box.
Can’t see well with tears of joy?
hey awaiting that sounds great!!
you are moving faster than I am. I just about finished my brick patio rebuild in the back yard. now to re-do the back lawn to a much smaller size.
Firstly, that email placement error is from a 2:00AM eyes open mind. Sorry about that.
Cactus-
You probably didn’t have as many warts to remove as us. This place needed everything. We had to clean out the raingutters, spoon out the ground drains (20 yrs of neglect-water intrusion issues from it), silicon the windows for leaks, just to get ready for the rain. We wanted to refinish the cabinets, but they were shot. Brick is my favorite hardscape. Very classy and ageless. Good pick, cactus.
We are doing some curb appeal, and then stopping the spending orgy for awhile. This is going to be a happy beautiful home. We’re adopting a dog from ther pound soon. Can’t wait.
Life is too short, not to have a place to call home. Congrats to you as well.
No longer Awaiting,
I’m really enjoying your enjoyment. Building a house (without compromise and the way I wanted it) was one of the most satisfying/personally rewarding things I’ve done in my life, so there is a vicarious pleasure in reading about your progress.
Thanks for sharing;I’m seriously happy for you. What a wonderful holiday time this will be for youse.
ahansen
Well, Thank You my dear lady. This is our first resale (always bought new McMansions) and our first one-story. Picking the cabinets, outside shutters (soon to be up), and even the wall texture, has connected us to this adorable older modest home. (1900 sq ft)
Can’t wait to do the yards. I found my shovels in storage and I am reading up on trees, plants, and ground covers. The learning curve has been fun.
I appreciated your post.
Awaiting,
Congrats, if you’re going to be staying there you deserve to get what you want. Seems right to me.
Lip
lmao
I found granite to be fairly cheap* when we had our kitchen done last yr. I remember granite costing $70+/sq ft during the bubble, but we paid about $40/sq ft installed and they threw in the sink as part of the deal.
*of course it depends on the coloration and the edge pattern
I found granite to be fairly cheap*
Some granite in Brazil is cheaper than Formica.
I think the granite in my kitchen is from Brazil.
Now I await the scorn of the granite-maligners.
Cheapskates like me take Formica for granite.
Watching the spendthrift trendchasers rip the out of style junk called granite out of their houses is going to be a special moment.
“Out of style junk called granite”
LOL. Right now I am thinking of some beautiful medieval and Renaissance palaces I have visited, and their abundant use of stone.
What did you do for window treatments?
No more than $500 for the entire house. My wife made some and bought the rest; I’m unclear on details.
Getting formica or some other crappy surface wouldn’t have saved a lot of money; I don’t have a McMansion so the kitchen isn’t gigantic. The savings from not getting granite would’ve been de minimus. Under a grand for sure.
The really expensive stuff these days is Staron and Silestone anyway.
Gee wiz you guys….. your purses must be much lighter by now.
RAL, you go off the edge sometimes. We’re talking a difference of a couple hundred bucks, at least in my case. You’re right on many things but it seems pretty petty and missing-the-point to be against granite when the difference in cost is essentially a rounding error.
We’re talking about a few thousand to replace these hideous “countertops”. (because you’re going to be replacing them…. possibly multiple times
)
What happened to the counters that were replaced?
With all due respect, you might not want to use your e-mail address as your HBB name.
EUROPE NEWS
December 3, 2012, 7:14 a.m. ET
Euro-Zone Manufacturing Contracts Again in November
By ILONA BILLINGTON
Euro-zone manufacturing activity contracted for the ninth consecutive month in November, albeit at a slower pace than in October, with continued weak demand indicating that the 17-nation economy will struggle to grow in the final three months of the year, a survey showed Monday.
While signs are emerging that the worst of the downturn in the manufacturing sector and the economy overall was reached in the third quarter, there are as yet only small pockets of improvement, suggesting it will be some time before there is a solid and sustainable pickup.
Data firm Markit’s purchasing managers’ index rose to 46.2 in November from 45.4 in October, unchanged from its preliminary reading, and was in line with economist forecasts. A level above 50 signals expanding activity, while below 50 signals a contraction.
“While some comfort can be taken from the fact that overall euro-zone manufacturing activity contracted at the slowest rate for eight months in November with most countries seeing reduced declines, this is still a very weak report,” said Howard Archer, chief euro-zone and U.K. economist for IHS Global Insight.
“Although there are tentative signs that euro-zone manufacturing activity may have bottomed out, conditions continue to be tough and any significant recovery still looks some way off and further euro-zone gross domestic product contraction in the fourth quarter remains very much on the cards,” Mr. Archer said.
…
Greece: When anger goes beyond despair
By Athanasia Chalari, Special to CNN
November 19, 2012 — Updated 1210 GMT (2010 HKT)
Municipal workers clashes with riot police during a demonstration against the presence of a German deputy labour minister Hans-Joachim Fuchtel, in Thessaloniki on November 15, 2012.
* For the last three years Greek society has suffered a prolonged period of economic and political crisis
* The crisis has caused social destabilization, sociologist Athanasia Chalari says
* She argues ongoing turbulence during the 20th century caused delays in social, political and economic development
Editor’s note: Dr Athanasia Chalari is a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Worcester and a research associate at the Hellenic Observatory, London School of Economics.
London (CNN) — For the last three years Greek society has suffered a prolonged period of economic and political crisis, which has been magnified by unprecedented austerity measures.
The crisis has caused social destabilization, and dramatically affected the everyday lives of Greeks.
Such measures have never before been implemented in any European Union country, and their political and social consequences have not been effectively calculated or, in many respects, even anticipated.
Modern Greece suffered ongoing turbulence during the 20th century, from the Balkan wars and conflict with Turkey to the Nazi occupation, civil war and the military juntas.
These all caused significant delays in social, political and economic development, and did not allow Greek society to form and organize freely.
After the fall of the last military junta in 1974, democracy in Greece was rapidly restored but it was not done so systematically nor thoroughly. Inevitably, structural dysfunctions formed.
Today, Greeks are experiencing a different social reality, characterized by uncertainty, insecurity, distress, disappointment and the inability to map out any form of future for their lives.
Last year I conducted thirty five in-depth interviews with Greeks aged between 20 to 65, who are still living in the country.
Participants expressed negativity, pessimism and disorientation, particularly regarding the lack of any specific plan to improve their everyday lives.
“We see our dreams get destroyed, and our hopes for a better future disappear,” said one 27-year old woman, an unemployed doctor.
