Bits Bucket for March 11, 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.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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What will you do with your bubble stocks?
What to do with your bubble stocks
March 10, 2014, 2:47 PM
By Cody Willard
The weakness in the momentum highflying stocks like Tesla, Zillow and 3-D Systems remains noteworthy. I’m growing increasingly bearish about the near-term, but not necessarily changing anything in the portfolio.
I am however going to trim down a bit of my long-time biggest position, Facebook, just to lock in some more profits and take a little more exposure off the table.
But this action sure does remind me of times past.
It was late 1999, and I had just finished modeling out an incredibly complex model of a Free Space Optical high-speed Internet access business for an incubator that itself would run out of money within another year. An incubator is a company that helps fund and develop other companies, usually in exchange for equity, and I was working for an incubator in New York after having failed to get my first novel published.
The boss of the incubator had decided that Free Space Optics, which is basically fiber optic high speed technology that’s beamed over the air from building top to building top, was a huge opportunity, so I’d spent the last few months helping design and modeling out the financials for an FSO network in NYC.
I sat down at a big, long glass conference table in our penthouse office in the meatpacking district in downtown NYC, and after showing up thirty minutes late, in walked our Nortel sales representative along with his regional boss and a couple underlings.
“What do you need from us?” was how the sales representative started the discussion after we’d all made our introductions and sat down. I thought it was a bad way to open a sales pitch, but then I almost fell out of my chair when his boss then said, “Look, we’ve got more demand and orders and customers than we know what to do with right now, so this pitch of yours better be good.”
…
“Look, we’ve got more demand and orders and customers than we know what to do with right now, so this pitch of yours better be good.”
Too bad the good times didn’t last for Nortel. They are now just a memory. It’s still amazing how quickly they went from King of the (Canadian) Hill to BK and liquidation.
I had a coworker who worked as a college intern for them in a lowly QA type position during the late ’90s, and they would fly him to Atlanta for hour-long group meetings on a monthly basis.
Realtors Are Liars ®
Living in a rental will never feel like a real home.
And don’t forget…. Houses depreciate rapidly.
Amy, you have a good point that if you can’t pre-pay 15-20 years of rent up front, then you can’t afford to rent, and you should live in a box.
No Mz. Craterton….. not when rents are half the cost of principal, interest, taxes, insurance and depreciation.
Oxide, Lola will share his DC cardboard box. It is right next to a dumpster so it comes with catered meals.
Continue to collect the outstanding dividends.
Good morning J._Fraud.
Been selling my bubble stocks! Over 500% gains, so cash is king!
Waiting for next buying opportunity (crash) when stocks are undervalued again.
I think the tax man loves you, Bill.
Did you see that California tax revenues are $1 billion above the forecast for last month. Do you think our legislators will find a way to spend it? LOL.
Is it time yet for the Fed to announce it is going to taper the taper?
Reminder from yesterday, you can file IRS form 4029 after joining a qualifying religious organization to be exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes. Page 2 gives examples of some of these religious sects including the pensylvania mennonites. I’m sure some of these congregations would be happy to add new members and expand their word into your home.
Note, form 4029 excludes you from these taxes on ALL your wages including from your current employer. That’s right kiddos, there is an IRS form to opt out of Social security and medicare RIGHT NOW AT your current job. Check it out for yourselves: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4029.pdf
Note this is the OFFICIAL IRS website, not something I am making up or some scam website. OFFICIAL federal government website telling you how to keep 15% more of your money.
Do you have any privately financed life or health or disability insurance, mathguy? Because that makes you ineligible.
From the instructions:
Recognized religious group.
A recognized religious group must meet all the
following requirements:
• It is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public
insurance that makes payments in the event of death, disability, old age, or
retirement; makes payments for the cost of medical care; or provides
services for medical care (including social security and Medicare benefits).
• It has provided a reasonable level of living for its dependent members.
• It has existed continuously since December 31, 1950.
Certification.
Oh, and you can’t just say you are a member yourself, someone from the group has to sign off for your as well:
Signature.
The completed Form 4029 must be signed and dated by the
applicant in Part I and by the authorized representative of the religious group/
district/congregation in Part II.
If something sounds too good to be true (to you), it probably is.
Existed continuously since 1950? Sounds like the government trying to dictate a person’s religion.
No, they are preventing someone from inventing a religion just to get the tax exemption. Also, the religion would have needed time to establish their own benefits plan.
(an ex-acquaintence actually did set up a religion which required a weekly ritual with alcohol… and he tax deducted all the kegs.)
Oh, and you can’t just say you are a member yourself, someone from the group has to sign off for your as well:
And if you don’ toe the line, they can and will disfellow you.
How is it 15%? I thought it was 7.5% employee and 7.5% employer.
It has provided a reasonable level of living for its dependent members.
In other words, you pay the equivalent of SS and Medicare through tithing. Mormons require 10%; I looked up Mennonites, and I think they require 10% too, although there has been some backlash. However, if they give in to pressure and no longer require the tithe, then that sect will no longer be able to provide for dependents, and therefore no longer qualify for the exemption.
So you pay 7.5% to Uncle Sam or 10% to the church.
It is a Ponzi scheme and I am closer to the front than to the back so I have no incentive to opt-out. I will enjoy collecting Joe’s money in around ten years since he voted for Obama who ignored his own commissions recommendations to try to make the SS taxes paid by someone more closely resemble his or her benefits. Hey as they say, hate the game not the player.
What do Mormons have to do with it? I have never heard that Mormons disavow private insurance.
Polly, I was looking for religions that require tithes. Those are the only religions that would have the money to “provide a reasonable standard living for dependent members.” Other than Mennonnite, I don’t know of any religion that would qualify for this exemption.
I believe that the purpose of the exemption is more for groups like the Catholic church. Not for all the members but for the Catholic priests and nuns who do meet the definition. I do not believe that they pay social security and receive it, it is the members of the church that pay for their retirement.
I had a longer post but I think it was lost. I think that Catholic priests and nuns fall under that provision. Their retirement is paid by the members of the Catholic church and I do not believe they pay for or receive SS.
Read the form and instructions. The whole thing is 2 pages. There is no indication anywhere that nuns or priests are part of it. You have to be a member of a religion that takes care of its own and has - as one of its religious tennents - the disavowal of all public AND private insurance that pays for health care costs, disability payments or life insurance. You have to believe in and comply with those beliefs so you can’t have any health insurance, disability insurance or health insurance. And your religion has to be one that “takes care of its own” so your care doesn’t become a burden to the general public. The whole religion, not some tiny subset.
Catholicism doesn’t qualify.
Polly, I do not have time to pull up all the IRS regs and case law but under form 517, priests and ministers can file to opt out of the system and the same form is used by Mennonites to opt out. It may or may not be the same reg as interpreted by case law but it is the same concept.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p517.pdf
Looks like Mennonite, Amish, Huttite (though they are mostly in Canada). I have no idea if Shakers objected to insurance, but they had communal living when there are enough of them.
The only way any of these groups would certify you were a member is if you were contributing enough to the community that you were helping to take care of the elderly, disabled and sick they already had. You would have to live near them. And tithing would only be the very beginning of what would be required financially.
In the Bible, tithes were just what you paid to support the priests and the Temple. Social welfare was an entirely separate system. Hypothetically it was voluntary, but in reality? You can bet that a well off man who didn’t leave enough grain in his fields for gleaners or help take care of widows and orphans (including providing dowries for poor girls) would have been a social and economic pariah. I don’t doubt that these communities use social pressure the exact same way.
Link will post soon, Catholic priests are able to ask for an exemption from social security medicare or they may be covered. It is form 517, not clear from a cursory look at the form which regs provides that exemption but the form seems to be the same form that a Mennonite would use to claim an exemption.
I don’t think mathguy was suggesting that everyone on the blog who doesn’t like paying SS taxes become a member of the clergy or a religious worker under that form. He was hoping that you could just pretend to join a religion, lie about it to the IRS and get out of the system.
Looks like mathguy is losing this battle. It started off as whether anyone could “keep 15% of their money,” and now it’s down to a couple nuns and some farmers just outside Philly.
Maybe he wants to form the Church of the Perpetual Government Contract Worker and has the sincere belief that Soros is the anti-Christ and Obama is his puppet getting his order through Obama’s teleprompter. Just don’t assume Bill is going to pretend and lie. (just joking for people that seem to have a hard time telling).
I wasn’t suggesting that anyone lie about anything. I was suggesting that the option is available to opt out of social security and medicare.
The exact text polly refers to about organizations opting out is as follows:
It is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance that makes payments in the event of death, disability, old age, or retirement;
makes payments for the cost of medical care;
or provides services for medical care (including social security and Medicare benefits)
Now those three things are joined by an OR statement. I can’t legally speak to if that means if you are opposed to any 1 of those things you qualify, or that you must believe all of those things to qualify. In other words, maybe you don’t believe in the death and retirement benefit, but you want health insurance, or maybe you have to avoid healthcare insurance as well as no SS.
Polly who I believe is a lawyer is indicating that it is an AND relationship even though the text uses OR.
Do you know of a religion that has existed since 1950 that only objects to receiving payments from disability insurance? Or only life insurance? I’m pretty sure that Christian Scientists have argued that Medicare should pay for their Chritian Science practitioners, but hasn’t argued that they oject to insurance paying for their version of health care (praying).
If I concede you point (and I think it is much more likely to be bad drafting), the religion has to object to receipt of payments from at least one of those types of insurance. The IRS has to recognise the religion as one of the ones that holds this as a part of its faith.
The religion has to have been around for more than 60 years.
The religion has to have a system in place to take care of all of its members as they age and/or grow ill or get injured and the system has to work.
An official sub-group of that religion has to agree that you are a member of that group.
Seriously? You think this is a realistic option? You would be much more successful just getting a job as a state or local government employee who isn’t part of the SS system. Even then I think you have to pay the Medicare part.
