Bits Bucket for April 20, 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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About a month ago I went to a CVS pharmacy to pick up a perscription for penicillin my dentist had called in. I hadn’t picked up a perscription for anything in probably 10 years. What shocked me was the 20 foot wall with racks of filled perscriptions to be picked up and 3 pharmacists scrambling to fill more perscriptions while 2 other people working the registers. There is a Walgreens pharmacy about 200 feet away with the same action and a Publix about a mile away with only 2 pharmacists but a steady although less hectic production line.
WTF are all these pills for?
Composing Only 5% of the World Population, Americans Take 50% of All Pharmaceutical Drugs
Christina Sarich
Infowars.com
April 20, 2014
While Americans comprise only 5 percent of the world population, we consume an incredible 50 percent of Big Pharma’s drugs, as explained in Jeff Hays’ documentary film, Doctored. Make no mistake. These drugs are meant to keep us imprisoned in poor health, not heal us. It’s time to kick the drug habit America. Tell the drug pushers – Merck, Pfizer, Novartis, Roche, GlaxoSmith Kline, Abbott, Astra-Zeneca, Amgen, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Sanofi (along with the FDA and CDC) that you are going cold turkey, and learn what true health really means.
Sadly, Americans are more familiar with names like Abilify, Nexium, Humira, Plavix, Crestor, Advair Diskus, Enbrel, and Cymbalta, the top selling drugs of Big Pharma, than names like Aloe barbadensis, Curcuma longa, Allium sativum, Moringa oleifera, Vitis vinifera L, all indigenous plants that have healed millions around the world.
You’ve likely heard the phrase before – just a dozen huge corporations are keeping Americans popping pills while they rake in billions, but have you really thought of what these numbers translate into, in terms of real health?
Annual sales for just one drug, Humira, was $9.3 billion. That puts Abott squarely at the top of the list as one of the most successful drug companies of all time.
One drug. One year. $9.3 billion.
This particular drug is meant to inhibit cancerous tumor growth, but there are dozens of natural remedies for the same purpose. Consider: turmeric, papaya leaf, grape seed extract, ginger, cannabis, and a host of other inexpensive plants can treat cancer. Here are 4 cancer fighting foods. Cost – around $3 per day per item.
Or the ‘what if’ scenarios:
Our money and our health is wasted on these companies, but we have to unplug from the drugs. We are overworked, under-nourished, over-fed, and lied to. You don’t need another pill. What really needs to pop is the illusory bubble that Big Pharma is the answer.
Additional Sources:
ScienceDaily
This post originally appeared at Natural Society
This article was posted: Sunday, April 20, 2014 at 5:08 am
Tags: pharmaceutical
The young did not sign-up for Obamacare. High premiums and about as much coverage as a hospital gown, what is not to like? For Obamacare to succeed it needed 40% of the people signing up to be young. So he announced Friday, a 35% sign-up. I was a bit surprised until I read the rest of the article. He included 7% which were on their parents’ insurance. The 40% never was meant to include them, when Obamacare clearly failed to meet the needed number Obama moved the goal posts. The real number is 28% which is an epic fail. Even that number will probably drop since it includes people that have signed-up but not paid. Since unhealthy people are more likely to pay to receive the services, it will slip even further. Another day, another lie from Obama.
Ky. jail signs up exiting inmates for health insurance
Chris Kenning, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal
3:54 p.m. EDT April 6, 2014
LOUISVILLE — After three months in jail on a theft charge, Vincent Garcia had prepared last week to collect his wallet and keys and turn in his orange scrubs upon release.
But the 26-year-old will leave jail with something else — free health insurance.
Louisville Metro Department of Corrections last week began holding daily sign-ups for exiting inmates, and Garcia was among those qualifying for the newly expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
It’s part of a growing push nationwide by prisons and jails trying to take advantage of expanded health care to curb rapidly rising medical costs in a setting where many are poor, unhealthy and uninsured.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/06/ky-jail-exiting-inmates-health-insurance/7385249/ - 171k -
I never believe government numbers, especially regarding the deficit, the debt and anything the Prez spouts.
Obamacare Enrollment Surging With Last-Minute Sign-Ups
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/31/obamacare-care-deadline_n_5060184.html - 246k -
America’s prison population
Who, what, where and why
Mar 13th 2014, 16:16 by J.F. | MINNEAPOLIS
PPI reckons the United States has roughly 2.4m people locked up, with most of those (1.36m) in state prisons.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/03/americas-prison-population - 185k -
Reminds me of the song by the super rock group, Asia in the 80s: The words were “They recommended euthanasia, for nonconformists everywhere.” I think these days is “They recommended prison, for nonconformists everywhere.”
The prison/incarceration industry is profitable on both the private and public sectors. Of course, drug cartels love this criminalization of drugs to keep their monopolies and undoubtedly they provide kickbacks to high level cops in the US DEA, BATF, BP, and lower government offices to “look the other way.”
Happy pills to keep you a happy sheep. What “medicines” are you on?
I had a similar epiphany waiting in line at a hospital pharmacy about 4 years ago. Seeing all the activity, about 10 people scurrying about, thousands and thousands of prescriptions filled sitting in racks on the walls waiting to be picked up. It occurred to me very clearly then, the thought … This is never going to end. It is so complex and pervasive that absent a total collapse this will keep on and on. Too many people invested in it in some way or another.
I read something in the book Daemon by Daniel Suarez yesterday, the phrase “Livestock for a permanent ruling class.”
Perhaps you should ask the question - why do so many pharmaceuticals require a doctors visit + prescription, pharmacist to dispense, and insurance company to pay?
There are much simpler ways of doing things (eg Mexico ).
FWIW, there are quite a few generics out there that cost $4 a month to fill.
But yeah, you need to pay an MD $140 to write you that prescription.
52 was the “magic” age when my PCP insisted on lifelong prescriptions. I got second opinions through specialists in other states just to be sure.
Maybe what you are noticing is the “deer in the snake” thing about boomers getting into the prescription age group?
Yes some doctors are overzealous in requiring prescriptions but that’s why you demand second opinions. It’s your body, don’t be a sheep, be proactive.
While I do not like being dependent on prescriptions I have to accept that I’m getting older. I’m a great candidate of botox - but I read on internet bad things about it so I will stay old looking until that’s resolved. Let Tom Cruise (age 52?) keep looking 38 - but that’s all unnatural stuff.
On the other hand, I turn 55 next month and I never thought I’d be able to be so fit and active at this age. I also found out finally how to control my cholesterol naturally without drugs and without giving up morning coffee (thought it was the coffee). It’s a big deal for me to not take cholesterol reducing drugs.
hey Bill, very curious how you control your cholesterol naturally. my husband (who is very trim) is on cholesterol medication and I would very much like for him to stop taking that and his blood pressure medication. would you care to share your secret. thanks.
