August 4, 2014

Bits Bucket for August 4, 2014

Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.




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362 Comments »

Comment by that_guy
2014-08-04 01:23:42

Just saw a headline that Ozero says russia doesnt make anything. Now THAT is funny. I’ve heard that line before - McCain I think was the first, then I think Steve King (not sure on the name, that clown pol out of NY that is always frothing to see our few remaining freedoms flushed). Quite the parrot club. Hmm, let me see, who else doesnt make anything? One blindingly obvious example is the Saudis - but I dont see them saying anything bad about the “kingdom”. In fact, quite the obvious - they act like prostitutes for the house of saud.

I must have missed the chapter in the black liberation theory playbook that discusses cuddling up to banksters, warmongers and surrounding yourself with the tribe. First affirmative action prez, and he never left the plantation. Soros has to be proud!

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 02:53:14

Russia does seem to make a lot of weapons including nuclear warheads but I guess that does not count.

 
Comment by Dudgeon Bludgeon
2014-08-04 03:09:54

So what’s your point?
Russia does make stuff or something else?
I can’t tell from what you’ve written there.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 06:41:04

My point is that the U.S. better realize soon that provoking a country with nuclear weapons is not a wise policy. Russia does produce high tech goods including weapons. They export them and things like nuclear reactors. They have a large trade surplus while we have a large trade deficit. McCain needs to visit Walmart, if it plugs in it is probably not made in the U.S. The globalists are coming unhinged due to the fact that they destabilized Ukraine to weaken Putin. Instead his actions have made him far more popular in Russia and Russia has improved its security by having control of Crimea. It is an epic backfire. Obama, the globalist, is playing checkers while Putin is playing chess.

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 10:16:17

…while Putin is playing chess.

But not playing well.

Russia, Putin Increasingly Unpopular Worldwide
| Ukraine …
uacrisis.org/russia-putin-increasingly-unpopular-worldwide/
Jul 16, 2014 - Russia, Putin Increasingly Unpopular Worldwide. Following the Russian Federation’s annexation of Crimea in March and its subsequent …

Instead (Putin’s) actions have made him far more popular in Russia ……

Not very popular with those who count.

Russian Billionaires in ‘Horror’ as Putin Risks Isolation

Russia’s richest businessmen are increasingly frantic that President Vladimir Putin’s policies in Ukraine will lead to crippling sanctions and are too scared of reprisal to say so publicly, billionaires and analysts said.

If Putin doesn’t move to end the war in Ukraine in the wake of last week’s downing of a Malaysia Air (MAS) jet in rebel-held territory, he risks becoming an international outcast like Belarus’s Aleksandr Lukashenko, whom the U.S. famously labeled Europe’s last dictator, one Russian billionaire said on condition of anonymity. What’s happening is bad for business and bad for Russia, he said.

“The economic and business elite is just in horror,” said Igor Bunin, who heads the Center for Political Technology in Moscow.

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 10:50:41

Still cannot distinguish between opinion and fact? It is a fact that he controls Crimea that is not an opinion.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 11:07:24

(Putin) controls Crimea that is not an opinion.

So what? At what massive cost? Putin “controlled” Crimea before on the cheap when it was Ukrainian. Heck, his Russian Navy was already there. Crimea gets most its water and electricity from Ukraine. Now he’s got to pay dearly for what he really already had.

We’ll see how good Putin’s chess game is.

Putin’s imperialist gambit may turn out to be his Waterloo.

http://tyger.ac/posts/1153/frame

…To see why, just open a map. That narrow strip of land tethering northern Crimea to the Ukrainian mainland, called the Perokop Isthmus, is the peninsula’s lifeline. What’s left out of most Western analyses of Putin’s brazen military intervention is the Crimea’s complete economic dependence on the mainland, which provides nearly all of its electricity and water and about 70 percent of its food.

That’s why the Crimea is even a part of Ukraine.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 11:18:35

Once again you are showing opinion. I remember people talking about how much the Russian stock market had lost, then it bounced back up until the new sanctions in the last week. A month from now it probably will have recovered again. Meanwhile Putin’s popularity among Russians is in the 80s. Obama at his highest did not reach that level. Russia has hardly been impacted by the sanctions. There have been no massive costs for Russia and winter is coming. Europe and the Ukraine need Russian NG, they will give Putin what he wants by February. Obama is Putin’s prison bi#ch.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 11:41:21

Once again you are showing opinion.

Sure. You keep telling yourself it’s just my “opinion” that Crimea was mostly Russian and the Russian Navy was already there on the cheap, and that now the world is starting to really dislike and isolate Russia and that Putin backed the Ukrainian election and did not invade Ukraine with the Russian Army due to pressure, and now is a pariah in the world for the downing Malasian Airlines MH17. All of that is just “opinion”. Wrong.

Obama’s strategy of letting Putin hang himself is working

http://www.vox.com/2014/5/16/5717674/obamas-plan-to-let-putin-hang-himself-is-working

(Obama’s strategy) has been so effective, and has apparently taken Putin by such surprise, that after weeks of looking like he could roll into eastern Ukraine unchallenged, he’s backing down all on his own. Official Russian rhetoric, after weeks of not-so-subtle threats of invading eastern Ukraine, is backing down. Putin suddenly looks like he will support Ukraine’s upcoming presidential election, rather than oppose it, although it will likely install a pro-European president. European and American negotiators say the tone in meetings has eased from slinging accusations to working toward a peaceful resolution.

Most of this is economic. Russia’s self-imposed economic problems started pretty quickly after its annexation of Crimea in March and have kept up. Whether or not American or European governments sanction Russia’s broader economy, the global investment community has a mind of its own, and they seem to have decided that Russia’s behavior has made it a risky place to put money. So risky that they’re pulling more money out.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 11:48:43

That’s why the Crimea is even a part of Ukraine.

It was part of Russia for most of its history but I would not expect you to know that since you have opinions but know no facts.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 12:04:32

It was part of Russia for most of its history

Your history, English and math are consistently off Adan. And that’s not opinion.

The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula, historically known as Tauris or Tauric Chersonese (Χερσόνησος Ταυρική “Tauric Peninsula”), begins around the 5th century BC when several Greek colonies were established along its coast. Crimea since that time has endured a long series of conquests and invasions; by the early medieval period it had been settled by Scythians (Scytho-Cimmerians), Tauri, Greeks, Romans, Goths, Huns, Bulgars, Kipchaks and Khazars.

In the medieval period, it was acquired partly by Kievan Rus’ and partly by Byzantium, but fell to the Mongol invasions as part of the Golden Horde. In the 13th century, it was partly controlled by the Venetians and by the Genovese. They were followed by the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire in the 15th to 18th centuries.

The modern history of Crimea begins with the annexation by the Russian Empire in 1783.
wiki

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 12:24:11

Wrong? Can you read? I did not mean since the dinosaurs walked the earth.

The modern history of Crimea begins with the annexation by the Russian Empire in 1783.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 12:26:18

It was part of the Russian empire which Putin is trying to restore.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 12:42:04

Wrong? Can you read? I did not mean since the dinosaurs walked the earth.

Sorry Dude, history does not begin in 1783, not even your history. Main point:
I’ve given you about a dozen points on why Putin miscalculated and you hang your hat on “Wahhhh…Well it was Putin’s Russia’s first anyway”

When it even wasn’t.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 12:46:10

…the Russian empire which Putin is trying to restore.

And how’s that working out for your hero?

Putin’s Ukraine Mistakes Have Made Him a Pariah
http://www.newsweek.com/…/putins-ukraine-mistakes-have-made-him-pariah-...
Jul 22, 2014 - Call it Putin’s Lockerbie moment—the week the world’s attitudes toward Russia’s leader tipped from wary distrust into frank hostility. It has been …

Ukraine: A Mistake Moscow Will Regret - Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/…/2014/…/ukraine-a-mistake-moscow-will-regret/
Mar 4, 2014 - WITH RUSSIA’S SEIZURE of Crimea (and who knows how much else of Ukraine) Vladimir Putin has made a strategic blunder that could rival …

David Ignatius:Putin’s error in Ukraine is the kind that leads to catastrophe
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…putins-error…/d376603e-a249-11e3-a5fa-5...
Mar 2, 2014 - Vladimir Putin has made a mistake invading Crimea, escalating a crisis for Russia that has been brewing for many months. It might have been …

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 13:03:23

All opinions and wrong opinions since Putin shows no sign of regretting it one bit and is in a stronger position in Russia because of his actions. Moreover, Obama does not even talk about getting Russia out of Crimea anymore. Obama has been beat like a five dollar mule.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 13:21:13

wrong opinions since Putin shows no sign of regretting it

Huh? That’s like saying Putin’s standing in the world has not cratered because Putin does not regret the actions that caused his standing to crater.

Obama does not even talk about getting Russia out of Crimea anymore

And why should he? Russia has gained no strategic advantage, now have to totally foot Crimea’s bill when they had an easy ride before.

And you are again a hypocrite on this issue too. You chide Obama for “not even talking about getting Russia out of Crimea anymore” on the same day you allude Russia should have Crimea anyway because (incorrectly) “(Crimea) was part of Russia for most of its history….”

You have very poor consistencies in your positions. Your “positions” are all over the map in feeble attempts to torturously conform to your warped politics.

 
 
Comment by Dudgeon Bludgeon
2014-08-04 17:12:24

Not your point Adan, The OP’s.
Sorry. I wasn’t clear.

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Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-04 04:40:56

Russia has vast natural resources, including minerals, metals, and energy crucial to Europe. We have the Fed’s increasingly debased printing press dollars to offer in return for these commodities. Who do you think has more long-term leverage?

And Germany, which has been propping up the artificial EU construct, stands to pay the price for sanctions, which may not play well domestically.

http://wolfstreet.com/2014/08/04/russia-sanctions-extract-their-pound-of-flesh-from-germany/

Comment by aNYCdj
2014-08-04 08:03:33

Ray we have so much in America but its in federally protected lands….do we really need all of it protected?

Just like Oil in alaska they want to drill on 2% of the land and its in a cove area so if there is a spill it will pool right there no chance ever of a Valdez mess…..but no not even 2% can be touched for our independence from governments who want to kill us.

Comment by AmazingRuss
2014-08-04 20:28:09

50 years from now, we’ll have burned through their resources, and ours will be an order of magnitude more valuable.

But screw the future, right?

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 08:43:52

I agree with your point. However, McCain would like us to believe that Russia is just like Saudi Arabia which will become a backwater once the natural resources are gone. Russia is not, it has much more technological capabilities than the globalists will acknowledge:
http://www.the-american-interest.com/blog/2014/07/08/russias-weapons-sales-are-booming/

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 11:14:33

(Russia) has much more technological capabilities than the globalists will acknowledge:

Makes no sense in the big picture. (Which you often fail to see.)

Why would globalists not acknowledge commercially viable technological capabilities in Russia… or anywhere?

It’s what globalists do. Remember? It’s why you’re touting China lately.

You make the globalists proud Adan.

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 12:28:01

Russia and China are nationalistic and are active in efforts to resist globalists. Hence, why they are presently held in disfavor by the globalists.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 12:52:09

Russia and China are nationalistic

Right. That’s why Russia stripped its country’s wealth and put it into a few billionaires hands.

(Russia and China) are presently held in disfavor by the globalists.

Right. That’s why Obama and the Republicans are slapping rational duties on Chinese products. (Not)

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 13:04:32

Obama has been placing illegal duties on solar panels from China. I posted the link days ago.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 13:09:02

Shill:

The rest of the world has higher tariffs on those dumped panels than we do. We should be charging tariffs on ALL their stuff, not just the stuff that has been getting dumped for years now.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 13:32:38

Obama has been placing illegal duties on solar panels from China.

Wow, what a compelling argument.

So you’re saying even though USA exports only 140 billion to China but imports 440 billion, the globalists are holding China in “disfavor” because the USA has upped some duties on a few Chinese crap solar panels. Wow.

Exports (to China)totaled $141 billion; Imports totaled $439 billion. The U.S. goods and services trade deficit with China was $298 billion in 2012
ustr dot gov

 
Comment by MightyMike
2014-08-04 13:33:37

Obama has been placing illegal duties on solar panels from China. I posted the link days ago

That sounds nationalist.

 
 
 
 
Comment by scdave
2014-08-04 06:07:38

Ahansen…I saw that you posted late yesterday…Where you been ?? Have you heard from Hwy ??

 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2014-08-04 07:22:28

Who does not make anything? Washington D.C. It’s only one big drain. And your state capitols. One big drain per state.

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 10:50:59

Who does not make anything? Washington D.C.

Of course government does not make anything. Because up is down, and the following is nothing.

Civilizations are intimately associated with and often further defined by other socio-politico-economic characteristics, including urbanization (or the development of cities),[2][4] centralization,[2][4] the domestication of both humans and other organisms,[3][7] specialization of labor,[2][3][7] culturally ingrained ideologies of progress[7] and supremacism,[3] monumental architecture,[4] taxation,[4] societal dependence upon agriculture,[6] and expansionism.[3] Historically, a civilization was an “advanced” culture in contrast to more supposedly barbarian, savage, or primitive cultures.

Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2014-08-04 13:22:05

Gobbledygook

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Comment by taxpayers
2014-08-04 11:39:24

see your county budget for re tax increases
mine has a 100k a year bicycle coordinator

 
 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-04 01:56:27

“Realtor Used Code Words to Plan Sex With Girl, 13″

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/california/269677681.html

Comment by Ylekiot
2014-08-04 16:03:43

Wonder if he used realtor buzzwords to describe himself. Fixer upper.. Motivated ..let you mind wander.

 
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 02:59:42

Link no longer works on previous post but key excerpt:
4 (Reuters) - China shares closed at their highest in 7-1/2 months on Monday, boosted by positive comments about the market from the country’s top securities regulator, with financial and coal firms leading gains.

A China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) spokesman on Friday described the recent rally in China’s stock market as a “rebound” due to improving performance in the economy, more liquidity, and market reforms, including the planned Shanghai-Hong Kong stock market connector pilot programme.

The Shanghai Composite Index ended up 1.7 percent at 2,223.33 points, the highest close since Dec. 10. The CSI300 of the leading Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listings climbed 2.0 percent to finish at its highest since Dec. 13.

CITIC Securities jumped 6.1 percent and Haitong Securities 4.3 percent, encouraged by comments from the CSRC spokesman who said the regulator would continue to support the innovative business development of brokerages.

China Shenhua Energy rose 2.6 percent to the year’s highest level. The mainland’s biggest coal producer raised prices of steam coal on Friday after cutting prices seven times within less than two months, according to a report from China Business News.

 
Comment by aNYCdj
2014-08-04 04:36:28

The man who shot a video of a fatal police chokehold has been arrested on a gun charge, police said.

Ramsey Orta, 22, was arrested Saturday night on Staten Island on a charge of criminal possession of a firearm, an NYPD spokesman said.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/08/03/man-who-shot-nypd-choke-hold-video-arrested-on-gun-charge/

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 11:32:25

Dang, it seems like cops are becoming more and more unlikeable with each passing day. I really hope this dude gets enough crowd-funding to hire a good lawyer and sue the NYPD for harassment and retaliation.

Comment by aNYCdj
2014-08-04 16:12:11

Dont think that will happen he has a long list of criminal activity….I wonder if he was going to buy illegal untaxed cigarettes from the guy and he might have been the one being arrested in a choke hold? kinda gotta wonder the connection of the 2 criminals…

 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-04 04:42:36

Another “bitter renter” story for our increasingly desperate NAR shills to ponder.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-03/london-renters-win-in-billionaire-backyard-as-prices-soar.html

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 08:30:45

Yesterday, you defended your sorry self by saying that you don’t disclose your feelings to people who are not your close confidants, and that’s why your “wife” (blowup doll) and “friends” (imaginary) don’t know how you feel about them. So how come your wife and friends are not your close confidants, but the HBB is?

How does that work?

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-04 19:34:23

There is nothing about “feelings” in my posts, just observations and opinions. People can agree or disagree as they see fit.

