Bits Bucket for July 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.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Links
-
January 2025 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
Arlington, VA Housing Prices Down 19% YoY; Inventory Grows 47% As Housing Demand Plummets Nationally
http://www.movoto.com/arlington-va/market-trends/
garbage in = garbage out
Another raging hangover Az._Fraud?
u need to quit drinkn natty light all day and posting this rubbish.
Why is it so painful for you Az._Fraud?
GET HELP FOR YOUR DRINKING PROBLEM
Housing A._Fraud housing.
pay your attorney and quit drinkn!
No A._Fraud.. Housing my boy! Like this;
Paso Robles, CA Housing Prices Collapse 28% YoY; Sellers Slash Prices As Demand Evaporates
http://www.movoto.com/paso-robles-ca/market-trends/
I’m receiving job offers in NoVa again so I decided to look at home prices on Trulia. I’m not in the market to buy but I wanted to get a look at the state of the housing market for when I talk salariy.
Lo and behold, thirty or so of the 56 homes that came up in a search of Herndon were reduced by large chunks of money and this happened quite recently. Weren’t prices quite strong in Spring? Hmmmm, maybe it’s not a sellers market after all.
The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave. …… Proverbs 22:7
And for me — off to Church today to give thanks for what God has shown me in so many ways.
It seems to me that one of the ways they have gotten away with printing so much money is the ability to finance big ticket items.
Just think of what home and car prices would be if you could not finance them?
By letting the bankers take control of the economy they have masked inflation with financing. People have to pay these people for the ability to take possession of what they want today instead of saving for it.
Financing basically takes away your future earnings and gives the bank a nice paycheck for collecting interest.
Financing is a major reason home prices are so high.
I was at the fair yesterday and they had a chevy 3/4 ton 4×4 quad cab for 46000 + tax of 7.75 = 49,565.00 + registration fees so over 50k for a truck very few people would have the cash to buy it. the only way they will sell a significant amount is with financing
And still not a buyer in sight.
Spot on across the board!
“Financing basically takes away your future earnings and gives the bank a nice paycheck for collecting interest.”
Antebellum slavery was racist and involuntary.
New Era slavery is debt-based and voluntary. You make a deal with the FIRE sector and the state to indenture your future earnings in exchange for enjoying a house and a car of your own today. And the money that backs up the other side of the deal was printed out of thin air.
Obama’s Fed keeps interest rates low entirely to encourage consumers to borrow and you cannot make the connection. Quite sad, you must be on the public payroll.
The crazy thing is, you can enjoy a house and car today without financing them at all. You just have to buy them ‘cheap’. This means a house back in the city where all the Black people are, and a used car. And as time goes on and you live frugally and prudently and save your money as a result, you can either buy better housing and cars for continued use of cash, or you can buy more to use (second car for the wife) or rent out (a rental house in the city).
But that’s called CAPITALISM, which is greatly out of favor with the American consumer. The American consumer has long fallen prey to borrowing and has totally confused debt with wealth. Most people mention this to, just turn on me like a rabid dog. They know full well what I’m talking about, but they can’t face the truth about themselves.
Ask them how many poor decisions they’ve made as a result of owing so much money. Ask them if they can quit their job tomorrow, or if they are a slave to the boss because they’re so deeply in hock.
Ask them who’s wealthier - the individual who can quit their job or the individual who owes $100K.
That’ll REALLY set ‘em off.
It does cause them to think, however, so mission accomplished.
“…if they are a slave to the boss because they’re so deeply in hock.”
I think that is exactly the idea: Get debt slaves deeply in hock so that they are beholden to their bosses. And if they lose their jobs, they are royally screwed.
Voluntary indentured servitude is today’s version of yesteryear’s slavery.
I feel sorry for these Central Americans.
They think they’re escaping poverty and persecution, when in fact, they’re enlisting themselves into slavery.
All on behalf of NeoCon-Progressive Party members and their minions.
Tennessee Ernie Ford Sings 16 Tons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Joo90ZWrUkU
Agreed. And all of this is perfectly acceptable (in other words, ethical in that it’s voluntary), until your very last sentence:
“And the money that backs up the other side of the deal was printed out of thin air.”
This is the highly unethical/amoral part of it all. Why? Because it removes personal liberty out of the economy. Now, everyone’s goose is being INvoluntarily cooked.
It’s for that same reason I despise ObamaCare so much. It isn’t voluntary. You must have insurance or be fined. My argument is that no, no one should be required to have insurance. Concurrently, any doctor or hospital should have the right to turn you away if you can’t pay.
Today, I saw a large red firetruck-sized truck in a parking lot. The logo on it said “Bank of America Mobile Banking Center.” I thought a more accurate and informative logo would have been “Mobile Enslavement Center.”
“Mobile Enslavement Center.”
More like “USA Corporatism Enslavement Center.” Mostly brought to you by fire-breathing right-wing idealogues.
4 Recent Supreme Court Rulings Show Which Way the Wind Is Blowing: Corporations Are Getting Whatever They Want
Corporate America is winning and changing the way future judges can rule.
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/us-supreme-court-furthers-corporate-assault-america
Consider these four recent Supreme Court decisions where the Court’s right-wing majority is denying justice or raising legal standards of proof to prevail. These cases underscore how federal court rulings—not just big money in campaigns and lobbying—are part of corporate America’s playbook.
It’s not rape dude, it’s consensual. You are the dumb donkey that has to nurse the baby.
This only works so long as the population of new debtors is increasing at an ever faster rate.
Otherwise, what could have been spent on consumption is burned as interest.
“This only works so long as the population of new debtors is increasing at an ever faster rate.”
Hence, the reason why so many Hondurans and Guatemalans are being let through the border.
SOMEONE has to pay the cost, and we’re short on numbers.
If our leaders actually gave a damn about poor Central Americans, they’d propose absorbing (via vote) not just their people, but their territory as well.
As it stands, Obama is just importing slaves.
They may not be lower. Instead, lots of car companies would fold or sharply reduce operations and cars would only be sold to the wealthy. The supply of used cars would then dry up.
The market may rebalance by having more cheap Tata Motors type cars, but the US would have to relax various safety restrictions to allow this.
“Never spend your money before you have earned it.”
Thomas Jefferson
over at cnbc:
“A survey suggests millennials may view stocks as way to pay back debt.”
where do they come up with this bs?
“By letting the bankers take control of the economy they have masked inflation with financing. People have to pay these people for the ability to take possession of what they want today instead of saving for it.”
Yes, I like to think of all of what you have described as the game of Gotcha, a game that any number can play, that eventually any number - EVERY number - MUST play.
The game of Gotcha ends - is game over - when the winner (the banker) is totally immersed in and takes a cut of every transaction, takes a cut from both sides of every transaction, entered into by every human being that happens to occupy space on this planet.
God’s Plan.
Yeahbut that doesn’t mean China can’t grow at 7.5% per year FOREVER! (Or was it 7%…let me check my Drudge link…)
You’ve been trolled, and you’re still upset the next day.
This is a true collapse and it is due to socialism:
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/07/18/world-cup-hit-brazils-economy/
On Tuesday or Wednesday in China a developer will default of interest payments on loans of about 90 million dollars. China will allow it to happen and that is why they will still maintain growth of about 7%. They are learning to allow the free market to work. Chinese seeing that housing is not a good speculation will invest in businesses instead which actually will make China’s economy stronger. Others who have 30% to put down on a house will instead buy a Chinese made automobile boosting the economy. See I believe in the premise of this blog, that a housing bubble is not good for an economy and government actions to maintain one are not only unnecessary they are counter productive to a health economy.
Where is the biggest counter productive housing bubble on the planet?
China has the title, hands down.
Hopefully that wasn’t directed at me, I certainly wasn’t trolling! For several years, I’ve heard how China is taking over the world. But if you’re old enough to remember, the same things were said about Japan back in the mid to late 80’s. And we see how that worked out. China may not go the same way, but the point is that things can change drastically in just a few years…
I wasn’t upset in the least by that post. To the contrary, I appreciated Mr. Anonymous providing a great recent example of how 7%+ unsustainable bubble growth can go POOF!, leading straight into decades of stagnation to come.
Just place a number on China’s growth for the next two years. You already ‘predicted” they will be hammered now just define it so you can not weasel out when you are wrong once again.
7.5% (oh wait…I meant to say 7%)…until the point of collapse.
All you have to do is read my posts from yesterday and look at the times I posted. It is not my fault you are not bright enough to read. You were accusing me of saying 7.5% when all you had to do is read the post above to see it was around 7%. Once again you are avoiding making the prediction because you are as incompetent as Obama but as arrogant.
“…you…my…I…my…you…You…me…you…you…you…Obama…”
Pretty much sums it up.
ABQDan secretly loves Obama so much, he can’t resist submitting 20+ posts a day about him.
Just make a prediction whac, put your money where your mouth is.
I predict you will make many more political posts to change the subject from China’s collapsing property market.
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-07-19 08:28:12
The fact that all you have after nine years of my posting is to misrepresent a non prediction is an epic fail.
Comment by Auntie Fed, why won’t you love ME?
2014-07-19 17:01:29
ABQDan has not been posting for nine years.
No, he hasn’t. In fact, his first post was 11/09/2009. He’s just another liar amongst us.
I did not live in Albuquerque when I first started to post, I lived in Flagstaff.
So what was your moniker then, liar?
How many different names are you going to use today Rio? Honestly, I cannot remember using any other moniker but it would not make sense to use Albuquerquedan when I lived in Flagstaff when I think of it, but I probably was using the same IP address.
How many different names are you going to use today Rio?
I only use one. One’s enough to drive you bonkers and make you look like a clownshill.
(But it makes sense that you would think another poster logically presenting facts could be me. And Ben can tell by mine being the only Brazilian address I’d imagine)
Also I know I posted before 11/9/2009 with the moniker Albuquerquedan that must be when the blog changed over I was reading this blog in 2005 and posting because I know I kept a friend from buying a house in San Diego in 2006 and I sent her excerpts from this blog.
“How many different names are you going to use today Rio? Honestly, I cannot remember using any other moniker but it would not make sense to use Albuquerquedan when I lived in Flagstaff when I think of it, but I probably was using the same IP address.”
“Also I know I posted before 11/9/2009 with the moniker Albuquerquedan that must be when the blog changed over I was reading this blog in 2005 and posting because I know I kept a friend from buying a house in San Diego in 2006 and I sent her excerpts from this blog.”
I’m not Rio, and you are a LIAR. The blog is archived. You did not start posting until 2009. “Cannot remember.” What a load.
“Cannot remember.”
Sounds like a Bill Clinton line…
The powers that be hold that Japan Is The Model:
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=japan+is+the+model
“If you have to finance it for 15 or 30 years, it’s not ‘affordable’ nor can you afford’ it.”
Exactly.
fire sale on natty light?
Santa Rosa, CA Housing Prices Crater 6% As Inventory Balloons 29%
http://www.movoto.com/santa-rosa-ca/market-trends/
I can’t wait for society to admit that the 20th Century developed model of long mortgages was the aberration, can’t be sustained and in fact must be almost wholly given up as a home-buying model.
The only question remaining is how much of the basic economy will be destroyed before that admission arrives. I’m betting on “most of the basic economy”. We’re going to enter an outrageous Socialism mode and that worries me greatly. I’m hoping that I can die in my own house by the time I need to, before the raging Socialists come around and try to confiscate it out from under me since it’s “not fair” that I have such a big residence while many others are stuck in tiny rental units.
Once Commissar Pelosi and the DNC have their unassailable supermajority, thanks to imported/FSA voters, get ready for massive taxation and asset-stripping from the productive in the name of “fairness,” while imposing increasingly draconian curbs on the freedoms this country was built on. It’ll be “for the children” as always, or as the finger-wagger-in-chief puts it so sanctimoniously, “It’s the right thing to do!”
There is no need to post “old data” on China, as the new articles about their imploding property bubble are coming fast and furious these days!
China Home Prices Fall in Record Cities, Signaling More Easing
By Bloomberg News Jul 18, 2014 2:13 AM PT
July 18 (Bloomberg) –- Bloomberg’s Stephen Engle reports on home prices falling in 55 of the 70 cities monitored by the Chinese government and what it means for the economy. He speaks to Rishaad Salamat on Bloomberg Television’s “On The Move.” (Source: Bloomberg)
China’s new-home prices fell in a record number of cities tracked by the government as developers cut prices to boost sales volume, signaling curbs will be relaxed in more cities.
Prices fell in 55 of the 70 cities last month from May, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement today, the most since January 2011 when the government changed the way it compiles the statistics. Prices in Shanghai and the southern city of Guangzhou fell 0.6 percent each from May, the biggest drop since January 2011, while they declined 0.4 percent in Shenzhen. Prices fell 1.7 percent in the eastern city of Hangzhou, the largest monthly decline among all the cities.
“The current biggest problem of China’s property industry is that the housing inventories are too high,” said Liu Li-Gang, chief Greater China economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Hong Kong in a phone interview today. “But the declines are still not very big. With more cities relaxing curbs and the economy stabilizing, the property market will gradually stabilize.”
…
China News
China Posts Sharper Fall in Home Prices in June
Property Developers Stepped Up Discounts to Lure Buyers
By Esther Fung
Updated July 18, 2014 2:21 a.m. ET
Cranes are seen above a residential construction site in Dalian, Liaoning province. Reuters
SHANGHAI—Average new home prices in 70 Chinese cities declined for a second straight month in June and fell more sharply as property developers stepped up discounts to lure home buyers amid a housing market downturn.
