Bits Bucket for March 8, 2014
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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“Local Realtor sentenced in mortgage fraud”
http://www.capitalgazette.com/bowie_bladenews/news/local-realtor-sentenced-in-mortgage-fraud/article_7cbf8ee4-9baa-5e3b-ad89-3472409d1bdd.html
Eager home buyers waiting to snap up a great investment at $250 a square foot:
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20140308_101832_942-B4YOri8M.jpg
Bowie is in Prince George’s County, lauded as the nation’s showplace for minorities that have “made it”, primarily in government jobs on taxpayer subsidy.
There are weekly revelations of graft in the offices of county government, as well as …err…inept policing, including several unfortunate incidents involving identifying the wrong house for a shakedown …err, investigation. Shooting an inhabitant or two if they happen to be of the incorrect racial persuasion, and express surprise and indignation with the armed nature of the invasion.
Prince George’s County carries the burden of exacting retribution for hundreds of years of oppression. They carry the burden of those chips on their shoulders with pride and determination.
They’re entitled to rip off the system that oppressed them, doncha know.
Prince George’s supplies DC government and the Feds with a large portion of its area minority employees. Some are better than others. Let’s leave it at that.
Report from a previous intervention: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/08/us-libya-oil-idUSBREA2709K20140308
This story tells how things keep going from bad to worse in Libya. The flow of oil from Libya has virtually stopped and what is not said is the Eastern region of Libya is the hotbed of Islamic terrorists. While we do not focus on it, the lost of over one million barrels of oil production is a major reason for high oil prices. Throw in supply disruptions in Syria, Yemen and Sudan and you are talking about almost two million barrels of oil per day taking off the market. With the exception of Sudan this is all a result of the “Arab Spring”. I notice the Obama administration is no longer bragging about its role in the Arab Spring.
Makes that Russian natural gas all that more valuable to Europe.
Yes. And as far as Ukraine we are seeing more and more stories are neo-Nazi influence in the Ukraine. Thus, Russia’s concern for Russian speaking people is being legitimized.
are= about
Reagan invaded Grenada because a few American students we in dangered by a handful of Cubans.
Really not because the air strip provided the Soviets an airbase in our hemisphere during the cold war?
OHMYGOD! The Russians were in our hemisphere?
Didn’t Cuba have any air strips?
Lola had been known to be partial to the Southern Hemisphere. You know, down where the mangos are.
The growth in fundamentalist Islam is fueled by the policies of the U.S. and the Jewish lobby (I am not anti-Jew, just against their putting American necks on the chopping block just for their survival). This is not backing off but getting worse. The Islamic uprising all over the world is but a sleeping giant.
How to stop it? Get the U.S. completely out of military and foreign aid of Israel and all other nations.
The growth in fundamentalist Islam is fueled by the policies of the U.S. and the Jewish lobby (I am not anti-Jew, just against their putting American necks on the chopping block just for their survival).
Bill, I wish it was just our support of Israel. Islam naturally wants to spread and spread by arms. The Globalists want to spread a secular society to all the world. These two philosophies are colliding. At this point the Israel/Arab conflict is just a side show, it aggravates matters but the conflict would not go away even if the state of Israel was eliminated. BTW, I am not Jewish either and at one point I was very pro Palestinian. But that was during the period when the conflict was part of the pan Arab movement and not about fundamentalist Islam.
An interesting read is the one about the US/CIA and Soviet/Russia/KGB involvement in Afghanistan. Islam was, for all intents and purposes, on its way out as a radical religious world force movement, for the most part, until the CIA and KGB used it as a weapon of war indoctrination in Afghanistan, each side using Islam to get the locals warring against each other. Washington & Moscow are responsible for the resurgence of radical Islam.
It spread from there. Need proof? Compare photos of Egyptian female students in the 1950s vs. today. Attaturk in Turkey was convinced that the future lay with the West and Western thought, and so moved to eliminate the fundamentalist aspects from his society. A good thing, otherwide we might not have had Ahmet Ertegun and all the great music he brought us.
Michael Scheurer, ex CIA agent, runs a blog non interventionist dot com I think, and explains the policies of the western governments in the same lines you bring up. The Islamic terror horrors are “blowback,” for revenging against our involvement. Yes I agree the Arabs would be more civilized if it was not for the atrocities caused mostly by U.S. involvement.