You are batshit crazy. Stalk someone else.

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 20:50:40

After all this time, you are still so egotistical as to think that people who read your offensive comments and reply to them are actually STALKING you. And you still accuse any female who doesn’t put up with your abuse of being “batshit crazy”. In the meanwhile, you continue to emote hatefully and unprovoked on the internet, all the while claiming that your anger and bitterness are actually just observations. Because Suzanne researched it, right? That’s all the proof you need. You are less than smart. Tell your Phillipino blow-up doll that I said “RUN”!

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Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 21:02:27

BTW, I noticed that you evaded my question. Good one. Sign of intelligence (not). I’ll bet your imaginary friends like it when you do that too. They probably respect you for your vapid, self-centered tendency to disregard their concerns and evade their direct questions, especially the questions about your negative feelings toward them, which you eagerly express anonymously on the housing bubble blog.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-04 04:46:18

Eurozone financial crisis contained - a “bad” bank has been ring fenced (and bailed out, as usual, with public money despite massive bankster malfeasance). Nothing to see, move along, people….

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/aug/04/banco-espirito-santo-bailout-eu-cash-portugal

 
Comment by Blackhawk
2014-08-04 04:52:01

As Democrats avoid Obama, Romney is in demand on the midterm campaign trail. Washington Post

““Democrats don’t want to be associated with Barack Obama right now, but Republicans are dying to be associated with Mitt Romney,” said Spencer Zwick, a longtime Romney confidant who chaired his national finance council. He added: “Candidates, campaigns and donors in competitive races are calling saying, ‘Can we get Mitt here?’ They say, ‘We’ve looked at the polling, and Mitt Romney moves the needle for us.’ That’s somewhat unexpected for someone who lost the election.”

“Romney continues to deny interest in a third presidential run in 2016, but his moves have his supporters yearning for him to give it a go and arguing that he would be a stronger candidate than last time.”

If he runs, Romney will win. I think he’s uniquely prepared to look at our governments (national/states/cities/counties/etc) and to weed out those parts that aren’t necessary. He can look at our fiscal weaknesses and devise a plan to make them strengths. For instance his plan to make the US energy independent would still work.

Don’t get me wrong. I like Cruz, Rubio, etc, I just think Romney is the best choice.

Comment by Get Stucco
2014-08-04 05:04:32

“…Romney will win. ”

According to Rasmussen?

Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2014-08-04 07:23:48

According to Rasmussen and Karl Rove.

Excuse me while I vomit.

Comment by Jingle Male
2014-08-04 08:06:22

+1

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Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 11:34:56

Yes. Every time a guy runs for Prez and loses, he always gets elected four years later. It’s the general rule of thumb, anyway. That’s what I always heard.

 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-04 05:05:18

Which ha what to do with your losses on that depreciating shack of yours?

 
Comment by Get Stucco
2014-08-04 05:07:07

If Romney won, would he repackage Obamacare as Romneycare?

Comment by Ryan
2014-08-04 05:26:55

If Romney won, it would be another four years of Statist, globalist wamongering. Same as if Clinton or whoever else wins……No matter who wins, you already know what you are getting: more of the same.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 05:32:44

Are you saying what I think you are saying: Romney, Rand, Cruz, Rubio, etc are all progressives?

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Comment by Ryan
2014-08-04 05:58:39

Progressicans? Yes.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 06:39:37

Progressiticians.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 06:45:54

Are you saying what I think you are saying: Romney, Rand, Cruz, Rubio, etc are all progressives?

Rand and Cruz are not progressives. The best way to tell is to watch Fox news for a few nights. If the pundits are attacking them, usually Rove, they are not progressives. If he is praising them, they are. Another way is to look at the key issue of immigration. If they support open borders, they are progressives. If they oppose them they are not. Rand is a bit wobbly on this issue. Cruz is not. Yes he may have connections to progressives. I am sure they have done their best to buy him, but he has shown he has resisted them in the deficit and immigration fights.

 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2014-08-04 07:25:26

From my point of view, Rand is a progressive. He is interventionist and that is part of the definition of being progressive.

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2014-08-04 08:17:20

Cruz is married to a Goldman Sachs VP, right? So progressive or not, hes out.

 
Comment by Ryan
2014-08-04 08:22:48

Shouldn’t that put him closer to in than out? Because no matter the election results, Goldman always wins.

 
Comment by Get Stucco
2014-08-04 09:47:34

I predict Rasmussen will predict a Cruz win.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 11:37:48

Progressives are not interventionists.

Fairness For All

The Congressional Progressive Caucus believes in government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Our fairness plan is rooted in our core principles. It also embodies national priorities that are consistent with the values, needs, and hopes of all our people, not just the powerful and the privileged. We pledge our unwavering commitment to these legislative priorities and we will not rest until they become law.

1. Fighting for Economic Justice and Security in the U.S. and Global Economies

» To uphold the right to universal access to affordable, high quality healthcare for all.

» To preserve guaranteed Social Security benefits for all Americans, protect private pensions, and require corporate accountability.

» To invest in America and create new jobs in the U.S. by building more affordable housing, re-building America’s schools and physical infrastructure, cleaning up our environment, and improving homeland security.

» To export more American products and not more American jobs and demand fair trade.

» To reaffirm freedom of association and enforce the right to organize.

» To ensure working families can live above the poverty line and with dignity by raising and indexing the minimum wage.

2. Protecting and Preserving Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

» To sunset expiring provisions of the Patriot Act and bring remaining provisions into line with the U. S. Constitution.

» To protect the personal privacy of all Americans from unbridled police powers and unchecked government intrusion.

» To extend the Voting Rights Act and reform our electoral processes.

» To fight corporate consolidation of the media and ensure opportunity for all voices to be heard.

» To ensure enforcement of all legal rights in the workplace.

» To eliminate all forms of discrimination based upon color, race, religion, gender, creed, disability, or sexual orientation.

3. Promoting Global Peace and Security

» To honor and help our overburdened international public servants – both military and civilian.

» To bring U. S. troops home from Iraq as soon as possible.

» To re-build U.S. alliances around the world, restore international respect for American power and influence, and reaffirm our nation’s constructive engagement in the United Nations and other multilateral organizations.

» To enhance international cooperation to reduce the threats posed by nuclear proliferation and weapons of mass destruction.

» To increase efforts to combat hunger and the scourge of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other infectious diseases.

» To encourage debt relief for poor countries and support efforts to reach the UN’s Millennium Goals for Developing Countries.

4. Advancing Environmental Protection & Energy Independence » To free ourselves and our economy from dependence upon imported oil and shift to growing reliance upon renewable energy supplies and technologies, thus creating at least three million new jobs, cleansing our environment, and enhancing our nation’s security.

» To promote environmental justice in affirmation that all people have an inherent right to a healthy environment, clean air, and clean water wherever we live, work, and relax.

» To change incentives in federal tax, procurement, and appropriation policies to:

(A) Speed commercialization of solar, biomass, and wind power generation, while encouraging state and local policy innovation to link clean energy and job creation;

(B) Convert domestic assembly lines to manufacture highly efficient vehicles, enhance global competitiveness of U.S. auto industry, and expand consumer choice;

(C) Increase investment in construction of “green buildings” and more energy-efficient homes and workplaces;

(D) Link higher energy efficiency standards in appliances to consumer and manufacturing incentives that increase demand for new durable goods and increase investment in U.S. factories;

» To eliminate environmental threat posed by global warming and ensuring that America does our part to advance an effective global problem-solving approach.

» To expand energy-efficient transportation choices by increasing investment in synthesized networks, including bicycle, local bus and rail transit, regional high-speed rail and magnetic levitation rail projects.

» To preserve prudent public interest regulations that encourage sustainable growth and investment, ensure energy diversity and system reliability, protect workers and the environment, reward consumer conservation, and support an expanding marketplace that rewards the commercialization of energy-efficient technologies.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-04 19:39:00

So…inspiring.

YAWN.

 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 23:08:56

Bill:

That article was written by a person who is not a progressive. I think you are better off if you get your definition from the organized group of people in Congress who actually call themselves progressives. Note that they are not a political party, but a well-defined political group nonetheless. All this gnashing of teeth of “progressives” is really just a distraction.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 23:12:24

If you just read the quote without all the interloping from the guy who wants to translate, it really ain’t all that bad:

“What are our values?” Warren asked the audience, some of whom held up “Run Liz Run” signs. “What does it mean to be a progressive?”

She went on to outline 11 tenets of progressivism:

- “We believe that Wall Street needs stronger rules and tougher enforcement, and we’re willing to fight for it.”

- “We believe in science, and that means that we have a responsibility to protect this Earth.”

- “We believe that the Internet shouldn’t be rigged to benefit big corporations, and that means real net neutrality.”

- “We believe that no one should work full-time and still live in poverty, and that means raising the minimum wage.”

- “We believe that fast-food workers deserve a livable wage, and that means that when they take to the picket line, we are proud to fight alongside them.”

- “We believe that students are entitled to get an education without being crushed by debt.”

- “We believe that after a lifetime of work, people are entitled to retire with dignity, and that means protecting Social Security, Medicare, and pensions.”

- “We believe—I can’t believe I have to say this in 2014—we believe in equal pay for equal work.”

 
 
 
 
Comment by oxide
2014-08-04 05:20:03

If he runs, Romney will win.

Ah, plain language. Thank you. Somebody please bookmark this permalink. Then a couple years from now, we won’t have to deal with mealy-mouth whining and demands to “go find a post where I explicitly made that prediction…” etc. :roll:

A-dan, would you care to give us an idea of what you think are “those parts of government that aren’t necessary?” Because every time a journalist has asked that question of any politician, they seem awfully eager to “have a conversation” but then they never actually converse.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 08:21:45

It is a very good question but I do not have time to prepare a proper response. There are things that the federal government does that no government should do. However, there are others that just should not be done by the federal government under our constitutional system. The Department of Education for instance should be abolished since education should be a function of the states and local school boards not the federal government. Another example is health care. While there may be similarities between Romney care and Obamacare, the fundamental difference is that the federal government should have far more limited powers than the states. While it is probably constitutional for a state to mandate the buying of health insurance it is unconstitutional for the federal government to mandate that act. Roberts avoided that argument by calling it a tax something Obama had rejected right up to the last minute.

Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 09:08:34

“It is a very good question but I do not have time to prepare a proper response.”

Riiiiiiiiight. You have hours upon hours to copy and paste articles to pimp your Chinese wet dream, but you are always short on time when somebody asks you a question.

I thought I had seen it all on this blog until you showed up. An alleged Repub who blames Obama for every failure in his miserable life, who has a hard-on for, and espouses the virtues and successes of, the world’s worst Communist regime. Talk about mixed up. You need to get your head examined.

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Comment by Get Stucco
2014-08-04 09:49:57

It would probably help if he remembered to take his meds.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 09:51:10

When you have nothing use an ad hominem attack. I blame Obama for his failures. The truth is personally I have done quite well under him. I know what he is going to do, even before he does, and have made decent money on my investments due to it.

 
Comment by Get Stucco
2014-08-04 11:01:34

I was just giving you a dose of your own meds…sans ocd Obama racial slurs.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 11:42:31

PropagandaDan just confirmed our mascot’s point.

 
Comment by AmazingRuss
2014-08-04 20:31:22

When someone is making a giant buttock of themselves, pretty much the only comments that can be made are ad hominem cracks.

Just stop. This is getting embarrassing to behold.

 
Comment by Blue Skye
2014-08-04 20:50:22

Yes, Oxy + 100.

 
 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 11:23:29

the fundamental difference is that the federal government should have far more limited powers than the states.

Spot on.

Which is why the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was held for the exact opposite reason.

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 08:47:01

Then a couple years from now, we won’t have to deal with mealy-mouth whining and demands to “go find a post where I explicitly made that prediction…” etc.

Which you were never able to do, since I never stated Romney would win only he could win. :roll:

Comment by oxide
2014-08-04 09:40:35

Which is why I said a couple of years from now.

Are you really this dense?

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 09:52:43

No are you really that deceptive. You were clearly trying to suggest that it had been done and I pointed out that I had not done it.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 10:24:20

However, your buddy whac/Got stucco does take the prize for deception. Posts under numerous names the same day. It is one thing to change your name like Joe when you are tired of the old name or to make a joke about a particular comment. However to try to deceive people into thinking numerous commentators share the same view, is unethical. Today he saw that the data points on China were pointing in my directions, so after a month of posts suggesting the imminent collapse of China, he claims they will grow 6.5% next year. That is three years growth under Obama.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 11:34:22

Ending badly is 6.5%? Whac only a moron would believe you. This is your reply to my 7% prediction about a month ago.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™

2014-07-08 20:24:20

“However, they seem to be willing to accept slightly above 7% growth to deflate the bubble.”

You persistently miss the problem of massive overbuilding of their housing stock, coupled with an economy that is dependent on continued addition of empty cities to their overbuilt real estate inventory.

This will end badly, and only a blind man could miss it.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 12:13:33

However to try to deceive people into thinking numerous commentators share the same view, is unethical.

Prof/Stucco does not post under different names to deceive. It’s to match “personalities” of the posts with the personalities of the names. (As he’s explained many times.) Too complicated for you?

If it is not too complicated for you, then it is you who are being unethical now.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 14:18:48

You persistently miss the problem of massive overbuilding of their housing stock, coupled with an economy that is dependent on continued addition of empty cities to their overbuilt real estate inventory.

This will end badly, and only a blind man could miss it.

You can pretend all you want that there is something about a two-year time horizon in my post, but that won’t change the fact of its absence one iota.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 14:19:48

P.S. More likely time horizon: Two decades plus, similar to the duration of Japan’s post-1989 real estate meltdown.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 15:27:19

You are a weasel, you were not talking about a collapse two decades from now.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 15:37:56

HE IS TALKING ABOUT A TWO-DECADE-LONG COLLAPSE!

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 15:45:04

Really show me one post where he suggests it is going to be over two decades?

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 15:49:15

Just a few posts above your latest rant…

 
 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 11:44:50

Oh, so you have a copy of that comment that you made, ABQ?

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 11:51:18

Which comment? You only need to go to July 8, 2014 to see all the comments or is that too hard for you?

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 11:57:15

But here is my comment in its entirety and if you read the blog that day, the consensus of the blog was a collapse in China’s economy not its moving from 7% to 6.5% growth and I argued against it prior to all the new data showing an accelerating Chinese economy:

Comment by Albuquerquedan

2014-07-08 10:57:06

Maybe they have learned since 2005. I agree that after 2008 they did prop up housing to maintain ten per cent growth. However, they seem to be willing to accept slightly above 7% growth to deflate the bubble. But we will see if they maintain their resolve.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 12:22:31

A-Dan:

That quote has nothing to do with the comments that Whac has been referring to. Also, it is insufferable for you to say “You only have to look back to date x, is that too hard for you?”. A person would have to know the date in order to know when to stop looking, dork.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 14:21:06

That quote has nothing to do with the comments that Whac has been referring to.

Typical strawman propaganda tactics in action (again and again and again!!!).

 
 
 
Comment by Blackhawk
2014-08-04 10:15:22

Oxide,

How many agencies, departments or separate governmental agencies provide welfare ($ for housing, food, medical care, transportation, etc)???

How many hundreds?

My point is that hardly any of these are working together and many are in competition with each other.

It’s very costly and very wasteful

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 10:27:45

It is also contrary to the intent of the founders. Transfer payments are not providing for the general welfare building roads etc is consistent with phrase. All welfare payments should be provided locally. We would not have an almost 18 trillion dollar debt, if the federal government would have only performed the functions enumerated in the constitution. Ironically, one of the few true federal function, providing for the defense, is one of the few places progressives are willing to cut.

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Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 12:20:09

We would not have an almost 18 trillion dollar debt, if the federal government had not started 2 Repub wars, gutted our revenue by slashing taxes on the rich, Repub SCOTUS declared money as Free Speech and gutted bank regulations which caused the Great Recession and its massive revenue loss.

