Bits Bucket for March 22, 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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Yesterday, bill made this statement:
>Bill, just South of Irvine
2014-03-21 19:52:08
Joe this is one point I agree with you on. Hating Romney for his 15% tax rate will result in hate toward the white collar professionals who saved for years in 401ks, Roths, and stocks.
When people hate success they hate success in all income brackets. Undeniable truth.
————————————————————————-
Bill, if 15% tax is hating, then it looks like “they” are trying to exterminate the subhumans making between 60k - 120k yr by taxing them at 50% rates. Talk about hate. Maybe if you let people making a middle class income keep some of their earnings, they would have some of those 15% cap gains rates and be more on your side…
Yep. Just reviewed my wife’s TurboTax calculations and the picture is ugly. The working middle class is getting bled dry to feed parasites at both extremes of the wealth distribution.
Yes.
The single largest source of power in DC is the US tax code. They will always, if they have the power use it, extract as much as they can from the source that creates the largest amount of wealth, the middle class( or what’s left of it).
What will they do once the source of wealth has been bled dry?
Æsop. (Sixth century B.C.) Fables.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
The Goose With the Golden Egg
ONE day a countryman going to the nest of his Goose found there an egg all yellow and glittering. When he took it up it was as heavy as lead and he was going to throw it away, because he thought a trick had been played upon him. But he took it home on second thoughts, and soon found to his delight that it was an egg of pure gold. Every morning the same thing occurred, and he soon became rich by selling his eggs. As he grew rich he grew greedy; and thinking to get at once all the gold the Goose could give, he killed it and opened it only to find,—nothing.
“GREED OFT O’ERREACHES ITSELF.”
What will they do once the source of wealth has been bled dry?
They will declare victory since they will own everything.
All of your everythings are belong to us.
he killed it and opened it only to find,—nothing.
Unfortunately this is not true. If you kill the goose, there IS some gold in there. Not as much as if you kept the goose alive and laying, but do you get some gold, and more importantly, you get it NOW.
You get it ALL NOW.
“The working middle class is getting bled dry to feed parasites at both extremes of the wealth distribution.”
Amen, brothah! A book from the 1980s called “Class” pointed out the striking similarities between those at the very top and those at the very bottom of the income spectrum.
I’d about like to puke when I hear some politician comment about the middle class. Or as Obama likes to call it, the “middow” class. Destruction of the middle class is being done deliberately, and that’s a fact.
Here’s some recent information from the Tax Foundation re: state and local taxes as of July 2013.
http://taxfoundation.org/article/state-and-local-sales-tax-rates-midyear-2013
And more data, this time, state-by-state property taxes
http://taxfoundation.org/article/facts-figures-2014-how-does-your-state-compare
See Table 31. In Colorado, TABOR certainly helps Coloradoans here, with the state ranking 8th best in property taxes re: housing. That doesn’t mean Colorado is cheap living, though.
NOTE There’s a great deal of information on taxation within these.
That doesn’t mean Colorado is cheap living, though.
If you insist on living in certain nabes in Denver, yes, it is expensive. But there are also lower cost burbs like Aurora, Brighton and Superior. They don’t have the cachet that places like Boulder or Highlands Rance possess, but houses there are much cheaper.
A quick looksie and I found this:
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/6575-Monaco-Dr_Brighton_CO_80602_M24070-74776?row=9
I know Goonie makes it sound like all of metro Denver is California priced, but it isn’t.
And if you want even cheaper, there’s always Greeley:
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/3827-W-7Th-St_Greeley_CO_80634_M26007-41660?row=9
And still overpriced.
In the 1980s I had a net worth of less than $1000. But I knew I had to do more than work harder, work overtime and put money in e bank.
I learned to invest. I assumed 100% of the risk in my investing.
No one deserves to get a cut of my profits that I risked 100%. Including thugernment. But I am coerced at gunpoint to hand over what is mine.
Today my net worth is over $1.8 million.
And the class warfare types want a chunk of my wealth, my blood, sweat, and tears.
It seems that despite the class warfare you complain about, you have amassed a tidy sum.
Just remember to enjoy it before you die.
You did not notice my point that anyone who has skills and learns new skills when the market pays a premium for the new skills - could have done what I did, or better. So instead of me complaining at age 28 about people having a net worth of over $500,000 I kept saving and learning about making my savings work.
And my point was that the class warfare you complain about so much has not been an impediment for you.
>No one deserves to get a cut of my profits that I risked 100%. Including thugernment. But I am coerced at gunpoint to hand over what is mine.
This is just a reaction to all the cut that’s been taken from your hard work over your lifetime. I’m not saying more should be taken from investment income… I’m saying less should be taken from your income resulting from the sweat of your brow.
But TurboTax told me that me effective rate of taxation was only 8 percent.
I doubt TurboTax would get that right…
you doubt wrong. it is a rather simple calculation.
What I meant is that TurboTax might not properly add the marginals for state, payroll and federal taxes, not to mention phase-out items such as lower deductions allowable deductions for college tuition and pensions, to get the true marginal tax rate before disposable income, which HAS to be higher than 8%.
But please correct me if I am wrong about the above (and provide a shard of evidence if you have any…).
Marginal rate isn’t even remotely the same as effective rate. Why do you assume that it is?
polly, he’s not.. he’s making the point that the effective rate calculated by turbo tax ignores all but federal income tax.. SS alone ins 7.5% the net tax rates are 30% even if you only earn 40k/yr.
We middle victims have been self destructive. Spending more than we have for decades and voting for spendthrifts in government all along. Even with a 50% tax rate, the earning years are a window of opportunity to siphon off a magazine of cash. Most of us just pawn these years.
Self-flagellation will get you nowhere.
LOL, I’m not in the pawn shop, but I see most of my fellows are in there. They complain about what has been done to them.
