Bits Bucket for January 12, 2015
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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Game Over Region VIII
Peyton Manning falters again as Broncos bow out of playoffs in loss to Colts
“The Colts beat the Broncos, 24-13, before a stunned sellout crowd of 76,867 on an overcast January afternoon at Sports Authority Field at Mile High.
The Broncos are done. For the second time in three years, the Broncos blew it at home in a second-round AFC playoff game they were heavily favored to win.
In 2012, the Broncos were nine-point favorites against the Baltimore Ravens in a second-round playoff game. The Broncos lost in double overtime, 38-35.
Manning and the Broncos had a historic, record-setting season in 2013 - until they were destroyed by Seattle, 43-8, in the Super Bowl.
http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_27301123/manning-falters-again-broncos-bow-out-playoffs-loss
It is the Tebow curse.
Not going to be a good year for Colorado. Also will be job losses related to the oil slide.
And no free papa johns pizza!
Also will be job losses related to the oil slide.
Bad news for the Western Slope. I’m sure the sob stories from Grand Junction will appear in the Denver Post.
hey rockstar
would you like to explain to the hbb why you are the rockstar, or shall that remain a secret?
p.s. we know where overtaxed went
Everyone on HBB is a rockstar
Everyone’s a winner. My teacher said so.
They’re not making any more participation trophies for playing the housing game. Oh wait….
Peyton Manning falters again as Broncos bow out of playoffs in loss to Colts
When they knocked the ball out of his hand I knew it was over. The guy doesn’t recover from blunders.
Eli… Peyton. It’s just not Archies year.
“The guy doesn’t recover from blunders.”
Not anymore, but there was a time when that dude could make 2 minutes seem like 30 minutes.
9:00 PM ET, October 6, 2003
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Mike Vanderjagt’s 29-yard field goal with 3:47 remaining in overtime capped one of the greatest comebacks in NFL history and gave the Indianapolis Colts a 38-35 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
Peyton Manning rallied the Colts from a 35-14 deficit with four minutes left in regulation, sending the game into overtime on Ricky Williams’ 1-yard touchdown run with 35 seconds to play. Marvin Harrison, who had two touchdown catches, set up the tying score with a 52-yard reception to the Tampa Bay 5.
scores.espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=231006027 - 97k -
11 years makes a big difference.
I hate to say this (or maybe I don’t) but I think they might have beat the Colts with Timmy the Tebower.
^now thats funny!
Tebowing is so 2011. It’s all about the Faith Hilling now.
/slides across the room on butt
TORN QUAD.
just heard this too - imagine even trying to stand with a torn quad?
Peyton no show!!!
Del Rio - gone.
Fox - jury out on him.
Elway is quibbling!!
Del Rio is gone? He left or did he get canned?
No - just sayin.
He had a great cast of defense characters and yesterday just exposed how lousy a coach he really is.
Not nearly the incompetent Giants DC is. Or Rex Ryan….. oooooooph..
Disagree. Rex is a good coach. His defense was among the best in the NFL until Jets management sent away all the good players. YOU try and win games with Mark Sanchez or Geno Smith!
Man on man - sounds like the leaks in the Bronco dike are starting to overtake the number of thumbs trying to plug ‘em up. I hear Welker may be taking a hike too?
A Greek exit from the eurozone would certainly come at a cost to Europe, but just how expensive would it be?
The amount Athens owes its partners is equivalent to just a tiny fraction of the eurozone’s economy, but some analysts are still worried that a ‘Grexit’ could ultimately cost Europe its single currency.
Global markets plunged at the beginning of last week, seized by a fresh bout of fears that Greece may be forced to leave the euro.
http://uk.businessinsider.com/afp-weighing-the-costs-for-europe-if-greece-exits-the-euro-2015-1?r=US
The audience was patient. As Moschonas pointed out, Syriza’s election slogan “Hope is coming”, written in large white letters on a red backdrop on the stage, wasn’t “there for nothing”.
“This is the first time that a left-wing party leader has ever come to Corinth to speak at a pre-election rally and when I look around, I see people whom I would never have expected to see at a Syriza event,” said Moschonas, a state railway employee in his mid-50s who hopes to retire next month.
“This shows, I believe, that Syriza is heading for an overall majority, a dramatic result that could change everything, in Greece and in Europe.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/ovation-as-alexis-tsipras-enters-home-stretch-in-greece-elections-1.2062368
“Hope is coming” haven’t we heard that before?
dragi is offering haircuts half off this week.
“said Moschonas, a state railway employee in his mid-50s who hopes to retire next month”
That’s a perfect detail.
You have a problem with early retirement? Maybe he has been an incredible saver.
Then he would be planning to retire next month, not hoping to.
If he’s voting for a leftist, he’s counting on someone else funding his retirement. All hail the FSA!
who hopes to retire next month
Methinks he might be left hoping.
Another question: What happens to Europe if Marine Le Pen gets elected French president? Her positions are more nuanced than her father’s, but she’s pretty anti-EU.
During her speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. in November 2011, she proposed “three essential solutions to stop the current world systemic crisis and turn the world towards a greater justice and greater prosperity”: reintroduction of a “polymetallic standard” in the International monetary systems as a world standard of reference and exchanges in order to establish a “free monetary system” and struggle against speculation; the ratification of the modernized Havana Charter by the 1948 signatory nations and incoming emerging countries, in order to favour a “reasonable protectionism that encourages cooperation in trade among nations through the end of ‘unbridled free trade’”; application of the 1933 Glass–Steagall Act, which legally separated investment banking and commercial banking, to “the banking system of each country”.[126][127]
wikipedia
Is she gets elected president of France, she’ll be president of France, not the whole world.
