Bits Bucket for December 18, 2014
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Troubled US homeowners get more government relief
Josh Boak, Ap Economics Writer
December 4, 2014 Updated: December 4, 2014 11:03am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeowners whose mortgages were modified to stave off foreclosure could next year receive an additional $5,000 reduction in their loans from the government, the Treasury and Housing and Urban Development departments said Thursday.
The payments would impact roughly 1 million borrowers who received reduced mortgage rates through the Home Affordable Modification Program during the Great Recession. The discounted 2 percent mortgage rates are scheduled to rise by a percentage point for many of these borrowers entering the sixth year of the program. That would increase monthly payments for those who might still be struggling to find work or additional income.
The plan announced Thursday is designed to mute the shock from higher interest rates — and thus higher monthly payments — on HAMP borrowers. Nearly two-thirds of the program’s borrowers have less than 20 percent equity or owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, putting them in a fragile financial situation.
“It’s about trying to prevent as many avoidable foreclosures as we can,” said Timothy Bowler, deputy assistant Treasury secretary for financial stability.
…
Money is being printed and will be handed to the banks. Does it really matter how many zeros are being added to the Govt and the Feds balance sheets? What’s the difference we all know this debt is never going to be paid back? So why not party it up. Why let a few trillion dollars between crony friends ruin things.
Does that imply that 1/3 of people in HAMP have more than 20 percent equity in their homes?
“Indeed, the Fed’s lunatic assurance this afternoon that the Wall Street casino will have had free money for 76 months running, and that it will remain quasi-free long thereafter only means that the current financial bubbles in virtually every class of “risk assets” will become even more artificial, unstable and incendiary.”
Except for oil; that will still plummet. This is great news, and positively bullish for the US economy.
I was wondering that myself. If they have 20% equity — or ANY equity for that matter — then they don’t need my tax monies. GTFO and rent.
We all deserve an obama bailout.
As long as we vote for the right party.
Of course your boys are bitterly opposed to all this, I hear.
Yep - no differences. This is true when democrats are in power. When republicans are in power, they are the root of all evil and must be voted out immediately because there are huge differences.
Romney and Ryan’s plan..
End “Too-Big-To-Fail” And Reform Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac: The Romney-Ryan plan will completely end “too-big-to-fail” by reforming the GSEs. The four years since taxpayers took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, spending $140 billion in the process, is too long to wait for reform. Rather than just talk about reform, a Romney-Ryan Administration will protect taxpayers from additional risk in the future by reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and provide a long-term, sustainable solution for the future of housing finance reform in our country.
Other than that, in the paper, Romney talks about “responsibly” selling 200,000 government-owned homes, getting rid of Dodd Frank, improving the job market, and making foreclosures easier.
http://www.businessinsider.com
Bah. Don’t tell me what promises Romney and Ryan made. Republicans are going to own both houses of Congress. What real reforms are they pushing, here and now? None that I’m aware. They sell out every chance they get.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Romney and Ryan are crony capitalists and Wall Street stooges.
2Brony seems pretty impressionable. Perhaps he’s interested in some waterfront property on the moon.
You had your Paulson, no more Paulson for you. TBTF
After the Dow Jones dropped 30% and turmoil ensued in the global markets, Paulson pushed through legislation authorizing the Treasury to use $700 billion to stabilize the financial system.
“Nearly two-thirds of the program’s borrowers have less than 20 percent equity or owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, putting them in a fragile financial situation.”
Were these HAMP folks the Option ARM borrowers?
Moral hazzard, look out below. Better hope nobody owes you money. The new American attitude about paying back debt and bankruptcy? Meh…
Government “relief” = taking from taxpayers to give to FBs. When are taxpayers and the productive going to say “enough!” to these involuntary wealth transfers?
Resident out $800 in phone scam: University Heights Police Blotter
A resident visited the station to report a phone scam at 1:17 p.m. Dec. 10. The woman received a call two days prior informing her that she would lose her home to foreclosure if she did not send $800 via prepaid money cards. The caller claimed to represent Chase Bank, which did not hold the victim’s mortgage. The woman forwarded the money nonetheless. Police are investigating the all-too-common fraud.
“… $800 via prepaid money cards.” = tuition.
Tuition for a lesson, a cheap one too, IMO.
If she learned anything from this lesson then she may end up saving thousands of dollars down the line a bit.
Im not sure they should be looking to arrest the phone scammers or the woman for criminal stupidity. I really dont want any of my tax dollars spent helping out someone foolish enough to send $800 in prepaid phone cards to a stranger based on a phone call. If this person is old and incompetent they should not be in charge of their own finances.
If criminal stupidity was a crime, our prisons would be bursting at the seams. Unfortunately, IQ matters but we like to ignore that clear fact.
Nearly half the people in the country are below average intelligence.
Actually, it could be a fair bit more than half. Do you think the distribution has more outliers on the upside or the downside?
Actually, it could be a fair bit more than half.
Obama’s election suggests that you are right.
I don’t know, I’m pretty happy with the way Obama has handled things, except for being too easy on the banks. I especially like the way he drives conservatives into fits of impotent rage. Four more years!
I especially like the way he drives conservative into fits- of impotent rage
You made a mistake it should read: I especially like the way he drives conservatives to the polls causing the most Republican House in over eighty years.
Yet he keeps issuing executive orders, and now he is opening up relations with Cuba. It’s almost like he thinks he’s still president or something.
Of course, it would be a different story if Obama and the democrat party could run things the way they do in China, Why, I read the other day that the Chinese communist party has decided to make everyone single Chinese citizen a multi-millionaire within three weeks. Can you imagine?! I hear their GDP will go up one trillion per cent every three minutes. Let’s see stupid Obama do that.
And with every action he takes he drops in the polls and causes his entire party to lose votes and everything he does can be undone in two years.
His last executive order was just found to be unconstitutional so let him continue to issue them because it makes liberals less and less popular.
How popular is Obama at wedding parties in the middle east?
He is the bomb.
95% of our electorate voted for Obama, McCain, and Romney, which demonstrates how far down the path of IDOCRACY we’ve devolved. Criminal stupidity is the new normal.
If people don’t pay to enforce laws, then we will not have a reliable society. The character of the victim is moot.
“This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush
“There’s no black male my age, who’s a professional, who hasn’t come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn’t hand them their car keys,” - President Barack Obama
The full interview appears in Friday’s issue of the magazine.
What real discrimination looks like:
What a real war on women looks like:
ISIS SLAUGHTERS 150 FEMALES IN IRAQ FOR REFUSING TO MARRY, HAVE SEX WITH THEM
Breitbart | December 17, 2014 | Mary Chastain
Iraq’s Ministry of Human Rights claims the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) murdered 150 women simply because they refused to marry or perform sexual acts with the terrorists.
“At least 150 females, including pregnant women, were executed in Fallujah by a militant named Abu Anas Al-Libi after they refused to accept jihad marriage,” said the Ministry. “Many families were also forced to migrate from the province’s northern town of Al-Wafa after hundreds of residents received death threats.”
“What real discrimination looks like:
What a real war on women looks like”
What real Islam looks like
opinion | H.D.S. Greenway
Pakistan school attack takes Taliban to a new level of atrocity
The extremists are copying Islamic State’s terror strategy
By H.D.S. Greenway
December 18, 2014
It is a sad fact of modern life that homicidally inclined extremists feel they have to compete in frightfulness. It is no longer enough to just kill people in twos and threes. Terrorist outrages have to be evermore spectacular in the post-9/11 age. The attack this week on an army-run school in Peshawar, Pakistan, that killed 145, most of them children, takes atrocity to a new level for the Taliban, which is no doubt a reason why it did it.
…
Another reason for targeting school children is to countermand the attention that this year’s Nobel peace laureate, Malala Yousafzai, has attained on the world stage. The Taliban has never ceased from denouncing the young school girl who was shot and nearly killed by a Taliban gunman in nearby Swat. She has been a powerful spokesperson for education for girls, which the Taliban opposes. Religiously conservative Pashtuns on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border are not in favor of educating girls, and that was one of the motivating factors for opposing the Russians and the Afghan Communists in the 1980, who were in favor of education for girls. Killing school children is a way to get back at Malala and the West that has lionized her.
…
How is this act different?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4PgpbQfxgo
“ISIS Slaughters 150 females in Iraq”
- Statists gotta state.