(Fixed it for you Adan)

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 12:31:10

Really but Obama has added 7 trillion to the national debt, and he has almost three years left. Bush II was certainly and idiot but with all this wars he added far less.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 13:02:11

Bush II was certainly and idiot but with all this wars he added far less.

You really don’t have the cerebral firepower to comprehend the decades building of the cumulation of events of 2008?? It eludes you? Too complicated? The 2 Repub wars, gutting of our revenue by slashing taxes on the rich, TrickleDown failure, off-shoring and gutted financial regulations which caused the Great Recession and its massive revenue loss? And you think Obama did all that which was already done?

cumulation
noun
a mass or quantity that has piled up or that has been gathered over a period of time

 
Comment by BetterRenter
2014-08-04 19:39:46

“Republican wars”

That’s a silly term. Obama is the Commander-in-Chief for all US armed forces. Legally and morally, his word is their law. His only limit is what Congress allocates funds for… but there’s no such thing as “no funding for stopping war”. You just STOP IT. You order the commanders to order the troops to maintain the perimeter defense while they pack up all the equipment and weapons, load them on the cargo ships and planes, and LEAVE.

Obama can end the wars tomorrow. He won’t. These stopped being “Republican wars” on January 21st, 2009, and became Democrat wars.

What’s Rio going to claim next? That Gitmo is a “Republican facility”?

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 22:50:04

Obama is the Commander-in-Chief for all US armed forces. ….Obama can end the wars tomorrow. He won’t.

So The President of the United States Obama, is simply like a platoon leader without global ramifications for his actions in an unsettled and dangerous situation that he actually inherited?

You just STOP IT.

Please. You “just stop” portraying Obama as simply Commander in Chief. He’s way more than that on the world stage - #1 he’s America’s head of state in a big, fat mean world. Part of that job is methodically cleaning up the mess of the recent past- currently a mostly Republican mess.

What’s Rio going to claim next? That Gitmo is a “Republican facility”?

Now you’re catching on to the long-game. (the real game) See above:
American geo-politics and logistical clean-up after an 8 year FUBAR are bigger than your election year bumper-stickers.

 
 
Comment by MightyMike
2014-08-04 10:37:20

It’s very costly and very wasteful

It’s probably not as wasteful as you think. If they’re mostly transferring resources to recipients, the cost of the bureaucracy often works out to be a very small percentage of the total cost.

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Comment by Anon In DC
2014-08-04 17:36:36

Get rid of food stamps (billions saved) get rid of welfare (billions saved) Phase out social security. Dept. of Energy. Dept of Education.

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 17:51:20

Get rid of food stamps (billions saved) get rid of welfare (billions saved) Phase out social security.

How can America do those things in the face of our jobs base being gutted for the benefit of the rich?

Where does it say in our mission statement that we can first alter the very structure of our economy (TrickleDown policies only for the rich) and then let people starve and live like dirt while the rich are richer than ever? Is that part in the “establish justice” part? Or maybe in the “secure the Blessings of Liberty part“? Which part says we can change America to only benefit the rich and then the heck with the one’s the rich made poor?

Try to find it here:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

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Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-04 19:37:16

Romney is an empty suit and a stooge for the oligarch-owned establishment GOP. Any member of the 99% who votes for this douche is a certified toolbox and boot-licker.

 
 
Comment by j-j-j-joe
2014-08-04 07:06:14

Right now Romney is still the best GOP option. He’s more respectable than the others who seem to be running, at least since Christie needlessly pulled BridgeGate despite being ahead 30%+ in a deeply blue state.

I don’t think Romney would change much in DC. LOL @ anyone here actually believing that any changes either of the 2 parties make at this point will amount to anything more than repainting the walls changing some fixtures.

The GOP can find better candidates that can actually ignite new support, other than being a default vote from old white voters in Flyover Country. Remember, even if Romney re-wins every state he took in 2012 plus wins OH, FL, and VA… it would still not be enough. There are better candidates out there–the question is, does it make sense to run when you have to pander to a whacky base of voters obsessed with abortion, gun rights, opposition to marijuana legalization, Benghazi, and gay marriage? Look at Huntsman last time around; how embarrassing for an accomplished alpha bro like that to lag behind literal retards like Santorum, Gingrich, Herman Cain, and Michelle Bachman. And how unfortunate that Romney had to go out on the limb on social issues and Benghazi to pin down GOP support, costing him time to talk about real issues.

Comment by MightyMike
2014-08-04 08:07:56

There are better candidates out there–the question is, does it make sense to run when you have to pander to a whacky base of voters obsessed with abortion, gun rights, opposition to marijuana legalization, Benghazi, and gay marriage? Look at Huntsman last time around; how embarrassing for an accomplished alpha bro like that to lag behind literal retards like Santorum, Gingrich, Herman Cain, and Michelle Bachman. And how unfortunate that Romney had to go out on the limb on social issues and Benghazi to pin down GOP support, costing him time to talk about real issues.

A simpler way to say this was did it make sense for Huntsman to run when no chance of winning? And what is it that makes Huntsman and Romney alpha bros? Is it the fact that they were born to rich parents?

Comment by Get Stucco
2014-08-04 09:52:17

Huntsman and Romney were both born to wealthy LDS parents.

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 08:27:12

Right now Romney is still the best GOP option.

What a joke. I will not even bother to post your comments about him from 2012. The only thing I ever said good about him was he was better than the alternative, Obama. He will only manage better the decline that the globalists want for the U.S. Cruz, Rand, Palin or probably most people that you could pick randomly from a phone book would be better than him since they probably care more about working class Americans and the need to control borders and to maintain the standard of living of the US. The globalists want to level standards of living in the world, which means a much poorer U.S. and Obama and Romney are globalists.

Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 10:13:33

I’ve grown sick and tired of you and your lies. I am going to expose you. You’ve made tons of “predictions” here that have never come to fruition, and then you deny, deny, deny. Well guess what, pal? It’s ALL archived.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2011-07-07 06:45:27

I don’t know if it has been mentioned but the latest Barron’s has an article predicting $150 oil by next year. Interestingly that was the same number and time frame that I predicted on this blog a few months ago. For those that still think oil, gold etc. are in a bubble, I thought of a new way to explain why they are not. It is impossible for something to be in a bubble when the PTB are trying to manipulate the price down. The Fed has indicated that there is “good” inflation and bad inflation. Good inflation is a rise in things like stocks and homes (some on this blog might disagree) and bad inflation is a rise in things like oil, gold and food. The government has no problem with the bubble in social media stocks which are priced for 50% growth for twenty years ( we will ignore what happened to Myspace and AOL). However, it constantly tries to drive down gold and oil. However, the markets are bigger than the the PTB and they just bounce up. If you play them like I do and cover your butt with covered calls on your shares from time to time, you can make the government’s tricks work for you.

Where’s that $150 oil that you “predicted”, pal?

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 10:34:14

If you play them like I do and cover your butt with covered calls on your shares from time to time, you can make the government’s tricks work for you.

I did cover my bet and made money. I never denied that prediction and on that one I appear to be wrong. Probably,I was wrong because Obama had an economy that was far weaker than I imagined. However, on the bigger predictions like Brazil I was dead on. You were bragging up the growth in Brazil and I told everyone that the socialist policies would slow it down. How did that work out? Now, since you went to all that trouble to find that post. How about showing exactly what I said two months earlier. Did I tie the prediction to the growth rate of the U.S.?

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 10:38:26

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2012-08-22 08:07:08

Too weak to get Obama re-elected but too strong to allow housing prices to drop. That seems to be true of all the recent data. NBC/ WSJ poll being played up on the Internet shows Obama with a four point lead. Trouble is that is among registered voters not likely voters and does not allocate the undecided vote. Factor that in we are looking at a 53-47 Romney vote. I could see it being as tight as 51-49, if Obama can find enough money to run enough negative ads but that is looking increasingly unlikely.

The election truly starts in about a month when early voting begins not much time to turn this one around.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 10:48:48

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2012-09-13 10:25:42

Yea Obama inflate away my mortgage. He is destroying the country but helping me.

I see this as a desperate attempt to stay in office if you think the FED is independent you believe in the tooth fairly.

Of course, now that he is done this he will have to release oil from the SPR to keep gasoline from going through the roof but it will not work for long and will endanger our security since his raids on the SPR have left us poorly prepared for a true supply disruption. Rumors are already being floated on the stock market.
He would not be doing this if he was not plenty scared and he should be. Rasmussen: 46-45 Romney, when the undecided and others are split up. means a 52-48 win for Romney. If the election was held today that would be an electoral landslide for a Republican..

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 10:56:13

If the election was held today that would be an electoral landslide for a Republican..

Was the election held that day? Remember what the Fed did in August of 2012, it started a massive QE program to juice the economy, then we had lies about the unemployment rate. All this together convinced just enough people to change their vote since they thought the economy really was going to improve. They regret that decision now and would vote for Romney but the election is not today and it was not in August of 2012. BTW, those same raids on the SPR were one of the reasons oil did not hit $150. However, we have less national security because of them.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 11:01:19

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2012-09-14 07:18:56

Wages will increase just liked they did in Zimbabwe and the Weimer republic they just will not keep with inflation. Don’t worry Oxide your mortage will get reduced in real terms by alot.
I just bought a small house in fly over country so wiping out my mortage will not make a difference in my wealth but it will help you a lot. So far with the tax credit I received I am just treading water over the almost three years but I could not have rented the place for any where near my total payment including taxes and all other expenses cost me. Also, the tax writeoffs have been very beneficial.

“[T]he most important part of the jobs report, at least as it relates to the Fed’s interpretation of the monthly data, is wage growth. And on that front the July data and June revision plays into the doves and centralists on the FOMC hands. Indeed, after the June average hourly earnings was revised down to +1.9% y/y vs. +2.0% initially reported, the July gain was +2.0% y/y, failing to meet expectations of +2.2%. At the same time average weekly hours held at 34.5, a trend that has been ongoing since the start of 2012….”

http://blogs.barrons.com/incomeinvesting/2014/08/01/decent-jobs-report-but-some-wage-growth-would-be-better/

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 11:03:39

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2012-09-17 06:58:13

Just shows how useless that measure is. Rasmussen has it 47-45 Romney today. While not all the polls may not have Romney ahead, all the polls have shown that Romney has been moving up and the DNC convention bounce is being lost. The fact that the gaming site is not moving in the other direction shows that it is just a site for idiots.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 11:13:11

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2012-10-16 07:08:46

I would not predict the outcome either with two debates and three weeks left and the numbers being close. However, Rasmussen will get it right. Today here are the numbers:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 49% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 47%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and another two percent (2%) are undecided. See daily tracking history.

Thus, if the election were held today Romney would win.The swing states are swing states because they tend to vote like the rest of the nation. With a two point win even before you allocate the undecided which break for the challenger, Romney would win most all of them.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 11:16:04

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2012-10-18 07:08:17

On the political front: The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 49% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 47%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and another two percent (2%) are undecided. See daily tracking history

Two non-poll tea leaves 1. gold is weak, the election of Romney would be a short term negative for gold due to his position on helicopter Ben. In the longer term, until interest rates turn positive real term, I expect gold to continue to rise and I don’t see that happening for a while. 2. I think even more telling is the Fox News ratings are rising and MSNBC are dropping. There is a strong and I think unfortunate tendency for people to only listen to news stations which support their opinions. Thus, since more people are turning to Fox, I think it is logical to assume more people are ready to vote for Romney.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 11:20:22

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2012-10-23 07:24:56

But one more point and this election is over:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 50% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 46%. One percent (1%) prefers some other candidate, and two percent (2%) are undecided.

Other than brief convention bounces, this is the first time either candidate has led by more than three points in months. See daily tracking history.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 11:25:53

All of those posts show the narrative that I was saying Romney could win and on those days was actually was leading. You have shown that I never said he would win because you would have posted that post if you had it. Additionally, I fully suspect you have my actual prediction about oil and you will not post it. It is probably because I said something like Barron’s magazine probably said and the prediction tied into something like Libyan production. I probably said something like if Libyan production does not come back on line we will have $150 oil so you will not post the actual prediction just a vague reference to it.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 11:30:24

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2012-10-30 05:56:51

No need when Gallup has Romney up 52-45 in early voters. What happen to the secret weapon? Also no need when you have the Libya situation where Obama’s inaction lead to the death of four dead Americans, or when you have an economy as bad as this one. Just need to talk about the facts. Obama make sure you shutdown the government long enough so the real unemployment rate can’t come out before the election.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 11:31:55

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2012-10-30 06:37:33

I am sure you were a Kerry supporter in 2004. I have relied on the same two polls throughout the entire campaign the most reliable in the industry. I am not cherry picking trying to find one that agrees with me, my opinion is from the polls not the other way around. Even NPR now has Romney up.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 11:35:15

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2012-11-01 07:26:17

Update: The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 49% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 47%. One percent (1%) prefers some other candidate, and three percent (3%) remain undecided. See daily tracking history.

Matchup results are updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update).

I have not called this election because Obama could win a 49(Romney)- 48 (Obama election) election. There is still time for that number to occur. However, right now we are looking at 51-52(Romney)- 48-47 (Obama) election and the tide comes over the sea wall on that one and sufficient swing states go with the popular vote to elect Romney.

If I am wrong here, I think the much higher risk is that Lip is going to be correct and Rasmussen is over stating democratic support and the election is more of a Republican blow out than the slight risk that Rasmussen is over estimating Republican support.

 
Comment by mathguy
2014-08-04 11:38:07

All you are showing is that Dan is correct about not predicting anything. It just looks like he was saying “at this time in the polls, Romney is ahead.” Not one of those says “Romney will win.”

So you just wasted your time showing that Dan is being truthful.

 
Comment by mathguy
2014-08-04 11:39:07

And I happen to disagree with Dan on a bunch of stuff as you can look up in my history.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 11:45:16

I would not predict the outcome either with two debates and three weeks left and the numbers being close. However, Rasmussen will get it right

Excerpt from above was from your posts and Rasmussen did get it right, just before the election (day before), he called it too close to call and I agreed with that prediction and have posted it on this site numerous times. So you can claim that I predicted the outcome when I just pointed out what Rasmussen was predicting but you cannot show one post where I said Romney would win on election day because I never did. I am not shy in making my own predictions so that should have shown you that I never thought Romney had it in the bag while he may have thought he did. However, I rejected the group think that he could not win.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 11:50:52

“So you just wasted your time showing that Dan is being truthful.”

No, I’m not. I’m showing that none of Dan’s predictions have come to fruition; the same predictions he says he never made. It’s not surprising, though, that it all went over your head.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 11:58:59

Actually, that last quote is the kicker. A-Dan says that if the polls are wrong, then they are wrong in the Dem’s favor. That IS a prediction, and it fits in with the general theme of maaaannnnny comments that were intended to broadcast a Romney win.

Now he denies that he ever made any prediction, while demanding that Whac must make a prediction about China. ABQ is making weird predictions about China, and he needs a foil.

It sure is easy to stand by your predictions when you can deny them later, ain’t it? This is why Whac is not going to say exactly how long it will take for China’s house prices or GDP to fall by a certain amount. Because Whac knows that we don’t have enough data to extrapolate with that much precision, and he doesn’t want to have to lie about it later.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 12:11:30

“Actually, that last quote is the kicker.”

Yeah, it really was.

“Now he denies that he ever made any prediction, while demanding that Whac must make a prediction about China. ABQ is making weird predictions about China, and he needs a foil.

It sure is easy to stand by your predictions when you can deny them later, ain’t it?”

That’s his whole game. Several years ago, he was talking about a shrinking Chinese GDP which never materialized. The guy is consistently wrong.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 12:38:54

Thank you math guy for being honest. Auntie Fed and Rio just continue to show their ignorance.

This quote is not a prediction:

“Actually, that last quote is the kicker. A-Dan says that if the polls are wrong, then they are wrong in the Dem’s favor.”