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/subject.aspx?subjectid=57520
i was going to paste the whole page, but it’s very large. read the whole header. you’ll see that that guy is way ahead of most doctors.
after you’ve read the page, look for saved posts that interest you. there’s a wealth of info there.
When I got to the part about his saying eating vegetables is wrong, I stopped reading.
Of course, what works for one does not work for others perhaps. But a check on the nutrition contents of four different color vegetables and the nutrition contents of a nice prime rib steak will show you there are lots of differences.
A prime rib steak can be healthy in a proper mix. But alone, you will have a nutritional deficiency.
The bottom line is that you have to experiment - of course, under doctor supervision. I have that luxury because my thyroid issue requires me to have blood tests every four months. I can see for myself what my scores are. There are ranges in many categories and a good doctor will discuss each category with you and tell you what is what. That is what my endocrinologist did in January. He prescribed “more cardio” because I saw for myself the blood work.
Now for the link above, the guy reduced his numbers the same way I reduced mine: By experimenting. There are several variables in the equation of good biochemistry. You tweak one, then another has to be tweaked. You continue over time and see what is working for you. That’s where I am.
As for wheat, whole grain wheat is important, but a Mediterranean diet, which is a mix of seafood, plenty of fruits and vegetables, and a bit of whole grains but not primary, and some red wine, and lots of olive oil has been talked about a long time. The fact is the fact. That is the same diet Jack LaLanne ate.
You die eventually. Jack LaLanne’s father died in his 50s. Jack LaLanne died in his mid 90s. If he followed the same diet as a teenager he probably would have died 40 years ago. But he was busy swimming and towing boats to Alcatraz in his 70s and lifting weights in his 90s.
“When I got to the part about his saying eating vegetables is wrong, I stopped reading. “
Did you ever make the effort of going to a Whole Foods store - one of the big ones - with a salad bar - for your lunch, and choosing mainly organic vegetables of all colors, maybe dolmothes, falafel, and - okay a nonvegetarian (of course) chicken thigh? You finish the whole meal - if you can, and walk out to your car. How do you feel? If you were like me and feel more alive, more aware, more focused, that’s because you are getting an immediate nutritional boost from the already chewed up food as your body takes over the digestion and nutrient absorption phase. It is very quick and you would be amazed. I do not get that same feeling after I leave a burger joint.
And I knew this for a couple years, as I have a vegetarian friend and we and other colleagues used to go to Whole Foods on Wednesdays.
So the author of the link saying no to vegetables has me skeptical. Again, you have to try it for yourself.
Those lunches were like 7 servings of vegetables RDA in one box. So what do you eat for dinner? baked Salmon. You pour some cold pressed olive oil on the filet after it comes out of the oven. What do you eat for breakfast? steel cut oatmeal and one whole grapefruit or a couple of oranges instead of the grapefruit.
First the bad news. Most cholesterol reducing drugs (if not all) disallow you to use one big weapon against cholesterol. That is ruby red grapefruit. It has the chemical called Lycopene. Also to a lesser degree the pink and white grapefruits have it. That chemical helps fight high cholesterol. That chemical interacts with anti-cholesterol drugs in a bad way though.
The good news is other citrus fruits such as oranges do not have Lycopene, but they have other anti-oxidants that do well to lower cholesterol and are probably allowed. My dad had strokes in his late 50s and started eating three oranges every morning. He stopped having strokes and lived to age 79. He was lucky that his strokes were very light and he was not aversely affected.
Strokes are related to your cardiovascular health so I would expect the oranges also will help lower cholesterol.
Oatmeal and citrus (again, especially red grapefruit) eaten at the same meal have been shown (sorry I cannot find the link still) to have a lengthened effect on attacking LDL. I read this a few months ago. It was something like 2 hours. I don’t know what that implies. But oatmeal has been shown to also cut bad cholesterol.
My endocrinologist advised me to do cardio 40 minutes a day. I was already doing cardio and close to that time, but I realized a few months earlier I was doing more cardio per day. So I increased my cardio. I am at the age where impact is not good, so I hardly ever do any running. I do the elliptical machine. I punch in “cardio” and it asks your age and weight and tells you the target pulse rate. I work on that 48 minutes or so three days a week. The other days I swim for fitness. I was doing 3200 yards of swimming for a few months, dropped from 4100 yards and increased it back up to 3800 yards or so. I increased my exercise by ten to twenty percent. Key is low impact cardio. Don’t forget resistance training. It is necessary to keep your bones strong.
Seven years earlier I cut my cholesterol from 263 to 190 by stopping the 3 days per week burgers and fries and doing Subway instead (like Jared) and drinking green tea, about seven cups a day. Well my body no longer likes green tea. First I get kidney stones from it. Second, I’m on synthroid and green tea has flouride which I cannot take. But lots of green tea and a slightly better diet was my way to cut cholesterol without drugs back then.
I just showed you two alternative ways to cut cholesterol without drugs.
“Seven years earlier I cut my cholesterol from 263 to 190 by stopping the 3 days per week burgers and fries and doing Subway instead (like Jared) and drinking green tea, about seven cups a day.”
Wow!
Excuse me…my microwave is beeping to let me know the green tea is ready.
Excuse me…my microwave is beeping to let me know the green tea is ready.
One check on Google and you see a bunch of links that green tea prevents kidney stones.
Well not for me. My body knows. I had to get a no contrast CT scan after my urine test indicated a kidney issue. They detected I must have had two small kidney stones and passed them.
I did some research and experimentation. I slowly reduced all my caffeine. I reintroduced one form or another singly, then when it got to green tea the pains came back. To this day when I get some green tea, even one cup, I can detect the pain within two hours.
Green tea prevents kidney stones perhaps, but not all. The oxalyte stones were obviously what I had. My biochemistry is such that green tea plus whatever my system has combines to make stones.
Yes W-A-B, it went from 263 to 190. That was over a period of six months. The NP was astonished. I was pleased to have done it without drugs. But yeah in the post I just posted, I get kidney stones from green tea so I needed a different approach.
thanks tj, bill, whac and rms. really do appreciate the info!
“52 was the “magic” age when my PCP insisted on lifelong prescriptions.”
I’m 58-yrs/old, and I’m still prescription free.
However, I take an 81mg aspirin, 1200mg fish oil capsule, a probiotic bacteria capsule and an Centrum Silver capsule each morning, one Caltrate calcium tablet at lunch, one at dinner. No milk or yogurt, lactose issues. Every evening after dinner I take a 22-oz tumbler of water with two large heaping scoops of Metamucil fiber.
Lots of black tea, straight-up, no sweeteners. I drink no less than 1/2-gallon of bottled water while at work; staying hydrated and flushed is really important. I log about 2,000-miles annually on my bicycles among other activities with family.
“Every evening after dinner I take a 22-oz tumbler of water with two large heaping scoops of Metamucil fiber.”
