Bits Bucket for December 24, 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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Did we go over the ‘fiscal cliff’ yet?
Oil prices fall as US ‘fiscal cliff’ approaches
December 23, 2012 RSS Feed
BANGKOK (AP) — Oil prices fell Monday, just eight days before the U.S. arrives at the “fiscal cliff” deadline without a budget agreement in place.
If no deal is reached by Jan. 1, steep tax increases and government spending cuts will automatically take effect that will jar the U.S. economy and potentially throw it into recession, economists have warned.
Benchmark oil for February delivery fell 14 cents to $88.52 per barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.47 Friday to finish at $88.66 per barrel in New York, the contract’s lowest point in three weeks. It dropped to $87.96 per barrel at one point Friday.
Oil prices tend to drop when a major world economy is threatened by a downturn, which more often than not leads to reduced demand for energy.
It was little more than a week ago when news emerged that President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner had significantly narrowed their differences and appeared within striking distance of an agreement. Since then, however, negotiations have stalled with Obama and Congress on a short holiday break.
…
got gas for 3.17 yesterday at arco. Getting > 30 mpg in my little chevy 4 banger.
With the gov loans and taxpayers backstopping defaults to me it looks like housing is a sure bet.
usda rural loan program= 0 down
FHA = 3% down
VA loans = 0 down I believe
using leverage you gain access to an asset that could potentially rise in value and turn your 0 down payment into equity.
on the downside if home falls in value you let them have the house.
This seems like a good bet to me.
Considering housing prices are falling, you’re correct. “Housing is a sure bet” that you’re going to lose money. A LOT of money.
but sir, who is really losing the money? I think that would be you as a taxpayer if you claim prices are going to crash. These folks dont have any money in the house if they use the leverage of govt loans.
Prices are falling. I’m indifferent to it.
And sure they have money in the house. MASSIVELY inflated payments every month insures that.
Prices are falling. I’m indifferent to it.
Really? You seem obsessed with it.
Deflation is here.
‘Really? You seem obsessed with it.’
You seem to lie about.
Why is that?
How can you tell if he’s lying about or standing up?
A $.14 decrease in the price of a barrel of crude oil is not even worth mentioning. The almost $5 increase last week which wasn’t much talked about, is.
‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a CONGRESSIONAL STAFFER!?
Senators trade fiscal cliff barbs
Doubts that deal will be made growing
December 24, 2012 | Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Senators bickered Sunday over who’s to blame for lurching the country toward a year-end fiscal cliff, bemoaning the lack of a deal days before the deadline but bridging no differences.
With the collapse Thursday of House Speaker John Boehner’s plan to allow tax rates to rise on million-dollar-plus incomes, Sen. Joe Lieberman said, “It’s the first time that I feel it’s more likely we’ll go over the cliff than not,” meaning that higher taxes for most Americans and painful federal agency budget cuts would be in line to go ahead.
“If we allow that to happen, it will be the most colossal consequential act of congressional irresponsibility in a long time, maybe ever in American history because of the impact it’ll have on almost every American,” Lieberman, a Connecticut Independent, told CNN.
Wyoming Sen. Jon Barrasso, a member of the GOP leadership, predicted that the new year would come without an agreement, and he faulted the White House.
“I believe the president is eager to go over the cliff for political purposes. He senses a victory at the bottom of the cliff,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
…
We got an email that assured us that the furloughs wouldn’t be happening immediately. That was as far as the assurances went.
Why do they always scare with furloughs and layoffs. Why don’t they try to cut the waste and fat in their system.
For the same reason when cities have a budget crisis they cut first cut libraries, city pools and the police.
To scare the citizens to cough up more money in taxes.
Not much would happen if cities would have just made their own public union contribute 2% more to their own pensions to keep all services running normally.
Don’t you know politics?
I forget that people serve their own interest rather than serving the interest of the country and public who put them in power.
Keeps people from asking for raises.
Waste and Fat are features not bugs.
Most of what my group does is make decisions when people ask questions/make applications. We have procedures in place to try to be sure we make the right decisions. Getting rid of some of the stuff we do would risk the wrong decision being made. People get very irked at us when we make the wrong decision. Executives get yelled at. Don’t expect the quality control procedures to get cut. Other stuff we do involves putting out reports about how businesses that are asking the questions/making the applications behave. A lot of those reports are required by Congress. We can’t cut those. Doing them is the law.
We are in the second year of a two year lease in our current building. Much, much cheaper area than the old one. Already saved money there.
And then there are the other little functions that take up time. Like producing documents for FOIA requests. Again that is mandatory. We have to do it and we have no control over how much time it will take. You produce all the documents or you are breaking the law.
The only real “waste” are the time/etc. tracking systems. We have way too many of them and they don’t work off the same database. That could be fixed and would save money, but you would have to spend money on programming a new system to do it, and Congress would have to allocate money for it. Guess what?
We have so many retirements this year, we might not have to have any furloughs in my particular department. It would depend on what number the 10% reductions is compared to. Since it is probably a number from the September 30th end of the last fiscal year we might be OK. But if the number is handled at a higher level than a department (like the entire division) it would depend on retirements at that level. And I don’t know what is going on there.
Honestly, I would prefer not to have to take an unpaid furlough, but if that is what it required, I will do it. And probably bring some documents home with me to look at anyway. Even though it will be both illegal and uncompensated. It’s just the way I am wired.
“And probably bring some documents home with me to look at anyway. Even though it will be both illegal and uncompensated. It’s just the way I am wired.”
I thought you were all about the rule of law?
Polly,
I met someone last week who is a Govt. contractor and he said that Govt. workers don’t work. He said they are the ones running the Govt.
I told him, it reminds me of someone who said “he is doing God’s work”. I told him that he is a fool as Govt. has the most smart people and who are really serving the country.
But special interests have $300-$400 per hour contracts and many times they even fail to deliver, still they bill their hours.
Why is it many people don’t want to become federal employees and rather stay contractors? The answer is simple: too much pork and cheese in the form of wastage to these contractors. And we are talking millions of contractors just in DC area.
Polly,
One example is Delloitte. I met a Partner from that company who had his time allocated for Golf an parties, all on public’s money as they got some huge Govt. long term contract. These partners are building $2-3 million mansions, get paid salaries of $400-$500K and bonuses on top af about $500K per year. What the fuck these pigs do with this kind of money. Buy private planes and jets, party in expensive places, wear expensive clothes and all from PUBLIC’s money.
And we are talking thousands of these Partners in all consulting companies arounf DC area. The most important thing is they do not do any actual work. They just play a part as lobbyists.
I can’t speak to what your friend said. There are no contractors in my department or my division other than some parts of IT support and the system that is used for booking travel and doing reimbursement for travel. None. All of the work gets done by employees. Intake, analysis, decisions, writing it up, meetings, sending out letters, taking phone calls, whatever. We are in a leased building, so all building security and cleaning is done by the landlord.
Once I went with a group of people to do an informational conference call to an industry subgroup. We had to go to the offices of the group that represented them because we couldn’t handle that many people on the phone on out system. We walked over, refused all the snacks they offered, etc. except for some water because of the executive branch restrictions on taking “gifts” and walked back to our offices.
A few years ago a friend of mine and I had to go to a conference to make a speech. We paid for the parking ourselves and didn’t bother to get reimbursement for the mileage because the travel system is a pain in the neck and the fee that gets paid to the people who run it is flat so the government would have had to pay the same $15 or $20 to reimburse $5 worth of parking and 20 odd miles of reimbursement as for putting together a week long trip with several airplane tickets, hotel rooms and car rentals. We decided that it was easier to eat the cost ourselves.
Our office holiday party happens for an hour or two in our office with people contributing a dish and $5 or no dish and $10 because there is no budget for anything else. The managers of my subgroup take us out to lunch once a year to say thank you. They pay for it themselves, we end up someplace cheap - most of the items on the menu were less than $10.
I have to buy my own desk calendar. The department used to let you pick one out (out of a list of ones that didn’t cost too much), but they stopped doing that a few years ago. Finding office supplies is difficult. Getting the printers working in less than a week if the cartridge is out (we have all become experts in shaking them to get them working again) is a miracle. The “burn” boxes get overfilled regularly and we are required to dispose of a lot of our trash that way because of the information on the documents.