I think that it would be possible to join one of these organizations, and to have them accept you, in order to be able to opt out.
There are also several other factors at play here. First, you do not HAVE TO belong to one of these pre-exising organizations. Those are just the ones that are “pre-approved”. Note that on the form you can also indicate that you are applying without belonging to one of these organizations. Most likely this is due to the “equal protection under the law”. in my not legal opinion, it could be unequal protection to say that a religion founded after 1950 is not subject to the same law as one existing prior to 1950. However for administrative purposes, I would guess it is permissible to “pre-approve” well know groups as vetted thus creating the two checkboxes on the form.
You know what, mathguy, I put up this information because I didn’t want someone to get in trouble for trying this without knowing it wasn’t as easy as you tried to make it appear.
If you think this is an obvious way to simply “opt out” of Social Security, please try it and let us know how it goes. You will probably want to also research what you have to do with the Social Security Administration to permanently opt out of their system. Let us know how it goes. In particular, I would like to know the following:
How do the religious orgs you contact react when you ask about joining them?
What do they require of converts?
Do you have to move to be close to their communities and make major changes to your lifestlye?
What happens when you ask the IRS about how to get a new church approved to be part of the program?
Polly really likes to follow the letter of the law. Just like her Messiah.
It also exempts you from the ACA.
You better believe it.
And this is the master bedroom… Furious homeowner releases footage of realtors having sex 10 TIMES in $650,000 property they were supposed to be selling
Richard Weiner has chosen to make video of Richard Lindsay and Jeannemarie Phelan having sex inside his home public for the first time
Security cameras in his home caught them having sex at least 10 times
They used his marital bed
Weiner is suing the pair - claiming they inflated the price of his home so no one would buy it
That meant they could continue using it for their secret trysts
Lindsay and Phelan are counter-suing Weiner for $1 million claiming he tried to blackmail them with the video
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2577873/They-used-house-like-cheap-motel-Furious-homeowner-releases-footage-realtors-having-sex-10-TIMES-property-supposed-selling.html#ixzz2veKEhmrT
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2577873/They-used-house-like-cheap-motel-Furious-homeowner-releases-footage-realtors-having-sex-10-TIMES-property-supposed-selling.html
Are members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster exempt?
http://www.venganza.org/
Hasn’t quite nested right
Not exempt. They haven’t been in continuous practice since 1951. And they don’t provide their own retirement plan.
NPR promotes the gun grabber agenda:
http://www.npr.org/2014/03/11/288883467/fla-lawmakers-turn-deaf-ear-toward-stand-your-ground-protesters
Got Arizona Iced Tea Watermelon Fruit Punch, Skittles, and Promethazine with Codeine?
It sounds to me like there are proposals to make it even easier to engage in self-defense:
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2014-02-27/news/os-florida-gun-law-changes-20140223_1_ground-law-r-polk-city-stand-ground
Of 447 foreclosure auctions (2/11/14-3/11/14) in Volusia County, 29 were bought by a party other than the plaintiff, or 6%. This is far below last fall, where approximately 25% were purchased by private equity LLCs or other corporate entities. Could it be that the private money is not inexhaustable, or are the AMH models showing flaws that are causing private equity to rethink the wholesale purchase of RE?
What sort of prices were the foreclosures going for, compared to arm’s length market value?
Looks like the majority are back to the banksters for $100. There are alot, however that seem to have been actively bid to near the 100g mark. Maybe the banksters are getting greedy and hanging onto these props on hopes of making a killing selling to the private equity guyz.
This will not be pretty…
Can’t speak for your location, but the investment that we made in such a strategy was finding it more and more difficult to buy at prices that allowed strong rental yields, and so we stopped buying (really started trailing off in mid-2013).
“We” await your tales of woe once those 2013 houses you bought start cratering. And 2012. And 2011.
Along this same thread…
I’m no MBA, but what would it do to Fannie’s and Freddie’s bottom line if a little bird was to suggest to the WF’s, BofA’s, Citi’s and Deutsche’s of the world to hold off on bringing a bunch of these foreclosures to auction until a new fiscal year. Would it perchance improve their economic condition sufficiently to declare profitability? At least near-term.
With clock ticking on mortgage relief, homeowners wonder what’s ahead
By Dina ElBoghdady,
Published: March 10
Five years after the federal government bailed out more than 1 million struggling homeowners, many who got the relief may end up losing their homes after all.
Already, nearly 30 percent of those who qualified for relief have defaulted again. And roughly 800,000 borrowers who remain enrolled in the government’s flagship program will see their mortgage interest rates gradually rise starting this year — eventually increasing payments by more than $1,000 a month in some cases, according to a recent federal analysis.
As the higher payments kick in, regulators and consumer advocates fear that homeowners won’t be able to stay current on their mortgages, placing an unwelcome strain on the housing market and potentially on economic growth.
“The program was a temporary Band-Aid,” said Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. “Five years later, that Band-Aid is going to be ripped off.”
The initiative was based on the flawed assumption that the economy would bounce back more quickly, undoing the damage wrought by plunging home prices and high unemployment. The program lowered the monthly mortgage payments of qualified borrowers for five years, presumably long enough for them to regain their financial footing.
But since the initiative’s launch in 2009, the average household income has been flat for all but the highest earners. And while home prices have climbed in the past two years, many borrowers continue to owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, making it difficult to sell their properties or refinance their way out of trouble.
Obama administration officials defend the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). But they say they are prepared to respond if there is a significant uptick in delinquencies among the homeowners.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/with-clock-ticking-on-mortgage-relief-homeowners-wonder-whats-ahead/2014/03/10/8482830e-a2df-11e3-a5fa-55f0c77bf39c_story.html -
“But since the initiative’s launch in 2009, the average household income has been flat for all but the highest earners. And while home prices have climbed in the past two years, many borrowers continue to owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, making it difficult to sell their properties or refinance their way out of trouble.”
The future so bright gotta wear shades.
“household income has been flat for all but the highest earners”
Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
Government Programs = Success.
Obamacare = DoublePlusGood
CNN Poll: Support for Obamacare slightly edges up
“Support for the country’s new health care law appears to be rebounding slightly, according to a new national poll.
According to the poll, 39% of Americans say they support the health care law, up from 35% in December, a record low in CNN polling.”
Forward
If you believe a CNN Poll I have an excellent real estate investment for you.
———————————————————————-
Acreage in Green Swamp is dead-end investment
October 26, 2008|
By Martin E. Comas, Sentinel Staff Writer
GROVELAND –The eBay ad was hard to resist: an acre of pristine forestland in sunny Central Florida.
Debra Twohig thought it would be the perfect place to build a home with her fiancM-i. So the 47-year-old Pennsylvania woman cast a winning $2,700 bid, and by January she had a deed in her hand.
But her acre is in a remote part of the Green Swamp, an environmentally fragile area that helps recharge drinking-water supplies for most of Central Florida.
That means she can’t build on it. She can’t even see it or find it because no roads, signs or trails lead to her land.
Twohig is not alone.
For decades, many others have bought Central Florida swampland from a variety of sellers, not all of them honest.
Lake County maps show Twohig’s property sandwiched among hundreds of similar 1- and 2-acre parcels, like a checkerboard for miles around State Road 33 and County Road 474. Some are zoned one home per 20 acres.
“I am just completely blown away,” Twohig said in March after learning that she can’t use her land. “I am like, ‘You have got to be kidding me.’ ”
Property-sales records show that in the past two years, more than 100 Green Swamp parcels of less than 5 acres have changed hands.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2008-10-26/news/wbswamp26_1_green-swamp-acre-property-appraiser - 91k -
Calling it wet lands sounds so much better than calling it swamp land.
Oh I am tired of these FB’s. If they can’t get a mod by now, or can’t afford the payments by now, then they have no business in the house. It’s no longer “their home” nor can they claim “victim” of innocent homebuyer at the mercy of predatory lender. They threw off their innocence when they took HAMP money.
Just make these loans non-recourse and make the TARP bank eat the losses. Kick the FB out to a 2-bed apartment; they should thank their lucky stars that collections won’t bother them 20 years from now for the loan difference.
‘I am tired of these FB’s’
Clear the foam from the runway!
Well now now, there’s still a little foam in that the loan would be non-recourse. Yeah, the FB will “lose” any down payment and equity, but I think of it this way: in the end, they are no worse off than if they had rented for the past 5-6 years, right?
“…they should thank their lucky stars that collections won’t bother them 20 years from now for the loan difference.”
Didn’t that expire in January or was it reinstated? Is the forgiven loan difference now counted as income?
Dale, that’s the IRS part of it. “Recourse” refers to the bank.
Non-recourse: Say your house is worth $100K but you owe $150K. If you walk away from payments, the bank gets ONLY the house. They have “no recourse” to relcaim the $50K. That $50K is a loss. California and Florida are non-recourse.
Recourse state: Say your house is worth $100K but you owe $150K. If you walk away from the payments, the bank gets the house AND they have “recourse” to chase you for an additional $50K from your other assets. Maryland is a recourse state.
1099 forgiveness: Say your house is worth $100K but you owe $150K. The bank does a short sale for $100K and officially decides NOT to chase you for the $50K. That IRS treats that as if the owner just made $50K in income, sends them a 1099, and makes the owner pay income tax on $50K. Congress got rid of that forgiveness in January, but I don’t think they have reinstated it yet.
My suggestion was to make all those recourse loans (only in those states) into non-recourse. That would allow the owners to walk away from the house without the bank chasing them. If the 1099 forgiveness is reinstated, then the owner could walk away from the house without being chased by the bank OR by the IRS. They would have a major FICO hit, but otherwise be scot-free to go rent and rebuild their credit. that’s really the best option IMO.
Recourse is BS. If your’e broke, they don’t bother. And it you’ve been paying a mortgage, you’re broke.