Their comments reflect the overall reality in Greece: Unemployment rates have increased continuously, with the overall rate now at 24.4%. For those aged under 24, it’s hit 55%.
…
Read more: Greeks vote for more economic pain
What’s going to happen here when the various governmental agencies “have to” cut back?
Having government workers, or ex government workers, rioting against the government will most likely happen here someday. They have a right to all of that free stuff.
An unemployed doctor? I understand they have socialised medicine but is there a prohibition against private practice? It seems like there would be some demand for a way to see a doctor within waiting even if you have to pay for it out-of-pocket. Unfortunately, I think people lose the mentality to make their own jobs in such economies.
Or Joe 6 Ouzo doesn’t have any money to pay a doctor, or if he does he’ll choose to wait in line to see the “free” doctor.
It’s also possible that she is treating people on the side, but is hoping to get her “real job” back.
It’s also possible that the “unemployed” label was applied by the journalist and not by herself.
We do love to jump to conclusions on this blog.
We do - but after reading the 57th story of a FB who is a “victim” only to discover that they took out huge amounts of home equity and don’t want to pay it back…
As for this doctor and especially AMERICAN doctors.
Being a doctor USED to be a VERY middle class job.
Somehow we now think all doctors must make seven figures and drive Porches. Or work for the state for golden pensions after 20 years.
We all remember the movies and stories of doctors making housing calls and being paid with chickens.
We do love to jump to conclusions on this blog.
drive Porches.
Screened?
As for this doctor and especially AMERICAN doctors.
Being a doctor USED to be a VERY middle class job.
Actually, pretty much anywhere outside the USA it is a middle to upper middle class profession. Heck, our nurses are better paid than MD’s are in other countries.
There are places around here where being a doctor is, or at least used to be, looked down upon as ‘day labor’ where one ‘works with their hands.’ One of my former partners was denied admission to a hoity-toity club in Lake Forest. The Captains of Industry didn’t want a mere laborer crossing their threshold.
hoity-toity club in Lake Forest
Onwentsia?
Goon, you are the winner! Are you from LF or environs?
Hmmm, now what to give you for a prize? I know, a virtual set of stainless steel appliances for your kitchen. And if you order by midnight tonight, a free virtual granite countertop!
Are you from LF or environs?
No, but we have family that run the spectrum from Social Register to cousin-in-laws on disability. We have swam in the Onwentsia pool and eaten in the Onwentsia dining room. And it all feels so alien to us, being the “poor” nephew to a wing of the family that has been bathed in inherited wealth to an extent we can’t fully wrap our mind around…
Euro-zone jobless rate rises to record high
Europe’s youth hit hard, with a quarter out of work and bleak demand prospects
Monday, 03 December, 2012, 12:00am
Almost one in four young Europeans was out of work in October as unemployment in the euro zone hit a record high, with more than 170,000 jobs lost as the economy slumped into recession, official data showed.
With the debt crisis further undermining sagging economies, the Eurostat data agency showed the jobless rate in the 17-nation euro zone climbing to a fresh high of 11.7 per cent in October, or more than 18 million people out of work. It was the 14th consecutive monthly record since September last year when unemployment hit 10.3 per cent.
But the future looks even bleaker for those in search of work. European Union forecasts earlier this month saw unemployment set to peak at almost 12 per cent next year due to weak domestic demand as governments continue on the path of austerity.
The year-on-year figures from Eurostat released on Friday painted a particularly dark picture for under 25s, with nearly one in four jobless both in the euro zone and the 27-nation EU - against one in five a year earlier.
Compared with October 2011, an extra 279,000 young people were out of work in the EU and 350,000 in the euro zone in October this year.
The youth unemployment rate rose to 23.9 per cent in the euro zone and to 23.4 per cent in the EU compared with 21.2 per cent and 21.9 per cent a year earlier, Eurostat said.
But in Greece, 57 per cent of under 25s were jobless in August, the latest available figures, and in Spain 55.9 per cent in October.
“Unemployment among young people has always been higher than general joblessness but the economic crisis has widened the gap further,” said Katinka Barysch of the Centre for European Reform think tank.
To get a full picture of the scale of the problem, a better indicator was to count the total number of young people not in employment, education or training.
Last year, Europe had 7.5 million in that bracket aged between 15 and 24. But “there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the job crisis. And many measures will not bite until growth returns”, Barysch said.
Overall, the euro zone’s jobless rate of 11.7 per cent in October was up from 11.6 per cent in September, with the numbers out of work rising to 18.7 million from 18.49 million, Eurostat said.
The highest rate was recorded again in Spain, where 26.2 per cent of adults are out of work. Austria again posted the lowest rate of 4.3 per cent and benchmark Germany and the Netherlands were at 5.4 and 5.5 per cent respectively.
Countries such as Portugal registered a 12-month rise from 13.7 per cent to 16.3 per cent.
In comparison, unemployment was at 7.9 per cent in the United States in September and at 4.2 per cent in Japan.
…
one in four young Europeans was out of work
And in the USA it’s about one in five.
Developed economies that have off-shored their occupations do not create enough jobs for their populations.
And because of this lack of jobs there is not enough income generated to support the jobs that have been offshored.
Which has really been the case for some time but then nobody cared all that much because then borrowing made up the difference.
And so here we are.
Yeah - so lets allow 11 million illegals into the country, refuse to deport them and give them a pathway to work legally!
That will sure help all the out of work Americans!
I have often wondered why environmental groups and unions support the democrat party so blindly - especially when the hard core democratic polices directly harm their own groups.
Oh well, I guess being able to abort your baby at any time and for any reason trumps all logic.
“Oh well, I guess being able to abort your baby at any time and for any reason trumps all logic.”
It is better than being left to die because some doctor is afraid to pull the plug on a pregnancy until the fetus’s heart stops beating - as happened recently in Ireland where the law has exceptions for life of the mother.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/23/world/europe/ireland-abortion-controversy/index.html
Science isn’t one of nannerz strong points….
Developed countries that have become “immigration pools” for third world countries, don’t have enough jobs for their own people.
And so what does that do to the price of labor? Sort of deflates it, no?
And so what does that do to the price of labor? Sort of deflates it, no?
cheap labor increases the value of our dollars. you get to buy more stuff with your dollars because of efficient or high value (low wage) labor.
“cheap labor increases the value of our dollars. you get to buy more stuff with your dollars because of efficient or high value (low wage) labor.”
If you are the cheap labor, you may actually be able to buy less stuff.
If you are the cheap labor, you may actually be able to buy less stuff.
yep, but low wages are where just about everybody starts out. it’s the price of youth and inexperience. when you gain experience and skill, you get paid more.