Home prices slid 0.47% in June, compared with a 0.15% fall in May, according to calculations by The Wall Street Journal, based on data released Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics. May’s drop was the first month-over-month decline in two years. On an annual basis, the average price in June rose 4.05%, compared with 5.35% in May.
Excluding subsidized low-income housing, prices fell 0.48% in June from May, compared with a 0.16% decline in May. Home prices fell in 55 of the 70 cities in June, a broader range than the 35 cities that posted declines in May.
Real estate and construction are important drivers of the Chinese economy, accounting for more than 20% of growth in the world’s second-largest economy when cement, steel, furniture and other related industries are factored in, analysts estimate.
To arrest the slide, property developers—many of them holding large inventories of unsold units and facing tight credit—have been offering discounts, though some analysts expect prospective buyers to wait for lower prices.
…
It looks like theyŕe still facing some serious demographic issues.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/140704/elderly-chinese-collecting-trash
Here’s why so many elderly Chinese are collecting trash
Life is rough for retirees in the world’s second largest economy.
According to the World Bank, some 2.5 million people work in the “informal waste management sector” in China, picking through trash for recyclable materials to sell. As any visitor to a major Chinese city will soon notice, many of these trash pickers are elderly people, unable to support themselves on meager government pensions.
China has the fastest growing aging population in the world. By 2050, 437 million people — a third of the population — will be more than 60 years old.
Millions more under-60 are already pensioners, due to China’s low retirement age. Currently, men working in the public sector finish work at 60, while female white collar workers retire at 55, and blue collar women stop work at the comparatively sprightly age of 50. A 2007 United Nations study estimated that in 2005 there were 16 retirees for every 100 workers in China. By 2025, the ratio will be 64 to 100.
China’s pension system is already showing the strain. Almost 50 percent of provinces are unable to pay retiree costs and rely on financial assistance from Beijing. A report by Deutsche Bank and Bank of China found a $2.9 trillion hole in the country’s social security fund, which could widen to a staggering $10.9 trillion by 2033.
The Confucian reverence for the elderly and other traditional values that sustained China as a civilization for 5,000 years have been replaced by the worst form of who-gets-who crony capitalism and larceny. The elderly are disposable as they are not “economically viable.”
“A report by Deutsche Bank and Bank of China found a $2.9 trillion hole in the country’s social security fund, which could widen to a staggering $10.9 trillion by 2033.” Wee, and we thought Social Security was in a pickle!
china is cratering!
And so is J._Frauds rapidly depreciating empire of Sacramento shacks.
It is truly amazing that some posters on this board are blind to it!
they will try and inflate their way out of it of course.
They’ll just manipulate out of it somehow. These days, just because something SHOULD tank, doesn’t mean it WILL tank.
Perhaps those of us who rent and don’t live in California don’t give a crap about China’s folly?
Just a thought.
You will when their government starts a world war to keep the proles from devouring them.
It does not matter Whacked is truly acting whacked since the Obama administration is going down in flames. He still will not admit that Obama needs to take blame for appointing people to the Federal reserve that think financial repression is a good policy.
Link will post soon from the WSJ, but the basket case BRIC is Brazil due to its socialism, China’s free market direction including allowing developers to go bankrupt will allow it to grow 7% this year and next as consistency stated:
RIO DE JANEIRO — Early indicators of Brazil’s economic performance during the World Cup period are starting to trickle in, and they aren’t pretty.
While the month-long tournament drew a million foreign tourists to Brazil–far exceeding official expectations–economists say its impact on other sectors of the economy was decidedly negative. Some World Cup host cities declared municipal holidays on days when matches were played in local stadiums, while untold legions of workers played hooky to watch the Brazilian national team’s seven games.
Brazil’s National Confederation of Industry, or CNI, said in a report Friday that its leading indicator of industrial production fell to the lowest level since 2010, when the survey began. Capacity utilization fell to 68%, the lowest level on record for any month, while “undesired” inventories soared.
“There are certainly some atypical factors in June and the World Cup affected the results in an exceptional way,” the CNI said. “Still, the survey results from recent months indicate that the negative environment isn’t new and that June’s deterioration should have lasting consequences.”
Hard data from bellwethers like the steel and auto sectors corroborated the CNI’s survey results.
The Brazilian Steel Institute said Friday that crude steel production fell 4.9% in June from a year earlier, to 2.7 million metric tons. Sales from local steelmakers to the domestic market tumbled 21% to 1.6 million tons, and exports also declined.
But some of the worst signs came from Brazil’s auto sector, which has suffered from tightening consumer credit at home and a near-economic crisis in neighboring Argentina, the industry’s main export market. Vehicle production plunged 33% in June to 215,934 units, auto association Anfavea says.
Actually renting in California is golden!
Adan’s top 10 reasons he likes China better than Brazil.
1. China’s better than Brazil because China’s has a Communistic top down control of it’s markets and a statist iron grip on the necks of its people.
2. Adan thinks China’s Communist Party is rad.
3. Adan thinks China’s 1 party system is better than Brazil’s 40 party democracy.
4. No other BRIC has done a better job distributing its past 25 year’s productivity gains to a higher percentage of its people than Brazil, and that pisses Adan off.
5. There’s this smart gringo b@astard who lives in Brazil who constantly makes Adan look like a clownshill.
6. Adan thinks the Chinese are smarter than Brazilians because Brazilians are half black and blacks are dumber than Asians according to Adan.
7. (That’s why Germany beat Brazil 7-1 because Germans like the Chinese are smarter than Brazilians.)
8. When Chinese workers are overworked for peanuts they kill themselves but a Brazilian will just up and quit. (Because they’re shifty and a lazy people. And some look like thugs)
9. Brazil’s president was a former “Marxist” rebel tortured by Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 70’s and she survived and became president and that pisses him off. The fact that China is currently ruled by actual Marxists is does not matter to Adan because China is “growing”. Because Adan is a real “man of principle”.
10. For Adan, unlike the Chinese, a lot of Brazilian women’s butts are too fat.
“Actually renting in California is golden!”
That’s right. There hasn’t been a truly good time to buy owner-occupied housing here since the mid-1990s, though I have some colleagues who did alright by purchasing after 2008 and before the Fed’s QE3 housing reflation program began in 2012.
For now, it is prudent to let others compete with the all-cash Chinese money launderers. Use the lower monthly cost of renting compared with a mortgage payment to free up money you can diversify into other asset classes besides overpriced real estate.
the worst signs came from Brazil’s auto sector, which has suffered from tightening consumer credit at home and a near-economic crisis in neighboring Argentina
Adan “logic”:
For Adan, “tightening consumer credit at home and a near-economic crisis in neighboring Argentina” is because Brazil’s “gone all Socialism”.
Everybody knows Brazil’s tightening credit, pauses after 20 years growth, catastrophic droughts affecting 25% of an economy and crony-capitalistic American hedge funds/courts putting the screws to Argentina is because Brazil has “gone Socialism”.
Your hate towards me makes you write some really dumb stuff Adan. I like it.
Just need one reason, why Brazil is mad. Five years ago I said Brazil’s economy will crater Rio/Lola held it up as the model for growth. Rio moved to Brazil (perhaps)because it is a low IQ country and he has at best an average IQ in the U.S.. More likely he is on the Maxine Walter’s staff and he is as dumb as she is.
brazil=Rio
brazil=Rio
We know, but most don’t care about your corrections. (Try taking a deep breath when you can’t think straight because you’re so mad at me.)
Rio you are really too stupid to get mad at. I have showed Brazil and you up too many times to even take you serious. You are just like the clown in the White House. The only one that cared about Germany in the world cup was you. I did not even watch the game. But I am sure you were upset that the white players beat Brazil because while you call people racist, you are the biggest racist on the board because you do not want a color blind society where people advance on merit but want active reverse discrimination.
Amazing Russ:
You said:
“You will when their government starts a world war to keep the proles from devouring them.”
My response:
This outcome is highly doubtful. Why? (1) It is much too expensive to project manpower, and, (2) it is very inexpensive to project power.
China won’t start World War III for the same reason we won’t: It’d be suicide.
As a society, China doesn’t believe in suicide to further its ambitions. Japan did at one time, but learned its lesson.
The Middle East? Well, that’s another question. Once the nuts in the Middle East figure out that committing suicide means there’s fewer left to extol the virtues of your religion, they’ll come around, too.
Might take 500 years, though. Theirs is a mental deficiency or illness, probably genetic-based.
“That’s right. There hasn’t been a truly good time to buy owner-occupied housing here since the mid-1990s, though I have some colleagues who did alright by purchasing after 2008 and before the Fed’s QE3 housing reflation program began in 2012.
For now, it is prudent to let others compete with the all-cash Chinese money launderers. Use the lower monthly cost of renting compared with a mortgage payment to free up money you can diversify into other asset classes besides overpriced real estate.”
I like the idea of sitting back watching the crowd of fools rush in to blow the RE bubble of California while hoarding. I miss Neil’s “Got Popcorn?” signature. It is so vivid and true.
Other asset classes are being beaten down in the meantime. Namely collectibles and cash. And those are what you need to gradually accumulate while maintaining your job, no matter how boring or how terrible the office politics are at your job - because the payout is going to be ALL YOURS. Cash in your brokerage, cash in the form of electronic T-bills, cash in your Credit Union, cash under your mattress. What is the payout? It’s in the form of your currently out of favor asset classes becoming the new biggest gaining asset class for several years. It will happen.
Yes, a .47% decline is catastrophic.
It is if you’re leveraged to the hilt.
They put down 30% of a first home and 60% on a second and they have ten year mortgages. They are not leveraged to the hilt. 90 million dollar defaults for developers in a 9 trillion plus economy is like pis*ing into the ocean, it does nothing.
“9 trillion plus economy…”
Which is the biggest debt pustule in history.
Housing
China’s Cities Struggle to Sell Apartments as Prices Slide
By Dexter Roberts July 18, 2014
More bad news from China’s housing market. Apartment prices fell in June in all but 15 of China’s 70 largest cities. That was the largest number of cities to see prices slide since January 2011, when the government changed how it measures the sector.
Prices in Shanghai and Guangzhou both declined 0.6 percent, while in Shenzhen they dropped 0.4 percent, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced in a statement released today. The worst performer was Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, where prices were down 1.7 percent. The price drop comes amid a glut of excess apartments following years of runaway construction.
“The current biggest problem of China’s property industry is that the housing inventories are too high,” said Liu Li-Gang, chief Greater China economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ:AU) in Hong Kong in a phone interview with Bloomberg News on Friday, July 18.
…
Secret path revealed that allows wealthy Chinese to transfer billions overseas by buying pricey property in Vancouver, New York and Sydney
Bloomberg News | July 14, 2014 | Last Updated: Jul 14 8:54 AM ET
More from Bloomberg News
A Mainland Chinese buyer bought this house in Vancouver for $4.5 million in 2011. All bidders for the house were from Mainland China.
Steve Bosch/PNGA Mainland Chinese buyer bought this house in Vancouver for $4.5 million in 2011. All bidders for the house were from Mainland China.
For years, wealthy Chinese have been transferring billions worth of their money overseas, snapping up pricey real estate in markets including New York, Sydney and Vancouver despite their country’s currency restrictions.
Now, one way they could be doing it is clearer. Last week, when China Central Television levelled money-laundering allegations against Bank of China Ltd., the state-run broadcaster’s report prompted the revelation of a previously unannounced government program that enables individuals to transfer their yuan and convert it into dollars or other currencies overseas.
Offered by some banks in the southern province of Guangdong, across the border from Hong Kong, the trial program was introduced in 2011 for overseas property purchases and emigration and doesn’t constitute money laundering, Bank of China said in a July 9 statement. The transfers were allowed by regulators and reported to them, the bank said.
…
The Rise of China
Economists are really worried about China’s massive property sector
By Sophia Yan
July 15, 2014: 1:14 AM ET
China’s property market slump is threatening the country’s overall economic growth.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
A dramatic building boom helped China to develop the world’s second largest economy. But now, economists say, a runaway real estate sector poses the greatest risk to growth.
Eight out of 10 economists say the property market poses the biggest threat to the economy, according to a new survey conducted by CNNMoney.
That’s a shift from the previous three quarters, when most economists identified credit growth as the primary hazard.
“The major concern is oversupply — property construction has been growing at an unsustainable rate, with the pace of urbanization having peaked,” said Qinwei Wang of Capital Economics. “With developers’ inventories of unsold property still increasing, real estate looks set to remain a drag on the economy.”
It’s easy to see why economists are concerned. JPMorgan estimates the sector and related services make up about 20% of GDP, and property investment alone accounted for more than 15% of economic growth last year.
Already, ailing developers in the country’s smaller cities are offering big discounts to unload property. Even major cities have seen falling prices and waning real estate investment demand.
Economists worry that a housing shock could ripple out to the broader economy, especially the banking sector — which provides financing to many developers. In addition, real estate is closely tied to the manufacturing and services sectors.
A sluggish property market could also hurt Beijing’s ability to hit its official GDP growth target of 7.5% for 2014.
Some analysts argue the point of no return has passed.
Nomura economists, long among the most bearish of bank analysts, said in May that China’s property bubble has already burst, and the country’s economy could slow dramatically unless Beijing steps in with new stimulus measures.