Will the First Selectman get his money back? (bought in 2004, selling now)
Edelsons put bed and breakfast up for sale
BY CHRIS GARDNER
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
SOUTHBURY — After a decade of welcoming guests for the night and making them a warm meal in the morning, First Selectman Ed Edelson and his wife, Christine, are preparing to move on from their bed and breakfast.
The Edelsons listed their sprawling 5,231-square-foot Colonial at 782 Main St. North for sale Saturday, and will move someplace in town after it sells, likely Heritage Village.
The sale price is $890,000 for the property, and an undisclosed additional amount for the furnishings and business-related materials for the Cornucopia at Oldfield bed and breakfast that they operate.
Ed Edelson said that when they bought the property in 2004 for $870,000, their intention was to operate the business for no more than 10 years.
“Ten years ago, that’s what people told us. It was not something we could do for decades and decades,” he said. “It became clear that 10 years had gone by so we started to think about that. We’ve really enjoyed it, but we’ve gotten a little bit older, and clearly the work has become harder.”
The property, prominently located at the intersection of Main Street North and Roxbury Road, has operated off and on as a bed and breakfast since 1996, when then-owner Barbara Secor and her husband, Joe Taddia, converted it to a business use.
The main section of the house was built between 1818 and 1822 by John Moseley, a state representative and Southbury’s first paid town clerk. The rear section was moved from across the street, where it had been an inn or store.
The Edelsons have made many improvements to the property in the past decade, including putting in a new kitchen, installing a new roof, upgrading the swimming pool and enhancing the grounds.
They say they’ve always enjoyed the hospitality side of running a bed and breakfast, especially meeting and getting to know people, and opening their property to organizations like the Connecticut Community Foundation, Southbury Business Association, Glebe House, Southbury Historical Society and Waterbury Symphony Orchestra.
“It’s been a real joy to be able to share that with the community,” Ed Edelson said.attention last fall when a political opponent of Edelson charged the business was operating with one too many rooms and hosting events that were not allowed by the zoning code.
The matter is being handled administratively, and the Edelsons continue to host guests.
The business operates seven days a week, and Ed Edelson said there have been busy times, including one particular August soon after they moved in.
“We went non-stop for one month. No break,” he said. “We were tired. I don’t remember anything as intensive as that, that one August. A lot of things went our way. It was a little much.”
He said someone stopped by Saturday after seeing the for sale sign to inquire about the property.
“It’s nice that there’s been some interest,” he said, adding that the couple probably won’t buy a new home likely in the state’s largest age-restricted community, but definitely in town until after their house is sold.
“Ed Edelson said that when they bought the property in 2004 for $870,000, their intention was to operate the business for no more than 10 years.”
Double your money in ten years, right?
I’ll wager these people in fact lost a fortune on this failed business model.
“Bed and breakfast”…. wholly created by the Managed Media and swallowed hook line and sinker by suckers who read it.
There are so many hands in the pocket of a small business entrepreneur that I’m surprised anyone wastes their time.
permanent democrat supermajority:
‘the analysis finds that the share of the eligible voting population that is latino will rise by two percentage points from 2012-2016 in three critical presidential swing states: florida, colorado, and nevada. it will rise by two percentage points in new mexico, texas, and arizona. and it will rise by one percentage point in virginia, georgia, and north carolina. while that last finding may seem negligible, it is a sign demographics in those three states — one purple swing state that’s key in presidential elections; the others long reliably red — are trending in a favorable direction for the dems’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/03/10/why-republicans-should-embrace-immigration-reform-in-one-chart/
Meanwhile the people with enough of a rigged system are dropping out. Let Atlas Shrug.
“dropping out”
You really think they’re going to let you escape that easily?
I locate my ammo caches in the Pike National Forest strictly using topo map and compass, not with GPS. Because when it’s “go time” you won’t want to be relying on GPS or any other electronic navigation.
Got 7.62×39?
Just remember the real wolverines are in New Mexico. Red Dawn was shot in Las Vegas, NM. They just placed it in Colorado for the teens that think NM is a foreign country.
They just placed it in Colorado for the teens that think NM is a foreign country.
One of our 50 is missing.
According to Obama we have 57, so one of our 57 is missing.
According to Obama we have 57, (states)
Your math is off again Adan. Obama thought we had 58 states, not 57.
“It is just wonderful to be back in Oregon. And over the last 15 months we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states; I think one left to go…one left to go…”
He was not sure that there were 58 but he knew there were 57. Thanks for playing. Had I used 58, you would have just said he did not say there were 58, he thought there might be 59.
59=58
59=58
You’re good at math.
Yes, but not typing.
I notice the latest is that Obama doesn’t know how to spell r-e-s-p-e-c-t. Funny how the incident isn’t getting the air time that Quayle got.
Republicans use to have almost zero Catholic support and now church going Catholics are one of the party’s most reliable groups. Hispanics that pay more to the government than they receive will move into the Republican ranks. New Mexico has a Latina Republican governor, so more Hispanics does not automatically mean permanent majority. However, illegal immigration does not bring in the type of Hispanics that would vote Republican and amnesty would be a disaster for the country and Republicans.
AlbqDan
Your governor’s personal story is very enlightening.
One day she looked at her life and discovered she was a Republican. This might play out over and over again
I think it will. I go to a church with many Hispanics and many are very socially conservative much more than I am but they still think vote Democratic because their family has always voted Democratic. The irony is that their natural conservatism (reluctance to change) is keeping them from voting the party that best reflects their values.
However, that does not mean I think that open borders is a good idea. Take the Cuban example, the first immigrants fleeing from Castro were highly intelligent and highly driven to succeed. They voted Republican. However, the second wave that came in under Carter included many people released from prisons and mental hospitals, is it any surprise that many of them and their children are voting Democratic?
In the end, I think if you can evaluate an immigrant and decide whether that immigrant and their children will pay more in taxes than they take in benefits, you are probably looking at someone that will vote Republican, if not immediately than in a few generations. However, if you are dealing with a low IQ person, you are looking at a candidate for the permanent majority. In sum, if we have an immigration policy that favors the country instead of the individual immigrant, we also have an immigration policy that favors the Republican party.
All these agenda articles use stats and assumptions that are heavily managed. The illegal demographic doesn’t vote. Any plan to allow them to vote won’t produce voter one for ten plus years.
How many anchor babies turn 18 every day?
And after growing up with free Medicaid, SNAP, school breakfasts and lunches, et cetera, who will they be voting for?
Permanent Democrat Supermajority
speaking of the permanent democrat supermajority, here real journalists from the new york times report on increasing libertarian political attitudes among young republicans:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/us/politics/social-issues-splitting-young-republicans-from-their-elders.html
not that any of this matters, the gop will keep running candidates like santorum, huckabee, mourdoch, akin, bachmann, et cetera.
not that any of this matters, the gop will keep running candidates like santorum, huckabee, mourdoch, akin, bachmann, et cetera.
Cruz in 2016! The first Canadian born, Hispanic, Protestant Fundamentalist, Republican US Prez!
Si se puede!
Adelante!
Put Rand Paul on either end of the ticket and I would be quite happy. The first non-globalist president since Reagan.
Put Rand Paul on either end of the ticket and I would be quite happy. The first non-globalist president since Reagan’s predecessor.
Booyaah!
hope and change
‘five years after the federal government bailed out more than 1 million struggling homeowners, many who got the relief may end up losing their homes after all.
already, nearly 30 percent of those who qualifies for relief have defaulted again.
the initiative was based on the flawed assumption that the economy would bounce back more quickly, undoing the damage wrought by plunging home prices and high unemployment.
but since the initiative’s launch in 2009, the average household income has been flat for all but the highest earners.’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/with-clock-ticking-on-mortgage-relief-homeowners-wonder-whats-ahead/2014/03/10/8482830e-a2df-11e3-a5fa-55f0c77bf39c_story.html
“Obama administration officials defend the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). But they say they are prepared to respond if there is a significant uptick in delinquencies among the homeowners.”
If there is a significant uptick in delinquencies among renters they can move to a people of the woods homeless camp or live under a bridge they didn’t build.
—————————————————————————–
Baltimore’s people of the woods: Inside the hidden homeless camps made of milk crates, wooden doors and tarps on the outskirts of town
By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 10:48 EST, 21 February 2014
A sheet of plastic laid over a clothesline. A mini-fortress of milk crates stacked under a tree. A thin mattress on a flimsy crate lying in a dark tunnel.
On the edge of Baltimore’s woodlands, dozens of the city’s transients live in makeshift homes which they consider safer than homeless shelters.
Photographer Ben Marcin has captured some of the shanties in his thought-provoking photo essay, ‘The Camps’, documenting the struggle, loneliness and ingenuity of Maryland’s people of the woods.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2564858/Baltimores-people-woods-Inside-hidden-homeless-camps-milk-crates-wooden-doors-tarps-outskirts-town.html - -
Hope and Change on the streets of Hunts Point, South Bronx
http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/arnade/sets/72157627894114489/
This is what Obama’s “fundamental transformation” of USA looks like
Forward
the initiative was based on the flawed assumption that the economy would bounce back more quickly, undoing the damage wrought by plunging home prices and high unemployment.
That was the assumption made by Obama on all his programs. He and his economic advisors expected a V shaped recovery that would make Reagan envious. And why not, the recession was caused by the stock market crash and panic in the credit markets. Both were quite easy to “fix”. The economy on its own had stabilized by June 2009 before any of the programs of Obama had started. It is Obama’s own policies that have created these anemic recovery years.
The economy on its own had stabilized by June 2009 before any of the programs of Obama had started
Rather the GDP had stabilized, not the economy for most people. Today’s “growing” GDP represents the 1% - not most Americans. Why? 34 years of trickle-down voodoo economics have changed America.
Obama’s programs, in aggregate, or something like them, were totally needed.
America today is a busted shell of what once was. This is not your daddy’s capitalism. This is wackobird, rent-seeking capitalism for the .1%.