The USA should go fully voluntarist. That is the defiance against people who choose to initiate force. Instead the USA has followed the very same demands from OBL: The Patriot Act, the NDAA, the TSA, etc, all to greatly reduce our freedoms just as the fundie Muslims want (and Fundie Christians).
If the Muslims hated us for our freedoms in 2001, shouldn’t they mildly dislike us by now for our far fewer freedoms?
ISIS isn’t killing Americans.
Here is hint for you.
America’s FIRST war was against the muslims.
We were a tiny speck of a country with not one overseas soldier/base back then. We barely had a navy.
Yet the muslims hated us then.
It is not about freedom. It is about conquering the world for islam.
“From the Hall of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli…”
I know it doesn’t fit into you little meme that America is always wrong and is the root of all evil…
What? You do not know about the beheadings of Americans?
2ban:
Once again, you cross the line in defense of your employer. You suggest that as long as Republicans aren’t officially raping and murdering American women, then everything else is OK. Would you believe that some of us have higher expectations of you?
Argue with me; I dare you.
You are right. obama says he was once mistaken for a car valet and some small white dude asked Michelle to help him get down some products on a top Target shelf.
We are truly and evil and racist country.
It is funny how Africans line up to come to America though. Even with all that car valeting going on…
And they ignore the “all cultures are equal” muslim countries…
I’ve had short women (and guys) ask me to pull stuff off the shelves for them (I’m 6′ 1″). Somehow I didn’t feel demeaned.
“Somehow I didn’t feel demeaned.”
You can listen to Jimmy H, but [you] can’t feel his pain.
What a coddled POS the POTUS is.
All short white people are racists
You Won’t Believe Michelle Obama’s Definition of Racism
First Lady reveals appalling example of ’stereotyping’ in Target store
by Paul Joseph Watson | December 18, 2014
In an interview with People Magazine entitled The Obamas: How We Deal with Our Own Racist Experiences, the First Lady describes how “the impact of stereotypes” effects her own family when the protective bubble of Secret Service security is removed, with particular reference to when she visited a Target store incognito as part of a lame photo-op to try and prove she was just like everyone else.
“I tell this story – I mean, even as the first lady – during that wonderfully publicized trip I took to Target, not highly disguised, the only person who came up to me in the store was a woman who asked me to help her take something off a shelf,” said the First Lady. “Because she didn’t see me as the first lady, she saw me as someone who could help her. Those kinds of things happen in life. So it isn’t anything new.”
Yes that’s right, Michelle Obama thinks that a woman in Target erroneously thought she was an employee and asked her for help because she was racist and automatically assumed Obama worked there because she was black, and that the request for help had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Obama is a tall woman who is probably good at taking things off shelves.
Indeed, when the First Lady originally told the story during an appearance on the David Letterman Show, it was obvious that the reason the woman in Target asked Obama for help was not because of her skin color but because of her height.
“No one knew that was me. Because a woman actually walked up to me, right? I was in the detergent aisle, and she said — I kid you not — she said, ‘Excuse me, I just have to ask you something.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, cover’s blown.’ She said, ‘Can you reach on that shelf and hand me the detergent?’ I kid you not. And the only thing she said — I reached up, because she was short, and I reached up, pulled it down. She said, ‘Well, you didn’t have to make it look so easy.’ That was my interaction. I felt so good.”
“Clearly, she’s had time since then to think about what really happened: RACISM,” writes Jim Treacher. “Let this be a lesson to you, white racists of America (if that isn’t redundant). When you see Michelle and her assistant at Target, get your damn laundry detergent yourself.”
OMG, is this true? I am a short person who helps other short people to get things off of shelves. I’m a rebel and rule-breaker who actually climbs the shelves in the store so that I (and all the other wimmins) can actually get things without calling for help. Now I will be asked to do double-duty because everyone will be scared to ask a tall person.
Is this story seriously true, though? Did Michelle seriously jump to this conclusion? I’m too busy to look through the interwebs for a good reference.
Now I will be asked to do double-duty because everyone will be scared to ask a tall person.
Why not just tell them to emulate you and get it themselves?
Is this story seriously true, though? Did Michelle seriously jump to this conclusion?
You would have to have a brain of stone not to roll on the floor laughing after reading these kinds of stories.
Obama: I’ve been mistaken for a valet driver - CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-ive-been-mistaken-for-a-valet-driver-waiter/ - 130k - Cached - Similar pages
1 day ago ..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NvgLkuEtkA
Short People by Randy Neuman.
Short people got no reason to live…
“There’s no black male my age, who’s a professional, who hasn’t come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn’t hand them their car keys,” - President Barack Obama
So people hand their keys to guys not wearing a valet parking uniform just because they’re black? Seriously?
Well, obama has been mistaken for a president…
“So people hand their keys to guys not wearing a valet parking uniform just because they’re black? Seriously?”
So they’re Grubering their stories a little to stir some hands up can’t breathe sh#t up.
They can’t have people looking at stories like this.
Obama Justice Department Was Involved In IRS Targeting, Lerner Emails Reveal
12/10/2014 @ 7:57PM
Sadly, the 18 month investigation into the IRS targeting of conservative groups isn’t over, and it may be worse than anyone thought. A federal judge has broken loose more emails that the DOJ had surely hoped would never surface. The picture it reveals isn’t pretty. The documents prove that Lois Lerner met with DOJ’s Election Crimes Division a month before the 2010 elections.
It has to be embarrassing to the DOJ, which may not be the most impartial one to be investigating the IRS. In fact, the DOJ withheld over 800 pages of Lerner documents citing “taxpayer privacy” and “deliberative privilege.” Yet these internal DOJ documents show Ms. Lerner was talking to DOJ officials about prosecuting tax-exempt entities (yes, criminally!) two years before the IRS conceded there was inappropriate targeting.
Ms. Lerner met with top officials from the DOJ’s Election Crimes Branch in October of 2010. Although Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the DOJ (Judicial Watch v. Department of Justice, No. 14-cv-01239), the DOJ coughed up dirt only on court order. Even then, the DOJ handed over only two pages of heavily redacted emails.
http://www.forbes.com/…/ - 351k -
Comment by phony scandals
2014-12-18 10:05:14
Obama Justice Department Was Involved In IRS Targeting, Lerner Emails Reveal
12/10/2014 @ 7:57PM
forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2014/12/10/obama-justice-department-was-involved-in-irs-targeting-lerner-emails-reveal/
Obama driving the car:
http://motoring.iafrica.com/features/975591.html
I’m not a black male, but I have frequently been mistaken for a janitor or a staffer at building supply stores I visit. When I wear a blue polo shirt in Best Buy I get mistaken for a Geek Squad person. Big deal. If I went everywhere dressed in a tuxedo, I’d probably be mistaken for a penguin.
I think the “recovery” has been a three legged stool and all the legs are quite wobbly. Housing starts have increased to about one million per year, which is about double the bottom, but new mortgage applications are quite weak so that leg is not very sound. The second leg has been fracking with the direct and indirect jobs created by the boom, we know the problem with that leg. The third leg has been vehicle sales fueled by sub-prime auto loans, the delinquency rate on those has been soaring. Taken to gather this is one wobbly stool and yes this sucker could go down.
“Many savers are also homeowners; indeed, a family’s home may be its most important financial asset. Many savers are working, or would like to be. Some savers own businesses, and–through pension funds and 401(k) accounts–they often own stocks and other assets. The crisis and recession have led to very low interest rates, it is true, but these events have also destroyed jobs, hamstrung economic growth, and led to sharp declines in the values of many homes and businesses. What can be done to address all of these concerns simultaneously? The best and most comprehensive solution is to find ways to a stronger economy. Only a strong economy can create higher asset values and sustainably good returns for savers. And only a strong economy will allow people who need jobs to find them. Without a job, it is difficult to save for retirement or to buy a home or to pay for an education, irrespective of the current level of interest rates.
The way for the Fed to support a return to a strong economy is by maintaining monetary accommodation, which requires low interest rates for a time.”
“The bottom” is a long way down from here ABQ_D.
Fed pumped up the stock market again. Stocks up all over the world.
Right as we were in danger of erasing much of the years gains and jeopardizing wall street bonuses and year end numbers for financial planners?