Yeah - but they have ALL that free government cheese.
Just give me the cheese. I could care less about your culture, language or laws. And I will work under the table. You think I am going to pay these insane taxes?
I will send money home. Hopefully, my house will be built and paid for when I “return” home - especially when this place starts to collapse.
And you should see how we treat “undocumented workers” in my home country…here is a hint. There ain’t no free cheese.
Associated Press - World’s carbon pollution rose 3 percent in 2011, new study says:
“The amount of heat-trapping pollution the world spewed rose again last year by 3 percent. So scientists say it’s now unlikely that global warming can be limited to a couple degrees — an international goal.
The overwhelming majority of the increase was from China, the world’s biggest carbon-dioxide polluter. Of the planet’s top ten polluters, the United States and Germany were the only countries that reduced their carbon-dioxide emissions.
Last year, all the world’s nations combined pumped nearly 38.2 billion tons of carbon-dioxide into the air from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, according to new international calculations on global emissions published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change. That’s about a billion tons more than the previous year.”
We’re doing so well with 7 billion humanoids, it can only be better with 10 billion, 12 billion, 15 billion humanoids, right? And keep telling yourself that infinite growth in a finite ecosystem is possible
I agree with you. I wish I could remember who said it, but the best way to halt global warming is to put on a condom.
Because the solutions to the problems created by humanoids is to breed more humanoids, right? When your cage full of gerbils starts filling up with gerbil sh*t, the obvious solution is to add more gerbils
“Because the solutions to the problems created by humanoids is to breed more humanoids, right?”
I’m tellin’ ya. Because we’re sure committing global suicide.
Breed and cut down trees (which absorb CO2 and provide shade and cool) to house those gerbils.
When your cage full of gerbils starts filling up with gerbil sh*t, the obvious solution is to add more gerbils
they don’t have the intelligence or technology to hire other gerbils to remove it. we do.
But if you do that, then you will be defeated by the guys who DON’T put on condoms will beat you. Those studs will have willing servants to work your fields and bring home a gov cheesecheck. Save the planet, ruin yourself.
Literal Tragedy of the Commons.
As was summarized in the opening sequence of Idiocracy.
“Yer sh*ts all effed up and you talk like a fag, scrode!”
“Go away! I’m ‘batin’!”
And yet the globe is not warmer than 1998. Evidence of that alleged link between co2 and global warming is getting weaker and weaker.
the doom and gloomers are blaming sandy on global warming, cmon man.
the doom and gloomers
That’s what we’re here for. All negative news, all the time
Sandy, was a product of AMO warming a natural cycle. There is a key difference between saying something is a product of global warming which has occurred for centuries as we recover from the little ice age and AGW which claims man is causing the temperatures to rise. If I try to treat a cold with antibiotics, I am wasting my money and possibly causing resistance problems. Buying AL Gore’s carbon credits is a similar waste. Raising seawalls might be a prudent use of money.
Buying Al Gore’s carbon credits
Yo Dannyboy, you don’t get it. We don’t want to stop global warming. If anything, we want it to accelerate. Irreversible global warming resulting in centuries-long or milliennia-long alteration to the global ecosystem rendering the planet mostly uninhabitable for humanoids is the only way that the capitalist model of infinite growth in a finite ecosystem is not possible.
Maybe humanoids v2.0 will get it right in the year 8012.
Edit: the only way to prove that…
I’ve read a lot on the contrarian viewpoint regarding AMO, etc. I guess if I were funded by by Scaife, Exxon/Mobil, et al., I could probably find a correlation between eating twinkies and global warming.
But the fact reains that this Eastbrook guy - the spokesperson for your theory - is a cheesball. His background isn’t even in anything regarding to the climate change, it’s geology.
A friend saw him speak last year at a shop a few buildings down and walked out of his presentation before he was about to lay into him. I think te owners of the shop were baffled that he didn’t talk about his educational and professional background, but instead hijacked it with his voodoo science and newfound lucrative grandstanding.
Yet he correctly predicted the return of the salmon and the cooling of the pacific. What were the credentials of the person that developed the continental drift theory and plate tectonics? Hint it was not geology.
So the salmon are returning to the Columbia, but not the Fraser River, Stait of Georgia or rest of the Puget Sound. Hi argument is not very compelling. Here is one link:
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/climatesnapshot/fraser-river-salmon-dying-climate-change-heats-waters
I watched an hour or so of the ICCC7 and there is little convincing information from a scientific standpoint regarding this viewpoint. I felt like I was watching a presentation for someone trying to sell me a mutual fund. A lot of fear mongering though. Most of your statements and logic are derived from this, and after watching the YouTube videos I understand the nature of the beast.
Lie I said, if Eastbrook can explain the die-off of the coral reefs, the melting glaciers, etc., thsn I would find his theory a bit more credible. But most of these trends are not 30-year warming/cooling cycles,but are unprecedented in modern civilization and highly correlated to human activity.
Correlation does not prove causation but that is really all the AGW people had going for them. Between the late 70’s and 1998, both Co2 in the atmosphere and global temperatures moved in lock step, however since 1998 the relationship has broken down. The natural trends now explain 90% plus of what is going on, in fact if you believe we should match the normal GW that occurs in a interglacier warming period we should be more than a degree C warmer than we are now without any contribution from co2.
I just have a hard time seeing how 5+ billion people and the hundreds of billions of tons of waste we are putting into the biosphere won’t have a ecological and climatic blow back. What I do know is the lag time for all this stuff is decades. What ever the effects of the financial cliff will be on GDP the weather the last few years has subtracted about 25% off our growth rate. What could have been a 2.5%-3% growth was cut to under 2% and that’s a pretty stiff headwind.
What I do know is the lag time for all this stuff is decades.
More like centuries in my poorly informed opinion. I have seen no evidence that any of the proposed actions to decrease the “man-made” part of global warming will have any effect in a time frame of less than 50-100 years. I.e, if the human race completely vanished tomorrow, MMGW would continue for another century.
On CNN and FOX I am seeing reports of a huge 125mi. traffic jam from St. Petersburg to Moscow and headlines like “Moscow sees heaviest November snow in 50 years”.
It’s just like the skeptics predicted, check the link for proof that AGW ended in June.