So I have no idea what agency your friend was talking about, but it wasn’t mine.
“What the fuck these pigs do with this kind of money.”
A sizable portion gets redirected back into the senator’s re-election campaigns. This is how the Israel lobby works too. Bottom line, the senators use public money to insure their longevity in office.
“Bottom line, the senators use public money to insure their longevity in office.”
I see nothing here that long prison sentences on bribery charges couldn’t fix.
It’s not just Duke: House indifferent to ethics
By U-T San Diego Editorial Board
6 p.m., Dec. 16, 2012
Last week’s report that disgraced former Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham had been sent from federal prison in Arizona to a halfway house in New Orleans near where some of his family members live brought back some awful memories. The extent of Cunningham’s corruption was so extreme – he had a bribe menu listing the cost of his services – that it shocked even jaded Washington. But the combination of the Cunningham mess, other scandals and public revulsion over lawmakers using earmarks to pay off campaign donors actually seemed to offer promise back in 2005 and 2006 that we might see significant change in Washington, with much more emphasis on ethical behavior.
No more. While earmark-related corruption has waned, lawmakers are still doing their best to inspire cynicism. Earlier this year, a Washington Post investigation uncovered a staggering amount of legal but highly dubious behavior. Some of the findings:
• 73 lawmakers “sponsored or co-sponsored legislation in recent years that could benefit businesses or industries in which either they or their family members are involved or invested,” the Post found.
• 33 lawmakers sponsored spending measures that directed $300 million to projects within two miles of property they own, many times for projects that directly increased their property value.
• 130 lawmakers and their close relatives traded stock more 5,000 times in companies that were lobbying their committees on legislation the companies were concerned about.
Given these findings, one would assume that Congress would want to introduce new safeguards. Instead, the House Ethics Committee seems as passive as ever, countenancing many obvious conflicts of interest by members.
…
Polly,
Whenever I start to despair over what our government has brought us to, I reread some of your posts and am grateful.
So many abuse our systems, suborn our ethics, malign our values; to know that there’s someone like you working within gives me hope that what our country represents isn’t simply a cynical diversion.
Once long ago I asked a fabled defense attorney why he chose to represent people he KNEW were guilty of heinous crimes against our country. “Because”, he told me, “that is what I’m Constitutionally sworn to do. Even the worst among us are guaranteed a considered defense; that is what protects the innocent.”
Cheers, Ms. P.
The defense attorney is right. You can put it a lot of ways. You can say because the police need to know that they have to prove they have the right person, not just know it in their hearts. You can talk about a lot of stuff like that. You can talk about the adversarial system being an awful system but far better than any other one any society has ever come up with. But in the end it all comes down to one thing. We have chosen as a country to set up a system where you can’t punish the bad guys unless they are defended.
That being said, I prefer my job. I give all my attention to all of the questions and applications that come in front of me. I don’t give special deference or priority to the ones that involve wealthy people. I just get to take each one as it comes and make the right decision to the best of my ability and within the rules we have. It is a privilege.
They’ll furlough people like Polly, but never trim the pork.
Bring on the cliff. I am really looking forward to it.
Yeuuuuuuuuup!
Not yet. Call us back in a week.
The libs are all for goring the war machine ox. I’m apprehensive — defense is at least a job creator. I wouldn’t mind if cuts were made in CEO salaries and perks, profits, shiny buildings and conferences and retreats, attrition, or at worst across-the-board furloughs/small paycuts. But of course it’s going to be thousands of $70-80K worker bees that get the shaft.
^^^^^^^
Lmao…. machine lover.
It’s a pretty inefficient machine too. Lots of premium resources wasted to “create” those jobs. Lots of blood and death, which isn’t everybody’s favorite. It would be more efficient just to pay the soldiers to stay in barracks and do yard duty.
Or guard schools and borders.
US just lost $4 billion business. India awarded that much business to Russia.
I hope we had a treaty with India like we do offshoring and India provides us with defense business. Now, they are getting all our IT jobs and they further give business to Russia.
http://www.samachar.com/India-signs-4-bn-worth-defence-deals-with-Russia-mmywM2ecefc.html
I like Snowgirl’s reassignment idea.
Battery operated?
Bullet lover?
Defense is 20% of the budget and already flat/shrinking
Entitlements are 55% of the budget and growing
The federal budget borrows 45 cents of every dollar it spends.
You can do the math.
Define entitlements. How would you cut them?
Tell you what. You want people who think taxes are too low to just pay more voluntarily. What about you just not take SS or Medicare when you are eligible? Not stop paying in. Still do that. Just don’t take it. That would be the equivalent of Warren Buffett paying extra in taxes every year with no law change requiring him to do so.
Those are the entitlements in the system. The word means programs that expand to cover the claims made by those who are eligible without Congress having to allocate more money in the budget. They are growing because baby boomers are becoming eligible in droves.
“…entitlements…”
Folks like Twotifruity are eager to ignore decades of ‘contributions’ to OASDI which workers currently approaching retirement age believe* will fund their post-retirement Social Security and Medicare benefits. A period of tight budgets offers the perfect political opportunity to rescind longstanding promises.
* Dirty little secret: OASDI is a pay-as-you-go system. Thus today’s post-retirement benefits are paid out of current worker ‘contributions,’ not yesterday’s F.I.C.A. taxes.
Polly:
Tough Love….Youz peeps are livin a lot longer so you can’t collect Full SS till 70…or better yet we’ll give you a 20% bonus if you wait till 75.
Define entitlements. How would you cut them?
Almost all the gains in living longer at at the higher end of the pay scale. Most of the population that actually relies on SS for most of their income have had no meaningful increase in life expectancy once they reach working age.
Try again.
I think the whole System has been tied to performance of Wall Street for the past 10-12 years. If Wall Street fails, retirement, 529 plans and all savings go doom. Similarly CEO salaries have been tied to performance of WS of their stocks.
Looks like now the nations performance indicator is Wall Street and nothing else. Masses can rot, but WS must flourish and all those who help do it flourish. CEOs are the rainmakers and are awarded insanely. Especially all those Finance folks who add no value to society other than creating scams to loot masses.
“Especially all those Finance folks who add no value to society other than creating scams to loot masses.”
Testify, brothah! Financialization is the downfall. When it is forgotten that money only represents goods and services and productive activity, money eventually becomes worthless.
Not even one of those CEOs would be able to eat, drive or even fark one of those blips on the computer screen.
So long as the stock market keeps going up, all is well.
Oh bugger…
The Global DOW appears to have been stabilized at a level around 2000 since year-end 2009. I say ‘appears’ because I am skeptical that a global index can be successfully stabilized.
But then in the era of financial engineering with computers and printing press money, who knows?
Dec. 24, 2012, 11:52 a.m. EST
U.S. stocks slide with no budget pact in sight
By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks fell on Monday, extending losses into a second session, on worries that President Barack Obama and congressional leaders will not be able to reach agreement to avert steep spending cuts and tax hikes set to start next month.
“There are very few days left in this calendar year, and the rhetoric out of Washington is they are hopeful, yet there is no progress towards getting a deal done,” said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners.
“A lot of folks are fed up with these politicians not being able to work for the benefit of their constituents. We’re telling Europe one thing and we can’t get our own house in order,” he added.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office forecasts the economy would go into a recession in the first half of 2013 if lawmakers are unable to strike a budget deal.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA -0.40%) shed 41.29 points, or 0.3%, to 13,149.55.
The S&P 500 index (SPX -0.32%) retreated 4.02 points, or 0.3%, to 1,426.13, with utilities the hardest hit and telecommunications the best performing of its 10 major industry groups.
The Nasdaq Composite (COMP -0.33%) fell 9.48 points, or 0.3%, to 3,011.52.
For every two stocks gaining three fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where 141 million shares traded as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern. Composite volume neared 719 million.
The trading session will come to an end at 1 p.m. ahead of Tuesday’s Christmas Day holiday, when the stock market will be closed.