Yeah, I don’t buy the “hate success” spin. It ain’t success, it’s the cronyism, scams, and rigging the game for the 1% trust finders who never worked a day in their life.
I think there is probably a good deal of hate success out there but let’s not lump all those who hate the rich in together.
One thing I’ve been noticing is the desire to lump those who come up with disruptive technologies (and who become fabulously wealthy as a result) with with Joe CEO and Joe Executive VP.
The people that come up with disruptive technologies - Google founders, genome researchers and the like - are a rarity. And they should be encouraged for the good of society.
But Joe Executive VP, Chief Sales Critter at Big Financial Company - he should not get the same reverence, although he believes he on the same level as the Disruptor.
Joe CEO or Joe Executive VP are quite likely to have reached their august position via crony capitalism and lobbying and scams. Disruptors are a different creature. This society winds up treating the Joe Cassano’s, the Fabrice Tourre’s and the Dick Fulds - Extractors - of the country like it treats Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Craig Venter.
That’s a mistake. They are completely different beasts with completely different impacts on society.
Henry Ford - assembly line. The oil and railroad robber barons - new technologies left in their wake. They were disruptors, along with whatever else they were.
Disruptors should not be treated like Extractors (crony capitalists and scammers).
Trickle up policies for the disruptors might actually lead to greater societal gain. Trickle up policies for the extractors leads to the economic situation we have today.
Math guy, there are a lot of white collar professional STEM. Types who buy stocks and love the 15% long term capital gains tax. I know some with several million dollars in stocks. So you are aiming for them to be taxed like the 1%?
I meant taxed like the 50% rate because “they must be rich?” that is class warfare communism.
Invest like the rich if you want to be taxed like the rich. Stop bei g a Marxist.
Weren’t you just complaining about how you get tax raped on your investment income?
Nope.
Nope.
“No one deserves to get a cut of my profits”
Uh, yes, you were.
My point was the anti rich types here imply that only the rich can have the 15 tax rate while everyone in the middle class gets the 50% rate. No one deserves any tax. But if you want the 15% tax rate, no be is stopping you from getting taxed that rate.
In 2002 my net worth was $250,000 and my income $120,000 but my combined state and federal tax rate was 9%. Taxed at a lower rate than the capital gains tax. Rather than sit on a curb flapping my gums about rich people getting low taxes I found a way t be taxed lower than them.
Again, anyone can lower their taxes like the 1%.
Again, no one deserves a cut of any off their risk or income.
Last sentence meant no one deserves a piece of anyone elses income or anyone elses reward from capital gain.
If you’re making $60k-$120k, your marginal rate is far less than 50%.
Whenever my wife gets a bonus I shudder as 50% (or more) goes out the door (granted, I’m grateful for the extra money, but 50% is painful).
Try being self-employed (my situation), I get hit with even a higher tax rate (income tax + self-employment).
Honestly, it makes me start to think about when to simply hang it all up…when my investment income gets me to the highest rate, honestly, why have a job when 50% of dollar 1 goes out the door?
Is China’s “Double Bubble” about to pop? Or has it already done so?
Housing markets
Double bubble trouble
China’s property prices appear to be falling again
Mar 22nd 2014 | HONG KONG | From the print edition
CAN bubbles ever pop twice? In late 2009 the world began to worry about a Chinese property bubble, symbolised by Ordos, a newly built city, bereft of citizens, in Inner Mongolia. In the spring of 2010 China’s government broadened its curbs on multiple home purchases and mortgage borrowing. The following spring, prices in nine big cities fell at last, according to one widely watched index. “The Great Property Bubble Of China May Be Popping” declared the Wall Street Journal in June of that year.
This week the same newspaper cited “compelling signs the Chinese property boom is over,” noting that “Cassandras” have been predicting a crash for years. (The Cassandra of Greek myth could tell the future but was never believed. For China’s property Cassandras, things are the other way round: their direst predictions are often believed, but have yet to come true.)
Bubbles often go on longer than expected. This newspaper warned about America’s internet and housing bubbles years before they burst. What is unusual about China’s bubble is not its persistence but its prevarication. It seems to be bursting for a second time. Property prices did peak in 2011, as the Journal noted. But the following year, they started to rise again.
Prices are still rising in 69 of the 70 cities tracked by the official statistics (Wenzhou in Zhejiang province is the exception). But residential sales fell by 5% in the first two months of the year, compared with a year earlier. And other statistics paint a darker picture, points out Nomura, a bank, which believes that property now poses a systemic risk to China’s economy.
…
“Double bubble trouble”
That headline makes me not want to read the article, but I will try.
A Chinese housing market crash could be even more disastrous than America’s
By Gwynn Guilford @sinoceros March 19, 2014
Twilight falls on China’s decade-long housing boom. Reuters/Carlos Barria
Investment drives China’s economy. And housing fuels a large share of that investment, contributing 33% of fixed-asset investment, says Zhang Zhiwei, an economist at Nomura—and, consequently, 16% of GDP. The decade-long housing boom that’s kept China’s GDP aloft has so far defied the bubble warnings, which began as far back as 2007.
But the building binge is finally catching up with China. Not just because sales are faltering (paywall). After building around 13.4% more floorspace each year, China finally has too much housing, argues Zhang in a note this week. The quirks of China’s economic model mean that a housing crash will be more devastating for the economy than many realize.
For each person that moves to a city this year, Chinese developers will build around 121 square meters of shiny new flooring, estimates Zhang. That’s double what there was in 2009, and a marked increase from 2013′s 113 square meters. Though residents trading up to roomier digs will absorb some of this, the Nomura folks nonetheless say they “find this alarming,” putting China’s per capita floorspace on par with much more developed markets.
…
“Investment drives China’s economy.”
And consumption drives the U.S. economy.
And what ultimately drives and powers and fuels all this investment and consumption is leveraged money.