It sure beats deflation (channeling central banker thinking)…
Russian oligarchs bailing out of superheated London housing market and taking their ill-gotten gains elsewhere. Looks like the leading edge of a housing bubble burst there.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-17/russians-quit-london-luxury-homes-as-only-super-rich-stay.html
“So if some headline grabbing algos want to hyper-ventilate because the clueless money printers in the Eccles Building have now emitted the word “patient”, so be it. But why would you pay 20X for the S&P 500’s bubble bloated profits which have already peaked, and which will be subject to fierce global headwinds as far as the eye can see?”
What else you going to buy ?
Something to with central bankers. I feel like I was forced to buy stocks. I’m really mad at myself for doing it.
Did you jump in at the top?
Obama says it again: No ground troops in Iraq - CBS News
Sep 17, 2014 · The president repeated his opposition to U.S. boots on the ground in Iraq, … Obama: No “combat mission” for U.S. troops in Iraq. Sunday Morning
———————–
ISIS Attacks American Base In Iraq In First Ever Clash With U.S. Troops
http://www.inquisitr.com ^ | december 17, 2014 | nathan Francis
American troops in Iraq had their first actual battle with ISIS troops after the Islamist militants tried to overrun a base, an encounter that left the ISIS troops decimated and in retreat.
The attack took place near the Ein al-Asad base, which includes close to 100 U.S. military advisers. The U.S. troops, armed with “light and medium weapons,” and were able to inflict casualties against the ISIS fighters, forcing them to retreat, Shafaq News reported. The American troops were also aided by fighter jets, which directed air strikes against the ISIS troops that “silenced their heavy sources of fire.”
“US forces intervened because of ISIS started to come near the base, which they are stationed in so out of self-defense,” said Sheikh Mahmud Nimrawi, a prominent tribal leader.
The incident was the first time that American troops clashed with ISIS forces on the ground in Iraq.
“The U.S. troops, armed with “light and medium weapons …”
And a radio or two.
“The American troops were also aided by fighter jets, which directed air strikes against the ISIS troops that “silenced their heavy sources of fire.”
This is where the radios come into play.
Is there no headquarters to bomb out of existence?
The local mosque…
or is it the loco mosque?
I look at a website which gives almost daily battlefield reports from Iraq, it reminds me so much of Vietnam, you get reports of body counts and victories such as recapturing areas only to hear that the same areas are recaptured by ISIS or at least attacked a few days later. The key is whether we are killing ISIS fighters faster than they are being recruited. ISIS has began to conscript so we are killing them faster than they are volunteering but I do not think we are winning this one.
Here is an example remember a few weeks ago when we were bragging about the refinery and the area around it being in the firm control of the Iraqi forces, well now not so much:
http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/urgent-security-forces-withdraw-center-south-baiji/
‘The key is whether we are killing ISIS fighters faster than they are being recruited’
I have to try and remember, what was the western media outrage back when the US and other moral exemplars, like the Saudi’s, were funding ISIS? It wasn’t that long ago. Did you see the youtubes where the leader ate a Syrian’s human lung. Or the one where they cut off a soldiers head and cooked it on a hibachi? This was right about the same time John McCain was having his picture taken with them.
Around that time, I posted a non-western report of the Syrian “rebels” using a car bomb on a busy street, which killed their 1 target along with 80 civilians. Now don’t you suppose that bomb resulted in a bunch of lost legs like the Boston bomb? Boy, the media got really worked up about that one. Interesting how selective it all is.
And don’t forget, the leader of ISIS was in a US prison in Iraq. But what’s a little rectal feeding between regime changers?
Which brings me back to something I always think of whenever Syria comes up; how long would this “civil war” have lasted if the GCC and the CIA weren’t helping it along? And we’re told around 200,000 people, mostly civilians, are dead.
While the link above is best for the most current news on Iraq, this site is the most insightful:
http://iswiraq.blogspot.com/
I do not think we are winning this one.
First of all, define ‘victory’ and then we can discuss whether or not we are winning, losing, or just killing people and breaking things.
First of all, define ‘victory’ and then we can discuss whether or not we are winning, losing, or just killing people and breaking things.
Victory is basic stability. I have always said on this board that I oppose any effort to bring democracy to that region since it is an impossible task due to Islam. Presidents such as Carter, Bush II and now Obama have failed miserably and cost this country lives, treasury and higher oil prices when they pursue the naïve policy of promoting democracy for the region. 80% and more of their people support things like genital mutilation for girls, I do not want them to be rule by the President of their choice. I want someone who will try to force them into the 21st century.
The victory is in the form of the US Government and its mouthpiece, the MSM, in getting the American public worked up about beheadings and such and call for more military spending and more laws. More exchange of everyone’s freedoms for false security.
Just go away, Dan.
why won’t you love ME?”
Your personality for one thing.
Your definition doesn’t smell like victory to me.
It is the best you can ever hope for in the Middle east.
What kind of retard believes we can force our own values, peace, and stability through military action in the middle east?
Obama says it again: No ground troops in Iraq - CBS News
We are going to call them community organizers.
“The IMF decision to possibly eliminate U.S. veto power and, thus, influence over IMF decisions may come as early as the first quarter of next year. This is the great “economic reset” that Largarde has been promoting ad nauseam in multiple interviews and speeches over the past six months. All of these measures are culminating in what I believe will be a more official announcement of a dump of the U.S. dollar as world reserve currency.
Along with the imminent loss of veto power, I have also written on the concerns of the coming SDR conference in 2015. This conference is held only once every five years. My suspicion has been that the IMF plans to announce the inclusion of the Chinese yuan in the SDR basket and that this will coincide with a steady dollar dump around the globe. Multiple major economies have already dropped the dollar in bilateral trade with China, and engineered tensions between the U.S. and the East have exacerbated the issue.”
Doesn’t America fund about 80% of the IMF?
More like 25%.
Headline should be:
Non-White Salt Lake cop cleared in shooting of unarmed white man - no looting or arson took place.
——————
Salt Lake cop cleared in shooting of unarmed white man
wreg.com | November 25, 2014 | George Brown
The decision of a St. Louis grand jury to not indict a police officer there of shooting and killing an unarmed man has raised new interest in an officer involved fatal shooting in Salt Lake City.
Dillon Taylor, a white male, was shot and killed in August.
Officer Bron Cruz, who was described as non-white, shot Taylor once in the chest and once in the stomach after he refused to obey police.
Was there a latte revolt?
Ward, I’m very worried about the Beaver
Climate change: Beavers boost emissions with 800 million kg of methane every year
By Hannah Osborne
December 16, 2014 17:08 GMT
In their work published in the Springer journal AMBIO, experts note that carbon builds up in oxygen-poor pond bottoms like those created by beavers, and methane is generated. The gas cannot be dissolved and is released into the atmosphere.
Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada have found this methane release from beaver ponds is now 200 times higher than it was a century ago.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/climate-change-beavers-boost-emissions-800-million-kg-methane-every-year-1479809
Just wait until you find out what volcanoes do…
Volcanoes? How about termites?
http://www.ghgonline.org/methanetermite.htm
Are termites the answer to the oversupply of housing?
I remember the bumper stickers save a tree eat a beaver now I guess, it is save the world from CAGW.
Warmists gonna warm, Dannyboy, warmists gonna warm
http://www.businessinsider.com/conservatives-purposely-making-cars-spew-black-smoke-2014-7
Seems like an odd result because i would have thought there were way more beavers 100 years ago. Maybe they were hunted to a lower population then and have now recovered. Maybe its all just speculative nonsense too.
“Maybe its all just speculative nonsense too.”
Climate change denier.
What we need is a Global Beaver Tax to fund more studies into methane that is released into the atmosphere from beaver ponds created by beavers every year before it’s too late.
Nuke the Beavers!
PETA vs. the environmentalists, should we wear beaver hats again or not?
The satellite data will show no warming again this year. The ground based data, which includes Robert Mugabe’s claim that Zimbabwe averaged 150 degrees this year, will show a “record” by about .1 degree F. President for life, and perhaps even after that, Mugabe says the US can now send him the compensation for the global warming, he has provided his Swiss bank account number for the convenience of Obama.
Monday, 17 Nov 2014 01:20 PM
Evidence Leaked That the ‘Global Warming’ Faction Has Blatantly Lied.
Why would this network of politicians, corporations, and scientists do such a thing?
Well, think about it.
Our federal government spends $22 billion on “global warming” research each and every year (twice as much as we spend on protecting our border!).
Again, that is $41,856 every minute.
If government-funded scientists came out and said “global warming” didn’t exist, their funding would be cut immediately.