“It is no longer a question of ‘if’ but rather ‘how severe’ the property market correction will be,” the bank’s analysts said in a report.
…
A sluggish property market could also hurt Beijing’s ability to hit its official GDP growth target of 7.5% for 2014.
OMG, they might have trouble hitting 7.5%, they might have to settle for 7% unlike the U.S. or Brazil under the socialist presidents where 2% is considered good. Just tell us your prediction for China’s GDP for the next two years. Rio you can make a fool of yourself too, I predict around 7%, show us your real IQ predict. Is it like subSahara Africa?
Dan predicts the Chinese will publish exactly the fake growth number that they want to…..
I was wondering about that: Is the prediction for actual 7.5% (or 7%, or whatever) growth, or reported 7.5% growth according to Chinese authorities?
All China’s numbers are examine by private economists outside of China that can cross check factors such as trade data and they all agree Chinese data is largely accurate. China did not accumulate four trillion of mainly treasuries by smoke and mirrors.
Has not posted but when I say “all” economists, I mean the top economists not some obscure economist that no one finds credible.
Since there is a “consensus” among the self proclaimed experts, we should stop wondering about the truth. Right?
No but we should worry about our debt problems which are far larger than China’s and if you consider entitlement promises by a full order of magnitude and less not let the MSM try to divert our attention.
we should worry about our debt problems which are far larger than China’s and if you consider entitlement promises by a full order of magnitude and less not let the MSM
Right:
Our “debt problem” with “funny money” (that can be printed on a laptop at Starbucks) is worse than China’s problems of feeding a 1.3 billion uneducated population with a messed up men/women ratio ruled by an oppressive 1 party Marxist government.
Yea, China is the new shining beacon of light upon the hill. (Because they have “growth”.)
Interesting. The Chinese used to save for their future, since they didn’t have entitlements. Over the last decade they have speculated for their future and borrowed like nobody ever. When their immense leveraged pyramid of speculation corrects there will be more pain than the US has in store. So, it is worth watching.
The Chinese still save close to thirty percent of income. Don’t confuse business borrowing with individual borrowing.
“They put down 30% of a first home…”
This sounds great until you find out that even after a 30% down payment the Chinese homedebtor’s price to income ratio makes our housing bubble look very very tiny.
Really look at the outstanding mortgage debt to their GDP. It is a small percentage of ours. We have the mortgage debt not China.
Really look at the outstanding mortgage debt to their GDP.
Mortgage debt to GDP ratio
USA’s ~ 75% down from about 82% in 2008 (rough estimate)
Hong Kong ~ 45%
China’s ~ 15%
Brazil’s ~ 7% Barclays, Dartmouth, IMF
Debt-to-GDP ratio in China said to reach 167%
China’s debt-to-GDP ratio reportedly reached 167% last year, the figure having surged rapidly since 2008, reports the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily.
http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20131030000114&cid=1102
Although the country’s National Audit Office has yet to reveal its official figures, state-owned financial service company Guosen Securities said that as of the end of last year the ratio reached 167% of GDP. The figure grew particularly fast between 2008 and 2010, during which period non-financial corporate debt jumped from 66.4% to 87.7%, while central government debt almost doubled from 17% to 33.5%.
” outstanding mortgage debt to their GDP. It is a small percentage of ours…”
If it were not for the Chinese Ministry of Truth, you wouldn’t know what to think about them I suspect.
In my lifetime, they starved 30 million without a blink. Since then it has been lies and deception. Still the same dynasty.
“Debt-to-GDP ratio in China said to reach 167%.”
It’s cruel to harsh on ABQDan’s mellow like that…
order your pet suite for your new home:
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_26159482/homebuilder-adds-sweet-pet-suites-entice-buyers
White House Hid Huge Spike Of Families Crossing Border
Neil Munro
White House Correspondent
7/18/2014
New data shows the White House has painted a false picture of the Central American migration by hiding a huge spike in “family units” who are illegally crossing the Texas border.
The data, which was dumped by the U.S. border patrol late Friday afternoon, shows that inflow of youths and children traveling without parents has doubled since 2013, to 57,525 in the nine months up to July 2014.
But the number of migrants who cross the border in so-called “family units” has spiked five-fold to 55,420, according to the border patrol’s data, which came out amid a storm of news about the shoot-down of a Malaysian aircraft in Ukraine, delays in failed U.S. nuke talks with Iran, and on Hamas’ continued war against Israel.
In the Rio Grande area where most of the migrants are crossing the border, the number of so-called “unaccompanied children” was actually outnumbered by the inflow by adults, parents and children in “family units,” according to the data.
The much-faster growth in “family units” has been hidden by White House and agency officials, who have tried to portray the influx as a wave of children fleeing abuse and violence.
Top officials, such as Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, has explained the influx as a child migration, and justified the government’s welcoming response as acting “in the best interests of the children.” That portrayal has been picked up and spread by Democratic legislators, reporters and bloggers — such as Greg Sargent at The Washington Post and Rachel Lienesch at the Huffington Post – to help mute the public’s growing anger at the Democrats’ failure to guard the border.
However. that effort has largely failed. Most of the unaccompanied youths say they’re aged 14 to 17, and many are seeking jobs. Also, multiple polls shows the majority of Americans — and near-majorities of Latin-Americans — blame Obama for the breakdown. A July Gallup poll shows that the crisis has prompted Americans to identify it as the nation’s leading problem.
White House officials also touted the wave of so-called “unaccompanied children,” and downplayed the “family units,” because they wished to focus the media’s attention on a supposed problem caused by a 2008 law, titled the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
White House officials say the law prevents them from repatriating Central Americans youths and children once they’re legally dubbed “unaccompanied alien children.” Officials also say the 2008 law forces them to settle the youths in the United States until judges decide if they can stay in the country.
The 2008 law was designed to allow severely-traumatized victims of forced trafficking — such as teenage prostitutes held by violent pimps — to apply for green cards in the United States.
In fact, the Central American youths are not being trafficked. Instead, many youths or their parents pay so-called coyotes to help them cross the border, and most are eventually handed over to their parents and relatives living in the United States, often illegally.
If the youths were not deemed to be protected by the 2008 law, other immigration laws would have allowed officials to repatriate them rapidly.
Many of the men, women and children who cross the border in “family units” are temporarily held until they’re transported to cities where they have relatives or friends.
Those resettlement efforts have sparked a growing wave of nationwide protests, and denunciations from governors and federal legislators. Officials have tried to hide the migrant transfers and locations to mute protests.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/07/18/white-house-hid-huge-spike-of-families-crossing-border/#ixzz380szN8Yh
Had enough Fundamental Transformation of America yet?
#ClowardAndPiven
how long has japan been trying to inflate their way out of bad debt?
Seems like you have two choices when asset bubbles occur.
1. let the bubble burst and let the speculators pay the price. If the speculators know they might lose they wont speculate as much. Kind of a safety net.
2. Keep trying to keep the assets inflated by printing money and then make financing easier by looser credit and lower rates and longer terms. Encourages a casino like atmosphere cause the speculators feel they cant lose.
I like #1.
A societal safety net attained when speculators are allowed to take it in the shorts.
What a concept!
yep I agree Seems thats the way it was for a long time. now will have the central bank trying to run the economy.
The central bank’s efforts will ultimately fail because they are pumping artifice into the equation. They do so because, as an entity, it does not generate a profit to society.
Societies cannot operate successfully on fumes. Neither can institutions. Laws written in support of artifice will not achieve what is sought.
No government, no institution, no individual can dictate reality.
Understanding this will be a major challenge - if not THE challenge - for American society during the next 20 years.
“A societal safety net attained when speculators are allowed to take it in the shorts.”
The trouble is … a lot of economic behavior occurs when speculative money (or any other type of money) floods into an economy and people (read voters) structure their lives around this flood of money and are left stranded when the flood of money is taken away.
I’m not saying that yanking away the money is not the right thing to do from an economic standpoint but I am saying that it is not the right thing to do from a political standpoint.
IMO until we somehow get politicians into office who care about doing the right thing rather than the political thing more of the same sort of economic insanity is what we should expect to occur.
Combo-
You’re introducing ethics and morality into the political equation…something I’ve been arguing in favor of for some time.
Nothing will get solved until society sees that ethics and morality trumps everything else, including law.
Social media is making that goal increasingly difficulty. People everywhere connect to disconnect. Consequently, what is accepted as ethical and moral (those things that cannot be legislated) is increasingly muddled.
Until the population at large takes it upon itself to re-connect by disconnecting, we won’t be solving what actually ails us.
Instead, there’ll be additional needless policy that only makes things worse (i.e., less ethical and moral).
“Nothing will get solved until society sees that ethics and morality trumps everything else, including law.”
Which means there is no hope.
“You’re introducing ethics and morality into the political equation…something I’ve been arguing in favor of for some time.”
It’s been attempted before.
Declaration of the Rights of Man - 1789
Approved by the National Assembly of France, August 26, 1789
The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man, in order that this declaration, being constantly before all the members of the Social body, shall remind them continually of their rights and duties; in order that the acts of the legislative power, as well as those of the executive power, may be compared at any moment with the objects and purposes of all political institutions and may thus be more respected, and, lastly, in order that the grievances of the citizens, based hereafter upon simple and incontestable principles, shall tend to the maintenance of the constitution and redound to the happiness of all. Therefore the National Assembly recognizes and proclaims, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of man and of the citizen:
Articles:
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.
2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.
4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law.
5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no one may be forced to do anything not provided for by law.
6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally eligible to all dignities and to all public positions and occupations, according to their abilities, and without distinction except that of their virtues and talents.
7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. Any one soliciting, transmitting, executing, or causing to be executed, any arbitrary order, shall be punished. But any citizen summoned or arrested in virtue of the law shall submit without delay, as resistance constitutes an offense.
8. The law shall provide for such punishments only as are strictly and obviously necessary, and no one shall suffer punishment except it be legally inflicted in virtue of a law passed and promulgated before the commission of the offense.
9. As all persons are held innocent until they shall have been declared guilty, if arrest shall be deemed indispensable, all harshness not essential to the securing of the prisoner’s person shall be severely repressed by law.
10. No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law.
11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.
12. The security of the rights of man and of the citizen requires public military forces. These forces are, therefore, established for the good of all and not for the personal advantage of those to whom they shall be intrusted.
13. A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the public forces and for the cost of administration. This should be equitably distributed among all the citizens in proportion to their means.
14. All the citizens have a right to decide, either personally or by their representatives, as to the necessity of the public contribution; to grant this freely; to know to what uses it is put; and to fix the proportion, the mode of assessment and of collection and the duration of the taxes.
15. Society has the right to require of every public agent an account of his administration.
16. A society in which the observance of the law is not assured, nor the separation of powers defined, has no constitution at all.
17. Since property is an inviolable and sacred right, no one shall be deprived thereof except where public necessity, legally determined, shall clearly demand it, and then only on condition that the owner shall have been previously and equitably indemnified.
Should’ve been titled, “Declaration of the Rights of Man…As Defined by Others”
Thanks, Whac. A fascinating read.
“Nothing will get solved until society sees that ethics and morality trumps everything else, including law.”
Which means there is no hope.
Combo -
I don’t agree. Not at all, in fact. It’s not an all-or-nothing proposition. It’s a matter of relativity. We need enough people to understand and live accordingly, not everybody to understand and live accordingly. The rest of us can aptly deal with those people.
“A fascinating read.”
The most amazing part, which I am sure you noticed, is the striking similarity to the documents the U.S. founding fathers drafted at the same moment in history.
If anyone can shed light on the reasons for these similarities, I’d be grateful.
Was not the same moment in history, we drafted ours years before and they largely copied it, except they elevated equality over liberty and have never achieved our success because of it.
“It’s a matter of relativity. We need enough people to understand and live accordingly, not everybody to understand and live accordingly.”
“It’s a matter of relativity” = It’s a matter of numbers.
The elected get into office because the necessary number of voters favor them.
If the necessary number of voters vote smart then the elected will work for their behalf. If the necessary number of voters are able to be easily manipulated by those who seek office for their own reasons then these manipulators are what voters are going to end up with.
People everywhere piss and moan about the people who are in office and what a lousy job they are doing but nevertheless these same people who are in office keep on getting re-elected.
So the questions should be asked: What is it that these people who are holding office the best at? Is it running the country or is it somehow getting re-elected?
Declaration of the Rights of Man - 1789 and the US Constitution -1787
The funny thing is that the government haters don’t realize that the only way the “Rights of Man” in those documents can be protected is by a government strong enough to protect those rights. Who else would protect our rights? BofA? WalMart? Your neighbor with a Gadsden Flag?
Was not the same moment in history,
Right. Not the “same moment in history”. Who’s “history”?
Declaration of Independence -1776
US Constitution - 1787
The Declaration of the Rights of Man -1789
The Declaration was directly influenced by Thomas Jefferson working with General LaFayette,..
…The inspiration and content of the document emerged largely from the ideals of the American Revolution.[4] The key drafts were prepared by Lafayette, working at times with his close friend Thomas Jefferson,[5][6] who drew heavily upon The Virginia Declaration of Rights, drafted in May 1776 by George Mason (which was based in part on the English Bill of Rights 1689), as well as Jefferson’s own drafts for the American Declaration of Independence. I”[7 wiki
Just proved my point. Thank you, I did not have time.