I believe a product from Trader Joe’s I regularly use has the same basic ingredient (psyllium husks):
Trader Joe’s Secrets of The Psyllium Supplement
My guess is that this is just as good, but cheaper. Would be interested in anyone’s opinion one way or the other…
rms,
My situation was genetic. Diet would not have stopped my requirement for lifelong prescription. Arguably it probably would have postponed the requirement to maybe now, age 55 instead of 52. But it is what it is.
“My situation was genetic.”
I assumed that was the case.
jiminy crips you’re old!
“jiminy crips you’re old!”
+1 Somebody has to do it.
Zero rates still. Or rising rates. These are times to buy precious metals.
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/buy-gold-if-you-think-interest-rates-will-rise.html/?a=viewall
Logically they SHOULD rise.
We don’t live under a logical government though.
The multitudes of the unwashed masses aren’t all that logical
either.
(Hmmmmm … the government is not logical and neither are the voters. I wonder … might there be a connection?)
Bhahahahahahahah.
There were a lot of posts yesterday that got down on you and your corporate partners for owning the government and co opting the Tea Party and OWS. (Most
Got cutoff:
(Most of which I agree with.). But there is one part that I don’t like to see ignored here. Even with all the corruption. And bankers lies, the individual homeowner deserves most of the blame I many instances.
Buying more house than you can afford through an interest only loan or sucking out “free equity” is irresponsible in many cases.
I worry that some on this board may want to claim victim status for foolish choices.
“There were a lot of posts yesterday that got down on you and your corporate partners for owning the government and co opting the Tea Party and OWS.”
Don’t be so shortsighted as to think I am interested in owning the government. Ownership entails responsibility for the well being of what is owned, hence I do not want to own the government.
My goal is to INDENTURE the government and INDENTURE the population of unwashed masses that support the government. Indenturing does not own, it merely extracts.
I prefer to allow others to own (or allow others to think that they own) and then extract from what they own those things that are of use to me.
I can indenture because others can persuade.
These others, these persuaders, spend their time and money persuading schmucks to spend way beyond their means in fulfilling their wispy dreams and at the end of this persuasion process these persuaders bring to me these schmucks for the commitment ceremony.
The commitment ceremony transfers dreams into reality (and possibly dreams into nightmares) and this commitment happens when the dotted line is signed.
Think of this: Persuaders persuade others and then these others - these persuaded - come to me so as to give me money.
Others work and I reap. It doesn’t get much better than this.
Comment by LolaLOL
2014-04-20 07:33:39
There were a lot of posts yesterday that got down on you and your corporate partners for owning the government and co opting the Tea Party and OWS. (Most
(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by LolaLOL
2014-04-20 07:38:16
Got cutoff:
(Most of which I agree with.). But there is one part that I don’t like to see ignored here. Even with all the corruption. And bankers lies, the individual homeowner deserves most of the blame I many instances.
Buying more house than you can afford through an interest only loan or sucking out “free equity” is irresponsible in many cases.
I worry that some on this board may want to claim victim status for foolish choices.
—————-
Lola, it was I who posted that about the co-opting of the Tea Party and dilution of the OWS movement. I also noted that part of the problem with the OWS movement was how it shifted from being opposed to the power of the financial world…to helping deadbeats stay in “their” homes. It was this shift (and the diversion of attention from Wall Street to other liberal causes, no matter how “righteous”) that caused me to stop participating.
‘the government is not logical and neither are the voters’
Boy, this got me to thinking. The voters are individuals; some of them must be logical. The government is composed of individuals, and some of them must be logical. So what is it about this arrangement that could result in both being illogical?
I’ll give you one reason government and people appear illogical: self interest that is not apparent from the outside.
It is the reason for much apparent inefficiency. Where running things efficiently means fewer employees and less power, then things will be run inefficiently in many cases. What’s the incentive to do otherwise and work yourself out of a job.
Are firefighters and cops who make 6 figure salaries really an efficient allocation of resources, especially when there are lines around the block of highly qualified applicants for those jobs.
“The voters are individuals; some of them must be logical.”
If the ranks of logical voters were large enough to sway the election then we just might end up with a logical government. But the ranks of logical voters are not large enough to sway the election so an illogical government is what we invariably end up with.
One does not have to be logical to vote, only registered.
(Thank goodness.)
The voters are individuals; some of them must be logical.
Some are but we apparently do not make up 50% of the electorate. Additionally, a few thousand individuals truly restrict our choices for the top jobs. Over the last few decades they may not have always gotten exactly who they wanted for president but they have always made sure that the person was acceptable to them and their interests. In terms of the Senate they virtually always get their person. Only in the House do you see significant dissent against their interests but they still control a majority of the members.
The few people I know that can apply critical thinking are probably in the 115-125 IQ range. That puts logical people solidly in the minority.
We are ruled by the masses of shrieking tree monkeys.
‘we just might end up with a logical government…we apparently do not make up 50% of the electorate’
OK, so have you ever been in a meeting for a business, club or group where you talked something over and then voted on a course of action? Perhaps you walked out and thought to yourself, “that was a very logical meeting.” But whatever was decided upon has to then be acted upon by someone. Sometimes what sounds good in discussion doesn’t work in application. Maybe the persons applying this logical decision misinterpret or undermine the project.
Hmm, I’m thinking that we are saying government like it’s a person or group of people, or a meeting. No matter how logical we can be in a meeting, many of us, maybe all of us will do something illogical eventually. And what government is made up of people who all think the same, or have the same beliefs? Add the disconnect between the office-holders and the bureaucrats and you have all sorts of opportunities for plans to go wrong.
What percentage of voters are logical?
Many Polly types have a steel trap faith in laws, and the more laws the better. I think Polly is a very intelligent woman but logical state lovers conveniently forget that people are individuals with different hierarchichal values. It ends up in what these leftists calling our republic a “democracy,” and they revere “democracy.”
But then we get tyranny of the majority. The majority being the FSA.
It never sounded logical to me to kill the goose that lays the golden egg, but that is what the Polly types want.
There is another camp of logicians, and this camp understands no two people are alike. This camp understands tyranny of the majority is…tyranny. I’m in that camp. I was told for years that I better vote because if I don’t vote, I cannot complain. Then look what the RNC did to Ron Paul in 2012. It’s all rigged. I don’t buy the argument anymore. I quit voting. It’s rigged and no matter what the logical people (in the second camp) do, the votes are going to be mostly from the wolves.
Elizabeth Warren or Mitt Romney will be president in 2016 and there will be no difference between those four years and the last thirteen years. The Patriot act will be renewed. Drones will continue. NSA will still spy on us all. More of our financial transactions if not all will be known by all levels of government.
Because the voters want it so.
I think Mitt would be an OK president. Still. But I can’t imagine him running again. The Rs are big on taking your turn, and if you fail make room for the next one.