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMP7ZE16AH_index_0.html
“Moscow sees heaviest November snow in 50 years”
Record snow has ZERO to do with coldness (of course the temp must be close to or below freezing, but that goes without saying). In cold climates such as Moscow, you’re more likely to get record snowfall with temps above average. Today’s high in Moscow was 34, the low 21, with snow and wind. That is hardly a cold snap for December. The average high for December in Moscow is 27, average low 18 (wikipedia). If they are indeed getting record snowfall, it means nothing except it does fall in line with climate change models: more severe storms as Mother Nature tries to correct (find equilibrium, which is what gives us winds, pressure gradients, storms etc) and overshoots.
I see you didn’t fall for my hypocrisy. If you follow my link the title of the article is “Snow cover hits record lows”. It was produced by the European Space Agency which is the European equivalent of our NASA+NOAA. ESA has been producing this report for years. Another quote: “This is the lowest June snow extent since satellite observations began some 45 years ago. June snow cover is found to be falling much faster than expected from climate models, and is disappearing even quicker than summertime Arctic sea-ice.”
“I see you didn’t fall for my hypocrisy.”
Sorry. I saw the headline and ran for the endzone.
Moscow also had a record heatwave and wild fires two years ago in which thousands died.
Keep on breeding. And keep burning more coal and more oil. Everyone on this blog will be dead when the humanoids of next century get to enjoy the consequences
Come on Dan, that CO2 is a greenhouse gas was proven long ago by putting a sheet of glass over a wooden box. The funny thing about a greenhouse is that it works in reverse at night. Why don’t we ever hear about that?
How many treatments for Aids worked in the test tube but did not work with humans? There is not good evidence that co2 raises global temperatures, in fact co2 has always risen after the warming not before in the historical records, oceans absorb less co2 when they are warmer.
This compulsive resorting to common sense makes you a very politically incorrect person.
There is not good evidence that co2 raises global temperatures,
Evidence for man-made climate change getting stronger - U.N.
(Reuters) - Evidence that global warming is man-made is getting stronger, the head of a U.N. panel of climate scientists said, in a further blow to sceptics who argue rising temperatures can be explained by natural variations.
….The influential U.N. climate panel said the probability human activity was the main cause of climate change was “at least 90 percent” in its last report in 2007.
Pachauri told Reuters late on Wednesday he expected the panel would raise the level of that likelihood even higher in its next report, due in 2013.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/11/29/climate-change-environment-doha-idINDEE8AS08620121129?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FINtopNews+%28News+%2F+IN+%2F+Top+News%29
a U.N. panel of climate scientists…………………
That’s all I need to read.
You know that won’t put out any misleading or biased information. NO, not when the UN must do something to control the populations around the world from, overpopulation, poor health, poor education, world hunger, global catastrophes, and a laundry list of world problems that the UN, yes the UN will “fix”.
Just like the TSA.
Give us more money, more power, and more authority to write rules for all the humans to live by…….except us.
“Give us more money, more power, and more authority to write rules for all the humans to live by…….except us”. Mitt Romney speaking at the 2011 Koch Brother’s “Up Theirs!” Jackson Hole Retreat
Notice the U.N. refers to their 2007 report and not recent reports by the U.K which increasing admit the models have failed. Five additional years of no global warming certainly does change the probabilities that it is primarily caused by man. Yes, with the U.N. it is about money, they thought they had it in the bank until the globe just stopped warming. Your broader point is spot on, it is just modern paganism, necessary to fill the void left by not believing in God.
“Give us more money, more power, and more authority to write rules for all the humans to live by…….except us”
Reminds me of congress voting for a health care plan that as I understand it doesn’t apply to them…
I do admit I might not understand it. Does “Obamacare” apply to congress?
Dan, I don’t expect the psychopaths that want to rule the world are so much paganists, rather that their message is packaged for the so gullible.
Congress and their staff are in the federal employee health benefits system that all the executive branch employees are in. Why would they buy anything off the exchanges when they already have group insurance (or may be on Medicare)?
that alleged link between co2 and global warming is getting weaker and weaker.
No. What is getting weaker and weaker is your argument.
The argument for either “side” of this debate is irrelevant, as humanoid behavior has pushed it beyond the tipping point that changes to humanoid behavior could reverse it.
How is that Brazilian economy doing? You certainly do need some of the global warming money. You live in a place and cannot even see the fall, I saw coming thousands of miles away.
You live in a place and cannot even see the fall,
It’s hard to see or feel The Fall living on The Tropic of Capricorn.
How is that Brazilian economy doing?
I think fine but I live in Rio de Janeiro. It’s different here. Rio’s a boom town - an oil/mining/tourism/tech boom town in a mountain/beach city voted world’s most beautiful, with beautiful, happy people good food and warm weather. Houses have tripled in value since 2008 and I’m more fit down here.
(But there is no bubble because everybody wants to live here because they aren’t building any more prime land and with the Olympics coming up and billions being spent on rebuilding infrastructure, ports and safety it’s different here.)
Thanks for asking.
How’s Albuquerque?
Yes, I know things are different in Rio, it is not a bubble. LOL.
The “anthropomorphic global warming” is not about evidence. It is a religion. It is a religion of GAIA, mother-earth worship and contempt for other human populations. To save the earth, we must strip it of humans and worship nature.
The facts don’t matter. This is a fundamentalist cult. They want your allegiance, freely given, or coerced.
Which is precisely why we favor global warming 100%. Same logic as “we had to destroy the village to save it”. Too bad about the coral reefs and animal extinctions, but after the humanoids go extinct, newer and better animals will evolve.
“The “anthropomorphic global warming” is not about evidence. It is a religion.” Jimmy Swaggart
To save the earth, we must strip it of humans and worship nature.
Will they make us smoke pot and listen to pan flute music???
Had we listened to Al Gore and spent trillions in the 1980’s and reduced CO2 emissions, he would be the first to point out the warming had stopped and he would take credit for it. However, since co2 emissions have gone up substantially and no warming has occurred their only play is to engage in personal attacks on the people that point out the fact confirmed by NASA and others that we have been on a plateau for more than 15 years. I think it is desperation, I think many now know that it is a natural cycle and is about to go into a cooling phase and the chance to make money off the hoax is about to be lost.
co2 emissions have gone up substantially
Pollution is cool. I’d love to have the passion to defend it.
I think it is desperation,
Just because some people understand data does not mean they are “desperate”. Most people don’t really give a s…. I don’t much.
IMO, there’s no way to stop this train but that doesn’t mean there is no train and it does not mean I’m going to promote a runaway train with bad science.
Pollution is cool. I’d love to have the passion to defend it.
Embrace the brown cloud! Particulate emissions are good for us!
You guys are getting more ridiculous all the time. NO one is in favor of “global warming”, pollution, killing babies or putting granny on the street, the usual claims when anybody on the conservative side wants to stop wasting money.