…
Countdown to Fiscal Cliff
7 14 48 51
Days Hours Minutes Seconds
Lots of jobs for coffin makers in Pakistan.
“I wouldn’t mind if cuts were made in CEO salaries and perks, profits, shiny buildings and conferences and retreats, attrition”
And no one will ever ask too strongly for these since they’re afraid of shaking their own corporate gods’ trees too noticeably and risking their employment status. What a perfect world they live in.
8 Custodians laid off in Milford schools cost-cutting move
Buildings will be cleaned every other day
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20121221/NEWS0102/312210083/Custodians-laid-off-Milford-schools-cost-cutting-move
I hope we do. Don’t want the Milk to double in price. Here is what I think would help with the fiscal cliff:
–Control in Defense spending and wastage. Most agencies spend to just finish the budget even if not needed to make sure they get at least the same amount next budget year. 30-40% is wasteful spending and not needed.
–Control in contractor spending across all agencies. Special interests get small contracts for millions of dollars that should be worth 30% of what they are awarded. So much wastage in contracting. DOn’t layoff contractors, but cut the fat. Reduce the wastage and hire more people. DOn’t make few very rich especially when they don’t deserve, it is public’s money.
–UE benefits? Not sure where is the end.
–SS benefits? Make sure it works and doesn’t run out.
–Senior benefits: Make sure they are there.
–Pentagon: Reduce by 40%. Too much money for defense contractors.
–Taxes: Cap itemized to like 25K which would include both MID and Charity. 300K or higher should go back to 2000 level of tax.
–Students: Look at university salaries as they cause student tuition to go up. Education has become a major business and would fail if students don’t get proper jobs to pay off loans. Universities today are full of CHinese students whi have been paying off the high UNIV. salaries of Business School, engineering etc. school salaries of many A grade universities.
Wow. You plan is so awesome!
Cut defense.
Do not control government spending.
Increase taxes.
Where have I heard that plan before?
And why would it fail miserably?
Do Not Control Spending:
No, control spending. I didn’t say do not control. I say, stop wastage. If spending is not controled, Fitch is standing by to downgrade US next month.
I hope Boehner gets what he wants except the tax thing.
Fitch only will downgrade the US if there is no consensus. They aren’t concerned about our solvency.
Who gives a crap about “Fitch downgrade”?? Are you really buying into that charade?
And when they “downgraded” last time, interest rates fell.
Snap out of it. This is a charade.
It is until it isn’t.
See Greece, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Hungary, etc.
They ALL played the game. And for awhile (sometimes for a LONG while) the game worked.
Until it didn’t.
Snap out of it. This is a charade.
Damn straight, HDR!
Rating is a joke and a charade.
Fitch is so corrupt it’s yet to downgrade France. Yeah I will believe them.
Negative interest rate, here we come…..
One mans waste is another mans profit.
“I hope Boehner gets what he wants…”
My impression is that Boehner is after something much larger and more elusive than ‘what he wants’: Namely, a package which has enough support from both sides of the aisle to pass a Congressional vote.
“Cut defense.
Do not control government spending.”
Cut the denial. Defense spending is government spending. So is funding U.S. military operations all over the planet.
Until Republicans end their denial about what government spending is and what it isn’t, I don’t expect to see much progress on cutting back government spending.
Yes sir indeed.
Down to the fiscal cliff wire, with no solution in sight
By Brianna Keilar, Dana Bash and Tom Cohen, CNN
updated 12:16 PM EST, Mon December 24, 2012
(CNN) — Call it a bigger, bolder version of the deadline-driven congressional stalemates over taxes and spending that have come to define Washington dysfunction of the past two years.
The latest edition of political “blinksmanship” pits President Barack Obama and Democrats against Speaker John Boehner and Republicans on how to avoid the fiscal cliff — automatic tax increases for everyone and deep spending cuts including the military that will be triggered in the new year without an agreement.
While the focus now is on a possible agreement in coming days or weeks, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist told CNN on Monday that the nation should gird for long-range battle.
“This is a long fight. It’s four years of a fight. It’s not one week of a fight,” said Norquist, who has threatened to mount primary challenges against Republicans who violate a pledge they signed at his behest against ever voting for a tax increase.
With neither side showing any sign of blinking, however, the battlefield will probably shift to the Senate this week after GOP disarray in the House stymied any progress before Christmas.
…
Recommended reading for alpha-sloths…
I call BS on the notion that “consensuses are usually right.” Whether this is the case depends heavily on the conditions under which consensus is formed.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions [Paperback]
Thomas S. Kuhn (Author)
Two months ago you were all about “The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations,” weren’t you?
If you miss the distinction between “The Wisdom of Crowds” and the self-aggrandizing Groupthink consensus view among the high priests of the economist profession, I am not going to waste my time trying to explain it to you. But I will point out your dichotomy is false.
But I will point out your dichotomy is false.
Ah, but your point is that the consensus is pretty much always wrong. How does that jibe with “The Wisdom of Crowds”?
Or with democracy for that matter.
“Ah, but your point is that the consensus is pretty much always wrong.”
OMG — the HBB is overrun with black-and-white thinkers…
“We” are usually wrong.
“consensuses are usually right.”
Most people accept this as true.
I call BS on the notion that “consensuses are usually right.”
I agree. Clearly, the world is flat, the South won the Civil War, and the speed of light is actually slower than walking.
And all contrarians are always right.
“And all contrarians are always right.”
Not the black-and-white thinker contrarians…
I call BS on the notion that “consensuses are usually right.”
Wow, you sure are brave to take on that straw man all by yourself.
Global Warming is based on “scientific” consensuses. Even if thats not how science works.
Global Warming is based on “scientific” consensuses. Even if thats not how science works.
Of course, there must be no global warming, because the consensus is always wrong, we’re told.
Here’s how wrong the consensus is on global warming, in a pie chart:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/12/11/climate_change_denial_why_don_t_they_publish_scientific_papers.html
Why do you keep digging yourself into a deeper hole by conjuring up all those black-and-white strawmen?
Because you haven’t provided a meaningful response yet? All you’ve done is claim that the other stuff was different and said that you refuse to explain it.
All you’ve done is claim that the other stuff was different and said that you refuse to explain it.
Apparently explaining it would involve him in our low-level black-and-white thinking.
Funded concensus is something to be suspect of.
It’s a mighty thin slice o’ pie those always-correct contrarians are occupying there.
Seems a bit reminiscent of the tobacco-lobbyist ’scientists’ who adamantly refused to concede tobacco caused cancer, into, what, the 80s at least, maybe even the 90s?
Of course, being noble contrarians, they were finally proven correct. Right?
You’re starting to argue with yourself now. Perhaps it is time to let it go and enjoy the holiday.
Pointing out the vanishingly tiny amount of published peer-reviewed papers that deny ‘global warming’, and comparing them to the tiny amount of (industry-funded) scientists who denied tobacco’s health effect, and then using both to illustrate my point that contrarians are not always correct, is arguing with myself? I think not. Wait, maybe it is? No! Ok, maybe…Yes!
No!
Have they actually proved tobacco causes cancer?
I thought the warning was still “may cause”.
“Funded consensus”
Spot on, and I note that most academic consensuses, including those by which economists inform their views, are of the politically-funded variety.
“Have they actually proved tobacco causes cancer?”
That was one of pipe-smoking statistician Sir Ronald Fisher’s great doubts.
Great example, Charlie!
Sadly, I doubt alpha-sloth will grasp its relevance…
Sadly, I doubt alpha-sloth will grasp its relevance…
Well, one of doesn’t know much about the history and philosophy of science, eh?
And wikipedia agrees with me:
Actually, yes, that IS how science works.
“Science thrives on dissenting ideas, it grows and learns from them. If there is actual evidence to support an idea, it gets published.”
In the last twenty years, a grand total of twenty-four out of nearly 14,000 (that’s FOURTEEN THOUSAND) peer-reviewed published articles have attempted in various ways to discredit climate change. Obviously, they haven’t made their case. Lay opinion notwithstanding, political speculation is not science. It’s just not.