But “global warming” has been kept on life support for another crucial reason: It has been a practical ATM for every in-the-know political figure.
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.Moneynews.com/MKTNews/Global-Warming-climate-change/2014/11/17/id/607827/#ixzz3MGYMtxtf
Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed? Vote Here Now!
Maybe they were hunted to a lower population then and have now recovered.
That’s probably the case. Hunting beaver and selling the fur pelts to Europe was major Canadian industry at one point. It’s the reason that they have an image of a beaver on their nickel.
Beavers were trapped nearly to extinction between 1630 and about 1880 due to their valuable fur. In one of the Little House books, Charles “Pa” Ingalls didn’t want to trap beavers because there were so few left — circa 1870s.
This is backed up by Wiki:
“With protection in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the current beaver population has rebounded to an estimated 10 to 15 million; this is a fraction of the originally estimated 100 to 200 million North American beaver before the days of the fur trade.”
So are you saying that the trapping of the beavers led to climate cooling and the rebound in the beaver population has led to global warming? The correlation is there and it is now stronger than co2 since we have had a massive increase in co2 in the last 20 years with no corresponding increase in temperature. Too bad correlation does not prove causation, not for co2 or beaver methane, which I believe goes by another name.
No, I was just responding to this: Maybe they were hunted to a lower population then and have now recovered.
And yes, beavers WERE hunted to near extinction and have now recovered (somewhat). More beavers –> more beaver methane. I don’t think climate change comes into it at all. No hidden agendas, sorry.
Hands off my beaver!
Leslie Nielsen: “Nice beaver!”
Priscilla Presley: “Thanks - I just had it stuffed.”
New York Daily News - Rev. Al Sharpton, Sony co-chief Amy Pascal meeting to discuss racist emails
“She said maybe this can be a teaching moment. I said, ‘No, it’s a changing moment. The jury is out on you.’ We will meet with her and then deal with whether her apology is legitimate,” Sharpton said Friday.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/rev-al-sharpton-sony-co-chief-amy-pascal-meet-thursday-article-1.2049532
It’s not a teaching moment or a changing moment. It’s a charging moment - ka-CHING! The ever-adroit Sharpton extortion machine will collect its mandatory “contrite donation” in order to turn the mob’s attention elsewhere. Of course, watching a limosine liberal and flaming hypocrite - aren’t they all? - get jacked by the likes of Sharpton is just plain rich.
“If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” — President Barack Obama
http://www.breitbart.com/blog/2014/12/17/americans-view-of-race-relations-is-worst-in-two-decades/
Almost like they know something is going to happen soon…
Hmmmmm
———————-
Treasury Says Survival Kits for ‘Emergency Preparedness’
The Washington Free Beacon | December 18, 2014 | Elizabeth Harrington
A spokesperson for the Treasury Department told the Washington Free Beacon that survival kits being ordered for government workers at every major bank in the United States are for “emergency preparedness.”
…….“The solicitation is to replace aging kits and provide kits at additional location out of a preponderance of caution,” Collins added.
Once the government finds a bidder, each of OCC’s 3,814 employees will receive a survival kit, which will come in a fanny-pack or backpack that can fit all of the items, including a 33-piece personal first aid kit with “decongestant tablets,” a variety of bandages, and medicines.
The Treasury Department extended the deadline for proposals until Dec. 22, and is planning on spending up to $200,000.
If you want to survive an actual emergency, “decongestant tables” aren’t all that high on the list.
Often companies give out these kind of “kits” to make their employees feel valued and cared for; mine did a couple of years back.
warmist warming thursday
‘the arctic continues to warm faster than the rest of the globe, and with greater repercussions, scientists are reporting.’
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/science/snow-is-down-and-heat-is-up-in-the-arctic-report-says.html
see also:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/why-republicans-keep-telling-everyone-theyre-not-scientists.html
Experts note that methane release from beaver ponds is now 200 times higher than it was a century ago.
More research on the Beaver (1957–1963)
Ward Cleaver:
How’d the fishing go Beav?
Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver:
Great Dad. We didn’t catch any fish, but Larry and I saw a man slip on a wet rock and heard everything he said.
Your own NYT article says that the ice extent is the sixth lowest, which is another way of saying that there has been a pronounced increase in ice over the last few years and contrary to the assertions of an ice free article, we are falling the normal cycle of periods of diminishing ice followed by periods of increasing ice, you want to know why google AMO.
Autocorrect had fun with this one, article= Arctic and falling=following
oil is cratering again. do you think we need to sell more treasuries to buy some oil futures?
The January oilncontract stops trading tomorrow, expect a lot of volatility today and tomorrow.
BTW, Brent crude really determines gasoline prices in this country at least for the last few years and it is above $60.
Retail fuel oil in the northeast just fell another 30 cents today.
Better fill up your tank quick, both colder weather and higher prices will be there by Christmas.
As retail prices crater in the meantime.
A Series Of Big Storms Won’t Be Enough To Fix The California Drought
http://www.businessinsider.com/california-drought-continues-despite-rain-2014-12
A Series Of Big Storms Won’t Be Enough To Fix The California Drought”
rainy season isn’t over yet
This is a great clip that explains California’s hydraulics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP-_T8tuYkc (3-min)
another good recent video on the Calif. drought…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le3ZgbB_zQ8
“another good recent video on the Calif. drought…”
+1 Indeed. I can’t imagine being stuck in the middle of the drought and housing bust in California’s central valley. Honest unemployment there is probably 30% or more.
How’s are CraterHaters? Fed up with CraterTaters? Deal with it. You paid the inflated price for a house and doubled down by financing it.
2banana’s #1 pick of the pop happening soonest and deepest:
DENVER.
Living in a rental will never feel like a real home.
Living with you will always feel like a waking nightmare.
Molon Latte - Come and take it. My coffee order, that is.
Did your landlord send you a Christmas card to thank you for paying his mortgage?
Oh my word…
Denver County, CO Sale Prices Turn Negative YoY As Prices Fall Nationally
http://www.zillow.com/denver-county-co/home-values/
Waiter, I would like a crater please. And STAT!
what’s your walkscore?
‘morbid obesity — defined as having a body mass index above 40 — is often a disability, irrelevant of the cause. but in many legal systems, that’s still an unanswered question. even as obesity rates have soared, u.s. and european courts have grappled with whether to classify it as a disability, which would obligate employers to provide necessary accommodations so obese employees can overcome their handicap at work, such as larger chairs and uniforms.’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/18/obesity-is-a-disability-employers-should-start-treating-it-that-way/
overcome their handicap at work
Laziness and stupidity are also handicaps.
Maybe employers could provide unpaid breaks specifically just for exercise.
Sales plunge, prices soar in San Francisco housing bubble market.
http://wolfstreet.com/2014/12/18/housing-goes-nuts-san-francisco-home-sales-plunge-20-prices-soar-27/
one bubble to the next.
Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool…
democrats never learn the lesson that the unconstitutional tactics they use against their political opponents will someday be used against them…
—————-
Obama Has Issued Record Number of Presidential Memos
townhall.com | 12/17/14 | Leah Barkoukis
From overhauling the immigration system to imposing economic sanctions, President Obama has issued more presidential memoranda than any other president in history, according to a USA Today review.
Why is this significant? Well, because they’re nearly identical to executive orders in what they can accomplish and how they impact everyday Americans.
Like executive orders, presidential memoranda don’t require action by Congress. They have the same force of law as executive orders and often have consequences just as far-reaching. And some of the most significant actions of the Obama presidency have come not by executive order but by presidential memoranda.
Obama has made prolific use of memoranda despite his own claims that he’s used his executive power less than other presidents. “The truth is, even with all the actions I’ve taken this year, I’m issuing executive orders at the lowest rate in more than 100 years,” Obama said in a speech in Austin last July. “So it’s not clear how it is that Republicans didn’t seem to mind when President Bush took more executive actions than I did.”
Obama has issued 195 executive orders as of Tuesday. Published alongside them in the Federal Register are 198 presidential memoranda — all of which carry the same legal force as executive orders.
The difference, of course, is the messaging.
“Executive order immediately evokes potentially damaging questions of ‘imperial overreach,’” Kenneth Lowande, a political science doctoral student at UVA, told USA Today. Memorandum, on the other hand, does not.
If there’s one thing this administration is good at, it’s deceiving the American people.