But it sure would be interesting if France adopted both a hard currency, and a Glass Steagall law for themselves, and left the EU, wouldn’t it? It might even have some ramifications outside of France.
France and Germany are the two pillars of the Euro. If France called it quits on the common currency it would probably be the end of the Euro.
She won’t be a Goldman Sachs puppet.
Can’t believe any right-thinking person in 2015 would still advocate a currency system based on metals; an especially dumb move for France, which has no production.
And a monetary system based on worthless green paper backed by nothing is better?
I have to agree with Ray there - fiat money issued by a privately owned institution (look it up if you don’t believe me - the Federal Reserve Bank is privately owned and operated for profit) at best should have been a short term solution, but long term I think it has historically always had disastrous consequences.
It’s a rock and a hard place. On the one hand you have protecting the value of hard earned dollars by pegging them to a fixed asset(gold/silver/etc).
On the other hand, that can cause liquidity problems which impeded economic growth/progress/etc when currency holders get spooked and pucker their financial sphincters.
Enter the fiat currency we have today. Created out of thin air(Read: counterfeited) and loaned to the government and select “friends” who happen to hold (dividend paying!)shares in said central bank at near interest rates, it facilitates the creation of a permanent superclass/plutocracy by virtue of the fact that those few (private!)individuals have total control of the source of newly created monies.
Without this source of liquidity, a lot of good things would never have happened like defeating the germans in WWII, infrastructure development, etc.
On the other hand a lot of BAD things wouldn’t have happened without it like all the wars since WWII, criminal finance bailouts, welfare as a lifestyle, etc. (note: I’m not at all against public assistance when it’s necessary/merited in a civilized society, just against it becoming a lifelong norm).
If everyone had to pay the tax bill to finance WWII at the time it was happening or beforehand, we never would have been involved as there would have been a massive public outcry/demonstration/political upheaval. But because they were able to “borrow” a ton of cash from the Federal Reserve
counterfeitersBank, things moved right along.Makes me wonder if the whole “buy war bonds” campaign wasn’t just an elaborate propaganda move designed to make people stateside feel more involved. As federalreservehistory.org puts it: “When the United States entered the war, the Board of Governors issued a statement indicating that the Federal Reserve System was “. . . prepared to use its powers to assure at all times an ample supply of funds for financing the war effort” (Board of Governors 1943, 2).”
The problem is, the excesses of
counterfeitingquantitative easing and other means by which our currency supply has been artificially inflated have never been addressed, leading us to a point where we’re utterly dependent on it. And we’re pushing up against the limits of what we can do with that before we go into hyperinflation and total currency collapse.Solution: Strict guidelines under which new monies can be brought into existence.
It’s obvious that there is an occasional need to increase overall liquidity, but this business of doing it whenever secretive and privately controlled people feel like it has got to go.
What if we decided that for every dollar that is newly created, 10% must go directly to education?
God knows our dumbasses(present company mostly excluded) need it.
It’s easy to dismiss gold or metal as a modern currency: the supply of it doesn’t grow or contract as the economy grows or contracts, nor as the population changes. I agree that the systems for the creation of paper currency need improvement, but gold or metal is not the solution.
Can’t you just let the growing supply of paper be reflected in an ever increasing price of gold?
Oh wait…
“Can’t believe any right-thinking person in 2015 would still advocate a currency system based on metals; an especially dumb move for France, which has no production.”
Here’s an idea. Why not base the currency on paper? Huh?
Well there is crypto currency. But that’s already being done and without a central bank.
Who cares anymore about what a nation is going to do about a currency, whether based on gold, oil, wine (hey France - there’s an idea…), chickens, pigs, or redheads.
France’s wine supply is too heterogeneous and variable to back up a currency.
Saudi Arabia’s decision not to cut oil production, despite crashing prices, marks the beginning of an incredibly important change. There are near-term and obvious implications for oil markets and global economies. More important is the acknowledgement, demonstrated by the action of world’s most important oil producer, of the beginning of the end of the most prosperous period in human history – the age of oil.
In 2000, Sheikh Yamani, former oil minister of Saudi Arabia, gave an interview in which he said:
“Thirty years from now there will be a huge amount of oil - and no buyers. Oil will be left in the ground. The Stone Age came to an end, not because we had a lack of stones, and the oil age will come to an end not because we have a lack of of oil” …………………………………………………
But in a world where a producer sees the end of its market on the horizon, then every barrel sold at a profit is more valuable than a barrel that will never be sold. Current Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi had this to say about production cuts in late December: “it is not in the interest of OPEC to cut their production whatever the price is,” adding that even if prices fell to $20 “it is irrelevant.” Implied, if not explicitly stated, is that Saudi Arabia wants its oil out of the ground, regardless of how thin its profit margin per barrel becomes………………..
http://theenergycollective.com/eliashinckley/2181166/oil-prices-saudi-arabia-and-end-of-opec
Interesting article.
And fifteen years later we are using record amounts of oil, and electric cars sell at a rate of less than 10,000 a month with a $7500 subsidy, in a 17 million a year market.
Perhaps U.S. drivers are on to falling gasoline prices and hence see no rational reason to pay the green luxury ownership premium on an electric car?
you have to factor high maintenance costs into these electric cars. When they break down you basically have to take them in to a professional for repair.
the shade tree mechanic does not have the specialized tools to work on them.
I wonder when older cars will be outlawed cause they pollute the air too much?
Truckers have had to upgrade their engines with new equipment or go take the truck off the road in ca.
The shade tree mechanics can’t work on any of the new cars, other than the most basic stuff.
What does it cost to replace a failed battery? And isn’t it a given the battery will need replacement within the first ten years of ownership?