I thought to achieve the scientific definition of consensuses the majority must be at the 95% confidence level? OK lets have some fun. Name someone alive today where there is overwhelming consensuses that person should not own a gun. Just to make things interesting factor in that there maybe more than 5% of the general population that is already mentally ill ranging from manic depression to suicidal sociopath.
No one whom we wish to control should own a gun. Prisoners would be an example.
The people control congress. Therefore no congress person should be allowed to have a gun.
The people, through the president, control the military. They must disarm.
They who? The people or the military or both?
The military.
Cornel West: ‘Coward’ Obama Doesn’t Care When ‘Black Folk’ Get Shot, Only When ‘Vanilla’ Children Do
Tavis Smiley, Cornel West on the CT shooting from The Smiley & West Show aired December 22
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2012/12/22/Cornel-West-Coward-Obama-Doesnt-care-when-black-folk-get-shot-just-when-the-vanilla-children-do
And people get paid to write such drivel?
Obama Doesn’t Care When ‘Black Folk’ Get Shot, Only When ‘Vanilla’ Children Do
Yeah, if some guy has shot 20-some black kids dead in an elementary school, Obama wouldn’t have even mentioned it. And the news would have ignored it.
First of all, Cornel pest should have used the word WHITE if thats what he meant. I think he was afraid to say it. Ive seen other black people “freeze up” when a microphone gets shoved in their face.
2nd, its finally dawning on a lot of black hardcore Obama supporters that they are just getting used, taken for granted, chewed up and spit out…
I know black people who live in Chicago who have documented and outlined the attempts to get him to address the killings there; but he won’t even do that.
And thats his home town?
Even when he does show up, like that fathers day speech, he just uses it to attack black people; specifically black males for not “stepping up…”
Obama is a Frankenstien black man.
Obama and the democrats got 95%+ of the black vote in the last two elections.
Why would obama and the democrats change anything in this relationship?
2nd, its finally dawning on a lot of black hardcore Obama supporters that they are just getting used, taken for granted, chewed up and spit out…
Weasel Zippers: Scouring the bowels of the internet
MSNBC: People Against Gun Control Are Scared Of “Black And Brown People” Rising Up To Get Them…
Shockingly, this is the same UPenn professor who called for the filmmaker behind “Innocence of Muslims” to be locked up for making the movie.
http://weaselzippers.us/2012/12/22/msnbc-people-against-gun-control-are-scared-of-black-and-brown-people-rising-up-to-get-them/
People Against Gun Control Are Scared Of “Black And Brown People” Rising Up To Get Them…
Many are. I have a gun-nut, ex-Marine friend. He said him and his buddies had a defense plan if the Blacks started their “takeover”. I asked him why was he so worried, and how the Blacks could “take over” when they were only 11% of the population, only 8% of the population in his state and most of them were good people with the same getting through life interests as him.
He looked dumbfounded. I guess he’d never done the math before. (But I’m sure he’s buying some more 50 caliber bullets now for Christmas)
Rio my take is the 11% many who are inherently violent will overpower the 65% who are not inclined to use violence at any slight to their swagga.
my take is the 11% many who are inherently violent will overpower the 65%
If you think the 11% section of the population who are Black are more inherently violent than any other race on a Macro level, you sir don’t know much about any race.
Rio:
when was the last time you saw a flash mob of white people? or rioting? or beating up an 85 yo woman in an elevator? sorry Rio the problem is almost exclusively American black males
Not Haitians, or even an African tribe.
when was the last time you saw a flash mob of white people? or rioting?
At all those soccer games in Europe?
a flash mob of white people?
Yea DJ, Lilly Whites don’t have “flash mobs”……….
Kristallnacht: coordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary and civilians. German authorities looked on without intervening.[1] The attacks left the streets covered with broken glass from the windows of Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues…
At least 91 Jews were killed in the attacks, and a further 30,000 arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps
(Whites) rioting?
Whites don’t riot? How about much of Europe the past 2 years?
sorry Rio the problem is almost exclusively American black males
Sorry DJ, the problem is almost exclusively conservatives’ and bigots’ racism and ignorance.
Why conservatives obsess over flash mobs and “race riots”
http://www.salon.com/2012/08/13/why_conservatives_obsess_over_flash_mobs_and_race_riots/
this epidemic of racial crime isn’t an epidemic. It’s barely a blip. According to the FBI, there were 575 crimes motivated by anti-white bias in 2010, nationwide. There were 545 anti-white crimes in 2009 and 716 in 2008. There were more than 2,000 crimes motivated by anti-black bias in each one of those years. Of course, the book insinuates that all black-on-white crime is racially motivated, but even by that standard things are looking pretty rosy in America right now.
The violent crime rate has been plummeting since its peak in the early 1990s, which now looks like the crest of one of America’s periodic (and slightly mysterious) waves of violent crime…..
…..The point, of course, isn’t to make an argument supported by statistics. It’s to marshal all available anecdotal data to support the paranoid white conservatives’ gut feeling that this country is on the brink of Charlie Manson’s Helter Skelter.
This belief in an epidemic of black-on-white crime that the press and law enforcement conspire to keep secret is an old one, and crazies have been sending newspapers mimeographed manifestos on the subject for years. It’s a common topic of discussion at white supremacist message boards and in the comments sections of newspapers, which are often indistinguishable from white supremacist newsletters..
…as soon as Barack Obama was inaugurated, this gutter-right meme started popping up in the conservative mainstream. This is largely thanks to the shamelessness of Matt Drudge,
Darn those facts.
Only because the white PC media will never call it a hate crime
I can give you examples day after day, blacks are never charged with a hate crime….come on show me some.
7 black kids beat a white 13 yo girl into a coma for wanting the last seat on a school bus in FL, like a reverse rosa parks and they get home detention….it had hate crime all over it…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/07/13-year-old-girl-left-unconscious-on-school-bus_n_1191274.html
and lookie at what one of thug mommas said
. There were 545 anti-white crimes in 2009 and 716 in 2008. There were more than 2,000 crimes motivated by anti-black bias in each one of those years
The media doesn’t decide what is and isn’t a hate crime. Prosecutors decide what charges to bring. They bring whatever they can prove in court. Judges or juries decide whether it is a hate crime or not.
2nd, its finally dawning on a lot of black hardcore Obama supporters that they are just getting used, taken for granted, chewed up and spit out…
Isn’t it true every president or politician? Politicians are going to say what you want to hear but Politicians are going to do what benefits themselves the most.
Solution - don’t vote…don’t even play their game.
Obama is a Frankenstien black man.
You’d be the expert. But there’s no moral equivalence between a bunch of elementary school kids getting slaughtered, and a bunch of gangbangers capping each other over turf disputes and t-shirt colors..
Comment by alpha-sloth
2012-12-24 09:00:35
Obama is a Frankenstien black man.
there’s no moral equivalence between a bunch of elementary school kids getting slaughtered, and a bunch of gangbangers capping each other over turf disputes and t-shirt colors..
————————-
a bunch of gangbangers?
I guess sometimes bad things need to happen to white people in order for them to be able to relate to black people as PEOPLE, instead of
“BLAX”.
Its painful to watch but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
(((shakin my head)))
I didn’t call them black, I called them gangbangers.
Had those schoolkids been black, the nation would be just as shocked and appalled. We’re not as shocked by a bunch of gangbangers shooting each other in turf wars.
It’s only confusing if you want it to be, or need it to be to make an illogical point.
Obama is a Frankenstien black man.
Who cares if Obama does not care much what race he is?
its finally dawning on a lot of black hardcore Obama supporters that they are just getting used
No, Obama just does not care very much if he’s white or black.
specifically black males for not “stepping up…”
If he’s doing that, how is he wrong?
Sounds like the average Chicago weekend. Except just not all in one place.
And Chicago has very strict gun control. Why isn’t it a crime free utopia???
it’s like the old ’socialism in one country’ argument…it has to be in all countries in order to work.
it’s like the old ’socialism in one country’ argument…it has to be in all countries in order to work.
Tell that to Sweden.
Tell that to Sweden.
Or Switzerland…
Where every household has a government issued fully automatic assault rifle with ammo…
Oh wait…
Or Switzerland…
Where every household has a government issued fully automatic assault rifle with ammo…
Oh wait…
Oh wait what? Equating Swiss gun ownership with Sweden’s successful and happy country?