Why, it’s a miracle! It’s PFM (Pure F*ckin’ Magic).
Watch out below when this symbiosis breaks down (and it already did, in the wake of the Great Recession).
For each person that moves to a city this year, Chinese developers will build around 121 square meters of shiny new flooring, estimates Zhang.
And none of them can afford those gleaming. new apartments.
Build, baby, build!
Eventually there won’t be room to sleep on the street because all the empty buildings have crowded the streets down to nothing.
Progress, comrades!
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/03/21/White-House-Leads-Liberal-Media-In-Matt-Drudge-Attack
Appears the Obamacare tax is being collected this year for some.
I told people about the opportunity in palladium:
http://www.mining.com/palladium-price-soars-on-south-africa-strike-russia-tensions-77270/
It is interesting Zion’s Bank did not pass the stress test. The article does not state it but previous articles have talked about Zion’s large loans to property developers:
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=29155651
I recall having a conversation with a banker from Zion’s Bank back in 2006 or so. He was the father of one of the men in our LDS circle and actually a distant cousin of my wife’s side of the family.
I shared my frank view of the Housing Bubble with him, and he stared at me like I had just landed in a spaceship from Mars.
At least it was not Kolob.
If only you could high there.
Keep informed, only trust Real Journalists™
I only trust the conspiracy theories. How many have them become conspiracy facts?
Like I said when private companies in the 1980’s limit medical choice it was very bad. However, when Obamacare does the same it is alright according to Real Journalists:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-20/obamacare-limits-choices-under-some-plans?campaign_id=yhoo
Limited supply, meet infinite demand.
http://www.ifrasia.com/china-default-watch-list-grows/21137395.article
lawyers are liars
And in other news, the sun is forecast to rise in the east today.
It is the 99% of attorneys that give the 1% a bad name.
Kind of like the 100% of Realtor®s who give the 0% a bad name.
You don’t use many attorneys, do you?
We use attorneys constantly in my job, and I’m married to one (so I know a lot more than just those we use on a professional basis).
Big picture, from what I’ve seen, a relatively small percentage meet with the stereotype. A large percentage are barely worth their bill (probably NOT worth their bill). And a very small percentage (the rest), are worth a multiple of their bill. As an example, an attorney I know was able to push for a particular business term that the business folks were ready to forego. The economic benefit of that one particular term would pay the attorney’s salary for the next 10+ years.
I can honestly say that I’ve only met three who met with the typical stereotype. One was opposite us on a litigation matter (no surprise the he was a jerk). One was a litigator, and just a bad person (not necessarily unethical, just a bad person). The last was flat-out unethical…we described his behavior to the partner in charge (he was getting a fee on a deal which was hidden through the legal structure of the transaction)…he wasn’t at that firm very long.
Good attorneys don’t tolerate unethical attorneys.
liars
“California Home Sales, Prices Dropped in January”
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=25251
“In January, the median sale price of a California home fell $17,500 or 4.8 percent, to $345,000 from $362,500 in December 2013, the largest monthly decline since January 2013.”
Dead.Cat.Bounce. is over. The window of opportunity is shrinking quickly to get what you can get for your house today. It’s going to be much less tomorrow for years to come.
Sounds like January is the month to buy in CA.
January of 2015?
After paying through taxes through the nose this year on my wife’s self employment income, we may join the buyer pool next January, if only to claim a higher home office deduction. It seems the more you earn, the more you pay in taxes — especially if you are self-employed.
Self employment tax sucks. Have you been able to take a deduction for the portion of your rent associated with the business use?
Burn, baybeee, burn.
Basketball……what a boring sport.
After all the talk about 1 billion dollar Vegas Buffet challenge, I filled out one bracket with some fanatics at work. Last 2 nights, I tried to watch bits and pieces, what a boring sport. I go to the gym and shoot some hoops and even play pick up games once in a while, but watching it on TV was a torture.
eh heh…. like watching baseball. It’s nearly as boring as playing it.
Basketball games need to be 7 minutes — since ultimately that’s all they are anyway.
I think Buffet ought to drop a couple mil on that team that upset Duke. They may have saved him a bil.
Go back to your zima.
Slate: “The long, slow, torturous death of Zima”
“To Coors’ horror, Zima proved most popular among young women—a demographic that, while generally fond of getting tanked, just doesn’t have the same thirst for hooch as its male counterpart. And once the ladies took a shine to the stuff, the guys avoided Zima as if it were laced with estrogen.”
www(.)slate(.) com/articles/life/drink/2008/11/the_long_slow_torturous_death_of_zima(.)html
Real men don’t care what others think.
They drink Zima if and when they want to. They also eat quiche. Guys who obsess with public opinion of what they eat and drink might as well be metrosexuals.
I don’t drink Zima because it tastes bad. I don’t drink Guinness for the same reason.
Natty Ice is all balls, bro!
I don’t drink Guinness for the same reason.
I like dark beers, I guess to each his own.
I don’t know what Natty Ice is, but if you enjoy it, drink up.
Generally, the darker a beer is, the more I dislike it. You’ll catch me drinking saki or a cheap, thin, clear beer like LaBlatt’s before you’ll see me drinking a wheat beer. Me no like thick, bitter brew.
For me, hard liquor is where it’s at when the occasional mood hits. Whiskey goes down especially well. Vodka and port wines are solid backups.
Screw drivers are a great way to get your vitamin C.
I rarely drink dark beers, just not used to the taste. I like ambers, Hefenweizens, pale ale, and lagers mostly. This evening I have the thirst for Amber. Then I will have a beer.
I remember when Marlboro first sprung into being it was marketed as a woman’s cigarette.
It didn’t do all that well as a woman’s cigarette so the marketers created the Marlboro Man and magically transformed Marlboro into becoming a man’s cigarette, and transforming Marlboro into a man’s cigarette caused it to become a best seller.