“… the only way the “Rights of Man” in those documents can be protected is by a government strong enough…”
a different opinion:
““Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny…”
T. Jefferson
Just proved my point.
“Was not the same moment in history”
Are you daft man? (Are you really this ignorant or is all politics and spin with you?)
You saying 1776, 1787, and 1789 involving France and USA and three documents influenced by the American Revolution influenced by France which then in turn influenced France - and that all three documents totally influenced by Thomas Jefferson “Was not the same moment in history” shows your total ignorance of history and timelines.
(Kind of like your math, science and command of the English Language.) Hint: Look up the words “crater” and “catastrophic”.
I said that our declaration was years older and it was, yes we influenced their document and that is important. Our founding fathers inspired the world, the left likes to undermine their contributions to the world and saying they were at the same moment suggests that the documents were created at the same time and not one document inspired the other.
Not sure which HBB poster stated this (probably Rio, but I don’t read his/her posts, so….)
““… the only way the “Rights of Man” in those documents can be protected is by a government strong enough…”
Untrue. A strong societal standard of ethics and morality can achieve the same. Again, remember that laws are derived from ethics and morals, not the other way around.
Without agreed-to ethics and morals, laws are highly ineffectual, even useless.
We find ourselves where we are today because of this lack of understanding.
Think Ghandi. He went outside of law, of government, to achieve what was sought. And did so peaceably.
An incredible man, an incredible thinker, an incredible achievement.
Folks - do not look toward government to achieve what is needed. Your answers will not be found there, but in each other.
(For now, the government is hamstrung by the need to lie. It will remain hamstrung until its need to lie ebbs.)
The NSA should be all the proof anyone needs to realize a different approach is needed from us, the people.
“… the only way the “Rights of Man” in those documents can be protected is by a government strong enough…”
….Untrue. A strong societal standard of ethics and morality can achieve the same.
Really? Where in the history of the world of sovereign countries has this fantasy happened? Where has “a strong societal standard of ethics and morality” achieved the same as government?
Answer: It has never, and never can or could.
do not look toward government to achieve what is needed
Yea. Don’t look to government to protect your liberties. Look to WalMart, CocaCola and your neighbor with his Gadsden Flag.
Not sure which HBB poster stated this (probably Rio, but I don’t read his/her posts)
You just did.
‘Don’t look to government to…’
In human interaction, there are only acts of individuals. One or five or a thousand. What is government but the work of individuals? Somehow, you seem to think of government as a thing in and of itself. And more, you bestow some kind of greatness to the combination of what a group of individuals devises when it comes in the form of “government”. When in fact, it’s just individuals. I suspect what you really like is that government gets to do things you would never have the courage or right to do. I used to ask you, why don’t you take your gun and get to redistributing wealth? Because you’d get your ass shot off or thrown in jail. Yet you can elect someone to do all sorts of criminal acts. They can wear nice suits and tell us how magnanimous they are, while they spy on us and cheat us, stuff their pockets and kill people. Oh, but they are the “collective”! The same collective that has given us wars that have killed hundreds of millions of people in the last century. Governments don’t exist the way you like to think. It’s just individuals, who can do wrong or right. And when they act under the guise of government, it’s rarely just. It’s no wonder the world is such a mess.
“What is government but the work of individuals?”
Absolutely correct.
except (France) elevated equality over liberty and have never achieved our success because of it.
Correct. France never achieved our “success” because of it. France achieved Frances success, not Americas’. And they did some very important things better.
France has a much higher net-worth per capita than USA even though USA has a higher GDP per capita - because of USA’s gross wealth inequality and SupplySide failure. (U.S. Trails at Least 15 OECD Countries in Median Wealth)
The French have universal health-care, live longer, healthier and get about double American’s paid time off and their worker protections and benefits make America’s look like an Ayn Rand wetdre@m.
The French justice system blows USA’s away in many regards and they have not concocted a “Prison Nation” to protect the .1%’s ever increasing money.
As usual Adan, you tout the success of the very, very few and ignore the plight of the masses. It’s what you do.
2. Keep trying to keep the assets inflated by printing money and then make financing easier by looser credit and lower rates and longer terms. Encourages a casino like atmosphere cause the speculators feel they cant lose.
“Government” printing money is working only for 1% of the U.S. population for whom guys you are always advocating here… and barking at Rio … you are enslaved by 1% of gringo’s and feel yourself happy… God bless of United States…
Free Sh!t Army out in force in Detroit demanding free water (i.e. paid for by somebody else). I wonder how many of these people who “can’t afford” to pay their water bills have the latest iPhones and other SWAG.
http://rt.com/usa/174052-detroit-water-protests-citizens/
IRS SAYS HARD DRIVE THAT LOST EMAILS DESTROYED
Standard procedure to destroy old data storage equipment.
by ASSOCIATED PRESS | JULY 20, 2014
The IRS said Friday that Lois Lerner’s computer hard drive was destroyed three years ago, ending any chance of retrieving her lost emails.
In court papers, the IRS said the hard drive was destroyed after two sets of trained technicians tried to retrieve the data. The tax agency said it was standard procedure to destroy old data storage equipment that may have contained confidential taxpayer information.
The IRS says Lerner’s computer crashed in 2011, destroying an untold number of emails. At the time, Lerner headed the division that handles applications for tax-exempt status.
Lerner is a central figure in congressional investigations into the handling of applications by tea party and other conservative groups.
Doesn’t it make sense that MAYBE the people who are constantly shrieking about the taxes they have to pay just MIGHT be cheating on their taxes?
Sure, it could have been politically motivated, but there is another perfectly plausible explanation that gets drowned out by all the teabilly lamentations and martyrdom.
“In court papers, the IRS said the hard drive was destroyed after two sets of trained technicians tried to retrieve the data.”
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
The jokes write themselves.
Weird Al takes on conspiracy theories in what may or may not be pure satire. Al is filming a tinfoil infomercial when at 1:20 he goes seriously off-message; hilarity ensues. (Parody song “Foil” based on Lourde’s “Royals.”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-0TEJMJOhk
Government employee = beyond reproach.
Never forget under the left you serve them, they do not serve you as public servants.
Mine is not a political statement. It’s an ethical one.
Don’t mix the two. They aren’t bedfellows.
I understand your point but I do not think the line is as clear as you think it is. Lois Lerner had a history of unethical conduct and the abuse of her governmental positions even before the IRS scandal. She went after conservatives while on the Federal Election Commission. Certain ideologies have no problem with unethical conduct if it advances their agenda. The ends justify the means.
I understand what you said.
I just think the line is a lot clearer than you.
Ethics trumps law. It also trumps politics. Politics by its very nature and intent is highly unethical. It’s always going to be.
The answers many appear to seek do not lie in politics. They lie in ethics. They lie in what cannot be dictated or enforced via government or law.
Government is inherently political.
Law doesn’t have to be, but has become so.
Certain ideologies have no problem with unethical conduct if it advances their agenda
It’s true. See Nazi Germany’s and the 1850s South’s view and actions on race.
Ethics trumps law. It also trumps politics.
For Adan, ethics do not trump law, politics, freedom, democracy or economic growth. Proof? See his constant touting Communist China over democratic Brazil. Heck, for Adan, ethics do not even trump his hatred of me.
Got ethics Adan?
Guillotine!
Now that I know that Guillotine = Lola, I won’t be reading the posts of either.
And no, Rio, I still do not read your posts.
See his constant touting Communist China over democratic Brazil
In terms of economics I do. This is not a blog on democracy. Unless Brazil turns from socialism in the upcoming election, (highly unlikely) China will grow more in the next two years than Brazil will grow in the next five years. There a prediction on Brazil and China. Your turn show your ignorance by predicting or your cowardice of being showed up by a white guy by not predicting.
In terms of economics I do. This is not a blog on democracy.
Because your “economics” trump your gross lack of ethics.
As you yourself said:
“Certain ideologies have no problem with unethical conduct if it advances their agenda” Adan
China will grow more in the next two years than Brazil will grow in the next five years.
Wow you’re good. What a “brave” prediction. Here’s my prediction. If the USA had not gone KochBrothers crony-capitalistic, globalistic, TrickleDown crazy, real democracies such as Brazil would grow faster than Communist China.
USA gave away its industrial manufacturing base to China. And now you’re so proud of China’s “growth” and compare it favorably to real democracies.
You ought to be ashamed of yourself and the double standard, unethical and un-American propaganda you spew.
Housing bubbles react to economics not whether a country is a democracy or not. We are discussing the Chinese housing bubble.
“We are discussing the Chinese housing bubble.”
Thanks for that clarification. Because based on the content of your posts, I thought you were discussing Obama.
New Age Chinese real estate financing trick: If you can’t afford a down payment, just borrow it, at up to 25% of the purchase price.
Wouldn’t that technically constitute a negative down payment?
Developer’s zero-interest loans highlight China property risks
By Clare Jim
HONG KONG Thu Jul 17, 2014 5:15pm EDT
(Reuters) - China’s third largest property developer, Evergrande Real Estate, has joined smaller peers in offering zero-interest downpayment loans, a practice reminiscent of the U.S. housing boom that precipitated the global financial crisis.
The easy credit shows the gamble Chinese developers are willing to take to keep sales on track, but also highlights the risk of a broader industry correction if buyers default. So far such defaults have been rare in China, where household debt is low by Western standards and banks have traditionally required hefty deposits from buyers seeking mortgages.
Many analysts believe the slowing property sector poses the biggest risk to China’s economy in the second half of the year, despite a rebound in home sales in June as state-controlled banks offered more credit to support the market.
Guangzhou-based Evergrande, the country’s No.3 developer by sales, is offering downpayment loans of nearly a quarter of the purchase price to home-buyers for some of its projects.
Such loans skirt government rules that require a minimum deposit of 30 percent of a home price, while buyers who have put down as little as 6 percent upfront would find it easier to bail if the market turns.
“Buyers who can’t provide the 30 percent downpayment are generally low quality,” said Midland Realty chief operating officer Samuel Wong.
Data released alongside China’s second quarter GDP numbers on Wednesday showed real estate investment slowed in the first half and new property construction plunged. Private sector surveys published ahead of official housing data due on Friday showed new home prices fell in June for the third straight month.
…
“IRS SAYS HARD DRIVE THAT LOST EMAILS DESTROYED”
#FundamentalTransformationOfAmerica
When rates go up - as they must with rising inflation - a new generation of FBs will wail that they were “misled” into taking more debt than they could prudently afford. “But my realtor said buy now or be priced out forever!”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10974967/One-in-four-mortages-at-risk-when-rates-rise.html
One in four mortgages could become unaffordable when the Bank of England starts increasing interest rates, a leading think tank will warn this week.
Analysis by the Resolution Foundation has found that as many as two million homeowners are unprepared for the heavier financial burden that comes with higher interest rates on their mortgages.
It has called for the City regulator to demand that mortgage lenders offer financial advice to their most “at risk” borrowers.
“Swift action now will help to limit the fall-out in years to come and will be much more effective than waiting until a borrower falls into arrears before getting in touch. We can’t just assume it will all be alright on the night,” said Matthew Whittaker, chief economist at the foundation.
The usual weekend mayhem in Chicago - 22 shot despite some of the tightest gun control laws in the country in the corrupt, dystopian DNC saptrapy that spawned Obama and Rahm Emanuel.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-shootings-violence-girl-killed-on-west-side-20140718,0,7102175.story
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-07/18/content_17831360.htm
We use to lead in space technology but due to Obama cancelling the successor to the space shuttle we cannot even get our astronauts to the space station without Russian help. Now, even China is leaping ahead of us.
Just think of what home and car prices would be if you could not finance them?
In a Subprime Bubble for Used Cars, Borrowers Pay Sky-High Rates
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/in-a-subprime-bubble-for-used-cars-unfit-borrowers-pay-sky-high-rates/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
Rodney Durham looks terrible for sixty years of age. Likely smoked and drank to excess, wallowing in self pity, and then he climbs aboard LBJs gravy train earlier than most. Now he’s moaning about a automobile that he couldn’t afford at the outset. Where are the hungry lions when you need ‘em?
And the meat-n-potatoes: “And, like subprime mortgages before the financial crisis, many subprime auto loans are bundled into complex bonds and sold as securities by banks to insurance companies, mutual funds and public pension funds — a process that creates ever-greater demand for loans.”
I can see why the greedy usual suspects have rushed from subprime mortgages to subprime auto loans. Look how hard it is nowadays to foreclose on someone who doesn’t pay their mortgage…they can sit in the house for months or years as the process drags on. Need I mention robosigning and zombie houses? In contrast, if someone doesn’t make their car payments, the car can be quickly repossessed and sold again.