Obama’s programs, in aggregate, or something like them, were totally needed.
His policies in the aggregate have created a recovery that has favored the .1% and all the stats prove that. So they were not “totally needed”, the working poor gained more from $1.70 gasoline than they do from a 16,000+ Dow. However, the .1%….
His policies in the aggregate have created a recovery that has favored the .1%
Of course they have. Because the structure in place was set up to favor the .1%. Don’t you get it the big picture? You think every President starts from scratch? What country do you think you live in? USA is 34 years into its .1% Trickle-Down experiment. And it’s not working.
But Obama’s 09 stimulus mostly went to benefit the average American, not the .1% Here’s some math of it.
Tax Cuts for Individuals New tax credit for workersmore » $116.2 billion
Health; Aid to States Help states with Medicaid costsmore » $87.1 billion
Tax Cuts for Individuals Extend patch for the alternative minimum taxmore » $69.8 billion
Education and Job Training; Aid to States Help states prevent cuts to essential services like educationmore » $53.6 billion
Unemployment Extend and increase unemployment compensationmore » $35.8 billion
Transportation Provide money for highways and bridgesmore » $27.5 billion
Health; Unemployment Health coverage under Cobramore » $25.1 billion
Aid to Individuals Increase food assistancemore » $20.9 billion
Health Incentives to Medicaid and Medicare providers to adopt health information technology $17.2 billion
Education and Job Training; Aid to Individuals Increase the maximum Pell Grant by $500, from $4,850 to $5,350 $15.6 billion
Tax Cuts for Individuals Expand eligibility for Child Tax Creditmore » $14.8 billion
Aid to Individuals Provide cash payment to seniors, disabled veterans and other needy individualsmore » $14.4 billion
Tax Cuts for Businesses; Energy Expand tax incentives for renewable energy facilitiesmore » $14.0 billion
Education and Job Training; Tax Cuts for Individuals Expand higher education tax creditsmore » $13.9 billion
Education and Job Training Provide additional money to schools serving low-income childrenmore » $13.0 billion
Education and Job Training Provide additional money for special educationmore » $12.2 billion
Energy Modernize the electric gridmore » $11.0 billion
Aid to States; Education and Job Training Create new bonds for improvements in public educationmore » $10.9 billion
Health; Science and Research Provide additional financing to the National Institutes of Health for research and infrastructuremore » $10.0 billion
Transportation Invest in rail transportationmore » $9.3 billion
Transportation Invest in public transitmore » $8.4 billion
Housing; Tax Cuts for Individuals Incentive for first-time homebuyersmore » $6.6 billion
Aid to States Incentives for economic recovery in distressed areasmore » $6.5 billion
Energy Provide grants to cities, counties and states to increase energy efficiency $6.3 billion
Energy Provide additional financing for Innovative Energy Loan Guarantee programmore » $6.0 billion
Environment Clean up sites formerly used by the Defense Department $6.0 billion
Environment Finance local water projectsmore » $6.0 billion
Tax Cuts for Businesses Extension of bonus depreciationmore » $5.9 billion
Energy; Aid to Individuals Increase financing for home weatherization programmore » $5.0 billion
Unemployment Exempt unemployment compensationmore » $4.7 billion
Tax Cuts for Individuals Increase Earned Income Tax Creditmore » $4.7 billion
Infrastructure Provide additional money to the Army Corps of Engineersmore » $4.6 billion
Energy Increase energy efficiency in federal buildings $4.5 billion
Infrastructure Create new program to expand broadband accessmore » $4.5 billion
Aid to States Create a tax credit bond option for state and local governmentsmore » $4.3 billion
Aid to States; Unemployment Give states aid to properly administer unemployment compensationmore » $4.2 billion
Infrastructure Make military facilities more energy efficient $4.2 billion
Aid to States Provide additional financing for state and local law enforcementmore » $4.0 billion
Energy; Infrastructure; Housing Repair and modernize public housing units $4.0 billion
Education and Job Training Finance job training programsmore » $4.0 billion
Energy Invest in fossil energymore » $3.4 billion
Tax Cuts for Businesses Expand deduction limits for banks buying bonds more » $3.2 billion
Tax Cuts for Businesses Provide tax break to General Motorsmore » $3.2 billion
Infrastructure Repair and improve facilities on public lands and parks $3.1 billion
But Obama’s 09 stimulus mostly went to benefit the average American, not the .1% Here’s some math of it.
Average Americans? Try politically connected cronies and special interest groups. The average American will be paying the debt service for years and this will be every increasing as interest rates go up when the Fed is not able to print money to buy bonds, Zimbabwe style.
Average Americans? Try politically connected cronies and special interest groups.
Guess u didn’t get the math memo.
Education and Job Training; Aid to States Help states prevent cuts to essential services like educationmore » $53.6 billion
You don’t think that provisions like this were not just for special interest groups that supported Obama? This is nothing but pay back to the NEA. The irony is when the money ran out they lost their jobs anyway. Much of the other funds for things like green energy went to politically connected firms, cronies of Obama, I could go on but why bother. You can not convince someone who is paid to believe something else or at least to produce propaganda.
http://mises.org/daily/6686/Crony-Capitalism-and-the-Transcontinental-Railroads
Old story but perfected by Obama.
hope and change
‘commercial real estate tracker xceligent inc estimates that marijuana cultivation and manufacturing facilities in the city occupy about 4.5 million square feet — the equivalent of 78 football fields.’
http://m.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/03/11/pot-sales-spark-warehouse-boom-in-colorado/
I am in Albuquerque most of the day today - wont be able to visit cousins. Haven’t been here in 20 years. Sun is rising and temp is brisk, but nowhere near bone chilling when I was in Boulder a month ago or so.
Sorry, I am out of town working today. Where you staying?
Sorry, I am out of town working today.
LOL. “Out of town” No way. Busted. There’s no way in the world that you actually live in Albuquerque. You just picked that place to make us jealous. You don’t have the guts to live in such an exotic place. You are a fraud.
Good morning Lola.
I stated over a week ago that I was working over 100 miles from Albuquerque, NM these days in an area with a lot of elk.
Speaking of busted, last week when the D.C offices were closed you were strangely absent from the board.
last week when the D.C offices were closed you were strangely absent from the board
Why would they be closed? Were they having Carnival?
I’ve been wondering why anyone would think I would say I lived in Rio if I didn’t, and others have posted the same wondering. What possible advantage could it give me on anything related to politics or economy or anything? I’ve come with 4 reasons why someone would say I don’t live in Rio.
1. Jealousy. That’s the easy one. RioDJ is like Albuquerque -exotic, warm, “sexiest beach in the world” beautiful women, beautiful bodies, smiles, easy going, I’m self-employed, have a little bit of money, paid off house, mountains, beach, lake, “most beautiful city in the world” Brazil, music, samba etc etc blah blah blah.
But unlike me, some Americans are totally fixated on Brazil and the Brazil vibe and really yearn for it. Me? I can take it or leave it but I live it.
2. Housing bubble tripling the value of my paid off house. This is mostly jealously too but remember, I moved here in 08, I think I started posting here in 08. I had no idea that I was moving into the start of a huge bubble. So if I didn’t live in Rio, I wouldn’t have picked Rio as a fake place to live because it would later make me look kinda wealthy. Because I had no idea house prices would go insane back then.
3. No guts, no money, no adventure. I never realized it until a few days ago but it took a hell of a lot of guts for a middle-aged man who didn’t speak the language to move over 5,500 miles away to a totally different world. Hardly any gringos last down here more that a couple years. This country is a meat grinder for foreigners - most run home to mama fast.
Before I left for here my friends and family said I was “so brave”. I didn’t even know what they were talking about. Now I do. They have a saying down here: “Brazil is not for pu$$ies”. It isn’t .
I think some people might think I don’t live in Rio because they don’t have half the huevos themselves to do it so they project their weakness on me. They also don’t have the money to do it and to do it half-way decent you need at least a couple hundred grand cash to do it independently in Rio. Sorry detractors, but I did it.
4. They know I live in Rio, but they hate my fact-based points of view and just try anything, anything to shut me up. So they say I don’t live in Rio and call me names like they are in Jr. High.
(How’s that working out for you all? Did it shut me up yet?)
You’re no more in Brazil than you are honest. How many times were you given an opportunity to substantiate your self yet you post some web cam screenshot of a cross dresser on the stroll.
Federal government was closed on Monday because of snow. Two hour delayed opening on Tuesday. That is it. Some of the Virginia school systems were out a bit longer.
5. We don’t believe that someone that lives in Brazil would care so much about U.S. housing prices and the Obama administration and we find your posts to be exactly what a paid political hack would be posting. BTW, all you have to do is what HA requests post something clearly from Brazil with a sign, of course I have my doubts about this since it is so easy for someone to photo shop such a pic and you claim to be technically competent. However, it would provide some proof.
Federal government was closed on Monday because of snow. Two hour delayed opening on Tuesday. That is it. Some of the Virginia school systems were out a bit longer.
And those were two days with absolutely no posts and I called him out on his absence. Had he returned the very next day or within days it would have been admitting that I was correct. I smoked him out of Saturday.
We don’t believe that someone that lives in Brazil would care so much about U.S. housing prices and the Obama administration
But you talk about Obama way more than me. He’s haunting your brain even more than I am. ObamaDerangementSyndrome. I’m an American. Why would I not care about American issues? I don’t want to die in Brazil. “I’ll be back”
what a paid political hack would be posting.