I read David Kelley’s column after the 2001 attacks on Americans. Mr. Kelley runs the Atlasphere, formerly The Objectivist Center, the leading non-official, non orthodox Randian group. He explained the attacks were due to Islam’s hatred of America’s success. Hatred of freedom and reason. While that is true about the fundie Muslims, it is not true of many Muslims, including my ex girlfriend. They attacked us because of revenge against our entangling alliance with Israel. Read Sheurer’s blog. He is ex CIA and understands the Islamic terror motives more than a philosopher does.
One cannot honestly argue against this essay by Michael Scheurer
http://non-intervention.com/1171/having-ignored-the-founders-on-war-u-s-forces-will-return-to-afghanistan-unless-americans-begin-to-think-for-themselves/
The last paragraph should be in bold font, for it makes bold statements. Former CIA agent high up in investigating the 9/11 killings.
Michael Scheurer on the failed interventionist war in Afghanistan:
“When all is said and done, Americans must ignore the theories and lies of presidents, pundits, and generals. If they think for themselves and read their nation’s history, Americans will know that their country is far worse off today than it was in 2001; their Islamist enemies are much stronger and more widely deployed around the world; their taxes are much higher and growing; and their civil liberties are far fewer. With such preparation and study, they also will not be surprised when the current situation markedly deteriorates in the years ahead and yields a new era that will be marked by significant attacks and combat in North America. When this occurs, U.S. land forces will be fighting at home and will return to Afghanistan — and perhaps before then be sent to Africa and the Levant — to do the job the politicians prevented them from doing between 2001 and 2014, namely, defeat the Islamists utterly.”
Got gold?
Of course this will be ignored until it gets ugly. Then J6P will be furious. Not realizing he was the problem voting for Democrat or voting for Republican. The mainstream political parties are owned by the interventionists.
Obama administration is no longer bragging about its role in the Arab Spring ??
Maybe we should invade them since we have a proven track record of success…
Success? The Arab Spring was a success? Where?
For the Muslim Brotherhood.
I hope my child with a fear of flying misses this story.
Asia News
Hunt for Missing Malaysian Jet Centers on Waters Off Vietnam
Nations Send Teams to Apparent Oil Slicks After Plane With 239 People Vanishes
By Vu Trong Khanh, Gaurav Raghuvanshi, Jason Ng and Celine Fernandez
Updated March 8, 2014 11:51 a.m. ET
The search for a jet that disappeared on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing was centering late Saturday on waters off Vietnam after Hanoi said it had spotted what appeared to be oil slicks that could be from the missing plane.
Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, with 239 people aboard, lost contact with the airline shortly into the flight early Saturday. As names of passengers were released, authorities said two people on the list weren’t on board the flight, and one of them had reported his passport stolen.
…
Sadly, as the news continues to come out, it was either a catastrophic failure of the airframe, or a terrorist incident. Sounds like 2 people with stolen passports were onboard, I’m guessing that people who do things like that kind of up to no good when they board a plane under false pretenses.
Either way, terrible loss for the friends and family of those onboard. I fly all the time for work and although I know I’m many times more likely to be killed on my drive to the airport, it’s still hard to imagine a more awful death than being on a plane that rips apart or explodes at altitude. Not that being crushed on I95 would be preferable, but, I think it just hits at a primal fear of falling out of the sky, and, of course, feels (because it is) entirely out of your control.
What a terrible piece of news. If it was religious nutjobs blowing up a plane again I’m just going to be beyond angry; I’m sorry, but any religion that condones actions like this (which, unfortunately, is pretty much all of them throughout history) is a force that we don’t need in our world today.
Sounds like the NSA needs to get spying on more American phone calls.
I agree overtaxed. Logically I know it is safer to fly commercial than drive to work. I fly more than drive. But I learned how to focus on other things in flight. Sudor and red wine both help!
” I know I’m many times more likely to be killed on my drive to the airport”
Yes, but in driving, you are in control of nearly all of the risk factors: not speeding, not driving drunk, not driving at night, not driving while tired, not texting, etc.
You are five times more likely to die in an auto accident than an airplane accident.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_safety_in_the_United_States
Then there is this. Sit back, enjoy your flight, maybe have a glass of vino and work on that Sudoku puzzle.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/07/worried-about-a-san-francisco-type-plane-crash-they-almost-never-happen-anymore/
Billions of dollars in airport security, identity cards, biometric passports and $shit and still they can’t detect any thing.