The polls could have been entirely accurate on all they days mentioned. They were measuring the opinion on that particular day. There is no prediction in that statement. In fact, the closest I came to deciding to make a prediction is the day where I say one more point. Had Romney moved up one more point in October, I would have made the prediction which I did not make. Romney went into prevent defense and started to drop in the polls. His handlers were too confident. Thus, my statement the day before the election that I thought Rasmussen was right and the election was too close to call. I know you want to believe that I called the election but I never did.

 
Comment by oxide
2014-08-04 12:50:58

In this line of posts, all I see are a bunch of qualified “If-thens” and “Rasmussen sez.” The only real failed prediction I see is $150/barrel oil (not that it matters now, since A-dan has found new paymasters).

This is why A-dan’s post from today is so important. He said straight out that If Romney Runs, Then Romney Will Win. An actual prediction with no wiggle room.

[unless, of course Romney doesn't run, in which case everybody wins.]

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 13:06:40

The proof is in the pudding, Dan. But once again, you try to lie your way out of it. You spent months, and hundreds of posts, trying to convince people that Romney was ahead while countless commenters showed you otherwise. You have been proven the fool.

“Rio?” Uhh, I’m most definitely NOT Rio, which is borne out by my IP address. I’m Guillotine Renovator.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 13:08:05

I did not post anything about Romney winning please look at who authored that post.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 13:14:01

BTW to anyone who is fair this is the key comment I made, that comment was made on November 1, 2012, obviously I had made no prediction before then and no one can show one past that date:

I have not called this election because Obama could win a 49(Romney)- 48 (Obama election) election.

 
Comment by MightyMike
2014-08-04 13:21:16

Excerpt from above was from your posts and Rasmussen did get it right, just before the election (day before), he called it too close to call and I agreed with that prediction and have posted it on this site numerous times

“Too close to call” is not a prediction.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 13:30:43

Statement, and you are right too close to call is not a prediction and that is what I said so no prediction was made by me. I am surprised at your support.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 13:41:27

on that one I appear to be wrong. Probably,I was wrong because Obama …...

“Probably, I was wrong because Obama”….. Classic.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 13:45:20

Look up the definition of prediction and it says:

prediction noun \pri-ˈdik-shən\: a statement about what will happen or might happen in the future.

That’s exactly what Dan was doing up to the election, and his posts prove it. There are hundreds upon hundreds of them. I just grabbed a quick handful. When he gets called out, he tries to obfuscate, and argue the definition of prediction. What a joke.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 13:55:09

“In this line of posts, all I see are a bunch of qualified “If-thens” and “Rasmussen sez.” The only real failed prediction I see is $150/barrel oil (not that it matters now, since A-dan has found new paymasters).

This is why A-dan’s post from today is so important. He said straight out that If Romney Runs, Then Romney Will Win. An actual prediction with no wiggle room.

[unless, of course Romney doesn't run, in which case everybody wins.]”

So Blackhawk is Albuquerquedan? Because Blackhawk is the one who said “If he runs, Romney will win.”

Also, see the definition of “prediction” and then read the quotes from the Romney/China/oil/global cooling shill again.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 13:59:02

All of those posts show the narrative that I was saying Romney could win and on those days was actually was leading.

Adan’s “predictions” are worth the price we pay for them. Nada.

Adan’s predictions on Romney and ObamaCare were and are farcical.

And yes Adan does lie. Most of his lies are couched in partial-truths and tricky twisting of the facts, slight of hand and deception. Adan is a lawyer, and probably not a very good one.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 14:08:59

I would not predict the outcome either with two debates

It’s Adan’s patterns of his posts that raise eyebrows. Leading up to that election I’m sure Adan well out posted EVERYONE on Romney’s leading because of this-that-and-the-other-thing-and-every-factor-and-subtle-variable-that-no one-can-see-but-him.

It’s also Adan’s patterns of posting and spinning the issues he posts on to the point of compulsion.

Part of the “point of compulsion” imo is Adan’s overvalued sense of self-importance. “I believe” “I think” “I said” “I predicted” I Me Mine etc etc.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 14:15:26

Scored in the 99 percentile on my multi-state exam. You could never afford me no matter how much you could make at paddles.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 14:22:58

You could never afford me

Oh I could easily. However I would never need to afford you. I am not a criminal or a liar. And even if you were a good lawyer, I’m sure your smug, overly self-important bad-vibe would be easily apparent in person.

Because you PropagandaDan, are a liar, a twister of facts, a conjurer of deception designed to trick or fool the busy or the simple. (Other than that, You Rock!)

(That “propagandaDan” handle is funny and fitting) :)

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 14:23:17

Oh, so it’s true you’re a lawyer then? I remember you made that claim a while back, but I figured you were lying to make yourself seem more important than you really are. You said you had represented an energy company. How does a high-paid lawyer have time to post comments on the HBB all day? Don’t you need to get back to work for your energy-company client?

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 14:27:54

I would like to see the actual prediction and not a reference to it. I remember saying oil could go up to 150 but I believe it was a more nuanced prediction. Something like if Libya does not go back into production we are looking at 150 dollar oil. However, I will not deny the possibility that I may not have been that nuanced since I honestly do not remember. If you went to all the work to look up all my posts, I think you probably have the actual prediction and I find it very strange you will not share it.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 14:31:14

Why do you incessantly change the subject from China’s real estate crash in progress?

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 14:31:35

Dan:

I’ll make you a deal. If you go through the effort to look up all of my posts, and then copy them all here in tandem, then I will do the same for you. It will be a mutual biography. This assumes that Ben doesn’t ban me for spamming his server with duplications of all your comments.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 15:05:35

If Adan is actually an attorney (I do not believe it for a moment), then I am gravely mistaken on the difficulties of passing the bar.

 
Comment by oxide
2014-08-04 16:53:26

Yeah my fault. It was Blackhawk. Whatevs.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 23:29:19

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

– George Bernard Shaw

 
 
 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 13:07:05

LOL @ anyone here actually believing that any changes either of the 2 parties make at this point will amount to anything

Wrong.

The SCOTUS stands at 5-4 Republican. I can name dozens of 5-4 SCOTUS decisions that have forever changed the course of America.

Here’s an example of a gem:

Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000),
is the United States Supreme Court decision that resolved the dispute surrounding the 2000 presidential election.

…..The majority opinion was criticized by Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz, who wrote:

[T]he decision in the Florida election case may be ranked as the single most corrupt decision in Supreme Court history, because it is the only one that I know of where the majority justices decided as they did because of the personal identity and political affiliation of the litigants. This was cheating, and a violation of the judicial oath.[55]
wiki

Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 21:00:08

Dershowitz is just about as liberal a Democrat as they come. OF COURSE he would opine that, just as a conservative lawyer would have an opposing viewpoint.

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Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 22:51:22

Dershowitz is just about as liberal a Democrat as they come.

So? Argue well against his point. No way you can.

 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-04 19:41:20

Instead of voting for Romney or Christie or any other crony-capitalist Wall Street stooge, why not just vote for Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein directly? Why vote for the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room?

 
 
Comment by mmrtnt
2014-08-04 07:46:18

What do you all think of Elizabeth Warren?

Comment by Ryan
2014-08-04 07:54:55

It’s nice to see a Native American running for high office.

Comment by Northeastener
2014-08-04 08:08:40

That’s a joke, right? She is about as much native american as I am, which is to say not at all. Use your google fu, it has been rebuked by analyzing her lineage.

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Comment by Ryan
2014-08-04 08:12:19

Nope. Clearly Cherokee. Just ask her, she has high cheekbones.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 08:29:30

But just think, most of America will be eligible for affirmative action since most Americans have more Indian blood than she has and I would include myself in that number.

 
Comment by X-GSfixr
2014-08-04 11:00:49

I’m 1/64 “Fukawi”

 
 
 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 12:30:18

She seems intelligent, and better than any of the alternatives right now.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 12:42:05

She has a uterus that is all you really care about.

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Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 12:51:39

It seems rather odd for a person to point out the reproductive organs of a potential Presidential candidate. Where did you come up with that? I suppose it must have originated from your own personal biases, since it certainly didn’t come from me (or anyone else on this blog, either).

Perhaps her uterus is your problem, idc.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 12:55:49

Anyone who has read your strident feminist posts understands where that comment came from.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 13:03:48

Oh, so you’re against feminism, then? Why is that? Because you are a masculinist? Why would anyone have a problem with the concept of women being recognized for their actual value, rather than being disregarded, abused, and denied basic rights?

What exactly has you so upset about that, PropagandaDan?

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 13:16:45

No Fed, I have no problem with strong women and Sarah Palin is one of them. I do have a problem with someone that attacks everyone that disagrees with her idiotic opinions as being a misogynist male.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 13:26:45

ABQShill:

Please provide a list of people on this blog who attack anyone who disagrees with them as being an idiotic male. I will give you a short list of the people who have wasted countless posts on attacking women for no reason at all. Most of them stopped doing it because Ben told them to, but Sammy Schadenfreude was somewhere else at the time, so he didn’t get the memo:

1) Sammy Schadenfreude
2) Bill in Wherever
3) In Colorado (or was that Montana)
4) Ol’ Bubba
5) Ex-GS Fixer
6) New York City Boy
7) NH Hick

And a whole bunch more that I just can’t think of right now. How perfect that you choose to ignore the unprovoked, incorrect, mean-spirited, dysfunctional outbursts of the above-named offenders. But if one female, JUST ONE, ever dares to talk back, then you will try to intimidate her into accepting the status quo of misogyny. I ain’t buyin it.

If you want to attack E. Warren, then do so on her merits, not her uterus. And see a shrink about that problem you have about “uterus on the brain”.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 13:33:12

Actually, I am proud to be included in that list. I do not agree with everything they say but I think they are the most honest posters on this board.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 13:40:03

You are more closely associated with the following:

- Mr. Smithers (and his prior persona Eddie)
- NYChick
- Rio American in Brazil
- The lady who used to always chime in with personal stories of how all her friends and relatives were doing financially great during the Great Recession (name is lost)
- All the other PR employees too

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 14:22:15

Rio American, that is below the belt. Of course, that is where he usually hangs but not with me, with Joe please try to learn something on this blog.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 14:29:37

Rio American, that is below the belt

Maybe it’s because in 2008-9? she (as BigV?) said Brazil was in a bubble and I said it might be different here in Rio housing and since 2008 my house has “appreciated” about 250% and I paid cash. It’s worth serious bank in any language even with a “crash”.

I totally destroyed Big V’s arguments and my predictions came true now 6 years later. (But I apologize big V. I generally like your posts)

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 15:24:54

In 2008-9 I “predicted” Rio house prices would probably rise because it was “different here”.

Prediction 2014:
Rio house prices will fall 20-30% within the next 5 years

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-04 17:51:29

“She has a uterus that is all you really care about.”

How do you know? Maybe it’s gone.

 
 
 
Comment by oxide
2014-08-04 12:44:49

I think it’s pretty ironic that it’s ok to avail one’s self of all the affirmatvie action one can get from having Bushblood and Romneyblood, but trying to get a little advantage from nativeblood is one of the seven deadly sins.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 13:00:20

But that is the point she is not a Cherokee and cannot demonstrate Indian blood. If she was native American she would know that you do not need to have much Cherokee blood to be a tribal member, but you do need to have an ancestor recorded on the Dawes roll. You do not need to be an Indian to know that but if you are going to go around claiming native blood to get preferential treatment, you should at least do some research. It goes to her honesty. After this president, “if you want your insurance you can keep your insurance” honesty is going to be more important to the electorate.

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Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 13:06:33

She figured she was part Cherokee because her grandparents told her so. I guess she never thought to do any research about the various registration entities designed to identify and track people based on their racial makeup.

ABQShill: I am Caucasian. Where do I register?

 
Comment by MightyMike
2014-08-04 13:48:46

You do not need to be an Indian to know that but if you are going to go around claiming native blood to get preferential treatment, you should at least do some research.

This came up a few months ago here. Someone, whose name I won’t write, made a similar statement. It occurred to me that there was a time when there were legal advantages to being white. For example, when public facilities in the South were segregated, there were some public buildings which had three restrooms - one for white men, one for white women and one for black people. So, by the same standard, a white person who used a white restroom without having proof of his or her whiteness was doing something wrong.

 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-04 19:43:17

I’d vote for Elizabeth Warren over Hilary any day, and definitely over asshats like Romney and Christy.

 
 
 
Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 05:09:59

Re-post for the weekday readers

Denver is among least-affordable home markets for Millennial buyers

“The Millennial population in the city and county of Denver increased 58 percent between 2007 and 2013, the survey noted. Millennials (those born from 1977 to 1992) accounted for 30.52 percent of the metro Denver population in 2013.

Denver’s median household income is estimated at $51,315.

In April, the median home price in the Denver area was $270,000 and the percentage of income spent on house payments was 32.43 percent.

The Denver metro area, however, did not make the Top 15 least affordable areas to rent.

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_26260787/denver-is-among-least-affordable-home-markets-millennial

Comment by ibbots
2014-08-04 08:48:17
 
Comment by sleepless_near_seattle
2014-08-04 09:14:20

Ha, I knew the Millenial darling city of Portland would be on that list as well.

 
Comment by Jingle Male
2014-08-04 22:28:23

Goon, I thought you believed reposting past entries was a sign of mental illness. That’s just crazy that you do it!

 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 05:33:44

Are you braced for a corporate debt bomb?

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 05:35:49

Aug. 4, 2014, 6:05 a.m. EDT
Watch out for the corporate debt bomb
U.S. companies borrow at record levels, that’s a disaster waiting to happen
By Brett Arends, MarketWatch

It’s not just the stock market we have to worry about. It’s also the bond market.

For the past five years, U.S. corporations have been living in a financial paradise. Interest rates have been on the floor. Wages have been flat. Companies have been able to lay off workers and slash costs. Profits have skyrocketed to record levels. And they’ve spent almost nothing on new capital equipment, either.

And what effect has this had?

In 2007, at the peak of the last credit mania, U.S. nonfinancial corporations owed $7.2 trillion according to data compiled by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Today? After years of this bonanza, those debts have tumbled all the way down to… er… $9.6 trillion.

All that talk you hear about how corporate balance sheets are in great shape is a bunch of hooey.

Comment by oxide
2014-08-04 08:00:21

For the past 5 years… interest rates have been on the floor. Wages have been flat. Companies have been able to lay off workers and slash costs. Profits have skyrocketed to record levels.

5? No, that’s the past 15 years for the interest rates, 25 for the profits, and 35 for the layoffs. But thank you for being so blatent in trying to blame it on Obama.

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 12:37:01

I think the article is trying to say that ever since the “recovery” started, we have been accumulating all this debt. That’s because it’s a recoveryless recovery, fueled by debt.

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 08:32:40

And on like China where it was invested in plant and equipment (admit not all wisely), it went for share buybacks and increased dividends to keep shareholders happy and especially to inflate profits per share so CEOs could receive big bonuses and justify their base pay.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 08:56:41

unlike

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Comment by azdude
2014-08-04 05:58:25

inflation will lead us out of the hole.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 06:40:34

Or deeper into the hole…

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-04 07:02:35

What inflation? We’re in a deflationary spiral.

 
 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 05:36:50

I predict China GDP will grow at 6.5%.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 05:38:15

Investing 8/03/2014 @ 1:53PM
IMF Says China Should Aim Lower As Housing Prices Triple-Dip

China’s government should lower its GDP target to 6.5% next year instead of 7.5%, The International Monetary Fund said this Friday as the country’s real estate market continues to decline.

Non-performing loans, shadow banking at the municipal level and housing woes were cited as the risks to China growth again next year, Alfred Schipke, senior resident representative at the IMF , said at a news conference in Beijing.

“We recommend an upper bound of 7%, with a range of 6.5 to 7%. That will be a strong signal that you are moving ahead with your reforms and that these reforms will have some short-term adverse implications but that is necessary in order to create the fastest sustainable growth in the future,” said Schipke.

If China continues with its sub-par investments at the local level — pumping money into non-performing assets to maintain employment — then a “hard-landing” remains plausible over the medium term, the IMF said its report.

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 12:41:48

OK, the fight is on. Who will win, ABQ or Whac? ABQ got his information in an e-mail from China, while Whac is getting his information from the IMF. I wonder who will be right.