I don’t believe you believe that for a second. You just try anything to deflect from the fact that I constantly shut your BS down with facts and logic. As I did again yesterday. Does that make you angry?
all you have to do is what HA requests post something clearly from Brazil with a sign,
“All I have to do”? You don’t get it do you? Mostly, I do what I want to do, and when I want to. I don’t dance to the tune of repressed crazies.
post (a pic) clearly from Brazil with a sign
LOL. Are you guys deranged? Like I’m kidnapped? WTF is wrong with you people? Are you “loosing” your marbles? OK, let’s play “The Kidnapped Games”. Ready? Pledge $1,000 to Ben’s blog and you can conference call me at a Rio payphone today. Ask some questions only I would know about this blog. I’ll talk a bit and then let someone else call after. I’ll pledge 1/2 hour of my time. I like speaking English and I’m in a good mood today.
Got cash?
And those were two days with absolutely no posts and I called him out on his absence. Had he returned the very next day or within days it would have been admitting that I was correct.
Are you really this deranged Albuquerquedan?
let’s play “The Kidnapped Games”. Ready? Pledge $1,000 to Ben’s blog and you can conference call me at a Rio payphone today.
You have 1/2 left today to play. Then I’m going to take care of some business and take a nice walk on the beach. But we can play it any other day you see me here.
Are you really this deranged Albuquerquedan?
Are you really so delusional that you believe you live in Rio? Take your meds. BTW, even if you did live in Rio, I would not be jealous of you, I have no desire to live in country with such a divide between rich and poor, which is precisely why I oppose every globalist president and that is every one of them since Reagan.
I have no desire to live in country with such a divide between rich and poor,
You pretty much already do. USA is catching up fast thanks to 34 years of Trickle-down tripe.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/27/us-income-inequality-wors_n_2561123.html
U.S. Income Inequality Worse Than Many Latin American Countries
Latin America has long been viewed as a region plagued by some of the worst wealth inequality in the world.
But in recent years, those figures have turned around, while in the United States income inequality is on the rise.
Adam Isacson, analyst for the Washington Office on Latin America, notes the change on his blog. According to recent figures on income published by the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the U.S. income gap now exceeds that of several countries in the Americas. As Isacson writes:
The United States (wealthiest 20% earns 16 times more than the poorest 20%) is now in the middle of the pack. In 1980, the U.S. number was 10.5.
I oppose every globalist president and that is every one of them since Reagan.
Reagan was a neoliberal globalist in many ways too. He started it a lot of it. Reagan doubled our imports. Reagan did a lot of good things too but take your head out of the sand about Reagan.
From the arch-Conservative Cato Institute:
Reagan Embraced Free Trade and Immigration
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/reagan-embraced-free-trade-immigration
…..Reagan’s heart and head were clearly on the side of free trade. While president, he declared in 1986: “Our trade policy rests firmly on the foundation of free and open markets. I recognize … the inescapable conclusion that all of history has taught: The freer the flow of world trade, the stronger the tides of human progress and peace among nations.”
It was the Reagan administration that launched the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations in 1986 that lowered global tariffs and created the World Trade Organization. It was his administration that won approval of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement in 1988. That agreement soon expanded to include Mexico in what became the North American Free Trade Agreement, realizing a vision that Reagan first articulated in the 1980 campaign. It was Reagan who vetoed protectionist textile quota bills in 1985 and 1988.
During Reagan’s eight years in office, Americans eagerly expanded their engagement in the global economy. In 1980, the year before Reagan became president, Americans spent a total of $334 billion on imported goods and services and payments on foreign investment in the United States. By 1988, his last year in office, American spending in the global economy had nearly doubled, to $663 billion.
If Reagan was a “protectionist,” it had no discernable effect on the ability of Americans to spend freely in the global marketplace. Fittingly, one of the major federal buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue is named the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.
“Pledge $1,000 to Ben’s blog”
Leave Jones out of it.
When up against the wall, Lola grabs anything or anybody and throws it under the bus.
COWARD
Everyone tries to claim that Reagan would support their policies, that is because he was a very successful president that captured almost 60% of popular votes and virtually all the states whether they were blue or red.
Everyone tries to claim that Reagan would support their policies, that is because he was a very successful president
I don’t think Reagan in his prime would have let America get so Trickle-down out of whack. Even Reagan raised taxes on the wealthy when he saw it going too far. Reagan would never sign a no new tax pledge imo. He’d say “screw you, I don’t dance to your tune dude”.
The Right turned some of Reagan’s ideas maybe needed in 1981 into a warped religion to be worshiped forever.
There is a time and place for everything but 34 years of Trickle-Down on steroids screwed the pooch.
let’s play “The Kidnapped Games”.
Too late today amigos. I’m gone.
Quitting time in DC?
“You don’t have the guts to live in such an exotic place.”
Are we talking about Albuquerque, NM? Exotic??
Are we talking about Albuquerque, NM? Exotic??
Not even. I was comparing Albuquerque to RioDJ with sarcasm.
Like:
“There’s no way Adan lives in Albuquerque. He just is trying to make us jealous”.
Carnival? With the operation you had more like SCARnival.
Sun is rising and temp is brisk, but nowhere near bone chilling when I was in Boulder a month ago or so.
It was in the 70’s this week in Boulder. That said, it might snow tonight.
Once again, the realtor crime syndicate is ramping up advertisements on radio and teevee. They make great humor.
You’re just sour grapes because this housing recovery has passed you by.
Tune in for great laughs.
Sandy?
It passed us all babe. ‘cuz it never happened.
Where’s the friggin’ plane?
who cares
The just sicced the “crowd” on it:
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_25315311/digitalglobe-launches-crowdsource-search-missing-malaysian-plane
One theory I read is that there could have been a catastrophic decompression, knocking everyone out and that the plane flew on autopilot until it ran out of fuel. Problem with that is that someone would have seen it on radar, I would think.
Several experts have said that pilots can be too busy trying to control the plane that they can’t radio a distress signal. Is there any provision for an automatic distress signal which could be triggered on a catastrophic event such as total decompression?
I always heard that planes give automatic distress signals whenever certain parameters go like way beyond normal tolerance.
Da Plane!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mity4ewW464 - 129k -
Looks like Diane Feinstein is all up on her hind legs that the CIA spied on a Senate Panel. Says they violated the law and the (gasp) Constitution. Yeah, since when do Congresscritters give a rat’s patootie about the Constitution?
Whaddya gonna do about it, Feinstein? You let these folks do whatever they wanted, until it affected you, right?
Based on the article I posted yesterday, I now look for more of these Deep State vs Superficial State conflicts to occur. One thing I would remind CONgress is that their power depends on the people, like it or not. Yes, it can be manipulated, but only so far. Keep bending over your constituents, and they’ll just smile and shrug when it’s your day in the barrel.
+1 Unauthorized spying, wiretapping, etc, is for gentiles.
You and LolaLOL throw touch down passes every time.
And Lola in a cheer leader dress cheers them on. O.K it is more like he cheers on Joe but I took artistic license.
lolz!
Lola loves Chris Christie so much that he cheerleads for him.
http://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/chris-christie-with-crossdressing-cheerleaders.jpg
Now I can say Lolz!!
P.S. I am old enough to remember Michael Jackson when he was a black man before he became a white woman. However, compared to Lola he never made the transformation to white despite his efforts. BTW Lola, you need to work on your beer gut.
…. and that facial hair of hers is over the top.
Wasn’t she one of the peeps calling for Snowden’s head? I think so.
In retrospect, it looks like Radel’s entrapment and takedown by the FBI was a Deep State warning shot.
I think she thought the deal was that if she supported them, then they would not spy on her and find out about her illegal activities. She should have gotten it in writing.
Perhaps someone should issue an executive order simply suspending the Fourth Amendment. Bingo…legal!
Or just delaying the enforcement of the Fourth Amendment for a few years…
Or just delaying the enforcement of the Fourth Amendment for a few years…
I think we already have.
I don’t think executive orders work that way.
Coming soon though!
Diane Feinstein is not a real journalist.
Fox News - Democrats hold all-night ‘talkathon’ on climate change on Senate floor
“It was a lot of hot air about a lot of hot air.
Democrats took to the Senate floor Monday night to talk about global warming and did not let up until morning.
(Sen. Barbara) Boxer and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., lead the recently launched Senate Climate Action Task Force, which organized the session.
Whitehouse said the session was needed to highlight obstacles to climate legislation, including ads financed by Charles and David Koch, conservative activists who have spent $15 million on Senate races, mostly criticizing Democrats over Obamacare. The Koch brothers, whose interests include oil, chemicals, textiles and paper, have also spent millions on ads critical of action against climate change.”
Forward
opinion piece written by real journalists on the editorial board of the new york times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/opinion/the-democrats-stand-up-to-the-kochs.html
The Koch brothers, whose interests include oil, chemicals, textiles and paper, have also spent millions on ads critical of action against climate change.”
I don’t get that logic. That makes no sense. Why would they do that? What reason would explain that? Where’s the math? Can anyone connect the dots? Does that dog hunt?
The Koch brothers are probably going to make a lot of money off of Obamacare.
There’s real math and there’s ADan political math.
Thanks AlbuquerqueDan for the real corker yesterday about Reagan’s Fed land drilling energy policies really helping the economy back then.
Even the most generous math would show that Reagan’s drilling on Federal land might have saved someone less than a nickle on a fill-up - but more like nothing to a couple cents on a $10 fill-up of gas. (The math is on yesterday’s blog.)
But let’s be politically blinded, stupid generous and say Reagan’s fed land drilling energy policy saved the average Joe 20-50 cents a month on gas. (But it didn’t) So most all Obama has to do, according to you Adan and your political math, is to enact policies to save us about (adjusted for inflation and percentage terms) about a dollar or two a month on gas. But Obama should out Reagan Reagan, get crazy, drill Old Faithful and save us about $3-4 a month on energy. Wow, the economy will skyrocket.
There it is.
Lola….. where is Liberace? What did you do with him?
Downlow Joe is in Austin this week catching himself a cowboy.
But Obama should out Reagan Reagan, get crazy, drill Old Faithful and save us about $3-4 a month on energy. Wow, the economy will skyrocket.
There it is.