This is more much ado about nothing. This article has some interesting graphs. The use of executive orders has been generally declining for decades while the use of memoranda has been increasing for a long time. It you add the two together, Obama has issued about the same number as Eisenhower, Johnson, and Nixon, and less than Ford (who served for 2½ years) and three other postwar presidents.
One thought that occurred to me is that life was a lot better for the middle class in the years between Truman and Nixon.
Here’s an interesting section from the article.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
Presidential scholar Phillip Cooper calls presidential memoranda “executive orders by another name, and yet unique.”
The law does not define the difference between an executive order and a memorandum, but it does say that the president should publish in the Federal Register executive orders and other documents that “have general applicability and legal effect.”
“Something that’s in a presidential memorandum in one administration might be captured in an executive order in another,” said Jim Hemphill, the special assistant to the director for the government’s legal notice publication. “There’s no guidance that says, ‘Mr. President, here’s what needs to be in an executive order.’ ”
There are subtle differences. Executive orders are numbered; memoranda are not. Memoranda are always published in the Federal Register after proclamations and executive orders. And under Executive Order 11030, signed by President Kennedy in 1962, an executive order must contain a “citation of authority,” saying what law it’s based on. Memoranda have no such requirement.
Obama, like other presidents, has used memoranda for more routine operations of the executive branch, delegating certain mundane tasks to subordinates. About half of the memoranda published on the White House website are deemed so inconsequential that they’re not counted as memoranda in the Federal Register.
Sometimes, there are subtle differences. President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10789 in 1958 giving emergency contracting authority to the Department of Defense and other Cabinet departments. President Bush added other departments in 2001 and 2003, but he and Obama both used memoranda to give temporary authority to the U.S. Agency for International Development to respond to crises in Iraq and western Africa.
When the president determines the order of succession in a Cabinet-level department — that is, who would take over in the case of the death or resignation of the secretary — he does so by executive order. For other agencies, he uses a memorandum.
Both executive orders and memoranda can vary in importance. One executive order this year changed the name of the National Security Staff to the National Security Council Staff. Both instruments have been used to delegate routine tasks to other federal officials.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/12/16/obama-presidential-memoranda-executive-orders/20191805/
‘we are not at war with islam, which most americans respect as a religion of peace’ — george w. bush
bloomberg - kids shot point blank one by one in pakistan school massacre
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-17/students-shot-point-blank-one-by-one-in-pakistan-school-horror.html
When you have a sky wizard that preaches kill the infidels, rape their women, lie to them, steal from them and make slaves of them….
——————–
Terrorists ‘Plotting To Bomb School Buses’
Sky News | December 17, 2014
Pakistani schools are warned to check under vehicles for magnetic bombs a day after 132 students were killed in a Taliban attack.
Authorities in Islamabad issued a letter calling on schools to increase security.
The country’s army chief General Raheel Sharif and the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) have flown to Afghanistan to meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to discuss tackling Taliban militants in both countries.
The CraterRage volume is cranked up to 11.
Mom says no more X-Box until you bring all the dirty dishes upstairs from the basement. And you need to call the assistant manager back about your job application at Wendy’s.
Oh my….
Denver, CO Sale Prices Crater 9% YoY; Sellers Slash As Demand Collapses
http://www.zillow.com/denver-co-80218/home-values/
How much do you make selling blood plasma? $20, $30 a week?
STEM education. It’s the future honey. Consider it a little advice from someone who cares.
A nice home can’t compensate for a dead end career.
“Real Estate Agent Sentenced For Burglarizing Home He Sold”
http://nypost.com/2014/11/24/real-estate-agent-sentenced-for-burglarizing-home-he-sold/
Denver, CO Sale Prices Crater 9% YoY; Sellers Slash As Demand Collapses
According to your link prices rose 9% YOY:
“The median home value in 80218 is $337,500. 80218 home values have gone up 9.2% over the past year and Zillow predicts they will rise 3.4% within the next year.”
Not that I trust zillow’s numbers.
Don’t backpedal.
Prices my friend… prices. And “zillows numbers” are reported directly from MRIS.
Here’s another interesting sale price decline in CO.
Boulder, CO Sale Prices Plunge 9% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/co-80301/home-values/
He will not move out until his mom puts the parental controls on the TV and eliminates his ability to order porn.
Remember ABQ_D, falling prices of all items is positively bullish and good for the economy.
Worcester Metro, MA Sale Prices Plummet 10% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/ma/home-values/
Thank you Mom.. By the way, did your gentleman caller leave the mortgage money this time? Remember how mad you got when your knees hurt last month and that man said “I don’t pay, what do you think I am, a john?”
I know how hard it is now that you’re stuck in that house with losses piling up. Please mom, don’t catch the AIDS with your risky house saving strategy though!
Awaiting new zillow data coming in a week or so to show new zip codes succumbing to YOY decline.
Crater hater Lola dater, had a gig as a waiter.
Brought a tater and tomater,
With a sandwich and said “later.”
That should put a dent into the UK and Scandinavian housing markets…
——————–
North Sea oil industry ‘close to collapse’
BBC News | December 18, 2014 | By Ben King
The UK’s oil industry is in “crisis” as prices drop, a senior industry leader has told the BBC.
Oil companies and service providers are cutting staff and investment to save money.
Robin Allan, chairman of the independent explorers’ association Brindex, told the BBC that the industry was “close to collapse”.
Almost no new projects in the North Sea are profitable with oil below $60 a barrel, he claims.
“It’s almost impossible to make money at these oil prices”, Mr Allan, who is a director of Premier Oil in addition to chairing Brindex, told the BBC. “It’s a huge crisis.”
“It’s close to collapse. In terms of new investments - there will be none, everyone is retreating, people are being laid off at most companies this week and in the coming weeks. Budgets for 2015 are being cut by everyone.”
Brent crude has jumped to around $62 a barrel in the last few days but it will take much higher for a sustained period for anyone to want to drill in the over drilled area of the North Sea. Production has been dropping like a stone in the GB areas of the North Sea and dropping in the part near Norway.
Cratering oil demand. Cratering oil price. A globe awash in crude oil.
Show me one link that says global demand in 2014 will be less that 2013 or more than 2015.
Right after you step up to your rhetoric and show us field development and well production costs.
A wise man recently said, “Hold onto every dollar you’ve got and stay out of debt. You’ll thank me later.</i
He’s right.
All you have to do is follow the links in Ben’s post above of at risk oil investments and you will see that even at $75 a barrel, many shale oil projects are not viable. That is why oil prices will soon be up, prices too low to drill and a sharp decline rate for existing wells. Perhaps the Saudis have truly outfoxed Obama, they go alone with his plan to hurt the Russians, earning his gratitude and destroy the shale oil competition in the process making the price of oil soar even higher than before. The Russians with long lasting wells are even happy about it since they make more money in the long term.
‘his plan to hurt the Russians, earning his gratitude and destroy the shale oil competition in the process’
The globalist oil titans didn’t mind destroying the domestic oil industry in the 80’s and they are probably happy about it now. And since when was Obama a big buddy of the fracking business?
Like I said a while back, if we were smart we’d put a tariff on imported oil and protect the jobs and supply, because the Arabs are just going to jack the price back up eventually. 70-80 $ oil from Texas or $140 oil from Venezuela.
The Russians are apparently hurting pretty badly now.
Wonder what would happen to world oil prices if just one supertanker sank in the Strait of Hormuz?
Lots of pseudo-stability in that entire region.
Don’t look now, but oil is tanking again, despite the Russian rouble intervention and whatever the Fed is up to at the moment.
The Fed is spiking the dollar again which makes our goods less and less competitive. Obama’s whole effort is failing, Putin’s popularity is still at 80% and they cannot keep oil down, 50 cents a barrel is not a game changer.
An increasingly valuable dollar is a good thing. It results in falling prices.
“With that data in hand, we can begin to consider what will happen to oilfield employment if oil prices do not begin to snap back in 2015. A few thoughts:
If employment levels track the 2008-2010 experience, we can expect a 20% decline in employment. That amounts to 162,400 jobs based on current employment. How quickly they come off the rolls is another issue. The largest losses during the last recession came in month 3 and month 6 after the peak
Remember that these are high-paying jobs on average, so that 162,400 job loss will feel more like +300,000 to the real economy. Assuming that average annual pay of $99,854 we mentioned earlier, this would take $16.2 billion out of the U.S. economy or 0.1% of GDP in 2015.