Same cigarette, different marketing.
People are smart.
Wiki-up “Marlboro (cigarette)” for an interesting read.
In this day and age Freedom of Will is best defined as willingly doing what clever manipulators want us to do.
Actually, people are cowards.
A good many won’t do something they really want to do simply because they might have to go it alone.
What an unfortunate way to live life - to deny oneself because of what nameless others may or may not think about you. That’s sad.
I’m so fortunate to have had parents who taught me the value of “because I want to”.
what a boring sport
It’s extremely repetitive.
That said, I find most sports to be boring. Unless there is some kind of emotional attachment to the team (say some “Team USA”) I find most sports to be unwatchably dull. I haven’t watched a baseball game in over ten years.
As for basketball, after the umpteenth slam dunk I just change the channel.
At the gym there are guys who discuss “the game” of last night. Typical. I wonder how they have time to watch a game in its entirety. How many beers can you drink during a game? Far more than the recommended limit of two twelve ounce beers of course.
Sports is a diversion from the issues of the day: initiation of force at greater frequency at all levels of government against no government people.
Someone sent me an email sarcastically entitled “Happy Thoughts”. One of them was this:
“If someone hates you for no reason, give that motherf*cker a reason”.
Been pondering how this might work with the political class. Clearly, they hate us, although I don’t know why. But I’m thinking it’s time we gave them a reason, because all that hate shouldn’t be “senseless”. I’d like to have it make sense to them.
Why do you think they hate the Tea Party? They (we?) want to cut off their supply of endless money.
The political class no more hates you than I hate the ants crawling on the sidewalk outside. When they happen to crawl across my foot, I tend to squash them.
Don’t go stepping on a fire ant mound. I did once… unknowingly. Not good.
This applies to politicians stepping on ants as well. Careful where you trod! You might very well get attacked.
This one is easy, jose.
They hate us because we don’t adore them to the extent they adore themselves.
Yeah. It really is that simple.
Government racism is a great thing - until they discriminate against you..
Keep voting democrat asian-americans…
————
Angry parents crush race-quota revival
UT San Diego | March 18, 2014 | Steven Greenhut
SACRAMENTO — When my family moved from northwest Ohio to pricey Southern California, we could afford an entry level house but couldn’t also spring for private-school tuition for the kids. So we scoured the test-score databases, looking for those neighborhoods where home values were reasonable and public schools were tops.
Given the focus on schools, it will surprise no one that we settled in a city with a majority Asian-American population.
Unfortunately, students from other ethnic groups haven’t always had as much success getting into the state’s top universities. So Democratic senators in January passed SCA 5, which would have restored racial and ethnic quotas that were stripped from California’s public-university systems in 1996 following statewide passage of anti-quota Proposition 209. Their stated goal wasn’t to reduce Asian attendance, but given that top-university admissions are a zero-sum game, that would have been an end result.
“As lifelong advocates for the Asian-American and other communities, we would never support a policy that we believed would negatively impact our children,” said Sens. Ted Lieu, Carol Liu and Leland Yee, in a letter last week to Assembly Speaker John Perez.
Good news: We’ve raised the minimum wage.
Bad news: We can’t afford you.
Long time controlled democrat cities - lots of fun to watch if you don’t live there…
———————-
City with 36% Unemployment Rate Now has Highest Minimum Wage in California
Frontpage Mag | 03/20/2013 | Daniel Greenfield
I don’t see how this plan could possibly fail unless economics is real.
A San Francisco Bay Area city is on track to have the highest minimum wage in California. The Richmond City Council voted 6-1 on Tuesday in favor of an ordinance that would raise minimum hourly pay in the city to $12.30 an hour by 2017.
Richmond’s unemployment rate is somewhere between 11 and 14 percent. Its unemployment rate for black men is 36%.
It’s the third most dangerous city in California and its 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th top employers are all the government. And it has a huge gang problem. So clearly the thing to do is make the city as unattractive as possible to small businesses while eliminating lower end jobs in order to help the gangs expand.
But that just means more opportunities for scenes like these.
A bloody fistfight broke out among rival gang members at Richmond City Hall on Friday, according to police.
Seven men from different parts of the city brawled in a third-floor suite that houses the city’s Office of Neighborhood Safety around 12:30 p.m. Friday, department director Devone Boggan said.
He said all of the men involved in the melee are enrolled in the office’s “Operation Peacemaker” fellowship and happened to show up at the office at Richmond’s Civic Center at the same time unexpectedly.
The ONS director said he sees the unarmed brawl as a sign of progress, since the young men involved all have a history of gun violence.
“They decided to pick their fists up instead of a gun,” Boggan said.
Things are looking bright for Richmond indeed.
“Richmond’s unemployment rate is somewhere between 11 and 14 percent. Its unemployment rate for black men is 36%.
It’s the third most dangerous city in California and its 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th top employers are all the government. And it has a huge gang problem. So clearly the thing to do is make the city as unattractive as possible to small businesses while eliminating lower end jobs in order to help the gangs expand.”
Sounds like they are creating more opportunities for police officers.
The major source of funds for the people and the city is suing Chevron when its refinery has a fire, which seems to happen quite often.
Since Chevron was in Richmond before a large share of the residents, one could argue that the resident’s “came to the nuisance” by locating close to a refinery. Moreover, Chevron is clearly the high-value owner of the property right to operate a refinery there.
If residents knowingly set up their households near a refinery, obtaining cheap housing in the process, didn’t they also willingly assume the risk of breathing the fumes from a refinery fire?
“Richmond’s unemployment rate is somewhere between 11 and 14 percent. Its unemployment rate for black men is 36%.”
The “unemployed” are those who last held a job within the previous 6-months. The remainder are not counted.