 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-04 05:39:12

Oh yeah? I can make my personal GDP increase 7% if I borrow piles of money.

Your point?

Comment by oxide
2014-08-04 12:54:46

Only 7%? Geeze you’re incompetent. You need to pick up some tips from serial refinacers like SZYMONIAK, LYNN. :p

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-04 15:15:18

Or you.

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Comment by oxide
2014-08-04 17:03:52

How am I supposed to cash-out refinance if, as you like to accuse me every day, I am underwater on my depreciating shack? I can’t be both.

(actually I am neither.)

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-04 17:59:36

You borrowed piles of money. You’re underwater.

Your point?

 
 
 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 05:40:24

Denial is a primary symptom of bubble trouble.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 05:41:24

ft dot com
Bubble trouble? China will not cause a property crisis
Jim Swanson
04 Aug 2014

When people ask me, as they often still do, whether we will see another devastating market event like the Lehman collapse in our lifetime, the sector causing their anxiety is often property.

That is not illogical, since the problems that took down Lehman Brothers in 2008 originated in a US housing bubble and the collapse had such worldwide effects.

If the housing market is feeling decidedly bubbly, the natural fear is that the wider economy will suffer.

Recently the cause of concern has been China. Two years of surging growth in the property market there has just ended rather abruptly with two months of falling prices. Investors worldwide have started to worry. Is there a property crash on the horizon?

In my opinion, no.

Those whose anxieties are not allayed tend to ask – given China’s importance to the world’s financial markets – will the bursting of a property bubble in the Far East be felt by investors in the west?

Again, I argue no.

 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 05:44:41

Investing 8/03/2014 @ 2:43PM
Real Estate Oversupply Becoming Bigger Problem For China

If you build it they will come. Eventually. That’s been the mantra of Chinese real estate developers and their lenders who have been throwing them buckets filled with yuan for the past several years. Now, an oversupply problem in second and third tier cities promises to derail the economy by as much as one percentage point, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

How important is real estate to the Chinese economy? In the year 2000, real estate accounted for around 5% of China’s GDP. By 2012 it rose three times to 15%, according to the IMF’s calculations. It certainly did not decline in 2013 and 2014, despite Beijing working overtime in forcing a market correction. The IMF did not have data for the last two years.

The real estate market appears to be undergoing a correction. While a slowing of investment and construction by as much as 10% would definitely reduce growth from 7.5% to 6.5%, an orderly adjustment is still factored into the IMF’s baseline scenario.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 06:47:38

Great now we have a prediction. However, you have used the old adage of pick a number or timeframe, not both and you cannot be proved wrong. 6.5% over what timeframe?

Comment by Get Stucco
2014-08-04 07:26:17

I’d go with the IMF rather than Rasmussen.

Comment by MightyMike
2014-08-04 10:19:26

Now you’ve shown your true colors! The IMF is clearly an globalist operation.

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Comment by Get Stucco
2014-08-04 11:08:25

Yep…globalist, statist and progressivist.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 12:46:06

And so is China, so it makes sense that China would march to those orders.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 08:37:11

Whac, so why does this even matter? You have been posting multiple posts about China suggesting a collapse. If you actually believe China will grow 6.5% vs. my around 7% why did you bother. A true China collapse would impact housing in America. But the difference between China growing 6.5 or 7% is insignificant to the U.S. I thought we were debating over something significant.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 09:12:23

It appears to me that you now know you were wrong but you are not man enough to admit it so you have just made a prediction that is very close to mine so when it is 7%, you can say that there is no real difference between a prediction of 6.5 and 7%.

Comment by Get Stucco
2014-08-04 09:55:32

You are clearly the manliest predictorator on the HBB.

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Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 10:08:27

LOLZ

 
 
Comment by MightyMike
2014-08-04 10:32:39

How he can know that he is wrong? Aren’t you talking about the future?

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 11:00:29

When he first started arguing with me the consensus was that China was slowing down, the last few months have been showing signs of increasing activity. The consensus has changed and he is going along with the consensus. Even an idiot would see that the collapse prediction is wrong at least in the timeframe of two years.

 
 
 
Comment by Get Stucco
2014-08-04 11:12:45

I have made many recent posts documenting the Chinese real estate crash in progress. If you choose to view these as collapse predictions, that is your own prerogative.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 11:28:42

You are showing the board on why I worked so hard to pin you down on an actual number. There never was an argument that Chinese housing was softening only the impact on the general economy of China.

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Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 14:26:06

You are showing the board how much HBB bandwidth can be wasted on your strawman arguments.

 
 
 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 12:54:12

Wasn’t there a debate recently about whether China could keep churning if the growth dropped below 7%?

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 13:19:27

Because scdave did not understand what a sustainable 7% meant. She thought that if China fell below 7% the country would not be sustained or something like that which was 180 degrees from what the Stanford professor was saying.

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Comment by aNYCdj
2014-08-04 05:43:28

Great now people cant afford coverage and it seems he only way to get some is to move to another state…..

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/us/newly-insured-by-health-law-millions-face-a-learning-curve.html

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 14:38:08

people cant afford coverage and it seems he only way to get some is to move to another state…..

Maybe they should go to your state.

“Since Obamacare, the average rate for coverage in Onondaga County for an individual who does not get coverage through an employer or government program has dropped 56 percent”

How’s Obamacare going in New York? Our first hint is in

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/07/obamacare.html

Syracuse, N.Y. - New Yorkers have one of their first indications of how Obamacare is going.

…..New York has touted the affordability of health coverage available through its insurance exchange.

The state’s rates for individual health coverage were among the highest in the nation before Obamacare. Since Obamacare, the average rate for coverage in Onondaga County for an individual who does not get coverage through an employer or government program has dropped 56 percent, according to an analysis by the Manhattan Institute, an economic research think tank.

 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-08-04 06:17:25

LEAKED CBP REPORT SHOWS ENTIRE WORLD EXPLOITING OPEN US BORDER

by BRANDON DARBY
3 Aug 2014

Among the significant revelations are that individuals from nations currently suffering from the world’s largest Ebola outbreak have been caught attempting to sneak across the porous U.S. border into the interior of the United States. At least 71 individuals from the three nations affected by the current Ebola outbreak have either turned themselves in or been caught attempting to illegally enter the U.S. by U.S. authorities between January 2014 and July 2014.

As of July 20, 2014, 1,443 individuals from China were caught sneaking across the porous U.S. border this year alone, with another 1,803 individuals either turning themselves in to U.S. authorities at official ports of entry, or being caught attempting to illegally enter at the ports of entry. This comes amid a massive crackdown by Chinese authorities of Islamic terrorists in the Communist nation.

Twenty-eight individuals from Pakistan were caught attempting to sneak into the U.S. this year alone, with another 211 individuals either turning themselves in or being caught at official ports of entry.

Thirteen Egyptians were caught trying to sneak into the U.S. this year alone, with another 168 either turning themselves in or being caught at official ports of entry.

Four individuals from Yemen were caught attempting to sneak into the U.S. by Border Patrol agents in 2014 alone, with another 34 individuals either turning themselves in or being caught attempting to sneak through official ports of entry. Yemen is not the only nation with individuals who pose terror risks to the U.S. that the report indicates travel from. The failed nation of Somalia, known as a hotbed of Islamic terror activity, was also referenced in the report. Four individuals from Somalia were caught trying to sneak into the U.S. by Border Patrol agents in 2014. Another 290 either turned themselves in or were caught attempting to sneak in at official ports of entry. This reporter previously covered the issue of illegal immigration into the U.S. from Somalia and other nations in the Horn of Africa.

http://www.breitbart.com/…/Leaked-CBP-Report-Shows-Entire-World-Exploiting-Open-US-Border - 59k -

Comment by CharlieTango
2014-08-04 06:36:00

How worried are you about Ebola?

Ebola terror at Gatwick as passenger collapses and dies getting off Sierra Leone flight

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ebola-terror-gatwick-passenger-collapses-3977051#ixzz39QjW54Tu

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 13:01:49

PropagandaDan posted that yesterday. The article indicates that the woman almost surely did not have ebola.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 13:20:33

Please tell us how you arrive at that, I want a good laugh at your ignorance.

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Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 13:29:02

Read the article to find out. It’s all in there!

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 13:41:49

No there are some conclusory statements in there. Vomiting is one symptom of Ebola as is the heavy sweating. Most people will die only after the bleeding begins but that does not mean they cannot die before them. There is a wide divergence in the onset of the disease and death. Just looking at the CDC site, I do not know how anyone can rule out Ebola at this point:

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/symptoms/index.html

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 13:50:58

Vomiting is one of the known symptoms of Ebola. I have attempted to post the CDC link and hope it will appear soon. The article just makes conclusory statements with no support.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 13:57:39

Her symptoms did not resemble ebola, as stated by the cited medical expert. That article is old. When the results of the test be in?

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 13:57:56

Now this is very interesting since it contradicts the CDC assertions that it can be spread through sneezing, cannot not verify the credibility of the link:

http://www.humanillnesses.com/original/E-Ga/Ebola-Fever.html

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 13:59:40

“The patient’s symptoms suggest that Ebola is very unlikely but as a precaution this is one of the tests being undertaken.

“The patient was not symptomatic on the plane and therefore there is no risk of Ebola being passed on to either flight crew or other passengers.

“England has world class health care and disease control systems which are active permanently, ­regularly tested and proven to be effective.

“As such, if the UK does see a case of imported Ebola, this will not result in an outbreak in this country.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ebola-terror-gatwick-passenger-collapses-3977051#ixzz39SXHhyBq
Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 14:05:34

Saying that a person was not symptomatic is a conclusory statement without listing the symptoms she did not have and contradicted by the statement that she was vomiting which is clearly a possible symptom of Ebola. BTW, just to show you that you were wrong about salvia the following post:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/14/health/gupta-ebola-guinea/index.html

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 14:12:15

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/04/07/ebola-africa-explainer-outbreak/7411889/

You do not need to be bleeding externally to have Ebola and even die from it. The article makes assertions that are contradicted by the evidence. If she was vomiting and sweating she had symptoms consistent with Ebola or it could have just been the flu. However, the fact she died suggests that it probably was more than the flu although you can die from the flu.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 14:28:47

The next time you feel a good puke coming on, I suggest you call the police and tell them that you have symptoms consistent with ebola. Just leave out the fact that you don’t have any of the symptoms that characterize ebola. It’s the bleeding out that passes the virus and kills you in the process.

And Dr. Gupta is getting a lot of criticism for his scare-article that he posted there. Lots of doctors chiming in to say that he is w-r-o-n-g.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 14:52:15

Really? Post some “Well Fed”.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 15:02:48

BTW, the story about the African man who flew and actually had Ebola sounds very much like the story about the woman who may have had Ebola:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/fears-ebola-spread-plane-scare-170231342.html?.tsrc=yahoo#dDH6xwx

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 15:07:11

Link will probably not work but here is an excerpt from AP:

The World Health Organization is awaiting laboratory confirmation after Nigerian health authorities said Sawyer tested positive for Ebola, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said. The WHO has not recommended any travel restrictions since the outbreak came to light.

“We would have to consider any travel recommendations very carefully, but the best way to stop this outbreak is to put the necessary measures in place at the source of infection,” Hartl said. Closing borders “might help, but it won’t be exhaustive or foolproof.”

The risk of travelers contracting Ebola is considered low because it requires direct contact with bodily fluids or secretions such as urine, blood, sweat or saliva, experts say. Ebola can’t be spread like flu through casual contact or breathing in the same air.

Patients are contagious only once the disease has progressed to the point they show symptoms, according to the WHO. And the most vulnerable are health care workers and relatives who come in much closer contact with the sick.

Still, witnesses say Sawyer, a 40-year-old Liberian Finance Ministry employee en route to a conference in Nigeria, was vomiting and had diarrhea aboard at least one of his flights with some 50 other passengers aboard. Ebola can be contracted from traces of feces or vomit, experts say.

Sawyer was immediately quarantined upon arrival in Lagos — a city of 21 million people — and Nigerian authorities say his fellow travelers were advised of Ebola’s symptoms and then were allowed to leave. The incubation period can be as long as 21 days, meaning anyone infected may not fall ill for several weeks.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 15:13:15

They are comments on his little CNN freak-out article. I am not going to post comments from another article on this blog. You are starting to be even more annoying than Eddie-Tard!

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 15:22:26

Very credible source. (not). I have a couple more articles which show you know nothing about this field despite claiming expertise. Just waiting for Ben to post them. Time to work your McDonald’s shift now.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 15:55:41

Dan:

The only way that you would get Ebola from another person is if they were bleeding out. That is when they are contagious enough for some other random person to actually catch the disease.

Africans pass it to each other anyway because they believe in sky wizards; not viruses. They will not follow the recommendations of doctors who tell them not to extensively touch the dead bodies of Ebola victims. Men who have recovered from ebola refuse to refrain from sexual activity until their semen is clear. They do not understand science. It is very similar to your own lack of understanding (global warming, ebola, everything, etc).

You keep going on about other bodily secretions. Keep in mind that this requires “close contact”. Like you stuck your tongue in their mouth or something. Are you going to do that to a person who is symptomatic of anything? The doctors who help ebola patients keep in closer contact than anyone else ever would, even when the patient is bleeding. That’s why they need to wear protective clothing.

The bleeding out is HOW this virus transmits itself among humans, even though the virus itself never intended to do so. If it did, then it wouldn’t exist. It mainly exists among other animals that get much less sick, and much less quickly than humans. That’s how it manages to survive. The disease is called “ebola hemorrhagic fever” because it causes the cells of your BLOOD VESSELS to open up and let fluid out indiscriminately. That’s what it does, dude.

I can see that the CDC website says that some people do not get internal or external bleeding. Those people must have either died first or been cured first. If they died first, they were probably immunocompromised, and not likely to have transmitted the virus, since they did not exhibit the highly contagious bleeding out stage.

Do you think that the other passengers on the plane went and licked the toilet after the really sick guy was in there pooping and puking in it? Of course not!

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 16:07:20

Many of us have cuts on our skin just contact with feces or vomit is enough. You are just wrong and the articles prove it.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 16:11:33

close contact

why don’t u read about it instead of trying to find ways of supporting your dum position on the matter

o, bcuz yer a lawyer so u have to argue someone else’s case, that’s why they pay u

ben should kick u off this site

 
 
 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 15:21:05

How worried are you about Ebola?

Slightly worried. I don’t know much about it, but I know it is currently a disease of the tropics and I (and many of mine) live in the tropics.

Prediction I hope will be wrong:
Ebola will jump the African continent. :(

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 15:31:06

but I know it is currently a disease of the tropics and I (and many of mine) live in the tropics.
D.C. is not the tropics.

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Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 15:37:33

D.C. is not the tropics.

Delusions of grandeur and OCD are not untreatable.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 15:51:59

Since you have both of them, I will defer to your personal knowledge on that point.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 15:54:04

Claims to be a rich businessman living in Brazil who is a socialist and interested in a U.S. housing blog and posts scores of posts every day for a month. Yes, you would know about both.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 16:08:37

posts scores of posts every day for a month.

I post like an OCD man every day? No dude it’s you. I’ve been away from HBB most of June-July enjoying the Rio winter. (my favorite time down here)

You should try giving the HBB a break too. You are OCD and who’s lies are growing old.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 16:13:24

To his credit, at least someone pays him well to lie here.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 16:22:26

Claims to be a rich businessman

I would not say I’m rich and never used the term “rich” to describe me. I’ve described myself as a truly middle-class American with a “high net worth.”

Let’s do the math. Considering the median net-worth in the USA is 57K, The above is totally true. I am a high-net worth American compared to the average American. So is BillinWhereever.

Not in the USA, but maybe in Brazil I’m “rich” to most here.

Claims to be a rich businessman living in Brazil who is a socialist

You don’t even know what socialism means. You just spout it out like a cuss word to affect the ignorant. But why are the “socialist” countries doing better for their middle-class than TrickleDownSupplySideVoodooEconomic USA?