The job losses could be greater – or less harmful – depending on how employers see the recent price drop for crude. There is also the issue of break-even levels to consider. No one seems to have a good handle on actual break-evens for domestic oil production, so this is the “Known unknown” in the calculus.”
The job losses already occurred.
Labor Force Participation Rate At 37 Year Lows
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
Who needs oil when you got low interest rates?
Who needs oil when you’ve reached your credit limit?
An article to ponder:
http://peakoil.com/consumption/the-unequivocally-not-good-reality-of-lower-oil-prices-jobs
With the world awash in crude oil and prices falling, whats not to like?
Oil prices went back down today, Bring-a-Crayon-Dan.
Contract expires tomorrow, all kind of weird things happen just before the contract expires. However, the fundamentals are all pointing to much higher oil soon.
How much higher and how soon would that be?
I said it before $80 by the end of 2015 and $100 by the end of 2016.
That is one and two years away, BACD.
In the meantime, prices go lower.
Remember…. falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels is positively bullish and good for the economy.
He ran out of “other peoples’ money” before he even started! What a liberal wuss.
———————-
Vermont bails on single-payer health care
Politico | December 17, 2014 | Sarah Wheaton
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin on Wednesday dropped his plan to enact a single-payer health care system in his state — a plan that had won praise from liberals but never really got much past the framework stage. “This is not the right time” for enacting single payer, Shumlin said in a statement, citing the big tax increases that would be required to pay for it.
This is not the right time” for enacting single payer, Shumlin said in a statement, citing the big tax increases that would be required to pay for it.
Obama did not get the message from the last election but Shumlin sure did. Republicans picked up house seats in traditional Democratic districts, it was a clear message.
Health care 18% of USA GDP
‘Merika, f* yeah!
It should be at least 25%, that’ll show those Euro-socialists who’s boss
Obama by pushing and then passing modified Romneycare not only destroyed the Democratic supermajority and turning it a strong Republican majority, he destroyed the momentum of single payer. The Republicans should erect a statue to him. And it is gift that keeps on giving, unlike Carter who they were able to hide for a few decades until people forgot how bad he was, if they don’t invite bathhouse Barry to the next convention, blacks will revolt.
uncle FED is patient on rates today so stocks are up. things are gonna be ok if we keep stock and home prices high.
The brokerage firms are going to meet their benchmarks for the year, how did that happen?
“This is not the right time” for enacting single payer, Shumlin said in a statement, citing the big tax increases that would be required to pay for it.
The middle-east requires our dollars, NOW.
Experts note that methane release from beaver ponds is now 200 times higher than it was a century ago.
More research on the Beaver (1957–1963)
June Cleaver: Wally, where are you going?
Wally Cleaver: I’m going over to slug Eddie.
June Cleaver: That’s no way to talk, this is Sunday.
Wally Cleaver: You’re right, I’ll wait ’til tomorrow and slug him in the cafeteria.
New York Times - Can Liberal Zionists Count On Hillary Clinton?
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/magazine/can-liberal-zionists-count-on-hillary-clinton.html
Yes, yes they can count on Hillary Clinton. Because there’s no shortage of southern white trash teabillies and other black and brown poors who will enlist to go fight and die in the Middle East.
And remember, “they attacked us on 9/11 because they hate our freedoms.”
And if they can’t count on Hillary Clinton, then Sheldon Adelson will purchase a GOP nominee to secure the vote of the slack jawed knuckle dragging yokels who think Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs like horses.
P.S. and don’t forget to buy that Rapture insurance policy for your pets.
“Because there’s no shortage of southern white trash…”
Here’s some real white trash.
http://picpaste.com/WhiteTrash.jpg
“Yes, yes they can count on Hillary Clinton. Because there’s no shortage of southern white trash teabillies and other black and brown poors who will enlist to go fight and die in the Middle East.”
While the knit cap wearing, dreadlocked neo-marxists make plans to overthrow the very system keeping them from starving to death.
#ArmchairRevolutionaries
“As a result, demand for industrial commodities temporarily ran far ahead of new capacity—–even as the latter was being fueled by low-cost capital. That’s why iron ore prices, for example, soared from $20 per ton prior to the China boom to $200 per ton at the peak in 2012, and have now plummeted all the way back to $60 ton. This implosion is still not over. Owing to this extended period of artificial sky-high prices for the iron ore commodity, the massive investment boom they triggered in mining capacity and transportation infrastructure is still coming on-stream, adding even more increments to supply even as prices plunge.”
MegaCommoditiesCrater
Falling prices. They’re your wallets best friends.
What is the difference between negative interest rates and confiscation?
———————————–
Switzerland brings in negative interest rates to keep Swiss franc weaker as Russia mayhem prompts
UK Daily Mail | December 18, 2014 | Tanya Jefferies
The Swiss central bank plans to charge depositors a ‘negative’ interest rate of -0.25 per cent to discourage spooked investors from using it to shelter their cash. Money has flooded into Switzerland as market turbulence caused by the Russian rouble collapse and oil price slide has prompted a desperate search for safe havens in recent days. The Swiss National Bank said it would slash its interest rate on balances of over 10million Swiss francs from January 22 - effectively imposing a charge on depositors wanting to hold francs in a bid to keep its currency artificially weak against the euro.
wow too much money with no safe place to go. They need to place some Realtors over there sell some sure fire CA property
Rite Aid Corp. (RAD:US) surged the most in more than a year after quarterly profit and revenue topped analysts’ estimates, helped by an increase in sales of prescription drugs, and the retailer boosted its annual earnings forecast.
“increase in sales of prescription drugs”
This is good news?
All the unemployed need something to occupy their time with. Prozac and pills keep people happy.
Stocks are up today cause somebody said the GDP is weak.
They still selling tobacco?
I guess that it would be good news for a corporation that owns pharmacies.
California Highway Patrol Describes Itself as “Paramilitary Organization”
Largest police agency in America embraces role as militarized unit
by Paul Joseph Watson | December 18, 2014
America’s largest police agency, the California Highway Patrol, is now officially describing itself as a “paramilitary organization,” a revelation that will undoubtedly feed into concerns that the militarization of domestic law enforcement is intensifying.
The CHP’s adoption of this term is now so prevalent that the organization is openly using it as a recruiting tool for new employees.
A post entitled Is This Job for You? which appears on the CHP.gov website asks all new applicants for the role of CHP Cadet, “Are you willing to work in a para-military organization, operating under a structured chain-of-command?”
An information page on the website entitled Life at the Academy also states, “The California Highway Patrol is often described as a “paramilitary” department, and that is true. The uniforms, ranks and insignias, chain of command, and the long-standing traditions resemble a military organization.”
According to dictionary.com, the word “paramilitary” is defined as, “noting or pertaining to an organization operating as, in place of, or as a supplement to a regular military force.”
Another section of the website devoted to enticing former military personnel to become CHP officers also states, “The CHP offers military personnel a unique working environment which utilizes the skills, self-discipline, and life experiences you have developed during military service. Former military personnel easily fit into the CHP’s workforce and adapt well to our paramilitary work environment. You can use your former military skills and self-initiative to help you promote through the CHP’s ranks.”
Instead of emphasizing “protect and serve,” why is the CHP advising new recruits that they are about to join an organization that utilizes tactics more in common with the military than regular domestic law enforcement methods of policing?
In a recent report, the ACLU warned that the increasing militarization of police has served to make law enforcement officers overlook the fact that, “they are supposed to protect and serve our communities, not wage war on the people who live in them.”
“they are supposed to protect and serve our communities, not wage war on the people who live in them.”
they r watching too many “Batman movies”
“There’s a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.”
William Adama, Battlestar Galactica
Experts note that methane release from beaver ponds is now 200 times higher than it was a century ago.
More research on the Beaver (1957–1963)
Eddie Haskell: Wally, if your dumb brother tags along, I’m gonna - oh, good afternoon, Mrs. Cleaver. I was just telling Wallace how pleasant it would be for Theodore to accompany us to the movies.
Pulled this from Art Cashin’s daily piece at UBS this morning - These are indeed dangerous times…….With the comment above about the Swiss at -.25 % interest - there is no encouragement to save there or for that matter anywhere - just keep on spending and pushing the fraud higher and deeper until the whole thing goes down in a heap - Old yeller and her ilk - Mario Druggie and the rest ought to be keel hauled.