Eventually they will rise. That is why I buy smaller gold pieces so that I could keep my sales under $10000.
Over-mortgaged buildings passed from bank to bank leave tenants often not knowing who’s in charge
April 20, 2014 5:00AM ET
by Elaisha Stokes - @ElaishaStokes & John Light - @LightTweeting
The poster child for the foreclosure crisis has been a middle-income suburban family. But low-income urban renters also saw their buildings over-mortgaged at the height of the crisis, and now faceless hedge funds and nameless investors are replacing their desperate landlords — sometimes with disastrous consequences.
Paulino’s building was purchased before the housing crisis came to a head. The former owner, Asher Neuman, was able to secure a series of massive loans, even though he had no prior experience with property management. According to city records, he spent $1.9 million for his new building, even though the property was appraised as worth only $223,000.
“I thought this would be a side business,” said Neuman. “The guy who sold the building, I trusted him. I knew he was in the industry of owning buildings like this. I didn’t look into the details. I didn’t realize how bad it was.”
The building proved a nightmare to manage. As the number of violations continued to increase, so did the cost of maintenance. By 2012, Neuman was in charge of a building that was not only falling apart but also half empty, as tenants moved out seeking better living conditions. Eventually, he was unable to make mortgage payments and declared his real estate holding company bankrupt.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/4/19/after-foreclosurecrisisrenterssufferunderwallstreetlandlords.html
“Paulino’s building was purchased before the housing crisis came to a head. The former owner, Asher Neuman, was able to secure a series of massive loans, even though he had no prior experience with property management. According to city records, he spent $1.9 million for his new building, even though the property was appraised as worth only $223,000.”
There it is once again: Place a sheet of paper that is full of words that has a dotted line at the bottom if front of a fool and most likely he will sign it.
Just how easy is that?
“The poster child for the foreclosure crisis has been a middle-income suburban family. ”
Depends on what you mean by the foreclosure crisis. I worry this slants towards making FBs into victims when they are more to blame than anyone.
This whole “banks tricked me” idea is usually just bunk. As numerous articles over the years posted here have shown, there is usually the full story (like massive equity sucked out and spent) that the sympathetic or stupid reporter never asks questions about.
a “devout” churchgoer I know recently missed her own brothers wedding because it occurred during the same time as a church event. this same “devout” churchgoer, who attends church multiple times a week has re-fied their house so many times, it’ll never get paid off (according to them). I’m guessing that part in the bible that talks about paying ones debt back (and avoiding being a “slave” to the lender) doesn’t get much coverage at their church.
Church has got nothing to do with it (other than the hypocrisy in this instance maybe). There’s hypocrites in all faiths and in those that lack any faith.
I agree. Besides if the rapture is soon sticking the bank is bleeding the beast. Unfortunately, I have not received notice it is “go time” at least the rapture.
I guess your devout friend must not listen to Bible thumping Dave Ramsey, who at least pounds the table with the slogan “debt is dumb.” The 5% of Dave Ramsey I cannot stand is when he assumes that none of his callers are anything but Christian or Jewish. How many times have I heard him suggest to a caller to get assistance from the pastor at church - without ever knowing yet if that caller is an atheist, buddhist, hindu, or agnostic?
right, you heathen. how about when he does the whole “we’re debt free” scream, and then they mention “except for the mortgage”. isn’t that like the largest debt one can have, except for, of course, college loans?
I guess in all the situations where I heard the “we’re debt free” announcement, they did have a paid off house and no credit card debt.
It should be no big deal for anyone in their 50s actually.
Notice though Dave Ramsey does not mention they still pay rent to the tax collector in the form of property taxes. And of course insurance costs more on a SFH than an apartment. Now many apartment complexes no longer require insurance.
Churches are a virtual Debt Donkey Rodeo. Have no doubt in your mind.
Elderly Man Calls Ambulance for Wife with Dementia, Cops Show Up and Beat Him
Melissa Melton
The Daily Sheeple
April 19th, 2014
It seems more and more these days that if you think a loved one is in danger in America, calling the cops should be your absolute last possible resort.
Missourian Elbert Breshears recently called for an ambulance because his elderly wife, who suffers dementia, had endured an episode and knocked a window out of their home.
According to ABC affiliate KSPR33 and unfortunately for Breshears, the cops showed up before the ambulance did:
“The wife and I were standing about here, that’s the window she knocked out. I was standing here holding her hand and she was wavering hollering help,” Breshears said.
When police got there,”police car drove up, he bailed out ran over and knocked me down. He told me to get up, I told him I couldn’t,” he explained.
That’s when Breshears says police got aggressive. “First thing, I know they grab me, threw me out there on the gravel. One of them sat down on my back, the other sat down on my head. They were trying to get handcuffs on me. I told them I can’t get my hands up. I have no objection to being handcuffed,” says Breshears.
By then paramedics arrived. Breshears says he and his wife were taken to the hospital. A doctor looked him over. “He dug out the gravel out of my head and sewed my head up,” he says.
Who are these cops? Who do they think they are? Who exactly do they think they’re serving and protecting??
It’s as if they are under the impression that their job on every call is just to show up at an address and either beat up or tase or shoot someone without actually ascertaining what’s even going on first.
Last month I reported on the parents of an Arapaho teen who called the cops because they were afraid their son might harm himself. The police showed up and harmed him instead, shooting him seven times and killing him. That kid wasn’t alone either; a similar story happened earlier this year to the parents of a North Carolina teen. That kid was barely 90 pounds and probably couldn’t have even hurt himself that badly to begin with, let alone hurt the well-armed police officers who showed up and ended his life.
Last year I reported on how an unarmed car wreck survivor was gunned down in the street as he was running to the cops for help.
We live in a country where the police are highly militarized and approximately 500 innocent Americans are killed by them every single year; based on the frequency of these reports, that number is set to rise.
“I don’t hit my wife. I’ve lived with the woman for 47 years. I love the woman. I can’t help what she does,” says Breshears.
…
Breshears’ wife is in the hands of professional care right now out of Humansville. He is working on getting her help a little closer to home here. He is also working on getting an attorney and plans to press charges. (source)
And you know who ultimately pays the price when all these police brutality lawsuits get filed? The taxpayers who pay these officers’ salaries, that’s who. The officers themselves hardly ever get anywhere close to anything most of us would consider actual punishment.
Case in point?
Deputy Micah McNinch pulled over a man in the middle of the night as he was rushing his sick mother to the hospital. The woman was in the back seat, having trouble breathing.
McNinch pulled over the man for having expired tags. They were a mile from the hospital.
Instead of escorting the man and his mother to the hospital so the woman could receive medical attention right away and sorting out the ticket later, the officer kept them there and continued to write it.
The woman died. Over a ticket for expired tags.
The kicker?