U.S. Trails at Least 15 OECD Countries in Median Wealth
Via @exiledonline, I learned today (July 18) that Canadians are richer than Americans. This is rather surprising, since GDP per capita is higher in the U.S than in Canada.: $48,100 vs. $40,300 (at purchasing power parity or PPP), according to the CIA World Factbook. But in fact things are much worse than that, as 15 OECD countries (plus Singapore and Taiwan) have higher median wealth than the U.S. does. There may even be more, as the Credit Suisse report I discuss below does not give median wealth data for several countries with higher mean wealth than the U.S.

 
 
 
 
Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 06:43:07

the 2014 souper bowl coke commercial:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=443Vy3I0gJs

 
Comment by palmetto
2014-08-04 06:48:17

Washington is providing military transport to bring Ebola patients into the US. Two so far, and that’s just what we know about. I don’t give a squat if they’re American citizens, they made the choice to go to Africa to work among the people there, they knew the risks. Who paid for them to go there in the first place, and why should taxpayers pay to bring them back, when they pose such a grave risk?

And since when does Washington show concern for American citizens? Veterans are thrown under the bus regularly.

At what point do you realize that Washington is a collection of insane freaks bent on the degradation and destruction of US citizens?

Comment by palmetto
2014-08-04 08:28:45

Eh, just answered my own question.

Years ago, just at the height of bubble 1.0, we moved briefly to Sanford, Florida (home of the infamous George Zimmerman and ground zero for the Trayvon Martin clusterfark).

Anyway, on the shores of the gator infested Lake Monroe was a large, rambling old renovated hotel that had become the headquarters for New Tribes Mission, a group that goes abroad and works with tribal people around the world, spreading the gospel: http://usa.ntm.org/
They also had a subdivision in the surrounding area, nice, modest little homes for their retired missionaries.

There were rumors that New Tribes was a front group for the CIA, and in fact Hugo Chavez had ejected them from Venezuela on that basis, because he said they were stirring up the indigenous people against him.

And I’m thinking that maybe some of these “missionaries” over in Africa may have a similar connection, and that’s why the red carpet med-evac.

Comment by X-GSfixr
2014-08-04 09:17:26

It may be simpler than that.

It makes a better story for TV.

Gonna be tough to get volunteers to sign up to go overseas, if the government says “better you than me” when you get something like Ebola.

Sorta like badly wounded vets. Spare no expense to save their lives (how bad would the Iraq liberation have looked if we had 30K KIA?), then throw them under the bus, as soon as they walk out of the hospital.

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Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-04 19:50:48

Or they could be good, decent, honorable people with a higher calling - the sort of selfless people who tried to make the world a better place. I admire unreservedly the doctors who go to work in Africa despite the risks, and am far less concerned about the remote risk of them bringing an ebola outbreak into this country than I would be about what it says about our morality if we refuse to bring them home for medical treatment.

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Comment by Rental Watch
2014-08-04 10:21:24

My reaction yesterday was the same as yours. However, this morning I read an article about how these Americans were given an experimental drug that supposedly had amazingly positive results.

If they are bringing these folks back to the US in order to fully analyze the effect of this drug on their bodies and the disease, in order to determine whether the drug should be made available to more people, there might actually be a healthy debate as to whether they should have been brought here.

Without that fact (if it is a fact, and not just a good story), I agree 100%. With any disease that kills 2/3 to 90% of those that contract it, job 1 is to maintain quarantine. And if you choose to work within the quarantine zone, fine, but don’t expect to ever be removed from that quarantine zone if you contract the disease.

Comment by Rental Watch
2014-08-04 10:22:46
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Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 13:17:32

1) Why didn’t they give this drug to any Liberians?
2) They can’t be analyzed in Liberia?
3) They could not have brought some of the Liberians with Ebola over here too?

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Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 06:52:45

‘if all are entitled to come, they will come. and they will remake the west and america in their own image, obama’s image, the image of that tower of babel’

http://townhall.com/columnists/patbuchanan/2014/08/01/stop-the-coming-obamnesty-n1873180

Comment by palmetto
Comment by X-GSfixr
2014-08-04 08:52:30

Make sure you read the link to “Sexiest Celebrity Butts” at the bottom of the page.

(At least that is what the algorithms on my laptop are linking “Christian White Men” to.)

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Comment by X-GSfixr
2014-08-04 08:57:16

BTW…….my “work” desktop. As pure as the driven snow.

Because I (sorta) like my job.

 
Comment by palmetto
2014-08-04 09:54:46

“As pure as the driven snow.”

Not anymore! lol.

 
 
 
 
Comment by X-GSfixr
2014-08-04 09:37:47

Mentioned this a couple of weeks ago. As usual, the media is just now figuring this out.

My brother in the Border Patrol says they have been seeing a lot of Romanians. Thy cross the border, and surrender to the first agent they see.

The drill:
- They go before a judge, a hearing date is set (with the number of people crossing, several months in the future)
- They have no room for them, so they are set free until their hearing.
- They never show.
- A warrant is issued, but nobody is actually looking for them. They only get picked up if they get arrested somewhere.

Which is why the “estimated 12 million” number is BS. It could be 50 million. Judging from the number of stores going “multi-lingual”, and non-English speaking construction workers/landscapers/carpet installers/kitchen staff around here, I’m betting it’s closer to 50 than 12. They PTB won’t fess up to the real number, because the S would really HTF.

Comment by palmetto
2014-08-04 10:09:39

Romanians? Or Roma? There’s a difference. Roma are from Romania, yes, (and other places), but not all Romanians are Roma.

Comment by X-GSfixr
2014-08-04 11:02:47

Romanians……as in from Bucharest

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Comment by palmetto
2014-08-04 11:41:39

My guess is Roma, aka Gypsies or Travelers. They could very well be from Bucharest, and most give Romania as their country of origin, when they have to give one. I’ve been following a bit of Europe’s issues with the Roma. This sounds like their MO. Although I don’t think they’ll have quite the success in the US they’ve had in Europe. I did read that they do have a group in California.

 
 
 
Comment by aNYCdj
2014-08-04 16:21:18

XGS…..it starts to make sense to eliminate all translators at immigration hearings…If you cant read, write and speak English then you have no intention of becoming an American, and its time for you to go back home.

 
Comment by rms
2014-08-04 19:38:01

“Which is why the “estimated 12 million” number is BS.”

+1 Agreed. There’s probably 12-million in California alone.

 
 
 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
 
Comment by Kidbuck
2014-08-04 07:13:55

If Obama had 50 million sons they would look like what’s sneaking across our southern border.

Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 07:17:46

“If you like your MS-13, you can keep your MS-13″

 
Comment by Jingle Male
2014-08-04 07:22:13

…and you look like an idiot.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-04 07:47:25

Hello J._Fraud. Who are u snowing today?

 
 
 
Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 07:23:39

For the start of the concussionball preseason, excerpt from Business Insider article:

“A Sports Illustrated report revealed that nearly eight in 10 NFL players file for bankruptcy or suffer financial distress just two years after retirement … Making bad investments and personal spending choices, dealing with child support issues, and even being too generous are among the reasons NFL players have been known to struggle with holding on to their money.”

Comment by Combotechie
2014-08-04 08:56:10

These were the anointed guys, the guys that grew up having the paths to success paved for them due to their physical abilities, and these already-paved paths came to an end when their careers came to an end. So now they have to make it on their own, but they can’t make it on their own because they don’t know how to make it on their own and they don’t know how because they never gathered any real-world experience in making it on their own.

So now they are left a bit stranded and have not clue one to understanding just why this is.

This anointed phenom applies to the good looking chicks as well. The chicks who make it primarily on their looks are hosed once Father Time begins to take his toll.

Comment by X-GSfixr
2014-08-04 09:02:12

What’s really fun is that the anointed guys end up marrying the “good looking chicks”.

Watch them bail out when the “or for worse, and sickness” parts start kicking in.

“No matter how hot she is, some guy, somewhere, is tired of her $##t…..”

Comment by X-GSfixr
2014-08-04 09:09:41

And before the female readers start up on me……..

Yeah, guys are mostly a-holes, at least part of the time. Some are 100% of the time. We admit it.

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Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 13:33:19

Good save.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 14:17:11

That is exactly the type of comment I am talking about.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 14:37:58

GO AWAY, SHILL!

 
 
 
Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 09:06:03

I’m reading James Michener’s “Sports In America”, published almost 40 years ago, and nothing has changed except the amount of money involved.

 
 
Comment by ibbots
2014-08-04 11:15:20

I’ve represented a couple former NFL’ers. They have a robust defined benefit retirement plan as well as other NFLPA sponsored options to bridge the gap between their playing careers and life after. That being said, there appears to be no end of people trying to get their hooks into these guys.

Comment by Combotechie
2014-08-04 11:40:35

“… there appears to be no end of people trying to get their hooks into these guys.”

These guys with the hooks are usually invited into the inner circle by the anointed ones.

The hooks first learn just what it is the anointeds need to keep their sense of entitlement - their sense of anointedness - satisfied … and then they give it to them.

Just like with the philosophy of Mr. Banker: The anointeds work, the hooks reap.

Comment by Combotechie
2014-08-04 16:38:01

“Team? You’re not the team, you’re the equipment.” - A line from the book “North Dallas Forty”, talking about the role of the players.

The owners get a win, the coaches get a win, and the players? The players get played.

Churn ém and burn ém and then bring on the next batch.

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Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 07:29:29

What these call center employees making $22,000 a year need are $500,000 starter homes!

http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-are-bringing-call-center-jobs-back-to-america-2014-8

Comment by rj chicago
2014-08-04 07:44:25

Hmmmm…..and why are so many young adults living with their parents?
Read on….. This from Barry Ritholz’s Big Picture blog.
Happy day peeps!!

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2014/08/why-are-young-adults-living-with-their-parents-and-when-will-they-move-out/

Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 08:03:54

$1.2 trillion of outstanding student loan debt is delaying household formation, imagine that?

Comment by rj chicago
2014-08-04 11:20:56

Yep imagine that?!!
Goon - sounds like you reside in the Denver area - what is going on with housing out there? Seems that the market is really screwed up. Can you verify?

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Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 12:01:22

Article linked above notes that median household incomes are about $51K, and that median house prices are $270K, what does that tell you?

I feel lucky that I found my current rental in mid-2010, near the trough of the jobs recession, it would be near impossible to find something comparable today.

 
Comment by rj chicago
2014-08-04 13:13:00

So I guess the question of the day is - when is the house market gonna implode?
If you read Mark Hanson as I do - seems he is starting to sound the warning signals again.
Be well.

 
Comment by Tarara Boomdea
2014-08-04 13:56:56

It better be soon, or else my LL will boot us out of here and sell. An almost twin to my rental (Vegas) a few houses away has just listed at $200K with the original 1978 appliances, in all their glory, flappy time dials and all. At least they’re not avocado.

Blast from the past - Spacemaker

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Jingle Male
2014-08-04 08:11:11

Visiting Victoria, BC this week for a little salmon fishing and epic golfing. Have yet to see a SFR for less than $500k Canadian.

There are lots of Chinese here.

Can the two factors be related?

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 13:45:10

The Chinese will save us! (and the Canadians, and the Australians, and New Zealand, and Africa…)

 
 
Comment by X-GSfixr
2014-08-04 08:47:45

So now the Rooshians are saying a SU-25 shot down the Malaysian airliner? ROTFLMAO.

Anyone pushing this story has got to be guilty of something. But I guess when the truth isn’t on your side, you can always flood the airways with half azz BS.

http://tinyurl.com/p8skbqp

To assert that a straight wing, heavy, ground attack jet with a max airspeed of about M.74 (max, in straight and level flight) is capable of climbing and intercepting an airliner flying M.82 at 33K feet is just stupid on it’s face.

Yeah, I’m sure Tom Clancy could pull a scenario where it could happen out of hiz azz, but I’m talking real world.

And, BTW, there won’t be any evidence of a “missile impact”. Surface to air missiles are designed to get close, then explode in close proximity to the target and throw enough shrapnel around to destroy the target.

Find a piece of the shrapnel, either in the aircraft debris, or during autopsies of the passengers, and you will be able to identify the type of missile. You might even be able to identify a specific production run, but this assumes that you have full co-operation of the people who designed and built the missile

(Even for a standard supersonic fighter, intercepting an airliner/business jet flying at .85-.92 Mach can be a real problem, especially in a tail chase. Unless the jet fighter is capable of “supercruise”, the fighter will have to go into afterburner to catch the target. Afterburner burns fuel at a rate to make a Texan proud. To the point where the fighter will run out of fuel, if he has to chase a target very far.)

IMO, the Russians didn’t mind that the seperatists had these systems, as long as they were shooting down Ukranian airplanes, which they had demonstrated their ability to do several times in the weeks before this incident. Now, they are lying their asses off, to generate a “reasonable doubt”.

They are helped by the fact that absolutely nobody believes (for good reason) anything the US government says anymore.

Comment by Ben Jones
2014-08-04 09:16:57

‘the Russians didn’t mind that the seperatists had these systems, as long as they were shooting down Ukranian airplanes, which they had demonstrated their ability to do several times’

Which brings up the question, why would a civilian plane be flying over this exact same area?

Who-boy, the lack of critical thinking is far and wide about right now. For instance, consider what we are being told at the same time about different killings. If the Russians supplied this missile, would it have been to their benefit to shot down this Malaysian jet? Or was it a horrible mistake? But is what’s going on in Gaza a horrible mistake, or a day by day calculated action? Lot’s of dead people either way, but in these two cases, which has more moral implications? (And how quickly we forget that, we are told, another Malaysian jet could just disappear. If they can sell that they can sell anything).

Meanwhile on the domestic front, as the network “news” would say, Romney is back! Uh huh. The guy who couldn’t beat McCain, who couldn’t beat anybody, is a political force again. This reminds me of how Donald Trump only has to hint at running for president, and some poll will pop up showing he’s a front-runner. Trump probably couldn’t be elected dog catcher in Atlantic City. But that doesn’t seem to matter to the people who stir up these news “cycles”.

Comment by palmetto
2014-08-04 09:53:35

“Romney is back! Uh huh. The guy who couldn’t beat McCain, who couldn’t beat anybody, is a political force again.”

Yep, guy keeps popping up like a bad penny. I laughed so hard I about messed myself when I saw that. Eh, let him run and take it in the shorts again. One of his chief campaign consultants, “Smilin’ Ed” Gillespie is biting the dust big time in his run for political office in Virginia. If Romney’s own campaign consultant can’t cut the cheese as a candidate, Romney should have some serious misgivings about a second run.

Kind of makes you wonder how Romney ever cut it with Bain, considering he couldn’t pull together a decent management team for his own campaign. But then again, you’re looking at two different goals. With Bain, he was looking to destroy enterprises through parasitism and siphoning off money. With run for prez, he was looking to win. Each venture calls for different personnel and philosophy. He hired for his campaign as if it was a Bain enterprise. Ooopsie!

Comment by X-GSfixr
2014-08-04 10:24:48

Romney vs. Clinton

I’m having a hard time deciding which one nauseates me more.

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 15:57:27

At least Bill Clinton came from a working class background. Those two were both born on third base and think they hit triples. O’ wait, there was a time in Hillary’s life after Bill spent money on his lawyers that they were flat broke, down to the last several million, I think.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-04 19:54:11

The Clintons (a political duo not a couple in any real sense) are vile to the core regardless of what “class” spawned them.

 
 
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 10:00:29

I agree. The shooting down of an airliner that suddenly diverts into a war zone escorted by two Ukrainian warplanes, shows just what a monster Putin is by supplying weapons to the separatists. However, the U.S. actually resupplying the Israelis in the middle of the war after numerous hospitals have been bombed, cannot even be questioned.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 10:16:42

From a July 31, 2014 Reuter’s article:

The Pentagon has said it allowed Israel to tap a U.S. stockpile inside Israel to restock two different types of ammunition.

It described the munitions on Thursday as 120 mm tank rounds and 40 mm illumination rounds, fired from grenade launchers. A U.S. defense official had offered a different description of the ammunition on Wednesday, saying they were grenades and mortar rounds.