Dude, your brainpower is not something I should comment on today.
I never heard Obama saying anything about Pakistani children killed by Hellfire missiles.
He cries himself to bed every night.
Limp noodle?
Spreading “Democracy” has its price.
Wow, this is a novel approach. First banks are sued for NOT lending money to credit-challenged minorities. Now they’re being sued for lending to credit-challenged minorities.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ga-counties-sue-hsbc-claiming-loss-tax-base-18055230
Bigger and bigger government is a wonderful thing!
It really can solve all our problems.
You must have been one of those people who benefited from the multi-trillion dollar bailout of Wall St. which was directly caused by deregulation.
Thanks again for reminding us what a shill you are.
After watching first hand the feeding frenzy at Cabela’s, Bass Pro, Wal Mart, and all of the other local stores selling out of anything remotely resembling an “Assault Rifle” over the past two weeks, the solution to the house problem should be obvious to everyone.
Obama should announce that he is seeking a ban on sales of single family houses to non-commercial buyers.
Nothing rings a bell and starts the drooling like Joe Q Public’s perception of a coming “shortage” or “sales ban”.
Brilliant! Also throw in no property taxes forever.
I might also add that about 99% of these guns are bought on credit. At least by my observations at the check out.
Of course. If the customers were the type that tended to keep extra cash on hand they’d probably have bought what they wanted long ago.
I do like the SFH ban idea, though.
Using credit is always bad. Unless it is used to buy AR-15s.
Killing unborn babies is bad. Killing born babies is the cost of doing business, as long as my means to do so is constitutionally/NRA protected.
if society collapses you probably don’t have to worry about paying off the credit cards balance
Using credit is always bad. Unless it is used to buy AR-15s.
Something like that :-). I’m not trying to defend them…lots of things would be better if they were the type to live below their means. Cue someone who will say that’s impossible on $500/week…
You don’t get out much, do you Carl?
After taxes, 500 a week is around 370.
I DARE you to live on that for a year.
You assume I don’t sympathize with them. But their lives would still be better if they were to live below their means, as difficult as that might be. Then they could pay cash for their assault weapons at a non-inflated price and we could all live happily ever after in a worlds where assault weapons bans didn’t matter because everyone already had all they wanted. Or something.
For good measure, how about ‘no mortgage payments forever’ ?
http://cdn.ammoland.com/files/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/bushmaster-man-card-banner.jpg
I wonder if it comes with a complimentary pair of truck nutz?
An AR-15/AK ban is kinda pointless.
Everybody I know that wants one, has one. Or two. Or three.
To me, the best thing the PTB can do to reduce the demand is to quit putting more people one paycheck away from living in the SUV, and standing in breadlines at the Rescue Mission.
All of the wretched refuse are in “Protect what’s left of my #hit” mode.
+ a bunch fixr!
“An AR-15/AK ban is kinda pointless.”
Not really pointless. It makes the fools in DC look like they are doing something and it distracts folks away from fiscal issues. If I was a congressman, I would be jumping on any issue that doesn’t cost taxpayers money, but I could take credit for passing “sweeping legislation” regarding the stupid issue of the day. This way I really don’t have to work at anything difficult and I keep my job come another election.
No one cares that arms manufacturers’ employees lose their jobs, since Obama has promised free cheese to them.
the best thing the PTB can do to reduce the demand is to quit putting more people one paycheck away from living in the SUV,…..All of the wretched refuse are in “Protect what’s left of my #hit” mode.
Gross wealth and income inequality undermines domestic tranquility, justice, the general welfare and democracy.
Gross wealth and income inequality undermines the goals of the Constitution of the United States.
When the US Constitution was written (besides slaves) the USA really had no underclass, no poor in great numbers. In fact there are many quotes of Thomas Jefferson addressing this fact and how it made America unique in the world and made us exceptional. Well, we’re not exceptional anymore when it comes to wealth and income inequality. We’ve turned into a typical banana-republic.
It would be interesting to know what demographic is buying. I am thinking that it is Joe6pack and that he wants to have the feeling that his fate is in his own hands if it comes down to it. ie., he doesn’t have much confidence in the government to protect him. (when seconds count, help is only minutes away)
From some of the blogs I frequent which do sometimes get into gun right discussions, I’d say at least a portion of the gold bugs have also been stocking up on guns n ammo.
Gold is only useful when society is still functional enough to pay you for your gold in stuff you actually need to live. Past that it’s all about the guns & ammo & food & shelter.
Except gun bans are a reality.
They have happened before and are constantly pushed for by the democrat party.
Democrats are in power. Obama has no third term to care about.
The public understands.
Nothing rings a bell and starts the drooling like Joe Q Public’s perception of a coming “shortage” or “sales ban”.
Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard this all before, back in 1991 when Clinton was elected.
We need to change the name of the Republicans to “The sky is falling” party.
So the Clinton “Assault Weapons Ban Law” was a figment of my imagination?
The gun bans of NYC, Chicago, NJ, CA, etc. are a figment of my imagination?
The Romney ban was real enough…yet he got the endorsement of the NRA.
The gun bans of NYC, Chicago, NJ, CA, etc. are a figment of my imagination?
I lived in CA and couldn’t buy an AR-15. I had to settle for a Mini-14. And all because of states rights.
Man, I can’t tell you how dismal that made my life. Dang, my life would have been so much better with a AR-15. And I was even a member of the NRA.
I can’t tell how much better of a person I would have been with a 20 round clip instead of a 10 rounder. Even an 11 round clip would have given me that little bit extra one sometimes needs.
Like when you’ve shot all 10 rounds and you just need that little extra that the 11th one can give you. Life is just so full of regrets.
Yeah, the Clinton “ban” was a laugher.
Took off the bayonet lugs, put on those stupid azz “keyhole/sporter/wtf” stocks, and outlawed 30 round mags.
Funny, I could still buy 30 round mags all day long, if I wanted.
Funny, I could put a stock AR-15 stock on, if I wanted.
Yeah, but it was a real sacrifice giving up the bayonet lug.
And got less votes than McCain.
Hmmmm….maybe alot of republicans stayed home.
The Romney ban was real enough…yet he got the endorsement of the NRA.
Like when you’ve shot all 10 rounds and you just need that little extra that the 11th one can give you.
Mine goes to 11 :-).
Bottom line, before the 1994 I could afford what I wanted but didn’t get around to buying because I had other priorities. After 1994 I could no longer afford it. And it accomplished nothing other than annoying me. I’m glad it expired and would like to keep it that way.
Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard this all before, back in 1991 when Clinton was elected.
And he did it…just couldn’t make it permanent. Elections have consequences.
You know what really scares everybody? A mandatory psychology exam for all gun owners. What would you do with the rejects? Should they be treated or just left loose in society?
They should be sent to school and trained for following jobs:
Politicians
Bankers
CEO
Lawyers
Athletes
Movie stars
The gun nutz don’t seem to mind going thru some screening and training for a permit to conceal carry. Maybe we ought to slap the same requirement on purchasers of weapons holding more than 10-15 rounds.
That, and a “guilty until proven innocent” attitude toward selling guns to homes housing certifiable whack jobs.
Forget all this talk about taxing ammunition and guns. What other constitutional right do you have to pay a tax to exercise?
The reality is that we can write off another 26 kids, because all of the gun nutz will fight any kind of regulation/ban/restriction tooth and nail.
What the big city people don’t get is that for a lot of people out in Flyover, busting caps is one of the few things there is to do.
Take that away, and all of these Republicans will be so bored and pizzed, they might move into the big, liberal/socialist city, and get into politics.
And we can all agree that we don’t want that to happen. Better to let them stay in the sticks, where they won’t screw up the works.
I have guns, but I’d be in favor of a ban on large capacity magazines. I truly believe in making these psychos reload in order to limit the carnage. The time it takes to grab another magazine would allow anyone in close proximity to vacate, or attack the shooter. A ban on such things would not adversely affect a gun owner/enthusiast’s life. I still haven’t figured out why I would ever need more than the 8 rounds my 10mm holds.