McNinch was punished in only the way cops whose actions lead to an innocent person’s death get punished: one whole day without pay.
It’s as if America has fallen prey to unmitigated thuggery.
Oh wait. It has.
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/elderly-man-calls-ambulance-for-wife-with-dementia-cops-show-up-and-beat-him_042014 - 64k -
‘It’s as if America has fallen prey to unmitigated thuggery.
Oh wait. It has. ‘
There is a business model in crowd-funding the victims of police thuggery. You see, that whole Nevada Bundy thing could of been solved in no time if an organized crowd-funded donation pool was done and paid his fees.
” You see, that whole Nevada Bundy thing could of been solved in no time if an organized crowd-funded donation pool was done and paid his fees.”
Michael Rivero
The following article was first written in 1998. I am relinking it here not so much as to say “I told you so”, but to point out that the long term economic future of the United States was obvious, or should have been obvious, to the people who are awarded lofty degrees and paid huge salaries to comprehend such things. Instead, the economists persisted in explaining away the visible signs of gathering troubles and earned their salaries by justifying why the policies that robbed the poor to give to the rich should continue unabated.
In the last 8 years, during what are supposed to be record setting good times, the Federal government has nearly DOUBLED its debt load. The estimated interest on the debt equals all the personal income tax paid by all Americans. Our government is so deep in debt that it cannot get out.
This brings us to the issue of collateral. We’ve borrowed so much money the lenders are getting nervous. Back during the Johnson administration Charles DeGaulle demanded the United States collateralize the loans owed to France in gold and started carting out the bullion from the treasury. This caused several other nations to demand the same and President Nixon had to slam the gold window closed or the treasury would have been emptied, since the United States was even then in debt for more money than the treasury could cover in gold.
But Nixon had to collateralize that debt somehow, and he hit upon the plan of quietly setting aside huge tracts of American land with their mineral rights in reserve to cover the outstanding debts. But since the American people were already angered over the war in Vietnam, Nixon couldn’t very well admit that he was apportioning off chunks of the United States to the holders of foreign debt. So, Nixon invented the Environmental Protection Agency and passed draconian environmental laws which served to grab land with vast natural resources away from the owners and lock it away, and even more, prove to the holders of the foreign debt that US citizens were not drilling. mining, or otherwise developing those resources. From that day to this, as the government sinks deeper into debt, the government grabs more and more land, declares it a wilderness or “roadless area” or “heritage river” or “wetlands” or any one of over a dozen other such obfuscated labels, but in the end the result is the same. We The People may not use the land, in many cases are not even allowed to enter the land.
This is not about conservation, it is about collateral. YOUR land is being stolen by the government and used to secure loans the government really had no business taking out in the first place. Given that the government cannot get out of debt, and is collateralizing more and more land to avoid foreclosure, the day is not long off when the people of the United States will one day wake up and discover they are no longer citizens, but tenants.
The following map shows the current extent of all lands grabbed by the government under the guise of environmentalism.
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/ARTICLE2/doodoo.php - 87k - Cached -
April 18, 2014 4:00 AM
The United States of SWAT?
Military-style units from government agencies are wreaking havoc on non-violent citizens.
By John Fund
Take the case of Kenneth Wright of Stockton, Calif., who was “visited” by a SWAT team from the U.S. Department of Education in June 2011. Agents battered down the door of his home at 6 a.m., dragged him outside in his boxer shorts, and handcuffed him as they put his three children (ages 3, 7, and 11) in a police car for two hours while they searched his home. The raid was allegedly intended to uncover information on Wright’s estranged wife, Michelle, who hadn’t been living with him and was suspected of college financial-aid fraud.
Since 9/11, the feds have issued a plethora of homeland-security grants that encourage local police departments to buy surplus military hardware and form their own SWAT units. By 2005, at least 80 percent of towns with a population between 25,000 and 50,000 people had their own SWAT team. The number of raids conducted by local police SWAT teams has gone from 3,000 a year in the 1980s to over 50,000 a year today.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/376053/united-states-swat-john-fund - 71k - Cached -
The United States of SWAT ??
America is not doing to well other than making a lot of money;
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/03/new-social-progress-index-ranks-u-s-16th-out-of-132-countries.html
According to this, allowing illegal immigrants or I’m sorry undocumented anchor aliens to stay here is cruel and unusual punishment!
Professor Michael E. Porter of the Harvard Business School should find a way to get them to New Zealand or Switzerland or Iceland where they will have their basic human needs such as health, wellness and education better taken care of.
New Social Progress Index Ranks U.S. 16th Out of 132 Countries
America isn’t number one this time. Despite having the second-highest GDP on the 132-country list, the U.S. falls shorts on basic human needs, health and wellness, and education. New Zealand took the number one spot, followed by Switzerland and Iceland in a new global ranking of the world’s most socially advanced countries, according to a new global index released today by a U.S.-based nonprofit, The Social Progress Imperative (SPI). The United States came in 16th. And that’s despite having the second-highest GDP per capita (behind #5, Norway).
Created by a team led by Professor Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School, the Social Progress Index ranked 132 countries over three categories: basic human needs, foundations of wellbeing, and opportunity. Over 50 indicators were used to measure outcomes in each—including nourishment, access to water and sanitation, access to basic knowledge and advanced education, life expectancy, greenhouse gas emissions, and personal and political freedoms.
Let’s have more cheap money. We will get to 32nd in no time.
Happy Easter, HBB! Hippity-hop, hippity-hop!
Chocolate bunnies, Easter eggs, yes. But I don’t like peeps.
I LOVE peeps! Gimme some peeps! Sugar shockers!
You can throw a couple in a nice cup of coffee for the slow sugar effect and try to get them to swim too!
Jupiter man develops shippable house in a box
By Kimberly Miller - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 3:00 p.m. Saturday, April 12, 2014
RIVIERA BEACH —
A Riviera Beach company is betting its off-the-grid manufactured homes that spring from 20-foot long steel containers will appeal to developing countries as well as wealthy buyers in remote areas.
The Mesocore design, which has been percolating in the brain of architect and company CEO Joe Esposito for more than two decades, is similar in basic concept to the old mail order Sears homes that arrived by railroad and were built on site with minimal expertise needed.
I’ve heard of this before, seems like an awesome idea. Might get me one and put it on some land up in Western North Carolina.
You could also look into buying the shipping container and doing the interior build out yourself.
How to Buy a Shipping Container - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcAegcP2mwE - 162k - Cached - Similar pages
Dec 23, 2011 … Just a few thing to look out for when buying a shipping container. Don’t get ripped
How to Buy a Used Shipping Container: 11 Steps (with Pictures)
http://www.wikihow.com/Buy-a-Used-Shipping-Container - 70k - Cached - Similar pages
How to Buy a Used Shipping Container. A shipping container is a modular,
Storage Containers For Sale Georgia | Shipping Containers for Sale …
http://www.containertech.com/container-sales/ - 42k - Cached - Similar pages
Container Technology, Inc. has new and used shipping containers | storage
1) Buy prime ocean view property in Northern California safely hundreds of feet above tsunami danger. Say like Westport, CA.