The used hybrid I bought about a year and a half ago is on its 12th year and still has the original battery. I looked into it and you can get a rebuilt battery and install it yourself for around $600. This car has already saved me more in gas than I paid for it. But I drive a lot of highway miles.
When they break down you basically have to take them in to a professional for repair.
You’re ignoring the fact that electric motors (brushless ones) require virtually zero maintenance. Even older-style brushed motors require only new brushes once in a blue moon.
The problem with working on hybrid and electric vehicles is that it is extremely dangerous. It is high amperage, and amperage kills. If you do something stupid, you die.
All Obama Zombies, please go outside immediately and work on your Priuses.
Perhaps U.S. drivers are on to falling gasoline prices and hence see no rational reason to pay the green luxury ownership premium on an electric car?
I depends on how long they stay down. I remember the last time prices crashed. People ran out and bought gas guzzlers. Then prices quickly went back up and stayed that way for almost a decade.
I wonder where he came up with that 30 year number? Given demographics and improving technology, I can see oil becoming just another run of the mill commodity. I’m sure Saudi Arabia has studied the matter thoroughly. That’s assuming that some technician in a lab doesn’t come up with a way to power cars with sunlight and water. 20 years ago that would have been a joke, now I’m not so sure it is.
We already have that. Sunlight splits hydrogen off via electrolysis (solar cells required to generate the power), then hydrogen is used for power in fuel cells with the only exhaust gas emitted being: Water!
Problem is, it’s not economically viable to do so. Not busting your chops - just wondering if maybe you meant if they come up with an economically viable way to power cars with sunlight and water.
We are pretty close, but not at ~$50/barrel oil.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-above-100-never-again-says-saudi-prince-alwaleed-2015-01-12
Even the Saudi Prince says $100 per barrel oil is gone forever. But Albdan has it all figured out!
I’ll bet you 10 to one the Saudi’s are buying up oil stocks in the US through Hedge Funds. You’ll note that they have been talking down the price of oil.
Right. That makes sense.
Saw gas for $1.70 this morning in Longmont. Will it be $1.60 the next time I fill up the tank?
“Thirty years from now there will be a huge amount of oil - and no buyers. Oil will be left in the ground. The Stone Age came to an end, not because we had a lack of stones, and the oil age will come to an end not because we have a lack of of oil”
His prediction will eventually prove correct, but it is too early to say when oil’s replacement technology will be discovered and operationalized.
More class warfare from the Democrat Party
“Senior Democrats, dissatisfied with the party’s tepid prescriptions for combating income inequality, are drafting an “action plan” that calls for a massive transfer of wealth from the super-rich and Wall Street traders to the heart of the middle class.
The centerpiece of the proposal, set to be unveiled Monday by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), is a “paycheck bonus credit” that would shave $2,000 a year off the tax bills of couples earning less than $200,000. Other provisions would nearly triple the tax credit for child care and reward people who save at least $500 a year.
The windfall — about $1.2 trillion over a decade — would come directly from the pockets of Wall Street “high rollers” through a new fee on financial transactions, and from the top 1 percent of earners, who would lose billions of dollars in lucrative tax breaks.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/democrats-in-a-stark-shift-in-messaging-to-make-big-tax-break-pitch-for-middle-class/2015/01/11/d4438468-9999-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html
I like the idea of a financial transaction tax to put an end to high frequency trading. The rest of the plan is garbage.
A simpler solution would be to lower the marginal tax rate and tax capital gains at the same rate as ordinary income. You could also remove the cap on Social Security deductions. Both of these would cost me money, but I still think it would be a good idea.
A simpler solution would be to lower the marginal tax rate and tax capital gains at the same rate as ordinary income.
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!!!
Far simpler—but politicians hate simple. They prefer heinously complex, so that the pork can be hidden away in the folds.
I wiki’d it. Evidently they instituted a similar tax in Switzerland and it didn’t go well. Traders simply stopped trading hi freq, so there weren’t as many transactions to tax. And people made less money on capital gains, so they lost tax there too.
OX is that a bad thing? all they need is to make all bids and asked good for 1 second…1 second that eliminates most HF trading and say a 1/10 of a cent on all shares traded
it wont make much money but it would eliminate the skimming which angers most people.
What good to these tax changes do when both parties will force the 99% to bail out Wall Street and pay their obscene bonuses?
Just another day in the Obama recovery
Losing marijuana business, Mexican cartels push heroin and meth
“The amount of cannabis seized by U.S. federal, state and local officers along the boundary with Mexico has fallen 37 percent since 2011, a period during which American marijuana consumers have increasingly turned to the more potent, higher-grade domestic varieties cultivated under legal and quasi-legal protections in more than two dozen U.S. states.
Made-in-the-USA marijuana is quickly displacing the cheap, seedy, hard-packed version harvested by the bushel in Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains. That has prompted Mexican drug farmers to plant more opium poppies, and the sticky brown and black “tar” heroin they produce is channeled by traffickers into the U.S. communities hit hardest by prescription painkiller abuse, offering addicts a $10 alternative to $80-a-pill oxycodone.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/losing-marijuana-business-mexican-cartels-push-heroin-and-meth/2015/01/11/91fe44ce-8532-11e4-abcf-5a3d7b3b20b8_story.html
Well - we should just legalize meth and heroin then…
Walmart isles should be full of these products!
It used to all be legal, back in the days of the free market.
You are correct.
Back in the day of “consequences for your actions.”
As in:
No obamacare
No Section 8 housing
No obamaphones
No Food Stamps
etc.
Those who did these activities would not be around very long…
Well - we should just legalize meth and heroin then…
It’s not like it would make the population any stupider.