“Richmond’s unemployment rate is somewhere between 11 and 14 percent. Its unemployment rate for black men is 36%.”
And that’s on the good side of town.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kane (D) thinks she is Eric Holder and can enforce the laws she wants and shut down corruption investigations to protect fellow democrats…
Corruption starts at the top. And is then copied all the way down the line…
———————
Kane shut down sting that snared Phila. officials
The Philadelphia Inquirer | March 17, 2014 | Angela Couloumbis and Craig R. McCoy
The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office ran an undercover sting operation over three years that captured leading Philadelphia Democrats, including four members of the city’s state House delegation, on tape accepting money, The Inquirer has learned.
Yet no one was charged with a crime.
Prosecutors began the sting in 2010 when Republican Tom Corbett was attorney general. After Democrat Kathleen G. Kane took office in 2013, she shut it down.
In a statement to The Inquirer on Friday, Kane called the investigation poorly conceived, badly managed, and tainted by racism, saying it had targeted African Americans.
American Physical Society Sees The Light: Will It Be The First Major Scientific Institution To Reject The Global Warming ‘Consensus’?
The American Physical Society (APS) has signalled a dramatic turnabout in its position on “climate change” by appointing three notorious climate skeptics to its panel on public affairs (POPA).
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/03/20/American-Physical-Society-Sees-The-Light-Will-It-Be-The-First-Major-Scientific-Institution-To-Reject-The-Global-Warming-Consensus
And so, the lie about the scientific consensus begins to crumble. How long will it take for others to see the error of their way? Time will tell.
The real test is not the current Big Lie, it’s wondering what the next one might be.
The speed at which it crumbles likely is related to the rate at which payouts for socialism and political correctness is being exhausted.
Summer will be here soon. The climate change will live on.
The American Physical Society (APS) has signalled a dramatic turnabout in its position on “climate change” by appointing three notorious climate skeptics to its panel on public affairs (POPA).
After doing a little looking around I found this on wikipedia:
“However, this story was speculation based on the incorrect claim that Lindzen, Christy and Curry had been “appointed” to the Panel on Public Affairs, when in fact they had only participated in a one-day workshop sponsored by one of the subcommittees and were not on the panel.”
So, perhaps that expected “turnabout” might not be in the works after all.
Darn those facts.
Facts?
You mean about “no significant rise” in the average temperatures in the last 17 years?
“After doing a little looking around I found this on wikipedia:”
Sharyl Attkisson: There Is Coordination Between Reporters And Politicians
March 21, 2014 10:31 AM
By Chris Stigall
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Chris Stigall talked to former CBS News Reporter Sharyl Attkisson this morning on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about the trouble reporters have to deal with while covering politicians and the government, as well as the current state of investigative reporting.
“I’ve been wanting to write about the unseen influences on the media by coordinated, paid factions, whether they’re from political, corporate or other special interests, the tactics they use to manipulate the images we see, not just in the news but on Facebook, Wikipedia, or fake Twitter accounts. It’s become a way of life and I don’t think the public is aware of how much nearly everything you see today may be influenced, in some fashion, by a paid interest that wants you to think something,” Attkisson said.
Drudge himself has become the story. I guess some small business people do need to pay the Messiahcare tax now.
Drudge indicated in his followup tweets that since he is self-employed as the proprietor of The Drudge Report, he files as a small business. According to the IRS’s website for self-employed individuals, they are required to pay taxes quarterly.
“As a self-employed individual, generally you are required to file an annual return and pay estimated tax quarterly,” the IRS website reads.
So, when they file and pay those 2014 first quarter taxes, such individuals have to pay the Obamacare Individual Mandate tax if they opted to not have health insurance—like Drudge just did.
Additionally, the IRS form (1040-ES) for estimating quarterly taxes specifically recommends adding the mandate penalty to line 12 for “other taxes” — to pay before the first quarterly deadline of April 15.
“It is true that thousands of small businesses will be forced to pay Obamacare taxes quarterly in 2014,” a Senate Budget Committee aide told Breitbart News on Friday afternoon.
Tax or penalty?
We have to pass the bill to find out what is in it!
BTW - all tax laws must originate in the house. obamacare originated in the senate.
But laws are for the little people to follow…
I found out that a friend of mine has one of those “Cadillac” plans (the plan costs the employer 26K per year) that will be taxed. His wife works at a hospital, and they get the insurance through her.
$26K
That’s more than half the workforce makes in a year.
Is that $26k for his whole family?
‘As American journalists and First Amendment advocates combat the US government over its assault on the media, members of congress and the Justice Department are engaged in a game of good cop/bad cop over this issue. The DOJ is attacking journalists, such as James Risen, and threatening to imprison them while Congress is advocating for expanded protections for the media under the law. To wit, those protections may come at a price, one that will most definitely sabotage the future of investigative journalism in America.’
‘In May, a Senate bill titled the “Free Flow of Information Act Act of 2013” (S. 987) was introduced by Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham. The bill was originally introduced in 2007 (S. 2035), and then again in 2009 (S. 448), but either died in committee or failed a cloture vote. The bill is supported by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, but only if it includes specific language that excludes individuals she claims, “are not reporters at all.” Schumer echoed Feinstein’s concerns, specifically calling out WikiLeaks, saying, “We’re very careful in this bill to distinguish journalists from those who shouldn’t be protected, WikiLeaks and all those, and we’ve ensured that.”
This issue combines NSA spying (on journalists to then compel testimony against whistle-blowers), use of the espionage act against those who speak to journalists (more than all other administrations combined), with the dangerous idea that the government can decide who is a journalist.
Note this: ‘Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham’.
Hmm, well-known neocon and progressive. Lining up with Feinstein and McCain and the President, etc, to push through legislation that any dictator would envy.