The time it takes to grab another magazine would allow anyone in close proximity to vacate, or attack the shooter.
Guns were single shot in 1787 when the Constitution was written. If that school gunman had those types of guns, 18 children and 9 adults would still be alive today.
He has three guns and killed 20 kids and 10 adults.
Three guns in 1787 would have killed 3. Maybe less because today’s .223 is one bad SOB of a round, and he might have been stopped between changing his one shot guns.
A ban on such things would not adversely affect a gun owner/enthusiast’s life.
Until he really needs it. The 2nd amendment is about more than being “an enthusiast”.
A mandatory psychology exam for all gun owners.
They have that in Brazil which is the one thing I might agree with. I don’t agree with the 20 other hoops one needs to jump through to own a firearm legally here.
“The Roman Republic fell, not because of the ambition of Caesar or Augustus, but because it had already long ceased to be in any real sense a republic at all. When the sturdy Roman plebeian, who lived by his own labor, who voted without reward according to his own convictions, and who with his fellows formed in war the terrible Roman legion, had been changed into an idle creature who craved nothing in life save the gratification of a thirst for vapid excitement, who was fed by the state, and who directly or indirectly sold his vote to the highest bidder, then the end of the Republic was at hand, and nothing could save it. The laws were the same as they had been, but the people behind the laws had changed, and so the laws counted for nothing.” - T. Roosevelt
Teddy wrote that? Good on ‘im. Why can’t we have another prezzy like that?
Teddy seems to forget the Byzantium empire continued for another 1000 years.
“the Byzantium empire”
Correct. Not the Roman empire. I think he was talking about the Roman empire, not the Byzantium empire. Of course, there are those who contend it was still the Roman empire ruling from Constantinople. But wouldn’t that be like saying Washington governing from Mexico City?
Oh, wait…
Byzantium was considered the eastern half of the empire. Constantinople was also known as “New Rome”.
Also you can’t ignore the birth of christian monotheism had a lot to do with the fall of the classic Roman empire. Roosevelt was a christian so he probably downplayed that part of history.
He was talking about the Roman Republic (a democratic republic), which fell to become the Roman Empire (run by an Emperor/Caesar), which lasted for centuries more, splitting into two Empires, East and West. The East long outlived the West, in fact the czars (’caesars’) claimed to be its heirs, and they lasted until the early 20th century.
Arguably they both continue to exist as the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. (An easier way to govern the barbarians.)
Indeed. But the “Byzantine Empire,” although a legitimate governing entity, is sort of relegated to a second class status historically (mind you, I’m not saying in actuality). Justinian, for example, was probably more effective in his reign (or his wife, who ruled for him behind the scenes) than people today can even begin to realize.
Nonetheless, it’s my contention that Byzantium in fact replaced Rome and was a different entity, really. East and West split. The fact that Constantinople was called “New Rome” is a sort of sad reminder of how much Rome was once admired. I remember reading somewhere how disappointed one barbarian conqueror was to find out how much Rome had deteriorated, once he triumphed. And the unique punishments and tortures meted out to a decadent Senator or two when he discovered how corrupt they’d become. A cautionary tale for members of Congress, who consider themselves impervious. Those who don’t learn from history and all that….
I like this discussion. It is a good argument for separating out “Washington” from the USA.
Where would “New Washington” be established?
“Also you can’t ignore the birth of christian monotheism had a lot to do with the fall of the classic Roman empire. Roosevelt was a christian so he probably downplayed that part of history.”
The classic Roman empire was in decline before Jesus Christ. Still ruling, still influential, but in decline.
The original point shouldn’t be missed. It’s self evident but needs to be repeated.
LOL, I got trolled good. Thanks for the bucket of cold water.
Teddy wrote that?….Why can’t we have another prezzy like that?
We do right now. But Obama’s just not as steadfast in his views as the Republican Theodore Roosevelt was.
“The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the state because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government. Not only should he recognize this obligation in the way he leads his daily life and in the way he earns and spends his money, but it should also be recognized by the way in which he pays for the protection the States gives him. ”
–Theodore Roosevelt
U.S. President
USA will come back. It just takes a while for the lawmakers to get it in their head. This time it is taking longer than usual.
“USA will come back”
Yes, it will, but it may not be called the USA. USA is an idea that has come down from Greece to Rome to Britain to, well, the USA. It shifts land masses. The idea is a good one, which is why it keeps coming back, but the implementation keeps getting screwed up royally.
Next land mass? Tau Ceti?
The USA is the pinnacle of the success of Capitalism. Democracy is the thin veil of legitimacy for a failed social experiment called self governance.
The US is not a democracy.
True. It is a republic. Sometimes it looks like a corporation though.
Indeed. Complete with a CEO, board of directors, managers and a bunch of screwed shareholders, Lol.
“Sometimes it looks like a corporation though.”
Bingo!
“It’s a private club and you aren’t a member.” - George Carlin
Its a Valuejet
What’s the big diff between being a democracy and a republic, again?
Complete with a CEO, board of directors, managers and a bunch of screwed shareholders
The USA shareholders did not get screwed. It’s the employees (the people) of USA Inc. that got screwed.
The social contract between Wealth, Business, Government and the People was violated to the sole detriment of We the People.
The wealth and power remains (and has grown) for the wealthy, the corporations and the government. The wealth has only declined for We the People of the United States of America.
You have problem with Corporate Communist Capitalism©®™, comrades?
Happy Holidays, 2Ban!
This would make a great present for you:
http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Is-Hammer-Conservative-Revolutionaries/dp/B008SVRX2Q
Merry Christmas, Resistor!
I plan to exercise three American Freedoms today.
Church.
Gun Range.
Farting in obama general direction.
You guys make me laugh. Obama will be recognized by historians as a defacto Republican.
The current crop of Republicans will be viewed upon as being the US wing of the Taliban
The victors write history.
And the victors today are the progressives and their free sh*t army.
“Current Republicans…US wing of the Taliban”
Great insight!
the victors today are the progressives and their free sh*t army.
Man that’s warped. Like the “victors” in corporate America are people on food-stamps who’d rather work a good paying job.
When you go to church today, before you go to the gun range, ask God for some common sense. And ask him for some mental balance.
Matthew 7:5
You hypocrite.. First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Merry Christmas, Resistor!
I plan to exercise three American Freedoms today.
Church.
Gun Range.
Farting in obama general direction.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t celebrate the Savior’s birth by shooting guns or farting.
You don’t fart on Christmas day?
Not deliberately.
Classic Jewish Christmas:
movie(s)
Chinese food
All prepared for the traditional elements.
I’ll probably also do laundry. Just because.
“movies”
So true! They have the entire cinema to themselves.
Not necessarily. In Jersey City I went to see one of the Harry Potters at an early eventing show. An uncle (I think) showed up with three little girls who were all dressed up and clearly had been spending the day with family. The best behaved children I have ever seen in any movie theater ever. They barely budged, didn’t make a peep except for the occasional appropriate laugh or gasp. Didn’t fuss over who was sitting next to whom or the arm rests either. Lovely kids. And the chance that they were Jewish was vanishingly small given their ethnicity and the fact that they were all dressed up for Christmas day.
And it is snowing lightly in Northwest Washington DC. Nothing is sticking, to the street, but the flakes are substantial. Drive carefully if you are in the weather. It doesn’t have to stick to the street to make things slippery.
Ok… not necessarily Barrister. But my handful of jewish friends and coworkers head to the movies. I’m sure their are others there too.
Me: Hey Lev…. what are you doing on Christmas. Would you like to join us?
Lev: Going to the movies.
Me: Jay… what are you guys doing Christmas day.
Jay: We’ll probably head to the movies.
Me: Elliot…. what are you guys doing on Christmas Day.
Elliot: Going to the movies.
Mrs Shapiro: What are you and ___ doing on Christmas.
Mrs Shapiro: Going to the movies.
I love when Cabana Boy reveals himself as ill mannered trash.
(This happens quite frequently, but rarely as openly as above.)
Cabana Boy reveals himself as ill mannered trash
“The Scorpion and the Frog”
http://allaboutfrogs.org/stories/scorpion.html
How snobbish.