The entire point of the argument from the “global warming deniers” is that WE ARE CAUSING IT.
there is no evidence that we are causing it.
So, making lots of rules and regulations and taxing everyone in the world to breathe, will not change the situation.
Global temperature changes have been going on for centuries, often slowly, sometimes more quickly.
Did auto emissions cause the end of the “ice age”.
I don’t think so. So what did?
we can only speculate.
Diogenes 2012-12-03 15:32:11:
“You guys are getting more ridiculous all the time. NO one is in favor of “global warming”, pollution, killing babies”
You’re funny! (and a typing contradiction)
Diogenes 2012-12-03 11:10:15:
“Let’s see, you are for:……..Killing babies……”
LOL
NO one is in favor of “global warming”, pollution
Uh, I thought that our captains of industry claim that pollution is necessary for profitability. There’s even a term for that, but I can’t remember it.
… and cue ADD Dan’s superior knowledge to hundreds of Nobel Prize winners expertise…
*snerk*
It would be interesting to see someone refute his argument as opposed to attacking him. I find it unlikely that anyone will refute it, you need data for that to happen.
He’s been refuted here many times with overwhelming data.
Businessweek - The Needless Tragedy of Student Loan Defaults:
“For the first time on record, the delinquency rate on student loans has jumped above the rate for credit cards, car loans, or any other kind of consumer loan. The tragedy? Many of these loans will default, with stunningly harsh consequences, even though there are many good options for debt relief — deferment, forbearance, or reductions in monthly payments. (because kicking the can is always the solution)
Unlike other debt, student loans can’t be discharged in bankruptcy. Collection charges of up to 20 percent can be skimmed off the top of payments — enough to turn a 10-year loan into a 19-year loan. To say nothing of the lasting damage to a borrower’s credit score, which will make it hard or impossible to get a credit card, auto loan, or mortgage.
The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, using different methodologies, says student loan debt passed the $1 trillion mark sometime last winter.”
And yet the NAR-scum will keep pimping on “pent-up demand” and “household formation”.
I wonder how much of this student debt in default is attached to non residents, who may return to their native country never to be seen again.
We went to grad school with many, many international students from India. They did not qualify for any federal student loans.
And those with green cards will probably stay here.
Bloomberg - Fracking Secrets by Thousands Keep U.S. Clueless on Wells:
“A subsidiary of Nabors Industries Ltd pumped a mixture of chemicals identified only as “EXP-F0173-11″ into a half-dozen oil wells in rural Karnes County, Texas, in July.
Few people outside Nabors, the largest onshore drilling contractor by revenue, know exactly what’s in that blend. This much is clear: one ingredient, an unidentified solvent, can cause damage to the kidney and liver, according to safety information about the product that Michigan state regulators have on file.
A year-old Texas law that requires drillers to disclose chemicals they pump underground during hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, was powerless to compel transparency for EXP-F0173-11. The solvent and several other ingredients in the product are considered a trade secret by Superior Well Services, the Nabors subsidiary. That means they’re exempt from disclosure.”
Mahvelous. Now that stuff will seep into the groundwater and make its way into the water supply. The same is happening wherever fracking is being done. This is not gonna end well.
As for their trade secrets, perhaps our resident chemist can tell us whether it is possible to analyze that sh*& and tell what’s in it?
It’s very easy to analyze this stuff with GC-MS or other analytical methods found in any lab. Many of those proprietary formulations are simply variations of well-known mixtures. Sometimes a chemcial company will tweak a % here or there. Not necessarily because the solution is any more effective; they may want to get around somebody else’s patent, or because they want the ooh shiny caché of a secret formula, or because they want to hide it from the public, or they just want customers to buy their brand instead of generic.
The major components of types of fluids are probably listed in the older open literature where the original research was done, or in ASTM or similar standards, or even standard solutions that you can buy for the GC-MS, GC, or FTIR analysis.
That’s what I figured. Thank you!
Keep your eyes on Old Man River. The Mississippi river is going to shine a bright light on the dark side of fracking, the huge amount of surface water being sequestered from the local water cycle. I saw a story today that 20,000 jobs are going be lost over the next month and billions of dollars of agricultural and mining output will evaporate (pun intended). Here in Texas we just dropped back into severe drought levels with record high temperatures covering most of the state. Water=the new precious.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-03/low-mississippi-s-ripple-effect-imperils-20-000-u-s-jobs.html
Interesting that the entire North Dakota congressional delegation opposes increasing flow from the Missouri River to the Mississippi. Of course that might mean less for the great fracking enterprise in their state. The horror!
I predict that no comprehensive water policy for the Plains and the western states will emerge from the impending disaster until it is entirely and irrevocably too late.
There is a reason why places like Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Buffalo, etc. became great cities (before they were destroyed by democrats and public unions).
GREAT and abundant water supplies.
These cities will rise again. The water is still there.
Once they ban public unions who knows how great they could become again…
Perhaps not Buffalo. It was a key port, an end of the waterway and time to haul on land, or the other way around. The Welland Canal put an end to Buffalo’s reason for being a great city. Ocean going ships can come right up the St. Lawrence into Lake Erie without unloading.
Once they ban public unions who knows how great they could become again…
Without the factories returning from China I don’t see how it will happen.
Without the factories returning from China I don’t see how it will happen.
The higher the price of crude oil gets, the less of an advantage overseas manufacturing will have compared to domestic. There are many other possible events that could change the Chinese manufacturing edge, read more sci-fi to fill in the details. “Earth Abides” and “The Last Centurion” may excite your imagination.
There was a good reason for Detroit being founded where it was. The inland waterways of the midwest are a terrific resource, whether or not they are being used well at the moment.
The higher the price of crude oil gets, the less of an advantage overseas manufacturing will have compared to domestic.
True, but wouldn’t those jobs just migrate to low wage Mexico?
Those jobs ALREADY migrated to low wage Mexico.
The solvent and several other ingredients in the product are considered a trade secret by Superior Well Services, the Nabors subsidiary. That means they’re exempt from disclosure.” ??
Exempt from disclosure to the EPA ?? I bet not…
The biggest concern the last time I went back to NEPA was the fact that doctors coul not discuss and sicknesses caused by fracking with peers, pretty mucn a non-diclosure, which flies in the face of medicine’s mission.
And of course when the gas companies were at fault for polluting groundwater, a letter of indemnification was signed by property owners releasing the companies from any future liability, as well as a lifestime supply of bottled water was then offered. This happened up in Wyoming and Bradford Counties, near where I grew up (and will return to visit family this week).