Another Pair Of Eyes – My friend, Peter Boockvar, over at the Lindsey Group doesn’t seem too enthused with the Fed’s policy. Here’s a bit of what he wrote this morning:
Markets are always so interesting in how they interpret not only data but the words of our central bankers. In the context of a very oversold market, equities responded to the “patient” word in the FOMC statement and the comment from Yellen that rates likely won’t rise at the next ‘couple’ (2) meetings. The US treasury market and the US$ grasped more on to the greater attention to the improving labor market and the look thru on current headline inflation trends. The 2 yr note yield is up 7 bps in just the past two days to just shy of the highest since 2011 at .62% and the 1 yr bill is at the highest since April 2011 and has essentially doubled in yield over the past month. And, the US$ ripped
higher yesterday. In terms of figuring out where the economic goal posts are that will trigger a Fed move, I don’t think any of us know anymore and therefore the Fed has essentially taken them off the field. The US labor market has generated monthly job gains on average of 241k in 2014 vs 194k in 2013 and the unemployment rate since January ’13 has fallen from 7.9% to 5.8% and the Fed remains deathly afraid of raising rates even by 25 bps off zero. This is not prudence on their part, it is instead dangerous.
Also - never underestimate the Swiss - they are as crafty as any on the face of the earth.
Anyone here ever rent a hydraulic platform (w/railing)/scissor lift to do exterior house trim or full painting job?
How did it go?
The rental of one is $600/wk w/delivery/pick up, and is the safest way to get to the peaks. Beats paying an overpriced painting “contractor” or handyman.
Throwing good money after bad on a rapidly depreciating asset.
Buy a really good ladder instead…
Anyone here ever rent a hydraulic platform (w/railing)/scissor lift to do exterior house trim or full painting job?
I thought of that when I had my house re-sided last year. Decided the money I might save wasn’t worth the probability of my death or permanent disability. Bonding & liability / disability insurance is part of of you’re paying for when you have a contractor.
My next house (if I ever get one) will be one story, no basement.
Chinese housing prices are still falling but signs or a bottom are already emerging:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/12/18/uk-china-property-prices-idUKKBN0JW04Y20141218
Excerpt:
On a month-on-month basis, home prices fell 0.5 percent in November, the seventh consecutive monthly fall, but at a slower pace than the 0.8 percent dip in October.
While the housing market is expected to remain weak well into next year, it is showing some tentative signs of bottoming out.
Official data last week showed property sales hit 132.2 million square metres in November, the highest level in 11 months, though still down 11 percent from a year earlier.
“The recovery momentum is still weak,” said a senior executive at a mid-sized listed developer in Beijing, noting the market may have already found the bottom of the cycle. “The property market should not get worse in future,” he said.
Hi all. Just thought I’d check in from Boulder and say happy holidays to everyone. It’s been a busy fall…homeless, dealing with the divorce, changed positions at work. Headed to Malaysia in January for a while at a customer site.
At the friends house where I’m staying another guy is also in the middle of a divorce and trying to buy a place in Boulder. From the 2nd hand information I get it sounds like the market is more insane than ever. I have no intention of buying so I don’t pay much attention. What annoys me is how expensive rent is. If I’m going to be out of the country more than half the time I don’t want to spend a lot on rent. But I need something decent where my son can stay with my and walk to school when I’m in town.
Anyway, it’s a little nuts, but life is actually kind of nice when things are low stress and you don’t have to worry about too many things at once. So far I’m still enjoying traveling. Have a friend in Shanghai who is STILL trying to sell an apartment/condo/thing.
Life goes on…
Hey Carl! Be safe, be well and have a good holiday.
Happy Holidays to you Carl.
It ain’t cheap to live in the Boulder Bubble.
I went trailrunning by the Flatirons the last weekend before CU went on Christmas break on a nice sunny day and all the coeds in yoga pants were out in abundance.
Can you find another trailer park, or even another trailer in the same park (I know, dicey…)? Because that seems to be the only path to getting ahead these days.
You should have taken that advice when you had a chance Donk.
The sad thing is that even trailers have appreciated…at least temporarily. Can you believe it?
But yeah…I think about that too. But now that my son and I have had a taste of him being able to walk to school it’s hard to go back to the daily grind of having to coordinate our schedules so much.
Hey Carl! Merry Christmas! Good to hear from you. You are getting some great insight at ground level into places that people would give their eye teeth to stay in long enough to get to know them.
I share your view about the reduction in stress to be had in a minimalist life.
Thanks for looping back.
where was president obama born?
Bill Ayers’ living room
Apparently some think it was a vigin birth!!
Devil’s spawn.
Keep blaming O for your misery. It wont change your life or make you happy.
See your failures as a stepping stone to success. There is still time, I hope. Namaste.
If your like your misery your can keep your misery.
“We miserried some folks.”
Ooopps - another foreign policy blunder of arming and training “moderate” muslims
Can’t obama just issue an executive memo and solve this…?
—————————–
Syrian rebel Yarmouk Brigades ditch US and Israel allies, defect to ISIS
DEBKAfile ^ | December 17, 2014
The Syrian rebel militia Al Yarmouk Shuhada Brigades, backed and trained for two years by US officers, mostly CIA experts, in Jordan, and supported by the Israeli army, has abruptly dumped these sponsors and joined up with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, debkafile’s exclusive military and counter-terrorism sources reveal.
The sudden defection of this 2,000-strong anti-Assad force leaves IDF defense formations on the Golan, US and Jordanian deployments in the northern part of the kingdom, and pro-Western rebel conquests in southern Syria in danger of collapse.
The Brigades’ jump into the radical jihadi camp was negotiated in the last two weeks by its commander Mousab Ali Qarfan, who also goes by the name of Mousab Zaytouneh. He was in direct contact with ISIS chief Abu Baqr Al-Baghdadi, whom our sources report has recently relocated from Iraq to his northern Syrian headquarters at al-Raqqa.
Obama is a p*ssy. We need another trillion dollar war to clean up that mess in the Middle East. And the last Iraq war would never have been as successful as it was without our friend and ally Israel putting boots on the ground.
In that part of the world people tend to just back whatever side they think will win. Jumblatt of the Druze has for years backed Assad even though his father was killed by Assad’s father. I think your post is the best evidence yet that Isis is winning this war.
Isis is winning this war.
What would a US ‘victory’ look like out there? Our ‘caliph’/SOB ruling instead of their ‘caliph’ /SOB?
Now this is rich - item 4 by Zandi is just hilarious - Mr. Banker be looking for more chumps me thinks!!!
http://www.aei.org/publication/6-predictions-mark-zandi-2015-economy/
What are the odds?
Maine police warn seniors about prescription drug thefts
Marnie McLean 6:19 p.m. EDT April 3, 2014
(NECN) — Police in Maine’s Cumberland County are warning seniors about a rise in prescription drug thefts. Thursday morning, the Cumberland Police Department offered a free talk to seniors to alert them to this growing problem.
They said during a break-in thieves are often only looking for medications like oxycontin. Shelby Briggs, a health promotion specialist with the City of Portland, says one pill can sell for up to one hundred dollars on the street. Most seniors make it easy for thieves to find by keeping pills in easily accessible places.
“We are trying to educate people to better find a location, either a lock box or to keep track of what they have and not to keep it lying around on the counter or the medicine cabinet, that’s just not the proper place for it to be,” said Lt. Milton Calder of the Cumberland Police Department.
They also warned seniors that it can often be a friend of even a family member who is stealing the pills. According to one study, one in seven Maine high school students admit to abusing prescription drugs.
http://www.wcsh6.com/…/maine-police-warn-seniors-about-prescription-drug-thefts/7272363/ - 92k
That’s only been going on forever. Then there are the chronic pain patients who partly support themselves by re-selling the drugs they have legally obtained (from their physicians, pharmacies and Medicaid programs) on the streets to buy food and pay the rent. Cigs are also much more than expensive that they used to be.
Wouldn’t put it past the old-timers to be deliberately disposing of their own meds the same way, but then claiming they have been robbed.
Many times I have even been told “I filled your prescription, but it fell out of my pocket into the toilet just as I flushed.”