Ha ha ha!!! Nash reversion is in. Fiscal cliff, here we come…and I propose we replace the elephant moniker with a scorpion.
Teddy was one of those he-man types who thought everyone should be tossing around medicine balls when they weren’t hunting or engaging in military adventure.
But I salute his views on trusts and environmental protection.
‘Teddy was one of those he-man types who thought everyone should be tossing around medicine balls ‘
Too bad no Brawndo back then.
Debasing the Roman money was the cause according to the gold standard folks.
2 firefighters killed, residents being searched and evacuated
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20121224/NEWS01/312240026/webster-shooting?odyssey=mod|breaking|text|Home&nclick_check=1
We need armed guards at fires in addition to schools.
whoa
We woke up to that on our local news. People are snapping everywhere. I am going to be spending a lot more time in my own home.
Really weird. Almost seems as if someone wants to protect an arson scene.
Almost seems as if someone wants to protect an arson scene.
News update said the fire was meant to lure the victims. Also the man had been convicted for killing his grandmother in 1981 and spent time in jail. Not someone who just snapped suddenly. He had a long rap sheet.
“People are snapping everywhere.”
Or maybe the news media is snapping up news everywhere.
Not saying these events are not happening but I am not so sure they are happening much more than they usually happen.
I am not so sure they are happening much more than they usually happen.
Suicides are up, homelessness is up, poverty is up, unemployment is historically high, wages are down, benefits are down, inflation is up, medical costs and education costs are insane, gun sales are up. One of our political parties has gone off the reservation and constantly preaches divisiveness and hate towards our fellow Americans and our own government as well.
I’d say there is a good chance of “People are snapping everywhere.”
Household formation is down, fertility rate is below the replacement level, savings are down, job prospects for new college graduates are grim, …
but at least real estate is going up again!
Upstate NY is dying. Sad, but inevitable. This is merely a symptom.
Indeed it is. Yet the natives, as slow and sad as they are, will eat up every last word of a schyster who tells them their golden sailed ship is coming if they just hold on a little longer.
Who wouldn’t want to live in a state where the average property taxes in sticksville, nowhere on a nothing special house is $10,000/year? Where they have some the highest taxes (income and sales) in the unions. And where nearly every business has been chased out by bigger and bigger government?
NYC would be the same except for the trillions of the obama bailouts that went to his Wall Street campaign contributors…
Upstate NY is dying. Sad, but inevitable. This is merely a symptom.
How are the Fed’s ongoing efforts to save the world economy from Armageddon working out for the Baby Boomers approaching retirement?
Boomers Report No Savings at All
With fewer pensions and more debt, they face retirement challenges their parents didn’t
by: Carole Fleck | from: AARP Bulletin | February 3, 2011
The generation that gave rise to Hula-Hoops, Woodstock and Jimi Hendrix is reaching America’s traditional retirement age this year woefully unprepared. As the oldest of the boomers turn 65, they face a retirement that is unlikely to go as smoothly as their parents’ did.
The lingering pain from the most severe recession since World War II is partly to blame. Many boomers are on the verge of ending their work lives without fully recovering fortunes lost in the housing and stock markets.
That translates to less money to fund their retirement years, which could stretch for three decades given that boomers can expect to live into their 90s.
A poll released Wednesday found that a whopping 25 percent of people ages 46 to 64 say they have no retirement savings — and 26 percent have no personal savings.
The situation is almost as grim for adults 65 and older: 22 percent have no retirement savings and 14 percent have no personal savings, according to the poll of 2,151 adults conducted in November by Harris Interactive.
Similarly, a Pew Research survey in May reported that half of all boomers say their household’s financial picture has worsened in the last year. A fifth say they have a lower standard of living than their parents had at their age.
‘Can I still retire?’
“The recession contributed to a general feeling of uncertainty,” says Rob Hoxton, a certified financial planner and president of Hoxton Financial in Shepherdstown, W.V. “We have people who’ve come to us and said, ‘Can you fix me and can I still retire?’
“People believe that they deserve to have a retirement and it ought to be somewhat similar to what their parents had,” he says. “We constantly have to reconcile their expectations of what they believe they’re entitled to with the reality that it’s very expensive to retire and have 30 years of life after that, at least.
“There’s a lot of dialogue,” Hoxton adds, “and we come to a workable solution. But it may not be what they originally envisioned.”
Indeed, for America’s postwar generation, born between 1946 and 1964, life in retirement will surely bring more financial challenges than their parents faced.
…
“We have people who’ve come to us and said, ‘Can you fix me and can I still retire?’”
Sometime the answer is:
“Of course I can fix you. Come on over here and take a seat and pour yourself a cup of coffee while I prepare the paperwork.”
“People believe that they deserve to have a retirement and it ought to be somewhat similar to what their parents had,” he says. “We constantly have to reconcile their expectations of what they believe they’re entitled to with the reality that it’s very expensive to retire and have 30 years of life after that, at least.”
It won’t take much to be similar to my parents and in-laws “retirements”. Social Security is about it for “retirement”. They are very much an example of getting more out of the system than they ever put into it.
What is retirement when you never had a job?
A long, extended lunch break?
“People believe that they deserve to have a retirement and it ought to be somewhat similar to what their parents had,”
How can people have the same retirement their parents had when the era of their parents had much less income and wealth inequality than today?
A 40 year accelerating trend towards MASSIVE wealth and income inequality lead to (and HAVE led to) most Americans having horrible retirements. People saw this coming 20 years ago.
It’s just math.
Except their parents lived in a Levittown house with 4 kids, one bathroom and a car port which they NEVER took out home equity loans. Vacations were to Uncle Joe’s cabin on the lake. Eating out was to McDonalds or pizza maybe about once per month. And their parents SAVED - about 10% of their income.
“People believe that they deserve to have a retirement and it ought to be somewhat similar to what their parents had,” he says. “We constantly have to reconcile their expectations of what they believe they’re entitled to with the reality that it’s very expensive to retire and have 30 years of life after that, at least.
Except their parents lived in a Levittown house with 4 kids, one bathroom and a car port which they NEVER took out home equity loans. Vacations were to Uncle Joe’s cabin on the lake. Eating out was to McDonalds or pizza maybe about once per month.
Except the 50% of Americans making less than $500 per week would easily trade what you just described for their crap life today. Especially since back then, only one parent had to work, healhcare and education were affordable and the debt levels were almost nil.
Here is a new idea born from insurance companies trying to assign risk to climate change. Forget about the climate angle and focus on the merits of the idea alone.
“Pay-as-you-drive insurance policies as an alternative to fixed premiums, now number nearly three million according to the study and have the potential to cut car use in the US. “The price signal of lower premiums for miles actually driven could reduce driving by 8%, and oil use by 4%, reducing the cost of driving by $50bn to $60bn per year because of a lower chance of accidents and reduced traffic congestion,” the study says.”
http://www.reactionsnet.com/Article/3133825/Sectors/23074/Insurers-invest-in-climate-change-mitigation.html
I already get a discount for being a low mileage driver. It has nothing to do with global climate change. It is because I am less likely to get into an accident when I only use the car for shopping and voluntary trips, not for commuting every day.
I get a discount for being a low mileage driver, too. Except I’m not a low mileage driver. They don’t check my odometer, and what they don’t know won’t hurt them.
U.S. News
‘Fiscal Cliff’ Deal Or Not, Taxes Going Up
The White House made a key concession this week in ‘Fiscal Cliff’ negotiations: proposing to allow the payroll tax cut to expire on Jan. 1, potentially driving up payroll taxes by 2%. WSJ’s Sudeep Reddy reports. Photo: Getty Images.
12/20/2012 10:10:44 AM4:01
As 2013 approaches, at least the Eurozone debt crisis is resolved.
Oh wait!
Outlook 2013: Euro-zone crisis
A default by Greece remains a risk while Italy and Spain could pose problems.
Who has gained and who has lost the most under the Fed’s wealth redistribution policies since the 2008 Wall Street collapse?
My short list is as follows:
Winners are Wall Street, hedge fund managers and real estate investors.