I recall someone telling me that the airborne chemical release was exmplt from EPA regulations, so much of it would be sprayed into the air in a fine mist so that it would evarporate and not be subject to the EPA regulatory whining.
The solvent and several other ingredients in the product are considered a trade secret…..that means they’re exempt from disclosure.
Corporate trade secrets trump public health. “Uniquely American”
Just one more example of regulatory capture by monied interests. Political donations by the regulated are graft. The politicians are mostly grafters. We adore them, right up to the top.
New York Times - Lines Blur as Texas Gives Industries a Bonanza:
“Under (Governor) Perry, Texas gives out more of the incentives than any other state, around $19 billion a year, an examination by the New York Times has found. Texas justifies its largess by pointing out that it is home to half of all the private sector jobs created over the last decade nationwide.
Yet the raw numbers mask a more complicated reality behind the flood of incentives, the examination shows, and raise questions about who benefits more, the businesses or the people of Texas.
Along with the huge job growth, the state has the third-highest proportion of hourly jobs paying at or below minimum wage. And despite its low level of unemployment, Texas has the 11th-highest poverty rate among states.”
Welfare for corporations = invisible hand of free market
Welfare for Lucky Duckies = communism
How does the Texas poverty rate compare to Mexico?
Those that haven’t had the chance should see the stark difference between the US cities and the Mexican cities.
Example anywhere along the AZ border you have relatively nice modest homes in the US (some of you would call them shacks). But on the Mexican side you would find “shanties”.
Example anywhere along the AZ border you have relatively nice modest homes in the US (some of you would call them shacks). But on the Mexican side you would find “shanties”.
The result of our ’socialist’ building codes and zoning laws.
Did you miss the memo? California is a (Democrat and labor union run) bankrupt failure therefore the Texas model is the only one to emulate.
Texas had the same size deficit, they just covered it up better.
http://www.businessinsider.com/texas-budget-shortfall-2011-1
Damn those unions! Oh wait, Texas is at will state and is the SECOND largest state by population in the nation.
Hmmmm….
And how does the poverty rate in Mexico compare to Bangladesh?
The USA used to be a first world country. If Texas wants to secede and leave the first world they should be free to do so.
That’s what President Lincoln said (when they were part of Mexico).
I think back then Honest Abe had yet to be elected to any office.
I think so too, but he still gets called Pres I would expect. As for the honesty, that was apparently rather situational.
Just read your post from yesterday, X-GSfixr.
My unsolicited advice to you is as follows:
1. Don’t concern yourself with what others think. Most people are wrong most of the time is my general theory, and have yet to see evidence to the contrary.
2. I’ve been with the same woman since college, so I can’t say I have great advice about meeting someone other than to say that you need to live near a major metro. It will improve your odds. Also, don’t count out online dating sites. I know a number of 30 yo’s who found their significant other from online dating. And don’t fear rejection… embrace it. As I told a single friend recently, if you don’t ask, she can’t say yes and she can’t say no. And no isn’t the end of the world.
3. Everyone goes through emotional slumps. Exercise, practice your favorite hobbies or past times, read a new book, go on a trip. Break your “routine” with something you enjoy and try and gain some perspective.
4. Never give up. Seriously. If there is one thing you should listen to in this list, it is this. The world doesn’t care about you or whether you reach your full potential. There are 6+ billion other people on this planet who are just like you, all competing for the same things in life. The only thing that separates you from them is your choice to continue to struggle, to continue to fight. It doesn’t guarantee “success”, but it damn well is required to get there. Don’t give up.
As the advice was free, it is probably worth what you paid, so feel free to disregard as necessary. Just realize that there are people you have never met that know your value and you’re not alone.
Outstanding advice Northeasterner….Some of that Jesuit teaching that you share…I hope fixer follows some of it…
Hmmm… I’ve always thought of the Jesuits as being “liberal”. Our parish priest used to tell a joke: He had a friend who was a Jesuit priest, who later became a Catholic priest.
I’ve always thought of the Jesuits as being “liberal” ??
Your observation would be correct…
Just seems odd that Northeastener was educated in the Jesuit tradition.
As I recall in one of his post some time ago he mentioned his Jesuit school in the Northeast…My guess would be Boston College…
So much for liberals corrupting the youth
I got my MBA at a Jesuit college (Regis). We didn’t discuss religion much.
Oops, also meant “politics”. We didn’t discuss anything I’d consider “liberal”.
The best joke I ever heard about Jesuits started with a Franciscan priest hearing a confession. The penitent confessed to murdering a man. The priest gave him absolution on the condition he said an Our Father & a Hail Mary. The confessed murderer was astounded at this, and said, “Father, I murdered a man! Don’t you know what that means? Have you ever murdered someone?”
The priest said calmly, “My son, I’m a Franciscan, not a Jesuit.”
I got my MBA at a Jesuit college (Regis). We didn’t discuss religion much.
Well, it is a Biz school
Though I expect that at the undergrad level there would be more exposure to religion.
the undergrad level there would be more exposure to religion ??
Yep….
Some people still want to live in the USA. If Americans are not having many kids what do you think this place will look like in 30 years?
CHINO HILLS, Calif. – Residents of a Southern California suburb are protesting against a hilltop home that they say serves as a maternity center for Chinese mothers paying thousands of dollars to give birth to so-called “anchor babies.”
Dozens picketed a Chino Hills intersection on Saturday, holding signs that read “No Birth Tourism” and “Not Here! Not in USA!”
The city’s mayor tells the San Bernardino Sun that rooms in the house have been rented out to pregnant Chinese women until they give birth.
Protesters say they don’t want to see a business in a residential area.
Kelly Good tells the Sun the come legally on tourist visas, but their intention is to give birth in the United States so their children would automatically gain citizenship. She said that’s a “false pretense.”
Chino Hills resident Karol Arredondo tells the Sun every so often a tour bus comes and takes groups of pregnant Chinese women to nearby tourist destinations, such as Disneyland and Venice Beach.
City officials say they are handling code enforcement issues at the property, but not dealing with the alleged maternity operation.
“Birth tourism” of mainland Chinese mothers-to-be is big business in Hong Kong. And the residents of Hong Kong do not like it one little bit. I didn’t know there was a U.S. angle to this practice as well. Another sign that all is not well in China, even for those who can afford the airfare and rent for a trip across the ocean.
in China, even for those who can afford the airfare and rent for a trip across the ocean.
Sounds like we’re harvesting the best and brightest. And the corrupt.
Sadly, these days they are one and the same for the most part.