Thomas Jefferson quotes are as prescient and spot-on as ever.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2014/07/20/quotes-of-the-day-20/
You can go to Drudge and find a link about the Sun going quiet, but here is a link about a Russian scientist from 2010. People that really know about a subject can make accurate predictions. Thus, the fact that the AGW crowd has not gotten a prediction right in twenty years is very telling that they do not understand the science. But this scientist called the amazing recent absence of sunspots right now four years ago:
http://www.wnd.com/2010/05/155225/
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. Thomas Jefferson
A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government. Thomas Jefferson
Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. Thomas Jefferson
Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition. Thomas Jefferson
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. Thomas Jefferson
Every generation needs a new revolution. Thomas Jefferson
Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism. Thomas Jefferson
I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it. Thomas Jefferson
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. Thomas Jefferson
I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion. Thomas Jefferson
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. Thomas Jefferson
I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. Thomas Jefferson
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. Thomas Jefferson
If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour? Thomas Jefferson
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. Thomas Jefferson
Information is the currency of democracy. Thomas Jefferson
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Thomas Jefferson
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. Thomas Jefferson
Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people. Thomas Jefferson
Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society. Thomas Jefferson
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. Thomas Jefferson
Never spend your money before you have earned it. Thomas Jefferson
No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. Thomas Jefferson
No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it. Thomas Jefferson
One man with courage is a majority. Thomas Jefferson
Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence. Thomas Jefferson
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. Thomas Jefferson
Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. Thomas Jefferson
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. Thomas Jefferson
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves. Thomas Jefferson
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. Thomas Jefferson
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers. Thomas Jefferson
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. Thomas Jefferson
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. Thomas Jefferson
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. Thomas Jefferson
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Thomas Jefferson
There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents. Thomas Jefferson
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty. Thomas Jefferson
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. Thomas Jefferson
We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed. Thomas Jefferson
We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country. Thomas Jefferson
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. Thomas Jefferson
There is no global warming because AlGore has a big A/C, The Koch Brothers need to become trillionaires and Omaha reported record lows last week.
Climate’s ‘annual physical’ reveals record-breaking global warming, report
Canada News - 24 minutes ago
Last Year Among the Recorded Years, Says NOAA Report
YottaFire - 3 hours ago
Climate Change Broke Temperature Records In 2013
The Inquisitr - 16 hours ago
Global Climate is on the rise
The Eastern Tribune - 17 hours ago
Climate Records Shattered in 2013
Discovery News - 20 hours ago
Report warns world is ‘getting warmer’
Echonetdaily - Jul 19, 2014
Global Climate Report Warns about Warming up of the planet
Uncover California - Jul 19, 2014
What the hell! World is getting warmer
Northern Voices Online - Jul 19, 2014
Gran/My Turn: Climate change denial
The Recorder - Jul 18, 2014
And the MSM propaganda still cannot explain 20 years of flat temperatures contrary to all of their models so just like wha.c they just restate the same information over and over
“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984
“Last Year Among the Recorded Years, Says NOAA Report
YottaFire - 3 hours ago”
“Right after the year 2000, NASA and NOAA dramatically altered US climate history, making the past much colder and the present much warmer. The animation below shows how NASA cooled 1934 and warmed 1998, to make 1998 the hottest year in US history instead of 1934. This alteration turned a long term cooling trend since 1930 into a warming trend.”
NOAA/NASA Dramatically Altered US Temperatures After The Year 2000
Posted on June 23, 2014 by stevengoddard
Prior to the year 2000, NASA showed US temperatures cooling since the 1930′s, and 1934 much warmer than 1998.
stevengoddard.wordpress.com/…/ - 447k -
NOAA/NASA Dramatically Altered US Temperatures After The Year 2000
Yawn. Understand scientific process?
In short, NOAA recalibrated their surface temperature records which are organized into three datasets: USCRN (which extends back to the mid-2000s), ClimDiv, and USHCN (which both extend back into the mid-1890s). These recalibrations occur on occasion, and every time they do, ACCC blogs lose their minds, because in their minds, any change in scientific data is evidence of the conspiracy theory they believe in. Rather than what recalibrations are in reality, which is that data comes in to augment previously reported records and these records need to be altered. If you find a dollar in the sofa and you recalibrate your personal wealth, don’t tell an ACCC blog, as they might say you lied about your personal wealth.
In one of those datasets reaching back to the 1890s (ClimDiv) but not the other (USHCN), these recalibrations made July of 1936, not July of 2012, into the average warmest July in the contiguous US. USHCN still says that July of 2012 is the warmest July in the contiguous US, as does USCRN (although it says so with many fewer Julys).
…that’s it. That’s the entirety of what happened, but ACCC advocates blew this out of proportion into thinking this meant that NOAA now claimed the 1930s were warmer than modern temperatures. I could make a lot of snarky comments here but I won’t. I’ll just post this graph of USHCN average yearly temperatures in the contiguous US), which very strongly appear to indicate that the 21st century has been, on average, warmer in the contiguous US than the 1930s were: http://observationdeck dot io9 dot com
Yes and we are not suppose to notice that all the changes were made while Obama was pushing AGW and they support AGW when the real time data was all refuting it.
we are not suppose to notice that all the changes were made while Obama was pushing
Right. Every American president controls the work of NASA, NOAA and 95% of the world’s climate scientists. And it changes on a dime with every new Administration. Because that’s how the world and science works. And the black helicopters and stuff.
What a gut-buster.
Yes and the IRS was not supporting Obama’s agenda.
Don’t forget that the President also controls the Federal Reserve Bank. The notion of an independent Fed is just a ruse (or so claims ABQDan…).
““He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984″
A truth attorneys and principals in P.C.’s know and exercise well.
POSTED ON JULY 13, 2014 BY JOHN HINDERAKER IN CLIMATE
ON GLOBAL WARMING, FOLLOW THE MONEY
There is a real irony in the Left’s repeated insinuation that climate realists must be funded, somehow, by the oil industry. In truth, there is plenty of money being distributed to climate scientists, but just about all of it comes from governments, and all government money goes to alarmists who promote government power. From this week’s The Week That Was, from the Science and Environmental Policy Project:
Based US government reports, SEPP calculated that from Fiscal Year (FY) 1993 to FY 2013 total US expenditures on climate change amount to more than $165 Billion. More than $35 Billion is identified as climate science. The White House reported that in FY 2013 the US spent $22.5 Billion on climate change. About $2 Billion went to US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). The principal function of the USGCRP is to provide to Congress a National Climate Assessment (NCA). The latest report uses global climate models, which are not validated, therefor speculative, to speculate about regional influences from global warming.
Much of the remaining 89% of funding goes to goes to government agencies and industries claiming they are preventing global warming/climate change, even though they do not understand the natural causes of climate change and, likely, far overestimate the influence of CO2. These entities have a vested interest in promoting the fear of global warming/climate change.
It is time for the government to stop funding irrational fear of global warming/climate change based on a concept of climate that is not substantiated by the physical evidence. If we are to progress in our understanding of climate change, the paradigm must be changed from one that earth’s temperatures are largely controlled by atmospheric CO2, to one which recognizes that climate change is normal and predominately natural. Human CO2 emissions have little, if any, influence on temperatures and other climate trends.
One of the worst consequences of the global warming power grab by the U.S. government and others around the world has been the corruption of the scientific process, which has brought the discipline of climate science, and by association science in general, into disrepute.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/07/on-global-warming-follow-the-money.php - 76k -
“There is no global warming because AlGore has a big A/C, The Koch Brothers need to become trillionaires and Omaha reported record lows last week.”
#TheNewHomeOfGlobalCommunists
#TheNewHomeOfGlobalCommunists
#WhatHappensWhenYourParentsWereMorons
“#WhatHappensWhenYourParentsWereMorons”
“I’m told Chuck Graham, state senator, is here. Stand up Chuck, let ‘em see you. Oh, God love you. What am I talking about. I’ll tell you what, you’re making everybody else stand up, though, pal.”
—Biden, telling Missouri state senator Chuck Graham to stand up at a campaign rally, before realizing that Graham is confined to a wheelchair.
Joe Biden Tells Chuck Graham to Stand Up - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2mzbuRgnI4 - 359k -
Thanks Obama, Clinton and Susan Rice for helping the people of Libya have peace and prosperity and for lowering the price at the pump:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/07/fighting-rages-at-libya-main-airport-201472055638902456.html
How often do you thank Bush, Cheney and Neocons for bringing peace and prosperity to Iraq and Afghan….?
When Mr. Banker see’s people arguing about red vs. blue he gets a tiny little green hard on.
Brics countries create $100bn bank to ease western grip on global finances
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa set up bank and currency pool to push for bigger say in global financial order
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jul/16/brics-countries-development-bank
It’s notable that, over time, various countries no longer strive to have their currencies pegged to the dollar.
Why would they? Our leaders can no longer be trusted to even try to do the right thing.
While we double the use of food stamps and encourage MS-13 members to come to the country to create a crisis:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10952998/Six-giant-Chinese-projects-shaping-the-world.html
Dan-
In other words…if you want ethics, reduce the size of government. Of both/all parties.
Remember: Government operates at a net loss to society. Since it doesn’t generate a profit, it must lie.
Since government must lie, it therefore must be reduced in size if you wish society to act more responsibly.
Government growth - and therefore its need to lie - has been off the charts. It’s a sponsor of corruption and waste, which is why it allows excrement from Goldman Sachs to run around in the Cabinet.
Shrink government and it’s ability to sponsor the corrupt will also shrink. Want Goldman Sachs out of Washington? Shrink government!
There is no other way. Not for a society that wishes to maximize personal liberty.
Exactly right.
Several ways to bring about it: Vote libertarian, agitate, communicate, do not sanction government, opt out as much as possible, figure ways to reduce your tax percentage to starve the beast.
Yesterday someone on FB posted a remark that was something like Israel has a right to exist because jewish ancestors lived in that area for many centuries before the establishment of Israel. I made a ridiculous post but on the same lines that my ancestor named ooga, thousands of generations ago, lived in a pristine area. Therefore I deserve property there. An hour later he posted that he understood where I was going at and he admitted his post was fallacious. The power of showing the idiocy of statism is from keeping on agitating because you never know who you will spark to become anti statist at some point.
I know I’m right. It’s patently obvious to anyone with at least marginal thinking capacity that this is indeed correct.
Those that attempt to refute it are either: (1) themselves corrupt, or, (2) really that dumb.
On this board, there at least several #1s running around.
The only way to fight progressives is to beat them at their own game.
Starve The Beast, indeed. My goal is to suck the life out of them to the extent that I (legally) can. As a productive member of society, sucking the lifeblood out of the parasites is highly ethical.
In nature, this is a common occurrence. Since I am a living being, I am part of nature. Who here says that nature placing a check on life-draining parasites isn’t justified?
I never imagined becoming a parasite could be a highly ethical thing to do. Never crossed my mind until maybe 8 months ago. Then again, there’s lots of other things about life I never imagined until the past 2-3 years.
While I don’t have the vaunted S.T.E.M. smarts that are all the rage these days, I do have a creative mind. And I like it!
Who here says that nature placing a check on life-draining parasites isn’t justified?
It is not justified in some situations. If a man takes all a bear’s roots, berries and food, it is not unethical for a bear to take a bit out of the man or his hoarded food.
If the PTB take away American’s jobs, it’s not unethical for the jobless to get foodstamps and if there are NO jobs it is unethical to cancel food stamps for most without jobs.
You don’t need S.T.E.M. training to be fully aware, critical, and analytical. Those are all that matter for smartness. 90% of us get these skills as we get older. The rest of them are gullible and go along with anything the statists say. I know a 70sh fuzzy headed one who never lived more than ten miles from the beach all his life and is now at Hermosa Beach.
Anyway I think you posted something before about “suck the life out of the system.” By that I figure you mean get as much out of social security as they promise you, and medicare. I intend to do that.
If government has a surplus of spending to do on entitlements, it will have to be less invasive on our civil liberties and less of a world cop - hey I sound like a LIEberal that way. But of course I am against welfare.
Maybe this is what’s going on with amnesty for illegals and bringing hundreds of diseased kids into the USA. Sometimes you wonder if the nutters in our government are purposely giving the U.S. citizens a turd sandwich to wake up the sleeping giant.
You don’t need S.T.E.M. training to be fully aware, critical, and analytical.
In fact, it can be a detriment to only have a S.T.E.M. education and life/work experience. I have both degrees, and I’ve found my “useless” anthropology degree just as valuable as my S.T.E.M. degree in understanding the world.
If government has a surplus of spending to do on entitlements, it will have to be less invasive on our civil liberties
Clinton put us on track for budget surpluses. Bush’s TaxCutsForTheRich”, accelerating our industrial giveaway to China and unfunded neo-con wars ruined that. But the rich love it.
Keep fighting statism, Bill.
Imagine yourself to be an antibody attempting to rid the host of a debilitating, life-robbing illness. Even if it’s one cell at a time, you are attempting to restore health.
Think about that the next time you swim laps!
Great idea! The first 45 minutes of swimming are the toughest. I should imagine each time my hand enters the water in front of me I am punching a statist.
TJ, as ususal, nailed it: “Democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.” Thomas Jefferson
Remember: Government operates at a net loss to society.
You have no facts to prove that generally “government operates at a net loss to society” because government is one of the main enablers, protectors and promoters of society.
So your math is unproven and wrong in general opinion.
#GovernmentSmash
#GovernmentSmash
#TooDumbToComeUpWithAnythingReal
UBS warns everything is overpriced, prepares for sell-off.
http://wolfstreet.com/2014/07/20/ubs-warns-everything-is-overpriced-prepares-for-sell-off/
UBS “leapfrogged” – as Bloomberg called it – Bank of America as the world’s largest wealth manager with $1.7 trillion in assets, up 9.7% from a year ago. Global wealth management assets rose 8.7% to $18.5 trillion. These firms get to manage part of the wealth that central-bank policies have generated at the top. So they have some responsibilities, like helping their clients escape the sinewy arm of the taxman, driving valuations ever higher with their trillions – “doing God’s work,” as Goldman CEO Blankfein had put it so eloquently – and preserving their clients’ wealth when the going gets tough.