‘ “That has prompted Mexican drug farmers to plant more opium poppies, and the sticky brown and black “tar” heroin they produce is channeled by traffickers into the U.S. communities hit hardest by prescription painkiller abuse, offering addicts a $10 alternative to $80-a-pill oxycodone.” ‘
WTF? Can’t we just send in some hi-tech drones and napalm those poppy fields?
Big Pharma: The ultimate gateway.
I think they do a good job of hiding the plants under other plants, which makes them hard to find.
I also think that our south of the border “allies” might object if gringos were to ask for unfettered access to napalm the country. The first time there was some collateral damage at yanqui hands would be the end of the program. The Mexicans are very sensitive about their sovereignty and do not allow American bases in Mexico
Just sell the pills for a buck and put the cartels out of business. If somebody is zonked out of their mind on happy pills, they aren’t out causing trouble.
“Made-in-the-USA marijuana is quickly displacing the cheap, seedy, hard-packed version harvested by the bushel in Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains.”
Putting stoners to work on pot farms would probably take a big bite out of the unemployment numbers, but I have a feeling they would smoke all the profits.
Some good news for Christian Zionists, your Rapture could be coming sooner
“Israeli leaders said Sunday that they would welcome with open arms French Jews who fear for their safety in the wake of attacks by Islamist extremists against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and shoppers at a kosher supermarket in Paris last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his cabinet linked arms with French politicians on Sunday during a march in Paris to commemorate the 17 people killed in three days of bloodshed in France. Netanyahu said, “I wish to tell to all French and European Jews — Israel is your home.”
Netanyahu said he would convene a special committee to encourage Jewish immigration “from France and other countries in Europe that are suffering from terrible anti-Semitism.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/after-paris-attacks-israel-vows-to-welcome-european-jews-seeking-to-immigrate/2015/01/11/3e2c976e-992e-11e4-8385-866293322c2f_story.html
And don’t forget to buy that Rapture insurance policy for your pets, LOLZ
In other words, the multi-culti strategery failed.
Israeli leaders said Sunday that they would welcome with open arms French Jews
Aren’t all Jews always welcome in Israel? IIRC, they’re even welcoming Messianic Jews now (Jews for Jesus).
…and nobody says boo about racial or religious discrimination. What if some non-jewish Frenchies want to move to Israel?
Article for Downlow Joe
“An Egyptian court on Monday acquitted 26 men arrested in a televised raid last month by police looking for gays at a Cairo public bathhouse, a ruling that set off deafening cheers and jubilation inside the courtroom as some of the defendants uncovered their faces and cried with relief.
The trial, which had caused an uproar among activists and rights groups, captured public attention after a pro-government TV network aired scenes of half-naked men being pulled from the bathhouse by police.”
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/8a5f8834b7e442f392e9848af4a328be/egypt-acquits-26-men-trial-over-police-raid-gays
Real journalists at the New York Times wet the bed on race relations in Obama’s America
“The groundswell of protests over police brutality in the closing days of 2014, when people dropped to the marble floor of Grand Central Terminal and shut down the Brooklyn Bridge, blocked Lake Shore Drive in Chicago and chanted “I Can’t Breathe” from Boston to Oakland, summoned ghosts not only of the marches of the civil rights era but of the larger forces that led to the arrival of so many African-Americans in the big cities of the North and West in the first place.
Dozens of cities would ultimately join in these demonstrations of discontent. But a map of the largest protests those first nights, and of the high-profile cases of police violence in recent months, lit up like a map of the Great Migration: New York, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Washington, Los Angeles, Oakland, all of them the major receiving stations of the movement. These were the places to which generations of African-Americans fled to escape the state-sanctioned violence their descendants have now faced in the North and West.
In matters of racial injustice, the South has been the center of attention since before the time of the Civil War. But the North, with its shorter history of a mass black population, has only more recently dealt with the paradox of an enlightened ideal coexisting with racial disparity. The protests have become a referendum on the black condition since the Great Migration.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/opinion/sunday/when-will-the-north-face-its-racism.html?_r=0
This is a Drudge Report link
Dianne Feinstein: Terrorist sleeper cells are in the U.S.
“Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat and her party’s ranking member on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, flatly stated that she believes terrorist cells are hiding in Europe and the U.S., waiting to be activated and carry out attacks similar to the ones that claimed 17 lives in France last week.
“I think there are sleeper cells not only in France but certainly in other countries and, yes, in our own,” she told CNN. “This calls for vigilance. … Hopefully, we can be more active in terms of doing those things which enable us to find terrorists, see who they’re communicating with and to track that.”
Mrs. Feinstein and Obama administration officials did not elaborate on how many suspected terrorists are in the country, nor did they discuss details of any terrorist plot.
Despite the apparent lack of specific threats, polling data show the American people are deeply worried about a strike in the U.S.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/11/dianne-feinstein-terrorist-sleeper-cells-are-us/
Your narrative has been scripted
“the American people are deeply worried about a strike in the U.S.”
Has
Been
Scripted
See also: White House sets delayed anti-extremism summit
“In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris last week, the White House has scheduled an anti-extremism conference that was originally set for last October but was postponed without explanation.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2015/01/white-house-sets-delayed-antiextremism-conference-200891.html
Why is this being pulled off the back burner now? And why is Eric Holder still Attorney General?
Because Eric Holder has finally hatched the plan for his Waco
Picture the Reichstag burning, but with 10,000 children locked inside
Do not underestimate what these people are capable of doing
You have been warned
Forward
Look, what happened in France is terrible. But terrorists have had the ability to do a similar attack for at least 40 years or more. Back in the 70s the worry was about hijacking planes where the worst case scenario was the planes occupants dying, maybe about 400 people or less. This wasn’t 3000 people getting killed in an incident.