The Pentagon said it was unclear if the munitions would be used for training or operations.

The munitions were part of a program managed by the U.S. military and called War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel (WRSA-I), which stores munitions locally for U.S. use that Israel can also access in emergency situations.

Although Israel did not cite an emergency situation, the United States decided to draw some munitions from the stockpile anyway to rotate out older arms. “This is simply a rotating (of) munitions out of the stockpile in order to get newer munitions placed in there,” Warren said.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by David Storey, Bernard Orr)

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Comment by X-GSfixr
2014-08-04 10:34:24

“Training”? Yeah right.

The IDF should be proud of their victories against (mostly) unarmed civilians. They remind me of a kid who torments their pets, then gets pizzed when the pet bites back.

Had a conversation the other day with a die-hard Republican. He ended up justifying the incursion of the IDF, because “the Bible said it was going to happen this way…….”

 
 
 
Comment by X-GSfixr
2014-08-04 10:06:21

Why?

-Because we have a previous demonstration of the poor decision making ability of Malaysian airlines. As soon as the Ukrainian military transport got zapped at 30k feet a few weeks before, every airline in the world should have given the area a wide birth.

My personal believe is that the Russian proxies in East Ukraine shot it down by mistake. The simplest, most logical explanation. The Russians are covering for their buddies, while our guys are trying to justify intervention or sanctions, or a combination of the two.. Too bad everyone has been lying so much, you don’t know who to believe anymore.

A genuine investigation could figure this out. Good luck with that at this point.

An adult in the US Government might have withheld judgement until all of the facts were in (assuming that all sides wanted to play nice and cooperate). But, as has been demonstrated repeatedly, idiots on both sides are in charge in Washington.

As far as Gaza, I’m going to throw in a “NazI” reference, and say that from all appearances, the IDF is treating Gaza only marginally differently than the Germans treated the Warsaw Ghetto.

As far as the Malaysian airline disappearance, I’ve noted before that if a crew member, for whatever reason, wanted to make that airplane as difficult to find as possible, he/she couldn’t have picked a much better place than the south Indian Ocean.

Comment by Ben Jones
2014-08-04 10:16:08

‘couldn’t have picked a much better place than the south Indian Ocean’

That may be the case, but maybe the “who” picked it for different reasons than we are lead to believe.

OK, so lets say it was terrorism. Isn’t the point of terrorism to terrorize. And what good is it if the people you are terrorizing don’t know who you are and what your demands/grievances are? Anyway, in a post Sept 11th world, I don’t believe for one second that this plane just vanished.

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Comment by palmetto
2014-08-04 10:31:20

I found this article on flight 370 interesting, perhaps fixr could comment:

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/03/27/flight-370-the-cia-hoax-gordon-duff/

After reading it, and hearing that a good number of passengers were Chinese, I wondered if the disappearance wasn’t a warning to China regarding aggression against Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, etc.

 
Comment by X-GSfixr
2014-08-04 10:59:45

My problem with most government conspiracy scenarios is that:

- You have to believe that idiots in government are capable of pulling something like this off, and

-Keep everyone’s mouth shut about it.

Lacking any investigatory sources other than the Internet, how is this theory?

The pilot/copilot has a problem of some kind, and in order to avoid losing “face” when it is exposed, he decides to take himself out. But a run of the mill suicide means the life insurance won’t kick in, and/or creates other problems.

So, the mysterious disappearance. The goal is to crash the airplane, while leaving little or no evidence that it was an intentional act. So you park the airplane somewhere where it won’t be found for a long time, if it is found at all.

The airplane lost contact with ATC at the handoff between ATC systems. A 10-15 minute gap would not be unheard of, and would probably only generate concern when the airplane was well within Vietnam radar coverage, and no contact had been made.

The (reported) excursion to 40K feet? A good way to kill everyone else on the airplane painlessly. Even if the masks had dropped, they don’t do any good above 35-40K feet, you will still die, even with a passenger mask on. You need positive pressure at that altitude to get air into your lungs. the passenger masks are only designed to keep you alive during an emergency descent.

(According to my little chart, at 35K feet you have 60 seconds or less before you loose consciousness. 40K feet? 15-20 seconds).

It was 1-2am when this happened. Do it right, and 95% of the people on the airplane will be out of if before they can say “WTF?”

Then, it’s just a matter of pointing the airplane in the right direction, engage the autopilot/FMS, and pull your own mask off.

 
Comment by palmetto
2014-08-04 11:42:52

Thanks for the feedback. Makes sense, although not much else about this incident does. To me, anyway.

 
Comment by rms
2014-08-04 21:20:17

“(According to my little chart, at 35K feet you have 60 seconds or less before you loose consciousness. 40K feet? 15-20 seconds).”

Dad’s B17 was hit over WWII Dresden at about 40,000-ft, and he jumped as the place went into a diving spin, and he immediately opened his parachute; no oxygen bottle, lots of adrenalin. Spent more than a year in a German POW camp in Barth on the North Sea before the looting and raping Russians liberated them.

 
Comment by rms
2014-08-04 21:23:04

replace(place,plane);

 
 
Comment by Northeastener
2014-08-04 10:24:27

No discussion on the Ukranian air force tactic of shadowing civilian aircraft during transit to a strike location, perform a bombing run, then run for cover next to the civilian aircraft again.

It doesn’t matter who pulled the trigger, the Ukranians and separatists are both at fault, as is the airline. The biggest disservice to the world (and the dead passengers) imho, is that global community is afraid to call this conflict what it is, WAR.

Same goes for Syria, Iraq, Gaza, etc. This is war, plain and simple, not “sectarian violence”, not a kinetic event, not a police action, it’s war. And it’s spreading…

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Comment by rj chicago
 
 
 
 
Comment by palmetto
2014-08-04 08:48:03

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/08/04/jackie-mason-jon-voight-rip-penelope-cruz-javier-bardem-for-anti-israel-stance/

“Mason recorded an interview for the Aaron Klein Investigative Radio show, which aired Sunday, where he suggested such the stars who signed the letter “come from these kinds of anti-Semitic, low-class backgrounds where a Jew is the most disgusting thing in the world to them.”

“The ironic thing is that it’s Jewish people who own these Hollywood studios,” he said. “And they all hire these people and they depend on them for a living. Every penny they made is made from Jews and they hate every Jew just by nature.”

OUCHIE! Bardem and Cruz just got schooled in “who’s your daddy” and discovered the sport of back pedaling

“Reps for Cruz and Bardem did not respond to a request for comment, but each released statements backtracking from the letter they co-signed.”

“My signature was solely meant as a plea for peace. Destruction and hatred only generate more hatred and destruction,” Bardem worte. “While I was critical of the Israeli military response, I have great respect for the people of Israel and deep compassion for their losses. I am now being labeled by some as anti-Semitic, as is my wife – which is the antithesis of who we are as human beings. We detest anti-Semitism as much as we detest the horrible and painful consequences of war.”

Cruz added: “I don’t want to be misunderstood on this important subject. I’m not an expert on the situation and I’m aware of the complexity of it. My only wish and intention in signing that group letter is the hope that there will be peace in both Israel and Gaza.”

Well, they’re toast. They’ll never work in that town again. Maybe they can join forces with Mel Gibson and start a studio.

Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 09:12:49

Book suggestion: “The Culture of Critique” by Kevin MacDonald

http://www.amazon.com/The-Culture-Critique-Evolutionary-Twentieth-Century/dp/0759672229

Abraham Foxman does not approve of this

Comment by palmetto
2014-08-04 09:39:35

Whew, I read one excerpt from MacDonald about how “multiculturalism” was forced on Australia. Chilling.

 
 
Comment by palmetto
2014-08-04 10:22:26

From Wikipedia, Mason’s “middle finger” incident.

“Middle finger” incident[edit]
On October 18, 1964 in an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Mason allegedly gave host Ed Sullivan the finger on air. Footage of the incident shows Mason doing his stand-up comedy act and then looking toward Sullivan, commenting that Sullivan was signaling him. Sullivan was reportedly letting Mason know (by pointing two fingers) that he had only a couple minutes left, as the program was about to cut away to show a speech by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Mason began working his own fingers in his act to make fun of the situation and pointed toward Sullivan with his middle finger slightly separated. Sullivan was clearly angered by this and banned Mason from the show. Mason denied knowingly giving Sullivan the middle finger; he later claimed that he had never even heard of the middle finger gesture at that time. In retaliation, to protect the perceived threat to his career, Mason filed a libel suit at the New York Supreme Court, which he won.[14]

Mason made a comeback appearance on the TV program two years later; and, Sullivan publicly apologized to him. At that time, Mason opened his monologue by saying, “It is a great thrill…and a fantastic opportunity to see me in person again.” Mason would never appear on the show again.

Use of the term “schvartze”[edit]
In 1991, Mason was criticized by African-American organizations such as the NAACP when he called New York mayor David Dinkins “a fancy schvartze with a moustache.”[15] He later apologized.

Mason referred to Barack Obama as a “shvartze” during a performance in New York City on March 12, 2009.”

 
Comment by palmetto
2014-08-04 11:11:00

The problem with some of the Hollywood celebs is that, as my father used to say, they start believing their own press releases and feel called upon to moralize to the masses.

If Bardem and Cruz really had the courage of their convictions on this issue, there would have been no backpedaling. But paycheck trumps principle. Too late, though.

Cruz to Bardem: “Dang it, honey, couldn’t have we excoriated some Christian white men?”

 
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 09:28:22

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/08/03/the-record-of-recent-man-made-co2-emissions-1965-2013/

It is not the U.S. that is pumping out the co2 and ever increasing amounts but Obama wants us to assume the financial burden.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-04 13:18:32

So much for housing. The housing fraudsters succeeded today.

Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 16:23:21

Every $500,000 starter home not bought is a financial suicide prevented

 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-08-04 14:06:03

Damn! I was going throw a few fruit bats on the grill tonight.

Ebola risk unheeded as Guinea’s villagers keep on eating fruit bats

IRIN, part of the Guardian development network
theguardian.com, Monday 4 August 2014 06.40 EDT

Medical teams struggling to curb Ebola in west Africa have been discouraging bush meat consumption, believed to have caused the outbreak, but some rural communities dependent on the meat for protein are determined to continue their traditional hunting practices.

While meat from wild animals such as fruit bats, rodents and forest antelopes has largely disappeared from market stalls in main towns such as Guéckédou in southern Guinea – the epicentre of the disease, and the capital Conakry following campaigns to avoid contamination, it is still being eaten in remote villages despite the risks.

“Life is not easy here in the village. They [authorities and aid groups] want to ban our traditions that we have observed for generations. Animal husbandry is not widespread here because bush meat is easily available. Banning bush meat means a new way of life, which is unrealistic,” said Sâa Fela Léno, who lives in Nongoha village in Guéckédou.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/aug/04/ebola-risk-guinea-fruit-bats - 160k -

Comment by X-GSfixr
2014-08-04 14:30:07

“….banning bush meat means a new way of life……”

Yeah, go ahead and keep on eating the bush meat. Too bad we are sending more missionaries than science teachers to Africa. Maybe they would have heard of Darwin, and the “Darwin Awards” by now.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 14:30:14

Be sure to cook it until well done!

Comment by phony scandals
2014-08-04 14:48:13

I like my fruit bat a little pink inside.

Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 15:15:24

with north carolina or kansas city style barbecue sauce?

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 15:58:48

You would eat it when you are stoned.

 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-08-04 16:19:13

“with north carolina or kansas city style barbecue sauce?”

Nongoha.

I use the smoker for forest antelope and then I use kansas city style barbecue sauce.

 
Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 16:20:18

300+ post bits today, with many thanks to you, Dannyboy

 
Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 16:37:34

“when you are stoned”

This is what $25 of Kushberry looks like, now legal in Colorado:

http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20140804_172837_081-sm7iSnWK.jpg

 
Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 17:10:15

Kushberry makes you want to listen to music like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPUI0gjsBEc

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by inchbyinch
2014-08-04 14:20:32

OT but input appreciated

We got our Mercury Auto Bill today. When I called our pos agent, he thinks they up’d our mileage tier, not believing our low mileage on both cars. Wow, assume it and bill it, with no evidence. Nice business model!

Called CS on bill. Told to call our agent. I asked “why have a CS 800 #? Isn’t that mental m*sturb*tion?” Got scolded for bad language. (not) Evidently a Sunday building type.

Anyone have recommendations for auto & home insurance that bi-passes the agent business model and you have heard good claims stories?

Thanks

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-04 14:55:02

Your shack is rotting just as fast as your jalopies.

Comment by azdude
2014-08-04 18:38:25

p O n Z i

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-04 18:48:56

Encino, CA Housing Prices Crater 30% YoY; Inventory Billows 36% As Demand Collapses Statewide

http://www.movoto.com/encino-ca/market-trends/

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Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 15:17:11

I wish. I went shopping for disability insurance and the prices are not sane. I think there must be too many middle-people in the process.

PS: Did you hear that, ABQDork? I used a gender-neutral term. Does that steam ya?

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 15:38:16

I wish. I went shopping for disability insurance and the prices are not sane.

Thanks to Obama your preexisting condition of being insane does not preclude you from getting a policy. You should be thankful.

 
 
Comment by polly
2014-08-04 16:45:21

USAA if you qualify.

Comment by inchbyinch
2014-08-04 19:10:50

Thanks, Polly. I wish we did. I printed the Ca Dept Of Ins, Auto and Homeowners Claim Satisfaction Reports (PDFs), and USAA was one of the highly rated experiences.

It’s an insurance jungle out there. I’ll pay a little more not to have to hire an Attorney or Public Adjuster, should the shtf.

 
 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-08-04 14:42:29

Southwest Fresno leaders criticize hiring of white teacher for Gaston school’s cultural studies

BY HANNAH FURFARO
The Fresno BeeJuly 28, 2014

With just weeks before the new Rutherford B. Gaston Middle School opens in southwest Fresno, community and church leaders are calling on Fresno Unified School District to reconsider its hiring of a white teacher to instruct African-American, Latino and Southeast Asian studies there.

At an early morning news conference Monday, a small group of concerned citizens led by Rev. Karen Crozier met in front of the school on Church Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

People at the gathering said the new school, which is the first southwest Fresno middle school in decades, needs teachers who reflect the ethnic and racial background of its students.

Crozier and others were dismayed to learn the person hired to teach the school’s three cultural studies classes is white. District officials initially considered hiring a teacher of color, she said, but ultimately hired Peter Beck, a former teacher at Hoover High School.

“We’re just saying what the community wants. We didn’t fight for a white male or female teacher to educate our babies,” Crozier said. “We still are at these racial fault lines, and we want someone who will be able to think critically about those racial fault lines and how do we help heal, to restore the problems that have existed.”

District spokeswoman Micheline Golden did not confirm any details about who the district interviewed for the position.

But she said Beck was the best pick for the job and one of only four teachers in Fresno Unified with experience teaching the three cultural studies classes he’ll be responsible for at Gaston.

He has a decade of experience teaching Latino Studies courses and two years of experience teaching African-American courses, Golden said. Beck also has led Hoover’s Men’s Alliance for four years, a leadership class for at-risk teens. Golden did not know how many years Beck has taught Southeast Asian studies classes.

“We are always looking at the best, most experienced, most qualified who can provide the best education for our young people,” she said.

District Trustee Cal Johnson, who represents the southwest Fresno community and was not involved in the hiring process, said he supports Beck for the position.

“I do not believe colorism trumps qualifications,” he said. “I don’t care whether it’s white, whether it’s black, brown or yellow.”

One of Beck’s former students, Sabrina Fink, said it was “heart-wrenching” to hear he was the subject of the dispute.

Fink, a 2002 Hoover High graduate who is Hispanic, said she remembers Beck’s enthusiasm and inspiring teaching style from taking his Chicano studies and Mexican history class. He’d frequently bring in speakers, write quotes and statistics on the whiteboard about Hispanic youth and organize culturally sensitive projects on traditional Mexican holidays.