But, it won’t get traction. See, the giant corporate media has been “shielded”. Fox News and MSNBC will be compliant. You won’t hear any major news “personality” go to bat for our rights or freedoms. Anyway, who cares? This is just a game. There isn’t anything at stake other than how many blue or red ties are being worn.
This Freedom of Speech thing is pretty much limited to the heirs of the Magna Carta. We should guard our inheritance.
Magna Carta:
Know that before God, for the health of our soul and those of our ancestors and heirs, to the honour of God, the exaltation of the holy Church, and the better ordering of our kingdom, at the advice of our reverend fathers…
Somebody in this blog said that Schummer is a good senator. There you go!
“Somebody in this blog said that Schummer is a good senator.”
Schumer probably gives good lobbying head.
“The bill is supported by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, but only if it includes specific language that excludes individuals she claims, “are not reporters at all.” Schumer echoed Feinstein’s concerns”
This Sharyl Attkisson story should be posting below soon.
Sharyl Attkisson: There Is Coordination Between Reporters And Politicians
March 21, 2014 10:31 AM
Goon, will Barack “Hussein” Obama move to Kenya?
http://news.iafrica.com/worldnews/908758.html
[Hook]
I’m going back to Kenya, Kenya, Kenya
I’m going back to Kenya.. hmm, I don’t think so
I’m going back to Kenya, Kenya, Kenya
I’m going back to Kenya.. I don’t think so
LL Cool J - Going Back To Cali - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdizL4on-Rc - 154k -
Mmm, Mmm, Mmm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ty7WU872Lk
Cops or soldiers?
America’s police have become too militarised
Mar 22nd 2014 | ATLANTA | From the print edition
Boozers, barbers and cockfighters
FROM the way police entered the house—helmeted and masked, guns drawn and shields in front, knocking down the door with a battering ram and rushing inside—you might think they were raiding a den of armed criminals. In fact they were looking for $1,000-worth of clothes and electronics allegedly bought with a stolen credit card. They found none of these things, but arrested two people in the house on unrelated charges.
They narrowly avoided tragedy. On hearing intruders break in, the homeowner’s son, a disabled ex-serviceman, reached for his (legal) gun. Luckily, he heard the police announce themselves and holstered it; otherwise, “they probably would have shot me,” he says. His mother, Sally Prince, says she is now traumatised.
Peter Kraska, a professor at Eastern Kentucky University’s School of Justice Studies, estimates that SWAT teams were deployed about 3,000 times in 1980 but are now used around 50,000 times a year. Some cities use them for routine patrols in high-crime areas. Baltimore and Dallas have used them to break up poker games. In 2010 New Haven, Connecticut sent a SWAT team to a bar suspected of serving under-age drinkers. That same year heavily-armed police raided barber shops around Orlando, Florida; they said they were hunting for guns and drugs but ended up arresting 34 people for “barbering without a licence”. Maricopa County, Arizona sent a SWAT team into the living room of Jesus Llovera, who was suspected of organising cockfights. Police rolled a tank into Mr Llovera’s yard and killed more than 100 of his birds, as well as his dog. According to Mr Kraska, most SWAT deployments are not in response to violent, life-threatening crimes, but to serve drug-related warrants in private homes.
The courts have smiled on SWAT raids. They often rely on “no-knock” warrants, which authorise police to force their way into a home without announcing themselves. This was once considered constitutionally dubious. But the Supreme Court has ruled that police may enter a house without knocking if they have “a reasonable suspicion” that announcing their presence would be dangerous or allow the suspect to destroy evidence (for example, by flushing drugs down the toilet).
Often these no-knock raids take place at night, accompanied by “flash-bang” grenades designed temporarily to blind, deafen and confuse their targets. They can go horribly wrong: Mr Balko has found more than 50 examples of innocent people who have died as a result of botched SWAT raids. Officers can get jumpy and shoot unnecessarily, or accidentally. In 2011 Eurie Stamps, the stepfather of a suspected drug-dealer but himself suspected of no crimes, was killed while lying face-down on the floor when a SWAT-team officer reportedly tripped, causing his gun to discharge.
Householders, on hearing the door being smashed down, sometimes reach for their own guns. In 2006 Kathryn Johnston, a 92-year-old woman in Atlanta, mistook the police for robbers and fired a shot from an old pistol. Police shot her five times, killing her. After the shooting they planted marijuana in her home. It later emerged that they had falsified the information used to obtain their no-knock warrant.
Big grants for big guns
Federal cash—first to wage war on drugs, then on terror—has paid for much of the heavy weaponry used by SWAT teams. Between 2002 and 2011 the Department of Homeland Security disbursed $35 billion in grants to state and local police. Also, the Pentagon offers surplus military kit to police departments. According to Mr Balko, by 2005 it had provided such gear to more than 17,000 law-enforcement agencies.
No one wants to eliminate SWAT teams. Imminent threats to human life require a swift, forceful response. That, say critics, is what SWAT teams should be used for: not for serving warrants on people suspected of nonviolent crimes, breaking up poker games or seeing that the Pumpkin Festival doesn’t get out of hand.
http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21599349-americas-police-have-become-too-militarised-cops-or-soldiers - 146k -
“In 2006 Kathryn Johnston, a 92-year-old woman in Atlanta…”
“Ex-Atlanta officers get prison time for cover-up in deadly raid”
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/24/atlanta.police/
We had a cop shot in our quiet little town. Even here cops are douche bags, so I can’t say that I felt terribly sorry for the guy (he survived).
It is time for the general public to have zero tolerance against this police state. There are a variety of ways to agitate against the SWAT. And this many can be done Ghandi style. Peaceful civil agitation against theodicy state, IRS thugs, and so forth.
Sharyl Attkisson: There Is Coordination Between Reporters And Politicians
March 21, 2014 10:31 AM
By Chris Stigall
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Chris Stigall talked to former CBS News Reporter Sharyl Attkisson this morning on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about the trouble reporters have to deal with while covering politicians and the government, as well as the current state of investigative reporting.