You will almost never be able to guard against an incident that kills the number of people as died in France. Do you really need to restructure society with all the money spent and increase in security theater as happened since 9/11 to deal with this? From the incidents of the last 10 years, it looks to be the same threat as always from an ability to take out victims perspective.
And this wasn’t lone wolf, it was known wolf.
Don’t forget, Charlie Hebdo was poking the hornets nest with a stick.
Its not like they were minding their own business and these crazed terrorists came out of nowhere and gunned them down.
Maybe the hollowcost isn’t the only thing thats sacred?
Don’t forget, Charlie Hebdo was poking the hornets nest with a stick.
Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you.
If you were Chinese would you drive a school bus?
Which is why Feinstein wants to disarm law-abiding Americans, so the terrorists can’t steal their weapons. It’s for the children….
Another Drudge link for the badge lickers and uniform fetishists
F.B.I. Is Broadening Surveillance Role, Report Shows
“Although the government’s warrantless surveillance program is associated with the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has gradually become a significant player in administering it, a newly declassified report shows.
In 2008, according to the report, the F.B.I. assumed the power to review email accounts the N.S.A. wanted to collect through the “Prism” system, which collects emails of foreigners from providers like Yahoo and Google. The bureau’s top lawyer, Valerie E. Caproni, who is now a Federal District Court judge, developed procedures to make sure no such accounts belonged to Americans.
Then, in October 2009, the F.B.I. started retaining copies of unprocessed communications gathered without a warrant to analyze for its own purposes. And in April 2012, the bureau began nominating new email accounts and phone numbers belonging to foreigners for collection, including through the N.S.A.’s “upstream” system, which collects communications transiting network switches.
That information is in a 231-page study by the Justice Department’s inspector general about the F.B.I.’s activities under the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which authorized the surveillance program. The report was entirely classified when completed in September 2012. But the government has now made a semi-redacted version of the report public in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by The New York Times.
The Times filed the lawsuit after a wave of declassifications about government surveillance activities in response to leaks by the former intelligence contractor Edward J. Snowden.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/12/us/politics/beyond-nsa-fbi-is-assuming-a-larger-surveillance-role-report-shows.html
This is the top headline on the Drudge Report website now
The front page of the paper says “You let the world down”
And the link title says “OBAMA FINALLY INVISIBLE”
Eric Holder, top U.S. officials no-shows at Paris unity rally
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/eric-holder-u-s-dignitaries-no-shows-paris-unity-rally-article-1.2073821
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2904968/The-sinister-screeching-mob-want-kill-free-speech-no-DON-T-mean-Islamist-terrorists-midst.html
“As for freedom, here’s an interesting thing. The French Leftist newspaper Liberation reported on September 12, 1996, that three stalwarts of Charlie Hebdo (including Stephane ‘Charb’ Charbonnier) had campaigned in their magazine to collect more than 170,000 signatures for a petition calling for a ban on the French National Front party. They did this in the name of the ‘Rights of Man’.”
“This is a double paradox. The French National Front exists mainly because a perfectly reasonable concern about mass immigration was sneeringly dismissed by the mainstream French parties. Something similar is happening in Germany, where large demonstrations against ‘the Islamisation of the West’ in many cities have been scornfully attacked by that country’s elite.
If reasonable calls for restrictions on immigration had been heeded when they were first made, right across Europe, would we now be in the mess we are in? If it is officially regarded as irresponsible, or ‘exploitation’, or ‘sickening’, or ‘divisive’ to say this, then we do not live in freedom, and those who claim to speak in its name are not telling the truth.”
Ah, Charlie Hebdo. Bastion of “free speech”. Hypocrites.
So what if O didn’t go. Or Eric Holder. Or Kerry. They know what it’s all about. Besides, it might cast their own immigration policies in a bad light.
Can we get that “America is beautiful” Souper Bowl Coke commercial translated into French, please?
A few other articles about diversity and multiculturalism and killing in the name of Sky Wizard are pending to post
Happy Monday
http://www.inquisitr.com/1247364/brigitte-bardot-has-been-prosecuted-five-times-in-ten-years-for-inciting-racial-hatred/#BbczuxCrolHklL60.99
So, Bardot made some rather mild and sensible statements and was persecuted, not just once, but five times.
Charlie Hebdo, on the other hand…
Free screech for me, but not for thee.
Oui, France, vous etes Charlie Hebdo.
What a sock of merde.
Yeah, the “free speech” the elites are falling all over themselves to defend only means free speech that doesn’t offend their PC sensibilities. The same journalists holding “I am Charlie” signs self-censor their own articles every day to avoid giving offense to TPTB.
Top headline on Breitbart dot com
NYPD on High Alert Following ISIS Call to ‘Rise Up and Kill Police Officers’
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/01/11/nypd-on-high-alert-following-isis-call-to-rise-up-and-kill-police-officers/
Has
Been
Scripted
“Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government.”
Henry Kissinger
“The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear - fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.”
H. L. Mencken
Hope and Change from Breitbart dot com
“A protest organized by Black Lives Matter Boston briefly blocked an MBTA commuter rail train en route to Gillette Stadium on Saturday. Protestors allegedly delayed the train, picking up Patriots fans at a stop in Dedham, by jumping on the tracks with a banner saying “white silence = violence.”
More Hope and Change
“The American police forces of today descend from a legacy of slave captives and overseers whose job was to protect the property (enslaved black bodies) of rich, slave owning capitalists. We must understand that we are not that far removed from this country’s legacy of slavery and that most of our laws are shaped to uphold a system of white supremacy.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_drank
Forward
This is a Breitbart article and was not written by real journalists
Healthcare for Illegals Pushes California’s Budget to $5.8 Billion Over Inflation
“Originally titled as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, there were are 125,000 that would have gained coverage under Medi-Cal in 2013. But President Obama made 5 million more adult illegal aliens eligible for renewable two-year deferred deportation and work eligibility in November of 2014.