For every one cent the price of gasoline drops the consumer saves over one billion dollars. Thus, the rise in gasoline since Obama took office amounts to around $175 billion dollars taken from consumers every year. Now, add in the additional costs to heat houses and the indirect costs that we pay such as increased transportation costs added to our goods and the increase in raw materials to make goods (example farmer pays more for diesel passes cost to consumer) and you are talking about the consumer paying hundreds of billions of dollars per year. Do the math if you are capable Lola, even $300 billion dollars amounts to about $1000 dollars for every man woman and child. Family of four, four thousand dollars per year, or over $330 per month. Your estimate $3-4 per month, no wonder you don’t make money as a transsexual ho, you charge $20 pay your pimp $25 and try to make it up on volume.
Thus, the rise in gasoline since Obama took office amounts to around $175 billion dollars taken from consumers every year
Your math is wrong again Adan. Obama’s policies have not “robbed” 175 billion dollars from American consumers. How could they? Oil production has gone way up under Obama adding to the world supply. Do you understand the math of “Supply and Demand”? But Obama does not dictate world oil prices. Your numbers are based false premises. It’s a big world out here dude. You can get a passport at the post office too.
USA Crude Oil Production
2009 5,352.88 7.05 %
2010 5,478.72 2.35 %
2011 5,651.88 3.16 %
2012 6,467.17 14.43 %
indexmundi dot com
U.S. Crude Output to Climb Toward Record by 2016, EIA Says …
http://www.bloomberg.com/…/2013…/u-s-crude-oil-output-will-climb-toward-...
U.S. crude oil production will approach a record by 2016, climbing to the highest level in 46 years as rising output … By Christine Harvey 2013-12-16T19:59:08Z.
US Oil Production Keeps Rising Beyond the Forecasts - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/…/us-oil-production-keeps-rising-beyond-the-forecasts….
Jan 24, 2014 - Production of oil in the United States rose by a record amount in 2013, the International Energy Agency said, and it is expected to rise again in …
The drilling is occurring on private lands. Obama has done nothing to encourage the drilling, and has blocked the XL pipeline and created government regs to try to discourage the increase. His policy is not more drilling, he deserves no credit for this increase. Of course, without it we would be back into a recession. He is great at claiming credit for what he has not done but deflecting blame for his errors.
The drilling is occurring on private lands…..he deserves no credit for this increase
Of course Obama deserves some credit. He’s President of the country that has increased oil production. He didn’t stop fracking or put the screws to big oil.
You can’t blame Obama for consequences in the private sector and then say he gets no credit in the private sector.
That makes no sense. It’s like bad math.
no wonder you don’t make money as a transsexual ho
Golly, I guess you win the “debate” again.
Got anger?
Got anger?
No got humor and you are the joke. You only win the debates in your own mind, you need to get back on the meds. Maybe then, you would not lose at the Saul Alinsky tactics.
You only win the debates in your own mind,
Of course I win the debates that I choose to get in with you.
Why? I use real math against a guy who uses political math.
No got humor and you are the joke.
That’s fine but do you really think you have humor? I don’t see it in your posts. Maybe you have the “watch me light my fart” humor. Or “yo mamma wears combat boots” humor. Or “watch me light this bug on fire” humor.
But you don’t seem like the kind of guy that would be very funny at a backyard BBQ. I see you as a blowhard who would bore the he!! out of people with your endless pontificating on a myriad of dull subjects interjected with a few r@cist and gay-bashing jokes.
Funny stuff for an angry 12 year old I guess.
You are a legend in your own mind. Lola.
We Are In FAR Worse Shape Than We Were Just Prior To The Last Great Financial Crisis
By Michael Snyder, on March 10th, 2014
None of the problems that caused the last financial crisis have been fixed. In fact, they have all gotten worse. The total amount of debt in the world has grown by more than 40 percent since 2007, the too big to fail banks have gotten 37 percent larger, and the colossal derivatives bubble has spiraled so far out of control that the only thing left to do is to watch the spectacular crash landing that is inevitably coming. Unfortunately, most people do not know the information that I am about to share with you in this article. Most people just assume that the politicians and the central banks have fixed the issues that caused the last great financial crisis. But the truth is that we are in far worse shape than we were back then. When this financial bubble finally bursts, the devastation that we will witness is likely to be absolutely catastrophic.
The Derivatives Bubble
Most people simply do not understand that over the past couple of decades Wall Street has been transformed into the largest and wildest casino on the entire planet.
Nobody knows for sure how large the global derivatives bubble is at this point, because derivatives trading is lightly regulated compared to other types of trading. But everyone agrees that it is absolutely massive. Estimates range from $600 trillion to $1.5 quadrillion.
And what we do know is that four of the too big to fail banks each have total exposure to derivatives that is in excess of $40 trillion.
The numbers posted below may look similar to numbers that I have included in articles in the past, but for this article I have updated them with the very latest numbers from the U.S. government. Since the last time that I wrote about this, these numbers have gotten even worse…
JPMorgan Chase
Total Assets: $1,989,875,000,000 (nearly 2 trillion dollars)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $71,810,058,000,000 (more than 71 trillion dollars)
Citibank
Total Assets: $1,344,751,000,000 (a bit more than 1.3 trillion dollars)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $62,963,116,000,000 (more than 62 trillion dollars)
Bank Of America
Total Assets: $1,438,859,000,000 (a bit more than 1.4 trillion dollars)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $41,386,713,000,000 (more than 41 trillion dollars)
Goldman Sachs
Total Assets: $111,117,000,000 (just a shade over 111 billion dollars – yes, you read that correctly)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $47,467,154,000,000 (more than 47 trillion dollars)
During the coming derivatives crisis, several of those banks could fail simultaneously.
If that happened, it would be an understatement to say that we would be facing an “economic collapse”.
Credit would totally freeze up, nobody would be able to get loans, and economic activity would grind to a standstill.
It is absolutely inexcusable how reckless these big banks have been.
Just look at those numbers for Goldman Sachs again.
Goldman Sachs has total assets worth approximately 111 billion dollars (billion with a little “b”), but they have more than 47 trillion dollars of total exposure to derivatives.
That means that the total exposure that Goldman Sachs has to derivatives contracts is more than 427 times greater than their total assets.
I don’t know why more people aren’t writing about this.
This is utter insanity.
During the next great financial crisis, it is very likely that the rest of the planet is going to lose faith in the current global financial system that is based on the U.S. dollar and on U.S. debt.
When that day arrives, and the U.S. dollar loses reserve currency status, the shift in our standard of living is going to be dramatic. Just consider what Marin Katusa of Casey Research had to say the other day…
It will be shocking for the average American… if the petro dollar dies and the U.S. loses its reserve currency status in the world there will be no middle class.
The middle class and the low class… wow… what a game changer. Your cost of living will quadruple.
The debt-fueled prosperity that we are enjoying now will not last forever. A day of reckoning is fast approaching, and most Americans will not be able to handle the very difficult adjustments that they will be forced to make. Here is some more from Marin Katusa…
Imagine this… take a country like Croatia… the average worker with a university degree makes about 1200 Euros a month. He spends a third of that, after tax, on keeping his house warm and filling up his gas tank to get to work and get back from work.
In North America, we don’t make $1200 a month, and we don’t spend a third of our paycheck on keeping our house warm and driving to work… so, the cost of living… food will triple… heat, electricity, everything subsidized by the government will triple overnight… and it will only get worse even if you can get the services.
All of this could have been prevented if we had done things the right way.
Unfortunately, we didn’t learn any of the lessons that we should have learned from the last financial crisis, and our politicians and the central banks have just continued to do the same things that they have always done.
So now we all get to pay the price.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/we-are-in-far-worse-shape-than-we-were-just-prior-to-the-last-great-financial-crisis - 119k -
Spot on.
It was stated on WBBR this morning that the Frauderal Reserve is “now the global bank”.
is it ‘go time’ yet?
Soon. The kindling is dry and waiting for a spark… CT will provide that spark.
Conn. Cop: I Will Kick Down Doors To Confiscate Guns
http://www.picpaste.com/1798074_10151929515285773_334337247_n-d1ARiEuG.jpg
Good stuff.
Best photo ever posted to the HBB.
Vasily Zaytsev
From Wikipedia
Vasily Grigoryevich Zaytsev was a Soviet sniper and a Hero of the Soviet Union during World War II, notable particularly for his activities between 10 November and 17 December 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad; during this five-week period he killed 225 soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht and other Axis armies, including 11 enemy snipers.[1]
Prior to 10 November, he killed 32 Axis soldiers with the standard-issue Mosin–Nagant rifle (effective range of 900 meters).[1] Between October 1942 and January 1943, Zaytsev made an estimated 400 kills, some of which were over 1000 meters.
Zaytsev was born in Yeleninskoye, Orenburg Governorate in a peasant family of Russian ethnicity[2] and grew up in the Ural Mountains, where he learned marksmanship by hunting deer and wolves with his grandfather and younger brother.
———————————————————————
Hunting Statistics
Statistic Verification
Source: Hunting Business Marketing, From the Lodge
Date Verified: 3.20.2012
Hunting is the practice of pursuing, killing or trapping any living organism, usually wildlife or feral animals, by humans for food, recreation, or trade. Animals may also hunt other animal species, but this is usually called predation. In present-day use, lawful hunting is distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law. The species that are hunted are referred to as game and are usually mammals and migratory or non-migratory gamebirds. Hunting has a long history and may well pre-date the rise of the species Homo sapiens. While our earliest Hominid ancestors were probably frugivores or omnivores, there is evidence that earlier Homo species, and possibly also australopithecine species, utilised larger animals for subsistence.
Total number of people over the age of 16 that hunt annually 12.5 million
Total number of hunting trips spent by U.S. population 185 million trips
Total amount of people that hunted other animals (woodchucks, raccoons, ect.) 1.1 million
http://www.statisticbrain.com/hunting-statistics/ - 25k -
“Best photo ever posted to the HBB.”