2) Get a couple of choppers to fly in a couple of shipping containers. How about a couple of railroad box cars?
3) Carve out windows, add inner walls and ceiling and put in insulation.
The most expensive part perhaps is getting choppers to fly in the containers I would guess. But I think the cost would be way less than the fancy architecture houses with unblocked ocean views.
Watch the video…Only about one third of the house is pre-fab…Not sure where the added value is…
One of the nice things about Easter in Florida, that’s when the snowbirds usually fly back up north. However, it’s making less and less of a difference, this area of Tampa Bay is growing. That Amazon facility is going up like gangbusters and they’ve already started hiring the management, office and supervistory maintenance staff.
I see the Canadians on I-40 heading back to Canada.
P.S. They are traveling in their big RVs.
Rental car shuttle buses at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport are no longer full. Rental car rates there are dropping as fast as an interns panties in the oval office in the 90s.
Canadians headed back from Phoenix too. But the nice restaurants stay open (yeah, less crowds!).
Yup, first couple of 90 degree days and they all scatter. I was up in Scottsdale with a friend last weekend and the place was practically deserted—plenty of tables at restaurants, short lines at movie theatres, and you could have rolled a bowling ball down the center of Fashion Square mall and not have hit anyone. Soon ASU kids will mostly be gone, and summer’s peace and quiet will descend on the valley. Along with 100 degree temps, which will also descend on the valley, but the trick, as a famous person once said, is not minding.
My favorite times in that part of Florida were my day trips to Siesta Key Beach. And the drive between New Tampa and there was easy. I-75 was always easy on the weekends.
Siesta Key is a great place to chill. Bit of a circus, but fun. As long as you don’t go when there’s a red tide in progress.
Yep, they’re heading my way. Great lifestyle if it works for you.
The deflationary spiral has accelerated since 2008 and the scope of which is widening and deepening as are the personal financial risks.
Don’t be taken advantage of. DO NOT borrow… especially for a depreciating asset like a house….. and continue stockpiling cash. You’re going to need every penny you can get your hands on.
HA what about the demand for gang housing are you forgetting about that? (sarcasm off) Yes, open border the banksters answer to the housing and social security crises, how is that working out?
http://news.yahoo.com/report-more-100-000-gang-members-texas-152007717.html
How’s Detroit doing? Gonna rake in some money to “battle blight”, lol.
Seem like that bankruptcy thing is moving along just a little too smoothly. Wonder if they’re going to swap some of that public land in other parts of the country to “secure” that pension debt.
You can be sure the creditors have been or are being promised something tasty.
Mr. Banker, what do you hear?
From the recent dissections on this blog about China and their growth rate I was having this discussion with a friend recently and he made the following observation.
GDP per capita (current US$)
GDP per capita is gross domestic product divided by midyear population. GDP is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products. It is calculated without making deductions for depreciation of fabricated assets or for depletion and degradation of natural resources. Data are in current U.S. dollars.
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD
China per capita for 2013 was $ 6091
US per capita for 2013 was $51,749
If China grows at say 10 percent that would be $690
If US grows at 2 percent that would be $1034
I think by looking at the number it will take China a long time to catch up to the United States. Perhaps some can explain what I am missing in this simple analysis.
I think by looking at the number it will take China a long time to catch up to the United States. Perhaps some can explain what I am missing in this simple analysis.
No, but that is a double edged sword. While China’s labor costs have gone from ten cents an hour to dollars per hour, they are still quite low, add that to the fact that Chinese workers are intelligent and hard working you can see that we are facing major competition. China has room to grow for many years especially since it is moving from low value goods to high value goods. Additionally, remember they have four times our population, so if the economy grows by 7% per year for ten years their GDP will be almost as large as our GDP even if our economy does chug along at 2% growth. By that time their middle class will be almost as large as our middle class in numbers using our standard for middle class since the income is China is no more equally divided than here.
The average Chinese worker is getting to a point where he can actually afford the goods he or she is producing. Americans wish they would have had the wage growth enjoyed by Chinese workers:
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/china/wages
I part company with Dan on the whole China thing also I think. I believe it is a huge house of cards that will definitely eventually collapse. Slave labor is not free market. The IQ thing is an unknown as I doubt a very high percentage of the population is captured and even if it were, what IQ is really needed to put those tiny screws in IPhones.
And what about that other billion next door in India?
“The IQ thing is an unknown as I doubt a very high percentage of the population is captured and even if it were, what IQ is really needed to put those tiny screws in IPhones.”
We have this IQ thing going around again.
So for the record my IQ is 10,000. (ten thousand) . It used to be 20,000. But in collage I drank and smoked (of course inhaled) and killed of the brain cells that were required for shame, manners and humility. No I am left with the rude ones only.
Happy bunny day
Btw Genius is 99 percent hard work.
So for the record my IQ is 10,000. (ten thousand) . It used to be 20,000. But in collage I drank and smoked (of course inhaled) and killed of the brain cells that were required for shame, manners and humility. No I am left with the rude ones only.
Obama, we are not buying it anymore. With the exception of a few people like Lola, we do not believe you have an IQ of 10,000. Now, give Suvguy back his handle. We do believe the rest of the post.
Done fast, done cheap, done well. Pick any two. China is caught in the “fast and cheap” trap.
But the problem is with their high IQs they are learning. Their IQs were wasted just screwing screws into I-phones but they are moving beyond that:
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21591864-chinas-best-makers-construction-gear-are-now-world-class-digging-victory
Excerpt from Economist article and why we really need to keep our country’s IQ up to meet the challenge:
CLSA’s researchers subjected Chinese-made diggers from six companies—Sany, Caterpillar, Hitachi and Doosan, as well as Komatsu and Kobelco of Japan—to two weeks of gruelling tests of their productivity, durability and fuel efficiency. They all came out well, but most striking was the performance of Sany’s machines. Though not quite as good as the best, made by Caterpillar, they outperformed their Japanese and Korean rivals. CLSA concluded that technology gaps between the best Chinese firms and their foreign rivals are now “almost non-existent”. It expects that Sany and a handful of other larger Chinese brands will lead a consolidation of the local industry, in which 60 firms will become perhaps six.
‘in which 60 firms will become perhaps six’
That leaves 54 ghost towns without a factory.
Ben, not if they still operate the factories but under Sany ownership. Then the ghost town becomes Peoria. I think the demand for the equipment will just grow if it is higher quality. Another link which talks about both the problems and opportunity of China moving up the food chain. Just displacing Cat is China would eliminate the need to sell a large amount of low margin goods in America.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26043993
That leaves 54 ghost towns without a factory.
factories in the tradition sense of the word are becoming passe. winsun recently 3d printed 10 homes in 24 hrs. the technology will only get better.
knowledge and skills will become ubiquitous and cheap through automation. robots will have skills today’s surgeons can only dream of.