The federal government will fund the total cost for the first three years for any newly “eligible” Medi-Cal expanded population.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that DACA adult grantees are lawfully present in the United States — and now California is responsible to provide Medi-Cal coverage another one million adult illegals residing in California.”
http://www.breitbart.com/california/2015/01/10/healthcare-for-illegals-pushes-californias-budget-to-5-8-billion-over-inflation/
34 million more Free Sh*t Army coming soon
34 million more Free Sh*t Army coming soon
May they all go to California.
It’s for the children.
And a repost from yesterday
Ron Paul: “Reality Is Now Setting In For America… It Was All Based On Lies & Ignorance”
http://www.zerohedge.com/print/500178
“This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush
Ron Paul’s solution by his own words requires a lot of pain and a long period of recession. Who will vote for that? Not most I know. Who in the media, academia, business, or the current power structure will promote that? No one.
He says this “Before we can actually restore our liberties, we most likely will have to become a lot less free and much poorer.”
Region VIII news
In Colorado, Legal Pot Fails to Meet Predictions of Supporters, Critics
“Warehouses in Denver are now selling for $75 to $100 a foot, up from $40 to $60 a foot last year, according to Tim Shay, a senior vice president at Colliers International brokerage firm, who noted that the pot industry was the driving force behind the price surge.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-colorado-pot-legalization-fails-to-match-predictions-of-backers-critics-1420830972
Bumper sticker seen in Region VIII - “Don’t Bloomberg Us”
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20150110_145945_601-g3VJcknn.jpg
And because statists gonna state
“Anti-legalization advocates want an about-face from the administration: Enforce the existing federal marijuana ban and crack down on legalization regimes in Colorado and elsewhere. That’s a pipe dream for the current White House but not inconceivable if a Republican is elected president in 2016.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/the-new-clash-over-cannabis-114158.html
Aww! Jeb’s gonna take legal weed away!
Makes sense, how else are they gonna fill all those for profit prisons?
Far from over flowing oil tanks, they are only 1/3 full. Manipulators are making one more effort to break oil, through jawboning, planting misinformation about the size of the production surplus and spiking the dollar. The one thing they cannot do like 1986 is increase production is because the Saudis despite claiming otherwise do not have surplus capacity. Going to be a busy day will not be able to post within a few hours but I will be back.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/analysis-u-oil-tanks-barely-061601785.html
“I will be back”
We know you will, Dannyboy
hey dan,
Did you read that article from the saudi prince that we will never see 100 / barrel oil again? He said all the talk about them tryn to lowball russia was rubbish.
If your economy is dependent on oil exports to pay the bills you sell no matter what the price is. some countries dont have the luxury of cutting production.
Don’t lowball me!
Don’t quote stale info…
In 2000, Sheikh Yamani, former oil minister of Saudi Arabia, gave an interview……………
Good point Jingle_Fraud.
Crude Oil Craters To $45 Per Barrel
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/future/crude%20oil%20-%20electronic
Yeah HA. Yee HA! It’ll be different this time. Not. It only took 15 years for the Prince to prove he was half-right. It only took you four years to prove you’re a half-wit. HA!
Actually it took about 6 months for oil to half. Don’t let the truth get in the way of your corruption Jingle_Fraud.
Brevity’s the soul of wit.
Seems you do not know when to quit.
You sure slept in today. Don’t worry, real journalists got it covered…
Everybody musta drunk too much coffee yesterday!
I’ve been awake for over 36 hours now
Real journalists never sleep
Saudi Arabia: “Get what you can get for your oil today because it’s going to be much less tomorrow for many years to come.”
You better believe it.
If the stock market craters a few hundred more points is it to to wheel out warren buffet again?
QE4 is lurking.
Oil at $46.61
Quantitative easing merely crushes demand.
Want to watch your investment evaporate? Just raise prices.
What about when we find out how heavily invested all the yeild chasers were in this oil boom? I’d bet lots of pension funds, hedgies, etc. saw it as a chance to up the numbers.
These pension funds are in it deep. Housing, oil, etc. Expect the DOJ to move in soon.
the public pensions can never take a haircut. manifest destiny player!
Royal Bank of Scotland - already the recipient of one massive taxpayer bailout - is calling for 4.5 trillion Euros in QE to combat deflation (AKA true price discovery).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11340731/RBS-bets-ECB-blitz-to-reach-4.5-trillion-and-reignite-asset-boom.html
who is uncle fed gonna wheel out next when stocks look like they are gonna fall off a cliff and short sellers are ready to make some cash?
who will flush them out of their shorts?
How long can this game of chicken last?
Limosuine liberals
“The 100 biggest donors of 2014 gave nearly $174 million to Democrats, compared to more than $140 million to Republicans, according to a Politico analysis of reports filed with the Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/blue-billionaires-on-top-114151.html
Forward
It’s not hard to outspend the trailer park party.
America’s got a water problem
This is a really long article written by environmentalist whackos who want to destroy American Exceptionalism and take away our Big Gulps and incandescent light bulbs and 30 round magazines and Hummers and make us all live in tiny European apartments shivering in the dark
http://www.businessinsider.com/americas-got-a-water-problem-2015-1
The Southwest has a REALLY BIG water problem.
Please don’t move here, please.
Why would any normal thinking person want to move to the #1 destination for poor illegal immigrants?
Maybe global warming will change weather patterns enough that Arizona will start sprouting rain forests, or become one giant sand dune. We’ll find out soon enough.