I dunno. I sorta took a liken to surfer girl.
Soon. The kindling is dry and waiting for a spark… CT will provide that spark.
I read the law a couple days ago and you are right Northeastener. It’s a bad law.
I love the civil disobedience part but don’t like Americans talking about violence against their brothers. There is a better way.
Omni Consumer Products PR Dept • 21 minutes ago
“UPDATE: Since the release of this article, Branford Police have confirmed that Officer Peterson has been placed on paid leave while an internal investigation is carried out.”
Translate as: “You need to leave town for a while till things quiet down.”
It’s going to be zeroed out. Wait and see. No fuss, no muss.
Dream on
It has to be zeroed out, there is no other option. Like Charles Hugh Smith’s article said, the Deep State has an overwhelming desire to survive, and if it’s a choice between throwing 10,000 pigmen under the bus or millions of citizens going nutz and committing mayhem, they’ll sacrifice the pigmen. With alacrity. Just zero out their phantom profits. It’s all BS anyway. There’s no underlying value to support it.
There’s always the option of fencing in the millions of nutty citizens.
It’s easier to keep the citizens docile and content. And if throwing a relative handful of pigmen under the bus will do it, why not? Deep State is more interested in long term survival and it depends on the citizens, not the pigmen. In fact the pigmen are a threat to the Deep State’s survival. They will not be made whole. They will have to go.
Watch the Feinstein dustup closely. Although seemingly unrelated, it will tell you which way the wind blows.
The main thing the Deep State doesn’t want to have happen is the loss of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. This is what the excesses of the pigmen could bring about. That’s the Deep State’s biggest fear, that’s what threatens their existence. That’s why they’ll throw the pigmen under the bus.
The main thing the Deep State doesn’t want to have happen is the loss of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency
Exactly right, the maintaining of the Empire or the Deep State depends on financing with our reserve currency status.
February 25, 2014
Share on facebookShare on twitterShare on googleMore Sharing Services82We’re Going Backwards!
America’s Deep State
by ROBERT HUNZIKER
Bill Moyers of Moyers & Company, on Feb. 21, 2014, interviewed Mike Lofgren, a former GOP congressional staff member, who, during the interview, confirmed what many Americans already suspect: America has become a corporate state, or to use Lofgren’s words, a “Deep State,” which he defines as a hybrid of corporate America and the national security state.
By all appearances, the Deep State that Lofgren references is somewhat similar to the Machtergreifung, aka: seizure of power, in March 1933 in Germany, which meant the government could legislate contrary to the constitution, thereby, condemning the constitution to irrelevancy.
“It is, I would say, the red thread that runs the history of the last three decades. It’s how we had deregulation, financialization of the economy, the Wall Street bust, the erosion of our civil liberties, and perpetual war,” Mike Lofgren Interview.
Mike Lofgren, a former Congressional staff member with the House and Senate Budget Committees, served for 28 years in a position that required top-secret clearances. Over time, his exposure to the most sensitive of U.S. financial matters (and shenanigans) changed his opinion of the American nation-state.
Mr. Lofgren has come to the conclusion that, regardless of party affiliation, elected and unelected members of the government collude with powerful vested interests to serve and protect their own interests at the expense of the American public. In short, the American middle class is a patsy that gets ripped off by the politically rich.
Mr. Lofgren’s disclosures, by and large, do not come as a surprise because the legal vehicles by which the U.S. government has transformed itself, like the Patriot Act, are out in the open for all to see, review, and comprehend.
But, members of Congress did not read the Patriot Act prior to voting its approval. Remarkably, that momentous document was ready-to-go shortly after 9/11. All 363 pages were written in less than 40 calendar days, which must be an all-time record.
According to Michael Moore’s film, Fahrenheit 9/11, in an interview with Congressman Jim McDermott, no senator read the bill prior to passage, and Congressman John Conyers, Jr. candidly admitted: “We don’t read most of the bills.”
Lofgren’s disgust with the transformation of American democracy into a corporate/state enterprise system led him to leave Capital Hill, abandon the Republican Party, and write a book and an essay: The Party is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless and the Middle Class Got Shafted, Viking Penguin 2012, and, a follow up article: “Essay: Anatomy of the Deep State,” Perspectives, Moyer & Company, Feb. 21, 2014.
As a point of reference regarding the term Deep State, John le Carré, the novelists and former British spy, initially coined “deep state” as descriptive of an invisible labyrinth of power.
Mr. Lofgren cynically claims that Wall Street and corporate America are only concerned with “sucking as much money out of the country as they can. And they’re about control….” By all appearances, they’ve done a good job, earning very high marks, especially for “sucking money out of the system,” when one considers the fact that, according to the Tax Justice Network and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIU), up to $32,000,000,000,000 (thirty-two trillion USD) is secretly hidden offshore in trust funds and shell corporations in tax-free jurisdictions.
Although Mr. Lofgren did not mention the issue of offshore funds in his interview, it is certainly part of “sucking funds out of the country.” Thirty-two trillion is twice the size of U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and stuffed away in tax-free hideaways. Indeed, it is absolutely fascinating that everybody knows all about it!
Seemingly, the perpetrators who avoid paying US taxes do not need to worry about repercussions since the whole world shamelessly knows all about it and nothing of consequence ever happens. For one, Mitt Romney knows all about it; he was the target of a jolting broadside from challenger Newt Gingrich during the Republican presidential debates, who said: “I don’t know of any American president who has had a Swiss bank account.”
All of which only goes to prove that secretly hiding funds offshore away from the tax collector has gone mainstream and assuredly, it is part of the Deep State apparatus.
As Mr. Lofgren says, in reference to the Deep State: “This is something that hides in plain sight… This has evolved over time… It is a hybrid of corporate America and the national security state.” According to him, the main players of the Deep State are the Pentagon, Homeland Security, the State Department, and the U.S. Treasury.
Mr. Lofgren points to the Pentagon as an example of how the Deep State “sucks money” out of the American economy. As for one example among many, it cost $400 by the time the Pentagon finishes paying its private contractors to haul one gallon of gasoline into Afghanistan.
Or, as for another example, since 9/11, the US has built the equivalent of three Pentagons in the immediate DC metro area for over 400,000 private contractors, defense contractors, and intelligence operators all of whom have top-secret security clearances, which prompts the immediate observation that, in all likelihood, somebody would have to be a real schmuck not to get top-secret clearance.
As recently as 15 years ago, no one would’ve guessed the country would expand Pentagon operations by three times within a decade. And, as with the Pentagon, all governmental functions are increasingly “privatized,” meaning the power shifts from accountable officials of the government to unaccountable private contractors. For example, 70% of the intelligence budget goes to private contractors. Conspicuously, and remarkably, America is outsourcing its own intelligence-gathering.
And, it’s outsourcing war as well, for example, in Iraq, most of the participants came from private contractors, to wit: “By 2008, the US Department of Defense employed 155,826 private contractors in Iraq – and 152,275 troops. This degree of privatization is unprecedented in modern warfare,” Molly Dunigan, A Lesson from Iraq War: How to Outsource War to Private Contractors, The Christian Science Monitor, March 19, 2013.
In essence, accountability within the American political system is increasingly a lost cause, even in the field of battle. As of today, it’s little wonder the Pentagon cannot account for several trillions of dollars. For starters, as far back as 2001, then-Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld publicly admitted to unaccountable Pentagon funds amounting to $2.3 trillion, which, at the time, was nearly 20% of annual GDP… gone missing?
The Roots of the Problem
This ongoing drama of the corporate state overtaking and owning American democracy continues because of adherence to the tenets and principles of neoliberalism, as trumpeted by Milton Friedman way back when, i.e., free trade, deregulation, privatization, and reduction of government; thereby continuing its steamroller effect these past three decades, embracing (privatizing) all aspects of the US government, even sensitive intelligence-gathering operations.
This neoliberal privatization movement effectively eliminates governmental accountability, which is one of the safeguards of an effective and operative democratic government. This alone is a national tragedy while paradoxically also serving as a building block of the Deep State apparatus.
Resisting the Neoliberal Revolution
In a similar vein to Mr. Lofgren’s analysis, Henry Giroux, a scholar and cultural critic and a theorist of critical pedagogy, addresses the neoliberal conundrum as a new mode of politics that is wedded to “power unaccompanied by accountability of any kind,” Henry Giroux on Resisting the Neoliberal Revolution, Moyers & Company, February 21, 2014.
According to Henry Giroux (McMaster University, chair in English and cultural studies): “The biggest problem facing the US may not be its repressive institutions, modes of governance and the militarization of everyday life, but the interiority of neoliberal nihilism, the hatred of democratic relations and the embrace of a culture of cruelty.”
Indeed, Professor Giroux broadens Mr. Lofgren’s analysis of the Deep State by focusing on society’s war on youth, women, gays, public values, public education and dissent of any kind. He speaks of a “hatred of democratic relations” and of a “culture of cruelty.” These are strong accusations that bespeak of a weakened democratic nation-state that belies the image of strength and power as promulgated in American political rhetoric.
Fundamentally, America’s citizens are helplessly stuck on a neoliberal conveyor belt that bypasses all of their dreams, leaving a shattered hopelessness in its wake, and according to Professor Giroux’s intimations, the proponents of neoliberalism cherish, and profit by, every moment of the agony and belittlement of “the people,” as neoliberal policies undercut their sources of a fair livelihood and undermine the sense of national integrity.
In the words of Henry Giroux: “Neoliberalism is a new form of hybrid global financial authoritarianism. It is connected to the Deep State and marked by its savage willingness in the name of accumulation, privatization, deregulation, dispossession and power to make disposable a wide range of groups extending from low income youth and poor minorities to elements of the middle class that have lost jobs, social protections and hope… This is a revolution in which the welfare state is being liquidated, along with the collective provisions that supported it. It is a revolution in which economics drives politics.”