Sounds like we’re harvesting the best and brightest. And the corrupt.
Some now-former neighbors came to this country after the Vietnam War. They were from, ISTR, Saigon.
And what a bunch of sleazeballs. The sort of people who I’m sure Vietnam was glad to be rid of.
Lucky us. They became our problem.
They tried to sell their house for a lofty wishing price (for this nabe), didn’t get it, and now the place is being rented to a very nice bunch of college guys. They’re so nice that we’re planning on having a neighborhood get-together to which they will be invited. And we don’t often include college kids in our gatherings because so many of them have such lousy manners.
Chinese mothers paying thousands of dollars to give birth to so-called “anchor babies.” ??
I just read a story the other day… Chinese pregnant woman flys into New York….Gives birth….Takes the child back to China…Sends the child back to the USA when she is high school age…This girl now attends UC Berkley….Full blown citizen with all the goodies that come with it…
The kid would probably be stuck with being a “non resident” at UC, unless mom n dad have a house in California and pay California state income tax. UC is very strict about residency. You can’t reclassify as a resident for tuition purposes until 3 years have passed.
The kid would probably be stuck with being a “non resident” at UC ??
Remember I said that she went to high school here so she was here four years before Berkley…She was also a little older…23 I believe in her sophomore year…She probably went to work after high school to save up the money for Berkley…
If there was time between high school and UC, and she worked and paid state income tax, then she does qualify as a resident. Sounds like she worked for a few years.
So …
She’s a US citizen
She established herself as a California resident for a few years before going to college by working and paying taxes.
Sounds like she followed the rules, which are pretty tough in California.
The city’s mayor tells the San Bernardino Sun that rooms in the house have been rented out to pregnant Chinese women until they give birth.
The premise of this story seems utterly phoney. Someone has an axe to grind, or it’s today’s meme du jour on talk radio.
Anyone anywhere in the USA can rent a room to a pregnant Chinese woman until she gives birth. Don’t need no special house in San Bernadino to do that, don’t need no steekin’ botch or permit for it either. Probably would help to be close to a hospital with obstetric services & language capability.
Here in Tucson, there was a great hue and cry over Tucson Medical Center’s advertising of its maternity services in Mexico. For the same reasons as we see in Chino Hills, CA.
Tucson Medical Center’s advertising of its maternity services, of course, has nothing to do with the possibility that a pregnant lady might actually want the best possibility outcome for her baby, regardless of her national origin or what citizenship status she hopes the baby will have.
possibility that a pregnant lady might actually want the best possibility outcome for her baby, regardless of her national origin or what citizenship status she hopes the baby will have ??
But on who’s Nickel ??
But on who’s Nickel ??
Good point, the that ‘nickel’ aka EMTALA is entirely generated by - you guessed it - US politicians.
If Americans are not having many kids what do you think this place will look like in 30 years?
A majority of Americans with “chocolately” complexions?
A majority of Americans with “chocolately” complexions?
Hence the GOP’s dilemma. They’re about to become a permanent ‘minority’ party.
They’re about to become a permanent ‘minority’ party ??
I think you are probably right…Being very close to some evangelical right-wingers I can tell you they “will not” compromise their ideology…Hate it as they may, they would rather lose…
So, the conundrum is, how do you move that part of the party towards the middle on the social issues which is the exactly where you need to be to be able to carry the day…Answer is you can’t…
So, I think a third party has a shot at some point if they can gain enough traction to pull the conservative right but social moderate along with the conservative left but social moderate to be able to eek out a victory…The question would be, could this supposed third party get to 270 electoral votes…
evangelical right-wingers I can tell you they “will not” compromise their ideology
Did they vote Romney?
I can remember a time when Italians were looked down upon because of their chocolate-y complexions.
From what I understand (or think I understand):
Having very white skin - especially for women - was the “in” thing - a status symbol - during the turn of the Nineteenth century because it demonstrated that one did not work an outdoor labor-type peon-type job - thus the popularity of parasols and large woman’s hats.
Then later on - during the Fifties and Sixties - having a tanned body became the “in” thing - and a status symbol - because it demonstrated that one had a lot of leisure time on his/her hands and was not forced to work in some office somewhere out of the sun.
Nowdays white skin is back in vogue.
Aren’t these the people that are supposed to be “snapping up” the houses from the retiring baby boomers so that the boomers can enjoy the retirement they deserve?
Housing crash leaves a generation of young homeowners underwater: Diminished expectations
“Chris and Katy Gahlsdorf bought a house the year they got married. They thought, as young couples had for generations, that buying a home was the financially responsible thing to do and would provide security for their future.
That was 2007. Within a year, home values in Oregon were in free-fall.
It wasn’t long before the Gahlsdorfs were underwater on their mortgage. Today, they owe about $50,000 more than their house is worth — a situation that hangs over their heads and limits their financial options. ”
http://alturl.com/crgi6
Chris and Katy Gahlsdorf were most likely not following the HBB in 2007.
Thanks for this.
As an aside, here in Oregon I have two friends, both of whom are married with household incomes in the $150-200k range, who are each underwater on what were owner occupied purchases in the 2005-2007 time frame. I just found out last week that both are trying to refinance under HARP 2.0 on at least the homes they currently occupy. (Not sure if 2nd homes and rentals are eligible?)
Meanwhile, I’m getting somewhere South of 1% on my money market account…
If it wasn’t clear, each couple has two homes. One they occupy, one they rent. All 4 losing money.
Some of the old-timers have heard my story before. I showed up in Oregon at the end of 2006 after selling my house in AZ as the bubble was bursting there and after discovering the HBB. I was renting a home and things hadn’t crashed in Oregon. My know-it-all neighbors told me how things don’t go down in Oregon (Portland metro area). I honestly used the words I learned here “Maybe it is different in Oregon” I told him. Maybe the prices only drop in AZ.
Sure enough, as 2007, 2008 passed, I was looking much smarter. And with 5% savings account rate, I was really in a great position. Then the interest rates dropped to nothing and housing quit dropping in price as quickly as it had been.
I did purchase a house in 2010. Still the houses in Beaverton/Hillsboro area are crap. The house I purchased sold in 2006 for $505,000 and I picked it up for $365,000 in a decent neighborhood. We like our neighbors much better than in the rental. I still miss my rental days, but my wife pushed for the house. Prices seemed to have stabilized earlier in 2012, but seem to be stalling now. I think that houses won’t be going up in price anytime soon.