“I’ve been wanting to write about the unseen influences on the media by coordinated, paid factions, whether they’re from political, corporate or other special interests, the tactics they use to manipulate the images we see, not just in the news but on Facebook, Wikipedia, or fake Twitter accounts. It’s become a way of life and I don’t think the public is aware of how much nearly everything you see today may be influenced, in some fashion, by a paid interest that wants you to think something,” Attkisson said.
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/03/21/sharyl-attkisson-there-is-coordination-between-reporters-and-politicians/ - 89k -
Speaking of which…
Where is Cindy Sheehan?
Where are the nightly death counts?
Where went all the talk about the deficits?
Where are the stories of homelessness?
Where is all the talk of those without medical coverage?
Where are the debates of the worst economy since the great depression?
etc.
You never wanted to talk about those not long ago. Why the change of heart now?
I remember CNN running the US Debt Clock on screen all the time when Bush was in office…
They aren’t unseen. Their efforts are coordinated, deliberate and strategic. Even on weekends, round the clock.
Lawyers and PR consultants are liars.
Glad to get away to Phoenix for this weekend. I slept like a rock. My place is so peaceful and quiet. Wh trade it for a purchased home next to a house with constantly yapping dogs? There have been lethal shootings over neighbor spats about dogs. While I disagree of course with the deaths, I nderstand the frustration FBs must go through when they are stuck in a house next to a noise nuisance.
As a renter, I can just move away at the end of my lease.
I spent the last day of winter in Phoenix and I didn’t hear any dogs barking either.
Out here you can call animal control. If the offenders don’t get the problem under control, animal control will fine them and if the problem persists, remove the barking dog.
FWIW, in all of my previous years of renting apartments (which were in California) I always had neighbors who sucked. The cops were always stopping by, their lights flashing, as they hauled some dude away for dealing drugs and/or beating his girlfriend.
Maybe I had bad luck, or maybe it’s just California, but I don’t have fond memories as a renter.
I always take a starter pistol and fire it near a place I’m looking at moving into. That sets them all off so you know where you stand.
Kind of freaks out the property management people, but they want my money so they deal with it.
Priceless! Best post of the day.
I always take a starter pistol and fire it near a place I’m looking at moving into. That sets them all off so you know where you stand.
So, on average, how many shoot back?
None… you know dogs, all bark and no shoot.
IMF’s Property Tax Hike Proposal Comes True With UK Imposing “Mansion Tax” As Soon As This Year
Zerohedge | 03/22/2014 | Tyler Durden
Some taxes levied on wealth, especially on immovable property, are also an option for economies seeking more progressive taxation. Wealth taxes, of various kinds, target the same underlying base as capital income taxes, namely assets. They could thus be considered as a potential source of progressive taxation, especially where taxes on capital incomes (including on real estate) are low or largely evaded.
•Property taxes are equitable and efficient, but underutilized in many economies. The average yield of property taxes in 65 economies (for which data are available) in the 2000s was around 1 percent of GDP, but in developing economies it averages only half of that (Bahl and Martínez-Vázquez, 2008). There is considerable scope to exploit this tax more fully, both as a revenue source and as a redistributive instrument, although effective implementation will require a sizable investment in administrative infrastructure, particularly in developing economies
Sure enough, a week later the Telegraph reports that UK Treasury officials have begun work on a mansion tax that could be levied as soon as next year, citing a Cabinet minister.
“Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told The Telegraph that officials had done “a lot of work” on the best way to impose the charge. The preparatory work would mean that a Government elected next year might be able to introduce the charge soon after taking office. Mr Alexander said there was growing political support for a tax on expensive houses, saying owners should pay more to help balance the books.
The Lib Dems and Labour are both in favour of a tax on expensive houses. Labour says the money raised could fund a new lower 10p rate of income tax.
The Lib Dems have suggested that the tax should fall on houses valued at £2 million and more.
Boris Johnson, the Tory Mayor of London, promised last week to oppose any move towards the tax, which he described as “brutally unfair on people who happen to be living in family homes”.
Some critics have questioned the practicality of the policy, asking how the State would arrive at valuations for houses.
Well, they will simply draw a redline above any number they deem “unfair”, duh. As for the London housing bubble, it may have finally popped, now that all those who bought mansions in London will “suddenly” find themselves at the “fair tax” mercy of yet another wealth redistributionist government.
This is why the smart money class rents in a class warfare society. I would expect Irishman Bono to own property in countries where the property taxes are very low but rent otherwise, and lease the Bentleys.
You can expect anything you want, but he actually owns places in Ireland, Manhattan, and the south of France. Plus a few planes.
Dying Memphis Neighborhood Foretells Next U.S. Crisis: Mortgages
By Bob Ivry
Mar 20, 2014 11:00 PM ET
When Rebecca Black bought the three-bedroom house at 698 Hazelwood Road in southwest Memphis in May 2005 and moved in with her two teenage sons, it was a quiet community. Children played in the street and neighbors tended their yards. She could afford the $57,000 mortgage if she skipped oil changes for the car and served the boys store-brand groceries.
Then trouble came.
Her next-door neighbor died, and his family lost the house. Across the street, there were two foreclosures. One morning, the abandoned house three doors down had gang graffiti spray-painted on the side. A girl in the neighborhood pulled a gun on Black’s son.
In 2010, it was Black’s turn to go. She’d gotten one of those 2–28 mortgages that slowly strangled so many borrowers — two years of a low, fixed interest rate followed by 28 years of rising payments — and she’d reached her limit.
“I was crazy about that house, and so proud of it,” said Black, a U.S. Army veteran. “I just didn’t have enough money.”