“He inspired all of us,” she said.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/07/28/4044162/southwest-fresno-leaders-criticize.html#storylink=cpy

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-04 15:32:51

Southwest Fresno leaders criticize hiring of white teacher for Gaston school’s cultural studies

Now that is racist and totally dumb. What a bunch of ignorant clowns.

Comment by MightyMike
2014-08-04 16:33:37

You must be wrong about that. Racism was completely eliminated from America many decades ago. Anyone who makes an accusation of racism is just uttering nonsense. That’s what the right wing media implies. It sure is strange that Mr. Drudge would link to this Fresno Bee story. He must not read enough of the rest of the hundreds of right wing websites.

 
 
Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 15:43:32

A perfect example of the Media/Academia Race Hustlers Industrial Complex™

Maybe they should refuse the tax dollars for public education paid by the white taxpayers of the city of Fresno and the state of California, and only accept a proportional amount paid by the blacks and browns

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 16:00:07

The minimum wage would preclude that.

 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-08-04 16:13:14

I couldn’t stand my Chicano studies and Mexican history teacher.

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-04 16:15:50

I never had one. That probably explains why I rent. I should have studied more important issues.

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Comment by phony scandals
2014-08-04 16:23:47

“I never had one”

I didn’t think anyone who attended high school in the United States did.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 16:17:03

Opinion
How will China handle its real estate bubble?
The answer depends on which faction of the Communist Party gains control
August 4, 2014 10:00AM ET
by Philip Pilkington @pilkingtonphil

China’s economy has been on a rocky path since the global financial crisis of 2008. Many observers have decried the existence of massive excesses in property investment, warning the country’s economy is too reliant on a property bubble that is waiting to burst. Yet China marches ahead. In April, The Financial Times estimated that, for the first time since the 1870s, this year China will be the world’s largest economy, supplanting the United States.

There is massive overinvestment in property across China. For example, one observer recently told me that apartment builders in Beijing do not even bother finishing the buildings because they sell the properties to investors, not consumers who are looking for a home. The existence of vast, uninhabited ghost towns and vacant shopping malls springing up across the country has been widely documented.

However, in order to truly understand the state of China’s economy, we must first appreciate the fact that it is not a typical capitalist country. To a large extent, the state directs investments even of privately held firms. For example, private banks in China are closely linked to the state in ways not seen elsewhere. While Western central banks backstop private banks when they engage in bad lending, China takes an active role in telling financial institutions where and to whom they should extend credit.

In response to the 2008 financial crisis, China ramped up lending by undertaking much of the economic stimulus through private banks. This stimulus now accounts for a large share of bad loans in the Chinese banking system and the excess in investment in property. But lending has since slowed down enormously from its 2009 peak. The following graph illustrates the growth in money supply (M2) in China over the last decade and half.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-08-04 16:25:04

Why post over a collapse you expect in twenty years?

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 17:10:47

Over twenty years, not in twenty years.

Give it one to five years to get underway…

 
 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 16:18:46

China’s Economy Faces Anti-Graft Fears Amid Crackdown
An analysis by Michael Lelyveld
2014-08-04
Zhou Yongkang at the National People’s Congress opening session in Beijing, March 5, 2012.
AFP

China’s widening anti-corruption campaign has unsettled officials at all levels, stalling the government’s economic agenda and administrative reforms, experts say.

The mounting toll of probes, prosecutions and punishments for offenses ranging from bribery to moral misbehavior has sent officials running for cover, slowing implementation of new economic policies to a crawl.

Local bureaucracies are “effectively on strike,” wrote forbes.com contributor Gordon Chang, quoting John Fitzgerald, director of the Asia-Pacific Center of Australia’s Swinburne University of Technology.

Deals and decisions have reportedly been delayed by officials who are afraid to issue approvals or disapprovals in the absence of a safe political course.

“In this environment, those in government feel endangered,” Chang wrote. “While all this happens, economic activity is beginning to suffer,” he said.

There may be no way of estimating the economic impact of the corruption crackdown since President Xi Jinping took over as general secretary of the ruling Chinese Communist Party in November 2012. But disincentives for risk-taking have risen at a time when the government has called for market-oriented reforms.

One reason is the growing scope and sheer volume of anti-graft cases, convictions and party expulsions this year.

Although official tallies do not necessarily jibe, the counts of corruption cases suggest punishments on a colossal scale.

In the first five months of the year, some 63,000 officials have been sanctioned, according to China International Radio. The 35-percent increase in cases compared with the year-earlier period would means that penalties have been meted out at a rate of over 400 per day.

The Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) has “dealt with” 61,703 people in 41,150 cases for breaches of “anti-bureaucracy rules,” punishing 6,601 people in June alone, the official Xinhua news agency said.

In the first half of the year, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) investigated over 25,000 people for corruption, also according to Xinhua. Prosecutors pursued some 16,000 “major cases” of bribery and embezzlement, the SPP said.

The campaign reached a pinnacle on July 29, when the party’s Central Committee announced a CCDI investigation of former security chief Zhou Yongkang for “serious disciplinary violation.”

The move against Zhou, which has been rumored since last year, marks the first publicized probe of a former Politburo Standing Committee member, shaking the party power structure to the core.

“When it comes to the law and Party discipline, no one should bet on the odds of escape and entertain the illusion that there is some kind of ’safe box,’” the official party paper People’s Daily said in a commentary quoted by Xinhua.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 16:21:17

Growth in China’s services sector at six-month low
There is also a downturn in the housing sector but manufacturing has begun to recover
The Guardian, Sunday 3 August 2014 12.41 EDT
A window cleaner at an office building in Shenyang, Liaoning province. The services sector has been a bright spot in the Chinese conomy for a while. Photograph: Sheng Li/Reuters

Growth in China’s services sector slipped to a six-month low in July as new orders rose at their weakest rate in at least a year, data indicated, taking some of the shine off an industry that has been a bright spot in the Chinese economy this year.

The slight retreat in the services sector came at a time when China’s factories have started to recover, having earlier this year been one of the drags on growth in the world’s second largest economy due to faltering demand at home and abroad.

The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the non-manufacturing sector slowed to 54.2 in July from June’s 55, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday. That is the weakest reading since January.

A reading above 50 indicates an expansion in activity while one below the threshold points to a contraction.

China’s once-heated housing market has slowed this year as sales and prices turned south in their biggest pull-back in two years, driven in part by a cooling economy, and after the government tried for almost five years to calm the market.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 16:23:16

China Power
Stop Predicting China’s Economic Collapse
Let’s not panic about a Chinese economic collapse just yet.
By Tyler Roney
August 01, 2014

This spring and early summer were full of reports that China’s economy — and the dangerous political clout that comes with it — were ebbing. Some were even predicting that the Dragon Economy would collapse altogether and that it would take the world with it in its spiral toward oblivion. But despite these predictions of an economic doomsday, things are looking up this month. Manufacturing surged in July, indeed, rising faster than it has in the past two years. The purchasing managers index (PMI) hit 51.7 last month — the best since April 2012. Any number above 50 indicates growth, but the larger picture shows more than growth; it shows momentum. The main reason for this bump comes in the form of government policy, from boosting spending on railways and social housing to tax breaks for small enterprises.

Yes, China’s “Protect the Eight” is now “Protect the 7.5″, but it’s to be expected. Small things like China’s first bond default back in March caused a bit of mild suspicion and panic; in reality, China was just letting the market do what it does (onlookers can be forgiven for not recognizing this rare sight). Companies are learning their lessons and running from the Chinese “Debt Trap” in unusual ways, and the race to create a consumer culture is taking hold. Gordon G. Chang’s infamous and now proven incorrect book The Coming Collapse of China — a favorite whipping boy for pro-China nationalists — included very real worries, positing that China’s sluggish state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and bogus loans would wreak havoc in five to ten years. That was in 2001 — 13 years later “the coming collapse” still hasn’t arrived. In short, whether people are baffled by China’s numbers, angry over the effect China is having on their countries, or just fed up with the Communist Party’s grandstanding and human rights violations, their concerns haven’t translated to economic failure.

Of course, the lynchpin of the supposed collapse is the Chinese housing market. Fear of shadow banking, unregulated and sometimes unreasonable construction, and the outright cost of all this development (all legitimate worries) has had many wondering when the Chinese housing market is going to collapse and take world markets with it. However, China’s housing market simply defies prediction and common sense. Supposed bubble burst after bubble burst, the market remains reliable, and this is due in no small part to the tightening and loosening of government policy. Chang has been at the head of the housing doomsday brigade, and there’s nothing really wrong with that; pointing to systemic flaws is important. But catastrophic collapse does seem increasingly unlikely.

On housing, the government knows it’s in a bit of a pickle — they have to keep building because it makes up such a large portion of the GDP but building could cause the bubble to finally burst big time. It’s true, China has built too much, but the likely reality is that prices for properties and construction will drop, which will keep China away from the constant predictions of a doomsday scenario. And it did look like doomsday to some. But today, the doomsday predictions for China seem more and more like wishful thinking. While the numbers may point in the direction of worst case scenario, China’s authoritarian government is always quick to act.

Comment by Combotechie
2014-08-04 16:54:33

On housing, the government knows it’s in a bit of a pickle — they have to keep building because it makes up such a large portion of the GDP but building could cause the bubble to finally burst big time.”

So they have to keep building not because there is a lot of demand for housing but because it makes up such a large part of GDP?

Sum Ting Wong

“It’s true, China has built too much, but the likely reality is that prices for properties and construction will drop, which will keep China away from the constant predictions of a doomsday scenario.”

But … but … but if prices drop then the values represented by these dropping prices also will drop and these dropping values are what backs the trillions of dollars of loans that stand behind it all - that financed it all - just as it is everywhere else on the planet.

“And it did look like doomsday to some. But today, the doomsday predictions for China seem more and more like wishful thinking. While the numbers may point in the direction of worst case scenario, China’s authoritarian government is always quick to act.”

Yeah, China’s authoritarian government is always quick to act just as our authoritarian Federal Reserve Board is always quick to act but nevertheless look where we ended up.

 
 
Comment by goon squad
2014-08-04 16:53:16

Region VIII checking in.

 
Comment by goon squad
 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-08-04 19:12:59

TWO ILLEGALS CHARGED IN MURDER OF BORDER AGENT

In addition to infectious diseases, violence also spilling over open US-Mexico border..

by ADAN SALAZAR | INFOWARS.COM | AUGUST 4, 2014

Two Mexican nationals are being charged with the murder of an off-duty Border Patrol agent, who was shot over the weekend while on a fishing trip with his family, reports claim.

Customs and Border Protection agent Javier Vega, Jr. died after attempting to defend his family from bandits Sunday night near the South Texas town of Lyford. Vega’s father was also injured in the shooting, but is recovering at a local hospital.

“It was an attempted robbery,” said Willacy County Sheriff Larry Spence.

Two men – described by authorities in earlier reports only as “Hispanic” – driving an SUV approached the Vegas around 8PM. The men began to hold the family up, but were reportedly startled when they saw Vega had a gun holstered on his hip, the sheriff said.

After exchanging fire with the agent, the men fled in their vehicle, but didn’t make it too far.

“They got a ways down the road before the thing stopped working,” Spence said.

From there they fled on foot along a floodway toward the nearest small town of Sebastian. A homeowner let investigators know the men were holed up outside in his shed.

Sheriff Spence does not suspect Vega was targeted for being a federal agent, and feels the shooting fits a pattern of violence found recently in South Texas.

“Another one of these typical robbery things,” Spence explained. “People fishing, people drive by, turn around, come back, pull weapons and rob them.”

“In this case, someone got shot.”

KRGV reports that the men confessed to the shooting once they were found. They told police they didn’t mean to shoot Vega, but only wanted to scare him into giving up his car, cash and jewelry.

“It’s getting very dangerous out there,” the sheriff warned. “You don’t know who you’re going to run into or what they’re up to or why they’re there.”

The men are expected to be arraigned Tuesday and will face capital murder and aggravated theft charges.

Though the Sheriff believes the agent’s death is purely coincidental, the incident will no doubt raise further concerns that the United States’ defacto open border policy is inviting not only those innocently claiming to be refugees, but some who wish to cause violence as well.
Last month, Infowars also scraped up a buried story highlighting the death of a homeless man in Maryland at the hands of a group of six illegal immigrant gang members, who beat and stabbed the man for merely arguing with one of them.

The sheriff’s attempt to downplay the shooting also fits with a pattern discussed in a report last month following another shooting in the Rio Grande Valley.

According to Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert, federal agents working along the border had to run for cover when .50-caliber shots rang out on the Mexican side of the Rio Bravo.

“We don’t have any armor that can stop a .50-caliber round, so our Border Patrol agents had to take cover when the rounds were ricocheting around them,” Rep. Gohmert told Fox after visiting the border.

In what one Border Patrol source said is “an attempt to maintain a false sense of calm,” CBP officialdom did not inform agents of the circumstances surrounding the shooting, nor did it issue a memo warning of any increased danger.

 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2014-08-04 20:47:22

Don’t buy the Dip. The Fed is NOT your Friend.

By David Stockman

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2379485-dont-buy-this-dip-the-fed-is-not-your-friend

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 23:21:25

Maybe this time is different, but 300+ HBB posts in one day has traditionally been a harbinger of bad economic news.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-04 23:23:48

Economist who predicted busted housing bubble says another recession is coming
By Bernard Condon
Associated Press
Posted: 07/22/2014 11:58:06 AM PDT3 Comments | Updated: 11 days ago
Contrarian’s Case: Why US Could Dip Into Recession

Employers in the U.S. are creating jobs at the fastest pace since the late 1990s and the economy finally looks ready to expand at a healthy rate. But sluggish growth in France, Italy, Russia, Brazil and China…

NEW YORK — Just as the U.S. economy is strengthening, other countries are threatening to drag it down.

Employers in the U.S. are creating jobs at the fastest pace since the late 1990s and the economy finally looks ready to expand at a healthy rate. But sluggish growth in France, Italy, Russia, Brazil and China suggests that the old truism, “When the U.S. sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold,” may need to be flipped.

Maybe the rest of the world will sneeze this time, and the U.S. will get sick.

That’s the view of David Levy, who oversees the Levy Forecast, a newsletter analyzing the economy that his family started in 1949 and one with an enviable record. Nearly a decade ago, the now-59-year-old economist warned that U.S. housing was a bubble set to burst, and that the damage would push the country into a recession so severe the Federal Reserve would have no choice but to slash short-term borrowing rates to their lowest levels ever to stimulate the economy. That’s exactly what happened. Now, Levy says the United States is likely to fall into a recession next year triggered by downturns in other countries, the first time in modern history.

“The recession for the rest of the world … will be worse than the last one,” says Levy, whose grandfather called the 1929 stock crash and whose father won praise over decades for anticipating turns in the business cycle, often against conventional wisdom.

Levy’s forecast for a global recession is an extreme one, but worth considering given so much is riding on the dominant view that economies are healing. Investors have pushed U.S. stocks to record highs, and Fed estimates have the U.S. growing at an annual pace of at least 3 percent for the rest of the year and all of 2015. Investors have also poured hundreds of millions of dollars into emerging market stock funds recently on hopes economic growth in those countries will pick up, not stall.

Worrisome signs are already out there. Unlike their U.S. counterparts, European banks are still stuck with too many bad loans from the financial crisis. Household and business debt there is too high. And confidence is fleeting, as investors saw earlier this month when stocks sold off on worries over the stability of Portugal’s largest bank.

In China and other emerging markets, the old problem of relying on indebted Americans to buy more of their goods each year and not selling enough to their own people means a glut of underused factories.

“The world hopes to ride on the coattails of the U.S. consumer,” says Eswar Prasad, an economist at Cornell University, “but the U.S. consumer isn’t in a position to take on the burden.”

Comment by rms
2014-08-05 05:47:58

“The problem is not just that people in the U.S. took on mortgages they couldn’t afford, but too much borrowing of many kinds in many countries, and by businesses as well as individuals.”

+1 But it shouldn’t require a genius to arrive at this conclusion.

 
 
 
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