And UBS just warned in its latest Weight Watcher that the going will get tough. The report is subtitled chillingly, “We are worried. We reduce risk – for now.”
Likely near-term developments:
1) Leading financial experts (like those at UBS) will keep warning that “everything is overpriced.”
2) Interest rates will stay low for “longer than expected.”
3) Myriad asset bubbles will keep inflating at an accelerating pace for “longer than predicted.”
4) At some point over the next five years, there will be another massive asset price collapse (recent references: 2000, 2008) which “nobody could have seen coming.”
A modest proposal:
Collapse the Republican party. Full disclosure: I am a registered Republican, first because I believe in the Republic, second because I like to vote where it counts, which is mainly in primaries.
I’m sick of the ass clowns who have controlled the party for a while (Rove and his merry band of joker consultants, and the donors). And if the truth be told, most of the mess we’re in today has been caused by the Republican party. Hard truth to confront, but there it is. What party unleashed China on us? Who repealed Glass-Steagall? Who drove NAFTA and CAFTA? (yes, I know Clinton signed it, but who drove it?). Who has kept us embroiled in the Middle East? Who lied us into Iraq? Who gave us the original scamnasty? And let’s not forget it was Bush and his clowns who supported open borders and were the driver behind this current push for amnesty. Who keeps the neocons firmly in place? Who pushed for globalization? Who gave us Hank Paulson and Turbo Tax Timmuh?
There are a couple of decent patriots in the party, like Jeff Sessions. But for the most part, the elephants are a complete joke anymore and they’re just sitting around with their hands on their privates, letting Obama run rampant and thinking they’ll be shoo-ins during the next election if they sit tight and do nothing.
I’m all for giving them the shock of their lives. I will be voting for anyone but a Republican during the next election cycle. And when asked why, I’ll be up front about it. And if even a modest number of people did the same, it’d be over. Yeah, I know the Dems suck, but it’s just two sides of the same lousy coin. I’m sick of the slow drip, drip, drip toward the inevitable. Do it now, get it over with and painful as it may be, allow something better to arise.
+1
Thanks. When solicited for a donation, I’ll tell ‘em to talk to Sheldon Adelson.
Time to build an elephant graveyard. These ass clowns have used their base and betrayed their base. I’ll say one thing for the Dems, at least they try to reward their base, even if it is twisted. If shamnasty happens, it’ll be because of the Republicans and quislings like Rubio, McCain and Graham.
Forget Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, these guys dunno their arse from their elbow. Put ‘em out of their friggin’ misery, at least the Aqua Buddha can go back to being an eye doctor.
The Reps just keep forging the weapons they hand to the Dems to torture the rest of us.
Collapse the party. They’re already weakened anyway, and they did themselves in. Even if a modest handful vote for other candidates (you don’t have to vote Dem, you can vote third party, independent, etc.), the Reps are done. Done. Relegated to the also ran end stages like Mitt Romney.
I will be making my modest contribution to the demise at the voting booth.
I still get mailers from the National Senate Republican Committee with a “poll” asking inflammatory questions aimed at firing up the half-wits, who of course are asked to urgently send in their donations so the GOP can save us all from Obama’s nefarious schemes. I used to write a polite response noting my refusal to support crony capitalism and the neo-cons, i.e. the establishment GOP leadership. Now I just take my Sharpie and write “F**k You” before sending it back post-paid. Sends a clearer message.
“…firing up the half-wits…”
That seems to be the RNC’s sole strategy these days. Too bad there don’t seem to be enough half-wits who vote for this to succeed very well.
The establishment GOP seems to have no coherent platform of its own, other than (distilled down) performing fellatio on the same corporate and Wall Street interests as their DNC counterparts, while pocketing their K Street pimp allowance for a “job” well done.
Excellent. I agree in principle. However, unlike yourself, I won’t be voting. No one of any party has earned my backing (that may change as hats are tossed into the ring).
Clearly, the Republican Party as it stands today is not interested in personal liberty. And, as it aligns itself more strongly with the Democratic Party (NeoCons=Progressives), its active attempts to torpedo personal liberty will only pick up speed.
Something better will arise. But perhaps not in the United States. Our leaders are hell-bent on siphoning wealth and liberty.
Plus, our society is too stupid to understand that without personal liberty, there is no security.
David Stockman (former Reagan Budget Director): The Implosion is Near: The Bubble’s Last Days.
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/the-implosion-is-near-signs-of-the-bubbles-last-days/
“The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.” –John Templeton
yeah its hard to pinpoint when sh@t will hit the fan but it sure feels like were getting closer.
guaranteed that we are a lot closer than a year ago.
They are sucking in the millenials now. the new round of sheep.
Most of the millenials don’t have a pot to piss in, after graduating with massive student loans and worthless degrees.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2014/07/20/wall-streets-subprime-redux/
The Wall Street shysters have no morality, conscience or humanity. They are nothing but blood sucking parasites. Their sole purpose is to enrich themselves, while impoverishing their hosts (clients & customers). They destroyed the lives of millions with their fraudulent subprime housing scheme and were bailed out by the very people they screwed. Their hubris and arrogance knows no bounds. With encouragement from their captured central bank and the Obama administration, they are resorting to subprime fraud again in an effort to revive our dead economy. It worked so well the first time with houses, it will surely work a second time with automobiles. They prey upon the ignorant, stupid, and math challenged masses.
The entire engineered auto “recovery” is nothing but an easy money debt financed fraud. It will end in tears for millions and the government will insist you bail out the bankers again.
they will have to print some more cash to bail out bondholders who were duped by wall street again.
its just like that 50,000.00 chevy truck I saw yesterday. nice truck but lets get real.
With an apology or two to Saint Paul …
When I was a prole I spoke as a prole, I understood as a prole, I thought as a prole. But when I became a banker I put away prole things.
Bahahahahahahahah …
Submariners say there are two types of ships at sea: Submarines and targets.
Bankers say pretty much the same thing, but they use the terms bankers and proles.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Bahahahahahaha … how many of you phony drug-store starve-the-beast types who hate banks …
… how many of you carry credit cards?
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Starve the beast my ass.
(Anyone up for a game of gotcha?)
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
We are self-confessed “deadbeats” — folks who own and regularly use credit cards. Except we only get the type which charges no annual fee, and we pay it off in full every month to avoid ever paying any interest.
And there are also the frequent flyer miles and the cash-back feature on the CostCo AmEx card.
Thank you for your kind generosity, Mr. Banker, sir!
“We are self-confessed “deadbeats” — folks who own and regularly use credit cards.”
Bahahahahaha … and whenever you use them I get a cut from the other side of the transaction.
“Thank you for your kind generosity, Mr. Banker, sir!”
Oh, no need to thank me, Prole. Believe me, the pleasure (and the profit) is all mine.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
You can’t lose with the stuff (and the proles) I use.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Mr. Banker: “Can you say that again?”
Raymond K Hessel: “Say what again?”
Mr. Banker” Say ‘It will end in tears for millions and the government will insist you bail out the bankers again.’”
Raymond K Hessel: “What part did you miss out the first time I said it?”
Mr. Banker: ” I didn’t miss out on any of it. I just like hearing you say it.”
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I guess I won’t ask how a big kahuna banker like you has time to post on the internet all day…
I hire proles to do all the work.
Russia to be hit with fresh sanctions, which will invite retaliation in kind. Finally people are seeing Putin for what he is: a coldblooded dissembler and tyrant in the classic Slavic mold.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2698917/It-time-stop-appeasing-Putin-resolve-Cameron-Hammond-warns-EU-veiled-dig-Merkel.html
Putin says sanctions and the Russian response could result in the “collapse of the US financial system.”
http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/07/17/russia-threatens-to-collapse-of-the-u-s-financial-system/
‘Finally people are seeing Putin for what he is’
For the neocons, it’s always 1939.
‘In a crass and ill-timed intervention, the unelected president of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy has warned Vladimir Putin that the EU intends ultimately to control every country on the western flank of Russia.’
‘In an interview with De Standaard newspaper, Van Rompuy speaks about his “dreams” that all the Balkan states will join the EU. He calls it an “inspiring thought” that in the long term “the whole of European territory outside Russia” will be tied in some way to the EU.’
‘He admits he does not know if there is public support for such a move, “But we do it anyway.”
Ben, I detest the neo-cons and have made that clear in multiple posts. But I’m astonished at how many anti-Obama conservatives seem to have a man-crush on Putin. Granted, he’s a lot more manly than Obama - so is Richard Simmons. But the guy is a jackal at the apex of a deep state comprised of oligarchs, organized crime, and the military-industrial complex, with a strong dash of Red-Brown fascism thrown in. And look at the ghoulish actions of the “separatists” in E. Ukraine WRT to crash site and remains of the victims. Any honorable person should condemn that unreservedly (which does not imply any fondness for Merkel, Cameron, and the rest of the EU crowd).
‘I’m astonished at how many anti-Obama conservatives seem to have a man-crush on Putin’
This is kind of a common thing with the false dualism we live with. Perceiving a reaction by “one side” and detecting some flaw, jumping in on one side or the other.
I don’t give a damn about Putin. He’s not my politician. But anyone with even a casual attention span can see the neocons pulled off this revolt in Ukraine. Jeebus, the US paid for it with the NGO’s. This is one world government crap, with NATO at the lead. (Neocons aren’t necessarily for one world government, but they are quick to adapt to whatever advances their agenda).
‘a jackal at the apex of a deep state comprised of oligarchs’
Yeah, and look who’s running Ukraine now.
I do not think Putin is a friend of the U.S. However, the globalist hate him because he is a nationalist. I wish we had a nationalist president. Our border would be closed and during the recession we would have ensured that no illegal alien was employed in a job where a citizen could work. Even California present water crisis could be solved by deporting illegals.
“I do not think Putin is a friend of the U.S.”
He’s no friend of Washington, but he just might be a friend of the US. As far as I know, Snowden’s still alive.
The bottom line is Russia does not interfere in our relations with Mexico and we should not interfere with their neighbor. If they had a role with the influx of central Americans, I would be outraged. The average Russian is irate that Susan Powell under Obama’s order upset the balance of power between Russians and non-Russians in the Ukraine. We had no national interest that required our involvement. However, Obama acts as a globalist and not in the true American interest.
“We had no national interest that required our involvement.”
Yes, yes we DID TOO! Beau Biden’s now got a seat on the board of directors of Ukraine’s largest energy company. Had we not intervened in Ukraine, it might never have happened.
It really is in the national interest to see that Joe Biden’s son has a gig. After all, he’s gotta pay for all that awesome crockery in his mouth.
Think of the children!
True Palmetto. But I am just making the point that it is not his role to be a friend of the U.S. It is his role to protect the Russian people. Apparently, they believe he is since he is soaring in the polls. (not Rasmussen, LOL).
The bottom line is Russia does not interfere in our relations with Mexico and we should not interfere with their neighbor
Right.
Russia Seeks to Restore Influence in Latin America
themoscowtimes
May 30, 2013 - Russia has noted that the EU already grants visa-free access to such countries as Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela — countries which enjoy a …
“This is a serious attempt by Latin American states to counter U.S. economic and political influence in the region,”
Russia ‘agrees to reopen Cuba spy base’ -
4 days ago - From Yahoo News: Russia has provisionally agreed to reopen a major Cold War listening post on Cuba that was used to spy on the United …
Ortega Celebrates Putin’s Nicaragua Visit as a ‘Ray of Light’
The Moscow Times - 6 days ago/ ReutersRussia’s President Vladimir Putin (L) speaks to Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega after arriving at …
I’m picturing the EU and Putin going after each others’ oligarchs.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10974050/Malaysia-Airlines-plane-crashes-on-Ukraine-Russia-border-live.html
David Cameron has warned Vladimir Putin that his “cronies” will face severe sanctions within days unless he opens up access to the MH17 crash site.
During a tense phone call, the Prime Minister told Mr Putin that he must stop supplying pro-Russian separatists with weapons and encourage them to stand down.
He voiced his personal frustration that Mr Putin has “ducked” calls for four days despite the death of 10 British citizens when the plane was shot down over Ukraine.
His comments came after he reached an agreement with Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and François Hollande, the French President, for tougher sanctions on Russia.
The sanctions, which will be agreed by ministers at an EU summit on Tuesday, will target people and companies which have supported Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Lola, Susan Powers in on tape as actively undermining the elected government of the Ukraine. We are not talking about someone being involved with Europe. Mexico is on the border and we would not tolerate Russian interference with Mexico.
I do not think Putin is a friend of the U.S. However, the globalist hate him because he is a nationalist. I wish we had a nationalist president.
If Putin is such a nationalist, why did he stand by and do nothing as the oligarchs around him bought up state property (mining, resources, manufacturing, etc.) for a song during “privatization” (foisted on Russia by a Mr. Jeffrey Sachs, Harvard-trained economist who brought “shock therapy” to the post-Soviet Russia), and then take their ill-gotten gains abroad? A true nationalist would put national interests first, and put a stop to those dirty deals, and wouldn’t surround himself with a deeply corrupt and criminal coterie of “associates.”
I would hasten to add, from what I can tell, the new Ukraine leadership is no better.
we would not tolerate Russian interference with Mexico.
Or Cuba. Because opening a Russian spy base is not “interfering” with USA’s national interest - or not “interfering” with Cuba’s relationship with the USA. I get it.