Prepare for more of your money being spent on “airport security.”
One has to wonder who was the target here. This was a Malaysian airliner flying to China. Plus, who knows, maybe incompetence was the culprit here. Shoddy maintenance could be a factor. The plane had a wing damaged 2 years ago. Maybe it wasn’t repaired correctly?
Until they find it we won’t know. And even if they do find it and determine the true cause of the accident, they might whitewash it.
I think you are right. I pretty much rule out terrorism at this point but the usual suspects are beating the drums already. All it means is more of your money will be spent on the “airport security.”
I hope your right Colorado. I just can’t conceive a fault in the plane that would bring it down so fast that the pilots couldn’t even get a word in that’s not an explosion. Of course, it could have exploded “naturally” because of some fault; but, I think, given the total lack of communication, it’s clear that the thing blew up and didn’t experience something like a wing ripping off or other structural issue that, while certainly would have destroyed the plane, would have provided enough time for a “mayday” call from the captain. This this was flying one second and then gone the next. Exploded is, IMHO, is the logical guess at this point.
Thing is, when’s the last time a plane exploded from some maintenance issue? I don’t know if it’s ever happened. I remember an engine falling off a plane years ago, but, even something that catastrophic would have given them time to send out a distress call.
There’s TWA 800, out of JFK, 17 July 1996.
I am sure NASA’s ground based data will show something different continuing the pattern since the last global warming conference but here is the satellite data which is the most accurate data since it is very hard to fabricate, hard to find any global warming in the data :
http://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/
According to NOAA, 2013 was the fourth hottest year since we began keeping records in 1880. And it was the hottest year ever in Australia during the same period.
“According to NOAA, 2013 was the fourth hottest year since we began keeping records in 1880.”
Annual budget US$4.5 billion (2009)
US$4.9 billion (est. 2010)
US$5.6 billion (est. 2011)
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Wikipedia
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce
Agency overview
Formed October 3, 1970; 43 years ago (1970-10-03)
Jurisdiction Federal government of the United States
Headquarters Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.
Annual budget US$4.5 billion (2009)
US$4.9 billion (est. 2010)
US$5.6 billion (est. 2011)
Agency executive Kathryn Sullivan, Administrator
Parent agency Department of Commerce
Website http://www.noaa.gov
—————————————————————————-
NOAA National Weather Service caught in a ‘budgetary ponzi scheme’
Posted on June 7, 2012 by Anthony Watts
NOAA comes under criticism again, this time over National Weather Service funding
By DON CUDDY June 05, 2012 12:00 AM
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its embattled head Dr. Jane Lubchenco are again the target of criticism after the director of the National Weather Service, Jack Hayes, resigned abruptly on Memorial Day weekend.
An environmental watchdog group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), informed the Washington Post when it learned that Hayes had been replaced and the story has since been widely reported.
An internal investigation has uncovered ongoing financial irregularities at the weather service, according to a NOAA memo. In fiscal 2012 alone, up to $35 million may have been “reprogrammed,” the term employed by NOAA to describe what has taken place, the memo said.
“This is a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Jeff Ruch, executive director of PEER, a national organization of federal, state and local employees who work in the environmental field. Structural deficits were built into the National Weather Service budget according to Ruch. “They were using appropriated funds to backfill general operations in a sort of budgetary Ponzi scheme,” he said.
A 60-page report produced by NOAA found that, for at least the past two years, the agency has been shifting appropriated funds from a number of its designated programs and using them to cover other expenses and to help avoid employee furloughs, according to Ruch.
Using appropriated funds for any purpose other than what is intended is a violation of the Anti Deficiency Act and that is a crime, he said.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/06/07/noaa-national-weather-service-caught-in-a-budgetary-ponzi-scheme/ - 202k -
Dr Roy Spencer is a signatory to An Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming,[24][25] which states that “Earth and its ecosystems – created by God’s intelligent design and infinite power and sustained by His faithful providence – are robust, resilient, self-regulating, and self-correcting”
wikipedia
“According to NOAA, 2013 was the fourth hottest year since we began keeping records in 1880.”
Annual budget US$4.5 billion (2009)
US$4.9 billion (est. 2010)
US$5.6 billion (est. 2011)
The NOAA had better say there is man made climate change or they will have their budget cut.
phony scandals
Another satisfied home buyer who paid $350 a square foot:
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20140308_103311_579-VRNKnIaN.jpg
Hello Mr. Banker!