Losers are U.S. households, especially those nearing or in retirement — similar to during the 1970s.
Losers are U.S. households, especially those nearing or in retirement —
We the People.
especially those nearing or in retirement
Haven’t their pensions and 401Ks been saved by the gov propping up the market for stocks, MBSs, etc?
In the Big Reset, they’d have no pensions.
Is wealth redistribution really part of the Fed’s mandate? If not, how do they get away with doing it so much?
It does seem like there is a lop-sided benefits package going on with all this misery. The spoils are going to those who instigated the mire. I have no pity for banks.
Campus food pantries popping up across the US as more colleges combat student hunger
University of Missouri junior Simone McGautha works three campus jobs and has accumulated $11,000 in student loans
“Uniquely American”
Exceptional. New T-Shirt idea:
I hear the USA went “Socialist” but all I got was 70K student loan debt, lousy health-insurance this lousy T-Shirt made in China
Why didn’t he just borrow money from family? Aren’t family supposed to just pay for college or loan money for a start up business?
(-Mitt Romney)
Mitt’s wife said they just sold some stock when they needed money, as Mitt didn’t work while in college and either did she.
This is kool-aid time again (or is it time for the Great Pumpkin?)
or - “it’s different this time!”
A New Housing boom (article from CNN today in the link below)
http://tinyurl.com/bscvcar
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The long-battered housing market is finally starting to get back on its feet. But some experts believe it could soon become another housing boom.
Signs of recovery have been evident in the recent pick ups in home prices, home sales and construction. Foreclosures are also down and the Federal Reserve has acted to push mortgage rates near record lows.
Obama’s economy
Obama’s economy: A snapshot
A look at where the economy stood when Obama took office and what’s changed since.
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But while many economists believe this emerging housing recovery will produce only slow and modest improvement in home prices, construction and jobs, others believe the rebound will be much stronger.
Barclays Capital put out a report recently forecasting that home prices, which fell by more than a third after the housing bubble burst in 2007, could be back to peak levels as soon as 2015.
“In our view, the housing market had undergone a dramatic over-correction during the prior five years, resulting in pent-up demand for housing purchases that would spark a rapid rise in housing starts,” said Stephen Kim, an analyst with Barclays, in a note to clients.
In addition to what Kim sees as a big rebound in building, he’s bullish on home prices, expecting rises of 5% to 7.5% a year.
Related: Where housing is most (and least) affordable
Construction is expected to be even stronger, with numerous experts forecasting home construction to grow by at least 20% a year for each of the next two years. Some believe building could be back near the pre-bubble average of about 1.5 million new homes a year by 2016, about double the 750,000 homes expected this year.
“We think the recovery is for real this time around,” said Rick Palacios, senior analyst with John Burns Real Estate Consulting. “If you look across the U.S. economy right now, there are only a handful of industries looking at 20-30% growth over the next 4-5 years, and housing is one of those.”
Home builder stocks are up 162% in the last 12 months, led by a 250% jump at PulteGroup (PHM). Other leading builders including DR Horton (DHI), Toll Brothers (TOL), KB Home (KBH) and Lennar (LEN) have all seen their stocks more than double over that time. New orders at publicly-traded builders are up 30% since January, according to Kim.
Related: Is buying rental property now a sure bet?
Palacios said stocks in other sectors, from manufacturers of drywall to flooring to kitchen and bath fixtures, have all more than doubled as well this year.
The housing rebound can have a ripple effect that could help get the entire economy growing at a much stronger pace, which will add to more demand for housing.
“That turn in the [housing] market is occurring now and it should become a boom by 2015. It will be powerful enough … to lift the entire U.S. economy,” said Roger Altman, chairman of Evercore Partners and former deputy Treasury secretary, in a column for the Financial Times.
Altman said he expects housing will add 4 million jobs to the economy over the next five years, as pent-up demand for home purchases drives building and and home prices higher. To top of page
Instead of visiting a brokerage to make you broker, make someone else broke by visiting a housing craterage.
Posted: 7:27 a.m. Monday, Dec. 24, 2012
Decline in foreclosure backlog may give false hope
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
More than 40 percent of foreclosures cleared from Florida’s courts in recent months were dismissals, cases that likely will boomerang back into the overloaded judicial system when lenders are better prepared to continue their pursuit.
In a four-month period beginning July 1, the state’s foreclosure courts disposed of 69,513 cases — a laudable number helped along by a $4 million state stipend. But the achievement is dampened by the fact that nearly as many new foreclosures were filed during the same time period and by a new concern that 43 percent of the cases were dismissals.
While a dismissal can occur because a short sale, deed-in-lieu of foreclosure or loan modification has been negotiated, foreclosure defense attorneys say the majority are voluntary dismissals taken by banks that don’t have their case in shape to proceed. The foreclosure can then be re-filed at a later date.
“The voluntary dismissal is an off-ramp for a plaintiff that is being forced to trial, but doesn’t have his or her evidence ready,” said Royal Palm Beach-based defense attorney Tom Ice. “Again, this means the numbers (of closed cases) is deceptive because the cases will be coming back.”
“By and large if people are saying they need more time to get ready, and it’s been sitting there for three or four years, three or four years is enough time to get ready,” said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey, who sat on the state’s foreclosure task force. “The only way out of this is through it, but it’s more important to do it right than fast.”
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/business/real-estate/decline-in-foreclosure-backlog-may-give-false-hope/nTd3L/ - -
Here’s a couple of nice Scottsdale, AZ homes on Redfin:
http://www.redfin.com/AZ/Scottsdale/6030-E-Calle-Camelia-85251/home/27033650
http://www.redfin.com/AZ/Scottsdale/6634-E-Calle-Redondo-85251/home/28220646
Have look at the price histories from the mid to late nineties; incredible inflation. FWIW, I’d rank these as upper middle-class homes, not cookie cutter spec. How far would they have to drop in price before [you] would bite?
They don’t give the price. I would be interested in $400,000 to $750,000 range.
They don’t give the price.
Maybe it’s because I’m logged into Redfin?
Price history for the first place:
Dec 06, 2012 - $995,000
Nov 29, 2012 - $915,000
Jun 22, 1999 - $379,900
Mar 28, 1996 - $220,000
Price history for the second place:
Dec 14, 2012 - $760,000
Nov 26, 2012 - $497,251 (foreclosure)
Oct 26, 2006 - $920,000
Dec 16, 2003 - $645,000
Mar 02, 1998 - $299,000
Jul 30, 1997 - $185,000
These two Scottsdale homes are north of “the moat” (arizona canal), which keeps neighborhood traffic low, and provides easy observation by Scottsdale’s finest.
Oh gosh. The first house at $995,000 is my pick. I was thinking around $750,000. Yeah I know the location you are mentioning. It’s good and bad - good because it’s a convenient location and in the proximity of Lincoln blvd. But I have found houses of similar quality in 85259 that are half the price.
The wife says the hottie must go!
“Iowa Supreme Court says it’s OK to fire ‘irresistible’ worker”
It may not be fair, but it’s not illegal — not in Iowa.
Melissa Nelson, a worker fired for being “irresistible” to her boss, spoke out Saturday about a high court decision that said her termination broke no discrimination law.
“The last couple of days have just been an emotional roller coaster. I’m trying to stay strong. It’s tough,” she told CNN’s Don Lemon. “I don’t think it’s fair. I don’t think it’s right.”
Nelson spoke one day after the all-male Iowa Supreme Court ruled on her case. The high court sided with a lower court, ruling that Nelson’s termination did not constitute sex discrimination under the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
She was not fired because of her gender, the court decided, but because her boss and his wife felt Nelson was a threat to their marriage.
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/national/Melissa-Nelson-Iowa-Supreme-Court-says-its-OK-to-fire-irresistible-worker
No ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Deal Puts Wall Street In A Slump
December 24, 2012 4:00 AM
Listen to the Story
Morning Edition 32 sec
Wall Street didn’t get much of a gift at the end of last week. The Dow lost 120 points, or nine-tenths of a percent, on Friday. The slump is partly tied to events in Washington last week — a Republican plan to avoid the “fiscal cliff” came undone.