3d metal guns are now being printed along with the ammo. anyone who can buy a printer can do it. how will the state stop this? how will they react? talk about some government plans potentially going haywire..
Every chart I see has China at an average IQ of 100, the US at 98. That seems statistically insignificant to me, especially when you figure that China probably hasn’t been as broadly tested. India at 82? That could be a problem.
Every chart I see has China at an average IQ of 100, the US at 98. That seems statistically insignificant to me, especially when you figure that China probably hasn’t been as broadly tested. India at 82? That could be a problem.
The point is that China with a higher IQ than the U.S. should not have a GDP per capita of 1/9 of the U.S. The problem with our IQ is that it is heading in the wrong direction not that it is extremely low right now.
Now is this guy talking about “a salaried prostitute media agent” from a media company like the New York Times or ABC News?
Washington’s Corruption and Mendacity Is What Makes America “Exceptional”
Paul Craig Roberts
Infowars.com
April 18, 2014
As I have reported on several occasions, the US government pays foreign rulers to do Washington’s bidding. There is no such thing as an independent government in the UK, Europe or Japan. On top of all the other evidence, it has now come to light that the US Agency for International Development has a large slush fund “where millions are paid to political figures in foreign countries.” http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38253.htm
If you have four hours, watch President Putin’s amazing open press conference with the Russia people and then try to imagine an American or European leader capable of such a feat. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38254.htm The Russians have a real leader. We have two-bit punks.
The Los Angeles Times has acquired its own Judith Miller. His name is Sergei L. Loiko. An incompetent Obama regime has botched its takeover of Ukraine with its Kiev coup. The White House Fool is embarrassed that so many Ukrainians prefer to be part of Russia than part of Washington’s stooge “freedom and democracy” government in Kiev. The prostitute American and European media have thrown the propaganda into overdrive, demonizing Russia and President Putin, in order to cover up Washington’s blunder.
The latest deception cooked up by Washington or by the anti-semitic neo-nazi Right Sector in western Ukraine consists of leaflets falsely issued under the name of one of the leaders of Russian secessionists in eastern Ukraine. The leaflet calls for Jews to sign a registration and list their property. However, no such registration office exists. Washington’s ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt who assisted Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland in orchestrating the overthrow of the elected Ukrainian government and installing Washington’s stooges, declared the leaflets to be “the real deal.” But the Jewish community is suspicious and has issued a statement that the leaflet “smells like a provocation.” Jewish residents of the Russian territories that Soviet leaders added to the Ukraine Soviet Republic say that anti-semitism has not been a feature of their lives in the Russian speaking areas. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/04/17/jews-ordered-to-register-in-east-ukraine/7816951/ See also: http://rt.com/news/fake-news-ukraine-russia-364/
Washington and the prostitute media are purveyors of misinformation. Remember, Washington and its media prostitutes told you that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was a threat to America. Washington and its media prostitutes told you that Syria’s President Assad used chemical weapons against his own people. Washington and its media prostitutes told you that “we are not spying on you.” Remember, the New York Times sat on the first leak from a top NSA official that Americans were being illegally spied upon for one year until George W. Bush was safely reelected.
A government that relies on propaganda cannot be believed about anything. Americans misinformed by a prostitute media are in no position to protect the US Constitution and their liberty. Misinformed, they become tyranny’s allies and their own worst enemy.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.
This article was posted: Friday, April 18, 2014 at 9:31 am
Great post from Ben yesterday regarding Russia, China and foreign affairs issues ending with a long quote from the movie Network.
But Howard Beale didn’t really exist, and even in that fictionalization world, he got shot down. That movie came out in 1976, Hillary will now be the old grey mare 40 years later. Nothing changes.
Where do we go from here?
‘Where do we go from here?’
‘ When Major T.J. “King” Kong goes “toe to toe with the Rooskies” and flies his rogue B52 nuclear bomber to a target in Russia, it’s left to General “Buck” Turgidson to reassure the President. Strike first, says the general, and “you got no more than 10 to 20 million killed, tops.”
‘President Merkin Muffley: “I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler.”
‘General Turgidson: “Perhaps it might be better, Mr. President, if you were more concerned with the American people than with your image in the history books.”
‘The genius of Stanley Kubrick’s film is that it accurately represents the cold war’s lunacy and dangers. Most of the characters are based on real people and real maniacs. There is no equivalent to Strangelove today, because popular culture is directed almost entirely at our interior lives, as if identity is the moral zeitgeist and true satire is redundant; yet the dangers are the same. The nuclear clock has remained at five minutes to midnight; the same false flags are hoisted above the same targets by the same “invisible government”, as Edward Bernays, the inventor of public relations, described modern propaganda.’
My worry as well, only a war can bail them out and reset the clock.
Will the totalitarian dictator come before or after? I worry about that also as I see things declining all over and I recognize, even within myself, the tendency to support someone who would come in and set them right, even if it meant a certain amount of ugliness.
As a renter, I could buy one of these:
http://spring.eliomotors.com/?gclid=CIGio4Kq770CFW5eOgodDXEATg
They won’t be in business long if their cars areanything like their nasty a$$ed frozen pizza.
What you talking ’bout Willis? That pizza at least did not need a TARP bailout:
http://www.eliopizzaonfire.com/
They just need a spellchecker.
‘They just need a spellchecker.’
TIL that subarb is a word.
Keep __________ weird.
1. Asheville
2. Austin
3. Louisville
4. Gainesville
I’ll take “What is Austin?” for $500, Alex!
Which Gainesville are you referring to, Muggster?
I might consider going back to a used diesel VW if I could find fuel like this easily:
http://maine.craigslist.org/cto/4401757643.html
How many of you are sitting on one or more depreciating houses convinced you’ll somehow escape what’s coming down the barrel at you?
We can’t all live in a van down by the river.
What kind of interior finishes comes with your $55/sqft new builds?
And it dawns on another underwater debtor that he got ripped off.
celebrating 4/20 on the continental divide trail:
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20140419_182639_425-lriXDSf0.jpg
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20140420_085251_777-Ovd4qhek.jpg
GS, I think I was near there on my Colorado Trail hike. A great forest service camping area abutted the CT on one of the trailheads for Mt. Elbert IIRC. Or maybe it was Mt. Massive. Anyway, I got there mid-day and it was too early to tent up. Great sites along the stream and picnic tables for cooking, plus solitude in early October.
The Annihilation of Savers all over the world
‘Appearing on a recent episode of The Vault, presented by Merit Gold & Silver, Jim Rogers warned the Federal Reserve and central banks around the world have brought the global economy to the brink of disaster, and it’s only a matter of time before inflation – fueled by money printing – will cause gold prices to skyrocket as governments and investors seek refuge.