The proof of economics driving politics has never been more starkly displayed than in Europe, ever since 2008, where austerity reigns supreme, entailing cuts to pensions and/or wages and/or benefits for workers as the wealthy prosper and banks are saved. Also, this trend is well along on its way in America.
Henry Giroux describes two essentials for challenging what he describes as “the new authoritarianism.” First, there must be a change in the collective consciousness of what democracy is or should be. Secondly, a massive social movement with distinct strategies is required for success against the overwhelming forces of the corporate state.
In reality, Henry Giroux’s fix is much easier said than done, especially in consideration of the powerful foothold already established via three decades of neoliberal-enhanced policies. By now, the corporate nation-state may be so entrenched that it is as impregnable as the 15-foot thick walls of Burghausen Castle (Upper Bavaria), withstanding any and all opposition since the 8th century.
And, already, neoliberalism has elicited socio-economic conditions that depreciate and revert back in time to an era of lords, villeins, and serfs, similar to the earliest days of feudalism when Burghausen Castle was conceived. As such, neoliberalism has resurrected life as it was before democratic spirits overpowered the lords.
We’re going backwards!
Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at roberthunziker@icloud.com.
One thing 2008 has taught me - don’t allow macro events beyond my control frustrate or depress me.
“Get out of debt - AND stay out”
Colorado collected 2M in pot taxes in January.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25314108/colorado-saw-2-million-recreational-marijuana-taxes-january
Doesn’t seem like a whole lot. That could barely fund a single cop’s or firefighter’s (we don’t have government lifeguards here) retirement.
Sounds like there is a serious problem with entitlements about to hit the wall in CO.
That’s why we have TABOR. It keeps the taxes in check, and with it the entitlements.
The thing is, even if the pot taxes were to bring in say a billion over the TABOR limits, that billion would have to be refunded to taxpayers.
It’s pretty rare out here for muni employees to get a pension. Only cops are firefighters do.
expect this amount will drop going forward for a few reasons.
the novelty of buying legal weed for out-of-staters will wear off.
some of the locals paying the relatively higher prices for recreational will switch to getting their weed from people who have medical cards, the medical prices are half of recreational prices.
the extra tax revenue will be a nice short term bump but it won’t be funding an i-70 corridor ski train anytime soon.
the extra tax revenue will be a nice short term bump but it won’t be funding an i-70 corridor ski train anytime soon.
Correct, plus if it wasn’t chump change, TABOR would end up mandating most of it being refunded anyway.
Also, I suspect that competition will ramp up, which will lower tax revenue from lower priced hits.
It won’t be enough to pay the increased policing that is needed to keep stoned drivers off the road. The jury is still out on this experiment which I actually support. Having 50 sovereign states allows the nation to see how proposals work before trying them on a national scale. I have serious doubts about his one, but since addressing pot in the same manner as meth has not worked, it is good to try something new. Particularly, since I do not drive the roads of Colorado often.
The number of stoned drivers doesn’t change due to legalization. People who wanted to get high (and drive) were already doing it.
Methinks the statistics will show stoned drivers have fewer accidents (than ordinary drivers) despite their impairment. I have been driving for 35 years and done so countless times after smoking weed. My only accidents have happened when straight or due to alcohol. I know people with similar experiences.
http://www.boston.com/2014/03/07/colorado-launches-campaign-stop-stoned-driving-colo-launches-campaign-stop-stoned-driving-colorado-launches-campaign-stop-stoned-driving/tI1vyfsJC2QKLgLwB9yT8N/story.html
Good data is hard to find, but they are clearly having a problem in Colorado with impaired drivers due to pot.
Yeah, um, no. Stoned people can’t drive. They just think they can because they don’t notice their own mistakes. They go too slow and forget to look over their shoulders, and they get really confused at stop signs.
Like Cheech and Chong when he asks how is my driving and gets the response, I think you are parked.
Some local anecdotes and observations.
The education level of transplants moving here is much higher than the natives. Of these transplants who smoke weed, they have better jobs that don’t require drug testing, and can hold jobs without their weed smoking interfering with employment.
The natives here grew up smoking Colorado weed, which is much, much stronger than what is widely available in the rest of the country. Growing up here and smoking on a daily basis (sometimes all day, every day), they lack the motivation to complete higher education (not to mention that college is much more expensive here than in many other states), and are stuck in lucky duck jobs. That they can’t stop smoking for just 30 days until they can pass a drug test to get a better job just compounds the problem. I have observed this in a lot (alot) of the native kidz under age 30. Life becomes a self-reinforcing feedback loop of chronic daily pot smoking, lucky duck employment, and playing video games.
not to mention that college is much more expensive here than in many other states
While there are states with cheaper State U’s, there are also states with pricier ones.
If your GPA is high enough, Mesa State in Grand Junction is free. As in no tuition. No scholarships to apply for, it’s automatic.
Imagine no debt payments - now imagine immeasurable freedom.
You have the immeasurable freedom to stop paying rent to your landlord.
And shortly after that, the immeasurable freedom to go live in a van down by the river, in a cardboard box under a bridge, or in a cave.
Hmmm. No debt payments means ones housing situation is paid for. You’re confusing a normal American with a fiscally astute one.
If you’re sitting on a paid off house with all that idle equity, you’re not managing your finances correctly.
“If you’re sitting on a paid off house with all that idle equity…”
Sure, Wall street really could do it better than me.
If you’re sitting on a paid off house with all that idle equity, you’re not managing your finances correctly.
Or you’re living in Brazil.
It gets less and less believable the more you feel compelled to repeat it.
Mmmmm. Idle equity lets one sleep good at night. Besides I’d rather use cash to manage my finances correctly.
I watched a bunch of people “manage finances” in 2008 using their homes equity. Bunches on them are now in the vans, boxes and caves you described earlier.
The real Amy Hoak of marketwatch showed up here the other day and was clearly pissed about you impersonating her. While your misinformative parody may have juvenile troll appeal, you really should just let this hoax die. You’re just pathetic and sad as opposed to any kind of real “funny”. Let the caricature die hoax… die .. die..
I once had a neighbor who, upon learning that I rent, literally said that I was a transient who lives in a box under a bridge. Then he tried to cut down my tree, and left the limbs lying in my yard.
It is a nice thing about renting, you are able to leave nut case neighbors behind much more easily. I am lucky, I like my neighbors but being gone most of the time probably helps. However, my parents had a nut case as a neighbor for a while and it was hell on them.
Heard a hilarious characterization of economic policy for the past five years: “Trickle up economics.”
More like flooding up economics.
More like flooding up economics.
More like a sewage back-up rising up and flooding everything in sh#t.
“Trickle up economics.”
“Since 1981″
The structure is firmly in place for this to get worse and worse. There is nothing that tinkering with the edges will fix.
The “Money is Everything” false religion we’ve been worshiping for over three decades has turned out to be a false God.
This was not the philosophy of America or what we were founded on.
The experiment has failed.
We could follow the policies of Brazil and decline faster which seems to be your answer:
http://www.heritage.org/index/country/brazil
Mango’s been trying to trickle up for years. His latest is a 1-900 sexphone scam from Brazilian pay phones.
“The real Amy Hoak of marketwatch showed up here the other day and was clearly pissed about you impersonating her.”
Oh, yes. Anything anyone claims on the internet is ALWAYS true.
especially if it’s in Wikipedia.
It will be interesting how Lola is paid to spin this one:
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/no-last-minute-health-insurance-pile-yet-n50156
You’ve really got a thing for Lola on this blog.
Some of us are beginning to worry…
He is a paid agitator and I believe that being on the offensive is important. But I am glad you are worried, I would be worried about anyone I thought might have a thing for Lola. You can go back to midnight toking now.
lolz
or this one:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2014/03/11/justice-dept-at-least-35-of-people-eligible-for-obamacares-medicaid-expansion-are-ex-convicts/?partner=yahootix
Not looking good for Democrats:
http://www.politico.com/2013-election/results/house/florida/
Excerpt amazing the wire services are not running it, I am sure if the Democrat had won they would be:
District Results
District
Candidate
Party
% of Vote
Vote Count
13th District
100.0% Reporting
Winner D. Jolly
GOP 48.5% 88,294
A. Sink
Dem 46.6% 84,877
L. Overby
Lib 4.8% 8,799
Homeland Security Snipers Terrorize Confused Residents During Raid
DHS agents train weapons on innocent neighbors
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
March 11, 2014
Department of Homeland Security snipers trained their weapons on frightened residents during a raid on a nearby apartment in East Williamsburg, with neighbors complaining of how they were “utterly confused and frankly terrorized” during the incident.
The combined federal/NYPD drugs bust started in the early hours of Sunday morning when a low flying helicopter startled East Williamsburg and Bushwick residents, before streets were blocked off, preventing people from going home.
“Witnesses spotted a big Department of Homeland Security truck as well as DHS agents toting machine guns as they raided 221 Devoe Street,” reports the Gothamist.
While the raid unfolded, DHS snipers aimed their guns at residents in nearby buildings, causing panic and confusion. “I literally had a flashlight-gun pointed at me from a sniper on top of the black armored truck the first time I opened our window to see what was going on,” said one neighbor.
“What woke us up was a cop yelling ‘POLICE!’ outside and hearing some sort of scream,” he added. “Then I noticed the flashing lights of the armored black truck so I peeped out the window. There were two snipers on top of the armored truck with flashlight-guns and one of them pointed at me immediately. If I was them and I was doing my job, I probably would have pointed it at me, too, but at the same I wasn’t even in the building they were looking at. He immediately pointed it away but needless to say, I was terrified because I could have been picked off instantly.”
DHS officials admitted that they were involved in the raid but declined to elaborate, while the NYPD had no comment.
The increasing militarization of the Department of Homeland Security and its closer ties with local police departments has stoked increasing concerns that the war on drugs is being used as an excuse to turn America into a police state.