As for the know-it-all neighbors, they owe $300,000 on a house worth about $225,000. The husband is in his 50’s and the wife is in her late 40’s. They are upside down on the house and have car payments. But, being good liberal Oregonians, at least they spent money they didn’t have on a hybrid. But they know things are going to be much better for them since their candidate will be president the next four years.
Farewell to Europe
The Germans were firm in their conviction that the primary cause of the EU crisis is the laziness, profligacy, free rider attitude, and mendacity of the so called Peripheral Countries ( Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and even maybe France), especially Greece, Portugal, and Spain. They emphasized that Germans believe in paying their way, in spending prudently, saving, investing, producing, and maintaining sound money and strong currencies. They attributed Germany’s economic success of the past decade wholly to the dedicated pursuit of these virtues.
Conversely the problems of the others were blamed largely on their failure adequately to observe the German virtues. Did they realize that Spain’s government budget deficit and debt as a percent of GDP had been less than Germany’s? Yes, in some cerebral way in their heads they did, but not in their gut.
Did they realize that the German banks had been major lenders to and facilitators of the peripheral real estate bubbles whose collapse precipitated the crisis? Again, yes, but only in a kind of theoretical way.
There was clearly no conviction that that was a primary cause of the problem or that keeping the German banks whole might have been an on-going drag on the recovery of the peripheral countries. Was there any understanding that for Germany the Euro is actually undervalued (compared to what a free standing Deutsch Mark would be valued at) and that much of Germany’s export success is due to that? Absolutely not. No, Germany’s success was seen as entirely due to hard work and financial virtue.
http://prestowitz.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/11/30/farewell_to_europe
Absolutely not. No, Germany’s success was seen as entirely due to hard work and financial virtue.
It’s been said that the Germans make no mistakes, except the largest.
“Absolutely not. No, Germany’s success was seen as entirely due to hard work and financial virtue.”
And selling stuff to people who are profligate.
And then there was the financing.
If you can’t borrow cheap because you are Greece standing alone you still might be able to borrow cheap if you are Greece backed up by Germany.
And the return of the SS Panzer Divisions…
We make money the old fashioned way…lending it to those who cannot repay.
You’ve forgotten another major advantage the “mendacity of the so called Peripheral Countries ( Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and even maybe France)” gives the Germans; a weak Euro.
Germany displaces China as US Treasury’s currency villain
The US Treasury has issued a damning criticism of Germany’s chronic trade surplus in its annual report on worldwide exchange rate abuse, although it stopped short of labelling the country a currency manipulator, reports the Daily Telegraph.
http://www.ftadviser.com/2012/11/29/investments/europe/morning-papers-euro-survival-plan-unveiled-m1bjbKKBpcYixO5YEX7sdJ/article.html
The US Treasury has issued a damning criticism of Germany’s chronic trade surplus
What? They have a trade surplus? I guess that’s what happens when a country practices economic nationalism instead of joining the race to the bottom and offshoring everything like we do.
Holland’s capital already has a special hit squad of municipal officials to identify the worst offenders for a compulsory six month course in how to behave.
Social housing problem families or tenants who do not show an improvement or refuse to go to the special units face eviction and homelessness.
Eberhard van der Laan, Amsterdam’s Labour mayor, has tabled the £810,000 plan to tackle 13,000 complaints of anti-social behaviour every year. He complained that long-term harassment often leads to law abiding tenants, rather than their nuisance neighbours, being driven out.
“This is the world turned upside down,” the mayor said at the weekend.
The project also involves setting up a special hotline and system for victims to report their problems to the authorities.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/netherlands/9719247/Amsterdam-to-create-scum-villages.html
Gulp hope our old poster is OK, could be a target for his anti-social views on housing.
New plan from the GOP:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-03/house-republicans-propose-2-2-trillion-fiscal-cliff-plan.html
Republican aides said the $800 billion would come from conventional scoring, which means there would be a tax increase.
In other words, no “dynamic scoring” shenanigans (which assumes growth from the tax reform).
We will see soon why dynamic scoring is important, no tax increase ever produces as much revenue as a static analysis predicts. Wait and see how short the CA numbers will be, although people selling stock to beat the Fed increase might help until January. We will see a similar story for the U.S. many people will take their gains this year to avoid the tax increase so the cap gains raise will not generate the numbers expected.
“Let’s face tax facts as ‘cliff’ nears
As the fight in Washington drags on over how to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, complicating efforts to compromise is the general impression held by Americans they are already overtaxed. It’s simply not true, at least from a historical perspective. The total tax burden for most American households is less today than in 1980, and for those in the upper income brackets the tax burden is considerably less. The more the facts are explained and accepted, the easier it would be for the president and Congress to strike a deal.”
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/lets-face-tax-facts-as-cliff-nears/1264051
The undertaxed portions are primarily in two areas:
1. Capital Gains taxes are too low; and
2. Effective Corporate taxes are too low
http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/piketty-saezJEP07taxprog.pdf
The applicable line from the conclusion section:
“The reduction in top marginal individual income tax rates has contributed only marginally to the decline of progressivity of the federal tax system,”
In other words, the government is looking to make the tax code more progressive in the one area that over the years hasn’t contributed much to the decline in the progressivity in the tax code…
“The more the facts are explained and accepted, the easier it would be for the president and Congress to strike a deal.”
“explained and accepted” = conditioning the sheeple
“Home for the Holidays”
Fannie, Freddie halt foreclosures for the holidays
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57556892/fannie-freddie-halt-foreclosures-for-the-holidays/
(MoneyWatch) Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC), along with one of the nation’s biggest lenders, said Monday that they will suspend some foreclosures during the holidays.
From December 19 through Jan. 2, 2013, Fannie will halt evictions of homeowners in a single-family property and in apartments with up to four units that are financed by a mortgage from the government-sponsored enterprise. Freddie, the nation’s other main provider of government-backed housing loans, will stop foreclosures for the same the type of homes from December 17 through Jan. 2, 2013.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) also is temporarily ceasing foreclosures.
“… suspend some foreclosures during the holidays.”
Any excuse will do, but this excuse is nifty in that the lenders can portray to the public that they do indeed have a heart.
Are Blundstone boots worth their cost?
For casual wear, I prefer Doc Martins. For outside work and very cold weather, I prefer Matterhorns. I can tell you no other heavily used footwear I’ve owned last as long and holds up as well as these two brands. They are expensive, but you get what you pay for…
Thanks. I never liked my Docs as work boots, I was worried Blundstones would be a similar letdown.
For casual wear, I prefer Doc Martins. For outside work and very cold weather, I prefer Matterhorns.
In the army it seemed like Matterhorns were the cheap substitute for Danners.