Russia ‘agrees to reopen Cuba spy base’ -
4 days ago - From Yahoo News:
‘Ishchenko said he has zero hope Poroshenko will challenge the crony capitalism that has come to rule Ukraine, and predicted the problem will only get worse under the association agreement. The discourse about the separation of big business and the state that was highly prevalent during the Orange Revolution and the Euromaidan protests has now largely disappeared, Ishchenko said.’
“In free trade with the European Union, which we are quickly signing, Ukrainian oligarchs will need ever more state preferences to stay competitive in the free market, and that’s why I don’t think it will be solved,” he said. “Again we will have financial groups well-connected to state and getting support from it in various forms.”
http://www.thenation.com/article/179999/return-oligarchs-ukraine-poised-elect-chocolate-king-president#
It would be nice if the ordinary people on both sides refused to put their lives on the line for a bunch of greedy, larcenous oligarchs who don’t give a damn about anything other than expanding their own wealth and power.
Neocons and Progressives - Two peas in the same pod.
How about an executive that will protect our interests and way of life?
Enough “Risk” playing already. Most of the world hates us, even though we have our lips puckered firmly up the Islamist’s and Putin’s rear end. We pulled our troops out of Iraq and will be pulling our troops out of Afghanistan, guess what? Nobody gives a s..t, they still hate us.
Evil really does exist and it’s on the march filling the power vacuum left by the only benevolent superpower in the history of mankind. The only thing to do now is shore up our real allies and increase our defensive posture in a way that let’s the world know it will be game on if you attack…Period.
#StopTheMarchOfEvil
Neocons and Progressives - Two peas in the same pod.
Wrong. That is false and a new talking point coming out the right to attempt to cover their a$$es.
The fact is Neocons are “progressive” only because, in general and in the last 40 years neocons have mostly “progressed” from out of the Republican Party. (regressed is more like it)
On war in Iraq let’s look at the Iraq resolution vote and see which party is MUCH more Neocon on war. An absurd percentage more Repubs voted for war than Dems, and most Dems who voted against war leaned true Progressives. Therefore your premise Neocons=Progressives is mathematically grossly wrong.
82 (40%) of 209 Democratic Representatives voted for the resolution.
6 (<3%) of 223 Republican Representatives voted against the resolution:
42% of Democratic senators (21 of 50) voted against the resolution.
1 (2%) of 49 Republican senators voted against the resolution
wiki
Why not talk about who voted for afghan war?
Oh, that might just go against my propaganda.
Why not talk about who voted for afghan war?
Why not talk about the difference between the Iraq and Afghan war? And the timing. And the lies?
Oh, that might just go against your propaganda and reality.
I have always thought that when the USSR crumbled, the balance of power amongst the then two superpowers was lost. If you think about it, this loss of the check and balance was key to all the financial orgies we have been seeing since the 1990s.
Totally, completely and utterly agree.
Life was so much better during the cold war.
Now the Dutch, with their useless, unionized, socially engineered joke of a military, are issuing shrill cries for “NATO” (U.S.) to intervene to take control of the crash site in Ukraine. After you, Holland. Say, didn’t your “peacekeepers” meekly stand aside in Bosnia to let the Serbs massacre thousands of Muslims under Dutch “protection”?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-20/biggest-dutch-daily-calls-nato-intervention-protect-mh17-feinstein-tells-putin-man-a
Great Adams cartoon about about how sanctions won’t faze the Russian bear.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/cartoon/
No surprise that blueblood Tory “Conservatives” in the UK (tied at the hip with the City of London banking syndicate) were part of a ring of pedophiles in high places who carried out their crimes with impunity.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/jimmy-savile/10978492/My-father-was-a-sexual-predator-like-Jimmy-Savile-says-son-of-former-Tory-MP.html
An ad on Yahoo Finance:
‘Looking to become a millionaire real estate agent? Zillow can help. Click to learn more!’
BTW, did anyone else notice that YF has had headlines on the Malaysian jetliner from the time it happened, but has yet to even mention what’s happening in Gaza?
As for the Zillow thing…”Pffffffft!”
And for the second one: The conservative FB threads on the Israel-Gaza thing is pro-Israel of course. The Religio-tard American social conservatives have a crush on Israel, at the expense (wallets and lives) of the rest of the American public via the blowback attacks on us and the U.S. aid to Israel and our meddling. The libertarian FB threads are full of comments to the opposite: Blaming Israel. Face it: Since 1948 the US policy toward Israel has been a disaster for us Americans.
The Religio-tard American social conservatives have a crush on Israel
Because Israel is needed as the place where the end of the world/Armageddon begins. It’s in the Bible.
It’s just science and all.
Why do progressive hate the Israel and support the satanic cult known as Islam?
#StopTheMarchOfEvil
Why do progressive hate the Israel and support the satanic cult known as Islam?
Not me. I’ve always been very much pro-Israel and called out Islam’s violence. However, this does not negate the fact that for many USA evangelicals who blindly support Israel, “Israel is needed as the place where the end of the world/Armageddon begins.” It’s in the Bible.
And you have to admit, it’s getting a bit lopsided when 400 Palistinians die for 10 Israelis.
I think both people’s want peace but I’m not sure of their leaders.
I am not part of the “progressive” movement.
1) Israel is socialist.
2) Israel rejected the conditions of its charter back in 1947 and took over the territory anyway. it was supposed to follow the UN;s generous plan which stole 50% of the land from the Palestinians in the first place:
“Under unbelievably intense pressure from the United States, the UN – including an enthusiastic U.S. and USSR – reluctantly approved a Palestine partition plan in November 1947, a plan that formed the basis of the British pullout and the Israel declaration of existence on May 15 of the following year. The partition plan granted the Jews, who had a negligible fraction of Palestine’s land, almost half the land area of the country. Zionism had succeeded in carving out a European Jewish state over Arab territory in the Middle East. But this is by no means all. The UN agreement had provided (a) that Jerusalem be internationalized under UN rule, and (b) that there be an economic union between the new Jewish and Arab Palestine states. These were the basic conditions under which the UN approved partition. Both were promptly and brusquely disregarded by Israel – thus launching an escalating series of aggressions against the Arabs of the Middle East.” - Murray Rothbard 1967: http://original.antiwar.com/rothbard/2010/03/02/war-guilt-in-the-middle-east/
3) The US Taxpayers supported aid to Israel from day 1. Israel cannot stand by itself. The latest, this year, $3 billion and change were taken from you and i and given to Israel.
4) The US taxpayer will NEVER get that money back. Idiots kept saying well Israel buys our military equipment. But I reply back to the idiots. Okay great that helps the crony capitalist defense company but does it give you your money back that was stolen?
There. Had enough?
I forgot an equally important one:
5) 3,000 innocent civilians were killed in September 2001, many of them Americans, for blowback for American support of Israel. Al Quaeda kept focusing on our support of Israel as the main reason. It was not because we are free and modern. It was not because we have nude beaches and half dressed women running around. But because we support Israel. Around 250 marines were killed in Beirut in 1983 as part of the support we gave for Israel. Hundreds of US men and women were fooled into joining the military to kill brown skinned Muslims and did not come back. Many more came back with severe lifelong handicaps. All to support Israel.
All those things the USA has been fighting since 2001 was the blowback that the Muslims caused because our government supported Israel by stealing our money.
Our government is putting American necks on the chopping block. Israel is happy about that. Why shouldn’t Israel be happy?
We cannot afford any more war. We must close down all our bases. The interest on the debt is getting too much.
So do you want your taxes to increase so that we can maintain the status of world cop? Something has to give.
The coddling of Israel dovetails quite well with statism here in the USA:
The Patriot Act would be very much criticized by the public back in 2001 if the Congress implemented it on the spur of the moment with no perceived state of emergency. The 9/11 blowback for our support of Israel was the excuse the thugernment needed to spy on us and implement severe restrictions and traceability of all of our international banking. Then there is the NDAA.
Obama renewed the so called “Patriot Act.”
This is also fine by Israel.
“3,000 innocent civilians were killed in September 2001, many of them Americans, for blowback for American support of Israel”
Sorry, that is total BS. Bloodthirsty Islamic cult leaders sent programmed thugs to their deaths to kill infidels.
Go to the middle east and tell the Islamists all about your feelings regarding Israel and our policies. I bet they will still have your head on a stick within 24 hours if you don’t convert. Do you get what we are dealing with here?
“I am not part of the “progressive” movement.”
Do you support and encourage the Islamists? Do you think Israel and the United States are just killing brown people?
‘Do you think Israel and the United States are just killing brown people?’
I haven’t heard of them killing white people lately. Maybe this will change in Ukraine?
Ever seen a DC-10 swoop?
http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2014/jul/19/ncw-fires-nations-top-priority-fire-crews-arrive-from-new-mexico-wisconsin-pennsylvania/
Scammers scamming scammers. I’m shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/20/us-usa-immigration-children-fraud-idUSKBN0FP0LB20140720
LOLZ, what a colossal clusterfark. I haven’t laughed this hard since the State Department guy got Quaddafied in Benghazi. Whew, that was some go around-come around.
I really hope this link works.
-MSNBC Interviews a Howard Stern Crank Caller on Malaysian Flight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URF2uOD5nhE - 141k -
Priceless, jeff. You’ve just redeemed yourself on the video from yesterday. Gawd, that was a good one. The chick wasn’t even listening to the guy. After he says it was a blast of wind from Howard Stern’s ass, she wants to know if he could tell if it was a surface to air missile.
Goes to show what passes for critical thinking among the MSM’s propaganda mouthpieces.
And further inflaming the geopolitical situation in the most combustible region of the world:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israel-begins-heaviest-bombardment-yet-in-gaza-sending-residents-fleeing/2014/07/20/578ae882-0fe5-11e4-8c9a-923ecc0c7d23_story.html
Pure insanity from a jury of cretins. Although I’d love to see a brighter jury hold the TBTF banksters accountable for their role in the 2008 housing crash and the failure of realtors and mortgage brokers to perform their fiduciary duties.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/20/billion-cigarettesuit.html
To the moon!
(or bust)
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/SP500
To infinity…AND BEYOND!
“Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau. I do not feel there will be soon if ever a 50 or 60 point break from present levels, such as (bears) have predicted. I expect to see the stock market a good deal higher within a few months.”
- Irving Fisher, Ph.D. in economics, Oct. 17, 1929
classic
It reminds me of bernake saying there was no housing bubble and then sh@ hit the fan, clueless.
A great idea.
http://offnow.org/
A campaign to turn off the water feeding the NSA Utah HQ.
There is finally a discussion of left-right coalition fighting crony capitalism (which really is a fight against progressivism/neoconservativism):
http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2014/07/ralph-nader-and-tom-woods-discuss-left-right-cooperation-video/
I saw liberal Bill Maher had a Facebook link and asked why the left is quiet about the growing police militarization all over the USA.
I think the libertarians have been bringing up these civil liberty questions and the left has been out to lunch a long time, but is now coming back to question the decline of civil liberties. Glenn Greenwald on his “No Place to Hide” book about Edward Snowden, for instance.
I don’t care if you call individual liberty left wing or right wing. I just want individual liberty.
“I saw liberal Bill Maher had a Facebook link and asked why the left is quiet about the growing police militarization all over the USA.”
Because the left isn’t liberal any longer, they are progressives, and they love the power of the Jackboot on the neck of the civilian population.
#FundamentalTransformationOfAmerica
the left isn’t liberal any longer, they are progressives, and they love
Blah Blah Blah. Civil liberty protection is bigger than Liberals and Conservatives.
“……..It’s long been clear that the best (and perhaps only) political hope for civil liberties in the U.S. is an alliance that transcends the standard Democrat v. GOP or left v. right dichotomies. Last night’s surprising (and temporary) failure of the House to extend some of the most controversial powers of the Patriot Act — an extension jointly championed by the House GOP leadership and the Obama White House — perfectly illustrates why this is true.
The establishments of both political parties — whether because of actual conviction or political calculation — are equally devoted to the National Security State, the Surveillance State, and the endless erosions of core liberties they entail. Partisan devotees of each party generally pretend to care about such liberties only when the other party is in power — because screaming about abuses of power confers political advantage and enables demonization of the President — but they quickly ignore or even justify the destruction of those liberties when their own party wields power. Hence, Democratic loyalists spent years screeching that Bush was “shredding the Constitution” for supporting policies which Barack Obama now enthusiastically supports, while right-wing stalwarts — who spent years cheering on every Bush-led assault on basic Constitutional limits in the name of Terrorism — flamboyantly read from the Constitution during the Obama era as though they venerate that document as sacred. The war on civil liberties in the U.S. is a fully bipartisan endeavor, and no effective opposition is possible through fealty to either of the two parties.
For most civil liberties incursions over the last decade, there’s been at least some glimmer of opposition on the Left — exemplified by people like Russ Feingold in the Senate and the Congressional Black Caucus and Dennis Kucinich in the House. But they’ve been easily overwhelmed by the civil-liberties-hating mainstream of the Democratic Party, and particularly hampered by the lack of any meaningful partners on the Right (where Ron Paul has been a solitary voice on such matters). What has been most needed — and most harmfully non-existent — is some minimal amount of intellectual honesty and consistency from America’s conservatives, whose rhetoric of “limited government” and ”individual rights” has translated into nothing other than lockstep support for ever-increasing government power and a highly authoritarian political mindset.
http://www.salon.com/2011/02/09/tea_party_9/
I guess the year is half through. That means I can agree with one post of Rio by now. Above is the post I agree with.