Or maybe too many people already live in arid Southwest and climate change is not an issue?
Warmist Warming Monday
Moving forward or backward on climate change — Our choice
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/229169-moving-forward-or-backward-on-climate-change-our-choice
how many more years can we cry wolf about rate hikes?
Why raise rates when demand for credit is already cratering?
you tell me? how many years have they been teasing savers with a 1/4 % rate hike?
For sh@ts and giggles they might raise 1/4 point to give the illusion you might get some interest on your savings and then take it back when something unexpected shows up in the data.
Exactly. It will just drive demand and prices lower.
How long before the first pension fund implodes on cratering oil and housing prices?
Kerry: Climate Change ‘Enormous Cloud Hanging Over All of Us’
7:03 AM, Jan 12, 2015 • By JERYL BIER
I am convinced, as we look to the relationship of the future though, just as Ban Ki-moon mentioned a few minutes ago, there is one enormous cloud hanging over all of us which requires responsibility from leaders. Global climate change is already violently affecting communities not just across India but around the world. It is disrupting commerce, development, and economic growth. It’s costing farmers crops. It’s costing insurance companies unbelievable payouts. It’s raising the cost of doing business, and believe me, if it continues down the current trend-line, we will see climate refugees fighting each other for water and seeking food and new opportunity.
the choices of climate change offer an unprecedented number of plusses, and frankly, almost no downside. If we make the choices that are staring us in the face, the fact is that a solution to climate change is already here. It’s called energy policy. Sustainable energy policy. And in a sustainable energy policy comes a whole set of benefits to our economy, something many countries of the world are screaming for today.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/…mate-change-enormous-cloud-hanging-over-all-us_823485.html - 112k -
————————————————————————
More from Jonathan Gruber
Posted on November 15, 2014
by Michael D. Shaw
Gruber explained that most Americans become defensive and object when policymakers try to change this, because they don’t want their health insurance to be taxed. But it wasn’t until Secretary of State John Kerry, another Massachusetts “hero,” came along that he realized how to sell such a plan successfully.
“John Kerry said, ‘No, no. We’re not going to tax your health insurance. We’re going to tax those evil insurance companies. We’re going to impose a tax that if they sell insurance that’s too expensive, we’re going to tax them. And, conveniently, the tax rate will happen to be the marginal tax rate under the income tax code.”
“So, basically, it’s the same thing: We just tax the insurance companies, they pass on higher prices that offsets the tax break we get, it ends up being the same thing. It’s a very clever, you know, basically exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter.”
junkscience.com/2014/11/15/more-from-jonathan-gruber/ - 169k -
a weekly standard link? seriously?
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kristol
John Kerry Called Gruber ‘Our Guide On A Lot Of This’ [VIDEO]
10:06 PM 11/16/2014
“It’s a very clever, you know, basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter,” Gruber said at a University of Rhode Island event. (RELATED: In Third Video, Obamacare Architect Talks About ‘Basic Exploitation’ Of American Voters)
“John Kerry said ‘no, no, no,’ we’re not going to tax your health insurance. We’re going to tax those evil insurance companies. We’re going to impose a tax that if they sell insurance that’s too expensive, we’re going to tax them, and conveniently the tax rate will happen to be the marginal tax rate under the income tax code. So basically it’s the same thing, we just tax the insurance companies, they pass on the higher prices, that offsets the tax break we get, it ends up being the same thing.”
dailycaller.com/…/11/16/john-kerry-called-gruber-our-guide-on-a-lot-of-this-video/ - 252k -
Comment by phony scandals
2015-01-12 09:53:11
John Kerry Called Gruber ‘Our Guide On A Lot Of This’ [VIDEO]
dailycaller.com/2014/11/16/john-kerry-called-gruber-our-guide-on-a-lot-of-this-video/
“and believe me”
“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”
― Mark Twain
Comment by phony scandals
2015-01-12 09:14:30
Kerry: Climate Change ‘Enormous Cloud Hanging Over All of Us’
weeklystandard.com/blogs/kerry-climate-change-enormous-cloud-hanging-over-all-us_823485.html
More from Jonathan Gruber
junkscience.com/2014/11/15/more-from-jonathan-gruber/
Welcome to PSN - all Gruber, all the time.
all Gruber?
Kerry: Climate Change ‘Enormous Cloud Hanging Over All of Us’
““John Kerry said ‘no, no, no,’ we’re not going to tax your health insurance. We’re going to tax those evil insurance companies.”
Gruber said that Kerry “no, no, no”. Is what you’re getting all excited about today? Are you sure that you can trust Gruber?
“Are you sure that you can trust Gruber?”
After seeing the White house logs and the emperor saying he wasn’t part of his team etc.
Yes I’m sure.
Getting all excited about how freely John Kerry lies whether it’s a tax on health insurance or a carbon tax with Green energy kickbacks for his elite buds.
Who is gonna get wheeled out this week to tell you:, “were gonna print some more cash and buy bonds so you better stay in stocks cause there wont be any yield anywhere for years to come”?
Then you’ll know to hold onto every dollar you’ve got. You’ll be glad you did.
Starve the beast.
I’ve seen a few places where officials are perplexed by the lack of wage growth. It seems like there are a couple of things that are different at this stage of the recovery as compared to before:
1. We have a large number of part time workers and a growing trend of freelancers (does this drive down official wages?);
2. We have a larger number of people retiring than usual–on average, do those who are retiring have higher wages? It wouldn’t surprise me if they did.
I think both of these could serve the purpose of keeping down reported wages…the first is more easily measured (part time workers primarily). The second is harder to see…does anyone have any idea if this data is tracked? Is average wage by age cohort something that the BLS keeps?