“We all know that there is inflation, and it’s going to get worse,” Rogers cautioned host Brian Baker. “Do not think that it’s not going to get worse. You should be prepared and you should be worried.”
According to Rogers, the reckless policies of the Federal Reserve have ensured that the consequences of the impending collapse will be much more severe.
“They’re taking what they think is the easy way, but it’s not the easy way because in the end, it’s going to be a lot more painful for everybody. And not just in the U.S., it’s going to be painful for people all over the world.”’
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/04/no_author/the-annihilation-of-savers-all-over-the-world/
Boxer Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter dies at 76
GREG BEACHA, Associated Press
By GREG BEACHAM, AP Sports Writer
Updated 3:53 pm, Sunday, April 20, 2014
Bob Dylan - Hurricane - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGMSfiH850o - 144k -
I only use Facebook because that is the form of media that I can only communicate with my nephew and niece. Unfortunately somehow ex-colleagues and my now current boss eagerly made me their FB friend and they don’t like my posts that are agitating to reduce the power of federalism. They argue back. Enough of that. I am at heart against conflict.
You can create a custom group. If you never post public or have no care about posting public, the custom group is the way to go. I wrote down a list of my FB friends on a separate window. This list includes all my family. I added folks that are not leftists.
So the habit is to not post to “friends,” but post to the custom list. Finally I learn about some high tech stuff.
I dislike FB but like I say, I have to use it.
Everything bad they say about it is true. But it’s still worth using IMO. And there is an old pretty much unused Friends of the HBB group on there if you care to find it. I usually post the latest link there to the JTE whenever it has to be moved just so I can remember.
I have a facebook page because someone set it up in my name. They even put a photo of me up on it, and sent me the password. I took it over so no one else would. I’ve always wondered if FB did all that. I haven’t even looked at it in a long time. Same thing happened with linked in. Last thing I need is some new way to waste time.
LinkedIn still is classy. I realized after I followed Richard Branson for awhile the personality of LinkedIn seemed to become pretentious and “progressive.” Then I realized a lot of that was from looking at Branson’s updates. He has become all things to all people. Worse is seeing the prostitutes who post comments. I call them prostitutes because the comments seemed to be “yes men” comments of people trying to get some recognition by the billionaire.
Currently I’m following a defense company I used to work at. I’m going to cut them off soon as well.
I don’t remember the last time I was required to submit a resume. Partly because my job shop recruiter always had something lined up. But a big deal is my profile on LinkedIn.
Now if I can shut down the LinkedIn updates themselves too that would make it look less “progressive” and establishment. I only like using connections or getting requests for connections. And I rarely comment on any article. I avoid political statements at all on LinkedIn. It’s a professional sight and both politics and religion should be kept out of sites about careers.
‘I added folks that are not leftists.’
LMAO
No facebook, deleted that sh*t two years ago. I had a feeling it was an NSA backdoor and Edward Snowden confirmed that.
Freakbook has become the local gossip shop for fat hens with nothing better to do.
“I had a feeling it was an NSA backdoor and Edward Snowden confirmed that.”
Curses, foiled again!
I had it set up just as I wanted it. Instead of spending time and energy and money diving into citizens’ personal lives i set it up so citizens would willingly turn over to me (and turn over to everyone else) little tidbits of just who they are and what they are about and also little tidbits of just who their friends are and what their friends are about.
Input all these tidbits into a supercomputer and - viola! - out come some nifty (and useful) profiles.
Damn that Snowden.
Here’s an interesting observation by Agatha Christie:
“There is nothing so dangerous for anyone who has something to hide as conversation! A human being, Hastings, cannot resist the opportunity to reveal himself and express his personality which conversation gives him. Every time he will give himself away.”
San Diegans are rich. No wonder it is so hard to afford a house here!
Report: 38 Percent Of San Diegans Can’t Make Ends Meet
Thursday, March 6, 2014
By Megan Burke, Maureen Cavanaugh, Peggy Pico
Midday Edition
GUEST: Peter Brownell, Research Director or the Center On Policy Initiatives
With all the attention being focused on income inequality in America, San Diego is no exception. The latest numbers on income versus cost of living in San Diego finds that 38 percent of families in the region can’t make ends meet. That’s 8 percent more than before the Great Recession.
“More than 300,000 households in our county are living with incomes too low to meet the most basic expenses,” Peter Brownell, research director for the Center On Policy Initiatives said in a press release. “These are mostly working people who are forced to rely on public or private assistance to get by.”
But what does it mean to make ends meet? And what are the industries employing people who’s paychecks don’t measure up to a basic standard of self-sufficiency?
38 percent of 3 million people is more than 1 million San Diego County folk living below the “make ends meet” threshold…
“38 percent of 3 million people is more than 1 million San Diego County folk living below the “make ends meet” threshold…”
+1 Hard to believe that more of ‘em won’t move to fly-over.
4/20 article about Denver, happy to not be at this rally and chilling on my rooftop deck:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25603926/2014-420-rally-denver-day-2
See also:
http://www.denverpost.com/marijuana/ci_25601236/marijuana-tourism-booms-colorado-though-officials-remain-skeptical
Nice business card from the new recreational dispensary in Leadville:
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20140420_173250_999-tojRqh13.jpg
I’m in Leadville several times a year but doubt I’ll be back enough to fill out the card:
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20140420_173438_467-RccRzhOx.jpg
The owner of this dispensary is going to a 4/20 after party in Denver with Ice Cube tonight…
realtors are pathological liars.
i need a third pair of skis more than i need a house
these realtors are sick, diseased, parasites in need of a host
Stated perfectly.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/world/europe/forget-the-car-in-slovakian-lottery-real-prize-goes-to-tax-man.html?_r=0
Gallup: 14% of Americans Couldn’t Last a Week Financially If They Lost Job
Susan Jones
CNS News
April 20, 2014
If you lost your job, how long would it be before you couldn’t pay your bills?
A new Gallup poll finds that 14 percent of Americans would experience “significant financial hardship” within a week, while another 14 percent said they could make it for more than a year.
In the middle, 29 percent said they could last one month; 26 percent said up to four months; and 17 percent said up to one year.
Gallup also asked working adults if they’re likely to lose their jobs in the next 12 months.
Sixteen percent of workers say they are “very” likely (5%) or “fairly” likely (11%) to lose their job in the next 12 months, down from a peak of 21 percent in 2010. But 84 percent said it was “not too likely” (34%) or “not at all likely” (50%) they will lose their job in the next 12 months.
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http://www.prisonplanet.com/gallup-14-of-americans-couldnt-last-a-week-financially-if-they-lost-job.html - 62k -
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/many-americans-temp-work-becomes-permanent-way-life-n81071