Blah Blah Blah. Civil liberty protection is bigger than Liberals and Conservatives.
Amen, brother. Although it must be said that most “progressives” showed their hypocrisy by savaging Bush for his abuses of civil liberties, then maintaining a craven, cowardly silence while Bush II, aka Obama, took it up several notches.
“http://offnow.org/”
Great link, thanks.
BRICS PLAN TO BECOME “POLITICAL ALLIANCE” TO REFORM THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM
World slowly turns against US Dollar hegemony
by ZERO HEDGE | JULY 20, 2014
As the world slowly turns against US Dollar hegemony, it appears the BRICS are pressing to fill any gaps. Having created the BRICS Bank “alternate to The West-controlled IMF or World Bank,”Xinhua reports that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believes the BRICS mechanism has been fully developed and can now transform into a political alliance to “reform the international financial system.”
As Xinhua reports,
The BRICS mechanism has been fully developed and can transform into a political alliance, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.
“BRICS grows and matures in all directions,” the diplomat told state-run Rossiya 24 TV channel.
Lavrov said the “qualitative” growth of the mechanism to a degree made it possible to transform into a political alliance, which is especially noticeable in its work within the Group of 20 (G-20) on global economic and financial affairs.
BRICS that groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has many allies in the G-20, the minister noted, naming Argentina, Mexico and Indonesia in particular.
“They speak in the common voice with BRICS in the G-20 on the reform of international financial system,” the diplomat said.
Local Police Stockpile Weapons Of War
Posted: Jul 17, 2014 6:44 PM EST
by Ben Hall
Investigative Reporter
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A massive military build-up is underway right here in Tennessee.
Local law enforcement agencies are snatching up huge amounts of weapons — from the Department of Defense — used in fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Items include grenade launchers, mine-resistant vehicles and guns that have been deemed as surplus by the Pentagon.
The equipment is cheap or free for local law enforcement agencies to acquire.
The federal program has fueled a debate about the militarization of our police departments.
McMinn County is located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. It boasts beautiful scenery, but its sheriff’s department can boast something else.
The department received more military surplus guns than any other local department in the state last year.
“We actually reconfigured the whole armory to accommodate all of this,” said Sheriff Joe Guy.
Sheriff Guy oversees 31 officers and investigators, but his department received 161 army rifles and pistols, including 71 M16 rifles and 71 .45-caliber pistols.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, “Why does your department need all these guns?”
Sheriff Guy responded, “Well, we don’t need this many. There was a little error in the order.”
The Sheriff said the Army surplus program doubled his initial order, but he hasn’t sent the guns back.
“They’re here as our department grows. We’ll have additional firearms for future officers,” Sheriff Guy said.
McMinn County is not alone.
A spreadsheet obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates shows thousands of pieces of military equipment going to Tennessee law enforcement agencies.
Equipment used to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan is now going to local departments.
“The way this stuff is being distributed, it’s kind of reckless,” said author Radley Balko.
He has written a book, Rise of the Warrior Cop, that raises concerns about militarization of American police departments.
“What we’ve seen is just a massive transfer of gear, guns, vehicles and other weaponry,” Balko said.
Law enforcement agencies can go to a website administered by the Department of Defense and look for used equipment.
On the day we went to McMinn County, the department was looking for Humvees. Sheriff Guy reviewed what was available.
“It looks good,” Sheriff Guy said to an employee who was looking up a vehicle on-line.
The employee responded, “It’s got 14-hundred miles on it.”
“How many of those did you put in for?” Sheriff Guy asked.
“Three,” his employee answered.
Sheriff Guy responded, “Three of those and one truck.”
http://www.newschannel5.com/story/26048414/local-police-stockpile-weapons-of-war -
Belated happy 4th of July!
Jul 4, 2014
11 chilling facts about America’s militarized police force Jul 4, 2014
The war on terror has come home — and it’s wreaking havoc on innocent American lives
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/04/11_disturbing_facts_about_americas_militarized_police_force_partner/
The “war on terror” has come home–and it’s wreaking havoc on innocent American lives. The culprit is the militarization of the police.
The weapons used in the “war on terror” that destroyed Afghanistan and Iraq have made their way to local law enforcement. While police forces across the country began a process of militarization complete with SWAT teams and flash-bang grenades when President Reagan intensified the “war on drugs,” the post-9/11 “war on terror” has added fuel to the fire.
Through laws and regulations like a provision in defense budgets that authorize the Pentagon to transfer surplus military gear to police forces, local law enforcement are using weapons found on the battlefields of South Asia and the Middle East.
A recent New York Times article by Matt Apuzzo reported that in the Obama era, “police departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft.” The result is that police agencies around the nation possess military-grade equipment, turning officers who are supposed to fight crime and protect communities into what look like invading forces from an army. And military-style police raids have increased in recent years, with one count putting the number at 80,000 such raids last year.
In June, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought more attention to police militarization when it issued a comprehensive, nearly 100-page (appendix and endnotes included) report titled,“War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing.” Based on public records requests to more than 260 law enforcement agencies in 26 states, the ACLU concluded that “American policing has become excessively militarized through the use of weapons and tactics designed for the battlefield” and that this militarization “unfairly impacts people of color and undermines individual liberties, and it has been allowed to happen in the absence of any meaningful public discussion.”
The cost since 1973 alone charged to the USA taxpayers for coddling Israel?
You better be sitting down. $1.6 Trillion.
yes trillion.
So what’s the matter with our support of Israel, someone asked earlier?…
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1209/p16s01-wmgn.html
That was calculated to the year 2002. Any guesses on the cost of our support of Israel the last 12 years? Costs include fighting against the 2001 blowback caused by the US government support of Israel. These costs include lives, injuries, wars - and all since 2001 were wars to counteract the blowback.
Crickets? $1.6 Trillion charged to the US taxpayers up to 2002 to support Israel.
Region VIII checking in.
Checking in from a Constitution Free zone in Region IV
https://www.fema.gov/regional-operations
FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT EXECUTIVE CALLS EXECUTIVE ORDER 12333 A “LEGAL LOOPHOLE” FOR SPYING ON AMERICANS
It’s time for the NSA and the Obama Administration to give the American public an honest answer
Former State Department Executive Calls Executive Order 12333 a “Legal Loophole” for Spying on Americans
by RAINEY REITMAN | EFF.ORG | JULY 20, 2014
“What kind of data is the NSA collecting on millions, or hundreds of millions, of Americans?”
That’s the question John Napier Tye, a former State Department section chief for Internet freedom, calls on the government to answer in his powerful op-ed published today by the Washington Post. In it, Tye calls the NSA’s surveillance operations abroad, conducted under Executive Order 12333, a threat to American democracy, stating that this power “authorizes collection of the content of communications, not just metadata, even for U.S. persons.”
Executive Order 12333, signed by President Ronald Reagan on December 4, 1981, established rough guidelines for intelligence community activities taken abroad, including the collection of signals intelligence for surveillance purposes.
Although we’ve previously sounded the alarm about government surveillance under E.O. 12333, it received increased public attention in October 2013, when a classified slide provided to the Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden diagramed how the NSA tapped the main communication links of Yahoo and Google data centers around the world. The Washington Post pointed to the authority granted to the NSA under Executive Order 12333, quoting former NSA chief analyst John Schindler who said, “Look, NSA has platoons of lawyers, and their entire job is figuring out how to stay within the law and maximize collection by exploiting every loophole. It’s fair to say the rules are less restrictive under Executive Order 12333 than they are under FISA [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act].”
Tye bolstered this view in his op-ed, noting that the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence herself did not believe that Congressional oversight of 12333 authorities was sufficient. Tye points out that the current architecture of many Internet services results in digital communications traveling or being stored beyond US borders – and that this data can then be collected by the NSA without court approval or a report to Congress.
Tye questions the constitutionality of this level of data collection, stating: “I don’t believe that there is any valid interpretation of the Fourth Amendment that could permit the government to collect and store a large portion of U.S. citizens’ online communications, without any court or congressional oversight, and without any suspicion of wrongdoing.”
Tye also notes that data collection under E.O. 12333 was of deep concern to the president’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communication Technologies, which addressed the matter as part of Recommendation 12 in its report:
Recommendation 12 urges that all data of U.S. persons incidentally collected under such authorities be immediately purged unless it has foreign intelligence value or is necessary to prevent serious harm. The review group further recommended that a U.S. person’s incidentally collected data never be used in criminal proceedings against that person, and that the government refrain from searching communications by U.S. persons unless it obtains a warrant or unless such searching is necessary to prevent serious harm.
The White House understood that Recommendation 12 was intended to apply to 12333. That understanding was conveyed to me verbally by several White House staffers, and was confirmed in an unclassified White House document that I saw during my federal employment and that is now in the possession of several congressional committees.
In that document, the White House stated that adoption of Recommendation 12 would require “significant changes” to current practice under Executive Order 12333 and indicated that it had no plans to make such changes.
All of this calls into question some recent administration statements. Gen. Keith Alexander, a former NSA director, has said publicly that for years the NSA maintained a U.S. person e-mail metadata program similar to the Section 215 telephone metadata program. And he has maintained that the e-mail program was terminated in 2011 because “we thought we could better protect civil liberties and privacy by doing away with it.” Note, however, that Alexander never said that the NSA stopped collecting such data — merely that the agency was no longer using the Patriot Act to do so. I suggest that Americans should dig deeper. (emphasis added)
The op-ed concludes with the same question Senator Ron Wyden asked Director of National Intelligence James Clapper years ago, and that we’ve been asking for years: what kind of data is the NSA collecting on millions, or hundreds of millions, of Americans?
It’s time for the NSA and the Obama Administration to give the American public an honest answer.
Even eastern establishment mouthpieces like the New York Times are incredulous at Obama’s bon vivant detachment from current events.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-20/tone-deaf-obama-mocked-nyt-vacationing-while-world-burns
New York Senator Hillary Clinton put extortionate “sin taxes” on cigarettes, naturally creating a thriving black market in the process. In today’s “no bankster left behind” economy, I suspect that more and more people on the margins are being pushed into the “informal” economy for basic survival. Of course municipal authorities take a dim view of activities that deprive them of tax revenues, resulting in outcomes like you have here.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/19/staten-island-garnerdeathnypd.html
And then there’s this….
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-20/argentina-countdown-to-july-30-deadline-default-or-boom.html
ft dot com
July 20, 2014 4:31 pm
Argentina nears cliff in risky debt game
By Benedict Mander in Buenos Aires
American actor James Dean (1931-1955) leaning against a dressing room trailer with his shirt open to the waist while smoking a cigarette on the set of director George Stevens’s film, ‘Giant’, in which he starred.©Getty
In “Rebel Without a Cause”, the anti-hero played by James Dean is challenged to a lethal game of chicken in which two cars must race towards a cliff. The loser is the driver who jumps out first. Investors in Argentine bonds must feel as if they are in a re-run of the 1955 film.
“There is no better analogy” for the showdown between Argentina and a group of New York hedge funds seeking repayment of bonds still in default since the country’s 2001 debt crisis, says Marco Schnabl, an Argentine lawyer at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. “Who is prepared to get closest to the brink?”
Despite a looming July 30 deadline for Argentina to make interest payments on restructured bonds, which it has been prevented from doing by a New York judge unless it also pays its “holdout” creditors in full, Argentine bond prices have rallied sharply in anticipation of a deal that would avoid the second default in 13 years.
Although the rally has subsided in the past week as scant progress is made in negotiations between the government and what it labels “vulture funds”, Marcelo Etchebarne, an Argentine lawyer based in New York who follows the case closely, said markets are still underestimating the chances of a default.
That is because analysts are convinced that common sense will prevail. The economic consequences would be “catastrophic” for Argentina, while the cost of fixing the problem is small compared to the huge benefits from regaining access to capital markets, lower financing costs and attracting foreign investment, he says.
“What [the markets] are not contemplating is that in a country like Argentina, the officials at the ministry of finance will not be liable for defaulting, but they would be subject to endless criminal actions if the Rufo gets triggered,” said Mr Etchebarne, referring to a clause in the restructured bonds expiring at the end of 2014 which prevents the holdouts from getting a better deal.
…
Remain calm. All is well. The crisis is contained.
http://www.businessinsider.com/dubai-stocks-tank-2014-7
Despite Elizabeth Warren’s populist rhetoric, she seems to be attracting a lot of fat cat backing. And we know what that means.
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_politics/2014/07/fat_cats_shore_up_elizabeth_warren_s_pac
It’s easy to talk “populism”. I read her 11 things that define a progressive. “Everybody should get everything they want!” I’m all for that; how do you do it?
Anytime someone comes out saying they just want to help all the little people, put your hand on your wallet. Huey P Long talked a mean challenge about Wall Street. One thing he would tell audiences was about how some wall street banker had over a hundred suits, and he only had three. In fact, Long had more suits than this guy. He was stuffing money in his pockets and his cronies pockets the whole time.
As they say, you can tell a tree by its fruits and you can tell who politicians will be beholden to by going onto open secrets dot org and seeing who their primary campaign contributors are.
More Fed-enabled usury and unsound lending, and another taxpayer bailout waiting to happen.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-20/buying-car-was-worst-decision-i-ever-made-subprime-auto-loan-bubble-bursts
phony scandals