Comment by phony scandals
2014-12-18 11:46:45
Maine police warn seniors about prescription drug thefts
Marnie McLean 6:19 p.m. EDT April 3, 2014
wcsh6.com/story/news/local/2014/04/03/maine-police-warn-seniors-about-prescription-drug-thefts/7272363/
“And those all time highs in the stock market, well until you cash out, those remain unrealized and I would suggest cashing out. The reality is the powers that be are out of the market and preparing for a big sweeping transfer of wealth from all those little retirees and soon to be retirees out there that believe the market is no longer a risky asset. Their assets will be picked up for pennies on the dollar. The point is folks play along for the entertainment of it. Play along because it’s tradition. But don’t play along because you think the market is still some random response to fundamental supply and demand relationship. “
The Evidence That North Korea Hacked Sony Is Flimsy
http://www.wired.com/2014/12/evidence-of-north-korea-hack-is-thin/
Republicans considering a run for president in 2016 see it. They harshly criticized Mr. Obama, even as they praised the release of the imprisoned American Alan P. Gross.
Some Republicans backed the president. Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, who flew to Cuba with several other lawmakers to accompany Mr. Gross back, said he supported Mr. Obama’s move and hoped he could persuade more Republicans to agree.
“The policy that we’ve had in place for the past 50 years has done more in my view to keep the Castro regimes in power than anything we could have done,” Mr. Flake said. “I think it will improve the lot of ordinary Cubans, and it’s good for Americans as well.”
He was joined in his praise by Representative Mark Sanford, Republican of South Carolina, who said he was willing to give the president “credit where credit is due.”
They released you from the drunk early today Lolacado?
He laid off the Russian vodka to help Obama out. Mad Dog 20/20 does not keep him as drunk as long.
HA was so wrong on housing prices the last 5 yrs. Maybe 2015 you will see them drop. YOY is up all over CA.
You are a broken record.
Supposed to be 79 degrees on Monday. Life is good.
Not true. Santa Barbara, among others:
http://www.car.org/marketdata/data/countysalesactivity/
The majority by far in CA is UP, not flat, not down. SB can be odd, as one yr a $22 mill house can sell.
I am not saying we are due for a crash, just did not happen in 2013 or 2014 as HA spews/
I am sitting on cash, I can wait for a 30% correction.
stick with the data Lolacado.
‘a $22 mill house can sell’
Bzzz, wrong answer. That would change the average but not the median.
OK, more than one over 15 mill sell. Ding, Ding ding!
Back in your cell Lolacado.
Back in the drunk tank Lolacado.
Supposed to be 79 degrees on Monday. Life is good.
They keep that nursing home pretty warm where you empty bed pens. What is up for the weekend, drinking Listerine and hanging on the computer at the public libraries?
pens=pans, but you are right HA back to the drunk tank for Lola. Hasn’t his partner in crime had enough at the rectal feeding buffet, why is he not back on the board?
” It’s options expiration week… and Wall Street likes to push the markets higher to insure as many puts as possible expire worthless.”
Davis, CA Sale Prices Dive 4% And 14% QoQ; Inventory Balloons As Demand Craters
http://www.zillow.com/davis-ca/home-values/
The great stock market crash of last week is over. Once again the doomsday predictions here din’t happen. There’s always next year.
I read this morning that banks will lose a trillion bucks on the oil field. The Chinese recently realized they pissed 7 trillion away on useless empty cities, etc. A trillion here and a trillion there, pretty soon you are talking about real poof.
“I read this morning that banks will lose a trillion bucks on the oil field.”
Gosh,,,again? One $trillion coming up! Abracadabra!! Next? –Yellen
this message sponsored by the national association of realtors
realtors are liars.
Looking forward to another Christmas in mom’s basement this year?
Whuz up Sandy
Something about central bankers. BTW, when are you going to buy oil, M. Slith?
Lake Forest Park, WA Sale Prices Crater 6% YoY As Price Declines Widen And Accelerate Nationally
http://www.zillow.com/lake-forest-park-wa/home-values/
Students at George Washington University signed a petition to deport one American citizen in exchange for one illegal immigrant.
Maggie Lit Reporter @MaggieLitCRO
on Dec 17, 2014 at 9:55 AM EDT
Students at George Washington University (GWU) willingly signed a petition supporting the deportation of one American citizen in exchange for one illegal immigrant.
“Please sign our petition for President Obama to deport one American citizen, in exchange for one undocumented immigrant,” read the petition. “Everyone must be allowed a shot at the ‘American Dream.’ Americans should not be greedy. Let us right the wrongs of our past and make another’s dreams come true.”
“It makes sense,” one student told Campus Reform. “Like, I’ve noticed that there is a lot of like hatred against undocumented immigrants and it’s not necessarily their fault.”
“Everybody deserves a shot and we shouldn’t rule anybody out,” said another.
“If somebody were to sign up for this program and they were going to go through all the effort to become this one undocumented immigrant than I think that’s enough will power and enough desire, they should be able to come in,” she said.
WATCH: Students sign a petition to deport Americans for illegal immigrants.
VIDEO: Students agree to deport Americans in … - Campus Reform
http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=6151 - 156k - Cached - Similar pages
1 day ago .
Good idea if we could start exchanging bankers for immigrants.
If one could receive a free ticket to the country of their choice, I think a lot of retirees would sign up voluntarily.
Can someone out there tell me what the next triple set of zero’s is beyond a trillion - is it a quarillion? WE be talkin real money if that is the case.
in order: quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, nonillion …
“in order: quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, nonillion …”
Zager And Evans - In The Year 2525
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izQB2-Kmiic
Everyone Must Check In
Enjoying a beautiful evening in Region IV’s “Constitution free zone”.
Do You Live In The Constitution-Free Zone Of The US? | Techdirt
http://www.techdirt.com/…/02045321947/do-you-live-constitution-free-zone-us.shtml - 431k -
Acknowledged by Region VIII, please carry on
On the Region VIII playlist tonight:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Messiah_%28album%29
Comment by phony scandals
2014-12-18 17:23:52
Do You Live In The Constitution-Free Zone Of The US? | Techdirt
techdirt.com/articles/20130212/02045321947/do-you-live-constitution-free-zone-us.shtml
“The above pictures are no more anomalous than today 35 bps yield on 10-year JGBs——the debt of a government which is hopelessly bankrupt and for which there is virtually not a single bid anywhere outside of the open market desk of the BOJ. Nor does it make any more sense than today’s heated rip on Wall Street based on the word “patient” at a point in the cycle where 71 months of free carry trade money has already inflated financial asset values to the nose-bleed section of history.”
“Comstock Resources, Inc. (”Comstock” or the “Company”) (NYSE:CRK) announced that it has budgeted $307 million in 2015 for its drilling and completion activities. In response to low oil prices, the Company plans to suspend its oil directed drilling activity in its Eagle Ford shale properties in South and East Texas and in the Tuscaloosa Marine shale in Mississippi. Comstock has released its rig in the Tuscaloosa Marine shale and will postpone its drilling activity there until oil prices improve. Comstock currently has four operated rigs drilling on its Eagle Ford shale properties. The Company will release two of these rigs in early 2015 and will move the other two rigs to North Louisiana to start up a drilling program on its Haynesville shale natural gas properties. Comstock believes that improved completion technology, including longer laterals, will provide strong returns on drilling projects at current natural gas prices. “
Dixie Chicken , Little Feat , 1973 Vinyl - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFlUj1mv4Ws - 241k -
Dixie Chicken Lyrics
I’ve seen the bright lights of Memphis and the Commodore Hotel
And, underneath a street lamp I met a Southern Belle
Well, she took me to the river where she cast her spell
And, in that southern moonlight she sang the song so well
If you’ll be my Dixie Chicken, I’ll be your Tennessee Lamb
And we can walk together down in Dixieland
Down in Dixieland
Well, we made all the hot spots - my money flowed like wine
And then that lowdown southern whiskey began to fog my mind
And I don’t remember church bells or the money I put down
On the white picket fence and boardwalk of the house at the edge of town
Oh, but boy do I remember the strain of her refrain
And the nights we spent together, and the way she called my name
If you’ll be my Dixie Chicken, I’ll be your Tennessee Lamb
And we can walk together down in Dixieland
Down in Dixieland
Well, it’s been a year since she ran away - guess that guitar player sure could play
She always liked to sing along - she’s always handy with a song
Then one night in the lobby of the Commodore Hotel
I chanced to meet a bartender who said he knew her well
And as he handed me a drink he began to hum a song
And all the boys there at the bar began to sing along
If you’ll be my Dixie Chicken, I’ll be your Tennessee Lamb
And we can walk together down in Dixieland
Down in Dixieland
Clipboard Jesus is having a rough night.