Foreclosure Started
She got a letter from her mortgage company saying it was starting the foreclosure process, and rather than hear a knock on the door one morning from a sheriff’s deputy ordering her to get out, Black packed whatever she could fit into her Chevy Astro and left the home she loved so well.
By 2011, the property two doors down had sold for $3,000, and Black was in bankruptcy.
If homes are living things, sustaining their inhabitants and contributing to the vitality of their communities, then Hazelwood Road is dying. On nine of the fifteen parcels on Black’s side of the street, houses sit empty, have been bulldozed flat, or the lots have reverted to a tangle of sumac and poison ivy.
After Black left Hazelwood Road, one of her old neighbors complained about a snake that got into her kitchen. Memphis city workers mowed Black’s grass. Vandals roamed the neighborhood ripping out copper plumbing, appliances, anything left behind, so the city workers nailed plywood over Black’s old windows and doors. For the plywood and the yard work at 698 Hazelwood, Rebecca Black got a bill for $520.
She hadn’t lived there for more than a year, but she got the tax bill, too. Her lender, a division of JPMorgan Chase & Co. called EMC Mortgage, never took ownership. The house was technically still hers.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-21/dying-memphis-neighborhood-foretells-next-u-s-crisis-mortgages.html - 111k -
Someone made money. It wasn’t the patsy though.
“She could afford the $57,000 mortgage if she skipped oil changes for the car”
She’s obviously a long-term thinker.
For reference, here is the house:
http://www.zillow.com/homes/698-Hazelwood-Road,-memphis,-TN_rb/
There’s no good pic of it, but it’s a 3/1 with no basement on ~1/5 of an Rebecca Black bought it for $60K. Now it’s Zestimated at $37K.
Zillow says taxes and insurance are ~$114/month, and bankrate says a 4% loan PI on $57K is PI is $272/month, for a total of ~$400 a month. If it hadn’t been a bad neighborhood near the tracks, this would be a viable area for Oil City plan.
Black could only afford $400 a month by skipping oil changes? What did she plan to do when the payments went up after two years? Sell the house for… what? At the $60K level the closing costs will eat any profit, even in a bubble.
“In the hottest part of 2012, four years after bad mortgages triggered a meltdown in the world’s most resilient economy, the biggest banks were reporting record profits and government agencies were trumpeting statistics showing that a robust recovery from the worst hard times since Dorothea Lange’s Great Depression photo “Migrant Mother” was just around the corner.”
Dorothea Lange was 32-yrs/old in that famous photo, and she had seven children. Living in extreme poverty didn’t seem to influence her family size ambitions.
YouTube Shuts Down Major Alternative Media Channel Days After Government Given Powers to Flag “Extremist Content”
Infowars.com
March 22, 2014
Mark Dice’s YouTube channel was shut down just days after the company handed government agencies powers to flag “extremist content” for removal. Coincidence?
This article was posted: Saturday, March 22, 2014 at 3:46 pm
———————————————————————————
YouTube Enlists ‘Trusted Flaggers’ to Police Videos
3:16 pm
Mar 17, 2014
Google has given roughly 200 people and organizations, including a British police unit, the ability to “flag” up to 20 YouTube videos at once to be reviewed for violating the site’s guidelines.
The Financial Times last week reported that the U.K. Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit has been using its “super flagger” authority to seek reviews – and removal – of videos it considers extremist.
The news sparked concern that Google lets the U.K. government censor videos that it doesn’t like, and prompted Google to disclose more details about the program. Any user can ask for a video to reviewed. Participants in the super flagger program, begun as a pilot in 2012, can seek reviews of 20 videos at once.
A person familiar with the program said the vast majority of the 200 participants in the super flagger program are individuals who spend a lot of time flagging videos that may violate YouTube’s community guidelines. Fewer than 10 participants are government agencies or non-governmental organizations such as anti-hate and child-safety groups, the person added.
In either case, Google said it decides which videos are removed from YouTube. “Any suggestion that a government or any other group can use these flagging tools to remove YouTube content themselves is wrong,” a Google spokesman said.
Google’s guidelines prohibit videos that incite people to commit violence, or that show animal abuse, drug abuse, under-age drinking or bomb making, among other topics. Google maintains a separate system to monitor for copyright infringement.
The news about the super flagger program comes as some governments pressure social-media sites that they blame for civil unrest. In Turkey, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan threatened this month to ban Facebook and YouTube because they “encourage every kind of immorality and espionage for their own ends.”
British officials say they use the program to refer videos to YouTube that they believe have violated the U.K.’s Terrorism Act. These are then prioritized by YouTube, according to Sarah Buxton, a spokeswoman at the U.K. Home Office.
“YouTube may choose to remove legal extremist content if it breaches their terms and conditions,” she added.
Google was not pressured to let the U.K.’s counter-terrorism unit into the program, the person familiar with the program explained. Instead, the government agency showed an interest in YouTube’s guidelines and spotted videos that violated the rules, the person added.
More than 90% of the videos identified by super flaggers are either removed for violating guidelines, or restricted as not appropriate for younger users, the person familiar with the program said. That’s a far higher percentage than regular users who occasionally flag dubious content, the person said.
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/03/17/youtube-enlists-trusted-flaggers-to-police-videos/ - 122k -
Mark Dice
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mark Dice is an American author, political activist and conspiracy theorist based in San Diego, California, who professes beliefs about the New World Order and secret societies stemming from the Illuminati, Bilderberg Group, Skull and Bones and Bohemian Grove. Books authored by him included The Resistance Manifesto (2005), published under the name of John Conner.[1]
http://youtu.be/NdiRhzTsSnk
HeyLiberace, do u dig on this?
I liked this one the best…
Everybody is a Star
As along as we’re doing 1970…
Friends of Distinction - Love or Let Me Be Lonely
Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?
wish you were here- pink floyd- lyrics - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk_V6R_pGfM - 153k -