If you think wages will magically double or triple to meet grossly inflated prices, you’re in for the surprise of your life Rental_Fraud.
Looks like the BLS keeps some of this data…will take a look later today.
From the BLS “Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers” reports, I have found the following:
1. There isn’t much of a discernable change due to my point #2. Maybe a little (like 0.1%-0.2% of weekly wage growth changed due to a change in mix of workers), but nothing meaningful.
2. Most age groups are showing wage growth of 2-3% per week annualized from Q3 2013 to Q3 2014, with 2 notable exceptions:
Posted too soon, sorry.
The two exceptions:
1. Ages 20-24 weekly wage median increased 9.25%, from $454 to $496 from Q3 2013 to Q3 2014. They aren’t making a lot of money, but that’s a big move.
2. Ages 35-44 weekly wage median increased 0.69%, from $870 to $876. Way BELOW the average of closer to 2.5%.
Also, older workers are doing a lot better than younger workers. Those over 55 having their weekly wages increasing by close to 4%.
Only another 250% to rise right?
CraterRage® Photo Of The Day
http://goo.gl/SYXlpx
Stupid question- i currently rent a house (been renting for the last 22 years) and wanted to know if it is “lawful” to have the house appraised and inspected. Thoughts? Thanks in advance for your help.
As long as the appraiser and inspector can do their work without damaging or altering the property, then you are not obligated to inform nor get permission from the landlord.
Just wanted to mention this again (previously posted December 30); effective January 26:
Appraisal Time Bomb Coming in January 2015
Article referred to in video clip:
Fannie Mae to pick ‘Lowest Risk’ comparables for appraisers
A mortgage broker acquaintance said it’s not good for him and will kill deals that should not have any issues.
hey bobby,
I would think if they gave you adequate notice to access the property it would be fine.
What are you worried about?
If you have a written lease that goes with the sale of the house or they would have to pay you to move …no lease well…..the new owner may want you out within 30 days.
@Bobby — are you hiring the appraiser and inspector because you want to make an offer to the landlord to buy it? Or is the landlord asking you to let his appraiser and inspector enter the home?
my trading strategy
Wait for the market to sell off a few days and obvious fear to be lingering.
After the short sellers get a few crumbs buy the dip and wait for someone to be wheeled out with some more news regarding another possibile QE program.
The algos will go bezerk and the shorts will be covering again. should be good for some quick cash.
It works until it doesnt.
“Copper, because of its close association with economic growth, is often called the commodity with a “PhD in Economics.” Large price moves in Copper usually mark large moves in the global economy.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-12/copper-just-marked-end-recovery
My PAL had a nice day today.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q;_ylt=AlBQacHVfsHPjH_UGVOkKoQLv7gF;_ylu=X3oDMTExbWNzZXJvBHBvcwMyMgRzZWMDeWZpUXVvdGVzVGFibGUEc2xrA3BhbA–?s=PAL
Gotcha. Thanks
I am amazed at all the store closings
http://www.mlive.com/business/mid-michigan/index.ssf/2015/01/deb_shops_closing_all_stores_i.html
http://jacksonville.com/business/2015-01-09/story/jacksonville-based-body-central-closing-all-its-265-stores-2500-out-work
http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2015/01/08/macys-closing-14-stores-including-1-in-nc-nyse-m.html
JC Penney to close 40 stores in 2015
Teen fashion purveyor Wet Seal has announced it will close 338 stores — two-thirds of the company’s retail locations — in a move that will result in layoffs that will affect about 3,695 employees.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2015/01/02/5421295/66-grocery-stores-closing-in-philly.html
buy retailers who cater to poor and that cater to rich.
I wonder how tiffany’s is holding up?
Luxury cars makers are doing well.
B…b…but I thought our economic recovery was gaining steam. CNBC told me so!
i really don’t think you trust this recovery. what is bothering you?
Why is it taking so long to set up retail? Eventually the baton has to be passed right?
Seems like they keep pushing the market higher but people still aren’t biting. Could wall street get caught holding the bag?
Time for the NYPD to get out there and shake down the citizenry for some revenue.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=229728
Remain calm…all is well!
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_11/01/2015_546108
Thanks! Can’t say I’ve ever had a link to a Greek newspaper before!
Ever the skeptic, I clicked on the tab for “Survival”. It contains the addresses and contact information for quite a few of Athens’s notable tourist destinations.
Gallows humor?
I don’t know why it is so hard to understand why QE is bad.
You try to avoid deflation by printing lotsa money ! Lotsa buyers (gamblers) use it - but don’t create new real wealth -
You try to stabilize your economy by backstopping the financial sector ! (ie banks, local governments, finance the deficit, lower interest) - but you don’t create any new real wealth -
Duh - if you don’t create additional real wealth at best your standing still. Not even that.
Additional wealth doesn’t have to be more cars - it can be better roads, etc. But please, no more government “essential services”.
Does QE pull demand forward?
No because their QE has exceeded the average obsolescence period on autos, promoted gambling, and raised prices beyond a normal market.
over capacity and weak demand = sh@ttus hitting the fan
how many people are working and how productive are they?
With the Labor Force Participation Rate at 37 year lows, not many.
Labor Force Participation Rate Plummets To 37 Year Lows
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
If Americans were honest with themselves they would acknowledge that the Republic is no more. We now live in a police state. If we do not recognize and resist this development, freedom and prosperity for all Americans will continue to deteriorate. All liberties in America today are under siege
http://www.infowars.com/ron-paul-inner-city-turmoil-and-other-crises-my-predictions-for-2015/
Jacrispy
Have oil prices ever before fell as far, as fast and as unexpectedly, only to pop right back up again within twelve months?