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20140308_114938_384-Kokabfnw.jpg
That’s not a home buyer, that’s a donkey.
Oh wait…
All fun aside, how much per square foot is a house in a real neighborhood of paid houses and longtime debt free neighbors worth? And how can you be assured they are all paid off homes? How much per square foot would it cost you to get into a neighborhood of real neighbors who are kind, debt free and there for the long term, and will not slam their door in your face if you arenot a social conservative or if you are a firearm fan, or if you have no kids?
At least in high end apartment complexes anyone can be evicted for not paying rent. But deadbeat “owners” are not evicted from houses they stopped paying for.
This is why I still have more respect for renters than mortgage payers.
Where is the hoaxster?
Annie Haddad
Big Money? Not the Kochs
The Center for Responsive Politics’ list of top all-time donors from 1989 to 2014 ranks Koch Industries No. 59. Above Koch were 18 unions, which collectively spent $620,873,623 more than Koch Industries ($18 million). Even factoring in undisclosed personal donations by the Koch brothers, they are a rounding error in union spending.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303824204579423650900853802?mod=WSJ_Opinion_BelowLEFTSecond&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303824204579423650900853802.html%3Fmod%3DWSJ_Opinion_BelowLEFTSe
The Koch’s are two dudes. Is there any proportion comparison in that article?
One Koch bigger than th other?
Julian Assange tells SXSW audience: ‘NSA has grown to be a rogue agency’
Stuart Dredge in Austin, Texas
theguardian.com, Saturday 8 March 2014 14.03 EST
Asked for his views on what governments should be doing, after the NSA revelations, about the way surveillance agencies interact with people, Assange said: “The NSA has grown to be a rogue agency. It has grown to be unfettered … the ability to surveil everyone on the planet is almost there, and arguably will be there within a few years. And that’s led to a huge transfer of power from the people who are surveilled upon, to those who control the surveillance complex.”
Assange talked about a historical “PR campaign based on not existing” for the NSA, which he said had been swept away by the revelations prompted by Snowden’s leaking of thousands of documents to media outlets including the Guardian.
“That let everyone see that somehow this was an important element of power, and it had been developed unnoticed to people,” he said. “How had it come to this? How is it that the internet that everyone looked upon as perhaps the greatest tool of human emancipation there had ever been, had been co-opted and was now involved in the most aggressive form of state surveillance ever seen?”
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/mar/08/julian-assange-wikileaks-nsa-sxsw - 128k
Stocks at record highs. Just when I thought they would crash, they go up 2% more since January 1.
Investors are happy.
The ongoing suffering of chronic unemployed is swept under the carpet.
The endless wars continue without the Cindy Sheehan vocal protesters. The small Republicans raised a lot hell over Syria and that finally sunk into the Mclame/Graham/Kerry/Obama coalition of interventionists. But the Republican little people don’t seem to be upset over any glimmer of our meddling in the Ukraine situation. I see this for what it is: Obama was a hawk against Syria. But Obama this time is dovish and only giving verbal protests against Russia. Obama haters would be protesting hawkishness or dovishness on his part. Obama haters are not anti-war. They are anti-Obama.
Therein lies the problem. And this is why there is a strange atmosphere in the political world.
It’s too quiet. The Islamic fundamentalists are more powerful than ever. If we get a Republican in office in 2016 and he tightens the Patriot Act, you can bet the conservatives and social conservatives will praise the Republican for killing off more civil liberties, for making NSA much more powerful than now, for a whole lot of cases of contrived and planted evidence against detractors of the Republican leadership.
But the same thing will happen under Hillary or E Warren.
Be prepared for the big Muslim uprisings in the EU and America. All sorts of terror incidents and J6P applauding Martial law and destroying what is left of what our forefathers gave us. Any year this will happen.
A leopard does not change its spots. Big government will work toward getting bigger. I only hope the Obama Administration and the Defense department make good on their proposal two weeks ago to greatly cut back the military. Along with that would be interventionism.
Mummy found in garage after Detroit home foreclosed on; remains to be identified
“A neighbor kept the grass cut, Bouchard said.”
+1 Apparently for several years. Wow.
Eleanor Rigby - Beatles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9Itt02QOO0
Only 50 comments today??? That seems crazy-quiet. What gives?
I’m mystified as well.